Sermon
#66 Through The Bible Series
Title: Jude
“Certain
Men Crept in Unawares”
Text: Jude 1:1-4
Date: Tuesday
Evening— 2003
Tape # Y-42a
Readings: David Burge and Bob Duff
Introduction:
(Jude
1:1-4) "Jude, the servant of Jesus
Christ, and brother of James, to them that are sanctified by God the Father,
and preserved in Jesus Christ, and called: (2) Mercy unto you,
and peace and love, be multiplied. (3) 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. (4) 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 was one of our Savior’s half-brothers (Matt.
13:55), and James’ full brother. He out-lived all the Apostles, except John.
His epistle was written no more than 30-35 years after our Lord’s ascension.
The purpose of God the Holy Spirit in giving this epistle to the church is
evident from its contents. Heresies had already sprung up and the church was
infested with them (v. 4).
It is a great mercy to us that both Jude and John
lived to see those things come to pass that our Lord Jesus, the Apostle Paul,
and the Apostle Peter had prophesied. — Had they not lived to see the heresies
and heretics prophesied filling the church in those early days, we would never
have had the instructive epistles they were inspired to write, equipping us to
deal with them. Indeed, the Apostle Paul tells us plainly that heresies must
come that the truth of God and the people of God might be made manifest (1 Cor.
11:19).
“For there must be also heresies among you, that they which are
approved may be made manifest among you.” (1Co 11:19)
Common Salvation
The opening words of this epistle are truly sweet. Jude addresses all he has to say to the church, to you and me, to all who are born of God (vv. 1-3). Then, through the greater part of these twenty-five verses (vv. 4-19), he describes the terrible character and awful state of the reprobate. Yet, these things are written to God’s saints, for our consolation and instruction. At the end of his letter (vv. 20-25), he reminds us of the safety, security, and blessedness of God’s elect and ascribes all praise to our all-glorious Christ, our God and Savior.
Let me remind you that it is to the church (to God’s
elect), and not to the world, the Book of God is addressed. Many who think they
have more mercy than God himself overlook and even strenuously object to that
fact; but it is a fact nonetheless. — Jude writes to them that are sanctified
by God the Father, and preserved in Jesus Christ, and called.
He begins his epistle by describing the common
salvation of all God’s elect. He calls it “the common salvation” because
all who are saved by the free and sovereign grace of God in Christ enjoy all
the blessings and privileges of grace in common and all embrace one faith, the
faith of the gospel.
“The
faith which was once delivered unto the saints,” the faith of the gospel,
the faith that God gives to all his people by the teaching of his Holy Spirit
in effectual grace involves certain doctrines (though commonly unknown in the
religious world) that are now and have always been commonly embraced and
proclaimed among those who believe God. They are such common things in the
household of faith that Jude, like Peter, uses them as a salutation (v. 1).
“Jude, the servant of Jesus Christ, and brother of James, to them
that are sanctified by God the Father, and preserved in Jesus Christ, and
called.” (Jude 1:1)
God the Holy Spirit inspired his servant Jude to open his epistle with words of tender, affection and boundless grace. He speaks of the most weighty, soul-cheering, and essential truths of the gospel in simple, brief, unmistakable terms. In this one, short verse, Jude declares that…
· Election — All who believe God in time were sanctified by God the Father in eternal election. — Separated unto God — Declared and Made to be Holy in Christ — Accepted in the Beloved!
· Preservation — All who were sanctified by God in election were, are, and shall forever be preserved in Christ, our Mediator, unto the time of love when they are called — In Eternity — Through Adam’s Fall — In the Days of Their Rebellion — After Conversion — Unto Eternal Glory! — Blessed be God, those who are preserved in Christ Jesus shall never perish!
Who can describe such grace? God’s elect are preserved in Jesus Christ, before called to Jesus Christ. — Preserved in all the after stages of life, when called by grace, until grace is finished in glory. We ought meditate on these things continually. But we must enter into eternity, and look back over the everlasting hills through all the path by which the Lord has brought us on our way before that we can have any real sense and apprehension of the unspeakable blessings, contained in these four words, “preserved in Jesus Christ.”
