Gloom and Doom! - Part B

Another reason that people apostatize is because you might not like this when I say it, but I'll explain it because they're not paying attention.

I know I sound like your teacher, right? Clash, you're not paying attention. But you can fall away because you're not really grabbing a hold of the truth.

You're not paying attention. Today on Connect with Skip Heitzig, Pastor Skip shows you why paying attention to truth and knowing God's Word is vitally important if you're to hold fast to it. 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. Okay, let's get started with Skip's teaching today. We're in Jude 1 as we begin. Did you know that Paul the Apostle actually had a minister, a colleague who apostatized, who walked away, who detracted, who fell away? His name was Demas. And when Paul writes about Demas, 2 Timothy chapter 4, one sentence, he says, Demas has forsaken me, having loved this present world. How would you like to have your name in the Bible like that forever? Demas has forsaken me, having loved this present world. Some are just so earthbound.

They're just after this momentary comfort. There's no real draw to Jesus and spirituality and discipleship. So persecution, mixed devotions. Another reason it can happen is because it's hard. It's just plain hard to follow Jesus for some, probably for all of us at one point. Jesus' teaching is hard.

Am I accurate about this? You ever read something I do where I go, that's hard. I got to teach that?

I got to live that? That's hard. You know that when people heard Jesus in John chapter 6, He gave a sermon, and it wasn't how to have your best life now or how to be prosperous. It was a pretty hard message. And they said in John chapter 6, this is a hard saying.

Who can hear it? And then we are told from that day forward, many of His disciples turned back and followed Him no more. The demands were too hard. They were too hard for the rich young ruler.

They were too hard for Judas Iscariot, though because it's hard. Another reason that people apostatize is because, you might not like this when I say it, but I'll explain it, because they're not paying attention. I know I sound like your teacher, right? Class, you're not paying attention. But you can fall away because you're not really grabbing a hold of the truth. You're not paying attention.

The approach is a superficial approach. Hebrews chapter 2, Paul, the apostle, whoever wrote Hebrews said, Therefore give the more earnest heed to the things you have heard, listen, lest at any time we drift away from them. Another reason it can happen is laziness.

Hebrews chapter 10, Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but do it all the more as you see the day approaching. You know, some people just aren't interested in coming to church. They want to distance themselves from it.

They don't want the influence of people around them, an accountability kind of a influence in their lives. And that's just a few reasons. There's any number of reasons the Bible has many more.

I'll give you a quick rundown. Satan's devices, an unbelieving heart, a hardened heart, rebellion, bitterness, immorality, disrespect of leadership, not mixing God's promises with faith. That's just a sampling of about those 30 or so reasons the Bible gives.

In fact, let me make this statement, because I believe it to be true in summing this point out. The most important thing is the majority of those people who are exposed to the gospel will turn away from it. The majority of those exposed to the gospel will turn away from it. If you think of the parable of the sower and the seed, if you ever looked at that just in terms of percentages, mathematics, of all the people that heard the truth in that parable, only 25 percent bore any kind of fruit, and a very small percentage of that bore what Jesus called a hundredfold fruit. No wonder that Jesus said, wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, narrow is the gate that leads to eternal life, and very few enter therein. Very few.

Not most, not a lot, few. No wonder Jesus said, many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, and he will say, depart from me. You will not enter the kingdom. So, great subject matter, that's the gloom. Now let's move on to the doom. Verse 14.

Don't worry, it's going to end encouraging. Now Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied about these men, also saying, behold, the Lord comes with 10,000 of the saints to execute judgment on all, to convict all who are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds, which they've committed in an ungodly way. As we noted on our first message in Jude, as we noted on our first message in Jude, he likes this word a lot, and of all the harsh things which ungodly sinners have spoken against him. Okay, we got to get something out of the way.

We got to address this. Jude mentions Enoch. Enoch, you remember from Genesis chapter five, he was a good guy. He's a godly guy. It says Enoch walked with God. If you want something on your tombstone, that's a good thing.

He walked with God. But scholars note that Jude is quoting from a source that is not a biblical source. They're quoting from 1 Enoch, a non-biblical book, an apocryphal book.

Some even believe a pseudopographical book, meaning it was a book with somebody's name on it, but written by somebody else. But he's quoting from it, and that bothers some people. How many quote something that's not from the Bible?

Well, I do it all the time. I will say, I read a Gallup poll this week, and the Gallup poll said this, or here's an article from the Albuquerque Journal, and I'll quote it. Believe me, I'm not saying the Albuquerque Journal is the inspired word of God.

Far from it. Or I'll quote a website, or what a preacher said. And what I'm doing is quoting a secular source, or a believing source, but not a biblical source, to simply buttress a point.

And so probably that is what Jude is doing. And by the way, Paul the Apostle did this. When Paul the Apostle stood before Athens and preached in Acts 17, did you know that he quoted secular sources? Did you know that Paul the Apostle quoted from pagan poets to the men of Athens?

