2 Peter-Jude
1.
The Problem of Dirty Christianity
(Jude 1:1-4)
“Godless people, whose condemnation was written about years ago, have slipped in unnoticed among us (by the side door).They are people who distort the grace of God and use it as an excuse to practice unrestrained immoral acts.” (Jude 4)
The last five books of the NT, before the Revelation deal with the problem of immoral, disobedient people, who call themselves Christians, and feel it is alright and it is safe for them to do things that are wrong. They claim this because God loves sinners; Jesus died for sinners; and all Christians sin. This is what Jude means by distorting the grace of God, making it a license to sin.
We see this in the world; in people, talking about going to heaven, who have little use for the church.
Our news is filled with the death of Ana Nicole Smith. Her trademark is the public exposure of her enlarged breasts. Her sexual escapades were proudly shared. Her son died of drug overdose and she appears to have done the same. Her little baby, worth millions, has had no less than five men claiming to be the father. Yet it almost every shot of Ana Nicole Smith, you see a beautiful cross hanging between her breasts. And her mind was on “Christian” truths. Before her death she was depressed, and said the reason was that she was afraid her son, who died a few months before from a drug overdose, was “lost somewhere in purgatory” and not yet in heaven.
A popular country singer, won an award, and said, “I want to thank the good Lord. He’s done a hell of a lot for me.” On national radio a man said of the death of Dale Earnhardt, “Heaven’s got a hell of a good race car driver now!”
We cannot judge any man. That might have been the grieving, emotional slip of the tongue of an otherwise godly man. But you and I know there are thousands of foul mouthed, drug crazed, dirty joke telling, immoral, prejudiced men and women who talk about going to heaven and don’t have a clue of what it means to be a real Christian.
Sadly, we see this in the churches, both in the pulpit and in the pews. We hear about hundreds of RC priests abusing children and worse; their being sent to other churches by their Bishops, to molest more children. And on the Catholic and Protestant side are the “Swingers”. This international organization claims that over half of its members are church going Christians. Swingers” meet and husbands and wives swap their mates.
One husband and wife, who claimed to be Christians, when interviewed on national TV were asked what they would say to their fellow church members. Their answer was “Judge not, lest you be judged” and “Let those without sin be the first to throw stones.” They quoted the words of Jesus to endorse their lewd behavior. This is ungodliness.
The list is endless- TV healers life in Solomon like luxury why poor people in their own towns have to eat dog food. The president of the National Association of Evangelicals, while preaching against homosexuality, was having an affair with a male prostitute. But worse than these isolated, horrible acts, is the attitude of the man and woman in the pew that it is quite alright to sin.
A poll in Moody Monthly, in the 1970’s; plus a poll today by George Barna reveals there is very little difference in the morals and ethics of church going, Conservative Christians, than in the world around them. They are just as likely to commit adultery; take drugs; cheat in school; use profanity; and be dishonest in business. Not all divorce is sin; but the divorce rate in American is 34% and for church members it is 34%.
B. Defective Christianity (Jude 3-4)
“My dear friends I was very eager to write you about the salvation we have in common. But I was strongly impressed to write and urge you to fight hard for the faith that was once for all entrusted to the saints (people of God).”
“The reason is that godless people, whose condemnation was written about years ago, have slipped in unnoticed among us (by the side door).They are people who distort the grace of God to use it as an excuse to practice their immoral ways.” (Jude 4)
A Faith Delivered – The word “faith” here does not mean our personal faith in Christ, but the body of truth, the Christian teaching that lead us to Christ. And this is found in the Bible. The authority of Jesus, in religion, was His OT Bible, which he called “the Word of God / the speaking of the Spirit / etc.” (). Protestant Christianity follows His example. God chose to reveal Himself to man, by forming a nation from Abraham, interacting with it, and raising up men to record an accurate record and interpretation of His dealings. Peter said, “No prophesy (he had just mentioned words spoken from God) ever came from the will of man. The men were under the control of the Spirit of God as they spoke the message that came from God.” (1:21)
Believing in an OT Bible, the church expected a NT Bible, for God’s ultimate revelation in Jesus. Peter, writing in the AD 60’s says that some of Paul’s letters came from the “wisdom given to him by God” and made them part of “scripture” (3:15-16) Oddly enough Peter, in his letter was also writing NT “scripture” and probably did not even know it. And so was Jude
Salvation Jude calls this the “common salvation” because if one word sums up Christianity, it is salvation.
