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  Where Jesus is Lord

The development   of the soul and spirit  is  essential for a full life.   

CONTENDING FOR THE FAITH IN DAYS OF APOSTASY. JUDE

 Jude and James were he half brothers of Jesus (Matt. 13:55).  Neither of them believed that Jesus was the Messiah until after His resurrection.  Up until then they thought he had religious zeal.  They both came to Christ as sinner’s and were saved.  Mary also confessed her need of a saviour (Luke 1:47).  The book was written about AD 66-69.  The theme is assurance during the last days of apostasy.  His subject was the coming apostasy and shows the dangers to the church.  Apostates had broken into the church and he is exposing them.  Jude gives the only record of Satan and Michael the archangel in contention over the body of Moses.  He also is the only one who records the prophecy of Enoch, he sees the Lord coming with ten thousand of his saints.

Vs 1-2 Jude gives believers great assurance.  

 APOSTASY  

We must understand what apostasy is in order to understand it. Apostasy means “to remove, to withdraw, to go away, and to depart.”  

CONTEND FOR THE FAITH

Vs 3 “Contend for the faith which was once delivered to the saints.”  Apostasy is a departure from the faith. False teachers were preaching their counterfeit gospel and misleading those who needed to hear the true gospel. Jude was urging a war against error in all forms and to fight strenuously for the faith.  Here is a call to sound doctrine, to be discerning in sorting out truth from error, and to be willing to confront and attack error. Jude sounds a warning about false teachers.  The apostasy is a departure from the apostle’s doctrine.  We are not looking for it, it is here, today.  The inception of apostasy happened it means to contend for the fundamentals of the faith without being contentious. (2 Tim. 2:24-26). 

“It was needful” there was a compulsion, a necessity, a constraint upon Jude to write concerning apostasy in the last days.  Whether by force, threats, persuasion, entreaty it was his duty to write. 

“Earnestly contend” is epagonizomai, fond only here in the New Testament.  The verb was used of an athlete contending in a contest.  The word speaks of vigorous, intense, determined, struggle to defeat the opposition.  Our word agony has its roots in the noun.  Great effort should by put in by the saints to defend the doctrines of Christianity. It means agony contend or defend the faith.  The faith is the body of truth.  It is called the apostles doctrine in (Acts 2:42).  We are to speak the truth in love.  If you are going to give the truth give it in love.  We ought to be ready to give an answer to anyone who asks.  We should not have a sort fuse and become angry when someone differs with us.  Peter tells us how to do this, “be ready to give an answer” (1 Pete 3:15).  This is a Greek technical term of the law courts, speaking of the attorney for the defence” presenting a verbal defence.”  This part is the ministry of the pastor.  He must guard the flock of God under his charge from the inroads of Modernism, legalism and any false position.  The intensity of the defence must be adjusted to the intensity of the opposition which comes from Satan through Modernism or false teaching. . 

“Once for all delivered to he saints.”    God gave the scriptures once for all; He does not add to it nor take away from it. No other faith will be given.  It is complete, sufficient and finished. It is God’s inspired word. He delivered it believers to keep, to manage and take care of.  He deposited it to the “saints” those set apart forth worship and service of God.  All believers are responsible to manage and take care of it.  It is the responsibility of the believer knows to study the word and be approved, preach the word and fight for its preservation. 

APOSTATES INFILTRATING THE CHURCH  

Vs 4 “For certain men have crept in unnoticed.”  This is the way they get in. These men enter alongside they creep in the side doors.  That’s the way they come into the church.  At first they are not obvious. They infiltrate with their false teaching pretending to be true.  On the surface they look like the real thing, but their intentions are to lead god’s people astray.  They may confess creeds with their mouths; they come in professing one thing and believing another.  They are dishonest.  Many liberals have done this and slowly took over a church or denomination and destroyed it.  They transform themselves into angels of light.  Transforming means outwardly they seem to change but inwardly they are the same.  It is a satanic method.  Peter says, “And that because of false prophets also among the people , even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privately shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction” (2 Peter 2:1).  A man may come and preach a good sermon and be called to a church but later his true teaching comes out.    They are creeps they creep in the side door of the church.   They have a form of godliness they look like sheep but are wolves in sheep’s clothing; it is difficult to detect them from a distance.  You have to get close to them and find out what they believe. The people of God need to be watchful and careful.  We need to watch itinerant preachers, visiting speakers we no little about. When we study church history we find many have done this. 

These apostates are Satan’s counterfeits, most likely posing as itinerant preachers.  They were characterized by three features: -

 1/ “Ungodly men.”  They have no reverence for God, His Word or the things of God. They are rebellious and have no restraints.   They put error in the place of truth.

 2/ “They turn the grace of our God into lewdness.” They pervert distort or deny God’s grace and do what they want to do. They turn grace into licence and live sinful lives.  They say they are free to do anything and God will forgive them. They may teach a great sermon but live an unholy life.

