Postcards: Jude (Part 1)
Pastor Jefferson M. Williams
Chenoa Baptist Church
02- 18-2024
Intro:
In the late 1800s, Charles Spurgeon was in the last years of his life and was concerned with how many churches were denying basic Christian doctrines.
It started in Germany with the Higher Criticism Movement and had trickled into the churches in England.
Spurgeon, the most famous preacher in the world at the time, sounded the alarm. These were not secondary issues but primary to the Gospel message.
The denial of the infallibility of Scripture.
The denial of the necessity and substitutionary nature of Christ’s atonement.
The denial of the existence and eternality of hell.
The affirmation of universalism.
He wrote and spoke out boldly against pastors preaching this heresy:
“A new religion has been initiated, which is no more Christianity than chalk is cheese. And, this religion, being destitute of moral honesty, palms itself off as the old faith with slight improvements, and on this plea, usurps pulpits that were erected for Gospel preaching. The atonement is scouted, the inspiration of Scripture is denied, the Holy Spirit is degraded into an influence, the punishment of sin has turned into fiction, and the resurrection into a myth, and yet these enemies of our faith expect us to call them brethren and maintain a confederacy with them.”
For this stand, he was attacked by these pastors and, sadly, those within the Baptist Union, his own denomination.
He voluntarily resigned his membership in the Baptist Union but that didn’t stop them from voting to censure him. The vote was 2,000 to seven!
Spurgeon didn’t care. He saw the danger and was willing to pay the price to contend for the Gospel.
Spurgeon said at the end of his life, "I am quite willing to be eaten of dogs for the next 50 years, but the more distant future shall vindicate me.”
Almost 150 years later, the battle continues.
Several years ago, I had an interview at a very well-known Christian agency for a therapist position. The very first question they asked me was, “How would you help a fifteen-year-old girl come out as a lesbian to her mom and dad and help them celebrate her?”
I was faced with the same choice that Charles Spurgeon, and many others throughout history, have been faced with. Do I stay quiet or do I speak up for the Gospel?
Over the next few weeks, we are going to learn that Spurgeon’s boldness was a result of knowing the Word of God, particularly the little book of Jude.
Jude
This is the last “postcard” in our series. We’ve studied 2 John, 3 John, Haggai, Philemon (Pastor Jeff 2), the most neglected book in the Old Testament last week Obadiah, and, today, the most neglected book in the New Testament, Jude.
Let’s begin by establishing the song “Hey Jude” is not about this book. Paul McCartney wrote that song for Julian Lennon to comfort him when his dad left his mother for Yoko Ono.
It’s a small book with a big punch. It’s only 25 verses but it is incredibly deep and will take at least three weeks to unpack.
I remember standing in the library at seminary staring at a commentary on the book of Jude that was almost 1,000 pages long!
I heard of a pastor who took four years to preach these 25 verses!
This letter was written sometime between 70-90 AD and calls us to fight for the faith entrusted to us. It pictures the Christian life not as a playground but as a battlefield.
He writes to warn about false teachers and to urge his readers to contend for the faith.
Could you turn with me to Jude?
Prayer.
Author
“Jude, a servant of Jesus Christ and a brother of James…”
Jude is an abbreviated version of his real name - in Greek, Judas. In Hebrew, Judah.
It was abbreviated to distinguish him from that other Judas, Judas Iscariot.
He describes himself in two ways.
First, he is a “servant of Jesus Christ.” The word servant is actually “slave.” He is indicating that he has surrendered his own will to follow Jesus.
Second, he describes himself as a “brother of James.”
We know this is not the apostle because he had already been martyred by then.
This was James who was the leader of the early Jerusalem church and the leader of the Acts 15 council. He wrote the book of James that we have in our New Testament. He was also the half-brother of Jesus, which makes Jude a brother of Jesus as well.
Matthew tells us that Jesus had four brothers and at least two sisters:
“Coming to his hometown, he began teaching the people in their synagogue, and they were amazed. “Where did this man get this wisdom and these miraculous powers?” they asked. “Isn’t this the carpenter’s son? Isn’t his mother’s name Mary, and aren’t his brothers James, Joseph, Simon and Judas? Aren’t all his sisters with us? Where then did this man get all these things?” (Matt 13:54-56, see also Mark 6:3)
Some commentators believe that the wedding he attended at Cana, where He turned water into wine, was the wedding of one of his sisters.
