INTRODUCTION
Opening Statement: After receiving a nasty letter a preacher sent it back to the church member with this note attached: "The enclosed letter came to me a few days ago. I am sending it to you because I think you should know that some idiot is sending out letters with your signature on them." Jude faced a similar dilemma with problem people.
Key Word: Rather than being diverted from their Christian mission by some divisive persons, Jude gave them FOUR JOBS to do in order to keep their focus.
Title: One author calls this section of Jude “Final Instructions for the Troops.” I will borrow his thought today. The key call of the book of Jude is found in v.3 where it says “Contend for the faith that was once for all was entrusted to the saints.”
Question: What are these instructions? Remember the manual. Keep in shape. Show mercy on the war-torn. Save the defectors. We’ll deal with the first of these today – Remember the Manual.
Recitation/Text: Jude 17- 23 17 But you, beloved, ought to remember the words that were spoken beforehand by the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ, 18 that they were saying to you," In the last time there will be mockers, following after their own ungodly lusts." 19 These are the ones who cause divisions, worldly-minded, devoid of the Spirit. But you, beloved, building yourselves up on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit, 21 keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting anxiously for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to eternal life. 22 And have mercy on some, who are doubting; 23 save others, snatching them out of the fire; and on some have mercy with fear, hating even the garment polluted by the flesh.
OUTLINE
Background: Evidently, there were some people who were creating chaos and strife unnecessarily in the lives of Jude’s readers. It seems that they were leading some of the churches that Jude wrote to astray with their teaching and lifestyle. While the exact nature of this teaching is not spelled out for the reader, much is said regarding the false-teachers themselves. According to Jude (1-19), apparently they would assimilate into a religious community and then begin to create problems. They refused to submit to authority. They would find fault with others. They would contradict sound theology. And all of this combined served to divide the new community. They weren’t serious about being a fully devoted follower of Christ. They were all about getting an advantage within the new community in order to leverage relationships their way. Apparently, there was a fair amount of prestige and honor associated with being the spiritual leader of a church because they tried to move in on these positions so forcefully. Their objective, for whatever reason, was to move into the new community, challenge the leaders, and assemble a group of followers to help them instigate turmoil and to wrest the control of things away from the proper leaders. While I think the atmosphere and maturity and growth experienced in the lives of our people here at SCC would not allow this to happen, according to the apostles and Jude, it is within the realm of possibility that there may be those who infiltrate the new community and begin to ridicule and scoff at the Scriptures. There may be those who sow seeds of discord.
Transition: In order to combat this, Jude gives some “Instructions for the Troops” to help them stay the course. The first imperative in the entire letter appears in verse 17 – Remember. This one command heads a whole cluster of commands that will follow.
Remember the Manual
Recitation: Jude 17- 23 17 But you, beloved, [in contrast with the shallow people heretofore referenced] ought to remember the words that were spoken beforehand by the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ, 18 that they were saying to you," In the last time there will be mockers, following after their own ungodly lusts." 19 These are the ones who cause divisions, worldly-minded, devoid of the Spirit.
Exposition: Remember. What were they to remember? Three things in particular:
Remember who gave the Word – the Manual
Explanation: It was the apostles. The apostles were those few people that Christ selected to be with him and to be commissioned by him to share the Good News, even after he was gone. The requirement for being an apostle was that you had to be a witness to the resurrection (Acts 1:21,22; 1 Cor.9:1). Not long after the resurrection, false apostles and teachers began to appear, saying things that no one could really verify, and writing things that no one could really document, and so it became necessary to develop a system to protect the body of Christian truth. One of the main tests in the early church when they were deciding which books were truly inspired by God and deserved a place in the canon, was that the book had to be written by an apostle or by someone closely associated with an apostle and thus have access to eyewitnesses.
2 Pet. 1:21 "For prophecy (Scripture) never had its origin in the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit." Scripture is from God even though it came through men who used their training and various literary techniques to communicate their point. “Remember the words of the apostles,” is a code phrase for “Remember the Word of God.”
Jude quoted the apostles with the same air of authority that he quoted the Old Testament and other sources. What they had to say was true. Jude implied that his readers had actually heard the apostles speak in person and that they had heard them say these words several times.
Observation: When someone says, “I’ve got a new revelation for you” test it by what the apostles wrote.
Transition: What did they say to them?
Remember what they said
Explanation: First, they said that we live in the last times or days. According to the New Testament, the last days do not reference what will happen in the last few weeks or months before Christ returns. The last days refer to the time period between Christ’s first coming and his second coming. This period of waiting will be characterized by Jude’s second point… Second, the apostles said that there would be scoffers. These free-thinking people would deliberately mislead others (Acts 20:28-30; 1 Tim. 4:1-2; 2 Pet. 3:3-4). They will do this throughout the inter-advent period.
Remember why they said it
Explanation: I believe the apostles said it because it took away that element of surprise for Jude’s readers. By expecting people to come into our lives and even into our new community with a disposition to create chaos for us, we are not paralyzed and defenseless when it actually happens. We’re prepared. They also said it in order to expose these individuals for what they really were.
