Contend for the Faith

Good morning. What would you say is the greatest threat facing the church today? I think if you watch the news, a lot of us have this concern, rightfully so, that an active shooter would come in and threaten the security of the congregation. There's a lot of efforts now about church security and how to make sure a place of worship is a safe place on a Sunday morning. Maybe your concern is more systemic, so culturally there's a fear of a growing loss of religious liberty and what kind of implications that may have for churches, for pastors, for Christians. maybe related to that, the sense that there's a loss of the influence of religion in society. You know, the fact that we're even having these conversations means maybe Christianity is losing its grip and its influence in the culture. Maybe you would say it's other religions, immigration and other people groups and belief systems coming into the country and distorting maybe what the true faith, the true direction of the country might otherwise be. Well, any of these things could threaten the church, certainly. But I think more than these, the New Testament is overwhelmingly clear that the biggest threat to the church is not something outside of these walls, but something in these walls. In fact, in the room. Something that resides in each one of our hearts. The greatest threat to the church is internal. The failure to persevere in the gospel. to lose our urgency of believing in Jesus and holding fast to Him to the end. He's our only hope of salvation, and if we lose that, we've lost everything. And if that's true, and I think it is, then what we need is instruction and motivation to persevere in believing in Jesus. And in God's kindness, he's given us several words along those lines in the New Testament, and especially the book of Jude, where we are this morning. The book of Jude is a short letter. We heard it, the whole thing read just a moment ago, right before the book of Revelation. And I think it's easy, because it's short, because it's kind of at the end, it's easy to kind of overlook Jude, but we shouldn't. It contains some of the most encouraging and powerful statements about the sovereignty of God and preserving his people and very relevant warnings to us even today about the danger of false teaching. Now the message of Jude is very simple. Christians must reject false teaching and hold on to the true gospel. Christians must reject false teaching and hold fast, hold on to the true gospel. The structure also is pretty simple. So we heard 1 and 2 is this greeting, relatively familiar greeting. Verses 3 and 4, the purpose of the letter. Verses 5 and 16, addressing the false teachers. Christian's response in 17 to 23, and then finally a concluding doxology in 24 and 25. So relatively simple, easy to track with the structure. For the purposes of the sermon this morning, I'm going to make it four points. Certain purpose, certain judgment, certain fight, certain salvation. Certain purpose, certain judgment, certain fight, certain salvation. So hopefully that'll be pretty clear as we work through that this morning. So let's look at the certain purpose of the letter in verses one to four. And before we get into that, I just want to kind of give a little bit of background. We don't know a lot about Jude. We don't know a lot about the context of the audience that he's writing to or the situation. We know that the author is Jude, who calls himself a servant of Jesus Christ and a brother of James. And our best understanding is that the James he's referring to is James, who's the son of Joseph and Mary, who's the half brother of Jesus. And he takes a prominent role in the church in Jerusalem. We see that in the book of Acts. And Jude is writing as his brother. So if you're tracking, it means he's also Jesus's half-brother, right? And I think this is remarkable because he's not writing to manipulate his audience, to stand on the credibility of, I'm Jesus's brother and therefore you should listen to me. No, it seems he's honestly identifying himself as James's brother. He's submitting to the authority of the church, which certainly is under the headship of Christ, but he's not trying to manipulate his audience that he has some special credibility as Jesus's brother. He calls himself a servant of Jesus Christ, right? And we know that earlier in Jesus's ministry, his family thought he was crazy, right? We see a few different times when they're interrupting his ministry. And yet here a few years later, his half brothers are traveling throughout the known world as missionaries to promote him as savior. Okay, and so this has to be some of the best evidence that we have for the divinity of Jesus Christ, right? Which one of us could successfully convince our siblings that we are in fact God? So we know, we have confidence that Jesus is who he says he is. We don't know a lot about the audience, not when Jude is writing or where, but we see that he relies fairly heavily on some Jewish background. So could be, but not necessarily an exclusively Jewish audience. But the focus of the book is on their theological identity. So he calls them, he writes to them as called, beloved in God the Father, and kept for Jesus Christ. So calling refers to their effectual calling, the reality that we have been summoned out of death to follow Jesus, what we sang earlier that, my Lord, I did not choose you for that could never be. If I'm following you, it's because you must have chosen me first. They're also beloved in God the Father. They are adopted by him through Jesus. They're recipients of his special care, his affection as their father, his protection and his affection. And then they're also kept for Jesus. And we're gonna see this is one of the major themes of the letter. Though they're in the middle of this kind of confusing and threatening situation, God is preserving them for final union with Jesus Christ on the last day. That is absolutely certain. We also see in this section that Jude loves to write in multiples of three. So if you start to write a list, you can just count on it. One, two, three. He's gonna say three things. We'll see that many times this morning. And we'll see it right here in verse two. Mercy, peace, and love to you. So these are different aspects of God's kindness to the church. Mercy is his undeserved favor. Peace is the state of blessing in God's care. Love is his commitment and affection for them, as we just thought about. And his prayer is that they would experience these in abundance, right? That they would be full, that they would be multiplied to them. And that should be something we pray for ourselves and for each other as well. Now