When the Enemy Is Already Inside

Dr. Jeff Schreve: Jude is all about sounding the alarm because the enemy has come and the enemy has infiltrated the church of the living God. And Jude says it is time for the church of the living God to rise up, to stand up, to face off with the enemy, and fight the good fight of faith. We live in a world today where Christians aren't rising up, and they're not standing up, and they're not standing up for the truth.
Larry Nobles: One of the biggest difficulties that Christians will face in the last days is apostasy, a falling away from the true gospel of Christ. We're warned in the Book of Jude that false teachers with their dishonest teachings will try to secretly inject their poison into the church in order to destroy the saving message of Christ and to derail the work of God. Hello, and welcome to From His Heart with Pastor Jeff Schreve, where today he begins a series of clear teaching on the need for all of us to start fighting for the faith very vigorously. Genuine believers are called to stand and fight for the true gospel of Christ, and today we'll learn the tactics needed. Open your Bible now to the Book of Jude, if you can, to the next to last book in the New Testament. Here is Pastor Jeff with the first lesson in this series called Face Off: Fighting for the Faith, and the message Sound the Alarm.
Dr. Jeff Schreve: As a kid, I had two older brothers, and they influenced me with television on particular shows. And I had some shows I really, really liked. But the granddaddy of them all, the best show perhaps ever made: Star Trek. Right? Captain Kirk, James Tiberius Kirk, and Mr. Spock. You never knew his first name because he said you couldn't pronounce it. And then Dr. Leonard McCoy. Those were the three main characters in Star Trek. If you ever watched Star Trek, you found out there was always some kind of problem. Every episode was a problem, and typically Captain Kirk would save the day. And if they had a problem on the ship, if there was danger to the crew, Captain Kirk would invariably call for Red Alert. Do you remember Red Alert? Remember what it sounded like? Nobody's getting up. It's Red Alert. Hey, on the Starship Enterprise, when it was Red Alert, everybody was freaking out. They were running to battle stations, and shields were on full and weapons on full because the ship is in danger. We're starting a new series today on the Book of Jude, and Jude is all about sounding the alarm. Jude is all about Red Alert because the enemy has come and the enemy has infiltrated the church of the living God. Let me tell you, the devil has two main attacks against the church of the living God, against the faith, as the scripture says, once for all delivered to the saints. Two main attacks. The first attack is to root it out. Root out the faith and the truth through satanic persecution. Just like you would take a shovel and you would try and root out a tree or something like that, the devil's trying to root out the truth, and he does it through persecution. But you know what? Persecution doesn't work well for the devil. Someone has well said that the blood of the martyrs is the seedbed of the church. And the more Satan has tried to stomp out the fire of Christianity, all he does is scatter the embers. And in Acts chapter eight, you read that great persecution came upon the church in Jerusalem, so they spread out to Judea and Samaria. And what happened? Revivals broke out in Judea and Samaria. So persecution, that gets some, but persecution isn't his best method. So if he can't root it out through satanic persecution, he will try attack number two: to rot it out through satanic infiltration. That's like termites getting into the wood. They're going to eat it from the inside out. They're going to rot it out. And just as termites in your home, they can be there and you not even know it, the devil has plants that he can put. Jesus told a whole parable about the tares among the wheat. Tares are a weed that looks just like wheat, and you can't tell the difference. And the devil has tares that he puts in churches, that he puts in Christian schools, that he puts in seminaries, that he puts in ministries. And what's their plan? What's their program? To eat up the foundation, to chew up the foundation, to pervert the truth, to lead the church astray and the people astray and poison and pervert the faith. I think it's interesting when you look at the subject of apostasy. And that's what this book is all about: apostasy. You say, what is apostasy? Apostasy is a falling away from the faith. An apostate is a person who looks the part, but he's not genuine. She's not genuine and true. They're tares. An apostate is a tare among the wheat. Something that looks right but is not right. And you know who the biggest apostate, the biggest tare ever in the Bible is? A man named Judas. He was one of the twelve. He looked the part. Everybody thought he was good and godly, so much so that the other apostles made him the treasurer. They didn't know that Judas was the betrayer until he came to the garden and betrayed Jesus with a kiss. But Jesus knew all along. He said in John chapter six, "Did I not choose you the twelve? Yet one of you is a devil." And he knew it was Judas. But the other guys didn't know it was Judas. Judas is a picture of an apostate. And isn't it interesting that the book in the Bible that all it talks about is apostasy is written by a man named Jude, whose name in Greek is Judas. Now, Jude was the Lord's half-brother. He was the son of Mary and Joseph. He's the full brother of James, who