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CHAPTER THREE

HE IS ABLE - ARE YOU WILLING ?

THE GRACE OF GLORY – JUDE

The Message:

If you want to join the outsiders who like a rind, having bent themselves into the fruit itself, though alien, are thrown away with disgust, then

you have a sure and steadfast method: disbelieve what you like, believe the rest, trim your sails to the rest of the travelling vesels and find the wrath of God. It is so simple. Jude advises otherwise.

THE PROBLEM

JUDE is perhaps not the most frequently read book in the Bible. Yet it has an ageless intensity and brilliant directness which is vital to the force of faith.

Led by the Lord, Jude starts by reminding us that there is not only the matter of the faith itself to present (as he had been intending to do, for his readers) but there is the fight FOR it. He finds the need instead of talking about the faith itself, to address a different issue: FIGHTING FOR IT. Using the normal Greek idiom, he tells us that we must fight earnestly for the faith. The reason for this is, as he states, that some people, like spies, have crept in, without being noticed. Pollutants in the people of God they turn love into lewdness, denying the only God and Christ. They are not merely alien; they also infect, infiltrate. Their background is long, and long before that time, they were marked for condemnation. Remember: there is spiritual as well a physical lewdnes (Ezekiel 20, II Corinthians 7:1).

Thus Jude has turned from the topic of faith as salvation to that of faith under assault – and in that place, the duty is to keep it pure and if opportunity comes, save one or two even of the attackers. It is not a primer on evangelism, but on church purging, purity; and without this, there is only judgment. That is the motif: fight for the faith, purge the evil, avoid it, detest it and ponder its horrific fate.

Jude consistently pursues his theme that you have to fight FOR the faith, giving illustrations of pollution and judgment in the past: therefore ensure it is kept pure and holy in the present, and neither diminished, debauched nor betrayed in the church of the living God. Out of Egypt came the nation of God ? Yes, they did, but SOME of these who did not believe, merely inhabiting the mass of those exiting Egypt, and these ? "the LORD ... destroyed." Angels similarly - some of them (as in Revelation 12) - have left the celestial abode, just as the first pair of the human race, on earth, conspired against God and so had to leave Eden. Confinement to the darkness they lived in, this is the lot of those angels, this their destiny (Jude 6). Sodom and Gomorrah also in their mad pursuit of 'strange flesh', contribute those to suffer 'the vengeance of eternal fire.'

The faith has so often been manhandled that now it must be fought for:

reception instead of deception is the need.

Jude is all about

	debauching instead of pure doctrine,
	deceit instead of honesty,
	judgment instead of salvation:

this on the misleaders,
who are like cancer spots on the skin of the body of Christ,
needing quick excision and casting to the rubbish.

Their judgment is sure, causing divisions (Jude 19) as they attempt to blitzkrieg the faith, their ruins to be dumped just as God will dump their destiny! If the message is incisive, so is any attack on the only escape from sin: a horrid thing, dangerous, wicked, corrupt, heartless! This which they try to mutate, it is “the faith once for all delivered to the saints” (Jude 3, Galatians 1, 3, Revelation 22:18-19, Isaiah 8:20). It changes not at all, neither in its perspective, nor the atmosphere of presentation, as here with such acute force by Jude, nor in its origin in God, nor in its power, which is that of God whose it is. To present it, one must echo it in all respects, if one is to be faithful.

Various dreamers, dignities in decline, similarly reject the authority of the word of God and His Gospel and import what God forbids (such as sexual perversion in the Anglican and Uniting Churches, for example, at this very day!). Like Balaam (Jude 11), hired to curse Israel but unable to do other than bless them to the great frustration of his employer, Moab, they perish as did the rebellious anti-authority people of Korah (Numbers 16:1ff.,21, I Corinthians 6:9). From these God told Moses to SEPARATE the people, while the ground opened up.

This is our cue no less, to separate from what calls itself Christian and yet conspires against the word of God to infect His people (Psalm 94, Romans 16:17, I Corinthians 5-6). You may stay if God means NOTHING to you, His word is as a cuneiform script and His thoughts are as polluted air to you. You may stay in disordered churches of this kind, if you admire the destruction of Korah, the lot of Sodom and the procedures of Balaam.

You may have EVERYTHING you please, to a stricken conscience or a dead one if there is no flicker of capacity for spiritual pain left, misled people following your example and the pseudo-sovereign name of a gallant fellow who fears neither God nor man, and would have the validated and verified word of millenia made over to you for improvement (SMR, TMR and Reason, Revelation and the Redeemer, Light Dwells with the Lord's Christ ...). However, your fate is then the same as theirs.

Against these, says Jude, act, and FIGHT FOR THE FAITH. They are immune to it, confined to destruction; but what they defile, must be delivered, and the pure Gospel preached (cf. II Corinthians 11, Galatians 1-3). Follow Balaam ? Denounce and expose him, rather, for the safety of the body of Christ’s people.

