All right, I'd like to say thank you for joining us here yet again at the Everlasting Truth broadcast, where we bring you everlasting truth in an ever-changing world. Now, if you have been here for the last broadcast, you understand that we began here in the book of Jude. And in the book of Jude, we started talking about the subject primarily of false teachers. because that's the main thing that Jude addresses here. And so I don't want to give too long of an introduction because most of this we dealt with yesterday, and I want to be able to move forward and get on into the text. But I do want to remind you, and because we'll be flipping back and forth between these two, but 2 Peter 2 and the book of Jude mirror one another. They go hand-in-hand. Now, these were both written right around the same time. I don't know exactly how accurate this is, but C.I. Schofield dates both of these epistles to have been written right around A.D. 66. And so, these are put at the same point and period of time. So, I cannot tell you at this point which one wrote first, but I can tell you this. Jude and Peter, in 2 Peter chapter number 2, are almost quoting one another verbatim. There are a couple phrases that they use different wording in, but if you read the two of them side by side, you would definitely agree that they are saying the same thing. And so if you have any confusion about what one or the other means, it would do you well to go look at the counterpart If it's Jude, then go look at Peter, and if it's Peter's part that confuses you, then go look at Jude. And so for some of this study, we'll be doing that. We'll be kind of bouncing back and forth. So our text is primarily Jude, and we're really going to run down to verse number 11, but we're only dealing with verse number 4 today, Lord willing. But you may find some reference for that in 2 Peter 2, and we may be there briefly. But anyways, Jude is writing this epistle. Because he wants us to defend the faith. He wants us to contend for the faith is the wording that he uses. And so yesterday we dealt with verse number three, which says this, Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you, of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you and exhort you that you should earnestly contend for the faith, which was once delivered unto the saints." And out of that verse, we talked about the first thing he talked to us about was defense. He said, I want you to contend for the faith. Some people don't like contending. They don't like being argumentative about doctrinal things, but the Bible says there's some things we're going to have to contend for. And the reason we need to defend it is because it's been delivered unto us. He says it was once delivered unto the saints, and we talked about how that word tense there for the word once indicates once for all. We need to contend and fight for the faith that we have and fight for the gospel and fight for the truth of the doctrines of the Word of God because it's the only one we get. God doesn't give us another one, right? And so, leaving verse 3, we move on to verse number 4, which we did not do yesterday, and we come to that today. And verse number 4 is broken up into two sections. I've broken it up that way anyways. The beginning of verse 4 gives us a declaration, and the latter part of verse number 4 gives us a description. The declaration is very simple. There are false teachers out there. And the description is, here's what these false teachers look like. And both of those themes are discussed in verse number four. And it is amazing, when you slow down and begin to mine the truths out of the Word of God, how much you can get from a verse. I mean, we could preach for hours and hours on any one particular verse and still not reach the depths of it. So it's important that you and I understand Jude's position and doctrine on that of false teachers and what our response should be to it, because it's been said that there's only one book in the New Testament that does not directly address the subject of false teachers, that it is prevalent in every other one of them, and I believe that. And so if it's that important that God had all these men write this in His Word, and He inspired them of His Spirit to do that, then you and I need to be mindful of it and know what the Bible has to say about it, because we're living in a day where false teaching is just absolutely running rampant. So you and I need to make sure that we're on the right page concerning doctrine and how to handle those that present false doctrine. And so that being said, let us go ahead and begin in verse number four with what I have called here the Declaration. Notice what he says in verse number four. He says, For there are certain men crept in unawares who were before of old ordained to this condemnation, ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness and denying the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ. Now, the first part of that verse is the declaration. He declares to you and I that there are people who have come to pervert and distort the faith. He said there are certain men crept in unawares. Now, Jude is prophesying in the sense that he's talking about, and Paul does this with Timothy as well, and prophesies about in the latter times, many shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of