in three and four we get to the reason for the letter. Beloved, although I was very eager to write to you about our common salvation, I found it necessary to write appealing to you to contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints. For certain people have crept in unnoticed. who long ago were destined for this condemnation, ungodly people who pervert the grace of God into sensuality and deny our only master and Lord Jesus Christ. So what's notable about this is this isn't the letter he wanted to write. He wanted to write about our common salvation, but he found it necessary to appeal to his audience to contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints. So this is a motivational letter. There is a fight on their hands, and they need to be ready for it. And that's what the book of Jude is about. It's about the gospel, right? That's what he means by the faith once for all delivered to the saints. It's the message of salvation through faith in Jesus Christ, that God's grace was demonstrated by sending his son into the world to become a man, to live the perfect life of obedience that we should have lived, to die the death that a sinner should die on the cross. And in doing so, God could be perfectly just in punishing all sin in Jesus and yet forgiving sinners through his work. So Jesus was crucified and buried and then raised on the third day, ascended into the presence of God where he reigns as the king of humanity. And as king, he commands everyone everywhere to repent and follow him. So that's the gospel message. That's the message you must believe in order to be forgiven and made right with God and identified as his people. And it's available to all of us today. Once for all means it is the one way of salvation. It is exclusive, but it's offered to everyone without exception. So if you're here this morning and you don't know Jesus, please repent, believe. If you want to explore that more, please talk to me or someone else after the service. Now we know this is the message that Jude is referring to because of what he says about the opponents in verse four, right? Certain people have crept in unnoticed, who long ago were designated for this condemnation, ungodly people who pervert the grace of our God into sensuality and deny our only master and Lord Jesus Christ. And so their problem, these certain people, their problem is what we call licentiousness. They distort the message of forgiveness into a message that says, oh, it doesn't, it doesn't matter what you do. God is so loving. He's so forgiving. Just do whatever you want. He'll forgive you. That's okay. And that's a lie and a distortion of the teaching of the New Testament. Yes, God can gloriously forgive sin. That's why we're here, is because we believe God forgives sin. However, the New Testament does not offer assurance to anyone who continues, who chooses to live in a lifestyle of sin. God's grace of forgiveness leads us to war against sin. not peace with it. And so Christians are free from the penalty of sin, gloriously, yes, that is true in Jesus, but also at the same time, freed from its power. And so God's freedom, the freedom offered to us in forgiveness of Jesus is to lead us to make war against our sin. And so these false teachers have crept in unnoticed. They've become a part of the church and now they're seeking to lead these true Christians astray, away from the gospel of Jesus Christ. And he says they are ungodly people. So though they claim to speak for God, they're actually opposing God. They're distorting God's truth. Now perhaps the most concerning description about them for us is that long ago they were designated for this condemnation. Now to be clear, what I think Jude is asserting is that God has ordained in advance their condemnation. Now, if we're honest, we read something like that, most of us find that kind of language a little bit unsettling, don't we? Even though we rest in the security of our salvation, we find it hard to understand how it could be that God is active in both salvation and condemnation. And to be clear, I don't think he is active in the same way in salvation and judgment. The Bible clearly teaches that God is sovereign in salvation. He alone changes hearts. He has known and loved his people before the foundation of the world. That is gloriously true. And at the same time, the Bible tells us that God doesn't delight in the death of the wicked. And so I don't think he feels the same way about predestining some for condemnation and some for salvation. But friends, I think we have to see that part of God's glory in salvation is His sovereignty in salvation. And we need to see that this is true in order for us to really rest in the security of our salvation. If God isn't completely sovereign, if some things are up in the air, then really everything is up in the air, right? Including our salvation. The sovereignty of God in salvation is meant to give us great comfort in the reality that the highest power in the universe is disposed to us for our good to keep us to the end. And that's good news for us. So the lines are drawn very clear. Jude is writing to true Christians to fight for the true gospel because it's under attack. And then in verses five through 16, he's gonna go into a lot of detail describing the certain judgment of these false teachers because of their corrupt character. So because of who they are, the certainty of their judgment. So let's look at that in five through 16, certain judgment. Now I want us to remember, as we get into this section, this is the bulk of the text, the danger is that we are susceptible to these same lies. We want to assume the best about people. That's what Christians, one of the things we want to do is just assume the best about other people. But because of that, it can leave us vulnerable to the deceptions of other people, right? And so Jude's audience has given too much. They've assumed too much and they've allowed this teaching to go too far. So as we get into this, I just want us to remember that this is dangerous to us too. These are words we need to hear because we too are vulnerable. So verse 5. Now I want to remind you, although you once fully knew it, that Jesus, who saved the people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed those who did not believe. And the angels who did not stay within their own position of authority but left their proper dwelling, he has kept in eternal chains under gloomy darkness until the judgment of the great day. Just as Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding cities, which likewise indulged in sexual immorality and pursued unnatural desire, serve as an example by undergoing a punishment