In David Green's sermon 'Defenses Against The Apostates,' based on Jude verses 17 through 23, he expounds on the challenge of apostates—those who deny the gospel—and provides strategies to defend against their influence. He emphasizes the importance of remembering and being saturated in the Word of God, as it is the foundation for contending the faith and growing in Christian maturity. Green highlights the necessity of building oneself up in holy faith through prayer in the Holy Spirit and keeping oneself in the love of God by abiding in His commandments. He warns of the spiritual battle against worldly-minded individuals who cause divisions and encourages believers to remain faithful and grounded in scripture. The sermon also addresses the urgency of evangelism, urging believers to have mercy on doubters and actively share the gospel with those in apostate beliefs, underscoring the eternal significance of such actions.

So we're in Jude today and we're going to look at for our text verses 17 through 23, your copy of God's Word. This is where we'll be. Jude verses 17 through 23. But you beloved must remember the words that were spoken beforehand by the Apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ, That they were saying to you in the last time, there will be mockers following after their own ungodly lusts. These are the ones who caused divisions, worldly minded, 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, waiting for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to eternal life. And on some who are doubting, have mercy. And for others, save, snatching them out of the fire, and on others have mercy with fear, hating even the tunic polluted by by the flesh. This morning we want to look at defenses against the apostates, defenses against the apostates. By way of review, question I've asked multiple times, but it's worth repeating.

What is an apostate? What is an apostate? Who can tell me? That's exactly it, a gospel denier, Someone who denies the gospel. And so then, A follow-up question would be, is an apostate a Christian?

No, no, an apostate is not a Christian. And he cannot be, for he has denied the gospel of Jesus Christ." John, in his second epistle broke this down in 2 John, we looked at it some several weeks ago, but 2 John, Verse 7, he said, For many deceivers have gone out into the world, those who do not confess Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh. This is the deceiver and the Antichrist. And so these were a class of people who were outside of the realm of Christianity. They denied who Christ was and is.

He called them anti-Christ. And in fact, he goes on in verse 9 there in 2 John and he says, Anyone who goes too far and does not abide in the teaching of Christ does not have God. The one who abides in the teaching, he has both the father and the son. He warns the lady as he writes to her in this letter and he says to her and the Holy Spirit says to us through the word here in verse 10, if anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, do not receive him into your house, do not give him a greeting. And so as John and Jude are addressing the problem of apostates, we find that this was not an isolated problem that was happening in one place.

They were traveling from house to house, from church to church, as they journeyed around the Roman Empire. People needed places to stay as they went from place to place and there was a network. It wasn't Comfort Inn or Motel 6 in those days. It wasn't motels and hotels where you could go and make reservations. It was networks of people.

And well, there was a great network that was up and coming, a network of Christians who were extremely hospitable, willing to take in fellow Christians and even strangers into their home and put them up for a meal or even for the night. Let them stay and then send them on their way. These apostates were actually like missionaries traveling around the countryside, going from place to place, spreading, not the gospel, they denied the gospel, they were spreading lies and causing trouble in homes and in churches. And so this is why it was a problem. And so it is today.

The Lord's churches have missionaries that we send out, and we support, and they go to other places. Missionaries that have gone into New Guinea and Africa and South America taking the gospel of Jesus Christ. But then there are others who have brought error and heresy, and even damnable doctrines, apostates, like what was going on there. And so John wrote his epistles dealing with those things, and Jude, same thing. Only Jude is very laser focused on this.

This is, this epistle is really very much all he's focused on is the apostate problem. And as he writes in our text here, he gives his readers, his original readers, and you and I today, some defenses against this problem because even though the apostates in that time have died, they're no longer. The reality is that they're still apostates today. And so how do we handle them? What's the defenses?

Well, he starts there in verse 17 of Jude and he says, but you beloved must remember the words that were spoken spoken beforehand by the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ. He's talking about the word of God. We must remember the word of God. And how do we do that? Well, we've gotta be in the Word of God in order to remember it.

We've got to be saturated with the Word of God. We've got to be in God's Word. Not only to be under the preaching of God's Word when we come to church on Sunday, but also through the week to be in God's Word, to remember because we are prone to forget. We are prone to forget these things. If you're going to contend for the faith to stand against the apostates, You have to be biblical.

