Leading The Way

Guest (Male): Satan's purpose and only mission is to divert the attention of God's people from worshiping the one true God. Oh, you can focus on rituals, you can focus on church politics, or you can focus on anything other than the worship of Jesus.

Guest (Female): In the brief book of Jude, believers are implored to contend for the truth of the faith, avoiding the dangers introduced by dreamers and false teachers. We're going to hear more about these enemies of the faith on today's episode of Leading the Way Audio.

Hey, thank you for listening to Leading the Way with Dr. Michael Youssef, and a practical message from his series, Contend for the Faith. Now, to allow just as much time as possible to hear from Dr. Youssef, let's listen as he begins today's life-changing teaching from God's word.

Dr. Michael Youssef: Jude verses 8 through 11. In the same way, these dreamers pollute their own bodies, reject authority, and slander celestial beings. But even the archangel Michael, when he was disputing with the devil about the body of Moses, did not dare to bring slanderous accusation against him, but he said, "The Lord rebuke you, Satan."

Yet these men speak abusively against whatever they don't understand. And what things they do understand by instinct, like unreasoning animals, these are the very things that destroy them. Woe to them! They have taken the way of Cain. They have rushed for profit into Balaam's error. They have been destroyed in Korah's rebellion.

Verse 8. These dreamers. Well, they dream of salvation without a Savior. They dream of redemption without the cross. They dream of peace without repentance. They dream of preaching happiness without holiness. They preach unity without Christ. They preach a God other than the Father of the Lord Jesus Christ.

They dream dreams that everyone, no matter which God they follow, they will make it to heaven. It doesn't matter who you worship, you'll make it in the end as long as you're sincere. They're dreamers. They dream that hell is such a negative concept, don't preach about it. That hell hinders people from coming to Christ. And all I'm telling you is these books are written and preachers have preached that. That hell and heaven are man's invention and the Bible is not fully to be trustworthy.

But beloved, the truth is this. Our Lord Jesus Christ stands ready to forgive every repentant sinner. The Lord Jesus Christ is calling out every human being who would listen to him. Come to me, for I'm the only one who can save you eternally. Come to me, for there is no other way to heaven except through me. Come to me, for there can be no eternal life in heaven without me. Come to me, for there is no peace of mind without me.

For denying the authority of the word of God is a denial of celestial beings. What do I mean by that? How come Jude says this? Here's what he said. Even the archangel Michael, with all the power that invested in him, spiritual power, believed in the existence of Satan more than so many preachers today.

He believed in the existence of Satan and he acknowledged that Satan is a powerful, evil, supernatural being. Please listen to me. An evil, spiritual being who is not to be trifled with. Are you with me? We have to understand that Satan's purpose and only mission is to divert the attention of God's people from worshiping the one true God.

Oh, you can focus on a religion, you can focus on ritual, you can focus on church politics, or you can focus on anything other than the worship of Jesus. And that is why, when Moses died, God wanted to make sure that the subsequent generation of Jews are not going to fall into the idolatry of worshiping at the shrine of Moses.

And that is why no one knows where Moses is buried to this day. Nobody knows where he was buried. But Satan wanted to do the opposite. Satan wanted a shrine to be erected for Moses. Why? So that people can commit idolatry and worship Moses and worship his shrine.

So a dispute in the heavenly realm arose between Satan and the archangel Michael over the body of Moses. What was the archangel Michael's mission? To protect God's people from falling into idolatry. But instead of the archangel Michael using his own spiritual authority to stop Satan, what did he do? What did he do? He said, "The Lord rebuke you, Satan."

Verse 9. But even when the archangel Michael, when he was disputing with the devil about the body of Moses, did not dare to bring slanderous accusation against him, but said, "The Lord rebuke you, Satan." Beloved, listen to me please. While believers are given authority by Jesus, we dare not, we dare not to confront Satan on our own strength, even though we've been given authority over him.

Because Satan is a spiritual being. He's not flesh and blood as Paul said to the Ephesians. And he loves to draw us into thinking that we can, we have the power, all we need to do, we to exercise that power without hanging on the coattail of our commander-in-chief. And Jude is saying that if the archangel Michael let the Lord himself deal with Satan to defeat him, how much more do we need the Lord to do that?

Who are we to think that we can handle Satan on our own? It is absolute fallacy. It is absolute falsehood. Listen to me. Those who deny the existence of Satan as so many in the pulpits today, those who minimize the craftiness of Satan, those who ignore the schemes of Satan, they can fall in the trap of being deceived by Satan.

