Jude
April 4, 2021
Contend Because You’re Kept
Text: Jude 1-25
Date: 2021-04-25
Location: Ekklesia (Eau Claire, WI)
Introduction
Good morning brothers and sisters. Please turn with me in your Bibles to the book of Jude. If you’re not sure where Jude is, it takes up about one page and is right before the last book of the Bible, which is Revelation. I will be preaching the message of the book of Jude this morning. Please follow along with me in your Bible. May the Lord bless the reading and the hearing of his word.
Dear Heavenly Father, this is your word. You tell us that you have inspired it, you have breathed out these words and that they are profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness in order that your people may be complete, equipped for every good work. We ask you Lord, through your Son Jesus Christ and by your Holy Spirit, to keep that promise this morning. Please teach us from your word. Please reprove and correct us. Please train us for righteousness so that we may be strong in the good works you call us to. Please strengthen me now to preach your word and please strengthen these people here this morning to hear your word and may we be not be those who hear your world only, but those who keep your word. In the name of Jesus Christ and for your glory we pray, Amen.
I’ve titled this sermon: Contend because You Are Kept (say it again). I would summarize the message of the book of Jude like this:
Beloved, God the Father will keep you faithful to the end through Jesus Christ and by the Holy Spirit. Therefore, you must contend together for the faith against ungodly people who would lead you into the sins of rejecting God’s authority and embracing sensuality.
If you don’t catch anything else this morning, I want you to hear this, so I’m going to read it again. My hope this morning is that the message of the book of Jude will deepen your love and trust in God the Father because of Jesus Christ and by the Holy Spirit. And I hope that your love and trust will move you to live holy lives that look forward to the last day when you will stand before your God joyfully blameless with no condemnation. I hope that this sermon contributes, in a small way, by God’s grace, to your preserving to the end. I want to persevere to the end. I want you to persevere to the end.
For those of you who like outlines, I’ll give you the basic sections that I will be walking through. We can break the book of Jude down into four sections:
First, verses 1 and 2 are Jude’s greeting. We will see him identify himself and his readers and introduce some themes that he will return to throughout the letter.
Second, in verses 3 through 16, Jude issues a warning. He will warn his readers about false teachers and he will describe God’s coming judgement on them as a warning to us to live holy lives.
Third, in verses 17 through 23, Jude exhorts his readers to contend for the faith. We will see that this is not a command that each individual Christian obeys by themselves, but that this is about members of the church helping one another persevere in the faith by resisting the errors of the false teachers.
And fourth, in verses 24 and 25, Jude breaks forth in praise to God because God is the one who will keep us in the faith and bring us home to his heavenly kingdom.
So, one more time:
1.) Greeting (vs. 1–2)
2.) Warning (vs. 3–16)
3.) Command (vs. 17–23)
4.) Praise (vs. 24–25)
Look with me at Jude’s greeting in vs. 1 and 2.
Greeting:
1 Jude, a servant of Jesus Christ and brother of James, To those who are called, beloved in God the Father and kept for Jesus Christ: 2 May mercy, peace, and love be multiplied to you.
Let’s not rush past these verses too quickly. It is easy to brush past greetings in the New Testament, but there is so much packed into them and Jude is no exception
First, Jude identifies himself. He describes himself as a servant of Jesus Christ and the brother of James. We can be fairly certain that Jude is one of Jesus’s the half-brothers. He is probably the same person referred to as “Judas” or “Judah” in Matt 13:55 and Mark 6:3.[1] Jude could have tried to pull rank on us and tell us to listen to him because he is Jesus’s brother, but he didn’t.[2] He referred to himself as a servant of Jesus. He presents himself being on the same level as the rest of us. Servants of Jesus Christ.
Then, Jude identifies his readers. He describes them in three ways.
First, he calls us “those who are called.” This call is not the general call of gospel preaching. This is the effectual calling of God by his Holy Spirit of those who God has chosen before the foundation of the world. If you are trusting in Jesus Christ alone for the forgiveness of your sins, this describes you. You have been called by God.
