In Robert Bosley's sermon on the Epistle of Jude, he emphasizes the importance of contending for the faith amidst the presence of false teachers. The sermon is structured around four main points: common salvation, confronting false teachers, characteristics of false teachers, and a caution in addressing them. Bosley discusses how Jude's message highlights the unity and equality of all Christians under a common salvation, regardless of denominational differences. This salvation is rooted in the grace of God and requires believers to fight for the purity of the doctrine once delivered to the saints. False teachers, who have crept into the church unnoticed, are described as ungodly and immoral, twisting the grace of God for their own purposes. Despite their deception, Christians are called to confront these teachers with reason, Scripture, and humility, understanding that the gospel's integrity and the salvation of souls are at stake. Ultimately, the sermon calls for believers to be vigilant, knowledgeable of their faith, and to examine their own beliefs to ensure they remain true to the gospel.

Good afternoon everyone. If you could please open your copy of the scriptures to the Epistle of Jude. Almost the end of your Bibles if you find revelation you have gone too far. Far. The Epistle of Jude, again, as was mentioned last week, or not last week, last time, I was here a couple weeks ago it's a small letter and one of the what are called the general or the Catholic epistles but don't let its size fool you there's a lot here there's a lot packed into these 25 verses And so because it is only 25 verses again, I want to read the whole thing, but we will focus in on just a couple of verses today.

But let's go ahead and read the entire letter. Jude, a bond servant of Jesus Christ and brother of James, to those who are called, sanctified by God the Father, and preserved in Jesus Christ, mercy, peace, and love be multiplied to you. Beloved, While I was very diligent to write to you concerning our common salvation, I found it necessary to write to you, exhorting you to contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the Saints. For certain men have crept in unnoticed, who long ago were marked out for this condemnation, ungodly men who turned the grace of our God into lewdness and deny the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ. But I want to remind you, though you once knew this, that the Lord, having saved the people out of the land of Egypt afterward, destroyed those who did not believe.

And the angels, who did not keep their proper domain, but left their own abode, He has reserved in everlasting chains under darkness for the judgment of the great day. As Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities around them in a similar manner to these, having given themselves over to sexual immorality and gone after strange flesh, are set forth as an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire. Likewise, also these dreamers defile the flesh, reject authority, and speak evil of dignitaries. Yet Michael, the archangel, in contending with the devil when he disputed about the body of Moses, dared not bring against him a reviling accusation, but said, The Lord rebuke you. But these speak evil of whatever they do not know, and whatever they know naturally, like brute beasts.

In these things they corrupt themselves. Woe to them, for they have gone in the way of Cain, have run greedily in the error of Balaam for profit, and have perished in the rebellion of Korah. These are spots in your love feasts, While they feast with you without fear, serving only themselves, they are clouds without water carried about by the winds, late autumn trees without fruit, twice dead pulled up by the roots, raging waves of the sea, foaming up their own shame, wandering stars for whom is reserved the blackness of darkness forever. Now Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied about these men also saying, Behold the Lord comes with ten thousands of His saints to execute judgment on all, to convict all who are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have committed in an ungodly way, and of all the harsh things which ungodly sinners have spoken against him. These are grumblers, complainers, walking according to their own lusts, and they mouth great swelling words, flattering people to gain advantage.

But you, beloved, remember the words which were spoken before by the Apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ. How they told you that there would be mockers in the last time who would walk according to their own ungodly lusts. These are sensual persons who cause divisions, not having the Spirit. But you, beloved, building yourselves up on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life. And on some have compassion, making a distinction, but others, save with fear, pulling them out of the fire, hating even the garment defiled by the flesh now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy.

To God our Savior who alone is wise, be glory and majesty, dominion and power both now and forever. Amen. Let's pray. Oh Lord, we do ask for your help. Pray, Lord, that you would open up these words to us.

Help us to understand. Lord, help me to speak clearly. God, keep my mouth from any error. And Lord may you use this time to get glory for yourself and to save your people. In Christ's name, amen.

