You can turn in your Bibles to the book of Jude, the book of Jude, that's that small book between third John and Revelation. A small and often neglected book, we could say, perhaps the name of the New Testament, but as all 66 books of the Old and New Testament are inspired, God breathed of God. They ought to be looked at and they ought to demand our attention as the people of God, as the people of the book, God's holy word. So we're going to read all of the all of the letter of Jude, one chapter, 25 verses, and then we will look at the particular parts and messages that Jude has for us in his letter.
This is Jude, beginning at verse one, Jude, a bond servant of Jesus Christ and brother of James to those who are called sanctified by God, the father and preserved in Jesus Christ. Mercy, peace and love be multiplied to you. Beloved, while I was very diligent to write to you concerning our common salvation,
Contending for the Faith Once Delivered
I found it necessary to write to you, exhorting you to contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints. For certain men have crept in unnoticed, who long ago were marked out for this condemnation, ungodly men who turn the grace of our God into lewdness and deny the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ. But I want to remind you, though you once knew this, that the Lord, having saved the people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed those who did not believe. And the angels who did not keep their proper domain but left their own abode, He has reserved an everlasting chains under darkness for the judgment of the great day as Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities around them in a similar manner to these having given themselves over to sexual immorality and gone after strange flesh are set forth as an example suffering the vengeance of eternal fire.
Likewise also these dreamers defile the flesh reject authority and speak evil of dignitaries. Yet Michael the archangel, in contending with the devil when he disputed about the body of Moses, dared not bring against him a reviling accusation, but said, The Lord rebuke you. But these speak evil of whatever they do not know, and whatever they know naturally, like brute beasts, in these things they corrupt themselves. Woe to them, for they have gone in the way of Cain, have run greedily in the error of Balaam for profit, and perished in the rebellion of Korah.
These are spots in your love feasts while they feast with you without fear, serving only themselves. They are clouds without water carried about by the winds. Late autumn trees without fruit, twice dead, pulled up by the roots. Raging waves of the sea foaming up their own shame.
Wandering stars for whom is reserved the blackness of darkness forever. Now Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied about these men also, saying, Behold, the Lord comes with ten thousands of his saints to execute judgment on all, to convict all who are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have committed in an ungodly way, and of all the harsh things which ungodly sinners have spoken against him. These are grumblers, complainers, walking according to their own lusts, and they mouth great swelling words, flattering people to gain advantage. But you, beloved, remember the words which were spoken before by the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ, how they told you that there would be mockers in the last time who would walk according to their own ungodly lusts.
These are sensual persons who cause divisions, not having the spirit.
Positive Exhortations to Believers
But you, beloved, building yourselves up on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life. and on some have compassion, making a distinction, but others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire, hating even the garment defiled by the flesh. Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy, to God our Savior, who alone is wise, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and forever. Amen. Well, let us pray once again.
Opening Prayer
Father, we thank you again that we can gather here, that we can read from your scriptures, that we can hear your word preached, Father, and we ask God now for the ministry of your Holy Spirit, God, that he would help preacher and hearer to engage in this exercise of worship, Father. We just ask that we would glean much from this small book in the way of practical Christianity, in the way of theology, and in all things, Lord God, that you want us to glean from your holy scriptures. We just pray now that you would be with us And that we would go from this place, having dealt with our God, with our Christ, and that we might go living in a manner worthy of his gospel. And we pray again in his most precious name.
Amen.
Introduction
Well, again, this is a small letter. The author, of course, identifies himself, Jude. He identifies himself as the brother of James. Most most likely, Jude is, as was James, the brother of our Lord Jesus Christ, or we could say a half brother. of our Lord Jesus Christ.
This letter was probably written between 60 and 65 AD. There are much similarities to the book of 2 Peter. If you were to read 2 Peter after reading the book of Jude, you would notice that Peter is dealing with a lot of the same issues that Jude is dealing with, and we won't get into a lot of the speculation of who these heretics, who these false teachers were. We'll just look at the text and see what Jude has to say concerning them.
Some believe they were a group of incipient Gnostics, not a full-blown Gnostic sect, but nevertheless heretics, false teachers who were spoiled, who were deceived by false doctrine and sought to propagate it here to these believers to whom Jude is writing. But what we're going to do is just simply look at the anatomy of this letter, the various parts and the messages of the book of Jude, and hopefully gain some knowledge and some understanding from what Jude is writing to us. Like any other letter that we have in the New Testament, there's a beginning, a middle and an end. And Jude, of course, while sticking to some conventions of letter writing, is certainly not writing a conventional letter.
He is inspired by God. This is a letter that is God breathed. Jude is carried along by the Holy Spirit to to pen this particular letter. And when we get to the purpose of the letter, we will notice why he is penning or why he was penning this letter to these believers in his day.
But first off, we're going to look at the salutation. Secondly, the statement of intent or the statement of purpose. Thirdly, the denunciation, description and doom of the heretics. Fourthly, positive exhortations to believers.
And then lastly, closing words of praise to God.
The Salutation
But first, we'll have a look at the salutation. Jude brackets his particular letter with good things for Christians. In a previous job, we had to apply what was called the sandwich technique to dealing with people that we were managing. And what the sandwich technique was, is before you introduce something negative, you would introduce something positive.
