Deal With It

In 2022, Ligonier Ministries and LifeWay conducted research to find out what Americans believe about God, salvation, ethics, and the Bible. The 2022 State of Theology survey revealed that Americans increasingly reject the divine origin and complete accuracy of the Bible. With no absolute truth to conform to, U.S. adults are also becoming more and more holding to unbiblical worldviews related to human sexuality. Does that surprise you? Do you see that today? What about this?

It goes on. Among evangelicals, doctrines including the deity and exclusivity of Jesus Christ, as well as the inspiration and authority of the Bible, are increasingly rejected. This is among Christians. In addition, evangelicals' views on abortion and sex outside of marriage is inconsistent with the biblical ethic. Furthermore, evangelicals are embracing secular worldviews in the areas of homosexuality and gender identity.

Does that surprise you? Well, I don't need to convince you that this country, and in fact the whole world, is in an incredible state of moral and spiritual decay. With gender and sexuality and marriage being redefined, it's like we're witnessing Sodom and Gomorrah right before our eyes.

Are we not? But what's even more surprising is that the church has embraced these things. They've embraced the unbiblical views of a secular world.

Many churches have done that. And what God calls sin and evil and even abominations, many churches are calling good. And now the line between the holy and the profane is increasingly blurred. My question to you is how in the world could this happen to a church, which is the pillar and buttress of the truth? What we see is God's Word under attack.

And what we see, I believe, is a falling away from the truth. The Apostle Paul said this would happen. He says that they would refuse to love the truth and so be saved.

Rather, they had pleasure in unrighteousness. Jesus calls it lawlessness. The love, lawlessness will increase and the love of many will grow cold. And we see it right before our eyes. So today we're going to consider the epistle of Jude. And Jude is going to tell us about these false teachers who have crept into the church unnoticed and they perverted the grace of God into sensuality. Is this topic relevant for today? You better believe it is. So buckle up.

Here we go. Today on the Lord's day, preachers, if you want to call them that, are standing in the pulpits, if they have a pulpit. Most don't.

They're on a stage. And instead of preaching the inerrant, inspired Word of God, they are tickling, itching ears. They'll read a verse or two of Scripture and they're going to appeal to the vanity and the pride of men, both of which God opposes.

And the general message is something like this. God loves you, just as you are. God made you to be who you are. You're successful. You're smart. You're funny. You're brilliant. You're happy.

You just have to believe it. And by the way, your sexuality doesn't matter if God made you that way. LGBTQ, binary, non-binary, pansexual. However God made you, you need to celebrate that. God, by the way, is all-affirming. He is all-inclusive. God is a God of love.

It says it right here in the Bible. And He is never going to condemn you. He is not going to judge you. So the key is that you believe in yourself.

Believe in yourself and follow your own heart. And we at this church, we want to affirm and celebrate you because you are special. God created you. And by the way, you know what the Scripture says? He says, you can do all things through Christ who strengthens you.

And you know what? People will think, wow, what a wonderful sermon. What a wonderful sermon. And it was in the Bible. He preached from the Bible.

Give me a break. Instead of shepherds feeding the flock, Spurgeon said that we're going to have clowns entertaining the goats. My question is, where in the world is the fear of God? Where is the fear of God? So when you hear things in the church like it doesn't matter your sexual orientation, it doesn't matter your gender, whatever gender you choose, it doesn't matter even if you think all roads lead to God. He's not going to judge you, and he's certainly not going to judge your sin.

Let me tell you friends, please listen. This is not the voice of God. This is how the serpent speaks. Did God really say?

Did he really say that? Yes, Satan do not be deceived is in the church. He disguises himself as an angel of light and his servants as servants of righteousness. And you know what they do? They do what they do best. They twist the Word of God.

That's what they do. Listen, you and I, the church has one weapon. We have one weapon. What is that weapon? Sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God. And in far too many churches, the enemy goes in and he snatches it right from their hands. Or better yet, he says, you know, I see you're not using this.

