Well, I invite you tonight to turn to the back of your Bibles to the second to the last book right before Revelation, the book of Jude. And I wasn't, since the summer month is here coming and school is ending soon, I wasn't prepared to begin a long series and I wasn't quite sure of where to go. So I thought I would do a few short series here through maybe tonight. We'll have a few sermons here through the book of Jude, and then we'll consider maybe the book of Philemon. So this is where we're starting tonight. I don't know how many of you have heard the book of Jude preached, but I anticipate we're going to read the entire chapter tonight so we understand the whole flow of it. And notice here right from the beginning and end, it ends on the same note as it began with, with assurance. And we'll need that as we go through this book. This is the word of the Lord, Jude, beginning 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, I was very eager to write to you about our common salvation. Although I was, 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 and the 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 by undergoing a punishment of eternal fire yet in like manner these people also relying on their dreams defile the flesh reject authority and blaspheme the glorious ones but when the archangel michael contending with the devil was disputing about the body of moses he did not presume to pronounce a blasphemous judgment but said the lord rebuke you but these people blaspheme all that they do not understand and they are destroyed by all that they like unreasoning animals understand instinctively woe to them for they've walked in the way of cain and have abandoned themselves for the sake of gain to balaam's error and perished in cora's rebellion they are hidden reefs at your love feasts as they feast with you without fear shepherds feeding themselves waterless clouds swept along by winds fruitless trees in late autumn twice dead uprooted wild waves of the sea casting up the foam of their own shame wandering stars for whom the gloom of utter darkness has been reserved forever it was also about these that enoch the seventh from adam prophesied saying behold the lord comes with ten thousands of his holy ones to execute judgment on all and to convict all the ungodly of their deeds of ungodliness that they have committed in such an ungodly way and of all the harsh things that ungodly sinners have spoken against him these are grumblers malcontents following their own sinful desires they are loud mouth boasters showing favoritism to gain advantage but you must remember beloved the predictions of the apostles of our lord jesus christ they said to you in the last time there will be scoffers following their own ungodly passions it is these who cause divisions worldly people devoid of the spirit but you beloved building yourselves up in your most holy faith and praying in the holy spirit keep yourselves in the love of god waiting for the mercy of our lord jesus christ that leads to eternal life and have mercy on those who doubt save others by snatching them out of the fire to others show mercy with fear hating even the garment stained by the flesh now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy to the only god our savior through jesus christ our lord be glory majesty, dominion, and authority before all time and now and forever. Amen. There ends the book of Jude. Tonight we're considering the first four verses. Well, we really do tonight begin what will probably be a four-part series to the book of Jude. I think you can see reading that there is not one word there that we cannot avoid and afford to miss. There's so much being said to us in this book, this little book. And I have to say up front, it's not the most enjoyable book that I've ever had to preach. I think you heard it. You can feel the emotions sometimes that come off of how in your face and direct this little book is. In our day, it's kind of like the bad tasting medicine in the back of the cabinet that you have to take. It tastes awful, but you know that when you do, there are major benefits for you. And that's how this book works. You're not even going to understand the benefits maybe in the series itself. This is something that helps you and plant seeds for things that are in the future that will help you in perilous times that come upon the church and come upon us the purpose of jude is to take battle arms and to take the call to contend uh earnestly for the faith seriously that's the heart of this little book why because apostasy and because false teachers are very real and they are very abundant this is what the book is showing us and judah's calling us to take seriously because we have an entire history of god's intervention in history due to this problem did you hear all the examples of the old testament here of how god had to intervene and pointing out the errors that took place because people did not take seriously the call to contend did not take it seriously god has never taken apostasy from his design lightly and tolerated it he hasn't he's going to make that case he's going to prove that so he's calling the church to contend for the faith he's calling the church to think through these things and it provides a way for a church to go forward i believe it's particularly helpful in the times that we live it's helpful because it not only does it give us battle plans it gives us a way forward out of the corruption we're living in to think about as Christians of how to handle these things, how to deal with some of this stuff. Tonight, all I want to do is briefly look at the introduction. It provides us with the occasion of the epistle to help us understand why he's writing it, what is happening, and what our most important calling is in what the scriptures call perilous times remember paul will say that in the last days perilous times will come and this is this is the book to help us understand what to do so he begins here uh which is really important with an encouragement and then he provides in this introduction a call and then he gives the basis for that call why we have to take that call seriously as i was uh reflecting on this little book and thinking about the little book of Jude I thought what