Author: missionspaul

As we come to the end of this amazing letter where Jude in no uncertain terms calls out the false teachers and the ungodly and says they will be punished we close with this famous and inspiring doxology.

“To him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy— ²⁵ to the only God our Saviour be glory, majesty, power and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all ages, now and forevermore! Amen.” (Jude v24-25)

To those who wonder if they’re going to make it. Will you also fall away into heresy? Will you finish the race? He’s got you!

To all you Church planters who are labouring in difficult situations: God is able to keep you from stumbling.

To all you Pastors thinking of giving up: God is able to keep you from stumbling.

To all you today going through the most testing time of your life: God is able to keep you from stumbling.

Today may be small and there may be some feelings of trepidation. But put it in the hands of the One who is able. The One who established the world and everything in it is the One who is holding you and your dream! In this world which is being shaken to the core you are going to be just fine because He’s got you!

This letter from Jude pulls no punches as we have seen. We need this letter today as much as when it was first written. For centred around the Christian faith are those who by their choices to be whoever they want to be and do whatever they want to do are harming what was passed down to us generationally. We must continue to stand up for the truth given to us. Jude has told his readers to remember what was spoken to them by all the apostles and not just him.

“They said to you, “In the last times there will be scoffers who will follow their own ungodly desires.” These are the people who divide you, who follow mere natural instincts and do not have the Spirit. But you, dear friends, by building yourselves up in your most holy faith and praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in God’s love as you wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to bring you to eternal life. Be merciful to those who doubt; save others by snatching them from the fire; to others show mercy, mixed with fear—hating even the clothing stained by corrupted flesh.” (Jude v18-23)

I have kept this instruction to the last because I believe it to be crucially important in these days.

“Poverty-stricken as the Church is today in many things, she is most stricken here, in the place of prayer. We have many organizers, but few agonizers; many players and payers, few pray-ers; many singers, few clingers; lots of pastors, few wrestlers; many fears, few tears; much fashion, little passion; many interferers, few intercessors; many writers, but few fighters. Failing here, we fail everywhere.” (Leonard Ravenhill)

The greatest need for the Church today is not to move into the digital world but to move into the world with prayer.

The world is not waiting for the Church to become modernised and slick in front of a camera but it is waiting for the Church to discover the ancient paths of being in front of God.

Great communication is only successful if there has been communication with a great God. Jude instructs us not to pray with our intelligence but to pray in the Spirit.

The Bible clearly reveals the Holy Spirit as a person, describing the Spirit’s personal characteristics, involvement in personal actions and His personal relationships.

He is called, ‘another Counsellor’, who’s the first? Jesus. The Holy Spirit is a person not a power. He lives with you and in you. He is a teacher and a witness in his own right. He has intelligence. He has love and affection. He can be grieved. He has emotions. He can be lied to. He prays and intercedes for us. He speaks. He gives commands. He works miracles. The Holy Spirit is not some reality less than God or other than God, He is God. The Bible says the Father begets the Son and the Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son. In their operation it is the Father who sends and then operates through the Son and the Father and Son together who send and operate through the Spirit. There is no conviction, regeneration, sanctification, gifts and power without the Holy Spirit.

We must pray in the Spirit. This is a battle we are in and we need to fight with prayers in the Spirit. Paul tells us in Romans 8:26 that the Spirit helps us in our praying. He gives us the right words to say and even prayers without words and prayers that are the gift of tongues. But pray we must and we must learn to pray far more in the Spirit than in our intellect and own desires.

This letter from Jude pulls no punches as we have seen. We need this letter today as much as when it was first written. For centred around the Christian faith are those who by their choices to be whoever they want to be and do whatever they want to do are harming what was passed down to us generationally. We must continue to stand up for the truth given to us. Jude has told his readers to remember what was spoken to them by all the apostles and not just him.

“They said to you, “In the last times there will be scoffers who will follow their own ungodly desires.” These are the people who divide you, who follow mere natural instincts and do not have the Spirit. But you, dear friends, by building yourselves up in your most holy faith and praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in God’s love as you wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to bring you to eternal life. Be merciful to those who doubt; save others by snatching them from the fire; to others show mercy, mixed with fear—hating even the clothing stained by corrupted flesh.” (Jude v18-23)

Jude tells us that we do not have to be like those who follow mere natural instincts’ they have natural insights, their whole focus on life is from the natural, feeding their own ungodly and selfish desires, if it feels good, if it is for gain, if it is for me, my and mine then grab at what is before you.

Instead we should hate “even the clothing stained by corrupted flesh” v23.

Hate is a strong word but that is how we should view all kinds of sin even anything that comes in touch with it. Attitudes and motivations, desires and behaviours, the outward that is seen and the deepest recesses of our heart that no one sees, hate the sin.

If we love humanity and if we ‘keep ourselves in God’s love’ then it means we will have to hate the sinfulness of humanity.

On Sunday as I began to preach I told a story from the time I visited the east side of the DRC. It was only an illustration coming from one of the most evil places in the world where the UN say is still the rape capital of the world with the highest rates of sexual violence than anywhere in the world brought about by armed militia groups. We don’t hear anything in the British news of what is happening every day to women and girls there. Maybe that is because of it being a French colony or simply ignorance. But after the service a few women came to me, they were from the DRC and they knew the pain, I could see it in their eyes. They thanked me for mentioning the plight of their nation. The hate of the sin was in their voices and they expressed in no uncertain terms the evil that their people were suffering.

The world’s largest displacement crisis is still Syria 11 years on from when it started. More than 13 million people have been displaced. Do we hate this?

Do we hate when bullies bully, killers kill, rapist’s rape and abusers abuse?

Do we hate the selfishness around us; the consumerism and greed in our society; the family breakdown in our neighbourhood; poverty, violence and racism; the list goes on; evil is here. There is evil and there is good. It isn’t what we call it. It already exists. It was there before we were born and it will be there after we die. In order to demonstrate love then get involved with both. With the evil abhor it. Call it what it is. Take it on. Detest it enough to defeat it. Hate even the clothing stained by the corrupted flesh.

Who is causing the division within the Church today regarding belief and behaviour? Is it those who have held to the position of their forefathers and who passed the baton to them? Or is it those who want to change the construct of the Church in order to demonstrate love?

This letter from Jude pulls no punches as we have seen. Centred around the Christian faith are those who by their choices to be whoever they want to be and do whatever they want to do are harming what was passed down to us generationally. These people divide the Church but Jude instructs us to keep ourselves within the love of God. Jude has told his readers to remember what was spoken to them by all the apostles and not just him.

“They said to you, “In the last times there will be scoffers who will follow their own ungodly desires.” These are the people who divide you, who follow mere natural instincts and do not have the Spirit. But you, dear friends, by building yourselves up in your most holy faith and praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in God’s love as you wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to bring you to eternal life. Be merciful to those who doubt; save others by snatching them from the fire; to others show mercy, mixed with fear—hating even the clothing stained by corrupted flesh.” (Jude v18-23)

Jude leaves no doubt. These are ‘people who divide you’ but we don’t have to be like them. Instead….

• Align yourself with God who is good and out of this goodness love flows. That’s the right order.
• Do not condemn those who disagree with you and do not crush anyone who is doubting what you believe.
• Do not turn your back on those who turn their back on you. Keep working to reach them. If you see someone about to fall into a fire what will you do? Act like that.
• Do not remove the fear of God when showing mercy to those who are false leaders and teachers dividing the Church.

This letter from Jude pulls no punches as we have seen. We need this letter today as much as when it was first written. For centred around the Christian faith are those who by their choices to be whoever they want to be and do whatever they want to do are harming what was passed down to us generationally. We must continue to stand up for the truth given to us. Jude has told his readers to remember what was spoken to them by all the apostles and not just him.

“They said to you, “In the last times there will be scoffers who will follow their own ungodly desires.” These are the people who divide you, who follow mere natural instincts and do not have the Spirit. But you, dear friends, by building yourselves up in your most holy faith and praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in God’s love as you wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to bring you to eternal life. Be merciful to those who doubt; save others by snatching them from the fire; to others show mercy, mixed with fear—hating even the clothing stained by corrupted flesh.” (Jude v18-23)

Yesterday morning a lady messaged me to say thank you for the encouragement I gave her to pack her things and move out of the house with her children and with the support of her Pastors to leave her serial adulteress husband who believed God had given him licence to abuse his vows to her. In the afternoon I sat with a friend listening to how he is trying to carve out a new path after seeing his wife walk away from their marriage simply because this is what she wanted to do. Yesterday was a day seeing the impact of ungodly desires.