of eternal fire. So Jude is beginning with some examples from the Old Testament, from common knowledge for these first century believers, and he starts with the Israelites. I think we need to note how remarkable it is that he says Jesus saved the people out of Egypt. Jesus is the God of the Old Testament from before the foundation of the world, active, accomplishing his purposes there. So Jude says Jesus saved them out of Egypt. If you're familiar with the story, you know that the Exodus really is the defining event, salvation event in the Old Testament. And yet Jude's point is that those who were saved miraculously at the Red Sea were also left to die in the wilderness. not entering the promised land. They were kept out of the promised land because of their unbelief. The whole generation was destroyed. Next, we see that the angels, who did not stay within their proper position of authority, but left their proper dwelling. I think this is most likely referring to the angelic rebellion that precedes what we know of the creation and the story of Adam and Eve, that before the fall of man, there was a fall of angels that led to that. Angels rejected their place as God's servants and they rebelled against him. And the point here is that Jesus is keeping them in eternal chains under gloomy darkness until the judgment of the great day. They are reserved, they are kept for certain judgment. And then next we have Sodom and Gomorrah. These were pagan cities in the time of Abraham, and Jude is emphasizing there, specifically, their sexual immorality, their unnatural desire. We read about this in Genesis 19, the destruction of these cities, where God sent angels to see the city. They stayed with Abraham's nephew, Lot. That night, the men of the city gathered around and demanded Lot give them the angels who were in the appearance of man so that they could have sex with them. And eventually the angels struck the crowd with blindness, Lot and his family escaped, and God rained fire and sulfur down on the cities to be destroyed forever. And the point is that Sodom's forever association with this fiery judgment points to the certain final judgment of God. So all three of these examples show God's power, God's absolute certain judgment. Then in verses 8 to 13, Jude shifts to the character of the false teachers, these certain people, these people, we hear that over and over again. So beginning in verse 8, he connects the false teachers with these examples. Yet in like manner, these people also. So we see the connection, just like these Old Testament examples who were judged by God, so too these people, reserved for God's judgment. And we get a glimpse into some of their teaching. We get to hear a little bit more about it. So they're relying on their dreams. They claim a source of revelation that comes from outside of the word of God. Their message is in their dreams and it's on this basis of their dreams that they make these claims that distort or oppose God's revealed word. And so it says they defile the flesh, they reject authority, they blaspheme the glorious ones. I told you Jude loves to say three things. They defile the flesh. This is a reference to their sexual immorality. Like the people of Sodom, they are known for their perverse sexual behaviors. Departure from marriage. They reject authority. So on the basis of this new revelation, they cast off traditional roles and relationships of authority and submission. Maybe that's refusal to submit to the authority in the church. Maybe it's in the home. Maybe it's in society. Maybe it's all of it. But ultimately, though, we know that the authority that they're not submitting to is Jesus, right? That's what he said in verse four. They deny their master and Lord Jesus. Not even Jesus can tell them what to do. And then he says they blaspheme the glorious ones. And here's where it just gets really interesting. I like to tell people that if you don't have a life verse and you're looking for one, Jude 9 is a great one to just throw out there. So, verse 9. But when the archangel Michael, contending with the devil, was disputing about the body of Moses, he did not presume to pronounce a blasphemous judgment, but said, the Lord rebuke you. Now we don't know exactly where this story comes from. It's not in the Old Testament. Maybe it was a commonly known story that Jude was using as an illustration for his people. Maybe it was part of the false teacher's justification for what they were doing. Regardless though, Jude's point is that even an archangel didn't presume the authority to pronounce judgment on Satan. So angel to angel, no judgment. He said, the Lord rebuked you. But then verse 10, but these, these false teachers blaspheme all that they don't understand. So it sounds like what's happening is that they've made this habit of naming and condemning spiritual forces with some kind of great authority. But Jude says they don't have a clue what they're doing. They're underestimating and they're trivializing the very real power of demonic forces. And fundamentally I think this is showing a confusion about the created order. The Bible is clear that angels were created more powerful, greater than human beings. And we don't have the right on ourselves to stand over them. And even worse, while this is happening, it says the false teachers are being destroyed by all that they, like unreasoning animals, understand instinctively. And so on the one hand, they're going really deep into this so-called spirituality where they're focused on demons and naming and condemning, whatever is going on there. And yet at the same time, They're more like animals. They're living lives of instinct, doing whatever they feel like, which ultimately amounts to this self-indulgent immorality. So you see the confusion. Instead of elevating themselves, what they're really doing is lowering themselves in creation. Instead of being more like the super spiritual beings, the angels, they're more like the animals. And he says that they're storing up God's wrath. for their destruction. They are destroyed by all that they, like unreasoning animals, understand instinctively. So this hyper-spirituality that they're proclaiming results in them being more judged, more condemned because of their actions. Verse 11 unites these false teachers with three infamous characters from the Old Testament. So he says, they walked in the way of Cain, This comes from Genesis 4, describing Cain's murder of his brother Abel because he was jealous that God had accepted Abel's sacrifice. Rather than repenting, Cain just killed his brother, right? And we see that Cain's jealousy, his murderous jealousy, led him to this. He was trying to force