Paul’s Vigilance Against Deceit in the Early Church – Jude 1:3-4

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The foundation, ye saints of the Lord, is laid for your faith.

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It’s a great day to study God’s Word. I’m Steve Schwetz, welcoming you to Through the Bible. Now, as the Bible bus rolls along, Dr. J. Vernon McGee has a lot to teach us from the New Testament book of Jude. If you haven’t gotten your copy of Briefing the Bible, our free book of Dr. McGee’s notes and outlines for Jude and all of our other studies on Through the Bible, why don’t you head over to ttb.org and download it yourself. Besides your Bible, this can be a helpful tool that’ll help you understand the background to every book that we’re studying. Again, it’s called Briefing the Bible, and it’s available for free download at ttb.org. Or call us at 1-800-65-BIBLE, and we’ll send you an abridged paperback copy by mail. And of course, if you listen by app, you don’t need to do anything but go to the menu, and you’ll find the notes and outlines right there. Now, while you find your place in Jude 3 and 4, here’s more from Dr. McGee on the new covenant.

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Now we come to the new covenant. And the new covenant… is the covenant that Jeremiah records, and it’s over in the 31st chapter of Jeremiah, beginning at verse 31. Will you listen to this? Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah. not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, which my covenant they broke, although I was a husband unto them, saith the Lord. But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord. I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts, and will be their God, and they shall be my people. Now, this covenant is to succeed the Mosaic covenant, which was temporary to begin with, and it was a covenant that was not an unconditional covenant. It was conditioned on their obedience and faithfulness to God. And it is, if ye will. It’s not what I will, but if ye will. Now God says, I will. This is a covenant that he has not yet made with Israel. He will make this covenant with them in the future. And that, of course, is for the millennial kingdom. And we hear so much today about the physical parts of the millennium. Well, the spiritual part is the most important part. And one of the great spiritual parts of the kingdom is these people are to be converted and born from above, if you please. You see, when God gave them the law before, they were to write it on the doorposts. of their house. They would write it everywhere. They would talk about it when they went to bed, but it wasn’t in their hearts. And that today is one of the problems the church is having, is that everything is outward today, physical, material, humanistic. And the real Christianity is of the heart. It’s within. Now, this new covenant, and this is probably the only covenant that there’s any disagreement about at all. And there are those that feel like this is the new covenant God made with us in the church. And that’s not true at all. There in the upper room, he says, this is the new covenant in my blood. That’s the covenant for you and me today when the Holy Spirit has come to regenerate us and to indwell us and to fill us and to baptize us into the body of believers. And that is the great ministry of today, and it’s altogether different. You have a statement made in Hebrews, the 8th chapter, verse 6. It says, But now hath he obtained a more excellent ministry, by how much also he is the mediator of a better covenant which was established upon better promises. Now, that’s the covenant that he’s made with us today. This is the age of grace in which we’re living, which is altogether different from the age of law, which has ended. Now, the day is coming. When Israel enters the millennium, they are to have this new covenant that God will make with them. And the important thing is he renews them. He regenerates them. He puts the law within their hearts and an ability, therefore, to obey. So in all these covenants that we’ve looked at, God has a program. He has a game plan, if you please, for this world. And as far as I can tell, God is running on schedule. And that’s what the prayer means when the Lord told them to pray, Thy kingdom come. It is this kingdom here. And the kingdom is the reign of the heaven over the earth. And that’s what the kingdom of heaven means in Matthew. And it doesn’t mean anything else. The reign of the heaven over the earth. Now, for us today, he has given us a marvelous, glorious position. And that is in the body of believers called the church.

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Such great information from Dr. McGee. Before we begin in Jude, I want to share a really good letter that we received recently from a listener named Nancy. I am 87 years old and have been a Christian all my life. However, I never knew what it was to have a relationship with the Lord. It all began when I made a commitment to spend time with him by beginning my day with prayer and studying his word through the Bible. I’m on my third trip, and each time I discover something I don’t remember reading before, I’m so excited. I’ve read the Bible a number of times, but didn’t get as much out of it until I began digging. Dr. McGee is right in saying all treasures require digging. It’s been an amazing journey, and when I finish, I will start over for the fourth time. I listen to your program every night and always look forward to the next night. God bless this ministry and your faithfulness in continuing to bring it to us. Well, thank you, Nancy. What an encouragement you are. And what’s your story? What’s God teaching you as we travel through his word together? You know, we’d love to know. Why don’t you send us a note through our app or email us over at BibleBus at TTB.org or write to us at Box 7100, Pasadena, California, 91109. In Canada, Box 25325, London, Ontario, N6C 6B1. Let’s pray for one another. Heavenly Father, thank you for the lives that you’re reaching through your word, including our own. And Lord, as we study, we ask for our hearts to be open to your instruction. Help us to be willing to receive your correction when we need it and ready to be encouraged by your grace and mercy. It’s a wonderful thing to be your child. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen. Let’s turn to Jude 3 as we go through the Bible with Dr. J. Vernon McGee.

