Jude chapter one beginning in verse one. Jude, a bondservant of Jesus Christ and brother of James, to those who are the called beloved in God the Father and kept for Jesus Christ, may mercy and peace and love be multiplied to you. Beloved, while I was making every effort to write you about our common salvation, I felt the necessity to write to you, appealing that you contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all handed down to the Saints, where certain persons have crept in unnoticed, those who were long beforehand marked out for this condemnation, ungodly persons who turn the grace of our God into licentiousness and deny our only master and Lord Jesus Christ. Now, I desire to remind you Though you know all things once for all, that the Lord, after saving a people out of the land of Egypt, subsequently destroyed those who did not believe. I'm starting a new series tonight. If you have an outline, you'll see that the series is called Expositional Apologetics, which simply is a a reference to defending the faith. Now, I've got a couple of comments already that I've got a new typeset on the outlines, and so that's going to do absolutely nothing for your spiritual life, but it does change things up a little bit there. And it's also been pointed out that I put the wrong date on there, so that's not all that uncommon because I'm frequently confused about what day it is. I always know it's Sunday, but the number dates throw me for a loop. So, tonight we begin this series. I'm not going to stay in Jude all the way throughout, so I'm not preaching through the book of Jude in this series. We're going to be in various passages, probably throughout the summer. But tonight we're going to start out here in Jude chapter 1 and look at the idea of the call to defend the faith. And, of course, the title of this series, as you can see, Expositional Apologetics, those are both Big words that are simple to understand. Expositional, as you see on your outline, simply means to expose or to present something from the Bible. You've heard the phrase expository preaching, which means preaching that comes from the Bible. And so the idea here is that we would look at Scripture and that we would bring out what the Scriptures say about defending the faith, not only in terms of how we do it, but in terms of what faith we're defending and how we go about it. And so expositional, meaning it comes from the Bible. And of course, apologetics is simply the big word that means to defend the faith is from the Greek word apologia, which means to give a defense or to defend. And so usually when you hear the word apologetics, I remember when I was in seminary and I saw I was going to have to take a class in apologetics. A lot of times you're not sure what that means. What do I need to apologize? I don't need to apologize for my belief. Well, apologia, what it means is to defend. And so you think of an apology as saying I'm sorry, but what it technically means is to give a defense. And so sometimes when you apologize, you also give a defense, don't you? Well, I'm sorry I said that, but here's the reason I did. Or, I'm sorry I did that, but I had a good reason for it, and here's the reason I did. And so when you say, I'm sorry, that's not really the apology. The defense is the apology. And so that's what we talk about tonight and in the coming weeks. expositional apologetics defending the faith and specifically defending the faith from the Scriptures. And so it's interesting when you think about that and when we talk about defending the faith obviously we're talking about engaging unbelievers in terms of evangelism but also engaging those who would profess to be Christians. Some of them genuinely are. Some of them are not. And so sometimes there are theological issues which you engage in apologetics even amongst brothers and sisters in Christ. Iron sharpens iron that sort of thing. And so when we talk about this we can talk about it in the sense of talking with other Christians about theological issues or obviously in a big sense we defend the faith against unbelievers and with the goal hopefully that the Lord would change their heart and they would become believers. And so when we talk about this we talk about defending the faith in a lot of different venues a lot of different ways but it's always interesting for me to consider that. When we defend the faith, we don't have to be smarter than the person that we're talking to. A lot of times we put pressure on ourselves to defend the faith and say, you know what, this particular person, they're way smarter than me and they're a lot more quick-witted than me. And if I try to share the gospel with them, if I try to talk theology with them, they're just going to baffle me. They're going to make me look stupid. So a lot of times we have this pressure that we put upon ourselves, but what I find very refreshing is that when you truly believe in a God who is sovereign over all things, it takes the pressure completely off of us. What I mean by that is you don't have to be smarter than the person that you're talking to. You don't have to have a higher IQ. You don't have to be quicker witted than them. You don't have to shout louder than them because none of those things are going to convert them. None of those things are going to change their hearts. I've heard it said By an apologist, a Christian apologist recently, I love the way he put it, he said it's not our job to change their hearts, it is our job to shut their mouths. And what he means by that, he's not