Preservation of God's Truth, Part 1 (Jude 3)

The Biblical Precedent for Preserving God's Truth (Deuteronomy 31)

0:02 The following sermon was delivered on Sunday morning, February 4th, 2001, at the Trinity Baptist Church in Montville, New Jersey.

0:13 Now please turn with me to the book of Deuteronomy, Deuteronomy and chapter 31, and I shall read in your hearing verses 9 through 13. This is part of Moses' final charge to the children of Israel. Israel leadership has been transferred to Joshua. They're on the plains of Moab, about to go into the land of promise, and Moses has delivered to them the book of the law.

0:49 And we read in verse 9, Moses wrote this law and delivered it unto the priests, the sons of Levi, that bore the ark of the covenant of the Lord, and unto all the elders of Israel. And Moses commanded, Moses commanded them, saying, At the end of every seven years, in the set time of the year of release, in the Feast of Tabernacles, when all Israel is come to appear before the Lord your God, in the place which he shall choose, you shall read this law before all Israel in their hearing. Assemble the people, the men and the women and the little ones, and the sojourner that is...

1:35 ...within your gates, that they may hear, and that they may learn, and fear the Lord your God, and observe to do all the words of this law, and that their children who have not known may hear, and learn to fear the Lord your God, as long as you live in the land whither you go over the Jordan to possess it.

2:01 From this passage it is clear that God was concerned... ...that the book of the law be openly and publicly read before all of the gathered people of God at least once every seven years.

2:19 God gave directives in other parts of the book of Deuteronomy that the king should keep the book of the law next to him continually. Joshua was commanded to meditate in that law day and night as the way to success. In his mission of conquest of the land of Canaan. But while the leaders had a peculiar responsibility to be in constant acquaintance with that book of the law, God mandated that once every seven years the entire nation would be gathered and would hear that law read in their hearing.

3:02 He was concerned that the teaching contained in it... ...would not be forgotten by the existing adult generation, or fail to be passed on to the rising and younger generation.

Trinity Baptist Church's Constitutional Commitment to Truth

3:19 And it was the recognition of this biblical precept and principle that caused us, when we revised our church constitution back in the mid-nineties... ...to incorporate into that constitution this very clear directive.

3:36 That in seeking to maintain our corporate standards, that is, the truths of the scripture embodied in our confession of faith... ...and embodied in our church constitution, that those two documents should be brought forward once every five years...

3:56 ...and the central biblical truths contained in them taught and preached for fifteen successive Lord's days.

4:05 That's a minimum. And you see, behind that directive of our constitution is this principle...

4:13 ...that we can easily forget the things most surely believed among us...

4:19 ...and we can easily begin to drift from that standard of conduct to which we have made individual and corporate commitments...

4:29 ...and that this discipline laid upon us in leadership to take us back to those secondary standards...

4:36 ...the word of God alone being the infallible sixth standard of life and of truth.

4:44 Nonetheless, these two documents that embody our understanding of the scripture need to be kept before us as the people of God. And so we come this morning to the thirteenth study, and I have entitled it, Living Together in the Father's House...

The Church's Purpose and Commitments

5:05 ...and following the title of the book by Wayne Mack and tending a little bit, we are considering how we are to live together in God's house.

5:15 And we have spent a number of weeks on the second paragraph in our constitution which delineates the purpose of this church. And it states very clearly that the purpose of this church is to glorify the God of the scriptures. This is what I have called our supreme and all-encompassing purpose. When we deviate it all from that purpose, every facet of our life together will be jaundiced...

5:47 ...and to some degree will bring displeasure to God.

5:52 Everything we are and do must grow out of our worship of the God of the scriptures. And so, having considered that supreme and all-encompassing purpose...

6:02 ...and to some degree will bring displeasure to God.

6:03 ...and to some degree will bring displeasure to God.

6:04 ...and to some degree will bring displeasure to God.

6:05 ...the all-encompassing purpose we, then, secondly looked at those God-ordained activities by which we are to pursue that purpose.

6:13 ...and to some degree will bring displeasure to God.

6:14 In our constitution identify six of them, I've organized them under the imagery of a circle and its arrows. The arrow pointing upward is the promotion of His worship. The arrow pointing inward, mutual edification ...

6:29 ...and mutual manifestation of practical bananas.

6:32 ...and mutual manifestation of practical bananas.

6:33 practical benevolence one to another, and then the outward arrows, evangelizing sinners, the planting and the strengthening of churches. In that purpose paragraph, it then goes on to say that in the light of these things we are committed, and then it identifies the three commitments essential to the preservation of those things to which we give, I trust, more than lip service. And there in that section of our Constitution, we state that we are committed to the proclamation of God's law, of His glorious gospel, and to contending for the faith once they're all delivered to the saints. And I have tried to express those commitments in these words. We are committed to the enunciation of God's changeless state. We are committed to the standard of right and wrong, His holy law. We are committed

7:36 to the proclamation of God's changeless method of making sinners right with Himself, the gospel. And now today, we are committed to the preservation of God's unchanging body of revealed truth. We are committed to the preservation of God's unchanging body of revealed truth. And our basic text is going to be Jude, verse 3. Turn now, please, to the book of Jude. For some of you new to the Scriptures, go to the back of your Bible, the book of the Revelation, come back through chapter 1, and there you will hit upon the letter of Jude. Follow as I read verses 1 through 4. Jude, a servant, literally a bondservant, is a servant of God. He is a servant of God.

