Please turn with me in your copies of God's Word to the Epistle of Jude. It's a very short letter, you'll find it right before Revelation. I'm sure you knew that though, that was for me. As I've said, this is a very short letter and this is going to be Just the first four verses are what we're gonna take up for our sermon text this morning. But there is a great deal packed into just those four verses. And as I read these, I want you again to reflect on the truth that this is the inerrant, the infallible, the inspired word of God given to the church in Jude's day, but equally so given for you. That the word of promise that is contained herein is a promise to you, the people of God. And so I invite you now to hear these first four verses from Jude. Jude, a bondservant of Jesus Christ and brother of James, to those who are called, sanctified by God the Father and preserved in Jesus Christ, mercy, peace, and love be multiplied to you. Beloved, while I was very diligent to write to you concerning our common salvation, I found it necessary to write to you exhorting you to contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints. For certain men have crept in unnoticed, who long ago were marked out for this condemnation, ungodly men, who turn the grace of our God into lewdness and deny the only Lord God and our Lord, Jesus Christ. Thus far, the reading of God's word. Please pray with me. Lord, we keep our prayer simple this morning, and it is simply this, that you would open up our hearts to receive this living word, that by your spirit, by your grace, you would have your word complete its perfect work in us. Let us be attentive to those things that we hear, God, and especially guard my speech from error. Let only that which is true be remembered. And we ask it all in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen. Well, last time we were together, we I had a sermon on Revelation chapter 12, the story about the woman and the dragon, and I say story because it is vivid imagery, but it's a true story that plays out in history. If you'll remember, that story was the great testimony of our Savior's triumph over all evil in this world, most notably seen in the figurehead of that which is evil, that dragon, the one who seeks to harm and assault the church of God. Well, as we step back from that, we're going to look today at that battle playing out in history, in the book of Jude. You see, there is a congregation much like this one, much like every congregation across the face of the earth, where as they contend for the faith, as they seek to live for the truth, there are those who would seek to do them harm. And those who seek to do them harm are nothing other than the servants of that dragon. And so I exhort you this morning, congregation, to contend for the faith delivered to the saints. Contend for the faith delivered to the saints. We're going to look at that under three separate headings today. The first is going to be a dispatch from a slave, and then a deliverance for which to contend, and finally, a designation to be condemned. a dispatch, a deliverance, and a designation. But before we get into the content of Jude's letter, I want to set the context a bit for us. First, I want to talk briefly about the author of this book. Who is this Jude? As we look at scripture, specifically the New Testament, we will find no less than three Judes of prominence, and that Jude is Iudah, or Judas, or Jude. Now, two of them are apostles. We know this, we know the infamous one, Judas Iscariot, but there is another Judas, one who is named also Thaddeus. But the final Jude, the third one of prominence, is one who identifies himself as the brother of James. Now, we know that this can't be Judas Iscariot for obvious reasons. At this time, Judas Iscariot has been long dead, having taken his life for his great transgression against the Lord Messiah. But what about Thaddeus? This is a common interpretation of the author, an understanding, I should say, rather, of who wrote this book. Now, I do not believe that this Jude is that same Jude, or Thaddeus, who walked with the Lord as an apostle, as a disciple, during Jesus's earthly ministry. Namely because we see a distinction set between the brothers of Christ and the disciples of Christ, most starkly in that account from Matthew 12, where the brothers of Jesus and his mother come to pull him away from the teaching that he's doing in this house, and we all remember what Jesus says when they say, your mother and your brother are here, or your brothers are here, he says, who are my mother and my brothers? It's you, the family of God. So there seems to be not only a distinction between the disciples and those who would call themselves brothers of Christ, but there is a contrast between the believing and the doubtful at that time. The mother and the brothers appearing in Matthew 12 are named very explicitly in Matthew 13, 55. And among those names, we find one who is called Jude, the brother of James, the brothers, half brothers of Jesus Christ. Moreover, this Jew does not identify himself as an apostle at the outset of the letter. That should catch our attention as we read the New Testament, because an apostle was rarely shy to use the authority that