being rude about that, but he's talking about the fact that all these arguments that are brought up against Christianity, we tear them down. And the way we do that is not that we have to know more than every other person we encounter. For example, I mean, you think of all the different religions out there. You say, well, if I'm going to witness to Muslims, I need to know everything there is to know about Islam. If I'm going to witness to Hindus, I need to know everything there is to know about Hinduism. Well, it might be nice to know some things about their belief system, but ultimately to share the gospel, you don't have to know every wrong thing that's out there. You simply have to know the one right thing that is and defend that and present that because it is the gospel. It is the power of God unto salvation. And so it's not as though we have to outsmart them or trick them into believing we can't do that anyway. God has to change the heart and the way he's told us that he's going to do that is by the proclamation of the gospel. And so we simply speak the truth. We defend the truth. We stick to the truth and trust God with the results. And so as far as I'm concerned all the pressure is off of you. All the pressure is off of me in terms of Defending the faith and presenting the truth. We simply go out and present it. We can't change their hearts. We're not even called to. And so we simply stick to the truth and trust God. And so if you can remember those two things, you can defend the faith, stick to the truth and trust God. And so that's what we talk about beginning tonight. And what I'd like to begin with is the call to defend the call to defend the faith. Notice this in verse three here of Jude chapter one. He says, Beloved, while I was making every effort to write you about our common salvation, I felt the necessity to write appealing that you contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all handed down or delivered unto the Saints. And so in terms of the call to defend, he begins here in verse three with the necessity of defense. The necessity of defense. Now, just a little bit of background in terms of this letter, this epistle. Of course, this was written by Jude, half-brother of Jesus, our Lord. And so he describes himself here as a bondservant or a slave of Jesus Christ and brother of James. Now, when you look at all the Judes, which Jude is a shortened version of Judas, when you look at all the Judes or Judases in Scripture, I believe there are seven or eight different ones. There's one who's the most famous, and you know he's not the one that wrote it, Judas Iscariot. But the one mentioned here as a slave or a bondservant of Jesus Christ, and what really tips us off as to who he is, brother of James. We all know who James is. You've got the James and John, then you've also got the James who is half-brother of Jesus. He was the pastor, the leader of the Jerusalem church. And so that's who this is writing, James' brother. half-brother of Jesus, Jude. And so, Jude is writing and he tells them, I was going to write to you concerning our common salvation. And as he was considering that under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, he felt the necessity to write to them to contend earnestly for the faith. And so, there is a necessity of defense. And so, we are called, all of us are called to defend the faith in this way. And when you think of it this way, In all honesty, all of life is kind of like a sword fight, if you will, a loving sword fight. Now, that sounds strange, because when you think of a sword fight, you don't think of loving, right? You think, I'm going for the jugular and I'm trying to kill him. Well, we're not trying to kill him. We're just simply defending the truth and praying the Lord would convert them, would change them. And so, when you think of that, in a sense, there is a necessity whereby we're all called to defend the faith in what you might consider a very loving type of sword fight. We have a sword, don't we? Our sword is the Word of God. And so, we take our sword out into the world and we lovingly present the truth and defend the truth. Our sword is the Word of God. What about the enemies? What is their sword? Well, their sword is plural. They have many swords. They are numerous and vary. There are all sorts of swords with which the word of God is attacked and with which Christianity is attacked. The Apostle Paul speaks of this in Second Corinthians, Chapter 10, verse three, he says, For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses. We are destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God, and we're taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ." And so Paul speaks, and Paul speaks in many places, we've talked about it from Ephesians, where Paul speaks of this warfare that's going on, this spiritual war that's going on. And so, we go out into this world, engage in this spiritual battle with our weapon, with our sword, which is the word of God, not so that we can kill the world and slay them with it, but so that we can present the truth, so that we can defend the truth and simply watch what our Lord does. And so, the necessity of defense In terms of defending the faith, obviously it's not something that only applies to ministers or pastors or evangelists or to so-called professional apologists, professional Christians. It's a call to all Christians. All of us are called to defend the faith because all of us are called to be witnesses. And so, if we're going to be witnesses in this dark