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So we're going to return to our 
studies in Deuteronomy in two weeks' time. Pastor Cam will 
be teaching the Bible study next Wednesday evening. Rebecca and 
I are going to go visit Micah. Micah has his second surgery 
on his other elbow. Well, first surgery on the other 
elbow, the second surgery in total next Wednesday. So we're going to go be with 
him for that week. Two weeks time, we'll return 
to the book of Deuteronomy. So we've been looking at a few 
different texts. A few weeks ago, we looked at 
the doctrine of justification by faith. And then last time 
I taught, which was two weeks ago, we looked at salvation and 
James's theology, specifically James 2. We saw how James is 
not teaching contrary to the Apostle Paul. But both of them 
teach a salvation that is freely by the grace of God, which is 
by faith alone and results in the saved pursuing a life of 
sanctification. So as I said tonight, Jude 3. 
Remember that Jude was a half-brother of our Lord Jesus Christ. He 
penned this epistle in the late 60s. And I'll just begin reading 
in verse 1. Jude, a bondservant of Jesus 
Christ and brother of James, to those who are called, sanctified 
by God the Father, and preserved in Jesus Christ, mercy, peace, 
and love be multiplied to you. Beloved, while I was very diligent 
to write to you concerning our common salvation, I found it 
necessary to write to you, exhorting you to contend earnestly for 
the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints. 
For certain men have crept in unnoticed, who long ago were 
marked out for this condemnation, ungodly men who turn the grace 
of our God into lewdness and deny the only Lord God and our 
Lord Jesus Christ. But I want to remind you, though 
you once knew this, that the Lord, having saved the people 
out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed those who did not believe. 
And the angels who did not keep their proper domain, but left 
their own abode, he has reserved in everlasting chains under darkness 
for the judgment of the great day. as Sodom and Gomorrah and 
the cities around them in a similar manner to these, having given 
themselves over to sexual immorality and gone after strange flesh, 
are set forth as an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal 
fire. Likewise also, these dreamers 
defile the flesh, reject authority, and speak evil of dignitaries. 
Yet Michael the archangel, in contending with the devil, when 
he disputed about the body of Moses, dared not bring against 
him a reviling accusation, but said, the Lord rebuke you. But these speak evil of whatever 
they do not know, and whatever they know naturally, like brute 
beasts, in these things they corrupt themselves. Woe to them, 
for they have gone in the way of Cain, have run greedily in 
the error of Balaam for profit, and perished in the rebellion 
of Korah. 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, raging 
waves of the sea, foaming up their own shame, wandering stars 
for whom is reserved the blackness of darkness forever. Now Enoch, 
the seventh from Adam, prophesied about these men also, saying, 
Behold, the Lord comes with ten thousand of his saints to execute 
judgment on all, to convict all who are ungodly among them of 
all their ungodly deeds which they have committed in an ungodly 
way, and of all the harsh things which ungodly sinners have spoken 
against him. These are grumblers, the complainers, 
walking according to their own lusts, and they mouth great swelling 
words, flattering people to gain advantage. But you, beloved, 
remember the words which were spoken before by the apostles 
of our Lord Jesus Christ, how they told you that there would 
be mockers in the last time who would walk according to their 
own ungodly lusts. These are sensual persons who 
cause divisions, not having the spirit. But you, beloved, building 
yourselves up on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit, 
keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of 
our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life. And on some have compassion, 
making a distinction, but others save with fear, pulling them 
out of the fire, hating even the garment defiled by the flesh. 
Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present 
you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy. 
To God our Savior, who alone is wise, be glory and majesty, 
dominion and power, both now and forever. Amen. Well, the 
brother packs a lot into the space of 25 verses. There is 
a lot going on in this particular chapter. Just a brief overview. He gives the very purpose for 
his writing or his thesis statement, which we will cover in more detail 
in verse 3. Beloved, while I was very diligent 
to write to you concerning our common salvation, I found it 
necessary to write to you exhorting you to contend earnestly for 
the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints. 
That's the emphasis of the epistle. The reason is given as he follows 
along in the rest of the epistle, which we'll look at in a few 
moments. But I just wanted to start off 
with a quote by B.B. Warfield. This is in an essay 
or in an article called The Dogmatic Spirit. He said, what is called 
the dogmatic spirit? Simply what that means is to 
hold something tenaciously, to hold it firmly. We see something 
of that in the Apostle Paul on the Areopagus. He says, what 
you worship in ignorance, him I proclaim to you. It is an earnest 
defense. It is an earnest holding onto. 
