good to hear you lead the singing again.
Well, the Merc led the singing in our tent meeting years ago that John conducted for two weeks every night.
Seven people obeyed the gospel.
It was a great time.
They said they wanted to do it at a time when it's cool outside and pleasant.
I said, no, no, no.
We want it hot and mosquitoes and everybody miserable.
We only want people there that want to be there.
We have filled that tent up every night for a couple of weeks out there.
was a great time, great memory that we have.
Well again I want thank you for the privilege of being with you in this Gospel meeting.
I'm so proud of the church that meets here.
I know something of what you all have been doing, endeavoring to focus your energy and attention on the Church of Christ, to come to a place to meet, to have, to meet regularly,
such a nice place as this.
All the work you've done certainly does not go unnoticed.
Heaven smiles when God's people labor together.
It's an expression of your unity and of your spiritual strength to be able to be here in this place.
We commend you for it.
commend your elders, Bill, with Carl, with Chris, for all of the oversight that you're giving to this work here.
I appreciate very much the invitation to come and be with you this week.
I'm glad Sheila could be here with me.
We're having the time of our life.
It's so good to see all of you, many we've not seen for a long time, but all of whom are near and dear to our hearts.
In this evening's lesson, the title that Brother Chris just announced to you is, Are We Contending for the Faith or Pretending?
When you look at word contending it appears one time in our New Testament and that's in the book of Jude, Jude verse 3.
So I'd to draw our attention to Jude 3 as we discuss this topic, contending versus pretending.
One of the things we will accomplish in our lesson tonight, if you'll just be patient and follow through the lesson is you'll be able to tell am I a contender for the faith?
or my religious pre-tending.
And we're gonna do that by going to this text and stating in the text here in the book of Jude.
Across these 25 verses we will cover these four points.
Point number one, contending for the faith, verses one through three.
The command to contend.
The second point will be the cause to contend for the faith.
And that'll cover verses four down to verse 13.
The third point in the lesson will be the condemning of the ungodly.
And that's going to be verses 14-19.
And then we'll close it out, verse 20-25, with the confidence.
of the godly.
So we've got it broken down that way just so you'll know where we're headed.
And I wanted to take each section of those verses and develop the thought contending versus pretending.
Jude begins this book, Jude the servant of Jesus Christ and brother of James, to the sanctified by God the Father and preserved in Jesus Christ and called.
unto you, and peace, love be multiplied.
Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you, and to exhort you that you should earnestly contend for
the faith which was once delivered to the saints."
a couple of things with these verses if you would.
We find that Jude, now he is the brother of Jesus Christ mentioned for us in Matthew chapter 13 verse 55, Mark 6 and verse 3.
Contrary to the teaching of one of largest religions in the world that Jesus was a man who had no siblings, that Mary was a perpetual virgin, the Word of God says otherwise and even
lists for us the four brothers of Jesus and sisters.
So, we four brothers and at least two sisters.
Catholicism is wrong, ladies and gentlemen, it is wrong.
It does not reflect the teaching of the Bible concerning our Lord Jesus Christ and His family.
If it gets it wrong there, don't be surprised to see the Pope arguing with the President of the United States.
Now then he speaks in regard to himself, Jude, the servant of Jesus Christ.
He could make much about the fact that he is the brother of Jesus Christ, but instead he says he is the brother of James, well known James in the early church at Jerusalem.
He places being a servant of Christ above the physical relationship he has to Jesus Christ because that relationship is going to be eternal and is very important.
And it is something that all of his audience would identify with as servants of Jesus Christ.
It is of great merit to be a servant of Jesus Christ.
He speaks about mercy
and peace and love be multiplied.
When he's talking about God the Father, we sanctified, set apart in God, we preserved in Jesus Christ, and we called.
And ladies and gentlemen, we are called by the Gospel.
This is a Gospel meeting, so I'll be talking about that call in more detail as we conclude momentarily from 2 Thessalonians chapter 2 verse 14.
Mercy unto you, peace, and love be multiplied.
That's what you have in the Church of Christ, mercy, peace, and love multiplied.
you to notice the stark contrast between something like we reading right here in our New Testament and what you might read in a book like for example the Koran.
The Koran does not emphasize these traits and characteristics.
I believe you can see that when you look at the wars that are going on in this world by people who are following that book the Koran.
Where is mercy?
Where is peace?
Where is love multiplied?
Well it is certainly not a part of that religion as is evidenced by the actions taking place in our world.
When he writes in verse 3, he says, beloved.
when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation." He's talking about a salvation that was common to everyone, everywhere.
This book of Jude is in the general epistles written to everyone who are members of the Church.
The common salvation, the same gospel that was preached in Corinth was preached everywhere, 1 Corinthians 4, 17.
Paul said, preached the same thing in all the churches.
Now that's something that is missing from modern religion.
Something different is preached in all the churches.
It is not a common salvation.
