Just turn back with me to the
epistle of Jude, the general epistle of Jude. Last book, if
you can call it a book, it's only 25 verses, but the last
book before the revelation. So next to the last book of the
Bible. I just want to read the first four verses. I know we've
read them before, but just to remind you. Jude and the first
verse of Jude. 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. 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,
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." And then he goes on in the next,
well, 20 verses I guess, to spell out the particular things about
these ungodly men that we're to be alert concerning. I want
to focus this morning on those two words in the middle of verse
four, ungodly men, ungodly men. And I don't want it just to be
negative, but you know in this life at times you have to issue
warnings and you have to sound negative when you don't really
want to be negative. Imagine that you were in the
situation of owning a very, very desirable house, lovely, beautiful
house. Just imagine you've got an absolutely
magnificent house and the crime prevention officer comes to pay
you a visit and he compliments you on your house and says, what
a beautiful house, how beautifully furnished, how beautifully situated,
what a lovely position to be in and to live in. But beware,
for there are criminals out there. There are people who will want
to break in and steal. There are people who will want
to take that which is yours and have it for themselves. He will
want to warn you what you need to do to beware, to protect yourself
from those who would want to take this beautiful house away
from you. Well in a way, Jude is doing the same thing. He's
writing to God's believing people, those who are saved by the gospel
of God's grace. He's writing to them about the
beautiful, wonderful salvation, the common salvation that they
have, that beautiful salvation, and the faith once delivered
to the saints. And he's warning, beware, for
there are those who want to take it from you, who want to distort
it, so that you don't live in the good and the blessing of
it. You see, As believers, we live in a wilderness world. This world, with all its beautiful
things, is full of some very evil things as well. And it's
a wilderness world. And we're told, the Scriptures
tell us, that the Church of God, the Church of Christ, in the
days in which we live, is in a wilderness world. It's God's
will that we should be here. He said, I leave you in the world.
I'm not taking you out of the world yet. I'm leaving you there. In Revelation chapter 12, he
talks about the woman as a picture of the church, and she's sent,
when she's rescued from the worst intents of the devil, she's taken
away into the wilderness to a place prepared of God for her, to feed
her there. That's where she's taken to.
That's where we are. As believers today, we're in
a wilderness world. You see, people all around believe
all sorts of things. But the belief of the true believer
is believing on the Lord Jesus Christ and him alone. It's looking
for him to answer that question, how should a man be just with
God? It's trusting. This is what it is. It's not
just mental assent. I believe Henry VIII existed. I've got
very good evidence for it, but I'm not trusting in him. To believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ is to trust. There's a perilous door
to go through at the end of life which is called death. And I
trust him. I trust him. I know whom I have
believed, says Paul. I know whom I've believed and
have committed unto him that which I've committed unto him
against that day. I know him. I trust him. I rest
in him, I relax, I rest in him in confidence that God in Christ
is satisfied regarding his own offended justice for me. He looks
at his own offended justice, he looks at me, the sinner, but
he looks at Christ who has taken my sins away and has satisfied
the law in that he died and paid the price, and shed his blood.
And the law of God which screams out for justice. Imagine a court
of law, where we all know in our hearts that an evil has been
done, and there's the guilty party in the box, he's the accused. And the natural justice of us
all cries out, justice must be done, this is a most heinous
thing that's been done. But in the case of the people
of God, in Christ, that justice is satisfied. It no more has
anything to plead for. Its demands have been answered.
