Hey Jude!
Jude
March 28, 2004 (Non-Lectionary Sermon)

Listen to verse 3 again:

Jude 3 (NIV) Dear friends, although I was very eager to write to you about the salvation we share, I felt I had to write and urge you to contend for the faith that was once for all entrusted to the saints.

Yesterday, the Holy Spirit laid this little book of Jude on my heart during our prayer time.  I found myself in the situation of Jude: I had already prepared a sermon for today, but because of a crisis in the life of the Church I am compelled by the Spirit to contend for the FAITH.

FACT:  The United Methodist Church has repeatedly stated for the last 32 years… Homosexual persons no less than heterosexual persons are individuals of sacred worth.… Although we do not condone the practice of homosexuality and consider this practice incompatible with Christian teaching, we affirm that God’s grace is available to all. (Para. 161.G

FACT: Our church law clearly states:  “Since the practice of homosexuality is incompatible with Christian teaching, self-avowed practicing homosexuals are not to be accepted as candidates, ordained as ministers, or appointed to serve in The United Methodist Church.” (Para 304.3 BoD 2000)

FACT: Paragraph 332.6 - Ceremonies that celebrate homosexual unions shall not be conducted by our ministers and shall not be conducted in our churches.

FACT: In 2001, the Rev. Karen Dammann indicated to Bishop Elias Galvan (Seattle Area) by letter that she was in a partnered relationship with another woman, but that nonetheless, she desired an appointment in the Pacific Northwest Annual Conference. Months later, Bishop Galvan filed a formal complaint against Dammann, which was sent to the conference Committee on Investigation, and was summarily dropped. It was then sent to the Jurisdictional Committee on Appeals, and again dismissed. Both panels had persons who admitted publicly their disagreement with United Methodism’s standards on homosexuality and stated their unwillingness to vote to send the case to trial. The latter appeal was sent automatically to the United Methodist Judicial Council for review and the Council remanded the charge back to the conference, instructing them to deal with the matter seriously. In Decision 980, the Judicial Council stated it would retain jurisdiction of the matter to ensure the decision was implemented. The charge against Dammann was reintroduced and the church trial began Wednesday, March 17, with retired Bishop William Grove serving as trial judge.  On March 23 they returned the verdict of NOT GUILTY.

In its NOT GUILTY verdict, the jury chairperson, the Rev. Judy Schultz, said, “While sustaining the specification that Rev. Karen Dammann is a self-avowed practicing homosexual, we, the trial court, do not find the evidence presented…to be clear and convincing that Karen Dammann has engaged in any practices declared by the United Methodist Church to be incompatible with Christian teachings. We cannot sustain the charge.”

Like Jude we face a CRISIS in the church today and like Jude I am here to URGE YOU TO CONTEND FOR THE FAITH ONCE AND FOR ALL DELIVERED TO THE SAINTS.  The word CONTEND comes from the word that describes COMBAT IN THE ARENA.

I want to lead you through several points from Jude and show you the connection with our own situation.  Why?

·        We will realize that heresy and the resulting immorality have ALWAYS afflicted the church.  Jude helps us to gain a broad perspective so that we may ACT AND REACT WISELY.

 

·        We’ll discover ACTION POINTS IN DEALING WITH THIS PRESENT CRISIS.

I.  The core problem in Jude’s church and ours is FALSE TEACHING.  The SYMPTOM of the problem is immorality and perversion.  Just like today LEADERS of the church (Jude identifies them as SHEPHERDS) are teaching false doctrine and leading people astray.  Why would they do that?  Two reasons: Arrogance (Jude says they are boastful and reject authority) – they are the elite who understand things so much better than the poor backward folks who think the Bible speaks to us today.  Appetite: “They follow their own evil desires v. 16”

A.    The teaching presented was a perversion of the Gospel of Grace.  Grace means that God offers himself to us in relationship as a free gift.  We cannot earn it.  Jesus himself has accomplished everything needed to reconcile fallen humanity to God through the cross.

For certain men whose condemnation was written about long ago have secretly slipped in among you. They are godless men, who change the grace of our God into a license for immorality and deny Jesus Christ our only Sovereign and Lord. Jude 1:4 (NIV)

B.    But the false teachers (probably a type of Gnostic) in Jude’s church were teaching that since we can’t earn it and salvation is a free gift, then we could live as we please.  Indeed, they would maintain, to be concerned about morality would indicate that you have not really understood the deep truth about grace.

