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Well, you can turn with me in
your bottles to the book of Jude. Jude, the second to the last
book in the New Testament. Our focus this morning, or evening
rather, will be on Jude 3, but we'll have cause to reflect on
much of the book of Jude this evening. So I'll read beginning
in Jude at verse one. 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 air 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 thousands 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, 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, let
us pray. Our gracious God, we thank you
for this wonderful epistle. Though it's short and brief,
it is packed, filled with good things for the Church in the
21st century. We pray that you would give us
ears to hear and hearts to receive these things. May we be watchful
and prayerful and persevering, and may we seek by your grace
to take seriously what verse 3 enjoins upon us, to contend
earnestly for the faith, to do it in a loving and gracious but
in a firm manner, for certainly there are attacks from without
and from within the professing church. So grant us help and
strength and grace to glorify you in this present evil age.
And we ask through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. Well, as we come
to this particular passage, it's a passage that we have looked
at before. Again, I thought this would be encouraging and helpful
as we enter into a new year. Corporately, this is what we
are to be about, sound doctrine, the truth of God's word. We're
not different because we're better than persons. We're not different
because we're lawful and righteous. We're different because we believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ. Christianity certainly has an
ethic or practical element involved, but first and foremost, it's
faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. Justification is by grace alone,
through faith alone, in Christ alone. And that faith is not
nebulous, it's not just sort of out there in some, you know,
vacuous higher power, but it's about the Lord Jesus Christ,
His life, His death, and resurrection. When we talk about the gospel,
The gospel isn't a warm feeling, the gospel isn't an experience,
the gospel isn't something that just makes me happy. The gospel
is a revealed message. It is propositional revelation
concerning the person and work of our Lord Jesus Christ. It
is about the Word who became flesh, the Word who assumed our
humanity with all the essential properties and common infirmities
thereof and yet without sin. and that he lived a life of perfect
obedience, he died as a sacrifice and a substitute, he was raised
again the third day, such that all those who believe that gospel,
that good news concerning him, will have everlasting life. So
the church must be alert, the church must be awake, the church
must be on guard, to protect, to propagate, to defend the truth
as it is in Jesus Christ. J. Gressam Machen, a famous,
wonderful theologian in the 20th century, made this observation. He said, in the first place,
a true Christian church, now as always, will be radically
doctrinal. 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 imperious
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. I say
amen a thousandfold to Machen's words there, and I think that
Jude, living in the 20th century, would have said the same thing.
So as we look specifically at verse 3, as I said, we'll also
look at passages connected to it and a little bit later in
the epistle. I want to look first at the exhortation to contend
for the faith in verse 3. Secondly, the reason given to
contend for the faith is in verse 4. And then the readiness of
those who contend for the faith is in verses 17 and then 20 and
21. So Jude not only addresses the
particular command, this you must do, contend earnestly for
the faith, he gives the reason for it, because heretics have
entered in. Heretics are trying to distort
the truth as it is in Jesus, but then he gives us practical
help on how we're to face that. In other words, it's not mystical,
it's not esoteric, we don't just sort of tune out and let them
do their thing and then we come and clean up their mess. No,
there's specific strategies involved for how the church is to resist
heresy. But notice first, with reference
to the exhortation to contend for the faith, notice the addressees. Verse 3, the very first part,
beloved. He doesn't say pastors. He doesn't
say doctors. He doesn't say deacons. He doesn't
say seminary students. He doesn't say those guys in
the church that like to read. They're kind of weird. They're
kind of odd ducks. They always carry big theology books. No,
he speaks to the beloved. Well, if we look back to verse
one, we'll see who the beloved are. Judah, 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. In other words, the beloved are
the ones who are to contend earnestly for the faith which was once
for all delivered to the saints. Again, it's not something confined
to the doctors in the church. It's not something confined to
the reverends in the church. It's something that is the responsibility
of every one of God's people. Turn back to 1 Peter 3. Notice
specifically the same sort of an emphasis in 1 Peter 3 at verse
15. Peter is writing to Christians.
He is writing to churches. Verse 1 in chapter 1 tells us,
"...to the pilgrims of the dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia,
Asia, and Bithynia, the people that are elect according to the
foreknowledge of God the Father in sanctification of the Spirit,
for obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ.