Jude wrote then, but NOW is the most advanced time for these wickednesses (Jeremiah 23:20-29, esp. 20, II Timothy 3-4, I Timothy 4). The word of God unfurls its flag from long ago, to the present, and billows strikingly about debasement in these things, for those who will look, as the Lord’s return comes close (cf. Answers to Questions Ch. 5, The Shadow of a Mighty Rock Ch. 8).

Time and again Paul APPEALED to people to wake up to these invasive dangers, and be true to the faith, not combining with such people spiritually at all (as in I Corinthians 5-6, II Cor. 6, Romans 16:17 - II John does the same). JUDE refers to such alien and alienated intruders into the Church as

"clouds without water" and trees

"without fruit, twice dead, pulled up by the roots", which have for themselves

"the blackness of darkness forever."

God Himself, however, Jude continues (v. 14ff.) will come with His saints and execute judgment on these.

Notice in verse 15 the use of the word 'ungodly' three times. How often do you hear it today ? This is the epistle against ungodliness, its words, ways and all cohesion with any such thing, keeping to the unchangeable faith. This tells how to deal with rebellion itself, which fights God by polluting His own army, gospel and mercy, seeking to strangle these with godless guilt, fashionable change, seeking to suffocate the church of God.

FLATTERY is one of the means used by such people to interest would-be saints, and mislead them (Jude 16). Jude reminds his readers that the apostles of Christ had earlier warned of mockers in the last time who would walk in "their own ungodly lusts". These cause divisions, departing from the biblical words. So in all times, one must beware, but especially near the end!

THE HELP, NOT FROM WITHIN THE FIRES,
BUT FROM OUTSIDE THEM

Fighting therefore for the faith into which such people infiltrate, polluting, corrupting, corroding, impelling amiss, the people of God are advised to be "building yourselves up on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit" and to "keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to eternal life" (Jude 20-21).

BUILD - this means to work in the Spirit in the body of Christ, seeking co-operation with other members, and direction from the Head, Jesus Christ, finding more depths in understanding, more scope in service and more dynamic energy in spiritual objectives (Ephesians 1:17ff., 3:16).

PRAY - praying in the Holy Spirit is not the same as merely tracing out words in the mind. It involves firstly the KNOWLEDGE OF GOD as a personal being, like Abraham, the friend of God (James 2:23), who in all things tended to SEEK Him, His will, and to do so with all care in being led as the Lord would. It is not our purpose to do what we want and ask and expect God to help, but to submit and surrender to the Lord and ask HIM what HE wants, and then to seek what is needed to do it. LOVE IS LIKE THAT! If anyone does not love the Lord, says Paul in I Corinthians 16, let him be accused. If you are saved, you love; if you are not, where then are you but in the blackness of darkness! Escape is in repenting, believing in and receiving the Lord (Hebrews 6:19, Luke 13:1-3, John 6:47, 5:24).

Praying in the Spirit in part of the exercise of seeking His will, His methods, His means, His presence and His power, to be responsive and responsible to His intimations (Psalm 32) and to His word (as in John 14:21-23); for, said Jesus, "He who does not love Me does not keep My words." There is a nearness of the Lord, a movement like a breeze in the hair, billowing out the coat on a hill, at work as He moves into our depths and sweeps us along the way of His will. Look how they prayed as in Acts 4:23ff., being bold in resisting the false religion of the priests, and fearless in confrontation, and with this, strenuous and swept on in prayer in the Spirit.

KEEP YOURSELVES IN THE LOVE OF GOD - is the third command. Thus you reject every unforgiving thrust, disjoining yourself from the evil, but not seeking vengeance, seeking good even for enemies (but not joining them), remembering mercy, showing goodness broadly, never being critical of the Lord, but seeking to be edified, instructed and to increase in wisdom from Him.

LOOK “for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to eternal life”. Do not wobble in your own works, but be content with His (Hebrews 10:10,14, John 5:24, Ephesians 2:1-10). Look for mercy as your shelter, and for pardon as your promise (I John 1:7ff.), and rely on your Rock who does not move (Isaiah 32).

Have COMPASSION on SOME, "making a distinction." Some are less profoundly polluted. If any can be snatched from this fate, then grab them and bring them back. That is the exceptional case, where a rescue is possible. Thus some more might be found from the mess, but as to these "save with fear, pulling them out of the fire, hating even the garment defiled by the flesh."

And thus showing and receiving mercy (Micah 6:19-20), as we have already seen, so in v. 23, you have compassion. Not with complacency, but in the fear of God you act, not touching the polluted garments as you seek to snatch some out from the burning into which foolishness and revolt have led them. It is like avoiding a devastating fire, but grabbing the odd stick within sight of rescue. The main thing is – Keep away from those flames, be warned: and keep them from the house, the house of God!

