The Depravity of False Teachers: Part 1

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The Depravity of False Teachers: Part 2

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I'd like to speak to you today a part one. This could be a three -part series.
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I'm going to try to make it a three -part series. We're just going to break ground today. I don't want to keep you too long.
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I mean that as your pastor. I'm doing everything I can to sum up my preaching under an hour.
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I see a couple of my daughters looking at me right now saying, OK, Dad, you're going to have to prove it.
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So pray for Dad. Pray for your pastor. Praise God.
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But we're talking about the depravity of false teachers here.
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How bad are these false teachers? How bad are they?
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The Word of God tells us how bad they are. Exposes them, doesn't it?
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So let's have a word of prayer before we embark on this.
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Our Father and our God, we praise You for Your Word this morning. Your Word is truth.
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Your Word is forever settled in heaven. And Your Word purifies and sanctifies.
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Lord Jesus, we ask that You sanctify us by the truth.
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Thy Word is truth. Sanctify us this morning wholly through and through.
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And help us to apply everything that You give us from Your Word. That we would just not be hearers, but to be doers.
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And be faithful and obedient unto You. Until You call us home.
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In Jesus' name, amen. So please turn with me as we continue our study through the epistle of 2
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Peter. 2 Peter, wonderful epistle, isn't it? Three chapters, but it's packed.
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It deals with what's going on inside the church and it's very serious. It's almost like the
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Trojan horse has made its way in. It was nothing new in the apostolic days.
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The false teachers. I think they've grown worse in our day.
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I think they've grown, no doubt, more in number.
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And it shows you how close we are to the coming of Jesus Christ. The second coming. So I'd like to read this morning 2
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Peter chapter 2. And let's begin with verse 10b.
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I'd like to back up a little bit. I didn't get a chance to really speak a lot about the angelic beings.
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I'd like to touch on that. I'm not going to get to my full outline today, but I'm just going to embark on it and present to you what the depravity of these false teachers, how they look like, how
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God exposes them, how what God sees the depraved wickedness from these false teachers.
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And He just opens it up almost like cutting up an animal and opening up this animal.
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And by the way, He compares these false teachers to animals. It's very powerful.
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It's very pointed. Hear the word of the living God. I'll begin with verse 10 of chapter 2.
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Let me just read verse 10 and we'll stop at verse 17.
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And especially those who walk according to the flesh and the lust of uncleanness and despise authority.
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They are presumptuous, self -willed. They are not afraid to speak evil of dignitaries.
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Those are glorious ones, angelic beings. Could mean people as well, but angelic beings.
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And then He says in verse 11, Whereas angels who are greater in power and might do not bring a reviling accusation against them before the
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Lord. But these, speaking of false teachers, like natural brute beasts made to be caught and destroyed, speak evil of the things they do not understand and will utterly perish in their own corruption and will receive the wages of unrighteousness as those who counted pleasure to carouse in the daytime.
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They are spots and blemishes carousing in their own deceptions while they feast with you, having eyes full of adultery that cannot cease from sin, enticing unstable souls.
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They have a heart trained in covetous practices and are accursed children.
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They have forsaken the right way and gone astray following the way of Balaam the son of Beor, who loved the wages of unrighteousness, but he was rebuked for his iniquity.
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A dumb donkey speaking with a man's voice restrained the madness of the prophet.
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These are wells without water, clouds carried by a tempest, for whom is reserved the blackness of darkness forever.
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Powerful words from the Apostle Peter that speaks about the wickedness and the depravity of these false teachers.
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As we've already seen so far in chapter 2, 2 Peter, we've seen that verse 1 through 3, the destructive doctrines of these false teachers, what they teach, their doctrines are destructive.
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And then in verse 4 through 11, speaks of the doom of the false teachers.
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The doom. And now, we come to this section from verse 10b to verse 17, we see the depravity of the false teachers.
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My outline consists of peas, as Brother Keith mentioned earlier. I'm going to shortly just look at two of them.
