into lasciviousness and denying the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ. It was a stunning thing when I read the Barna report. Barna is a researcher like Gallup, you know, goes out into these polls, but Barna restricts his work not to political polls but only to church polls. And he goes around and he polls churches around the United States of America and seminaries. And it was a sad thing to report. As he reported, over 50% of the pastors in seminaries are trained that Jesus Christ wasn't born of a virgin and didn't raise, conquer death, didn't believe in the resurrection story. over 50%. Why? Because men have crept in to the pulpits, crept into the professorships of various seminaries, and they're ungodly, and they've kind of turned the whole story around. And he was warning us that God judges this type of work, this type of unbelief. And he just, verse five, put us in remembrance that the Lord saved people, and same verse, the Lord destroyed people that believed not. And he reminded us in verse six that the angels, which kept not their first estate, the devil and his angels, when they decided to rebel against God, he hasn't killed them, but he's put them under chains of darkness, and you can't see them. God's desire was that we would, you know, in the Garden of Eden, they saw the angels. In the millennium, we'll see the angels again, the holy angels, not the bad ones, but we'll see that, yeah. God's desire is his creatures and his creation to be together, not separated, but he had to make moves like this because of ungodliness. God is a faithful judge. Verse seven, he said Sodom and Gomorrah, and I couldn't remember the name of the other towns. There were three other towns. There was Adma, And Zebowin and Lasha, there were five cities that God brought judgment on. And what he did was he gave them the vengeance of eternal fire. And archeologists go to Sodom, they can't find anything. I mean, regular fire, you can find some ashes. God burned it up. And the reason they did, because they not only were given over to fornication, verse 7, but strange flesh, that's women sleeping with women and men sleeping with men. And God says, when a nation does that, I'm bringing complete and total judgment to it, because they've defiled the flesh. Everybody knows boys like girls and girls like boys. Only a dumb, stupid millennial generation with cell phones could think any differently, but it's not entirely their fault. It's the idiots teaching them. Little girls by nature, they play house and their desire is to have a husband. And little boys play, and their desire one day is to find a girl, but they don't think about it early on. But that's just the way boys and girls are made, is to want each other. God made them male and female. And he says, when a nation gets that part, I destroy them. America's gonna be destroyed, you do know. Yeah. So get saved. You don't have to be a part of it. God wants to save you. He goes on in verse 7, and he says, likewise, also, these filthy dreamers, these certain ungodly men from verse 4, they're dreaming up this stupid stuff. They're not getting it from God. Well, I had a dream. Well, nobody needs your dream. Your dream isn't good for anything. The majority of dreams, the Bible says, comes from the multitude of business. You know what you dream about? Usually what you've been thinking about during the week. Your mind is thinking about it, your body is resting, and your soul is thinking those thoughts, and that's what your dream is made of, is your soul thinking things. But these are filthy dreams. Dreams against truth, dreams against that which is good and righteous and whole. And these people, these filthy dreamers, they defile the flesh, they despise dominion, they speak evil of dignities. We saw with Sodom, they defiled the flesh. They despise dominion. In Genesis chapter one, remember, God gave dominion to man. That would be like authority. Jesus says in Matthew 20, verse 25, that dominion is authority. And man was given dominion over the earth, authority over the earth. They despised that. Not only that, not only did God give man authority over the earth, He gave certain men positions of authority. And today we have people rebelling in the streets and running around with signs. They don't know what they're thinking and saying half the time. Occupy Wall Street, Black Lives Matter, Antifa. They're a bunch of foolish kids being taught foolishness. They despise dominion. It's bad teachers that teach them this stuff. There are evil leaders that do this kind of stuff. They speak evil of dignities. Now, the first time the word dignity is found in the Bible is in Genesis 49, where Jacob is speaking about his firstborn, the excellency of dignity. But the real dignity, go to Colossians chapter 1, couple books back, And these men who deny the Lord Jesus Christ, we're talking about the dignity of dignities. Colossians chapter one. My firstborn, the beginning and the excellency of my dignity. Well, God has a firstborn, that's Jesus Christ. Verse 15, Colossians 1.15. He's the image of the invisible God. He is the firstborn of every creature. Who's this? End of verse 13. That's God's dear son. The one, verse 16, by him were all things created that are in heaven, that are in earth, whether they're visible, whether they're invisible, whether they be thrones or dominions or principalities or powers, all things were created by him and all things were created for him. And he's before all things. He's the excellency