Jude 1:3-5 Contending for the Faith Against Apostasy Jude Series #6

[Music] we are studying the small epistle of Jude so if you want to turn there second the last book of the Bible and kind of interesting Jude says it was needful for him to write the intended recipients so that they may earn ously contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the Saints the reason for contending for the faith if you will he'll go on to explain is the entrance of error into the church and why this is so important I've told you maybe this may be the tenth time I'm not sure this little epistle may be more relevant today because we can look back and we can see what exactly was going on in the early church and the warnings that are written here which kind of striking and if I slow down a little bit today please indulge me because there's some things you could just brush right over and potentially miss first of all he talks about some unnamed individuals he says crept in unawares so let me backtrack and let me read verse three beloved when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation it was needful for me to write unto you and to exhort you that you should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the Saints for there are certain men crept in unawares so the first thing we want to look at is these are unnamed individuals we don't know how many but Jude says crept in unawares and as I was reading this I said well if they're unnamed and they crept in that makes them a bunch of creeps but crept in unawares is I said leak leak humor over there it's okay better late than never alright cracked in that where it says crept in Oh where's three English word one Greek word Paras dunno para beside or next to breaking us down ice into and dunno to sink to get down or to enter so some of the older commentators put a little spin on this which I think is right when they use this Greek word they're saying they came in essentially they slid in the side door they didn't come in the back door because that would be like nobody saw it coming but to say that they kept they came in essentially the side doors to say people saw them but nobody really did anything too much there wasn't anything initially to get all in a tizzy about here it says who were before of old ordained to this condemnation and I need to kind of unfold this a little bit to make this make more sense people have wrestled with whether this means that these men that was written from the beginning that they should do this thing but that's not what is being said in the Greek what's being said in the Greek essentially is that this has been going on essentially the prophets of old spoke of these and through the ages there have been these types being spoken of in fact if you remember we've gone through several studies one of them being out of second Corinthians where Paul says some crept in there as false apostles deceitful workers transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ and essentially the the idea here no Marvel Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light so there's that concept that throughout the New Testament is being spoken of so it's not necessarily saying these were ordained to do this act although I'm sure every generation has its Judas's what who Jesus called the son of perdition every generation every church probably has their own but that's not what's being said here and then further description of these men and their character he's referring to them as ungodly men turning the grace of God into lasciviousness and denying the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ let me stop there for a minute because if you think about it this little section I've just read is almost like a synopsis of other passages that we've studied the Apostle Paul says that certain men crept in remember to spy out the liberties of the Galatians right privily they were unaware this is a repeated pattern and in our day and age we have the same thing that goes on you know because I use this terminology and you're familiar with it it has little impact on you it's still actually I think has an impact on some who feel this constantly it is those people who I believe are not sent by God but they're sent by the devil they come under the guise of being Christian brothers and sisters and they will be the first ones to stab you in the back wow they have a giant smile in their face telling you what you're not doing for God you know anybody like that mm-hmm I know a couple people like that so this is nothing new but there's there are some interesting little footprints here he calls these men ungodly and if you want to know that this word is extremely important for Jude just look at verse 15 of the same little book look at verse 15 ungodly ungodly hunky like he uses it over and over to execute judgment upon all and to convince all that are ungodly among them all of their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed and all of their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him and godly ungodly ungodly really that you you probably if you've been here in the amount of time that is a word in the Greek that has an negative particle at the front and a putting it in reverse essentially being irreverent or against God we think of ungodly all kinds of ideas can come to our mind let me go back into this fourth verse again he says ungodly men turning the grace of God of our God into lasciviousness let's talk about this from it the the perversion of grace or the great doctrine which these men tried to subvert which is pretty important think about this the doctrine of grace which is essentially the the peg the center of our theology grace we don't deserve anything that God has put upon us his love his mercy his kindness and yet we're recipients so they were ungodly men turning the grace of God into lasciviousness and somebody said what is what