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Our friends, we’re back today in the book of Jude. A little book that presents the apostasy as it’s presented nowhere else in the Word of God. And the most unusual thing is that when Jude started out to write, he didn’t intend to write on the apostasy at all. But he intended to do something altogether different. But the Spirit of God just turned him right about face and and had him write on something that was very important for believers in our day to know. The apostasy that then was just a little cloud the size of a man’s hand is now a storm that fills the sky. It’s all about us today. Now, he says here in verse 3, and I’m going over it very carefully today, he says, “…beloved,” and when he uses that term, And I enjoy using it also because it really means folks that are loved of God. In other words, God’s beloved children. And that’s the thought in this word here. He says, beloved, God’s children. When I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, Now, he says here, it was needful. I need to. In fact, there was a compulsion. and a necessity and a constraint upon him. He says, I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation. That is, some great doctrine that the apostles gave us. It was needful for me to write unto you. And he says now, I was constrained. It was absolutely necessary. A necessity was laid upon me to write unto you and exhort you that ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints. And this word, to earnestly contend, those that have suggested that it meant to contend on your knees, Well, I have never been able to find any authority for that at all. And I don’t know where they get that idea. But I do know this, that the thought here in contention is not to be a fiery fighting fundamentalist. I wish that we fundamentalists could be fundamental without being always fighting and always being fiery. It seems to me that we need to recognize that there is some scripture that says we contend without being contentious. Or, as Paul put it in 2 Timothy 2, 24 and 26, he says, “…the servant of the Lord must not strive, but be gentle unto all men, apt to teach,” that is, ready to teach. patient in meekness, instructing those that oppose themselves, if God peradventure will give them repentance through the acknowledging of the truth, and that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil, who are taken captive by him at his will. So that this is the thought that is in mind, that there’s a compulsion, And then to contend for the faith also has in it the idea of agony. In fact, the word is epagonizomai, epagonizomai. And you see that word agony in there. And we get that English word from the noun of this word here. And apparently Jude was going to write on some doctrine. Now he’s saying that we are to contend or to defend the great doctrines of Christianity. These were the doctrines that are called, you remember in Acts, it says the early church continued in the apostles’ doctrine. That was number one. And that’s number one on God’s church parade, by the way. Now church is not a church unless it’s doing just that. And we’re told in Ephesians 4, 15, speaking the truth in love, or someone has translated it, That is, if you’re going to give out the truth, give it out in love. And if you don’t give it out in love, there’s some question about whether you’re giving out the truth. And to be able to give an answer to those that ask you, a man ought not to just be a man quick with a short fuse and become angry today about someone who differs with him. I think that we’re prepared now to hear the translation that Dr. Wiest, formerly of the Moody Bible Institute, he’s the late Dr. Wiest, by the way, and he has, I feel, like one of the finest little books that gives the literal of the book of Jude. And I’m using it here a great deal, as you can see. Now, I’m going to give you his translation, and the reason I don’t give you mine, because his is the best. Will you listen? “…divinely loved ones, when giving all diligence to be writing to you concerning the salvation possessed in common by all of us, I had constraint laid upon me to write to you, beseeching you to contend with intensity and determination for the faith once for all entrusted into the safekeeping of the saints.” That’s a marvelous translation. Now, he is going to set before us here the reason we should contend for the faith. Why should we? Why not just give the word out? And my thought is that that’s one way you contend for the faith, is to give the word of God out. But something has happened recently. To the church. And that is the alarm that he sounds. Verse 4. Now, I’ll read our translation that we have in our scripture, authorized version. For there are certain men crept in unawares who were before of old ordained to this condemnation. ungodly man, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness and denying the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ. Now, this is a very important verse that we are coming to here. We are told that these men were before ordained to this condemnation, and I think that we probably better clear that out first of all. Because actually the word is they were written of beforehand. The word is prographo, and it means to write beforehand, which simply means this, that other writers had sounded this warning. In other words, what he’s saying here is simply that they have slipped in. Men have crept in unawares. And they are men that have done two things. They are by nature ungodly men, and they do two things. They turn the grace of our God into lasciviousness, and then they deny the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ. In other words, they do two things. They really distort and deny the grace of God. And they deny the deity of the Lord Jesus Christ. This is the way they are identified. He’ll give further identification later on. But right here now, these men, they have crept in. In other words, they’re a bunch of creeps because they crept in unawares. And this is one of the most interesting words in the Greek here. The word is crept. par eis duno. And duno means to enter. And the little preposition eis, or eis, means into, and the word para means beside. And actually, it means to enter alongside, or as Dr. Vincent puts it in his commentary, to get in by the side or to slip in a side door. Now, this is the way the apostates have come into the church. Now, I’ve been in the church for many years. I have been and am still an ordained Presbyterian preacher, but I’m in no denomination today, none whatsoever. I have no denominational connection at all. But that was the way I began. And I remember when I began that the church that I was raised in in the South was a church