Through the Bible - Jude

Jude, the servant of Jesus Christ, and brother of James, to them that are sanctified by God the Father, and preserved in Jesus Christ, and called... Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you, and exhort you that ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints.

In just twenty-five verses, Jude sounds an urgent alarm: contend for the faith, for God will judge the false teachers who creep in unaware.

A Letter Changed by Necessity

The book of Jude is a powerful little book. As you go through the New Testament letters of Paul, Peter, James, and John, nearly every one mentions false teaching and false doctrine. But Jude, perhaps more than any other writer, hits it full force. In his day he saw a false teaching coming into the church, and he names exactly what it was.

Notice verse 3. Jude had desired to write an encouraging letter about their common salvation, but as he sat down to write, he determined that something else was needed. He had to write that they would earnestly contend for the faith. Peter, in 2 Peter 3, said we must always be ready to give a defense for the hope within us with meekness and fear. Paul, especially in 2 Timothy, challenged the church to stand strong: God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power, love, and a sound mind. We are not to be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, but to give a defense, because there will always be gainsayers who come against the Scripture and teach seditious heresies—enticing things that seduce people.

The Brother of James

Jude calls himself "the servant of Jesus Christ, and brother of James." In Matthew 13:55 we read that Jesus had four brothers, one named James, who wrote the New Testament letter we studied a few weeks ago, and another named Judas, or Jude. This is His half-brother. Notice that Jude does not mention being the half-brother of Jesus, but the brother of James. I believe Jude recognized that Jesus was fully God; though they shared the same earthly mother, their fathers were vastly different. And yet he calls himself the servant of Jesus Christ.

This is intriguing, because during Jesus' ministry His brothers did not believe He was the Messiah. They questioned His ministry. At one point James, Jude, the other brothers, and Mary came to take hold of Jesus, concerned He had gone mad, with crowds following Him after their cousin John the Baptist had been put to death. In John 7, His brothers mocked Him, telling Him to go up to the feast and show Himself if He had all these followers.

What a testimony, then, that Jude became a believer. This is the man who grew up with Jesus in Galilee, who watched Him up close. Think about your own siblings and how well you know them. We don't know much of Jesus' early life—there are fanciful apocryphal stories, but we don't know if they're true. Yet you wonder, was Jesus the perfect child? He was without sin, so you could never blame anything on your brother Jesus. Living under that shadow would have been tough. And yet, after Jesus rose from the dead, Jude became a follower, a believer, a servant of the Lord.

James, meanwhile, was well known—by Acts 15 he was the leader of the church in Jerusalem, well respected, and an early martyr. Jude writes to those "sanctified by God the Father, and preserved in Jesus Christ, and called." Notice these three great truths: God sanctifies us, Jesus preserves us, and He calls us—sanctification, perseverance, and calling.

Earnestly Contend for the Faith

This concept of defending the faith is stressed throughout the New Testament, yet often misunderstood. People seem to think they must fight for Jesus and defend Jesus, almost rolling up their Bibles to beat people up. But Jude will explain what he means. As Peter said, we are to be ready to give a defense. The Greek word is apologia—we are to have an apologetic, the ability to reason with people and explain what the Scriptures say. We must be able to answer the questions people bring, because there always have been and always will be those who question what we believe, especially when false teachings come in with wrong interpretations taken out of context.

Notice that the faith "was once delivered unto the saints." It wasn't something they invented. Our common salvation was delivered to us; the gospel came by revelation. In 1 Corinthians 11 Paul says, "I delivered unto you that which was given to me," concerning communion. In 1 Corinthians 15 he says he delivered what was given to him—that Christ died, was buried, and rose again according to the Scriptures. This wasn't a story crafted in the upper room after Jesus died. If it had been mere invention, would Jude, the brother of Jesus, have followed it? Unless he had seen the risen Lord, I don't think he would have.

The Heresy That Crept In

Why must we contend? Verse 4: "For there are certain men crept in unawares... ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness, and denying the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ." Some had crept into the church through the back door with cunning, bringing false teaching they may have sincerely believed but which was not scriptural.

