It is significant that one of these oldest portions of the New Testament should speak about the day in which we are living. The earth beareth fruit of herself; first the blade, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear. But when the fruit is ripe, straightway he putteth forth the sickle, because the harvest is come. Mark 4:28, 29.
What a passage, reserved just for this end time. We are in the time when the Lord is going to bring forth the full ear of corn. The mature believer will come forth and then comes the sickle, because the harvest is ready.
The spirit of the age is creeping into our souls to dim our light and quench the fire of our zeal, chilling the very marrow of our spirit. And we don’t know how to overcome it.
Like the church of Laodicea we become lukewarm and join the cult of the comfortable. Because iniquity shall abound the love of many shall wax cold (Matthew 24:12). Round about us is Sodom and Gomorrah with its abounding iniquity bombing away at us continually.
Although we fight it, we tend to become tolerant of this condemned world that God is going to judge and bring down, until finally we look at sin simply as a little bit of bad judgment, not bad enough that it could alienate God from Adam and all of his descendants.
Iniquity doesn’t seem to be heinous enough to have demanded the crucifixion of God’s only Son. Because we’re surrounded by it, in such close proximity to it, sin doesn’t seem to be such a cursed and evil thing.
However, this is the day that God will make sin be exceedingly sinful to us.
You cannot be a friend of the world and a friend of God. Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of Father, but is of the world. And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof; but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever. I John 2:15–17.
We must beware lest we drift into the passivity of Laodicea and become victims of it. Like a subtle quicksand of indifference it will suck us down until we’re smothered in it, unless we reach up with a intensity that protests, “I will not follow the course of this age! I am going to be redeemed from the corruption that is in this age. With intensity` in my spirit I’ll seek the Lord with all my heart!”
The book of Jude contains the formula for entering into the deep spiritual walk with God. Beloved, while I was giving all diligence to write unto you of our common salvation, I was constrained to write unto you exhorting you to contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered unto the saints. Jude 3.
Many oppose the idea of restoration. Whether you accept restoration or not, the Scripture states that this faith was once for all delivered to the saints, and it is quite obvious that we are still not walking in the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints. Once for all God gave this faith to the saints, but because people have fallen away from it they need to be restored to it. That is a type of restoration in itself. It’s not that God has to restore it—we have to come back to it. God gave it and we must begin to walk in it. God give us the grace to walk as the disciples walked, to walk again as the book of Acts teaches, to walk the way believers are supposed to walk. We’re not going to be disenchanted by the skepticism and unbelief that is round about us. Although iniquity will abound, we’ll see that our love does not wax cold, because we will be contending earnestly for that faith—the faith that was given to us at the beginning.
For there are certain men crept in privily, even they who were of old written of beforehand unto this condemnation, ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness, and denying our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ. Jude 4. The reason the Church first lost its wonderful walk with God, that faith God had given them, was because they began to deny their only Lord and Master, Jesus Christ, and heaped to themselves archbishops and popes and cardinals and everything that went with them. Before long they had not only denied their one and only Master, the Lord Jesus Christ, but they had sovereigns bearing on their mitre the inscription, “In God’s stead.” On and on and on through the centuries it continued.
If we want to walk with God we’ll have to rise to believe. That doesn’t happen automatically. It isn’t a matter of performing certain rituals when a new pope is chosen. We already have our Head, the Lord Jesus Christ, and He is able to convey and reveal to us His will concerning everything. God made Him Head over all things to the Church (Ephesians 1:22). He may be invisible, yet He is more real to us than any human leader could ever be. His will is not revealed by one or two who stand as dictators, but by the mouth of many witnesses. “Let the prophets speak two or three and let the others judge,” Paul tells us in I Corinthians 14:29. That confirmation of the Spirit through the multiplicity of ministry will guarantee that we will not fall into the pitfall by which this whole thing was lost.
As we seek to learn what the Lord says concerning this church and concerning this people we begin to walk with the Lord, aware that He is the Lord over the Church. He is the one who is directing every one of us. We listen to what He has to say. This is exactly what the book of Jude is speaking about and making very clear to us. Although we would not be worse off than those who have human headship instead of divine, we would certainly be completely headless if we didn’t acknowledge the Lord as our Head, for we have absolutely no provision for human, arbitrary leadership to dictate in these matters. We’ve submitted our lives unto the Lord because we believe that He is to be absolute Lord over the Church. When we face problems our policy has always been to wait and seek the Lord, and until we get a word from the Lord we don’t move. Until there is a confirmed word, young people don’t get married; they don’t even start a serious relationship. Anyone who observes this critically without understanding it may remark foolishly, “These leaders have too much control over the lives of the people.” No, they don’t. The leaders are only channels who seek the face of the Lord together, to bring a confirmed word of God to the people. This is the greatest day there ever was and we must be given to submission. It’s not enough to say, “Yes, I’m submissive, I’m submissive,” until the time that a word crosses your will and then you do whatever you please. We’re to be submissive in all things.
Jude 5 speaks of those who are like the people who came out of Egypt and believed not. Then it tells about the angels that fell, and about Sodom and Gomorrah and the desire to go after strange flesh (verse 7), a trend we are seeing repeated in our day. A man may have a beautiful wife, yet he’ll have an affair with another woman who may not be attractive in any way, just because he has that desire of going after strange flesh which is afflicting the whole world.