that was, by and large, sound in the faith. And when I went to college, I began to discover that there were ministers that denied practically everything. It opened up a new world to me. Then when I got to seminary, I found out that it was still growing. And the day came when I left that denomination and came to California, entered another one, and when I saw it going by the board, I resigned. I got out. I wasn’t put out. I just stepped out voluntarily. Now, may I say to you, during that long period, I saw how these men came into the church. They came in by the side door. They came in by professing one thing, but actually they pretended to be what they were not. And may I say that that is the interesting word that is used here. They come in by the side door. They don’t come in the front door declaring the position that they take. And unfortunately, many of our good laymen have been taken in by ministers like that. And the Scriptures warned about them. For instance, Paul, over in 2 Corinthians 11, verse 13, listen to him. For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ. And no marvel, for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light. Therefore, it’s no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness, whose end shall be according to their works. Now, that word that’s used in 2 Corinthians is a very interesting word. It’s metaschematizo, and it’s translated transformed. In other words, it’s the act of an individual in changing his outward expression by assuming an expression put on from the outside. That is what the word really means. Satan uses that method. Now, how does this work? Well, I’ll tell you how it works. I have seen as many as a dozen Strong, outstanding churches across this land fall into the hands of liberalism by this method. It’s the most deceitful method in the world. May I give you an instance of one church, and I’ll not attempt to locate it, because the chances are you’ll know one in the area in which you live. And the way that the liberals took over was, it at one time was a church that preached the Word of God. People were saved. Hearts were blessed. And the pastor they had retired or resigned. And a new man appeared on the scene. And he met with the pulpit committee, met with the elders or whoever he meets with at first. And they asked him about his belief in the great doctrines. And he assured them that he believed in all the great doctrines of the faith. He’s now coming in a side door because he really doesn’t believe them. You see, but he pretends that he believes him on the outside. He pretends to be sound in the faith. And the interesting thing is his trial sermon is a pretty good sermon. He probably read Spurgeon or Warfield or G. Campbell Morgan, and he came up with a good sermon. And they all said, my, this young man, he is just fine. But remember, he’s coming in the side door. He doesn’t believe it at all. And they call him, and he comes to the church. And before long, they discover that they have a liberal on their hands. That is, generally those in the church, they don’t want to oust this young man in a bad method. However, I think if he came in the side door, they should boot him out the back door. But they don’t do that, and they tolerate him. I know right now two or three churches being ruined by a man that they thought they were getting one thing, and they got something else altogether. And this is the way that this is presented. Now, they were written of beforehand. That is, Jude is not saying, I’m telling you something new that you didn’t know, because others have written of this, and others have warned you of that which is coming. Now, I want to take a look, if you don’t mind, at several passages where others spoke of this. Now, first of all, the apostle Paul, you will recall when he went by Ephesus, he gave them a warning in his last visit. In Acts 20, verse 29, listen to him. He says, “…for I know this, that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock, also of your own selves.” “…shall men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after them. Therefore watch and remember that by the space of three years I cease not to warn every man night and day with tears.” Now, Paul said, I tried to warn you of this. But the day came when the church in Ephesus yielded to this type of thing. Now, again, Paul warned a young preacher. Over in 2 Timothy, the third chapter, verse 6, listen to him. “…For of this sort are they which creep into houses, and lead captives, silly women, laden with sins, led away with divers’ lusts.” And unfortunately, and I want to say this rather carefully, Unfortunately, there is a grave danger today, this all-woman movement in the church. It’s almost like a women’s lib movement that has a spiritual overtone. I think it’s tragic when the wife is attending a Bible class and knows more than the husband. That marriage may be headed for the rocks, by the way. The husband should be taken along. And after all, Paul said that there is a danger of these creeping in. The class may start off in a marvelous way. But if it’s a success, you’re going to find that somebody’s going to try the side door and slip in. Friends, I must break in right at this particular point. And it’s a very interesting place to have to stop. But I’m going to have to hold till next time the continuation of this particular study. And until then, may God richly bless you, my beloved.

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Now, although Jude is only 25 verses, there’s really a lot of essential information that can be found in this small book. That’s why the Bible bus will be spending the next couple weeks traveling through it. To get the most out of our time together, why don’t you sign up to receive our monthly newsletter? Each issue has more great teaching from Dr. McGee, as well as practical tips and questions that will help you apply what you’re learning, as well as updates on how Through the Bible is taking the whole word to the whole world, and so much more. Download your free copy at ttb.org or call 1-800-65-BIBLE to get them automatically each month by mail or email. Again, that’s 1-800-65-BIBLE or ttb.org. Do you know how to recognize an apostate? Well, in our next study, Dr. McGee gives us three marks of identification. I’m Steve Schwetz, and I’ll save a seat on the Bible bus just for you.

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All to him I owe. Sin had left a crimson stain. He washed it white as snow.

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Today’s study with Dr. J. Vernon McGee is brought to you by Through the Bible, and it’s made possible by the generous prayer and financial investments from listeners like you on the Bible bus all around the world.