Those people are to whom Peter addresses verse 15 in chapter
3. 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. Now, I understand that
not everybody's going to be at the same level. Not everybody's
going to have the same degree of competence. Not everybody's
going to have the same degree of training. There are those
in the life and history of the church that God raised up for
specific occasions. When the church was plagued by
an Arius, God sent an Athanasius. When the church was plagued by
Pelagianism, God sent an Augustine. When Ahab menaced the children
of Israel, God sent Elijah the Tishbite to refute and reject
that man. So there are going to be those
in a certain class that are very able, very faithful, and very
competent. But at some level, the believer, the Christian,
the person of God, needs to understand what they believe, why they believe
it, and give at least a reasonable defense of that content. And
so Jude addresses the church, he addresses the beloved. And
then notice the specific exhortation. He says, while I was very diligent
to write to you concerning our common salvation. So it seems
that he was going to write something concerning Christian life, Christianity,
perhaps 101. He says, I found it necessary
to write to you. In other words, I had a particular
intention, but because of verse 4, because of these heretics,
because of these apostates, because of these troublers of the New
Covenant Israel, because of their infestation into the life of
the Church, I found it necessary to rouse you to duty. I found
it necessary to call you to warfare. I found it necessary to ring
the bell, sound the alarm, and say, we've got to deal with these
heretics. We've got to deal with these
menaces. We've got to deal with these people that are a plague
to the life of Christ's church. So the particular necessity was
verse 4, for certain men have crept in unnoticed. That's the
rationale for verse 3. So let's go back to verse 3.
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. Just want to unpack this. Notice, first of all, his
particular emphasis. I found it necessary to write
to you, exhorting you. He's not just gently suggesting.
He's not just giving you a recommendation. He's not saying, well, you know,
in the midst of the church picnic, in, you know, the trips to the
lake, the young people at the bowling alley, in the midst of
all the ebb and flow of the Christian life, you know, if you think
about it, if you can entertain some time, if you can allot a
bit on your calendar, you know, maybe put it by the church workday,
if you think about it, go ahead and contend earnestly for the
faith, which was once for all delivered to the saints. No,
he's sounding the alarm. He's sounding the alarm in Zion.
He is calling upon them to engage in a particular task. The word
that he uses here means to exert intense effort on behalf of something,
to contend. John Gill says it denotes a conflict,
a combat, or a fighting for it, a striving even to agony. I'm
sorry, that's the word that we have. What the author says is
to urge strongly, appeal to, urge, exhort, encourage. So I
found it necessary to write to exhorting you. And then he drops
down to our responsibility to contend earnestly. And there's
that Gill statement. It denotes a conflict, a combat,
or a fighting for it, a striving even to an agony. Again, it's
not something you fit in after bowling night. Turn over to 1
Timothy 1. 1 Timothy 1, to see the emphasis
by the Apostle Paul with reference to his young ministerial comrade.
1 Timothy 1, verse 18, he says, Now we know He is not actually sanctioning
taking up arms. He's not actually telling Timothy
to go get himself a tank and an F-15 and a whole battalion
of troops and go out there and gun down the rebel heretics in
the city of Ephesus. That's not the emphasis, but
he uses that language to liken the spiritual battle that we're
engaged in with what happens amongst military troops. Wage
the good warfare. Brethren, if we contemplate the
seriousness of this, it makes perfect sense. When a heretic
comes in, when an apostate affects the people of God, when they
sow the seeds of discord, when they preach heretical doctrine,
it has the effect of damning souls. It has the effect of plunging
souls into the depths of hell. We must believe the truth. We
must believe what Scripture says. We mustn't be led astray by distortions
of that truth. So the manner in which we are
to contend, it's to be earnestly. But then notice the object in
verse 3. I found it necessary to write to you, exhorting you
to contend earnestly for the faith. Not your faith, but the
faith. What's the difference? Your faith
is subjective. My belief or my hold on Jesus. There's certainly something to
that. The rest of the Bible tells us, or places in the Bible tell
us, we must guard our faith. We must guard our mindset. We
must persevere. We must watch and pray. But that's
not what he's saying here. You contend earnestly for the
faith, objectively, the propositional content of the Christian religion. We are to fight for it. It's
not our subjective hold on Christ, but the doctrinal content of
the Christian faith, God and His gospel. So I found it necessary
to write to you, exhorting you to contend earnestly for the
faith. Manton says, faith is taken for
sound doctrine, such as is necessary to be owned and believed unto
salvation, which he presseth them to contend for, that they
might preserve it safe and sound to future ages. We really need
to see it in this light. We really need to see it like
a relay race or a race where they pass the baton. The church
is to pass the baton onto the next generation. When we drop
that baton, when we entertain heresy, when we engage in the
eternal functional subordination of the Son of God or other like
heresies, we are not passing the baton. We are dropping it. We are being derelict. We are
not being faithful to contend earnestly for the faith. Gordon
Clark, rather, made the observation, Christianity is not a romantic
religion where feeling and emotion suffice, nor is it an aesthetic
religion where faith and sermons are unnecessary. Christianity
is a definite faith. It includes the doctrines of
the atonement and the resurrection, and it requires a knowledge of
these doctrines, an intellectual assent to them, a faith that
can and must be preached. So the manor, contend for it
earnestly. The object, the faith, but then notice the identity
of that faith. He says, which was once for all
delivered to the saints. Again, Manton says it is given
to be kept. It is not a thing invented, but
given, not found out by us, but delivered by God himself and
delivered to our custody that we may keep it for posterity.
