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Before we begin today's episode of Renewing youg Mind, we invite you to stay with us through the end of the program to hear how you can request today's featured resource from Ligonier Ministries. We have no higher calling than to know who God is. Join Ligonier ministries for our 2027 national conference in Orlando. Together with Christians from around the world, we'll gather to hear biblical teaching on the glorious attributes of God, equipping us to serve him faithfully and pursue his glory in every Sphere of Life Save 35% on your registration with the early bird rate at ligonier.org 2027We stand upon
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the word of God. Our feelings, our thoughts, our dreams, they're not determiners of truth. God is the determiner of truth. He establishes truth because he is true.
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Our feelings can so easily deceive us. Ultimately, we must rely on the truth of God's Word. Hello and welcome to the Tuesday edition of Renewing youg Mind. Wars begin and end. Politicians rise and fall. We can be healthy one day and deathly ill the next day. In the midst of rapid change, we can begin to doubt. But as we'll learn today from the Book of Jude, we must trust God and His Word. Our teacher is Reverend Jason Holopoulos. Let's join him. Now
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what I want to do is look at verses 8 through 16 together in this session. Remember that Jude's main theme for this letter is that he wants them to contend for the faith. And there are false teachers that are in their midst and are teaching things that are diverting God's people away from the truth that has been once for all delivered to the saints. As Jude said, we saw in our last session that what he did is he was calling to the remembrance who God is by what God has done in the past. And he gave three stories there in verses five through seven. What I want to do is look at the fourth story here in verse eight. And then as we go through, he's also going to give us three individuals as examples as well. But he begins in verse eight with pointing out that these false teachers are relying upon dreams, that this is how they are diverting and they're discouraging God's people from the true gospel. They are feeling something different. There is something more or less less that needs to be added to the faith for people actually to be saved. And so they are appealing to their dreams, they trusted dreams rather than that which they heard from the Word of God. It doesn't really matter in one sense what you Feel about this or about that. It doesn't make the thing true. I am Jason Holopoulos. So my first name and my last name are Greek. I grew up knowing I was Greek. My name is Greek. First name, last name. I love Greek food. I have Greek taste buds. Love it. When I was in fifth grade, I started doing genealogy and it became my passion and my hobby and started doing all kinds of research. My poor family. We still have these big filing cabinets where what I would do is get all of these documents. I could every birth certificate, every death certificate, every marriage certificate for family members and create these files. And we have probably 2,500 files that have followed us everywhere in life. Well, there's one day when I was in high school. I started in fifth grade. I'm in high school, junior in high school. It's the beginning days of the computer where you could actually put some of this in a program. And I thought, you know, I've done this for family members going back to the 1500s, but I never just done this for immediate family members. And so looking things up and dates aren't adding up. Call my mom into the room. Mom, is there a family secret I don't know about? Jason? I can't answer that question. Mom and dad were divorced. Next thing I know, my dad has driven from Florida to Springfield, Illinois. He's on our doorstep and he says, we need to go for a ride. And I find out he was adopted. My grandmother had him out of wedlock. He said, I've never pressed on it. What would you like to know? I'll ask her. I said, I'd least like to know what my last name would have been. So he asked my grandmother. She wouldn't talk about it. My great grandmother was still alive. So I asked her and she said, well, what I know is his last name was Levine. So he was a Levite. So I went from Greek to Jew overnight, just like that. But I knew I was Greek. I knew it. First name, last name, taste buds. If there's anything you should know, it's yourself. But there was something in the right field I didn't know. All it took was one thing. There's only two ways to know something is true. Either you have to know everything. So nothing can come out of right field and turn what you think you know into something you didn't actually know. But I don't know about you. But I don't know everything. That's an impossibility. There's a second possibility, and that is that you know someone who knows all things is willing to tell you and does not lie. That's what we have in the word of God. We have God who knows all things he has told us and he does not lie. So when someone says, I have a dream, I feel, I think, and it's contrary to the word of God. You run, you run. It doesn't matter if it is contrary to the word of God, it is not true. We stand upon the Word of God. They were having dreams and relying on those dreams. And so they were arguing that Jesus would not come in judgment. But our feelings, our thoughts, our dreams, they're not determiners of truth. God is the determiner of truth. He establishes truth because he is true. So Jude warning about these false teachers, saying, you can live any way you want to because God is a God of grace. And he is a God of grace, but he's equally just. He equally wants righteousness upheld and he will judge. So he moves on to his fourth story in verse nine to illustrate this. And he references for many what