was also the Lord's half-brother. You know, Jesus, he had a big family. He had other brothers and sisters. He was born of a virgin, but then Mary and Joseph had children. And his brothers, after he rose from the dead, believed in him. James was the leader of the Jerusalem church. You can read about him in Acts chapter 15. He's the guy that wrote the epistle called James. And then Jude was another brother, and Jude wrote the little epistle that we're studying today, the Book of Jude. Now the scripture says this. We'll look at the first four verses: "Jude, a bondservant of Jesus Christ and brother of James, to those who are the called, beloved in God the Father and kept for Jesus Christ: May mercy and peace and love be multiplied to you." "Beloved, while I was making every effort to write you about our common salvation, I felt the necessity to write to you appealing that you contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints. For certain persons have crept in unnoticed, those who were long beforehand marked out for this condemnation, ungodly persons who turn the grace of our God into licentiousness (which means unbridled lust) and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ." Jude starts off his letter and he's writing it to believers. And what does he call the believers? He says, you guys are the called. You guys are beloved. God loves you. We sang about God's great love. Lord I'm amazed by you that you love me. And he says you're beloved in God the Father. You're kept, you're protected, you're watched over for Jesus Christ. This is the true church, the true believers, not the pretenders, but the true. And he says that's what's true of you. You're called. You're the army of God, and he's going to call the army of God to stand up, to face off the enemies and to fight. And then he says this in verse two, he wants you to have mercy and peace and love just poured out upon you. You ever wonder what God wants for you? Mercy, peace, and love to be overflowing in your life. You ever write a card to somebody and you want to put a scripture verse? Try Jude verse two. It's a great verse to put on a card. May mercy, peace, and love be multiplied to you. And then he says in verse three, "Listen, you know I sat down and I felt impressed to write a letter, and I wanted to write a letter about our salvation. I wanted to just encourage you about salvation and talk about the great things about salvation and to write about that." I wanted to pick up the harp and just play a little bit and make us all feel good. He said, but I was impressed to write something else. I felt the necessity. Literally he was constrained to do what? To tell you, hey, it's time to fight. To contend earnestly means to struggle, to fight. We get the word agonize from that word contend earnestly. Hey, you need to stand up for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints. I wanted to play the harp, but God said no, sound the alarm. Sound the alarm. It's Red Alert time because Peter said in 2nd Peter chapter two that false teachers were going to come. 2nd Peter chapter two verse one: "False prophets arose among the people just as there will also be false teachers among you who will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing swift destruction upon themselves." Peter said they're coming, and Jude, who wrote after Peter in the late 60s AD, said, "Hey, you know what? They're here. They've come, and they've infiltrated the church." He said that in verse four, certain persons have crept in unnoticed. They've slipped in. That's a picture of like a snake as it would slip into the water without a ripple.
Larry Nobles: Pastor Jeff Schreve is in his message Sound the Alarm from the series Face Off, and he'll expand on this a bit more in just a moment here on From His Heart. If you're a believer in Christ, you feel it. Our Christian faith is under fire, and the opposition is growing. We live in an age when Bible truth is constantly challenged. Biblical convictions are ridiculed, and many are struggling to know what they can trust. Voices from every direction compete for attention. Opinions are treated as ultimate truth. Compromise is celebrated as wisdom. Yet God's word has not changed, and it never will. In John chapter 14 verse six, it tells us without equivocation that Jesus Christ is still the way and the truth and the life. And his word still provides the answers that people desperately need. His truth still sets captives free. And that's why we at From His Heart and surely Pastor Jeff Schreve are grateful for your generous partnership today as we broadcast around the world. Pastor Jeff receives no income from this ministry. Right now God is opening up tremendous doors for From His Heart to reach more people with biblical truth, and your support helps ensure that we can walk through these doors. It helps strengthen believers. It helps bring biblical truth to people who may never hear otherwise. And that's why as thanks for your support of any amount to From His Heart this month, we'd love to send you his new six-message series that we aired earlier this month called Faith Under Fire: A Study of the Book of Jude. And you can get it in the format of your choice on a USB flash drive, CDs, DVDs, or an MP3 download when you make that gift online at fromhisheart.org. Or you can call 866-40-BIBLE. Listen, the need is urgent, and the fight for the faith is vital. God bless you for joining with us as we continue to share the word of God with a lost and a dying world. Now let's get back to part one of the message, Sound the Alarm.
