well if you're a visitor tonight uh we started last week in the evening uh brief study here in the little book of jude and you'll find that on page 1308 in the back of your bibles tonight second book of the end to the end right before revelation and there's a lot in this book as i said before it's not an easy uh book to preach i think it's important for i i want to be able to say with the Apostle Paul. I think every pastor wants to be able to say that we have preached the whole counsel of God to you. In other words, we didn't just pick the Gospel of John the whole time, right? We didn't just pick everything that was nice and easy hearing. Sometimes we have to look at those things that are challenging. And the Lord gave us a book that very much challenges us to be alert and contend for our faith. And that's the heart of this book tonight. So this is Jude, we're considering verses 5 through 10. And I will pick up at verse 1. Jude, a servant of Jesus Christ and brother of James, to those who are called, beloved in God the Father, and kept, for Jesus Christ, may mercy, 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 want to 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 serve as an example while 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 and we'll end the reading of god's word there again the text is verses 5 through 10 tonight as we considered the first four verses last time. I would like to imagine for a moment Jude and Peter sitting at the feet of Jesus and Jesus talking to them about apostasy. Can you imagine that discussion? Applying all the things that they knew from the Old Testament to the phenomenon in the new testament um you know that jesus did this constantly especially with regard to his person and work and here is an application tonight which is very interesting we'll consider what do you think jesus would have raised with them uh in the old testament when he was telling them listen you have to take apostasy seriously as apostles when you are sent you have to take contending for the faith seriously what examples would he have used and i believe you have that in front of you tonight the call in the book of jude as we considered last time is a call to contend earnestly for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints there has been a single deposit of truth that has been given to you in this present age there are not truths plural there's one deposit everything else that claims to be truth is not truth jesus has given you the truth when it comes to all matters pertaining to salvation and life jude is helping us understand that from the beginning there has always been a an assault on this deposit of truth and it is our greatest battle just to hold on to this truth this deposit truth that's been given to us because of the war that is not just on the outside but the war that is strongest on the inside in the church you remember how this little book began last time that he wanted to talk to us about salvation remember he said i although i wanted to write to you about salvation i wanted to talk about the gospel i wanted to talk about all that jesus had has done for you and saving you there was something of urgency that i have to address because well it's not being taken very seriously no generation is taken as seriously as they could should and it is the call to contend earnestly for the faith once delivered to all the saints you can't afford to be passive you can't afford to just say if something has the label christian on it it's christian all over the bible there are calls to test the spirits to see whether they be from god for many false teachers have gone out into the world and they love the church they love to work in the church people are jude says creeping in that's the language he uses in verse four to describe the basis for this call to contend earnestly for the faith for many have creeped in many have come to undermine the word of God and it's almost as if he knew what the mentality of the people would be knowing history and studying history that people would think in the church oh it's not that bad of a problem pastor you're taking it all a little too seriously lighten up you can't it can't really be all that bad can it and judah's helping us to say yes it can be so what he does here tonight is present to us things that have happened in history he gives us a history lesson and he says let me show you how god handled it let me help you to think about how god dealt with this problem of apostasy in history uh and and maybe that will have the effect of us taking it a lot more seriously because the consequences of neglect in this area the consequences of not contending for the faith are catastrophic in the life of the church there are casualties paul talked about this all the time when certain people had denied the doctrine of the resurrection he said and overturned the faith of some what he's saying is again the deposit he's wrecked the the deposit satan has false teachers have wrecked the deposit they have turned people away from the deposit so we can't be negligent with the truth it is a treasure to hold on to it is a treasure to fight for and jude is motivating us tonight to it by saying consider how God values this truth consider what God cares about and how he views apostate movements so what we have here tonight then is before us a description of a few things that have happened in the past how God handled it and what then we should be watching out for in our day that seems to be a clear and easy breakdown of this particular section in verses 5 through 10. To make the case for all to contend earnestly for the faith, to persuade us and help us to take that call seriously, he now takes us through a jet tour in history to consider three mass movements of apostasy. I wish I would have, I had in my head to provide you an outline tonight of the book of Jude. If you see what Jude is doing, it really helps and so if you can have it in your head for a moment remember he encouraged at the beginning of the book that God is going to keep you he's not going to lose you he encouraged us right up front he'll end the book that way I the Lord has the power to present you faultless on that day he's not losing his sheep then he gave the the call contend hold to the deposit then he said why For certain people have come in who've turned the grace of our God into licentiousness. We'll look at that here in a minute. What he's saying there was, briefly, that there are people who took the gospel and are taking the good