string(7) "m-66998" Burnt Hickory Baptist Church

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Sep 26, 2021

Jude

Jude

Speaker: Matt Petty

Series: Little Letters, Big Truths

Category: Sunday Sermons

Keywords: faith, jesus, sermon, believe, jesus christ, judgement, bible study, jude, walk with jesus, what is faith, god’s love, god’s word, courageous faith, what does the bible say, how to live like a christian, how to have faith, little letters big truths, words and deeds, dangerous lifestyle

We explore the small letter of Jude from the bible today, and we discover big truths in how to live as Christ wants us to. Pastor Matt shares timeless challenges in walking out our faith in Jesus. We are to fight for the faith, to understand that God loves us, but also judges us, and we are to constantly evaluate where we are in faith. Through this bible study, we also are to be knowledgeable of the words of God, watchful of our surroundings, careful of the traps of sin, and we are to be courageous in faith. In our self-evaluation, we should look at our words, actions, and lifestyle and ask if they match our direction of faith. Are we walking with Jesus in our beliefs? Maybe this has inspired you to evaluate your faith, and you’ve got questions. Have you stopped walking with Jesus because you’ve stopped being watchful and courageous? Does your lifestyle indicate a growing faith? If you need someone to talk and pray with you, then reach out – burnthickory.com/next – we’d love to answer any questions and encourage you to fight for your faith.