an interesting place that the Holy Spirit decided to put it at the end of John first John you have a very serious call that second John and third John will will tackle of beloved do not believe every spirit but test the spirits to see whether they be of god because many false prophets many false teachers have gone out into the world and following these epistles here then comes this little epistle of jude that is put right before the book that announces the revelation and the coming of jesus christ um so this is interesting i don't know that i've heard too much preaching on the book of jude i think it gets lost between first john and revelation but it's fitting that the spirit saw to in his providence uh to order the the books and to have it so that we know this little call comes right before the book of revelation this is the trumpet this is the sounding of the alarm in the new testament this is ezekiel 33 in the new testament son of man speak to your people and say to them if i bring sword upon a land and the people of the land take a man from among them and make them their watchmen and if he sees the sword coming upon the land and blows the trumpet and warns the people then if anyone who hears the sound of the trumpet does not take warning and the sword comes and takes him away his blood shall be on his own head he heard the sound of the trumpet and did not take warning his blood shall be upon himself but if he had taken warning he would have saved his life but if the watchman sees the sword coming and does not blow the trumpet so the people are not warned and the sword comes and takes away any one of them that person is taken away in his iniquity but his blood i will require at the watchman's hand jude functions this way it's it's it's the call it's the watchman it's the sounding of the alarm it's a book of course again warning against apostasy and helping us understand it apostasy of course is is defection from the faith and i'm going to explain that more along as we go here it is knowing the truth and abandoning the truth it is receiving the knowledge of the word of god through the word and then walking away from it john talks a lot about this they were of um they were among us they were of us but they were not of us for if they were of us they would have remained with us but now they went out from us that it might be shown that they are not of us talking about apostasy and jude is showing us the consequences of that now before he does anything he begins the book with a massive encouragement and he wants the believer to understand that whatever he's about to say he's concerned about this pastorally which i'm concerned about this pastorally to preach such a book he's concerned about it pastorally that believers who have been justified or trusting in christ he's going to keep you he's not going to lose you so in that sense jude becomes the most comforting book as a matter of fact it's bracketed almost like a giant chiasm again it begins with this thought and ends with this thought that he is going to keep you notice verse uh one jude a bond servant of jesus christ and brother of james to those who are called sanctified by god the father and preserved in jesus christ kept for jesus christ may mercy peace and love be multiplied to you who was jude who was jude the name in hebrew means judah name in greek means judas this man we read was a bond slave of jesus a servant he is called we're given a little information here when it says the brother of james which is interesting because james was the half brother of jesus so put it together this is jesus's half brother jude interesting isn't it? Matthew 13 says, is this not the carpenter's son? Is not his mother called Mary and his brothers James, Joseph, Simon, and Judas? There he is. When we connect the dots, we find that it is this Judas who wrote this epistle, Jude, who is the half-brother of our Lord. And if we were writing the epistle, which I think is interesting, I don't know that we would say it this way would we i'm chris jesus is my half brother now listen to me right it's not what he does it's a remarkable humility i'm a servant of jesus james is my brother and it's interesting here as we look at this when we think of the history of jude that jesus's brothers for a long time had a hard time believing in him. You'll remember in John 7 when the Feast of Tabernacles was at hand, his brothers instructed him to go to his disciples and show his work, show your greatness, show how great you are. We read this statement, for even his brothers did not receive him. Jude had a hard time accepting who Jesus was. Jude had a hard time receiving Jesus. How much is the encouragement at the end of the book then mean when he says and have mercy on those who doubt that's him he saw how great the mercy of the lord was on him he understood sovereign grace he understood that god has the power to keep him and that he couldn't keep himself so the whole epistle is immersed and begins with that comforting thought that he is a slave and a servant of jesus and a brother of James now this is something that is so beautiful here as we open up the little epistle to those who are called beloved in God the father and kept for Jesus Christ isn't that just a beautiful introduction to the epistle Jude is going to say very hard things and things that are even frightening and now he goes right to position up front in Christ. His epistle is not to scare the true believer, it is to warn the true believer. And so it's no coincidence that he begins by saying to you who are called. He's not using the word there to say that you accepted the invitation. He's using the word there as a designation of Christians. In other words, I was thinking about this. If this morning the world gave these Christians in Antioch the name Christian, God gives you the name, The Called. That's His name for you. You are my call. You're my people. I've called you. I'm going to keep you. You're mine. It's having the effect of, you're my claim. You're kept for Jesus. He earned you. He saved you. And how beautiful this language here. In God the Father, He has loved you. You are loved by God the Father. This is what Jesus said, I'm going to help you to understand. And Jude took that and ran with