The Faith You MUST Fight For - Unpacking the Book of Jude

[0:00] Amen. We're going to go to the Word of God. And just some cautionary remarks. I might tread on some toes this morning. I don't mean to. And I'm not out to make something contentious in a bad way. But to have some contention in a good way. Some contention in a good way.

[0:18] And let me preface what I'm saying by saying I'm not the arbiter of all truth. I'm not like a man in Rome who says that when he speaks ex cathedra that everything he says is gospel. And you've got to believe every word that he says. And he can't make any mistakes because I'm a fallible man. But we've got an infallible word. Amen. So we're going to go to that word, the Word of God. So the book of Jude. If you've got your Bibles, it's the second to last book in your Bible. So the book of Jude.

[0:48] Jude tells us how we are to contend for the faith in, I put to you, a confused culture. We're going to go through the book and relate it to some current themes I put to you. Notice that word, contend. Contend. The book contrasts the true contenders for the faith with those who are false pretenders of the faith. There's some good kinds of contention. There's some good contention.

[1:18] And that's what we're hoping to bring to you today. And so we start off with verse 1. Jude starts off addressing the people of God. Verse 1. Jude, the servant of Jesus Christ and brother of James, to them that are sanctified by God the Father and preserved in Jesus Christ and called mercy unto you and peace and love be multiplied.

[1:44] Notice says Jude in this book, he says something about you, the people of God. You're called. You're sanctified. You're preserved. You're beloved. Get that. Preserved. I love that word especially. Preserved. Kept. Kept.

[2:01] Christ is your keeper. Christ is your keeper. Your protection. If you're saved, you're saved forever. It's eternal life that he gives. We have not a flimsy, flaky salvation, but a sure one. You're preserved. Preserved.

[2:16] Jude's book sounds a warning against false teachers. And we would do well to take heed to his warnings in our own day. And translate that into our own time and culture. Verse 3. Beloved, you're loved by God. Beloved.

[2:33] When I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you and exhort you that you should earnestly consent for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints.

[2:49] If you're saved, it's telling you here that we've got a common salvation. A common salvation. You are saved in common. In community. We're caught into the church. We're made children of God. We're made brothers and sisters.

[3:05] We've got our loving Heavenly Father. God doesn't have one way for the rich and one way for the poor. He doesn't have one way for the good and another way for the bad. We all come to God the same way. Through the way of the cross. The way. The Lord Jesus. He is the way. The truth and the life.

[3:21] And Jude says it was needful. He says it was needful that he write some things down. He says this is important. Nail this down. Mark this down. This is important. Some do not have this common salvation that it talks about in verse 3.

[3:36] They are not saved. They are not our brothers and sisters in Christ. And the Jesus they talk about is not our Jesus. Okay, now brace yourselves.

[3:49] Some of you may be a bit surprised about what I'm going to say next. And you might think that some of these things are okay. Maybe God still uses some things that are a bit, hmm, so-so.

[4:02] And he can. And he does. I know I was saved. And I think I was in the Uniting Church at the time. And I wouldn't recommend that church to you today. But I tell you, I was saved in a church that had some questionable things going on.

[4:16] They had a Bible that I wouldn't recommend to you today too. The Good News Bible. God can use things that are not really quite solid and strong and the best. God can even use some movies that you might think, hmm, so-so.

[4:30] But there's some red flags. And I just want to point out to you the red flags today that are all over these things. There's danger here. False doctrine. And I do so because I need to sound a warning.

[4:43] I need to. It's needful for me. It's needful for me. So brace yourselves. Passing your seatbelts now. The chosen.

[4:55] The chosen. Mormons do not have this common salvation that we're talking about, that the Bible speaks about. The common salvation. The chosen is a popular television series about a dramatised life of Christ.

[5:14] It does not portray the authentic Jesus. It is fiction. And they say that it is fiction. Really, it is a counterfeit Christ. Now, some churches are actually screening the chosen, I'm told, in place of Bible studies.

[5:29] They're actually rather watch that. The fictional acting. The entertainment. Now, of course, we could acknowledge that such a film, such a movie series, it's got entertainment value.

[5:42] Yes, it has. You're better off watching the chosen than a lot of other things that you could idle away your time with. If you're used to idling away your time watching vanities, then this probably is not so bad in the scheme of things, as far as those things that you can watch.

[6:01] All right? But the Bible does warn us about false Christs, counterfeits, biblical accuracy matters. They're putting into the words of this actor words that the Lord Jesus never spoke.

[6:14] That's the question. And that's a serious question I put to you. Who is the Jesus of the chosen? I'm quoting here the Jesus. Quotation marks that the executive producer of the chosen, Daryl Eves, believes in, as do most of the other series producers, such as Ricky Ray Butler and Jeffrey and Neil Harmon.

