Our Responsibility - What is Saving Faith?

[audio]

Romans 10:5-17

Preached 2/10/19 (previous)

INTRODUCTION

Just this week the announcement was made that a large inter-faith council has been held to promote religious peace in the world.  Certainly this is not a bad goal – the world is plagued with religiously based violence (not the main reason for war and violence in the world but we will use any excuse for a fight and religious differences are as good of an excuse as nationality, money, skin color, language, personality, or any other reason.  In Abu Dhabi a document was signed by many “faith leaders” including  Pope Francis and Sheikh Ahmen al-Tayeb (considered to be the most important imam in Sunni Islam), who stood “hand in hand in a symbol of interfaith brotherhood”.  The audience included “a global audience of religious leaders from Christianity, Islam, Judaism and other faiths”.  While I celebrate anything that reduces the evils of terrorism and human brutality, I was appalled to read that the document, signed by the supposed representative of Christ upon Earth, says that the God of the Bible and Allah of Islam are the same God, and that “the diversity of religions” that we see in the world was “willed by God”.  In so many words these people have declared their agreement with the postmodern view that conflicting truths can all be true at the same time and that it is divisive to believe that any truths are universally true.  In common parlance all religions are true and valid and all religions lead to the same God – all methods of salvation are therefore true, even if some lead to heaven and some don’t (in their own views).

Can we support this?  Do all roads lead to God?  How does salvation work anyway?

The weak churches of our modern day have fallen in many ways and lost their strength.  Some are like the Sadducees of New Testament times – having worldly comfort, fame, and social prominence but lacking any belief in the spiritual world or heaven at all. Others are like the Pharisees, lost in long lists of “do’s” and “don’ts” to earn their smug practitioners the assurance that they alone are good enough to merit salvation from God as a personal reward for being to awesome.  Even in evangelical circles some churches have become a big-tent circus of showmanship or spiritual oddities, and even those who were once biblical many have deteriorated into establishments whose only goal is to get people (often without understanding) to “go forward” in a meeting to say a rote prayer so that they can count how many they have gotten “saved”, even if they never see the people in a church again.

What is salvation?  How does it work?  How much do we need to “do” and how much does God “do”?

As we narrow our focus to only those churches that are biblical, evangelical and which affirm the doctrine of salvation not by works but by faith in the finished work of Christ, there are still doctrinal battles.  Terms that cause churches to divide from each other include ones like “Lordship Salvation”, “Calvinism vs Arminianism” and “predestination vs freewill”.  I myself have been on various sides of those issues as I have studied – even different churches in our own fellowship have differed on these.  I believe that today’s passage will give us illumination on all of these points to some degree.  Certainly Paul wrestles with them mightily in Chapters 8-11 of Romans.  The topics that these chapters talk about are WAY TOO HUGE for one sermon – I am thinking that perhaps they would make a good series for some future time – I certainly don’t want to try to address them in an impromptu sermon with less that one day’s notice!

What I would like to do instead is to talk briefly from the middle of Romans 10 on the subject of the human responsibilities in salvation and what is the basis for the kind of faith that saves.

 

I. God’s Responsibility - Everything  (Rom 8-11)

Last week at Communion a thought struck me as we were discussing a part of Romans chapter 8 which is sometimes called “the golden chain”. It is a very familiar passage – certainly we like to quote verses 28 and 31 for assurance, but these four verses form a cohesive whole that must be taken together.

Romans 8:28-31  ²⁸ And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. ²⁹ For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. ³⁰ And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified. ³¹ What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?

This paragraph outlines what God’s part of our salvation is.  We see that it is defined by his “call”, and that all who are “called” will end up “glorified”.  The security of our eternity flows from the amazing truth of this passage, and if we read the passage carefully one thing is completely absent from the mention of God’s foreknowledge to our eventual glorification in heaven. What is missing?  WE ARE MISSING.  There is literally NO mention of anything that we must do or accomplish or pay for this salvation. NOTHING.

Think about that for a while.  This is what is known as the doctrine of the sovereignty of God in salvation.  We might say it this way – our salvation solely a work of God which started before the creation of the universe and will culminate in our being holy before Him.  Jude describes Him as "… him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy,” (Jude 1:24).  Romans 3 says that NOBODY (that includes us) seeks after God.  If nobody seeks Him, how is He ever found? 2 Cor 4 says that we had our  minds blinded by “the god of this world … to keep [us] from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ…” but that to get us saved, God “has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.”  Elsewhere we are taught that God has “allotted to us a measure of faith”, that he “chose us before the foundation of the world”, that he “he who began a good work in [us] will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.”.  In Acts 13:48 we read that when Paul and Barnabas preached in Antioch that “…as many as were appointed to eternal life believed.”  The golden chain of Romans 8 is not an isolated scripture.

The doctrines of Sovereign Grace are some of the most difficult in scripture, but the fact that they are difficult to understand (or at least hard to accept) should not blind us to the fact that scripture clearly teaches them.  But that leads us to several practical questions.  It is not insignificant that Paul spends three chapters in Romans dealing with the implications of God’s sovereignty.  He deals with many questions, including:

• If the majority of Israel reject Jesus, is God’s plan broken?  Did his promises fail or is it part of his plan?
• If God chooses to give more grace to one person than to another, does that make Him unjust?
• If God is sovereign, how is his judgment righteous?
• If people are sincere in doing religion, why aren’t they the ones chosen first to receive grace from God?
• Why do people reject the gospel?
• Has God rejected his people, the Jews? (answer: no)
• Why did Israel reject Jesus?  Is it permanent?
• How can God be considered kind if not everyone receives Christ and salvation?

As I said, this would make a great, long series of sermons, but even over several weeks we would only scratch the surface.  But important to today’s topic, we find that smack dab in the middle of this section Paul deals with the human side of the equation.

 

II Our Responsibility – Faith (Rom 10:5-13)

But what is saving faith? Paul explains in both the negative and the positive.  He is specific but brief and he also limits the scope of our part.  These few verses are simple, just like the gospel, but profound.  We really don’t need to complicate the message of salvation with a lot of deep philosophical baggage.  God has designed his plan of salvation to be simple enough for a child to understand.

1. v5-7 What it is not: Be good enough (live by the commandments) - it is impossible.  (This is a summary of chapters 3-7.)

Romans 10:5-7  ⁵ For Moses writes about the righteousness that is based on the law, that the person who does the commandments shall live by them. ⁶ But the righteousness based on faith says, "Do not say in your heart, 'Who will ascend into heaven?'" (that is, to bring Christ down) ⁷ "or 'Who will descend into the abyss?'" (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead).

I daresay that the wording here seems strange to us – certainly it always has to me – and Paul’s parenthetical comments don’t seem at first read to help, but actually this is very straightforward.  Paul is using absurd examples to say the same thing that he says in Ephesians 2:8-9 and Titus 3:5 (to mention a few examples – you could also include large sections of Galatians for that matter). For instance, in Philippians 2:8-9 Paul says “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.”  Verses 6 and 7 here in Romans 10 say the same thing, but by way of illustration, and the illustrations are actually very powerful. 

In the first example, he points out the obvious fact that even if we did realize our need for a messiah, we would be utterly powerless to travel up to heaven and drag him back down to Earth with us.  Who did that for us?  God did, of course.  As John writes in his first epistle: “In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. ... And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world.” (1 John 4:10, 14)  What we could not do, God provided, because of his love for us.  The Messiah came to us.  Otherwise we would be lost.

