In Jude 3 and 4, two trends are defined: the trend we create as we eagerly contend for the faith that was once delivered to the saints, and the great tide of ungodliness that we battle and contend against.
In verses 8 through 19 we read about a specific group of men referred to as “these men.” They had already crept in unnoticed (verse 4). We are told who they were and what they did: “In the same manner these men defile, reject, revile, are hidden reefs. About these also Enoch prophesied. These are grumblers. These are the ones who cause divisions.”
Jude was speaking about his day, as well as predicting situations in the end-time. The falling away occurred within several generations after the death of Christ. We know that it had already started in the days of the apostle John, because he wrote in his first Epistle that many antichrists had already entered into the world. If you believe that there is only one antichrist who will appear at the end of this present age, you are mistaken. “These men” had already crept in before John died. He said, in effect, “Many antichrists are already in the world. These people had to go out from us, for they were not of us. If they had been of us, no doubt they would have continued with us; but they went out from us that it might be manifested they all were not of us” (1 John 2:18–19). This shows that the ministries had difficulty discerning these people, even in the early Church. They crept in unnoticed.
Some things are easily discerned, but others can slip by unnoticed. One of the stories of Elisha tells about a prominent woman and her husband who provided a room for Elisha the prophet and his servant. Whenever Elisha passed by their home, he could stay there. Out of gratitude, the prophet prayed for the woman, blessed her, and told her that in about a year she would have a child. Her barrenness was healed and she bore a son. When the child was grown, he died. She went straight to Elisha as fast as she could, and he said, “The Lord has hidden this from me” (2 Kings 4:27).
Anyone who drives a car is aware that there is a certain “blind spot.” It is an area that is not reflected in the rearview mirror. Similarly, there are certain areas spiritually to which even the most perceptive person is blind. Because no one was able to discern “these men” properly, they crept in unnoticed. They were the main reason that the faith, once delivered to the saints, was lost. Jude spoke of their condemnation. The judgment on them occurs simultaneously with the Church coming back to the faith that was once delivered to the saints. The book of Jude is a prophecy of God dealing with a certain level of ungodly people who had crept into the Church unnoticed and brought it into a thousand years of the Dark Ages. This is what the Bible calls “the falling away” (2 Thessalonians 2:3). Some Christians say it is yet in the future. Can you imagine a greater falling away than occurred during the Dark Ages?
After the Dark Ages two Jesuits concocted a false system of prophecy, which was later adapted by Darby and became the basis of the Scofield Bible and most fundamental approaches to the rapture and the end-time events. A different system of prophecy, however, came from the early Church. It was based upon the true writings of men known as the ante-Nicene Fathers, who were students or disciples of the original apostles. It presents an amazing picture. An epistle of Barnabas to the Corinthians describes the various days to come. Every reformer in the Reformation identified accurately the great whore who sits on seven hills (Revelation 17:9). Yet even out of the Reformation has come a corruption of Protestantism. This corruption shows that mystery Babylon was the mother of harlots. The whole system repeats itself, even among those who viciously turn against it.
In this day, God is doing more than just restoring the Church; He is purifying it. The Bride is going to be without spot or wrinkle, with no blemish before the Lord. To the Bride was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white, which is the righteous acts of the saints (Revelation 19:8). “These men” infested the whole stream of the Church, and those same defilements exist in churches today. Coming to completion are the awesome judgments upon those who have crept in and defiled the Church.
In verse 4 Jude told of ungodly persons who turn the grace of our God into licentiousness.… Under the name of grace, they want to overlook sin. However, the Scriptures speak about grace to overcome. It is an entirely different approach. We can never excuse sin.