Second, he calls us “those who are…beloved in God the Father.” At each point throughout the letter when he addresses his readers directly, he calls them “beloved.” Loved by God. Sometimes people accuse the doctrines of grace and reformed theology of being dry and impersonal. Jude doesn’t think so. Jude wants to remind us that not only are we called by God, we are loved by God.
Third, he calls us “those who are…kept for Jesus Christ.” Jude will also return to this point at the end of this letter. Not only has God called us and loved us, but he will keep us forever. If you are in need of comfort this morning, remember, God has called you to be his own. God has loved you as his own. God will keep you safe forever. Trust him.
So, Jude identified himself and he identified his readers. And Third, he tells us what he wants us to receive from God in this letter.
First, he wants us to receive mercy. Later in the letter, he will tell us to show mercy, but here he reminds us that mercy comes to us from God. Without God’s mercy coming to us, we will never show mercy to others. May God grant us this mercy.
Second, he wants us to experience peace. We will see later in this letter, that rejecting God’s authority and living immoral lives will deprive us of peace and pit us against one another. Jude wants to spare us from that. May God grant us this peace.
Third, he wants us to experience the love of God. Again, Jude reminds us that God loves us. Later in the letter, we will see that those who reject God’s authority and embrace sinful passions can only expect fearful judgment from God. But that is not the case for those of us who are trusting in Jesus Christ because he has called us, loved us, and is keeping us.
So, in his greeting, Jude, a fellow servant in Jesus Christ, wants to remind us that we are called by God, loved by God, and preserved by God and by writing this letter, he wants his readers to receive the mercy of God, the peace of fellowship with true believers, and the love of God.
Beware of False Teachers!
Next, Jude warns us about false teachers and the judgement of God that is coming on them. Look with me at vs. 3.
3 Beloved, although I was very eager to write to you about our common salvation, I found it necessary to write appealing to you to contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints. 4 For certain people have crept in unnoticed who long ago were designated for this condemnation, ungodly people, who pervert the grace of our God into sensuality and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.
Jude launches into an extended description of the false teachers and their way of life. He draws on a variety of images and stories to paint a picture in our mind of who these people were. Jude begins by saying that he would much rather be writing about something else right now. He was “eager” to write to his readers about salvation. He would much rather write about the gospel of Jesus Christ. But the needs of the hour required that he engage in controversy. But don’t lose sight of the fact that Jude engages in controversy for the sake of the gospel. He does not argue just to argue. He calls his readers to “contend for the faith.” He is willing to fight for the purity of the gospel and he calls us to join him. Faith is a fight. Later in the letter, he is going to describe “contending for the faith” as “keeping ourselves in the love of God” and “showing mercy” to others who are being drawn away by false teaching.
So, why did Jude have to delay writing about our common salvation to command us to contend for the faith? The reason that we have to contend for the faith is that there are pretenders who pervert the grace of God into sensuality and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ. This is striking. Instead of focusing primarily on their teaching, he focuses on their way of life. He says that they use God’s grace as an excuse to do whatever they want and with their actions they reject Jesus’s authority as Lord. They are happy to have Jesus as Savior, but they do not want him as their Lord. This certainly flows out of bad theology, but that’s not what Jude focuses on.
Jude continues in vs. 5, look there with me.
5 Now I want to remind you, although you once fully knew it, that Jesus, who saved a people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed those who did not believe. 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— 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.
Jude gives three examples of sensuality and rebellion from the Old Testament and shows that God does not tolerate these sins.
First, he points us to the example unbelieving Israel. If you remember from the book of Exodus, as soon as God rescues the people of Israel out of Egypt, they begin rebelling against him. They grumble against him about food and water. At mount Sinai, they reject God for a golden calf. They fail to take the land and they reject God’s appointed leader, Moses, again and again. In the end, not a single one of the people who rebelled entered the land, except for Joshua and Caleb, because they believe God’s promise. It is remarkable that Jude says that Jesus is the one who destroyed the people of Israel. People sometimes want to make the God of the Old Testament a God of wrath and the God of the New Testament a God of mercy. But here, Jesus himself brings judgement on the rebellious people.
