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Fighting for God's Glory in Saving Grace - Jude 1-16

Sermon Series: Contender vs. Pretender (two week series w/ Reflection Church on the NT book of Jude)

I’ve never been in a real fight before.  My brother and I would argue and wrestle some when we were growing up, but that’s not what I mean.  I mean that I’ve never been in a fist fight before.  I’m no a pacifist, I’ve just never been in a situation where fighting seemed to be the best solution.  Now that I’m a parent of three daughters and one son I’m beginning to have to ask myself questions about fighting.  “Is it okay for me to teach my son to fight?”  “What are the circumstances under which it is okay to fight?”  “What is the appropriate age to begin teaching him these things?”  (I know – some of you probably think I’m a horrible parent for even thinking these questions.  But this is the reality of having three daughters and knowing that I won’t always be around to help look after them.)  I don’t want my son to be a bully who picks a fight with every kid he comes across and who doesn’t know how to show love or compassion.  But at the same time I don’t want him to back down and walk away if there is ever a time when he needs to stand and fight.

Contrary to popular belief, God doesn’t call Christians to be pacifist either.  He certainly does call us to love one another and to love our enemies.  He does call us to practice forgiveness, compassion, and mercy.  But there are also times when God calls us to fight and contend.  So we need to know when those occasions are and what God has called us to do in those circumstances.  The NT book of Jude is helpful in this endeavor and this is the book that we are going to be turning our attention to for the next two weeks.  With that said let’s begin this week by starting with Jude’s introduction and laying a foundation for his letter and the points that he articulates. 

The letter of Jude begins in a manner similar to typical Greco-Roman letters of the time.  The letter begins by identifying the author, identifying the recipients, and providing a brief greeting.  The difference is that the introduction to most NT letters, including Jude’s, are absolutely full of theology.  While we aren’t going to spend our entire time this week in the introduction of Jude’s letter (although we certainly could) we do need to make a few comments about the introduction because it lays an important foundation for the rest of his letter.  The letter begins by identifying the author as Jude, who (according to Matt. 13:55 and Mark 6:3) is the brother of both Jesus and James.  At the time Jude was writing his brother James had become the leader of the church in Jerusalem and would have been the only James that the readers would have been able to recognize by a first name mention only.  But the question worth asking is, “Why does Jude identify himself as a servant of Jesus and a brother of James?  If Jesus is his brother wouldn’t it add to his authority, credibility, and position if he said that he was Jesus’ brother?”  The answer might have been ‘yes’ but Jude is doing at least two things very intentionally in his introduction.  Jude is first demonstrating that in his eyes his status doesn’t come from himself but from the One to whom He belongs and whose delegate he is.  Jude is second choosing to exalt God by recognizing Jesus as his Lord and recognizing God as the giver of saving grace. 

In the second part of verse 1 Jude identifies the recipients of his letter as those who have trusted in Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior.  He does not identify a specific church (although the content of his letter would imply that he probably had a specific church in mind) but instead chooses to emphasize the role that God has played in the lives of those to whom he is writing.  Listen to the language Jude uses.  “To those who are called . . .” is a reference to those who by God’s saving grace have been chosen to trust in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.  The reality that God in His sovereignty has extended saving grace to some of us is an extraordinary reality because all of us are sinners who have exchanged to worship of God for the worship of other things.  But God, to redeem His fallen creation and to fulfill the promises He made of reconciling sinners to Himself in the OT, by His grace has chosen some of us for salvation.  Jude doesn’t stop there.  He says that those who are called are “beloved in God the Father.”  In the Greek language the participle ‘loved’ is in the perfect tense.  The perfect tense in the Greek identifies a completed action that has on-going effects.  So consider that again.  Those whom God has called are loved in God the Father.  They aren’t in His love at times and out of it at others.  God has loved us and that love has ongoing effects that we experience daily.  Jude then uses another participle to describe those who are called by God – he says that we are “kept for Jesus Christ.”  Jude uses another perfect tense participle indicating that those who have been called are also being kept for eternity with Jesus Christ.  It’s a completed action so we can’t be lost or let loose of, and it has ongoing effects so that we continue to be kept by God for Jesus.  Pay attention to what Jude is communicating.  Those who have trusted in Jesus as Lord and Savior are recipients of incredible saving grace.  The grace that God has extended to us was for the purpose of calling us to faith, keeping us loved, and keeping us guarded for eternity with Jesus.  And we are recipients of these things, not to make much of ourselves and establish ourselves, but to find our identity in Jesus and to bring glory and honor to God the Father.  When we are recipients of that grace we find ourselves in an incredibly secure position and enabled to bear a strong testimony to the glory of God because of what He has done to save us.