· Effectual Calling — And all who were set apart by the Father unto himself in Christ and preserved in Christ, the Lamb slain before the foundation of the world, are, at the appointed time of love graciously, irresistibly, effectually called to life and faith in Christ by the omnipotent mercy of God the Holy Spirit. Robert Hawker wrote…
“So infinitely blessed and
important is this great grace of the Holy Spirit, in calling, that, until it is
wrought, no child of God can have any apprehension, either of God the Father’s
love in election, or God the Son’s grace in redemption. It is by regeneration
that we are made partakers of the divine
nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world, through lust!
(2 Pet. 1:4, 5).”
· The Holy Trinity — Just as the other
Apostles (Eph. 1:3-14; 1 Pet. 1:2-9), Jude opens his epistle with a declaration
that salvation is the work of God alone, the eternal, indestructible, effectual
work of God alone, and the work of God in the trinity of his Holy Persons: Father,
Son, and Holy Spirit. — And he knew that all who worshipped God would know and
rejoice in that which he declared (1 John 5:7-12).
(1
John 5:7-12) "For there are three
that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these
three are one. (8) And there are three that bear witness in earth, the
Spirit, and the water, and the blood: and these three agree in one. (9) If
we receive the witness of men, the witness of God is greater: for this is the
witness of God which he hath testified of his Son. (10) He that
believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself: he that believeth not
God hath made him a liar; because he believeth not the record that God gave of
his Son. (11) And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal
life, and this life is in his Son. (12) He that hath the Son hath life; and
he that hath not the Son of God hath not life."
“God hath saved us, and called us with an holy
calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and
grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began, But is now
made manifest by the appearing of our Saviour Jesus
Christ, who hath abolished death, and hath brought life and immortality to
light through the gospel:” (2 Tim. 1:9-10)
“For we ourselves also were sometimes foolish, disobedient,
deceived, serving divers lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy,
hateful, and hating one another.
But after that the kindness and love of God our Saviour
toward man appeared, Not by works of
righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by
the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost; Which he shed on us abundantly through Jesus
Christ our Saviour; That being justified by his
grace, we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life.” (Titus
3:3-7)
We date all our mercies from eternity. We find their source in
the election of grace. It was in Christ that we were chosen, accepted, blessed
with all spiritual blessings, and given all grace and salvation before the
world began. And it is in Christ that we are preserved and “kept by the power of God.” Therefore, we delight to say, with Paul,
concerning all who believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, “We are bound to give thanks always to God,
for you, brethren, beloved of the Lord, because God hath from the beginning
chosen you to salvation, through sanctification of the Spirit, and belief of
the truth; whereunto he called you by our Gospel, to the obtaining of the glory
of our Lord Jesus Christ (2. Thess. 2:13, 14). — “Thanks be unto God for
his unspeakable gift!”
Common Blessings
In verse 2 Jude assures us that this common
salvation about which he is writing brings common mercies to every believer. — “ Mercy unto
you, and peace, and love, be multiplied.” — Mercy from the Father — Peace in and from
Jesus Christ — and Love in and by the Holy Spirit, sweetly flow to us in
boundless streams of grace as the fruits and effects of those glorious acts, of
the Triune God described in verse 1.
Common Faith
The 3rd verse speaks of that common faith
possessed by all who have God’s gift of faith in Christ.
“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.” (Jude 1:3)
What is that faith? — The New Testament, in
the inspired writings of the Evangelists and the Apostles, most plainly, and
fully show us. The great and leading doctrines of the gospel, in the
everlasting love of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are written on every page.
The Person, glory, blood shedding, and righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ,
with redemption only in his blood, and regeneration only by God the Holy Spirit
are the foundation of all our mercies. To contend for these, and with
earnestness, is to contend for the very life of our souls. Any reluctance on
our part to openly profess these glorious truths, or any denial of them by
others, is the wounding the Redeemer in the house of his friends and high
treason against the Majesty of God.
The distinction
Jude draws a clear line of distinction between the
elect and the reprobate, between the believer and the religious unbeliever. In
verses 1-3 he speaks of God’s elect. In verses 4-19 he speaks only of
apostates, describing them as those who walk after their own ungodly lusts, who
were of old ordained to this condemnation, sensual, and having not the Spirit.
These are two distinct classes of people: the elect and the reprobate.
Common Foes
In
verses 4-19 Jude describes those men who are the common foes of God’s elect in
every age. I take this to be one horrid portrait of apostasy drawn out in many
characters. The language Jude uses describes one specific class of men who come
under the same condemnation.