Jude didn’t believe that Jesus was the Messiah during Jesus’s lifetime. (John 7:3-5) The family thought he was crazy:
“When Jesus went home, once again a crowd gathered so that He and His disciples could not even eat. When His family heard about this, they went out to take custody of Him, saying, “He is out of His mind.” (Mark 3:20)
What changed? The resurrection changed everything! After Jesus rose from the dead, we know that His brothers put their faith and trust in Him for the forgiveness of their sins.
After the resurrection, we find them with the believers in the Upper Room:
“Those present were Peter, John, James and Andrew; Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew; James son of Alphaeus and Simon the Zealot, and Judas son of James. They all joined together constantly in prayer, along with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brothers.” (Acts 1:13-14)
Jude could have dropped the “family card.” He could have said that he was Jesus’s little brother so you better listen up.
[Name-dropping is rude. Brad Pitt taught me that]
By the way, what do you think it was like growing up with Jesus? How about on report card day? Do you think Mary and Joseph told them, “Why can’t you be more like Jesus?”
He didn’t use his brother’s name because he wanted his readers to know that he was a follower of Christ just like them. He was content with being a servant and being committed to Jesus and His will.
?Recipients
“To those who have been called, who are loved in God the Father and kept for Jesus Christ…”
We are not told the location or the people to which Jude writes. We can assume that they are Jewish Christians due to his use of the Old Testament and examples from Jewish literature.
Here we find the first of many triads in his letter.
He describes those he is writing to as:
Called
Being called, or chosen, is a great feeling. Whether it is in grade school and you are chosen for a team or high school and you are chosen for the play, or chosen for a job or a leadership position, our hearts crave being chosen.
Brock Purdy, who played in the Super Bowl last week, waited for hours for his name to be called in the seventh round of the 2022 NFL draft. He was picked dead last, number 262, which comes with the nickname, “Mr Irrelevant.”
Watch how his family responded even though he was picked last.
Why did they respond that way? Because only 262 people in the United States were chosen and he was one of them.
In the Bible, there are two types of calling. One is a general call of salvation to all humans. The other is the “effectual call” that results in salvation.
?“For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters. And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified.” (Rom 8:29-30)
It is the idea of being chosen before the beginning of time.
“But we ought always to thank God for you, brothers and sisters loved by the Lord, because God chose you as firstfruits to be saved through the sanctifying work of the Spirit and through belief in the truth. He called you to this through our gospel, that you might share in the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.” (2 Thes 2:13-14)
At the end of time, we will be part of the victory party:
“They will wage war against the Lamb, but the Lamb will triumph over them because he is Lord of lords and King of kings—and with him will be his called, chosen and faithful followers.” (Rev 7:14)
If you claim the name of Jesus this morning, you didn’t choose Christ, He chose you.
Loved in the Father
He called us and chose us, not based on anything we had done or would do, but out of love.
“For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love he predestined us for adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will— o the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves…” (Eph 1:3-4)
In Paul’s famous words from Galatians:
“I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” (Gal 2:20Notice he doesn’t write “loved by the Father” but “loved in the Father.”
In Jesus’s prayer in John 17, He described
“My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one— I in them and you in me—so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.” (John 17:20-23)
If you claim the name of Jesus this morning, you didn’t love God first, He loved you!
“This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.” (I John 4:10)
kept for/by Jesus Christ.
Jude also described them as kept for or by Jesus. This word means to guard or watch over.
God is a keeping God!
It’s in the words of the priestly blessing
“‘“The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make his face shine on you and be gracious to you; the Lord turn his face toward you and give you peace.”’ (Numbers 6:24-26)
Paul wrote to the church at Corinth:
“He will also keep you firm to the end, so that you will be blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is faithful, who has called you into fellowship with his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.” (I Cor 1:8-9)
He reminded the believers at Philippi:
“…being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.” (Phil 1:6)
We are kept safe and preserved to the end by Jesus:
“My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand. I and the Father are one.” (John 10:27-30)
If you claim the name of Jesus this morning, you are safe, not because you are holding on to Him but because He is holding on to you!
We have been called (past), we are loved by the Father (present) and we will be kept safe for our glorious future!
