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By
Jim Hammond
Do-It-Yourself and Save?
Do you agree that Do-It-Yourself schemes can save
you a lot of money? Do you
also agree that paying an expert in some matters will save you money,
time, and more? Would you
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The Do-It-Yourself Religion
What if you could buy a Do-It-Yourself Religion Kit
that came with the following Options:
1. Divinity Options:
a. I am God
b. You are God
c. The table is God
d. God is elected annually by a majority vote and gets executive
washroom privileges
2. What Defines Sin Options:
a. Conscience enlightened by Holy Spirit
b. Miss Manners columns
c. Miss October's list of favorite things
d. Democratic Party platform
e. Merriam-Webster
f. Your Mother
3. Eschatological Options:
a. Christ will return on specified date
b. Christ will usher in the New Age
c. Christ already secretly returned during the 777th "M*A*S*H"
rerun
d. Christ will return and force your brother-in-law to return your power
drill
4. Money Options:
a. Vow of poverty
b. Vow of opulence
c. All members share from common fund
d. Leaders share; members watch
e. Print your own money
5. Diet Options:
a. Herbivorous
b. Carnivorous
c. Fried-liverous
d. Sticks, dirt, and small pebbles
e. Endangered species list
You could make this list go on, but you get my point.
We don’t want some things to be done Do-It-Yourself, nor do we
want our faith to be defined with Do-It-Yourself options.
It
is common today for people to believe in heaven, but not believe in
hell. I find this
perplexing since the information we get about either place is from the
same source that teaches us about both.
It is common today that people have a do it yourself approach to
spirituality. The do it
yourself spirituality usually includes a god that pats us on the head
and says I love you, absolves us from any wrong doing, comes to our aid
when we pray, but is strangely silent about lifestyle choices.
Frankly people want to make their own lifestyle choices and
include God on their own terms rather than on God’s terms.
When something the Bible says conflicts with their choices people
today often ignore it. When
confronted with the inconsistency they tend to focus on God’s
forgiveness but continue on the course of life they have already set for
themselves. When you point
out that God’s moral guidelines are for their best interest, they
usually say, “That may be
true for others but this seems so right for me.
I don’t see how it is hurting me.”
Even if you don’t know how it is hurting, and even if it feels
right, if God says it is not right, you are bringing damage to yourself.
Heavy damage.
Today we will be looking at
a powerfully packed little letter that confronts people who claim the
name of Christ but were willfully living out lifestyles that were
contrary to God’s moral will. He
writes to Christians so that they can stand firm against that kind of
self made Christianity that denies the lordship of Christ.
Focus:
We must contend for the faith because many so-called
“Christians” are denying Christ as Lord.
Oswald Chambers said,
“Beware of worshipping Jesus as the Son of God, and professing your
faith in Him as the Savior of the world, while you blaspheme Him by the
complete evidence in your daily life that He is powerless to do anything
in and through you.” [i]
I.
FROM: Jude
To: Christians
Everywhere (1)
1Jude,
a servant of Jesus Christ and a brother of James,
Jude, son of
Joseph, brother of James, and half brother of Jesus. Did you know Jesus had half brothers and half sisters?
Maybe you did. Do you know the other named half brothers?
There are two other named brothers besides Jude and James.
Do you know their names?
Matthew
13:55-56 (NIV) 55“Isn’t
this the carpenter’s son? Isn’t his mother’s name Mary, and
aren’t his brothers James, Joseph, Simon and Judas? 56Aren’t
all his sisters with us? Where then did this man get all these
things?”
James,
Joseph, Simon, Judas—all of these were common names.
So common that there were two disciples named Judas out of the
twelve, and two Simons, and two James.
Judas is no longer a common name for obvious reasons.
This third biblical Judas, we call him Jude for the same reason,
to disassociate the name with Judas the betrayer.
