The book of Jude. I've entitled
our lesson this morning, our defense against error, our defense
against error. You'll notice in verse one that
Jude identifies himself as the servant of Jesus Christ, the
brother of James. And from what we know about Jude,
he seems to leave out a fact that might seem pretty important
to you and me. He leaves out the fact that he's
the half brother of our Lord Jesus. Now, reckon why he does
that. Why does he leave out what would,
you know, we would probably leave with that. Why does he not even
mention the fact that he's the half brother of the Lord? Well,
I think I know why. It's because salvation does not
come to us by our fleshly relations, who we're related to. I hope
all of us know this very, very clearly, that salvation God's
blessing cannot come to us because of anything that has anything
to do with our flesh. It's all of God's grace. We can't
be saved because we're related to believers. We have friends
who are believers. If you would be saved, if I would
be saved, we must believe on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.
If we would be saved, we must come to Christ in faith. That was true even of Jude. who was the half-brother of the
Lord Jesus. And Jude writes this letter about 30 years after our
Lord had ascended back to glory. Just 30 years. And false prophets
were just rampant across the world, just like they are today.
We ought not be surprised that false prophets thrive today.
Jude dealt with them, we'll see this in a minute, even Enos.
Seven or, yeah, let me look here, got that right, Enos. The sixth
from Adam, even he dealt with them. So it ought not surprise
us that we have to deal with false prophets so much today.
And Jude spends a large portion of this letter talking to us
about false prophets, telling us how to identify them. And
he has some very harsh things to say about them. Look here,
beginning at verse 12. He said, these are spots in your
feast of charity. When they feast with you, feeding
themselves without fear. Clouds they are without water,
carried about of winds, they're just, they're empty. Trees whose
fruit withereth without fruit, twice dead plucked up by the
roots, raging waves of the sea foaming out their own shame,
wandering stars, to whom is reserved the blackness of darkness forever.
In 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 of all their ungodly deeds, which they have ungodly
committed and of all their hard speeches, which ungodly centers
have spoken against him. These are murmurs, complainers
walking after their own lust and their mouths speak with great
swelling words, having men's persons in admiration. because
of advantage. This is what Jude tells us about
these false prophets. They're spots on your feast of
charity. They're spots on the meat that
you serve at a celebration. They're a disease spot. They're
clouds that don't have any water. They're of no use to anybody.
They're trees that don't have any fruit. They're foaming waves
that make a lot of noise, but they don't say anything profitable.
They're murmurs. They don't preach anything plainly.
They say nothing plainly and definitively. They're complainers. They complain about God's providence
and the way God saves sinners. They find fault with that instead
of giving thanks for God's mercy that He saved anybody. They hold
men in admiration, not God. And they hold men in admiration
because they think it's men who are going to give them what they
want, not God. And they've been in business a long time. Enoch,
the seventh from Adam, had to deal with them. And Enoch said,
Christ is going to come a second time and destroy them when he
comes. In Jude, in verse 11, gives us
three ways to identify these false prophets. By its message,
by its motive, and by its goal. Verse 11. Woe unto them, for
they've gone the way of Cain and ran greedily after the heir
of Balaam for reward and perished in the gainsaying of Korah. And
here's how you can identify a false prophet, by his message. They
go the way of Cain. But what's the way of Cain? The
way of Cain is the way of no blood atonement. The way of Cain
is the way of man's works, to be accepted by God of what we
produce. And these who've gone the way
of Cain, now today they'll say that Jesus shed his blood for
the remission of sins, but they'll tell you that Christ died for
everyone. His blood was shed for everyone and you have to
do something to make it effectual for you. Well, that makes the
blood of Christ of no value, doesn't it? It eliminates the
need for the blood atonement and puts all the importance of
salvation on what you do, not on the blood. So you can identify
a false prophet by his message. He goes the way of Cain. Second,
you can identify a false prophet by his motive. He's motivated
by greed and covetousness. That was the error of Balaam.
The heir of Balaam was this, that his message was for sale.
He'd say whatever the highest bidder wanted to hear. And that's
what false prophets do. They just say what people want
to hear so they can get something from them, so they can get money
from them, so they can gain followers. They won't call sin, sin. They
won't call righteousness, righteousness, because they don't want to alienate
any segment of the society and eliminate a segment of society
who would give them money. Their message is for sale. And
thirdly, you can identify a false prophet by his goal. He desires
to have the place of preeminence. That was the error of Korah,
the rebellion of Korah. He said, Moses, we're just as
good as you. We ought to be the leaders instead of you. But God
had appointed Moses to be the leader. God had appointed Moses
to be the deliverer of the people as a picture of Christ. It's
the same attitude of Diocletians we looked at last week in 3 John.