Observation: I get the feeling as I read through Jude’s remarks that these guys weren’t serious about following Christ at all. In fact, a kind of greedy, pride-induced profile emerges as you read through this letter. Life was about what they selfishly wanted out of it. This profile is probably my strongest application point today. Jude clearly states what kind of personal profile that believers ought to avoid.
Profile of a Shallow Lifestyle
§ Get accepted within the faith community (4) “crept in unnoticed”
§ Teach absolute moral freedom (4) “grace into license”
§ Engage in immorality rather than following the Spirit (8) “defiling the flesh”
§ Reject authority (8)
§ Participate in fellowship times and communion (Love-feasts) (12) but contribute very little by way of service
§ Find fault (16)
§ Divide the community (19)
Recitation: They are aggressive and inflated with self-importance. A whole host of metaphors follow: Jude 12 These are the men who are hidden reefs [rocks – implying shipwreck of faith] in your love feasts when they feast with you without fear, caring for themselves; clouds without water, carried along by winds; autumn trees without fruit, doubly dead, uprooted; 13 wild waves of the sea, casting up their own shame like foam; wandering stars [a point of fixed reference was essential for successful navigation in these days – these individuals were unfixed and thus unreliable], for whom the black darkness has been reserved forever.
Illustration: This profile seems to match a book that I read recently by Ben Stein, the “red-eyes” commercial guy who pushed the eye drops that supposedly takes the red out. His book is a satire. He entitled it “How to Ruin Your Life.” He gives 35 ways to really mess up your life. He has seen a lot of people ruin their lives. These guys in Jude fit the profile. Again one of the most important applications that I make today involves one of profile. Whatever you do, make sure that your life profile doesn’t match that which Jude depicts here in his little letter and what Stein says in ways that we can understand. Let me share a few thoughts with you from Stein and they parallel Jude’s thoughts.
1. Don’t learn any self-discipline. “Be a slob,” Stein says. “Don’t make yourself work when you’d rather play… Life is short… Don’t bother to develop any sense of discipline in anything and you’ll be really happy and proud of yourself!”
2. Convince yourself you’re the center of the universe. “You’re the only one who matters in any given situation… Why listen to anyone else’s troubles? Your problems are the ones that make the difference…So what if, after a while, no one wants to talk to you? That’s just proof of what dirt-bags they are.”
3. Never accept any responsibility for anything that goes wrong.
4. Criticize early and often. There’s something wrong with everything and everyone if you look closely enough, and by golly, you have to make it your job to find it first and complain about it loudest… The whole world needs to know that they’re far from perfect.
5. Envy everything; appreciate nothing.
6. Don’t enjoy the simple things in life. Ignore life’s little pleasures… Be miserable about the fact that the world has cheated its only deity…again.
7. Fix anyone and everyone at any time. Believe in your heart that you can do the impossible – change and fix people.
8. Hang out with the wrong crowd. Associate with unlucky, unsuccessful people with revolting habits on a regular basis.
9. Make the people around you feel small. Belittle them on a regular basis, and brag as much as you can about your family, your job, your car, and the people you know.
10. Keep score. This is about letting the universe know that you’re owed a better deal.
11. Remember that no one else counts. You came from the womb perfect, without any need for human companionship or assistance.
12. Don’t clean up after yourself.
13. Have no respect for age or experience.
14. Do it your way. The rest of the world has to adjust to you. You’re the Messiah of doing your own thing. All hail!
CONCLUSION
Applications: To close, allow me to wrap things up…
1. Don’t label and dismiss this message quickly. You may be thinking, “I wouldn’t be a false-teacher. I wouldn’t cause problems for anyone, especially in the church.” But yet, deep within, you’ve set yourself up as the center of the universe. Your lifestyle may be well camouflaged with the clothes you wear, the personality you project, the positions you hold. But you’ve been critical and it’s divided your home. You’ve been envious and it’s robbed your joy. You’ve kept score and it’s made you hard and prone to gossip and faultfinding.
2. Remember the manual. Make sure your life profile includes remembering the manual and living by the life-giving principles that God has given to us. The Bible teaches a counter-point to all of this. God is the center, not me. I have no right to divide his new community because of what I want. I have no right to make people around me feel small. The manual says that God created everyone and that they are significant. I have no right to always be critical, but should use my words to provide uplift. I have no right to establish my own morals. God has provided those standards for me. I have no right to spend my life serving me; I must serve others. I will eventually face those situations in life where I must remember the manual.
Quotation: I saw an interview with a soldier and the interviewer asked him, “How do you keep your composure in the heat of the battle when your buddies around you are killed or wounded? How do you handle this emotionally? His response: “We fall back on our training.” When the bullets are flying and bombs are exploding and people are dying, you can’t just go to pieces. You have to remember the training manual and fall back on your training.
Illustration: I said this week in a funeral message that I believe the Bible answers some of the deepest questions of life. I went on to address what some of those questions are when a loved one passes away. In time of grief, you must remember the manual. You must fall back on your training. When life implodes and emotions are numb, you must fall back on your training. God is good. Forgiveness is real. Hope is alive. Family is priceless. The manual teaches all of this. We must never forget it.
