"We Gotta Make The Difference!!"
Part I
A Study of the Book: Jude
The actual name of this letter is Judah and I believe that it has been one of the most neglected letters in the New Testament.
I also believe that Judah carries a message for every believer today for it is filled with a truth that is worth fighting for.
It is not only written to you as a person who loves the truth, it is also entrusted to you to preserve, defend and to impart its legitimacy.
Although Judah at the time was writing to a specific community that had been influenced by false teachers and ideas foreign to the gospel, his warning to all was to preserve the gospel by believing in our faith and living out our faith.
This warning is timeless. It is eternal and independent of time. It was, I believe written at the time and even now for all believers to ingest.
Why?
Because "We gotta make the difference!"
Throughout the ages the church has always had to contend with false teachers. Fabricators who have tried to pervert the message of God's grace and distort the nature of our salvation.
As you meditate on this letter you will see that it focuses on apostasy--speaking of how the people had turned away from God's truth and began embracing false teachings.
Which led to compromising the Word of Truth, the Word of God.
You will come to discover that in studying Judah you will notice that it gives us some important revelation-truths about the corruption and ungodliness being taught.
You will see the invalid and unfounded teachings of these fabricators, in how they misrepresented the truth in perjuring themselves.
In my study I recognized that in that last half of the first century there were already many false teachers who had infiltrated the ranks of the believers.
And Judah in his letter does his best to warn and identify them as those who cause divisions and twisted the truths of our faith.
I also believe that this letter asks many questions, one that came up in my studies of this letter is this.
What is an intricate part of the salvation that God had given us?
One answer the came to me was to spread the Gospel and to do it truthfully, not compromising the Word of Truth which comes straight from the Spirit of God.
Again, "We gotta make the difference!"
We as Christian churches should be encouraging, unified communities, committed to carrying out what God has given us to do as His diligent disciples and ambassadors.
Doing it courageously by defending the truth that God has given us, keeping it without changing it through the years.
"We gotta make the difference!"
And we can make the difference by defending the faith by knowing the truth and we can all learn the truth by studying and meditating the Word of God.
Yet, even with all the warnings of deception in this inspiring letter, we will also find some beautiful treasures within this letter, such as praying in the Spirit, and the duty of keeping our hearts burning with passion for Jesus.
For even though 2000 years have passed, we must still guard over our hearts and keep our churches from being led astray from the simplicity of Gods Word.
I for one believe that in God's Word there are truths that are worth fighting for and I have decreed to defend all those beliefs that I have come to cherish.
For even now there are intruders who sow false teachings among us creating chaos and confusion in the church.
So it's now up to us, We gotta make the difference, How?
By defending and preserving the revelation knowledge of legitimacy, authenticity and proven principle that we have received from the inspired Word of God, through the teaching ministry of God the Father, Jesus, and Holy Spirit.
You will come to see that this brief letter from Judah written in his defense of God's Word, that his writings are oriented entirely around an outbreak of treachery.
We see that after the letter opens, Jude begins to explains the situation prompting his letter:
He had planned to write about the question of salvation, but then he was moved to direct his attention to writing about something that he believed needed to be urgently spoken about at that place and time.
He began with urging us to defend the truth of Gods Word as he warned us of the imminent danger posed by the false teachings that have begun to infiltrate their churches.
Teachings that taught the ridiculous notion that God's marvelous grace allows us to live immoral lives.
Yes, it is God's grace that gives us Freedom from Bondage to Sin, but we are Dead to Sin through our Union with Christ.
And that union should not allow us to believe that this union full of grace would give us the permission to compromise His Word.
Especially with us eagerly of our own accord, willfully sinning and believing that His grace is sufficient to cleanse us of the premeditated sin that comes from us believing that God's grace allows us to live sinful lives.
If this were true, should we then keep on sinning for the sole purpose of showing that God has given us His wonderful grace so that we can sin whenever we desire to, without fear of losing our position of salvation.
