WEBVTT 00:00:00.880 --> 00:00:04.719 We've been uh preaching through the book of Jude in July. 00:00:04.799 --> 00:00:11.039 And something we've noted is that this is uh this is one of the most obscure New Testament books that there are. 00:00:11.119 --> 00:00:11.679 It's very short. 00:00:11.839 --> 00:00:16.640 It's kind of like tucked in right at the end after 3 John and right before the book of Revelation. 00:00:16.800 --> 00:00:17.760 It's just super easy. 00:00:17.839 --> 00:00:22.800 You just turn the book uh page in your Bible and you're like, oh, there's a book called Jude. 00:00:23.120 --> 00:00:34.399 Um, but when we dig into the book, it's also not particularly surprising why we don't often hear it preached in church or or studied in um in Sunday school. 00:00:34.479 --> 00:00:37.600 And that's because it's a book primarily about judgment. 00:00:38.000 --> 00:00:40.000 It's very short, it's very focused. 00:00:40.079 --> 00:00:52.880 And as you saw in our scripture reading, Jude is passionate about uh calling, calling out these false teachers who have come and are leading Jesus' church astray. 00:00:52.960 --> 00:00:56.240 And sometimes his words can be off-putting to us. 00:00:56.479 --> 00:01:00.799 And I think that's because most of us don't like to talk about judgment. 00:01:01.439 --> 00:01:02.880 And for lots of good reasons. 00:01:02.960 --> 00:01:04.719 I don't love to talk about judgment. 00:01:04.879 --> 00:01:07.040 I don't even like talking about judgment. 00:01:07.280 --> 00:01:11.599 Um, and again, it's it's not hard to see why, if if you think about it. 00:01:11.760 --> 00:01:22.239 Now, we one reason is because we live in our culture, and our culture has moved more and more away from uh understanding uh a biblical understanding. 00:01:22.560 --> 00:01:24.000 That was a terrible way to phrase that. 00:01:24.079 --> 00:01:31.760 I don't mean to say we lived in a Christian culture, but culture has moved further and further away from believing what the Bible says. 00:01:32.400 --> 00:01:40.799 And doctrines like hell and judgment have become more and more repugnant to our culture at large, our neighbors around us. 00:01:41.040 --> 00:01:44.560 And as culture shifts, we are tempted to shift with it, right? 00:01:45.040 --> 00:01:45.920 It's very subtle. 00:01:46.000 --> 00:01:49.120 We don't even feel it, but we want our neighbors to like us. 00:01:49.200 --> 00:01:53.439 We want to be accepted and look like we're in the know. 00:01:53.680 --> 00:01:58.640 And so we can move oftentimes even without knowing it. 00:01:58.879 --> 00:02:04.400 On the other hand, there are Christians who seem from the outside, they seem to love God's judgment. 00:02:04.560 --> 00:02:10.080 They can't wait to go out on the street corner and hold up these big signs that are just full of God's wrath and judgment. 00:02:10.240 --> 00:02:12.240 Turn or burn, God hates you. 00:02:12.400 --> 00:02:21.439 You know, and these these are the Christians that get, you know, placarded on uh social media and in the news, and you think, oh my goodness, gosh. 00:02:22.800 --> 00:02:28.400 So for those of us who believe that the Bible is God's word, it can be confusing, right? 00:02:28.560 --> 00:02:30.560 I don't want to go where the culture's going. 00:02:30.639 --> 00:02:35.520 I don't necessarily want to uh exhibit it this way, God's judgment. 00:02:35.840 --> 00:02:37.599 So, what are we to do? 00:02:37.840 --> 00:02:45.439 So the goal of my sermon is twofold: to both encourage and strengthen us in understanding God's heart. 00:02:45.759 --> 00:02:53.360 A heart of love, a heart of justice, and a heart out of which judgment is real and is coming. 00:02:53.840 --> 00:02:57.520 All right, let's look again at verses 14 and 15. 