In verse 3 Jude says that this is what he was really eager to write to these believers about.  But in preparing to write to this particular church a more pressing matter arose to which Jude found it necessary to write.  And here is where we find the purpose of Jude’s letter.  Jude says in verse 3, “I found it necessary to write appealing to you to contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints.”  While Jude wanted to write to this church about their salvation Jude determined that what he really needed to do was to instruct this church to fight for the faith and the truth that had been passed down to them from Jesus and His apostles.  This is Jude’s purpose statement.  This is the reason that Jude is writing.  And this is the theme that he will work to establish throughout the letter.  Why?  Verse 4 answers that question.  “For certain people have crept in unnoticed who long ago were designated for this condemnation, ungodly people, who pervert the grace of our God into sensuality and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.”  Jude needed to write these believers to instruct them to contend for the faith because certain people had slipped into their church who weren’t contending for the faith – they were pretenders of the faith and instead of guarding grace they were perverting it.  And while fighting against those who were in their very midst may not seem like a good idea Jude makes some important distinctions from the beginning of the letter to help his readers understand that these false teachers were altogether different from them.  Jude says in verse 4 that these false teachers already stood condemned to suffer God’s wrath and eternity apart from Him. These false teachers were ungodly (i.e. it wasn’t that they did not believe in God they just didn’t like the morals for which He stood).  These false teachers perverted God’s grace and turned it into sensuality (meaning they used God’s grace as a license to sin).  And these false teachers denied the lordship of Jesus (the reference here probably dealing primarily with their behavior).  While these false teachers may have seemed like a part of the church, the real believers should not be fooled and so refuse to contend against them.  In reality these false teachers neither submitted to God the Father or Jesus, wrongly made use of His grace, and stood condemned as a result.  These were individuals the church needed to contend with because their presence amongst them was very dangerous.

In the rest of the verses that we are going to cover this week Jude turns his attention to these false teachers.  And in this portion of Jude’s letter we will see three REALITIES of those who choose to pervert grace.  He begins by making the case that the first reality of those who choose to pervert grace is that they will suffer God's eternal judgment (vs. 5-10).  Some of Jude’s readers may have wondered if it was really true that someone who seemed to acknowledge God and seemed to be a follower of God could really stand condemned, as Jude wrote in verse 4.  Jude, inspired by the Holy Spirit had the foresight to answer that question in verses 5-7.  To begin building this case he first lays an Old Testament (OT) foundation to demonstrate that this is not a new reality but one that has been true from the beginning of creation.  Jude begins in verse 5 with the example of the Israelites and their wilderness behavior following the Exodus.  God saved His people from the Egyptians and the oppression they had placed on them.  But once the Israelites got uncomfortable in the wilderness what did they start to do?  They started to cry out against God.  “Why did you bring us out of Egypt?  So that we might starve, or thirst to death, or be destroyed by another nation?”  Most of the Israelites believed in God – that wasn’t their issue.  The problem was that they failed to trust God and be completely committed to Him.  So Jude says God destroyed those who were part of the nation of Israel because they “did not believe.”

Jude moves on to another example in verse 6.  There he asks his readers to remember the ‘the sons of God’ from Genesis 6:1-4.  Most scholars have believed that this story is about certain angels who left their proper place to come to earth, take wives, and then have relations with them.  These angels in Genesis 6 overstepped (or transgressed) the boundaries that God had assigned to them and as a result were experiencing great consequences.  Jude says that they are currently being “kept in eternal chains under gloomy darkness . . .”  (Trust me that this is a lot worse than just having some perpetual gray and sad looking cloud over your head like we see over Eeyore in the Winnie the Pooh cartoons.)  These eternal chains and gloomy darkness are a terrible existence, especially for those who once had community with and fellowship with God.  But what’s even worse is the judgment that is awaiting them.  On the great day of judgment those angels will not only experience separation from God but His wrath poured out upon them.