The name Jesus means, “The Lord saves”. The first message about Him was, “He will save his people from their sins.” (). Jesus said He came to this earth “to seek out and save sinners” (). The Bible was written to give us the “wisdom leading to salvation” ().
The word means deliverance and Jesus delivers us from the damning penalty of sin in forgiveness; from the dominating power of sin in the new birth; and from the very defiling presence of sin, in heaven, when we will be sinless like Him (1Jn. 3:1-3)
A Faith Distorted- Colossians, Jude, and Peter’s letters are all set in the AD 60’s. Thousands of Gentiles had come into the churches, and like us they brought their old beliefs, and views of life with them. And all of us know how hard it is to shake ingrained beliefs. This makes us all guilty, somewhat, of interpreting the Bible incorrectly fit to our views rather than changing our views to fit the Bible.
I counseled with a lady with a Pentecostal background who could not give up smoking, and believed with all her heart that it would send her to hell. No matter how much Bible I used to show her this was wrong, she never found peace.
The most formidable world view that challenged the Christian faith delivered to the Apostles was Gnosticism. It grew so popular in the 2nd Century (150AD +) that some historians say it outnumbered orthodoxy.
Gnosticism was not confined to any one group, but, like “New Age” thinking today, it was a world view that lived in the Greek philosophical word, and in the heart of many Christians.
To solve the age old problem of how a good and all powerful God could create a world like ours; filled with evil and suffering; they said He did not. The physical universe was the product of lower and lesser beings (aeons); and God, who was pure spirit had nothing to do with it, or anything physical. Salvation meant knowing God through the soul and mind. That is why it drew its name from the Greek word for knowledge (gnosis).
This led to a distortion of the Christian Faith in two ways. It produced false beliefs about Christ. Since the spiritual God had not contact with the physical; He could not have become a flesh and blood human being. Gnostics changed their Bibles and some said Jesus was God and only appeared to be a man. Others said He was only a man, and was not God. That is why John talks of hearing and touching Jesus (1 Jn. 1:1-4) and says Jesus “was God / and was made flesh” (Jn. 1:1/14)
But it also led to false beliefs about Christian behavior. A few said our souls (spirit) could overcome the flesh, and we could and should get to the place where we never sin. That is why First John says anyone who claims he does not have a sin nature (1:8); or claims he does not sin, does not know the truth (); and is lying ().
But most Gnostics in the church jumped on the other bandwagon. They said that since the physical was the work of Satan and would not survive death, it was alright to give our physical bodies and appetites over to any sin we wanted. They claimed salvation while living in sin.
C. Delivered Christians
“We escape the corruption in the world caused by evil desires” (2 Pet. 1:4)
1. The Initial Commitment
“They change the grace of our God into an excuse to go on living shamefully. They deny Jesus Christ our sovereign (despot) Lord.” - Jude 4
Lordship- The root problem of all who feel safe in sin is a defective conversion. They have welcomed Jesus into their lives as Savior, but have not submitted to his as Lord and Master, in matters of religious duty (the least important); morals; and ethics.
The term “Lord” was the OT word for God (Ps. 23, etc.), so we do believe the human Jesus was also God. But the people living in sin don’t have a problem with that. They like the truth that He is God because He forgives them and takes them to heaven when they die. What they do not like is the requirement of repentance, which means to turn from sin to Jesus as the ruler, Lord, of our lives.
Ruler- The word of “Lord / master” here is despotes from which we get the word “despot” an absolute ruler. James was the brother of Jesus, humanly speaking, but like the Apostles, his self chosen title for himself was “bondslave” (v1)
Repentance- To be saved the Bible tell us in Acts, the earliest preaching of the Apostolic Faith, to “repent” (2:38); to be “converted” (3:19); and to “believe” (Ch. 16) on the Lord Jesus Christ. (ch 16).
The word “convert” means “to turn around”. And in conversion, we turn in repentance “from a life controlled by our evil wishes.” And by faith we turn to Jesus to forgive us, to change us in the new birth; and to be the ruler of our lives.
Repentance involves a sorrow for sin () that leads to a “willingness to commit to forsake it. And it is moral and ethical to the core. When people asked John the Baptizer what it meant he told them to share their goods with others, feed the hungry, be honest in business and be satisfied with your wages (Lk. 3:10ff). The key word is willingness. When a man says, “I do” at the altar, he does not know what he is getting into; what that all involves. But he is committing to it.