These men want the place of preeminence. They're seeking a place of power.
They're not seeking to be a servant. God's preachers are servants.
They're God's servants and we're your servants for Christ's sake.
These men want to be highly esteemed and have the seat of honor, just
like the Pharisees did. And when they do that, they're
putting the focus on themselves and taking the focus off Christ.
because they want the preeminence. God's servants wants Christ to
have all the preeminence, but these false prophets want it
for themselves. You can identify them by their
goal. And unfortunately, they're all
over the world. They're just everywhere you look.
So we're going to have to deal with them. In verse 3, Jude tells
us that he's writing to us that we'd be exhorted to earnestly
contend for the faith. He says, Beloved, when I gave
all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, this
is what he found out as he began to sit down to write. 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. Well, what is the believer's
defense? We're going to have to earnestly contend for the
faith and against wickedness in high places, against these
false prophets. What's the believer's defense against these seducers
that would try to lure us away from Christ? And they do. They're trying to lure you away
from Christ. I want to give you a four-fold
defense. A four-wall defense that will completely surround
us and protect us from error. Our first defense against error
is building up your holy faith. Look at Jude verse 20. But ye,
beloved, building up yourselves on your most holy faith. Now
false prophets pray on those who are unstable. Look at 2 Timothy
3. They pray on those who are unstable,
they beguile unstable souls by talking about a lot of true things,
but they don't talk about Christ who is the truth. 2 Timothy 3
verse 4. Peter or Paul describes these
false prophets as traitors, heady, high-minded, lovers of pleasures
more than lovers of God, having a form of godliness but denying
the power thereof. From such, turn away. For of
this sort are they which creep into houses and lead captive
silly women laden with sins, led away with diverse lust, ever
learning, ever hearing of maybe true things, maybe good things
in a way, ever learning, and never able to come to a knowledge
of the truth. These men talk about a lot of
things, but they never lead people to the truth. They're not leading
people to Christ. False prophets prey on the ignorant. They prey on people who don't
know any better. I mean, it's so sad to see people just flock
after this false message, but it's because they don't know
any better. I mean, I feel so sorry for their ignorant. No
wonder they're able to be led astray. So brethren, let's be
well-taught in the scriptures. And I tell you how we're well-taught
in the scriptures. If we're gonna build up our holy
faith, we're gonna be well-taught in the scriptures. I tell you
how you'll be well-taught in the scriptures. First of all,
by being here when the Word's taught. That's an awful good
idea. You would be built up in the scriptures, you'd be taught
the Word, be here when the Word is taught. If we're well-acquainted
with God's Word, We won't be easily seduced and led astray
by somebody who takes God's Word and rests it and twists it to
their own benefit. Let's be well acquainted with
the Word by being here when the Word's taught. And be well acquainted
with God's Word by reading it. Just read God's Word for your
own enjoyment at home. Be exposed to it. That's how
we'll be well taught in the Scripture. And that's what believers do.
People who know the Lord have this desire. Yes, I know it.
I want to know him better. I want to know more, even the
apostle Paul said, all that I might know. I might know him better.
That I might grow in grace and the knowledge of Christ. So how
can I build up my holy faith with the word of God? Well, first
of all, by building on Christ, who's the only foundation of
our faith. First Corinthians chapter three. We build up our holy faith by
building on Christ, who's the foundation of faith. 1 Corinthians
3 verse 9. Paul says, for we're laborers
together with God. You are God's husbandry. You're
God's building. You who believe are God's building. You're built with those precious
stones. You're the building of God. Well,
how is that building built? It's by building on Christ the
solid rock. Verse 10. According to the grace
of God, which is given unto me as a wise master builder. I've
laid the foundation, and another buildeth thereon, but let every
man take heed how he buildeth thereupon. For other foundation
can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ. We build
on Christ the foundation. He is all of the foundation of
our faith. Everything we believe, everything
we look for, everything we hope for is all based on the person
of the Lord Jesus Christ. And second, we build up our holy
faith by building on Christ with Christ. Paul said, you know,
you beware, let every man take heed how he buildeth thereupon.