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In short, I won't spend much time on the first one, but the second one and the third
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I'd like to spend a little time on. The first one is their primaries. The primaries is, and we touched on this already, their primaries is basically the
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Apostle Peter brings out by the Holy Spirit, giving him the revelation, the certainty of the coming judgment that is upon them.
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There is a certain judgment that's coming to them. It is certain, isn't it? Then he focuses on two major characteristics of the false teachers.
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The first one he mentions under that category, primaries, is they have a function.
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They function by feelings and not faith. They may get up and talk about faith.
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I know a lot of these false teachers, and you well know as I do, they even talk about faith in faith, not faith in God.
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So we know that their doctrine is already not sound. It's poison. You can't have faith in faith.
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Our faith is in God. That's erroneous, but they truly don't believe in faith even though they will get up and quote scriptures, and they will basically twist the scriptures and use the faith of something that you get or something that you have to get something from God and not
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God Himself. Never satisfied, are they? So already they're full of covetousness in which the apostle
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Peter actually brings this out. They're covetous. Eyes full of adultery.
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Never satisfied. So the primary is that they function by their feelings.
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You see this everywhere. It's all about feel -good religion, experiences, externalism, not focused on Jesus Christ and Him crucified.
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The second is they reject all of authority. Now this is sad.
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They reject all authority. They have an authority problem. There's a lack of humility.
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There's a lack of truly serving. They want to be big shots.
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They desire the preeminence as Deuteronomy did. They are authoritarian and despise authority.
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They are authority within themselves. Beloved, I've seen this down through the years and decades being in the church.
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This crosses all denomination lines. Yes, it's a lot in the midst of the charismatic movement because the charismatic movement is basically a movement that pulls away from authority.
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That's why they basically say, we want nothing to do with denominations because denominations is man -made religion.
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This is the way they view this. So we're going to do what God says and they say it's better to obey God than man.
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They twist that and they become an authority of themselves. I've done this.
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I've seen this. And I say when I was first converted to Christ, a particular person that led me to Jesus Christ literally made a decision to pull out of the church of God denomination and start a church within himself.
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He was basically calling himself. He did not want to submit under the authority of the church of God.
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As you well know, Jimmy Swagger, when he fell, basically the assemblies of God sat before him because of the sin and the scandal.
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They said, you're to sit aside six months away from the pulpit. Personally, he was disqualified.
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I think he should have been personally out of it completely. He didn't like it because it was six months away from the pulpit and he is to receive counseling to help restore him back to the faith if he was repentant.
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Well, as you well know, he pulled out of the assemblies of God because of that he did not want to submit under the authority.
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That could have been much harder saying, no, you're disqualified completely.
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So let's see about restoring you back to the faith. He refused it.
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And then if you know this, I don't know if you know this, but later on he was caught in a car with another prostitute down the road.
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And he was questioned. And then other people came up to him and asked him about those situations and he said, it's none of your business.
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They despise authority. Now, I pray for Swaggart that he repents, but when someone is pulling away from authority to help steer them in the right direction toward repentance and restore them, there's a problem.
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I use him as an example. Because he was a very well popular evangelist worldwide.
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He was instrumental in planting seeds of the gospel.
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He preached the gospel. But there was issues once we got there even before he was opened up in scandal.
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There was pride. And that's where the apostle
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Peter takes us. Notice this. First of all, these false teachers function by feelings rather than faith.
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They reject all authority. But notice in verse 10b, what does it say? They are presumptuous.
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Presumptuous. Self -willed. Doesn't that describe a false teacher?
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They're presumptuous. They're self -willed. You look back to the beginning of the verse, it says, especially those who walk, and there's another translation that says, especially those who indulge in the flesh or walk according to the flesh in the lust of uncleanness.
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They're living immoral. They hide it behind the scene.
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I did a little research on this one time with a lot of these so -called teachers, or false teachers, even within the charismatic movement.
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And most of them were caught in an adulterous affairs within another denomination, just like Jimmy Swaggart.