Only those who truly fear the Lord. The Bible said the fear of the Lord's the beginning of wisdom. Only those who fear the Lord have no reason to fear Satan. But the big question still is this. How do we recognize the deception of Satan through the apostates in the church? And that is where the three clues come in. Look at them, they're all in one verse by the way, verse 11.

Three clues. If you're a detective, he's saying here are three clues I want to give you that keeps you alert. Verse 11. First clue, stay away from do-it-yourself religion. Second clue, stay away from the feelings religion. Third clue, do not get into the building your own ego religion.

I'm going to explain all of that because they're here in the word of God. First clue, stay away from the do-it-yourself religion. Do you know what I'm talking about, do-it-yourself religion? I mean humanitarian work, faith-based work. My goodness, these are buzzwords now, buzzwords. You say, "Michael, are you against humanitarian work?"

Absolutely not. For all humanitarian work began by Christians. All of humanitarian activities have their roots in the Christian faith. Christians are the ones who built hospitals for healing. Christians are the ones who open orphanages for the destitute. Christians are the ones who created works of mercy. Christians are the ones who established feeding of the hungry.

All of these began as a result of Christian believers wanted to serve God by serving people. But like everything else Satan touches, and he does that with everything that's good, like everything else, Satan hijacked these ministries and made them purely for selfish and self-gratifying and self-serving.

The way of Satan gets in the picture, listen carefully. He takes over the work of God and he literally invert the purpose. How does he do that? Humanitarian work becomes how I earn my salvation. Humanitarian work becomes how do I go to heaven. Humanitarian work becomes this is how I earn brownie points with God.

Humanitarian work becomes the way to ease my conscience. Instead of repenting of sin, the way you ease my conscience is I do some good and maybe accepted by God. That's how he perverts everything. Can you see Satan's deception? The word of God from cover to cover says that there's only one way to be accepted by God and that is through the shed blood of Jesus Christ on the cross of Calvary.

Only after that, that we serve God by serving the needs of others. And that's precisely, that's precisely the deception that Cain, the son of Adam and Eve, fell into. That's the deception of Satan got him into. Let's look at it.

His mom and dad, Adam and Eve, learned the hard way from God that fig leaves do not cover the sin of disobedience. His mom and dad, Adam and Eve, learned the hard way that only the shedding of the blood of an innocent lamb will bring forgiveness of sins. And his mom and dad, Adam and Eve, taught the boys, taught their children, the importance of this lesson.

And guess what? Their son Abel decided to follow God, God's way. This is what God wants, that's what I'm going to do. This is God's way, I'm not going to change it. And so he comes to God offering the sacrifice of a slaying of an innocent lamb.

Why was this so important to God all these thousands of years ago? Why was that important for him in the Garden of Eden? Why? That early in history, this is a very important lesson. Because the shedding of the blood of an innocent lamb was pointing forward to the cross of Christ. Because the shedding of the blood of an innocent lamb is a forward-looking picture to the Lamb of God, the most innocent blood of all.

But here comes Cain. And here comes Cain and he said, "No way, Jose. Mom and dad's religion is outmoded. Mom and dad's religion is old-fashioned. Mom and dad's religion is not hip anymore. Mom and dad's religion has not moved with the times." Oh, how many times do I hear that.

"Mom and dad's religion is not relevant today. It's just not relevant for today. No one believes that stuff anymore. Why do we still believe that? I'm going to come to God my way. I'm going to come to God my, not God's way, but my way. I'm going to be accepted by God. He will have to accept me the way I think he should accept me. I'm going to worship God my way, not his way."

Of course, today this is known as the way of Cain. Thousands of years later, the Epistle to the Hebrews chapter 11, verse 4 says by faith, who? Abel. Did he say Cain? No. You see, the truth is, it doesn't take faith for a do-it-yourself religion. It doesn't take any faith at all. You do what pleases you.

It doesn't take faith for do-it-yourself your way. No amount of good intentions, sincerity, hard work, can save us. No amount. First clue, stay away from do-it-yourself religion. Second clue, stay away from follow-your-feelings religion.

Here Jude gives us the example of Balaam. Who is that Balaam guy? Well, when the Israelites came out of the land of slavery in Egypt, and before they got into the Promised Land, they came into the wilderness and they had to go through a place called Moab.

The Moabites had a king who was evil by the name of Balak. Don't confuse those two because both starts with B. Are you easily get confused is, first one is who? Balaam. Second one, Balak. King Balak heard about the great things that God did for the Israelites when they came out of Egypt and he was terrified of them and he wants to destroy them.

