This is living. Waters of Grace, the teaching
ministry of Lewis Harold, assistant pastor of Calvary
Chapel of Westmoreland County in Greensburg, PA.
Now here's Pastor Lewis as he continues teaching through God's
Word. They're not making up stories.
They're not trying to figure out what they're going to teach.
It's here. They teach what's here, and they
expound on the scriptures. And this is what we need in this
day. We need truth, not stories, not
fables, not entertainment. I don't need to come up here and
make you laugh and entertain you.
We need the word of God. That is what changes us.
That's what transforms us. Have you ever attended a church
service where the pastor's message didn't come from a
biblical passage? Today, many Internet preachers
focus on few good sermons offering seven steps to success
or reminding you that you are the victor, not the victim.
But today Pastor Lewis emphasizes that genuine time
with God should be rooted in His Word.
True guidance and strength are not found in 2 minutes sermon
clips and prosperity teachings, but by reading and spending time
with God in His Word, the Bible. Now here's Pastor Lewis in the
book of Jude chapter 1 as he begins his message apostates
described. Please turn in your Bibles with
me, please, to the book of Jude. We're going to plug through this
and we're going to finish it eventually.
I promise you, eventually we will finish Jude.
We'll go to the 12th verse. I'm going to go ahead and read,
first of all, the verses that I plan to cover.
And I have to admit, because of the content of the verses, it's
not like it's going to be a whole lot of verses, but I
believe that the Lord has some things to say to us in these
verses that will be beneficial to all of us in our Christian
walk. But starting at verse 12, he
says this. 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. They're 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 has reserved the blackness of darkness forever.
Now Enoch the 7th from Adam prophesied about these men also
saying, Behold, the Lord comes with 10 thousands of his Saints
to execute judgment on all, to convict all who are ungodly
among them, all their ungodly deeds which they have committed
in an ungodly way, and of all the harsh things which ungodly
sinners have spoken against him. So once again we see here that
this book of Jude, which he gives us small book, but he
gives us right before the book of Revelations and he, he gives
us his book because of what's going on in his culture at that
particular time. People were walking away from
the faith, people were absconding from the faith,
people were defecting from the faith, people were turning from
the faith. And some of these were teachers
who were teaching ungodly things to the Christians.
And you found it necessary, He found it necessary to put this,
this letter out as a warning to the people to let them know.
Be careful, watch out, make sure you are alert, make sure your
eyes are open, you're sober. Make sure that you understand
truth and that you're not deceived.
And this morning, my heart is echoing what it is that Jude is
saying. And the reason why is because
I'm seeing as I'm reading some things and I'm watching and I'm
looking, I'm seeing that people are walking away from the
church. People are walking away from the
church. People are leaving the church.
People are, are, are defecting from the Word of God.
Pastors are leaving their pulpits and leaving the faith.
Not just leaving their pulpits, they're leaving the faith.
But it brings to light the things that Paul said back in
the book of first Timothy. And I'm going to read it because
it's I think it's important that we hear this before we go into
talking about the description of these false teachers.
But there's two things I want to read before I get into the text.
First, first, first Timothy, chapter 4.
You've read it before, but I think it's appropriate here.
First Timothy chapter 4, verse one, it says this.
Now the spirit expressly says that in the latter times some
will depart from the faith. Why?
Because they're giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines
of demons. Verse 2 says speaking lies in
hypocrisy, having their own conscience seared with a hot
iron. Now I want you to go to Second
Timothy, and in Second Timothy, there's a couple things I'm
going to read. First, we're going to start with
start at chapter 4, First chapter 4, looking at verse 3,
it says for the time will come when they will not endure sound
doctrine, but according to their own desires.
That's so important. Listen to that.
But according to their own desires, because they have
itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers and
verse 4 says, and they will turn their ears away from the truth,
away from the truth and be turned aside to fables.
And then I'm going to read one more back over in Second Timothy
again here in Second Timothy, but chapter 3, starting at verse
one, it says, but know this, that in the later that in the
last days perilous times will come.
And then it describes how it will impact certain men.
It says for men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money,
boasters, proud blasphemers, disobedient to parents,
unthankful, unholy, unloving, unforgiving, slanderers without
self-control, brutal, despisers of good traitors, headstrong,
haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God having
a form of godliness but denying its power.
