Contending For the Faith (Jude 3)

 

by Dr. Gabriel Otero

Following is a transcript of a sermon by Dr. Gabriel Otero, preached at Beth-El Baptist Church, Morgan Hill, California, during the evening worship service, on September 16, 2001. Cassettes may be ordered by writing to the church at:

P.O. Box 100
Morgan Hill CA 95038-0100

or call at (408)779-2300 or (408)778-2595.

Pastor Otero may be heard on the Lord's Day on the web live stream at www.kkmc.com .
Currently, the broadcast time is 11:00 P.M. Pacific time.  2:00 PM Eastern Standard Time

As you may already know, Pastor Otero is also Dean of the Family Radio School of the Bible and is the radio minister for the Family Radio Spanish language short-wave broadcast.

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… has been very heavy on my heart, and we are going to pray. And I want to record all of this because there are more than a hundred pastors on the East Coast that depend on this, plus the entire Board of Classes of the Reformation in the State of California...want to know my position before they write an article in the newspapers of America. So let's pray together:

Father, we come in a very serious moment, to study something that is heard every day over the radio. The Book of Jude commands us to contend for the faith. We have to do it respectfully, in love, and with patience. And help me tonight to do it just like that, so that the truth will avail, and we will have peace of mind and peace of heart, in reference to what we believe. Bless us, oh God, and bless Mr. Camping, that he may come to his senses with this doctrine of the end of the church era. In Jesus we pray, knowing that You will have the victory. Amen.

You heard over the radio, over and over, at 5:30 o'clock and 8:30 in the East part of the United States, the statement that the church era will come to an end. I want you to look in the Book of Jude, verse 3. Now verse 3 says, "Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you, and exhort you that ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints."

When I heard that the church believing God, the local church, has come to an end, and there is no longer a church on this earth, neither the sacraments of the church (the Lord's Supper and baptism), neither the office of the church (the pastor, the elder and the deacons), that they all have come to cessation, because we are at the present time, according to Mr. Camping, in the second section of the great tribulation, in the beginning I thought it was a joke. But later on, as I talked to him, and I wrote to him what I want to present to you tonight, I thought it was very serious. It forced me to contend for the faith. Because I am a man under authority, I submitted to the board my request to talk to each of them individually, and I did talk. And there is a great opposition from the board. But they do not have at the present time the courage to say "no". There is a privilege to be in high places, but there are moments when you have to stand.

The easy way for me would be to resign and run away. But our school has 27,000 active students. Our radio broadcast in Spanish has 390,000 listeners. Our mail is so overwhelming that I have 3 people writing for me, to answer the letters. Africa, for example, is one of the overwhelming continents in listening. And if I think I leave the radio, I get sick, because of these people. If there comes the moment when I am asked to leave, it will be a different story. And so I told the board of directors of Family Radio, it would be so easy to come to this niche, which is my church, and be under the umbrella of my church, that I was tempted to do so. And then there would be a very, very deep depression in my heart, that I have not confronted the truth, as the scripture says. And so, with great respect, and with respect to the authority, I confronted the truth. Rather than being asked to leave, I have been asked to stay and to stand for the truth. And so that's the case. That's the way I'm going to handle it.

The first scripture I want to call your attention to is Matthew 24:37 (and we are going to see in a minute verse 39). It indicates the world's lifestyle at the coming of the Lord. Now we read here, "But as the days of Noe ..." (Now the word "but as" added in Latin ...) "... days of Noe were, so shall also the coming of the
Son of man be."

And so the scripture tells me that the coming of the Lord ... They give me the social behavior of the world at the coming of the Lord. In verse 39 it says ... and here it is... "And knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be."

Now you see this word "knew" and you see the English transliteration of the word is "ginosko". So nobody knew in their heart, really, experienced in their heart, that the Lord was coming. And so in the times of Noah, Noah went and preached over and over and over and over again, and nobody knew the real truth until the flood came, and that was too late. And the Bible says, this is the way that the Lord will come. Nobody in the whole universe will know exactly the day and the hour. They give you picture, as Noah. Noah preached. He never said, "This day the Lord will close the door." The Bible said that God told Noah to close the door. But he never preached, "The door is going to be closed on September 6." He never did that. And so the Bible established a pattern in how the Lord is coming. He is coming in a way that only God in His authority has established.

