Sunday Sermons
Jude - Part 1: Verses 1-8
Jude
Jude 3 “For the faith which was once for all handed down to the saints”: By the term “faith” Jude means those things that Christians believe. This means that the truths that Christians are to believe are truths that are fixed and settled. It refers to the teaching that governs the church and to which all men are accountable (Acts 2:42). The phrase “once for all” does not mean, “once about a time”, but rather has the meaning of finality and definiteness. “So there is no room to think that God grants extra insights and additions down the years of Christian history” (The Message of 2 Peter and Jude, John Stott p. 175). The words“handled down” means to “deliver” and is often used in connection with the handing down of authorized teaching (1 Corinthians 15:3; 2 Thessalonians 3:6). Thus Jude is saying that God has handed over to His people a complete, understandable and recognizable body of teaching called “the faith”, and this body of teaching is the authoritative standard, not whatever might be the current theological fashion in the 1st century or the 21st century. We cannot get “behind” this teaching and neither are we to go “beyond it” (2 John 9), and the true test for authentic Christianity or progress in the spiritual realm is how closely one abides by this teaching (1 Timothy 4:16).
Jude 3 “Contend earnestly”: This phrase is used “in order to emphasize that the defense of this faith will be costly and agonizing; the cost of being unfashionable” (Tyndale New Testament Commentaries, 2 Peter and Jude, Michael Green, p. 160). This implies that in preaching the gospel we will encounter many opponents, and many who seek to pervert its teachings (2 Peter 3:16; Jude 4). This will be an on going wrestling match for each Christian and each congregation, and we must not opt out of this struggle because we weary of controversy. “This will be unpopular, because it is commonly assumed that since Christianity is a faith based on love, it can say only nice, comforting things. The evidence throughout the Bible is that being faithful to God’s Word means bringing hard, unpopular warnings as well as bright promises” (Stott p. 176). And one reason that every generation must “earnestly contend” is that the devil never lets up (Jude 4). “To the saints”: “It is not thing invented (by the church), but given; not found out by us, but delivered by God Himself. It is easy to become thoughtless about that, as if it were obvious and to be taken for granted that God would give us an unchangeable gospel. But it is a remarkable privilege. We can begin to see Jude’s concern. If God has given us a gospel, and if He is not going to give us another one, we must guard it as highly precious” (Stott p. 174). Compare with 1 Timothy 6:20; 2 Timothy 1:13,14.
The Opposition
Jude 4: “Crept in unnoticed”: “Wormed their way in” (NEB); “to slip in secretly”. It is a sinister and secretive word, see 2 Peter 2:1; Galatians 2:4. “The message had to go out to the churches not to use ‘niceness’ as an excuse for gullibility” (Stott p. 179). This verse certainly admonishes congregations and especially elderships to be diligent and thorough when it comes to accepting new members. “Those who were long beforehand marked out for this condemnation”: This does not mean that people are predestined to be false teachers, but rather, the warnings concerning wolves entering the flock as sheep go back a long way (Matthew 7:15; Acts 20:28ff; Deuteronomy 13:2-11). “Ungodly persons”: Jude is always blunt and to the point. “Although these people no doubt mouthed Christian phrases, quoted the Bible and knew all the new songs, they were not to be taken at face value. No doubt Jude’s readers were shocked at the implication of what he was saying. We should be shocked too as we realize that he is talking about people who may write Christian books, speak as Christian conferences and sound very convincing and liberating. Jude was denouncing their friends and their heroes—and therefore perhaps some of our friends and heroes as anti-Christian pagans” (Stott p. 179). “Who turn the grace of our God into licentiousness”: “They are treating the fact that God graciously accepts sinners as an excuse for flagrant, shameless sin” (Green p. 161). “To a skeptical Greek, the gospel could seem to offer total freedom today on the basis of total forgiveness tomorrow” (Stott p. 180). What such people fail to realize is that Jesus’ lighter and easier yoke (Matthew 11:28-30), is still a yoke, and forgiveness is offered on the condition of genuine repentance (2 Corinthians 7:10-11). The early church often encountered people who thought that salvation by grace means that one has a license to sin freely (Romans 6:1ff). In fact, to this day one can hear even professed Christians contending that the grace of God will simply take good care of some member who has persisted in sin at the last day (i.e., “Well the grace of God will take care of that”). The Calvinistic contention of “once-saved-always-saved” is another popular way that men turn God’s grace into licentiousness. “Deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ”: “There are many ways of denying Christ apart from the obvious one of apostasy. These false teachers were certainly guilty of a practical denial of their faith by the way they lived” (Green p. 162). Compare with Titus 1:16 “but by their deeds they deny Him”. “Master”: A term that is almost exclusively used of the Father in the New Testament, except 2 Peter 2:1. What Jude is saying is that Jesus is our “only” Master, and thus Jesus deserves our sole loyalty and obedience. Thus these men, like many men today fail to recognize that Jesus is the final voice of authority in every aspect of our lives. Yet man assumes that he is the lord of his life, and thus we often find that horrible combination of bad theology and bad morals. “If a Christian behaves badly, it must be because he or she has not understood the Bible properly; or, having understood it, refuses to accept its rule” (Stott p. 181).
Three warning reminders
Jude 5 “Now I desire to remind you”: “The Bible is full of calls to us to remember things. Remembering in the Bible is a duty, an act of will; and those who remind God’s people do so in a tone of solemnity and great moment” (Stott p. 182). See 2 Peter 1:12-15; 3:1-2. “Though you know all things once for all”: Even though they already know the basic Bible stories that he is going to tell them, it might be that they did not understand them. “Perhaps, like us, they treat Old Testament narratives as good stories for children, that have no message once we become adults. In line with his plan to show us how the problems we face as churches have always been the problems of God’s people, Jude gives us his first series of three Old Testament warnings, the second comes in Jude 11-13. These are three examples of the fact that rebellion against God does not succeed” (Stott p. 183).“After saving a people—subsequently destroyed those who did not believe”: God intervened in Israel’s history, first to save them, and then the most alarming part of the Exodus story, is God’s later intervention when He destroyed those He had rescued. God is sovereign (James 4:12), and it is clear that being one of God’s saved people does not make one immune from falling away. Thus there is nothing new about “saved people” leaving the faith.
Jude 6 “And angels who did not keep their own domain, but abandoned their proper abode”: That is, angels who were not satisfied with the role, responsibility and privileges that God had given them. “The application is clear: the people who infect the churches in the way Jude will describe must not think that they can get away with their rebellious behavior forever. If even angels are subject to God’s judgment, despite their most strenuous attempts to rebel, what chance do human rebels have?”(Stott p. 185). “He has kept in eternal bonds”: Notice the play on words, these angels did not keep their proper place, so God has kept them under punishment. Where the false teachers overconfident, arrogant, unhappy with God’s restrictions and His blessings? Let them remember that such attitudes ruined many angels.
Jude 7 “Just as Sodom and Gomorrah”: Such cities had been richly blessed (Genesis 13:10), yet instead of being grateful for their blessings, they became arrogant, “Arrogance, abundant food and careless ease” (Ezekiel 16:49). “Indulged in gross immorality and went after strange flesh”: The sin is not that of lusting after angels, since the men of Sodom had no idea of the spiritual significance of their visitors. “Their request is simply, ‘Where are the men who came to you tonight?’ (Genesis 19:5)”(Stott p. 186). All three examples here stress the unnatural nature of rebelling against God. It was unnatural for the Israelites to rebel against the Lord who had redeemed them; unnatural, too, for the angels to rebel, and equally unnatural for the cities of the plain to become homosexuals. “Are exhibited as an example”: All three as examples, and especially they are examples that contradict popular ideas advocated by false teachers throughout the centuries. The example of Israel explodes the myth of once-saved-always-saved and that God will not punish His people for their sins. The example of the angels contradicts the idea that one can become so powerful or spiritual that they are no longer accountable to God’s law, and the example of Sodom and Gomorrah undermines the claim that one can be spiritual and sexually immoral at the same time. “In undergoing the punishment of eternal fire”: Not only was the judgment that befell these cities an example to us of the final judgment, but the test equally seems to stress that such sinners are presently suffering in torment (2 Peter 2:6,9).
Jude 8 “In the same way”: These men are committing the same type of sins and are thinking in the same wrong direction as the Israelites, rebellious angels and cities of the plain. “By dreaming”: The sin here is not dreaming or day-dreaming but rather it may include one who claims to have a message from God, when he does not (Jeremiah 23:16,32). That is, the false teachers pretended that God was speaking to them and thus their “revelations” superceded Scripture. A modern example would be the Charismatic movement and Mormonism. In addition, it would equally apply to men who ignore God’s reality and encourage people to create their own reality, that is, what is right is what you believe to be right. A current example would be a bumper sticker I saw just the other day that said, “Keep Portland Weird”. “Defile the flesh”: “Dead to decency, sunk in the torpor of sin”(Green p. 168). They pollute their own bodies. “A major sign of the presence of these dreamers within our own churches is the loosening of sexual morality and the acceptance of behavior that other generations of Christians would have found impossible to justify” (Stott pp. 188-189). “And reject authority”: “Flout authority” (NEB). These men are anti-law, which would include ridiculing and ignoring civil law (Romans 13), the authority of elders (Hebrews 13:17), parental authority (Ephesians 6:1-2), the authority of male headship in the home (Ephesians 5:22ff), and other manifestations of God’s authority that is expressed in the whole of Scripture. What all these people have in common (Israel, sinning angels, inhabitants of Sodom, and these false teachers) was essentially a rejection of divine authority. “If you want to live your own way, he says, you have to adjust your doctrine accordingly, for if you accept Jesus’ lordship either your doctrine will make your life blush, or your life will make your doctrine blush, and be ashamed” (Stott p. 189). Yet while they reject authority such men often assert their own authority over their followers. “Revile angelic majesties”: One view is seeing that the Law of Moses had been delivered via angels (Acts 7:38,53), these men denied the inspiration of the Old Testament. “We might expect such people to say that the Old and New Testament commands are indefensibly bound to a male-dominated, slave-owning, undemocratic and illiberal society, and have nothing authoritative to say to our own” (Stott p. 189). Or, such people may have scoffed at the entire notion of angels and spiritual powers of both good and evil, and may have regarded themselves as freed from such primitive ideas. It is interesting to note that even people who lived in the First Century were tempted to believe that God’s word was no longer relevant or authoritative for their generation. Yet, Lord still is the Master (Jude 4) and His word is still the final say (John 12:48).
Mark Dunagan/Beaverton Church of Christ/503-644-9017
www.beavertonchurchofchrist.net/mdunagan@easystreet.com