And from such people turn away. So we have Paul giving this
advice to Timothy, his young son in the faith who was a young
pastor and he's saying, listen, understand something.
And the latter times these things are going to happen.
And it's also appropriate for us today.
Back in I read something recently, I read that said back
in 19, I think it was 1972, like 90% of the United States were
Christian. Now it's less than 64% people
walking away from the faith and a lot of the reasons why people
are giving from walking away from the faith is is because
they have differences with the Word of God.
Now times have changed, the culture has changed, and the
Word of God needs to change. No, it doesn't.
Cultural differences. I want to live this way and the
Word of God says I got to live that way.
I'm not in agreement with it, so I'm walking away from it.
These people I spoke to because they have been in some
legalistic situations or in some legalistic church, religious
kind of churches where you know, it was works based, was put
condemnation on people instead of teaching both truth and
grace. These people left because they
feel like they just can't stand up to the standard of what their
authority was trying to make them live up to.
They can't stand up to it, so they want to walk away from it.
It's easier for me not to be under any authority if I got to
be under authority that I can't stand up to.
So I'll just become an atheist and won't believe anything.
Therefore, I don't have to worry about feeling condemned or
feeling convicted about anything.
I don't have to worry about it because I don't believe it.
It doesn't matter whether we believe it or not.
It doesn't make it not true. Truth is truth.
Truth is truth, and just because I don't believe it doesn't make
it so. I used to say, look, God said
it, I believe it, and that settles it.
No, God settled. God said it, that settles it.
It doesn't matter whether I believe it or not.
It's not settled because I believe it.
It's not settled because you believe it.
It's settled because God said it.
The word of God is. It's to us.
It is an aroma of life to those of us who believe.
To those who don't believe is the aroma of death leading to
death. But unfortunately, people are
losing faith in the Word of God. They're losing faith in the word
of God. They're losing, they're losing
faith in the promises of God. And the reason why is because
they don't know God. So they think that this God
that's in the body, they think this God should be this way or
he should be that way. God shouldn't 'cause people to
suffer or let people suffer. They don't know God, that some
of the best work he does in us is in our suffering.
God is supposed to love everybody.
He's supposed to love everybody, and everybody's supposed to love
everybody. Yes, He does love, but there is
some things that we are not to love, in some ways that we are
not to love. They don't know God.
And I've learned recently that you can know the Word of God and
not know the God of the Word. We can quote Scripture, we can
remember Scripture, We can do all those things.
But if we don't know the God of the Scripture, those Scriptures
doesn't mean anything. We got people sitting in
seminaries who know the word of God.
They know it, they've studied it, they get degrees in it, but
they don't know the God of the Bible.
And because of that, there's no change in their lives.
And unfortunately, a lot of the lot of these men and are walking
away from the faith at certain points.
No Holy Spirit, no relationship, just a head knowledge of what's
in here. Our hearts for you as pastors
and anyone who comes up here and teach, Pastor Clark and myself,
when we teach, we want to have the Word living in your hearts
and in your lives and in our hearts and in our lives.
We pray for the Word to live in us that we have a relationship
with the God of the Word. We pray for your spiritual
growth, that the knowledge of his will, that you would have
the knowledge of his will inside of you.
You understand it and spiritual understanding and and
discernment, the knowledge of His will.
We have teachers that come in, out and I'm going to say it
again on Wednesday night. We have 5 teachers that come in
here and they teach and they're teaching Old Testament.
They're teaching Old Testament right now.
We're going through the book of Psalms, but on Wednesday night
we have Tom Brubaker, we got Will Thomas, we got Steve
Eichelberger, Dave Trout, John Morris, and these guys are
really bringing forth the scriptures, the truth.
They're not making up stories. They're not trying to figure out
what they're going to teach. It's here.
They teach what's here, and they expound on the scriptures.
And this is what we need in this day.
We need truth, not stories, not fables, not entertainment.
I don't need to come up here and make you laugh and entertain
you. We need the Word of God.
That is what changes us. That's what transforms us.
