1Jude, a bond-servant of Jesus Christ, and brother of James,
To those who are the called, beloved in God the Father, and kept for Jesus Christ: 2 May mercy and peace and love be multiplied to you. 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. 4 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. "
In the Greco-Roman society, the final section of an epistles greeting
would contain a prayer for the intended readers of the letter. Christians
quickly adopted this practice so that the author could pray for the
blessings of the gospel upon their audience. Noticeably absent from Jude’s
letter is the pronouncement of grace. There has been some speculation about this, perhaps this was because the
false teachers in question were perverting the grace of God. Instead, Jude
prays for mercy, peace, and love to be multiplies to his audience, which we noted in our last message.
Given our sinful condition, we need the mercy of God every hour of every day. His mercy is the sparing of His just judgment. Peace is a very Jewish concept, coming from the Hebrew word "shalom." Peace, is not merely the opposite of chaos or lack of strife; but rather, it is the well-being that can only come from no longer being in enmity
against God, the peace of God encompasses the entirety of a person. Since our peace flows from our reconciliation with God, the anxiety of this world will be able to quench our peace.
Lastly, love is the characteristic of God that initiated our calling. Therefore, our status as beloved in God the Father is the direct result of our calling. Because we are saturated in God's love for us, our love for one another, is the effect of our calling. In spite of who we are and what we've done, God loves us. So must the Christian life be! We are only loved and kept because we were called out of darkness into His light.
Let us pray
Heavenly Father,
Father, thank You for Your Word, these glorious truths that overwhelm us. We are so grateful, we acknowledge that we are unworthy. Lord, we know that apostasy is present in the church and we know that it’s going to get even worse. We ask that You would make us to be faithful. Knowing that we will survive, that we will triumph in this battle, because we are kept in Christ, let us to get into battle, and fight for the truth. Thank You for reminding us, that You have armed us in every way; all that is left is for us to be faithful and diligent. Whet our appetites for what awaits, knowing we can’t lose, because You have promised us victory.
We ask and pray this in Christ's name, for Your glory and His sake.
Amen
Today's Message:The Call To Battle
In our previous message, we expounded upon the identity of Jude, we established that we are called, loved, and kept by God. Now, we see that Jude’s original purpose for writing was not to call out and condemn the false teachers in their midst, rather he wanted to write a letter about their common salvation. He acknowledges that he was very eager to write about this topic, but necessity dictated that he write concerning other matters. What a wonderful testimony about submitting to the will of God!
Even though Jude desired to write about salvation, the Holy Spirit compelled him toward contending for the faith. What a marvelous reminder to follow God’s plan rather than our intentions. Even though that choice will often be between two very good things, salvation and contending for the faith, when God speaks, we must always obey God!
Common salvation is the very essence of Christianity. It is the answer to the problem of humanity. Because we were created to live in sinless communion with God, our sin destroyed that hope. God can only look upon sinful humans with judgment and wrath. Yet, by the grace of God, the Son of God was made flesh, lived a sinless life, and died in our place. It is because of His sacrificial death and resurrection, we are now justified before God. This is the message of the Gospel.
This is the common salvation that Jude wanted to write about. However, God had other purposes for His servant. Compelled by the Spirit, Jude's pastoral heart for the people being deceived led him to fight on their behalf. Open with me your Bibles to the book of Jude. Again, this is a very, very important book warning us to battle for the truth in a world of apostasy and spiritual defection. Jude, by direction of the Holy Spirit, in a cry to believers, calls us to join the war on truth, taking their side with the Lord. This, then, is call to battle.
I invite you to follow along with me as I read to you verses 1 through 4, to refresh our minds of the text, as we prepare our hearts for what the Spirit is saying to each of us. Jude 1-4.
"Jude, a bond-servant of Jesus Christ, and brother of James, To those who are the called, beloved in God the
Father, and kept for Jesus Christ: May mercy and peace and love be
multiplied to you. 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. 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."
This is echoing what Jesus taught in Matthew 13, when He said "And He spoke many things to them in parables, saying, “Behold, the sower went out to sow; and as he sowed, some seeds fell beside the road, and the birds came and ate them up. Others
fell on the rocky places, where they did not have much soil; and
immediately they sprang up, because they had no depth of soil. But when the sun had risen, they were scorched; and because they had no root, they withered away. Others fell among the thorns, and the thorns came up and choked them out. And others fell on the good soil and *yielded a crop, some a hundredfold, some sixty, and some thirty. He who has ears, let him hear."
Here, we have three different cases in which people hear the Word and turn away. Hearing the truth, knowing what it is, and rejecting it, this is essentially what apostasy is. These people are the greatest danger to the church because they know
something about the gospel, and they bring to bear against the church. An apostate is one who has received the truth of the gospel, then turns away from the truth, without having ever bearing fruit. Those who apostatize may hear the truth, they may understand the truth, but they never produce fruit because they never have any root. This is exactly what Jude is writing about.