Again, we're running the race with that baton. We pass it off
to the next generation. Brethren, that is our responsibility
as the people of God at the Free Grace Baptist Church, to contend
earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to
the saints. They delivered it, or God delivered
it, through the apostles back in the day. The church then was
faithful to proclaim it, to teach it, to catechize relative to
it, and to pass that baton. It is our job to grab the baton
and keep on running and pass it to the future generations.
It's one of the reasons why we pray for additional elders. We
pray for God to raise up people. We pray that this church will
be around for our children and our children's children, such
that they can continue to run and pass the baton. That's the
mandate, contend earnestly for the faith, which was once for
all delivered to the saints. Look at 2 Timothy 1. 2 Timothy
1, again, an emphasis very similar to what we find here. 2 Timothy
1 at verse 13. He says, hold fast that pattern
of sound words which you have heard from me. Brethren, in the
final analysis, or not maybe final, but down toward the final
analysis, that's our responsibility. It's not to be the church with
all the bells and whistles. It's not to have the best band.
It's not to have the best bowling night. It's not to have the nicest
pastor. It's rather to hold fast the
pattern of sound words. It's to contend earnestly for
the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints.
That's the mandate. That's the job. That's what we've
been called to do. and do it we must, and do it
we get to. It is the greatest of privileges
to be part of that tradition of passing on the baton of truth
to the future. Hold fast the pattern of sound
words which you have heard from me in faith and love which are
in Christ Jesus. Now notice in verse 14, that
good thing which was committed to you, keep by the Holy Spirit
who dwells in us. Have you ever known somebody
that had professed the faith? Somebody that had gave good evidence
and demonstrable, you know, legitimacy of their faith, and then they
let go? They stopped? They didn't hold
on to it anymore? It just passed through their
fingers? It was no longer relevant to them? It was no longer their
lifeblood? How do you account for that?
I would account for it by saying they never really grabbed it
in the first place. They may have made a good showing. They
may have made a good fakery of it. They may have been hypocritical
in past, but they never held it. 1st John, he says, they went
out from us, but they were not of us. Because if they were of
us, they would not have gone out from us. In other words,
those conquered by the sovereign grace of Almighty God, those
who take seriously the admonition to hold fast and to keep that
thing or that holy deposit by the Spirit that dwells in you,
those who contend earnestly for the faith which was once for
all delivered to the saints, they're not going to depart.
I mean, they have their ebbs and flows, they have their ups
and downs, they have their valleys and their mountaintops, or at
least their hills, they have all that to be sure, But they
don't apostatize. They don't defect. They don't
reject what they at one time confessed, because it's true
for them. It's true in their hearts. And
they take seriously the reality. But then notice as well, we see
the manner, contend earnestly. We see the object, contend earnestly
for the faith. The identity, contend earnestly
for the faith, which was once for all delivered to the saints.
But then notice the requirement. It's implicit. You're not going
to find it there. But implicitly, what does it require? It requires
that you know the faith. It requires that you understand
the truth. It requires that if somebody
says, how do I get to have it? You can give. Maybe not a Spurgeon
sermon, but you can point them to that man who hung upon the
cross, who died and was raised again the third day. That you
can explain, at least at a bare minimum, justification by faith
alone. You could, you know, take Edward
Mote, that hymn we sang this morning, you know, nothing in
my, or that's a, is it the same one? Nothing in my hand I bring,
simply to thy cross I cling, foul I to the fountain fly, wash
me, Savior, or I die. See, the implication here is
that the believer knows the faith. The believer understands the
doctrine of justification. The believer understands the
doctrine of sanctification. The believer understands he's
headed to glorification. Again, maybe not as articulate
as a C.H. Spurgeon. The believer understands
the fact that there is but one, only the living and true God.