[6:36] It's a different Jesus. All right? This is Neil Harmon. He's the co-founder of VidAngel. Now it's called Angel Studios. Interesting when Galatians 1 verse 8 tells us to beware of an angel, bringing another story, another gospel.

[6:53] And this quote goes on, Who is the Jesus of Mormonism?

[7:03] It's a pack of lies.

[7:16] The book of Mormon is a pack of lies. And the Mormon Jesus is a false Jesus. The Bible warns us in 2 Corinthians 11 of another Jesus, another spirit, another gospel.

[7:30] What does the Mormon Jesus claim? That God was a man and became a God. That Jesus and the Father are separate gods. That Jesus and Satan are brothers.

[7:43] That Jesus, the Mormon Jesus, was begotten of the Father through a physical, physical relationship with Mary. And Jesus married at least three women and he's got a bunch of kids.

[7:55] That's the Mormon Jesus. He's not the Jesus that's in here, people. That's not the right one. All right? So as much as you might like the chosen, I'd say handle it with caution.

[8:07] Handle it with caution. The man who plays Jesus in the chosen is Jonathan Rumi. He's an avowed knight of Templar Jesuit.

[8:18] And I read another article about this man, Jonathan Rumi. He's a nice looking guy. I could probably get to know him and he's got a nice smile.

[8:29] He looks like a likeable fellow. Rumi prays the rosary and he boasts of praying to the dead. He's a Roman Catholic. He's never claimed to be born again. So red flags I put to you.

[8:42] The chosen has a lot of red flags. I say don't trust them. Don't swallow it. All right? Contend for the faith, says Jude. The faith. That's definitely not the Mormon faith or the Roman Catholic faith, I'll put to you.

[8:55] Now, some of you might have that persuasion. I can tell you why I believe strongly that it's not preaching the gospel. Honestly, people, there's big question marks about this, about the Pope and all that he stands for.

[9:09] But the Bible's different. The Bible faith is authoritative. It's accurate. It's truthful. We can rely on it. And the Bible book of Jude warns us about apostasy. He says, beware of it.

[9:20] Steer clear of it. Apostasy means defection from the true biblical faith. And we need to come out and be separate from apostasy. We're told, Jude says, content.

[9:31] These are fighting words. Content. Content. Fight. Fight for the truth. Stand up against error. We have to reprove and rebuke people who teach falsely.

[9:42] We don't go along with it. I say it's time to fight. We need a fighting spirit. It's a declaration of war. We must arm ourselves in these days. Jude says, content.

[9:53] Arm yourself with the sword. Get your sword out. That's your Bible. And it's interesting how the Bible is under attack. There's no holding back these days.

[10:04] Here's a recent article I read. There's a Utah school district today that are trying to ban the Bible from school libraries, from their 92 schools in the Utah school district.

[10:16] They say it is inappropriate for children. This is just one school district. Who knows where it's going to go from there?

[10:30] Now, there's a lot of hypocrisy here I put to you. Because I could tell you some things. In fact, we had a lady that was brave enough to speak to Playford City Council.

[10:41] And she presented a presentation about resources for children in our public libraries in South Australia. Now, parents, I can share this with you later.

[10:56] It is not appropriate for me to show you the pictures that are in these books. That actually your children could go down to your local library and take them out of the bookshelf in the children's section and read all about it.

[11:08] It's gross. It's in your face. It's disgusting. And this woman had the guts to present it to the local city council and say, this is something we should be against.

[11:22] And so good honour for that. And there's a lot of hypocrisy about what libraries actually do promote to our children. And they're saying it's in accord with the South Australian school curriculum.

[11:33] These are in school libraries. These are in the children's section of the public libraries. It's alarming material that they're promoting to very, very young children. Transgender evils, inappropriate sex education materials.

[11:48] I won't labour the point, but parents, come and have a look at this and be shocked, as I was. The Bible's not inappropriate.

[11:59] It's very, very appropriate. Friends, the faith once delivered, once for all time. That's what we need. That's what our children need. That's what our world needs. And there's no new way. Now, Julie and I attended a Baptist Union church service a while back.

[12:12] And in the service, the pastor projected the words. Hardly anyone had a Bible in their hands, so they just read the words as we project them. But the words that they screamed were the NIV text.

[12:25] And it included the verse, Mark 2, verse 17. Jesus calls sinners. Full stop. My Bible says Jesus calls sinners to repentance.

[12:37] Repentance. Interesting that in his sermon, the preacher had a dig at people who uphold the King James Bible. Now, it's just a missing word.

[12:49] It's just one word. Repentance. It's just missing a word. A word here and there. Just like the word blood is absent from Colossians 1, verse 14.

