WWUTT 481 Scoffing Scoffers Will Scoff?

At the judgment seat of Christ, no one will be able to say, well, I didn't know the truth.

It's this false teacher's fault because he told me wrong. A false teacher is actually a judgment against a heart that is already against God when we understand the text.

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Here's your teacher, Pastor Gabe. Thank you, Becky. This week we will conclude our study of the book of Jude, God willing, unless the

Lord tarries, and then on Thursday we'll finish up our study of 1 Kings, so we're finishing both our

New Testament book and our Old Testament book. Now I've been continuing in a pattern here that started with James, I went through 1 and 2

Peter, 1 and 2 and 3 John, Jude, and it's already been asked of me, am I planning on going on to Revelation?

Well, I answered a member of my congregation who is also a faithful listener to this podcast and said that I will not teach through Revelation on the broadcast until I've taught through it in my church, which is actually gonna happen sooner rather than later because of the curriculum books that we receive for our youth study on Wednesday night.

We're gonna be doing Revelation all this school year, starting in August, starting next month, so I will be teaching on that book sooner than expected, but not on this podcast.

Since I won't be doing End Times Doctrine out of Revelation, I am planning on going back to 1 and 2

Thessalonians, so that will be the next couple of books that I will do following our study of Jude.

I'll start in 1 Thessalonians next week, so tune in on Monday. Again, God willing, let's go all the way through Jude again, since this will be our last week in this book, let me read the entire letter, and then we'll come back to where we left off Wednesday.

So Jude starts his letter by introducing himself, 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, 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 wanna remind you, although you once fully knew it, that Jesus, who saved a people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed those who did not believe, and the angels who did not stay within their own position of authority, but left their proper dwelling.

He has kept in eternal chains under gloomy darkness until the judgment of the great day, just as Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding cities, which likewise indulged in sexual immorality and pursued unnatural desire, served as an example by undergoing a punishment of eternal fire.

Yet in like manner, these people also, relying on their dreams, defile the flesh, reject authority, and blaspheme the glorious ones.

But when the archangel Michael, contending with the devil, was disputing about the body of Moses, he did not presume to pronounce a blasphemous judgment, but said, the

Lord rebuke you. But these people blaspheme all that they do not understand, and they are destroyed by all that they, like unreasoning animals, understand instinctively.

Woe to them, for they walked in the way of Cain and abandoned themselves for the sake of gain to Balaam's error and perished in Korah's rebellion.

These are hidden reefs at your love feasts, as they feast with you without fear, shepherds feeding themselves, waterless clouds swept along by winds, fruitless trees in late autumn, twice dead uprooted, wild waves of the sea casting up the foam of their own shame, wandering stars for whom the gloom of utter darkness has been reserved forever.

It was also about these that Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied saying, behold, the

Lord comes with 10 ,000 of his holy ones to execute judgment on all and to convict all the ungodly of their deeds of ungodliness that they have committed in such an ungodly way and of all the harsh things that ungodly sinners have spoken against him.

These are grumblers, malcontents, following their own sinful desires.

They are loud mouth boasters, showing favoritism to gain advantage. But you must remember, beloved, the predictions of the apostles of our

Lord Jesus Christ. They said to you, in the last time there will be scoffers following their own ungodly passions.

It is these who cause divisions, worldly people, devoid of the spirit.

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

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

Lord Jesus Christ that leads to eternal life. And have mercy on those who doubt.

Save others by snatching them out of the fire. To others show mercy with fear, hating even the garment stained by the flesh.

Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy, to the only

God our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority before all time and now and forever.

So where we will begin today is in verse 17. And we have these last two paragraphs that go from verses 17 through 22 is the way one paragraph is sectioned, at least in the

ESV Bible. And then that last paragraph is the doxology, verses 24 and 25, which we will be looking at on Wednesday.

So between today and tomorrow, these passages here in verses 17 through 23, but you must remember, this is

Jude's call to persevere. He's talked about the false teachers.

He's warned about them. He has told the churches that he is writing to what they are to do, or the church might just specifically be one church that he's writing to.

In verse 17, he calls upon them to persevere. You must remember, beloved, and it is those who are beloved in the

Lord who seek after him with all their heart, soul, mind, and strength, who are

Christians not for selfish gain and who lay their lives down for the sake of the brotherhood.

These are those who are called beloved. And so they are the ones who are gonna listen to Jude's exhortation.

The false teachers aren't going to. They are not going to feel a conviction in their hearts that leads to repentance over what

Jude has just said. They won't even know that it's talking about them. You've heard the old song.

I can't even remember who sings it now, but you're so vain you probably think this song is about you, you're so vain.

And you know, that's kind of the attitude of the false teachers, but in a different sense.