In 2023 all around us and within the Church, from pulpit to pew, the ‘ungodly’ are following ‘their own ungodly desires’. Jude encourages us not to be like them but instead ‘build yourselves up in your most holy faith’ v20.

These are not just the last days but they are days of evil. Not only do the scoffers mock the Coming King they scoff by their behaviour the Lordship of the King. Look around you and see what is happening to the Church. The scoffers with their behaviour scoff at the Lordship of Jesus and they do it from within the Church. These ungodly desires are simply themselves taking the place of Jesus by becoming the central figure of their life.

But this is not you! Jude tells us to take responsibility for our journey as a Christian. I encourage the Pastors that I care for to have a ‘mentor/friend’ a ‘spiritual director’ or whatever the title but someone they regularly turn to in order to help them on this journey. However this does not negate the fact that each and every one of us are responsible for our own spiritual growth. We cannot hand this to anyone else. We have to grow upon the foundations of our faith passed down to us. This means we are not the most important person but Jesus is.

Today you can decide to be whoever you want to be. There is nothing quite powerful than a person’s own will. And that’s the problem as well as a blessing. We see distortions all around us from the truth handed down to us.

The worship leader, Sean Feucht recently confronted publicly Matthew Blake (a former worship leader who now performs as a drag queen) over his sexualisation of young children. Blake accused Feucht of being a ‘hater’ and not one who spoke with love. The distortion from Blake outweighed the love for the children from Feucht, in Blake’s mind at least.

This letter from Jude pulls no punches as we have seen. We need this letter today as much as when it was first written. For centred around the Christian faith are those who by their choices to be whoever they want to be and do whatever they want to do are harming what was passed down to us generationally. We must continue to stand up for the truth given to us. Jude has told his readers to remember what was spoken to them by all the apostles and not just him.

“They said to you, “In the last times there will be scoffers who will follow their own ungodly desires.” These are the people who divide you, who follow mere natural instincts and do not have the Spirit. But you, dear friends, by building yourselves up in your most holy faith and praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in God’s love as you wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to bring you to eternal life. Be merciful to those who doubt; save others by snatching them from the fire; to others show mercy, mixed with fear—hating even the clothing stained by corrupted flesh.” (Jude v18-23)

There are scoffers. “But you, dear friends …” v20

The last days will contain scoffers. Since the ascension of Jesus Christ the world moved into the last days. During this last 2,000 we the ‘dear friends’ or ‘the beloved’ exist alongside those who ridicule the faith, the ‘scoffers’. It was always going to be. Just because they exist and ridicule this belief doesn’t change the fact that Jesus is returning soon.

We must remind ourselves who we are. We are in direct contrast to the scoffers. The word ‘dear friends’ sounds weaker than ‘beloved’ for it is the word for when the Father calls Jesus ‘You are my beloved’ in the river Jordan. You are not of the sceptics, the cynics, the scoffers. You are the beloved of God. Jude is appealing emotionally for us to not only know we are different but to be different.

But you …. The beloved, dear friends … But YOU! You don’t have to be like them.

Jude was going to write about salvation but something bothered him so much he felt compelled by the Spirit to stand against the falseness of certain leaders that had crept into the church. They were defying spiritual leadership, giving licence to all kinds of behaviours which abused grace and denied the Lordship of Jesus. They carry their own grievances; they chase after personal gain; they are uncontrollable. 

“But, dear friends, remember what the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ foretold.” (Jude 17)

BUT you, remember!

You are different to whatever you are seeing or hearing. You don’t have to follow the same way. You can live differently.

The answer to the stealth which impacts the Church from within today is still the Bible. Hold on to it. Teach it. Live by it. The words of Jesus and the apostles who wrote of what Jesus said is vitally important for 2023 as it was for Jude’s day. You are different!

Jude is bringing some final advice about ‘these people’. He spots a common link amongst them all. Basically it can be summed up with this: listen carefully to these people and you will see their falseness because they are always speaking!

“These people are grumblers and faultfinders; they follow their own evil desires; they boast about themselves and flatter others for their own advantage.” (Jude v16)

Grumblers – listen to what comes out of their mouths. They are people who undermine other leaders.

