Fight For Gospel Faith - [Jude]

Father, You are great and greatly to be praised.

We thank You for Your Word. It teaches us, instructs us, revives us, refreshes us, and enlightens our eyes.

And I pray that tonight You would open our eyes to see wonderful things in Your law, and that Your words and Your testimonies would be our counselors tonight.

In Jesus' name, Amen. About 500 years ago,

Martin Luther launched the Protestant Reformation, of which all of us in this room ought to be eternally grateful.

It was really the rediscovery of the supremacy and the sufficiency of the

Word of God. The Reformation was the rediscovery of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

It recovered what we call the five solas, that salvation is by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, revealed in Scripture alone, for the glory of God alone.

And in all of those solas, the most important word is actually sola, alone.

We are saved by Christ alone, not Christ plus works.

We are saved by grace alone, not grace plus works. And what happens when the

Bible is brought into somebody's language is dynamite. When people can read the

Bible in their own language, and they can read the Gospel in their own language, it transforms a whole people, it transforms a society.

And that's what happens historically when the Bible is brought to the center of people's life, of the church's life, when the

Gospel of Jesus Christ becomes the rallying point, the flag that they put in the ground. It brings about a refreshing of the saints.

And that's what happened in the Protestant Reformation. But too often, we are tempted to just begin to assume, or to take for granted what has been entrusted to us.

And we have so many resources, we have so many opportunities to study the

Bible in the English language, probably more than any other language in history. I mean, there were many resources in Latin, but a lot of people couldn't read.

They weren't a literate society like we are today. We have so much opportunity. And shame on us if we do not take advantage of what

God has entrusted to us. And I feel like as a missionary, one of my greatest responsibilities is to simply offer a cup of cool water, so to speak, to some of Jesus' disciples who don't have the opportunity to study or to access resources like I have the opportunity to access resources.

And I think that the danger for the people that I work with is that they are deceived because of ignorance or naivete.

But the danger for us, maybe, in the West, where we have been so accustomed and we have begun to assume and take for granted all these resources, the danger for us is that we would forget, that we would turn away, that we would turn our backs on what

God has given us. A few years ago, at a convention of the Christian book distributors, and many of you have probably heard this, a pastor went around and he asked some booksellers and some customers if they knew what the gospel was.

And here's a sampling of some of their answers. And he went around and he put a microphone in their faces and he asked,

And I heard this recording and I wrote down some of their answers. One person said, one of the distributors said,

And he asked the question, what's the good news? And one person said,

And he asked another person, And that person said,

And another person said, Now, if someone were to put a microphone in the face of your average

Christian and ask, What is the gospel? The average Christian would probably not know how to respond.

There would be probably some very personalized responses similar to these.

People sometimes do not even know how to articulate the gospel. And that is a symptom of a larger problem.

There are two main modes of attack that Satan wages in the church throughout all of history.

In every era, those two main modes of attack are persecution and false teaching.

In every era, in some countries more than others, there are activities of Satan to persecute the church of Christ.

Christians are thrown in prison, they're fined, they're beaten. And sometimes this overt persecution can be likened in warfare to maybe like sniper fire.

You never know when someone is going to be targeted by the state. You never know when they're going to be taken away.

So you're forced to be a committed Christian. That's the way it is in some parts of the Middle East and Eastern Asia. And then in other parts of the world where Christianity is more tolerated, like maybe here still, we still have the significant blessing of not being overtly persecuted in the way that other countries are.

But the danger for us is sometimes greater because we get fooled into thinking that all is well, that we live in peacetime.

And we start letting down our guard and we start anticipating, or we stop anticipating persecution and we start being duped by false teaching.

So instead of sniper fire, as in some of those overtly persecuted countries, Christians in those more tolerant places, they're more like victims of a secret chemical bomb that has spread its invisible and deadly toxins.

Satan attacks Christians through the invisible chemicals of false teaching and that happens even on the mission field, as I shared and alluded to this morning.

There are many non -born -again church -going people who think they are Christians who are deceived into thinking that they worship the

God of the Bible when in actuality they don't. They've been gassed by the deception from the enemy and their only hope, our only hope, is to put on the gas mask of the pure oxygen found in the

Gospel of Jesus Christ. To daily put on the Gospel and to breathe the pure air of the

Gospel because these chemicals of false teaching, they're spread through many means. It is for this grave danger that Jude was written.

