July 12, 2020- The Church Must Not Remain Silent

Cornerstone Church

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July 12, 2020

In Christ Alone

00:05: and obedience to him, they did it according to thee, thinking about the work that's done.
00:25: But here we have something that Eureka just talked about, committing to God and rejoicing in God in need.
00:44: It has talking about rejoicing and thanking God for his provision in times of plenty.
00:51: It talks about rejoicing and thanking God for deliverance in times of danger.
00:57: Basically, it's a song that is recognizing the questions that come from God in all circumstances.
01:06: I exalt you, O Lord, for you have lifted me up. I exalt you,
01:11: O Lord, for you have lifted me up. And again, this is the point in time where the gospel has just been filled, and this is the dedication, and the proclamation is,
01:22: I exalt you, O Lord, for you have lifted me up. Three observations. The first is that God absolutely did it.
01:33: The people are reflecting and they're emphasizing that they care for God through all emergencies.
01:43: The second is that, think about that, think about what happened to his days.
01:52: His days, he says, God really didn't say you would die. He knows that if you eat of the fruit of this tree, you will be like him, and they believe this lie, even then,
02:03: Adam. But what does God do? He continues to pursue them in the garden in the cool of the day.
02:11: Isn't that God? He cares, he cares for us. The second is that God actually has a plan and a purpose.
02:19: I exalt you, O Lord, for you have lifted me up. There is a plan and there is a purpose in the sovereignty of God that he desires to lift you and to lift me up into.
02:30: John 1 .4 says, in him was life. Now, all people experience life, but his believers, his followers, get to experience life in his sovereign plan.
02:46: And that's amazingly different. John 10 .10 says, I have come that you might have life and have it more abundantly.
02:53: The third observation is that it's actually God who does the lifting, and it's not me, and it's not my deserving of anything.
03:01: It's actually God who lifts. He lifts me where he wants me to go, and he lifts me so that I can experience him.
03:10: John 14 .27 says, my peace I give you. O Lord, we exalt you, for you lift me up, you give peace.
03:20: And so our challenge to you is, first of all, let him lift you up. Let him be the one that lifts you up.
03:27: Expect it, rejoice in it, and so then rejoice when he does, acknowledge it, and rejoice in the splendor of his love, and rejoice and experience life abundant and the peace that comes from him.
03:42: Some announcements. Pastor Jeff is not here with us this morning. Pastor Ben will be bringing the message to us.
03:51: And so I want to take this as an opportunity, while Jeff isn't here, to remind us all, to challenge us all, to be in prayer for Jeff and for his family.
04:04: Jeff truly is on the front line proclaiming scripture. Jeff truly is on the front line bringing us the word of God.
04:14: And because of his willingness and his exuberance in bringing this word,
04:19: Satan feels the need to be on tack against him. And so I exhort us all, continually hold our pastor,
04:28: Pastor Jeff, in your prayers for his encouragement, for his strength, for the empowering of the
04:35: Holy Spirit to him. Remember to be in prayer for our pastor, which kind of gives me a second opportunity.
04:42: Jeff, as you know, loves to write. He has many, many books. This is his latest.
04:48: Talking with him a few weeks ago, Ben and I were talking with him, he felt a little uncomfortable about maybe promoting his own book from the front.
04:56: He just felt a little weird about that. Well, he's not here, so I get to do it, because he can't stop me. This is his latest book, and I really want to encourage it for you.
05:06: There's a fee associated with the printing. Jeff gets nothing, the church gets nothing.
05:12: It's just to cover it. If you really want it and you can't cover the fee, that's fine, take it, we'll make it happen.
05:19: If you have ever wondered, the title of the book is Faith is Not Blind, Crossing the
05:24: Visible Bridge to the Invisible God. If you have ever wondered how the Bible actually shows and demonstrates and proclaims saving faith, what
05:34: Pastor Jeff does in here is he takes you through the entire Old Testament, book by book by book, and every chapter shows you how the faith that God desires for us is not blind.
05:48: It's actually there. Take this book, this is a great opportunity. Second one is, the leadership of the church right now is looking at how can we be constantly, not just perhaps one time, but constantly being a source of encouragement and recognition to our local police officials.
06:12: They're under attack in so many ways, and for us as a church, we did this about six weeks ago,
06:18: I think, maybe seven weeks ago. We took collections and we had thank you cards, and we sent them over to the police station.
06:27: They were very, very well received. So we're looking at ways that we can do this. We understand that there are limits to what we can do because of federal and state laws, but watch for how this is gonna unfold.
06:39: We do want to encourage the men and women in blue who stand the line for us.
06:45: Last week was our baptism, and we have Ben here now. Earlier, Ariana was here.
06:51: It's great, the testimony that you had. If you desire to see it again, if you desire to pass it on to family, friends, it is an amazing opportunity for the gospel to be proclaimed.
07:04: Ollie Perry made a video. Our midweek Pastor Graham that went out had a link to it.
07:09: If you can't get that, please contact myself, Michael Stockland, somebody, we will get you a link to that video of our baptismal service.
07:19: For those of you who are new to the church, we are going to be starting a class. It's called
07:24: Starting Point class, probably sometime in August. It introduces you to our church.
07:30: It introduces you to the evangelical free denomination, and it introduces you to the concept of membership.