There's not even a common plan of salvation.
They can't even keep it straight among themselves.
I'm having a discussion with a local preacher and he's got a track about pray the sinner's prayer.
So I called him up and I said I want to talk to you about your track.
And I said where do you get pray the sinner's prayer?
Now instead of attempting to go to some verse of scripture to justify it he said you don't have to pray the sinner's prayer to be saved.
And I said well then now I wonder why are you telling people through this track that you're putting in the restaurants in town that you need to pray the sinner's prayer and
you don't even need to pray the sinner's prayer?
So they don't even know what to say and have in common when it comes to telling people what to do to be saved even among themselves.
But when Jude is writing, he's writing about the common salvation.
The same gospel that we preach here, I've preached in many states of this union.
I've preached on foreign soil in Scotland and in Spain for many years.
The same common faith preached everywhere to all men.
That's what he's writing about.
I gave all diligence to write to you of the common salvation.
He saw something needful.
It was needful for me to write unto you, and exhort, that is to urge, beg, or plead with you, that you should earnestly, that is sincerely and devotedly, that you should earnestly
contend for the faith which was delivered to the saints." The American Standard Version on this passage, as you know, says, once for all delivered to the saints.
have this common salvation right here in our New Testament.
It was delivered.
I think the last book written of our New Testament was penned in 96 A.D.
by the Apostle John from the Isle of Patmos.
And with it, it is neither to be added to nor taken away from.
It is a common salvation that was once delivered to the saints.
Isn't it interesting to you that the Bible closes with this prohibition against adding to or taking away from the Bible with the most serious consequence devoted to either case?
so that we have this common salvation and the faith once for all delivered to the saints.
The urging is, earnestly contend for it.
We must have a conviction about the faith and a desire to see it through, to stand for it and to defend it.
So we find out at the very first about the command to contend earnestly for the faith.
Let's see a little bit more about what's involved as we look at the next section of scriptures from four to 13.
The cause that is...
the
this man.
Went right to the problem.
Went right to the problem and solved it.
I hope I do that in this lesson tonight with description.
Thank you brother.
Thank you your good example.
Here you've got the cause to earnestly contend for the faith.
Let's start with verse 4 and exegete these verses.
For there are certain men crept in unawares.
You've got to be watchful.
We need to appreciate the elders of the church because Hebrews chapter 13 verse 7 and 17, watch for your souls.
The men about whom we're fixing to speak crept in unawares.
They just slipped in.
Next thing you know, they're right there in the middle of them.
So much so that when they would have a meal or a dinner together, why, they were right there as spots in their feasts of love or charity.
They crept in unawares.
We need to be thankful if we are members of a church that has elders because they have a job of
our souls.
There were certain men, crept in unawares, who were before ordained to this condemnation.
He's going to describe them in three ways in this passage.
And before we get through with this chapter, he's going to give 15 descriptions.
of what these men were like who crept in unawares and guess what?
They didn't even see it.
They didn't even see it coming.
And yet Jude is going to detail time and time and time again, 15 times what these men were like and what they were doing.
we need to earnestly contend for the faith.
He says, they were ungodly men.
Jude uses the term ungodly six times in these 25 verses.
Ungodly.
That is the opposite of what God is.
They are ungodly men.
also they are turning the grace of God, the grace of our God into...
You see that today with some of these services that you might observe on the television, for example, how they'll have dancing as a part of their service.
That's lasciviousness, lustful bodily movements.
It's good where you can't get them in with instrumental music anymore.
Everybody's heard that.
So now they get the beautiful dancing girls up.
In the past in the paper here in Memphis, Tennessee, there were some beautiful girls with these babushkas dancing down the aisle in the United Methodist Church out at Germantown
coming in the aisle.
The guy from the paper's right there taking a picture, clickety-click-click-click, saying these people got dancing in their service.
Well, that appeals to them.
Now, why dancing girls?
Why don't some of these large-bodied men with beards and rusty coming down, spinning down the aisle?
Why not that?
I don't know how many people that would appeal to, but the beautiful girls, oh, everybody wants that.
That's got to be right.
You know what that is?
Lasciviousness.
Turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness.
That's one of the characteristics.
Also, he goes on to say, denying the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ.
So he gives three characteristics of these people, denying God and denying the Lord, that's one of their traits of those who oppose the faith.
Next he says in verse five, I will therefore put you in remembrance though you once knew this.
Now he's going to give three examples of people that were saved and then they were lost.
There is a very popular doctrine of once saved always saved.
Once in grace always in grace.
As somebody said we've been graced to death.
And these people believe once you're in Christ, once you're saved, you're always saved.
Jude is not going give you one example.
He's going to give you example after example after example of those you know.
that once they were saved they did not remain in that state because they departed from God.
The first one is the familiar children of Israel having been saved out of land of Egypt afterward destroyed them that believe not.