of dignity. And these men can speak evil of Jesus Christ. They can use him as a curse word. They can make blasphemous art pictures of him. They can write filthy things about him. They do horrible, whatever. There was an art exhibit back in New York City about 20 years ago. It was horrible, some of the things it did about the Lord Jesus Christ, our Lord. And he's just saying, these are the ungodly men. Now it's one thing if they just creep in. Now they're parading their stuff out in the open. I mean, now they have these perverts coming to libraries and reading to little kids. Transsexuals. What the heck is a transsexual? Yeah. Homosexual. What stupid word is that? The Bible calls it an abominable sodomite. That's what God calls it. They defile the flesh. They despise the dominion and speak evil of the Lord Jesus Christ. Probably none, few of you have ever preached on the street. It's okay, I have, Mark has, Kevin has. When we preach on the street, you'll find the majority of people just, they kind of walk away, they don't want to hear. The people that have picked fights with me are homosexuals. faggots they come at you they fight they come and pick a fight why I'm standing on the corner telling you the Lord Jesus Christ is offering salvation for sin his arms are open to all whosoever will call upon the name of the Lord can be saved God so loved the world he gave his only begotten son these are the kind of things you want to fight over Yeah, come on the streets, preach with me sometime. This summer, I'll bring you exactly where we can preach. I'll take you to Allentown. You don't even have to preach, you just stand next to me, I'll do the preaching. You can watch. Which, by the way, I intend to do, because there's so little time left. we will be taking it to the streets, right brother? Amen. Back to where we are. So Jude is just warning us, this is what it's gonna be like before the coming of the Lord. Now, he goes on, because he had mentioned some angels back in verse six, so you flip the six upside down, it's a nine, and he talks about an example with some angels. Michael the archangel, when contending with the devil, He, the devil, was disputing about the body of Moses, and Michael does not bring against him a railing accusation. Michael just said, well, the Lord rebuke thee. In other words, he didn't despise the dominion and the dignity of the fact that the devil was created a cherub by God. and he was created with a position. He's abandoned his position. He's done disservice to his position, but Michael said, I'm not gonna do that. I mean, God orders the dominion. God alone can reprove someone who's done something wrong with his dominion. I put him in position. If he's messed up the authority God gave him, let God speak to him about it, not me. It's not my job. My job is minding my own business. You might wonder what this story is all about. You'd have to go back to Deuteronomy chapter 34. A strange story here. True story. Deuteronomy 34, and this is the end of the five books of Moses. And Moses is writing this book. It took him one month to write this book, to give it to the chosen people before they crossed to the Jordan. And in the very next book, Joshua would take them across the Jordan River to the promised land. And the Lord was not going to permit Moses to lead them into the promised land. And he did this to teach us like a picture. Moses represents the law. And he wanted all the people to understand the law can't get you into the promised land. Keeping the Ten Commandments cannot get you into the promised land. And if you're honest with yourself, you haven't kept the Ten Commandments. None of us have. We've all broken them. I'll give you one we've broken. Thou shalt honor the Sabbath. You ever miss church? Once in your life, you broke it. There you go. Thou shalt not covet. You ever want a new cell phone? There you go, just broke that one. I mean, if you ever start looking at it, you're breaking them every single day. I don't commit adultery. You ever look at a member of the opposite sex and say, boy, that's my bucket list. He just broke another one. Is it hard to hear honest preaching from a pulpit? Oh, the Lord be with thee. Go in peace. No, no. Why don't we talk real and get real with you? So anyways, the reason the Lord did not allow Moses to take them into the Promised Land is to let all of us know Moses and the Ten Commandments can't get us to the Promised Land. So what the Lord is doing here is the Lord is going to allow Moses, verse one, to go up from the plains of Moab into the mountain of Nebo, and he's going to allow him to, end of verse one, show him all the land. and he's gonna show him the promised land of Gilead and the land of Dan and the land of Naphtali and Ephraim and Manasseh and all the land of Judah to the utmost sea and he's showing him everything and the land of palm trees and this is the promised land. And he's saying to the law, you see that? You can't get anyone in there. And he's giving a portrait and a picture. And Moses has been a good servant. And verse four, the Lord said to him, this is the land which I swear unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob. I said, I will give it unto thy seed. I have caused thee to see it with thine eyes, but thou shalt not go over thither, you know, at this particular moment, because I don't want to give people the wrong impression that the Ten Commandments can get them in. So, verse five, so Moses, the servant of the Lord, died there in the land