But Paul does not stop there.  In the second example, the Messiah was resurrected without any help from us. Paul said in the introduction to this book that  (declared) and Jesus himself said that “… I lay down my life that I may take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This charge I have received from my Father." (John 10:17b-18)  If someone had told us “I am going to die for your sins” and then died … but stayed dead, we would have no assurance of the success of his or her mission.  We would have no basis for faith at all.  Anybody could say that – but if the curse of death (that has been on the entire world since the fall) still held sway over our potential savior we would have to assume that, as Paul summarized in 1 Corinthians:

1 Cor 15:14  And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain.

 

2.   v8 What it is: Faith – (or Righteousness by Faith)

 Romans 10:8  But what does it say? "The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart" (that is, the word of faith that we proclaim);

 “Near you” here means that it is at hand, readily available.  It does not come from us, per se, but is given by God.  While not everyone will accept the offer and respond by faith (we are unable to in our natural self as we see in Rom 3 and 2 Cor 4), the offer of salvation is given to the world (John 3:16 is the most famous example but not the only place).  In verse 8 two things are clear:

1. It is not a human work (it is made available by God not based on our “awesomeness” or anything like that) and
2. It is knowledge based, which means it is appraised and accepted by the mind in response to a proclaimed word.  This latter concept is integral to the rest of this passage so don’t miss it here.  It is this gospel that Paul described back in chapter 1 of Romans:

Romans 1:16  For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.

We must be absolutely clear about this.  There was a quote made famous during the Jesus Movement that was attributed to St Francis of Assisi that said “Preach the Gospel at all times. Use words if necessary.”  Not only did Francis never say this,  he was a dedicated evangelist of the actual gospel.  And not only is the statement unbiblical, based on Romans 10 it is decidedly anti-biblical in that it directly contradicts the rest of this chapter (as we will see).  If you are a nice person, people will be much more likely to listen to what you say about the gospel, but it is the message of the gospel itself that is necessary to save us.  As James writes:

James 1:21b  … receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls.

 

3.   v9-10  What saving faith does: believes in the gospel (1 Cor 15:3-4) and confesses Jesus as Lord.

Romans 10:9-10  ⁹ because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. ¹⁰ For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.

This is one of the most concise descriptions of saving faith in scripture.  It has two components, one internal and one external.  It has one object, which is the Lord Jesus.  So much is said in these two verses:

• Saving faith is all about Jesus and what He did for us
• Saving faith is personal. We must have our own to be saved – we cannot have faith that saves someone else and nobody else’s faith will save us.
• Saving faith is not just our public words – if it doesn’t involve belief in the gospel it is an empty profession.
• Saving faith, while internal, must manifest publically. (Remember Jesus’ warning in Matthew 10:32-33 “So everyone who acknowledges me before men, I also will acknowledge before my Father who is in heaven, 33 but whoever denies me before men, I also will deny before my Father who is in heaven.”
• Saving faith involves submitting to the lordship of Christ.

(Note that there are some theologians who deny this, even though this verse is clear that we need to acknowledge Jesus is Lord as the fundamental profession of Christianity.  They do this because they reason that even a veteran Christian has still not fully submitted to Christ – it is part of our sanctification, which is a work that comes from salvation and salvation is not by works.  The answer to this is that even our faith is a gift from God (Eph 2:8, 2 Cor 4:6, etc) because even believing is a work, according to Jesus in John 6:29 "This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.")

4.   V11-13 God does the rest, keeping his promises (vs 11-13)

 Romans 10:11-13  ¹¹ For the Scripture says, "Everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame." ¹² For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of all, bestowing his riches on all who call on him. ¹³ For "everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved."

 In the end Paul ties the story of our actions in salvation back into the overall theme of God’s sovereignty, and integrity.  The “whosoever” theme of John 3:16 is clearly echoed here.  Jesus is our Rock – the foundation of our hope, and the WORTHY object of our faith.  If we do the actions of verses 9-10, we have full assurance that He will keep his promises. 

We also see that it does not depend on our worldly situation – there are no second-class citizens in heaven.  Salvation is a bestowing of God’s riches on ALL who call on him.  We are reminded of  Eph 1:3 “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places” and Eph 2:7 “ so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.”

III The Dynamics and Source of Faith (Rom 10:14-17)

We have heard already that the word of God is the seed planted in our minds and hearts that gives rise to salvation.  We have read also that we must believe and confess Jesus - his lordship and his resurrection – and God does the rest.  Paul will now elaborate with another “chain” in verses 14 and 15:

Romans 10:14-15  ¹⁴ How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? ¹⁵ And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, "How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!"

In these verses Paul asks four pointed questions, each of which implies a negative answer.  What they teach could be expressed as a series of implied statements:

1. If people do not believe in Him, they will not call on Him for salvation. But to believe…
2. People must hear the gospel before they can believe.  Those we don’t evangelize are being abandoned by us to condemnation.
3. The church must send missionaries into the world to preach the gospel. We can’t just sit and tell each other just in the church.  Our church is supporting missionaries, which is good.  But there was at one time a sign above the inside of the front door of the church that reminded us “you are now entering your mission field”.  In reality the main purpose of our church is not to collect money to support a few professionals who will work in our proxy.  The main purpose of the church is to train all of its members to preach the gospel.  It is never “someone else’s job”.  If you think that way, you should perhaps reevaluate your own salvation. And if your excuse is that you can’t explain the gospel, what are you doing to fix that?  If the gospel is simple enough for a child to understand it, why would anyone who had been a Christian for years feel comfortable with that excuse?
4. We must be willing to tell people about the gospel, and we must know and understand it and be able to articulate it, or nobody will hear it.  Think of a long-time friend or co-worker whose company you have enjoyed in this short life while you looked forward to heaven but whom you have not told of Jesus’ love for them.  When they stand before the Lord in unbelief, how will they feel about their relationship with you?  This is a thought that has some to haunt me a lot.  I have been under conviction myself about this – am I using people for social benefits while leaving them to the eternal wrath of God?  But Paul assures us that the bringer of good news has beautiful feet!  The mention of feet obviously implies that we are going and not just sitting on our behinds in a pew somewhere.

 Romans 10:16 But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says, "Lord, who has believed what he has heard from us?"

Verse 16 gives us a warning: hearing the gospel does not guarantee that someone will receive it.  In fact, Jesus said “For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few.” (Matthew 7:14)  We can see all through scripture that this has been true for all times in history.  God keeps a remnant of believers at all times, sometimes a small one and sometimes larger.  We do not know why (so don’t ask me!)  Back in chapter nine Paul deals with this fact and in the end says that it is God’s prerogative and his right.  It is a question that we may never fully understand, but not an unimportant one since Paul spends the last three chapters of the doctrinal part of Romans dealing with the issue.  It is well worth prayerfully reading chapters 9-11 many times as you grow in Christ.  You will gain knowledge of the mind of God, but never fully understand.

The application for us, is that we must accept the fact that our willingness to give the gospel includes the likelihood that most will reject it, and in doing so may reject us as well.  But it should be the hope that someone will receive it that motivates us.   We should want everyone to be able to share in the riches that God so willingly gave to us when we believed.

The final verse in this section reiterates what we have already read – that saving faith is based on hearing the gospel.  It is no a contentless faith, but has an object.  And that Object is a Person – the Lord Jesus:

Romans 10:17 So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.

Nobody will receive Christ because you are a good neighbor or lifelong friend.  Only the gospel of Jesus Christ can save anybody.  It is certainly true that being a bad neighbor may ruin your chances to preach the gospel, but by itself having a righteous witness will never save your family member, friend, co-worker, neighbor, or fellow traveler.  They must be presented with the risen Christ, the Lord, the King of Kings, and the lover of their soul.

  

Conclusion

In Romans we are called to respond to the gospel.  We are also told that we do so by God’s sovereign choice.  The only difference is one of perspective.  Like the doctrine of the Trinity, we have two truths that seem to contradict but which are unified in the infinity of the eternal God.  With the doctrine of the trinity we affirm that there is only ONE God, but that he exists in three distinct persons (Father, Son and Holy Spirit).  If we try to explain it away with our finite minds we end up sacrificing one or the other of the truths (leading to all sorts of heresies). 

