Apostasy is defined as a departure from the truth of God, carrying the grave danger of eternal loss. The sermon highlights that apostates often speak against spiritual truths they do not understand, while corrupting themselves in the natural things they do know. Jude illustrates the continuation of apostasy through three Old Testament examples: Cain, who offered a bloodless sacrifice and rejected God's appointed way; Balaam, who pursued reward through false prophecy; and Korah, who rebelled against God's appointed leadership. The central lesson emphasizes that salvation comes only through the atoning blood of Christ, and any message omitting this truth represents the way of Cain and leads to apostasy.
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Beloved radio, friends, in the precious and the worthy name of the Lord Jesus, we greet you heartily, giving you an earnest welcome and an invitation to enjoy the Word of God as we study it from the Epistle of Jude. Our theme of study from this Epistle is the subject of apostasy. We would emphasize the great danger of apostasy, which the Word of God sets before us in many places. May we repeat, as we have stated previously, that departure from the truth of God is the meaning of apostasy. When men turn away from the truth of God and forget Him, there is a danger to pay.
I would like to quote, by way of emphasizing that danger, the words of the psalmist in chapter nine, Psalm nine and verse seventeen. when the psalmist wrote saying, The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God. We cannot forget God, whether nationally or whether individually, without paying the ultimate price. My beloved radio friends, we need in this day, more than ever perhaps in our lifetimes, a call to return back to God and His precious word.
Apostasy is sweeping all around us and taking many to a lost eternity. But we go on in the epistle of Jude, where we have been studying and continue the reading of this epistle, as Jude writes concerning the apostate men. First of all, we will begin reading in verse ten and read through verse eleven. As Jude repeats the fact that these men speak evil, of those things which they know not. But what they know naturally as brute beasts, in those things they corrupt themselves. Now, I want you to notice this tenth verse.
Jude declares that such men, what they oppose, what they speak so much against, they do not even know about it. In other words, they know nothing of the spiritual things of God. May I repeat that, an apostate is a man who knows nothing about the spiritual truths of God. May I quote the words that are written by Paul in First Corinthians chapter two, verse fourteen and fifteen, when he declares, The natural man perceiveth not the things which be of God, neither can he know them, for they are spiritually discerned.
But he that is spiritual knoweth all things, yet he himself is known of no man. Now, beloved, it seems a very strange thing. When you find a man preaching against the truth of God, he is just, he is exposing his own ignorance of the very things of God. And yet, He talks very loud about them. And as Jude declares, he is speaking evil of the very things he knows nothing about. But then on the other hand, notice the other side of this. What they know naturally, that is, the natural things of life.
In those things they corrupt themselves. And in the natural things of this scene that they do know about, they even corrupt themselves in their living as well as in their practice. And this is the Apostle's description of the work of such men. And there we may recognize, and let me repeat as we have noted, beginning at verse five, and verse four rather, going down through verse ten, the Apostle has given to us the commencement of apostasy even in the days of the early church. He's described the character of such men then, and they are the same, they never changed, not even today.
And he has also given to us the warnings of three examples in verses five, six, and seven that we may learn the lesson that apostasy can only end in ultimate judgment. Now we come to the second phase of this subject of apostasy, and that is its continuation. And we begin reading at verse eleven. And let me read through verse thirteen. Woe unto them, for they have gone in the way of Cain, and ran greedily after the error of Baal of a reward, and perished in the game-saying, or the rebellion of Korah. These are spots in your feasts of charity or love when they feast with you.
Feeding themselves without fear, clouds they are without water, carried about of winds, trees whose fruit withereth without fruit twice dead plucked up by the roots. And thus Jude describes them very vividly, raging waves of the sea, forming out their own shame, wandering stars to whom is reserved the blackness of darkness forever. Now here we have Jude telling us the continuation and the progress of apostasy. And I do wish you to notice very carefully as we meditate upon verse eleven. We have the continuation and the progress of apostasy described here, and traced by Jude in verse eleven in three distinct stages.
