Jude - Fight for the Faith Part 2

Last week we started reading in the book of Jude.

I felt like the Holy Spirit led me to start the new year off with breaking down what Jude was writing about in his letter.

It’s only one chapter but it packs a real punch!

I mentioned how I enjoy doing expository preaching because it forces you to read the bible and dive into what it actually says.

I can’t just pick and choose the verses I want to go with my message but I have to read the book and address what’s being said.

Jude is one of those books that forces you to address some difficult things.

I see why studies show that this is one of the least preached and read books of the bible.

Because when we read Jude we realize that Jude is speaking about an issue that is what I would call a “hot topic” in our culture today.

He’s dealing with an issue that we tend to not want to address.

In case you missed last week, we talked about how Jude was the brother of Jesus and the brother of James.

Jude and James did not believe Jesus was the Messiah until after they saw him resurrected.

Jude was writing this letter to most likely a church of Messianic Jews, basically Christians.

He starts his letter by telling them he wanted to write to them about the salvation they share.

However, he felt compelled to write to them to contend or fight for the faith.

You see false preachers have crept into the church and have taught and lived a life that teaches that God’s grace is a licence for immorality.

That it’s ok if you live in sin because that’s what grace is all about.

Jude says, they “pervert the grace of God.”

He then talked about 3 groups of people who were punished because of their rebellion and disobedience to God.

And when you dive into the text you see that Jude wasn’t just talking about how these false preachers were teaching on any sin.

He’s really focusing on sexual sin.

That’s why he brought up things like Sodom and Gomorrah.

And when I was reading Jude I mentioned how this book could be written to the church in America today.

Our culture is trying their best to force sexual immorality onto us.

To get us to accept sex before marriage or to accept the LGBTQ lifestyle.

And as the church we have to fight for the faith.

Stand up for what the Word of God says.

Just this last week we see where we are heading on the issue of gender.

We saw in congress they voted to change the language when speaking about genders.

For example…

The term seamen will be replaced with seafarers.

Chairman will become chair.

Terms for family relationships — such as mother, father, daughter, son, sister and brother — will be swapped with terms such as parent, child and sibling.

The phrase “submit his or her resignation” will be replaced with “resign.”

The phrases “he or she serves” and “he or she holds” will be replaced with ‘‘such Member, Delegate, or Resident Commissioner” serves or holds, respectively.

The words himself and herself will be replaced with themself.

And the grand moment of it all was when a representative said a prayer and at the end said, “Amen and Awoman”

What’s most disturbing about that is this man is a Pastor.

So he should’ve known that the word “Amen” has NOTHING to do with gender.

It means, “so be it”.

So now we are trying to take the very word men out of everything.

It’s disturbing to see.

So as the church we need to stand on the truth.

And that’s what Jude is warning us.

We ended last week on verse 7 so today we will start in verse 8.

Jude 1:8 “In the very same way, on the strength of their dreams these ungodly people pollute their own bodies, reject authority and heap abuse on celestial beings.”

So Jude just gets done talking about the 3 groups of people and how they faced judgement of eternal fire because of their disobedience to God.

He then goes on to say that, “in the very same way”

Meaning just like these groups of people I just talked about.

“On the strength of their dreams.”

Jude is pointing out that one of the reasons these false teachers are preaching what they are is because they are having certain dreams.

When you read the bible you see that God used dreams many times to give people a prophetic word.

So what you dreamed meant a lot to these people.

Unfortunately, it seems like some people would take any dream they had and believe it was a word from God.

When maybe they had some crazy dream because they ate some bad Taco Bell the night before!

But this is a good point on how we need to be careful when people say they have a prophetic word.

Obviously, we believe God speaks to people and can have prophetic words today.

But there are a lot of people out there who have random thoughts pop in their heads or have crazy dreams and want to automatically say it was from God.

One of the FIRST things you need to do if someone says they have a word from the Lord is ask, “does it line up with scripture?”