that. You are loved by the Father. You're kept for Jesus. You're preserved by Him. What's interesting is that Peter and Jude, it seems that Peter borrowed a lot from Jude. The stuff that Peter wrote and Peter's second epistle is all about apostasy. It's all about this same stuff that he took a lot of this and the same sort of things he seems to be looking at from Jude and learning from Jude knowing that it was written earlier. For this very thing, Peter begins his epistle with. He has begotten us to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled that does not fade away, Reserved in heaven and kept for you. Your inheritance is waiting for you. You understand that? It's waiting for you. That's the language. It's being kept. It's on reserve. It's all there for you. A salvation that does not fade away. So, have I made the case here? At the beginning of... You'll see why we need this as we go. You're chosen unto salvation. You are the called. You are loved by the Father. And you are, as Jesus died for you, kept for Him. Salvation is yours. Inheritance is waiting. And He gives a blessing. Mercy, peace, and love be multiplied to you. Three things you've never merited. He's given you mercy. He's given you love. And He has given you peace. so we need to hear this as we begin this little book how comforting so much so that he's going to conclude on this note now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and on that day he's going to present you faultless before the throne did i preach the gospel yet you don't have to say anything i feel like i have now we get to the heart of the epistle he begins with a call 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 i i had it in my mind when i believed that i was being set apart to write an epistle and speak as it would be drafted to write about salvation i wanted to talk gospel i wanted to this is what i wanted to get to this was always put in the apostles hearts and in the the writers hearts of the new testament here this particular man jude they always wanted to talk about the gospel they always wanted to talk about about jesus and common salvation that we have that's the that's the note we always want that's the the way we want to go that's the heart of what we want to talk about that's the goal of what paul said woe is me if i don't preach it in fact he says i had all sorts of enthusiasm for that that's the word here i was enthusiastic to write about salvation i was zealous to do so but but i realized that what i'm seeing happening right now none of that will really matter if we don't do something else first we won't even have a common salvation to talk about if we don't do something else this little book becomes really important in the new testament if something else is not pressed home something immediate something that we don't get heart to part with about that's going on it's not going to matter i'm not going to be able to write about common salvation very long see i found it necessary to write to you to contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints he had sat down and would speak and you know and and as these epistles came to us they would have a writer who that was spoken it was drafted uh he had a certain group of christians in mind but this little epistle became a circular letter that went to all the churches and he was ready to tell them about what jesus had done a happy upbeat letter but he says i was compelled i have a burden i've got to get off my chest That's the sense of this. Something is painfully at work. Remember, this is early on. Early on. Something's painfully at work that's undermining our whole cause. And people don't take that seriously. I want to talk to you then about contending earnestly for the faith. That's what we call polemics. a polemics, a strong refutation of error. Why? Because the very faith, once for all delivered to the saints, is under attack. Now, Jude says it was once for all delivered to the saints. When he talks about faith here, he's not talking about justification by faith, the receiving of Jesus. He's talking about the deposit of Christian truth, The Christian faith, the deposit of what we believe that's been given to us, a faith, a belief system, once for all, delivered to the saints. God gave us a deposit of truth in this age. He has given to his church one deposit of truth. I told my father-in-law I was preaching this. He goes, oh, Jude, everyone loves Jude 4, verse 4. Contend for the faith once for all delivered. And he said, you know, Albert Martin used to say about that all the time. And I thought, this is really interesting what he said. He said, Albert Martin used to say, that is the verse to prove that it's a faith once for all delivered. And therefore, anyone who comes along after that and delivers something else is false. And it just is such an important point. Every cult, ism that is wrong, that has delivered something else other than the deposit, is false. There's one deposit. There's one deposit that's been added to it. One deposit of faith, of the faith, the Christian faith, that is able to make you wise for what? Salvation. So he's working from this, and the heart of it all then comes down to this call. You have to contend for this. It's a word that uses athletic imagery to convey a hard, strenuous effort to fight for something. Fascinating to know that people who go into the Olympics, they go in and they train hard to work to go into the Olympics. They don't just love their sport. They're competing in it. They live in it. They live to accomplish something. And they dedicate their whole lives to it. Four to eight hours of training. I'm sorry, four to eight years of training in a sport for somebody who has to come before making it onto an Olympic team. That's the general rule. And then their schedules are 32 hours a week of grueling labor on the body. And this is the language that he's using here when it comes to the faith. This is the kind of strenuous effort that we have to give to hold on to it. But we don't think this way. Strenuous effort. It's hard in our day because what it means is that you have to be willing to say something's wrong. That's almost becoming nearly impossible in our day. And it's as if what Jude is saying to us, we're