Jude - Fight for the Faith

I felt like this week the Lord put on my heart the book of Jude.

It’s only one chapter but it has some powerful stuff in there.

I felt like this is a message to us for this upcoming year.

The title of this message is called, “Fight for the Faith”.

In this book you will see that Jude is challenging the church to contend or fight for their faith.

This is something that I believe the church today must do as well.

So we’re going to read through the book of Jude and break down what he is trying to tell us.

The first couple verses Jude tells us who he is.

Jude 1:1-2 “Jude, a servant of Jesus Christ and a brother of James, To those who have been called, who are loved in God the Father and kept for Jesus Christ: 2 Mercy, peace and love be yours in abundance.”

So Jude reveals to us that he is the brother of James.

Obviously, there is more than 1 James during this time so how do we know what James he is talking about?

Scholars will tell you that since Jude just says James and doesn’t clarify his family line, he is most likely talking about James who wrote the book of James.

James was a very popular leader in the church at this time and followers of Jesus would be very familiar with that name.

Therefore, when Jude just says James, he knows the people he’s writing to will know exactly who he’s talking about.

But here’s what’s interesting about his introduction.

He starts off by saying he is a servant of Christ and the brother of James.

But James is the brother of Jesus.

So if James is the brother of Jesus and Jude is the brother of James, then isn’t Jude the brother of Jesus as well?

YES

We see this in Mark 6:3 “Isn’t this the carpenter? Isn’t this Mary’s son and the brother of James, Joseph, Judas and Simon?”

The name Judas here is Jude in the Greek.

So we can see here that Jesus had brothers by the names of James and Jude.

This is clearly who wrote the book of Jude.

But what’s interesting is why wouldn’t he say he is the brother of Jesus?

You want to talk about something to brag about!

But he only mentions he’s the brother of James.

It shows you the honor he had for Jesus.

That even though Jesus is his own brother he doesn’t look at him like a brother.

He looks at Jesus like his savior.

He says, “I’m a SERVANT of Jesus”

But what’s even crazier to think about when it comes to Jude and James is that they didn’t even believe Jesus was the Messiah before he died on the cross.

John 7:5 “For even his own brothers did not believe in him.”

Think about being the brother of Jesus growing up.

He obviously was a goody goody!

Never did anything wrong

And now he claims he’s the Messiah?

Get over yourself.

So what would make Jesus’ brothers go from not believing in him to being church leaders and writing two books of the bible?

The Resurrection!

This is another piece of evidence that scholars use to prove Jesus’ resurrection.

Why would his own brothers not believe in him but after he dies change their minds and dedicate their lives to following his teachings?

The only explanation is they saw he truly was raised from the dead, proving he’s the son of God.

So Jude is writing this letter to a group of believers.

Listen to how he starts it.

Jude 1:3 “Dear friends, although I was very eager to write to you about the salvation we share, I felt compelled to write and urge you to contend for the faith that was once for all entrusted to God’s holy people.”

Jude starts this letter in a significant way.

He makes it clear that he was planning on writing about the salvation that they share.

He was planning on writing an encouraging letter.

But he was COMPELLED

It’s as if he had this compulsion to change what he intended to write.

The Holy Spirit clearly was speaking to him and telling him there is a more pressing need that he needs to address.

This pressing need is that he needs to urge the church to “contend”, which means to “struggle” or “FIGHT” for the faith.

He has this burning in his spirit to warn the church that their faith is under attack.

He goes on to explain.

Jude 1:4 “For certain individuals whose condemnation was written about long ago have secretly slipped in among you. They are ungodly people, who pervert the grace of our God into a license for immorality and deny Jesus Christ our only Sovereign and Lord.”

Jude has obviously received word that false teachers have crept into the church.

These “ungodly people” have buddied up to the people in the church and have gained their trust.

Some say they may have even been in positions of leadership.

But Jude says, “they pervert the grace of our God into a license for immorality”.

These are people who’ve crept into the church and are preaching that God’s grace in a license to sin.

Commentaries will tell you that the language here is implying sexual sin.

That these false teachers are telling their people that it’s ok to engage in sexual sin because that’s what the grace of God is for.

And in doing so they are actually denying who Jesus is.

To be honest with you when I just read these first 4 verses I think to myself, “when was this written?”

Because I know it was written around 60 or 70 A.D. but I feel like this could have been written to the church in America today.

I feel like Jude could be saying, “AMERICA! WAKE UP! There’s people deceiving you into thinking the way your living is ok. DON’T LISTEN! FIGHT FOR THE FAITH!

Because the more I talk to believers the more concerned I get.

Because the problem is that the church is not a building.

We as a group of believers are the church.

And we have things like social media now that anyone can record themselves teaching about what they believe.

And they have a whole audience listening.

And for some reason there are lots of people that think, “well this person sounds like they know what they are talking about, so what they say must be true.”

Many people are getting their theology from a random person online instead of the actual word of God.

And unfortunately there are even many Pastors and Preachers who are teaching things that are not biblical.

This idea that Grace is a free pass to sin.

That it’s ok if you live in sexual sin.

