by John MacArthur Jr.
Jude 3-4
Introduction
Jude 3-4 says, "Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you, and exhort you that ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints. For there are certain men crept in unawares, who were before of old ordained to this condemnation, ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness, and denying the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ."
A. The Survey of Apostasy in the New Testament
1. APOSTASY EXPLAINED
Those two verses state the reason that Jude's letter was written and give a definition of apostasy. That evil has been around since the beginning of time, and it's still here. It is the abandoning of truth. It is not to be confused with mere indifference to the Word, for it involves an intellectual acceptance of the Scriptures. Neither is apostasy to be confused with error. It is not necessarily believing false doctrine. An apostate can acknowledge that certain doctrines are true, but fail to believe them in his heart. An apostate can acknowledge Christ without accepting Him. On the other hand, a true Christian could fall into doctrinal error, but that's not apostasy. Apostates have received light but not life. They have known and accepted the written Word, but have never met Christ, the Living Word. You probably know some people like that. There are people in the church who come all the time and know the truth, but have never acted upon it. Apostasy is a deliberate rejection of the the truth after it is known. Hence, it is the most damnable sin of all. The writer of Hebrews said, "Of how much sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy, who hath trodden under foot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood of the covenant, with which he was sanctified, an unholy thing...? (10:29). Somebody who knows the truth and stomps across it deserves more severe punishment than others who didn't know as much.
2. APOSTASY EXPRESSED
a. 2 Thessalonians 2:10--"...they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved." They received the truth, but never acquired a love for it, so they fell away.
b. Acts 8:13-14. 18-23--Here we are introduced to a strange character by the name of Simon, who was a sorcerer: "Then Simon himself believed also; and when he was baptized, he continued with Philip, and was amazed, beholding the miracles and signs which were done. Now when the apostles who were at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the word of God, they sent unto them Peter and John" (vv. 13-14) The account goes on to say that the Apostles laid their hands on some Samarian believers who then received the Holy Spirit. Simon realized that was better than any trick he could do: "And when Simon saw that through laying on of the apostles' hands the Holy Spirit was given, he offered them money, saying, Give me also this power, that on whomsoever I lay hands, he may receive the Holy Spirit. But Peter said unto him, Thy money perish with thee, because thou hast thought that the gift of God could be purchased with money. Thou hast neither part nor lot in this matter; for thy heart is not right in the sight of God. Repent, therefore, of this thy wickedness, and pray God, if perhaps the thought of thine heart may be forgiven thee; for I perceive that thou art in the gall of bitterness, and in the bond of iniquity" (vv. 18-23). Peter was saying, "You're not a Christian at all. Doing what you did indicates that you have no part with us. Your heart is not right, so you better pray for forgiveness." Every Christian has forgiveness, so Simon was obviously not a Christian. Simon exercized some sort of belief and was baptized, but he never personally accepted Christ. He merely gave intellectual assent.
Now that is apostasy, a very common subject in the Bible. The Greek word for apostasy (apostasia) is only used two times in the New Testament. The first place is in...
c. Acts 21:21--"And they are informed of thee, that thou teachest all the Jews who are among the Gentiles to forsake [apostatize from] Moses...." Here was a report of an accusation that Paul had been teaching the Jewish people to forsake the teachings of Moses. The other occurance of apostasia is in...
d. 2 Thessalonians 2:3--"...for that day shall not come, except there come the falling away [apostasy] first...."
The idea of apostasy appears in many New Testament passages without the use of the word that specifically means "to fall away." For example:
e. John 6:66--"From that time many of His disciples went back, and walked no more with Him." There you have a forsaking of Christ. Many of His disciples (those who followed Him), turned their backs and said, "That's enough for us; we don't want to hear anymore. We're bailing out."
f. 2 Peter 2:20-22--"For if, after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in it, and overcome, the latter end is worse with them than the beginning. For it had been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness than, after they had known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered unto them" (vv. 20-21). Having an intellectual knowledge of Jesus Christ and rejecting Him constitues apostasy, the severest sin there is. Peter pictured its ugliness in two proverbs: "...The dog is turned to his own vomit again; and the sow that was washed, to her wallowing in the mire" (v. 22)
g. 1 Timothy 4:1--"Now the Spirit speaketh expressly that, in the latter times, some shall depart from the faith...." Apostasy is a departing from the faith-- turning your back on what you know to be the truth.
h. 2 Timothy 4:3--"For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine but, after their own lusts, shall they heap to themselves [false] teachers...." it. Turning away from the truth, people will seek that which is false.
