Jude 14-23

If you would, please turn in your Bibles to the book of Jude. Today we will be focusing on verses 14 to 23. And so we will read that section together. Here now, the inspired Word of God. It was also about these men that Enoch, in the seventh generation from Adam, prophesied, saying, Behold, the Lord came with many thousands of his holy ones to execute judgment upon all, and to convict all the ungodly of all their ungodly deeds which they have done in an ungodly way, and of all the harsh things which ungodly sinners have spoken against him.

These are grumblers, finding fault, following after their own lust. They speak arrogantly, flattering people for the sake of gaining an advantage. But you, beloved, ought to remember the words that were spoken beforehand by the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ, that they were saying to you, In the last time there will be mockers following after their own ungodly lusts.

These are the ones who cause divisions, worldly-minded, devoid of the Spirit. But you, beloved, building yourselves up on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting anxiously for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to eternal life.

And have mercy on some who are doubting. Save others, snatching them out of the fire. And on some, have mercy with fear, hating even the garment polluted by the flesh. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we come before you, and again we would just simply ask that you be pleased to bless the preaching of the Word.

May it honor and glorify you, and may we hear your voice in these words, in your pages. We pray in Christ's name, Amen. You may be seated. As we come to this section of the Word, I had a lot of things on my mind.

A lot of things I wanted to say. You know, we chose this book because it was short, and we wanted to cover something in its entirety, while Pastor Jensen was away from us. But it was also incredibly timely.

And so, as I have been studying and thinking and meditating and praying, my mind has been filled with applications here. And yet, time restrains us from getting into all of them. But that's the beauty of Scripture.

When we are rooted in it, and we are grounded in it, we see everything through the lens of it. I think about the state of the church today, and I know we have our concerns about the things that are going on, and it feels like the faith and the zeal of many are growing cold.

And we look at the world, and we would be blind not to see the connection, especially if we understand our calling in Scripture to disciple. Disciple the nations. As we consider this sermon and the focus of our text, if you look in your bulletin, you see that the sermon title is To Keep Yourselves in the Love of God.

And we think of our Reformed doctrines and the perseverance of the saints. And yet, there are those that that's not the same as once saved, always saved. The idea of if you pray a prayer once, if you make a profession once, you're in, your ticket's punched, and you have nothing else to worry about and perhaps nothing else to do.

That's not the doctrine of the perseverance of the saints. We have an obligation to live before God in obedience and holiness. It was mentioned even this morning about this podcast, about the rise and fall of Mars Hill.

And maybe some of you are aware of it if you follow social media or if you were one who would like to listen to sermons. You had a charismatic preacher who was Reformed in his theology, in his doctrine.

And yet, as we examine the word here, and we examine some of the descriptions of those who are leading people astray, we see the fault lines. We were aware even back then that there was arrogance. There was cause of division.

There was worldly mindedness, even under those who profess Christ and even those who might claim to hold sound doctrine. And there were efforts to correct. There were efforts to rebuke and exhort, and they fell on deaf ears.

We did not see an example of keeping yourselves in the love of Christ. And we know that that church fell. We know that the faith of some were shipwrecked, and it was a scandal. And so as we consider what Jude is talking to us about, we must feel the weight of it.

We must understand how timely it is and how much it might apply even to us, and what our calling is to contend for the faith. And so, with all of that in mind, let's go through this passage. And some of these things we'll move through quickly because Jude has been a little bit repetitive in a sense where it's judgment, judgment, judgment.

Thanks Jude. Way to be a downer. But he is layering these things so that we understand the depth and the danger so we can see it clearly and we are prepared to do battle against it. And so I'm going to cover the first couple points and it's not going to take a whole lot of time, but I want us to hear what's being said and still remember.

Because if Jude saw the importance of penning this, we understand that the Spirit saw the importance of penning this because He ultimately is the author. So here we have the first part that, about these men, Enoch in the seventh generation from Adam prophesied saying, Behold, the Lord came with many thousands of His holy ones.

And here, if you were searching Genesis, trying to figure out where Enoch said that, you'd be searching for a while because Jude again is giving us something that comes straight out of one of those apocryphal books.