Christ had given him, to attach himself to that office, and yet we see nothing of the sort here, at least in explicit language. He does not identify himself as an apostle, but as a brother of James. And significantly in verses 17 and 18 of this letter, which you can look at a little bit later, we're not gonna cover them today, but this Jude distances himself from the apostles. He refers to them as them, a they, not us. What I'm saying is that this Jude is likely that one who was numbered among the brothers, one of the doubters, one of the unbelievers during the time of Jesus's earthly ministry. This Jude was likely converted after the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Just so, the case for James. And I want to say this, is that we might think, how could you have seen all this? How could you have grown up in the house of Jesus the Messiah and not seen him for who he was, who he is? How could you have been converted so late? How did you miss it? And when we think this way, we're thinking on our terms. We think that this man's conversion did not come at the right time. But his conversion to the Lord Christ, the faith in Jesus Christ, it was exactly at the right time in God's timing. And there's a lesson here between a couple of these Jews. There was one who walked every day with Jesus Christ and his heart was dead. He didn't know him. And concurrently, in the same time, there was one who said, I'm not really sure. But now he walks with Christ in a way that the other Jude never did. Judas Iscariot, that is. One feigned to walk with Jesus, but another truly walked with the Lord. The letter was also likely written in the mid-60s. We will see that the content, if you're familiar, is very similar to the book of 2 Peter. That is to say that these two men, writing under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, were addressing similar issues that were going on in the church at large. And Peter and Jude, scholars are debating this, who used who as a source, but it's very likely that one cited the other quite heavily. Now, with all that being said, we know that Jude writes the letter. Jude tells us he writes the letter, and I am identifying this Jude for us as that brother of James, the one who was not a believer, but now firmly rested in Jesus Christ. But what about the audience? Well, unlike some of the other epistles in the New Testament, which clearly identify us, for us, to the church in Corinth, to the church in Colossae, to the church in Thessalonica, we see no such thing here. And that should catch our attention as well. We do not know exactly if there was a specific congregation or a circuit of congregations or a region of the church, a presbytery, if you will. We don't know exactly into whose hands this letter was given. And I think that's intentional and it's important for us because the issue that was being addressed was not localized. It was happening everywhere. We can tell this though, that the audience, the recipients of this letter were likely a heavily Jewish ethnically speaking congregation or a mix of Jewish and Gentile, Gentiles who were quite familiar with the Jewish history. And I say that because the imagery, the language, the citations that Jude himself use are steeped in that history. And of the occasion of this letter, it is simply this. It is an appeal to the Church of God to defend itself, to defend the truth from the assaults of false teachers, from the assaults of Satan. Now first, we will look at this dispatch from the slave. Just a few more words about this Jude. If you look at verses one and two, that's where we're gonna be spending our next few moments here together. Jude identifies himself not as an apostle, but with a very interesting title. He refers to himself, you'll see in your English translation here, as a bondservant of Jesus Christ. But as I'm sure many of you know, the original language used here is a bit stiffer than that. And a word is employed that maybe grates against our sensibilities a little bit here in the American West, but I've chosen to use it because of the power of that word in its proper context. Jude identifies himself as a slave of Jesus Christ, one who belongs to another man, one who does not belong to himself. Jude is the property of a good, good master. He is a slave of Christ. And yet, as we've said already, he was also a member of the I'm using quotes here, holy family, right? He shared blood with this Messiah. So why has he chosen this title over against saying, I'm the brother of Jesus, you should listen to me. Well, Jude is establishing himself over against these false teachers who loved lofty titles. as a humble man of God. One of the titles these false teachers likely liked to use was Master Despotase. And Jude is saying, I am not a master. I am a slave of the master. He is willing to go so far as to identify himself only as the brother of the Lord's brother. But he doesn't go further than that, because his chief and primary identity in this world, even as a brother of Jesus himself, is first and foremost as a slave of Christ. A slave is one who has been given over to the service of another. A slave is one who has been purchased, and Jude was purchased by blood, by the blood of Christ. And as