The Fight: Ancient and Modern - Part A

The most haunting question I think I've ever heard from the lips of Jesus is when Jesus said, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?

It's a scary question for Jesus to ask. Today on Connect with Skip Heitzig, Pastor Skip shares his message, The Fight, Ancient and Modern, and continues to look at the troubling problem of apostasy. Vision for the future is not a blind leap of faith. This is Pastor Skip reminding you that present vision needs to be informed by God's past faithfulness, his actions in the present, and his promises for the future. That's why we have prepared a special vision package.

Here's more information on this resource. Listen to what the message version of the Bible says about the necessity of a clear vision for the future. If people can't see what God is doing, they stumble all over themselves.

But when they attend to what he reveals, they are most blessed. Vision for your life. That's the theme of our resource package that features five excellent full length messages by Skip, including six things that will surprise you about heaven and God's purpose for people. Now, here's a comment from Skip Heitzig on the topic of purpose. God has a desire. God has a purpose for you. And one of his purposes for you is that you know him, that he walk with you, that you do life together with him. Do you walk with God?

Is that a concern of yours? Is that a stated goal in your head, in your heart? I want to walk with God. I want to live to please God.

I want to know God. Clear vision for your life. That's the theme of our vision resource package that features five excellent full length messages by Skip, including six things that will surprise you about heaven and God's purpose for people. You'll want to order our vision resource package for this month, which also features a full color magazine about the vision that drives Skip's ministry. You'll also receive an audio copy of Skip clearly outlining his philosophy of ministry in the past, present, and future. Receive your vision package when you make a donation of $50 or more to connect with Skip. Give your gift by calling 1-800-922-1888 or online at connectwithskip.com.

That's 1-800-922-1888 or connectwithskip.com. Let's get started. We're in Jude chapter one as Skip begins today's teaching. So after last week's message, I've got lots of feedback, positive feedback, lots of notes and cards and emails and texts thanking me for the message. And it's funny because I thought, well, gosh, the feistier I am, the more they like it.

So buckle your seatbelt for number two. We're going to be in Jude verses five through 11. Matthew Henry, I'm going to throw this up on the screen. Matthew Henry, a Bible commentator said, hypocrisy is to do the devil's work in God's uniform.

So just think about that. Doing the devil's work in God's uniform, you dress the part, but it's not who you are. Apostasy, which is the subject of the book of Jude is related to hypocrisy, except if hypocrisy is doing the devil's work in God's uniform, apostasy is where you just take the uniform off and let people see who you really are and have been all along. So if hypocrisy is putting on a show, then apostasy is leaving the theater altogether.

And people can wear God's uniform for a long time until for whatever reason, either they have their own crisis of faith or they come to a point where they just don't believe anymore or they never have believed can happen. One of the outspoken critics of Christianity over decades has been a guy by the name of Ted Turner. Ted Turner is a media mogul. He's the founder of CNN and a number of other like portals and outlets, but he has criticized Christianity. He went on record in an Atlanta newspaper saying Jesus probably would be sick to his stomach over the way his ideas have been twisted. Now, I read that and I thought, well, that's a little arrogant, right?

It's almost like saying nobody has gotten it right in the past, but now I do. I understand what Jesus really meant. Everybody else, they've twisted it, but that's what he said. He said that he had a strict Christian upbringing and at one time considered becoming a missionary.

I don't know. I have a hard time thinking of Ted Turner as a missionary, but I'll go with it. He said, and he said this mockingly, he said, I've been saved seven or eight times. But then he said he became disenchanted with Christianity after his sister died, despite all of his prayers.

But here's his closing remark. The more I strayed from the faith, the better I felt. The more I strayed from the faith, the better I felt. He just framed apostasy. Don't be surprised when you hear of Christian leaders who say, I don't believe that anymore. Don't be too shocked when you read of or hear of a Christian influencer who goes on social media and renounces his or her faith. Don't be too astonished when a theologian starts deconstructing the truth. That's their term, deconstructing.