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And they were caught, and they laid the lines, and I should say, they did teachings of Scripture before them, and they despised it, and they were self -willed, and they pulled out of the movement and started something themselves.
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And they became so -called heroes. Women of great faith, women false teachers.
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That shows you how far off the truth they are, the charismatics.
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Love these way out eccentric teachers, women teachers.
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Joyce Myers, Katherine Kuhlman, if you know her, she was a quack.
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Based upon feelings, people falling backwards, slain in the
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Spirit. You look in the Scripture, Ravenhill is so right about this, everybody that fell backwards were sinners.
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When Jesus said they came to arrest Him, He says, whom do you seek? And He said,
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Jesus of Nazareth. And He says, I am He. They all fell backwards. But you go to Revelation, you see the
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Apostle John, he fell forward. All the saints fall forward. Bury their faces.
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Mary, Apostle John, you see them, they fall face forward in submission.
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It's so revealing, but nothing in Scripture but that teaches about falling backwards.
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Well, these teachers, these false teachers, their teaching is driven by feelings.
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Feelings driven. I can honestly say, according to the Word of God today, as I speak, it's according to the flesh.
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They will get up and tell you it's of the Spirit. Test the spirits, beloved, and see whether they're of God.
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It's according to the flesh. They say, touch not my anointings. Scripture says, examine yourself, see whether you're in the faith.
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They're driven by feelings. Their lifestyle is anti -authority. They refuse personal accountability.
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Again, this goes across all denominational barriers. Basically, they're not submitting to God, right?
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They're not submissive to God, or God's authority. They do not want to be under the authority of someone else.
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Scripture says, we are under someone's authority. Ultimately, God, but yes, those who
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God has qualified within the churches, we do submit under their authority.
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Because God says so. And we do it willingly. Now, if there's problems with pastors abusing that authority, that's another situation.
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They should be held to be accountable. They're not above question.
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They should be under authority. But technically, these false teachers have a submission problem.
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That's what it is. Authorities within the church of God.
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Next, we see that, here's a P that I really want to focus on today.
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It's their pride. I think that's the biggest P. Their pride.
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How prideful are they? Let's look at this. Verse 10 being, especially those who walk according to the flesh, and the lust of uncleanness and despise authority, they are presumptuous, self -willed, and he says this, they are not afraid to speak evil of dignitaries.
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Again, that means glorious ones. Let's look at this. These false teachers are so arrogant, folks.
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They're so full of pride. They're so full of themselves. They're so full of being audacious, defiant, with an obstinate,
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I'm just selecting a few words here. There's so much more. Obstinate determination to do their own thing.
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When it comes to ministry, they call the shots. They are arrogant.
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They are in control. It's all about them. Have you noticed that?
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Within the churches of these false teachers, it's about them. Their ministry.
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Look at Joel Osteen. People literally worship this guy.
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Joyce Byers. Creflo Dollar. I could keep naming them. Todd White.
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These people have been making... I could go on and on and keep naming them, but they are all about themselves, folks.
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And it's so obvious. It's so obvious to us, but it's not obvious to these other people because they think they're great people of God.
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But we know better. You look at what they teach.
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They teach error. They teach poison. They feed these people with poison.
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They're defiant, with obstinate determination to do what they desire in their so -called ministry.
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False teachers are so arrogant. That tells you right there, the demonic. So arrogant.
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They would do what holy angels dare not do. Well, what do the holy angels do?
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Look at verse 11. Whereas angels who are greater in power and might do not bring a reviling accusation against them before the
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Lord. Why? Because they're presumptuous and self -willed.
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Pride. That's the number one P there. Pride. These are the words that literally describe their character.
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It describes their methods of these false teachers. Their actions are characterized by their boldness and their brashness and their arrogance as they recklessly defy the living
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God. And literally, as we go on, they basically, it says in verse 12, they're like natural brute beasts made to be caught and destroyed.