When you find a habit or a problem in your life that is wrong and rather deep-rooted, you may decide to approach it through willpower and a determination to change it. However, if you discipline your flesh to overcome a certain weakness, you actually still have it, because that which is born of the flesh is flesh (John 3:6). If you first have a fleshly bondage and then you have a fleshly deliverance, it amounts to nothing. The deliverance must be wrought in your spirit by God. Suppose you work something out so that you are acceptable to your brothers in the church, but they do not know the depth of your need because you have never really faced it, and it has never been truly met by God. That situation is deadly and leads to trouble. What should you do? Come before the Lord and lay before Him whatever it is that you are doing or whatever it is that you need. You may trip over the problem repeatedly, yet each time you must refuse to excuse yourself. Admit that it is wrong and go into repentance. As long as you have faith and a repentant heart, and you hold the same viewpoint about that bondage as God does, you will come out of it all right. God will deliver you from it unless you overlook it, cover it over, and breed hypocrisy in your heart concerning it.
Some of the young people occasionally stand around in front of the church smoking cigarettes. This is utterly condemned by Christians who follow legalistic teaching. We are not excusing it, but we do not continually harp on that one string, because a walk with God is not a conformity to a certain rigid pattern of behavior. It is not what you do not do that brings you into a walk with God; it is what you do do. Simply eliminating negative traits does not necessarily mean that the positive traits will come forth. Eliminating a few habits does not make you spiritual. You will be healthier if you do not smoke, but that does not make you a spiritual person. Approach the problem spiritually. Some people consider it a great reproach when they see people smoking in front of the church. It would be a greater reproach if they were sneaking around behind the church and smoking. Until God deals with the habit, let it be out in the open. Do not excuse it. Come before the Lord and condemn it. Take the same viewpoint and the same attitude God does, and the next thing you know you will be delivered from it by God. Then it will be a genuine deliverance.
In verse 4 Jude said further that the ungodly persons deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ. When you lose the basic centrality of Jesus Christ as Lord in your faith, you develop something that is very unhealthy. If you are only looking for doctrines and a series of experiences, then you have lost the principal goal. To become a Christian does not only mean that you accept Jesus as your Savior, that you believe He can heal you and deliver you and fill you with His Holy Spirit so that you will speak in tongues, and that one day, after the great resurrection, you will live in the Kingdom. That is a matter of accepting a beautiful doctrine and various experiences as the basis of faith. Most denominations are careful to circumscribe their doctrines in areas of faith and experience, saying in effect, “Thus far we will believe and no farther.” They build walls around their horizons to hold in the truth and to keep out more light. They are more successful in the latter than in the former. They keep out new light.
The basis of our faith should not only be the acceptance of experiences and doctrines; it should be the change of allegiance. We are to be translated from the dominion of darkness into the Kingdom of God’s dear Son (Colossians 1:13). In that change of allegiance, we bow down and proclaim Christ as our only Master and Lord. When it comes to doctrines and teachings, we do not claim to have a great body of truth and doctrine that is total and complete. Rather, we believe all that God has revealed and all that He is yet to reveal. We know that God will lead us perfectly. We believe in Jesus Christ as the only Lord and Master. We have changed allegiance. We no longer serve sin or self, nor are we under the dominion of Satan. We are in the Kingdom of God’s dear Son. We are proclaiming a King. This is really the gospel of the Kingdom. Preaching that Jesus is our Savior is wonderful, but that is not the emphasis in the New Testament. Hundreds of times in the New Testament Jesus is referred to as Kurios, Lord, and sixteen times as Soter, Savior. Just the preponderance of references would cause us to say, “Jesus Christ is Lord.”
The beginning of all apostasy and trouble in the Church came as a result of the denial of Jesus Christ as the only Lord and Master. This denial brought on the Dark Ages. People still believed that Jesus was their Savior, but the pope had assumed the lordship and the mastery of the Church; and after that he could assume almost anything. And it is still so. The prophet Isaiah wrote, O Lord our God, other lords beside thee have had dominion over us: but by thee only will we make mention of thy name. Isaiah 26:13. We have only one Lord, one Master.