Okay, so the Epistle of Jude. Last time we looked at verses one and two, and today we're gonna move on and look at verses three and four. I promise that not every time it's going to be only two verses. We will pick up the pace a little bit, but there is so much built into these passages that I really felt compelled to slow down for, especially here, to really dive into what Jude is saying. So in verses one and two we talked about how Jude conceives of the the Christians he's writing to.

What is Jude's portrait of a Christian? How are Christians, what is his thinking of what makes a Christian? A Christian is called, sanctified, preserved. They receive mercy, peace, and love from God. Because of all these things we looked ahead to verse three a little bit that they fight, they're called to contend for the faith.

So we're gonna look at that a little bit more today. I want to look at verses 3 & 4 under four headings and in true Baptist fashion I alliterated them. So first we have a common salvation. Secondly confronting false teachers. Third the characteristics of false teachers.

And fourth, a caution. So first, a common salvation. Second, confronting false teachers. Third, the characteristics of false teachers. And fourth, a caution.

So first, a common salvation. Jude in verse 3 says, beloved, while I was very diligent to write to you Concerning our common salvation. And he goes on and explains he had to change his plans, but I wanted to focus on that because that idea of our common salvation really gripped me. This is a really powerful statement. It is a common salvation.

It is the salvation common to all Christians. In God's kingdom there are no special Christians. There are not different levels of people loved by God. It is a common salvation and this I believe works out corporately as well as individually. Individually, no Individual particular Christian is more or less loved by God than any other Christian You believer here today are loved by God just as much as Paul was loved by God Jude the brother of the Lord was had the same salvation that you and I experience.

We are all on the same level when we come to the cross. Now God gives different roles and he calls people to different callings. Some people are leaders in the church. Some are just what we call laymen. They go about their everyday lives, but they are in the sight of God just as saved as the elders of the church or even the apostles.

At the cross, there's no distinction because it is all the grace of God has made you into a Christian. So individually no one Christian is more or less loved by God, no more or less saved. And also we can think about this corporately. We have disagreements with other groups of Christians, but Baptists are not more saved than Presbyterians. Shocker, I know.

But there is a commonness to our salvation. We disagree, we have serious disagreements. But we have one savior and the same salvation. If you are truly trusting in Jesus, you have the same salvation of every other believer who trusts in Jesus. Is a common salvation.

All at the cross are one. Colossians 3, 11, there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcised nor uncircumcised. Barbarian, Scythian, slave nor free, but Christ is all in in all All those barriers that separate people Outside of the church all those things that keep people apart from one another and make people enemies of one another, all those walls are broken down in Christ. And this is why, especially today, I have to say not only do I disagree, but I absolutely repudiate and reject critical race theory Intersectionality and those things that these things are on our on my mind a lot because that's all that we see on the news But this drive to divide Christians because of race Christian leaders claiming that there needs to be black and white spaces at the Lord's table. How dare you?

It is one salvation. There is one Savior, one faith, and ultimately one church. There is no division. There's one body. So we have a common salvation.

This salvation that is the common experience of all Christians. We have a unified church, all who trust in the Lord Jesus Christ are one. We are all children of God having the same elder brother, the Lord Jesus Christ. So the common salvation. Secondly, confronting false teachers.

So the common salvation was what Jude wanted to write about, But for some reason he had to change his plans. Whether he received a messenger with news or perhaps simply by divine inspiration he knew he had to write about something else. We don't know what it is but he changed his plans. Although I was very diligent to write to you concerning our common salvation, I found it necessary to write to you, exhorting you to contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints. Jude calls on us to confront false teaching and false teachers.

But what kind of a confrontation is he calling us to? It's not a confrontation of violence or force. We do not use weapons as Paul says the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, they're not worldly. They are mighty, They're spiritual weapons. We do not use swords or guns to confront false teachers, but we use reason.

We use logic. Above all, we use Scripture and prayer and the Spirit of God. Because there are going to be false teachers that come into the church. That is very clear throughout Scripture. We are warned and told over and over again there will be false teachers.

And Jude is reminding this body, whoever he is writing to, there not only will be but there already are. We'll look at that in verse 4 in a minute. But he points out the faith is under attack. We have to contend because the faith is under attack. There are those who have come in and are twisting the truth.

