Amen, all right, so this evening's sermon is entitled,
Belligerent Vigilance, Belligerent Vigilance.
Now, what I mean by that, I guess it'd be best explained
by just simply defining the terms in that title.
Of course, we probably all are very familiar
with that term, vigilant, and vigilant simply just means
keeping a careful watch for possible danger.
We could also think of the example of if people were going
to participate in a candlelight vigil.
They're gonna stay up all night, they're gonna stay awake,
they're gonna be watching, they're gonna be attentive.
So that's what the word vigilant means.
It's not a very hard word to understand.
It just simply means that it's somebody who's going to be
watching, someone who's gonna be careful, looking for danger.
And the Bible commands us that we are to be vigilant.
It's a very important characteristic,
not only in a man of God, but also in just us
as Christians in the pews.
We are to be vigilant people looking for danger.
But the title is belligerent vigilance.
And what the word belligerent means, it means being hostile.
It means being aggressive.
It's a threatening, antagonistic, combative,
confrontational attitude.
That's what it means to be belligerent.
You're going out and you're being hostile.
You're being aggressive.
And what I mean by belligerent vigilance tonight is that we can
develop an attitude, if we're not careful, of going beyond
vigilant to where we're actually being belligerent and we're
looking for danger to the point where we're picking up on
people's flaws, we're criticizing them for their
shortcomings, their faults, or their eccentricities.
It's becoming hypersensitive to these things.
That's what I mean by being belligerently vigilant.
And you'll understand more as I go through the sermon here, but
we've seen that being vigilant is keeping a watch, right?
We understand that.
But while being belligerently vigilant, you know, that goes
into where you're actually looking for trouble, where
there isn't any.
Now, an illustration of this would be, of course, somebody in
a guard tower or a lookout or a watch tower.
That person is supposed to be vigilant.
They are supposed to be somebody who's looking out for danger,
protecting the people within the city walls.
They're up there looking out over the outlying area outside
the city, looking to see if there's any oncoming danger.
That is somebody who's supposed to be vigilant.
And then what they're doing is they're guarding against an
enemy attack, okay?
Now, to think about in another way of how a person might be
belligerently vigilant, think about a hunter.
Now, a hunter might go up into the mountains and they might do
what's called glassing, if you're not familiar with that,
where they'd have to look out long distances and they'd have
to look out and they'd have to find the animal that they
wanted to hunt.
Now, they're both looking out, right?
They're both up on a high precipice, they're both looking
out, they're both being vigilant and attentive.
That's one motive and one has another.
One person wants to protect the people, they want to look out
for danger, they're doing it for the right reasons.
Not that there's anything wrong with hunting, but that guy's
out there, he's looking for prey.
You know, he's looking out for a victim.
He's not looking for danger, he's looking out for somebody
to go after and to cause harm to.
So that's what I mean by being belligerently vigilant.
You're more like that hunter, you're more like a guy who's
looking out, yes, being very vigilant, but you're looking
for trouble and you're looking to go after somebody when there
really isn't any reason to.
Now, I don't want to give the impression that being vigilant
isn't important, because the fact is we are living in very
perilous times and there is a need for vigilance today that
cannot be underemphasized.
I mean, especially in God's house, especially from the
pulpits in our country today.
We have men that are getting up behind pulpits that have no
sense of being vigilant at all.
They're letting all kinds of dangerous predators come in,
they're not guarding the flock, they're not keeping the
oversight, they're out there doing a poor job, and that's a
whole other sermon in and of itself.
So I don't want to give the impression that I'm downplaying
the importance of vigilance.
If you're there, keep something in Jude all night tonight, but
go back to Acts chapter 20.
The Bible's very clear that we need to be vigilant, it's an
important attribute to have.
Acts chapter 20, Acts chapter 20, I'll begin reading in verse
28, the Bible says,
Take heed therefore unto yourselves and to all the flock
over which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers to feed the
church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood.
For I know this, that after my departing shall grievous wolves
enter in among you.
Paul said he knew this would happen.
He wasn't speculating, he wasn't hypothesizing, he was saying,
look, I know this is going to happen.
That grievous wolves shall enter in among you, not sparing the
flock.
Also of your own selves shall men arise speaking perverse
things to draw away disciples after them.
Therefore watch, that's just another term for being vigilant.
He's saying, hey, look, there's a real danger, it's going to
happen, it's important for you to be vigilant.
So again, I'm not underemphasizing the importance of
being a vigilant individual.
But we have to be careful as we don't take it to this next level
where we're just being belligerent, where we're going
after people for no good reason.
And in fact, where we were in Jude, if you want to turn over
there, in Jude chapter 1 verse 3, the Bible reads in verse 3,
Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of
the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto
you and exhort you that you should earnestly contend for the
face which was once delivered unto the saints.
For there are certain men crept in unawares who were before of
old, ordained to this condemnation.
So he's writing to them saying, look, I wanted to write to you
about the common salvation, but I needed to write to you about
this because of the fact that there are certain men crept in
unawares.
So we can see the need for vigilance, why we ought to be
vigilant people.
But we want to be careful that we don't become belligerent in
this area, that we become hostile, we're becoming
combative, we're becoming militant about it, and we're
just going after people and fingering people and accusing
people and saying they're this and they're that when they're
not.
And there's some real reasons why we should be careful and
guard ourselves from going to that extreme.
There's some real dangers of being belligerent in this area
of vigilance.
If you would, turn over to, again, keep something in Jude
all night, but go over to Galatians chapter 5.
