Love Worth Finding

Guest (Male): Listen closely as Adrian Rogers shares how apostasy is like a snake in the garden.

Adrian Rogers: What if you had a garden and in that garden there were those roses with dew on them and all the beautiful flowers and everything that goes in a garden, but also in your garden were some poisonous snakes. Would you just simply tell your children about the roses and not about the snakes? Would you not warn your children about snakes in the garden? And would you not tell them the marks of a poisonous snake and teach them how to identify a snake that is poisonous? Friend, I want to tell you there's some snakes in the garden and you better learn what their marks are.

Guest (Male): Welcome to Love Worth Finding featuring the timeless lessons of pastor and Bible teacher Adrian Rogers. False doctrine is poisonous to the church of Jesus Christ. It is the devil's preferred way of infiltrating the church and destroying it from within. The book of Jude warns us of apostasy. Those who have crept into the church and try to deteriorate the integrity of God's word. They are like snakes in the garden hiding in the grass, preparing to strike. Jude 11 mentions three men who illustrate the marks of an apostate. If you have your Bible turn there now as Adrian Rogers shares part one of snakes in the garden.

Adrian Rogers: Now I want us to look primarily at verse 11. Remember we're talking to you about the subject of apostasy. Woe unto them for they have gone in the way of Cain and ran greedily after the era of Balaam for reward and perished in the gainsaying of Korah. In North America, there are three general types of venomous snakes which are not difficult to recognize. These are the copperheads, the cottonmouths, the coral snakes, and the rattlesnakes. The eastern coral snake is found from North Carolina to Texas, the western coral snake in Arizona. The coral snake's coloring gives a good clue it is poisonous.

Any shiny snake pattern with rings of red, gold, and black is suspect. The red rings are bordered with yellow. There are 15 kinds of rattlesnakes of various sizes and colors in the United States and Canada. All of them have rattles at the tips of their tails. The rattle is made up of a dry horny ring of skin that locks loosely unto another one. When the snake shakes its tail as it does when excited, these horny pieces of skin rub against one another. This results in a rasping or buzzing sound. It serves to warn other animals that might be getting too close.

Copperheads and cottonmouths have no rattles. A copperhead may be recognized by its brown hourglass shaped rings. A cotton mouth has a similar pattern, but the markings become dim as the snake ages. The cotton mouths are found in the southeastern United States as far north as Virginia and as far west as Texas. Copperheads are also found in the southeastern states. Now it's important that you be able to recognize one of these snakes because you might want to cut his tail off right behind his ears. When you see one of these snakes, what if you had a garden and in that garden there were those roses with dew on them and all the beautiful flowers and everything that goes in a garden, but also in your garden were some poisonous snakes.

Would you just simply tell your children about the roses and not about the snakes? And your children played in that garden. Would you not warn your children about snakes in the garden? And would you not tell them the marks of a poisonous snake and teach them how to identify a snake that is poisonous? Friend, I want to tell you there's some snakes in the garden and you better learn what their marks are. We're going to be talking today about the marks of an apostate and Jude gives us three. And as we look at these, we're going to see that they have definite marks that can distinguish them.

Matter of fact, you might want to put in your margin of your Bible Romans chapter 16 and verse 17. Now here's what the apostle Paul said, now I beseech you, brethren. When he says I beseech you, that means he is Boy, he's just urging them. His arms are stretched out. His His face has a pleading look on it. Now I beseech you, brethren, mark them which cause divisions and offenses contrary to the doctrine which you have learned and avoid them. You know what their marks are. Get away from them, avoid them as you would a poisonous snake.

Mark them and avoid them. Now false doctrine is very very dangerous. And I want to remind you that Satan is not against religion. Not against religion. He's in favor of it. He uses it. It is his chief tool. You see the Bible says there's certain men who have crept in unawares that they've slithered in like a snake into the garden and they're hiding in the grass and you don't even know they're there. It's very important that you need to be able to recognize you may be sitting next to one of them. Look around. Well, you say no, that's not an apostate.

Well, are you certain? An apostate is very clever. And the devil uh started out by saying I'll persecute the church and I will destroy the church through persecution. But when he tried to stamp out the fire, he just scattered the embers. And the more the church was persecuted, the more it grew. And we even have a slogan that the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church. It just caused the church to grow. So the devil said if I can't beat them from without, I'll work from within. If I can't beat them, I'll join them.

