Jude- Part 1: The Faith Once for All Delivered

If you want to find your Bible or open up that app on your phone, that still works too, I guess. We are continuing today in the one chapter series.

One chapter series. In fact, this is the last installment, the last book anyway, of this one chapter series. These are those New Testament books that appear in our Bibles and have one chapter.

And we are up to the book of Jude today. And if you want to find Jude, go to the back of your Bible, find Revelation and go up one book and you will find the book of Jude.

And as you are turning there, let me just introduce you to its writer. This is Jude, as he tells us in verse one. And he is he identifies himself as the brother of James.

And this would be the same James who served as a key leader in the early church. Some of you might be familiar with the book of Acts and a little controversy that erupts about the middle of the book in Acts chapter 15.

Acts 15 · chapter mention

And James is the leader of the Jerusalem council. And Jude actually has another brother who's somewhat well known. You might know him. His name is Jesus.

Yes, that Jesus. As a matter of fact, Jude who wrote the book of Jude and James who wrote the book of James in your Bible and who was the leader of the Jerusalem council, these are the brothers, the biological half-brothers of Jesus.

But rather than drop that name or drop that title, I should say, as the Lord's brother, look at how James, or Jude, I should say, introduces himself.

It's as the brother of James. And he's the servant of Jesus Christ. Now we're going to be in this book of Jude for several weeks. And I want you to understand that although it only clocks in at about 25 verses,

we're going to quickly find that this is a book that is absolutely jam-packed with teaching. There will be some strange things. Let me warn you, okay?

There will be strange things that need explanation. There will be strange books that are quoted. There will be Old Testament characters, people, and events that have backstories that you might not know about or that you might be rusty on.

So we're going to need to take our time as we work our way through. But for today, what I'd like to do is start with the first four verses. So if you've got Jude in front of you, you can follow along with me as I read for us these first four verses.

Jude, a servant of Jesus Christ and brother of James. To those who are called beloved in God the Father and kept for Jesus Christ.

May mercy, peace, and love be multiplied to you. Beloved, although I was eager to write to you about our common salvation,

I found it necessary to write appealing to you to contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints. For certain people have crept in unnoticed, who long ago were designated for this condemnation.

Ungodly people who pervert the grace of our God into sensuality and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ. Let's stop right there. Would you pray with me once more?

Let's pray. Father, we thank you for this church. We thank you that we can be a church. Lord, we recognize that there are events in our lives that go on every day, week by week, month by month.

And Lord, we thank you that for those who have been in a period of searching and waiting, we know several church members have found jobs recently and we praise you for that.

That you are a God who provides for us. And so may those new workplaces be a source of not just income, but a place where we can share our faith and shine brightly like the stars that we are.

Lord, for others of us, we know that there are still concerns. There are physical needs. There are job needs, Lord. There are uncertainties on the horizon.

And we pray for those families and those individuals. And Jesus, we thank you that you have raised up a church here in South Bend that we call Redeemer.

Lord, we thank you that we can be your people. And so will you build us today, even as we encourage one another and build into each other, build us on your word this morning.

We thank you for it. And we pray together in the name of your son. In Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Amen. Well, Jude, technically speaking, as I mentioned a moment ago, he is a half-brother of Jesus.

Please understand they have different fathers, right? So Jude's father would be Joseph, the one that, you know, led the donkey into Bethlehem.

It's not been on the scene very much in the New Testament after that. We think maybe he died at an earlier age. But Jude, along with the three other brothers, they are the younger half-brothers of Jesus, who, of course, has God as his father.

And some of us might remember these guys. We might remember that they make a couple of appearances in the Gospels. Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.

Here is a time where there were some hostile crowds that were not liking things that Jesus said. And this is what the crowd actually says in Matthew chapter 13, verse 55.

Matthew 13:55

They say, is not this, this Jesus, the carpenter's son? Is not his mother called Mary? And are not his brothers James and Joseph and Simon and Judas?

Judas is the longer version of Jude. You know, but sadly, it wasn't just these crowds that had a little trouble believing in Jesus. In fact, here's what we read over in Mark's Gospel.

Mark chapter 3, verse 20. Then he, Jesus, went home, and the crowd gathered again so that they could not even eat. And when his family heard it, they went out to seize him, for they were saying, he is out of his mind.