The believer understands that this God exists eternally as
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and that they are distinguished
by the eternal relations of origin. Maybe I'm getting a bit too far
down the field, but you get the point. You need to understand
the content of the Christian faith. Beloved, you are to contend
earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to
the saints. How many times have there been, you know, people
that have come to believers and said, well, you know, can you
tell me what the Bible says? Well, I don't really know. What does the Bible
say about death penalty? I don't really know. Jesus says
love each other. I don't know about the death
penalty. We need to start knowing these answers. We need to start
being able to resist and reject those attackers on the scripture. We need to be able to spot men
within our ranks that are heretics, men that would have been branded
as the new Judas back in the day and sent out into exile.
It's interesting reading the church fathers, reading about
the Cyrils and the Nestoriuses and the various persons. They
got exiled when they were heretics. I don't mean, you know, get out
of the manse and go live down the street. Go out to the wilderness,
you new Judas, and just live out there. Perhaps you'll learn
not to deny the Trinity. That's when theology mattered.
That's when people actually cared. That's when, I'm not necessarily
advocating that, but I'm not necessarily against it either.
We could have a colony for heretics. They could just dwell amongst
themselves and have sort of a survivor situation. I'm just kidding.
But there is the sense where we need to understand what we
believe. And again, that 1 Peter 3 text,
same sort of an emphasis there. And I love the way it's couched,
but sanctify the Lord God in your hearts and always be ready
to give a defense to everyone who asks you for a reason for
the hope that is in you with meekness and fear. Isn't that
interesting? The hope that is in you. It sort
of presupposes that somebody might somewhere along the line
come along to you and say, boy, I noticed you have hope. I noticed
there's something different about you. I noticed you smile more
than the rabble around us. Why are you so happy? What's
your hope about? Well, you sanctify the Lord God
in your heart, you're always ready to give a defense to everyone
who asks you, whether it's Sophie the wash woman or the PhD at
UBC. You're ready to deal with them,
you're ready to answer them. So back to Jude, the last sort
of observation on the text is its necessity. The necessity. Notice, again, 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. Not
a recommendation, not a suggestion, not just this might be things
to fit into your church calendar. In the language of Manton, the
believer must own the profession of the truth, whatever it costs
them. I think it was in a Spurgeon
sermon, he said, the Bible is a blood-stained book. The Bible
is a blood-stained book. Martyrs, and missionaries, and
pastors, and preachers, and evangelists, and faithful brethren, wherever
they may find themselves, holding fast to the truth of God, no
matter what it costs them. Brethren, that's the kind of
thing we need to see in our own day. Hold fast the pattern of
sound words. Not hold it limp-wristedly, not
hold it as if to let go of it, not hold it in such a way that
it just falls out, but hold on to it. Hold fast. Keep that sacred
deposit, which is in you by the Holy Spirit. Contend earnestly
for the faith, which was once for all delivered to the saints.
Don't drop it. Don't let go of it. Don't be
derelict in your duty, but rather run the race with endurance,
passing the baton to the next generation. Listen to Samuel
Miller. He says, the church has to fight
for every inch of ground. And whenever she ceases to contend
for the truth, she ceases to advance. We see that. What happened to Christianity
in the 20th century? We stopped preaching truth. We
were neo-Orthodox liberals in the early part of the 20th century,
and that's what Machen was fighting against. And then whatever happened
in that center section, man, we just forgot all about truth.
We forgot all about the Trinity. We forgot all about, you know,
the eternal generation of the sun. We forgot all about those
things which our forefathers bled and died for to make sure
they could pass on to us. So if we ask the question, why
isn't the church doing so well? That's a good question. I'm not
suggesting we shouldn't ask it, but we should be prepared for
a bit of introspection. Are we doing what God's called
us to do? Are we contending earnestly for the faith? Are we making
disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of
the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and then
teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded
you? Are people growing in the grace and knowledge of the Lord
Jesus Christ, not in spite of our churches, but because of
our churches? I think that there's some introspection that needs
to be had. What is the church doing to advance the cause of
God and truth? It's not experience sessions.
It's not therapy. It's not a bunch of self-helpery
that we need. We need the proclamation of Jesus
Christ and his gospel. We need the emphasis on the true
and living God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. We need an emphasis
on justification by faith alone. We need an emphasis on the truth
as it is in Jesus. So back to Samuel Miller. He
says, the church has to fight for every inch of ground, and
wherever she ceases to contend for the truth, she ceases to
advance. She may contend with an improper
spirit. That's certainly a potential.
