Reminders from history, Jude 5-10

There are primarily two basic themes prevalent in theology in Christendom today.  But only one is correct theology, and the other one is incorrect, even though it is the most popular.  The most common theology, the most popular theology,  has as it’s premise that God exists to serve man.  They may not say it so crassly, but nevertheless, that is the basics of it.  That God serves man, God loves man, God gives things to man, God helps man.  God is not much more than a miracle working genie who exists to serve the needs of man. And so, of course, God doesn't judge man, He won't punish man, because He loves us too much. The other theology, the correct one, has as it’s premise, that man exists to serve God. Man was made for God, to love Him, to serve Him, to do His will, and to live for Him. He is Lord and Master, and we are to be subject to Him. 

And all of our attempts at understanding God we try to fit into one of those templates. You might even go so far as to say that all of religion is man’s efforts to control God.  Most of our preaching and teaching falls into that same error.  We try to interpret the Bible to fit our paradigm.  We try to create a message that fits our ideas of what is acceptable, what seems right to us.  We tend to think that if we can develop enough knowledge about God, then we can control God and control the outcome of our dealings with God.

And it is obvious that God allows us to have a go at it.  God suffers fools.  God doesn’t always stoop to answer man’s foolishness.  God doesn’t always immediately respond to our foolishness with judgment.  But as Jude shows us in this section of scripture, God promises to judge man’s disobedience, whether it is immediate or in the future.

Jude started off his letter by saying that he planned to write concerning their common salvation.  He was planning on writing about the truth they held in common in salvation.  There is truth that leads to salvation, and there is a false gospel that doesn’t produce salvation. But by the urging of the Holy Spirit, Jude felt the necessity to write about the need to contend for the faith. Because, as we will learn, the faith, the truth that leads to salvation, was under attack.  

Certain persons had crept into the church and sown seeds of bad theology, which served to give license to those who disobeyed the Lord and lived according to their lustful desires.  Particularly the lusts of a sexual nature, and the lusts for money.  Such people, Jude said, were already marked for condemnation because they turned the grace of our God into licentiousness and denied our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.

To turn the grace of God into licentiousness means that they disregarded the law of God, especially in the realm of promiscuity or immorality.  They said that they weren’t under law any more but under grace, and therefore what they did in the body does not really matter.  That’s the errant theology; God loves me, God forgives me, and God won’t punish or condemn me. 

The other thing Jude said they did was deny our Master and Lord Jesus Christ. That doesn’t mean that they denied His existence. But they denied His lordship.  They denied His right to reign in our lives.  Again, they had the theology that God exists to serve me, not the other way around.  I don’t have to serve the Lord with my life, my actions, my behavior.  I am captain of my ship.  I can exercise my freedom, my independence, in pursuit of my happiness, and the Lord is going to be ok with that because He just wants me to be happy.

Well, Jude disputes that type of theology.  He says we need to contend for the faith, that is, we need to fight for the true theology.  And furthermore, he says that those who have adopted the errant theology will be judged, and will receive condemnation from God, sooner or later.  Now to support that he is going to give three examples from history of those that rebelled against God’s truth, and ended up being condemned and punished by God.

In bringing up these history lessons from the past, Jude says that we need to be reminded of them, even though we already know them.  Vs 5, “Now I desire to remind you, though you know all things once for all…”  The point being that as Christians, who know the truth, we nevertheless need to be reminded of the truth again and again, to keep the truth fresh before us. It is far too easy to become complacent about doctrines that once established our faith and now are taken for granted.  It’s like the doctrine of salvation; though we are saved by knowledge of the truth of the gospel, by believing it, yet it is necessary to never let the glories of the cross fade from our view.  In reminding ourselves, whether by song or by scripture, we are brought further along on our path of sanctification.

Such remembrance also serves to undergird us in the faith, and ensure that we do not make the same mistakes as those before us.  As Winston Churchill once wrote, “Those that fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it.”

The first lesson from history that Jude reminds us of is that of the danger of apostasy. He says in vs 5, “Now I desire to remind you, though you know all things once for all, that the Lord, after saving a people out of the land of Egypt, subsequently destroyed those who did not believe.”

He is, of course, reminding us of the people of Israel, who were delivered from captivity in Egypt by many miracles of God.  God exhibited His power to them again and again.  He gave them His word, His promises, His law.  God dwelt among them.  But nevertheless, they did not believe His word. They were faithless again and again.  They rebelled against Moses. And ultimately, they did not believe that He was able to bring them into the Promised Land, and at the point of entry they rebelled and would not go into the land.