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In other words, they're better off dead than alive. That's strong words. God says they're worthless.
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They would be better off dead. Well, look at what they do.
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Look at how arrogant they are. They recklessly defy both God, not only God, they defy angels and they defy man.
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They defy God's authority, angels, and man. Behind their presumption is a commitment to do their own fleshly actions.
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Their own fleshly desires. Because they love the praises of men.
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Because they love money. Those two things right there.
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You can test where a person is in the ministry by what they truly love and who they truly love.
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Love money, love the praises of men. Those two things, the rich young brute.
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Amen. The praises of men, the love of money.
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This word dignitaries is an interesting word. False teachers slander these angels.
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Although the word can refer to a people of authority, but here in our text, it means glorious ones.
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These are angelic beings, no doubt. The parallel verse to this is found in Jude 9.
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Go with me to the book of Jude. And I would highly recommend as you go through this section to compare the references with Jude.
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Because Jude gives the parallel verses, but he also gives us a little bit more extra revelation.
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Notice what he says in verse 8. Jude. Likewise, also these dreamers.
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They're dreamers? Defile the flesh. Reject authority.
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There it is again. Same thing Peter says. Same Holy Spirit. Same revelation. But he says they reject authority and speak evil of glorious ones.
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They speak evil of dignitaries. Dignitaries. And notice verse 9.
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This is very interesting here. Excuse me.
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Yet Michael the archangel, in contending with the devil, when he disputed about the body of Moses, dared not bring against him a reviling accusation, but said,
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The Lord rebuke you. Let me stop right there. This is interesting.
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We're not for sure, by the way, as to why there was a controversy or a dispute over the body of Moses.
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We don't know this. MacArthur gives a few guesses on it.
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Maybe it's because Moses, being who he was as a prophet of God, that Satan would take his body and for some odd reason use it for something.
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I don't know. He actually said, We don't know. The revelation doesn't give it.
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So if Scripture is silent, then we're silent. We don't know.
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So we don't need to get off and try to make these guesses, even though he makes some pretty good guesses.
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We need to hear his message on that. He says so much about everything here in the text. But the important point,
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I believe, for us to get is this. The truth is that Michael the archangel, which was a prominent angel in authority.
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There's ranks. There's a pecking order. Lucifer was an archangel at one time.
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And, of course, we know his demise. He fell, right? He was cast out of heaven. Michael the archangel basically was disputing over the body of Moses.
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But here the archangel recognized that Satan has a position of authority, see.
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Now this is interesting because even the archangel from God, the holy angel, speaks of the archangel that once was
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Satan, that was Lucifer, Satan. He even gives respect to that fallen angel.
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That's interesting, isn't it? Even though he's an enemy of God, there is a sense of respect to the enemy.
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We're leading to something here. Jude and Peter are basically saying that even the archangel
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Michael had some sense of respect for Satan and that he has authority over the world of demons.
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And although Satan had no jurisdiction over Michael, yet the latter would not revile him.
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In other words, think of this. Of the brashness and boldness of the false teachers that who would dare to do what even the holy angels shrink back from doing.
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That's what they're saying. These false teachers do something that even the archangel wouldn't do.
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Michael the archangel would say, the Lord rebuke you. Right? How many times have you heard this in charismatic and Pentecostal movements that, oh,
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I rebuke you devil. Well, who in the world do they think they are? By the way, that's not in Scripture.
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Even though they take the verses like where Jesus speaks, whatsoever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven.
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They twist that completely. Jesus is referring to forgiveness in church discipline.
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Isn't that something? They don't even refer to that in church. Why? Because they despise authority.
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They twist that in Scripture to say, oh, Jesus is speaking of binding and loosening demons.
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Totally out of context. Totally out of context. And that's why we always test them by what they teach.
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And there's a reason why they teach what they teach because they somehow twisted this thinking that they're somebody and you could be somebody and you could be arrogant and that's what
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God hates the most. That's what caused Satan to fall from heaven.
