Jude V

MINISTER, Rev. Thomas O. Scarborough.

Jude. Verses 4-16.

One of the most important things we have said over the last few Sundays is that Jude -- in the book of Jude -- writes against people who have a false view of God's grace -- people who think that because God is gracious -- He is gracious to all people on the face of the earth, or He has mercy on any and every sin.

There are some people -- and these are the people Jude writes about -- people who only see grace, grace, grace. God is gracious, they say, so everybody goes to heaven. God is gracious, so God forgives every sinner.

The Bible, however, shows us that God's grace always goes together with

a very deep sense of sin -- and of course, it always goes together with faith in Jesus Christ, who is God’s solution for sin.

There is a kind of thinking today -- just as there was in Jude's day -- that says: "I deserve God's grace." God is a wonderful God, and therefore I deserve to receive mercy from Him.

You have people living in all sorts of sin today, who have the attitude: "I deserve God's mercy." Or -- "God's mercy is my right." And there’s a condition that is related to that, which says, “I’ve had God’s mercy since I was born. God’s grace has been mine all the length of my life.”

But the Bible shows us that God's grace and mercy apply to those who have recognised their sin -- and have recognised it so clearly that they understand that they have lost eternal life -- they are lost before a holy God -- forever -- and all that can save me now is God's grace and mercy through His Son Jesus Christ.

In verse 4, Jude talks about people -- these are people within the Church -- who have turned the grace of God into licence. That word "grace" is very similar to the word mercy -- and it means God's undeserved favour. They have taken God's undeserved favour, and turned it into licence.

* * * * * * * * * *

This morning we have reached verse 4 of the book of Jude, and this morning I’m going to speed up tremendously -- we are going to cover a whole nine verses in this book -- all the way through to verse 12.

Verse 4 introduces what follows, so let’s just read verse 4: “For certain men whose condemnation was written about long ago have secretly slipped in among you. They are godless men, who change the grace of God into a license for immorality and deny Jesus Christ our only Sovereign and Lord.”

Two key words are "godless" and "immoral".

The word "godless" refers to their spiritual condition -- these men are simply God-less -- they just don't have God in their lives. They talk about God, and they move among the people of God, the Church of God -- we read here that they attend Holy Communion, and they speak fine words in the fellowship -- but God is not there, in their lives.

How does one tell the difference between such people and someone who does have God in his or her life? I hope that we’ll find answer in Jude this morning.

Secondly, these people who have slipped into the Church are immoral, in verse 4 -- their behaviour does not reflect the kind of behaviour that is part of a Spirit-filled life.

Now that can be a misleading word -- immoral. When we hear the word immoral today, we tend to think of sexual immorality, or serious corruption -- and that is certainly included under the word “immoral”. But Jude includes certain things under that word “immoral” that we might not expect -- such as grumbling and faultfinding and boasting.

* * * * * * * * * *

Now before we get into what it means that these men in the book of Jude were godless and immoral -- let’s look at a rather obvious truth that we might easily overlook.

Certain men have secretly slipped in among you -- in verse 4. And that word “secretly” means that no one would have noticed. They just blended in so well -- they slipped into the Church. But -- still they were godless and immoral.

The basic truth here is that you might be in the Church -- but that does not necessarily mean that you really know God, or that you have really understood true Christian behaviour. You might be involved in the Church life -- your name might be on the membership roll -- or you might have been baptised and confirmed -- but that doesn’t necessarily mean that you have eternal salvation.

Let’s translate Jude’s words “godless” and “immoral” into today’s terms -- and let’s remember again that Jude is talking about people within the Church.

Firstly, you get what is sometimes called the "career Christian" -- that is their career in life, to be a Christian -- whether to be a churchgoer or even a minister -- but even though they call themselves Christian, they have not come to a personal understanding of God's grace. Sometimes such Christians are called "nominal" Christians. There wasn’t a point in their lives where they received Jesus Christ as their personal Saviour.

Secondly, you get the immoral Christian -- perhaps not immoral by the standards of the world today -- but immoral from Jude’s point of view, and from the Bible’s point of view -- Christians who claim the right to live as the world lives. They say that the Church is judgemental -- and what right does it have to judge personal behaviours that don’t -- according to them -- do anybody any harm?

* * * * * * * * * *

Jude shows us that there is one basic problem with both of these categories of people in the Church -- and he makes this problem very clear in this little book -- he spells out the roots of the trouble -- the spiritual roots. We’ll take a look at those roots, and then we’ll look at some of the specific things that were happening in the Church.