They don't know that this is about them. They might look at somebody else and go, oh, see, this is what they need to listen to.

That false teacher over there, that's who Jude is talking to. See, that's a vanity in itself, to think that this doesn't have to do with me, but it has to do with them.

And so they will not be convicted over these warnings that Jude has given. In fact, they will try to find ways to mask their false teaching even further so not to be found out.

This is exactly the way that Jude described them when he said that they are waterless clouds swept along by winds.

So their doctrine is constantly changing. If somebody finds them out, they'll just twist it into something else and then they'll be able to go on teaching that false doctrine.

And I gave some examples of that too when we were talking about that, of false teachers who have totally been exposed and yet they just change it a little bit and somehow are still able to find popularity among a fan base.

And these people who listen to these false teachers are deprived in their hearts.

They have itching ears. And so they'll chase after anybody who is willing to scratch them. And they listen to that false teacher and go, see,

I knew the Bible said that. And that false teacher confirms it. Of course, they're not calling him a false teacher.

They'll just say that teacher, that teacher who is a man of God, he confirms what I knew the Bible said.

It's because that's what they wanted in their hearts for the Bible to say. The false teacher is actually sent to them as a judgment, a judgment of God against those whose hearts are set against God.

So Jude is appealing to those who have the Holy Spirit in their hearts who would truly be convicted by this message that he has shared.

And to not confront false teaching and to let it happen in their church is a passive acceptance of that teaching.

So they would be convicted by what Jude has said and realizing, hey, our failure to do anything is leading people astray.

So Jude says, you must remember, beloved, the predictions of the apostles of our

Lord Jesus Christ. That's important. That's an important distinction here. Because as he goes into verse 18, they said to you, in the last time, there will be scoffers following their own ungodly passions.

Why is it that there are false teachers out there claiming to be men of God, leading in churches that are huge by the thousands and the tens of thousands?

Why is it that such false teachers exist? Because the Bible says that they would.

We've got false churches even here in my own community. And if the statistics are as true for Junction City, Kansas as they are for any other city in the

U .S., only about eight to 10 % of any church -going

Christian in my own community is actually holding to any kind of Orthodox Christianity. That's the statistic.

Those were the statistics that were revealed in the Ligonier study that was done last year in 2016.

That even among those who are churchgoers, most of them are not adhering to Orthodox Christianity concerning essential biblical doctrines.

This is why I believe with Paul Washer, who has said that the church is the largest mission field in America today.

You could walk into any church and open with a sermon that's similar to what Paul said at the

Areopagus in Athens. You could say to those who are sitting there in that church claiming to be

Christians, men of such and such a church, I perceive that you are very religious for I am standing in a place of religious teaching.

And then go on to explain from there how some of the things that they believe and teach are not Orthodox. They are not right teaching according to the scriptures, according to the word of God.

And so there are so many false teachers in the world around us because God's own apostles said there would be in the last time there will be scoffers following their own ungodly passions.

Let's look first at this statement as it is given most closely.

And that's Peter, 2 Peter 3, where he says, this is now the second letter that I am writing to you beloved, also addressing them as beloved saints.

In both of them, I am stirring up your sincere mind by way of reminder that you should remember the predictions of the holy prophets and the commandment of the

Lord and Savior through your apostles, knowing this first of all, that scoffers will come in the last days with scoffing following their own sinful desires.

They will say, where is the promise of his coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things are continuing as they were from the beginning of creation.

For they deliberately overlooked this fact that the heavens existed long ago and the earth was formed out of water and through water by the word of God.

And that by means of these, the word that then existed, I'm sorry, the world that then existed was deluged with water and perished.

But by the same word, the heavens and earth that now exist are stored up for fire being kept until the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly.

When Jesus is talking about the approaching of these last days in Matthew 24, he mentions a wicked servant who says, my master is delayed and he beats his fellow servants and then goes out and eats and drinks with the drunkards.

Well, when the master comes back, he will bind up that wicked servant and cast him out in the outer darkness with the hypocrites where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

And so the wicked servant is the one who beats up his fellow servants. If you see a man who calls himself a

Christian, abusing and beating up his, what who should be his brothers and sisters in Christ, they need to be warned that they're really close to being that wicked servant.

If they aren't that wicked servant already who will be judged by God and cast out with the hypocrites, if they do not repent.

So they, by their own actions confess, even if they don't say it with their words, by their actions, the way that they treat their brothers and sisters in Christ or who should be the family of God to them, by their actions, they are saying, where is the coming of his promise?

My master is delayed. And so I can do all of these things without any fear of the judgment of God because I don't believe he's coming back right now, that he is delayed.

And so the Lord will return in an hour that they do not expect or death will come upon them in an hour that they do not expect and they will face the judgment of God in heaven.

