Sermon in Seattle 14.10.2012

So we'll read this entire book in Jesus' name.

Jude, the servant of Jesus Christ and the 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.

Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the communion of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you and exhort you that you should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints.

For there are certain men crept in unawares who were before of old ordained to this condemnation, ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness and denying the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ.

I will therefore put you in remembrance, though ye once knew this, how that the Lord, having saved the people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed them that believed not.

And the angels which kept not their first estate but left their own habitation, he hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day.

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.

Likewise also these filthy dreamers defile the flesh, despise dominion, and speak evil of dignities.

Yet Michael the archangel, when contending with the devil, he disputed about the body of Moses, durst not bring against him a railing accusation, but said, The Lord rebuke thee.

But these speak evil of those which they know not.

But what they know naturally as brute beasts, in those things they corrupt themselves.

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.

These are spots in your feasts of charity, when they feast with you, feeding themselves without fear, clouds they are without water, carried about of winds, trees whose fruit withereth without fruit, twice dead, plucked up by the roots, raging waves of the sea foaming out of their own shame, wandering stars to whom is reserved the blackness of darkness forever.

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.

All their own, and of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed, and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him.

These are murmurers, complainers, walking after their own lusts, and their mouths speak great swelling words, having men's persons in admiration because of advantage.

But, beloved, remember the words which were spoken before of the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ, they told you there should be mockers in the last time, who should walk after their own ungodly lusts.

These be they who separate themselves sensual, having not the spirit.

But ye, beloved, building up yourselves in your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost, keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life.

And of some, have compassion, making a difference; others, save with fear, pulling them out of the fire, hating even the garment spotted by the flesh.

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 Savior, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and ever. Amen.

Well, we did read the whole book of Jude. And perhaps in the beginning a little, perhaps a brief description of who Jude was and when this, what time frame this book was written.

No one knows for sure who Jude was. He certainly wrote this epistle, but it's widely thought that Jude actually was one of the brothers of Jesus.

We also know from the book that this man Jude spoke about the apostles. And therefore we can conclude that this particular Jude was not one of those apostles.

Although he was a believer, he was a child of God, he was not one of the twelve apostles.

We also know, and especially taking into consideration what this man Jude wrote about, that this book probably was very late as far as being a book of the Bible.

In other words, it was one of the last books written.

And by the nature of what was written, we also know that there, in and around the kingdom of God at that time, there were those already within the group of Christian type of people who were not believing correctly.

In fact, when we look at the words of Jude and how he described those who had become deceivers, his words actually are quite harsh.

It's not what you would describe as a soft letter or epistle that this man Jude wrote.

It was a very serious matter that Jude was writing about.

In fact, if you look in the Bible and find where this book of Jude is located, it's the last book of the entire Bible, except for the book of Revelation.

And in fact, it happened right about that time.

We don't know when it was written, but it was very late.

We know this also then, that those prophecies that had been made, some from the Old Testament and some earlier during the New Testament time, that there would be those in and around God's kingdom that arose speaking God.

And there were doctrines that were not correct.

And in fact, if we look at the life of Apostle Paul and the work that he was called into, particularly in areas where the people were not Jewish, but they were pagan type of people, Gentiles.

Paul had warned even them during his lifetime.

He said, From your own selves will arise much more.

Paul warned them to the point of tears.

And particularly those who lived in the city of Ephesus, where Paul had lived for some three years with those people.

He knew them well.

And the last time that he was able to meet with them, he brought that kind of a warning that this will happen.

And his advice is the same as Paul's.

His advice is the same advice that we would receive and do receive through God's word in God's kingdom about our own journey of faith.

That we would keep faith and a good conscience.

And that we know in our lives, in fact we know very closely, how often we fall into sin.

And I don't think there's an adult here or even a younger person that would say that we're not tempted.

We're tempted virtually every day.

We find our own weakness, our own stumbling.

Maybe it's at home with the family.

Maybe it's at work.

Or maybe it's at school.

I think you with me, many times we have to lament at how poor it seems that our journey has gone.

That's why in God's kingdom we have always received this kind of encouragement.

And that kind of encouragement may come from God.