does that really mean lasciviousness carries with it a plethora that's a big English word lawlessness arrogance it carries with it essentially anything that would be going there's specific use of the word but in this case turning the grace of God that which is poured out upon his church sins are forgiven you are loved you are welcomed in the beloved whosoever will right turned into lasciviousness essentially anything that benefits them these creeps that crept in unawares that benefits them perverting the grace of God anything that would be to their license and benefit that's the best way to put this verse denying the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ so I guess a couple of things here not just perverting the grace but denying Christ let's stop for just a second because I will do the translation of this properly I'll either do it here or I'll do it on festival for you but the one thing that's soo four important remember this is the early church so they're denying they're even denying the only Lord here not curious but this but and our Lord Jesus Christ so right off the bat you might think well did they come in to church saying Jesus is not Lord no they came into the church the side-door everybody saw them and whatever their doctrine was that they brought it didn't seem to be that blatantly outrageous at the first but essentially we have this in our day and age and it's too bad as I've said that people are not waking up to the fact that Jesus himself in John's Gospel is recorded in John's Gospel where Jesus talks about he is the door he he's specifically out of his own mouth or by the hand that is recording and taking down the words attributed to John he is the door this is the way in now maybe they came and they said there's another way in there's another path you don't have to do or you don't have to be or maybe you don't have to faith or who cares about the grace of God whatever it was that they were doing they were essentially saying that this what became the center point of the church Jesus Christ resurrected you no denying the lordship denying the ownership that he didn't buy the church with his blood so these are strong words and this is why the rest of this letter is a a check for us it was a check for the intended recipients against apostasy because it's so easy you know I'm sure this has all happened to you at some point it's the middle of the night you wake up you know you really want to be sleeping because you got to get up at 4 or 5 o'clock like I do but I wake up so what's the first thing you do if you can't go back to sleep you turn on the TV and I've done that more than a couple of times and you know you there's not too much on infomercials then you see you know we'll call him the flow deist eyes on a platform ever to be delivered unto man as a preacher and I'm thinkin maybe this is the time that I might hear something that will actually be the gospel preach that could actually it didn't even put me to sleep I was thinking maybe I'll listen it'll put me to sleep it irritated me because I don't want to hear about stories of stories upon stories you know there was an old man and then there was this person over here and the stories just keep building a skyscraper going nowhere and this is in part why I've said we have to be vigilant if the Church of Jesus Christ is pertaining to his out called ones who belong to him then we ought to be concerned about the things that God has spoken to us through his word and not through the storytelling of man and the things everything but Jesus everything but the blood of Christ everything but the grace of God so I love that this tiny little epistle if enough people really are wanting to know he says some very interesting things beginning in verse 5 I will therefore put you in remembrance though you once knew this and let me please stop here you want me to put this this just this opening part of verse 5 in layman's terms who can despise the hearing of the repeated truths of God I will put you in remembrance though you once knew this you once heard this before you know how many times I hear people say well you know you we appreciative that played or it was the same subject matter who cares you got a problem with that because God hasn't said anything new this is the book folks if you don't like the book there's nothing new coming out of it right I love that Judas I'm being I'm doing the colloquial now forgive me but he says I will put you I will therefore put you in remembrance though you once knew this this is why we oughta not despise hearing things over and over again why because oh boy here she goes again how did the words of God abide in you how did they abide how did they stick you keep hearing them you keep listening you know when I first started listening to dr. Scott I heard many messages and I confess I was a distracted listener like many of you undisciplined in my mind so even though he would say are you will gathering or no sir I was knitting blankets in my brain right no sir whoo but I did take in enough of the repetition that there was a time even though I albeit I've said many times in its very early stages because my faith was just at its starting point I was able to sit down and periodically minister to him because everybody needs to be ministered to the greatest of men and women of God need to be ministered to there's nobody that can just exist on their own and be an island unto themselves so this is why I say it's important you think of the words that we take in that you listen to that are repeated all the time what has been referred to as the denning in process but I'd like to refer it also as the heavenly Treasury on with you withdraw daily as needed and that comes from the things that you have heard and you have retained and how do you retain but by repetition so he says I'll put you in remembrance though he once knew this how that the