Remember When... Series

Remember When…

Text: Jude 1 – 16; Revelation 2:5

By: Ken McKinley

(Read Text)

Well as you can see by our text, we are still looking at verses 1-16. We began by looking at Jude’s thesis for this letter, how he was warning Christians to “STAY ALERT” and then last time we looked at why, we looked at the “Enemy Within;” tonight we are going to Jude’s command to “Remember.”

We’ve had similar calls to remembrance in our own histories. I’ll say a few of them and we’ll see if you know the event, “Remember the Maine” (Call to arms for the Spanish – American War), “Remember the Alamo!” (The war for Texas Independence), “A Day that will live in Infamy” (after the attack on Pearl Harbor), “One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind” (man walking on the moon).

And we remember these things because of the events that took place on those dates, and the events that were set in motion because of them. In our text Jude asks his readers to remember. In the Bible there are other things we are told to remember, we have communion because Jesus said, “Do this in remembrance of Me.” We have church on Sundays because the Acts 20:7 tells us this became the tradition of the Apostles, and we continue the tradition. So look at verses 5, 6, and 7 (read).

Edmond Burke once said, “All that is necessary for evil to triumph is that good men do nothing.” It’s easy for us today to say, “Let’s not rock the boat,” and for us to look at what Jude is saying and think, “Well; it really doesn’t matter, I’m a Christian, I’m saved, I’ve got my fire insurance, so I don’t have to worry about it.”

Folks, it is the job of the Church to teach Christians to know and understand the Gospel. And once it is known and understood, it is our job to exhort you over and over again, to remember what it is, to fight for it, and not budge an inch from it. The Gospel is not speaking things into existence and name it and claim it garbage. The Gospel is not “I’m ok, you’re ok.” The Gospel is not, “do enough good things, and God might let you into heaven.” No! The Gospel isn’t these man made, humanistic teachings that have crept into the Church, and influenced people.

That’s what Jude is saying, he’s saying that these people have strayed in error. They’ve come to believe a different gospel, which is no gospel at all. And we have churches, and entire denominations that teach error, and false doctrine, and they lead people astray because their teachings are seductive and pleasing to human nature, and we the Church when we are made aware of these things, are supposed to confront them, and say, “You’re wrong!”

But what happens is that we don’t remember. The Bible tells us that there is nothing new under the sun. The attacks against Christianity aren’t new, they are re-packaged, but Christians forget, and so when an attack comes out, many people who are on the edge, maybe considering the faith, instead they are lured away by the deception. The false teachers we have today aren’t any different than the false teachers of 2000 years ago. They are getting their information from the same source, the father of lies. And the lies they tell aren’t new, they are dressed up in new ways, but they are the same old lies.

That’s what Jude is trying to show his readers.

There was around 1200 to 1300 years between Moses and Jude, but Jude says that the false teachers that were in the Church during Jude’s day are the same as they were during Moses’ day.

Now if you’re into numerology – the study of numbers then you’ll notice that Jude groups these things into 3’s. In verses 5-7 he mentions 3 types of false teachers or apostates. In verse 11 he mentions 3 individuals who were false teachers.

So let’s look at the groups first: In vs. 5 he mentions the Israelites that came out of Egypt but did not believe. The Israelites had been delivered from Egypt, we read about that in Exodus but the they had to wander around for 40 years, all because of unbelief. An entire generation never got to where God was taking them because of unbelief. Sure they believed there was a God, they had seen His miracles, they had seen Him do wondrous things, but when it came time to claim the land, they faltered when it came to true faith. They did not believe unto salvation. Turn with me to Hebrews 10:39 (read), now to Matthew 13:20-21 (read). A person can believe to a point short of the saving of their soul. They can heard the word and receive it with joy, but if they have no root then they will fall away.