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Bro. Otis Fisher
Even as Sodom and Gomorrah, and the cities about them in like manner, giving themselves over to fornication, going after strange flesh, are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire.
Strange flesh. The devil will, after a while, cause the weak person to have sex in the church in the name of God. Now you think that's impossible. Just you wait. It will happen. It is now in churches in some places in this country, and I'm using the term church very loosely.
People that call themselves a church. The lake of fire will be total darkness. Did sin enter this world against God's will? If it did, it's outside of his control. It's outside of, then he's not at all powerful.
He's not all powerful if it entered against his will. If he's not all powerful, then he's not sovereign. If he's not sovereign, then he's not God. So by the very fact that he's God eliminates anything coming into the world against his will.
The Christian church in America looks very confining from the outside, but the inside, it has no discipline, no integrity. Alright? Yes. I'll tell you how it will become nationwide, worldwide, it will appear first in the cartoons, the comic characters that are on television, and they'll bring it that way.
It's an awful, awful, awful thing. A few years ago, the generation was saying that human nature was getting better, and because we do not need all these laws, so the lid was taken off. Our cities are becoming and are now an armed camp, controlled by men who roam the streets, while law-abiding people are imprisoned in their homes, abiding people are imprisoned in their homes.
If there was not a devil, Greg, man would have to invent one for all the evil that's going on. But the world of God has a great deal to say about judgments that are coming. In our day, sodomy is called homosexuality.
Dress it up. Adultery is called free love. The drunkard is a respected alcoholic, and the murderer is temporarily insane. Jude 8. Likewise, also, these filthy dreamers defile the flesh, despise dominion, and speak evil of dignitaries.
Filthy dreamers, apostate teachers. They live in a world that does not exist. We need to learn how to say no as well as yes. Liberals are dreamers. They never face up to reality. They defile the flesh.
Many churches of today approve of homosexuality, even to having their own church. Despise dominion. They reject authority. Do away with the death penalty. Follow no rules. Speak evil of dignitaries. They protest against rules.
Somebody play them with the lights. They protest against rules and those in authority. They hate police. These false teachers have come into our churches by the back door. Come in sideways. They are ungodly and because of the lack of study, dedication, and they don't believe in God.
The Christians have found themselves, or soon will find themselves, driven underground. It's coming. Out of a poll of 700 preachers, 48 did not believe the Bible. 24 reject the atonement, the Holy Spirit.
12 reject the resurrection. 27 do not believe in Christ's return. They say it makes no difference if Christ was born of a virgin or not. A leading minister in Washington, D .C. said the Bible is still used in a few old churches, but only by the old preachers.
But among the real leaders of our denomination, not a single preacher believes in Christ or any of your fundamental teachings. This was taken 10 years ago. I hate to think of what it is today. Yet Michael, the archangel, when contending with the devil, he disputed about the body of Moses, durst not bring against him a reeling accusation, but said the Lord rebuke thee.
Jesse, why was there an argument about Moses? That's exactly why. It appears that Satan wished to make his very own place known. If it had been known, no telling what it would be like today, in order to tempt them to worship him.
But he was prevented, and vented his rage and desperate blasphemies. Well, this should remind all who dispute never to bring railings or charges against people. 2 Peter 2 .11, whereas angels, which are greater in power and might, bring not railing accusations against them before the Lord.
False teachers are dreamers. They greatly defile and grievously wound the soul. These teachers are of a disturbed mind and seditious spirit, forgetting that the power that be are ordained of God. In Romans 13 .1 we find this, let every soul be subject unto the higher powers, for there is no power but of God.
The powers that be are ordained of God. We ought to defend those whom God owns. It is hard, if not impossible, to find any enemies of the Christian religion who did not, and do not, live in open or secret opposition to the principles of Christianity.
Such are here compared to the brute beasts. Though they often boast of themselves as the wisest of mankind, they corrupt themselves in things most open and plain. The fault lies not in their understanding, but in their depraved wills, and their disordered appetites and affections.