Before the resurrection of Jesus, these
half brothers, sons of Joseph and Mary did not believe Jesus was the
Christ. (Matthew 12:46;
13:55-56; John 7:3-10). But
something changed this. Jude
became a Christian after the resurrection, just as his brother James
did. We know from Paul that
Jesus met with James personally after the resurrection.
1 Corinthians
15:7 (NIV) 7Then
he appeared to James, then to all the apostles,
It
is possible that he appeared to Jude also.
Acts
1:14 (NIV) 14They all joined together constantly in prayer, along with the women
and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brothers.
From
1 Corinthians 9:5, we deduce that Jude
traveled as an evangelist.
1
Corinthians 9:5 (NIV) 5Don’t
we have the right to take a believing wife along with us, as do the
other apostles and the Lord’s brothers and Cephas?
James,
the brother of Jesus, was the one who wrote the book of James.
He became a prominent leader in the church (Acts 12:17; 15:13;
21:18), and his name was highly regarded when Jude wrote.
What is fascinating here, is that Jude identifies himself as
James brother, and Jesus’ servant.
Both the brothers do this.
Just
think of the unique memories of Jesus these brothers have.
They must have had some remarkable childhood memories
about their older brother Jesus? They
probably also flinched at the memory of their estimation of Jesus during
his public ministry. They
thought he had gone out of his head.
They wanted to bring him home.
He was acting crazy. It
was the resurrection that put it all together for them.
They once thought their older brother was weird and crazy.
All that was changed. Now
they lived their lives for him as Lord of the universe. They call themselves His servants. James died for the faith.
Jude here fights for it.
A Descriptive triad:
Called, Loved, & Kept
To those who have been called, who are loved by
God the Father and kept by Jesus Christ:
We are
Called, Loved, and Kept by Jesus. This
is comforting in troubled times. We
are his, we are loved, and we are guarded and protected.
Jesus is
our keeper, but we must also keep ourselves in God’s love.
(1:21)
A Triple Blessed (2)
2Mercy,
peace and love be yours in abundance.
Jude likes
to write triads. We are 1,
2, 3, called, loved, and kept. May
you have 1, 2, 3, Mercy, Peace, & Love.
You might notice, Jude’s illustrations and examples usually
come in threes.
II. Contend For The Faith
(3-4)
3Dear
friends, although I was very eager to write to you about the salvation
we share, I felt I had to write and urge you to contend for the faith
that was once for all entrusted to the saints. 4For certain
men whose condemnation was written about long ago have secretly slipped
in among you. They are godless men, who change the grace of our God into
a license for immorality and deny Jesus Christ our only Sovereign and
Lord.
Focus:
We must contend for the faith because many so-called
“Christians” are denying Christ as Lord.
Some
godless men have slipped in.
How have they slipped in? They
call themselves Christians, and they are in the mainstream of life
within the fellowship of the church.
So they have slipped in. But
they change the grace of our God into license for immorality.
This
is a practical denial of Jesus Christ even if it isn’t a verbal one.
The temptation for Christians reading this little letter is to
see this indicting description automatically as a description of those
bad guys. Be careful not to
think so black and white that you miss the warning value for ourselves.
We also must be careful to hear the warnings not to allow our
concept of grace to lull us into seeing only the kindness of God.
We also must be reminded of the holiness of God.
We also must be careful not to allow our lifestyles to be
practical denials of the Lordship of Christ.
Who’s calling your shots?
Are you excusing your life choices even though you are in
disobedience to God’s word?
Jesus
Christ is our only sovereign and Lord.
This by the way is a tremendous statement coming from a Jew who
believes in only one sovereign Lord.
Jude, the brother of Jesus, came to believe Jesus’ own claims
that Jesus and the Father were One being though separate personal
expressions of that being. This
is the second person of the trinity, if we use theological terms long
accepted by the church historically.
It is
possible that in addition to denying Christ practically through
lifestyle, for some to slip in to the church and deny the core
essentials, the truths about Christ’s deity or his atoning work.
It is the job of every believer to contend for the faith, not
just preachers.
