Jude Session 6 (Verses 11-13) - Chuck Missler

[Music] you recall the last time we were together we talked about michael contending with the devil and all of that that brought us down through verses 9 and 10. all of this again continuing jude's apparently forced or compelling mission to speak on apostasy and he of course has been drawing repeatedly from old testament illusions so part of our interest in the book of jude isn't just his message but also to get a little perspective on some of these things that he presumes we know so well but verse 11 he continues woe unto them for they have gone the way of cain and ran greedily after the error of balaam for reward and perished in the game saying of korah now that's obvious to all of you that what that means no good okay in fact he picks these three men from the past and it's only if you outline the whole book that you recognize this all pivots around verse 11 it happens verse 11 is midway between illustrations he has previously chosen from the supernatural realm that was uh back in verse nine for example and from those that he's going to choose from the natural realm verses 12 and 13 and we'll talk about that a little later tonight another way of looking at this is that this verse is preceded by apostasy in history that's what we've been talking up until now and it's going to be followed by apostasy and prophecy in fact we're going to explore one of the earliest prophecies in the scripture next time so this verse is placed very specifically now what he's doing here he has been talking up till now about corporate examples israel that had its problems the angels that sinned etc you know i may have a little trouble personally identifying with michael's predicament in verse 9. but now we're getting right to examples that jude has selected that are personal and individual examples the three men in this verse are examples that jude selects to make a point that is intended to apply to you and i that's difficult to do if you don't really know what the gain saying of korra is all about and most of us may have been what little we may know about balaam is fascinating but mysterious but what's all that about and we'll get into that a little bit because it's if nothing else a key piece to our background the book of revelation then there's also this character quora these are not in chronological order figured cain we know who cain was we think sort of and we may know about balaam late in numbers and quora is earlier in numbers so they're not in order when the holy spirit puts something in order he has a reason to do so the seven letters the seven churches book of revelation if they were in any other order it destroys most of their message in a sense i should say most of them there's moral points there but the prophetic outline of all church history is there because of the order they're in the gospel of john deals with seven miracles of the lord jesus christ seven discourses as a result of those miracles and seven i am statements they're not in chronological order those episodes and the gospel of john happened to mystically chronicle the history of israel in a very peculiar way john was a mystic whenever the holy spirit put something in order that's unusual it should alert us that there's something else we're going to discover that these three errors are not only three errors that we are admonished to avoid they also portray a process that he wants to call to our attention and so i'll alert you that in advance first observation is that apostasy bear in mind that's jude's main message is not confined to any one class of person let's take a look at these three people we've got a tiller of the soil a prophet and a prince in israel cain we all know is the tiller of the soil a farmer nothing wrong with farming but he gets in big trouble we'll find out why in a minute balaam was a prophet he had the office of a prophet he was he made his living as a prophet i wouldn't take that as a vindication of his office but i thought i'd throw that in and cora was one of the princes of israel made a gigantic blunder all three of them made serious errors in judgment for which they perished each of these guys these three gentlemen that we're going to explore portrays a particular aspect of what it means to fall away from the truth we talk a lot about finding the truth we hear a lot about evangelism what jude is talking about is falling away the opposite of that process getting ahead of the story a little bit so you know where i'm headed they basically form a process that involves three steps they enter on the wrong path they run righteously down that path and they perish at the end not very complicated very profound very real very actual and it didn't just happen in numbers it happens right here in river city tragically enough now there's another part of the message that it's hard to package pleasantly you know me i love to find little tidbits and merchandise them in some way that makes it all fun because my primary motive is to get you to fall in love with the scripture and dig for yourself so i love those little tidbits here in jude and there are some of those that makes it fun there's also just some plain blunt tough stuff that i don't know how to articulate cleverly pleasantly but just to lay it out on the table there's no hope for apostates anywhere in the book of jude their doom is sure to them is reserved the blackness of darkness forever hebrews chapter 6 verses 4 through 6. we'll find that the words here are in the past tense about apostates apostates have already perished they have all the amendability of history you want to change the history of this country back in 1700 i don't even do it the past tense is intended to connote it's certainty it's yet future the apostates were going to be concerned about prophetically have yet to happen but they're do mature so that's the heavy aspect of what jude is dealing with and i don't know any way to make that anything but there's a lot of parallelisms between second peter you notice we've gone into that a lot because peter has much a very very similar thrust in his message in second peter chapter two he talks about them we'll pick it up oh verse 20. peter says for if after they have escaped from the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the lord and savior jesus christ they are again entangled in it and overcome and the latter end is worse with them than the beginning for it had been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness than after they had known it to turn from the holy commandment delivered unto them but has happened unto them according to the two proverb a dog is returned to his own vomit again and the sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire the example of such a vivid one i don't know if you as kids the first time you've ever seen a dog do that when a dog gets upset and throws up that's disgusting enough but then to watch them turn around and lap it up is disturbing even as a child not just i remember being whoa you know and it's not unique to some dog it's characteristic of them why i think because of the scripture why is that shocking to you because god wants it to be that's what he says here that's a point if you think you're upset when you see a dog do that how do you think god feels when we knowing better fall into error after knowing the way it's scary tough stuff the real question that's in your mind is okay the sow that was washed through walling tomorrow was that sow ever a sheep of the good shepherd scripture implies no it wasn't just not the now word knowledge here is the head trip not an experiential trip remember the swine of mark 5 that ran down into the deep place right what we're going to see jude suggest from these three and we're going to go obviously i'm just this is all preamble we'll go into each one of these kane balaam and cora shortly but the overview may be useful these three guys are guilty of three separate individual things but jude is rolling them together to describe a process because they collectively characterize the process that all apostates go through they knowingly choose the way of cain rather than the way of christ they choose the error of balaam rather than the truth of christ and the perishing of korah for the life of christ three contrasts by the way this verse to give you just a slightly more literal rendering of the verse verse 11 in the way of cain they went away and in the wandering of balaam for reward they rushed headlong and in the rebellion of korah they perished same thought and yet maybe structured just a little differently in the literal translation that's the first one the way of cain strange story twice in the book of proverbs in chapter 16 25 and 14 12 it says there is a way which seemeth right unto a man but the end thereof are the ways of death our natural judgment is not a reliable guide in spiritual things it's interesting to me that the creation showeth the creator his handiwork the heavens declare the glory of god right from the creation we know that there's a designer an architect a personality behind all that we see to deny that is to just flaunt our observation and our reason do you realize the creation cannot communicate his redemptive plan