An Affront to the Gospel

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Transcript:

Well, a few months back, Charla and I and the kids were driving home one night, and we were out on a road in the middle of nowhere, as we often were. I think we were around Wapunaka, which isn’t all that important to the story. It’s just I like saying that word.

We were down in that area, I believe coming home from Durant. And we’re driving along. It was just after dark.

I mean, it wasn’t. Anyway, so we’re driving along, and we get to this stretch of road, and there’s not usually a lot of people along that highway, but it seemed like there were two or three that came the opposite direction to meet us in just close succession, one after another, and they all flashed their brights at me. And I kept thinking, what is going on?

Because my thought is I’ve driven around with my brights on before not realizing it, this afternoon I drove around with my blinker on for a mile before I realized it I’ve even driven with my parking brake on and not realized it so I thought maybe I’ve got my uh maybe I’ve got my brights on and don’t realize it so I’m looking and the first time no I don’t have my brights on second person flashes me I think what are they doing there wasn’t a cop up there we came around the corner we came around a curve and somebody’s longhorn cattle had gotten loose and they weren’t on the road but they were very close to it and charlis said and that’s why they were flashing their lights at you to let you know that to warn you that there was something coming yes I’m familiar now with uh with people doing that to let you know there’s a speed trap um I don’t usually speed and I’ll say that and I’ll get pulled over but all these years I’ve never been pulled over for speeding never had a ticket for for any of that but uh so I don’t think about it when they flashed me about speeding, but I just, for some reason that night, I couldn’t figure out what was going on.

They were warning me that somebody’s cattle had gotten out, and they were right there on the road. You know, we need warnings from time to time when there are things on the horizon that we don’t see that present a danger to us, and I’m here to tell you, I’ve never hit a longhorn bull before, but I don’t have to do it to know it’s going to be a bad idea. It’s going to be bad for him, it’s going to be bad for my vehicle.

We need those warnings from time to time to let us know when something is coming ahead of us that we don’t see that’s going to hurt us. And as we get into the book of Jude, I’m going to ask you to turn with me to the book of Jude tonight. We’re going to start in the book of Jude.

Won’t go all the way through the book tonight. But as we start the book of Jude tonight, that’s really what the book of Jude is about. It’s a warning.

It’s Jude, who is the half-brother of Jesus, flashing his lights, flashing his brights at the drivers coming the other way, the Christians coming the other way, saying, warning, there’s something dangerous up ahead that you need to be aware of. And I told you this morning, the book of Jude could very easily have been written about our time. And even though it was written specifically for people in the first century, it’s amazing how heresy never dies.

It just changes its clothes. And a lot of the things that they dealt with are the same things that Christianity is faced with 2,000 years later. And we need the warning just as much today as they did then.

So let’s look tonight at the first four verses of the book of Jude. Jude 1 through 4. There’s only one chapter in the book of Jude.

As I said this morning, I’ve been enjoying my time in studying some of these smaller books that get overlooked a lot. You know, on Sunday nights, really since last summer, we were in Obadiah, and then we were in Joel, which Joel is three chapters, but Obadiah is one chapter. We did Philemon, which is one chapter.

Now we’re doing Jude. A lot of these are not books I’ve heard a lot of teaching on, and they’re not Books I’ve spent a lot of time studying previously, but they’re in the Word of God for a reason, and I think it’s good for us to go back and pay some attention to these. So Jude, the only chapter, verse 1, says, Jude, a servant of Jesus Christ and a brother of James, to those who are called, loved by God the Father, and kept for Jesus Christ. May mercy, peace, and love be multiplied to you.

Now, that’s his introduction there in the first two verses, And he introduces himself as a servant of Jesus Christ and a brother of James. And the position of faithful scholars throughout history, most of them, has been that this is Jude, the half-brother of Jesus, who identifies himself as the brother of James, who was one of the most important early leaders of the Jerusalem church, who was also the half-brother of Jesus. And James and Jude, neither one of them, believed in Jesus apparently during his earthly ministry.

I mean, they believed he existed. They knew that from experience. But they didn’t believe in him as the Messiah until something happened that got their attention and changed their minds.