This my brothers and sisters is not so!
If we are dead to sin, how can we as born again Christians continue to live in it?
Have we forgotten of our union with Christ Jesus in baptism, where we joined Him in His death?
Have we forgotten that in having been united with Him in His death, we have also been raised to life through His resurrection.
We must remember that when we were crucified with Christ, sin lost its power in and over our lives.
As the song says, "We are no longer slaves to sin." We are REDEEMED!
But not to the point were we can sin willingly and knowingly against God decrees. Are we to believe that God's grace was given for such a purpose as this.
Judah has warned us of the dangers of believing false teachers and following their false doctrine.
He tells of the condemnation of long ago, of how God sentenced those generations who followed such false doctrine with His righteous judgments.
After rescuing the nation of Israel from Egypt, Because of their unbelief, God sentenced that generation (except Joshua and Caleb) to wander in the wilderness until they died.
How about God’s judgment on Sodom and Gomorrah.
This is why I am calling to you to remain faithful to the truth and the Way!
For we are the faithful ones who died with Christ and in doing so we were set free from the power of sin.
But remember we were told that in the last days there would be wolves in sheep's clothing whose sole purpose in life will be to satisfy their ungodly desires.
These will be the ones who will do there best to create divisions among you, they will distort the simple truth of Gods Word in that they follow these natural instincts because they do not have God’s Spirit in them.
They will do their best to manipulate the believer's with false doctrine for their benefit but not for God's truth.
And we as new creations, living our lives in accordance with the Spirit of God in us, it will be up to us to make sure they do not succeed.
"We gotta make the difference!"
We have to make the difference as we are led by the Spirit of God, so that what we preach will not be corrupted in our minds thus keeping us from becoming as the false teachers that advocate the compromising of Gods Truth.
It is decreed that we must be able to build each other up in our most holy faith praying in the power of Holy Spirit because praying in tongues is praying the uncompromised word of God!
That's where the power of the truth makes a difference.
And even then you must act as God would have you do so, you must show mercy to those whose faith is irregular and indecisive, doing so with great caution, hating the sins that contaminate their lives.
Showing them that you are one that does not let sin control the way you live; and you do not give in to sinful desires.
"We gotta make the difference" And to make a difference, they must see a difference in you.
Let them see that the difference in you that does not allow any part of your body to become an instrument of evil.
Let them see that you do not serve or are a slave to sin.
That instead, you have given yourselves completely to God, committing and using your whole body as an instrument to do what is right for the glory of God.
Then they will see that sin is no longer your master, for you no longer live under the requirements of the law.
Instead, you live under the freedom of God’s grace. Living a life that walks in adherence to what God has dictated in His Holy Word.
And as you do this, it will be done by never living your life misapplying His grace by living immorally.
"We gotta make the difference."
For it is written and it is who you were made to be.
Matthew 5:14-16 (AMPC)
14 You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden.
15 Nor do men light a lamp and put it under a peck measure, but on a lamp stand, and it gives light to all in the house.
16 Let your light so shine before men that they may see your moral excellence and your praiseworthy, noble, and good deeds and recognize and honor and praise and glorify your Father Who is in heaven.
That you do not succumb to the falseness that the world around you does its best to promote.
John 1:5 (AMPC)
5 And the Light shines on in the darkness, for the darkness has never overpowered it [put it out or absorbed it or appropriated it, and is unreceptive to it].
1 John 1:5 (NLT)
5 This is the message we heard from Jesus and now declare to you: God is light, and there is no darkness in Him at all.
God is light:
Just as this light shone through Jesus Christ to all He came in contact with, we as believers walk in the same light.
Why is this so important?
Because when we do, the unbeliever will see the difference that you bring into their life.
Because through the light you bring, you will expose their sin.
And it also illuminates the moral nature and character of God in you.
In living in the light believers have seen that they are sinners, and they also realize that Jesus is their Advocate to make them right with God.