You're doing a great job. Things are great. You're fantastic. You're doing all the things that you should be doing. primarily, and then you'd hit them with something negative, and then at the end of your discussion with them, you'd complete the sandwich by saying, hey, keep doing a great job, you're doing fantastic.
Well, Jude isn't necessarily doing sales training or personnel management, but in a sense he is using something of a sandwich technique. He opens with something glorious, he closes with something glorious, and in between he deals with some negative things. Here we have Jude, first off, introducing himself, where the author identifies himself as is customary in letter writing.
Author's Identity and Bondservant Status
Jude, a bondservant of Jesus Christ and brother of James. Now, just a brief note on the use of bondservant here. That might just seem insignificant to you, but it is very significant, not only in Jude's relationship to Jesus Christ, but in the context of the letter and the heretics that Jude is dealing with. And just to illustrate this, you don't have to turn there, but in 1 Peter, Peter is dealing with trying to encourage persecuted Christians, trying to encourage them in the light of persecution, in the face of persecution, to endure, to act, to conduct themselves in a manner worthy of the gospel, even in the face of persecution.
In 2 Peter, he does something different. He's doing what Judah's doing because of the activity of heretics. He's writing against those heretics, exhorting them to contend for the faith and to endure. One of the aspects of these heretics is that they reject authority.
They don't want to have anything to do, for example, with the sovereign lordship of Jesus Christ. Well, in First Peter, writing for a different purpose, Peter introduces himself, Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ. In Second Peter, when Peter is dealing with these heretics who reject authority, he introduces himself as Simon Peter, a bondservant, an apostle of Jesus Christ. What Jude is doing, and I think what Peter are doing, if I can argue this way, is that they are saying as apostles of Jesus Christ, as prominent figures of the church, they are slaves to their master, the Lord Jesus Christ.
They're setting forth an example that they're not just believers. They're not just religious figures. No, they are bondservants, truly slaves to Jesus Christ, over and against the activities and the mindset of these heretics who were rejecting authority from the outset. So, Jude, that might not be first and foremost in his mind, but certainly applicable to identify himself as a bondservant of Jesus Christ, because that's true of all Christians.
But secondly, so as to counter this mindset that believers are free from the rule of their master. And of course, for Christians, it is a joyful slavery. We rejoice in our bond servant status to Christ Jesus, our glorious savior. Secondly, in the salutation here, Jude addresses the recipients of the letter again, as is customary in many letters.
He says, though, and he doesn't just he doesn't just go through the motions of addressing his audience. He
Recipients: Called, Sanctified, Preserved
he tells them what their state is or what their standing is. in Christ Jesus and under God, to those who are called, sanctified by God the Father, and preserved in Jesus Christ. That's a wonderful identification of the Jude's audience. Rather than just saying, although it would be fine, to the saints wherever, Jude says to those who are called, sanctified by God the Father, and preserved in Jesus Christ. And like many other places in the New Testament, when the writers of the letters are addressing their audience, This contains the first, the middle, and the last of salvation.
They are called, they are sanctified by God the Father, and they are preserved in Jesus Christ. Glorious theological realities. Again, Judas is just not going through the motions of addressing his audience for the sake of a salutation in a letter, but letting them know they're standing, rejoicing in their standing in Christ Jesus. And then thirdly, there's a benedictory address or well wishes or maybe better language, Divine blessings given to the recipients of the letter.
Mercy, peace and love be multiplied to you. Mercy, peace and love. Yes, from God, certainly. And also among themselves.
They are to exercise mercy. They are to they are to strive for peace and they are to certainly love one another.
Statement of Intent and Purpose
Now, this brings us into the statement of intent or the purpose of the letter, and it's very nice that Jude clearly sets out for us what the purpose of the letter is, essentially saying, this is why I'm writing to you. Notice the language here. First off, beloved, while I was very diligent to write to you concerning our common salvation, I found it necessary to write to you, exhorting you to contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints. For certain men have crept in unnoticed. who long ago were marked out for this condemnation, ungodly men who turn the grace of our God into lewdness and deny the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ.
We have three things in here. First off, excuse me.
Original and Necessitated Intent
First off, we have the original intention. Secondly, the necessitated intent. And thirdly, the reason for the new direction. What we have, first off, in the original intention is that Jude wanted to write something else to his audience that he actually ended up writing.
Again, notice the language. Beloved, while I was very diligent to write to you concerning our common salvation, Jude had an original intention. Maybe he wanted to do something like what Paul does in Ephesians 1. He wanted to write to them some sort of doxological letter praising the triune God for salvation, for election by God the Father, for redemption by the blood of Jesus Christ for the sealing and the protection and the preservation by the Holy Spirit, perhaps a doxological treatment.
Maybe he wanted to write something like Paul in Romans, an exposition, a long, rich exposition on the gospel of saving grace. But he was he was because of particular things that were going on in the early church among his recipients. He was compelled and and Things demanded that he take a different course of action. And that's what he alludes to here.
