I'm gonna ask you to turn to the book of Jude, the book of Jude. So you're gonna go way toward the end of the Bible, and just before you get to Revelation, you'll see this one chapter long, short, small letter that is often skipped, often missed, hardly preached, and it's got a lot of weird stuff in it that's hard to understand. And so as short as it is, we're going to take the rest of the summer through August to unpack this short but powerful epistle. And as we look at the book of Jude, I'm reminded that we are often given to ignoring problems that they're not loud problems. They're sneaky problems. They are not problems that on the surface are dangerous. If it's an overtly dangerous problem, we'll address it. But if it's a problem that doesn't come with really loud, obvious, bright signs that say danger ahead, then we tend to ignore those problems. I think about a friend of mine who, this is many years ago, this friend of mine purchased a car. I think it was his first car and it was a nice car. All the friends were jealous. And he never changed the oil. like ever. And it didn't take long before he had massive engine problems, as you would probably think. But you know, when do you really need the oil change? Some say this many thousand miles. Some say that many thousand miles. Or if you don't drive it a lot, it may not be my miles. They might say after every few months, you need to change it. Even if it's just been sitting there anyway, you need to change the oil. But I mean, you can start it. When he pulled it out of the driveway, it still runs. Probably the light came on, but he's like, eh. A little light came on. And he can stop at red lights. The brakes work. He can accelerate. OK. And it wasn't until things really started falling apart that he realized, maybe I should have paid attention to the manual or dad or whoever teaches anybody to change the oil, even if you don't do it yourself. Take it in to get the oil changed. This is not a sermon about cars. What I'm saying is, as a church, we often face dangers that aren't the big, loud mouth bullies that come into the church. People typically that are dangerous to the church don't come into the church and say, hey, I'm a danger. Can I hang out with you guys? No, it's sneaky. It might take a while before the light comes on that goes, check that. And oftentimes when somebody says, you know what? I think there's a light on that says check engine. Others of us are like, Oh, pull over. I have somewhere to go. It's not like this guy was trying to see how far his car could go. He's going here, he's going there, he's gotta pick up these people, he's got a party to go to, he's going to school. Who has time to pull over and check, oh, and then you gotta buy the oil, right? It's annoying unless you realize it's dangerous. And what Jude wants us to pay attention to is that there are things Look, every church has little weird finicky things, okay? Like if the door handle on your car doesn't work, that might be annoying to get in, or you tell your friend, can you get in the passenger side, crawl across the two front seats, and open it from the inside? I can't open it from my side. Some of us have owned cars like that. Is that an emergency? No, it's just annoying. And sometimes churches have just kind of weird finicky things that we've got to get through. This is not that. This is one of those things where if you don't address it immediately and eagerly and with fervor, it poses a danger and a threat to the church. We have to be weary of dangerous people. And church is a great place to be, it's warm, and it's welcoming, and it's inviting, and because of the great hospitality of any healthy church, and I think especially CFC, we're warm. Our top reviews, you know, is how warm and welcoming everybody is at CFC. But when a church is healthy enough to be that welcoming and inviting, we also have to be healthy enough to be wary of dangerous people. And these people don't seem like threats. And because of that, we tend to ignore the problem. Now, how important is that? How important is it for us to protect the church from dangerous people? And those dangerous people are professing but false Christians. professing but false Christians. They're professors, not because they have degrees and they teach at a university. They profess that they know Christ. They profess that they've repented. They profess right doctrine, but they don't actually know the Lord. We call these spurious Christians. Seems like it, looks like it, acts like it maybe, but not really. The letter of Jude is about, if you're wondering, what is this letter about? It's going to start talking about angels, you know, Michael fighting over the bones of Moses. I mean, it starts talking about weird stuff. Don't get sidetracked from the emphasis of the letter. Every weird detail in the letter that we'll unpack over the course of the series is about protecting the church from false professors, false Christians. And it might blow your mind just how seriously Jude takes this issue. That the church is in danger when these hidden threats, sneaky dangers are not paid attention to. And my hope is you'll see just how crucial this is for us, CFC, to guard the flock that is in Jesus Christ. This morning, we'll look at the first four verses of Jude. The first four verses of Jude. Let me read it straight through, and then we'll start at the top and see what he's got for us here. He writes, 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. This letter only makes sense to