All right, good evening. Open your Bibles to Jude. Hey, Lucy, you know what chapter I want to preach from in Jude? Hey, good guess. Put you on the spot, didn't I? Sorry about that. All right, Jude chapter 1. You still caught Jude chapter 1 or not? I don't know. I don't think so. Jude verse 1, how about that? All right, Jude, we'll read verse 1 through verse 4. This is our second lesson from the epistle of Jude, and we titled this series through this short letter, Contending for the Faith. So Jude, verse one through four. In our first lesson, hold on, that's my message. Let's read the verses first. I think it's the first time in 30 years I've ever done that. Jude, a bondservant of Jesus Christ and brother of James. To those who are called, sanctified by God the Father, and preserved in Jesus Christ, mercy, peace, and love be multiplied to you. Beloved, while I was very diligent to write to you concerning our common salvation, I found it necessary to write to you exhorting you to contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints. For certain men have crept in unnoticed, who long ago were marked out for this condemnation, ungodly men who turned the grace of our God into lewdness and deny the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ. All right, let's pray. Father, help us tonight as we come, Lord, this evening and through your word as we seek to continue to study this short epistle. And I pray, Father, that you'd help us what little bit of time we have this evening to just come to your word and hopefully learn and grow a little bit more tonight, that we would receive the admonition of Jude, that it would sink into our hearts and it would encourage us as your people, Lord, to contend for the faith, for what is true and what is good and what is godly. Help us always to contend, Lord, in a spirit of love, but help us to contend. Help us to know as well that as your people, we are called, we are sanctified, and we are preserved. And Lord, we have a high calling, Lord, to serve you. And we pray for your help. In Jesus' name, and amen. All right. In our first lesson last week, we started off by noting that Jude shows great humility here from the very beginning because he refers to himself as a bondservant of Jesus Christ. And he doesn't even mention the fact that he is the half-brother of Jesus Christ. And so I just think that just really shows you something right there from the beginning. that Jude identifies as a bondservant of Christ, and he doesn't say, hey, I'm also the half-brother of Jesus, too, by the way. He doesn't say anything like that, and simply refers to himself as the brother of James. Doesn't even mention that he's a half-brother of Jesus, but that's who Jude was. We noted that last week. We also noted here who he is writing to, that Jude is writing to, he says, the called sanctified by God and preserved in Jesus Christ. And we stated that really this is the work of all three persons in the Godhead. We are sanctified by God the Father, set apart by Him. We are called by the Holy Spirit of God and we are preserved in Jesus Christ. And then next we've seen that the main purpose of this short letter was to encourage the saints of God to contend for the faith. That is one main theme of for this short letter. And the reason that they must contend for the faith is because there are many who are going to teach and fight against the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. And so he mentions that and then he goes on in Jude to talk about some Old Testament references where others fought against the Lord and of course lost. And then he mentions Enoch who proclaimed the judgment of the Lord to come. And then we've seen that the word contend that he uses here comes from the ancient athletic world from the wrestling mat. And so it really shows that it is a battle. And we as God's sanctified, called, and preserved people are to contend for the faith, struggle, wrestle, against the wiles of the devil, note the false prophets, preach the gospel of grace, live for Jesus, and tell the lost world of God's coming judgment if they do not repent. And that really is Jude in a nutshell as we unfold it. But here in this contending for the verse 4, what Jude, first of all, introduces us to in order to call us to this contending for the faith. I mean, so he, first three verses, he's saying, you know, who he is, who he's writing to, what he's writing about. Verse 4 begins, this is why he's writing the letter, to encourage his contending for the faith. Here's why he's writing the letter. for certain men have crept in unnoticed." And so he is really getting into this. Of course, if they're unnoticed, I wonder how he notices them, but he's obviously referring to the fact that some Amon they's writing to did not notice them. We need to understand this, that we cannot be passive about this thing. All of us must be aware that there are always going to be people who want to really purposely fight against the Word of God, and they're very willing. Maybe some of us here tonight are just you know, naive a little bit to that, that there would actually be people who would want to purposely fit in among God's people and want to lure them astray into false doctrines and false teachings. There are people like that. Now, I hope there isn't anybody like that. I don't know that there is anybody like that. But I'm just saying that happens. And so a church has got to be on guard against that. And that's something that it's not just the pastor only, it is all of us. Who is he writing to? Christians. He's saying who? The sanctified, the called to preserve. That's us. That's all of us tonight. It's not written to a pastor at a church. It's written to God's people. And so all of us are really called to that, to preserve the gospel