The “light” spoken of here represents God’s holiness and revelation.
It is the opposite of false teaching and undisciplined living, which is “darkness”.
So if one says that they have fellowship with God and they go on living in spiritual darkness; there is no practicing of the truth in them. They claim we have no sin, but are only fooling themselves and again are not living in the truth.
Those who claimed that they were or could be sinless since Christ had abolished their sins once and for all, believe that their higher knowledge would lift them above the realm of sin.
A person claiming they have not sinned, is in reality calling God a liar and showing that His word has no home in their hearts.
But those who are living in the light, as God is in the light, will then have fellowship with each other, and the blood of Jesus, His Son, will have cleansed us from all sin.
But believe it or not, Christians do still sin when they live in their old nature.
Yet the true Christian both acknowledges this sin and trusts in Christ to take it away.
1 John 1:9
9 But if we confess our sins to Him, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness.
For us to maintain a continual fellowship with God, we need to confess our sins to Him.
Forgiveness and cleansing are guaranteed because God is faithful to His promises and because He acts on the basis of His justice.
Christ’s death for our sins fulfills God’s justice and acquits us of our guilt.
In closing allow me to give you some suggestions or you may even see them as commands from God!
1. Keep building up your inner life on the foundation of Faith. Walking in God's kind of Faith gets you there quicker.
2. Pray in the Holy Spirit. Edify one another.
3. Fasten your life to the love of God. Take hold of the Agape-Gods unconditional Love.
4. Learn to receive mercy from our Lord Jesus Christ in getting closer to the Living Word.
5. Have compassion on those who waver from the Word. Let your compassion for the Word rescue them.
6. Save the Lost.
7. Hate any compromising of Gods Word. It will stain your lives.
It's when we live the truth of the Gospel that we are surely able to defend, vie and stand up for it effectively.
With the truth of Gods Word in us, "We will make the difference!!!
Amen!!
I give God the Glory, the Honor and the Praise!!
The actual name of this letter is Judah and I believe that it has been one of the most neglected letters in the New Testament.
I also believe that Judah carries a message for every believer today for it is filled with a truth that is worth fighting for.
It is not only written to you as a person who loves the truth, it is also entrusted to you to preserve, defend and to impart its legitimacy.
Although Judah at the time was writing to a specific community that had been influenced by false teachers and ideas foreign to the gospel, his warning to all was to preserve the gospel by believing in our faith and living out our faith.
This warning is timeless. It is eternal and independent of time. It was, I believe written at the time and even now for all believers to ingest.
Why?
Because "We gotta make the difference!"
Throughout the ages the church has always had to contend with false teachers. Fabricators who have tried to pervert the message of God's grace and distort the nature of our salvation.
As you meditate on this letter you will see that it focuses on apostasy--speaking of how the people had turned away from God's truth and began embracing false teachings.
Which led to compromising the Word of Truth, the Word of God.
You will come to discover that in studying Judah you will notice that it gives us some important revelation-truths about the corruption and ungodliness being taught.
You will see the invalid and unfounded teachings of these fabricators, in how they misrepresented the truth in perjuring themselves.
In my study I recognized that in that last half of the first century there were already many false teachers who had infiltrated the ranks of the believers.
And Judah in his letter does his best to warn and identify them as those who cause divisions and twisted the truths of our faith.
I also believe that this letter asks many questions, one that came up in my studies of this letter is this.
What is an intricate part of the salvation that God had given us?
One answer the came to me was to spread the Gospel and to do it truthfully, not compromising the Word of Truth which comes straight from the Spirit of God.
Again, "We gotta make the difference!"
We as Christian churches should be encouraging, unified communities, committed to carrying out what God has given us to do as His diligent disciples and ambassadors.
Doing it courageously by defending the truth that God has given us, keeping it without changing it through the years.
"We gotta make the difference!"
