Contend to be God's Holy People

Our sins, they are many. His mercy is...

We can't out-sin God's grace. But then there's that weird, natural question, well, if I sin more, is there more grace that God gets to give? Well, Paul addresses that in Romans 6. He says, absolutely not. As we'll sing later,

Jesus paid it all, and all to him we owe.

As we think about the faith once for all handed down, as we think about our common salvation, yes, we've received such grace. So that God can shape us, form us, transform us. The book of Jude is a warning to the whole church. The faith has been delivered once for all to the saints, and the saints are to hold fast to that common salvation. The saints are supposed to contend for that salvation, that faith. And we see here this long description of the people I like to call the creepers. Certain people have crept in, verse four. They're ungodly people. We see this long list, and to organize it, I believe we can see verses five to 10 is one section. That describes them as unruly. Unruly. Verses 11 to 13, unfruitful. Unfruitful. And 14 to 16, ungodly. They're ungodly. And obviously all three of those things relate to one another. I want to do something I don't always do. I want to walk through and give a big overview and then even application beforehand. I don't think I've ever actually done that before. But I want us to see kind of the structure of what he's doing and then get into, well, we're going to see there's a pattern of threes that he's already done and he'll continue to do. Their initial introduction, they've crept in. The doors of the church are open. We welcome everyone. If you're not a believer, oh, we're so thankful you're here. But the folks he's describing here are folks who they already know of Jesus and there's something they've done with the doctrines of grace of Jesus and that they've used those doctrines of grace. That is God's mercy and kindness as an excuse for their own sensual lifestyle, their own sinful lifestyle. And notice the detail that Jude is going to go into for the church to make sure they know how to recognize these people. He focused first on their unruliness. They refuse authority. He uses three examples from the Old Testament, the Israel after they've been freed from Egypt in Exodus, the angels in heaven, and then Sodom and Gomorrah. The key thing here is that These creepers, they don't respect authority. They don't respect God and his boundaries and his commandments. The next one is unfruitful. They don't obey so they cannot be a blessing. Three more examples are given with a woe, a curse, a warning. We have the three examples of Cain, the first murderer. Quorah and Balaam, two rebellious men. And then the word pictures he presents of how dangerous they are. And the last one is ungodly. All these ungodly creepers and all their ungodly words and their ungodly conduct is repeated in such a way it's an emphatic end. The thing about what Jude is wanting to do here, there's two applications I want you to go ahead and just think about. He wants us to see that God is sovereign and can be trusted to judge those who are attacking the church. We don't normally think of God as praiseworthy for his judgment. We sang about it earlier with Lo, He Comes. But there's a sense in which we have to praise God for being a righteous judge. We thank God that Christ died for us so that we don't have to pay for our sins, that he will not judge us for our sins. He's good. He's praiseworthy that he does judge every sin with perfect justice. Notice it's actually a theme line. There's a motif here that runs throughout. Verse four, they were designated for this condemnation. Verses five through seven, there's three examples of judgment that are sure and absolute. Verse 12, the gloom of utter darkness is reserved for them. Verse 15, the Lord promised to execute judgment. We see God is sovereign over these rebels, these troublemakers. He may look slow sometimes in judgment. He is certainly patient, and we praise God for that for ourselves. But we must know his judgment is sure and absolute and just. The second thing I want us to see as we consider what kind of applications we would pull from this or think about It comes from the section we'll look at next week, but it's, we need to stay away from all these sins as much as possible. If all these are different ways that he's describing those who are not part of the body of Christ, they're dangerous to the body of Christ, these sins aren't just about folks who are way out there, no, they're sins that we're all capable of, at some point have probably participated in. We need to be concerned that we were just like some of these, but God saved us. Let us be on guard about how we might slide back into some of these sins. I want you to see one of the most significant descriptions of, well, we'll keep coming back to who is Jesus here, and well, verse four makes it clear the danger is that for their sensuality, they perverted grace, and by doing so, they've denied Jesus, our only Master and Lord. This morning, we are going to seek to receive and obey Jesus, who is our only Master and Lord. Again, the primary exhortation of Jude, contend for the faith. Why? Certain people have crept in. In verses five to 10, we are to contend for the faith because they are unruly. This section is united with a clear rejection of authority, and there's three examples. The first in verse five,

I want to remind you, although you once fully knew it, that Jesus, who saved a people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed those who did not believe.