We are to contend earnestly, to fight vigorously. I mentioned last time this this word as the idea of a wrestling match or even a battle. It is a forceful confrontation. It is not something that we can be passive about, but active and engaged in with all of our capabilities and our capacities. It is a fight, it is a hard fight.

And it's interesting, he says, that we are to contend for the faith is the faith this is a something that is identifiable is the faith is a particular body of doctrine a corpus of truths that has as he says have been handed over once and for all delivered to the saints. This is a body of doctrine that must be defended and fought for. We must maintain its purity. And so we fight for it. We contend for it.

So often today we hear the idea that doctrine doesn't matter. But that's not what this says. Jude says, contend for the faith. The faith is the doctrine upon which All of that is built on all of scripture the doctrine that we trust in that we live by Anytime you talk about God you are talking about doctrine Anytime you bring up Jesus you are saying something doctrinal So don't tell me doctrine doesn't matter. Jude says doctrine matters.

Doctrine needs to be fought for. Pure and true doctrine is worth fighting for. We are to fight for it. It matters because truth matters. Because God matters.

Because the salvation of souls matters. Because anytime you add to the gospel, you empty it of its power. Anytime you take away from the gospel, you empty it of its power. So we fight for the purity and truth of the faith, the purity and truthfulness of the gospel. Because what did Paul say to the Galatians?

He said, you're being taken away to another gospel, which is no gospel There's only one gospel anything that else that's added to it or perverted perverting it makes it another gospel Which is not a gospel it is something that cannot save So when you add to or take away from the truth of scripture to the truth of God's word, you are changing it into something that cannot save. And we have to have that in our minds when we see people twisting scripture, when we see people who are even leaders leading people astray. We can't just be like, oh well, that's unfortunate It needs to provoke us with a a holy and righteous anger to see God's truth drug through the mud. We cannot allow that to happen. We fight for the truth.

As I mentioned before, this is the classic text that calls us to apologetics inside the visible church. Apologetics comes from a Greek word that simply means a defense. It's not apologizing, it's giving a defense. There's a parallel in Peter that is more directed towards giving an apology, a defense to those outside the faith who ask you for the hope that is within you. So we do apologetics outside the faith as well as inside the visible church and that's what we are dealing with here people who are in the church but teaching falsehood and this one identifiable faith the faith it is the faith that has been handed down, delivered over to the saints.

And it's handed over once, once and for all. It's given once and for all. There is no new gospel message and there are no amendments to what was given. What Christ gave to the apostles is what needs to be preached today. We must fight to maintain that pure truth, that pure gospel.

And This is the real apostolic succession. If you've never heard those terms that Rome, as well as Eastern Orthodoxy, in a slightly different take, claim what is called apostolic succession. They claim that their doctrine is right because they have a bishop in Rome who can trace his lineage back to Peter. Okay, that's not true first of all, but even if it were, you cannot simply claim that you're in the line of the apostles if you're not teaching what the apostles taught and we can look at Rome's doctrines we can look at Eastern Orthodoxy's doctrine and see no you do not teach what the Apostles taught this is the real apostolic succession Do you teach what the Apostles taught? Do you teach the gospel?

Do you teach the faith that was given to them and has been passed on? That is the real lineage of the Apostles maintaining the purity of the gospel. So we must confront these false teachers because the very gospel itself is at stake, because souls are at stake, because God's name and his glory and his reputation are at stake. And so, Christian, you must care about people enough to confront them when they need to be confronted. There is a mentality Today that it's not loving to confront people.

It's not loving to point out when someone's wrong Scripture says no It is loving to correct your brother in error It is loving to correct a teacher who is leading people astray. You must care enough, care enough about doctrine, care enough about the souls of the teachers themselves, these false teachers. You must care about their hearers, those who are being led astray. You must care enough to confront them and expose them. So we confront false teachers.

Thirdly, the characteristics of false teachers. Verse four, for certain men have crept in unnoticed who long ago were marked out for this condemnation, ungodly men who turn the grace of our God into lewdness and deny the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ. What does a false teacher look like? Well, Jude immediately tells us that's difficult. They have crept in unnoticed.

