Leading The Way

Guest (Male): Dr. Michael Youssef shares a firm warning as he begins this episode of Leading the Way.

Dr. Michael Youssef: Sitting on the fence is taking a stand. Not saying a word in the face of false teaching and false preaching is taking a stand. Not helping people to flee from deception is taking a stand. Not correcting false teaching and false doctrine is taking a stand.

Guest (Male): Welcome to Leading the Way with best-selling author and international Bible teacher Dr. Michael Youssef. You can order any of Dr. Youssef's available books at ltw.org, but make sure you look for his most recent title, "An Unholy Alliance." The website again to check out the resource store is ltw.org.

Coming up next, Dr. Youssef continues his new teaching series called "Contend for the Faith," reminding you about the importance of standing up for the truth of the faith, especially today, when people stand on everything but faith or truth. Join me in listening as Dr. Michael Youssef begins today's teaching time.

Dr. Michael Youssef: Turn with me, please, to Jude verses five, six, and seven, three verses. "Though you already know this, I want to remind you that the Lord delivered his people out of Egypt, but later destroyed those who did not believe. And the angels who did not keep their positions of authority and abandoned their own home, these he kept in darkness bound with everlasting chains for judgment day to come, the great day. In similar way, Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding towns, they gave themselves up to sexual immorality and perversion. They serve as an example for those who suffer the punishment of eternal fire."

In these three short verses, Jude gives us three kinds of examples that warn us against apathy. Please hear me out on this one. It's very important. While God will severely judge the false teachers and the false preachers, while God will severely judge those who caused others to stumble, while God severely will judge those deceivers who have deceived us, yet listen carefully, it is the believers' apathy that God is deeply concerned about.

Why? Because they risk the loss of three things. According to the Word of God, the loss of three things. First, they'll lose their power for victory. Secondly, they'll lose their position. And thirdly, they'll lose their privilege. Now, before I get to those three losses, I want to emphasize the fact that Jude knows that the believers know. There's nothing like knowing what others know. He knows what they know, that they all know these biblical historical truths in the Scripture.

Verse five, he says, "You already know this. You already know this." So he's preaching to the choir. Sometime ago somebody said to me, "Michael, you're preaching to the choir." I said, "Absolutely, but the choir may need to know and be reminded." Why? Because the problem is not knowledge. The problem is the apathy in neglecting to apply this knowledge into our lives. That's the problem. Not knowledge, but the applying of the knowledge into our own lives.

So all these three illustrations from history, as recorded in the Word of God, give us all a warning light, flashing warning light, every one of us, against apathy. What God did to the unbelieving Israelites, what God did to the rebellious angels, what God did to the perversion of Sodom and Gomorrah, they're all meant to be a warning for us. They're all meant to be a warning to believers everywhere, all the time.

What is this severe warning? It is this. Listen carefully. False teachers and false preachers can take us all the way to danger zones. False teachers and false preachers, those who have turned their backs on the infallibility of the Word of God, can take us all the way to the edge of the abyss. Therefore, be on your guard. Be on your guard. Watch. Watch. Watch out for the spirit of apathy.

Now I look at these three examples from history. The first illustration that the Apostle Jude gives us is the unbelieving Israelites, which caused the entire community to miss out on the power for victory that God wants to give them and wanted to give them from the very beginning. They not only delayed the entire community entering into the Promised Land by 40 years, but they lost their power.

Just to remind you, the reason it is called the Promised Land is because it was promised. That's why it's promised. It's promised to Abraham and his descendants. Now, if I make you a promise, do you trust that I'll keep my promise? But listen to me, I'm a fallen man. I'm a man with clay feet. I fumble and stumble. How much more significant should be us and they taking God at His promise, trusting Him completely?

All that the Israelites needed to do is literally walk across into the Promised Land and claim it and have victory and take it over because it was promised. Oh, but no, no, no, no, no. They formed a committee. They had to conduct a feasibility study. This is how it goes. It sounds really very impressive, feasibility study. By the way, feasibility study's fine in the business world, but not when you're claiming the promise of God. You just walk over and take it.

And so a committee of 12 was formed, and they're sent to spy the Land of Promise, and then they come back with a report, a divided report, ten against two. Ten basically brought what they called the majority report, those of you who familiar with church politics. The majority report and the two brought the minority report.

Listen to me, don't ever get impressed by the size of a church or the size of a crowd. God is not impressed by the size of the crowd. God is only impressed by obedience. The majority declared that the people in that Promised Land, they're bigger than us, they are more powerful than us, they are stronger than us, they are more sophisticated than us, they have more armament than us.