Let me give it a try. And that's what he's doing in so many churches all across this world. So let's go to Jude verses one through four, and we'll think about these things of the Lord. Jude one through four. Jude, a servant of Jesus Christ and brother of James. To those who are called, beloved in God the Father and kept for Jesus Christ, may mercy, peace, and love be multiplied to you. Beloved, although I was very eager to write to you about our common salvation, I found it necessary to write appealing to you to contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints. For certain people have crept in unnoticed who long ago were designated for this condemnation, ungodly people who pervert the grace of our God into sensuality and deny our only Master and Lord Jesus Christ. So notice first how Jude refers to the people. They are called, beloved, and kept for Christ.

This is eternal security. Remember Jesus' prayer, the high priestly prayer in John 17. Holy Father, keep them in your name, those that you have given me that they may be one. He's writing to, Jude is writing to believers. And he says he wants to write to them about their common salvation. There's a common salvation that every one of us share, whether Jew, Gentile, slave or free, people from every tribe, nation, and tongue, we share in one common salvation that is in Christ. That is by grace alone, through faith alone, and Christ alone.

So Jude says I want to write to you about this, but I have to shift gears now because something is going on. I need to tell you to contend for the faith. There is danger among you now, and you need to deal with it. Contend for the faith. Struggle for it. Defend it.

Hold the fort down. And this is what you're fighting for. You're fighting for the faith. You're fighting for the faith. There's one faith, and please understand this, one faith that's been transmitted once and for all. And this faith, which is the truths of the Gospel, the word of truth, which, listen to me, includes doctrine, has been passed down once and for all through our Lord and His apostles.

And you and I have this now in the canon of Scripture. And this faith that Jude is talking about is not to be altered. It's not to be tampered with. It's not to be compromised. There's no addendums.

There's no additions. And listen, it is not subjective. It's not, this is who Jesus is to me. And somebody else says, well no, this is who Jesus is to me. I was reading something the other day that said, you know what's missing out of the Bible?

Your opinion. No, this is the Jesus that we're talking about. This one faith, the faith that Jude is talking about, is centered on the one who has revealed himself here. You remember the Apostle Paul when he goes to Corinth. He says, I delivered to you as of first importance that Christ died for sins according to what? Scriptures. That He was buried and He rose on the third day according to Scriptures. So this is what Jude is saying. He's saying the faith, once and for all, has been delivered.

It's the complete body of Christian truth concerning God, the Bible, Jesus, sin, redemption, and it is revealed in His inerrant, inspired Word of God. It has once and for all been transmitted. Are you with me?

Once and for all. Now let me read something to you, because we're talking about false teachers here. This is from a church not too far from here. All people are created in the image of God, an expansive love beyond humanity's limits. We affirm that there are many paths to God and that no one person or religion holds all the truth. We acknowledge that our experiences of the sacred are more important than following creeds or doctrines. This is a church.

Let me read one more. We have no statement of beliefs because our core belief is in soul freedom, whatever that means, and the liberty of conscience, meaning our members are free to choose, free to believe whatever they choose. We have a covenant that informs our life together, which is the only statement of agreement our members are asked to make a church.

Here's the thinking. Let's don't get caught up in this doctrine stuff. Doctrine divides. We need to show the love of Jesus. We need to reflect His mercy and grace and love and don't get hung up on the truth, by the way. Christianity is a way of life, not so much about truth or doctrine.

Is that true? Is that what Paul told Titus? Titus, as for you, don't worry about doctrine. As for you, Titus, teach what accords to sound doctrine.

Elders of the church, he must hold firm to the trustworthy word as taught so that he may be able to give instruction in sound doctrine and rebuke those who contradict it. So listen, you and I can go out and we can love people, we can feed the homeless, we can give to the poor, we can do anything we want to do, but if we don't deliver that one message, people will not be saved. What they need and what every person in this world needs is the one message that saves. And that's it, and there's only one.

There's only one and it's been delivered once and for all. And listen to me, any deviation from the pure gospel is what we would call heresy. Do you remember what Paul said to the church in Galatia? People were coming in and trying to add to the gospel message, they were trying to add circumcision to the message, and you know what Paul said? If anyone preaches, even if an angel in heaven preaches a different gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed. There's one gospel, there's one faith, and you can't add or take away from it, period. The pastors at Calvary Church don't get together on Monday mornings and say, you know what, which part of the Bible do we need to take out this week? And Sabu says, no, let's take out sin. And Nathaniel says, why stop there? Let's don't mention hell.