Christians. because it's founded on our faith in Christ. He is writing to us as a servant of Jesus. He's like, this is not me nitpicking, you know, it's not a hobby horse. This isn't something I just feel like talking about. I'm writing to you serving Christ. Christ is delivering to you this message. I'm the paper boy. I'm riding my little bike and I'm chucking this thing on your front porch. Listen to it, not because I rode the bike, listen to it because it was written by somebody else. And that somebody else that is delivering this to you is Jesus Christ. I'm writing as a servant of Christ and I'm writing to you who's the audience, who should be concerned about what Jude is saying. Those who are beloved by the Father and kept for Jesus Christ. And if you're wondering, which Christians are beloved by the Father? Any Christian. who's taken seriously the tremendous gift of the cross of Jesus Christ, as we just heard about when we took communion earlier, are beloved by the Father and kept for Jesus Christ. We need to understand this in order to understand the letter. Otherwise, the letter's just gonna sound petty and really, really exaggerated. Like, okay, okay, you know, if somebody comes in here with an AR and starts shooting, that's a danger, but Jude, come on. You know, no, he's serious. And what Jude says is important and we can't appreciate its importance unless we're in Christ. Otherwise, it just seems like petty nagging. And you might, through the course of this series, if not this sermon, you might feel tempted to feel like, ah, this just sounds a little petty, man. It just sounds like we're just picking something that just is not that big of a deal. But I want you to notice the use of his language as we study this letter and how big of a deal it is, and keep in mind that that's why he said it's sneaky. It's not an obvious big deal, but it is a big deal under the surface. If we just look surface level, we're not gonna see a problem with these things. So he's delivering this to us in service to Christ and he's giving it to us because we're in Christ and so for the Christian, this is important. And we're kept for Christ. I love that he puts that phrase there because that's the end game. This letter is about our protection. How does God keep us for Christ? Guard us for Christ, okay? The idea is keep safe. It's guarding something, watching over something, protecting something so that it gets to where it's supposed to go. How are we kept for Christ? Well, one of those ways is listening to the contents of this letter. We're guarded, we're kept, we're safeguarded, and this letter is one aspect about how it's done. and everything he's going to give us in this letter is for your benefit. It would be to our detriment to not pay attention to it, but it's to our benefit to pay attention to it. That's why he says in verse two, mercy and peace and love, those things that we know in Christ, that we have in Christ, are multiplied to you. It's a blessing, right? He's blessing the people in their reading, but it's also the introduction to all the stuff that he's about to say. So how does God keep us? Well, he keeps us by multiplying mercy and peace and love in our lives, and one of the ways he does that is to keep the church protected. And one of the ways he keeps the church protected is to make sure the church is really clear on who's a part of the church and who's not a part of the church. So some stuff might be tough to hear but just remember it's for our benefit. It's for our good. Here's the primary message. We must contend for the Christian faith. We must contend for the Christian faith. Why? Well, the reason we have in this letter is because false professors of faith will sneak in and threaten the church. That's why. That's why we must contend for the faith. People of spurious faith, fake faith, talk but no walk, they sneak in and threaten the church. And so therefore we're supposed to protect the church by contending for the faith. Notice that Judas says he was very eager to write a letter about our shared salvation our common salvation. So it was going to be a soteriological letter, a letter about salvation, just a fancy word for salvation. It was going to be a theological letter, helping us understand salvation more. Do we need more of that? Yes, yes. But it's like he pauses and goes, he finds out that there's people in the church that are tolerated. and the church is not dealing with it, or maybe the church is unaware of it, and so he changes the topic of the letter to address this important thing. He goes, you're not ready to receive more information about salvation unless you're ready to protect the information about salvation that you already have. Imagine that. We're about to get another epistle to help us understand the doctrine of how we're saved. And instead, God taps them on the shoulder and goes, no, they need a letter about protecting what they already know about salvation. Jude takes this so seriously. He changed the topic of his letter. He wants us to learn the gospel, of course, but we have to defend it, otherwise we'll be in danger of losing it. So we're under real threat, and the response is to fight. Fight. That's what contend means. What does contend mean? It means fight. Now, it could be used in a military context. That word could be used in a stadium, right, like two wrestlers going at it in ancient Greece or something like that. It could be used in a court of law where two people are fighting over an issue. It could be a verbal dispute. But