god's redemption is his greater work how big how important is god's work well how much space is in the bible on the subject the creation has a chapter two in genesis a few chapters in isaiah some illusions and job and you can round up maybe you know a handful of chapters on the creation either directly in genesis 1 or subsequent comments on it but it's surprisingly limited a few psalms what about his redemption most of genesis but certainly the book of exodus is the book of redemption and you go all the way through book of ruth book of redemption other dimensions to it the gospels whole new testament certainly the book of revelation if you want to define those things whose unique message is redemption you got most of it which is his greater work the creation of the universe or our redemption space gives you one answer let me give you another what did it cost him i suspect that god can breathe into existence universe is larger than the one we're experiencing he just does it probably with less concern than a carpenter goes into his shop and builds a small piece of furniture what did his redemption of us cost him his son furthermore the creation that we see is under the curse so we can't perceive in the creation the redemption plan we get that revealed to us supernaturally by his word now that leads you may think where are you going chuck what's that got to do with cain well let's read the story of cain with all this preamble let's go to that story that's so familiar to us and yet perhaps has so much yet to reveal itself we all know the story we've just been through genesis 1 2 the universe has been created adam and eve are there we have genesis 3 the famous story of the i hate to promote the myth of the serpent the shining one this translated serpent that's a whole other issue if you ever want an interesting specialized study i commend to you to explore what that word really means but we've been through that genesis 3 and the casting out of the garden the adam and eve caught in their sin are cast out right and they left the garden in fact chapter 3 ends the saying that the lord god sent him forth from the garden of eden to till the ground from once he was taken and he drove out the man that's mr and mrs man and he placed at the east of the garden of eden cherubim and a flaming sword no the sword by the way not the hands of the cherubim you always assume that the hebrew implies it's not it's there but anyway and a flaming sword which turned every way to guard the way of the tree of life now you and i usually presume that that's just to keep adam from going back and getting the tree of life it's a little more complicated than that because the whole goal of the scripture from genesis chapter say 3 through revelation 22 is to guard that is to preserve the way to the tree of life and the exciting climax in revelation is that the tree of life is available to man who is trying to deny it from man not god satan so that what that really implies is a whole other set of issues but we're in chapter four verse one adam knew eve his wife and she conceived and bore cain and said i have gotten a man from the lord excited about that women have a right to be this one has a very special right to be because a few verses earlier in verse 15 of chapter 3 the path of redemption was to come from the seed of the woman and we generally presume that eve presumed that kane was that answer turns out obviously he's not it's a long road ahead but she may or may not have been aware of that anyway she's gotten a man from lord she again bore his brother abel and abel was a keeper of sheep but cain was a tiller of the ground step one don't presume that one calling is above another i've actually seen documents that tried to out of this say that shepherding was a higher calling than nonsense nonsense i'll come back to this but anyway verse three in the process of time it came to pass that cain brought of the fruit of the ground and offering unto the lord that seems natural enough he's a farmer he's great tilling the soil so he grows crops and he takes some of his crops and brings us an offering is there anything wrong with that not on the face of it let's read on abel he also brought of the firstlings of the flock and of the fat thereof and the lord had respect unto abel and to his offering but unto cain and to his offering he had not respect oh really i wonder why it would be useful for you and i to get some insight into this you know there's a there's a concept in business that you ought to know your market if you're selling a product you'd like to know what your buyer prefers it's awfully useful to you and i before we start wandering up to the altar to get some insight into the preferences of the one that we would please one of the things you need to ask if a little you know a little 15-minute quiz right now you pick out a piece of paper and say great what was kane's mistake here's what he did not do he didn't deny the existence of god was he a believer you bet incidentally there are scholastic traditions reasons to believe that in this time the way the offering was accepted by god was literally not to the pastor or to the church or to the priesthood that fire came down from heaven and consumed it there are ancient traditions that point to that they're not authoritative but provocative there wasn't apparently any doubt this wasn't a theological debate somehow god was pleased with abel's something happened to manifest that enough to get cain upset it wasn't a question of opinion here and whatever kane did it didn't work if fire was supposed to come down and consume it it apparently didn't it was enough so it got cain envious upset and leads of course to the second murder i always like to put it that way because the first murder in effect was satan murdering adam by getting him to sin but at least in one tradition this is often called the first murder it's not really the first one another thing came that he did not refuse to worship god he wasn't some kind of agnostic he knew god was there he's a believer he also wasn't in rebellion he was not trying not to worship god right so what was his mistake if you can put on his report card those two positive things that he recognized god's existence and he moved so as to worship him with an offering of his fruit of his labor and he's still in deep trouble you and i need to get a little uncomfortable because so far we fit the report card right we don't deny the existence of god and we don't refuse to worship him and we go through our little rituals whatever they are of all shapes and sizes how do we know that god's attitude towards our meager moves is no different than god's reaction to cain's we need to find an answer to that tonight be kind of neat wouldn't it right let's get a hint of what it's all about by turning to the book of hebrews the book of hebrews was an epistle written to hebrew believers so they're probably a little better informed on the old testament than most many of the other epistle readers so it's not surprising to find little clues in the book of hebrews that may illuminate some of this for us and one of the great chapters we all know first corinthians 13 is the famous love chapter and the great faith chapter is the hebrews 11 sometimes called the hall of faith because it almost becomes a tour of heroes of faith of course it opens up with that famous definition faith is the substance of things hoped for the evidence of things not seen for by it elders we see that is our forefathers our predecessors received a good report or a received witness verse 3 through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of god so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear and if any of you in the room are competent in quantum mechanics then you're excited about that because paul seemed or whoever wrote hebrews apparently was very perceptive about subatomic physics and all of that but i won't get to that here verse 4 by faith abel offered unto god a more excellent sacrifice than cain by which he obtained witness that he was righteous god testifying of his gifts and by it he being yet dead speaketh okay great i wonder what that means that sounds pretty good what does it mean by faith abel offered unto god a more excellent sacrifice what was there about cain's offering well it said faith right how does faith come romans 10 13 by hearing you can't have faith without hearing you could have superstitions beliefs conceptions presuppositions all kinds of things you can't have faith scripturally faith cometh by hearing abel had heard something that was not recorded i mean that hasn't been detailed in this summary narrative that we're reading in genesis abel's offering was in response to a commandment and he's giving an offering by faith now this causes us to lean very heavily on some insights that are not obvious to the casual reader of the book of genesis i want you to go back we're back in genesis back in chapter three and there's a simple little sentence that by itself is easily missed but it has a profound implication on your insight as to what god is all about in genesis chapter 3 they obviously have sinned in verse 7 in the eyes of both of them were opened and they knew that they were naked now