Echoes of Apostasy: Lessons from Jude 1:3-4

SPEAKER 03 : 0:17

Welcome to Through the Bible with Dr. J. Vernon McGee. In today’s study of the New Testament book of Jude, we’re given great news as followers of Jesus Christ. Good news from Jude? Yep. This little book may be full of dark warnings against the false teaching that swallowed the first century church, but right at the start we’re reminded of some amazing truths. Jude reminds those who belong to Jesus Christ that God loves us, he keeps us, and he preserves our salvation even in the darkest days. Sounds great, right? Well, that’s just in the first three verses. Well, I’m as eager to get at it as you are, but before we dive in, here’s another piece of Dr. McGee’s continuing conversation on the covenants of the Bible.

SPEAKER 01 : 1:01

I want to conclude the messages I’ve been giving, preliminary messages, on the covenants. And I’ve been giving these messages on the covenants that you might better understand prophecy and better understand how to divide the Word of God. We have had now four of the covenants, and the last one we took was the Davidic covenant. And we saw that the Davidic covenant, God made with David and promised him a throne. I did not go on to get David’s reaction to it, which was a tremendous reaction. It humbled this man. But I do want to turn to 2 Samuel, the 23rd chapter, verse 5, and get David’s reaction to it later on in his life when he became an old man. I’m reading now, although my house be not so with God, it’s David speaking now, yet he hath made with me an everlasting covenant, ordered in all things and sure, for this is my salvation and all my desire, although he make it not to grow. In other words, he did not fulfill it. in David’s time at all. Now, the psalmist has something, by the way, to say in this connection, and that was one of David’s psalms. In Psalm 89, David said, and it’s God speaking to him now, I have made a covenant with my chosen. I have sworn unto David my servant, thy seed will I establish forever and build up thy throne to all generations. So this was a covenant that God made with David, and this became the theme song of all of the prophets, by the way. And the New Testament opens with the angel appearing to Mary. And Dr. Luke records this, and that’s quite interesting because Matthew is the gospel of the kingdom. And will you notice in Luke, the first chapter at verse 30, we read, And the angel said unto her, Fear not, Mary, for thou hast found favor with God. And behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb. and bring forth a son, and shall call his name Jesus. He shall be great, and shall be called a son of the highest, and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David. And he shall reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there shall be no end. So we see the fulfillment of that in the coming of Christ into the world. And he’s yet to come the second time. And when he does, why, he will establish that kingdom here upon the earth.

SPEAKER 03 : 4:24

I’m loving these conversations, aren’t you? Before we open God’s word to the book of Jude, we got just enough time to hear from a couple of fellow passengers on the Bible bus. First, we hear from Judy. The straightforward teaching style of Dr. J. Vernon McGee is more important than ever. I appreciate that you’re the whole team recognize that and faithfully do what you do. I’m blessed to supply a tank of gas along the way. God bless you. Well, thanks, Judy. We’re so grateful for your partnership. Your support is really a part of what keeps the Bible bus running in more than 250 languages all around the world. Just listen to this testimony, this next one, from a listener who joins us in the Juba Arabic language. Now, that’s in South Sudan, a very hard place to live and be a Christian. I often found myself confused by some of the more challenging passages of the Bible. The program’s explanation is clear, relatable teaching and it’s made a significant difference in how I understand God’s Word. Each broadcast has assisted me in making connections between the Bible and my life, enabling me to apply the lessons to my daily life. In one memorable session, the program focused on the importance of seeking wisdom from God, echoing the words of James 1.5, If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you. The clarity of the teaching allowed me to see the practical applications of biblical wisdom in my everyday decisions. As a result, I now read the Bible with a renewed purpose and a deeper desire to live out its teachings. Well, that certainly is powerful, isn’t it? If you’d like to join me and Judy and so many others around the world who are investing in the life-changing power of God’s Word, just click on Give in our app or over at ttb.org. Or always you can just call us at 1-800-65-BIBLE. Let’s pray to begin the study. Heavenly Father, would you give us ears to hear and hearts that are ready to respond to the message that you have for us. And Lord, help us to recognize truth. Help us to stand firm in grace and then grow in our love for you. In Jesus’ name, amen. Here’s Dr. J. Vernon Mickey with our study of Jude on Through the Bible.