It's one of the most neglected books in the New Testament, maybe because it's so short but also maybe because it's second to the last in the

New Testament. It's very important to understand the heart of the book, that it's for the sake of our souls, it's for one another, it's for those in our church, our ministries.

The message of Jude is kind of like a parent, in a sense, telling a child not to follow the dog into the bathroom and drink the toilet water.

The parent's concern is not that the child would just not drink water. Of course the child can drink water, but it should be pure water.

It should be good water. It should be healthy water. It should not be poisoned water. Jude is not just telling these

Christians what they shouldn't do. He's warning them and saying there's better water to drink.

Go to the Gospel. Keep yourself in the Gospel. Be careful to drink the pure water of the

Word of God found in the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Though this book is well known for its call to contend for the faith, to fight for the faith, it's actually less known for what it teaches about God's covenant -keeping power.

I'm not going to be able to touch every verse tonight in Jude. I'm just going to kind of do a flyover of the general theology of Jude.

But pay attention to the word keep or kept in the very beginning of Jude and the very end of Jude.

Whenever you see something like that, similar themes or similar words at the beginning or the end of a major text or a major book, what that is, that's a literary device.

It's called an inclusio or a bookend. It tells you something. It's like a literary container.

It tells you something about what's inside. It helps you understand the rest of the book through those major themes that are in the beginning and the end.

Pay attention to the word keep or kept. It tells us something about God's power and his desire for his people.

And then it tells us something about how to understand the rest of Jude. So let's start with the first four verses of Jude.

It says, it's an introduction. Jude, a servant of Jesus Christ and brother of James to those who are called, beloved in God the

Father and kept for Jesus Christ, may mercy and peace and love be multiplied to you.

Beloved, although I was very eager to write to you about our common salvation, I found it necessary to write appealing to you to contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints.

For certain people have crept in unnoticed who long ago were designated for this condemnation, ungodly people who pervert the grace of our

God into sensuality and deny our only master and Lord Jesus Christ. Now, I'm going to just go through and ask very simple interpretive questions of these first four verses, just as the intro.

Who? Who is he? Jude, a servant of Jesus Christ and brother of James. Now, these are not throwaway words.

This is not a throwaway introduction. It's very important to remember who this person is and see the significance of how he introduces himself.

That really gives weight to the thrust of the rest of the letter. The context is so crucial here.

Jude introduces himself as a servant or a slave of Jesus Christ.

He could have introduced himself and claimed a holy pedigree because he was the half -brother of Jesus.

He was the brother of James. And James, who's James? He's the brother of Jesus. You see this in Matthew 13, 53 and Mark 6, 1.

Jude is the half -brother of Jesus.

He was initially called Judas, but tradition says because of the defection of Judas Iscariot, he shortened his name to avoid confusion.

He says he's James' brother, but his mention of his relation to Jesus is that he's a servant.

Is that significant? I think that's significant. If there were any apostles who could have claimed familiarity and casual friendship with Jesus, it would have been

James or Jude. Jude could have said, let me tell you something. Let me tell you something about Jesus that nobody has ever heard before.

Let me tell you something that I've seen Jesus do. Let me tell you about an experience or a special word that Jesus gave me.

If anybody could have written a book called Simply Jesus, The Secret Message of Jesus, or Jesus Calling, it would have been

Jude. He could have written that. He could have claimed a special knowledge of Jesus that nobody could have claimed.

But instead, what does he do? He humbles himself, and he claims to be the slave, the servant of Jesus Christ.

Now, next interpretive question. To whom? To whom is he writing? He's writing to those who are called, those who are beloved in God the

Father, and what? Kept, kept for Jesus Christ, the effectually called, the elect, those who are kept, who are treasured, cherished, precious in the

Father's family. Guarded, protected, secured for Jesus. Those who are elect, called by God, for sure from eternity past, and are secure forever.

This letter is a means of warning and keeping God's people in salvation.

It's not inferring that the true elect can lose their salvation. But there are many who will maybe closely associate with the elect who will fall away, that are not elect.