And you feel like you want to say to them, "Wait a minute. Wait a minute. Had these people not seen the hand of God in Egypt? Had they not seen the plagues in Egypt? Had they not seen what happened to Pharaoh's army? Had they not seen the parting of the Red Sea? Had they not seen the defeat of the Amalekites? Have they not seen the manna coming from heaven every day? Have they not seen the water gushing out of the rock? Have they not seen the deliverance of God? Have they not seen the cloud by day and the pillar of fire at night? Have they not seen that?"

What is the problem here? Oh, the problem is unbelief, distrust, doubt, doubt. A lot of megachurch pastors are bringing doubt on the Word of God. And so the people see their pastor, used to preach the Word of God, now they're denying the authenticity and the authority of the Word of God, so they follow all the way to the edge of the abyss. Apathy. Apathy. Oh, beloved, listen to me.

Here is what pains my heart and my head. Most often the faithful get easily infected by the unfaithfulness much more than the other way around. That's what gives me pain in my heart and my head. The faithful get easily infected by the unfaithful much faster than the other way around. As a result of this, that generation of Israelites, that whole generation with the exception of two, died in the wilderness and lost their power of victory.

Only two people, Joshua and Caleb, of that generation, were able to enter into the Promised Land. They were the only two of that whole generation who've experienced the power of God in victory into the Promised Land. Question: Did the faithful believers suffer as a result of the people following these ten guys? Did the whole community suffer? Yes. Believers experience second-hand suffering from sin just like second-hand smoke.

When a member of a family sins or lives in disobedience, the whole family gets affected. When apostasy of the unfaithful always, always impacts the entire community of God, and that is why we must not even fellowship with the apostate. We must never be silent or give tacit approval to the apostate. We must run from them as far as we can. Why? Because you are in danger of losing your power and victory.

Oh, listen to me, please. You may not lose your salvation, that's not what I'm saying, but you will most assuredly lose your power and victory. Apathy will not only cause you the loss of power with God. Secondly, apathy will cause you the loss of your position. Don't ever forget, don't ever forget that Satan had the most lofty position there is, next to God. He was in the presence of the Most High God.

He was called Lucifer, from which we get the word lucifite, or bright light, or dazzling light. Oh, but pride got hold of him. Pride got hold of him. Pride set in. Pride filled him. And as a result, he was thrown out of heaven into a dark pit from where he now operates. He and his demons right now are being prepared and bound for the lake of fire.

As I often tell you, that as far as the believers are concerned, listen carefully, as far as the children of light are concerned, as far as the disciples of Jesus are concerned, Satan has no power over you unless you hand it to him. I'll be talking more about this specifically about how the archangel Michael, in the next message, when he got in dispute with Satan, he didn't even take his own powerful authority as the archangel, but he said, "The Lord rebuke you, Satan."

I'll talk more about this in the next message. When Satan was thrown out of heaven, he managed to deceive one-third angelic being into his folly of trying to conduct a coup d'état against God and take His place. One-third of the angelic being lost the lofty position. Every day it seems, or every week at least, we're hearing of some well-known pastors, well-known preachers, well-known theologians who have lost their lofty position because of apathy and indiscretion.

Of course, we only know about the famous ones. We don't know all the other ones that we never hear about because we don't know. Oh, think about the believers in the pews across the country and across the world who are constantly losing their lofty position. Again, I'm not saying losing salvation, but lofty position. But it all begins with apathy. Please trust me, it all begins with apathy.

It all begins with the decision not to contend for the faith once delivered. And when they refuse to stand up for the truth out of fear, whatever form of fear it may be, oh, beloved, listen. Sitting on the fence is a position. Sitting on the fence is taking a stand. Not saying a word in the face of false teaching and false preaching is taking a stand. Not helping people to flee from deception is taking a stand. Not correcting false teaching and false doctrine is taking a stand.

When we apathetically say somebody else will do it, somebody else will act, somebody else will stand up, somebody else will speak up, somebody else is going to contend for the faith, somebody else will defend the truth, that may cause you the loss of your lofty position. Apathy puts us in danger of losing our power with God. Apathy puts us in danger of losing our lofty position. Thirdly, apathy puts us in danger of losing our privilege, our privilege.

In fact, if you look up the word privilege, you discover it has several meanings. It could mean favored place, exceptional place, virtuous place. Jude, in his urgent attempt to warn believers, warn believers against apathy, he is giving us example after example after example of the price that is paid when the faithful become apathetic.

Verse seven, "In a similar way, Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding towns, they gave themselves up to sexual immorality and perversion. They serve as an example of those who suffer the punishment of eternal fire." Lot, he was Abraham's nephew, and the Bible gives us three stages of Lot, three stages. First of all, the Bible said Lot looked towards Sodom. Oh, the Big Apple.

