Wednesday, May 17, 2023 PM

Prayer of Thanksgiving and Opening in Jesus’ Name

Thank you for bringing us here, where we can stop and worship you, where we can come and speak about your word with like-minded people. We can come and be refreshed through food and fellowship, being around like-minded people, brothers and sisters in the Lord.

We pray for tonight. I ask that as I bring the lesson that you would be with my tongue, that your word would shine forth, that you would be glorified, and that the saints would be edified. Again, we thank you so much that we can come and be together and hear your word.

In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. If you would turn to Jude, we are going to be going through the book of Jude. Jude is a short book, so I'm going to go ahead and read it, and then we'll walk through the book of Jude.

As I was going through it, there's a lot of things that stood out, and it reminded me of the saying that talks about there's the trees and the forest, and you can get lost in the forest through the trees and that type of thing.

Jude’s Purpose: Contending for the Faith

So tonight we're going to go through and kind of look at some specific things that jump out in the text, and next week hopefully do more of an overview of how this ties in to a more broader theology. So if you'll turn to Jude, we'll start in verse 1.

I would say chapter 1, but there's only one chapter. Jude verse 1. Jude, a bondservant of Jesus Christ and brother of James, to those who are called, sanctified by God the Father, and preserved in Jesus Christ.

Mercy, peace, and love be multiplied to you. Beloved, while I was very diligent to write to you concerning our common salvation, I found it necessary to write you, exhorting you to contend earnestly for the faith, which was once for all delivered to the saints.

For certain men have crept in unnoticed, who long ago were marked out for this condemnation, ungodly men, who turn the grace of our God into lewdness and deny the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ.

Old Testament Examples of Judgment: Unbelief, Rebellion, and Sexual Immorality

But I want to remind you, though you once knew this, that the Lord, having saved the people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed those who did not believe. And the angels, who did not keep their proper domain, but left their own abode, he has reserved in everlasting chains under darkness for the judgment of the great day.

As Sodom and Gomorrah, and the cities around them in a similar manner to these, having given themselves over to sexual immorality and gone after strange flesh, are set forth as an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire.

Likewise also these dreamers defile the flesh, reject authority, and speak evil of dignitaries. Yet Michael the archangel, in contending with the devil when he disputed about the body of Moses, dared not bring against him a reviling accusation, but said, The Lord rebuke you.

But these speak evil of whatever they do not know, and whatever they know naturally, like brute beasts, in these things they corrupt themselves. Woe to them, for they have gone in the way of Cain, have run greedily in the error of Balaam for profit, and perished in the rebellion of Korah.

These are spots in your love feasts, while they feast with you without fear, serving only themselves. They are clouds without water, carried about by the winds, late autumn trees without fruit, twice dead, pulled up by the roots, raging waves of the sea, foaming up their own shame, wandering stars for whom is reserved the blackness of darkness forever.

Now Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied about these men also, saying, Behold, the Lord comes with ten thousands of his saints, to execute judgment on all, to convict all who are ungodly among them, of all their ungodly deeds which they have committed in an ungodly way, and of all the harsh things which ungodly sinners have spoken against him.

These are grumblers, complainers, walking according to their own lusts, and they mouth great swelling words, flattering people to gain advantage. But you, beloved, remember the words which were spoken before by the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ, how they told you that there would be mockers in the last time, who would walk according to their own ungodly lusts.

These are sensual persons who cause divisions, not having the spirit. But you, beloved, build yourselves up on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit. Keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal salvation.

And on some have compassion, making distinction, but others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire, hating even the garment defiled by the flesh. Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory and exceeding joy, to our God, our Savior, who alone is wise, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and forever.

Amen. So let's walk through this. Starting at the beginning of the chapter, we have a Trinitarian opening. So, Jude, a bondservant of Jesus Christ and brother of James. It says, to those who are called, sanctified by God the Father.

