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Living Waters of Grace 09.03.25 · Living Waters of Grace / Calvary Chapel of Westmoreland Sunday Services

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  This is living. Waters of Grace, the teaching
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  ministry of Lewis Harold, assistant pastor of Calvary
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  Chapel of Westmoreland County in Greensburg, PA.
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  Now here's Pastor Lewis as he continues teaching through God's
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  Word. Pastor Clark always said there's
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  a famine for the word of God and it's so true.
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  There's a famine for the word of God.
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  And that's why I love this church because when you come to
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  church, you come bringing Bibles, you come with the
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  intention to hear the Word of God.
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  You come with the intention to learn more about the Word of
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  God, to dig into the Word of God.
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  So we thank God that in here we can be able to share the
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  Scripture one verse at a time and to hear what God has to say.
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  As Christians, we journey through life with Jesus by our
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  side. However, there are times when we
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  may overlook the fact that His Word provides the sustenance we
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  need. We might find ourselves running
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  on empty, and before we realize it, we can end up in a difficult
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  situation without thinking about turning to Him for help.
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  That's why in today's message, Pastor Lewis reminds you that
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  attending church is not just about fulfilling an obligation
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  or participating in a social event.
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  It's an opportunity to fill up your spiritual tank.
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  Now here's Pastor Lewis in the Book of Jude, chapter one with
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  today's edition of Living Waters of Grace.
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  Before we go into all that, I do want to share or just kind of
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  give us a backdrop of where we've come so far.
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  If we remember a few weeks ago when we first started this, the
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  whole idea is the reason why we're talking about these false
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  teachers is because Jude, who initially intended to write this
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  letter for the purpose of being able to just encourage the
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  believers, encourage them in their in their faith, just to
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  talk about the common salvation and all the things that they had
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  in common being saved. But the Holy Spirit moved on
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  them and said, no, I want you to take this a different way.
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  We are in a time right now where there's so many false teachers
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  and so many such a big famine for the word of God and, and,
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  and we need to do more than just talk about the common salvation,
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  but we need to exhort the believers to contend earnestly
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  for the faith. So he decided that he would
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  write this to exhort us and them to be steadfast to be unmovable
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  when it comes to the faith, and not just a faith that comes with
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  someone's opinions or faith that includes someone's psychology or
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  someone's philosophy. But he said the faith that was
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  once for all delivered to the Saints, that mean the very word,
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  the very doctrine that was passed down from the apostles
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  that they received from Jesus Christ, that they gave to the
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  people. And we now share with each other
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  that faith is what we need to contend for, that striving to
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  strive for that faith, to agonize for that faith and to to
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  do it earnestly, to do it with everything that we have on the
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  inside of us. And then he goes on and he tells
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  us he said been the reason why we need to contend for the
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  faith. And it's not much different than
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  what it is now. We need to contend for the faith
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  because you know, there's false teachers, there's teachers that
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  are teaching things contrary to the faith that was given to the
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  apostles, just like today, there's teachers that are
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  teaching things that are contrary to the faith.
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  Pastor Clark always said there's a famine for the word of God.
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  And it's so true. There's a famine for the word of
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  God. And that's why I love this
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  church because when you come to church, you come bringing
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  Bibles, you come with the intention to hear the word of
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  God. You come with the intention to
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  learn more about the Word of God, to dig into the Word of
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  God. So we thank God that in here we
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  can be able to share the Scripture one verse at a time
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  and to hear what God has to say. But here he said in verse four
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  said that there's certain men crepin.
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  I said that they were creeps that crept and they crepin and
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  they came in unnoticed and they begin to do ungodly things and
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  speak ungodly things and speak things that were untrue, abusing
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  the very grace of God, even denying Jesus Christ.
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  And then in verse 5 he says, but we can always be encouraged when
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  he used that word. But he said, but I want to
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  remind you and he wants to remind them about the and us
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  about the character of God, the holiness of God, the
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  righteousness of God. And in doing that, he gives us 3
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  examples of those who sinned against God and were judged.