Now, this is pretty interesting. He's referring to Israel's exodus out of Egypt, which happened around 1446 BC. That is around 1,500 years before Christ. So how is it that Jesus could save Israel out of Egypt if he wasn't born yet? Well, Judah's doing something very powerful. He's uniting Jesus with the covenant-making God, Yahweh, and that's what Yeshua, Jesus, means. It's Yahweh saves. This is one of the just straightforward, unapologetic, clear declarations that assumes fully the deity of Jesus Christ. Jesus is God. He isn't just a man who was born a virgin. He is almighty God who is preexistent. He existed prior to the incarnation. He's identified with Yahweh, the covenant-making, saving God. The warning of what happens in verse five is what should be so weighty to us. The Israelites who were punished and harshly treated in their slavery, they cried out to God and God heard them. What an invitation to pray. But then because things got tough, they started grumbling to God and Moses because things got tougher. And then God kept doing this amazing acts, bringing about different plagues, protecting them, and yet they still grumbled. And God still saved them. God then took them out of the nation. Now as they're there at the Red Sea, they look and they see Pharaoh coming with his chariots, and they grumble once more.

Were there not enough graves in Egypt?

And God still saves them. And then they get into the wilderness, and they don't like the diet. So they talk about how much better they had it under Pharaoh. They grumble again. And God destroys those who refuse to stop grumbling. They saw mighty works of God, but they never believed. They received the benefit of the mighty works of God, but they were never transformed. They did not believe. They had never bent their knee because they were too stiff-necked. What a warning. If we've seen the work of God, if we've experienced the work of God, if we've been around those who regularly are being transformed, and yet we would not still bow our own knee? They were saved from slavery, but they were never saved from their own sin and the penalty of God's judgment. The next example is the angels. So we go from the most significant salvation event of the Old Testament to the heavens.

And the angels who did not stay within their own position of authority, but left their proper dwelling, he has kept them in eternal chains under gloomy darkness until the judgment of the great day.

The angels who have a heavenly existence. God created them good. God created them to have a certain position of authority. They had a position even over man. Angels were created greater than man. But notice, even they did not stay within their own position. They were unruly. They're very much like their earthly counterparts, us, who decided, you know, God, I'm not sure you've set this thing up right. I'm not sure I like the rules. I'm not sure I like your restrictions. I think I deserve more than what you've given to me. The angels, they didn't want to stay in their lane. They wanted something different. And then verse seven. And notice he's dropping even down further just as. He's got these three examples. He's reminding them of these three kinds of problems. They already heard of it, but he's reminding them of the problem. And if Exodus is the great salvation, Sodom and Gomorrah is one of the great judgments.

Just as Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding cities which likewise indulged in sexual immorality and pursued unnatural desire, they serve as an example,

a warning for us,

by undergoing a punishment of eternal fire.