So there we have God the Father, and preserved in Jesus Christ, the second person of the Trinity. What about the Holy Spirit? We have mention of God the Father, we have mention of the Son, and then it says, mercy, peace, and love be multiplied to you.

This mercy, peace, and love, I believe to be a reference to the work of the Spirit. And here's a quote from Jonathan Edwards. It appears that the Holy Spirit is the holiness or excellency and delight of God, because our communion with God and with Christ consists in our partaking of the Holy Ghost.

The oil that was upon Aaron's head ran down to the skirts of his garments. The Spirit, which is Christ, our Head, has without measure is communicated to His church and people. The sweet perfumed oil signified Christ's excellency and sweet delight.

Philippians 2 .1. So I believe that this is a Trinitarian opening, referencing God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. In verse 3, he says, beloved. So he's talking to the church here. He's talking to those that are beloved of God.

Gospel-Centered Ministry and the Broader Meaning of Salvation

And he mentions the importance of contending for the faith, not only glorying in the magnificence of salvation. So he says, I was diligent to write to you concerning our common salvation. So that's what he would like to talk about is salvation.

But it says that he found it necessary to write you, exhorting you to contend earnestly for the faith. So salvation is a glorious thing, and we revel in it. We come together and we talk about what God has done in our lives.

And here he says, I would love to do that, but there are some things that need to be addressed. And so in our current day, we can also see this as an issue. Many times evangelicals, if you've heard this phrase, being gospel-centered.

We want to be gospel-centered, and that's absolutely true, right? The good news should be central to what we do, the work of Jesus Christ, what he's accomplished, what he's doing in the world. We should be gospel-centered.

But often, the gospel is made narrow. It's given a very shallow meaning. So gospel-centered means if it doesn't have anything to do with personal salvation, then we don't get distracted by it. So they'll define gospel-centered as only sharing the gospel, only evangelism.

And so there's a narrow view. Now, to be sure, that's what we should be doing as Christians, evangelizing, sharing the good news of what Jesus did so that people would be saved. But I believe there's a broader context to what the gospel is than just salvation.

Oftentimes, they'll say, if it's not a gospel issue, meaning if it doesn't have to do with salvation, then we don't have to address it because we're gospel-centered. And oftentimes, gospel issues are narrowly defined by personal salvation.

So the gospel gets reduced to what God can do for us, right? He can save us. So God can save you, God can save you, which is wonderful, right? And this is understandable that people would define it this way because we benefit so much from what Jesus did on the cross to talk about what we receive from Jesus Christ.

It's understandable that that can become the focus. But I'd like to point something out. So we talk about the gospel gets reduced to just God's plan of salvation as if God's eternal plan was only about our salvation.

But in the song, God says this. He says, That's God the Father speaking to the Son. Well, where are we in that discussion? That's God the Father speaking to the Son. And the Son inherits the nations. He becomes King of King and Lord of Lords.

And that's happening somewhat apart from us. We benefit from it. We are adopted into the family. We are saved. But God is glorified, right? It's about what God was doing from eternity past. That's the gospel, right?

He says the gospel, the kingdom has come. When Jesus is roaming around, he preaches the good news of the kingdom. You could say it's the good news of salvation for us. That's what we benefit from. But it's broader than that.

So if we narrowly define it as only salvation and say, well, we can't get distracted by all these other things. Well, Jude here is being distracted. He says, I wanted to talk to you about salvation, but there are some other things that need to be addressed.

There are some men that have crept in and are sowing falsehoods. So sometimes we have to address those things. And that's still being gospel-centered, right? That those men would take away glory from God by teaching falsehoods.

And Jude is concerned, no, I don't want anyone to lead you astray. So that's his concern there. So if we look, if we continue on and we look at verse 4. So he talks, I want to address to you about these men.

False Teachers Who Turn Grace Into License

Verse 4, for certain men have crept in unnoticed. They've crept in unnoticed, right? So kind of sneakily. And then it says, they've crept in unnoticed, who long ago were marked out for this condemnation.