And so God pronounced condemnation upon them, that they would all be destroyed.  We find the record of God’s condemnation in Numbers14: 32, “But as for you, your corpses will fall in this wilderness. Your sons shall be shepherds for forty years in the wilderness, and they will suffer [for] your unfaithfulness, until your corpses lie in the wilderness. According to the number of days which you spied out the land, forty days, for every day you shall bear your guilt a year, [even] forty years, and you will know My opposition. I, the LORD, have spoken, surely this I will do to all this evil congregation who are gathered together against Me. In this wilderness they shall be destroyed, and there they will die.”

This event is also remembered in the Psalms, in Psalm 95 it says, “Do not harden your hearts, as at Meribah, As in the day of Massah in the wilderness, When your fathers tested Me, They tried Me, though they had seen My work. For forty years I loathed [that] generation, And said they are a people who err in their heart, And they do not know My ways. Therefore I swore in My anger, Truly they shall not enter into My rest.” And the author of Hebrews, quoting that passage, adds, “they did not enter because of unbelief.”

In that passage, we see that disobedience and unbelief are related.  One happens because of the other.  That’s why we must remember that Jesus correlated belief and obedience.  He said if you love Me you will keep my commandments.  Again and again Jesus urged His hearers not only to believe in Him, but to follow Him.  Belief must be tied to obedience.  As John told us in his epistles, you can’t say you have fellowship with God and yet walk in darkness.  You can’t say you believe in Christ and yet disobey Him. You can’t say you believe and yet rebel against His word. And the lesson we are reminded of in this example is that God punished Israel for their unbelief and disobedience.

The second illustration from history of those that received condemnation because of unbelief is found in vs 6.  “And angels who did not keep their own domain, but abandoned their proper abode, He has kept in eternal bonds under darkness for the judgment of the great day.”  Jude is renowned for bringing up obscure facts in this little letter.  And this particular reference is such a one.

Jude is speaking of an incident regarding fallen angels which is mentioned in Genesis chapter 6. In that passage we read, “Now it came about, when men began to multiply on the face of the land, and daughters were born to them,  that the sons of God saw that the daughters of men were beautiful; and they took wives for themselves, whomever they chose.  Then the LORD said, "My Spirit shall not strive with man forever, because he also is flesh; nevertheless his days shall be one hundred and twenty years."  The Nephilim were on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of men, and they bore [children] to them. Those were the mighty men who [were] of old, men of renown.”

There are a lot that of questions that have arisen in regards to these verses from which many commentators have offered purely conjecture.  But I think we can safely say that the sons of God refers to angels, which in this case are fallen angels, part of the demons in Satan’s realm, and they took on the form of man so that they could have sexual relations with the daughters of men.  This act was not only rebellion against God, but it also was an attack by Satan upon the object of God’s love, which was the human race, made in His likeness and made in His image.  Satan orchestrated this event to destroy the human race. Many theologians believe that this unholy union caused a half human half demonic offspring that was unredeemable and thus God decided to destroy the human race by a universal flood. 

Jude goes on to say that those angels who left their proper place, God has kept in eternal bonds or chains under darkness for the judgement of the great day.  The apostle Peter also references this event in 2Peter 2:4-5 saying, “For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to pits of darkness, reserved for judgment;  and did not spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah, a preacher of righteousness, with seven others, when He brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly.”  Because of the way Peter ties the sin of the angels to the flood is evidence that he is speaking of the same event as Jude.

Now there are a lot of rabbit trails that we could go down on this topic.  But let’s not lose sight of what Jude is trying to convey through this example.  The reminder is that of the sin of autonomy, of denying the lordship of Jesus Christ.  To disobey, to rebel is to deny the Lord's position of authority, to set ourselves up as the god of our own life, to decide what we think is right, or what we think should be ok, and in so doing, to set ourselves in rebellion against God and due for condemnation at the judgement.  If God did not spare angels when they sinned, neither will He spare us.  God put those angels that left their proper abode in eternal chains, in bondage, some believe that refers to a special section of hell, awaiting the final judgement.

In speaking of the angels sin, Jude segue’s into another form of rebellion, which is similar to that of the angels.  And he speaks of that in vs 7, “just as Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities around them, since they in the same way as these indulged in gross immorality and went after strange flesh, are exhibited as an example in undergoing the punishment of eternal fire.” 

