SPEAKER_00: We've been uh preaching through the book of Jude in July.
SPEAKER_00: And something we've noted is that this is uh this is one of the most obscure New Testament books that there are.
SPEAKER_00: It's very short.
SPEAKER_00: It's kind of like tucked in right at the end after 3 John and right before the book of Revelation.
SPEAKER_00: It's just super easy.
SPEAKER_00: You just turn the book uh page in your Bible and you're like, oh, there's a book called Jude.
SPEAKER_00: 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.
SPEAKER_00: And that's because it's a book primarily about judgment.
SPEAKER_00: It's very short, it's very focused.
SPEAKER_00: 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.
SPEAKER_00: And sometimes his words can be off-putting to us.
SPEAKER_00: And I think that's because most of us don't like to talk about judgment.
SPEAKER_00: And for lots of good reasons.
SPEAKER_00: I don't love to talk about judgment.
SPEAKER_00: I don't even like talking about judgment.
SPEAKER_00: Um, and again, it's it's not hard to see why, if if you think about it.
SPEAKER_00: 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.
SPEAKER_00: That was a terrible way to phrase that.
SPEAKER_00: 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.
SPEAKER_00: And doctrines like hell and judgment have become more and more repugnant to our culture at large, our neighbors around us.
SPEAKER_00: And as culture shifts, we are tempted to shift with it, right?
SPEAKER_00: It's very subtle.
SPEAKER_00: We don't even feel it, but we want our neighbors to like us.
SPEAKER_00: We want to be accepted and look like we're in the know.
SPEAKER_00: And so we can move oftentimes even without knowing it.
SPEAKER_00: On the other hand, there are Christians who seem from the outside, they seem to love God's judgment.
SPEAKER_00: 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.
SPEAKER_00: Turn or burn, God hates you.
SPEAKER_00: 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.
SPEAKER_00: So for those of us who believe that the Bible is God's word, it can be confusing, right?
SPEAKER_00: I don't want to go where the culture's going.
SPEAKER_00: I don't necessarily want to uh exhibit it this way, God's judgment.
SPEAKER_00: So, what are we to do?
SPEAKER_00: So the goal of my sermon is twofold: to both encourage and strengthen us in understanding God's heart.
SPEAKER_00: A heart of love, a heart of justice, and a heart out of which judgment is real and is coming.
SPEAKER_00: All right, let's look again at verses 14 and 15.
SPEAKER_00: 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.
SPEAKER_00: So, point one, God's judgment, God's judgment flows from a heart of love.
SPEAKER_00: 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.
SPEAKER_00: 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.
SPEAKER_00: These deeds of ungodliness.
SPEAKER_00: The word ungodly happens four times in those two verses, if you uh saw that.
SPEAKER_00: Now, in his book, Jesus Outside the Lines, Scott Salls helps orient us on this subject of judgment.
SPEAKER_00: I love what he says here in kind of such a uh tight uh paragraph.
SPEAKER_00: 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.
SPEAKER_00: 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.
SPEAKER_00: Yet at the same time, Jesus got upset with anyone who wished judgment on others.
SPEAKER_00: Though divine justice demands payment for sin, he desires that all would turn to him and find shelter from the wrath to come.
SPEAKER_00: He takes no pleasure in the death of anyone, including the wicked.
SPEAKER_00: Now he has scripture references there.
SPEAKER_00: He is he is pulling these things from the scripture itself.
SPEAKER_00: So when we struggle with the concept of judgment, the best place to go is Jesus himself.
SPEAKER_00: We know that Jesus was full of compassion.
SPEAKER_00: He was more love, who is more loving and forgiving than Jesus, right?
SPEAKER_00: Even even non-Christians believe that.
SPEAKER_00: He died to save sinners, to save his enemies, for goodness' sake.
SPEAKER_00: And at the same time, he spoke openly about divine judgment.
SPEAKER_00: Now, why is that?
SPEAKER_00: Because Jesus would say judgment is a part of love.
SPEAKER_00: When we lived in East Atlanta, we uh, my family and I, we lived in East Atlanta for um a good 15 years.
SPEAKER_00: And it's a little neighborhood down close to the Atlanta Zoo.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, we loved it down there.
SPEAKER_00: We had uh just an eclectic mix of neighbors.
SPEAKER_00: And one of our neighbors across the street from us was the quintessential get off my land, grumpy old man, get off my lawn.
SPEAKER_00: 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.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not joking.
