Series Title: Book of Jude (http://www.springvalleybiblechurch.org/pages/Jude.htm)
Series Sequence Number: 5
Lesson Title: What are you talking about Jude? (http://www.springvalleybiblechurch.org/Audio/Jude/m3u/20030902Jude5.m3u)
Speaker:Herman Mattox
Date: 2004-09-02

Scripture List: Jude 1:5-6,17; Genesis 3:15; 1 Corinthians 2:6-8; Genesis 6:1-10; Job 1:6; Job 2:1; ; Psalm 89:6; Deuteronomy 32:17; Psalm 106:37

Opening Prayer:
What a privilege it is Heavenly Father to completely rest in your spirit to open our eyes and ears in the things you would have us to see in regard to the truth. We pray for so many in this assembly. We lift their names up to you Father inciting you to act in a manner that is glorying to you and befitting to lives. We present to you West Huddle, we present to you Edith, we present to you Tish and her family, Altom Denise and Larry having a new baby, and Bryan, Anita to be in prayer where GOd woold have her to be. There are so m any in this assembly father, we lift up to you in prayer. We pray now that we can see what your spirit would have us to see.

Introduction:
Got a call from a taper regarding Jude 4 "For certain persons have crept in unnoticed, those who were long beforehand marked out for this condemnation, ungodly persons who turn the grace of our God into licentiousness and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ." [1]. The taper was just appalled because at the church she went to sunday in her state. The pastor had taught this verse and gotten it completely opposite. THere are different ways you can understand these passages. He took verse 4 to be just the opposite of what we have said. He said that the reason they are false teachers is because they are not teaching law, they are not getting people to be obedient. She was amazed that two different men could look at the same passage and see two entirely opposite message. How you see God is how you see what is going on in the Bible from the beginning to end. you can look at this passage and say yea we need to get back to law; and it is being taught, it's being taught too much.

Lesson Notes:

Now for our passage"

Jude 5 (NASB95)
5 Now I desire to remind you, though you know all things once for all, that the Lord, after saving a people out of the land of Egypt, subsequently destroyed those who did not believe." [1]

Last tuesday we did Remind and Remembering in verse 17:

Jude 17 (NASB95)
"17 But you, beloved, ought to remember the words that were spoken beforehand by the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ," [1]

In verse 5, Jude's subject is false teachers. So why bring in this event? Because his purpose is to encourage them and us to fight for faith; so he goes to an historical event to demonstrate the importance of faith.

People if not faith... you got to ask yourself, if not simple faith, then what? WORKS! If it is not faith it is works: Man doing something - Salvation 1 eternal life Salvation 2 spirituality and living the christian life. If by any other way than faith, it's works.

It is up to false teachers to make the works sound good. Remember that! It is up to the false teachers to make the works sound right! To make it so you have to do something and make that sound right and good. Look like that is what God is mandating.


The better the lie, the better the false teacher. What do I mean by "better the lie"? The best lie is the lie that sounds like what God wants. Put that in your notes. Put that in your soul. Put that in your brain.

The best lie is the lie that is found in the bible. The best lie is the lie that deceives. That is the best lie. The better the lie the better the false teacher. The best lie is the lie that sounds like it is what God want's us to do. The best lie is the lie that they can go to the bible and show you it's in the bible. The better lie is the one that deceives away from truth, that sounds like truth.

Job's three friends sound so much like truth that many preachers today still praise them, in fact preach sermons from what Job's three friends were saying. Job's three friends were false teachers, but they sound so right, and they tore Job up, : "Why do you crush my soul with your words"

The Church today, in my opinion, is almost wholly apostate from the truth. But the church today looks so good. Look at the buildings: magnificent structures, TV, money, Political influence. But they are like the church of Ephesis, they seem to be doing it right, but they are so apostate that God said "I'm about ready to "take you out'". The church is full of false teachers. They have to change grace into works but make it sound right. That is a good "false teacher". Change grace into works but make it sound right. Bette3r the lie, better the false teachers. A lie must be good so that you will believe it. It must have some basis.

Let me be crass here: Every woman begins to learn this if they are not correctly taught by their parents. Some lies are easy to spot. A guy comes up and he hangs on a lie, and it's easy to spot; but many Many ladies soon learn that it is the best liar that is the most difficult to spot. Many end up marrying the wrong person because they are marrying the lies that they believed. The same thing is happening spiritually.