I believe what's clearly happening in Santa Gamora is he's referring to the practice of homosexuality and when they take these visitors, they're indulging themselves in their sexual desires. They're pursuing what is unnatural. That is how Paul clearly describes homosexuality in Romans 1. Now, there's a movement out there that wants to say what Solomon Gomorrah is being judged for is not being hospitable. I think you gotta do some weird things to the text to get there. Homosexuality goes against God's good design. He's created marriage and sexual relations only for a specific good design to be enjoyed in his right way. But I want to say that there's a way in which sometimes it might seem that this is the only sin the church talks about, or some might say, well, it's a sin no one should ever talk about. It's in a list of three here. Three significant ways of many that the creature doesn't respect the creator. Three significant ways that says, no, God, I want something outside of what you've said. We need to take all three of these with significant weight. Sex, especially here, has become revered in our culture. It's really treated as a god. There's desires that we lift up to some kind of divine status, there's an honor for them, there's a protection for them. It goes against God's good design. And let's just go ahead and put in here that we need to think about pornography, lustful looks, ways in which we twist our hearts to use another human being for our pleasure rather than enjoying a spouse in covenant marriage. You know, it's amazing that God doesn't just smite us for the way we've become so sexually deviant, but he gives us grace to straighten us out, to provide the kind of care that shows us what is good and the grace to restore us, redeem us. Jude paints a picture with these three different groups that are so turned into themselves They pervert the grace of God, they pervert the kindness of God, they pervert the purpose of God for their own satisfaction. Now this kind of rebellion, it always begins with a doubt of God. Are his rules really good? Are those prohibitions really necessary? Are his boundaries keeping me from something that would be satisfying? These are all little questions of doubt that can creep in and start us down the road of not trusting the God of all authority and all goodness that he wants to give us. Is God really kind? Is he stingy? Don't you want to be happy? Wouldn't God want you to be happy? Why wouldn't God want you to enjoy that? These are all ways in which we start twisting God's good word to satisfy our selfishness. Our love needs to be changed by God's love and then follow the instruction. Otherwise, we're so consumed with a destructive self-love, everything goes wackadoodle. Now, I don't normally use technical theological language, but it was important enough to explain what wackadoodle is. You might know the shorthand, wow, that's whack. Don't know if anybody says that anymore, but we should bring it back. Wackadoodle is a longer theological technical word. It means upside down, crooked, and twisted up. When we are self-consumed with our own self-love, that's what we do with God and his gifts. Upside down, crooked, twisted up. But the God of all grace, the God who is righteous, he not only comes to, he not only sends his son to die to forgive us for doing this with his love and his good gifts, He sent his Holy Spirit to untie that knot, make straight those desires, turn it right side up. The God who forgives you isn't the God who says, I'll forgive you, just keep sinning, don't worry about it. No, he's a God who forgives you and then wants to restore you. Notice verse eight. Yet in like manner these people, again, The people who have crept in, the ungodly people who are like those three examples,

relying on their dreams, they defile the flesh.

So in their sensuality, they're defiling themselves.

They reject authority and blaspheme. The glorious ones.

We're getting so much more specific here in that unruly aspect. We had Israel who just would not listen to God, who's given so much good work towards them and good words for them. The angels who know God would not respect the position he put them in. Sodom and Gomorrah did not hear the warning. Here it's very specific. Relying on their own ideas, their own desires. We see later their own instincts. They reject authority. And a key word is blaspheme. Blaspheming God, blaspheming the holy things. It's when you attack the holy things of God. Now, he gives another example.

But when the Archangel Michael, contending with the devil, was disputing about the body of Moses, he did not presume to pronounce a blasphemous judgment, but said, the Lord rebuke you.

So here he's saying Michael is unlike those angels, unlike Israel, unlike Sama Gamora, unlike these people. You notice they're the people,

they blaspheme all they do not understand. They're destroyed by all that they, like unreasoning animals, understand instinctively.

Now we don't know where this story of Michael comes from, disputing over the body of Moses. but he drops it so quick without any explanation. It must have been a common understood story at the time. Notice Michael, a great angel, is careful as to what he'll even say. He knows there's boundaries. It's very much like what Paul tells us in Romans 12.

Do not avenge yourself, but trust God.

