Turn back, if you would, please, to the book of Jude. And we're in the fourth verse tonight. And before we begin reading, let's do a return to the Lord in prayer. Most precious Heavenly Father, we are thankful, Lord, for Your mercies. We thank You, Lord, for Your graciousness towards us. We thank You for Your Word. We thank You for the promises of Your Word. And Lord, we thank you, Lord, that your promises are bound and have power according to your might and according to your holiness. And Lord, that you would give us your word and give us your promises. And you're holy and we're not, Lord. We do give you praise, Lord, for condescending in such a way, Lord, that you would give salvation to sinners. Lord, as we look into these words, Lord, we ask that you would guard our hearts against arrogance, but we ask that you would give us a boldness, Lord, for the things of God and the things that we are to stand for. Lord, we ask that you would give us, Lord, courage in the Word of God. And Lord, we ask that you would cause us to be on the lookout, Lord, for evil men. Lord, we ask that you would continue to bless here, Lord. The congregation here, thank you for the fellowship. Lord, I ask that you would grow each one of us, Lord, in the way that you'd have us to grow. And Lord, I ask that you would give each one of us a full measure of grace that would be overbounding. And Lord, that we would just be, Lord, submissive, Lord, to your word and to your will. Lord, cause us to seek your face in all things. Cause us to seek forgiveness of one another. Cause us to extend forgiveness as we have been forgiven. Lord, cause us to ask the question, what sayeth the Scriptures in all things? Lord, be near us as we study tonight. Thank you for the love and mercy, the grace and the peace that we have in Jesus Christ through the Father and of the Spirit. Lord, lead us tonight, we ask in Jesus' name. Amen. Verse 1, Jude, the servant of Jesus Christ and brother of James, to them that are sanctified by God the Father and preserved in Jesus Christ and called, we know who they are, mercy unto you and peace and love be multiplied. We know what that means. Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you and exhort you that ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints." We know what that means. For there are certain men crept in unawares who were before of old ordained to this condemnation, ungodly men turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness. and denying the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ." There are some things in there that might not be as apparent as maybe we think at first. In this letter, Jude has identified who he is and who he's talking to. He has declared the multiplication of mercy, peace, and love unto those who are sanctified, preserved, and called. That's us, believers. In verse 3, there's an expression of urgency of the matter at hand. And the matter at hand is to declare the duty of the recipients of this letter to earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered to the saints. That's us. Beloved, we're a congregation here in Seals Bay, Texas. and our charter, as it were, was to go ye therefore into all nations, preaching, teaching, and baptizing, and were to also earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints. Doing one without the other is neglect. If we honor the commission but don't stand for anything, what good are we? If we stand for something but don't honor the commission and never leave these walls with the gospel of peace, what good are we? You see how this thing works. If you're writing down homework, if you have your pen out, one thing I would like for you to do for the rest of this week is also ask the question, Why do I go to Sovereign Grace Baptist Church? Ask yourself that question, and not just in passing. It will be a good idea. And for those of you in Mississippi, it would be a good idea. Why do you assemble through the Internet? Why would you go to such length to be part of a membership of Sovereign Grace Baptist Church? If you keep going up 92, there's about 10 churches along the way. Gary, I don't know how many churches you got from here to your house, so-called, but why here? Why here? I think if you answer that question, and Charlesy, I have no idea how many buildings are between here and Beaumont. There's got to be a hundred. I don't know. I don't know. But why here? If you answer the question, why Sovereign Grace Baptist Church, it might become more apparent than needfulness for us to earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered to the saints. And you might see how certain men who were crept in unawares might have taken churches that had some, at least parcels of truth, and have completely sabotaged them. Let's see what happens here. Jude verse 4. For there are certain men who were crept in unawares who were before of old ordained to this condemnation. ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness and denying the Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ." Those are very serious charges. Very serious charges. So he's writing this and the 4 of verse 4 is a continuation of the thought of verse 3. You are to contend for or because there are certain men crept in unawares. earnestly contend, not because the battle and the conflict is possible, not because the battle and the conflict is across the road or he heard somebody somewhere had a battle or a conflict. He said the battle and the conflict has crept in unawares. It's here because the conflict is here. It's not on the horizon. It's here. It's in. It's inside. For there are, or because there are, certain men crept in unawares." The certain men. That's an indefinite pronoun. If Jude knew who the men were, he would have said, hey, Bob and George are in there, get them out. But the indefinite pronoun indicates they're here, and I don't know who they are. There's a matter we may get to, we may not, concerning Judas. There was a man who was on the inside. And we'll look at it in just a few minutes, but consider the thought that there were twelve men who roamed this earth with Jesus. And he said, one of you is a devil. And eleven of them said, is it I? Well, twelve of them did. Eleven said, is it I? And he said, no. And one of them said, is it I? And he said, yes. Notice the occasion that they didn't say, it's Judas! I knew it! They all, he acted so well that he blended in and they were so still full of sin in this world, they didn't rule themselves out. That's sobering. That's sobering. And that was the early church, y'all, in the presence of Jesus. He knew who he was the whole time. But this is not a new deal. This is not a new deal at all. That's why, young people, I encourage you oft, if I say something that you think, wow, that doesn't sound right, calm me down on it. I'm no more a member than you are, young folks. Listen up. It's your job to know, thus saith the Lord. It's your job to be able to answer the question, what do the Scriptures say? That's your job. He didn't just write this. This isn't due to the pastor of the sanctified and preserved and called. This is due to you. This is you. There are certain men crept in unawares. He would have given their names if he knew their names. This battle is not a fight against a few men a thousand years ago. But this is with unknown men and women. Where it says certain men, that's certain of mankind, certain people. You know, women and children can subvert a congregation as well. Women and children can get in all kinds of trouble as well. And this is of all times who proclaim the same things that the certain men of Jude's day were pronouncing. Okay? So that the certain men, the certain men, as we're going to read, and Jude is going to give us examples of certain men and certain beings. even angels themselves, who have done the very thing that is the accusation of verse 4. And it's such, when you read it, it sounds so important, it almost gets lost on us. But whenever we look at it and see what it actually says, we can think, wow, there are people out there that believe that, and they're all around us. We must be careful with our associations. We must be careful what we say is godly and what is not godly. When he says that they have turned the grace of our Lord into lasciviousness, and I'm getting ahead of myself, but that's a transposition. That's calling a holy thing unholy and an unholy thing holy. That's a transposition. They're transposed. In other words, here's an easy example. If Gary and Nelda transposed seating, they would switch seats. One would take the other seat that's transposed. So he transposed grace and lasciviousness. Or whatever lasciviousness means, it has to mean the opposite of grace. We know that just by looking at the word. Or how it's phrased there, rather. It says men, men, human beings, male or female, generic to all, distinguishing men from other beings such as animals and angels. We're dealing with flesh and blood here, he says. But it also, saying these are men, it adds the notion of weakness, as all men are weak and prone to mistakes. Okay? These men, being ordained to condemnation, yes, they are doomed for destruction. But there are other men. I'm a man of mankind and everyone else in this building is a man of mankind. And as men, we are men and women of mankind, we are prone to make mistakes. We're prone to weakness. We're prone to sin. That's part of the reason we're to assemble together with one another. That we're to exhort one another in faith and in love. until as much more as we see the day approaching. Isn't that what it says, something like that in Hebrews? I think it is. But there are certain men that are crept in unaware. It adds the notion of weakness. Identifying these false teachers as men reminds us that we are all men and capable of error, but these men are special because these men are ordained to condemnation. We're to earnestly contend for the faith. What does that mean? Well, if I earnestly contend for the kids, they earnestly contend for knowledge at school. You gotta continually struggle for it, fight for it. A weightlifter has to earnestly contend to build up their strength, right? If they don't earnestly contend for it, what happens? It slips. Well, he's saying earnestly contend for the faith, build it up, The contending must begin within because we are, again, capable of error. Earnestly contend for it. If you know you believe something, keep studying it, keep finding it. Don't just say, hey, I believe that I'm premillennial, whatever that means. Don't say, hey, I believe in the local church and chain link succession and not be able to tell another person what that's all about. Don't say, I believe in the local New Testament church so much that I would drive so