The Epistle of Jude

Last week we started a new sermon series. We started looking at a short letter that God gave us through a servant of Christ named Jude. So far in this letter, we’ve seen that Jude is writing this letter to urge his fellow Christians to contend for the faith. In the opening verses of this letter, he has reminded us, in a variety of ways, why our faith is important – why it’s worth contending for. But this morning, as we turn our attention to verses four through seven, we’ll see more clearly some of the specific dangers that Jude is trying to guard the church against.

So if you have a Bible nearby, please turn with me to Jude – the second to last book of the Bible. And I’ll start reading at verse 3, to provide a bit of the context leading into verse 4. But before I read our text, please pray with me:

[Pray and Read Text]

Danger from Within

Over the course of world history, one of the primary ways that kings and emperors protected their kingdoms was by building walls and fortresses that could be easily defended against invading armies. And the idea was quite simple. As long as you had the supplies you needed, and you had a fort with tall enough walls, you were safe. It really didn’t matter if there were 100 enemies outside, or 100 thousand enemies outside. Enemies on the outside wouldn’t be able to hurt you.

But there’s a certain kind of enemy that walls and fortresses can’t guard against, and that’s if you have an enemy that’s already inside. If you have even just one person inside who’s working for the enemy, either to stoke rebellion against the king, or to stir up division, or to open up the gates to the enemy from within – that one person on the inside can cause far greater damage than even a thousand soldiers can from outside the walls. Enemies from within are more dangerous than enemies from the outside.

And the reason I bring this up, is because Jude recognizes that is equally true for the stability and security of churches like ours, Fellowship Reformed Church in Mt Pleasant. Right after Jude urges Christians, here, to contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints – he goes on in verse four to say for, or because – and then he gives the explanation why. The reason why the Church needs to defend the faith isn’t primarily because of threats coming from outside the Church, like political oppression or pagan religions. Instead, Jude identifies that the Church must be careful to guard against false teachers who would arise from within. That’s where the greatest threat will come from. A distorted version of Christianity will bring far more danger and deception into the Church than messages from outside that are obviously anti-Christian.

So as we work through verses four through seven this morning in more depth, I want to point out four issues that Jude identifies, that underscores why our ongoing work to contend for the faith is so essential. First, because of the entry of false teachers. Second, because of the error of false teachers. Third, because of the end of false teachers (because of the final destination that their error leads to), and then fourth – because of the exalted status of Jesus Christ. These will be my four points this morning: (The entry of false teachers, the error of false teachers, the end of false teachers, and the exalted status of Christ).

Because of the Entry of False Teachers

So let’s consider the first of these issues. Jude urges the Church to contend for the faith because of the entry of false teachers. There are two comments Jude makes about these people entering the Church, in the first half of verse 4. First, he explains, “For certain people have crept in unnoticed…” Jude’s saying that these people, who would eventually become false teachers, weren’t noticed at first. When they originally came into the church, no one detected that these people would be a serious threat.

And that’s because they didn’t look any different from other people. They didn’t have fangs and gargoyle wings. There were no alarm bells ringing when they stepped in the church doors. They entered the church quietly. And there were no obvious signs that these people would one day threaten the peace and purity of the church. But over time, that’s exactly what happened. And this is something that continues to happen.

The peace and purity of the Church may be threatened by a seminary professor, who quietly trains a new generation of pastors to doubt the inerrancy or sufficiency of Scripture. Or the Church might be disturbed by a pastor who popularizes new ideas about justification – who teaches that people are made right with God through something other than faith alone in Christ alone. Or problems might come through everyday church members. The peace and purity of the Church will be disturbed when people are spreading gossip, being argumentative, or normalizing other ungodly ways of speaking and living.

And so frankly, I think that Jude’s point here is that you and I need to contend for the faith, not only to protect ourselves against the ungodly influences of others, but also to make sure that we don’t become ungodly influences ourselves. We need to be rooted in the Scriptures, to fend off corrupt influences that are already in us and around us. And we need to be ready with the Scriptures, to fend off hidden dangers that may arise in the future.