it's intense any way you take it. It's not think about it, talk about it, you know, hmm, you know, massage it a little bit. Fight. Fight for the faith. And he's writing, he says he's appealing to them to contend for the faith. Now that word could mean encourage or comfort, but here it means to urge, to beg. I'm begging you, I'm urging you to fight. To not take a wimpy stance, A flimsy stance, but he uses this language that intensifies what we're dealing with here. If we're not taking the threats seriously, then we're folding instead of fighting. He wants them to buck up and fight for the faith. What faith? Look what he says. The faith that was once for all delivered to the saints. The faith that was once for all delivered to the saints. There's lots to unpack here, but I'll just point out a couple of things really quickly. Once for all means that it's not to be changed. It's not once for a generation and then another one for another generation. You hear churches doing this all the time. That was how we used to see things. But now we live in a different world, brother. We live in a different time now. We don't live in that time before where they were uneducated and dumb. Now we have universities and degrees and science and we know all these things and so we can amend, edit, delete certain things about the Bible that offend people. And if we do, more people will come to church. Do you ever wonder, or have you ever noticed how mainline denominations that go that route are shrinking and dying and selling their buildings? How many beautiful stained glass window limestone cathedrals in downtown metropolitan areas are now coffee shops? because they bought into the lie that the gospel would be better if we update it, and it's never better if you update it. It's once for all delivered to the saints, meaning it comes from authority, and it's attended to you. It's delivered to you, like the messenger brings it to you from a higher messenger, and that's why it shouldn't be adulterated. And of course, that faith means it has content, You can't pass on a feeling. You don't deliver to a congregation in emotion. You deliver content. Who is Jesus? What did Jesus do? What did Jesus accomplish? As soon as you answer those questions, you're doing theology. You might be like, oh, doctrine is for other people. Do you believe in Jesus? Yeah, what do you mean by believe, and who is Jesus? As soon as you answer those questions, you are a theologian. You might be a bad theologian, you might be an unequipped theologian, you might be an amateur theologian, but you're a theologian nonetheless if you venture to answer any questions about whether God exists. who he is, how Jesus is related to God, and what Jesus did on the cross. Is he alive? Is he dead? Did he ascend? Are we awaiting his return? These are doctrinal matters that we can't just say, well, as long as you feel Jesus-y, you're good. You can't even ascertain whether you feel Jesus-y if you don't know who Jesus is. Theology drives our feelings, not the other way around. And so he's saying, I'm talking about a faith that has content. You can see that it's not this and it's not that, it's this. There's words to it. This is why we open scripture on Sunday mornings. And we don't just sing. songs with no lyrics, you know, we don't just hum, you know, and we don't just fold our legs and say om for an hour and a half straight. Whatever comes to mind or empty your mind even better. No, the Christian meditates not by emptying the mind. The Christian meditates by filling the mind with God's law, Psalm 1. And on his law, he meditates day and night. Law has content, and so this has to do with doctrine. Doctrine has been passed on to us, and that's what we are supposed to protect. And the reason why we need to contend for this faith that has content is because doctrinal perverts will creep in. It just says, verse four, certain people have crept in unnoticed who long ago were designated for this condemnation, ungodly people who pervert. Like why do you say pervert? That's what the word means. It's not always sexual. There's doctrinal perverts too. Who pervert the grace of our God into sensuality and deny our only master and Lord, Jesus Christ. And again, certain people have crept in unnoticed. They've crept in with the church kinda not noticing that they've crept in. Does the church notice that they're there? Sure, they notice that they're there. What's being unnoticed, what they're not catching is that these people pervert God's grace. That they're false professors. It's not that these people are unknown. They are noticed, but they're not noticed as a problem, at least at first. And he says they're condemned. Now some reliable commentators point out that this condemnation, it's not Jude saying that these people are, it's pre-scripted that these people would be condemned, but rather what's pre-scripted is that the people who do that would face this pre-scripted condemnation. Now, there's a lot to unpack there, and this is not a sermon to go into the ins and outs of predestination and election. I believe in predestination and election, because those are literally words from the Bible. I mean, nobody really says, that takes the Bible seriously, they don't believe in predestination or election, they just, it's about how you define it, and this is not the place to do that. But let me just say a few quick things, because we tend to get hung up on these terms. The Bible is clear that God does not tempt anyone to sin. No one can ever say, I sinned