God will NEVER tell you to do something that goes against scripture.

If your friend tells you, “God told me to divorce my wife because there’s another woman out there I’m supposed to be with.”

You can look at him and say, NO HE DIDN’T!

God would not tell you to divorce your wife for no reason because the bible talks about the only reasons to divorce.

This is the problem with these false preachers in Jude.

They are saying that God showed them in a dream that it was ok to live this sexual lifestyle.

Jude knows this is wrong because he knows how God feels about sexual immorality.

Now not every prophecy can put up to scripture.

So how do we know if we can believe it.

The answer is you don’t!

Some people may give you a prophetic word.

When they do, if it’s a good prophecy, receive it and pray that God’s will would be done.

And then live your life and see if it comes true!

It’s hard because there are so many people who think they have a word from God but it’s really just their own thoughts or gut feeling.

Example of Christian going to the ARK.

Many Pastors and Prophets had words about how this election was going to go.

Barring something crazy happening, many of them are going to be wrong.

Does that mean they are false preachers?

No, but maybe false prophets.

I obviously can’t trust you 100% in the future if you say you have a word from the Lord.

So when people have these prophecies about what’s going to happen in America the next six months I just have the attitude of, that’s interesting but lets see.

But we have to be so careful when people say they have a word from the Lord.

Because what happens is that people will take what that person says and treat it as if it is gospel truth.

And in the end it can do some serious damage to someone’s faith because they will think that GOD was wrong and not the person.

So Jude says that these ungodly men are polluting their bodies with their sexual acts.

They reject authority.

Many scholars believe he is talking about rejecting the authority of Christ.

“Heaping abuse on celestial beings” is thought to be saying they are basically disrespecting or blaspheming against spiritual beings like angels.

Some scholars believe they could have been acting as if they have more power or say over “messengers” or angels of the Lord.

For the sake of time I’m going to read verses 9-16 and give a brief recap on it so I can focus on the last few verses.

Jude 1:9-16 “But even the archangel Michael, when he was disputing with the devil about the body of Moses, did not himself dare to condemn him for slander but said, “The Lord rebuke you!” 10 Yet these people slander whatever they do not understand, and the very things they do understand by instinct—as irrational animals do—will destroy them. 11 Woe to them! They have taken the way of Cain; they have rushed for profit into Balaam’s error; they have been destroyed in Korah’s rebellion. 12 These people are blemishes at your love feasts, eating with you without the slightest qualm—shepherds who feed only themselves. They are clouds without rain, blown along by the wind; autumn trees, without fruit and uprooted—twice dead. 13 They are wild waves of the sea, foaming up their shame; wandering stars, for whom blackest darkness has been reserved forever. 14 Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied about them: “See, the Lord is coming with thousands upon thousands of his holy ones 15 to judge everyone, and to convict all of them of all the ungodly acts they have committed in their ungodliness, and of all the defiant words ungodly sinners have spoken against him.” 16 These people are grumblers and fault finders; they follow their own evil desires; they boast about themselves and flatter others for their own advantage.”

So Jude talks about this story that many Jewish people believed that the angel Michael had a dispute with Satan over Moses' body.

Satan tried to convince Michael that because Moses had murdered an Egyptian that he belonged to him and Michael just rebukes him and moves on.

He then goes on to talk about 3 more people who rebelled and were punished by God.

He says they took the way of Cain who murdered his brother Abel.

Balaam was a prophet who accepted money to speak out against God’s people.

In Numbers 16 Korah was someone who led a group of people to rebel against Moses and Aaron.

God ended up opening the earth beneath them and destroying them.

Jude is once again saying these false teachers are just like that group of people.

He then gives more examples that his Jewish audience would fully understand what he is saying that stresses again how dangerous and wrong these false teachers are.

Then in verse 14 and 15 Jude says a quote from Enoch.

This quote has been discussed by many believers and scholars.