He pulls this out, listen to this and see if you remember this. He said, for in him we live and move and have our being. You ever read that in Acts 17? Paul is quoting a 6th century BC Cretan poet by the name of Epimeneids, who said that, who wrote that. And then Paul said to the men of Athens, for we also are his offspring.

That is a quote directly from a 3rd century BC poet named Aretas of Soli. And when Aretas said, we also are his offspring, he was referring to Zeus. So Paul pulls that for the men of Athens, because he's making a point about the sovereign God, about Yahweh. So I think Jude is doing that here.

And so that's a side, let's get back to the point. Jude said, and here's the quote, behold the Lord comes with 10,000 of his saints to execute judgment on all. Perhaps, when Enoch said this, he was referring to the coming judgment of the flood, because he lived right before the flood.

And the judgment that God poured out on the earth in the coming judgment of the flood, the judgment that God poured out on the earth in his day was the flood. But what Jude is saying is the final application of this prophecy will be in the end times when Jesus returns. So here's the point Jude is making.

You can have all these false teachers and apostates spouting this off and embedding themselves in the congregation and leading people astray. But what I want you to know, Jude would say, is God will always have the last word. God always has the final word.

He gets as God the right to make the decisive choice about their future. And in their case, this case, it is judgment. Now, you can see what a crafty preacher I am, because I said that we have two points to this sermon, when if you look at your outline, there's actually 10, right? So I kind of divided it into five reasons why these people are dangerous. That's the gloom. And then five features of the coming judgment.

That's the doom. But I'm going to go through these very quickly. Something about this judgment. First of all, it will be personal. The coming judgment is personal.

Notice it says, behold, the Lord comes. God himself will judge the world. He won't delegate this to the judgment committee. It won't be judgment by proxy. He'll do it. It'll be personal. Now, do you mind if I gave you a quick thumbnail rundown, maybe a one-minute summation of the future judgment in a nutshell?

Can I do that really quick? Okay, so here's how it's going to roll down. Here's how it's going to come down. First of all, it's going to begin. The future judgment is going to begin on earth with a seven-year tribulation period called by biblical authors, the Word of God. Biblical authors, the worst period of time in human history. Described in the book of Revelation chapter 6 through 16 as judgments that are seals, trumpets, and bowls.

Cataclysms that happen on the earth. That will culminate in a battle called the Battle of Armageddon, Revelation 16 and Revelation 19, when Jesus comes back. When Jesus comes back, at the end of that, he's going to set up his kingdom that will be a thousand-year reign of Christ on the earth, during which time Satan will be bound. At the end of that thousand years, Satan gets released.

There will be one final rebellion that for some reason God allows. And then Satan and his minions, his followers, will be cast into the lake of fire forever. After that will come what's called the Great White Throne Judgment, where all unbelievers stand before God to get the final sentence. So the first phase of the judgment is earthly. The second phase of the judgment is heavenly. That's the nutshell theology of future judgment. So it's going to be personal.

A second thing to note, it's going to be coalitional. Let me do this for you. Notice it says the Lord comes with 10,000 of his saints. So yeah, he's the one that's going to do it, but he's going to allow others to be witnesses and even help him carry it out, because he's coming with 10,000 of the saints.

I have a question for you. Who are the saints he's coming with? Who are they?

Okay, I hear the church, I hear us. Any other guesses? Angels. Did I hear angels? So here's the answer.

I don't know. It's either us or it's angels or both, right? So he's coming back with us.

Revelation 19, he's coming back with us. Also Colossians chapter 3 verse 4 says, when Christ, who is our life, shall appear, we will appear with him in glory. So it could be us, but it could also be angels, because when Jesus spoke about the future judgment, he said, and the angels are going to be there to help administer that. That's Matthew 24, Matthew 25. And this in Matthew 13, therefore, as the tares are gathered and burned in the fire, so it will be at the end of the age, the Son of Man will send out his angels and they will gather out of the kingdom all things that offend and those who practice lawlessness and will cast them into the furnace of fire. So that sort of fits with this text. So it's either us or the angels or both.

So that's why I said, I don't know. But it will be coalitional. The third thing to notice, it will be universal, because notice it says to execute judgment on all. Nobody gets a pass. No unbeliever escapes. Every unbeliever, everyone who has said no to God will face this. Another important facet, and this is important, it will be equitable. It'll be fair. It'll be fair.

Because we are told this, to execute judgment on all, to convict all who are ungodly, a better translation, a better word than convict is convince. He will come and convince those that he is about to judge of the fairness of it. There'll be none of this. That's not fair. There'll be none of that.

Not going to work on judgment day. God will convince them this is right. This is fair. You know, it's an interesting court scene that is described for us, the last judgment, because it's going to be not like an earthly court. There's no debate about guilt.

It's not like, wait a minute, I object. None of that. There'll be a prosecution, but no defense. There will be a judge. There will not be a jury. There'll be a sentence, but no appeal.