The only way that we can grow in soundness and sharpness, the only way that we can grow in maturity as Christians is by reading the Bible, studying the Bible, hearing the Bible preached, all of those things. We've got to be in the Word. What he writes He said, very similar to what Jude said, that this is now beloved, the second letter I am writing to you in which I am stirring up your sincere mind by way of reminder. That you should remember the word spoken beforehand by the holy prophets and the commandment of the Lord and savior spoken by your apostles. Knowing this first of all, that in the last days, mockers will come with their mocking, following after their own lusts." And so so he says there's there's mockers, there's trouble, there's all sorts of things, but he says, I'm writing to stir up your remembrance.

And of course, Peter was also dealing with saints who needed to be on guard because of apostates because of false doctrine false prophets all of those things and so So we see this this common theme paired with the warning a warning that there would be that there would be mockers following after their own ungodly lusts. Isn't it sad that there are people, you try to talk to them about the things of God, the seriousness of their soul, the reality of eternity, The reality of eternity, truth about Jesus Christ, and they mock, They don't want anything to do with it. It is a sad thing indeed as they follow after their ungodly lusts. They would rather believe a lie than to believe the truth. But you must remember the words that were spoken beforehand by the apostles.

Keep yourselves in the Word of God. Be grounded in the truth of God's Word. Don't be discouraged by those who will mock the truth of the Scriptures. Be grounded here and be faithful. Verses 19 and 20.

These are the ones who caused the visions, worldly minded, not having the Spirit, but you, beloved, building yourselves up on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit." And so the second defense against apostates is defense against apostates is to remain. Defense against false prophets, false doctrine, heresies, these false gospels that are out there. The second defense is to remain. There are those who would cause divisions. They're worldly minded.

They're not having the spirit. Maybe you recognize such when you are on social media, but you get out into the into the world and and sure enough Sure enough though they'll cause divisions about the truth of God's Word and about the realities of heaven and and and the truth of hell and all of these things. He says, you beloved building yourselves up on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit. Build yourselves up. You see, and it goes along with the first defense there, And that is to be in the Word of God, but build yourselves up in your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit, as a protection, protections from being led astray.

We are in a battle in this world. The battle is great. It's a war, a spiritual war that is happening. It's been going on for thousands of years, long before you and I were born, but we find ourselves in this war right now. There's a battle for your mind, there's a battle for your soul, there's a battle beloved for your family, for the church of the Lord Jesus Christ, there's a battle, a spiritual battle that's going on.

Beware of those who cause divisions, those who are worldly minded, those who do not have the Spirit, but build yourselves up on your most holy faith. Where do we find that? Where is that grounded? Again, it goes back to the word of God. It goes back to faith in who?

Everybody has faith, faith in something. Today, you've either got faith in Jesus Christ, or you've got faith in something else. Whatever that faith is that's in the category of something else, It's a faith that will take you to an eternal hell. The only hope that we've got is in Jesus Christ. And he goes on.

So we must remain. Verses 19 and 20, but verse 21 he says, keep yourselves in the love of God. Waiting for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to eternal life. So the third defense is to keep yourself in the love of God. Keep yourself in the love of God.

There's no greater love in this world than the love of God. We looked at that some a few weeks ago, a few months ago when we were in 1st Corinthians 13. No greater place to be than in the love of God. But you might read this and think, well, wait a minute. I thought that all of God's people are in the love of God.

Always. And that's a fact. If you're one of God's people, if you've been saved, you've been born again, if you're Christian, you are in the love of God eternally. In fact, Romans, well before we go to Romans, look here at Jude, going down to verse 24. Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to make you stand in the presence of his glory blameless with great joy.

And if you go back to verse 1 of Jude, he says, Jude, a slave of Jesus Christ and brother of James, to those who are the called, beloved in God the Father and kept for Jesus Christ. So if all we had was Jude's letter, That's all we had out of all the Bible. We would know that in verse 21, he's not talking about trying to keep yourself saved. That's not what he means here. When he says, keep yourselves in the love of God.

So he must mean something else. Now as much as I appreciate this letter, this book that we call Jude, it's not all we've got. And so I just want to remind you of where you're at as a child of God. So go with me to Romans chapter 8. Romans chapter 8, One of my favorite chapters in the Bible.

