I tell you what, these elders, these boys pray, and they walk with God. If you'll find the next to the last book in your Bible, the last book is called Revelation, and it's got 21 chapters or 22 chapters or something like that in it. But the book right before it only has one chapter. It only has 25 verses. So it might just be on one page or split into two pages in your Bible.

It's easy to miss. It's called Jude. Find Jude. And we set aside five Sundays to teach through all 25 verses in a row. And this is Sunday number three.

We call this series the Acts of the Apostates because Jude's whole letter is warning the church in general about the dangers of falling away and walking away from God. Today are verses 8 through 13. That's our text. And I want to teach a message called the Dangerous Path of Apostasy. So in the next few minutes, I'm going to teach you the Bible.

And hopefully, if God's good to you, it'll be more than just a polished sermon. It'll be a word from God for your heart. And then after it's over, we're going to welcome a new sister in Christ into our church family through baptism. So how awesome is this day? All right, so Jude 8:13 is our text.

I want to ask you this question. Have you ever watched someone walk away from the faith? You ever seen it? It's heartbreaking. Isn't may be heartbreaking, but you know what?

It's not. It is rarely ever sudden apostasy. Walking away from God is a slow drift. It's a dangerous path that leads further away from God, inch by inch, Sunday by Sunday, Monday by Monday. And in our six verses today, Jude 8, 13, Jude warns us about this pathway to stay off of it.

And he warns us by showing how arrogance and compromise and rebellion, those three things have led many astray. And through the examples from the Old Testament of a guy named Cain, another guy named Balaam, another man named Korah, we're going to see that apostasy is not just a problem of the past. It's a real threat today. So, Pastor, how do we recognize this path before it's too late? And how do we stay anchored in truth when so many drift away?

Jude is going to tell you to do three things. And here's how this text breaks down. Verses 8 through 10, then verse 11, and then verses 12 and 13. And in those three sections, Jude has three words for us. Here's the first thing he says.

Reject the arrogance of apostasy. Now look, as you're writing, if you're new to our church, we got note takers. Because note takers change the world. Amen. That means they're listening and they're going to take what they hear today and they're going to apply it to their life.

I've got so many notes for you today that you're probably not going to be able to get to all of them. So write this down right now. It's my email address. Pastor.trevordavismail.com pastor.trevor davismail.com if you want my notes, here's all you have to do this afternoon or whenever. In fact, in the first service, I've already got some of these emails.

Notes, please. Pastor, can I have your notes? You email me. I'll reply with the attachment. Don't come after the service and say, will you send me your notes?

Because I will want to and I will forget before 2:30 today. All right? So for you note takers, reject the arrogance of apostasy. Here are verses 8 through 10. Likewise, also these dreamers defile the flesh, reject authority, speak evil of dignitaries.

Yet Michael the Archangel, in contending with the devil when he disputed about the body of Moses, dared not bring against him the devil a reviling accusation. But said the Lord rebuke you. But these speak evil of whatever they do not know. And whatever they know naturally, like brute beasts in these things, they corrupt themselves. So we're picking up in the middle of a thought.

Remember, this is it's a New Testament letter. It's small enough to be a postcard, but you just have to stop somewhere and start somewhere the next week. And here in Jude 8, 9, 10, Jude describes people that walk away from God as dreamers. He describes these apostates as people who live in a fantasy of their own making and they're disconnected from God's truth. Let me tell you the number one way to connect to the truth of God.

Read your Bible every day, go before your Lord and say, God, I know you've spoken to me in the pages of Scripture and read it. Well, Pastor, I don't understand it. It's boring. Get a modern English translation. In fact, you live in a day where you don't even have to read your Bible.

It'll read itself to you on your phone. We have no excuse. Yes. So you connect to God's truth by reading the scriptures. You're connecting to the truth of God right now by submitting to this sermon, hearing it taught to you back in verse six, which Was last week, Jude described the fallen angels with this phrase.

They did not keep their proper domain. They didn't stay in the lane that God meant them to stay in. In verse 6, the fallen angels don't keep their proper domain. But in verse nine, one of the holy angels stays in his, and it's Michael the Archangel. Let me tell you, before I explain that, I want to say to you what we believe about God here.

God is almighty. God has no rival. There is no threat to God's authority or his throne. We are not yin yang karma people. That's false religion nonsense.