What this letter does teach is that there are false converts among the true people of God who might fall away and prove that they were never born again.

It serves as a warning against that, and it will consequently be the means, it will be the means of keeping the people of God secure for Jesus Christ.

The truly called and beloved will heed the warnings and submit to the commands to be kept for Jesus.

Now in verse 2, let's ask the next interpretive question. What? What's his purpose? What is he writing to do?

What does he want to achieve in this short letter? He says, may mercy and peace and love be multiplied to you.

Verse 3, Beloved, although I was very eager to write to you about our common salvation, I found it necessary to write appealing to you to contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints.

So his desire is that this letter would work mercy and peace and love. He has not an intention to be argumentative or contentious from start to finish.

He is motivated by love for the spiritual warfare and eternal security of these people. And secondly, notice he is initially eager to write about gospel doctrines, he says.

But instead of doing that, the Holy Spirit inspires him, the Holy Spirit moves him to write a battle cry to fight for the gospel faith.

This letter is one of the latest letters in the New Testament.

And you know that because it says the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints. It's talking about the other gospels and the other epistles that were already in broad circulation in the churches in that time.

In other words, even the churches and the apostles at that time, they knew which letters were inspired.

And they knew that there was no longer need for more inspired doctrinal letters.

So Jude is now saying he would have loved to write another Romans or maybe another Galatians or Ephesians.

But that's not necessary anymore. What the Spirit had said through Paul and Peter and others, it was sufficient.

If anyone, again, if anyone could have claimed a special words from Jesus or a special gospel from Jesus, it could have been his half -brother

Jude. But Jude says what has already been written by the apostles, the already written apostolic teaching is sufficient.

No more needs to be said. Now that's a rebuke on people today who think that more can be said or should be said in addition to what has been said.

Even Jude said back then, no more needs to be said. The Holy Spirit is leading me to write to call you to contend for what has already been said, what's already in broad circulation.

Now the Holy Spirit wants them to fight for apostolic teaching. Don't assume all is well now that the doctrine of salvation has been explained.

There are truth traitors in the churches. The best way to fight the war against false teaching is to exalt and contend for gospel doctrine.

John MacArthur points this out in his book Truth War. He says it's a war that is not fought on foreign shores.

It's a civil war that is waged in the church until Christ returns.

In any country, whatever city, whatever time period, this is a war with undercover truth terrorists.

Now let's ask the next interpretive question in verse 4. Why? What's the purpose?

What's the motivation behind this? He says, 4, this is a purpose statement, 4. People have crept in unnoticed who long ago were designated for this condemnation, ungodly people who pervert the grace of our

God into sensuality and deny our only Master and Savior, or Master and Lord, excuse me, Jesus Christ.

So Jude, he's reporting what essentially what Paul had predicted would happen when he said goodbye to the elders in the church in Ephesus.

Paul said in his closing exhortation in Acts 20, fierce wolves would come into the church even from among the elders and speak twisted things to deceive the disciples.

You see this in Acts 20, 28. So sometimes these people are leaders in the church.

Sometimes they're elders. Sometimes they're what they used to call maybe itinerant prophets. That would be maybe the equivalent of people whose sermons or music or books can be obtained through the internet conferences or radio today.

They could be false missionaries, false ministers. And notice Jude, he has certain people in mind.

But in this particular example, he doesn't name them, though both Jesus and Paul do that. It's a warning against what's called apostasy.

And apostasy is basically the transliteration from the Greek word for falling away. An apostate is a person who falls away or a fall awayer.

Apostates, they're defectors. They are traitors. They start off in outward agreement with the gospel and then over time they start to assume or promote a defective false teaching, false gospel, and then they make a practice of sinning without repentance.

Some characteristics of apostates is they're described in verses 8 to 13.

He warns these people about these false teachers, these false believers. He describes them as those who rely on their dreams, those who reject authority, those who blaspheme what they don't understand.

They forsake truth for their desires. They're rebellious against God -ordained authority in the church.

They are people who participate in church worship but are destructive if you get too close to them.

They're leaders who indulge themselves instead of feeding the flock. They're clouds that look like they have much -needed rain but they really have no water.