That's what makes us look more and more like Jesus is the word
of God. And we can't lose faith in the
Word of God because the Bible says he's faithful even when
we're not. It's the same word that brought
forth the earth. It's the same word that said,
let there be light in this bed. Light.
Ever since no one's been able to put the light out.
It's the same word that created you and me.
It's the same word that we that we live by.
We it says that certain things are going to happen and it has
happened. It's the same word that says
that we would need a savior and we did.
It's the same word that says I'm going to give you a savior, and
he did. Same word that says that every
He would suffer on the cross and die, and he did.
It's the same word that says that he would get up out of that
grave, and he did. It's the same word that says
He's coming back and He is. It's the same word, same word
that saved our souls. It's the same word that brought
us from darkness into light. The same word that brought us
out of death and into his, the Kingdom of his dear Son.
The same word, the same word that redeemed you and me, the
same word by which we have forgiveness of sins.
It's the same word. The same word.
Let's not lose faith in this. This Bible and the one that you
hold. This doesn't contain the word of
God. It is the word of God and we
have to believe that and trust it.
Why am I saying that? Because what Jude is talking
about here are people who walked away from the truth, who turned
away from the truth, and they announced teaching things and
saying things to try to get people to come after them.
They're Antichrist, which means that they want people to follow
them instead of Christ. They want to teach their own
truth instead of the truth that is truth.
The Bible says that. In fact if you look on your the
title of this it probably say my says apostates deprived and
doomed for a second. I just want to give a difference
between apostates and the word backsliders We see both in the
Bible. Well, one of the things that we
know is that a backslider is a temporary condition.
It's a lapse of of faith. It's a drifting away at some
point where Christians will have a lapse in faith.
And it may be because of something that happened, you
know, maybe someone died that when you were very close to.
So you get angry with God and for a while you stop going to
church or stop praying or stop reading your Bible.
These things happens. Sometimes temptation gets a hold
of you and you start going back and reverting back, you know, to
your old lifestyle. Sometimes those things happen,
but at some point or another, because of the Holy Spirit
that's in you and because God, the God that that saved you
won't let you go but so far. And then the Spirit that's in
you will bring you back. You won't walk away totally.
But then there's a apostasy. Apostasy is more of a deliberate
rejection of the Christian faith.
It's a, it's a deliberate defection and, and, and, and,
and, and you reject the truth. Truth is, in fact, you never
really believed it in the first place.
You professed it. I'm going to give you a
definition of an apostate. An apostate is not, and this is
from where this one warns where it's being.
I kind of like this definition. It says an apostate is not a
true believer who has abandoned his salvation.
You know, people try to say, hey, look, if you're an
apostate, then isn't that proof that, you know, salvation is not
necessarily eternal? You know, I mean that you can
lose your salvation. No, no.
When words you say that an apostate is not a true believer
who has abandoned his salvation. He is a person who has professed
to accept the truth and trust the Savior, then turns from the
faith. Bible says, how are we saved?
Yeah, we are saved when we confess with our mouths the Lord
Jesus Christ, but also believe in our hearts that God has
raised him from the dead. That's got to be there as well.
So an apostate is more of a deliberate and it's more of a
final situation because these, you know, the apostate never
really believed, never truly believed.
And this is who Jude is talking about here, these men who came
into the church crepin to the church.
I mean, looks like just like like any meios that's sitting
here could be a person sitting beside you.
We have no idea. Look like us, talk like us, act
like us. You know us.
If we hear somebody say hey, blessed and all be favored, you
know, maybe that means that they truly believe.
If they can hold those conversations and say those
slang words, may that means that they you know, the gospel slang
words may that means that they truly believe, but not
necessarily. But only God can see the heart.
We can't. Only God can see the heart.
God knows the heart. So this is who he's talking
about. Those who have walked away from
the faith and decided that they want to try to bring people to
themselves because they don't want to be under the authority
of Jesus Christ. So he says here that these are
spots in your love feasts while they feast with you without
fear, serving only themselves. Spots in your love feast now at
first mention, you know, you can almost imagine like you know, a
shirt, for example, white shirt. You know what I mean?
If I came up here with a white shirt on and and the whole shirt
is clean except for one spot And if you catch me after eating,
sometimes you might catch me with a spot on my shirt.
You know, I tend to get something on me all the time.
