How To Prevent Spiritual Defection

Staying Spiritually Straight - Part 1 of 4

The Book of Jude is probably one of the most neglected books in the entire Bible. It’s a one-chapter postcard filled with practical lessons for us today.  In spite of its short length, it’s extremely important.

The beginning of the Church is described in a book called, the Acts of the Apostles; its end is dealt with in the Book of Jude, which someone has called “The Acts of the Apostates.”

The Book of Acts describes the deeds and teachings of the men of God in the early church.  The Book of Jude describes the deeds and teachings of the enemies of God at the end of the church age.

Jude is the only book in the Bible that is totally devoted to discussing the apostasy or spiritual defection from the faith that Jesus and others like Paul, Peter James and John predicted would occur before the second coming.

It’s important for us to understand the Book of Jude because of its application for our day and time.  It’s a sober warning against the moral and spiritual decline that’s occurring among Christians and Churches today.

With more and more people departing from the truth of God’s Word and embracing cults and alternative religions we need to know how to prevent spiritual defection.

In his book, Gems From Tozier, A.W. Tozier said, “There are areas of Christian thought, and because of thought, then also of life, where likenesses and differences are so difficult to distinguish that we are often hard pressed to escape complete deception.  So skilled is error at imitating the truth, that the two are constantly being mistaken, for error.”

Let me illustrate what he’s talking about.  How many chocolate lovers do we have here tonight?  Tonight I’ve brought with me a few samples.  On the basis of appearances alone, you might be happy to try some.  If you choose this one (real chocolate) you’d have a tasty treat that is sweet and would bring a smile to your face.  If you choose this one (cooking chocolate) you’d get a bitter taste in your mouth and a frown on your face.  But you could also choose this one (Ex-lax), which would have caused you to spend some extra time in the bathroom.

Just like choosing between one of these very similar looking pieces of chocolate, what you swallow can lead to very different outcomes.  That’s why it’s important for us to be able to know the difference between truth and error so that we are not led away from the truth and depart from God’s Word.

So, tonight I’d like to give you three practical steps from Jude verses 1-4 that can prevent you from departing from the faith.