far or link up online and not be able to tell somebody what the distinction is. Know these things, earnestly contend for them. There's nothing that happens in these buildings that we have to be ashamed about at all. We're to earnestly contend for these things. Contend must begin within. My first fight is with my own flesh. And that's where your first fight is. And we must be settled in the Word of God, and that's part of the earnestly contending that was covered in verse 3. Now in verse 4 it says, These men have crept in unawares. That's a single Greek word. I'm not going to try to pronounce it, but trust me, it's one word. And it means to enter secretly, slip in stealthily, in stealth, or settle alongside. It suggests subtlety. It suggests subtlety. The word subtle means shrewd, crafty, or cunning. Now where have we heard the word subtle before? I know where, Genesis chapter 3, please. Genesis chapter 3 and verse 1. after God had given the man and the woman the commandment to eat and to not eat and to love your spouse and all that stuff. Chapter 3, verse 1, now the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said unto the woman, well, he said unto the woman because he had crept in unawares, he crept in subtly, sneakily, in a sly way, he slipped in, he settled alongside Eve You get the parallel there? And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden. Did God really tell you that? Well, as we strain at these words, that's exactly what these men who have crept in unawares, that's their game. The devil does not have any new game. That's the game. When the devil came to Jesus after his baptism and was going to try to Boy tried to tempt him. What did he do? He crept in alongside him and subtly using the Word of God He tried to lay a trap for him. He tried to snare him. Well, we know that while he was tempted along points He was without sin. Jesus never sinned never could sin. It was outside of his nature to sin but if he did it in the garden and he used the same exercise against the Lord Jesus Christ The devil and his people, the children of the devil, use the same exercise to try to destroy the Lord's churches. That's what's happening in Jude's day. That has happened in our day. It's happening. Certain men crept in unawares. The serpent crept in and settled alongside it, entered in stealth and in secrecy, and it was not detected as a threat. Judas was not detected as a threat by the others. What's that mean? That means we ought to be on high alert. That means if any person comes in here off the street and says, hey, I want to be a member. I want to be baptized. And we ought to be on high alert and say, what's your game? What's your deal? The best of our ability, the best of our ability. We should scream folks, but we should also continue to be on high alert. I don't know it. Any one of us could be one of these evil men that has crept in unawares. who were before of old ordained to this condemnation, any one of us. I don't know. That's where self-examination comes in, but we should also examine one another. We're also to be busy about the things of the Lord, that way we know what the Bible says and say, hey, hey, repent. You know, if somebody doesn't have a mind that they seek the face of the Lord, that person ought to be easily detected. Jude writes the letter so these people would be detected, that they would be found out. Well, how do you find somebody out? What question would you ask? What sayeth the Scriptures? What sayeth the Scriptures? There are certain men crept in unawares. The Who, the article points back to the certain men. These men have done something. It connects them to the coming things here. What have they done? They were before of old ordained. They were before of old ordained to condemnation. They're ungodly men and they turn grace into lasciviousness. They deny the Lord God and they deny the Lord Jesus Christ. That's six accusations. Heavy accusations. Well, it's not fair that God would declare and ordain men of old to ruin and condemnation. That's not fair! One might think. No, it's not fair. If God would have been fair, we all would have been condemned and ordained under condemnation from the beginning. Condemned of old. No, that's not fair. It wasn't fair that a holy and just Lord Jesus was punished for sin He didn't commit. That wasn't fair. But it is just that sin is punished. These men do exactly what their sinful nature would have them to do. They're not acting outside of their nature. It's the sinful nature for men to sin. It is. And to rebel against the Lord. It is. Was it fair that in Psalm chapter 41, the 41st Psalm, was it fair in verse 9 that Judas, was talked about. Look at it there. Psalm 41 verse 9. 