[13:00] We're redeemed. They take out through his blood. I think that's important, don't you? Don't you think that's important? You might have different convictions. You might use other Bibles.

[13:12] There's times where other Bibles might have some usefulness. But if you're going to study and know the accurate word of God and uphold the solid, assured word of God, then the King James Bible matters.

[13:25] Oh, it's just a word. Every word matters. Imagine 64,000 words are missing apparently from the NIV. I heard someone put it like this. That what if you were driving your car and you had 64,000 parts missing?

[13:41] I think your car would be in some trouble, wouldn't it? I wouldn't want to be driving my car with 64,000 parts missing. What about reading a Bible that's missing 64,000 words?

[13:53] I think that's important, don't you? Jude warns about some men. Verse 4. For there are certain men crept in unawares who were before of old ordained into this condemnation.

[14:03] Ungodly men turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness and denying the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ. Jude's talking about false teachers creeping into churches.

[14:17] Deception's got a way of creeping in, sneaking in. The devil's good at incrementalism. In other words, bit by bit, just erode a little bit by bit. Just like the shore on the seashore.

[14:29] It just erodes a little bit. Julie and I watched a video of a whole landslide, a mudslide, a whole swag of land sliding into the ocean. But the devil's like the waves just lapping away and gradually eroding.

[14:43] Bit by bit, he creeps in. And before you know it, he's behind the pulpit. And these men, says Jude, they slithered in. They're ungodly men. They're ungodly. They're worldly. They are not of God.

[14:55] They are unconverted. It's interesting that way back, Harvard University was founded with the purpose of training preachers of the gospel. Now the Harvard University represents humanism and full-on liberalism.

[15:09] The devil snook in. Now he's in charge. These false teachers, says Jude, they're carnal. They're perverse. Turning the grace of God into lasciviousness. So that's meaning like shameless sin.

[15:21] It's immorality. They're proudly flaunting their sin. They deny Christ, the only master and Lord. They profess that they know God, but in works they deny him, like Titus 1 verse 16.

[15:34] Now again, brace yourselves. I'm going to tread on some toes again a bit further now. There's a lot of talk these days lately about the Jesus Revolution movie. The Jesus Revolution movie.

[15:45] Now apparently it's a very moving story. It's a moving movie. It's a touching story. You might be a bit of a tearjerker. There's lots of feel-good moments in the movie.

[15:58] Some call it inspirational. Okay, maybe there'll be some benefit. I'll acknowledge that. But what's the true story? Who's the man behind this story?

[16:10] The true story is Lonnie Frisbee, a hippie preacher and the false revival of the Jesus People movement. Frisbee claimed to be a prophet.

[16:21] And he got his prophecies while high on drugs. The true story is sadly that Frisbee partied on in blatant sin. He was a man who went back to sin.

[16:32] If he ever left it, he continued in sin. And he died at the age of 43 of AIDS. Someone has said, no true revival is led by a sodomite.

[16:45] We'd have to question what was going on. Can God use a movie like that? Maybe he can. Maybe he still can. I wouldn't recommend it to you though.

[16:57] Jude warns you against such people. Turning the grace of God into lasciviousness. In other words, fleshliness. Sensuality. Here's a like thing. I know even at this retreat we were at, some of the preachers were a bit oblivious to this one.

[17:11] Asbury. A like thing has happened at the so-called Asbury revival. What's going on at Asbury? It's finished now. But what was happening there, apparently they had queer song leaders.

[17:22] There was open homosexual song leaders. There was women pastors. Supposed tongues. There was prophecy. Supposed demonic manifestations.

[17:32] Slang in the spirit. Performed faith healings. Unbiblical shallow music. Dangerous mysticism. Asbury University has hosted speakers who teach what they call gay Christianity.

[17:44] There is no such thing. They are not a strong Bible based institution. Some advocates of the revival are reporting the so-called revival has made their already progressive university even more queer affirming.

[17:58] They're saying. These are fake and false revivals people. There's no social and this is nothing new. And this so-called revival lacks Bible teaching. It lacks a sound declaration of the gospel.

[18:10] There's no accountability. There's no local church structure of accountability and the leadership. It's not there. And Asbury University promotes what's called spiritual formation.

[18:21] What it is, it's contemplative spiritualism. It's basically mystical new age contemplative praying. It's eastern mysticism. That's what it is. And occult practices.

[18:32] So sadly, a lot that's going on here is unbiblical counterfeit. Now, I'm sorry if I'm bursting people's bubbles here. But we've got great need to be alerted, to be warned.

[18:45] There's need for warning. Jude says it's needful to talk about some of this stuff. If I don't warn you of some of these dangers, who will? Who will warn you? I'd rather warn you and possibly offend you, if need be, than to not sound a warning.