00:02:58.560 --> 00:03:23.120 It was also about these false teachers that Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied, saying, Behold, the Lord comes with ten thousands of his holy ones to execute judgment on all and to convict all the ungodly of all their deeds of ungodliness that they have committed in such an ungodly way, and of all the harsh things that ungodly sinners have spoken against him. 00:03:23.360 --> 00:03:29.520 So, point one, God's judgment, God's judgment flows from a heart of love. 00:03:30.879 --> 00:03:48.159 Uh so Jude continues with his strong words of condemnation against these false teachers, those who have infiltrated the church, those who have gained influence and are speaking and preaching things that uh deny the gospel and deny Jesus as Lord and Master. 00:03:48.319 --> 00:04:08.479 And Jude is now quoting from a Jewish text that was well known to his audience at the time, called First Enoch, which talks about, and what he what his point is saying that ultimately these false teachers will face God's judgment on the last day, and they will be convicted for the sins they are committing. 00:04:08.560 --> 00:04:10.319 These deeds of ungodliness. 00:04:10.479 --> 00:04:16.639 The word ungodly happens four times in those two verses, if you uh saw that. 00:04:17.120 --> 00:04:24.319 Now, in his book, Jesus Outside the Lines, Scott Salls helps orient us on this subject of judgment. 00:04:24.399 --> 00:04:31.120 I love what he says here in kind of such a uh tight uh paragraph. 00:04:31.279 --> 00:04:42.399 He says, Jesus, who was full of compassion and gave his life because God so loved the world, spoke more about judgment than most other subjects. 00:04:42.879 --> 00:04:58.480 He could not have been more clear that an excluding verdict awaits those who, in pride and self-justification, exclude themselves by dismissing his Jesus' generous offer of salvation by grace through faith. 00:04:58.800 --> 00:05:04.079 Yet at the same time, Jesus got upset with anyone who wished judgment on others. 00:05:04.319 --> 00:05:12.800 Though divine justice demands payment for sin, he desires that all would turn to him and find shelter from the wrath to come. 00:05:13.120 --> 00:05:17.839 He takes no pleasure in the death of anyone, including the wicked. 00:05:18.079 --> 00:05:19.920 Now he has scripture references there. 00:05:20.079 --> 00:05:23.839 He is he is pulling these things from the scripture itself. 00:05:24.560 --> 00:05:30.480 So when we struggle with the concept of judgment, the best place to go is Jesus himself. 00:05:30.639 --> 00:05:33.120 We know that Jesus was full of compassion. 00:05:35.199 --> 00:05:39.040 He was more love, who is more loving and forgiving than Jesus, right? 00:05:39.199 --> 00:05:41.199 Even even non-Christians believe that. 00:05:41.360 --> 00:05:45.519 He died to save sinners, to save his enemies, for goodness' sake. 00:05:45.759 --> 00:05:49.519 And at the same time, he spoke openly about divine judgment. 00:05:49.680 --> 00:05:50.800 Now, why is that? 00:05:51.120 --> 00:05:55.519 Because Jesus would say judgment is a part of love. 00:05:56.480 --> 00:06:02.639 When we lived in East Atlanta, we uh, my family and I, we lived in East Atlanta for um a good 15 years. 00:06:02.800 --> 00:06:06.399 And it's a little neighborhood down close to the Atlanta Zoo. 00:06:06.480 --> 00:06:07.759 Uh, we loved it down there. 00:06:07.920 --> 00:06:10.800 We had uh just an eclectic mix of neighbors. 00:06:10.879 --> 00:06:18.800 And one of our neighbors across the street from us was the quintessential get off my land, grumpy old man, get off my lawn. 00:06:19.120 --> 00:06:29.279 Uh he literally got into a fight with another grumpy old man neighbor who lived two doors down, one wielding a rake, one wielding a blower. 00:06:29.360 --> 00:06:30.800 I'm not joking. 00:06:32.000 --> 00:06:38.399 The guy with the rake hit the guy in the head, and there was blood just flowing. 00:06:38.959 --> 00:06:40.399 Uh, good times. 00:06:40.560 --> 00:06:45.199 I mean, we loved, we loved where we lived, we loved our neighbors. 