Jude Session 2 (Verse 5) - Chuck Missler

[Music] all right a 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 is 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 the works evidencing faith jude speaks of works with evidence the lack of faith or apostasy those that have fallen away uh 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 council 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 four so we you'll find that our progress last time of four complete verses was remarkable because we're going to find we're going to use some of the coming verses as excuses to depart not from the faith but from the the the book at hand and poke around a little bit we're go 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 the verse 6. and verse 7 sodom and gomorrah and um there are three different groups israel will consider as being saved men verse six the angels are angels they're sort of special class i 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 the students of the old testament per se but to you and i the holy spirit is taking for granted that you have a command the 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 therefore some very specific practical use by you and i 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 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 real real reread three and four to catch the mood of verse five uh verse three 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 sort of lost in the king james translation here is jude was going to sit down 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 five jude continues i will therefore 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 know those you've seen it from passages you've also seen it uh skillfully presented in film how this world empire ultimately yielded to this 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 it 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 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 water is 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 benia 11 days according to deuteronomy chapter 2 11 day journey how long did it take him 38 actually we say 40 years actually 38 years yeah 38 years to make an 11 day journey question how many how many people you've all heard studies and things how many people do you visualize leaving egypt in that deliverance million that's good number 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 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 blurs you remember cora and dathan and biathan 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 theirs but one of the questions will bother you were they saved were they baptized unto moses you know and there's a whole bunch of questions here that we 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 but uh 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 my blood on the doorpost and so on the whole passover issue is 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 sort of know where i'm headed is that god reserves the right 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 uh important relief let me remind you of some assurances for your safe keeping that i don't want you to lose sight of because we're going to go down a path uh 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 of lots of verses we could pick for this i want i want to 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 chapter 10 where the lord gives us a couple of important verses in verse 27 he 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 you know 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 you know very typical hebrew fashion if you're familiar with the psalms and proverbs and so with the you know 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 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 am 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 loseable 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 your node back that chuck missler is one of those extremists right i happen to be i make no apologies and of course there's longer talking notepads 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 five six and seven 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 five it might apply to some in verse five but i don't want you to you know derive from this a 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 because i'd like to overreact to what we're getting into first question then were the people where was israel truly saved my premise is absolutely absolutely that's what the blood in the door post 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 no 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 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 um with numbers chapter 14. the scene is when the spies these 12 guys were selected to go and do some reconnaissance they come back and 10 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 but anyway by 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 one 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 taskmasters 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 i will um skip on down here to um 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 say 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 20 years old and upward who have murmured against me doubtless you shall not come into the land concerning which i swore to make you dwell therein except caleb the son of jefana and joshua the son of noon but your little ones whom you said would be a prey or i should be a prey them will i bring in and they shall know the land which ye have despised heavy trip for 38 years they wander until they die off they got the prayer answered the famous famous wilderness wanderings verse therefore but as for you your carcasses shall fall in this wilderness and your children shall wander in the wilderness 40 years and bear your harlot trees 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 were 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 you know it's amazing how many people see uh you know 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 jude is 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 in 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 they believe that the text is so mystical the the numerical value of the letters and every detail has meaning and they muster up some amazing insights from all that i really i lean that way i'm perhaps a new testament capitalist i suppose i really i think they're on the right track so i 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 another church you and i right here 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 of uh comments here i might well let's let's i'll just jump in verse 10. moreover brethren paul says first corinthians chapter 10 verse 1 moreover brethren i would not that he 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 it all drink the same spiritual drink for they all drank that spiritual rock that followed them and that rock was was christ and by the way we're not going to take the time tonight because that's this 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 gave 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 smith 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 the study you can take on your own with the 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 meshiach 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 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 in a was the person supernaturally called to be the deliverer he was their leader and thus is a type of of jesus christ the red sea here is even made a model of baptism huh um 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 denotative 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 on 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 i understand where they were at they're probably where all you and i are at out of egypt the very factor 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 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 is there are some misconceptions about the typology of kanan 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 they 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 to the epistle to hebrews in chapters three and four we'll make a brief illusion that tonight and it's also what part of what paul's talking about here in first 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 get into canaan land don't equate that with dying going to heaven or you miss the point 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 understanding that had they accepted god's word on faith they would have entered 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 1st corinthians 10 and hebrews 3 and 4 and