I will infiltrate and he infiltrates uh through apostasy. Now what is an apostate? An apostate is not just an unbeliever or not even somebody who's in a false cult necessarily. These are lost until they get saved, but until and if they get saved, but they're not an apostate. The word apostasy means to fall away. It is somebody who has received the truth, who has rejected the truth, begins to ridicule the truth, and after a while actually tries to replace the truth. He is the enemy of the Lord Jesus Christ and of the cross of Christ and he is what the Bible calls an apostate.

Now what are the marks of an apostate? Well, Jude mentions three men who illustrate the marks of an apostate so we can recognize an apostate. The first one he mentions is a man named Cain. The second one that he mentions is a man named Balaam. And the third one he mentions is a man named Korah and spelled k o r a h in the Old Testament, c o r e in the King James if you're using that. And all of these men represent the marks of an apostate. All right, there's snakes in the garden. All right, now first of all, Cain represents and pictures those who pervert the gospel.

Those who pervert the gospel. Now turn if you will in your Bibles to the story of Cain. Where are you going to find that? In Genesis chapter four and verse one. And Adam knew Eve his wife and she conceived and bare Cain and said I have gotten a man from the Lord. And she again bare his brother Abel. And Abel was a keeper of sheep, but Cain was a tiller of the ground. And it came to pass that Cain brought of the fruit of the ground an offering unto the Lord. And Abel, he also brought of the firstlings of his flock and the fat thereof.

And the Lord had respect unto Abel and to his offering, but unto Cain and his offering he had not respect. And Cain was very wroth and his countenance fell. And the Lord said unto Cain, why art thou wroth? And why is thy countenance fallen? If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted? And if thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door. And unto thee shall be his desire and thou shalt rule over him. And Cain talked with Abel his brother and it came to pass that when they were in the field that Cain rose up against Abel his brother and slew him.

Now this is the story of two brothers. It is the story of two offerings. It is the story of two religions. It is literally the story of two destinies, heaven and hell. Two different offerings that day, two boys, sons of Adam and Eve, Cain and Abel. They came out to worship the Lord. First of all, Abel is going to worship the Lord. You know what Abel does? Abel takes a little lamb. He was a keeper of sheep. The Bible says he took one of the firstlings of the flock. That is a spotless lamb. And that lamb became a blood sacrifice.

And he offered a blood sacrifice to the Lord. And the Lord accepted that offering because it was based on blood. You say pastor, what is the importance of the blood? The Bible says, and you might want to put it in your margin, Hebrews 9 verse 22, without shedding of blood there is no remission. The word remission means forgiveness. No sin can be forgiven apart from a blood sacrifice. You may not believe that, you may not agree with it, but you are wrong if you don't. Without shedding of blood is no remission. There is no remission apart from the shedding of blood.

And when Abel back here, and by the way, did you know that the Bible calls Abel a prophet? He was a prophet of God. He understood the things of God. And when Abel offered this blood sacrifice, it was an Old Testament picture of the Lord Jesus Christ. And the Bible says in 1st John chapter one and verse seven, the blood of Jesus Christ his son cleanses us from all sin. Now don't minimize the blood. The blood is not incidental, it is not accidental, it is fundamental. Without shedding of blood is no remission. And so one of these sons offered a blood sacrifice.

His name was Abel. And the Bible says God had respect to his offering. Now what about Cain? What kind of an offering did Cain bring? Well, look here at the scripture again in verse three. And the Bible says it came to pass in the process of time that Cain brought forth of the fruit of the ground an offering unto the Lord. Now remember God had said cursed is the ground, but of the fruit of the ground he brings an offering to the Lord. Now he was a farmer. And this fruit of the ground represented his sweat.

It represented the sweat of his face. It represented the works of his hands. It represented his own effort. It was not a blood sacrifice. It did not deal with a substitutionary death. It represented culture rather than Calvary. And that's not to say it wasn't a beautiful offering. I imagine he was a good farmer and there was the ripest of fruit. There were the fairest of flowers. There were the sweetest of herbs. And when he brought it all to the Lord, probably looked like a county fair. Very impressive. But God was not impressed. The Bible says that God had no respect whatsoever for that offering, the offering of Cain because it represented the works of his hands.

Now listen to your pastor and listen well. There are only two religions in the world. Only two, the true and the false. That's all. Just two. Now we like to divide uh religions up and you know we say there's confusionism and Buddhism and Mohammedism and rheumatism and all these other different kinds of religions. And then we even take Christianity and we like to subdivide Christianity. We say well there's Baptist and Methodist and Presbyterian and Episcopalian and Catholic and so forth. But folks, I want to tell you something, only two religions, the true and the false.