Now Matthew 24 describes the character of the great tribulation. And if you go to verse 29, you will see... (Matthew 24:29) ...you will see that the Bible says, "Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken." And so the Bible establishes, again, a sociological background. There will be a great tribulation, as man has never seen. And after that, the Lord will come in and take over.

Now the key in this is that it is incredible to conceive with our mind, and at the same time I believe that the church at that time will be so dormant, and so incapable of discerning anything, because the church is more sociological then ... (it denotes today) ... that the church doesn't even care for the coming of the Lord. But the church will be there, and some of the believers will be there. And after that horrible tribulation, the absence of the teaching of the Word of God, then will the end come.

Now how do I know that the church is going to be to the end? There are certain points. I know there are more than 30, but for your instruction tonight, I am going to use 3 or 4, and then I will take some questions. Let's take the Lord's Supper, for example. Let's go to Matthew 26:26. Let's take the Lord's Supper and see the
instructions that we have.

Now let me show you the instruction that we have for the Lord's Supper. I am reading Matthew 26:26:

(Mat 26:26-28 KJV) And as they were eating, Jesus took bread, and blessed it, and brake it, and gave it to the disciples, and said, Take, eat; this is my body. {27} And he took the cup, and gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, Drink ye all of it; {28} For this is my blood of the new testament, which is shed for many for the remission of sins.

 

Now look at what verse 29 says:

"29 But I say unto you, I will not drink henceforth of this fruit of the vine, until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father's kingdom."

Now this is the instructions of Jesus. Now the church received the instructions from the apostles. Remember in Acts 2:41 it said we are built upon the apostles' doctrine. And the apostle who built this doctrine was Paul. Let's switch now to I Corinthians 11:23. The apostle then is going to teach what Jesus gave the disciples graphically. Jesus, in an overall picture, said, this ceremony of the Lord's Supper will continue, continue, continue, until we are going to all be in heaven and partake over there.

Now look at what the apostle told the church of Corinth:

(1 Cor 11:23-25 KJV) For I have received of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you, That the Lord Jesus the same night in which he was betrayed took bread: {24} And when he had given thanks, he brake it, and said, Take, eat: this is my body, which is broken for you: this do in remembrance of me. {25} After the same manner also he took the cup, when he had supped, saying, This cup is the new testament in my blood: this do ye, as oft as ye drink it, in remembrance of me.

And now the clue (verse 26):

"26 For as often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do shew the Lord's death ..." till when? "... till he come."

He doesn't say there... And the word "till"... you can take that word "till" in your concordance, and move on through the entire Bible. It means this: from period A to period B. And so Jesus said clearly in, verse 26, that the Lord's Supper should be offered in the church ... (because it's speaking to the church, and in a minute we're going to see it) ... and should be there until He comes. That's a time frame. That's a clock. That is saying to you, "Now you do this till I come." Now the apostle Paul is instructing not an individual, one to one.

Let's go to I Corinthians 1:1, and you will see what I mean. The apostle Paul is writing this letter to whom? Not to a person like Titus, or Timothy. Look here:

(1 Cor 1:1-2 KJV) Paul, called to be an apostle of Jesus Christ through the will of God, and Sosthenes our brother, {2} Unto the church of God which is at Corinth...

 

So whatever he said in that letter of Corinth applies to the body of believers in general, and the discipline applies to every person of the body of believers.

See, we have to be very careful that we interpret the Bible for what the Bible says, and to whom the Bible is talking. And the Bible says to the church that you need to celebrate the Lord's Supper, and you need to observe the Lord's Supper, "will I really come." And so therefore it implies in great terms that the church is indeed the clock of the coming of the Lord, and we will continue celebrating the death, burial and resurrection of the Lord, through the Lord's Supper, till He comes. Nothing has changed, and nothing will stop it. It doesn't say, "till the tribulation comes, or till the second part of the tribulation comes", because nobody has no clue, no idea, how to time tribulation, neither the second part of the tribulation.

Now that's point number one. The church will be here on this earth because God has established, to the church, the sacraments. Let's talk about baptism. Let's see. Let's go to Matthew 28:19-20. Now that's one sacrament, the Lord's Supper. Let's see baptism, the preaching of the gospel. It says,

"19Go ye therefore ..." - he's talking about the disciples, the body of elders, the apostles - "... and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost:

20 Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto ..." What? "... the end of the world."