[19:02] Because then I've got an answer to him. Jude gives warning here. He is warning. He pulls no punches. We would do well to hear the warning. Jude gives us three examples now of what happens when we reject God's warning, God's word.

[19:17] He says, learn from history. Remember, he says, this is verse 5. Remember how God dealt with such people in the past. He talks about three examples. Verse 5. I will therefore put you in remembrance, though you once knew this, how that the Lord, having saved the people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed them that believed not.

[19:38] It's telling us here, having rescued the children of Israel out of Egypt, the Lord destroyed those who did not believe. So without soul-saving faith, we are lost. We can have all kinds of emotional feelings and inspiration, but unless we're saved, we're lost.

[19:55] And we can know that if we believe, we're saved. It's by faith that we're saved. Next, Jude goes on to say, verse 6, So Jude's saying here there's some sinful angels that are chained in darkness.

[20:19] And really, it's telling us, again, judgment is sure. If we're going to falter into error, there's judgment facing us. Another example is Sodom and Gomorrah, burnt with fire.

[20:32] Verse 7. Even as Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities about them in like manner, giving themselves over to fornication and going after strange flesh, are set forth an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire.

[20:45] Why did God send this terrible judgment? Genesis 18, verse 20, it says, because their sin is very grievous. These people defiled themselves.

[20:56] And there's serious warnings here. What's going on now in our world, in churches? Australia's Uniting Church is a case in point. Here's what they say. They openly accommodate ministers who are in this open sin.

[21:13] They're not holding back. They're not hiding this. They're welcoming it and they're affirming it. This is the sin of Sodom. What are they doing? Andy Stanley's church is completely off track now with accommodation of LGB.

[21:29] There's no denying what Sodom stood for. You can't get around it, what it is. God is clearly against it. The Bible calls some things filthy, abomination and defilement.

[21:41] And yet, what's going on? People are just accepting it. Oh, that's what we allow now. That's what we accommodate now. Verse 8.

[21:52] Likewise, also these filthy dreamers defile the flesh, despise dominion and speak evil of dignitaries. Jude describes their ways.

[22:04] These are the ways of the false teachers. It's alike to the description in Judges 21, 25 of the time when every man did what was right in his own eyes.

[22:15] And today, it's a pattern right across Western culture and Australia, the whole world really. I heard lately about a new church plant and they've got the name Fundamental Baptist Fellowship.

[22:30] Now, the term fundamentalist is a word that people frown on these days. It's got connotations, doesn't it? Now, there are some extremists who call themselves fundamentalists. We're not talking about that. But being a biblical fundamentalist is a good thing, isn't it?

[22:44] Because there are some Bible fundamentals. So good on them for standing for some Bible fundamentals. And we care enough for the truth that we will stand for it and defend it. And that's a good thing to do, to contend for it.

[22:58] And even if people call it what we're saying or what I'm saying today as hate preaching. Someone called me that lately. You know, I've been called conspiracy preacher. Now they're calling me a hate preacher.

[23:08] Well, amen. You know, in Psalm 79 verse 10 it says, Ye that love the Lord hate evil. In Proverbs 8 verse 13 it says, The fear of the Lord is to hate evil.

[23:20] There is some good hate. We should hate evil, shouldn't we? We should love the truth and we should hate evil. I care enough to tell you the truth. Because if I don't, I'm not loving you.

[23:31] That's not hate. When I speak the truth, that's love. Verse 9 we see, Yet Michael the archangel, when consenting with the devil, he disputed about the body of Moses.

[23:45] Dost not bring against him a railing accusation, but he said, The Lord rebuke thee. But these speak evil of those things which they know not. But what they know naturally is brute beasts. In those things they corrupt themselves.

[23:56] Notice how it says that the Michael, the archangel, says, The Lord rebuke thee. Some are making much of rebuking this and rebuking that these days.

[24:08] So while we're on a roll, come out in Jesus' name. That's another newfound thing today. It's the title of a new movie which features Pastor Greg Locke. Locke divorced his wife and married the church secretary, another man's wife.

[24:24] Of course you trade them in for a new model, that's what he did. He's a repeat false prophet with fake signs and wonders. Friends, I must warn you about these things.

[24:35] Honestly, it's wrong. I know Greg Locke has said some good things. I know he's quite a forthright preacher. But there's big question marks, red flags all over it.

[24:47] And Locke's friend, Isaiah Salvador, is another prosperity preacher. And these things are really very popular these days. A lot of Christians are tapping into this stuff.

[24:59] And of course on the internet, it's all over the place. There's deliverance ministry, they're calling it. And this man, Isaiah Salvador, he believes Christians can have demons inside of them that need to be expelled.