world where there's all sorts of hostilities and all sorts of speculations, as Paul says, that are raised up against the knowledge of Christ, all of these things are brought to bear in this spiritual battle, then all of us must be equipped to defend it. All of us must speak the truth in love. And so, when you think of this, there's a couple of different areas in which The defense of the faith happens. I've already mentioned them, but I want to talk about them a little bit further in terms of evangelism and in terms of theological debate, as I have it on the outline there in terms of evangelism. Now, evangelism, of course, in its simplest definition is simply proclaiming the gospel to the unregenerate to the lost. And so when we share the good news of the gospel, that is So when we go out into the world with the sword, which is the word of God, and we go out into the world to do evangelism, to share the gospel with those who are unregenerate, with those who are lost, typically they fall into two different categories. You have the lost who have a religious background, and you also have the lost who have really no religious background. And this is what you found in Scripture as well. When you think of the Apostle Paul, for example, The Bible tells us that Paul would frequently, when he came to a city, a lot of times he would go into the synagogue. Now, when Paul went into the synagogue, or if he was talking to Jews in the marketplace, or wherever the case might be, he had a certain foundation with them, didn't he? I mean, they had a, quote, religious background. A religious background, in fact, that was similar to Paul's, because Paul was a Hebrew of Hebrews. I mean, if you want to talk Judaism, Who could better talk about that than the Apostle Paul? And so some of the people he would talk to would have a religious background. He would go into the synagogues. He would reason with them from the scriptures, proving that Jesus was the Christ. And so, some of the people we talk to in life have a religious background, don't they? I mean, in this area, most people have a religious background. It's not the right religion, but they do have a religious background. And what I mean by that is that they, as we go out into the world and share the gospel of Christ and defend the Christian faith, a lot of the people we encounter, they know our terminology, don't they? They know some of the same words that we know. They just define them wrong. Or they come to wrong conclusions about it. And so we encounter a lot of people who do have a religious background. We encounter a lot of, and this is a very strange phrase, but I'm going to use it anyway and then explain it. We encounter a lot of lost Christians, don't we? You say, well, how can you be a lost Christian? You can't. But they claim to be Christians, right? But you encounter a lot of people in this world who would claim Christianity and yet don't even understand Christianity. And certainly don't give any evidence of being born again. And so there are a lot of people in this world who have a religious background with whom we are called to share the gospel and defend the faith unto. And so the Apostle Paul encountered that we encounter that as well. Of course there are also those who have really no religious background or very little. And sometimes you encounter these type of people as well. I mean they didn't grow up in church. They don't know the terminology. They don't know even the foggiest idea of what you're talking about when you begin to speak of spiritual matters. Well the Apostle Paul encountered people like that as well. He encountered in a religious sense those who were Jews whom he would share the gospel with from the Scriptures. He also encountered pagans. I mean, when you look at Acts chapter 17, when Paul was on Mars Hill, they had all kinds of paganism running rampant in that city. And the apostle Paul also engages them with the gospel and defends the Christian faith. And he does it in a beautiful fashion. I mean, if you want to look at perhaps the greatest example you'll ever see of the gospel being shared with people who have really no background whatsoever in terms of Bible faith, go to Acts chapter 17 and look what Paul does to the pagans on Mars Hill. I mean, he goes all the way back to creation. And in a very short time, he's at the cross. He talks about God who made the world and all things in it. He is not served with human hands. And so Paul, there's paganism all around him. There's temples, idols, temples all around him. And Paul points out that all of those are worthless and vain. And your religion is nothing but superstition. But I'm going to declare to you the one true God. And then he proceeds to do that. And not in arrogant fashion, but nevertheless in bold fashion. And that's what you see the Apostle Paul do in Acts chapter 17. And so when we go out into the world and share. The gospel with the unregenerate, some of them have religious backgrounds, some of them do not. Well, all of that would be evangelism. Well, there's also theological debates that often takes place. And when this happens, sometimes you debate with those who would claim Christianity and yet are not. And sometimes we debate with those who would claim Christianity and they are. Now, what I mean by that is For example, I shared recently on a Wednesday night a conversation I had with a group of Mormons. Now those Mormons would claim Christianity. But when you look at the Jesus of the Bible and the Jesus that they follow, it's not the same