We've read together from 2 Peter 3, and there are many echoes there of the text that we come to this morning, but our text itself is from Jude's Epistle, verses 17 to 19. And we'll read those three verses now. But beloved, Remember ye the words which were spoken before of the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ, how that they told you there should be mockers in the last time who should walk after their own ungodly lusts. These be they who separate themselves, sensual having not the spirit and so far God's word. When we're driving, we frequently come across a sign that warns of danger ahead, which may announce that the bridge we're about to pass over in wintertime will freeze before the road surface, a sign which warns of danger so that we might be prepared. And that's also what we have in our text, a warning of danger ahead, given in a spirit of love. As we would unfold that warning this morning, let me first note some of the features of our text in its place. There's a note of repetition. Last week we saw Enoch's prophecy, and this week we see the united prophecy of the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ. There's repetition. There's also advancement. Last week, in that prophecy of Enoch, we looked at a prophecy that was ancient and comparatively lesser known and uttered by one man who, it would seem, stood out alone in his generation. and needed the encouragement that there would someday be 10,000 of saints, a reality that he had not seen yet. So an ancient prophecy, lesser known, uttered by one man, and now we take a step of advancement. We come to those things uttered not by one man, but unitedly by the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ, not in the distant past, but now in these last days, this New Testament era in which we live, redemption has been accomplished. We don't have only that comparatively dim and slender light that Enoch had. We now have the full light of God's whole revelation to us. So we've taken a step of advancement. There's also a step of transition. So we've seen repeatedly where Jude will speak of these, these, it's like a drumbeat in verse eight and 10 and 12 and 14 and 16. And again, in verse 19, these men, there's description of the corruption of these mockers and of the divine wrath that now rests upon them. Now, in our text this morning, there's also description of these ungodly mockers, but there's also a transition because now, just like at the beginning of the letter, we saw how Jude, what's motivating him to write, he's writing in love to the saints, verse three, beloved, And now he transitions and again directly addresses the saints. There's also a note of finality in our text. We've seen many denunciations of these mockers, and this is the last one. And now Jude will, from this point, occupy himself with speaking to the saints. There's something to be said about these ungodly mockers. They need to be clearly denounced. But there comes a point when the last word has been said. So he leaves. The last word that he leaves them under is not having the spirit. And then he moves on. So we come. We come for a last time. to say something about these ungodly mockers, and we'll seek to be faithful to what's here in the text. And we want to weigh it because it's the last time that we'll consider it in the epistle. We'll feel the weight of it, and then we move on from it. So there's a note of finality. But we want to look at the warning that's contained in our text. It's a warning of mockers, that there should be mockers. And there are six things to take from this warning, some at lesser or greater length. But from this warning, we'll look at its spirit, its authority, its timeliness, its essence, its confirming marks, and its remembrance. So first, we want to see the spirit of this warning, which is a spirit of love. And here, Jude addresses himself, but beloved. He's been speaking very stridently, very sharply concerning these mockers. There are situations in parenting when we would raise up our voice and use a sharp tone of voice, but they're the exception. So if our child is running towards the busy street, we don't spare to raise up our voice and speak sharply. Now, then we'd want to assure the child, I did this in love. There was a reason for me to speak so sharply and urgently. And so in a very pastoral, parental, fatherly way, Jude is saying, beloved, beloved, I've used great plainness and severity of speech, but I've done it in love. Mockers feed only themselves, but faithful pastors like Jude are motivated by love. Now, there's something about in the heart of any pastor who's like Christ in any degree, For such a pastor to see the weak imposed upon by ungodly mockers, there's something about that that draws out a kind of sanctified ire. And in love, he can't forbear to speak forcefully about it. Romans 16, now I beseech you, brethren, Mark them which cause divisions and offenses, contrary to the doctrine which ye have learned, and avoid them, for they that are such serve not our Lord Jesus Christ, but their own belly. And by good words and fair speeches deceive the hearts of the simple, the innocent, a godly pastor who loves the sheep, His sanctified ire is drawn forth from it. But he wants the sheep to know his ire is against the wolf and not against them. Or we remember Acts chapter 20, where Paul with the Ephesian elders, what's he warning of? He warns that after his departure, grievous wolves would come in, not sparing the flock. that men would come speaking perverted things and drawing away disciples after themselves. And then he says, after this specific warning of grievous wolves, he then says, remember, therefore watch and remember that by the space of three years, I ceased not to warn everyone night and day with tears. Now, there's a lot for me to grow into in this regard, but some here can even testify. I'm not tooting my own