that's funny were their eyes closed up until the sin doesn't mean literally does it adam walked with god adam was perfect from the psalms and some other places in the scripture we can draw the biblical inference that they were clothed with light when the sin came and they're no longer righteous there was something that happened to their dimensionally whatever that caused them to realize that they had lost that covering it isn't closed but being conscious of that they did a natural thing they attempted to clothe themselves they knew that they were naked and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves aprons this isn't a sex thing it's far deeper than that much bigger issue but they attempted to clothe them very natural okay they got a problem that's they're dealing with it later in chapter three god of course pronounces war on satan i'll put enmity between thee and the woman and so forth and we go on here and he talks to the woman and so forth we get down to verse 20. adam called his wife's name eve because she was the mother of all living for adam also and for his wife did the lord god make coats of skins and clothed them now that's a little strange adam and eve had garments that were apparently inadequate i'm not one to promote the values of fig leaves as a garment but isn't it a little bizarre that god didn't let them find that out for him themselves that he apparently personally he didn't instruct them to do it go do that it's better god made coats of skins and clothe them the fact that god personally did it should get our attention even jesus in most of the gospels ministered through the disciples right at cana the disciples passed out the water feeding of the five thousand four thousand the disciples he deals through his ministers every once in a while he does something personally that should get our attention the more i read the scripture that said hey wait what's going on here something very special if we had just this verse i'd be really crawling out a limb but if we take the rest of the torah book of exodus and the passover lamb if we take the book of leviticus and we wrap that all together we discover that from genesis chapter 3 to revelation 19 god consistently presents the principle that without the shedding of blood there's no remission of sins as we really understand the whole scripture the whole council of god we recognize what we might even call maybe a little facetiously a preoccupation with shed blood we go through the offerings you know in the offer you and i are denied the vivid object lessons of judaism i mean the old judaism not current judaism i've often threatened to do this i have never had quite the guts to do this is to bring in to the bible study a little duck or a chicken or something let you all get acquainted with a little pet and then here up in front chop off its head you'd be shocked and upset and that would be the point poor analogy obviously unless i handle it very carefully but the point is what i'm saying is god before israel throughout their whole history again and again and again ordained rituals slaughtering animals shedding the tabernacles nickname is the house of blood the temple by the thousands special aqueducts and things to haul off the you know from all the rich what's all that going on you and i read about it but it's not the same thing standing and say what is all this barbaric ritual all about god's way of letting us realize that sin is serious that sin has to be paid for not by the blood of sheeps and goats that's a model that's just an object lesson that's a tutorial it's all pointing to the cross now where am i headed i'm suggesting to you that the cross was preached in genesis 3. you notice why adam called eve the mother of all living because of these coats of skins look at this carefully for adam called his wife's name eve because she was the mother of all living for adam also and for his wife did the lord god make coats of skins and clothe them strange enough this passage is presuming that we understand the rest there are some scholars that believe that the altar wasn't some local thing in those days the altar was at the gate they were outside the garden but they had they were instructed to bring offerings god was instituting what i like to call the levitical system this early what's my evidence of that i guess i've got lots but the most dramatic one is genesis chapter 22. long before moses and aaron and the levites and all of that god told abraham to offer his son isaac on a hill a very specific hill you all know the story has abraham takes isaac up the hill ready to be obedient and offer his son of course god at the last minute intervenes substitutes a ram but abraham knew he was acting out prophecy the two thousand years later on that same hill another father would be offering his son as an offering for sin abraham knew that the belief that saved him was the belief in the resurrection of isaac he knew isaac would have to be resurrected from that experience and that's in hebrews 3 and romans 4 and you can if i'm on strange ground get the tapes on genesis 22 and to get his most fascinating prophecy study in the bible genesis 22. but again it's presuming and amplifying a sacrifice long before moses and all of that god instituted the concept of the faith offering the blood sacrifice in prophetically pointing to jesus christ as early as adam and eve when you understand that now we can look at cain with much more insight without the shedding of blood there is no remission of sins that's hebrews 9 22 for those of you that want to dig into that more thoroughly now i'm going to back up a little bit and let's take another look at cain and abel kane was a tiller of the soil no problem there they needed food right abel was a tender of sheep we got a problem there they didn't eat meat they don't eat meat till later at this stage meat is forbidden god will later ordain meat to be eaten why are you in raising sheep well maybe wool that's fair maybe offerings abel's offering was by faith the hebrews 11 4. now what's cain doing then cain failed to satisfy god by failing to approach him on the revealed basis of vicarious atonement god has ordained then and still does that the only basis by which we can approach him is on the basis of the shed blood of jesus christ either prophetically in the old testament sense or memorially as we do cain didn't do that cain brought what the works of his own hands so what is the way of cain he's presuming his readers understand all this what's the way of cain to blaspheme god by declaring his salvation incomplete by our attempting to add to it there's two ways faith or works you've all heard that right there's two ways to get to heaven i love the way walter martin presents this he does a great job plan a and plan b plan a by works what you do is be perfect as you grow up you never make a mistake from the age of accountability on no matter how irritable tired overworked pressured you never sin never make a mistake no matter what people do you you never sin you do that all not not most of the time all through your life and then when you die you go to heaven and say move over now there's two of us now that's perhaps a little irreverent humor but it gets the point across plan b is that hey we can't do it i've not only read the ten commandments and i recognize those are not suggestions they're called commandments right and if i fail to get the message in exodus 20 when i get to matthew 5 6 and 7 i know i'm in trouble because the lord reinterprets this is not only the deeds it's the thoughts of your heart let me tell you if you really knew the thoughts of my hearts on some occasions you wouldn't come to my bible studies you'd throw stones no the real message of the scripture from genesis on is that we can't make it by our own efforts there is a way which seems right to a man but the end thereof are the ways of death what is the basis his completed work on our behalf now the amazing insight is our attempts to add to that is blasphemy does that mean we shouldn't do works no obviously you should do good works but not in an attempt to earn anything because your attempt to earn position with the lord by anything you might do is to declare that the position you have by faith in christ is inadequate that's blasphemy that sounds glib academic stuff but it's apparently pretty serious because it got cain not only perished but made an example for you and i that we should not perish that way how by bringing the works of our hands to the altar of god something wrong with that yes not by our judgment but by god's preferences he wants offerings by faith not works that's what the way of cain is all about the blasphemy of god by declaring his salvation incomplete through our attempting to add something to it you can't add anything to the completed work of jesus christ on the cross nothing no matter what you do what's the ultimate you give your life that's not yours anyway you didn't do that he did he started getting his whole business not life after death is life after birth that's the problem but that's another issue but anyway that's cain faith versus works that theme goes throughout the whole scripture but it starts right here cain and abel amply dealt