No, that's not what we do. We are to preach, as Paul did, the whole counsel of God, right? Remember when Paul was getting ready to leave Ephesus? He says, he's getting ready to leave this church he was with for three years, and he says, I'm innocent of the blood of you all because I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole counsel of God. John MacArthur says this, he says, many Christians are willing to speak up against things like abortion and homosexuality. They're willing to fight for religious freedoms in America, among other things, prayer in the schools, but the worst form of wickedness is the perversion of God's truth. That is wrong doctrine and false teaching.

The church today treats spiritual error with indifference as if it were harmless, as if a right interpretation of Scripture was unnecessary. While many Christians are fighting peripheral issues, they're given away the essential truths that define our faith. There will be no church left to fight anything if we don't preserve the truth.

And I think that's right. As I read that, I was reminded of Jeremiah who said, truth has perished. Prophets prophesy falsely, and my people love to have it so. So, like the early church, we're to be devoted to the apostolic teaching, Acts 2 42. And so, Jude is saying, preserve the faith, that one faith that has been delivered to you, hold on to those truths that will never change.

And that's just not my responsibility, that's everybody's responsibility. It is your responsibility and mine to uphold Christian Biblical doctrine. The one truth, the one faith must be preserved and passed down. After all, it is by the truth that God's people are saved, not by a false gospel. Faith comes by hearing and hearing through the word of Christ. It is by the truth that God's people are sanctified, John 17 17. Sanctify them in truth, your word is truth. And it is by the truth, the word of God, that God feeds His children. He doesn't feed us through heresy.

A drop of poison in the bucket of water ruins a whole bucket. Don't listen to it. Defend the faith. And if all these things are not reason enough to contend for the faith, Jude tells us another one.

You have a problem and you need to deal with it. This is what he says, verse 4, certain people have crept in unnoticed and pervert the grace of our God into sensuality and deny our only Master and Lord Jesus Christ. Amazing, isn't it? Certain people slide into the church unnoticed and some slide their way right up to the pulpit. How in the world does this happen?

Well, it happens like this. You have to remember, our sinful flesh does not want to hear the word of God. The natural man, Paul says, does not accept the things of God. Our sinful flesh doesn't want to hear the truth. We don't want to hear that none is righteous, not one. No one understands, no one seeks for God.

Altogether, we've turned aside and become worthless. We don't want to hear that. We don't want to hear you were dead in your trespasses and sins following the course of this world, the prince of the power of the air.

We don't want to hear this. We don't want to hear that the wages of sin is death, and we certainly don't want to hear about hell and judgment and wrath, and we don't want to be told what not to do. In our sinful flesh, we don't want to hear God speak. Just like in the Exodus account when God's glory comes down on the mountain, they said, Moses, you go talk to Him. Don't let God speak to us lest we die.

We don't want to hear God. So these false teachers slip in, and they're going to make you a new God, a softer God, a tamed God, a very kind God. They're going to make you a golden calf. That's what they're going to make you, and they're going to take away God's wrath. They're going to take away His anger, His vengeance, His justice, and they'll take away His holiness. And this is not the God who caused Isaiah to fall to the ground and say, whoa, it's me. This is a whole new God. This is a God that you're going to want to hear from. This is a God that's easy on the ears. After all, He's made in your image. This is not the God of the Bible, and it all starts with just a little manipulation, just a little one, Martyn Lloyd-Jones.

We have somehow got the hold of the idea that error is only that which is outrageously wrong, and we do not seem to understand that the most dangerous person of all is the one who does not emphasize the right things. Think of Satan in the Garden of Eden. He comes in and he whispers those words to Eve. Did God really say? I think, Eve, you may have misunderstood. Surely you won't die.

Surely you won't. Now, Satan didn't deny the existence of God. They knew God existed. He just simply put it in their heads that God is not going to judge them. Did God really say?

Surely you're not going to die. People want a God who does not judge. They want a God who will not condemn them.

That's not this God, not this God of the Bible. And so, the grace that these false teachers are pushing is really about the grace of the false teachers. Pushing is really a license to sin.