Jude gives a third and final OT example in verse 7.  There he asks his readers to remember Sodom and Gomorrah.  Some of you are familiar with the story of Sodom and Gomorrah.  If not take some time to look back at Genesis 19.  There you’ll find a story of two angels who (having the appearance of men) come to Sodom and encounter Lot (the nephew of Abraham).  Lot persuades these two men to come to his home for the evening so that he can provide them with a meal and a place of rest before they go on their way the following day.  But before they retire for the evening the text says that all the men of Sodom – all of them – surround Lot’s home and begin demanding that Lot send the men out so that they could have relations with them.  When Lot refused they threatened not only to do what they wanted to the two men, but to do the same and even worse to Lot, himself.  Sodom and Gomorrah were both known for the immorality that was practiced there.  And in Genesis 19 we see how strongly and even violently they pursued immoral desires like homosexuality.  God looked upon this perversion of grace so strongly that these two angels led Lot and his family out of the city and then God destroyed the cities by raining down on if both sulfur and fire.  Jude says at the end of verse 7 that the punishment of fire that these cities experienced serve as an example to his present readers of the punishment of eternal fire that those who act in like manner will experience.

Jude lays an OT foundation for his readers to help them understand that though some people may appear to be a part of God’s community, the reality is that those who choose to pervert God’s grace by failing to commit to Him and by overstepping the boundaries that God by His grace has established will suffer eternal judgment.  It was a reality for these OT examples and it is a reality for these present false teachers.  Consider some of the present observations that Jude makes about these false teachers in verses 8-10.  Moving into verse 8 Jude says, “Yet in like manner these people also, relying on their dreams, defile the flesh, reject authority, and blaspheme the glorious ones.”  Jude says here that these false teachers are perverting God’s grace just like those OT examples were.  Apparently Jude understood that these false teachers were using claims of ‘new revelation’ to justify their behavior and their teachings.  This is a dangerous claim that many false teachers make.  They teach that we should not limit God and His communication to the Bible – that God can communicate in other means, such as dreams or visions.  And this is certainly true.  But where they step outside of orthodoxy is when they begin to say that not only can God communicate in other means but that He can deliver what we call ‘new revelation’ when He does that.  ‘New revelation’ is a teaching or truth from God that is not presented in the Bible and that stands in contradiction to what the Bible teaches.  For example, we believe the Bible teaches the principle that marriage is a covenant that takes place between one man and one woman.  We base this on the creation account and what we see God establishing and affirming throughout the Old and New Testaments.  Now it might happen that as a believer is wrestling with this truth that God might choose to communicate to him or her through a dream or a vision in which God communicates to him or her that marriage according to His design consists of one man and one woman in covenant relationship with one another.  We would affirm that yes, God may have communicated to that individual through a dream or vision because He was affirming existing truth or revelation.  But what false teachers so often do is claim they had a dream or vision in which God communicated to them, and in that dream or vision God revealed to them something that He has not revealed in Scripture.  Taking the same example, if an individual is wrestling with unnatural desires and claims that God spoke to him in a dream or vision and in that dream or vision God showed him that he could marry another man or that he could marry multiple wives, then we would say that individual was a heretic, because he was proclaiming new revelation that contradicts what the Bible clearly teaches.  The temptation for those who are young or immature in their faith is the idea of not wanting to limit God.  They believe that God is infinitely big and powerful and to suggest that God can’t communicate something new is hard for them to believe.  That is why they sometimes fall prey to these false teachers.  But the reality is, not only is God infinitely big and powerful, but He is also unchanging.  God has clearly communicated truth to us in the Bible and what we have to understand is that we are not limiting God when we suggest that new revelation contradicting existing revelation is heretical – what we are doing is guarding the character of God and the gracious gift of the Bible – God’s true, revealed revelation – which He has handed down to us.  So Jude says these false teachers are using ‘new revelation’ to “defile the flesh”, just like the angels in Genesis 6 did and like the men of Sodom and Gomorrah did in Genesis 19.  He says they are using new revelation to “reject authority” like the Israelites did in the wilderness and like the angels did in Genesis 6 by overstepping the boundaries that God had given them.  