Jude 1:4

The epistle of Jude, verse 4, for there are certain men crept in unawares who were before of old ordained to this condemnation, ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness and denying the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ. God bless to us His sacred and holy word this evening. Two Frenchmen wrote a book that listed all the families of nobility in France. After 15 years of research for the project, they found that 28,000 people claimed to have noble titles. but through their research they found that only around 4,000 were actually true nobility with blue blood decreed by the French crown. In other words, there was a large number of French citizens who claimed, or at least they added honorary titles to their name, or claimed nobility, but actually they had no noble blood in them. whatsoever. Taking on a false title certainly reminds me of the many teachers, so-called miracle workers, who claim to be ministers of the gospel of Jesus Christ. They claim to be serving the kingdom of God. They claim to be ministering to Christ’s church. But in reality, they are corrupting. the gospel and they are harming the body of Christ. Today, multitudes call themselves Christians. They go by that name. But many are not true followers of Jesus Christ. They may be a follower of a false teacher who claims to be a Christian teacher, but they’re not followers of Jesus Christ. There are those who follow Charles Russell, Joseph Smith, Mary Baker Eddy, the Pope of Rome, many of your radio and TV evangelists such as Benny Hen and so forth. But when you really look at the situation, they’re not followers of Jesus Christ at all. Jude faced a very similar problem in his day. There were false. teachers who were creating havoc in the church, wolves in sheep’s clothing. And Jude is concerned to warn the people of God about this troublesome problem. He tells us that he gave all diligence to write under them about the common salvation. And he wanted to warn them about this danger that he sees that’s facing the church. I want to talk tonight about the corruption of the gospel. Now let me begin by saying this. You must realize that evil people may sneak into the church. You find wicked people may slip into the best of churches here. The The reason the faith must be contended for is because there are spiritual frauds who slip into the church and they begin to undermine the teaching of the gospel of Christ. There are, it’s a present reality that Jude sees here. This is not a prophecy about some far off. future event, but at present danger, certainly we have the same problem today, but Jude is talking about something that’s plaguing the church right now, as he writes. They crept in unaware. There’s some type of stealth, secrecy being used in order to gain access into the church, some type of craftiness, some deceptiveness on their part. During War II in the Battle of the Bulge, there were German soldiers who infiltrated our lines. They looked just like U.S. soldiers because they had U.S. looking uniforms on, but actually they were not our uniforms. They were fake uniforms that had been made up, that they may cause havoc among our troops. In a similar way, this is what false teachers do. These false teachers, these spiritual frauds appear in disguise. They don’t want you to know what they really are. While they are of Satan, they want to appear as angels of light. Their names and their numbers are not mentioned dear. Only their presence among the people of God is noted. The Bible warns you again and again of this problem. Paul spoke of deceitful workers who only appear to be serving Jesus Christ in 2 Corinthians 1113. He warned of those who deceive the hearts of the simple in Romans 1618, those who attempt to draw away disciples after them in Acts 20 and verse 30. He complained of false brethren to the Galatians in Galatians 2 in verse 4. Peter spoke of false teachers privily bringing in damnable heresies in 2.1. And so we have this problem of people creeping into the church and then wrecking havoc. Now in the Old Testament, there’s an interesting passage in Ezra. You want to look there with me at Ezra. Chapter 4 in verses 1 to 5. The Israelites have returned to the land. They’re trying to rebuild the temple and the city. And there were adversaries that they had in the land at the time who offered to work with them in the building of the temple. and so forth. Let’s look at these first five verses here. Now when the adversaries of Judah and Benjamin heard of the children of the captivity built it the temple under the Lord God of Israel, they came to Zerubbable and to the chief and to the chief of the fathers and said under them, let us build with you. We seek your God. As ye do, we do sacrifice unto him. the days of Esar, Haden,, or Hadden, king of Asher, which brought us up hither. But Zerubimobel and Jesua, or Joshua, and the rest of the chief of the fathers of Israel, said unto them, ye have nothing to do with us to build a house under our God. But we ourselves, together, will build under the Lord God of Israel as King, King of Persia, Hath commanded us, then the people of the land weakened the hands of the people of Judah and troubled them in building and hired counselors against them to frustrate their purpose all the days Osiris, king of Persia, even under the reign of Darius, King of Persia. There were those who said, oh, we worship your God too. let us help you. But the Bible indicates they are really adversaries of the people of God. And they showed their true colors in trying to stop them in their building. This is the same kind of thing we have in the New Testament here. These