We cannot promise God we will never use profanity, be unkind, tell lies, etc. again. We can’t lose weight, much less promise to life like Jesus Christ. But we can want it, and we can trust Him to change us. Galatians says if we can make ourselves right with God by obeying the law, being good, then Christ died for nothing. What God asks for is willingness, not ability.
2. The Miracle Change
We supply the willingness and God supplies the ability; beginning with the miracle of new birth, deliverance from the dominating power of evil desires. John wrote 30 years after Jude:
“Do not let anyone deceive you (false teachers) / No one who is born of God will (continually and willfully and habitually- the AmplifiedBible) go on sinning. The reason is that God’s seed (nature) remains in him, and he cannot go on sinning like this.” – 1 Jn. 3:9
When we ask God to forgive us; He forgives us. And when we ask God to change us into better people, who live by love and the golden rule, He changes us. This is called a new birth (0); a dying to sin (Rom. 6:1); a new creation (); and a resurrection to new life (). This leads to a new life of:
3. The Gradual Changes
“We have been chosen / by the sanctifying work of the Spirit, for obedience to Jesus Christ.”
- 1 Pet. 1:2
“Now that you have cleansed yourselves (new birth) by obeying the truth, resulting in sincere love; love one another deeply / Rid yourselves (these desires are still in us) of all malice, deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander. Like little babies thirst for the pure spiritual milk, so that by it you will grow up in your salvation.”
-1 Pet. 1:22-2:1
1) Sin’s Presence is Inevitable. The miracle change does not make us perfect. It gives us a new direction, a new disposition and a new determination. It leads to growth; to gradual victories over temptation. Jesus, in the Lord’s Prayer, tells us to pray for forgiveness (Mt. 6). John says if anyone claims perfection, not only does he not know his Bible he is a liar (1:7-9).
As a young Christian I listened to people talk about being “filled with the Spirit” and “walking in victory”. I always wanted a second opinion from their wives.
2) Sins’ Practice is Unbearable Abraham put his wife in danger twice of being defiled by Pharoah (). Noah got drunk (). David committed adultery and murder (). Peter cursed and denied knowing Jesus. All this teaches us that the devil is strong, and if we don not grow strong in the Lord; he can lead us to do anything an unsaved person can do.
We must learn the difference between committing acts of sin, and living in and loving sin. Billy Graham says
If a cat falls into the mud, it hates it, gets out as quickly as possible, and begins to clean itself. It does it because it is the nature of a cat to hate mud. But if a hog falls in, it is in “hog heaven”. It loves it. It wallows in it. It calls for all its hog buddies to come in with it. It does this because it is the nature of a hog to love mud.
John says we “cannot go on living in it”. We can’t do it without going against our own deepest wishes. This leads to unbearable shame, guilt and fear. No one put it better than Adrian Rogers. God changes our “want to’s. We cannot sin without the loss of peace and joy. When we sin like David did (2 Sam. 11), our physical health breaks (Ps.32) and we lose the joy of our salvation (Ps. 51:12) We cannot sin without fear of the consequences; the discipline promised in Heb. 12. Nathan told David God was going to kill him, had he not repented. David’s baby died; and one of his sons turned against him because of his sin.
Lot- Peter, speaking of the destruction of Sodom, says something strange about Lot. Here was a man living in the most sinful city in the land, and subjecting his family to horrible vices, because the pay was good. Peter says, “This righteous man “was distressed” (the word means to be worn out / oppressed) by what he saw; and he “was tortured” by it. (2 Pet. 2:7-8). Peter, never at a loss for good old red neck words, said this was like a “dog turning (to eat) his own vomit”. (2:22) And worst still, when the dust of God’s judgment had settled, Lot got drunk and committed incest with his daughters.
4. The Continual Confession
We come out of sin as Christians, just like we came to God to become Christians; through repentance and faith. 1 John 1:7-2:2
Could be, and often is used to lead people to Christ for salvation. But it was written to Christians (5:12). “If we confess our sins he is faithful and just and will forgive our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. . . My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin we have one who speaks to the Father in our defense - Jesus Christ the Righteous One. He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins.”
Warren Wiersbie described a growing Christian as, “Someone who sins less and less and confesses more and more.” The reason is a maturing Christian wants to be like Jesus.
