Jude 4

Read Jude 1-7

4

Verse 3 tells us who Jude is writing to, his beloved Christians, what he was wanting and intending to write about, our common salvation, and what he felt was urgent and necessary to write about instead, contending or defending the faith. Verse 4 tells us who we need to be contending the faith with, how they gained entry, what they are doing, and what their eternal fate is because of what they are doing. The first part of verse 4 tell a little of who they are but more importantly how they gained entry to the church or churches.

Jude 4 “For certain people have crept in unnoticed”

Jude tells us that there is a certain number of people that have entered the church, creeping in unnoticed by the other faithful members because they are posing as or pretending to be Christians. When we do our membership interviews here we do our best to question and determine the salvation status of those wanting to join our assembly. But we cannot see into the heart of men and women. We question about the understanding of the perspective member, asking for their personal testimony and ask them to say in their own words how to briefly and succinctly communicate the gospel to an unbeliever. But we are men doing our best with the help of the Holy Spirit to try and filter out the wheat from the chaff so that we can with all the confidence we can have, being fallible men ourselves, say that our new members are repentant, redeemed Christians. But as men not truly knowing what is in the heart of others we can be fooled, and I believe this has become the situation in the church or churches that Jude is writing too. He says that they have crept in, they used stealth and deception. Someone who is upfront and honest is not going to be described as creeping around. They were not ill informed in some theology or needing gentle correction, they were dishonest about their faith and the fooled these churches into letting them gain access to the faithful. These men were unaware they did not notice, but God was not unaware and was not surprised.

“For certain people have crept in unnoticed, who long ago were designated for this condemnation,”

Jesus warned us of the types of certain people Matthew 7:15 ““Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves.” God was not surprised that they were there and knew what they were doing, trying to deceive the faithful, this deception and trying to lead God’s people away from the truth and light was condemned long ago. Isaiah, Hosea, and Zephaniah prophesied against these types of people to name a few, Hosea 9:9 “They have deeply corrupted themselves as in the days of Gibeah: he will remember their iniquity; he will punish their sins.” It is their iniquity, their sins that have condemned them. God does not force anyone to sin, that is our nature from birth, but nothing happens that God is unaware of or that will in the end be used for good and his glory. Proverbs 16:4 “The Lord has made everything for its purpose, even the wicked for the day of trouble.”

If God was not surprised and He knew and condemned what they were doing, and also that everything will be for God’s purpose and glory, can we name or think of any good that has or could come from this situation?

“ungodly people, who pervert the grace of our God into sensuality and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.”

Jude has told us how these people have entered into the church, what their eternal fate is, and what we should be doing to fight against them, contending for the faith. In this last section of verse 4 he tells us what they are doing. And in this section we see another one of Jude’s threes, these certain people are ungodly, they have perverted the grace we have in God, and they deny that Jesus Christ is our true and only Master and Lord.

They are ungodly, to put it short and sweet, they are unsaved and the Holy Spirit is not in them. These people are still at enmity or at war with God, there is no love from them toward the true and holy God because they hate God. In their hate and war with God they see what we have, grace and forgiveness and once they have slipped in they pervert, defile and blaspheme the forgiveness we have through faith to do what Paul in Romans said exactly what we are not to do, Romans 6:1–2 “What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it?” They use our grace as an excuse to do all manner of sexual and sensual behavior, freely doing whatever their sinful fallen flesh wants and then saying that they have grace and forgiveness. 1 Corinthians 6:19–20 “Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.”

Lastly and as can be seen from what they do, they deny Jesus Christ as our only Master and Lord. Earlier I quoted from Matthew about Jesus’ warning for us of false prophets, but the very next verse He tells us how to identify false teachers.

Matthew 7:15–16 ““Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves. You will recognize them by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thornbushes, or figs from thistles?”