Paul warned Timothy of apostasy coming from the pulpit in the last days. False preachers will turn people from the faith as they follow "seducing spirits, and doctrines of demons" (1 Tim. 4:1). There have always been false prophets, and there will be false prophets as long as Satan is active. Paul calls them "hypocritical liars" in 1 Timothy 4:2--they use religious language and talk about love but they are really phonies. Not only are there false preachers, but there are false congregations as well. Such congregations want teachers that will teach them after their own lusts (2 Tim. 4:3). There is apostasy in the pulpit and apostasy in the pew. It includes everybody who has understood the gospel and turned their backs on the revelation of God.
People have asked me why so many churches are denying the faith: they don't believe in the inspiration of Scripture, the virgin birth of Christ, His literal resurrection, or His literal return. The reason is that the pastor and the people are often apostates, controlled by Satan. We can't expect anything else from them.
B. The Setting of Apostasy in Jude
Let's look at Jude 3 with that understanding of apostasy. After the beautiful introduction about the believer's eternal security in an apostate world, Jude said, "Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you, and exhort you that ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints."
1. HIS INTENDED PURPOSE (v. 3a)
The reader gets the idea that Jude got sidetracked from what he intended to say. By addressing his readers as "Beloved," a term that was commonly used by other writers of New Testament epistles, Jude revealed his heart of concern for them. He "gave all diligence to write" to them. The Greek word translated "to give all diligence" means "to make haste." It indicates a strong desire and purpose. The fact that it is used here in the present tense implies that Jude's concern was to write about the common salvation.
By "common" (Gk. koinos), Jude refers to a salvation that belongs to every believer. No one Christian is more saved than any other. So Jude says, "I had a terrific idea, so I sat down and made haste to write you a letter about the common eternal life that all of us possess."
But something happened in the midst of his good intentions. No sooner did Jude start to write about the important doctrine of salvation, than the Spirit of God intervened. Somehow he got some news that made him change his whole plan . So, he started to write: ...it was needful [necessary] for me to write unto you, and exhort you that ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints." In other words, "I started to write about salvation and wound up telling you to fight for the faith.
2. HIS INTENSE PLEA (v. 3b)
a. Its Compulsion
We don't know exactly how Jude came to the conclusion that his change of topic was needful. Maybe the Holy Spirit impressed that need upon him. He probably had heard about some apostate teachers among the believers he was writing to, and through that circumstance, the Holy Spirit convicted his heart. What would have been a very nice letter written by Jude turned out to be Scripture written by the Holy Spirit.
The expression "it was needful" is a strong one that is also found in Acts 17:3: "...Christ must needs have suffered, and risen again from the dead...." Paul used that word in 1 Corinthians 9:16 when he said, "...necessity is laid upon me; yea, woe is unto me, if I preach not the gospel!" That phrase's root definition means "to put pressure on, to compress." In effect, Jude says, "I've got some divine pressure that changed my plans." The book of Jude isn't merely a human document; it is the revelation of God. It is the result of the sovereign, overruling wisdom of God the Holy Spirit. So Jude writes, "I am compelled to help you understand that you must earnestly contend for the faith."
b. Its Content
1) The Fight
The Greek verb for contend means "to fight for something with great strength, to strenuously defend something." As Christians, we are in a war against Satan. I wonder, though, if we understand that we're in a war for the purity of the faith. Sometimes you might think that I'm a little too dogmatic about defending the faith as vociferously as I do. But maybe that's because I'm a little closer to the frontline of the battle than most people. I am constantly butting heads with people in theological circles and in other churches and pastorates who don't believe the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints. The thing that upsets me more than anything else in the world is false doctrine. We have to fight to defend the faith and its purity because, as Jude points out, there are those who have crept in and are trying to destroy the faith (v. 4). It is a fight that goes on and on. Since the word for contend is a present infinitive, we learn that we have to continue to earnestly contend all our lives.
Sometimes I listen to different preachers on the radio, or watch them on television, and get tremendously frustrated, because so many of them present a confusing picture of what Christianity really is. Since there are so many who distort the Christian faith, there should be in every believer a desire to defend it. There isn't a Sunday that goes by when somebody doesn't come up to me and say something like, "I've got a Jehovah's Witness friend. How do I show them what the Word of God really means? How do I show them Christ is God?" Such people love Christ and therefore can't tolerate any attack on the truth. We're in the midst of a battle, so we must earnestly contend for the faith from day to day.
