The Acts of the Apostates - Part A

Jude gives us an x-ray of the heart by telling us the verbal activity of these apostate people. He calls them in verse 16, grumblers. It's a good word. Listen to the Greek word, gungustai.

Sounds like I'm grumbling just saying the word, right? False teachers can be hard to detect, but it's possible to spot them when you really pay attention. Today on Connect with Skip Heitzig, Skip shares about some warning signs you can watch for in false teachers, delivering a vital lesson on how we use our words. Now we want to tell you about a resource that will help you grow stronger in your faith. Here's what Norm Geisler said about the book Tactics.

There is no better book to equip Christians to think clearly. Here's Skip Heitzig on the need to engage in active spiritual warfare. You'll never fight God's battles from a sofa.

You'll never contend for what really matters by just cruising in your La-Z-Boy all day. You're going to have to decide to get up as part of the house and join the fight. Become a contender for biblical truth with Fight for the House, a six-message series through the book of Jude with Skip Heitzig. This teaching series on CD equips you to get in the ring to defend the gospel and guard against false teachings. And it's our thanks when you give to connect more people to the truth of God's word. And when you give $35 or more today, we'll also send you the book Tactics by Gregory Kochel to help you speak the truth about Christianity with confidence and grace.

Call 800-922-1888 to give or visit connectwithskip.com. Okay, we're in the book of Jude as Skip Heitzig starts today's study. Jude said, while I was very diligent to write to you concerning our common salvation, I found it necessary to write to you exhorting you to contend or put up a fight. Contend earnestly for the faith once for all delivered to the saints.

That's why we call it Fight for the House. We are here in church. We are gathered as the church. I've had an interesting journey in my lifetime in my relationship to the church.

Let me briefly explain. When I grew up, I had to go to church. For me to have a meal in my parents' house and live in a room and breathe their air, I had to go to church. In fact, it was even called by our church a Sunday Obligation.

Anybody ever have that term growing up? So, Sunday Obligation means you have to do it. When I was 18 years of age, I had an encounter with Jesus Christ. It was real, it was deep, it was profound, and everything changed. And my relationship with church changed. Now I wanted to go to church. You couldn't keep me away from church. I went like, whenever they had it, I'd go. And then, by God's grace, I moved from the West Coast to Albuquerque, New Mexico to plant a church.

We've been doing it about 40 years now. So I've seen, thank you, I've seen lots of people come to church over the years. I've also seen lots of people leave church. And I don't just mean leave our church, go to another church. I mean leave church. And I've discovered that not everyone who goes to church, attends church, comes to church, hangs out at church, is actually part of the church. You might be part of the visible church, but not everybody in the visible church is part of the true invisible church with the real, rooted, authentic relationship with Christ.

Here's an example. In the book of Acts, chapter 16, Paul goes to Philippi, right? He goes there to bring the gospel. A church is planted, very humble beginnings.

He goes to a riverside, there's a few women who are gathered. A woman named Lydia believes, is baptized. And a few people make that sincere, deep, authentic commitment to Christ. But, there was one girl, unnamed in the text, who hangs out at every church service and she has something to say. Now when you listen to what she says, you think, man I want this gal in my church. I mean this is like the best PR person you could ever ask for. Because this is what she said.

These men are servants of the most high God who proclaim to us the way of salvation. Nothing wrong with that. Maybe Paul's going, yeah bring her with us wherever we go. But that didn't happen. Because it says that she did this for many days. And I kind of think she just sort of like interrupted what was going on with that little message.

Because we're told this. Then Paul greatly annoyed. Just picture Paul the apostle greatly annoyed.

That's fun right there. Then Paul greatly annoyed turned and said to the spirit. This is the demon spirit living inside of her. In the name of Jesus Christ come out of her. Now what's going on there?

Here's what's going on. Paul had what is called discernment. He could tell the difference between somebody in this case who professed to know God.

Versus a genuine authentic worship. Now I remember hearing the story that years ago. The Chinese wanted a sense of security that they didn't feel. Because they were being invaded so much. So they decided that they would build a wall. That would be too tall for people to easily climb over.

Too thick for people to break down. And too long for them to go around. So they built the great wall of China. And when it was done they felt really good, really secure. But I read somewhere that within the first 100 years of the great wall of China's existence.

That China was barraged, invaded three times. And it's not that people got over the wall or broke through the wall or walked around the wall. They simply bribed the gatekeepers.

That's how they got in. So we need to be open to all. And we must be open to all. We want people to come. We want people to feel welcome here. But we need to build character into the gatekeepers. To be able to tell the difference and just to have a heads up because we love God's sheep.

And want them protected. And that's because the ministry of the church is a ministry of people. So if the church is alive it's because its people are alive. If the church withers and dies it's because the people in it are dead.

And outnumber the living people. There was a young pastor who decided to take a little church over in Oklahoma. He knew the reputation of this church.

It was sort of crusty. They were not open to change. They were highly resistant to new ideas, new things. And this young pastor knew what he was getting into. But he just had the ambition and the drive. And he felt full of the Holy Spirit.