of Moab, just across the Jordan Sea, according to the word of the Lord, and he, the Lord, buried him Moses in a valley in the land of Moab over against Beth Peor, but no man knoweth of his sepulcher until this day." And what he's doing is Right now, what I'm trying to do with the people of Israel is I want them to realize that their leaders are going to die, and I'm going to give them a new leader. And this is gonna happen from generation after generation. You may have a favorite preacher, and he may die, but God will give you another preacher. The servants of the Lord die, the Lord never dies. And what he's trying to teach you is you look past the servants to me. So he's teaching a lesson, a double lesson. One to the people, you look to me, not to Moses, even though he's led you. And number two, his law can't get you to the promised land. Next book, Joshua gets you to the promised land. But God has some thoughts. Now, come on children, follow Joshua, go to the promised land. What about Moses? Don't worry about him. He's my responsibility. Now God had plans with him. God was not going to allow him to stay in Moab. How do I know? Well, you gotta go back. This is where you read the Bible and you start putting two and two together. Did you ever go to Genesis chapter 50 and see what happened there? God had plans for Moses. God still has plans for Moses. By the way, in the next eight years, Moses will be resurrected and preaching again on planet Earth. He'll be one of the two witnesses preaching in Jerusalem during the tribulation. God has plans for him. But just to show you the way God works, this is when the end of the book of Genesis and the great figure in Genesis is Joseph. It was a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ. And verse 22, and Joseph dwelt in the land of Egypt. He and his father's house. He lived 110 years. He get to see Ephraim's children of the third generation. And he knew he was going to die. He got brought up the son of Manasseh on his knees and got to talk to them, tell them about their great God. Verse 24, and Joseph said to his brethren, I'm gonna die, I die. I'm another servant of the Lord, servants of the Lord. We come, we go, but the Lord's always there. Isaiah saw the great king Uzziah died, and he saw the Lord lifted up in his temple, and he said, wow, the Lord's got everything in hands. Who do we look to? The Lord. Who do we look to? You don't look to me, you look to the Lord. And we're looking to the Lord. And Joseph, I'm gonna die. And God will surely visit you. And God will bring you out of this land of Egypt. He's gonna bring you to the land which he swore to Abraham, Isaac, Jacob. And Joseph took an oath with the children of Israel. And he said, number one, God will surely visit you. And number two, carry up my bones from hence. I'm dying here in Egypt, but don't leave my body here in Egypt. And have you ever gone to Joshua 24? And Moses remembered this oath, and Moses told it to Joshua, and in Joshua chapter 24, when Joshua brought the people into the promised land, and in verse 26, and Joshua wrote these words in the book of the law of God, and verse 31, and Israel served the Lord all the days of Joshua, all the days of the elders that overlived Joshua, which know the works of the Lord that he had done for Israel. Verse 32, and the bones of Joseph, which the children of Israel brought out of the land Egypt they buried in Shechem in a parcel of ground which Jacob had bought and we're not going to go back and study Shechem but it's a place where Jacob built his first altar and he called it El Bethel Israel the house of the God of Israel there's a beautiful place that he built there and and Joseph's body was moved. And remember Moses dying in Moab, outside the promised land, and God's gonna have his body moved, but he's not gonna use the children of Israel, he's gonna use Michael the archangel. And he sends Michael the archangel to take the body of Moses and to move it back to the promised land so that, go to Matthew chapter 17. The promise to the Jews was the resurrection of the body and to live in the kingdom of heaven with Jesus Christ. And the 16th chapter is that great chapter where Peter says, when Jesus asks him at the end of verse 15, Whom say ye that I am? Peter says, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. And then Jesus answered, Well, blessed art thou, Simon Barjona, for flesh and blood have not revealed it to thee, but my Father, which is in heaven. You know, there was a day when I believed that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God. I was 39 years old. and I put my faith in Him, and you know how it was revealed to me? God, the Father in heaven, revealed to me through the words I was reading in a Bible. Translation, God wants to personally reveal to you truth, and He'll do it through the words of His book. And verse 18, and Peter said unto thee, Jesus said to Peter, thou art Peter, and upon this rock the rock of my work and the rock of the great confession you made that I am the Christ, I will build my church. And he's been building it ever since. And he said in verse 27, and there's a day coming when the son of man shall come in the glory of his father with his angels, that's gonna be in the next eight years, he'll be taking over planet Earth, amen, amen. Jesus with the angels coming back. and then he'll reward every man according to his works. And I say to you, there'll be some standing here which shall not taste of death till