He says, I found it necessary to write to you, exhorting you to contend earnestly for the faith, which was once for all delivered to the saints. The demands of the situation here demanded that Jude put down the pen of exposition to pick up the pen of immediate exhortation and to write because circumstances demanded that these believers be exhorted to know these heretics, these false teachers, to identify them and to contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints. This is the necessitated intent. Sometimes in the life of the church, in the life of a minister, in the life of Christians, we need to do perhaps not what we want to do, not what we want to do, but what we should do.
Sometimes the normative needs to be set aside and that which is necessitated needs to be engaged in. Now, we see this in the life of a church. We've probably even seen this. Not probably.
We have seen this in the life of our own church when there are certain people or certain things that that cause problems, that stir up issues. Well, we need to, for a time, set aside the normative and focus on the issues that are at hand and deal biblically. And by the word of God, with those particular issues in those situations, if everything was just going along swimmingly, Jude would not have had to write to them, exhorting them to contend earnestly for the faith, which was once for all delivered to the saints. But things were not going swimmingly for these believers that Jude is writing to.
And so Jude has to change his course of action, his particular direction. Now, he does. Still, if we read the letter in the salutation and in the doxology, he still does get to speak about common salvation. Jude wasn't going away from that entirely.
But nevertheless, the focus in the direction of the letter changes. And I want to focus just very briefly on this statement, the purpose of the letter, the intent of the letter. I found it necessary to write to you, exhorting you to contend earnestly for the faith, which was once for all delivered to the saints. First off, it is an earnest contention.
It's not just something that we enter into haphazardly or that we enter into passively or that we enter into without zeal, without love for truth, without some sort of active desire for an intended end. There is an earnest contention. It is, again, marked by a zeal, marked by an act of love for the truth, marked first off by having a knowledge for the truth where we cannot contend earnestly for the truth, lest we have a knowledge of it. But once we do and when we do, we are to with zeal, with genuine desire for the completion of something or for the exercising of something to contend for the faith.
And that language of contention is something that we ought to pay attention to. Also, the Apostle Paul uses the language in Philippians 1 that we are to strive for the faith of the gospel, that as one man with one spirit, Christians are to strive for the faith of the gospel. There is to be a contention. And I like the language of excuse me, the language that Calvin uses that we have to engage in various contests or rather he says various contests must be encountered and continual warfare maintained.
Just to get an idea of this language of contention. It's not just that you talk at the water cooler with your hands in your pockets and you know you just talk back and forth with the heretic. You know, at the water cooler. No, it is an active.
It is a contest that is encountered in and it is continual warfare that is maintained for the sake of Christ and for the sake of his precious truth. And notice the aspect or a character of this faith, the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints. Yet there may not have been a completed canon in the time of Jude, but nevertheless, the gospel message was complete. They had the doctrine of the Lord Jesus Christ.
There was nothing to be added to the message of Christ crucified, resurrected and ascended for the sake of his people. They had a message that has once for all been delivered to them or they had a message that had once for all been delivered to them. And having that body of completed knowledge, they were to contend for it. And that's what that language of faith is.
It isn't the individual's ability or the individual's act of believing, but rather Christianity, the doctrine of Christ, that body of precious objective truths committed to the church for her love, for her knowing, for her protection and for her propagation. This is the same language again that Paul uses, striving for the faith of the gospel. It's all of those glorious things that we learn from God's holy word. And I shared this quote with you before.
This is John Gill describing what the faith is. What is, if you're to ask John Gill, and truly, I believe, reflecting the biblical force of the message of what it means. John Gill, what does the faith, which was once for all delivered to the saints, mean? The whole scheme of evangelical truths to be believed, he would answer. such as the doctrine of the Trinity, the deity and the sonship of Christ, the divinity and personality of the spirit, what regards the state and condition of man by nature as the doctrines of the imputation of Adam's sin to his posterity, the corruption of nature and the impotence of men to that which is good, what concerns the acts of grace in the Father, Son and Spirit towards and upon the sons of men, As the doctrines of everlasting love, eternal election, the covenant of grace, particular redemption, justification by the imputed righteousness of Christ, pardon and reconciliation by his blood, regeneration and sanctification by the grace of the spirit, final perseverance, the resurrection of the dead and the future glory of the saints with Christ.
Amen. Now, we might not all be able to hammer off that. Oh, what what is the faith once for all delivered to the saints? Well, John Gill said we might not be able to do that.
But nevertheless, we ought not to roll our eyes and say, oh, yeah, whatever. When we hear that description of the faith of the gospel given to us. Because if we just if we just say, oh, you know, as long as we're all Trinitarian, well, we include a lot of false doctrine into that camp. If we say, oh, just Trinitarianism is Christianity, we could we could go through this particular list.
And if we if we leave off particular doctrines that ought to be held on to with great rigor and strength, then we include in the body of believers. a lot who actually really are not believers. So we need to be zealous for we need to earnestly contend for this body of objective truth that has been committed to the church for propagation, for protection and for us to love and glory in. The doctrine of our Lord Jesus Christ, the faith of the gospel, the truths of God's word are not things that were to hold on to. Limp wristedly.
They're not things that we are to let certain doctrines slip out of our fingers. So as to welcome and include people who are truly heretics, who are truly false teachers. We are to earnestly contend for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints. We are to know what that is, what it means, what the Bible teaches concerning doctrine and theology.