They just blow around in the sky. They're like trees that bear no fruit, though they ought to.

They're like uncontrollable waves. They're like aimless, unstable, unguided stars that give misleading guidance to others.

Now, it would seem that the early church, of any church in history, should have been immune to false teaching and people who were falling away.

But in fact, almost every letter written to the churches in the New Testament, almost every letter addressed this threat of apostasy in the churches.

Even in Revelation, less than a generation after Paul, five of the seven churches in Asia Minor were in danger of falling into apostasy.

And today, those churches in Turkey are Muslim mosques. Now, Jude says they crept into the flock, the church, unnoticed.

How does that happen? How can that happen? How do they enter churches or denominations or mission agencies unnoticed?

Sometimes they come in professing gospel doctrines, maybe from a verbal testimony. No one can distinguish them from another typical

I prayed the prayer sort of testimony. Oftentimes, false leaders, false teachers, they're like chameleons.

They know what to be said to be accepted, and they may even have a sound doctrinal statement on their ministry or church website.

But what they say in their sermons, their Bible studies, their trainings, their conferences, their books, it does not reflect gospel faith.

You see this all the time in missions. People, they just checkmark the box in a very minimalistic doctrinal statement at the mission agency's website.

But just because they did that doesn't mean they promote that doctrine. They end up doing a lot of other things, and they add to or they take away from that doctrine.

They might even use the same vocabulary, but oftentimes they use a different dictionary.

They use words like gospel, kingdom, grace, love, Jesus, hell, sin, resurrection, faith, spirituality, but then they upload their own definitions.

They start out professing the true gospel, but then they'll add to it or take away from it. It's their shtick, so to speak.

It's their selling point. It's what gets them in. They know how to speak truth in a way that sounds good, but they speak it to the exclusion of other truths.

They ask questions maybe more than they give propositions. They prefer friendship over debates, peaceful tolerance over propositional truth, cordiality over conflict.

They often will quote scripture out of context and glue scriptures together to suit their own needs or their own desires or what their agenda is pushing.

And then one thing to point out is that there is a difference between a bad teacher and a false teacher.

All of us at some point are immature, under -discipled Christians in need of better training.

And the difference between a bad, immature teacher and a false teacher is often seen in how they humbly and affectionately submit themselves to the full counsel of God and the kingship of Christ and whether or not they resist such submission.

We need to have mercy on those who are less along in their spiritual walk, who are more immature in the faith because we're all there at some point and all of us are still a work in progress.

But there's the heart attitude that submits to the purposes and the counsel of God that reveals whether or not they are seeking to grow and become better teachers.

There are some warning signs of false teaching. One warning sign that we know in scripture and in church history is that there's often a low or a casual cavalier view of scripture and a high view of man oftentimes.

False teachers, they'll say that maybe the Bible is infallible, but they don't treat it like it's sufficient.

I've seen that. I've seen that a lot on the mission field. I've seen missionaries who'll sign off on a doctoral statement that says the

Bible is infallible, but you couldn't tell them apart from any other NGO, any other organization because they don't treat it like it's sufficient.

They use their own imaginations, their opinions, their experiences, their ideas of what works best as a supplement to the

Bible. They use the Bible just enough to sound Christian, but never use it as though it were enough.

They talk about maybe the goodness of man, and often false teaching, they don't uphold original sin or total depravity.

They say man is essentially good and that his evil tendencies are environmentally influenced, and so transformation comes about through some sort of external change.

And now false teachers, they will historically claim some new or secret knowledge, and this is characteristic of that old heresy called

Gnosticism, which you've all probably heard of. It's that idea of a secret spiritual knowledge of God that others don't have.

So any Christian who claims to have a new perspective or a secret message or a new method that really works this time, especially as it relates to the

Gospel, the general rule of thumb is be suspicious and wait because often these things, the bad fruits of these things are manifest over time.

Any spiritual practice or theological idea that is new or innovative that claims to be the silver bullet, so to speak, should be investigated very cautiously and treated suspiciously.

False teachers, oftentimes they love to talk about the grace of God to the exclusion of the holiness of God.