He went there and loved on them and smiled and tried new things. And they wouldn't budge. They wouldn't do anything.

They didn't want to change. So he finally took an ad in the local newspaper and announced that he was going to bury the church. The church is dead, he said. And we're going to have a public funeral service for this church that is pronounced dead. Well do you know that at that funeral service, which was three in the afternoon on a Sunday, the church was packed.

Like for the first time in ever. Packed! Everybody in the community wanted to find out what is this stunt. So they're sitting in church, standing in church, packed in church. At the front of the church was a casket with flowers on top. The pastor was in a suit, got up, gave a eulogy, talked about the history of this church. But now it is dead.

And it's time to bury it, move on. And then he invited everybody who had attended the funeral to get up single file down the front. And he opened the casket, come and pay your respects to the dearly departed. So as people walked forward and looked in the casket, they understood. Because the pastor had cleverly put a mirror in the casket.

And so as they were there to see the church that had died, they saw themselves. Now I told you, Jude didn't want to write this letter. That wasn't in his heart. He sat down to write a sweet, soft, light little note of encouragement. But felt compelled by the Holy Spirit to say, fight for the faith.

Why? He explained that certain people have crept into the church unnoticed and still hanging around. Whose deadly ways and beliefs were influencing live, living, vibrant believers. So Jude goes back into the Old Testament. I mean it's a short book. But he, in the economy of words, is able to go back into the Old Testament starting with Enoch, citing several examples of falling away, apostasy, defecting from the faith in the past and how God judged it. We come now to verse 16.

And verse 16 to 19 is sort of like a summary statement. Let's read it. He says, These are sensual persons. Who cause divisions, not having the Spirit. I've divided this into three categories of activity. Three categories of these apostates activity.

These detractors, these false professors. And they are words, walk, and warning. The words they verbalize. The walk they personalize.

And the warnings they characterize. So let's jump back into verse 16. And by now you know the style. You know what's going to happen. This is a Bible teaching church. We're going to go through every verse, every nuance, every phrase. We're going to dig down. We're going to find out what it says and what it means. So in verse 16 he says, These are grumblers, complainers. Walking according to their own lust. They mouth great swelling words.

Flattering people to gain advantage. This brings up a good question. How can you tell an apostate? I mean, nobody wears the sign, I'm an apostate. Nobody believes necessarily that they are. Nobody says to you, excuse me, do you have 20 minutes of your valuable time? I'd like to try and deceive you if at all possible.

No, of course not. It's not always easy to tell. They're going to come in the name of God. They're going to quote their Bible verses.

They're going to ride to your house on their bicycles. They're going to do a lot of things to make you think it's legit. But there are some signs.

There are some indicators that they are problematic. And it has to do with what they say. What leaks from their lips.

Remember what Jesus said and I'll remind you of it in Matthew 15. He said, it's not what goes into the mouth that defiles a man. It's those things which proceed out of the mouth that come from the heart and defile a man. So I remember when I was a kid and I'd go to the doctor and the doctor would take me to his little office and he would say, Skipper, that's what he called me. Skipper, stick your tongue out.

And I always thought that was weird. It's like, I don't have a problem with my tongue. My problem is right here in my gut. But a doctor is able to tell what's going on in the inside by what's sometimes on your tongue.

What color is, if there's bacteria, if it's looking gnarly or whatever. They can tell something is wrong in the alimentary canal based on what I see in the tongue. Jesus said much the same thing. He said, out of the abundance or overflow of the heart, the mouth speaks. So I also remember as a kid, my mother was fond of a ritual that she would perform with her four boys, especially her youngest. Whenever we would say words that were inappropriate, she took us into the bathroom and the ritual was a washing ritual. There was a bar of soap stuck in the mouth and she washed my mouth out with soap more than once. And she never figured this out, but it did no good. And it did no good because the problem wasn't with my mouth.

The problem was with my heart. And so Jude gives us an x-ray of the heart by telling us the verbal activity of these apostate people. He calls them in verse 16, grumblers. It's a good word. Listen to the Greek word, gungustai. It sounds like I'm grumbling just saying the word, right? It really is an onomatopoetic word. That is the word describes what it means. And it's the only time it is used in the entire New Testament.

Grumbler, gungustai. But it is the same word in the Septuagint version, that's the Greek version of the Old Testament, to describe the children of Israel who were grumbling for 40 years in the desert. And for which God judged them.

We saw back in verse 5 of the book of Jude. He delivered them out of Egypt and he destroyed them because they didn't believe. And one of the indicators they didn't believe is what they said, they grumbled. Children of Israel became experts at grumbling. They grumbled against God's law, against God's ways, against God's love, against God's leaders. They grumbled.

Notice what's next on the list, complainers. Now I know you're thinking, well that sounds redundant, like he says grumblers and complainers, but it means the same thing. Well actually it doesn't because this word, complainer, means to blame. To place blame on somebody.

And the idea is it describes somebody who is always discontent, always dissatisfied, but blames somebody else for it. Complainers. By the way, did you know that God takes complaining pretty seriously? It's like, oh well I know you're having a bad day, go ahead, just gripe. You know, gripe in the name of the Lord. Gripe in Jesus' name. No, he takes this really seriously, so seriously, that the children of Israel, their complaining was immortalized forever. So that every time the story would be told to subsequent generations about God delivering them from Egypt, this point would be made.