And Jude also says that they are using ‘new revelation’ to justify their blasphemy of the glorious ones.  Blasphemy of the glorious ones?  What does that mean?  Jude helps to answer that question in verses 9 and 10.  In verse 9 Jude chooses to reference for his reader’s what took place with Moses’ body after Moses died.  The content of verse 9 probably sounds a little strange to most of youIn verse 9 Jude says that the archangel Michael and the devil had a dispute over who should be given rightful possession of Moses’ body and that in that dispute Michael chose not to rebuke Satan, but to speak to Satan and to say, “The Lord rebuke you.”  The reason this probably sounds strange is that this dispute isn’t mentioned in the Bible.  In fact Deuteronomy 34 doesn’t mention much at all in terms of what happened to Moses’ body.  Listen to a couple of verses from that chapter.  “Then Moses went up from the plains of Moab to Mount Nebo, to the top of Pisgah, which is opposite Jericho.  And the Lord showed him all the land, Gilead as far as Dan . . . And the Lord said to him, ‘This is the land of which I swore to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, ‘I will give it to your offspring.’  I have let you see it with your eyes, but you shall not go over there.’  So Moses the servant of the Lord died there in the land of Moab, according to the word of the Lord, and He buried him in the valley in the land of Moab opposite Beth-peor; but no one knows the place of his burial to this day” (Deuteronomy 34:1, 4-6).  Nowhere in the OT account do we see or even hear of anything like what Jude records.  Most scholars believe that Jude is citing a 1st century work in this part of his letter called The Testament of Moses.  And while most scholars doubt the authenticity of the work in its entirety, Jude certainly felt like the portion he was citing was true and that the oral history of the Jews supported it.  One of the big problems that we have today is that we don’t have any complete manuscripts of The Testament of Moses.  All of the manuscript evidence we have of this work is missing the last portion of the work, which is apparently the portion of the work containing the narrative of Michael’s dispute with Satan.  But what we do have are other ancient manuscripts that cite portions of this story from The Testament of Moses in them.  From those citations we are able to piece together what the ending of The Testament of Moses must have communicated.  Scholars believe that after the death of Moses, Michael came to bury his body.  However, at that time, the devil also came and argued that the body should be given to him because Moses was a murderer and did not deserve an honorable burial.  Michael, instead of appealing to his own authority, appealed to the judgment of God by replying, “The Lord rebuke you” and the devil withdrew because he knew that God would decide in favor of Moses’ honor and against his slander of Moses.  When we consider this story and how it meshes with the account in Deuteronomy the only place where they don’t seem to mesh is in regards to who buried Moses’ body.  Deuteronomy suggests that God buried Moses while The Testament of Moses suggests that Michael buried Moses.  It is probably fine for us to understand that Michael buried Moses acting on God’s command.  But this isn’t the point that Jude is trying to communicate by using this example.  Jude uses this example to compare and contrast Michael’s response with Satan’s.  When given the opportunity Satan overstepped his bounds and slandered and attempted to accuse Moses.  Michael on the other hand, though he was in a much greater position of authority than Satan, did not step out of his proper place in relationship to God and pronounce a judgment upon Satan.  He left that to God – the only One who was in position to do that.  Michael refused to take the place of God (which we would consider blasphemy) and pronounce judgment on Satan.

Jude brings the application back to these false teachers in verse 10 by saying that these individuals blaspheme all that they do not understand (which Jude implies included the angels).  Most likely they overstepped their bounds by claiming that they possessed a higher spirituality and knowledge than others when the reality, according to verse 10, was that they really understood very little.  The only knowledge they possess has to do with their instinctual desires, which probably refers to their sexual desires, and which have caused them to be destroyed.  Paul warned about living according to our flesh and our natural desires in Romans 8:1-8 and instructs us that the only solution is for us to receive Christ as Lord and Savior and to live by the Spirit.

In verses 5-10 Jude makes the case that those who choose to pervert grace will suffer God’s eternal judgment by giving some OT examples of those who perverted God’s grace and experienced His judgment and then showing how these false teachers were presently following the model of these OT examples.  In verses 11-13 Jude is going to use the same technique.  In these verses Jude is going to make the case that those who choose to pervert grace will produce no benefit and he is going to do that by giving three more OT examples and making some present observations demonstrating how the false teachers were following the model of those OT examples.