Notice than in referencing the sin of Sodom and Gomorrah Jude correlates it to the sin of the angels by saying, “just as.”  “In the same way as these…”  He is saying that the sin of Sodom and Gomorrah was like the sin of the angels, in the same way they were immoral and went after strange flesh.

I won’t take the time to read the account from Genesis 18 and 19 as I’m sure you are all familiar with the story.  But as Jude says, we need to be reminded.  The account says that the report of the sin of Sodom and Gomorrah had reached the point where God was going to destroy the city.  He sent two angels who took on human form to speak to Lot and his family and take them out of the city, lest they be destroyed with them.  But that night the men of the city congregated at the door of Lot’s house, demanding that he let them come out that they might have sexual relations with them.

Jude says that they pursued unnatural desires.  The Bible teaches that homosexuality is an unnatural desire.  It is rejecting the authority and design of God.  It is rejecting the command of God. God said in Leviticus 18:22 'You shall not lie with a male as one lies with a female; it is an abomination.”  It is a crime against God and man.

Peter spoke of this same event in the same passage we referenced while ago, 2Peter 2:6 “and [if] He condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to destruction by reducing [them] to ashes, having made them an example to those who would live ungodly [lives] thereafter.”   The point both Jude and Peter make is that God condemned the sin of those people, and brought about destruction upon them, as an example for those that come after them.  That we must not rebel against the command of God, lest we suffer the same condemnation.

Jude says they “are exhibited as an example in undergoing the punishment of eternal fire.” God brought fire and brimstone down upon the city and destroyed every living thing.  But in the final judgement, the fire is eternal, it never goes out, and the soul must endure that punishment forever.

After offering these Biblical  examples of the sins of apostasy, autonomy and immorality, Jude says in vs8,  “Yet in the same way these men, also by dreaming, defile the flesh, and reject authority, and revile angelic majesties.”  “ These men” refers to  those false prophets of his day, the objects of his letter, the certain persons who had crept in unnoticed into the church, and used the grace of God as a cover for licentiousness and denied the authority of the Lord Jesus Christ.

He says these men are guilty of the same sins as those of the Israelites who refused to believe, as the angels before the flood, and as the men of Sodom and Gomorrah.  He says these men also by dreaming, defile the flesh, and reject authority, and revile angelic majesties.  

I’m not sure what he means by his statement that they were dreaming.  I suppose it’s a reference to so called prophets who took their stand on visions that they had supposedly seen, which undermined, or over rode the scriptures.  That’s the danger of extra biblical revelation.  It’s not that God did not use visions at times in the past before the full canon of scripture had been given, to reveal truth to His prophets.  But the problem is that today dreams and visions are rarely subjected to scripture for authentication.  Let me say this, if your dream is not supported by scripture, then it’s not of God.  Dreams and visions will never go against the scriptures.  But far too often today people claim a dream that they had to validate something that they want to do, which is not aligned with scripture.  In Colossians 2:18 Paul warns against those that take their stand on visions that they have seen, and as such, defraud you of your prize.

Jude says they not only sin by dreaming, but they defile the flesh.  Defiling the flesh is probably a reference to immorality, which covers the gamut of sexual sins.  False doctrine is often used as a covering for immoral behavior.   Jude adds to that they reject authority.  Rejecting authority is tied directly to immoral behavior. But it goes further than just that.  It is rejecting the authority of the scriptures, it rejects the authority even of Jesus Christ, and sets itself up as it’s own authority.  

I can’t help but relate this to many of the mainstream denominations that claim to be Christian but for all intents and purposes have become apostate. They began by denying the authority and inspiration of all the scriptures.  They began by saying that some prohibitions were simply cultural and we live in a different culture, and so there is no compulsion for us to keep certain restrictions or morals that Paul or other writers spoke of.  So on that basis they have made the decision to allow women as pastors in the church even though it’s clearly prohibited in scripture, because that was just a  cultural thing and we’ve gotten so far beyond that today.

And then they took this gender ambivalence another step further and said that a homosexual lifestyle is not a sin, and that you can have full fellowship in the church irregardless of your  sex or sexual preferences. Then they took it a little further than that and said that since there was nothing wrong with homosexuality then there should be no restraint against ministers who are homosexual. That too should be allowed because we live in a different culture and a different time, and love is love, and God is love, and any scriptures saying otherwise are not to be taken literally.

