BEING REMINDED
#597.1 BEING REMINDED
Scripture Jude 1-6, NIV Orig. 2/7/1973
Rewr. 8/30/1988
Passage: 1 Jude, a servant of Jesus Christ and a brother of James, To those who have been called, who are loved in God the Father and kept for[a] Jesus Christ: 2 Mercy, peace and love be yours in abundance.
The Sin and Doom of Ungodly People
3 Dear friends, although I was very eager to write to you about the salvation we share, I felt compelled to write and urge you to contend for the faith that was once for all entrusted to God’s holy people. 4 For certain individuals whose condemnation was written about[b] long ago have secretly slipped in among you. They are ungodly people, who pervert the grace of our God into a license for immorality and deny Jesus Christ our only Sovereign and Lord.
5 Though you already know all this, I want to remind you that the Lord[c] at one time delivered his people out of Egypt, but later destroyed those who did not believe. 6 And the angels who did not keep their positions of authority but abandoned their proper dwelling—these he has kept in darkness, bound with everlasting chains for judgment on the great Day.
Purpose: Leading a study from the Book of Jude, here seeking to open the minds of the people to draw from its rich legacy in our day also.
Keywords: Bible Study New Testament Characters, Jude
Timeline/Series: Jude
Introduction
A concluding quote last week gives us our beginning this week. From Tomorrow is Forever1, the disfigured father urging own son to enter WWII saying, “Every man opposes the evil in his own time, or else he accepts it.”
As Jude is calling his people to consider the evils in their midst and to oppose them, so also must we. Evils are tributary to our own times. Regrettably, these evils have their source in people who number themselves among the elect. Are we to do nothing? Or, are we to uphold our obligation to truth, regardless of opposition?
John Quincy Adams reminds us of the price of freedom. He said:
Posterity—“You will never know how much it has cost my generation to preserve your freedom. I hope you will make good use of it,”
Thomas Payne of the same era added another such word.
“What we obtain too cheaply, we esteem too lightly; it is dearness only that gives everything its value. Heaven knows how to put a price upon its goods, and it would be strange indeed if so celestial an article as freedom should not be highly rated.”2
If freedom is “so celestial an article,” truth both exceeds and succeeds its grandeur. And if we can lose the one by our indifference, we can surely lose the OTHER by our condescension.
I. We Were Told All We Need to Know about Author and Recipients. V1, “Jude, the servant of Jesus . . . , and brother of James, to those . . . called, . . . loved, . . . and kept.”
Jude, who with James were indeed brothers of Jesus. Several verses attest.
· I Corinthians 9:5 NIV, “Don't we have the right to take a believing wife along with us, as do the other apostles and the Lord's brothers and Cephas?”
· Matthew 13:55, “Isn’t this the carpenter’s son? Isn’t his mother’s name Mary, and aren’t his brothers James, Joseph, Simon and Judas?”
· Mark 6:3, “Isn’t this the carpenter? Isn’t this Mary’s son and the brother of James, Joseph,[a] Judas and Simon? Aren’t his sisters here with us?” And they took offense at him.
· Galatians 1:19, “I saw none of the other apostles—only James, the Lord’s brother.”
He is writing to people who are themselves believers. People, therefore, who ought to be concerned about spiritual things. People who ought to remember that they were saved from sin, and from hell. And he reminds them of their appropriate relationship to Jesus: Who could attest it better than a real brother? Who could staunch our own prideful acknowledgement of who we are? Jude, as others of these writers, speaks of himself as a slave. How do you speak of yourself?
We learn also a measure of the attitude of this spokesman for Jesus. V2, “May mercy, peace, and love be multiplied unto you.” It is a prayer for them to receive. Mercy—he wants what is best—there is no axe to grind—only to call people to higher commitment; Peace—he knows that there can be no real peace until mercy has done its good, and they must remember that their warfare is not with each other, but with their enemy, Satan: too much infighting, too much denominational isolation; Love—everything that issues forth from the believing community is to be saturated in love: ministry, mechanisms of growth, administrative detail, discipline.
Then, the real spirit of the man is given: v3, “My intention was to write you about the faith we share. Instead, I must exhort you to live your true faith.”
II. We Must Be Reminded about What We Already Know. V5, “I will therefore put you in remembrance.”
They have been reminded of the danger. It is human in scope. Regrettably, they have found their way into the church. Lady Macbeth coached her husband in his treachery to Duncan. She said, “To beguile the time, Look like the time — bear welcome in your eye, your hand, your tongue. Look like the innocent flower, But be the serpent under't.” (I.v.62-65)
The problem is that the enemy has intruded. People whose first allegiance is to other than Christ and His kingdom: Not to destroy the church; not to prevent believers sharing with others about Jesus; not to make blatant changes that are easily recognized; but, by degree, to change the focus of attention.
As insidious as humanism is, we are all still very, very human. The problem today is to make our churches more people-centered and less God-centered. If this looks bad in the local church, how about the seminary.
The essence of the age is originality. Yes, it is true, the forms must continue to change. September National Geographic anniversary issue tells of the struggle with change. But the message must not change. We have but one. It of our sin, and lostness. It is of Christ’s intrusion. It is of hope and eternal life.
The person who speaks for the church must speak what Christ spoke. To deny the word is blasphemy. To live in other focus is hypocrisy.
III. Finally, We Will Look Briefly at Examples of Such Deception. There were people delivered from Egypt whose unbelief destroyed them. The story is that of Israel delivered from Egypt, at the border of the promised land, but faithless to go forward after the ten spies make their report. Forty years later people of faith and vision were led into the land. We may teach our children all we know, see them baptized in water, but if not in the Holy Spirit is only adding fertilizer to the seedbed of apostasy.
He gives us the illustration of “angels” who forgot the province of authority. The occasion is from Genesis 6:1-4. Angels, like people, can get out of line, and sin. What our age hates the very most is to be accused of sinning. Most of you were guilty of sin before you got out of your house this a.m.
Let me give you a brief, three-part report on what the Israelites and angels die. First, they magnified the enemy. Hebrews said (Numbers 13:26-14:29) “We are not able, . . . for they are stronger than we.” How often that is our cherished line. They memorialized themselves. They pretended to be overwhelmed by this enemy (grasshoppers, Numbers 13:33). They were seeking not more of God, but more of what they were hungry for. They minimized God. In fact, they accused God of betrayal. Numbers 14:3, “. . . the Lord brought us into this land to fall by the sword.” How many of us believe that God means us harm? He means mercy, and peace, and love, but we must mean to be in His will for it to work.
Conclusion
Let’s close by reviewing what Paul wrote to the Corinthians about dependence on forms of religion. I Corinthians 7:19, “Circumcision is nothing and uncircumcision is nothing. Keeping God’s commands is what counts.”
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1 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tomorrow_Is_Forever
2 DeMoss, N.L. (Ed.) (1986). The Rebirth of America. Arthur DeMoss Foundation.