I'd like to speak to you this morning.
If you turn to Jude with me, after
this Easter season, we will return to the
teaching which we've been dealing with.
We're coming to the Lord's Table this morning.
We felt we should have the Lord's Table.
It was scheduled for last Sunday, Easter Sunday,
and we felt that we should put it
off till this Sunday.
So as we come to the Lord's Table,
I would like to talk to you a
little further from Jude about some of the
blessed portions that are found here.
It's a very prophetic book, as you know.
I've mentioned that in the 17th to 19th
verses.
It declares its prophecy.
I see Ken Richardson over here.
Ken, I just saw you.
Great to see you this morning.
Praise the Lord.
And you, Barbara and family, rejoice you're down
with us.
Funny, I get my vision out here.
I quite don't get it over to that
extreme right, you know.
Praise the Lord, Ken.
We pray God will bless you.
What are you doing away from your ministry?
He ministers at a church up there, you
know, in Vermont, and I guess he has
a substitute up there this morning.
As I mentioned, this is a prophetic book
of tremendous character.
And the 17th verse, it says, Beloved, remember
ye the words which were spoken before of
the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ, how
that they told you there should be mockers
in the last time who should walk after
their own ungodly lusts.
And I would underline that.
These be they who separate themselves, sensual, having
not the spirit.
And I would underline having not the spirit.
It's very important because there are a lot
of teachers today who are sensual.
We're hearing more and more of it.
We're warned in Timothy that the day would
come when false teachers would come in unawares,
denying that we have to get married.
That's part of the teaching that's going on
today, that the institution of marriage is outmoded,
that it's no longer necessary.
There's a new freedom which is coming into
the world, and we could eliminate the marriage
covenant, and it would be a much better
thing.
Well, Paul warns us that those days would
come in the last days when false teachers
would come in and deny the necessity of
marriage at all.
And we're living in a day of great
sensual teaching.
And that from the church, unfortunately.
I wish I would say that it was
only in the world that I'm hearing that.
But I'm hearing that from many agencies of
the church, so much so that the National
Council in some of its articles is ordaining
premarital sex and many of these other things.
This is the National Council of Churches.
And things that we never would conceive of
previous to this age you and I are
living in.
It's becoming worse and worse.
There are areas that are unbelievable in the
church, so called.
I call it the church because we're talking
of the organized church.
I'm not talking especially of the true church,
which is the body of Christ, but the
church universal or the organized church.
And I think that we have to remember
that there's not to be a great shock
in our hearts since God warned us of
it.
Even with the warnings here, I get shocked,
frankly, when I read some of the things
that I have read about the type services
they have, which I've mentioned previously here with
pastors and, you know, doing dances on the
platform and leotards and trying to portray to
the people what they're preaching about and the
jazz services that have become very prevalent with
a lot of dancing in them and things
that I don't even care to mention at
this time.
Some of them are so far out that
it's hard for me to believe they could
happen in church buildings.
And yet they are happening.
And God warns that in the last days,
mockers should come who should walk after their
own ungodly lust.
These be they who separate themselves sensual, having
not the spirit.
He makes sure that we understand that.
Now, if you'll go over it in your
in the epistle of Jude, and it's just
the short one chapter, I'd like to speak
from beginning at the eighth verse, because you
remember when we terminated about three weeks ago,
I had discussed the men who crept in
unawares in the fourth verse, also that there
were those who had been saved out of
Egypt and those who came out of Egypt
and were lost.
Beloved, there were many in Egypt, remember, who
never, never reached the promised land.
As a matter of fact, because of the
sin of Israel, just Joshua and Caleb came
into the promised land.
The people of Israel sin terribly, and God
had to chasten them time and again for
their sin.
And God is making sure we understand here
that because we're related to an organization, it
doesn't mean that this saves our souls.
In other words, the Franklin Amnesty Baptist Church
has no power to save the soul.
Membership in it has no power to save
the soul.
It is absolutely, positively only faith in Jesus
Christ, this personal Savior, that can save the
soul.
It's faith in the man, Jesus Christ, the
one who's risen from the dead, the one
who died for our sins, so that we
understand thoroughly has nothing to do with an
organizational setup.