Jude 8 says of “these men” that they defile the flesh. I do not think this means that they go around mutilating themselves; it speaks of the attitude they have toward their bodies. The body was meant to be the temple of the Holy Spirit; it was not to be adorned and pursued as an object of lustful sensuality. Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 6:13, “The body was not made for fornication, but for the Lord.” Our bodies were made preeminently for God to dwell in. This is the purpose for which they were created.
“These men” also reject authority, and revile angelic majesties. Verse 8b. But Michael the archangel, when he disputed with the devil and argued about the body of Moses, did not dare pronounce against him a railing judgment, but said, “The Lord rebuke you.” Verse 9. Jude was using a negative illustration. “These men” despise the glorious majesties and divine order that God has put over them; but even Michael, the archangel, would not bring a railing accusation against Lucifer. I do not think that this is the pattern for us. We do not have to say, “Satan, the Lord rebuke you”; we ourselves can rebuke Satan in Jesus’ name because all authority in heaven and earth is in Christ. Jude was not saying that we should hesitate to despise Satan, but that he is not to be feared, because all authority is gone from him. The apostles and the early Church rebuked demons and cast them out, and they did it in Jesus’ name. That is always wise, because they will not leave unless we speak with the authority we have in Christ. Spirits must respond to authority. In the realm of spirit, all power has to be under authority. Although Satan has great power, he has no authority, and therefore he has to bluff you. That is why he rages. He has to come as a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour (1 Peter 5:8). Do not be intimidated by him. The weakest saint who understands his position to use the name of Jesus Christ can drive principalities and powers right out of their realm. It is good to know that and to believe it.
Besides defiling the flesh in their very attitude toward the body, these men revile the things which they do not understand; and the things which they know by instinct, like unreasoning animals, by these things they are destroyed. Verse 10. They destroy themselves by their animal instincts. This again is a picture of conditions in the world today. It is impossible for a man to survive when he accepts himself as an animal. He is bound to be self-destructive if he rejects the spiritual nature of his creation. Of course, natural science today teaches that we have evolved up to this place, and therefore we are a high order of animal with reason. We are not! We were made in the image of God. We were made for God. What happens to those who say that we are merely animals and we should accept ourselves as animals and express ourselves as animals of instinct? Like unreasoning animals, they are destroyed by those things which they know by instinct.
This generation will be the most self-destructive generation the world has known, because it is the most permissive. It says, “Do whatever you want to do. If it feels good, do it.” This is the reasoning of the permissiveness in our society. According to the Word of God, such an attitude is self-destructive. Notice that Jude says of “these men” that they reject authority. Young people who find themselves hopelessly caught in drugs and sin and various lusts may not realize that their serious problems started with the rejection of authority. In Satan’s efforts to break down the parental authority and the authority of the church over the children, he could do nothing more effective than to have professors in the school system constantly challenge the young people regarding their submission to parental authority. All Satan needs is a devil-possessed professor who is using sarcasm and poking fun, reviling the glorious majesties that God has created, because rebellion opens the door. Many a young person would never have gone down a path of sin in such a diversified form if someone had not first planted the seed of rebellion in his heart. The minute that young people enter into an ego trip which says that they should think for themselves and decide for themselves, they are one step away from dope and other serious habits right at that time, and they revile.
“These men” revile what they do not understand. They have no concept of it. “These men” destroy themselves by their very own animal instincts. After working hard to attain a certain position of prestige, how can men then suddenly drop so low, unless they had the weakness within them that was self-destructive? That is always happening to people of the world. The judgments of God are probably not as sovereignly executed as people think. When you find out that God has condemned an action, and then in rebellion you go and do it, you reap in yourself the judgment, perhaps without even being aware of it at the time.
Let us love the truth and love righteousness. Let us teach our young people to be submissive to the Lord, so that they will not walk in rebellion or revile things they do not even understand, but hold their judgment. Let us teach them to be so objective that they will wait until God shows them the truth about something before they condemn it.