Highlands Reformed Church

The Epistle of Jude - Contending for the Faith »

Sunday, July 11th, 2010

1. 1. 1. Background and Review

1. Written BY Jude; the brother of James, the brother of Jesus, TO the church in general FOR the purpose of refuting certain heretics, or schismatic individuals who were ripping the church apart with both heterodoxy and heteropraxy.
2. Last week, we saw how God chose to inspire a book THROUGH fallen, redeemed men, to communicate His salvation. The Living God, COULD have righteously and irrevocably condemned the entire creation when Man sinned, instead, He SERVED us, not only in maintaining His creation, but redeeming it through His Son, Jesus

1. 1. 1. Exegetical Comments on the Text: “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 delivered the saints.”

1. Jude appeals the church to “contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints.” First, what WAS this “faith”

1. 1. The heart of the “gospel” is not primarily about individual salvation (though a necessary implication). The gospel is the proclamation that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the Living God, and that one day, all men WILL acknowledge Him as Lord (Phil 2:11ff).
   2. The human problem began in the Garden, with a rebellious act of Man, believing the Adversary’s lies and attempting to become God. God then condemns Man’s rebellion by cursing both His vicegerents AND the creation they were made to rule as His ambassadors.
   3. However, because of His love and mercy, He promises to redeem BOTH from His curse; the entire history of the Old Testament is the outworking of God’s promise of a coming Redeemer through the line of Seth, Adam’s Son, through Noah, Abraham, David, etc.
   4. This Redeemer would have two specific roles; one as the King of Kings and Lord of Lord’s, the other as the Suffering Servant who would suffer and die to atone for sin (Isa 53).
   5. In the fullness of time, Jesus was born as the center-piece of human history.

1. 1. 1. There is a reason WHY “Christmas” is celebrated, even though we have no specific Biblical warrant. Whether men recognize it or not, the birth of the Christ was the most important events in human history and the entire world has been changed because of it.
      2. However, Biblical Christianity does not WORSHIP the birth of Christ, but rather the Christ Himself-thus there is a distinction between a cultural celebration of an historical event, and a religious requirement to offer God proper worship.
      3. It is this balance that is often misunderstood and why so many Reformed Christians have taken such as definite stand against Christmas- many Christians brought into the worship of God something that He Himself never required or desired.
      4. The birth of the Messiah, was central to human history, and therefore a legitimate social, cultural event to celebrate, but it was NOT the central event in God’s history, which was the crucifixion and resurrection; the two events that propitiated God’s righteous wrath and allowed Him to redeem His creation from our sin.
      5. Hence, we are commanded to celebrate both the crucifixion AND the resurrection every Lord’s Day since THESE are from God’s perspective, what is really important.

1. 1. Hence the “faith” that was delivered was the confidence and trust that God had kept His covenant promises to redeem His creation, wipe away Man’s sin and the effects it had personally as well as socially, culturally and environmentally.
   2. And the proclamation that Jesus was the Messiah, the Christ, the “Anointed One” of God, meant that all men must acknowledge Him as Lord to receive the benefits of His comprehensive redemption.
2. Now, at the heart of the confession that Jesus is Lord, is also the assumption that Man cannot save himself, that he is righteously condemned and that there is nothing, he can do to.

1. 1. 1. That Jesus is the Messiah also requires men to recognize their own helplessness before God and their complete and utter dependence on His role as the Suffering Servant.
      2. Thus, by the grace of God, wicked men are given faith to trust that the Messiah has fully and completely fulfilled all the righteous requirements of God’s Law as our “new” Adam or federal head. Since God condemned the human race because of Adam’s sin, He therefore redeems the human race based upon the perfect obedience of Jesus.
      3. The gospel then is a complete repudiation of Man’s rebellion in the Garden; God is vindicated as God (and man is not) – God’s Word is true (He keeps His promises both to condemn sin as well as redeem sinners) – and God’s entire creation will be redeemed from the curse and stain of sin and wickedness.

1. Secondly, notice that this “faith” was “once for all delivered” to the “saints.”

1. 1. Our word “saints” literally means “holy ones.” The word does not mean a select, elite form of Christian but rather the generic term for “believer.” We are the “holy ones” because we have been “called out” or “separated” from the world and are to be “dedicated” or “consecrated” to the Lord (the basic definition of “holy”).
   2. This faith was “delivered” to the “holy ones” through the Apostolic message; the Apostles preached to the world that the Messiah had come and that every knee should bow and every tongue confess that HE and HE alone was “Lord” in fulfillment of the Father’s promise.
   3. Furthermore, this delivery was “once for all” which means that it is sufficient, complete and nothing can be added to it.

