Snakes in the Garden

Adrienne Rogers was a motivator, an encourager, and a leader of the faith. He was also passionate about presenting scriptural application to everyday life circumstances, and you'll hear that in today's message.

Now let's join Adrienne Rogers. And now I want us to look primarily at verse 11. Remember we're talking to you about the subject of apostasy. Woe unto them, for they have gone in the way of Cain and ran greedily after the error of Balaam for reward and perished in the gainsaying of Korah. I picked up an article the other day that tells you how to recognize snakes.

Poisonous snakes, different colors. How can you tell if a snake is poisonous?

Now you ought to pay attention, this may help you someday. Might not get anything out of the message, but maybe you'll learn something from this, all right? In North America, there are three general types of venomous snakes which are not difficult to recognize. These are the copperheads, the cottonmouths, the coral snakes, and the rattlesnakes. The eastern coral snake is found from North Carolina to Texas, the western coral snake in Arizona.

The coral snake's coloring gives a good clue it is poisonous. Any shiny snake patterned with rings of red, gold, and black is suspect. The red rings are bordered with yellow. There are 15 kinds of rattlesnakes of various sizes and colors in the United States and Canada. All of them have rattles at the tips of their tails.

The rattle is made up of a dry, horny ring of skin that locks loosely unto another one. When the snake shakes its tail as it does when excited, these horny pieces of skin rub against one another. This results in a rasping or buzzing sound. It serves to warn other animals that might be getting too close. Copperheads and cottonmouths have no rattles.

A copperhead may be recognized by its brown hourglass-shaped rings. A cottonmouth has a similar pattern, but the markings become dim as the snake ages. The cottonmouths are found in the southeastern United States, as far north as Virginia and as far west as Texas. Copperheads are also found in the southeastern states.

Now, it's important that you be able to recognize one of these snakes because you might want to cut his tail off right behind his ears when you see one of these snakes. What if you had a garden, and in that garden there were those roses with dew on them and all the beautiful flowers and everything that goes in the garden, but also in your garden were some poisonous snakes. Would you just simply tell your children about the roses and not about the snakes, and your children played in that garden? Would you not warn your children about snakes in the garden? And would you not tell them the marks of a poisonous snake and teach them how to identify a snake that is poisonous?

You see, dear friend, there's some people who say, Pastor, just tell us about the flowers. Tell us about the fruit trees. Tell us about the birds and the bees. But don't spend all this time warning us about these apostates. Friend, I want to tell you there's some snakes in the garden and you better learn what their marks are.

We're going to be talking today about the marks of an apostate, and Jude gives us three. And as we look at these, we're going to see that they have definite marks that can distinguish them. As a matter of fact, you might want to put in your margin of your Bible, Romans chapter 16 and verse 17.

Now here's what the Apostle Paul said, Now I beseech you, brethren. When he says, I beseech you, that means he is, boy, he's just urging them. His arms are stretched out. His face has a pleading look on it.

Now I beseech you, brethren, mark them which cause divisions and offenses contrary to the doctrine which you have learned, and avoid them. You know what their marks are. Get away from them. Avoid them as you would a poisonous snake. Mark them and avoid them.

Now, false doctrine is very, very dangerous. And I want to remind you that Satan is not against religion. Not against religion. He's in favor of it. He uses it.

It is his chief tool. You see, the Bible says there's certain men who have crept in unawares, that they've slithered in like a snake into the garden, and they're hiding in the grass, and you don't even know they're there. It's very important that you need to be able to recognize. You may be sitting next to one of them. Look around.

Well, you say, no, that's not an apostate.

Well, are you certain? An apostate is very clever, And the devil started out by saying, I'll persecute the church, and I will destroy the church through persecution. But when he tried to stamp out the fire, he just scattered the embers. And the more the church was persecuted, the more it grew. And we even have a slogan that the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church.

It just caused the church to grow.

So the devil said, if I can't beat them from without, I'll work from within. If I can't beat them, I'll join them. I will infiltrate. And he infiltrates through apostasy.