To be clear, we're not talking about a mere indifference to the Word, ignorance of the Word or even the erroneous presentations of the Word, that purport themselves to be the truth. We're talking about someone who has received the light but not the life. It is a willful and deliberate rejection of the truth after having heard the truth.
Paul says in II Thessalonians 2, "they did not receive the love of the truth so as to be saved."
Both the Old and New Testaments warn us over and over again not to defect, not to become apostate.
In Jeremiah 2 it says "Your own wickedness will correct you, and your apostasies will reprove you; Know therefore and see that it is evil and bitter for you to forsake the Lord your God, and the dread of Me is not in you," declares the Lord God of hosts."
Then, in Matthew 24, toward the end of our Lord’s ministry, in the Olivet Discourse, He said "Then they will deliver you to tribulation, and will kill you, and you will be hated by all nations because of My name. At that time many will fall away and will betray one another and hate one another. Many false prophets will arise and will mislead many. Because lawlessness is increased, most people’s love will grow cold."
As we return to our study of Jude, we pick back up where we left off, with verse 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."
You need to understand, that though apostates go away from the truth, they don’t necessarily go away from the Church. Because they have certain familiarity with the church, they can be very successful for the enemy. That's why we have apostasy in the church, that's why its very dangerous. That is the strategy of the enemy, to infiltrate the church.
In Acts 20:28, Paul says "Be on guard for yourselves and for all the flock, among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church of God which He purchased with His own blood."
He goes on to say "I know that after my departure savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock; and from among your own selves men will arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away the disciples after them. Therefore be on the alert, remembering that night and day for a period of three years I did not cease to admonish each one with tears."
Noah preached the same message for 120 years, people in that generation heard the truth and they rejected it, they mocked it and walked away from it, and they all drowned. Apostasy has plagued the church for centuries. It was apostasy that led to the Tower of Babel, because
the true and living God had been proclaimed. It was apostasy that made
Israel fail to conquer the land under Joshua and ignore the warnings of
Moses. It was apostasy that produced the immorality at the time of the
judges. It was apostasy that led Israel into Babylonian captivity. Every religion that deviates from the true gospel is an apostasy. They creep in and they embed themselves among the believers, and the attack on the truth comes from the inside.
In verse 3, we see the danger for which we must fight. This is the very heart of Jude’s letter, "To earnestly contend for the faith which was once for all handed down to the saints." Contend earnestly, is the word "epagōnizo," from the root word "agōnizo," from which we get the English word agonize. It is from the Greek word "agṓn," meaning a conflict or a struggle.
As a footnote, whenever you see a preposition added to the front of a Greek verb, it is intended to intensify it. In this case, it's "Ep." In other words, "I am appealing to you to vigorously defend the truth, in a very strenuous ongoing battle."
What a beautiful description of the gospel truth that we must defend! The truth that is not of man but of God, delivered by the inspiration and guidance of the Holy Spirit. Since the faith has been given to us, it is also our duty and responsibility to guard it and fight for it.
Then, in verse 4, Jude tells us "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."
Here, he explains why he is telling us to contend for the faith. The Greek word "pareisduó," is only used here in the New Testament. It means to settle in alongside. There are many people, outside the church who make no secret about the fact that they hate Christianity. They are easily recognizable because they make no claim to belong to the church.
Often when people think of defending Christianity, we think of those from other religions, Jude’s concern is not the enemy outside but the enemy within. These are the ones that are far more dangerous, counterfeit Christians. They are woven into the fabric of the church. They get into the seminaries, they get into the pulpits. Satan sows his tares among the wheat, they were there in Jude’s day, and they still today. They are still around. They on the radio, the television, they're writing books.
Notice, that his description of these people is rather vague, "certain persons," it’s not important for us to know specifically who there were, or what heresy they were teaching. We know they were apostates. I believe he doesn't identify them, because this is a typical characteristic of apostates, they slip in, unidentified at first, until they’ve gained their ground, then they make their presence known.
It's interesting to note, when the early church began, they haters come from outside the church. Jesus warned us about them if you will remember, He said in John 15, "If the world hates you, you know that it has hated Me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, because of this the world hates you. Remember the word that I said to you, ‘A slave is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you."
And, in Luke 21, He said "But before all these things, they will lay their hands on you and will persecute you, delivering you to the synagogues and prisons, bringing you before kings and governors for My name’s sake. It will lead to an opportunity for your testimony. So make up your minds not to prepare beforehand to defend yourselves; for I will give you utterance and wisdom which none of your opponents will be able to resist or refute. But you will be betrayed even by parents and brothers and relatives and friends, and they will put some of you to death, and you will be hated by all because of My name. Yet not a hair of your head will perish. By your endurance you will gain your lives."