The same is true with sovereign grace.  Romans 8 very clearly establishes the sovereignty of God in our election, calling, justification and eventual glorification – no human input added in any phase.  But Romans 10 clearly calls us to believe and confess that Jesus is Lord, trusting in Him for our salvation.  Both are true.  There are two golden chains, one that details God’s responsibilities and one that details our responsibilities.  Romans 10 calls us to action (and condemns us if we do not act), but Romans 8 gives us the assurance that we would otherwise lack.  Because God is ultimately in control, Paul can end that chapter with the infinitely comforting words:

Romans 8: 37-39  ³⁷ No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. ³⁸ For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, ³⁹ nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

The question we must ask is: where do we stand in the Romans chapter 10 chain.  Is our chain secure, or does it have broken links?

 

The Indispensable Atonement – Part 3

[audio]

Romans 3:21- 26

Preached 9/1/2019  (previous)

INTRODUCTION

As I have had the privilege of preaching occasionally from this pulpit we have gone through various passages and subjects over the years, always going slowly because I have been filling in just when pastor Glen is sick or out of town.  This message is part of a series that we actually started almost two years ago back in November of 2017.  Since that time, we have been on a slow walk through the book of Romans.  Paul lays out his wonderful book masterfully and in a very logical order. 

• The first eleven chapters teach about the doctrine of how we can be made right with God, and the second part of the book teaches us how to live as redeemed children of God.
• The first section first talks about why we need salvation, then how we can be saved, and then what salvation consists of.

In the first two sermons in this series (two years ago) we went through the first 2 ½ chapters of Romans, talking about the scandal of heaven.  What is this scandal? The scandal is not that we have sinnned - this is a given.  The scandal is this:  we, and the entire human race, have sinned terribly and consistently against the holy and righteous and just and infinite creator of the entire universe, but we are still here.  That is the scandal!

Paul starts his treatise on the gospel with the observation that

Romans 1:18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.

So if God is a righteous judge, then swift and immediate judgment from Him is a requirement from his very nature.  Yet He lets us live, He shows mercy, and He continues to interact with the human race even as the entire race continues to rebel, destroy each other, and spit in his face.  It is no secret that Satan and his fallen companions find this objectionable – as far back as the book of Job we find him bringing up the sin of people before God, and there is an implied “if you are so holy and just, how are these people avoiding your immediate judgment?”  Even those angels who did not rebel are said by Peter (in 1 Peter 1:12) to “long to look” into God’s plan.  In other words, the mercy of God toward us creates a tension – a contradiction.  As the prophet Jeremiah wrote (31:30a) “everyone shall die for his own iniquity.”, and Ezekiel wrote (18:20) “the soul who sins shall die”, Isaiah (6:2-3) was given a vision of God surrounded by seraphim who constantly said “Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory!"  Peter (in 2 Peter 3) quotes “scoffers” as pointing out this problem of delayed judgment and attributes the delay to the “patience” of God who “is not willing that any should perish”.  But “patience” is not a legal solution to the problem – eventually a judge who keeps putting off sentencing of the guilty over and over will be accused of unjustness or favoritism.  The question eventually boils down to this: if God is going to justify the ungodly, how could He be just?  How can God “be just and the justifier”?

Earlier this summer we came to the answer – the gospel and the atonement of Christ.  In this masterful act God proves himself to be (as Paul writes in Romans 3:26 “just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus”.  And the content of this salvation is shown in verses 24-25 as having three components:

• Justification,
• Redemption, and
• Propitiation

In Part 2 we discussed these three elements and said that they make up what is called the Atonement.   We saw that the concept of Atonement is found all through scripture.  The Hebrew word kāpar  (“make atonement”) appears more than 100 times in the OT in sacrificial contexts, and it means “to propitiate God’s wrath, expiate sins, and restore fellowship between God and sinners.” You can think of it this way – sin separates us from God, but the Atonement makes us to be “At One” with God again.

The Old Testament sacrifices allowed the nation of Israel to exist with “God in their midst” but they only covered the sins.  They held off God’s wrath, but did not eliminate it, because, as the writer of the book of Hebrews wrote “it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins”.  But God did not just provide a stop-gap and leave us hanging.  Hebrews continues with the good news that God had sent a better high priest, Jesus, with a better sacrifice, Himself.  And unlike the Aaronic priests, with their animal sacrifices, Jesus’ one-time sacrifice worked “once for all”.  In fact, this phrase is repeated over and over in the book of Hebrews, as if the author wanted to make ABSOLUTELY SURE that nobody would miss the point:

Hebrews 7:27 He has no need, like those high priests, to offer sacrifices daily, first for his own sins and then for those of the people, since he did this once for all when he offered up himself.

Hebrews 9:12 he entered once for all into the holy places, not by means of the blood of goats and calves but by means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption. ...

Hebrews 9:26 for then he would have had to suffer repeatedly since the foundation of the world. But as it is, he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.

Hebrews 10:10 And by that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.

So if we are to understand “our great salvation”, we need to fully understand the atonement made by Jesus Christ!

 

I. Different Views

Unfortunately, (but not surprisingly), the doctrine of the atonement has been one that has been misunderstood, maligned, distorted, re-imagined, and generally attacked for millennia.  At this church we have pretty consistently taught what is called the “penal substitution” view, which is that Jesus Christ died in our place to take the penalty for our sins and that his righteousness was then reckoned to us as part of the same transaction.  Though this is perhaps an oversimplification we often put it this way: “when God looks at me He sees the righteousness of Christ.”  This is consistent with verses like

2 Corinthians 5:21 For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

and

Isaiah 53:5-6, 10a  ⁵ But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed. ⁶ All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned--every one--to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all. ... ¹⁰ Yet it was the will of the LORD to crush him; he has put him to grief; when his soul makes an offering for guilt,

But there are many so-called churches that consider this doctrine to be unacceptable.  Just like the concepts of the universality of human guilt and the human inability to save one’s self, the idea of substitutionary atonement is offensive to human pride and understanding.  So what to other churches believe?  Here are five of the more popular theories of the atonement:

I-1. The Classic (or Ransom) Theory was a very popular view during much of the first 1100 years of church history.  Based on Mark 10:45 “… the Son of Man came … to give his life as a ransom for many.” this theory said that the ransom paid by Jesus was not to God, but to the devil, who had enslaved the human race through sin.  In fact, some taught that Jesus became human to hide his deity so that Satan would take the bait and accept Jesus in place of the human race, freeing us from bondage to Satan and allowing us to come to God while Satan took Jesus to hell to torment him.  But SURPRISE!  Satan found out that Jesus was also God and was not able to hold him in prison, so Jesus then rose from the grave in triumph. In this way, Jesus’ humanity was “the bait covering the fishhook of his deity on which the Devil was snared”.  As the victor over Satan, Jesus triumphed over the law, sin, death and the Devil, freeing captive sinners and giving them eternal life.  As one writer puts it “[this] victor motif emphasizes Christ’s kingly rather than his priestly office.”

Certainly this view does contain some aspects of the truth.  But it leaves out all of the verses that we have already read, and it gives Satan far too much credit.  The devil’s power over us is not in his authority over our eternal destiny – the one who judges the wicked and who is shown sending them to the lake of fire in the book of Revelation is God.  Satan has no authority to judge because he has already been judged himself.  His power consists of lies, temptation, and in the correctness of his observations about the sins of men.  He is called the “accuser of the brethren” in scripture – in fact the word devil in the New Testament is the Greek word diabolos, which means “slanderer” or “false accuser”. In fact in his first letter to Timothy, when Paul is listing the requirements for Deacons, when he writes

1 Timothy 3:11 [NASB] Women [must] likewise [be] dignified, not malicious gossips, but temperate, faithful in all things.