horn, but Paul spoke about his tears. There was a recent occasion where there was need for me to give warning about a grievous wolf, and I did so with tears. It's a heart-rending thing. to think of the simple and weak being imposed upon. So a faithful pastor warns in love and when it's warranted with tears of love. Now this is an argument that Satan cannot answer. So if we speak to a mocker and we bring any kind of scripture to bear on him, he's gonna have a way to twist it. He's gonna have a clever answer to tear it down. But here is something he can't answer, which is love. Satan doesn't know anything about love because so much of Christ is there in love. that love that yearns over souls and jealously wants to defend and protect souls against error and ruin. You see, this is the unique thing about being under the care of the great shepherd, the Lord Jesus Christ. It's to be an object of his love. and see how vast the contrast is. Over here we have these ungodly mockers, and we've been told of their condemnation. We've been told of the vengeance of eternal fire that they will suffer. We've been told of that blackness of darkness. So here's the dark side of the pillar of cloud toward the Egyptians. Darkness, blackness on the enemies of God. And then on the other side of the pillar of cloud, like upon the Israelites, there is light. Oh, there's such a vast difference between the kingdom of Satan and the kingdom of Christ. To be following a false shepherd and in the kingdom of Satan is to be under wrath, but to be in Christ's kingdom and following him is to be an object of love. And the gospel is a message of God's love. And that's why the body of Christ is so full of this love and why pastors may speak to people with this term, beloved. The gospel is necessary because of the holy wrath of God, which burns against sin. But against that backdrop, the gospel declares that God has manifested his love in the sending of his son. And it says to those who by nature are under the burning wrath of God and in the kingdom of Satan, come, come unto the Lord Jesus Christ, cross over from wrath. unto acceptance in the beloved. Love is a wonderful thing. And all of Christ's sheep are under his love. And yes, even under the love of his under shepherds. So the spirit of this warning is that of of love. The authority of this warning we next notice And that is that this warning was spoken by the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ. Now, men today, and even these mocker types will even meddle with this and will claim to themselves the title of apostle. so it may be helpful to show why that's an empty claim. So there are four characteristics of an apostle, at least. One, chosen personally by Jesus Christ himself. The Lord Jesus prayed all night in, I believe, Luke 6, and then he chose the 12 apostles. Matthias, after Judas went to his place, Matthias was chosen after prayer by the holy and reverent use of lots. So by divine decision, Matthias was made an apostle. And then Paul, in an extraordinary way, the Lord Jesus appearing to him in glory, and Paul chosen by Christ, handpicked by him, contrary to all appearances, handpicked by him to be the apostle, especially to the Gentiles. So an apostle must be personally chosen by Jesus Christ. An apostle is an eyewitness of Christ's ministry and his resurrection. Acts chapter one, these were the qualifications. Who should be chosen to fill Judas's place? He has to be an eyewitness of Christ's ministry and of his resurrection, which today's self-appointed apostles are not. An apostle has signs of an apostle. 2 Corinthians 11, the signs of an apostle were done among you, and signs and wonders and mighty deeds. So someone says, I'm an apostle, and we say, raise the dead, and then we'll talk about your claim to apostleship. An apostle, fourthly, and this one is utterly alien to today's self-appointed apostles, an apostle is a sufferer. 1 Corinthians 4, 9, for I think that God has set forth us, the apostles, last, as it were, appointed to death. Today's self-appointed apostles want to be first, and it's very likely that today's self-appointed apostles couldn't even find a responsible presbytery to ordain him as an ordinary minister. And so he ordains himself as an apostle, and therefore he's superior to everyone else. That's opposite the spirit of Christ's apostles who were last, and suffering, imprisoned, martyred, even Jude himself. If I'm right in my understanding, this epistle was written by that apostle called Thaddeus or Judas Not-Iscariot. And notice what Jude does not do. He does not trumpet his own apostleship. He simply calls himself the servant of Jesus Christ and the brother of his better-known brother, James. So the biblical apostles decreased so that Christ might increase. And so we can easily recognize false apostleship in the papacy, in Muhammad's claims, in Mormonism, in pseudo-Protestant self-appointed apostles. So all that is to say, today's self-appointed apostles make an empty claim, but there is such a thing as Christ's apostles. What is Christ? head and king of the church, what has he provided? We find Ephesians 2.20 where it says, the church is built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief cornerstone. Christ is the cornerstone and his way of laying down a foundation for the church is through the ministry of those apostles chosen by him. And how does that relate to us? It relates to us because the New Testament is the apostolic writing that we now have the completed word of God with the testimony of the apostles, the Old Testament, not nullified, but interpreted by the new. And so we are standing on the words of the apostles when we are standing upon scripture. And if we give heed to scripture, whom are we heeding? Our Lord Jesus Christ, our Lord. He's suffered once unto death. He's been raised from the dead. He's ascended into heaven. He's poured out his