Well, the Lord will remedy this, but in his own time. False teachers are to expect the worst punishments in the world that is to come. Evil words spoken of one another, especially if ill-grounded, will certainly come into account on that day of judgment.
These evil men and seducers are angry at everything that happens, and never pleased with their own state and condition. Their will and their desire are their only rule and law. Those who please their sinful appetites are most prone to yield to the ungovernable passions.
I'm trying to wait until David got in here, but it looks like I'm not going to make it. Fifty years ago, seventy years ago, the church was an exuberant part of our world. Now, I'm going to make a statement again that I made last week, and I want you to get it.
If you don't understand it, tell me. Only the blessed are Christian. Only the saved can be blessed. All of the material things that we say are blessings to us are not, for they may be the worst thing that ever happened, but the blessings are spiritual.
Now, example, suppose I get a new car. I say, well, the Lord's blessed me, I have a new car. No, the blessing is, how did that item draw you closer to God? Closer is the blessing, the spiritual blessing.
You do not find in the Bible him blessing material things. Only the saved can be blessed because they're the only ones that recognize it. Is there a question? Does everyone understand? Anyone not understand?
Then I take it that you all understand. Blessings are spiritual. If I can teach you one thing, it'll be that. That the blessing is how much closer did it draw me to God. Now, Greg, was heaven made for man?
No. What's this? I'm always striving to get to heaven. You agree with that verse, Jesse? Well, you're right. Heaven's made for the angels and God. Satan is the father of modernism. The intensity of the defense must be adjusted to the intensity of the opposition which comes from Satan through modernism.
He is also our redeemer. God is God and he is also our redeemer. He is the one who loves us. But our God is high, holy, and lifted up. He is a just and righteous God. Does he ever make a mistake? He never does anything wrong.
Everything he does is right. Now, is it right because he does it or does he do it because it's right, Greg? That's right. Therefore, you and I can trust him. But do we do that? Do we respect his authority?
Do we respect his person? And that day when man must give an account, the Lord Jesus is going to say, you said, Lord, Lord, but you didn't do the things I commanded. Each one went his own way and did that which was right in his own eyes.
This is the picture of mankind. How about you? How about me? 2 Peter 2 .11, whereas angels, which are greater in power and might, bring not railing accusations against them before the Lord. Now, Diane, can we help God?
Thank you. We cannot help him do anything. Now, Virg, does God need you? Think that over. Greg, does God need you? And why are you here? Does he need you to serve him? Well, I maintain that he needs us.
Why else would we be born? Well, it's a subject of which we do not know the answer. I would say that he needs us to fulfill his pattern, to fulfill himself. But at the same time, I say he needs nothing.
So it's a question that you can think about. Well, that's true, but that's getting on our side, looking at him. If you get on God's side and look back at us, yes, he needs you to bring his plan to perfection.
He does not need us as far as we're concerned. Was hell made for man, Greg? What was it made for? What do we call it? That's what hell was made for. Will there be anybody in hell other than Satan and his demons?
Come to verse 10 now, if you will, please. But these speak evil of those things which they know not. But what they know naturally as brute beasts in those things, they corrupt themselves. So even what they know, they corrupt themselves.
If all you knew is this world, you would corrupt yourself. The finer unseen things like love, peace, joy, and so forth, the unsaved do not know that. They know it as far as they're capable of, but they're not capable of knowing it.
In 2 Peter 2 .12, we read,. But these as natural, brute beasts, made to be taken and destroyed, speak evil of the things that they understand not, and shall utterly perish in their own corruption, apostate teachers in their brash, bold, egotistical infatuation with imagined powers and authority rail on that which they don't even understand.
Apostates are intellectual, arrogant, spiritual, ignorant, in that they don't know because they're blinded by Satan, and spiritual matters are beyond their unregenerate capacity to understand. In divine matters, they are no brighter than the dumbest of animals.
It seems so strange that you can carry on a conversation, a worldly conversation, with someone that he just knows a lot about the subject that you're talking about, but he knows nothing about spiritual things.
He'll say he does, but he doesn't unless he's saved. 11. Woe unto them, for they have gone in the way of Cain, and ran greedily after the heir of Balaam for reward, and perished in the Ganeseen of Korah.