Exposition of Jude 1-4: The Recipients and Occasion

8:36 He is a slave of Jesus Christ and brother of James. To them that are called, beloved in God the Father, and kept for Jesus Christ, mercy unto you and peace and love be multiplied. Beloved, while I was giving all diligence to write unto you of our common salvation, I was constrained to write unto you, exhorting you to contend earnestly for the faith which was won by God. I was constrained to write unto you, exhorting you to contend earnestly for the faith which was won by God.

9:06 Once for all delivered unto the saints. For there are certain men crept in privily, even they who were of old written of beforehand unto this condemnation, ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness, and denying our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ. Now, since our Constitution takes the very language of Jude through the Bible, this is why I want us to sit and park in this text this morning as we seek to open up what do we mean by saying we are committed to the preservation of God's changeless body of revealed truth. And the outline by which I will seek to direct our thinking together is very simple. First of all, we begin with a bare-bones exposition of the text, and then we look at some crucial observations and applications of the text. And the applications will carry over, God willing, into next Lord's Day morning as well. First of all, then, a

10:20 simple exposition of the text. That is, Jude, verse 3, Beloved, while I was giving all diligence to write unto you of our common salvation, I was constrained to write unto you, exhorting you to contend earnestly for the faith which was won by God. And then we look at some crucial evictions, and those are the first, only, and large, sublime attributes to interpret to give meaning to this text. Third, the practice it tries to give, to help people escape track through their physicalzeniating bodies. Third, when we look up in the book of Mehmed, we find the following Sansarite brother of James, this Jude possibly being one of our Lord's brothers, according to the flesh, or it could be that apostle, not Judas, who is named in the listing of the apostles, but this Jude, who identifies himself simply as bond-slave of Christ and brother of James, is writing to those who are described in these words, called, beloved in God the Father, and kept for Jesus Christ.

11:40 And here he identifies God's people in a most wonderful way, with one verbal adjective, the called ones, and two perfect, passive participles, of which you've heard much over the years, a verbal construction that points to, someone or something being acted upon, passive, and in the perfect tense, refers to something that happened, and the results of it abide to this day. It occurred and it continues. And by the use of this verbal adjective, called ones, and then the two participles, they are the ones who are beloved in God the Father, kept for Jesus Christ, we are given a... a marvelous description of what the status of every true child of God is.

12:36 They are the called ones, that is, they are the ones who have been effectively summoned out of a state of sin, death, and condemnation, into saving union with the Lord Jesus Christ. And in that union, they are now in a state of grace, and life, and acceptance, in the Beloved One, from a state of sin, death, and condemnation, all who are called, not merely invited in the general overtures of God's grace in the gospel, but who are effectually, who are powerfully wrought upon by the Spirit of God in conjunction with the Word, brought into union with Christ, they are now in a state of grace, and life, and condemnation, a state of grace, a state of life, and acceptance. Now, those of you who have the New King James Version, you say, Pastor, that isn't what my Bible says with regard to the next element of Jude's description of those to whom he writes. Your version of the Bible reads, those that are sanctified by God the Father. And there is a textual tradition that renders it that way.

13:58 But I believe... I believe that it is a preferred textual framework of reference to have it translated as the old 1901, and as many of the modern versions.

14:10 Jude envisions them as those who have been called. And why have they been called? Because they are beloved in God the Father. He set his love upon them in the councils of eternity when they are chosen in Christ.

14:30 Before the foundation of the world, and in love predestined to be the sons of the living God. And as Jude writes to the people of God, wherever they were, and that's a big discussion among commentators, and those who study the epistle in depth, where are these people? Are they primarily of Jewish background, Gentile background? Well, obviously, it must be a matter of little consequence, because Jude brushes by all of that, and he says, I write to you as bond-slave of Christ, and as I think of you in writing to you, here are the ones I have in my mind.

15:08 They are the called ones. Those who have been effectively and powerfully brought out of the state of sin and death and condemnation into union with Christ, and they must see themselves for who they are. They are the beloved in God the Father. They are the objects of God's distinction, and they must see themselves for who they are.

15:32 And they must see themselves for who they are. And they must see themselves for who they are. That love that effects the salvation of all upon whom God sets that love. And then they are described as kept for Jesus Christ.

15:46 And it could be translated kept in Jesus Christ, or kept for Jesus Christ. There is no distinct preposition. You just have the case of the words. It could be in.

15:59 Keep, buy, for. And whichever one you choose, this much is clear. The concept of being kept is again in the same verbal construction. It is a perfect passive participle.

16:13 They have been laid hold of in God's grace. And in connection with Christ, they are either kept, they have begun to be kept and will continue to be kept as the inheritance of Christ, the church being, the reward of his sufferings, his very bride, Ephesians 5. Or kept in Jesus Christ. It is the virtue of their union with Christ in all of its glorious, indissoluble nature.

16:44 Or kept by Jesus Christ, by the virtue of his life and power and intercession mediated to them by the Holy Spirit. Perhaps it's all three if we take the analogy of Scripture. Those who have been called are those whom God has loved and continues to love. And they are kept in that union with Christ.

17:09 They are kept for Jesus Christ. And they are kept by Jesus Christ. Put them together. And what is the identification of those who receive this letter?

17:23 They are God's called ones. And they are called because...