One teaching coming in was that the grace of God means you can do whatever you want—a license to sin. Paul addresses this in Romans: "Shall we sin that grace may abound?" This connected to a Gnostic heresy, a dualistic understanding of man dividing the spiritual and the physical. The Alexandrian Gnostics looked down on the physical as evil and abstained from physical things—Paul confronted the "touch not, taste not" crowd. But others took the opposite path: since the spirit is good and we have God's Spirit, we can live however we please in the flesh, for the physical is wicked anyway. They figured they could sin freely, and that as they continued, God would give more grace. They denied the Lordship of God over their lives.

There are people today who live this same way: "As long as Jesus is in my heart, I can live in sin and grace will continue to abound." We see it in our nation and even in our families—people walking in sin who think they know God.

Three Examples of Judgment

But notice what Jude says about this lifestyle. Verse 5: "I will therefore put you in remembrance, though ye once knew this, how that the Lord, having saved the people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed them that believed not." Of that entire generation rescued from Egypt, only Joshua and Caleb entered the Promised Land. Every other one died in the wilderness, even Moses, who saw the land from Mount Nebo but died because he misrepresented God by striking the rock. (Thankfully, Moses did come into the land later—appearing with Jesus on the Mount of Transfiguration in Matthew 17.)

Verse 6 gives a second example: "And the angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, he hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day." This points to Genesis 6, where the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men. Some interpret the sons of God as the godly line of Seth, but the Scripture seems to indicate these were angels who left their position of authority, took human form, and produced the Nephilim, the giants in the land. As a result, God flooded the earth, sparing only Noah and his family. These angels are reserved in everlasting chains for judgment.

Third, verse 7: "Even as Sodom and Gomorrah, and the cities about them in like manner, giving themselves over to fornication, and going after strange flesh, are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire." Those cities were filled with sexual immorality and perversion, destroyed by physical fire—but the people are in eternal fire forever.

Jude's view is clear: if you do not follow the Lord and use grace as a license to sin, judgment will come. This is a topic people don't like to consider, yet nearly the entire book of Revelation, which I believe is still future, is oriented toward the wrath of God upon all unrighteousness and ungodliness of those who suppress the truth. One way people suppress truth is by teaching false truth and holding back the clear teaching of God. God is merciful, gracious, long-suffering, and patient, yet He will by no means clear the guilty. And there are those who not only live wickedly but teach others to do so. In Luke 17 Jesus says it would be better for one who causes a little one to stumble to have a millstone hung around his neck and be cast into the sea.

Filthy Dreamers Who Defile, Despise, and Defame

Can you see why Jude changed what he was going to write? He wanted to encourage about our common salvation, but the landscape of the church demanded a word about contending for the faith. I find for myself that the Lord has given me a challenging, exhortative message for the body of Christ, even when I would love to give only encouraging messages. Just this morning I watched a video of a man bringing in such false teaching, telling his hearers we need to stop talking about sin, death, judgment, and punishment because those things are harsh. But we need to share the true gospel—that there is sin, and as a result death, and as a result eternal punishment, and yet God has given us the good news of salvation in Jesus Christ.

Verse 8: "Likewise also these filthy dreamers defile the flesh, despise dominion, and speak evil of dignities." Notice three things—they defile, they despise, and they defame. They defile themselves by the lusts of the flesh, slaves of sin rather than followers of righteousness. They despise dominion, and they defame, speaking evil of dignities.

"The Lord Rebuke You"

Verse 9 explains: "Yet Michael the archangel, when contending with the devil he disputed about the body of Moses, durst not bring against him a railing accusation, but said, The Lord rebuke thee." This account is not in the Bible but in a book the Jews knew, The Assumption of Moses—an extra-biblical, apocryphal work containing a mixture of truth and error. The Catholic Bible includes such books; we do not regard them as Scripture, but they were well known in Jude's day. Jude pulls out one truth from it.

We know from Deuteronomy that Moses died on Mount Nebo. The Assumption of Moses reveals that Michael the archangel was dispatched to retrieve Moses' body, while Lucifer claimed a right to it, arguing that since Moses had murdered an Egyptian and all physical things were his, the body was his. Yet Michael, confronting Lucifer, brought no reviling accusation. He simply said, "The Lord rebuke thee."

