In this sermon, the pastor discusses the topic of apostasy and warns the congregation about the dangers of falling away from the faith. He uses examples from the Bible to illustrate this, including Israel, the angels who sinned, and Sodom and Gomorrah. The pastor emphasizes the importance of avoiding unbelief and staying faithful to God. He also reminds the congregation of the assurance and promises of God, particularly referencing Joshua and Caleb as examples of faithfulness.

Alright, Book of Jude. Interesting book, written by a brother of James, both of which we believe were brothers of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Also, the word in the Greek is Judas, so when we find a name of that emotional quality heading a book, it doesn't surprise us to find that the book of Jude can be subtitled The Acts of the Apostates, just as the Acts of the Apostles are the beginning of the church, the Acts of the Apostates are the end of the church. Jude's specific, in a prophetic sense, his message is to the end of the age. I was attracted to taking the book up for two reasons. Part of it mischief, because Jude talks about, he gives us an excuse to really get in the murky, misty corners of the Old Testament. So we'll do that, of course, won't miss that opportunity. But also because his very specific prophetic message points to our day in some very peculiar ways, and we'll be dealing with that also, in effect, as a book of prophecy. So, why are we studying the book of Jude? Because it affects our day. Another reason we're studying the book of Jude, it's sort of a contrast to the book of James. James has to do with works evidencing faith. Jude speaks of works which evidence the lack of faith or apostasy, those that have fallen away. We won't try to review all that we covered last time, except to just refresh your memory on the main admonition from last time, and that was to contend earnestly for the faith. Every one of you is being called to contend for the faith. You can do that through a direct witness. You can do that by preparing for that direct witness, should the opportunity come. You can do that by supporting those that are espousing the whole counsel of God. Your pastor here, the tape ministries that you find constructive, the radio programs that you find really preaching, in contrast to some of the things that are going on today, more of which we will talk about tonight. Now last time, we got all the way through verse 4, so you'll find that our progress last time of four complete verses was remarkable, because we're going to use some of the coming verses as excuses to depart, not from the faith, but from the book at hand, and poke around a little bit. Verses 5, 6, and 7 are a trio that speak of three examples of apostasy. Verse 5 is about Israel. Verse 6, about the angels that sinned. That's the fun one, that's Halloween time, that's verse 6. And verse 7, Sodom and Gomorrah. And there are three different groups. Israel, we'll consider as being saved men. Verse 6, the angels are angels. They're sort of special class. You'll find that there's some that blew the mission. We'll find out about that when we get to that. And the third category are unsaved. Sodom and Gomorrah we generally wouldn't categorize as a saved community. Tonight we're going to focus specifically on verse 5. And we have here the Holy Spirit speaking, not to students of the Old Testament per se, but to you and I. The Holy Spirit's taking for granted that you have a command, a mastery of the Old Testament. Many of you in this room do, some of you are yet to find it, but clearly we're going to get into that, and clearly the Holy Spirit has put that history of Israel, that very specific history here referred to, there for some very specific practical use by you and I. And that's what we're going to focus on a bit. Let's read verse 5. Jude says, I will therefore, now back up before I, I guess the therefore implies that we really have fresh in our minds what just went on before. He introduces himself, the first two verses, let's just reread 3 and 4 to catch the mood of verse 5. Verse 3. Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, in other words, he started to write one thing and then changed his mind, it was needful for me, or to be more precise, I was compelled, what's sort of lost in the King James translation here, is Jude was going to sit down and just write a neat letter about our common salvation, those neat things, but the Holy Spirit drove him, almost compelled him, almost pressured him, forced him, to focus his attention on contending for the faith. And the whole letter, we'll discover, is about apostasy and warnings of falling away from the faith. It's written not to unbelievers. It's written to you and I. Beloved, beloved, he says. He's presuming you're saved. That is you, the reader. For there are certain men crept in unawares who were before of old, ordained to this condemnation, ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness and denying the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ. So these are deniers. They're not outside the church. They're inside the church. They sneak in secretly. They're here. And one of the things that has drawn me to the book of Jude is that there is a heresy, there's a number of them, but there's a specific heresy growing within both the charismatic and fundamental believing body in America that is growing and, in my opinion, laying the foundation for the time of Jacob's trouble. There's a very specific heresy that I believe will grow and become the fulfillment of a number of prophecies, and that's one reason we're into Jude. And we'll start on that tonight a little bit, but let's keep moving here to verse 5. Jude continues, I will therefore, the therefore referring to this intrusion of heresy within the body, I will therefore put you in remembrance, though ye once knew this, that the Lord, having saved the people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed them that believed not. Jude's point is, hey, you guys remember Exodus, Numbers, Deuteronomy? You remember how they were delivered, miraculously, in a mind-blowing way. You've seen it from passages, you've also seen it skillfully presented in film. How this world empire ultimately yielded to these theatrics that God specifically set up. When God called Moses, not in the film, in the text, he pointed out that Pharaoh would not believe. You don't catch that in the film abbreviation, obviously. But if you read the text, one of the bizarre things, when Moses is called, the Lord predicts that he's not going to believe at first. God sets it up. If you'll excuse the expression, he's almost showing off. He's going to use the occasion to show his strength and power, and does. And all through the Old Testament, subsequently, when God wants to put his thumb under suspenders, if he was, he makes reference how he delivered Israel out of Egypt. It wasn't just the minimum amount of power needed to have it happen. You know, often we get the impression that God is very economic. He sort of, you know, if there's a ministry that needs money, it always comes the day before the sheriff shows up, you know. A minute early is a minute wasted, you get the feeling sometimes. Not in Egypt. God really did some fabulous stage management there. Gave us an incredible story. Well, you all know the story. You all know the story. The pillar of fire by night, the cloud by day, trapped between the Egyptian army and the Red Sea, and the waters actually part for them to go through. And, of course, the Egyptians drowning in their attempt to follow. Dramatic stuff. How long a trip was it from there to Kadesh-Benir? 11 days, according to Deuteronomy chapter 2. 