From His Heart

Dr. Jeff Schreve: Persecution is an attack from the outside, but now the second mode of attack: he attacks with infiltration. And this is an attack that is much more insidious, it's much more dangerous. Persecution, everybody knows it's coming, but infiltration, it's harder to discern.

Larry Nobles: Using persecution as a weapon, the devil tries to root out the church. But with infiltration, he tries to rot out the church, putting termites into the structure, so to speak, to eat it up from the inside.

This is From His Heart with Pastor Jeff Schreve, and today he continues his message, "Christianity Under Siege," from the new six-lesson series, "Faith Under Fire: A Study of the Book of Jude." You can listen to part one online anytime at fromhishart.org that we had yesterday. Or for your gift of support this month of any amount, we'll send you the entire series in the format of your choice. Again, go to fromhishart.org. It's a great series; you'll want to get it. I'll have more about that later. First, though, let's continue the lesson, "Christianity Under Siege." Open your Bible to the book of Jude. Here again is Pastor Jeff Schreve.

Dr. Jeff Schreve: Today, we want to ask the question: are you contending for the Christian faith that is under siege, that is under attack? The devil has two means that he uses to attack the faith and to attack Christianity. The first one is persecution. The devil attacks the faith with persecution.

And persecution is an attack from the outside. Nobody is claiming the name of Christ. Saul of Tarsus wasn't claiming to be a Christian. He was claiming, "I hate Christianity and I'm going to destroy Christianity." The Muslims aren't claiming to be Christians that are beheading people in the Congo and other places. So that's very obvious: this is an enemy of Christianity.

But infiltration—that's a different ball game. That's an attack from the inside. That's an attack from somebody who says he's part of the team. With persecution, the devil tries to root out the church, but with infiltration, he tries to rot out the church, putting termites into the structure to eat up the church from the inside.

We have a name in American history, Benedict Arnold, that conjures up an image of this guy who was a general in the Continental Army. But he got upset with how things were going, and he became a turncoat, and he began to commit treason with the British Army and sold out the Americans. It's an attack from the inside, and this is an attack that is much more insidious.

It's much more dangerous. Persecution, everybody knows it's coming, but infiltration, it's harder to discern. The word insidious means a destructive harm that spreads secretly and slowly with disastrous long-term effects. I told you before that I went to Southeastern Seminary when I was first called into the ministry.

Southeastern Seminary had been the worst of the Southern Baptist seminaries—six Southern Baptist seminaries. In the '50s, the seminaries started to embrace liberalism, even before that. But with liberalism, you just kind of keep drifting; you drift more and more to the left. And the things that you used to say, "Here's where our school stands," then you just kind of drift.

That's why it's so important that if you start watering down the word and you start saying, "Well, this is not that big a deal, let's just do it this way because pragmatism trumps the scripture in the minds of so many people." Women pastors—that's one of those things. It's like, "Oh, that's not that big a deal." Well, it's a big deal because the Bible says you're not supposed to do that. That's why it's a big deal.

Once you start that way, you just pretty much see how you can drift so far. So I'm at Southeastern Seminary. They had a huge shift from the liberal drift to being conservative again. And that's why I went there, because I knew this is a solid school. I knew the president, Paige Patterson; he was a solid guy, a Bible believer.

But my first church, I go and preach there, and they were talking to me about being their pastor. I was just preaching there for a few times, and they said, "Well, we don't have a pastor, what if you came to be our pastor?" Anyway, I remember interviewing with the deacons, and this one guy looked at me and he goes, "You're that controversial preacher. You preach that controversial stuff, that Father, Son, Holy Spirit stuff."

I said, "You mean the Trinity?" I said, "That's controversial?" "Yeah, controversial." What had happened to that little church was it was always pastored by a seminary student. And the seminary had gotten so liberal that the seminary started to get all these guys that didn't believe anything. They were teaching these young preachers that you can't trust the Bible and the Bible's not true, and so they started to preach that to the churches.

If the seminary is rotten, it will destroy for years because you trained up all these guys that don't believe the truth. I remember Dr. Bill Steeger, who was pastor at Beech Street. He went to a Southern Baptist seminary. I think it was Southern. Southern was the worst seminary of the six for a long time. Now it's one of the best.