They have come in by stealth. They've snuck in. What did Jesus warn the disciples about? That there would be wolves in sheep's clothing. It's really easy to spot a wolf when he's just obviously a wolf.

But wolves in sheep's clothing coming into the flock, they don't point out their teeth. They come in secretly. They come in looking like one of the flock And so it's not always obvious when someone's a false teacher we have to be on guard False teachers don't come into the church and say, Hi, my name is Bob, I'm a heretic. Be nice if they did, but that's not how it works. Now we can look at certain heresies and false teachers and be like okay well that's I mean Kenneth Copeland I mean come on that's easy.

But there are false teachers who are far more subtle. They can come in stealthily. And catch you by surprise. They can catch a whole church by surprise and wreak havoc among the body And so we must be watching because these false teachers sneak and they come in unnoticed Turn with me to Acts chapter 8. Acts chapter 8 gives us a good example of what a false teacher who comes in in an unnoticed stealthy way looks like.

Acts chapter 8. Starting in verse 9. Gave heed from the least to the greatest, saying, This man is the great power of God. And they heeded him because he had astonished them with his sorceries for a long time. But when they believed Philip, as he preached the things concerning the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, both men and women were baptized.

Then Simon himself also believed, and when he was baptized he continued with Philip, and was amazed seeing the miracles and signs which were done. Now when the Apostles who were in Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the word of God, they sent Peter and John to them, who when they came down prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Spirit, for as yet he had fallen upon none of them. They had only been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. Then they laid hands on them and they received the Holy Spirit. And when Simon saw that through the laying on of the Apostles hands the Holy Spirit was given, he offered them money saying, give me this power also that anyone on whom I lay hands may receive the Holy Spirit.

But Peter said to him, your money perish with you because you thought that the gift of God could be purchased with money. You have neither part nor portion in this matter, for your heart is not right in the sight of God. Repent therefore of this your wickedness and pray God if perhaps the thought of your heart may be forgiven you for I see that you are poisoned by bitterness and bound by iniquity then Simon answered and said pray to the Lord for me then none of the things which you have spoken may come upon me so think of the the situation we have here that we have this man who who has set himself up as this great authoritative sorcerer, a man who does these signs. And the people of Samaria follow him. Well the Christians come, Philip comes, and he preaches the Gospel, and Samaria, a large part of Simon's followers, repent and believe.

And it says Simon believed also. That's interesting. He was baptized by Philip, a very early important deacon in the church. He even ministers side by side with Peter and John. And yet What is Peter's assessment of him after he tries to buy the gift of the Holy Spirit with money?

He says, Your heart is not right in the sight of God. Repent of your wickedness. I see you are poisoned by bitterness and bound by iniquity. That is not the description of a Christian. Simon was not truly a believer.

He believed in the sense that he believed the facts, but there was no repentance. There was no living faith in Simon's heart. He mouthed the words, but he used it as another way of exalting himself. And he completely tricked Philip, Peter, and John, for we don't even know how long until his heresy became so obvious when he tried to buy the gift of the Holy Spirit with money. He tricked apostles.

That is how hard it can be to spot a false teacher. And history, tradition at least in the church tells us that Simon he did not repent he actually went on to become an arch heretic a leader of the Gnostic sect that ravaged the church so we must be on guard we must be on the lookout. False teachers can fool even apostles. You could be fooled. And so you must be on your guard.

So first, false teachers sneak in. The first of the characteristic of a false teacher is they sneak in. Secondly, they are prophesied as coming unto the church. Certain men of Krypton unnoticed who long ago were marked out for this condemnation. Now the word therefore marked out can mean a couple things.

At the very least it means that there was prophecy concerning false teachers coming into the church. I said that they're prophesied, which is obviously true, I would actually go a step further and say they are predestined. I believe what he's saying here is that they are marked out not simply written down in the book of scripture but written down in the book of God's decree. That's what the word marked out literally means. It means written beforehand.