Now we have three men here. They may be smarter than me, but I know some things they don't. Now, if you'll go to Numbers 16, I want to pick out a few verses and read them to refresh our mind with this event.
Numbers 16, 1. Korah was the son of Ishar, which was, he was a cousin of Moses, so it's in the family. 2. The son of Kohath, the son of Levi, and Dathan, and Amran, the sons of Elab, and On, the sons of Pila, the sons of Reuben, took men.
3. And they rose up before Moses, and certain of the children of Israel, two hundred and fifty princes of the assembly, famous in the congregation, men of renown. Now skip to the 16th verse. 4. And Moses said unto Korah, Be thou and all thy company before the Lord, thou and they, and Aaron, tomorrow.
5. And Korah gathered all the congregation against them unto the door of the tabernacle of the congregation, and of the glory of the Lord appeared unto all the congregation. If these men, 29 now, if these men die the common death of all men, in other words if they die from getting old or run over by a car or whatever, or if they be visited after the visitation of all men, then the Lord hath not sent me, is what Moses says.
But if the Lord make a new thing, and the earth open her mouth, and swallow them up with all that appertaineth unto them, and they go down quick into the pit, then you shall understand that these men have provoked the Lord.
31. And it came to pass, as he had made an end of speaking all of these words, that the ground clave asunder that was under them. If you can imagine, just all of a sudden it opened, and the earth opened her mouth and swallowed them and their houses and all the men that appertained to Korah and all of their goods.
So this wasn't just the men, it was their families also, wherever they are. 33. And they all that appertaineth to them went down alive into the pit, and the earth closed upon them, and they perished from among the congregation.
Judgment of God. 34. The word know, epistemahi, implies a native insight, knowledge gained through the five senses. So they knew all, essential enjoyment, carnal things by instinct. These understand only what a brute beast could.
These know just physical things and think they know everything. Much like some preachers I know said. 11. Woe unto them where they have gone in the way of Cain and ran greedily after the heir of Balaam for the reward and perished in the gainsaying of Korah.
These people are like adulterated, contemptible, abominable, corrupt, polluted, vulgar, unsanitary stains on a clean garment. If you don't get it out quick, it will sit and cannot be removed unless you cut it out.
They join in all the activities of the church and will become as much a part of everything as they deem necessary in order to gain control. They will come in unsuspecting, make friends with the preacher or someone in the auditorium.
They will little by little move toward control unless they're checked. These are spots in your feasts of charity. A rock in the sea, a ledge, a reef of men who they conduct by their conduct damage others morally weak.
When they feast with you, they'll come right in and feast with you. And he's talking about the Lord's Supper here. They will partake of the Lord's Supper. They'll do everything to become one of you. Feeding themselves without fear, clouds they are without water.
Carried about by winds, trees whose fruit withereth without fruit. Twice dead, plucked up by the roots. Russell, what does he mean twice dead? That's right. Feeding without fear, either of offending God or man.
Can you imagine someone not fearful of God? That's an awful thing. Feeding themselves without fear, that is without any proper reverence or respect for the ordinance. Tending on the Lord's Supper as if it were an ordinary feast and making it an occasion of riot and gluttony.
Twice dead means physically and spiritually. During a drought, when you see a cloud, you take heart. But when it's blown away and produces no rain, you become very disappointed. These are like clouds without rain.
Greg, what is a cloud? What produces the cloud? Why does it become a cloud? Well, that's all true. What holds the cloud together? Dust, pollution in the air. If it was absolutely pure, there would be no clouds.
Raging waves of the sea foaming out to their own shame. Wandering stars to whom is reserved the blackness of darkness forever. Boy, the blackness of darkness and forever. Russell, have you ever been to Carlsbad?
After you got way down in the bowels of the earth, did they turn the lights off? Could you see your hand in front of you? I could smell it, but I couldn't see it. That's as black as I know to get it on this earth.
Hell is made worse by those that are there. Our world would be much happier if men knew more or if they knew how little they know. It would be a better place. In the previous verse, he said that they were like clouds carried about by the wind.