And we can make the difference by defending the faith by knowing the truth and we can all learn the truth by studying and meditating the Word of God.
Yet, even with all the warnings of deception in this inspiring letter, we will also find some beautiful treasures within this letter, such as praying in the Spirit, and the duty of keeping our hearts burning with passion for Jesus.
For even though 2000 years have passed, we must still guard over our hearts and keep our churches from being led astray from the simplicity of Gods Word.
I for one believe that in God's Word there are truths that are worth fighting for and I have decreed to defend all those beliefs that I have come to cherish.
For even now there are intruders who sow false teachings among us creating chaos and confusion in the church.
So it's now up to us, We gotta make the difference, How?
By defending and preserving the revelation knowledge of legitimacy, authenticity and proven principle that we have received from the inspired Word of God, through the teaching ministry of God the Father, Jesus, and Holy Spirit.
You will come to see that this brief letter from Judah written in his defense of God's Word, that his writings are oriented entirely around an outbreak of treachery.
We see that after the letter opens, Jude begins to explains the situation prompting his letter:
He had planned to write about the question of salvation, but then he was moved to direct his attention to writing about something that he believed needed to be urgently spoken about at that place and time.
He began with urging us to defend the truth of Gods Word as he warned us of the imminent danger posed by the false teachings that have begun to infiltrate their churches.
Teachings that taught the ridiculous notion that God's marvelous grace allows us to live immoral lives.
Yes, it is God's grace that gives us Freedom from Bondage to Sin, but we are Dead to Sin through our Union with Christ.
And that union should not allow us to believe that this union full of grace would give us the permission to compromise His Word.
Especially with us eagerly of our own accord, willfully sinning and believing that His grace is sufficient to cleanse us of the premeditated sin that comes from us believing that God's grace allows us to live sinful lives.
If this were true, should we then keep on sinning for the sole purpose of showing that God has given us His wonderful grace so that we can sin whenever we desire to, without fear of losing our position of salvation.
This my brothers and sisters is not so!
If we are dead to sin, how can we as born again Christians continue to live in it?
Have we forgotten of our union with Christ Jesus in baptism, where we joined Him in His death?
Have we forgotten that in having been united with Him in His death, we have also been raised to life through His resurrection.
We must remember that when we were crucified with Christ, sin lost its power in and over our lives.
As the song says, "We are no longer slaves to sin." We are REDEEMED!
But not to the point were we can sin willingly and knowingly against God decrees. Are we to believe that God's grace was given for such a purpose as this.
Judah has warned us of the dangers of believing false teachers and following their false doctrine.
He tells of the condemnation of long ago, of how God sentenced those generations who followed such false doctrine with His righteous judgments.
After rescuing the nation of Israel from Egypt, Because of their unbelief, God sentenced that generation (except Joshua and Caleb) to wander in the wilderness until they died.
How about God’s judgment on Sodom and Gomorrah.
This is why I am calling to you to remain faithful to the truth and the Way!
For we are the faithful ones who died with Christ and in doing so we were set free from the power of sin.
But remember we were told that in the last days there would be wolves in sheep's clothing whose sole purpose in life will be to satisfy their ungodly desires.
These will be the ones who will do there best to create divisions among you, they will distort the simple truth of Gods Word in that they follow these natural instincts because they do not have God’s Spirit in them.
They will do their best to manipulate the believer's with false doctrine for their benefit but not for God's truth.
And we as new creations, living our lives in accordance with the Spirit of God in us, it will be up to us to make sure they do not succeed.
"We gotta make the difference!"
We have to make the difference as we are led by the Spirit of God, so that what we preach will not be corrupted in our minds thus keeping us from becoming as the false teachers that advocate the compromising of Gods Truth.
It is decreed that we must be able to build each other up in our most holy faith praying in the power of Holy Spirit because praying in tongues is praying the uncompromised word of God!
That's where the power of the truth makes a difference.