Mark 3:20

Some of you know what it's like to refer to a sibling, a brother, or a sister, and say they're crazy. Did you know Jesus' own brothers did that to him?

They thought he was crazy. And yet, they did not remain in that position. Because by the time we come to events after the resurrection, by the time we come to, say, Acts chapter 1.

Acts 1 · chapter mention

Look who's in this special gathering in that upper room. Check this out in Acts chapter 1, verse 14. All these, with one accord, were devoting themselves to prayer together with the women and Mary, the mother of Jesus, and his brothers.

Acts 1:14

And so they became believers. His brothers, how far they have come. And this particular brother here, how far has he come? Here he is, writing under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit what has become Scripture in our Bibles.

But notice how Jude, he doesn't use the blood connection of Jesus. I mean, if I was writing a New Testament epistle, and I was a half-brother of Jesus, I think I might mention that.

Jude does not. And that's because he knows that any physical relationship that he has with Jesus pales in comparison to a spiritual relationship that he has with his half-brother.

And that spiritual relationship means that, spiritually speaking, he is a servant. Literally, the word is slave of Jesus Christ. So that's our author, and that's the note on which he starts things out.

Very humble. And what do we know about this letter's recipients? And its destination? And I wish I could stand here in front of you and tell you that we knew where it went and who they were, but we actually do not.

Jude simply refers to his fellow Christians here as those who are called, beloved in God the Father, and kept for Jesus Christ. Called, loved, and kept.

And I want you to begin to notice that it's going to be a pattern, a trend, because this is the beginning of Jude using triplets. Groups of three.

Three words, three examples, three illustrations that will be a pattern all the way throughout these 25 verses in this letter. And what do these three descriptors hear?

What special significance do they have? Well, first thing you could know is that they match precisely the way that God, in the Serpent Songs of Isaiah, talks about his people.

Even back in the Old Covenant, he referred to his people as called and beloved by him and kept for him. And really there is a past and a present and a future aspect that each of these terms conveys.

Called, as in having been selected or chosen. This is one of those mysteries in Scripture where we are told that we are foreordained from the foundation of the world.

And yet we have free will. And if you want me to explain that to you, I stopped trying about five or ten years ago. And then there's a present reality.

The love of God. We are called beloved in him. Because we are these beneficiaries of this enfolding, protecting love. Jesus even uses the analogy of a mother hen and her chicks.

And how she enfolds her chicks in her wings. We are enfolded and protected in his love. And we are kept. Kept. Sure, down in verse 21 later on we're going to read how we're supposed to keep ourselves in his love.

But if it were all by your human agency and my human agency, where would we be? Praise the Lord that we are kept by God for Jesus Christ. Safeguarded.

Preserved. Never let go. Because the same God who promised to keep his people in the Old Testament in books like Deuteronomy and Isaiah is still the same God who promises to keep his people today.

The keeping of his people is a pattern. One that Jesus could so fluently and easily pray in John 17. Remember he prayed in John 17 verse 11.

John 17:11

Holy Father, keep them. Keep them in your name. So a triple standing is a people called, beloved, and kept. And now to this triple standing, Jude offers another triple.

A triple prayer wish, if you will. Verse 2. He says, May mercy, peace, and love be multiplied to you. And I think we know what those things are.

Mercy. Something that we as believers need every moment continually. We need mercy now. We need mercy next time we sin. We need mercy later.

When we one day stand before the judgment. Mercy. And because we have this mercy. Because mercy is ours. We have peace. We have peace. Peace first and foremost horizontally between God and us.

We know that peace is something also that we have one to another. Peace. Out of the peace that we have with the Father. We can live at peace and foster peace with each other.

And love. May love be multiplied to you, Jude writes. A love that we know is poured out for us at the cross in his son. A love that in Romans 5, Paul says, is actually poured out into our hearts by the Holy Spirit.

Love. So that's the introduction. And then we come to verse 3. Take a look at verse 3. Because here's where Jude really starts the letter. But what happens in verse 3 is really quite fascinating.

It's almost as if Jude is telling his readers this. Hey guys, there's a letter that I wanted to write to you. This isn't it. I cannot write the letter I intended.

I didn't write the letter that I had intended. I couldn't write that one. Verse 3. Because although I was very eager, beloved. Although I was very eager to write to you about our common salvation.