with in paul's epistles in many ways but somehow the graphic finality of kane's situation is perhaps uh to me the thing that brings that home came was not saved abel was they both brought offerings both were believers one saved one not one followed god's instructions one chose his own way although it sounds good it didn't work okay the next thing is the error of balaam and of course the greek there says they ran riot or have been poured forth rampage lovers of pleasure more than lovers of god but who is this character called balaam strange strange character we find his tale essentially in numbers 22 on numbers 22. we don't know a lot about this guy he sort of shows up and he's a character now the basic thrust of the story of balaam is that he was a prophet he wasn't a false prophet the sense of posing as a prophet he was a prophet had a gift he had a communication channel and i don't think we'll take the time to try to study balaam in total he's an interesting character he has some interesting prophecies just to skip ahead which he's got nothing to do with the story but to give you a flavor of balaam because you're going to talk a lot about the bad stuff let me tell you some of the more interesting things chapter 24 verse 15. and he took up this parable and said balaam the son of beor hath said the man whose eyes are open hath said he hath said who heard the words of god and knew the knowledge of the most high who saw the vision of the almighty falling into a trance and hat but having his eyes open i shall see him but not now i shall behold him but not near there shall come get this phrase a star out of jacob this is balaam star some scholars believe this is some link to what we call a christmas star and a scepter shall rise out of israel and shall smite the corners of moab and destroy all the children of sheth and i don't go into this because this is perfect but the point is balaam had some prophecies some of them are important so he's an interesting character but balaam is best known for his major screw-ups he was greedy for gold and he ends up getting hired by the enemies of god to curse them okay now he has warned not to do this see verse 22 we have verse one the children of israel set forward they're encamped in the plains of moab on this side of the jordan by jericho and bay like the son of zapporo saw that all the israel had done to the amorites and more was very much afraid of the people because they were many and moab was distressed because the children of israel and and so on so verse five he sends messengers to unto balaam and he says be all the people come out of egypt behold they cover the face of the earth and they abide in he's he's heard all the stories he's nervous verse 6 come now therefore i pray thee curse for me this people for they are too mighty for me perhaps i shall prevail and we may smite them that that i might drive them out of the land for i know that that he whom thou blessed is blessed and whom thou cursed is cursed that's kind of interesting this is what logic would call postdoc ergo propter hawk because this comes after therefore it's caused by it's an error in logic an example is you know if they do you do statistical studies say and you find out that people in college that don't smoke get better grades let's assume for the moment that that's a statistically verifiable thing well it doesn't mean that smoking causes bad grades it just means the two may be caused by a third factor some personality profile or something you're with me because one thing follows another doesn't mean that that is caused by the other that's a classic error in reasoning guilt here because balaam is blessing something when he blesses them to get blessed doesn't mean that his announcing it caused it you know i often see this in corporate staff meetings the controller presents the profitable results for the quarter and you get the impression that the financial people produce it no it's the poor guys on the line they produce the profits the the guys just happen to measure it there's two kinds of people in the county those that make the money in those accounts i often say that always gets me very popular with the accountants and the financial people i often playing accountancy is the only profession where creativity is a punch of offense they don't like that either these are these are chiefess you can unite any line group by either picking on the accountants or the lawyers you know that's easy but that's i'm getting off the subject anyway bailey is saying here for whom thou bless is blessed and whom now curses curses the elders of moab and the children and elders of media and departed with the rewards of divination in their hand and they came unto balaam in other words they brought their trophies and the prizes and the prize money and says and uh spoke unto him the words of balak and and uh he said unto him lodge here this night and i will bring you a word again as the lord shall speak unto me in the prince of moab abode to balaam god came unto balaam see there's communication going on here and said what men are these worthy and balaam said unto god to baalik the son of poor the king of moab but sent me saying and he goes to the story here and god said in verse 12 to balaam thou shalt not go with them thou shalt not curse the people for they are blessed god tells balaam hey guy you can't perform that mission they're willing they're willing to pay you a fee if you'll give them a bad report but you'll report me wrong they're going to be you know people could be blessed and balaam rose up in the morning and said unto the princes of balak get you into your land for the lord refuse to give me leave to go with you so balaam his first step is to try to be obedient it seems prince rose up and and they uh went to the king king bay like heaven and said bam refused to come with us and balak said again prince is more and more honorable than they so he sends more senior guys and probably i'm assuming with more money he came to balaam and said unto them let nothing i pray thee hinder thee from coming unto me for i will promote thee unto very great honor and i will do whatever thou sayeth unto me come therefore i pray thee and curse for me this people and balaam answered and said unto the servants of bay like if balak would give me this house full of silver and gold i cannot go beyond the word of the lord and so forth now therefore i pray you terry here also this night that i may know what the lord will say to me more he's going to try again he's going to not going to give up he's going to pester the lord to go verse 20 and god came to balaam at night and said unto him if the men come to call thee rise up and go with them and yet the word which i shall say unto thee that shalt thou do so now he's you can go but you better tell him what i told you right maelon was up in the morning saddled his ass and went with princess moab god's anger was kindled because he went in other words you get the impression here is that god says okay you can you must go go but you can't give the message they want you to give but god's even upset that balaam didn't get the hint right god's anger was kindled because he went the angel of the lord stood in the way for an adversary against him now he was riding upon his ass and his two servants were with him this is fun verse 20 and the ass saw the angel of the lord standing in the way and his sword drawn in his hand and the ass turned aside out of the way and went into the field and balaam smote the ass to turn her into the way now where's his donkey isn't going to go forward he's turning off because he sees angel lord with a sword run we'll come back to him in a minute the restraint where the angel lord stood in the path of the vineyards a wall being on this side and a wall on that side so there's a place you can't turn away right and then when the ass saw the angel lord she thrust herself into the wall and crushed balaam's foot against the wall and he's motor again understandably if you've ever had that horse do that they always get you near a low branch or something so balaam is getting upset and the angel lord went further verse 26 and stood in a narrow place where there's no way to turn either to the right or to the left and when the ass saw that the angel lord she fell down under balaam and balaam's anger was kindle and he smote the ass with a staff and the lord opened the mouth of the ass and she said unto balaam what have i done unto thee that thou has smitten me these three times balaam said unto the ass i have no idea what what balaam's reaction was to having this donkey speak to him because thou was mocked me i would there were a sword in my hand for now i would kill thee and the assad and the balaam am not i think ass upon whom nine has ridden ever since i was thine unto this day was i ever accustomed to do so unto thee and and he said nay i'm sorry that's hard not to do with a little verse 31 then the lord opened the eyes of balaam and he saw the angel lord standing in the way and the sword drawn in his hand and he bowed his head and fell flat on his face and the angel lord said to him wherefore hast thou smitten i asked these three times behold i went out to withstand thee because i was perverse