the truth of the gospel. That's what he means here by 
the dogmatic spirit. He said, what is called dogmatic 
is not popular among men. It is characterized by an authoritative 
method of presenting truth, by an unwillingness to modify truth 
to fit it to current conceptions, by an insistence on what seemed 
to many minor points. It is irritating to men. They 
would rather discuss truth then receive truth. And I think if 
Warfield was alive today, he would agree that that sort of 
a mentality is upon us still. This idea that truth is something 
we can just sort of play with, you're odd or you're strange, 
if you hold tenaciously to it, you're really bizarre if you 
try and defend it, because after all, that doesn't bespeak the 
calmness and the dignity of the Christian gospel. Well, we see 
just the opposite in the pages of the New Testament. We see 
men willing to die for the truth. We see men willing to live for 
the truth, men wanting to propagate the truth, to defend the truth, 
and to put forth the truth on all fronts. And that's what Jude 
is writing to address. While I was very diligent to 
write to you concerning our common salvation, who knows what he 
was going to write about? Some things concerning their 
common salvation. He says, I found it necessary 
to change course in the midst of that. I found it necessary 
to write to you to exhort you to contend earnestly for the 
faith. In other words, I wanted a discourse about those things 
that are common to us, but because of apostates affecting the church, 
I found it necessary to write to you, to rouse you, and rally 
you, and call you to defend the truth against the gainsayers, 
against the heretics, and against the apostates who would wage 
war upon the truth of the gospel. Now, I don't think we're to take 
this epistle and we're to engage in every disagreement we have 
with Christian brethren in this sort of a manner. In other words, 
if Cam and I disagree on a particular aspect of eschatology, we're 
not to contend earnestly in the sense that we're yelling at each 
other and we're railing against each other, you know, this fight 
to the death. The idea here is contend earnestly 
for the faith against those who would reject it, those who would 
seek to change it, those who would seek to twist it, those 
who would seek to distort it. In other words, we are to defend 
the faith against apostates and heretics in a way that I hope 
we don't always defend our particular nuances or our particular doctrines. That's not to say Cam and I can't 
throw down on a given topic, on a given situation. But it 
is to say that I treat Cam in a much different manner than 
I treat an apostate or one who is an active, vile enemy to the 
gospel of the Lord Jesus. We can't treat everybody who 
disagrees with us as if they're vile enemies of the gospel. So 
what I'm going to encourage us tonight, or when we open up this 
passage, we will see his emphasis on contending earnestly for the 
faith. That's a good thing. But if your wife and you have 
a disagreement on a fine point of doctrine, don't scream or 
yell or get abusive or unkind or anything. of that sort. We 
can't take passages like these and become stubborn, hard-headed 
wretches that are only bent on presenting our particular idiosyncrasies. A lot of Christian people destroy 
other Christian people based on passages like these, and I 
think Jude has actually got a different target audience in view. So that's 
my encouragement. Contend earnestly for the faith, 
but understand that if somebody is a believer on the Lord Jesus, 
and they happen to be premillennial, and your awe or post, you can 
have harmony, peace, and joy together in the bonds of the 
Spirit. You don't have to earnestly contend 
with them on every fine point of doctrine. Is everybody with 
me on this? It's always good to see what 
attacks is not teaching us. This is not a text so that you 
can be a hard-headed irritant to every Christian brother or 
sister out there. This is not your proof text. 
So please get that. Now let's just look at first 
of all the command, second of all the reason And then thirdly, 
the means of defense. There is a command stated in 
verse 3. There is a reason given for the 
command in verse 4. And then the means of defense 
whereby we can hopefully guard ourselves against falling prey 
to these sorts of people is found later on in the epistle. But 
notice first, with reference to the command, the addressees. the addressees. Notice he says 
in verse three, beloved. He is not simply writing to the 
pastors in the churches. He is not simply writing to officers 
in the churches. He is not simply writing to the 
professors in the seminaries that serve the various churches. Beloved encompasses all who are 
saved by grace, all who are called, sanctified by God the Father, 
and preserved in Jesus Christ." Those indicated in verse 1. Judah, bondservant of Jesus Christ 
and brother of James, notice, his audience to those who are 
called, sanctified by God the Father and preserved in Jesus 
Christ, to the saved, to the believers, to those who by God's 
grace find themselves in that place of having received every 
spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus. And I 
highlight this for this very purpose. Beloved encompasses 
all God's people. You cannot say the defense of 
the faith The propagation of the faith, contending earnestly 
for the faith, is simply the duty and responsibility of the 
elders in the church. Or it is simply the duty and 
the responsibility of the seminaries that serve the churches. But 
rather, every Christian is addressed here. Beloved, you are to contend 
earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to 
the saints. So that tells us that the beloved 
have some understanding of the faith. When he says the faith, 
he doesn't mean your subjective hold on Jesus Christ. He doesn't 
mean your personal belief in the Lord Jesus. When he says 
the faith, he means the objective revealed system of propositional 
revelation. The faith is Christianity. So the beloved ought to be able 
to identify the faith, they ought to be able to know the faith, 
they ought to be able to discriminate the faith from the false or from 
the contenders, and the beloved ought to be able to contend earnestly 
for the faith. So, verse 3 indicates that there 
is some responsibility on every Christian person. It doesn't 
do you any good to say, well, you know, Hank Hanegraaff, he's 
doing a bang-up good job on the Bible Answer Man. Praise the 
Lord that we have a man like him in our camp. Or James White 
from Alpha and Omega Ministries, what a great job he's doing, 
you know, sort of crushing Muslims and their argumentation and all 
that, not Muslims physically, but their argument. Praise God, 
we have a... No, no, beloved, you need to 
be able to contend earnestly for the faith. Turn for just 
a moment to 1 Peter 3.15, another passage that deals with this 
idea of defending the faith, presenting the truth. Notice 
in 1 Peter 3.15, but sanctify the Lord God in your hearts and 
always be ready to give a defense to everyone who asks you a reason 
for the hope that is in you with meekness and fear. He doesn't 
stop between verse 14 and 15 and shift his focus and attention. He doesn't say, I want all other 
believers to sort of tune out now, because all I'm addressing 
are the pastors, the elders, the deacons, the seminarians, 
the seminary professors, the guys who love theology. They're 
the ones I'm actually speaking to here in verse 15. No, he's 
speaking to all Christians. What's the primary prerequisite? 