It's so attractive. Oh, the people there must be really happy because they're free. And he looked towards Sodom. The next thing you read in the Scripture, it said Lot pitched his tent just outside of Sodom. And then the third stage and you look in the Scripture and you see it, you find Lot inside Sodom, inside. See, that's how this regression from the faith starts. Trust me, I've been through that when I ran away from the Lord.

It starts first with apathy, and then you end up with saying, well, if you can't beat them, join them. Remember this: Lot's uncle Abraham was up there praying for Lot and his family. Uncle Abraham was interceding on their behalf. Uncle Abraham was petitioning God on their behalf. But their apathy led Lot and his family to keep their mouths shut, to keep quiet.

Their apathy led them to wink at perversion. Their apathy led them not just to love people but love sin. Second Peter 2:7, memorize it. Second Peter 2:7. Lot was distressed. He was distressed. In fact, I love the old translation. The King James says he was vexed. I love that word. He was vexed. He was vexed by living among perverted and lewd people, end of quote.

And yet his vexing, his distress was not enough for him to run. The Sodomites were inflamed with sexual passions, so much so that they wanted to sodomize the two heavenly angels that came from heaven to deliver Lot and his family. Obviously, they did not know or even if they did not, they were heavenly being. They probably thought they ordinary men. Oh, beloved, listen to me.

Apathy will cause believer a whole lot of stress, especially when they tolerate what God calls sin. And by the way, that's any sin, any sin. Sin is not what the government declares as sin. Sin is not what Pastor Smelfungus declares as sin. And not just because something is legal that it means not sin. Sin is sin no matter who approves of it.

And the reason the moral fabric of our society is fraying and unraveling is because we have decided it is up to us what to call sin and what not to call sin. The Bible defines sin. Why do we have to redefine it? The Bible also defines what liberty is, and it's not liberty to sin, but it is liberty not to sin.

Therefore, faithful believers must shout it from the rooftop that Christ alone, in Him alone, is the forgiveness of sin and the healing from all sins. Christ alone, in Christ alone, is deliverance from all sin. In Christ alone, there is a new life of overcoming sin. In Christ alone, there is victory over temptation and sin.

Guest (Male): Thank you for listening to Dr. Michael Youssef's timely message series, "Contend for the Faith." And won't you consider joining him and listeners worldwide next time when he continues this life-changing teaching on Leading the Way audio? Remember that you can enjoy this and other content from Dr. Youssef at ltw.org when you use the updated Leading the Way app or by subscribing to the Leading the Way podcast. Details about all of these are available at ltw.org.

By the way, when listening to content from Dr. Youssef, specifically at ltw.org, take a moment and follow the mission link. The mission link is right there near the top of the page. You're quickly going to realize that Leading the Way is more than audio and video content and podcast. Leading the Way is an expansive ministry that because of your prayers and generosity is influencing people at home and around the world through media, through events, as well as one-on-one ministry by passionate local field teams. Check out Leading the Way's scope of ministry today at ltw.org.

Dr. Michael Youssef: My beloved friends in Christ, our world is lost, confused, and in desperate need of Jesus. Through Leading the Way's June gift challenge, you can share the only thing that matters eternally. I have never seen a more urgent time for the preaching of the Gospel, the proclamation of the Gospel in our nation. Together we can have an impact in these last days. God bless.

Guest (Female): Well, my family came to America from Iran in 1972. I was only a year old. They came here for school. My family, they finished high school and went to college here, and they eventually decided to stay here. And when I was about 11, my mom, she was always religious, but she became very religious as far as the Muslim faith.

That's when she started to cover herself, wear the veil, and that was enforced. The prayers were enforced. We would go to the Friday night prayers and the mosques, and everything just changed overnight. It was very difficult because my family, my mother, my parents would force it on me. I just knew that that was not for me. I didn't know who Jesus was. I didn't know nothing.

Guest (Male): I have a long commute to work, and I always listen to the news. And one day I said, "I'm tired of listening to the news." So I just flipped through the AM stations. And there was the first time, almost two years ago, I listened to Leading the Way. I do recall just being blown away. I forgot I was in traffic. I forgot I was even in my car.

First thing that really got me with Dr. Michael Youssef was his passion, the way he said his messages, the way he conveyed it. Then you start listening to his messages; it was pure truth, and he gives you so much hope. I wouldn't have made my decision, I know I wouldn't have made any decision to convert if it wasn't for Leading the Way. Absolutely not.

Speak with a representative today when you call the ministry call center at 866-626-4356 or visit ltw.org. And you can also write to us. Send Dr. Youssef a note or a postcard, just letting him know what this ministry means to you. Write to Leading the Way, Post Office Box 20100, Atlanta, Georgia 30325. This program is brought to you by Leading the Way with Dr. Michael Youssef.