One is the way of Cain, the other is the way of the cross. That's all. The way of Cain or the way of the cross. They have gone, the Bible says in the book of Jude, the way of Cain. What is the way of Cain? The way of Cain is religion without blood, without the blood sacrifice, without the atonement. Well, you say pastor, we don't have to worry about that. You preach about the blood very often. Thank God for a church that's based on the book and the blood and the blessed hope. But beloved, now listen to me.

Across America today, you can go to church year after year without hearing a message on the blood atonement of the Lord Jesus Christ. I don't say that to swagger and say look at us. I say that with a broken heart, but it is true. And And perhaps you live in a little close society. You don't understand what I'm saying and what I'm preaching today, but I tell you we're living in a day of apostasy where the blood atonement of the Lord Jesus Christ is not preached. It is the mark of an apostate. And remember without shedding of blood there is no remission.

The blood of Jesus Christ his son cleanses us from all sin. Well, you say but we're Baptists and we're orthodox. Yes. I want to read to you what a Baptist professor said. Put it in a book. One of our Baptist professors and one of our seminaries. Unless I be accused of misquoting him, I want to read him verbatim. Quote. I believe it is unwise to seek for a necessity for the cross. It is quite possible to affirm and clarify the importance of the cross without speaking of it as a necessity. Further I quote. Same man.

Men today cannot believe that vicarious punishment. You know what the word vicarious means? It means in the place of another. It means substitutionary atonement, substitutionary. I cannot believe that vicarious punishment is either meaningful or moral. That is it makes no sense and it's not right. No illustration can be given so far as I can tell which makes vicarious punishment morally credible to men today. The stories of one soldier punished for another, a child punished for his brother, a man punished for his friend may be morally praiseworthy from the point of view of the substitute, but they never are acceptable from the point of view of the punisher.

It always seems morally outrageous that any judge would require a substitute. However noble a substitute's act might be, the judge's act seems despicable. He is saying that the doctrine of the substitutionary death of the Lord Jesus Christ on the cross for us is morally outrageous and despicable. Ladies and gentlemen, that is the way of Cain. I don't know what you believe about the substitutionary death of the Lord Jesus, but let me tell you what the apostle Paul believes about it. 1st Corinthians chapter 15 verse three, he says for I delivered unto you that which I first of all received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scripture.

Jesus on the cross died for my sin, for your sin. He became my sin bearer. He became my substitute. The aged prophet Isaiah said in Isaiah chapter 53 verses five and six, he was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace was upon him and with his stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray. We've turned everyone to his own way and the Lord Jehovah hath laid upon him Jesus the iniquity of us all. And I say hallelujah. Praise the Lord. Listen to me, ladies and gentlemen, there is the way of Cain.

It is the way of apostasy and the apostasy has come. It is already here. There are two religions. One is the way of Cain, the other is the way of the cross. One leads straight to hell, one leads straight to heaven. May we well sing it, say it, and mean it. My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness. Here was Cain who brought the works of his hands, culture rather than Calvary, works rather than grace, self-effort rather than blood. And the Bible says woe unto them. They have gone the way of Cain.

Now Cain represents those who pervert the gospel of Christ. That's one snake in the garden. Those who pervert the gospel of Christ. Ah, but there's another one that he mentions and that other one is Balaam. And if Cain represents those who pervert the gospel, Balaam represents those who prostitute the gospel. Also the Bible says there in Jude verse 11 they have gone after the era of Balaam. Well, who was Balaam? Balaam was an Old Testament apostate prophet. And you can find the story of Balaam in the book of Numbers uh chapters 22 through 25. And obviously we don't have time to deal with that much material in this message.

So let me just if I can give you a brief synopsis of what happened. Balaam was a very clever and a very gifted man and he was an erstwhile prophet of Jehovah God. Now the Israeli were coming out of Egypt and headed toward the promised land. And there was a king of Moab whose name was Balak. And Balak was afraid because he felt so insignificant and insecure with all of these Jews. And he thought something needs to be done to them. I wish that somehow I could put a curse on them. Well, he heard about Balaam and Balaam had a good reputation as a prophet and as a preacher.

So he sent some men and he said would you go ask Balaam if he would put a curse upon the Jews? Just curse them. Put a curse. Let Jehovah God curse them. And so he sent uh the messengers, the pulpit committee as it were, over to Balaam and and said now Balaam, we'll give you a good fee. We'll pay you if you will put a curse on God's people. Oh well, Balaam, he said I can't do that. I mean how can I curse God's people? I can't do that. But spend the night here, will you?

After a while they come back again and they told Balak Balak won't do it. He said well, every man has his price. Just offer him more money and give him some fringe benefits. And so they go back to Balaam and they offer him a bigger stipend. They offer him more money. And he caves in. Now he's smart enough to know he cannot as such curse the people of God. For the Bible says concerning the people of God, no weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper and every tongue that shall rise against thee in judgment thou shalt condemn.