Jeremiah 23, 16 says, The Lord of hosts says thus,

Do not listen to the words of those prophets who prophesy to you, filling you with vain hopes.

They speak visions of their own minds, not from the mouth of the Lord. They say continually to those who despise the word of the

Lord, It shall be well with you. And to everyone who stubbornly follows his own heart, they say,

No disaster shall come upon you. Now, why in the world would

God allow false teaching to be among the church, to be among the people of God?

Well, one reason we see from Scripture is He allows it as actually a judgment on false converts.

False teachers are God's permissive judgment on false converts. There are people who want their ears tickled and there are people who want to reimagine and redefine and recreate theology, the

Bible, Jesus, the church. And so what does God do? He sends them a delusion using false teachers to seal their defection, to seal their rebellion.

So when you see people devoutly following leaders who want to use God for miracles or use

God for prosperity or postmodern professing, quote, Christians who question divine sovereign authority and gospel doctrine, when you see people passionately following them, devoutly following them, you know that God has permissively judged them and essentially said,

Thy will be done. Because the Bible says such deception is the spirit of the Antichrist in his 2

Thessalonians 2 says, by the activity of Satan with all power and false signs and wonders and with all wicked deception for those who are perishing because they refuse to love the truth and so be saved.

So God sends them a strong delusion so that they may believe what is false in order that all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness.

And now a second reason that God allows false teaching is to test his people's love for him and to demonstrate who the true people of God are.

And you see this exemplified at the end of Deuteronomy 12 and the beginning of Deuteronomy 13.

It says, Everything I command you, you shall be careful to do. You shall not add to it or take from it.

And then God says in verse 1 of chapter 13, If a prophet or a dreamer of dreams arises among you and gives you a sign and a wonder, and the sign or wonder that he tells you comes to pass, that's significant what he's saying here.

And then if he says, Let us go after other gods which you have not known and let us serve them, you shall not listen to the words of that prophet or that dreamer of dreams.

For the Lord your God is testing you to know whether you love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul.

You shall walk after the Lord your God and fear him and keep his commandments and obey his voice and you shall serve him and hold fast to him.

So these people, they may have done or said things that actually have come to pass so they've, in a sense, they've passed the initial sniff test of whether or not they're a true prophet.

But they may have done something that came to pass but then they go on to start teaching doctrine and they say,

Well, let's go after these other gods. And then God says, Okay, even though they've passed that test, listen to what's coming out of their mouth.

Are they drawing you to me or are they drawing you away from me? And God is testing his people's love for him and the way that his people evidence their love for him is by holding fast to the commandments of the

Lord, by holding fast to the word of the Lord. Again, he says, Don't listen to the words of those prophets or those dreamer of dreams.

The Lord is testing you to know whether you love the

Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul. False teachers, they'll disdain the lordship of Christ.

And you see this also in Jude. There are some who say today, there are some who say that repentance is unnecessary, that you can assent to the facts of the cross and you can assent to the facts of the resurrection and then the next day go on and live like an unbeliever and you'll be saved in the end.

You just might lose a bunch of rewards in eternity. This is not true. This is false.

They'll say that God is so gracious that you can believe once and be saved and then just live independent of God and just not go to hell.

They scoff at people who emphasize the commands and the demands of Christ to follow his lordship and to follow his kingship.

They often hate the sovereignty of God. This particular system that is propounded by some today, they say that surrender to Christ's lordship, it's just an optional matter.

It says that every reference to the lordship of Christ should be omitted, really, from the gospel message.

It's just an add -on. It's optional. False teachers, they despise divine lordship and sovereign authority of Christ.

And this is exactly what Jude is saying here. Jude says these people are those who, what, pervert the grace of our

God into sensuality and they deny our only master and lord,

Jesus Christ. These are two very potent words for the sovereign authority of Jesus Christ, the sovereign lordship of Christ.

It can't get much more explicit than this. They deny this. So how and why are we susceptible to false teaching?

Well, Kevin Van Hooser, he's a professor at Wheaton College. He gives a succinct historical example of what he thinks might be happening again in contemporary evangelicalism.

He argues that contemporary evangelicalism has been deceived or duped into assuming the gospel.

He says the first generation of Mennonites, they treasured the gospel. They preached the cross and they applied the gospel.