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And Satan sits back and laughs when they're saying, oh, I rebuke you. Come out of them.
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And you can see Satan over there just saying, I got them. Isn't that the truth?
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They're defiant. These false teachers are defiant. And think of this. There's a judgment that they were paid for such defiance.
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A judgment's coming to them because of this defiance. They're presumptuous and self -willed.
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Presumptuous and self -willed. They are not afraid to speak evil of angelic, glorious beings.
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So they are not only merely defiant, wicked sinners, these false teachers, and they're worthless and good for nothing and worth more dead than alive, really.
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They're corrupted in nature. They're not only headed for an ever -ending torment of the blackness of hell forever and ever, but they are extremely dangerous.
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Extremely dangerous. Jesus speaks of them as being wolves in sheep's clothing.
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Savage wolves who pretend, by the way, to be Christians. They pretend to be like one of us.
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They pretend to know that they know God. They pretend to be preachers.
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They pretend to be instructors of the Bible. They even can speak the same language.
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They can get up and get amens in what they speak. It sounds so good, but it's poison.
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You have to listen very carefully. From his book, Truth War, I'll be quoting some from him.
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MacArthur says this, an apostate is someone who has received the light, but not the life.
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The seed, but not the fruit. The written word, but not the living word.
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The truth, but not the love of the truth. 2
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Thessalonians 2, verse 10 speaks of that.
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Go with me there, please, very quickly. 2 Thessalonians tells us a little bit about what
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MacArthur just said. Notice chapter 2, verse 10.
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The coming of the lawless one, verse 9, according to the working of Satan with all power, signs, and lying wonders.
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That's how Satan will deceive. And with all unrighteous deceptions, unrighteous deceptions among those who perish because they did not receive the love of the truth that they might be saved.
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And it's interesting that Scripture goes on to say, and for this reason God will send them a strong delusion.
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God sends the strong delusion that they should believe the lie. That they all may be condemned who did not believe the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.
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That's strong. So they are predisposed.
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They're predisposed to oppose the work of God. They malign, they blaspheme the very name and the person of Jesus Christ.
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They use the name of Jesus Christ for their own pleasures, their self -will, their dreamers, as Jude says.
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They distort the only true gospel, the purity of the gospel, and that's why
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God is so angry with them. He will judge them.
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And Jesus, notice Jesus says, beware, beware, beware, beware.
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Watch out for them. Watch out for their predisposition. Now, I'm not going to finish this.
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If you go back to 1 Peter, I'm going to pick up a little bit on this next
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Lord's Day, but I'm just going to read it. But notice in verse 12.
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Let me read verse 12 to 14. We're going to touch on it a little bit.
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Lord willing, we'll pick up next Lord's Day. But these, like natural brute beasts, now talking about not only their pride, talk about their predisposition.
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Beasts made to be caught and destroyed. Speak evil of the things they do not understand.
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That's like what an animal does. They go by instinct. Will utterly perish in their own corruption and will receive the wages of unrighteousness as those who count it pleasure to carouse in the daytime.
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They are spots and blemishes, carousing in their own deceptions while they feast with you.
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Let me stop right there. That's so powerful. How bad are these false teachers?
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We just read that. That's how bad they are. And they are compared to animals in nature.
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You can learn a lot if you look at the nature of an animal, right? False teachers are compared to these animals in nature.
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A lion has a nature to prey, to stalk, and to destroy.
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Dogs have a nature to, if you will, know. It's really gross.
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A dog, every time we wash our dog, he will go to the field and enroll in manure or a dead animal and he comes back stinking again.
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It's like he loves that dead. He loves that stench. He loves that manure.
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He loves it. It's the nature of that animal. The nature of a swine, a pig, as you well know, loves slop.
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He loves to wallow in mud. That's what he loves.
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And this is why they're compared to false teachers is these people we know, they claim to pretend to know the truth but they deceive
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God's people to pull them away from God to themselves.