Look at verse 12. He says, now, if any man build
upon this foundation, gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble. Now you be careful how you build,
what materials you use to build upon Christ. You build on Christ
with Christ. We don't build on Christ with
things about Christ. No, we build on Christ with Christ
himself. We build on the truth with the
truth. Christ is the truth of God. He's the valuable, durable,
lasting truth of God. The gold, silver and precious
stones. Those are all pictures of Christ. But those things that
are just about the truth. Are there things that what a
man can do to, you know, build yourself up and get you a bigger
house? Those things are just wood, hay, stubble. Now, wouldn't
it be foolish to take Christ, the eternal solid rock and build
on that rock a house of straw? That makes sense, doesn't it?
Don't don't build a straw man now, because a straw man is easily
going to be twisted, easily be led away with error. But if we
build on Christ with Christ, we have a house that's going
to last. And I'll tell you how we build on Christ with Christ. It's by believing that Christ
is all. Christ is all. We build on that
foundation of Christ by seeking Christ to be all to me, that
he be all for me. You see, Christ is the whole
building. He's the foundation, He's the walls, He's the roof,
He's the windows, He's the door. Christ is all. That's how we
build on Christ with Christ. Thirdly, we build up our holy
faith by building upon the new man, strengthening the new man.
Look at 1 Peter 2. The new man is built up in much
the same way that the flesh is built up. With a good diet, and
exercise. 1 Peter 2, verse 2. As newborn babes desire the sincere
milk of the word that you may grow thereby. Now we've all heard
the ad campaign, milk does a body good. And that's true, milk does
a body good. It's good for this flesh. The
same thing's true of the spiritual man. Milk does his body good. It's the milk of the word that
builds him up in Christ, gives him strength, gives him help.
Back in Jude verse 17, Jude says the same thing. If you'd build
up your most holy faith, he says, beloved, remember ye the words
which were spoken before of the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ. Remember the inspired word of
God. That's how we build on our most
holy faith. That's our first error against
defense, building up our most holy faith by the word of God. Our second defense against error
is praying in the Holy Ghost. Verse 20. But ye, beloved, building
up yourselves on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost. Now, this is not just going through
the motions of prayer. This is truly praying, truly
praying in the Holy Ghost. Look at Romans chapter eight. Romans 8 verse 26. Likewise, the spirit also help
with our infirmities for we know not what we should pray for as
we ought, but the spirit himself. And if you don't, if you have
a pen crossed out that it itself, the spirit's not an it, it's
a him, but the spirit himself make it the intercession for
us with groanings, which cannot be uttered. For he that searcheth
the hearts knoweth what's in the mind of the Spirit, because
he maketh intercession for the saints according to the will
of God. This is praying in the Holy Spirit
according to the will of God. Now we can't pray, we cannot
truly pray without the Spirit. What can we do without God? Not one thing. We can't call
on God, we can't believe God, we can't reach out to Him in
faith, we can't worship, we can't hear, we can't do anything without
God's Spirit. Let's pray in the Holy Spirit. Now, prayer. Prayer is talking
to our Heavenly Father. I'm afraid we very often overcomplicate
prayer. Prayer is not preaching, it's
not giving a doctrinal dissertation. is simply talking to our Heavenly
Father. Now, if you want to know the
Father so that you're not deceived, it'd be an awful good thing to
do to spend time talking to Him. Spend time with Him in prayer.
And this is my advice. You can take this or leave it,
but this is my advice about prayer. When you pray, don't try to sound
very religious. Don't try to sound like a 15th
century theologian. Just cry out to God. Just cry
out to open your heart before the Father in your language with
your needs. And the Spirit will make intercession
for us with groanings that cannot be uttered. Pray depending upon
the Holy Spirit, knowing that you can't do anything without
Him. And this is very, this prayer,
this matter of prayer is so important. You know, we have, we open up
every surface with prayer. Well, that's not a time filler.
Prayer is so important. In the life of a believer, prayer
is vital. Scripture says, pray without
ceasing. Don't stop. Don't ever stop.
Pray without ceasing. Men ought always to pray and
not to faint. That's what God's Word says.