In Galatians chapter 5, the Bible says in Galatians 5 verse
13, for brethren, you have been called unto liberty, only use
not your liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve
one another.
For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this, thou
shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.
But if ye bite and devour one another, take heed that ye be
not consumed one of another.
See, if people get to a point in their spiritual life where
they're just starting to get belligerent and they start
biting and devouring one another and accusing one another and
going after one another, it shouldn't surprise us if they're
consumed one of another.
And it can have a real impact on the body of Christ.
It can have a real negative impact on the church when this
kind of an attitude develops.
One thing it can do is it can slow the work of God, if not to
a complete stop, maybe that might not happen, but it'll
definitely slow it down.
I mean, when some big drama comes up that is just people
stirring up strife among one another and the man of God has
to stop and deal with it, you're taking his attention off
something else that's probably more important.
He's got important work to do.
This church has got a real big goal of knocking every door in
the state of Arizona.
That takes focus, that takes determination, that takes
planning, that takes resources.
So it's real important that we don't develop this attitude if
we start drawing away the attention of leadership into
just petty arguments or squabbles just because we become
belligerent in some area.
So we see one of the things that can happen when we become
belligerent in this area of being vigilant is that it can
slow the work of God.
One other thing it can do is that it can develop skepticism
on the part of those that are asked to judge.
Let me say that again.
It can develop skepticism on the part of those that are
asked to judge.
When you think somebody is something and you come to
leadership and say, hey, I think this guy is this and I
think this guy is that, I think he's a Judas, I think he's an
infiltrator, I think he's this, I think he's that, and you're
coming to leadership and you're asking them to kind of look in
and to deal with it, there's nothing wrong with that but you
better make sure that you're right.
That's not something you want to be flipping about because one
thing that's going to happen is that the person that you're
coming to is going to become skeptical of you in the future.
The next time you come, they might not say, you come to them
one time and say, hey, I think so and so is a Judas or this
and that, and it turns out they're not.
What happens the next time you come?
You think they're going to take you as seriously as maybe they
should?
You don't want to develop a reputation of crying wolf.
We've all heard the story of the little boy who cried wolf.
He cried wolf one too many times when there was no wolf and
then finally the wolf was there and he cried wolf and nobody
came to help him because every time he'd cried wolf before, it
turned out to be a prank.
It turned out to be a joke.
It turned out to be not true.
That's why we don't want to become belligerent in this area
where everyone, we think everyone's a Judas, every other
person is an infiltrator and we want leadership to come deal
with it.
We want the pastor to deal with it.
We want somebody to nail them to the wall because if it's not
true, you're the one that's going to have egg on your face
and you're the one who's going to be doubted.
Maybe one day it might even come to a place where you really
do come across a Judas and no one's going to take you
seriously because you just developed a reputation of being
that guy.
You see, accusing somebody of being a Judas is serious
business.
We should be very careful about who we're going to label a
Judas or express our suspicions about being a Judas and that's
something, you know, I was talking to a pastor about this
and his words to me were this, that's something you only get
to be wrong about one time.
That's his policy.
If somebody comes to me and they're wrong about that,
that's it.
That's the one time they get to be wrong about it.
And the next time they come, it's probably not going to have
much weight because accusing somebody of being an infiltrator
in a Judas is a serious sin.
We're going to read a little bit more of Jude.
You see the type of things they're involved in.
They're wicked people.
They're evil people.
They're the worst types of people there are.
They want to do terrible, hurtful things.
They want to beguile unstable souls.
So it's a real serious accusation to level at somebody.
I think that guy is a Judas.
And people, they need to take this seriously because here's
the thing, you know, life and church, this isn't an episode
of Scooby Doo where, you know, you're going to get, you get
the big reward because at the end of the episode you
discovered who the villain was and pull off the mask.
You know, you're going to accuse that guy, he's not a Judas,
you're going to be sat there tugging and I said, no, this
comes off, right?
And if you did manage to even get that off, you know, pull
the scalp off, and you find the Holy Ghost under there and
that's an evil villain, it's not going to look very good.
So it's a real serious thing to accuse somebody of being a
Judas.
We ought to be very careful about how we go about doing
that.
Excuse me.
So one of the things it can do, one of the dangers of becoming
belligerent in this area is that it can slow the work of God.
It can develop skepticism on the part of those that are to
judge and to make diligent inquiry, but also it can develop
an attitude of cynicism on the part of those who are given to
being belligerent in this area.
You know, if you're a person who's belligerent about this,
you're probably a very cynical person.
You become very cynical about people and that shows up in
people's attitudes and it's not a spirit that you want to have
in a church because if you get too much of that in a church,
what starts to happen is that church can start to develop a
certain spirit.
You know, people who become very cynical thinking every other
person's a Judas, they become very reluctant to meet and greet
other people.
You know, some visitor walks in and the first thing that
crosses their mind is, I wonder what damnable heresy he's going
to try to push here.
You know, boy, he looks like, you know, he's out for no good.
That should not be the first thing that comes to our mind
when we see a visitor.
And this church is only going to continue to get bigger.
I believe that.
And we want to be very careful that we don't become, we don't
want to take people for granted when they come in here and to
say, well, we're a big church now, you know, I'll get around
to greeting somebody.
You know, we should still be excited about when new people
come in.
When people come in and want to visit our church or have moved
here, you know, we should reach out to them, get to know them,
ask them their name, just welcome them warmly.