such, Jude is not his own master. He is not a great man in and of himself. He knows this, and he knows that he is a sinner saved by grace. And yet I want to say this about that title, slave, bondservant, if you prefer. He takes upon himself what we would say is one of the lowest titles in this world. But that's not the case at all. Because to wear the title, a slave of Christ, is to truly wear the greatest name of all in this life. There is no higher crown to be worn than a slave of Christ. Jude had every right, humanly speaking, to throw around that family weight in this discussion, in this letter, yet he chose a more excellent way. This Jude, brother of James and Jesus, is appealing to the church on a certain ground, and that is this, mutual servitude in Christ, mutual slavery in Christ. Now, Jude writes this epistle, as some translations would say, to those who are called, loved, and kept, or called, sanctified, and preserved in Jesus Christ. Simply this, he is writing to the church a slave of Christ, a servant of Christ, writing to those who are united to that Christ, who wear the yoke of his good bondage. Now he writes to the called. Now we know about general and effectual calling if we have our theology tight, and Jude is writing to those simply to those who have responded to the gospel of grace. You see, everyone on the face of this earth is called to repent and believe the gospel, but not all come. It is the effectual calling of the Spirit, the one that gives the new heart and unites to Christ, that is the one to whom Jude writes, those who have responded to the call by God's grace and in God's power alone. But moreover, he writes to those who are loved and sanctified in God the Father. He reminds them at the very beginning of this letter of something of crucial importance that everything that flows in this letter flows out of this point. He reminds them of their foundation and perseverance in the faith of Christ. Anything else that Jude has to say to them without that foundation is noise. There's no fight, there's no struggle, there's no truth to contend for unless you stand upon the foundation and perseverance in the faith of Christ. And it is on that foundation that he is able to call them to this good work of contending for the faith delivered to the saints. You see, it is the love of God and that alone that makes a Christian. He sets his love on sinners and he brings them into Christ. And it is God's love which preserves a sinner. There's a common question that I'm sure you've heard at some point. It's why are you a Christian? And we have a lot of really wonderful, true, faithful, deeply theological answers, but the simple one is this. Why are you a Christian? Because God loved and loves you. God loves you. And how is it, how can it be that this God would set his love upon sinners? How can the God that is described as holy, holy, holy in the scriptures delight in you? It's because he delights in his son, and you're united to that son, Christian, sinner. In Christ, you are loved by the Father as much as he loves Jesus, because you belong to that Jesus, and he sets his love upon you. Now, as far as the sanctification spoken about here, we understand sanctification to be both definitive and progressive. Definitive, that is to say, a punctiliar moment where you are set apart from everything else in this world. It's a moment in time where you're called out from the world. But then, after God the Father, in expressing his love to you in this way, setting us apart from the world, he conforms us progressively to the image of Jesus Christ. God does not leave you the way that he finds you. He brings you in, he cleans you up, and he conforms you to the image of his Son. And he writes to those who are preserved or kept by and in Jesus Christ, For the context and content of this letter, this is also of supreme importance where he's asking and he's commanding, I should say, contend for this faith. He reminds them that they are being kept from falling. for the sake of Christ and by the power of this God. The good shepherd will not lose one of the sheep that the loving Father has given him. And it is Christ alone who is able to keep us. We walk in the faith in the very same manner that we entered into that faith, by the grace of God and nothing else. We are kept by Christ by virtue of our union with Christ for the glory of Jesus Christ. So this greeting, what does it have to say to the situation? What does it have to say to the false teachers? That is this, that those who are seeking to lead the church toward a perversion of the grace of God, they are fighting against God himself. And these satanic tactics and the devil's deeds in and through these false teachers, they cannot and will not prevail against the elect of God. Jude is calling this church to stand fast upon that singular foundation which they have received from the apostles. And everything that he says to this church in this short letter is predicated and established upon their redemption in Christ Jesus. So no matter how deep we go in this letter, we must continually come back to that, that you are standing on the foundation of Jesus Christ. And the church, then and now, that's you, we may have true and lasting encouragement in