17:28 they are his loved ones. And if called and having been loved, that love is not going to be a frustrated emotion in the heart of God, but the commitment of his heart to see them all the way through to the consummate blessings of salvation in Jesus Christ. And it's interesting that in a letter that is full of what we would call sharp, polemical edges, Jude, uses some very strong language. Yet he introduces himself and sets before us the people of God in this glorious light.

18:09 They are the called, beloved in God the Father, and kept for Jesus Christ. And while the Scripture everywhere recognizes among God's people their varying degrees of growth and development, varying degrees of knowledge and stability, a whole host of areas in which we differ one from another at any given point in our pilgrimage. But in these things we are fundamentally one. We are the called, we are the beloved, and we are the preserved.

18:45 Regardless of whether you were called thirty seconds ago sitting in this service, if God laid hold of you and your heart was often to embrace Christ, you're one of us. Now called, beloved, and kept. That's our identity. That was their identity.

19:05 So then, we move from question number one, to whom has the letter been addressed? We've answered it from the text. Question number two. What was the occasion of the writing of this letter?

19:17 After typical greeting in verse two, he tells us what the occasion of the writing of this letter was. Beloved, while I was giving, all diligence to write unto you of our common salvation, I was constrained. He's telling them that a short time before the writing of this letter, his heart was set upon a given end, a given direction, and that he was bending all of his powers in that direction. And what was the direction?

19:52 He was giving all diligence to write to these people of their common salvation. Apparently, Jude purposed to write a letter that would expound in a rather comprehensive way various aspects of the blessings of salvation in Christ. Jude knew, as did all the biblical writers, what we know, that if we are the called, the beloved, and the kept, God uses his truth and the knowledge of that truth internally, and appropriated by faith under the ministry of the Spirit to make us stable. It is one of the means by which we are kept. And Jude says that he was purposing to write this letter in which various aspects of their common salvation would be addressed. And there one's mind can only run on in many directions. What might Jude have written that we don't find in Romans, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, well, when we get to heaven, that'll be one of the things we can talk about when we meet Jude.

21:03 And then we'll know exactly whether it was Jude the Apostle or Jude the half-brother of our Lord. But this much is clear and the Spirit of God moved Jude to write this that while all of his powers were engaged, he may have even had a very detailed outline of how he was going to open up various aspects of the salvation. In one way or another, he became aware of a factor, in the lives of those to whom he's writing, that caused him to get totally thrown off his original tracks. And what was it?

The Constraint: False Teachers and Pastoral Sensitivity

21:37 If you look at verse 4, 4, I was constrained to write unto you, but, he said, I changed that original purpose. I was constrained to write unto you now, having been giving, at one point, giving all diligence to write in a given area. I was constrained to write in a different area. Why?

21:59 Verse 4, For there are certain men crept in privily, even they who were of old written of beforehand unto this condemnation on godly men, etc. Jude became aware that those to whom he was writing were being, to some degree, influenced by false teachers. There were certain men who crept in privily. They sneaked in among them.

22:24 Later on, he describes them as sitting at their love feast. They had actually entered, into the church, whether they had been received into the membership, we do not know. But they were within the circle of influence, and Jude says, as much as I would love to go positive and open up and expand before the minds of these people the glories of our common salvation, to do so when they are under the threat of the damning influence of error, I cannot, hold to my original track. Having become aware of these men who crept in among them, he said, I was constrained to get off my original track and now to write what I write with respect to this great and crucial issue in the language of the text, constrained to write unto you, exhorting you to contend earnestly for the faith once for all delivered to the saints. And I only say this in passing. Here, Jude is a marvelous example of pastoral sensitivity. For the life of me, I have never been able to understand preachers that could line out their preaching for the next year and never budge from it.

23:44 The church can go through the valley of a great corporate humbling. It can enter into a great trial, but they are going to stick to their schedule. Ba-boom, ba-boom, ba-boom, ba-boom. No, no.

23:57 Jude said, yes, I had a purpose. I was, I was on a track, but when in the providence of God I became aware of circumstances that caused me to realize what I was originally purposing to do would not meet your need. When people are threatened with error,

24:15 rejoicing in their common salvation is not the best way to address the problem.

24:22 That's what Jude is telling us. Do you see that in the passage? You see, there are some who say, no, no, all we need to do is feed God's people with the wonders, the wonders of what they are and have in Christ. That'll cure everything.

24:35 If so, Jude missed it. Jude missed it. And so did Paul. And so did a host of the other biblical writers.

24:43 So you pray for your pastors. God will help us to be sensitive and you continue to be open so that we can have a sense of where there may be particular needs that are not going to be addressed in the steady state, consecutive exposition of themes, of books, of large blocks of scripture. That should be the ordinary course in seeking to open up the whole counsel of God that there are times when we need to say, though I purpose to do this, we are constrained to do this because of what we became aware of in your life together as the people of God. Well, we've asked the question, to whom are the words directed?

The Fundamental Directive: Contend Earnestly for the Faith

25:23 The called, beloved, and kept? What was the occasion of the letter? We have considered it. Now, thirdly, what is the fundamental direction of this text?

25:36 What is the central fundamental directive? Let's look at it. I was constrained to write unto you, exhorting you to contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints. Now, the first thing we note about this fundamental directive is that it comes in the form of an exhortation.

26:00 I was constrained to write exhorting you. Now, this word exhorting has a very wide range of meaning and use in the New Testament. And we must look to the context in which it is used. Sometimes it has the concept of comforting.