00:06:45.439 --> 00:06:48.480 Um, who wants a safe suburban lifestyle? 00:06:48.560 --> 00:06:49.920 That's what I want to know. 00:06:50.160 --> 00:06:52.800 Um, I'm not selling East Atlanta very well. 00:06:53.519 --> 00:06:55.360 One day our kids were playing basketball. 00:06:55.439 --> 00:06:58.319 We had, you know, one of these basketball hoops in front of our house. 00:06:58.560 --> 00:07:01.120 Not a lot of land, so they play in the street. 00:07:01.360 --> 00:07:07.439 Um, the ball, their ball rolled under this neighbor's truck, and so they ran to get it. 00:07:07.600 --> 00:07:19.600 They were careful and went under there when, of course, uh our neighbor came out of his house screaming, yelling, threatening to call the police on these eight, nine, and ten-year-old kids. 00:07:20.079 --> 00:07:22.000 And unfortunately, this was nothing new. 00:07:22.160 --> 00:07:28.959 I happened to be within earshot at the front of our house, and so I came outside to have a word with my neighbor. 00:07:30.000 --> 00:07:35.600 Uh, and as I jogged across the street, I was furious. 00:07:36.879 --> 00:07:51.120 Anger was erupting inside of me that this grown man who should know better would speak so meanly and belligerently to children for playing a game and for simply retrieving a ball. 00:07:51.839 --> 00:08:02.560 My sense of justice was piqued, and I wanted to defend and to protect my children and their friends from our street. 00:08:02.800 --> 00:08:13.680 And that is merely a taste, a drop in the bucket of the justice of God that has been instilled in us in the image of God that we bear. 00:08:13.839 --> 00:08:22.639 Human beings know the desire and the need for justice, and especially so when injustice or evil is perpetrated on those that we love. 00:08:24.079 --> 00:08:33.519 If there is no ultimate accountability for evil, then what do we what do we say to those who have experienced it, endured it? 00:08:34.159 --> 00:08:41.600 What do we say to those who have experienced real trauma, real loss, real evil at the hands of others? 00:08:41.759 --> 00:08:52.240 Do we simply say that God is love and so we should shut down that part of ourselves that that knows that when injustice occurs, that justice needs to be brought in, right? 00:08:52.399 --> 00:09:02.720 The the fundamental definition of justice is that things have gotten out of order and they they need to be placed in their right order, in their right place. 00:09:04.240 --> 00:09:09.679 What Jude wants us to see, and what what the Bible teaches us is that yes, God is love. 00:09:10.639 --> 00:09:14.080 He is also holy, and so he is just. 00:09:14.720 --> 00:09:20.799 And for true justice to occur, evil and injustice must face righteous judgment. 00:09:21.039 --> 00:09:40.000 And Jesus promised that that would occur at the end of days, so that when we and when those we love experience injustice, that we in our human justice system are not able to achieve in this life, that we can rest, we don't have to be undone because we know ultimately justice will prevail. 00:09:40.480 --> 00:09:47.279 But Scott Soles points out some other things that help us know how to live as Christians in this world. 00:09:47.759 --> 00:09:52.080 Jesus rebuked his disciples, particularly uh specifically James and John, right? 00:09:52.159 --> 00:10:01.120 The sons of thunder, when they suggested that they call down fire on the Samaritan village when they when they weren't received by them. 00:10:01.679 --> 00:10:08.080 Now, why did Jesus rebuke them for wanting uh that justice to occur? 00:10:08.320 --> 00:10:13.039 Well, because these were the types of people that Jesus had come to love and to die for. 00:10:13.360 --> 00:10:13.600 Right? 00:10:13.759 --> 00:10:23.759 His experience with the Samaritan woman showed that he came not just for the sons and daughters of Israel, but to move outside into the realm of the Gentiles. 