I
include the whole of this awful portrait, though made up of different
characters, under one view, because they all form one picture. And they all
come to the same condemnation. We shall do well, under God the Spirit’s
teaching, to look both at their persons, and their features, and mark them one
by one.
(Jude
1:4-7) "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. (5) I will therefore put you
in remembrance, though ye once knew this, how that the Lord, having saved the
people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed them that believed not.
(6) And the angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own
habitation, he hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the
judgment of the great day. (7) Even as Sodom and Gomorrha,
and the cities about them in like manner, giving themselves over to
fornication, and going after strange flesh, are set forth for an example,
suffering the vengeance of eternal fire."
(Jude
1:8-14) "Likewise also these filthy
dreamers defile the flesh, despise dominion, and speak evil of dignities.
(9) Yet Michael the archangel, when contending with the devil he disputed
about the body of Moses, durst not bring against him a railing accusation, but
said, The Lord rebuke thee. (10) But these speak evil of those things
which they know not: but what they know naturally, as brute beasts, in those
things they corrupt themselves. (11) Woe unto them! 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 Core. (12) These are spots in your feasts
of charity, when they feast with you, feeding themselves without fear: clouds they
are without water, carried about of winds; trees whose fruit withereth, without fruit, twice dead, plucked up by the
roots; (13) Raging waves of the sea, foaming out their own shame;
wandering stars, to whom is reserved the blackness of darkness for ever.
(14) And Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, saying,
Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his saints,"
(Jude
1:15-19) "To execute judgment upon
all, and to convince 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. (16) These are murmurers, complainers, walking after their own lusts; and
their mouth speaketh great swelling words, having men's persons in
admiration because of advantage. (17) But, beloved, remember ye the
words which were spoken before of the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ;
(18) How that they told you there should be mockers in the last time, who
should walk after their own ungodly lusts. (19) These be they who
separate themselves, sensual, having not the Spirit."
Certain Men
First, they are said to have been “certain men”
(v. 4), which had crept in unawares. Jude is not speaking of infidels, men who
totally disown Christ. He is describing certain men, who had crept into the
church, men who professed to believe in Christ. These are the very apostates
Paul warned us to beware of (Acts 20:29, 30). Peter also gave us warning
concerning them (2 Pet. 2:13). But Jude had lived to see some of them arise
among the saints of God.
Crept In
Second, Jude says, they have “crept in unawares.”
Like slithering serpents, they come into the church, professing to be lovers of
Christ. They worm themselves into the church under the guise of believers. As
Satan transformed himself into an angel of light, that he might more
successfully deceive, his ministers appear as ministers of righteousness, in a
pretence of love for Christ before his people that they might destroy the souls
of men (2 Cor. 11:14, 15).
Jude is talking about well-known, highly esteemed
men, not just church members, but preachers, teachers, and religious leaders.
They were the Korahs and Balaams (Numbers 16 and 22) of their day; famous in
the churches, men of reputation.
What swarms have followed them! They blaze like
comets for a while. Like “wandering stars” as Jude calls them, they make
a big show for a short time. To them “is
reserved the blackness of darkness for ever.” They are full of promises,
empty promises, like “clouds without
water.” Like “clouds without water, carried about of
winds,” there is no grace
in their hearts and no work of regeneration upon their souls. They have a name
to live, but are dead before God, “twice dead,” spiritually dead and
under the sentence of the second death, “of old ordained to this
condemnation” (Rev. 20:6).
Ungodly Men
Third, they are described as “ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness, and
denying the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ.” Notice that there
are no charges of immorality. Had their lives been notorious, for
any breaches of the moral law, surely such would have been mentioned. Had their
conduct been notoriously corrupt, in any flagrant acts of licentiousness, they
would soon have been discovered.
These men are called “ungodly men” because
there doctrine was directly leveled against the gospel of God’s free and
sovereign grace in Christ. They turned “the grace of God into lasciviousness,” not by using grace as an excuse for ungodly behavior, but by daring to charge
the grace of God that brings salvation with leading to lasciviousness,
asserting that the gospel of free, absolute, unconditional grace promotes evil
behavior among those who believe it. They turned the grace of God into
lasciviousness by asserting that the glorious gospel of God’s free grace, which
proclaims free, full, complete, irrevocable pardon to sinners through the blood
and righteousness of Christ alone, opens the flood-gates of sin (Rom. 3:8;
6:1). Again, I say, what swarms follow them!