Second, Jude references the rebellious angels. He says that these angels “did not stay within their own position of authority.” In the next verse, Jude refers back to this verse with the word “likewise” when he talks about the immorality of Sodom and Gomorrah. So, at least part of the rebellion is that these angels engaged in is sexual immorality. It is likely that Jude is referring to a view of Genesis 6 where angels cohabitate with human woman and produce offspring. I think that this is correct, but whether or not that is exactly what happened, it is clear that these angels sinned by rejecting authority and engaging in immorality. In response, God judges them, binding them in chains to wait for the final judgment.
Third, he references Sodom and Gomorrah. The men of Sodom and Gomorrah rebelled against God’s good design for human sexuality and sought to abuse the angels who were sent to them. Again, God’s judgment fell on them in the form of fire from heaven. Jude says that they serve as an example, by suffering the punishment of eternal fire.
So, in each of our examples, the rebellious and the immoral fall under God’s judgement. After laying out these three examples, Jude draws the connection to the false teachers. Look with me at vs. 8.
8 Yet in like manner these people also, relying on their dreams, defile the flesh, reject authority, and blaspheme the glorious ones. 9 But when the archangel Michael, contending with the devil, was disputing about the body of Moses, he did not presume to pronounce a blasphemous judgment, but said, “The Lord rebuke you.” 10 But these people blaspheme all that they do not understand, and they are destroyed by all that they, like unreasoning animals, understand instinctively.
These false teachers, like the people of Israel, the rebellious angels, and the men of Sodom and Gomorrah, look to their own dreams instead of God’s word, they defile their flesh in immorality, they reject authority, they blaspheme the glorious ones. And like these examples, the false teachers will be destroyed.
Jude brings up Michael the archangel as a counterexample. Michael was disputing over the body of Moses and instead of judging the devil himself, Michael left judgment of the Lord. You might be racking your brain for where this story appears in the Bible, but you would have a hard time finding it because it isn’t there. Jude is drawing on a lost Jewish tradition. This doesn’t mean that Jude thinks this story is inspired by God, but he draws on it as a helpful example. Let’s look at vs. 10 for when Jude brings this up. These people, instead of withholding judgement like Michael, blaspheme ignorantly. The result? God judges them. Jude says that they are destroyed by what they understand by instinct even if they reject it. Jude responds to this by launching into three more comparisons and a series of word pictures.
11 Woe to them! For they walked in the way of Cain and abandoned themselves for the sake of gain to Balaam’s error and perished in Korah’s rebellion. 12 These are hidden reefs at your love feasts, as they feast with you without fear, shepherds feeding themselves; waterless clouds, swept along by winds; fruitless trees in late autumn, twice dead, uprooted; 13 wild waves of the sea, casting up the foam of their own shame; wandering stars, for whom the gloom of utter darkness has been reserved forever.
He compares the false teachers to Cain, who killed his brother out of jealousy. They are like Balaam, who chased after money and incited the Moabites to lead the Israelites into rejecting God for idols and into immorality. They are like Korah who led the people of Israel against Moses. In response, God caused the ground to open up below Korah and his followers and Numbers 16 says that they went down to Sheol while they were still alive.
He compares them to dangerous reefs, waiting to shipwreck the unsuspecting. They infiltrated the church to the point that they were participating in the closest fellowship of the church. He compares them to selfish shepherds who neglect the needs of the flock to feed their own appetites. They are like clouds promising much needed rain but which blow by, leaving death behind them where they promised life. They are like trees which bear no fruit at harvest and which upon closer inspection have actually been uprooted and are dead. They are like the waves of the sea churning up the dirt and mire of their own shameful sin. They are like wanderings stars which will lead people astray if they try to navigate by them. In the end, they go into eternal darkness.
Jude sums this section up by quoting Enoch. Look with me at vs. 14.