[25:12] And he actually teaches Christians need to cast demons out of each other repeatedly. He says we've got to have a repeated casting out session. So I don't know if you've had a casting out session lately, but book into this man and he'll cast them out of you.

[25:29] And of course for a fee, of course. He teaches a works-based gospel. And other heretics associated with him, Vlad Savchuk and Alexander Pagani, some of these so-called deliverance ministries, they charge people money to attend events.

[25:44] And there's classes there that teach students to access supernatural power. If you pay the fee, a serious transgression known as simony in the Bible, Simon the Magus, the magician, he was doing this too, to be able to pay something to get the Holy Spirit.

[26:02] But this is what people are doing routinely now. They're jumping on this bandwagon associated with bogus miracles, the new apostolic reformation, and these supposed modern-day prophets and apostles and prophets, supposed new extra-biblical revelations, all kinds of wacky extremes.

[26:20] And people are falling for this stuff. Why? Because they're astray from biblical teaching, from sound biblical teaching, astray from a sound biblical church. Don't fall prey to this stuff.

[26:32] There is Bible truth here. Yes, there is deliverance. There is deliverance. There are demonic truths. Manifestations. I'm not denying that. But these people are saying that this is the Lord's work, that these men are supposed demon slayers, and it's all done with this showmanship.

[26:52] You can watch their videos. It's all like an act, a performance, like just putting on this show of this false deliverance. We've got to be very careful about these things.

[27:05] The Bible does not teach that born-again Christians can be demon-possessed. Of course, we can be oppressed. We can have troubles from demonic impacts.

[27:20] But if you're a safe person, you have the Holy Spirit inside of you. The Holy Spirit takes up residence inside of you. He doesn't share that space with a demon.

[27:31] Jude, next up, compares these false teachers of his day with three figures, Cain, Balaam, and Korah. Verse 11. Woe unto them, for they have gone in the way of Cain, and ran greedily after the error of Balaam for reward, and perished in the gainsaying of Korah.

[27:48] These false teachers were seeking to establish their own religion. We see number one is Cain. What was his way? It was the way of selfishness. It was his own religion. He rejected Bible authority.

[28:00] Basically, it's talking about works-based salvation. You know, some people teach that. You've got to work for it. If you're not working, you're not saved. That's what they would say.

[28:11] Works-based salvation, that's Cain's religion. Cain's was a trust not in the blood of the Lamb, but in his own works, the fruit of his own labours. Cain's religion, works-based religion.

[28:25] That's what we're seeing today in the false gospels of men trusting in their own manufactured righteousness. I've been in correspondence with a man lately, and he's saying, well, oh yeah, we get saved, but then we've got to keep working.

[28:40] We've got to keep obeying. We've got to keep doing. Or we might lose it. That's what they think. My Bible says it's not of works.

[28:52] Not of works, lest any man should boast. Any works that I do are a bonus to my salvation. It's not my salvation. Not of works, lest any man should boast.

[29:04] What are we to boast in? But the blood of Christ, our Saviour, the blood of the Lamb. It's not a trust in my own righteousness. My own righteousness is the best of them, are as filthy rags.

[29:17] It's not manufactured. Really, that's no righteousness at all. The righteousness that we must have is a righteousness imputed. Imputed, imparted, counted unto you.

[29:28] Christ in you, your righteousness. Imparted to you the gift of salvation, his grace, his gracious gift. Woe unto them, says Jude. Cain.

[29:39] Then we see Balaam, the next one in verse 11. Well, that's not Balaam, by the way. That's Phil Dooley. The error of Balaam. The error of Balaam was going after reward.

[29:50] And these false teachers in Jude's day, they used religion for personal profit. It's the same nowadays. It's all over the news. It's just recent revelations about Hillsong.

[30:02] Honestly, it's in the news. It's in the newspapers. And the most of churches are feeding that, playing Hillsong songs, and then sending them the royalties and the dollars to fund them.

[30:15] Balaam was a prophet motivated by personal ambition and greed. What does the word of God tell us about Balaam? It tells how a pagan king hired Balaam to curse the children of Israel, numbers 22.

[30:27] Another time, in return for money, Balaam taught the children of Israel how to sin, numbers 31. I put to you this whole prosperity preacher movement is the error of Balaam.

[30:39] They're running greedily after it. You can buy their books, their DVDs. You can pay to go to their conferences. We're seeing reports lately showing the wastefulness of Hillsong.

[30:51] The shelves of Christian bookshops are full of this stuff. The falsehood, the heresies of these prosperity gospel preachers. Woe to them, says Jude. Verse 11.

[31:03] Jude also rebukes the gainsaying of Korah, the rebellion of Korah. Korah was a man. In Moses' day, he caused controversy and strife with God's leaders. In Numbers 16 and 26, it tells how he opposed Moses and Aaron.