So Jude includes phrases that are similar to 2 Timothy and 2 Peter. So I wrote those up here. 2 Timothy 3 and 2 Peter 2. We'll be turning there in a little bit. But he uses kind of the same language. Timothy also says that men have crept in unnoticed, or they've snuck in silently.

And so he uses that language. So Jude's going to talk about that. But what have these men that crept in, what have they done? It says that they are ungodly men. They turn the grace of God into lewdness or licentiousness.

Some of your texts may say sexual immorality. So they're using the grace of God as a license to sin. And they also deny the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ. So there are three behaviors here. And I want you to notice that these are repeated throughout Jude.

Ungodly men who turn the grace of our God into lewdness. And they deny the only Lord God, our Lord Jesus Christ. So in verse 5, I want to remind you. So this is something that the people have already known.

And he's going to reference things that were written about long ago. So these men that have crept in in Jude's time, he's saying, God knew that these men would creep in. And here's what he says about them.

Here's what God prophesies about them. Verse 5, I want to remind you, though you once knew this, that the Lord, having saved the people out of the land of Egypt. So we're talking about Israel coming out of Egypt.

So this is something that has already happened. The Lord has brought them out of Egypt. Afterwards, destroyed those who did not believe. So we have unbelief. Unbelief leads to destruction. Well, that kind of goes back to verse 4 when he talks about these men that crept in.

They were ungodly men. They did not believe in God. So we have ungodly men were just like the Israelites who did not believe in the wilderness. Unbelief. So they were destroyed. So he's giving us that as an example.

Unbelief leads to destruction. Well, what about the ungodly men now? We're supposed to make a connection. Verse 6, and the angels who did not keep their proper domain, but left their own abode, he has reserved in everlasting chains under darkness for the judgment of the great day.

So here is a reference to some angels that left their positions of authority. They've left their positions of authority. They did not stay in their proper homes. And God has held them in judgment, in darkness.

Okay?

So this, the angels are abdicating their authority. God is above them. He's given them something to do and they've gone AWOL. They are not receiving commands from their commanding officer, God. They've left.

Right? And so they're kept in darkness. This also reminds me of in the New Testament, Jesus talks about the strong man referencing Satan. And he says, well, what do you do? Well, you bind the strong man and plunder his house.

He's talking about Jesus. Come and bind the strong man. So we have a reference to the angels. And in verse 7, we get a third example. So we have the Israelites in Egypt who did not believe, and so they were destroyed.

We have the angels that abdicated their authority. And then we have Sodom and Gomorrah. And the cities around them in a similar manner to these, having given themselves over to sexual immorality, gone after strange flesh.

And then it says that these are set forth as an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire. Right? So all three of these serve as examples. Right? He wants to say this is what happened in the past.

If you have unbelief, if you have sexual immorality, if you have rebellion, judgment comes. This is how God dealt with those. And he says that those are an example.

Michael the Archangel and the Danger of Railing Accusations

Okay?

Verse 8. Likewise, also these dreamers. He's talking about these men that have crept in. So there's a concern of the church that these men that have crept in, what's going to happen? Are they going to destroy the church?

They're going to lead people astray? Are they going to overthrow what God is doing? And Jude says let's look back to what God has done in the past. He's taken care of all of these types of sin. Likewise, these dreamers.

Right? These dreamers defile the flesh. So there's that sexual immorality. They reject authority. So they're also rebellious. And they speak evil of dignitaries. So there's rebellion. You have this abdicating of authority.

You have sexual immorality. And you have unbelief.

Right?

And these are dreamers because they're imagining things. They're imagining that they can do evil things and not be punished by it. And so they pollute their own bodies, sexual immorality. They reject authority.

And they slander celestial beings. Verse 9. It says, Yet Michael, the archangel, in contending with the devil, when he disputed about the body of Moses, dared not bring against him a reviling accusation, but said, The Lord rebuke you.

Now this one I had to do some digging on because I could not find this account in Scripture. Where was Michael arguing with the devil about the body of Moses? I look around, and I look for that phrase, The Lord rebuke you.