The problem is that they have rejected the authority of the scriptures.  They have rejected the authority of Jesus Christ; it is His church, and He placed certain restrictions upon it.  And to reject His authority is to sin with the same terrible expectation of judgement that fell upon the Israelites, the angels, and Sodom and Gomorrah.  And if you are still in one of those churches, then I would suggest that you get out like Lot got out of Sodom, lest you end up being condemned along with them.

The third thing Jude says is a characteristic of these false prophets, is that they revile angelic majesties. However, in this case, Jude makes no distinction whether they be holy angels or fallen ones. But he gives us an illustration of reviling an angel, though in this case it is a fallen angel. In vs 9, Jude once again speaks of an event that is nowhere else mentioned in the scriptures.  He says, “But Michael the archangel, when he disputed with the devil and argued about the body of Moses, did not dare pronounce against him a railing judgment, but said, "The Lord rebuke you!"

Its very interesting that Jude says that Michael is an archangel. An archangel, from what little we can discern from scripture, is the highest order of angels in the entire hosts of heaven. The Bible indicates there is a hierarchy of angels. I wish we could spend some time talking about angels and their positions, and look at the other references in scripture to Michael.  I don’t have the time to do that today, however.  But if you’re interested in further research you can look at Daniel 10:13, and 1 Thess. 4:16.  

But our purpose here today, and the purpose of Jude, is not to give a dissertation on angels, but to make the point that certain men in the churches were reviling angelic majesties of which they had no business doing, and did so to their own destruction.

As you probably know, Moses was not allowed to go into the Promised Land, however, God took him up on a high mountain that he might see it from a distance.  And then Moses died and the scripture says that God buried Moses in a place that no one knew.  We can read about that in Deut. 34:5-6 “So Moses the servant of the LORD died there in the land of Moab, according to the word of the LORD.  And He buried him in the valley in the land of Moab, opposite Beth-peor; but no man knows his burial place to this day.”  The indication from Jude, however, is that the devil attempted to claim the body of Moses.  We are not told why, but we might guess that he intended to use it to cause Israel to worship the body of Moses.

The point though that Jude wants to make, is even though Michael is an archangel of God, and has the full authority of that position and incredible power, yet he did not dare pronounce against the devil a railing judgment, but said, “The Lord rebuke you!” Michael relied upon the Lord’s authority, and not his own. 

Jude has told us that we are to contend, or fight for the faith. It is a spiritual battle.  And the manner of Michael’s fight is a model for spiritual warfare. First, we see that Michael was in a battle, such as we are when we contend for the faith. Secondly, we see that he battled in the Lord’s authority.  

Michael did not mock or accuse the devil. God hasn’t called us to judge the devil, to condemn the devil, to mock him or accuse him, but to battle against him in the name of the Lord. That doesn’t mean we go around claiming the blood of Jesus over every thing and every body. But that we contend by the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ. We defeat the devil by rescuing men and women from captivity to the kingdom of darkness. 

But in contrast to the example of Michael, who would not pronounce a railing judgement upon the devil, these certain men Judes speaks of spoke evil, especially when they rejected authority and reviled angelic majesties. Jude says in vs 10, “But these men revile the things which they do not understand; and the things which they know by instinct, like unreasoning animals, by these things they are destroyed.”

I am reminded by this passage of the seven sons of Sceva, who were attempting to cast out demons by the name of Paul.  These were men that were in effect false prophets, who were trying to cash in on what they saw Paul doing, but which they had no authority to do.  And it says in Acts 19:13-16 “But also some of the Jewish exorcists, who went from place to place, attempted to name over those who had the evil spirits the name of the Lord Jesus, saying, ‘I adjure you by Jesus whom Paul preaches.’ Seven sons of one Sceva, a Jewish chief priest, were doing this.  And the evil spirit answered and said to them, "I recognize Jesus, and I know about Paul, but who are you?" And the man, in whom was the evil spirit, leaped on them and subdued all of them and overpowered them, so that they fled out of that house naked and wounded.”

Jude says these certain men revile things they don’t understand, and by those things they are destroyed.  I find it telling that so many false prophets claim to have authority to cast out demons and they love to proclaim judgements that make them seem like a great man of God, with great power over the spiritual realm, when in fact they are often being duped and even controlled by the very powers that they purport to have authority over.