CONTEND FOR THE FAITH: IT’S
EVERYONE’S JOB.
HOW:
1.
Study the bible
2.
Pray.
Yield your heart in your studies.
Brain knowledge is not enough.
3.
Associate with a
bible teaching bible believing church.
4.
Serve the truth,
don’t just study it or know it: use
your resources to serve Christ and the faith.
5.
Contend for the
core truths—(Who Jesus is--His deity, the “Trinity”, what he has
done, the Gospel essentials, his death, burial, and resurrection, and
how one is saved by faith).
6.
Agree to disagree
for the sake of unity on periphery matters (while promoting the gospel
core essentials)
3 Warning Examples (5-7):
5Though
you already know all this, I want to remind you that the Lord delivered
his people out of Egypt, but later destroyed those who did not believe. 6And
the angels who did not keep their positions of authority but abandoned
their own home—these he has kept in darkness, bound with everlasting
chains for judgment on the great Day. 7In 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.
1)
Desert Destruction(5):
2)
Fallen Angels(6):
Even Angels who left their positions are bound for
judgment
3)
Sodom and Gomorrah Serve as an example (7)
Here
is a clear historical example of what God thinks of an alternative
lifestyle. It’s not an
alternative; it’s disobedience. Homosexual
activity is strictly forbidden in the Bible.
It is a clear aberration, not an alternative.
It is disobedience that was judged not genetics that cannot be
helped. Heterosexual sexual
activities outside of the marriage bed is also strictly prohibited by
God. We don’t know the
details but some so-called Christians had slipped in emphasizing grace
and choosing to continue in sin. Perhaps
they were thinking like people do today.
“God doesn’t mind if it is two consenting adults who love one
another.” God does care. By
that logic, you could say “God doesn’t mind as long as two
consenting people love one another (regardless of age).”
Or “God doesn’t mind as long as two consenting species love
each other.” Our stomach
turns at the disgusting thought. But
it’s the same logic. And
God does care. He designed us and it angers him when we corrupt his design.
He made us and our bodies for his honor and we dishonor ourselves
and Him when we don’t trust him enough to honor him with our bodies.
He gave us instruction for our protection.
3 Similarities to Sodom (8):
8In the very same way, these dreamers pollute their own
bodies, reject authority and slander celestial beings.
1)
Immoral: Polluted
themselves
2)
Insubordinate: Rejected
Authority
3)
Irreverent: Minimized
Angelic beings
9But even the archangel Michael, when he was disputing with
the devil about the body of Moses, did not dare to bring a slanderous
accusation against him, but said, “The Lord rebuke you!” 10Yet these men speak abusively against whatever they do not
understand; and what things they do understand by instinct, like
unreasoning animals—these are the very things that destroy them.
These
godless dreamers pollute their own bodies, reject authority, and slander
celestial beings. I don’t
know the specifics about how the people in Jude’s day were minimizing
the celestial beings. But I
know that today, people are treating angels as buddies and attempting to
talk to their angels. People
are channeling spirits, which turn out to be fallen angels.
People minimize and disregard the reality of Satan by scoffing at
what they believe to be ancient misguided thought.
I don’t know what your view of angels or demons are.
But I believe what the Bible describes as a reality.
The demonic reality is not to be trifled with.
Don’t talk to Satan even to dispute with him, don’t talk to
demons, for that matter don’t talk to angels.
Stay focused on your relationship to Christ.
If you stay in a close relationship with Christ, real demons will
keep their distance. On a
side note, if you suspect demonic activity, pray to Christ out loud, in
the Name of Christ and by the authority of his shed blood on the cross.
Demons are not omniscient so in your prayers let them back off at
the spoken name of Jesus. Do
not ignore that there are spiritual realities, real spiritual battles,
or on the other hand do not become so absorbed with the spiritual
warfare that you become demon focused.
We must be Christ focused.
3 Ways of Woe (11):
11Woe
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.
In all three of these examples, Cain, Balaam, and
Korah attempt to please God on their own terms rather than on God’s
terms.