But he went there, and he said he was laughed at in class, in seminary class. And what he was laughed at was believing in the resurrection of Jesus Christ. He said the professor told him they were arguing about something related to evangelism, and the professor said to the class, "Well, don't listen to Steeger, he still believes in the resurrection." Good grief.

Certain persons, unnamed persons, they've crept in, they've slithered their way in. They haven't even made a ripple. And they're people that are marked out for this condemnation long ago. The Lord says long ago, "You start messing in the church, you mess with what I have set up, and hell's hottest flame is reserved for you."

Now, when it says in verse four that those who long beforehand were marked out for this condemnation, it's not talking about individuals; it's talking about a group. If you put yourself in this group of those who sneak in to destroy the church, those like termites to eat up the church, well, condemnation has been decreed for you from a long time ago. It's an insidious attack.

Barna, George Barna, did a survey. He's known for those surveys. And he came up with a chart of questions, and he was talking to people who self-identified as Christian, which doesn't necessarily mean anything. "Well, I'm not a Muslim, and I'm not an atheist, I guess I'm a Christian." Those who self-identified as Christian and those who said, "No, I've been born again." And he asked them some of the core biblical issues, biblical truths, and this is what he came up with.

Belief in God's nature: that He's holy, holy, holy, that He's good, that He rules the universe. Those who quote-unquote are Christian, 61% believe in the biblical nature of God. Those who claim to be born-again Christians, almost 100%. Biblical authority and reliability: the inerrancy of scripture. For those who quote-unquote are Christian, 25% agree that the Bible is the Word of God without error. 99% of those born again said, "Yes, we believe the Bible is the Word of God."

Jesus was sinless: 50% on the quote-unquote Christian, 80% on born-again Christian. Listen, if Jesus is not sinless, you have no hope of heaven. He has to be God's perfect spotless Lamb, but people don't believe that. Salvation by grace and not by good works: 42% in the broad Christian category believe that, 48% in the born-again category. Not very much different.

In my book, *The Devil's Newsroom*, I have a whole chapter, "The World's Most Believed Lie," and the world's most believed lie is that good works get you to heaven. They don't. It's by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone. And if you've really been saved, guess what? You'll have good works. But works are not the root of salvation; they're the fruit of salvation.

The Trinity: 16% in the broad category of Christian believe in the Trinity—God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit. 24%—is that not shocking?—in the born-again category believe in the Trinity. Satan's existence: 30% versus 50%. And absolute moral truth: 20% versus 40%. Now, when you think about the sinlessness of Jesus, that also includes the exclusivity of salvation, that Jesus is the only way to heaven. And 20% of those who call themselves born-again believers say, "Well, that's not true. You can get to heaven another way."

John 14, verse 6, Jesus said, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father but through Me." Jesus is not a way to heaven, He's not a good way to heaven, He's not even the best way to heaven. He's the only way to heaven. You're not going to get to heaven apart from the Lord Jesus Christ. But you see, you get these people that kind of worm their way in, and they start preaching heresy.

Larry Nobles: Pastor Jeff Schreve has much more to say to conclude this lesson, "Christianity Under Siege," in just a moment because he wants you to know that the battle for truth in our world is very real. And we Christians need to stand up and fight for the truth in all arenas in our culture. One way that you can do that is to support this ministry that has a broad and deep outreach on radio, television, and online around the world, proclaiming the unchanging truth of God's Word to people who are searching for answers. They're searching for hope, for truth, for stability in an increasingly hostile culture.

And with your gift of support today of any amount, we'd like to send you Pastor Jeff's series we're in now called "Faith Under Fire: A Study of the Book of Jude" in the format of your choice. Just go to fromhishart.org or simply call 866-40-BIBLE (866-402-4253) and make that gift today. And we'll say thanks by sending you the series right away. Now let's conclude this dynamic lesson, "Christianity Under Siege."

Dr. Jeff Schreve: You know, it's interesting, we talk about institutions of higher learning. Everybody knows the name Harvard. As my friend Voddie Baucham likes to say, "Oh, he's from Harvard." You know, I mean, if you're not just from Harvard, you're from Harvard. You're highbrow because you went to Harvard. You know, I love Bishop E.W. Jackson. He's a frequent guest on my radio program. He's been here several times, a couple of times anyway, and he's a graduate of Harvard. But he doesn't say "Harvard."

