The Church of Eleven22 - Wk 1: Kept for Christ

Episode Date: November 20, 2022

The enemy’s goal is to suppress the truth that God loves you because if you believe and receive that he does, it changes everything.

Amen, amen. Amen. Good morning, church. It's good to see you. I'm Pastor Ryan Britt. I'm thankful to be here to open God's word and teach it to us today. We're going to be studying the book of Jude,

which is in the New Testament. So grab your Bible and go ahead and start finding your way there. It's toward the end. It's right before the book of Revelation. It's really short, so it might take you a minute to land on it. As you've heard many times today,

we are off to the races in what's called the 10-10 life, where we have began a two-year discipleship journey that we're going to be walking on together as a church. Over the last five weeks, Pastor Jobi walked us through what the 10-10 life is and what it means to step into the abundant life that can only be found in and through Jesus and challenged our church to take significant steps of faith in following Jesus as a part of this church.

And last week, we had commitment weekend where we filled out our financial commitment cards and we offered those and brought those to the Lord saying, Lord, I'm going to trust you with something that seemingly is very important in my life, knowing that in your hands, it can do more than just left in my own hands. And so we made those commitments last weekend. And so we are starting to take significant steps in the 10-10 life journey.

Over the next couple of weeks, people are going to continue to make commitments. If you missed the chance last week to do that, we would invite you to do it. You can do it by texting online or by grabbing a commitment card at any of our campuses. The first weekend in December, Pastor Jobi, we'll know where we are as a church

and what those commitments look like and Pastor Jobi will be walking us through a new teaching series in December and we're going to celebrate where God has us in the 10-10 life. And that first weekend in December, we're going to take a significant step as a church through financial giving.

And when we bring our first step in the commitment we've made through the 10-10 life, and so you can mark your calendars, know what it looks like over the next couple of weeks as we step into the next couple of years. And so for the next two weeks, as we launch out in the next two years, we're going to be studying the Book of Jude.

The Book of Jude, I've always been fascinated with the Book of Jude, and as a resource to the next two weeks teaching study, we created a 40-day devotional through the Book of Jude. I wrote this actually two years ago. I wrote this, and wasn't exactly sure how it was going to be used, but I sat down and did a 40-day devote through the Book of Jude, and if you're familiar with the Book of Jude, you realize that the Book of Jude only has 25 verses.

And so you may think, who for fun, writes a 40-day devotional through only 25 verses. Well, two thumbs, this guy does. And so I did it, and so I'm excited to share it with our church. I hope it blesses you. You can pick one up in the lobby or you can get one online. For the next 40 days through the Advent season, we're going to be doing this day by day together as a church.

And so if you start this week with us, it pretty much runs us all the way to Christmas and studying God's word through the book of Jude. And so we're excited about that. Jude, go ahead and get the, let's dive in to verse. 1. Jude, verse 1, Jude doesn't have chapters, just verses. So we're going to pick up in verse one. It says this, Jude, a servant of Jesus Christ and brother of James, to those who are called beloved and God the Father and kept for Jesus Christ. Jude is the author of this book. Jude

identifies himself as the brother of James, who is the brother of Jesus Christ of Nazareth. And so Jude is Jesus' brother, and he's humbly identifying himself that way. Jude is in the family of Jesus, the brothers who thought Jesus was crazy. At one point in the scripture, it says that they were trying to seize him or to stop his ministry. And so how does one go from being a brother of Jesus, not believing or being on team Jesus is the Messiah, to trying to stop Jesus and cease his ministry and keep him from doing it to being one of the fathers of the church?

How does that transformation happen? Well, simply this. Jude saw his brother Jesus brutally murdered on a Roman cross. And then he saw him buried in a tomb. And then a few short days later, he saw who was dead into tomb come out alive. When you see a dead man go into a tomb and you see him come out alive, it changes things. It changes things. The resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead is the most significant apologetic in the world. Jude was radically transformed, as was James by the resurrection of his brother from the dead. And he becomes a church leader, a church father. and from that place he authors this letter.

