The Faith Fight
The Way of Obedience Series
For certain men have crept in unnoticed, who long ago were marked out for this condemnation, ungodly men, who turn the grace of our God into lewdness… -JUDE 4
TITUS 1:15-16, NIV
15 To the pure, all things are pure, but to those who are corrupted and do not believe, nothing is pure. In fact, both their minds and consciences are corrupted. 16 They claim to know God, but by their actions they deny him. They are detestable, disobedient and unfit for doing anything good.
2 TIMOTHY 3:13, AMP
But evil men and impostors will go on from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived.
These imposters “defile the flesh, reject authority, and speak evil of dignitaries” (Jude 8).
They are “grumblers, complainers, walking according to their own lusts [desires]; and they mouth great swelling words, flattering people to gain advantage … These are sensual [worldly minded] persons, who cause divisions” (Jude 16, 19)
Woe to them! For they have gone in the way of Cain, have run greedily in the error of Balaam for profit, and perished in the rebellion of Korah. - JUDE 11
He compares these people with three men of the Old Testament-Cain, Balaam, and Korah, all who at one time enjoyed fellowship with God or were in the service of God.
Love feasts were common meals eaten together by the early church.’ Any sort of Christian gathering today could represent a love feast. The imposters who attended these feasts were called “spots” because of their conduct. Jesus is coming back for a “glorious church, not having spot of wrinkle or any such thing” (Eph. 5:27)
He described these barren, uprooted trees as “twice dead.” What a description-twice dead! In order to be twice dead you would have to be once dead, be made alive, and then die again. This describes people who were dead without Christ, then received salvation only to die again because they permanently departed from Him in their hearts.
ONCE SAVED ALWAYS SAVED?
JAMES 5:19-20
19 Brethren, if any of you do err from the truth, and one convert him;
20 Let him know, that he which converteth the sinner from the error of his way shall save a soul from death, and shall hide a multitude of sins.*
PROVERBS 21:16
16 The man that wandereth out of the way of understanding shall remain in the congregation of the dead.
2 PETER 2:20-21
20 For if after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, they are again entangled therein, and overcome, the latter end is worse with them than the beginning.
21 For it had been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than, after they have known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered unto them.
I NEVER KNEW YOU
These are those who lose their salvation, the ones who at one time knew Him and even did wonders in His name yet did not endure to the end. Jesus also rebuked these people with “I never knew you.” How could this be?
EZEKIEL 18:24
24 But when a righteous man turns away from his righteousness and commits iniquity, and does according to all the abominations that the wicked man does, shall he live? All the righteousness which he has done shall not be remembered; because of the unfaithfulness of which he is guilty and the sin which he has committed, because of them he shall die.
Disobedience is
Therefore take heed to yourselves and to all the flock, among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church of God which He purchased with His own blood. For I know this, that after my departure savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock. Also from among yourselves men will rise up, speaking perverse things, to draw away the disciples after themselves. Therefore watch, and remember that for three years I did not cease to warn everyone night and day with tears. - ACTS 20:28-31
LUKEWARM BREEDING GROUNDS
There is more pressure to
1 CORINTHIANS 5:6, TLB
6 What a terrible thing it is that you are boasting about your purity and yet you let this sort of thing go on. Don’t you realize that if even one person is allowed to go on sinning, soon all will be affected?
Jesus is not coming back for a lukewarm