because God made me do it. This is James 1, okay? Probably the brother of the guy that we're reading now, right? No one can say, I did it, but God is the one that made me do it, okay? We're guilty for our sins because we wanted to do them, and we did them. However, no one can ever say, I disrupted God's plan by sinning. God wanted things to go this way, and I, by my sin, I turned it, and I made it go this other way. No, it's a little more pre-thought out than that, and you don't have the power to change God's game plan. Now Jude is reminding us that though this is a danger in the church, it's not like God doesn't see it. It's unnoticed by us maybe. It's not unnoticed by God. He's had this figured out a long time ago. That's his point. We're the ones that need to wake up and pay attention. Because since forever ago they were condemned, but we might not be vocal about that condemnation. because we don't like that doctrine or that sounds icky poo. We just don't like that. But that's what God thinks about it. They pervert God's grace into sensuality. So in this case, what's going on is a doctrine is being twisted that then permits a lifestyle. Does that sound familiar? That's what he says is happening. They twist the doctrine, God's grace. What's grace? As soon as you define it, that's doctrine. They twist the doctrine of God's grace into something that permits sensuality. That's not hard to figure that out. You call somebody out on sin, they start quoting scripture about grace. And we should note that Jude actually never specifically calls these problem people false teachers. We get that a lot, right, in other letters. Watch out for false teachers. Watch out for false cults, let's say, people who twist doctrines and teach things that are against the gospel. Be wary of false gospels. Don't ever listen to another gospel. So these are false teachers, but Jude never actually calls them false teachers, and most of what Jude points out in this letter is not their false doctrines, but their misbehaviors, like sensuality. But it's both, and let me quickly explain why. He began by telling us to contend for the faith. That has content, right? Like we talked about. That has content. The faith that is passed down to us is oral and then written, and it's content for us. It's words that give expression to truth. It begins with doctrine. So even though he mostly is calling out Sin, immorality, the kinds of ungodliness that shows up in somebody's life, it begins by, how do you respond to that in a church? You respond to it not by going, hey guys, stop doing yucky things. You respond to it by going, hey guys, this is what God's word says. Now what's their response to that? They're gonna quote their own set of scriptures about God's grace, about God's love, about God's compassion, and twist it into something that permits what they're doing. So we're not talking about people who deny the gospel. If you were to pull out a scripture verse, they're like, why are you reading me scripture? I don't believe in scripture. This is not about worldly people out there in the world. It's not even about people who visit the church that are checking out the church. They're not sure about Christ, but they're wondering. This letter is not saying contend with those people. Tell them they shouldn't ever walk into a church. They should never visit. They should never watch us take communion. When Paul writes to Corinthians, he makes it very clear that they should behave in certain ways because outsiders are watching. And outsiders, in that context, are people who are not part of the body of Christ. They're visiting, and Paul's like, they're gonna be there, and it's great that they're there. Just don't call outsiders insiders. That's the problem. People that say, no, I do believe in God, I do revere the scriptures, I am doctrinally correct, and when I look at the doctrine, I believe that it allows me to do this. That's the problem. And he tells us that we need to contend for this faith because people will take his example, take a doctrine like the doctrine of grace, and twist it into something that allows sensuality. They might have other doctrines in order, but when you press them about their sin, they start quoting verses that might on the surface seem like it permits what they're doing. And isn't this what is destroying churches? What do you think a church would say if you challenged the church about putting a pride flag out front? What do you think they would say? Well, we don't do the Bible anymore. No, they do the Bible. Very select scripture passages. They would say, well, God is love, and love is love. Put the two together, and who are you to say who loves who? Whoa, whoa. There's a lot to unpack there. Let's return to the confession that has been delivered to us, and allow that confession to, first of all, define what God, what it means that God is love, because we don't get to say God is love and then all the passages that talk about wrath take a black sharpie marker and cross those out. Those help us understand what John means when he says God is love. And then what is the biblical definition of love? And then is it true that love is love? No verse there, that's just from Twitterverse or whatever. No, love is not just love, otherwise we wouldn't need 66 books to help us define it. Left to ourselves, we would define it in a perverse way. Scripture gives us clarity. What do you think professing Christians would say when you challenge them about divorcing their spouse? I wish I was making this