Though these certain persons fellowship with the saints, inwardly they are a separate
people from the true followers of Christ. They were warned that there would
soon be wolves hiding in the midst of the sheep. An enemy who is perceived as a friend is always the most dangerous. So, we see as time went on, as the church began to move out in the world, the enemy went inside.
In Matthew chapter 7, our Lord prophesied about wolves who would enter the flock, they would come in and devastate by devouring the sheep, by bringing their lies and deceptions, they would be dressed in sheep’s clothing, meaning wearing the garment of a prophet. The Apostle Paul warned in Acts 20, the Corinthians, Galatians and Colossians were infiltrated by apostates.
In first, second and third John, John indicated that the recipients of those letters were infiltrated by apostates. In II Peter 2, Peter warned us about it.
"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; 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; and if He rescued righteous Lot, oppressed by the sensual conduct of unprincipled men."
And, Jude says "Now it's here! Now it's here!"
He goes onto say in verse 4, "Those who were long beforehand marked out for this condemnation." Here, Jude is saying, In Greek, designated literally means "to write beforehand." Their end has been predicted, it was written out in advance, their judgement is marked out. They were ordained by God for condemnation. Because they are children of destruction, there’s no need in trying to save them, they are sons of wrath.
I've been asked "Does this mean that God predestined them to hell?" It means that God, Who knows everything from the beginning to the end, He gives them over to the desires of their hearts, even to their own destruction. They’re doom had been predicted from long ago, even in Enoch’s time. We'll get more into Enoch's prophesy when we come to verse 14.
In Ezekiel 18, the Lord says "For I have no pleasure in the death of anyone who dies,” declares the Lord God. "Therefore, repent and live." In His Word, God continually calls men to repent, He gives them the freewill to choose. However, when they refuse, Psalms 81:12 says "So I gave them over to the stubbornness of their heart, to walk in their own devices."
All those that are in Hell, choose it. So, in a sense, sending men to hell is giving men exactly what they wanted. If God did all that to those who turned away from the truth, throughout history, we can be sure He’s going to keep His pledge to the apostates! Their judgment from long ago is not idle, their judgment is pending.
Jude then says "ungodly persons who turn the grace of our God into licentiousness and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ." Godliness is really pretty simple, since God is merciful, gracious, and loving, the godly person must also exhibit those qualities. Therefore, godliness closely pertains to one’s morality, and when we say that
someone is ungodly, we are essentially describing him as being
amoral. It's note worthy that Jude does not begin with their theology and doctrinal errors. Rather, he focuses upon their character.
Jude is saying "Rise up to contend earnestly for the faith against those apostates who
are inside the Church, calling themselves Christians! They've been ordained for condemnation, so when you engage in an battle against them, you are doing the work of God. They are impure, immoral, degenerates, acting in opposition to God’s character, they pervert the grace of our God into sensuality" Jude uses the "asélgeia," which means conduct which rejects restraint, shocking to public decency.
Paul addressed this conduct in Romans 6, when he said "Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase? May it never be! How shall we who died to sin still live in it?" Believing that the grace of God is a license to engage in more sin is antithetical to the gospel.This is a problem in the church today, so called Christians, who sees God's grace as a means of more comfortably returning to their previous lusts and desires, as if guilt is no longer before them. Therefore, their corruption manifests itself on every front.
I believe that it is inevitable, that ungodliness and the perversion of grace naturally lead to this statement. They "deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ." Those belonging to God will reflect Him. Those who do not, deny Him with their ungodly conduct. They reject God through their immoral and corrupt lifestyle. They do not submit to Christ as Lord. They profess to know God, but they deny Him by their lives. They are disobedient to the commands of God, they detestable in their behavior. In other words, they are ungodly as to their character, perverters of grace as to their conduct and they are deniers of Christ as
to their creed.
In Closing..
It is not surprising to me that so many so called Christians are being caught up such horrific acts of immorality, carrying on with their deceptions of belonging to God. When in reality, their lives illustrations of people who are absolutely without God! They think that they can go to the extremes, because they've said a little prayer. They demand God’s grace and forgiveness, then they use it as a license to continue in their sin. As if God's grace is an excuse for their blatant immorality. They twist and pervert the teachings of the gospel to accommodate their perverted, sinful lifestyles. The Church today is a living testimony to the justification of Jude's concern.
Oh my beloved brothers and sisters, may this never be true of us!
And now may the Lord bless you and keep you;
the Lord make His face shine upon you,
And be gracious to you;
The Lord lift up His countenance upon you,
And give you peace.
Now and forever, in Jesus' name
Amen
the Lord make His face shine upon you,
And be gracious to you;
The Lord lift up His countenance upon you,
And give you peace.
Now and forever, in Jesus' name
Amen
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