I did not find Michael uttering that phrase in the Old Testament. So what are we to do with that? Well, Jude is quoting it here in the New Testament. All Scripture is God-breathed. So this is Scripture.

We can trust that this happened because Jude, inspired by the Holy Spirit, wrote it because God wanted him to write it. So we know that Michael contended with the devil. But Michael, who is an angel like Satan, would not dare to rebuke Satan.

He would not take that on himself. Instead, he said, The Lord rebuke you. He trusted the Lord to rebuke Satan. So I have this quote I'd like to read to you from Matthew Henry's commentary. He talks about this idea of slanderous accusations.

What's going on here between Michael and Satan? It says, Though this contest, Michael contending with Satan, Though this contest was mightily eager and earnest, and Michael was victorious in the issue, yet he would not bring a railing accusation against the devil himself.

He knew a good cause needed no such weapons to be employed in its defense. It is said, He durst not bring an accusation, but why durst he not? Not that he was afraid of the devil, but he believed God would be offended if in such a dispute he went that way to work.

He thought it below him to engage in a trial of skill with the enemy of God, and man of which them should out cold or out rail another. So then he says, This should be a reminder to all disputants never to bring a railing accusation into their dispute.

So when you're arguing with someone, if someone is in the wrong, we're not to be reduced to merely arguing, right? You're wrong, I'm right, and you're just railing against the person. The matter is supposed to be if it's true, we leave it up to God to handle it.

He goes on to say, Truth needs no supports from falsehood or scurrility. Moses was a dignitary, a magistrate, one beloved and preferred by the great God, and Archangel Michael thought it insufferable that such one should be treated by a vile apostate spirit.

So the fact that the devil was saying this about Moses, he said it should not be this way. But then he said, The Lord rebuke you. And so then Matthew Henry gives this warning. To those who censure, in particular upright magistrates, upon every slip of their behavior.

So if you see a magistrate, someone that's above you, someone that has a position, and there's a failing there, if your first response is to jump on them and accuse, right? It says if you're looking after every slip of their behavior, may you expect to hear the Lord rebuke you.

And a divine rebuke are harder than those of careless sinners. So he says be careful what arguments you enter into and how you enter into them, right? So continuing on, the account of Michael and the devil is not found in the Old Testament.

It's something that we get in the New Testament from Jude. But Jude also mentions another seemingly obscure reference, the book of Enoch in verse 14, which we'll get to. And he actually says that Enoch prophesied.

And he quotes Enoch as prophesying. But if you look in your Bible, the book of Enoch is not in our Bible. So what are we meant to do with that? He's quoting someone else and saying that they prophesied.

If you would turn to John chapter 11. John chapter 11, and look at verse 49 through 52. And it says this,. And one of them, Caiaphas, being a high priest that year, said to them, You know nothing at all, nor do you consider that it is expedient for us that one man should die for the people and not the whole nation should perish.

They were concerned Jesus is causing an uproar. He's going to cause rebellion. The Romans will come and put the nation down. So it's better that we kill this one man, Jesus, instead of the nation be destroyed.

Verse 51. Now this he did not on his own authority, but being high priest that year, he prophesied that Jesus would die for the nation and not for that nation only, but also that he would gather together in one the children of God who were scattered abroad.

So this is an interesting reference. Caiaphas, the high priest, which we don't really consider an upright character. He's a persecutor of Jesus Christ, having Jesus put to death. Here it says that he said this not on his own authority, but that he prophesied.

And it's recorded here as scripture. So someone who is acting wickedly, it's still the will of God, because it says he didn't do it on his own authority. So God caused him to prophesy, caused a wicked person to prophesy.

And it's recorded in scripture. So that's not to say, well, everything Caiaphas says should be considered scripture, and therefore we take it and put it in the Bible. That's the same thing with Enoch.