26:21 1 Thessalonians 4.18 after Paul explains that your dead relatives are not going to be left behind and be second class citizens at the second coming of Christ. In fact, he says, they're going to be taken care of. First, the dead in Christ shall rise first.

26:36 Then, we that are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall be caught up together with them. He says, wherefore, here's our word, exhort one another, comfort one another with these words. Sometimes the word means to comfort. Sometimes it means it has the tinge of almost admonishing.

26:55 We are to exhort one another while it is called today, lest any be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. There, exhorting, exhorting and exhortation has the overtones of admonition. Here, in this setting, when it is a ringing call to duty, it is used in the way it would be used to describe what a leader of a troop of soldiers would do as they were about to go into a critical battle. He would remind them of their wives and children at home.

27:27 Remind them of the farms and of the homes that they are protecting. He would do everything in his power to stir them up that they might go into battle with all of their faculties engaged and in noble courage seek to win that battle for their homeland, for their wives and for their children. And if we stood on the sidelines and watched an eloquent leader of troops opening up his mind and heart and stirring up the others, we would say he is exhorting them. He is exhorting them to be prepared for and to engage in the battle.

28:03 To engage with all of their powers in the battle before them. That's the sense in which it is used here. I was committed, giving all diligence to write of our common salvation, but factors came into the picture that constrained me, brought me to the place where I was under compulsion to write unto you, exhorting you, that is, seeking to stir you up to a conscious, vigorous, spiritual activity. It comes in the form of an exhortation, an authoritative, compelling, urgent directive, but now secondly, I just jumped ahead of myself a moment, it is an exhortation summoning all the people of God essentially to one important duty. One important duty. And that duty I'm going to describe in these words, a conscious, vigorous, spiritual activity with reference to God's changeless body of truth. A conscious, vigorous, spiritual activity with respect to God's changeless body of revealed truth.

29:23 Now where did I get that pile of words? Well, look at the language. I was constrained to write unto you, exhorting you to contend earnestly. And here the word, in the Old Testament, is epagonizo.

29:40 It's the word, agonizo, to agonize with a prefix, epi. And the prefix points toward that concerning which they are to agonize the faith. But there is that word, agonizomai, is the word that would be used to describe someone in the Grecian games on the wrestling mat. Naked, olive oil, and there muscle and bone and sinew and mind, one wrestler against another.

30:14 And if you saw the two of them so engaged, you say they are agonizing in their wrestling. That's the sense of the word. And here Jude is calling these believers, calling these who have been called, who are loved of the Father and are kept, he is calling them to this conscious, spiritual activity. One that, while engaged in it, you could say they are doing something in the realm of spiritual reality that has parallels in what wrestlers in the Grecian games do when they are on the mat.

30:56 It's not something, in other words, that you can do, half asleep, lying in a hammock under the shade of a tree, in the warm summer afternoon in July. You cannot agonize am I lying in a hammock, watching the clouds float by. Whatever it is that we are exhorted to do, it is a call to conscious, vigorous, spiritual activity. But then, it is a call to this activity with respect to God's changeless body of revealed truth. Again, look at the text. I was constrained to write unto you, exhorting you to contend earnestly for the faith. Now the structure in the original is, the word faith comes at the end of the sentence.

31:57 And if you were giving a wooden rendering of the original, it would be this. Contend earnestly for the once for all delivered to the saints faith. So if you were diagramming that sentence in the Greek, you would have the direct object of the verb contend earnestly, it would be for the faith. For the faith. Now what does this mean, the faith? Well the word the faith, or faith, is used basically in two ways in the New Testament. Sometimes it refers to faith. That is our subjective act of trust.

32:33 Paul said, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. The word faith can speak of our subjective exercise of trust. But in this context, and in several other places in the New Testament, it does not mean our subjective exercise of trust. But it refers to the objective body of truth which is the object of our trust. For example, Acts 6 and verse 7 says that a great company of the priests were obedient to the faith. To the faith. That is the truth. Concerning Christ as preached by the apostles.

33:18 Again in Galatians chapter 1. Paul says in verse 23 that the people in Jerusalem heard that I now preached the faith which I once persecuted. That is the body of truth I once attacked. That Jesus of Nazareth is Messiah. Jesus in his death secured the redemption of his people. Jesus in his bodily resurrection validated that indeed the deathless paid. Was exalted to the right hand of the Father as the Messianic King. Sent forth the Holy Spirit. That is the body of truth which Paul once persecuted called the faith. And here in this letter verse 20. But you beloved building up yourselves on your most holy faith. You don't build yourself up on your subjective trust. The

34:11 building would be a crumbled rickety mess if that's what you try to do. We are built up on the faith. That is the body of revealed truth which forms the heart and soul of the gospel and all of the truths that cluster around it. Now all the other words that are used by Jude are like one long hyphenated adjective.

34:39 For example, I might go somewhere and experience something wonderful and come back and say to you I had a once in a lifetime never to be forgotten experience. Experience is the noun. That's what I had. Now when I say a once for all all hyphenated never to be forgotten all hyphenated. All those words put together are meant to describe my experience. Now I could say I had a marvelous experience. I will never forget that experience. I doubt I will ever repeat that experience. It goes kind of flat. But if I say it was a once in a lifetime never to be forgotten experience then we sense something more of the pressure of those words piled up. Now that's exactly what you have and you see it vividly. Some of you sitting here with your Greek text you can see that. He says

35:36 you are to contend earnestly for thee. The article is used in the locative case and then it is once for all. Delivered to the saints faith. In other words the Spirit of God so moved Jude to write that when his hearers would hear that letter read they would never be able to think of the faith. The body of truth revealed apart from seeing it as the once for all having been delivered to the saints faith that there is no other faith that saves. There is no other faith worth contending for. So this call to this vigorous spiritual activity is with respect to God's changeless body of revealed truth. Now let's look at it a little more carefully.