other passages of like when you think of canaan don't think of heaven think of victory now is this a theme appropriate to the church yes first corinthians 10 hebrews 3 and 4 and revelation chapter 3. remember the letter to sardis remember the seven letters of seven church i won't review all that tonight if you know what i'm talking about review your notes if not forget it no it'd be too hard to get explained remember we love the seven letter seven churches we love you especially as protestant we love to work over the catholics and thyatira right the one that follows thyatira was sardis anthotyrus 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 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 5 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 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 hebrews i think we go down what uh to verse 5 um verse 6 now these things were our examples to intent that we should not lust after evil things as they lusted neither be idolaters as were some of them as 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 got in trouble when our leaders out of sight and of course they indulged in idolatry right is idolatry well sure that's a threat for the old testament types sure see paul's talking to the corinthian church a worldly church did they have a threat of idolatry sure um and that's going to come up again in verse 14. this thing's going to climax in verse 4 this passage in climax 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 as 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 first corinthians 10 letters of you know john and so forth um 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 he even 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 uh it says it 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 number 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 you're you're skeptics down the street let's say you see a 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 just given paul a more precise insight i don't know where he got it but for 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 it might be fun to take a look at that this is one of the more fun ones numbers 21. let's turn to numbers a lot of the whole thing tonight is out of the book of numbers time was a little longer take the book of numbers but that's probably a little numbers chapter 21 we'll pick out about verse five and the people spoke against god and against moses wherefore have you 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 it doesn't sound too bad expect to get their wrist slapped right and see what god does verse 6 and 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 we have noticed 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 me a fiery serpent that is a brazen serpent the concept of fire the concept of brass linguistically are linked because brass was the metal they had that could withstand heat therefore brazen things were typical 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 out set it up on a pole and it shall come to pass that everyone that is bitten when he looketh upon it shall live so amazes me the serpent of bronze put it upon a pole and it came to pass it if a serpent had bitten any man and he beheld the serpent of bronze that he lived you're going about your business you get a snake bites you look up on the hill and there's the 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 today it must have been strange and you and i reading this might also think it's 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 call it a pun he has set up a model of none other than the cross at calvary you're saying that that brass serpent is a type of whom jesus christ because jesus himself identifies himself with it just as this moses did this so shall the son of man be left 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 second corinthians 5 21 says he was made sin for us you and i have no capacity to understand what that means the holy 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 this 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 you have a a little cross with two serpents right and that's supposed to come from escalators which was the god of medicine right except what's interesting incidentally he was presumably the son of apollo born but he actually was born in alexandria it's interesting that the symbol of escalabius which came from this earlier historical event was a single serpent on a cross in the greek mythology hermes has two serpents and it erroneously was adopted as a symbol of the medical profession and i'm particularly amused by this because that's actually the symbol of trade so a few doctors you know if okay so uh anyway so much of all of that um 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 second kings 18 we have the story where the king smashes it to avoid that because it was being made a fetish it was 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 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 first 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 kara daith in the byram 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 let the lord decide i have to take one peek at this turn to number 16. there's there's another insight that i think kind of i think is kind of fun you all probably know the story because you remember how edward g robinson fell down the those of you in california worried about earthquakes let me show you an earthquake this is a this one's this is a real earthquake um and it's you find the story in number 16 where korah and nathan and the byram 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 uh um verse 30 but if the lord make a make a new thing and the earth opened her mouth and swallowed them up with all that appertains to them and they go down alive into shell then ye shall understand that these men have provoked the lord i think i get the message it came to pass and say the word show in the hebrew is the word hades and the greek and commonly translated 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 are pertained to kara and all their goods they and all that have pertained 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 show it's an abstract idea it's the boat of the dead right this says it's down there where's gehenna out of darkness opposite right you've heard me speak of that here's another of the several references that the the that there's an abode of the dead where in the earth somewhere jesus said that as jonah spent three days three days and three nights in the belly of the whale social the son of man spent 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 that we and beyond what we can imagine well i'll just continue i want to get through first corinthians 10 uh 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 you're able but will with the temptation also make the way to escape that she may be able to bear it well from our dearly beloved flee from idolatry okay so we have uh the key here this whole idea of murmuring 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 burns with fire and brimstone which is the second death by the time you get to verse eight you've heard about fire and brimstone we're talking now gehenna not hades gehenna everlasting forever a 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 20 revelation 21 8 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 can i'm getting more and more i confess to this sin worry is assuming a responsibility god did not intend you to have that's what where he 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 nother thing week by week what he does in my life is flabbergasting and still i have to keep learning the lesson over again trust them in everything the big things the little things okay so the key in first corinthians 10 is verse 13. all right now what we could do here but i'll spare you the details you can just put in your notes for you to skim through hebrews chapter three and four it's the same kind of thing harden not your hearts as in the provocation it's the key verse picks up about verse seven wherefore the holy spirit says hebrews 3 7 wherefore as the holy spirit saith today if you 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 40 years and he goes on how god was grieved with this generation because of their unbelief and it's much a similar type of exhortation by the writer to hebrews on the same thing and speaking to the brethren not the unbelievers to the brethren to be aware 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 four and then we'll get on back to the 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 going 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 i'm 