But a person who's very belligerent in this area, they
develop a cynicism and the first thing they're always
thinking about when they see some new visitor or something
like that is they're just wondering whether or not they're
the next Judas.
They become very suspicious of people who have done little to
warn it.
So we see some of the dangers of becoming belligerently vigilant.
Now again, we want to make sure that we still exercise
vigilance.
So how do we do that?
How do you exercise vigilance as an individual and as a church
without going overboard?
And really I think it's pretty simple.
Trust your gut and give it time.
I mean if you're going to boil it down, I think that's the two
things you can do.
Trust your gut and give it time.
Because here's the thing.
The only person, I'm getting a little bit ahead of myself, the
only person who's going to expose a Judas is Judas himself.
You're not going to expose a Judas.
Somebody else might, you know, tip you off or it might get
through the grapevine that this guy's saying this or doing
that, but it's because he's saying that or doing that.
The person, the only person who's going to expose Judas is
Judas himself.
Ultimately we know it's of the Lord.
So the only thing you can do to be vigilant is to trust your
gut and give it time.
And this is true.
I remember we kicked some pervert out of this church and I
didn't want to mention his name and if you don't know who I'm
talking about, good for you.
And he was some filthy pervert that got kicked out.
And I remember the first time I met that guy, years, like a few
years before when he first got here, just something said to me,
I don't trust this guy.
I don't want to talk to this guy, I don't want to be around
this guy.
Now I still managed to smile and shake his hand and be nice.
But inside, I said, I don't want anything to do with this
guy.
There's something off here.
Couldn't put my finger on it.
And what I didn't do is I didn't go around the church and
I didn't go to the pastor and I didn't go to leadership and say,
hey, I think this guy's a Judas.
Why?
I just have a funny feeling.
Well, maybe you ate something bad, you know?
Did you stub your toe?
Did you get enough sleep?
It could be anything.
You have some funny feeling.
We can't.
But here's the thing.
You can still trust your gut inwardly.
You can still keep that inside.
And that's what I did.
And sure enough, over time, that guy exposed himself to be what
he was.
A complete Judas.
So how do we exercise vigilance in our lives without going
overboard?
Trust your gut.
Give it time.
And here's one thing that I think we need to understand
about vigilance if we're going to exercise it properly.
Is understand that vigilance applies more to you watching
your own life than you watching somebody else's life.
You want to be vigilant, you're going to be watching your own
life, your own character, your own walk with God, and not so
concerned about everybody else's.
The Bible says in 1 Peter, if you would turn over to Proverbs
chapter 4, Proverbs chapter 4.
Bible says in 1 Peter 5, be sober, be vigilant.
So by all means, let's do that.
Because your adversary, the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh
about seeking whom he may devour.
We should be vigilant for our own sake, because the devil's
walking about seeking whom he may devour.
So we should be watching our own walk, making sure we're not
going to become his next victim.
The Bible says in Proverbs chapter 4, look at verse 23,
keep thy heart with all diligence, for out of it are the
issues of life.
We should be more vigilant about keeping an eye on our own
heart, and our own attitude, and our own walk with the Lord
than we are with others.
Put away from thee a forward mouth, and perverse lips put
far from thee.
Let thine eyes look right on, and let thine eyelids look
straight before thee.
Ponder the path of thy feet, let all thy ways be
established.
Turn not to the right hand, nor to the left.
Remove thy foot from evil.
Now if we would do that, if we would just consider our own
path and let God guide us, he would probably make sure we
avoid the Judases.
We avoid the snares, and the traps, and the pitfalls that
the devil lays for us.
We have to be more concerned, more vigilant about our own
walk than worrying so much about somebody else's.
The Bible says, if you would, turn over to Psalms chapter
30, Psalms chapter 30.
The Bible says in Jeremiah 17, 9, the heart is deceitful
above all things, and desperately wicked.
Who can know it?
It didn't say some people's heart.
It said the heart, meaning every single
heart that is here.
Every one of us has a heart that is deceitful above all
things, and desperately wicked.
Who can know it?
So we ought to be more vigilant about our own heart,
what's going on in our own heart, and our own mind, and
our own attitudes than somebody else's.
Psalm chapter 130, verse 19, the Bible says, surely thou
will slay the wicked, O God.
Depart from me, therefore, ye bloody men.
For they speak against thee wickedly, and thine enemies
take thy name in vain.
Do not I hate them, O Lord, that hate thee?
Am I not graved with those that rise up against thee?
I hate them with perfect hatred.
I count them mine enemies.
And amen to that.
We love these verses.
But what about the next verse?
Search me, O God, and know my heart.
Try me, and know my thoughts, and see if there be any wicked
way in me, and lead me in the way of everlasting.
Yeah, we should hate the Judases.
We should hate those that hate God.
But at the same time, we should open ourselves and
subject ourselves to that same scrutiny.
And say, could we scrutinize our own
desperate wicked hearts?
And make sure that our walk is right with God.
So we need to exercise vigilant, first and foremost,
in our own life, in our own hearts, in our own life.
And one other way that you can exercise vigilance without
becoming belligerent about it is giving people the benefit
of the doubt.
And if there's nothing else you take from the sermon, it's
that, that you need to give people
the benefit of the doubt.
If there's any doubt, you have to give them
the benefit of that.
Because what if you're wrong?
What if you have some suspicions?
What if you've noticed some things, and you have some red
flags, but then it turns out you're wrong?
You've gone, you've accused them, you might have gone to
them personally, and now you're wrong about them.
I mean, that's a damaged relationship.