The Greek word for "contend" gives us a deeper insight into the intensity of the battle. The root of the word is agon, from which we get our word agony. It has to do with a struggle, a trial, or the action of a battle. In fact, the word originally meant, "a stadium," which served as a place of contest. Contending for the faith is like playing in a spiritual Superbowl all of our Christian lives. It's like being in the seventh game of the World Series every day. It demands determination, sacrifice, and endurance. We can see that from its use in the New Testament. Paul used a word with the same root in...
a) 1 Timothy 6:12--"Fight the good fight of faith..." (cf. 2 Tim. 4:7). Contending involves defending the faith, fighting the fight, and engaging in a mighty struggle to fight to the death with the forces of apostasy.
b) Colossians 1:29--2:1--Paul said, "...we preach [Christ], warning every man, and teaching every man in all wisdom, that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus. For this I also labor, striving according to His working, which worketh in me mightily." Paul was agonizing to bring his readers to maturity. In 2:1 he said, "For I would that ye knew what great conflict [agony] I have for you...." Paul was involved in a tremendous struggle in his ministy.
So, Jude says we are to be earnestly contending for...
2) The Faith
a) Defined
The literal Greek rendering of the verse is "Fight for the once-for-all-delivered-to-the-saints faith." I saw an advertisement for a Christian activity that said, "An inter-faith project." Does that mean there's more than one faith? That sounds like it doesn't matter what faith you are as long as have one. But there's only one faith. There are different denominations, but there aren't different faiths. It's the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints. The Greek modifier hapax means "once for all time." You ask, "What exactly is that "faith" referring to?" It's not describing a subjective act of faith; it's referring to the content of Christianity, the Word of God, the gospel, the whole body of doctrine that makes up God's revelation--that's what we're defending.
b) Defended
How many times was the faith delivered? Once for all time. When anybody comes along today and says, "I have something new to add to the faith," you can say, "Have you read Jude 3? The faith was once for all delivered to the saints. You don't have anything new." Every cult claims to have new revelation from God. But there isn't any new revelation, because the body of truth was once for all delivered to the saints. The Christian faith is unchangeable. Every new doctrine and every new revelation is false. The faith was once for all delivered to the saints, and that settles it-- the Bible is complete.
(1) Deuteronomy 4:2--"Ye shall not add unto the word which I command you, neither shall ye diminish anything from it...." That's fairly clear, wouldn't you say? You shouldn't add anything to the delivered word of God and you shouldn't take anything away from it.
(2)Proverbs 30:6--"Add thou not unto [God's] words, lest He reprove thee, and thou be found a liar." Anybody who adds to the Word of God is unmasked as a liar.
(3) Revelation 22:18--"For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book." Some people say, "Well, that means the book of Revelation." That's fine. The book of Revelation is the last book in the Bible, so if you add anything to the Bible, you've added it to the end of Revelation.
Every time somebody comes along and says that they have a new revelation, you can tell them, "It isn't of God because we believe in the once-for-all-delivered-to-the- saints faith." The word "delivered" is in the aorist tense, which can signify action that happened once in the past. Divine supernatural revelation was once for all delivered to the saints. That's why we're defending the faith against all the new "truths" that people keep coming up with. There are no new doctrines. There are no new theological trends that God has invented for certain periods of time. Christianity is historical, objective revelation, and it is complete. That rules out everything from Mormonism [which teaches that The Book of Mormon, Doctrine and Covenants, and The Pearl of Great Price have the same authority as the Bible] to people who think they are having individual revelations from God. I thank God that the Bible is all we need. We don't have to check out everybody's vision to see if God has given us something else.
So, Jude had his plans changed. And what might have been simply a letter from one Christian to others regarding salvation became a letter by the Holy Spirit to all Christians as a part of sacred Scripture.
Why did the Epistle of Jude have to be written? Verse 4 gives us the reason: "For there are certain men crept in unawares, who were before of old ordained to this condemnation, ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness, and denying the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ." Jude says, "Do you know why I had to write this letter? The Holy Spirit put pressure on me to tell you to fight for the faith because apostates have crept in." Giving a definition of an apostate, Jude presents apostates in three aspects: penetrating, predicted, and portrayed.
I. THE PENETRATION OF THE APOSTATES (v. 4a)
"For there are certain men crept in unawares..."
