22nd
Dealing with Dodgy Doctrine - God’s Response
Over the last 2 Sundays I have preached from the letter of Jude. I termed the 2 sermons ‘Dealing with Dodgy Doctrine’ because in the letter, Jude has to confront the issue that there are people creeping into the church who are teaching a false gospel.
In the first part (vv 1-19), Jude looks at what God’s response is to these false teachers. he does this by first reminding his readers of the good news that is the true gospel - that we are saved by God’s grace and mercy alone in sending Jesus to pay the penalty for our sins, and we must simply accept and believe in him.
He then moves on to the bad news, that there are people perverting the gospel. “They are godless men, who change the grace of our God into a license for immorality and deny Jesus Christ our only Sovereign and Lord.” - verse 2. They distort the truth, which can be more damaging to weak believers, than teaching that directly opposes the truth. These distortions claim that because of God’s grace and mercy we are free to do as we please, since our sins have been dealt with already, and they put either ourselves, or other things in the place of Jesus as our saviour.
“The difference between the true gospel and false gospels, is whether it is all about God and I respond to Him, or if it is all about me, and I expect Him to respond to my desires.”
The reason we have to be so careful and discerning as Christians in what we take in, is that God has warned of the consequences for disobedience, and for failing to follow the true gospel. Jude gives OT examples of God punishing those who were ‘saved’, as well as reminding the readers that “the Lord is coming … to judge everyone, and to convict all the ungodly of all the ungodly acts they have done”. There are definite consequences to being led astray.
So it is Christ Jesus alone who has the power to save us. His death on the cross paid the penalty we deserve for our sin, and his resurrection has opened the way for us to have a relationship with God. Nothing that we do can ever earn ourselves eternal life. But we can be led astray. We have been warned that there will be people who claim to follow Jesus, but do not have the spirit. What they say and do will be opposed to the true gospel, so we need to be alert, and to be discerning in what we listen to and what we read. In the end, God will judge all mankind, with the ungodly being condemned, while those who trust in Jesus will kept by him for salvation.
