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:  !!!!!!