Lord having saved the people out of the land of Egypt afterward destroyed them that believed not now somebody might read this part of the book and say well that's kind of terrible but here's what Jude is doing he is reminding them of the facts of the past he's reminding them of God's deliverance and he's also reminding them that the same God who delivered also how to destroy now you know I wish I could tell you that there's some something Pleasant here at a glean but in fact this is the age of a problem of the church it's the age-old problem of anybody from the garden until now where you get you can get into the state where you think that God well he is such a loving God in years and he's such a forgiving God and he is and he's such a merciful God and he is that it just doesn't matter that you can keep spiritually flipping him off and there are no consequences and this is why I love this little book because as I said it packs a punch now if you wanted to know the breakdown of one small verse and I'm gonna do this I'm gonna take you to a sum which categorically should have been almost interposed on top of this small epistle because it tells of the mercy of God and of the deliverance of the people and yet all of if you want to call it the history of the children of Israel and yet they still could not see what was going on in God basically said I've had enough that this one verse gives me a license to take us to Psalm 106 so we're gonna do a little reading a familiar passages summarized in one Psalm so that we may see a couple of things the subject they've already spoken of last week which is the subject of mercy not grace but mercy the subject of God's grace which means he's saving sinners like me and like you and how even people who beheld miraculous events still could not get it in their head that this God who delivered would eventually have enough I've heard the pages calm down now maybe you're all at Psalm 106 this gives you as I said the little synopsis and it excites my soul because every time I get to jump somewhere and pull something apart in and we as I said this is familiar territory but it is revisiting that familiar territory that's almost like sometimes a wake-up call for us because we've seen the goodness of God maybe we I said we haven't seen miracles like the things that the children of Israel saw but we see miracles every day just the fact for some of us that we wake up and we get to swing our feet off the edge of the bed one more time I count that as a miracle for the day I see people who get delivered from things not we're not talking about substance that's that could be a miracle too but get delivered from things that are what I've called probably more difficult for God to deal with than the things that we can see and behold things that are dangerous to the soul like pride the the worship of self self service and deification of that great miracle but let's dig into the psalm and let's see if we can glean something out of here that might give a little color to that fifth verse out of the little epistle of Jude so Psalm 106 begins with praise and thanksgiving praise either Lord or give thanks unto the Lord for he is good for his mercy remember we talked about that word last week he said endureth forever and I'm reading the italics even though they're added by the translators you've been here know that who can utter the mighty acts of the Lord who can show forth all his praise blessed are they that keep judgment and he that doeth righteousness and righteousness at all times remember me O Lord with favor that thou barest unto thy people or visit me with thy salvation that I may see the good of thy chosen that I may rejoice in the gladness of thy nation that I may glory with thine inheritance now here's really where every single person if you're looking to find a lesson for you and for me today should begin you know how many times I don't hear people say these words they say something else it's yeah as a pastor I am subjected to listening to the press play button and mouth is engaged and it may take 20 minutes for somebody to say we have sinned or I have sinned and by the way the first the first act is not a sin against man it's always a sin against God like David said against thee and thee alone of eyesand even though by the way he committed a sin I'm referring to David's act who committed a sin by murdering impregnating Bathsheba and murdering Uriah which are sins against fellow man but the first thing he says is I've sinned against thee O God the first thing I've done we have that right everything else can line up properly the psalmist says here we have sinned with our fathers we have committed iniquity we have done wickedly our fathers understood not thy wonders in Egypt and the writer is talking about exactly the same thing I mentioned last week who could possibly explain away the miraculous events that occurred before the Exodus who could possibly if if we were there could you make an excuse I mean I know today science people would say oh it's global warming or you know there's there's frogs and there's all of these you know pestilent flies because we're not paying attention to how we dispose of our waste it's improper waste management and you know the day of the what what would that be back then in the day not the AQMD but you know they would be studying the air control they'd say well there's a reason behind this plague here that you're calling a plague you know it's because the people of Egypt haven't disposed properly of their sacrifices or something this is why this has happened but our fathers understood not thy wonders in Egypt they remembered not the multitude of thy mercies there's the word again remember his Compassion's his loving kindness but provoked him at the sea even at the Red Sea so it's kind of interesting that the psalmist is taking note of what happened sins committed against God