Faultfinders – listen to what they are actually finding fault in. It can be the teaching from other preachers.

Follow evil desires – listen to what they are going to gain from what they are seeking.

Boast about themselves – listen to what they say about themselves and what they have done.

Flatter others for their advantage – listen to what they say of other people and if they stand to gain from the ones they praise.

We can spot a lot by just listening!

“Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied about them: “See, the Lord is coming with thousands upon thousands of his holy ones ¹⁵ to judge everyone, and to convict all of them of all the ungodly acts they have committed in their ungodliness, and of all the defiant words ungodly sinners have spoken against him.”(Jude 14-15)

Jude targets these ungodly false leaders who are pretending to be something they definitely were not and who lead others astray through their many deceitful words and ways. But why did he quote from 1 Enoch 1:9, “And behold! He cometh with ten thousands of ⌈His⌉ holy ones To execute judgement upon all, And to destroy ⌈all⌉ the ungodly: And to convict all flesh of all the works ⌈of their ungodliness⌉ which they have ungodly committed, And of all the hard things which ungodly sinners ⌈have spoken⌉ against Him.”?

I am sure there are many theologians who may know the answer to this question!

Why did he quote from 1 Enoch when the quote itself can be found in different places across the Old Testament?

1. The book of Enoch is Pseudepigraphic. Meaning though it is titled Enoch and attributed to him it definitely was not written by Enoch, the great-grandfather of Noah, but probably a collection of authors. It never made it into the canon of Scripture because it wasn’t the real thing. These leaders Jude speaks against look like the real article but they are not. They are pseudo leaders.

= What might have an appearance doesn’t mean it is the truth.

• The book of Enoch was popular and maybe the false teachers were using it to peddle their agendas. To quote from their source would have been a really clever move to show them even their own resource speaks against them.

= Listen to what is being claimed and stated because within it you may find something you can use to counter the lies.

• The book of Enoch was not seen as inspired by God to make it into the Scriptures but that didn’t mean something could not be taken from it and used under the inspiration of the Spirit in a similar way to how the Apostle Paul did with the poets. This book was popular at the time and this section confirmed what Jude was saying in that the Lord will come and when He does He will judge the ungodly.

= Know the faith, history and the culture of people you are trying to reach with the gospel, be relevant and speak their language.

To think Jude may have written a different letter makes me all the more grateful for him having the courage to write like he does. This is relevant for 2023 and the Church needs to read this much ignored letter.

Jude is not letting up, he doesn’t back down, he continues to give illustrations to show how these leaders are ungodly and spottable.

“These people are blemishes at your love feasts, eating with you without the slightest qualm—shepherds who feed only themselves. They are clouds without rain, blown along by the wind; autumn trees, without fruit and uprooted—twice dead. ¹³ They are wild waves of the sea, foaming up their shame; wandering stars, for whom blackest darkness has been reserved forever.” (Jude 12-13)

• They attend the love feasts. The early Church practiced Agape feasts where people brought food to share.

These ungodly leaders are attending the events but they are consumers of the church, they have a spirit of entitlement, they are there not to share and give but to take and grab for themselves. The only people they look after is themselves.

• They are clouds without rain.

They give long speeches of their intent, they proclaim new ideas and promise that the best is yet to come because they are carrying something. People get excited. They look for what is promised. But these ungodly leaders have the appearance but do not deliver. They are all talk.

• They are blown along by the wind.

They change their mind constantly. They take whatever is being said by others and make it sound like they have thought of it but it lasts only until they hear a new thing. They don’t have a purpose for their life just a performance.

• They are autumn trees without fruit.

They have not produced anything. When the Bible is denied as the Word of God and the Lordship of Jesus is ignored then all that is left is death. In fact there is death twice because they are dead from not believing and teaching what they should and therefore God will remove their anointing and ministry, the second death.

• They are wild waves of the sea.

For the people at the time the sea was chaotic, confusing and something to be feared. These people are busy but they are unmanageable, unaccountable and uncontrollable.

• They are wandering stars.

Shooting across the sky they try and dazzle but it is a fleeting moment, they soon pass away, here today gone tomorrow.

The result? A forever blackest darkness. An eternal loss. Gone forever.