You remember that in Psalm 78:22 they became unbelievers in the wilderness and God states in the book of Numbers chapter 14 verse 12 I will disinherit them
this thing many say, once you are a child of God you could never be anything other than the child of God.
Yet the Bible said to those children of Israel coming out of Egypt, I will disinherit you if you do not continue to believe in me.
The second example that he gives is the angels which kept not their first estate but left their own habitation hath he reserved an everlasting chains under darkness to the judgment
of the great day.
Any question about the angels being right in the sight of God?
Sometimes people will say, well if you lost you never
were really saved.
Try to say that about the angels.
They never really were angels.
I don't think anybody on earth would say that.
These angels were in heaven and they left their first estate and they reserved in chains of darkness.
Peter states the same truth in 2 Peter chapter 2 when he talks about them being cast down to hell.
The word is tartarus, the lowest pit of hell.
The angels sinned and fell.
Jesus said, I will be hell's Satan if lightning fall from heaven.
Luke chapter 10 and verse 17.
There's your second example.
The third one, the city's know that you can be turned away from the faith.
And he's reminding us with it in telling about coming out of Egypt once they were in a right relationship with God, even received the promised land and they're going to be
turned away even later.
And then also there were the angels that fell and then the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah overthrown with an overthrow.
Fire and brimstone devouring them.
We don't want that to be our fate.
Now, I told you tonight that as we move through this section we are to see if we are contending or pretending.
I think already we can see I don't want to pretend anything about this.
I don't want that faith to be in my future.
I'm not pretending.
I am willing to contend for the faith, for the sound doctrine of the Bible, for the common faith about which Jude is presenting.
And then next in verse 8 he gives three more characteristics of those opposed to the Lord's
and its people.
Likewise, also these filthy dreamers defile the flesh.
How do you defile the flesh?
Oh, I don't know.
You might want to do something to defile the flesh like mar it, scar it, tattoo it, defile the flesh.
You may want to engage in sexual relationships with those outside marriage, 2 Corinthians chapter 6.
You want to be careful about defiling your flesh.
That is a characteristic of the false teachers.
They defile their own flesh.
next they despise dominion you're going to be my boss
You know one thing that I have seen in working in prison ministry, now I worked in prison ministry from the outside.
And I know there's some who do a lot of good working on it from the inside.
But I've been privileged to work on it from the outside.
Being in jails across Arkansas, Tennessee, and going in and setting up the satellite where people could watch GBN 24-7, meeting all of the people there, meeting the inmates.
One of the things I found to be often characteristic of people in jail is they have a problem with authority.
They have a problem with authority.
Brother Allen Hyres worked as a juvenile court judge here in Memphis for many, years.
And he gave a lecture when he retired talking about that.
And he saw that some of the most troubled young men had a common trend to them in reflecting back across the years of his service in the juvenile court right here in
Memphis.
And that was they had a disrespect for authority.
Well that's what Jude is telling us about these people who crept in unawares, people before whom we must contend for the faith.
They despised dominion.
Nobody's going to tell me what to do.
you'd be surprised.
You'd be surprised.
Sometimes folks go to jail, you'd be surprised.
You sit in an 8x8 for a while.
You'd be ready to go when they say go, come when they say come.
Yeah, you'll find out about this dominion.
when i went in the service you know they walk in there and they do the one first thing they do, shaved everybody's head everybody looked the same we call ourselves brother we
all look like we're the same brother whether we're white or black all of us look the same go in there living together being together all the time and some of these guys were rough
but they start marching you, start sitting in classes, they start having you fold your clothes and brush your teeth and do all the things you're supposed to do, or you find out
there are those who have dominion over you.
You will play by the rules.
Some despise dominion.
They just will not have it.
Today in the Lord's Church, some will not submit to the oversight of the elders.
I don't want to be under the oversight of an eldership anywhere.
I want to do my own thing.
I don't like dominion.
I don't want to go along with the crowd.
I don't want to work with the church where everybody gets along and we accomplish things together.
I despise dominion.
I want to be my free spirit out here.
That's one of the characteristics, despise dominion.
Every soul should be subject to the higher powers.
Romans chapter 13.
verse 1, there is no power but those that are God.
Next he says as a characteristic, speak evil of dignities or dignitaries.
Just criticizing those in positions of power and authority.
They speak evil of dignities.
Growing out of that, they have no respect for the local law enforcement.
They have no respect for the local aldermen and mayors.
They don't have respect for state representatives or governors.
They don't have respect for congressmen and for presidents of United States.
It is a matter of speaking evil of dignities.
What's he urging?
We need to have respect for those in positions of authority.
And those who do not, who speak evil of dignities, you've got a lesson to learn.
So there are three characteristics of these false teachers in verse 8.
uh and there are three characteristics of them in verse 8.
So we've seen six of the characteristics.