I found it necessary to write a very different kind of letter. Because there's a crisis. A critical crisis that's come upon you. You, my readers, are in a dire situation that is pressing me to urgently write this other letter instead.

Second half of verse 3. I found it necessary to write a letter that would appeal to you to contend for the faith. To contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints.

Now you're going to understand why we're only taking four verses today. Because there is a lot to unpack just in this one verse. Verse 3. But before we can even do that.

Let's just kind of step back for a minute and recognize how Jude sees himself. What role Jude believes that he has for these people. And I would submit to you that it is a role of a watchman.

Isn't that what he's doing? He's watching out for them. Jude, a servant of Jesus Christ, is also like a soldier who walks the wall for his people.

And just to remind us of this critical, indispensable part of a shepherd's calling. To be a watchman. It actually comes from books like Ezekiel.

If you remember Ezekiel chapter 3 verse 17. This is what God told the prophet. He said, Son of Man 317. I have made you a watchman for the house of Israel.

Ezekiel 3:17

That's great. When I do that, I block the lights. I can see you. A watchman. In that very same chapter, God goes on to tell the prophet that with this role of being a watchman comes a responsibility.

And basically he says, hey, if I, God, give you, prophet Ezekiel, a word of warning for the people, you need to deliver it. And if you do, you have done your role faithfully.

And if you don't, then blood's going to be on your hands. And Jude has become aware of a new and very dangerous heresy. A heresy that these believers here need to be warned about.

And that they need to contend with. And this term contend. Another way to translate it. Some translations say fight. You need to fight for the faith.

What's in view here is a prolonged fight. Not just some kind of quick little skirmish or momentary fisticuffs. Imagine a prolonged, costly, agonizing wrestling match.

That's what's in view here. A wrestling match that will require a vigorous and energetic defense. And we're going to hear some energy. We're going to see it coming from Jude in this letter.

And when he says fight, he means fight. He doesn't mean just politely resist. He doesn't mean, oh, kindly disagree, friends. Or, you know, just register with everyone that you're not fully on board with everything.

Let the record show that you're not in complete agreement with this heresy. No, that's not what he says. He says fight.

A couple of weeks ago, unless you've been living under a rock, you know that our country witnessed a very powerful, unsettling moment in a rural setting in Pennsylvania.

And it's become a very iconic image. And whatever your feelings are about a former president, I'm not interested in that right now. I'm not here to debate politics.

But in those moments, right after those shots rang out in Butler, Pennsylvania, right or wrong, brave or foolish, we saw a man pump his fist in the air and say those words to a supportive crowd.

Fight. Fight. Fight. And I'm just using that because I want to give you a sense of where Jude is. I want you to imagine Jude having a similar sentiment.

This is not just like a sports contest contest where you hope that your team will win. This is not just like a Super Bowl or an Olympic event.

He wants them to understand this is life and death, spiritual life and death. And so Jude calls them to fight for the health and life of Christ's own church.

Contend for the faith, he urges them. For the faith. And what does he mean by that? What is these words? The faith. We need to be clear on exactly what Jude's talking about when he describes a faith that was once for all delivered to the saints.

They don't have a completed Bible yet because it's still in the process of being written, right? So what does he mean? And that's a very good question.

And I want you to understand that he is referring to a faith that has a very objective content. It's not just a feeling or a faith. I have faith in something.

This is an established set of beliefs made manifest in the apostles teaching. A settled, normative, and authoritative set of teachings and doctrines from the apostles.

Sometimes in the early church it's referred to as the rule of faith. Jude has in mind a recognizable body of teaching that creates and feeds and nourishes the church.

A body of essential truths about God's work in Christ. To save a people for himself. To call people to holy living. And to assure them that he is coming again as a judge and king.

This is what Paul talked about other places in the Bible. For instance to a young protege named Timothy. You read this in 2 Timothy chapter 1 verse 14.

2 Timothy 1:14

He says, By the Holy Spirit who dwells within us, Timothy, guard the good deposit entrusted to you. Paul is referring to the exact same thing that Jude is referring to here in verse 3.

The good deposit. And that's a really good word actually to describe what it is. Because that's exactly what's happened. It's been given. It's been deposited to God's people.

It's been delivered to the saints. Entrusted. Handed down by the apostles themselves. It's a received tradition. That you and I now have the benefit of having in a completed Bible.

It's in this book. And it was delivered once for all. Jude says. That means it's closed in terms of content. Right? Case closed. Core Christian message of salvation.