Many people believe that Jude is quoting from the book of Enoch.

The book of Enoch is one of the many books that have been written that some people thought should be in the bible itself.

They say the book of Enoch was written by Enoch but really no scholar believes that.

Enoch was the great grandfather of Noah.

He is one of two people in the bible that did not die but was taken up to heaven.

Genesis 5:24 “Enoch walked faithfully with God; then he was no more, because God took him away.”

There are books out there that they call Pseudepigrapha.

They are books who are written by someone other than the name of the book.

There are serious questions about this book and there are some inaccuracies in there that were probably a major reason why it wasn’t put in the scripture.

Some people believe this book is totally false and written by someone to spread lies.

Others believe it’s not a book inspired by the Holy Spirit but still has value from a historical perspective.

But some people will say that if Jude quoted from this book then doesn’t that legitimize it?

The problem is that there is a good chance Jude was not quoting from this specific book.

If you actually put the quotes side by side, they are very similar but do have some differences.

Plus Jude does not say, “the book of Enoch prophesied”

He just says, “Enoch prophesied” about these people.

So many scholars believe he could have been quoting a famous prophecy from Enoch that was orally passed down from generation to generation.

Either way the people he was writing to would be aware of this quote.

Jude 1:17-19 “But, dear friends, remember what the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ foretold. 18 They said to you, “In the last times there will be scoffers who will follow their own ungodly desires.” 19 These are the people who divide you, who follow mere natural instincts and do not have the Spirit.”

Jude shifts from using some Old Testament examples of people who rebelled and were punished to now quoting what the apostles of Jesus had said.

And Jude is reminding them that they told us there will be scoffers or mockers who come along and follow THEIR ungodly desires.

They are going to come in and tell you that this is ok.

He’s saying you should know this and be ready for it.

I loved one commentary that said this...

“The constantly needed admonition to remember is frequently repeated in the Scriptures. Forgetfulness of divine directions inevitably tends to spiritual weakness: one degeneration (of mind) leads to another (of soul).”

Meaning when you forget the divine direction from God your spirit/faith will weaken.

I read that and thought what a great reminder for us today.

Seeing what’s going on in our country and I think to myself, “Do Christians forget what the bible says?”

The bible warns us that it’s going to get ugly in the last days.

But it’s all part of God’s plan.

So when I see believers freaking out on social media and acting like it’s the end of the world I just want to remind them of what the bible says.

I’ve said this in the last few weeks.

NOTHING has happened that has surprised God.

And this shouldn’t surprise us either.

Just look at verse 19 again.

“These are the people who divide you, who follow mere natural instincts and do not have the Spirit.”

Jude warned us about this.

People are going to creep in and DIVIDE you.

This country is as divided as it has been since the Civil War.

The church is extremely divided at this time.

Because many people in the church have listened to the lies of the enemy and giving into their natural instincts and are telling other believers that this is ok with God.

It’s people who want the blessings that come with serving God (mainly heaven).

But don’t want to live the life He wants them to live.

Church this is such a big issue today.

Because I want every person that attends City Church to spend eternity in heaven.

So it’s my job to preach the TRUTH of what the word of God says, no matter how difficult or unpopular that may be.

Because you will have NO excuse when you stand before God.

I think some people live in a way where they justify their sin by saying things like, “everyone else is doing it.”

“It’s accepted in our culture so what’s the big deal?”

And the hope is that when they stand before God that will be their excuse and that God will understand that and allow them to enter heaven.

I promise you it won’t work that way!

God doesn’t care what the people around you were doing.

He cares about how YOU lived your life and if YOU were obedient to His word.

That’s why He gave us the bible.

So you could read it for yourself and not rely on other people to tell you what to believe or what is right and wrong.

Next week we are going to finish Jude and see that he actually ends with a word of encouragement.

He’s going to tell us how we can stay away from sin and live an obedient life to Christ.

Altar Call.