And God makes sure that we understand that
when he talks about Israel.
He said not all that were in Israel
were saved.
There were those who were disobedient, those who
died, those who were contrary to the doctrine
of faith and who believed in the doctrine
of works, let me put it that way.
It's always been faith, you know, that saves
the soul, whether it was Abraham, whether it's
Moses, any of these men.
The law never saved anybody.
It never was given for the purpose of
saving anybody.
The law was a ministry of condemnation and
of death, and it was given as a
schoolmaster to lead Israel to Jesus Christ, that
they would look at the law of commandments
and see they couldn't obey it, so they
would need a Savior.
It was to point them to the Messiah
who is to come, and so the whole
purpose of the law was this.
So the law could not do this, and
those in Israel who sought to follow the
law and not Christ, lost, you see, because
they were depending upon themselves.
All we have to look at is within
ourselves to realize we cannot save ourselves.
We have no capacity for this.
All of us know that we're sinners not
only by God's edict, but by our own
knowledge of ourselves.
This is the most important thing to my
heart.
There's not a soul living that doesn't know
that they are a sinner and have sinned
in their lives.
If they go back over the whole gamut
of their lives, the amount of sin in
there would amaze them.
If they take in the thought life, which
of course they'd like to cast out.
People like to think of sin as only
the commission of an act, as though this
is it.
Only when you do this have you sinned.
Jesus says, he that lusts after a woman
is an adulterer, and he that hates his
brother is a murderer.
So he puts you right down where you
belong, you see.
He says, don't think that you're getting away
with this because you say, well, you see,
here's the law, and I've done all these
things, you see.
I've done all these things.
And Jesus is continually saying to us, you
have the capacity for sin that anyone has
ever committed, therefore you are a sinner.
And therefore I have judged the whole world
under sin that I might have mercy upon
all.
And so God makes sure in all of
these different things in the early part of
Jude that we understand that there are no
special privileges.
He even speaks of the angels who had
a very close relationship to him and how
they fell.
He speaks of Sodom and Gomorrah and about
Lot and how Lot escaped.
Lot really wasn't worthy of escape, but because
he had believed God, he was a redeemed
man, he escaped.
But the others, just a few of his
family escaped with him.
But the others lost, you see, even though
they were in a beautiful land with all
of the fruit and all of the lovely
vegetation, and everything they wanted was there, beautiful
plains to live on.
And sometimes we have an idea that the
beautiful life, you know, we have a nice
house and a nice home, and we're getting
along well, our clothing is nice, and we
look so clean and so pure and all,
that this somehow has a special, special merit
to God.
Now, I want to say without faith it's
impossible to please God.
You cannot please God without faith.
The Scripture's clear on that.
So let's have no idea that we're pleasing
God because we're nice, because we're good mothers,
because we're good fathers.
If you're saved, this is important.
If you're lost, it means nothing.
May I say that again?
If you're saved, it's most important that you're
a loving, kindly, godly mother and father.
But if you're, and the children I'm talking
to, if you're lost, it doesn't matter how
nice you are.
Without faith, it is impossible to please God.
So let's understand this, that it is an
impossibility, absolutely impossible to please God.
Now, down in the eighth verse, he says,
likewise also these filthy dreamers defile the flesh.
Speaking of these type men who come into
the world, defile the flesh, despise dominion, and
speak evil of dignities.
And I spoke of that verse.
Yet Michael the archangel, when contending with the
devil, he disputed about the body of Moses,
durst not bring against him a railing accusation,
but said, the Lord rebuke thee.
Now, I don't want to pass that portion
because I'm sure if I do that someone
is going to ask me, you know, what
is this about Satan and the archangel Michael?
And I just in passing would like to
mention what it has to say.
When Moses, just before they went in now,
Moses died in the end of the book
of Deuteronomy.
Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy.
The Pentateuch, the last part, the first five
books of the Bible are all that the
Jews use today.
They don't read any of the rest.
The prophets are left out.
They really have to leave the prophets out.
In their calendar year, they go through the
first, those five books.