Now, I understand – all this talk about spiritual danger, and false brothers and sisters slipping into the church – it may sound incredibly discouraging. It certainly forced me, this week, to search myself and to pray that the Lord would help me to faithfully pastor my own soul, my family, and all of you. And I want to strongly encourage you – in addition to praying for your own spiritual well-being, and the wellness of your families – please pray for your pastors. Pray that the Lord would work through His Word and Spirit to preserve the vitality of our church in Mt Pleasant, MI until Christ returns in glory. This is, after all, one of the key ways we contend for the faith together. We pray that the Lord would give us the strength to stand.

But there’s a second thing here that Jude says about the entry of these false teachers into the church – and I find that these extra comments actually bring me comfort. In verse 4, after Jude explains that “certain people have crept in unnoticed,” he further describes these people as those “who long ago were designated for this condemnation.” In other words, long ago, God designated that these false teachers would be permitted to enter the church, and he designated that they would be justly punished for the full extent of their crimes.

The text is indicating that when false teachers enter the church, it isn’t a surprise for God. When we look at church history, and we see instances of false teachers and heretics who led people astray – when we see the theological confusion of Christian churches today – we don’t need to wonder if God’s ability to protect the Church has failed somehow. Instead, Jude’s words here are intended to assure us that God has planned and permitted that the Church will be tested and tried by ungodly influences. And he has planned this, not in order to harm us, but in order to humble us, to help us, and to make his people healthy.

And it shouldn’t catch us off guard that this is how God works. Because we see a very specific example of God doing something like this with Jesus’s own inner circle. Jesus, remember, hand-selected twelve men to be his disciples. And for quite some time, there was every indication that each one of these twelve men were devoted to Jesus. They followed him closely for three years. They all sat under his preaching together. And yet at the end, it came out in the open that one of the twelve, Judas Iscariot, was a traitor. He handed Jesus over to his enemies. He betrayed him, simply to get a trivial amount of money. And by doing this Judas ultimately brought about Jesus’s crucifixion. None of the other disciples saw it coming. Judas’s treachery was stunning – sickening.

But even though this is true – even though Judas’s actions were genuinely evil, his actions didn’t come as a surprise for God. Instead, this was all part of God’s mysterious plan to bring about good for his people, to send them a suffering Savior to rescue them from sin and death. The unfaithfulness of Judas had a role to play in God’s ultimate purpose. And so when God continues to test and refine His Church by allowing ungodly influences to rise from within, we shouldn’t be surprised. This forces us to place our hope in God, rather than putting our trust in men. This helps us to humbly remember the deceitfulness of sin, and the dearness of God’s saving work. And when God makes us awake to the dangers that may come, this motivates us to stay alert, spiritually – to keep our swords sharpened and our shields polished.

I don’t want to minimize, here, the hurts that are caused by false shepherds in the Church are very real. And we shouldn’t expect that we’re always going to understand God’s plans – why he would allow certain people to harass and injure the Church. But as we seek to heal from our wounds and scars, we can find comfort in knowing that God isn’t surprised by these things. His good plan hasn’t been unraveled. And God has warned us ahead of time about these false teachers, so that when they come, we’ll be prepared to stand against their errors.

Because of the Error of False Teachers

And this brings us to the second reason why we’re called upon to contend for the faith – not only because of the entry of false teachers, but also because of the error of false teachers. In the second half of verse 4, Jude explains some of the specific errors that the church was being threatened by at the time that he was writing.

Jude writes here that the people who have crept into the church are… “ungodly people, who pervert the grace of our God into sensuality, and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.” You can probably see from this, there are two main descriptions that Jude gives, here, to describe the way that these false teachers were distorting the Christian message.

First, Jude says that these people were perverting the grace of our God into sensuality. Now what does he mean by that? Well, Jude is saying that these teachers distorted the truth about God’s grace – about the unearned favor God has shown toward sinners. It would seem that there were a few things that these false teachers had gotten right. They affirmed the existence of God. They seem to have recognized that this God had acted to save sinners from the penalty of their bad deeds. And they seem to have affirmed, whole-heartedly, that God had acted to bring this salvation because of the richness of his kindness and grace.

But here’s the problem. These ungodly people had a distorted view of this grace – a very limited view of grace. They believed that Jesus died for just one purpose – simply to set us free from punishment. And since there was no longer any punishment for doing bad things, these people assumed that God must not care about how we live anymore. His law and commands must be irrelevant. And so these people promoted sexually immoral, self-indulgent lifestyles – claiming that God’s grace made it all okay.