Sanctify the Lord Christ in your hearts. You need to be a Christian. 
You need to be born again. You need to submit to the Lordship 
of Jesus in your thinking. But in that state, you need to 
always be ready to give a defense to everyone who asks you a reason 
for the hope that is in you with meekness and fear." These texts 
are not addressed to parachurch ministries. They are addressed 
to believers in churches who find themselves in a world that 
is contrary to the gospel, a world in opposition to the gospel, 
And unfortunately, churches that are steeped with or are preyed 
upon by false teachers. So the addressees here is absolutely 
crucial for us to behold. Beloved. This text is for you 
this evening. He says, I found it necessary 
to write to you exhorting you to contend earnestly for the 
faith which was once for all delivered to the saints. Judah's 
not alone here. Other New Testament epistles. 
The gospel accounts themselves highlight the necessity for the 
believer to be on guard, to be watchful. I've often said and 
I've often thought the best guard, the best antidote to false teaching 
is to know the truth. When you know the truth of the 
gospel, you're able to spot the false. When the person in the 
bank is so familiar with what a genuine $20 bill looks like, 
when the fake comes along, they're able to spot it without any difficulty. whatsoever. Most of the time, 
people that fall prey to false teaching, they just didn't know 
the truth to begin with. It's not some amazing thing that 
all these people follow a particular false teacher or they follow 
a particular cult. It's because they didn't know 
the truth. And so the best antidote is to 
understand the truth. And so various New Testament 
authors highlight the reality of us to be on guard against 
false teaching. The Lord Jesus Christ called 
his disciples to beware of the leaven of the Sadducees. in Matthew 
chapter 16. Matthew 7, he says, you will 
know the false teachers by their fruits. Already in his earthly 
ministry, Jesus is cautioning his disciples against this very 
thing. False teaching will threaten 
the church, and the best thing you can do to fight it is to 
know the truth. As well, the Apostle Paul in 
the book of Acts. We're just going to rehearse 
a few of these. I think you're probably all familiar with them. 
Acts chapter 20. that time when Paul is traveling 
and he calls, when he's in Miletus, he calls for the elders of Ephesus. 
He has what I've often thought is the first pastor's conference. 
And in Acts chapter 20 at verse 28, he gives this mandate. He 
says, therefore, take heed to yourselves and to all the flock 
among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd 
the church of God which he purchased with his own blood." Now notice 
this, verse 29, "'For I know this, that after my departure, 
savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock.'" 
I often wonder if we see false teaching the way the Bible presents 
false teaching. I mean, the language or the metaphor 
that the apostle uses is quite powerful here. He says, after 
my departure, savage wolves will come in among you. not sparing 
the flock. What do savage wolves do to sheep? They tear them apart. They rip 
them apart. They make them bloody. If you 
have been a Christian for any amount of time, and you have 
been in a downtime, or you have met with people who have been, 
or have been affected by false teaching, and they begin to get 
led astray, and they begin to stop seeing things clearly, it's 
a very pitiable situation. It makes you grieve for them 
when you see them being torn apart. While we may not see it 
in the same manner, the blood and the wool and all of that 
being torn apart, it's the same root effect. Souls are being 
ripped apart by false doctrine and we need to understand the 
gravity of the situation. This is why Paul emphasizes in 
the pastoral epistles the emphasis for Timothy and for Titus on 
sound doctrine. I just don't think we appreciate 
how important the truth is. Jesus said, you shall know the 
truth and the truth shall set you free. It is the truth which 
sets us free. It is the truth which keeps us 
free. It is the truth which will ultimately bring us into heaven 
to be with the Lord Jesus. If we understand it, and value 
it, we will see and understand the emphasis upon sound doctrine. in the New Testament and the 
old as well. Notice in verse 30, he says, 
also from among yourselves men will rise up, speaking perverse 
things to draw away the disciples after themselves. Therefore watch 
and remember that for three years I did not cease to warn everyone, 
night and day with tears. Also from among yourselves men 
will rise up. Compare this with the book of 
1st Timothy. Where's First Timothy take place? 
Ephesus. Paul says, I want you to stay 
in Ephesus, and I want you to wage the good warfare. What Paul 
spoke at this first pastor's conference comes to fruition. And so Paul stations Timothy 
in Ephesus to fight the good fight, to fight these heretics, 
these men. who desired to be teachers of 
the law. These men who got caught up in 
all sorts of false teaching, they were now a plague to the 
church in Ephesus. So Paul stations Timothy there. Thankfully, later on in the book 
of Revelation, you'll remember the church at Ephesus. We all 
know their crime. They lost their first love. And 
while I'm not here to justify that by any stretch, we oftentimes 
forget what they actually did do that was good. You tested 
those who said they were apostles and were not. They took seriously 
Paul's words. They took seriously the pastoral 
epistles, and they put those false apostles to the test. Now, 
in doing so, they lost their first love. Jesus says, you need 
to have that. I mean, if you're battle-weary, 
you're fighting heretics, the last thing you want to do is 
go sit on a mountaintop and read Spurgeon. I mean, it's just the 
way it is. But he said, you need to go on 
a mountaintop and read Spurgeon. You're going to fall back in 
love with me. But what they were commended for was doing what 
Paul himself had stipulated. Very important throughout the 
New Testament. 1 Timothy chapter 4, again just 
a sampling of texts, saying that every Christian, not to the degree 
perhaps of a Greg Bonson or a Ravi Zacharias or a James White or 
a whoever, but every Christian ought to be able to contend earnestly 
for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints. 