Verse 9, Yet Michael the archangel, when contending with the devil, he disputed about the body of Moses, durst or dared not bring against him a railing accusation, but said, The
Lord rebuketh thee.
Now we finding out something here in Jude that we didn't know.
We read Deuteronomy chapter 24 where Moses dies and we read about his burial in verse 5 and 6 of that chapter.
We didn't know about this dispute.
We didn't know about Michael the Archangel disputing with the devil.
You know out of the innumerable company of angels that the Bible mentions in Hebrews chapter 12 and verse 22 there are only two angels mentioned by name in all the Bible.
They are Gabriel, Luke 1 verse 19, and Michael right here in Jude 9, also in Daniel chapter 10 and verse 43.
He's not mentioned back over there in Deuteronomy where this dispute very likely took place, dispute about the body of Moses.
Commentators wonder about that and they'll say, know it must be that the devil wanted Moses put in a place where everybody could revere him long after his death.
And maybe they'd come to worship him and give him reverence that wasn't really due him.
So there speculation about what was the argument about, but we not even talking about it until we get to Jude in the middle of the first century.
Now what is interesting to me about this conflict, Michael the Archangel there is rank among the angels, Seraphim and Cherubim, rank among the angels.
He is contending with the devil and disputed about the body of Moses.
He dared not bring against him a railing accusation.
You're disputing with the devil.
You're probably not going to have anything in common in this discussion.
You'll have no common ground.
You're talking with the devil, but he doesn't bring against him a railing accusation.
What is that?
The word railing translates to the Greek word blasphema.
You notice it sounds like the English word blaspheme.
And it is translated blaspheme in our New Testament 16 times.
It's translated railing two times and evil speaking one time.
What is it talking about?
It's talking about slandering your opponent, criticizing his particular character, assigning him motives that may not be his.
Uh-oh.
Reminds me what's going on in our political world today, doesn't it?
I tell you what, I would not want to be the treasurer for the Atlantic.
When the FBI director files a lawsuit against you for 250 million dollars, I wouldn't want to be in charge of that money, I'm telling you now.
It's not looking too good for the Atlantic.
to criticize the director, say something about him that he's going to prove is not so.
Somebody thinks they're going some serious money.
I don't know why the BBC talked about Donald Trump like they did, but they got a lawsuit against them for 10 billion with a B dollars.
There are consequences to this slander.
We're not saying everything these people do is perfect, but you don't slander if Michael would not slander the devil.
we don't need to be in that arena but I tell you what our country has been taught to do that for years on the news media just slander hate hate hate hate hate that's a problem
that is characteristic of those against whom we must defend the faith, contend for the faith that is not a part of the faith
It is certainly appropriate and right for us to do as Jude is doing here fifteen times.
Point out the characteristics of these people that is wrong and shows them to be false teachers pointing out their attitudes and their actions.
but like Michael there's no slander.
He didn't even name one of them in the past.
He could, Paul does.
It would have been appropriate for him to name them.
But he doesn't name them because none of that which he saying is slanderous or blasphemous to them, speaking against them personally.
Now, with Michael there was no chance of the devil being converted.
But with you and me, whoever our opponent is, and usually these are religious discussions that we're talking about.
We have an opportunity we never want to miss.
And that opportunity is our main objective as a Christian in the mission of the church.
What is that?
Go ye therefore and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost or Holy Spirit.
That's our objective.
You can't slander a man and expect him to be willing to hear what you have to say and evaluate the truth of it.
But now then we need to leave the door open that your character may be such that you could repent.
And think of that all of the time.
You there have been times, and they're in the record books, the history book, Roll Jordan Roll I think of in particular, where Marshall Keeble would go into a denominational church
and preach the gospel and the whole church be converted to Christ.
I'm talking about repent and be baptized for remission of sins.
I'm talking about no longer use an instrument.
I'm talking about take the sign down out front and put up the Church of Christ.
You don't want to hate the people with whom you're discussing and arguing the truth.
Because I tell you what, there is arguing that needs to be done.
When Paul goes into Thessalonica in the book of Acts chapter 17 and goes in that synagogue, Luke is clear to tell us he is disputing and proving that Jesus is the Son of
God.
There is a disputation.
Some would say, it's wrong to dispute.
No.
And then opening and alleging, disputing and proving that Jesus is the Christ, giving the proof, giving the evidence.
That's what's needful here if we're going to earnestly contend for the faith.
The old idea, just let them alone, just forget about them.
out of harmony with our mission.
The Bible says all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.
Let all that have sinned alone.
You never get to the mission of the church.
Go and teach them, convince them of the truth.
Do like Paul says in 2 Corinthians 5 and verse 11, knowing therefore the terror of the Lord we persuade men.
We've got to do like Jesus who so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believeth should not perish but everlasting life.
God gave His Son and loved the world.
We need to love those whom we teach and preach to.
We must expose the error.