C.    The same is true today.  The folks in the Pacific Northwest Annual Conference spout slogans like “God’s love is inclusive!” and “Everyone should be welcome at the table.”  But while God’s love is indeed all inclusive Jesus said:

Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it. Matthew 7:13 -14 (NIV)

If you love me, you will obey what I command. John 14:15 (NIV)

The religious leaders of the PNWAC, Bp Galvin, the 3 bishops who testified to endorse homosexual behavior, the revisionist clergy on the jury, the prosecutor who said he was glad he lost and that he doesn’t agree with the Bible and church law in the prohibition against homosexual perversion represent this false teaching.  They have “slipped in.”

D.     Holiness of heart and life is the FRUIT OF A GENUINE ENCOUNTER WITH GRACE.  Grace and the call to holiness are hand in hand in John 8 where Jesus encounters the woman who was caught in the very act of adultery.

At this, those who heard began to go away one at a time, the older ones first, until only Jesus was left, with the woman still standing there. 10Jesus straightened up and asked her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?”  “No one, sir,” she said.  “Then neither do I condemn you,” Jesus declared. “Go now and leave your life of sin.” John 8:9 - 11 (NIV)

II.  Jude identifies the reality that IMMORALITY FLOWS FROM FALSE TEACHING.  Richard Weaver said, “Ideas have consequences.”  Beloved, the Bible says that too: Proverbs 23:7 (KJV) For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he.

 

A.    The first result of false teaching is unbelief.  They reject the truth of God revealed in Jesus Christ just as the Israelites disbelieved God and rebelled against him in the wilderness even though he had repeatedly revealed himself to them.  They reject GOD’S WORD just as the people rejected what was spoken through Moses.

Proverbs 23:6 - Proverbs 23:7 (KJV) 7For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he: Eat and drink

B.    Verse 7 links specifically links these false teachers to the sins of Sodom and Gomorrah.  The defenders of the homosexual agenda in the church tell us Sodom was condemned because of INHOSPITALITY.  God’s word says different.

In a similar way, Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding towns gave themselves up to sexual immorality and perversion. They serve as an example of those who suffer the punishment of eternal fire. Jude 1:7 (NIV)

C.    These false teachers REJECT GOD’S AUTHORITY.  Once the authority of the Bible has been dismissed, the laws of the Church are easily flouted.  “Their actions in this verdict are consistent with the statement passed by the Western Jurisdiction in the summer of 2000, when its delegates defiantly declared, “We Will Not Be Silent.” It was that jurisdiction’s way of saying it did not intend to abide by the rulings of General Conference.” [Good News Statement]

In the very same way, these dreamers pollute their own bodies, reject authority and slander celestial beings. Jude 1:8 (NIV)

D.    The only thing they understand and embrace is INSTINCT AND APPETITE.  They tell us that every sexual desire should be acted upon.  Such thinking debases humans to the level of beasts who are controlled by appetite and do not have the capacity of reason.

III.  False teaching always damages the body of Christ.

 

A.    Skip down to verses 17-19:

17But, dear friends, remember what the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ foretold. 18They said to you, “In the last times there will be scoffers who will follow their own ungodly desires.” 19These are the men who divide you, who follow mere natural instincts and do not have the Spirit.  Jude 17 - 19 (NIV)

Those who reject scripture and the tradition of the church say that those of us who insist on Biblical integrity and moral purity are being divisive.  But the Bible tells us that the false teachers are actually the once bringing schism.

B.    They defile the AGAPE MEAL.  In the early church the Eucharist began with a common meal that then moved into Holy Communion.  Jude 1:12a (NIV) “These men are blemishes at your love feasts, eating with you without the slightest qualm—shepherds who feed only themselves.“  Immorality is never content to stay in the background.  There is a wanton exhibitionism that desires to flaunt itself inappropriately.  Verse 13 says that they are FOAMING UP THEIR SHAME.  In the context of the Lord’s Supper they approach the Eucharist haughtily and with a sense of entitlement! (I’VE BEEN BAPTIZED!!!)  It was baptized people St Paul addressed in 1 Corinthians 1:29 when he warned them they were eating and drinking judgment upon themselves.  (Tell the TK story from Philips Chapel)

C.    They were unfruitful.  They contribute nothing, produce nothing.  They were parasites on the Body of Christ.  Like ticks on a dog!  They bear no spiritual fruit.  The Western Jurisdiction is dying because they are not converting anyone!  Likewise their UNNATURAL SEXUAL UNION IS INCAPABLE OF PRODUCTION NEW LIFE. 