Notice in 1 Timothy 4. Paul says, the Spirit expressly 
says that in latter times some will depart from the faith, giving 
heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons, speaking 
lies and hypocrisy, having their own conscience seared with a 
hot iron, forbidding to marry and commanding to abstain from 
foods which God created to be received with thanksgiving by 
those who believe and know the truth. For every creature of 
God is good, and nothing is to be refused if it is received 
with thanksgiving, for it is sanctified by the word of God 
and prayer. Now, arguably, we could say, 
well, Timothy as the man of God is the one receiving these particular 
directions. I bring you to this text specifically 
to show you that there is that spirit-announced prophecy that 
in the latter times, which we are currently in, that men will 
rise up speaking false doctrine. It is absolutely crucial that 
we get this. Not everybody who says they have 
the biblical doctrine of whatever the doctrine are biblical. They're 
just not. It's just not the way it is. 
I mean, Paul speaks of the perverters of the gospel in Galatians chapter 
1. He says, I marvel you are turning 
away so soon from him who called you in the grace of Christ to 
a different gospel, which is not another, but there are some 
who trouble you and they want to pervert the gospel of Christ. 
You might say, why would somebody want to pervert the gospel of 
Christ? Paul indicates in Acts 2, or 
28, 20, they want to have men follow them. Also, in perverting 
the gospel of Christ, there is gain monetarily. I mean, look 
at some of these guys. They're making a lot of money 
perverting the gospel of Jesus Christ. They have Rolls Royces. They wear $2,000 pairs of shoes. I mean, they've made a lot of 
money perverting the gospel of Jesus Christ. What are the psychological 
reasons someone actually perverts the gospel? There's a whole host 
of that. But suffice it to say, they're 
out there and we need to be on guard and we need to heed Jude's 
admonition. So not only Christ, but Paul, 
also Peter, and the Apostle John, several times in their writings, 
highlight the necessity for us to contend earnestly for the 
faith. Let's go back to Jude 3 and pull 
out the specific components. Notice Jude exhorts them to this. I love the language that he employs. Exhort means to urge, to encourage, 
to beseech. It is the word used of speeches 
of leaders and soldiers who urge each other on. He's given a battle 
cry. He's rallying the troops. He's 
exhorting them. He's calling upon them. He's 
urging. He's beseeching. Why is that? 
Because the truth is so important. The truth is so valuable. It 
demands our earnest contention or contending. It demands our 
defense. It demands our propagation. It 
demands that the false teachers be silenced. He says, or this 
lexicon says, that it is used of words that sent fearful and 
hesitant soldiers courageously into battle. Be similar to a 
Churchill rallying the troops to defend against and to go after 
Hitler's third Reich. It would be similar to Patton 
giving his speech to rally up the troops so that they would 
fight valiantly in the battles that lie before them. This is 
what Judah's doing. He's rallying the troops to contend 
earnestly. That's the next component. He 
says they are to contend for the faith. This means to struggle 
for. to contend for, to exercise great 
effort and exertion for something. The word was used of athletic 
contests and the struggle and effort for the athletes and their 
games. I mean, it's pretty sad when 
people spend that much time in preparation on synchronized swimming 
and Christians can't give a reasonable defense of the gospel. I'm not 
here to put down synchronized swimming. I am here to say that 
Christians who can't define justification or who can't explain the simple 
truth of the gospel really ought to be ashamed of themselves. 
There is no reason for it. I remember making a statement 
several weeks ago in the pulpit. It was a quote, actually, from 
a blog comment. He's a PCA. We got a quote from 
a blog comment. This guy who made this comment 
is an elder in the PCA, a ruling elder in the PCA. And he mentioned 
something about this being the golden age of expository breaching. I mean, it really is. We have 
access to thousands and thousands of good sermons. For every Benny 
Hinn out there, for every Freddie Price, for every butcher of the 
truth, you've got, I mean, many solid preachers of God's Word. There is absolutely no excuse 
for a Christian today to be biblically illiterate. If you don't know 
what the gospel is, if you don't know how to explain simply the 
cross, then the problem is solely and wholly yours. I mean, sermonaudio.com. I'm not plugging every preacher 
that is on sermonaudio.com. But there are many preachers 
on sermonaudio.com very worthwhile to listen to. There are preachers 
out there going verse by verse through the scriptures week in 
and week out. Many people actually attend churches 
where an attempt is being made to do that very thing. And so 
for the people of God to not be exercised to contend earnestly 
for the faith is really a shame as far as the Church of Christ 
is concerned. When synchronized swimmers spend 
more time and energy and effort on their craft than Christians 
do on the truth that has set them free, something is obviously 
wrong in Zion. Now I'm not suggesting everybody 
quit their day job and go be theologians or everybody quit 
their day job and go to seminary. But I am suggesting that people 
read their Bibles, that people pray, that people attend faithful 
churches that preach the scripture, and avail themselves of the exposition 
that is going on out there. If you happen to be in a bad 
church, then find a good, you know, preach...find a good church. That's the issue. Go to where 
your soul is fed. It is that important. Churches 
aren't just preaching stations. They're preaching and sacrament 
and discipline and fellowship and love of the brethren. If 
you're not getting that in your church, then find a church where 
those things are being set forth. So they are to contend, as I 
said, the word was used of athletic contest and the struggle and 
effort for the athletes in their games. He says, contend earnestly 
for the faith. The faith here is not the subjective 
grasp, as I've already mentioned, but Christianity itself the Christian 
system of truth. One great defender of the faith 
said this. He said, in the first place, 
a true Christian church now, as always, will be radically 
doctrinal. So much different than what, 
well, you know, doctrine divides. As long as we love Jesus, as 
long as we can say Jesus, as long as we show up in church, 
No, no, no, no. He says a true Christian church 
now, as always, will be radically doctrinal. It will never use 
the shibboleths of a pragmatist skepticism. If you don't understand 