So let's be men and women of prayer. Now we're talking here
about defense against false prophets, against error. Well, do you want
wisdom? Do you want wisdom to know Christ
so that you won't be deceived by error? Then let's ask for
it in prayer. Look at James chapter one. James one verse five. Now this opening line of verse
five ought to get every person's attention. If any of you lack
wisdom, Well, there's me. I want to know what he's got
to say about that. If any of you lack wisdom, let
him ask God that giveth to all men liberally and upbraideth
not, and it shall be given him. James in another place said you
have not because you ask not. Well, we need wisdom. We need
to be taught and let's go to God in prayer and ask him to
be our teacher or teach me, build me up in Christ. We should spend
time in prayer. We should desire, this is what
we should want to do, to spend time in prayer praising God just
for who He is. I don't care what He's done for
me or what He hasn't done for me. God's worthy of our praise. We should spend time in praise,
just praising Him for who He is and asking Him, Lord, would
You show me more of that, reveal more of that to me? We should
spend time in prayer thanking God. We should be a thankful
people. God's people have so much to be thankful for, everything
He's done for us, what He's done in us, everything He's given
us. We should spend time thanking God, asking Him to continue to
give us what we need. We should spend time in prayer
seeking God, seeking His will, seeking His way. You know, we
don't know what to pray for as we are. Just pray, Lord, Your
will be done. I don't know. I don't know what
should be, but You do. We always err when we make suggestions
to God about what to do with the situation. Just pray, Lord,
your will be done. I don't know, but you do. You
know best. We ought to spend time asking
God, reveal more of your will to me. Reveal more of your way
to me. And then depend on God to do it. Depend on him to get
us praying in faith. And if you would build up your
holy faith, I'll tell you something else. I constantly ask for your
prayers for your pastor. Spend time in your prayers asking
God to bless your pastor with an understanding, with the word.
These men who preach are teachers. Every time they come to your
mind, I strongly encourage you to pray for them. Because we
can't be taught the Word. We can't be built up in our holy
faith unless Lord gives the preacher the message from Him. We can't
be built up in our holy faith unless Lord gives the pastor
an understanding of the Word, understanding of the text, show
us Christ in the text, and then enabling to preach it. We need
God to bless us in that way. Let's pray for one another. The
Lord is the one who protects us from all evil. Is that right?
He's the only one who protects us from all evil. Then he's the
one that will protect us from these seducers. Then let's spend
time in prayer, communing with him in prayer. That's a good
defense against error. Our third defense against error
is love. Jude verse 21. Keep yourselves
in the love of God. Now you'll notice Jude doesn't
just say, keep yourselves in love. He says, keep yourselves
in the love of God. Now, if you have a heart love
for God, you're not going to be able to be deceived about
those who are lying about him. Those who hate him won't be able
to easily deceive you. If we truly love Christ, if our
love is Christ, if our need is Christ, then we're not going
to be able, these seducers will not be able to take something
else. and use that to draw us away from Christ because we're
already in love with the best thing. We're already desiring
the best thing. Nothing can compare to Christ
if we truly love Him. Somebody's not gonna be able
to use someone or something else to draw us away from Christ.
And we keep ourselves in the love of God by preaching and
believing the gospel of God's love. Now the gospel of God's
love, our gospel is a loving gospel. We make a very serious
mistake when we preach in such a way that we're hard and mean
and, you know, just that's not the way God's gospel is to be
preached. God's gospel is the gospel of God's love. And that
gospel says three things about love. Number one, the gospel
of God's love says that salvation is by God's love for his people. It's not our love for him. It's
His love for us. That's what the whole thing hangs
upon. And God does not love all men. Now, you know, if we say
that God loves all men, I know the flesh thinks, oh, that's
such a sweet message. But that's a hateful message. What a hateful message to say
God loves all men and sends them to hell anyway. That's a lie. God loves His people. And that
love means something. If I'm saved, it's because God
loved me first. And I do love him, but it's only
in response to his love for me. It's only in response to what
he's done for me through his son because he loves me. If I'm
saved, it's because God loved me and sent his son to be the
propitiation for my sins. See, it all begins with God's
love, doesn't it? And you just preach that truth. I promise
you it will draw all of God's elect to him. It'll draw his
people to him because it's God's love that draws his people to
him and keeps them from leaving him, keeps them from being seduced
by, you know, into error by these false prophets. Secondly, the
gospel of God's love says that my walk, my conduct is motivated
by God's love for me. That's right. My conduct is motivated
by God's love for me. Our Lord says, if any man loved
me, The only reason I love him is he loved me first. If any
man loved me, he'll keep my commandments. Well, what are his commandments?