So he looked around and he found a prophet of the occult, somebody who is a sorcerer, a demon-possessed by the name of Balaam. King Balak said to Balaam, "I'm going to make you a very rich man." But even demons, even demons and demon-possessed sorcerers knew that the Israelites are protected by God. Because in the loins of so many of them the seed of the birth of the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ the Messiah. So he was protecting them.

Oh, but the pile of money looked so good. It felt so good to do it. And so when Balaam became reluctant, because as I said, even demons had to obey God, the king interpreted the reluctance of Balaam as holding out for more money.

So what does the king do? He upped the ante. More money! More money! Balaam knew that he could not curse the people of God. Oh, but the money looked so good, the money felt so good. And the more Balaam says no, the more money piled up by Balak.

Finally, he said, "You know what? I'll give it a shot. I mean, what have I got to lose?" Oh, the money blinded him so much. So much that he could not see the angel with a sword drawn stopping him from going through. He couldn't see, he was so blinded by the money, he couldn't see the angel.

But the donkey did! The donkey he was riding. So he kept beating the donkey, kept beating the donkey. So much so that the donkey spoke. Be very careful when a donkey speaks to you. Be very, very careful. Be very careful.

You need to read the story, by the way, when you go home. It's the book of Numbers chapter 22, 23, and 24. Read them, take your time. God is the one who forbid Balaam from cursing his people. But that did not stop Balaam because the money felt so good.

So he come up with a diabolical idea. The second best. And he said to the king of Moab, "The way you weaken and may not destroy but we weaken these people is to have a party. Party! Like one of those fraternity parties, you know what, the wild ones? Lots of booze and lots of loose Moabite women. That will do it every time."

Beloved, this promiscuity, sexual sins, is Satanic trick 101. 101. When all fail, you sexual temptation. And this diabolical plan worked. It worked. First clue, stay away from do-it-yourself religion. Second clue, stay away from follow-your-feelings religion.

The third clue that Jude gives us here, stay away from feeding-your-ego religion. And Jude gives all three examples as I said from the Scripture, from the word of God. Storytime again, okay? Another story.

While the Israelites was still in the wilderness, they haven't got into the land of promise which I talked about in the last message, they haven't got there, they're still in the wilderness. An obscure man by the name of Korah shows up. By the way, he may be obscure, but he actually was Moses's cousin. Did you know that? He was Moses's cousin. Read about it.

So he was a Levite, but he had a sick ego. Sick ego. And he wanted to replace Moses as a leader. Probably, probably, I'm very careful, okay? Probably Korah was talented, he was intelligent, he was charismatic, and he was popular.

He didn't think much of Moses's leadership. He felt that Moses's leadership is not worth a flip. That he really is not a good leader. Oh, but he thought that he himself would make a much better leader. Would make a much better leader. Read about it in the book of Numbers chapter 16 when you go home, please.

Well you might be asking, "Well Michael, how do you know that Korah was all these things you said?" Because he had a very large following. Don't be misled by large followings. And you know what? This is a Youssef thing, it's not going to find it in the Bible. I personally think probably he would have made a better leader. Probably.

As I think there are lots of better leaders than I am. This is not false humility, it's the absolute conviction. A lot of people would exercise a better leadership than me. I know that. But there was just one tiny, teeny, little problem. Have you thought about it? Just a little problem.

God chose stuttering Moses, not brilliant Korah, to lead the people. And Korah's rebellion against Moses' leadership spelled dreadful disaster. Dreadful disaster. But think about this, what did Moses do? I mean, what would you do when you're falsely accused?

Well what did Moses do? "I'll take them on. Let's go, a mano a mano, let's go, let's go public about this." No. In Numbers chapter 16, verse 30, it says Moses went on his face before the Lord. I've found through the years that the Lord's vengeance is far better administered than mine. Oh, it might be slower, but much better, much more effective.

And what did God do? Listen carefully. Not only that he opened the ground, he opened the ground and Korah and 240 others were swallowed in it. But additional 14,700 people of the Israelites were killed by a plague. Please listen to me. It's always better to wait upon the Lord. It's always better what? To wait on the Lord.

So I tell you as I conclude. Please stay away from do-it-yourself religion. Stay away from trusting-your-feeling religion. Stay away from building-your-ego religion. For the God who sees all things will reward you publicly and generously.

Guest (Male): This is Leading The Way, and an encouraging message from Dr. Michael Youssef from his series, Contend for the Faith, offering words of truth especially relevant in the times in which we live today. And remember, you can listen to this content and more from Dr. Youssef on the radio, online at LTW.org, with the Leading The Way app, on YouTube, and many other social media platforms. In fact, keep in mind that Dr. Youssef also has video content that you are sure to enjoy. Check it out when you follow the Watch link at LTW.org.

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