SPEAKER 01 : 6:35

Now we come back to this little epistle of Jude, and we’re going to find many wonderful things in this little epistle that we actually have not had before. As we have said, the theme of this little epistle is assurance in days of apostasy. And we are going to get down maybe today to see where this man… intended to write on some theme of our salvation, but the Spirit of God put up a red warning sign and told him to call attention to this warning of the days of apostasy that were coming upon the church. Now, Jude, in his epistle here, will give the most vivid example account that we have of the apostasy. He presents it in a very dramatic manner, and he gives the only record in the Scripture of the contention of Satan with Michael the archangel over the body of Moses. Very remarkable passage of Scripture, and we’re going to talk about that when we get there, that today, in this materialistic age into which we have come, God had been pretty well ruled out. In fact, they had conducted his funeral up in New England at one of the universities there. But apparently, as Mark Twain said, when a report got out that he had died, he says it was exaggerated. And so the report of the death of God was exaggerated. And the very interesting thing is that today there is an overweening interest in the supernatural. and in the supernatural in the sense that there are evil forces at work in the world, demonic power, and that there is a power for good, and that this is spiritual. Now, today that’s not being made clear by any means. The exorcist that has been so popular, it has, of course, drawn multitudes and curiosity because this generation have known nothing in the world but materialism. But all of a sudden, There is a breakthrough into the unseen world, and there is a force of evil, and there is a force of good, and it’s got a great many people troubled. Well, back of that force of evil is Satan, and we’re going to be talking about him in this little book here. And then only Jude gives the prophecy of Enoch, of the Lord coming with 10,000 of his saints. And that word 10,000 is a Figure of speech is used for a whole lot of saints, friends. Now, we got down into the epistle, and we have in the first three verses the occasion of the epistle. And in the first two verses, we have the assurance for believers. And then the theme of the epistle is changed to the apostasy in verse 3. And then from verses 4 through 16, we have occurrences of apostasy. And then verses 17 through 25, we have the occupation of believers in days of apostasy. In other words, what can believers do? And so we have here these three divisions, the occasion, the epistle, the occurrences of apostasy, and then the occupation of believers in days of apostasy. Now, as we come back to the text of this little epistle today, we got down through verse 1 last time, and we’re still in this here that has to do with the assurance of believers. And here he says, and let me read verse 1 again. Judas, the servant of Jesus Christ and brother of James… “…to them that are sanctified by God the Father, and preserved in Jesus Christ, and called.” Now, I’m going to again give Dr. Weiss’s translation, because I consider it very enlightening, although it is somewhat involved. But it brings out the meaning of the writer, and I think what the Spirit of God would have us to have. It says, “…Jude, a bond-slave of Jesus Christ.” and brother of James, to those who by God the Father have been loved and are in a state of being the permanent objects of his love. He not only loved us, he’s just going to keep on loving us, you see. Now, I read again. And who for Jesus Christ have been guarded and are in a permanent state of being carefully watched to those who are called one. Now, actually, today, God the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit, they’ve got their eye on you. And if you’re his child today, they’re watching you. They’re taking care of you. And you say, well, why do all these things happen to me? Well, I ask that question sometimes myself. I don’t have the answer for it, but I do know this. He permits it, and he does it for a purpose, though he doesn’t explain it to us now, but he will by and by. That’s going to be one of the wonders of heaven, I think, is that you and I are going to get some answers that we don’t get down here. In spite of what people say, a lot of questions that are not answered. God really told us very little, by the way. I feel like that even the word he’s given us is sort of an ABC book. And that someday he’s going to get us out of the kindergarten and get us off of pablum and really start enabling us in eternity to become that which he intended man to be. That’s going to be a great day, friends. I want also to notice now this introduction of Jude, which is different from all others. He says here, mercy unto you and peace and love be multiplied. That’s verse 2. We have here mercy instead of grace. Grace is generally the word that you find in all of the epistles. But