people may claim that they are promoters of the gospel of Christ and that they’re one with us, but the truth of the matter is they’re not of us. Not at all. They are adversaries of the kingdom of Christ. The fact that these false brethren may creep in the church is unaware teaches us the great care the church should give to the admittance of members. Obviously, it would be wonderful to fill the church. But there’s a danger of false teachers at times sneaking in. troublemakers coming to the church who would be divisive and bring in false doctrine. Carelessness can prove to be disasters for the church. The church, if it’s more strict about its membership, they don’t let just any Tom Dick and Harry and says, I want to join the church, join the church, but do more thorough investigation and evaluation. And evaluation of them, I think it would be more difficult than for such hypocrites to slip in. It’s true that the church can’t see the heart. We can only look at the outward appearance of things. We can only judge what they say and their behavior and so forth. And out of charity, the church often gives people the benefit of the doubt, but at the same time, the church should be aware there would be those who would be divisive and are coming to the church and they have no good intentions when they come. And we should be alert to that issue. There have been times when the elders of this church in the past have had to evaluate people would actually give them a more stern talking to because we thought that there was something wrong. There was something fraudulent about what they believed in what they held. Simon Magus, you recall, in the book of Acts chapter 8, was considered to be a disciple for he made a profession of faith. He was even baptized, but eventually it became known. He was still in the bond of iniquity, as Peter told him, trying to purchase the power of the spirit, the gifts of the spirit. Therefore, it’s usually best to be cautious about meeting new members in order to keep the church healthy and sound. I often will wait. I usually don’t say anything to anybody about joining a church. I’ll let that up. That’s up to them to make that. I want them to be committed to join it. I don’t want to pressure anyone to join a church. But I often like to see them wait like six months. I’ll always tell them you want to make sure this is the church you want to join. And at the same time, that gives us an opportunity to develop. them, whether they, you know, are really sincere in their beliefs and so forth. When I was growing up, you could be unknown to the church, walk down the aisle Sunday morning and say you wanted to join a church and you could be a church member, you know, by making some declaration, well, I believe in Christ or something of that nature. I think that’s a dangerous thing to do. Therefore, it’s usually best to be cautious in order to keep the church sound and healthy. So you find wicked people may slip into the best of churches. You find wicked people may slip into the ministry and win others over to their false teaching. These spiritual frauds came into the church and they just didn’t sit in the pew but for some reason we find that they were able to spread their poisonous doctrines among the people of God and they seem to assume positions in the church. Maybe teachers in the church. Complainers walking after their own lust, their mouths speaking great swelling words, having men’s persons in admiration because of advantage. Maybe because they claim to have knowledge, maybe they have some knowledge of spiritual things or something of this nature. People admire them. Maybe they’re very articulate. And people look up to them. And then they can lead them astray. Secretly, they win people over their false teaching and eventually they are publicly proclaiming their evil poisonous doctrine and they become open and bold about it after a period of time. And so we find this to be the case. So one of the great dangers is that false teachers often use biblical terms, but they twist the meaning of the term. And because of that, you could be deceived. For example, I don’t know if you are familiar with Robert Schuller, who was a TV evangelist. I don’t even know if he’s still alive or if he still has his television program or not, but he used to have a popular show called The Hour of Power. And he would use the term born again. Same term that’s found in John 3, used by our Lord and Savior. talking to Nicodemus. However, what Schuhr meant by born again and what Jesus Christ meant by born again were two completely different things. Schuller described this as being born again. He said, faith is replaced by possibility thinking. The belief that all things are possible. That’s what he’s talking about faith, he’s talking about that. There’s no inward work of the spirit so when he talks about being born again, there’s no inward work of the spirit mentioned, and when he talks about faith, the sinner is not directed to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ to be saved from his sin. Instead, the person sees himself as a failure, finds his ego uplifted as he discovers the endless possibilities within himself. Schuller, told the story of the wrench Aldonza, who was a prostitute whom the hapless Don Quixote believed to be the worthy Dulcinea who was virtuous. Well, noting that Aldonza came to see herself eventually in the same light as Dulcinea. as worthy. Schuller observed she has been saved from self-hate. She has been taught self-love. She’s been born again. Apparently, regeneration can’t be distinguished from delusion in his case. But these are the kinds of things that they will