[31:19] Really, it was rebellion against the Lord. As the Lord saw it and reckoned it, what happened to Korah? The earth swallowed him up. And God's judgment fell.

[31:30] Jude saying that these false teachers of his day defied God-given authority. Spiritual authority matters. I've seen lately on the internet, you might have seen it, you can get baptised into Jesus.

[31:43] You know, book your baptism. It doesn't talk about salvation. It's talking about baptism. As if the baptism saves you. That's error. And where's the local church? Where's the commitment to Christ? Where's the genuine gospel in all of that?

[31:55] It's not there. They're putting out this message, get baptised into Jesus. I think it's a bit of a flaky thing again. There's no authority. There's no biblical basis to that.

[32:07] We've got to... Baptism is your profession of faith and it's identifying you with the local church body. You're baptised and you join the local church. You're added to the church when you're baptised.

[32:21] But there's no church there. There's no structural authority there. That's a problem. Spiritual authority is a serious matter. And we must take these things reverently and biblically. Some are setting themselves up after their own authority.

[32:33] We need biblical accountability. That's why the church matters. Church matters. I get word from some people and they're wandering. They're not in church.

[32:44] They're not in church and they're missing out on doctrine. They're missing out on teaching. They're missing out on fellowship. Commit to a good biblical church and submit to godly pastoral authority to help safeguard yourself and your family from apostasy.

[33:02] Come to the Bible studies so you can grow, you can learn, you can ground yourself. Spiritual authority and accountability matters. Jude continues his rebuke of the false teachers, verse 12.

[33:15] He says, these are spots in your feasts of charity. They had these love feasts, these sharing, communion of meals together. Jude says of them, they're feeding themselves without fear.

[33:29] Clouds they are without water. Carried about of winds. Trees whose fruit withereth without fruit. Twice dead, plucked up by the roots.

[33:42] Raging waves of the sea. Foaming out their own shame. Wandering stars to whom is reserved the blackness of darkness forever. These are solemn words of false teachers.

[33:54] Jude says, they've got no fear. They're surveilling themselves. There's no substance there. They're drifters. They're unfruitful. Jude likens them to these false teachers to like hidden rocks on the ocean floors that could tear the base of a ship to shreds.

[34:10] These hidden reefs, if you like. In other words, they may not always appear so, but they're dangerous. In Jude's day, the believers would gather and bring food to share and partake.

[34:26] They called it a love feast. But the false teachers destroyed that fellowship. And these false teachers were men looking for the glory of eldership above truth.

[34:36] Clouds without water. Their words gave only false hope. They were trees that could not produce any good fruit. And their destructive doctrines. And their destructive doctrines are likened to violent waves in the ocean.

[34:48] Doctrines that cause men to wander, but not in the direction of truth. And Jude's words are very solemn here, that their eternal law is the darkness of hell.

[34:59] Jude warns about judgment to come. Verse 14. He tells about Enoch, warning of the coming of the Lord in judgment. Verse 14. And Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, saying, Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his saints to execute judgment upon all, and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds, which they have ungodly committed, and of all their hard speeches, which ungodly sinners have spoken against him.

[35:28] Jude's book, Exhorting Against False Teachers, he tells of judgment, he tells of the coming of Christ, he tells of the Lord coming of ten thousands of his saints. This judgment, he says, is going to come upon all.

[35:41] This judgment will convict. This judgment will expose ungodly deeds. This judgment will expose all the ungodly words. The reality of the coming of Christ should prompt us to seek truth and uphold the word of God.

[35:54] Christ is coming. In the light of his coming, we should be ever more warned ever more wary. Jude warns about these false teachers that they go on in their own self-destructive ways.

[36:06] Verse 16, They are murmurers, complainers, walking after their own lusts, and their mouths speaketh great swelling words, having men's persons in admiration because of advantage.

[36:17] People admire these people. They admire these false teachers, these prosperity preachers. Jude describes false teachers as grumblers, as fault finders, self-seeking.

[36:27] They speak great words. They are arrogant flatterers. Jude again exhorts God's people to exercise discernment as we approach the last days.

[36:37] The last days. We see verse 17. But, beloved, remember ye the words which were spoken before of the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ, how that they told ye there should be mockers in the last time, who should walk after their own ungodly lusts.

[36:55] These be they who separate themselves sensual, having not the spirit. What are we to expect in the last days? Our Lord continually spoke about deception.

[37:09] He's continually saying, take heed, beware, be not deceived. It's a continuing theme. What are we to expect in the last time? It says mockers.

[37:19] They're going to ridicule the word of God. They're not even going to have the word of God, but they're going to ridicule it. And they're going to walk in their ungodly lusts. It says they're worldly minded, given over to sensual desires.