And if we start at verse 28, We read on down to verse 39, this is what he says, And we know that for those who love God, all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. Because those whom he first sought, those whom he foreknew, he also predestinated to become conformed to the image of his son so that he would be the firstborn among many brothers. Those whom he predestinated he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified. What then shall we say to these things? If God be for us, who is against us?

He who indeed did not spare his own son, but delivered him over for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? Who will bring a charge against God's elect? God is the one who justifies. Who is the one who condemns? Christ Jesus is he who died, yes rather, who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us.

Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will affliction, or turmoil, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? Just as it is written, for your sake, we are being put to death all day long we were counted as sheep for the slaughter But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through him who loved us. But I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. And so, amen, what a great blessing it is to be in the love of God.

And Paul makes it clear here in Romans, as he wrote to them, that nothing can separate us from the love of God. In other words, if God loved you yesterday, he loves you today, and he'll love you tomorrow too, And all the tomorrows that are to come. That's a fact. So what is Jude talking about when he says to his readers, what is the Holy Spirit saying to us as we read this? What does it mean In verse 21 of our text, keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to eternal life.

Well, he's not contradicting, Paul. It's not a contradictory statement. The Bible doesn't tell two stories when it comes to the love of God. So how do we keep ourselves in the love of God? It seems how it is, it does seem to be very important.

He's writing about these apostates. I believe we get the answer as we compare scripture with scripture. Something that Jesus said over in John chapter 15. John chapter 15 verses 9 and 10. Just as the Father has loved me, I have also loved you.

Think about that. He says, just as the Father loved me, I have loved you. That's deep love there. You can't get any deeper love than that. But he goes on, he says, he says there in verse 9, abide in my love.

Abide in my love. If you love me, or rather, sorry I'm getting ahead of myself, if you keep my commandments, verse 10 says, you will abide in my love just as I have kept my Father's commandments and abide in his love. So on one hand, as the people of God, we're always in God's love. Nothing can separate us from the love of God. That's a fact.

But to keep ourselves in the love of God is the same as what Jesus is saying here, abide in my love. And what is the context? He says, if you keep my amendments you abide in my love. There is Such a thing as a child of God going contrary to the way that we should. Now he still loves us.

And He'll still show his love, but in a different way, you see. And that is through discipline. Just like a father will discipline his child, so it is with us as his people. I believe that's the sort of thing that Jude is talking about. In the context of the apostates, the defense against them is keep yourself in the love of God.

Don't be doing things contrary to what God has told us to be doing. Because what happens? Well, on one hand, if you go and have fellowship with them, and that sort of thing, then eventually their bad ideas will start rubbing off and what fellowship has light with darkness, you know, that sort of thing. But on the other hand, Amy's saying I'm not going to have nothing to do with the apostates, I'm going to be separate from them. But then you go off and you do things contrary to God's Word.

What does that do to your testimony? They say, oh, well that person over there, he's a preacher of the Baptist Church. Or she said that she believes the gospel of Christ, but they're going into some sin. We use the Church at Corinth for an example. To our knowledge, the Church at Corinth hadn't fallen into apostasy, But they had in their midst one who had committed fornication.

What kind of testimony did that have among those who were apostates in the world? You see, not a good testimony to Christ and His Church, or for Christ and His Church. And so we're to keep ourselves in the love of God, to do the commandments of God. We're not talking about a legalistic kind of a thing. Not like the Pharisees or the old hypocrites who were living in the days of Jesus and they made all sorts of rules and regulations all outward, you know, make sure that you look good for the case of looking good.

It's not talking about that sort of thing. But like Jesus, Jesus is our example and he called out the hypocrisy in his day. He stands as an example and he says just as I have kept my father's commandments and abide in his love. It is possible for us to be on our way to heaven. Nothing will change that, but it is possible on our way to find ourselves outside of the will of God and outside, in this sense, outside of the love of God.

And so we're to be on guard for this. So this is a defense against the apostates. We're to let our light shine, as Jesus said in Matthew. Let's go over there for just a minute. Matthew chapter five.

Matthew chapter 5 Verse 14, you are the light of the world. The city set on a hill cannot be hidden, nor does anyone light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on the lampstand. And he gives light to all who are in the house. Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works and glorify your Father who is in heaven. This is the way that it needs to be.

