A Warning To The Churches
A Warning To The Churches
The Book of Jude is directed toward the sins in the Christian churches. The comments it makes about some of the people in the churches are harsh. Yet the Holy Spirit found it necessary to employ such strong language.
Although Jude was written two thousand years ago, its message is very much needed in our day.
For I am afraid that when I come I may not find you as I want you to be, and you may not find me as you want me to be. I fear that there may be discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, slander, gossip, arrogance and disorder.
I am afraid that when I come again my God will humble me before you, and I will be grieved over many who have sinned earlier and have not repented of the impurity, sexual sin and debauchery in which they have indulged. (II Corinthians 12:20,21)
The Book of Jude is directed toward the sins in the Christian churches. The comments it makes about some of the people in the churches are harsh. Yet the Holy Spirit found it necessary to employ such strong language.
Although Jude was written two thousand years ago, its message is very much needed in our day.
We who have been Christians for a number of years know that sometimes Christian churches become cages of unclean spirits. The hatred, division, lust, jealousy, greed, selfishness, pride exhibited by so-called born-again Christians make us understand there can be a vast difference between people who are walking with Jesus Christ, and membership in a Christian church.
The Holy Spirit is blowing the trumpet in Zion today. We need to hear what the Spirit is saying to the churches, for the fire of Divine judgment is in the land.
Jude, a servant of Jesus Christ and a brother of James, To those who have been called, who are loved by God the Father and kept by Jesus Christ: Mercy, peace and love be yours in abundance. (Jude 1:1,2)
The Lord Jesus had four brothers, James, Joseph, Simon, and Judas, and some sisters as well. The names of the Lord's sisters are not given.
Like Hannah, once the special child was born, Mary had several other children.
James, the Lord's brother, was the author of the Book of James and the pastor of the large Jewish Christian church in Jerusalem.
Judas, or Jude, the author of the epistle we are discussing, also was a brother of the Lord.
Every true Christian has been called out of the world by the Spirit of God. He is in the world but no longer of the world. He or she has been called to be a saint, a holy one. Once we are called to be a holy one we have no other calling in life. Though we may work at a trade or profession to support ourselves and our family, our calling, and only calling, is to be a saint.
God loves His saints with the same love with which He loves Jesus.
The Lord Jesus Christ is keeping us and praying for us at all times. If we do not live a victorious Christian life, that is our choice. All we need to overcome every hindrance has already been provided. We either receive the grace of God and by it overcome the world, or else we permit ourselves to be distracted and thus neglect our great salvation.
Mercy, peace, and love have been given to us in abundance.
God in His mercy toward us overlooks many frailties and mistakes as long as we are confessing our sins and following the Spirit rather than yielding to our sinful nature.
We have the peace of Jesus Christ and are without condemnation when we are seeking the Lord each day and doing His will. This Divine peace will hold us steady during the coming tumultuous years in America.
The love of God in Christ, which has been given to us, is so intense, so powerful, so enduring, that the evil in the world is forced to give way before it. Truly, human love is but the faintest flickering shadow of God's love.
Dear friends, although I was very eager to write to you about the salvation we share, I felt I had to write and urge you to contend for the faith that was once for all entrusted to the saints. (Verse 3)
Jude had a desire to write to the believers about their salvation; but there was a pressing need to discuss the wicked people who had begun to infiltrate the assemblies.
Too often in our day salvation is regarded as a ticket to Heaven. We take the "four steps of salvation" and that is all there is to it. We now are on our way to Heaven, some teaching it is impossible to lose our ticket.
The truth is, we have to contend vigorously for the faith. We have to fight the good fight of faith because carnal believers enter our churches and spread their poison.
I have a young friend who has a revival on his hands. People, including young people, are coming to his house to hear the Word of God. Although he is in another state he is under the spiritual covering of our church.
Wouldn't you know it? Here come the "birds" who can smell the sacrifices being made—the people repenting of their sins, being baptized in water, and rejoicing in the Lord.
Here comes one man who tells the little group they must be baptized all over again because they were not baptized in Jesus name. He states also that sin is merely lack of faith in God. But my friend, having been taught better than that, pointed out the passage in First John that states sin is the breaking of the commandments of God.
Then another: "You must call Jesus, Yahweh . If you do not you are sinning."
Yet another: "You should not be meeting in a home. You must meet in my church."
Still another: "You must preach Dispensationalism."
My counsel to my young friend continues to be: "Do not come down from the wall. The Sanballats and Tobiahs will do everything in their power to discourage you, to call you down from what you are doing so they may reason with you. (How the demons love to reason!) Ignore them and keep on preaching the Word. The Holy Spirit will bring in those whom the Lord is calling to Himself."
A fine young man called me recently and advised me that when the Lord Jesus spoke of the wheat being gathered into the barn He was referring to the outer darkness. He believes we ought to do all we can to bring these from the "barn" into a victorious walk in Christ.
It is obvious to me that by "gather the wheat and bring it into my barn" the Lord Jesus is referring to His Kingdom.
Let both grow together until the harvest. At that time I will tell the harvesters: "First collect the weeds and tie them in bundles to be burned; then gather the wheat and bring it into my barn." (Matthew 13:30)
I responded to him that indeed we ought to encourage every believer to live a godly life in Christ, but if he keeps pressing the issue that the barn is the outer darkness, most mainline Christians will reject this thought and not be moved to practice righteousness.
I mentioned further that the unity of the faith to which we have been called is not a unity of the head but of the heart. We can love Jesus without agreeing to every point of doctrine that someone else holds dear. Do you believe this? I do!
Arguing about doctrine is not contending for the faith. Rather it is debate, and the spirit of debate is definitely of the sinful nature.
Contending for the faith is holding fast to faith in Jesus, not faith in doctrine. Jesus is a Person. The all-important issue is that we are abiding in Him at all times, not that we have memorized a commentary. Satan uses doctrine to get our eyes off Jesus.
When I was first saved I was in the Marine Corps. Within a couple of weeks, here came an elder from the Seventh Day Adventist church in downtown Honolulu. He spoke to me about not carrying my rifle on Saturday. Do you think this brought me closer to Jesus? It certainly did not! It caused tremendous confusion in the mind of a new Christian—me.
A mature Christian Marine prayed for me and I was able to see this was not God, at least for me, and I was delivered from that bondage.
Yet I have to this day a high opinion of the Adventists although I do not make a special effort to abide in Christ on Saturday more than any other day.
Next Part Oh well . . .