Well, good morning, church, I hope I over the last couple of days that you have had a chance to enjoy just some of this weather, I'm a little bit jealous of our greeters today. It is incredible outside, and we are glad to be here. Also, just a big thank you for all of you that are here. I know that we are between Paulding break and Cobb breaks, and we are really jealous of all those people that are at the beach this week.  So, if you're online and at the beach, we love you, but we don't like you today. Thanks for chiming in with us. Look, if you got a copy of Scripture this morning, I want you to turn with me to the Book of Jude, to the Book of Jude. 
So how do we find Jude?  Well, go to the end. Go one stop left.  And it's one to the left of revelation to which a lot of you would say, no, no, I know how to get it, dude.  It's my favorite book of the Bible.  No, no, it's not.  No one has ever said Jude is their favorite book, which is really the reason that we've been doing this series that we're doing right now to where we're looking at these small letters in the New Testament that really everybody just skips over most of the time to give love to some of those books that get a lot more attention. So, we've been looking at a lot of these books.  We’ve looked at Philemon. We've looked at Second John, we've looked at Third John. All of these one-chapter, small little bitty books. But what we've pointed out week after week after week is that these little letters have some big truths. They have some incredible encouragement. And they have some big challenges, not only for the first century church, but for us here as well. 
Well, the Book of Jude doesn't disappoint. I just want to tell you from the front this morning that of all the books in the New Testament, Jude might be the harshest. In fact, if you are a little bit snowflake-esk, you are going to have a problem with Jude. Jude doesn't hold any words back. Jude’s, the kind of guy that would just turn around if you were being snarky and line and punch you in the throat.  Jude is a little bit.  He's a little bit harsh.  He's a little bit out there.  He doesn't mince any words to which I kind of like because he just cuts through the fluff and tells you what you need to have. And you get on about your business. Right.  The Apostle Paul maybe a little bit harsh sometimes, but then he'll go into like 10 chapters of talking in circles. Well, Jude and twenty-five verses here in just a minute is going to throw down. So, look, if you find yourself going today, just know that you’re in good company. We all kind of feel that with this letter of Jude.
Jude comes out against an issue that the Bible talks about over and over and over and over again. And it's the issue of apostasy. So, Matt, what in the world is apostasy? Well, I'm glad you asked, because I wanted to tell you, apostasy is the idea of refusing or being in defiance of walking out the commandments of Jesus is just a fancy theological term. That really just means that I'm just not doing and I'm not being and I'm not acting on what Jesus has laid out for me to do. So, apostasy is a fancy way of saying that I'm just choosing to live as my own lord, to live as my own kind of path setter. It's not it's not an issue of knowledge. Apostasy is not an issue of not knowing what the word its apostasy is, just living in a way that basically looks at God and saying, hey, I'm just going to refuse to submit to you and I'm going to submit to myself. So, it's a Lordship issue.  
So, here's what I want you to feel from the beginning of this message. If we had to put a title on to the Book of Jude and on to this message, it would, quite frankly, just be the same story in a different time, the same story in a different time. Because here's what we’re going to realize in a minute.  When we look at this book, you’re going to be really, really, really surprised that the issues that Jude is about to refer to in this apostasy. Right. The issues that he's going to give in looking back at the Old Testament and looking at their situation in the New Testament is really and truly the same issues that we have today. In fact, it really and truly does this whole book support the claim of the Apostle Paul in First Corinthians 10, where Paul says this First Corinthians 10:13, he says that there is no temptation that has overtaken you except for what is common to man. So, what does Paul say in there?  He's saying that there are no new sins, there are no new struggles, there are no new issues. They're the same from the beginning of time in the garden to the end of the time when Jesus returns. They're the same sin.  And we're going to see this in June. 
That's the bad news.  But the good news is, is that Jude gives us. This idea that while we may be struggling in the same way, the solution is the same. The idea of how we get back in line of living in God's living in God’s power is the same. So that's what the Book of Jude is going to do. So here, let me give you the game plan today.  We're going to just read the book of.  We're going to walk through the Book of Jude together. And if we're going to allow Jude to show us how it is that we should be walking with Jesus, it's going to give us our present to us for different challenges of walking out our faith there.  He's going to give us four different ideas of what we should be doing to walk out our faith. 
Now, let me give you a little warning, though.  There is a lot in the book of Jude, and I realize that your mind can only take what your stomach can give. All right. So, I know that there’s no way that I could go for the next six hours and give you everything in the Book of Jude. All right. So, you're going to have some homework this week.  I'm going to refer back to that a few times.  You need to continue to read it because I tried to lay out what would it take? What would it take for me to get to everything in Jude? And I think it would be about a five-week series. All right. A five-week series.  So, I'm going to give you a 50000-foot view of what Jude is saying. So, what's the context of this?  I kind of leaked a little bit of it already. 
The Book of Jude is written by Jude. All right. That's really hard.  Really difficult to look at.  He, in fact, introduces himself in just a minute. But I want you to know something about Jude. Jude is a nickname. Jude is a nickname is kind of like being called Robert or Bob. Right? A lot of people this name is Bob is really Robert. It's kind of like my name is Matthew, but people call me Matt. Jude is short for the name Judas, it’s short for the name Judas. You say, well, Matt, why didn't he go by Judas? Really, first century Palestine. If you were named Judas, you didn't go by Judas anymore. Why have you been in Bible land for a long time? You'll know that it was Judas that betrayed Jesus, right? It was Judas. So, you quickly changed your name.  You quickly didn’t want to be associated with that. You quickly wanted to run as far away from being called Judas as you could. In fact, I'm not sure even today I’ve ever met a person named Judas. If that's you no offense.  But I'm just saying, I don't think I've met one. So, Judas, real name is Judas. He goes by Jude now.  But it's kind of a nickname.  So, who is this guy? Jude?