It's the book of Enoch or 1 Enoch, however they deem it. And it's coming right out of 1 Enoch 1 .9. Now, I've belabored the point about the apocrypha and so I'm not going to go into it in depth here. I will say that I believe that this is an actual prophecy, an actual quotation that was passed down probably through oral tradition and eventually recorded in a book that was a compilation of other oral traditions.

Some perhaps true and some not so much. But Jude is sharing this quote with us for a reason.

It's useful.

Remember, we've discussed because of all his Old Testament examples and all his apocryphal traditions that he is drawing from to paint this picture, it's very likely that the audience he's writing to is Jewish.

And so this would be part of their understanding of history and the world. And so this prophecy is not only consistent with the rest of prophecies in Scripture, it also serves as the earliest known prophecy of judgment against those who would despise the Lord.

Enoch lived, we can see in Genesis, prior to the flood. And in stark contrast to a world that was growing increasingly wicked, he walked with God. He was one of the very, very few who were actually faithful.

And the book of Hebrews in that hall of faith tells us that he pleased God so much so that because of his faith, he didn't even see death. God simply took him up. And sadly, I don't think this is a precursor to the rapture.

I don't think that's something we can look forward to exactly. But there will be a generation that will be raptured up, that will be caught up and not have to see death. But I think we have some time and we have some work to do.

This Enoch who walked with God prophesied that he was coming. And Jude, like other apostles, says that he takes and says, the Lord is coming. And he takes Jesus and he puts him right there in the middle of the prophecy so we don't lose sight that Jesus is all in all.

And he says that he is coming, the Lord is coming with many thousands of his holy ones to execute judgment upon all and to convict all the ungodly of all their ungodly deeds which they have done in an ungodly way and of all the harsh things which the ungodly sinners have spoken against him.

Ungodly, ungodly. And Jude writes, it was also about these men that Enoch prophesied. These people that he's been warning us about are caught under that prophecy, not taking the Lord by surprise, but marked out long beforehand for this condemnation.

And he just expounded on how wicked these creepers, perverters and deniers are. But they're professing Christians. And they are among the ungodly who have been marked for destruction. We have to be paying attention.

We have to consider what Jude is telling us here. And I know we're going over this over and again because we can't lose sight of it. We're living in the midst of a nation that's under judgment and judgment begins with the household of God.

But in this early prophecy given to us by the Lord through Enoch, these men are included. And they are referred to as those ungodly. And then Jude goes on to give us a few more descriptions of those who are false, tying them to this prophecy to match up the descriptions one for one so we can see.

And I think we should pay close attention here because while the earlier descriptions seem pretty severe, although the new descriptions here, the additional descriptions might hit a little bit closer to home.

However, considering last week and the things we talked about, I hope that even when we see those severe descriptions, that we don't just write it off as, that's for other people. That's not me. We have to consider the things about defiling the flesh and rejecting authority.

How in our lives we actually might be guilty of the very same things, but we just see other people doing it more than we are. And so they're the problem, not us. Well, what about these descriptions? These are the grumblers finding fault.

And if you're familiar with the Old Testament, if you're familiar with the wilderness wanderings, grumbling was a common sin among the Israelites. Despite their deliverance from bondage and oppression, and despite them experiencing all the Lord's blessings in so many ways, with promises of more to come, the moment things didn't go their way, they began to grumble.

They began to complain. It was outrageous for us to read one verse here, blessing and deliverance, and the next minute, oh, I don't see any water. You took us out here to die. But how quickly do we do that?

When you read that, read how the Lord responds. This wicked generation, get out of the way. I'm going to consume them. I'll start with you. We have to understand just how wicked God's views are grumbling, are complaining, are fault-finding, because they were grumbling against Moses, but in reality, they're grumbling against the Lord.

They were speaking harsh things against Him.

Why?

We know we're Reformed. We believe in the sovereignty of God. He is the Sovereign One. He's the One who has decreed all things. So when we're complaining about our circumstances, we're complaining about the One who has decreed them for us.

In Philippians, we're told, do all things without grumbling or disputing, that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation among whom you shine as lights in the world.

But what does that say about us if we do grumble? If we flip that, well, then we aren't being blameless and innocent. We aren't shining as lights in the world. We ought to consider that the next time we go to complain about our circumstances or complain about someone else and what they did.