41 verse 9. Yea, mine own familiar friend, and whom I trusted, which did eat of my bread, hath lifted up his heel against me. Well, was that fair that he was ordained to a condemnation and it came to pass in Matthew chapter 26? Matthew chapter 26. Now when the evening was come, he sat down with the twelve. And as they did eat, he said, Verily I say unto you, that one of you shall betray me. And they were exceeding sorrowful, and began every one of them to say unto him, Lord, is it I? Again, that very sobering question, is it I? And he answered and said, he that dippeth his hand with me in the dish, the same shall betray me. Well, that's pretty specific. My own friend, in whom I trusted, which did eat of my bread, well, here he's eating the sock with him, the bread, the bread that they dipped in the sauce there. And he answered and said, He that did put his hand with me in the dish, the same shall betray me. The Son of Man goeth as it is written of him, but woe unto that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed. It had been better for that man if he had not been born. Then Judas, which betrayed him, answered and said, Master, is it I? He said unto him, Thou hast said. And as they were eating, Jesus took bread and blessed them." It continues there into the supper. But yes it was Judas, it was foretold that he would dip of the sop or take of the sop from the Lord Jesus and he would betray Him. Is that fair? Ask God if that's fair. These men were before ordained under this condemnation. Of old, set forth, predestined, beforehand. But word before of old, before, that's the same word as ordained. So in the Greek, he says, who were ordained of old ordained. That's the translation. That's the same word. It's used twice. Why would Jude use the same word twice? He really wants you to get it. He really wants you to get it. These men have been set aside for this thing. Of old, of former time, of ancient time, prior to their performance, prior to their position of doctrine, prior to their having done good or evil. We could read through Romans chapter 9 and see how there were two brothers. One was created under honor and the other under dishonor. One God loved and one God hated. That's nothing more than sovereign grace. But you have to wonder why men would care a thing to disrupt the things of God. Why? Well, we read from the Proverbs chapter 4, didn't we, just a few days ago, how some men can't eat or sleep until they have done evil unto others. This is their evil, that they apply themselves to the think of God and they attempt themselves to be holy, and at the same time, they're ruining themselves. Let's see what happens. Let's see their doctrine. Ordained again, it's the it's the word the Greek word as were before emphasis on the predestination of the matter They were before of old ordained to earnestly contend for evil just like Jude tells us believer that we were before of old ordained to earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered to the Saints and I'm dumb enough to believe that if these men were ordained unto evil, unto ungodliness, then those who were in verse 1 who were sanctified, preserved, and called were before of old ordained that we should earnestly contend." I mean, to me, that's a logical conclusion. God would not ordain the foe without ordaining those that would fight, would He? That doesn't make any sense. Just as the child of God is ordained as a vessel unto honor, these men were ordained as vessels of dishonor. to this definite condemnation. He says, they were before of old ordained to this condemnation or this definite condemnation, this definite decree or judgment. In a forensic or judicial sense, the sentencing of judge or penalty, damnation, they were before of old ordained to this damnation, eternal consequence. Pretty serious stuff. Pretty serious stuff. Do we have our attention? Now that we have the men, we have the judgment and the sentence. What did they do? What did they do that they would be before of old ordained to condemnation? Well, first, they're ungodly men. And every man is born ungodly. Every single one of us. Every single one of us is born as an ungodly man or an ungodly person. That means destitute or poor of reverential fear or awe of God. What did we learn about fear a few days ago? Well, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, right? So those who are without the fear of God are without wisdom or they're destitute and therefore ungodly, right? By definitions, by our working of definitions, that's right. And they condemn God by their lack of fear. They condemn God by their lack of wisdom, by their impiousness. You know, when someone is going through the ordeal of repentance, when they see themselves as a sinner, the Bible describes that person as a low or a humble person. A person who's bowed down. When someone met the Lord Jesus in His glorified form, what position did they take? Well, they hit their faces to the ground and cried out for mercy. Oftentimes, He said, fear not. Well, these people are the opposite. They're indignant, they're irreverent, and they're proud. They lack fear toward God, they lack wisdom toward God, and they're impious. They lack the principal thing, which is wisdom, that we read about. And all men are ungodly by birth and by nature, but why bring these particular ungodly men up? Because they have crept in unawares. They have assaulted the Lord's throne and amongst the Lord's people. They have the similitude or they have the likeness of righteousness to the point that they could even deceive the elect and go unnoticed. Judah's saying, brethren, they're inside the door. They're inside the door. The passage in Matthew 26 we read, the disciples were overwhelmed and heavy that one of them was going to betray their friend, but none of them thought it was, just all of them was Judas, you know. They all thought it seemed possible that they were the one, but none of them was so overly confident that it was Judas that they said, it's him, it's him. They said, is it I? The only difference between the ungodly