here it’s mercy unto you and peace and love be multiplied. Now, the other day, I talked about this matter of love and mercy and grace. And peace now has been added. We’ll say a word about it here also. We need to recognize the difference of these three words, love and mercy and grace. And then to see that there is a very strong relationship of them. They are related together. Now, love of God is an attribute of God. And because God is love, why, he is merciful and he has provided grace. Now, the love of God is that he loves all of mankind. God so loved the world. It’s not his will that any should perish. And he today loves every human being, and he has no favorites at all. He made it very clear to Moses that he didn’t even answer his prayer because he was Moses. But God says, I’ll show mercy to whom I will show mercy. God says, I do it because I find the explanation in myself. I treat all my creatures alike in that sense. So that God loves you today. And he loves you so much. If you and I today knew how much he loved us, actually, it would break our hearts. We’d be in tears. Now, you can keep from experiencing that love. You can put up an umbrella of resistance to him. You can step out of his will. You can have sin in your life. There are many things that will cause you not to experience the love of God, but that doesn’t mean he’s not loving you. You can’t keep the sun from shining, but you can put up the umbrella and keep the sun off of you. So there are certain umbrellas you put up to keep the love of God off of you. Now, though God loved you, he never saved you by love, because God has other attributes. He’s holy, and he is righteous, and he’s just. And he just simply can’t let down the bars of heaven and bring you in by letting down his standard. He can’t do that any more than a crooked judge. Well, not to put it quite like that, any more than a judge if he’s going to uphold the law. He can’t reach under the table and accept a payment under the table to let a criminal off. If he does, may I say to you, he’s a crooked judge. Now, if God is going to do that with human being, he’s no better than a crooked judge, and I do not mean to be irreverent. God has to maintain his holiness and his righteousness and his justice. So God so loved the world, and he loved the world with a merciful love, a love that had a concern and care for for them. And because of that, he gave his only begotten son. And now God, on the basis of this sinner not presenting anything to him, but God now on a righteous basis, can save him if he’ll come to him and accept his salvation. And that’s called the grace of God. By grace are ye saved. Now, today, I think it’s going to be worthwhile for me to do this. Dr. Trench, who was a great Greek scholar, He made a distinction of these words, and I want you to listen to this. It’s a rather extended quotation, but I’d like for you to hear it. The word for mercy is eleos, the word that’s used here, and grace is charis. Now, I’m quoting from Dr. Trench. While charis, that is grace, has thus reference to the sins of man, And is that glorious attribute of God which these sins call out and display His free gift and their forgiveness, Elias, that is, mercy, has special and immediate regard to the misery which is the consequence of these sins. Now, you see, the grace of God has to do with the sins of man. That is, God has provided a Savior who’s paid the penalty for sins. Now, on that basis, God saves, and that’s the grace of God. But you see, sin has brought tragedy to us. I heard this on the TV, on an interview of those that wrote the exorcists and the man who did and those who were in the play. And apparently, they really got involved in that They certainly believe in the supernatural, but their point was, why does the God of love permit cancer? You see, may I say to you, cancer is the consequence of sin. God did not give you cancer. That’s the result of sin. Disease has come to man because of sin. Now, the mercy of God, he sees the misery that sin is calling. The mercy of God goes out to man because of the consequence of sin. And God is rich in mercy. So if you come to him as a sinner, accept his salvation, he’ll save you by grace, and then he’s rich in mercy, and he’ll extend his mercy to you. He’ll bring you comfort in that time. He’ll comfort your heart. He will help you, and you can trust him at a time like that. Now, let me keep reading here, because this is tremendous that Dr. Trench is saying to us here. Again, let me say, the free gift and their forgiveness… That has to do with the grace of God. But His immediate regard to us in our misery, that is the mercy of God, you see. And it’s being the tender sense of this mercy displaying itself in the effort which only the continued perverseness of man can hinder or defeat to assuage and entirely remove it. In the divine mind and in the order of our salvation as conceived therein, the mercy precedes the grace.” God so loved the world with a pitying love that he gave his only