Then they start over the calendar year again
and go through the first five books.
So that the prophecies of Ezekiel and Isaiah
and all these glorious things are left out
because there's so much to say there about
the crucified savior in all of the prophetic
utterances.
But here it tells us that Michael the
archangel disputed with Moses over the, with Satan,
I should say, over the body of Moses.
Now Moses died.
I'm going to read the portion over in
the 34th chapter of Deuteronomy, the last chapter
of the Pentateuch.
And here's what it says in the fifth
verse.
So Moses, the servant of the Lord, died
there in the land of Moab according to
the word of the Lord.
And he buried him in the valley in
the land of Moab over against Beth Peor.
But no man knoweth of his sepulcher until
this day.
And Moses was a hundred and twenty years
old when he died.
I love this.
His eye was not dim, nor his natural
force abated.
Imagine God telling us that.
His eye was not dim.
A hundred and twenty years old.
Some people like to say, well he probably
wasn't a hundred and twenty like we are,
you know, when we get to be a
hundred and twenty.
Well, I want to tell you he was
a hundred and twenty years old.
Well, you know, some people try to change
the years to make it that Methuselah couldn't
have been nine hundred and sixty-nine years
old.
Well, I want to tell you, Methuselah was
nine hundred and sixty-nine years old.
Moses was a hundred and twenty.
Incidentally, I had a funeral last night, and
while I was there, the funeral director was
talking to me, and it made me think
of it when I was reading this here.
The funeral I had, of course, Mrs. Blake
was sixty-two.
But the man across in the other funeral
parlor, a hundred and two years old.
And I couldn't quite believe it, you know.
And they said, you wouldn't believe it.
He wasn't sick a day, and he just
died.
And I made, right away, I thought about
Moses, you know.
His eye was not dim, and he had
that natural force was still there, not abated.
But the thing to notice here is that
God buried him, the servant of the Lord.
He buried him in a valley, and no
man knows where the sepulcher is unto this
day.
You know, to me, this is very, very
wonderful.
You know how we try to say, I
always think of, this is what is happening
here.
Satan is battling with Michael the archangel about
the body of Moses.
What Satan wants is, where's the body of
Moses?
I want to get that body.
And I want Israel to take that body.
And I want them to honor that body.
And I would like them, this is what's
going on here, this is the battle.
I want them to set Moses up and
to take him over into the land of
promise.
So God said he couldn't go in.
Take him over to the land of promise,
and there set him up as an object
of worship.
And there, either that or use the relics
of his bones.
Let Israel keep all the relics of the
bones of Moses, so they can have the
relics with them.
Why do you think Satan would battle about
any body?
Let me tell you.
Why do you think, how about the body
of Christ, huh?
How about the relics today, hmm?
How about the number of relics, the people
throughout the world, they tell me, of all
the pieces of the cross of Christ, claim
to be part of the cross of Jesus,
were put together with Philopharis.
Claim to come from the cross of Christ.
Claim to have special blessing, because it came
from the cross of Christ.
Some churches have places that they have a
drop of blood that they claim came from
the Savior.
So this single drop of physical blood is
going to do great things for them.
How about the relics of all the saints?
How about all of these things?
And Satan contended with Michael the archangel about
the body of Moses.
He wanted the body of Moses.
He wanted to be specially revered.
He wanted the body of Moses, that one
day it could be used in some relic
fashion.
And I want to tell you, God made
sure that Moses was not going over into
the land of promise.
Oh, he disobeyed God.
God said it in many places, and therefore
he couldn't go into the land.
But I want to tell you something.
There's another good reason.
God was not going to allow the legalism
of the law into the land of promise.
And this is the great picture of our
Lord Jesus Christ.
Remember what it says, the law came by
Moses, leave it in the wilderness.
But grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.
And Christ is leading us into the great
land of his promise, the joint heirs with
him of his heavenly kingdom.
And to Judaism, they were to leave Moses
behind.
He had disobeyed God, and he was the
picture of the very law, that it should
not be taken into the land of promise,
which should be left behind.
And God placed his body, it says in
the sixth verse, he buried him, and no
man knows until this day where that sepulcher
is.