SPEAKER_00: The guy with the rake hit the guy in the head, and there was blood just flowing.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, good times.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, we loved, we loved where we lived, we loved our neighbors.
SPEAKER_00: Um, who wants a safe suburban lifestyle?
SPEAKER_00: That's what I want to know.
SPEAKER_00: Um, I'm not selling East Atlanta very well.
SPEAKER_00: One day our kids were playing basketball.
SPEAKER_00: We had, you know, one of these basketball hoops in front of our house.
SPEAKER_00: Not a lot of land, so they play in the street.
SPEAKER_00: Um, the ball, their ball rolled under this neighbor's truck, and so they ran to get it.
SPEAKER_00: 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.
SPEAKER_00: And unfortunately, this was nothing new.
SPEAKER_00: I happened to be within earshot at the front of our house, and so I came outside to have a word with my neighbor.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, and as I jogged across the street, I was furious.
SPEAKER_00: 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.
SPEAKER_00: My sense of justice was piqued, and I wanted to defend and to protect my children and their friends from our street.
SPEAKER_00: 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.
SPEAKER_00: Human beings know the desire and the need for justice, and especially so when injustice or evil is perpetrated on those that we love.
SPEAKER_00: If there is no ultimate accountability for evil, then what do we what do we say to those who have experienced it, endured it?
SPEAKER_00: What do we say to those who have experienced real trauma, real loss, real evil at the hands of others?
SPEAKER_00: 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?
SPEAKER_00: 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.
SPEAKER_00: What Jude wants us to see, and what what the Bible teaches us is that yes, God is love.
SPEAKER_00: He is also holy, and so he is just.
SPEAKER_00: And for true justice to occur, evil and injustice must face righteous judgment.
SPEAKER_00: 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.
SPEAKER_00: But Scott Soles points out some other things that help us know how to live as Christians in this world.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus rebuked his disciples, particularly uh specifically James and John, right?
SPEAKER_00: 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.
SPEAKER_00: Now, why did Jesus rebuke them for wanting uh that justice to occur?
SPEAKER_00: Well, because these were the types of people that Jesus had come to love and to die for.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: 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.
SPEAKER_00: And in fact, he came to love and to die for the world.
SPEAKER_00: 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.
SPEAKER_00: And so we are not to go around calling down judgment and calling down wrath on our neighbors.
SPEAKER_00: 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.
SPEAKER_00: 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.
SPEAKER_00: All right, let's look at verse 16.
SPEAKER_00: These false teachers are grumblers, malcontents, following their own sinful desires.
SPEAKER_00: They are loud-mouthed boasters showing favoritism to gain advantage.
SPEAKER_00: Point two, beware of the wayward path of grumbling and discontentment.
SPEAKER_00: June warns us that what is fueling these false teachers is grumbling and discontentment.
SPEAKER_00: And he in turn he's inviting us to examine our own hearts to see if grumbling and discontentment is infecting us.
SPEAKER_00: Because this pattern is all too familiar.
SPEAKER_00: Things happen in life, whether to us or to those around us, difficulties, uh, disappointments, real suffering, and they lead to questions.
SPEAKER_00: We're tempted to grumble, right?
SPEAKER_00: We have we have these questions, understandable questions that arise within us.
SPEAKER_00: Why did God allow this?
SPEAKER_00: Why didn't God answer my prayers?
SPEAKER_00: If God is good, how can all of this evil continue in the world?
SPEAKER_00: Again, these are good questions that the scriptures themselves invite us to bring to God.
SPEAKER_00: 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.
SPEAKER_00: This is what the false teachers were, part of what they were doing to the church and what Jude was so furious about.
SPEAKER_00: 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.
SPEAKER_00: Uh I laughed out loud when I saw the title Healing for Christians Who Have Been Crucified by Christians.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, does that describe what the book is about or what?
SPEAKER_00: Um it's a bit folksy.
SPEAKER_00: 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.
SPEAKER_00: I was in kind of a I was in a grumbling place myself.
SPEAKER_00: 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.
SPEAKER_00: 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.
SPEAKER_00: That the events that um frustrate us and are difficult for us are not outside of his sovereign will or even control.
SPEAKER_00: 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.
SPEAKER_00: 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.
SPEAKER_00: And it is only if God is sovereign over our sufferings that he can invite us into what Paul St.
SPEAKER_00: Paul calls a fellowship in Christ's sufferings.