07:36: So if you are interested, stand by. Again, you can contact myself, Pastor Ben, Pastor Jeff when he gets back.
07:43: And finally, the Tetelestai shirts, I see Heather's got hers, Ben's got his on.
07:49: It is really cool to see them because it gives you the opportunity to people say, what is this?
07:54: And it gives the opportunity to share the gospel. If you didn't get one, that's okay, because we ordered more and they should be coming in within a week or two.
08:04: Now let's pray. Father, we do lift up Pastor Jeff and his family to you this morning.
08:14: We pray, Lord, for your very close presence. We pray for your Holy Spirit, for encouragement, for protection, for wisdom.
08:22: Lord, we just lift him up. We pray, Father, that you would help us to encourage them.
08:27: And we pray for your Holy Spirit to be there. For our nation, for our nation's leaders, there are difficult times going on.
08:36: We pray, Lord, for wisdom, for decisions that need to be made, whether it's businesses opening, schools, how they will be done.
08:43: Give wisdom, we pray, Lord, to our nation's leaders. Relieve the violence that's going on in our country.
08:51: Heal the virus. Allow us to be a witness and testimony in all of this to your kingdom.
08:59: Father, we lift up our missionaries, and specifically this morning, Ryan, Dede, Manera, who are still down in Alabama, ready to go to India, waiting for the doors to be opened so that they can return to the field.
09:12: Encourage them, open the way, prepare the path before them. Now we pray, as Pastor Ben brings us your word in the book of Jude, the church must not remain silent.
09:24: There are so many obstacles and ways that Satan would attack. The church needs not to be silent.
09:31: Give him your word. Pray that your Holy Spirit would speak through him. Prepare our hearts.
09:36: And we pray these things in Jesus' name, amen. We're gonna sing a few songs together.
09:46: You can stand with me. ♪ He became sin who knew no sin ♪ ♪
10:11: That we might become his righteousness ♪ ♪ He humbled himself and he carried the cross ♪ ♪
10:21: Love so amazing, love so amazing ♪ ♪
10:33: Jesus Messiah, name above all names ♪ ♪
10:42: Blessed Redeemer, Emmanuel ♪ ♪
10:52: The rescue for sinners, the ransom from heaven ♪ ♪
11:01: Jesus Messiah, Lord of all ♪ ♪
11:17: His body the bread, his blood the wine ♪ ♪ Broken and poured out all for love ♪ ♪
11:27: The whole earth trembled, the veil was torn ♪ ♪
11:33: Love so amazing, love so amazing ♪ ♪
11:42: Jesus Messiah, name above all names ♪ ♪
11:52: Blessed Redeemer, Emmanuel ♪ ♪
12:01: The rescue for sinners, the ransom of heaven ♪ ♪
12:10: Jesus Messiah, Lord of all ♪ ♪
12:21: All our hope is in you, all our hope is in you ♪ ♪
12:29: All the glory to you, God, light of the world ♪ ♪
12:41: Jesus Messiah, name above all names ♪ ♪
12:51: Blessed Redeemer, Emmanuel ♪ ♪
13:00: The rescue for sinners, the ransom from heaven ♪ ♪
13:09: Jesus Messiah, Lord of all, you're the
13:19: Lord of all ♪ ♪ The Lord of all, you, you are my
13:40: King ♪ ♪ Jesus, you are my
13:47: King, Jesus, you are my
13:53: King ♪ ♪ I'm forgiven because you were forsaken ♪ ♪
14:03: I'm accepted, you were condemned ♪ ♪
14:10: I'm alive and well, your spirit is within me ♪ ♪
14:16: Because you died and rose again ♪ ♪ I'm forgiven because you were forsaken ♪ ♪
14:30: I'm accepted, you were condemned ♪ ♪
14:37: I'm alive and well, your spirit is within me ♪ ♪
14:43: Because you died and rose again ♪ ♪
14:48: Amazing love, amazing love, how can it be ♪ ♪
14:57: That you, my King, would die for me? ♪ ♪
15:04: Amazing love, I know it's true ♪ ♪
15:10: And it's my joy to honor you ♪ ♪
15:16: In all I do, I honor you ♪ ♪
15:37: The sun cannot compare to the glory of your love ♪ ♪
15:44: There is no shadow in your presence ♪ ♪
15:51: No mortal man would dare to stand before your throne ♪ ♪
15:58: Before the Holy One of Heaven ♪ ♪
16:05: It's only by your blood and it's only through your mercy ♪ ♪
16:13: Lord, I come ♪ ♪ I bring an offering of worship to you,
16:23: King ♪ ♪ No one on earth deserves the praises that I sing ♪ ♪
16:31: Jesus, may you receive the honor that you're due ♪ ♪
16:39: Oh Lord, I bring an offering to you ♪ ♪
16:48: I bring an offering to you ♪ Lord, we come before you this morning, offering everything that we are.
17:03: I pray, Lord, that you'll make this church a church that will not falter when times get tough, but rely on you and your faithfulness as our
17:17: King. Take our lives,
17:22: Lord, and make them an impact for this earth, for this world.
17:30: It's a very difficult time when we live. If we give our lives to you,
17:37: Lord, we know you will sustain us, because your promises are true.