Characteristics of 'The Faith'

36:38 It is a faith that is a body of revealed truth that has been delivered to whom? To the saints. To the saints. To the holy ones.

36:51 Please turn this cassette over to continue the message. Body of revealed truth that has been delivered to whom? To the saints. To the saints.

37:04 To the holy ones. To those who have been called and in union with Jesus Christ have been set apart from the realm of sin and of death and condemnation unto God in Christ and to a life of holiness and pleasingness to God. Holy ones. That's one of the terms used of all of God's people regardless of their state of growth, regardless of their present condition in spiritual maturation and here Jude says that faith, the body of truth for which you are to contend with respect to which you are to engage in a conscious continuous vigorous spiritual activity is the possession of all the saints. It is not the body of truth that is the peculiar exclusive possession of theologians, of men who can work their way through Greek and Hebrew and church history and the statements of church councils. No, it is a body of revealed truth that has been delivered to the saints. And that's the common word for betray or hand over all the way through the New Testament when it speaks of Judas who betrayed him. That's the word. He handed him

38:31 over to the Jewish authorities and Jude says this body of truth has been handed over to the saints. All the saints. The saints in the great diversity of their cultural and religious and intellectual and social backgrounds and station in life. It has been delivered to the saints.

38:53 And furthermore it's a faith, a body of revealed truth that has been once for all delivered. And this little word once for all. Hapax. That's the word used to describe the singularity and non-repeatable nature of the death of Christ for his people.

39:14 In Hebrews 9 and verse 28 we have a use of that word. A great embarrassment to Roman Catholic exegetes and theologians. So Christ having been once. There's our word.

39:30 Once for all offered to bear the sins of many shall appear a second time apart from sin unto salvation. It is not a faith continually being delivered by ongoing revelation and ongoing construction by the Pope, by Mary Baker Eddy, by Joseph Smith, by modern so-called prophets. It is a faith once for all delivered. When Jude wrote every essential element of the faith was already in place and was the possession of all the saints. That's what the text says. It is a once for all delivered to the saints faith. Now then, as we think our way back through the text we've considered to whom was it written.

40:35 I hope you can answer with your Bible open in front of you to those who are identified as the called ones. They are called because they have been and remain to be loved in God the Father. They have been and continue to be kept in or for or by Jesus Christ. What was the occasion?

40:57 This man was going to give them a wonderful positive exposition of their common salvation. Becoming aware that false teachers had crept in among them, wormed their way in and their insidious influence was beginning to be felt, he says, I was constrained to do something else. And what is the fundamental directive that he was constrained to give? It was a call to conscious, vigorous spiritual activity. And to that activity with respect to God's changeless body of revealed truth. Now having sought to open up the text, let us in the time remaining make some crucial observations and applications of the text. And these observations and validations will be drawn not only from this text but validated and illustrated from many other parts of Scripture. What the people that want to sound studious tell us, the analogy of faith, that is the general teaching of our Bibles.

Observation 1: All Believers are Stewards of Truth

42:04 And here's the first. All of the true people of God are God-appointed stewards of God's changeless body of revealed truth. All of the true people of God are God-appointed stewards of God's changeless body of revealed truth. To whom does this exhortation come? It comes to the saints. All of the saints. And it comes with all of its urgency to all of the saints. Why? Because all of the saints are God- appointed stewards of God's changeless body of revealed truth. You say, Pastor, what's a steward? A steward is someone entrusted with the goods or the property of another. Goods and property that are to be guarded or managed according to the will of the proprietor.

43:06 The proprietor assigns a task and hands over a house, a field, an enterprise to a steward. The steward doesn't own the business. The steward doesn't dictate how the business shall be run, unless that's part of the definition where the one, the proprietor who owns it says, look, I trust your judgment. You run this according to your will and the rest.

43:30 But generally speaking, the steward administers the affairs, the goods of another. With a view to his accountability to the proprietor. That's why Paul could say moreover here among stewards it is required that a man be found faithful, trustworthy. When you hand over your house and your lands and you tell him to do this or that, if he's a good steward you can go away for three years and come back and you'll find it just as you had told him it should be.

44:03 Now God has made you, every one of you, his true people, he's made you a steward of the changeless body of revealed truth. But you say, pastor, aren't pastors and preachers, aren't they stewards in a special way? Yes, they have an intensified stewardship as the servants of God. That's why Paul could say in 2 Corinthians 4 verse 1, let the man so account of us as stewards of the mysteries of God. Paul says, I and my fellow workers, we are stewards of the mysteries of God. Paul could say to Timothy in 2 Timothy 1, 13 and 14, Timothy, as an apostolic representative, hold fast the pattern of sound words that has been entrusted to you, handed over to you as a steward. Yes, we who publicly minister in Christ name have an intensified steward as pastors and preachers, but our baseline identity is exactly the same as yours. We are called, belonged, and kept, and as saints, we with you have a stewardship.