Closed. And having been delivered once for all. That means that it's complete too. Nothing is missing. It's not lacking. We are not waiting for additional revelation anymore.

Sorry Joseph Smith and the Mormons or whoever else would pop up. There is nothing new that's coming that we're waiting for. We're not going to hear from another inspired prophet at the level of scripture.

We're not going to learn of another road to God. There's not going to be a different code of living. Of holiness. Of ethics. That God reveals at a later time.

Or that somehow changes. Because the character of God does not change. And now we come to verse 4. And in verse 4 we hear the reason why there's so much urgency from Jude.

And there is urgency. It's because of this. Verse 4. For certain people have crept in unnoticed. Who long ago were designated for this condemnation.

Ungodly people who pervert the grace of our God into sensuality. And deny our only Master and Lord Jesus Christ. Again several things to break down here in this verse.

There's a who. There's a where and a when. And there's a what. As in what are they doing. Let's start with the who. It's certain people. You know sometimes the scriptures give us the benefit of giving us names.

You know these. Watch out for these rascals. And Paul will name them. But here we don't get their names. Jude simply calls them ungodly people.

Which is literally godless people. As in irreverent people in an ethical sense. People for whom there is no fear of God before their eyes. And yet they've crept in.

So they may appear. From the outward look of things. To be regular church folk. They might even be able to maybe quote you some scripture. They're probably singing some songs with you.

Shaking your hand. Or I guess a holy kiss back then. They're probably nice and friendly. But Jude says make no mistake. He calls them out. They're ungodly.

Godless people. And as for the where. Well it's right where you are church. It's in your very church. And how about when? Is this like Peter in 2 Peter.

Where he says watch out. In the last days they're coming. Scoffers. False teachers. No. With Jude. They're already here. They've already crept in.

And then Jude adds this part about being designated for condemnation. And long ago. And we wonder. Well what is that all about? Well actually many scholars believe that Jude is thinking of passages in the Old Testament from the Mosaic Law.

In fact. It's speculated that Deuteronomy 13 might be in view here. Deuteronomy 13 is where we have the Lord speaking through Moses to the people.

Giving the people a powerful warning about what? About false prophets. About those who would dream dreams. And here's what we read in Deuteronomy 13 verses 1 through 3.

Deuteronomy 13:1–3

If a prophet or a dreamer of dreams arises among you and gives you a sign or a wonder. And the sign or wonder that he tells you comes to pass.

And if he says let us go after other gods which you have not known and let us serve them. You shall not listen to the words of that prophet or that dreamer of dreams.

For the Lord your God is testing you to know whether you love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul. A few verses later in Deuteronomy.

God actually goes on to command that such a false teacher should be put to death. It's that serious. Because they're teaching rebellion to the assembly.

So yeah that's a written condemnation I guess you could say. And although of course we know even at this time God's people are no longer living under a theocracy.

So there's not a death sentence for heresy anymore. It's clear that Jude believes that these false teachers have a sentence coming. A judgment is coming.

And they've crept in unnoticed. Stealthy. Jude warns them. You probably didn't notice them at first. Not initially. Because people like this don't come in wearing t-shirts.

Screen printed t-shirts that say false teacher. They don't wear big red buttons that say watch out. They probably don't have horns and a pitchfork.

They probably look and feel and even sound like a fellow believer. They seem nice. They seem loving. They seem well intentioned. Well mannered.

Well spoken. Maybe even well educated.

And Jude warns them that these ungodly people who've crept in unnoticed. They've come with an agenda. They have a program you could say. A plan.

And what is on that agenda? Just one item. And it's to pervert God's grace. To pervert the grace of our God. Wow. That word pervert. You know it's kind of fallen out of our parlance today.

Our language. But it probably should still be a part. It means to transfer to another purpose. To a wrong purpose. An inappropriate and illegitimate purpose.

And that's what they're doing with grace. God's grace. The grace that was meant to save. God's grace in providing us his son. Who empowers us by his life, death and resurrection.

To live changed lives. To help us die to sin. And walk in newness of life. To live uprightly. To walk in the light as Ephesians 4 talks about.

To put away deeds of darkness. But these ungodly people who sound very convincing and very genuine and caring and liberating. They are perverting this grace into sensuality.