Right? You ever been on Twitter or Facebook
and got really upset and pounded on your keyboard to say nasty
things? That's probably an improper spirit.
Just spitballing here. You know, when you call somebody
a heretic as an individual online, that's a church or an ecclesiastical
pronouncement. You don't have the right on Twitter
to call people heretics. They are heretics. You go through
the channels. Christ has ordained channels.
So back to Miller. She may contend with an improper
spirit. Granted. I'm not saying, man,
I'm sorry, Mr. Worrywart has engaged in this
attitude a few times as well. She may, this is quite a therapeutic
day for me in disavow or emptying my soul of all my wretchedness.
She may contend with an improper spirit. If she does this, it
is her mistake and her sin. So he calls that out. And then
he says, but to contend no more is to disregard the command of
her master in heaven and betray his cause to the enemy. Amen. Amen, brother. Preach it, Samuel
Miller. That's exactly spot on. And that's
Jude's earnest exhortation. 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. Now notice, secondly,
the reason given to contend for the faith. There's heretics that
have plagued the church. So Jude's concern isn't the external
threat. Well, the unbelieving Jews, they're
really trying to get at us. They might've been mingled amongst
these people that are described here. He's not saying, the Roman
Empire, they're out to get us. The civil state, they're going
to chop off our heads. It wasn't the external threat
that necessitated this particular exhortation. It was an internal
threat. It was those within the ranks. It was those who had creeped
in unnoticed. It was those who began to deny
the Trinity. Those who began to deny justification
by faith alone. those who started to tamper with
the doctrine of grace alone through faith alone, that wanted to add
or introduce some works or wanted to exalt the free will of man.
So Jude is not dealing with the external threat, he's dealing
with the internal threat. And look at how he describes
these heretics. First, he says they are sneaky.
Notice in verse 4, for certain men have crept in unnoticed. Brethren, truth has nothing to
hide. Truth has nothing to fear. You
don't have to creep in unnoticed when you're preaching Christ
and Him crucified. When you do that, you've got
the sanction of the Almighty behind you. Go and be bold with
it. These, however, they creep in
unnoticed. In fact, look at Paul's description
of the perilous times, the last days. It's not in our future,
it's in our present. Notice in 2 Timothy 3, specifically
at verse five, he describes these wretches. He indicates in verse
5 that they're religious. It's an internal threat as well.
It's not the external state, but it's internal, an internal
problem. So they have a form of godliness,
but they deny its power, and from such people turn away. Now
notice in verse 6, 4, of this sort are those who creep into
households and make captives of gullible women loaded down
with sins, led away by various lusts. always learning and never
able to come to the knowledge of the truth. Now, as Janus and
Jambres resisted Moses, so do these also resist the truth.
Men of corrupt minds disapprove concerning the faith, but they
will progress no further, for their folly will be manifest
to all, as theirs also was." Brethren, truth has nothing to
hide. But the heretics do, and according
to Jude, they've crept in unnoticed. Notice as well, he calls them
ungodly men. Paul in 1 Timothy 6 tells us
that godliness, or truth rather, accords with godliness. So what's
the converse? What's the flip side? Falsehood
accords with ungodliness, right? If you preach heresy, you're
probably not marked by a godly and sober and righteous life.
You're probably marked by just the opposite. And so he says
of these men, for certain men have crept in unnoticed who long
ago were marked out for this condemnation, ungodly men. Notice thirdly, they are perverters
of the grace of God. That seems to be a constant target
for heretics. It's God's grace. It's God's
mercy, it's God's kindness. I don't know why that bothers
people. Why would it bother people if we preached full free forgiveness
through the blood of Jesus Christ and righteousness imputed to
us and received by faith alone? Who wouldn't celebrate that?