God to accept him, and that led him to choose evil over good. Then he says, they abandoned themselves for the sake of gain to Balaam's error. And this is a story beginning in Numbers 22 where Balaam is this pagan spiritual expert. He's hired out by the king of Moab to come and curse God's people. And God keeps him from doing so. Really funny story where the donkey ultimately speaks to and rebukes him. But Balaam's legacy is one of greed, where he's just out for hire. Whoever will pay him the most is what he'll do. And then he says they perished in Korah's rebellion. And this is a story that comes from Numbers 16. Korah leads a rebellion against Moses and Aaron. He questions their position of authority, their right to speak exclusively and represent the people of God exclusively. And it results in this showdown where fire comes out from the tabernacle and kills 250 men offering unauthorized incense following Korah. And then the ground actually opens up and swallows the families and the household of Korah and the rest of the men leading the rebellion. Really, really fascinating story in Numbers 16. But what we see Jude emphasizing in these examples is the certainty of their judgment, right? Of these false teachers writing in his time the certainty of their judgment. Woe to them, he says, for they have walked, they have abandoned themselves, they have perished. It's done. It's over. They are on the path of destruction. And then in verses 12 to 13, he continues to describe their character using these various metaphors. And so he describes them as hidden reefs at your love feasts. So hidden reefs are a danger to ships, right? The water seems just fine, but it's not. The reality is that these stone-like reefs under the surface will destroy the boats that try to pass them, right? It'll sink the ships. And in addition to this real danger is the fact that their identity is concealed. They're all around. They're feasting among them at the church, joining them in their love feasts, which seems to be a reference to the Lord's Supper, where they would gather for a meal together and that would culminate in the celebration of the Lord's Supper. He says they feast without fear. So they're claiming to be a part of the church while they're outright denying the clear teachings of Jesus. Then he calls them shepherds feeding themselves. So rather than caring for the sheep, seeing that the flock is fed, they're seeking influence for their personal gain. They're happy to use the sheep for a convenient meal, but not to sacrifice, not to give themselves for them. So they're more like wolves than shepherds. It says they're waterless clouds swept along by the winds. So they promise water, right? The clouds, the dark clouds coming is a good thing because it's gonna rain and that means a harvest, right? Water is necessary, but instead there's no water. They're just, they gather and then they're driven away, right? They come and go without any benefit to the land. They're fruitless. And that's what he goes on to say. They're fruitless trees in late autumn. So by late autumn, all the trees should have grown something. There should have been a harvest, but these have none. And because of that, they're twice dead and uprooted. They're pulled up. There's no hope of future fruitfulness. There's only destruction ahead. He says they're wild waves of the sea, casting up the foam of their own shame. Some of us are beach people. Apparently Jude is not a beach person. He's referring to this sticky, the slimy, the gross foam that's cast up on the shore that represents their evil, shameful deeds. And then they're wandering stars. They're stars that aren't fixed in the sky, right? So in a time when you depended upon the stars to navigate at night, to know which direction is north and where you need to go, these are wandering stars, right? So they're never in the same place. And so, like a GPS that's constantly recalculating, that's what these are. No sure, secure guidance. And then he says, finally, summary statement about them, for whom the gloom of utter darkness has been reserved forever. And so, because of who they are, because of the character of these people, they are destined for eternal destruction, just like the angels in verse six. Now in verses 14 to 16, he highlights, he returns to this certain judgment of these false teachers. It was also about these that Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied, saying, behold, the Lord comes with 10,000 of his holy ones to execute judgment on all and to convict all the ungodly of all their deeds of ungodliness that they have committed in such an ungodly way and of all the harsh things that ungodly sinners have spoken against him. Now this is a quote we know from a Jewish book called First Enoch, and it's not in the Bible. It doesn't have the authority of scripture, but Jude quotes this part because it is true. And he's simply using it as a fact to further support his case. Again, maybe it was something that the false teachers were using, and he's using it against them. But the emphasis is quite clear. Again, certain judgment on the ungodly. It's repeated four times. Their identity is ungodly. It manifests itself in their deeds, in their manner, in their words. Their hearts are opposed to God. They are against God. And the picture that he gives us is total judgment. It's on all. He's convicting all of all their deeds, of all their harsh words. It's certain judgment, the Lord coming with 10,000 of his angels. This is a force no one can stand against. It is absolute and total. And then in verse 16, he turns back to the character of these false teachers. They are grumblers and malcontents following their own sinful desires. Every time we hear grumbling, we think of Israel in the wilderness, right? Just like ungrateful Israel, just like unfaithful angels and unrestrained Sodom. These people live by their passions. They are ungrateful. They are critical. And he says they are loud mouth boasters showing favoritism to gain advantage. So just like Cain and Balaam and Korah, they are people out for themselves. That's all they care about. They use other people only to get what they want. And because of all this, Jude says, there is no doubt that they are under God's certain judgment. Now, that's a lot of information to take in. And I think sometimes that the unfamiliarity of what Jude is talking about can kind of numb us to the message. You know, we read this and we think, yeah, that was false teaching and it's kind of weird, but it seems very irrelevant. It seems very distant from us now, doesn't it? But let's not make that mistake this morning. Let's remember that Jude was written for us just as