When we grumble, when we find fault, whether it be against our circumstances or each other, it reveals that we're actually focused on ourselves. Because we're not focused on Christ at that point. Because we're not obeying Him.

So we're not thinking about His admonition, His exhortation, His command. We're thinking about ourselves. We don't focus on Christ and all His many benefits. We're not focused on the well-being of others considering others more important than ourselves.

Nope. It's all about me. I'm not getting what I think I deserve. That's a manifestation of worldly-mindedness. We look like the rest of our crooked and twisted generation. Paul makes it plain there in Philippians.

A change of conduct in this one particular area, a change of conduct and speech can create an amazing distinction between us and the world. Think about that. Think about that when you're going to complain about your family or a friend or co-worker or a boss or a pastor.

You wouldn't do that, right? Never. That doesn't mean that we can't look to improve our situation at that time. It doesn't mean that there aren't things that go wrong that need to be spoken about. But it does mean that there's a right way and a wrong way to view and speak about our circumstances and to seek the remedy.

But the false are all about the wrong way. They grumble. They find fault. Their priority is their desires. That's what the Scripture tells us. That's what your own eyes tell you if you're paying attention.

He says they speak arrogantly. ESV says they're loudmouth boasters. Again, it's all about them. And as I mentioned in the introduction, we think of a platform like Mars Hill. You might think of other teachers, ministries, that have these large platforms that are known all over the place.

And you think, look at their arrogance. How can anyone follow that guy? But how often do we speak arrogantly and boast and put the focus on ourselves in our own little world, on our own small little platform, so that everyone around us realizes just how great we are?

This falls on us, too. We just don't have the worldwide recognition of it. It says they flatter others for the sake of gaining advantage. They view people as a means to an end, whatever that end might be.

For some, it's financial gain. They're partial to the rich. We think of Balaam and trying to gain favor and enrich himself. But sometimes it's an improvement of their status or reputation, whatever they value.

It could be a measuring rod. They're viewing other people as a measuring rod of their own worth or their success. But when they're viewing people as a means to an end, it's obvious that they care nothing about them the way they ought to, as a fellow image-bearer with inherent value and dignity.

Again, this behavior is so commonplace these days, it might not even be on our radar as a serious problem. You just think, well, yeah, it's just mankind for you. But it ought not to be that way. Certainly not in the church.

This combination of speech and conduct is condemned in the Scriptures. All you have to do is read clearly.

It's plain.

He calls it wicked. He condemns it. And if we're going to be faithful in contending for the faith, we need to be aware. We need to recognize this behavior for what it is when we see it, understand the danger, and think about how we might be called to respond depending on our situation and our ability to speak to that person.

But we have to be observant. We have to be discerning. We can't have our heads in the cloud. We can't be like, well, I'm just going to let everyone else do their thing. I'm only focused on me. No, you have to be observant.

And you should be observing those who are in the church for two reasons. One, to see who's the mature believer. Who can I follow as an example? Who can I go to if I need advice or counsel? Or, you know, if I'm struggling with something, I want to know about the one who's gone ahead and who's been faithful in it.

And it's obvious there's fruit in their lives. But we also need to be aware of those who are bad examples. We also need to be aware of those who are a danger to our local body. The rot that might be forming that can spread.

We need to be aware. And so after he finishes with one more very old example of a prophecy from long ago about judgment and more descriptions about these people from Enoch, he gives us another reminder, but this time of a much more recent warning.

The very apostles who preached to them the gospel. The ones who delivered the faith and told them about the glory of Christ. The Messiah who had come to take away their sins and bring a kingdom. These same apostles warned them there will be creepers, perverters, deniers, rising up in your midst.

And this is important for us, especially perhaps if we're young in the faith or just we've been sort of blissfully ignorant and unaware. But for those of us who would be scandalized about the corruption that's found in the church at times, this should be taken as an encouragement to us that it's not taken the Lord by surprise.

And he reassures us forewarned is forearmed. He reassures us by warning us ahead of time and he thereby steadies us to be ready for the battle. We're not being ambushed. We've been told what to look for and we've been given everything we need to contend.