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To follow after them. And not Jesus Christ. And don't you think the head of the church is pretty angry with that?
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The great shepherd of the sheep? To pull his people away? To deceive them?
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These false teachers are like animals in that nature, in their fallenness, their behavior.
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Because they act in ignorance like an instinct and in ignorance of the realities of death to come and the judgment to come.
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How many times do you really get, you hear Joel Osteen talking about it is appointed for once man to die and after that the judgment.
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You never hear him preach that. He'll get up and talk a million times on the promises of God and not one time will he mention about the warnings.
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And there's probably as many warnings in the scriptures as there are promises. The judgment to come.
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Never should hear about the judgment. Sufferings. The cross.
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As brother Keith mentioned about how many times will you hear them talk about the very heart of Christianity is self -denial.
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Deny yourself. Jesus said if you desire to come after me, you deny yourself. Take up your cross.
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Follow me. Those three things. Self -denial. Cross bearing. Following Jesus.
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Never hear him talk about that. Nope. Well, these false teachers are like animals.
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They react only to the present circumstances without even giving thought of the consequences of their actions.
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Brother Keith pointed this out to me. Thank you brother Keith for this. Go with me to Psalm 49. I thought this was a very good verse of scripture that goes right along with what
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Peter says about animals. Notice this in chapter 49.
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Look at verse 12. These two verses, verse 12 and verse 20 are almost very much similar, very much alike.
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This is a psalm from the sons of Korah. Verse 12 says,
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Nevertheless man, though in honor does not remain, he is like the beast that perish.
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Verse 20, A man who is in honor, yet does not understand, is like the beast that perish.
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Notice how he refers to like the beast that perish. The beast that perish.
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Well, that's the way the false teachers are. Verse 13, back to 2
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Peter. They received the wages of unrighteousness as those who counted pleasure to corrals in daytime.
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Listen to that, corrals in daytime? There is no shame? They're perverse in their display of evil?
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I want you to think about this for a second. Even pagans, even those sinners and the practicing pagans thought it strange and unnatural to hold drunken reveries in broad daylight.
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Most of the time the pagans, and we heard this next door last night because it was homecoming, big boom box and some kids were partying.
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We very seldom hear that. First time we ever actually heard that in our neighborhood. But they were giving a party and that booming and no matter,
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I don't know what they were doing up there and I don't want to think what they were doing. Probably a lot of immorality and drinking and a lot of that going on.
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But it was at nighttime at least. Disturbing the peace, yes.
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But they didn't do it in daytime. These are pagans. And they will at nighttime because of their shame kind of hide it.
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But not these false teachers folks. They had no qualms about practicing damnable erroneous concepts of teaching and so -called
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Christian liberties in broad daylight. They don't hide it.
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They don't just try to disclose it.
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See, these false teachers are in broad daylight. They're brash and bold about it.
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And they're proud of it. That's why the Scripture says they're like natural beast made to be caught and destroyed.
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They're better off dead. As a result, they receive the wages of unrighteousness.
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That's what's coming to them. The ultimate penalty of their works will be in the torments of hell.
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Look with me to Jude 10. Let's go back to Jude. Notice Jude parallels again.
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Look at verse 10 and 11. But these speak evil whatever they do not know, whatever they know naturally like brute beast.
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And these things they corrupt themselves. Woe to them! You know what he's saying?
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A curse to you. No blessing to you. And all they do is speak about blessing.
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But the real prophets of the Lord and the apostles says, Woe to them! For they have gone in the way of Cain.
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You know about the way of Cain. Cain. If you look at Cain, he was a worshiper of God, but he wanted to do what he wanted to do before the
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Lord. The Lord says, No, you bring a blood sacrifice. No, he brings vegetables. He does what he wants to do.
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In other words, God says, No, you are to worship me by blood sacrifice. Abel obeyed.
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Cain did what he wanted to do. Self -worship. God rejected his sacrifice.
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They have run greedily in the error of Balaam for profit. You know that story. Balaam was all about the money.