spirit and through his chosen apostles, has given us his complete and abiding word. And if we will not bow to scripture, then we're saying we will not bow to Christ. But if we bow to scripture, then we're saying Jesus is Lord. So this warning, it comes with authority. spoken before of the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ. It's the authority of this warning. Also, the timeliness of this warning spoken before and concerning the last time. Verse 18, there should be mockers in the last time. So this goes to confirm what I've just said. that Christ appointed apostles as a foundational office and ministry in his church, that he, through the apostles, would lay down the foundation on which his church would be built up until he came again. So Jude speaks here of the words of the apostles going before and applying to the last time. But he's saying that these things are already being fulfilled. The mockers are already here. So when is the last time? The last time is now. Christ ushered in the last time by his coming, death, resurrection, ascension. So the Old Testament believers did not live in the last time because there was a great change and alteration coming. The ceremonies would be torn away, the temple done away with. There would be a great change in the face of the church. The Gentiles welcomed in on equal footing. So that great change has happened. The next change that is to happen is when we see the Lord face to face. There is no more alteration There's no tearing up of those foundations once laid down. Christ has laid down the foundations. When we observe his ordinances like the supper, we show the Lord's death till he come. So none can alter what Christ has laid down in the scriptures. These completed Old and New Testament scriptures. There's not to be an alteration in the face and shape of Christ's church until he comes again. It is not our part to change what we've received, but to keep what we've received until that day when the Lord cometh. So the apostles spoke beforehand with this word of warning. And lo and behold, in this last time when Christ has wrought out redemption, Satan is in a rage because his time is short. In the last days, now, when we have the most truth, then now we should expect the most mockery of the truth. And also it encourages the godly. Mockers in the last time, but their time is short. We have less to wait, less time to wait than Enoch did. We should live ready and looking for the coming of our Lord. The timeliness of the warning spoken concerning the last time laid down in advance, but also we need to see what the essence of this warning is. The essence of the warning is that there should be mockers in the last time. We know what mockery is. We do see that there can be justifiable reasons to use a kind of holy scorn. So Isaiah scorns idol makers for how they chop down a block of wood and make their God and then use the other part to bake their bread, and there's something to be laughed at. It's appropriate. There are times when we may provoke laughter against what is truly foolish. However, we wouldn't say Isaiah was a mocker, no. In fact, that's something of the exception rather than the rule. If we see a scorn heaped on what is foolish, These men, these mockers in the last time, this is their bread and butter to speak in a way that's scorning, jesting, biting, spitting venom. They have nothing of that chastened speech of Michael that we saw, not daring to bring a railing accusation, even in his dispute with the devil. These are men who are not careful and prayerful and sober in their words, but they are men of extremes. Their words are extreme. We saw that in verse 16. Their mouth speaketh great swelling words. So what they say is oversized. So if they're flattering someone, Like verse 16, maybe someone wealthy that they want to flatter to make into a follower, they will use great swelling words to praise that person. And then they use great swelling words against God and his ways and everything that is excellent. Mockery is an advanced form of sin. It is sin in any degree to refuse or push away or deny the truth of God, even in our thoughts. But to break forth into speaking against the truth is another step of sin. But then to speak against the truth with an air of pride and arrogance, and even to make a mockery of what is holy and excellent, This is a very advanced, hardened state of sin. Now, what will these mockers mock? Well, anything that's excellent. But we could be more specific. If we remember from Peter's epistle, one thing that they certainly mock is the coming of the Lord. Where is the promise of his coming? Either denying that the Lord will come as he promised, or else twisting and obscuring the doctrine. They certainly won't make, uh, won't profit from the doctrine of the Lord's coming. Like the godly will the godly thinks the Lord is coming with 10 thousands of his godly ones. Therefore let me settle my debts. Let me confess my sins to God and to man. and to keep short accounts and a clean conscience, a cleansed conscience through the blood of Christ. Let me do the will of God with all my heart, doing the duty of the day with all my strength, seizing my opportunity, not knowing how many more opportunities I may have, laying up treasure in heaven, knowing that the heavens and the earth shall be melted with fervent heat, that nothing that's laid down here can stay, and therefore seeking to live sacrificially and with an eye to heaven. This is the way that the godly think about the coming of the Lord, but these ungodly mockers will either outright deny the Lord's coming or they will make light of it, and they certainly won't seek to have it rest with due weight upon the heart and produce holiness. They mock the coming of the Lord. Also, they mock eminent Christians. Verse eight, they speak evil of dignities. Who is that? Yes, it seems to refer to officers in