And it was something pretty spectacular. I mean, what would it take to convince you that your sibling was the Son of God and the Messiah? I mean, I know my sister, I love my sister, but it would take an awful lot to convince me of that.

And for them, it was the resurrection. The resurrection changed James and Jude and their outlook on Jesus every bit as remarkably as it changed Peter, and as it changed John, and as it changed Thomas and the other apostles. It totally transformed them spiritually, not just their relationship to their half-brother, but for them to acknowledge him as Lord and Savior, that they had been skeptical about all this time.

Now, if it’s Jude, the half-brother of Jesus, some people have asked, why would he not identify himself as such at the beginning of this writing? Well, probably, my guess is, probably for the sake of humility, of not bragging, hey, I’m the brother of Jesus. Now, he says, because that wasn’t really what counted.

It wasn’t his blood relationship to Jesus that was going to get him anywhere. He identifies himself as a servant of Jesus, which when it came to Jesus, he had realized that was the most important thing. Now he does identify himself as the brother of James, so that early readers would understand who he was and would know where he fits.

But as far as his relationship to Jesus, it wasn’t him being his half-brother that was going to get him anywhere. It was being a servant of Jesus. And I think that’s why he identified himself in that way.

And so he writes to the churches, the churches early on, he writes this letter to them, the ones that he says are called and loved by God the Father and kept for Jesus Christ. So he’s talking about those who belong to the Father through Jesus Christ, those who are secure in him, those who have followed Jesus. And he wishes, that’s not exactly the right word, but he wishes in verse 2 that mercy and peace and love would be multiplied to them. He blesses them in that way.

He says, may you receive these things and may they be multiplied to you. Not just that you get a little bit of mercy and peace and love, but sort of like I talked about this morning, God giving life in abundance. Not just a little bit, but overflowing.

So that’s where he starts. and that’s sort of the warm fuzzy part of the letter. And then he gets down into the real meat and potatoes of what he’s written about.

He says in verse 3, Dear friends, although I was eager to write to you about the salvation we share, I found it necessary to write appealing to you to contend for the faith that was delivered to the saints once for all. He says there, I wanted to write you a simple letter I wanted to write to you about this salvation, possibly to instruct them in the gospel, maybe also just to glorify God and for them to give thanks together. Don’t you at times enjoy talking with your brothers and sisters in Christ about what God’s done for you?

When we stop and think about the gospel and what he’s done for us, it ought to excite us. If it doesn’t, there’s something wrong with us. He said, I just wanted to write to you, I believe, to revel in this salvation that they’ve experienced, that they’ve both experienced, this salvation they shared.

He said, but even though that’s what I wanted to write to you, just about this salvation, he said, instead, I find it necessary to write to you about defending that message of salvation. He said, I found it necessary to write appealing to you, begging you, enlisting you to contend for the faith that was delivered to the saints once for all. He’s enlisting them to join a fight.

Now, I want to be very clear when I say enlisting them to join a fight. I’m not talking about taking up arms against the pagans. There are some people who misuse the Bible even still today that say, we as Christians, we need to fight.

There are people out there who insist we need to do it with the bullet. There are people out there that insist we need to fight for our faith with the ballot. I say both of those are what he’s talking about here.

He’s talking about contending for the message of the gospel, preaching the gospel, proclaiming the gospel, being clear about the gospel, so that that transforming message can get to the people who need it and can get there clearly. But make no mistake, he uses the word contend. And that word contend means to do battle.

You know, as Christians, oftentimes we think or people outside think that we are supposed to just get along and go along with everybody and we’re just supposed to be nice and I’m all for being nice.

those of you who know me well know I I confrontation is not my favorite thing it’s not my spiritual gift I I feel like God has wired me much more as a diplomat that’s just me some people are more okay with conflict and God bless them we need those people too but some people enjoy it I’ll do it if I have to but some people just seem to enjoy it in a way that I don’t okay he says here to to content so my point being I’m all for being nice and I’m all for being kind but that doesn’t mean we just sit back and smile while people misunderstand misinterpret and misteach the gospel and just smile like oh it’s it’s fine it’s all good it’s all sunshine and roses here no sometimes we have to speak up and set the record straight.