So Jude is Jesus' brother. Who's he writing to? Well, he's writing to the church, believers in Jesus. Specifically, he's writing to his church, which is the church of in Jerusalem. People who have chosen to follow the way of Jesus living in first century Jewish culture under Roman oppression. He's writing this letter to them, to the church in Jerusalem. But it certainly speaks to all of us throughout history and absolutely.

to us today. He identifies who he's writing to by reminding us the church who we are. He says to those who are called, beloved and God the Father and kept for Jesus Christ. You're called as the follower of Jesus. We're called to do things. That's much of what the 1010 life has been about over the last five weeks is that we're called to be obedient and trust Jesus and do things. We're called to live lives faithfully and holy unto God. We're called to walk worthy of the calling in which we've received. We're called to love our neighbors as ourself. We're called to go first, but ultimately all the calling, the to-do that God has given his church finds its purpose and meaning in Matthew chapter 28. In Matthew chapter 28, Jesus gives the church the great commission

and he says, all authority on heaven and earth has been given to me. And so now go make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey all that I have commanded, and lo, I will be with you even until the end of the age. That every effort of the church throughout history from its inception has been to make disciples that make disciples of Jesus. This is more than just being kind and moral in culture, which that's a part of it,

but it's about intentionally purposing your life on teaching others to follow in the way of Jesus. And Judah is saying, you are called to do, to make disciples. But where does the do, doing come from? What compels the doing for the believer in Jesus? Well, who we're, in order for us to understand what we are called to do, we first have to rightly understand who we are called to be. That the doing comes from the being, and that's why Jude writes these words, you're called by God and you are beloved in God the Father. Did you know that your highest call,

in life is to be loved by God? It's to be loved by him. He loves you. He loves you. We are beloved in God, the Father. He never gets distracted. He never takes his eyes off of us. He doesn't get fed up with his children.

God's love is set on us through Jesus Christ. We are His beloved. My wife and I, we made offspring. We have children. And my girls, one of them does team swim and the other one does team gymnastics. And so that means that cumulatively, my wife and I spend about 900 hours a week somewhere between the gym and the pool and the car. That's just the stage of life we're in. I'm not bitter.

I'm just telling you all that's what's going on. And so one day I am at the gym with my youngest and she's in there for hours and hours multiple days a week. It's really great. and I'm sitting there, and it just so happens that my phone dies this day. And so my phone's dead in my pocket, and I'm just watching my daughter do gymnastics, and I noticed that about every two or three minutes, she would look over at me to see if I was watching her. And this happened once, and then a couple minutes later, it happened again, and then again, and she would just look for my eyes to see if my eyes were watching her.

And then I began to look around. and I began to watch other kids in the gym begin to, they would look around and they would look for their parents to see if their parents were watching, but almost every parent in the place was sitting there on their phone, looking down. Now, I say that with no judgment because for countless hours, God knows I have been sitting there doing the exact same thing.

But in this moment, I had that moment where I had a little bit of dad guilt where I thought, hmm, I wonder how many times my daughter's eyes have been looking for mine only to find them distracted. But then, God, in his kindness, he lifted my eyes up off myself, and he reminded me of the truth, which is he said this, Ryan, aren't you glad that I never get distracted?

Aren't you glad that every time you look at me that you will find that my eyes are set on you? I'm never distracted. I am not distracted by you. God loves you, church. We are His beloved. in our most unlovable moments when things could not be going worse, when we're only making decisions that we know we'll regret later,

he loves us. He loves us. God loves us when we are on the top of the mountain. When we say words out loud and we think, man, that sounded smart and we feel like we're crushing it, he loves us when we're battling apathy, anxiety, worry, complacency. When we're worried about tomorrow, we're regretting what happened yesterday. In all of those moments, he loves us.

You cannot stop God from loving you. you. He loves you. He loves you. And so Jude is reminding us who we are, that we are called, that we are beloved in God the Father, and that we take great confidence in God's love because we are kept for Jesus Christ. Jude reminds us that ultimately we are kept for Jesus Christ, meaning that all of God's efforts to love us and to save us and to secure us in his love, they ultimately aren't about us. They're about Jesus Christ. That's why Jude sets the tone with this reminder. The truth is that you and I, for those who have placed our faith in Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior, we have been sucked up into this cosmic love fest between God the Father

and God the Son and the eternal seal of deliverance has been set on us by the Spirit of God and He will never let us go. We are kept for Jesus Christ. It is for Him and for His glory. Jude is a letter about the need for spiritual maturity of the believer. All of spiritual growth, all of spiritual growth, all discovering and all deepening, is the journey of us letting Jesus love us into loving him with all we got. Receiving and believing that God loves you is your highest call in life. Jude continues in verse 2 and he says, may mercy, peace, and love be multiplied to you.