what that means, ask me after. It will never say that doctrine 
is the expression of experience. It will never confuse the useful 
with the true, but will place truth at the basis of all its 
striving and all its life. into the welter of changing human 
opinion, into the modern despair with regard to any knowledge 
of the meaning of life, it will come with a clear and urgent 
message. That message it will find in 
the Bible, which it will hold to contain not a record of man's 
religious experience, but a record of a revelation from God. That's 
J. Gresham Machen, who lived in 
the early part of the 20th century. I couldn't agree more. So he 
says, we are to contend for the faith. Notice the manner is earnestly. Earnestly. The beloved are to 
do this earnestly. We're not to be slack or lazy, 
but we're to be vigorous and diligent. False teachers don't 
play games. False teachers don't play around. They have an agenda. Whatever 
those psychological reasons might be, power, prestige, money, whatever 
those reasons are, they work hard to attain it. And so false 
teachers peddle their wares with an earnestness, and the Christian 
church is to contend earnestly for the faith which was once 
for all delivered to the saints. Samuel Miller says, the church 
has to fight for every inch of ground. And whenever she ceases 
to contend for the truth, she ceases to advance. She may contend 
with an improper spirit. If she does this, it is her mistake 
and her sin. But to contend no more is to 
disregard the command of her master in heaven and betray his 
cause to the enemy. Powerful words from a couple 
of Presbyterians there that we Baptists do well to take seriously. So that's the command. The addressees, 
beloved, the specifics we saw, exhort faith and earnestly. Now notice the reason given. Verse 4. 4. Whenever you see 4, it's a reason. Bible study tip. When you see 
4, he's giving a reason for the command of verse 3. Why do I 
want you to contend earnestly for the faith? 4. Certain men 
have crept in unnoticed. The presence of apostates, the 
presence of false teachers, the presence of heretics, whatever 
we want to identify them as, they are a plague to the church. Therefore, Jude has to write 
to the church calling them to contend earnestly. If this were 
a perfect world, we wouldn't have to contend earnestly because 
everyone would believe the truth. We have to contend earnestly 
because we live in a sinful world, a fallen world, a world that 
is punctuated with apostates. So Jude says you need to contend 
earnestly for Certain men have crept in unnoticed who long ago 
were marked out for this condemnation. Ungodly men who turn the grace 
of our God into lewdness and deny the only Lord God and our 
Lord Jesus Christ. These are sneaky men. They don't walk through the front 
door of your church and say, hi, we're apostates and our job 
here is to try and take over. That's generally not how it happens. 
It really isn't. You know, they usually start 
off small, and they plague on a few people, and then they get 
more, and then they, you know, have Cora's rebellion, and they 
split the earth, and it's just a big mess and mayhem. Notice, certain men have crept 
in unnoticed. Apostates would be easy to identify 
if they had horns, and they had a pitchfork, and they had a long 
tail flowing behind them. We'd say, you're an apostate. 
You're not welcome here. But generally, they look like 
you and I. They walk into a church, they say, oh, how I love the 
preaching. Oh, what a blessing it is to be here. And then slowly 
but surely, their sneakiness is revealed. This is what Jude 
is telling us. Certain men have crept in unnoticed. We see this emphasis, or we see 
this idea in several places in the New Testament. They don't 
just barge in and say, we're here and we're going to take 
over. No, we need to be on the lookout. 
No, we don't look at everybody as an apostate until they prove 
otherwise. That's not the best way to do 
church either. You know, they come in and have 
dinner with us. We don't look at them waiting 
for those horns to sort of poke out and we jump on everything 
they say that isn't exactly like what we say. No, no. Be careful. We need to be on our guard. We need to be on the lookout. 
Notice they are ungodly men. They are ungodly men. Truth promotes 
godliness. There is a doctrine which accords 
with godliness according to 1 Timothy 6.13. This does not mean that 
everybody who holds the truth is as godly as they ought to 
be. This does not mean that everybody 
who imbibes the truth of the gospel is like Paul, or is as 
holy as Jesus Christ. But those who are believers in 
the Lord Jesus, who have been justified freely by His grace, 
are in a life of sanctification, and they are, either by long 
strides or by little short baby steps, going forward. They're 
not ungodly men. Notice, these apostates are perverters 
of the grace of God, who turn the grace of our God into lewdness. They pervert the gospel. These 
would be the sort of men that would argue this way. They would 
say, well, if we continue in sin, then grace will abound. Paul counters this in Romans 
6. What shall we say then? Shall 
we continue in sin that grace may abound? Paul says, may it 
never be. These are the kinds of men that 
would be antinomian. These would be the kinds of men 
who would turn grace on its head and would blur the distinctions 
and would confuse categories and would collapse justification 
and sanctification. They would do a lot of bad things 
with reference to the grace of our God and they would turn it 
into lewdness. And then ultimately notice they 
deny Jesus Christ. They deny the only Lord God and 
our Lord Jesus Christ. John says in 2 John verse 9, 
whoever transgresses and does not abide in the doctrine of 
Christ does not have God. He who abides in the doctrine 
of Christ has both the Father and the Son. So if you transgress 
and do not abide in the doctrine of Christ, you don't have God. You know those religions that 
say, we all have God, we just have different ways? Not according 
to the Apostle John. If you don't have Christ, you 
don't have God. It is that simple, it is that 
clear. If Christians sound bigoted, 
if Christians sound prejudiced, I'm not talking about racially, 
I'm talking about spiritually, if they sound that way, it's 
because they're reflecting apostolic teaching. It was Jesus who said, 
I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the 
Father except through me. It was John who said, whoever 
transgresses and does not abide, then the doctrine of Christ does 
not have God. So Jude says you need to contend 
earnestly for the faith because there are apostates, there are 
false teachers. They are sneaky, they are ungodly, 
they are perverters of the grace of God, they deny Jesus Christ. Now this next bet is given to 
comfort the people of God. You see, what's one of our tendencies? 