This “turning the grace of God into
lasciviousness,” was is accompanied with “denying the only Lord God, and
our Lord Jesus Christ.” As we have seen, it is not possible that these men
openly denied God’s being, or the fact that our Lord Jesus Christ lived, died,
and rose again. Had that been the case, they could not have crept into the
church.
How could they be said to deny the only Lord God,
but in denying his free grace? Yet, by denying (as multitudes do today) the
absolute efficacy of God’s purpose and work, by denying the absolute efficacy
of the Father’s purpose and love, the Son’s atonement, and the Spirit’s call,
by denying that our Lord Jesus Christ actually redeemed and saves all God’s
elect by his finished work of redemption, they do in effect deny the very being
of God. Robert Hawker once issued the following challenge in his excellent
commentary on Jude…
“Look at this Scripture in every way and direction
in which it can be placed, and look for grace from the Almighty Author of
inspiration, to have a right understanding of it. And then ask your own heart,
what was Jude directed by the Holy Spirit to give all diligence to write to the
Church of the common salvation, unless to have guarded the minds of the
faithful against the creeping in of such certain men as are here described?
What faith but the faith of God’s elect, in God the Father’s everlasting love,
and God the Son’s complete, and finished salvation, could the Apostle mean,
when he exhorted the Church, ‘earnestly
to contend for the faith once delivered unto the saints’?”
Their
Condemnation
“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 convince 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.” (Jude 1:14-15)
Fourth, the judgment such ungodly men shall forever endure
bears is exactly correspondent to their conduct. When the Lord Jesus comes with
his saints; he will convince them all, not only of their ungodly deeds, but
also of all their hard speeches, which ungodly sinners have spoken against him
(John 5:22-23; Acts 10:42; 17:31; 2 Thess. 1:7-10). Every place in Holy
Scripture which describes the day of judgment, speaks of Christ the Son of God,
as the Judge in that day (Matt. 25:31, 32; Acts 10:42; 2 Thess. 1:7-10). He,
whose eyes are as a flame of fire, “shall
judge the quick and the dead, at his appearing and his kingdom” (2 Tim.
4:1).
Read these solemn verses again and again. Ask God
the Holy Spirit to burn them into your heart, that you may be able in the light
of Holy Scripture to understand what is going on in the religious world around
you today. Do we not daily hear and read the hard speeches spoken against
Christ, and by certain men, crept in unawares into the church? Multitudes of
famous religious leaders, verbally deny his our Savior’s being as God. Others,
who would never openly assert such, just as fully deny it by denying the merit
and efficacy of his blood and righteousness and intercession, asserting that
all is vain without some contribution from man. Such doctrine is the
blasphemous assertion that the Son of God is a failure! But that shall never be
(Isa. 42:4; 53:1-12). The cross of our Lord Jesus Christ shall never be
discovered a miscarriage. His grace shall never be frustrated. “He shall see
of the travail of his soul and shall be satisfied.” He who satisfied the
justice of God for his elect, shall be satisfied by the justice of God in the
salvation of his elect.
Nothing could be more suitable than the punishment
here denounced upon all such blasphemy. When the Lord Jesus comes in his glory
with all his holy angels, showing forth the glory of his grace in the salvation
of all his people, he shall, by the overwhelming brightness of his glory,
convince all who oppose him who he is and what he has done to their everlasting
horror in hell. He shall, in that great day, “execute judgment upon all and convince all of their hard speeches,”
which they have spoken against him.
Sensual Men
Fifth, Jude tells us that these men are “sensual,
having not the Spirit” (v, 19). This is the thing that in all ages
distinguishes “between the righteous and
the wicked; between him that serveth God, and him that serveth him not” (Mal.
3:18).
Here the Holy Spirit tells us plainly that all who
oppose the gospel of God’s free and sovereign grace in our Lord Jesus Christ
are unregenerate and have not been given the gift of eternal life and salvation
in Christ by God the Holy Spirit. Such men, as we might expect, “speak evil of those things which they know
not; but what they know naturally as brute beasts, in those things they corrupt
themselves. They have gone into the way of Cain; they have ran greedily after
the error of Balaam, for reward; and perished in the gainsaying of Core. These
are spots in your feasts of charity. Their mouth speaketh great swelling words,
having men’s persons in admiration, because of advantage.”
These are different descriptions of the same,
sensual, unregenerate men, who have not the Spirit, and yet profess to be
worshippers of God and disciples of Christ.