Sometimes if somebody’s teaching a message, if somebody’s perverting the message and teaching a message that is going to leave people in their sins and going to send them ultimately to hell, we might need to speak up and be a little bit contentious about that, right? I mean that should bother us. Anybody else think so?

Or is that just me? Okay, if somebody’s teaching a message that is going to lead our friends and neighbors and loved ones into hell, it’s going to confuse them about the simplicity of the gospel that we’ve received, that ought to bother us enough that we at least speak up and say, I don’t think that’s right. It doesn’t mean that you have to go full on Mr.

Confrontational, charge hell with a squirt gun, and that sort of thing. But it does mean that we need to be willing to speak up. I maintain you can do that in a loving way.

As a matter of fact, I maintain Scripture expects us to do it in a loving way. I’ve talked to you before about how sometimes people think apologetics, you know, where we defend the faith and we learn about those things, that it’s unnecessary because it’s mean-spirited. There are people out there that do it in a mean-spirited way.

I know because I’ve probably been one of them at times. When we come to something with the intention of winning the argument instead of winning the person, we’ve already lost the battle. We may win the argument, but we’ve already lost the battle.

And if your goal is to show, for example, your Mormon neighbor or your atheist sibling, that they’re wrong and we’re right and I know more than you and just sit down while I beat you to death with my Bible hammer, that accomplishes nothing. Now, instead, the Apostle Paul says we’re supposed to speak the truth in love. Always let your speech be grace seasoned with salt.

And we can speak up in a loving way. We can speak up in a way that’s designed to point people to Jesus rather than turning them off from Jesus. But it’s important that we understand all of this, that we understand what we’re supposed to do and how to do it, because in our society today, in our society today, we are taught, we are being conditioned to believe that to disagree with someone is to hate them.

Have you found that to be true? Anymore, you disagree. You say, I don’t think that lifestyle is in line with what God wants for us.

You’re a hater. And we’re being taught. We’re being taught that if we disagree with people about anything, that automatically we can’t be friends.

That we have to just despise each other. And it’s sickening, isn’t it? We’re being conditioned for that.

And I’ve said before, I think there’s a great game being played on us by people in power who benefit from dividing Americans. But we need to understand, that’s not what God’s Word portrays. That’s something the culture has taught us.

And so we as Christians think, I can’t speak up because it’s mean. You know, oh, if you say somebody’s wrong, you’re being hateful.

No, if that’s your perspective, you’ve been taught that by the culture and not by God’s and let me be just as clear and I know this I think I know your thoughts on this everybody’s sitting out here on a Sunday night crowd I know y’all get it I’m pretty sure you’re in agreement with this but I’ve just got to be abundantly clear that if God’s word says one thing and culture says something different it’s not God’s word that needs to change to keep up with the times it’s culture that needs to change to get back to what God’s word says and so if we find ourselves falling into the trap that if I disagree with somebody on on politics or religion I can’t speak up you know I’m because it’s hateful no culture has lied to you to teach you that God’s word begs us here he says he’s appealing to you to contend for the faith Jude was beseeching these early Christians begging them trying to enlist them to go out and do battle for the faith.

Not in a mean way, but in a loving way. Because our enemy is not the person who believes something different. Our enemy is what the Bible calls the God of this world, the ruler of this world, who has blinded them to the gospel.

If they bleed and they believe the wrong things, they are not our enemy. They are the hostage caught in the middle that we’re trying to rescue. We’ve got to always keep that mindset in place.

And he says in verse 4, for some people who were designated for this judgment long ago have come in by stealth. They are ungodly, turning the grace of our God into sensuality and denying Jesus Christ, our only master and Lord. So all of this, I’ve gotten a little bit ahead of my notes tonight, but y’all don’t have my notes in front of you, so I didn’t have to tell you that.

When Jude wrote this, when he began to write this letter, he was writing to his fellow Christians to warn them about a growing threat to Christianity and a growing threat to the gospel. He wanted to write to them about the gospel. He wanted to just revel in what Jesus has done for them, but circumstances required him to instead write in defense of the gospel.