17:46: Let's sing again that chorus, I bring an offering. ♪ I bring an offering of worship to my
17:55: King ♪ ♪ No one on earth deserves the praises that I sing ♪ ♪
18:05: Jesus, may you receive the honor that you're due ♪ ♪
18:12: Oh Lord, I bring an offering to you ♪ ♪
18:18: I bring an offering to you ♪
18:27: You may be seated.
18:40: Jude, verses one through 13. Jude, the servant of Jesus Christ and brother of James, to them that are sanctified by God the
18:52: Father and preserved in Jesus Christ and called, mercy unto you and peace and love be multiplied.
19:01: Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you and exhort you that you should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints.
19:15: For there are certain men crept in, unawares, who were before of old ordained to this condemnation, ungodly men, turning the grace of our
19:26: God into lasciviousness and denying the only Lord God, our Lord Jesus Christ.
19:33: I will therefore put you in remembrance, though ye once knew this, how that the Lord, having saved the people out of the land of Egypt, afterward, destroyed them that believed not.
19:44: And the angels, which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, he hath reserved in everlasting chains unto darkness, unto the judgment of the great day.
19:56: Even as Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities about them in like manner, giving themselves over to fornication and going under after strange flesh, are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire.
20:11: Likewise also, these filthy dreamers defile the flesh, despise dominion, and speak evil of dignity.
20:19: Yet Michael, the archangel, when contending with the devil, he disputed about the body of Moses, durst not bring against him a railing of accusation, but said,
20:29: The Lord rebuketh thee. But these speak evil of those things which they know not, but what they know naturally as brute beasts.
20:38: In those things they corrupt themselves. Woe unto them, for they have gone in the way of Cain, and run greedily after the heir of Balaam for reward, and perished in the gainsaying of Korah.
20:52: These are spirits in your feasts, or charity, when they feast with you, feeding themselves without fear.
21:00: Clouds they are without water, carried about of winds. Trees, whose fruit withereth without fruit, twice dead, plucked up by their roots.
21:10: Raging waves of the sea, foaming out their own shame. Wandering stars, to whom is reserved the blackness of darkness forever.
21:20: Amen. All right, let's pray together.
21:33: Is that working? Good. Father, we come to you now in Jesus' name, and we thank you that you have enabled us to come in this, your house, to worship you in spirit and truth, and to open your
21:50: Word, and to receive from you. So we pray as we do so, that you would speak,
21:57: Holy Spirit, that you would come in power and grace to equip us, to encourage us, to challenge us, to strengthen us.
22:08: Bless the time that we have together, and we pray it in the name of Jesus. Amen.
22:15: The silent majority is an interesting phrase. If you look it up in the dictionary, it's the largest part of the country that consists of people that aren't actively involved in politics.
22:26: They don't express their opinions publicly. It goes even deeper to looking at President Nixon, those that weren't politically vocal, or outspoken, or active.
22:36: Now, let me be clear. I'm not here to persuade you to vote for one candidate over the other, but I am here to declare to you what the
22:45: Bible teaches. And the reason I bring up the silent majority is that I think there's a principle here that works well in application of our text.
22:56: And the main idea is this. The idea is this. What happens when the church remains silent?
23:04: I believe the text tells us three things, and its false teachers come in unnoticed.
23:11: Number two, sin becomes normalized. And number three, God's judgment becomes ever more the reality.
23:20: Here's the main point for our time together today. The church must not remain silent.
23:28: And here's what we must do. We have to, number one, defend the truth, confront sin, and warn people of the coming judgment.
23:37: And none of these things can be done unless we first understand who we are in Christ, what
23:44: God says about us, and what we need from God so that we can go forward and accomplish this task, which is quite honestly intimidating, challenging, impossible.
23:57: Defend truth, confront sin, warn people of God's coming judgment, I'm not signing up for that.
24:03: Sorry. You know, it's that passive approach that we take to life.
24:10: Oh, everything will work out. God's in control. I don't need to be too active in my faith. I don't want to offend somebody.
24:17: It's just too difficult to engage the culture. Too stressful. I have enough going on in my life.
24:24: How could I possibly concern myself with lost people? I say these things not in accusation of you, but in confession of me.
24:36: See, I want to make my life as comfortable as possible. I want to avoid pain, confrontation.
24:44: I want to get along with people. I want to enjoy the pleasures of life. But as most of you know who have been walking with the
24:52: Lord for any amount of time, that's not how it works. The Christian life is marked by tremendous blessing and joy, but it's also disappointment, grief, sorrow, sacrifice, suffering.
25:07: But the gospel, the picture of the gospel, we look at Jesus. Do you think that he really lived a perfect life?
25:14: Suffered, died on that old rugged cross so that you could live your best life now? Do you think he would have gone to such pains and anguish, such grief, so that you could live a comfortable life?
25:28: Of course not. And as we turn this morning to the letter of Jude, we're going to study the scripture that's going to do anything but make you feel comfortable.
25:39: And as I read the text, I was challenged deeply. And my prayer is that the same would be for you.
25:48: That the Holy Spirit would work in your heart and challenge you. See, Jude comes right before the book of Revelation It's the book of Revelation we've been studying since January 5th.
26:00: Can you believe it? What an awesome journey through the book of Revelation. So thankful for Pastor Jeff, his faithfulness to exposit the scripture, to rightly divide the word of truth.