I find it interesting when certain Christians, often in charismatic circles, say, "I rebuke Satan." Shouldn't we rather say, "The Lord rebuke you"? The Scriptures say man is made a little lower than the angels in authority and rank, and even Lucifer, a fallen angel, has dominion and power. When confronted with principalities and spiritual hosts of wickedness, we recognize that God is greater—greater is He who is in us than he who is in the world—and we call on the Lord to rebuke him.

Woe Unto Them

Verse 10: "But these speak evil of those things which they know not." They rail against principalities and powers in ignorance, with no understanding. There are people in the body of Christ who try to fight with spiritual beings without any knowledge of what they're doing. "But what they know naturally, as brute beasts, in those things they corrupt themselves."

Verse 11: "Woe unto them!" How terrible it will be—certain destruction, just as God destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, reserved the fallen angels, and judged Israel. Jude gives three more Old Testament examples: "They have gone in the way of Cain, and ran greedily after the error of Balaam for reward, and perished in the gainsaying of Korah." In Cain we see selfishness—after his sacrifice was rejected and Abel's accepted, he killed his brother and asked, "Am I my brother's keeper?" In Balaam we see covetousness—hired to curse Israel for reward, he taught the king of Moab to seduce Israel into sin. In Korah we see rebelliousness—he and his followers tried to cast off the authority of Moses and Aaron. Selfishness, covetousness, rebelliousness: the very sins these false teachers had given themselves to.

Spots, Clouds, Trees, Waves, and Stars

Verse 12: "These are spots in your feasts of charity, when they feast with you, feeding themselves without fear." A love feast was the early church's gathering to commune and share meals together—a much better word than potluck. These wicked teachers, looking like believers but living lasciviously, came in as a blemish in the middle of an environment of agape, selfless love. They were takers, focused on themselves, selfish, covetous, and rebellious.

They are also "clouds without water." Here in Southern California we watch huge clouds build thousands of feet into the air every July and August, yet they drop only a few big drops and do nothing—a waste of a cloud. So these dreamers are non-beneficial, waterless clouds. They are "trees whose fruit withereth, without fruit, twice dead, plucked up by the roots"—fruitless trees, as useless as the fig tree Jesus cursed near Jerusalem during His passion week. A fruitless tree means they have not spent time in the Word of God. Psalm 1 says those who meditate on the Word day and night are like trees planted by rivers of water bringing forth fruit in season. These men have not the Word.

This connects to the waterless clouds, for Isaiah 55 says that as the rain comes down and waters the earth so the earth brings forth food, so shall God's Word go forth and not return void. His Word is like the rain. But these men have no water and no fruit.

Verse 13: they are "raging waves of the sea, foaming out their own shame"—directionless waves with no point. And they are "wandering stars." Ancient peoples used stars for direction, but a wandering star—often a planet that changes position—is useless for guidance. Waterless clouds, fruitless trees, directionless waves, pointless stars. Their end: "to whom is reserved the blackness of darkness for ever."

The Lord Comes to Judge the Ungodly

Verse 14 references another extra-biblical book, Enoch: "Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his saints, to execute judgment upon all, and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds." Notice how many times "ungodly" appears. Enoch was truly a prophet—the one in Genesis 5 who walked with God and was taken. His son Methuselah's name meant "when he dies, judgment," and Methuselah died in the 600th year of Noah, the very year the flood came. The book of Enoch contains truth mixed with error, but one truth it holds is that the Lord will come with ten thousands of His saints to judge. The first time He came as a Lamb to save; the second time He comes as a Lion to judge—and He will judge the ungodly. The application is clear: if He is going to judge the ungodly, I don't want to be anywhere near them.

Verse 16: "These are murmurers, complainers, walking after their own lusts; and their mouth speaketh great swelling words, having men's persons in admiration because of advantage." Like Israel grumbling in the wilderness, they complain and follow their desires, always admiring positions of authority, like Simon the magician in Acts 8 who coveted apostolic power.

Build Yourselves Up

Verse 17: "But, beloved, remember ye the words which were spoken before of the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ; how that they told you there should be mockers in the last time." Don't be blown away when these men come in—you've been forewarned. "These be they who separate themselves, sensual, having not the Spirit." They form their own little crowds, given over to sensual pleasures, without the Spirit of God.