up numerous times that I've seen in my own life. Somebody's divorcing their spouse, a professed Christian, and you go, why? Why are you leaving your spouse for the newer, better model? God wants me to be happy. Their conclusion from scripture is that God just wants them to be happy. God wouldn't want me to be stuck in this thing that I couldn't see coming when I said I do. I couldn't look in the future and see that this person would become boring, this person will become whatever that dissatisfies me. I couldn't see it coming. So does God want me chained and trapped in a marriage that is full of arguments? You know, we don't talk to each other anymore. We disagree about what to do with the kids. God doesn't want that. God is a God of joy. The joy of the Lord is my strength. He's not a grumpy father. You misunderstand what marriage is. You misunderstand what joy is. And you certainly misunderstand God's expectations for a marriage. Where along the way did you stop believing that he can turn that marriage into something beautiful? And instead, you want to take it in your own hands and try again. Last I checked, the divorce rate for second marriages is 72% over the 50% of first marriages. Why? Because it was the other spouse's fault. Let me try again. Until two or three marriages later, you realize, I think maybe you've got a problem. We all have problems, and if Christ is not at the center of the marriage to begin with, we'll never be happy anyway. Haven't you ever met a person who professes to know Christ and is otherwise a pretty great person, but when you press them on a sin issue, they start writhing and hemming and hawing and talking about how unloving you are for pointing this out. Isn't God love? Where's the mercy, man? That's the kind of person Jude is talking about. So notice that Jude, he's not urging us to contend just for doctrinal fidelity, he's urging us to contend for living it out. that the twisting of doctrine leads to sinfulness like sensuality. It begins with twisting doctrine and it shows up in how the person is living. And we have to fight to protect doctrine, yes, but we're fighting to protect how doctrine is lived out in the person's life, which is what this letter emphasizes the most. This letter mostly emphasizes Not what somebody believes, but how their life demonstrates what they actually believe. It's what you can see with your eyeballs in a person's life if you look closely enough. So what he's urging isn't, and I know this is a tough word, especially in our day, but what Jude is urging is an intolerance within the church of those who profess to know Christ but who demonstrate it in their living that they are not. to not just give that a pass, to call them out on it, to protect the church by calling them out on it. Remember in the book of Revelation how Jesus urged those churches in the seven letters to the seven churches, he talked about not tolerating false teaching. For instance, the teaching of the Nicolaitans, whoever they were. Not tolerating it. And he would commend or rebuke based on whether a church was doing that or not. That's the one theme that permeates most of those letters is that theme. Not tolerating it. Well, how do we not tolerate it? It's called church discipline. Now Jude doesn't go into this. Jude's sole aim is to get you to the point where you realize, all right guys, we have to do something about this. We can't tolerate it. And he leaves the answer to the question, well then what do we do about it? He leaves that to other passages. For instance, Matthew 18. where Jesus talks about a person who's caught in sin, one person approaches them, he doesn't repent, a couple witnesses come along, man, we saw it too, doesn't repent, and then it's taken to the church and still doesn't repent, and then the church starts treating them not as a brother, as he was called in the beginning of the passage, but now as a tax collector, a phrase that is used of somebody who doesn't know the Lord and just takes advantage of people. Or you can think of 1 Corinthians 5, a person in the church who was guilty of sexual immorality. And the church knew about it, but they were just kind of like, well, I mean, you know. Good for him, I guess. And then Paul rebukes him. Why are you tolerating that? Put that guy out of the church. Paul's not saying put visitors out of the church. It's not like we're supposed to train our greeters at the front of the door to go, have you sinned this week? Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, before you walk in here. Any immorality in your life at all? You can't be in here. None of us would be in here. This place would be empty. The thing that Paul and Jesus and Matthew 18 and Jude in this letter are getting at is there's an inside group and an outside group. And you've gotta be clear on which is which. And any of you who've ever taken a membership class here, you understand that this is what membership is about. You might say you're a Christian, good for you. Does the local church affirm that indeed you are a Christian? That's membership. If that's important to you, then membership should be important to you. If that's not important to you, then I see why membership's not important to you. You don't have to call it membership. There's gotta be a way to discern who's in, who's out, and to make it clear for people who think they're in, but really are out, the church needs to make sure they know that they're out. So they don't have to wait for that day when they approach the Lord, and they're