in Egypt before they were even delivered sins committed even at the Red Sea nevertheless he saved them for his name's sake this is I have this circled in my Bible and have had it circled here for so long I did a message on this I know but he saved them for his namesake you want to go through the names of God and trace back there there is nothing good in you and me or in these that he saved to say he would save them for that reason but for his name's sake that he might make his mighty power to be known he rebuked the Red Sea also and it was dried up so he led them through the depths and through the wilderness so we not only have a catalogue of God's miracles as they occurred before they exited Egypt miracles happening at the Red Sea where whether the waters were parted or they abated however you want to describe it that they passed on through and that the chariots of the Egyptians that were pursuing them were covered up with water there afterwards you know there's plenty to read in here that God's gonna take care of your enemies just you gotta trust him and even though these baktun complain he still took care of their enemies still delivered them and into the wilderness he saved them from the hand of him that hated them this is referring to their first entry on their way and their journeyings redeemed them from the hand of the enemy the waters covered their enemies there was not one of them left now here's an interesting verse 12 then believe they his words they sang his praises they actually here they amend his words they sang his praise you know why they didn't Amen his words and sing his praise while they were in Egypt and God sent all these plagues and even since the Death Angel and they had to apply the blood to the doorpost and those that didn't died and those that did lived and exited why they didn't say Amen then who knows but here at least now they they're looking back they've been delivered they amend his words they sang his praise but look at the next verse they soon forgot his works they waited not from his counsel yeah yeah we know what he did back there but come on let's go why should we wait weren't patient but lusted exceedingly in the wilderness and tempted God in the desert this is why it's just a miracle that God would put up with this type of stuff over and over and over again somebody asked me a question about my late husband and I distinctly remember this wasn't one of my answers that you know the way dr. Scott was viewed by some people obviously they didn't understand that he did put up with a lot of people's insanity and what I would call putting up with as long-suffering some people said you know well was he and was an impatient person no he was actually very patient gave people chance after chance after chance and if there's any time where I can look back and say that is a god-like quality of any individual now multiply I it sounds like I'm speaking of dr. Scott and one individual multiply many many many individuals that you've got exercise patients and you become extremely short in your patients allotment they but he somehow even though I say repeatedly these events would always happen he found a way to give people second third fourth fifth chances and he was very as I said it's a godlike trait and I looked to God and I see how it would have been easy for God right then and there at this moment to say done you're all done I mean he gave think about this hundreds of years earlier he gave his worth to Abraham told told Abram you'd become Abraham told him about the going into bonds and coming out a great people a great nation and here they are now delivered they are the walking embodiment of what God says and it says right after they right after they aim and his words and sang his praises then they soon I liked that King James old English they forgot with an a you from New York you forgot forgot his works they waited not for his counsel but lusted exceedingly in the wilderness and tempted God in the desert and he gave them their request but sent leanness into their soul now take a look at this we have the four if you want to hang some ideas here the first one is a sin of discontentment if you're looking at verses 13 through 15 through 16 rather maybe they envied Moses also in the camp and Aaron the saint of the Lord so they had the sin of envy or jealousy discontentment and these are going to be chronicling events that happen from Exodus 16 and numbers 11 on through number 16 and so on this for me is a particularly memorable memorable passage it says the earth opened up and swallowed up Dathan and covered the company of a Byram and I always say why can't God do that today you know there's a couple of people I'd say come here let's let's talk about it you stand right over there all right I don't know why God doesn't do that anymore but if I was a spectator and God opened up the earth and swallowed up 250 men and their families I'd be like yeah so and if you're sick where we're marching to Zion never you say but still this is why this is why I love this because you keep reading this and you think just how much do you need to see how many times you need to see something before it gets in your head that God is not only a God of love mercy but he's a God of power foremost he's in control he's able to deliver fire was kindled in their company flame burned up the wicked now we go from the sin of discontentment envy and jealousy to idolatry they made a calf in Horeb and worship the molten image it's very interesting this verse 20 thus they changed their glory into the simul tune of an ox that eateth grass and I am very much inclined to think that this was fashioned after APIs the Egyptian bull God anything you know the the the passage out of Exodus 32 why Aaron gave way when they made the request and said we don't know what happened to Moses when's he coming back and he said okay put all your gold will