And so therefore the command of baptizing, preaching the gospel, keeps on going. There is no command given to the elders of the church, the father of the church, temporarily, but rather permanently, to the very end, to the very end of the world. And so, again, the two sacraments tell me this was not a temporary issue.

Now there is a common thought of Mr. Camping that no longer there are pastors, and there no longer are elders and deacons. Well, for how long is a pastor ordained? Let's go to Ephesians 4:11. Now let's go to verse 7 before 11. Let's go to verse 7, just a little bit over. Now look, God has given you grace. In order to be a pastor/teacher, you need the grace of God. I don't care what seminary you went to. As I said in the morning, if you are going to pass a Bible, you better be a believer. If you are going to be a pastor, you better have the gift. And this is what the Bible says, "But unto every one of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ." So Christ has given determined grace. If I sing a solo everybody run out of this building. But if the Dilillo's Mama, with the girls, sing this morning, we all were touched. That's because of the gift that they have. Now if Brother Dilillo sing, we all also run out!

Now here is what it is ... Verse 11: "And he gave some, apostles, and some, prophets; and some, evangelist, and some, pastors and teachers." Not it doesn't say temporarily. He gave the gift to some people to be pastors, to be prophets, to be teachers. I go back here in a minute, but let's go to Ephesians 2:20, and it says we are "… built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets ...". Now that gift of being an apostle and being a prophet is limited, and had an ending. What is the foundation? Now you don't build a foundation many times. You only built it once. Is that right? And so God gave the gift of prophecy. Also the word "prophet" can be somebody who is preaching or reading the Word of God, but I mean in the way of Jeremiah and Isaiah. That's when somebody belongs to a denomination like Pentecostals, and says, "I have a revelation from God." I have the authority to say, "No, Sir, you don't have a revelation from God because the revelations are all gone." The people to whom God revealed His Word, that's through. When the Bible said that Jeremiah wrote, that's absolutely true. When the Bible said that Moses wrote, that's absolutely true. God was dictating. But these are the founders. The apostles and the prophets are the foundation.

So Let's go back to 4:11, and you will see that there are 3 offices that keep on running. So in Ephesians 4:11 you have apostles and prophets, which are no longer in existence, because their function was the foundation. And then you have evangelists, pastors, and teachers. If you are a Sunday School teacher, you are one of them. You have that gift.

Now, for how long? Let's read this story, beginning at verse 12:

"12 For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ:
13 Till we all come in the unity of the faith …" You see how it's limited? "Till we all come in the unity of the faith." It's not till the first tribulation starts, or the second part of the tribulation starts. See the word "till" again, that word of limited time: "Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ …"

And so therefore, the office of the pastor, and the teacher and evangelist, is not limited to a certain limited of time. It's just going on, and on, and on, and on, and does have a function. And the function is that the body of Christ may get united in the faith. The pastor needs to teach the scripture in such a way that the body of Christ comes united in the faith of Lord Jesus Christ. That's what I keep on saying. "Our church emphasis," as I say in the report, "is worshipping God and talking about Christ." If you study that profoundly, that becomes into unity.

So we have the sacraments until the coming of the Lord, and the offices of the church are in function. Two of them are ceased because they were the foundation, but the others keep going because the church needs to be built, spiritually, and they are built in orderly fashion.

Now let's go to Titus 1:5. Now Paul went into Crete, and he evangelized. Remember we studied in Acts that he crossed the island, and he evangelized left and right, and little churches were growing. And now I assume that he told Titus to go over there, and he got some information that the churches were not organized. They were just believers. Look at what he said to Titus:

"5 For this cause left I thee in Crete, that thou shouldest set in order the things that are wanting, and ordain elders in every city, as I had appointed thee:"

In other words, Paul is saying, "I don't want to have the fellowship without order, and without discipline, and without the exercise of the authority of the body of Christ." And so again, there is not in the Bible one instance that it mentions that the church of the living God will be without the proper function of its officers. It is clear to me that this is an error to say that the church has ceased.

Moreover, I have another strong point, extremely strong point, and it's in Hebrews 10, and verse 25. "Not forsaking the assembly…" Now look at what the concordance is telling you. The word assembly - how do you pronounce this? - soon-ago. Forget about the word "epi", which means "upon". But if I pronounce "soon-ago", which English word is similar to that? Synagogue. That's what that means. And so he says, "Not forsaking - going to - epi - going to the synagogue - of yourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching."