And so the question is, is it written beforehand in earlier scripture or is it written down in God's book? And I think really what he's talking about is God's book, but at the very least it means that there's these false teachers are prophesied is coming in. So as disheartening as it can be to think that we may not spot a false teacher, we have to recognize that though we may miss it, God does not. God is not caught unaware. From the human perspective, they sneak in, they come in unnoticed, but God is not unaware.

He has told us it will happen. He is predestined that it would happen. And we know that God does all things well. He does all things for the good of his people And so we can look at this and as hard as it can be for us to wrap our minds wrong Well, why would God predestined there to be false teachers to come into the church? We know that God does all things for the good of his people.

And so you can trust that God knows what is happening and he is using it for the good of his church. He's using it to purify his church. I mean think about if you know your church history, how much of a blessing and a benefit ultimately was it to the church that the Council of Nicaea happened? The Nicene Creed was formulated and written as essentially the baseline of what it means to be a Christian. Well, why was that written?

Because for 200 years, false teachers had been coming into the church and saying, no, Jesus is not God. And God used those false teachers to to purify his church and to get them to think hard about these vitally important issues. God uses false teachers for the good of his kingdom and for the good of his people. He is at work even in heretics coming in among his saints. So they are prophesied or predestined.

Third, he describes them ungodly men or godless men. These are people who claim to follow Christ. They claim to know God, but Jude says no, they're godless. They are ungodly men. And this word becomes a key word for the rest of the epistle.

We will see it again and again. And so we have to understand This is an essential core part. What does it mean that someone's a false teacher in the ultimate sense? They do not have God. So does that mean then that we can just hate them?

That we can just write them off and say, well, I don't care what happens to you. Well, no, what do we do with other ungodly men? We preach the gospel to them. These are ungodly men. They need to be told to repent and believe, turn to Christ and be saved.

There are ungodly men who will perish if they do not know Christ. But these false teachers, they claim to have faith, but they live like heathens, they live like the pagans. And in reality, they are heathens, they are pagans, because they do not truly know the only God who saves. And they must be called to repentance. Fourth, they are immoral.

Repentance. Fourth, they are immoral. Ungodly men who turn the grace of our God into lewdness. Now lewdness is not a word that we often use. The New American Standard translates it as licentiousness, which may be a word we use even less.

The idea here is unrestrained immorality. They take the grace of God and pervert it as a license for them to indulge in every sinful evil desire that they have. They have thrown off all self-restraint and they indulge in every sinful whim that crosses their unregenerate minds is self-abandonment to sin and temptation. They are taking the route that says the only true response to temptation is to give in. That is the way these false teachers live.

And how many times have we seen it in even our own lives of false teachers being accused of one sort of immorality or another over and over and over again. Throughout church history, we see the same marks. That's exactly what Jude is saying here. They turn the grace of God into lewdness. They have the mentality of, well, God will forgive me.

Well, yeah, I did that, but God knows my heart. I'm sure we've all heard that. Problem is when you say, yeah, God knows my heart, the truth is he does. And he tells you that what is in your heart will come out of your mouth and it will work itself out in your hands In your feet So if you are not living in accordance with the gospel you do not have the truth of the gospel in your heart So yes, God knows your heart. That is not a defense This is the spirit of antinomianism that says, I will do this, there is no law that I'm accountable to.

This is those that Jesus says, why do you call me Lord, Lord, and you don't do what I say? Paul writing in Romans chapter six, he says, should we remain in sin that grace may abound? That's the mentality of these false teachers. What is Paul's response? Absolutely not.

King James translated, God forbid. No, we don't take God's grace and use that as a license to indulge in the sin that Christ has saved us from. That's not what salvation does. That's not what salvation means. Titus 2, 11 and 12, for the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men.

So what does this grace of God that brings salvation do? Does it give us a license to go on and indulge in sin? No, it is teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts we should live soberly, righteously and godly in the present age. The grace and forgiveness we receive from Christ does not give us permission to ignore God's law. It teaches us how to obey and love God's law.

That is what the grace of God does. But these false teachers, they take the grace of God and they use it to cover their sin. They use it as a license to indulge their sinful passions. Nothing holds them back. And so they are marked by immorality and that will come out.