not allowed in, and they go, what the heck? What's going on, Jesus? I did this for you, I did that for you. These people sound very Christian in the Gospel of Matthew. I cast out demons in your name, right? And Jesus says, depart from me, you workers of iniquity. I never knew you. Wouldn't it be better for that person to hear it from the church before it's too late when they hear it from Christ? In fact, now is how they would hear it from Christ. The church is obligated to tell someone who says they're a Christian but actually is not, who thinks their destiny is heaven but their actual destiny is hell, the church's responsibility is to say something about it. The irony is when we go, the loving thing to do is let people just have different wacky doctrines, I get it. Hey, he's got this big sin in his life but We all have sin in our lives. Let's just let it go. We're actually just being cowards because we don't want to confront. We don't want an awkward conversation. We don't want the person to leave. Sometimes pastors feel the pressure. This person's a big giver. And if that person gets up and leaves, that's less giving for the church. And then, ooh, we have to cancel a program. There's all kinds of reasons why we might be too fearful to do it. But if we truly loved the person, We would recognize that there is a destiny hanging in the balance, and we would not be quiet. We would be Jesus' voice for them before it's too late. When they hear it from Jesus, they're going to hear, depart from me, I never knew you. If they hear it from us, they can hear, you don't know the Lord, but run to him. Cling to him, and repent of your sin. These are the things that we need to consider as a church. And just because these are questions that I get a lot, I just want to end with just a couple of points in the way of application, I guess. But a common question is, well, which sins do we do that with? Well, we all sin. So which ones do we go, ah, that one means you're out? You steal a pack of gum, it's like, come on, man, that was stupid. But Wrigley will recover. That's not that big of a deal. Cheat on your wife, okay, now we have to have a talk. So where in between stealing a pack of gum and cheating on your wife, where is the line where we go, that's a meeting? We need to talk. And then where is it like, nah, whatever, man. If he keeps stealing gum and it adds up to this much money, then maybe we'll talk. What is the amount? Is it the kind of sin? Is it the amount of sin? Is it certain sins, yes, certain sins, no, and then certain sins, no, but if there's so many of them, they become a yes? We do talk about that? Do you understand what I'm saying? This is a question that I get frequently, and it's just not that complicated, guys. Listen, it's not that complicated. Any clear sin that is not repented of is disciplinable. Any clear sin that is not repented of is disciplinable. Let me just unpack those really quickly before we close out. When I say any clear sin, I'm not talking about you think skirts should go down to the ankles and a woman walked in in the skirts to the knees and you think they shouldn't be a member. I'm gonna go, what verse is that? and we're gonna have to talk about the clarity of that sin. Now maybe, maybe, maybe we're just so far gone as a culture that we expose thighs, we expose not thighs, well we expose thighs honestly a lot, calves, and we're just so far gone as a society there was a time where we knew you shouldn't expose any leg and now we do. It's just so unclear and debatable and difficult versus something like showing partiality. I've noticed that when somebody comes in and they've got something that you could benefit from, you take them to dinner, you invite them to the house, you're smiley with them, you never give them a negative word because you love the fact that you get to share their summer home or they invite you on their boat. And then a person that comes into your life who doesn't have those things and you're mean to them. And I see this recurring pattern. It doesn't matter how big you think the sin is, you can point to a book like James that talks about partiality. That it's wrong. It's evil to show somebody favor because you can get something out of what they have. Now. Any sin that's clear, you can go to scripture and go, this is not, this is not a debatable issue. We're not talking about, whether it's sin to, I don't know, watch a rated R movie or, you know, something PG 13, where do you draw the line? And we can have those, those are important discussions. Don't hear me say, we shouldn't talk about dress codes. We should talk about dress codes. I'm not saying we shouldn't talk about movies. We should talk about movies. What I'm saying is the reason why those conversations are different than some other sins that the Bible points out is because certain sins the Bible makes really clear and you don't have a leg to stand on to defend yourself and go, no, that's not really what God said, that is what God said, look at it right there. It's right there, it's clear. So if it's small or big, if it's a very personal, private thing, it's very different, isn't it? In degree and in perversion for a guy to click on certain things in the privacy of his own home versus cheating on his wife with 15 different women. Wouldn't you say one of them is worse? Yes, the theological answer is yes, one of them is worse. One of them has many more consequences to it and is more perverse than the other. They're both wrong. But even though sins have levels, sins