·
Like their father, the devil, they rage against the authority and
dominion of God[1].
·
Like Cain, they presume that their works can and do give them some
measure of righteousness and acceptance with God.
·
Like Balaam, they mingle the worship of God with the worshipping of
idols, compromising the truth of God in the name of unity, peace, and brotherly
love.
·
Like Korah, they are ambitious, motivated by the gratification of their
own lusts, “feeding themselves without fear.”
Divine Sovereignty
Jude began his description of these apostate false
prophets by telling us that they were “Before of old ordained to this
condemnation” (v. 4; 2 Thess. 2:13-14). This testimony to God’s
sovereignty, so hateful to those sensual people who have not the Spirit of God
and so precious to every believer who knows by distinguishing grace his
acceptance with the holy Lord God in Christ, his Beloved, is a clear display of
the fact that the only distinction there is between the righteous and the
wicked is the distinction our God has made by his distinguishing grace (1 Cor.
4:7). For this we shall forever praise him.
Every child of God, in the present Christ despising
generation, is a wonder of grace, a testimony to God’s infallible mercy. We
ought to esteem it our highest honor, to bear testimony to his holy name and
wondrous grace in Christ. Our great and gracious God has reserved to himself
thousands who have not and will not bow the knee to the Baal. “Even so now, at this present time also,
there is a remnant according to the election of grace” (Rom. 11:4-5).
Israel, Angels and Sodom
Jude reminds us of the apostates among the children
of Israel who came out of Egypt and perished in the wilderness in unbelief (v.
5). Though they had all the advantages of a temporal salvation, yet, having no
part nor lot in the matter of grace and eternal salvation in Christ, their
carcasses fell in the wilderness (Rom. 9:6, 7; Heb. 3:16-19).
“The angels, which kept not their first estate,”
not being elect angels, were left to the mutability of their own will, fell,
and in that fall, were everlastingly condemned. Here again, we find cause for
endless praise. Had we not been sanctified and preserved in Christ Jesus by
God’s eternal grace, we too would be everlastingly condemned. Had the Lord God
left us to our own wills, as he did those angels, we would perish forever (Rom.
9:16). Were it not for the fact that we are yet “preserved in Jesus Christ,”
even now, we would perish immediately.
What cause we are given, for unceasing thanksgiving
and praise, for God’s electing, preserving grace in Christ! And truly, we may
say with the prophet; “except the Lord of
hosts had left unto us a very small remnant, we should have been as Sodom, and
we should have been like unto Gomorrah” (Isa. 1:9).
Enoch
The Holy Spirit has given us no record of Enoch’s
prophecy. It may have been an oral, rather than a written prophecy. All we know
concerning it is the account Jude gives in verses 14-15. But it is a blessed
prophecy of our Lord’s glorious second advent. When Enoch is called “the
seventh from Adam,” the meaning is that his was the seventh generation of
believing men in the earth: Adam, Seth, Enosh, Kenan, Mahalaleel, Jered, Enoch
(1 Chro. 1:1-2).
Blessed Safety
(Jude
1:20-25) "But ye, beloved, building
up yourselves on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost, (21) Keep
yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ
unto eternal life. (22) And of some have compassion, making a
difference: (23) And others save with fear, pulling them out of
the fire; hating even the garment spotted by the flesh. (24) Now unto
him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless
before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy, (25) To the only
wise God our Saviour, be glory and majesty,
dominion and power, both now and for ever. Amen."
Here Jude assures us of the absolute safety of God’s
elect, being “preserved in Jesus Christ,” even in the midst of a
reprobate age. This is much the same as Paul’s declaration to the Thessalonian saints in 2 Thessalonians 2:1-14.
When he tells us that we must build up our selves in
our “most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit, and keep” ourselves in
the love of God, “looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto
eternal life,” Jude does not mean that we are our own keepers, or that we
can create faith in our own hearts. The Scriptures everywhere teach us that all
who are kept are kept by the power of God unto eternal life. Our Lord declares
regarding his church, “In that day, sing
ye to her a vineyard of red wine. I the Lord do keep it. I will water it every
moment: lest any hurt it, I will keep it night and day” (Isa. 27:2-3; 1
Pet. 1:5).