He has the authority to avenge. The important thing here, this rejection of authority. We live in a me-my world. We're constantly trained to think it's my desires, my heart, my book club, my favorite politician, my experience, the me-my. We all, if we're starting there, no matter what happens next, We're already moving away from respecting God and his authority. We're already in danger of the clear sin of denying our only master. When we start with ourselves, well then God has to fit in. Really the proper way to see authority is that God, our creator, our master, our Lord, our savior, we're supposed to fit in with what he has said. There's a way in which we've got to contend for the faith. Church, we're all to contend for the faith. And one of the first things we must have understood and clear, if we're gonna contend for the faith over against this sin, is that there is such thing as good authority and Christ is our declaration and obvious leader of what good authority looks like. He has all authority and he gives himself over to us. There is such thing as good authority and it's God's. Christ presents what is clearly good authority. Our Lord loves us. He pours out his grace. Our Lord loves us. He gives us high expectations. He commands us. We've got to learn how to promote this within our body, among one another, to remind each other that God is good, in the midst of all the things that might seem confusing, difficult, or painful. We're all under Christ's authority. That's part of that common salvation. We're all under him. We're all growing up towards him. We're all learning how to submit to one another as a way of submitting to him. The difficulty is we're all unruly by nature. That's where we see God's law. When we look at it, it's a mirror. It shows us what's wrong. We look at God's law and it's a curb, it keeps us within the boundaries. To have growth that matures means we embrace his authority, his rule, his commandments as good. I think there's a process to this. First, we grow from resisting boundaries out of suspicion. Don't we all start there? We first grow from resisting boundaries out of suspicion. Anybody just love to hear the word no? I didn't see anybody's hand go up. Mitchell, you now like to hear the word no. Initially, naturally. We're all suspicious of anybody who's going to give us a boundary. We all want to ask the question, well, why that boundary? Why that rule? Suspicion, we resist the boundaries. We then realize, well, no, those boundaries are good because God is good, and we know God is good because he sent his son to die for us, and he's not without anything good. I have to trust even his rules are good, even though I don't always like them. We go from resisting out of suspicion to accepting, and then if you get to the point where you can just accept those boundaries, You learn to see that you thrive within the boundaries of God. You learn to actually enjoy boundaries because you see how good they are and that they keep you from sin and that they lead you up more to God. God's design is that you become more dependent, more bound, more stable. The world's lie is that you need to be as independent, as free as possible to become who you really are. What a lie. God's design is for you to be bound to him, cared for by his word, rooted and grounded so that you grow. What makes this passage significant is that word blaspheme. They blaspheme all they don't understand. They blaspheme according to their instincts. They want to tear down all the things that are holy because the things that are holy, when they're around them, it points out how gross they are. There's an irreverence. Church, if we could contend for the faith by being eager to be taught, to be teachable, If we can make sure we're holding fast to the word as it's been taught, the trustworthy word, you cannot teach if not teachable. You cannot lead if not following. We're responsible for the faith that's been handed over to us. We're to hold high the holiness of God and to hold out the hope of his salvation. If you're not a Christian, I do want to just pause here. If you're not a Christian, you might have actually been in a church before and that's why you're not a Christian. Don't let a church experience where they denied Jesus as their master to be the cause of why you would deny him as your Savior. Too many people have gone through some experience with a church that was unruly. And I pray we will not be that church. But too many people judge Christ based upon how some who claim Him but deny Him as their Master have behaved or even treated them. Now do not let an unruly group of people who have denied Him as their Master keep you from believing in Him as your Savior. The second thing we see from this passage, He's already God. He's a God who saved Israel out of Egypt. Jesus Christ is the Son of God who's come to be born for us. He's the Son of God who died so that we would have forgiveness and have this new life. He actually gives us the hope that we can hear him who has all authority speak words of life. If you don't know who Jesus is this morning, the only begotten Son of God, the only savior for sinners, the only master and Lord of the church, please do not leave here without talking to someone. The second section, contend because the creepers are unfruitful. Notice again, woe to them. There's a curse, there's a warning, woe to them. contend because they're unfruitful. And notice we've got three examples again, all from the Old Testament.

For they walked in the way of Cain, they abandoned themselves for the sake of the gain of Balaam's heir, and perished in Korah's rebellion.