this fight against apostasy, in this fight against the devil, for that reason and that reason alone, that you stand on that foundation. Christ Jesus the Lord. In verse two, we see Jude's opening benediction to this church, and it comes in a triplet form. The last words of those introductory remarks, they are given to pronounce God's blessing in this hour of trial. And it's very important for us to remember that without God's mercy, peace, and love, Jude's words, as we have said, are empty to this church, but with And only with God's mercy, peace, and love, these are the very words of eternal life. And God's mercy, peace, and love, these words are a comfortable weapon against the devices of Satan. Jude is warning against apostasy in this letter. He has given this church instructions for battle. and he is denouncing all of the heresies that are founded against, or excuse me, that are stacked up against Jesus Christ. And so his warnings, his instructions, and his comfort, they are founded upon Jesus Christ. In that word mercy, this church is being reminded that because of Christ's atonement, she has not received her due penalty. The penalty that still rests upon these false teachers But the church, the church alone can grasp that mercy in Jesus Christ. And that's peace that Jude writes of. It is because of Christ's penal substitutionary atonement that the church can have peace with God. Now that's a word we hear a lot, especially if we're in the scriptures, but is it one that we take a moment to define? What is peace, biblically speaking? We pray daily, I hope, that one day that terrible conflict between Israel and Hamas or Russia and Ukraine, you insert whichever one you like, we pray for it to end. And by God's grace, one day it will end. They'll set their weapons down and there will be no more conflict and the headlines will read, peace. But is that peace? What's going on in the hearts of those people? You see, we understand peace to be the absence of conflict, but the Word of God understands peace to be something much deeper in Jesus Christ. Peace in Christ is the absence of conflict, but it's also the impossibility of ever falling under wrath again. That is not the case for these human conflicts. War may again break out, but not for those who have the peace of God in Christ Jesus. It is an everlasting, it is an eternal peace which can never be removed. and the love of which Jude writes, those who hate Christ and the devil driving them to destruction, they are warring against that love of God, the love of God which is indomitable, which cannot fail. And so in the trial, the church is called to return to that which has brought them safely thus far, the love of God. And he also says that this may it be multiplied to you, or as some translations say, may it be yours in abundance. May what be yours? Mercy, peace, and love. Jude prays that the church would be abundantly strengthened in tribulation, that even that, even that battle, that all things would be used for their good. And his blessing is meant to encourage them that as this serpent, and through the mouths of his false prophets, is spewing lies against this church, seeking to lead them astray, seeking to pervert the grace of God, that the grace of God will abound the more. The grace of God cannot fail. And in Christ, the foundation of God's mercy, peace, and love, the church lacks nothing for this battle. They have all that they need. And so against these false teachers, the application is this, that as we, Christian, as we, grace, face the devil and his lying prophets, we must stand fast upon God's mercy, peace, and love. And for the sake of these heavenly things and these alone, we are able to be comforted in our struggles. The greatest and strongest weapon against the lies, the lies of the evil one, is that truth which has been revealed by God himself. God's mercy, peace, and love, God's gospel, is the first, middle, and last word against our enemy. Contending for the faith delivered to the saints, it begins with resting in the gospel of God's free grace. And so this slave of Christ opens that letter, his dispatch to the church, with the gospel comfort of God's love. This gospel, and this alone, is the sure and certain bedrock upon which the church must stand in every age. Every age. This one certainly not being excluded. Now onto the second point, and I will say my next two points are much shorter. A deliverance for which to contend in verse three. Now first, it was shown to us that Jude desired to write to the beloved regarding the true faith in which they share. You see, his initial cause was to exhort and to encourage them. This was his plan. This is what he wanted to do, to write about their common salvation in the doctrines of the faith delivered to the saints. And as he comes, he addresses them as beloved. That is to say, again, that Jude is approaching them as a brother in the faith. That even for this man who shared in the family of Jesus Christ, physically speaking, that there is only equal citizenship in the kingdom of God. Now that is not to say that there are not offices, there are not callings, there are not elders and deacons in the church. But when it comes to actually being a citizen of heaven in Christ Jesus, we