Apostates worm their way into the church. It doesn't do any good for Satan to have an apostate on a deserted island; an isolated apostate wouldn't affect anybody. Besides churches, they get into seminaries as part of the faculty. After a while, they ruin the seminaries by producing apostates who ruin the churches they pastor. They infiltrate local churches, teaching false doctrine. It isn't the threat of persecution that has been hard on the church; the blood of the martyrs has always been the seed of the church. Rather, it is apostasy that has destroyed the church like a canker at its heart. Apostasy penetrates the very life and leadership of the church.
A. Their Subtle Plan
Jude indicates that the apostates "crept in unawares." Their plan is to subtly infiltrate the church. The Greek verb that is used here is never used anywhere else in the New Testament. It's a very rare word that has to do with cunning words and clever pleaders. For instance, it's used in a legal sense to speak of somebody who pleads a case very cleverly with guile, or of somebody who allows that kind of thing to seep into the minds of a judge or a jury by his trickery. In other extrabiblical literature, it is used of a criminal who is secretly slipping back into the country from which he had been expelled. It means "to enter in secretly," which is precisely what apostates always do. They don't come in announcing, "Now, I'm an apostate, and I'd like to join your congregation." The word literally means "to go down into and alongside." Apostates go down into the church and get alongside the Christians. They pretend to believe, but they're Satan's counterfeits who desire to destroy the work of God. Such infiltration had already begun in Jude's day under the label of Gnosticism. Apostates had moved into the church and were beginning to sow lies about who Jesus Christ is. That form of attack has gone on through the centuries and is still going on today.
Thomas Manton, a Puritan, had this to say about apostates:
When the Christian church began first to look forth in the world, there were adverse powers without ready to crush it, and Libertines who, like worms bred within the body, sought to devour the entrails and eat the very bowels of it. The first ringleader was Simon Magus, and there followed Menander, Saturninus, Basilides, Carpocrates, Cerinthus, Ebion, Cerdo, Marcion, Tatianius, Valentinus, and many [other first and second century Gnostics], who, being once turned aside from the truth and the fellowship of the faithful, lost all awe of God, and were given up to a sottish judgment to believe all kinds of fables and fancies....In succeeding ages the devil hath often played over the old game, sometimes oppressing the church by the tyranny of pseudo-Christians...at other times corrupting the truth by error, or rendering it suspicious by the divisions about it. Heresies revolve as fashions, and in the course of a few years antiquated errors revive again, and that by their means who did not so much as know them by name (An Exposition on the Epistle of Jude [Originally published in London in 1658. Reprinted in 1978 by Klock and Klock in Minneapolis], p. 6).
People keep regurgitating, says Manton, the same false doctrine. Apostasy in the church will continue to sneak in until Jesus comes. Therefore, we must fight it. I thank God for everyone who defends the faith. We can't be passive about the corruption of the faith; we must contend for what we know to be God's holy revelation.
B. Their Scriptural Prediction
1. BY JESUS
a. Matthew 7:15--Our Lord Jesus prophesied that apostasy would enter the church, and He knew what He was saying. He cautioned, "Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves."
b. Matthew 16:6--"Take heed and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees." Leaven conveys the idea that the evil influence of the religious leaders permeates the rest of the people (cf. 24:11).
2. BY PAUL
When Paul was biding farewell to the Ephesian elders in the twentieth chapter of Acts, he said, "For I know this, that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock. Also of your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after them" (vv. 29-30). The Corinthians, the Galatians, and the Colossians, and some of the churches of Asia Minor that our Lord addressed in Revelation 2--3, also had apostate false teachers.
Apostasy is a general term; it does not refer to a specific religious system. Those "certain men" were not part of an organized group of apostates, because apostasy hadn't become as sophisticated as it is today with the presence of so many cults. But whatever its form and level of sophistication, apostasy has always penetrated the church and corrupted its doctrine.
2. BY PETER
In 2 Peter 2:1-2, the Apostle said, "But there were false prophets among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who secretly shall bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction."
II. APOSTATES PREDICTED (v. 4b)
"...who were before of old ordained to this condemnation..."
A. Explained
The word "ordained" (Gk. progegrammenoi) means "to write beforehand." Some people have distorted that verse to mean that apostates had no choice: they were ordained by God to be apostates. That isn't what the word means. Sometimes the King James translators didn't have the benefit of modern scholarship in linguistics and archaeology in their choice of words. The Greek word only appears four times and no where is it translated as "ordained," except in Jude. Consequently, the word should be translated the same way to mean that apostates were prewritten unto condemnation. In other words, apostasy was predicted as a condemned thing long ago. Jude says that the condemnation of apostates has been written down by God long ago.