God-hating rebels, that's who, heretics, apostates, defectors,
those who don't want the truth as it is in Jesus and will substitute
their own way. They may do it for power, they
may do it for prestige, they may do it for control. Vis-a-vis
Rome. I mean, you've got to subscribe
to the seven sacraments, you've got to stay in the Roman Catholic
Church. If you do all these things, you dot all your I's, you cross
all your T's, then maybe, just maybe, you'll go to purgatory
for about a million years, and then once your sins are purged,
you can enter in through the pearly gates. Well, why do they
do that? Because they pervert the grace of God. Brethren, it
shouldn't take you long reading the Bible to see that there are
enemies to the grace of God. And he says that very specifically
in verse four, who turn the grace of our God into lewdness. And
then the fourth description is they deny Jesus Christ. They
deny the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ. Calvin comments
on 2 John 9. He says, Christ is denied whenever
those things which peculiarly belong to him are taken away
from him. That's getting dangerously close
to some of the online debates concerning Trinity and Christology
today. I'm not branding everybody who
disagrees with our confession or the biblical reality as a
heretic. But I'm saying they're dancing
around heresy and getting close to heresy in a way that should
give a great cause for concern to those of us who see them.
And we should pray, and we should, as we have occasion, contend
earnestly for the faith in righteous ways. So the reason given to
contend for the faith is the heretics, verse four. But before
we get to the final section, and we won't be here too much
longer, just get it in your head that Judah's not a downer. Jude's
not, you know, negative Nelly here. He's not, you know, I just
want to rain on your parade. The church is filled with these
bad guys. It's just going to be a nightmare. No. He tells
us that their judgment is sure. He tells us that they're not
going to win. He tells us that they may infect, they may molest,
they may trouble, but they're not going to be victorious because
remember Jesus Christ promised to build his church and the gates
of Hades shall not prevail against it. So notice what he says. He
points to various examples in scripture to show that the apostates
or the heretics are up against the same God as Israel of old,
as the fallen angels, as Sodom and Gomorrah. Notice those examples. He doesn't do this just to remind
them so that, oh yeah, biblical history. He does it to remind
them that as the heretics or as these others have been cut
off by God and judged by them, so will the heretics. They're
on a fool's errand. They can't stay the hand of God.
They can't stay the progress of the church. They can't stop
the growth of Christianity. He speaks of the destruction
of unbelieving Israel in verse five. He speaks of the destruction
of the fallen angels in verse six. He speaks of the overthrow
of Sodom and Gomorrah in verse seven. And he speaks of the heretics
themselves in verse four. Notice, after he says, for certain
men have crept in unnoticed who long ago were marked out for
this condemnation. What does that indicate? I don't
want to get too far afield, but it indicates that these heretics
haven't caught God by surprise. They didn't just show up, hey,
surprise, God, hey, surprise. No, they were marked out from
before. There's a reality that God does govern all those creatures
and all their actions. 1 Corinthians 11 tells us there
must be factions among us. Why? So that those who are approved
may be recognized. You mean God has a purpose for
heresy in the church? Yeah. God has a purpose for even
the bad things in the church? Yeah. God has a purpose for all
things, for those who love Him and for those who are the called
according to His purpose. So let's then close it out with
the readiness of those who contend for the faith. Notice first in
verse 17, they're supposed to remember. They're supposed to
remember. We're supposed to remember. Notice
in verse 17, but you, beloved, remember the words which were
spoken before by the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ. Don't
be shocked. Don't be surprised. Don't be
caught unawares. Don't be caught off guard. Again,
I don't think we should walk with an eyebrow raised for every
new person that walks in the church. Is this going to be a
heretic we have to deal with? You don't live like that. That's
annoying. That's just not godly. It's not righteous. Sorry for
anybody who's visiting tonight for the first time. Yeah, they
did look at me a bit odd. They did look at me a bit weird.
No, no, no, don't do that. We stop them at the door. We
got the rubber hose. We got the bright light. What
do you believe? We don't do that. We need to be aware of the fact
of the presence of persons that don't have altogether altruistic
motives. Persons that come in to try to
destroy. The Apostle Paul in Galatians
1 says, there are those who want to distort the gospel of our
Lord Jesus Christ. There are those who think that
there is great gain with reference to religion. There are those
whose motives are wrong. There are those whose motives
are driven by the devil himself. So we need to be aware of that.
We need to be conscious of that reality. So remember the words
of spoken before by the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ. You
can look at Acts chapter 20 verses 28 to 30, 1st Timothy 4 verse
1, 1st Timothy 6, 2nd Timothy 3 and 4, Titus 1. Jesus, beware
of false prophets. How do false prophets come into
the church? They come wearing sheep's clothing. They don't
come in looking like the devil himself. They mingle about. They get to know everybody. Hey,
come over to my house. We'll have a Bible study. And
at that Bible study, they pervert the grace and glory of God most
high. We have to understand this. The
apostles have warned us to be on the lookout. But then secondly,
we need to keep ourselves in the love of God. If you look
at verses 20 and 21, I just want to speak a bit in terms of the
grammar or the syntax, the connection with reference to the words and
verses here. There is one main command, and
that's verse 21 in the beginning. It says, keep yourselves in the
love of God. That's the command, keep yourselves
in the love of God. We'll deal with that in just
a moment. But that one command is surrounded by three other
phrases. We call these participles or
participial phrases. Notice, you beloved, building
yourselves up on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit
and looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal
life. So the command is keep yourself in the love of God.