45:19 Ours is intensified and heightened, but it is not qualitatively different from yours. Now will you let that sink in? Quantitatively? Intensively? Yes.

45:33 But not qualitatively. What would you think if one of your elders was indifferent to what the faith once for all delivered to the saints is, unconcerned as to whether or not it was loved and preached and taught in this place? What would you think of an elder? Might be the sweetest guy in all the world.

45:59 He can get along with everyone and even sometimes with the devil. So sweet. Touch him anywhere and it oozes sweetness. Sweetness personified.

46:07 He can hold the hand of old ladies beginning to get absent-minded and just make them feel like a thousand dollars. He can go into the home of the sharp young businessman. Everything about him. He's got tremendous people skills. He can relate to the kids and to the young people and the old folks. He can bring just the right words at a funeral, at a wedding, and all the rest. But he has no sense of the leadership of truth. Would you want such a man to be your pastor?

46:41 Would you? I'm going to be answering you. How many would like such a man to be your pastor? And play loose with truth.

46:50 The only thing that is God's instrument to bring you into grace and keep you along the way. Sanctify them in the truth. By word is truth. Be gotten again by the word of truth.

47:02 You say, I don't want such a person. My friend, you should say the same. I don't want fellow church members that are indifferent to truth. Because the stewardship is laid upon all of the saints. That's what the text says. I'm exhorting you to do what?

Application 1: Build Yourself Up on Your Most Holy Faith

47:26 To be focused and concentrated in this spiritual exercise of defending, protecting, preserving the truth once for all delivered to the saints. All of the true people of God are God appointed stewards of God's changeless body of revealed truth. Therefore, every one of us, every one of you, must take seriously what Jude says toward the end of his epistle, verse 20. We looked at it briefly before.

48:04 Look at it again. But you, beloved, though there will be false teachers and those who follow their false teaching and thereby destroy themselves, but you, beloved, building up your selves on warm fuzzy feelings. Now, that ain't how you built up, on warm fuzzies. Building yourself up on your most holy faith.

48:34 It doesn't say, and you, beloved, trusting your pastors to build you up. Oh, yes, they have a building up ministry, Ephesians 4. We studied it about eight, nine weeks ago under the inward arrows of mutual edification by all the members of the body and by the exercise of specially gifted men within the body, and we're not canceling, negating, diluting any of that, but this text says you, you, and you, and you, you are responsible to build up yourself on your most holy faith. You're worried about what your pastors are supposed to do for you.

49:15 You're to do it. And it can't be done by proxy. You must build up yourself on your most holy faith. Well, what would that mean?

49:26 It means you've got to, first of all, start soaking your soul in your Bible. Some of you don't soak your souls in your Bible. Is it good to have Spurgeon's checkbook of faith? Yes, I've used it every morning since last October.

49:41 Almost without exception. Spurgeon's morning and evening? Fine. Wonderful little teaser.

49:47 Wonderful little pre-meal appetizer. Ryle's devotional thoughts? Excellent. Very good for a teaser. You don't build up yourself on your most holy faith. Grabbing five minutes with Spurgeon's checkbook of faith, morning and evening, or even William Jay. No, you won't. No, you won't.

50:12 No, you won't. It will meet needs, I hope, as they meet needs in me. My wife and I used William Jay. We had an old volume of morning and evening. We used it for three or four years in family worship. Much that is helpful to the soul. For years I've used Spurgeon's morning and evening. I'm presently using faith as a checkbook. But my dear friends, if that's all you do to soak your soul in the Word of God, you will not build up yourself in your most holy faith. Good and godly men, but in many of those devotional things you are not taught how to really understand the Word of God in its context and in its flow of thought and in its connectedness. You must take verse 20 seriously. But pastor, if I do that, I won't be abreast of the latest decision of the Senate. And

51:11 I won't be knowledgeable of what's going on in here and there. So what? Do you have an ethical and moral responsibility that is laid upon the ambassador to the Middle East or the ambassador to the United Nations? I don't know that we have a Christian statesman or stateswoman in this place who has an ethical obligation to have a broad spectrum of knowledge.

51:42 In this international concern and in this national concern, who voted for what in the Senate and what is so and so's conservative and liberal rating and all the rest. My dear friends, listen. If you're spending time acquiring that knowledge at the expense of soaking your soul in your Bible, your priorities are skewed and you're a sitting duck for false teaching. Tell me you're not going to like that.

52:10 But I'm prepared to have you come with your Bible and tell me that you don't need to hear that. Let's don't let the word of Christ dwell in you richly. It can't dwell in you richly unless you begin to approach the person described in Psalm 1. Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, stands in the way of sinners, sits in the seat of scoffers, but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law doth he meditate day and night.

52:50 Parenthesis. That is, if he or she is set apart full time to study the Bible. No. No. No. Don't put such limitations on the text. God didn't. And how often must the Lord Jesus say to us as he said to those of his own day. Matthew 22.

53:09 You do err not knowing the Scriptures. Friends, I said a long time ago there's a lot of things in this world I'm never going to learn about. Some of you know my interest in things medical. But I only pursue the areas where I've got to get fixed up or someone in the church needs to get fixed up and I have a motive in doing it.

53:30 I want to cooperate with the doctor or help one of the sheep. There's all kinds of things in Cecil's textbook of medicine and Moore's clinical anatomy and Merck's manual and my John Hopkins home health book. I've got a whole shelf of medical stuff. And I resist the temptation to waste time reading it unless duty and responsibility takes me to them. Why?