[37:32] Sensual desires. They cause divisions. They're without the spirit. They miss the words of the apostles, worldly lusts, and they don't have the Holy Spirit.

[37:43] Here's another one, another example. Another example of apostasy I just heard about, though it's not a new one. Apparently it's been around for a while. There's a movement now called Red Letter Christians.

[37:55] The Red Letter Christians movement. They uphold the red letters, meaning the words of Jesus printed in red ink.

[38:06] And we do that too. Trouble is, they cherry pick. They only want to follow the red letters. So this camp would have us only count 4% of the Bible.

[38:18] So if you're a red letter Christian, you might like the red letters, as in the words of Jesus, but throw out the other 96%, you just take the 4% of Jesus' words as authoritative.

[38:33] Why do they do this? Because it allows them to ignore lots of things, various issues. They would say, well, Jesus didn't specifically address homosexuality. It was understood.

[38:50] So another dangerous movement, Red Letter Christians, watch out for that one. Actually, we need the whole counsel of the Word of God, don't we? Paul says, I deliver to the whole counsel, the whole Word of God.

[39:01] All Scripture is inspired by God. All Scripture. They are all His words. Of course, some things are not to us, but they're for us. They're for our learning. We've got to be discerning of that.

[39:12] Of course, we don't say we follow necessarily some of the laws of the Old Testament. Of course, some were for Israel, but they're for our learning. They're for our comfort. And it's all important.

[39:25] Jude tells about divisiveness. We see such signs today. People who are critical, murmurers, complainers. In Moses' day, they murmured all the time about what he was doing and telling them.

[39:36] The continual whinges, complainers, walking after their own lusts and their own wants. And God gave them food and water to drink. They wanted more. They wanted more.

[39:46] God gave them miracles. They still weren't happy. It's human nature, isn't it? Jude says they do not have the spirit. They do not have the spirit. We've got some contending to do, people.

[39:57] We've got some contending to do. We're living in a hostile environment. Now, just last Tuesday, I attended an information session for pastors. Now, I'm not into ecumenical things, but there was value in getting together with some other pastors from here and there because it was about an information session.

[40:14] And this information session was about how our state government is about to write into law the Anti-Conversion Act. This could be your pastor soon.

[40:28] It will make it a criminal offence to provide various teachings, counselling, pastoral activities, spiritual care activities for LGBTIQ people who are even themselves seeking help to overcome these things.

[40:43] So if such a person was to come to me to seek help and I was to give them some counsel from the Bible or to even pray for them, then I could get locked up. That's what the consequences of this law will be.

[40:56] And these are some of the most anti-religious laws in the Western world. They're now in force in Victoria, shortly to be law in South Australia. Churches and individuals, parents, churches and individuals who believe and teach orthodox biblical doctrines of sexuality and identity face penalties and imprisonment.

[41:19] In Victoria, that means hefty fines and up to 10 years imprisonment. For the first time in Australian law, prayer, prayer is specifically outlawed.

[41:32] It's against the law to pray for them. You know, we see that in the UK that there was a woman facing charges for praying outside an abortion clinic because it was a designated area and she wasn't even saying anything.

[41:47] It was a silent prayer. But the cops asked her and she said, I'm praying, but I'm praying silently. They said, okay, that's a criminal offence for her to pray. God help us.

[41:58] That's the UK. A senior legal expert at this meeting I was at on Tuesday stated, basically, it's a done deal. You can advocate, you can lobby your local MPs about this one, but it's a done deal.

[42:14] Both parties are already signed up to it. I said, well, how can we get prepared for this? He said, martyrdom. That's what he said. As the church of old, martyrdom.

[42:28] To have the courage to speak the truth, to not comply, to not comply with such things, to not be silenced. And he said to the pastors there, it was only a handful, he said, you are the resistance.

[42:41] You are the resistance. There's no one else. Most churches, a lot of churches don't even know this is going on. It's pretty serious stuff. And we have to have, if I could be excused from using a somewhat vulgar word, we need to have the guts, the guts, to contend for the faith.

[42:59] You need to have it, brother and sister, because it's coming to you. Parents. This could be you. This could be you. Parents. In this increasingly hostile and anti-Christ world, we've got to have the guts to contend for the faith.

[43:14] That's basically what this esteemed lawyer, and he's a very high lawyer, he was in a very senior, senior judge position, right, at one time. He's conversant with the law.

[43:26] And he's saying this to us, the church, you are the resistance. And in view of these dangers and warnings, Jude exhorts the people of God to contend. These things are happening. Contend for the faith, he starts off with.

[43:37] Verse 20, he says, build up yourselves on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost, keeping yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life.