26:11: So let's look at this book, this one chapter book. Let's look at some background.
26:17: Jude, the half -brother of Jesus, writes this letter around 65 -67
26:22: A .D. Maybe even as early as the 50's. We don't know who exactly it was written to.
26:28: Could have been a Jewish Christian audience. It could have been a letter that was distributed to the churches abroad.
26:35: And of course, we want to ask the question, what was the reason that Jude wrote this book?
26:41: What did the Holy Spirit want to communicate if we were to distill it into one point to confront false teachers?
26:52: But not only does Jude go on the offensive, but he also urges his readers to, number one, grow in their faith, verse 20.
27:01: Number two, according to verse three of Jude, bear witness to the truth. And number three, according to verses 22 and 23, to be on rescue mission for the lost.
27:13: Now these things we cannot do in our own strength. What I'd like to do today is focus on the spiritual reality that we live in today.
27:23: Which I think Jude does a great job at pointing directly to us, speaking directly to the time, to the season, to the culture.
27:34: As we read verses one and two this morning, we're going to point out how Jude describes himself and who he is talking to.
27:41: So let's read that together, Jude one and two. Again, Jude comes right before the book of Revelation, the last book in the
27:49: Bible of the New Testament. Jude, a servant of Jesus Christ and brother of James.
27:58: 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.
28:12: If the church of Jesus Christ is to stop remaining silent, we must, number one, understand who we are in Christ.
28:21: See, Jude understood himself. Jude is first a servant. What we realize is
28:28: Jude is the half -brother of Jesus. Wouldn't that be the first thing that you said? Man, I grew up with Jesus. I spent time with Him.
28:35: I know Him really well. Don't you understand that I have authority because I've been with Jesus? No, he doesn't go there.
28:42: He says, I am a servant of Jesus. And a servant is somebody that has no rights.
28:49: Somebody that does what the master says to do. Someone that doesn't have anything to boast about.
28:56: I'm reminded of this fact. We are servants of Jesus first.
29:03: How does that change the way we think as Christians? Well, I think it does a great deal.
29:08: Number one, it makes us, puts us in a state of humility. We think of ourselves less.
29:15: It's perspective. Having a master who knows what is best for me. And peace.
29:22: I don't want to have to worry about my life. I feel like I'm in control because I'm not.
29:28: The master is leading me. The master knows what's best for me. The master is guiding me.
29:34: This word for servant is doulos in the Greek. In the context it literally means those whose service is used by Jesus in extending and advancing his cause among men.
29:50: And it's used of the apostles. Wouldn't you agree that as a Christian, your role is to be used of Jesus.
29:59: God, use me. I don't want to know and do what I want to do.
30:05: I want your will be done, so use me for your kingdom. Isn't that the best place to be in that passive approach?
30:15: God, use me. Use me for your service, for your kingdom. Of course we all want to do that.
30:22: But what's the problem? We'll get to that. So number one, if the church is to stop remaining silent, we must understand who we are.
30:30: And number two, if the church is to stop remaining silent, we must understand what God says about us.
30:37: See, Jude is writing to you, Christian, this morning. That's right. You call yourself a
30:42: Christian, you identify with Jesus' death, burial, and resurrection.
30:48: Last week we had baptisms. Ben and Ariana stood before the church and publicly declared their identity in Jesus' death, burial, and resurrection.
31:01: It's what baptism symbolizes. How do they do that? Who comes to the place where they go,
31:08: I want to be baptized. Do you wake up one morning and go, I want to become a Christian because deep within me, there's something that says that I want to do that.
31:18: It comes from within. No, God works in you. God is the one that causes you to repent and believe in the one whom he sent.
31:32: John 6, 29 says this is the work of God that you believe in him who he sent.
31:39: It's the work of God that we believe. I can't convince you with all kind of proof and all kind of wisdom and all kind of eloquence, the
31:48: Holy Spirit of God must convict you of sin and righteousness and judgment. The Holy Spirit of God must move in your life to change the disposition of your heart from one of death and destruction to life and peace.
32:02: You can't find those things in the world and all the ways that the world offers it to you, you can only find it in the person of Jesus.
32:11: In the power of his Holy Spirit. It is the work of God to believe in Jesus.
32:20: How do we know Jude is writing to you Christian? Well, check out the second half of verse 1.
32:27: It says, to those who are called, beloved, kept. Maybe you need to be reminded of that this morning.
32:36: That God has called you, that God loves you, and that God keeps you.
32:44: Am I speaking to anyone this morning? Anyone? Do you know what it means to be called? It's literally invited, invited by God in the proclamation of the gospel to obtain eternal salvation in the kingdom of God through Christ.
32:59: It means when you hear the gospel and respond in repentance and faith, you can have full assurance that you are called, chosen, elected, predestined to eternal life, praise
33:11: God. The Bible says that God knew you before you were born.
33:17: That he thought about you even before the foundation of the world. How encouraging is that?
33:24: How about this word beloved? Well, it speaks to the benevolence of God, the goodness of God, that he would send his only begotten son to suffer and die for you.
33:36: Is there a greater picture of love? Do you think about the gospel much?