the church and magistrates because it's connected with authority. But who are the ones who should be raised to a place of dignity? Shouldn't it be the men who are eminent for godliness? And so wherever they see eminent godliness, they mock at it. Where they see a man who is a standard bearer for the truth, they'll seek to tear him down. They'll heap scorn on faithful ministers and indeed on all eminent saints, calling them too strict, too careful. So then if you Desire to come after Christ. You've heard his gospel call. Come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden. Christ inviting the vilest sinner to come unto him and to come underneath of this love of God that we've spoken about. He invites you in his gospel to come. And he also tells you what you'll experience if you do come. He also tells you that the way is narrow. And then if you come after him, you'll be mocked. Now, it's a mercy to be forewarned of it. It takes off some of the shock. And also, we remember if as we experience mockery, we remember that Christ was mocked first. He is supremely in his crucifixion was the reproach of men. He was treated as a worm and not as a man. And this is the support that the godly have when they experience mockery is fellowship with Christ, knowing that his footsteps have gone down the road before, that he's near and present, more near and present to the mocked, derided Christian. than at any other time, present with his spirit, his comforter, his spirit who is the comforter to bind up their wounds, to pour oil into the wounds that men have made. So you should come after Christ. And if you do, you should know that you'll be mocked. And yet he's sufficient to support you in that experience. The essence of the warning in the word of God is that there shall be mockers in the last time. Now there's another thing to consider. What are the, what are the confirming marks that come along with the description of these mockers? Again, remembering we're being treated with pastoral love, beloved, remembering that this warning comes to us with authority. It comes to us in a timely way to prepare us so that our discernment might be trained and we might recognize the sort of men who are being talked about. There are three additional things said about these mockers. One is that they walk after their own ungodly lusts. I won't belabor that point, but you'll see that this is the sixth time that Jude has used that word ungodly in his epistle. And we remember that the word ungodly refers to a deficiency in your worship. The ungodly man is not a reverencer of God. An ungodly man is the opposite of Enoch, who walked with God. What a beautiful picture of godliness that is in the life of Enoch, walking with God. What do you think that means, children? If you walk with someone, what does that mean? You would walk with a friend, wouldn't you? And if you walked with your friend, would you speak to your friend? Would you learn things about your friend? The godly man walks with God. He's consulting with God in the word and prayer. And so these men are devoid of that. They're not living before the face of God. They're not delighting in worship, private family, public worship. They're not working through all of those providences that befall them as from the hand of God and thinking on the Lord in all things, they're deficient in it. And so to be defended from it, we want to cultivate godliness, which is living before the Lord, not walking after ungodly loss, but walking with God. This is one confirming mark. Another confirming mark. is in verse 19. These be they who separate themselves. And this, this is important for us to grasp. The word for separating has to do with drawing a boundary. So they draw a boundary and in what some boundaries need to be drawn, but they draw a boundary that sets themselves apart from everyone else. And this, As we watch and learn the tactics of the devil, we are going to come to recognize this as a hallmark of his work, when someone separates himself. So question comes up, is separation ever justified or necessary? Yes. But we do want to remember this, What is the Bible's doctrine of the church? Does the Bible say only join a church that doesn't have any unconverted members in it? No, verse five tells us the people the Lord saved out of Egypt, some of them didn't believe. So the Bible tells us the church, the most pure church under heaven is subject to mixture and error. So in the matter of separation, there's a caution involved. The question is not, is there any error in any matter held to by this church? Is there anyone, is there any member in the church who doesn't seem to be walking godly in Christ Jesus? I have nothing to do with such a church. No, no, it's in a case, where the heresy is fundamental, the idolatry is gross, where the church begins to persecute the godly for their faithfulness. These are the kinds of things that justify separation. And then what kind of separation? There's partial separation and total separation. There's abstaining from the evils of some particular church while continuing in that church. There's relative separation and absolute separation. A relative separation would be separating from some congregation or branch of the church to join another. Absolute separation would be separating entirely from the visible church. So this is a matter of of weight, this whole doctrine of separation. When is it justified? And whenever separation occurs, it's always a cause for heart searching and lamentation. Even if before God, we are not at fault for a separation that has occurred, which could be the case. Even if we're not at fault, it's always something to lament. We always want to be keeping the Savior's priorities in view in John 17, not compromising anything of the truth, but praying that we may all be one. So these thoughts may help us about separation. However, these mockers, it appears that