We must point it out but not a railing accusation, a blasphemous statement against them where they're slandered and put so low they can never recover through repentance.
That's what He's talking about here.
He didn't bring a railing accusation but said, Lord rebuked thee.
I guess when it gets so bad we can't stand it anymore and we think we're dealing with a hard-hearted person, the Lord rebuked me.
You in the hands of the Lord.
Moving on to verse 10, here we find the seventh characteristic of these false teachers.
But these things, but these speak evil of those things which they know not.
But what they know naturally as brute beasts and those things they corrupt themselves.
What are they doing?
They speak evil of things they don't know.
I see that sometimes.
read on Facebook where a man was criticizing the Church of Christ.
He said things like, believe there's power in the water.
We believe in water salvation.
We believe in our own system of works of salvation.
That's not true.
They're speaking evil of things that they don't know.
As an illustration, Sheila and I were eating in Chattanooga.
If you ever go there, this restaurant is still there.
It's called Bee's.
I don't know if you've ever eaten at Bee's.
But if you go, you want to eat at Bee's, especially if you like home cooking.
They have these lazy Susans and their grandfather did
into that restaurant where you go and they just start sitting food on that spinning table, fried chicken, potatoes, everything on there, just spinning around.
You sit there with these people and you eat all you want to eat.
And we were sitting there with this nice couple from over in Alabama one day eating, getting to know them.
And in talking with them, she said, what do you do?
I said, I preach over at the Browns Ferry Road Church of Christ.
Love to have you come visit with us sometime.
Her immediate response was, you people believe you have to work your salvation.
I said, don't believe you have to have any work?
She said, no.
No, our pastor tells us Jesus did everything for us.
There's no work to it.
I said, well, let me say this.
I read ahead a little bit in Revelation, and in Revelation 14.13, here's what John said.
He said, he heard an angel of the Lord saying to him, blessed are those who die in the Lord, yea, from henceforth saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labor, and
their works do follow them.
I said, ma'am, you don't want to show up at the judgment with no works, you don't want to do that.
She said, I never thought of that.
said, you all need to do is get in the car and drive from Alabama over to Brown's Fair Road Church of Christ and worship with us.
Start working in the kingdom.
When you show up at the judgment you will have the works of the will you to work.
You will be created in Christ Jesus on two good works.
Ephesians 2 in verse 10.
Well, she was really interested in doing that.
I have never seen her since, but that was an interesting discussion.
They talk of things they don't know what they're talking about.
Go back to her pastor, oh that's that work salvation.
Talk about things they don't know anything about.
Next, woe to them.
Jesus speaks of those critical of Him in Matthew chapter 23 seven times.
scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites.
It getting serious.
So you can't pretend about this now.
We are bought into this at this point.
We are committed to this discussion at this point.
We realize that those people who are opposed to contending for the faith, these individuals stand under a woe, a curse from God.
Woe unto them.
And then he gives three examples again.
He gave three examples of those who fell away.
Now he is giving three examples of those who are evil.
First one is Cain, and you remember in Genesis
This is chapter 4, what was Cain, he was a murderer, he killed his brother.
Second example he gives, those who ran greedily after the error of Balaam for reward.
You remember in Numbers chapter 22, Balaam was trying to get money from King Balak, because Balak wanted him to curse the people.
What a story.
God was not going to let Balaam curse the people.
but every time he would stand up, he's got that money in his pocket now and he'd stand up and he could see all of Israel out in the valley, nothing but a blessing would come forth.
Finally, Balak had had it.
He told him, I have hired you to curse these people and loathe these ten times, all you do is give a blessing.
He said, I told you I can't do anything, say anything but what the Lord wants.
but his greed, his covetousness, that for which he was known.
And do you know that he dies with the Moabites in Numbers 31 and verse 8, with the sentiment, that I might die the death of the righteous, and that my latter end might be
like his?
That's the last thing that will happen to you, Balaam, because you've been standing with Balak and you've been moved by money and greed, and it controlled your life, and you're
going to die with the wicked.
And that's what happens.
That's what happens to Balaam.
then the last one, Korah, the gainsaying of Korah.
This is the Old Testament word, K-O-R-A-H, Korah.
And we read about him of course in the 16th chapter of the book of Numbers.
Moses and Aaron leading the people, they're in the wilderness.
I don't know if you could see an unhappier group of people than all the
in the wilderness, unpleasant conditions.
I know I had worked for people that are Jewish before and you go to a restaurant and they're hard to satisfy.
You go in and say, well I want to sit by table, I don't want to sit too close to a window, too far from a door, I don't want to sit in kitchen.
We just came to eat and take 15 minutes to get seated.
It's so hard to please these people just by their nature.
Finally you sit down and get to eat.