Well, in this last illustration, Jude has given us an example of whom we are to emulate.  We certainly don’t want to emulate the examples of the rebellious Israelites, nor the fallen angels, nor the men of Sodom and Gomorrah, but the example given we should emulate is that of Michael the archangel.  We are to recognize and bow to the ultimate authority who is Jesus Christ the Lord.  We are to contend for the faith which is His gospel.  We are to obey HIs commands.  We are to fight in the strength that He supplies and rebuke sin and licentiousness in the name of the Lord.  And in that way of following Michael’s example, we will ensure that we do not fall into the same condemnation as those who rebelled and did not believe.  

Contend for the faith, Jude 1-4

Well, today we are beginning a study in the book of Jude.  It’s a very small book, just one chapter, and should take only about three weeks or so.  I thought that in some ways, Jude continued some of the same themes that Peter had been addressing in his 2nd epistle, and so it seemed fitting to continue with a brief series in Jude.

Peter as you know, if you’ve been here for our last few messages, was concerned with the fact that in the last days there would be false prophets who would rise up in the church and work to deceive and defraud the saints. And the Apostle John as well in his letters warned about the antichrists whom he said were already present in the church and working to distort the truth.  Satan has done everything he could down through the ages to distort the truth, to cover the truth, to hide the truth, to twist the truth, to bring about lies and deceptions. One way or another, the truth has always been under attack.  Because the devil knows that the best way to destroy the church, to defeat the gospel, is by subverting the truth to the point that men and women are not able to believe the truth to be saved.

And so that concern on the apostle’s part about the attacks against the truth leads us to the study of Jude, because Jude is concerned about contending for the truth.  He calls it contending for the faith, but it’s really speaking of the same thing.  He is not talking about having faith, but the faith as the body of truth which leads to salvation.  It’s believing in the truth, or believing in the faith.

So the theme of Jude’s letter is stated in vs 3; contend for the faith.  He goes on to say that the faith is being challenged by “certain people” who remain unnamed, but nevertheless are distinctly described. He has a lot to say about these people, and the methods they use to attack the truth. He describes it as a very long battle waged between the people of God and the enemies of God which was started in the Garden of Eden, and continues to this day.  In fact, we might suggest that the battle is even more desperate today, as it seems that the truth is under greater attack than ever before, from both without and within the church.

So I think this letter, though written 2000 years ago to the churches of that day, is very relevant to our day, and it’s message is very pertinent to the difficulties that are going on in the church in the 21st century.

The letter begins with the identification of the author. Letters in those days typically began by identifying the author, rather than waiting until the end of the letter to sign off, which is the custom today.  Jude is the author, however his name actually was Judah in the Hebrew and  Judas in the Greek. Jude then is short for Judas. Judas was a popular name, much the same as the name John is popular today in American culture.  Jesus had two disciples named Judas.  However, this Jude was not one of the 12 apostles.  This Jude identifies himself as a servant of Jesus Christ, and the brother of James. 

It is as the brother of James then that we determine his lineage.  James, the author of the book of James, is the half brother of Jesus.  We say half brother, because Joseph was the father of James, but not the biological father of Jesus.  The Spirit of God is the father of Jesus the man.  And so that makes Jude, the brother of James, the half brother of Jesus as well.  

But it’s very interesting that Jude doesn’t identify himself as the half brother of Jesus.  And that says a lot about the character of the man.  Here he has the greatest claim by which any Christian could have made so as to be considered an authority in the church, and yet he doesn’t use it.  Instead, he mentions James perhaps only to distinguish himself from many other Judes, or Judas’s. 

Most importantly, however, he describes himself as a bond-servant of Jesus Christ.  That reveals that he considers that the basis for his relationship with Jesus Christ is not familial, not on the basis of lineage,  but his relationship is spiritual.  To be a bond slave is to be one who is pledged to serve Jesus Christ as Master and Lord, to love Him as the Lord God, with all your heart, mind, soul and strength.  So he doesn’t rely on his natural birth as a claim to Christ, but on his spiritual birth.

However, according to his natural birth he was the half brother of Jesus.  In Matthew 13:55 we are told people  asked the question concerning Jesus, “Is not this the carpenter’s son? Is not His mother called Mary, and His brothers, James and Joseph and Simon and Judas?”  But even though Jude is related by blood to Jesus according to the flesh, yet according to the faith he is happy to call himself a bond servant of Christ.  Even the family of Jesus needed to believe in Jesus for salvation.  And it’s interesting that John 7:5 says that His brothers did not believe on Him.  Before Christ’s resurrection, they were skeptics.

