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***Welcome to This Week's Sermon:
February 27, 2011
“The Epistle of Jude"
Jude v 1
"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:"
Last time we discussed the one chapter book of Philemon, this week we will turn our attention to the equally small New Testament book, the “Letter of Jude”, the book of Jude.
As we begin our discussion, we first must ask the question: Who was Jude?
Many Theologians including John Wesley believe Jude to be the step brother or half brother of Jesus Christ Himself.
“The brother of James — St. James was the more eminent, usually styled, “the brother of the Lord.” John Wesley
Matthew 13 v 55
“Is not this the carpenter's son? is not his mother called Mary? and his brethren, James, and Joses, and Simon, and Judas?
Listed is James and his brother Judas (Jude), as sons of Mary the Mother of Jesus…
Some suggest Jude and his brother James were half brothers of Jesus, all having Mary as their Mother, Jude and James being begotten by Joseph and Jesus being the ONLY BEGOTTEN SON OF GOD…
Others suggest Jude is a step brother of Jesus, being the son of Joseph from a previous marriage and not a blood relation to Jesus at all.
Still other Theologians fewer in number believe that Jude is not the brother of Jesus at all, that both Jude and James were very common names to the Jews in those days and so it is possible this Jude simply had a brother named James and neither were related to Jesus at all by blood. ***Jude refers to himself “as a servant of Jesus Christ”, in-other-words perhaps just one of many disciples of Jesus Christ the Messiah!!!
Adam Clarke states:
“The author of the epistle himself has assumed neither the title of apostle of Jesus Christ, nor of brother of Jesus Christ, but calls himself only ‘Jude, the servant of Jesus Christ, and brother of James.”
Being a servant of Jesus Christ is to declare Jesus to be the writer’s Lord, God, and Savior; a Child of the one true God!!! So clearly Jude was a devote follower of Jesus Christ. Secondly, Jude acknowledges that he is indeed the brother of James. Though we cannot say with absolute certainty whom this James was, obviously he must have be a well-known follower of Jesus Christ or there would have be no reason to mention the relationship…
What we do know is this, Jude in what he wrote and said demonstrates with ABSOLUTE CERTAINTY his ABSOLUTE FAITH IN JESUS CHRIST, and his life’s dedication to the purity and reality of the one true Gospel of Jesus Christ!!!
Jude by the inspiration of God the Holy Spirit exhorts fellow Christians to stand unwavering in their faith, warns followers of false teachers and the potential damning influence of their false teachings, Jude vividly describes these manipulative deceivers of mankind and their final estate, warns believers not to be surprised by these evil seducers and especially of their presence within the church itself, and finally Jude concludes his 25 verse letter with a beautiful doxology of encouragement and praise…….
Jude v 2-4
“Mercy unto you, and peace, and love, be multiplied. 3. 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. 4. For there are certain men crept in unawares, who were before of old ordained to this condemnation, ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness, and denying the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ.”
In the time of Jude as in our present age as in the earthly history of mankind to come after us; Jude admonishes us that are genuine followers of the one true Gospel, LOVERS of Jesus Christ, THAT WE MUST BE DILIGENT, EVER CONSCIENCIOUS IN OUR EFFORTS TO UPHOLD THE TRUTH OF GOD, AS INERRANT AND INFALLIBLY LAID DOWN IN THE BIBLE!!!
The true Gospel, the true word of God the Bible and it’s ABSOLUTELY WORD BY WORD INSPIRATION BY GOD HIMSELF MUST BE TAUGHT IN IT’S COMPLETENESS, NEVER ADDED TO OR SUBTACTED FROM…
It is what binds our salvation to a common incorruptible seed WHICH IS THE SOURCE OF GENUINE SALVATION…
1 Peter 1 v 23-25
“Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever. 24. For all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away: 25. But the word of the Lord endureth for ever. And this is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you.”
This word, this Bible, this ONLY TESTAMENT, is what binds genuine Christians to each other and bestows salvation on those who genuinely repent of their sins and acknowledge that JESUS CHRIST IS THEIR LORD, GOD, and SAVIOR!!!!!!!
***This Jude says we MUST ABSOLUTELY STAY FIRM TO!!!!!!! *******Be diligent to!!!!!!!
Isaiah 7 v 9B
“If you do not stand firm in your faith, you will not stand at all.”
Passionately Jude pleads to all professing Christians to stay absolutely true to God’s word, and not only to believe it, but to intimately claim it as your own heart, as your own soul, as your whole being and to fervently share the true faith in Jesus Christ and His Bible, God’s Holy Writ: WITH ALL PEOPLE!!! ***Everywhere!!!!!!!