We are to love it. We are to communicate it to those who we love, to those whom we want to hear it. And we are to protect it against those who would assail it and who would oppose it. Earnestly contend for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints.
And then we have, of course, The reason for the new direction. The reason why Jude had to move on to a new a new intention or why he had to move on to a new purpose for writing for certain men. Verse four of Jude for certain men have crept in unnoticed too long ago were marked out for this condemnation. ungodly men who turn the grace of our God into lewdness and deny the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ. You see, the contention, the earnest contention for the gospel always comes or certainly almost always comes as a response to those who would oppose that glorious gospel, that faith, that truth of our Lord Jesus Christ.
And so when the church knows or when someone instructs the church and makes them aware of this fact, The body of believers is to rise up, they are to grip that doctrine, and they are to earnestly contend, to battle, to engage in those contestations against those who would seek to destroy the church, who would seek to bring reproach upon the Lord Jesus Christ and his glorious gospel. And notice, they turn to grace. These heretics, these false teachers, These troublemakers turn the grace of our God into lewdness. Now, of course, what this does not mean is that they can somehow objectively turn the grace of God into lewdness.
Most likely, what they are, what you hear is saying is that they are using the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ as a cloak for vice. One of the things that Peter, Peter speaks that Peter writes in his particular epistle is this this exact thing. Peter uses the language that we are not to use liberty as a cloak for vice. You need not turn there.
But we are not to use liberty as a cloak for vice, but as bondservants of God, we are to exercise, we are to carry out our lives as Christians in a wholesome manner. This one of the things that is that these heretics, these troublemakers were marked by is something called anti-nomianism. You've heard that term before from the pulpit. Yes, a large word, but basically what it means is against the law or anti-law.
These believers felt that because perhaps they were saved by grace because of the gospel includes that forgiveness of sins and the fact that Jesus Christ died for sinners. Well, then we can now exercise our lives in a manner of sin, because grace has covered that they did not. They did not take the lesson. They did not take the exhortations of the of the apostles of Peter and Paul, for example, who would say, yes, you have been saved, but you now need to live your lives in a manner worthy of the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.
That's what we see when we read some of these epistles. If we if we look at the book of Ephesians, Paul writes this wonderful doxological praise, a wonderful praise text regarding the salvation of a great triune God. And he writes about Jew and Gentile inclusion. Jew and Gentile are now one new man in Christ Jesus.
He talks about the grace of God, that you're saved by grace through faith and not of your works. And then he gets to the fact that because of all of those things, you are now to walk in a manner worthy of your calling. Well, these people turned the grace of the God or they turned the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ into a reason or used it as a cloak for vice, for lewdness, for sin, for all manner of iniquity. And in doing so, Jude writes here that they deny the only Lord and our Lord Jesus Christ.
If we say we give Jesus Christ some sort of lip service, And we say, yes, I believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. But then we go out and we commit all manner of iniquity actively. Then we do deny our Lord. We deny the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ, because by our conduct, we show that we are not his.
And so these these false teachers were turning the grace of God into lewdness and denying the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ,
Denunciation, Description, and Doom of the Heretics
which brings us thirdly to this, the denunciation description and doom of the heretics, the denunciation, description and doom of the heretics. First, though, if we look at verse verses five to seven, Jude calls to remembrance the historical historical examples of divine judgment. And he does this for a few particular reasons, I believe. But notice what Jude does here.
Historical Examples of Divine Judgment
He calls to readers remembrance divine judgment carried out in history. But I want to remind you, he says, though you once knew this, that the Lord, having saved the people out of the land of Egypt afterward, destroyed those who did not believe and the angels who did not keep their proper domain but left their own abode. He has reserved an everlasting chains under darkness for the judgment of the great day as Sodom and Gomorrah in the cities around them in a similar manner to these having given themselves over to sexual immorality and gone after strange flesh are set forth as an example suffering the vengeance of eternal fire. So what Jude is doing here, before he gets to an act of denunciation, although implicitly here there is one, but before he gets to denouncing these false teachers and these heretics, he brings forth a reminder.
And it's a threefold reminder, which on a side note is very interesting. Throughout the book of Jude, we have a lot of threes. I don't want to attach too much significance to this, but nevertheless, very quickly, it is very interesting. Threes in the book of Jude, verse 1A, a threefold identification of himself, Jude.
Verse 1B, a threefold identification of his audience. Verse 4, a threefold identification of the ungodly men. Verses 5 to 7, we just read it, a threefold reminder of divine judgment. Verse 11, three examples of those who led people into transgression.
And verse 14, another threefold description. of the ungodly men. And there probably are more, but that's just a simple, simple outline of threes in the book of Jude. It's very interesting. Maybe you did that to make it easy.
Sometimes preachers do that from the pulpit. Three points tonight will be such and such and such. But nevertheless, here, Jude gives a threefold reminder of divine judgment in history. And I believe he gives this reminder of divine judgment to serve more than one purpose.
First off, it serves as a warning to the false teachers and anyone who would follow their doctrine. God in the past, God in history, has not held back justice. God has exercised justice. He's not unjust.
He's not arbitrary. He exercises justice according to his righteousness, according to his holiness, according to his holy law. And so Jude is bringing out the fact using this reminder as a warning that God has judged in the past. God does not.