aren't you glad that we serve a God who doesn't skimp? Who doesn't do mercy just a little bit? Who doesn't do just a little bit of peace or just a little bit of love? But he has multiplied it to us, that he is a lavish God. He has lavished his love on us through Jesus Christ. Last week, Pastor Jobi said that in order to understand the gospel, it starts with understanding that you have need. And ultimately, what we need is God's mercy.

We need God's mercy. We are in a needy position. and we need him to be merciful toward us. And through the gospel of Jesus Christ, we see that he is infinitely merciful to us. That he has infinitely been merciful toward sinners and adopted them as family. Jude said, may mercy, may peace.

The word peace finds its roots in the Hebrew word shalom, which is the idea of universal flourishing. It's the abundant life. It's God's heart for his kids, that he's a good dad, and he wants good things for his kids, that he wants them to overflow. in their life. He wants them to have an overflowing cup that their life would be fuller than full.

May mercy and peace and love. God's unconditional desire and his unconditional ability to provide both a purpose for your life and be the purpose for which you live your life. And in that, we have joy. That is God's unconditional love toward us as through Jesus. And so Jude starts with reminding us of the gospel. reminding us who we are because of what God has done on our behalf through Jesus Christ. And what Jude is saying is, he's saying, before I go on, of which Jude is packed, and you better buckle up because we're about to really get into it. He's saying, before we dive into the rest, it's important church that you remember that every

day I want your mind to be blown by the reality of what God has done for you. That your mind would be blown by the reality of how good God has been toward. you. Jude continues in verse three and four and he says this, beloved. There's that word. You don't want to hang on to that one. Beloved, although I was eager to write to you about our common salvation, I found it necessary to write appealing to you to contend for the faith. You want to underline that. To contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints. For certain people have crept in unnoticed who long ago were designated for this. condemnation, ungodly people who pervert the grace of God into sensuality and deny our only

master and Lord Jesus Christ. Jude is calling the church to contend for the faith. Contend is an athletic word. It means to strive or to strain for the faith. It means to put effort into your faith and on behalf of your faith in the world. To contend, to strive, to strain, to excel in the faith. And as believers in Jesus, we contend for the faith in many different ways. We contend on a macro-global scale against false religions. We contend against ideologies that are counter to Christ in his kingdom. We contend against oppressive systems that are at work in this world. We contend for the faith on a macro level and on a micro-level, even in our own minds and in our own homes. The call to contend is for every believer. And this is not new. The call of the church. The call of the

is and has always been to be a city on a hill, to be a light in a dark world, to be a chosen people who were set apart as a holy priesthood consecrated unto God. That is the call of the church. While there's lots of ways that we contend, Jude is talking about a very specific type of contending. He is instructing people that he knows some by name to contend for the faith against false teachers in the church. That's why Jude writes his letters. It's the call to contend against false teachers in the church. The heresy of Jude's day was known as Antinomianism.

It's a mouthful. And ultimately, what Antinomianism taught was that the Old Covenant or the Old Testament of the law was useless and that it's all grace now, baby, so do whatever you want. That's what Antinomianism taught. And the real Paul, the Apostle Paul battles, this, Peter writes extensively about this and Jude is contending against the same heresy. Ultimately, ultimately what this teaching does is that it cheapens the grace of God.

It makes grace really, really, really cheap. It says, don't worry about the law, don't worry about the instruction, don't worry about the old covenant, and all those things that Jesus came to fulfill. Don't worry about any of that. You do whatever you want and it makes you happy and you can do it in the name of God and be just fine. And it cheapens the grace of God. It's very distorted and it's very, very, very.

very deceptive. The truth about the real grace that comes from the heart of God for his children is that there's nothing cheap about it. Now grace is a free gift to me and to you by faith. We are saved by grace through faith, which is a gift. But grace was very, very expensive on the part of Christ. It cost him significantly in order for us to be children of grace. Paul says, you would ask, shall we go on sinning so that grace may abound? Paul says, by no, no. means, absolutely not. How can I go on sinning? I am dead to sin. How can I live any longer in it? Jude says that these teachers have crept in unnoticed. There was no social media back then. These false teachers had infiltrated this congregation and they had started to distort the truth

of the scriptures and the teachings of Jesus so that they could justify their own behaviors, though those behaviors are not in line with the scriptures. The bottom line is this. These men wanted to have sex with whoever they wanted to, and they wanted to make and spend money however they wanted to, regardless of what God had made clearly known, and they were trying to do it inside the church. And Jude wasn't having it. It wasn't just Christians gone wild. That's more like Corinthians. It wasn't just Christians gone wild.

