Please turn to the book of Jude. I'll be reading just the first four verses, but before I read, let's first pray that God will give us ears to hear. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you for your word, the most precious thing that there is in this world. Lord, give us ears to hear and to respond to you speaking in it. We pray that you'd remove the distractions. We pray that you would focus our minds. And bring us, Lord, to that place where we respond gladly and willingly to you. We pray this in Christ's name. Amen. So Jude, reading from verse one to verse four. Jude, a servant of Jesus Christ and brother of James, to those who are called beloved in God the Father, and kept for Jesus Christ. May mercy, peace, and love be multiplied to you. Beloved, although I was very eager to write to you about our common salvation, I found it necessary to write appealing to you to contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints. For certain people have crept in unnoticed, who long ago were designated for this condemnation, ungodly people who pervert the grace of our God into sensuality and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ. Christian, you need to know who you are, you need to know whose you are, and you need to know how to live for Him. You gotta know who you are, whose you are, and how to live for Him. Because God has given us grace, grace upon grace, scarcely able to imagine the grace He's shown us. And that grace is not licensed. It's not an invitation to sin. Instead, it's a high calling. In the youth group, they're learning the Shorter Catechism. Another title for Jesus, the title Redeemer. What does a Redeemer do? He redeems. What's redeem mean? You can put the word bought in there. Bought back. Bought to freedom. But you know, if you've been bought, then what are you? Owned. Those who belong to Christ must live for Christ. Now, right at the beginning, there's something interesting. And there's a sign that authority in the Church comes not from biology, but from Jesus' call. That's pretty subtle, though. Look at the first word. It says Jude. Now, Jude is not a name you see very often in the Bible, and it's actually not the name you see when you look at the Greek. You look at the Greek, and you're looking at Judas. Got the S on the end of it. This guy's name is Judas. Now, according to long tradition, we call it Jude. Just to make it really clear, we're not talking about that Judas. It's not Judas Iscariot. But the guy's name was Judas. Judas was one of those names from the Maccabean family, the family that led Israel 200 years before to their independence. And so the names of the boys in that family, one military leader after another, became the popular names. Judas, Jonathan. And so as you read your New Testament, you keep running into Simon, Simon, Simon, Judas, Judas, Judas. There's actually a lot of Judases in there. You might not have noticed that. There's a lot of Judases. Which is why, with both Simon and Judas, you can't just say the name. You gotta give him something else to differentiate him from everybody else of that name. All right, so it's Simon Peter, Simon the Zealot, Simon the Leper, Simon the Tanner. And Judas, you got Judas Iscariot, And then, in Luke, when he lists the apostles, he has Judas son of James, but this guy is Judas brother of James. So where is this guy Judas brother of James? Well, in Mark, you get a Judas and a James who are brothers. But the reason you're getting that list is that both of them are Jesus' brothers. And the only James in the ancient church who could just be identified as James, once James the Apostle dies, is actually James the brother of Jesus, because he becomes the leader of the church in Jerusalem for a long time, until he's martyred in 62. If it just says James, that means James the brother of Jesus. So if it just says Jude the brother of James, that's Jude the brother of Jesus. Now that raises a question. How are you going to identify the guy by his less well-known brother? I mean, if you want to say Judas the brother of, let's name a famous brother, Jesus is the famous brother. Why are you saying brother of James when you've got Jesus as a brother? Why Judas brother of James? Well, he's avoiding saying brother of Jesus. Just as James, because the book of James is written by this guy, James, the brother of Jesus. Does he call himself brother of Jesus? James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ. He's the brother of Jesus. He says, I am a servant of Jesus. They both avoid calling themselves a brother of Jesus. How come? Because they remember when they went with Mother Mary to grab Jesus because they thought he was out of his mind. And Jesus said, and who are my mother and my brothers? Whoever does the will of my father is my brother and sister and mother. Jesus had said, family doesn't mean the same thing here that it means somewhere else. They remember that there was a time when the apostles were believing in Jesus, but they weren't. Says there's a point where the brothers of Jesus were not believing in him. And so he refrains from calling himself brother of