14 It was also about these that Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied, saying, “Behold, the Lord comes with ten thousands of his holy ones, 15 to execute judgment on all and to convict all the ungodly of all their deeds of ungodliness that they have committed in such an ungodly way, and of all the harsh things that ungodly sinners have spoken against him.” 16 These are grumblers, malcontents, following their own sinful desires; they are loud-mouthed boasters, showing favoritism to gain advantage.
Essentially, Jude is saying that God is coming to judge all the ungodly. The passage that Jude quotes here is taken from a well-known writing from his time. He quotes this, not as inspired Scripture but as a helpful illustration of the point he is trying to make. This acts as a capstone on his argument. His readers were dealing with false teachers who were immoral and rebellious. He points to God judging these kinds of people in the past. We can be certain that God will judge rebellious and immoral people in the future as well.
Our Response to the False Teachers
So, what should we do in response to these false teachers? Jude gives us three different ways that he wants us to respond to the false teachers.
The first way that Jude wants us to respond to false teaches is to not be surprised. Look with me at vs. 17.
17 But you must remember, beloved, the predictions of the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ. 18 They said to you, “In the last time there will be scoffers, following their own ungodly passions.” 19 It is these who cause divisions, worldly people, devoid of the Spirit.
Jesus’s apostles predicted that these people would come. When people rise up within the church and their lives are marked by scoffing, ungodly passions, divisions, worldliness, lack of the Holy Spirit, we should not be surprised. Grieved? Yes. Sometimes these people are dear friends. Sometimes they are family members. Sometimes they are prominent leaders with outwardly successful ministries. But a tree is always known by its fruit.
The second way that Jude wants us to respond to false teachers is to look to our own souls.
20 But you, beloved, building yourselves up in your most holy faith and praying in the Holy Spirit, 21 keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ that leads to eternal life.
If you could detect every error in every other person and if you could always and forever and completely avoid being duped in some way, that would not be enough. If you could pick out every false Christian and uncover every hidden sin in other people that could threaten to drag people down, that would not be enough. We must look to our own hearts. He commands us to “keep ourselves in the love of God.” What does he mean by that? Doesn’t God keep us in his love? How can we keep ourselves in God’s love? I don’t think that Jude is telling us that we need to save ourselves or that our perseverance depends ultimately on what we do because he says otherwise at the beginning and the end of his letter. He tells us how we are to keep ourselves in the love of God and that helps us understand what he means. The first way that we keep ourselves in the love of God is by building ourselves up in our most holy faith. There are two ways that the Bible uses “faith.” The first is believing and receiving God in Christ as our only hope for salvation. The second is shorthand for Christianity. We use the word similarly when we talk about “the Christian faith.” I think that Jude is using faith in this second way here. I think he is essentially saying, “Keep the faith” or “stay a Christian.” The second way that we keep ourselves in the love of God is by “praying in the Holy Spirit.” The third way that we keep ourselves in the love of God is by waiting expectantly for the mercy of Jesus that is going to lead to eternal life. So, the picture that emerges for what it means to “keep ourselves in the love of God” is one where we pursue God through all the means that he provides for us. Pursue God in listening to him in his word, speaking to him in prayer, relying on his power to walk daily in obedience, look forward with joy to the day that you get to see Jesus Christ, your Lord and Savior face to face.
The third way that Jude wants us to respond to false teachers is to look out for those around us.
22 And have mercy on those who doubt; 23 save others by snatching them out of the fire; to others show mercy with fear, hating even the garment stained by the flesh.
Jude gives us three categories of people to whom we are to show mercy. Think back to Jude’s introduction. God’s mercy comes to us and that is what empowers us, ultimately, to show mercy to other people.
The first group of people to whom we are to show mercy are those who doubt. False teachers and their way of life produce doubt in some. Those who doubt need to be treated with care. Show mercy to them. Help them. There are some of those whom God has called, loved, and is keeping who need your help. Move in and encourage them from God’s word, pray with them, pray for them.