These men generally speak on current events. Every Sunday, they'll come to the pulpit and something they've seen on television or they've read in the newspaper or something they've heard, they pick it up, spend 45 minutes preaching on it, and it becomes the subject of their Sunday lesson.
They don't really give the interpretation of the word of God which would be applicable for the day. I keep going back to that survey 10 years ago. They do not use the Bible. Now, in this town, in this part of the country, we do.
I can't imagine having church without the Bible. Here, Jude says that they are raging waves of sea. They just stand in the pulpit and rant. I remember Dr. Thayer said that their false teachers are impelled by their restless passion, their unblushing exhibit in word and deed, their base and abandoned spirit.
Wandering stars, wandering stars just wander through space. They are lawless in that they follow no course whatsoever. To whom is reserved the blackness of darkness? There is a place for them. It's reserved.
That means that they're going to be there. This refers to what we call hell. One symbol of hell is fire. The other is the blackness of darkness. The great emphasis has been placed upon the symbol of fire.
Hell is literal, of course, but to say that it's a literal fire isn't quite adequate. It's not really what they mean. For this reason, there will be spiritual people there. There may be literal fire, but there will be something else also.
There will be spiritual people and men. The worst sins of man are spiritual sins, such as unbelief. Therefore, fiscal punishment wouldn't be quite appropriate. My feeling is that man will wish it were literal fire.
It would be so much worse than fire. The other symbol is blackness of darkness. To me, that's more frightening than anything. I believe that a lost man carries his darkness with him. Not only physical darkness, but spiritual darkness.
My feeling is that the horrors of hell will be increased by those that go there. There is a place on this earth called hell's kitchen. It's only a name. The difference in the kind of real estate that is there.
But hell is not like that. The difference is the people that are there. The concept of physical darkness, to me, is frightful beyond words. If you have ever been down in Carlsbad Cavern, as Russell says, and they turn the lights off, it's dark.
Absolutely dark. It's a sad thing when men seem to begin in the spirit and end in the flesh. They seem to begin in the spirit. Almost as common as it is awful. We come now to another remarkable passage.
The scriptures are in the only place it occurs in the word of God. It's here in Jude. The only place in the Bible. 14. And Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, saying, Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousand of his saints to execute judgment upon all ungodly and to convince all ungodly that are ungodly among them of all of their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed and of all their ungodly hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken ungodly against him.
He put in enough ungodlies, and I added a few. Now, why don't we read someplace else about Enoch if he prophesied this? I don't either. There's a book of Enoch. It was used not as the Bible, but it was circulated, then become lost, and recently has been found.
But I didn't hold anything from it simply because God did not include it in his Bible. It doesn't mean it's not true, but you can get a little more insight into Enoch by reading it.
Well, that's right.
He doesn't want Enoch studied as Enoch wrote. Well, the housewife is very particular in grocery shopping. Have you ever noticed that? They select the very best food and produce. We should be just as particular in selecting our spiritual food.
Enoch was translated. That is, he was removed from the earth without dying. And sometime in the future, the church, meaning true believers, are to be removed from the earth without dying. Of course, through the centuries, since the time of Christ, believers have been dying so that they all, at the present time, most of the church has already passed through the doorway of death.
And at the time of the rapture, they are to be caught up together with the living believers to meet the Lord in the air. This teaching is not found in the Old Testament, but in the New. The rapture is the second coming of Christ.
When we say that, we're not quite accurate. If we mean Christ is coming to earth at that time, no, the rapture is a removal of the church. Then the visible church, which is left on earth, composed of folks who are not true believers, will make believers.
They'll totally be departed from the wrath and will enter the great tribulation period. And at the end of tribulation, the Lord Jesus will actually come to earth to execute judgment upon all and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds.
We'll stop here. Is there anything you would like to add?
Yes, that's right.
It also means you're going to show up. You're going to be there, because it's reserved for you. This is one thing that we can't skip. We can't do without. We will be there, whether it's in heaven or hell.
Well, if there is no nothing else, Virg, would you dismiss us, please?