Another point that bears mentioning there is that Jude considered himself in subjection to Jesus Christ.  You cannot be a servant without a Master.  To be a servant means that you belong to someone, you bow to someone, you are subject to them.  You submit to them.  In a day and age when people rebel against the idea of submitting to any authority, of anyone, or anything, it should be instructive for us to remember Jude, who counted it a privilege to submit to the authority of his Lord and Master, Jesus Christ.  To be a Christian means that you submit to Jesus Christ as your Lord and Master.

So the author of this letter is Jude, but who is the audience? Jude says it’s “to those who are the called, beloved in God the Father, and kept for Jesus Christ.”  The NASB says “the called.”  In this way, he is speaking of those who are effectively called unto Christ.  Remember Romans 8:3 which says,  “and these whom He predestined, He also called; and these whom He called, He also justified; and these whom He justified, He also glorified.”  As the scriptures tell us, salvation is of the Lord.  Those whom He effectively calls to salvation, those He justifies, and those He will glorify.  So its addressed to those that the scriptures calls the saints, or those that are saved, whom God has effectively called unto salvation.

And then Jude adds two qualifiers to those that are called.  He says that in addition to being called, they are beloved.  The love of God has been poured out to them.  To be saved is to know the love of God which has been manifested by the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on our behalf, by dying in our place, to pay the price for our sin. And as the recipients of God’s grace, to be adopted into His family.

And being beloved by God is  a special love.  Yes, God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son. But to be a child of God through faith in Jesus Christ means that we benefit from the special love which the Father has for His children.  As Romans tells us, nothing can separate us from the love of God.  Rom 8:38-39 “For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” 

And that leads to the principle that we are kept for Jesus Christ.  We are the bride of Christ.  Notice the benediction with which Jude concludes this letter in vs Jude 24-25  “Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling, and to make you stand in the presence of His glory blameless with great joy,  to the only God our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, [be] glory, majesty, dominion and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen.”  

That’s what he’s talking about when he says we are kept for Jesus Christ.  We are kept from sin, we are kept from falling from grace, we are kept in the fold of Christ’s church, we are kept in the family of God, we are kept through trials and tribulations, we are kept from the power of Satan, we are kept from death, we are kept until the second coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, and we are kept for eternity.

This is a triple guarantee, a triple blessing that should be dwelt upon, thought upon, and rejoiced in.  That we are called, beloved, and kept is a triple guarantee of our faith that should undergird us to be courageous as we contend for the faith once delivered.   Like the song “In Christ Alone” that we sing, “No power of hell, no scheme of man, could ever pluck me from His hand…” Take comfort that you have been called, beloved, and kept by the Lord God Almighty.

Jude then closes out his introduction with a prayer for his audience, the churches, in vs 2.  Using another triplet, he prays “May mercy and peace and love be multiplied to you.” I don’t think that Jude is praying that the mercy, peace and love of God be multiplied to them, but perhaps that the mercy, peace and love of the church be multiplied.  As the church does what it is commanded to do, to show mercy to one another,  to love one another, to forgive one another, to have peace with one another, these gifts are multiplied by the number of people in the church as they are obedient to the command to love one another.   So Jude is praying that they receive the benefit of the multiplication of grace from the church.

Now contrary to the mythology of some church’s teaching concerning Jude, this Jude, the author of this letter was not an apostle.  He was in some respects a late comer to the faith. He’s probably just a pastor of a church, or perhaps an evangelist.  He is rarely found mentioned in scripture, and would be a rather obscure figure in church history were it not for this little letter.  But what we learn about Jude in this tiny epistle is that he was ready and willing to contend for the faith.  He proves to be a valiant warrior for the kingdom of God, to take a stand against those who have crept in to the church to take advantage of it.

In vs 3 and 4, we see that aspect of Jude manifested as he pens his reason for this letter. He begins by saying that he was preparing to write to them concerning their common salvation but he found it necessary to write otherwise.  Undoubtedly, the Holy Spirit impressed on Jude the necessity to issue a warning to the church about the apostasy which was infiltrating the church. 

Notice how Jude says it, in vs 3, “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.” It’s funny how sometimes we begin to do something which we believe the Lord is leading us to do, and somewhere along in the process of doing what we set out to do,  God either changes our purpose, or changes the result, so that what we end up doing is not what we started to do, but it is better, because it’s what God intended for us to do.  Sometimes we get a prodding from God to do something, to say something, but in the process, we end up saying something altogether different, which we see afterwards was due to the hand of God.  