1. 1. 1. 1. One of the problems that Jude was addressing was that certain men had crept into the church and were perverting the gospel by introducing destructive and dangerous doctrines. In essence, they were saying that Christ was good, but not good enough. Men needed their revelation to “really” find peace with God.
         2. As we will see, these “heretics” were not just misinformed or confused, but wicked men who infiltrated the church and taught strange things for personal aggrandizement. In essence, they did not acknowledge Jesus as Lord, but recapitulated the error of Adam; they would determine good and evil, not the Lord God through His gospel.
         3. Hence, the church had to be aware of such men and contend for the truth against these errors. Any person who at any time claims to have new revelation that improves upon the gospel is in effect, identifying with these wicked men and showing that they are not part of the “holy ones” but dangerous and subversive enemies of the gospel.
         4. But those who trust in Jesus, and the sufficiency of His Word, are members now of God’s own family, beloved by God and His people. If you love Jesus, then you have to love His Word (Jn 14:21) and submit yourself to it-we cannot have Him as Savior if we do not also recognize Him as Lord (Rms 10:9-10).

1. 1. 1. Conclusion and Application

1. The “faith” is not some upper story, academic or philosophical speculation but rather the revelation that Jesus is Lord, and that through Him, God has redeemed what man lost.
2. Therefore, let us bring every thought, every word and every deed into submission to His will while recognizing that there are those who would pervert and distort the gospel…
3. There are many ways to “contend” for the faith; some lawful, some not. Not every doctrine has equal importance with every other doctrine. There is to be grace, kindness, gentleness and compassion for those whose understanding is less than our own (cf. Rms 14:1ff, 2 Tim 2:23ff). Often, arrogance and pride are the real motivations for much contention, division and schism within the church (Rms 8:1). Every difference in doctrine is not necessarily a heresy and every one who believes differently from us is not necessarily a heretic – how we handle our theological differences with one another may be as important as who is more technically correct.

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The Epistle of Jude - His Work Through Us »

Sunday, July 4th, 2010

1. 1. Background and Review

1. 1. 1. Written by Jude; the brother of James, the brother of Jesus, to the church in general, for the purpose of refuting certain heretics, or schismatic individuals who were ripping the church apart with both heterodoxy and heteropraxy
      2. Jude begins with a “servant’s heart” in that his faith-allegiance to Christ out-weighed his blood-relationship. It continues with an exhortation to “contend earnestly” for the “faith.”

1. 1. Exegetical Comments on the Text: “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 delivered the saints.”

