Fake Faith Has Telltale Signs

Dr. Jeff Schreve: The counterfeit Christian will face severe judgment. The false prophets, the false teachers, the apostates, the tares among the wheat, those who have heard the gospel and rejected it and created their own gospel, they're going to face severe judgment. And those who used God's word to lead people astray, the judgment will be severe. It is universal judgment for all the ungodly. It is personal judgment for each ungodly person, and it is eternal judgment.
Guest (Male): Here's our question today: Would you be able to recognize a false teacher or a false prophet? Sadly, so many Christians can't. And what's worse, churches have born-again people that send money to these charlatans and support their ministries because they think these people are genuine believers. But thankfully, the book of Jude was written to peel back the facade and see the true character of a counterfeit. That's also the name of today's program on From His Heart with Pastor Jeff Schreve. And he brings part two of this lesson. It's from the series Faith Under Fire, a study of Jude that we've been in all month long. If you missed any of these programs, you can go back and listen online when you go to fromhisheart.org. First, though, open your Bible to the book of Jude and let's see the heart, the inside, the character of a counterfeit.
Dr. Jeff Schreve: Here's the question: Can you recognize a false teacher, a false prophet? Sadly, so many Christians can't. Let's peel back the facade and see the character of a counterfeit. Three discoveries for today. Discovery number one: The counterfeit Christian, the apostate, the person who looks the part but isn't the part, he tries to hide his true colors. So Jude is giving us a picture of what's really going on on the inside as you look closely, as you peel back the veneer and the facade. What do you see? Well, in verses 12 and 13, he uses lots of imagery to help us see what's going on. And he says these men are hidden reefs in your love feasts. So the first thing that we see is the character of a counterfeit. He is dangerous and defiling. Dangerous and defiling. He follows after his own lusts. He defiles everything that he touches because he himself is defiled. He's devoid of the Spirit, so everything he touches just produces defilement. And he is, secondly, arrogant and self-centered. What do you see in the false teacher, this wolf in sheep's clothing? Well, very arrogant. Jude has already told us about that. They speak these arrogant words. But it says that they're hidden reefs in your love feasts when they feast with you without fear. They don't ever feel like you're going to find them out. And so they're just without fear. They're just among you. They believe they have you so fooled and so duped. And for many, they are fooled and duped. But not only arrogant and self-centered, empty and fruitless. So he goes on with his metaphors. Caring for themselves. Clouds without water carried along by winds. Autumn trees without fruit, doubly dead, uprooted. Now, that's empty and fruitless. And then boisterous and unstable. Wild waves of the sea casting up their own shame like foam. Wandering stars for whom the black darkness has been reserved. You can't steer your ship by a wandering star. It's unstable. And these guys, they make these big claims, and they're very boisterous and they're very animated. Discovery number two: The counterfeit Christian tries to poison the church. They bring in destructive heresies, as Peter said. They bring in their poison. Now, look down to verse 16. These men are grumblers, finding fault, following after their own lusts. They speak arrogantly, flattering people for the sake of gaining an advantage. What else do we find out about these guys? Well, he grumbles and gripes. They are grumblers, finding fault, following after their own lusts. Grumbling, griping, complaining. There are a lot of people in church who grumble. Okay, that's a different issue. He's not talking about this here. These guys, they grumble and they gripe and they complain about God. They don't like the fact that God judges sin. They don't like the fact that there is a hell. As it says in 2nd Corinthians 11, they preach a Jesus whom we have not preached. Now, as I told you before, the Jesus of the liberal is not the Jesus of the Bible. The Jesus of the Mormon is not the Jesus of the Bible. The Jesus of the Jehovah's Witness is not the Jesus of the Bible. It's another Jesus whom we have not preached. The only Jesus who can save is the Jesus of the Bible. And Jesus said, "Unless you believe that I am He," and the "He" is in italics, so he says, "Unless you believe I am, you will die in your sins." If your Jesus is not the Great I Am, the God-man who died on the cross, rose again from the dead, you have believed in another Jesus, and that Jesus cannot save you. So he grumbles and gripes about the gospel, doesn't like it, doesn't like the way God presents himself in scripture. And not only that, he divides and deceives. It says in verse 19, "But these are the ones who cause divisions, worldly-minded, devoid of the Spirit." They divide and deceive. And how do they divide? They try and pull people away to themselves. This is what the Bible says in the book of Acts, as I had alluded to earlier. Paul says, "I know that after my departure, savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock; and from among your own selves, men will arise, speaking perverse things to draw away the disciples after them." Oh, they want to build a following. They're divisive. Come follow me. People who come into churches and split the church to get people to follow them. Don't do that. Romans 16, Paul says this: "Brothers and sisters, I urge you to watch out for those people who create divisions and who make others fall away from the Christian faith by teaching doctrine that is not the same as you have learned. Stay away from them. People like these are not serving Christ our Lord; they are serving their own desires. By their smooth talk and flattering words, they deceive unsuspecting people." And typically, these guys are really good talkers. They flatter for the sake of gaining an advantage. And they're almost always the two things that really characterize their lives: They're sexually perverted and they are greedy for money. And so they're all "Give to me, give to me, give to me. You want God to bless you? Give to me. Sow your $1,000 seed." It's all about money. They're living in this lavish mansion with airplanes and all sorts of finery, and you're the poor widow out there in a trailer and you've given your last dime to this guy. Savage wolves, ravenous wolves that will tear you apart, divides and deceives. And then he mocks and disparages. That's what it says in verse 17. "But you, beloved, ought to remember the words that were spoken beforehand by the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ, that they were saying to you, 'In the last days, there will be mockers, scoffers, following after their own ungodly lusts.'" And Peter says: What do they scoff? What do they mock? The second coming of Jesus. And they say, "Well, where is the promise of His coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all continues as it was from the beginning of creation." So they mock and they disparage those who are calling men to repentance, those who are preaching the word of God and saying, "Thus says the Lord. God is now declaring that all men everywhere should repent because He has fixed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness through a man whom He has appointed, having furnished proof to all men by raising Him from the dead." We are to preach not ourselves but Christ crucified. We're to preach the word of God. The word of God has power, and so we're to spread the word and sow the seed. That is the job of the preacher. And the job of the pastor: You lead the sheep, you feed the sheep, you care for the sheep, and you shoot the wolves. You protect the sheep from those influences that are coming from the enemy. That's why we have to be vigilant as to what is going on. Harry Emerson Fosdick is a name that some people will remember, very, very gifted orator. He was a preacher in the early 1900s, and he did not like the idea of penal substitutionary atonement. What does that mean? That means God sent His Son to die on the cross for your sins so that we could be redeemed, so that we could be set free from under the thumb of Satan. Ephesians chapter 2, as chapter 2 starts, "And you were dead in your trespasses and sins, in which we formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience; and we were all by nature children of wrath, even as the rest. But God, being rich in mercy because of the great love in which He loved us, God sent His Son. God delivered us." Well, Harry Emerson Fosdick didn't like that. He said, "We've had enough of this slaughterhouse religion. Quit preaching about the blood. Let's just start telling people the nice things about the life of Jesus." Adrian Rogers used to say, "Listen, you're not saved by learning lessons from the life of Jesus; you're saved by receiving life from the death of Jesus." What is the Lord's Supper? It's we proclaim His death until He comes. Oh, but they mock, they scoff, they disparage. They tell lies, and they tell it in such a way that it just appeals to the flesh. And your flesh will just cheer, "Yes, that's what I wanted to hear! I'm so glad I came to church today, that's what I wanted to hear!"
Guest (Male): Oh yes, they are very good at it. You're listening to From His Heart with Pastor Jeff Schreve and the lesson, The Character of a Counterfeit. He'll close out this message in just a minute. But first, a reminder of a wonderful travel opportunity that we've scheduled for the Holy Land next year. And Pastor Jeff wants to invite you. Let's listen. Well, that will be a bucket-listed venture without question. Again, go to fromhisheart.org, scroll down that homepage and you'll see the Holy Land link right there. And it'll answer all your questions. We hope to see you there. Now, back to close out this lesson from the series Faith Under Fire, a study of the book of Jude. It's called The Character of a Counterfeit.
Dr. Jeff Schreve: Let me tell you something. 100% of people are sinners on the highway to hell. That's the gospel. And Jesus came so that none of us would go to hell. But if you tell people a lie, "Hey, you're a good person," and I am starting to agree with some of my Calvinist friends that say, "Hey, don't ever start sharing the gospel by saying God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life," the Bill Bright Four Spiritual Laws, although that is true, because that sets somebody up to think, "Well, I don't really need to do anything because God loves me and has a wonderful plan for my life." Well, the truth is, you're a sinner. And all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and the wages of sin is death. Death, not just physical death but spiritual death, separated from God forever and ever and ever. You tell people that 99.9% of the people are good, you're denying the scriptures that says there is none righteous, not even one. We're all sinners in desperate need of a savior, and those things are so subtle that people don't pick up on them because we have lost our ability to discern and to evaluate teaching and preaching and books and radio broadcasts and television broadcast by the word of God. Does this match up with the word? Third discovery: The counterfeit Christian will face severe judgment. Now, hell's hottest flame is reserved for those who take the word of God and twist it and distort it and poison and pollute the hearers. So he says in verse 14, "It was about these men that Enoch, in the seventh generation from Adam, prophesied saying, 'Behold, the Lord came with many thousands of His holy ones, to execute judgment upon all, and to convict all the ungodly of all their ungodly deeds which they have done in an ungodly way, and all the harsh things which ungodly sinners have spoken against Him.'" Jude really liked the word ungodly. He uses it over and over and over again. I mentioned to you when you look at how many times that word is used or a derivative of that word is used in scripture, nobody comes close to Jude in using that word. Peter uses it a lot too in 2nd Peter chapter 2, where he talks about false teachers. And as I told you, 2nd Peter 2 and Jude fit together; they're very, very closely aligned. And that word comes out over and over and over again. Ungodly, ungodly, ungodly, ungodly. The ungodly, all of the ungodly. Now, the false prophets, the false teachers, the apostates, the tares among the wheat, those who have heard the gospel and rejected it and created their own gospel, they're going to face severe judgment. But all the ungodly are going to have to face God one day. All of them. Now, every single person is going to face God one day, but a Christian has done business with the Lord in this life. And it says when we believe in the Lord Jesus, we repent and believe, we are delivered from the domain of darkness and transferred into the kingdom of His beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. Jesus said, "Truly, truly, I say to you," John 5:24, "he who hears My words and believes Him who sent Me has everlasting life and shall not come into judgment but has passed out of death into life." So our meeting with the Lord is at the judgment seat of Christ, where we're going to be evaluated based on how we lived as a Christian. And we're going to be rewarded or suffer loss of reward based on what we did in our Christian life, how much we let the Lord use our lives and live through our lives. The unbeliever, the ungodly, he goes through a different judgment. He goes to the great white throne judgment, Revelation chapter 20, which is a judgment of horror. And at that judgment, he's going to be judged according to his deeds, according to her deeds. And those who used God's word to lead people astray, the judgment will be severe. So all the ungodly will have to face God, and all the ungodly will experience righteous judgment. It is righteous judgment. It is universal judgment for all the ungodly. It is personal judgment for each ungodly person, and it is eternal judgment. Now, I use that word, "will face severe judgment," because that's the word that's used in Hebrews. Listen to Hebrews chapter 10, verses 26 through 29. He says, "For if we go on sinning willfully after receiving the knowledge of the truth," he's talking to Jews who heard about Jesus, who received the knowledge about Jesus but rejected Jesus and stayed in their Judaism. "If we go on sinning willfully after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins." I mean, what are you going to do? You're going to sacrifice a bull, a goat, a lamb? Jesus is the end of sacrifices. He said, "It is finished," paid in full. He said, "There no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a terrifying expectation of judgment and the fury of a fire which will consume the adversaries. Anyone who has set aside the law of Moses dies without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. How much severer punishment do you