Series Title: Book of Jude (http://www.springvalleybiblechurch.org/pages/Jude.htm)
Series Sequence Number: 2
Lesson Title: Contend for faith not with faith (http://www.springvalleybiblechurch.org/Audio/Jude/m3u/20030812Jude2.m3u)
Speaker:Herman Mattox
Date: 2003-08-12

Scripture List: Jude 1-7; Galatians 3:1; 2 Corinthians 11:3-4; Romans 7:1-13; Galatians 1:6-7; Job 41:12; Genesis 4:3-6; Isaiah 28:13; Revelation 2:12-17

Introduction:
We have been studying Revelation Chapter 2, the versus discussing the third church: the church of Pergamum. This has taken the study into an important area: false teachers. This church of Pergamum has gone into the "teaching of Balaam". We read the story of Balaam in Numbers 22, 23, 24, but not details of the teaching. We saw in Peter 2 "the way of Balaam". Balaam is mentioned 61 times in the scriptures, more than Satan, more than the Devil.

Opening Prayer:
That the Spirit might open our eyes to the teaching of Balaam. The church of Pergamum was doing it right, and was led away. This is possible with marriages, and teachings even though all seems to be going well. Don't ever think you can't be led away from the truth.

Notes:
The book of Jude is just before Revelation. The current area of study hasn't take the lesson far from the initial scriptures of we were studying in Revelation.

Jude 1-7 (NASB95)
1 Jude, a bond-servant of Jesus Christ, and brother of James, To those who are the called, beloved in God the Father, and kept for Jesus Christ:
2 May mercy and peace and love be multiplied to you.
3 Beloved, while I was making every effort to write you about our common salvation, I felt the necessity to write to you appealing that you contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all handed down to the saints.
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.
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.
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,
7 just as Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities around them, since they in the same way as these indulged in gross immorality and went after strange flesh, are exhibited as an example in undergoing the punishment of eternal fire. [1]

The battle is faith. In vs. 3 Jude is contending, fighting, taking a stand for faith, and encourages us to contend for faith ourselves, not to stand for distortion of the gospel:

This battle has been going on since the beginning of the church. This is the first century. Christ was crucified around 30AD and already there is a battle for the simple truth. It has been so easy for wrong things to creep in and be accepted by all of us as truth: things handed down from the very beginning that are simply not true. This has been going on a long time, longer than just the truth.

False teachers use "faith", confession, repentance, sorrow, etc. to confuse the truth, to deceive us into the same errors Cain and Job fell into. So the question you have to as is if this faith that is being taught is the faith Christ intended for us.

We are all Saints in Christ. Many want to thing that there is a special class of believer that is the Saints, but we are all Saints who believe in Christ. You may not "feel" like a saint, you may not "look" like a saint, but still you are a saint. Jude isn't arguing for "Orthodox Doctrine", but for the basics of the faith.

There are many church councils where they were hammering out what we believe. "Fundamentalist" came from two conferences around 1885 where men met who were concerned about the things people believed. Around 8 years later they came down with 5 fundamentals of our faith.

This isn't the type of thing Jude is arguing, but rather he is arguing the fundamental issues of trusting Christ and the Spirit. In mathematics we can pass on fundamentals like "1 + 1 = 2", but with Christianity every generation has to decide what they believe. False teachers have been coming around for a long time, they are throughout the scriptures.

Isaiah 28 "here a little, there a little" (see below) Through the centuries our overall understanding has grown, but there is a common appeal when addressing false teachers, and that is an appeal to the fundamentals of faith. This is an important issue. There is hardly a book in the bible that does not touch on it: Jude is the smallest book of the bible and deals with this.

Galatians 3:1 (NASB95)
1 You foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you, before whose eyes Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified? [1]

Cults dealing with snakes may fool the unbelievers, but they do not fool the church, but there are some who truly deceive those who seek the truth. This isn't easy to see, it's not easy to uncover these false teachers as they sneak up on you, deceive, charm, and bewitch with words and half truths. Get you all excited about working for God, doing for God, giving for God etc.

2 Corinthians 11:3-4 (NASB95)
3 But I am afraid that, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, your minds will be led astray from the simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ.
4 For if one comes and preaches another Jesus whom we have not preached, or you receive a different spirit which you have not received, or a different gospel which you have not accepted, you bear this beautifully. [1]

Do not think that these false teachers are teaching immorality. They are not teaching anti-God, anti-Bible. These false teachers "infiltrate unnoticed". They deny, and TEACH DENIAL of Jesus Christ from the pulpit.

HOW do they do that? It's simple: they do it by teaching LAW; by teaching performance; by teaching Satan's lie.

Who are the law breakers in the bible? It is the people who are trying to keep the law. If you want to be law breakers, then you have to know the Law. Knowing the Law, it is obvious that you are breaking the law. Then you need more laws to keep you away from breaking the law.

Romans 7:1-13 (NASB95)
1 Or do you not know, brethren (for I am speaking to those who know the law), that the law has jurisdiction over a person as long as he lives?
2 For the married woman is bound by law to her husband while he is living; but if her husband dies, she is released from the law concerning the husband.
3 So then, if while her husband is living she is joined to another man, she shall be called an adulteress; but if her husband dies, she is free from the law, so that she is not an adulteress though she is joined to another man.
4 Therefore, my brethren, you also were made to die to the Law through the body of Christ, so that you might be joined to another, to Him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit for God.
5 For while we were in the flesh, the sinful passions, which were aroused by the Law, were at work in the members of our body to bear fruit for death.
6 But now we have been released from the Law, having died to that by which we were bound, so that we serve in newness of the Spirit and not in oldness of the letter.
7 What shall we say then? Is the Law sin? May it never be! On the contrary, I would not have come to know sin except through the Law; for I would not have known about coveting if the Law had not said, "You shall not covet."
8 But sin, taking opportunity through the commandment, produced in me coveting of every kind; for apart from the Law sin is dead.
9 I was once alive apart from the Law; but when the commandment came, sin became alive and I died;
10 and this commandment, which was to result in life, proved to result in death for me;
11 for sin, taking an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me.
12 So then, the Law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good.
13 Therefore did that which is good become a cause of death for me? May it never be! Rather it was sin, in order that it might be shown to be sin by effecting my death through that which is good, so that through the commandment sin would become utterly sinful.[1]

Christians would not deceived by someone preaching homosexuality, or a public homosexual teacher in the pulpit, but they are charmed into accepting half truths , a story of a Jesus that isn't the Jesus Christ, another spirit that isn't the indwelling of the Holy Spirit given at salvation by faith, or another gospel, a gospel of "Do and Do", a gospel of repentance, a gospel of baptism, all this is accepted by the church "beautifully", with no complaints. The deception is subtle.

Galatians 1:6-7 (NASB95)
6 I am amazed that you are so quickly deserting Him who called you by the grace of Christ, for a different gospel;
7 which is really not another; only there are some who are disturbing you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. [1]

A small distortion from faith, tithing, working, repentance for forgiveness of sin, doing anything for God, for restoration of the relationship, all this simple deceptions, when it can be no simpler than faith, than "trusting Him".

Jude says "Crept in unnoticed", this is "craftily", "secretly", "to infiltrate" like in war movies. To infiltrate these false teachers need to look and sound good; and they do. They use the right vocabulary, they dress nicely, they have great reputations, beautiful voices, no hidden secrets in their pasts.

Think about it. A gay teacher fools no one. A false teacher comes in teaching the gospel, then corrupting it in ways that do not seem corruption. Taking the point of our relationship away from Faith and directing it into other paths.

Anyone teaching immorality would be quickly identified and removed from the pulpit. However; this passage is talking about someone who has infiltrated the church and continued to teach immorality and continued to deny Jesus Christ. How is this possible?

How can any church have a pastor even who is denying Christ, but thinking themselves righteous? By teaching the Law, by adding works to the work of Christ, by effectively saying that the work of Christ is not sufficient in and of itself for salvation; then Christ is denied. If our blessings even, in any part rely on our works, on our keeping the Law; then those are dead works.

Job 41:12 (NASB95)
12 "I will not keep silence concerning his limbs, Or his mighty strength, or his orderly frame. [1]

GOD DOES NOT OWE US ANYTHING, EVEN IF WE ARE GOOD!
This is a false teaching from false teachers. It is a lie. We do not cause God to be indebted to us because we do something for him.

Genesis 4:3-6 (NASB95)
3 So it came about in the course of time that Cain brought an offering to the Lord of the fruit of the ground.
4 Abel, on his part also brought of the firstlings of his flock and of their fat portions. And the Lord had regard for Abel and for his offering;
5 but for Cain and for his offering He had no regard. So Cain became very angry and his countenance fell.
6 Then the Lord said to Cain, "Why are you angry? And why has your countenance fallen? [1]

Cain expected something from God for his offering to God: your commitment, your confession, your sorrow, your works, your obedience, your service, your repentance, your faith; then God owes you something: spirituality, salvation, blessings. But the reality is that He gave it all to us to begin with so he owes us nothing. Grace is when you do not earn or deserve what you receive. This is the distortion that is being addressed throughout the bible, and in our Jude passage. It is a distortion of Grace to do ANYTHING and think God will bless you. This is a denial of grace. Grace is understanding that God does not owe us anything, that we deserve nothing, and yet He gives.

So many wonderful words describing why you must DO for salvation: repent, confess, lordship, commit, invite, feel sorry for your sins; but none of the false teachers come out with the one word - Faith. They go through the bible to find every word but FAITH. Nearly every one of these words are in the bible, if they weren't in the bible you wouldn't believe it. They use the bible to lead you away from the truth of the Gospel. They convince that we have something that God will recognize and reward or bless. This is Satan's lie. We have nothing to offer God. But this lie is at the heart of the false teachings. We do our part, and He does his part. But that is the problem because we have no part. You become immoral when you try to offer God your works, and expect God to give you something in return. It isn't until you realize that you have no part, that you begin to see grace.

