Jude 1:3-4 - Episode #003

Episode #003 Outline 

1. Direction of the Spirit.

2. Deception of the Seducers.

3. Denying of the Savior.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Good morning and welcome you back to the Keep on the Fire Line Preaching Podcast. This is your host, Max Tidwell, and I welcome you back. I know it's been a long time. My family got the flu, and then I was traveling to preach in North Carolina, and then life has just been crazy over the last couple weeks, and so I do apologize for the long delay in this episode, but we are back. We are gonna move to a different style of preaching schedule. It's gonna be every single Wednesday morning. The show will be released around 5 a.m. to 6 a.m. on those Wednesdays, and that will be weekly going forward. So episodes will get a tiny bit longer as we are going to just a weekly schedule. But I do want to just go back and cover what we went over in the last episode and what I preached on last episode, just for those of you that missed it. And so last episode we covered verses 1 and verse number 2 of the book of Jude. And the Bible says, 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. We went over how Jude was a servant of the Savior. We went over who he was writing to, those that are sanctified by the Savior. And we also went over who he was praying for, and that was those selected by the Savior. We went over all the attributes of Jude and how he served the Lord and how, yes, he was Jesus' half-brother, but he didn't want to be recognized as Jesus' brother. He wanted to be recognized as a servant of the Savior, and how he was writing to those who were sanctified by the Savior. If you're not saved, today is the day of salvation, and also how he's praying for those selected by the Savior, those ones that are called according to his purpose. We went over that that's not just preachers, pastors, evangelists, and missionaries, but that's also anyone who is saved has a calling to share the gospel on their life. And so he is praying for those who are saved, sharing the gospel, because he knows exactly what we'll need in that time. But today I want to go over verses three and verse number four. And those read like this Beloved, 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 ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints. Then verse number four says, For there are certain men, crept and 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. And is that not the truth today? Let's pray. Dear Heavenly Father, Lord, we're thankful for this day. God, I'm thankful for the opportunity to open your word this morning. God, I pray that you would bless the listeners. God, I pray that you'd encourage all of us to earnestly contend for the faith. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. And so today, as we go over Jude chapter number one, obviously, again, it's the only chapter in Jude, the shortest book in the entire Bible. But Jude chapter number one, verse number three through verse number four, we see a very common theme. Jude has just introduced himself in the prior verses. He has gone over who he is and what his mission is going to be. But firstly, this morning I see the direction of the Spirit. Look with me in verse number three. The Bible says, Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation. I'm going to stop there. So Jude, as he began to open up this letter, as he began to open up this epistle, he had an idea in mind to go in right of the common salvation. He wanted to go in right of the salvation that has come to us all. He wanted to go right about how Christ came, how he came as a baby, how he lived a perfect life, how he would lived a sinless life. He went to the cross and died a cruel death. He shed every drop of blood that touched the ground and it cried, Jesus saves. And then he went to the tomb for three days and then rose again. And then he lived a, he lived some days after that, and then he went to heaven, and that's where he's seated today. And so, Jude, he came in with this picture of something he wanted to write about. And he wanted to, I'm sure I'm sure he was going to give God glory of his personal salvation. We see that he's a sermon of the Savior. We see that he is saved. And so he's writing to those that are saved. And so I believe that he wanted to write about how good God is, how good salvation is, how good it is to be saved. Let me tell you, friend, today, it is good to be saved, and I'm thankful that I'm saved. And I believe that Jude wanted to go into this epistle and write about how good Jesus is and how good his salvation is. But we see in the middle of verse number three, the Bible says it was needful for me to write unto you. It was needful for me to write unto you. We see that there's a complete direction of the Spirit here. The direction of the Spirit, the Holy Spirit of God changed what Jude was going to be writing about. Jude came in with this mental picture. He came in with what he thought he was going to be writing about, and then he sat down to put pen to paper, and the Holy Spirit of God took over and began to change what he was going to write about and say, It was needful for me to write unto you. That word needful means it was something that was needing to happen. It was something in that time where this play where this was taking place, where it was needful for him to write unto the church, but now to us of this very problem, and exhort you that ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints. You see, he says the purpose of the epistle. He said it was needful for me to write unto you and exhort you that ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto you. We see the exhortation of Jude right here in what that word exhortation means. I know oftentimes we say we love to exhort, or a pastor will say, Hey, why don't you stand up and exhort and tell everybody how good God's been? And sometimes people don't fully understand what that word exhort means. And that word exhortation is an address or communication emphatically urging someone to do something. And so the Holy Spirit of God took over and began to write for Jude. And that's what happens through the whole word of God. And I believe that the Holy Spirit was in Jude writing about the common salvation, and then the Holy Spirit redirected him, and that's why this point is the direction of the Spirit. The direction of the Holy Ghost changed exactly what he was going to be writing about and changed it to where he's writing about how we should earnestly contend for the faith that was once delivered unto us. We should earnestly contend. That word earnestly means