Prayer
“Mercy, peace and love be yours in abundance.”
Jude then tells them his prayer for them.
Mercy
Mercy is not getting what you deserve. If you have ever been pulled over for speeding, and you were speeding, but he lets you off with a warning, he had mercy on you.
“Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.” (Heb 4:16)
Peace ?
The Jewish notion of peace is “shalom.” This is more than the absence of conflict but wholeness in all areas of life.
“Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” (Phil 4:6-7)
Isaiah prophesied that the Messiah would be called the “Prince of Peace.”
I read through Paul Tripp’s devotional, “New Morning Mercies” each morning. Yesterday, this is what he wrote:
“This is the good news of the Gospel. Peace came. Peace lived. Peace died. Peace rose again. Peace reigns on your behalf. Peace indwells you by the Spirit. Peace graces you with everything you need. Peace convicts, forgives and delivers you. Peace will finish His work in you. Pease will welcome you into glory, where Peace will live with you in peace and righteousness forever. Peace isn’t a faded dream. Peace is real. Peace is a person, and His name is Jesus.”
Love
He wants them to know the extravagant love of God:
“See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!” (I John 3:1)
He doesn’t pray that these three things would be added to them but multiplied, in abundance, overflowing. ?
This is a good prayer that they can pray for those around us.
Reason for Writing
“Dear friends, although I was very eager to write to you about the salvation we share, I felt compelled to write and urge you to contend for the faith that was once for all entrusted to God’s holy people.”
Jude had planned on writing an encouraging letter teaching about the salvation that they share but the Holy Spirit interrupted his plans.
He felt compelled. This word means to be pressed against. The Holy Spirit laid it heavy upon his heart that he had an urgent message to write these beloved friends.
He urges them to
contend
The word contend is where we get our word “agony” from. It described the all-out exertion of gladiators in an open-air arena.
When I first started running 5ks, a student at our church would ask me how it went. I would tell her my time and she would say the same thing each time - did you throw up afterward? When I said no, she would respond, “Then you didn’t give it your all!”
It’s a picture of anyone trying to guard Caitlin Clark!
Jude is making the point that we are called to fight for the faith. This isn’t written to pastors or seminary professors but to all Christians.
Peter wrote that we can contend for the faith without being contentious:
“But in your hearts revere Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect, keeping a clear conscience, so that those who speak maliciously against your good behavior in Christ may be ashamed of their slander.” (I Peter 3:15-16)
From 1555-58, Queen Mary, (Bloody Mary), the Catholic ruler of England, had almost 300 Protestant pastors put to death.
Why? Because men like Nicolas Ridley, Hugh Latimer, and Thomas Cramer dared to say that Jesus was currently at the right hand of the Father interceding for believers instead of affirming that Jesus was here on earth in the presence of the Eucharist.
They believed that this faith was worth fighting and dying for.
for the faith
Jude is not writing about our faith but the objective truths of the Gospel.
We’ve talked about this before but, when it comes to the Gospel, there are primary issues, secondary issues, and tertiary issues.
Spurgeon could enjoy lunch with someone who didn’t agree with him on the mode of baptism, a second issue.
He could be friends with someone who disagreed with his stance on playing cards. That’s a tertiary issue.
But to those who denied the inspiration and infallibility of the Scriptures, who claim that we are saved by anything else but by faith alone, in grace alone, in Christ alone, who were teaching that hell didn’t exist and that everyone goes to heaven, he couldn’t stay calm or quiet. People’s eternal destinies were at stake.
that was once and for all entrusted to God’s holy people
This Gospel was passed down by the Apostles and God’s revelation ended with Revelation.
The writer of Hebrews wrote:
“In the past, God spoke to our ancestors through the prophets at many times and in various ways, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son…” (Hebrews 1:1-2)
Cults always add to the Word of God. When the Mormons come to your door and try to give you a Book of Mormon, or the Jehovah’s Witnesses hand you a Pearl of Great Price, take your bible out and read this verse to them.
There is no new revelation. As we have been learning on Wednesday mornings by going through the book of 2 Timothy, my job is to simply remind you of the Gospel week after week.
It was entrusted to us and we have a responsibility to defend it when it comes under attack.