Its debts have been paid, because Christ has died on behalf of
his people, and his people have died in him. And because of that,
what does the judge say when the jury comes back and says,
how do you find? Guilty or not guilty? Not guilty,
my lord. And he says to the prisoner in
the dock, you may go free. You may step down. You may go
free. This court has no more to say. That's what the justice
of God says. to those who are redeemed in
the Lord Jesus Christ. The justice of God says you can
go free from condemnation. How? Look what Jude says to God's
believing people. You're sanctified in God. You're sanctified in the sovereign
grace and eternal purposes of God. Sanctified means set apart. Sanctified means set apart from
the rest of humanity. You're set apart by God the Father.
in his sovereign grace, before time began. How is it that anybody
is a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ? Paul writes to Timothy,
2 Timothy 1 verse 9, according to his, God's, own purpose and
grace, which was given us, those who believe, in Christ Jesus,
when? Before the world began. Chosen
in Christ, before the foundation of the world. In eternity, God
chose a people out of all sinful humanity for himself. And that's
what it is to be there, what a glorious position to be in,
to be amongst the elect of God, sanctified by God the Father,
preserved in the Lord Jesus Christ, put in union with Him before
the beginning of time, betrothed to Him. so that he stands for
you, and with you, and you in him. You're adopted as his sons. You're preserved, just as, think
of an example in the scriptures. Who would you say was preserved?
Noah was preserved in the ark. When the justice of God fell
on that sinful world, Noah was preserved, and his family, just
eight of them, eight souls, they were preserved in the ark. This
is what it is, to be preserved in Jesus Christ. and called,
called by God's Spirit, given ears to hear. When the natural
man, when mankind in general, has no ear to hear the things
of the Spirit of God, they're foolishness to him, neither can
he know them, the Spirit of God comes and gives to this one and
to that one, ears to hear and eyes to see that which others
cannot see. And he gives a willingness to
come, a willingness, made willing in the day of His power. You
did not choose me, said Jesus to His disciples. I chose you.
I chose you. Blessed is that man whom God
chooses and causes to approach. What's your doctrine of how people
become Christians? That's the doctrine of the Bible.
Blessed is that man whom you choose, whom God chooses and
causes to approach unto Him. Psalm 65, verse 4. Those who
are born again who are given a new nature, who are given a
new man within, born again, not of the will of the flesh, nor
of the will of man, but of the will of God. That's what the
scripture teaches. What a glorious place to be in,
to be saved. And as we walk in this life,
in this flesh, As a camp of two armies, as the Song of Solomon
6.13 tells us, the flesh versus the spirit. In that situation,
yet, Jude calls down from on high, as it were, with Holy Spirit
inspiration. that mercy from God and peace
from God and the love of God might be multiplied in your experience. As we walk through this life,
with its highs and its lows, with its happiness, with its
sadness, with its successes, with its failures, with all of
those things, what do we need above all else? Mercy and peace
and love from God be multiplied. What a beautiful state to be
in, isn't it? Isn't salvation a beautiful state
to be in? There's that lovely old hymn
that we haven't sung for a long time, I don't know if it's in
Gadsby's, it is well with my soul, when peace like a river
attendeth my, when the great billows roll, it is well, it
is well with my soul. What a lovely state to be in.
To be called one of God's own jewels. We were reading, Don
Faulkner's reading this morning, and how God is pleased with his
own nature, because he's God. It's pretty unpleasant when you
come across people who are pleased with themselves. It's pretty
unpleasant, because it's self-centered. But with God, he's God. And he
is pleased with himself, he is pleased with his son, but he
is pleased with his people in his son. Because he's put his
people in his son, he's pleased with them. He's made them his
own jewels. Malachi 3.17, they shall be mine,
saith the Lord of hosts, in that day when I make up my jewels. And where does it leave you and
me if we're amongst that number? When we look all around? When
we look at the uncertainties of this life, we say, don't we,
why me? Why was God gracious to me? Why
was he gracious to me? What blessing? But, as we go
through this life, in this blessed state of salvation, we're subject
to trials. I've already said, the spirit
against, we live in fallen flesh. We live in sinful flesh. As long
as we're on, if you honestly, do you know, Growing in grace
and the knowledge of our God and Saviour Jesus Christ is not
getting progressively more holy and fit for heaven. The Apostle
Paul said first of all he wasn't fit to be called an apostle,
and then he said that he was a great sinner. And then the
last thing he said was he was the chief of sinners. The more
he grew in knowledge and grace in our Lord Jesus Christ, the
more he was aware of how fallen his own flesh was. Is that not
the case? You know, sinners all have sinned,
but you know it's only the true believer who knows how much he's
sinned. A sinner is a sacred thing. The
Holy Ghost has made him so. This is a revelation of God.
