31st January 2026

31st January 2026


Pray (ACts) 


Read (Jude 1v8-10) 


Message (Scott Woodburn) 


Jude's opponents were acting like the rebellious Israelites in the wilderness, the fallen angels in the beginning and the wicked cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. To support their actions they bypassed Scripture and appealed directly to their dreams. It's hard to argue with such people, they will simply not be told and their attitude is "God told me in a dream that what I'm doing is okay."


I'm sure you can see the problem here. Is grace an excuse for an "anything goes" faith? By no means. Such a faith is a perversion of grace and it leads to sinful behaviour within the church of Christ. Jude told us that the false teachers were those who “defile the flesh.”  To defile is to rob something of its purity and these individuals were acting in a manner that degraded both themselves and their sexual partners.


The false belief of these people had led them to a place of so called “sexual freedom.” They were men and women who thought themselves to be so enlightened and so in tune with the Lord that sexual norms did not apply to them. I'm aware that the very mention of sexual norms is a controversial thing in 2026. Are there sexual norms any longer? It seems that our day and age is one where anything goes. 


But we live in a misguided age which calls sin to be good and evil deeds praiseworthy. Jude's false teachers would fit in well in our time. This generation is one which practices things which are shameful and defiling before Almighty God but who cares? The spirit of the age is one of anti-authority and Jude well understood that this was another sure example of false teaching.


False teachers “reject authority”, they have no regard for the local church and the authority that God Himself has placed within it and I suspect this is perhaps the biggest challenge for the modern church. We are all aware of our rights and privileges in 2026 regardless if we are returning an item to Tesco or raging against the spiritual authorities in our own church. Jude is clear, rejection of authority is a clear sign of a false teacher - they are individuals who simply will not be told!


Dear brothers and sisters, the Lord defines how we are to live not the so called "influencers" on Instagram who have ushered in all kinds of new "freedoms" that we are to enjoy. Physical intimacy is a gift to be enjoyed between a husband and a wife and the marriage bond itself gives us a glimpse of the Gospel and the relationship between Jesus and His church. To rage against such truth is to rage against the Lord Himself. 


Pray (acTS)


Sing


WSC


Q86 What is faith in Jesus Christ? Faith in Jesus Christ is a saving grace, whereby we receive and rest upon him alone for salvation, as he is offered to us in the gospel.