This distorted perspective on grace is still around today. It’s called antinomianism. Anti means against, and then nomos (the nomianism part of the word) means law. And it’s called antinomianism – anti-lawism – because these people reject the idea that Christians (saved by grace) should pursue obedience to God’s commands.

But Jude insists that the truly Christian understanding of grace does propel us into obedience. And this is because Jesus died, not only to set us free from sin’s punishment, but also to set us free from sin’s power. The grace of God doesn’t leave us in the rancid swamp of our wickedness. But grace is what liberates us from it. God, by his grace, doesn’t turn his people over to their beastly appetites and impulses and call that salvation – but he transforms us. He gives us a new start and a new heart, so that we would no longer worship ourselves, Satan, or sensuality – but so we would instead worship and serve the Lord and Master who came to save us. Jesus has died for us, not to make our old sins permissible, but to make our new obedience possible.

And yet, grievously, this isn’t the message that these false teachers were bringing. On the surface, it seemed like they were talking about Christian words and ideas – they were talking about God’s grace. But they distorted the truth to promote corrupt lusts, instead of Christlikeness. They encouraged sensuality, instead of service to the Lord.

And this is why Jude goes on to describe these people, at the end of verse 4, as those who “deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.” I don’t imagine that these people were rejecting Jesus outright. They probably said they believed in him. But Jude’s point here is even though they weren’t verbally denying Jesus’s person, they were functionally denying his Lordship. They were disregarding Jesus’s commands, Jesus’s example, and Jesus’s authority – and they were teaching other people to do the same. And so regardless of what they were claiming, in reality, these people were rejecting the Jesus of the Bible. They wanted Jesus to take away their condemnation. But they didn’t want Jesus to be their King. They wanted a Jesus of unconditional affirmation. But they didn’t want a Jesus of unlimited authority.

But Jude’s telling us, here, that Bible-believing Christians will desire the true, historical Jesus, instead of the Jesus of our imaginations. If we know something of God’s real grace, our longing to live for Christ will be greater – not less. Grace won’t teach us to indulge in sensuality, or to deny our Lord and Master. Instead, grace will lead us into a growing disgust for sin, and a growing delight in obedience.

Since antinomianism is still around today it makes sense that this is one error we’d continue keep watch for. But there are many other errors, too. Too many to list out individually. But just about all the fatal errors that rise within the church fall into one of four categories. These errors either detract from God’s Word, by undermining the Scriptures, or they distort the truth about God’s nature, by creating a new artificial concept of God in his place, or they downplay the extent or the effectiveness of God’s saving work, or they distract people from loving God, and looking to him as their hope.

These are the kinds of errors we need to watch for. As a church, it’s important for us to be well-grounded in the truth, watchful, and ready. Because for those who abandon God’s truth, the consequence will be severe.

Because of the End of False Teachers

And this brings me to the third reason why Jude urges the Church here to contend for the faith: because of the end of these false teachers – because of the condemnation that these teachers bring upon themselves, and upon all those who follow them.

Jude warns us about the destructive consequences of following falsehood in verses 5 through 7. And he gives his warning by pointing out three examples from history, where stubborn continuation in sin resulted in condemnation.

Jude draws attention to his first example in verse 5. He says, “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.” Jude is referring here to the people of Israel, who had been slaves in the land of Egypt. And as the book of Exodus tells us, God heard the people crying out for help in the midst of their slavery. And God sent his prophet, Moses, to perform various signs and wonders, and to bring them out of their captivity.

And yet just a short time after God’s supernatural work, to rescue the people from their slavery, the people begin to grumble against God. A number of them ask to go back to Egypt. They rebel against the leadership God has put over them. They refuse to enter the good land that God has promised to give them.

And it might seem strange at first that the people would do this. But it isn’t actually all that strange at all. The people of Israel had a distorted view of grace. They wanted the pain and punishment of slavery to be taken away – but they really had no desire to believe God, or to be governed by Him. They wanted God to bring some level of salvation, but they didn’t want God to be their Master. And Jude is quite clear, here – even though outwardly the people had been set apart from the nations, and had journeyed along after God’s great prophet, and even though these people had heard the mighty Word of God, revealed from heaven – inwardly these people still didn’t understand God’s saving grace. And Jude tells us what happened to these people – the Lord destroyed those who did not believe.