Now, what is an apostate? An apostate is not just an unbeliever or not even somebody who's in a false cult necessarily. These are lost until they get saved, but until and if they get saved, but they're not an apostate. The word apostasy means to fall away. It is somebody who has received the truth, who has rejected the truth, begins to ridicule the truth, and after a while actually tries to replace the truth.

He is the enemy of the Lord Jesus Christ and of the cross of Christ, and he is what the Bible calls an apostate.

Now what are the marks of an apostate?

Well, Jude mentions three men who illustrate the marks of an apostate so we can recognize an apostate. The first one he mentions is a man named Cain. The second one that he mentions is a man named Balaam. And the third one he mentions is a man named Korah, spelled K-O-R-A-H in the Old Testament, C-O-R-E in the King James if you're using that. And all of these men represent the marks of an apostate.

All right, they're snakes in the garden. All right, now first of all, Cain represents and pictures those who pervert the gospel. Those who pervert the gospel.

Now turn, if you will, in your Bibles to the story of Cain. Where are you going to find that? In Genesis chapter 4 and verse 1. And Adam knew Eve his wife, and she conceived and bare Cain, and said, I have gotten a man from the Lord. And she again bare his brother Abel.

And Abel was a keeper of sheep, but Cain was a tiller of the ground. And it came to pass that Cain brought of the fruit of the ground an offering unto the Lord. And Abel he also brought of the firstlings of his flock and the fat thereof. And the Lord had respect unto Abel and to his offering, But unto Cain and his offering he had not respect, and Cain was very wroth, and his countenance fell. And the Lord said unto Cain, Why art thou wroth, and why is thy countenance fallen?

If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted, and if thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door. And unto thee shall be his desire, and thou shalt rule over him. And Cain talked with Abel his brother, and it came to pass that when they were in the field, that Cain rose up against Abel his brother and slew him.

Now this is the story of two brothers. It is the story of two offerings. It is the story of two religions. It is literally the story of two destinies, heaven and hell. Two different offerings that day.

Two boys, sons of Adam and Eve, Cain and Abel. They came out to worship the Lord. First of all Abel is going to worship the Lord You know what Abel does Abel takes a little lamb He was a keeper of sheep The Bible says he took one of the firstlings of the flock That is a spotless lamb. And that lamb became a blood sacrifice. And he offered a blood sacrifice to the Lord.

And the Lord accepted that offering because it was based on blood. You say, Pastor, what is the importance of the blood? The Bible says, and you might want to put it in your margin, Hebrews 9, verse 22, without shedding of blood there is no remission. The word remission means forgiveness. No sin can be forgiven apart from a blood sacrifice.

You may not believe that, you may not agree with it, but you're wrong if you don't. Without shedding of blood is no remission. There is no remission apart from the shedding of blood. And when Abel back here, and by the way, Did you know that the Bible calls Abel a prophet? He was a prophet of God.

He understood the things of God. And when Abel offered this blood sacrifice, it was an Old Testament picture of the Lord Jesus Christ. And the Bible says in 1 John 1 and verse 7, the blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, cleanses us from all sin.

Now, don't minimize the blood. The blood is not incidental. It is not accidental. It is fundamental. Without shedding of blood is no remission.

And so one of these sons offered a blood sacrifice. His name was Abel. And the Bible says God had respect to his offering.

Now what about Cain? What kind of an offering did Cain bring?

Well, look here at the Scripture again in verse 3. And the Bible says, It came to pass in the process of time that Cain brought forth of the fruit of the ground an offering unto the Lord.

Now remember, God had said, Cursed is the ground. But of the fruit of the ground, he brings an offering to the Lord.

Now, he was a farmer, and this fruit of the ground represented his sweat. It represented the sweat of his face. It represented the works of his hands. It represented his own effort. It was not a blood sacrifice.

It did not deal with a substitutionary death. It represented culture rather than Calvary.