doing something with sincere, intense conviction, serious intent, or deep feeling. Lord, help us to preach with deep feeling, help us to witness with deep feeling, help us to truly care about a lost and dying world. Listen, today, friend, this world that we live in, this present world, Paul tells us like this that we're going to be living in the world, but we do not have to be of the world. This morning, I tell you, friend, that this world is bad. This world is only going to get worse. This world is not going to get any better until Christ comes back and takes us out of it. And then after seven years, we get to come back and live here on this perfect place for a thousand years. But until that point, this is only going to get worse, friend. It's not going to get better. No priest, no president, no preacher is ever going to make this place any better. It's only going to get worse from here, friend. We see that in biblical prophecy. And so today, as Jude is saying, he's exhorting us, he's exhorting us to earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints. That is emphatically, that is sincere, that is with intense conviction, that is with serious intent, and that is with deep feeling. Jude knows exactly what the church of that day is going through, but God also knew what the church of today would be going through in the day of compromise, in the day of liberalism, in the day where you can't tell the church apart from a nightclub. Friend, today we are to earnestly contend for the faith. And that is a command that Jude gives us through the power of the Holy Spirit. Help us to actually care about compromising. Today, help us to actually every single day when we wake up, when we roll out of bed, help us to actually care that we're not going to compromise what God tells us to do. Help us to not put on a fake front. Help us to not go and put on a show in front of people, but help us to actually care about keeping and not compromising because that's what God wants us to do. Lord help me. I beg the Lord every single day to help me to earnestly contend for the faith. Not because it's my job as a youth pastor, not because it's my job as a preacher, not because I'm out evangelizing somewhere, not because I'm preaching the gospel, not because I have to, not because it's how I get paid. No, because it's what I want to do. I want to earnestly contend for the faith every single day. And we all, including myself, ought to pray and ask the Lord to help us earnestly contend for the faith every single day. So we see that Jude, he sat down to write about the common salvation and then his direction completely changed. Firstly, we see the direction of the Spirit this morning. But secondly, I see the deception of the seducers. Look with me in verse number four. It says, For there are certain men crept in unawares, who were before for of old ordained to this condemnation, ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness. And I'm going to stop there. You see, there's a deception that goes along with these seducers. It says, For there are certain men crept in unawares. You see, this morning, not everybody that comes out and compromises, we all saw that that was going to be coming from that certain person. Not everybody that comes out and says, Oh, well, I'm changing paths, I'm changing directions, I'm doing something different, whatever the case may be, I'm making a change to my ministry, whatever the case may be, they don't always do that. Sometimes they creep in unawares and it begin they begin to make small, subtle adjustments. Friend preachers, pastors, laborers, laymen, whatever the case may be, I don't know who's listening to this this morning, but today let me encourage you. Just because somebody stands with a King James Bible in their hand does not mean that they're not one of these certain men that's crept in unawares. Just because they stand and they talk about Jesus or they say I'm a preacher or they say I'm a pastor or they say I'm saved, does not mean that, friend. I've been to lots of churches where there's a pastor, and I'm doing in quotes in air right now, there's a pastor behind the pulpit who says something and it's not completely true. They go with what the Bible says sometimes, but if it goes against the way they want to live, they decide they want to go a different direction, or they leave out the parts where it talks about conviction or it talks about living right and acting right and talking right. They leave that part out and they want to go and do something else. You see, there's a deception of these seducers. Most of the time they don't just come out and say, hey, I'm this, I'm that, I'm doing this, I'm doing that, I'm preaching this, I'm preaching that, I believe this, I believe that. No, a lot of times it's very subtle changes that a lot of people will miss. Look at the description of these men that Jude gives us. He says, that they're ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness. These men that put on this facade to be godly or actually behind closed doors, ungodly men. How oftentimes do we see where a pastor or a preacher has been caught in this scandal or been caught in this act or been caught in XYZ that's been hidden behind closed doors for so long and then comes to fruition. Friend, I tell you today that all sin, it's only kept a secret for a while, but eventually that sin will come out onto the surface. These people, they are ungodly men at heart, but they're turning the grace of God into lasciviousness. Well, you know, oftentimes in this day we see a lot more of career preachers than God-called preachers. We see a lot of men who come into church and they want to turn church into a business. Where they want to come and they want to make as much money as they can and they want to make a career out of this thing of preaching. They want to make a career on the road, they want to make a career as a missionary, they want to make a career as a pastor, all because they want to come in and they want to have a bunch of people look at them and tell them and tell them how good they are, how great they are and how godly they are when all at the root of it all, they're just ungodly men, friend. Today there's so many that we see who are turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness. Today, help us to stand against this. Help us to stand against the deception of the seducers. Help me to call out the deception of the seducers, help us to stand against and say, no, friend, that's wrong. We're not gonna go that way, we're not gonna do those things, and help us to steer people in the right direction, and that's God's direction this