What is the heartbeat of grace? By that I mean what is the foundation, heartbeat, structure, whatever word fits your vocabulary, but what is the fundamental principal about grace that we learn and deal with in talking about grace. The fundamental thing is faith. That is the only thing compatible with true grace. It's just our faith. Simple faith. With no accompanying words. no accompanying deeds or performance, no matter how biblical they may sound.

People, a good false teacher with his lies, what he first does is get people to move from what grace is. he does this very carefully he moves away from Grace is just faith. That is the first thing he has to do. Most will know what grace is from salvation I or Eternal Life salvation, but the false teacher can get you to move from that, move from what grace is, get away from it and then slowly change the definition: now you have to do; and they call that grace.

They see it in Salvation 1 when they hear in some denomination such as Roman Catholics, you got to do this and you got to do that, you got to join the church but "no, no that's a lie". The only thing compatible with faith is grace. But then come the false teachers come in and say let me show you what grace is now. They do it so smoothly to move you away from truth. Once you move from the truth of grace that the only thing compatible with it is faith, then you are ready, for the lie, whatever their lie is. The better the lie, the more that are going to believe it.

A principle we will be seeing more and more of, "All lies lead to truth". I'll show you that in the study of Jude. False teachers and their lies change Grace to mean that if you do something for God, then God will do something for you. They say "If you just follow that long enough, it will lead you to the truth." It is amazing how many christians are charmed from grace by the lies of the false teachers.

In Galatians, we didn't study the flow of the false teachers, but it is so powerful there how charmed away from the truth. But then it's not so amazing as that's what the whole battle is about, and it is there in history: Job, Cain,

Unbelief is the great sin. It is the foundation of all sin. It is the sin against the gospel. It is the sin against the truth of the gospel: Not trusting in a member of the Godhead. It is the great sin of against the better covenant. It was the first sin of Adam: before Adam or Eve had ever eaten of the fruit they had already stopped trusting. It is so vital to understand faith; many teachers think they do, they say "Yes..., faith..., but...", but the minute they say but reveals they don't understand faith. Is it the faith that God is looking for: that is the great issue.

Everybody says they are doing faith, but is it the faith God is looking for? Many men and women say they love you, but you have to ask if it is the kind of love you are looking for?

They say: "I do faith! I believe that if I confess or repent or sorrow or invite or make Him Lord, I believe then that God will save". That is not the faith that God is looking for, you have been charmed away from the truth. Listen to what you are hearing and saying.

Refusing to just simpley trust in a member of the Godhead, the Son or the Spirit, because of a lie, you rob God of his glory. Many would not think of robbing god of his Glory in Salvation I or Eternal life salvation but in Salvation II they spend their life robbing him.

"Oh! It's not by emotion, you are not saved by emotion, or Godly sorrow, or repentance, or confession, it just faith, faith alone, that's the only thing compatibly with faith" And then a smooth talking false teacher comes along and says "Now you have to do this", and you are charmed right away.

One minute you are fighting for faith, and the next you are charmed away. To find counterfeit money, you have to understand authentic money. False teachers have to make lies sound right and good before God. To discover false teachers you have to know the truth.

Jude 6 (NASB95) "6 And angels who did not keep their own domain, but abandoned their proper abode, He has kept in eternal bonds under darkness for the judgment of the great day," [1]

Where did this come from? Why did Jude just jumped from God delivering those who trusted him, and destroying those who disbelieved, to the subject of angels.

Jude's purpose is "fight for faith"; so where does this come from? What has this to do with identifying faith and spotting false teachers who have crept in unnoticed. Jude is a short epistle, but it is packed.

 



No where in the bible is there a gathering together of such disparete events. Yet here there is a central theme to them all.

 

Closing prayer:
Father there has been so much going on in Human history and we can't understand it all, nor any part except that your spirit illuminates it for us. I think father that when we get to heaven we may be amazed at just how little we did grasp. Heaven is going to be a wonderful place. For now we praise you. We thank you for opening our eyes. We pray that you will continue to open our eyes that we may fight for faith. We know there are many false teachers and few teachers of truth. We pray for those true to your word. We pray for tonight Dan Hill, John Hence, and their small assemblies. We pray that you will continue to give these men eyes to see and ears to hear, and bring to the people who want to see and hear the truth. Thank you for this assembly, and the people here who want to see the truth. Praise you father in your Son's precious name. Amen.

References:

[1] New American Standard Bible : 1995 update. 1995. LaHabra, CA: The Lockman Foundation.