devils. And so there is a prophetic sense in which apostasy and false teaching and bad doctrine is going to permeate the last days in the latter times. But there's also a sense in which when Jude is writing this, it has already taken place. Even from the first century, within 30 years after the departure of the Lord Jesus Christ and His ascension in Acts 1, false teaching was already coming into the church because verse 4 said there are certain men crept in unawares. Jude said they're already here, not they're going to be, but they are. And this is a reality of this declaration. You and I need to understand that there are false teachers out there. I know you and I don't want to fight about everything, and I know you and I don't want to be contentious, and we don't want to just have to label people as false teachers, and we don't want to acknowledge that that's the case, but the truth of the matter is that it is the case. You and I cannot stick our head in the sand and act as if everybody who names the name of Christ and preaches what they consider to be the word of Christ is actually doing so. Because there are certain men crept in unawares. There are false teachers out there. There are false teachers today. And we are living in the middle of apostasy. And what so many people have tried to do is just stick their head in the sand and act as if it's not really taking place. But the Bible warns us explicitly, Jude tells us here, I already quoted to you what Paul told Timothy, he said that in the last days some should depart from the faith and they would give heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of devils. The Apostle Paul warned the church at Ephesus that there would, in fact, be false teachers. He said this, Acts 20 and verse number 29, For I know this, that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock. So he says there's going to be wolves that come in from the outside. And sometimes those may be easier to spot. But here's the problem, verse number 20. I'm sorry, verse number 30. He said, also of your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things to draw away disciples after them. So there's a level of false teaching in which people are going to come from outside orthodox doctrine completely, and they're going to bring some strange things from outside. That may be a little bit easier to tell, but Paul said there's also going to be people who are going to rise up from among you. They're going to come out of the church and bring in false doctrine, and that may be harder to spot. But whether it's difficult to spot or not doesn't change the fact that Jude is declaring to us that there are false teachers in the church. Now, Galatians chapter 1 and verse number 6, we just went over this a couple broadcasts ago, but I want to read it to you because I think it's got an important connection here. Galatians, Paul is writing about those that would pervert the gospel of Christ, and he says this, Galatians 1.6. A marvel that you were so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel. He said, which is not another, but there be some that trouble you and would pervert the gospel of Christ. Paul said, no doubt about it. There are some people that are trying to pervert the gospel of Christ. Now, what's interesting to me is that word pervert comes from the Greek word metastropho. And metastropho means to turn around. And it talks about taking what the Bible actually says and turn it around where it says something else. taking the gospel and turning it into something else, distorting it and twisting it and turning it around. And Jude here is mirroring that same idea because he says that these false teachers in verse number four are going to turn the grace of God into lasciviousness. And you and I can try to ignore it all we want, but the truth of the matter is they are here. They are permeating the church. They are permeating the church scene. Many of the people that you see on YouTube and maybe even listen to and maybe even follow and the people you see on TV and the people you hear on the radio, they could be a false teacher because they are among us. and the words of Jesus, and we'll get to it in a minute, but they're wolves, but they're in sheep's clothing. They may not be as easy to spot as what you might think, and so that's why you need to pay attention to what Jude says they are. Jude labels their character, and he tells you about what their character is like and what their doctrine is like, and that's how you label them, not by their appearance. Jesus said, by their fruits you shall know them, not by their appearance. And so you and I need to know what are the doctrines, what are the characteristics, what are the traits of a false teacher? Because if you think that you're going to look at any given preacher and you're just going to glance at their appearance and you're going to be able to tell, oh yeah, they're real or they're not, you've got another thing coming. Because they're wearing sheep's clothing. They look like sheep's outwardly. What's going to distinguish them is their character and their doctrine. And so he gives us a declaration that there are already certain men crept in unawares. And then he gives us a description of what those men looked like. He's going to tell you, and this is so