LOOK “for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to eternal life”. Do not wobble in your own works, but be content with His (Hebrews 10:10,14, John 5:24, Ephesians 2:1-10). Look for mercy as your shelter and for pardon as your promise (I John 1:7ff.), and rely on your Rock who does not move (Isaiah 32).

And thus showing and receiving mercy (Micah 6:19-20), as we have already seen, so in v. 23, you have compassion. Not with complacency, but in the fear of God you act, not touching the polluted garments as you seek to snatch some out from the burning into which foolishness and revolt has led them. It is like avoiding a devastating fire, but grabbing the odd stick within sight of rescue. The main thing is – Keep away from those flames, be warned, keep them from the house, the house of God!

Thus firstly, you MUST leave churches which promote sexual ideas contrary to those written in the Bible in general, the New Testament in particular, sexual perversion, ambivalence and the like. Secondly, the same applies where any departure from the apostolic teaching occurs (Romans 16:17), from the Gospel as written (Galatians 1), from the Bible (Isaiah 8:20, Proverbs 8:30, I Corinthians 2:9-13, 14:37, Matthew 4:4, John 8:42-47, Matthew 5:17-20) to a Christ (II Corinthians 11) different in ANY way from the One God sent, correctly exhibited in the Bible (cf. Numbers 16:21).

There is one God, one Book of the Lord (Isaiah 8:20), one Christ and one Spirit, one Gospel and any fiddling is mere counterfeit (indeed counterfeit apostles is what Paul calls those who invent a new Christ, new Gospel, have a new spirit in II Corinthians 11:1-4.13-15). The words for these falsely enticing rebels relate to terms meaning pseudo- (only apparent) and catching with a bait!

This done (like cleaning out your house, or putting out a fire), what then ? Then the positive realities of the faith proceed! That is what.

THE POSITIVE OUTCOME

Now, says Jude, "to Him who is able to keep them from stumbling, and to present you faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy..."

Note that God is ABLE to stop stumbling in people, even the worst-afflicted, the most sever cases, when they are saved. You do not HAVE to fall here, and be deceived there, to wobble in some other way and to deviate into doubting castle, with Bunyan's PILGRIM! The LORD is ABLE to keep you from this, and so to deliver you from many a spiritual scourging (as in Hebrews 12); for as told there, we must realise that as CHILDREN of God, we need discipline from time to time.

NEVER resent this, but LEARN from it, and so avoid making a practice of falling, flirting with the faith. Instead, being founded in it and with it, relying on His mercy, act with His compassion but also with HIS purity. In this way, not being assembled with the ungodly, with those who infect the faith, having spiritual heart-attacks as though this were some kind of dance, and being followed as they do it: repudiate their errors, never joining them.

Nor is this all. God (v. 24) is also ABLE to "present you faultless before the presence of His glory."

How is this done ? "He bore our sins in His own body upon the tree" - says Peter simply in I Peter 2:23ff., so that we, being dead to sins, "might live to righteousness". SINCE HE took the sins cast by faith upon Him, they are removed from us "as far as the East is from the West" (Psalm 103), so that they are "cast … into the depths of the sea" (Micah 7:19): indeed this is said of ALL of our sins! Thus, justified by faith, recovered with the clothes of Christ's righteousness (Isaiah 61:10, Romans 5:17), granted to us, the covering for us as He looks upon us, and "beholding as in a mirror, the glory of God" (II Corinthians 3:18), we are presented "faultless" before the very presence of His incandescent glory.

Moreover when your sins are removed in their guilt, and His Spirit moves in you in His purity, there is a mortification, a putting to death of what moves us amiss (Romans 8:11-13), so that a new and powerful, indeed a torrential thrust pushes us into the paths of godliness. Do not therefore haunt the grave of your old ‘man’ or self (Galatians 5:24), but rather dismiss it and rejoice at the resurrection of Christ, the power of God and the wisdom of God (I Corinthians 1:16,24) and “walk in newness of life” (Romans 6:4).

Your burial is not a mere symbol, but an interment in spirit, and your regeneration is not a dripping spoof, but an endowed incorporation in Christ (I Cor. 12:13, II Cor. 5:15,1), with exuberant dynamic (Acts 2, 4) associated with cleansing at the outset and the onset; and it is then that the Lord pours out His Spirit upon you abundantly (Titus 3:4-7). Indeed, this arises and springs up anew (Ephesians 3:16, Psalm 87:7, Numbers 21:17). The cover being HIS, and the Spirit being HIS, within us who believe, and the glory being HIS who rose from the dead so that He might be Lord both of the living and of the dead (Romans 14:9), it is accompanied when received by faith, by "exceeding joy".

THEREFORE in one's heart and life and part in the body and work of Christ, "to God our Saviour, who alone is wise," says Jude at the close of his inspired epistle, "be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and forever. Amen." Just as in Revelation 5, so here; and just as in the hearts of His people in Christ's day, so now. So let it be.