Jude: Fighting for the Faith Part 3

Jude  •  Sermon  •  Submitted
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This morning we are finishing up our series on the book of Jude.
Jude has challenged us to fight for the faith.
To stand up against false teachers who have crept into the church.
When you dive into the text you see that Jude is talking specifically about sexual sin.
The false teachers have come in and told them that God has shown them through their dreams that it was ok to live a life of sexual sin.
We talked last week about how we have to be careful and use discernment when someone gives a prophetic word.
And Jude said they, “pervert the grace of our God into a license for immorality.”
He then compares these false teachers to people in the past who have disobeyed God and were punished.
Like Sodom and Gomorrah, Cain, and Balaam.
So we’ve talked about how this book could very easily be written to America today.
That our culture is forcing us to accept sexual sin.
Whether it’s sex before marriage or living an LGBTQ lifestyle.
Our culture is doing their best to show us how normal this is and that it’s ok.
That’s why you see it all over movies and TV.
And the church has started to accept it.
Because our culture tries to make us feel like we’re terrible people if we don’t agree with them.
If you say you don’t support the LGBTQ lifestlyle they’ll ask, “why do you HATE them so much?”
As believers we shouldn’t hate anyone.
We’re called to love.
But we are called to stand for truth.
And I can love you and stand up for truth at the same time.
And if I really do love you it’s my job to let you know what the truth is.
What good is love if you can’t tell someone the truth.
We ended last week talking about verses 17-19 where Jude is telling the church that the apostles who followed Jesus warned us about this.
That scoffers or mockers were going to come and give into their ungodly desires.
That they are going to try to divide you.
Doesn’t that sound familiar?
But they should be ready for it.
This takes us to the last few verses in this book.
Jude ends his letter by encouraging the church.
By telling them what they can do to overcome this temptation coming from these false teachers.
Jude 1:20-25 “ But you, dear friends, by building yourselves up in your most holy faith and praying in the Holy Spirit,
He says, “building yourselves up in your most HOLY faith.”
What does that mean?
First what does the word HOLY mean?
It means to be “set apart”.
He’s making the point that your faith should be “HOLY” or set apart from the world or from other religions.
If you say you have faith in Jesus but your life doesn’t look any different than the people of the world then you clearly don’t have a HOLY faith.
You’re not set apart.
1 Peter 1:15-16 “But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; 16 for it is written: “Be holy, because I am holy.”
Many scholars believe when Jude says to “build yourselves up” he’s encouraging them to study the words and writings of Jesus and the Apostles.
The first thing you need to be doing to stand up against what our culture is throwing at us is to study the word of God.
So many believers are being deceived by these false teachings because they don’t really know what the bible says on these issues.
It’s so easy nowadays to find verses that deal with specific issues.
It’s called GOOGLE!
All you have to do is google, “verses about sexual immorality” or “verses on homosexuality”.
And a bunch of websites that will show all these verses will pop up.
One site that I like to use is called “openbible.info/topics”
It will have a spot that says, “what does the bible say about _______?”
The point is you can find answers about how God feels about the issues we are facing today.
I think the problem is a lot of times we don’t WANT to know what the bible says.
We like being told that what we are doing is ok.
It helps us to feel good about our sin.
So if you want to build yourselves up.
You want to have a true HOLY faith?
Start by reading the Word of God.
Let Him speak to you through His Word.
Then he said, “praying in the Holy Spirit.”
Many believe Jude is talking about praying in tongues.
Some commentaries said that this prayer is, “an expression that includes, but is not confined to, praying in tongues.”
Basically he’s encouraging the church to pray either way but pray in the Spirit if possible.
Now some believers and other denominations don’t believe that praying in tongues is for today.
However, we are NOT one of those churches!
We are a Spirit filled church that believes in the baptism of the Holy Spirit and that his spiritual gifts are still in operation today.
Part of that is praying in tongues.
Paul talks about this in 1 Corinthians 14
1 Corinthians 14:2 “For anyone who speaks in a tongue does not speak to people but to God. Indeed, no one understands them; they utter mysteries by the Spirit.”
When you pray in tongues you sound like a crazy person!
But it’s not supposed to make sense to us.
It’s a language that only God can understand.
It’s the Holy Spirit speaking through you to God.
That’s why even if you feel like you don’t know what to pray about, you can just sit there and pray in the Spirit.
And when I pray in the Spirit it’s like I instantly just feel the presence of God.
If you haven’t been baptized in the Holy Spirit or received your prayer language our prayer team after service would love to pray with you for that.
21 Keep yourselves in God’s love as you wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to bring you to eternal life.
Jude is encouraging the people to remain in God’s love.
Meaning don’t let these false teachers cause you to walk away from God.
Remain in Him and in His love.
This is another verse that you could use to show that people can walk away from the faith.
We talked in detail on this topic when I went through the book of James last spring.
I do not believe in eternal security or once saved always saved.
There are too many scriptures that talk about falling away from the faith.
Now that doesn’t mean that God doesn’t love you.
You see our relationship with God is a two way street.
God loves us and sent Jesus to die for us.