And we're aware of this. The spirit, the new spirit of
the life that God has given from above in the new birth is fighting
constantly against the flesh. The spirit versus the flesh.
And the two are against one another. And we live like that the whole
time we're in this flesh. We're subject to chastisement
from God. If we're his children, we're
subject to chastisement. You know? It's not health, wealth
and happiness. We're subject to chastisement.
Why? Because God as a loving Heavenly Father is teaching us.
to let go of our grip on the things of this world. The flesh
so much longs to grip and grab the things of this world, and
our God teaches us by chastisement to let go, to set our hearts
on things above. And then in the church, the assemblies
of God's people, we have trials and problems that come along
in this wilderness world. Church trials, trials among,
think how many times you've come across this. Paul says to the
Corinthians, for there must also be heresies among you. that they
which are approved may be made manifest in you. There must be
heresies in church situations. How many times have you been
in a situation and you've thought this is really good, this is
the truth, here's a man who's preaching the grace of God and
a few years go by and he's taken away for one reason or another,
in one way or another, and then heresies start to come in. And
people start to get to the fore, who promote heresies, and it
all starts to fall apart because different factions start warring,
and there's strife. But Paul says, and God's word
says, there must also be heresies. They're ordained of God that
these things should come because they have a purpose, to show
that which is the truth. You know if you can't see clearly
something It's a good idea to put some contrast into the situation,
isn't it? You know, you ask a painter or
a photographer, what do you do to make something stand out?
You get some contrast into the situation, so that the thing
you want to draw attention to stands out. He says there must
be heresies, there must be heresies, that they which are approved
may be made manifest among you, that the truth may be shown.
And he gives warnings in his word. to be alert, to not be
naive, to not be gullible, to stand fast in the truth, to be
utterly uncompromising with that which is error, but in a way
that is not the way of the world, but in a way that is the way
of the people of God. Look at 2 Timothy and chapter
2, which we read before. 2 Timothy chapter 2, verse 24. This is what it says about This
is what it says about the way that we must be uncompromising
with error. He says in verse 24 of chapter
2, And the servant of the Lord must not strive, but be gentle
unto all men, apt to teach, patient. in meekness instructing those
that oppose themselves, if God peradventure will give them repentance
to the acknowledging of the truth, and that they may recover themselves
out of the snare of the devil, who are taken captive by him
at his will. There's a gentle way to be standing
firm for the truth. There's a gentle way to do all
of these things. Verse 22 says the same sort of
thing. On some have compassion, making a difference. Snatch them
out of the fire as brands. You know, a piece of wood is
in the fire and it's burning and it's going to be burned up,
but pull it out of the fire and put the fire out and snatch some. On some have compassion, making
a difference. Okay then. God's believing people
in all ages have to face these trials that come along. And they
come along by what Jude calls ungodly men. who were, these
men, certain men crept in unawares who were before of old ordained
to this condemnation, ungodly men, ungodly men. In verse 15,
to execute judgment upon all and to convince all that are
ungodly among them of their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly
committed and of all the hard speeches which ungodly sinners,
this term ungodly, this is what he's focusing on, beware of ungodly
men, beware of them But don't be alarmed by the fact that they're
there. Be aware of them, but don't be
alarmed. Because, look in verse 4, who
were before of old ordained to this condemnation. They are ordained
of God to this condemnation. To make manifest the true, as
we were reading earlier in 1 Corinthians, for there must also be heresies,
that they which are approved may be made manifest among you.