3/ “..and they deny the only Lord God and our Lord, Jesus Christ.” They deny (disown) the Deity of our Lord Jesus Christ. This is the main test if they deny Christ’s deity you immediately know they are false teachers. The Greek word for Lord is despotes, which speaks of one who is absolute owner and has uncontrolled power over another. The two persons of the Godhead are mentioned here, the Father and the Son. It says the only Lord God, Unitarians, Modernists, New Age, Hinduism, Islam, Buddhism in fact all other religions who deny that He is the only lord God are wrong. The apostates may give the impression that Christ is saviour and Lord but when you examine what they say more closely they may say there are other ways to God, or that the resurrection was just spiritual thing, or question the incarnation; they may even call him Lord but teach you must keep the law to receive salvation.   You do not notice them art first. 

The method is described in 2 Corinthians 11:13-15.  They take after their father, the Devil.  They “transform” they express themselves falsely because they are not like that in the inside.  Lucifer does that he assumes an outward appearance.  His ministers may even use evangelistic terms such as salvation, faith, regeneration, atonement, resurrection” but they put their own private meaning on them and pose as being orthodox in belief. 

“Who long ago were marked out for this condemnation?”  Apostasy and apostates in general were written about and condemned many centuries before. Jude illustrates this in the next verses.  They must be condemned or judged by what hey say and how they live. 

APOSTASY IN ISRAEL VS 5 

Jude now gives us six examples of apostasy. 1/ Israel. 2 the angels, 3/ Sodom and Gomorrah, 4/ modern apostates, 5/ Cain, Balaam, and Korah. 

“But I want to remind you, though you once knew this, that the Lord having saved the people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed those who did not believe.  When Israel came to Kadesh Barnea they refused to enter into the Promised Land.  They would not believe the two spies Caleb and Joshua.  They even worshipped an idol they made as well as murmured against God. They preferred to stay in the wilderness rather than believe god. This is an example of apostasy, a departure from the faith.  God had promise them the land before they came out of Egypt “I will take you out of Egypt, and I will bring you into the land.”  They used the children’s’ welfare as an excuse for not going in (Num. 14:31).  Sometimes we do that we make our children an excuse for not obeying god.  The generation that apostatised did not get into the land; they departed from the faith and were destroyed in the wilderness. 

APOSTASY AMONG THE ANGELS VS 6 

“And the angels did not keep their proper domain, but left their own abode, He has reserved in everlasting chains under darkness for the judgement of that great day.”  God created angels with a free will.  They do no reproduce as human beings do; therefore they do not inherit a sinful nature as humans do.  Some of these angels got caught up in a rebellion, and now they were reserved in chains.   This rebellion sis recorded in Genesis 6:1-3.   They will have their final doom in the judgement day and be cast “into the lake of fire.”  

APOSTASY IN SODOM AND GOMORRAH VS 7  

“As Sodom and Gomorrah, and the cities around them in similar manner to these have given themselves over to sexual immorality and gone after strange flesh, are set forth as an example suffering the vengeance of eternal fire.” In the same manner points back to the sin of the fallen angels in verse 6 they were guilty of the same identical sin “going after strange flesh” The sin was fornication.   The word strange refers to the angels going after different flesh.  They went beyond the limits of their own flesh.  They had intercourse with women.  In Sodom it was homosexual sin that Paul condemns in Romans 1:27. They are under suffering vengeance (punishment) today with people like the rich man in Hades (Luke 16:22-24).  Second Peter 2:6-10 mentions these cities. 

MODERN APOSTATE TEACHERS IDENTIFIED VS 8  

“Likewise also these dreamers defile the flesh, reject authority, and speak evil of dignitaries.”  These are the ones who crept into the church unawares.  There are four points about them.

!. They are “dreamers.” Metaphorically it means beguiled with sensual imagers and carried away with a course of conduct. They live in an unreal world, a world that does not exist.  They are confused in their soul or abnormal imagination.  They fantasise wicked perversions.  Perhaps they claim falsely these visions and dreams are from God.  The faith /prosperity teaching to day is unreal, the modernism of today and liberalism is unreal.  The idea of a utopia on earth and man making it possible is unreal.  They live in another world and do not see the sin and suffering all around.  They believe man will evolve into a God shaping his own destiny.  Such people creep into the church today.  Some believe there should be n suffering we should have a positive confession.  This is sick and unreal thinking.

2. They “defile the flesh.” They have no moral restraint. They pollute or contaminate the literal flesh.  Is this not happening to day with the increase of Aids, and venereal diseases? They have immoral lifestyles.  You should practice safe sex they say, but the Lord wants us to keep sex limited to the marital relationship, then we would not have widespread infections of this kind.