message from being perverted and to hold to the truth. And so here, Jude warns us of this, that there'll be people who try to infiltrate and deceive the people of God. Jesus warned us of this approach of ungodly men, and I think we see that in the parable of the wheat and tares. Satan's objective there was to plant some tares among the wheat. And once they were growing among the wheat, it's hard sometimes to tell them apart. And that's what you learn from that parable. They can be hard to notice. They can be hard to notice. Paul also warns against false brethren to the people at Galatia. If you remember the letter to Galatia, and they came in among God's people, and he uses the word by stealth. So they kind of snuck in in order to, the purpose was to destroy their liberty in Christ and to bring them under the bondage of the law. So these were Judaizers. Now, the things that Jude says here in these first few verses and what he says through this letter, it's very similar to 2 Peter. I want to read that in 2 Peter chapter 2. 2 Peter chapter 2. And really what we're showing here is several things. One is that there are people that would literally try to sneak in and try to corrupt the church. They had the same problems back then. This isn't new. This is something that's been going on a long time because this is one of Satan's methods. This is how he likes to corrupt God's people as he likes to slip in and sneak in and spread false teaching. But in 2 Peter chapter 2 verse 1, but there were also false prophets among the people. Now he's talking about the Old Testament, right? It's something that's been a problem all along, even as there will be false teachers among you. He says, hey, it's always been, always going to be, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Lord who bought them, and bring on themselves swift destruction. And many will follow their destructive ways, because of whom the way of truth will be blasphemed." That's the purpose of wanting to lead a group of people that are supposed to be of God. Satan wants to lure those people away into ungodliness so that what that church says they believe is seen as wrong, as bad, that the way of truth will be blasphemed. Then he says, By covetousness will they exploit you with deceptive words for a long time. Their judgment has not been idle, and their destruction does not slumber. For if God did not spare the angels who sinned, but cast them down to hell and delivered them in the chains of darkness to be reserved for judgment, Then he goes on to talk about God didn't spare those of the past. He's not going to spare them either. And so he mentions the false prophets that were and the false prophets that would come, the false teachers. Listen, the preservation of the gospel message is something that all of God's people have been calling to. from the beginning of time. It's to pass down the message of the coming King, of Jesus Christ, the Messiah, who would come and die on the cross. And that's our message. It's to preserve that message. And not only that He came, but also that He is coming. And so the preservation of the gospel message is something that all of us here at New Testament Baptist Church need to be about. As stated, it's not just my responsibility, it is something for all of us, a sanctified called and preserved. Satan would love to bring someone in and work a little here and work a little there in order to corrupt the whole as a little leaven will. And so it takes all of us to be aware of Satan's devices, how he is stealthy, his nature and crafty approaches. These false prophets or false brethren, they don't wear a shirt that says danger or warning. And so sometimes it can be hard to detect. Those that are most dangerous to the church are not usually those on the outside that the church are aware of. It's those that slip in on the inside. Spurgeon stated this, he said, Satan knows right well that one devil in the church can do far more than a thousand devils outside her bounds. And I think that is true. And so, it's just something to be aware of, right? I don't think we have a devil among us, but you know, it's here, right? Now, these ungodly false teachers, that seek to deceive the people of God and corrupt them, they may at times go unnoticed. And that is what Jude is referring to. That is what Paul refers to. That's what Jesus refers to. So they can kind of sneak in. You don't even realize it at first. And so they can be unnoticed by the people of God, but can seemingly do much harm. But Jude makes it clear that even though they may go unnoticed by us at times or for some time, that they are marked and destined for condemnation. In other words, they're not unnoticed by God. God's had their number a long time ago, and he will bring judgment upon them. And so he will deal with them. And that is really one of the main themes of Jude, is that judgment is coming on the false teachers and those who fight against God. Now, But it is very serious. It is very serious. Those that claim to be the mouthpiece of God and proclaim a false gospel, a different Jesus, and lead people into destruction, they will receive great condemnation from the Lord. And that is certain. And Jude is making that very clear. Would you imagine having to stand before the Lord and be one of those people who have led people astray by preaching a false gospel, a false Jesus, and led people into destruction with that false message? Would you want to answer for that? I sure wouldn't. But they will. God's going to get them. The ones that Jesus was the most fierce to, as he spoke to, were the Pharisees, who claimed to be the spiritual leaders, and they were nothing more than a blind leading the blind. Now, Jude gives us something here, though, to help us so that we can mark and notice these false