before me the ass saw me in turn these three times unless she had turned from me surely now also i had slainly and saved her alive he doesn't mess around who is he this angel allows himself to be worshipped is there any angel that allows himself to be worshipped only one and he's in a lot of trouble over it the angel of the lord is a phrase that most of us ascribe and i think with some justification to lord jesus christ and the interesting cross-reference here will be joshua chapter five before the battle of jericho where joshua is on certainly presumably on century duty and he sees that he's challenged he sees it being lord with the sword drawn and challenges him like a son are you for us or our enemies he says take off your shoes here on hallowed ground and joshua realizes who it is takes off his shoes why that phrase because it was the same phrase he used out of the burning bush joshua didn't fight the battle of jericho jesus christ did and the last part of joshua 5 goes into that but from daniel and john in other passages we know that you angels never allow themselves to be worshiped they obviously accept satan which got in a lot of trouble and obviously when the phrase is used of the angel of the lord meaning as an old testament presentation of a pre-incarnate jesus christ not free of dispute but a widely held view among biblically fundamental scholars anyway balaam is allowed to go on and he blesses then israel rather than curses them which displeases his hirers but basically he is a hireling he was warned not to go he was not satisfied with this answer made further requests give him permission but not to allow anything but blessings moses summarizes this for us in deuteronomy 23. you might rather than wander through this whole story let's kick ahead to deuteronomy you can do that your leisure deuteronomy 23 chapter 23 is interesting chapter let's just pick up a few verses of it show you this tidbits everywhere deuteronomy 23 he who is wounded in that stones or hath privy remembered cut off shall not enter the house of the congregation a bastard shall not enter into the congregation of the lord even to the tenth generation shall not enter into the congregation of the lord that verse you might mark and link it to ruth four when the blessing is pronounced in the house of phares he's a bastard son of tamar what kind of blessing is that well because the bastard son cannot turn to the tenth generation the tenth generation from pharah's was david that's a prophecy of david you won't get that out of ruth for unless you understand verse 2 of deuteronomy 23 but moving on to verse three talks about ammonite the moabite shall lighten the congregation the lord even to the tenth generation shall they not enter into the congregation of the lord forever because they met not with bread and water with this day when you came forth out of egypt and because they hired against thee balaam the son of theor of patho or mesopotamia to curse thee nevertheless the lord thy god would not hearken unto balaam but the lord thy god turned the curse into a blessing unto thee because the lord thy god loved thee and then moses goes on but that's a little summary of balaam's error okay that's not where it ends it gets worse gang bailing me figure cheese kind of off balance but what harm can come of that well he's not through yet he obviously got deprived of the rewards that king balak of moab was going to offered him so his covetous heart conceives a plan he couldn't execute the mission that balak had laid out for him so he comes up with another idea you recall they were camped by the borders of moab balaam's done his homework he knows the laws of judaism he knows what israel's rules are he assumes that if he can get israel to sin god can't bless israel he'll have to curse them it's a very interesting thing because with that spiritual insight he weaves a plan to get carnal reward because he goes to israel's enemies king balak and suggests that what they do is get their good-looking gals along the border to entice the israeli guys into cross marrying which was forbidden for israel they were supposed to stay separate and so by getting the gals to get them to compromise that commitment god would have to curse israel and if god punishes israel balak's purpose would be served and balaam would be rich and if you go into numbers 25 you find that it worked israel abode and and the people began to commit harlotry with the daughters of moab verse 2 they called the people unto the sacrifices of their gods and the people that eat and bowed down to their gods in israel joined herself unto baal peor and the anger of the lord was kindled against israel he's killed against israel because they're being disobedient they're compromising their commitment of separation that he called them to how did that get all engineered by israel's enemies how do they get that insight from balaam's council so that's the error and it works and you find it happening here and you pop over to say numbers 31 31 15 moses said unto them have ye saved all the women alive behold these caused the children of israel through the council of balaam to commit trespass against the lord in the matter of peor and there was a plague among the congregation of the lord now therefore kill every male among the little ones and kill every woman that hath known man by lying with him moses didn't mess around so they deal with it and i won't take the time to use all our evening if i go into all this but you get the gist of it and you can track that down now you'll find that in the scripture there are three phrases that surface and some people make a distinction between the three i'm not sure it's valid or that critical but i should share with you the error of balaam that's the phrase jude uses and that's generally regarded as the natural reasoning that god could not fail to curse a disobedient people seeing the immorality in israel the arab was that god couldn't by grace respond to that that's one view second peter chapter 2 verse 15 makes reference this and calls it the way of balaam and that tends to focus there on the very fact that a prophet is holding out his gift for hire that's called the way of balaam his style was to sell his services but the error is perhaps more closely linked with another phrase that we find in the book of revelation chapter 2 revelation chapter 2 verse 14 deals with the letter to the church of pergamus now if you remember the cycle of the seven letters you have the church of ephesus the first law that was lost right smyrna the suffering church right and then the third one is pergamus that's the marriage the world you know what bigamy means double marriage pergamos means mixed marriage okay so this is the names themselves if you remember that study are significant smyrna means myrrh crushed so forth the suffering church pergamus is the church married to the world and in here the lord jesus christ in writing a letter to the church at pergamus says many things but he gets to the verse 14. he says chapter 2 verse 14. but i have a few things against thee because thou hast there them that hold the doctrine of balaam the doctrine of balaam what's the doctrinable who taught balak to cast a stumbling block before the children of israel to eat things sacrificed unto idols and to commit fornication the lord jesus christ is using in his letter to seven churches an illusion that we've just read from the book of numbers about balaam and this whole screwy business with balak and moab these aren't little quaint stories that are ancient traditions they really happen and the lord jesus christ himself uses that event to make a spiritual point to a future church a whole era in which the church becomes married to the world whose churches whose leadership caused them to stumble by eating things sacrificed to idols and to commit fornication spiritual fornication and from that you can go on to your revelation study now what happened to baal balaam took the way of cain lived righteously afterward he got his reward from balak so he scored but perished miserably with the enemies of god at the last and you can read that record in joshua chapter 13 where he gets his the error of balaam for hire jude talks about sacrificing the eternal riches for temporal gain lust for the pleasures of sin for a season the greed for the treasures of egypt phrases out of hebrew 11 25 and mark 8 36 maybe just before jude in second timothy 4 10 demas left paul having loved this present world the passion for worldly enticements to interfere with your eternal riches you know many times people say well what's wrong with doing x that's not the question what's right about it i don't care whether you're talking about anything a hobby an interest the issue is does it get in the way of your relationship with jesus christ things don't have to be great momentous sins to separate you from god a light touch on the things of this world that's our challenge well to keep moving we have now the next delusion that uh we have kane we've had balaam the third one is korra now the first thing that strikes me at cora that's a little strange it's out of order because cora will discover is really in number 16 not 22. so for some reason jude is taking them