Jude gives us a similar example in verse 6, that’s perhaps even more sobering. He says, “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.” Again, Jude speaks about beings who for a time, seemed to enjoy a position of special closeness to God, but who abandoned it to pursue ungodliness. And it’s pointed out to us, here, that even fallen angels will be subjected to God’s everlasting judgment.

But there’s one more example Jude gives, in verse 7. He points to Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding cities, “which likewise indulged in sexual immorality and pursued unnatural desire.” These people lived for their sensual desires, rather than God. And because of this, we’re told that that they “serve as an example by undergoing a punishment of eternal fire.” Jude reminds his hearers that the punishment God is bringing against unbelief and immorality isn’t just a stern rebuke, or a short season in timeout. But Jude says that the wicked undergo a punishment of eternal fire.

And this is why Jude compassionately cries out to us, and urges us to contend for the faith! Souls are in danger. Droves of people have fooled themselves into thinking that they have a hold on God’s grace, even though they’re still happily living for sin instead of God. And Jude wants his readers to wake up. He doesn’t want his hearers to accept a distorted gospel that leaves them unchanged and unconverted. Because the result will be judgment – eternal punishment. That’s the end that this type of false teaching leads to.

Because of the Exalted Status of Christ

So we must contend for the faith – because of the entry of false teachers, because of the error of false teachers, because of the end of false teachers – and then there’s one more reason Jude gives in our text. We also contend for the faith because of the exalted status of Christ.

Even though Jude says a lot about false teachers in these verses – don’t miss it, here, he also speaks in a way that emphasizes the timeless authority of Jesus. As we saw in verse 4, he refers to Jesus as “our only Master and Lord.” And in verse 5, he speaks about Jesus’s power to save. (Fascinatingly, Jude tells us that Jesus was the one who rescued the people of Israel out of Egypt. Jude is affirming that Jesus is one and the same as the LORD of the Old Testament. Jude is making a statement about Jesus’s deity here). And then at the end of verse 5, Jude also affirms Jesus’s authority to judge. Jesus is identified as the one who destroyed the unbelieving Israelites in the wilderness.

These are rather impressive titles for Jesus to have – to be referred to as the Master over mankind, as Savior – as Judge. But I imagine that very few of us actually feel the weight of Jesus’s authority and greatness that Jude is talking about here. In American Christianity, there’s a tendency for us to have an attitude toward Jesus that’s overly casual. I think a lot of people have a skewed view of Jesus, and they think of him just as a therapist, or as a handyman who comes along from time to time to fix our appliances. But Jude insists that Jesus is uniquely the one Master we must live for, the one Savior we must be rescued by, and the one Judge whom all people must face on the final day.

And it’s in light of Jesus’s supreme authority, here, that Jude is pleading with us to guard Christianity from distortion. For the sake of Christ your King, preserve his message of good news, and pass it on. After all, it’s his message – not ours. We aren’t at liberty to modify his message however we want. The sinful whispers of our heart may tell us to be casual toward the faith, or to be complacent in the faith, or to get creative with the faith. But as Jude contemplates the glory of the Lord Jesus, he urges us to contend for the faith. To protect the truth, to prize the truth, and to practice it.

And the reason why we need Jude’s reminder, here, is because this doesn’t come natural to us. From time to time, we’re going to be tempted to modify the Jesus of the Bible, to make him more convenient or comfortable. You and I will probably be faced with the temptation to make adjustments to his message – to make it fit with our political opinions, or to try to make it appeal to a broader audience of people. All of us will be tempted – either to distort the truth ourselves, or to follow false teachers who have done the dirty work for us.

But our text here points us back to the greatness of Jesus. As Jude speaks, here, he speaks to us on behalf of our only Lord and Master – and he commands us to keep our ship on course – even when the cultural winds change direction – even when the tides of persecution rise and fall. So with all the grace God supplies to you this week – keep Jesus on the forefront of your mind. Be in close correspondence with him throughout the day. Pray with your families. Pry deeper into God’s wisdom. Persist in your watchfulness. And let’s do all this in dependence on the Lord, as we seek the continued peace and purity of the Church in the years ahead. Let’s pray: