Faithful to the Truth

Welcome to the Well Community Church. If we have not met yet, my name is Brad, and I get the privilege of hanging out here with you this week. To those joining us in person, those joining us at one of our other campuses or gatherings—whether that’s Fig Garden or the Rowdies hanging out tonight at the PM gathering—I am so glad you are here. We also have some folks joining us online. I would just encourage those of you watching from outside the Fresno-Clovis area to find a local church. I love that you’re watching, and I’m delighted you have a hunger for your Bible, but as we’re going to learn today, we actually need each other. We’d love to be a side hustle of content for you, but you can’t video community. If you’re in the Fresno-Clovis area, we’ve got room for you. Come join us, because there’s something you cannot replicate in a living room that we’re doing right here today.

If you have your Bibles, we are going to be in the book of Jude. We’re actually going to finish this book today, which I’m very thankful for, because it has been a little bit of a beatdown. We avoided this book for twenty-two years, shamelessly! It’s only twenty-five short verses, and yet it has been very challenging, both to teach and to listen to.

If you look at verse three, you’ll see the jump-off point for the whole argument of the book. Jude, the half-brother of Jesus, wanted to have a sort of “kumbaya,” let’s-just-hug-it-out conversation about our common salvation. But then he got word of something—maybe he saw it on Facebook or whatever—and realized there was a problem of false teaching in the midst of the church. He challenges them to contend for the faith once delivered to the saints.

Jude 1:3 (NASB)

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.

Then, in verses four through nineteen, he goes on a bit of a rabbit trail, beating up on false teachers. He highlights a pattern we’ve seen throughout history. These false teachers were saying, “You don’t actually need God’s design. If you reject God and pursue what you want, life on your own is actually better.”

The Pattern of Deception

There is nothing new under the sun. That is exactly what Satan said in Isaiah 14 and Ezekiel 28. It’s what he said to Adam and Eve in Genesis. It is the core of the human condition: we have this innate tendency to reject God and go at it without Him. The Bible warns us about this over and over so we shouldn’t be surprised. Jesus warned us to beware of false prophets in sheep’s clothing.

Matthew 7:15 (NASB)

’Beware of the false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves.

Jude warns us again in verses seventeen and eighteen. Luke recorded Paul’s warning in Acts 20 that savage wolves would come in. Peter said there would be mockers following their own lusts. And Paul, while on death row, challenged young Timothy to preach the word because a time would come when people would not endure sound doctrine but would find teachers to tickle their ears.

2 Timothy 4:2-4 (NASB)

preach the word; be ready in season [and] out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort, with great patience and instruction. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but [wanting] to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires, and will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths.

All of these voices say the same thing: the tendency will be to reject God, but not you. Not followers of Jesus. We are called to a different standard. So the question we have to answer as this book ends is: How are we called to live in a world full of the noise of false teachers? We know we’re to contend for the faith and stand for the Bible, but how do we actually do that?

Notice how the book takes a turn. In verses four through nineteen, it’s “them” and “they.” But in verse seventeen and verse twenty, Jude says, “But you.” He’s shifting gears. This isn’t about “those people” anymore; this is a family meeting. He’s talking to the family about how we conduct ourselves individually and how we handle those in our midst who are being influenced by false teaching and beginning to drift.

Four Strategic Moves for the Faithful

Look at verses twenty and twenty-one. Jude puts on his pastor’s hat and speaks with tenderness, calling them “beloved.” He gives us four strategic moves to thrive in the face of false teaching.

Jude 1:20-21 (NASB)

But you, beloved, building yourselves up on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting anxiously for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to eternal life.

The first move is to build yourselves up in your most holy faith. Notice that “yourselves” is plural. The Christian faith was never meant to be “you singular.” It’s always “you plural.” This is why I admonish the online community to find a local church. There is strength in numbers. God didn’t create an institution of individual believers; He created a body where we function together. Now, I’ll be candid: the best part of being a church is the people, and the worst part of being a church is the people! We booger it up with our flesh sometimes, but there is no Plan B.

Building ourselves up in the “most holy faith” means getting back to the basics: grace alone, faith alone, in Christ alone. It means coming back to the work of the gospel and who Jesus is. Paul told the Colossians that we proclaim Christ so that we might present every man complete in Him.

Colossians 1:28-29 (NASB)

We proclaim Him, admonishing every man and teaching every man with all wisdom, so that we may present every man complete in Christ. For this purpose also I labor, striving according to His power, which mightily works within me.

To the church at Corinth, Paul said he determined to know nothing except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. He didn’t come with persuasive words of wisdom, but in the power of God.

1 Corinthians 2:1-5 (NASB)

And when I came to you, brethren, I did not come with superiority of speech or of wisdom, proclaiming to you the testimony of God. For I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and Him crucified. I was with you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling, and my message and my preaching were not in persuasive words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, so that your faith would not rest on the wisdom of men, but on the power of God.

We have to get back to the basics. Who is God? He is sovereign, almighty, and good. Who are we? We are image-bearers, but something is terribly wrong because of the Fall. We need a redemption that is alien to ourselves—found only in Christ. We are then grafted into this mess called the church to walk out life together. Our future isn’t in being “progressive”; it’s in being old-fashioned. We go back to chapter and verse. As the book of Malachi says, we remember Moses. We go back to what the Bible says.

