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Morning Message Text: Jude 3-7, 12-19
The Sin and Doom of Ungodly People
3 Dear friends, although I was very eager to write to you about the salvation we share, I felt compelled to write and urge you to contend for the faith that was once for all entrusted to God’s holy people.
4 For certain individuals whose condemnation was written about long ago have secretly slipped in among you. They are ungodly people, who pervert the grace of our God into a license for immorality and deny Jesus Christ our only Sovereign and Lord.
5 Though you already know all this, I want to remind you that the Lord at one time delivered his people out of Egypt, but later destroyed those who did not believe.
6 And the angels who did not keep their positions of authority but abandoned their proper dwelling—these he has kept in darkness, bound with everlasting chains for judgment on the great Day.
7 In a similar way, Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding towns gave themselves up to sexual immorality and perversion. They serve as an example of those who suffer the punishment of eternal fire.
12 These people are blemishes at your love feasts, eating with you without the slightest qualm—shepherds who feed only themselves. They are clouds without rain, blown along by the wind; autumn trees, without fruit and uprooted—twice dead.
13 They are wild waves of the sea, foaming up their shame; wandering stars, for whom blackest darkness has been reserved forever.
14 Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied about them: “See, the Lord is coming with thousands upon thousands of his holy ones
15 to judge everyone, and to convict all of them of all the ungodly acts they have committed in their ungodliness, and of all the defiant words ungodly sinners have spoken against him.”
16 These people are grumblers and faultfinders; they follow their own evil desires; they boast about themselves and flatter others for their own advantage.
A Call to Persevere
17 But, dear friends, remember what the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ foretold.
18 They said to you, “In the last times there will be scoffers who will follow their own ungodly desires.”
19 These are the people who divide you, who follow mere natural instincts and do not have the Spirit.
Reference Text: Revelation 18: 4-5
Warning to Escape Babylon’s Judgment
4 Then I heard another voice from heaven say: “ ‘Come out of her, my people,’so that you will not share in her sins, so that you will not receive any of her plagues;
5 for her sins are piled up to heaven, and God has remembered her crimes.
Morning Message:
I try to bring to all of you what God puts on my heart. Sometimes it’s a very easy message. By easy I mean it is easy to preach and easy for you to accept and receive. If you have been attending here regularly you know that I don’t shy away from what is difficult when God clearly wants me to preach it. I watch carefully and pay attention to what is going on in the world, not because I am curious, but because I am looking for Jesus. I expect him to come back every day, so I look for the signs of his coming. It can be difficult to distinguish between the true signs and the false ones, and I don’t pretend to always know the difference, but when God shows me something I try to pay attention because I know that I am charged with relaying it to you.
I was reminded in my devotions this week of the devil’s attempts at deflating God’s people. Listen to my Monday devotion. “Earlier this year in Michigan the North Shore Police Department warned motorists that someone was placing caltrops on the highways. These are small, sharp objects meant to puncture and deflate car tires. As we all know, tires need to be filled with air; they are useless when flat. The devil is constantly throwing caltrops in our pathway. We’re to be filled with the Spirit, but he endeavors to deflate us. Have you felt deflated recently? The normal and victorious Christian experience means being filled with the Spirit. When you’re filled with the Spirit of God, your life will be different. You will have a song in your heart, a spirit of thanksgiving in your personality, and a yearning to bless others. You will also have a contagious motivation to share the Word of God with others.”
I know that most people who attend church every week, most Christians, believe that being filled with the Holy Spirit constantly is some how reserved for Pastors and Missionaries. You know, people whose job it is to be Spirit filled. A. W. Tozer says this: “The Spirit-filled life is not a deluxe edition of Christianity. It is part and parcel of the total plan of God for His people.” Every Christian can and should be filled with the Holy Spirit all the time. As a pastor I would settle for just more often than we are. Why do I stress this today? Because in order for you to discern what I am about to preach and what is going on in the world, you need to be filled with the Holy Spirit. Stop and pray.