teachers or people that sneak in among the people of God to deceive them. These ungodly men that we are to contend with, be on guard against, that are carrying a message that perverts the grace, are carrying a message that perverts the grace of God. That is the first thing that Jude deals with here. He says that they turn the grace of our God into lewdness. And so he said, hey, you be careful of these guys. You mark these guys. These guys, the judgment of God is coming on these men that take the grace of God and turn it into lewdness. This word lewdness, I'll quote David Guzik here. He said this word for lewdness, quote, the idea behind the ancient word lewdness is sin that is practiced without shame, without any sense of conscience or decency. Usually the word is used in the sense of sensual sins, such as sexual immorality, but it can also be used in the sense of brazen anti-biblical teaching. When the truth is denied and lies are taught without shame, Jude probably had both ideas in mind here because as the rest of the letter will develop, these certain men had both moral problems and doctrinal problems. I believe that is true for the most part. Bad doctrine is connected with bad morality, with bad living. Once you start thinking right or thinking wrong, believing wrong, the life is certain to follow. Once we believe something false, it leads to false living. Bad belief equals bad living. Now, it's interesting, I think, to parallel what we mentioned earlier about Paul writing to the church at Galatia. Paul mentioned that those who sought to destroy the liberty in Jesus And what they were doing is they were seeking to bring others underneath the law of God for salvation. So they were actually teaching, hey, you've got to be, in their mind, godly. You've got to do this. You've got to do all these things. But it was for the purpose of salvation. So they were perverting the gospel message in that way, saying, well, if you're going to be saved, go to heaven, you are going to have to keep the law. Now, the ones Jude is talking about is something on a whole different level as well. Jude mentions those who teach that grace makes it basically okay to sin, who turn the grace of God into lewdness. In other words, because of God's grace, they actually taught the lack of morality. And so you have two ends of the extreme, if you would, before us. Both of the teachings, both of those teachings, even though one may give the appearance of godly living, in other words, if you look at it on the outside, hey, that looks pretty good, it looks moral, it looks decent, good people, kind people, they live right, they vote right, I mean, they're gonna vote with the issues of morality, but they're doing it to be saved, okay? And they might even believe that Jesus is the Christ. but they've got the way of salvation wrong. Jude, on the other hand, it's very obvious that he's saying these people are saying that because of grace you can live however you want. And though one may give the appearance of godly living, they are both wrong. They are both wrong. So be certain of this. Anytime we make excuses for what the Bible calls sin, we are always wrong. There's never a way to justify it. That is a devilish doctrine that seeks to pervert the effects of grace upon the hearts of His children. And that is in many places of the scriptures. And even Paul dealt with that aspect of it in Galatians. Because later in Galatians, he said in 5.13, "'For you, brethren, have been called to liberty.'" He's reminding them of what he's been teaching, but then he says, "'Only do not use liberty as an opportunity for the flesh.'" And so he strikes the balance. "'But through love serve one another.'" And so Paul is teaching there how to respond to the gospel of grace. We are at liberty, set free from the bondage of the law and its penalty, and we are to use this liberty to walk in the Spirit and to not serve the flesh. Anytime people would use God's grace as an excuse for ungodliness, they literally know nothing really about what God's grace teaches us. Paul taught this in Titus. In chapter 2, verse 11 through 13, listen to this. He said, For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men, teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldly lust, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in the present age. looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ. So when we're living in grace and walking in grace and know the grace of God and learning from the grace of God, the grace of God teaches us what? To live godly, soberly, right now in this world and to look for the coming of Jesus Christ. Anyone who takes away from that is not teaching the grace of God because that's what the grace of God teaches us. And so when people are talking in such a way to say that now in the New Testament we don't have to live godly, we should not live godly, it doesn't really matter, they don't know grace. They have not learned grace and what grace teaches. We can at least say that. For the grace of God sets us free from the bondage of the law and empowers us and teaches us to live lives that seek to honor Jesus by being godly, meaning more like Jesus. That's what it means to be godly, more like Jesus. Now when Jude says this in verse 4, that who turn the grace of God into lewdness and deny the only Lord God and our Savior Jesus Christ, he seeks to connect this to their life of lewdness, of immorality, as they have distorted and perverted the teaching of grace. In other words, they may not have been verbally saying Jesus, in other words, this wasn't verbally like a doctrine, Jesus is not the Christ, Jesus is not God, Jesus is not Messiah. In other words, they weren't verbally saying it, but they were living it. They were living like it. Listen, there are some false