You can only hide immorality for so long. Be sure your sins will find you out. And when we think of immorality we immediately jump to sexual immorality And that is the primary reference here, but that's not the only thing that is included in this word. It's all sinful temptation, greed, lust for power, all these sinful desires of the corrupt human heart. But there is a special attraction, it seems, for sexual temptation.

And false teachers, though they may put on a good show, they may say the right words, ultimately there's no love of God, there's no love for God's law, and it does come out. It will come out eventually. Fifth, by living this way they deny Christ. They turn the grace of our God into lewdness and deny the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ. The interesting thing about that there at the end, Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ, the words Lord there are actually two different words and I think there's a good case that can be made that if you follow this reading it's actually all referring to Jesus, that Jesus is our master God and Lord.

Regardless of whether it's making a distinction between the Father and the Son or it's only talking about the Son, the point is by living this way You are denying God. You are denying Christ. You're denying when you live with the attitude of, I can do whatever I want because grace abounds. When you live that way, you deny God's right to give a moral law and hold you accountable to it. You may say you believe that, but you live opposed to it.

Titus 1.16, they profess to know God, but in works they deny him, being abominable, disobedient, and disqualified for every good work. And what did Jesus say? Matthew 7, 22 to 25, where he said, many in that day will say to me, Lord, Lord, they did all these great works and what does Jesus say? Depart from me, you who practice lawlessness. You call me Lord but you live as if I never gave you a law to obey.

You live as if I had no right to tell you how you should live. You are a creature. You are not your own. You are a creation of God. He has the right to tell you how to live in his world.

So they deny Christ. The gospel is about repenting of sin and living by faith and these men have an empty faith and embrace sin. So these are the characteristics of a false seizure that Jude gives us. They sneak in, They are predestined or prophesied about. They are godless.

They are immoral and they deny Christ. Before we end, I want to end with my fourth point, a caution. This is not explicitly in the text, but I feel it's necessary. When we confront someone who is teaching a falsehood, how do we do it? These passages that we must fight for the faith, we must contend, we must preserve the purity of the gospel, these are true.

We must zealously guard the truth that saves. But how should we do it? First Peter 3, 15, sanctify the Lord God in your hearts and always be ready to give a defense to everyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you with meekness and fear having a good conscience that when they defame you as evil doers those who revile your good conduct in Christ may be ashamed." Then 1st Timothy 2 14, a servant of the Lord must not quarrel but be gentle to all, able to teach, patient, in humility, correcting those who are in opposition if God perhaps will grant them repentance so they may know the truth there are other places we could go so when when Jude tells us to contend for the faith when Peter says that there are false teachers who will come in they must be exposed. This is not a license for you to be abusive towards other people. Apologetics is not a license for you to be a jerk.

Because we don't know always, we don't always know whether someone is truly a wolf or simply a confused sheep. And we are told to be gentle because you don't know always. Now sometimes there may be an appropriate time for a sharper tongue. We see that the prophets and Jesus himself. But we should be very hesitant to turn to that sharpened tongue.

We should be very hesitant. We should approach this with gentleness and meekness and humility, hoping that God will open their eyes and change their heart. We confront false teachers, not so we can simply score points and show off about how smart we are. We do apologetics so that souls may be saved and the gospel may be preserved. And we do have to draw lines on when we when we confront someone.

We have to consider what error is truly damning and what is a matter of interpretation that Christians can disagree on but still call one another brothers. We have to make that distinction. The great error of fundamentalism is everything becomes a top tier issue. You deny the pre-tribulation rapture, you're obviously lost. I've actually heard that.

But We also can't go the route of liberalism, where there are no first tier issues. We have to carefully and maturely think through these issues of what, Where do we draw that line of what is a brother who I can disagree with? What is a brother that, okay, we've got irreconcilable differences, he's still saved, but we're probably not going to go to church together. And what is someone who is outside the faith? We have to think through these things.