Jude says they “pervert the grace of God”

And when you are accepting of a little sexual sin it’s only going to grow into accepting of ALL sexual sin.

Which makes it even more difficult when you see what our culture is teaching us.

When our culture tells us that sex outside of marriage is normal and ok.

Then we look at the acceptance of the LGBTQ lifestyles.

It’s scary to me to hear how many Christians don’t see a problem with living a LGBTQ lifestyle.

They’ve given into this lie that the culture tells us that it’s normal.

It’s just how God made them.

But I know that’s not true.

I know because the Bible makes it clear.

The Bible is clear on how God views homosexuality.

The Bible is clear on how many genders there are and that He didn’t make a mistake when He made you.

It says in Genesis 1 “male and female He created them”

Psalm 139:13-14 “For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. 14 I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.”

You weren’t a mistake, you were fearfully and wonderfully made!

Jude 1:5-7 “Though you already know all this, I want to remind you that the Lord at one time delivered his people out of Egypt, but later destroyed those who did not believe. 6 And the angels who did not keep their positions of authority but abandoned their proper dwelling—these he has kept in darkness, bound with everlasting chains for judgment on the great Day. 7 In a similar way, Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding towns gave themselves up to sexual immorality and perversion. They serve as an example of those who suffer the punishment of eternal fire.”

Jude just got real intense there!

He gives us 3 examples of a group of people who have been punished because of their lack of obedience to God.

The first group is the Israelites who were delivered from Egypt by Moses.

They kept doubting God and His faithfulness.

Finally God had enough.

In Numbers 13 the Israelites sent 10 spies to check out the Promise Land and Joshua and Caleb were the only two spies that had confidence that God would lead them to victory and overtake that land.

Because of the lack of faith in the rest of the spies and the people, nobody except Joshua and Caleb entered the Promise Land from that generation.

Then Jude talks about the fallen angels.

This group that Jude is writing to would be familiar with the story in Genesis 6 where it talks about “sons of God”.

“Sons of God” were angels who the bible talks about left their post in the spiritual realm and came to earth and slept with human women.

But Jude talks about how they are awaiting their eternal punishment for their disobedience.

Then he brings up Sodom and Gomorrah.

If you grew up in church you are probably familiar with Sodom and Gomorrah.

They were cities that were full of godless people who indulged in every sexual sin imaginable.

Homosexuality was a big part of that.

Look at when the two angels went there to retrieve Lot.

Genesis 19:4-5 “Before they had gone to bed, all the men from every part of the city of Sodom—both young and old—surrounded the house. 5 They called to Lot, “Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us so that we can have sex with them.”

Because of their godlessness God rained down sulfur and destroyed the cities.

I’m not one of those, “God’s going to destroy this country” type of preacher

But when I see what we are doing here in America, I can’t help but think of Sodom and Gomorrah.

Our country is DETERMINED to force us into accepting the LGBTQ lifestyle.

To make us think that this is how it is and this is how God made them.

That’s why you literally can’t watch a TV show or movie that has at least a couple people who are living a gay lifestyle.

This summer my wife was really excited because on Netflix they came out with this showed called, “The Babysitters Club”

She used to read the books

So she was all excited to watch this show with our girls

Then at one point she calls me in the room and asks me to watch this scene over.

It shows this girl who is probably 8 or 9 telling her babysitter about how her closet is full of her “old” clothes which were all boy clothes.

The next scene the babysitter is talking to her friend about it and her friend makes the comment about how she is just trying to match her outside with her inside.

This is a show that I believe is rated G that my kids could just be innocently watching on their own and now are being exposed to this idea that it’s ok and normal to change genders if you want.

And it’s scary to see how many believers are listening to this and accepting this.

Now again I’m not saying that we don’t treat these people with love and respect.

If you are a part of the LGBTQ I will love you and you are welcome to attend this church anytime you want.

I will meet with you and help you in any way I can.

But I can’t stand up here and act like God’s ok with that.

Just like I won’t stand up here and say God is ok with ANY kind of sex outside of marriage.

And as parents we need to be paying attention to what our kids are watching AND learning.

Because unfortunately our public schools are starting to teach these things in the classroom.

Last year the State Legislation in California unanimously approved of public schools teaching kindergarteners about gender identity and personal options within that.

An article I was reading on this said, “The framework tells teachers that students in kindergarten can identify as transgender and offers tips for how to talk about that, adding “the goal is not to cause confusion about the gender of the child but to develop an awareness that other expressions exist.”

So kindergartners are going to learn about how if they feel like a boy when they are a girl, that’s normal and they should go with that?

I just want them to learn the ABC’s.

But if you research what some public schools are wanting to teach for sex ed in grades as young as 3rd grade it’s terrifying as a believer.

And as parents you need to be aware of what your kids are being taught.

Look at their work.

Ask them about their classes.

We need to make 2021 a year that we fight for our faith.

That we don’t just accept the teachings of any random person or what our culture is saying.

And truly study what the WORD OF GOD says and be obedient to it.

We’re going to continue in Jude next week and maybe the week after.

I only got to verse 7 and I thought I would get a lot further.

Altar Call