in a different order you would think if you're going chronologically you'd say gee there's cain there's kara and there's balaam but jude or through the holy spirit turns it around so there's kane balaam and then korah because by doing that it validates illustrates if you will a process that occurs cain the way of cain the error of balaam what's the next thing the rebellion of korah now in the bible it may say the gain saying of cora some of your older translations may have that speaking against the word in the greek is antilogia which actually means against the word which is kind of interesting there's a maybe a very intentional pun there who was cora he was a levite cousin to moses you can find his background in exodus chapter six now the real issue here was under his leadership he and his associates dathan and byram rejected god's appointed mediator moses had been appointed by god and dathan and byrom and korra were the trio that led a rebellion against moses's leadership and what's so wrong with that well first of all they're rebelling against the type of christ and that's part of the mission for us now they may not realize that but we just need to realize that now they made some mistakes they dared to think that all are holy let's take a look at number 16 it's time to get into the text there number 16. verse one caught the son of ishar and the son of kohath the son of levi and dathan that's edward g robinson for those of you that remember the movie and abyram and sons of eliab and on and the son of peleth and the sons of reuben took man and they rose up before moses with certain of the children of israel 250 princes of the assembly hey we're talking a big crowd here how many people came out of egypt probably a million that's a lot of people i don't know how many of you have ever been involved with a large group like in the military you know you may some of those military was a little strange but you've got several hundred people to get orderly they work you know because they got rules and things and if you've ever taken a tour group of a couple hundred people you know it gets complicated to move them to an airport let alone across the sinai you know and we're not talking a few hundred we're talking a million people and excuse me if this is an ethnic slur but they were jewish have you ever been in israel and i'm not being racist here i think david ben-gurion made that crack you know in terms of trying to find a people to rule you couldn't do it and moses if you were to study moses and his conversation with god he says hey this was your idea i didn't ask for these people a million people so they had princes and there's 250 princes that rebelled it rose up before moses with certain of the children of israel 250 princes of the assembly famous in the congregation men of renown these are the heroes they had standing they gathered themselves together against moses against aaron and said to them ye take too much upon you seeing all the congregation is holy every one of them and the lord is among them wherefore then lift ye up yourselves above the congregation of the lord sounds good doesn't it be a little presumptuous there moses are all sons of god jesus christ didn't think so in john 8 year of your father the devil he says to the pharisees that was jesus christ's comment on the brotherhood of man we love that idea that we're all part of one family no that tragically is not true most of this room i hope are members of the forever family of god and they are a small minority and a separate part from the world not all are holy is a mediator one moses in this case is he needed i think so he was a type what happened in john 14 6 jesus christ said i am the way the truth and life no man cometh unto the father but by me heavy words often quoted very pleasant stop and think what they say one way is the cross really necessary boy there's lots of answers to that but i'm repeatedly drawn into matthew chapter 26. i'm gonna i've been skipping some of the background stuff here but i think this is one i really want to get into because it affects you and i every day we all ponder this strange rigorous narrow concept of the cross is the cross really necessary i'd like you to travel with me from matthew chapter 26 verse 36 for a few verses we're talking gethsemane here the olive grove at the base of the mount of olives just across from the what we call the golden gate the entrance to the temple they've left they've crossed the valley they're at this place which apparently was one of their favorite places in the evening to pray and come with jesus with them to a place called gethsemane which means the oil press that's interesting pun too isn't it let's say if under his disciples sit here while i go and pray yonder and he took with him peter and the two sons of zayn which peter james and john are the insiders they get to go in a little closer and began to get very sorrowful and uh very depressed and by the way how many were left alone peter james how many were left behind eight good for you how many people were in the ark may not have anything to do with anything but i'll leave you with that to wonder verse 38 then saith he unto them my soul is exceedingly sorrowful even unto death those are heavy words let their familiarity mislead you look at them my soul is exceedingly sorrowful even unto death carry here and watch with me and he went a little further fell on his face and prayed saying o my father get this prayer listen carefully what he's saying if it be possible that this cup passed from me did he know what was coming you bet he's known it for a long time he's finally announced it to them i'm going to jerusalem and will suffer death does he know what's going to come that evening does he know what's coming the next morning does he know what the next day is going to bring yes does he welcome it no and i'm not trying to take anything away from his commitment to us don't misread me but he prays oh my father if it be possible let this cup pass from me satan offered him that the temptations he turned it down satan said hey take a short guy worship me and pass all this stuff i'll give you all the people and all the nations and the kingdoms and all the stuff interesting he never challenged satan's ownership of it he went the hard way but he gets to the final hour he says oh my father be possible let this cup pass from me nevertheless what a wonderful word underline that your bible i'm sure glad that's there nevertheless not as i will but as thou wilt translating english there's no other way moving on he cometh to disciples and finding sleep and we always focus on the sleep issue they didn't stay awake they he wakes them and he goes and prays again in the story here we often don't notice what he prays three times he says this i was watching pray he ain't not in temptation the spirit is willing with the flesh is weak then he went again and prayed the second time and said let's quote it again verse 42. oh my father if this cup may not pass away from me except i drink it thy will be done same essential concept then he came and found him asleep again left them and went away again prayed a third time saying the same words if there's any other way for anybody ever to get into heaven other than the way of cross jesus christ died in vain and his prayer was not answered that's heavy it's not very attractive we like to somehow feel that the way is bigger than that but that's not what he said narrow is away and straight is the gate that leads to salvation broad is the gate that leads where you're going through a gate with lots of other people and everybody's welcome you got the wrong gate so cora and these guys have rebelled against moses they didn't feel that you know that moses would had some special ordination they're going to get a lesson in the ordination of moses if you will in numbers chapter 16 starting about verse 31. that's me up verse 28 california moses said verse 28 hereby ye shall know that the lord had sent me to do all these works do i have your attention guys moses says for i have not done them out of my own mind if these men die a common death all of all men and if they be visited upon the visitation of all men then the lord hath not sent me but if the lord make a new thing and the earth open up her mouth and swallow them up with all that pertains to them and they go down alive into sheol then you shall understand that these men have provoked the lord not to worry that it came to pass as he finished speaking all these words at the ground split open that was under them the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them up and their houses and all the men that appertained acura and all and their goods how many were there three no 250 plus buddies they in all that pertain to them went down and this is interesting word to me they went down alive into shell i mean i mean the more they were alive when they started but i think it's interesting phrase and the earth closed upon them and they perished from among the congregation now that's what i call a climactic finish jude places korra third because by doing that cain balaam and cora describe a process they choose a way they rush head long into that way and perish at the end one of the