If we were in a battle and we were told that on the other side 
of that hill there's a great enemy, what would be a possible 
temptation for us to run the other way, right? Maybe not you, 
you're strong and macho and ready to do battle with all the enemies 
that you know, the world can foist upon you. But a tendency, 
when we know there is an enemy out there, we don't want to mix 
it up. We have some native fear. We 
have some native timidity. Well, what Jude goes on to say 
after this is that God has the apostate problem under control. In other words, you need to contend 
earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to 
the saints. But you also need to do so in 
a spirit of confidence, in a spirit of hopefulness, in a spirit of 
joyfulness, in a spirit of remembering Jesus' words in Matthew 16. Jesus 
said, I will build my church and the gates of hell shall not 
prevail against it. These apostates do not mean the 
end of the church. These apostates are a necessary 
part of the church militant. It's what you have to deal with 
in this lower world before you become the church triumphant. The Lord God knows what to do 
with these people. This is why he points out Egypt, 
the fallen angels, and Sodom and Gomorrah. God will deal with 
these apostates the way he dealt with Egypt, the way he dealt 
with the fallen angels, and the way that he dealt with Sodom 
and Gomorrah. Do not fear. Do not despair. When we are pessimistic, or when 
we are fearful to the point of paralysis, We're immobile. We're not going to go out and 
contend earnestly for the faith. You see, what Judah's doing is 
absolutely crucial. Do this because of this, but 
realize God is in absolute control, and these apostates will never 
win the day. God was able to bring his people 
out of Egypt, God brought chains and darkness upon the fallen 
angels, and God brought punishment to the cities of the plains that 
defiled themselves in sexual immorality. That's what that 
next bit has to do with. God will indeed vindicate his 
holy cause. Now that doesn't minimize does 
not get rid of, verse 3. It simply adds some wind to verse 
3. You're contending earnestly, 
realizing the Father is in absolute control, and that while there 
are apostates and false teachers plaguing the church, we need 
to be faithful, we need to be diligent, we need to be earnest 
contenders, and we need to realize in the final day, God Almighty 
will be vindicated, the false teachers will be punished, and 
sent to everlasting hell. So that's what the next bit is. 
Then he gives a description of the apostates. We won't get into 
all of that tonight. Let's just go finally to the 
means of defense. The means of defense. The first 
thing is we need to remember this epistle. And we need to remember other 
New Testament epistles. Notice in verse 17, you beloved, 
remember the words which were spoken before by the apostles 
of our Lord Jesus Christ. In other words, when you meet 
a false teacher, or you see a church infected with false teachers, 
or you see apostates, or you see a certain man who does not 
teach the truth of the gospel, prospering greatly on the backs 
of hard-working people who are too foolish to read their Bibles, 
realized that this was prophesied. This shouldn't surprise you. 
This is the time when the wheat is growing, the tares are plaguing. 
This is a time when there is good and evil. This is a time 
when we need to recall the words of the Lord Jesus. Verse 17, 
you beloved, remember the words which were spoken before by the 
apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ, how they told you that there 
would be mockers in the last time who would walk according 
to their own ungodly lusts. These are sensual persons who 
cause divisions, not having the spirit. So don't be shocked and 
alarmed. Now, I'm not suggesting it ever 
gets easy having to deal with church difficulties, it certainly 
doesn't, but realize there is nothing new under the sun. Paul 
the Apostle had to tell the Ephesian elders that from among yourselves 
men will rise up. Absolutely amazing. Paul looked 
at elders in a church and said, among you, men will rise up, 
taking disciples after them. Paul wasn't a machine. I'm sure 
that caused Paul a bit of grief and a little bit of dismay. He 
says later in Philippians chapter 3, many walk of whom I have told 
you often, and now tell you even weeping, They are enemies of 
the cross of Jesus Christ. Yes, he was weeping over the 
sake of the churches that these enemies were plaguing, but knowing 
the Apostle Paul, his heart ached for these enemies. They were 
bringing down the wrath of God upon their own heads. So we need 
to understand that apostasy and false teaching and all these 
things, they're not new. I think that tendency is here 
today on us. You know, we see, you know, let's 
see, let's say homosexuality and the church's failure to deal. Homosexuality's been around for 
a long time. You know, women in the ministry 
or women, you know, in positions of leadership. It's been around 
a long time. Paul had to write to Timothy 
about these very things in the first century. We see the Galatian 
heresy, men adding works to faith in order to be saved. Well, that 
continues today, but it wasn't, you know, it wasn't unheard of 
in the life of the apostles. All the sorts of things that 
we encounter and deal with were the sorts of things that the 
early church encountered and dealt with. Now, maybe it's on 
a larger scale today. I've often thought we just see 
more sin because there's more sinners now. It's just, you know, 
when you have seven billion sinners and you have internet, you happen 
to see a lot more sin. But it's not as if there wasn't 
sin when Paul walked the earth. There wasn't a homosexual problem 
in the Roman Empire. There wasn't abortion in the 
Roman Empire? I mean, if anything, our abortion 
tactics at least have been, not at least, they've been sanitized. 