Well, Jude is a younger brother of Jesus. Now, I know this is going to blow some of your former Catholics away. All right. He is a younger brother of Jesus. He is one of the many brothers and sisters the Bible mentions. So, Matt, how do you know that? Well, what do you ask? Because it's going to get us into the text.  Let's look at it, Jude, chapter one, because there's only one and verse one. Look at it with me.  It says this Jude comma, a servant of Jesus Christ and a brother of James. To those who have been called who are loved in God, the father and kept for Jesus Christ, verse two, mercy, peace and love. Be yours in abundance. What does Jude tell us here?  Jude tells us, quite frankly, that he is the brother of James. James is another brother of Jesus. He's another younger brother of Jesus.  He's the writer of the Book of James. And he is the leader of the Church of Jerusalem. He's a leader now.  I don't want to stay on this for long, but this is amazing, because if you remember from reading the Gospels, have you spent some time in it? You'll remember that Jesus's younger brothers and Jesus's younger sisters, they didn't want anything to do with Jesus. They were not believers in Jesus.  In fact, they were angry at Jesus for making the claims that he did until something happened and that something was the resurrection. In fact, they didn't believe besides Mary and probably Joseph, we don't know a lot about him past the birth deal. Besides Mary and Joseph, the rest of the crew did not want anything to do with Jesus till he rose from the grave.  You said Matt. Why not? Well, think about it. If your older brother was Jesus, how are you ever going to live up to that? You're not? Yeah, I can just imagine Mary and Joseph would be like, hey, Judas, why don't you just be a little more like your brother?  I mean, why don't you just do like your brother? Can't you just be perfect like your brother? I mean, you couldn't live up to that.  They wanted nothing to do with him until he rose from the grave and then their heart changed. The family wanted him back.  The Book of Matthew I love this, the book of Matthew Chapter 13, when Jesus came back to his hometown. Listen to what it said about those that were closest to him.  It said, isn't this the Carpenter son? Isn't this being his mother's name, Mary, and isn’t his brothers James? So, we saw Joseph Simon and Judas and aunt all of his sisters with us. Where then? Where then did this man get all these things and look get verse 57. And they took offense at him.  They took offense at him, his family, his own closest people in his hometown. They didn't want anything to do with them. And watch this. Oh, that's bad. But watch, it gets worse.  
In Mark three, it says, when his family heard about this, this was a lot of the healing’s a lot of stuff that he was doing. When his family heard about this, they went to take charge of Jesus, for they said he is out of his mind. His brothers and sisters didn’t believe in him. They thought he was out of his mind.  And they almost wrote him off until he rose from the grave one day. Which points out a little bitty dark side note that I just wanted to bring up today.  And that's this. Never give up on those that are around you. Never give up on those that are not following Jesus right now. Never give up on those that may be looking at you like you're crazy because you're walking after Jesus right now.  Even Jesus, his whole family didn't believe until one day they did. 
So, we're looking at proof that Jesus doesn't give up. So, we shouldn't either.  So go back to verse one.  Verse one clearly shows us that that Jude is now a what? He is a servant of God. He's a servant of Christ.  Now, your Bible may say Bon Servants' the same thing. And he's with Jude.  So, what are they saying? It's like, hey, this is Jude here.  This is James. We're here. We are believers.  We are servants of God.  We belong to Jesus. And I love this because I got thinking this week, if I was Jude writing this, this would be not how I introduce my letter. I would have played the family card so fast, like, hey, I'm Jude and that's my brother Jesus. So, you better listen to what I say. But he didn't do that.  I don't know why he didn't do it, but I just thought that was odd. But I want you to see what he tells us. Look at verse three, because he gets through.  That's just the intro to the letter.  He gets three, verse three, he tells us he starts to tell us what he wants us to know. He says this. 
He says, Dear friends, that's it.  Were beloved if you were here last week.  Although I was very eager to write to you about the salvation that we share, I felt compelled to write and to urge you to contend for the faith that which was once and for all entrusted to God's holy people. Now, I want you to write this down, because the first of four ageless challenges of how to walk with Jesus is right here, number one, Jude says this, that we need to fight for our faith. Do we need to fight for the faith?  
We need to fight for the faith. Now, I know when I say that for some of you, that doesn't sit well. I can just hear it now. Well, that wasn't Jesus. Just wasn't he just a loving peacemaker? Well, kind of. Matt, doesn't Jesus just tell us, doesn't he tell us that we need to love people? Absolutely he does. Absolutely. He says to love people.  But I want you to know listen real closely that there are some things Jude says and Jesus says that are worth fighting for. There are some things that are worth fighting for.  And the faith is one of them.  It's one of them.  Watch what happens in these first verses.  I love this is so great.  You see Jude when he sets out to write this letter. Jude sets out to write a completely different note to this people to the Church of Jerusalem. He sets out to write out this, this encouraging letter. He sets out to write out this letter about this common salvation. He sets out to write this motivational moment or this sweet little note or this unifying salvation sonnet. But I want you to see what happens.  The Holy Spirit grabs a hold of his heart. He says, no, no, no, no.  That's not what you're going to write. You need to tell them this.  And in fact, the exact word that the Bible uses right here is that he was compelled, that he was compelled. Look at it real close to right here.  
Watch what it says, his dear friends, verse three. Although I was very eager to write to you about the salvation that we share. I felt compelled. Now, what does that mean?  That just means that I felt pressured or pressed or squeezed or I felt moved to do something. Let me ask you this is your spirit in a place where you can receive the compelling word from God to move you in a direction? He was. I felt compelled, he says, to write to you and to urge you watch this, to contend for the faith that was once and for all entrusted to God's holy people. Now, what does this word contend mean?  We don't use this word a whole lot.  The word contend literally means to fight. It means to defend.  It means to get into the battle. 