contending for the great reason here, And then he begins to explain that great reason of why we have to give ourselves to contend in verse 4. For certain men, 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. I wanted to talk about grace. I wanted to talk about salvation. But guess what I'm witnessing? Here's what they're doing to our message. Here's what they're doing to our message. They are taking that message of grace and gospel and forgiveness and substitutionary atonement, everything that we believe, ungodly people, and they're turning it into sensuality and denying our Master. he's saying that they've taken grace and made it now moral license, or immoral license of lustful indulgence to go do whatever they want. And they say, Jesus is okay with that. He died for us. He set us free. You know what that's called, right? The antinomianism of the worst kind against all moral law. Peter picks up on this. He fleshes it out a little bit more. But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you. This is not there might be. There will be. Who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the master who bought them, bringing upon themselves swift destruction, and many will follow their sensuality. That's the heartbreak of it all, right there. Many will follow their sensuality, guided by whatever their hedonistic lives want. And because of them, the way of truth will be blasphemed. And in their greed, they will exploit you with false words. Both Jude and Peter use their profession. They're saying, we're bought. Jesus bought us. And they bought us so that then we can go out and do what we want. Whatever we feel like doing. Whatever we want to do with our bodies. Whatever makes us happy. And the craziness of it all is, it's justified by false teachers. It's accepted. It's taught. Now, you think we're living in a time like that? It's always been a time like that. It was a time like that in the first century. But this is getting really hard, beloved, in a culture that demands now that we accept their behavior. This is getting really hard in a culture that doesn't just demand it, it requires that we celebrate it. And what is the church doing? Lo and behold, at this very moment, we have hosts of false teachers rising up who now, from the pressure of the culture, accept this. You know, I have to be really honest here and say what I feel like right now is I've already been silenced on the homosexual agenda. What do I mean? Well, when we used to say it, you know, at least the culture was somewhat against it. But now if we say it, it sounds so, there you go, hitting on that one sin again. And you feel absolutely silenced on it. So that now that issue you want to zip up and not talk about. And that's how what's constantly pushed and pushed and pushed so that we can't talk about certain things anymore. And false teachers come in at this moment and then they begin to push back the other way and say, it's acceptable. This is the challenge. How in the world do you contend earnestly for the faith in this? It's a kind of perfect storm right now in Christianity when biblical illiteracy is at its all-time high and we've been told for years that doctrine is just dividing and combined with a lowest common denominator, Christianity, that could ever be created so that there are no longer doctrinal standards, this is what happens. This is what you open the door for. And if you question it, you're called mean and bigoted and hated. It's just, it's hard. How do you speak the truth in love in that environment? I want to. The encouragement is the battle has always been going on. And he's going to take us through history to show us this that's what jude is going to do it's going to help us with that to see what happened in the past and how to think through it in the present and i i i i want you to think about the magnitude and devastating effects jude is going to say of apostasy throughout history and how the church dealt with it how god dealt with it but for now he says here's what you have to realize here's the hard part to it certain men have crept in they've wormed their way in it'd be bad enough if we're just dealing with it out there right but that's not what he's saying the hard part to it all is he's saying the battle most often lies within our own doors within our own communities among our own people that's what's hard and that's where he's going with this i've often thought when when paul was uh leaving ephesus the motion that comes out of that passage is just striking listen to this for i know this that after my departure savage wolves will come in among you not sparing the flock. Also, listen to this. So they're going to come in. Then he says this. Also, from among yourselves men will rise up speaking perverse things to draw away disciples after themselves. Therefore, this is Jesus' language everywhere, watch and remember that for three years I did not cease to warn everyone day and night with what tears I cried about this you know I don't think I've done much crying about this in the life of this church if anything I have been upbeat and all positive haven't I well you might disagree with that i don't know i think i have but i have not cried enough about this shame on me paul was so concerned about it he says the ministry for three years i was with you came with warning and tears because this is going to happen it has always been state satan's strategy from the beginning the ark enemy came into the garden wormed his way and slithered his way into the garden and the first question was did god say it always has come down to the word it always has come down to the revelation of god it always has come down to what he's told us and the first major apostasy happened in the garden of eden departure from the faith that's how it all started beloved consequence the entire human race was swept into it defection from the word of god devil's always working you come to first uh timothy force all over the new testament the spirit expressly says that in the latter time some will depart from the faith giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons speaking lies and hypocrisy having their own conscience seared with a hot iron refusing to marry comes down to marriage again it's all over