Necessity for this Book

Jude 1:1-3 JUDE, a bondservant of Jesus Christ, and brother of James, To those who are called, sanctified by God the Father, and preserved in Jesus Christ: Mercy, peace, and love be multiplied to you. Beloved, while I was very diligent to write to you concerning our common salvation, I found it necessary to write to you exhorting you to contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints.

Jude being a half-brother of Jesus Christ calls himself a bondservant of Jesus Christ.

Matt 13:55 Is this not the carpenter’s son? Is not His mother called Mary? And His brothers James, Joses, Simon, and Judas?

Jude found it absolutely necessary to write to the true church who are sanctified by God the Father and preserved in Jesus Christ, so that they can be encouraged to struggle earnestly for the faith. It is going to be a struggle for our faith not from outside the church but from within.

Ungodly Men within Churches

Jude 1:4-5 For certain men have crept in unnoticed, who long ago were marked out for this condemnation, ungodly men, who turn the grace of our God into lewdness and deny the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ. But I want to remind you, though you once knew this, that the Lord, having saved the people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed those who did not believe.

Today’s churches are filled with ungodly people, thinking they serve God by coming to church yet does not follow Him by being holy and righteous. These are the people who turn grace of God into lewdness and even deny Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ.

Below are some of the few example of ungodly men who crept unnoticed into our churches. Today, they destroyed the church from within.

• In 2003 the Episcopal Church, which is the American body (province) of the Anglican Communion, approved Gene Robinson to the bishopric of the diocese of New Hampshire. Bishop Gene Robinson is the first openly bisexual clergy to be ordained to the episcopate (ref)
• On 21 August 2009, The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, the largest Lutheran church body in the United States, voted 559 to 451 in favor of allowing gays to become ordained ministers (ref)
• Pastor caught stealing from collection basket on hidden camera: police (ref)
• Married pastor, 33, believed to be on the run after he ‘sexually assaulted teenage girl and got her pregnant’ (ref)

Today, we had passed the stage of Jude’s warning where ungodly members get into churches, but rather ungodly men running several churches. Pastors who are gays, thieves and of the flesh running churches. Shepherds who are supposed to feed the sheep are feeding on the sheep.

Examples of God

Jude 1:6-7 And the angels who did not keep their proper domain, but left their own abode, He has reserved in everlasting chains under darkness for the judgment of the great day; as Sodom and Gomorrah, and the cities around them in a similar manner to these, having given themselves over to sexual immorality and gone after strange flesh, are set forth as an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire.

God gives two examples:

• Angels who did not keep their proper domain, but left their own abode taking daughters of men as wives are reserved in everlasting chains under darkness for the judgment of the great day.
• Sodom and Gomorrah who had given themselves over to sexual immorality and gone after strange flesh committing homosexual acts were destroyed with fire.

Today, churches that are supposed to protect the flock of God from the spirit of Sodom and Gomorrah and all uncleanness had themselves become like Sodom and Gomorrah.

Brute Beast Dreamers

Jude 1:8-10 Likewise also these dreamers defile the flesh, reject authority, and speak evil of dignitaries. Yet Michael the archangel, in contending with the devil, when he disputed about the body of Moses, dared not bring against him a reviling accusation, but said, “The Lord rebuke you!” But these speak evil of whatever they do not know; and whatever they know naturally, like brute beasts, in these things they corrupt themselves.

Bible calls these ungodly men as dreamers and they do the following:

• Defile the flesh
• Reject Authority
• Speak evil of dignitaries

Even Michael when contending with the devil about the body of Moses dared not bring a reviling accusation, instead he said “the Lord rebuke you”, but these dreamers will speak evil even if they don’t know about them and if they know something they are like brute beasts and they corrupt themselves.

Woe to them!

Jude 1:11-13 Woe to them! For they have gone in the way of Cain, have run greedily in the error of Balaam for profit, and perished in the rebellion of Korah. These are spots in your love feasts, while they feast with you without fear, serving only themselves. They are clouds without water, carried about by the winds; late autumn trees without fruit, twice dead, pulled up by the roots; raging waves of the sea, foaming up their own shame; wandering stars for whom is reserved the blackness of darkness forever.

Woe to these dreamers. Jude gives three examples to identify them further.

What is the ‘Way of Cain’?

Gen 4:7 “If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin lies at the door. And its desire is for you, but you should rule over it.”

Christians who don’t rule over sin are in the way of Cain.

Error of Balaam

2Pet 2:15 They have forsaken the right way and gone astray, following the way of Balaam the son of Beor, who loved the wages of unrighteousness;

Rebellion of Korah

Num 16:40 to be a memorial to the children of Israel that no outsider, who is not a descendant of Aaron, should come near to offer incense before the LORD, that he might not become like Korah and his companions, just as the LORD had said to him through Moses.

These are the people are who are:

• spots in our love feasts – they feast with us without fear they only serve themselves.
• clouds without water – carried by winds of false doctrines
• late autumn trees without fruits – those who are twice dead pulled up by roots and without leaves and no spiritual fruits.
• raging waves of the sea – who not only commit shameful acts but publicly encourage those shameful acts foaming on shame.
• wandering stars – who wander between the old man and the new creation.

Prophecy of Enoch

Jude 1:14-15 Now Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied about these men also, saying, “Behold, the Lord comes with ten thousands of His saints, to execute judgment on all, to convict all who are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have committed in an ungodly way, and of all the harsh things which ungodly sinners have spoken against Him.”

This is a verse that is prophesied by Enoch even before the great flood about the coming judgment which is also mentioned in the book of Enoch.

Matt 25:31-34 “When the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the holy angels with Him, then He will sit on the throne of His glory. All the nations will be gathered before Him, and He will separate them one from another, as a shepherd divides his sheep from the goats. And He will set the sheep on His right hand, but the goats on the left. Then the King will say to those on His right hand, ‘Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: … (41) Then He will also say to those on the left hand, ‘Depart from Me, you cursed, into the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels.

Keep yourselves in the love of God

Jude 1:16-19 These are grumblers, complainers, walking according to their own lusts; and they mouth great swelling words, flattering people to gain advantage. But you, beloved, remember the words which were spoken before by the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ: how they told you that there would be mockers in the last time who would walk according to their own ungodly lusts. These are sensual persons, who cause divisions, not having the Spirit. 

Further qualifications are given for ungodly dreamers.

• grumblers,
• complainers,
• walking according to their own lusts
• they mouth great swelling words, flattering people to gain advantage

We see these mockers in today’s churches. walking in their own lusts, which is a sign for us to know we are indeed in the last days. These cause divisions and do not have the Spirit.

Rom 8:9 But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His.

Instructions to true Christians

Jude 1:20-23 But you, beloved, building yourselves up on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life. And on some have compassion, making a distinction; but others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire, hating even the garment defiled by the flesh.