Sensuality. Sensuality. That comes from a Greek word that includes all the sins of the flesh. Can be translated sometimes debauchery. Lewdness.

Licentiousness. Think about. Hopefully you don't have to subject yourself to seeing this. But every so often. A clip or something appears. Those award shows.

Those TV award shows. For a music artist. And they just do something so over the top. Raunchy. And shocking. That's the idea here. Think about the opening ceremonies that some of us witnessed a couple of nights ago.

Part of it. Licentiousness. Sensuality. Jude is no fool about what they're doing. That faith that was once delivered to the saints. It hadn't changed.

He knows it hadn't changed because the Lord hasn't changed. And his sovereign will hadn't changed about what's right and wrong. And so he says at the very end what they're doing in perverting God's grace like this.

Is they are denying the lordship of Jesus. They are denying their master in Lord. Lord. You say master. Well that sounds like slave imagery.

I thought slavery was bad. Well it is. One to another. But the Bible routinely. The New Testament routinely describes the children of God as also the slaves of God.

We are children. We're beloved. We're not treated poorly like slaves. But we have very much been bought. Purchased. Our church names. That's the concept.

Redeemed. Redeemer. Redeemer. Jude could have gone on and quoted from an apostle like Paul. He could have reached into 1 Corinthians chapter 6.

1 Corinthians 6 · chapter mention

And reminded them of what Paul says in 1 Corinthians 6. 19 and 20. Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you?

Whom you have from God. You are not your own. For you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body. And as the sovereign master and Lord who has redeemed us and bought us at the great price of his blood.

He's also delivered truth to us. Truth to his saints and his holy ones. Truth that tells us how then shall we live. What does a holy life look like?

And we know it from the Bible. We know it from the New Testament. It looks like a life of restraint. Not excess. It looks like a life of self-control.

And purity. And temperance. Not sensuality. Modesty. Sexual faithfulness. All of these things that pertain to our flesh. So when ungodly people creep in and start running around and declaring that it's open season for sensuality.

You need to understand what they're doing, Jude says. They are perverting God's amazing grace. And they are not submitting to the Lord. What they're doing is they're actually denying him.

Because they're denying what his word tells us and calls for from us. Because as our Lord and King, Jesus has the full right to command all of our loyalty and obedience.

Well again, if the stakes sound pretty high in this letter for Jude, understand it's because they are. And if Jude sounds like he's pretty passionate here in this opening, it's because he is.

And honestly, he is just getting started. Because in the next few weeks, we're going to hear him explain more specifically what he means. He's going to go on and give us some more detail.

And also give us the benefit of making historical connections with things in Israel's past. And we're going to see all the terrible ways that these infiltrating false teachers are trying to lead God's church astray.

And Jude is going to warn them. And he's going to connect the events of his day to the events of Israel's past. And cite some pretty dark examples.

And he's not going to hold back as he rebukes and warns and urges God's people to fight. And to contend for this faith that was once for all delivered.

And I think that's where we come in. And I think this is why it's a good place just for us to pause right here. Recognizing that even today, we are Christians too.

Many of us here. And what that means is that we also have the good deposit entrusted to us. That we also are called to guard the faith. And if Jude's letter has been preserved for us for a reason, which we know all of Scripture is.

Then maybe it would be wise for us to pause for a moment and reflect a bit on what Jude is giving us here. In these four verses, I believe Jude's letter offers us four realities.

Four timeless realities that are just as applicable today in the 21st century as they were in the 1st century. And his first reality is this.

Number one. Reality number one. Jesus is our sovereign Lord and we are his servants. Servants. You say, well, that goes without saying. That's pretty simple.

And it is. But it's the place to start this morning.

I love these words from Revelation. Revelation chapter 5. It's a song sung by a very interesting choir. It's a choir made up of heavenly creatures and 24 elders.

Revelation 5 · chapter mention

And this is what they sing in Revelation chapter 5 verse 9. And they sang a new song saying, Worthy are you to take the scroll and to open its seals.

Revelation 5:9

For you were slain. And by your blood you ransomed people for God from every tribe, language, people, and nation. By his blood he ransomed us.

Again, we belong to him. He is our Lord. And we are very much like Jude, his servants. And again, notice Jude does not introduce himself as Jesus' brother.