Dr. Jeff Schreve: Have you ever watched some of those animal shows, and they show crocodiles and how crocodiles can be in the water and you don't even know it? This big, huge creature can get in the water and just gets in so stealthily and you don't know it until you see those eyes come up and it's like, uh-oh, my goose is cooked. That's the way the enemy comes in. Ungodly persons who come in, they slip in unnoticed, and they come in to rot out the faith. Now, against persecution we're to stand under persecution, but against infiltration we're to stand up to infiltration. Now, I want you to notice there are three main areas where the enemy comes to attack. Area number one: the enemy attacks the word of God. Look at verse three again. He said, "Beloved, while I was making every effort to write you about our common salvation, I felt the necessity to write to you appealing." That word appealing is used of a general talking to a private. This is what needs to be done. And this letter has kind of a military tone to it. I wrote to you appealing that you contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints. The word faith literally means the truthfulness of the message. He's not talking about your faith. It's not subjective faith, that I have faith but you don't have faith. He's talking about the faith, the body of truth, the word of God that is the truth of God. Jesus said in John chapter 17, "Father, sanctify them in truth. Thy word is truth." That's what he's talking about. We're to contend earnestly for the truth of God's word. Now the devil will attack the truth of God, the word of God. Why is that? Because he hates it. The devil hates the word of God. He just hates it. You say, why does the devil hate the word of God so much? Because Hebrews chapter four verse 12 says that the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword. And the devil hates the sword of the word of God. Why? Because when you do battle with the devil, if you have an offensive weapon, you can shoot him through with the sharp edge of the word of God. He hates it. And the way he attacks the word of God is he tries to water down the word of God. To water down the word of God is to try and smooth out the sharp edges of the two-edged sword. Man, we see that happening all over the place where people who say they believe this book, preachers, they say they believe this book, people who hold their Bibles high, but then in the church service they don't ever open their Bibles. The word of God never goes forth from so many pulpits. You listen on television, on radio, and you'll find in today's world of Christianity, the brand quote-unquote of kind of we call it Christianity, so often it's not Christianity at all. It doesn't have much to do with the word of God. And the devil has so watered things down they just become, you go to a church and what is it? It's just kind of a little pep rally that has some Christianity kind of thrown on top like salt over the chips. And that's what people experience. Well, that's not what we're supposed to do. Every preacher is commanded by God to preach the word, not water it down. But that's what the devil wants to do. It's very telling that the very first thing we ever hear the devil say when he speaks to a human being, recorded in Genesis chapter three verse one, where it says, "Now the serpent was more crafty than any beast of the field which the Lord God has made. And he said to the woman, 'Indeed, has God said, you shall not eat from any tree of the garden?'" He takes the word of God, he adds a big question mark. He takes the word of God, he twists the word of God, he adds a question mark to the word of God. That's how the devil works. I love what Adrian Rogers said about Genesis chapter three verse one, about the question mark that the devil puts on the word of God. He said, "You watch that person who puts a question mark on the word of God. Any man, any woman, any boy, any girl, anybody, anywhere who puts a question mark on the word of God is doing the work of the devil." That's what the devil does. He wants you to doubt the word. He wants you to question the word. He wants you to say, "Well, I don't know about that. You know, that doesn't seem to fit into where we are as a society right now. The Bible says that homosexuality is wrong, but that just can't be wrong. Bible says that you're not supposed to have sex before you're married, but come on. I mean, this is 2026. I mean, things have changed." "Bible says you're not supposed to get divorced, but I mean, I just don't love my spouse anymore, and we're just not getting along very well. It's just not meeting my needs. And surely it can't really mean that you're not supposed to get divorced because I just don't like this marriage anymore. And the Bible can't really mean that it's that big a deal to have another person on the side that you don't tell your wife about. We just live in this world where all this stuff is just kind of okay, you know? And the scripture, you got to take it with a grain of salt." No, you don't. You take it as it's written. See, we live in a world today where there's an attack on the truth. There's an attack on the word of God. And when you stand up for the word of God, you see people even in church and they look