Now, he doesn't go into as much detail here. We have the first murderer. Remember, he doesn't worship God with his first fruits. He doesn't worship God with a whole heart, and that leads to him murdering his brother. Cain's sin against Abel began with Cain's sin against God. His disobedience towards God led to his horrible act towards his brother. Remember even what God said to Cain,

if you do well, will it not be accepted?

Well, Cain refused even the warning and the invitation. He was unfruitful. He declared God unworthy and therefore hurt his fellow man, his own brother. Balaam, this is found in Numbers 22 to 24. Cain, Genesis 4. Balaam, Numbers 22 to 24. It's interesting, as Balaam is first called, he first says,

I cannot go beyond the command of God.

And then right afterward he set up his donkey and took off to go do so. He practiced divination, he was greedy. He understood what God's boundaries were and he went against it anyway for a greedy gain. Korah's rebellion, this was a rebellion against Moses and Aaron where Korah and 250 others accused Moses of going too far, of exalting themselves, not honoring the one God put in position to lead. All three of these, at some level, are refusing to worship God. They were unruly, and therefore they were unfruitful. But then notice how he describes them further in that the word pictures are just, they're brilliant and terrifying. They're taking things that should be good and trustworthy and showing how dangerous they can be. The love feast, that's something we should all want to be part of. A shepherd, that's someone who you should be able to trust. A cloud, that's something that produces the rain we need. A tree that produces fruit that's good to eat. The ocean that produces enjoyment. And stars, who's supposed to direct a sailor home? Well, these, they're hidden reefs at your love feast. A reef would be extremely dangerous and even deadly for a sailor. Remember, they've crept in unnoticed. They're part of the heart of the church, at the center, at the Lord's Supper, the love feasts, the meal we would normally have afterwards. They're hidden reefs there. They're incredibly dangerous. Why? They feast without any fear. They refuse that basic command of God to fear him. The love feast is meant to be where the church comes together and enjoys a fellowship over that common salvation received, a common word we share. Anytime you love, anytime you truly practice love, you're vulnerable. Do we understand that? If the church is gonna come together and love one another as Christ has loved us, around a meal, it's supposed to be a time of vulnerable, enjoying fellowship with one another? And these folks, they're dangerous hidden reefs. They've shipwrecked their own supposed faith and they are going to shipwreck others. They're selfish, they're self-consumed, they're not here to pour out, they're here to take.

Shepherds who feed themselves.

It seems like an allusion to Ezekiel 34, where the priests were taking the food to be sacrificed to God and eating it themselves. God says,

I will come and I will judge those shepherds and I will come and I will be their shepherd.

There's a way in which the feasting without fear, the selfishness, it denies what the Lord's Supper actually is. When we come to the particular Lord's Supper, we're coming to remember He's loved us while we're sinners. We're coming to rejoice that we are all enjoying the same common, same salvation. And we're coming to renew our commitment to love God in one another. There are hidden reefs in that celebration. He continues, clouds, they're waterless, swept away by the winds, they're worthless, they're producing nothing. The fruitless tree in late autumn, by autumn, all trees should have borne fruit already. And if it doesn't, it's worthless. It's twice dead. I don't know if this is kind of like Princess Bride almost dead, really dead, but twice dead is dead, dead, really dead, no doubt about it, and therefore uprooted. It's dead, dead. Unfruitful.

Wild waves of the sea casting up the foam of their own shame.

It seems like this would be kind of that sliminess. You ever go to the beach and it's just like a seaweed day? You're not getting in that or you shouldn't. Or even worse, a day where the jellyfish, did you know that the plural collective of jellyfish is smack? I learned that this week by looking it up. A smack of jellyfish is there in the water being washed up, ruining that day. Wondering stars, and this is where we really get to the heart of what the creepers are doing. The star is supposed to be a guide for the sailor to get home. Trustworthy, reliable, not tossed to and fro by their sensuality and their desires and their different thought or their different instinct that day. No, a star is someone who's supposed to be able to guide others to the goodness of safety. Then he assures them,

whom the gloom of utter darkness has been reserved forever.