Here Moses is in charge of all of these people.
and chorus steps up and says you and Aaron have taken a lot on yourself to lead these people why don't some of the rest of us get to be in a leadership position you know what
Moses did?
you remember what he did?
he fell flat on his face I can't believe this all the trouble we going through to lead you and you just act like it's no problem at all to do this and you want to be in our position
and now then you're flying in the face of God who selected us to lead these people
happens?
The ground opens up and swallowed up not just Korah and the 250 princes that were with them that were championing this cause, trying to drive Moses out of the leadership
position.
Swallowed up Korah, Dathan, Abiram, 250 the princes of Israel and their wives and their children, the ground clave underneath them.
The children of Israel take off running lest they fall into the pit and they were swallowed up and die.
challenging God's leadership.
We want to be real careful anytime we have criticism surrendered against the elders of the church.
In 1 Thessalonians chapter 5 verse 17 the Bible says, against an elder receive not an accusation but about two or three witnesses.
You better have your act together when you go criticize an elder and if you don't have something solid you better keep it to yourself.
because if you can't show someone else, we've seen this and you need to correct.
Now if that man's in the wrong, then the sin rebuked before all that others also may fear, he will repent and he'll be corrected.
But you don't have empty criticism against the elder in the church.
You gotta go with two or three witnesses and you need your proof when you go and criticize him.
I would suggest bringing in the other elders if you see something there.
Nobody will appreciate that more than the offending elder if he is genuinely offending.
You will have corrected him and saved his soul and likely the destiny of that local congregation.
by doing that.
But nothing is more harmful to a local congregation than empty criticism that is baseless, that's constantly being wielded toward the eldership of the church, as if they're
responsible for everything from the water fountain to the cutting of the grass.
Here's Cora, here's Cain, here's Balaam.
They've gone that way.
They're people still that way in the first century and in our time.
In verse 12 he says, these are spots in your feasts of charity.
Evidently they would have meals together where they would come together and eat.
They're called feasts of charity, love feasts.
The congregation would be together eating.
And these false teachers would be in their midst.
People described after the manner we've seen in seven instances so far.
Feeding themselves without fear.
And then he describes the way they are.
They're like clouds without water.
They're like trees without fruit.
They're like raging waves of the sea.
They're like wandering stars.
These people have it bad.
When we talk about earnestly contending for the faith, we're talking about some serious champions of error and evil.
And so Jude describes them.
And then he says, for whom is reserved the blackness of darkness forever.
So there you have in that second point the cause to earnestly contend for the faith.
Next, the condemnation of the ungodly.
Look at verse 14.
Before we get to more of a description about that, he talks about Enoch.
Enoch, of course, is the seventh from Adam.
He's listed in chapter five in verse 24.
What about Enoch?
Enoch was there from everyone else just before the flood in the tide waters of the flood in Genesis five.
In Genesis chapter 6 you are about to see the flood overtake the world.
But here is walking with God.
He is prophesying about the judgment of God upon the wicked way back there in the book of Genesis.
Again, we didn't know what Enoch was doing until we got over here in the New Testament and started reading about it.
And he is one who did not die but he walked with God and he was not for he was taken.
Enoch never did die.
unlike all of us the Bible tells us that we will all die Hebrews chapter 9 verse 27 it's appointed unto man once to die and after this the judgment only two men in the Bible
didn't die Enoch in Genesis 5 and Elijah in 2 Kings 1 everybody else dies we don't need to hold out any hope that we gonna make it without dying but Enoch was in such a relationship
with God that he was taken up
Notice he's got the attitude that Jude is conveying to you and me tonight about contending for the faith.
It was an understanding that God is going to judge those who are wicked.
He says, Enoch also the seventh from Adam prophesied of these saying, Behold the Lord cometh with ten thousand of his saints to execute judgment upon all, and to convince all
that are ungodly.
Among all them are their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed, and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners
have spoken against him.
They're going to be convinced.
In Romans chapter 14 and verse 11 as you know Paul says, me as it is written every knee shall bow and every tongue shall confess to God.
He's quoting Isaiah chapter 45 in verse 23, when they felt they were so high and mighty they could worship idols and there never be any retribution, never any judgment, never any
condemnation for worshiping these idols.
And Isaiah told them, look every knee is going to bow before me God says.
Not only was that true with their worship of idols and they being taken into a
captivity in the year 721 by one of the most ruthless men who ever inhabited this planet, Tiglath Palaser, but also its traitors in our day in the first century as mentioned here
who are going to be giving account to God for their actions to execute judgment upon all and to convince all that are ungodly.
times already that we've seen the word ungodly appear.
And then in verse 16 again more characteristics watch these are murmurers, complainers, walking after their own lusts.
and their mouths speak of great swelling words, having men's persons in admiration because of advantage.
Have you counted them?
Three of these attributes in verse four, three more in eight, one in verse 10, which makes seven, and now then we're seeing over here more.
Murmurers, nine, complainers, 10, walking in their own lusts, 11, their mouths speaking great swelling words, 12, having men's persons in admiration because of advantage, 13.