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 first corinthians 11 if you take the lord's supper unworthily does that mean you lose your salvation no you mean you got sick why is there sickness because of taking the lord's supper unworthily god does deal with this the the perhaps the most dramatic example is ananias and sapphira were the light of 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 your salvation that's a different issue i believe but clearly there are some things that upset the lord and there's 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's sinned what did they have as the remedy they have the altar and the tabernacle they also had a labor to wash him right 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 gales and i said 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 he 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 your with the word we use that model all the way through when we study the book of revelation especially in the chapter 4 the throne of god i think i made reference to the analogy the holy spirit draws between the labor and the glassy sea the labor 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 designed by the holy spirit that word which we wash in now we stand on then interesting isn't it which leads me one other uh 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 first john 1 9 is 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 first 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 9 tells you it was a gift nothing you did 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 well i'm grateful for that cleansing because he's completely does it right now we have the you know sort of rambled here um and those of you that know my capacity for library research are relieved because i could have lost out all kinds of other obscure things that would probably have no practical benefit for you when we're talking about we talk about israel in the wilderness boy that can go on for a semester you know so it felt it seemed appropriate in verse 5 to in fact explore the lessons of israel but i want to before we're going to go on next time to spook showtime verse 6. but before we do i don't want to leave the history of israel since this is 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 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'm not 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 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 contact contests to see how many jewish babies they could get on a sword it became the 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 the abuse of mankind which we call the holocaust specifically aimed at israel or judaism its roots in the christian church of some centuries prior so if you are you with me so far you and i in this body in fact 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 10th was up the street you know all of that you and i have the benefit of a rediscovery of the scripture or the scriptures 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 that there was not a throne of david at that time herod was not jewish he was a demand herod did not sit on david's throne so there's some issues here unconditional promises 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 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 et cetera the promise to isaac to isaiah in chapter 11 was when i regather my people the second time they'll never again be uprooted first regathering is after battle and the second re-gathering started on may 14th of 1948 celebrating its 40th year next summer kind of 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 mostly most commonly quoted luke 21 verse 24. now why am i going through all this because most of you have been with us for some time now this is just you know this is you know 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 of that i've seen too many come and go so i'm just not on that kick anymore i'm it'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 the congregations it surfaces you have to watch for it and the privacy of their own councils they discuss it and kingdom theology 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 re-prize 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 the kingdom theology proponents argue that israel is an impostor 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 privately and said how will we know when you're coming back and it gives them that two chapter private there were actually four of them peter james and john and andrew came in 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 to that time where 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 24-25 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 it 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 1900 years of church history to 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 route here but it is taking root in some amazing congregations i have of 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 second thessalonians two it's second 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 of kingdom now theology and that's it's 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 says it's 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 i want 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's 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 which is a claim of claim on the land sound 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 a lot a lot of interesting things going to happen about 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 the 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 there's 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 lord land and glorify them he's not doing it because israel's so faithful he's not doing it because they're so great he says i do not this for your sake so house of israel but for my holy name's sake which ye have profaned among the nations to which he went and i will sanctify my great name which was profaned among the nations which he have profaned in the midst of them and the nation 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 land but 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 the whole thing god is going to visibly move in your lifetime and mind 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 grieve me you profane 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 name's sake 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 impostor in the land they really don't have these claims that's not the israel that god talks about the promise of israel 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'll 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 of easily a departure from a saving faith in jesus christ but an apostasy which will lead to the lie which itself will be a fulfillment of the prophecy that jesus christ and the other and the writers of the epistles and so forth speak so eloquently of so i i call your attention 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 is surfacing and is visible and i call it to your attention because it's secret they're 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 out 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 uh 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 our 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 um and um so what's the difference between demons and fallen angels and and what are what's 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 change what was unique about noah there's one little hint we're getting 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 in 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 in even in the days of joshua what's all that we're going to get into some of that next time so 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 ii 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 otherwise higher 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 about 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 if you're from that you can go into revelation 12 satan's rebellion and the third of the angels that fell with them 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 uh 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 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 by roads i'll be i'll certainly be guilty of it next time because we'll we'll use that as our excuse to 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 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 and also be a challenge to you to stay in the scripture because we will go into some spooky areas and i challenge you to indeed apply acts 17 11 very especially next time [Music] you

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Published: Mon Nov 16 2020