53:52 I could read all of that in a thousand books more and still be an ignorant would-be physician. You've got to determine certain things have got to go. Would I like to know what the news makers think is important? No.

54:07 I've come to the place now where I say what's news? It's what someone determines should be news. How could I? What concern is it to me that out in Illinois last Thursday somebody ran through a railroad crossing sign and killed someone? I mean that's tragic. But what in the world interest is that to me? Why should I clog up my ears and my brain and consume precious time? And I could be reading my Bible and memorizing scripture and going back over my shorter catechism answers. I've got nice little flashcards with the shorter catechism. Who is the redeemer of God's elect? The only redeemer of God's elect is the Lord Jesus Christ who being God became man and so was and continues to be both God and man in predistinct natures forever. That helps me when I hear someone talking about my Lord in a way that I say whoa, whoa, whoa. You've got a Jesus

55:12 that's less than real man. I say whoa, whoa, whoa. Wait a minute. You've got a Jesus that's less than real God.

55:18 You've got a Jesus where you're mixing the natures and you've got something that's a mixture of God and man is neither one in full integrity. You're off base man. That's what I need. That's what you need.

55:33 Build yourself up on the holy faith. Take seriously this injunction. Soak your soul in your Bible. Bless God for this study we've been led in over the past year and a half in the confession of faith. Some of you have begun to develop a theological mind and you realize that this is not just abstract stuff that floats by the guys with oversized brains who happen to be religious and love the Lord. These are distinctions that have been hammered out on the anvil of controversy and heresy and soul-destructive lies. And this precise, sharp, it is this but it is not that. It is that but it is not this.

56:15 That's building yourself up on your most holy faith. And if He expected people to do it then, remember, people didn't go around with an Old Testament under their arm while waiting for the New Testament to be complete. They didn't go around with scrolls from the Old Testament. They didn't go around with copies of the New Testament.

56:40 They had nothing but what they heard in the apostolic oral tradition and yet He said, build yourself up on your most holy faith with such a scanty array of tools. What will God say to us to whom so much is given? And we're not building up ourselves in our most holy faith. Dear people, the surest way to make sure that if the Lord tarries, thirty years from now, this pulpit won't say much worth listening to, is for you not to accept your God-given stewardship in this matter of contending for the faith once for all delivered to the saints. Paul's words have haunted me as I've prepared for this study. Here the apostle knew that he could not ensure the perpetuation of a heart for truth that would see to it that those who had a heart for truth would have teachers of truth. But he says to Timothy in 2 Timothy 4, the time will come when they, the rank and file of God's people, will not endure the healthy doctrine, but having itching ears, will heap to themselves teachers after their own lust and notice, will turn away their ears

58:07 from the truth. It's not like people born, christened, reared in liberal churches, never heard the truth. These people had heard the truth, professed attachment to the truth, but because they were not grounded in the truth and yielding to the ethical demands of the truth, they began to get restless with truth. And they saw to it they got preachers and teachers who'd come and tickle their ears, never pierced their hearts, never wound them where they needed to be wounded, never raised them up to the sheer ecstasy of a soul natively guilty and damned, brought out into the glorious light of God's grace in Christ. The apostle said, when I'm in my grave, it's going to come, Timothy. It's going to come. Am I so stupid as to think that ministering here for 40 years is going to immunize this place for two or three generations? I'd be stupid and

59:12 naive and arrogant. But I know this, if some of you sitting here take what you're hearing this morning to a new level of seriousness and you are committed by the grace of God to do whatever you must do that you may obey this exhortation, contend earnestly for the faith once for all delivered to the saints and under God you pass that on to your children and seek to inculcate in them the vision that they must pass it on, then by God's grace this place can ring with truth till Christ returns. But it ain't going to happen automatically. And it will not happen in terms of the exclusive jealousy that it will happen among your leaders. It's got to be your conviction. And you need to stir up one another to love and good works in this area. And you young people, when somebody comes to you and says, oh, have you seen this latest movie?

60:15 Have the guts to look them in the eye and say, frankly, I've got no time to go to the movies. Oh, I know you're going to tell me there's only seven curse words and only two love scenes. That stuff goes on here. I know that. I'm not stupid.

60:27 Have the guts to look them in the eye and say, I've got better things to do than to put that garbage in my brain. I'm memorizing the Book of Romans. You want something to unionize you against the error? You memorize the Book of Romans.

60:43 I had a friend in college who did. Memorized four or five whole books of the Bible. Used to recite them. Steady as a rock.

60:53 Hadn't seen him in thirty years. Steady as a rock. He built himself up on his most holy faith. This is serious business, folks.

61:04 And I'm enough in touch with things to know that there are people among us who abuse the doctrine of Christian liberty and indulge all kinds of stuff. But I trust I'm not naive in saying I believe the vast majority of you. Your prayer is, oh God, maintain the truth in this place for my children and my grandchildren. And their children.

61:29 Then take seriously the exhortation. Build yourself up on the most holy faith that you may contend for that faith. It is said that Roman bishops and cardinals feared the average German plowboy. With Luther's Bible and Luther's catechism and Luther's hymns they could stand up to cardinals and send them from the field whipped by the Word of God.