A true Christian is not only one in word and in church every Sunday. A true repentant Christian lives out their lives, in public and private, according to our common faith, and for the glory of God. Testifying through our every word, and action that we are not our own and have a Master who has bought us with his priceless blood, who owns us and keeps us. Who through the gift of Holy Spirit we have the desire to know and have secure and saving faith in.

Titus 1:16 “They profess to know God, but they deny him by their works. They are detestable, disobedient, unfit for any good work.”

James 2:26 “For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so also faith apart from works is dead.”

These people may be professing to know Christ and be a born again Christian but their works show their true allegiances and deny our only Master and Lord.

Just as a side note the word translated here as master Master despotes means ruler, master, owner, absolute owner and in the negative connotation we get the word despot. But here it is used in a joyous meaning, Jesus Christ is our ruler, absolute owner, and master, and all those that he truly owns he will keep and see to the end.

These people that have crept in are charlatans, false prophets, blasphemers, and from their fruits, what they are doing they show that they are not owned by Christ and actively plot and scheme against him. Truly ungodly people.

5

Verses 5-16 are an expanding on what Jude says in verse 4 by giving examples and illustrations of what these people are doing and how they will ultimately be condemned. Verses 5-7 form an example of increasingly severe condemnation of three groups of “peoples” who have gone against the authority and commands of God.

Jude 5 “Now I want to remind you, although you once fully knew it”

Jude begins his section of illustrations and examples with the statement that all of these examples should be well known to the audience he is writing to, and from the content of some of the examples he uses we can surmise that the church or churches he was writing to were at least a mixed group of Jews and Gentiles, with the probability that the Gentiles that were in the churches were also very aware of the Old Testament and Jewish apocryphal writings because he includes “although you once fully knew it”. This give the impression that all of the examples and illustrations he uses were common knowledge to all those whom he was writing to. The ESV translates this “although you once fully knew it”, the KJV just “ye once knew this” and other translations have it as “although you know everything once and for all” This language calls back to verse 3 when Jude tells us to “contend for the faith that was once and for all delivered to the saints.” It is a good thing that we are constantly reminded of what is in the revealed word of God, either in our private Bible readings or at every church service. The truths of the bible should not be a read once and never again type of reading. We need to be constantly in the word and receiving good bible teaching.

2 Peter 1:13 “I think it right, as long as I am in this body, to stir you up by way of reminder,”

Jude 5 “, that Jesus”

Those of you who are reading from the KJV may notice that this verse is translated as “That the Lord” but the ESV and other newer translations read “that Jesus”, we now have more copies of the manuscripts available to us now that we did when the KJV was translated, and the oldest and most reliable of these manuscripts have Jude using Iēsous, which is Jesus in Greek while the ones that were available when the KJV was translated have ho Kyrios, the Lord. This is a good example of Jude affirming Jesus’ deity, as do other New Testament do through the Holy Spirit. Because what one of the trinity does or says all are in agreement and they are showing the oneness of Jesus and Yahweh and the Spirit.

Luke 24:27 “And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself.”

John 8:56–58 “Your father Abraham rejoiced that he would see my day. He saw it and was glad.” So the Jews said to him, “You are not yet fifty years old, and have you seen Abraham?” Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am.””

Jesus there saying “I am” the same words used by Yahweh for himself to Moses, Exodus 3:14 “God said to Moses, “I am who I am.” And he said, “Say this to the people of Israel: ‘I am has sent me to you.’ ””

Mark 14:61–62 “But he remained silent and made no answer. Again the high priest asked him, “Are you the Christ, the Son of the Blessed?” And Jesus said, “I am, and you will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of Power, and coming with the clouds of heaven.””

Two other examples from Paul using Jesus in the Exodus story:

1 Corinthians 10:4 “and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank from the spiritual Rock that followed them, and the Rock was Christ.”

1 Corinthians 10:9 “We must not put Christ to the test, as some of them did and were destroyed by serpents,”

Jude 5 “, that Jesus, who saved a people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed those who did not believe.”