God has no rival. So there's never a moment in history where God's like, man, I better muster the forces or I'm about to lose. God never loses. But listen to me, if that's true, that means that in your Bible, the devil is not God's opposite. He's not God's rival.

In the scriptures, according to Jude, the opposite of the devil is the Archangel Michael. They were both angels. So Michael's a big bad awesome guy. He's like the general of the armies of the Lord. In fact, he says earlier in the scriptures that he stands in God's presence, the archangel.

But curiously in our text, Michael doesn't seek to assert his own authority when he's in a conflict with Satan, even though he has that. And I want to let you know, if I were the archangel, I would wear a lanyard. I'd probably get a tattoo on my forehead so you wouldn't forget. I'd probably have Archangel Air Jordans for you to buy. You would know it.

This is why I'm just a guy, right? But the real archangel, by the way, it's interesting. Apparently the devil and the Archangel Michael are disputing over the bones of the body of Moses. And we don't really. If anybody tells you I know exactly what that means, you don't need that guy as your pastor.

This is a mystery that Bible commentators. But here's what we do know. In Deuteronomy 34, I believe it's 34, Moses goes up on Mount Nebo and he dies and God buries him. Who's at Moses funeral? Moses and God.

So we don't know what happened to Moses body. But apparently the Archangel Michael and the fallen angel Lucifer dispute about it. And Michael didn't go, I'm getting ready to show you how awesome I am in the heavenlies. And he could have. Instead of seeking the glory of personally defeating Satan, the Archangel Michael rebukes the devil on God's Authority.

He says, the Lord rebuke you. I won't use my name. My name's worthless and I'm the archangel. The Lord rebuke you is a declaration of a humble servant. You agree with that?

It's the declaration of a humble servant who refuses to steal glory from God. Which is the opposite attitude of these apostate dreamers who've infiltrated the church in the letter of Jude and are causing trouble among God's people. They don't humble themselves. They arrogantly speak and act as if they have ultimate authority over spiritual matters. If you want to learn something, talk to them.

If you want to teach something to them, walk on by. They're not teachable.

Reject the arrogance of apostasy. Number two. The heart of this sermon is verse 11. Number two. Jude says, avoid the legacy of apostasy.

You know, the legacy is the reputation you leave, the character that you have that you pass along. And people, what do people say about you after you're dead? Verse 11. Woe to them, for they have gone. As I read this verse, See if you see a list.

They've gone in the way of Cain, have run greedily in the error of Balaam for prophet and perished in the rebellion of Korah. I hope you see a list there because that list is important. Jude refers to three moments in Old Testament history where men had everything in front of them and the glory of God in their face. And they walked away. They sinned against him, rebelled against him, proved themselves to be false converts and destroyed themselves.

Jude identifies these three examples of upheaval. Cain's envy, Balaam's greed, and Korah's defiance. Let me tell you about these examples. They highlight the destructive outcomes of apostasy. If you sow it, you will reap it.

That's the law of the harvest. These are the kinds of legacies no one wants to be remembered for. That first legacy you want to avoid is the way of Cain. The way of Cain is token worship. Token worship is visible to others, but lacking any substance on the inside.

It's empty. You know Cain, this is early on in the Bible. What's his brother's name? Cain and Abel. We got those two sets of the handcuffs.

There they go together. I'm not going to show you the verses here, but I'm going to explain the way of Cain to you. In Genesis, chapter four, verses three through five, Cain and Abel both bring offerings to the Lord. They present themselves before God and neither of them comes empty handed. But here's what, here's how The Bible describes Cain's offering.

An offering. Quote, un, end quote. That's all it says. Cain brought an offering. Abel brought, quote, of the firstborn of his flock and the fat.

End quote. And so Moses writes Genesis and he means for you to compare and contrast their two offerings. They both come to God. They both come with something. One worshiper, though, he goes out of his way to please God, the other guy, he just simply discharges a duty.

Cain's offering is described in two words. It's mentioned colorlessly. It's stated without any adjectives, no descriptions. It's just an offering. It's forgettable.

Abel's offering has words that color it. It's from the firstborn and it's fat.

May I say to you humbly but without reservation that Abel felt the holy sting of his offering. It cost him something. When he went back home, he didn't have it anymore. And he could tell it was missing because it was from the firstborn and it was from the fat.

But Cain, not so much. Cain's offering was ritualistic. It was a going through the motions. And because it was nothing special, it was just an offering. It lacked true devotion to God.