He stops right there, he's got two more coming up.
He says, but beloved remember ye the words which were spoken before the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ, how that they told you there would be mockers in the last time who
should walk after their own ungodly lust.
Five times he uses the word ungodly to show against God, opposite of God, counter to God.
These are they who separate themselves.
14.
Sensual, not having the Spirit.
15.
15 characteristics of the false teacher.
They are separating themselves.
They don't want get along with anybody.
They're distinct and separate.
They're their own person.
We saw earlier they are despising dominion.
They won't allow anybody to have any say over them.
They are sensual, not having the Spirit.
Cardinally minded, not thinking about the things of God.
He says, concerning them not having the Spirit.
So we see the condemnation of the ungodly and the book closes out with the confidence of the godly.
We've seen the command to contend for the faith, the cause to contend for the faith, the condemnation of the ungodly, and finally the confidence of the godly.
Verse 20 to 25.
Let's read about that for a second.
on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost.
Building up ourselves in the most holy faith involves study and prayer and a life of devotion to God.
Growing in grace in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, 2 Peter 3, 18.
Praying in the Holy Ghost means praying in harmony with the teaching of the Holy Spirit.
Praying in Jesus' name, in John chapter 16 verse 23.
Praying through our mediator Jesus Christ, 1 Timothy chapter 2 and verse 5.
Praying after the categories listed in the model prayer, for example, in Matthew chapter 6.
6 to 19.
We wouldn't know how to pray in the Holy Ghost without the teaching of the Holy Ghost.
But because we have the teaching of the Holy Spirit we can pray in harmony with what the Bible says about the subject of prayer, praying.
And then verse 21, keeping yourselves in the love of God.
I think that true of every one of us here tonight.
We want to keep ourselves in the love of God.
And we understand the relationship of attending a service like this devoted to worship, and study, and singing, and prayer.
there, association through fellowship, and the value it has to you and me of keeping ourselves in the love of God.
As members of the Body, if that member is cut off, it will die.
The member must stay connected to the Body to have the life-giving flow of the blood of Christ in the Church.
Now the end he says in verse 22, and looking for the mercy of Jesus Christ unto eternal life.
And if some have compassion, making a difference.
People are different.
Now I want you to know I'm in that category.
If you have to talk to me, if you need to criticize me, have compassion on me.
I'm gonna respond to that.
love when you have compassion on me.
People like you to have compassion on them.
Sensitive about them.
That's a good thing for us all, of course to do.
If some have compassion,
making a difference and others save with fear pulling them out of the fire hating even the garment that is spotted by the flesh you know that's where these folks are headed and we
want to pull them out of the fire on one occasion I was in Nashville Tennessee when I see a man who had some heart surgery and it was early in the morning traffic was heavy a truck
came around the corner one of those city trucks with a short bed that was full of stumps and logs and the guy was going too fast maybe his brakes went out but he turned
that truck over right in front of me.
Wham!
And the cab of the truck hit the car in front of me.
And for some reason, of course this is a diesel rig, but it's not as likely, but for some reason all I can think about is what if that truck driver catches fire?
and i didn't want to stand back and watch that man get cremated and i jumped out of the car and ran over there and climbed up on the other car and reached down in there to help
him get up he was turned all upside down his mouth bleeding where he hit the steering wheel and i'm trying to pull him up out of there wanting to get him out and i pulled him
out and got him up there on top of the other car and that man started to curse
And I said, you wait just a minute.
You wait just a minute.
I'm up here thinking you and me both about to be burned to a crisp and you up here cursing.
I ain't gonna let you cuss today, not today, son, not on the...
You almost lost your life.
Oh, I'm sorry.
But I thought, man, I don't wanna see that man burn up.
I wanna help pull him out of the fire if necessary.
I know sometimes it happens where you just can't do it.
attitude.
These people are headed to a place of eternal fire.
Every effort we can make to retrieve them, and it's not going to be easy, we just can't pretend about it, pretend they are be alright.
Or pretend they don't believe something that is going to cost them their soul.
We need to be contending for the faith, showing them the plan of salvation, items of worship, organization of the Church, mission, destiny, purpose of the Church of Christ so
they'll know and we can help snatch them out of the fire.
Now unto Him that is able to keep you from falling in that incredible
That's why I use the word confidence.
He's able to keep you from falling.
You want to know how?
Read 2 Peter chapter 1 verse 5 to 10.
Add these Christian graces.
get busy with those seven things.
Add to your faith virtue the virtue of knowledge, to knowledge temperance, to temperance patience, to patience of godliness, to godliness of brotherhood kindness, to brotherhood
kindness of love.
If you do these things, you shall never fall.
For so an entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly in the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
Is he teaching you once saved always saved?
No.
He's teaching a Christian you get busy
with the work of Christ in your life and you add the characteristics that please God and you won't be falling.
You won't be falling.