Jude warns there are certain people who have called themselves part of the Christian faith, that claim they are true disciples of Jesus Christ. They may even do what appears to be wonderful works of love and dedication to the gospel, who by the reality of their hearts’ miss-use and aggressively at times abuse the grace of God. Using grace as an excuse to sin freely, using their positions to pervert and attempt to make the Gospel message obtuse and irrelevant to mankind.
*They may claim to accept the grace of God, while denying their, our, responsibility of living our moment by moment lives in the purity and holiness of His Spirit!!!
Ephesians 2 v 8-10
“For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: 9. Not of works, lest any man should boast. 10. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.”
These people in the time of Jude undoubtedly were indoctrinated with Gnosticism and its belief that, since the grace of God was wide enough to cover any sin, a person could sin as they pleased. The more a person sinned, the greater the grace, therefore, why worry about sin? Grace was being perverted into a justification for continuing to sin.
**They may claim the atoning blood sacrifice of Jesus Christ, while denying it’s ABSOLUTE POWER TO SAVE…
They denied our only Lord and Master, Jesus Christ. There is more than one way in which a person can deny Jesus Christ:
(1) A person can deny Jesus Christ in the day of persecution.
(2) A person can deny Jesus Christ for the sake of convenience.
(3) A person can deny Jesus Christ by their daily life and conduct.
(4) A person can deny Jesus Christ by developing false ideas about Him and His Bible.
If these false teachers in Jude’s time were in actuality Gnostics, they would have two mistaken ideas about Jesus. First, they taught since the body, being matter, was evil, they would hold that Jesus only seemed to have a body and was a kind of spirit ghost in the apparent shape of a man. The Greek for "to seem" is dokein; and these people were called Docetists. They would deny the real manhood of Jesus Christ. Second, they would deny His uniqueness. They believed that there were many stages between the evil matter of this world and the perfect spirit which is God; and they believed that Jesus was only one of the many stages on the way.
Jesus however said:
John 14 v 6
“Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.”
Jesus IS THE ONLY WAY TO GOD, His life’s example IS THE ONLY PERFECT EXAMPLE WE HAVE!!!
Many today will claim Jesus Christ died for our sins, but that His atoning blood sacrifice WAS NOT ENOUGH, that we must save ourselves, atone for our own sins by the good works of righteousness that we do under our own power……
Titus 3 v 5-6
“Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost; 6. Which he shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Saviour;”
No wonder Jude was terrified and alarmed at these false and seductive teachers. Jude was faced with a situation in which they had wormed their way into the church, and were twisting the grace of God into a justification, and even a reason, for sinning in the most blatant way; and who denied both the manhood and the uniqueness of Jesus Christ and His power to save humanity.
Jude v 5-7
“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. 6. 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. 7. Even as Sodom and Gomorrha, 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.”
Jude issues a warning to these evil people who were perverting the belief and conduct of the church. Jude tells them that he is, in fact, doing nothing other than remind them of things of which they are perfectly well aware of. In a sense it is true to say that all preaching within the Christian church is not so much bringing to people new truth as confronting them with truth they already know, but have forgotten or are disregarding. It has rightfully been said: IT IS NOT THE HARD TO UNDERSTAND TEACHINGS IN THE BIBLE THAT CAUSE PROBLEMS, BUT RATHER THE PASSAGES AND TEACHINGS WE READILY UNDERSTAND, YET, REFUSE TO LISTEN TO AND OBEY!!!!!!!
James 1 v 22
“But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.”
To understand the first two examples which Jude cites from history we must understand one thing. The evil people who were corrupting the church did not regard themselves as enemies of the church and of Christianity; they regarded themselves as the advanced thinkers, a cut above the ordinary Christian, the spiritual elite. Jude chooses his examples to make clear that, even if a person has received the greatest privileges, they may still fall away into disaster, and even those who have received the greatest privileges from God cannot consider themselves safe but must be on constant watch against the mistaken things.
The first example is from the history of Israel. Jude goes for his story to Numbers chapter 13 and 14. The mighty hand of God had delivered the people from slavery in Egypt. What greater act of deliverance could there be than that? The guidance of God had brought the people safely across the desert to the borders of the Promised Land. What greater demonstration of his Providence could there be than that? So, at the very borders of the Promised Land, at Kadesh-Barnea, spies were sent out to spy out the land before the final invasion took place. With the exception of Caleb and Joshua, the spies came back with the opinion that the dangers ahead were so terrible and the people so strong, that they could never win their way into the Promised Land. The people rejected the report of Caleb and Joshua, who were for going on, and accepted the report of those who insisted that the case was hopeless. This was a clear act of disobedience to God and of complete lack of faith in Him. The result was that God gave judgment that of these people, with the exception of Joshua and Caleb, all over twenty would never enter the Promised Land but would wander in the wilderness until they were dead.
Numbers 14 v 32-33
“But as for you, your carcases, they shall fall in this wilderness. 33. And your children shall wander in the wilderness forty years, and bear your whoredoms, until your carcases be wasted in the wilderness.”