Jude begins verse 11 by saying, “Woe to them!”  This implies a very serious consequence.  If you get caught speeding by a police officer he doesn’t come to your window and say, “Woe to you!”  This kind of language is reserved for those who are facing an incredibly serious consequence.  Then Jude gives the first of three OT examples.  He says first that these false teachers have “walked in the way of Cain.”  Many of you will remember that Cain was the first murderer in the Bible who was guilty of killing his brother Abel.  So is this what Jude is accusing these false teachers of?  Murder?  Probably not.  So we have to think a little harder.  We have to ask ourselves, “Why did Cain murder his brother, Abel?”  And the answer is because of hatred.  So we ask, “Why did Cain hate his brother, Abel?”  And the answer is because Abel had offered a better sacrifice to God and Cain was jealous.  That understanding helps us to understand Jude’s accusation against these false teachers.  They were guilty of hatred towards those who were rightly following after God – just like Abel.  These false teachers, attempting to approach God on their own terms and to fulfill their own desires probably hated the fact that their beliefs and actions were not affirmed by the church and so began to hate those who were rightly following after God.  This can’t be the stance we take towards those who are followers of God and disciples of Jesus.  1 John 3:11-15 says, “For this is the message that you have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another.  We should not be like Cain, who was of the evil one and murdered his brother.  And why did he murder him?  Because his own deeds were evil and his brother’s righteous.  Do not be surprised, brothers, that the world hates you.  We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brothers.  Whoever does not love abides in death.  Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him.”  While the false teachers hate those who are in Christ we are to love them.

Jude gives the next OT example in verse 11 saying that these false teachers had “abandoned themselves for the sake of gain to Balaam’s error.”  I’m guessing that many of you aren’t familiar with Balaam and those of you who are probably recognize his name because he’s the guy who had the talking donkey in Numbers 22.  So allow me to summarize a little bit about Balaam and his circumstances to help you understand what Jude is accusing these false teachers of.  There was a king of Moab named Balak who had observed the destruction of the Amorites by the Israelites and who was fearing for His own safety and the safety of his people.  He knew that it was only a matter of time before the Israelites destroyed his people.  So Balak wanted to hire Balaam to pronounce a curse on the nation of Israel.  In Numbers 22 and 24 we find Balaam responds to Balak saying that he can only speak the words that God gives him to speak.  Balaam knew that God was protecting the Israelites and that He would never permit the curse of anyone to bring disaster upon Israel.  But Jewish history also tells us that Balaam was a very greedy man and that he still sought a way to help Balak, the king of Moab, so that he could receive payment.  So let’s consider what Balaam did.  Numbers 25:1-3 says, “While Israel lived in Shittim, the people began to whore with the daughters of Moab.  These invited the people to the sacrifices of their gods, and the people ate and bowed down to their gods.  So Israel yoked himself to Baal of Peor.  And the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel.”  Look at some of the specifics in this verse.  The nation of Israel (specifically the men) began to have relations with the women of Moab (the nation ruled by Balak).  Then, what began with sexual relations led to the Israelites worshipping and sacrificing to Baal – a sin we call idolatry.  God hated the idolatry of the Israelites and the last verse says that His anger was kindled against the nation of Israel.  Balaam didn’t need to curse Israel, because their own actions had brought on God’s anger.  But let me ask you to consider one other question, “Whose idea was this any way?”  To answer that question turn a few chapters over to Numbers 31:16.  That verse says, “Behold, these, on Balaam’s advice, caused the people of Israel to act treacherously against the Lord in the incident of Peor, and so the plague came among the congregation of the Lord.”  Jewish history tells us that while Balaam would not curse the nation of Israel he did instruct Balak, the king of Moab, to send all of the most beautiful women of Moab to the Israelite camps and to use their beauty to entice the men into having relations with them.  Balaam knew that if Israel entered into sinful sexual acts with women from another nation that God would punish the Israelites, which would ultimately be more effective than any curse which he tried to place upon them.  So in “abandoning themselves for the sake of gain to Balaam’s error” Jude was accusing these false teachers of proposing moral entrapment for the sake of profit.