You'll be standing.
And he says, him that's able to keep you from falling and present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy.
Will we never sin anymore?
1 John 1-10 says, no we're going to sin.
But we can be faultless as we walk in the light as he is in the light and the blood of his son Jesus Christ cleanses us from all sin.
1 John 1-7.
If we'll be faithful unto death,
He'll give us a crown of life, Revelation 2 10.
That's what Jude's talking about.
He closes to the only wise God, our Savior.
Be glory and majesty and dominion and power both now and ever.
Amen.
We began our study tonight back in the opening verses we saw Jews speak of God the Father being sanctified, set apart as holy by God the Father and preserved in Christ Jesus and
called.
2 Thessalonians 2, 14 as I said at the outset says, Whereunto he called you by our gospel to the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Concerning this call, there is an eternal principle I'll share with you from Psalm 145 and verse 18.
That principle is the Lord will answer those who call upon Him.
Those who call upon Him in truth.
I'm saying what we need to do to call on the Lord, we need to be able to read it ourselves right here in the Bible.
If we call it on Him by any other means, it's not in truth.
And the Lord is not anxious to hear somebody call him after man's direction, but he is those who are calling on him in truth.
That's what I want close with tonight.
How do we answer that call?
The call goes out by way of the Gospel.
2 Thessalonians chapter 2 verse 4, Whereunto he called you by our gospel to the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.
The Bible teaches us, whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved in Romans 10, 13.
But read down the passage.
Verse 17, so then faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God.
How are we going to call on the Lord?
Verse 13, we're going to have to have faith.
How does that faith come?
By hearing the word of God.
Does come from a personal testimony?
Me telling you what God's done for me or how bad I used to be and now how good I?
It comes from hearing the word of God.
Romans 10, 17.
In Romans chapter 2, verse 4,
we learned that the goodness of God leads deep to repentance.
I need a change of life.
I'm not right in the sight of God.
God is good.
He wants me to be saved.
Christ died for me.
The Church is for me and I can have entrance into it.
I need to repent of my sins.
I need to get my life right in the sight of God.
Jesus said, repent or perish, Luke 13.3.
And then in Romans chapter 10 the Apostle says, the heart man believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confessions made unto salvation.
Romans 10, 9 and 10.
to confess that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.
Do you know right here so many have it wrong?
Listen closely to them, they'll say, confess your sins.
You want to be saved?
Confess your sins and call on Jesus.
If we start confessing our sins tonight...
say there's four or five people want to be that time will be so you start confessing how much time do you have how many sins have you committed?
Can you remember them all?
And yet these people stand flat footed and say confess your sins to Jesus.
You'll be there all day.
He never told a sinner confess your sins, he told him repent of your sins and confess your faith in Christ Matthew sixteen sixteen; Romans ten nine ten That's what we do that's why
our services in the church of Christ aren't extended we're not going to here til eleven o'clock tonight trying to figure out what to do to be saved.
We know there steps in the plan of salvation.
Hear the Gospel, believe it, repent of sins, confess Christ, and be baptized into Christ.
In baptism, this is where we call on the name of the Lord, and I can prove it to you.
Saul of Tarsus sees Ananias.
Ananias tells him, and now whitarious thou, arise and be baptized, calling on the name of the Lord.
That's Acts 22, 16.
That is how we call on the name of the Lord.
Baptism saves us, Mark 16, 16.
He that believeth and is should be saved.
Peter said in 1 Peter 3, 21, the like figure who are unto even baptism doth also now save us.
Somebody want to say you don't have to be baptized to be saved?
Read your Bible.
Follow what the Bible says.
We're contending for the faith here tonight.
We're preaching the truth in love.
Ephesians 6, or 4 in verse 15.
We're urging you tonight, if you've not obeyed the gospel,
Answer the Gospel Call.
You can read about it in your own Bible.
You can know you did what pleases heaven.
And you can walk in heaven's way.
If you're faithful, heaven will be your home.
You can read these verses.
He'll keep you from falling when you follow Him fully and holy.
Tonight if you are a Christian and you've wanted to stray, you require the prayer of the faithful on your behalf, that'd be a good thing to do.
Maybe I've said something tonight that touched the nerve, I don't know.
Maybe it's something you need to repent of in your life.
We can walk out of this building tonight knowing I'm right in the sight of God.
I'm not worried about 10,000 angels coming and me being on the wrong side of this study.
I'm gonna be right in the sight of God.
when he returns he'll be coming to be glorified in all his saints and I'll be right there with him.
2 Thessalonians 1 and verse 10.
That can be true of every soul in here tonight.
So if your need of heaven's invitation is being extended to you tonight, we would encourage you now to let us know.
We'll help you right now to be baptized into Christ or pray for whatever concern you have in your life that God may forgive you.
While the angels are watching and heaven is waiting, won't you come while we stand and sing God's praise.