Jesus. And so when you look at their so-called Christianity, it's not Christianity at all. And so you enter into theological debate with someone who claims Christianity yet doesn't really know true Christianity. It's really evangelism, isn't it? I mean, it's not really theological. It is theological debate, but it's not iron sharpening iron. It's you sharing the light with those who are enslaved to darkness. And so that's what we do in terms of theological debate. Sometimes it's with those who would claim Christianity and yet don't truly understand it. Well, in such cases, we don't have to know. As I said earlier, we don't have to know everything there is to know about Mormonism. We have to just simply have to know the Bible, what the Bible says and defend the truth. And so sometimes we do this in theological debate with those who would claim Christianity and are not. And sometimes we enter into, obviously, theological debate with those who would claim Christianity and really are. In fact, we do this all the time. I mean, we even do it within our own church. As we study God's Word, sometimes issues come up and there's disagreement and there's debate that takes place. Of course, that needs to be done in a loving type mindset and a loving heart. Nevertheless, the Bible does speak, for example, The example of iron sharpening iron. Proverbs chapter 27 verse 17 is iron sharpens iron. So one man sharpens another. And so that's what happens a lot of times in theological debate with brothers and sisters in Christ. There are brothers and sisters in Christ who disagree on things. And what we want is to have a firm foundation from which to debate. Right. Because when you get into debate and if the final The final decider of who's right or wrong is simply your opinion versus my opinion. You're never going to get anywhere, are you? Or if the final decider of who's right is who shouts the loudest, you're not necessarily going to get anywhere, are you? Because the person with the loudest mouth is not always the one who's right. That's a very dangerous thing for me as a preacher to say, because I have a very loud mouth. But the one who shouts the loudest is not always right. In fact, sometimes the one who's shouting so loud in theological debate deep down knows that they're wrong. And that's why they're shouting so loud. And so what's going to be the final decider of what's right or wrong? The word of God. That's our sword. That's our foundation. That's what decides it. And so, as we go out into this world, we see the necessity of defense. Next, we see the earnestness of defense, the earnestness. Verse three, he says, I felt the necessity to write to you, appealing that you contend earnestly for the faith, which was once for all handed to the Saints. And so when you think of this in terms of our defense, it is to be earnest, which means in one sense we have to truly believe what we're defending. All right. I mean, if you're going to be earnest about it, there has to be a genuine belief in what you're saying. Otherwise, I mean, when you think about it, you can train someone to defend something that they really don't believe in. That's the last thing we would want to do. And that's I mean, as a church, we don't want to be a church full of of those who can fiercely defend the faith and win arguments left and right and yet are unregenerate. I mean, we want to be those who not only defend the faith, but actually believe it, have actually experienced it, have had our hearts changed by it. And so when you go out into the world to defend the faith, from that perspective, it's completely different than simply learning how to win arguments. I mean, you can go to a secular college and take philosophy classes and learn how to win arguments. I mean, you can learn how to—lawyers. I mean, you go to law school. You can learn how to win arguments. You can learn how to baffle people. You can learn how to confuse people. That doesn't mean you're right. And so we want to earnestly defend what it is that we truly believe. And so there has to be a genuine belief there. There's also the idea when he talks about earnestly defending the faith, the idea that there is an earnestness there because there is a genuine love for the Lord and for those whom we're engaging, those whom we're talking to. The Apostle Paul described himself. He didn't describe himself as a theological assassin. He described himself as an ambassador of Christ. And so that's what we want to be. We want to be ambassadors of Christ. We're not theological assassins that are just going out to win the arguments by taking our sword and shoving it in their throat. No, to the contrary, we want to win the argument by presenting the truth and doing it in a loving, Christlike manner. The Apostle Paul speaks of this in 2 Timothy chapter 2 verse 23. Paul writes to Timothy and he says this. He says, But refuse foolish and ignorant speculations, knowing that they produce quarrels. The Lord's bondservant must not be quarrelsome, but be kind to all. Able to teach, patient when wronged, with gentleness correcting those who are in opposition if perhaps God may grant them repentance leading to the knowledge of the truth. And so in our defense of the faith, as Paul writes to Timothy, one of the things he tells him is to avoid foolish and ignorant speculations. What he means by that is that there are some things that are a waste of time to argue over. And a lot of times unbelievers will try to pull you into the weeds by bringing those type of things up. They'll bring up