Now, that's not to say it wasn't a beautiful offering. I imagine he was a good farmer. There was the ripest of fruit. There were the fairest of flowers. There were the sweetest of herbs.

And when he brought it all to the Lord, probably looked like a county fair. Very impressive, but God was not impressed. The Bible says that God had no respect whatsoever for that offering, the offering of Cain, because it represented the works of his hands.

Now listen to your pastor and listen well. There are only two religions in the world, only two. the true and the false. That's all. Just two.

Now, we like to divide religions up and, you know, we say there's Confucianism and Buddhism and Mohamedism and Rheumatism and all these other different kinds of religions. And then we even take Christianity and we like to subdivide Christianity. We say, well, there's Baptist and Methodist and Presbyterian, Episcopalian and Catholic and so forth. But folks, I want to tell you something. only two religions, the true and the false.

One is the way of Cain, the other is the way of the cross. That's all. The way of Cain or the way of the cross. They have gone, the Bible says in the book of Jude, the way of Cain. What is the way of Cain?

The way of Cain is religion without blood, without the blood sacrifice, without the atonement.

Well, you say, Pastor, we don't have to worry about that. You preach about the blood very often. Thank God for a church that's based on the book and the blood and the blessed hope. But beloved, now listen to me. Across America today, you can go to church year after year without hearing a message on the blood atonement of the Lord Jesus Christ.

I don't say that to swagger and say, look at us. I say that with a broken heart. But it is true. And perhaps you live in a little closed society. You don't understand what I'm saying and what I'm preaching today.

But I tell you, we're living in a day of apostasy where the blood atonement of the Lord Jesus Christ is not preached. It is the mark of an apostate. And remember, without shedding of blood, there is no remission. The blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, cleanses us from all sin.

Well, you say, but we're Baptists and we're Orthodox. Yes, I want to read to you what a Baptist professor said. Put it in a book. One of our Baptist professors in one of our seminaries, unless I be accused of misquoting him. I want to read him verbatim.

Quote, I believe it is unwise to seek for a necessity for the cross. It is quite possible to affirm and clarify the importance of the cross without speaking of it as a necessity. Further, I quote, Same man. Men today cannot believe that vicarious punishment, do you know what the word vicarious means? It means in the place of another.

It means substitutionary atonement, substitutionary. I cannot believe that vicarious punishment is either meaningful or moral. That is, that it makes no sense and it's not right. No illustration can be given so far as I can tell which makes vicarious punishment morally credible to men today. The stories of one soldier punished for another, a child punished for his brother, a man punished for his friend may be morally praiseworthy from the point of view of the substitute, but they never are acceptable from the point of view of the punisher.

It always seems morally outrageous that any judge would require a substitute, however noble a substitute's act might be. The judge's act seems despicable. He is saying that the doctrine of the substitutionary death of the Lord Jesus Christ on the cross for us is morally outrageous and despicable. Ladies and gentlemen, that is the way of Cain.

Now, I don't know what you believe about the substitutionary death of the Lord Jesus, but let me tell you what the apostle Paul believes about it. 1 Corinthians chapter 15, verse 3, he says, For I delivered unto you that which I first of all received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the Scripture. Jesus on the cross died for my sin, for your sin. He became my sin-bearer. He became my substitute.

The aged prophet Isaiah said in Isaiah chapter 53, verses 5 and 6, He was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace was upon Him, and with his stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray. We've turned everyone to his own way and the Lord Jehovah hath laid upon him, Jesus, the iniquity of us all.

And I say hallelujah, praise the Lord. Listen to me, ladies and gentlemen. There is the way of Cain. It is the way of apostasy and the apostasy has come. It is already here.

There are two religions. One is the way of Cain. the other is the way of the cross. One leads straight to hell, one leads straight to heaven. May we well sing it, say it, and mean it.

My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness. Here was Cain who brought the works of his hands culture rather than Calvary works rather than grace self rather than blood And the Bible says woe unto them they have gone the way of Cain Now Cain represents those who pervert the gospel of Christ. That's one snake in the garden. Those who pervert the gospel of Christ. Ah, but there's another one that he mentions, and that other one is Balaam.