are one in Christ. There is equal citizenship in God's kingdom. And also you will notice that this common salvation that Jude seeks to write about, it's used in the singular. There are not many salvations, there is one. The one in Christ only, regardless of what these false teachers would try to say to this church. And because of his love for them, beloved he calls them, Jude is not able to write about what he initially wanted to say. There was a more pressing matter. He was forced in another direction because of his great love for this congregation. It was necessary for him to speak to the great needs of the hour. And there is no greater need than soundness in the faith. From this we can learn, especially those of us who would preach and teach and dare to stand in front of a congregation, what we desire to speak, preach, and teach, it cannot override what must be spoken, preached, and taught. You see, love for pet doctrines, one of the things that I love is eschatology. It's fascinating, right? Who doesn't want to study that? But it cannot take precedence over the timely medicine which must be applied. If the gospel is being assaulted, if we are losing the grace of God, we have no business talking about signs in the heavens, or, well, you insert your favorite pet doctrine. If we lose the gospel, we've lost everything. One thing that this teaches us is that the Christian must be aware of what is occurring in the world and in the church as well. You see, Jude could not write this from ignorance. He knew what was going on in that church. He was paying attention Not just to what was happening in the church, but outside as well that was seeking to infiltrate that church. You see, Christian, we do not have the luxury of turning a blind eye to what is going on in this world, what is seeking to harm the body of Christ. We don't have the privilege of keeping to ourselves and thinking, I am saved, I believe, thank God for that. I know this is trying to tear the church to shreds, but that's somebody else's problem. No, Jude saw the problem, he wanted to speak of something else, and yet he said, I must speak against this, I must exhort this congregation to return to the fullness of the faith in the gospel. Jesus Christ. When we see the errors of our day, when we encounter the lies that are seeking to infiltrate the church, we do not have the right to remain silent. We must speak against it. And another thing, our eagerness, our desires, our movements of the soul that we can see here. Jude desired one thing and yet he sought God's will. He submitted his personal desires, what he really wanted to write about, to what must be addressed. Jude recognized that his desire, his great delight, had to be set aside for the greater benefit of these saints. And so let it be our prayer as well that our eyes would be open to the present dangers of this world, and that our desires would be conformed to the will of God, and that he would give us courage to speak against the lies of our age, and they are many. And they're in the church. Now next we witness in Jude's words that that urgent need was to spur this congregation on to defend the faith. That's what he had to write about. And in other words, there was no time to be given to any secondary or tertiary matters of doctrine or fellowship. This epistle was not a social call. This letter from this slave was a call to arms for the day of battle. And why was it necessary for Jude to write in that manner? Because the very essence of the faith was being assaulted. You see, the false teachers were seeking to pervert the grace of God. And it's my belief that every false teaching in this world is essentially that, something that would seek to pervert the grace of God into a lie, to supplant the grace of God with an insidious truth that cannot save. This letter, is a letter sent during a time of war. And the assault on the faith is an attempted assault on the object of our faith, Christ himself and his bride. And Jude had no choice but to stir the troops. As Calvin once said, a dog barks when his master is attacked. I would be a coward if I saw that God's truth is attacked and yet would remain silent. The dog must bark and bark Jude does. Nothing is more important than this revealed faith of Christ. Eternal souls are at stake. Now it is possible that this church and the other churches were neglecting that duty to contend for the faith, but I don't think that's what we see here. I think it's more likely that they needed encouragement to continue in the fight. to keep up the good fight. And why do I believe this is the case? Because as we read this letter, there is no rebuke against that church for failing to contend for the faith. He was stirring the troops, he was strengthening them for the battle that was already at their doorstep and the fight in which they were already engaged. Now regardless whether they were neglecting or whether they just needed a little more encouragement, the point is the same. It is the God-given duty of the church to give no quarter to that which wants to exalt itself against Christ. It is not welcome. And as it was for your fathers in the faith delivered to the saints, the congregation we read about in this letter, may this letter as