B. Expressed
Early in man's history, God predicted that apostates were going to suffer judgment. For example, look at...
1. JUDE 14-15--"And Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, saying, Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands of His saints, to execute judgment upon all, and to convict all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed, and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against Him." Long ago in Enoch's day, apostasy was predicted as something to be condemned.
The term "of old" may be a little misleading. It sounds like it refers to something ancient, but actually it could mean "a long time ago" or "an hour ago." Therefore, I think that the best way to translate it is "already." In other words, apostates are here now, but their condemnation by God has already been written about.
2. ISAIAH 8:19-22--"And when they shall say unto you, Seek unto those who are mediums, and unto wizards that peep, and that mutter: should not a people seek unto their God? Should they seek on behalf of the living to the dead? To the law and to the testimony; if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them" (vv. 19-20). In other words, compare anybody that speaks, with the Word of God: if they digress from it, disregard them. Verses 21-22 say, "And they shall pass through it, greatly distressed and hungry; and it shall come to pass, that when they shall be hungry, they shall fret themselves, and curse their king and their God, and look upward. And they shall look unto the earth, and behold, trouble and darkness, dimness of anguish; and they shall be driven to darkness." God spoke about what He would do to false teachers. Apostasy is a serious thing.
3. ISAIAH 9:14-15--"Therefore, the LORD will cut off from Israel head and tail, branch and rush, in one day. The ancient and honorable, he is the head; and the prophet who teacheth lies, he is the tail." Condemnation of such false prophets has long ago been written from Enoch right up until 2 Peter.
4. ISAIAH 47:9-15--This passage lists what is going to happen to apostates, such as the astrologers mentioned in verses 13-14: "...Let now the astrologers, the stargazers, the monthly prognosticators, stand up, and save thee from these things that shall come upon thee. Behold, they shall be like stubble; the fire shall burn them; they shall not deliver themselves from the power of the flame; there shall not be a coal to warm at, nor fire to sit before it." God says, "I'm going to wipe them out to such an extent that not even a coal will be left."
5. JEREMIAH 5:14, 31--"...I will make My words in thy mouth fire, and this people wood, and it shall devour them....The prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests bear rule by their means, and My people love to have it so; and what will ye do in the end of it all?"
6. HOSEA 9:7-9--"The days of judgment are come, the days of recompense are come; Israel shall know it; the prophet is a fool, the spiritual man is mad, for the multitude of thine iniquity, and the great hatred. The watchman of Ephraim was with my God; but the prophet is a snare of a fowler [a trap for a bird catcher]....They have deeply corrupted themselves...He will remember their iniquity, He will judge their sins."
7. ZEPHANIAH 3:1-2--"Woe to her that is filthy and polluted...! She obeyed not the voice...she trusted not in the LORD; she drew not near to her God." In verse 8 he spoke of terrible judgment: "...the earth shall be devoured with the fire of My jealousy." God uses very strong language for apostasy.
III. APOSTATES PORTRAYED (v. 4c)
"...ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness, and denying the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ."
Jude describes apostates as being characterized by three things: They are ungodly, perverters of grace, and deniers of Christ. Those qualities appear again in verse 11: ...For they have gone in the way of Cain,and ran greedily after the error of Balaam for reward, and perished in the gainsaying of Korah." Cain illustrates the ungodliness of apostasy, Balaam, the perversion of grace into sin, and Korah, the denial of God's appointed leader (who was a picture of Christ). First, let's examine...
A. Their Character
"...ungodly men..."
That means apostates have a total lack of reverence for God. They will always talk about Him, but in reality, they are ungodly. They have no room for God or His Word. They deny God the right to say what He said. You could expect an apostate to say, "Yes, I believe in God and I'm one of His servants, but I don't believe the Bible is His revelation." Such a statement is ridiculous. How could a person claim to honor and serve God, yet deny the truth He has revealed? The word "ungodly" indicates that apostates are totally without worship. It was a word that was used by the early church fathers to speak of heretics and atheists. Apostates can talk about God and even preach about Him from a pulpit, but they will in reality deny the true God. They are clearly unsaved people. Their claim to be in the ministry of Jesus Christ is a deception, because their lives are marked by ungodliness.