These folks were trying to manipulate and deceive others and lead them astray into dangerous patterns of living. Jude calls this perverting God's grace into sensuality. The Bible says, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God and the Old and the New Testament alike give testimony to the reality that sin is not a problem, sin is the problem, and sin loves company. And these teachers were justifying sin in the name of God inside the church, and Jude was not having any of it. Now, whether it be ancient heresies like Antinomianism or Gnosticism or more recent things like moral therapeutic deism or open theism or the poverty

gospel or the prosperity gospel or Christian nationalism, whatever the distortion of truth may be, we know that the enemy only comes to steal, to kill, and to destroy. And these heresies and these false teachings are some of the most significant ways in which the enemy is stealing purpose, killing joy, and destroying lives inside the church. Inside the church is false teaching. Jude says this, he says that he's reminding us that Jesus, our master and Lord, as he says, is first. That he is first, that Jesus is our authority. And because he is the life giver, he is the sin forgiver, he is the king of all kings, we joyfully trust him, and he is the first and last word on anything. And we submit ourselves unto his lordship in all things. That's what it means to be

a follower of Jesus. And so anywhere we would internally or externally let things define us, or be the final word over our life. We are on a very slippery, slippery slope. And Jude is saying that in so doing, we are trading beauty for ashes and it leads nowhere good. Now, I would offer us a pastoral encouragement this morning, which is this.

May we never settle for a cheap knockoff version of Jesus' church. May we never settle for some cheap imitation. The real Jesus is just too good. To settle for some sticky, knock off Jesus, this bumper sticker Jesus, who wants to be your co-pilot or your homeboy? The King of Kings is way better than your homeboy. He's just better. May we never settle for some cheap Jesus.

C.S. Lewis once wrote these words. He said that true greatness is revealed not in someone being an extremity, but by simultaneously being two extremities at the same time and filling up all the space in between. What he's saying is that it's cool to be humble, but it's better to be humbly confident. He's saying it's cool to be self-aware, but it's better to be self-aware to the point that you can be self-forgetful. Jesus is true greatness, two extremities at the same time and fills up all the space in between. He is the author and the finisher. He is the beginning and the end.

He is the alpha and the omega. He is holy and humble. He is enthroned on high and he has come near. He is the same yesterday, today, and forever. Jesus is truly great. He is truly great. Don't settle for a cheap Jesus. I don't know how long you've been hanging around 1122,

whether you've been here a minute or you've been here for 10 years. Welcome. I'm not the normal preacher. And so if you have been for a minute, come back. It only gets better. And, but if, but I did want to take a minute just to remind us what we're doing here, what our primary goal is here. Here at the Church of 1122, what we're trying to do here week in and week out is that we are trying to exalt Jesus Christ of Nazareth as high as we possibly can. That's what we're doing here. We're not in the self-help business. We're in the

Jesus Christ is king business. And we are trying to declare he is worthy and of infinite glory forever and as highly and as rightly as we can, week in and week out. Because we know this. Jesus says that if you exalt me, church, that I will draw men and women unto myself. And as we exalt Christ with all of our energy and efforts, we know that he draws us in closer and closer and closer. Jude is saying to his friends to the church, he's saying, danger, danger. There have been some teachers who have crept in unnoticed,

and they are peddling a false gospel, and it is very dangerous. I mean, what if every time you were driving in your car down the road and you went to text while driving, your car began to sound the alarm, right? Not that you would ever text and drive, you have much more integrity than that. I'm just saying, if it were to happen,

if you were driving down the road and you pick your phone up while the other hand's on the steering wheel and you're trying to one thumb a text, all of a sudden your phone was like, uh, did you know that 3,000 accidents happened last year to texting and driving? that 300 people died last year from texting and driving, you'd probably put your phone down.