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  And of course, if you remember, we talked about the children of
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  Israel who was in, you know, once they got out of Egypt and
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  he delivered them out of Egypt, how they were unbelievers in the
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  wilderness. And those who, who, who were
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  unbelievers, they perished in the wilderness, they were
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  judged. And even the angels in verse 6,
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  he talked about the angels who didn't keep their proper domain,
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  but they end up sinning against God and rebelling against God,
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  even coming down and committing sexual acts with, with people.
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  You can read about that over in Genesis in chapter 6, how he was
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  these, the sons of men came in and, and, and had sexual
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  relationships with the daughters of men.
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  And they created these giants and these Nephilim and, and
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  thank you. And these people and these
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  people end up being they, they perished in the flood.
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  They perished in the flood. And then he also talked about
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  Sodom and Gomorrah. And again, we, we talked about
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  how God judged Sodom and Gomorrah because of their
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  perversions, because of them going after strange flesh,
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  having unnatural desires, men desiring men and women desiring
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  women and, and, and, and the place was just a mess, even to
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  the point where they challenged or threatened to abuse the
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  angels of the Lord who came to the check the place out because
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  they wanted to make sure before they destroyed it that they had
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  good reason to do so. And they did so these three
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  examples, Old Testament examples gave a a peek into the the, the
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  character of God and to the holiness of God and to the
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  righteousness of God. Sin will be judged.
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  Sin will be judged. So now we come here to verse 8
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  and he says likewise. I want you to look at that word.
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  He says likewise also these dreamers.
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  And I'm going to, I'm going to just go ahead and read it down
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  to read verse 8:00 and 9:00 and then we'll come back and we're
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  going to make comment about that.
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  He says likewise also these dreamers defile the flesh.
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  They reject authority and speak evil of dignitaries.
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  Yet Michael the Archangel, in contending with the devil, when
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  he disputed about the body of Moses, deter dared not to bring
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  against him a reviling accusation.
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  But he said, the Lord rebuke you.
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  There's a lot in this little one or two verses when he says
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  likewise, he's mean. Yeah.
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  In the same manner as or just like Sodom and Gomorrah, just
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  like they how they defiled their flesh, these dreamers defile
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  their flesh. Just like they rejected
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  authority and did not want to listen to the authority of God
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  or the word of God. So these dreamers reject
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  authority and they speak evil of dignitaries.
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  Now this dreamers, what in the world is he saying to be these
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  dreamers? What exactly is a dreamer?
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  Well, for them, they're dreamer. They consider them dreamers
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  because they're really, they don't, they don't really live
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  in, they don't really live realistic lives.
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  They they live their lives based on these dreams that they have
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  that they think came from God. But it obviously don't because
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  they're doing things that are contrary to the word of God.
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  So these dreams come from other places or these visions that
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  they have, and they live by these things thinking that it's
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  OK, it's OK, you know, to live this way.
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  Even these visions that say that sexual immorality is a part of
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  salvation and it's OK, you know, to defile your body sexually,
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  it's part of salvation because your body is evil anyway.
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  It's your spirit that you have to be concerned about.
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  That's evil. That is not of the Lord.
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  Those are visions that they're making up.
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  They're unrealistic. I told you a while ago, my
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  grandmother and her wisdom she taught me years ago when I was
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  young, she said to me, we're talking about how preachers are
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  called to the ministry. And, and she was explaining to
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  me how pastors and those who preach the word of God, they're
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  called by God and then they're sent out.
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  But then she warned me, she said, now there are those who
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  are sent and then there's those who just went.
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  And, and she was explaining to me that there's some false
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  teachers out there, that they were not called by God.
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  They were not called even by their authority.
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  They just got up and decide they want to start pre.
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  They just went. They just went, and that's
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  exactly what we're talking about here with these dreamers.
