[Edited notes The Portrait of an Apostate by Adrian Rogers] Someone in a lost cult is not an apostate.  An apostate begins to ridicule the truth and then he tries to replace the truth. But there is something about an apostate that will not just let him go away from an orthodox church.  He doesn't start his own church.  What he does is come back into that orthodox church--he comes back into that denomination--as Jude says they have crept in--come in through the side door and they undermine the work of the Lord Jesus Christ in the church...

...There are six areas of truth that you need to get burning in your heart and in your soul.  Not only do you need to learn how to recognize an apostate but you also need to know what the great battle for the bible is.  You need to know what those areas of truth are that are under attack today.

Truth number one, the virgin birth of the Lord Jesus Christ.  He was born of a virgin.  Isaiah chapter 7 verse 14.  Someone says, "Well, what difference does it make?"  Your eternal destiny hinges on the virgin birth of the Lord Jesus Christ.  If Jesus Christ was not born of a virgin, he was sinful as you are.  If he was sinful as you are, there could be no blood atonement because a holy God would not accept an unholy sacrifice.  No blood atonement, no salvation.  No salvation, no regeneration.  No regeneration, no heaven for you.  And my dear friend without the virgin birth of the Lord Jesus Christ, you are lost without hope.

Not only the virgin birth of the Lord Jesus Christ but his full deity.  There are those today that do not accept the full deity of the Lord Jesus Christ.  I want to tell you dear friend, Jesus was not just a great leader, not just some religious figure, not just some prophet, he was God of very God.  Great is the mystery of godliness.  God was manifest in the flesh.  That's what the bible says.  The word was made flesh and dwelled with us and the word was with God and the word was God.

The third area of truth that is under attack today is the blood atonement--the substitutionary death of the Lord Jesus on the cross for our sins--that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures.  The blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son, cleanses us from all sin.  The liberal and the apostate does not like the preaching of the blood of Jesus Christ.  Especially repugnant and abhorrent to him is the doctrine of substitutionary atonement--blood atonement.

Another area of truth is the bodily resurrection of the Lord Jesus--that he came literally out of that grave.  Now there are those liberals and apostates who talk about the deathless spirit of Christ that goes marching on and all of that.  Oh my friend, I want to tell you that the faith that we preach and believe in is the faith of an empty tomb.  Never ever minimize the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

And then, His visible return.  Jesus Christ is coming back to this earth--literally, actually, bodily, physically--Jesus Christ is coming back to this earth again.

And then the last thing, is:  the inerrancy, the infallibility, the immutability, the impeccability, the authority of the Word of God--that this book is God's inerrant, infallible word.  Now, apostates do not like those truths.

Not only do you need to recognize an apostate when you see one, you also need to know what the fundamentals of the faith are.

^12 These are  spots in your love feasts, while they feast with you without fear, serving only themselves. They are clouds without water, carried  about by the winds; late autumn trees without fruit, twice dead, pulled up by the roots; ^13  raging waves of the sea, foaming up their own shame; wandering stars for whom is reserved the blackness of darkness forever. Jud 12-13

Apostates are dangerous, deceptive and disturbed.

Apostates are dangerous like a sunken rock.  These are spots in your feasts of charity (v 12).  What does the word spot mean there?  This is a word that is used only one time in the bible.  The literal meaning of the word is a sunken rock. They're like a hidden rock beneath the surface.  A rock that's out of the water is not nearly so dangerous. You can see that.  It can be put on a chart.  You can say, "Hey, there's a rock, be careful!" But a rock just beneath the surface is dangerous.

Why does Jude say that they are rocks in your feast of love?  The word here is agape feast.  In the early church many times they would get together in a great feast.  They called it the agape feast.  And here they are having a wonderful time and God's love boat is just sailing along and everybody is so happy--what wonderful fellowship--what love--and everything seems to be so blessed and then suddenly everything seems to come to a grinding halt.  There's a horrible reaming sound and the old ship of Zion is wounded in her side. What has happened?  Some devilish apostate has become a rock in the river of love and has divided that he might destroy the fellowship of God.  How dangerous is apostasy!  It causes division.  The thing that holds us together is our love for the Lord Jesus Christ--our unity in the full deity of Christ, the word of God, and the great truths that we preach--destroy that, dear friend, and you have destroyed this church.  And that is the reason that we must earnestly contend for the faith because apostasy is dangerous to the fellowship of a church.  It is dangerous like a hidden rock.