False teachers stand behind the pulpit and are immoral in their teachings. The prostitute in Revelation is this immorality. Trying to sell, to exchange for what God would give freely. Trying to sell that which is worthless. These sell out before God, are immoral before God, though they are moral in the eyes of man.

The same thing that made Cain angry, is the very same thing that made Job angry and disillusioned with God. Job had been doing it ALL GOOD, the right way, but God wouldn't accept what they offered. They started judging God. When you expect God to reward you for what you do, then you are headed where Cain and Job were headed.

Isaiah 28:13 (NASB95)
13 So the word of the Lord to them will be, "Order on order, order on order, Line on line, line on line, A little here, a little there," That they may go and stumble backward, be broken, snared and taken captive.[1]

"Order on order" or "Do and Do" is our instinct. You scratch my back, I'll scratch yours. I'll give my life to God because he has done so much for me! Basic instinct, and straight from the deepest pit of hell.

Inviting God into our heart is disgusting. Our heart is a gutter, and He will have no part of it. God invites us, and when we accept his invitation then he can wash us clean.

False teachers don't always teach Law. They teach integrity: "my integrity". It sounds good. We don't work hard because of integrity, we have integrity because of who we are in Christ.

Law makes you lawless, immoral, bad, it kills you. False teachers tell you the law is light, that it keeps you from being immoral, that it does right. But the law only condemns.

Revelation 2:12-17 (NASB95)
12 "And to the angel of the church in Pergamum write: The One who has the sharp two-edged sword says this:
13 'I know where you dwell, where Satan's throne is; and you hold fast My name, and did not deny My faith even in the days of Antipas, My witness, My faithful one, who was killed among you, where Satan dwells.
14 'But I have a few things against you, because you have there some who hold the teaching of Balaam, who kept teaching Balak to put a stumbling block before the sons of Israel, to eat things sacrificed to idols and to commit acts of immorality.
15 'So you also have some who in the same way hold the teaching of the Nicolaitans.
16 'Therefore repent; or else I am coming to you quickly, and I will make war against them with the sword of My mouth.
17 'He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes, to him I will give some of the hidden manna, and I will give him a white stone, and a new name written on the stone which no one knows but he who receives it.'[1]

Closing prayer:
The christian life seems kind of of scary, but when we see how simple it is to keep our eyes fixed on faith in Christ, we can see how simple it is. When we see false teaching, we know it is false because it is not a part of faith.

Footnote:
An excerpt from "The Historical Background of the Five Fundamentals" by Oliver Price:

"While the fundamentals of the faith can be traced through the Reformation to the early church, fundamentalism as it is known today has its roots in the nineteenth century whence its liberal counterpart also sprang. In 1877 a Prophetic Conference was held at the Church of the Holy Trinity in New York City. The New York Tribune published an edition of 50,000 copies giving in full the messages of the conference. Conferences held in various parts of the country brought together leaders from the major Protestant denominations. Their addresses alerted pastors and laymen to the significance of liberalism which was infiltrating the churches and rallied Christians to the defense of historic Christianity.

The statement of five fundamentals formulated by the Niagara group in 1895 became a focal point in the controversy. These were presented as the essentials of faith which all Christians must accept. Briefly they were: (1) the inerrancy of the Scriptures, (2) the deity of Christ, (3) His virgin birth, (4) His substitutionary atonement, and (5) His physical resurrection and future bodily return.

No major Protestant denomination escaped the impact of the fundamentals of the faith. Widespread interest in the subject was reflected in the space it occupied in such secular magazines as: Atlantic, Forum, New Republic, Current Opinion, Literary Digest, Harpers, American Mercury, The Nation. The Forum published its readers definitions of a fundamentalist. One liberal caustically wrote, A Fundamentalist is a besieged Christian anxious to dictate the terms of surrender to Science. A fundamentalist reader offered a definition reflecting his stand against the relativism inherent in the liberal theology: In every realm of life there are certain great ultimates of truth. These are basic and cannot be improved upon. You cannot improve on the straight line or the multiplication table or the seven primary colors. In the spiritual realm we have ultimates, such as, The Existence of God; the Inspiration of the Scriptures; the Supernatural birth and life of Jesus Christ; His bodily Resurrection and His Atonement for sin and His Coming Kingdom. The Fundamentalist accepts without questioning these great ultimates."[2]

References:

[1] New American Standard Bible : 1995 update. 1995. LaHabra, CA: The Lockman Foundation.
[2] Bibliotheca Sacra. 1998 (electronic edition.). Dallas, TX: Dallas Theological Seminary.