Abortion in the first century, in Paul's day, was they'd put 
the baby on the dump, or on the trash heap. Leave it for the 
dogs. I mean, you know, today, if you 
would have been down this street, or on Tuesday, if you'd go down 
this street, you'd see garbage cans. That's trash day. Well, 
in the Roman Empire, you'd see a fetus on that. That's how they 
committed abortion. That's what they did with unwanted 
pregnancy in that situation. So my point is, there is nothing 
new under the sun. Oftentimes, the church today 
sounds like a bunch of whiners, like, eh, we've never had, the 
church has never gone through what we've gone through. They've 
gone through it, and very often, a lot more severe than we have. It's just incredible. Paul or 
Judas saying, remember, this isn't something Jesus didn't 
warn you about. This isn't something Paul didn't 
tell you about. This isn't something Peter didn't 
get you ready for. This isn't something that you 
couldn't have learned from the prophet Elijah or from the prophet 
Isaiah. I mean, history says or tradition 
says Isaiah was sought in two. I mean, come on. You just talk 
about how bad it can be. It's been bad. It will continue 
to be bad. We need to understand that in 
order to contend earnestly for the faith which was once for 
all delivered to the saints. He gives a specific strategy 
in verses 20 and 21. He gives one command and he surrounds 
that command with three participles. The command is verse 21, keep 
yourselves in the love of God. What's the best way for the beloved 
to contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all 
delivered to the saints? In light of the fact that there 
are sneaky apostates who want to distort the truth, who distort 
the gospel of free grace, who deny the Lord Jesus Christ, how 
do we as God's people do these things that Jude is telling us? 
Well, keep yourselves in the love of God. That's the command. And you might ask the question, 
well, how do we do that? Well, that's what the participles 
explain. You see, he doesn't say, if I said that you'd keep 
yourself in the love of God, what would you suppose? Well, 
hopefully you're biblically literate enough to say, well, I should 
read my Bible. That's what Jude says. I should pray. That's what 
Jude says. I should have a confident expectation 
of my Lord Jesus Christ's return. That's what Jude says. If you 
would have said those three things, praise God. You get an A for 
the night. That's how you keep yourselves in the love of God. 
Not attend conferences and have mystical, erratic, subjective 
experiences. I'm not downplaying conferences. But the threefold strategy that 
Jude presents here for keeping ourselves in the love of God 
are those things we can do in the church and as private Christian 
individuals. Keep yourselves in the love of 
God. Notice. building yourselves up 
on your most holy faith. Verse 20, how do we build ourselves 
up on our most holy faith? We study the Bible. We read the 
scriptures. We listen to sermons. We attend 
preaching. We go to Bible study. We avail 
ourselves of the necessary information given in the word of God. Build 
yourselves up. on your most holy faith. Secondly, praying in the Holy 
Spirit. Prayerlessness makes one vulnerable 
to heresy. You don't pray, lead me not into 
temptation and deliver me from the evil one, guess what's going 
to happen? You're probably going to fall 
into temptation. You're probably going to fall 
prey to the evil one. We need to pray against those 
particular things. So building ourselves up in our 
most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit, and then looking 
for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ onto eternal life. Those are the three things that 
we are to do, or the three means or ways whereby believers keep 
themselves in the love of God. It's not a keep myself in the 
love of God as if sanctification is all me. It's not a keep myself 
in the love of God as if my salvation depends upon that. Because as 
Jude ends his epistle, he gives a doxology not to us, but to 
God. He doesn't say, now to you who 
are able to keep you from stumbling and to present yourself faultless 
before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy. To you, your 
Savior, who alone... No, no, no, no, no. He knows 
where the power lies. He knows who sanctifies. He knows who preserves. He knows the God of sovereign 
grace and the God of sovereign power and glory. It is the Lord 
who keeps His people. What we are called to do as God's 
people, keep ourselves in the love of God by using those means 
he's ordained for his glory and for our well-being in this lower 
world. That is Jude's strategy to a 
healthy, happy, and more vibrant Christian. Just making sure everybody's 
awake. You don't usually say those sorts 
of things. Well, brethren, in conclusion, we ought to remember 
the persistence of heresy in the church. There is no new thing. There are recurring attacks on 
the Christian faith. They happen a lot. I mean, remember 
a year, was it a year ago, two years ago, Rob Bell's book on 
universalism? Guess what? That's not the first 
time the universalistic heresy has ever plagued the church, 
and it's not the last time. You men, you women, in your lifetime 
will see another book written on propounding a universalist. I'm not a prophet or the son 
of a prophet, but if you live another 10 years, you'll probably 
see another book published by a mainstream Christian publisher 
propounding the doctrine of universalism. It's almost cyclical. We need a new book on hell every 
few years to counteract the new attack on hell. every few years. I guess it's a great way for 
booksellers to keep making money, and it is good because newer 
authors are getting to write, and there are some good contenders 
for the faith and all that sort of thing. But there is a persistent 
attack, and oftentimes it manifests itself in very similar ways within 
the life of the church. Legalism adding to the cross. It's Jesus plus circumcision 
in Galatia. It's Jesus plus the sacraments 
of Rome in the Reformation period. It's Jesus plus my covenantal 
faithfulness in our current situation. It's a Jesus plus legalism is 
what it is. Anything added to the finished 
work of Christ renders null and void the work of Christ. You 
know, Paul said, if righteousness comes through the law, then Christ 
died in vain, Galatians 2.21. Either all of Christ saves you, 
or you are not saved. So legalism, the opposite to 
that is antinomianism, which is an anti-lawism. We don't need 
the law. The law has no place in the Christian 
life. Of course the law has no place 
in the Christian life as a means of justification. But to conclude 
that, therefore, there's no place for the law is to misread the 
Bible. 1 Timothy says, we know that 
the law is good if one uses it lawfully. Hopefully, you'll all 
read that someday, scratch your head, and say, I wonder what 
Paul means about lawful uses of the law. Also, we oftentimes, 
in every one of these heresies that plague the church, is a 
compromised view of scripture itself. When we don't take the 
Bible as the authoritative, inspired, infallible, inerrant word of 
God, then anything goes. We don't have a standard, we 
don't have a rule, we don't have the authority of God himself, 
then anything goes. I recommended a book recently. 