Wink, wink. He's my bro. We were bros on earth. And now we're heavenly bros too. He doesn't do that. No, he is his servant. And I would suggest to us that if Jesus wasn't just a brother for Jude, then can I suggest that maybe he's not just a buddy for you.

A pal. Right? A pal. I fear sometimes that our talk and maybe even our songs today, some of the ways that we sing and talk about Jesus, in a noble effort to try to close some distance and make Jesus relatable, we get a little too close sometimes.

And fog up a very clear distinction in a very clear relationship. He is Lord and we are his servants.

Someone will say, well, wait a second. I thought somewhere in the Gospels he said to his disciples, you're my friends. And he did. John 15. John 15, 15, 15.

He said that you are now my friends. But do you realize that he says this in a context where Jesus is adding to and elevating a status that doesn't go away.

He says, no longer are you just my servants. You're my friends. But then he goes right on and he gives them commands of what they're supposed to do.

Bear much fruit.

Yes, the relationship that every disciple has with Jesus includes being a friend. Yes, he is a friend of sinners. But please understand this morning that he is so much more.

He is our Lord and our Master and our King.

However, this first point notwithstanding, Jude goes on to immediately make a second one. Point number two. Reality number two is that we are called, loved, and kept as his people.

Called, loved, and kept. Master and Lord, yes. But that doesn't change one iota the fact that our Lord genuinely and truly and completely loves us as his people.

And out of this great love, he's called us to him. And he wants every person to answer that call. Peter says he wants everyone to be saved. And he works to keep us.

For Jude, this is stated as fact. He says, you are called, you are beloved in God, and you are kept for Jesus Christ. Even then, as he goes on later in the letter, in verse 21, to tell the believers, keep yourselves in the love of God.

But he wants us to know, right from the start, that someone's keeping us. That it's not all dependent on us. And maybe that's something that you just need to hear today.

Maybe if you're struggling, you need to be comforted by this truth. That you are being kept in the love of God. If you're a believer.

Loved, called, and kept. Next point. The third reality. Number three. Reality number three. And this goes right into the third verse. We have a faith that was once for all delivered to us.

And we need to fight for it. We need to fight for it. A faith. Today, again, the blessing that we have is a completed Bible. Sixty-six books.

But it's a pretty thick book, isn't it? And actually, it's a thick collection of books. Of inspired books. And this is why throughout the history of the church, if you know anything about church history, starting from the very beginning, in fact, we find a few of these in Scripture itself, you get these hymns.

You get these creedal statements. Creeds. Statements of faith. We'll sometimes find Paul quoting one. Even in our own tradition today, in this denomination called the missionary church, we have that.

We have what we call our articles of faith and practice. This Bible, how many pages is it? Like, you know, 1100 and some pages in my Bible. And our articles of faith are like five pages.

So if somebody says, what do you believe in the missionary church? I'm not going to just be like, drop the Bible on you. Here you go. It's what we believe.

I mean, yes. But sometimes it's helpful to have a summary. Summaries of belief are important. And the practice of distilling Christian belief on various topics to maybe answer a critical question, clear up some confusion.

That's important throughout the ages. But never, hear me when I say this, never at any point do we get to change anything. Do we get to invent something new?

Or adapt something or monkey with it? To get people to like us. To have our world better accept us. To think of us as more open-minded or enlightened or tolerant or progressive or whatever it is that people think we need to be.

Remember that we have a faith that was once for all delivered to us from people inspired by the Holy Spirit Himself.

And we shouldn't hide our beliefs or downplay them or wink at them or apologize for them. Sorry, but this is what we believe. And sometimes I think that's the message that we give.

I'm not saying that we beat people over the head and that we're mean and arrogant or hateful about our beliefs. But remember that we live in a world where simply having certain beliefs puts you for some in the category of being hateful anyway.

Too many churches, too many parachurch ministries have made it really hard these days to find their statement of faith. I know every time that I get a contact or a request from some kind of parachurch ministry, can you help with this?

Would your church consider supporting that? One of the first things that I do as a pastor is I look for a statement of faith. Because that tells me about this organization.

Have they received what's been handed down? Or have they adapted and monkeyed with it or done something that we wouldn't want to support? And I'll tell you, it's getting harder and harder.

Even for local church websites to find beliefs. It's almost like we want to say, but you want to know about the coffee? You want to know how to dress?

Would you like a sample of our worship? But what do you believe?