To make manifest the true. as God in the days of Moses raised
up Pharaoh and hardened Pharaoh's heart. These are mysterious things,
but this is what the word of God teaches us. God raised up
Pharaoh. Why? For his purposes of grace. To show his grace to his people. So, the church is in a wilderness
place, prepared of God to feed her there. This is where we are.
Believers, believers everywhere, ones and twos, little groups.
True believers, true to the gospel of God, to whom the description
in verses one and two of Jude can be applied. True believing
people. We're in a wilderness world.
We're in a wilderness world of opposition and heresies, but
don't be alarmed. They're ordained of God, that
it might be manifest, that which is true. So what is it about
these ungodly men? Well, I've got three things.
They have an ungodly righteousness, They have ungodly reasoning,
and I tried and tried to find another R, but I couldn't. They've
got ungodly doctrine. Ungodly righteousness, ungodly
reasoning, and ungodly doctrine. Let's have a look at this now.
What does it mean that they are ungodly men? Now, religious people,
and maybe you or me to a certain extent, when we hear about something
being ungodly, we have a particular religious view of that which
is ungodly. We think of bad behavior, of
all sorts, immoral behavior, bad behavior, of corrupt behavior,
of just generally the sort of thing that we would say that's
not a good way to behave. In actual fact, the righteousness
that most religious people consider to be righteousness is in actual
fact variations of the righteousness of monks and of nuns, isn't it? Most religious people, their
idea of what is righteous and what is unrighteous is a variation
on what the Catholic Church teaches regarding the righteousness of
monks and nuns. You know, deprive yourself of
this, go and live in a place and deprive yourself of contact
with the outside world. It's all the righteousness of
physical deprivation. There's a religious righteousness
of physical deprivation. That which is righteousness is
that you don't do this, you don't go there, you don't do that,
you don't do this, you do do this and you don't... just all
dos and don'ts. Don't eat this food, do eat this
food, don't drink that water or that wine or... don't go to
this entertainment, don't have this pleasure. It's the righteousness
of somber demeanor. Oh, I remember once somebody
telling me about some men he knew, and he said, oh, they're
such godly men, such godly men. And I think what he meant was,
they've got such a somber demeanor. You know, they wander around
in their black suits, formal all the time. There was one that
I remember years ago. We went on a church holiday in
the 1980s, and Christine will remember this. We actually went
down to the beach on several occasions all together. Do you
know this godly man, he had his black suit and his tie and his
waistcoat on and he sat on the beach in his black suit and his
tie and his waistcoat. Oh, what a godly man. He goes
to the beach and he wears his suit on the beach. What a godly
man. See, that's the view that people have. It's a righteousness
of a somber demeanor. And there are others who say,
oh, oh now, to pray is a righteous thing to do. So therefore, the
more we pray, the more righteous we're going to become. I tell
you what, let's stay up all night and have an all night, oh what
a righteous thing it is to have an all night prayer meet. I know
some people are very sincere in this, but there are others
who are just trying to score themselves righteousness points
by it all. What they actually preach, these people, is a human
righteousness. And this is the word of God,
via Jude. This is the inspiration of the
Holy Spirit. And if we believe this book,
as Paul wrote to Timothy, all scripture is breathed of God,
is God-given, and is profitable. If we believe what he said, he's
saying that this is ungodliness. ungodliness. There's an ungodly
righteousness. It can be very impressive, but
without the fear of God, without the knowledge of God, the true
knowledge of God, the true knowledge, the discernment, you know for
the communion service we talk about discerning the body of
the Lord, without that understanding why he came and what he did in
the justice of God for the salvation of his people, without that knowledge
of God, without the true worship of God, Seeking to worship. There's no no knowledge of God. There's an ungodly righteousness
in God's eyes God counts it filthy rags God counts it of no value
whatsoever He constantly talked in the Old Testament about his
people who had gone away from him and the covenant Isaiah 29
verse 13 this people Draw near me with their mouth. Oh lord.