I want to tell you, this is the
way men always are.
Give them something that they can look at.
Give them something that they can revere.
Give them something that they can worship.
Look at the body of Lenin.
Still preserved, what, in a glass casket?
So that all the Russians, line after line,
day after day, can walk past the casket
of Lenin and worship the man.
And if you read some of the songs
of Lenin, they place them as a god
that they may worship.
And they have to have that physical form
in front of them.
And so God made sure.
And God made sure with our Lord Jesus
Christ, beloved, that there was nothing.
How many places have they claimed?
I know those who go to the land
of Israel, and surely they see where Jesus
walked.
And there have been some who claimed, here
is the place where Jesus was, here's the
place he was laying.
And some say, that was not the place.
They say it is, but it's not the
place.
They have many, many ideas here.
Or they would have loved to have kept
the clothes that he wore.
They would have loved to have had the
robe that he wore.
They would have loved to have had these
things.
So there could be some worship side, that
they might have relics and emblems of Christ
himself, as though they had some special, special
benefit to mankind.
But beloved, God made sure that he had
none of that.
I can't forget Paul's words.
He says, henceforth, I know no man after
the flesh.
Yea, henceforth, I know not Christ after his
flesh, but after his Spirit.
In other words, the Holy Spirit given to
us.
This is how we know him.
We don't have to have any relics.
We don't have to have any of these
things.
Satan desired to keep him ever before Israel,
but God wanted them to look forward to
their Messiah, who was to come.
Satan would have liked to have had him
placed in such a place that his sepulchre
would be known.
And Israel, to this day, would have been
going to the sepulchre of Moses.
But God says, you'll never find it.
I've hidden his body.
And the strange thing is, Israel makes no
claim to ever knowing where Moses' body was,
because this is Old Testament.
God made sure Moses was placed aside.
And Christ would be the end of the
law to every man that believes, what, to
the Jew first, and also to the Gentile.
So, Satan disputed with Michael the archangel, but
it did nothing.
Another thing it says here, Michael the archangel
did not want to bring a railing accusation,
notice that, against Satan.
He was very careful.
It spoke before about how people are so
glib today to speak evil about dignities.
I want to remind you that Satan is
second in power to the Holy Spirit in
spiritual power.
Michael the archangel, the great angel of God,
said, the Lord rebuked thee.
And I want to tell you that any
human being, any human heart that tries to
battle Satan on their own, is already defeated.
You cannot win the war with Satan on
your own.
It will always have to be the same.
The Lord rebuked thee.
It is only Christ in us who can
give us power to defeat Satan.
How do you know that?
Because we are told that in the Word,
greater is he that dwells in you than
he that is in the world.
There is a greater one now who has
come to dwell in our breasts, even the
power of the Holy Spirit of God, so
that we can know that we can have
victory.
God is telling us here, now listen, Michael
the archangel, he did not bring a charge
and railing accusation against Satan.
He said, the Lord rebuked thee.
We have to be most careful today, because
we are inclined to make fun of Satan.
We are inclined to deny Satan's existence.
Well, I noticed Michael the archangel did not.
I noticed Jesus did not.
I noticed Paul did not.
I noticed none of the disciples in any
way denied the presence of Satan or the
power of Satan.
And beloved, we better be sure that when
we are faced with conflict with him who
is the great deceiver of men's souls and
especially going about like a roaring lion, devouring
Christians wherever he will, that we call upon
the Holy Spirit of God to give us
victory over this great power in this world
we live in.
Then, beloved, notice the next portion here in
Jude, and here for the, they
speak evil of those things which they know
not, but what they know naturally is brute
beast in those things they corrupt themselves.
Woe unto them, for they have gone in
the way of Cain, and ran greedily after
the error of Balaam for reward, and perished
in the gainsaying of Corrie.
These are spots in your feast of charity
when they feast with you, feeding themselves without
fear.
Clouds they are without water, carried about of
winds, trees whose fruit withers without fruit, twice
dead plucked up by the roots.
I'd like to just stop there at that
point, and I'm not going to try to
discuss each one of these.