There will be punishment, but no parole. And the entire procedure will be absolutely fair and right. Because the Bible says when God judges, the anthems of heaven will be this, just and true are your judgments, or righteous and true are your judgments. That's right.

Like, that's right. And they'll be fair because God is presiding over them. See, God has a couple of attributes that no human judge has. God is omnipresent. He's everywhere at the same time in all places. So that means God is the best eyewitness of every sin ever committed by every person. He's also omniscient. He knows everything. So he just didn't know what happened.

He knows motive. So it will be fair, and you should know this, in Revelation when God judges at the great white throne, it says the books are opened. The books are opened. In other words, God has a very complete, replete, detailed inventory of a person's life.

The books are opened. And I can't prove this, but maybe in those books is a record of every time that person had an opportunity to give their lives to Christ. Every time they heard the gospel and said, nah, I'll pass. It's like that's brought up, and that's brought up.

It will be equitable. And finally, and we close with this, this is the hardest one, it will be eternal. The end of verse 13.

For whom is reserved the blackness of darkness for a week? I'm sorry, for a decade. Now, I hate to tell you that, but the word there is forever. So I have problems with that.

Join the crowd. It's not easy to hear this forever. But I got to tell you this, if hell is not forever, then heaven is not forever. If hell is not eternal, then heaven is not eternal. If hell is not everlasting, then heaven is not everlasting. Because when Jesus described in one sentence in the gospel of Matthew chapter 25, when he discussed hell and heaven, punishment and glory, he used the same word, everlasting, everlasting, eternal, eternal.

So if hell is not eternal, then neither is heaven. Okay, so gloom and doom. I want you to walk away with two things.

Number one, just two little thoughts as we close. We don't judge you here. No matter who you are, we welcome you here. We want you to hear truth. We want you to be exposed to the gospel. We want you to hear what the Bible says. We don't judge you.

That's not our role. God will judge you, and God will judge me. No, I'm not going to stand before you at judgment. I'll stand before God. You will not stand before me. You will stand before God. So God will be the judge. We don't judge you here. We welcome you.

Number two, I want you to know this. Hear this. Judgment is not God's happy place. I don't want you to think of the great white throne judgment and God's kind of waiting for that. It's like the day comes, like, hot dog.

I've been waiting to judge people for a long time. He hates it. He will do it, but He doesn't want to do it.

You know how I know that? It says He is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repent. That's the heart of God.

He didn't want that. God said, I have no, this is Ezekiel 33, I have no pleasure, says the Lord, in the death of the wicked. And then He says to His people, turn, turn, for why will you die? Did you know that hell was not prepared for people?

When Jesus spoke about hell, He said, it is everlasting fire, that's eternal, everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels. Hell was not made for people. God didn't want to do it.

You go, I know you're thinking, well, then why does He do it? Because God is pro-choice when it comes to eternal matters. God will honor a person's choice. Personally, I don't want God in my life. I don't want God controlling me. I don't want to have to hang out with God forever.

You don't have to. He won't make you. G.K. Chesterton said, hell is God's great complement to the reality of human freedom and the dignity of human choice. God lets people choose. He will honor your choice.

So the gloom that brings the doom is something you don't have to be a part of. I love what James said, mercy triumphs over judgment. God loves to show mercy. God loves to pour favor and loves to forgive. When somebody says, God forgive me, He goes, yes, I get to let that person go to heaven forever and escape damnation forever. I love that.

That's what He wants. Now, remember I said that some people turned away from Jesus because they said, this is too hard. This is too hard. And many that day followed Him no more. Jesus, after that happened, turned to His 12 disciples and said, will you also leave? And Peter said, where else would we go? You alone have the words of eternal life.

I want to ask you that question. If you're thinking about like, I'm done now. I'm done with church now. I'm done with God.

I'm done with Jesus. Where are you going to go? Where else are you going to go for forgiveness? Where else are you going to go for hope and peace and meaning in life and heaven? Well, I'm just going to quit. Where else are you going to go? Don't go.

Hang in there. Let Him protect you. Let Him preserve you. Let Him work with you. Lean hard into Him.

And if you are teetering, come back to Him. That's Skip Hyten with a message from the 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 Heitzig 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. God desires for us to know Him intimately and personally, and He's revealed Himself in the pages of Scripture so we can do that. That's why we share these messages, to help you connect to God through His Word and grow in your walk through a relationship with Him. And when you give to support this ministry, you keep these teachings you love available to you and so many others around the world, helping others grow and connect with God. Just call 800-922-1888 to give a gift today. That's 800-922-1888 or visit connectwithskip.com slash donate. That's connectwithskip.com slash donate. Thank you. Be sure to join us tomorrow as Pastor Skip demonstrates how to spot a deceiver with his message, Acts of the Apostates. These are grumblers, complainers, walking according to their own lust. They mouth great swelling words, flattering people to gain advantage. Connect with Skip Hyten is a presentation of Connection Communications, connecting you to God's never changing truth in ever changing times.