God is not soft. God does not pass over. God does not relax justice. Rather, according to his wisdom, according to his sovereignty, he carries it out. and he has done so in time and in history and he will exact his divine prerogative in eternal condemnation. when people transgress his holy law.
So he first off is warning these by way of reminder. Secondly, Jude's believing audience was to be reassured that there was nothing new under the sun. They there are these these false teachers among them, these terrorists, these troublemakers, but they are to understand and to somehow in a strange way, but in a in a righteous way, Be reminded of the fact, or be assured of the fact, that there is nothing new under the sun. The godly throughout history, throughout the history of the church, have been beset by the ungodly and their activities.
Ever since Adam, in that first day of the transgression, evil has been in this world. Sin and sinner have been in this world and against the people of God. They exact their particular activities and these believers that Judah's writing to be writing to her to be reassured of that. Nothing new.
There is nothing new under the sun. You are going through what God's people have been going through since the beginning of sin. And thirdly, they are to recognize and be confident in the fact of the inevitable doom of the wicked. Because Jude begins with this language in verse 8, likewise also these dreamers.
So he reminds them of divine justice in the past and then he says at verse 8, likewise also these ungodly men who have crept in unnoticed. But they are to recognize and to be confident in the fact of the inevitable doom of the wicked. Now they are not to have some sort of wretched fascination with the destruction of people. But nevertheless, they are to be they are to be confident that God will exercise justice according to his will.
You can turn to Philippians for a moment. Philippians, chapter one, just to understand something of this. Philippians, chapter one. In something very similar to the book of Jude.
I'll begin reading in verse twenty seven. Only let your conduct be worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that whether I come and see you or am absent, I may hear of your affairs that you stand fast in one spirit with one mind, striving together for the faith of the gospel. And notice here, verse 28, and not in any way terrified by your adversaries, which is to them a proof of perdition, but to you of salvation and that from God, for to you it has been granted on behalf of Christ not only to believe in him, but also to suffer for his sake, having the same conflict which you saw in me. And now here is in me.
I would say that that Philippians 127 to 29 is sort of a good summary of the book of Jude, if I can. If I can offer that up there to strive for the faith of the gospel, they're not to be in any way terrified by their adversaries. That is, to them, a proof of perdition to their adversaries. But to the believers, it is proof of salvation and that from God.
So we see here that they can gain confidence from the fact that there will be a destruction of the ungodly, whether whether that comes, whether that comes now in their own time or in the future judgment. Nevertheless, Because of the fact that these were being assailed, that the Philippian believers were being assailed by those who opposed them, that was proof of their destruction, their condemnation, the fact that God would render justice upon them for hating God and for hating his people. So we have the fact here, again, thirdly, that they were the believers were to recognize and be confident in the fact of the inevitable doom of the wicked. And Jude will bring that out, that the doom of these ungodly men who have crept in unnoticed is inevitable.
Sins and Character of the Heretics
Next notice, verses 8 to 10, we have Jude connecting the previous historical examples with the current activity of these particular heretics. Likewise, also these dreamers defile the flesh, reject authority and speak evil of dignitaries. So Jude is now describing some of the activities, some of the sins, some of the transgressions of these particular ungodly men. First off, they defile the flesh.
Most likely, this is a reference to sexual immorality, to sexual perversion, perhaps even homosexuality, because Jude likens them unto Sodom and Gomorrah, who went after strange flesh. These these people who had crept in unnoticed, remember, turn the grace of God into into lewdness and deny the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ. So one of the things that marks these ungodly men was sexual immorality. They reject authority.
They reject authority. We already brought this out in the beginning. When Jude identifies himself as a bondservant of Jesus Christ, he may very well be writing against those who would say that they aren't bondservants to no one. Although, of course, they would be bondservants or slaves to sin.
But here we have a characterization of these ungodly men. A second one, they reject authority. And this is most likely a reference to the fact that they reject the sovereign lordship and authority of our Savior and King and Lord, the Lord Jesus Christ. When that is a simple and an obvious aspect of the center, not touched by the grace, the amazing and victorious grace of God, they reject the authority of Christ.
We could look back to Psalm 2, where it's not just the kings and those who are in authority who want to cut off. the bonds and the courts that God and his Christ have set up according to their sovereign will. But it is also anyone who would follow after those kings and those who are in authority who seek to do that, who do not kiss the sun, lest he be angry and they perish in the way. So they reject the authority of the Lord Jesus Christ. Jude has already said this in saying that they deny him previously in verse four, and they speak evil of dignitaries as we move through the book of Jude.
Thankfully, I won't be. I won't be getting into a lot of detail with a lot of these things because there are some difficult words, difficult phrases, difficult metaphors. But I think what we're getting here when it says that when Jude writes that they speak evil of dignitaries, the following verse tells us probably what that is. Because he writes, Yet Michael the archangel, in contending with the devil, when he disputed the body of Moses, dared not bring against him a reviling accusation, but said, The Lord rebuke you.
So these dreamers, these ungodly men who had crept in unnoticed, speaking evil of dignitaries, that's probably a reference to unwholesome and uncomely mockery against fallen angels, if we're reading verse 9 properly after that. Now, does that mean that fallen angels, does that mean that the devil doesn't deserve a reviling accusation that there's some sort of worthiness or value to them? That's probably not what Jude is arguing here. What Jude is arguing here is that we ought to just simply commit these things unto God.