I just want to mention, notice he picks
three individuals here, and he says, woe unto
these people, because they have gone in the
way of these three men.
Number one, Cain.
Now God is going to show his sovereignty
here.
The things they knew not, and thereby they
spoke evil of.
Cain did not know the way to God.
He knew, but would not follow the Lord's
word, and through this God shows forth his
sovereignty.
Now may I say this very clearly?
Here are Cain and Abel.
Notice what it says there.
Woe unto them, for they have gone in
the way of Cain.
Here are Cain and Abel, brothers, same parents.
Notice this now in your families.
Same parents, same nature, same background, same
culture, yet God did not deal with them
upon the basis of any of these things.
God dealt with them only in one area,
and that was upon the base of their
sacrifice and nothing else.
God did not consider their background.
God did not consider they were brothers.
God did not consider their culture.
God did not consider that their father and
mother were Adam and Eve.
God did not consider one of these things.
Adam was saved, and Adam undoubtedly spoke to
his sons about the coats of skin that
God made for them and the sacrifice it
took to cover their sin.
But here, beloved, it says they went the
way of Cain.
Both Cain and Abel, I would remind you,
believed in God.
It's very important.
Both Cain and Abel believed in God.
How do you know that?
Because they both came to God with a
sacrifice.
Cain never said, I don't believe in God.
All Cain said was this, I believe in
God, but I'm going to approach him in
my own way.
That's all.
Abel believed God, and it tells us in
Hebrews that God had respect for Abel's offering,
but for Cain's offering, he had no respect.
What was Cain's offering?
Cain's offering was of the fruit of his
hands.
He brought to God the most beautiful fruit
he could bring of the lands that he
owned and all of the produce thereof, and
undoubtedly, it looked most beautiful to present to
God.
Undoubtedly, his father, Adam, had spoken to both
Cain and to Abel.
Brothers, sisters, let me say this.
Young folks, you're in the same family.
I want to say this most clearly.
You're in the same family, but it doesn't
mean because you're in the same family you're
saved.
You can be brothers, and you can both
believe in God, but you may come the
way of Cain, and that is to bring
your own works and say, I'm leading a
pretty good life.
And it says God had no respect of
Cain's offering at all.
But of Abel's offering, it says Abel brought
of the firstlings of his flock and of
the fat thereof, indicating that Abel had placed
the sacrifice, understanding that he was a sinner,
and someone had to die for sin, and
he presented the fat thereof.
And to God, all it said was, God,
I know I'm a sinner, and someone has
to die for me, and I foreshadow the
coming of the Messiah, the seed of the
woman who shall crush the head of Satan.
And so Abel was redeemed, and Cain was
lost.
And God says, notice, they're going the way
of Cain.
The great body of the world is going
the way of Cain.
But the big thing I want you to
notice is that both children believe in God,
and the only difference in the two is
that one presented the sacrifice that said, Christ
died for me.
Death is the penalty for sin.
Remember God, the soul that sinneth it shall
die.
Without the shedding of blood, there is no
remission of sin.
And I have given the blood upon the
altar as an atonement for your soul.
And all Abel was saying, yes God, I
believe that with all my heart I'm a
sinner.
My father Adam was a sinner, and you
redeemed him.
And I believe the way my father believed,
and you redeemed me.
And Cain said, I don't care how my
father believed.
I don't like that gory religion.
I don't want the blood.
I'm going to work hard.
I'm going to work the hardest I've ever
worked on my lands.
I'm going to bring the best products I
have, and that will be acceptable to God.
And God says, I respected Abel's offering, but
I had no respect of Cain's offering.
Could anything be simpler?
Isn't it wonderful?
You know, I often think, isn't it so
wonderful that God in the very beginning with
the first children, brothers, makes us understand that
even in a family relationship, the faith must
be in that way which God ordained.
Notice Jesus.
I am the way, the truth, and the
life.
What's the rest?
No man.
You see?
Why?
Because this is Abel's way that God ordained.
What does it say in Hebrews after he
says this?
Abel, though dead, yet speaks.
You see?
He speaks.
How does he speak to us?