33:43: Do you preach the gospel to yourself? I'll tell you what, if we preach the gospel to ourselves every day,
33:50: I think we would live differently. What do you mean? Well, if we really took understanding of what the gospel is,
33:58: Jesus dying on the cross for our sin, suffering, going through agony and pain, he didn't have to.
34:03: He didn't deserve it. So when we go through suffering, we go through agony, we go through pain, we can say,
34:09: Jesus, I remember you. I remember what you did on the cross. Change the way
34:15: I think. Change my selfish attitude. My focus on what I want and what I think is right for me.
34:22: God, help me to repent. Preach the gospel to yourself.
34:29: How about kept? I love this one. Anybody that's a grammar fan, that loves all the tenses, the dative, the ablative, the accusative, the nominative?
34:40: Anybody? Am I speaking to anybody? No teachers here? No English teachers? One hand. The word for kept is used in the dative tense and I'm going to tell you what that is.
34:54: Dative just means used to indicate the recipient or beneficiary of an action.
35:01: So it's sort of a passive. You are the beneficiary, recipient of Jesus' action of keeping you.
35:11: What do we know about Jesus? He is true. He is faithful. If he is keeping you, can anything unkeep you?
35:18: Bad English, but I use it because it works for theology. Unkeep you. Can anyone do that? Can life or death or angels or principalities or things present or things to come?
35:28: Can anything separate us from the love of Jesus Christ? The answer is no. He is keeping you.
35:39: You recall the scripture, John 10, 28, I give them eternal life and they will never perish and no one will snatch them out of my hand.
35:47: Ephesians 1 verse 13, you were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit.
35:53: If God seals something, can anything unseal it? No. So number one, if the church is to stop remaining silent, we must understand who we are.
36:06: Call, beloved, kept. Number two, if the church is to stop remaining silent, we must understand what
36:14: God says about us. You see the progression? Jude doesn't just come at you and say, you need to do better,
36:20: Christian. You're not speaking up. No, he encourages us with our identity and what
36:27: God says about us. Number three, if the church is to stop remaining silent, we must understand what we need from God.
36:41: What do we need from God? Jude tells us in verse two, mercy, peace, love.
36:48: And not only that, but Jude prays this and I would pray this over you and I believe this is a promise for us today.
36:55: Mercy and peace and love be multiplied to you.
37:02: It's not like we go out to people and say, man, I'm praying for you. You are a mess. You need to get it together.
37:08: What is wrong with you? It's not like, wow, God have mercy on your soul, you heathen.
37:17: No. Or, man, I hope somebody loves you because I certainly don't.
37:24: No. It's none of that. Jude prays in full conviction and anointing of the
37:30: Holy Spirit, he says, may mercy and peace and love be multiplied to you.
37:37: Now, do we have any math fans here today? Anyone that loves math? I'm not great at math.
37:42: It's not a strength of mine. But I'll just say that multiplication does a better job than addition in making things, numbers bigger.
37:51: I can add numbers up and it'll take me a while to get to a large number, but if I multiply, whoa, man, look at that curve.
37:59: That thing is crazy shooting up. Jude prays, may mercy and peace and love be multiplied to you.
38:09: That's something that we all want in our lives. No one would disagree with that.
38:16: I want a ton of mercy and peace and love. And so, God in his mercy gives us
38:22: Jesus, who guarantees to us mercy and peace and love. So now we've introduced the letter, verses 1 and 2.
38:31: We understand who we are. We understand what God says about us. We understand what we need from God, mercy, peace, and love.
38:39: So now, and it sounds easy, right? Okay, I'll just check those and get them done and we'll move on.
38:45: We'll start to do the hard stuff. No, we, this is not easy. The Bible challenges us, but we must then defend the truth, confront sin, and warn people of the coming judgment.
38:57: And you say, I don't think so. I don't want to warn anybody of God's judgment. I think
39:03: I'm going to lose friends. I think people will unfollow me on Facebook. I think there will be problems in my social life if I tell people about the coming judgment of God.
39:15: I wish that wasn't the case, but God is calling us to defend the truth, to confront sin, and to warn people of the coming judgment.
39:22: When we don't do those things, there's problems. And Jude tells us to the church that he wrote to, to the churches, or the
39:31: Jewish Christian church, the Jewish Christians, he tells us what happens when we don't stand up and speak.
39:40: And I think it describes our day in which we live. Number one, because false teachers have come in, we must contend for the faith.
39:50: Let's read verses three and four. Beloved, although I was very eager to write to you about our common salvation,
39:59: I found it necessary to write appealing to you to contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints.
40:07: For certain people have crept in unnoticed, who long ago were designated for this condemnation, ungodly people who pervert the grace of God into sensuality and deny our only master and Lord, Jesus Christ.
40:27: See, what Jude wants to do is he says, guys, I really just wanted to write to you a nice letter about our common salvation, how awesome it is that we share this gift from God, that we can walk according to the
40:40: Spirit, that we're one in the Spirit, that we have all this amazing blessings from God.
40:45: He says, I wanted to just write a nice note to you. And that's a good thing. Write a note to encourage somebody, say, man, it's great, let me hear your testimony, let me hear what
40:55: God is doing and encourage you and talk, and we need that in the faith. But what he does here is a little different.