much as it was for them. And I think the message of Jude is so relevant for us today. So let's remember, go back a minute with me, remember the chief concern, right? Before Enoch, before wandering stars and hidden reefs, before Korah and Balaam and Cain, before Michael contending with the devil over the body of Moses, before Sodom and Gomorrah and angels and Exodus, the main concern of Jude, The main concern, the reason he's writing for the letter, is that these people, these false teachers, pervert the grace of God into sensuality and deny our only master and Lord, Jesus Christ. So the core teaching, the message that led these people astray, the message that so identified him with all these things from the Old Testament that are very vague and not familiar to us, was this. Man, God is so good. He's so loving. He's so forgiving. Don't worry about that. Don't worry about that sin. Just focus on the love of God. So before we shut our Bibles on this neat little history lesson from Jude, we've got to open our eyes to see this battle that is right before us, just like it was then. This is an urgent message, brothers and sisters, because this false teaching is just as present today as it was then, and it is just as deadly. So let's think about some ways we see and hear this teaching around us today, right? From the big picture perspective, the message of God is love. Is that not what we hear all the time? Is that not what's just around us, the air that we breathe? But the problem is it's not the God of the Bible, is it? When we start to redefine God and His love and grace, what we do is distort His perfect character and His attributes that exist in perfect harmony with each other. And when we emphasize His love over and against His holiness, what we do is we create a God in our own image. So let's not make that mistake. Now, I think Jude addresses several things that are very relevant to us today, and I want to walk through a few of these. I'm sure there are lots more we could think of, but I want to kind of give a category and give some of the talk, some of the statements that we might hear along these lines, right? So, regarding sex or homosexuality specifically, we hear things like, God is a God of love, so why shouldn't I be able to love who I want to love? Right, that sounds familiar, right? But that question itself is already redefining our relationship with this God. It rejects the Creator's right to define parameters for His creation. It assumes that we have freedom to do whatever we want, right? And even more, I think it takes sex as a good gift from God and makes it a purely individualistic matter, right? And that's why the world around us, I mean, if you start looking and reading about what's going on around us, the world is helpless. It's kind of pathetic trying to define what is or isn't okay in sex because their only meaningful moral boundaries is consent, right? And that just doesn't work. There's lots of ways that doesn't work. God has designed sex to be the physical expression of a whole life union between a man and a woman. It certainly is something that exists for pleasure, but also for protection, and partnership, and procreation, for the establishing of family units as the core building blocks of society. And I want to be clear this morning, I'm not picking on homosexuality. Homosexuality is certainly a sin, that needs to be clear. But the consistent teaching of the Bible is that any sex outside of a covenant marriage between a man and a woman is sin. So we're not discriminating against homosexuality. Everything outside of marriage, sin. The reason homosexuality is used, I think, in the Bible is because it is unnatural. And I don't think that means simply biologically unnatural, though it certainly is that. I think it's that homosexuality uniquely portrays what sin is. So in homosexuality, there is a picture of exchanging God and our relationship with him and his design of complementarity for self. In homosexuality, we exchange God and his design for something that is like me, same as me. And that's what homosexuality is. It's the unnatural exchanging of God for self. And that's what all sin is. So we're not here to merely decry homosexuality, but adultery and pornography and fornication and masturbation and lust and everything else that falls outside of God's holy design. Maybe a related thought to this is this is just the way that I am. This is who I am. I can't deny my nature. Jude refers to homosexuality as unnatural desire. But for those who struggle with same-sex attraction, people that I have talked to, it's anything but unnatural, right? It feels totally natural. And this is where the word of God is so helpful. Because after Genesis 3, we know that everything is broken. Things are not the way that they're supposed to be. And some things may come naturally to us because of our upbringing, because of certain things that have happened to us, because of how we've responded to those things, or just because of how we're wired. But regardless, in a Genesis 3 world, we know we can't finally rely on how we feel and what comes natural to us because it's distorted by sin. So we have to trust the word of the God who made us and designed us to flourish in his world. So that's one. implication from this kind of teaching. Another one, how we relate to authority. We say, I'll do it my way. And this is something that's probably more pressing, more common even for Christians than sex would be. God has ordained authority for our good. We were created to depend upon God. And under his authority, he's given us the home and the workplace and the government and church, all with relative spheres of authority. All these things are good for us. And yet, how many of us spend our time just joyfully submitting to those wonderful authorities in our lives? As opposed to convincing ourselves, you know, things like the speed limit doesn't really apply, or I don't really need to pay that tax, or my boss has forgotten what it's like to be one of us, or our parents just don't understand, or my husband's an idiot. Whatever those things are, right? We spend a lot of time rejecting, justifying our lack of submission to authority. And what Jude would say is we are denying our Master and Lord Jesus Christ. Because these are authorities He has placed over us. And we see from Jude when we start rejecting Christ's authority, we ignore His warnings about greed and about influence. We lose sight of the fact that God will judge and destroy both bodies and souls in hell. And so we live as if this life is all that matters. We manipulate other people to maximize our comfort and security here and now. We look to money or power or connections