something from church history that has nothing to do with you or nothing to do with Christianity. And they'll want you to defend that. Why is it that Luther was a drunk? What does that have to do with me? But a lot of times you'll have things thrown in your lap that are foolish, ignorant speculations whereby they'll try to Drag you off into the weeds. Paul says avoid those things. I mean, you think of some of the philosophical wranglings that take place. How many angels can dance on the head of a pin? Things like that. Well, let's spend hours upon hours trying to figure that out. Paul says that's a waste of time. It's a foolish speculation. Who cares? Stick to what matters. And so Paul writes to Timothy to avoid this trap, avoid foolish and ignorant speculations. Now, if you're debating something that's that's scriptural and theological, that's not an ignorant speculation. And so sometimes you'll be talking about something doctrinal. So I'll say, well, this is just a waste of time. Who cares? It's not a waste of time if it's biblical. It's important to know if it's biblical. That's important to understand. And so there is. The necessity of defense, the earnestness of defense. There's also a graciousness of defense. And again, Paul, speaking of Timothy, he tells him to avoid quarreling. Knowing that the ignorant speculations simply produce quarrels. The Lord's bond servant, he says, must not be quarrelsome, but kind all, able to teach, patient when wronged, with gentleness correcting those in opposition. And so there's a graciousness that we need to exhibit in our defense of the faith. Avoid quarreling. Now, it's interesting, and again, this is an interesting phrase when you think about it. Paul says, in essence, in all of your arguing, avoid quarreling. In all of your arguing, he tells him to argue, not in a bickering kind of way, but in a defense kind of way. And in your argumentation, avoid quarreling. Which means that Paul is telling him as he defends the faith and as he speaks to those in opposition, he is to be gentle. He is to be kind to all. He is to be patient with them. He is not to get into shouting matches and silly arguments with them. He's to avoid quarreling, stick to the truth, and graciously defend the faith. What we need to realize in our defense of the faith is that we're not only defending the truth of Christ, but that we're also called to do it by exhibiting the love and character of Christ. And so it's not just simply defending the truth, but it's doing it in a certain way. We are to speak the truth in love, as Paul says. He tells Timothy to be kind to all, able to teach, patient when wronged, and with gentleness correcting those who are in opposition. there's a very practical reason why Paul tells Timothy to do that. I think about this when you're out in the world workplace school wherever it is you go on a day-to-day basis and as the Lord opens doors and gives you opportunity to Proclaim the gospel and to defend the gospel and to speak the truth. And when you're prone to get into an argument with somebody who just doesn't know what they're talking about and perhaps they're even insulting. What you have to keep in mind is, though, in your flesh, you might really want to lash out and let them have it. I mean, you might just want to blow up and get your revenge. and make them look stupid and all these things might be in mind. Paul tells Timothy with gentleness correct those who are in opposition and there's a very practical reason for it. You know what that is. The practical reason is that obnoxious jerk that you work with that you're trying to share the gospel with might one day end up sitting next to you in church and singing Amazing Grace even louder than you do. That's exactly what Paul says. He says with gentleness correct those who are in opposition. If perhaps God may grant them repentance leading to the knowledge of the truth. You know sometimes we forget this in our theological debate in our evangelism in our zeal to defend the truth and we want to put them in their place. Sometimes we forget that sometimes God saves them. Sometimes God changes the heart. I mean, you encounter people and you can't imagine for the life of you that they would ever come to Christ. And yet God has chosen that in time he will save them. Yeah, that's exactly what happened to the Apostle Paul in Corinth. I shudder at what it would be like to have to go to Corinth and preach the gospel. I mean, that was a wicked city. And Paul went there. And it tells us that apparently Paul had a certain amount of fear while he was in Corinth, because it tells us that the Lord appeared to him and said, Do not fear, continue proclaiming, because I have many people in this city. And what he means by that is that he has many people in that city whom he is going to save. Now, you would never have guessed that to see them. I mean, when you saw the the rampant sin that they were engaged in, when you saw the paganism that they were engaged, these people are going to become Christians. Oh, yes, they will. If God so chooses to open their heart, they most certainly will, because all of the father gives to me. Will come to me. And so we see a certain graciousness that we're called to do in our defense. An unbeliever whom you work with might. wind up at your church someday. God might change their heart. They may one day know the faith even better than you do. And so we want to express this graciousness in terms of our defense. Next there's a certain amount of discernment needed for defense a certain