they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom. And I'm gonna show you a little preview of the kingdom of heaven. Next verse, 17.1. And after six days, Jesus took Peter, James, and John, his brother, brought them up to a high mountain apart, and was transfigured before them. His face did shine as the sun. His raiment was white as the light. He's in a glorified body now. And behold, there appeared unto them Moses and Elias, Elijah. And God brought Moses, had Michael move that body in there so I can resurrect him and give my people a picture of the kingdom of heaven and his body can be resurrected. And it ain't coming out of Moab. I'm not resurrecting Moabites. It's coming out of the Holy Land. I represent and resurrect the Israel of God. those who are of a clean heart that have believed in the Messiah of Israel, Jesus Christ, whether they're Old or New Testament. And that's what he did, so go back to where we are. Now you understand the background of the story, now that Paul Harvey's told you the rest of the story. And Michael the archangel was doing the job. God said, go get Moses' body. I want you to move it over to Israel and plant it there so I can resurrect it at the right time. And the devil's arguing. But Michael says, look, the Lord rebuke thee. And that's the proper way to do it. I mean, he's not like a charismatic. I bind you, Satan, in the name. No, no, the Lord rebuke thee. And by the way, if Satan ever was bound by those charismatics, he'd be all tied up now in a trunk somewhere. We wouldn't have to worry about him, because he's getting bound 40 times a day by different people speaking in tongues. It obviously isn't working, because they've been taught by ungodly men how to despise dominion and speak evil of dignities. The Lord rebuked thee. Going on in verse 10, but these crazy men, they speak evil of the things which they know not. And what they know naturally, even if they know something naturally, as a brute beast in those things they know naturally, they corrupt themselves. Again, they know it's natural for a man to love a woman, and they go and do something stupid like that, and make a law that Adam can marry Steve. Now, what the heck is this insanity? And this is, what he's just showing you is the progression of evil. We were talking in the first service about the second law of thermodynamics. The second law of thermodynamics is that the energy in the universe is running down. You know, when we use up a gallon of gas, can't use it again. When you use some propane, you can't use it again. If you use some plutonium or uranium for a controlled fission nuclear reactor, not blowing it up, but let's say using it just to make heat, nuclear reactors, what they do is they use them, things, they get hot. Then when they get hot, they put water above it. It turns the water to steam. The steam turns a turbine, and it makes electricity. That's how they'd sell the nuclear reactors. And the amazing thing is that if you've got a little plutonium-uranium, it stays hot for like 40 years. So you stick a little of that in the back of a submarine and that thing goes 40 years, doesn't need to be refueled. But guess what? It gets used up, and when it's used up you can't use it again. The uranium is now broken down into two other elements, it's not radioactive anymore, it's no good. And the law of the universe is the universe is collapsing and God said and the same thing with people you're watching the law of human collapse Every generation is getting a little worse the sin is increasing When my mom and dad got married in 1950, was it? I believe it was 50 or 51. 51, they got married. You were there. No, I'm only kidding. I'm only kidding. Anyways, you were born the same year they... Yeah, and when they got married, though, back then, divorce wasn't accepted in the United States of America. If you were divorced, it was kind of like a... black mark it was you didn't want to talk about it it was uncommon then 60s divorce became common another thing that almost nobody saw was a pregnant teenage girl that was unmarried I mean back in 1963 I think I think there was only maybe you know one out of every thousand girls got pregnant before the age of 18 outside a wedlock it was very rare Now it's only one out of a thousand get married and have a baby. I mean, it's just insane. But what you're seeing is the law of collapse. When I was a kid and I first went to kindergarten, that was 1959, and in grammar school, the biggest problems that we had in grade school and in middle school was some kids would actually have the nerve to put gum underneath their desk. Or some kids would throw an eraser. What are the problems in middle schools and high schools today? Guns, knives, I mean, the law of human collapse. And what he's saying is, even in the things these people know naturally, they just corrupt, and they corrupt, and they corrupt, and Jude is warning us, be careful, the contend for the faith once delivered to the saints, somebody's got to stand against this corruption. Verse 11, woe unto them, these evil men that lead people astray. The Pied Pipers, the bad leaders. How did Jesus say it? When the lead the other, then they both fall in the ditch. Someone help. When the blind lead the blind, the blind lead the blind. I mean, you got people who are blind to spiritual truth. They've never read a Bible, and then they lead people, they lead them into a ditch. Woe unto them! They've gone in the way of three names. Cain, ran greedily after the heir of Balaam for