And if Cain represents those who pervert the gospel, Balaam represents those who prostitute the gospel. Also, the Bible says there in Jude verse 11, they have gone after the era of Balaam.

Well, who was Balaam? Balaam was an Old Testament apostate prophet. And you can find the story of Balaam in the book of Numbers chapters 22 through 25. and obviously we don't have time to deal with that much material in this message.

So let me just, if I can, give you a brief synopsis of what happened. Balaam was a very clever and a very gifted man, and he was an erstwhile prophet of Jehovah God.

Now the Israeli were coming out of Egypt and headed toward the Promised Land, and there was a king of Moab whose name was Balak. And Balak was afraid because he felt so insignificant and insecure with all of these Jews and he thought something needs to be done to them. I wish that somehow I could put a curse on them.

Well, he heard about Balaam and Balaam had a good reputation as a prophet and as a preacher.

So he sent some men, he said, would you go ask Balaam if he will put a curse upon the Jews? Just curse them. Put a curse, let Jehovah God curse them. And so he sent the messengers, the pulpit committee, as it were, over to Balaam and said, now, Balaam, we'll give you a good fee. We'll pay you if you will put a curse on God's people.

Well, Balaam, he said, I can't do that. I mean, how can I curse God's people? I can't do that. But spend the night here, will you? After a while, they come back again and they told Balaam, Balaam won't do it.

He said, well, every man has his price. Just offer him more money and give him some fringe benefits. And so they go back to Balaam and they offer him a bigger stipend. They offer him more money and he caves in.

Now he's smart enough to know he cannot as such curse the people of God. For the Bible says concerning the people of God, no weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper. And every tongue that shall rise against thee in judgment thou shalt condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord. And their righteousness is for me, saith the Lord.

And God protects his people. Balaam knew that.

So Balaam, very clever, he said, now, Mr. Balak, I'll tell you what to do. I can't curse them, but I sure would like to have this stipend over here on the side, and I'm going to give you some good advice. I don't have to curse them. I'll tell you how to get them to curse themselves.

What you do is you get some good-looking chicks from Moab over here, some of these young ladies, and you get them down there and put them into a sensuous feast with the men of Israel, and they'll commit fornication with these girls, and when they commit fornication with these girls, I won't have to curse them because they will have cursed themselves and God will curse them. And that's exactly what he did. And he infiltrated the camp of Israel with pornography and with sex and immorality and these kind of things and they literally cursed themselves and the judgment of God came down upon them and God killed 24,000 of them in judgment. And God's work was set back through the apostate man Balaam.

Now what did Balaam do and what does he represent? He represents those men who sell out. He represents those men who take the message of God, the truth of God, the Word of God, and for gain and for personal advantage, they prostitute the office of prophet and preacher. Ladies and gentlemen, we still have those with us today.

Well, have those people today who have somehow struck a financial arrangement with the devil himself and they have become tools of God. They are an apostate. You're going to find out that behind all apostasy there's some form of personal gain that the apostate hopes to get.

Now, if you have your Bibles and you're writing in the margin, write down 2 Peter chapter 2 because 2 Peter chapter 2 is a parallel passage to Jude. As a matter of fact, if you read the two passages, sometimes you think you're reading the other book. And here's what Peter says about them.

Now listen, but there were false prophets also among the people. Snakes in the garden they were.

Now Peter didn't say that, Adrian said that. But false prophets also among the people. Even as there shall be false teachers among you who privily shall bring in damnable heresies. Oh, brother Peter, that doesn't sound nice. Damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them and bring upon themselves swift destruction.

And many shall follow their pernicious ways by reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of.

Now listen to this next phrase. And through covetousness shall they with feigned words make merchandise of you. That's a key statement. They are covetous. And because they have this covetousness in their heart, they use feigned words.