And that has the idea of revisiting truth and rethinking beliefs that were once held as valid or true. That's not new. It's as old as the hills and twice as dusty. I mean, it's been going on a long time. It's not novel. It's not new. According to Jude, it's been going on at least 2000 years. And according to Jude's writing in this letter, it's been going on for about 4000 years.

Goes all the way back. So it's not new. It's not novel, but it is noteworthy because Jesus predicted that there would be a period of time before his second coming that would be marked by spiritual deception. In fact, you remember he gave a parable, the parable of the tares and the wheat. He said the wheat was sown, but somebody came and threw in tares. A tare is a weed. And the word he used, the darnell, is a weed that even a seasoned farmer cannot tell the difference between the weed and the wheat until it ripens. And he has to get really close to mark the difference.

But the idea is you can have them growing together. One looks just as real as the other. But it's fake.

It's not real. It is apostate. And then the most haunting question I think I've ever heard from the lips of Jesus is when Jesus said, When the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth? It's a scary question for Jesus to ask. When the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?

Move forward to the book of Revelation. Jesus gives seven letters to seven churches. In Revelation 3, one of the little postcards he writes is to the church of Laodicea.

The entire church is filled with apostates. Jesus isn't even in that church. He's on the outside knocking to get in.

That's where we get the text. Behold, I stand at the door and knock. He's knocking on the door of the church because he's outside of it. In fact, there are no believers in that church except a few precious overcomers.

Jesus gives them that name. Paul predicted that, as we saw last week, he said in the end times, there will be falling away. That's apostasy. He said, Many will depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of demons.

In fact, did you know this? Every single New Testament book, except for one, the book of Philemon, has warnings against false teaching. So the whole New Testament says this is coming down the pike. The book of Jude has as its theme, that word I brought out last week, the theme of apostasy. The Greek word apostasia, a departure, a falling away. The renowned New Testament scholar Gerhard Kittel will define that as a rebellion, a rebel. He said, It's someone who rebels against the faith they once claimed to believe. Now that can happen as an individual.

It can happen as a group. You can have a person who is an apostate. You can have a church assembly that by their statement of faith is apostate. You can have an entire denominational structure that is apostate.

And here's the thing. You can't like tell. Nobody carries a badge that says, Hi, I'm an apostate.

How can I help you? People don't put bumper stickers on their car. Honk if you're an apostate.

Nobody does that. So the similarity is not going to be outward. But I remind you of what Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 11. Satan disguises himself as an angel of light.

It's no big deal if his ministers disguise themselves as ministers of righteousness. New Testament scholar R.C. Lenski have always loved his books, said, The worst forms of wickedness consist in perversions of the truth. So what I want to do is look at Jude verse five through verse 11 this morning, this paragraph. And I want to show you three basic lessons as we step into the ring and put up a good fight for the faith, defend earnestly the faith that was once delivered to the saints. So the first truth is this is that truth needs a memory. Truth needs a memory. Let me take it to verse five and let me show you this.

But I want to remind you, though you once knew this. Then he reaches back to the Old Testament that he supposes they knew that the Lord, having saved the people out of the land of Egypt afterward, destroyed those who did not believe. Jude is appealing to their memory. He's appealing to what they already learned, presumably because it was a Jewish audience. I'm guessing Jude lived in Jerusalem, was writing to the Jerusalem church. He's writing to Jewish believers who heard and knew all of these stories from their growing up, all of these stories of the Old Testament.

And Jude is going to bring out several Old Testament examples that they would have been familiar with. He goes, I want to remind you of this. I know you already know it, but I want to remind you. And here's the principle. Truth needs a memory. Lessons must be recalled for those lessons to be active. For truth to have an impact in the present, we must remember the past.

Okay, this happens in a number of levels. Every September 11th, for almost the last 20 years, at ground zero in Manhattan, New York City, at ground zero, the names of those people who died in the World Trade Towers are read publicly. Why every year?

Why go through that? So no one forgets that. Let's say I did never forget that. Also, it's the same with December 7th, every year in Hawaii, because of what happened in 1941, the famous words of FDR. Yesterday, December 7th, 1941, a day which will live in infamy, the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor. So every year in Pearl Harbor, the names of the dead are recited. There's a commemoration relatives come so that America never forgets.