men Jude spoke of and myself is the sovereign grace of God. That's it. Jude is not saying these words that these men, these men and women and children, whoever received this letter and those who are hearing it today, he did not give us this letter so we could pump ourselves up in the faith. It's so that we would be on high alert to not let such things enter into our gates and through our walls. Again, this condemnation, these ungodly men, these men who are left to themselves, but also they leave out the whole issue of repentance. Let's look at what they said. They turned or they transposed these two things. These men confused grace and lasciviousness. They misrepresented both. They transposed them. Well, what does that mean? We think we know what grace means. Let's define it. Who knows what lasciviousness means? It's a big word. Let's break it down. Grace is good will, loving kindness, and favor of the merciful God. It's exerting His holy influence upon souls. It's saying, hey, you're dead in sins. I'm going to save you. That's grace. Turning them to Christ and keeping them. Not just turning them, but keeping them and strengthening them. And subsequently, He gives us as recipients the full gift, benefit, and bounty of the Godhead in Christ to His abundant riches exceeding in Jesus Christ. That's grace. Grace extended, according to James 2.8, says that faith without works is dead. So once someone has been impacted by the sovereign grace of God, someone will behave as if they have been impacted by the sovereign grace of God. If you were hit by a truck, you would have evidence you've been hit by a truck. If you've been hit by the Holy Spirit, there will be evidence of that. It moves the recipient unto the exercise of Christ-like behavior. If you see somebody who says they're saved and they don't behave that way, you mark them down and you question them. All of us are sinners and we're still in this bag of flesh, but we ought to have Christ-like virtues. When people were first called Christians at Antioch in the book of Acts, it was a derogatory thing. It was not a compliment unto these people. It was saying, hey, you act like that nut job who was crucified not long ago. Even the fruit of the Spirit, we will read, look in Galatians, if you would, chapter 5. Galatians chapter 5. They will exhibit certain behaviors. And the fruit of the Spirit, every one of them points directly to the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the full manifestation of the fruit of the Spirit. begin reading in verse 22. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance, against such there is no law. And they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts. It doesn't mean we don't sin anymore. But it sure means that we have of the Spirit an exercise of these items. We're in no wise perfect in these. But these evidences should come forth. You should not be the same person that you were before the Lord saved you. The fruit of the Spirit. Now he's saying grace that takes an ungodly, destitute, poor unworthy sinner and makes them accepted in the Beloved and changes them according to the fruit and the work of the Spirit, all according to the sanctification of the Father and working of Jesus Christ at Calvary. They have transposed or turned the grace of God into lasciviousness. The grace of God is just not any grace we are talking about, but ultimate grace according to the ability of God who is infinite to show it. I could extend grace by definition But that's not God's grace. God's grace is ultimate grace. God's grace is ultimate grace. So these evil men have swapped ultimate grace with lasciviousness. So you see the word there, lasciviousness. What's that mean? Unbridled lust. Excess. Wantonness. Or revelry. Wantonness. Let me spell that for you. It's not wantonness, it's wantonness. W-A-N-T-O-N-N-E-S. Lewd behavior. Outrageousness. Shamelessness. Insolence. Well, in a word, lawlessness. They have turned the grace of God to lawlessness. They have changed or transposed the grace of God which frees us from sin but causes us to be servants unto God into lawlessness. We're going to see when the men come and preach to us from the book of Revelation that there are a few churches that have The doctrine of the Nicolaitans who practice lawlessness or antinomianism, no law. Well, what's the danger of that? Well, if you tell someone, hey, if you're saved, then you're always saved. But you leave out repentance and grace and wisdom and fear, then they just jump straight into grace, oh yeah, I believe in Jesus, I'm saved forever. And then they go into lawlessness. Now I can do whatever I want and there's no catch. You see that? See how that's a snare? These men were saying that since grace came, then the believer is no longer bound to the law. Paul refused that in Romans chapter 7. Didn't he say something like sin became exceeding sinful once the law came? Yeah, he did. and is therefore not bound, they say, and is therefore the person who is saved by grace the believer is no longer under the law and is therefore not bound to keep the law of any kind." You ladies probably learned something different than that in Romans chapter 2 today, didn't you? There's a law. There's a law of conscience upon all hearts of men. The law. In other words, they say, hey, we're saved. Once saved, always saved. Let's live it up. These men were encouraging others