The Gospel: How To Get Everything Wrong!

The Gospel: How to Get Everything Wrong

Jude 1:4-23

Intro:

As we get into our text this evening, I would like for you to keep one question in mind: What is it that we, as a church, and as the Body of Christ, are doing wrong? This is not a popular question, in today’s society…people want to point to the positive, and ignore the negative. A destructive political correctness has invaded our society that frowns upon correction, and encourages pluralism. The insanity of our culture, can be clearly seen in our Universities and Colleges, even our public schools, where our children are encouraged to not only be accepting of those with alternate beliefs, but to regard their beliefs as equally true. This type of thinking obviously flies in the face of what Christ said when he said “I am THE way, THE truth, and THE life, and no man comes to the father, but through Me”. Christ is clear that he is the only true way, yet we have been bullied by those around us, not only into a dangerous silence, but into a destructive agreement with there insane ideas.

That our children bow to such ideas, that is the idea that other beliefs such as Buddhism, Hinduism, and Islam are equally true to the one True Faith, is an indication of the failing of the Church’s role in our society. We have dropped the ball, both on the inside of our churches, in our Sunday schools and Bible studies, as well as on the outside, in our nearly non-existent evangelism. We have lost the urgency conveyed in scripture; we have pushed the proclamation of the Gospel to the back burner, and turned our churches into little more than a programs based country club. We have failed, in nearly every point, to do what we have been called to do by our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

Has anyone LOOKED at the T.V. lately? Do you think there is anything Christian in the Garbage being spewed by these so called “Televangelists”? Have we got any Joel fans here today?

So, today what I would like to do is to set up a model of all the ways in which we can get the Gospel completely wrong. It is my desire that by looking at what we should not be doing, it will awaken us to what we should be doing. By looking at the ways in which we fail, we will see what it is we need to do, to succeed in those tasks that we have been called to perform.

The scripture that we will be looking at for this monumental task is contained in the single chapter of Jude. So if you would, please turn to Jude; we will begin in verse 4.

Jud 1:4 For certain people have crept in unnoticed who long ago were designated for this condemnation, ungodly people, who pervert the grace of our God into sensuality and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.

Jud 1:5 Now I want to remind you, although you once fully knew it, that Jesus, who saved a people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed those who did not believe.

Jud 1:6 And the angels who did not stay within their own position of authority, but left their proper dwelling, he has kept in eternal chains under gloomy darkness until the judgment of the great day—

Jud 1:7 just as Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding cities, which likewise indulged in sexual immorality and pursued unnatural desire, serve as an example by undergoing a punishment of eternal fire.

#1 Way to “get Everything Wrong” is to Emphasize Grace, but ignore God’s righteous nature {Repeat}

By completely ignoring God’s moral character, and emphasizing Grace in every situation, we will slowly develop a church full of hypocrisy, and leave the members of our Churches to be “blown about” with every wind of doctrine.

We will remove any emphasis on correct living and morality, and cause a compartmentalization of spiritual truths that will completely divorce it of any changing power. Take another look at verse 4: I like the way the New Living Translation puts it:

4 I say this because some ungodly people have wormed their way into your churches, saying that God’s marvelous grace allows us to live immoral lives. The condemnation of such people was recorded long ago, for they have denied our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.

See what it says there? These people are not denying Jesus’ existence. Nor are they even denying that he is God in the Flesh.

There denial is linked to their disobedience, and is summed up by Jesus’ statement in Luke 6:46, when he says “WHY DO YOU CALL ME LORD, LORD, AND YET YOU DO NOT DO WHAT I TELL YOU?”