think he will deserve who has trampled under foot the Son of God and has regarded as unclean the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified and has insulted the Spirit of grace?" The people at the great white throne judgment are going to look into the face of the Lord Jesus Christ, the one who died for them in agony and blood, and they trampled under foot the blood of the cross. They regarded it as unclean. There is serious judgment for people who do that. And people who sit in church and hear the truth and hear the truth and hear the truth and don't respond to the truth, you're just amassing judgment to yourself. Because to whom much has been given, much shall be required. The person that hasn't heard very much, well, his judgment is going to be just, but it's not going to be nearly as severe as those who have gone to Bible-believing churches or been exposed to the gospel time and time and time again and have just blown it off, blown it off, blown it off. All those witnesses you got that you blew off, you're going to have to give an account of it in the day of judgment. And that judgment is severe and it's eternal. I think this is something we don't realize. I was thinking about that this week. Once you close your eyes in death, you die. That's it. You know, we have this idea, many of us have seen the movie Gone with the Wind. You know, at the end of Gone with the Wind, it was a shocking movie, came out in the 30s, a shocking scene when Rhett Butler finally has his eyes open to this woman he's married to that's just, she's just horrible. I mean, he's married to Jezebel, who goes by the name Scarlett O'Hara, and he finally says, "Forget it, I'm done, I'm out of here." She says, "Well, what's going to become of me?" And he said, "Frankly, my dear, I don't care," and he said it kind of differently, and he walks away and she's weeping. And then she says, she hears her dad's voice: "Remember Tara," you know, the land, and "I'll go back home, that's what I'll do." And she ends by saying this: "After all, tomorrow is another day." There's hope because tomorrow is another day. And when you die without Jesus, there is no tomorrow. It's done. It's game over. It says in Luke 16 about the rich man and Lazarus that the rich man, he had everything he ever wanted. He lived daily in splendor and in gaiety and dressed in purple, and it was just finery to the max. And then he died and was buried, and in hell he lifted up his eyes being in torment. And there was no turning back. It is Dante who wrote the poem, The Inferno, who said written over the portals of hell are these words: "Abandon all hope, ye who enter here." There is no tomorrow. Today, if you hear His voice, harden not your heart. Behold, today is the day of salvation. Listen, I don't know where you are. God knows where you are and you know where you are. And if you haven't given your heart and life to Jesus, if you haven't let go of the sin of this world and the sin in your life and embraced Jesus Christ, there is no tomorrow for you one day. That is coming. And you'll think, "Oh, I can fix it." You can't fix it. If you want to fix it, you have to fix it now. Come now, the Lord says, and let us reason together. "Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool. If you consent and obey, you'll eat the finest of the land, but if you refuse and rebel, you'll be devoured by the sword." Truly, the mouth of the Lord has spoken.
Guest (Male): What a dynamic and clear message from Pastor Jeff Schreve today. If you don't know Jesus in a personal way, today you can. How, you ask? Well, number one, believe in Jesus Christ, meaning accept that Jesus is the Son of God who died on the cross for humanity's sins and your sins and rose again, offering salvation. Number two, repent of your sins. Acknowledge your shortcomings or sins and turn away from them. Three, confess in faith. Openly declare your belief in Jesus. Romans 10:9 says, "If you declare with your mouth, 'Jesus is Lord,' and you believe it in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved." And number four, follow Jesus. Commit to living a life guided by His teachings, love, forgiveness, and obedience to God. This often starts with prayer, reading your Bible, and connecting with a community of believers. To help you through this journey, we invite you to go to fromhisheart.org, click the Why Jesus link. There, too, you'll find some free materials from Pastor Jeff to download, to solidify in your heart and mind that you are now a child of God and can trust Him alone. Well, that's our time for today. Thank you for listening to the message, The Character of a Counterfeit, from the series Faith Under Fire, a study of the book of Jude. This series is our gift of thanks to you for your support this month of any amount, and you can go to fromhisheart.org for the details. Be sure to join us tomorrow for the next lesson in this timely series. It's called Godly Living in an Ungodly Age. That's on Friday here on From His Heart.