Well, if you know anything about Harvard, Harvard began in 1636 to train Puritan pastors. 1636. Well, they went off the rails in the 1700s and continued to drift and drift and drift. And now the school chaplain at Harvard, Greg Epstein, is an avowed atheist. He's the chaplain. That's how far they have fallen. Joshua Harris is a name that many people know. He wrote the book when he was just a young guy, 22 years old. He wrote a book called *I Kissed Dating Goodbye*. Sold almost a million copies.

It was like revolutionary in how young people ought to date. He kissed it goodbye. Well, just a few years ago, he kissed Christianity goodbye. He apologized for his teaching and he said, "I don't believe that stuff anymore." He was a pastor in Maryland. Well, you ask yourself the question, "Did Joshua Harris lose his salvation?" No, he never had it. First John chapter 2, verse 19, John says this: "They went out from us, but they were not really of us; for if they had been of us, they would have remained with us; but they went out in order that it might be shown that they are not all of us."

The disciples—none of them thought Judas was the betrayer. I mean, even when Jesus said, "It's the one who dips in the cup with me, he's the betrayer," and Judas dipped in the cup, they're like—and Jesus said to him, "What you do, do quickly," they're like, "Oh, I guess he's got to get something for the feast." They still didn't get it. I mean, come on, I could have had a V8. Anyway, they didn't get it because Judas didn't look like the guy. "One of you will betray me." They all said, "Is it I, Lord? Is it I, Lord?" These are insidious attacks.

Now, he introduces us to the apostates. And an apostate is someone who says he believes and then defects from the faith and turns away from it. As I told you, that's why the book of Jude, the given name Judas—Judas is the poster child for apostasy. So what are some things we learn about apostates? Well, the apostates promote ungodliness. So he says these are ungodly persons. It's the very first thing he tells us about them.

They creep in unnoticed. They've long beforehand been marked out for this condemnation. They are ungodly persons. That's an interesting word. It's a word Jude really likes to use. He's going to use it six times in this little epistle. 25 verses, 460 words, he uses ungodly six times. *Asebeia* is the Greek word. It's used 16 times in the New Testament. And this is what's so interesting: 16 times "ungodly" or "ungodliness," it's used six times in Jude, it's used three times in Second Peter chapter 2, which is very similar to Jude.

So when it comes to the apostates, 56% of the time the word is used, it's talking about apostates. It's talking about these folks. They are ungodly. They don't have any reverential awe of God. They're wicked. But secondly, they turn grace into a license to sin. Ungodly persons who turn the grace of our God into licentiousness, into wickedness, into a license to sin. Now, we read in Romans chapter 5 that where sin abounded, grace did much more abound.

God's grace overcomes the sin of the world. But then the people say, "What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound?" "Hey, if my sin brought about grace, well, maybe I should just sin some more and more and more to bring more grace." "Shall we continue in sin?" Romans 6:1. Paul asks that question, then he answers the question: "God forbid! May it never be! What a ghastly thought! How could you think like that?"

The grace of God is not a license to sin. I still remember in seminary class one of the guys was asking the professor, he was talking about this thing that he referred to as "greasy grace." Or he actually said "greazy," but I didn't know what "greazy" was. That's how some people—that's how they pronounce "greasy." Anyway, he said, "You know, this, that you just put grace over anything and you can live however you want." That's kind of the false teaching in the first century came with Gnosticism.

They said matter is evil, only the spirit is good. So it doesn't matter what you do with your body because your body's evil anyway. So you can just live it up. You can sow your wild oats, so to speak. You can sow to the flesh, it doesn't matter. And John is going to say, "Hey, it matters big time." That's how you can tell if somebody's a believer or not. The person that lives in sin, that person's never been saved.

So the apostates say, "Well, it's under grace, you can just do whatever you want." But the reality is you can't. Titus chapter 2 says this: "For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men, instructing us to deny ungodliness and worldly desires and to live sensibly, righteously, and godly in the present age." Grace doesn't say you can sin and do whatever you want. Grace instructs us to say no to that. Grace instructs us to follow after God with all our hearts.