15 years ago Al Mohler wrote a what I feel is an incredibly important article called a call for theological theological triage and Christian maturity. And in this he compared the examination of doctrinal disputes to the sorting process, to triage of an emergency room. And so in triage you sort someone in the emergency room by how bad their case is, the people who are going to be more likely to die sooner, they get treated first. A gunshot wound is more severe than someone with the sniffles. And so the person with the gunshot wound gets treated first.

We do the same thing as mature Christians with doctrine. There are some things that are the theological gunshot wounds. Things that if they are Out of sorts, if there is an error, things that are fatal to the soul. Other things are what are called adiaphora. They're things that we can disagree on.

They're the non-essentials of the faith. Doesn't mean they're not important to understand, but they are things that genuine Christians can disagree on. So top tier issues, first tier issues. These are things that if someone disagrees, you can say at least after a time they are out of the faith they are not a Christian denial of the Trinity denial of the full deity and humanity of Jesus adding works to the gospel and denying justification by faith These things put you outside of the true faith. And if someone persists in that error, we can rightly say, no, they are a false teacher.

They have Shown themselves to be a heretic outside of the faith Second-tier issues things that are still serious, but where both sides are still Christians This is where most of our denominational divisions occur You can recognize that each other are believers probably at least, but you're not going to go to the same church. Debates about baptism for instance. Debates about church government, the Calvinism Armenian debate usually. These are things where you can say yes you're a brother but we're not going to probably be able to fellowship together. The debate is too strong, too sharp.

And third tier issues. This is going to be the largest or at least it should be. This is filled with issues where you can have members of the same church who disagree. It's a helpful way to think through it. The eschatology would be a big one here.

Your preferred Bible version. Unless it's the passion translation, no. Nuances of how to understand the biblical covenants there's debates on that that's fine We must approach each issue with maturity and wisdom appropriate to the situation appropriate to the issue at hand. My approach towards someone who denies the deity of Jesus is going to be very different to my approach for someone who thinks that we should never drink alcohol or who prefers a Bible translation that I don't care for I'm gonna have a much more aggressive stance toward the former because that is a false teaching that will damn. We have to make these distinctions, We have to understand this and we have to approach it with gentleness and humility, hoping that God will grant repentance.

No matter how good your argument is, it's still up to God. God must be the one to grant repentance. And so what do we take away from all this? I've simply two points of application. Be ready to fight for the faith is number one.

Be ready to fight. This means knowing God and knowing your Bible. You don't have to understand every error that's out there. You can't. There are too many.

You don't have to know all the ins and outs of Mormonism and Islam and Jehovah's Witnesses and all these things. It's good if you want to know those. If you feel a particular compulsion to address a particular group, that's great. But that's not what everyone's called to and not everyone has to do do this You don't have to be well versed on every heresy that has plagued the church for 2, 000 years What you do have to know is the truth You have to know it and be ready to defend it. On the flip side of this, first be ready to fight for the faith, but on the flip side, examine yourself first.

Our tendency can be when we come to passages like this is to immediately think of ourselves as the hero. The villain never sees himself as the villain. Especially those of us who are or want to be teachers, examine yourself. See that you are truly in the faith and that you're not the one that the sheep need to be defended against. Examine yourself.

See that you are in the faith. This is vitally important. This has been something that the church has dealt with for 2, 000 years. And if you look at church history, you can see it's the same heresies over and over again. Heresy doesn't die, it just goes underground or it changes slightly.

But the truth stays the same. We must defend it. We must be ready to give a response to those who twist it. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for this time that we've been able to be in your word together.

Lord, we thank you for the clarity of your word God we ask that you would help us to understand it more God help us to have a greater love for your word a greater love for you and God may our love for you and the gospel provoke us, Lord, to defend it. Or may our hearts be grieved when we see falsehood. God, may you give us a willingness and a desire and the compassion necessary to stand up to correct falsehood. And God, when we do, may you please be with us and may you give us not only the words to say but God may you come and power and grant repentance or thank you for preserving your church against innumerable enemies throughout its history or thank you that you are continuing to preserve your church today. Lord, may you give us the grace necessary that we can still stand and fight Knowing that you will give us the victory In Christ's name we pray