Actually, if you look at the Greek word here and you look at them side by side, the Greek word is the English word, where we get our English word to agonize, to agonize. So, Jude is giving us an incredible reminder right here that listen to me. Some of us forget that we are living on the battlefield of life and not the playground of life. Some of us forget that we have been called to battle for the cause of the faith. And we can't do it from our lazy boys.  We can't do it from our couches.  We can't do it from our complacency. The word picture that he uses in content is one of an Olympic athlete, that is striving for the calls. Have you ever seen those still shots of Olympic athletes faces in the middle of the sprints? Have you ever seen that?  Like everything in them. It's just like pulled back.  The veins are popping up every ripped muscle in their body. Kind of like when I'm moving down the road, it every ripped idea in them is moving towards a cause. That's what he's saying.  That's the heaviness of what Jude is saying right here. But what are we fighting for is the next question we got to ask? He's quite clear in what he says we’re fighting for.  
He says we should contend for two words. You might want a circlet because it's important. The faith. The faith. Now Jude says the fight for the faith. Now, what is the faith?  The faith is the truth. The good news of Jesus, it is the general, it is the core teachings of Jesus. It is the acts to 42, the apostles doctrine. It is the gospel. It is the core tenets. Catch this Jude tells us that has already been given to us. You know what that means.  There is no new revelation at this point. There is no new revelation after the Bible is here. So, he's not telling you to contend for something that someone has pulled down from Jesus post the Bible being put together. There are no new revelations there were to strive towards the faith. Now, notice what it doesn't say, because sometimes when we look at the Bible, it’s just as important to know what it doesn't say.  He's not saying that we should be fighting for secondary issues. 
He's not saying that we should be fighting for pre- vs. post-millennial kingdom living. He's not saying that we should be fighting for dispensational theology. He's not saying any of that.  He's saying fight for the faith, the faith, meaning who is God? Who is Jesus? What is it that saves us and where will we be one day? That's what he says, to fight about. Everything else, we can disagree on. The things that are unclear, the things that are a little bit there, but we're really not sure, we can all be friends in those things. But he says fight for the faith. 
So, here's my question for you this morning.  Are you fighting or are you sitting? Because you're doing one or the other.  Are you contending?  But why do we fight? That's the question.  I'm just walking us through the text here.  Why do we fight?  And why do we have to fight?  Glad you asked. Keep reading because Jude tells us in verse four, it's a lot of scripture.  Hang tight. Watch this. Jude tells us in verse four, he says this. For certain individuals, never be a certain individual in the Bible.  It never works out for you.  For certain individuals whose condemnation was written about long ago have secretly slipped in among you. They are ungodly people who pervert the grace of our God into a license for immorality and they deny Jesus Christ our only sovereign and Lord, verse five, for you already know this. But I want to remind you that the Lord at one time delivered his people out of Egypt, but later destroyed those who did not believe verse six, and the angels who did not keep their positions of authority, but they abandoned their proper dwelling. These God has kept in darkness, bound with everlasting chains for judgment on the great day. Verse seven, in the same way Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding towns gave themselves up for sexual immorality and perversion. Now pay close attention to this last sentence, a last sentence. They you can write the word all beside that, because he's referring to this whole paragraph.  They all serve as an example to those who suffer the punishment of eternal fire. 
So, what is Jude saying?  Judas saying that there were and there are those who choose not to follow Jesus that are among us, that are walking among us, that we're dealing with, that are in culture, they are all around us, and we might even be one in some seasons of our lives. But he's saying this God will only take it for so long. So, what he's saying, in fact, I want you to write this down. If no one is that we need to fight for the faith, the number two ageless principle or challenge is this. Remember that God loves, but also God judges. We need to remember that God loves us, he loves us, but he judges, he loves us so much that he's given us this world, he loves us so much that he's allowed us to walk in his presence. He loves us so much that he gave us Christ to die for our sins, to raise from the grave, to give us eternal life. He loves us so much to separate us from our sins. But remember, he also judges us. He also judges.
Now, look, we don't talk about this a lot, but I just feel like if we’re going to follow the text, we got to there's going to be a day where God separates those who know and love him from those who do not know and love him. There's going to be a day where he gives those over to the desire that is in their heart. Matt, isn't that harsh?  Well, not really, if you think about it, because when God judges, those who do not love him, he's really just casting them to the place that they've always wanted to be, and that is away from him. God is the judge. That's what he's pointing out in that paragraph we just read. And Jude knows this.  Jude reminds us of this, and Jude does it in a masterful way. Jude takes this Jewish audience, and he walks them through these three judgments of the Old Testament. Really quickly, 50000-foot view. Verse five, Jude mentions the judgment of the children of Israel in the wilderness. This is the Exodus account, right?  God judged those in whom he loved the most. Why? Because they walked away from him.  Because they continued away from him. Because they continue to walk.  Even though time after time after time, God forgave them. He did it in the wilderness and over and over and over again. He gave them a chance. But what did he do?  A whole generation of them did not get to walk into the promised land. 
Now, look at verse six, is the second one that mentioned God judged the angels. Now, look, there's a whole lot here we could go to Thursday talking about. But here's what it really boils down to. It boils down to the idea that that God even judge the angelic beings that walked away from him. Now, whether we’re talking about the angels from Isaiah or Revelation or second Peter to four, that's a whole other day.  But here's what I am saying. I'm saying that God even judge those angelic beings that were called to be in his presence for eternity because they turned from him. And then in verse seven, he gives us the third one that God judge Sodom and Gomorrah for their sexual sins. Genesis 19, the God judge them. In other words, they remember what verse four that we read in Jude a minute ago said that they turned the grace of God into a liberty and a license to sin. That's what Sodom and Gomorrah did. Through these homosexual acts, through this idea in their mind, that they felt the freedom to be who they wanted to be when they wanted to be it.  God said, listen, I am not the God that tolerates sexual autonomy. I'm not the guy that tolerates it.  There is no room. Let me just say this and we'll move on.  There is no room for sex outside of the biblical picture of marriage between man and woman. That means those of you that are shacking up and living with your spouse and homosexuals. It's both. It's both. 