news of Jesus. They're saying, Jesus died for me. Jesus died for you. Therefore, it doesn't matter how you live. It doesn't matter what you do. They take the grace of God and they exchange that message and make it licensed to live and do whatever they want to do. That is the worst form we looked at of antinomianism, anti-law, those things that God has told us we are to morally follow, they have rejected and used the gospel to justify it. Well, what he does now then is from there, after he gave the call and warned about that, is now he gives three mass movements of apostasy and applies it to today and next time he gives three individual apostates and then applies it to today so tonight we're simply looking at the mass movements in history that are apostate movements and he wants to help us to understand it so notice verse uh five uh in your in the scriptures there now i want to 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 i want to remind you of something you used to know you once knew it used to be common in your minds used to think about it we could say in in our day if you were to apply something like this i want to remind you of the need for the reformation to have occurred you once knew why there was a need for a reformation didn't you yeah of course you did there was all kinds of apostasy that had swept into the church you've forgotten that there was a need for a reformation and you've forgotten that those same phenomenons that led to the original reformation that you celebrate are going on that's the effect of this you see i want to remind you of this i want to i want to remind you that you once had a reformation for a reason see this is the effect although you once knew this i want to remind you of this truth that jesus once saved a people out of the land of egypt afterward destroyed those who didn't believe you know that you know that story i don't think you can miss there the real uh effect of it saying jesus some of the translations say lord and and doesn't doesn't that just make it all the more effective as it says jesus there's some textual variants on this and the esv i believe correctly uses jesus as the stronger proof of what was original is jesus it makes a good strong point because uh the very nature of the the very goal of the apostates was to take the grace of jesus and do what with it the gospel and turn it into however you want to live whatever you want to do do you're saved by grace go live and do what you want to do and jude is interacting with this jude is having us think about this i want to remind you that jesus after he saved them destroyed those who didn't believe what is he emphasizing here the great teacher israel this is why israel's there paul the new testament are constantly saying don't do these things they teach us something about what not to do and you study it for that reason we never unhits from the old testament as some pastors are saying today and you'll notice here why he's emphasizing that the first great movement of apostasy you can study that you know a lot about is israel in the wilderness Apostasy? What do you mean? What do you mean apostasy? Well, the event in Jude's mind is this one. They made it rather quickly all the way to the gate of the promised land, if you will. You remember what happened? This is Numbers 14. You're welcome to turn there if you'd like. I'll read the section. Just before you get there in chapter 13, they sent out spies into Canaan, remember? Remember? And they came back with the report to Moses. And the report was, wow, the land is full of milk and honey, and it is a glorious land, but there's a great problem. The people are strong. The cities are well fortified. The Amalekites, the Hittites, the Jebusites, and the Canaanites are there. The worst of all, the sons of Anak, giants, and we're like grasshoppers in our own sight, and in theirs, Moses, we can't conquer this land. Here's 14. So the congregation lifted up their voices and cried, and the people wept that night. And all the children of Israel complained against Moses and Aaron. Oh, if only we had died in the land of Egypt. Translate. Only you would have never saved us. Verse 4. So they said to one another, let us select a leader and return to Egypt. Wow. What a moment of apostasy. They grumbled. They complained. They were faithless. And then the great apostasy came. They shot out against the leadership. They shot out against salvation. They rejected the whole thing. They set up an entire rebellion and they said, that's it. We're done with wilderness life. We're done with all this. God has made good on nothing. We're tired of this. We're going back. And I want you to hear what the Lord said. Because all these men who have seen my glory and the signs which I did in Egypt, and in the wilderness have put me to the test now these ten times and have not heeded my voice. Hear it? They tested God ten times. And even though they saw His acts of deliverance, He said, They shall not see the land of which I swore to their fathers. Not any of those who rejected Me will see it. The carcasses of you who have complained against me shall fall in the wilderness. All of you who were numbered according to your entire number from 20 years old and above. But as for you, your carcasses shall fall in the wilderness and your son shall be shepherds in the wilderness 40 years and bear the brunt of your infidelity until your carcasses are consumed in the wilderness according to the number of days in which you spied out the land 40 days for each day you shall bear your guilt one year, namely 40 years, and you shall know my rejection i the lord have spoken and i will surely do that to all this evil congregation who are gathered together against me in this wilderness they shall be consumed and they shall die you know what happened right it didn't take 40 years to get to the door of the promised land it took months he made a mull around for 40 years until that generation died and then joshua and Caleb led them in. The new generation. What was the apostasy? Rebellion against the Word. Rebellion against Jesus. Rebellion against His salvation. Unbelief in the whole thing. We're done with this. We're done. We're walking away. That's what apostasy is. We're going back. Now, this is exactly what New Testament writers are saying to us that we have to be on guard of before the end. Jude says the same Jesus who afterward saved those, afterward destroyed those who didn't believe. What Jude is saying, you know this phenomenon. you've seen this phenomenon