Oh lord. Oh lord and with their lips. They do honor me Oh, they
say all the right words in the right places but have removed
their heart far from me. And their fear toward me is taught
by the precept of men, and not by the Spirit of God." Ungodly,
ungodly religion, ungodly righteousness. As Paul wrote to Timothy, 2 Timothy
3, 5, we read it earlier in the passage that we read, He talks
about these people and he gives a very, very dire, stark warning
about these people. He says they have a form of godliness. Doesn't religion have a form
of godliness? But in its practice, it utterly
denies the power thereof. Having a form of godliness, but
denying the power thereof. Who's he talking about? He's
talking about men in the church, in leading positions, in the
so-called church. They're called pastors, they're
called evangelists. And obviously you've got to use
discernment. Obviously we're not talking about all pastors
and all evangelists. But there are those. Don't just
look at what the label says. Look what they say. Look what
they do. Look what their practice is. They're not openly immoral.
These are not openly immoral criminal types. Else how would
they have crept in unawares? They gave a good show of being
the right sort of people to have in leading positions in the church.
The church meeting voted for them to be made deacons. The
church meeting voted to accept them as their pastor. They're
not openly immoral. How else would they have crept
in? Unawares. They sometimes appear, these
pastors, these teachers, who are ungodly men with an ungodly
righteousness, they appear as angels of light. Listen to what
Paul says to the Corinthians, 2 Corinthians 11. verses 13 to
15. He's talking about such, and
he says, for such are false apostles. He's warning them, you've got
these people among you. He said to the Ephesian elders
in Acts chapter 20 when he was leading them, even from among
your own number will rise up men teaching perverse and false
doctrines. For such are false apostles.
deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles
of Christ, making out that they're true, and no marvel. Don't be
surprised, for Satan himself is transformed into an angel
of light. Therefore, it is no great thing if his ministers,
those who call themselves his ministers, also be transformed
as the ministers of righteousness, Satan's ministers, whose transform
themselves as ministers of righteousness, whose end shall be according
to their works. No, we must try the spirits,
whether they be of God. We must try these spirits, whether
they confess that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh. Meaning,
whether they preach that the Messiah of the Old Testament,
that the Redeemer who would come and redeem Israel, his people,
the Israel of God, and them and them alone from their sins. That
he came in the flesh and he accomplished and satisfied the justice of
God and that those people for whom he died are counted righteous
in the eyes of God and are therefore saved from condemnation. They
are his sheep. If they confess that, and that
is their gospel, then they're of God. Try the spirits, whether
they're of God. Don't look on what men count
as righteousness. Don't look on what religious
men count as righteousness. Do they say this? Is their message
this? Is it a message that honors God?
Is it a message that abases man? You know, you cannot elevate
God too highly, and you cannot bring man down too low. And is
it a message that magnifies Christ? I was determined, said Paul,
to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and Him. What's
your message this week, Paul? Jesus Christ and Him crucified.
Why? Because He's my all in all. He's the all in all of His people.
Is it a message that says, behold your God, Is it a message that
says concerning flesh, all flesh is grass? No better. All of it. All of it. Is it a message that
says, behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of a
world full of his believing people? Is it that message? If it is,
then that's truth. But these men he's talking about
have a righteousness, a form of godliness that denies the
truth and the power of it. these people have a certain righteousness
but it's an ungodly righteousness and then They have ungodly reasoning. Ungodly reasoning. Verse four.
They turn the grace of our God into lasciviousness. All kinds
of immorality we can encompass in that word. What could this
mean? Well, it has long been taught,
and I guess I long thought that that's what it was saying, was
that it was let us sin that grace may abound. You know, in Romans
Paul says, what shall we say then? Shall we say let us sin
if The salvation of God is entirely to do with Christ and not one
bit to do with the works that we do. Well, that being the case,
let's sin all we like because it makes no difference because
our righteousness or our sin is not going to do anything because
Christ's done it all. Let us sin that grace may abound. God
forbid, he says, not at all. If that was the case, these men
wouldn't have crept in unawares. Their moral faults their immoral
lifestyle would have been exposed. But no, that's not the case.