Cain didn't feel the loss at all. His worship was empty formality. Cain did not have to depend on the Lord. After he gave the offering, he didn't give anything up. There's no hole left.

His offering was neither childlike nor grateful.

Cain's offering is tokenism. His worship is tokenism.

Can you say this in church? If you can do without it, it's no offering. It's a tip. And I think that Christians should believe that God is worthy of the whole check. But Cain insulted his God.

Cain insulted God, who wasn't his, with a gratuity. You know what the way of Cain asks? It asks, what's the least amount of worship I can offer God and remain in good standing.

And I want to say that the way of Cain's story illustrates that God is not pleased with worship that's empty. Nor is he pleased with worship that's self serving. Look, you got to get this out of your head when you come into the gathering of the saints and we worship the Lord on Sundays, man, you ought to just leave your complaints at home. It's too cold, it's too hot. It's too loud, it's too soft.

I don't like the presentation on the screens. The preacher talks too long. I don't like the new King James Bible. Just leave it at home with Cain.

The way of Cain, second in the list of the legacy we don't want to leave is the error of Balaam. Who's Balaam? You may not know much about Balaam. The only thing you may know about Balaam is is that the guy that the donkey talked to. And you'd be right.

The error of Balaam is compromising truth for personal gain. Look, if you sit under preaching that says what God really wants you to do is be rich. Be rich like the preacher. And if you give, he'll have a jet. You won't, but you'll be part of that city.

Get rid of all that nonsense. That's not the gospel. That's wicked. Yes, and you need to sit under preaching and under elders and under small group leaders that won't compromise the truth for what they can get. My wife and I were traveling this week for church business.

And. And we got to the hotel one night after we'd been at the conference and she said to me, she said, you know, I love expository preaching. I love when you go verse by verse through a book. She goes, there's one thing though, that I don't like about it. And I was like, well, better listen to this, right?

Can't be my delivery, it can't be my content, none of that.

She said, sometimes if you just go verse by verse, it's all heavy, it's all. And I say, yeah, I know we wouldn't pick it, but God picked it. God picked the church to go through Jude. And if it's going to be heavy on you, then maybe you need a little heaviness. It won't be forever.

I'll get back to happy Trevor later, right? We'll find happy Bible. But for now, what if heaven wants you to be warned not to drift away? And what if it takes four weeks of that, right? Angie wasn't wrong, but sometimes it's just the way it is.

You may need heavy, you just can't live with compromise leaders.

Balaam's story is about a prophet who knew God's will, but he loved money more.

When a pagan king named Balak, everybody say Balak. When a pagan king named Balak offered Balaam riches if he would just curse God's people, the nation of Israel, just give a prophecy, it'll be for real from heaven and prophesy their doom and their pain. I'll give you money if you do it. You know what Balaam did? He said, I'm not going to do that.

God doesn't want me to do that. And that should have been the end of the sentence. If he just puts a period there, you'll know Balaam as a great prophet of God. But that's not where the paragraph stopped, because Balaam hesitated and then he looked for loopholes, and he was hoping to secretly profit while still appearing obedient to God. Here's numbers 22, 18 and 19, where the story is.

Then Balaam answered and said to the servants of Balak, though Balak were to give me his house full of silver and gold, I could not go beyond the word of the Lord my God, to do less or to do more if it just stopped right there. You know Proverbs 13 or 23? 23 says, Buy the truth and do not sell it. If he'd have just stopped right there. That's the most orthodox sentence a prophet can say.

I'm not going to go beyond anything God said for me to tell you. But the verse continues, now, therefore, please, you also stay here tonight that I may know what more the Lord will say to me. Let me explain to you what just happened in that verse. Balaam says, I can only tell you what God says, but let's sleep on it. Maybe he'll change his mind.

Let's just give God time to alter what he's spoken to me. Balaam looked obedient, but he continued seeking a way to profit from the offer from Balak. Stay one more night and see if we get further revelation. That reminds me, stay one more night of when Pharaoh got tired of the plague of the frogs in the Exodus, and he calls Moses, he says, had enough of these frogs? What does God want me to do?

And God wants you to let the people go? He goes, I'll let them go. Well, when do you want God to get rid of the frogs? And Pharaoh says, tomorrow morning we can all spend one more night with the frogs. This is one more night to see if God will go from kindness to judgment.

You know what the Arab Balaam asks? It asks, how close to the edge of sin can I get and still be righteous? How much of the world can I invite into my life, into my family, into my marriage, and into my parenting? How much of that can we embrace and be like unbelievers and still be right with God? If you're asking that question, you're already losing.