good, that God not only warns us about false teachers, but after God warns us, He describes to us those that we need to be looking out for. He continues verse number four with the description. He says that, let's read verse four again for context. He said, for there are certain men crept in unawares who were before of old ordained to this condemnation. That's the declaration telling you that they're here. Here's the description telling you who they are. He said they're ungodly men. turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness and denying the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ. He begins to describe those false teachers whom he has already declared to you and I that are there. Number one, he says that they're sneaky. He says they've crept in unawares. You see that in verse number four, crept in unawares, like a thief in the night. They didn't walk in, they creeped in. They slithered in. They slid in, just like Satan did in Genesis 3. Now, the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made, Genesis 3.1. And these men are subtle. They carry the character of their master, Satan, and they creep in, and they do it unawares. Here's what you need to understand. There are false teachers in the church, and you may not know who they are because they've done it unawares. Remember what Paul said, Acts 20, 30. He said, even of your own selves, that some would arise. And so, they're coming in in a disguise. As I already told you, Jesus said they were wolves in sheep's clothing. The Bible said that they're going to have feigned words. It says that they're going to have great swelling speeches. And so what that means is they're going to look okay, and they're going to sound okay. Oh, they're going to be motivational. They're going to be powerful. They're going to be emotionally charged. They're going to be, uh, they're going to be able to drive you and move you and seduce you. They look okay. They sound okay, but they're dangerous. And I want you to notice something else. Sometimes false teachers are hard to spot with their false doctrine, and here's why. Because they bring it in behind good doctrine. Here's what I mean by that. I've already told you that 2 Peter 2 mirrors Jude, and Jude mirrors 2 Peter 2. And so it says here that these men have crept in unawares. They are sneaky, so to speak. Now listen to how Peter words this same description of these men. He says in 2 Peter 2, but there were false prophets among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you who privily shall bring in damnable heresies. So their damnable heresy is going to come in privily, sneakily. Now what's interesting is the word privily literally means to lead in beside or to lead in alongside. So that means they're going to bring before you. good doctrine, but just on the other side of that doctrine that you cannot see is the damnable heresy. In other words, when you first see them and in their appearance, you're going to see good doctrine. That's how they're creeping in. If they brought false doctrine in right off the bat, they wouldn't be able to come in unawares. If they immediately drew attention to themselves, they wouldn't be privily coming in. But they're coming in privily. They've got the good doctrine in front, but the problem is the false doctrine is just behind it, where you cannot see it. And so what that means is that even false teachers are going to have some good doctrine. There are some things they're going to say that's orthodox. Not every false teacher is going to deny the deity of Jesus. Not every false teacher is going to deny the grace of God. Many of them will, and that's a description Jude gives as we read on, but some of them are going to come with some orthodox statements. The problem is what's behind that. You see, even a broken clock is right twice a day. And even a false teacher will say some things that are right, that are accurate, that are biblically true. And it's been said, and I don't think I disagree with it, you don't tell a false teacher by what they say, you tell a false teacher by what they don't say. what they leave out, what they omit. Because they'll say some good things, but then they leave out other things that would incriminate them. They creep in behind good doctrine, and they bring in, privily, their false doctrine and their damnable heresy, Peter said. So they creep in unawares. Then Jude, you can go back to Jude now and look at verse number four. Jude said, not only do they creep in unawares, but Jude described them as ungodly men. Isn't that what he said? Verse number four, he says they were ungodly men turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness. Ungodly here comes from a Greek word, which literally means irreverent or impious. So Jude described these men as being irreverent and impious, ungodly. They don't carry a reverence for God. They don't carry a godliness about them. They don't carry that godly weight to them. And boy, there's a lot of that happening there. So many preachers act as if there is no weight to their calling. First off, they probably act that way because they haven't been called their false falsely being called. But the bottom line is there's weight to it. It's heavy. There's a reverence in the ministry. I want you to notice the way many preachers in our cultural context