You could discourage that person beyond, who knows how
bad, I mean, who knows how they'll take it?
Boy, that guy thought I was a Judas.
That guy thought I was a backstabber, or whatever.
You don't know how they're going to take that.
So you need to give people the benefit of the doubt in
every instance.
And what that results in, oftentimes, is a genuine love.
Now, I'm not saying you have to be their best friend.
I'm not saying you have to have them over for dinner and
do all that, but you should be able to exhibit some type of
love for that person until they give you a reason not to.
And love is just, at the very least, just being courteous to
that person, just being nice.
Just being friendly.
I'm not saying they have to be your best friend, but we should
have an attitude and a spirit towards people that is loving.
If you would, turn over Romans chapter 12.
Romans chapter 12.
The Bible talks a lot about this, that we ought to be
people that are a loving people towards one another,
especially within the house of God.
The Bible says in John chapter 13, Jesus said, a new
commandment I give unto you, that ye love one another, as I
have loved you.
Jesus looked over a few faults when he decided to love us,
didn't he?
He saw past a few red flags when he loved us.
That ye also love one another.
By this shall all men know you are my disciples, if you have
loved one to another.
But if we're just always accusing each other and back
biting each other and being rude to one another and
suspecting one another, that's going to give Christ a bad
look.
That's going to give the church a bad look.
Don't go in that church.
Why, they just instantly have, you just have a target on your
back when you walk in.
And you have to go in there, you know, you're guilty until
proven innocent.
That's not what we want to be.
And I'm not saying we are.
I'm just saying this is preventative, this is
preventative maintenance, this is something we
got to watch out for.
Excuse me.
Look at Romans chapter 12 verse 9.
Let love be without dissimulation, meaning let it
be real.
Don't let it be fake.
Abort of that which is evil, cleave to that which is good.
Be kindly affectionate one to another with brotherly love and
honor preferring one another, not slothful in business,
fervent in spirit, serving the Lord.
Now, I love how that all ties together, it kind of goes back
to my earlier point that if we're not being kindly
affectionate, if we're not having brotherly love, you
know, we're not going to be fervent, we're going to be
slothful in business.
The work of God is going to suffer.
If all we're doing is sitting around worrying about who the
next Judas is, we're not going to be serving the Lord.
Now, what's another way, I'm just going through some
practical things about how to be vigilant without being
overbearing about it, without being belligerent about it.
Take note of red flags by all means.
Take note of red flags, but understand this, that they're
only red flags.
You know, it doesn't necessarily mean for sure that
person is a Judas.
And what are some red flags?
You know, we've probably heard sermons on each one of these
subjects, flattery is a big one, where people are just
always flattering you, just telling you how great you are.
You know, they're probably buttering you up, they're
setting you up for something.
They want you to be so overwhelmed by their praise of
you that you're not going to notice some glaring fault.
They're trying to blind you.
Hyper spirituality would be another red flag.
Someone who's just over the top, you know, all the time,
just praise the Lord, God bless, and just, you know,
just a fake spirituality, just a hyper spirituality.
What about another red flag would be subtle criticism
of leadership.
That's a big red flag right there.
Someone who wants to feel you out when they start to say,
well, what do you think about how, you know,
a pastor does this?
You know, if I were the pastor, I would do things this way.
Or if I were in leadership, this is how I do it.
But here's the thing, you're not.
And what they're trying to do is feel you out.
How you take that, how you take criticism that's subtly
given towards leadership.
And if you're not careful, if you're not vigilant in that
area, you know, they might draw you into that.
And the next thing you know, you're criticizing them.
The next thing you know, and it's going to escalate.
Now, these are just red flags.
These are just things, and there's others, I'm sure we
can make a whole long list about red flags.
But red flags are just red flags.
It's not, you know, a sure sign of the fact that a person
is a Judas.
You know what red flags could be?
They could be a sign that somebody needs to grow.
It could just be that they just don't know any better.
I mean, this church, this ministry, is reaching new
Christians.
It's reaching new people.
I mean, that's the emphasis here.
Not just trying to, you know, revive the dead, but have new
births, and bring people in, and see new people reach.
People who have never been a Christian, you know, people
who have never been in church are getting reached.
You know, people are coming out of the world.
They're going to have baggage.
They're going to probably walk in.
They might even have some red flags, or some things that
make you feel uncomfortable.
But that doesn't mean they're a Judas.
Just means they need to grow.
Just means you need to be patient and give them time.
So that's one way that you could exercise vigilance
without being belligerent about it.
Take note of the red flags.
And if you must, express your concerns to the appropriate
person.
You know, there's nothing wrong with expressing a concern.
And that's probably something that, you know, we should
probably keep in mind.
If there is something that really is a concern, you
should probably bring that to somebody's attention.
But it needs to be the appropriate person, not just
your best friend, so you can sit around and talk about
them, and just bag on somebody.
You know, if this person really is a Judas, obviously
you want something done about it.
So you need to go to the appropriate people so that they
can take care of it.
Now let me say this.
Expressing your concerns is not the same as you expressing
your opinion.
You know, I just think so-and-so is a Judas because I
don't like the way they dress.
I don't like the way they do whatever.
They said something weird.
They said something funny.
That's just your opinion.
You know, that's just the way you feel about it.
That's not a genuine concern.
And don't go into it expecting a specific outcome.
Don't go into it, I'm going to take my concerns, all these
suspicions that I have, and I'm going to take it to
leadership, and they're going to nail this guy to the wall.
