From His Heart

John MacArthur: John MacArthur said that the church of the Lord Jesus today has spiritual AIDS. Our immune system is so down, he said we could die from a thousand different heresies because we are not discerning. We just accept everything. "Oh, that guy's talking about Jesus. He must be a brother. She must be a sister in the Lord." And we don't do our homework, and we don't dig down to see, "Do they really believe the truth? Do they teach and preach the truth?"

Well, Jude is going to sound the alarm and say there are sharks out there, and you need to be careful when you go swimming.

Larry Nobles: In our world where truth is often twisted and faith is under attack, the short but powerful book of Jude in the New Testament delivers a bold and urgent message to believers. This is From His Heart with Pastor Jeff Schreve, and thank you for joining us today. He's in his new series, Faith Under Fire: A Study of the Book of Jude.

He unpacks this often-overlooked letter, exposing the dangers of false teaching, spiritual compromise, and moral decay. Today, Pastor Jeff will explain the clear call for us to stand firm, to embrace our identity in Christ, and to contend earnestly for the faith in this first message from the series. We'll be in this series for the next couple of weeks. If you miss any programs, go to fromhisheart.org and click the listen link. Right now, though, open your Bible to the book of Jude. Here's Pastor Jeff Schreve to begin the lesson entitled, "Attention, Saints!"

Jeff Schreve: Jude is a book that warns people that there are sharks in the water. There are false prophets and false teaching abounding in his day and in our day, and we need to be extremely careful. We need to pay attention. Listen, not everybody that opens the Bible and talks about heaven is going there.

The devil has sown tares (Matthew 13) among the wheat. And the Lord knows those who are His. John MacArthur said that the church of the Lord Jesus today has spiritual AIDS. Our immune system is so down, he said we could die from a thousand different heresies because we are not discerning.

We just accept everything. "Oh, that guy's talking about Jesus. He must be a brother. She must be a sister in the Lord." And we don't do our homework, and we don't dig down to see, "Do they really believe the truth? Do they teach and preach the truth?" Well, Jude is going to expose the false teachers and the false prophets and the wolves in sheep's clothing. He's going to sound the alarm and say there are sharks out there, and you need to be careful when you go swimming.

I've entitled this message as we kick off this series in the book of Jude—just a small little book, the fourth smallest book in the Bible. Third John is the smallest, then Second John, then Philemon, then Jude. Just one chapter, 25 verses, but they're power-packed verses. And they have much to say about sounding the alarm. And so, I've entitled this message today, "Attention, Saints!" because Jude is trying to get our attention.

Now, some of you may remember going shopping at Kmart. You know, Kmart was, I think, the first store—it used to be a big store. Now, there's like, I think there's one left somewhere, not here. But it used to be big. It used to do 32 billion in sales. And now, it's almost off the map.

But if you remember shopping at Kmart, they would have, "Attention, Kmart shoppers! There's a blue light special on aisle five. Nose trimmers are half off," whatever it was that they had. And you'd be like, "Man, it's been a while since I bought a nose trimmer. I better go to aisle five. I'm going to get some money off."

Debbie's always doing that to me. She goes, "Jeff, look what I bought." And she'll show me, and I say, "Well, what did you spend?" "Well, let me tell you how much I saved." I say, "Well, we would have saved a lot if you hadn't bought it."

You know the difference between a man and a woman? I learned this from Adrian Rogers. A man will spend $2 on a $1 item he needs, and a woman will spend $1 on a $2 item she doesn't need. She likes a bargain. She likes a sale. Well, this is not "Attention, Kmart shoppers." This is Jude getting our attention right off the bat: "Attention, Saints!"

So, here's how he starts his letter: "Jude, a bondservant of Jesus Christ, and brother of James, to those who are the called, beloved in God the Father, and kept for Jesus Christ: May mercy and peace and love be multiplied to you. Beloved, while I was making every effort to write you about our common salvation, I felt the necessity to write to you appealing that you contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all handed down to the saints."

We contend for the faith because the faith is under fire—under fire from the enemy. Jude gives us three directives to get our attention, to get us centered, to get us going in the right direction. Directive number one: He's calling us to be humble. Hey, you want to be a Christian who makes a difference? Well, you have to be humble, and Jude is calling us right off the bat to be humble, to live a life of humility.