So, listen, before we get on this bent over here, that we're always going to be up against the homosexual movement.  We need to get on this bent over here that we're against. Also, not living and being and living in adultery. That's what he's mentioning.  It's both on this message of I will love what my heart tells me to love, and I will do what my heart tells me to do when I want to do it. And no one can say it’s wrong. It's up to me.  That is not of the Lord.  It's not. We're seeing it in Jude right here. It's not from God. And God is the judge. We are not the ones who try to mold God into our image. We can't work as if Jude has improved his point. Let's continue. 
Verse eight, ooh, there’s a lot here first. Here it is in the same way in the strength of their dreams. These ungodly people pollute their own bodies. They reject authority.  They heap abuse on celestial beings. Even the Archangel Michael, when he was disputing with the devil about the body of Moses, did not dare to condemn him for slander, but said, hey, that's a lord that’s going to rebuke you and others. Hey, this Lord's job, the judge, not mine. Verse 10. Yet these people slander what they do not understand, man, that's culture, isn't it?  And the very things they do understand by their instinct, in other words, they’re their hearts drawling them.  Watch this as irrational animals do. It will destroy them. Verse 11, you may want to stick with these three words, woe to them. They've taken the way of Cain; they have rushed for profit into Balaam’s error. They have been destroyed in Korah’s rebellion. We're going to come back. Those people are blemishes at your love feast. That's just the potluck dinner the first century, that's all that is. Eating with you without the slightest qualm. Shepherd, there are shepherds who feed only themselves. They are clouds without rain.  They're blown along by the wind. They are autumn trees without fruit and uprooted twice dead. Verse 13, they are way up wild waves of the sea, foaming up their shame. They are wondering stars for whom the blackest darkness has been reserved forever.  Enoch the seventh from Adam.  That's like seven generations. They even prophesied about them.  See, the Lord is coming with thousands upon thousands of his holy ones. Verse 15 is important, to judge everyone and to convict all of them. Of all the ungodly acts they have committed in their ungodliness. And all of the defiant words and ungodly sinners have spoken against them. Wow. There's a whole lot there that we can't do. You need to look it up this week.
But here's what Jude says, quite frankly. Hey, listen, there’s a whole lot of people out there that are just following their thoughts and following the dreams that are in their minds. But they don't realize that there is a strong influence on this earth that is not godly, that wants to draw them away, that wants to take them away. What is he saying?  They are following their instincts and the instinct most often follows the prince of the Earth, which is not godly. They're following their instincts and they should be warned. In fact, I'm going to do it because we got time.  He walks through these four are these three different illustrations right here. He walks through cane, right?  Genesis Chapter three, what he can do. Cain brought a halfway sacrifice to God and wanted to be godly. In other words, he wanted God, but he wanted it on his own terms and God judged him for it. Second, what did it say, Balaam? Balaam is numbers chapter twenty-two. He was an evil prophet that sold his services for gain, that went into God's people, spoke against them, lied to them as a prophet, and led them into sexual immorality. And God judge him. Number 16, Korah’s Rebellion.  Korah’s Rebellion. You don't get to this one in the childhood ministries. Here's why. Korah and his crew stood up against God, stood up against Moses and stood up against Aaron and refused to submit to God in Moses his authority and God swallowed them up in the Earth. God judged them. They were all judged why, because God is a loving God. But he is a judging God.  He is a judging God; they will only take him for so long. 
So, let's put these first two points together.  We are to fight for the faith, knowing that judgment is coming. So how do we do that?  Let me give you for one liner to process this week, no one be knowledgeable about the word of God, be knowledgeable, learn the stinking word, please learn it. I can't say it any clearer.  Learn it so that when these things come up, your radar is up and you're not like, oh, I don't know. Just learn the word no to be watchful, be watchful your surroundings, be watchful of what's happening around you. Keep your eyes up, man. For goodness’s sake, get your eyes out of your phones for a minute and watch what’s happening around you. Just watch because Satan has a plan and he's working his plan and he wants to leave you, I promise you, number three. Be careful. Be careful. The traps that get set in front of you. Be careful the traps that Satan lays out in front of you because he wants to devour you.  The Bible says he's like a roaring lion prancing around ready to devour you. And number four, be courageous, be courageous, stand in love for faith. 
Because here's the deal.  I know we've looked at this whole idea of judgment is negative. But there'll be a day when the judgment is positive for those who love Jesus. Okay. Yeah, it's going to be a day where we set free from shame. Set free from sin and set free from viewing God through glass, dimly lit. And we will be with God forever. I love it. Verse 11 says, Woe to us. Verse 15 says judgment will come and I get it. It's heavy. Unless you're walking with Jesus, that's joyous. Number one, fight for the faith.  Number two, remember, God is a loving God, but he is a judging God. And here's number three.  Constantly evaluate where you are in the faith. Constantly, constantly. 