The way that we comply with the command are those three participial
phrases that surround it. So that's just the structure.
When these men wrote the Bible, they kind of knew language and
how to put sentences together and words and, you know, make
thoughts that were rational so persons could grab onto it and
understand it and gain benefit from it. But let's look first
at the command, keep yourselves in the love of God. Notice though,
he says, verse 20, but you beloved keep yourselves in the love of
God. He wants you to recognize that you have what the hymn writer
would later write, prone to wander, prone to leave the God that we
love. We have a sort of a propensity, we have an inclination to remain
in corruption. I'm sure that all of you have
something you deal with on an ongoing basis. I don't want to
start naming a bunch of sins. Okay, raise your hand. No, we're
not going to do that. But there's thought problems
and tendencies. There's ways that the mind goes
or gravitates toward other things that are not good. Manton says,
we are born Pelagians, Libertines, and Papists. We need to understand
that. So he says, beloved, keep yourselves
in the love of God. Now, the believer keeping himself
as the object of God's love is not the way you're supposed to
understand this. Be such a good guy or girl, be
so faithful reading your Bible, be so faithful praying, be so
faithful showing up at church, be so faithful with the sacrament
that you keep yourself as the object of God's love. That's
not what the verse means. With reference to God's love,
God is impassable. That means He doesn't increase
in His love for us, but He doesn't diminish or decrease in His love
for us either. It is the doctrine of divine
impassibility that secures for us in our confession the statement
that God is most loving. See, if God could love more or
could love less, He wouldn't be God. So it's not that we somehow
do things in such a way as to keep ourselves the object of
God's love. That's not what Jude is saying.
He is rather saying the believer needs to continually recognize
God's love for him. Keep yourselves in the love of
God. Keep your mind conscious of this
reality. Keep your mind conscious of the
fact that God is most loving toward you. Now this isn't the
only place we see this. Turn back to the book of Ephesians.
We saw this several months ago. Notice in Ephesians chapter 3, Paul's prayer for the church
in Ephesus. three things in particular. Verse
14, for this reason I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord
Jesus Christ, from whom the whole family in heaven and earth is
named. And then notice, first of all, that he would grant you,
according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with
might through his Spirit in the inner man, that Christ may dwell
in your hearts through faith. He wants you to be spiritually
strong. Notice secondly, that you being
rooted and grounded in love may be able to comprehend with all
the saints what is the width and length and depth and height
to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge. He wants you
to be spiritually educated. He's not wanting you to know
how much love you have for Jesus. He wants you to know how much
love Jesus has for you. That's the emphasis in Ephesians
3. That's the emphasis in Jude 21. Keep yourselves in the love of
God. Now, that begs the question,
well, how does one do that? If it's not me keeping myself
as the target of God's love by faithfulness and by prayerfulness
and by coming to church and satisfying the requirements so God looks
down approvingly and says, oh, how I love you. If it's rather
understanding God's love for me, how do I do that? Well, we
look at those three surrounding participles. The first is the
study of scripture. Notice in verse 20, but you beloved
building yourselves up on your most holy faith. How does one
build themselves up on their most holy faith? Well, they open
their Bibles and they read from it. They come to church and they
listen to the proclamation of the truth. They go to sermon
audio once in a while. They listen to Bible reading
on the audio version. Whatever floats your boat, get
the scriptures into your mind. Why is that? Building yourself
up in your most holy faith goes a long way to keeping yourself
in the love of God. Turn to 1 Timothy chapter 4,
specifically at verse 13, to see an emphasis on the public
means or the corporate means of grace. 1 Timothy chapter 4,
specifically at verse 12. Let no one despise your youth,
but be an example to the believers in word and conduct, in love
and spirit, in faith and purity. And he says, till I come, give
attention to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine. He's not talking
about Timothy's personal devotional life. He's not talking about
Timothy's family time. He's not talking about his quiet
time. He's talking about his ministry
in the church at Ephesus, and what is he supposed to give attention
to as a minister in the church at Ephesus? Give attention to
reading. Why would that be important?