listen to second thessalonians 2 let no one deceive you in any way for the day of the lord will not come unless the rebellion comes first apostasy rebellion it's the same he's they're thinking of this Let no one deceive you. This phenomenon is at work. It's at work. There's a falling away. What are you going to see? Well, you're going to see in our age, throughout our age, and preceding the Lord's return, apostasy. And you're going to see it in rebellion against the Lord in the church. You're going to see a rejection of His Word. You're going to see a rejecting of the message of salvation and a going back to Egypt. This is what we have to be on guard against. I want to read something that Al Mohler, I read this week, how he's analyzing the culture's move in this way. But remember that the pressure of the culture right now is what seems to be directing the church. Listen to this. We can now see what so many have long denied. That the experiment in liberty and self-government known as the United States of America is premised upon an affirmation of human dignity and human rights that only makes sense within and can only be astained by a worldview that is based on at least an inherited Christian conception and an affirmation of natural rights. Listen to this. The Declaration of Independence famously stated this affirmation in the most direct of terms. We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. The founders did not fully understand the affirmation they were making, as is clear from the horrible reality of slavery, but they were most certainly correct in their conception of unalienable rights endowed upon every human being by their creator. This same spirit gave birth to the First Amendment of the Bill of Rights, without which the Constitution itself would never have been ratified. Religious liberty is the first freedom, the foundational liberty upon which every other enumerated liberty depends, but the center is not holding. the very idea of human dignity will not long survive in a secular season for once that dignity is grounded in anything other than the act of a divine creator human dignity withers to whatever dignity humanity can accord itself the 20th century should be warning enough of what happens when human dignity is grounded in a merely secular conception of humanity and dignity. He's saying we're now seeing this proof. We're now seeing it. And when the Creator is assaulted, when the Creator is utterly abandoned, this is all Romans 1 here at this point, when that is utterly suppressed, all those rights go. Hatred of Him. How do you think the church is going to do in that environment? But the very point of Jude is that there is going to be a rejection of him in the church. There's going to be a hatred of him. What we're going to see is people saying, I've had it. We're done with this. It doesn't work. Where's the power? Where's the answer? It's the same kind of apostasy of Israel. we're done with the word where it doesn't it doesn't do anything for us and they leave it it was handed to me this morning a great quote by calvin i want to read it at this point indeed it has usually happened in the church and nearly every age that it has had no enemies more dangerous than in its own household therefore less believers should be troubled by such shamefulness, let them get used to putting up with traitors in good time. The movement will be a rejection of the gospel of Jesus and of his word. That's the first major apostasy to look for. What's the second? What's the second movement we see in history? Jude answers us. And the angels who did not stay. You'll notice there within verse 6 their own position of authority but left their proper dwelling. He's kept in eternal chains under gloomy darkness until the judgment of the great day. A lot of speculation on this verse. There is no doubt that Jude is making use of apocryphal stories and handed down stories from the tradition and interacting with them of what the Jews and what people knew. But it's the main point that's clear. Angels did not at first keep in their own estate, their own position of authority. But they left it. Apostasy. What is he telling us? Something very important. The word here stresses that, the Greek word, that angels were assigned a place And they abandoned the authority and the position that God put them in. They were assigned positions. They were created beings. They had creative roles. They were defined as angels. And what you have here is Jude saying God's assignment was completely rejected. They left that dominion. They left that place. They left their abode. That is, they left their heavenly habitation. And what was the sin? Same thing you saw with Herod this morning. I will ascend into heaven. I will exalt my throne above the stars of God. I will sit on the mount of the congregation. This is Satan. I will ascend above the heights of the clouds. I will be the most high. Pride, pride, pride. We will be our own gods. This was the very sin that Satan tempted Eve with. When he dangled the fruit and told her to go eat, what was the temptation? Well, has God said, there's the first thing we've considered. And then what did he say? He attacked the position. You can't be happy in that position. Remember? God wants you free. He's constrained you. You can be your own God. The point of Jude is is that the fallen angels are the greatest representation of this kind of rebellion. This is your second apostasy. People will not be content with how God made them and what He assigned to them, their roles in life as male and female. They will usurp creation norms. They will tear down creation norms. and do it their way. They will work hard to obliterate all the distinctions that God made and positions that He assigned. This is why marriage is under attack. Are they throwing out marriage or are they throwing out the positions in marriage? Think about it. We have a culture of now we're rejecting gender roles and gender itself. Marrying contrary to nature. Casting off creation norms. Definitions of who people are. That's what this is. That's the second kind of apostasy he's talking about. So two apostasy falling away from a knowledge of the truth, a knowledge of the Word and salvation, a walking away from it, a walking away from how he made us, and third, his most attractive tool. Let me introduce to you Sodom and Gomorrah. One more history lesson. says Jude, for a mass apostasy. You know well the story. I don't have to go into the story. But you'll remember when the angels came to the gate