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  These are just men who they were not anointed by God, they were
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  not called by God, they didn't have the Spirit of God, and they
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  just start teaching and preaching, coming out from the
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  body, speaking things that are contrary to the doctrine of the
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  apostles. It's also true that they're out
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  of touch with reality and they live these unrealistic lives and
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  instead of believing according to the truth of Scripture, they
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  have their own way of doing things according to their own
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  dreams. They turn away from God's truth
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  and they feed themselves. They feed their themselves on
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  these false doctrine. And when you feed themselves,
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  they're feeding their own flesh. They're not filling the spirit,
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  they're not feeding the spirit, they're feeding their flesh.
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  Then, because they're feeding their flesh, their egos and
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  pride begins to rise out of that, and that encourages them
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  to rebel against truth. These aren't doctrines that come
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  from the Holy Spirit. These aren't doctrines that they
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  receive from the apostles. These are demonic doctrines,
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  doctrines of demons. First Timothy 41 and two says
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  that they depart from the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits
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  and doctrines of demons. These dreamers and one of the
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  things that there's three things that he said that these dreamers
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  do. First thing that they do is that
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  they defile the flesh. These dreamers defile the flesh.
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  Now obviously you're talking about the same way that they did
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  with the sexual immorality over here and what was Sodom and
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  Gomorrah over in verse 7, how those and that lived in Sodom
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  and Gomorrah and the surrounding areas, how they defiled their
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  flesh by having immoral sexual relationships going after
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  strange. But perversion is basically what
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  they what they end up doing. And in doing so, they defiled
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  their bodies, they defiled their minds and, and now what
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  defilement is basically it's being impure.
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  When you defile your flesh, it's being impure.
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  It's dishonor it desecrate desecration of the body and
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  mind. Usually when you talk about
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  defilement, they're usually referred to sexual immorality.
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  But like it like it wasn't solemn.
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  However, there's a lot of ways that we can defile ourselves
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  now. Now back in the Old Testament
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  when they talk about defilement, you know, there there you talk
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  about defilement in terms of, you know, not being clean.
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  So if someone touched the dead body, that was defiling to them.
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  If someone ate with unclean hands, that was like defiling to
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  them or any of those kind of thing.
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  Tucks A leper. You couldn't, you know, you were
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  defiled. You weren't clean until you had
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  to go through the ritual. And they had all these rituals
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  of how to make one clean, you know, washing the hands.
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  Jesus talked about that over in Mark 7.
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  He talks about how they did wash their hands several times and,
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  and, and how they have to do all these, these rituals to become
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  clean. Well, now you don't have to do
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  all those things to become clean.
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  You confess your sins to the Lord Jesus Christ and you repent
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  of those sins and it's the blood of Jesus Christ that cleanses
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  us. The blood of Jesus Christ
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  cleanses us, but there has to be a confession and there has to be
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  a repentance. That's the that's the humility
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  that we need that can make us clean.
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  And we can't cleanse ourselves. There's no way that we can
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  cleanse ourselves, but we can become cleansed through the
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  blood of Jesus Christ that he shed for us on Calvary.
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  And thank God for that. In that blood that he shed 2000
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  years ago, it's still just as efficacious today.
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  It can still cleanse, still cleanse sins today, hasn't lost
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  its power, thank God. So he talked about this, this
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  defilement and, and how they defile themselves.
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  They defile themselves even through the way that they think.
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  Jesus taught us over in Mark 7, and I'm just going to go there
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  very quickly because I want to read that scripture over in Mark
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  7. He taught us that defilement
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  doesn't come from anything that we put in to our bodies, but the
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  defilement comes from what comes out of us.
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  It comes out of the heart. And he talked about the things
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  that defile us. And over here in Mark Chapter 7,
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  speaking in verse, starting at verse 21, he says, For from
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  within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts,
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  adulteries, fornications, murders, thefts, covetousness,
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  wickedness, deceit, a lewdness and an evil eye, blasphemy,
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  pride, foolishness, all these evil things come from within a
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  man and defiles a man. So these are the things that
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  come out of the heart. These are things that we store
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  up in the heart that defiles us. It's not the things that we eat.
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  It's not washing, it's not eaten with unwashing hands.