The Problem
“For certain individuals whose condemnation was written about long ago have secretly slipped in among you. They are ungodly people, who pervert the grace of our God into a license for immorality and deny Jesus Christ our only Sovereign and Lord.”
Jude doesn’t name names but he doesn’t hold anything back describing these people.
False teachers had slipped in the side door secretly. Did you think that they were going to stand up and announce, “Hi, I’m a false teacher and my goal is to lead to you hell?”
Peter writes:
But there were also false prophets among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you. They will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the sovereign Lord who bought them—bringing swift destruction on themselves. Many will follow their depraved conduct and will bring the way of truth into disrepute. In their greed, these teachers will exploit you with fabricated stories. Their condemnation has long been hanging over them, and their destruction has not been sleeping.” (I Peter 2:1-3)
When Paul meets with the Ephesians elders for the last time, her told them:
“Be shepherds of the church of God,[a] which he bought with his own blood. I know that after I leave, savage wolves will come in among you and will not spare the flock. Even from your own number men will arise and distort the truth in order to draw away disciples after them. So be on your guard!” (Acts 20:28-31) ?
Peter and Paul shout, “The false teachers are coming!” Jude’s message is, “The false teachers are here!”
He describes them in three strong ways:
Ungodly
Jude uses this term six times in 25 verses. The word means “not like God in their thinking or living” or literally, “without worship.”
Paul writes to Timothy that these people will have “a form of godliness but denying its power.” (2 Tim 3:5)
They will claim to be Christians, but their message shows them to be heretics.
* pervert the grace of God into a license for immorality
These people were teaching that grace is truly amazing! It’s so amazing that you can do whatever you want and He will forgive you!
Paul answers this in Romans 6:
“What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? By no means! We are those who have died to sin; how can we live in it any longer?” (Romans 6:1-2)
He writes later in Romans:
“Let us behave decently, as in the daytime, not in carousing and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and debauchery, not in dissension and jealousy. Rather, clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ, and do not think about how to gratify the desires of the flesh.” (Rom 13:13)
Will God forgive you for sinning? Absolutely. But remember, sin doesn’t just break God’s rules, it breaks His heart. And the Christian loves God and wants to honor Him with their lives.
deny Jesus Christ our only Sovereign and Lord
They also deny Jesus Christ. Now, they aren’t standing up in a church saying they don’t believe in Jesus. It’s more subtle that than.
A few years, there was a controversy in the church concerning, “Lordship salvation.” Some were saying that you could claim Jesus as your Savior but not bow the knee to Him as Lord.
Pastors like John MacArthur called out this teaching and showed it to be ridiculous and dangerous.
Before we were saved, we were slaves of sin. After we are saved, we are slaves of Christ. He is our Master and Lord. We are to be about His business and accomplishing the mission He has for us.
These false teachers didn’t acknowledge Jesus as Lord because they wanted to be Lord of their own lives.
Four Ways to Contend for the Faith
Here are three ways that we can fight for the faith:
We must know the faith
Secret service agents handle thousands of real dollar bills in their first weeks of training. Then a couple of fake bills are introduced and they find them almost immediately. Why? Because they know the real thing so well.
In the past year, Diana Clemmons has taken her Bible study seriously. She has studied Genesis, Revelation, and Isaiah verse by verse and is now going through Amos, will take over 100 lessons!
2. Be a disciple who makes disciples who makes disciples
When you are disciplining someone else, you have to be prepared to answer their questions and challenge them. It is one of the best ways to grow spiritually.
Scientists tell us that in the first half of our lives, we use what’s called “fluid intelligence,” the ability to reason, think flexibly, and solve novel problems. At about age 50, fluid intelligence begins to decline.
I'm
In the second half of our lives, we have what’s called “crystalized intelligence.” This is the accumulated wisdom from living and learning. This is meant to be shared with others, especially those younger than us.
When Clayton Irmeger retired at 65, he made a commitment to disciple as many young men as he could with the time left. He is now 91, and he estimates that he has discipled over 1,000 men in the last 25 years. He also published his first book at age 89 and released his second at age 90!
3. Don’t be afraid to stand up for the truth with boldness and love.
Danya Muldoon describes herself as a prophetess who can heal people (for a price of course). Watch as Pastor Rodriquez, a pastor at Calvary Chapel, has an opportunity to stand up and protect his people from a wolf.
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