3. They “reject authority.”  They nullify, do away with, and make void something that is good.  They wan tot get rid of laws and turn everybody loose to their own way.  Today there is a breakdown of society, the law has no bite, and liberals have gained control of our legal system.  It has benefited the criminal and the offend person pays the cost.  They are punished instead of the offender. Families are punished because laws better the unmarried.

4. They “speak evil of dignitaries.”  They disrespect those who rule.  They take it out on the police who represent the rulers.  The Prime minister, the M.P. the Lord Mayors is responsible for anything that happens.  It is never their fault.  Some in authority are an offence and should be removed but that does not solve the personal problem.  

MICHAEL THE ARCHANGEL AND THE DEVIL VS 9  

There was a dispute at the funeral of Moses.  Lucifer was a creature of god and apparently the highest creature created.  Michael did not curse him or call him a lot of bad names he simply said, “The Lord rebuke.”   We must respect authority but appeal to Him and His Word, who made all things, especially to deal with demonic forces.  The chief angel of god who watches of over Israel and leads the holy angels struggled over the body of Moses.   Did not bring sentence upon Satan but respected the position God had given him. 

SPIRIUTAL ARROGANCE AND BRUTE BEASTS. VS 10  

“But these speak evil of whatever they do not know; and whatever they know naturally, like brute beasts, in these tings they corrupt themselves.”   They speak is blasphemoeo is blaspheme, apostates actually blaspheme. Apostates blaspheme in their bold, imagine d power and authority.  They rail on that which they don’t understand.   They are intellectually arrogant and spiritually ignorant.  They will never know because they are blinded by Satan. There are two different words for know in this verse.  The first “know”(oida) speaks of mental comprehension and knowledge referring to the whole range of invisible things.   The second word “knows” (epistamai) means to understand, referring to things and objects of sense, the circumstances of sensual enjoyment.   These People only handle what they can see.  Spiritual matters are beyond them.  They are like brute beasts (animals without reason).  The apostates are unreasoning animals. They corrupt or destroy themselves and delight in it. 

CAIN, BALAAM AND KORAH-EXAMPLES OF APOSTASY VS 11  

These three individuals are to be noted.

“For they have gone in the way of Cain.”  Cain was a religious man but a natural man.  He believed in God, in religion, but the rejected God’s ay of redemption-the shedding of blood.  A sacrifice for sin.  He did after his own will. 

“And ran after the error of Balaam.”  Here we have the way of Balaam , in 2 Peter 2:15 we have the way of Balaam; and in Revelation 2:14 we have the doctrine of Balaam  The error of Balaam was that he thought god would have to punish Israel for their sins.  He did not recognize there is a morality that is above natural morality.  He thought that a righteous God would curse Israel.  He was unaware of the morality of the cross.  God can justify the sinner if the sinner comes his way. 

“And perished the in the gainsaying of Korah."  (Num. 16).  He came to the conclusion that Moses was not the only one who had access to God.  Korah rebelled against god’s constituted authority, who was Moses.  He wanted to intrude into that which was sacred.  He intruded in to the office of the priests and he died.    These apostates all rejected god’s word and God’s way.  

MODERN APOSTATE TEACHERS. VS 12  

“These are spots in your love feasts.”    they are dirt, filth or spots on the church. They are hidden rocks or reefs to bring shipwreck to the church.  They would come in to the love feasts, the gatherings the communion service of the early believers.

Clouds without water.”  They look like they are filled with the word or the things of God but they were really empty and dry.  They spiritualise the scripture they do not know the Spirit of God.  They are like beautiful clouds full of dry words that mean nothing.  They drift across the sky but bring no refreshment to the earth.

“Late autumn trees without fruit, twice dead, pulled up by the roots.”  The apostate has withered fruit.  They are spiritually dead.

“Raging waves of the sea, foaming out their own shame.”  They just stand in the pulpit and just rant and rave.  They are restless and have no foundation.

“Wandering stars for whom is reserved the blackness of darkness.”  They just are no stable they just are an aimless and worthless flash like a meteorites.  

ENOCH PROPHESIED ABUT THESE MEN VS 14-15

“Now Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied about these men also, saying, “Behold, the Lords comes with ten thousand of His saints, to execute judgement on all, to convict all who are ungodly deeds which they have committed in an ungodly way, and of all the harsh things spoken against Him.”  The Holy Spirit inspired Jude in an accurate fashion.  Enoch prophesied Christ’s second coming but the apostates did not believe it and spoke harsh words against the Lord.  

APOSTATES PREDICTED

Vs 16 They are “grumblers” murmurers

Complainers” finding fault. They were dissatisfied with god and His will and way.

Walking after their own lusts” they followed the lust of their minds.  It was sinful disaffection. 

They mouth great swelling words” they speak with arrogance and are pompous.    

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