That's it, that's it. It is a ticket out of jail, and in effect there is no jail. There is no jail. You're free to pursue your sensuality and your passion and your pleasure. You want to cheat on your wife? Okay. You want to watch pornography? We're not going to tell people what not to do. You want to live an alternative lifestyle?

Okay, fantastic. God made you that way. The New Testament writers use these terms to describe the result of the false teaching sensuality, passion, and pleasure. Look at verse four. These teachers pervert the grace of God into sensuality. Flip over to 2 Peter chapter two, verses one and two for a second. 2 Peter chapter two, verses one and two. But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the master who brought them, who brought them bringing upon themselves swift destruction, and many will follow their sensuality. And because of them, the way of truth will be blasphemed. So there's a particular emphasis on sexual sin. And yes, people sitting in the church pews are being deceived into thinking that sexual sin, sexual sins are permitted somehow in the eyes of God, that the grace of the Lord allows for such things. And I can read to you many articles of faith from different churches who approve of behavior that God calls sin.

And I want to give you just one example. We affirm and celebrate individuals of every sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, race, ethnicity, physical and intellectual abilities, economic status, political perspectives, age, family composition, country of origin, and citizenship status. We are all made in Christ's image worthy of God's love and grace. Are we worthy of God's love and grace?

Yeah. They give approval to those who practice these things and they're calling that which God said was evil and sin, they call it good. This is Romans 1.

They know God's righteous decree that those who practice the such things deserve to die, but they not only give approval, but they not only do them, but give approval to those who practice them. They've exchanged the truth of God for a lie and they spiral down and down and down. And yes, this is absolutely happening in the church. So God's way is no longer the way, and false teachers are presenting another way. And this way, Jude says, is a perversion of grace.

This perversion is against the clear teaching of Scripture. Let's go to 1 Corinthians 6. Stay in Jude, keep your finger there, and let's go to 1 Corinthians 6, verses 9 and 10. 1 Corinthians 6, 9 and 10. Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God?

Do not be deceived. Neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. Now why doesn't Paul just simply say the unbelievers will not inherit the kingdom of God? Well, the answer is this, because sexual immorality, drunkenness, thefts, theft, lies, deceit, all of that, none of these things are characteristic of a true believer. These things are ungodly. So if you say you're a believer and you're doing these things habitually, without repentance, you've got a problem.

You have a real problem. Remember what Jesus said to five of the seven churches in Revelation. I know your works.

I know that the way you live does not match what you say you believe. So listen, the grace of God does not give any one of us a license to sin. Paul says, shall we continue in sin that grace may abound?

What does he say? Absolutely not. Absolutely not. It's not cheap grace. Now at Calvary, we don't have false teachers who pervert the grace of God into sensuality, at least not today. We don't. But what about those who presume on the grace of God?

Do we have anybody who does that? Presuming on the grace of God? Here's a man, he thinks he's a believer and he comes to church with his wife. He's got his kids in Sunday school, his kids in Awana, and yet here he is. He's scheming about how he's going to slip out of the house sometime and meet this woman he's having an affair with.

Presuming on the grace of God. Here's a man whose mind is so twisted on pornography that he's not hearing a word I'm saying right now. He's more interested in his sexual appetite than he is holiness and the fear of God. Here's a woman. She lives on social media. She's more concerned about what kind of clothes she wears, what kind of car she drives, posting pictures of herself and her friends holding up these wine glasses, and she's more captivated by the things of the world than she is by God. She's not concerned one bit about the holiness of God. In fact, she's probably having a little secret conversation on Facebook with another man who's not her husband.

She's not concerned about her husband. There's a young man, a young woman, having premarital sex. They say, it's okay, everybody's doing it. God will forgive me. There's a person who sees no problem getting high or drunk, comes to church on Sundays, but it's okay. You think some of these things are going on at Calvary? People putting on the Sunday mask and then their hearts are really far from the Lord.

Does that happen? Let me ask you this, do you think God is going to let you lie with it? Is that what you think about the grace of God? Maybe you've created another God in your mind. Maybe you truly don't understand who God is.

Let me help you with that. God is a consuming fire. He is a consuming fire, and you approach Him with reverence and awe.