feels troubling. He references a non biblical book. And he actually does this twice, just in our verses here. In this lesson, he refers to a non bibukal book. Now that bothers some because they say, well, if he's referring to a non biblical book, then that biblical book must itself be inerrant and inspired. Or Jude itself is not inerrant and inspired. No and no. He can cite something and say that thing is true without saying that entire book is inspired and inerrant. Example would be, I think every preacher I have ever known at some point gives the C.S. lewis illustration from the Chronicles of Narnia with Mr. Beaver and Lucy. Where Mr. Beaver is asked, is Aslan safe? He says, of course he's not safe, but he's good. And it's used because it hasn't been said much better than that. Aslan, the Christlike figure, of course he's not safe, but he's good. But you're not saying the Chronicles of Narnia are inspired. You're just saying that's a true fact. Jesus is not safe, but he's good. Well, Jude here he quotes from a book called the Assumption of Moses. It's not inspired. It can state something true, though itself not be canonical. And it has the account of the Archangel Michael and the devil. They're contending for Moses body. And the devil is saying, you have no right. Moses cannot go to heaven because Moses is a murderer. He has no right to go to heaven. And in this, Satan is right. Moses has no right in and of himself to go to heaven. But Jude tells us that Michael did not presume to pronounce a blasphemous judgment upon Satan. Satan is attempting to judge Moses. He doesn't know his bounds. It's God that judges. But Michael knows the bounds. He knows that God is judged. So he won't even judge Satan. And he calls God to judge Satan. Judgment is God's prerogative. And Jude's point is he will judge. This is who he is. He must uphold righteousness. He will execute judgment. Do not presume upon God's grace. He will judge the ungodly. Michael was right. The radical teachers, they have overstepped. Jude concludes in verse 10, these people blaspheme all that they do not understand, and they are destroyed by all that they, like unreasoning animals, understand instinctively, that is, they simply don't understand. But even worse than that, they don't want to understand. They're just driven like animals by their appetites. This is what I feel, so this is what I'm going to take. This is what I feel, so this must be true. And Jude is saying, no, that's not how we judge what is true. We judge what is true by the faith that was once delivered to the saints. This is what establishes what is true. Christians are set free from the burden of the law. And yet we are also called to a life of obedience according to the word of the law. These false teachers didn't seem to understand this and didn't want to understand this. We don't now obey the law to earn God's favor. He has poured out his grace upon us again. To go back to the introduction, we are his beloved. He called us, and he keeps us. But we now live according to the law. We attempt to do so by his grace. We attempt to do so to the best of our ability. His work at work within us. His spirit at work within us. We attempt to do so to the best of our ability out of thanksgiving to Him. It's a life of obedience as much as we are able. But he's pointing out, they refuse to stop and think like this. And they've just become like animals, just simply moving by their passions. And if this isn't a word for our day, I don't know what is. Where we have people redefining what the Church believes by saying that can't be true. Because I have always felt this way. I feel this way. This is who I am. It is not feelings that dictate truth. It is God and God's word. We are not unreasoning animals. If you take a bowl of dog food, or even better, you put a couple of rare steaks in front of a dog and you have that dog sit there and you say to the dog, you know what? Don't eat those two rare steaks. If you just wait for five minutes, I'll give you 10 rare steaks. And then you take a step back. What's the dog going to do? Those steaks are going to be devoured. Why? Because they're just driven by their carnal appetites. We are thinkers, reasoning beings that know delayed gratification and know that we seek to wield and yield the members of our body to present ourselves as a living sacrifice to the Lord. To put off and to put on whether we eat or drink or whatever we do to do to the glory of God. It's our aim, though we won't do it perfectly. It's our aim to live in accordance with the law, to his glory and praise, because he saved us to himself, Jude. Then in verse 11 and following, he gives us three individuals as illustrations. He's told the stories. Now he's just going to give three individuals. He gives these three. Cain, Balaam and Korah. And he's comparing the false teachers to all three of these. All three of these were leaders who led God's people in revolt against God and against God's people. I'm not going to take time to go through all of them. You can look at them, turn to them in your Old Testament scriptures. But all of them rejected God's Word and all of them, each of them were destroyed. So he's presenting these as clear types, types of leaders that you and I are to avoid. Those that would abuse God's word, that would seek to lead us away from God's Word. What are these false teachers and leaders like? Well, he presents them verse 12 and 13, and it's some of the most poetic writing in Scripture. Let me just read them and explain. Explain it. He says they are like hidden reefs at their love feasts. That as Christians must steer the ship of their lives away from them so that they don't break their lives upon them. He says that these false teachers are shepherds feeding themselves, that is, that they are getting rich and fat at the expense of God's people. Reminds you of Eli's sons in the Old Testament. He says they are waterless clouds in a dry region like Israel. When there was a cloud on the horizon, that was a reason for excitement because you need that rain but when that cloud would pass over and not drop any rain, then it was a false expectation that it provided false peace, that it projected. And so it is with these false teachers. They are like fruitless trees. They're promising nourishment, but they provide no sustenance. They are like wild waves of the sea. They are chaotic instead of calming. They are wandering stars, he says. Stars fixed in the night sky. In the ancient world they were a blessing. You could navigate by them. But if it's not fixed and it's wandering, you get lost. So they are leading people to be lost and ultimately destroyed. And again, Jude can't help himself. He's forthright in verse 13. The gloom of utter darkness, he says, has been reserved forever for such people. He wants to be very clear. Destruction is coming because judgment is coming. And judgment is coming because Christ is coming. Verse 14. Behold, the Lord comes with 10,000 of his holy ones to execute judgment. Again, the same Jesus, deliverance or destruction. He's coming. He's yelling it from the rooftops. He's coming. Now notice the scope of his judgment. Jude employs the word all four times in verse 15 and 16. He will execute judgment on all to, quote, convict all of, quote all their deeds of ungodliness, and quote, of all the harsh things spoken. That's the scope, all, all and the cause. He uses the same word four times there as well, the word ungodly. He will convict all the ungodly of all their deeds of ungodliness that they have done in an ungodly way. And of all the harsh things that ungodly sinners have spoken. Destruction is coming because judgment is coming, because Jesus is coming. And it's all encompassing. Think about this together, even think about this from an old story context. Think about the Jews. And every year they would celebrate the Passover. Why? Because it was a beautiful moment of deliverance. Here they were, gathered in their homes and feasting upon that lamb, and eating the unleavened cakes and the bitter roots, and consuming all that lamb as an appropriation of faith. And the blood would cover over the lentils of their doorposts on their house. And that was the night in which the angel of Death passed over their homes and they were delivered. And so at Passover, Jews will gather and they will feast and they will dance and they will pray and they will rejoice. Now imagine if the Egyptians celebrated the Passover. What would they do? There wouldn't be feasting, there wouldn't be dancing, there wouldn't be rejoicing. There would just be weeping. Same event, same God deliverance and destruction. That's Jude's warning for us in this passage. Jesus is coming. For some it will be tears of everlasting joy. For some it will be tears of everlasting sorrow. Same event, same person. So make sure you're in Christ. These false teachers that just are trying to get you a degree off Christ, you got to run from them. They would seek to change the gospel so that it's more palatable for your generation. No, you got to get rid of them. You got to maintain this, contend for this. Because he's coming one way or the other. And this alone is our hope that we have this. And we believe upon him. Having received this. He's a good shepherd of Chon Tin who takes the sheep in his arms and he carries them. And he is the great rider of the white horse. In Revelation 19, the blood goes up to his bridle. Same Jesus again. Go back to verse 5. God destroyed these Israelites because they, quote, did not believe. So Judas said, don't get to the last day and presume upon God's grace. You got to believe this faith, the faith. Moses did not deserve Heaven. Satan was right. He was a sinner through and through. He didn't deserve it at all. But as the writer of Hebrews says, he believed by faith. By faith, by faith. It seems impossible that he who knew no sin would become sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God. Such folly. That wasn't so true. And I know it's true because His Word says it's true. This faith once delivered to the saints. And it's upon this that we can stand for all of eternity. And he's my deliverer. I hope he's your deliverer. This is a faith worth contending.
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Amen. A faith worth contending for. This is the Tuesday edition of Renewing youg Mind. And that was Jason Holopoulos, the senior pastor of University Reformed Church in East Lansing, Michigan. His study of Jude is seven messages and we'll send you all seven on DVD when you give a donation in support of RenewingYourMind at renewingyourmind.org this program would not be possible without your generosity. Sending you this DVD and unlocking Lifetime digital access to the messages and the study guide in the free Ligonier app is our way of saying thank you. So call us at 800-435-4343 or visit renewingyourmind.org to give your gift before this offer ends. Tomorrow well according to Jude we are to contend for the faith but what
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does that look like so remember that there are false teachers that have infiltrated the church and they are antinomians that is they are against the law they're teaching look you're saved by grace it doesn't matter how you live the other is that they were independence weren't recognizing that Christ is master and Lord as well as our Savior and so he is telling these recipients of letter you got to contend for the faith this is a faith we can't lose you can't allow these false teachers to take you away from Christ. We contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints why because the same Jesus who delivers also is coming to destroy there will be judgment and this is the faith the faith that saves so let's contend for this cling to this I hope
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you'll join us again tomorrow here on Renewing youg Mind.
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Sam.