Balaam's error was prostituting his prophetic gift for material gain. It's like though he outwardly obeys God's words, his heart was set on personal profit. And when he couldn't curse Israel because God said, you can't do that later on. He devised a way to lead them all into sin and immorality, and it brought God's judgment on all of them. Anyway, the heir of Balaam.

Here's the third legacy you need to avoid, and that is the rebellion of Korah. What's the rebellion of Korah? It's exalting self by rejecting God's appointed leadership. I got to be careful when I talk about this, because the scriptures don't say, look, you get involved in a church and they're going to live their life for you. They just became your dad and your mom and they're just going to order you around and you have to obey them.

There's way too much liberty in the Holy Spirit for that to be true. But the New Testament does say, obey your elders because they bring good into your life and it won't be a burden to you. And when they give you counsel and when they teach you the Scriptures, you ought to do it.

And so here's an Old Testament warning against saying, you know what? Nobody's the boss of me. Korah's sin was about the pride of rejecting God's authority, his chain of command. So Korah and he got together a group of 250 malcontents, and they kind of got in the Korah party and he and his followers challenged Moses and Aaron. I don't know what you know about Moses and Aaron, but back then, Moses was the lawgiver and the foremost prophet of God in the Old Testament.

That's a pretty high position Moses held. Can we agree? Under the power of the Holy Spirit, Moses wrote Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. We think Moses is a big, you know, the white beard guy, right? We know what he looks like.

We've seen the movies. Moses. Moses is the lawgiver and the chief foremost prophet in the Old Testament. His older brother, Aaron, do you remember what he was? Not just priest, he's high priest, the first one.

Korah and his buddies have decided the lawgiver, prophet and the high priest are no longer going to be the boss of us. We're just like them. Everybody's equal. I kid you not. Numbers 16, 3.

Moses, you don't have any right to lead. They gathered together against Moses and Aaron and they said to them, you take too much upon yourselves, for all the congregation is holy, every one of them, and the Lord is among them. This is Korah saying to Moses, why then do you exalt yourselves above the assembly of the Lord? Now you have a subordinate challenging the authority of someone in a God given position. What would you expect Moses to do?

Well, if he was earthly and worldly and not a believing guy and not close to God, you would expect him to defend himself. You would expect him to say, would you like me to prove my authority to you? How many snaps of my finger do you want me to do? Until all the wow, hello. Until all the guards, we got new sound system working through it.

Until all of my. All of my security detail take you down. And so we would expect Moses to defend himself instead. You know what Moses says? Maybe you're right.

Maybe I'm in a position I shouldn't be in. Maybe I got it myself. Why don't we let God tell us? And he says it in Numbers 16:5. Moses spoke to Korah and all the company saying, tomorrow morning the Lord will show who's his and who's holy and will cause him to come near to him.

That one whom he chooses, he will cause to come near to him. Moses says, let's just let God decide. I won't do it. Now, let me tell you about Korah. He had a privileged position by birth.

He was Levite. And a Levite is one of the tribes of Israel that didn't get any property in the promised land because the whole nation was going to take care of them. They were going to serve in the sanctuary. They were going to be the staff and the servants of the priesthood. So Levites and then priests.

Well, Korah is a Levite. Guess what he really wanted to be? He's the vice president. But he's like, you know what? I'd be a better president.

And so Levites assisted the priests in the ministry of the tabernacle. But that wasn't enough for Korah. His heart now is revealed to be like Lucifer's. Do you remember what we read last week? Lucifer, he says, I will ascend to the mountain of God.

I'll be like the most high. And now pride is welling up in Korah. I may be a Levite, but I'm going to be like the priest. He wanted to ascend even higher at the tabernacle. And Moses called him on it.

Numbers 16, 9, 10. You guys still following with me? Interesting stuff, right? Moses says to Korah, hey, look, is it a small thing to you that the God of Israel has separated you from the congregation of Israel? You're not like everybody else.

To bring you near to himself. You get to work in the presence of God to do the work of the tabernacle of the Lord and to Stand before the congregation and serve them. They know your names, even if you don't know all theirs. And that he's brought you near to himself, you and all your brethren, the sons of Levi, with you. Is that not enough for you?

Moses says, and the last thing he says in the verse is, are you also seeking the priesthood? You see, the rebellion of Korah asked this question. How much more authority and influence is there for me to gain? I'm just never satisfied. So Korah spreads his venom to 250 in Israel.