And when you say, well, you know, nothing's happened to me yet. Yeah, He hasn't dropped the hammer on me yet. Well, He will.

You can count on it. Martin Lloyd-Jones again, he said, there's nothing more awful and reprehensible than to talk about God and then forget about Him and to live as if He was never there at all. He is a holy God, listen to me, and He does not take your sin or my sin lightly. You look at the cross. That's what he thinks about sin. His son was pierced, afflicted, and crushed. A lamb led to slaughter.

Do you think He will let you get by with holding His son up to contempt? No. That's cheap grace. That's cheap grace. Here's what I'm telling you. Do not pervert the grace of God and do not presume on the grace of God.

This is Bonhoeffer. Cheap grace is not the kind of forgiveness that frees us from the toils of sin. Cheap grace is the grace we bestow on ourselves. Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance.

Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ. Do not presume on the grace of God. So whether a person is perverting the grace of God or presuming on the grace of God, ultimately it is this. It's the denial of Christ as Lord and Master. This is what Jude says about the false teachers again in verse four. They pervert the grace of our God into sensuality and deny our only Master and Lord Jesus Christ.

These teachers are stripping away the lordship of Christ. In other words, this grace is going to cover all your debauchery. So don't worry about obeying Christ. Don't worry about Him being your Lord and Master. You say you believe in Christ, that's good enough.

You're all set then. It really doesn't matter how you live. This is what people call carnal Christianity. And let me tell you something, there is no carnal Christianity. There is no carnal Christianity. If a person claims to be a Christian and lives in unrepentant habitual sin with no conviction of the Holy Spirit, no repentance, you know what that is? That's hypocrisy.

And do you know where the hypocrites end up? Not in heaven. Not in heaven, Matthew 24. Christ Jesus must be your Savior and your Lord, your Lord and your Master. Notice how Jude refers to himself. Jude is the half-brother of Jesus, the brother of James. This is how he says, Jude a servant of Jesus Christ. Jesus was his Lord. He was his Master. He was a slave to Christ.

He could have said, listen, I'm Jesus's half-brother. No, I'm a slave to Christ. He is my Lord. Can you then get by without obeying Christ Jesus? Can you get by without Him not being your Master and Lord? Well, no. Not according to the Bible.

You cannot. Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life. Whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, for God's wrath remains on Him. Remember, Satan's trick in the Garden of Eden was to put a seed of doubt in Eve's mind that God would judge them if they disobeyed. Surely you won't die.

Go ahead and do it. Well, judgment is coming. And Jude has something to say about this. Let's look at the rest of these verses. Jude reminds his readers that this same Jesus, who saves a people, who saved you, who saved me, also destroys.

Jude 5 through 7. Now I want to remind you, although you once fully knew it, that Jesus who saved the people out of the land of Egypt afterward destroyed those who did not believe. And the angels who did not stay within their own position of authority, but left their proper dwelling, He is kept in eternal chains under gloomy darkness until the judgment of the great day. Just as Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding cities, which likewise indulged in sexual immorality and pursued unnatural desire, serve as an example by undergoing a punishment of eternal fire.

Yes, the same Jesus who saves comes back and He destroys. And he gives, Jude gives these three examples to show what's going to happen to these false teachers who pervert the grace of God into sensuality. Let's go again to 1 Corinthians. First he shows, 1 Jude points out the Exodus account, and we look at 1 Corinthians 10, 6 through 8. 1 Corinthians 10, 6 through 8.

Jude has given us three examples. 1 Corinthians 10, 6 through 8. Now, these things took place as examples for us that we might not desire evil as they did. Do not be idolaters, as some of them were.

As it is written, the people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play. We must not indulge in sexual immorality, as some of them did, and 23,000 fell in a single day. We must not put Christ to the test, as some of them did, and were destroyed by serpents, nor grumble, as some of them did, and were destroyed by the destroyer. Now, these things happened to them as an example, but they were written down for our instruction on whom the end of the ages has come. Therefore, let anyone who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall. No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and He will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation, He will also provide the way of escape that you may be able to endure it.

These things are an example. The ancient Israelites fell into sexual immorality, and now it's written down for our instruction. Go to Genesis 6, verse 1. Jude refers to the angels who did not keep their proper dwelling. Genesis 6, verse 1.