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The love of money. And perished in the rebellion of Korah. We'll look at more about that later. But these blaspheme, the things which they do not understand, folks.
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The things which they know by instinct, like unreasoning animals, these things, they are destroyed.
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In other words, they are better off dead. Wow. Now, let me read very quickly, as we go into application very quickly.
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Look at verse 12 and 13. It parallels again with Peter.
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These are spots in your love feast. While they feast with you without fear, serving only themselves.
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See that? Only themselves. They are clouds without water, carried about by the winds, late autumn trees without fruit, twice dead, pulled up by the roots, waging waves of the sea, foaming up at their own shame, wandering stars for whom is reserved the blackness of darkness forever.
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Spots without blemishes. Carousing in their own deceptions. And they feast with you.
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What does that mean? Peter speaks about the feast. This is speaking about the love feast that surrounds the celebration of the
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Lord's Supper. It makes me think of Judas, that Judas was the son of perdition, and he was having a feast with Jesus, that love feast, his very last supper, and there was
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Judas in his heart, in his mind, ready to betray our Lord, and turn
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Him over to the authorities to be crucified. He was the son of perdition.
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These heretics were so deceived that they were actually thought that they were to celebrate their freedoms in Jesus Christ with their drunken reverie, even at the
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Lord's table. You just don't do that. In fact, they were spots and blemishes.
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Degrading the purity of the Lord's feast. The purpose that Jesus came into this world, to give
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His life a ransom, that His body would be broken, that His blood would be shed and spilled.
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You see why this is so serious? And yet, these false teachers right there are coming within the love feast and their pretense, and they know exactly what they're doing, and yet they're having communion.
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Blasphemy. I don't believe it can get any worse than this.
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Wow. Whatever they do not know, like brute beasts, these things, they corrupt themselves.
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They're spots in your love feast. Spots. Spots. Right in the love feast.
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Let me give an application here. I'm going to make this simple and bring it down.
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There's a lot here. Like I said, we only broke ground today, but I think there's an application. I'd like to pull the application from Jude.
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Because Jude really, in the closing verses of that one powerful chapter, isn't it amazing what
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God can say through one apostle just in 25 verses? There are three points, and I got these points from MacArthur as I was reading
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Truth War. And that's a great book, I'm telling you folks. He deals with this. Let me ask the question, what should be our response?
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That's the question, isn't it? These are strong words we heard today just among us few here.
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And what should be our response to this? Our response is really found in Jude 17 -23.
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Just those few verses. And I want you to notice this. He says this, But you, beloved...
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Here's the first response. Remember the words which were spoken before by the apostles of our
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Lord Jesus Christ. Remember. That's the first response. We are to remember.
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Our duty is to respond rightly. We should respond in wisdom.
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We should respond in love, in grace. Even to these false teachers. Even though we have a holy anger.
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But we need to be careful and remember that vengeance is the Lord's. He will repay. It's not in our decision as the
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Sons of Thunder one time says, Lord, call down fire from heaven and burn them up. Jesus says you don't know what spirit you're of.
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We are to be gracious and to remember that it is our duty to respond rightly with a
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Christ -like attitude. And be Christ -like. This is challenging, isn't it?
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Because if you're like I am, and I'm going to confess this, it's so easy to get in the flesh.
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I've done it myself. But we need to remain in the spirit of our
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God and remember that we're not to call down fire even if we could.
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Not to call down fire from heaven. We can't. To these people. That vengeance is the
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Lord's and shall not, I like what Abraham says, shall not the judge of all the earth do right. Not only should we not be surprised when false teachers appear within the church.
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It was nothing new within the apostolic time and era. We ought to have actually anticipated and prepared for the reality of this.
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Personally, I believe it's a wake -up call. And even more so than ever because I like Ravenhill, what he said.
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He said, it's not five minutes before the big hand strikes midnight. We're just a few seconds before the midnight call comes.
