December 8

The Church’s Hidden Cancer

This is a warning to the true Church: The enemy is inside. If we are honest with ourselves we will admit that we live in a dangerous time for the Church. We face persecution from the outside, but perhaps even more so we face corruption from within. Jude put a spotlight on this truth long ago, “For there are certain men crept in unawares… ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness, and denying the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ” (Jude 1:4). These are not atheistic men or the enemies of Christ. They call themselves “Christian,” they sit in our churches, they preach from our pulpits, they write our books, they stream their messages all across the internet and yet they pervert the truth and poison the flock of Christ.

The Bible warned us this would happen. Jesus talked about wolves in sheep’s clothing (Matthew 7:15). Paul said, “Of your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after them” (Acts 20:30). Peter said false teachers would secretly bring in destructive heresies (2 Peter 2:1–2). This is no theory; it’s happening right now. Apostasy always begins in the house of the believer.

Look around you. We have people in pulpits today who no longer preach repentance but only comfort. They preach a grace that becomes a get out of jail free card for sin. They mock holiness as legalism. They denigrate the authority of Scripture while exalting feelings, culture, or “new revelations” from God. They preach a Jesus that saves but doesn’t rule, a gospel without a cross, a faith that never requires obedience. Paul described them to a tee: “They profess that they know God; but in works they deny him” (Titus 1:16).

God will judge all apostasy. Just as Israel was destroyed in the wilderness for unbelief (Numbers 14), just as fallen angels who rebelled are chained up for judgment (2 Peter 2: 4), just as Sodom and Gomorrah suffered the vengeance of eternal fire (Jude 1:7), so too will every man and woman who corrupt God’s truth be destroyed by His wrath.

The Church can not afford to be naïve. Not every smiling man in a pulpit is a shepherd. Not every popular teacher or writer is faithful. It is time to “earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints” (Jude 1:3). That means we test every spirit (1 John 4: 1), we hold fast to the Scriptures as our final authority (2 Timothy 3:16–17), and we separate ourselves from those who pervert the gospel of Christ no matter how articulate and persuasive they may sound.

We must recover a spirit of reverence, obedience, and boldness. This is no time for wishy-washy Christianity. Satan’s oldest trick is to always mix enough truth with lies to fool the undiscerning. If we are not faithful to guard the truth, we will sit helplessly by and watch the Church become hollow, worldly, and powerless.

The time to wake up is now. The truth is in Sola Scriptura. The time to fight for truth is now. Are you ready to stand, even if it costs you?

Let’s discuss this. Join us here: Biblical Truth Forum

Hosea 10:1-14:9
Jude 1:1-25
Psalm 127:1-5
Proverbs 29:15-17

Read Today’s Scripture – Click Here

Click on the Play Button below to Listen to Today’s Scripture

New Testament: Jude 1:1-25

Summary: Judgment on False Teachers and A Call to Persevere

Contend for the Faith

Jude, like James, was a half-brother of the Lord Jesus. His letter focuses on false teachers and echoes Peter’s warnings in 2 Peter, chapter 2, we’ll read about who they are.

Jude was going to write about salvation, but the Lord directed him to write about invasion instead. False teachers were creeping into the church and going undetected. These are unsaved people, ungodly people and unprincipled people who use grace as an excuse for sin. We’ll read about what they do.

Like the Jews in the wilderness, the fallen angels, and the evil cities of the plain, they reject the authority of God. Their words are defiant and defiling. Like Cain, they have no saving faith, but they do have religion, like Balaam, they use religion as a way to make money.

And like Korah, (Korah led a revolt against Moses; he died, along with all his co-conspirators, when God caused “the earth to open her mouth and swallow him and all that had to do with him” (Numbers 16:31-33), they defy the word of God and the authority of God’s chosen servants. We’ll read about what they are, false teachers promise much, but produce little, like rainless clouds and fruitless trees. Enoch had the best word for them ungodly. And we’ll read about what we must do.

Remember the word and know it, and build yourself up in your Christian faith. True believers are preserved in Jesus Christ, and they prove this by keeping themselves in God’s love. Therefore, God will keep them from falling.

Dear friends, although I was very eager to write to you about the salvation we share, I felt compelled to write and urge you to contend for the faith that was once for all entrusted to God’s holy people. For certain individuals whose condemnation was written about long ago have secretly slipped in among you. They are ungodly people, who pervert the grace of our God into a license for immorality and deny Jesus Christ our only Sovereign and Lord. Though you already know all this, I want to remind you that the Lord at one time delivered his people out of Egypt, but later destroyed those who did not believe. And the angels who did not keep their positions of authority but abandoned their proper dwelling—these he has kept in darkness, bound with everlasting chains for judgment on the great Day. 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. In the very same way, on the strength of their dreams these ungodly people pollute their own bodies, reject authority and heap abuse on celestial beings. But even the archangel Michael, when he was disputing with the devil about the body of Moses, did not himself dare to condemn him for slander but said, “The Lord rebuke you!” Yet these people slander whatever they do not understand, and the very things they do understand by instinct—as irrational animals do—will destroy them. 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. These people 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. They are wild waves of the sea, foaming up their shame; wandering stars, for whom blackest darkness has been reserved forever. Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied about them: “See, the Lord is coming with thousands upon thousands of his holy ones to judge everyone, and to convict all of them of all the ungodly acts they have committed in their ungodliness, and of all the defiant words ungodly sinners have spoken against him.” These people are grumblers and faultfinders; they follow their own evil desires; they boast about themselves and flatter others for their own advantage. ~ Jude 1:3-16

What is the meaning of immorality in the Bible? In the New Testament, the word most often translated “sexual immorality” is porneia. This word is also translated as “whoredom,” “fornication,” and “idolatry.” It means “a surrendering of sexual purity,” and it is primarily used of premarital sexual relations.

The Erasable Bible

Overview: 1-3 John – Click Here

The Enemy Within

Jude 1

John MacArthur speaks about the book of Jude – Click Here

Dr. J. Vernon McGee – Thru the Bible

Jude – J Vernon Mcgee – Bible Studies – Thru the Bible

December 8

New Testament: Jude 1:1-25

Overview: 1-3 John – Click Here

Pin It on Pinterest