reward, and perished in the gainsaying of Korah. Now, in these three names, going back in history, and we'll study them, He's going to mention three important things that are going to make the difference between the title is sanctification or sacrilege. It's one of the two. God wants you to be sanctified God does not want you to commit sacrilege. And these three lead you toward the way of sacrilege. And if you do the opposite, it's the way of sanctification. So he picks these three examples here. Number one is Cain. Now Cain we remember from Genesis chapter four. And here we are, we're first leaving the Garden of Eden, where everything was wonderful, but they sinned and God put them outside of the Garden of Eden. Just before we get to Genesis 4, I want to show you the good news. God always has good news. Even when we make mistakes, the God of second chances always wants to give a second, maybe a third, maybe a fourth chance to you. And in verse 24, when God drove the man and the woman out of the garden, he placed at the east of the Garden of Eden cherubims, they're guarding the garden, but a flaming sword which turned every way to keep the way of the tree of life. God's desire is they come back to the tree of life through the flaming sword and the sword of the spirit is the word of God. God wants people to come back to the tree of life through the word of God. Anyone did that in this room? I did it. Someone brought me to the sword of the spirit, the word of God. I heard about the one hanging on the tree to give me life, Jesus Christ, and I got saved. and God always wants to do that. But when they got outside the garden, and God wants you to come back, but if you get out and stay out there, you've got this man Cain, and what Cain does in verse one, when Cain is born to Adam and Eve, the first man born in the world outside of the garden, we find that he has a younger brother named Abel, verse two, Shabarab, brother Abel. Abel was a keeper of sheep. He's a shepherd that Cain was a tiller of ground. He was a farmer Probably a good farmer back then the ground was still good. Not like it is today Just for one minute. The ground is a mess today. I It's just I was listening to some farmers who you know been in the business a long time Ed works with the upstate dairy farm and they have a lot of farmers obviously that cows and other things and milk and all that stuff and they're talking about how the Produce of today has so much less nutrients than the produce of 50 years ago They were saying an apple today has about one-fifth the nutrients of an apple from 50 years ago. You've got to eat five apples today to get the nutrition of one apple. I mean, the ground is being bastardized and ruined and destroyed. I don't know. Back then it was good though. So Cain is really beautiful fruit he's making and all that stuff. Verse three, in process of time, Cain brought an offering to the Lord, the fruit of the ground. He brought the best fruit basket he could come up with. you know, some beautiful plums and oranges and apples and grapes and all that. Abel brought the firstling of his flock, he brought a lamb. And the Lord had respect to Abel and his offering. And again, the story of the Bible is we need a lamb, not just any lamb, we need the lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world. And it's a physical picture of a spiritual truth. And we need to make him my lamb, personally, he's mine now. The Lord is not just a shepherd, he's not just the shepherd, he's my shepherd. I've taken him to be my lamb of sacrifice and my shepherd. And Abel, God had respect to that offering, verse 5, but to Cain and his offering, he had not respect. And the first thing we're learning is that Cain balked at the sacrifice of the Lord. Yes. It wouldn't have mattered if he gave the first, wouldn't have made a difference. Because by faith, according to Hebrews chapter 11, go to Hebrews 11. I'm sure he probably did. I wouldn't doubt. A lot of people give their best works to the Lord. Cain is showing the picture, there's only one or two religions, those that give the lamb and those that bring their best. Now maybe some Cains bring, they don't really care, flip a coin. But let's say the best, let's take Mother Teresa. Here's the Cain of our generation. The great Catholic Mother Teresa. Is she not considered one of the greatest servants of the past hundred years? Well, I mean, the press would say so. I wouldn't say so, but the press would say so. The world would say so. The Catholic Church may say so. Okay, excellent press reports about her. Now I'm not sure they're true, but let's pretend all those polished, like those polished apples, press reports about Mother Teresa were true. And let's pretend she really gave her best. And she took care of those orphans, she swatted the flies away from them, and she changed their diapers, and she fed them, and she took care of them when they were sick, and her best works. And what if Mother Teresa died trusting in those works? Where is she? She's in hell. Yeah. Because she didn't bring the Lamb of God. She was trusting in her works. And Cain and Abel is a picture of the only two religions on planet Earth. Those that bring the wrong sacrifice. And, of course, Hebrews chapter 11, verse 4, By faith Abel Hebrews 11, for offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, by the which he obtained the witness that he was righteous. Now, the only way you learn that is by faith. How do you learn by faith? Because his father and mother