Because he said in verse 4 that false teachers had stealthily infiltrated the churches. They had just sneaked right in there teaching dangerous false doctrines. Teaching things that weren’t just little things we disagree about.

And we have those even here. We’ve talked about some of them back when we had our 5 o’clock class. We’ve had some differences of opinion, differences of interpretation when we’ve talked about things on Wednesday night.

And these are always in, not in primary issues, these are things way down the line that we can disagree about and still be brothers in Christ because we’re all just trying to understand God’s word together. No, these were not secondary, these were not tertiary issues. These were big things.

These were dangerous false doctrines about who Jesus is, what salvation is. These were things that if you believe this, what they’re teaching, you do not believe the gospel. And again, I go back to the conversation I had with my wife last night when we were talking about some of these things that she had discussed at this family get-together and what some different groups believe.

And I said, there are some groups out there that do believe in Jesus. Now, there are some groups out there who say they believe in Jesus and they believe in a different Jesus. and she knows that because she had to hear me talk about it for over a year when I was writing a book about that, about how all these different religions view Jesus.

Oh, they all say they love Jesus, but it’s a different Jesus. And she was telling family members that. No, this group, they say they love Jesus, but it’s not the same Jesus.

But there are other groups out there that they love Jesus, and as far as I can tell, it’s the Jesus of the Bible, but they’re trusting in some other things, Jesus plus something else in order to save them. And guess what? That’s not the gospel.

And so there were people coming into the church, sneaking into the churches, and slowly but steadily trying to corrupt people and lead them astray with these false ideas about who Jesus is and what salvation is. And you’ve got to be very careful with those kinds of things, because a little tweaking here and there has big implications. The example I’ve given a lot of times is they dealt with Gnosticism in the early churches.

They dealt with the influence of the Gnostics who said, and you might think, well, this sounds good on the surface, that the physical world, the material world that we see around us is evil, and there’s a spiritual world behind all of this that is good. Now to us as Christians who believe that we’re supposed to store up our treasures in heaven, that might have a ring of truth to it. Although we have to remember God made his creation and then said it was good.

So we can’t immediately say all of this is evil, but that has a ring of truth to it until you realize that on that basis the Gnostics were then teaching that Jesus, in order to be good, had come only in spirit, and that Jesus didn’t really have a material body in the sense that we do. Okay, now preacher, that’s just doctrine and theology and big words, and it doesn’t affect anybody’s life. Oh, it absolutely does.

If you believe that Jesus Christ, the Spirit, had to separate from that body before he could reunite with the Father, then that body that was crucified on the cross was not Jesus Christ. it was just some body, and God the Son did not die, did not shed his blood and die for our sins, and did not rise again in the same body, proving his victory over death, hell, and the grave, the implications start to stack up real quick. That suddenly you have to believe, as the Gnostics do, that there was something else going on at the crucifixion, and that’s not how we’re saved, that we’re saved by being initiated into secret knowledge. That’s Gnosticism.

so that’s just one example see what I mean you start to tweak a little bit with the doctrine of who Jesus is and you can mess up the gospel real fast and so he warned him about that and he said there were teachers in their midst who were doing these kinds of things they were already marked for judgment long ago but they intended to bring others along with them and that’s I feel like you’re siding with Satan at that point because Satan think about it he knows he can’t overthrow God. He knows he can’t beat God. Satan knows.

He’s read the book. He knows he’s doomed. So at this point, his goal is not to win.

He knows he’s going in the lake of fire. His goal is just to drag as many of us along with him as he can. And here Jude says, in verse 4, these were designated for this judgment long ago.

He said, long ago they were marked for judgment, and they intend to take you with them. Now, this specific threat that he was talking about was a heresy that’s come to be called antinomianism. I know that’s a big word, but it’s very simple.

We know what anti means. Nomos is the Greek word for law. Antinomianism is the teaching there is no law.

There’s no law whatsoever. Now, I know this is what he’s talking about. At least it’s one of the things that he’s talking about because we see in verse 4, he says that these people have come in by stealth.