But then the second generation, they assumed the gospel. They focused on pragmatic and moralistic methods of helping people grow spiritually.

They emphasized innovation, creativity, and lowered their values of doctrinal purity and biblical fidelity.

And then the third generation, they lost the gospel. They promoted tolerance and peace in the name of God's love and viewed

Christ only as an exemplary teacher. They embraced universalism and scorned those who preached the cross.

And we're only a generation away from losing the gospel if we are assuming the gospel.

We have to always be contending for it, to be promoting it, to be delighting in it, to be treasuring it, to be keeping it.

We have to always stay focused, keep the gas mask of the gospel on and protect ourselves against the chemical warfare of Satan's false teaching.

How do we stay vigilant? How do we stay watchful? And Jude answers this in Jude 20 and 21.

He says, But you, beloved, building yourselves up in the most holy faith and praying in the

Holy Spirit, this is the command, keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting for the mercy of our

Lord Jesus Christ that leads to eternal life. There's one command here, to keep yourself in the love of God.

And you do that by building yourselves up in the most holy faith and praying in the Holy Spirit and by waiting for the mercy of our

Lord Jesus Christ that leads to eternal life. We keep ourselves in the love of God. He's exhorting

Christians in every age to contend for the gospel alone that is revealed in scripture alone.

Keep going to the word of Christ, the gospel, being amazed by the sovereign grace of God, not turning it into a license for sensuality, but loving the lordship of Christ.

Keep trusting in Christ's righteousness credited to you and his substitutionary atonement on your behalf.

Don't add to it. Don't take away from it. Love and submit to the lordship of Christ. Obey him as his servant.

Don't treat him with a cavalier, casual attitude, but submit to him as Jude modeled as a servant of Christ.

Contend for gospel, doctrine, and keep the main thing the main thing. And now, part of our assurance that we can do this is not in our own strength.

Part of our assurance comes in the next two verses, and we see this by asking the question, for whom?

For whom are we kept? Now, the great, the great benediction now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy.

To the only God, our savior, through Jesus Christ, our lord, be glory and majesty and dominion and authority before all time and now and forever.

Amen. Now, putting Jude 20 -25 together, the evidence that God is keeping us for himself is seen in our keeping ourselves for him.

We don't have the power and the strength to keep ourselves for God, but we do it.

We keep ourselves for him by trusting in him who keeps us for him.

We're not saved by faith and then sanctified by works. We are saved by faith and sanctified in faith, and we keep ourselves by trusting in him who has covenanted himself to keep us for him.

I love what Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15. It's very similar.

Paul says this, I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, in which you received, past tense, in which you stand, present tense, and by which you are being saved, ongoing tense, if, conditional statement, if you hold fast to the word that I preached to you unless you believed in vain.

Now, God, as a summary, God will keep his people.

And the way he keeps his people, according to Jude, is by his people keeping themselves in the love of God and contending and fighting for gospel faith.

Jude is a hopeful book. It's not supposed to be an antagonistic book.

It's a hopeful book that God is the keeper. God is our keeper, and we know he's keeping us in our keeping ourselves in him.

Let me close by reading Psalm 121. This last fall, my boys and I memorized

Psalm 19, and this winter we memorized Psalm 121. And I love this psalm.

I commend it to you as after you've memorized Psalm 19, before maybe Father's Day, you can do

Psalm 121, it's shorter. Psalm 121, I lift up my eyes to the hills, from where does my help come?

My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth. He will not let your foot be moved.

He who keeps you will not slumber. Behold, he who keeps

Israel will neither slumber nor sleep. The Lord is your keeper.

The Lord is your shade on your right hand. The sun shall not strike you by day, nor the moon by night.

The Lord will keep you from all evil. He will keep your life. The Lord will keep your going out and your coming in from this time forth and forevermore.

Let's pray. Oh God, you are the great keeper. You keep your vineyard.

You keep your flock. You keep your people. I pray

Lord that you keep our hearts faithful, keeping us in the holy love of God.

That we would keep the gospel as evidence of your keeping us for yourself. I pray

Lord, seal these words on our hearts and make us love you more. In Jesus name, Amen.