at you like you're weird. "Well, Jeff, you don't really believe in Adam and Eve, do you? I mean, you really think there were two people that God made, Adam and Eve? Come on. You don't really believe the miracles, do you?" "You don't really believe that God destroyed the world with a flood? I mean, come on, you're a smart guy. You've been to college, you've been to seminary. Are you meaning to tell me you believe that? You don't really believe that God parted the Red Sea, do you? I mean, come on, when's the last time that happened?" It only happened once. We're to believe the word. We're to trust the word. We're to do the word. The Bible says it doesn't help you to just read it if you don't do it. You become a forgetful hearer instead of of an effectual doer. And you're to hold it fast because there will be an attack in the last days. Jude is written and placed right before the Book of the Revelation, which is the end of it all. And so we're living in the last of the last days. I believe that Jesus Christ is coming soon, and in the last days there's going to be an assault, an attack from within on the word of God. And the attack is not so much from without, it's from within. It's people in churches and they're filled in this city and other cities. They're filled with people and they don't preach the word of God and they don't believe the word of God. They are termites that are eating up the foundation. They're tares among the wheat. And everybody says, "Well, it's so-and-so's church and it should be a good church. There are a lot of people that go there." That doesn't mean squat. Does the person believe the word of God? And I don't care if they hold it up and say this is my Bible. Do they preach this book? Because this is the book that is the word of God. It's God's mind in print, and we are supposed to preach the word. Because the time will come, Paul told Timothy, when men will not endure sound doctrine, but they'll want to have someone tickle their ears. They'll want to have somebody just say, "Hey, preach a message that makes me feel good. I just want to feel good." Some people tell me, "You know, Jeff, I'm nervous sometimes inviting friends to come to church to hear you because I have a friend who's a homosexual or I have a friend who's living in adultery or I have a friend who has this sin or that sin, and you might say something that would offend them." You have a friend who's wrong. You have a friend who's living wrongly if they're living like that. They need to hear the truth. That's just so ridiculous. That's like saying, "You know, I have a friend who has cancer and you might say something negative about cancer, and that would really offend them." Well, that cancer's killing them. They need to hear the truth about cancer. Sin is an internal cancer that kills people, and people need to hear the truth. I love what Jesus said when he shared the parable of the sower and the seed. Remember the sower went out to sow and he threw some seed and some fell on the road and the birds came and ate it up. He said that's what the devil does with people of hard hearts. The devil comes and snatches it away. He said some other seed fell on the rocky soil, and that's the real thin soil on the rocks and it pops right up, but it doesn't have any firm root in itself. When the sun of persecution comes, it's gone. He said that's what happens with some people. They don't really think it through. He said other seed fell on the thorny soil, and when it started to grow up, the thorns and the cares and the worries of this world choked it out and it was unfruitful. But then he said there was seed that was sown that fell in the good soil, and it grew and it sprouted and it produced a crop, thirtyfold, sixtyfold, even one hundredfold. And Jesus said this: "And the seed in the good soil, these are the ones who have heard the word in an honest and good heart and hold it fast and bear fruit with perseverance." That's what we're to do with the word of God. To hold it fast just as it was written. Hey, when I die and stand before God, I would much rather have God say to me, "Jeff, you believed my word too literally," than have him say to me, "Jeff, you explained it away too easily." There's an attack from the enemy.
Larry Nobles: You're listening to From His Heart with Pastor Jeff Schreve, and he's just begun a message today called Sound the Alarm from the timely series Face Off: Fighting for the Faith. And in it, we'll be reminded that one of the biggest difficulties that Christians face in the last days is apostasy, a falling away from the true gospel of Jesus. The Book of Jude warns us of false teachers and false teachings that secretly inject their poison into the church. And you can get this series, Face Off, from our website at fromhisheart.org. And also another series from Jude from Pastor Jeff called Faith Under Fire is our gift of thanks to you for your support this month of any amount. Again, go to fromhisheart.org for details. Well, thank you for joining us today. I'm Larry Nobles, trusting you'll be right back here tomorrow for part two of this essential teaching for all Christians today. It's called Sound the Alarm. That's next time when Pastor Jeff Schreve will open up God's word and we'll learn from his heart.