The Lord rebuked you. That's what these these ungodly men were probably entertaining. They were engaging in this unwholesome, this sinful, this wretched reviling of these dignitaries or these angels. Now this is something that you know you might be going through some of this and all none of this is really prevalent or none of this is relevant to the modern church.
Well I believe this does take place today maybe maybe a little more a little more innocently. But we don't need to if we can take it if we can take an application from this to the modern church. We don't need to choreograph dances. And we don't need to write lyrics for songs that have Christians bouncing around in their seats, mocking the devil and mocking fallen angels.
That's just that's just silly. What we need to do is follow the example that Jude sets forth here in Michael, the archangel. The Lord rebuke you when we read, when we read throughout the Holy Scriptures is what what our response is to be to the activity of the devil or to the devil himself. It is that we are just simply to resist him.
And if we are to verbalize anything, we are to verbalize what Jude gives us here. The Lord rebuked you. We don't have to create a two minute dance and teach kids how to, you know, how to, you know, mock the devil and tell him to sit on a tap. We don't really have to do that.
We just have to say the Lord rebuked you. But, you know, again, people doing it today are a little more innocent. But but if you've ever and if you've ever been within the context or if you've ever been to a very hyper charismatic environment or church or service or tent meeting, you can see this going on. And it's just it is very silly.
We need to exercise some Christian professionalism. If I can use that language and simply rebuke the Lord or sorry, I apologize, rebuke the devil and any of these sorts of things with the statement of Jude. the Lord rebuke you. Moving on then to verse 11,
Woe: Cain, Balaam, and Korah
Jude now pronounces a woe, an imprecation, a curse of God upon these ungodly men and lumps them in by using a threefold example, lumps them in with three men who led people astray, who led people into sin and into transgression. Verse 11, woe to them, for they have gone in the way of Cain, have run greedily in the error of Balaam for profit, and perished in the rebellion of Korah. So, again, Jude has already brought forth a divine example or a historical example of divine judgment. He has said that these ungodly men will likewise be the recipients of that divine judgment.
And now he pronounces a woe on them, saying that they have gone in the way of Cain, Balaam and Korah. They are rebellious. They are greedy. They are ungodly.
They are sinners and They will incur the wrath of God. They will incur that they will be the recipients, the righteous, the rightful recipients of God's divine justice. And
Vivid Portraits of the Ungodly
Jude continues here with very interesting language, with very poetic and wordy language describing these particular heretics. Notice the language beginning at verse 12. These are spots in your love feasts while they feast with you without fear, serving only themselves. They are clouds without water carried about by the winds.
Late autumn trees without fruit, twice dead, pulled up by the roots. Raging waves of the sea, foaming up their own shame. Wandering stars, for whom is reserved the blackness of darkness forever. That's not a very good description.
If you're of that particular camp of these heretics, not you out here, but if anybody reading this were, they would not feel very attractive, very handsome. at all. This is quite an indictment of these people who were active in the time of Jude and in the time of his recipients. And I believe what Jude is saying here, if we can use words to sum it up, is that they are dangerous, they are immoral, they are worthless, and they are untrustworthy. What do I mean by that?
Well, to sort of decipher some of this language, These are spots in your love feasts while they feast with you without fear, serving only themselves. First off, just the simple sin of selfishness. They feast with you without fear, serving only themselves. We can think of first Corinthians 11 as something of a of another example in another book of Holy Scripture, the New Testament.
But nevertheless, here, what does it mean for these to be dangerous? Well, this word translated spots. is often used in extra-biblical literature to refer to hidden reefs. Merchant mariners might think they were in calm waters as they're traveling through the ocean or some part of the sea, and then they hit a rocky reef or a hidden reef of rocks. Well, Jude is most likely saying here, if we take that understanding in that language, that these are dangerous teachers.
You might think that you're in calm water. They did creep in unnoticed. Excuse me, but there are hidden reefs beneath this seemingly calm water. And these false teachers are dangerous.
They are they are immoral. They are late autumn trees without fruit, twice dead, pulled up by the roots. They if the previous language that Judah has given us is any indication, the statement that they are immoral is an understatement. They are again, they are late autumn trees. without fruit, twice dead, pulled up by the roots.
They are a body of immoral heretics, again turning the grace of God into lewdness and denying the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ. They are worthless, raging waves of the sea, foaming up their own shame. They are untrustworthy, wandering stars for whom is reserved the blackness of darkness forever. Now, if this is what is in the back of Jude's minds, of course, navigating by wandering stars or by moving celestial bodies was not the most accurate way of getting from point A to point B. to point C.
Merchant mariners, for example, would not be wise to plot their course by wandering stars, but rather by fixed celestial bodies. So these false teachers, these heretics, were like wandering stars. And to fix yourselves, believers, Christians those called sanctified and preserved to align yourselves to their teaching is to align yourselves to untrustworthy or like aligning yourselves to untrustworthy stars moving celestial bodies for whom is reserved the blackness of darkness forever. So Jude paints a picture here and he pulls no punches.