begotten son that the world through him might be saved. But you see, in the order of the manifestation of God’s purposes of salvation, the grace must go before the mercy. That is, the charis, or the grace, must go before and take away and make way for the Elias, the mercy of God, you see. God has to save us by His grace first. Now, I hope I’ve made that distinction clear, or maybe I just muddled it up good for you. But now the peace of God is that experience which comes to the heart that is trusted Christ. Paul says, being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. It’s to know that God is not difficult to get along with. He’s not making it hard for me. He’s not making it hard for you. He, today, wants you to know that he hasn’t anything against you now. You’ve trusted Christ. No, you’re a sinner. The world may point its finger at you, reject you, but he’s accepted you and he loves you. But may I say, he wants to give you that peace so that at night you can pillow your head. And you can pillar your head on what Dr. Torrey used to call Romans 8, 28. He says that’s a soft pillar to put your head on. All things work together for good to them that love God, those that are called according to his purpose. How wonderful that is. Now, we come down to verse 3. You see, I’m moving very slowly and intentionally so. This little epistle, oh, it is loaded. Loaded with dynamite, we’re going to find out later on. In fact, it’s a regular little atom bomb. Now, verse 3, he says, Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation. Now, the New Testament is written in what is known as the Koine Greek. That’s the word here, Koine. It actually means that which is common to all. The Koine Greek was the Greek that was understood actually all over the Roman Empire in Paul’s day and in the days of the apostles, by the way. Now, will you notice here, he says, I was going to write on some doctrine currently of our salvation. I don’t know what it was. It could have been redemption. It could have been the person of Christ. It could have been Christology or soteriology. It could have been on prophecy. It could have been on sanctification. But he didn’t write on those because he says, “…when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you and exhort you that ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints.” Now, the thought here is, that the Holy Spirit detoured Jude from writing on some theme of the faith in order that he might sound a warning of the impending apostasy. An apostasy now is a departure from the faith, that is, the apostles’ doctrine. And actually, what was just a little cloud the size of a man’s hand in Jude’s day is now a storm of hurricane force that fills the land. And so he’s going to talk. about the apostasy that is coming on the earth. And we can see that many of the things that he’s going to tell us here are already taking place in the world today because the apostasy is the one thing that has come to pass. and it’s already here. The apostasy is not something we’re looking for. The apostasy is here, and it is a departure from the faith. He now is setting the course that he’s going to steer through this little epistle. This is a very wonderful little epistle as he begins at this point to outline for us actually what we have labeled here are occurrences of apostasy. There have been apostasy of the angels, a departure of them. There’s been a departure of men back in the Old Testament from the faith. Don’t look at those. Then in the church, there was those that would depart from the faith. Now, we’ll be looking at that beginning next time. So until then, may God richly bless you, my beloved.

SPEAKER 03 : 24:25

The dark clouds on the horizon that Jude warned us about are now a full-blown storm raging in some of our churches. Yet in spite of apostasy today, we can have confidence in the one who loves us and shows us mercy and grace. To continue your study of Jude, join me for Dr. McGee’s Sunday sermon, The Amazing, Alarming, and Awful Apostasy. Catch it in our app online at ttb.org or call 1-800-65-BIBLE if we can help you find a station. If you’d like to share this study with a friend, that’s always a good idea. Check out our Bible Companion for Jude. It’s available for free download or for purchase in paperback and includes teaching summaries from Dr. McGee as well as suggested scripture readings and thoughtful questions for personal reflection or group discussion. Find out more over at ttb.org or call 1-800-65-BIBLE. I’m Steve Schwetz, and I’ll meet you back here next time as we continue our journey through the Bible.

SPEAKER 02 : 25:21

Jesus paid it all, all to him I owe. Sin had left a crimson stain, he washed it white as snow.

SPEAKER 03 : 25:45

Today’s study is always available, free to stream or download, thanks to the generous and faithful investments from your fellow Bible bus travelers. Just go to ttb.org or download our app to listen again anytime. As always, we’d love to know what’s God teaching you.