41:06: He says, I wanted to do that, but the Holy Spirit compelled me, the Holy Spirit compelled me to write to you, to speak to you about these issues that are facing the church.
41:23: And like the time this letter was written, we're seeing the need to move from holy huddles to offensive engagement.
41:32: Now, some of you are thinking, wait a minute, what are you saying, I need to, as soon as I get home, as soon as I go out to the parking lot,
41:38: I'm going to wrestle somebody over the gospel, and we're going to arm wrestle, and we're going to do all kinds of debates, and we're going to get into fights and all these, no.
41:47: But what I am saying is that we need to step up from the passive and move to the active. This is for me.
41:55: This is for you. We just watch as the culture goes its way, and we stand silent.
42:03: And we just let it go. I saw a billboard of a church said a strong church is a strong nation.
42:11: What's the state of our church? The state of the church in America. Is it strong?
42:19: I'll leave that for you to decide. The word contend means to speak, to struggle, or engage in something that seems impossible.
42:30: Did you know that you can't convince someone to be a Christian? Did you know that you can't make somebody repent? Did you know that you're not going to make them believe?
42:38: You can't do it. It's impossible. But God, you're calling me to something impossible. You say contend for the faith?
42:45: How can I contend with someone who's far from God, who hates God? Everything that I stand for, how can
42:51: I speak to them with the gospel? God says speak, and I will use the message to change the heart.
42:59: You see the synergistic work of God? We work, God works, alongside, together.
43:05: We proclaim the gospel, God uses the word, he changes hearts. We can't trust in our own ability.
43:11: We have no ability to change people, but God does, and he uses us for that purpose, to change others.
43:23: Our culture, today, which includes those that identify as Christians, would have changed the meaning of the gospel.
43:33: They say, if you're not speaking out against social injustice, you support it. They say, your silence is violence.
43:42: What's that all about? So God is calling us to contend for the faith.
43:49: It's to assert the position regarding the faith. It's what
43:55: Christians believe, and why they believe it. What's man's relationship to God? How is your faith working itself out in your life?
44:02: That is contending. To just tell people, to share the gospel, but that's an active thing, that requires faith.
44:09: We can't do that in our own strength. We gotta pray, we gotta ask God to fill us. See, God is calling us to boldly proclaim what the
44:18: Bible teaches, and then what man needs to do about it. It's a big deal.
44:25: And Jude tells us why it's a big deal. He says, this gospel, this truth, this faith, has been handed down from generation to generation for a couple thousand years.
44:37: And now here we stand in America today, and we have the privilege to pass it down to the next generation.
44:44: But in order to pass something, you have to speak it. You can't remain silent. Here's what
44:52: Jude lays out for us. He explains why we must contend. Verse 4,
45:00: Jude talks about these certain people. Who are these certain people?
45:06: Well, they've crept into the church unnoticed. How did that happen? Well, it certainly wasn't overnight, but there's a process
45:16: Satan certainly uses his tactics of patience in his schemes.
45:22: So our churches in America and throughout the world use the banner of inclusivity. Because in a good way we just want to reach more people.
45:32: So we invite everyone, as we should, as all Christians should invite others to the gospel, to repentance and faith.
45:40: And so what we do though, in doing so, is we lower the bar to sin, to holy living, to absolute truth.
45:47: We say those things aren't that big of a deal. Yeah, just come because, you know,
45:54: I know that you have all kinds of sin, yeah, but just come. Don't worry about it. Holy living, yeah, you'll get there, but don't worry about it.
46:02: Absolute truth, well, you know, whatever you want to believe today. And we sort of adjust to the culture.
46:11: And we depart from what the Bible teaches. And then anything goes.
46:17: So as the tide of the culture goes, so does the tide of the church. All with the hope that if we keep in step with culture, we'll win more people to Christ.
46:27: When the reality is that the church becomes and acts like everything in the world. And what have these certain people done that have crept into the church unnoticed?
46:38: Number one, they turn the grace of God into sensuality. And number two, they deny
46:44: Jesus Christ. Wait a minute, these teachers are coming into the church, denying this, turning the grace of God into sensuality?
46:53: What's that all about? Well, another translation calls that sensuality licentiousness.
46:59: In other words, licensed to do whatever you want. Which speaks to this doctrine called antinomianism.
47:06: And that just means if you break it down into two words, it's anti and nomian. Anti is against.
47:12: And nomian is the law. So an antinomian says, I'm a Christian. There's no law.
47:17: I can do whatever I want. Sleep around. Do drugs.
47:24: Commit shameless acts. I'm covered by the grace of Jesus. It's okay. And the other side of that is legalism.
47:31: It says you gotta do in order to be loved by God. And if you don't do these things and obey these rules and wear certain clothes and abstain from doing certain things, then you may even lose your salvation.
47:45: You gotta be afraid of that. So those obviously are wrong. Antinomianism on one side.
47:51: Legalism on another. By perverting the grace of God.
47:59: They deny. The antinomian. The legalist. They deny the one true
48:04: God, Jesus Christ. How do they do that? Because in their view they're taking a belief system that says, well
48:12: I don't believe exactly that God's grace is enough for me. I gotta do something about it. Or I have a false view of grace that says
48:20: I can do whatever I want because God's grace is enough for me. And so they pervert the gospel.