Jude 1:12b (NIV) They are clouds without rain, blown along by the wind; autumn trees, without fruit and uprooted—twice dead.

CONCLUSION.  What are we to do?

 

1.     Don’t loose your cool!  This has always been a problem in the church. Verse 17 says basically “We told you this was going to happen!”  Nearly every Bishop in the SE Jurisdiction has issued a powerful rebuke to the PNWAC.

2.     BUT WE MUST CONTEND FO RTHE FAITH!  YOU CANNOT SIT COMFORTABLY IN TH PEW HOPING SOMEONE ELSE WILL TAKE CARE OF THIS PROBLEM.

3.     Know that God WILL JUDGE. 

Jude 1:14 - Jude 1:15 (NIV) : “See, the Lord is coming with thousands upon thousands of his holy ones 15to judge everyone, and to convict all the ungodly of all the ungodly acts they have done in the ungodly way, and of all the harsh words ungodly sinners have spoken against him.”

4.     Build yourself up in the FAITH.  Know God’s word.  Pray in the Holy Spirit. (v. 20)

5.     Don’t let anger rob you of your love.  Jude 1:21 (NIV)Keep yourselves in God’s love as you wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to bring you to eternal life.  Remember Jesus warned us about this in Matthew 24:12.

6.     Continue to be loving, inviting and merciful.  Jude 1:22 - Jude 1:23 (NIV) 22Be merciful to those who doubt; 23snatch others from the fire and save them; to others show mercy, mixed with fear—hating even the clothing stained by corrupted flesh.

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Jude

1:1 Jude, a servant of Jesus Christ and a brother of James,
To those who have been called, who are loved by God the Father and kept by Jesus Christ:
2 Mercy, peace and love be yours in abundance.
3 Dear friends, although I was very eager to write to you about the salvation we share, I felt I had to write and urge you to contend for the faith that was once for all entrusted to the saints. 4 For certain men whose condemnation was written about long ago have secretly slipped in among you. They are godless men, who change the grace of our God into a license for immorality and deny Jesus Christ our only Sovereign and Lord.
5 Though you already know all this, I want to remind you that the Lord delivered his people out of Egypt, but later destroyed those who did not believe. 6 And the angels who did not keep their positions of authority but abandoned their own home-these he has kept in darkness, bound with everlasting chains for judgment on the great Day. 7 In a similar way, Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding towns gave themselves up to sexual immorality and perversion. They serve as an example of those who suffer the punishment of eternal fire.
8 In the very same way, these dreamers pollute their own bodies, reject authority and slander celestial beings. 9 But even the archangel Michael, when he was disputing with the devil about the body of Moses, did not dare to bring a slanderous accusation against him, but said, "The Lord rebuke you!" 10 Yet these men speak abusively against whatever they do not understand; and what things they do understand by instinct, like unreasoning animals-these are the very things that destroy them.
11 Woe to them! They have taken the way of Cain; they have rushed for profit into Balaam's error; they have been destroyed in Korah's rebellion.
12 These men are blemishes at your love feasts, eating with you without the slightest qualm-shepherds who feed only themselves. They are clouds without rain, blown along by the wind; autumn trees, without fruit and uprooted-twice dead. 13 They are wild waves of the sea, foaming up their shame; wandering stars, for whom blackest darkness has been reserved forever.
14 Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied about these men: "See, the Lord is coming with thousands upon thousands of his holy ones 15 to judge everyone, and to convict all the ungodly of all the ungodly acts they have done in the ungodly way, and of all the harsh words ungodly sinners have spoken against him." 16 These men are grumblers and faultfinders; they follow their own evil desires; they boast about themselves and flatter others for their own advantage.
17 But, dear friends, remember what the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ foretold. 18 They said to you, "In the last times there will be scoffers who will follow their own ungodly desires." 19 These are the men who divide you, who follow mere natural instincts and do not have the Spirit.
20 But you, dear friends, build yourselves up in your most holy faith and pray in the Holy Spirit. 21 Keep yourselves in God's love as you wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to bring you to eternal life.
22 Be merciful to those who doubt; 23 snatch others from the fire and save them; to others show mercy, mixed with fear-hating even the clothing stained by corrupted flesh.
24 To him who is able to keep you from falling and to present you before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy- 25 to the only God our Savior be glory, majesty, power and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all ages, now and forevermore! Amen.
NIV

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