Right? You'd be like, all right. Now, what if the alarm began to give you specific details? Like with names and stories and addresses and dates and collateral that happened from these type of accidents? If it got that specific, you'd think twice about it. That's what Jude's about to do to his friends. Versus 5 through 15, we're about to dig in here.

10 verses. Jude says this. Danger, dang. He says, I want to remind you, although you once fully knew it, that Jesus who saved a people out of the land of Egypt. Hold on. Let's just look it again. That Jesus who saved a people out of the land of Egypt. Not Moses.

Jesus. Jesus. You can do a whole word study on the word Lord. and when it's capital L, it's talking about God the Son who is Jesus, and he is Jehovah who saved a people out of Egypt. That's who he is. It says Jesus, who saved the people out of the land of Egypt afterward destroyed those who did not believe in the angels who did not stay within their own position of authority,

but left their proper dwelling. He had kept in eternal chains under gloomy darkness until the judgment of the great day. Just as Sodom and Gamora in the surrounding series, which likewise indulged in sexual immorality and pursued unnatural desire serve as an example by undergoing punishment of eternal fire. 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 know, all that they do not understand. and they were destroyed by all that they, like unreasoning animals, understand instinctively 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 Cora's rebellion. These are hidden reefs at your love feast, as they feast 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 sea, casting up the foam of their, their own shame, their wandering stars for whom the gloom of utter darkness has been reserved forever. It was also about these that Enoch, the seventh from Adam prophesied saying, behold, the Lord comes with 10,000 of his holy ones to execute judgment on all the ungodly, of all

their deeds of ungodliness that they have committed in such an ungodly way and all of the harsh things that ungodly sinners have spoken against him. you think Jude had any friends? That's serious. Those are very serious words. Very serious. Jude, just in the last two verses, Jude says, ungodly, ungodliness, ungodly way, ungodly sinners.

What's he pointing at? God is not in to when people distort his truth and leave his children away from him. He's not a fan. He's not a fan. I just want to be careful before I unpack those 10 verses. And I just want to remind us that Jude is not confronting people who are not professing Christians.

He's not talking even to Christians who are struggling through life in the faith. He is specifically calling out false teachers, apostates, heretics in the church, and this is very, very serious business. He is a pastor that is trying to protect his flock, not stand in judgment over them. Jude gives six Old Testament examples,

and he's writing to a first century Jewish audience. And these examples, when he says them, they know what he's talking about. It would be like me saying to you, the Revolutionary War, when Jude says Cora's rebellion, they get what he's talking about. They understand the history. He uses three examples in Israel's history when they rebelled against God, and that rebellion was met with divine justice. The first is he talks about Israel's rebellion in the wilderness after the exodus from Egypt.

This is Numbers 14. And then he talks about the rebellious angels in Genesis' chapter. And he also mentions a quote from the book of Enoch, which Enoch has given testimony in the Genesis' account. And he writes in his, in the oral history and in the written history, a very respected Jewish writing, the book of Enoch. He writes about the same thing that we read about in Genesis chapter six when the angels step outside of God's way and God's order. And then in verse three, probably the most familiar with the church today is Sodom and Gamara that Jude references. And this is Genesis chapter 19. What Jude is beginning to point at is this, that truth has a memory.

Truth has history. There is not new truth. There is just the truth, as given through the law and the prophets and fulfilled and revealed through Jesus Christ and given witness to by the apostles. The Bible is the standard of truth. It is all of God's heart, all of God's command, all of God's destruction, all of God's redemptive and divine. plan is revealed in the Holy Scriptures. That this is the standard of truth in this world. There is no new truth.

