substance: “ I do not need a priest. I do not need the services o f Aaron who is a type of the promised Messiah, the Great High Priest.” So that in rebell ing against Moses and Aaron, Korah was rebelling against the Redeemer who was to come, o f whom Moses and Aaron were such significant types. Likewise, all apostates who deny that Christ, our Great High Priest, offered Himself as a per fect sacrifice for sins forever, are following in the gainsaying of Korah. All who deny that He rose bodily from the grave and ascended into heaven, there to intercede for His blood-bought children, as their Great High Priest, will perish in the gain saying of Korah. The earth opened and swallowed him and his followers; so also shall all apostates perish. God bore testimony to the fact that Aaron was His chosen priest by causing his rod to bud miracu lously over-night. (See Num. 7 :1-13). So important did God consider this typical lesson o f the coming Redeemer that He told Moses to lay Aaron’s rod up in the golden-covered ark of the covenant in the Holy o f Holies, “ to be kept for a token against the rebels” (Num. 17:10; Heb. 9 :4 ). So highly does the eternal, triune God regard the High Priestly work of Christ that He tells us plainly: “ There is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus” (I. Tim. 2 :5 ). He alone is “ the way, the truth, and the life.” “ No man eom- eth unto the Father” but by Him. “ The way o f Cain,” “ the error of Balaam,” and “ the gainsaying of Core” inevitably go to gether. Apostates who deny the efficacy of the shed blood of the Lord Jesus as an atonement for the soul also pervert the Word o f God and deny the authority of Christ as eternal God, only Saviour, and Great High Priest of a sinning people. What happened to Cain, Balaam, and Korah is but a shadow of the end of all who walk in their foot steps. 5. A postates F urther D escribed , (Jude 12- 19). What metaphors are these! What a description o f all apostates! “Spots in your love feasts." The original term here means “ hidden rocks” or “ sunken rocks.” These are dangerous for the mariner, hidden be neath the surface of the water, deceiving the eye. Not so the rock pictured on the captain’s chart. What the Holy Spirit is teaching us here is that if these apostates would come out in the open with their dangerous doctrines, their influence would be nullified with many, as was the influence of Inger- soll and Voltaire. But no ; they are “ hidden rocks.” They speak of Jesus and God and prayer and the Bible, deceiving the sinner, lulling him to sleep with a false sense o f security. Recently I listened over the radio to such an apostate, a man whose name is spread abroad in the land as that of a great preacher. He spoke elo quently o f Christ’s death, but compared it with the death of Lincoln. He described in beautiful lan guage Christ’s love for babies and little children, His sympathy for the wayfaring man, His tears over Jerusalem. I am sure many listened with ach ing hearts as he appealed to the emotions in a mas- THE KING'S BUSINESS
proclaims what he does not believe, or what is un true to the Word of God—for money. He is a lover of the wages of unrighteousness. When the Lord would not allow Balaam to curse Israel for a bribe, then this wicked prophet counselled the people of God to disobey Him by in termarriage with heathen people, by eating things sacrificed to idols, and by indulging in the gross immoralities o f the nations about them. He knew that such a course would weaken Israel, even as a lack of separation from the ungodly world always weakens the people of God. Balaam is a significant representative of the founders of many cults and false doctrines, which have come in the name of the Lord Jesus, at the same time denying Him and “ turning the grace of God into lasciviousness.” I could name a dozen founders of cults who, when they died, were im mensely wealthy. They never preached on hell, eter nal judgment, or accountability to a holy God. They “ ran greedily after the error of Balaam.” In striking contrast with these stands the tes timony o f such a man as the late D. L. Moody. Though thousands of dollars were received during his evangelistic campaigns, yet he died a compara tively poor man. On one occasion, when a check for $50,000 was offered him, he refused to touch it, turning it over to his secretary instead, to be in vested in schools for the training of young men and women in Christian leadership and in the Word of God. Do not be led astray by apostates, my brother. Do not sit under their teaching or support their false ministry. Let the eternal Word o f God teach you how to discern truth from error. You can always tell the false shepherd by his attitude toward the Christ of Calvary and His Holy Word. “Woe unto them” who run “ greedily after the error of Balaam,” and woe unto all who follow in their steps!
66Apostates deny Christ as our only sacrifice for sin . 99
4. “ T he G ainsaying of C ore ”—A F alse W or ship , (Jude 11). Again we turn to the Old Testa ment to find the record of sin of Korah. In Num bers 16: 1-15 we read the story; in the following chapter, the sequel. (Korah is the Hebrew spelling; Core, the Greek.) Korah’s sin was that of rebellion against God’s appointed priests and intrusion into the presence of God without divine authority. “No man taketh this honour unto himself, but he that is called of God, as was Aaron” (Heb. 5 :4 ). Korah was not a priest. By his act he said, in 24
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