I don't know why how that happens.
No comments there. My poor wife has to always try
to get these spots out after I get finished.
But anyway, you would think it's like a a white shirt or
something though. And then also you see a spot on
it. Your eye goes directly to the
spot. So it's like a spot in your love
fees. But that's not what Jude is
talking about here. What Jude is talking about here
when he says is there spots in your love fees, he means that
these are in the Greek. It means hidden reefs.
Whole different meaning. Spots, hidden reefs.
It's a nautical term, hidden reefs or hidden rocks.
These are things that lie under the surface of the water that
you can't see, and you won't even know that they're there
until they've already done damage to the bottom of your
ship. Captains try to be aware of
these. They try to watch out for these
with their ships when they're going into certain waters, but
you can't see them because they're below the surface and
they cause damage. And before you even realize that
they're there is too late. They've already caused damage.
They're already put a hole with the bottom of your ship and you
starting to sink. But the same thing happens in
the church with false teachers. Sometimes before people even
realize that this is a false teacher, that this is someone
who doesn't believe what we believe is sometimes too late.
They've already done damage. They've always.
They've already caused some people to stumble.
They've already rebelled against leadership.
They've already started to divide the church.
They've already caused damage. We have to remember what brought
down the Titanic. It wasn't the iceberg that they
saw on top. It was a damage that they
couldn't see underneath the jagged edges of the iceberg that
was underneath that did the damage that brought that ship
down. And that's what Jude is saying
here. We got to be aware because these
false teachers can sometimes be just like hidden reefs, hidden
rocks, and we don't know that they're there until they've
already done damage. It's a sad thing when you have
that kind of situation arise where you just don't know.
We don't know. We don't know until we see the
effects of it. Then we realize that something
has happened. We've already been the, the,
we've been the victims of something that was trying to
divide and, and tear up the church.
I pray, I pray that here in Calvary Chapel, Westmoreland,
that we have so much love here and that we have so much an
awareness of the Word of God. It's going to be really hard for
someone to come in and try to deceive you guys because there's
so many of you who study the word of God.
You don't just study the Word of God when you come here.
It's not when you just hear me, Clark or any of the teachers on
Wednesday night that you guys are hearing the word of God.
You guys are always reading and studying the Word of God.
That's why we had a conversations that we have with
one another because you're always in the Word.
It's going to be very difficult for someone to come in here and
to try to teach something that is ungodly in here.
The ears would hear it. I would pray that our ears would
hear it immediately and we'd be able to stop it before we cause
any damage underneath the surface spots in our love
feasts. And and then the Bible says, and
they do it without fear. And just to go ahead and, and
follow up on the word love feast.
We have agape feast. And that's exactly what these
love feasts are. We have agape feast that we have
every now and then potlucks or whatever you want to call them,
where people come and bring their food.
Everybody loves those, Everybody loves those.
But what Jude is saying is that these false teachers will go in
to these love feasts and they would socialize with everybody
like everything is fine and talk like we all believe the same
thing. Meanwhile, they have motives
that are ungodly. This has been Living Waters of
Grace, a ministry of Calvary Chapel, Westmoreland in
Greensburg, PA Pastor Lewis Harrell has been teaching
through the book of Jude. This is a book of warning as the
audience that Jude was writing to was coming under attack from
false teachers. Even in the early days of the
church, there were teachers who claimed to have a unique
revelation from God that superseded Scripture.
Pastor Lewis wants you to be sure to be on your guard against
those teachers today as they will try to distract you from
following the way of Jesus. By focusing on what God's Word
says, you can call out false teachers for what they are and
stay on the good path. Do you want to hear more
teaching from Living Waters of Grace?
You can do so by visiting our website at
calvarychapelonline.com. There you will find an archive
of past teachings from Pastor Lewis and Pastor Clark.
Find a link to our mobile app or even give to support the
ministry of Living Waters of Grace.
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gospel to people in our community who are in need of the
presence of God in their lives. If you're in Westmoreland
County, we'd love to invite you to one of our Sunday services.
We meet at 10:30 AM at 207 Hudson St. in Greensburg.
It'd be a privilege to get to meet you in person and learn how
we can be praying for you and helping you grow in your walk
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