He incites a revolt against Moses and Aaron. This was a true insurrection. They said it's not fair for Moses and Aaron to be able to make all these decisions and, and boss everybody around. And that's just not fair. But their rebellion wasn't about fairness, really.

It was about power. And God judged them swiftly. Do you know what happened to these dudes and their families and their stuff? Numbers 1631-33. Now, it came to pass as he finished speaking all these words, that the ground split apart unto them, and the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them up with their households, all the men with Korah, all their goods.

So they and all those with them went down alive into the pit. The earth closed over them and they perished from among the assembly.

Holy overkill, Batman. Well, it's overkill to us because we don't think authority is that big of a deal. But God does. Because when you go, God, I'm not going to be under authority and I'm going to cause trouble for spiritual authorities in my life. That never only hurts you.

Jude says, these are the kind of folks that have sneaked in and these are the kind of legacies they have. And I want to know. I want you to know that the rebellion of Korah shows that sometimes everybody say sometimes. Oh, that's an important word. It shows that sometimes rebellion against God's appointed leaders is ultimately rebellion against God himself.

That's verse 11. Finally today, Jude says, refuse the fruit of apostasy. And in verses 12 and 13, he's going to give five metaphors, apostasy's fruit. And I'm going to give you these. Rapid fire.

There's no way you're going to be able to write all of them down. I don't think Jude paints a vivid picture. These metaphors reveal the emptiness and instability of those who fall away first. He calls them. Here's Jude 12, 13.

These are spots in your love feasts while they feast with you without fear, serving only themselves. They are clouds without water, carried about by the winds. Late autumn Trees without fruit, twice dead, pulled up by the roots. Raging waves of the sea, foaming up their own shame. Wandering stars, for whom is reserved the blackness of darkness forever.

Five illustrations Here they go. Apostates are spots in your love feasts. These are defiling, joining the gathering, but polluting the fellowship is what they do. Their presence corrupts the community. Number two Clouds without water.

Clouds without water are disappointing. Think about in the summertime when you see the cloud and everything's dry and you need rain. Appearing full but replenishing nothing. Clouds without water promise much without delivering. Fruitless trees.

Fruitless trees are dead, Standing tall but producing nothing. Fruitless trees are spiritually barren and lifeless. Look, you'll know them by the fruit that they bear. Jesus says, raging waves. Raging waves are disorderly.

Raging waves, accusing others but indicting self. The verse says, raging waves of the sea, foaming up their own shame. Raging waves are those whose lives are marked by chaos and destruction. Wandering stars. Wandering stars are drifting, shining briefly but vanishing eventually.

Wandering stars are directionless and they're destined for darkness. Those are the metaphors you can go back and think on later. But let me go back to verse 11 as I apply this message to our life and land the plane here. Jude doesn't just warn us about apostasy. He gives us clear examples so that we can avoid those same mistakes.

This is not just a Sunday school lesson for you to get knowledge. It is to orient your life so that this doesn't happen to you. Cain, Balaam and Korah weren't random dudes who just messed up. They each made choices and those choices led them away from God. And if we're not careful, we'll fall into the same trap.

Let's review those three guys. Cain's story reminds us that God isn't interested in surface level worship. He wants our whole hearts. Do you believe that? If we're just going through the motions, brothers and sisters, if we're just showing up to church and saying the right things, but holding back real surrender to God, then we're missing what it means to to appear before the Lord and worship Him.

Balaam. Balaam teaches us that compromise starts small. It's the little foxes that destroy the vines. He didn't set out to betray God as one of God's prophets, but his desire for personal gain made him willing to bend the truth. May I ask you a piercing question?

Are we more concerned with what benefits us than. Than what honors God? And then there's Korah. His downfall was pride. He refused to accept the leaders that God had placed over him.

He tried to take matters into his own hands. And may I say that when we reject God's authority, whether it's in Scripture, whether it's the godly leaders, whether it's his own direction for our lives, when we reject that, we put ourselves on dangerous ground. So what can we do? Three things that I'm done. And we baptize application points.

Number one, we pursue real worship. You give God your best, not empty ritual. Number two, submit to God's authority. Follow his word fully, not selectively, not just the parts that you like. And number three, examine your heart.

Is there pride and ambition creeping in you? Think about that as we pray. Father, protect us from the dangerous path of apostasy. Amen.