Firstly, in verse 5, Jude says: "I want to remind you that the Lord delivered His people out of Egypt -- but later destroyed those who did not believe."

By God's mercy and grace, He delivered His people from the land of Egypt -- and yet -- and yet they never made it to the promised Land.

They had the great privilege of being called God’s people -- they had the privilege of being part of God’s deliverance from Egypt -- from the world -- by God’s power and grace -- and yet their salvation was never completed. They never made it to the Promised Land. They died in the desert. Why was that?

The reason that is given here in Jude is unbelief. There was no saving faith. They knew all about God's grace -- they knew all about His mighty acts of love -- they knew all about it -- but they never came to that moment of personal faith.

Jude is saying that there are people who have the amazing privilege of belonging to the Church of Christ, but they have not come to saving faith.

Let us look next at verse 6.

In verse 6, Jude speaks about the angels who did not keep their positions of authority.

These were angels -- angels in heaven -- and yet, despite their status and privilege as angels -- they are now bound for eternal judgement on the great Day -- on the final Day of Judgement.

The reason that is given here is that they did not keep their positions -- their positions of authority -- but they abandoned their own home. And what this means is that they were no longer in submission to God, in the positions they should have been in -- but they rebelled against Him.

So Jude is saying that salvation includes submission to God. You can’t have salvation if you still want your own way.

Then in verse 7 -- in verse 7, Jude describes how Sodom and Gomorrah, and the surrounding towns gave themselves up to sexual immorality and perversion. And as a result of this, they came under eternal punishment.

They gave themselves up -- they handed themselves over. And this talks about the direction of their lives. They demanded the right to sin, and refused to take a new direction -- and so they came under God's eternal judgement.

In this third case, what is missing is repentance -- a turning away from sin. So there may be people who belong to the Church, says Jude, who have not turned their lives around.

In verse 11, these men have taken the way of Cain. Now Jude is not referring to Cain’s murder here, so he has to be referring to the way of Cain in worshiping God.

Cain is the classic example of someone who worshipped God in the wrong way -- as far as we can tell, Cain decided to worship God in his own way, and not the way that God required.

And then lastly -- the last of the spiritual problems with these men in the book of Jude -- also in verse 11 -- they have rushed for profit into Balaam's error.

Balaam was a prophet in the Old Testament who was summoned by a certain king -- the king demanded to see him. And Balaam inquired of the Lord: "Lord should I go?" -- and the Lord told Balaam not to go. But then that king offered him money -- and so Balaam disobeyed the Lord, and he went to see the king.

In other words, Balaam, as a prophet, was meant to serve God -- single-mindedly. But he was getting waylaid by the desire for personal gain. This was causing him to change the word of God. Jude also says -- in verse 12 -- that these are shepherds who feed only themselves. It’s not the flock they are interested in -- they do things not for God’s flock, but to benefit themselves. Perhaps to make themselves popular -- or perhaps to make themselves rich.

We don't know how these men in the book of Jude were doing things for personal gain -- but one thing is for sure -- as soon as a Christian -- and especially a Christian minister -- starts doing things not because of God’s will and the good of God’s work, but for personal advantage -- then you have a serious spiritual problem at the heart of the Church.

* * * * * * * * * *

Let’s just sum up what Jude is saying through these five examples. He is saying that people have got into the Church who do not have -- saving faith, or submission to God, or repentance from sin. Also, they do not worship God as God requires, and they are compromising God’s will and God’s Word for some kind of personal advantage.

Those are the spiritual problems which Jude is addressing in the book of Jude.

Let us notice in verse 10 that these are men who do not understand.

We know that these men had no spiritual understanding -- they were unsaved, and therefore their spiritual eyes were closed. They had no spiritual sight.

Basically, everything we have seen can be summed up as an absence of repentance and faith. Again we have seen a description of career Christians, or nominal Christians, who are very much part of the Church -- but have failed to be convicted of sin, have failed to surrender their lives to God, have failed repent of their own way -- who continue to come to God on their own terms -- and not only that, they are turning the gospel to their own advantage in some way -- perhaps for popularity and acceptance -- perhaps for financial gain.

* * * * * * * * * *

Now as always, such spiritual problems lead to moral problems, or behavioural problems -- and that is what we shall look at next.