It may come from mother and father at home.

It may come at services where we gather with God's people.

But we've had this kind of encouragement that we would keep that precious gift of living faith with a good conscience.

And how can such a thing be when we so often find ourselves faulty?

It's in believing that gospel which is preached from God's kingdom.

That same gospel that reassures the weakest and the poorest.

The most doubting.

That yes, dear one, all your sins are forgiven.

In Jesus' name and blood, that gospel.

And in believing that, then the conscience of a child of God can be preserved in what we would say is a good conscience.

It doesn't mean that we have any merit of our own because we don't.

But only through the merits of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, are we heaven acceptable.

And so as a child of God, we have endeavored by God's grace to keep that faith preserved with a good conscience.

What happened here in this description that Jude gave was a very serious situation.

Where those who, we can infer and gather from this, that they had been people who were actually in and around God's kingdom.

There's a certain man, for example, his name was Nicolaus.

And we don't know for sure, but there was a certain Nicolaus that was mentioned in the book of Acts that at that time was a believing man.

Well, if it's the same one mentioned in the book of Revelation, he lost living faith and was teaching those doctrines which were false.

And in fact, in that revelation to John, one of the things that was mentioned more than once to those seven congregations in Asia Minor was about these Nicolaitans.

Who, it says here for example, when he was speaking to this church in one of these seven churches, so has thou also them that hold the doctrine of the Nicolaitans, which thing I hate.

This is the Heavenly Father speaking through that angel.

There were those in and around God's kingdom who began to teach false doctrine.

And we also know that we can look at this book of Jude and we can say this is a historical account of what took place in that area and that time around Jerusalem and in the early church.

And certainly it is, it does give us a historical perspective that these things happened in God's kingdom.

Very early in the church, we could say within the very first few decades, or tens of years, already false doctrines begin to crop up.

But there's one thing that's very clear in the Bible, not only New Testament, Old Testament as well, and that is this, there's not multiple or many different doctrines in God's kingdom.

But that one doctrine, living doctrine, that is taught by the Holy Spirit, not by man's own reason.

And when man's own reason begins to teach and begins to dictate what a man believes, then one falls into error.

It's only when by and through the teaching of the Holy Spirit one can be heaven acceptable on this journey that leads all the way to heaven.

Man would have it this way, man's mind, that there are many paths that lead to the same end.

That's man's logic.

But we would have to say it's this way, there are many paths, but they lead to a different end.

And it's important then when we take a look at, for example, not only this book, but let's take the book of Jude as an example.

Yes, it was a historical documentation of what happened in the early church.

But more important than that is that which Paul and the others taught.

And that is these things happened early on, for example, in the church, that they would be examples to us later on.

That God's kingdom doesn't change.

And then when we look at God's kingdom, if we take the new covenant or the New Testament time, we can see that again and again throughout history, this very same phenomenon or very same thing has happened.

Where with man's own mind, he began to comprehend or attempt to comprehend these things of the Bible and became shipwrecked on the journey.

And the sad part of it is because of man's own pride, man's own mind, what has happened with those who find themselves to be leaders in these doctrinal errors, they want to and they tend to take others with them.

And that's what happened here in this description by Jude.

And we know Jude, whether he was Jesus' brother or not, we don't know for sure.

But we do know this, that he was a believing man and that these matters that they experienced were very serious.

So serious that a number of people became shipwrecked in faith.

In other words, even if they were hanging around God's kingdom after, which certainly some of them were at least for some time, they had lost living faith and in that condition were not heaven acceptable.

Jude describes it in several different ways in this short one-page letter that he wrote.

But he gives a remarkable description of these who had fallen into false doctrine and also were attempting to take others with them.

And he says that they were not in the right way to do it.

They were not in the right way to take others with them.

And he gives, Jude writes what happened even in these people's minds as they left God's kingdom spiritually and began to teach doctrines which were false.

He says this way in verse 10: But these, speaking about these people, speak evil of those things which they know not.

But what they know naturally is that they are not in the right way.

In other words, Jude here is saying they are using their own natural human mind, their intellect, to comprehend these matters of the kingdom.