The word translated “malicious gossips” (or slanderers) is literally the word diabolos, so the verse could be translated “not devils”.  That is the only power Satan has.  He is the God of this world because people have willingly joined in rebellion against God with him, not because the devil is ruling over hell or anything like that. That is an unbiblical notion.  Hell was made, as John wrote in Revelation, “for the Devil and his angels” and it is there that he will be “tormented forever and ever”.  He is no more a ruler in hell than he is a ruler in heaven.  God is sovereign everywhere.

 

I-2. The Satisfaction or Juridicial Theory   Later in the middle ages in Europe the idea became popular that the sin of man was primarily an insult to the honor of God as ruler of the universe.  In this view, sin was indeed very serious and all mankind was guilty of it, but primarily the death of Christ satisfied God’s wounded honor rather than his wrath against sin.  Again, this view is not entirely without connection to reality.  Our sin is a rebellion against God and against his authority.  This view agrees that the seriousness of our sin is proportional to the dignity of the offended party, who in this case is the infinite God, so only a sufficient sacrifice can assuage that dishonor.  This view also posited the necessity of the redeemer to be both God (for his sacrifice to be sufficient) and man (so that He can represent humanity before God).  Even John Wycliffe “followed the main lines” of some of the theologians who put forward this view.

This view differs from the Reformed and evangelical view of the Atonement in that it says that Christ’s sacrifice offered “compensation or damages for dishonor done” while “the Reformers saw it as the undergoing of [punishment on our behalf] to meet the claims on us of God’s holy law and … (punitive justice).”  This view also appealed later to Roman Catholic thought because of “its theology of penance and merit.”  But in the end, scripture tells us that “all our righteousnesses are as filty rags”, and Romans 3:20 frames our passage by stating outright:

Romans 3:20 “… by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight...”

 

I-3. Exemplarism or the Moral Influence Theory   A third view which is popular in liberal churches even today is much more subjective and focuses on Christ only as the great teacher and example for us.  In this view, his death is an example that causes a change of attitude in humans, which is all that is needed for our restoration.  They say that since God loves us there is no obstacle on his side to our restoration.  In other words, in this view Christ’s death “accomplished nothing objective”.  Because Jesus went to the cross, we are better able to see God’s great love for us and our resistance to his love will be overcome.  This view was first put forward by Peter Abelard (in the 1100’s), who insisted that “Christ did not die to make amends for sin or to deliver captives from Satan’s control.  Rather, viewing sin as contempt of God, Abelard depicted Christ’s death as providing compelling demonstration of God suffering with his creatures. The spectacle of Christ impaled on the cross frees people from fear of wrath, melts their stony hearts, and moves them so amend their lives”.  The description goes on, but this will suffice I think.  This view went through many forms, and was expounded by the father of American liberalism Horace Bushnell (1800’s) who said “It is not that the suffering appeases God, but that it expresses God.”  Even in this century this view is popular in liberal churches, and the view is that when people see Christ on the cross they will decide that being good is better because they will see God’s love”[i]

The problem with this theory is how much of the Bible needs to be ignored to even propose it.  Almost all of the passages we know that speak of salvation have to be cut out of the scriptures, and God’s own justice and holiness are compromised – sin is not such a big deal because it only makes us think that we are separated from God, not the other way around.  So I am not going to spend any more time bothering to refute it.

 

I-4. Government or Rectoral Theory   A fourth view states that Christ did not bear the full penalty of human sin or propitiate God’s wrath.  Instead, it was “a token, rather than a full or equivalent, payment to God for human sins.”  This view was originally put forward by a student of Arminius named Hugo Grotius, who taught that God could have relaxed his law and set aside the requirement that sinners be punished at any time, but He needed to uphold his moral governance of the universe so the sacrifice of Christ “communicates God’s hatred of sin and motivates persons to repent of sins and reform their lives.”  It was argued by subsequent Arminians who accepted this theory that the “satisfaction theory” was wrong because they believe that “sin and guilt cannot be transferred – particularly to God’s Son who had no personal demerit – and that divine justice need not punish sin”.  So what did the cross accomplish according to them?  Like in the “Moral Influence” theory, Christ’s sufferings “manifest the ugliness of sin” and “deter future sins by striking fear in human hearts.”  This theory has been espoused by Methodist, Wesleyan and Nazarene theologians.  One of the latter argued that the cross was about the suffering of Jesus rather than his being punished.

 

I-5. Universal Reconciliation Theory   A fifth view has various forms but the common thread of this is that Christ died for and redeemed the entire world and has won back everybody to the Father already.  Karl Barth puts it this way: “In the death of Christ both the destroying and renewing have taken place for all men. . . . Unbelief has become an objective, real and ontological impossibility and faith an objective, real and ontological necessity for all men and for every man.”   But in this view, even though everybody is already redeemed and has faith, not everybody is aware of this status.  Others in this view state that “the precise connection between the cross and reconciliation is not clear.”  As one named Hendrikus Berkhof puts it: “The NT asserts the ‘that,’ but has no answer to the ‘why’ and the ‘how.’ That is God’s secret.”

 

II. Biblical Atonement – Penal Substitution

In contrast to all of these various views stands the “Penal Substitution” view, which states that Jesus Christ lived a life that perfectly fulfilled the law of God and then in death he personally bore the penalty, or legal punishment, for all our sins against God.  In this view we have real guilt before God that must be punished but that Jesus, who did not deserve such punishment, voluntarily took the punishment for what we did wrong and paid our penalty in full.  Furthermore, his own righteousness is voluntarily offered in exchange and anyone who believes may take part in this salvation by faith alone. This view is the essence of the gospel, and I don’t even know how someone could read the book of Romans with its well-developed arguments, and not come to this conclusion. 

The penal substitution theory is not a new view but is clearly taught in the New Testament (including today’s passage). We read that when Jesus said “It is finished” right before He gave up his life on the cross the gospels use the Greek word tetelestai, which refers to a work that is completely finished with no more to accomplish – or in the financial realm it was a term that meant “paid in full”. Even in the Old Testament the substitutionary death of the Savior is seen as a “scarlet thread” through all of scripture. Blood was shed when God made garments of skin for Adam and Eve (after their attempts to cover their nakedness with garments made with leaves).  God gave Abraham a lamb to sacrifice in place of his son Isaac.   On the day of Atonement, the high priest would confess the sins of Israel over the head of a live goat (called the scapegoat) that would then be driven away into the wilderness, symbolically bearing away the sins of the people.  We have already referred to the very clear prophesy in Isaiah 53 of one who would be crushed by God for the sins of the people to save them.

Certainly this was a prominent view during the reformation when the scriptures became available to and studied by the people in large numbers.  The idea that we have actual real guilt before God is given in question 40 of the Heidelberg Catechism which asks “Why did Christ have to go all the way to death?  Because God’s justice and truth demand it: only the death of God’s Son could pay for our sin.”  But this view was not invented only in the later church ages.  It is echoed by many of the church fathers from the first few centuries of the church and persisted in one form or another all through church history.  One letter from the 2^nd century (epistle to Diognetus) contains the following comment: “God gave up his own Son as a ransom for us – the holy one for the unjust, the innocent for the guilty, the righteous one for the unrighteous, the incorruptible for the corruptible, the immortal for the mortal.  For what else could cover our sins except his righteousness? … O sweet exchange!  O unfathomable work of God! The sinfulness of many is hidden in the Righteous One, while the righteousness of the One justifies the many that are sinners.” 

 

III. What is Propitiation?

To see how it fits in with our passage, let’s go back to the three aspects of the atonement in Romans 3:24-25:

Romans 3:23-25a  ²³ for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, ²⁴ and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, ²⁵ whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith.