amount of discernment. Jesus warned of what he called casting pearls before swine. And that is a legitimate danger. Which means we have to have a certain amount of discernment. We have to know when to speak forth and we have to know when to shut up. How do you know that? Trust in the Lord to guide you. There's a certain amount of discernment that you have to know. There are times in which the discussion has gone as far as it's going to go. It's no longer profitable. There are times in which it's pretty clear that the person you're talking to has... completely shut you off and I have anything else to say to you anything else they want to hear what you do at a time like that. You keep shouting the gospel down their throat. No I mean there comes a time in which you back off. And how do you know when that is. Well you got to trust the Lord. There's a certain amount of discernment that must take place. It must be involved. The call to defend next. We look at this the faith to defend. The faith to defend and notice this. First of all, that it is enduring the faith that we defend. It is enduring because this is how Jude is described here in Jude, verse three. I felt the necessity to write you appealing that you contend earnestly for the faith, which was once for all delivered to the saints. And so when he speaks of this, notice that he doesn't speak of a faith. He speaks of the faith. You notice the difference. He doesn't say, well, we want to defend a faith. He says we defend the faith. There is one faith. There is one saving faith, and that is Christianity. And so he speaks of this as the faith once for all delivered unto the saints. And so when we think of this and when we think of the faith that we defend, I think it's very, very important for Christians to realize that we don't defend faith in general. It's very specific. We defend the faith that was once for all delivered unto the saints. So we don't defend faith in general. And so when we go out into the world, you know, our goal, for example, with an atheist, your desire and your goal is not that that atheist would come to believe in the existence of a God. Your desire and your goal and your hope is that that atheist would be born again and bow at the feet of Jesus. So we don't defend a faith. We defend the faith now to the world. That seems very close minded. That might even seem arrogant to them. And if it was if Christianity was something that I personally thought of, it would be arrogant. But if it's the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints from God himself, that's not arrogance to proclaim it and defend it. It's humility to see it as coming from God. And so we defend the faith. Likewise, we don't defend God in a general type of sense. We don't defend a general concept of God, we defend the Christian God, the real God, the one God who is really there. Triune in nature, Father, Son, Holy Spirit, all-knowing, all-powerful, the God of the Bible. And so we're not just simply defending some vague notion of a deity. We speak in defense of the Christian God. It was the only God. We defend the faith and we defend the God. And I had this. Situation recently that put me in an odd predicament, but it will show very clearly what I'm talking about when I say we defend the God. And I shared this recently with our Wednesday night crowd, some online debates that I had with some atheists. Now, in my, this was in a public setting, and so, you know, it wasn't something private over email. I mean, the whole world could see it. The whole world wasn't watching, but anyone who was on Twitter could see it. Me and this group of atheists debating back and forth about the existence of God. Now, when we defend God and when we speak the truth of God, I always want to make it very clear, I'm defending the Christian God. So, I'm not just defending, I'm not trying to convince the atheists that a deity exists. Defending the Christian God. Well, one of the things I said in defense of God, I noticed that there was somebody else who agreed with me. And when I looked at his name, it was Mohammed Abdul, whatever, whatever, whatever. So I clicked to check out who he was. He was a Muslim imam or whatever. He was agreeing with me in my arguments against Christians. Now, what I want to make very clear there, as much as I appreciate the fact that he sides with me against the atheists, is I don't agree with you either. I mean, just because you believe in the existence of a God. And I know this paints me into quite a corner, doesn't it? As it does you. We are Christians. And so. With all due respect, we don't agree with the atheists and we certainly don't agree with the Muslims either. As much as I appreciate you siding with me in the debate, I likewise think you are going to hell. I didn't say it that way, but that's the reality of the fact, isn't it? And so we don't simply defend some notion of God, we defend the Christian God. And by the way, if you're not defending the Christian God, you're not defending God. And so, if you go out into the world and say, well, now I want to convince them that a God exists, you better have a much higher goal than that. Because if you're not defending the Christian God triune in nature, then you're not defending the real God. You're just simply defending a false God, an idol. Christians don't want to be guilty of defending idols, do we? We don't want to be guilty of defending a false notion of God. And so, we defend the real God. And so, as we do that, we realize that The faith, once we're all delivered unto