Jesus because he doesn't want you to start thinking that that's his source of authority. He has no authority because he grew up in the same house as Jesus. He has no authority because he has Mary, no longer a virgin, as his mother. That's not why he has authority. He has authority because he's a servant of Jesus Christ. That's his source of authority. And then to identify himself, because he is named Judas. He's brother of James, because you should know who James is. Here, we have people who have a long heritage in the church, and we have people who don't have a long heritage in the church. And those of a long heritage in the church, I'm speaking to my family, but not just my family. I'm speaking to a couple other families here. That's a nice thing. It means you know a lot of people, you've got a lot of roots, have some connections, it's a good thing. And nothing to be ashamed of when you have deep roots in the church. It's a sign of God's faithfulness to your family. But it doesn't give you a leg up on somebody. It doesn't mean that you have a shortcut to God's good graces. Same as everybody else. All of us need to repent of our sins and turn to God. And serving in the church, the authority comes when you are a servant of Jesus Christ. Even if you're a brother of Jesus Christ, that doesn't give you authority. So, authority in the church comes not from biology, it comes from Jesus's call. And what we see next is that everybody who has come to know the Lord has been called by him and is beloved by God. Notice how it says, to those who are called, are called. By whom? By God. And the sense here is this, that God calls and we respond. God calls. And those who believe are those who have responded. As it says, we love because He first loved us in the same way we believe because He first called us. He first awakened us. He first regenerated us. Some of you have had that experience. I didn't care a thing about God, the Bible, or the church until, and then you give the date, you give the age. You're like, until I was around 18, until I was 30, until I was 50. Some of you have had that experience. I was dead to that until I was alive to that. Now what happened? God called. God worked in a way that perhaps you can get your hands around and perhaps a way that you can't get your hands around. But God called you. And so you came to belief. And that means that we should all always be humble and full of thanksgiving that God called us. It's not that we sat under a tree and thought until we were enlightened. It's not that we sat there with pencil and paper and worked it out until we figured out the problem. It's that God called. And whatever your experience was, because maybe you were under a tree, and maybe you did have paper and pencil, but that wasn't the key ingredient. It was that God was opening your ear. He was calling you. And why did he call? Because he loved you. Beloved in God. It doesn't say beloved in God because you are such a handsome fellow. It doesn't say beloved in God because he foresaw that you would deserve it or that you would. It simply says, beloved in God, for his own reasons. Now, what struck me as I read this was the high spiritual identity that he's telling us that we have. Because he's not talking to just a couple people here. He's talking to the whole church. And he says to the whole church that you are called and beloved in God the Father. He's saying that is your identity. And he beckons you to live out of that identity. Because you do tend to live out of who you think you are. If you think you are a runner, what do you do? You go on runs. You notice when there's a banner across Old York Road, 5K, June 2nd. You notice if you're a runner. If you're not a runner, who cares about that banner? If you are a Donnell, you go to the Donnell family parties. That makes sense, right? That's what they're for. That's who you are, that's where you go. And this tells us here that who we are is we are those who are called, beloved in God the Father. And we are to think of ourselves that way, making that high spiritual identity foremost in our minds. You can be other things. You can be Donnells. You can be runners. But you can say, fundamentally, who am I? I am called by God because God set his love on me. That's my basic identity. And that's what I'm going to live out of. Now he says, to those who were called, beloved in God the Father, and kept for Jesus Christ. Now what do you mean, kept for Jesus Christ? Well, you start looking around in the context. For very long, you come to this phrase, our only master and Lord, Jesus Christ. Well, we often call him the Lord Jesus Christ, but not so often the Master Jesus Christ. And when you put them both together, the Master and Lord Jesus Christ, you are leaning into something. You are leaning into his authority, leaning into his bossness. He's the Master and the Lord. And if we look elsewhere in the Bible for this idea, we find it. Titus 2.14, Jesus gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness, and to purify for Himself a people for His own possession who were zealous for good works." Again, He gave Himself