i know this is not what we like to hear i don't like to hear it but we enter jude and we understand it's one of the most pastoral books in the new testament jude is saying you can't here's here's what i'm saying at the beginning what jude is saying you can't treat people who undermine your faith and the word of god lightly and that's what we do what he's saying so you say what do you want us to do pastors, right? What do you want us to do? Well, I'll give you a few thoughts and then this book hopefully will help us through that. Listen to Paul in 1 Timothy. Understand this. This is the first thing. That in the last days, there will come times of difficulty, perilous times, dangerous seasons people will be lovers of self lovers of money proud arrogant abusive disobedient to their parents you just see this all the time don't you ungrateful unholy heartless unappeasable slanderous without self-control brutal not loving good treacherous reckless swollen with conceit lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of god having the appearance of godliness but denying its power avoid such people for among them are those who creep in you hear that among them are those who creep into houses same principle and he goes on to say this but as for you this is so important continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed knowing from whom you learned it and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in jesus christ all scripture is breathed out by god himself this is the effect of that and it's profitable for teaching reproof correction and training in righteousness that the man of god may be complete equipped for every good work i'm reminding you of your sincere faith that's been handed to you there it is again the deposit a faith that first dwelt timothy in your grandmother lois and your mother eunice and I'm sure dwells in you. You see what he just did? All this bad stuff's happening. All this stuff's rising up from among us. Ah, but first thing, you hold on tight to everything you know and have been taught. Hardest thing to do. Hold the deposit. Believe the deposit. You've had a lot of instructors in your lives. You've had parents who've loved you and trained you. You have teachers that God's... Look at this morning, Barnabases. You know it's been handed to you. Hold that deposit. Continue in it. I loved a question. We got at the elders meeting the other night. What's your goals in this church for the future? And we all sat there for a minute. It's a good question. And I said, to continue in everything we've been handed. That's one of our greatest battles to date. Reverend Kaminga used to always say, you know, Chris, remember the counterfeit money example. Anybody remember that when you used to use that? Ministry has to be primarily positive. At times you need to do polemics. That's what we're doing in this series. But it has to be primarily positive for what reason? So that when the truth is continually put before you constantly and constantly and constantly and constantly, then you see the air. That's how counterfeit money people know to see the air. They don't just show them the bad money. They keep running the true right in front of them so that when it comes, finally, ah, there it is. There it is. There it is. That's what we're doing. That was this morning. Second, be willing to test the spirits to see whether they be of God. Beloved, do not believe every spirit. test the spirits to see whether they are of God for many false prophets have gone out into the world listen Jesus told us they don't come to you saying hey right here a false prophet they don't do that do they they come to you in in sheep's clothing so you have to know the truth and decide and be a Berean and say that is the word of God or it isn't that's why you have to know the scripture beware of false prophets who come to you in sheep's clothing but inwardly they're wolves ravenous and he says you know how you're going to know over time a wolf what's the fruit that has come out of their lives and their labors has it produced this licentious living is it promoting that look at the fruits do they stand for anything what are the fruits in their lives third if it's wrong, be willing to say so. That's the hard one, isn't it? If it's wrong, be willing to say so. You, therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, take care that you are not carried away with the air of lawless people and lose your own stability. That's what's at stake. 2 Peter 3.17. Now I come back to where we started. We'll stop. I wanted to talk about salvation. I wanted to do that tonight. I wanted to come here tonight and talk to you about the gospel. That's in all pastor's hearts. But what good will that do if that whole plan is being undermined and it always goes unchecked and people never contend for the faith? That paves a way for the purity of the gospel to be corrupted and never be heard. Thus, this is a very needful book in the New Testament, isn't it? A gospel contending. May the gospel of Jesus Christ that has saved and rescued you and done everything for you and now called you to the newness of life give us all hearts today then to care about it, to care about the people next to you and to contend earnestly for the faith that was once for all delivered to all the saints. Let's pray. Gracious Heavenly Father, what a challenging section of Scripture and we fall short because we have been overly nice. Niceness is everywhere. Niceness is not always the same thing as kindness. Forgive us, Father, for not contending earnestly for this deposit, but give us wisdom to do so for we know in the times we live, it's hard to do so. Would you give us the wisdom to do it in love and yet to do it and to be willing to speak that truth as we heard this morning. And please tear down the false teachers and apostasies that have so filled the church in our day. It grieves us. Make your church strong again. Add to it that it may be so complete that Jesus Christ is all and in all in the praise and glory of the name of the Lord. Hear our prayer, Father. Receive our thanksgiving. And through this, keep us humble. For we know that you oppose the proud but give grace to the humble. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.