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Jesus commanded, MacArthur says this, Jesus commanded us to be on guard against false
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Christ and false prophets. This is from the truth war. Even the apostolic era was filled with examples of wolves in sheep's clothing.
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He goes on to say, church history is shrewd with more examples of love after another.
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Only sinful and willful unbelief can account for the refusal of so many in the church today to heed those warnings.
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To heed those warnings. So there's a command.
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And I like what the apostle Jude says. Remember the words which were spoken before by the apostles of our
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Lord Jesus Christ. Remember sound doctrine. Remember the words. Remember the words which were spoken by the apostles of our
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Lord Jesus Christ. Now he goes on to say this, in verse 18, how they told you that there would be mockers in the last time and would walk according to their own ungodly lust.
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These are sensual persons. Sensual.
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That word sensual means worldly. Worldly. Who cause divisions not having the
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Spirit. Verse 20, but you.
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Notice verse 20 and verse 17, you notice how he gets very personal, but you.
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You. Who's he speaking? You. Beloved.
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Again, right after he says, but you, beloved. You are beloved. Beloved. He says, building yourselves up on your most holy faith.
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Praying in the Holy Spirit. I like that charge there.
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It says, build up one another. Building yourselves up.
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You know what he's saying? Not only to remember, but to remain. Remain.
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Remain what? Remain faithful. Remain faithful. Build up one another in the faith.
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And that's why we come together, isn't it? Sisters, brothers. We come together to build up our most holy faith in the
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Holy Spirit. Praying in the Holy Spirit. Remain faithful.
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Seek to remain faithful. Building up yourselves. Building up yourselves up on your most holy faith.
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Praying in the Holy Spirit. That most holy faith speaks of doctrine.
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That means sound doctrine. 2
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Peter 3, 17 goes right along with this. And we're going in that direction, right?
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Notice what he says. Verse 17. You therefore, beloved, since you know this beforehand, beware lest you also fall from your own steadfastness.
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There's a warning. Don't get so arrogant. Paul says, take heed lest you think you stand.
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You're going to fall. So we need to humble ourselves and be careful that we don't fall and get prideful.
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Thinking, well, I know the truth. I can never fall. Oh, watch out. That's serious.
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No, he said, lest you also fall from your own steadfastness, being led away with the air of the wicked.
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You can fall. And he says, but grow in the grace and knowledge of our
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Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To Him be glory both now and forever. Amen. Grow in the grace and knowledge of our
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Lord Jesus Christ. Remain faithful. Remain faithful.
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Last one is, reach out. Reach out. Remember. Remain. Remain faithful.
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Remember the words of the apostles, of our
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Lord Jesus Christ. Remain faithful. Stay steadfast.
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And reach out. Should not we reach out in evangelism to those that are caught up in these false teachers and these led astray.
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And I tell you, you may lose some friends from it, folks, but be faithful. And give them the love of God.
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And give them the truth of God. Truth in love. To rescue those who have been led astray by them.
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Where do you see rescue? Well, I see it. Look at this. Keep yourselves. Notice that.
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Verse 21. In the love of God. You keep yourselves in the love of God. Looking for the mercy of our
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Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life. Notice what he says in verse 22. And on some having compassion, making a distinction.
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But others saved with fear, pulling them out of the fire, hating even the garment defiled by the flesh.
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You see the balance there? Some have compassion, making a distinction. Others saved with fear, pulling them out of the fire, hating even the garments by the flesh.
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We are to reach out every way we can to these people that are deceived under these false teachers.
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Amen? Amen. Let's pray. Father, we thank you, Lord, for this word today.
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Help us to remember the words of the apostles of our
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Lord Jesus Christ. Help us to be sober, vigilant.
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Help us, Lord, to be awake and be on our guard all the time.
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We need your help by your blessed Holy Spirit. Help us to remain faithful to you and to the faith that was once delivered to the saints.
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Help us, Lord, to reach out and warn those and do everything we can to give them the truth of the glorious gospel of Jesus Christ in love and lead them to the foot of the cross.