But I also think that perhaps Jude was a reluctant warrior.  What I mean by that was he wasn’t spoiling for a fight, he wasn’t setting out to pick a fight with people who didn’t see eye to eye with him on every issue.  Sometimes, Christians seem to think that is their calling, to point out every other church’s faults and problems.  Jude wasn’t looking for that.  Rather, he was preparing to write about what they had in common, their salvation.  There are essential aspects of our salvation that are indisputable.  They are common to all who are saved.  And so as Christians we should be more concerned about those common truths rather than our differences on non essential issues.  For instance, we could be what is called a pre-tribulationist, and we could go on the offensive against all the amillennialists.  But we are not tasked with that.  We are called to as much as possible be at peace with one another.  To rejoice with one another.  To focus on the majors and not the minors.  No one is going to hell because he holds an  pre-tribulation or an amillennial view of eschatology. 

So Jude says though he wanted to write one thing, he felt the necessity to write another thing. The writers of scripture were inspired by the Holy Spirit.  Inspiration means God breathed. Peter said it this way in 2Peter 1:21 “for no prophecy was ever made by an act of human will, but men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God.”  Jude intended to write one thing, but God had another message He wanted to deliver.  And so Jude writes, “I felt it necessary to write to you appealing that you contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all handed down to the saints.

To contend earnestly is an athletic term in the Greek.  Its pronunciation in the Greek sounds similar to our word agonize.  It’s talking about intensely struggling, competing, even fighting with all their might. It’s talking about expending great effort in a noble cause. That’s the call of Jude to the church.  To rise up and contend for the faith, because it is under attack.

So Jude has blown the trumpet for battle, so to speak, but then he adds what the great cause for the battle is.  It is for the faith.  He means faith in all it’s fullness.  The full scope of the faith.  It’s the complete revelation of God to man contained in the scriptures, handed down from the apostles, and by which our salvation is possible.  It is the gospel in it’s completeness, from Genesis to Revelation. It’s the truth of God by which we are set free from sin and death. The truth of the gospel is under attack, and Jude says we must rise up and fight for it.

Notice that Jude gives us an important distinction about the faith.  He says it was once for all delivered to the saints.  That was important in his day, with all the spurious apostles that were running around claiming to have a message from God and fleecing the churches.  It was important considering that the antichrist and false prophets were already at work in the church.  And it’s important in our day, a day in which the authority and reliability of scripture is being questioned by theologians and seminarians, not to mention scientists and professors.

It’s important because Jude says it was once for all delivered. The truth of our faith is not a work in progress. The truth doesn’t change from culture to culture, or from generation to generation.  It’s not that it was almost finished and then 1500 years later someone comes along who has a dream or vision and adds to it. It’s not something that needs reinterpretation by the heads of mainstream denominations in order to be relevant to our culture. It’s the faith in it’s fullness, and in it’s completeness.  When Jude wrote this letter some 30 years or so after the resurrection of Christ, the gospel was already in it’s final form.  All that was necessary was already revealed and established truth. 

Then in vs 4, Jude identifies those people with whom they needed to contend; those false prophets, those antichrists that were already at work in the church.  He calls them certain persons.  “For certain persons have crept in unnoticed, those who were long beforehand marked out for this condemnation, ungodly persons who turn the grace of our God into licentiousness and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.”

Notice how Jude describes these people.  He says they crept in, unnoticed.  That’s the deceit of the enemy.  They are disguised as godly people, as those of the faith.  They seem to be righteous.  They fit in, they look the part. 

He also says they were long beforehand marked out for this condemnation. To me, that means that they are really not saved.  Before you are saved, you are condemned.  Once you are saved, you are no longer condemned. The fact that they long beforehand were marked for condemnation indicates that they were pretenders who were never saved. They were like the other Judas, the disciple of Jesus who betrayed Him. He pretended to believe, he even worked miracles in Jesus’ name,  but he was called the son of perdition. And likewise these “certain people” claimed they were Christian, they may have claimed they were from the apostles, they may have claimed that they were from the church of Jerusalem, but in fact, they were pretenders.  They were not really true believers.  

You know, that’s a scary thing.  That certain people can know a lot of facts about the gospel. They can quote scripture. They can even do mighty signs and wonders. They can pray and call on Jesus.  They can have all the outward appearances of a Christian, or may even be a Christian pastor or leader, and yet not be saved.  That’s scary to me.

Jesus said in Matt. 7:22-23 "Many will say to Me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?' And then I will declare to them, 'I never knew you; DEPART FROM ME, YOU WHO PRACTICE LAWLESSNESS.’” It’s scary that they can be so close, and yet not a part of the kingdom of God.