melt it down why Aaron did that is this it's still a mystery every time I read that I can't figure it out because here's Aaron who's beside Moses he's not he's not somebody in the camp he's right at his brother's side and yet he still succumbed to the pressure of the people don't forget this is all background everything that I'm highlighting his background to something that Jude is speaking against that was still going on in his day but he's saying you know this but I'm calling it to your mind how that these things happened and within the frame of the little epistle of dude you're gonna find a lot of this idolatry jealousy envy gainsaying it's all there he talks about it all but this opens it up very clearly again they forgot God their Savior which had done great things in Egypt wondrous works in the land of ham terrible things by the Red Sea therefore he said that he would destroy them had not Moses his chosen stood before him in the breach to turn away his wrath lest he should destroy them and Moses acting as an intercessor for the people and the tragedy that the people didn't understand the magnitude of what Moses had uttered when he was petitioning on their behalf before God I mean any other human being could say whatever you want about Moses any other human being I don't think would have said blocked me out or if you blot them out you see how it's gonna how people are gonna look look upon you in other words he cared more about God in God's Word most people just said I'd go ahead wipe him out next but he petitioned for them and God heard in verse 24 through 27 makes another section which I'm going to use the word I don't like to use the word unbelief but in the context of this Psalm in the context of the words being used in Jude we either say you have you believe you are either believing or you're fading in this case there's not too much of a separation here the fact of the matter is it was on or diss away the other direction from God yeah they despised the pleasant land they believed not his word they did not Amen his word they did not accept embrace listen harken obey understand appreciate acknowledge nada but murmured in their tents hearkened not unto the voice of the Lord therefore he lifted up his hand against them to overthrow them in the wilderness to overthrow their seed also among the nations and to scatter them in the lands so you have here what God is now having to suffer through which is they said amen back there at some point briefly and now they've gone the other way and that's hard to put the Hebrew in the negative but they just basically turn back the other way from listening to God and appreciating singing praises remembering to going the other way now forgive me for saying this because we've all done this before there's there's an a person that sounded my voice starting with me but there's an a person that sound of my voice who hasn't done this you heard God's Word you face came it welled up inside of you in a moment you became absolutely certain for whatever it is you were fading upon and then the next wave of doubt came that knocked you down again and you were basically almost starting from scratch it took you a while to get your bearings back again you had to figure out how to get up or how to get started but these people weren't even doing that they weren't even saying you know how do we get back they just drew back they turned away which essentially is the definition the Old Testament uses for sin all all we like sheep have gone astray we've gone everyone to his own way this is essentially what's being said here now I don't know about you but there's nothing more annoying to me and there is nothing more annoying to me I think in life if I tell you I'm gonna be somewhere at a certain time and I have a track record now and you just say I'm talking to somebody back there and I say your knowing me for 25 years and every every time I've said I'm gonna be somewhere I have a track record that says I've said I was gonna be there and I'm there now if I mess up one time cut me some slack but if I tell you I'm going to be there and your first reaction to me saying I'm gonna be there is what I'm not sure if you're actually gonna show up well been doing this for 25 years and picking you up for 25 years I'm not sure you're going to show up when you say will I start getting a little like okay then get your own ride buddy right go find a tricycle or a bike or go get a pogo stick or something I don't know but don't look at me if you're gonna put me on the spot after my track record I wish that God would have said that to these people what is wrong with you and I wish he would have done that right then and there and catalog for them in your face what I have repeatedly done for you over these years 40 years in the wilderness tells me you you know you you come to know and you come to see but of those events it says only Moses came to know God's and see God's ways and know God it seems like everybody else had the eyeballs that lacked the ability for clarity of what was going on that looked good on radio didn't it glasses were for all the people who are trying to watch on radio oh boy you shouldn't crack myself up like that but I do first 28 begins a new section that's being addressed in Psalm 106 they join themselves also unto Bale peor and eat the sacrifices of the Dead here comes the apostasy if the sin of envy jealousy idolatry dis faith wasn't enough here comes the apostasy they join themselves also unto beth unto BHEL Puri and eat the sacrifices of the Dead thus they provoked him to anger with their inventions and the plague broke up upon them then stirred up phineas and executed judgments of the play was plagued with stayed that's interesting how again I said you can see this through the history of the church and through the history of this book apostasy happens like that now you may see well this is quite