If you go with us to Israel, we'll take you to Yad Vashem, the Holocaust Memorial, where you will see evidence of the Nazis decimating, killing six million Jews in the 1940s. And you walk out with such a heavy heart, having seen the evidence, but the overwhelming thought is, I must never forget what has happened in recent history. And so he writes to them and he says, I want to remind you, though you once knew this, truth needs a memory. That, by the way, is the goal of preaching. It's why we preach. Matthew Henry again said, preaching is not designed to teach us something new in every sermon, but to put us in remembrance, to call to mind things forgotten. So didn't God do this a lot with the children of Israel? Deuteronomy Chapter 8, He said this, you shall remember all the way the Lord your God led you these past 40 years.

That's a commandment. I want you to remember it. And what did God give to them so they could remember it? Passover.

Every year, the Jews were to meet in their homes, have a Passover celebration. It's still commemorated to this day. It's to keep the memory alive. Truth needs a memory. Jesus took the Passover and used that to tell his disciples to do that. He said, do this in remembrance of me. When you take these elements, it's going to speak of my death, my suffering, and my subsequent resurrection. Truth needs a memory. Paul wrote to the Romans and said, I've written to you quite boldly on some points as if to remind you of them again. Peter did the same thing. 2 Peter Chapter 1. So I will always remind you of these things, even though you know them and are firmly established in the truth you now have. Yes, I think it is right, as long as I'm in this tent, this body, to stir you up by reminding you.

You know, it's a funny thing. I have taught the Bible almost my entire adult life. I've had the opportunity to teach every verse of every chapter of every book of the Bible a few different times, all the way through. And I even wrote a book called The Bible from 30,000 Feet. So you think, this guy probably knows the Bible. You know, every time I read the Bible, you know what thought I'm struck with? How much I have forgotten since the last time I read that. Now, this came to my mind because I just finished this little Bible plan that I was a part of for 90 days reading through the entire Bible, Genesis to Revelation, in 90 days.

That's about 15 chapters a day. So I did it. And every time I'd go through, I'd go, I forgot that was there.

I forgot that was there. It's so good, but I'd forgotten about it. And it was so rewarding, I thought, after I finished it, I'm going to do it again.

So now I'm on round two. And I don't know if I keep this up, but if I did, I suppose I could go through the entire Bible four times a year. But the point is truth needs to be reinforced, reinstilled, reintroduced, recalled, repeated for every generation because we forget stuff, right? Good teachers, like Jesus, often repeated themselves. I remember when I first read the New Testament, cracked it open. It was just a New Testament. And the first book I came to was the book of Matthew. That's the first book in the New Testament. I start reading through it.

I go, wow, this is awesome. I'm really learning about this Jesus. Then I finished Matthew and I started reading the second book, which is Mark. And my thought going through Mark is, didn't I just read this? Isn't this like just like the book right before it?

And so I finished that. It was the same story, but a little bit shorter than I am in the third book. And it's the Gospel of Luke. And it's like they're doing it again. They just like to tell the same story over and over and over again.

And went to the Gospel of John, a little bit different, but same basic story. And I just remember as a young believer going, why is this thing repeated? And there's a number of reasons. But one great reason is that some stories are so important, you need to hear them over and over again. And one of the grand reasons is because what I just said, we forget stuff. One development journal and training journal I found said people will retain 25% of what they hear.

That's at best. It means that no matter how much I prepare and pour into and spend hours getting ready for this sermon or this teaching in a classroom, my students, if they're engaged and not reading their cell phones and tuned in and taking notes are going to retain 25%. So I want to remind you, though you once knew this, it's the same truths they grew up hearing. We don't need new truths. We don't need novel truths. We need never changing truth. We need noble truth. And that's what we have here. So truth needs a memory. The second lesson we come to in stepping into the ring for this battle is that judgment has a history.