morning. So, firstly, we see that there's a direction of the spirit. Secondly, we see the deception of the seducers, but lastly, this morning I see the denying of the Savior. Look with me at the end of verse 4. It says, After turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness and denying the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ. You know, the first way that false teachers, false preachers, whatever you want to call them, the first way that they deny the Savior is they deny them with their testimony. They're one way behind the pulpit, and then outside of the pulpit, they're a different way. I've heard many stories about preachers who are they cuss like sailors and they tell dirty jokes all the time and they do these things. God help us. God help us to live the same way in the pulpit like we do behind closed doors. Friend, I'm preaching to myself this morning. I have areas in my life where I can correct just like you do. Help us not to point the phariseeal finger, help us not to point the judgmental finger and say, oh, well, they're doing something wrong, they're doing something wrong, they're doing something wrong. Instead, why don't we put the point the finger back at us and say, hey, I can do better in this area while also correcting the other person in the same way. We ought to steer our friends and family away from false teachers, absolutely. We ought to preach against false preachers and false teachers, we ought to do these things absolutely, but help us to also preach on our own sins that we struggle with and our own things that we should be more convicted about. Amen. Firstly, I see the denying of the savior. They deny the savior in their testimony, and they deny the savior in the way they act. You can go and you can tell a lot about a person by the way their Facebook looks. I'll be honest when I see a new preacher, I'm looking at a revival for me to take our teenagers to here in Florida. I'll look and I'll see a preacher oftentimes that I don't really know. I've never heard of them. I've never heard, I don't know them from Adam, I'll be honest with you. And the first thing I do is I go to their Facebook and I look at their Facebook, and a lot of times you can tell how they are and how they act and how they preach just by looking at their Facebook page. They deny him by the reason for their preaching. A lot of times these men that are the ones that have crept in unawares, these ungodly men that we're talking about, they're in it for self-glory. They're in it for numbers, they're in it for money. Friend, if we are not in it for souls, we are in it for the wrong reason. If you are preaching the gospel for any other reason than seeing souls get saved, then you need to step down from your ministry. If you are in it for any other reason than feeding the sheep, Pastor, if you're in it for any other reason than leading the sheep in a godly way, then we might need to rethink the calling on our life. This morning, if we are in it for the self-glory, the numbers, or the money, we are in it for the wrong reasons, and we must be in this thing to see souls saved and to steer souls in the direction of the Lord. This morning they deny him and what they what he wants them to preach. This morning, I, and I say this to our teens often, I say it's not about what most preachers are preaching nowadays, it's what they're not preaching. A lot of preachers, they want to preach this Jesus, they want to preach about Jesus and they want to preach about Christ's love. And I'm all for Christ's love. Christ died for the ungodly, he died for the unjust, such as I, he died for the one that needed him just like I did. Absolutely, I agree with that. But if the only thing we preach is God loves you, God loves you, God loves you, God loves you, he loves you despite your faults, loves you despite your failures, which is absolutely the truth. But if we only preach this loving Jesus, then people can't be convicted to get saved. You know, the first step in someone getting saved is realizing that they're a sinner. They have to realize that they're a sinner before they can ever realize their need for a savior. And so if we only tell them how much God loves them, then they're never gonna understand that they're a sinner and they need a savior. If we never preach on the sin that people struggle with, then they're never gonna understand that they're a sinner and there has to be true repentance in their heart in order to gain salvation. This morning, if we're not careful, we'll preach more on the things that we want to preach on than the things that God truly wants us to preach on. We'll leave out the hard things in this King James Bible that's sitting in front of me this morning. We'll leave out the tough subjects, we'll leave out the things that make people feel uncomfortable, and we'll preach the things that get amens, we'll preach things that get the crowd stirred up. Instead of preaching the things that make the crowd go silent, we'll preach the things that get the crowd stirred up. Of course people get stirred up when you tell them how good they are and how good God is. Absolutely, of course people do. But people get really quiet when you start preaching on sins that they struggle with. Why wouldn't you get excited when your favorite team gets a slam dunk or a massive three-pointer to win the game? Why would you be why wouldn't you be excited when that happens? Why wouldn't you be excited when we're talking about the grace of God and the many blessings that He's poured out upon our life? But what about conviction? What about time when conviction rolls into our life? It's not going to be so exciting, but those are the things that still need to be preached. Let me tell you, friend, this day we have a lot of preachers and a lot of pastors who are denying the Savior in the way that they preach. This morning, help us to earnestly contend for the faith. Help us to earnestly contend for what our forefathers contended for. The ones that have gone before us, the ones that have blazed the trail, the ones that have laid the path, those ones that literally died for this King James Bible. Help us to pick up the mantle, help us to carry it on strong, and help us to earnestly contend for the faith this morning. This morning, firstly, I saw the direction of the Spirit. Secondly, I see the deception of the seducers, and thirdly, I see the denying of the Savior. Help us to be aware and help us to earnestly contend for the faith. That's about all the time we have this week. I love you. I'm thankful for you listening, and I hope this is an encouragement and help to you. Until next time, goodbye.