The second group of people to whom we are to show mercy are those who are “in the fire.” There are some who have falling into the fire of the false teachers and perhaps, the beginnings of the fire of judgment. Do not be lax, do not hesitate. Snatch them from the fire with the same zeal with which you would snatch up your child if they were falling into a campfire. There is an urgency to Jude’s language here. Does this mean that Christians can lose their salvation? No, those whom God calls and loves, he will keep. But God also ordains that he will keep us, in part, through our own work and through the work of those who help us, namely the church.
The third group of people to whom we are to show mercy are those who have defiled their garments. There are some who have already fallen into defiling passions and rebellious actions. Their souls are in danger of hellfire. Do not hold back from them, show mercy by calling them back. This might mean church discipline and excommunication. This might me that your relationship with them changes. But your love for them must not change. But beware that, in calling a sinner back from the sin, that you do not grow curious about their sin. Love the sinner, but hate the very garment stained by the flesh. Hate the sin with a vehement hatred. Hate their sin enough to seek to rescue them from it.
So, in response to the reality of false teachers in Christ’s church, we should not be surprised and we should care for our own souls through the means of grace that God has given us and we should care for the souls of those around us.
The Ground of our Hope
How are we able to do this? What hope do we have of success? Look with me at vs. 24 and 25.
24 Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy, 25 to the only God, our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen.
Here, Jude circles back around to the foundation of our hope. If you remember from his greeting, he reminded us that we are called, loved, and kept. He returns to some of these ideas here. But rather than simply stating the truths in the form of propositions, he shapes them into a doxology. What is it that Jude praise God for?
First, he praises God because he is able to keep us from stumbling. But Jude does not simply think that God is capable of keeping us from stumbling. If part of our identity is “kept for Jesus Christ” then we know that God will most certainly keep us from stumbling. Does this mean that we will never sin? No. But what it does mean is that those of us who are called, loved, and kept will keep ourselves in the love of God because God is able and will keep us from persisting in sin that rejects God authority and fully embraces what God rejects.
Second, he praises God because he is able to present of blames before the presence of his glory. Instead of falling under God’s judgment on the last day, we will be kept by God free from rebellion and defiling immorality and stand before him blameless. Again, this does not mean that every Christian will be totally perfect this side of eternity. And it does not mean that if you stumble into sin that you are totally lost. But it does mean that God is taking us somewhere and that includes our growth in personal holiness. As we’ve seen, God has decided that our growth in personal holiness involves work on our part. It involves hard work. It involves “contending” and “keeping” and “building” and “praying” and “having mercy” and being on guard against sin.
Third, he praises God because he is going to present us on the last “with great joy.” God is not stingy. He is not dour. He delights in us. Remember, again, he chose and called you in Christ. He loves you in Christ. He will keep you in Christ. He looks on you with great joy. And he looks forward to the day when, with a beaming face, he get to present you on the last day, blameless. Oh, the joy of that day! To see our savior and our God face to face, free from sin, kept by him!
The appropriate response to this is praise, which is where Jude takes us.
Look at vs. 25
25 to the only God, our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen.
In his greeting, Jude, a fellow servant in Jesus Christ, reminded us that we are called by God, loved by God, and preserved by God and by writing this letter, he wanted his readers to receive the mercy of God, the peace of fellowship with true believers, and the love of God. His readers were dealing with false teachers who were immoral and rebellious. He pointed to God judging these kinds of people in the past. We can be certain that God will judge rebellious and immoral people in the future as well. In response to the reality of false teachers in Christ’s church, we should not be surprised and we should care for our own souls through the means of grace that God has given us and we should care for the souls of those around us.
Beloved, God the Father will keep you faithful to the end through Jesus Christ and by the Holy Spirit. Therefore, you must contend together for the faith against ungodly people who would lead you into the sins of rejecting God’s authority and embracing sensuality.
[1] ESV Introduction to Jude
[2] I got this insight from Nathan Metcalf when he was teaching through the book of James to the Jr. High Youth at Bethlehem Baptist Church – South Campus in Lakeville, MN.