archaic how are you going to make this relevant to what's going on in Jude and what's happening today I'll tell you how some people come into the church and there used to church music the kind of church music that's high liturgical if you have any vocalists it's very choir choral sounding and it's very high church stained-glass type there's nothing wrong with that but somebody who hasn't been exposed to contemporary music will come in and say well the music is offensive to me and they'll go in pursuit of listening to music that pleases them you might say what's this have to do with this everything or somebody will come and say well I don't like that the pastor is wearing a bright yellow jacket I don't like the cheese a woman either and I don't like she got curly hair or they should wearing makeup okay next Sunday I'll show up with a bag over my head because the main reason for you coming into the church isn't music or the attire or the gender it's to hear the Word of God and to be edified and built up in the faith and to have a closer relationship with him and anything else becomes what I've called the possibility for apostasy simply because it becomes the temptation to search after things which really have little or no bearing on the meat which is the design of the Church of the early church it says they came in and they all agreed and were with one mind one Accord in the Apostles doctrine what was that Jesus Christ is risen they didn't have a whole New Testament the New Testament wasn't written so if they had something maybe a Septuagint what was the Old Testament but it was the only Word of God then well I don't like the way this guy's you know he's his sandals look too much like this style I don't know how they did in the early church what they picked apart then but I'm saying apostasy can happen in the most subtle of ways and it happens regularly in this day and age because people are coming in and they are so contaminated in their minds as to what exactly the church's design is the word even apostasy which I should be called the acts of the apostates but the word apostasy comes from a Greek word the compound apple out of and stimmy from to stand we get our word to step it is the the moving away from so it's kind of sad that you think about it the ultimate act here apostasy and God had to put a plague on them to get their attention again but it happens all the time and if it's not for one thing it's another people are brilliant at making excuses to cover up the very essence of what is wrong with their brains now I'm not telling you that I'm perfect and I don't have any troubles I'm just like you we're all the same and yes we all have the the potential to become critical and judgmental I know that better than anybody but if you have come into a place called the church which is essentially a people that belong to the Lord you'd think the people who belong to the Lord want to know what the Lord has to say to them not about all these other things which are unimportant and when you past that point you're on the track to somewhere with God not with the individual who's the pastor but somewhere on the track with God pass the idea somehow that the person standing in the pulpit is going to check every one of your personal specialty preferences yes sir yeah check the box here this works well last one in this Psalm begins in verse 32 and believe it or not this is actually there's two and one here this happens often verse 32 they angered him also at the waters of strife so that it went ill with Moses for their sakes that's very poetic of the King James it went ill no it went worse than ill Moses was denied entry into the promised land because of the people griping and complain it went ill that's a mild understatement because they provoked his spirit so that he speak unadvisedly with his lips they did not destroy the nation concerning whom the lord commanded mrs. insurrection against god's person and God's Word God said to Moses speak to the rock in anger he ended up obviously striking the rock in terms of the nation they were told to destroy again another one of these God said go out there and do the sand so but the people know they're not gonna do what they're told so I said two for one insurrection or disobedience however you want to talk about that but we're mingled among the heathen and learned their works what have I been saying that I said last week and I believe the week before out of Romans 12 Paul says be not conformed to the world be ye transformed metamorphosed these people of God it says they mingled among the heathen and learned their works and they serve their idols Justin in just let's just integrate let's just all hold hands wrong neighbors right hello neighbor hello neighbor we're all gonna get along so all all all have a couple of your idols in my house and we don't have any idols to yahwah so you're kind of Sol right there but Baal take your idols into my house and willing will take up your practices and then we can really be hello neighbor we can be neighbors right conform to the world which serve their idols which were a snare unto them now I'm not telling you I'm not one of these people who's stay away from the people who are worldly no in fact you should associate with worldly people I do all the time I think it's a one of the highest things you can do in life is don't try and put yourself into some monastic you know your holier-than-thou and you can't mingle with other people no you're you're out there in the world where the rubber meets the road and instead of trying to beat people over the head with Scripture and tell them like me like church lady or or brother church guy over there you just live and Jesus says you're light you're soft and you're light people can see who have eyes to see it will see the light it cannot be hid you don't need to walk a beat with em alight but I've told you that before