His commandment to repent of my sin and look to Christ for
forgiveness of my sin. His commandment is to seek Christ
to be all of my righteousness, to leave all my work, my filthy
rags of my righteousness behind and look to Christ to be my righteousness. The commandment of God is to
seek to be accepted of God in Christ, through faith in Christ
without any of my words. That's his commandment. If you
love Christ, you'll do that. You'll do it. If you love him,
you will want him above all things. And that's the way that's the
way a believer conducts himself. That's his motivation. A believer
seeks to serve God out of love, not because we're trying to get
a reward, but because we love him. It's just like a child,
a loving child will serve and honor his father in love. Now a servant's going to have
to get a paycheck to do it, but a child does it out of love and
respect for his father. A believer seeks to live a holy
life, not because we're trying to get rewards, not because we're
trying to be better than everybody else, but because we love our
savior and we want to be like him. That's motivated by love. A believer gives to support the
gospel because we love the savior and we desire others to know
him. The believer loves the gospel of God and will not leave Christ
because we love him. If you love Christ, nothing else
will do. Your walk is motivated by his
love for you. And here's another of the Lord's
commandments. The Lord commands us that we are to love one another. That's my third point. The gospel
of God's love says that God's people love each other. It's
not they ought to, they do. because we're in love with the
same person. We've been born of the same spirit. Our Lord
said, by this shall all men know you're my disciples, that you
have love one another. And if we truly love one another,
that love is not just going to be something we feel in our heart,
but we keep secret. No, it's going to be shown openly.
So let's keep ourselves in the love of God and be motivated
by God's love for us. Let's let everything we do be
done in love for God. If we love Him and operate that
way, if that's our goal, that's our motivation, we'll be protected
from error because we'll want Christ to be lifted up and us
to be put in dust, which is just the exact opposite of a false
prophet who's seeking the preeminence for himself. If we love God,
you know what we'll do? We'll seek to promote our brethren
and have ourselves just be in the shadow. If you truly love
someone, you seek to promote them, not yourself. Love is a
good protection against false prophets who love not the Lord. If we keep ourselves in love
of God, then we'll be able to deceive us. Now, I'll tell you
something else about this attitude of preaching the gospel in love
for the lost, in love for our weak brethren. Look at verse
22. Jude says, and of some have compassion, making a difference.
and others saved with fear, pulling them out of the fire, hating
even the garments spotted by the flesh. Let's just not be
too quick to write somebody off when they do something wrong.
Just don't be too quick to do that. Your love could make a
big difference to them. You could have compassion on
them and make a big difference to a fallen brother. I promise
you this, the only thing that will make any difference to a
lost soul is the gospel of God's love. Let's not drive them away
by hateful attitude. And let's not drive them away
by the manner in which we preach the gospel. Now tell the truth. We've got to tell the truth.
There is no salvation without truth. The most hateful thing
you can do to somebody is preach them a lie because you just want
to appear so gushy and loving and sweet to everybody. That's
the most hateful thing you can do to somebody. No, let's preach
the truth of the gospel in compassion. Compassion for the lost. Yeah,
they do crazy stuff. They don't know any better. Let's preach in compassion. A
three-year-old does crazy stuff. We don't kick him out of the
house. We have compassion. He's three. Of course he's going
to do crazy stuff. If someone comes in, they don't
know the Lord the way they Operating the way they talk, the way they
conduct themselves, it makes it obvious to us they don't know
the Lord. They don't hold them at arm's
length because they don't know the Lord. The Lord doesn't do
that for his people, does he? Those that don't know him, those
he, he didn't hold them at arm's length. Let's show compassion
for them. Let's show compassion for their
souls by preaching Christ's truth and compassion. Then lastly,
our fourth defense against error. is looking to Christ. Verse 21,
keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of
our Lord Jesus Christ under eternal life. Now a false prophet tries
to deceive people and lure them away from Christ. I'll tell you
how we will be defended by that error, by looking to Christ. If you're looking at him, you
can't be drawn away from him. Looking unto Jesus, the author
and finisher of our faith. Now don't just look for doctrine.
Don't just look for things you can be right about. Look to Christ. Look to Christ with all of your
heart, just like Simeon in the temple. Simeon was looking for
a person, wasn't he? They brought that baby in, and
he looked at him. And he said, Lord, let your servant
depart in peace. Mine eyes have seen thy salvation. Now that seems like simple faith,
doesn't it? He looked at that baby, saw this
is God's salvation. It's simple faith. Just look
into a person. The boy has great faith in him.
Great faith. Mine eyes have seen thy salvation. Look to Christ for mercy. Look to him for salvation and
mercy. Not merit, not because we've
done something to deserve it, but mercy. Look to Christ because
Christ is your salvation. He's all your salvation. You
don't need anybody but Him. Look to Christ to keep you, to
teach you, because He's the only one who can. This is our protection,
our against error. Look to Christ. He's the only
one who can keep you from falling to pray to these seducers. Verse
24, now unto Him, that's able to keep you from falling and
to present you faultless for the presence of His glory with
exceeding joy. to the only wise God, our Savior,
in glory and majesty, dominion and power, for now and ever.
Amen. Amen. Lord bless you.