Enemies in the Church
The Battle
Professor: Dr. R.J. Rushdoony
Subject: The Battle
Genre: Sermon Series
Lesson: 4 of 4
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Dictation Name: Tape 02B
[Rushdoony] Let us worship God. Our help is in the name of the Lord who made heaven and earth. It is better to trust in the Lord then to put confidence in man. Oh taste and see that the Lord is good, blessed is the man that trusteth in Him. Let us pray.
Almighty God our heavenly Father we thank Thee that Thou hast promised Thy blessings to all who trust in Thee. Oh Lord our God increase our faith, give us a day by day total trust and reliance on Thee, that in all things we may learn to commit ourselves totally into Thy keeping, to take hands-off our lives in the confidence that what Thou hast begun Thou wilt accomplish. Bless us this day and by Thy word and by Thy Spirit speak to us the word that we need, empower us for Thy service, in Christ’s name, amen.
Our scripture is Jude 17-25, Jude 17-25, our subject “The Battle.”
“17 But, beloved, remember ye the words which were spoken before of the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ; How that they told you there should be mockers in the last time, who should walk after their own ungodly lusts. These be they who separate themselves, sensual, having not the Spirit. But ye, beloved, building up yourselves on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost, Keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life. And of some have compassion, making a difference. And others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire; hating even the garment spotted by the flesh. Now unto him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy. To the only wise God our Savior, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and ever. Amen.”
Faced by false teachers many in the church have been, and are today, easily discouraged. Some leave larges denominations that are clearly astray only to find that there are problems in smaller and reformed minded churches and groups. Their despairing attitude becomes “what’s the use?” Jude now warns against this danger. What can they expect? Will the enemy lie down and die because they have come to the truth? Will he not in fact rage all the more? In verses 17-20 Jude reminds his readers that apostles predicted such a development. Jesus Christ has created a new human race by His atoning grace and resurrection, and by His regenerating power they are involved in the great of the ages. And it will not be settled at once, nor in their lifetime, nor in ours. Therefore, Jude says, remember the words which were spoken before of the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ.
In verse 18 he refers to the last days, meaning thereby, as does every such reference, the time from Christ’s resurrection to the general resurrection at the end of time. These are the last times in which all Christians live. These last times are marked, Jude says, by mockers. There purpose is to put down Christ, His disciples, and His people, by mockery. In verse 15 the word “ungodly” is used four times to describe Christ’s enemies. It is used here again in verse 18. History now sees that mockery, a savage contempt and hostility to Christ and His people. Holiness is a separation to God, but the ungodly have their own form of separation to unholiness. These unholy people, verse 19 says, having not the Spirit separate themselves to a purely sensual or physical existence. Meaning for them is radically personal, not cosmic, man-centered and not God centered.
Jude tells his readers that is against this, they must grow and build themselves “on your most holy faith, praying in the holy spirit” he says in verse 20. As against the self-righteousness of their enemies they grow by prayer. Prayer is a recognition of our needs and of our dependence on the triune God. Knowing our sins and shortcomings we keep ourselves, verse 21, in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ and eternal life. Our salvation is an act of mercy and grace on Christ’s part, and Jude reminds Christians of this fact. They must not presume on the Lord’s grace by assuming, once saved, that they are now a member of a deserving group, from the start to finish they are entirely dependent on the Lord’s grace and mercy.
In verse 22 Jude having spoken very plainly about the heretics, the false teachers, the trouble-makers, now makes a distinction. Some are not of the same sort as the others, but are rather redeemable, have compassion, and make a difference between them. This does not mean being less clear about their errors and sins, like firemen, pull them out of the fire. As we do so we must be fearful of the contagion of sin. Thus our kindliness to them is not our indifference to their sin. Hating even the garments spotted by the flesh, verse 23, refers to the care of someone with a contagious disease. Jude speaks of sin as a contagious disease. Our concern for their recovery does not blind us to the need of care lest we be infected.
In verses 24 & 25 we have a superb benediction, much used over the generations, it tells us first that God preserves His own. He keeps us from falling. This is the doctrine of the preservation of the saints. Second, God shall present us in time to the very fullness of His glory with exceeding joy. Therefore, third, we must ascribe to the only wise God our Savior glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and ever, amen, verse 25 concludes. For all eternity God will be joyfully praised, God is our infinite, almighty, and omniscient resource and His praise is a well-spring of life and joy.
In verse 3 Jude spoke of our common salvation, that is the same for all. The Gnostics had an elitists faith, one reserved for intellectuals who could follow their scientific and philosophical thinking into strange byways. Antinomianism marked them because their faith was metaphysical and not ethical. Isn’t it interesting? To this day the heirs of the Gnostics stress metaphysics, not ethics, not morality. For Marcion God being superior meant that He did not judge, interesting how the superior religiously feel they are above us Bible-believers, they “don’t judge”…except judging us of course. How constant the strains of heresy are. Way back then were the Gnostics, you had the love baby who loved everybody except those who disagreed with them and called attention to their errors.