11-day journey. How long did it take them? 38, actually, we say 40 years. Actually, 38 years, yeah. 38 years to make an 11-day journey. Question. How many people, you've all heard studies and things, how many people do you visualize leaving Egypt in that deliverance? A million? That's a good number. There are all kinds of estimates, but that's a fair one. A bunch. How many of those over 20 entered the promised land? Two. That's what I call attrition. That's sobering, because that's what he's talking about here, you see, in part. A million were delivered. Were those million saved? That's the question that's going to bother us as we drive home tonight. Now, admittedly, there were some mixed multitudes. Among the group was Edward G. Robinson and the bunch that sort of got versed. You remember Korah and Dathan and Abiathan? We're going to talk about them a little later in Jude anyway, as I recall. So we don't have to, you know, hit them too hard right now. We'll get our chance at them. But the point is, yes, there were some that really got versed, but one of the questions that will bother you, were they saved? Were they baptized unto Moses? You know, there's a whole bunch of questions here that we'll want to deal with, and it would be very unskillful of me to spoon-feed you too much. It's only fair, as a coach of a graduate group like you, to leave some of these more salient points to be discovered by the student at his leisure, you see. So I'll lead you part of the way and let you chew on the rest, but we'll go on. I'm going to suggest to you that these lessons that Jude is pointing out in verse 5 are very focused. For example, I don't believe Jude is focusing on the ability of the Lord to save these people. That's not the issue here. The fact that God is able and willing to save is not the issue. He takes that for granted. Of all the other lessons that we're not going to talk about would be things like the Passover lamb, the blood on the doorposts. How were they saved out of Egypt? By blood on the doorposts and so forth. The whole Passover issue is not an issue here. The Red Sea miracle isn't. The whole implication of that isn't the main issue here. As they wander in the wilderness, the tabernacle, the priests, the offerings, all those incredible lessons are not the issues here. What is the issue? Apostasy. Falling away. And destruction that comes upon them because of that. That's what we're going to try to focus on. The lesson that we're going to learn, I'm giving a glimpse ahead so you can know where I'm headed, is that God reserves the right to destroy that people if they become guilty of certain forms of unbelief or other sins to which unbelief leads. That's the sobering insight we're going to see, dramatized by none other than Israel herself. Now, before we charge into this too far, I should... It's always nice to sort of equip yourself with some emergency rations because we're going to take kind of a dangerous trip here. Before we go too far, let me give you some important relief. Let me remind you of some assurances for your safekeeping that I don't want you to lose sight of because we're going to go down a path. I want to anticipate some anxieties you may feel. Turn with me to John 10. I don't want you to, as we go down this path, lose sight of the fact that your security is in Christ Jesus. And I love when we... There's lots and lots of verses we could pick for this. I want to sort of put a stake in the ground, an anchor, before we start wandering too far from our tether here. So I'd like you to turn to John 10, where the Lord gives us a couple of important verses. Verse 27 says, My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. All of you that are his sheep... Raise your hand, please. Okay, thank you. Right, right. Good, good. I want you to notice what he says about the sheep. Verse 28, and mark it if you haven't yet. Jesus speaking says, And I give unto them eternal life, and they shall hardly ever perish. Is that what he says? No. And they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. Do you know what I'm comforted by? Because I'm a man, and I am not able to pluck myself out of his hand. If my security rested on me alone, I would be in big trouble. They shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. Jesus Christ speaking. I love verse 29, because it goes on in a very typical Hebrew fashion. If you're familiar with the Psalms and Proverbs and so forth, our poetry in the West is rhymes and meters. Hebrew poetry is the offset of parallel thoughts. Sometimes contrasts, sometimes the same thing said two different ways. Very typical in the Hebrew thought pattern, and we see it here. My Father who gave them to me... Who gave us to Jesus Christ? The Father. My Father who gave them to me is greater than all, and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father's hand. You know, I read that for many, many years before I realized there are two hands involved. We're not in his hand like this, we're in their hands like this. Can't get out. Okay, and there's many passages like this, just to have another one you might turn to John 4. Since it's handy, just turn to the left. You all know the story of the woman by the well. Samaritan woman. Jesus went a long way to keep that date. It's a very famous event. But we'll just grab for our purposes tonight one verse, verse 14. Whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall hardly ever thirst. Was the word there? Never. Boy, I'm fond of the word never in John 10 and John 4. But the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life. No conditions in the sense of being losable. If you're born again, I don't know how you can become unborn. And I'm saying that not to stimulate a theological debate on eternal security. If nothing else, you can put in your notepad that Chuck Missler is one of those extremists. Right, I happen to be. I make no apologies. And of course, as long as we're talking notepads, at the top of your pad, upper right-hand corner, you put Acts 17 11, in which Luke tells you not to believe anything because I tell you, but to search the Scriptures daily to prove whether those things be so. But I don't want us to confuse our eternal security with the fact that we can suffer destruction. And that's what we're going to discover happens to Israel and what Jude is pointing out we should be aware of. So from verse 5, I want us to get a perspective of what the salvation that they had was, what their unbelief involved, and what the destruction was. It's very important. There are three examples in these three verses, 5, 6, and 7. The second two are tied up with eternal punishment. And so if you read this casually, you might assume that it applies to all three. I don't think it does apply to verse 5. It might apply to some in verse 5, but I don't want you to derive from this an insecurity in terms of the adequacy of Christ's completed work on the cross. I don't want you to get that. I'm sorry, I don't want you to overreact to what we're getting into. First question then, were the people, was Israel truly saved? My premise is absolutely. Absolutely. That's what the blood on the doorpost was all about. And I could go through lots of verses to establish this. In Exodus chapter 3, verse 7, God speaks of them as My people. Exodus 3, 7, 5, 1, Deuteronomy 33, 29, and on and on and on. All the way through that whole episode, God lays claim and ownership on Israel. Everyone knew. Sure, there's some that we're going to discover had some very peculiar views. There were some that prayed an unusual prayer. And God answered it. We'll talk about that in a minute. I'm going to suggest that they were saved in a deeper sense than just being delivered from the bondage of Egypt. Now, I'd like to make an interesting point. We visualize a million people leaving Egypt, crossing the Red Sea on dry land, right? How many of those ended up back in Egypt? None. None. That's right. Interesting footnote, I call your attention. There are lessons to be learned, but they didn't go back into Egypt, for whatever that's, whatever obscure insight that might give you. Now, among the multitude, there were some that didn't make it in terms of God's intention for them, in terms of their whole program, and we're going to focus on them a bit. Let's turn, if you will. We're going to have a lesson on answered prayer. Turn to Numbers 14. We'll be spending some time in Numbers several places, but let's just start here with Numbers chapter 14. The scene is when the spies, these twelve guys, were selected to go and do some reconnaissance. They come back, and ten of them are really nervous and frightened. They speak of the giants in the land. We'll talk more about that when we get to another subject, but anyway, two of them, Joshua and Caleb, say, hey, come on guys, let's go. God's on our side, who can be against us, that sort of thing. Chapter 14, verse 1, And all the congregation lifted up their voice and cried, and the people wept that night. And all the children of Israel murmured against Moses and against Aaron. And the whole congregation said unto them, Would God that we had died in the land of Egypt, or would God that we had died in this wilderness, would you say they're ungrateful? It wasn't so long ago that they were feeling the sting of the taskmaster's whips. It wasn't that long ago they were abused slaves. God, through the most incredible theatrics, delivers them. And how quickly they forget. And now they're murmuring, and they're saying, Oh, would God that we had died in the wilderness. They go on, verse 3, And wherefore hath the Lord brought us into this land to fall by the sword, that our wives and our children should be a prey? Were it not better for us to return to Egypt? And so on, right? Let's find out how the Lord deals with this. We'll skip on down here to verse 26 of the same chapter. The Lord spake again unto Moses and Aaron, saying, How long shall I bear with this evil congregation who murmur against me? I have heard the murmurings of the children of Israel, which they murmur against me. Saying unto them, As truly as I live, saith the Lord, as ye have spoken in my ears, so will I do to you. Your carcasses shall fall in this wilderness. And all who were numbered of you, according to your whole number, from twenty years old and upward, who have murmured against me, doubtless ye shall not come into the land concerning which I swore to make you dwell therein, except Caleb the son of Jephunneh and Joshua the son of Nun. But your little ones whom you said would be a prey, or should be a prey, them will I bring in, and they shall know the land which ye have despised. Heavy trip. For thirty-eight years they wander until they die off. They got their prayer answered. The famous, famous wilderness wanderings. Verse 34, But as for you, your carcasses shall fall in this wilderness, and your children shall wander in the wilderness forty years, and bear your harlotries until your carcasses be wasted in the wilderness, and so forth. Heavy trip. Very heavy trip. Now, there's a tendency for you and I to read these quaint stories in the Torah, in the Pentateuch, in the five books of Moses, and regard that as, well, they were under the law, that was them, we're under grace, right? And indeed we are, don't misunderstand me. Lest you think I'm on some kind of side trip, I'm going to turn to one of my favorite commentators. One of my favorite commentators in Scripture is a guy by the name of Paul. Okay? And turn with me to his first letter to the Corinthian church, and he has set aside a chapter on this for us. Chapter 10. First Corinthians, chapter 10. And we're going to be interested in about the first 14 verses, but before we get into that, I'd like to start with verse 11. We're going to peek into the middle of this to get a very important insight. Chapter 10, you'll discover, talks about Israel in the wilderness from verses one on. But before we get into that, notice verse 11. Paul tells us, Now all these things happened unto them. Why? For examples. And they were written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the ages are come. You and I, sitting in this room, are the ones that the Holy Spirit has written numbers 14 and others, and 16 and 21 and 25, and others, for you and I, not just of Israel, and not just for us to look back and say, gee, those poor people, they were under the law, and my goodness, why couldn't they understand? It's amazing how many people see the movie, The Ten Commandments, Unsaved. They see the movie, and one of the things that I've heard highlighted to me was they can't understand, the end of the movie, how these people, having seen all that firsthand, could then fall away. You know? Well, A, they did. And B, look at us. We have much more than they. And do we fall away? We must. That's why Judah's writing to us. That's why Paul was writing to the Corinthian church. And so that's where we're headed. I'm going to suggest to you a basic principle of the Scripture, and that is that nothing's extraneous. I don't believe that there's a name, a number, a place in the Scripture that's not there for our learning. Admittedly, a lot of it is perhaps in the byways and the side trips, but the central themes are clearly for our learning. I think I've shared with you what some of the Kabbalistic rabbis believe. They say that when the Messiah comes, he will interpret all things. He will even interpret the spaces between the letters. That's how they're serious. That's how they believe that the text is so mystical. The numerical value of the letters in every detail has meaning, and they muster up some amazing insights from all that. I lean that way. I'm perhaps a New Testament Kabbalist, I suppose. I think they're on the right track. But now, this is easy though, because here Paul tells us in verse 11, Now all these things happened unto them for examples, and they are written for our admonition, not the person sitting next to you, not the people down the street in another church, you and I, right here and now. So let's take a look at Israel in the wilderness, starting at verse 10. And he's going to make a lot of comments here. I might, well, let's just jump in. Verse 10. Moreover, brethren, Paul says, 1 Corinthians 10, verse 1, Moreover, brethren, I would not that ye should be ignorant, that all our fathers were under the cloud, and all passed through the sea, and were all baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea, and did all eat the same spiritual food, and did all drink the same spiritual drink. For they all drank that spiritual rock that followed them, and that rock was Christ. And by the way, we're not going to take the time tonight, because I leave the easy stuff, you know, aside. Take rock or stone throughout the Scripture from beginning to end, and it's an amazing study. It's an amazing study. The rock that was struck, that was smitten for you and I, gives forth water. A second time, it was to give forth water, and Moses didn't follow directions, and he wasn't supposed to, and that's when he lost his commission. But again, there was lessons the Lord was trying to teach in terms of that rock. The stone cut without hands. The stone in Daniel 2 in Nebuchadnezzar's vision, all the way through the Scripture. That's a study you can take on your own with a commentary. Rock, stone, whatever, study it through. You'll be amazed how the Holy Spirit indulges in puns from cover to cover, and again and again and again it points to none other than the Mashiach of Israel. And here is one of those places, and there's many, this is one of those places where that's not some coincidental, harebrained, Chuck Missler idea. Paul himself indulges in that pun right here. You see, the rock that followed them, and that rock was Christ. Christ is intended to be visible in the Torah. In the Pentateuch. But that's another study. But with many of them God was not well pleased, for they were overthrown in the wilderness. And now these things were our examples to the intent that we should not lust after evil things, as they also lusted. We're going to go into some other studies here. Before we charge into the specifics here, let me just summarize some other insights about Israel in the wilderness. There is some typology going on, in addition to the actual historical event of Egypt and Pharaoh and Israel. The Holy Spirit has also used that typologically. Egypt is a type, or model, of what? The world. Pharaoh is a type of the prince of this world, right? Okay. Moses was the person, supernaturally called to be the deliverer. He was their leader. And thus is a type of Jesus Christ. The Red Sea here is even made a model of baptism. The pillar, the cloud, the fire, the Shekinah glory is a type of Holy Spirit. Fair enough. Manna, the bread of life, right? Or even denotatively, that's connotatively, denotatively the Lord's Supper, if you will. And there's references made to that throughout the epistles and things. And the water from the smitten rock, the living water. You know, you can go on and on and on. And those things are not out in left field. They're central theology and not a problem. But here Paul is writing to the Corinthians about being those that were overthrown in the wilderness. But with many of them God was not well pleased, for they were overthrown in the wilderness. And now these things were our examples to the intent that we should not lust after evil things, as they also lusted. We're going to go into some other studies here. Before we charge into specifics here, let me just summarize some other insights about Israel in the wilderness. There is some typology going on, in addition to the actual historical event of Egypt and Pharaoh and Israel. The Holy Spirit has also used that typologically. Egypt is a type or model of what? The world. Pharaoh is a type of the prince of this world. Okay. Moses was the person, supernaturally called to be the deliverer. He was their leader. And thus is a type of Jesus Christ. The Red Sea here is even made a model of baptism. The pillar, the cloud, the fire, the Shekinah glory is a type of Holy Spirit. Fair enough. Manna, the bread of life. Right? Or even denotatively, that's connotatively, denotatively the Lord's Supper, if you will. And there's references made to that throughout the epistles and things. And the water from the smitten rock, the living water. You know, you can go on and on and on. And those things are not out in left field. They're central theology and not a problem. But here Paul is writing to the Corinthians about being those that were overthrown in the wilderness. The people that were overthrown were out of Egypt. But not in Canaan. Understand where they were at. They're probably where all you and I are at. Out of Egypt. The very fact you're in this Bible study implies you're called out of the world. At least at some level of maturity. And yet the presumption I'm making is that we're not crossed over the Jordan. Now this leads to another issue that I won't have time to develop fully here. But I commend to you the Joshua tapes if you're interested in this. There are some misconceptions about the typology of Canaan and the Jordan. And these misconceptions emerge out of some naive songs. Crossing over the Jordan isn't dying. Canaan, the promised land, is not heaven. Chuck, what do you mean? Because there's battles there. I don't expect when we get to heaven to have to draw a sword and, you know, I mean that's not what the scripture in my view teaches. Canaan has battles. It has victories. When Joshua led the children of Israel into Canaan, there were victories. There were also defeats. But the idea of crossing over to the promised land was to enter into that which God has for us. And that's preached upon by the writer of the epistle to Hebrews in chapters 3 and 4. We'll make a brief allusion to that tonight. And it's also part of what Paul is talking about here in 1 Corinthians 10. So the first idea is to recognize that while it's undesirable to wander in the wilderness and it's desirable to cross over the Jordan and get into Canaan land, don't equate that with dying and going to heaven or you miss the point. Are you with me? There's something God would have you cross over and enter into while you're here in your walk, into his rest, taking advantage of his promises in a more comprehensive way than most of us do. Most of us make a 40-year wandering of an 11-day journey. That's what Paul is trying to tell us. That's why Israel spent those 38 years wandering around, is to give us an example of understanding that had they accepted God's word on faith, they would have entered in the promised land 38 years earlier. It was their unbelief that kept them from appropriating to themselves that which God had provided for. And you and I are in the same boat. We don't appropriate to ourselves all that God has for us. And that's what I believe is the main theme here in 1 Corinthians 10 and Hebrews 3 and 4 and other passages of like kind. When you think of Canaan, don't think of heaven, think of victory. Now, is this a theme appropriate to the church? Yes. 1 Corinthians 10, Hebrews 3 and 4 and Revelation chapter 3. Remember the letter to Sardis? Remember the seven letters of seven churches? I won't review all that tonight. If you know what I'm talking about, review your notes. If not, forget it. No, it would be too hard to explain. Remember, we love the seven letters of seven churches. Especially as Protestants, we love to work over the Catholics and Thyatira. Right? The one that follows Thyatira was Sardis. And if Thyatira is the Catholics, which is not that simple, but if it was, then Sardis is the Reformation. Sardis is one of the two churches of which nothing good is said. So before we get too proud as Protestants, read Sardis carefully. Thou hast a name written, but art dead, Jesus says to the church at Sardis. A name, a denomination, a label, a banner, but no life. And that's what I believe we're talking about here. Wandering in the wilderness rather than crossing over and conquering. That's the issue. Now, there's an analogy I was going to get into, but I have a feeling if I get too far off the track, we won't even get through verse five tonight. That's Lazarus. Remember Lazarus? He had three stages. He was dead, but then he was raised from the dead. And he was entangled in his grave clothes. The second stage was to get him unentangled. He was dead, he was defeated. When he was undefeated, he became dangerous. Dead, defeated, and dangerous. He was so dangerous they had a plot against his life, if you recall. We're in the same boat. We're out of Egypt. Wandering around the wilderness and grabbing a promise here and there, but not embracing the whole counsel of God. Not entering in to that rest, as he calls it in Hebrew. I think that down went to verse five. Verse six, Now these things were our examples to the intent that we should not lust after evil things as they lusted, neither be idolaters as were some of them. As it is written, the people sat down to eat and to drink and rose up to play. That phrase has to do when the leader was out of sight, up the hill, and they got the golden calf thing going, remember? The leader was out of sight. We get in trouble when our leader's out of sight. And of course they indulge in idolatry, right? Is idolatry, well sure, that's a threat for the Old Testament types, sure. Gee, Paul's talking to the Corinthian church, a worldly church. Do they have a threat of idolatry? Sure. And that's going to come up again in verse 14. This thing's going to climax, this passage is going to climax in verse 14. Wherefore, my dearly beloved, flee from idolatry. John writes that in his first letter. John 5.21. Little children, keep yourself from idols. How many of you have an idol at home? I don't mean a little, you know, sort of a shrine with candles and some kind of thing. What is an idol? Anything that you put between you and the Lord. Anything that displaces His rightful place in your life is an idol. You start defining it that way and you can make quite a long list. We all have them. We may not call them that. But the emphasis, not just in the Old Testament, but in the New. 1 Corinthians 10. Letters of, you know, John and so forth. Caution us to flee from idolatry. And the idolatry that I think threatens us is not the idolatry of some denomination that probably the people in this room don't subscribe to anyway. The idolatry is the idolatry that you and I create, embrace, and establish in our life. It can be a career. It can be a hobby. It can be any passion that ought to be a passion you have for the Lord and the things of Him. Going on, verse 8. Neither let us commit fornication as some of them committed and fell in one day three and twenty thousand. Direct fornication is obviously a gigantic problem in our society. There's derivative aspects of it. Movies, novels, television, music. Some of the music, I think, would shock Paul that you and I play on our radios. Some of us don't listen carefully or we turn it off. Galatians 5.13 says, Ye have been called to liberty, only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh. That broadens the definition considerably. Small point, some of you who have been various, and incidentally, this whole thing, this says fell in one day three and twenty thousand. For those of you that want to track that down, and I won't take the time tonight now, but you can for your notes, is numbers 25. There's an occasion, numbers 25, where God punishes them by sending a plague. And if you read numbers 25, verse 9, you'll discover 24,000 died from that plague. Right? And you'll find some of your friends, your skeptics down the street, will say, see the Bible contradicts itself. Because number 25, 9, because they read that in some pamphlet. Numbers 25, 9 says 24,000, and here Paul doesn't know better. He says 23,000. Paul is writing by the Holy Spirit. What does Paul say? 23,000 fell the first day. No contradiction. You want to split hairs? No, I don't think it's a textual error. I think Paul, the Holy Spirit has given Paul a more precise insight. I don't know where he got it, but by the Holy Spirit. Verse 9, neither let us put Christ to the test, as some of them also tested him, and were destroyed by serpents. Might be fun to take a look at that. This is one of the more fun ones. Numbers 21. Let's turn to numbers. The whole thing tonight is out of the book of Numbers. Time was a little long. We'll take the book of Numbers, but that's probably a little. Numbers chapter 21. We'll pick up about verse 5. And the people spoke against God and against Moses. Wherefore have ye brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? There they go again. For there is no bread, neither is there any water, and our soul loatheth this light bread. In other words, they don't like the manna. I'm going to suggest that neglect of the manna is tempting the Lord. I want you to focus on what they did wrong. They murmured against the manna. Right? Doesn't sound too bad. You expect to get their wrists slapped, right? Let's see what God does. Verse 6, the Lord sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people, and many people of Israel died. You know, one interesting thing the Lord tries to get across to us is that he doesn't mess around. You know? He goes out of his way to instruct us. And you, of course, know the story, what happens. Wherefore the people came to Moses and said, We have sinned. Notice the first thing they confess, see? And we have spoken against the Lord and against thee. Pray unto the Lord that he take away the serpents from us. And Moses prayed for the people. And the Lord said unto Moses, Make thee a fiery serpent, that is, a brazen serpent. The concept of fire and the concept of brass linguistically are linked because brass was the metal they had that could withstand heat. Therefore, brazen things were typically, things that had to sustain heat, like an altar, were made of brass. Brass and fiery were Levitically linked. Make us a fiery serpent and set it upon a pole, and it shall come to pass that everyone that is bitten, when he looketh upon it, shall live. So Moses made a serpent of bronze, put it upon a pole, and it came to pass that if a serpent had bitten any man, and he beheld the serpent of bronze, that he lived. You go about your business, you get a snake bite, you look up on the hill and there's this pole, which by tradition is a cross, and on it there's a brass serpent, and if you looked at that, you made it. If you're doing that back in Israel's day, it must have been strange. And you and I reading this might also think it strange, but for Jesus Christ himself illuminating this for us by saying, as the serpent was raised in the wilderness, so shall the Son of Man be raised up, right? Now this really gets freaky when you think it through, because that brass serpent that God... God sets this up here to create a pun. Technically you'd call it a pun. He has set up a model of none other than the cross at Calvary. You're saying that brass serpent is a type of whom? Jesus Christ. Because Jesus himself identifies himself with it, just as Moses did this, so shall the Son of Man be lifted. He will be put up on a pole and raised up. So whoever looks to him would be saved. Over him the serpent would have no power. Interesting, isn't it? Strange that Jesus Christ can be typified by a brazen serpent. Brass means judgment. Serpent means sin. What's all that about? 2 Corinthians 5.21 says, He was made sin for us. You and I have no capacity to understand what that means. The one of God was made sin for us. That's why he could scream, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? As is quoted in Psalm 22 and as it comes from the cross. Jesus Christ identifies himself with his brazen serpent. In John 3, when he's talking to Nicodemus, you know the story. I have to give you an interesting historical footnote. How many of you are familiar with the symbol of the medical profession called the caduceus? Especially the army and so forth, they have a little cross with two serpents, right? And that's supposed to come from Aesculapius, which was the god of medicine, right? Except what's interesting, Incidentally, he was presumably the son of Apollo, but he actually was born in Alexandria. It's interesting that the symbol of Aesculapius, which came from this earlier historical event, was a single serpent on a cross. In Greek mythology, Hermes has two serpents, and it erroneously was adopted as a symbol of the medical profession. I'm particularly amused by this because that's actually the symbol of trade. So if you're doctors, you know, okay. So anyway, so much of all of that. Another interesting insight about the brazen serpent is that some 690 years later, the brazen serpent was still in the hands of Israel and was being worshipped. And in 2 Kings 18, we have the story where the king smashes it to avoid that because it was being made a fetish. It became an idol. Maybe that's why Noah's Ark is still so carefully preserved up there, even though we know it's there and we got aspects of it, there's issues. That's one of them, perhaps. We seem to put the creation ahead of the creator whenever we get a chance. Well, anyway, back to 1 Corinthians 10. So we got through verse 9. Verse 10 says, Neither murmur ye as some of them also murmured, and were destroyed by the destroyer. And this probably refers to Korah, Dathan, and Biram. In number 16, you know, they said, Moses, you're taking too much upon yourself. They had a group of them. They didn't think he should be in charge. Moses says, well, we'll let the Lord decide. I have to take one peek at this. I turn to number 16. There's another insight that I think is kind of fun. You all probably know the story because you remember how Edward G. Robinson fell down. Those of you in California that worry about earthquakes, let me show you an earthquake. This is a real earthquake. You find the story in number 16 where Korah and Dathan and Biram have this rebellion. And Moses and Aaron try to warn them and they won't listen. And about verse 21 he says, Separate yourselves and so forth. Depart from you from the tents of these wicked men. In verse 26, and of course what happens is, Verse 30, But if the Lord make a new thing, and the earth open her mouth and swallow them up with all that appertains to them, and they go down alive into Sheol, then ye shall understand that these men have provoked the Lord. I think I get the message, right? And it says the word Sheol in the Hebrew is the word Hades in the Greek and is commonly translated as hell. It's not Gehenna. It came to pass, verse 31, that as he finished speaking these words, that the ground split open that was under them, and the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them up, and their houses, and all the men that appertained to Korah, and all their goods, they and all that appertained to them, went down alive into Sheol, and the earth closed upon them, and they perished from among the congregation. The Lord made his point. Where is Sheol? It's an abstract idea. It's the abode of the dead, right? This says it's down there. Where is Gehenna? Outer darkness, opposite. You've heard me speak of that. Here's another of the several references that there's an abode of the dead where? In the earth somewhere. Jesus said that. As Jonah spent three days and three nights in the belly of the whale, so shall the Son of Man spend three days and three nights in the belly of the earth. Figure of speech, maybe. After number 16, I think it's more than a figure of speech. I think it's very literal. But that gets into the whole Abuso thing, and that's getting to next time. Neither murmur. Why should we not murmur? Because of Romans chapter 8, verse 32. He that spared not his own son, but delivered him, shall he not also freely give us all things? Romans 8, specific verse 32. That's why we don't murmur. Because we have everything, and beyond what we can imagine. Well, just continuing. I want to get through 1 Corinthians 10. Now, all these things happened unto them for examples, and they were written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the ages are come. And verse 12 is your text for the evening. Wherefore, let him that thinketh he standeth take heed, lest he fall. That's Paul's comment about self-confidence. Being confident in yourself rather than the Lord. Your remedy for all of this is your memory verse for the evening, verse 13. Most of you probably already have command of the verse. There hath no temptation taken you, but such as is common to man. But God is faithful, who will not permit you to be attempted above that ye are able, but will, with the temptation, also make the way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it. Wherefore, my dearly beloved, flee from idolatry. Okay, so we have the key here. This whole idea of murmuring sounds so innocent, but I'm going to just finish murmuring off with one other verse. Turn to Revelation chapter 21, where it lists, this is near the end, the second to the last chapter of the Bible. In Revelation chapter 21, verse 8, it lists a whole bunch of really bad things. It speaks of murderers and fornicators and sorcerers and idolaters, and all liars shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone, which is the second death. By the time you get to verse 8, you've heard about fire and brimstone. We're talking now Gehenna, not Hades. Gehenna, everlasting, forever. Total hopeless alienation from God. Spoken of as the outer darkness. In this list of those that participate in this, I'd like you to notice the way it starts. Who are the first on the list of Revelation 21? But the fearful and the unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and fornicators, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars. That's quite a list. What heads the list? Fear. Fearfulness. The anxious. Never think of that, do you, as a sin. I worry a lot. That's sin. I'm getting more and more, I confess it as sin. Worry is assuming a responsibility God did not intend you to have. That's what worry is. I worry a lot, and I shouldn't. When I worry, I'm not trusting Him. And candidly, I don't trust Him enough. And I have more reason than most of you have for trusting Him completely. Because what He's done