The Acts of the Apostates - Part A

How can you tell an apostate? 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. Today on Connect with Skip Hyten, Pastor Skip begins his message, Acts of the Apostates, and begins to show you how you can spot a deceiver. But first, here's a resource that will help you give your kids a firm foundation of faith. Attention moms, dads, and anyone who's looking to help children understand the message of the Bible. This month we're offering the book Soaring Through the Bible for Kids.

God's word can be a challenge to read and understand, even for adults. And this kid-friendly version of Pastor Skip Hyten's popular book, The Bible from 30,000 Feet, gives young children and tweens a panoramic overview of all 66 books of the Bible, helping them see the context and significance of each. Soaring Through the Bible is a travel guide from Genesis through Revelation for kids. Each chapter provides a flight plan for exploring a portion of the Bible, along with a brief synopsis that shows what the chapters are about and language kids can understand. Creatively designed with kids in mind, Soaring Through the Bible also features fun illustrations and fascinating facts to keep young minds and hearts engaged and interested. Soaring Through the Bible for Kids will prepare a child for take-off on a lifelong journey of learning and loving God's word. We will send you a copy of this unique book, along with a booklet for you by Skip titled Why Truth Matters. Simply make a donation to support and expand this radio program with a gift of $50 or more.

Call 1-800-922-1888 or order online at connectwithskip.com. Great. Now let's turn to Jude 1 as we join Skip for today's teaching. I really like this motif that we have up here. You know, 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 as 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 a 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 proclaimed 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 this 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. He 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 so 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. 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. 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 grumblers complainers walking according to their own lusts. They mouth great swelling words flattering people to gain advantage but you beloved remember the words which were spoken before by the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ how they told you that there would be mockers in the last time who would walk according to their own ungodly lusts. These are sensual persons who cause 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 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 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 lusts 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 go to the doctor and the doctor would take me in 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 but what's sometimes on your tongue what color is if there's bacteria if it 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 it 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 grumble or 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 I mean 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 he takes this really seriously so seriously that the children of Israel they're 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 despise 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 1st 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 I think God takes it seriously I do and 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 up 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 they are complainers and then he says walking according to their own lusts 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 so this morning this happened to me this morning I get up in the morning take my dogs out beautiful crisp baits 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 well you guys are so good you're you're filling 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 10 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 that concludes Skip heitzig's message from the series fight for the house find the full message as well as books booklets and full teaching series at connectwithskip.com right now listen as Skip shares how you can connect more people around the world with the unchanging truth of God's word you know Christians need to study the bible in order to understand what God really wants from our lives now this broadcast ministry exists to connect you and others around the world to God's word so you can see and do his will I'd like to invite you to join us in that important work today through your support you can expand this ministry into even more major U.S. cities and help even more people respond to the life-changing truth of the bible plus you're going to keep these teachings available to you wherever you listen would you partner with me in this effort here's how you can give a gift today visit connectwithskip.com slash donate to give a gift that's connectwithskip.com slash donate or call 800-922-1888 800-922-1888 thank you for your generosity come back tomorrow as Skip concludes his message and discover what motivates an apostate to stay in church despite their unbelief why would anybody who's soulish and not spiritual who's driven by their own lusts want to hang out and stay in church well I think I know why I think it's simply so they can say I go to church I'm a believer I love God all the while just sort of hanging around staying there never changing it's never rooted it's never real it's never authentic so they can live how they want to and have a stamp of religious approval make a connection at the foot of the crossing cast all burdens on his word make a connection Connect with Skip Hyton is a presentation of Connection Communications connecting you to God's never-changing truth in ever-changing times.