The Acts of the Apostates - Part B

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 because they want religious sanction for their sinful deeds. Today on Connect with Skip Heitig, Pastor Skip concludes his message, the Acts of the Apostates, and examines why someone would keep going to church despite having abandoned the faith. Now we want to tell you about a resource that will help your children know God's Word and understand and defend His truth. 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 Heitig'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 takeoff 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. Okay, now we're going to be in Jude 1 as we join Skip for today's lesson. 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 U.S. 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 give 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 and they oil you up.

They're 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.

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. Now, I just want to, before we move on, say this, give you a little note on this. I don't want to turn you into a reactionary. I don't want every conversation you have in church so you give people the stink eye. It's like, yeah, oh, you're acting really nice and spiritual.

What's up? I don't want you to do that. I don't want you to be the gospel Gestapo. But I do want you to learn to discern. I do want the gatekeepers to have character to be able to tell truth from error. As Paul said in 1 Thessalonians 5, test all things.

Hold fast to that which is good. And part of the testing comes by what people say. And if they're always grumbling and always complaining or using flattery and bragging about themselves, you got a problem. Now, what a person thinks on the inside and then says from their mouth is going to spill out into their behavior which brings us to the second category of activity, their walk. So the first is the words they verbalize. That's verse 16. Let's look at the walk that they personalize. Notice in verse 16, after describing a couple of noticeable elements of their speech, grumblers, complainers, look at this, walking according to their own lusts.

And that just means strong desires, their own desires. Go down to verse 18, how they told you, they being the apostles, I'll get to that in a minute, how they told you that there would be mockers in the last time who would, here it is again, walk according to their own ungodly lust. Their talk points to their walk. Now, you know that walk in the Bible is a figurative expression. Just like you have legs that walk, you have a spiritual walk.

And the idea of one's walk is one's lifestyle, one's outward conduct, one's behavior. I've always loved the story about Moody, D.L. Moody, the Chicago evangelist, having a conversation with his buddy as they're talking. The man he's talking to has a friend who's in the background who's kind of walking back and forth, and Moody says to his friend in the conversation, I bet your friend was in the army. And the man said, yeah, how did you know that? Moody said, I can tell by the way he walks.

He has that military kind of gait. And so you can tell by the way a person walks. You can tell by what they say, but you really tell by how they live their lifestyle. And notice, they walk according to their own lust.

He says that twice in the passage. Simply means they follow their own cravings. That's their rule of life.

That's their walk. It's self-centeredness. They give reign to their passion. Gotta follow my passion. No, you don't.

That bad advice. Because a lot of times what you want isn't good, isn't godly, and isn't necessarily what God wants. But they walk according to their own passions, their own lusts, their own desires.

He adds a little more color to that. Look in the 19th verse. These are sensual persons who cause divisions, not having the spirit. Now, the word sensual persons, right, that's English, sensual persons. In Greek, it's sensual persons. In Greek, it's one word. Jude says, these are sukakoi, which means soulish person.

Now get this, that word is important. Sukakoi was a word used in ancient Greek times, which was the opposite of another word, pneumaticoi. Pneumaticoi means spiritual ones. The opposite of a spiritual one is a sukakoi, right?

Paul translates it in 1 Corinthians, chapter 2, the natural man. The natural man does not understand the things of the spirit. So simply what Jude is saying is, they're not led by the spirit.

They think and they act like a natural man. They're driven by their own fleshly desires, which begs the question, because Jude said in the beginning, these people have snuck into your church and they're staying there. 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 because they want religious sanction for their sinful deeds. I think it's simply so they can say, I go to church, 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. He further describes them as those who cause divisions in verse 19. Now that's probably the consequence of letting people like that stay around. They get in groups, they talk to people, they cause dissatisfaction, they divide the church.

It could even be their motive. But then look at the very end of that, not having the spirit. So that kind of tells us their true spiritual condition. They're unsaved. They're unsaved.