Do you know what feigned words are? Do you know the hardest person to deal with is a religious apostate and a liberal. Do you know why? He is good with words. He is one of the slickest things around.

And to try to hem him up is like trying to hem up a snake in a barrel of oil. And with feign words, they'll make merchandise of you. And if you say to this professor or that professor, that's heresy, you ought not to teach that, and I'm not going to pay for it anymore, you know what he'll do? He'll begin to cry great crocodile tears, and he'll talk about our great mission enterprises and how we must not cut back on our missionary giving. And with feign words, with feign words, he will make merchandise of you.

You see, there is a spirit of covetousness. There is a spirit of prostituting the gospel of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, and it is true in the hearts and lives of apostates. Wish I had more time to deal with that. but I want to go on and deal with the third picture of apostasy. Not only are there those who would pervert the gospel and not only are there those who prostitute the gospel, that is, they do for hire and they do for gain.

I believe, I believe that a preacher ought to be paid. That's not the point. The Bible teaches clearly and plainly that the laborer is worthy of his hire. And the Bible says, thou shall not muzzle the ox that treadeth out the corn. And the Bible says the elder that rules well is worthy of double honor.

That's not the point. But when a man will trim his message or arrange his message or do anything for godless gain, he's an apostate. He's an apostate.

Now, Brother Rogers, be careful what you say. Mr.

So-and-so's out there and he's a big giver. Don't offend him. If it's the truth, he'll just have to be offended. Amen? He'll just have to be offended.

Now the third, the third mark of apostasy, and I'm just going to teach you how to recognize these snakes in the garden. One, those like Cain with their bloodless religion, they pervert the gospel. Those like Balaam with their materialistic religion, they prostitute the gospel. And then last of all, there's this man named Korah. He did more than pervert it and prostitute it He actually protested it and tried to prohibit it You see they those who protest the gospel Now I want to show you the protest meeting that this man held Look if you will, in Numbers chapter 16, please.

Numbers chapter 16. And here's the story of Korah. Verse 1, Now Korah, the son of Izar, the son of Kohath, the son of Levi and Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliab, and on the sons of Peleth, the sons of Reuben, took men. And they rose up before Moses, now the word before literally means against Moses, with certain of the children of Israel, 250 princes of the assembly, famous in the congregation, men of renown, high muckety-mucks, that's the Hebrew translation. And they gathered themselves together against Moses and against Aaron and said unto them, ye take too much upon you, seeing that all the congregation are holy, every one of them, and the Lord is among you.

Wherefore then lift ye yourselves up above the congregation of the Lord. And when Moses heard it, he fell on his face.

Now here's what Korah did. Korah protested Moses and Aaron.

Now who were Moses and Aaron?

Well, Moses was God's appointed prophet and Aaron was God's appointed priest. And these people did not like the idea that God had set up authority, prophetic authority and priestly authority. They did not like this old-fashioned way of doing things where God says this is right and this is wrong. They believed in what they would say is freedom of religion, freedom of expression and so forth. And so here's a protest meeting.

They are protesting this.

Now be careful that you understand exactly what they were protesting. All of this is in type and picture. But you see, Moses pictures the Lord Jesus Christ. As a matter of fact, Moses said that God is going to raise up a prophet like unto me. It is clearly stated that Moses was a type of the Lord Jesus.

And it is also clearly stated in the Bible that Aaron, the high priest, was a type of the Lord Jesus. Christ is our high priest.

Now do you see why this man was chosen? Because what did he rebel against? He rebelled against God's prophetic message Moses, and God's priestly mediator, Aaron.

Now Jesus is both prophet and priest. And both Moses and Aaron picture the Lord Jesus Christ, the prophetic message of Jesus, the priestly ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's what this man was rebelling against. And he despised the idea that here is a message from God coming from Moses. And he despised the idea that here is a ministry of God coming from Aaron.

You see, let me tell you this about apostates. Apostates are those who have received the truth, refused the truth, then not only ridiculed the truth, but actually seek to replace the truth. And the apostates are at war with us. The devil is not content just to go off in the corner and have his false religion. He wants to destroy what we have.