But we have to choose to accept that and then walk it out.
And if you keep your eyes on Jesus and truly surrender you life to Him you have nothing to worry about.
But if you start heading down a path where you are living a life of sin and God really doesn’t have a big part of your life you can end up walking away from Him.
And I believe that’s why Jude is saying, “keep yourselves in God’s love.”
Because God’s love is ALWAYS there for you.
But you have to REMAIN in His love while we wait for the return of Jesus.
22 Be merciful to those who doubt; 23 save others by snatching them from the fire; to others show mercy, mixed with fear—hating even the clothing stained by corrupted flesh.”
Jude at this point is encouraging the church to however show mercy to those who are struggling with their faith.
Who may be giving into these lies.
He’s telling them that the goal is obviously to snatch them from the fire of hell in which they could be heading towards if they don’t turn from their ways.
And as believers this is something that we should be doing as well.
We just did a whole series on this called, “Christian”.
We talked about how people will know we are disciples of Jesus by how we love.
We need to love those people in our lives who may be listening to the lies and false teachings going on in our culture today.
It’s not going to do any good to just condemn them and tell them how terrible of a Christian they are.
But we go to them in love and show them WHY what they are doing is wrong according to God.
We encourage them and tell them that we are discussing this with them because we care about them.
But too many times we want to just yell and scream and make people feel like crap because of what they are doing.
You’re not going to reach someone that way.
Speak the truth in LOVE.
Now Jude ends his letter what your bible might call a doxology which means, “an ascription of glory or praise”.
He’s going to end with encouraging the church with what God can do for them.
Jude has already encouraged his readers to remain in God’s love.
That’s our part we play in our relationship.
To balance that he shares what God’s part is.
This should give us all hope that we can stand up against sin.
To not give into the lies of false teachers or our culture.
“24To him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy—”
I like one commentary that said, “So the dual thought is that it is the believer’s duty to keep him or herself in God’s love by maintaining a steady gaze upon God; it is God’s responsibility to do the active protecting from evil attack, however open or insidious that onslaught may be.
This is such a powerful verse.
This is one of those scriptures that some of you need to memorize and put on your mirror or fridge to remind yourself everyday.
It says, “now to HIM who is able to keep you from stumbling.”
I think to myself how many times do we try to break free from sin in our own strength?
How many times do we try to resist temptation in our own strength?
And how successful are we when we try that?
Because we don’t have the power to overcome sin.
We need the POWER of the Holy Spirit.
And when you do the things Jude was talking about like being in the Word and praying constantly, now you’re relying on God’s strength which He says I can keep you from stumbling.
2 Corinthians 12:9 “But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.”
Like I’ve said before, THAT’S what grace does for you.
Grace is not a free pass to sin which is what Jude is talking about.
Grace gives us the POWER to overcome sin.
So if you’re battling with sin in your life, the only way to get rid of it is to truly surrender your heart to God and pray and seek God’s face.
To ask for the GRACE to overcome.
For the GRACE to keep from stumbling over and over again.
And he’ll do it.
It may take some time but I truly believe that if you truly seek God, pray, and make the sacrifices needed to overcome any sin, God will do it.
And what I mean by sacrifices is there are things that we need to do to help ourselves.
I use the example of if I was a recovering alcoholic how successful would I be if every time I opened my fridge there was a bunch of beer staring at me?
Or I go to the bars after work with my buddies all the time?
I need to make some wise choices to help me not be tempted by what I’m struggling with.
And over time with the help of the Holy Spirit I believe you can get to a point where you don’t even feel tempted to do the things you used to do.
But if you are struggling with sin in your life, give it to God.
He’s the only one that can set you free.
And then we can have confidence that we will stand before God “without fault and with great joy.”
25 to the only God our Savior be glory, majesty, power and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all ages, now and forevermore! Amen.”
Jude ends his letter with reemphasizing who God is.
He’s the ONLY God
There is no other God but He is the one true God.
He is our SAVIOR
NOTHING else in this world can save you.
There is no multiple ways to heaven.
Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. Nobody comes to the Father except through me.”
If you want to spend eternity in heaven there’s only one way to get there.
It’s not by being a good person.
It’s not by going to church once in a while.
It’s not by believing that there is a God out there.
It’s by believing and devoting your life to JESUS CHRIST!
What follows is not a prayer but a declaration of praise: be glory, majesty, power, and authority. The four terms describe God’s attributes.
Glory is the essential radiance of divine light;
the word for power means dominion, the absolute control God has over his world, which ensures his ultimate triumph over all opposition from whatever source;
transcendent majesty is applied only to the Father;
authority expresses his sovereign ability to do all that is necessary to meet human needs.
And he finishes by reminding us that God has been here through all ages.
From the beginning to the end He will reign!
AMEN (so be it)
Church I believe as a body of believers Jude is talking to us today.
And we need to fight for our faith.
There’s a lot of deceiving messages being thrown our way.
We need to be in the Word and in prayer asking God to show us HIS truth.
And then we need to have faith and believe that God is able to keep us from stumbling.
To keep us on the path that He has for us!
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