well serve you as a reminder to fight, a reminder to contend for that which has been delivered. What is the object of that defense? The faith delivered to the saints. And Jude expects us to contend for this faith delivered to the saints. But how? How do we fight? Ephesians 6 tells us that the fight is ultimately against the devil and his devices. This is a spiritual war. The weapons of our enemy, the weapons of this world, will not work in this fight. We use God's weapons, the armor of God. And 2 Corinthians 10 tells us that our greatest spiritual weapon, God's given truth, has power to demolish Satan's lies and to subdue him. In sum, the way that we defend the faith is through leveling all that God has given us, all that he has revealed against the enemy. To contend for the faith is first to cling to that faith, the faith through which God destroys Satan's strongholds, and then it is to level that faith against the liar. Because the lies and darkness of Satan cannot withstand God's revealed truth and light applied by the Spirit. Now this requires that if we are to contend for the faith, we must know it intimately. We must trust in it entirely and we must return to it perpetually. And this faith has been set down for us in the revealed word of God. And it is God's chosen weapon. It is his designated weapon, his sword given to us for our defense. And so Jude is calling that church then and you here today to fight for the true faith with the true faith against Satan's lies. Concerning the nature of that faith, Jude asserts that it has been delivered once for all to the saints. Once for all delivered and entrusted to the saints. That is to say that the Christian faith is a complete faith. All that God has intended to reveal to his church has now been revealed. And that vehicle for that complete revelation is the inerrant, inspired, infallible, living, and active Word of God. 2 Timothy 3.15 says that these scriptures are able to make us wise unto salvation, that the man of God may be complete and equipped for every good work. And 2 Peter, he speaks about these prophets as they spoke God's revelation in the Spirit. That is to say that anything which contradicts this word is false. 1 John reminds us to test everything by what? The same standard, the revealed word of God. Anything which contradicts it is antichrist. Revelation 22, to add, subtract from, distort, or twist this faith, this content of the word of God, leads to damnation. And 2 Corinthians 1 tells us this, that every promise that God has given in his word, it points to the total fulfillment of every promise, the Lord Jesus Christ. What I'm saying is this, God's word is the standard for the faith, and God's word points to him who has given all that we need for faith and life. There is nothing new to be revealed, and that is exactly what these false teachers were seeking to do. to bring in something more, something different, something new, something fresh. But the Christian faith, which Jude calls the church to defend, is complete. Now, building upon what has been said in the rest of scripture, this true faith has been delivered and entrusted to a body, the saints. The Christian faith has been revealed by God. Christ has been revealed by God. And God has revealed himself in Christ. And it is not the invention of a fallen mankind, like every other religion. Christianity is different. This is a revealed, this is an inspired, this is a heaven-sent religion, not an invention of the human heart. And as we have said, God breathed out his word using these human writers, moved by the spirit to deliver the content of that faith. And that faith delivered by God in his word has been entrusted to a specific group of people, the saints, he calls them. Now, what is a saint? This is not the false conceptions that we hear in other churches and so-called churches that would seek to establish a special category of Christian. This is the biblical conception of what a saint is, and that is those who are sanctified, as Jude has already said, those who are called out from the world. A saint is you. A saint is one who belongs to Christ, one who has been made holy, reckoned as holy, counted as holy. And so has this faith been delivered to individual Christians across the world? Of course! but it's also been given to a body of visible entity, the Church of Christ. And 1 Timothy 3.15 tells us just that, that this faith has been delivered to the saints in the context of the visible church, the pillar and foundation of the truth. And hear me, the church is not the truth. The church holds the truth. The church has been entrusted with the faith delivered in the word of God, and therefore she has been charged with the defense of that faith. Jude calls the church not to defend some sort of concept, but he calls them to defend the faith set down in the inspired revelation of God. This is concrete, this is real, more real than anything else. And so contend, fight for that faith, dear Christian. It is God's revealed treasure and it is your duty and privilege to protect it. Now finally, the designation against those false teachers, a designation to be condemned in verse four. And I wanna look at the people, who are these people? What are they doing? We know roughly