They'd crept in unawares. No, what it means is this. They
say that the doctrine of salvation by the free grace of God alone,
with no contributing work from the sinner in any respect, if
you preach that, you open the door for believing people to
commit all kinds of antinomian, lawless, immoral living. They
say we must preach the moral law. We must impose moral restrictions
on people. If we don't make the law of Moses,
the believer's rule of life, well, they'll go committing every
sin in the book. They say, preach grace to get
people justified, but then you need to preach law to get them
sanctified. They say, preach grace to get
people into heaven, but preach law to get them rewards once
they are in heaven. They say preach Calvary to be
justified, but you must preach Sinai, the law of Moses, for
sanctification. No. That's not what the scripture
says. The grace of God is the grace
of God from beginning to end. The grace of God alone accomplishes
the salvation of his people. It isn't the law that restrains
his people, it's the love of Christ that restrains his people. These people decry God's grace. They say, and you say, where
are you getting this from? I've heard it so many times.
I remember many, many years ago, Bill Clark preaching at a conference,
must be 30 odd years ago, and he used the expression, speaking
to preachers, he said, set your people free in Christ. Wow. What a response it got from the
religious world, from these ungodly men. They said you can't do that.
You can't just preach the grace of God to people. You'll let
them loose for all kinds of lasciviousness, all kinds of licentious immorality. You'll open the floodgates to
sin. And they've decried him for it. And they've decried every
other preacher of it. You mustn't listen. We were told
you mustn't listen to the preaching of Henry Mahan and Don Faulkner.
Because all they preach is the grace of God. And it's deficient
in its applicability to our culture. You mustn't just listen to them.
You must impose law on people. They decry it. They decry true
grace. Because they say it gives an
excuse. It gives a cover for immorality. It cheapens the value
of Christ's blood. in converting a soul because
they say it's not enough, you must get the people to do more
things to make sure they're saved. and they accuse preachers of
grace of immorality, as they did with Paul. Paul says this
in Romans 3.8, and not rather, as we be slanderously reported,
and as some affirm that we say, he's saying they're wrong, they
say that Paul was saying, let us do evil, that good may come.
And he says their damnation is just, because that's a completely
false accusation. The question is, that we always
come to, is what saith the scripture? What does the scripture say?
Listen to this, Romans 3 31. Do we make the law void through
faith? Does our faith in the justifying
righteousness and sanctifying blessings of our Lord Jesus Christ,
does that make the law of God void through faith? God forbid,
yea, rather, through faith, we establish the law. Not through
law works, but through faith we establish the law. Romans
13, 8 and 10. Love is the fulfilling of the
law. Love is the fulfilling of the
law. Romans 14, 17 and 18. For the kingdom of God is not
meat and drink, it's not rules and regulations, it's not do's
and don't do's, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy
Ghost. For he that in these things serveth
Christ is acceptable to God. Revelation 6 verse 2, bear ye
one another's burdens in Christian fellowship love. Bear ye one
another's burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ. All of this
says, not what this ungodly reasoning says, all of this says that the
grace of God in Christ bears the fruit of God's Spirit. But
they, ungodly men, turn the grace of God into lasciviousness. In
so doing, they deny the very gospel. And that brings me quickly
to the third point. There is this ungodly doctrine.