"Jude," he says, "a bondservant, a doulos, a slave of Jesus Christ, and brother of James." Now, the question comes to mind, who is Jude? Now, Jude is a shortened form of the Hebrew name Judah. Judah was the fourth-born son of Jacob. Jacob, whose name was changed to Israel, who had 12 sons. Well, his fourth-born son from his wife Leah was Judah. Judah means praise.

Judah is the Hebrew form. In the New Testament, you run into Judas. Judas is the Greek form of Judah. And the shortened form of Judas is Jude. Now, Judas, everybody is very familiar with Judas Iscariot. Judas Iscariot—Iscariot means man from Kerioth. That's where he was from. Judas from Kerioth, the man from Kerioth, Judas Iscariot.

And we know about him. And if you notice, nobody names his kid Judas. We'll name our kid Jude, we'll name our kid Judah, but you don't go to Judas because Judas Iscariot has ruined that name, that particular form of that name. Now, we know that that was a common name, Judas. And so we say, "Okay, who is writing this book?"

It is Jude, the brother of James. You say, "Okay, who was James? Who's Jude? Who's James?" Well, the Bible tells us that Jesus, in His 12 disciples, He had two guys on the team named Judas. And He had two guys on the team named James. And so we say, "Okay, well, is this Judas not Iscariot? Is it the other Judas, the Judas in the group of disciples that was known as Lebbaeus or Thaddaeus?"

I don't think so, because that Judas is called the son of James. This Judas, this Jude, he is the brother of James. And the two Jameses in the Bible: you have James the son of Zebedee—he's part of the 12, right? James and John, the sons of Zebedee. Well, that James dies in Acts chapter 12. He's the first one to be killed for his faith, the first of the 12 disciples to be killed for his faith.

And then you have James the son of Alphaeus. He's also part of the 12. So, two guys named James on the team, and two guys named Judas on the team. Very common name. James the son of Alphaeus is also known as James the Less, little James. Kind of like Bonanza—you had Hoss and Little Joe. And so James the son of Zebedee would be Big James, and then you have Little James, the son of Alphaeus.

But are these guys part of the 12? Is Jude the one guy in the 12 that wrote this? No. Jesus had a brother, a half-brother named James. And He had a half-brother named Judas. Matthew chapter 6 talks about Jesus—or I'm sorry, Mark chapter 6 talks about Jesus going to Nazareth. Nazareth was home town for Him. That's where He grew up.

And remember, He goes to Nazareth the first time in Luke chapter 4, and He preaches a hard sermon, and they want to kill Him. They try and push Him off the brow of the hill where the city was built and kill Him, but He walks through their midst. It wasn't His time. Then He comes back there after some time, and He begins to preach there. And this is the reception that He gets:

"When the Sabbath came, He began to teach in the synagogue; and many listeners were astonished, saying, 'Where did this man get these things, and what is this wisdom given to Him, and such miracles as these performed by His hands? Is this not the carpenter, the son of Mary, and brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon? Are not His sisters here with us?' And they took offense at Him." They stumbled over Him because they said this can't be.

And remember Jesus said, "A prophet is not without honor except in his own hometown." You take a prophet out of town, everybody wants to hear from him. You bring him into town, and they're like, "Oh, we know that guy. I mean, we know his mom, we know his brothers and sisters." Some people get the idea that when Jesus was born—obviously, He was born of a virgin, and it says in Matthew chapter 1 that Joseph kept Mary a virgin until Jesus was born.

And after Jesus was born, and after the required time for purification and things took place, then Mary and Joseph had a regular marriage because Mary was a regular person, and so was Joseph. And guess what? In a regular marriage, you're going to have other kids, barring some kind of issue physically. But they had other children. And they had James, and they had Joses, and they had Judas, and they had Simon.

And they had daughters. And so Jude is the brother of James, and both James and Jude are the half-brother of Jesus. Here's the thing that's so wonderful about Jude right off the bat as he starts his letter: He doesn't say anything about being related to Jesus. Now, you think about you're writing a letter, and you're Jesus's half-brother.

"Jude. You know who I am? I'm the half-brother of Jesus Christ." I mean, who's going to top that one? I mean, that would be in your mind. Some of you may remember Rick Stanley. He was an evangelist. And I remember when he came to our church years ago, and here was his claim to fame: He was the stepbrother of Elvis Presley. Do you remember that?

I remember the pastor stood up at Champion Forest and said, "Rick Stanley will be here." And I said, "Who's that?" He says, "He's the stepbrother of Elvis Presley." I mean, we can't get Elvis; he's dead, but we can get his stepbrother. And that's how he was introduced everywhere he went. Now, Jude could have been like that, but he wasn't like that.