So let this be a conviction to you that one of the marks that we show as a brother or sister in Christ, as a child of God is that we love the other children of God.

This is what Jesus said to his disciples. You will show me that you love me when you obey my commands, a new command

I give you that you love one another. If you are not loving your brothers and sisters in Christ, those who should be your fellow saints, children of God, if you are abusing them, whether it is in the sight of all or you're secretly bullying them behind closed doors where nobody can see you acting like this, you are in jeopardy of judgment, a judgment of Christ when he comes back.

If you do not repent of this and love your brothers and sisters. There are others who think that they are loving the body of Christ by claiming to be a

Christian and fellowshipping with Christians every once in a while. Well, they're associating with Christians every once in a while.

They're not actually fellowshipping because they refuse to go to church. This is not loving the body of Christ.

If a person refuses church and they try to say things like, well, church is man's institution. No, Christ established the church.

A person who refuses to go to church, I fear for their souls that they are not actively pursuing the love of the fellowship of the saints.

If you're not in regularly fellowship, if you're not in regular fellowship with the body of Christ, how can you say that you love them?

How can you say that you're growing in that love? And all of you are growing together in your knowledge and understanding of Christ according to his word.

If there is not an active pursuit of one another in love, in fellowship, in growth, weeping with those who weep, rejoicing with those who rejoice, which as my wife so dearly pointed out on the broadcast this past Friday is not something you can do through a computer.

You must be personally involved with one another in the church. If you're not doing that, then again,

I fear for your soul that the Lord might say of you on that day of judgment, depart from me,

I never knew you. You never knew my own, therefore you never knew me.

And so how important is it to be in fellowship with the saints, growing with one another?

Jude in writing this letter is talking to the saints. They have to be gathered in the church to even hear the letter read.

You would not have even known this letter of Jude. How was he gonna distribute it? Just make copies of it and pass it around the countryside?

That's not the way this letter was distributed. It was written to a church and read in that church.

And so once again, I stayed here before I go to another passage. Again, what Jude said, in the last time there will be scoffers following their own ungodly passions.

So once again, the statement that has been made by the prophets, been made by the apostles, that there will be false teachers.

And that's why we struggle with so many false teachers in the world today is because the

Bible says there would be false teachers. One other passage I wanted to read related to that and that from the apostle

Paul. Second Timothy four, beginning in verse one, I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead and by his appearing and his kingdom, preach the word, be ready in season and out of season, reprove, rebuke and exhort with complete patience and teaching.

Now here's verse three, for the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears, they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions and they will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths.

As for you, always be sober minded, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist and fulfill your ministry.

So here is Paul warning Timothy about the fact that the people would wander away from sound teaching and follow off, wander off into myths and false teachers will come along as a judgment upon their hearts and they will follow those false teachers to their own destruction.

Let me read also from second Thessalonians since I mentioned I'm gonna go to first and second Thessalonians next, that's what

I'll be teaching through. So in second Thessalonians chapter two, beginning in verse nine, the coming of the lawless one is by the activity of Satan with all power and false signs in wonders and with all wicked deception for those who are perishing because they refuse to love the truth and so be saved.

Therefore 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.

Very same thing that Jude is warning about here as well so that those who are beloved would hear his words and not be led astray by these false teachers nor would they allow others to be led astray by their false teachers because that's in this call to persevere here at the end of this letter.

He says in verse 22, have mercy on those who doubt, save others by snatching them out of the fire to others show mercy with fear hating even the garment stained by the flesh and we'll continue to talk about this paragraph and these instructions that Jude gives a little bit more tomorrow.

Let's close with prayer. Our God, I pray that you would place within our hearts a desire to love your word.

Oh, wonderful heavenly father who has loved us with a love that surpasses knowledge who has gifted us your son,

Jesus Christ to die for our sins and by the word that he spoke, we have been delivered from the domain of darkness into his kingdom of light because we did not follow the false teaching but we heard the truth and turn from false teaching to follow the savior,

Jesus. So place it within our hearts an even deeper desire to know more the word of God that we would have nothing to do with false teaching except to warn those who are following in it so that we might snatch them out of the fire and they too would be delivered into Christ's eternal kingdom.

Help us to be discerning so that we can recognize the truth from the lie but also that we would know the proper context in which to respond to false teaching when it arises not flying off the handle with everything that we disagree with but knowing exactly when we need to speak and when we need to stay silent.

Help us to persevere for it is through your apostle Jude that it is said you will keep us from stumbling and present us blameless before the presence of your glory with great joy.

So let that be our joy, the teaching and the truth of Christ Jesus in which we endure in his name we pray, amen.

You've been listening to When We Understand the Text with Pastor Gabe Hughes. We hope you are a part of a church family committed to gospel teaching and we thank you for including us in your

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