But Jude gives us the telling indication of their spiritual nature.  Here is the key to gauging a real Christian from the pretender.  Jude says they are ungodly. Jesus said in Matt. 7:15 "Beware of the false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves. You will know them by their fruits.”  That’s what Jude is talking about when he says they are ungodly.  Their fruit doesn’t match their claim.  Their life doesn’t match their profession.  They claim they are Christians, but their lives say otherwise.  Rather than their lives being conformed to the image of Jesus Christ, their lives are ungodly.  They are immoral, they live to fulfill their sinful passions.

Jude describes that ungodliness more fully.  He says they are “ungodly persons who turn the grace of our God into licentiousness and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.” First, they were perverting the grace of God into sensuality, and second, they were denying our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.  In other words, they were taking advantage of God’s grace and setting aside God’s authority.

Rather than living a life modeled after Christ, these people exercised their “freedom” by living according to the lusts of the flesh, particularly in sexual matters and in greed. They had gutted the faith of it’s moral imperatives. They claimed the grace of God covered their sin and so they allowed themselves sexual liberties.   And they used the same liberty in regards to money. The love of money is the root of all evil.

You know, I think that these two evil attributes are often to be found together.  And those certain persons are no less than many of the false prophets that are on so called Christian television.  They love money and never tire of asking for it.  And if what we know about many of those televangelists that have made the headlines in the recent past is any indication, they seem to have a penchant for sexual immorality.  Sexual immorality and the love of money goes hand in hand, and often characterizes these charlatan evangelists on television.

I believe that it is those type of people who Jude is warning against. People who have promoted themselves as some sort of prophet, some sort of teacher, who draw away disciples after themselves, who fleece the sheep, the weak Christians who are beguiled by their promise of health, wealth and prosperity.  Jude says they presume upon the grace of God.  That’s a dangerous thing, to presume upon the grace of God. To take advantage of the blood of Jesus Christ by which we were saved for the sake of fulfilling your sinful desires.  It should be remembered that Jude says such people were long beforehand marked out for condemnation.  They may think they are getting away with it, but one day they will face God and have to give an account of their unrighteous deeds. 

The second criticism Jude writes of is that they deny our only Master and Lord Jesus Christ. Not only were Jude’s opponents antinomian, but they were anti authority. They rejected Jesus as Master and Lord.  Oh, I’m sure that they said “Lord, Lord,” I’m sure that they waved their hands when the songs were being sung, that they shed some tears as they talked about their experience, but their life was not lived as though it was not their own, but as if they themselves were still sitting on the throne. 

They failed to obey the commands of Jesus as Lord.  Romans 10:9 says we must confess Jesus as Lord.  Not just as a friend.  Not even just as our Savior.  But as Lord.  As Jehovah God.  As Sovereign.  As King of Kings, and Lord of Lords.  And to Him we give our lives in service.  That’s why Jude started out by saying he was a bond servant of Christ.  That’s what it means to be saved. To surrender to Jesus, to live for Him, to be changed by Him, to be transformed into His image, that is, His life is lived out in us.   Paul said in 1Cor. 6:19 “Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own? For you have been bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body.”  You are not your own.  You’ve been bought and paid for by Jesus Christ.  You belong to Him now.  That’s the reality of our Christian faith.  We are no longer free agents. We are servants of the Lord Jesus Christ, and He is our Master and Lord.

Let me tell you something.  The world tells the only way you are going to be able to find happiness and fulfillment and satisfaction in life is if you are able to be the captain of your destiny, to be the king of your castle, to be independent, to submit to no one.  I can assure you that such a pursuit is in vain.  It only leads to ruin.  It leads to eternal death, eternal separation from God and an eternity in hell.  But I will tell you this, which is what the prodigal son finally figured out in the pigpen of life; to be even the lowest servant in the Father’s house is far better than being a king, or a celebrity, or a rock star in the world.  

As it says in Psalm 84:10 “For a day in Your courts is better than a thousand [outside.] I would rather stand at the threshold of the house of my God Than dwell in the tents of wickedness.”

We have a choice to make. To surrender our lives to live for God, or to try to create happiness for ourselves as our own god.  I chose to surrender to Him who calls me, who loves me, and who will keep me for Himself, forever.  And in service to Him, I will continue to contend for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints. I hope you commit to do the same.

“Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling, and to make you stand in the presence of His glory blameless with great joy, to the only God our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, [be] glory, majesty, dominion and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen."