Hey Jude - (W. 3 - Jude 4-11)

“Hey Jude: Following Truth in an age of False Teachers”

Title: “Profiling an Apostate”

Recap:

1. Mark of True Devotion

Jude was Jesus’ half brother

Jude was a bond-servant. He was much closer to Jesus as a bond servant than he ever could be as a brother.

2. The Mission for the Disciples

be defined by the Word and be distinguished by the Word.

Jude, you can almost hear the excitement in his pen to papyrus in the first few verses, but then he says,

“I wish i could write to you about salvation! But I can’t. There are enemies in the church that we must address.”

There is an inside job going on! And I must warn you about what is taking place.

There is an inside job happening.

Ya see, an inside job is when a crime occurs when a person holding a position of trust abuses their status.[1][2]

The insider is authorized to access a location or procedure with little or no supervision, for example they are manager or key-holder

There are many threats to Christianity, but one of the greatest is when those inside the church abuse and apostate truth.

3. The Manifestation of the Defectors

they crept in

they are defilers - lasciviousness. False talkers and false walkers

they are deniers -

Tonight let’s look at the apostates.

Jude 4–11 KJV 1900

4 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. 5 I will therefore put you in remembrance, though ye once knew this, how that the Lord, having saved the people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed them that believed not. 6 And the angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, he hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day. 7 Even as Sodom and Gomorrha, and the cities about them, in like manner giving themselves over to fornication, and going after strange flesh, are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire. 8 Likewise also these filthy dreamers defile the flesh, despise dominion, and speak evil of dignities. 9 Yet Michael the archangel, when contending with the devil he disputed about the body of Moses, durst not bring against him a railing accusation, but said, The Lord rebuke thee. 10 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. 11 Woe unto them! for they have gone in the way of Cain, and ran greedily after the error of Balaam for reward, and perished in the gainsaying of Core.

What is an apostate?

It is a rebel and a defector against truth, someone that knows the truth but denies and lives however they want to.

1. The Profile of an Apostate

behavior does reflect personality; therefore, behavior at a crime scene (this includes a terror attack) can disclose information about the perpetrator. The more behavior evident, the better a profile can be. And the more one can profile an offender, the better the predication value. In short, the more I know about you, the better I am able to know what you would do in a specific situation.

Ted Kaczynski - Unabomber killed 3 people and injured more for his crimes from 1978-1995.

The FBI used so much evidence they could and built a profile based on his past bombings as a middle aged, average educated, airline mechanic.

This led the search no where, until he published his manifesto.

After more study, an FBI agent developed linguistic forensics and made a new description based on his actions and

Jude 4 KJV 1900

4 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.

Look at how they were described by Jude:

a. Ungodly Behavior

Devious - crept in

they came in secretly.

Stealth.

This Greek word was used only 1 time in the bible, but other times it was used was to describe the way an attorney could change the mind of a jury.

Or how an exile from a country would stealthily return to the country they were exiled from.

Defilers

lasciviousness - sinful abandon into sinful pleasure by unrestrained morality. no authority.

We may not have many false talkers in this church, but theres not a doubt in my mind that we have some false walkers.

Isaiah 29:13 KJV 1900

13 Wherefore the Lord said, Forasmuch as this people draw near me with their mouth, And with their lips do honour me, But have removed their heart far from me, And their fear toward me is taught by the precept of men:

Ezekiel 33:13 KJV 1900

13 When I shall say to the righteous, that he shall surely live; if he trust to his own righteousness, and commit iniquity, all his righteousnesses shall not be remembered; but for his iniquity that he hath committed, he shall die for it.

If you fool me - cool.

If you fool your Grow Group leader - cool.

But you know what? You aren’t fooling God.

b. Ungodly Beliefs

how could someone do that?

They haven’t gotten or accepted the full beauty of the gospel.

I believe Jude put what he did in there at the beginning to distnguish what true belivers look like.

True believers have their ears pierced.

True believers are devoted to Jesus Christ alone.

What do I do if that’s me, Hayden? Surrender to Jesus.

Get to the point where you are more concerned with the gospel of Jesus than anything else.

Get to the point tonight, and say, “I want the Word to define me, and nothing else!”

Ungodly

The Profile of apostates is one that simply shows their actions and beliefs: isn’t it interesting that actions and beliefs always go together?

2. The Pattern of Apostates

It’s interesting to me that Jude never comes right out and says what these people were teaching or doing.

How do they pattern themselves?

a. Pattern of Disbelief

Israel - Unbelief// Pattern of Unbelief

Was Jude talking about God destroying the Egyptians?

No! He mentioned that it was those that walked through an ocean but later when it came to possessing the Promised Land didn’t believe.

b. Pattern of Debauchery (v. 6-7)

Positional Immorality

Angels - Believing Satan

three views:

(what these Jews already knew so likely something in the Scripture)

One view - unknown to us (NOT IT)

Second view - original fall of satan (NOT IT, because Satan is not kept in chains… he is currently going about as a roaring lion, but will be bound one day soon)

Third view - (Genesis 6 - rebellion among angels that was so bad)

did not keep their own domain - their own rule or position of authority

moved out of their realm

Abandoned their proper abode - moved diliberately away from harmony and in the presence of God

Just as (verse 7) Sodom and Gomarrah

“went after strange flesh - Perverted/Sexual Sin

They fell from their lofty position (original fall), moved away from their position and place near God, and did perverted things.

God has kept in eternal bonds.

what does this mean for us?

Cultural immorality

Sodom and Gomorrah - Sex

Denominations have embraced the LGBT community and have affirmed

Pastors and priests have preyed on the innocent and committed sexual immorality.

Do you know anything about the New Age movement? Do you know anything about the wretched evil of Satan worship and demon worship? Then you know that people invoke the spirits in their wedding ceremonies and open themselves to demons and endeavor – and all kinds of religions in the world have done this to commune with the gods. Men and women believed that by communing with spirit beings – and they still do; this is part of sort of the heritage of ancient religion - men and women believe that, by communing with the spirits, they could conquer death, and they could gain immortality.

Eugene Patterson, a former presbyterian pastor said this about gay marriage before he passed away:

"I wouldn’t have said this 20 years ago, but now I know a lot of people who are gay and lesbian, and they seem to have as good a spiritual life as I do,” Peterson said in an interview with Religion News Service. “I think that kind of debate about lesbians and gays might be over."

c. Pattern of Defiance

What’s the problem here?

They are relying on something other than Scriptures.

In relying on their dreams, they:

Defile the flesh

despise authority

slander

Jude 8 KJV 1900

8 Likewise also these filthy dreamers defile the flesh, despise dominion, and speak evil of dignities.

Let me speak on something. If the Word of God doesn’t say it, we should not believe it.

Defy Authority

Wanna hear an example of this?

People that say, “God told me to tell you.”

Jude 11 KJV 1900

11 Woe unto them! for they have gone in the way of Cain, and ran greedily after the error of Balaam for reward, and perished in the gainsaying of Core.

Korah and his family did the same thing. Numbers 16.

We can do a better job than you can.

Many a good pastors have been run off because some people can’t follow authority.

Remember and accept that God has a godly man here in this church to lead us.

Pray for our pastor!

d. Pattern of Denial

Denying God’s way - salvation

Cain

Offer something other than the true way to forgiveness.

This is a denial against what God has already taught.

this is showing up in our churches through CRT.

Denying God’s will - Balaam

You may remember the story of Balaam and the donkey.

The king of Moab came to him and offered Balaam a good price to curse Israel.

But the prophet consulted the Lord, and refused to compromise. Yay!

But then money kept talking.

he sent princes more noble than the first, promised Balaam greater wealth and honor, and suggested that the prophet reconsider the matter. This is what Satan often does once we have made a definite decision to obey God’s Word. Deep in his heart, Balaam wanted to go with the messengers because he was greedy of gain. This is “the way of Balaam” (2 Peter 2:15–16), using religion as a means of getting wealth. God permitted Balaam to go with the princes, but He did so only to test him (vv. 20–22). It is here that the well-known episode with the angel and the ass takes place. The angel stood in Balaam’s way, but the prophet did not see him! The ass did see, and acted so strangely that Balaam struck her. This should have been a warning to Balaam, but he was intent on his selfish mission and was not sensitive to God’s will. When his eyes were opened, Balaam saw the angel and realized his mistakes. God said plainly, “Your way is perverse” (v. 32, nkjv), so there was no reason for Balaam to say, “If it displeases You, I will turn back” (v. 34). Balaam was playing with God’s will, seeing how far he could go. God permitted Balaam to meet Balak, who gave him a great feast (“offered” in v. 40 means “slew, as for a feast”) and took him out to view Israel

3. The Practice against Apostates

Lordship must be a priority

Prayer

Scriptures