Why? Because he didn't care what he was in the physical; he cared what he was in the spiritual. And what he was in the spiritual was the bondslave, the doulos of Jesus Christ. He had been bought with a price. Hey, James is my brother, my full-fledged brother. His dad was Joseph, my dad was Joseph. His mother was Mary, my mother was Mary. Jesus is born of the Holy Spirit.

He came from the womb of Mary, but He was conceived by the Holy Spirit. It's totally different. And it just screams right off the bat that Jude is a humble guy.

Larry Nobles: You're listening to Pastor Jeff Schreve on From His Heart today, and we're in his new series, Faith Under Fire: A Study of the Book of Jude. Today's first message, "Attention, Saints!", and he'll be back in just a moment to continue this lesson. Now, the book of Jude is all about warning us to be ready to defend the faith. Are you ready? We live in an age where truth is constantly challenged, biblical convictions are ridiculed, and many are struggling to know what and who they can trust.

Voices from every direction compete for attention. Opinions are treated as truth. Compromise is celebrated as wisdom. Yet, God's word has not changed. And that's why we at From His Heart are so grateful for your generous partnership. It allows us to be on the air on hundreds of stations around the world every day. And to say thank you for your help this month, we'd like to send you Pastor Jeff's new six-lesson series, Faith Under Fire: A Study of Jude.

It comes in the format of your choice. Just make that gift of any amount when you call 866-40-BIBLE, 866-40-BIBLE, or go to fromhisheart.org. The need is urgent because the battle for truth is not slowing down, and the saints need to pay attention. God bless you for joining with us. Now, let's get back to the lesson today, the first from the series Faith Under Fire. It's called "Attention, Saints!"

Jeff Schreve: Now, the Bible tells us in First Peter chapter 5, "And all of you clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, for God is opposed to the proud, but gives grace to the humble. Therefore, humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God that He may exalt you at the proper time, casting all your anxiety upon Him because He cares for you." God is opposed to the proud.

He's not going to use you if you're proud. You can never be too small for God to use, but you can be too big for God to use because He's opposed to the proud; He gives grace to the humble. He's going to use Jude in a great way because Jude is humble. I remember when I was just a young Christian, had been a Christian about a year, I got introduced by some friends to this guy who was, from my estimation, a big shot in the Christian world.

He had a big job, was well-known, well-connected. And I remember I was introduced to him, and this guy took time with me. He really wanted to get to know me and ask me a lot of questions. I'm a college student, I'm 18, 19 years old. And I was like, "Wow." And I remember saying to him, I said, "Okay, I don't get it. Why are you showing me—you know, it's like you're treating me like an equal."

And he said, "Jeff, the ground is all level at the foot of the cross." There aren't people that are big shots over here and you're just a little shot over here. We're all little shots. I like Bill Stafford, the evangelist, used to say. He said, "Big shots, little shots, we all deserve to be shot." There's nobody that's a big shot before the Lord.

And right off the bat, Jude tells us, "Hey, attention, saints, be humble." He's calling us to humility. You know, the Bible says that the beginning of wisdom and the beginning of knowledge is the fear of the Lord. And the fear of the Lord is not being afraid of God; it's being in awe of God and, as my pastor DeMon Shook taught me so many years ago, it's recognizing that God is God and you are not.

And God deserves all the glory, all the praise, all the honor. You give Him His rightful place as King, and you take your rightful place as slave, as doulos, as a bondservant of God. What is Jude calling to our attention? Number one, he's calling us to be humble. Number two, he's calling us to be mindful—be mindful of some things that we tend to kind of blow past.

One of the things when we read in the Epistles, the Epistles all have a salutation. And the Epistles, different from the way we write because we normally write a letter and we sign it at the end, "This is from Pastor Jeff" or whatever. So you read and read, "Who's this from? Okay, it's from Pastor Jeff." They always started it at the front; they tell you who it's from, which is good. So you know who it's from.

Well, we kind of blow past that a lot of times when we're reading in the Epistles. We're like, "Yeah, yeah, grace and peace be multiplied to you, blah, blah, blah. I got that. Let's get into the meat of it. Why did you write this letter?" But we need to be careful not to blow past the salutation because there are lots of wonderful gems and blessings in the salutation.