We're going to use our Bibles today. Genesis 6, verse 1. And when man began to multiply on the face of the land, and daughters were born to them, the sons of God, referring to the angels, saw that the daughters of man were attractive, and they took as their wives any they chose. And then the last example was Sodom and Gomorrah, which you're very familiar with.

All of these examples showcase point two, sexual immorality and unnatural desire. The same Jesus who saves is the same Jesus who destroys. And that's what Jude is saying to us. There will come a day when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with His mighty angels, in flame and fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. And those who don't belong to Christ will suffer eternal punishment, eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord. And so listen, here's the point. Those who come into the church and seek to deceive and damage the people of God are designated for this condemnation.

That's where they're going. You can't come into the church of Christ and try to damage God's people. You remember what Jesus said to the Pharisees? He says you shut the kingdom of heaven in people's faces.

And you know what He called them? You serpents, you brood of vipers. How in the world are you going to escape being sentenced to hell? Answer, they're not. They're not. Like the Pharisees, these false teachers are trying to damage God's people. They're perverting the truth of God into sensuality. And Jude says, therefore they are designated for condemnation.

For them, the outer darkness has been reserved forever. And that's it. And so here's the other thing though. Jude is reminding you and me. He's warning us about God's coming judgment. It's a warning for you and for me. And we need to listen because God uses the warnings in Scripture to not only warn us not to do these things, but also to preserve us, to preserve His people to the end. So those who belong to Christ Jesus need to hear these warnings. And this is what submitting to the lordship of Christ looks like. We hear it and we heed it.

We hear and we obey. And Jude is telling us, don't go down that road. The end of that road is destruction.

Don't you understand? Flip over in the last verse here to Revelation 22, 15. This is the last chapter in the Bible.

You think sexual immorality doesn't matter? John is talking about the new heavens and the new earth, the new Jerusalem that comes down out of heaven, but look what he says in Revelation 22, 15. Outside are the dogs and the sorcerers and the sexually immoral and the murderers and idolaters and everyone who loves and practices falsehood. Again, he could have just said outside are the unbelievers, but that's not what he says.

He says outside are those who do these things. You and I need to make sure that we are obedient to the Lord Jesus Christ and that we put away any of these things that would cause us to be shut out of the kingdom of God. And we need to deal with the issues that these false teachers bring. We need to contend for the faith that was once and for all delivered to the saints, contend for.

We don't let the enemy take it from our hands. And you need to keep in mind that the Bible doesn't call best-selling authors and teachers and bishops and pastors wolves, but that's exactly who they are. They're the ones who are the wolves, but that's exactly who they are. Those are the wolves. Jude calls them shepherds feeding themselves. Waterless springs are twice dead reserved for condemnation. And here's the thing, many people will follow them right over the edge of the cliff.

Sheep, my friends, are prone to wander. You need to make sure that you know the Savior's voice. This is how the Savior speaks.

This is how He speaks. And don't even continue listening to teaching that is contrary to the Word of God. Don't be deceived.

Don't be deceived. And so that means every single one of us here needs to know this Word. We need to know the Word of God. Pastor Monroe earlier this year challenged us to read the Bible 15 minutes every day.

How are you doing with that? You need to know this Word of God. The more you know the Word, the less likely it is that you're going to be deceived. Know the Word.

Man doesn't live by bread alone, but by every Word that comes out of the mouth of God. If you're not in the Word, I suggest two things. One, you're undisciplined, or two, you have no desire.

Either one is bad. Make time to read the Word of God. You will not to read the Word of God.

You will not be able to stand before the Lord and say, Lord, I didn't have time to read your Bible. Read it. Know it. Meditate on it.

Pray over it. The more you know it, the more you're grounded, the less likely you're going to be deceived. The reason these false teachers creep right up to the pulpit is because people don't know the Word of God. They don't know it. Make sure you do. At the beginning of the letter, Jude writes, may mercy, peace, and love be multiplied to you.

We need all of these things because the world that we live in is becoming increasingly hostile to the Word that we stand for. I was saying this to the Wednesday night class the other night. There was a study, someone was talking about where this zoologist, I guess he was, was studying zebras. And so, he would watch this pack of zebras.