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  But these men, these dreamers, these false teachers, they
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  defiled themselves because of the things that were in their
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  heart. They were covetous.
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  They were ungodly men. According to the Scripture here,
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  these were men who, who, who, who were involved themselves in
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  sexual morality and deceit of all types.
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  They defiled themselves. So then it also talked about the
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  fact that they rejected authority.
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  Well, if men are not godly and if they're doing things on their
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  own, then they will reject authority.
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  And that's exactly what these men did.
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  They rejected authority. They didn't want to do what was
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  according to the word of God, and they rejected those who God
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  had put in authority over them. It's a dangerous thing to be to
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  reject the authority that God puts over us.
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  He put something, He puts people in authority over us for a
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  reason. Not only when they reject the
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  authority, they think that they're rejecting the person
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  themselves, but they're not. When you reject the authority
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  that God puts in place for you're rejecting God, you're
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  rejecting God. Samuel told Saul that the
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  people, when they wanted a king, Samuel felt like the people were
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  rejecting him. And God said no, they're
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  rejecting me, they're rejecting me.
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  So God's authority and God put authority in place.
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  That's the authority that we should submit to.
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  But these dreamers, they don't practice submission to
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  authority, They practice rejection of the authority.
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  And we have to be careful with that, not to reject the
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  authority. Even if we don't agree with
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  authority, the word of God will deal and God will deal with the
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  authority that we may object to. He says, therefore, you know,
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  therefore, basically when they reject the authority, they
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  reject the authority because they want to be an authority
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  themselves. Often times that's what makes
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  them the Antichrist, because they want to be in authority
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  instead of Christ. So it makes them an Antichrist.
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  And then of course, the third thing that they mentioned is the
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  fact that they speak evil of dignitaries.
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  That's speaking evil with angels or the glorious ones speaking
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  evil with them. And then go a little further.
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  We can go down a little further. And once we get to verse 9, he's
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  going to give an example of what he means by that.
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  But you know, angels would play the a very prominent role with
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  the Lord, even though we know angels are lower than Jesus
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  Christ. But yet it was angels, It was
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  angels who was here during the time that the Lord had it even
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  brought in the law. I'm going to go back to
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  Deuteronomy, go Old Testament here for a second, and I'm going
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  to try to show this to you how important it is to God about how
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  important angels were in the prominent place that they had
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  with him because they were there for a number of very important
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  events. And over here in Deuteronomy
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  chapter 33, it's going to read this small verse here 33 and
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  verse 2. I'm going to read 1 and 2.
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  It says now this is a blessing with which Moses the man of God,
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  blessed the children of Israel before his death.
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  And he said the Lord came from Sinai and dawned on them from
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  Sire and he shone forth from Mount Paran and he came with 10
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  thousands of Saints, in other words, 10,000 of angels from his
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  right hand came, came a fiery law for them.
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  And then verse 3 say yes, he loves the people and all his
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  Saints are in his hand. They sit down at your feet.
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  Everyone receives your words. So angels were there during the
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  time that when he came down and he appeared and even over here
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  and this is and this is one that I I thought was very interesting
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  as well over here in Acts. Let's go to the book of Acts
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  real quick concerning the angels in the book of Acts Chapter 7,
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  and most of you probably already know that we're talking about
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  Stephen. So now we're looking at what
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  happened when Stephen was being persecuted.
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  And Chapter 7, verse 53, and I'm going to start at verse 52, he
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  says, which of the angels did your father's not persecute?
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  He's talking to the Pharisees and those religious elites who
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  wanted to kill him. And they and they killed those
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  who foretold the coming of the just one of whom you now have
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  become the betrayers and murderers.
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  And verse 53 is the one I want you to pay attention to.
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  He says, Who have received the law?
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  How do they receive the law? By the direction of angels and
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  have not kept it. Direction of angels and have not
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  kept it. And then just one more Galatians
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  in the book of Galatians. Just trying to draw a picture
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  here of the significance of these angels and why he's
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  talking about how they basically speak evil of dignitaries of
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  these angels. Galatians chapter 3 and look at
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  with me at verse 14. I'm going to start at verse 2.
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  It says this only. I want to learn from you.
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  Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law or by the
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  hearing of faith? Are you so foolish, having begun
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  in the Spirit that you are now being when I'm now being made
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  perfect in the flesh? And then I want you to go over
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  to verse chapter 4 and in chapter 4, go to chapter 3,
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  verse 19. There we go.
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  OK, chapter 3, verse 19. This is what it says.
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  What purpose then does the law serve?
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  It was added because of transgressions till the seed
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  should come to whom the promise was made to.
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  The seed obviously was Jesus Christ, and it was appointed
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  through angels by the hand of a mediator.
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  Now a meteor does not mediate for only one, but God is 1.
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  So he talks about the importance of angels and how important it
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  was at the time of the law and the presenting of the law, how
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  the angels even came with him. Over in Exodus talks about how
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  the angels, the Lord came with him at the time when he came to
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  to Mount Sier, which is where he came to present the law.
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  So when you talk about all these things and all these things, how
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  they combine and these men who did not have a problem with
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  speaking evil of these dignitaries.
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  And so he gave an example. He said, no, wait a minute, you
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  being mere men don't have a problem speaking evil
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  dignitaries. Yet Michael the Archangel who is
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  more powerful than most men, he wouldn't even speak evil to an
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  Angel. So look at what he says in verse
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  9, back in Jude verse 9, he says, yet Michael the Archangel
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  and contending with the devil when he disputed about the body
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  of Moses, dared not bring against him a reviling
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  accusation, but said the Lord rebuke you.
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  So he's making a point here. And what he's saying is that
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  these dreamers, these false teachers, they don't mind
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  speaking evil about angels or dignitaries or these spiritual
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  authority, spiritual authorities, they don't mind
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  speaking evil of them and they don't know anything about them,
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  but yet they speak evil of them. But yet Michael the Archangel
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  who was constantly before the throne of God, who was basically
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  the battle Angel. I mean, he would come to me back
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  in the book of Dan and talked about Michael the Archangel
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  doing battle with the devil when he wanted to come to Daniel,
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  when Daniel had requested a word and he was coming, but he was
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  being delayed because he was in battle with the devil, with a
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  demon. So Michael the Archangel was not
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  a wimp. He was powerful Angel and had a
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  lot of authority. But yet he will not bring a
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  railing accusation against Satan.
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  He said the Lord rebuked you. You've been listening to Living
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  Waters of Grace with Pastor Lewis Harrell at Calvary Chapel
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  Westmoreland in Greensburg, PA. As Pastor Lewis continues to
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  preach through the book of Jude, we want you to realize that you
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  can't be a part time Christian. If you're going to follow Jesus,
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  He is going to ask for your undivided loyalty.
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  If you try to serve your own interests while following Jesus,
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  you find that you can't do either one successfully.
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  But if you run after Jesus with everything you have, you'll be
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  amazed at how He provides for you and sustains you on the
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  journey, even when you have no idea of where your provision
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  will come from. If today's message has
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  encouraged you, we'd love to hear your feedback.
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  You can visit ourwebsite@calvarychapelonline.com
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  where you'll find our contact information as well as links to
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  our social media pages. And while you're there, we ask
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  you to consider giving to support the ministry of Living
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  Waters of Grace at 91.7. Grace FM continues to minister
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  to our community in Westmoreland County.
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  Your gifts help us keep the gospel on the airwaves, reaching
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  those who may never set foot inside the doors of a church
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  building. Encourage others to listen
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  online at Grace Radio dot FM. You can also find our mobile app
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  so you can take these great teachings with you wherever you
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  go. And if you're not in
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  Westmoreland County, you could still be part of our service by
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  subscribing to our YouTube channel.
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  You'll get notified of new content in live streams and past
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  teachings from Pastor Lewis and Pastor Clark Laufer.
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  We hope you'll TuneIn next time for Living Waters of Grace.