do. They will use this kind of language, but where they’re coming from is far, far away from what the scripture teaches. But people were fooled because he is, well, he believes in people being born again. Yeah, according to his idea of of basically self-love, self-possibilities, and so forth, positive thinking. So it behooves us to try the spirits. See whether the truth or error is being taught. The Bible tells us we ought to prove all things. So we weigh these matters. This is why there’s a warning here about laying hands. suddenly on no man. Because when you do that, you’re more likely to get into trouble. You can’t just let anybody teach in the church. And when it comes to teachers, as 1st Timothy 522 indicates, don’t do it suddenly. A way the person, you know, get to know the person, understand where they’re coming from before they get an opportunity to teach. So you must realize is that evil people may sneak into the church. Secondly, you must realize these evil people have been eternally rejected by God. He says here, in this passage of scripture, about these people who were before of old ordained to this condemnation. You’re told here about the doctrine of reprobation in this text of scripture. Before, four of all means from all eternity. Proverbs 822 would indicate that, I think. Ordained here as the flavor of being written in a book. The text here speaks about God’s decree of reprobation. Or the counterpart of election, the rejection of certain individuals from all eternity. And it’s common as script. at times to compare God’s decree to him writing something in a book. Now, we may not have access to that book where we can read and understand everything he’s written in the book because his decrees many times are not revealed to us. But you remember when God sent Jesus Christ into the world to engage in the public ministry and fulfill his work as the mediator and die on behalf of the people of God. And from Psalm 40 in verse 7, and we read, low I come in the volume of the book, it is written on me. Indicating to us that this was foredained of all, that Christ was foredained to die from the foundation of the world. Peter actually tells us that in his epistle. So God’s decree concerning Christ, and what he was going to do and so forth is the idea. of writing things in a book. Also, if you ever read Psalm 139, when David talks about how fearfully and wonderfully he is made, it talks about how God formed all the parts of his body and his features within him. And he said he wrote it in a book. And I think the same idea, that God decreed that I would be this person, my personality, my makeup, my, appearance. All these things God purposed before I even come out of the womb. Before the foundation of the world. He wrote it up. Same idea, I think. So the idea of being ordained here, or before of old written, is that these determinations of God are fixed and certain and cannot be altered. It’s as if he wrote it with an iron pen. Now, these false brethren who creep into the church unaware are not deceiving God. They may deceive the people in the church, but they do not deceive God. For God is well aware of their activities. He was fully knowledgeable of what they would do even before the foundation of the world. Before they ever acted in this evil man, they were the objects of his rejection, his reprobation, his eternal decree to that end, thus they are ordained to condemnation. They were cast off from God from all eternity and doomed to destruction. God determined to reject them, not grant them grace, being left to themselves and their own sinful natures after the fall. they would do corrupt and evil things and in this manner they would bring condemnation ultimately upon themselves. By their own sinful actions, a just condemnation. But it was all decreed and purposed by God before the foundation of the world. Some are preordained a condemnation and wrath before the foundation of the world. That is a scriptural doctrine. I remember when I first was introduced to the doctrine of reprobation, I was in the dorm in my first year’s seminary, and I happened to come across John Gill’s body of divinity. One of my roommates had it. And I said, I look at this book. And I thought, well, it’s just, you know, I’m flipping through and it has a section of reprobation. I said, nobody believes that. But as I started looking through, all these verses of scripture, all of a sudden, We’re talking about reprobation. I thought, why haven’t I ever seen this before? Why didn’t it register with me? But we see in scripture many times this type of language being used. Look with me at Proverbs 164. I don’t wish to weary you. But at the same time, I think it’s important that we, see this is not some obscure doctrine, you know, hidden away in one verse of scripture somewhere. but actually it’s found repeatedly throughout scripture. Let’s verse 4 of Proverbs 16. The Lord hath made all things for himself, yea, even the wicked for the day of evil. This is his purpose. Look at Romans chapter 9 in verse 17, if you would. Romans 917 for the scripture saith unto Pharaoh, even for the same purpose. have I raised the up that I might show my power in thee, and that my name might be declared throughout all the earth, and then skip down to verse 21 and 22. Hath not the potter, power over the clay of the same lump to make one vessel unto honor, another under dishonor? What if God, willing to show his wrath, and to make his power known, endured with much long suffering, the vessels of wrath, fitted fitted by the potter to destruction. Look at 1st Thessalonians 5.9, if you would. For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ. But