00:10:23.840 --> 00:10:28.000 And in fact, he came to love and to die for the world. 00:10:28.960 --> 00:10:37.039 And so Jesus taught us that we are not to condemn those whom God has forgiven, and we are to leave that judgment up to God. 00:10:37.120 --> 00:10:43.039 And so we are not to go around calling down judgment and calling down wrath on our neighbors. 00:10:43.279 --> 00:10:57.759 And second, as you saw in that quote, God has told us in multiple places in his scriptures that he takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but he wishes that all would heed his invitation and his warnings and come and receive eternal life. 00:10:58.320 --> 00:11:13.279 So, beloved, let us not shy away from the truth that Scripture teaches us about divine judgment, but let us also express that truth with the same heart of compassion that Jesus had for us and has for our neighbors and our enemies. 00:11:13.759 --> 00:11:15.440 All right, let's look at verse 16. 00:11:15.679 --> 00:11:20.559 These false teachers are grumblers, malcontents, following their own sinful desires. 00:11:20.720 --> 00:11:25.279 They are loud-mouthed boasters showing favoritism to gain advantage. 00:11:25.519 --> 00:11:31.440 Point two, beware of the wayward path of grumbling and discontentment. 00:11:32.320 --> 00:11:38.159 June warns us that what is fueling these false teachers is grumbling and discontentment. 00:11:38.240 --> 00:11:47.200 And he in turn he's inviting us to examine our own hearts to see if grumbling and discontentment is infecting us. 00:11:47.840 --> 00:11:50.240 Because this pattern is all too familiar. 00:11:50.480 --> 00:12:00.080 Things happen in life, whether to us or to those around us, difficulties, uh, disappointments, real suffering, and they lead to questions. 00:12:00.399 --> 00:12:01.919 We're tempted to grumble, right? 00:12:02.000 --> 00:12:06.480 We have we have these questions, understandable questions that arise within us. 00:12:06.639 --> 00:12:07.759 Why did God allow this? 00:12:08.000 --> 00:12:10.639 Why didn't God answer my prayers? 00:12:10.799 --> 00:12:15.840 If God is good, how can all of this evil continue in the world? 00:12:16.480 --> 00:12:21.600 Again, these are good questions that the scriptures themselves invite us to bring to God. 00:12:21.840 --> 00:12:37.759 But if this turns into grumbling and that grumbling is not addressed, it leads to discontentment, discontentment with God, so that we no longer trust that God is good and trustworthy and we we distance ourselves from Him. 00:12:37.919 --> 00:12:44.399 This is what the false teachers were, part of what they were doing to the church and what Jude was so furious about. 00:12:45.120 --> 00:12:54.879 When I came to Redeemer a few years ago, um, I came out of a pretty difficult situation with my previous church, and Russ gave me this book. 00:12:55.039 --> 00:13:01.919 Uh I laughed out loud when I saw the title Healing for Christians Who Have Been Crucified by Christians. 00:13:02.399 --> 00:13:05.200 I mean, does that describe what the book is about or what? 00:13:05.360 --> 00:13:08.320 Um it's a bit folksy. 00:13:08.399 --> 00:13:16.639 It came out of, you know, uh a religious tradition outside of my own experience, and so it came at things a bit differently, but maybe that was good. 00:13:16.720 --> 00:13:20.000 I was in kind of a I was in a grumbling place myself. 00:13:20.159 --> 00:13:30.799 I was being tempted uh uh to discontentment, and he gave me this book, a little folksy, but ultimately it hit me in the heart. 00:13:31.600 --> 00:13:45.759 This author challenges challenged me and he challenges us in the midst of our suffering and disappointment to wrestle with and ultimately embrace the fact that God is sovereign even over our sufferings. 00:13:46.399 --> 00:13:57.600 That the events that um frustrate us and are difficult for us are not outside of his sovereign will or even control. 