Psalm 130: "If you, Lord, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand? But there is forgiveness with You that You may be feared." God's forgiven me so great a debt, and I stand in awe of Him, and I want to please Him. I don't want to do my own thing. I don't want to walk in the darkness. As John says, "This is the message we have heard from Him and announce to you, that God is light and in Him there is no darkness at all. If we say we have fellowship with Him and walk in the darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth."

"But if we walk in the light as He Himself is in the light, we have fellowship with one another and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin." The apostates promote ungodliness, they turn grace into a license to sin, and they deny the authority of the Lord. They deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ. They deny His deity. They deny His authority. They deny His Word. That word deny means to reject, to contradict, to refuse to accept.

I remember when I was in seminary in North Carolina. North Carolina had a big race problem. We came from Houston. We weren't used to that. Houston wasn't like that. But in the churches, and they were all smaller churches there in the Wake Forest, North Carolina, Raleigh area—smaller churches—and they did not want to have the churches come together, black and white. And I remember this one guy in seminary, he said he was pastoring his church, and he had invited a black couple to come to the church.

And they came to the church, and after they left at the end of that day, one of the deacons called that pastor and said to him, "Pastor, I don't care what the Bible says, we're not going to have those people in our church." Wow. I couldn't believe that. That's the heart of sin, saying, "I'm going to be my own boss. You're not going to rule me. I'm going to tell myself how things are going to be. I'm going to be captain of my own ship. I'm going to sit on the throne of my own heart. Not You, me."

They deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ. You want to know about the deity of Christ? He's our only Master, and He's our only Lord. Well, we endure in the face of persecution, but we confront the infiltration. We stand up. We fight with all that we have for the truth, for those that want to water down the truth, for those who want to put poison in the truth. Now, listen, we're to call those people out.

The Bible says in the book of Romans, "Now I urge you, brethren, keep your eye on those who cause dissensions and hindrances contrary to the teaching which you learned, and turn away from them. For such men are slaves not of our Lord Jesus Christ, but of their own appetites, and by their smooth and flattering speech, they deceive the hearts of the unsuspecting." So as we close today, I want you to think about this question: what are you doing to fight, to earnestly contend for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints?

Do you believe the lies that the Bible is not inerrant? Do you believe the lies that there are more ways to heaven than just Jesus? Do you believe the lies that God is not holy, holy, holy, that the Bible is not trustworthy, that there is not really a devil who wants to steal and kill and destroy, that there are only two places to go, heaven or hell, and that everybody under the sound of my voice, if you were to die right now, you're going to either spend eternity in heaven or eternity in hell?

And it has nothing to do with your good works; it has everything to do with His good work as He died on the cross and rose again from the dead. And listen, if you haven't put your faith and trust in Jesus and Jesus alone for salvation, you can today. Jesus says, "Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest."

Larry Nobles: If you know that you want that rest, it is offered to you through Christ today. Bow your heart right now and pray this prayer from your heart. Say, "Lord Jesus, I need You. I know I'm a sinner and I can't save myself, but Jesus, I believe that You are God in the flesh who died on the cross for my sins and rose from the dead. Right now, Jesus, I turn from my sin and I ask You to forgive me and to save me and to make me the person that You want me to be. I surrender my all to You and promise to follow You all the days of my life. In Jesus' name I pray, Amen."

Now, if you prayed that kind of prayer and you meant it, the Lord will come into your life and you'll know it. It'll change you forever. If you have, then we'd love to hear from you. Reach out to Pastor Jeff through the contact us link on our homepage. Please go to fromhishart.org, click the "Why Jesus" link to help you get started in your new Christian journey. As Pastor Jeff Schreve has said and believes, you really are important to God, and you're important to us, and we're here for you.

Well, I'm Larry Nobles and that's all our time for today. It's been a thrill to have you listen and trust you'll return next time for the next message in Pastor Jeff's series, "Faith Under Fire: A Study of the Book of Jude." Here's just a part of what's to come.

Dr. Jeff Schreve: We like stories where the bad guy gets it in the end. We don't do well—it messes with our sense of right and wrong if a bad guy in a movie gets away with the evil that he's doing. We want to see him come to justice, so to speak. You know, somebody can get away with murder in this life and not be held accountable for it, perhaps, but not in the next, because all of us have to do business with God in the end. Just because these guys seem to be on top right now, just know that their judgment is certain.

Larry Nobles: Join us next time for the lesson, "The Wheels of God's Justice." That's here on From His Heart.