what's going on here, but what is the problem? What is the false teaching? Well, first, the false teachers, those who are seeking to lead this church astray from Jesus Christ. The first thing I wanna say is this, is that they are able to be identified. Jude calls them certain men. He can point to them. You can spot them. They can be known. They're a specific group of people. But more than that, he says that they have crept in unnoticed. Where are they, friends? They're in the church. They are inside of the visible church and they are masquerading as Christians. But they've crept. They're crafty. They're subtle. They are exactly like their master who rules over them. And I'm not talking about Jesus Christ. They're exactly like that serpent. Furthermore, Jude tells us that these false teachers, their condemnation was ordained by God from before the foundation of the world. And I say that to encourage. This has not caught God by surprise. He knows who they are, he knows where they are, and he knows the end of those who will not repent. Furthermore, they are characterized as ungodly, that is to say, antichrist. And there are only two types of people in this world, my friends, those who are for the Lord Jesus and those who are against him. This is not some wishy-washy group in the church that is unsettled. They are enemies of Christ. They are enemies of his bride. They are the other group. Now, what are they doing? What is their false teaching? What can we learn about it? Well, it appears to be a form of antinomianism, a hatred of what God has revealed. They're promoting perverting the grace of God in Christ, and to what end? Well, simply this, that they are turning the grace of God into lewdness or lasciviousness or sensuality. This is likely some very earthly meaning here, something where Jude has selected to use the word pervert for a reason. They're likely entertaining the desires of the flesh that are against God's law. But it's through a vehicle, it's through a means, it's through a vessel, the perversion of grace. And in our day, there's a certain title for this, cheap grace, easy believism. I filled out a card, I said a prayer, I walked down the aisle, I held the minister's hand or whatever happened. I got a Bible that day. It had my name on it. I'm a Christian. I can live whatever way I want to. I don't have to change my life. God doesn't require my obedience. I'm saved in Jesus Christ. I can do whatever I want. That's a false dichotomy. Those who are saved want to do what God wants them to do. because it is God who works in them to will and to work for his good pleasure. But these are fleshly men, perverting God's grace as licensed to live in whatever way they see fit, not the way that God would call them to live. And they're hoping and seeking to lead others into that lasciviousness, that sensuality. Now the question is this, are they simply erring? Are they simply mistaking the kindness of God for weakness? Well, God will just forgive us. We can do whatever we want, it's okay. I can repent later. I know this is sinful, that's fine. No, this is intentional. That perverting is an action. They are twisting God's word to their ends. They know what they're doing. They're not ignorant, they're not stupid, they're evil. And furthermore, anyway, The kindness of God is meant to lead sinners to repentance, not to give them license to live in sensuality. And so Jude gives a pronouncement against these false teachers, and we'll talk more about this tonight. Jude's assessment against those who would seek to pervert the grace of God. The first is this, that these who are teaching contrary to the faith, they're outside the faith. He doesn't pull any punches. It's a simple statement. You do not belong to the Lord and Master. And you see it in the language. He says, our Lord Jesus Christ, not theirs. They don't belong. Jude sets that group over against the church, the ones who deny the Master. And the actions of these men, they reveal the thoughts and intentions of the hearts of those men. Simply this, they are wicked. They are evil. And as I said at the beginning of the sermon, as we're closing now, some commentaries have said that many false teachers like to refer to themselves by lofty titles, and one that very likely these men had taken for themselves was this, despotese, master of the faith. You don't see it in this English translation, but that's the word that Jude uses of Christ. He says that these are not masters, but they have denied the master. They're only masters over themselves, and not even that, not even over their own desires. They are not masters but have denied the master. Jude is highlighting their lack of submission to Christ as he applies the title of master, Lord, to Jesus Christ. And that same Jesus Christ, that true master, he reminds the church in Matthew 7 that you will know these men by their fruits. And so how do we spot them? How do we see these certain men? How do we know the ones who have crept in unnoticed? It's simply by that same metric, the content of the faith. Do they look like a slave? Do they belong to Jesus Christ? Or do they look like their own master? One who has denied the master and serves the flesh and the devil. you will know them by their