"But ye, beloved, building up yourselves on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost, keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life." Notice the focus: faith, love, and hope. Be built up and mature in faith and love, looking expectantly for the coming of the Lord unto eternal life.

When verse 21 says "keep yourselves in the love of God," think of it like staying in the sunshine. Don't hide like Adam after he sinned, so that God must come looking, asking, "Where are you?" Stay in the light—walk in the light as He is in the light, as 1 John 1 says.

Showing Mercy to Three Kinds of People

Verses 22-23: "And of some have compassion, making a difference: and others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire; hating even the garment spotted by the flesh." I like another translation: show mercy to those whose faith is wavering; rescue others by snatching them from the flames of judgment; and to still others show mercy, but be careful that you are not contaminated by their sins.

There are three groups. First, those wavering in faith—show them mercy. Second, those who have drifted back toward the world—snatch them out of the fire. Third, those living it up in their own sinful lifestyle—have mercy, but don't be spotted by their sin. Sometimes we try to track such a person down and get pulled into their lifestyle rather than pulling them up. It's much easier to be pulled down than to pull up, and I've seen many younger believers dragged back into the slough of despond. Beware. Bad company corrupts good morals.

The Doxology: Glory to the Only Wise God

Verses 24-25: "Now unto him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy." Aren't you glad you're not the one who must keep yourself from falling? Philippians 2:12 tells us to work out our own salvation with fear and trembling—and if it ended there, we'd all go away trembling. But verse 13 adds, "For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure." God works in us both the desire and the ability to follow Him. And He is able to present us faultless. Philippians 1:6: "He which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ."

"To the only wise God our Saviour, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and ever. Amen." Our God is the only wise God. Teaching through Isaiah this week, I was in chapter 44, where God exposes the foolishness of idolatry. A man goes into the forest, cuts down a strong tree, burns part of it to warm himself and bake his bread—and is satisfied. Then he takes the rest and carves it into a god, bows down, and prays, "Deliver me, for thou art my god." How foolish! The Psalms say twice that the idols of the earth are silver and gold, the work of men's hands—mouths that cannot speak, eyes that cannot see—and those who make them become like them: deaf, dumb, blind, and foolish.

Yet we serve the only wise God, and He is our Savior. In Jeremiah 2 God says His people had as many gods as they had cities, yet in time of trouble they cried out to Him. He tells them to ask their false gods for help. So often man trusts his finances, job, intellect, car, and house—but when he loses his health and wealth, then he comes to church to pray, and God might say, "Where are your gods that you should trust in them?" How great it is to be those who trust in the Lord at all times, His praise continually in our mouths.

To the only wise God be glory and majesty, dominion and power—not to these waterless clouds, fruitless trees, and spots in your love feasts who imagine themselves to have glory and power. God says, not so.

A Short Book for Serious Days

The book of Jude, just twenty-five verses, is vitally important, because we live in days like Jude's, when seductive heresies have deceived people in the church. Though deceived, the Bible declares they will be judged, and it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. In a few weeks we'll reach Revelation and see the wrath of God poured out upon all unrighteousness—a fearful book, especially for the one who has not turned to the Lord. But thanks be to God who has saved us. As 1 Thessalonians 5:9 says, we are not appointed unto wrath.

So come alongside those whose faith is wavering and show mercy. Snatch out those who have drifted back into the world. Show mercy to others, but beware lest you be contaminated by their sins. Draw as close to the Lord as you can. Stand strong with Him. Contend for the faith. And thank the Lord.

Closing Prayer

Lord Jesus, we thank You tonight that You have redeemed us and saved us—not with corruptible things like silver and gold, but with Your precious blood. You bought us, and we are Yours. I pray that we would recognize Your dominion, Your rule and authority over our lives, and allow You to rule and reign in us. As we study Your Word and learn more of who You are, stir in us by Your Word and Your Spirit the desire to lay our lives down as living sacrifices, holy and acceptable to You, which is our reasonable act of worship. Continue to preserve us, to keep us from falling, knowing that one day You will present us faultless before Your presence. We look forward to that day. Come, Lord Jesus, we pray. Amen.