As we discussed in part 2,

1. The blood of Christ propitiated the wrath of God against our sin,
2. With that price we were purchased for God (redemption) in Christ Jesus, and
3. We were justified (declared righteous) as a gift – totally underserved by us in ourselves

We have discussed redemption and justification in more detail, but it is now time to spend some time on the last term: PROPITIATION.  Last time we went over the nature and meaning of the word, but there is one more aspect that we need to understand.  It has been said we will never understand the love of God fully until we understand his hatred of sin and evil.  It is not a coincidence that Paul starts his talk about the gospel with the announcement of God’s wrath against sin.  One preacher summarized the need for the gospel as “We are Bad, God is Mad.”  There are two common terms for anger in the New Testament. One describes the immediate feelings of anger in response to a current situation, but the other, which is used in Romans one, is for a more long-term and thoughtful wrath.  All have sinned, and all need redemption.  Now the idea that God is angry does not sit well with us in general.  We all have a pretty high opinion of ourselves, and we think that we are more good than bad.  Besides, we all know that Jesus loves us and it is just the mean old church leaders who made up all of that judgment stuff, right?  Jesus said not to judge, and didn’t he stop the people from stoning that woman caught in adultery?

But when we look at Jesus we see a different story.  Most mentions of hell in scripture were made by Jesus.  He is the one who talked about “weeping and gnashing of teeth”.  His message started with the word “repent”, which means to turn from sin.  He took sin very seriously.  In the sermon on the mount he took the technical sins described by the ten commandments and showed how they revealed widespread sin in the heart.  In this he revealed the righteousness of God to be an IMPOSSIBLE standard to keep.  He worked hard to bring all people to the point where they would realize their need for a Savior.  But the good news was that He had come to “seek and to save those who were lost”.

When we understand the attitude God has toward sin, the true meaning of the word “propitiation” becomes clear.  The wrath against our sin is infinite – a finite being will require an eternity to pay it off, which is why the book of Revelation says that the punishment of those in the lake of fire goes on “forever and ever”.  But the infinite Son of God paid the penalty for our sins, ONCE FOR ALL.  He then said IT IS FINISHED.  That means that when he died, he had already absorbed the entire wrath of God for our sins.  He made PROPITIATION.  It is SO important that we understand this concept, because anything else is a perversion of the true gospel.  When the scripture says that Jesus made propitiation for us, that means that there is NO WRATH LEFT AT ALL.  Not a ton, not a pound, not an ounce, not a microgram.  NONE.

That is why the writer of the book of Hebrews says that, unlike the Old Testament priests, Jesus SAT DOWN.  He was done, and there was not and will never be anything more to do for our sin.  It was the entire package.  Our sins, past, present, and future, are permanently paid for, forever! As Paul writes later in Romans:

Romans 5:1-2 ¹ Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. ² Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God.

Romans 8:1, 33 ¹ There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. ... ³³ Who shall bring any charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies.

If we understand the meaning of propitiation in Romans 3:25 we will understand just how perilous it is to give any ground at all on this doctrine.  Consider two facets of the Roman Catholic church as examples: Purgatory and the Mass.  The doctrine of Purgatory says that Jesus has paid our way to heaven, but most people (except the really, really good ones) still have some sins that need to be “burned away”.  So even if a believer has faith in Christ, only the big stuff is really paid for, and the rest will have to be punished so that we can be purged of the rest of our minor sins.  But according to Hebrews, Jesus paid for ALL.  He absorbed the entire wrath of God for our sins.  If some of God’s wrath remains, did the sacrifice of Christ really propitiate the entire wrath of God?  What about the Mass?  According to a catechism that I have, the mass “is really the same thing as happened on Mount Calvary long ago, where Jesus died on the cross.  It is our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, offering Himself for our sins as he once did on the cross. … Through the Mass we can pay all our debts to God.” We must ask a rhetorical question here:  Hebrews 9:26 says “for then he would have had to suffer repeatedly since the foundation of the world. But as it is, he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.”  Jesus was the offering, AND the priest who made the offering.  He did it once for ALL and sat down.  He said “it is finished”.  What is the mass but a declaration that the Bible is wrong, Jesus did not finish his offering, He did not propitiate the wrath of God, and he did not sit down after making one offering for all sins, once.  What a slap in the face of the all-sufficient savior.  What an abrogation of the responsibility of the church to preach the gospel.  What a trampling of the promises of Paul in Romans that nobody can bring any charge against God’s elect!

We must stand firm on the gospel and we must understand what a hope we have.  Hebrews 9:26 and Romans 3:25 are the reason that the crosses in protestant churches are EMPTY.  The empty cross is a sign that our redemption is complete.  God does not do half-way work.  He takes us all the way.  As Paul wrote in Romans 8:30 “And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.”  The whole package.

Conclusion

Back in the 1970’s the Watergate scandal erupted and the entire nation was torn in two as people watched the presidency of Richard Nixon break down.  In the end, Nixon resigned from the presidency and several of the people that worked in his administration were convicted of crimes and sent to prison.  One of the men sentenced to prison was Chuck Colson, a lawyer who had been given the nickname “Nixon’s hatchet man”.  In the breakup of his life, though he had been an unbeliever, he found himself being drawn to Christ.  In his autobiographical account (titled “Born Again”) he talks about how his newfound faith developed in the stresses of prison and was tested by many dangers and family problems.  While in prison he was informed that his son was arrested for narcotics possession and he was helpless to do anything for his wife and family.  Fortunately he had several new Christian friends who supported him.  One day they were visiting Chuck in prison, and asked him if there was anything else that they could do for him. He declined, saying “you guys are doing everything possible, and I love you for it.  I just don’t know what else you can do.”  That was when something amazing happened, which made a huge impact on his spiritual life.

One of his friends was a congressman named Al Quie, who had been in Congress for 20 years, was the sixth ranking Republican there, senior minority member of the Education and Labor Committee, and “one of the most respected public figures in Washington.  Al Quie told Chuck Colson something that he never could have anticipated. “There’s an old statute someone told me about.  I’m going to ask the President if I can serve the rest of your term for you.”  He stammered that he could never accept such a gift, but was told by Mr Quie “I mean it.  Your family needs you, and I can’t sleep while you’re in prison.  I think I’d be a lot happier being inside myself.”

The next day Colson received a letter from his fellowship group that all of the men had volunteered to serve the rest of his sentence so that he could take care of his family.  That night he made a total surrender of the rest of his life to the Lord.  He prayed “Lord, if this is what it is all about, then I thank You.  I praise You for leaving me in prison, for letting them take away my license to practice law, yes – even for my son being arrested.  I praise You for giving me your love through these men, for being God, for just letting me walk with Jesus.”

In the end the men did not get their chance to carry out their plan, because the judge released Colson from prison early because of his family problems.  But the similarity to the love of Christ is unmistakable.  Colson’s brothers in Christ were willing to take on themselves his well-deserved punishment, though they were not guilty of any crime. 

Jesus did the same for us.  May our song always be:

Jesus paid it all, all to Him I owe.  Sin had left a crimson stain, He washed it white as snow.

---

[i] This and many other quotes on Atonement theories are from “The Cross and Salvation” by Bruce Demarest chapter four

 

 (next)

How To Contend

Jude 14-25

[Previous Sermon]

(Joke: What is worse, ignorance or apathy? “I don’t know and I don’t care”)

 

I. INTRODUCTION – False Teachers and Preachers are coming

In our first two weeks we were introduced to the epistle of Jude.  Jude was one of the later-written books in the NT, when many churches had been established and had been fully functioning for decades.  Most of the letters written around this later period have changed from being manuals on how to establish a church to the subject of how to safeguard the church.  The Lord Jesus had predicted nearly 40 years previously:

Matthew 7:15-16a ¹⁵ "Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves. 16 You will recognize them by their fruits.

He goes on to warn them that these wolves will not only look like us but will “lead many astray”.  In his apocalyptic discourse in Matthew 24 he says that their ultimate desired triumph would be “to mislead, if possible, even the elect”.   In other words, there is danger in dealing with false teaching.  The temptation from the impurity and sensuality at the base of many false teachings is a strong temptation to the flesh and old nature.  In today’s passage, Jude will warn us to beware of false teachers because they can cause us to be defiled if we are not careful.