prophets out there. They look godly, as we mentioned earlier. They act godly. They seem to promote godly lifestyles. but they are wrong in regard to who Jesus is, okay? Jehovah Witnesses are one, you know, Mormons, they got Jesus wrong. But overall, moral people, well, I don't know, some Mormons. Depends on how you think about having a lot of wives. Anyhow, that's a whole other message. Anyhow, then there are others who seem to teach the right way about Jesus. that He is Lord, that He is Christ, but they still deny Him by how they live. We can deny Him with our words, who He is, and we can deny that He is Lord by how we live. Some deny who Jesus is by their teaching, some deny Him by their life. Now that's why I think makes it so dangerous that the kind of people that Jude is talking about, because I do not think that for the most part they're teaching, that these guys are teaching that Jesus is not the Christ. John dealt some with that, but I don't know that Jude is necessarily dealing with that, but they're living like it. Those we can kind of, we pick up on that. Somebody verbally says something about the nature of Jesus, we're like, what do you mean by that? He's not God. I mean, hold on. We can catch that a little quicker and note that. But those who begin to make these small allowances for sin underneath liberty, that's dangerous. That too perverts the grace of God. And that too seeks to deny the person of Christ. Let everyone who names the name of Jesus depart from iniquity. And that's what we are taught. So we've got to be careful that we never use grace as an excuse. Paul mentions to Timothy those that profess to know God, but in works they deny Him, being abominable, disobedient, and disqualified for every good work. So to sum this up, as we are commissioned to contend for the faith, let us go in confidence, knowing that we have been sanctified and set apart by God for this purpose. We've been called by His Holy Spirit called out of this world, and we have been preserved in Jesus Christ. We're not talking about we as a people of God contending for our salvation, wrestling to get our salvation, fighting for our salvation. We are already, right? We are already the sanctified, the called, the preserved in Christ. And we looked at that word preserved last week. I mean, it's to be in the same state as it is. We are preserved in Christ. That can never change. So we should have more of a boldness, a confidence, because we're not going out there trying to do something in order for us to keep that salvation. But because of who we are in Christ, a sanctified, a called, a preserved, let's go out in confidence, proclaim the gospel of grace. And with boldness. People need to hear boldness today. They need to hear boldness, that sin is still sin, wrong is still wrong, and the judgment of God is coming. And that's what Jude deals with. And we miss that so often. I think we listen to the world too much sometimes. We try to correct way over here. We've got to make sure we're loving. We've got to make sure we're loving. Listen, to not tell people that God's judgment is coming is not loving. To have someone in a burning building and not tell them, you are in trouble. You are in danger. That would not be loving. I've mentioned, it's been a while since I've mentioned this, but I remember when we lived in West Virginia, and we might've been on our way home from church, and there was this trailer we passed, and in West Virginia, I mean, where we were at, I mean, it was like this, and road, short, I mean, most yards were not as wide as this church building. And the trailers, and we'd always see these young kids out there in these two trailers that were beside each other. And we were driving by, it was dark, I mean nobody was around, didn't see anybody. And we're driving by this trailer and it's engulfed in flames. Couldn't see nobody. Couldn't see a soul. And all we had in our mind was, you know, there's people in there, there's kids in there. And my first reaction was, we didn't have cell phones back then, my first reaction was I went up to the house just past it, dropped my wife off, to go to the next house, hopefully to call 911, and I was turning around and going right back. And I get out there, I'm not just casually pulling up in the driveway. I'm not just over there, you know, hey, anybody in there? Hey, your house is on fire. No, I'm hollering, I'm screaming. I'm blowing the horn. I want them to know. I mean, I gotta find, is there people in there? Now I'm not saying we have to holler and scream at people all the time, but there does need to be a sense of urgency. We do need to tell people that if they die on their sins, there is a judgment of fire. It's real. Do we believe that that's real? We must seek to make sure that we hold to the truth as one to who Jesus is, that he is the Christ, the Messiah, God in the flesh and Lord. We must hold to the gospel of grace through faith in Jesus as the only way to be forgiven of sin, that Jesus himself sets us free from the bondage of the law. And we must also make sure that we hold to a teaching of grace that makes no allowances for sin. We must teach repentance of sin, repentance of sin or judgment. and then teach love for Jesus Christ and righteousness. Those things are all found in Jude. If we're going to contend for the faith, that is the fundamentals, that is the foundation, that is the basis. We must contend for that. And if we're going to contend for the faith, this must be our first line of battle. the most important battle. Who is Jesus? How are we saved? And the results of grace that saves. Father, use this lesson tonight and prepare us for prayer. And just help us tonight, Lord, to share our requests and to pray with one another, for one another. In Jesus' name, amen. All right.