And so the apostles spoke about this issue. We see this in Acts 20 when Paul gathers the elders from Ephesus and he goes to pray with them and give them just some last words of admission before he has to go.

And he goes, I'm not going to see you again. I want you to remember and I want you to take care that after I leave, fierce wolves are going to arise from within you.

To carry off.

They're going to say things that are twisted and perverted. They're not going to spare the flock. Be ready. And he warns Timothy. Peter warns his readers. They warn of the mockers and scoffers depending on whether you're looking at the ESV or NASB.

Same difference. Those who mock the importance of obedience and holiness. Those would follow after their own ungodly lust, Jude says. And Jude uses the word ungodly here because one, it's an accurate description.

But two, it connects these present day mockers to those who are prophesied about by Enoch. Peter in his letter gives us a little more detail on the topic of scoffers. He says they are the ones who ask, where's the promise of his coming?

Where's the sign of the judgment? Now, there's people who would say that today. And then there's those who wouldn't say that. They'd realize how that would come across. So, they just live in a certain way.

But the way they live and the way they speak portrays the hard attitude. Where's the coming? Are we really going to be judged? I think you're just trying to keep us clamped down and from having a good time, right?

These dreamers imagine that there's really no judgment after all. Peter points out that it has somehow escaped their notice that the world has been destroyed once before by a flood. And it's being reserved for fire next time.

We see judgment all around us. And like, no, it's not that. That's just life. But because the Lord is impatient and long-suffering with them, not wishing for any to perish, waiting for all of us, the fullness of the church, to come in, they see there's no judgment to worry about.

There's no calling to account. And they carry on with their sin. And there's no fear of God before their eyes. And so, they are said that these are the ones who cause divisions. Worldly-minded. Devoid of the Spirit.

These are the ones who cause division. Now, Paul talks about division in his letter to the Corinthians, the first letter. On the one hand, right in the first chapter, he warns against division. For the wrong reasons.

You had those saying, I'm of Paul and I'm of Apollos. And he goes, that's nonsense. I wasn't crucified for you. I didn't save you. And who is he? We are in Christ. So we need to forget the tribalism. We need to forget all the silly things.

Right? That would separate and divide us. He exhorts them not to be divided, but to realize that they should be one in Christ. But then later on, in that very same letter, in chapter 11, he says that he hears that there are divisions.

And says, well, there must be. He says, there must be factions in order to know who is genuine. Because in here, if you know, 1 Corinthians 11, this is talking about the Lord's Supper, and the corruption, and the sin that was going on.

You had those who were drunk, and those who were going hungry. There's no honoring of Christ in this. People are looking out for themselves. So he says, of course there's division. And those who are in rebellion are the ones who are causing it.

They're the ones who are guilty of it. And I want to point this out too, because, you know, we need to recognize something here. It's often that the faithful, those who are desiring to be faithful to the word, faithful in being obedient, in being holy, that get the charge against them.

You are being divisive.

Right?

It's your fault.

Everyone else is talking about peace and unity. Everyone else is talking about working together for the common cause. But what they ignore, what they refuse to acknowledge is, they sacrifice truth on the altar of what they call peace and unity.

And we can't do that. We can't compromise on the truth. We must be faithful to the Lord. Jesus prayed for us to be united, but he said, let them be united in truth. Your word is truth. Our sanctification should bring us unity, but it can't be done at the compromise of truth.

But those who are false, the false carry on. The false slander and attack. The false claim to be the pious ones who just want to love. But the reality is that they're worldly minded, and they're devoid of the Spirit.

But we are called to have the mind of Christ to be filled with the Spirit. Their focus is on themselves and not on the Kingdom of God, which is supposed to be the priority of every true believer. What does Jesus say?

Seek second? Third? First? Seek first the Kingdom of God. They seek everything else but the Kingdom of God. And they would like you to go along with them. This is why Jude says that they are devoid of the Spirit.

And that accusation is probably a refutation of their own claims. They claim to be believers. They claim to have the Spirit of God. Just like Korah and his band of rebels claim to be holy as they rebelled against God's chosen leader.

Just like the false prophet Zedekiah in the end of 1 Kings 22 when he slaps Micaiah and asks him, which way did the Spirit go from me when He went to you? These men claim to be genuine. They claim to be genuine, and they would be outraged at any implication to the contrary.

But Jude is not impressed. He gives no quarter. He minces no words. He says they are devoid of the Spirit.

They're not saved.

They're false.

This is the situation. You have been warned. Enoch from before the flood warned. The apostles who delivered you the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the Gospel of the Kingdom warned that you would have to face this.

That you would have to be ready. And so what are we to do? As we come to this part,.

This section,.

As we now get our marching orders, our instruction. We've been warned. We've been told of the enemy. We've been given detailed description to recognize the camouflage and to see through it. And now, how do we contend for the faith?

I want you to see here that the instruction is positive and not negative. We're not called to... Our only job is to find out.

Those who are false.

Seek and destroy. That's not what we're told to do. Right? Spurgeon once said, the church is not perfect, but woe to the one who finds pleasure in pointing out her imperfections. We should not glory in pointing out the errors of others.

We should not do it for hobby, for sport. There are some, and I'm not speaking against all those who would have some sort of ministry that involves discernment and calling out the false teachers. Sometimes that can be helpful.

But there needs to be balance. We need to proclaim the truth and the goodness of Jesus Christ. We need to show the genuine article so that people will be able to recognize that which is false. But we don't want to get bitter and twisted and just hunting.

But we do have an obligation to contend for the faith. And so we have to have balance. And so if you're reading along, he says, keep yourselves in the love of God. I'm wondering if anyone's saying, that's not what he says.

Next.

Chris, you've been going phrase by phrase, almost word for word. He says other stuff first before he says, keep yourself in the love of God. But if you have a cursory knowledge of Greek or a good commentary, this is where that kind of comes in handy.

In verses 21 and 22, we actually have one sentence. And the main verb in that sentence, and it's easier to see in the Greek, but the main verb, and therefore the focus of the sentence is the word keep.

And it's an imperative. It's a command. The words building and praying and waiting are all the participles that modify the main verb. They are the supporting statements that show you how to go about keeping yourself, or to keep yourself in the love of God.

You can see those participles by those ING endings, if you want a little clue on it. But again, a good commentary will also help point you in the right direction. Just so you have a clear understanding of what you're doing.

And Jude, that masterful Baptist minister with a penchant for threes, he gives us three participles to expound on the command. And even in that, if you're looking carefully, he gives us references to faith, hope, and love.

And you can look at the waiting as hope. And he gives us a Trinitarian mindset talking about God, the Father, and the Son, and the Spirit. And it's all in there. But let us first consider the command to keep ourselves in the love of Christ.

In the beginning of the letter, we are addressed as those who are called, beloved, and kept. And now here we're commanded to keep ourselves in the love of God. This should not be new to us if you are familiar with Reformed doctrines.

But going through it, there was one commentator, Thomas Schreiner,.

Who said it. Well.

He said, Jude represents well the biblical tension between divine sovereignty and human responsibility. On the one hand, believers only avoid apostasy because of the grace of God. On the other hand, the grace of God does not cancel out the need for believers to exert all their energy to remain in God's love.

So how do we go about this? What is our responsibility here? Keep in mind, Jude is talking to people who have been instructed in the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints. They are, as we are, people of the book.

And they ought to be very familiar with the Old Testament and the teachings of Christ and His apostles. I mentioned last week that Christ tells us if we love Him, we will obey His commandments. And that's found in John 14, verse 15.

In the next chapter, he goes on to say, just as the Father has loved me, I have also loved you. Abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father's commandments and abide in His love.

So we abide, we keep ourselves in His love through obedience. Now that's not, of course, to say that we're saved by our obedience. We don't believe in salvation by works. But that obedience is a manifestation of true faith and love for our Savior.

And it's this faith that we're to build ourselves up in, that we're to be building ourselves up in. And again, this is another contrast from the false teachers and the false brethren. They divide. We build up.

And it should be pointed out. Lots of things to point out here. This is a command to us, not just as individuals. It's a command to the church. It's a command that we are given in the context of the corporate body.

And this concept really needs to be highlighted today.

In this day and age,.