And we know from God's word, Old Testament and New, that cannot be done.

Were we to, for example, view God's kingdom with our own eyes, we would probably have to say it really wouldn't look very attractive to our temporal eyes.

But when we view God's kingdom through eyes of faith, I think you with me, dear child of God, would say we see a beautiful picture.

And we even heard about it this morning.

That the way Jacob was able to hear the voice of his mother, we also have been able to hear the voice of our mother, who has taken care of us, guided us, protected our footsteps on the way.

Through the eyes of faith, God's kingdom is beautiful.

Through the eyes of flesh, it's not very pretty.

They had begun here in this early time of the church to see God's kingdom through their own natural eyes.

As he uses an example as brute beast, in other words, what people would know would reason these things out, seeing it with their own mind.

He says here, but what they know naturally as brute beasts in those things, they corrupt themselves.

And that's what happened.

He says here about them, and he gives another couple of examples which are noteworthy because these examples that Jude gave happened during different times of God's kingdom in history.

How people had given their own mind, their own reason, and attempted to change and comprehend those things of God's kingdom using their own intellect.

He says, woe unto them.

And he continues, for they have gone in the way of Cain.

That's one of his examples.

Cain.

What happened with Cain?

Well, it's quite clear with Cain.

Cain and Abel had done their sacrifices.

Abel's, I'm sure you recall, even the children that are here tonight probably recall that Abel's sacrifice was a little lamb.

And we know also that that little lamb that Abel sacrificed gave a picture of the coming lamb of God, Jesus, who was sacrificed for the sins of the entire world and those who believe are saved.

That was Abel's sacrifice.

What was Cain's?

Cain took the best works of his own hands.

And in fact, Cain was, quite clear from Scripture, he was proud of those works that he gave as a sacrifice.

But it's also quite clear in the Bible that even though Cain in his own mind thought he meant well, God utterly rejected that sacrifice because they were his own works.

They would not save him.

And what was the result?

Cain's anger, great anger, was kindled so much that he killed his brother.

That's the example of Cain.

He also here, Jude gives another example.

He says, and he ran greedily after the error of Balaam.

Now, who was Balaam?

Balaam was an Old Testament figure that also compromised the faith and apprehended these things with his own mind and corrupted the word of God.

And in fact, Balaam had been this kind of a deceiver that he wanted to bring, wanted to have it where these believing people could have other gods that they worshipped.

Not just the God of Israel.

In other words, add other things.

In our time, we also see the same thing.

This thought, with man's own mind, it's not just one kingdom.

And in fact, we also know here that Jude gave a further description of these ones where he says that they resisted authority.

I don't know if there's anyone telling them how to do it.

I don't know how it's going to be.

They didn't want any church fathers dictating to them what doctrine was correct.

But they began to point the finger at those who were in the positions in God's kingdom as God appointed them.

And became angry and began to speak and murmur against those.

In fact, in our time, we've seen very much the same thing.

That those who travel with, for example, a conscience that's not clean, they quickly find the faults of others.

Is it because they want to hide their own faults?

Well, it could be.

But the point is this.

They're more intent with bright eyes to see other people's faults than they are to comprehend or realize their own faults.

And so, we can see that the more you know about the things that you're doing, the more you can understand your own sin, sinful and wretched condition.

That's what happens in the mind when one begins to journey with a defiled conscience.

And Jude here, in this letter that he wrote, describes that very phenomenon that they resisted authority.

He also says here, as far as the error of Balaam, this is the first time that he's ever said that the error of Balaam was the error of the law.

And so, this was where, even in that time of Jude, they wanted to add other things to the comprehension of God's kingdom, to change it, to be able to worship in a different way.

And the final one in this verse that Jude spoke about of these three was the example of Korah.

Now, what was Korah?

Korah was actually a heresy that occurred during the time of Moses.

The people called the people of Korah actually rose up against the authority of their time.

And, in doing so, lost living faith, and frankly, if you read about that, we know how the earth opened up and they actually were smothered.

Those people were utterly destroyed.

It gives a picture what can happen in life when one begins to use their own mind and their own reason.

To the human mind itself, such a thing is attractive.