interesting things that i'm fascinated by the book of jude is its craftsmanship the holy spirit skillfully picks every word and has structured this precisely we shouldn't leave this without talking about the grand apostasy second thessalonians chapter two all of this that jude's talking about is prophetic and i'll take just a quick look at it now it's familiar to you i'm sure but we'll it's the appropriate place to take a quick look at second thessalonians chapter two and it's hard to pick this off because it's full of the great apostasy led by the what we sometimes call the antichrist the man of sin verse 3 let no man deceive you by any means that they shall not come except there be a falling away first that the man of sin may be revealed as the son of perdition who opposes and exalteth himself above all that is called god or is worshipped so that he as god sitteth in the temple of god showing himself that he is god you know the temple of god is a specific thing and so on remember ye not that when i was yet with you i told you these things and he goes on here let's pick it up about verse 8 then shall that wicked one be revealed whom the lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming but that's a flash future if you will not a flashback but a flash forward he's assuming you understand that's ultimately going to happen verse 9 even him who's coming is after the working of satan with all power and signs and lying wonders that's a heavy sentence this guy is not a phony this guy's not a charlatan he's not pretending to have power he's not pretending to do phony miracles with all power and signs and lying wonders those are the same greek words used of the miracles and the gospels they're going to have supernatural gifts and with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that pair in them that perish because they receive not the love of the truth that they might be saved for this cause god shall send them strong delusion that they should receive the lie proper put a definite article there it's not eli the lie the elephant lie that they might be judged to believe not the truth and had pleasure and righteousness the same process shows here and they were contrasted with us who have chosen from the beginning so the only way you get through all of this is be supernaturally elected by the by god and empowered by the holy spirit so there's an ultimate super apostasy yet coming that i think is very close that we're on the threshold of and that's why spending some time in what the scripture says about a apostasy is worthwhile we've taken a large time on verse 11. now we're going to quickly pick up verses 11 and 12 12 and 13. just to keep the momentum going here we sort of do that take one verse for hour and a half and then two verses for 10 10 seconds but that's okay verses 12 and 13 are not that hard that's why we're going to just flow with this but they have five word pictures occur here let's read verses 12 and 13. there are spots in your lu these they speaking again apostasy the whole subject of posse these are spots in your love feasts the word spot's unfortunate here the word is actually rocks in the sense of hidden rocks to a mariner if you're sailing the greek word there's that is is the rock that doesn't that you don't see but ends up being your shipwreck these are spots in your love feast see the agape feast they met to fellowship and have feasts these guys came to eat and plunder in effect they didn't come to the church social to fellowship and share christ they came because the potluck was great okay that's the flavor when they feast with you feeding themselves without fear that's the first thing these hidden rocks i'll come back to them second one clouds are they without water carried about by the winds clouds are for what for rain these are clouds that are carried about by the wind that that offer deceit they don't have water that's the second third one trees whose fruit withereth without fruit twice dead plucked up by their roots i'll come back to these fourth one uh raging waves of the sea foaming out their shame and the fifth one wandering stars to whom is reserved the blackness of darkness forever two verses with five very articulate graphic images concatenated in there these are the hidden rocks in your love feasts when they feast without fear there are clouds without water carried about by the winds they're trees whose fruit withereth without fruit twice dead plucked up by the roots raging waves of the sea foaming with foaming out their own shame wandering stars to whom is reserved the blackness of darkness forever great let's look at that briefly five things hidden rocks waterless clouds now the word for trees by the way the greek is is a combination word for autumn and the word to wane these are late autumn trees now you and i aren't normally agriculture what does that mean that's where they're up they're without fruit in fact let's go through these first the hidden rocks the greek term here implies reefs below the ocean threatening safe navigation rocks that are known are not as big a problem these rocks are hidden so they perform a threat people among us in the fellowship who really aren't of the body of christ the agape feast thing if you want to research that is in first corinthians 11 you can look at that there's a phrase in verse 21 that deals with that the second example was clouds without water now this is the the deceit and discouragement for the thirsty of a cloud without water is in contrast to luke 12 and so forth clouds that have water that are the living water and so forth without water also it suggests dry places and in matthew 12 43 that's where evil spirits are said to wander in the dry places right clouds it says here they're carried aside by the winds the word winds is the wind in the old testament is ruach in the new testament is numa the same word is used for spirit wind and spirit same words used these guys are carried about by the winds why because they're bond slaves to satan romans 6 16 john 3 8 a couple places to look at that by the way a cloud doesn't go where it pleases it goes where the winds carry it and these guys are these are waterless clouds carried by the wrong winds the third thing was the autumn trees now we have this concept of the harvest believers are gathered into his barn in matthew 13 right others are rooted up and transgressors rooted out that's in matthew 15 and proverbs 2 22 and other places the other phrase that occurs here can't help but catch your eye is twice dead jude uses the phrase in here about these trees fruit withereth without fruit twice dead plucked up by the roots we mean twice dead well several things they're dead to the fruit of profession and they're dead to the root of possession they're dead to the to uh the fruit of profession they didn't bear fruit so they're dead in that sense they're also dead in the sense of root of possession they're rooted up they have no position they're no longer there this and that's first timothy 5 6 for those who want to chase that idea perhaps more provocative to all of us is revelation 20 14 which it speaks of the second death the scripture speaks of two deaths now we know from first thessalonians that the the the the architecture of man is at least triparti spirit right soul and body natural death that you and i are aware of the separation of the soul in the body spiritual death with the separation of soul and spirit all of us have two deaths it's important which order they come you and i our second death was taken care of at the cross so the death that remains has no fear to us tragic it is for those whose who's got it in the wrong order whose second death is final that's what revelation talks so articulate about and you can get that revelation 20 when we'll keep moving here now the contrast of these trees would be trees planted by the rivers of living water in psalm 1 3 jeremiah 17 7 8. he goes on here and talks about wild waves now the sea is repeatedly used in the scripture of the unsaved the wicked are isaiah 57 20 21 the wicked are like this troubled sea when it cannot rest whose waters cast up mire and dirt idiomatically the sea is always used of humanity in its crass self-serving unhappy state a couple of other observations psalm 1049 says that god has imposed limits on the sea luke 10 19 says nothing shall hurt you and then first peter 2 12 says all to account to his glory in psalm 89 9 he rebukes and stills the seas it's interesting i mean he rules and and stills to see matthew 8 26 is where remember when he has the storm he rebukes the sea interesting phrase who's causing that storm satan there's a lot going on behind the scenes you have to look carefully to notice and this whole theme of the sea you can carry forward and many people make a big mystical thing out of it it's kind of interesting that there's more going on there than maybe you and i are generally aware of but what's fascinating seems to substantiate that viewpoint that rather mystical viewpoint in revelation 21 1 in the the new world new heaven new earth one of the observations made is that there was no more sea so speaking idiomatically there's something negative consistently used about that idiom in any case these apostates