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.
Scripture Reading: Jude 1
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
Introduction
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.
Three Movements in Jude 3–21
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.
The Command and Its 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.
All Believers Called to Defend 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.
New Testament Warnings 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.
Contending Earnestly: The Command Unpacked
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.
The Reason: Apostates Among the Saints
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.
God's Sovereign Judgment Over Apostates
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.
The Means of Defense
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.
Remember the Apostolic Warnings
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.
Three Participles: Scripture, Prayer, Hope
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.
Application: Contend with Christian Character
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.
Closing Prayer
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.