to redeem us, to purify for Himself a people for His possession, zealous for good works. And we already read 1 Corinthians 6. You are not your own. You were bought with a price. So glorify God. your body. In other words, when he says, kept for Jesus, I think we know what it means now. He means that he's the master and we are his people. And God keeps us intact so as to deliver us to Jesus when he comes. And this is where we are glad that Jesus is gentle and lowly in spirit. This is where we are glad that he loved us and gave himself for us. This is where we are rejoiced that his burden is easy and his yoke is light. But you say, he does have a yoke. The yoke's the thing that goes across the ox's shoulders, tells the ox where to go. He says he has a yoke. It's a light yoke. He has a yoke. And so we belong to him. It's right in our name, Christians. What's a Christian? Well, it's a Christ one. It's a Christ person. It's the people of Christ. It's Christ's. If you're a Christian, you are Christ's. And if you are ashamed of that, think again. Because if you have a friend who says, you belong to Jesus, I belong to myself. Well, you tell him what a petty little mortal master you have. What can your master do for you? Nothing. What can your master do for you? He has trouble getting up in the morning. Your master is yourself? Well then you are alone, orphaned in the world, and boy, do you need a God. Because what can you do for yourself? Your master is nothing. I like you, but your master is going to die. My master is the King of kings and the Lord of lords. And he gives eternal life to those who serve him. Notice the blessing that follows that. We're kept for Jesus Christ. May mercy, peace, and love be multiplied to you. Because this master keeps us for himself that he may bless us with every good thing. Mercy and peace. Now those God is keeping for Jesus Christ should be eager to discuss our common salvation. Notice that in verse 3. I was very eager to write to you about our common salvation. That's what you have in common. We have in common our salvation in Jesus Christ. Now we have our differences. And if we wanted to, we could major on our differences and argue. That would be easy. We could major on our differences and argue and go off in different directions. But he calls us, he says, you know, I'm eager to talk about our common salvation. That is why we are here. That's where we're going. That's what we are kept for. I was eager to talk about that. That's what Jude says he wanted to write about. And we should be wanting, and we can, we should talk about it. But he says, I needed to do something else. Although I was eager to write to you about a common salvation, I found it necessary to write appealing to you to contend for the faith once for all delivered to the saints. There's wants and there's needs. Things you want to do, things that need to happen. He says, I wanted to do this, but I needed to do that. That's part of maturity. When we set aside our wants to pursue needs, perhaps set aside our own wants to pursue someone else's needs. It's part of maturity, and we see that here. I wanted to talk about a happy topic, but I needed to talk about a more sobering topic. I needed to write and appeal to you to contend for the faith, once for all. delivered to the saints. Because that faith has to be kept pure and entire. He means the message of what God has done for us in Jesus Christ. He says that message has to be kept pure and entire because God did something in Jesus and he's not going back and changing it. We are to remember it. We're to keep the knowledge of it accurate. We have to contend for that whole faith and it implies a fair amount of behavior as well. Gotta remember what happened and what it means. In the Old Testament, there were true prophets. Read carefully, there were false prophets. In the New Testament, there were true apostles. Read carefully, there were false apostles. We just got through 2nd and 3rd John, dealing with the issue of, how does this church grow? Well, teachers need to go around teaching. They need hospitality. Trouble is, sometimes false teachers can show up and say, oh yeah, I know Peter too. I won't tell you what Peter said to me. I won't tell you that Peter told me to repent. I'll just say, I'll just show up. So you have third John, receive and take care of the good teachers. You got second John, but not the bad ones. Don't show hospitality to those. And so in Jude we see the same kind of message, watch out. Because you can always get a following with a new teaching. People get excited about something new. So there will always be false teachers with new teaching. We must always be diligent and vigilant to take care that we contend for the faith once for all delivered. Now, you might notice sometimes when Elder Durin prays, he often signals you you're about to start praying the Lord's Prayer by using a phrase like, the prayer that he taught his disciples so long ago. Sure enough, so long ago. Now for you, does the fact that the Lord's Prayer was taught so long ago give it more oomph to you or less? Do you find that makes it more appealing