There is just the truth as revealed and fulfilled through Jesus Christ, the Bible. Now, all three of the examples that Jude gave are what happened when deceptive ideas about money and sex begin to creep into a people, and they begin to redefine what is true according to God. Jude takes it to another level. In the next three, he doesn't just talk about the rebellions. talks about the people who lead people into these types of actions. And he talks about three things. He says, one, he says that these teachers are walking in the way of Kane. Now, we studied the

story of Kane just a few weeks ago. This is Genesis chapter 4. Kane is ultimately stingy toward God. Things do not go his way. And he murders his brother in anger. And then he starts a city where violence and terror reign. It's a tough, tough deal. He walked in the way of Kane. And then he talks about Bailen's error. This is Numbers chapter 22 through 25. And this testimony involves a talking donkey. I only bring it up because the donkey really doesn't have that much to do with the story. I just think donkey is like my favorite word in the English language. I love the word donkey. Like I don't know what your non-cust word is, but mine's donkey. And so like when you stump your toe and you're like, oh, sassafras, you know, which if you say sassafras, you should probably rethinking things about your life. But when I do it, I say donkey or when I'm driving on the road

and people are driving like obviously they have no friends and they need to be reminded, I tell them, get out of the way, donkey, right? My kids think it's funny. They actually bought me a driver head cover that is a donkey for my driver golf club. And do you know why? Because my driver regularly acts like a donkey. And so it's fitting. And so it's fitting. So Israel's rebellion in the wilderness. He walked in the way of Cain, Balaam's error. Ultimately what Balaam did is he was a false prophet

and he led Israel into prostitution and pain. And then he mentions Cora's rebellion. This is Numbers chapter 16. This is Cora led a rebellion against Moses that ended in 15,000 dead. Truth has a memory. It has history. What Jude is saying to this church

and to our church and to every church is, church don't go for the cheap wine. Don't go for the cheap wine. Do not lower the standard. Don't compromise God's standard for living for a dollar or for some momentary feelings of pleasure. Do not lower the standard. He loves you too much. There is not a thing this world can offer you that God cannot infinitely supply in greater measure. In greater measure. Everything God offers is better. Jude saying don't go for the cheap wine. the metal meets the meat in pretty much every AD culture historically in regards to who is Lord pretty much around two things, which is sex and money.

This is not new. It has been going on a very, very long time. In verse 9, it's an interesting thing Jude writes about. He says this, 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. This is the only place in Scripture where this divine contest between Michael and the devil shows up. And it's highly debated. I have no debate or apprehension around it because it's in the Bible.

And I believe every word. I love to smell the leather. I believe it. And so it's in the Bible. And so what's happening here is that Michael's an archangel, and he is contending against the devil. But what's important about this is what Mike is. Michael does, more importantly, what he says. Michael contending with the devil himself, he doesn't say, here are my opinions.

He doesn't offer his life experiences as a compass of morality. What he says is the Lord rebuke you. He stands on the authority of the name of the Lord God. The name of the Lord God Church is a strong tower. He is mighty in battle. The church of Jesus Christ will not fall to the gates of hell. we will prevail on his authority as revealed through his word. And we take great confidence in the name of our God,

and God will always defend his name. We stand, we do not stand as a church on the plans of man. We stand on the name of our Lord God. Amen. And because of his authority, we can contend well. Jude is trying to help his friends here contend for the faith. And anybody knows that if you want to help someone, then what you need to do is to give them a checklist.

I feel that all the time. Every time my wife gives me a checklist, I think, she's so helpful. It's just, I mean, where would I be without her? You know? That checklist just reminds me. Jude gives us a checklist. And what he's about to do is to say,

these are the type people you need to watch out for. These are the type teachers, specifically, that you need to watch out for. There's some character flaws down in there that will come out of your mouth. And if they're claiming to have a right on truth and these things are coming out of their mouth, you need to be very, very careful and tread very, very lightly. He's pointing at some primary postures or some themes over time, true motives that come out of

people's mouth. He says this in verse 16, that these teachers, these people are grumblers, their malcontents, they follow their own sinful desires, they are loudmouth boasters, showing favoritism to gain advantage. Quickly. grumblers. Grumbling is that low rumble of discontent that spills out the mouth. It is complaining pointed at people who aren't around to defend themselves. We should, as believers, be weary of anyone that's trying to build anything in Jesus' name at the expense of someone else. God will

not bless it. Whether it be a personal platform, an organization, or just somebody trying to get attention at dinner, we should always be cautious of grumbling inside the church. He says they're malcontents. These are people who teach, lead, try to influence others from a posture of do more, try harder. They manipulate through shame and guilt, and they do so. They don't point to the satisfaction that is found in Jesus. They point you inward, telling you that you can make you happy, but you can't. Only Jesus can fully and finally satisfy souls.