Numbers 32 v 10-13
“And the Lord's anger was kindled the same time, and he sware, saying, 11. Surely none of the men that came up out of Egypt, from twenty years old and upward, shall see the land which I sware unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob; because they have not wholly followed me: 12. Save Caleb the son of Jephunneh the Kenezite, and Joshua the son of Nun: for they have wholly followed the Lord. 13. And the Lord's anger was kindled against Israel, and he made them wander in the wilderness forty years, until all the generation, that had done evil in the sight of the Lord, was consumed.”
This was an image which haunted the mind of both Paul and the writer to the Hebrews:
1 Corinthians 10 v 5-11
“But with many of them God was not well pleased: for they were overthrown in the wilderness. 6. Now these things were our examples, to the intent we should not lust after evil things, as they also lusted. 7. Neither be ye idolaters, as were some of them; as it is written, The people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play. 8. Neither let us commit fornication, as some of them committed, and fell in one day three and twenty thousand. 9. Neither let us tempt Christ, as some of them also tempted, and were destroyed of serpents.10. Neither murmur ye, as some of them also murmured, and were destroyed of the destroyer. 11. Now all these things happened unto them for ensamples: and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come.”
Hebrews 3 v 18-19
“And to whom sware he that they should not enter into his rest, but to them that believed not? 19. So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief.”
Hebrews 4 v 2
“For unto us was the gospel preached, as well as unto them: but the word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it.”
It is the proof that even the person the greatest opportunity can meet with disaster before the end, if THEY, WE, fall away from obedience and lapses from faith.
Johnstone Jeffrey tells of a great man who absolutely refused to have his life-story written before his death. "I have seen," he said, "too many men fall out on the last lap."
John Wesley warned, "Let, therefore, none presume on past mercies, as if they were out of danger."
In his dream John Bunyan saw that even from the gates of heaven there was a way to hell.
Not that a genuinely saved person can lose their salvation, BUT WE CAN ABSOLUTELY LOSE OUR CHRISTIAN WITNESS AND THE JOY OF OUR SALVATION BY ALLOWING FALSE TEACHERS AND/ OR FALSE DOCTRINES TO BE TOSSED ABOUT IN OUR CONGREGATIONS…….
As for those who merely profess salvation, or are merely searching for the true Gospel, false teachers and false doctrines can potentially ever destroy THEIR CHANCES OF ETERNAL SALVATION!!!
Thus Jude warns these people that, great as their knowledge or wisdom seem to have been, they must still have a care lest disaster come upon them.
***It is a warning which each of us would do well to heed.***
Jude v 8-9
“Likewise also these filthy dreamers defile the flesh, despise dominion, and speak evil of dignities. 9. 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”.
Jude begins this passage by comparing the evil people of his day with the false prophets whom Scripture condemns.
Deuteronomy 13 v 1-5
“If there arise among you a prophet, or a dreamer of dreams, and giveth thee a sign or a wonder, and 2. And the sign or the wonder come to pass, whereof he spake unto thee, saying, Let us go after other gods, which thou hast not known, and let us serve them; 3. Thou shalt not hearken unto the words of that prophet, or that dreamer of dreams: for the Lord your God proveth you, to know whether ye love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul. 4. Ye shall walk after the Lord your God, and fear him, and keep his commandments, and obey his voice, and ye shall serve him, and cleave unto him. 5. And that prophet, or that dreamer of dreams, shall be put to death; because he hath spoken to turn you away from the Lord your God, which brought you out of the land of Egypt, and redeemed you out of the house of bondage, to thrust thee out of the way which the Lord thy God commanded thee to walk in. So shalt thou put the evil away from the midst of thee.”
These verses sets down what is to be done with "the prophet or the dreamer of dreams" who corrupts the nations and seduces the people, from their loyalty to God. Such a prophet is to be mercilessly killed. These men whom Jude attacks are false prophets, dreamers of false dreams, seducers of the people, and must be treated as such.
***Their false teaching resulted in two major products.
ONE, It made them corrupt the flesh. We have already seen the twofold direction of their teaching on the flesh. First, the flesh was entirely evil, and, therefore, of no importance; and so the instincts of the body could be given their way without control. Second, the grace of God was all-forgiving and all-sufficient and therefore, sin did not matter since grace would forgive every sin. Sin was only the means whereby grace was given its opportunity to operate.