And let me add this, I didn't put it in your notes because he hit me later and adjust and grow in a godly direction and adjust and grow not just about every but that's there. No, no valuated.  But move in a godly and a holy direction. You see, I love what Jude has been doing right here.  Matt, it's been pretty rough.  I get that. But I love the case has been mounting. He's been looking back at the Old Testament, using these examples, warning these people of what it looks like to be judged, what it looks like to not walk, how they're walking.  But now he gets even more personal to this church and to us. And he describes what it looks like to walk out an apostate life in their time. And Jude, Jude here gives us an example of how we can tell if we're walking in the truth. He gives us kind of one of those online self-assessment. Right. That tells you what your personality is or how you are walking. He's going to tell us right now.  You're going to know whether you're walking with Jesus or not by this paragraph.  Watch this. He gives us a negative example, but we're going to translate it positive. Jude, 16. Here's how you know, if you’re an apostate for 16, it’s not me talking, by the way, it’s Jude. He says, these people, I told you, never be these people. These people are grumblers and are fault finders. They follow their own evil desires.  They boast about themselves, and they flatter others for their own advantage. But dear friends, always be a dear friend.  Remember what the apostle of our Lord Jesus Christ foretold? They said to you in the last times, there will be scoffers who follow their own evil desires.  These are the people who divide you, who follow their mere natural instincts and watch this important and do not have the spirit. Now, what does it mean to not have the spirit, to not have the spirit means you are not a follower of Jesus. You might look like one, you might smell like one. You might own the T-shirt. But you're not a follower of Jesus.  
What does that mean?  That means you've never submitted your life to the Lordship of Jesus. You've never given him your heart.  You've never allowed him to cover your sins. And when you invite Christ into your life, the Holy Spirit seals you. He comes into your life, and he says, you will know what you are by looking at three things. Three little self-evaluation concerns here. Number one, you will know by your words, you’ll know by your words. Look at verse 16.  These people are grumblers and fall finders. They will follow their own evil desires. They will boast about themselves and flatter others in their own advantage. Now, let's look at these words really quickly.  What is the first one you mentioned?  Grumblers, glim, grumbler. I love this word grumble because it's an onomatopoeia. And we don't have a whole lot of those.  You remember what that was from English? No. All right. Onomatopoeia is kind of like buzz, right? The word matches the action.  Grumble is that same thing. Grumble is just grrrrrrrrr. That's all it is.  That's where we get the word.  That's how they came up with the spelling.  I don't know how they did it, but that's what it is. It describes the meaning.  
It's the only time in the New Testament this word is used, but it's used all the time in the Old Testament to describe the children of Israel.  Does that make sense to you? They're always grumbling. They're always mad. They're always upset at something. They're always just like, oh, that’s another onomatopoeia, by the way. They're always just going ugh, right? That's what they are.  That's how, you know, second, their fault finders. Says it in the Bible, right?  What is the fall finder?  A fault finder is just someone who always finds blame and things. Do you get one of these people in your family, right? Maybe not mine, but maybe yours, right?  Do you have one of these people that is always just like, well, but it's their fault or I'm I don't know. It just means they're always discontented. They're always just like, I don't know. It's their fault. It's their problem.  I'm just not I'm just dissatisfied. Listen, let me just be really honest with you. God takes discontent. Real, real, real seriously. He takes fault finders or so.  Do you know why? Because really and truly, you’re questioning God's sovereignty. So, when you complain and when you argue, when you're dissatisfied, do you know what you're really saying to God? You were really looking at God and saying this.  You are not doing a great job of being God. You are not doing a great job of being sovereign. So really, it's not a worry issue.  It's a belief issue.  And who God is. That’s why I take this so seriously. Look, I'm just going to be honest with you.  He says also they flatter others. In other words, they just speak out of non-sincerity. Just to kind of say, hey, if I compliment you a little bit, maybe you'll turn around and compliment me.  Have you ever met those people to give the halfway competent, competent, wait, halfway compliments?  Just so you'll turn around and do it to them.  That's what's happening right here.  
Let me just be honest, Jesus says in Matthew, 12:34 the mouth or speak what the heart is full of. So, you don't have a mouth issue?  No one here and nowhere in this Bible has a mouth issue. It's a heart issue because that's where my language is just a little rough. No, your heart is.  I just I just slip up.  Yeah, because that's what's in the heart. Keep going, not only is our words that we should evaluate, but I mean to which our actions, our actions look at this. Our thoughts are really just emotion. That's an action, right? Jude, 16, the last five words. They follow their own evil desires. Jude, 18, what is it? The last words. They follow their own evil desires. It says it again. I think it was in verse 20. You get the point, though, right? They are led by their lusts, their led by their own desires, their led by their own gain.  We've said this pretty much every single week, and that is that we will always move in a direction of our affections or our focus. 
So, what's going to set our actions?  So, what he says, that's what happens.  But number three, the last one, he says to evaluate our lifestyle. To violate our lifestyle, why?  Because really and truly, our words and our actions really shape our lifestyle. It really does. You see, the text implies that dude is speaking about a group of people who didn't just make a mistake and be like, oh, man, I can't believe I did that.  No, it was a trajectory of their life. So, I'm not speaking apostacy.  It's not like when we fall, when we make a mistake, when we sin, that's not it. It's when we set a direction of our life on a course that is not where God wants us to be, that’s what he's talking about here. So let me put all this together and say this. 
Are you constantly evaluating where your walk with Jesus is? Because that's what he's saying we should be doing.  Matt, are you trying to get me to question my faith? Not in those words.  But I am getting you to do is to make sure of it and to nail it down and to know where you are in it. 
So, let's put all this together.  We fight for our faith. We remember that God is a loving God and a judging God. And we constantly evaluate where we are in the faith. So that here's the fourth challenge number for us, the last one so that we can stay standing. Even when those around you are falling so that we can stay standing. What is the implication of the whole book? The implication is, is that many, many, many, many, many, many people around these people were falling. Many of them were walking away from Jesus.  Many of them were walking in their own desires to, which translates to where we are today. We all have testimonies of this.  Right, of people that we know, people that we love, possibly even seasons of our lives, that this has been us. Jude gives us an incredible clear picture of how not to walk in that. 