62:00 They were plowboys who knew their Bibles, their catechism, and their hymns. If we put you back there, would you be one of those plowboys? You wouldn't be a plowgirl. I guess that's not a mixed right figure.

62:17 What would we call you? You'd carry the bucket out to the well. You'd be the bucket go to the well girl. Could you be the cardinal?

62:26 And when he said, why have you forsaken the Mother Church? Could you open up your Bible to the church with Papa there in Rome? And could you tell them, give them the verses, show them from the Word of God? Could you?

62:46 How can you contend earnestly for the faith when you have not built yourself upon your most holy faith? Well, that's the first line of application. The second one, much more briefly, is this. God's people have been and always will be the objects of activity of those who want to seduce them away from the faith.

Observation 2: God's People are Always Objects of Seduction

63:14 God's people are, have been, always have been, have been the objects of those who would seduce them away from God's changeless truth. You read the book of Jude, and you know what Jude does? He gives us, I can't figure out his organizing principle yet, but after he says, certain men have crept in who are taking people away from that faith, he then gives a brief history of the group that came out of Egypt in the Exodus. And then he goes to the pre-creation of man and the earth, and he talks about angels that left not, that did not keep their original station. And then he moves to Sodom and Gomorrah and to Balaam in the book of Numbers. We find that all through the scriptures, when there are those who are holding to the faith, the devil, who is the father of lies, builds his kingdom upon lies, is always seeking to get inroads among the people who are the people of the truth. What plague poor Jeremiah!

64:29 Every time he would open his mouth and say, thus saith the Lord, along would come a half a dozen false prophets and say, don't listen to him, the prophets prophesy falsely and my people love to have it so. What shall I do, Lord? Every time I think truth is getting a toehold, error comes in and captures the people. In our Lord's warning, have you read the Olivet Discourse?

64:54 What does Jesus warn about again and again? Take heed that no man lead you astray. There shall be many false prophets who arise. There will be false Christs who arise.

65:06 He warns them. Jeremiah is giving his last message to the Ephesian elders. He says in Acts 20.28, Take heed therefore to yourselves and to all the flock of God in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers to shepherd the church of the Lord which he purchased with his own blood for, for, for I know.

65:26 And then he talks about wolves from without and men from among your own selves. He's talking to the elders. He said you're going to have sons from your own ranks to draw away disciples after them. And you can't draw away a disciple from Christ without drawing them away from the truth, the faith once for all delivered to the saints. Paul gives his swan song to Timothy and that's the centerpiece in that piece of marvelous declaration of his own sense of having finished his course. And then when you come to the book of the Revelation, the last apostle isn't even dead. And Jesus has to say to two of the churches you have there those who teach the doctrine of the Nicolaitans. You have those who teach the doctrine of Jezebel. False

66:19 teaching taking root. And the last apostle hadn't yet died. Folks, the devil hasn't gone on a vacation. And we rejoice at the resurgence of coming back to the old paths of confessional and historic Christianity.

66:36 But the devil's not spooked by all of that. You know, you can carry around a 1689 confession under your arm and come up to the devil and say, look at this. You think he cowers and runs in, whoo, 1689 confession. I can't come near that.

66:50 No, he's not spooked by the 1689 confession, the Westminster confession. He's not spooked by any of that. If he does not have scruples about trying to seduce the Son of God and quote scripture to him, what makes you think he won't have those who quote scripture to you? And that's what we hope to get into next week on the Bible, the teachers of the face of truth, so that you can distinguish between truth and error.

Concluding Exhortation and Prayer

67:18 But dear people, face the fact that laziness and carelessness can only leave us vulnerable to being drawn away from the faith once for all delivered to the saints. I say then in closing, if you love your own soul, don't let go of the body of revealed truth. If you love the souls of others, don't let go of it to be prepared to contend for it. If you have any concern for your children, grandchildren, great grandchildren, yet unborn, then be ready to contend seriously and earnestly for the faith.

67:56 And God willing, next week we'll consider what I'm going to call the essential features on the face of truth. And try to give you a very simple, but I hope not simplistic picture of what are those features on the face of truth by which you can compare anything that claims to be part of the faith once for all delivered to the saints. Well, this has been an intense word of exhortation, dear people. I don't believe if Jude were alive and was saying these words to you, he'd say it as though he were speaking them lying on a hammock in the backyard watching the clouds go by. God help us that we will commit ourselves afresh to contend earnestly for that faith once for all delivered to the saints. Let's pray. Our Father, we marvel, we marvel at your patience with the likes of us.

69:06 We think of nations born, brought to maturity and now sunk into oblivion and never had one creature stand among them and open up the scriptures. Generations born, lived and died, never seeing a page of the Bible. Lord, forgive us for our carelessness, our laziness when you have given us so much. We tremble when we think that to whom much is given of him shall much be required. We thank you that you've given us that faith in the scriptures and you've given us so many helps to aid us in our understanding of that faith. Lord, we pray that many a whole holy resolve made in this place this morning will give birth to altered patterns in the use of time, in the priorities of what we allow into the eye gate and the ear gate. Lord, help us, oh help us we pray. We think especially of the rising generation when the seductions come on every hand to seduce them away from the truth as it is in Jesus.

70:28 Oh Lord, we pray that you would do a deep and a lasting work in the hearts of many of these. We commit your word to you and ask you to seal it to our hearts, to the praise of our Lord Jesus and to the good of our souls and to the good of the souls of others. Hear us, for his name's sake we pray. Amen.