SPEAKER_00: And we get to experience a depth and a relationship with Jesus that we never could apart from these sufferings.
SPEAKER_00: So, a few questions for you to ponder today and maybe throughout the week.
SPEAKER_00: Where are you being tempted to drum grumble against God in a situation in your life?
SPEAKER_00: Where are you finding it hard to find contentment right now?
SPEAKER_00: Do you complain more about God's word than you submit to it?
SPEAKER_00: And can you submit to God even when you can't see the reason behind a particular evil or suffering?
SPEAKER_00: All right.
SPEAKER_00: Finally, let's look at verses 20 and 21.
SPEAKER_00: 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.
SPEAKER_00: So our final point three keep yourselves in the love of God.
SPEAKER_00: This is the antidote Jude is giving his audience, the power to overcome these temptations brought to them by these false teachers.
SPEAKER_00: Even as we may be waiting in the dark, Jude tells us to trust in God's love.
SPEAKER_00: 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.
SPEAKER_00: That we are loved in Christ by faith unconditionally.
SPEAKER_00: We did nothing to earn it, we can do nothing to change it.
SPEAKER_00: We were loved by Christ and in Christ before the foundations of the earth.
SPEAKER_00: Again, not because of anything we had done, but simply by the loving act of God's will.
SPEAKER_00: We are simply and completely loved by a good, merciful, gracious, and just God, even and especially when we are going through hardship.
SPEAKER_00: The question for us this morning, beloved, is this is God's love enough?
SPEAKER_00: He has proven his love.
SPEAKER_00: Has he proven his love to you?
SPEAKER_00: His trustworthiness through Jesus' death on the cross, through his resurrection, through which he defeated death and evil.
SPEAKER_00: When we cannot make sense of evil and suffering in the world, Jude would call us to look at the cross.
SPEAKER_00: 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.
SPEAKER_00: 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.
SPEAKER_00: She had come across a word apparently in a poem as she explains it that she didn't understand.
SPEAKER_00: Apparently, it had something to do with sex.
SPEAKER_00: And on the train ride home from Amsterdam with her father, she asked him what it meant.
SPEAKER_00: This is what she writes.
SPEAKER_00: And so, seated next to my father in the train compartment, I suddenly asked him, Father, what is sex in?
SPEAKER_00: What a great question.
SPEAKER_00: He turned to look at me, as he always did when answering a question.
SPEAKER_00: But to my surprise, he said nothing.
SPEAKER_00: At last he stood up, lifted his traveling case off the floor, and set it on the floor.
SPEAKER_00: Will you carry it off the train, Corey?
SPEAKER_00: He said.
SPEAKER_00: I stood up and tugged at it.
SPEAKER_00: It was crammed with watches and spare parts he had purchased that morning.
SPEAKER_00: It's too heavy, I said.
SPEAKER_00: Yes, he said.
SPEAKER_00: And it would be a pretty poor father who would ask his little girl to carry such a load.
SPEAKER_00: It's the same way, Corey, with knowledge.
SPEAKER_00: Some knowledge is too heavy for children.
SPEAKER_00: When you are older and stronger, you can bear it.
SPEAKER_00: For now, you must trust me to carry it for you.
SPEAKER_00: Beloved, there are some things that are too heavy for us to carry.
SPEAKER_00: 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.
SPEAKER_00: No, you we don't get all the answers.
SPEAKER_00: We don't get them when we want them.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe we won't ever get them.
SPEAKER_00: 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.
SPEAKER_00: 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.
SPEAKER_00: That is part of the Christian life.
SPEAKER_00: It is waiting.
SPEAKER_00: 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.
SPEAKER_00: So, beloved, we've covered some tough and personal topics this morning.
SPEAKER_00: If you hear nothing else, hear this.
SPEAKER_00: In Christ, by faith, you are God's beloved.
SPEAKER_00: He is trustworthy and true, and his judgments are just.
SPEAKER_00: Trust him.
SPEAKER_00: If you have any questions about the sermon or if you need prayer, I'll be down after the service.
SPEAKER_00: I'd love to speak with you.
SPEAKER_00: Let's pray.
SPEAKER_00: 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.
SPEAKER_00: We're afraid of the answers.
SPEAKER_00: We're we would rather uh just ignore them.
SPEAKER_00: Some of us are wrestling deeply and our faith has been shaken.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, would you meet us wherever we are?
SPEAKER_00: Remind us and show us afresh today your goodness and love for us in Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: For we pray in his name.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.