Warning Shots

Jude

The book of Jude is seldom read these days. Most Christians have never studied it – which is a shame, for it is a warning which we need most urgently today.

¹Jude, a servant of Jesus Christ and a brother of James,

To those who have been called, who are loved by God the Father and kept by^£ Jesus Christ:

²Mercy, peace and love be yours in abundance.

³Dear friends, although I was very eager to write to you about the salvation we share, I felt I had to write and urge you to contend for the faith that was once for all entrusted to the saints. ⁴For certain men whose condemnation was written about^£ long ago have secretly slipped in among you. They are godless men, who change the grace of our God into a license for immorality and deny Jesus Christ our only Sovereign and Lord.

⁵Though you already know all this, I want to remind you that the Lord^£ delivered his people out of Egypt, but later destroyed those who did not believe. ⁶And the angels who did not keep their positions of authority but abandoned their own home—these he has kept in darkness, bound with everlasting chains for judgment on the great Day. ⁷In a similar way, Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding towns gave themselves up to sexual immorality and perversion. They serve as an example of those who suffer the punishment of eternal fire.

⁸In the very same way, these dreamers pollute their own bodies, reject authority and slander celestial beings. ⁹But even the archangel Michael, when he was disputing with the devil about the body of Moses, did not dare to bring a slanderous accusation against him, but said, “The Lord rebuke you!” ¹⁰Yet these men speak abusively against whatever they do not understand; and what things they do understand by instinct, like unreasoning animals—these are the very things that destroy them.

¹¹Woe to them! They have taken the way of Cain; they have rushed for profit into Balaam’s error; they have been destroyed in Korah’s rebellion.

¹²These men are blemishes at your love feasts, eating with you without the slightest qualm—shepherds who feed only themselves. They are clouds without rain, blown along by the wind; autumn trees, without fruit and uprooted—twice dead. ¹³They are wild waves of the sea, foaming up their shame; wandering stars, for whom blackest darkness has been reserved forever.

¹⁴Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied about these men: “See, the Lord is coming with thousands upon thousands of his holy ones ¹⁵to judge everyone, and to convict all the ungodly of all the ungodly acts they have done in the ungodly way, and of all the harsh words ungodly sinners have spoken against him.” ¹⁶These men are grumblers and faultfinders; they follow their own evil desires; they boast about themselves and flatter others for their own advantage.

¹⁷But, dear friends, remember what the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ foretold. ¹⁸They said to you, “In the last times there will be scoffers who will follow their own ungodly desires.” ¹⁹These are the men who divide you, who follow mere natural instincts and do not have the Spirit.

²⁰But you, dear friends, build yourselves up in your most holy faith and pray in the Holy Spirit. ²¹Keep yourselves in God’s love as you wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to bring you to eternal life.

²²Be merciful to those who doubt; ²³snatch others from the fire and save them; to others show mercy, mixed with fear—hating even the clothing stained by corrupted flesh.

²⁴To him who is able to keep you from falling and to present you before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy—²⁵to the only God our Savior be glory, majesty, power and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all ages, now and forevermore! Amen.

About this book

It’s rather short – 25 verses in all, quite easy to read in a few minutes. Scholars have noted a great similarity (almost word for word in some instances) with 2^nd Peter. It is generally thought that Peter wrote first, and Jude is emphasizing the same message.

Who was Jude? We know that he is the brother of James (this is the James who wrote the book by that name). From that, we know that he is also the brother of Jesus. He is generally identified as one of the Apostles; in some parts of the Gospel he is identified as “Judas (not Iscariot).” Other than this we know very little of the man.

The mystery continues if we ask to whom he was writing. It’s clear that he’s writing to a Hebrew church – but which one? We don’t know, as the salutation provides no clue. Because of this mystery, the canonicity of this book has been questioned at various times. This is particularly so since Jude quotes things which come from very non-canonical sources. But with the exception of the Protestant Reformation, when it was challenged for a while, it has been accepted since the earliest days until now.

The real question today is this: why does your teacher pick this book to produce a one week study? The answer is simple: Jude and I have the same purpose in writing: to contend for the faith. That faith, “once for all entrusted to the saints,” is now being attacked by men who bear a remarkable resemblance to those described here.

Recognition

During the Second World War, civilians who were charged with spotting enemy air raids were furnished with a deck of cards. The cards had the silhouettes of various enemy aircraft, along with other information useful for identification. This way, the spotters did not need to get a clear view of the aircraft to know what it was – the clues were enough.

Jude starts by giving us the same help here:

· These are Godless men. Isn’t that a little surprising, since they’re in the church? Not really. If my ego is stroked enough by being a big shot in the church, fraud is easy to commit.

· They change grace into license. One key error that is a clue to such men is that they presume upon the grace of God. They sin with the attitude that God will forgive them; after all, it’s his hobby.

· Most important: they deny Jesus Christ as Sovereign and Lord. Sovereign refers to Christ’s position; Lord to his power over their lives. So we would be looking for those who do not honor Christ as head of the church – nor obey his commands in their daily lives.