and some people just think they're real bright so it doesn't matter yeah they sacrifice their sons and their daughters under Devil's here you can see they committed murder and shed innocent blood even the blood of their sons and of their daughters whom they sacrificed unto idols under the idols of Canaan and the land was polluted with blood thus were they defiled with their own works itself and went whoring with their own inventions this is all about me and what I can get there for was the wrath of the Lord kindled against his people and so much that he abhorred his own inheritance he gave them into the hand of the heathen and they that heeded them ruled over them do you realize that this is a catalogue here of from before they left Egypt to the Red Sea to the wilderness and this actually this Psalm takes us actually all the way into the land and still the people you remember the story that only two came back from spying out the land and and amen to what God had said about the land that this is a good land and I'll give it unto you they'd forgot that part of the promise and basically the rest of the camp was convinced that they shouldn't enter in they won't go in only two that went in amen what God had said and God basically took care of that first generation in the wilderness you can read in as many places as you want it says he strew their bones in the wilderness and only their children entered into that land plus the to their children plus the two plus their new leader Joshua so if you want to know what long-suffering mercy and grace look like it's as many times did he deliver them but they provoked him with their counsel and were brought low for their iniquity nevertheless and this is what I want us to wrap our minds around nevertheless he regarded their affliction he heard their cry he remembered them he remembered for them his covenant and repented according to the multitude of his mercies his steadfast love he made them also to be pitied of all those that were that carried them captives save us O Lord our God and gather us from among the heathen to give thanks unto thy Holy Name and to triumph in thy praise blessed be the Lord God of Israel from everlasting to everlasting and that all the people say Amen now what's interesting about this is I just chronicled for you what they might think that's a lot of chronicling how could that be in one verse but essentially there's no doubt in my mind that when Jude was talking and reminding the people in that one passage what I have just highlighted discontentment envy jealousy idolatry unbelief apostasy insurrection disobedience murder all the things that God had done and yet they forgot he's calling these people to memory like a lawyer in a courtroom let me remind you of the events and he's not saying it as some fantasy saying factually this is what happened and this is why he tells them at the beginning that they should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the Saints it will never make sense to you or to me how through it seems to forget about every generation every year there is some new person that comes on the scene in Christendom and they've got some new doctrine they've got some new special something and multitudes gather to listen to take copious notes of what I'm not sure but this is why this little book is not a mistake and this one verse we just looked at and I just took you and read through the whole Psalms to say this is the history of humankind in the presence of God Jude's perspective is hey let me let me shake you up a little bit because these people that came in the side door you're aware it's not like they came in from behind and you didn't see him you see him come in and yet essentially he's not telling them but she didn't do nothing he's simply saying you can see for yourselves using the words crept in unaware now he's going to go on to describe several different other situations including the Angels Sodom Gomorrah as so forth but it's all the whole design is to say it can happen in any age and I again I'm gonna digress to something I mentioned last week tell me how it's possible and its history that you're familiar with because I've talked about it so much and you who have been around have read extensively on the subject of the Reformation tell me how it happened that the Catholic Church pre-reformation became so perverted and corrupt and don't say oh well that's just Catholicism at large Catholicism and it's understanding the Catholic Church originally didn't mean the Catholic faith it meant the universal Church it became the Catholic Church as we have come to use the terminology much later but how did it become so pervert and so corrupt that by the time a man like Martin Luther comes on the stage and there was corruption way before his time the common people weren't even allowed to partake of the Lord's Supper forbidden to hear God's Word in a tongue that they could understand how did the church get so corrupt and yet this all happened in front of people now I've said this before they had an excuse whereas in our day we have mass production of Bibles maybe it wasn't accessible to them I understand that so maybe they didn't know what sayeth the Word of God what saith the scriptures I understand that but on the flip side how interesting that during the period that a man like Martin Luther is basically rebelling and coming to his own understanding about the scriptures how interesting that a whole movement follows him not not because they were following a rebel because they were following somebody who was trying to press back and get back in line with God that's the bottom line and you may not like the method of those who come to try and bring Reformation there's there's a book full of these in fact a few of the Kings in Israel tried to bring Reformation which lasted for a little time a very little time because apostasy and corruption and rebellion is deeply embedded in the heart of man so it didn't last for very long and today's society I was just reading an article which kind of makes you just go that's terrible but one of the one of the many reasons people are saying that our society at large has basically digressed and crumbled from what it was 50 years ago and and this was in reference to the family home its integrity the workplace there's a whole litany of things in this article had much to do with the way people viewed and you know it's a strange word that I'm gonna say a strange word but how people viewed morality 50 years ago and the Bible and I'm not saying that the two are necessarily linked together but how their view of that society's view of morality and their religious practices versus what's going on today and even 50 years has made everything almost go to the point where as I said the ability to speak freely is gone so no one dare say words that sound condemned natori of god's book this is what I love about Jude he's bringing this to their memory he's saying this is what God did now we have to fight and contend for the faith which was delivered to us don't let it slip out of your hands don't be complacent about it don't treat it as if there's going to be another bus coming in five minutes so you can just miss this one fight Paul said it fight the good fight of faith fighting for the faith isn't by the way Saints fighting under the guise of protecting the faith against other Saints I I put that as a special passage in the Bible that says mark those that cause contention among you and avoid them because there's many of these people that come into the church and they say well alright if Pastor was doing it right and if the pastor was doing this and if they they have a thousand different complaints about what the pastor's not doing but these are the same people who never lift a finger all they do is open their mouths and spew so we are to be vigilant and if there's anything that I'm gonna glean out of this book for us two things what I read out of the psalm says let's not be remiss in reflecting back on all the things that the Lord has done for us and all the ways the Lord has led us speaking not just of this church but you individually and myself as an individual to not forget His mercies the things that he's he has done because it's very easy to kind of barrel through and forget that even the smallest things if we haven't attributed them to him and secondly that we are to be vigilant which brings me to this church it's not this calling is not an easy calling being called to a place where there are no frills and there's no fancy stuff and it's not like some other place where you've got the fans blowing and the special effects this is this really is a fight of faith and people who come to the faith have to be vigilant that doesn't mean that you come in and somehow you have to live this perfect life or be some legalistic freak it means you keep contending for the faith you heard the word preach faith came by hearing now don't go trying to look up some new thing that's gonna take you into some fantasy vortex of some some subject that tickles your fancy but you stay in the book you stay rooted and grounded in the faith and you keep fighting on this way and you keep doing that your whole journey until you hear the words over there enter in well done good and faithful servant I don't know any other way to make it in works won't get you in praying that it might work somehow and another way is not going to get you in but the life of faith and contending for the faith which is what we do here and have done all these years and especially for me it has been an incredible battle and I look at from God's perspective I just spoke of our perspective but from God's perspective I believe this is why Christ asked the question when the Son of Man comes will he find faith I believe that's why because he knowing what Paul wrote about in a very cryptic way which is unfolded in the book of Revelation regarding the last days tells you that there going to be a lot of people who depart from the faith there gonna be a lot of people who think well just saying the name of Jesus and this is why Christ said many will come and say Lord Lord didn't I do the sand so in your name depart from me I never knew you it's a wake-up call to the church at large not just faith center or Wescott Christian Center it's a wake-up call to say be vigilant if you're not going to be exercising and contending for the faith delivered to you it ain't going to happen just by osmosis so what I'm gleaning out of this for us today we already have one and have the victory we still have to come up and claim it as he's already done it we stand in faith and we say he's done it all I have to keep marching on being the warrior called to that life of fighting the good fight that fight of faith until the day comes where God says not where I say I may be ready but he says it's time for you to come home I will be able to say I kept the faith I'm asking you to do the same that's my message you've been watching me pastor Melissa Scott live from Glendale California faith center if you would like to attend the service with us Sunday morning at 11 a.m. simply call

Channel: Pastor Melissa Scott, Ph.D.

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Keywords: Jude, Pastor Melissa Scott, Apostasy, Contend for the Faith, contending for the faith, apostasy prologue, book of jude, book of jude kjv, book of jude bible study, book of jude explained, jude law, dr gene scott resurrection, dr gene scott classics, contending for the faith sermons, contend for the faith sermon, book of jude sermon, pastor scott, pastor melissa scott, ungodly, Jude 4, Jude Series, melissa scott pastor, melissa scott, jude 1:1, bible study, slaves of christ

Id: 1PqPu2TYOJo

Length: 58min 0sec (3480 seconds)

Published: Sun Aug 05 2018