The Book of Jude #5

A. Jude presents one of the most important messages found in the NT . It has great relevance to every generation of the Lord’s Church and needs to be repeated over and over.
1. What is that message? The revelation of Christ through the apostles is Complete, Inviolate, sufficient, eternal, immutable and is not subject to any change whatsoever.
a. That was made absolutely clear by Jesus when He gave the great commission to the
apostles in Matt 28:18?20.
What is a disciple? It is a Christian, a person who is saved by God because they have come to him through the teaching of Christ A Christian is one who has obeyed the teaching of Christ and makes that teaching the habit of their life.
(1) How do you make a Disciple? By teaching them to observe all that Jesus has
commanded.
(1) People who have become Christians are people who have been taught the
Doctrine of Christ, have been immersed for the remission of their sin because
they desire to know God, walk in God’s Light and have eternal life and fellowship with God.
(2) Therefore they Defend the Faith taught by Christ and the Apostles and take to heart and believe the warnings like those given by the apostle John in
2 John 9?11.
(3) The writer of the book of Hebrews tells us in Heb. 2:3?4.
(4) What does all that mean? Any religious doctrine or practice that cannot pass the test of having been “first spoken” by Jesus and the apostles is to be
rejected and exposed as unacceptable It is to be rejected.
(2) Why are we to do that? Jude 4, tells why, “For certain men have crept in unnoticed, who long ago were marked out for this condemnation, ungodly men, who turn the grace of our God into lewdness and deny the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ. “
(5) Jude’s reason for writing is the presence of False Teachers in the Church.
(6) Notice how they got there. “They creep in.” par?ice?doo'?no, it means to “Enter by the side.” You don’t see them coming, they blindside you.
(7) They creep in “Unnoticed, Privately” They work Secretly, Covertly like spies and traitors to accomplish one thing. The overthrow of your faith.
I remember a congregation that had a preacher like that. He came into the congregation and when he got himself comfortably rooted into the hearts of some of the members he began teaching false doctrine. Teach that all you need to do to be saved is accept God’s grace. “Grace plus zero equals salvation.”
b. Confronted by an elder and asked not to teach that ever again.
(2) He began to destroy that elder’s credibility by speaking behind his back.
(1) Then he wanted to fellowship denominations. Take teenagers over to fellowship with denominational youth rallies and programs.
(2) Teach children it’s ok to fellowship people who say Baptism is not necessary for salvation, that you do not have to be immersed when you are baptized. You don’t have to obey God’s Word, Just believe in your heart that you are saved and God will save you. From there it gets worse. After he split the congregation and told everybody in town how badly the Church had treated him. Then he stole the Church’s computer and left town.
(1) Now you can understand why the Apostle Peter warns us in 1 Peter 5:8?9.

(2) That’s exactly why Jude sounds the alarm in Jude 3.
(3) Read with me Jude 4.
(1) “For certain men have crept in unnoticed, who long ago were marked out for this condemnation, ungodly men...”
(1) Their sudden presence was not unanticipated. It had been predicted both by Jesus and His Apostles.
(2) Mark 13:21?23. Jesus warned.
(3) Matt 7:15.
(2) Acts 20:29?31. Paul gives warning to the elders of the Church at Ephesus,
(1) 2 Peter 2:1?3.
(2) 1 John 4:1.
(3) If it’s taught by Jesus in the NT, Believe, Obey it and you’ll be saved.
(4) Acts 20:32.

Spur - 4/1/2001 am