What will God do about it

Jude stops with those three points and gives us some examples of exactly what God has in store for such people. He cites the history the Hebrews would know to show just how severely God will deal with such people. This, therefore, is a reminder – but what a reminder:

Remember the people coming out of Egypt by God’s might? They saw miracle after miracle – and exactly two of them made it to the promised land. The rest died in the desert. God has always been willing to pare down his people to a remnant who are faithful.
Angels – Jude (quoting non-canonical books) reminds them that even angels have been imprisoned by God for their rebellion. No power in heaven or on earth can stop God’s wrath.
Finally – a very relevant example today – he reminds us of Sodom and Gomorrah. Let us be quite explicit: they were the homosexual heavens of their day, as San Francisco is ours. They were utterly destroyed.

Further identification

Now that Jude has thoroughly alarmed us (we’re not used to hellfire and brimstone anymore, are we?) he continues to define our opponents:

They will be those who will pollute their own bodies. Jude knows, as we should, that sex is reserved for marriage. Anything else assaults your own body. How? If you have a prostitute, she becomes one flesh with you. In our own time we have seen the spread of diseases like AIDS. Isn’t it interesting that no one suggests that chastity would be of any assistance? Does the church really stand up for Christian marriage? If you think it does, tell me what it does about divorce?
These men reject authority. If this is not familiar to you, please – open your eyes. I live next to a high school. It is a “magnet school” attracting the best and brightest from all of Orange County. It’s also a school whose student have mastered the art of giving obscene gestures to anyone who gets in their way.
Interestingly, they “slander celestial beings.” The closest equivalent I could make to that today would be those who think that Jesus Christ is simply an obscenity.

Comparison to Old Testament characters

Jude knows that it’s difficult for us to remember a laundry list of faults, so he sticks in a list of similar people, familiar to us from the Old Testament. We need to do a bit of digging to discover what he means.

Cain, we remember, murdered his brother Abel – and justified himself with the question, “Am I my brother’s keeper?” Here’s something to look out for. Cain’s problem was that his own evil was not acceptable to God – while his brother’s offering was accepted. Do you see envy and jealousy here? Look further and you will see this: God warned Cain. He had but to turn from his wickedness and he would have been accepted.
Balaam – scattered across Numbers – is a fine example. He is a prophet of God – but he also dabbles in other gods and goddesses, and he likes divination and sorcery. More to the point – he does this for money. He led the Israelites to sexual orgies at some temples. He was a “prophet for hire” – telling you what you wanted to hear. Joshua eventually had him executed for sorcery. But here you see the example of the “shepherds who feed themselves” – church leaders serving themselves.
Korah is another example. Korah and his followers decided to help God out. They knew they were as good as Aaron, so they went to offer incense and prayer to God at the Tabernacle. They placed their reason over God’s command. God had Moses separate them out – and then had the earth swallow them. Do we know anyone today who places human reason above God’s word?

Whose problem is this?

It comes to mind – after all, most of us are not church leaders. So Jude makes it personal:

These men are “blemishes” on our potluck church dinners. As a teenage girl works so hard to rid herself of pimples, so we should work to rid ourselves of these men.
The best test of such men is still the same: much sound, much fury – but no fruit for the Lord.
They make a great show of being righteous, but we still must look at their fruits.

To make this urgent for us, Jude reminds us that there is the 2^nd Coming of our Lord. We seldom hear much of this these days. We need to remember that our Lord is coming to judge the living and the dead. For the sake of our own salvation, we need to be watching out for these people. In the context of the 2^nd Coming, Jude gives us warning to watch out for these people:

Grumblers. Every church seems to have them, but we should take particular care that we don’t join them.
Faultfinders. Of course, we only do that to point out someone else’s sin, right?
Following their own evil desires. Have you ever known a Christian who put their desires above their love for Christ?
Boasting. Some of us are so proud of just how humble we truly are.
Flattery. This one interests me. It is as if they assume that all others in the church are like they are, frauds. When fraud meets fraud in public, flattery is the result.

Do such things affect us in our church? I would think so.

What to do about it

This is all well and good as warning – but then what? What’s the average Christian to do?

First, remember that you were warned that such men would appear. It was prophesied. So you should expect it. This is one reason you should stay in the church congregation where God has placed you – all the other congregations have this problem too. Don’t be surprised when you find it. What kind of people were prophesied?

Scoffers, particularly those who doubt the return of the Lord.
Those who follow only their natural instinct. Have you ever heard, “Something so wonderful and beautiful as sex just can’t be wrong, I know God would approve?”
Most importantly, such people do not have the Holy Spirit. Remember the fruit of the Spirit? If it’s not there, you know you’ve found one.

Next, we need to take that we do not slip into the same things. We need to be building ourselves up. Jude gives us these specifics:

Faith – if we must stand one against the world, this is essential.
Prayer – those who are self centered have no time for this. If you are a true Christian, you make time for it.
Keep in God’s love. Do you see the love of God flowing out from your hands?
Surprisingly, you do all this while you wait – for his return.

Finally, having been forewarned, having built ourselves up in the faith, we must exercise church discipline when we can, in the love of God.

First, we are to be merciful to those who doubt. For those who are new in the faith, nothing really helps like having wise counsel. This is an act of mercy.
Next, we are to exercise church discipline. Remember what we are doing here: we are to “snatch others from the fire and save them.” Does this mean that we should consider those lost in sin as headed for hell? Yes. Even in a church that never mentions that word and uses the euphemism “Christ-less eternity.” (The Bible mentions hell fire; we mention home sickness.)
Finally, we are to show mercy mixed with fear. We must always remember that hell is real – so we should do everything we can to keep ourselves and our brothers and sisters from it.