Might not happen that way.
If you're really concerned, you're just going to want the
truth to come out.
I don't know what this person is.
I don't know what they're like.
But I'm just trying to be vigilant here.
I just thought you should know about this.
So red flags can just be a sign that people need to grow.
And yes, we should express our concerns when they're
appropriate.
But at the end of the day, you need to let the pastor make
the call as to who the Judas is and who it isn't.
And we've been through this here in this church.
We've had Judases here.
And I don't think anyone's ever really questioned that
the people that were called out as Judas as
being anything but.
I think it's pretty obvious that the Judases that got
called out, that's what they were.
The vast majority of people picked that up pretty quick.
But we have to make sure we're letting the pastor make that
call and not just saying, well, I think he's a Judas,
and that's it.
Because you might not know everything about that person
that the pastor knows.
That person might have had some issue in their life that
they've gone to that person and talked to them.
You don't know.
Maybe he knows some things about that person you don't
know.
So let him make that call.
Let the person who has the knowledge make that call.
Let the person who's been given the authority to make
that call make that call, not take it upon yourself.
Because remember what we read in Acts 20, how they were to
take the oversight of the flock and they're to watch for
the grievous wolves that were going to enter in.
But Paul was addressing the elders of Ephesus.
He was addressing the pastors there.
That's who was given that charge.
And that's why it's a charge to the pastor.
A pastor has to be vigilant.
A bishop then must be blameless, the husband of one
wife, vigilant so that he can make that call, so that he can
identify who the Judas is and who the Judas isn't.
It's up to him to make that call.
And by the way, if the pastor ever has to make that call
that somebody's a Judas and call him out, come down to the
side of the pastor.
Please.
That should be the default position.
Maybe you don't understand and know everything about the
situation, but good night.
Can't you trust the man of God?
I mean, if you're coming here three times a week, sitting
under the preaching, I mean, people move families across
this country and then they want to question his judgment
about who he says is a bad person and isn't.
It's ridiculous.
So come down on his side if he has to make that call.
And I'll tell you something, it's going to happen again.
It's just a matter of time before another Judas creeps in
here and has to be exposed and called out.
And when that happens, you don't need to know every
single detail.
You need to trust your pastor that he's
making the right call.
Another way you could exercise vigilant without being
belligerent, don't voice concerns without evidence.
Because then again, that just goes back
to it being your opinion.
I think so-and-so is a Judas.
Do you have any evidence?
No.
Why are you even coming to the pastor about it?
Why even express that?
Because here's the thing, the pastor at the end of the day
is bound by the Bible.
You just can't kick people out because so-and-so doesn't get
along with so-and-so, or they think they're weird, or they
dress funny, or they smell funny.
I don't know.
People have all kinds of weird reasons why they don't like
people and would rather not have them around.
But at the end of the day, you have to have evidence.
You have to have a case to make.
Because the pastor is bound by the Bible.
There's only certain reasons you can kick people out.
It's just not a license to kick whoever you out for
whatever reason.
They're bound by the book.
So the sermon tonight is about not being, we want to be
vigilant, but we don't want to be belligerent about it.
We want to make sure that we're keeping it in check.
Christian life is about balance.
We don't want to go overboard in this area.
And people, we don't need to be so eager to expose the
Judas's, because as I said earlier, the only person who's
going to unmask the Judas is Judas.
And it doesn't matter how, you get a suspicion about
somebody, you can't start just wiretapping them, and hacking
their email, and following them around, and just, I know
I'm going to catch this Judas.
You don't even need to bother doing that.
Just trust your gut, and give it time, because Judas will
expose himself with no help from anybody else.
Go ahead and turn over to 2 Timothy, chapter 3.
2 Timothy, chapter 3, begin reading in verse 1.
2 Timothy 3, verse 1.
This know also that in the last days perilous times shall
come, for men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous,
boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents,
unthankful, unholy, without natural affection, truce
breakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers
of those that are good, traitors, heady, high-minded,
lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God, having a form of
godliness, but denying the power thereof.
That's a Judas.
That's an infiltrator.
That's a phony, that's a fake, that's a fraud, that's
somebody's creeping in.
They have a form of godliness, they look the part, they know
how to act, but they deny the power thereof.
From such turn away, for of this sort are they which creep
into houses and lead captive silly women laden with sins,
led away with diverse lusts, ever learning and never able to
come to the knowledge of the truth.
That's a reprobate.
Somebody who's always learning and never able to come to the
knowledge of the truth.
They know the gospel, they understand the gospel, but they
won't believe it.
They can't come to that knowledge.
That's the type of person that a Judas is.
Goes on in verse 8.
Now as Jannes and Jambres withstood Moses, so these
also resist the truth.
Men of corrupt minds, reprobate concerning the faith, but they
shall proceed no further.
Why?
For their folly shall be manifest unto all men, as
theirs also was.
So the Bible's telling us right there, yeah, these people are
going to come in.
These perilous times are going to come.
These reprobates, these fakes, these frauds are going to creep
in, but they're only going to be allowed to go so far.
And who is it that makes them manifest?
It's them.
Their folly should be made manifest unto all men.
They will be exposed with no help from you.
So we don't have to be on this witch hunt in the house of God.
You know, we don't have to declare open season on God's
own and start trying to find the Judas.
They'll manifest.
They'll come out.
Go ahead and turn back to Jude if you kept
your place there, Jude.
