Week 2 of 3: Jude: Contend for the Faith

• Week 1: Believers are called to contend for the faith.
• Week 2: A profile of the false teacher and why to stay alert.

Verse 4: How You Live is an Indicator of How You Actually Believe

(Jude 1:4ESV) “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.”

• The church faces all kinds of attacks. Jude is warning against an attack from within.
• Define “ungodly”: not like God, not acting in consistency with God’s character.
• In order to know how something has been perverted, you must know the original.
  • What is the grace of our God?
    • Recommended reading: The Gospel Primer by Milton Vincent
  • Perverting is taking an originally good thing and twisting it for evil.
• Deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.
  • Second type of denial:
    • (denial of his identity) “The Biblical Jesus isn’t who Jesus was” or
    • (denial of his teachings) “Jesus didn’t say what the Bible says He said.”

Verses 5-7: God Judges Those Who Rebel Against His Authority

(Jude 1:5-7 ESV) “Now I want to remind you, although you once fully knew it, that Jesus, who saved a people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed those who did not believe. And the angels who did not stay within their own position of authority, but left their proper dwelling, he has kept in eternal chains under gloomy darkness until the judgment of the great day – just as Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding cities, which likewise indulged in sexual immorality and pursued unnatural desire, serve as an example by undergoing a punishment of eternal fire.”

• Jude reminds believers that God judges those who rebel against his authority.
  • Many people want to teach and live like God doesn’t judge.
• Example #1: After rescuing the Israelites out of Egypt, Jesus destroys those who do not believe (see Numbers 14).
• Example #2: We see that even angels who reject God’s authority and boundaries are judged (Genesis 6).
• Example #3: Sodom and Gomorrah “serve as an example” of God’s judgment for those who rebel against God’s authority and do not stay within His boundaries.
  • **Note verse #2: You – reader – need God’s mercy. “May mercy, peace, and love be multiplied to you.”
  • **Note verses 22-23: You – reader – are to show mercy. “And have mercy on those who doubt; save others by snatching them out of the fire; to others show mercy with fear, hating even the garment stained by the flesh.”

Verses 8-10: False Teachers Rely on Their Dreams

(Jude 1:8-10ESV) “Yet in like manner these people also, relying on their dreams, defile the flesh, reject authority, and blaspheme the glorious ones. But when the archangel Michael, contending with the devil, was disputing about the body of Moses, he did not presume to pronounce a blasphemous judgment, but said, ‘The Lord rebuke you.’ But these people blaspheme all that they do not understand, and they are destroyed by all that they, like unreasoning animals, understand instinctively.”

• “These people” refers to the false teachers to which Jude compares these three stories.
• “Relying on their dreams” – false teachings can come from a supernatural experience.
  • God does speak through dreams, but never in contradiction to the Word of God.
  • Looking at the Word of God through their subjective experiences rather than the other way around.
• “These people” are in over their heads and are destroyed by all that they understand instinctively.
  • Instincts: They give in to their appetites. What do I want to do?

Verses 11-13:“For whom the gloom of utter darkness has been reserved forever.”

(Jude 1:11-13ESV) “Woe to them! For they walked in the way of Cain and abandoned themselves for the sake of gain to Balaam’s error and perished in Korah’s rebellion. These are hidden reefs at your love feasts, as they feast with you without fear, shepherds feeding themselves; waterless clouds, swept along by winds; fruitless trees in late autumn, twice dead, uprooted; wild waves of the sea, casting up the foam of their own shame; wandering stars, for whom the gloom of utter darkness has been reserved forever.”

• Example #1: Cain – An unbeliever that went through the motions of sacrifice without a heart of belief.
• Example #2: Balaam – For financial gain, Balaam counseled an enemy of Israel to lead Israel into sexual sin.
• Example #3: Korah – A Levite who was dissatisfied with God’s position for him and who led others to oppose Aaron and Moses. God uses the earth to swallow up Korah and his followers.

Verses 14 – 16: God Prophesied Long Ago About These False Teachers

(Jude 1:14-16ESV) “It was also about these that Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied, saying, ‘Behold, the Lord comes with ten thousands of his holy ones, to execute judgment on all and to convict all the ungodly of all their deeds of ungodliness that they have committed in such an ungodly way, and of all the harsh things that ungodly sinners have spoken against him.’ These are grumblers, malcontents, following their own sinful desires; they are loud-mouthed boasters, showing favoritism to gain advantage.”

• God had it prophesied long ago that these false teachers would arise, so it isn’t a surprise.
• God will judge the false teachers, but you – reader – don’t be taken in by their false teaching.

Verses 17 – 19: God Prophesied Recently About These False Teachers

(Jude 1:17-19ESV) “But you must remember, beloved, the predictions of the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ. They said to you, ‘In the last time there will be scoffers, following their own ungodly passions.’ It is these who cause divisions, worldly people, devoid of the Spirit.”

• Recently, God spoke through the apostles saying the same thing: There are going to be false teachers!
  • These false teachers will be marked by their actions: they will follow their own ungodly passions.
    • They will cause divisions.
    • They will blend in with the world.
    • They will be devoid of the Spirit.

Conclusion: How do we help each other contend for the faith?

• Hold the line.
  • Know the Bible. Study it.
  • Filter who you listen to and while you listen. Ask yourself: Does this match up with God’s word?
    • Share who you are listening to or reading with a known person you trust.
  • Avoid two extremes: Those who fight over everything and those who won’t fight for anything.
  • Go about conflict in a Biblical way.
• Stay strong together.
  • The “why” behind membership class .
  • Loving Jesus = obeying Jesus (John 14:15)

Quick reminder: Parenting Class: A Guide to Biblical Sexuality and How to Talk to Your Children About It

For Small Group Discussion:

Icebreaker: With spring here, what is one thing you are excited to begin again or start for the first time?

Questions:

1. What was something that stood out to you from the sermon this week?
2. Was there anything confusing that you had a question about from the sermon this week?
3. Jude 1:2 says that we need mercy ourselves, and Jude 1:22-23 says that we are to show mercy to others. Why are these verses so important for all that we learned about this week?
4. Rather than the word of God, according to verse 8, where do false teachers get their information from?
5. Where or to whom do false teachers look for authority? Where or to whom do you look for truth in your life? What should hold the authority on truth in your life?
6. How can you filter teachings and ideas to keep aligned with God’s word?
7. How does the letter of Jude apply to us today in 2023?

Supporting Scripture: Ephesians 4:17-32, Matthew 7:15-20, Romans 8:1-11