to you or less appealing to you? You know, Christians have to know when to go new and when to go old. Really, everybody needs this. As Christians, it is essential. You've got to know when to go new and when to go old. When do you go new? I will use a very homely example. Whoever that great benefactor of humanity was, who decided that he was tired of going outside to the outhouse, and that he would figure out how to pipe the water into the house, provide a nice little chair so that you could dispose and then have the water take it back out of the house. This new thing is wonderful. And I can say that because I'm one of the very few people here who actually has had to use an outhouse for months at a time. Yes, it's not so bad if you're the right age and you're, you know, it's warm. It'd be terrible in the wintertime, yes. There's a time to go new, like indoor plumbing. Thank you. Laurie recently had surgery. Hey, Laurie, you want the old surgery where they cut a great big cut in you and open you wide open? Or do you want the new surgery where they can little cut, little cut, little cut? Which one do you want? Laurie says, well, does the new one give me less pain? Yes. Does the new one give me a faster recovery? Yes. Does the new one get the job done sufficiently? We believe so, yes. Well, then give me the new one. Thank you. There's a time to go new, and you'd be very foolish in those cases to say, oh, give me the old one. Give me the outhouse and the great big incision. There's a time to go new. Now, don't be heedless about that. The Amish have a point. The Amish look at a new technology and they say, is that going to ruin our way of life? The answer is yes, they're not going to use it. They have a point. But in general, sure, technology, go for the new thing. But don't let that so color your judgment that you think whatever is new is necessarily better. It's not necessarily better. Christianity is based on what God did at a time in history. And he's not revisiting that. It's done once for all. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. He's not changing, so don't change what is said about him. Don't change what he requires of us. Since God acted in time and space, we are to contend for the faith once delivered to the saints. It's rooted in revelation. It's rooted in history. It's not changing, so we shouldn't change it. Now if you look at the outline, you see I now want to equip you to deal with two objections that you may hear from different kinds of people. I'm gonna call them progressive Christians. Challenge number one. You know the New Testament is an advance on the Old Testament. In a sense, that can be true. But be careful, God hasn't changed. But He was educating His people through time. So, alright, in some respects we can go with that. Some respects we can say, well, since God has been educating His people and bringing them along through time, then the New Testament is an advance in some ways on the Old Testament. Okay. So, these people say, what we ought to do is continue on the same trajectory further beyond the New Testament. Since you see that there's this line going from Old Testament to New Testament, that they're going in this direction, keep on going. That's what Jesus would want us to do, but he was constrained by his culture, so we only got so far. You need to go farther. How many of you have heard somebody say something like this? All right, I see at least six or eight hands up. I wonder where the rest of you have been. But okay, anyway, so anyway. Heard something along these lines. We begin by observing that Jesus told the parable of the tenants. There's an owner, he plants a vineyard, he goes away, he sends his servants back to get the fruit. After sending a bunch of servants, what's he have left? One more to send, a beloved son. What's the point? Jesus is the climax. The beginning of the book of Hebrews takes it even further. It says, God spoke to the fathers through the prophets at various times and in various ways, but in these last days, he's spoken to us by his son. His son is the exact imprint of his nature. If you want to know what God the Father wants, you look at what God the Son brought to us when he came to the earth. But what's interesting is we have something even more explicit than that. 1 Corinthians 4.6. You ought to learn by us not to go beyond what is written. It's right there, 1 Corinthians 4.6. Learn by us not to go beyond what is written. And then again, in 2 John 9, we just did this. Everyone who goes on ahead and does not abide in the teaching of Christ does not have God. Whoever abides in the teaching has both the Father and the Son. In those two places, it looks like God anticipated the trajectory argument. He says, you are to not go on ahead. you abide in what Jesus said. You're not to go beyond what is written. You're to stay put in what Jesus said, because he is the exact imprint of God's nature. You abide in the New Testament. Whatever trajectory you see from old to new, the new is an end point. You don't decide where it's going so that you can go further down some path you think you see. Jesus is the