You see that? Now, if you don't believe me that this word is "synagogue" - now remember, epi-synagogue - let's switch to James 2:2: "For if there come unto your assembly" - "synagogue". Now synagogue is made of two words, "gogue", meaning "gathering"; "soon" means like "suma" - the total gathering of the people. See, it's "assembly". As a matter of fact, if you go to South America, it's not uncommon to see a sign on the church - the Roman Catholic uses the word "church", but the Protestant uses the word "assembly" - assembly of believers.

And so here's what James said: "For if there come unto your assembly…" And going back to Hebrews 10:25, the Bible is so strong that it said that we need "… not to forsake, especially as you see the day approaching." What do you think "the day approaching" means? "The day approaching" means the end, "as you see the end", as you see chaos, as you see all coming to an end. "Do not forsake the assembling of yourselves together."

And so the Bible is extremely strong in protecting the work of Christ. You know well the passage in Matthew 16. He said, "The gates of hell will not prevail against the church." And so God is careful. The discipline of God will start with the church of God, and you know what I think it is? Let's go to Romans, chapter 1. Let's start with verse 21. Look at how God disciplines people. This is amazing.

(Rom 1:21-23 KJV) Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. {22} Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, {23} And changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things.

24 Wherefore God also …"

what did he do?

"… gave them up". That's discipline.

Verse 25:

"25 Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen.

26 For this cause God …" - What? - "…gave them up unto vile
affections".

"27 And likewise (verse 27) the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompence
of their error which was meet." And so on.

And so God gave them up. And so when a church is apostate, God gives up the church. It's not that the believers should be judged if the church is doing the function of the work of God; if it is doing the function of the work of God, it should stay. You will notice when God gives you up. There will be no salvation; there will be no scripture reference; there will be no discipline in the church; there will be chaos, as known from the scripture. So God has given up the church, and that is what the discipline will be.

Now that is my interpretation, and I say it again, is my interpretation of the Great Tribulation. God is going to give up the church. There will be some churches faithful, but the churches who go crazy, God gave them up. They think they glorify God, but they do not. They will do things contrary to the scripture, and they don't know they are contrary to the scripture, and this is very, very serious.

Now, where is the clue that we can know the end? There is a man in the Bible that almost got it. Let's go to Daniel chapter 12. Almost got it! He asked so many questions of God that God was smarter than Daniel and shut him up. Let me go to Daniel chapter 12. I'll read the whole chapter, and at the very end comes the information.

"1 And at that time shall Michael stand up, the great prince which standeth for the children of thy people: and there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation even to that same time: and at that time thy people shall be delivered, every one that shall be found written in the book."

In other words, they're talking about the great coming of the tribulation. "2 And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt."

Now, God is talking to Daniel, and is telling Daniel how the end will be, and verse 2 is the resurrection day, the very last day of the earth. Verse 3:

"3 And they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament; and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars for ever and ever."

And so that means there should be people who are wise - that means Christians - who are working with people.

" 4 But thou, O Daniel, shut up the words … " See that? "… and seal the book …" Do you see that? "… seal the book, even to the time of the end: many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased."

"Daniel, you shut up the book." So that's why nobody knows the end of time - "You shut up the book." Now, sorry to say this, that Mr. Camping has established that the book has been opened to him, and now he knows. Well, the Bible says that a man will one day come in and open the book. I believe it, but the Bible in Revelation 5 tells us who is the man who opened the book.

Revelation 5:

"1 And I saw in the right hand of him that sat on the throne a book written within and on the backside, sealed with seven seals. 2 And I saw a strong angel proclaiming with a loud voice, Who is worthy to open the book, and to loose the seals thereof?"

So that we know the end

" 3 And no man in heaven, nor in earth, neither under the earth, was able to open the book, neither to look thereon."

Look at verse 4:

" 4 And I wept much, because no man …" - man, anthropos, mankind -
"… was found worthy to open and to read the book, neither to look thereon."

Nobody was able, no man on this earth, said John, was able to see it, but look at verse 5:

"5 And one of the elders saith unto me, Weep not: behold, the Lion of the tribe of Juda …" - you know that's Jesus - "… the Root of David, hath prevailed to open the book, and to loose the seven seals
thereof."

And so that's what the book of Revelation is. The book of Revelation is the opening of the seals that God gave to Daniel. Let's go to Revelation 1.