He's not just content to have a cult off somewhere else. He wants to slip into the garden like a snake in the grass. There are certain men who have crept in unawares. They've come in the side door. They slip like serpents into the water without making a ripple.

And therefore, we are to be warned. They don't just simply pervert the gospel. They simply don't prostitute the gospel. They actually protest the gospel. The devil has an antipathy toward every gospel preacher.

That's the reason that some of us may sit here and say, well, pastor, what does all this have to do with us?

Well, what would it have to do with your children if there were snakes in your garden? Wouldn't you warn them? Wouldn't you warn them? Listen to me, folks. Cain slew Abel.

Balaam caused 24,000 Israelites to die. Korah raised up in an affront against God's man. Don't think that you're going to be able just simply to ignore apostasy. That's the problem with so many of us. You want me to tell you what the real problem is in America today?

Apostasy in the pulpit and apathy in the pew. People just don't care. And that's the reason the book of Jude is written to say, oh, listen, I was going to write a gospel tract to you, but it became needful for me to write unto you that you should earnestly contend for the faith that was once for all delivered unto the saints.

Well, how did God feel about this man who would protest the gospel? Look in Numbers chapter 16, verse 31. Look at it. Here's what God said. And it came to pass, as he made an end of speaking all these words, that the ground clave asunder that was under them.

That is, there was an earthquake and the earth just opened up. And the earth opened her mouth and swallowed them up and their houses and all the men that appertained unto Korah and all their goods. They and all that appertained to them went down alive into the pit, into Sheol, and the earth closed upon them, and they perished from among the congregation. And all Israel that were round about them fled at the cry of them, for they said, lest the earth swallow us up also. And there came out a fire from the Lord and consumed the 250 men that offered incense.

Now God is showing you, friend, that an apostate's on shaky ground. I mean, you better be standing on the rock when this begins to happen.

Now God doesn't open up the earth and swallow every apostate. You see, God does this just to the beginning to set the example, just to let you know how he feels about it. The first lie that was told in the church, God struck Ananias and Sapphira dead. He doesn't strike every liar dead from now on. One preacher was preaching, he said, if God struck every liar dead, he said, where would I be?

Everybody laughed. He said, I'd be preaching to an empty house. That's where I'd be.

Now, God does this at the beginning. God just sets this at the first, and he had the earth to open up, and down into the pit alive went Korah and his family and his house and all that appertained to him, down into Sheol, down into hell, and he's in hell today. That's the reason Jude said, Woe unto them. Woe unto them.

Now, you better learn the marks of an apostate, but I'll tell you one other thing, and I'll be finished. You better learn more than the marks of an apostate. You'd better learn the truth and the way to keep from being an apostate And the way to know an apostate is to know the truth. Years ago I heard a story of a man who applied for a job as a riverboat pilot on the Mississippi. They said, can you run a riverboat?

He said, of course I can. Can you handle the business affairs and stay in command? He said, of course I can. They said, one other thing. Do you know where all the sandbars are?

He said, no, I don't. They said, do you know where the sunken rocks are? He said, no, I don't. Do you know where all the logs, the hidden logs are? He said, no, I don't.

I said well how do you ever expect to be a riverboat pilot He said I know where the channel is Amen Friend listen You better know where the channel is It's one thing to know about the logs and the sandbars But it's another thing to know where the channel is And you better know the Lord Jesus Christ As your personal Savior And one way that you can guarantee That you will not become an apostate And one way that you can know That you know that you're saved And that you're going to heaven Is to receive Christ as your personal Savior and Lord.

Now I want to ask you a question. It's a very serious question. Are you saved? If you would like to learn more about how you can know Jesus or deepen your relationship with him, simply click the Discover Jesus link on our website, lwf.org. For a copy of this message or additional resources, visit our online store at lwf.org or call 1-800-274-5683.

Thank you. Thank you.