They are ungodly, turning the grace of our God into sensuality and denying Jesus Christ, our only master and Lord. He said these people were coming in and using, or misusing, I should say, grace as an excuse to go out and live whatever kind of debauched life they wanted to. That’s antinomianism.

The idea that Jesus died to pay for our sins, all of it’s been forgiven, we’re under grace, so there is no law of any kind anymore. Now, you may be a little confused, but I’ve heard you say we’re not under the law. That’s correct.

We’re not under the law in the sense of it being a way to salvation. The law was never intended to bring us salvation. God’s moral law was intended to show us where we fall short.

It was all written out for us so we could understand how far short we fall of God’s holiness. So we understand this standard that we absolutely cannot meet. And Galatians calls it a schoolmaster to bring us to Christ. It was there so we would understand how fallen we are in comparison to a holy God so we would understand our need for Jesus Christ. So it was never intended for us to keep it, although some people thought they could be saved by following the commandments.

That was never the purpose, and we’re not under that law to try to work for our salvation. Jesus did not abolish the law. He fulfilled the demands of the law for us.

So where we fall short, Jesus has purchased our forgiveness. Now, some have taken that to an extreme, even then and still today, and said, if we’re not under the law, if we’re under grace, then we can live however we want because Jesus paid for it all, and if you say otherwise, you’re a legalist. All right, I don’t like legalism either. And I don’t like antinomianism.

I don’t want to hang out with either group. The biblical answer is in the middle. Not to say there’s no law, there’s no moral standards.

Not to say that God decided after the cross that you can just run free. As a matter of fact, Paul wrote about that and said, should we continue in sin so that grace may abound? He said, God forbid.

Absolutely not. If that’s your way of thinking, you’re not under grace in the first place. Because you haven’t been changed.

You don’t belong to Jesus. It’s unbiblical to say. The law is totally gone.

There’s no moral standard. There’s no anything over here. It’s also unbiblical and on the extreme on the other side to say, well, if you just follow all these rules, that’s how you’re going to be okay with God.

As Christians, we’re supposed to understand that God’s moral law still exists and it’s still in effect, not as a way for us to have a relationship with God, not as a way for us to be saved if we just follow all these rules and check all these boxes. We could never do it anyway. We are going to fall short of God’s moral law, and Jesus paid for that.

But our goal should still be to do what God’s word says, to do what God’s law says, not because we’re afraid he’s going to zap us if we step out of line, but because those are his standards that are an expression of his holiness and who he is, and we want to do what pleases him and brings him glory. You see, legalism is unbiblical, thinking you can get to God through the law. Antinomianism is unbiblical, thinking there is no law, I can just do whatever I want, woo-hoo.

And in the middle is grace that said you don’t earn anything through the law. Jesus paid it all. Jesus forgave your sins.

Just like Jesus said to the woman caught in adultery, go and sin no more. We’re never going to be sinlessly perfect. We’re never going to be able to keep the law perfectly.

But still we should have the desire to honor God by trying to be obedient to what he’s given us to do. Now this antinomianism teaches that we can embrace sin because Jesus has forgiven us anyway. But it’s an affront to the gospel.

It’s an insult to the gospel because it denies the power of our Lord Jesus Christ to change people’s lives. I mean, he even said in verse 4 that the people who were teaching this, they were denying by their teaching and by the way they lived their lives, everything about them denied Jesus Christ. It’s an affront to the gospel because it takes one part of what Jesus did and totally ignores the rest of what Jesus can do. He said, oh, he can forgive all your sin and totally ignores his power to transform our lives.

That’s why Paul said, as I’ve already quoted, Romans 6, 1 and 2, what should we say then? Should we continue in sin so that grace may multiply or abound? Absolutely not.

How can we who died to sin still live in it? And Jesus, I’m sorry, I’m looking at the wrong verse here. The Apostle John said, this is how we know that we know him.

He said, here’s the test. If you want to know whether you belong to Jesus or not, if you want to know if you’re in that relationship already or not, here’s how you know if we keep his commands. Now, that’s not how you get in the relationship, but being in the relationship shows up in how you obey his commands. He said, the one who says I’ve come to know him, yet doesn’t keep his commands is a liar.