00:13:59.279 --> 00:14:08.639 That is a difficult subject to wrestle with when you're in the heart of suffering, especially suffering in those or for those you love. 00:14:09.679 --> 00:14:18.240 But here was his point because it is only if God is sovereign over our sufferings that he can work in and through them for good. 00:14:19.679 --> 00:14:25.679 And it is only if God is sovereign over our sufferings that he can invite us into what Paul St. 00:14:25.919 --> 00:14:29.600 Paul calls a fellowship in Christ's sufferings. 00:14:30.480 --> 00:14:38.320 And we get to experience a depth and a relationship with Jesus that we never could apart from these sufferings. 00:14:39.759 --> 00:14:45.120 So, a few questions for you to ponder today and maybe throughout the week. 00:14:45.759 --> 00:14:51.440 Where are you being tempted to drum grumble against God in a situation in your life? 00:14:52.639 --> 00:14:56.399 Where are you finding it hard to find contentment right now? 00:14:57.759 --> 00:15:01.039 Do you complain more about God's word than you submit to it? 00:15:02.320 --> 00:15:10.159 And can you submit to God even when you can't see the reason behind a particular evil or suffering? 00:15:11.679 --> 00:15:12.159 All right. 00:15:12.320 --> 00:15:15.120 Finally, let's look at verses 20 and 21. 00:15:15.919 --> 00:15:30.960 Jude says, But you, beloved, building yourselves up in the most holy faith and praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ that leads to eternal life. 00:15:31.120 --> 00:15:36.159 So our final point three keep yourselves in the love of God. 00:15:37.039 --> 00:15:47.759 This is the antidote Jude is giving his audience, the power to overcome these temptations brought to them by these false teachers. 00:15:48.240 --> 00:15:54.480 Even as we may be waiting in the dark, Jude tells us to trust in God's love. 00:15:55.279 --> 00:16:10.720 The only thing that can give us the courage to trust God when we don't understand is to know and to embrace and to build our life on the fact that we are, that you are God's beloved. 00:16:12.080 --> 00:16:16.320 That we are loved in Christ by faith unconditionally. 00:16:16.480 --> 00:16:20.879 We did nothing to earn it, we can do nothing to change it. 00:16:22.159 --> 00:16:27.360 We were loved by Christ and in Christ before the foundations of the earth. 00:16:27.519 --> 00:16:34.559 Again, not because of anything we had done, but simply by the loving act of God's will. 00:16:36.159 --> 00:16:46.639 We are simply and completely loved by a good, merciful, gracious, and just God, even and especially when we are going through hardship. 00:16:47.919 --> 00:16:52.960 The question for us this morning, beloved, is this is God's love enough? 00:16:54.879 --> 00:16:56.799 He has proven his love. 00:16:57.039 --> 00:16:58.799 Has he proven his love to you? 00:16:59.360 --> 00:17:11.119 His trustworthiness through Jesus' death on the cross, through his resurrection, through which he defeated death and evil. 00:17:12.160 --> 00:17:20.000 When we cannot make sense of evil and suffering in the world, Jude would call us to look at the cross. 00:17:21.279 --> 00:17:48.480 It doesn't immediately make sense of everything, but it shows us the heart of God, holy, high, and lifted up, yet who was willing to come and take on flesh and to walk in our mess, to take it on his own shoulders and take it to the cross, to bring about healing, to bring about redemption and reconciliation and wholeness. 00:17:50.720 --> 00:18:01.519 In her book, The Hiding Place, Cory Tenboom tells a beautiful story, a beautiful lesson that her father taught her at a young age about faith and trust. 00:18:01.759 --> 00:18:07.039 She had come across a word apparently in a poem as she explains it that she didn't understand. 00:18:07.359 --> 00:18:09.359 Apparently, it had something to do with sex. 00:18:09.759 --> 00:18:15.359 And on the train ride home from Amsterdam with her father, she asked him what it meant. 