Theirs is ungodly doctrine. Their grace-denying religious
righteousness actually denies God and Christ. And so it is
ungodly doctrine. Look, they turn the grace of
our God into lasciviousness and denying the only Lord God and
our Lord Jesus Christ. These ungodly men who've crept
in unawares. You don't realize they're in
key positions, but they've crept in unawares. It's their ungodly
doctrine. The ungodly doctrine of these
pious ungodly men bringing into the church, they hate the doctrine
of the gospel. What do I mean by the doctrine
of the gospel? I mean this, that it's by grace
alone, without any works, without any contribution by sinners,
without any betterment in the flesh, either for getting to
heaven or for giving you rewards in heaven or preparing you for
heaven. that God in Christ has chosen a people out of unmerited
love, pure free grace. He didn't see that we would be
good, he didn't see that we would fit objects just out of love. That he's betrothed his son to
that people before time began. He's put them, he's preserved
them in him. He's redeemed that people in time, paying the law's
just penalty in infinite perfect blood. He's made them alive,
he's called that people in time and in their own experience so
that they know, everyone going to heaven knows, they're brought
to know, to believe the truth through sanctification of the
spirit and belief of the truth and he will finally bring every
last one securely to eternal glory. That's all of grace, and
that's the gospel that these ungodly men deny, because they
say it leads to sin in the flesh. And in so doing, as John says,
he that believeth not God hath made God a liar. They make God,
who they claim to serve, coming close with their lips but their
heart is far from it. They make God whom they claim
to serve, they make him a liar. God says he has made his people
the righteousness of God in him. Doesn't he? Is that what God
says? Is that what this book says? He made him who knew no
sin to be sin for us. He made him the sins of his people.
so that he bore the guilt and the penalty and the justice of
that sin in his own body, on the tree, and paid the price
to the full, and was delivered for our transgressions and raised
for our justification. He did that that his people might
be made the righteousness of God. Not the righteousness of
them own selves, but the righteousness of God in him. by making Christ
the sin of his people. They deny that. They say that
we must add law works, as they did in Galatia. Paul wrote to
the Galatians, he says, I'm amazed that you've drifted from the
gospel. Because he said, you know what the gospel is, but
these people have come in and said, you must be circumcised,
you must do all of these law works, you must add all of this.
And he says, if anyone comes to you and preach any other gospel,
I don't care how piously they've crept in, how godly they looked,
he says, let them be accursed. And that's what he says about
these ungodly men here. That's what Jude says about them.
Their condemnation is just. Their condemnation is what God
has ordained them to. They deny the only Lord God. They deny him. They deny the
one who chose his people in Christ before the foundation of the
world. They deny what Christ accomplished in his saving grace,
in the gospel of his grace, that his particular redemption saved
his people to the uttermost. They deny it. They make the death
of Christ sufficient for the justification of all without
exception, should they choose to believe it, and should they
do the works that they require of him. And in so doing, they
deny Christ and the complete salvation that is in him. So
don't be surprised when religious folks, even evangelical pastors,
as they call themselves, don't be surprised when they oppose
our doctrine and our preaching, as they do, as they have done.
Recognize them for what they are. Don't react violently, but
as Paul said to Timothy, be gentle, be persuasive, and rejoice in
the truth that stands out clearly against their pernicious error.
Because? Paul warning the Thessalonians in 2 Thessalonians chapter 2,
he warns them there about all of these perils that will come
along and he says they're coming with Antichrist is coming, whose coming
is after the working of Satan. This is verse 9 of chapter 2.
With all power and signs and lying wonders, and with all deceivableness
of unrighteousness in them that perish, because they received
not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for
this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should
believe a lie. They do, they believe the lie
that they perpetuate. That they all might be damned,
who believe not the truth, but had pleasure in righteousness.
and then there's a lovely but. But we are bound to give thanks
to God for you, always. Brethren, beloved of the Lord,
because God has from the beginning chosen you to salvation through
sanctification of the spirit and belief of the truth, whereunto
he called you by our gospel to the obtaining of the glory of
our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, brethren, stand fast
and hold the traditions which ye have been taught, whether
by word or by our epistle, Now our Lord Jesus Christ himself
and God, even our Father which hath loved us and hath given
us everlasting consolation and good hope through grace, comfort
your hearts and establish you in every good word and work.