there are some who are appointed to wrath is the implication of that text. Look at 1. Peter 2.8 with me as well. Christ here has spoken of as a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense, even to them would stumble at the word, being disobedient, where unto also, they were appointed. They were appointed to this end by God. One more. 2. Peter 2.12. But these as natural brute beast made to be taken and destroyed. Speak of evil things that they understand not, and they shall utterly perish in their own corruption. These are the false teachers and so forth. But their natural brute beast made to be taken and destroyed, made for that ultimate purpose and end. I suggest, here’s a good place to start with these verses if you wish to delve into this doctrine in more detail. So you are told of their reprobation here. you should consider error and predestination. Because this is what Jude is telling us. He’s connecting the error that he sees being taught ultimately with God’s purpose. Heresies and errors do not happen by chance, but according to the certain preordination of God. For the scripture says that who is all? that God worketh all things after the counsel of his will in Ephesians 1.11. Nothing is exempted from God’s ultimate purpose. Even error, even evil, is not exempted. It is included in God’s all inclusive purpose. Satan can do nothing, but that which God gives him permission to do, as we seen many times in the book of Job. When we speak of God’s will, there are two ways to understand that term God’s will that we should distinguish. There is his revealed will, which is found in the Word of God. These are the commandments that God gives men to obey. But there is also his secret will. This is God’s unknown and secret decree. And unless he reveals some of it to us in Scripture, which he does at times. We wouldn’t know anything about this. So God’s revealed will shows you what you ought to do, but his secret will determines what will be done. Thomas Manton said that while men break commandments, they fulfill decrees. And so while these false teachers break God’s commandments, they fulfill his ultimate decree of reprobation. Why? If God is in total control of evil and error, does he allow the church to be troubled by these false teachers and hypocrites? You must realize that all men are vessels to be used by God. He has his own wise ends for when he raises someone up. They may serve an honorable end. They may serve a dishonorable end. They may serve a dishonorable end, according to Romans Chapter 9. Even the wish. are used by God to further his purpose, Pharaoh, to make his might, his power known throughout the earth. Even Esau, who’s also mentioned in Romans 9. God is glorified when the church is sustained when facing all out assault of Satan, as the case of Job indicates to us. And you might think, well, what good is sustained? snake venom. You know, the snakes have poison in their fangs and they bite you and it may, it can kill you. You say, well, what good is it? Well, they milk snakes. They use a, like a glass container, hold the fangs on and press down and force the venom out so they can save it, and they make out of it, an antidote to the snake bite, so that ultimately, even snake venom can be used in a positive way. Well, with regard to false teachers, there’s a similar situation. And all the poison, they spread with their false doctrine. God has a good purpose. And even allowing, you know, allowing this and permitting this to harm his church or at least affect his church in some fashion. God is glorified when his truth, when it’s attacked, shines brighter than ever when it’s defended. These ungodly men are actually the means that God uses to stir his true people to study these doctrines more carefully and to articulate them and even formulate them and even formulate them into confessions of faith so that they can combat error and it helps a future generation that may come across the same problem so that ultimately God milks the poison doctrine, uses it for his own purposes and antidote against the false teaching. So doctrine of truth is not to be believed because of church tradition. We’ve always believe that. No, no. But it should be based on the sound conviction of scriptures. It’s not what the church thinks that’s important. It’s what scripture says to the law and the testimony. If they speak not according to this word, it’s because there’s no light in them. And so the people of God are driven to the scriptures, studying them carefully, articulating the doctrine built upon this scriptural framework. And they combat the very error that comes into the church. So error is a means to clearly identify truth from error. And we might even say the sincere believer from the false one. Paul writes this in 1 Corinthians 1119. I think this is interesting. For there must also be heresies among you. There must be. In God’s purpose, he brings this about. Why, Paul? Why? That they which are approved may be manified. Among you. This causes God’s people to rise to the occasion like cream on milk to the top and stand up against these false teaching. He raises men up to oppose it. And these men show that they are approved of God. And the church realizes it. The church in history has been forced to hammer out these doctrinal statements against error. The scripture says, in Psalm 12, verses 6 and 7, the words of the Lord are pure words. As silver tried in a furnace of earth purified seven times, thou shalt keep them, O Lord, thou shalt preserve them from this generation. God’s word gets tested. It gets put to the test. It goes through the fire. With all this false teaching surrounding, God’s