are raging waves of the sea foaming out their own shame and the final example he uses is wandering stars now the phrase here implies meteorites that's the term that was they would use in those days because they're you know like wondering falling stars what is the falling star it's a meteorite it's illumination is derived it flashes brilliantly for a brief time right if you'll excuse the mistler translation that then makes an ash of itself okay sorry stars are in orbits ordained by their creator judges 520. these are not these are wandering stars as opposed to stars in orbit that's the constant okay it says they are destined for the blackness of the outer darkness forever matthew 8 12. i think this is very interesting because we're discovering black holes black black holes certain stars have certain gravity if the gravity if if the characteristics are such that there's enough mass if there's enough gravity it'll collapse because the gravity of the star causes it to collapse and if there's enough mass there it collapses enough to become very very dense as the density increases the gravitational forces increase and the thing is in a sense circular it finally gets to the point so that it gets so intensely and strong that even light can't leave anything that gets near it gets drawn into it and so because of that there's no radiation from these things in fact neutron stars there's a whole area you can get into and i won't get we're sharper time to get in all of this it's a little distracting but the point is the existence of a black hole is a very provocative idea in physics and astronomy and astrophysics because you can't see them but you can detect them by the absence of stuff that's there and and and so on there's they're finding ways to prove the existence of these things but what's really intriguing about this is is that the black holes have no light because light can't escape from them anything that comes near to them gets drawn into it and incidentally the mathematics of it is such that it's believed that within them time doesn't exist they're timeless that's a whole nother issue some feel they're timed tunnels and there's all kinds of cosmic you know cosmological speculations about them but it's very very interesting to me and i you should be grateful i didn't i i saved you tonight with a whole diatribe on black holes which have nothing to do with this anyway but it's interesting here that jude says that these are wandering stars not in orbit but loose to whom is reserved the blackness of darkness forever isn't that interesting these guys are destined for at least spiritually speaking black holes that's kind of fun i think now a couple of things here uh just a couple of observations that are interesting with these five graphs and i'm leading somewhere trust me hidden rocks unseen danger waterless clouds false promise right autumnal trees barren profession raging waves wasted effort wandering stars aimless course ultimate perishing it's interesting to me to see these five for not only are they poetically articulate ways of expressing the spiritual truth they're in a very specific order it's not obvious from the rocks it's really interesting nice you read this and you have pretty articulate kind of poetic language you move on you analyze it the unseen danger the false promise the barren profession wasted effort aimless course and destruction it's again a process this passage has been crafted masterfully now these five graphical ideas poetically articulated present the same downward degeneration that verse 11 started with that's why i've tied this all together the men were present at the christian love feast they were carried away fruitless uprooted dead through shame outer darkness is their destiny that's what those five things say let me give you a couple more contrasts and we've made it i want you to contrast these five things with our lord hidden rocks threatening shipwreck with the rock of our salvation clouds without even a temporary blessing with he who comes with the clouds the trees of death this one's easy tree of life the restless troubled sea with he who leads besides still waters the wandering stars in eternal darkness with a bright and morning star interesting whenever you do that go one step further let's contrast these five with the believers in christ those who abide in christ these are dangerous rocks we are living stones first peter 2 5. he speaks these guys are waterless clouds we are sources of living water john 7. the dead trees versus the tree of righteousness isaiah 61 3 raging raves versus what we have seen it all the time right peace like a river let's use that isaiah 48 18. wandering stars in this case look at daniel 12 3 says that we those who made righteousness shall what shine as the stars forever those are stars in orbit those are not wandering stars ultimately now yes there's points here you can take this out for yourself the point i'd like to leave you with is the craftsmanship that the holy spirit has woven into this uh text okay so that's jude 11 12 and 13 and we've run our time i'm going to leave you with a bible trivia piece for next time if you want you know the answer don't tell make the make your friends dig it out for themselves we all know that methuselah was the oldest man in the bible lived 969 years yet he died before his father not a dandy think about that we will deal next time with methuselah he's the oldest man in the bible yet he died before his father and if you have a bible friend they get stumped on that they'll immediately catch on when you recognize who was methuselah's father enoch he obviously did not die but we're going to discover some things in in genesis next time your lesson for next time is genesis chapter 5. you're going to discover some amazing things out of the early chapters of genesis next time we're going to talk about enoch it's going to be fun that's one reason i wanted to do it this way because i want to leave time for enoch who was one of the earliest prophets he has a fascinating ministry that takes some digging to get what's really going on there the story of methuselah and enoch is really provocative what's really interesting is a false book of enoch quotes from jude can cause a lot of confusion there's several in fact there's three books of enoch floating around the literature circuit that's that's apocryphal there is a phrase a little different than the one in here and many people think jude took it from this ancient book of enoch at the ancient book of enoch's fraud and i'll show you why it is from its own text next time don't waste your time in the apocrypha unless you're just a scholar of ancient texts and you like to spend time in dusty libraries but we'll deal with that next time enoch and methuselah and and that whole bit i'm taking for granted that those of you in this room are not apostates well you wouldn't be here you would find better ways to spend your money nights than to come here to you know these things aren't that interesting so why are we spending our time on this because if you're saved i don't believe you can get unsaved i do think you have a commitment to abide in the lord and that's a whole other thing we're talking about people here who've really rejected the truth having known it and then rejected it later that's what an apostate is so why are we spending all this time yes we get some insights in terms of our walk i hope there's been some of that tonight the way of cain which we should have new insights hopefully the error of balaam and the rebellion of korah those are meaningful ideas even though we're not apostates but the real thing we want to do is understand apostasy because it is around us it comes in attractive forms it's easy to get confused and furthermore it's going to be the characteristic environment of the end we talk about prophecy we look at the soviet union and we look at the the peace euphoria it's in the air it's all prophecy all prophesied we look at israel and what's going on in that land we look at europe what's going on there all these things are consistent with our perceptions of biblical prophecy but the stage that's going to really characterize the final chapter is a widespread worldwide global apostasy that will climax in the adulation of the man of sin for lots of reasons some of which we sort of just skipped over an interest of time tonight psychothessalonians two it said for lots of reasons i believe we can demonstrate the church will not be here during the so-called tribulation period that does not mean though that the whole stage setting won't be visible to us in in fact as you get tuned to this and sensitive to it you will take a certain kind of encouragement by seeing the world fulfill its destiny by becoming what it's headed for so it may sound very very elliptical perhaps almost a little sadistic but don't misunderstand me i think it's important for us as christians to be informed and understand the signs of our times and that's what jude is really aiming [Music] you

Channel: Koinonia House

Views: 16,880

Rating: 4.8941398 out of 5

Keywords: jesus, christ, chuck, missler, koinonia, house, khouse, institute

Id: zDkVMRs1zSY

Length: 79min 9sec (4749 seconds)

Published: Mon Dec 14 2020