They are not regenerated by the Holy Spirit. They are spiritually dead. I bet some of them claim to have more of the spirit than everybody else. No, we're really spiritual. We're the real spiritual ones. Actually, you don't even have the Holy Spirit, Jude is saying. So whatever they claim theologically, in reality, they're grumbling and murmuring and complaining and smooth talking and living and acting very unspiritual. Okay, this is deep stuff.

This is hard stuff. As we've said in every message in Jude, this is some slogging through the mud here. You know, this isn't like happy times sermon. So I know this was written to the church authentic believers to watch out for those apostates among them, but this is probably a good time to let this be a warning to any one of us who claim to name the name of Christ. Anybody who claims to be a Christian, do you realize that all of us should really think if that's the case?

You say, what do you mean? Doubt our salvation? No, just examine yourself.

That is exactly what Paul said in 2 Corinthians 13 verse 5. Listen to what he writes. Examine yourselves as to whether you are in the faith. I mean, just really check it out. Make sure, is this real?

Is this true? Is my profession reality? Examine yourselves whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves, Paul writes. Keith Miller wrote this, it has never ceased to amaze me that we Christians have developed a kind of selective vision which allows us to be deeply and sincerely involved in worship and church activities and yet almost totally pagan in the day in, day out guts of our business lives and never realize it. You can be a theological Christian while at the same time be a practical atheist.

If you think about it, this is the worst form of blasphemy, to claim to know God but live as though God didn't even exist. That's their walk. That's their words, that's their walk. That takes us to the third category and that is the warning that Jude gives, the warnings they characterize. Look at verse 17 and I'm glad he says this, but you, now he's pivoting and next week is the really great pivot but it says but you, he's turning the corner here, but you be loved or loved ones, the ones whom I deeply have affection for, remember the words which were spoken before by the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ. So who are the apostles?

I can think of a few. Peter's one, John's another one, James is another one, right? There were several apostles that followed Jesus.

They wrote books in the New Testament. Paul said he was an apostle born out of due time. So think of the words of the apostles. Remember the words that were spoken before by the apostles of the Lord Jesus Christ, how they told you that there would be mockers in the last time who would walk according to their own ungodly laws. Now go back to the day of Pentecost when the church was born.

What an exciting time that must have been. Spirit gets poured out, thousands of people get saved, the church is pure, the church is powerful, they meet daily, they're so geeked, they're so excited, they devoted themselves steadfastly to the apostles doctrine, breaking of bread, fellowship, prayer, all that. And then you keep reading in the book of Acts and you have the record of church history, the early church, the apostolic church, and they're evangelizing all over the world, they're planting churches everywhere, the Roman empire is greatly impacted by that. But even in those early days, the apostles were given the privilege of seeing into the future. And what they saw terrified them. It terrified them.

It was bizarre. So what did the apostles prophesy? Of the coming of Christ? Yes.

Of the rapture of the church? Yep. Of the new heavens and the new earth? Yep. Of the eternal kingdom? Yep.

Of joy and bliss forever in eternity? Yes. Yes.

Yes. But they also predicted something horrifically frightening. They predicted that the church would defect from the truth.

They predicted that the church would abandon the gospel. Jesus did. Paul did. Peter did.

John did. In fact, I told you in a couple messages ago, every single New Testament book, except for one, that's Philemon, has writings about falseness, falsehood, apostasy, false teaching. In fact, they predicted it would engulf entire congregations. It must have been the greatest prophetic shock to these apostles. God's letting them see into the future, like, oh, that's cool. Jesus is coming back. And oh, man, joy, peace. But wait a minute.

He's telling me something else. Whole congregations. You want to know when.

You want to know how quickly. So Jude is written. And about 25 years later, just 25 years, John writes the book of Revelation, the next book in the New Testament. In chapter 2 and 3 are seven letters to seven congregations, churches. Five, five out of seven, so that many out of this, out of this, were already fulfilling the predictions made by the apostles that the church would fall away. Already in the book of Revelation, the church of Ephesus left its first love. The church of Pergamos was full of corruption and heresy. The church of Thyatira was so wicked that Jesus even threatened to kill some people who were in it. The church of Sardis was pronounced dead by Jesus.