Are they called a pack? They're zebras. And so, he would look for a zebra, and then he would look down and he'd look back up and he said, which zebra was I looking at?

So, they came up with a solution. They would put a mark on the zebra. And then he would study that one particular zebra. But do you know what happened to the one zebra with the mark?

The lines aided because they were able to zero in on that same zebra. Do you know you and I have a mark? What identifies us as Christians? We stand on the Word of God. And so, Satan will hate us for that. But no matter, we keep pushing. We stand for it.

John the Apostle, he was on the island of Patmos. Why? On account of the Word of God. Satan makes war on those who hold to the Word of God. Whatever happens, you stand on it. Don't ever compromise it.

This is the truth. And no matter how things get, no matter how fierce this world is, he is with us. He will never leave us, never forsake us.

We stand on it and we don't compromise. And let me tell you, I would much rather suffer for this than my own sin. Stand for the Word of God. So, you and I need His mercy and peace and love to stand in the present age, but we also need it because yes, we too are sinners. Yes, we're sinners.

Sheep prone to wander, always at war with our own flesh. So, we need this grace upon grace that the Lord showers us with. So, when you pray, say what Jesus taught us to say, Lord forgive us our sins.

And He is faithful and just to do just that. Bend the knee to Christ. Confess your sins to Him, and He will forgive those sins. And make sure if you cut out all those things, mortify the flesh that would cause you to wander, cause you to stumble, cause you to fall.

No, be holy as I am holy. We need all the grace we can get. And praise the Lord, He showers on us that grace.

But it is not a license to sin. Remember in Titus, Paul says this grace is training us to renounce all ungodliness and worldly passions and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in this present age. This grace that Jesus gives us is purifying us. He is purifying for Himself a people.

So, make sure you're doing that, that you're living that pure life, standing in the grace, and growing in that grace. Who is the one that offers us this grace? He is the one that Isaiah says has borne our griefs. He's carried our sorrows. We esteemed Him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But He was pierced for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities, and upon Him was the chastisement that brought us peace.

And by His wounds, we are healed. Every day, bend the knee to our Lord Jesus Christ. Every day do it, because there's going to come a day that every knee will bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. I'm looking forward to that day.

I am. Do it today. Today, if you heard His voice, do not harden your voice, harden your heart as they did in the rebellion. Confess your sins and bend the knee. Repent and believe upon the Lord Jesus Christ and so be saved. The doors of heaven are still open, and that grace is still flowing from heaven. Bend the knee and call out to Christ and be saved. Let me read this.

I'll finish with this. This is from Charles Spurgeon. At the present day, I'm afraid that nine people out of ten do not believe in the God who is revealed to us in the Bible. I can point to your newspapers, to periodicals, and also to pulpits by the score in which there's a new God set up to be worshiped, not the God of the Old Testament.

He said to be too strict, too severe, too stern for our modern teachers. They shudder at the very mention of God of the Puritans. If Jonathan Edwards were to rise from the dead, they would not listen to him for a minute. But brethren, I believe in the God of Abraham and of Isaac and Jacob. Yes, this is my God, the God who drowned Pharaoh and his host in the Red Sea and moved the people to sing hallelujah just as He did it, the God who calls the earth to open and swallow up Korah and his rebellion.

A terrible God is the God I adore. He is the God and Father of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, full of mercy and compassion, grace and tender, yet gentle, yet just and dreadful in His holiness and terrible out of His holy places. This is the God we worship, and it is He who comes to Him and takes this God to be His teacher.

He will learn everything He needs to know. Praise God for our Lord Jesus Christ, the One who made a way so that we can approach this holy God, the One before whom angels must cover their eyes. You and I can go right now into that very throne room and say hallelujah, what a Savior. Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. Father, we come before you and we thank you.

Continue to protect Calvary Church as you do. We know your word is truth. We are people who come before you and tremble at your word. So Father, continue to work in our hearts. We pray that even long after we're gone, you bring people, teachers, pastors, elders who will rightly handle the word of the truth. And Father, we pray that this church will stand on the truth until the Lord returns and every single one of us would see each other in heaven and say hallelujah, what a Savior. We look forward to that day, Father. In Christ's name we pray, amen.