They're unfruitful, they're misleading, they're destructive. Church, we're called to contend for the faith in the light of this unfruitfulness or even the danger of it. Because if we continue to let folks just come in and pervert the grace of God and influence us and be these hidden reefs, maybe even obvious reefs, They produce confusion in the church. They cause the weaker brothers to stumble. They call those who are still learning as to what it means to trust God and obey him to wrestle with what truth is and what freedoms are and what commands must be obeyed. They cause doubt that leads to denying the master. Now the creepers, they say things like this.

Did God really say that?

Anybody know where that first comes from? It's the first recorded words of Satan. They want to bring a doubt to God's goodness in his word. Surely God would not say, that doesn't sound loving at all. Or maybe they would say, well, that's just old fashioned. That's not good for anymore. It's not the once for all faith handed over. No, that was yesteryear. That was for a different people, different time. We've progressed past that. Or they like to say, scripture isn't that clear. This is what it means to you, and it doesn't mean that to me, and we have all these scholars that question it. They wanna lead you to some other source to compare scripture to, not making sure you test every other source with scripture as authority. They like to pretend God's word isn't clear when it comes to the expectations and the duty of man, and they wanna make sure that even sounds legalistic if you think there's something God would expect of you. They only tell jokes to see how far they can go, to see what you would laugh at. The common trick of the trade is to say, well, it's not loving to restrict somebody. To love somebody is to give them permission to do whatever it is their heart desires. No, if you truly love somebody, you have high expectations of them. Contend for the faith. Choose to hold out this hope and this way of godliness for one another. Here's some just very practical things you can do to contend for the faith. Be present. You cannot contend for the faith if you aren't present with the faith. You have to be present to actually rejoice in that common salvation, and you have to be present to actually contend. You have to be present to know who you're contending with. Not against, but with. You have to be known. Secondly, pray for the body. Pray for the members of the church. Go through the directory. Pray for the leaders. Pray for the word of the gospel that goes out in transformation to change all of our hearts to be more faithful. Third, promote godly speech and resist godless chatter. Be mindful that there are little ears that hear, little eyes that see. I'm convinced more and more that you can see a church's faithfulness based upon what the next generation does. So it's not a matter of what we do and we come and sing here only and preach here only. It's a conversation's little ears here in the hallway. in the car ride, do they hear us reverberating the same gospel truths in our conversations as we're coming together to rejoice in as we sit under God's Word? Jude calls us to be saints who contend for the faith, a holy people who are committed to a holy conduct and holy speech because they've been bought with the blood of a holy God. A holy people who have a holy conduct and holy speech because they've been bought with the holy blood of God. Jesus teaches us

you will know them by their fruit.

These come and they're dangerous. They're not producing proper fruit. It's actually amazing if you actually come and you trust Jesus and you trust his word and you accept his restrictions and his boundaries and you commit to the things he does, you find this incredible sense of freedom. The Christian is supposed to be the most bound and the most free, and there's something just wonderfully free when we actually trust what God says. As we think about church, I want to think about how to contend here. We're trying to constantly pull members into what I call the center church, the center of who we are and what we're doing, actively present in prayer, actively present in Bible study, actually present here on Sunday morning. And the more faithful we are in the center, the more healthy we're growing, the more we're helping each other grow. The elders, we try to kind of walk around the perimeter, push sheep back to the center, do a preemptive strike on a wolf if necessary. The hope is we're all coming to rejoice in Christ together in that common salvation. Help each other grow in that common salvation. My concern is always for those who are constantly trying to get away in whatever they think might be a safe distance. As we think about the Lord's Supper here, we're supposed to be coming with an eagerness that we might enjoy that love feast and that we're eager to forgive and seek forgiveness. Eager to submit and promote the kindness of Christ. The last section, contend because they are ungodly. He quotes Enoch here. Enoch is not in the canon. Enoch is not represented or recognized by any Jewish religious groups, by any Christian groups. It's not in anyone's canon. He's quoting it as something that is true only because he's now recognizing it is true, it's not quoting somehow like scripture, like you would quote Moses. But it's interesting what he says.