[43:47] He's saying here, in the light of all of this, contend, he says, he says, build up yourselves. It's time to grow. Grow. Keep on growing.

[44:00] Keep on progressing. Get out of this complacency. It's time to grow, to build. It's not time to be static. It's saying build up yourselves in the faith.

[44:11] Build on faith. We're urged to pray, to pray in the spirit, to keep in God's love, to be a people looking for the coming of our Lord. Well, it's closer today than it was yesterday.

[44:22] People, the Lord's coming and we should be a people about the work of rescue. We should be in the search and rescue team, really. Really, we should be the search and rescue people, shouldn't we?

[44:33] Looking for our Lord, staying in his love, praying in the Holy Ghost, building up ourselves on the most holy faith and we should be about the work of search and rescue of others, reaching out in love.

[44:47] That's what drives us to go soul winning. Verse 22, it's compassion. Some have compassion making a difference. We're not out there to win an argument. We're out there to win souls.

[44:59] We're not out there to judge. We're there to show compassion, to show the grace of God, the gift of God. We're out there to tell others about the Saviour. We're not there to put people down.

[45:11] We're there to save them, to drag them out of the fire and if some have compassion making a difference, others say with fear, pulling them out of the fire, hating even the garments spotted by the flesh.

[45:23] Do we love the Saviour? Do we love souls? Just like he did. As a church, we support missionaries that are on the board. Three missionary families, in fact, that we support and we pray for a whole lot more but we don't expect those missionaries to come here and help us.

[45:44] We don't ask them to go and reach our community. That is our job. It's not their job. This is the mission field for you.

[45:57] I have to be honest with you and tell you we're failing here. It's a shame. It's a sin. We have need of courage. We can make a difference.

[46:08] We can make a difference. An eternal one. We've got a fight on our hands. Thank God there was a profession of faith yesterday when we're out reaching out. People are reaching out.

[46:19] They're calling on the Saviour. Join the team. See Peter and Chloe. We need reinforcements. Do we have compassion making a difference?

[46:32] Do we care about these people out here? They're going to burn in hell. Literally. An eternal fight is on our hands people. We've got a fight on our hands.

[46:43] The souls to rescue. Lastly, may we be a people resting on God's promise, on God's keeping power. Verse 24. Now unto him that is able to keep you from falling and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy to the only wise God our Saviour.

[47:00] Be glory and majesty dominion and power both now and ever. Amen. Friends, the focus is Jesus. Jude closes with these words of praise, of glory to God, of joy.

[47:16] I pray you've not felt burdened down here but lifted up. Hopefully your eyes opened to some things maybe you've not thought about before and you might have different opinions to all of those things that I've talked about.

[47:31] Jude says it's needful. It's needful that I write unto you. It's needful that I tell you these things, people of God, beloved, beloved brothers and sisters.

[47:43] It's needful for me to warn you. There's false teachers everywhere. They're multiplied. On the internet it's like full of them. There's good and bad.

[47:54] You know, pick the bones out of them. Even the worst of them can have some scripture they'll tell you. Even the chosen might have some little bits of the scriptures there that you might get some encouragement from.

[48:07] I'm not knocking that entirely but I'm saying there's counterfeit Jesuses out there. There's false prophets. There's false Christ. There's false gospels.

[48:19] But unto him that he's able to keep you from falling. Unto him be glory. That's the focus we have. God helping us as a church that'll be to his praise and his glory and adoration unto him.

[48:31] The wars all around us. I've heard of a Christian school lately where one of our young men is standing up for the gospel. He's standing up for what's right. Against what's wrong. You know, he's outnumbered.

[48:43] 99 to 1. The fight is on. The fight is on, people. It's happening to you and me, to our children, to our families. I think of my own children, what they're into.

[48:58] I think, God help us. We've got to be forthright enough to tell them the truth even though they don't want to hear it. Lovingly tell them, of course, but that they might see the truth.

[49:10] It matters more than ever. Let us give him all our praise and all our adoration and be a contender, not a false pretender. Don't be a pretender.

[49:21] Be a contender for the faith. Let's pray. Lord, we love you and thank you for your precious word. Pray, Lord, help us to discern what is right and wrong, to exercise judgment rightly.

[49:34] Help us to have a godly faith to be built up on that, that most holy faith, the faith of the word of God, the faith in you as our saviour and Lord, the faith that saves us for eternity from hell and sin, the faith that gives us new life and eternal salvation as we trust you as Lord and Master.

[49:55] Lord, help each one to have that heart's trust today and to walk in that truth that we're being contentious, not in a bad contention, but a good contention, that we'll care enough about the truth to tell it, to stand for it, and to uphold it, to share it that others might receive it, we pray.

[50:14] Help us to be such a people all to your praise in your precious name we ask. Amen.