Not only is it dangerous like a hidden rock, but it is deceptive like a waterless cloud.  The bible says, clouds they are, without water carried about of winds (v. 12).  Now, what is a cloud without water?  You have to remember that Jude is writing from the Middle East and rain is vitally important.  The rainy season only comes for a short interval and when it comes it is so, very important.  Can you image a farmer in a time of drought?  He's been praying and asking God for rain and he looks and he sees a cloud on the horizon.  It's just boiling and coming--a dark cloud--and he looks and he says, "Oh look, we're going to have rain!  Thank God, look, God has sent rain." And then that cloud just driven by the wind just passes right over and not one drop of rain--what a disappointment--a cloud without water.  Now, God says that apostates are that way.  When they creep in (Jud 1:4), remember certain men crept in.  Well, liberals are creeps, but now he says they're bags on wind.  They are a cloud driven by the wind--a pompous windbag.  They promise much but they produce little.  Whoever falsely boasts of giving is like clouds and wind without rain (Pr 25:14).

This Sunday millions of people will sit in an apostate church and hear an apostate preacher--a pompous, religious windbag--a cloud without water.  They will look up and still go away thirsty for the water of life. Oh, they have their clouds alright--Sunday schools and church services and radio programs, and bible conferences, and magazines, and books, and tracts, and mission societies--but every one of them is a cloud without water.  They come to these churches and they will go away without the water of life.  That service may be dull and boring or it may be set on fire with Satanic zeal.  But I'll tell you, they'll be no Holy Spirit there.  There'll be no bible truth there.  There will be no conversion there. There will be no joy there. There will be no victory in Jesus there. And the sad thing is--so many people will not even know what it is that they have missed. Apostasy--clouds without water.

The apostate is dangerous.  He's like a sunken rock.  The apostate is deceptive.  He's like a waterless cloud.  The apostate is dead.  He's like a fruitless tree.  Trees whose fruit withereth, without fruit, twice dead, plucked up by the roots (v. 12).  You see, a Christian, Psalm 1 tells us, is to be like a tree planted by the rivers of water that brings forth his fruit in a season.  His leaf also will not wither and whatsoever he does shall prosper.  But an apostate is a tree--he takes up space, he's in the garden, he's in the grove--but he's a dead tree.  Now, there are a lot of things that you can do with a dead tree. You can transplant it--but it's still dead. An apostate can move from one church to another or one denomination to another but he's still dead.  I'll tell you something else you can do with a dead tree.  You can prune it.  That is, you can try reformation and turning over a new leaf and try to get rid of all these bad things in your life.  But what good is it to prune a dead tree? I'll tell you something else you can do.  You can cultivate it. You can water it and fertilize it but if it's dead it's not going to grow. And I want to tell you dear friend, an apostate is not going to be helped by bible study and by prayer and good deeds and by church attendance as long as he is dead in trespasses and sin.  It's not good to cultivate a dead tree.  You can rename it.  You can say well no you are a live tree.  Renaming the tree is not going to change the tree if the tree is dead. Apostates are found in every denomination.  You can decorate the tree. You can tie fruit onto it. There are a lot of things you can do with a dead tree.  But I'll tell you, dear friend, about the best thing you can do is to burn it. And that is what God is going to do. 

He speaks of these trees plucked up by the roots because they are twice dead. Number one, they are dead and don't produce any fruit but there's a second death when they are plucked up by the roots and thrown into that fire.  The bible says that that fire is indeed the second death and if you're not born twice, you're going to die twice.  You're going to be twice dead.  You're going to die physically in your sins and then you are going to die eternally in hell. There is one thing that you cannot get from a dead tree and that is fruit.  An apostate can imitate Christianity but he cannot bear the fruit of the spirit. There cannot be any fruitfulness in the life of an apostate. Jesus said every plant, which my heavenly Father hath not planted, shall be rooted up (Mt 15:13). 

What is an apostate?  An apostate is dangerous like a sunken rock.  What is an apostate? An apostate is deceptive like a waterless cloud. What is an apostate? An apostate is dead like a fruitless tree.