That’s John, not me. is a liar and the truth is not in him, but whoever keeps his word truly in him, the love of God is made complete. This is how we know we are in him.

The one who says he remains in him should walk just as he walked. That’s not the Bible telling you to be perfect. That’s not the Bible saying you can become perfect.

That’s not the Bible saying you get into a relationship with him by following his commands. He’s saying that’s the evidence that you are in a relationship with him is by trying to live a life of obedience. You may say, what does this have to do with us today?

You may have never heard, maybe you have heard the word, but some of you in here may have never heard the word antinomianism before. But I guarantee you’ve run across it. I guarantee that you have run across it.

My goodness, I’m not a betting man, but I’d be willing to wager some money on that if I were, because that’s a sure thing. That is the operative philosophy of so much of our world and so many people in Christian churches today. I have heard people say, well, I know that’s not biblical, but it’s okay.

Jesus will forgive me. Yet Jesus will forgive you. That doesn’t mean it’s all okay.

You know, we, and I don’t, I’m not holding myself out as sinless and perfect. I sin. I am a sinner.

We all do. But you know what? As a child of God, I feel bad about it afterwards.

Quite often I feel bad about it during, as the words are coming out of my mouth. That’s a big problem. You know, I don’t have a problem with the drinking and the affairs.

I have a problem with the attitude a lot of times. And I think to myself, God, why did I act that way? God, why did I say that?

even though nobody else heard me I was alone in my truck why did I act that way because I know I’ve let him down I don’t slap a band-aid on it and say well Jesus will forgive me no I ask his forgiveness and I thank him that I have it but that’s not a license to go out and just keep on doing it now we’re never going to be sinless but as believers we should be trying to resist sin we should be trying to fight it we shouldn’t be surrendering to it and saying ah Jesus died so it’s okay that’s the way of our world today whatever we want to do is okay am I the only one that hears that philosophy being lived out all around us we can just do whatever there are no standards anymore there is no objective standard of right and wrong anymore that is antinomianism there you go so next time you hear it you’ll know what ancient heresy it is that’s changed its clothes Like I said, heresy never dies.

It just changes its clothes. Antinomianism is alive and well. But Jude taught us to fight against it because it’s not the gospel.

If you’re telling people that Jesus Christ died for them so they can go out and live however they want, that is not the gospel. The gospel calls us to repent. The gospel calls for our hearts to be humbled before the God who made us, for us to understand the gravity of our sin and repent and ask His forgiveness, throwing ourselves on His mercy, realizing that Jesus’ death on the cross is the only reason that we can have it.

And then walking away from that by the indwelling power of the Holy Spirit and resolving to serve Him from here on out, no matter how imperfectly we’re going to do that. Still, that’s the goal, to live a life that glorifies Him. We need to understand that the grace that Jesus provided is not just sufficient to forgive us, but also to change us.

The grace that Jesus Christ provided you at the cross wasn’t just enough to save you. It was enough to change you as well. His grace is not there to enable us to live ungodly lives.

It’s there to enable us to live godly lives. His grace isn’t there to make us sensually minded as they were. He says they had become sensual and ungodly.

It’s not there to make us sensually minded, but to make us spiritually minded. His grace forgives us even though we can never deserve it, even though we can never live up to the law perfectly. His grace forgives every transgression, but His grace also changes us, transforms us from the inside out.

And so you and I have, as Christians, have a responsibility to defend and to demonstrate the gospel in what we teach and how we live. He begged them to contend for the faith, to speak up, to say something. And he drew that in contrast to these false teachers who were teaching wrong things and living out wrong things in verse 4.

And if that’s the case, then for us to contend for the faith means we speak the gospel. I am not a believer in that quote that we’ve probably all heard, preach the gospel to every creature and if necessary, use words. I’m not a big believer in that quote.

Even though I’ve heard lots of people use it. I understand the sentiment. We should be living out our faith.

But that’s like saying, feed the hungry and if necessary, use food. What else would you use? Preach the gospel, open your mouth and tell people about

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