Paul, when he said goodbye the Ephesians, after being their pastor for three years, included this warning in his final message to them:

Act 20:26-32  ²⁶ Therefore I testify to you this day that I am innocent of the blood of all, ²⁷ for I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole counsel of God. ²⁸ Pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to care for the church of God, which he obtained with his own blood. ²⁹ I know that after my departure fierce wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock; ³⁰ and from among your own selves will arise men speaking twisted things, to draw away the disciples after them. ³¹ Therefore be alert, remembering that for three years I did not cease night or day to admonish every one with tears. ³² And now I commend you to God and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up and to give you the inheritance among all those who are sanctified.

God has promised that his word is powerful:

Isa 55:11 so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.

Whenever God’s word goes out with its saving power, Satan works to destroy it - ALWAYS.  His methods have always been the same.  Consider the serpent’s arguments in Genesis chapter 3 (from “the Truth War, John MacArthur).  First, “he questions the truth God has revealed (“Has God indeed said, ‘You shall not eat of every tree of the garden’?”  Then he contradicts what God has said (“You will not surely die”).  Finally, he concocts an alternative version of “truth” (“God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”).  Peter warns about him [1Pe 5:8] “Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.”  In that respect, we are apt pupils of his (in our unsaved state) and work pretty much the same way.

As I mentioned already, as the church age got into full swing, it was not long before the effect of false teachers was felt in every place, and the apostles and other early church leaders were soon spending a lot of their time fending off errors.  This shows in scripture and it is a frequent topic in the later books of the NT.  Notable passages include 2 Corinthians 11, Galatians 1, 2 Peter 2-3, 1 Timothy 1 & 4, 2 Timothy 3-4, Titus 1, 1 John 4 and 2 John.  These paint a pretty consistent picture of the false prophets:

1.  They sneak in and look just like us
2.  Deny Christ (his deity and/or lordship)
3.  Lack good spiritual fruit (Gal 5)
4.  Willful, boastful, loud
5.  Say the right words but don’t obey
6.  Motivated by monetary gain
7. Not interested in sound doctrine but love obscure things & myths
8.  Love to argue, hate legitimate authorities, cause divisions
9.  Drawn by worldly desires, defiled, impure – have no shame
10.  Irreverent, blaspheming and scoffing about spiritual things
11.  Teach a different Jesus, and different Gospel
12.  They don’t “stick around” but leave – they are “apostates” (those who are exposed to the truth but who reject it in the end)

II. Back to Jude – False Teachers – Their Characteristics and Their Destiny

Getting back to the book of Jude – remember that he started his discussion with the statement that he had been forced to change the content of his letter:

Jude 1:3 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.

While making every effort to write a treatise on salvation and the gospel, he instead found it necessary (the word can imply being stressed, forced by circumstances or other factors to do something) to instead tell them to contend – to agonize, to make war for “the faith”.  This faith is described in no-nonsense terms: “the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints.”  We have it in its entirety, delivered to us, direct from God, with nothing missing or needing to be filled in later.  All parts are important – remember how Paul told the Ephesians that he gave them “the whole counsel of God”.  Nothing more or less will do – our fellowship’s motto is applicable here: “The BIBLE, the WHOLE Bible, and NOTHING BUT the Bible”.  But why?  Why is Jude putting us on a “war footing”?  What about the 60’s slogan “make love, not war”?  Isn’t that what Christianity is about?

Jude 1:4 For certain people have crept in unnoticed who long ago were designated for this condemnation, ungodly people, who pervert the grace of our God into sensuality and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.

With this introduction Jude introduces the reason for his command to contend: false teachers.  Right away he lauches into a description of these people, telling us about their characteristics and also their destiny.  Last week we looked at the first several parts of his description (each conveniently broken into threes):

 

IIa. What the False Teachers Do – Part 1 (v4)

• They are ungodly (ἀσεβεῖς - destitute of reverential awe towards God, condemning God, impious).  This is synonymous with the word “unsaved” in scripture.
• They “pervert the grace of our God into sensuality”.  Holiness is not what they desire – they like their freedom in Christ as a way to stay worldly in their conduct and in their affections.  They are not “heavenly minded”.
• They “deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ”.  The reality of salvation is that we confess Jesus as Lord (Rom 10) and come back into the rule of the King of Kings and Lord of Lords.  Almost every cult and ‘ism’ in the world starts with a devaluing of the one “far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come.” (Eph 1:21)  Note the triple description by Jude of Jesus’ authority: our ONLY Master and Lord (no other authority), our only MASTER (the despotes is which we get the word “despot” from – a ruler with ABSOLUTE authority), and our only Master and LORD (kurios is lord and owner).

 

IIb. Their Destiny of the False Teachers – Part 1 (v5-7) – Using historical examples

Jude next gives three examples of the judgements given in the past for certain types of unbelief and immorality

•  the nation of Israel refusing to enter the land because of unbelief, who were condemned to die in the wilderness over 40 years instead of entering the land with God’s blessing
• “angels leaving their rightful domain” who were condemned to eternal darkness and judgment, and
•  the grossly immoral cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, who perished completely in fire and brimstone

Many of the other passages about false teachers also mention God’s judgment of them being sure and complete.  God has warned in advance that false teachers will come, but He assures us in the same breath that He is in control and he will triumph!

 

IIc. The Character of the False Teachers – Part 1 (vss 8-10)

In the next section, Jude gives the character of these “certain people”.  Their “m.o.” is the same throughout history – they are people who rely “on their dreams”.  As we saw last week, they do three things:

• They “defile the flesh” as they turn the grace of God into licentiousness. (Lack of holiness in practice, impure)
• They “reject authority”, especially God-ordained authority.  Remember the others frequently mentioned lawlessness.
• They “Blaspheme glories”.  Though a bit obscure it seems to speak of arrogance and irreverence about spiritual things

 

IId. The Hearts of the False Teachers (vs 11) – Using Historical Analogues

Using more historical examples of apostates, Jude describes these false teachers’ inner motivations:

• Like Cain, they ignore God’s directions and seek to do things their own way (and heaven help anyone who does follow God’s actual clear directions!)
• Like Balaam, they want money and the recognition of man. What is in God’s heart does not drive them.
• Like Korah (Moses’ cousin) they reject godly authority figures and demand equal time and equal authority.  Their cry is “you’re not the boss of me!”  (I’m thinking of people insisting on watching council meetings to make sure nobody “got away with anything” when they weren’t looking).

 

IIe. The Fruitlessness of the False Teachers (vss 12-13)

Finally, we ended with a double-whammy from Jude where he gave two triplets of descriptions of the uselessness (or even dangerousness) of these apostates:

• They are “hidden reefs at your love feasts, as they feast with you without fear,” They look like us but they are actually great potential dangers to the church.  They are either brazen (for those with malicious intent) or perhaps, if these false professors are misled people, this lack of fear is due to poor teaching in the church and people not contending earnestly for the faith.  In so many churches around the world this is the case – the gospel and the whole counsel of God is so infrequently taught that unsaved people can live in the church without ever knowing that they are in trouble and under judgment from God.  (think Schuller’s determination never to speak about sin because he does not want to cause loss of self-esteem).  This is a terrible indictment of the church!
• 12b: “shepherds feeding themselves;” Jesus described himself as the Good Shepherd.  The characteristic of a shepherd is that he “gives his life for the sheep”.  A false teacher is in it for themselves.  A false believer says “what do I get out of this?”, not “how may I consider one another (Heb 10:24-25) in order to stir up love and good deeds?”  A true believer thinks of other people as “more important than himself”.  Not so with a false teacher.  This is the person who leaves a church when he has a argument with someone or something does not go his way or he perceives some slight from another member.  Ten years later he has never gone back to church because “he had a bad experience at his last church” or alternatively he has attended 17 churches during that time, moving on when his needs aren’t especially met.
• 12c: “waterless clouds, swept along by winds;” Farmers look to the arriving clouds with hope that rain will come and bring life to their crops.  Christians come to church looking to be built up by others.  False believers bring fluff but no life to church, and the people are not fed.
• 12d: “fruitless trees in late autumn, twice dead, uprooted;” Again another picture of hoped-for fruit.  This one is especially vivid.  Not only is this a tree without fruit – it is fruitless in harvest season when fruit would be expected, it is “twice dead” – withered and dried up, and it is uprooted.  No way any fruit will ever be gathered from this one. Nope.
• 13a: “wild waves of the sea, casting up the foam of their own shame;” Here we see the sinful sensuality of the false teacher.  Waves are always destructive – they destroy buildings, cliffs, and anything else in their way.  And these waves destroy while displaying all of their shame in the open, sinning with impugnity.
• 13b: “wandering stars, for whom the gloom of utter darkness has been reserved forever.” Finally, they are wandering stars – useless for navigation.  In fact, the image here is of a meteor – a shooting star.  Flashy for a moment but then burning out – fallen to Earth, never to shine again.  Woe to them!

So… Let’s finish with Jude’s description of the false teachers and then learn what the battle plan is for contending:

IIf. The Inevitable Final Judgment of the False Teachers – Part 2 (vss 14-15)

Earlier in the chapter Jude told us about the judgment that God gives to unbelievers who should know better using some historical examples.  Now he quotes a prophesy from before the flood of Noah about the end of these ungodly to reinforce the woes he has already described.  God’s judgment is sure and final!

 Jude 1:14-15  ¹⁴ It was also about these that Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied, saying, "Behold, the Lord comes with ten thousands of his holy ones, ¹⁵ to execute judgment on all and to convict all the ungodly of all 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."

This is a quote from an extra-biblical book that probably originates from ancient oral traditions (perhaps passed down from before the flood). [Note: this does not mean that the “Book of Enoch” is canonical or that anything else from that book is scripture.  This quotation does imply (with the Holy Spirit’s direction) that this particular quotation is true, though.  This book was well known at the time, but note that the quotation lacks the usual formula “it is written” which is used when quoting inspired scripture.]   In the quote Enoch gives one of the earliest referenced prophesies of the final judgment.  He repeats the term “ungodly” four times in this passage.  The Lord will come and judge all of the ungodly for three things:

• They are ungodly
• They have committed ungodly deeds (in an ungodly way), and
• They have blasphemed the Lord himself with their words.

 

IIg. The Character of the False Teachers – Part 2 (vss 16-17)

 But Jude gets more specific to elaborate these general descriptions.  A couple of more triplets fill out his character sketch:

 Jude 1:16 These are grumblers, malcontents, following their own sinful desires; they are loud-mouthed boasters, showing favoritism to gain advantage.

• They are grumblers.  This is the only usage of this word in the NT (Gr. goggystēs) but it is used in the Septuagint (greek xlation of OT) to describe Israel’s murmuring against God.  Remember what the people said when they murmured against God?  How often do self-professed Christians do the same in church?
• They are also malcontents.  This word means to find fault or to blame.  They do this because He does not do thing the way that they want them to be done (since they are following after their own lusts, or strong feelings, instead of God and his wishes).  “If I was God I would…”  Many biblical doctrines, from hell to sovereignty, are rejected by professing believers because, well, because they are “icky”.
• They show off their eloquence, using grand speech to puff themselves up.  They show favoritism – flattering to get what they want.  Why call people wretched sinners when you can tell them that they are “gods in training”?  This is what Paul warned Timothy about:

 [2Ti 4:3-4 NASB]  ³ For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires, ⁴ and will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths.

For his finale, Jude now gives his instructions on how to contend for the faith.  MacArthur outlines this as three R’s – “Remember, Remain, and Reach Out”.  I will use three BE’s”

• Be Prepared
• Be Strong
• Be Merciful

IIIa. Be Prepared (vss 17-19)

What is the first step?  The motto of the Boy Scouts is “Be Prepared”.  There is no excuse for being caught by surprise by apostates and false teachers in the church.  Remember the AWANA key verse:

 2 Timothy 2:15 [NKJV] Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.

 What we don’t often look at is the context of that verse:

 2 Timothy 2:14-18 [NKJV]  ¹⁴ Remind them of these things, and charge them before God not to quarrel about words, which does no good, but only ruins the hearers. ¹⁵ Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth. ¹⁶ But avoid irreverent babble, for it will lead people into more and more ungodliness, ¹⁷ and their talk will spread like gangrene. Among them are Hymenaeus and Philetus, ¹⁸ who have swerved from the truth, saying that the resurrection has already happened. They are upsetting the faith of some.

This much-quoted and much-loved verse is in the middle of Paul’s instructions to Timothy of how to deal with false teachers who were arguing about words, teaching untruths, and upsetting the faith of people in the church.  How to be prepared?  STUDY.  BE PREPARED by knowing the truth, ALL of the truth.  Become an approved workman.  Listen to what God says.  Here is what Jude says:

 Jude 1: 17-19  ¹⁷ But you must remember, beloved, the predictions of the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ. ¹⁸ They said to you, "In the last time there will be scoffers, following their own ungodly passions." ¹⁹ It is these who cause divisions, worldly people, devoid of the Spirit.

So if our churches fall apart because of false teaching or division caused by those who fall away from the truth, we have no excuse.  We were warned in advance.  Enoch warned us.  Jesus warned us.  The apostles warned us.  History warns us.  And we have been given the job of watching.

Even as he warns us about the inevitability of these apostates coming into our churches, Jude makes sure one more time that we are able to recognize them: (and for once the characteristics are not a multiple of three! J)  They are:

• Scoffers: the word empaiktēs means a mocker or a scoffer and actually describes “playing like children”.  They do not take spiritual things seriously and lack reverence for truth.  They play games with truth.  Modern seeker-sensitive or “emergent” post-modernists have given up on the idea of truth altogether.  One emerging church leader names Brian McLaren wrote in his book A New Kind of Christian:

I drive my car and listen to the Christian radio station, something my wife always tells me I should stop doing (“because it only gets you upset”).  There I hear preacher after preacher be so absolutely sure of his bombproof answers and his foolproof biblical interpretations . . . . And the more sure he seems, the less I find myself wanting to be a Christian, because on this side of the microphone, antennas, and speaker, life isn’t that simple, answers aren’t that clear, and nothing is that sure.” 

• They “follow their own ungodly passions”.  “Feelings” are where they get their truths, not from scripture.  “Strong desires” determine reality.  One well-known Christian music artist (author of “Thank You For Giving to the Lord”) recently came out as “gay”, left his wife of many decades (by whom he had had several children) and moved in with his new boyfriend.  He was quoted as saying that he was “living a lie” and is now planning on coming out with another Christian album with a song that asked the question “who are you to tell me who I can marry?”  Brian McLaren, writing about the same issue, has said that he is not sure “what we should think about homosexuality” and he has called for a five-year moratorium on making any pronouncements about whether it is a sin or not. “In five years, if we have clarity, we’ll speak.  If not, we’ll set another five years for ongoing reflection”.  There is no mention of scripture – just human reflection.

• They cause divisions – (literally, they “make distinctions”).  In their arrogance, they spit the church into cliques.

• They are worldly – better “worldly minded”.  The word psychikos is connected to the animal life – “that which has breath”.  Only the physical world matters in truth.  Whatever the natural mind can conceive.  Remember what Paul told the Corinthians about the psychikos man:  [1 Cor 2:14]  But a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised.”
  