Now watch what Jude does. He goes back and gives them a few different examples from the past. Verse five, I want to remind you, though you once knew this, that the Lord, having saved the people out of the land of Egypt, that is the people of Israel, the Jewish people, the children of Israel, having saved them out of Egypt, afterward destroyed those who did not believe and the angels. So that's one.

Here's the second example. The angels who did not keep their proper domain, but left their own abode. He has reserved in everlasting chains under darkness for the judgment of the great day. And then there's a third example. Verse seven, as Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities around them in a similar manner to these, having given themselves over to sexual immorality and God after strange flesh are set forth as an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire. Three examples from the past to warn them of this truth. God is not afraid to judge even those in the most favored positions.

First on the list, nation of Israel. We know the story. They were in Egypt. God delivered them miraculously to the wilderness. He opened up the Red Sea. That's one miracle. Sent plagues on the Egyptians. That's another miracle. Fed them with manna that came from heaven, gave them water out of the rock, followed them around with a cloud by day.

Right? So that's important in the Sinai desert. Think of Phoenix in summertime with a cloud cover over it permanently.

So that's a nice feature, right, to have. God did that for 40 years. Not only that, but at night it was a pillar of fire. So he tucked them in bed with a nightlight for 40 years.

And he preserved them for 40 years. But at the same time, it says God destroyed those who did not believe. God destroyed the entire generation of the children of Israel, age 20 and above, except for two people. Joshua and Caleb were the only survivors of the original group that came out of Egypt. Everybody else died. You go, well, why did God do that?

Because of apostasy. They kept turning away. They kept rebelling. Not once, not twice, over and over. And over again. One of the things they said is, take us back to Egypt.

Can you imagine being a slave and be set free and then you want to go back to slavery? And they even cried this out. This is one thing. They cried out in the wilderness. Oh, that we had died in the wilderness. Oh, that we had died in the wilderness. And God said, okay, I'll answer that prayer.

If that's what you want, I'll let you do that. And so for the next 40 years, it was a funeral march. One person tried to figure it out. He figured there were at least 1.2 million people who died in the wilderness, given what we know in the historical record.

That means there were approximately 85 funerals a day or seven per waking hour. So they were reminded day by day as another person was buried and another person that God will judge those who turn away and do not believe. And by the way, notice these are unbelievers. He destroyed those who do not believe. It was their unbelief that led to their destruction. God wasn't going to let unbelieving apostates into the promised land. Jude's point is that the deliverer of Israel became the destroyer of Israel. That the Savior can also be the judge, that the God of love is also a God of wrath, that both of those go together. So that's the first example, the nation of Israel.

The second example are the angels of God, the angels, verse six, who did not keep their proper domain, but left their own abode. He is reserved in everlasting chains under darkness for the judgment of the great day. That's Skip Heitig with a message from his series, Fight for the House. Find the full message as well as books, booklets, and full teaching series at ConnectWithSkip.com. Now, here's Skip with an invitation for you to join he and Lenya Heitig on a Holy Land tour next year. Hey, our 2024 Israel tour is coming up.

This is Pastor Skip, and we still have space on this trip that Lenya and I are hosting. We will be touring Israel from May 1st through May 12th. I hope that you'll join us firsthand to see some incredible sights like the Sea of Galilee.

I'm sure you've always wanted to see that. The Temple Mount in Jerusalem and the Garden Tomb, the place many people believe is where Jesus rose from the dead. The final deadline for registration is December 31st, so there's still time to take action and join Lenya and I for the trip of a lifetime.

Find full Israel information at ConnectWithSkip.com. We're glad you've joined us today. Connect with Skip Heitzig exists to bring more people into God's family and connect listeners like you to his unchanging truth. That's why we make teachings like this one today available to you and others on air and online.

If they've helped you connect with Christ today, would you consider giving a gift to help others around the world connect with him in the same way today? Just call 800-922-1888. That's 800-922-1888 or visit ConnectWithSkip.com slash donate. That's ConnectWithSkip.com slash donate. Thank you. Join us again tomorrow as Skip examines the way of Cain to show you what works without faith produces. . Connect with Skip Heitzig is a presentation of Connection Communications, connecting you to God's never-changing truth in ever-changing times.