This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord and the righteousness is from me, saith the Lord. And God protects his people. Balaam knew that. So Balaam very clever. He said now Mr. Balak, I'll tell you what to do. I can't curse them, but I sure would like to have this uh stipend over here on the side and I'm going to give you some good advice. I don't have to curse them. I'll tell you how to get them to curse themselves. What you do is you get some good-looking chicks from Moab over here, some of these young ladies, and you get them down there and put them into a uh a sensuous feast with the men of Israel.

And they'll commit fornication with these girls. And when they commit fornication with these girls, I won't have to curse them because they will have cursed themselves and God will curse them. And that's exactly what he did. And he infiltrated uh the camp of Israel with pornography and with sex and immorality and these kind of things and they literally curse themselves and the judgment of God came down upon them and God uh killed 24,000 of them in judgment. And God's work was set back through the apostate man Balaam. Now what did Balaam do and what does he represent?

He represents those men who sell out. He represents those men who take the message of God, the truth of God, the word of God, and for gain and for personal advantage. They prostitute the office of prophet and preacher. Ladies and gentlemen, we still have those with us today too. We have those people today who have uh somehow struck a financial arrangement with the devil himself and they have become tools of God. They are an apostate. You're going to find out that behind all apostasy there's some form of personal gain that the apostate hopes to get.

Now if you have your Bibles and you're writing in the margin, write down 2nd Peter chapter two because 2nd Peter chapter two is a parallel passage to Jude. Matter of fact, if you read the two passages, sometimes you think you're reading the other book. And here's what Peter says about them. Now listen. But there were false prophets also among the people. Snakes in the garden they were. Now Peter didn't say that, Adrian said that. But false prophets also among the people. Even as there shall be false teachers among you who privily shall bring in damnable heresies.

Oh brother Peter, that doesn't sound nice. Damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them and bring upon themselves swift destruction. And many shall follow their pernicious ways by reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of. Now listen to this next phrase. And through covetousness shall they with feigned words make merchandise of you. That's a key statement. They are covetous. And because they have this covetousness in their heart, they use feigned words. You know what feigned words are? Do you know the hardiest person to deal with is a religious apostate and a liberal.

Do you know why? He is good with words. He is one of the slickest things around. And to try to hem him up is like trying to hem up a snake in a barrel of oil. And with feigned words they'll make merchandise of you.

Guest (Male): And with that we'll conclude today's portion of the message. Don't miss part two coming up tomorrow. Maybe you have questions regarding your faith in Jesus today. We'd love to offer an insightful resource on our website, the Find Answers page. There you'll discover resources and materials that will answer questions you may have about how to begin a relationship with God. You can also check out our Grow Your Faith page. There you can get grounded and dig deeper in the scriptures. Go to lwf.org/radio and click the tab at the top that says Grow Your Faith or Find Answers.

Let us hear from you today.

Adrian Rogers: Hi, this is Adrian Rogers and this program has been brought to you by Love Worth Finding, a nonprofit ministry showcasing the powerful preaching and teaching of pastor Adrian Rogers. We operate solely through the generous gifts of individual supporters just like you. To give a gift today, call 1877 Love God. That's 1877 Love God. Or write to us at Love Worth Finding, box 38-600 Memphis, Tennessee 38183. You can also connect with us online by going to lwf.org/radio. There we offer helpful resources inspired by the timeless teachings of pastor Adrian Rogers. Additionally, you can sign up for daily emails, donate to the ministry, and learn more about how to become an ambassador of the word.

Thank you so much for listening today. Be sure to join us next time for more profound truth simply stated right here on Love Worth Finding.

Guest (Male): Is there a difference between praise and thankfulness? Listen to Adrian Rogers.

Adrian Rogers: Uh yes, there is a difference. Praise is uh reverencing God for who he is. Thanksgiving is recognizing what he has done. And the two are inextricably interwoven, but they're not exactly the same. And both are absolutely necessary and the person who is not praiseful will never be thankful.

Guest (Male): Adrian Rogers preached on gratitude nearly every November during his time as a pastor. And we've taken several of his messages and condensed them into a 30-day devotional guide that we're calling Thanksgiving Grace. For your gift to Love Worth Finding during this Thanksgiving season, we'd love to send you a copy of this new resource. Ask for Thanksgiving Grace, a 30-day devotional on gratitude when you call with a gift at 1877 Love God. And thanks for your generous support of Love Worth Finding.