I'll recommend it here in this venue. It's a book called The 
Canon Revisited. I don't normally recommend books 
the way that I'm recommending this. It is phenomenal. Read 
that book. How did we get the New Testament 
canon? How do we know the 27 books in 
the New Testament are supposed to be there? Michael Kruger takes 
that question, or he takes that theme or doctrine, and he does 
some phenomenal work. The book is the canon revisited. There's a subtitle that escapes 
me. Actually, pick it up and show everybody. We have a living 
example here. Establishing the organs and authority 
of the New Testament Yes, fantastic book, Crossway Publishers. So if you want to read a good 
book on that doctrine of the canon, I highly recommend that. 
He has a colleague named Charles Hill that also has an excellent 
book on Who Chose the Gospels. just fantastic stuff. Spurgeon 
said, remember that our Bible is a blood-stained book. The 
blood of martyrs is on the Bible, the blood of translators and 
confessors. The doctrines we preach to you 
are doctrines that have been baptized in blood, swords have 
been drawn to slay the confessors of them, and there is not a truth 
which has not been sealed by them at the stake or the block 
where they have been slain by the hundreds. It's a great reminder. The Bible is a blood-stained 
book, and we are called to contend earnestly for that faith, which 
was once for all delivered to the saints. And then I end with 
this, kind of going back to where we began. We need to do this 
in a Christian manner. We're not going to defend the 
glories of the Christian gospel by using F-bombs. We're not going 
to defend the glories of Jesus Christ by screaming at our opponents. I know the temptation to scream 
is there. I have unfortunately fallen prey 
to that myself. But that does not win the day. We need to defend the Christian 
system of truth as Christians. We need to engage the opposers 
with earnestness, with zeal, with all the things that we have 
uncovered tonight in this third verse in Jude, but we need to 
remember to be like our Lord Jesus Christ. Now, Jesus threw 
down, Jesus was vehement, Jesus was earnest, Jesus was zealous, 
All those things. We need to make sure that we 
are imbibing a proper spirit in our contending for the Christian 
faith. And I shared this last time I 
preached this sermon. I've been reading about Ashbel 
Green. He was a key person in the founding 
of Princeton Seminary. At one time, Princeton was the 
place to train Presbyterian ministers. Unfortunately, it went far astray 
of its original mandate. But he was a key person. He lived 
1762 to 1848. In 1791, he went on a preaching 
circuit and tour of the colleges in the Northeast in order to 
acquaint himself with the theological landscape of these regions. He 
imposed 18 rules on himself. Now, I'm not suggesting you impose 
18 rules on yourself, but just listen to what, just, we won't 
read all 18, you're probably thinking, man, he's getting close 
to nine here, but just the four of these rules that I thought 
really affected me when I read them. He said, rule number two, 
Let not controversy on religious subjects make me lose my temper 
or say anything hastily, harshly, or severely. Rule number three, 
let me not deny any sentiments that I really hold, be the consequences 
what they may. Don't be such a baby or such 
a coward that you don't hold to the truth. He says rule number 
four, let me in answering questions or in giving relations and in 
everything else, keep vigorously and entirely to the simple truth. And rule number five, let me 
endeavor to suppress pride and vanity. I think those are excellent 
reminders for Christian men and women as we are called to contend 
earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to 
the saints to do so in a genuinely Christ-like manner. Well, let 
us pray. Father, we thank you for this, 
your holy word. And God, we do pray that you 
would put it in us to be zealous contenders for your truth. Help 
us to be apologists, and help us to be preachers, and help 
us to proclaim and propagate these glorious truths of your 
gospel. Help us as well, God, to have wisdom, and help us as 
well to imbibe genuine Christian ethics as we go about our task 
on a daily basis. We just thank You for Your Word, 
we thank You for its clarity, for its simplicity, we thank 
You for its beauty, we thank You for the revelation it gives 
of the glory of God and the salvation that we have in Jesus Christ. 
Go with us now, Father, we pray. In His most holy name, Amen.