It is not a pretty picture. These heretics, these false teachers are ungodly and they are ungodly in a fourfold manner according to the next set of verses. Now we get to the fact of the doom of these particular heretics, these ungodly men. Notice the repetition of the word ungodly as Jude continues to paint this picture.
Now Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied about these men also, saying, Behold, the Lord comes with ten thousands of his saints to execute judgment on all, to convict all who are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have committed in an ungodly way, and of all the harsh things which ungodly sinners have spoken against him. So again, Jude does not paint a pretty picture. He indicts these men with an ugly picture of their state, their activities, and certainly of their upcoming judgment. They will not enter into eternal bliss.
Rather, they will be recipients of justice, of judgment, of condemnation. When the Lord comes with ten thousands of his saints to execute judgment on all and to convict all who are ungodly. And so Jude, again, describes these heretics. He denunciates them.
He denounces their activities. He describes them. And then he states the fact that they will surely meet their doom by the righteous exercise of the Lord in his justice. And he reminds them again, at verse 16, he gives another description of their activities, but he reminds his believers again.
And in that we have good instruction. Let's read this, verses 16 to 19. These are grumblers, complainers walking according to their own lusts, and they mouth great swelling words, flattering people to gain advantage. Paul and Peter write about these particular types of people or this characteristic of the ungodly.
They are selfish. They're walking according to their own lusts. They're grumblers and complainers, never satisfied because they are in error, because they are deceived and deceiving. And they mouth great swelling words, flattering people to gain advantage and activity of the center of the false teacher.
They might have they might be able to articulate sentences. They can string sentences together, have the appearance, the semblance of wisdom. But nevertheless, their words are empty and they are active in flattering people. to gain advantage. And then Jude reminds them here.
But you, beloved, remember the words which were spoken before by the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ, how they told you that there would be mockers in the last time who would walk according to their own ungodly lusts. This is instructive for us because Jude directs us and we ought to always be directed to apostolic testimony. When we when we are faced with problems, when we are faced with trials, when we are faced with heretics, when we are faced with those who oppose Christ, his church and his gospel, we are to go and to remember or go to and remember the words spoken before by the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ were to go to the word of God. were to go to the scriptures in order to battle these particular things. And Jude instructs them well and directs them well to go to a destination where you cannot air the inspired word of God again.
But you, beloved, remember the words which were spoken before. by the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ. Not only is this instructive in telling where the believer is to go, but also here, Jude, it serves as a reminder again that there is nothing new under the sun or that they ought to have known these things, that these were to come among them. They were to be watchful. If this is any indication to us, this language, while they feast with you without fear in your in your love feast, they were present at the love feasts of these particular believers.
And the believers were eating with them and hearing them and talking to them. So this is something of an indictment. Not only should they have been watchful, but they should have known while they were among them that they were among them and sought to kick them out of their particular camp. But you, beloved, remember, How they told you that there would be mockers in the last time who would walk according to their own ungodly lusts.
And then another description before we move on to the exhortation and close. These are sensual persons who cause divisions, not having the spirit. Jude here indicts these as not having the spirit. And then he will move on to believers who do have the spirit exhorting them.
And this is where we get to the to the closing or the end of this sandwich technique, if we can use that concerning the book of Jude. We have Jude now closing with good things. He is described. He is denounced.
He has spoken of the doom of these heretics. And now he gets to positive exhortations. for the believers that he is writing to. But you, beloved, building yourselves up on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life. He has already spoken to them as those who are sanctified by God the Father.
Now he is exhorting them to be sanctified by God the Father or to actively be engaging in growing in the grace and in the knowledge of their Lord Jesus Christ building yourselves up on your most holy faith. And contrary to these false teachers who had crept in unnoticed these ungodly men they are to pray in the Holy Spirit because that is only how true prayer can be rendered unto God. This isn't that they were somehow supposed to have a higher level of prayer than just regular Christians that you know Christians generally speaking pray but you know hyper super elite Christians pray in the Holy Spirit. speak tongues and all that nonsense. No, what he is saying is that contrary to these heretics who do not have the Spirit, verse 19, you pray in the Holy Spirit because that's what Christians do.
When we pray in the Holy Spirit or when we pray, we are praying in the Holy Spirit because he is with us, guiding us, instructing us by and with the Word of God. And then notice again something of that Philippians 2, 12 and 13. Keep yourselves in the love of God. This isn't a verse, of course, that would support the fact that believers in and of themselves need to keep themselves and maintain their faith. in Christ, no rather it is that Philippians 2, 12 and 13.
Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God that is at work in you, both to will and to do, for his good pleasure. Keep yourselves in the love of God. Isn't that wonderful? In the love of God.
And then there is hope. There is hope. An aspect of Christian living is that there is a looking forward unto that day of redemption. We have been redeemed, but there is also that day of redemption looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life.
And then something that the church ought to be active in. Something that the church ought to be active in. We ought not just to be concerned with ourselves, but rather we are to put the interests of others. Ahead of those of our own and on some have compassion making a distinction But others save with fear pulling them out of the fire hating even the garment defiled by the flesh I think what we can also take from this brethren is an example that we do need to deal with brothers and sisters in Christ differently we can't just we can't just hammer everybody with you know, you're horrible repent and Jesus Christ, you know, we need we need to we need to see that people need to be dealt with in different manners on some have compassion, making a distinction, but others save with fear.