1. 1. 1. There are a number of interesting aspects to this verse; we get a peak into the process of inspiration. The Scriptures (Greek “graphe” or “writings”) were “inspired” or “God breathed” and therefore are infallible, inerrant and authoritative. Then, by the providence of God, though we do not have the original manuscripts, the words of Scripture were preserved throughout the ages-evidential proof of this lies in the plethora of ancient manuscripts, the ability to recreate the entire New Testament from quotations of the church fathers, etc.
      2. However, what is not always so clear is the way God inspired the text; orthodox Christianity long ago rejected the “dictation” theory; i.e., that God spoke in an audible voice, the apostle or writer heard those words and wrote them down and hence we have Scripture.
      3. There is no doubt that some of the Apostolic writings were seen, at the time, to be divinely inspired by the other Apostles and so verified; i.e., Peter calls Paul’s writing “Scripture” in 2 Peter 3:16-note that men who “distort” Paul’s writings do so to their own “destruction.” But not every NT book makes this claim; here in Jude, he starts off his letter by saying that he wanted to write ONE type of letter but then “felt” it necessary to write a completely different letter.
      4. Now, though there was no universal postal service in the ancient world, there was some means of transmitting correspondence- hence we would expect a greater number of letters to have been written by Paul, Peter, John, etc., and since they were all apostles, would they all have been regarded as “Scripture?” We have references in Corinthians to a third letter Paul wrote, which was not preserved-clearly, if was not just apostolic authority at issue but something else
      5. Jude wanted to write a letter to the churches to encourage the saints and talk about our great salvation, but instead, ended up writing something completely different-so what was preventing him from writing two letters-one upbeat and encouraging, the other a serious-minded condemnation of heresy? Let me suggest that Jude understood, implicitly, that he was writing something under divine inspiration-and though he may have had the intention of writing one kind of letter, providentially, his mind and intention was changed.
      6. We do know that the “sign gifts” were in operation in the New Testament; men spoke in tongues and received prophecies. While not necessarily a daily occurrence, it is no stretch to think that some men were recognized as being especially inspired by God in a way that a good sermon, letter or book, no matter how well researched, logically presented or powerfully preached can be.
      7. The word “felt” translates a Greek word which meant not a feeling or impression but rather to “have” or “hold” –to possess,  “ability” or “hold fast” and can be used in the sense of “to be with child” (Mark 13:17, Rms 9:10). Literally, this phrase reads “I HAD the necessity to write;” the word “felt” is something added by the translators and really can put us off in the wrong direction
      8. Thus Jude did not have a “feeling” but rather a compulsion-from the context, this “compulsion” was motivated by his concern because of the dangerous men who were ripping the church apart with heresy and therefore the need for the faithful to “contend earnestly” for that faith.
      9. In other words, Jude wanted to write one kind of letter but was forced by what he saw happening to write a completely different sort of letter. And yet, why did he see this problem as being so serious that he would have to write a completely different kind of letter?
      10. The Bible, though inspired by God, with every word there for a specific purpose and reason, was written through men; that God’s providence governed not only the subject matter, but the situations around the authors that gave rise to the way that the books were written. God even worked through the specific personalities, gifts, education, etc., of the authors.
      11. And that means that the Bible is a human and a divine book in the sense that God was working through real people. It is not, as the liberals think, a human book containing a divine message-therefore if we can rid ourselves of the “human” elements, we will be left with the “divine” elements (and the implication is that those are the only “real” portions) because to do so makes man the determiner of what is “divine” from what is “human.”
      12. Instead, God is so gracious, that despite our sin and rebellion, He continues to honor His covenant with His creation through His vicegerent-Man. Man, as the supreme expression of His image in creation, has been entrusted with the responsibility to govern that creation in accordance with the Divine will. Thus, even in giving His own self-revelation, God entrusts it to men; special men, appointed by Him to speak His word with clarity and authority.
      13. This is “federal” representation in that God works His will out in creation, not just by executive decree but through ordained representatives; first through Adam, ultimately through Jesus, the “second” Adam but also in every other area of life; in the State, through the king, in the church through the elders and in the family, through the father.
      14. Thus God speaks to all men through His appointed messengers, the Apostles, just as He governs all of His creation, through His vicegerents! This subtly but powerfully changes the way we ought to expect God to work in the world; e.g., we are exhorted throughout the Scriptures to “pray without ceasing” but when Christians do, they assume that God’s answer will be through some miraculous, “supernatural” means. Sometimes, He does exactly that; but more often, He will work through more “normal” or natural means.

1. 1. Implications and Applications

1. 1. 1. Our Holy God has chosen to govern His creation by delegating dominion to various spheres and federal representatives. Thus, every man’s work has meaning and purpose because it is through a man’s work, that God Himself works-it is not that He needs us to do His will, but that He has chosen to work through us to accomplish His will.
      2. Hence, the simplest tasks, if done in His name, for His glory, become reverent service to Almighty God, and at the same time, is HIS means of accomplishing His will on earth.

1. 1. 1. 1. The Father working hard and long, at a difficult and frustrating job to provide for his family
         2. The mother, wearying herself to care for her family…
         3. Children who study long and hard to become responsible citizen…
         4. Are all the means by which God increases His dominion over the earth.
         5. And these are ALL ways that God is working His will in our lives and through our lives.

1. 1. 1. In the same way, every cup of water we give to a thirsty man in His name, is not only giving it to the Lord Jesus, but also the Lord Jesus giving it to the thirsty man. Every time a wounded soul cries out in hunger, fear, anxiety or need, and we respond with love, compassion, mercy and ministry, it is the Lord who is hearing their cry and working through us. Of course He can work wonders and miracles-but usually we are the miracles!
      2. This is the wonder of the Living God; that He works in and through His covenant people. Therefore, rejoice in the place where God has placed you and see your work as the means by which the Almighty, Glorious and Holy God is working in this world. Be humbled that He works through you, and therefore strive to do His will, in His way. Look for ways that you can be an answer to some one’s prayer.
      3. This also directly relates to what we discussed last week; since God governs His creation through representatives, every position of “power” or “authority” must be exercised in His name, according to His will for His glory. God does not delegate power and authority for men to wield as they please, to do what is good in their eyes, but to accomplish His will – all men are accountable.
      4. Finally, when you pray, pray in faith but then, get to work! The way that God will normally answer your prayer will probably be through your work as you walk in faithfulness. Need a job – then start looking and do not stop!

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