He speaks to us that there's only one
offering that God can accept.
He says, why do you try to come
to me with your good works?
Why do you come to me and tell
me, look at my charities, Lord.
I am a good husband.
I'm a good wife.
Look at my lovely children.
Aren't they nice, God?
Haven't I done such a good job with
my family?
Take a look at them, God.
These are the fruit of my hands.
Another mother and dad come and say, oh
Lord, our children are fine children, but will
you redeem them?
They're sinners like we are.
We know ourselves.
They need salvation.
Lord, give us the privilege of leading them
to Jesus at our own knee, that they
might be saved.
You see the difference?
Just the difference, you see?
Exactly what?
Abel's religion, Cain's religion.
Now, you have one of the two this
morning, you see.
Everyone here has one of the two this
morning.
You either are, you see, that's what he
says.
They have, they're the way of Cain, he
says.
They, they, woe unto them for they've gone
the way of Cain, trying to produce something
to get into heaven.
Woe unto them.
And then if you read the rest, it
really should shake your heart when he says
what happens to them.
Twice dead, plucked up by the roots, raging
waves of the sea, spewing out their shame.
Terrible.
May the Lord make it so that this
morning you're all have that sacrifice of which
Abel spoke when he presented the firstling of
his flock and the blood thereof, the fat
thereof.
And God says, that's the offering.
You're acknowledging you're a sinner.
And we offer Christ this morning as our
sacrifice.
He died for us once for all, never
need be repeated.
It tells us by one offering he made
perfect forever them that are saved.
Praise the Lord.
Let us pray.
Father, we thank thee for thy word.
Now we come to thy table.
We remember we just read in thy word
that there are those within the church who
are spots in your feasts of love.
When they feast with you, they feed themselves
without fear.
Clouds they are without water, carried about with
winds.
Trees whose fruit withers without fruit.
Twice dead, plucked up by the roots, raging
waves of the sea, foaming out their own
shame.
Wandering stars to whom is reserved the blackness
of darkness forever.
And these are those who follow Cain's salvation
by works.
For it is not by works of righteousness
which we have done, but according to his
mercy, he hath saved us.
Now, Father, touch our hearts together.
And as we come to the table, we
pray that thou would bless us as we
come to this feast of love left to
us by our Savior Jesus Christ.
In his name we pray.
Amen.
Father, we would thank thee for this fellowship
we have had around thy feast of love
for us this morning.
And Father, we are so thankful for thy
precious word.
We are thankful that it deals with every
heart individually.
And that as the word of God led
us now this morning, both Cain and Abel
believed in God.
And this is our burden in the world
today.
If we were to go out into the
highways and byways and say, do you believe
in God?
The great answer is yes.
But when we come to Christ and the
blood and the sacrifice for our sins, this
is what divides.
And so, Father, we are thankful this morning
that we really believe on Jesus.
Oh, how we look to his coming.
He is alive from the dead.
He has cleansed us from sin.
He tasted death for every man that he
might bring us to God.
And so, Father, we praise thee that thou
hast accepted his sacrifice as thou did accept
Abel's offering of old.
And Abel's offering was just a picture of
that final sacrifice that should come for sin,
even our Savior Jesus Christ.
Now, Father, as we leave this place, we
would pray that we might go forth more
determined than ever to serve Jesus, to live
a life of faith and to yearn for
the souls of loved ones, neighbors and friends.
Lord, touch our hearts and fill us with
thy Holy Spirit this morning in Christ's name.
Amen.
Says after they sung a hymn, they went
out to the Mount of Olives.
So if you'll turn to hymn number 62,
Near the Cross.
62.
Remember this evening's service at 7 p.m.
62.
Let us rise as we sing.
Just the first verse.
For this
glorious fellowship we've had together this morning, that
we have been made members of thy body,
of thy flesh and of thy bones, and
as thy word says, members one of another,
that we have become part of the family
of God, sisters and brothers in Christ.
Father, we pray that you'd bless every heart.
We ask thee, Lord, that as we look
to Jesus coming, you'd find us faithful, waiting
and laboring for our Savior.
In Christ's name, we pray.
Amen.