to lay down moral laws and act according as their own will would lead. What's that called? Hedonism is what that's called. Hedonism. They were advocating the acceptance of living according to the lust of the flesh. I hope you still had something marked in Galatians 5 because Paul tells the reader here the exact opposite. Look in Galatians chapter 5 and verse 16 please. This I say then, Paul to the Galatians and Paul to us. Walk in the Spirit and ye shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. Will that undoes the things that these ungodly men were telling the folks in Jude's day. They were saying that, hey, now that we're saved by grace, there is no law. And Paul said, now that you're saved by grace and the Spirit is in you, walk according to the Spirit. And the Spirit would not cause you to violate the law of God, which is holy. That's what he's saying. For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit. Right? So these ungodly men were saying, okay, there's a battle between flesh and spirit, and you're saved, and grace has taken place. Well, go ahead and fulfill the lust of the flesh. That's what they're saying. And that's not biblical. Well, say it's the Scriptures. And the spirit against the flesh. And these two, these are contrary the one to the other. So when He transposes two things, He's taking two things that are opposites and saying one is the other. So that you cannot do the things that you would. But if ye be led of the Spirit, ye are not under the law. Wait, there is no law? Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these. What's it mean they're not under the law? What's that mean? Not bound under the law. You're liberated under grace. But the Holy Spirit, part of the Godhead does not violate the Godhead. It can't. It cannot. The Holy Spirit will not lead you into a violation of the law, which is a declaration of the Godhead. But saying you're of the Spirit means you're liberated from the law, and you're no longer under the law, under condemnation. Why? Because you're under grace. But if you're led of the Spirit, you won't be led to violate the law. You see? Now the works of the flesh are the works that are condemned under the law are these, are manifest, are on every side, which are these. Adultery, fornication, there's a difference there. One's before marriage, one's after. Uncleanness, lasciviousness, here's our word again. Idolatry, witchcraft. Now look, I've defined these because some of these words are hard to understand. Adultery, carnal relations after marriage. Fornication, carnal relations before marriage. Uncleanness, that means impurity in moral living, physical moral living. Lasciviousness, we've already defined that. Idolatry is the worship of false gods, we know that. Witchcraft is translated a few different ways, including being involved with drugs, poison, sorcery, magic, and seductions of idolatry. hatred or opposition. Variance means strife or contention, wrangling. Emulations means excitement. If a person, you know, these folks who are community organizers, they're paid to get a community excited and pumped up over no good reason. Well, they specialize in emulations. They specialize in creating a fierceness and indignation so you have thousands of people marching and they have no idea why. They're specialists in that. Wrath or an inflammation of anger. Strife. That word strife comes from a word that means electioneering. You know what electioneering means, right? When you fraction a group and try to position yourself in front. When we went through the election cycle, that's what two people running for office do. They split the people and try to put themselves in front. That's electioneering. Strife. Seditions. Division. People like divisions. Heresies means acts of choice or choosing rather than being chosen of God. That's heresy. Body of men following their own ideas. Envy. We know what envy means. Murder, slaughter, drunkenness means intoxication. Reveling, it's a nocturnal riotous procession. Think of Mardi Gras. You wait until the lights go down, you know, they go through the streets, they're hollering, they're breaking stuff, they're taking their clothes off, they're drunk. That's what reveling is. And such like. They were denying these men in Jude's day and men today, you drive up and down the road and you see these signs that say, hey, we're having our fall festivals and we're having, you know, our Christian-like trick or treat and we're doing this and we're doing that and they're doing everything in the world. They're denying the sovereignty of God and the moral lordship of both the Father and the Son in doing these things. Some of them are more obvious than others. There are churches that are sovereign grace landmark missionary Baptist churches that are labeled as progressive bodies. It's not okay for you to talk about sin because that makes people uncomfortable. You can't tell people that something is sin and God is opposed to sin because that makes folks uncomfortable. I'll tell you what, God doesn't like sin. You look in the Old Testament. You look in the New Testament. When God's people do things that He doesn't like, He still doesn't like it. Now thank God for mercy and grace. We're going to read on Sunday. You know, last time we read about Abraham or Abram, he and Hagar had gotten together and they did this work of the flesh and there's a baby