1.
Cain: Do-it-yourself Worship.
Result, no favor from God, disobedience then
banishment. God told us
what forms of worship are acceptable.
Jesus told us to worship in spirit and in truth.
True worship is humble and as a response to the atonement Christ
offered. That is why
Abel’s offering was acceptable, it was by God’s design, and I
suspect that God said something about it, but Cain wanted his own
version.
2.
Balaam: Do-It-Yourself Spirituality for Hire.
Read about Balaam in Numbers 22-24.
But don’t stop there. See
what happens in Numbers 25. You
will find out that a plague hits the Israelites.
You don’t discover until Numbers 31:8 and 16 that the plague
was as a direct result of the advice of Balaam.
Balaam was asked if he would curse the Israelites for pay.
Balaam was not a God follower, but was into his own thing.
He was into sorcery and whatever spiritual connections he could
make. He asked Yahweh if he
could curse Israel and Yahweh confronted Balaam and wouldn’t allow him
to, even though he wanted to for the money.
When Balaam couldn’t do this, he came up with another angle. He told the Midianite king, in effect, “I can’t curse
them, but here’s my advice”. Seduce
them with your women and turn them from their God, then God won’t
bless them and give them power to destroy you” (See Numbers 22-25;
31:8, 16). Following
Balaam’s advice was as good as a curse he wanted Balaam to pronounce.
After the spiritual compromises took place, God sent a plague
that destroyed 24 thousand Israelites.
Balaam was also destroyed for his wickedness. The warning here is against the compromise associated with a
do-it-yourself spirituality, and especially when it is for hire.
3.
Korah: Do-It-Yourself Spiritual Authority
You can read about Korah in Numbers 16.
He challenged the spiritual authority that God had given Moses
and Aaron. Korah’s
complaint was that God had made the whole community holy.
He didn’t like how Moses and Aaron had to set themselves up
over them. When he
questioned their authority, God proved that there authority was God
given, not man made do-it- yourself authority.
God has set up authority structures even in the church today
where we believe in the priesthood of all believers as the New Testament
teaches. We must be careful
not to come up with the do-it-yourself authority which Americans are so
prone to. We have seen
authority abused. The
danger is to be your own authority, and to have no authority but your
own do-it-yourself authority. I
have the same bible as you do, Korah would say today.
Who are you to tell me what to do?
Be careful. God
proved dramatically at the cost of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram’s life
and the lives of their families that God is Holy, he sets things up his
way, we don’t call the shots. Then
when God acted it started the domino effect of identifying who was on
God’s side, and who was in rebellion wanting a do-it-yourself form of
religion. More than 14,700
people died the next day when the rebellion continued.
An instantaneous fiery judgment plague came out from God’s
Tabernacle that day and was stopped only because Aaron made atonement
for the people. The
judgment stopped at the very line where the atonement was made.
Death on one side of the line, trembling life on the other side
of the line where Aaron ran to hold up the censor.
The warning, God’s authority is not to be trifled with.
Blessing comes to those who place themselves humbly under God’s
authority and protection. I
believe the Word of God is the umbrella of authority.
If we operate as a church under the protection of God’s design
we will be safe. If leaders begin to lead people out from underneath that
umbrella of protection, watch out!
Here is your safeguard. If
human leaders begin to lead you away, contend for the faith!
Place yourselves voluntarily under the authority of the Word of
God, and leaders who humbly lead under the authority of the Word of God.
6 Warning Word Pictures (12-13)
12These men
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. 13They are wild waves of the sea,
foaming up their shame; wandering stars, for whom blackest darkness has
been reserved forever.
·
Blemishes
(“ZITS!” would be my translation, it’s not as nice) at the
Celebrations, making the whole body ugly.
·
Shepherds who
feed only themselves—Selfish, neglecting others.
·
Clouds
without rain, nothing solid, blown by the wind, offers promises
but can’t deliver anything that refreshes or gives life.