have degrees, okay? Slapping somebody, murdering a person, serial killer. We can see there's spectrums of sins, but we're not disciplining when it gets to a certain end of the spectrum. Even in its infancy, if it's clear from Scripture that it's a sin, then it's sin. Now, any clear sin that is unrepentant of, Let's say you've got a situation in a church where one guy's cheating on his wife, the other guy took money out of the offering box. you confront this guy about cheating on his wife, he breaks down in tears, he repents, he's willing to sit under leadership and mentorship, he's willing to do whatever you ask, he wants to reconcile with his wife, he wants to make it right, he cuts off all ties with the person he was cheating on, he makes it very clear to that person, this was wrong, I shouldn't have done that, I violated my wife, I violated you actually, and this was sin, and he's willing to do all of that. But the person who took five bucks out of the offering in the back goes, when you confront him, well, I usually put 20 bucks in each week, and this time I just took five, so what's the big deal? I'm a steady giver. I give all the time. You guys wouldn't have this program were it not for me. That's my money, actually. Aren't I a member of the church? We all share in common things. Maybe he'll pull out Acts. See, they shared stuff, right? Brother, you stole, man. No matter how many scripture verses you pull out, you stole money from the church, man. And you're excusing it by your previous track record and mangling verses from the book of Acts. Now, small sin, big sin. Small consequences. We're not gonna die as a church because someone took $5 from a thing. Big consequences. The kids are hardly gonna recover from that. The wife may not ever recover from that. But he repented and he didn't. It's not the size of the sin, it's the lack of repentance where discipline comes in. That's why Jesus made it really clear in Matthew 18. He doesn't even tell you what the offense is. He just says there's an offense. He's approached three separate times, doesn't repent, doesn't repent, doesn't repent. Okay, well then he can't be in the church then. You cannot call that person a brother. That's the kind of stuff that's really difficult. If somebody walks in here and is spewing hatred, racial slurs, draws a swastika on the side of the wall, is pushing people around, cussing at the top of their lungs, none of us would be like, I don't know, church is for everybody. No, I'm pretty sure most of us would be like, hey man, you can't keep doing that. That's not what Jude is talking about because that's not very sneaky, is it? It's the hidden ones that creep in unnoticed because they're nice, and they're hospitable, and they're cool to talk to. And you know what? You feel really easy to talk to them because they don't call you out on stuff. Well, they want you to return that favor when it's time to call them out on stuff. Hey, I never called you out on stuff. Why are you calling me out on stuff? Why are you so judgy? The people that are sometimes easiest to talk to, easiest to hang out with, the people that sometimes seem to benefit the church in this way, that way, and the other way are oftentimes the exact kind of people that Jude is talking about, especially when the twisting of doctrine leads to a kind of immorality that is excused in their minds by their twisting of the doctrine. Last thing I say. in this fight to protect doctrine. It's not much of a fight if we don't put effort into it. It's not much of a job on our behalf of contending for the faith if we don't try hard to figure out what that faith is. You need to be in your Bibles. You need to be studying God's word. Stop going, ah, who cares, Trinity, how you explain it, no one can explain it. Figure out how to best explain it to your current level of knowledge and then push further from there. If you have certain questions about things about theology or doctrine, ask those questions. Here, in this context, we invite those kinds of questions. Lean into the small groups. Figure out how to rearrange your Sunday nights. If you're tired, take a nap. There's hours of gap between the Sunday morning and the Sunday evening. And it's, you know, some of us grew up Sunday school in the morning, Sunday service, Sunday night, Wednesday night, Friday night. It's just not that big of a call, okay. The other temptation is to go, what is the CFC course about? It's about something I've learned already. Okay, I don't need it. Well, then why are you here? Haven't you read Jude before? We need it again. We sing the same songs again. We return to the same scriptures again. We take communion over and over again because it's never enough to just dabble in theology a little bit. We've got to grow in our maturity in those things. And I'm not saying if you never come to Sunday night, you're definitely some Christian loser. I'm not saying that, I'm saying avail yourself of the opportunities to learn together with the saints what it is, this faith that we're contending for so that it's not so easy for people to creep in unnoticed. We didn't catch it because we're not paying attention. We're not paying attention because we don't spend enough time understanding what it is. All the weight cannot go on the elders to protect the church. He's writing not to the elders. We don't even know the name of the church. He's writing to saints. And it's the job of the saints to protect the church. And this is how mercy, peace, and love will be multiplied to us.