word stands. true and God preserves it. And his truth is upheld. And the people of God are prospered when this occurs. So you must realize there are evil people that have been from all eternity rejected by God and we see that even though they teach error, God and his predestination has a good purpose that he’s going to bring to pass through all this. Thirdly tonight, you must see the danger of these evil people what these evil people pose for the church. you see that they corrupt the gospel of grace. notice he says here in this text of scripture, verse 4, they’re ungodly men turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness. by grace, I think Jude here is referring to the gospel of grace, which proclaims the grace of God, how God saves men by grace. And there’s this doctrine of salvation by grace that these men abuse. And they do so today as well. Paul had addressed the same history for the doctrine of salvation by grace was misconstrued in his day. Romans 6.2, they said, shall we sin that grace may abound? That’s what some people were thinking. Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? The doctrine of Christian liberty contained in the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ can be wickedly exploited. The fact that we’re saying without our personal works can be exploited for evil purposes. Christian liberty contained in the gospel of free grace can be used as a license for sin. And that’s what these evil people do. They are twisting. They are resting the scriptures. for an evil purpose so that they turn what should be the most marvelous thing in the world, the free grace of God and salvation, into an occasion for the worst wickedness possible. Ungodly men who twist and change the gospel grace from its original purpose. They bend it to allow for the fulfillment of all sorts of lust. and sinful pleasures. The word lasciviousness here speaks about excess. Some type of absence of restraint, some type of indecency, giving full reigned lust. Here, it seems to refer to the sins of the flesh. And in scripture, on many occasions, it’s used in connection with other words that would speak of sexual sin. For example, in Galatians 519, we read about it’s being connected with adultery and fornication and uncleanness, and then he mentions lasciviousness as well. In other places, see the same thing. As we go through this, we’re going to see a Jew talking about the unnatural lust of the homosexual crowd in Solomon Gomorra. in verse 7. And that would be homosexuality. He’s going to talk about those who defile the flesh. In verse 8, which could be used in a sense of sexual sin as well. Because they have eyes full of adultery, these false teachers, according to Peter. And so that would fit right in with this as well. Let there be no mistake about this. Anyone who claims to be saved by grace and practices sin, sexual sin in particular, is ungodly. You can’t pervert the purpose of the gospel in order to allow for the indulgence of sin in this terrible evil. So they corrupt the gospel of grace. And you see these people deny the sovereign God and the Lord Jesus Christ. Some translations of the Bible do not have the word theos. God in this verse. So they make it all refer to Jesus Christ. He’s the only master. He’s the Lord and so forth. however, the majority of Greek texts do contain the word theos. And I think the King James is correct in giving us theos and also speaking of Christ. the word Lord, despotis, is never used in the Bible to reference to Jesus Christ. unless this verse is the only one. It’s always used of God the Father. When Christ is called Lord, it’s Curios. And so I would suggest to you that he’s speaking about God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. So there’s two things being denied here. Despotéce means master or sovereign Lord. It speaks about the Father. Is the sovereign Lord, as the sovereign Lord, ruling overall. And so his sovereignty is being denied. These false teachers perhaps allowed other deities to be worshipped. Angels, for example. Obviously, these ungodly men denied the sovereignty of God over all things. And especially, they denied here Jesus Christ, both doctrinally and practically, both in the doctrines concerning him and how they live their lives. By statement and life. Early errors, you recall, grew up around the deity of Christ, the sonship of Christ, the humanity of Jesus Christ. Also, there were those who denied his work, his atoning work, and as the soul means of salvation and so forth. Isn’t it interesting when we think about it? It’s these same two types of errors that stand on today. People deny the sovereignty of God that he rules overall according to his good pleasure and does as he pleases. And they deny the person or the work of Jesus Christ in some fashion. You must realize the danger of these people oppose for the church. Keep these things in mind that Jude mentions. Well, many French people claim to be blue-blooded royal but the truth is, there’s only one and seven that are true royalty. There are a lot of people claim to be followers of Christ, but the truth of the matter is, they’re not all true followers of Christ. The church then has to be alert to this fact because there are false teachers who would like to creep into the church and snag people who are perhaps not sound in the faith enough or just have come to know the Lord and they can be maybe misled and led astray. So the church must Be careful. Don’t tolerate the false teachers. Beware of them. Be aware of the danger they pose and earnestly content for the faith, as he mentioned, as we talked about in our last study. Well, let’s close.