B. Their Conduct
"...turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness [or, unrestrained vice]..."
Apostates turn the grace of God into gross immorality. One of the possible perversions of grace is lawlessness. A person can take the gracious forgiveness of Christ and twist it until he does what he wants without any regard for God's holy law: "I'm under grace; God will forgive me--I'll just go do what I want." Such people seek God's free grace and forgiveness as a license to sin.
The Greek word that is used here is aselgeias. Commentator William Barclay has an interesting description of its meaning:
The aselges is the man who is so lost to honour, to decency, and to shame that he does not care who sees his sin and his immorality. It is not that he arrogantly and proudly flaunts it; it is simply that he can publicly do the most shameless things, because he has ceased to care for shame and decency at all. These men were undoubtedly tinged with Gnosticism. Gnosticism was that line of thought which set out with the idea that only spirit is good, and that matter is essentially evil. If that be so, it means that the body is essentially evil. And if that be so, it does not matter what a man does with his body; since it is evil, its lusts and its desires can be sated and glutted, because it is of no importance what is done with the body. Further, these men believed that since the grace of God is wide enough to cover any sin, a man can sin as he likes. He will be forgiven anyhow; the more he sins, the greater the grace; therefore, why worry about sin? Grace will look after that. Grace was being perverted into a justification for sin (The Letters of John and Jude [Philadelphia: The Westminster Press, 1960], pp. 211-212).
Today there may not be philosophical gnosticism, but there is a similar response that says, "Jesus had a loving attitude so we must accept everybody." Such a liberal perspective allows for homosexuality and orgies to take place among the church members in the name of Christ. Gross ungodliness like that is characteristic of apostasy, which turns grace into the right to do whatever one desires and expects God's forgiveness.
C. Their Creed
"...and denying the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ."
Apostates always deny the deity of Christ, claiming that He was merely a man. That is the most despicable doctrine there is. The cults and the liberals that pervert that doctrine are striking right at the core of Christianity and the character of God. The creed of apostates denies basically four things about Christ:
1. DENYING CHRIST'S SOVEREIGN RULE
"...and denying the only Lord God..."
The word "Lord" is despoten in the Greek. We get the English word despot (a ruler with absolute power) from it. The term refers to the absolute sovereignty of Christ. Apostates deny that Christ is the absolute sovereign God of the universe.
2. DENYING CHRIST'S LORDSHIP
"...and our Lord..."
Here Jude uses a completely different Greek word: not despoten, but kurios, which is a title of honor. Apostates will not honor Christ as Lord. They want to bring Him down to a human level.
3. DENYING CHRIST'S SAVIORHOOD
"...Jesus..."
To theological liberals and apostates, Jesus was merely a human martyr, and not a divine Savior, as His name indicates (Mt. 1:21).
4. DENYING CHRIST'S MESSIAHSHIP
"...Christ..."
Apostates also deny that Jesus is the Anointed One of God.
So, apostates deny Christ's sovereign rule as God, His Lordship over the believers as the One to be exalted and honored, His Saviorhood, and His Messiahship. It is no wonder that Jude felt compelled by the Holy Spirit to warn his readers about apostasy.
Conclusion
Do you understand the seriousness of apostasy? In Matthew 10:33, Jesus said these startling words: "But whosoever shall deny Me before men, him will I also deny before My Father, who is in heaven." You can't deny that Jesus Christ is God, Lord, Savior, and Messiah and think that doesn't matter. Paul echos the words of Jesus that "if we deny Him, He also will deny us" (2 Tim. 2:12). In Titus 1:16, Paul said that apostates "profess that they know God, but in works they deny Him, being abominable, and disobedient, and unto every good work reprobate [worthless]." It is no wonder that Jude was concerned, and so we ought to be.
You say, "John, how do I contend for the faith?" One way is by supporting faithful pastors and teachers who honor the faith without compromise. Another way is by giving unswerving witness to the truth of the Bible in word and deed, for if people don't see it reproduced in your life, they will question how much you really believe it. Third, you defend the faith when you make it possible to train more people who will go out and contend for it. Don't listen to falsehood. Rather, defend the faith in your own life and make it possible for others to grow up and defend it as well. Proverbs 19:27 says, "Cease, my son, to hear the instruction that causeth thee to err from the words of knowledge." The Christian life demands the precautions taken by Nehemiah and those who helped rebuild the wall around Jerusalem--you've got to be building on the one hand, while having a sword in the other, ready to fight.
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