So, while the rest of this has been heavy, let me give you some encouragement to walk you out.  And here it is like a verse 20.  He gives us a plan of how to stand. First, he says, but you.  Dear friends, remember, I always say, be a dear friend, don't be in one of those. By building yourselves up in the most holy faith and by praying in the Holy Spirit. Keep yourself in God's love as you wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to bring you to eternal life. And that's good news.  Be merciful, hear this please, to those who doubt.  Save others by snatching them from the fire. Man, that's great language.  To others, show mercy mixed with fear. In other words, sometimes you've got to be really honest with people. Keep going. Hating even the clothing stained by the corruptible flesh. Verse 24, you might want to underline this one. To him, that's Jesus, who is able to keep you from stumbling and present you before his glorious presence without fault and without great joy to the only God in our savior be glory and majesty and power and authority through whom? Through Jesus Christ, our Lord.  For all ages and now and forever more.
I can just see you drop into my sea boys. Bur really, what does he do?  He builds this case of the apostasy of the long time, the walking away. But then he tells them, hey, that's you.  Or if you're involved in ministry, let me tell you how to stand even when others are falling.  Let me give you there's four promises, like two minutes. No. one, build your foundation on the gospel. You don't know how to stand.  And other people are falling.  Don't build your foundation on the same thing that they're building it on. Don't, why? Because everything else is, what, sinking sand. Build it on the gospel. 
What did he tell us in verse 20?  He says, build yourselves up in the most holy faith. What did he refer to up in the earlier chapter? He said, contend for the faith. It's the same word there.  It's the same foundation. But No. two, not only do we build the foundation of the faith, but we also commit to earnest prayer. Commit to earnest prayer.  Now, I'm not talking about the Hail Mary prayers.  When something's going down right.  I'm not talking about the oh Lord. Is about to hit the fan.  Here it is. I'm talking about regular, consistent, intense time in prayer. What does verse 20 say, praying in the Holy Spirit, allowing him to guide you. Number three, position yourself in a lifestyle that God's love can always be shown.  Can always be shown.  We see it in verse 22, right? Verse 22 is all about the response of how we can step into other people's lives. We see it in verse 21, Keep yourselves in God's love. Does that mean you're going to lose your salvation?  No, but it does mean that you’re not going to be in his power and you're not going to be in a place that you can serve him. Do you know why so many people don’t serve in the church is because they don't feel like their lives is in a place where they can do it. What is he saying to us men?  Keep yourselves ready to even rescue other people. And the number four, live expectantly. For Jesus's return, live expectantly. Verse 24. To him who is able to keep you from stumbling in the present, you before his glorious presence. Watch this without fault. And with great joy.  That's the goal of the Christian life.  That's the goal.  
Are you living expectantly?  Are you living in a way that you know what is coming? And you're ready.  One of the ways that the Christian church for 2000 years now has been living expectantly is by having the Lord's Supper together. It's by celebrating the body in the blood of Christ and what it has done for us. So, I thought a great way to sear this into our mind is to do that as we close this morning. Invitation is a little bit different than normal today. We're going to talk about that this is the foundation of our faith, the foundation is what it is. Christ has come.  He has lived. He has died, and he has risen, and he's risen. 
And he's given you the chance to know him.  That's what the Lord's Supper is about.  We're committing when we take this together to live the life that points towards eternity. And we're asking God to give us the power to do it. So, I don't know what kind of background you come from, but in this church, we celebrate open communion.  What does that mean?  That means that if you are a follower of Jesus, this is for you. So, it's not a denominational thing.  It is not you have to be a part of this church thing. It just means this.  If there's been a time in your life where you've submitted your heart, you've given your life to Jesus, he’s forgiven you of your sins. He's come into your life than this is for you. It's for you today.  But I'll tell you this, if you haven’t done that, this is for the family. I want to say this sensitively as possible.  It's for those who understand this, it's for those who have given our hearts to Christ. 
But I'll say this, if you don't know Jesus, you can know him right now. And you can seal this deal by saying, Christ, I need you in my life, I need you to forgive me. I need you to come into my heart because I want to spend eternity with you. Here I am, if that's you are today.  And you're that if that is your heart today, man, and that is your prayer today, then you enjoy this with us, because welcome to the Kingdom of God. 
That's what salvation is turning from our old turning to our new. Let me read what the Apostle Paul says about this. He says, For I receive from the Lord what I also passed on to you. The Lord Jesus, on the night he was betrayed, he took the bread. And when he gave thanks, he broke it.  And he said, this is my body, which is for you.  Do this in remembrance of me.  In the same way he took the cup saying this cup is the new covenant of my blood.  Do this whenever you drink it.  Remember me for whenever you drink or whenever you eat the bread and when you drink the cup. What are you doing?  You're proclaiming the Lord's death until he comes. I'll skip down to verse twenty-eight in this passage in verse Corinthians. Watch this. He says this Everyone ought to examine themselves before they eat and drink. From the cup.
So today and next, couple of minutes after a break, it's OK. Did it get ahead of the game?  We're going to ask you to celebrate this on your own time.  Want you to get your heart ready once you just maybe, you know, walk through some of these notes from Jude today to say, yes, Lord, here I am. Allow me to walk in, Your Holiness.  
Lord Jesus today walks with us in these next couple of minutes and God show us who you are. Give us just an incredible mental picture of what you have done for us and. God, as we celebrate this today, let us celebrate the fact that we are sealed in you.  Thank you, Jesus, that for two thousand years, people from every walk of life have walked in this moment together. And God, we will do this until the day that you return, and then we will celebrate this with you. So, God, we're looking back and we're looking at today and God, we're looking into the future at all that you've done for us.  With your heads bowed and your eyes closed, I'm going to say this today, too, if you've given your life to Christ today or if you need to do that, I'll be down here in the front during the Lord's supper, and I would just encourage you, come let me know that.  Let me walk you through that. Let me pray with you today to process through what that looks like.  Lord Jesus, take this moment.  It's in your name we pray. Amen.  