You know, in our past experiences in this church, it
tells us this is the case, that the Judases that have been in
here, the fakes, the phonies, the frauds that have come in,
they all got exposed by their own actions, by their stupid
YouTube comment, you know, that somebody noticed, by their,
you know, talking about their heresy with their group of
friends until somebody noticed, until their perversion being
found out.
They all got manifest.
They all got exposed.
But you know what didn't happen?
There wasn't a big council held like where we all got pitch
forks and torches and decided to go find the Judas in the
church because we don't have to.
They'll be made manifest on their own accord because it's
their folly.
They can't help but expose themselves.
I mean, this is God's house, after all.
This is God's house.
And when there's trash in God's house, God knows how to clean
his house.
When he says there's too much trash in here, this trash has
got to get taken out, it'll get taken out.
He'll make sure it's exposed.
You know, it'll start to stink.
Somebody will take notice and say, oh, there's a bag of
trash over there that needs to get thrown out.
The Bible says in Jude, chapter 1, look at verse 4,
for there are certain men crept in unawares.
It says there are, even in their day, who were before of
old, ordained to this condemnation, ungodly men,
turning the grace of God into lasciviousness and denying the
only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ.
So these people, I want us to understand how, again, how bad
it is to accuse somebody of being a Judas.
This is the type of person you're calling them when you
accuse somebody of this.
They're the type of person that turns the grace of God
into lasciviousness.
That's a far cry from somebody who's just backslidden.
That's a far cry from somebody who's just got back in their
old, worldly ways, got backslidden, might have even
gotten kicked out of church for doing something in accordance
with 1 Corinthians 5.
They're a drunkard, they're a railer, they're a covetous,
they're a fornicator, and they've gotten kicked out.
That doesn't make them a Judas, though.
That doesn't mean that they've turned the grace of God into
lasciviousness.
That doesn't mean they denied God and the only
Lord Jesus Christ.
That's a heavy charge to land somebody.
It's a far cry from being backslidden.
I mean, it's the same people that do all these sins that
we're about to read about.
Verse 5, I will therefore put you in remembrance, though you
once knew this, how that the Lord, having saved the people
out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed them that
believed not.
And the angels, which kept not the first estate, but left
their own habitation, he hath reserved everlasting chains
under darkness, under the judgment of the great day, even
as Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities about them, in like
manner, giving themselves over to fornication, and going
after strange flesh, or start forth, for an example,
suffering the vengeance of eternal fire.
It says these same type of people are the type of people
that deny God, they're lascivious, and they go after
strange flesh.
It means they're sodomites.
They go after unnatural flesh.
They're pedophiles.
They're the scum of the earth.
That's what you're calling somebody when you call somebody
a Judas.
And there's a time and place to call somebody a Judas.
You know what it is?
It's when they're Judas, and not a moment before.
We actually have evidence, and they've actually exposed
themselves as a Judas for being what they are.
But up until that, if you're going to level that charge,
this is what you're calling them.
So we better be very careful and not be
belligerent in this area.
These people are full-blown reprobates.
Look at verse 8.
Likewise, also, these filthy dreamers defile the flesh,
despise dominion, speak evil of dignities.
Yet Michael the archangel, when contending with the devil,
he disputed about the body of Moses,
durst not bring against him a railing accusation,
but said, the Lord rebuke thee.
But these speak evil of things which they know not.
But what they know naturally is brute beasts,
and those things they corrupt themselves.
Woe unto them, for they have gone the way of Cain,
and ran greedily after the air of Balaam for reward,
and perished in the gainsaying of Corey.
These are spots in your feast of charity,
when they feast with you, feeding themselves
without fear.
Clouds they are without water, carried about of winds.
Trees who fruit withereth without fruit, twice dead,
plucked up by the roots.
I mean, these are bad people.
There's nothing good about them.
It says that there are spots in your feasts.
You know what that tells me is that, maybe not right away,
but because these people expose themselves,
they can't help but have their folly manifest unto all men,
that eventually it becomes obvious that's what they are.
We don't have to sit back here and go on a witch hunt
for these people because it becomes obvious
they're like a spot in your feast.
It's like when you wear a white shirt like this after church,
and you go to get barbecue, right?
And you get that one little drop.
I mean, I've been preaching down in Tucson full time
for eight months, and there's a lot of good barbecue
around there.
That's like a skill a pastor or a preacher
has to develop down there is how to eat between services
without dirtying his shirt.
I'm finding this out because I don't have just,
maybe I should start bringing a change of shirts.
But that's kind of the picture he's giving us here, right?
It's a spot in your feast.
It just stands out.
That's why I wear dark shirts.
It blends in a little bit more because it's real obvious,
isn't it?
If you get a, you know, you nick yourself cutting or shaving,
and you get that little blood spot right there,
everyone can see it.
Now you got a spot.
Oh, did you cut yourself?
Everyone points it out, it's obvious.
And that's what these type of people are.
Eventually, they expose themselves,
and there's no question about what they are.
They're all these terrible things.
It's just obvious what they are.
I mean, the perfect example of a Judas is Judas himself.
No one suspected Judas until he came and betrayed Christ.
And who exposed him?
Ultimately, we know it was God, but Judas did.
And how was he exposed?
How was Judas and Christ's ministry
exposed by being allowed to do what they do?
You're not going to be able to stop them.
You're going to have to just be vigilant.
And when they manifest, identify them, mark them,
and avoid them.
That's all you can do.
You won't know who Judas is until Judas exposes himself.
If you would, go over to John chapter 13.
Keep something in Jude, but we'll look at it.