He's the only one who can do it. And they would point you inward or even worse, they would point you toward themselves as the answer that you're looking for. They're malcontents. They follow their own sinful desires. They make excuses for their behaviors that do not line up with the scriptures, and they do so because they think they have some position of authority. This is dangerous. It's deadly. They follow their own sinful desires. They may claim to have a new revelation or a new truth different than what the scripture teaches. even the most mature believers should take serious anything we say when speaking on behalf of God. He says they're loud mouth boasters.

They're people who are really into them and they need you to be into them too. We should avoid those type of people anyway, but we surely should not give our ear to someone who's just trying to make everything about them. We should not go to them for truth. And then finally, he says, showing favoritism to gain advantage.

There is a big difference. As a believer, as a pastor, as a teacher, there is a big difference in wanting from people and wanting for people. Jude wants for his people to live the abundant life as offered by Jesus, to not be led astray. He continues in verse 17. He says this, but you must remember, what's that word? Beloved, there it is again. All the spiritual growth is believing and receiving. that Jesus loves you and letting that define everything about you.

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 calls divisions, worldly people devoid of the spirit. You don't have to go very far to realize how many divisions there are in the world, even among Christians. The call to contend is the call to be unified. in the church around sound doctrine rooted in Jesus's claims and teachings. It is the call for you and for me to be committed to grow, to never stop discovering and to

never stop deepening our relationship with Jesus Christ through His Word and through His Church. I'll close this part of the sermon or this part of Jude with four reminders. I offer us four reminders as a church today. as we seek to contend well, to strive, to grow, to mature in faith, to contend for the beautiful faith that has been given to us. Here are four reminders in how to do that well. Number one, remember the gospel. Remember the gospel. We never graduate from the gospel church. We do not follow an idea. We do not subscribe to a religion. We follow a man who claimed to be God, and then proved it when he rose from the dead and he is coming back again.

If it is not centered on Jesus Christ of Nazareth as the Lord of all, heaven and earth, head and heart, then it is not biblical Christianity. If you want your mind blown by God, just think about the gospel everyday church. It is simply mind-numbing. It is the most powerful and radically life-changing force at work in the world. The apostle Paul says, I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God. unto salvation for all who hear and believe. The gospel has the power to save anybody from anything at any time.

It is the power that can break any chain off any life for however long many generations has been there. It can break anything in Jesus' name. One drop of Jesus' blood has the power to set anybody free. One drop. Remember the gospel. The mercy, the love, the peace that's been multiplied to us through the gospel.

Remember the gospel. Number two, resist the love. lie. The original lie in the Garden of Eden when the serpent crept in and tempted Eve away from God's rule and reign and provision and protection in her life. He asks simply a question. He just said, did God actually say? Resist the lie. Deceptive ideas lead to disordered desires that turn to normalized behaviors. The word of God has been under fire since the Garden of Eden, if not before, the enemy only comes to steal, to kill, and to destroy, and he primarily does it through truth suppression. He does not want you to believe and receive the fact that God loves you.

He does not want you and me to be defined by the reality that God loves us so much that he sent his son to live our lives for us and to hold up his standard in every way and to go to our cross and to die our death and our place instead of us so that we could forever be adopted as his children into his family and we would be holy and totally accepted with a seat at the table as sons of the Most High King. He doesn't want you to believe that. He wants you to chase your tail around. He wants me to chase my tail around believing half truths or given into cultural pressures that would rob me of the joy that his minds is a son or a daughter of the Most High King. Resist the lie. Number three, reject false teaching. We should always beware of wolves

as the Bible calls them inside and outside the church. Be careful who you give your ear to in regards to what you consider to be truth. What the Bible teaches this truth, regardless of what you consider to be truth, what the Bible teaches to be truth. This could be on TV, this could be on radio, this could be social media.