48:27: They pervert the gospel of Jesus Christ. See the gospel of Jesus is the power of God unto salvation.
48:37: It's conviction of sin. Meaning, I feel guilty about my sin. I hate my sin now.
48:43: I didn't used to be like that. What's that all about? The Holy Spirit is working in me. I still fall.
48:48: I still mess up. But there's some desire in my heart now to turn away from the sin that is so displeasing to God.
48:57: It's a changed life that results in changed living. It's not behavior modification.
49:04: It's not if I just do these things and change all the exteriors that inside something will change.
49:11: It doesn't work that way. It's not pray a prayer one time in your life and then that's it.
49:16: You're good. You don't have to worry about reading the Bible or going to church or serving or doing anything. Because you're good.
49:22: You prayed the prayer. You're in the kingdom. You got your insurance. It's the work of God to work out your salvation with fear and trembling.
49:34: And what Jude says next is pretty powerful. So, number one, because false teachers have come in, we must contend for the faith.
49:47: And number two, because of this falsehood, we must warn people of normalizing sin and of the coming judgment.
49:56: And we're going to read verses 5 to 13 and cover that in kind of a quick way.
50:02: Now, I want to remind you, although you once fully knew it, that Jesus who saved the people out of the land of Egypt afterward destroyed those who did not believe.
50:15: And the angels who did not stay within their own position of authority but left their proper dwelling.
50:21: He has kept in eternal chains under gloomy darkness until the judgment of the great day.
50:28: Just as Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding cities which likewise indulged in sexual immorality and pursued unnatural desires serve as an example by undergoing a punishment of eternal fire.
50:44: Yet, in like manner, these people also relying on their dreams defile the flesh, reject authority, and blaspheme the glorious ones.
50:55: 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,
51:05: The Lord rebuke you. But these people blaspheme all that they do not understand.
51:12: And they are destroyed by all that they, like unreasoning animals, understand instinctively.
51:18: Woe to them! For they walk in the way of Cain and abandon themselves for the sake of gain to Balaam's error and perished in Korah's rebellion.
51:27: These are the hidden reefs at your love feast, as they feast with you without fear, shepherds feeding themselves, waterless clouds swept away by the winds, fruitless trees in late autumn, twice dead, uprooted, wild waves of the sea, casting up from the foam of their own shame, wandering stars for whom the gloom of utter darkness has been reserved forever.
51:52: Thank you, Jude. That was nice. Appreciate that. Judgment!
51:58: All of those verses speak to judgment. What does that mean for us?
52:04: Well, we have to warn people of the coming judgment. Our God is holy. He's not our friend or our buddy.
52:13: He is our friend but we don't want to reduce God to just my homeboy as we used to say.
52:20: No, it's God is holy. Verse 5, judgment for unbelief.
52:28: Numbers 14, 29. The Israelites, they grumbled and complained against Moses. They said how could you bring us out of Egypt into this land that we're in wandering in the wilderness?
52:40: God brings judgment against them for their unbelief. How about verses 6 and 11?
52:47: Judgment for rebellion. These fallen angels as 2 Peter 2 4 calls them, when
52:53: God did not spare the angels when they sinned but cast them into hell. Korah's rebellion.
52:59: Interesting. Not so often that you see the earth swallow up a people but these rebelled against the leadership of Moses and Aaron.
53:09: In Numbers 16. And the earth literally swallowed them up.
53:15: God's not into rebellion. The human heart is though. The human heart is rebellious against God.
53:21: But that will result in God's judgment. In verse 7, there's judgment for sexual immorality.
53:28: Specifically citing homosexuality. If you refer to Genesis 19, there's this group of men that seek to have sexual relations with the men in the house of Lot.
53:41: And God's judgment becomes the final word. After Abraham had prayed, if there's only 100, if there's only 50, if there's only 10, but the people rebelled.
53:56: We can't change people, but we have to warn them of the judgment that is to come.
54:06: God destroys the city. Perversion of God's design results in God's judgment.
54:14: Verse 9, there's judgment for blasphemy. As Michael contends with the devil, and you can refer to Daniel chapter 10 and 13,
54:24: Michael rebukes the devil and says, the Lord rebuke you. See, what false teachers do is they come with all this angry vitriol against you.
54:36: They attack you. But how do we respond? We should respond like the archangel
54:42: Michael to speak boldly and calmly in the face of evil. The truth is power.
54:50: God's word is power. And then there's judgment for murder in verse 11. As Cain murders his brother, he seeks autonomy from God.
55:00: Genesis 4, 1 -15. How about this Balaam? He seeks to use his prophetic gift for his own gain,
55:06: Numbers 22 -24. Hatred in our hearts is murder.
55:14: Results in God's judgment. So what you can see in all these verses from verse 5 to 13 is the judgment, verse 5 -11, the judgment of God in the way of unbelief, rebellion, sexual immorality, blasphemy, autonomy from God.
55:33: The human heart has a problem. Because the human heart is born with all these things.
55:41: We hate God. We want nothing to do with God. We look at Him as the judge who wants to control my life and keep me doing things that aren't fun and I can't enjoy anything and now
55:53: I have to follow these rules and look at it as this burdensome thing. But no, the Bible says that my delight is to do the law of the
56:01: Lord, to rejoice in the law of the Lord. It is my joy. The chief end of man is to glorify
56:08: God and enjoy Him forever. It's not about a rules thing. It's not about an exterior appearance.