Because they didn't have printed Bibles. This is their contact
with the Word of God. When they came on the Sunday,
when they sat under the minister's service, they would hear the
scriptures. But he wasn't just only to read
it, he was to exhort from it. In other words, brethren, here's
what it means for your life and how you're supposed to function.
But he was also to teach it. Doctrine, here's what the doctrine
of the Trinity looks like. Here's what the doctrine of justification
by faith alone looks like. Here's what scripture looks like.
This is emphasized in the ministry of Timothy for the benefit of
the people of God. So in Jude, when he says, building
yourselves up on your most holy faith, it's a no brainer. Read
your Bibles. Secondly, prayer. He says, praying
in the Holy Spirit. See, this kind of study that
is prayer-less, not always, but it can lead in bad things. In other words, the prayerfulness
of the student of God's word keeps him humble, keeps him dependent,
keeps him close to God most high. It's the posture or position
to be in when we're studying the scripture. We pray through
the word, we pray with the word, we pray by the word, we get it
in our minds and hearts, we go to the Psalms, we see our experiences
there played out by the psalmist, and we enter into those Psalms
with the psalmist and pray them right back to God. There needs
to be prayerfulness in our study of God's holy word. And then
the third is looking, or rather the hope concerning the mercy
of Christ. The very end of verse 21, looking for the mercy of
our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life. I think this is a future
understanding, or rather an understanding of the future, the glory of Christ
to come. I think a parallel as tight as
2.13, looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of
our great God and savior, Jesus Christ. As Gil says here on Jude
21, And there is the future mercy of Christ, which will be shown
at death, in the grave, and at the resurrection, at the day
of judgment, and in the merciful sentence He will pronounce on
His people. And this seems to be designed here. So, build yourselves
up in your most holy faith, pray in the Holy Spirit, and look
forward to the coming of our blessed Lord and Savior, Jesus
Christ. And all the while, contend earnestly
for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints.
I just want to end with the encouragement from Jude. I would suggest that
Jude operates in the context of Matthew 16. He knows that
Jesus has promised to build his church and the gates of Hades
shall not prevail against it. As well, Jude provides for us
concrete illustrations that the enemies of God will be punished. They will be decimated. Brethren,
I'm not suggesting that we should have some, you know, sickened
glee by that. There ought to be a sense where
it resonates within our hearts that the enemies of Christ, He
is going to lower His foot upon them. He is going to extinguish
their flame. He is going to decimate all who
rise up against God and against His people. That ought to breathe
into our hearts and into our lives a note not of triumphalism,
but a reality of triumph. Christ will not be mocked. Christ
will not be stopped. Christ's church will be victorious. Again, don't get so proud or
arrogant, but rather rejoice in the reality that there is
judgment coming. I would suggest as well, the
Lord provides earnest contenders to fight against his enemies.
I already sort of alluded to it earlier. Every age that hath
yielded the poison hath also yielded the antidote, that the
world might not be without a witness. If there hath been an Arius,
there hath been an Athanasius. If a Pelagius, there is also
an Augustine. I made the connection with 1
Kings chapter 17, on the heels of Ahab, that idolater, that
man who co-opted Baal worship and brought it right into the
northern kingdom. In the midst of that, God sends
Elijah the Tishbite. May the Lord vindicate his bride
in our present age, and we have great cause for encouragement. There are some very faithful,
competent men that are out there contending earnestly for the
faith which was once for all delivered to the saints. That
does not mitigate our responsibility. It does not get us off the hook.
We need to contend. We need to be faithful. We need
to be trusting in our blessed Savior and ultimately understand
the fight is God's and ultimately understand we are kept by His
sovereign grace. That's how the epistle ends.
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. It's a good
fight because it's God's fight. It's a good fight and He will
keep us and He will preserve us. Well, let us pray. Our blessed
Lord, we thank You for Your Word. We thank You for the clarity
of Jude 3 and its emphasis for us as the people of God. And
we praise You that there is much to be encouraged about in this
present age. There is much to be hopeful,
concerning. And yet, Father, we know that
there is always these threats externally and internally. Help
us to be watchful. Help us to be prayerful. Help
us to be faithful. Be with us in this coming year,
grant us the grace and strength to continue to meet together
on the Lord's days. Help us in our families, help
us as individuals to be those lights shining in a crooked and
perverse generation and give us boldness to hold forth your
word of truth. And we pray this through Jesus
Christ, our Lord, amen. We'll close with a brief time
of meditation.
