Sunday sermons | Passionate worship

This sermon was preached by Pastor Keith Cardwell at Swift Presbyterian Church.

May 7, 2017 | Second in a short series on short books of the New Testament

CHEAP GRACE:
The Faith Crisis of Yesterday and Today
Jude 3–23

T HIS LETTER IS WRITTEN BY A MAN who refers to himself in the first verse simply as, Jude, a servant of Jesus Christ and brother of James. That’s all we need to identify him. James is very well known as a leader in the early church in Jerusalem. He is also the author of the Epistle of James.

But James is also the brother of the LORD Jesus Christ — the physical half-brother of Jesus — which also makes Jude a half-brother of Jesus. But in humility Jude simply refers to himself as “a servant of the LORD Jesus Christ.”

News came to him of an outbreak of false teaching. He writes to this faith community to “contend for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints.”

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THE CHURCH IS IN CRISIS. Jude writes to counter the influence of certain intruders. It is not an attack from outside the church. It is an attack from within. While we don’t know exactly what’s going on, we do know that these individuals are members of the church. They participate in the love feasts — the weekly meals with communion.

Religion can easily be counterfeited. The rituals, the language, the intangibles can be mimicked. Since religion is a matter of the heart, anyone faking the external trappings can easily pass for the real thing.

The Sinclair Lewis novel Elmer Gantry is a glimpse into such fake faith. It’s the story of a con man and a female evangelist selling religion to small-town America in the 1920s. (It was made into a movie.)

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HERE’S WHAT THESE INTRUDERS are up to. First, they give permission to live any way you want to live. They teach that it does not make any difference what you do with your body as long as your spirit is right. Christ has set you free from moral restraints. The physical is separate from the spiritual. There’s no contradiction between godliness and greed. No difference between spirituality and sexuality.

You can abuse your body. Ignore your body. Sexually corrupt your body. Addict your body. Gossip. Spew hate speech. Abuse others. God only cares about your soul, so you can do anything you want with your hands, feet, body, eyes, mouth and private parts.

I know of a recent situation (not anyone here) where a married man was caught in adultery. He said it meant nothing. It was just sex. His heart still belongs to his wife. These intruders taught pretty much the same thing: What we do with our bodies means nothing because our heart belongs to Jesus.

Second, they say that God will forgive anything you do. That is true. But here’s the kicker: The more you sin, the more grace you will receive — simply ask for forgiveness. God’s grace will cleanse you. Then go and do it again. Such a cheap attitude of grace can be found throughout Christian history.

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DIETRICH BONHOEFFER WROTE: “Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance. Baptism without church discipline. Communion without confession. Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ.”

It is to hear the gospel preached as follows: “Of course you have sinned, but now everything is forgiven, so you can stay as you are and enjoy the forgiveness.” That’s much of the talk today in churches, small groups, work break-rooms and social media. “Go ahead and do it. God will forgive you.”

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THE MAIN DEFECT OF SUCH A PROCLAMATION is that it contains no demand for discipleship. The faith we received says grace is forgiveness to the broken spirit and the contrite heart.

Bonhoeffer argues that as Christianity spread, the church became more “secularized” to where you can’t tell the difference between the church and the society. The lines are blurred between being Christian and being a good citizen. The result: the gospel is cheapened, and obedience to the living Christ gradually loses out to obedience to the government.

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IF WE DON’T KNOW THE FAITH, we can’t remember the faith. If we aren’t interested in the faith, we are vulnerable to false teachers who can come to us through spiritual writings, TV evangelism, or as modern Elmer Gantrys. When we rely on what we think rather than the wisdom of Christ, we set ourselves up to be duped. When we live on emotion and not the foundation of the gospel, we fall prey.

The crisis in Jude’s day is the crisis of today. The way to counter such teaching is to know and live the truth. The way to counter fake faith or alternative fact faith is to know the gospel. “[Learn or] remember the faith that was once for all entrusted to God’s holy people.”

— Keith Cardwell

Jude 3–23
New International Version

The Sin and Doom of Ungodly People

3 Dear friends, although I was very eager to write to you about the salvation we share, I felt compelled to write and urge you to contend for the faith that was once for all entrusted to God’s holy people. 4 For certain individuals whose condemnation was written about[a] long ago have secretly slipped in among you. They are ungodly people, who pervert the grace of our God into a license for immorality and deny Jesus Christ our only Sovereign and LORD.

5 Though you already know all this, I want to remind you that the LORD[b] at one time delivered his people out of Egypt, but later destroyed those who did not believe. 6 And the angels who did not keep their positions of authority but abandoned their proper dwelling — these he has kept in darkness, bound with everlasting chains for judgment on the great Day. 7 In a similar way, Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding towns gave themselves up to sexual immorality and perversion. They serve as an example of those who suffer the punishment of eternal fire.

8 In the very same way, on the strength of their dreams these ungodly people pollute their own bodies, reject authority and heap abuse on celestial beings. 9 But even the archangel Michael, when he was disputing with the devil about the body of Moses, did not himself dare to condemn him for slander but said, “The LORD rebuke you!”[c] 10 Yet these people slander whatever they do not understand, and the very things they do understand by instinct — as irrational animals do — will destroy them.

11 Woe to them! They have taken the way of Cain; they have rushed for profit into Balaam’s error; they have been destroyed in Korah’s rebellion.

12 These people are blemishes at your love feasts, eating with you without the slightest qualm — shepherds who feed only themselves. They are clouds without rain, blown along by the wind; autumn trees, without fruit and uprooted — twice dead. 13 They are wild waves of the sea, foaming up their shame; wandering stars, for whom blackest darkness has been reserved forever.

14 Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied about them: “See, the LORD is coming with thousands upon thousands of his holy ones 15 to judge everyone, and to convict all of them of all the ungodly acts they have committed in their ungodliness, and of all the defiant words ungodly sinners have spoken against him.”[d] 16 These people are grumblers and faultfinders; they follow their own evil desires; they boast about themselves and flatter others for their own advantage.

A Call To Persevere

17 But, dear friends, remember what the apostles of our LORD Jesus Christ foretold. 18 They said to you, “In the last times there will be scoffers who will follow their own ungodly desires.” 19 These are the people who divide you, who follow mere natural instincts and do not have the Spirit.

20 But you, dear friends, by building yourselves up in your most holy faith and praying in the Holy Spirit, 21 keep yourselves in God’s love as you wait for the mercy of our LORD Jesus Christ to bring you to eternal life.

22 Be merciful to those who doubt; 23 save others by snatching them from the fire; to others show mercy, mixed with fear — hating even the clothing stained by corrupted flesh.[e]

— This is the Word of the LORD.

Footnotes:

a. Jude 1:4 Or individuals who were marked out for condemnation
b. Jude 1:5 Some early manuscripts Jesus
c. Jude 1:9 Jude is alluding to the Jewish Testament of Moses (approximately the first century A.D.).
d. Jude 1:15 From the Jewish First Book of Enoch (approximately the first century B.C.)
e. Jude 1:23 The Greek manuscripts of these verses vary at several points.