that came. And what a whole, you know, it was terrible what they did. Chapter 17, God says to Abram, I am the Almighty God. I am El Shaddai. He didn't put Abram away. He still was God's friend. But beloved, we are to walk in the Spirit. They were denying the only Lord God, these men were. Denying means to reject or refuse, contradict or disavow the Lord God in Jude's day and in our day. Oh, Joey, these things aren't going on. Well, who's a liar? If you think these things aren't going on, did Jude lie? It happened in the beginning. It happened in Jude's day. Did Jude lie? Or are we just, we're so numb in our American culture that we think these things aren't going on? Now, I do want to say this before I start an investigation and try to start finding out which one of y'all is a spy or something. I have a fair amount of confidence about our group but that doesn't mean we shouldn't earnestly contend for the faith and keep doing it. I believe we're doing it. We need to keep doing it. Keep doing it. These men deny that the Father was sanctified, sanctified us before time according to His good pleasure. They deny that the Son, in time, did away with sin altogether. Something so simple like saying, yes, Jesus died for sinners, but you've got to make the choice or you've got to make the decision. And once you make the decision, well, now you're free to go. I mean, that's the religion of many so-called Christians today. But do you see how dangerous a thing it is to mix any type of sinful ideology into our mix? This comes in many forms. This comes in the forms of listening to reformers on the side. How much should we do that? I mean they're close, but no cigar. We shouldn't fill our minds with a lot of that stuff. The books we read, the music we listen to, the music I listen to, the books that I read, what I put on the TV. You know, if I see someone praying or hear someone praying, I shouldn't just be, oh, you know, thank God, here's somebody, let me wrap my arms around them. We should protect ourselves. For these certain men are eager to creep in unawares. That's their goal. And they're ordained to do so. That's their goal. Grace is grace, and if grace is by works, it's no more grace. We're saved by grace. But we're saved by grace under good works. Look at Ephesians chapter two, if you would. Ephesians chapter two. You're saved by grace, for sure. Thank God for that. Ephesians 2 verse 8, For by grace are you saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. Why? For or because we are His workmanship, created, and you could say ordained, in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained, that we should walk in them. Friends and church members, these men were foreordained under this evil. And you are foreordained to earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered to the saints. They deny our Lord Jesus Christ. They deny, they reject, they contradict and disavow the only Lord Jesus. They deny that the Lord Jesus effectively preserved those sanctified by the Father in His work at Calvary. This is dangerous. This is dangerous. Believer earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints. For there are certain men that are crept in unawares. They turn or they transpose the grace of God into lasciviousness, into lawlessness. They proclaim to the believer grace is by works and once the work of grace is accomplished there is no more need for godly living. It's done. Do the best you can. Earnestly contend that a dead sinner is only saved by grace, by the grace of Almighty God through Jesus Christ. Earnestly contend that a believer is to boldly and aggressively live the life that we are called unto in the good works. Earnestly contend for the fruit of the Spirit in your own life. Earnestly contend for the whole armor of God and wear it. The whole armor of God is in Ephesians chapter 6. If you don't know it, know it. We might look at that one day. Ephesians chapter 6, armor of God. Earnestly contend for the church, the pillar and the ground of the truth. Earnestly contend. This is not background noise. You have been saved from your sins to serve the living God. Earnestly contend for the faith. And if you feel like there is no battle, if you think that your faith is so easy that there is no battle, you've either fallen into a lifestyle that you're completely surrounded by people who believe exactly like you do, or those that are around us, maybe we're not as different as they are and we need to pick up the pace a little bit on our contention, earnestly contending for the faith. Sin of the message for you today is simple. See yourself as a desperate, wicked sinner. Desperately wicked sinner. Ungodly. See yourself as one that is, in a soon amount of time, a short amount of time, will stand before a holy God. I say stand. You will be prostrate, face down before a holy God. One way or the other. Cry out for mercy. Cry out for mercy. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and be saved. Outside of Jesus, there is no salvation. And without repentance, without a conversion, an act of the Holy Spirit through the work of Christ as set forth before time by the Father, there is no salvation. Fear the Lord. Fear the Lord and tremble. Beg Him for mercy. Believer, earnestly contend for the faith of those wicked men, those ungodly men they have crept in unaware. May the Lord bless the preaching of His Word.