to do for us what only God can do. Another category here. religious attainment. We say my past religious involvement was sufficient, right? Just like Israel. We crossed the Red Sea. We're good. Some of us are tempted to think that there's a retirement from following Jesus, right? That it's enough just to make a decision for Christ or to walk an aisle and pray a prayer to get a perfect Sunday school attendance pin, to take a missions trip, to build a church, and then just coast into glory, right? Just ride it out. But brothers and sisters, don't be deceived. Every Israelite who crossed the Red Sea sacrificed the blood of the lamb, spread it on their doorposts, right? The death angel passed over them. They crossed the Red Sea. And with the exception of two men, every single one of them died in the wilderness. As Paul says in first Corinthians 10 with most of them, God was not pleased. So don't fool yourself, brothers and sisters. And don't let others get fooled into thinking that you've arrived. Okay, God and God alone decides when your race is over. And until that day, we must continue striving and exhorting each other so that we are not hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. I think one more application helpful for us to think about is this just denial of the sufficiency of scripture. When we say things like, this isn't really in the Bible, but it's helpful. Jude's audience was being led astray by those who relied on their dreams, right? And if we're honest, I think we can be tempted by similar ideas, right? How many people, how many of us have been intrigued by stories of children who die and go to heaven? How many of our ideas about spirituality and the afterlife are shaped by things we've learned from popular culture or even popular Christianity, but not actually tested by the Word of God? And when these things go unchallenged, they start to set like concrete in our hearts, so that we're not relying on the promises of God, but we're relying upon the words of men. I think we can see this in things that we get obsessed about too, right? Where we lose the big picture of scripture that teaches us about God's sovereignty, God's glory, God's grace. Those are the main messages of scripture and yet we start focusing on teaching and emphasizing just one particular thing, one doctrine to the exclusion of its practical application to all of life. The false teachers of Jude were committing blasphemy by focusing on angels. But I think we can do similar things when we focus on finer points of doctrine and even matters of conviction. When we spend all of our time on speculation about what scripture says rather than majoring on the gospel and the glory of Jesus. So most of us, I've never had a conversation with a member of Jefferson Park, with somebody who was blaspheming angels. I wonder how many conversations I've had that are spiritual in nature, talking about something abstract, about the Bible or culture or something along those lines, where there's a specific sin at that table, my heart or somebody else's heart, that's just going unaddressed, unchallenged. How often does that happen? We're talking about superficial things, we're talking about abstract things, where there are real heart matters that need to be addressed. See, God wants us to see, brothers and sisters, that this teaching, that God is love, that he's merciful, that he's kind and generous, and all these things, which are true. But if we focus only on those things, it will lead us into spiritual disaster. There's no question about it that this teaching, with its wrong emphasis, is against the gospel. It is anti-gospel, and those who believe it will be led to destruction. So what are we to do? I think one of the most interesting and helpful and fascinating things about the book of Jude is how he answers the problem of licentiousness. Because I think most of us would answer licentiousness with like 50 tests to discern false teaching, or 50 habits to protect yourself from false teaching, or something like that. But he doesn't. He doesn't do that. He gives us verses 17 to 23, instructions about a certain fight. Again, three things that we will do. Remember, keep yourselves in the love of God, and have mercy. That's the response to the danger, to the threat of this false teaching. To remember, to keep yourself in the love of God, and to have mercy. And there's a focus on how we think about these false teachers, how we think about ourselves, and how we think about those who are being influenced by the false teaching. So let's look at the instructions of 17 and 18 about the false teachers. But you must remember, beloved, the predictions of the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ. They said to you, in the last time there will be scoffers following their own ungodly passions. So the main charge for us, for Jude's audience and for us today is to remember, to remember the apostles told you this was going to happen. Scoffers will come. And then in 19, he says, it is these who cause divisions, worldly people, devoid of the Spirit. These are opposite of Christian characteristics, right? Christians work for unity. Christians are heavenly. Christians are indwelled by the Holy Spirit. And he's reiterating what he's already said about them. They are ungodly. They're not Christians. He wants us to remember that this was predicted. And this is good news. It's strange news, but it's good news, right? Even though the false teaching is disruptive and destructive to the church, the apostles predicted it. They said it was going to happen. And so contrary to how it seems, the presence of this false teaching is actually evidence for the authority of Jesus. Because he said that this was going to happen. Earlier I said that Christians are susceptible to false teaching because of our fundamental commitment to assume the best about other people. We want to give others the benefit of the doubt, but that can result in false confessors kind of sneaking in among us and disrupting us. So while we want to assume the best about others, we also see that at the same time we have to allow for the worst in others. Let me say that again. Christians are those who assume the best about others and allow for the worst in others. Right? Our worldview, our system allows us to be gracious to other people because we acknowledge that all of us are sinners. We're all dependent upon righteousness from Jesus. None of us stands because of our own effort. None of us have arrived. We all need Jesus. That's what we confess. But at the same time, we know that sin persists. We know that men and women are capable of the worst kinds of evil. And so we never have to scratch our