He said, I know you have a name that you are alive, but you're actually dead. And then there's the famous church of Laodicea that made the Lord so sick that he said, I'm going to vomit you out of my mouth. And it's still the first century.

It's 95 AD. Doesn't take long, does it? Happened very, very quickly, like all the apostles said. So when you go back, when he says, but beloved, you 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 times who would walk according to their own godly lust. He's simply saying, just remember you were always told it would be this way.

Now here's a question. Why would the Holy Spirit inform the apostles about that? Why not just talk about heaven, rapture, you know, new heaven, new earth, all the good stuff? Why would he tell them that?

I think it's pretty easy to figure that out. He told them that so that when it would happen, they wouldn't be what? Surprised. They wouldn't be shocked. They wouldn't go, oh, something has gone terribly wrong with the church. He's saying, no, nothing is happening now that hasn't happened in the Old Testament, that hasn't happened even in heaven, that didn't happen with the children of Israel in the desert. It happened with the children of Israel after the greatest deliverance in their history.

It happened in the very throne room of heaven with Satan himself. So this shouldn't shock you. This shouldn't surprise you.

Now I want to land the plane. So let me give you two practical suggestions to walk away with, okay? Two simple words. Investigate.

Number two, evaluate. Investigate others, evaluate yourself. And when I say investigate others, let me get specific. Investigate leaders, people like me. Don't just swallow what everybody says to you because they stand on a raised podium behind a pulpit. Paul the Apostle congratulated the Bereans because they received what he said with readiness of mind, but they searched the scriptures daily to see if these things were so. So investigate every leader.

You go, well, how do I do that? Let me give you a few simple tests. The test of character. What is their character? The fruit of the Spirit, Galatians 5.

Love, joy, peace, long suffering, kindness, gentleness. The test of character. Then there's the test of creed. What are they saying? What are they preaching?

What are their sermons like? If they never preach about the narrow road, if they never preach about holiness, if they are denying the historic Christian faith or loosely talking about it, if their messages are always pep talks and the service is just a pep rally, red flag, red flag, red flag, red flag. That's a test of creed. When they're more interested in tickling your ears rather than telling you the truth.

Red flag. So investigate every leader. Test of character, test of creed. Another test is test of converts. What's the influence of these people like?

What is the effect of their teaching on followers of them? Again, I don't want to make you all, you know, weird around people. I just want to say this. Stay in the Word and don't be fooled by sheep costumes. Okay?

Not everybody goes, baaah, is a sheep of God. Because Jude said they're still among you. So that's the first one. Investigate leaders. Evaluate yourself. You know, this is just a good day to ask a very basic question. Are you saved?

Are you sure? In fact, it's not just a question. It is the most important issue of all. Important issue of all of life. In 100 years, the CDC guidelines won't matter.

You'll be dead. In 100 years, post-election politics won't matter. In 100 years, what will matter the most is are you saved? That's what matters. It's the most important thing that does matter. So you want to ask yourself the question, is my relationship to Jesus Christ authentic and real?

Is it personal? Have I made a point in my life where I've turned my life over to Him? You say, yeah, I've done that, but I have a tendency to kind of go astray and kind of wander. Welcome to the human race.

I'm not saying you have to be perfect. All we like sheep have gone astray, but like that hymn says, prone to wander, Lord, I feel it, prone to leave the God I love. There's a great little phrase in that that says, here's my heart, Lord. Here's my heart, Lord. Take and seal it.

Seal it for thy courts above. That's the solution. Whether you have taken one step, 100 steps, or you just haven't taken a step toward God at all, it's only one step to Him. Well, I've taken a thousand steps from Him. I need to go on a 12-step find God program.

No, it's a one-step program. It's called repent. That's all it is. Turn around. It just means turn around.

So you turn around, do an about face, and place your faith and trust in Him. 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 sites 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 Heitig 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.

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Thank you. Tune in tomorrow as Skip encourages you to stand firm even when everyone around you falls away. Make a connection, make a connection at the foot of the cross and cast all burdens on His word. Make a connection, connection. Connect with Skip Heitig is a presentation of Connection Communications, connecting you to God's never changing truth in ever-changing times.