Sermon Tone Analysis

Jude #3

Jude 17-23

Responding to Apostasy

Last week I addressed the fact that not everything that seems to be “Christian” by title or by claim is true to the faith.

The New Testament is full of warnings against apostasy.

Jude, John, Peter, and Paul all addressed apostate Christian religious expressions in their day.

What is apostasy?

It is defined as “turning from God as evidenced by abandonment and repudiation of former belief.”

This refers to people who once held or seemed to hold sincere belief but have forsaken it by choice.

Now we also are warned against heresy which is a denial of part of the faith.

But when heresy changes the nature of the gospel or the nature of God it often moves into apostasy.

If you study the history of our country and many in the western world, we have gone from being societies centered around true Christian principles and doctrines to being “post-Christian” societies and thus really apostate societies because our basic belief system no longer believes in basic right and wrong as determined by a personal Biblical God who is Sovereign Lord, Savior, and King.

So, living in a world that once embraced God and now rejects his existence or his right to rule … how do we respond in our lives and practice.

*READ 17-23*

I have to say that sometimes the flesh gets discouraged in the face of popularized apostasy.

In a world where it seems people don’t want the truth; it can get discouraging.

Last week I shared with you from my heart, defending truth.

Doing my job as a shepherd to warn you about the dangerous attempts to change the gospel, I told Lisa, on the way home, “the problem is that I spoke to a relatively small number of people, and this preacher who is teaching something contrary to scripture, spoke to 10,000 with another 50,000 listening to his podcosts.

That is frustrating at least, and potentially discouraging.

But Jude speaks to me and to us across the millennia as one of the great cloud of witnesses, and after saying in verse 16 /“these men are grumblers and fault finders; they follow their own evil desires; they boast about themselves and flatter others for their own advantage”/, in verse 17 says /“but, dear friends … v19 these are the men who divide you”/

So the 1st response to Apostasy is

!

*1.

Do Not Be Divided*

Satan is a roaring lion prowling trying to separate weak or young in order to devour them (1 Peter 5:8) so we must

!! A. Remember the Warnings

The warnings came from the Apostles.

If we are to be united we must be united around the Word of God, first and foremost.

I like books written by godly men and women that can help us understand the Word, but let’s make sure that we are united around the Truth.

We need to KNOW the word, then, to be united around it.

/“Remember the Apostles” – apostolos = a delegate, messenger, one sent forth with orders/

The Apostles ... that is the 11 minus Judas Iscariot, plus Paul.

The apostles were qualified in that they were chosen by Christ himself and saw him in his resurrected form.

We are to contend for the faith given “once and for all”.

So, we need to know it in order to remember it.

Remember also that Jude was referring to the fact that the Apostles had warned us of this apostasy

1 Timothy 4:1-2 - /The Spirit clearly says that in later times some will abandon the faith and follow deceiving spirits and things taught by demons. 2 Such teachings come through hypocritical liars, whose consciences have been seared as with a hot iron./

2 Timothy 3:1-5 - /But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days.

2 People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, 3 without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, 4 treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God— 5 having a form of godliness but denying its power.

Have nothing to do with them./

1 John 2:18 - /Dear children, this is the last hour; and as you have heard that the antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have come.

This is how we know it is the last hour./

1 John 4:1 - /Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world/

So here Jude seems to be directly quoting from 2 Peter 3:3 ff - /First of all, you must understand that in the last days scoffers will come, scoffing and following their own evil desires.

4 They will say, “Where is this ‘coming’ he promised?/

… Peter says they will mock the thought of a coming Heaven and Hell but we are not to be deceived that just because it has been a long time doesn’t mean he isn’t coming.

He is waiting patiently giving more the chance to receive him but he is coming with reward and with deserved punishment

Listen, I am all for the need to minister in the NOW and meet the needs of people.

It is Biblical and is evidence of God’s love in us.

But do not be deceived, Jesus IS coming again and Heaven is real and Hell is too.

Some would say that heaven and hell are just a frame of mine.

But Jesus told the thief, /“Today you will be WITH ME”/ … and he promised that one day some who have rejected him will be told /“Depart from me because I never knew you.”/

We have to remember and we have to

!! B. Recognize the Lies

The best way to recognize a lie is to know the truth.

Counterfeit bills are a big problem.

The news bills have all these new features, holographic ink, embedded text and pictures etc.

But they have this cool little pen.

It is iodine solution that reacts with plain wood based paper to stain it black.

But the fine linen paper used only for currency doesn’t discolor.

So, how can we tell the lies from the truth?

You take the Word of God and you run it across the teachings.

If the teaching is true, the Word of God will not change it but will confirm it.

But a lie will be stained by the Word of God.

If you compare a new teaching to the Word of God and it doesn’t measure up, well, the Word of God isn’t wrong, the teaching is.

The problem with apostates is that they are driven by /“their ungodly desires”/ and /“mere natural instincts.”

/

/“desires” – epithymia (ep-ee-thoo-mi-a) – longing, lust, desire for what is hidden/

Ungodly desires means that their teachings are driven by a desire for things apart from the desires of God, or a desire for the desires of God to be different from what they in fact are

Their teachings also are said here to come from “mere natural instincts”

The word is psychikos (psoo-khee-kos) having the nature of the breath, animal principles or life

They came from the natural animal instincts not /“The Spirit” - pneuma = this word also means breath but also used to mean Spiritual Breath not natural or specifically the person of the Holy Spirit/

What did Peter say about the true Scriptures?

2 Peter 2:20-21 /Above all, you must understand that no prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet’s own interpretation.

21 For prophecy never had its origin in the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit./

Truth doesn’t come by the natural breath but by that of the Spirit of God

When someone tries to reason with you that the Word as it is written “doesn’t make sense” and they want to reinterpret it to a more “natural and logical” sense, look out!

If we are going to make it in this post-christian culture, then we need to recommit to the Word of God given by the Spirit … commit to the Prophets and the Apostles, uniting around his Word, and reject the lie no matter how palatable or attractive

Then he continues in the Practical

!

*2.

Take Care of Your Spirit*

How do we, followers of truth, keep on the right path?

It takes effort but it isn’t complicated

!! A. Build Your Spiritual Strength

/“Build Up”/ – the word means to /build upon or edify/, which is building an edifice – it means to finish the structures upon the foundation that has been laid … which is

/“In the faith”/ or /“on the faith”/ The point being that we aren’t supposed to toss it aside and build something new, we are supposed to build on or WITH the truth that we already have given to us by the Spirit of God in the Word of God.

1 Peter 2:3-5 /now that you have tasted that the Lord is good … you also … are being built into a spiritual house …/

In other words, once you’ve tasted the goodness of God don’t throw that aside for spiritual candy.

Keep feeding yourselves an increasingly good food, the stronger meat, of the Word.

You have cut your teeth, now dig deeper

Study the truth and submit to faithful teaching.

You know I have never developed anything of value without the assistance of training and trainers.

If you really want to develop physically you can get some weights but you will do better with an exercise plan and even better with a trainer.

The same is true here.

God has placed pastors and teachers in the body to help equip and build you up, until you reach your potential in Christ.

How many of you have exercise equipment in your house that you do not use?

I won’t ask you then to raise your hand about the Bibles, Books, Videos, or this Pastor’s teaching that also lays unused and unattended gathering dust in the corner …

Ephesians 4:11-16 -/ It was he who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, 12 to prepare God’s people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up 13 until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.

14 Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of men in their deceitful scheming.

15 Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into him who is the Head, that is, Christ.

16 From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.

/

So, We must be about building our Spiritual Strength, then you must

!! B. Pray

Why is prayer a key?