We are so focused on the self. We're so focused on the individual. It's all about us and our dreams and our aspirations, our goals. Everyone's got their own little earbuds, their own soundtrack for life.

We're on our own. We're doing our own thing. That is not what God has called us to. Yes, we are individuals. So much so, with inherent value as individuals, that Jesus Christ calls us by name. But when he calls us, we become a people.

We become part. We are members of one body.

His body.

And so, this is part and parcel of what it means to be a Christian. We are part of one another. Our goals, sanctification, and the advancement of the kingdom are seen and accomplished in the context of living life together.

I wonder how many of us appreciate that. I wonder how many of us read the word with that sort of mindset. Or if we're just thinking, it's just about me, I've got to be good, I've got to do my own thing, I've got to be faithful.

Yes. But in relation to everyone around you, believer and unbeliever, we have a calling. Time would fail me, but examples abound in Scripture on this topic. And we need to start reading the word with this understanding.

Don't just read the word with the lens of an individual who's only responsible for themselves. Read it with the mindset that you, you are a member of a body, and you are learning about your obligations toward one another.

Think about all those one another passages. That's you and me. That's you and us. And so, we have obligations towards each other. And you ought to be reading it to try to understand it, that you might live it out.

God's word is brimming with examples in both pattern and precept of how we ought to be living in relation to one another. Think about this. In the Old Testament, in Exodus, we get these detailed instructions from God about how to build a tabernacle that was a temporary structure.

Temporary, but it was designed for glory and designed for him to dwell among us. If he gave that kind of detailed instruction, look at the Scripture and realize how much more detailed is he in describing the blueprints for a living temple.

You and I, to be built up together as one in order for us to glorify him and have him dwell among us. We must pay attention to the instructions regarding how we grow as saints who are identified by our faith in Christ and in his word.

I say again, we must be students of the word. If you want to see this more, just grab your Bible and start reading. Read the book of Ephesians. It's not long. It's wonderful and it's filled with doctrine and practice.

Like the rest of the word, but it's such a concise and it's so full. I love the book of Ephesians. Consider the reading that we had this morning about building ourselves up together from the whole body.

We're growing up in the head, even Christ, being fitted and held together by what every joint supplies according to the proper working of each individual part, causing the growth of the body for the building up of itself and love.

That's what we're called to. This is what God's calling us to. So read through Ephesians, read through the Scripture reading, do a word study and grab your concordance and look up building up and build and see how many times it's referring to people and never just to an individual building me up, right?

Consider our church covenant. If you want an idea of how we ought to relate to one another, consider what you vowed to at one point, if you're a member, look up our statement of faith, the 1689 chapter 27, talking about the body, the church, communion of the saints.

Ask questions during fellowship time. We have no excuse to be ignorant in this day and age. So we need to start understanding how we go about building ourselves up because it's a crucial part of us keeping ourselves in the love of God.

And so we should build one another up, encouraging one another in our most holy faith, a faith that is rooted and grounded in Jesus Christ, our master, our Lord, a faith that is holy and helps us to clearly see the contrast of those who are unholy and profane in both word and deed.

And then the next way that we are to keep ourselves in the love of Christ, in the love of God, is praying in the Holy Spirit. Of course, we know this is not a reference to speaking in tongues, praying in tongues, anything like that, but it is a reminder to be constantly engaged in that crucial spiritual discipline.

Of prayer.

And the prayer ought to be directed, controlled, and guided by the Holy Spirit. Just as when Jesus tells us to pray that we are to ask in His name, that's not saying His name as some sort of magical incantation, but it's to pray according to His will, in accordance with the truth that we know about Him and what He expects of us.

And likewise with the Holy Spirit. Praying in the Holy Spirit is praying in submission to the Lord and seeking His grace, His wisdom, His guidance for us. It's also understanding that the Holy Spirit is the author of the scriptures, and we need to look to Him to guide us and illuminate the scriptures for our understanding that we might apply it correctly and pray in a manner consistent with what the Word says.

And this is especially necessary in the circumstances of dealing with false teachers and brethren in our midst. We need this. So, consider that. Remember Paul's exhortation in Ephesians 6 as he talks about engaging in spiritual warfare when he says taking up the armor of God and he gives it in full description.