Malachi 4:4 (NASB)

’Remember the law of Moses My servant, [even the] statutes and ordinances which I commanded him in Horeb for all Israel.

The second move is to pray in the Holy Spirit. Now, when you mention the Holy Spirit, two camps usually emerge. One is the charismatic camp—and I mean a movement untethered from the Word of God that pursues feeling and experience over Scripture. That can get flat-out weird. But the other extreme is the “charisphobic” camp. All they know about the Spirit is that they aren’t “that.” Unfortunately, that makes the Trinity: God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Scriptures. That is equally unbiblical.

What Jude is talking about is a biblically tethered pneumatology. It’s learning to commune with the real presence of the Spirit. Jesus told us it was better that He leave so the Helper could come.

John 14:16-17 (NASB)

’I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever; [that is] the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not see Him or know Him, [but] you know Him because He abides with you and will be in you.

The Spirit is sealed within you as a pledge. You are never alone. Praying in the Spirit means slowing down to enjoy silence—which is hard because our minds jump around like monkeys in a banana tree. But in that silence, we listen. We don’t just give God a grocery list of orders; we sit with Him. We might set a timer for two or three minutes and just breathe in His presence.

Romans 8:26 (NASB)

In the same way the Spirit also helps our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we should, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for [us] with groanings too deep for words;

The third move is to keep yourselves in the love of God. This isn’t a moralistic command to work harder so God will love you. You are in Christ, which means you are already fully forgiven and loved. You can’t make Him love you any more than He does right now, and you can’t make Him love you any less. Jude is saying: keep yourself in the awareness of that love. Paul tells us in Romans that nothing can separate us from it.

Romans 8:38-39 (NASB)

For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Fourth, we are to wait anxiously for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ. This means living with eternity in mind. This world is not our home; we are aliens and strangers here. We survive cancer, violence, and tragedy by saying, “It will not be like this one day.” One day, He will make all things new. If you don’t believe me, read Revelation 21. Jesus returns on a white horse, tatted up and in a really bad mood, with a sword coming out of His mouth to rule and reign. Until then, buckle up. It won’t be easy, but one day, He’s coming.

Revelation 21:4-5 (NASB)

and He will wipe away every tear from their eyes; and there will no longer be [any] death; there will no longer be [any] mourning, or crying, or pain; the first things have passed away.’ And He who sits on the throne said, ‘Behold, I am making all things new.’ And He said, ‘Write, for these words are faithful and true.’

Rescuing the Drifting

What is our responsibility to others who are hearing the whispers of false teaching? Jude gives us two groups and a caution.

Jude 1:22-23 (NASB)

And have mercy on some, who are doubting; save others, snatching them out of the fire; and on some have mercy with fear, hating even the garment polluted by the flesh.

The first group is those who are doubting. We are to have mercy on them. It’s fascinating that some of the grumpiest, most legalistic people are Christians. If there’s always one in the room and you don’t know who it is, look in the mirror! When someone starts to drift, don’t get judgmental. Go find out why. Be kind. A little compassion might be exactly what brings them back to the fold.

The second group is those being swept away. Jude says to save them, snatching them out of the fire. Now, you can’t lose your salvation if you are truly in Christ, but you can certainly reap corruption if you sow to the flesh. We have an obligation to go after the one sheep that goes astray. This isn’t a Seal Team Six extraction; it’s going to a friend in love and saying, “I’m concerned about you.”

Galatians 6:1 (NASB)

Brethren, even if anyone is caught in any trespass, you who are spiritual, restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness; [each one] looking to yourself, so that you too will not be tempted.

If someone is being swept away, they have spiritual vertigo. They are disoriented. They need persistent brothers and sisters who love them enough to attempt a rescue. We live in a unique time where traveling heretics are in our pockets. Social media algorithms are designed by geniuses who don’t have godliness in mind; they just want to keep you looking. If you click on false teaching, they’ll open a rabbit hole that can swallow you for hours. We owe it to each other to pull one another back.

But there is a caution: have mercy with fear, hating even the garment polluted by the flesh. Sin is contagious. We have to be mindful not to be influenced by the very decisions we are trying to rescue others from. Think of Lot in Genesis. He moved near Sodom, then into Sodom, then into leadership in Sodom. There is a tractor beam to sin, and if we aren’t careful, we get sucked in too.

A Final Doxology of Hope

Jude finishes this book with a beautiful doxology. He raises up the glory and beauty of our Christ.

Jude 1:24-25 (NASB)

Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling, and to make you stand in the presence of His glory blameless with great joy, to the only God our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, [be] glory, majesty, dominion and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen.

And that, my friends, is the book of Jude. Let’s pray.

Father, Your Word is incredible. Thank You for the last several weeks sitting under this teaching. I pray it would do what only it can—teaching, reproving, and correcting us. If there are things in our life that need to be exposed, do that. If there are things that need to be affirmed, encourage us. Help us to live in hope. In a world of false teaching, help us to be “old-fashioned” where You have revealed Your truth. Help us to walk together in plurality, encouraging and lifting one another up in this messy process of life. We thank You in Jesus’ name, Amen.