Another devotion that I read this week told me the story of Rudolf Bultmann, a German New Testament scholar. He argued that the Bible could speak to us but that it shouldn’t be taken historically. He is an example of someone who poured himself into Bible study, but whose heart wasn’t open to the illumination of the Holy Spirit. Academia is filled with such people today. So are pulpits. So are churches, so are denominations. Jude reminds God’s people that they have two vital responsibilities when they hear the Good News being slandered, distorted, or misrepresented. First, they are to explain and defend the gospel to the best of their ability; then they must stay strong, confident, and humbly rooted in the knowledge and practice of the gospel.
Who was Jude? Do you know? He was the son of Mary and Joseph, which made him the half brother of Jesus. Jude did not come to saving faith until after Jesus’ resurrection. Once Jude signed on as a believer, he was committed. He knew the meaning and the purpose of the faith that Jesus had introduced to the world, and he would rebuke anyone who maligned it – or its Founder. That is exactly what he did in this brief epistle. This is the attitude that all true believers should have. I question sometimes if we either don’t know, or forget, or ignore the purpose of this faith. And, why are we so afraid to rebuke anyone who maligns our Savior? We are called to contend for the truth.
We need to get involved in the battle for truth. Jude was preparing to write an uplifting letter to the church concerning the salvation we share. I’m sure he wanted to be encouraging and loving and upbeat. That is always the goal and the easy part of this position. He received information about false teachers and he knew, as I have come to realize, that he had to speak out against heresy. Jude reminds us that heresy is not only wrong belief but also—and just as importantly—wrong practice. These teachers were using God’s grace as an excuse for indulging in immoral behavior. Sin of any kind must be immediately identified, and the church must spring into action. Can I tell you something that has bothered me for years? I have identified sin being embraced in the church and I have not taken a strong enough stance against it. I have wrestled with and anguished over that for a long time.
Jude uses some examples from the Old Testament to illustrate that sin does not go unpunished. God brought his people out of Egypt but later destroyed those who did not believe. He reminds his readers of how God dealt with Sodom and Gomorrah for their sexual immorality and perversion. God punished sin in the past; He will do it again is Jude’s message. Sin is not something that we should ignore, even when we are saved.
Jude is calling the church to engage. He would not allow complacency when the church was under attack. He writes in order to urge them to contend for the faith. Because the enemy’s strategy is to often secretly slip in among believers. God’s people must be constantly vigilant and fully engaged so that false teachers gain no ground in the war for people’s souls.
Jude is telling them about the last days that I believe that we are now living in. There will be scoffers who will follow their own ungodly desires. We have to be wise enough to understand that while God is at work in this world drawing people to salvation, Satan is also at work trying to lead as many astray as he can. Not everything that we see which seems to be godly, is. I am so encouraged when I see so many reports of hundreds, sometimes thousands giving their lives to Jesus and being baptized. They are walking into the ocean to make a public profession of their faith in our Lord and Savior. God is moving in a wonderful way just as His word said would happen as we near the end of time. But God’s Word also says that many will be deceived. I saw a report last week that said that the Catholic church is growing and gaining many new members lately. It seems that young people are being drawn to the Catholic church. They interviewed some of them and one thing stood out to me during this report. Not once did anyone mention a commitment to Jesus. They talked about needing to find God. They said they were looking for something solid in their lives to cling to, that they were tired of what the world had to offer. These are all good signs, but there is no true conversion unless you confess Jesus as your Lord and Savior.
I wish that I could keep your attention longer to fully explain what I have learned through the years, but I must simply leave you with the words from Revelation. I am always available to tell you more. “Come out of her, my people so that you will not share in her sins.” At the end of the age, right before Jesus comes back, there will be a false church. It may be made up of many denominations, but they will have one thing in common: the absence of a commitment to Jesus. To that church Jesus calls to his chosen, “Come out of her.”
In Christ’s Love and Peace,
Pastor Bob
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