Well, we can see why Jude’s condemnation, inspired by the Holy Spirit, is so sharp. We can also understand contemporary Gnosticism whether called New Age thinking, Philosophy, Aquarian age ideas, or anything else, because all seek to live beyond good and evil and beyond morality. They are metaphysical, they are superior. As against contemporary faiths which by-pass morality as the Bible defines it for worship of life and nature, Jude’s brief letter is a devastating indictment. A more wretched and beggarly faith than Gnosticism is hard to imagine, and yet in each new form over the centuries, in fact generation after generation after generation its followers have been legion. Their position is for anything but the truth, and anyone other than Jesus Christ. Those who love the truth will be hated by all who love and believe in a lie, and such people are now very, very many. The direction of antinomianism is a religion without morality, it is another spiritual Gnosticism. Let us pray.
Our Father we give thanks unto Thee for Jude’s letter and for His warning. Indeed we see the same evil all around us, and we thank Thee that by Thy grace and mercy we have been summoned, not because of our good sense, but because of Thy grace into Thy truth. Make us strong there-in, grant that day by day our total reliance is on Thee and on Thy word, and that we may serve Thee with all our heart, mind, and being. In Christ’s name, amen.
Are there any questions now about our lesson?
Yes?
[Audience member] Rush you talked about the necessity of working to redeem those who have not totally apostatized, would you comment on the Anabaptist spirit which demands perfection in the church and will separate from any church that is not absolutely perfect or doesn’t meet up to its own standards?
[Rushdoony] Yes, the Anabaptist spirit is very much with us. We have the openly Anabaptist groups in some like the Amish and the Mennonites, the Hutterites, and other such groups, the Quakers too. But it’s broader than that. It is very much present in antinomianism. You have to realize that the purists among the Anabaptists would go so far as to insist that the Sermon on the Mount was their religion, they didn’t go beyond that. And they could openly say that capital punishment was evil because it was not referred to in the Sermon on the Mount, oh that they should never fight or go to war because there’s no mention of that in the Sermon on the Mount.
The Anabaptists usually wind up in a works salvation. They go back to some of the medieval sects and they spread with the Reformation but they are really not a part of the reformation or a part of the medieval order, they were dissenters against both. Anabaptism now has pretty much infected vast sections of fundamentalism, and they have wound up like the Anabaptists with a very little Bible. Their dispensationalism has added to that tendency. So Anabaptist thinking is very, very much with us. Zwingli, at the reformation, while not an Anabaptist outwardly, was in his thinking somewhat on their side.
[Audience member] His opposition to music in the church and all that and so forth?
[Rushdoony] Yes, yes. Which meant that he paid no attention to the Old Testament, and to much of the New.
Yes?
[Audience member] I’m curious comparing the mockers of Christianity in Jude’s time, to say Hollywood today that mocks Christianity. A new element has been added, I think, unless you can correct me from historical background, why do we pay them to do it huge sums of money to do it? Why does Christian society pay Hollywood huge sums of money to create this mockery?
[Rushdoony] Well, I don’t know, but they do. Prior to television fundamentalism boycotted movies, but with television they started to watch on television the old movies that they had refused to go to a theater and see. And since then television has broken down a great deal of the character of old-fashioned fundamentalism.
The sad fact is that although the legion of decency held the line until, oh I believe the 60’s, at that time the whole movement to keep the films in line fell apart. Strangely enough the people responsible for it were the Methodists, the most liberal of any of the groups in that coalition, they began to turn very strongly anti-Catholic and created problems for the Catholic element in the legion of decency, and that had been a powerful element. Well with that every group pulled out, the Catholics said “If that’s the way they feel about it, we’re not going to stay.” And so the best means of keeping films somewhat in mind was destroyed by the most liberal of the Protestant groups, and no attempt has been made since then to re-establish anything of similar character, and none of the churches, protestant or Catholic have any strong sentiment in favor of doing so.
[Audience member] Well the argument that the mockers use now days is it’s their civil right because of the constitutional guarantee of free speech that they don’t have to defend themselves on moral grounds anymore; the constitution supposedly gives them the power to mock Christianity with impunity.
[Rushdoony] Well before that time we were successful in the courts, but after that there was a collapse and there’s no concerted effort to go back and fight on moral issues; and so the morality of Hollywood and of Humanism largely prevails today.
They’re making money, but not as they once did, because it’s inflated dollars now. The audience went from the early 60’s, 75 million a week, to at the last count, and we haven’t had a reliable report for some years, 14 million a week attending films.
Are there…yes?
[Audience member] And on that same point. What I find is interesting is Disney one of the biggest offenders, has cloaked themselves in this children sort of “we’re good for the children” and there are very few, I think, Christian real Christian families that will stand up to their children and say “we’re not going to Disneyland, we’re not seeing the Lion King, etc. etc.” I think that they have, liked a battering ram, hidden behind this cloak of children with all the smut behind it.
[Rushdoony] It is said that 40% of the male employees of the Disney Studios are homosexual. They do slant everything they produce in terms of their basic humanistic faith and their immoral lifestyle. Now there are a few groups that are beginning to take a stand on this, hopefully more will do so.
Yes?
[Audience member] I should mention that there are a few good Christian film organizations that are generating some wholesome films these days; they’re in the minority of course. But, you know, America Portrait films in Cleveland, and there’s some out here in the West, but for the most part the major film industry is apostate, we know that.
[Rushdoony] Any other questions or comments? If not let us conclude with prayer.
Our Father we thank Thee that Thy truth shall prevail, that Thy word is truth and Thy people have been called to go ahead and conquer in the name of Christ, the truth. Make us strong in our resolve, constant in our faith, bold in Thy service, that we may be more than conquerors in all things. And now go in peace, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost guide and bless you, protect and watch over you, this day and always, amen.