of Sodom what the men of Sodom wanted to do. Jude is interacting with that. As Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities around them in 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. It was the height of everything impure and the complete destruction of even what we would consider norms of sexuality. Everything was so twisted, it went to that extent. So that Lot went out to them and shut the door and said, please, my brethren, don't do wickedly. I have two daughters who have not known a man. Let me bring them out to you that you may do to them as you wish. Only do nothing to these men since this is the reason they have come under the shadow of my roof. What is the apostasy? A culture completely out of control sexually. Out of control. They reversed what was normal and natural even in immorality, if you will. What they know in nature. They took it to the most unnatural extremes. See the movements? Apostles ceased to be aware of. And Jesus put them in a certain order here to make the reason the first, how seriously did God take it? Their bodies were put to death in the wilderness. Second, the angels are reserved under chains for judgment. Third, eternal judgment of fire. There's a progression here. So there are three movements you can study to look at and see a rejection of the Word and the Savior, a rejection of assigned creative norms, male and female, and running headlong into every kind of sexual immorality under the sun. And what is Jew doing with this now? He's applying it. These are the things that you will see apostates in the church justifying. He applies it. You see it there in verse 8. 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. You see the application here? Israel in the wilderness didn't listen to the Word. These live by their dreams. How many false teachers have come to us and said, and live by their dreams, and not the Word? The angels left their authority structures. He says, so do these. These reject authority. They hate authority. He gives an example. He says, you know that, and this was an apocryphal story, I suppose, or a handed down story. You know that when Michael was disputing about the body of Moses with Satan, that he didn't even use his mouth to shoot out against Satan without God saying it was okay? Well, look at the point there, right? Everyone shoots out the lip at authority structures. Everyone's rejecting authority. and apostates say that's okay that's okay and then you'll notice here they follow whatever their lusts want that's sodom the application's right there he applied the the the whole thing they speak blasphemy so these sweet three sweeping movements of a rejection of a savior of the savior and his word a rejection of authority structures and assigned positions and giving themselves over to all kinds of immorality is what Jude is having us think about. Look at it. Is this today? Are we wise to see it? Do we see it? Do you see these things unfolding in our day? It becomes a vitally important issue because many of you are sending off your kids to college. And do you think because they're in Christian schools, they're safe? young people you need to be very aware Jude is saying it's on the inside they are young people are being hit hard right now and they will be exposed to a bunch of stuff in the name of Christianity that requires these kinds of things to be addressed and requires of parents you to stand for the truth for you to say that's wrong and i want to close tonight by saying remember why we needed the intro and the closing i said that at the beginning he's going to keep you he's going to preserve you he loves you to the end not going to lose you this is how he's doing it you see he's fighting off wolves for you this is how you fight off wolves this is how you if jesus said they come in sheep's clothing here's how you undress them right here this is the undressing of wolves it's the ultimate expression of love and in our day i know it'll be characterized as unloving to even say anything's wrong but this is the lord's way of helping and keeping you i love that what a god i i i wanted to come and talk about salvation but i first need to fight off the wolves so i can talk about salvation i need to show you the wolves first so that you'll be aware and understand of this battle on the inside to contend earnestly for the faith to hold on to the deposit of truth to care about the truth christ will keep you not for judgment but for salvation ready to be revealed at the last so contend which means three things then you're going to have to care about the gospel you're going to have to care about the truth when things get hard you're going to continue to embrace that truth and trust the lord in his good providence and you're going to understand that you're under his gracious lordship what a gracious what a wonderful place to be his yoke is easy and his burden is light his authority structures are not hard on you don't buy into that lie that's what young people often face don't they that God's ways are constricting that's a lie of Satan his authority structures are good for you he's keeping you he's helping you and third he wants you free he doesn't want you brought back under bondage to all the sexual mess of this world. He wants you to fight. He wants you pure. He cares about your bodies. You've been joined to Christ. You're in union with Him. See? Well, soon this conflict will be over. It really will. Soon it will be over and there will be no more of this. But until then, Jude is calling us to take it seriously. Contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints. That's right. Heavenly Father, a challenging section tonight to get our heads around, but we trust Your wonderful Word and that it has a good purpose in keeping us. So help us, Father, to love Your truth. To remember all that Jesus has done in these examples in the Old Testament that we would not be unbelieving, but believing. That we would be content with what You have assigned us and who we are and that we would guard our lives from letting lusts and every desire under the sun drive us. But that You would keep us from false teachers and those who creep in who want to destroy our faith, who want to lead many away, and who want to harm us and our children. Give us all diligence and conviction in the truth and thank you for showing us what wolves look like and thank you for defending your flock, oh Jesus. Thank you for defending your flock. We see what this is. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.