said, when we were in the garden and we sinned, we tried to make the nicest fig leaves we could. And let me tell you, Cain and Abel, we were very careful about it. And mom had just got a new cell phone. She called Calvin Klein. And she said, now look, if you're going to make the finest fig leaf, the one that could walk any aisle, Okay, the one that they're gonna, pictures in Cosmo and in men's magazines, how would you make those fig leaves? I'll tell you exactly how to do it. And then we made the best fig leaves we could. And what did God say? I don't accept that. The only hope you have for the covering of your sin is something has to die for you and I'm gonna kill this innocent lamb right here. And you can either accept this cloth or not. And you know what they both did? They put it on. And they said, thou art righteous, Lord, and we're wrong. And they both got saved because they accepted the lamb. And when they got out there, they told their kids, listen, God only accepts a lamb, nothing else. I don't think Abel wanted to kill that lamb. He was a shepherd. He probably knew that lamb by name. But that's all God's gonna accept. I'm a sinner, I'm bringing the right sacrifice. And Cain brought the wrong sacrifice. So the first one he mentions is Cain. And you bring the wrong sacrifice, that's sacrilege. Sacrilege, that's a combination word. Sacre is, you know, holy. And lego is to steal holiness. The crime of violating or profaning or stealing that which is holy. Say it's not in the Bible. It is in the Bible. Go to Romans 2, verse 22. It's a Bible word. God doesn't want you to commit sacrilege. God wants you to receive the offering and be sanctified. It's sanctification or sacrilege. It's either or. There's no third choice. It's heaven or hell. There's no purgatory. It's either you accept Christ or you reject him. I'm not gonna reject him. I think he's okay. You just rejected him. You must personally receive and accept him, or you personally have rejected him. It's easy. It's either or. It's God's right hand or his left hand. He doesn't have a third hand for you. Romans chapter two, again, here he's talking about verse 17, what, you call yourself a Jew? You think you're resting in the law? You're boasting about God? Verse 20, you're supposedly an instructor of foolish people? Verse 22, you say a man shouldn't commit adultery? Are you committing adultery? You say you should abhor idols? Are you committing sacrilege? Are you doing things against what God has shown you in the sacred book? And Cain, his first one mentioned by Jude, is bringing the wrong sacrifice. The very first step toward sanctification is for you to do, like the Apostle Peter said, to understand you cannot be redeemed with corruptible things. You cannot be redeemed with money, silver or gold. You cannot be redeemed with vain conversation. taught by your professors at college or in your comic books. You can't be redeemed from the traditions given to you by your fathers at the Catholic Church or the Episcopal Church. You must be redeemed with the precious blood of Christ the Lamb without blemish and without spot. and you gotta have the right sacrifice. Cain brought the wrong sacrifice. The next example he gives to us is in not only the way of Cain, which is the wrong way, there's a way that might seem right to a man, but the end thereof is the way of death. There's only one way. Jesus Christ is the way and the truth and the life. And you must come to God by Him. The other one is the error of Balaam. Now, for Balaam's error, we've got to go back to the book of Numbers. And we'll look at around chapter 22 is when he's being called. Being called by a king that wants some help. And it is not uncommon in the history of mankind for leaders to sometimes ask for spiritual counsel. It's not uncommon. I remember watching that movie, and the mayor of New York was asking before he asked for the Ghostbusters, he asked for the bishop to come in and say, what do you think about this situation going on? And he's looking for spiritual counsel. It's not uncommon in the history of mankind for leaders to ask spiritual counsel. Sadly, they usually ask for the wrong spiritual counsel. And this Balak from Moab, verse five, sent messengers to Balaam. And he wanted counsel from him. And what happened is, in verse 12, when God heard about it, God intervened and said to Balaam, Thou shalt not go with them. I know the king's inviting you through his ambassadors. Thou shalt not curse the people. He wants you to curse the Jews, for they are blessed. And in the next verse, Balaam rose up in the morning and he said to the princes of Balak, I'll get back to your land. The Lord refuses to give me leave to go with you. So what do you seem to tell him the message? He got the gist of the message. He got the main message. I mean, there was really no doctrine that was hurt there. Well, actually, if you look at verse 12, it's a three point message. Every preacher, I don't know if you've ever preached sermons, if you do preach, now I teach books of the Bible, I'm not much at preaching, but there's times I've been asked to preach sermons, and when you preach a topical or a textual sermon, they usually tell you, start with a story, which I don't listen to, I don't start with stories. And then when you get to the Bible, do three points. And then when the three points are done, give a summation and an invitation, and then a prayer. And so three points and a poem. How's that? Three points and a poem. Do that. I always