Some people will require because of their disposition, because of their because of the you know, the uniqueness of their particular situation, they would need us to exercise a level of compassion. We need to speak lightly to them. We need to speak slowly to them. Yes, speaking the word of God.
Yes, approaching it biblically, but speaking with kind words, speaking with compassion on others. We need to perhaps bring things a little more heavily to them. There may need to be an open and a vocal and a louder command to repent, to turn from their activity in sin and to turn unto the Lord Jesus Christ, to return to the path, to the way everlasting. There are different ways that we need to handle different people.
We again, I've run across some people who just, you know, very strong headed. No, we need to just deal with everybody one way. They just need to believe and repent. Well, there are ways, as Jude says, that we at times when we need to make distinctions, we need to be compassionate on some others.
We need to save with fear, pulling them out of the fire, hating even the garment defiled by the flesh and the closing doxology.
Closing Doxology
A wonderful doxology that we've read many days as a closing benediction, closing words at the end of the service. Notice the language Jude uses here. Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy. To God, our Savior, who alone is wise, be glory and majesty, dominion and power both now and forever.
Amen. Wonderful language that Jude closes with. Jude gives us or writes of the God who preserves, the God who justifies, the God of salvation, the God deserving of praise and honor, the God of sovereign authority. And he writes of the fact that God, he is all these things eternally.
A wonderful doxology of praise. Jude began with Wonderful salvation theology concerning the recipients of the letter. He closes directing them to the God who is worthy of honor, who is worthy of all praise. And just very quickly in closing.
Application
Just a few things that we can gain from this, and I will be brief. First, we are to rejoice in our salvation. We get this clearly from the salutation and closing doxology. We are the called.
We are the sanctified. We are the preserved. And we are also those who Jude writes to here when he says now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling. That's a glorious thing.
We are not preserved because of our wholesome activity. We are preserved because of the one who is able to keep us from stumbling. We are to rejoice in our salvation. Secondly, we're to take doctrine seriously and contend for it.
We get this from the statement of purpose. We are to contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints. We are to know troublemakers when we see them and we are to handle them. Making a distinction, perhaps as we deal with believers, we make a distinction as we deal with those who are unbelievers.
We need to make a distinction. We don't compromise the truth, but we can deal with some people with a little more grace and reverence with others. Perhaps they need something of a heavy hand because they are opposing the living and true God, the God of the armies. of Israel. Thirdly we are to be comforted when we are tried by our enemies by the fact that first there is nothing new under the sun and secondly that their destruction the knowledge or knowing that their destruction is inevitable.
We are not to be terrified by our adversaries. Paul writes. We are to rather be encouraged that that is evidence of their perdition and it is evidence to us of our salvation and that from God and we are to know again that there is nothing new under the sun. What what we are going through now if we are beset by trial by evil by sinners we can rest assured that believers prior to us have have been opposed have been assailed have been tried.
Fourthly, for the unbeliever, there is a coming judgment and you need to repent. When Jude is writing here of this prophecy that the Lord will be coming with ten thousand of his saints to execute judgment on all. He is not just saying that those in Jude's time who were heretics and false teachers will be the recipients of divine justice. If you are here today and you don't know Christ Jesus as Lord and Savior, you will also be the recipient of that divine justice and it will not be a good day for you.
And your current state, your current lot is not good. If you're here today, this is for child. This is for adult. If you are not in Christ Jesus, believing in him, you need to repent.
You need to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved. That's the simplicity, not not belittling the gospel, but the simplicity of the gospel. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved. Glorious truth.
And finally, we need to be mindful of our brethren. We need to be mindful of our brethren. We can't just look away when we see some who are perhaps entrapped in some sort of heresy, some sort of danger, some sort of bad doctrine. We need to have compassion on them, making distinction.
But on others, we need to save with fear, pulling them out of the fire. We need to be watchful. We need to observe, not in a condescending way, not in a sneaky espionage way, but we need to in a loving manner observe our brethren. and seek to have compassion on them and seek to pull them out of the fire perhaps so that they might walk in the way everlasting afresh, anew and strong. Well, why don't we pray?
Closing Prayer
Father, we thank you so much for your holy word. We thank you for what it tells us, Lord God. We thank you for what we can take from it. We thank you, Lord God.
And we just pray that we would heed the exhortation of Jude. We pray that we would rejoice in the fact that we are called. We are sanctified. We are preserved in Christ Jesus.
We ask, Father, that you would help us to to earnestly contend for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints. And we pray that we would do so. We would do so not in a heavy-handed manner or an offensive manner, Lord God, but that with grace and reverence and fear we might seek to defend your glorious truth. We just pray, Father, that you would help us to love each other, that we would demonstrate and show that Christian love, having compassion towards one another, Father, that we would be strong in the truth, that we would love each other, and that we would seek to go from here doing and acting and thinking and speaking according to your most holy word.
And we just pray that you'd go with each and every one of us now, that you would help us, Father, to conduct ourselves in a manner worthy of our great Christ and of your glorious gospel. And it's in the name of our Savior and Redeemer that we pray. Amen.