Behold, the Lord comes with 10,000 of his holy ones.

Okay, this is true. Why?

To execute judgment on all and to convict,

to declare unrighteous all the, and listen to this,

to all the ungodly, of all their deeds of ungodliness, that they've committed in such an ungodly way, and of the harsh things that ungodly sinners have spoken against him.

Do you hear the repetition? Ungodly people do ungodly things and say ungodly things. There's a promise. These will be punished. Do not participate with them. These will be punished. Do not fear. Now, why is it that ungodly people produce ungodliness in all their ungodly ways. Well, it's a simple biblical principle. What's in there comes out. When ungodliness is in us, that's what comes out. There's a truth here that we need to really wrestle with and that our whole goal is that we would contend for the faith Together, we would contend for the faith to help grow each other up in the gospel and godliness. Well, you can't give away what you don't have. You can't train what you haven't learned. If you want godliness, you come to Christ, you sit under his word, you come and learn with others and help others learn. Here's an amazing truth for you. God's will is for you to grow in godliness. That's a promise. You could put forth all kinds of effort in all kinds of ways, and as Ecclesiastes taught us over and over again, it's just toil and it feels like vanity. But, if you do what God says he wills, it'll be fruitful. If you commit to pursuing godliness in a godly way according to what God has said, you'll grow in it. It's the most sure guarantee you could possibly have. If you desire to grow in godliness and you put the effort forward towards godliness, you will grow in godliness. It's what God wills for you. He's promised it. The last description.

Grumblers, malcontents, following their own sinful desires, they are loudmouth boasters showing favoritism to gain advantage.

We've already seen many of these aspects. They don't follow God's word, they reject authority, they're all about their own dreams, their own instincts, their own sinful desires here. What a list. You realize you can't grumble and be grateful at the same time? You can't say, thank you, God, while grumbling. There's either a desire to say, I want to honor God and give thanks because I see all that he's done for me, or I'm gonna grumble and think, man, God, you could be doing better. Grumbling is always associated with idolatry in scripture. They're malcontents. They follow their own simple desires, and that just naturally comes out. your sinful desires will not ever be satisfied. Therefore, you can only grumble. They're loudmouth boasters in contrast of those who praise God. They do not give themselves over to others, but they play the you owe me game. They're all about selfish gain, not the glory of Christ. Church, as we think about these warnings, we think about who we're supposed to be as we contend for the faith in that common salvation. We're designed to be saints, a holy people with holy conduct and holy speech because we've been bought with the precious blood of a holy God. As we could go to other passages that are, like we've taken this to see this is what we don't want to be. This is the most dangerous thing in the church. Well, what do we move to? We're looking for a church of members of one body that are helping each other grow up into Christ, united in Christ. I want to say, you don't simply find that kind of church. It's not as simple as saying, I'm a part of that church like that because the teaching is solid. That's necessary, but that's not enough. It's not as simple as singing good songs. That's necessary, but not enough. It's not as simple as praying together. It's necessary, but not enough. A healthy church is something you don't find, you invest in. You learn how to walk with one another, submit to one another. promote godliness among one another, serve one another, forgive one another, encouraging and exhorting one another. May our Lord and Master give us the grace to rejoice in the common salvation we have and build each other up in this faith. Will you pray with me? Father, we thank you for your many promises. One that you've promised that you will sanctify us. You will surely do it. You've promised us that the church will not be overcome. The church will be able to penetrate even the gates of hell with the power of the gospel. You've promised that you are with us until the end. You've promised that you have loved us while we're still sinners. You've promised us that you will finish the work you've begun. Lord, I pray we would not take these promises as grace that gives us an excuse for lack of action. but as the fuel and the word we receive from you that gives us the courage to be active and obedient, trusting you to produce the fruit you desire. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.