The Love of God is obvious throughout the Scriptures. True love cares about others. True love desires to see others enjoying life. God knows the only way to enjoy life is to know Him. He created man and He knows what man needs in order to be at peace with Him.
As a servant of the true God, Jude also demonstrated his love for man. He was not writing this letter with regret. He was not coerced into writing it. He wrote it because he was a true servant of the living God and of the Lord Jesus Christ. He had come to see the blessings of knowing the forgiveness of sins that is only possible through believing in the faith that was once delivered unto the saints. We know from Genesis 3 and on, that the devil’s sole purpose is to keep people from the truth. The Bible says he comes across as an angel of light, but he is darkness. Those who want to live by their feelings, will follow the devil’s lies. Those who realize those lies get old, will finally listen to the Holy Spirit Who is working in lost people to convict them of their sin and of God’s righteousness and of judgment to come.
Besides the direct work of the Holy Spirit in the heart of the lost, God also chooses men to be faithful in warning the lost of the fact that they are not pleasing God. Those men warn the saints of the importance of drawing nigh to God.
Our P.M. loves name calling. He also loves to lie about his name calling. He likes to call others what he actually is. He believes that by dividing people against one another he can win. By contrast, God is not interested in dividing people so that He can win. He is God. He created man without sin. One of His angels fell and became the devil and since that time, his purpose has been to destroy God’s special creation — man. He deceived Eve and convinced Adam to listen to him rather than to their Creator, God.
Jude, along with all the Biblical writers, were directed by God to show man how to be brought back into fellowship with Him and thus be able to receive the blessings that God has in store for those who know Him and love Him.
Jude was directed to expose the apostates. They are still around today. They are critical of things they know nothing about. They are not saved people. They speak evil of those who are seeking to help others to know the truth. Lost people can mock Christianity and they can scoff at the truth, but they have a distorted view of the truth. We see that very clearly in the mock trial that was held for Jesus Christ. The chief priests looked for “false witnesses”. They could not bring any truth against Jesus Christ. He is truth. Those who reject the truth, do so because they have chosen to believe a lie.
The apostates are busy practicing all kinds of immorality. God describes them as brute beasts. They act like barnyard animals. The difference is that man is given a moral compass and man is also given God’s law on morality and God expects people to live by that law. We know there were temple prostitutes in Paul’s day. We know there were strange women in king Solomon’s day. Immorality and those who want to practice immorality has been a problem for man since the fall. In Genesis 4 we are introduced to a descendant of Cain who was a polygamist.
Jude tells us that those who live as brute beasts corrupt themselves. They do not do themselves any favours and they do not help anyone else either. Jude warns the saints to guard against these people and against this philosophy.
In verse 11 Jude was directed to pronounce a woe upon these people. When God pronounces a woe, that is not a good thing. That is His judgment upon sin. God pointed out here that those who want to live as described above, are following the way of Cain. They also run greedily after the error of Balaam. Balaam was a deceiver who would fit well into a New Evangelical church. He was a greedy person who did not care about God’s righteousness. He did not dare to curse Israel publicly, but he counselled the Moabites to intermarry with the Hebrews and thus break them down and corrupt them. God destroyed him.
God also compared these people to the gainsaying of Core. Core is Korah in the Old Testament. He led his family and others into rebelling against Moses’ and Aaron’s leadership. He thought he and his group had equal authority to that of Moses. God chose Moses to lead the nation of Israel. Korah was of the tribe of Levi and he had important work to do, but he chose to speak evil of Moses and Aaron and thus God judged him and his family severely. It is never wise to speak evil of those that God has chosen to be in a place of spiritual leadership.
This does not mean that Christians cannot question spiritual leaders. The Bible points out that this can and should be done. Speaking evil is making false accusations regarding spiritual leaders. Jude pointed that out in verse 10.
In verse 12 we see that these types of people are a hindrance to the glory of God. They are spots in your feasts. When Godly people come together to remember important events in the Bible, these people are there to corrupt things. They like to try to stir up trouble. They have no interest in learning and serving God. As we read, they are feeding themselves. They are trying to make a name for themselves.
The Pharisees were very good at this. They were so busy trying to guard their power, that they would fight against the Lord Jesus Christ in all things. He exposed them as hypocrites, and as whited sepulchres but they just became more entrenched in their wickedness and would eventually lead the people in crying out: “crucify Him, crucify Him.”
God described these apostates as clouds without rain. It is good to see clouds in the summer after some hot dry weather. However, when those clouds pass over and drop no rain, that is not helpful. The clouds are carried about of winds, and these brute beasts are also full of hot air. They have nothing worthwhile to offer and they drift aimlessly from one heretical thought to another.
They are also described as trees whose fruit withereth. You cannot use the fruit. It is like going up to a saskatoon bush and seeing the berries all dried up. Either you came to the bush too late or it is too dry and the fruit shrivels up before it can be used.
That is what these brute beasts are like. God says they are twice dead, plucked up by the roots. It is bad enough to be dead in trespasses and sins. God warns of those who will face the second death. These are those who have died in their sins and will be cast into the lake of fire. Those who are still living and yet twice dead, are in serious trouble, and need to be avoided.
The saints in Jude’s day needed to realize these people were poison. He needed to warn them and they also needed to be warned not to allow those people to influence them. Don’t give them a platform to spur their hatred for the truth.
In verse 13 we read that they are like raging waves of the sea. Those waves can cause the water to foam as it whips up the sediments from the sea bed. They make the water dirty and unusable. These people are their own shame. They do not want to realize it, but they are shameful in their actions and words.
They are also referred to as wandering stars. The stars are in the sky to act as markers. In former times people would follow the stars as they would travel. They could trust the stars to guide them to their destination. A wandering star is of no value.
God says these people are going to be “rewarded” with the blackness of darkness for ever. This is a very sober warning that apostates should heed. Jude warned the saints not to pamper these people. He warned them to contend for the faith once delivered unto the saints. Rather than accept the false teaching of the apostates, they need to be refuted and exposed.
This is still necessary today. Rather than pamper false teachers, they need to be exposed. There are far more false teachers than there are true teachers. The internet is full of sites that spew false teaching. Those who are dissatisfied in their local church, or do not attend a true local church will be busy surfing the net. They will look for something that will get their attention. If your church does not teach the truth and persists in error, find a true church.
Some one told me this past week that they would rather talk to a local pastor than follow some big name on the internet. That man has some wisdom in what he said. He is not faithful in a true church at this time but hopefully he will come to see the importance of this, if he is truly saved.
God shows us in the Scriptures that the human contact is important. Paul travelled to many different places to establish churches. He then went back to visit those churches to encourage the saints to be faithful to the Lord. He also wrote letters to many different churches. Jesus addressed 7 local churches in the book of the Revelation. They each had a pastor. Those pastors needed to be faithful to Him. They were accountable to Him for what they taught or what they failed to teach.
Let me encourage the readers to listen to God’s Word. To those who are saved, be sure to join a good local church where you can be taught the truth and from where you can serve the Lord. Those that are lost, go to a good local church and listen to the Word of God. Get saved and begin to serve the true and living God.
Pastor Bartel