TWO, They detested angels. Celestial powers and angelic glories are names for ranks of angels within the angelic hierarchy. This follows immediately after the citing of Sodom and Gomorrah as dreadful examples; and part of the sin of Sodom was the desire of its people to misuse its angelic visitors:
Genesis 19 v 1-11
“And there came two angels to Sodom at even; and Lot sat in the gate of Sodom: and Lot seeing them rose up to meet them; and he bowed himself with his face toward the ground; 2. And he said, Behold now, my lords, turn in, I pray you, into your servant's house, and tarry all night, and wash your feet, and ye shall rise up early, and go on your ways. And they said, Nay; but we will abide in the street all night. 3. And he pressed upon them greatly; and they turned in unto him and entered into his house; and he made them a feast, and did bake unleavened bread, and they did eat. 4. But before they lay down, the men of the city, even the men of Sodom, compassed the house round, both old and young, all the people from every quarter: 5. And they called unto Lot, and said unto him, Where are the men which came in to thee this night? bring them out unto us, that we may know them. 6. And Lot went out at the door unto them, and shut the door after him, 7. And said, I pray you, brethren, do not so wickedly. 8. Behold now, I have two daughters which have not known man; let me, I pray you, bring them out unto you, and do ye to them as is good in your eyes: only unto these men do nothing; for therefore came they under the shadow of my roof. 9. And they said, Stand back. And they said again, This one fellow came in to sojourn, and he will needs be a judge: now will we deal worse with thee, than with them. And they pressed sore upon the man, even Lot, and came near to break the door. 10. But the men put forth their hand, and pulled Lot into the house to them, and shut to the door. 11. And they smote the men that were at the door of the house with blindness, both small and great: so that they wearied themselves to find the door.”
The men Jude attacks spoke evil of the angels. To prove how terrible a thing that was Jude cites an instance from an apocryphal book, The Assumption of Moses. One of the strange things about Jude is that he so often makes his quotations from these apocryphal books. Such quotations seem strange to us; but these books were very widely used at the time when Jude was writing and the quotations would be very effective.
The story in The Assumption of Moses runs as follows. The strange story of the death of Moses is told in:
Deuteronomy 34 v 1-6
“And Moses went up from the plains of Moab unto the mountain of Nebo, to the top of Pisgah, that is over against Jericho. And the Lord shewed him all the land of Gilead, unto Dan, 2. And all Naphtali, and the land of Ephraim, and Manasseh, and all the land of Judah, unto the utmost sea, 3. And the south, and the plain of the valley of Jericho, the city of palm trees, unto Zoar. 4. And the Lord said unto him, This is the land which I sware unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob, saying, I will give it unto thy seed: I have caused thee to see it with thine eyes, but thou shalt not go over thither. 5. So Moses the servant of the Lord died there in the land of Moab, according to the word of the Lord. 6. And he buried him in a valley in the land of Moab, over against Bethpeor: but no man knoweth of his sepulchre unto this day.”
In the book: “The Assumption of Moses”, the scene goes on to add the further story that the task of burying the body of Moses was given to the archangel Michael. The devil disputed with Michael for possession of the body. He based his claim on two grounds. Moses' body was matter; matter was evil; and, therefore, the body belonged to him, for matter was his domain. Second, Moses was a murderer, for had not he slain the Egyptian whom he saw smiting the Hebrew.
Exodus 2 v 11-12
“And it came to pass in those days, when Moses was grown, that he went out unto his brethren, and looked on their burdens: and he spied an Egyptian smiting an Hebrew, one of his brethren. 12. And he looked this way and that way, and when he saw that there was no man, he slew the Egyptian, and hid him in the sand.”
And, if he was a murderer, the devil had a claim on his body. The point Jude is making is this. Michael was engaged on a task given him by God; the devil was seeking to stop him and was making claims he had no right to make. But even in a collection of circumstances like that Michael spoke no evil of the devil but simply said, "The Lord rebuke you!" If the greatest of the good angels refused to speak evil of the greatest of the evil angels, even in circumstances like that, surely no human being may speak evil of any angel.
What the people Jude was reproving were saying about the angels we do not know. Perhaps they were saying that they did not exist; perhaps they were saying they were evil, or perhaps they were even saying the angels were giving additional revelation from God that was not contained in the Gospel, in the books that we call the Bible. But clearly they were saying something false about God’s faithful angels…
At this point we will stop for today, and next time we will complete at least this attempt at a discussion of the Letter of Jude…….
Remember God’s warnings through Jude, EVER BE VIGILENT IN DISCOVERING FALSE TEACHERS AND FALSE DOCTRINES, AND MOST DILIGENT SHARE THE TRUTH OF THE GOSPEL OF YOUR FAITH IN JESUS CHRIST WITH AS MANY AS YOU ARE ABLE TO DO SO…….
And those of you who profess “another testament”, another gospel, a better more complete book or doctrine, TAKE HEED LEAST YE BE ETERNALLY DAMNED!!!!!!!
*******May God teach us His ETERNAL “TRUTH” the Holy Bible!!!!!!!*******
Acts 17 v 11
“These were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so.”
Submitted by: Dr. Harold Chris Smith, sbc
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