the saints, is not simply a faith in general. It's the Christian faith. Nor is it a general concept of God. It is the Christian God. Furthermore, as we deal with this world and as we realize that we are Christians, there are several misnomers out there regarding the Christian faith. And we need to be ready to defend those. For example, I've encountered these arguments with various unbelievers before. Some say Christianity is simply an offshoot of Judaism. Well, there was Judaism, and then there was a fight between these groups of people, and Christianity kind of broke off from Judaism and started its own thing. Christianity is not an offshoot of Judaism. It's the fulfillment of it. And so when you look at the Christian faith, yeah, certainly you see things in the Old Testament, and you see things in the New Testament, and you see continuity, and you see discontinuity, but Christianity is not an offshoot of Judaism. It is the fulfillment of it. Sometimes you'll encounter Jews or people in this world who have a certain belief about Judaism. They'll say, well, you know, Christians and Jews really worship the same God, don't they? Well, if I'm ever presented with that idea that, hey, you know what? I'm a Jew. I worship the same God you do. My answer to that is always this. My God has a son named Jesus. Is yours? My God is triune in nature, one God, Father, Son, Holy Spirit. Is that the God you worship? Because if it's not, it's not the same God. Christianity is not an offshoot of Judaism. Another common misnomer you'll encounter this a lot of times in some of the liberal scholars out there, religious scholars. Some say that Jesus was a follower of John the Baptist. I've encountered this many times. Well, actually, Jesus was a follower of John the Baptist, but then after John got himself killed, Jesus decided to start his own little group. Well, obviously that's not true either. Jesus is God among us. He is the second member of the Trinity, Father, Son, Holy Spirit. And so the faith that we defend, it is enduring, and obviously it has enemies, doesn't it? It has a lot of enemies. And that's what you see here in Jude. Notice what he says in verse four. He says, for certain persons have crept in on notice, those who were long beforehand marked out for this condemnation and godly persons who turn the grace of our God into licentiousness and deny our only master and Lord Jesus Christ. And so the faith does have many enemies. And we know this of them. We know that they stand condemned in their opposition to the one true God. They stand condemned. He writes of this, that they have crept in unnoticed those who were long beforehand marked out for this condemnation. Now, you know, we need to realize what Jude says there, that though you see all of these enemies who rise up against the knowledge of Christ and rise up against the one true God as we see all these enemies. One thing that should bring us much comfort is that not one of them rises up apart from the sovereignty of God. He says they were marked out for condemnation. And so there's nothing that happens in this universe apart from the sovereignty of God. Proverbs chapter sixteen verse four says this the Lord has made everything for its own purpose even the wicked for the day of evil. And so there's nothing that happens. Aside or apart from the sovereignty of God. You see numerous examples of this in Scripture don't you. I mean when you look at Pharaoh. Wicked Pharaoh. In Egypt. How in the world did he ever come to power? Well, he had a really good campaign manager, didn't he? I mean, that's how he came to power. How else would he rise up as wicked as he is? I mean, how can you explain someone as wicked as him rising to power? The Bible tells us how he rose to power, doesn't it? God said, I rose you up for this very purpose to show my power in you. And so when we look at the evil that exists in this world, we realize that nothing exists or happens apart from the sovereignty of God for this very purpose. Romans 917, which is a quotation of Exodus 9. I raised you up to demonstrate my power in you and that my name might be proclaimed throughout the whole earth. And so, when we go out to defend the faith against those who would trash it and those who would bring all these speculations and raise up all these arguments against the knowledge of Christ and the truth of God, we realize that all of these things happen under the sovereignty of God who, through that whole process, is making His name known in this world. His power is known through this, and it's evidenced through this. As we go out into the world and speak the truth. John Gill says this quote these things fall under the ordination and decree of God which does not make God the author of them nor excuse the men that hold them. They are ordained and ordered for many valuable ends on the part of God to show his power and his wisdom and on the part of truth that it might be tried and appear even brighter and to manifest his people and their graces. And so the truth of God shines even brighter against the darkness, doesn't it? And so when you think, wow, God's purposes are going to certainly be thwarted by these evil people. Oh, no, God's purposes can't be thwarted for one second. Even with all the evil that exists in this world, the grace of God and the glory of God shines even brighter in comparison, doesn't it? And when you think of the knowledge of Christ that is displayed when we go out into the world and share the gospel, all these people who hate it and would bring all these