" 1 The Revelation of Jesus Christ …" - See? The revelation of Jesus Christ - "… which God gave unto him …" - that's John - "… to shew unto his servants things which must shortly come to pass …" For God, remember, a thousand days is like one day. And so "shortly", says God. Two thousand years ago, this was happening, and God said it's two days. So he said, "… shortly will come to pass."

And so the book of Revelation is the opening of the seals of the book of Daniel. Daniel cannot see the end in detail, and so the only person who can open the book was Jesus, and when Jesus opened the book, he revealed the end of times. It's still complicated. I do not understand all the meaning. Have you? I mean, that book of Revelation is deep and profound. I understand partially the book, but the end is already opened, and when you read the book of Revelation, and the boils and the horrible things that will happen on this earth that never happened yet that will take place …

And so, again, when somebody claims, "I was found worthy to open the seals," I'm scared to death. I'm scared to death, because that is blasphemy, like the pope saying, "I am vicarious man in the name of Jesus." We have to be very careful when we come to interpret the Bible.

Now, what I believe is this, this matter of error in interpretation, the lack of knowledge, of grammatical knowledge. Now I'm going to show you why. Let's go to Luke 21, and verse 5. Let's go to Luke chapter 21, verse 1 - that's much better; verse 5 will be my verse.

"1 And he looked [Jesus] up, and saw the rich men casting their gifts into the treasury."

Jesus was looking, and people were giving offerings in the temple.

"2 And he saw also a certain poor widow casting in thither two mites.
3 And he said, Of a truth I say unto you, that this poor widow hath cast in more than they all:
4 For all these have of their abundance cast in unto the offerings of God: but she of her penury hath cast in all the living that she had.
5 And as some spake of the temple, how it was adorned with …" - look at this word -"… goodly stones and gifts …"

Now, in verse 5, you will see a word that I want you to learn. Switch to the Greek and go to the word "goodly". All right, here it is - do you see the word "kalos"? [ka-LOES] That's the way you pronounce this word. Jesus is called the good shepherd in John 10. Remember 11? He is called "ka-LOES poi-MANE", the adorning, bright, marvelous, good-looking shepherd - of course, from within and from without. And so that's the word that it's talking about.

Now look at what the verse says:

"5 And as some spake of the temple, how it was adorned with goodly stones and gifts, he said,"

- let's go to verse 6 -

"6 As for these things which ye behold, the days will come, in the which there shall not be left one stone upon another …"

Now, he was talking, he was looking in the temple, and he said, "These stone are going to be wiped off, these good-looking, adorning, precious, molded stones." You remember when Solomon did the temple, the stones were cut in place? No - the stones were cut in somebody else's place. They had like a template, and they cut it, and they brought it in, and they put it on. There was marvelous engineering. And he said, "And you see all this marvelous engineering, all this delicate work, it's going to be gone." How do I know?

Let's go now in Greek to I Peter 2:5 - I Peter 2:5. Now, Mr. Camping believes that this verse is teaching that Jesus will say, "We are stones in the house of God," and therefore Jesus said, "No one stone will be upon another. The church is going to be dissolved." Now, we are the stones, but the word "stone" over there, "lithos", you saw had an adjective, "kalos". Now, when the Bible talks of you and I about stones, look at what the Bible says:

"5 Ye also as …" - hear the word - "zaos", no kalos". Go to the word "stones". This is the word, "stones", "lithos". Go back to "lively". "Ye also as lively stones are built up a spiritual house …"

We are, we are, stones in the spiritual temple, but we are "zaos", "zaos" stones, lively stones, and Jesus was talking about the "kalos" stones. So when you compare scripture with scripture, it's like comparing orange with apples, because if you say, "Good book," you cannot compare with "Bad book."

And so that is exactly what happened. In I Peter 2:5, we are called "lively stones". In Luke 21 and in verse 5, Jesus looked at the temple, and he said, "No one of these beautiful stones would stand one upon another." As far as we know in history and the year 70, Nero destroyed the temple of Jerusalem, and that took place, and it's gone, and it's done, and the prophecy came true. It's not talking about Jesus destroying his own church because he is the head of the church, and he said, "The gates of hell will not prevail against it."

So I think that's tremendous evidence, to me, that Jesus will not destroy his body of believers, but the body of believers will come to the end, and the end will be - taken up, and having the Lord's Supper in heaven. That's my estimation.

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