David Pawson - Jude

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THOUGHTFUL THOUGHTS 8.5.26 BY JOHN DUNNING.

A). THE EMERGENCY LETTER OF JUDE

The letter by Jude is an emergency letter warning Jesus’ disciples about a heresy that had started within the church. Jude tells the church off for allowing “…ungodly men, who turn the grace of God into licentiousness…”, 1:4. Jude’s emergency warning still needs to be preached today…

Jude avoided using the full name given to him at his birth, to avoid the name of Judas for obvious reasons, so he took the name of Jude. No-one was given that name after Judas Iscariot, but it had previously been a common name until that time. 

Jude is mentioned four times;- 

a). "Jude of James" is listed as one of the twelve apostles (Luke 6:16 and Acts 1:13);

b). "Judas, (not Judas Iscariot)" was present at the Last Supper… (John 14:22);

c). The brother of Jesus (Matthew 13:55, Mark 6:3);

d). The writer of Jude identifies himself as "the brother of James". Jude 1.

There is a church tradition that Jude was martyred in 64 AD.

B). THE DANGERS
There are two basic dangers facing the church…

1). External dangers. 

One danger is that of members being persecuted or murdered for following Jesus. 

They go to be with their Lord, and the blood of the martyrs become the seed of the church, growing the church even faster. Persecution from the outside failed to destroy the church then, (just as it does now.)

2). Internal dangers. 

There is another danger which is an even greater danger for the health of the church and it comes from within the church, and Jude writes to fight the danger of heresy poisoning the church from within.

a). What was the heresy Jude tackled?

Some believers were allowing a heretic to teach that the Grace of God meant that you can continue on in the same old sins and never lose your salvation however much you cling to sin. Jude wrote an emergency letter to correct that teaching; (see v.3-4). Jude said that it was a total shock that they were allowing such a teaching, when they should have been standing up for the truth, by “contending for the faith”.
The bottom line of teaching the heresy that the meaning of the grace of God to mean that you cannot lose your salvation encourages sin. (Jesus told the woman caught in the act of adultery “Go and sin no more”.) To encourage sin by saying you can just keep on sinning without fear of judgment after accepting God’s Grace was a heresy. (ie repentance means “Turning around” 1:1-4). 

Teaching that God will just keep on forgiving regardless of sinning was leading people into more and more sin. Jude says that such leaders are heretical teachers. Jude says that the men who were teaching this were undermining the truth. Jude says these people should have been kicked out of the church completely. These false teachers were living off the believers whose Christian faith they were undermining with false teaching. 

I came across this heresy whilst working at a Christian radio station, where a radio presenter used a faith slot to blurt out this heresy by abusing a Bible verse that said “none shall take them from my hands”. (But that verse means that OTHERS cannot remove us from God’s hands, not that we will still be saved if we choose to go back on our faith, like Judas.) Jesus taught in Rev.22:18-21 that by adding or subtracting from His words will cause us to have our names removed from His Book of Life. So Jesus Himself said we can lose our salvation. 

b). That heresy led on to another heresy…

After the heresy of saying that clinging to sin won’t affect your salvation, a further teaching was added which said that there were other religious routes also leading to God, apart from Jesus. Once teaching “You can’t lose your salvation, but maybe just some reward”, then whatever else is written in the Bible becomes optional.

You might think that churches that call themselves ‘Christian’ would never go on to say that there are other routes to God besides Jesus, but once when I used to be an Anglican, I had to visit a vicar responsible for interviewing those candidates being selected for training to be clergy. In that vicar’s study he had a picture of his Hindu guru from India on his shelf. When I asked why he had it, he joined empty words together to brush off the question defensively. That true example is called “syncretism”, which says other religions are also just more routes to God. Listen, the Bible says “There is no other name under heaven by which man can be saved”.

C). DISOBEDIENCE

i). Jude reminds the church he is writing to, that the Israelites who escaped from Egypt never entered the promised land, because of their sin. God skipped that generation, only allowing the next generation in. Disobedience resulted in God not allowing them to enter the promised land, (except Joshua and Caleb, as they were obedient). 

Paul, and the writer to the Hebrews both used this illustration to make this point. Escaping Egypt without entering the Promised Land meant that those Israelites started the journey without finishing it, so it did not help them. That thought was taken up by St. Paul.

ii). Jude reminded them that even angels were cast into hell for sinning, v.6.

iii). Jude also reminded them of what happened to the disobedient people of Sodom & Gomorrah and the surrounding towns; v.10-13; 15-16; 18-18; (Cf with 2 Peter 2:15).

iv).  Jude compared false teachers to Cain, who murdered Abel.

v).  Jude also compared the false teachers to Balaam the prophet who pretended to refuse to undermine God’s people, but when bribed he thought of a way around God’s command, by advising God’s enemy how to make God angry with His people. He taught Israel’s enemy how to make God withdraw from His people, and stop protecting them. He told the enemy to tempt Israel with pagan women so that God would be so angry with them He would turn His back on them. The Bible says that Balaam’s act was treasonous. Jude uses the example that although Balaam had been used to prophesy the future, it did not change the fact that Balaam made himself God’s enemy for treason.

vi). Jude went on to remind this church that even though Korah was a cousin of Moses, he disobediently tried to replace Moses as leader, and the ground opened and swallowed him up.

D). JUDE’S POINTS

a). Jude compares the heretics who had infiltrated their church, with people the Bible warns us about, for whom the wages of sin is death. Jude called these teachers ‘godless’ and quoted Enoch to make his point, warning the church that the Lord is coming to judge, v.14-15.

b). Jude warned them to avoid fellowship with those not having the Holy Spirit because they cause division in the church, v. 19. (General William Booth, the founder of the Salvation Army, said; “I consider that the chief dangers that confront the coming century will be religion without the Holy Spirit, Christianity without Christ, forgiveness without repentance, politics without God, and heaven without hell”.

c). Jude tells them to pray in the Spirit, v. 20, and stay in God’s love, (agape)

d). The merciful response to heretics was to try to snatch them from the immediate danger they were in of hell fire, v. 23, whilst at the same time being careful not to also fall into their sin, (v. 22). That shows us how serious heresy is.

E). SUMMARY

Jude writes this short letter by way of an emergency warning. 

i). Jude shows that teaching that sin in believers doesn’t really matter is a heresy.

ii). Jude argues against those saying, “Don’t worry about sin because if you go on sinning, it won’t affect your eternal salvation”. Jude used examples to show that wherever other people in the Bible chose to go back on following God, they became rejected by God. Minimizing sin led on to their own conduct becoming corrupted, and that led to a corrupt character. An old saying goes like this;- “Sow an act, reap a habit. Sow a habit, reap a character. Sow a character, reap a destiny.”

F). EPILOGUE – Loyalties

a).The warning…

Beware… A church can be undermined from inside with “fifth columnists” who undermine the church with false teaching.

When temptation comes, you are making choices about whose side you are on. Being in God’s family means there is a destiny available if you keep on, keeping on. There will be a cost to obeying Jesus, but at the end of the day, whose side are we on? Be what Jesus calls an “overcomer”. (In addition, see Jesus’ warning in Revelation 22:18-19.)

b). The good news…

If you stumble and fall, repent, because there is forgiveness available for all who repent, which means being sorry enough to stop doing what offends God. Instead, build yourself up in faith, hope, & love. 

The letter of Jude, packs quite a big knock-out punch for such a small letter, and all in just one chapter… Do share this study with your friends…

This is John Dunning signing off from “Thoughtful Thoughts” for another week.

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