I'll just give you two examples. So fast forward from the children of Israel in the desert to the book of Psalms written by David, largely. Psalm 106 says, they despised the pleasant land, that's the promised land. They did not believe his word, but complained in their tents and did not heed the voice of the Lord. It's like man, it's been hundreds of years and you're still bringing that up? That they complained?

Uh huh. Now fast forward to the New Testament, Paul the Apostle, 1 Corinthians chapter 10 verse 10 says about these people, the Israelites in the desert, these things became our examples that we should not lust after evil things as they also lusted and do not become idolaters as some of them, nor let us commit sexual immorality as some of them did, nor complain as some of them also complained and were destroyed. Think God takes it seriously?

I do. And you want to know why I think it is? I think complaining insults God because it attacks God's sovereignty. See if you're a, you claim to be a follower of God, and you're always grumbling and always complaining, what you in effect are saying is God does a lousy job taking care of me.

God's love, God's care is not all that great when it comes to me. So just remember that when you complain, half the people who hear you complain don't care. And the other half are probably glad you're finally getting what's coming to you.

That's how that works. So their approach, these apostates, these false teachers, false professors, would murmur, complain, and cause other people to become dissatisfied with the church that he is writing to here, and plant those thoughts of discontentment because once those thoughts are planted, you can manipulate people like that. Now let me just throw this out. You want to end complaining. The solution I think is worshiping.

It's like the opposite. A praiser, a worshiper, somebody who's thankful and grateful, and that's the overflow of the heart. You know it's just inconsistent to have griping, grumbling, and worship and praise come out of the same mouth. That was James' whole point in his little New Testament book.

How can you have sour and fresh water come out of the same fountain? So I love what the psalmist said. He said, Your praise shall continually be in my mouth. I will bless the Lord at all times.

His praise shall continually be in my mouth. But these are grumblers. They are complainers. And then he says, Walking according to their own lust.

I'm going to get to that in a bit. But their speech continues in verse 16. And they mouth great swelling words. The Amplified Bible renders it, they are boastful and arrogant. The NSV, that's the new Skip version. I'm letting that sink in to see if you are listening.

I really don't have my own version. But I'm translating that as this one. These people are full of hot air. They're full of hot air. They're full of hot air. So this morning, this happened to me this morning. I get up in the morning, take my dogs out. Beautiful crisp beds. One of the things I love about this place are called hot air balloons.

And I couldn't see any, yet. But I'm out there with the dogs and I hear this noise. And what is the noise? Oh you guys are so good. You fell in this place with hot air.

That's what I heard. And then I hear it again. And I know, there's a hot air balloon somewhere. And I just waited, wait for it, wait for it.

About 20 hot air balloons in all were up in the sky. But one in particular was close to the house. And my dogs look up and what's the first thing a dog does when that happens? Start barking really loud. But that noise. Right, that Darth Vader noise.

There's some people, that's how they live their lives. They come into the room. Puffing up. Hot air.

Look at me. They mouth great, swelling words. They turn on the flame. One commentator says, They pompously puff themselves up with an elaborate, sophisticated, religious vocabulary that has an external spiritual tone but is void of truth. Proverbs 10, In the multitude of words sin is not lacking, but he who restrains his lips is wise. Consider this. The Lord's prayer has only 56 words. That's the model prayer. Jesus said pray this way. You want to pray?

Do this. 56 words. The Gettysburg Address has 266 words. The Ten Commandments, 297 words. The Declaration of Independence has 300 words.

But a recent US government order setting the price of cabbage has 26,911 words. Just saying. It's not how long we talk. It's what we say that counts. Notice what else they do.

What they say in verse 16. It's all about the speech. Flattering people to gain an advantage. That is, they tell people what they want to hear in order to influence them. So they get the impression they want to help you, but really it's all about them. They want to gratify themselves. You know, you do know, I'm sure. If you've ever read the book of Proverbs, you know that flattery is never a good thing.

Right? The Bible has a lot to say about that. One particular verse is Proverbs 29. Whoever flatters his neighbor is spreading a net for his feet. And the Hebrew word for flattery means literally smooth. They're smooth talkers. They oil you up.

They butter you up. And by the way, the English word flattery comes from the French word that means to stroke or caress with the flat of one's hand. Flattery.

To stroke with the flat of the hand. As a Puritan preacher Thomas Brooks said, while a donkey, though he used a different word in Old English, while a donkey is stroked under the belly, you may lay on his back what burden you please. That's the whole intent of these apostates.

They want to manipulate so they can lay their trip on you. That's Skip Heitzig with a message from the series Fight for the House. Now, here's Skip to tell you about how you can keep encouraging messages like this coming your way as you help connect others to God's truth. Jesus Christ is truth incarnate. He said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. And through him, we find the meaning of life, individual purpose as well as eternal hope. That's why we share these teachings everywhere we can to connect you with the real solid truth of Jesus.

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