Jude is telling us that we must ever wait for the
grace and power of God the Holy Spirit. Ever aware of our need of Christ, we
must abide in him, looking to him alone for life, grace, and eternal salvation
(Col. 2:6). Let us have a sure, fixed, and
certain hope in him regarding all the blessed and glorious events of that great
day of God our Savior, ever expecting “the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ
unto eternal life.”
It is nothing but mercy, mercy alone, and mercy sure
that is the hope and expectation of every believing soul. For chosen, redeemed,
believing sinners, justified, sanctified, called, and kept in Christ, there is
nothing doubtful about the issue of that day (2 Pet. 1:3-4; 1 Cor. 1:30; 6:11;
Isa. 45:24-25). Jude would not have been inspired by the Holy Spirit to give us
this confidence, were it a matter of uncertainty (Tit. 2:13; 2 Pet. 3:12).
Compassion
The mercy, love, and grace we have experienced, we
are to show to one another. Jude writes, “And of some have compassion, making
a difference: And others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire; hating
even the garment spotted by the flesh” (vv. 22-23).
There is nothing found among men so affectionate and
tender as the love of brethren in Jesus. The compassion God’s saints show to
wanderers and backsliders, to those who are tempted and fallen, and to those
who are ignorant and out of the way is sweetness itself. Saved sinners are
compelled by the grace we experience to stretch out the helping hand in any way
and every way they can to raise up the fallen (2 Cor. 5:14; Gal. 6:1-2).
Because we cannot know who God’s elect are until they are called by his grace
and given faith in Christ, we seek to save, as from the fire, all who are
tottering upon the brink of hell. Though we loath their sins as we loath our
own garments, which are defiled and spotted when we put them upon our corrupt
bodies, we earnestly desire their eternal salvation in Christ.
To God Be The Glory
“Now unto Him
that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the
presence of his glory, with exceeding joy; to the only wise God, our Savior, be
glory, and majesty, dominion, and power, both now and ever. Amen” (vv.
24-25).
He who has all along preserved us is the One who
keeps us from falling. It shall be the special and personal joy and glory of
Christ our Surety and Substitute to present his Church to himself at the last
day. We nowhere read in Scripture of God the Father or God the Holy Spirit,
presenting the Church before the throne. It shall be God the Son’s, our
all-glorious Savior’s, final work as our Mediator to bring his church home as a
bride adorned for her husband, and present her to himself before the Father (1
Cor. 15:24-28). He “loved the Church and
gave himself for it, that he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of
water by the word; that he might present it to himself a glorious Church, not
having spot or wrinkle, or any such thing, but that it should be holy, and
without blemish (Eph. 5:25-27).
[1] It might be helpful for me to give some explanation of verse 9. — Michael the archangel can be, in my opinion, none other than Christ himself, the Angel of the Covenant, the Angel of the Lord. There is but one Archangel, or Prince of Angels (Dan. 10:13, 21), and that is Christ, the Head of all principality and power. The name by which he is here spoken of, “Michael,” means “one who is as God.” We find this name, “Archangel,” only twice in the whole Book of God (1 Thess. 4:16 and Jude 9). In both places there can be little question that it has reference to Christ in his mediatoral office.
The only place in the Book of God to which this passage might have reference is Zechariah 3:1-10. The explanation John Gill gave of Jude 9 is, in my opinion, the best I have read. I say that simply because it is completely consistent with the whole teaching of Scripture and specifically with Jude’s message. Gill explains…
“It was to show that the law of Moses was to be abolished and buried by Christ, never to rise again…The law of Moses is sometimes called Moses himself (John 5:45; Acts 15:21; 21:21; 2 Cor. 3:15) and so the body of Moses…The law of Moses was restored in the time of Joshua the high priest, by Ezra and Nehemiah. Joshua broke the law and was charged by Satan as guilty, who contended and insisted upon it that he should suffer for it. So that this dispute or contention might be said to be about the body of Moses, that is, the body of Moses’ law, which Joshua had broken.”
In the dispute Michael, or the Angel of the Lord, our the Lord Jesus Christ, chose not to “bring a railing accusation, but said, The Lord rebuke thee” (Jude 9; Zech. 3:2). Pointing to his finished work of redemption and righteousness as the sole basis of Joshua’s acceptance with God, the Lord Jesus Christ spoke as our Mediator, just as he did in the flesh in John 17 and does now as our Advocate in heaven (1 John 2:1-2), and called upon the Father to rebuke Joshua’s accuser (Rom. 8:1, 33-34).