in my life is unbelievable. But I won't get into that all tonight, that's a whole other thing. Week by week, what He does in my life is flabbergasting. And still I have to keep learning the lesson over again. Trust Him. In everything. The big things, the little things. Okay, so the key in 1 Corinthians 10 is verse 13. Alright? Now, what we could do here, but I'll spare you the details. You can just put in your notes. To skim through Hebrews chapter 3 and 4. It's the same kind of thing. Harden not your hearts as in the provocation. The key verse. Picks up on verse 7. Hebrews 3.7 Wherefore the Holy Spirit saith, Today if ye will hear His voice, harden not your hearts as in the provocation, in the day of the trial of the wilderness. Again, it's a reference to that same experience. When your fathers put me to the test and proved me and saw my works forty years. And he goes on how God was grieved with this generation because of their unbelief. And it's much similar type of exhortation by the writer to Hebrews. On the same thing. Speaking to the brethren, not the unbelievers, to the brethren. To beware of an evil heart of unbelief, departing from the living God and so forth. In fact, I'll just take the first verse of chapter 4 and then we'll get back to Jude. Hebrews 4.1 Let us therefore fear, lest a promise being left us of entering into His rest, any of you should seem to come short of it. So there's a New Testament. Practical, day by day application. Of this business of avoiding the wilderness wanderings. Entering in to His rest. Entering into the promised land. Now, there are other warnings in the New Testament. I won't take a lot of time now because I got some places I want to head if I can. Before the time is up. First John 5.15 does tell us that there is a sin unto death. Do I mean a loss of salvation? I don't think so. Sickness, weakness and death is also described in 1 Corinthians 11. If you take the Lord's Supper unworthily. Does that mean you lose your salvation? No. It means you got sick. Wiser sickness because of taking the Lord's Supper unworthily. God does deal with us. Perhaps the most dramatic example is Ananias and Sapphira. When they lied to the Holy Spirit. In Acts 5. First 11 verses. Strange story. Now, I'm not here to say they were saved. But I'm not here to say that they weren't saved either. I don't think that's the issue. God will end a life if it helps the body. That doesn't mean we lost our salvation. That's a different issue, I believe. But clearly there are some things that upset the Lord. And there are some things He would not have us do. And I don't believe it's an eternal security issue. I believe it's a walk issue. I believe it's one of not grieving the Holy Spirit and so on. Getting back to Israel. When Israel sinned, what did they have as the remedy? They had the altar and the tabernacle. They also had a laver to wash in. The concept of the laver is to wash. How is that amplified in the New Testament? Turn to Ephesians 5. You all know Ephesians 5 about wives. Submit yourself to your husbands. I know your husbands have read verse 22 to you, gals. And I assume you've read to him verse 25. Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church and gave himself for it. Guys, have you given yourselves for your wife? But here he's speaking of Christ. Loved the church and gave himself for it. That he might sanctify and cleanse it. How? How is Christ cleansing the church? With the washing of the water by the word. This is not a verse on baptism. It's a word on Bible study. Devotions. The word. The way you wash yourself is with the word. We use that model all the way through. When we study the book of Revelation, especially in chapter 4, the throne of God, I think I made reference to the analogy the Holy Spirit draws between the laver and the glassy sea. The laver in the Old Testament was God's word. We wash in it the glassy sea. By then, with washings over, we're redeemed. What do we do then? We stand on it. Pun, isn't it? Not bizarre. It's a pun. I think it's all designed by the Holy Spirit. That word which we wash in now, we stand on then. Interesting, isn't it? Which leads me to one other verse that you should have in your repertoire, and that's the Christian's bar of soap. If you need washing, where do you find the Christian's bar of soap? How do you scrub up? There's a specific verse that will solve your problem for you. It's 1 John 1.9. It's the Christian's bar of soap. Verse John 1.9. The Christian's bar of soap. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. So as you study this and you become frightened, good heavens, I've done that. Have I lost my salvation? Scurry quickly to 1 John 1.9 and scrub up. Confess your sins and He is faithful. It's His faithfulness that's your refuge, not yours. Your faith is a gift from Him. If you're faithful, don't get smug because Ephesians 2.8 and 9 tells you it was a gift. Nothing you did. If you have faith in Jesus Christ, it's because the Holy Spirit gave it to you. For by grace you are saved through faith and that. That is the faith. That not of yourselves. It is a gift. Why? So that no flesh can boast. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins. Part A. Part B. And to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Boy, I'm grateful for that cleansing. Because He's complete. He does it right. Now, we have sort of rambled here. And those of you that know my capacity for library research are relieved because I could have waltzed out all kinds of other obscure things that would probably have no practical benefit for you when we're talking about it. We're talking about Israel in the wilderness. Boy, that can go on for a semester. So it seemed appropriate in verse 5 to in fact explore the lessons of Israel. But we're going to go on next time to spook show time, verse 6. But before we do, I don't want to leave the history of Israel since the burden of this letter is apostasy. I want to share with you something that's going on in the body of Christ. And so it's sort of a parenthesis, but it's appropriate at this time both because of the verse 5, but also because of the whole tenor of this letter. And we'll talk more about it. We won't exhaust the subject tonight. But let me describe some things to you. The early church, somewhere along the way, and I didn't do enough historical research to know exactly when the errors started to creep in. I think it was Augustine, somewhere along the way. The Christian church got it into its head that the Jews crucified their Messiah. There was a notion emerging that the promises that were made to Israel were forfeited because she rejected and crucified her Messiah. And those promises devolved upon the church. And the spiritual Israel idea, and there are aspects of that that are valid. Don't misunderstand me. But that theme predominated from roughly the days of Augustine onwards throughout the denominational Christian church and became the excuse for anti-Semitism. It became the theme by which the Crusaders could have contests to see how many Jewish babies they could get on a sword. It became the trauma that today still represents a cultural gap between people of Jewish background and so-called Christians. Bear in mind, in their mind, a Gentile is equivalent to a Christian. Hitler was a Christian. The writings of Nietzsche and others laid the philosophical groundwork on top of that for what ultimately became the Holocaust. Okay? The philosophical roots for the abuse of mankind, which we call the Holocaust, specifically aimed at Israel or Judaism, had its roots in the Christian church of some centuries prior. Are you with me so far? You and I, in this body, like my wife and I were saying, some of the songs we sang tonight we sang for the first time here at Calvary Chapel 18 years ago. That was before the tent, it was up the street, you know, all of that. You and I have the benefit of a rediscovery of the Scripture's posture on Israel. We recognize that the promises that God made to Israel, some of them, the important ones, were unconditional. Her promise to the land was unconditional. The promise that the angel Gabriel gave to Mary, that we'll celebrate shortly at Christmas, was that her child was to sit on David's throne. That's not the father's throne. That's not a lot of other things. It's a political throne that did not exist at the time Mary was... You know, there was not a throne of David at that time. Herod was not Jewish, he was Idioman. Herod did not sit on David's throne. So there's some issues here. Unconditional promise that need to be fulfilled. I don't want to badger all of these because most of you in this room are aware of those, and if not, you're in for one of the most exciting discoveries around. Israel, we, you and I, as students of the Bible, know that Israel is