heads and wondering why something could have happened. Why did so-and-so seem like such a nice guy? Why does she seem to have such a good head on her shoulders? We know why people do bad things. It's because of sin. We know why we continue to struggle. It's because of sin. And so while we don't want to be overly suspicious of everyone, we also see that there's an error in being too trusting of other people, of failing to acknowledge sin for what it is, of tolerating false teaching. It allows the church to be poisoned. We have to call it what it is and remove those who persist in it. There's no other conclusion. Jude doesn't say that exactly, but I think it's the obvious conclusion to what he said. Acknowledge, recognize, and remove false teaching. That's the clear teaching for the entire New Testament. Second, we see instructions to Christians that we must keep ourselves in the love of God. So let's look at 20 and 21. But you, beloved, building yourselves up in your most holy faith and praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ that leads to eternal life. So the focus on these verses now is on the true Christians, those who are beloved by God. And the main verb we see in verse 21, to keep. That's the main verb, and the others depend upon that. Christians are called to keep themselves in the love of God. That is, in God's love for us. And so we see that Jude is walking this biblical tension between the divine sovereignty of God and human responsibility. In the intro he said, we are kept for Jesus Christ. Later he'll tell us that God is able to keep us from stumbling. And yet we see here that one of the means that God uses to keep us is our own effort to stay in and respond to his love. And so as we might expect, Jude gives us three ways to do this. Building yourselves up in your most holy faith. This reminds us of the command earlier to contend for the faith, right? We are to stay in God's love by building ourselves up in our most holy faith. And so we're to keep growing in the gospel, in the message of God's love for us through Jesus. We have to treasure it more and more each day so that it gets deep in our hearts, so that when something doesn't come up, doesn't square with it, we recognize that immediately. I'm told that At banks, when you get trained, you get exposed only to real money. You never see counterfeit money. And the purpose of that is, you get so used to seeing what's real money, that when the counterfeit comes up, you immediately recognize it. That's how Christians are supposed to be with the gospel. So attuned, so in sync with it, that anytime something creeps up that doesn't square with it, it jumps out at us, it stands out. Something's not right. So the gospel has to be the foundation of our lives. It's God's solution to our sin problem. Everything that happens in our lives, every decision that we make is a direct response to the gospel. Everything is calculated in light of how can I understand and apply the gospel to this situation. And I think we should see that this is a community project. It's not just something for you alone, but it's the whole church being built up together in the gospel. Second, we see that we are to keep ourselves in God's love by praying in the Holy Spirit. So, prayer is an essential aspect of staying in God's love. Praying in the Holy Spirit means that we are thinking God's thoughts after Him. Prayer is being attuned with God's thoughts. So, unlike the dreamers that are their sources outside of God's Word, prayer is something we do in response to God's specific revelation. God speaks to us through his word, we speak his word back to him. And the Holy Spirit is at work to unite us with Christ so that we delight in his word, we delight in his promises being fulfilled, his purposes accomplished in us and in our church. That's what it means to pray in the Holy Spirit. And then we are to keep ourselves in God's love by waiting for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ that leads to eternal life. So finally, we keep ourselves in God's love by waiting. We wait for what we value, don't we? Maybe you're like me, you've walked out of a checkout line at a store because it was just too long, right? My time is too valuable. I don't have time to wait in line right now for this thing. It's not worth it. But on the other hand, we see people wait for days. for tickets to movies or sporting events or shows, concerts, product releases, whatever, right? Because those things in that moment are worth stopping everything. It's worth it to take days off of work to get the newest iPhone or whatever it might be, right? So waiting is the discipline of active faith. It's trusting that Jesus is true to his word, that he will keep his promises and on the day of judgment, he will show mercy to all of those who are united with him in faith. And so waiting on His mercy means that we don't abandon Him. We don't abandon our faith for some other promise. We remind ourselves, we remind each other of His utter faithfulness and we persevere to the end. So third, we see, so we've thought about how we We remember, we keep ourselves in the love of God, and now we are called in fighting and continuing for the faith to think about those who are influenced by the false teaching, by showing mercy. So 22 and 23, we see this instruction. The last way we contend for the faith is by showing mercy to those who are affected. So let me read that. Sorry, I didn't print that in my notes here. 22 and 23. And have mercy on those who doubt. Save others by snatching them out of the fire. To others show mercy with fear, hating even the garment stained by the flesh. And so these verses give us a spectrum for how to understand and respond to those who are influenced by false teaching, right? This teaching of licentiousness. God is so loving. Do whatever you want. He'll forgive you. So we picture this at one end are the true Christians that he's just been addressing right at the other end are the false teachers. He spent a lot of time on those and now in the middle are those who have been affected by the teaching various degrees. And Jude's message is to show mercy to each one, right? Those who are caught in the crossfire, those who are confused and in doubt and maybe even starting to believe some of the false teaching, for all of them, the response is to show mercy. But there's particular ways how, depending on who they are. Now I want us to be clear, what he's not saying is to show mercy to false teachers. Scripture is clear that those who are false teachers should be removed. They should be silenced. They don't have a voice in the church. They're not given any influence, right? And it takes