Church In Crisis

Crisis in the church

August 17, 2003 AM

Jude 1

The church of Jesus Christ is in a crisis today.

We are being attacked not from the outside -- but from the inside.

Let’s look at Jude -- we’ll begin with chapter 1, verse 1,

And we’ll just read the whole book, every chapter, every verse.

All 25 of the them ....

One fellow said he used pray that he would hold out until the end,

Now he just hopes his end holds out.

(Jude 1:1 NKJV) Jude, a bondservant of Jesus Christ, and brother of James, To those who are called, sanctified by God the Father, and preserved in Jesus Christ:

So Jude is writing here to believers -- not just casual christians -- but to core believers within the church.

Those who are called -- those who are sancitfied, or set apart -- literally those who are not a part of the world’s system of doing things,

The called, the sanctified, and the preserved -- the watched over -- the ones whom God is keeping His eye on.

It’s to these he writes;

(Jude 1:2 NKJV) Mercy, peace, and love be multiplied to you.

Then comes the heart of his letter;

(Jude 1:3 NKJV) Beloved, while I was very diligent to write to you concerning our common salvation, I found it necessary to write to you exhorting you to contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints.

Contend means to fight for -- to battle for -- to struggle for

(Jude 1:4 NKJV) For certain men have crept in unnoticed, who long ago were marked out for this condemnation, ungodly men, who turn the grace of our God into lewdness and deny the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ.

Jude was writing to deal with a church time that was not so different from our own time frame.

He tells us that there were people who had worked their way into the church --

And had corrupted it’s doctrine and it’s thinking.

And they had turned the scriptures around to give them license to commit sexual sin --

Literally "turning the grace of God into lewdness."

We are experiencing a time when much the same thing has happened.

People have worked their way into certain churches and have convinced them that sexual sin is okay --

That perversion is exceptable, even honorable.

But hear me this morning -- sin is sin, and God will not tolerate it.

And that includes sexual sin,

And the sin of homosexuality, the sin of fornication, the sin of adultry, and sexual sin is just that -- it is a sin.

And God has not changed His mind about sin

He has not changed his mind about sexual perversion,

He has not suddenly decided to overlook homosexuality,

He has not chosen to re-interpret the scriptures,

He stands by His word which says in His eyes homosexual acts are an abomination.

And God will not simply let it slide.

He will not ignore those who flaught sin in His face.

Jude continues;

(Jude 1:5 NKJV) But I want to remind you, though you once knew this, that the Lord, having saved the people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed those who did not believe.

(Jude 1:6 NKJV) And the angels who did not keep their proper domain, but left their own abode, He has reserved in everlasting chains under darkness for the judgment of the great day;

(Jude 1:7 NKJV) as Sodom and Gomorrah, and the cities around them in a similar manner to these, having given themselves over to sexual immorality and gone after strange flesh, are set forth as an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire.

What he’s saying is -- he did not spare the children of Israel, he did not spare even angels, much less the people of Sodom and Gomora -- he’s not about to spare the people of today either.

(Jude 1:8 NKJV) Likewise also these dreamers --

Who is he talking about -- who are "the dreamers"?

They are the ones who have slipped into the church and have seduced people into believing that sexual sin, that perversion, that homosexuality is not really a sin ..

(Jude 1:8 NKJV) Likewise also these dreamers -- defile the flesh, reject authority, and speak evil of dignitaries.

(Jude 1:9 NKJV) Yet Michael the archangel, in contending with the devil, when he disputed about the body of Moses, dared not bring against him a reviling accusation, but said, "The Lord rebuke you!"

(Jude 1:10 NKJV) But these .....

Who are "these" ?

"These" are the men who have brought perversion into the church"

(Jude 1:10 NKJV) But these ..... speak evil of whatever they do not know; and whatever they know naturally, like brute beasts, in these things they corrupt themselves.