The third OT example Jude gives in verse 11 is that these false teachers, “perished in Korah’s rebellion.”  Once again Jude gives an OT example which many of us probably aren’t familiar with.  Korah was a Levite leader during the time of Moses.  Korah believed that the whole nation of Israel was the people of God and that was evidenced by the fact that God resided in their midst.  He also believed that both Moses and Aaron had overstepped their authority by trying to establish themselves as political and priestly leaders of the Israelite nation.  So Korah lead a rebellion in Numbers 16 in which he and those he was leading challenged the authority of Moses.  Numbers 16 tells us that the result of their challenge was that God was frustrated by their rebelliousness against God-given authority and that God caused the earth to open up around Korah and all those who were a part of the rebellion and that the earth swallowed them up.  Apparently Jude saw in these false teachers the same type of disposition to Jesus’ and the apostles’ teachings.  These false teachers must have been standing in opposition to the authority of Jesus’ teachings and in doing so, leading others to follow in their example.  A course that if one continues on leads to one’s own destruction and is of no benefit to those around them.

After laying the foundation using OT examples that those who choose to pervert grace will produce no benefit by demonstrating how neither Cain, Balaam, nor Korah did anything of benefit for the community of God, Jude goes on to make some present observations about these false teachers in verses 12 and 13.  For times sake we aren’t going to delve deeply into these.  But listen quickly to some of the descriptions of these present false teachers.  “These are hidden reefs.”  We all know the dangers that reefs hidden under water can pose to ships who come upon them unexpectedly.  They are “shepherds feeding themselves . . .waterless clouds . . . fruitless trees . . .”  These false teachers have the appearance of those who ought to bring benefit to their community, but the reality is they don’t bring any.  They are dangerous and lead only to destruction.  The OT prophet Ezekiel warned about men like these in Ezekiel 34:2-3.  There he says, “Son of man prophesy against the shepherds of Israel; prophesy, and say to them, even to the shepherds, Thus says the Lord God; Ah, shepherds of Israel who have been feeding yourselves!  Should not shepherds feed the sheep?  You eat the fat, you clothe yourselves with the wool, you slaughter the fat ones, but you do not feed the sheep.”  God warns those who have the task of leading His people to make sure they are not simply looking after themselves but that they are really taking care of His flock.

In verses 14 through 16 Jude presents the third reality of those who choose to pervert grace.  In these verses we will see that those who choose to pervert grace lead from a self-centered, near-sighted perspective.  For a third time Jude uses the technique of laying a foundation and then making some present observations.  The difference this time is that Jude cites and apocryphal book called 1 Enoch.  Again, because of time’s sake I don’t have time to expound on why later scholars did not consider 1 Enoch to be a part of the biblical canon.  We simply have to understand that Jude was familiar with this book and felt that this one verse in particular, 1 Enoch 1:9, helped him articulate his point against these false teachers.  Jude understood that the world is currently existing in a time of God’s patience and mercy.  However, in citing this particular passage Jude demonstrates that he was mindful that this time is limited and that dire consequences await those who persist in disobedience.  If we are going to protect grace for the means which God intended it, then we have to lead with a God-centered, eternal perspective.  Jude fully believed that Jesus was coming again with a multitude of His heavenly host and that they would execute judgment on the ungodly for both their deeds and their harsh words.  The ungodly were guilty of using God’s grace for selfish motives and were not concerned with an eternal perspective. 

Jude then makes his last set of present observations in verse 16.  He says that these false teachers are “grumblers, malcontents, following their own sinful desires; they are loud-mouthed boasters, showing favoritism to gain advantage.”  It appears that these false teachers were complaining about the moral demands of the teaching of Jesus, saying that it was either too hard or too unfair (or both).  Therefore those teachings could be either modified or ignored.  It also appears that Jude is accusing them of distorting the teaching of God to gain the financial support of members of the community who are listening to them.  These false leaders were wanting to gain financial wealth and they were proclaiming what the wealthy wanted to hear so that they (the teachers) might benefit financial as well.  These false teachers appear to be completely focused on themselves and how they might benefit in the here and now.  They failed to lead with a God-centered, eternal perspective, which is necessary to rightly understand God’s grace.