God's time clock. You can tell what time it is in history by what's going on in Israel. Are they in favor, are they dispersed, are they being regathered, etc. The promise to Isaiah in chapter 11 was, when I regather my people the second time, they'll never again be uprooted. The first regathering was after Babylon, the second regathering started on May 14th of 1948, celebrating its 40th year next summer. Kind of an interesting time. Jesus, the week he was crucified, wept over Jerusalem and predicted that it would be trampled down by the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled. That's in several places, but most commonly quoted on Luke 21, verse 24. Now why am I going through all this? Because most of you have been with us for some time, this is Israel in Prophecy 1a, basics. Let me tell you what's going on in the body of Christ. There are some doctrines emerging, and these doctrines have some strange aspects. I'm not one of these guys that gets hung up with this doctrinal shift to that. I've seen too many come and go, so I'm just not on that kick anymore. That's just not where I'm oriented. So I usually don't get concerned. This one that's emerging scares me to death for several reasons. First of all, who I'm speaking to goes by several names. You'll hear people talk about Kingdom Now theology. You'll hear people talk about Dominion theology. This theology that's widely growing, much to my amazement, is permeating the body like AIDS. And it has some similarities, strangely enough. It was just a figure of speech, but it has some strange... It's not only widely growing, it's closet. Many of the major leaders in the evangelical movement, in the biblically fundamental movement, and in the charismatic movement espouse Kingdom theology and will not admit it to their congregations. It surfaces. You have to watch for it. And the privacy of their own councils, they discuss it. And Kingdom theology, the reason it has those names, it's a view that the church, these leaders are returning to, that it's time that the Christian church got politically active. That it's the mission of the church to take over and straighten out the sick world. Now much of what they espouse sounds good at first until you listen very carefully. It's a reprise of the old, old theology that derailed the Christian church for centuries. The notion that it's the church's destiny to rule on this planet Earth. We rule when the Lord returns. Now why am I getting into this here? For several reasons. Very widespread. It shocks me to discover how widespread it is. And it goes by many names. Elements of that theology have many different dimensions. The emergence of the church as the active political... The linking of the church's mission with active political ambition is part of the thing that should throw up a caution flag. Because that isn't how I read the New Testament. But let me give you just the root yardstick. And that's what kingdom theology says about Israel. And this is why it's closeted. Kingdom theology proponents argue that Israel is an imposter. She has no right to the land. And what kingdom theology and the dominion theology is laying is the roots for an anti-Semitic movement within the Christian church. And I find that frightening sociologically because we're setting the stage for another holocaust. Why am I concerned about that? Because I know from prophecy that Jesus Christ, when the disciples came to him privately and said, How will we know when you're coming back? And he gives them that two chapter private... There were actually four of them. Peter, James, John, and Andrew came to him privately. And it's recorded in Mark 13, Matthew 24, and Luke 21. The two chapters in each case. That so-called Olivet Discourse. He points out that there will be a time of trouble such as the world had never seen at that time or ever would see again. He's quoting there from Daniel, the book of Daniel. And his remark gives that period of time its label among Bible scholars, the so-called Great Tribulation. You and I throw that, if you're in prophecy studies, we throw that remark around all the time, the Great Tribulation. Where are we getting that? From Christ's quotation of Daniel in Matthew 24 and 25. What's the focus of the tribulation? Not the world at large. The Old Testament has a synonym for that. It calls it the time of Jacob's trouble. Israel is set for a time of trouble that was never seen to that day or ever would be seen again. And that day is yet future. That means that Israel is being set up for something that will make the time in Germany look like a picnic. And what's setting the stage for that is the theology that's starting to pervade what you and I would call the denominational Christian church. And what's amazing about this is it's so unbiblical in 17 other ways that you're amazed that biblically fundamental people can embrace these ideas, especially since we have 1,900 years of church history that we look back on and realize the errors that it leads to. Now, we don't have time to go through the whole thing. I want you to be alerted to it. I want you to keep your antenna up. I want you to keep your commitments to theology cautious and tested by the Scripture. Because if I'm correct, we're moving into an era in which we're going to be challenged. Most people that are hearing my voice on tape or whatever may not have the benefit of a biblically sound environment like you and I enjoy here. I'd be very surprised if any of this grabs any, you know, can take any root here. But it is taking root in some amazing congregations I have knowledge of. Therefore, you want your caution flag flying. And if I'm right, this is not just one of these theological fads that come and go. There's dozens of them by dozens of names. They happen not to be my particular concern. This one does, because I think it's prophetically relevant. If I'm right, it's setting the stage for 2 Thessalonians 2. It's setting the stage for the lie. I'd like you to turn with me to Ezekiel 36. I'm going to take just one dimension of the so-called dominion theology or kingdom now theology, and that's its dealing with Israel. And not only do I want to remind you that the promises to Israel throughout the scripture, throughout the Torah, and certainly throughout Ezekiel pertain to Israel as it sits in the land. But I want to call your attention to the way the Lord talks about it to Israel. God is going to keep His promises to Israel, not because Israel deserves it. This occurs several places in the scripture, but I've chosen Ezekiel 36. I'd like you to pick up with me. Well, incidentally, let's just start to take the first couple of verses to give you the flavor of the chapter. It's talking about the restoration of Israel to the land. Chapter 36, verse 1. Also thou, son of man, prophesy unto the mountains of Israel and say, Ye mountains of Israel, hear ye the word of the Lord. This is typical Ezekiel style, if you're familiar with Ezekiel. Verse 2. Thus saith the Lord God, because the enemy hath said against you, Aha, even the ancient high places are ours in possession. There's a claim on the land. Sounds like front page stuff, doesn't it? We'll skip ahead in this, and it talks about the whole fact that God has His hand in Israel, and a lot of interesting things are going to happen. Pick it up by verse 17. Son of man, when the house of Israel dwelt in their own land, they defiled it by their own way and by their doings. Their way was before me as the uncleanness of a defiled woman. This is God talking about Israel. He's talking about blessing them in their land. But in this passage, He's calling their attention to the fact that when they were here before, they offended Him. Israel doesn't have any glowing history of faithfulness to God throughout the Old Testament. We saw the wilderness thing. The whole history of Israel is one of failure of all kinds. And God's calling their attention to it in verse 17. Look what happens when you get down to verse 21. God is saying, but I had pity for Israel. No. For I had pity for my holy name, which the house of Israel had profaned among the nations to which they went. Therefore say unto the house of Israel, Thus saith the Lord God, I do not this for your sakes. Do not what? Bring them back in the land and glorify them. He's not doing it because Israel is so faithful. He's not doing it because they're so great. He says, I do not this for your sakes, O house of Israel, but for my holy namesake, which ye have profaned among the nations to which ye went. And I will sanctify my great name, which was profaned among the nations, which ye have profaned in the midst of them, and the nations shall know that I am the Lord, saith the Lord God, when I shall be sanctified in you before their eyes. When you study Ezekiel 36, which is obviously the