climax. You go with what he taught. He's the king and the prophet. Then there's a further follow-up challenge from progressive Christians, and not just from progressive Christians, from all kinds of people. I was happily reading this article this week. Elon Musk was on Bill Maher's show, and I'm reading the transcript, and they're talking about the woke mind virus, and I'm liking what they're saying, and suddenly, they're saying, and the Bible, of course, never says a thing about slavery, and that's where the article ends. I'm like, what? These guys are just, I don't even know how they got there. They're like, of course, the Bible is totally pro-slavery. So you better go beyond the Bible or you'll be back in slavery. How do we answer that? It's not very hard. The Bible teaches there's one human race. that cuts the racism out of American slavery. The Bible teaches that kidnapping is a capital crime, and we don't care if you're the kidnapper or the guy who receives the person, i.e., we don't care if you're the slave trader or the slave owner. Kidnapping is a capital crime that cuts the practice, the origin, out of American slavery. The Bible teaches that if a slave runs away, you let him live with you. You don't send them back to his master. Now get your mind around that. Could American slavery have operated that way? I mean, what do we even mean by slavery in the Bible? Because it ain't what we are thinking about. Our slavery could never have worked that way. If the slave runs away, he gets to. He's allowed. That's what the Bible says it is. That rules out the practice of American slavery. The Bible says, stay as you are. You're married, stay married. You're single, you stay single. Stay as you are, unless you're a slave. If you're a slave, and if you can get free, get free. 1 Corinthians 7. The Bible says enslavers are lawless, disobedient, and doomed. That's 1 Timothy 1. And when one Christian owned another, and Paul found it necessary to send the slave with a letter to the master, Paul was careful to send them with a letter that says this, receive him the way you'd receive me, the guy to whom you owe your own soul. Now how would he have received Paul to whom he owed his own soul? Because Paul had preached the gospel to him. Would he have enslaved Paul? I don't think so. The Bible is as anti-American slavery as you can possibly be, which is why the most important abolitionist in world history was a Christian, William Wilberforce. And that's why the British Empire, under the influence and the pushing of the Christians in the empire, at length outlawed slavery and the slave trade and began to free slaves off of whatever slave ship they were sailing across the ocean in, because they were following the Bible. They were not getting away from it. You don't need to get beyond the Bible to get rid of slavery. You've got to read your Bible carefully. So you've got to know when to go new. You've got to know when to go old. We don't need to get away from the old when we're reading it carefully. When it comes to your life before God, ask for the old way and walk in it. Now, what was the problem that they had back then? Certain people have crept in unnoticed who God knew about in advance. Don't be scared. God's in control. But they are ungodly people who pervert the grace of our God into sensuality and deny our only master, Jesus Christ. All right, first we need to know what this word sensuality is. When I was in college, It's in a Bible study with people from a lot of different Christian backgrounds. And we're reading and we're talking about how we are saved by God's grace alone, not by anything that we do. So one young woman asked, if we're saved not by our own works, but what Jesus did, why do we need to keep God's commandments? The next year, she was in a Bible study that was all women. So I had to hear about what happened in the discussion. I heard about it from the unhappy dissenter. This particular group of young ladies were talking about, they had their Bibles open, they're discussing it, and they decide that actually it's okay if you sleep with your boyfriend. That's sensuality. It's when you live to please the body, live to please the senses, particularly in a sexual way. When you're living for the sake of the feels and making your body feel good, that is sensuality. And it's always an issue because we're always in the body. We are always, you could say, being appealed to, to say, my body, my choice. Yes, that's a slogan for a certain issue, but we're always, all, being tempted to say, my body, my choice. Now he says here, they pervert the grace of God into sensuality and deny our only master. How does sensuality, my body, my choice, deny the master. Well, I hope you get it by now. We are kept for Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is so concerned for our holiness that he died to remove the penalty for our sins. How can you possibly say, I am owned by this master. Now, let me continue to sin. Let's look at how that question got answered, because it was not a bad question. If we're saved by God's grace alone, why do we have to keep doing God's commandments? It's