We are given a human mind with reason.

But, when we begin to reason these things of God's kingdom with our own intellect, we soon go wrong.

That's why, even in the life of Jesus and the examples that he gave, what did he mean by the greatest in the kingdom?

What did he give as an example of who is the greatest in the kingdom?

Was it the kings?

The princes?

Was it even the apostles?

Well, it was Jesus himself who spoke directly to those disciples and apostles in that room when he took the little child, a baby, an infant, in his arms, and he said, this is the greatest in the kingdom.

And in fact, unless you become like a little child, you can't inherit heaven.

That's the nature of God's kingdom.

And we can see here, this is not just a historical event that Jude wrote about.

But as Paul had said, these are examples in our own lives that we would have this kind of a childlike heart, that dear heavenly Father, protect me as a little child all the days of my life that I could believe in your grace and in your kingdom.

That gospel that's preached to the weakest and the poorest, that same gospel that's yet proclaimed to those on the outside of God's kingdom.

Dear son or dear daughter, all sins are forgiven in Jesus' name and blood.

That gospel and that doctrine.

And then when we journey, moment by moment, keeping that gift of living faith preserved in a good conscience, God promised that he will take care of his own.

And that's why you young here and even you elders, I'm sure, have heard not only from the preaching in God's kingdom, but the encouragement of believing mother and father at home, for example, that it's important on the journey that we don't let sin build on the conscience.

Because when we do, our eyesight becomes faulty, just like a lantern that's giving off light, and the glass, the lens on the lantern becomes dirtier and dirtier and smokier.

And pretty soon what happens, no light could get out.

But when we're able, moment by moment, to believe that life-giving word, the word of forgiveness, and we rejoice, moment by moment, that yes, I'm a child of God.

I believe that teaching in God's kingdom.

I believe that Old Testament teaching.

And I believe that the teachings that were there even at the time of Moses were saved by faith.

Not by our works, or by anything good that we've done on our own, but only by faith.

Yes, the teaching that was there during the time of the prophets.

Yes, the same gospel that Jesus himself proclaimed.

Son, be of good cheer.

Your sins are forgiven.

And the same gospel that Apostle Paul spoke in the synagogue that said, through this man is the forgiveness of sins preached.

This evening you also can believe that same gospel.

Even the one who finds himself to be the slowest to believe.

All your sins are forgiven in Jesus' name and blood.

I need to hear the same gospel and you preach the gospel to me.

I promise to believe with you.

And this evening we also have prepared here the elements for the Lord's Holy Supper.

And it's set up sometimes, or monthly, we celebrate the Lord's Holy Supper on this, on a Sunday evening, especially for those that were not able for one reason or another to celebrate the Lord's Holy Supper.

But not only for that.

For Jesus said, Do this oft as ye drink of it in remembrance of him, our Lord Jesus.

And so as we now have the opportunity to celebrate this Lord's Holy Supper, it's perhaps good to briefly mention what is the purpose of this.

Is it some kind of a reward for having been a good Christian?

Well, of course not.

The Bible explains what it is.

Jesus himself, the Lord's Holy Supper, is established for one who's already believing.

But because we find ourselves so slow and so weak, that sometimes we wonder, is faith even there?

It's for just such a one that our faith would be strengthened.

It doesn't mean a person's a better Christian as they walk back down after communion for one's simply believing.

And as such, they're heaven acceptable.

But Jesus did establish this meal for the strengthening of weak faith.

So you freely can come as you see fit.

And I think you probably have all sometimes noticed that even you kids probably notice when the servant has finished serving the elements, normally they kind of lift the tray, whether it's the bread or the wine.

And you might have wondered why.

Well, it signifies this.

That there's nothing in the servant, the one who's asked to serve communion, but only in the body and blood of our Lord and Savior Jesus.

And through His body and blood then we're strengthened yet to believe.

And it gives us also this communion with all the other saints in God's kingdom.

Doesn't matter what culture or what nation, what tongue.

They could be from Africa.

They could be from Finland.

But we have communion with them in our Lord Jesus Christ.

Together in mutual faith.

In Jesus' name, Amen.