00:18:15.519 --> 00:18:16.880 This is what she writes. 00:18:18.000 --> 00:18:24.720 And so, seated next to my father in the train compartment, I suddenly asked him, Father, what is sex in? 00:18:25.359 --> 00:18:27.039 What a great question. 00:18:28.319 --> 00:18:33.680 He turned to look at me, as he always did when answering a question. 00:18:33.920 --> 00:18:36.000 But to my surprise, he said nothing. 00:18:36.720 --> 00:18:41.839 At last he stood up, lifted his traveling case off the floor, and set it on the floor. 00:18:42.319 --> 00:18:44.400 Will you carry it off the train, Corey? 00:18:44.960 --> 00:18:45.519 He said. 00:18:46.319 --> 00:18:48.640 I stood up and tugged at it. 00:18:49.119 --> 00:18:53.680 It was crammed with watches and spare parts he had purchased that morning. 00:18:54.319 --> 00:18:56.480 It's too heavy, I said. 00:18:57.279 --> 00:18:58.720 Yes, he said. 00:18:58.960 --> 00:19:04.160 And it would be a pretty poor father who would ask his little girl to carry such a load. 00:19:04.880 --> 00:19:07.599 It's the same way, Corey, with knowledge. 00:19:07.920 --> 00:19:10.640 Some knowledge is too heavy for children. 00:19:10.960 --> 00:19:14.240 When you are older and stronger, you can bear it. 00:19:14.559 --> 00:19:19.119 For now, you must trust me to carry it for you. 00:19:20.480 --> 00:19:25.119 Beloved, there are some things that are too heavy for us to carry. 00:19:25.359 --> 00:19:42.799 And when we really bore down and dig into the issues of justice and evil and divine judgment and wrath, God has shown himself true and he has said to us, Some of these things are too heavy for you to carry. 00:19:43.119 --> 00:19:45.200 No, you we don't get all the answers. 00:19:45.359 --> 00:19:46.880 We don't get them when we want them. 00:19:47.200 --> 00:19:49.039 Maybe we won't ever get them. 00:19:49.359 --> 00:20:01.839 But the answer that we get is the love of God poured into our hearts through Jesus Christ, again, who came for us to die on the cross for our sins and was raised for our justification. 00:20:03.599 --> 00:20:16.799 Beloved, this takes maturity, it takes practice to believe, it takes patience, as Jude writes, to wait for the full mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ that leads to eternal life. 00:20:16.960 --> 00:20:18.720 That is part of the Christian life. 00:20:18.880 --> 00:20:20.160 It is waiting. 00:20:20.960 --> 00:20:34.480 It is waiting in the uncertainty, it's waiting in the suffering, it's waiting with the questions, always knowing and putting our trust in a God who is good and has proven his love for us over and over again. 00:20:35.440 --> 00:20:40.000 So, beloved, we've covered some tough and personal topics this morning. 00:20:40.240 --> 00:20:43.440 If you hear nothing else, hear this. 00:20:44.079 --> 00:20:48.960 In Christ, by faith, you are God's beloved. 00:20:49.599 --> 00:20:53.119 He is trustworthy and true, and his judgments are just. 00:20:53.759 --> 00:20:54.720 Trust him. 00:20:55.680 --> 00:20:59.920 If you have any questions about the sermon or if you need prayer, I'll be down after the service. 00:21:00.000 --> 00:21:01.680 I'd love to speak with you. 00:21:01.759 --> 00:21:02.880 Let's pray. 00:21:04.079 --> 00:21:15.839 Our Father and our God, Lord, as we bring these heavy topics to you, perhaps questions we who call ourselves the faithful, sometimes we push them aside. 00:21:16.720 --> 00:21:18.720 We're afraid of the answers. 00:21:18.960 --> 00:21:23.039 We're we would rather uh just ignore them. 00:21:23.279 --> 00:21:26.240 Some of us are wrestling deeply and our faith has been shaken. 00:21:26.400 --> 00:21:28.880 Lord, would you meet us wherever we are? 00:21:29.279 --> 00:21:36.480 Remind us and show us afresh today your goodness and love for us in Jesus Christ. 00:21:36.559 --> 00:21:37.839 For we pray in his name. 00:21:38.160 --> 00:21:38.799 Amen.