not a bad question, but the Bible answers it. Romans 3.8, why not do evil that good may come? Their condemnation is just. He doesn't answer, but he says, that's wrong. Comes back in chapter 6. What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? This is Romans 6. By no means. How can we who died to sin still live in it? Don't you know that all of us who've been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death. so that as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. You're baptized into Christ that you may walk in newness of life. What is that new life supposed to look like? Romans 6.15. What then? Are we to sin because we are not under law but under grace? Notice he has to keep posing the question, because it's a reasonable question, but here's the answer. If you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the ones whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness. Thank God you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed. Having been set free from sin, you have become slaves of righteousness. I speak in human terms due to your natural limitations. Jesus died to save us from sin, not to promote sin. And so let me call out three forms of sensuality, which are more likely to be a problem here. One, God expects that you get married first and you move in together second. You don't reverse the order. God calls us to make that exclusive commitment to be one flesh and to be true to you. You do that first. You move in together second. You can save a lot of money the other way, like get some friends and get some roommates and save the money. Or move up your wedding day. There's a couple ways of handling that. But we are expected to make the vows first and engage in the sex later. Secondly, pornography. Pornography is the reversal of what sex should be. With sex, you are to be moving towards another person in love. You're to be concerned for that other person. Your sex is to be in the context of your love for that person and to be taking on the responsibilities for what may happen if you have sex with this person. And pornography cuts all of that away. There is no other person. There is no history. There is no responsibility. You're not concerned about how the other person is feeling. It's all turned in on yourself. That is sensuality taken to a pinnacle. That is the reversal of what it is to be. Christians are to shun pornography. And you are to take whatever steps it takes to get rid of it. You're to leave the phone downstairs. You're to smash the computer. You're going to throw the modem in the trash. You're to take whatever steps is needed so that you will not continue in sensuality. And thirdly, divorce. A lot of ways you can get to divorce. I remember watching the movie Shakespeare in Love. nice romantic movie, and you're going along, and Shakespeare's falling in love with this woman, and he's inspiring him to write Romeo and Juliet. And you come up to the end, and of course she's married to somebody else, and she appeals to the Queen of England, who's magically there at the show. And the Queen of England says, not even the Queen of England can make asunder what God has put together. You, imaginary lover of Shakespeare, you go off with your husband. Bye. Yes, in that portrayal, it was a surprise, because you're like, whoa, whoa, we didn't have the customary movie, the people in love go off and, no, the Queen of England comes down, God puts you together, over here. Pretty accurate representation of what she probably would have said in 1605. Well, she was dead by 1601, sorry. Sensuality denies the faith, because it denies that Jesus is the master. The faith is that Jesus has redeemed us for himself and that we are kept for him. That's the faith. If you say my body, my choice, my sensuality, you have denied the faith because you have denied the master. That's why sensuality denies the faith. We began by saying Christians have to know who you are, whose you are, and how to live for him. So who are you? You are those called by God because you are beloved in God the Father. Whose are you? You are kept for Jesus Christ. To be a people for His own possession who are zealous for good works. How do you live for Him? I just said it. You can be zealous for good works knowing that you are not your own. That's how one of the great catechisms begins. What is your only comfort in life and in death? My only comfort in life and in death is that I am not my own, but I belong body and soul in life and in death to my faithful Savior, Jesus Christ. He has fully given Himself for all my sins. And outside of Him, not a hair can fall from my head without His permission. This is who we are. And this is our great hope. This is the faith once for all delivered to the saints. Keep it pure and entire. Contend for that faith. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, help us to walk before You as You call us to. Help us to walk before You in hope that Your Holy Spirit is with us. And that as we devote ourselves to you, you are with us to assist us, to build us up, to forgive us and to lead us. We pray this in Christ's name. Amen.