they make a total separation. It doesn't give any qualification about their separation. It doesn't say that after careful and loving attempts, according to their station, to admonish and pray, that with grief in their hearts, they undertook that separation that they were convinced was necessary from the word of God, but they didn't go any farther. They didn't make any greater breach than was necessary under the circumstances, and they acted with caution and circumspection. simply that they separate themselves. And this is a very common thing, that someone separates himself entirely from the visible church. And we recognize when we hear people saying, when we hear them expressing a view of the church that is incompatible with the promise of Christ, we should recognize a danger sign. What has Christ said? will build my church. And when we hear someone saying, there's no church on earth that I can possibly join, the whole thing is such a ruin that we need to start over now in 2019. I'm going to separate myself entirely and me and my two friends who read the Bible together, we're the church. Well, has Christ's promise failed? No. We have room to lament over the state of visible church, but not room to say that Christ's promise to build his church has failed. And what kind of church is Christ building? He's building a visible church. He's building a church where the sacraments are observed, where there is a ministry like Timothy's ministry to preach the word, preaching the whole counsel of God, where there are multiple officers together, Titus told to ordain elders in every town, where like Acts 15, there are gatherings of more than one particular church to see to the government and oversight of the church. Biblical Presbyterianism. So the church that Christ is building is not three people who think, oh, the whole church is such a ruin that we may as well separate from it and we'll read our Bible together and we're the church. This is so common, but it's one of the marks of this mocking spirit that we're warned against. It's really proud to say we're better than anything Christ has done in building up his visible church, to say Christ's promise has so failed that we need to start all over again ourselves, separating themselves This is a mark of the mockers who shall come in the last day. The third confirming mark is in these words, sensual, having not the spirit, this word sensual. Um, it's the same one that describes the natural man who cannot receive the things of the spirit of God in first Corinthians two. Um, The natural man, he has a soul, but his soul has fallen. He's sensual, not having a spirit. He's not born again. He must be born again. In order to please God, to walk in humility and in unity with Christ's visible church, not separating ourselves, We need to be renewed by the Spirit of God. Do we have any delight in God and his ways? Any self-control over our own urges wrought by the Spirit? We must be changed from being what we are by nature, sensual men, to those having the Spirit of God. This is the third confirming mark. But there's one more thing. We've opened up this warning. There's one more thing, which is the remembrance of this warning. Here is the duty that the word of God lays upon you. It is the duty to remember, but beloved, remember ye the words. On the one hand, this is a duty that's harder than it sounds. Remember? Oh, sure, we can remember. Except we forget how forgetful we are and how the Israelites forgot what God did for them. You see, the natural heart of man does not hold fast the word of God like it should. What are all these things about, oh, Christ ascended into heaven, Christ appointing apostles, the love of Christ and caring for his church, God's name being mocked. If we don't have new hearts, we won't care about any of that. If we have stony hearts, the dew of this instruction will just roll off the stone. We must be given new hearts. In order to take the word of God to our hearts, we need to pray for the gift of the spirit that we may be able to remember the words spoken before of the apostles. What will be the consequences if not? If we're not given grace to hear the word of God and to remember the warning, then will be defenseless. Then we'll be in a state where we're not prepared and we'll be swept away by these mockers. And it is sure that they will come. If we're not given grace to take the word of God to heart, we'll go along with them in their mocking and we'll be found with our tongues strutting and lifted up against the most high. We need grace, and God is willing to give grace that you might hear his word. It's harder than we might think to remember, but it's also mightier than we might think. Think of that. How is Satan going to be thwarted? By people hearing and remembering the word of God. Satan can only triumph where we're ignorant and forgetful. If we will but know the truth, we are proof ultimately against the evil one. He cannot tyrannize over the one who knows the word of truth, the voice of the shepherd. My sheep hear my voice. How precious to be one of Christ's sheep, hearing and receiving his word. and by that means kept safe, gloriously safe, as we'll see in these final verses, which we so much look forward to. Now unto him that is able to keep you from falling and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy, to the only wise God, our Savior, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and forever. Amen. Amen. Indeed, would you stand with me as we pray? Oh, Lord, our God, our Father in heaven, we thank thee for the precious care of our great risen shepherd, our Lord Jesus Christ, and for the way by which his word is ministered is handed down from those apostles that he himself chose and gifted so that we might be equipped in having his word and able to stand. And so bless us with these thoughts. We ask it for Jesus' sake. Amen. As we remain standing