Because this is a good, this is something to keep in mind,
especially for people, you know, these stupid people
who want to criticize, you know, our church and our pastor
for, you know, these Judases to get exposed,
to get kicked out.
And they say, oh, you know, why didn't you know about that guy?
How come you didn't catch that earlier?
Because that's how Judases operate.
You have to wait for them to manifest.
And let's look at Christ's ministry.
Let's look at the example of Jesus when he let the Judas
come in knowingly, and how well the apostles
did at identifying the Judas.
Look there in John chapter 13, verse 21.
When Jesus had thus said, he was troubled in spirit
and testified, and said, verily I
say unto you that one of you shall betray me.
Then disciples looked on one another, doubting
of whom he spake.
No one's suspecting Judas.
Now there was leaning on Jesus' bosom one of his disciples,
whom Jesus loved.
Simon Peter therefore beckoned to him
that he should ask who it is of whom he spake.
He then lying on Jesus' breast sayeth unto him, Lord,
who is it?
Jesus answered, he it is to whom I shall give a sop
when I have dipped it.
Not a very cryptic answer.
Pretty straightforward.
Look, you want to know who it is?
I'm going to dip the sop, and I'm going to hand it to him.
That's who it is.
And it was the same as that.
It's just that plain.
He was being that obvious about who it was.
And when he had dipped the sop, he gave it to Judas Iscariot,
the son of Simon.
You want to know who it is?
It's there he is.
Now no man at the table knew for what.
Then Jesus said unto him, what thou doest do quickly.
Verse 28.
Now no man at the table knew for what intent he spake this.
For some thought because Judas had the bag
that Jesus had said unto him, buy those things which
we have need of against the feast,
or that he should give something the poor.
He then received the sop, went out immediately,
and it was night.
They didn't even suspect him.
I mean, Jesus says, it's the guy I'm going to give the sop to.
He gives it to him.
I wonder why he did that.
Wonder why he told him to go do what he did.
They didn't get it.
The Bible says in Jude chapter 1, verse 13,
these people are obvious.
They're spots in the feast, but they have to manifest.
You can't just go looking for them.
They have to show themselves for what they are.
And they will if you give it time.
Judas came back a few hours later and said, master,
and gave him a kiss.
And he had everybody there to arrest him.
And there was no doubt in anybody's mind
a betrayer after that.
But that had to happen first.
Judas had to out himself.
And they will.
Why?
Because in verse 13, they're like raging waves of the sea,
forming out their own shame.
Wandering stars.
I love the imagery that he's using here,
because it's telling us it's obvious.
A wandering star, a shooting star.
I mean, if you're out looking up at the star at night,
up to the sky at night, on a black night,
you're going to notice a shooting star go by.
You're going to notice a meteor come flying by.
It's obvious.
Your eye just drawn to the movement.
These people are obvious.
They're like raging waves of the sea,
foaming out their own shame, just
crashing up against the shore.
There's no doubt what they are.
They foam out their shame like raging waves.
You see, they're obvious.
No one gets hit by a wave and goes, is it raining?
No one's standing on the pier and just
having a wave crash up and get them sopping wet
and wonder what the weather's like.
And you'll look up at the sky.
They know what happened.
Now, what happens is that people,
when they become belligerent in this area, when their radar is
just cranked up so high, they're going to find the Judas.
They're going to identify them and call them out.
What happens is some new believer with some baggage
comes by, and they get a little mist on them.
And all of a sudden, that guy's the Judas, right?
It'd be like this.
It'd be like, you know, you're expecting
a raging wave of the sea.
Well, sorry, brother.
That went further than I thought.
This is usually for the kids.
It's like that.
Oh, you're twice dead.
You're plucked up.
You're a wandering star bound for hell
because you got a little on you.
You know, they said something you didn't like.
They said something.
They quoted some weird movie.
Their doctrine's a little off.
But no, now they're just, you just go, psh.
This isn't a raging wave of the sea.
This isn't shame being foamed out at you.
This is a new believer who just needs to get a little grace,
a little time to grow.
You know, they don't look the part.
They say something weird.
It's just, pfft, that's it.
But if we have our radar cranked up,
this just becomes a hurricane.
You know, all of a sudden, we're like those people
in the Bahamas.
You know, the island's just washed over.
We're in the midst of a Judas.
No, you're not.
It's just a little spritz.
Give him time.
He'll grow out of it.
Back to Jude there, look at verse 14.
And Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these,
saying, behold, the Lord cometh with 10,000 of saints,
to execute judgment upon all, and to convince
all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly needs,
which they have ungodly committed,
and of all their hard speeches, which ungodly sinners
have spoken against them.
These are murmurers, complainers,
walking after their own lusts, and their mouths
speak with great swelling words, having immense persons
and admiration because of advantage.
But beloved, remember ye the words which
were spoken before of the apostles
and of our Lord Jesus Christ, how that they told you
there should be mockers in the last time who should walk
after their ungodly lusts.
So yes, we need to be vigilant.
We know that there's going to be Judases among us.
And if we've been here long enough,
we've already seen it on more than one occasion.
Judases come, expose themselves, and get removed.
And it'll happen again.
We know it's going to happen again.
The Bible tells us here this is going to happen.
But leave it up to them to out themselves.
Give people the benefit of the doubt.
Guard your own heart.
Watch your own walk.
Be more concerned about being vigilant about your own life
than everybody else's.
And this same spirit can cross over
into where we're going to condemn
other people who have made mistakes
but have gotten it right.