like that. And three points and a poem and a prayer. Well, God says, here, I'll give you a three-point message. Verse 12. Number one, thou shalt not go. Number two, thou shalt not curse. Number three, tell them this, my people are blessed. That's the message. I want all three points delivered. You're my prophet, I just gave you the message. Real simple. I outlined the whole thing for you, give it. That's not what he gave. Oh, God says I can't go. Why didn't you tell them they're blessed? Why didn't you tell them about the curse? I can't go bowling with you tonight. Why not? Because it's Wednesday night. I go to Bible study. Because I'm learning about the Lord Jesus Christ. He's the blessed Lord that saved me. And I don't want to face a curse. And I know if one of before I went, I was actually under the curse of God. There's a three point message real easy to give. Balaam didn't do it. So what did he do? He had the wrong scriptures. He changed The Scriptures. He rewrote it. He put it in a colloquial. It was a dynamic equivalent translation. He wanted to make it easy for the people to understand. God didn't ask him to do that. God said that's an error. Thou shalt speak my words. Give them the words I put in thy mouth. Every word. Have you read your Bible? Have you read the words of the prophets? And how many times God told that to Isaiah, Jeremiah, Micah? You wanna read your Bible? Amen. So Balaam is a picture of a disobedient prophet or man of God who changes the scriptures. God wants you to have the right sacrifice and the right scriptures. Now you're on the way to sanctification. This, the way to sacrilege. The wrong scriptures, that's profaning what God wrote. That's stealing God's words. God doesn't like people to steal his words. Don't alter, don't change, don't add, don't subtract. Give it exactly the way I gave it. From God's standpoint, he seems to think he's a good author. He seems to think he doesn't need an editor and a rewrite. I'll let you decide. Back to where we are. Woe unto them! They've gone in the way of Cain with the wrong sacrifice. They've gone with the error of Balaam. Notice, for reward. You know, the men that do it today, who've been rewriting Bibles since 1881, every one of them has a copyright, they make money with it. Every single time. You know those little translation committees, they write that new Bible out there. They get someone to buy that Bible. Even more importantly, they get a Christian book. I don't have any here, but a nice modern Christian book that's pushed on the radio and the TV. And for a small donation to our ministry, we'll send you this new book. We've got a new book hot off the press. And what you'll find in every one of those books are scriptures from the modern versions. And those guys get a reward for having changed God's scriptures. They get a piece of the action with every book sold too. Yeah, for them, okay, we'll go back to, let me find it for you. 1 Timothy, chapter six. The error of Balaam for reward. 1 Timothy chapter six, end of verse two, he's telling young Timothy, look, these things I want you to teach and exhort. I want you to teach and exhort the words I'm giving to you. Verse three, and if any man teaches otherwise and consents not to wholesome words, what are wholesome words? They're the very words of our Lord Jesus Christ. And according to the doctrine, which is according to godliness. The modern Bibles don't like the word doctrine and they don't like godliness either. But then he's proud and he knows nothing. Verse nine, they that will, they have a desire to be rich, they fall into temptation and a snare and many foolish and hurtful lusts which drown men in destruction. and perdition. For those men who want to be rich, the love of money is the root of all evil. It's not applying to every man on the planet. There's some people who love power more than money. But those particular men in context that have a desire to be rich, they're loving money. And if they're a Christian or a preacher or a teacher, while they're covening after, they've erred from the faith and they've pierced themselves through with many sorrows. Oh, man of God, don't do that. Flee from these things. Follow after righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, meekness. Fight the good fight of faith. Stand for the truth. Back to where we are. And so we see the first step is the wrong sacrifice. The second step is the wrong scriptures. And the third one is the gainsaying of Korah. It's spelt a little differently here. He spells it C-O-R-E. In the Old Testament, it's K-O-R-A-H. And for his story, we have to go again back to the book of Numbers, chapter 16. And we're almost done. Numbers, chapter 16. 