Allow me to wrap all this up this way.  God is the only One worthy of praise, honor, and glory.  Therefore everything that He does is geared towards making much of Him.  That includes His gift of grace.  As Jude opens his letter he doesn’t do so by making much of himself but by pointing to his identity in Christ and the gracious work that God had done in his life and in the life of the believers that he was writing to.  God has extended saving grace to those of us who have trusted in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.  He is loving us and He is keeping us for Jesus Christ.  And in so doing God is bringing glory and honor to Himself.  In reconciling a lost and broken humanity it demonstrates His power to make right His plan from human sinfulness.  In loving the unlovable, saving them, and guarding them for all eternity He shines incredible light on His saving goodness – not the worth or efforts of humanity.  God’s grace is for His glory.

But false teachers have crept into our churches who have taken God’s grace and perverted it.  They have used God’s grace to chase their own desires.  They have used God’s grace to question and reject His authority.  They have used God’s grace to make much of themselves in this present time.  But Jude warns us against those leaders.  He tells us that those false teachers will suffer God’s eternal judgment.  He tells us that those false teachers will produce no benefit.  And He reveals to us that they are leading from a self-centered near-sighted perspective.  And then He gives us a job.  He tells us to contend for the faith!

In the movie Top Gun, there is a scene at the end that I think helps illustrate this incredibly clearly.  There are two American fighter planes piloted by men with the call names ‘Maverick’ and ‘Ice Man.’  The two US fighter planes are engaged with several enemy fighter planes.  But due to a malfunction on the aircraft carrier no other US fighter planes are able to take off.  Maverick and Ice Man alone are left to take on the enemy.  In the middle of the fight something happens that spooks Maverick and causes him to think back on a time in the past when his fighter plane crashed and his best friend and navigator, ‘Goose,’ was killed.  Maverick, overcome by fear leaves the fight and flies away leaving only ‘Ice Man’ to take on the enemy alone.  Now in that moment Maverick is safely flying his plane through the sky.  He’s doing a portion of what his job is – to fly an American fighter plane.  In that moment he is cruising around in safety with a unique perspective on the world, but he’s not a part of the fight.  From his radio the audience can hear different individuals yelling at Maverick.  Ice Man, Maverick’s new navigator, and those who are on the aircraft carrier watching the fight take place on their radars are all yelling at Maverick to re-engage in the fight.  He was no longer contending with the enemy and he had left Ice Man in a very dangerous position.  He needed to get back in the fight!

That’s where I think so many American churches and so many individual believers are today.  We’re cruising around in our jets, we have our own unique perspective on the world, and we are in relative safety.  All the while we feel like we are doing what we are supposed to do.  But going on all around us is a fight.  There are many false teachers who have crept into our communities, who are perverting grace, and who are teaching both those who are not believers in Jesus and those who are to follow after their lead.  God is exhorting us through Jude to engage in the fight, to start contending for the faith.  He’s calling us to get on mission!  Jesus said that He came to seek and to save the lost.  And rather than engaging in that mission and in that fight, we are isolating ourselves to the safety of our churches and letting the false teachers of our time pervert grace to their own eternal destruction and to the destruction of others.  We are nothing more than ‘pretenders.’  And now is the time that we need to stop pretending and start contending.  It is time that we start to fight and struggle to make sure that everything we do is for His glory, for His fame, and for His name-sake.  It is time that we start aggressively examining our lives, aggressively examining our motives, and aggressively examining those who are a part of our community.  We cannot ignore the fact that there is a spiritual war going on all around us!  We have got to get in the fight!

Small Group Questions for Discussion

1. Read verses 1 and 2.  In Jude’s introduction he does an amazing job revealing how God’s grace has impacted Him.  What stands out to you about God’s grace in these verses and how it has impacted Jude?  Does the grace of God impact us the same way?  Why or why not?

2. In verses 5-10 Jude emphasizes three realities of those who pervert grace: they will suffer eternal judgment, they will produce no benefit, and they lead from a self-centered, near-sighted perspective.  Why was it so important that Jude clearly articulate these realities for his readers?

3. If we are going to contend for the faith as a church what does that look like?  If we are going to contend for the faith as individuals what does that look like?  What if anything is going to have to change for us to do this better?  How can we encourage one another in this effort?

4. What step of faith does this passage of Scripture require us to take as individuals and as a small group?  How do we work this out on mission?

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