So he says, "Jude, a bondservant of Jesus Christ, and brother of James, to those who are the called, beloved in God the Father, and kept for Jesus Christ: May mercy and peace and love be multiplied to you." Now, some things that we need to be mindful of as we live in this day and age of false teachers and false teaching, as we desire to be discerning and to know where the sharks are in the water.

Number one, every Christian, every true Christian is called by the Holy Spirit. "To those who are the called." Now, the Holy Spirit's job in the Trinity is to draw people to the Savior. Jesus said, "When He comes, He shall glorify Me, for He shall take of Mine and shall disclose it to you. He convicts the world of sin and righteousness and judgment."

And there's a subtle reference here to the Trinity because "to those who are the called"—well, who does the calling? The Holy Spirit. I can preach truth, but only the Holy Spirit can impart truth. And unless the Holy Spirit speaks to your heart, I can preach until I'm blue in the face and you're going to be like, "Hey, I don't see my need," because I can't make you see your need; only the Holy Spirit can open your blind eyes to that.

"To those who are the called." Paul says in First Corinthians chapter 1, he speaks to the Corinthian Christians and he says, "You are saints by calling." Now, it's important to know that you're called because he's getting ready to hit hard with the false teachers. The false teachers aren't in the family of God. The false teaching will destroy the life-saving message of the gospel.

And so, people, the recipients of this letter had to know for certain, "Hey, I need to make sure that I don't start to doubt my own salvation. I am the called." He's writing to me, to the called. Now, the church in Greek, that's the word for church, is ekklesia. Jesus introduced that word in Matthew chapter 16: "I say that you are Peter (little rock) and upon this rock (petra, big rock) I will build My church."

He didn't build the church on Peter; He built it on Himself. No man can lay a foundation other than the one which is laid, which is Christ Jesus (First Corinthians chapter 3). He is the rock that the church is built on. "Upon this rock I will build My ekklesia," the called-out ones, the ones that I've saved and delivered and called them out.

As it says in Colossians 1, "He delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of His beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins." What is the church? It's a collection of saints, called-out ones, those who were lost, but now they've been found and they've been called out and spiritually transformed into the kingdom of heaven.

But we are back in the world to be a witness to the world. That's our main reason for being here. As the disciples asked Jesus on the day He ascended to heaven, "Lord, is it at this time that You're restoring the fortunes to Israel?" He said, "It's not for you to know times or epochs which the Father has fixed by His own authority; but you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you shall be My witnesses."

That's what we're here for: to be His witnesses. And as we get closer and closer to the coming of Christ, and as the lies and the false teaching and the false teachers abound, it is really important for Christians to be faithful witnesses to the Lord. "To those who are the called." Revelation chapter 17 talks about the battle of Armageddon.

And it says, "These will wage war against the Lamb, and the Lamb will overcome them because He is Lord of lords and King of kings, and those who are with Him are the called and chosen and faithful." He's writing to those who are the called. He's also writing to those who are beloved in God the Father. And every Christian is loved by God the Father.

I think that is the key truth for Christians to have down in their heart, because we're loved by God. Jude is going to go on to say, "Keep yourselves in the love of God." Doesn't mean that God loves you one day and doesn't love you the next day; it's you need to keep close to the God who loves you. You need to walk in the light as He Himself is in the light. You're loved by the Father as a believer in Jesus.

Larry Nobles: Well, this has certainly been an eye-opening and a fascinating study that we've started today regarding the warnings from the book of Jude. But there's much more to be covered on the next broadcast where, after a brief review, Pastor Jeff will continue the lesson entitled, "Attention, Saints!" Make sure that you're with us then. And remember to begin to make your plans to join Pastor Jeff Schreve in the Holy Land next year. Here's his official and personal invitation.

Jeff Schreve: Hi, Pastor Jeff here, and I'm excited to announce that we'll be going to Israel in 2027. Our trip is set for April 2nd through the 11th, and we would love for you to join us as we walk where Jesus walked. Hey, this is truly the trip of a lifetime as the sacred places you've only read about will now be seen up close and in full color. You can find out all the details by going to our website, fromhisheart.org—that's fromhisheart.org—and follow the link titled "Holy Land 2027." I look forward to having you with us for this awesome experience in the land of Israel.

Larry Nobles: We hope to see you there. Again, go online to fromhisheart.org, click the Holy Land graphic right on our homepage for all the details. I'm Larry Nobles, thank you for joining us, and reminding you that Pastor Jeff will be here next time with part two of the lesson, "Attention, Saints!" Join us on Wednesday right here on From His Heart.