We need to retain our beliefs. We need to make our beliefs clear. And we need to pass them on, too. Pass them on. We pass them on to our children.

We pass them on to our grandchildren. Because we recognize a God who providentially preserves His truth and His word. And we know that we are in a long line of humble recipients.

And so my question for you in light of this third reality is simply this. Are you, number one, receiving it? Are you allowing it to be deposited in you?

So that it will change you. Not you change it. Your beliefs. And are you passing on our common beliefs on to others? At levels appropriate to their understanding.

I am not going to be able to explain the doctrine of the Trinity to my teenagers. Let alone you explain it to your four-year-old. But I can still try to say God is three and He's one.

Well, how does that work? I don't know, but He is. Theologians are still working on that. And we'll never understand it. It's beyond understanding.

He is one God in three persons. And the last question I'd ask you in light of this third reality is are you, when you need to, are you contending for it?

Do you realize that you're in a battle? Do you realize that for you, yourself, and for the people around you that you care about, there are infiltrators?

There are people with ideas that will attack that faith, that will challenge that faith, that will question that faith and want you or people you love to doubt that faith.

And are you going to contend? Are you going to fight to preserve it? Preserve it for the health of God's people. For the health of God's people under your care, under your roof.

Because we need to. Because again, we have a fourth and final reality from verse four. Reality number four is the church is susceptible to creepers.

Can I say that? Creepers? Unnoticed. Unnoticed. I mean, they're people who creep in. The church is susceptible to creepers, to being crept in on unnoticed.

Unnoticed.

And honestly, we're just getting started on this. There's a whole lot more to say about these people who creep in. For now, Jude simply warns that it's happening.

And he gives us kind of a blanket statement of what they do. They pervert the grace of God into sensuality. Who are we to think that we, even in the 21st century, our churches, our families would be immune to this?

Ask yourself, if God by his Holy Spirit saw fit to preserve this warning in a letter for all time in Holy Scripture, Do you think it might apply to more than just this original group here?

Are we immune from being crept in on individuals, ideas, creeping in on our lives and our families and even in our churches and doing it unnoticed?

Unnoticed because maybe they parrot some of the other things that are consistent with our beliefs, like God is love. We should love everyone.

Those are true beliefs. But when underneath that veneer of love, you have sins of sensuality, you're perverting the grace of God.

Sometimes the changing breezes of culture, the shifting winds of errant doctrine, yeah, sometimes they come at us like a hurricane and it's easy to see.

A tornado of heresy is easy to spot and take cover from. But Jude seems to be suggesting that it's often like a slight draft. A cracked window that you forgot to close.

Remember, the church at large and even our own local church, it will always be susceptible to those who would creep in and want to pervert God's glorious grace to allow for things that are not good and not pleasing and not submissive to our mastering king who doesn't change.

So that's our introduction this morning. First four verses. And I hope you come back because we've got several more weeks where we're going to unpack this bit by bit.

Because we've just gotten started. Can I ask you if you would bow your heads with me and stand with me. Stand with me as our team comes and we sing a final song and let's pray.

Let's pray.

Precious God and Heavenly Father, the God who saves, the God who gave us Jesus, His Son, to die for our sins, to shed His blood, to purchase a people for Himself at great cost, at great price.

We come to you and we recognize, Lord, that we need your help. We stand on your word. We submit ourselves to your word. We need you, though, Lord, to keep us.

Keep us in your love. Keep us in your truth. Lord, I pray for any individuals that are with us this morning, any families that are with us where they have really felt this, Lord, where they recognize that, yeah, it does come in.

It does creep in. And I see it for what it is. And I've been challenged by this. And I need to keep my mind clear. I need to keep my head clear as a good soldier of Jesus Christ.

And I need to recognize that sometimes we have to contend. And may we contend with boldness, with clarity, with truth and only truth. And may we contend in a spirit that would honor you and please you.

May we show love in our hearts, but never at the expense, Lord, of truth. Because we know that any kind of love incompatible with truth is not really love.

Because you, God, define what love is. And so Jesus, teach us. Walk with us. Lord, help us as we seek to understand all the ways, Lord, that there are threats around us.

Threats sometimes even within us, Lord. Threats even within our own hearts individually. And we trust you. We trust you because we know you're good.

We know you want what is best for us as your people. And we know that you love us. And so we pray this in the name of Jesus, our Master and King.

Amen.