Jude 9
Remember The Warning
This time we are considering verses seventeen to twenty and I’ve called this talk "Remember the Warning". If you have a Bible you will find it helpful to have it open to Jude, but if not do not worry as I will read these verses now.
"But, dear friends, remember what the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ foretold. They said to you, ‘In the last times there will be scoffers who will follow their own ungodly desires'. These are the men who divide you, who follow mere natural instincts and do not have the Spirit. But you, dear friends, build yourself up in your most holy faith and pray in the Holy Spirit".
We have already discovered that Jude’s purpose in writing this letter was to give a strong warning against the false teachers who had slipped into the church. These men were apostates; men who having known the truth had rejected it in order to follow their own wicked ways. In the earlier part of his letter Jude has referred to the Old Testament Scriptures to show that apostasy is not a new thing. Here, towards the end of his letter, he asks us to remember the words of the New Testament apostles concerning this danger.
After a lengthy description of these evil men, Jude now brings an admonition to God’s beloved people. We have a great contrast in these verses. He begins with the words, "But you beloved" or "You, dear friends". Light is breaking out, no longer is he talking about those who are condemned by God and facing judgement. Here he addresses those whom he loves in Christ, those who are beloved of God. Unlike the apostates, they are to remember the teaching of the apostles and be warned by their words, and remain true to the faith. God’s beloved people love God’s word and obey it. David said, "I rejoiced in your word as one who finds great treasure". And again "His word is to be more desired than gold. " In this evil age people have a choice, either to listen to the words of ungodly men, or to the words of godly men, inspired by the Holy Spirit. Just because someone is very learned, or has a very attractive personality, or is very persuasive, or holds an office in the church, or is a celebrated speaker, it does not necessarily mean that he is a faithful shepherd of God’s flock. The apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ have laid this great foundation for our faith in the New Testament and they have given us clear these clear warnings concerning apostate teachers.
In verse eighteen Jude refers to "the last times". This is the Gospel age, the age of the Son of Man. This is the time in which we are living. In verses eighteen and nineteen there are five things of which we should be taking note as we are on our guard against false teachers. What are they?
First Jude tells us that these false teachers are mockers or scoffers. These people scorn the teaching of God’s Word, especially, Peter tells us, the teaching concerning the second coming of Christ. "They will say, Where is this coming he promised?" Ever since our fathers died everything goes on as it has since the beginning of creation. " But they deliberately forget how judgement fell on the ancient world and it will surely fall on this present world according to God’s Word. The word of God is heard and understood but it is rejected and it is ridiculed. David says in Psalm one, "Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked or stand in the way of sinners or sit in the seat of mockers".
How do these who reject God’s Word live? Jude verse eighteen goes on to say: "Who will follow their own ungodly desires. " In verse ten they are compared to "unreasoning animals". Jude is saying they are led about by their own wicked desires, just as an animal is led about by a ring in its nose. The animal has no choice. The apostate too has no choice because he is a slave. Peter again puts it like this, in Second Peter chapter two verse nineteen: "They promise freedom while they themselves are slaves of depravity - for a man is a slave to whatever has mastered him". So here is a warning that those who mock at the law of God, who despise the love of God and ridicule the word of God are in reality slaves to their own sinful desires.
The third thing we discover about these false teachers is that they are governed by their senses and the attitudes of the world around them. He says, "They follow mere natural instincts …". This is something different to the ungodly desires we have just been speaking about. It refers rather to the natural mind; the way of thinking and acting that is common in a world that does not know God. They have no real spiritual discernment and their teaching is based on their own ideas and not on the truth.
The reason this is so, says Jude, is that "they do not have the Spirit of God".
They may have all the outward appearances of being believers, they may be engaged in Christian ministry, but it is a deception because they have never been born again by the Holy Spirit. Paul tells us "If any man does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His". True believers are sealed with the Spirit of Promise, they are sons of God and they have been baptised by the Spirit into Christ’s body, the church. The difference between true believers and these false teachers is that true Christian believers are indwelt by, and taught by, the Holy Spirit.
The fifth characteristic of these apostates is that they cause divisions. "These are the men who divide you", says Jude in verse nineteen. This is the work of Satan himself. It is his aim to break down the fellowship of God’s people by introducing a party spirit or by using disagreements, often over trivial matters, to split the church. These false teachers often introduce practises and regulations into the church that are not found anywhere in the Scriptures and by doing this they cause division.
Paul gives an example of this in First Timothy chapter four verse three: They forbid people to marry and order them to abstain from certain foods, which God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and who know the truth".
Jude’s words recorded in verses seventeen to nineteen are surely among the most solemn in the entire Bible. They help us to clearly identify those who would come into the church as wolves in sheep’s clothing to deceive, divide and destroy. Let us be on our guard and be ready to test all teaching by the Word of God, just as the believers in Berea did when even the apostle Paul came to them.