56:14: It's about a transformation that happens when we repent and believe in the one that He sent.
56:20: Jesus, the Son of God. Don't let this judgment rest upon you as the
56:26: Bible talks about the sons of disobedience whose wrath, God's wrath rests upon.
56:36: Jude describes these false teachers according to verse 12 as hidden reefs.
56:42: Interesting way to look at it. What is a reef that's hidden? It's below the surface.
56:48: So here you are, a ship going through the waters. Everything looks okay. And then all of a sudden, you hit the reef and the ship goes down.
56:58: And so it is with the false teachers. They are like these hidden reefs. These certain people, they come in unnoticed and then eventually the damage will be done.
57:11: It's just a matter of time. James, Jude goes on to describe these teachers as waterless clouds.
57:20: What is a waterless cloud? How can a cloud be waterless? Isn't it by definition containing moisture and water?
57:28: That's right. A cloud cannot be a cloud if there's no water in it. So a teacher in the church without God's word, without the truth heard it said that going to a church that does not teach the
57:44: Bible is like going to a restaurant that doesn't serve food. What's the point?
57:50: The church exists to equip the saints to reach the lost. So they're waterless clouds, these false teachers.
57:59: They're swept away by the wind because there's no substance in them. You know the Bible talks about your house being built on the rock, on the foundation.
58:08: When the winds come and the storms of life beat against you, you stand. But not the false teacher.
58:14: The false teacher is blown away by the culture, by whatever seems cool at the time, by whatever trend, they're blown by it.
58:22: But the Christian is held by the word of God and the truth of God. We're not swept away by every wind and wave of doctrine.
58:30: We stand on the word of God, we know the word of God, and we don't waver from it. They're like fruitless trees.
58:39: A fruitless tree? Who wants a fruitless tree? You grow an apple tree and it produces no fruit?
58:47: What are you going to do with it? I'm just cutting that thing down and throwing it out into the fire. What good is it? And so is the false teacher.
58:54: They don't produce anything good. You'll know them by their fruit. What is the fruit of this false teacher?
59:01: False converts? Cult following? Multiple wives? Whatever the case?
59:07: They're fruitless trees. They're wondrous stars, short -lived and untrustworthy.
59:17: So be encouraged this morning by the reality of who you are in Jesus.
59:26: That you're beloved. That you're kept. That you're called. What God says about us.
59:34: What we need from God. We need his mercy and his peace and his grace and his love.
59:40: And when we have those things, when we have our right mind, our right heart, we have the spirit of God, we can go out and contend for the faith.
59:49: We can warn people about normalizing sin and God's judgment. But the reality is if you don't know
59:56: Jesus Christ, if you haven't turned or repented from your sin and put your faith in Jesus Christ, God's mercy is being reserved for you.
01:00:06: You can do so today. Today is the day of salvation the Bible says. Do not put off tomorrow what you can do today.
01:00:15: You can avoid these false teachers who normalize sin and the judgment of God. Because Jesus paid the price for your sin.
01:00:24: He endured the cross. He despised the shame. He suffered the wrath of God and he took our place on the cross.
01:00:32: So even though the world would turn its back on God, you don't have to. We're gonna finish up Jude's letter next week with some encouragement to persevere in the faith.
01:00:46: And so what I want to do is pray that we would move from the silent majority to the vocal authority as God opens the door.
01:00:54: That the gospel would be proclaimed mightily. Since we've been called, beloved, kept by Jesus, we should all the more boldly proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ and call all men, all women, everywhere to repent and believe.
01:01:12: To be unashamed of the gospel, which is the power of God. And to love people enough to tell them the truth and escape the judgment of God that is due to each one who turns and is under the wrath of God.
01:01:28: Let's pray together as the worship team comes up. Our Father, we thank you for your word today.
01:01:41: We thank you for the truth. We thank you that it's not written by the authority of man but by the authority of God.
01:01:50: For man would never desire to speak the truth of judgment and of sin but you have declared it.
01:02:00: And God, if for anyone that's here today or can hear by the sound of my voice that is under the judgment of God today
01:02:07: I pray that they would turn from their sin and repent and they would put their faith, their trust, their everything into the person of Jesus and escape the wrath of God.
01:02:21: God, help us to be people of mercy and people of truth.
01:02:27: We would not use the gospel or the boldness that we have as an excuse for pride but we would be greatly humbled with the reality of what you've called us to do.
01:02:39: The impossible work of contending for the faith once delivered to the saints. God, fill us with your spirit now and send us out from this place in power that you would use us for your kingdom and for your glory.
01:02:58: We're so grateful that we have eternal life and that we know that we know that we know we're going to heaven because of Jesus, because of the work that you accomplished on the cross and now we declare to Tel Estai, it is finished and we thank you and we commit ourselves afresh into your care and pray your blessing now in the name of Jesus.
01:03:23: Amen. It is thine own
01:06:09: It shall be thy royal throne
01:06:16: It shall be thy royal throne
01:06:50: It is thine own It shall be thy royal throne
01:07:00: It shall be thy royal throne
01:07:14: 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
01:07:27: God our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory majesty, dominion and authority before all time and now and forever.