There are a lot of wolves out there that are praying on the church. Here's four questions that you should ask when you are giving your ear to someone who's seemingly teaching on, the authority of God. Number one is do they teach the Bible faithfully as authoritative? Do they teach the Bible faithfully as authoritative? Or do they teach it with scissors and just cut out the parts that they don't like so that you'll like them? None of us want to be under a pastor whose primary

is concerned is our opinion of them. We want pastors whose primary concern is exalting Christ through the scriptures. That's what we want. Do they teach the Bible faithfully as authoritative? Second is do they teach faith in Jesus as the only way to be saved from sin and to be in right relationship with God. Many, many, many, many men and women throughout church history have died preserving the reality of it is by faith alone and Christ alone as given through grace alone that we are saved. Do they teach faith in Jesus as the only way to be saved from sin and be in right relationship with God? Question three, do they spend more time talking about you, about themselves, or pointing you to Jesus? If they aren't constantly doing laps around the cross of Jesus Christ

and the empty tomb, then we should be weary. And the fourth question is this. Do they ever preach the repentance of sin? This is Jesus' primary message. He said, repent for the kingdom of God is at hand. I came so that sinners could repent. And this leads me to my fourth reminder. Repent regularly.

Remember the gospel. Resist the lie. reject false teaching and repent regularly. As believers in Jesus, we need to regularly take inventory of our lives, of our thoughts, of our patterns of behavior, to see where we might be living with our feelings as Lord, or where we might be defined by things that are not ultimately the truth of Jesus Christ. And then we realign with our king through His scriptures.

The gift of the Spirit of God to the church reminds us and leads us into repentance. Romans chapter 2, first four, says it is God's kindness that leads us to repentance. That it is his kindness toward us that would woo us in to right relationship with him. And so we repent regularly. The patriarch of the Protestant Reformation, Martin Luther, he said this. He said, when our Lord and Master Jesus Christ said repent, he intended that the entire life of believers should be repentance. So as we close our time today, I would remind us of the last five. minutes of our services here at 1122. It's the most important five minutes of anything we've done so

far. By design. Everything we've done for the last 70 or 75 minutes is leading to this five minutes. And it's specifically designed in order for us to respond to the truth of God, to the character of God, to the worth of God. The gospel demands a response. And so we respond by thinking about the words that we've wrestled with by taking inventory of our lives. We sing is one way we respond. We sing true things about God, knowing that if we can say true words about who God is through our mouth, that our mind and our heart surely will line up. And so we sing as we respond. And then we pray. At all of our campuses, we have opportunities and needlers where you can come and pray and you can put your body in the posture where you want your heart to be, which is surrendered unto the Lord.

And we're reminded as we're called to contend that the Apostle, that the Apostle, Apostle Paul says that we do not battle against flesh and blood, that our war is not against people, that we fight a spiritual battle against demonic forces, principalities of darkness that are at work against Christ in his kingdom and his world. And as the ambassadors of Christ, the way we make war is through prayer and intercession. That we pray on behalf of God's kingdom to come on this earth as it is in heaven. We pray. We think, we sing, we pray, we respond, and we bring our hearts.

our first and our best through ties and offerings as a symbol, a significant act of trust saying, Jesus, I trust you, even with something very valuable to me, knowing that what you can do with it is better than what I can do with it. I trust you. And so we respond to the gospel. So I would invite you to do just that. As Jude compels and calls us in the Spirit of God invites us to contend for this faith that we have been given. Maybe it's contending on a macro level and prayer. and the global movements of God. Maybe it's micro, it's in your own mind. There's some things that need to get right.

There's some re-centering on the truth of Jesus Christ that needs to happen. Maybe there's some patterns of behavior that you know are leading you away from God's best from your life and God's heart that beats in love for you. And now's the time to bring those things to the Lord and to do business with him.

So I would invite you to respond at all of our campuses. Would you stand and join me as I pray and we respond? Father, we love you. we are thankful for your faithfulness and your grace and the gift of yourself. But more than anything, Jesus, we're thankful for you. We're thankful for you. You are the abundant life. You are the true life.

You are the way, the truth, and the life. And we stake our lives on you. I pray for my friends. I pray that you would help us take the next five, six minutes to just center our minds and our hearts on you. You would remind us that we are your beloved. and that you would convict us in areas where we need to be convicted

and comfort us in areas where we need to be comforted. As we respond to you, Holy Spirit, we invite you to do only the work that you can do. I pray that the next five minutes of all the things that we do say, pray, sing, that Jesus, your heart would be blessed and that you would be glorified in it. We pray all these things in the power

of the only name that's worthy and it's the name of Jesus Christ. And all God's people said, amen, amen. Let's respond. month.