Jude is quoting Enoch, but he quotes that verse. So God thought it was important that that verse be put in scripture, but not that the whole book be put in scripture. Not that everything that Enoch says is considered scripture.

And so that's how we kind of deal with that. Also, later he mentions Balaam. And if you know about Balaam, he was not really an upright guy either. He was a prophet of the Lord, and he would say what God told him to say, so he wouldn't lie.

But then he would go off, and he basically sold the Israelites into corruption by using the women. So he was not an upright guy, but his words were used as scripture, because God gave him those words to speak.

So they're also included there. One thing about the issue of Michael and the devil and quoting the book of Enoch, I'd like to say that the Old Covenant, it's not confusing. It's a little bit cloudy, right?

The Old Covenant is cloudy, but Jesus Christ and the New Covenant brings clarity. Jude here is bringing clarity to the situation. And so I'd like to say that about that. So moving on, let's go to verse 10 in Jude.

The Natural Man, False Teachers, and the Threefold Pattern of Judgment

So he gives the example of Michael the archangel, and then he moves on. Verse 10. But these men that have crept in speak evil of whatever they do not know, and whatever they know naturally, like brute beasts, and these things they corrupt themselves.

So they're speaking of things that they don't know about, so they're in ignorance, but they know certain things. They're like animals. And so my question would be, why don't these men know, right? These are supposed to be men that have come in.

In one place he calls them shepherds, teachers, false teachers, but they don't know. 1 Corinthians 2 .14 says,. But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.

These men that have crept in do not have the Holy Spirit, so they can't discern the things of the Holy Spirit. They don't understand the things of God. They understand the world, and here he calls them brute beasts, like unreasoning animals.

And so animals, being like reasoning animals, animals know about survival, right? Trying to make it through, right? Trying to survive. These men are doing the same thing. They're vying for position. They're trying to make gains through wicked profit, and then it also mentions sexual immorality, right?

Animals do what animals do, and he's saying these men are the same way, and so he mentions them. And then he continues forward, and we'll wrap it up here and pick up next week, in verse 11. And notice the threes.

He keeps giving these examples. He gave Israel. He gave the angels. He gave Sodom and Gomorrah. He gave those as examples. Here he gives three additional examples. He gives the way of Cain. He gives Balaam's error, and he gives Korah's rebellion.

In verse 11. Woe to them, for they have gone the way of Cain, which is unbelief. They have run greedily into the error of Balaam for profit, which we know that's what Balaam was doing. He wanted to be paid by these foreign kings to say a prophecy against Israel.

He says, well, I can't speak against Israel because God won't let me. But if you'll pay me, I'll teach you how you can corrupt them using the women. So, I mean, that's not good. That's a bad thing. So he did that for profit.

And then it talks about those that perish in Korah's rebellion. So again, we have those threes. We have unbelief. We have rebellion. And we have sexual immorality or fleshly indulgence. It's repeated over and over.

And so we'll call it a head and end it there. And we'll pick up next week. I'd like to mention those three things kind of as a hint for next week. Jude gives an answer to, right? So I've already mentioned that the opening has an opening reference to the Trinity.

God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit. He closes with the Trinity and he has a reference to the Trinity in the center. Like there's threes all over the place. But he deals with rebellion. He deals with unbelief.

And he deals with fleshly indulgences. And so he says, this is how God deals with those type of people. He also gives us hope as believers. This is how you can avoid falling into these things. And then he ends with a praise, which I think is a fantastic thing.

So we'll end there at verse 11 and then we'll pick up next week. So let's have a word of prayer. And then Brian, would you come up? God, we thank you so much for this day that you've given us. We thank you for your word.

We thank you for the clarity that you bring in your son. God, we ask that as we go throughout the week that we would trust in you. Lord, you brings up difficult times that the people then faced the persecution that they face.

And we find it looks like persecution is increasing for us. So help us find encouragement in your word. Help us to see how we are to live in light of this and have hope for the future that you have dealt with the ungodly and that you have called us to yourself.

And we are thankful for that common salvation. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.