An apostate is disturbed like the raging sea. Raging waves of the sea forming out their own shame (v 13).  An apostate is a seething sea of discontent.  There is never an apostate that has peace in his heart. He's not at peace with himself.  He's not at peace with God.  When he comes into a church or a denomination, he'll be a trouble-maker.  But the wicked are like the troubled sea, when it cannot rest, whose waters cast up mire and dirt. There is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked (Isa 57:20-21).  Raging waves of the sea spewing out their own foam in shame.  That's what Jude is saying about an apostate, he's like a raging wave spewing out it's own form (garbage or dead carcasses from the sea, etc.) leaving it on  the beach of humanity.  Apostates have deep moral sin in their lives (1 Pe 2, Jud). A person can be an unbeliever and live a pretty moral life. A lot of unbelievers do.  Nicodemus was one of them.  He was lost but he lived a moral life.  Some of them but us to shame by the cleanliness of their lives.  But not an apostate.  When a person has heard the truth and known the truth and he turns from the truth, something happens to an apostate. His moral discernment is destroyed. He has kicked his conscience to death. There is something in him--the restraint is taken away. Down in the heart of an apostate you will find deep sexual sin or some kind of immorality or some kind of deep greed.  You read this book of Jude and he mentions apostasy and links apostasy with Sodom and Gomorrah. And in the Book of Peter, Peter says that apostates are like a sow that goes back to the wallow and like a dog that returns to his own vomit. The apostate belches out from the deep recesses, the murky caverns of his heart and of his soul his shame.  He's like a raging wave of the sea. He is deeply disturbed in his heart.  He is not at peace with himself, and dear friend, he does not want you to be at peace with [yourself] and that's the reason apostates are so dangerous.  The world is full of them--apostate preachers.  I've been to school.  I've been to seminary.  I've been to college.  I have had seminarians and college buddies who became apostates. They studied for the ministry with me. They sat in the same classes with me--these boys who claim to believe the truth. And after a while somehow there was some professor or someone who destroyed their faith and they got into apostasy.  What they once believed, they rejected.  And what they rejected, they ridiculed. I've watched them one after another go down into sodomy, go down into divorce, go down into fornication--debauchery of all kinds--there's something about apostasy, dear friend, that is different from most other sins. You read the Book of Jude and you will pick this up.  They are like raging waves of the sea.  There is [an unrest]. There is a disquieting in the heart of an apostate and before long he will spew out the foam of his shame. An apostate is disturbed like wild waves.

Finally, an apostate is doomed like a wandering star. He calls them wandering stars to whom is reserved the blackness of darkness forever (v. 13). What is a wandering star? A wandering star is a star that has no orbit--a star that is not fixed.  It does not say in place. The bible says in Judges chapter 5 verse 20 that the stars run in their courses. You see, we live in a solar system.  That means that the earth is one of a number of planets that revolve around the sun and it is the sun that keeps those planets in their orbit. That's what keeps the earth from just flying off into space because we are held by the gravitational pull of the sun and we all revolve, our solar system revolved wonderfully and meticulously around the sun. But have you ever seen what we call a shooting star, a meteor? Meteors hit the earth's atmosphere and then skip off into space--no longer held by the gravitational pull of the sun. It goes as a wondering star out into the blackness of space sucked down into some black hole forever into what the bible would call a bottomless pit. That's what hell is going to be like. The Lord Jesus warned about hell.  He said in Matthew chapter 8 verse 12  But the children of the kingdom shall be cast out into outer darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Peter says of the apostates that the midst of darkness is reserved forever for them.  And here's what Jude says about them "to whom is reserved the blackness of darkness forever."  Can you image what hell will be like for an apostate?  Never will he see the twinkling of the stars. Never will he feel the warmth of the sun. Never will he know the luster of the moon. Never will he see the smile of Jesus and the light of glory--everlasting blackness and darkness. Jude has already talked about the eternal fire of hell now he speaks of the eternal blackness of hell.

What is an apostate like? Our hearts ought to be broken for the apostate. We ought to pray for the apostates because, my dear friend, an apostate is dangerous like a hidden rock.  An apostate is deceiving like a waterless cloud. An apostate is dead like a fruitless tree. An apostate is disturbed like a raging sea. An apostate is doomed like a lost star. The more I look at the word of God, the more I am convinced that it is almost impossible for an apostate to be saved. I believe apostates have committed the unpardonable sin--many of them have.  They have known the truth, they have seen the truth, the have refused the truth, they ridicule the truth, they blaspheme the truth. They mock holy things and many of them stand in pulpits. God help us! And Jude says I want you to know an apostate when you see one. I want you to be able to recognize an apostate.  I want to give you a picture--a portrait of an apostate. And Jude says in these last days that we are to earnestly contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints.

The Portrait of an Apostate (MP3 right click and 'save target as' to download) Adrian Rogers