In a world full of apostates, a world full of false doctrine, false ideas, all that. He says, let your light shine. You are the light of the world. Why? So that you can be made to look like a great thing?

No. So that they may see your good works and glorify your Father who is in heaven. That's what I believe Jude is talking about when he says to keep yourselves in the love of God. And so if we go back to Jude, The fourth point that we find here in order to have a defense against the apostates is again in verse 21, but the latter part of it, where the scripture says, "'Waiting for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ "'to eternal life.'" We miss this, I think, in our day and age because we're so busy and we're running to and fro and going here and there. We've got so many things going on.

But if you read the old Christians, go back into reading the old Baptists, the old Puritans, Read those guys and you see what they had in common is they were living in the light of eternity. Yes, they had things going on in their lives. Yes, they were busy. I mean we toiled, they toiled. They had to cut firewood and build houses and Clear forests and all of those sorts of things.

Some of them were running from authorities or trying to hide so that they didn't get caught for persecutions and all those sorts of... They had a lot of things going on is my point, but it was different. But they were living in light of eternity. In order for us to defend against the apostates, to earnestly contend for the faith, we need to be thinking more of eternal things. More of eternal things.

To wait anxiously for the Lord to return. To think often of how someday we're going to be with the Lord forever. Don't set your affections on things here and now. All this, It's not going to last. But did you wake up this morning and think that today might be the day that we'll see Jesus?

That today may be the day of the Lord's return. Many of our problems, our anxieties, the things that we're busy about would disappear and get smaller if we thought of eternity more. Too often we're so earthly minded that we're of no heavenly value. Most of the Things we get involved with, we spend our time with, we think it's so big right now that they don't amount to much in the light of eternity. They're worldly distractions, a lot of it.

And the way that we win, the way that we defend against apostates is to be thinking about, considering eternity, waiting for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to eternal life. And you notice how in each one of these defenses, they always, always, always go back to the Word of God. We've got to be grounded in God's Word. There's a lot of strange ideas about eternity. There's a lot of strange ideas about the Lord's return, but so long as we're anchored in God's Word, we'll not go wrong.

And then fifthly, the final point here, As we think about defenses against apostates. Verses 22 and 23. And on some who are doubting, have mercy. And for others save, snatching them out of the fire, and on others have mercy with fear, hating even the tunic polluted by the flesh. These are the verses that will make a Calvinist uneasy sometimes I think, especially those especially those in the in the in the hard shell camp, but they're here and they're real.

And the defense against the apostates is to be evangelistic. To have an evangelistic mindset, a an evangelistic mindset, a missionary-minded spirit about you with a sense of urgency. I like how he's wording this here. He says, some who are doubting have mercy. Others save snatching them out of the fire.

We all know what it's like to snatch someone out of a fire if nothing else we've had that child who reached up to the stove and started to touch something that's hot and you see it about to happen, and you grab a hand and pull it back, you know if they don't get out of there, they're gonna get burned. Don't let the doctrine of unconditional election and irresistible grace, don't let those doctrines, don't let the sovereignty of God, and they're all true, but don't let those things keep you from having a sense of urgency in telling others about Jesus. There is a terrible place, a terrible time coming to those who die without the Lord. Folks need the gospel. And in the context of this passage, that would include even those, and especially those who are caught up in apostate religions.

Learn to identify them. Not everybody who says that they believe in Jesus, or that they are Christian really are. There are cults and even some so-called churches out there today who have denied the very gospel of Christ. And there are some in those groups who think that they're going to heaven just because they're part of that. He says on some who are doubting, have mercy.

Be patient with folks. Have mercy. Others save snatching them out of the fire, have mercy with fear, hating even the tunic polluted by the flesh. Minds have to be drawn, understanding that there are errors out there and some of them are so terrible. That life, eternal life, is at stake.

They need to hear the truth of the gospel, how that Jesus came, died on the cross, was buried, rose again. He's alive. One day coming back for us. They need to hear that there's hope for a lost sinner in Christ. They need to know these things.

And so we've got to have a sense of urgency with the gospel. And so these are the things that that I find as I read Jude that we that we can glean out of this. How we can have a defense defenses against the apostates. Thank you for your attention this morning. Let's let's have another...