fruits. And the fruits of these false teachers was rotten. And so in conclusion, there are five things we can learn from these first four verses in Jude's epistle. The first supposition, the first principle is simply this, that there is a true faith worth fighting for. There is a faith worth fighting for. The second is this, building upon the foundation that Jude lays at the beginning of the letter, the fight is entirely in God's strength. It is carried out by those who are beloved and kept, but those are passive words being applied to that group. It is God who fights against the wicked ones. The third is that the good shepherd will keep his flock. Those who seek to lead them astray cannot succeed. They are simply satisfied to cause as much harm as possible against the elect of God. But their end is determined. Christ will not lose one of his sheep, and those who will not repent will suffer, suffer the judgment of God in hell. The fourth is that God has given us everything that we need for that day of battle. He has given his word, and he has given his Holy Spirit. We have all that we need to stand against the lies of the wicked one. We have all that we need to contend for the faith delivered to the saints. The fifth is this, and I've stressed it a couple of times, but I want to really stress it here. Our day is no different at all from the day of Jude. Our day is no exception. We are reading about history Yes, but we are living out history right now. And until the Lord Jesus Christ comes and crushes the head of that enemy, finally and forever, the battle continues. You are at war. Stay awake. Our enemy never sleeps. And our duty is not yet done. When we forget that we're at war, We forget to fight tooth and nail for what God has given us. Well, that's the most dangerous place to be. That's to fall into the grasp of the enemy. And so contend for that faith delivered to the saints. Contend with all of your might, knowing that it is truly in the might and strength of God that you fight this battle. And it's a faith worth fighting for. Let's pray. Lord, we thank you for this word of encouragement today. We thank you that even as we read about hard things, that there are those who seek to cause your bride harm. We remember, Lord, that ultimately that is impossible, that she will be saved and all who war against her, lest you turn their hearts to Christ, will perish. And so let us contend for the faith in our day, Lord. We live in a special time, I say, and I know it's not special. It's nothing new under the sun. But it seems, from our perspective, that the enemy has really ramped it up. The battle is fierce. Our culture, for whatever we call it, is crumbling. You're doing this, Lord, to remind us of one thing, is that there's only the truth. All of these lies are tumbling down. but you've given us something to hold on to, and what you've given us to hold on to can never fall, it can never perish, and it's the faith. And so fix our eyes on Christ, even as this world seems to have gone mad. Fix our eyes on Jesus and keep them there. And bless and keep us until you should call us into your presence, Lord, and help us to be a witness for that faith in this world, as Spurgeon once said, that we might snatch those from the flames, Lord. We pray that they would have to leap over us to get away from Christ. So help us to contend, help us to fight for this faith, and help us to trust in you as we go about that work. And we ask it all in Jesus' name, amen. Please turn with me in your Psalters to Psalm 25, Selection B. And I'll keep my comments brief, because I'm pretty sure I went over time. I want you to look with me at verses 8 and 14 in this Psalm. You'll find that in stanza four. And as we talk about these things today, and especially coming back tonight to continue this same theme, I simply want to remind you that the Lord is good and just. His justice will be served. His mercy endures forever on those who belong to Him. We have a good God. We have a trustworthy God. We have a God that will not allow them to get away with this on a long enough timeline. We can trust, we can hope, we can rest in Him and in Him alone. And the other thing I want to pull out for us is in the sixth stanza or the 14th verse is that, in the theme of this sermon, that the knowledge of his covenant, he unto them will show. And we know that all the promises of God, that you'll find them all through scripture, that those covenants, those promises, those words of assurance, those words of certainty that he spoke to his church, they were building and leading to the fulfillment of every one of those promises. He has made the knowledge of his covenant known to us. And the knowledge of that covenant, the substance of that promise has a name, Jesus Christ, the righteous. And so as we contend for the faith, as we live in this world, with our eyes fixed on heaven, let us remember that God has given us his truth. And no matter what this world throws at us, that is never going to change. The truth endures forever, the love of God endures forever, and the knowledge of the covenant has been made known. So hold fast to the promises of God and never let go because it is truly He who holds you fast. Please stand if you are able as we sing.