May I point out what Jude has to say? He describes this continuation and progress of apostasy in this threefold way. They've gone the way of Cain. Second, they've gone after the error of Balaam. And third, after and perished in the gainsaying or the rebellion of Korah. Now let's note this. Now what does Jude imply when he uses these three expressions? The way of Cain, the error of Baalum, and the gainsaying of Korah. My beloved may I state first of all, these three biblical characters out of the Old Testament, one from the very commencement of the human race, another a false prophet in the land of Moab, and a third, one of the great princes of Israel.
Even Korah. These were apostates of long ago. But what is the meaning when Jude declares that the present apostates warn to them, first of all, they've gone the way of Cain. Now what is the way of Cain? May I point out to you that Cain was the very first person who ever was born in human history. Now we must remember that Adam and Eve were not born. They were created and made. But Cain was the first born of Adam and Eve.
And of course we know that Abel was also born of Adam and Eve. Now I want you to note something in relation to Cain that is described and written to us in the book of Hebrews chapter eleven, and verse four, in relation to Abel and Cain. By faith Abel often unto God a much more excellent sacrifice than Cain, by which he obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts, and by it he being dead, yet speaketh. Now I want you to think with me back in the history of the book of Genesis chapter four, how God commanded his people to approach him.
God told Abel as well as Cain to approach him by the way of a blood sacrifice. And when Abel approached God, he presented his lamb as the only ground of divine acceptance. And we are told in Hebrews eleven, four, that when Abel offered unto God his sacrifice, which was a lamb, it was a more excellent sacrifice than Cain. And you that remember the story in the book of Genesis chapter four, rather, will remember that Cain brought an offering to God, and Cain brought the offering of the ground that he had tilled, the fruit that he had produced. There's no question of doubt.
He brought perhaps the best of the ground to produce and offered it to God. But if you remember, Cain's offering was rejected. Abel's offering was accepted. And what was the difference? It was a great difference. Abel brought what God required a lamb and a shedding of its blood. Cain brought that which was of his own production. And may I point out, no doubt he was religious, since he brought his offering, and brought it in good faith. But he brought the wrong offering, whereby God could not accept him.
Now let's make it very clear and apply it to the present day. What is the approach to God? There is only one approach to God. He will brought a lamb. My beloved, by faith, you and I must bring a land to God as the ground of our acceptance to be redeemed and made righteous in his sight. I must needs go home by the way of the cross, the hymn writer wrote. There's no other way but this. I shall never get sight of the gates of light if the way of the cross I miss. The way of the cross leads home. And thus we may recognize and should recognize that only coming by the way of the shed blood of the Lord Jesus Christ can you and I be saved.
What came brought to God was an insult to God. For God had cursed the ground that he had killed. And though it cost him much sweat and toil, but may I remind you in contrast, Abel's offering cost him nothing. Abel couldn't make a lamb. And neither can you and I. And Cain revealed, as you well know in the result that followed, his hatred of Abel, by slaying his brother, whom God had accepted. And it's a strange thing that there are many who hate those who believe in the precious blood of Christ and his finished work. May I point out the meaning of the way of Cain? There are many ecclesiastical apostles today who follow Cain's bloodless sacrifice.
God demands atonement for our sins through the blood of Christ alone, and redemption by blood is the theme of salvation in the Word of God from Genesis through Revelation. But when you find a man telling that you don't need the blood of Christ to be saved, you've got an apostate. He is going or gone the way of Cain. And beloved me, I say the progress of apostasy in that direction has certainly continued. My beloved friend, may I be very emphatic. You and I can only come to God through the value of the death of Christ and His shed blood.
In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of His grace. My beloved radio listener, listen, wherever a man preaches, A message of salvation that does not emphasize the blood of Christ. For redemption you've got the way of Cain. May God help every one of us not to go the way of Cain. Father, in the name of the Lord Jesus, sanctify this precious fact that we have presented in Jesus' name for his glory. Amen.