discernment to know where someone is on this spectrum. It's not easy. It's not usually something we should do on our own. And again, this is where we're fighting that tension of assuming the best, allowing for the worst. So he says to have mercy on those who doubt. And the doubters seem to be on this side, like more close to the believers there. They're confused. And having mercy on them means patiently coming alongside of them to help them understand what God's word actually says, why the false teaching is in conflict with God's clear word, right? So that's that end of the spectrum. Save others by snatching them out of the fire. And these people are those who are even more affected, right? They're already in the fire. They're so close to the false teaching. They're about to be burned. They're on their way to judgment. Now, when fire's in the picture, you have to act quickly and decisively, right? We don't tell our kids, honey, don't get in the fireplace. Honey, get out of the fireplace. No, I'm going to count to three. Better get out of that fireplace. No. You snatch them away from the fire, right? We swat their hands away when they're reaching for the stove. You can get burned quickly and severely. There's an urgency about these who are already in the fire. They're not far away from being consumed. And so we do everything we can to get them away from that destructive teaching, to end relationships, to get them in a safe, wholesome, healthy place. The last group, he says, show mercy with fear, hating even the garment stained by the flesh. Now this seems to be the most serious case. These people have already given in to the point that they're acting on the false teaching. They're doing things that are staining their garments. And though we're still called to show mercy in seeking out these people, we're to do it with fear. We see that the teaching is so deceptive that they've already been led astray. They're acting on it. And we must be mindful that we're not also corrupted. And maybe this is where we get the idea of loving the sinner and hating the sin. We see that sin is so horrifying, so deadly, that we hate every effect. It pollutes, it corrupts, it destroys. And yet we show mercy on those for whom there's still some hope of repentance. Now this command for us to show mercy, assumes that we live in a community where we are mutually responsible for each other. We're to be involved in each other's lives, carefully listening and observing ways that maybe we are departing from the gospel. And I think Paul Tripp describes this kind of community, the qualities that we need really helpfully. He says we have to be courageous enough to say hard things to each other. We have to be courageous enough to ask probing questions, to risk offending people. And at the same time, humble enough to accept correction. Aware of your own sin, your tendency to be spiritually blind, concerned about the possibility that unknown sin could be wreaking havoc in your life. So courageous enough to speak, humble enough to accept correction. And I wonder, do these describe you this morning? Are you open to the corrections of other people? Are you thankful that people care enough to bring concerns to you? And are you willing to speak on behalf of God when something seems off in somebody else's life? Are you selfless enough to risk being misunderstood or hurt for the sake of saving a brother or sister in sin? So we contend by remembering that this was predicted. We keep ourselves in the love of God. We show mercy. And I think it's just beautiful that in the face of this false teaching, who are claiming to show the path of love and ultimately it leads to gross immorality, here we see God's wisdom and His true perfect love results in the security and the care of His people. But Jude doesn't leave us with our best efforts and so we close with a certain salvation in 24 and 25. Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy, to the only God, our Savior, through Jesus Christ, our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority before all time and now and forever. Amen. Brothers and sisters, these are some of the most glorious and greatest promises in the New Testament. Jude began by calling us kept by God, and that's where he leaves us. We're not left to our best efforts, right? As threatening, as concerning as false teaching may seem, God can and will keep his people from stumbling into apostasy, make them stand blameless and vindicated and glorious on judgment day. Ultimately, we rely upon God to keep us from stumbling and to present us blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy. That's what we want. We want joy. We want joy in God's presence. We want to be blameless and perfect, to be preserved through this life, to endure to the end, to hear the words of our Lord, well done, good and faithful servant. We want to experience his mercy on the last day. And so we work hard to keep ourselves in God's love, but we do it knowing that this is one of the ways God is in fact keeping us. So brothers and sisters, isn't it good news that these blessings don't finally depend upon our efforts? God, God Almighty is able to keep you from stumbling. He will present you blameless. You are kept. God is able to keep you, and for this reason, you keep yourself in his love. See, this is where the false teachers got everything wrong. They say if you're forgiven, then live it up. But if you're truly a Christian, then how else would you live it up? Where else would you go? God alone is God, right? We acknowledge that He is exalted over all. He is glorious and majestic. All things are under His rule and reign. We yield to Him because He is worthy. It was true before the foundation of the world. It will be true for all of eternity. He alone is God, our Savior, and He is sovereign to keep His people. And for this reason, we join Jude in saying to this God, to the only God, our Savior, through Jesus Christ, our Lord, be glory and majesty and dominion and authority before all time and now and forever. Amen. Let's pray together. Our Father in heaven, all we can do is speak these truths back to you. We praise you because you are worthy. We praise you because you are able to keep us. We praise you because you have promised to keep us. And so, Lord, with these glorious truths in mind, we pray that we would contend for the faith, that we would keep ourselves in your love, that we would think rightly about ourselves and the people around us, that we would show mercy, we would show discernment. We pray that you would make us courageous and humble like Jesus, our King. We pray that you would make us secure in his love. And we pray this in his name, amen.