1-6, Numbers 16. And here they are, they're in their, this is the numbers, about 38 years of the history of the nation of Israel after they left Egypt, before they got to the Promised Land, and they wandered in the wilderness. for 38 years, and there was a lot of murmuring and complaining as they were wandering in the wilderness, because all the 7-Elevens closed, and it was difficult to get pastrami on rye, I don't know. But anyways, Verse 1, Korah, the son of Itzar, the son of Kohath, the son of Levi, he's from the tribe of Levi, and a man named Dathan, and a Byron, and a man named On, these are the sons of Reuben, They rose up before Moses with a bunch of other men of Israel, 250 princes of the assembly, men who were kind of famous in the congregation, men of renown, and they gathered themselves together against Moses and against Aaron, and they said, you take too much upon you. seeing all the congregation, we're all holy, every one of us, and the Lord's among us. Who do you think yourself lifting yourself up above the congregation? Who puts you in a position of authority and leadership? Who the heck do you think you are? I'm as saved as you are. Okay. And this was the rebellion of Korah. Now, God's going to... I don't have time to read the rest of the chapter. You can read it on your own. You can read that came out fire from the Lord and consumed. The Lord brought heavy judgment on them. But the thing he's mentioning here is he's letting you know the gainsaying of Korah is Cain doesn't like the right sacrifice. You need the right sacrifice. Let me see if I got another color, I'll put it here for you. The right sacrifice is the Lord Jesus. I'm gonna make it our time now, bring it up. Balaam changed the scriptures. Today you want the right scriptures, you want the Holy Bible. And I don't know what language you speak, for you and me and those of us in this room, it's a King James. And Korah's, he bucked against the servants chosen by God. And you can read through the chapter. I can show you how it is. And what he's saying is, look, you are a Levite, he says to Korah. I mean, God's given you a position. Yes, you are saved. But God chose Aaron to be the high priest and he chose me, Moses, to be the leader. I didn't do this. when I met God at the bush he he made the choice and what he's saying is God has an order of service go to Ephesians chapter 4 you know these verses At the end of verse 7 we see we're speaking the last word of verse 7 is Christ. and we're seeing in verse eight, wherefore he saith when he, when Christ ascended up on high and went to sit with his father in heaven at the right hand of the father, he led captivity captive, he brought those Jews up with him, and he gave gifts unto men, skip the paragraph, go down to 11, what are the gifts? He gave some to be apostles, those are servants chosen by God for the position. He gave some to be prophets, he gave some to be evangelists, he gave some to be pastors and teachers. Why? That would be like Moses and Aaron for the perfecting of saints. That would be like Korah and the other Levites to help them be perfected. Why? So they could learn the proper work of the ministry, so they could be edified and built up properly. Verse 13, so they could all come in the unity of the faith. God has chosen order. He did it in a family. He puts the father, at the top, and right next to the father, just a little below, is the mother, and beneath that are the children, and God chose that order. Oh, and by the way, so well, in America, America's a mess because the fathers aren't good fathers. You get a proper father that gets on his knees in the morning and pray, and reads his Bible, and looks to the Lord for direction, and I'll tell you, that mother and that wife wants to follow him. A godly man following Jesus Christ? Why wouldn't I want to follow a man following Jesus Christ off into eternity in the right way? And those kids are blessed too. Families are a mess because men aren't doing that. God's got an order, and the same in the church. This is a family. And God chose who would be, let's say, the pastor of the family. And that's God's choice. And so what he's showing is you want the Lord Jesus, you want the Holy Bible, and you want to find your place in the local church. Well, I'm part of the universal church. No, God wants you to be a member of a local church. God is building local churches. When you read the book of Acts, all the way through the epistles of Paul to the church at Corinth, to the churches in Galatia. He's talking to local churches. Those are the bodies and the families God's putting together. He's putting new families together. And he said it. And so, sanctification is getting the Lord Jesus Christ as your sacrifice, getting the Holy Bible, the scriptures in your language, and being a member and a servant in the local church, and not trying to take a position God didn't give you. And back to where we are, and we're done. And that's what he's showing. Wrong sacrifice, wrong scriptures, wrong service. What does it end up with? A wall. It's a woe, it's a curse, woe unto them, exclamation mark. I didn't put it there, the Lord put it there. And next week we'll look at how these are the spots in our feasts and they make a mess and now we've got churches that have the wrong sacrifice, they don't even have Jesus anymore, they might have the saints, they might have Mary, they might have sacraments. We have churches with the wrong Bible and we have churches that are completely out of order with people arguing and deacons fighting and it's just a mess. And the Lord said, Jude said, we don't want this in the last days. We wanna contend for the faith. We wanna have the right sacrifice and the right book and the right people serving so God's name and his glory can be lifted up and people will say, there's the difference. That's what God builds. Amen. And next week we'll continue. And Lord, we do thank you. We want sanctification, not sacrilege. And thank you for showing us in simplicity how to do it. And thank you for providing for us the Lord Jesus Christ, the perfect Bible, and giving pastors and teachers and evangelists And Lord, we wanna build ourselves up in our most holy faith, and we wanna invite others to come. And so help us as we go out today, I pray in Jesus' name, amen.