arguments against it, they're not shutting up Christianity. They're not stopping Christianity. Even when they kill Christians, they're not stopping Christianity. The old famous saying from church history that the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church. The name of Christ will march on. They're not going to stop it. And so Jude tells us they were marked out long ago for this condemnation. They stand condemned. They oppose God. He describes them as being godless in verse four. And so they're in complete and total opposition to God. They don't know him in a saving manner and they despise him. They stand condemned. They oppose God. And finally, I close with this. They twist doctrine. They twist doctrine. Verse four. Certain persons have crept in unnoticed those who were long beforehand marked out for this condemnation ungodly persons who turn the grace of our God into licentiousness and deny our only master and Lord Jesus Christ. And so first of all they distort grace they distort grace. Have you stopped to consider for a moment how little grace is really understood by the world. Even by many professing Christians, they don't understand what grace means. Now, Jude's talking about a specific group of people who do a specific thing with it. They take the grace of God and they twist it in such a way that it leads to licentiousness or sinfulness. Paul encountered this argument, didn't he? Let us sin more! I like this grace idea. Let us send more that grace may abound. In fact, let's send as much as we possibly can because it just means more grace, right? What was Paul's answer to that argument in Romans chapter 6? God forbid! May it never be! How can you live in sin when you've died to it? And so, most certainly, that is not what Paul was teaching. And so, that's what you see here. Jude mentions a specific group of people who twist grace, they distort grace, so as to mean, in their minds, hey, let's do whatever we want. I mean, I talked about this a little bit this morning. Those who would claim Christianity clearly have no evidence of it in their life, but would say, well, no, I was always taught eternal security, so I guess I can live however I want. I'm still going to heaven. The very fact that you want to live like the world proves that that's who you're actually a part of and that you're not among the redeemed or you wouldn't have those desires and you wouldn't want to be like the world. And so they twist doctrine. They don't understand grace. They twist it into licentiousness. But, you know, I want other people in this world to understand grace. They may not necessarily do this with it, but they don't understand grace. They don't understand that salvation is completely of the Lord. from beginning to end, as we spoke of this morning, that He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that there was a time in which Christ came and died a specific death for individuals. Not a hypothetical, oh well, I wonder who's going to pick me kind of death, but a specific death for individuals. There was a time in your life, if you're a believer, whereby God in His sovereign grace opened your heart to receive this. I mean, that's what grace is. I need to understand salvation from beginning to end as a work of God, from election unto perseverance unto glorification, to understand all of this as being of grace and not of yourself. That's what grace means. That's what grace is. Grace doesn't just simply mean that, oh, well, I sinned, but God still forgives me. That's part of grace. That doesn't even begin to scratch the surface as to what grace is. And so he speaks of this, those who distort grace, they deny Christ. He mentions this in verse four, they turn the grace of our God into licentiousness and deny our only master and Lord Jesus Christ. Paul speaks of others in Titus chapter one, verse 16. Those who profess to know God, but by their deeds, they deny him. And so regardless of what they say, their life gives evidence of something contrary. As their life doesn't embrace Christ, if you will, their life denies Christ. They deny him with their deeds, which ultimately, when it's all said and done, it's because they don't believe they're not believers. Verse five. Now, I desire to remind you, though, you know, all things once for all that the Lord, after saving a people out of the land of Egypt, subsequently. Destroy those who did not believe. And so when you think of the faith that we defend, the Christian God that we proclaim, you realize at the end of the day there might be all sorts of categories out there, but ultimately there's only two. There are those who believe and there are those who don't. There are those who are believers who have been born again by the grace of God and those who are not. And so when we go out into the world be it engaging the unregenerate the lost with the truth of the gospel. Be it engaging in theological type debate with those who would claim Christianity and yet are not or even with it being those who are brothers and sisters in Christ whom we want to sharpen as they sharpen us. We go out into this world and we Speak the truth of God's grace and God's gospel. We defend it because we're called to defend it as the Lord gives us utterance and gives us unction gives us the ability to speak it. We want to defend the faith realizing that it is the faith is the faith once for all delivered unto the saints. And the only reason you and I believe it is because God showed us grace just as we pray and hope you will show them as well. Let's pray.