And even then you must act as God would have you do so, you must show mercy to those whose faith is irregular and indecisive, doing so with great caution, hating the sins that contaminate their lives.
Showing them that you are one that does not let sin control the way you live; and you do not give in to sinful desires.
"We gotta make the difference" And to make a difference, they must see a difference in you.
Let them see that the difference in you that does not allow any part of your body to become an instrument of evil.
Let them see that you do not serve or are a slave to sin.
That instead, you have given yourselves completely to God, committing and using your whole body as an instrument to do what is right for the glory of God.
Then they will see that sin is no longer your master, for you no longer live under the requirements of the law.
Instead, you live under the freedom of God’s grace. Living a life that walks in adherence to what God has dictated in His Holy Word.
And as you do this, it will be done by never living your life misapplying His grace by living immorally.
"We gotta make the difference."
For it is written and it is who you were made to be.
Matthew 5:14-16 (AMPC)
14 You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden.
15 Nor do men light a lamp and put it under a peck measure, but on a lamp stand, and it gives light to all in the house.
16 Let your light so shine before men that they may see your moral excellence and your praiseworthy, noble, and good deeds and recognize and honor and praise and glorify your Father Who is in heaven.
That you do not succumb to the falseness that the world around you does its best to promote.
John 1:5 (AMPC)
5 And the Light shines on in the darkness, for the darkness has never overpowered it [put it out or absorbed it or appropriated it, and is unreceptive to it].
1 John 1:5 (NLT)
5 This is the message we heard from Jesus and now declare to you: God is light, and there is no darkness in Him at all.
God is light:
Just as this light shone through Jesus Christ to all He came in contact with, we as believers walk in the same light.
Why is this so important?
Because when we do, the unbeliever will see the difference that you bring into their life.
Because through the light you bring, you will expose their sin.
And it also illuminates the moral nature and character of God in you.
In living in the light believers have seen that they are sinners, and they also realize that Jesus is their Advocate to make them right with God.
The “light” spoken of here represents God’s holiness and revelation.
It is the opposite of false teaching and undisciplined living, which is “darkness”.
So if one says that they have fellowship with God and they go on living in spiritual darkness; there is no practicing of the truth in them. They claim we have no sin, but are only fooling themselves and again are not living in the truth.
Those who claimed that they were or could be sinless since Christ had abolished their sins once and for all, believe that their higher knowledge would lift them above the realm of sin.
A person claiming they have not sinned, is in reality calling God a liar and showing that His word has no home in their hearts.
But those who are living in the light, as God is in the light, will then have fellowship with each other, and the blood of Jesus, His Son, will have cleansed us from all sin.
But believe it or not, Christians do still sin when they live in their old nature.
Yet the true Christian both acknowledges this sin and trusts in Christ to take it away.
1 John 1:9
9 But if we confess our sins to Him, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness.
For us to maintain a continual fellowship with God, we need to confess our sins to Him.
Forgiveness and cleansing are guaranteed because God is faithful to His promises and because He acts on the basis of His justice.
Christ’s death for our sins fulfills God’s justice and acquits us of our guilt.
In closing allow me to give you some suggestions or you may even see them as commands from God!
1. Keep building up your inner life on the foundation of Faith. Walking in God's kind of Faith gets you there quicker.
2. Pray in the Holy Spirit. Edify one another.
3. Fasten your life to the love of God. Take hold of the Agape-Gods unconditional Love.
4. Learn to receive mercy from our Lord Jesus Christ in getting closer to the Living Word.
5. Have compassion on those who waver from the Word. Let your compassion for the Word rescue them.
6. Save the Lost.
7. Hate any compromising of Gods Word. It will stain your lives.
It's when we live the truth of the Gospel that we are surely able to defend, vie and stand up for it effectively.
With the truth of Gods Word in us, "We will make the difference!!!
Amen!!
I give God the Glory, the Honor and the Praise!!