Speaking of the people in the last day, verse 8 continues, Yet in like manner these also in their dreamings defile the flesh, and set at nought dominion, and rail at dignities (glories). That is the trend of the present age: despise dominion, ridicule everything that speaks of authority, ignore anyone whom God has set in a place of authority. There is no respect for government. Although the government has partially earned such reaction, God tells us we are to obey those who have the rule over us. The respect we should have for the American way of life and people in authority is disappearing from the scene. Never before have so many security precautions been required to protect our rulers and governing officials. This is the age when people feel free to shoot down anyone who opposes their ideas and their thinking. Lawlessness fills the land, just as God predicted for the last days.
Jude 9 tells of Michael contending with the devil over the body of Moses. He did not rebuke Satan himself, but he said, “The Lord rebuke thee,” indicating that he recognized various spiritual levels. We don’t find many people today who walk this humbly before the Lord.
Concerning those who come in the last days, Jude 11 says, Woe unto them! for they went in the way of Cain, and ran riotously in the error of Balaam for hire, and perished in the gainsaying of Korah. Cain, Balaam, and Korah are named because they represent the exact anti-thesis of what God is doing in our lives. God teaches us today how much we should love one another. The way of Cain, which will be very evident in the last days, says the very opposite, “Am I my brother’s keeper?” He had no love in his heart. He was a murderer. God teaches us that we should be dedicated to serve the Body unselfishly. Balaam however, used his ministry selfishly, with greed, and for his own advantage. Unselfish ministry to God’s people was not in his mind at all. A kind of professionalism gripped him. He was ready to pervert the prophetic gift in order to make money. We are learning to be submissive to the Lord and to those who are over us in the Lord, whereas Korah resisted God’s order and the authority He had placed in Moses, saying, “We know the word of God as well as you. Who are you to be over us?”
Korah, Balaam, and Cain defied the very principles that God is emphasizing today. He is telling us, “It shall not be so with you. You are your brother’s keeper and you are going to love him. You can’t use this ministry or the people ministering to you just to get out of certain difficulties and bring blessing to you, for you are going to do the will of God without any regard of gain. You will seek first the Kingdom of God and then the other things will be added. Your concern is to delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart. You are going to be submissive, not rebellious like Korah, whom the earth swallowed up.”
In Jude 14–19 we can read the great prophecies about God’s judgment upon people in the end time, about Enoch, the seventh from Adam, who prophesied what God was going to do to the wicked and ungodly. But verses 20 and 21 are especially significant for us, for they give us the formula that we need to walk with the Lord.
How can we walk with God in this crazy mixed-up world in which we live? But ye, beloved, building up yourselves on your most holy faith, How do you build faith? Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God (Romans 10:17). When you come to the house of God and listen to the Word, when you read the Word, when you pray and seek God’s face—then you are building yourself up in your most holy faith. Faith comes because you look to God for it. Without faith you cannot walk with God, nor can you please Him.
praying in the Holy Spirit, How do we walk with God? through a lot of prayer? No, it’s more than just praying. It’s by praying in the Holy Spirit, praying in tongues, flowing forth in prophetic prayer, getting into the Spirit and crying out to the Lord. No longer is it only the whining and groaning of someone in anguish of spirit. It’s true, God hears that too, for didn’t he hear the prayers of the Israelites and come down to deliver them? But if you want to walk as children of God, as the sons who will be manifested in the earth, you don’t cry like slaves in Egypt; you pray in the Holy Spirit, letting that intercession of the Holy Spirit come up to God. keep yourselves in the love of God, Some people are so withdrawn they seem to be walking down the street with an umbrella over their head. It may be raining, but no rain falls upon them. The sun may be shining but they are not warmed. They have their umbrellas up all the time. Keep yourselves in the love of God. Take down that wall; take away that cloud so you can break through and walk with God. He is beaming through to you all the time. He rains on your spirit. The sun of His love smiles upon you. The day that you’re withdrawn, the day that you’re rebellious, the day that things have entered into your spirit and restrained you, you are not walking with God. You can blame many things but if you want to walk with God, you will have to break loose from them. Drink in of His presence.
Your circumstances may be difficult and the enemy may come against you like a flood until you find yourself clenching your fist and gritting your teeth and saying, “How am I going to bear it? O God, meet my heart.” When you go to the Lord and cast all your cares upon Him, you know He will care for you, as His Word promises (I Peter 5:7). Then the early morning mist disappears, the sun begins to come through and warm your heart, and you find you are still walking with God. How important it is to keep yourself in the love of God.
The next step is looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life. Look for His mercy. Anticipate and expect grace. Today we have problems, but the Lord will meet us. Today we have a need; today we’re facing some consequence of our own stupidity, yet we’re looking for the mercy of the Lord—not just to be delivered from the Devil, but to be delivered from our own stupid decisions and foolish judgments and all the things that are warring in our spirits. Expect mercy. Anticipate it. Look up and say, “Lord, You’ll not deal with me after my folly, but You’ll love me. You’re not going to beat me down; You will lift me up and help me when I’ve made all these stupid mistakes.” You may not know if it was you or the other fellow who made the mistake, but you’re still going to trust the Lord to bring you out of it. That is walking with the Lord.
This short book of Jude, consisting of only one chapter, ends so simply. It tells us that God is able to keep us from stumbling; that He is able to cause us, at the end of the walk, to stand before Him without any spot or blemish. Now unto him that is able to guard you from stumbling, and to set you before the presence of his glory without blemish in exceeding joy, Often justice and blessings seem to be delayed in our lives, and when hope is deferred, the heart is made sick. In that hour the Lord is able to keep us from stumbling and to present us without blemish before the Lord in exceeding joy. We’re going to insist that this be our portion in the Lord. to the only God our Saviour, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion and power, before all time, and now, and for evermore. Amen.