today have lost their reverence. They're running around like God's their buddy. And they're acting like complete fools and ultimately making a mockery out of the things of God. Everything's entertainment. Everything's a show. Nothing is sincere. Nothing has any weight. Nothing has any gravity to it. May I remind you that Paul said that the older men ought to be grave, serious. The genuine man of God that's been called of God has a seriousness behind him. He's reverent towards the things of God. He's got a graveness, a sobriety. There's a weight about the calling on his life. But Jude said these false teachers would lose their reverence. They would be ungodly men. Irreverent. Not only that, think about how many preachers have lost their piety. You know, we got preachers now that their main goal is not to be holy, but to act like they're one of the boys. I had a friend of mine who got saved about the time that I did, and he had a friend that was a church-going guy, and he invited my newly-saved friend to go to church with him. He said, man, you ought to come to church with us. He said, the preacher, he's just like us. You know, he's just like us. He even carries snuff in his back pocket behind the pulpit. And this guy thought that that was the greatest thing in the world. And there's a lot of people following people like that. There's no piety to the preachers that they follow. And Jude said false teachers would be ungodly. They'd have no piety. Can I remind you That the preacher's job is not to mirror the people. The preacher's job is not to mirror the culture. The preacher's job is not to mirror society and to be one of the boys. The preacher's job is 1 Timothy 4, 12. Be thou an example of the believers in word and conversation and charity and spirit and faith and purity. He is to lead his people in purity. They're to follow His example, and He's to set the example. But what we have now is men who claim to be spiritual leaders, and men who we are labeling as spiritual leaders who have no reverence nor piety for the things of God. It's shown in the way they carry themselves, it's shown in the way they dress, it's shown in the way they talk, it's shown in the way that they preach. Some of them get up there and think it's all fun and games and it's jokes. And he said, no, false teachers will have that kind of ungodliness, that irreverence, that, that lack of piety. Boy, that is permeating our church today. And then lastly, for sake of time, I got to move through this quickly before we run out. As a matter of fact, I'm going to save the last part because the last part is going to take some serious time and I do not want to rush it. I do not want to rush it. And so I want us to back up and just think about the things we've already examined very quickly before we close out. Does any of this ring any bells? He said that they would be ungodly men. that they wouldn't be pious, they wouldn't be irreverent, it would be lackadaisical, it would be loose, it would be fun, it would be entertaining. That's what that's speaking of. And yet that is what is flooding into our church today. You know, people used to have a reverence for the things of God. People used to be serious about God's business. Even lost people I've heard it put this way. The pastor, my pastor, who was here before I was privileged to be able to pastor, said that there was a time where you used to see lost people that they would walk in front of the church, and when they walked in front of the church, they would pull their hat off out of sign of reverence that they were on the property of God's house. Now you got people that don't even pull their hats off in God's house, in the preaching, in the praying of God's word and God's people. There's a lack of reverence today. And it's in the pew because it's began in the pulpit. The man of God is to be higher in the sense, not that he's better, but he's got a higher calling. There is something that he's to be reaching for. Lord help weak people like myself to reach for that bar. But he said that this would be a characteristic of these false teachers. I want you to look across the denominations today and I want you to look across the church today and ask yourself how much reverence for God do you see? Where do you see that? How much piety do you see? Where do you see it at? this should give you a pretty good indication what's of God and what isn't. Anyways, I think we're going to wrap it up right there. I've got much, much, much more in the broadcast to come that I'm looking forward to, but the next point we were going to get to in verse number four is going to take way more time than what I was left with today. But verse number four, we will pick up next week where it says, it describes these men as turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness. denying the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ. And ultimately what that means is that false teachers are going to distort grace and they're gonna deny the deity of Jesus Christ. And so we'll deal with all that in the days to come. But I'm so glad you stopped and listened today. I hope it's been a help to you and I hope your eyes will be open and I hope you will contend for the faith and stand strong on what God has written in His Word. God bless you friends and we'll see you on the next run.