·
Uprooted Fruitless
Fruit trees doubly dead.
·
Wild Waves
Foaming their shame.
·
Wandering Stars,
reserved for the blackest darkness of judgment. For centuries stars served as constants, fixed points for
navigation. But
“wandering stars (shooting stars)”, though they may be spectacular,
offer no guidance. They
appear bright, then disappear into darkness, just like a false teacher.
The teachings seem bright for a while.
But deepest darkness is reserved for the false teachers who lead
others into their darkness.
Summary:
Judgment is Coming (14-16) Though Scoffers Deny It
(17-19)
14Enoch, the seventh from Adam,
prophesied about these men: “See, the Lord is coming with thousands
upon thousands of his holy ones 15to judge everyone, and to
convict all the ungodly of all the ungodly acts they have done in the
ungodly way, and of all the harsh words ungodly sinners have spoken
against him.” 16These men are grumblers and faultfinders;
they follow their own evil desires; they boast about themselves and
flatter others for their own advantage.17But, dear friends,
remember what the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ foretold. 18They
said to you, “In the last times there will be scoffers who will follow
their own ungodly desires.” 19These are the men who divide
you, who follow mere natural
instincts and do not have the Spirit.
Transition:
Don’t do what comes naturally (v. 19, natural instincts), be
filled with the super natural (v. 19, Holy Spirit).
You can see why the do-it-yourself approach to God doesn’t work
for sinfully flawed people. We
need God’s outside help, the expert help that comes through his Son,
Jesus Christ.
III. Do 3 things While
You Are Waiting (20-21)
20But
you, dear friends, build yourselves up in your most holy faith and pray
in the Holy Spirit. 21Keep yourselves in God’s love as you
wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to bring you to eternal
life.
1.
Build (20) spiritual
body building
2.
Pray (20) connecting relationally with God
3.
Keep (21) Obedience
(John 15:9-10)
A. And Apply 3 Types Of
Mercy (22-23)
“Be merciful to those who doubt; snatch others
from the fire and save them; to others show mercy, mixed with
fear—hating even the clothing stained by corrupted flesh.”
1. Gentle Mercy (22)
“Be merciful to those who doubt . . .” There is
a time to be gentle particularly with those who doubt.
If you move too rapidly for a doubter he will feel pushed and
will retreat deeper into doubt. Push
and the doubter will build a wall of doubt.
Gentleness gives the doubter an opportunity to lower his
defenses. The lack of mercy
will cause the doubter to go on the defensive, building a case for his
skepticism.
2.
Forceful Mercy (23)
“. . . snatch others from the fire and save them
. . .” There is a time to
be more forceful. “Snatch
others” who are in the fire and need to be snatched for their own
protection. Parents might
need to take drastic measures with a child who is showing dangerous
allegiances with the wrong kind of friends. The most merciful thing to do is snatch a person out of the
flames when they are in that kind of danger.
If you can snatch a person out of the flames of destruction and
still maintain a relationship with the person, forceful mercy has a good
chance of working a long-term effect.
Snatching someone from destruction is forceful, can be painful,
but is merciful in the long run. Tough
love is that more forceful approach.
It is tough, but it is love.
If you can communicate both, you are expressing forceful mercy.
3.
Careful Mercy (23)
“. . . to others show mercy, mixed with
fear—hating even the clothing stained by corrupted flesh.”
Careful mercy is the recognition that a mission of mercy can be
dangerous. You don’t want
to condone. You don’t
want to minimize. You
don’t want to be influenced as you maintain relationships with those
who are corrupted. You are
merciful, but careful. In
your mercy, don’t minimize sin as if to say it is okay.
Benediction (24-25)
24To
him who is able to keep you from falling and to present you before his
glorious presence without fault and with great joy—25to
the only God our Savior be glory, majesty, power and authority, through
Jesus Christ our Lord, before all ages, now and forevermore! Amen.
[i] Oswald Chambers,
Christianity Today, Vol. 37, no. 11.
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