People who have been disfellowshipped
but then brought back in.
Those people, they need to be forgiven,
and that needs to be forgotten.
But this same type of attitude where we're just
going to have this belligerent vigilance,
even that same type of attitude won't let it
go even for those people.
It's the same spirit.
It's the same suspicious attitude that
results in being unforgiving.
The Bible says, and I'll just read
for the sake of time in Micah, who
is a god like unto thee that pardoneth iniquity
and passeth by transgression of the remnant of his heritage.
He retaineth not his anger forever
because he delighteth in mercy.
We ought to delight in mercy.
I mean, we ought to look for opportunity
to show other people mercy.
When somebody makes a mistake, even if it's a severe one,
if they're willing to get it right
and be humble enough and meek enough to admit they're wrong
and get it right and they're allowed back into fellowship,
that's an opportunity for you to delight in mercy
and to be like God, your father, who delights in mercy.
He will turn again.
He will have compassion on us.
He will subdue our iniquities, and thou
will cast all their sins into the depths of the sea.
That's such a great verse.
We get that paraphrase, the sea of God's forgetfulness.
That's where my sins are, that God just takes all of our sins
and just drowns them in the sea.
But some people, if we had this belligerent, vigilant attitude,
this overly suspicious attitude, this unforgiving attitude,
you know what they do?
They go to that, they find that sea,
and they dredge it all back up.
And they might not say anything, but they keep it
in their hearts or keep it in their minds,
and they don't let those people live it down.
Don't dredge up what God has drowned, friend.
Let it stay in the sea.
We are to be vigilant.
We are to be watchmen.
You know what else we're supposed to be?
Compassionate.
We're all supposed to have compassion.
The Bible says in Ezekiel chapter 33, the chapter
on being a watchman, right?
In verse 14, again, I say unto the wicked,
when I say unto the wicked, thou shalt
surely die, if he turn from his sin
and do that which is lawful and right,
if the wicked restore the pledge,
give again that he hath robbed, walk in the statutes of life
without committing iniquity, he shall surely live.
He shall not die.
None of his sins that he hath committed
shall be mentioned unto him.
That's the attitude that we ought to have towards people
that commit sin and get it right,
not to mention it again unto them.
And you won't be able to do that if you
had this overly suspicious, this belligerent attitude.
Judaism is a powerhouse of a book.
I mean, that's some hard preaching.
And he's calling these people out and telling it like it is.
But it's interesting how it ends.
I love how it ends.
Look at verse 20.
But ye beloved.
I mean, he's just telling us all about these lascivious people,
these wicked people, these twice dead, plucked up by the roots,
wandering stars, foaming out their own shame
for whom is reserved the blackness of darkness forever.
He's wandering stars.
I mean, he's just laying it out.
But then he reminds us of something at the end, verse 20.
But ye beloved, we're done talking about them.
Let's talk about you now.
But ye beloved, building up yourselves
on the most holy faith, praying with the Holy Ghost,
keep yourselves in the love of God,
looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus
Christ unto eternal life.
And of some have compassion, making a difference.
We ought to be real careful about who
we're going to call a Judas.
Because if you get this idea in your mind
that this person is a Judas and you're way off base,
you're going to lack compassion towards that person.
I mean, we love that verse when it comes to soul winning,
doesn't it?
We want to have compassion, making a difference.
And that's a great way to apply it.
But we ought to apply that same verse within God's house, too.
We ought to be willing to have compassion on people
in God's house with God's people and show them some grace
and show them some patience and allow them to grow
and not just be pointing them out and trying to accuse them
of something that they're not.
And even if they have made mistakes,
letting them live it down, get over it, and go on with life.
You see, compassion, it doesn't start and stop
at the church door.
It should be the way we live our life.
Yes, vigilant.
Yes, looking out for these wandering stars
and when we see them and identify them
and know what they are and they're pointed out,
understanding that's what they are.
But at the same time, we've got to be compassionate.
And we need to understand that that's
how we should live our life.
So the thrust of the sermon is this,
is don't mistake being an overly suspicious jerk for vigilance.
Where every other person is a Judas,
every other person is just an infiltrator
because you have some funny feeling.
You're just becoming overly suspicious.
And that's not vigilance.
That's something else.
It's being belligerent.
We should trust our gut, right?
Like I said earlier, trust your gut.
If you have a feeling you have an instinct about somebody,
fine, but don't shoot from the hip.
You can trust your gut without shooting from the hip.
You notice, well, I think that guy's one.
You're just wounding the innocent.
You're just clipping them.
I mean, if you've got somebody pegged down as a Judas,
you better make sure you've got them dead in your crosshairs
and know that's exactly what they
are before you pull that trigger and level
that charge at somebody.
Trust your gut, but don't shoot from the hip.
Don't be belligerent when you're being vigilant.
Let's go ahead and pray.
Heavenly Father, again, thank you for the Bible.
Lord, thank you for the warning that we have that wicked people
are going to creep in.
Lord, thank you for a church that, Lord,
has become a target.
I mean, it means we're doing something.
It means something is being accomplished
for Christ and this church because we
have seen these Judases.
We have seen people creep in and try to infiltrate this church.
And thank you for a man of God who's
not afraid to stand up and call them for what they are.
But Lord, help us also to remember
that we are to be compassionate and that we're
to be patient with others.
And Lord, to let the Judases manifest themselves
before we go just accusing people unrightfully.
Lord, I pray that you would just bless us and help us
as we live for you.
In Christ's name we pray.
Amen.