• This brings us to his final and devastating point: These certain persons do not have the Holy Spirit.  In other words, it is impossible for them to come to the truth, because the first requirement for that is to be saved.  Jesus said

John 16:13 When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come.

And John, right after talking about the “antichrists” who had left the church, said

1 John 2:20-21  ²⁰ But you have been anointed by the Holy One, and you all have knowledge. ²¹ I write to you, not because you do not know the truth, but because you know it, and because no lie is of the truth.

 

IIIb. Be Strong (vss 20-21)

So, being prepared (forewarned is fore-armed as the saying goes), we take steps.  This is not the pastor’s responsibility.  In the Lord’s army you need to be responsible for your own condition.  Jude reminds them of the mercy and love that they have received from God and gives three steps to be prepared for the inevitable agonizing conflict:

Jude 1:20-21 ²⁰ But you, beloved, building yourselves up in your most holy faith and praying in the Holy Spirit, ²¹ keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ that leads to eternal life.

First, build yourself up.  “But the church was not feeding me”.  “But I didn’t like the preaching…”  No, we are responsible for our own building program.  Can’t make it to a bible study at the church?  Find someone to disciple you one-on-one.  No time to read the Bible? Netflix one fewer episode of your favorite tv series this week.  God isn’t interested in our excuses.  But the object of our building project is also important.  Not just inspirational Christian entertainment!  No, “in your most holy faith”.  This is the FAITH “once for all delivered to the saints”.  It is not enough to keep the pristine package you received in the heavenly mail from God, though.  You must open the package and make sure that it is YOUR faith. If someone corrupts it, do you know it well enough to recognize the deviation? It is not enough for it to be just “the faith”. You must absorb, reverence, learn, and obey it.  It is not just any faith, either, it is the MOST HOLY faith – something that must not be mixed with impurity or with what is false and worldly. 

In all of this, being under good teaching and preaching are paramount!  Interestingly, in a lot of modern style churches the role of preaching is seen as obsolete and unneeded (compare the following with what the Bible has to say about it).   

At the “Emergent Convention” in 2004, a gathering of some eleven hundred leaders in the Emerging Church movement, Doug Pagitt, pastor of Solomon’s Porch (an Emergent community in Minneapolis) told the gathering, “Preaching is broken.”  He suggested that a completely open conversation where all participants are seen as equals is better suited to a postmodern culture.  “Why do I get to speak for 30 minutes and you don’t?” he asked. “A sermon is often a violent act,” he declared.  “It’s a violence toward the will of the people who have to sit there and take it.”

• Second, pray in the Holy Spirit.  We must be in tune with God at all times, keeping our consciences clear and sensitive to his leading.  Without his help we will be weak and confused.  Praying to ourselves in our own minds will leave us vulnerable to attack and to being misled by the world.  Praying in the Holy Spirit means to pray in and for his will in us.

• Third, we must keep ourselves in the love of God.  Not only must we always remember his love for us (“We love because He first loved us” 1 John 4:19) but we must also keep our love for Him strong (“If you love Me you will keep my commandments” John 14:15;  “but whoever keeps his word, in him truly the love of God is perfected. By this we may know that we are in him” 1 John 2:5)

 

IIIc. Be Merciful (vss 20-21)

Jude 1:22-23  ²² And have mercy on those who doubt; ²³ save others by snatching them out of the fire; to others show mercy with fear, hating even the garment stained by the flesh.

Jude now directs the course of action for dealing directly with these false teachers.  With all of the danger and condemnation we saw in their description, the remedy may be surprising: Have Mercy.  Why?  Yes, they are a danger to the church.  We MUST be diligent to defend the church from them.  But what is their end?  It is eternal judgment.  What is our ministry to those headed for eternal judgment?  Evangelism.  We must be sure that we make a distinction between the saved and the unsaved (which is the function of Matthew 18, isn’t it?). John says

2 John 1:10-11  ¹⁰ If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, do not receive him into your house or give him any greeting, ¹¹ for whoever greets him takes part in his wicked works.

So we don’t make them Sunday School teachers or post their quotes on Facebook, where others may be pulled in by their tempting untruths, but we still need to be merciful.  In keeping with his standard methodology, Jude identifies three types of apostasy and the appropriate response to each:

 

1. The Confused

There are those new (or weak) believers (or attenders close to salvation?) who are being pulled into the orbit of a false teacher.  They don’t know any better and we need to lovingly confront their errors, explaining the truth and getting rid of their confusion.  These might be the “weak women weighed down with sins” that Paul warned were the targets of false teachers in 2 Tim 3.  Lovingly give them the truth and draw them back to Christ.  To do that we need to be built up in the faith, praying in the Holy Spirit, and staying in the love of God, won’t we?

 

2. The Convinced

Others are more convinced of their errors.  Their pride and lusts of the world have gotten a hold on their hearts and we must rescue them.  The word “snatching” is the Greek word harpazō, which creates here a very graphic image of someone grabbing someone by force from a life-threatening danger – a “brand plucked from the fire”.  As God told Cain “sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is for you, but you must rule over it.” A commitment to the gospel means that we are always wanting to “rescue the perishing, care for the dying – snatch them in pity from sin and the grave” as the hymn goes.

 

3. The Committed

The third group is the only one where Jude implies that there is a danger to us.  We must be very careful.  A committed apostate is motivated and ready to fight.  (Tell story of Mike L. from back in 1978-79 going to “Moonie” camp).  Certainly if we are not biblically literate ourselves we may be tripped up by their arguments, given with such surety.  But it is their impurity and immorality that is the greatest danger to us.  Almost all of the passages on false teachers speak of the sensual and impure motivations of the false prophets.  They “offer … freedom while they themselves are slaves of corruption”.  We must not be caught up in their sin (like Jim B talking about how he would take drugs with someone if he could give them the gospel).  Jude’e imagery is graphic here.  “Garment” is the word for “underwear”, and “polluted” is what it sounds like.  Just like we would not go around picking up someone’s soiled underwear, we should not be enticed by the temptations offered by the apostate.  Yet we should (while still being very wary of their impurity) have mercy.

 

IIId. Conclusion

So that’s it.  Contend for the faith.  If we don’t, the church will fall.  20-30 years after this book the letters to the seven churches were recorded in the book of Revelation.  We see the three churches (Ephesus, Smyrna and Philadelphia) being praised because the resisted false teachers (Nicolaitans or false Jews “synagogue of satan”).  Three of the others were condemned for not resisting.  Pergammum was condemned for having some who held to the teaching of Balaam and some who held the teaching of the Nicolaitans, for which they were told to repent.  The church in Thyatira was condemned for tolerating “that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess and is teaching and seducing my servants to practice sexual immorality and to eat food sacrificed to idols” and Jesus said He was coming to “make war” against those people.  In strikingly similar imagery to Jude the Lord says that in Sardis there were (only) a few who had not “soiled their garments”. The church is described as dead and is in danger that Christ would “come like a thief in the night” for which they had better be ready.  Finally, the church at Laodicea is told that they stood for nothing – Jesus describes himself as being outside of the church, knocking to be let in.

Woe to US if we ever let our church get to that point, but it can easily happen if any of us reaches the (terrible and untrue) opinion that that ministry is “for others”, or “just for the Sunday school teacher” or “just for the professionals”.  Contend for the faith!  Now!  Always!  Be prepared to give a defense for the hope that is in you!  Defend and protect the faith “once for all delivered for the saints”.  There is no other, and if we lose it we are lost.

 

IV THE BEAUTY OF OUR COMMON SALVATION – ALL FOR JESUS!

Jude ends on a high note, the doctrine of which is the subject of a sermon all to itself.  We would need an hour to discuss it even briefly, so I will have to leave it for another sermon (more’s the pity).  But let’s read it together because in it Jude packs a lot of truth about “our common salvation” and we can only end on a note of majestic praise to the One who saved us and keeps us and loves us:  !!!!!!