Follow Along with the Message

Jude

September 26, 2021

Apostasy: refusing to or defiance of walking in the commands of Jesus.

1 Corinthians 10:13
No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind…
Jude 1–2
1 Jude, a servant of Jesus Christ and a brother of James, To those who have been called, who are loved in God the Father and kept for Jesus Christ: 2 Mercy, peace and love be yours in abundance.
Matthew 13:55–57
55 “Isn’t this the carpenter’s son? Isn’t his mother’s name Mary, and aren’t his brothers James, Joseph, Simon and Judas? 56 Aren’t all his sisters with us? Where then did this man get all these things?” 57 And they took offense at him…
Mark 3:21
When his family heard about this, they went to take charge of him, for they said, “He is out of his mind.”
Jude 3
Dear friends, although I was very eager to write to you about the salvation we share, I felt compelled to write and urge you to contend for the faith that was once for all entrusted to God’s holy people.
4 Timeless Challenges in Walking with Jesus

1. for the faith.

Jude 3
Dear friends, although I was very eager to write to you about the salvation we share, I felt compelled to write and urge you to contend for the faith that was once for all entrusted to God’s holy people.
Jude 4–7
4 For certain individuals whose condemnation was written about long ago have secretly slipped in among you. They are ungodly people, who pervert the grace of our God into a license for immorality and deny Jesus Christ our only Sovereign and Lord. 5 Though you already know all this, I want to remind you that the Lord at one time delivered his people out of Egypt, but later destroyed those who did not believe. 6 And the angels who did not keep their positions of authority but abandoned their proper dwelling—these he has kept in darkness, bound with everlasting chains for judgment on the great Day. 7 In a similar way, Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding towns gave themselves up to sexual immorality and perversion. They serve as an example of those who suffer the punishment of eternal fire.

2. Remember that God loves, but also God .

Jude 8–15
8 In the very same way, on the strength of their dreams these ungodly people pollute their own bodies, reject authority and heap abuse on celestial beings. 9 But even the archangel Michael, when he was disputing with the devil about the body of Moses, did not himself dare to condemn him for slander but said, “The Lord rebuke you!” 10 Yet these people slander whatever they do not understand, and the very things they do understand by instinct—as irrational animals do—will destroy them. 11 Woe to them! They have taken the way of Cain; they have rushed for profit into Balaam’s error; they have been destroyed in Korah’s rebellion. 12 These people are blemishes at your love feasts, eating with you without the slightest qualm—shepherds who feed only themselves. They are clouds without rain, blown along by the wind; autumn trees, without fruit and uprooted—twice dead. 13 They are wild waves of the sea, foaming up their shame; wandering stars, for whom blackest darkness has been reserved forever. 14 Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied about them: “See, the Lord is coming with thousands upon thousands of his holy ones 15 to judge everyone, and to convict all of them of all the ungodly acts they have committed in their ungodliness, and of all the defiant words ungodly sinners have spoken against him.”
In Light of the Coming Judgment:

1. Be of the words of God.

2. Be of your surroundings.

3. Be of the traps.

4. Be .

3. Consistently evaluate where are in the faith.

Jude 16–19
16 These people are grumblers and faultfinders; they follow their own evil desires; they boast about themselves and flatter others for their own advantage. 17 But, dear friends, remember what the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ foretold. 18 They said to you, “In the last times there will be scoffers who will follow their own ungodly desires.” 19 These are the people who divide you, who follow mere natural instincts and do not have the Spirit.
3 Direct Areas of Evaluation:

1.

Jude 16
These people are grumblers and faultfinders; they follow their own evil desires; they boast about themselves and flatter others for their own advantage.
Matthew 12:34
For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of.

2.

Jude 16
These people are grumblers and faultfinders; they follow their own evil desires…
Jude 18
They said to you, “In the last times there will be scoffers who will follow their own ungodly desires.”

3.

4. Stay , even when others around you are falling.

Jude 20–25
20 But you, dear friends, by building yourselves up in your most holy faith and praying in the Holy Spirit, 21 keep yourselves in God’s love as you wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to bring you to eternal life. 22 Be merciful to those who doubt; 23 save others by snatching them from the fire; to others show mercy, mixed with fear — hating even the clothing stained by corrupted flesh. 24 To him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy — 25 to the only God our Savior be glory, majesty, power and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all ages, now and forevermore! Amen.
How Do We Stand?

1. Build your on the Gospel.

2. Commit to prayer.

3. Position yourself in a that God’s love can always be shown.

4. Live for Jesus’ return.

Additional Notes

 

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