The next thing that Jude says is that these spiritual deficiencies -- these spiritual problems -- further lead to a number of behavioural problems. There are certain behaviours that show that a person is ot the genuine article in the Church.

And Jude goes on to list five things that characterise the person who is not the genuine article -- I picked up five things that seem to have been going on in the Church at that time -- and every one of them just as relevant today.

In verse 8, we read firstly that these men -- or some of these men -- pollute their own bodies -- and usually such words refer to sexual immorality. That was also referred to in the previous verse, verse 7. Their lifestyle was immoral.

We are not told how -- and it is unlikely that they were doing things that were shockingly immoral -- perhaps it was practices that were more or less accepted in that day and age, but were not acceptable according to the Word of God. The reference to Sodom and Gomorrah may refer to same-sex liaisons.

Secondly, these men reject authority. That is a very common mark of an unsaved person, because they just don't understand authority. If you are not under the authority of God -- if you have not submitted yourself to Him, and said, “Lord, you can have every part of my life -- I’ll give anything up for you, I’ll take anything on for you”, then you can hardly do that for any lesser reason in this world.

There’s another reference to such a problem in verse 11. Verse 11 speaks about Korah's rebellion.

Korah was a man who challenged the spiritual authority of Moses -- he led a rebellion against Moses, in the Old Testament. The Bible tells us that he became "insolent" -- and he went to Moses to challenge Moses.

The Bible tells us that there was no other person on earth who was as humble as Moses. (Numbers 12:3). And when Korah challenged Moses, Moses fell with his face upon the ground.

And to cut a long story short, Korah and all his people -- as we read in verse 11 -- were destroyed, because they rebelled against the spiritual authority of Moses.

Perhaps these men who had secretly slipped into the Church were challenging the spiritual authority of the leaders of the Church -- perhaps they were challenging the spiritual authority of Paul. And notice also the reference in verse 16 to grumblers and faultfinders. They were grumblers and faultfinders.

In the world out there, you choose somebody because they have the best C.V., or because they have the greatest intelligence, or the best skills, or the most drive, or the biggest clout.

In the Church, it is people God has anointed -- in the Church, God places those people He thinks He can use. God says: "This is the servant I am going to use in this place, by my power" -- whether that is the minister, or a deacon, or a group leader. And if God's anointing is upon a person, it is at your peril that you become insolent towards them, as did Korah in the Old Testament.

Thirdly -- in verse 8 -- these men in the time of Jude slander celestial beings -- and a little further down, we read that they speak abusively of whatever they do not understand.

There is a reference here to the archangel Michael here -- and what Jude is saying is that even the archangel Michael -- the highest of the angels -- did not speak abusively to Satan -- nor did he speak by his own authority, but he spoke on God’s authority. He said: "The Lord rebuke you."

These men in the book of Jude obviously must have been doing it differently -- instead of acting within the authority of God, and the authority of the Word -- instead of being in submission to God’s will -- they were just using their own authority, and probably they did not have the respect that the archangel Michael had. They were slanderous and degrading in the way that they dealt with people.

And then a final problem with these men who are mentioned in the book of Jude -- they are blemishes at the love feasts -- which is Holy Communion.

In those days, Holy Communion was not simply a brief service as we have it today, but it was a feast -- a feast of joy and fellowship and spiritual encouragement -- maybe more like our own Church Suppers.

The original Greek does not speak about these people being blemishes at the love feasts -- rather it describes them as reefs underneath the love feasts.

Everything seemed to be going fine at the love feasts -- the ship seemed to be sailing along beautifully -- when suddenly it would hit this reef underneath. These men were reefs among the brothers and sisters -- they spoiled the fellowship -- they put something into it that jarred -- something that grated, or aggravated the fellowship.

Let’s just sum up again. Jude mentions four specific behaviours of people who were ruining the Church. They were leading an immoral lifestyle -- they were not respectful of spiritual authority in the Church -- they used authority in a way that was not just faithfully acting on God’s behalf, but was arrogant and probably degrading -- and they just grated or aggravated the fellowship when the Church got together for its love feasts.

* * * * * * * * * *

This might seem a strange place to end this morning -- but I have run out of time.

If you feel this morning that you are ready for a change of mind about your sin -- and about God -- and about your need for Jesus Christ in your life -- I have a little booklet which we want to offer you with our compliments -- it will explain to you just how to do that. Please ask me for a copy at the door.

AMEN.