00:01Okay, let's look at our final quote, the one from the book of Jude.
00:07Just read it again. Sorry, verse 3.
00:10Beloved, while I was very diligent to write to you concerning our common salvation,
00:14I found it necessary to write to you, exhorting you to contend earnestly for the faith
00:18which was once and for all delivered to the saints.
00:23For certain men have crept in unnoticed who long ago were marked out for this condemnation,
00:27ungodly men who turn the grace of God into lewdness and deny the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus
00:33Christ.
00:35So he's writing about our common salvation,
00:38and he's writing about the faith which was once and for all delivered to the saints.
00:43This is one of the later books of the Bible, written probably towards the end of the first century, we
00:50don't know.
00:51But it's not one of the early books of the Bible.
00:53He's saying that it's already been delivered to you.
00:56And you have to contend for this faith which was once for all delivered to the saints.
01:00And it's very strong there, it says once for all.
01:03See what that means?
01:03That means that the final word has been given, in this word given to us in the Bible.
01:11You have to contend for the apostles' doctrine,
01:15which is the doctrine which the apostles of Jesus have given to us,
01:18which is not going to be changed.
01:21And one of the big things which has happened, which I hope I'll try to illustrate to you in this
01:25talk,
01:25is that people have consistently tried to change the apostles' doctrine.
01:30But very early on it began to happen.
01:33And you can see the emergence of what became Roman Catholicism,
01:36was changing a whole lot of things in the apostles' doctrine,
01:38and substituting them for the words of men.
01:41And even the Protestant Reformation recovered much of it,
01:44but still then added things and took things away from the apostles' doctrine.
01:48It happens all the time.
01:50And it's happening in a big way in our time.
01:53That's why we as believers today have to contend for the original faith
01:57once delivered to us through the apostles of Jesus Christ,
02:01which doesn't change.
02:08And he warns that apostates are going to come in.
02:11People are going to change the word of God.
02:14He says, turn the grace of God into lewdness.
02:17That's an interesting phrase there.
02:20What's the grace of God?
02:21The grace of God is God's love for humanity.
02:24The undeserved gift which we have through faith in Jesus.
02:28In Ephesians chapter 2 it says,
02:29By grace you have been saved through faith,
02:31that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God,
02:33not of works, this anyone should boast.
02:37If you are a true born-again Christian,
02:39you have received the grace of God for salvation.
02:42It means that you accepted Jesus into your life.
02:44As a result of that, your sins are forgiven.
02:46You have become a child of God.
02:48And you have an eternal hope in God for salvation for eternity.
02:54The grace of God.
02:56Grace means undeserved favor.
03:00The grace of God for salvation.
03:02Now if people turn the grace of God into lewdness,
03:04what does he mean?
03:05Let's think about it.
03:06What does it mean?
03:07A lot of people say, well God loves us,
03:09he gives us his grace,
03:10so he can accept us whatever we do.
03:13No, no.
03:16It's free.
03:16It's a free gift.
03:18But it's not cheap.
03:20It costs the Lord Jesus his precious blood to obtain it for us.
03:24And the condition of our receiving it is not good works.
03:28We do, but faith in what he has done for us.
03:31And faith involves repentance and faith in Jesus Christ and believing the gospel.
03:40The first message of Jesus was,
03:42the time is fulfilled, the kingdom of God is at hand, repent and believe the gospel.
03:47Two things you've got to do there.
03:48You've got to repent, turn from your sins and believe the gospel.
03:51Believe what the gospel says is true,
03:53that Christ died for our sins, was buried and rose again from the dead.
03:57It's not difficult to understand that, is it?
04:01Difficult to do for many people.
04:03But, very simply, that is what we have to do.
04:07Now, if you don't do that, if you continue in your sins,
04:10and the example I gave to you from the Church of England there is saying that you can continue in
04:14your sins,
04:15continue to practice,
04:17the example he gave there was sexual immorality and homosexual practice,
04:21and God's going to accept you because of his grace,
04:23that's actually turning the grace of God into lewdness.
04:26Exactly what Jude says here is going to be the danger for the Church.
04:31You change the grace of God, God's undeserved favour towards humanity,
04:34and you say, well, that means God accepts you, whatever you do.
04:37God loves you, so you can carry on sinning.
04:40The Bible doesn't say that.
04:41It says you have to repent and believe.
04:43You have to turn from your sins.
04:44You have to live a new life.
04:46It doesn't mean you'll never do anything wrong.
04:48Obviously, we all have a fallen nature, and we're still all going to fail at times.
04:52But if we do that again, we just come to the Lord,
04:54confess our sins, and believe through faith in him that we have forgiveness.
04:59But we're not going to habitually carry on.
05:02For example, if we are in a sexual relationship outside of marriage,
05:07and you become a Christian,
05:08then you have a duty to break off that relationship.
05:12And if you want to continue with it, then to get married properly,
05:16then you can continue with a sexual relationship.
05:19But you can't continue in that relationship as a Christian.
05:23And we can't change the goalposts to fit in with the habits of today,
05:27which is what Brian McCollum was saying in the same word which I gave you earlier,
05:31saying, you know, the world has changed now.
05:33Society accepts homosexual practice,
05:36so the church has got to accept it
05:37and just move on and forget all these passages in the Bible
05:40which say that it's not right.
05:42The Bible says, no, it's not.
05:44We've got to change what God says.
05:46We've got to change ourselves to what God says
05:48so that we put things right in his way.
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