This illustration is referring to the Exodus of the Jewish nation from Egypt and how they constantly grumbled and complained, saying that they would have been better off staying in Egypt, even forging a golden calf as an idol to worship when Moses did not return down the mountain on their time table. When they got to the borders of the promise land and sent spies to scout out the land, every scout, except Caleb and Joshua, came back saying that the land was filled with milk and honey but the inhabitants are too strong for them to overtake. Only Caleb and Joshua had faith in the Lord that He would deliver the land to them and defeat all of the inhabitants. So the people grumbled once again and did not trust in God and said in Numbers 14:2 “And all the people of Israel grumbled against Moses and Aaron. The whole congregation said to them, “Would that we had died in the land of Egypt! Or would that we had died in this wilderness!” So God promised judgement on them for their lack of faith and trust. Numbers 14:28–30 “Say to them, ‘As I live, declares the Lord, what you have said in my hearing I will do to you: your dead bodies shall fall in this wilderness, and of all your number, listed in the census from twenty years old and upward, who have grumbled against me, not one shall come into the land where I swore that I would make you dwell, except Caleb the son of Jephunneh and Joshua the son of Nun.”

The faithless will not see the promised land.

Jude 6 “And the angels who did not stay within their own position of authority, but left their proper dwelling, he has kept in eternal chains under gloomy darkness until the judgment of the great day—”

This mention of angels not staying in their own position is referring to the angels who fell and became demons but the conciseness is that Jude here is not referring to the entirety of the fallen angels that aligned with Lucifer. One reason is that Satan and his demons were not immediately contained in chains in darkness, they are in the world today prowling around looking to devour. 1 Peter 5:8 “Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.” This is referring to Genesis 6:1–4 when angels took the form of man and had relations with humans, this is also strengthened with that Jude references 1 Enoch later in the letter and 1 Enoch “contains much discussion on the fall of these angels”.

But what can we take from this illustration?

In verse 5 God did not spare his own chosen people when they did not have faith and here God does not spare the angels either when they disobeyed. Here we also see that the sin that these angels committed was of a sensual nature, just the same as what Jude said that these people who had crept in were doing. Verse 4 “...ungodly people, who pervert the grace of our God into sensuality”

The angels did not stay in their position of authority and left their proper dwelling, can we see parallels to those of us in authority not staying in their own position of authority, straying and teaching false doctrine?

We can also see the increasing severity of the illustrated punishments, those who grumbled did not go into the promised land and died in the wilderness, the angels who disobeyed are being held to the end of days in chains and darkness. And we will see in verse 7 the punishment and the representation of the punishment is far worse.

Jude 7 “just as Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding cities, which likewise indulged in sexual immorality and pursued unnatural desire, serve as an example by undergoing a punishment of eternal fire.”

Here we see another verse on sexual sin/homosexual relations as the people of the cities of Sodom, Gomorrah and the surrounding towns were wicked and perusing unnatural desires. Other translations saying going after strange flesh, meaning flesh that was not normal and prescribed by God.

Some argue that the bible or Jesus does not condemn it. But they are wrong, we see it in the referenced passage from Genesis and in other places in the Old Testament. As well as in the New Testament, referenced and mentioned here and in Romans 1 among other places.

Romans 1:26–27 “For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error.”

So if we hold to the doctrine of the Trinity, Father, Son, and Spirit are three distinct persons in one God, and they are all co-equal, then we can say that what one says, the Father condemning Sodom and Gomorrah, the Holy Spirit breathing out what Paul wrote, then we hold to that all three are at all times in total agreement with each other. If they were in disagreement with one another then that would mean that one of them would be in error.

Long way to say that anything one says or does then all are aware and in full agreement with each other. The Father condemns it, the Spirit condemns it then Jesus also condemns sexual sins.

In this illustration we can see the increased punishment for the rampant sin of the cities, they were destroyed with brimstone and fire, representing the eternal punishment in the lake of fire that awaits all unrepentant sinners.