prelude to Ezekiel 38, and you know all that, the thing that you can miss as you go through Ezekiel is that God is not going to bring Israel back in the land and keep these promises because they earned it. Quite the contrary. He describes in 36 and 37 that they'll be brought back into the land in unbelief. And they are there, they're secular humanists. Deep passion for human rights and all that, I'm not knocking them, but they're not there, except for some fringe groups, they're not there as an obedience to the command of God. And God is saying, I am going to fulfill my promises, not because you deserve it, but because those promises were made before the world. And the world knows I made those promises, and I'm going to keep them for my namesake, not yours. So when God wipes out 5-6 of the Soviet forces moving into Israel, it isn't because Israel is so neat. It's because God is going to demonstrate in Ezekiel 38 and 39 that he is going to keep his promises that he made to this ancient people. We go through a whole thing. God is going to visibly move, in your lifetime and mine, maybe in the next several years, certainly in the next decade or two, clearly visibly, to deal with Israel. And he's doing it not because Israel is right, not because they're faithful, not because of anything about them at all. He says, historically you grieved me, you profaned my name among the nations that you were sent. They haven't been some kind of pillar of witness to the existence of Almighty God. He's going to keep his promises because the world knows he made those promises. And he's doing it for his namesake. And I don't think he's going to mess around. Now, when the Christian church starts to weave a theme that Israel is an imposter in the land, they really don't have these claims, that's not the Israel that God talks about, the promises of Israel really come upon the church, and they start getting that all muddied up, it scares me to death. Not only because it's wrong and it will cause error, but they're setting the stage for the great apostasy of the end times. The apostasy that the New Testament talks about. The apostasy that the Old Testament talks about. The apostasy that not only will be an apostasy vis-à-vis a departure from a saving faith in Jesus Christ, but an apostasy which will lead to the lie, a lie which itself will be a fulfillment of prophecy that Jesus Christ and the writers of the epistles and so forth speak so eloquently of. So I call your attention to that because, A, it's coming. It's not only a heresy, but it's prophetically a cornerstone, in fact, probably the last missing piece in the scenario. It's surfacing and it's visible. And I call it to your attention because it's secret. There are going to be some books published. There are, fortunately for the body of Christ, some fairly outspoken people who will mention, name names and do the right research to do this properly, so I'm not about to get it up here tonight. But be prepared to be startled and shocked by the kinds of people who are common household names in the Christian community who are secretly espousing this theology and are going to mislead and injure the body of Christ. So I'll leave that with you. Now, we got through Jude 5. Next time, we got Jude 6. And I've been looking forward to this because this gives me a license to get into this spookiest stuff you can imagine. Now, those of you who have been with me for some years know that I'm capable of some really weird views. And so, next time, we're going to get into some strange things. We're going to talk about the angels who kept not their first estate but left their own habitation. Okay? And we're going to have them contrasted with verse 7 and giving themselves to strange flesh. So the kind of questions we're going to deal with next time will have to do with are demons and fallen angels the same thing? I don't think so. What's the difference between a fallen angel and a demon? Demons seem to aspire to body possession. Angels don't. And these angels here are confined. I don't have any evidence that the demons of Satan are confined at all. They seem to be. Some people joke if they are, the chains are too long. And so what's the difference between demons and fallen angels? And what's going on here? And this will raise, of course, the whole issue, why did God have to send a flood on the earth? And why was Noah changed? What was unique about Noah? There's one little hint. In other words, one of the things you want to do for next time is read Genesis 6. Why was there a flood? What was really going on? We have all these legends and folklore, especially embodied in the Greek mythology about demigods, giants. What's all that about? And what are the Nephilim really? And what was going on there even in the days of Joshua? What's all that? We're going to get into some of that next time. You might want to read Genesis 6. You might also like to familiarize yourself with the second chapter of Peter's second letter. He also speaks of, apparently, the same thing that Jude is talking about, 2 Peter 2. Those of you that have an appetite for this may want to review your notes on Isaiah 14, the origin of Lucifer and his ambitions and his destiny. Those of you that want to go further, read Ezekiel 28. In both cases, Isaiah and Ezekiel are talking to a king, in one case of Babylon, in one case of Tyre. But it's clear that the language suddenly shifts and goes far beyond the local thing and goes into the spiritual powers behind that and clearly is talking about none other than Satan himself. And in that dialogue, in Ezekiel, it's clearly that the king of Babylon was not in Eden. And that's who he's talking to. You were in Eden and so forth. That certainly wasn't the king of Babylon. You realize the language pierces the local construct to go into something much deeper. And we get some insights. We get those. Isaiah 14 and Ezekiel 28 are key insights. And what is this? What is a fallen angel? What do we mean by that? And from that you can go into Revelation 12, Satan's rebellion and the third of the angels that fell with him. Are those angels demons? It's not clear. These fallen angels are shackled. Are they the ones that get released in Revelation 9? So if you want to do your notes, those of you that sort of have an appetite for this weird stuff, you might reread your notes on Revelation 9 and 12. Certainly on Genesis 6 and 2 Peter 2. And we will use next time as our excuse to poke around the murky corners of the book of Genesis and see what comes out of that. And if any of you felt that Chuck Missler has a tendency to get into some strange traveled byroads, I'll certainly be guilty of it next time because we'll use that as our excuse to glean what insights we can. Let's stand for a closing word of prayer. Book of Jude. Interesting book. Jude takes for granted that we have a command of the scripture. Some people would say that Jude assumes you know some of the books of the Apocrypha. I'm going to try to puncture that idea as we go. I believe that everything in Jude can be dealt with from the scriptures you have in your hand. You do not have to go into the book of Enoch or the book of the Assumption of Moses or any of that stuff. For those of you that, like I do, collect books on that stuff, that's fine. But they're useless from a spiritual point of view in my opinion because they're apocryphal. We're going to be very comfortable with these very strange things that Jude surfaces without getting anywhere outside the 66 books written by the 40 guys that produce the product that's in your lap. So relax on that issue. It will also be a challenge to you to stay in the scripture because we will go into some spooky areas and challenge you to indeed apply Acts 17.11 very specially next time. Let's bow our hearts. Father, we praise you for your word. We thank you, Father, that everything in your word was written as an example and for instruction to us. Father, we would pray in the authority of Christ and by the power of your spirit that you would let not those lessons go wasted. Instruct us as to what these experiences of the past have to do with us today. Help us by just the ministry of your Holy Spirit to show us clearly what in our lives should be altered or measured or dealt with in the light of your word, in the light of the experience of Israel in the wilderness. Father, we thank you for your word. We thank you that you care so much for us as to provide us this light, this instruction, these guides. Help us, Father, to appropriate them to our lives. Help us in all these things to grow in grace and the knowledge of our Lord and Savior. Help us to understand how we can and should contend earnestly for the faith. That in all these things we might be more pleasing than thy sight, O Lord, our strength and our redeemer. Amen.