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We’ve come this evening to the last study in our series in Jude’s letter and Jude 20-25. As we study these verses I have three headings, and they are, first, The Situation; secondly, The Solution; and, thirdly, The Saviour.

1. The Situation (Jude 17)

But who was Jude? The name Jude, or Judas (with an 's' is more correct), was a common name chosen for Jewish boys after Judas Maccabaeus, the Jewish resistence-hero and freedom-fighter, and six Judases are mentioned in the New Testament. However, our Jude describes himself, in Jude 1 as Jude…the brother of James. And there was only one James who could be referred to without further definition, and that was James the Lord’s brother (Galatians 1.19) and head of the Church in Jerusalem. But, and this is important, if our Jude was the brother of that James, he was also the half-brother of Jesus. And the fact that James was head of the Church in Jerusalem, and Jude is now writing this letter, is most remarkable. For John 7.5 says that:

not even his brothers believed in him [Jesus].

So what compelling evidence led these brothers to change their hearts and minds and be leaders in the church? It must include the Resurrection of Jesus , and so confirming its historicity – that two-half brothers of, Jesus Jude and James, come to recognize Jesus as their Saviour and Lord. And Paul tells us that James had seen the risen Jesus personally (1 Corinthians 15.6). So now as a wise church leader, the contemporary situation in many places made Jude remember that it had all been predicted. We were told last week, (Jude 17-18):

But you must remember, beloved, the predictions of the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ. They said to you, “In the last time there will be scoffers, following their own ungodly passions.”

For example, Luke reports the Apostle Paul’s prediction to the leadership in the Church at Ephesus (Acts 20.29-30):

I know that after my departure fierce wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock; and from among your own selves will arise men speaking twisted things, to draw away the disciples after them

And Paul taught Timothy one of the leaders in Ephesus (1 Timothy 4.1-4):

Now the Spirit expressly says that in later times some will depart from the faith by devoting themselves to deceitful spirits and teachings of demons, through the insincerity of liars whose consciences are seared… [But who precisely were these people Jude warns about? Answer – verse 4:] ungodly people, who pervert the grace of our God into sensuality and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.

He then mentions (Jude 7), those for whom:

…Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding cities, which likewise indulged in sexual immorality and pursued unnatural desire, serve as an example by undergoing a punishment of eternal fire.

They were teaching that Christian freedom for sex outside heterosexual, life-long marriage is fine and they were denying the deity, of Jesus Christ (that Jesus is truly Lord and God) and they were saying homosexual sex is fine. And those errors have been a permanent threat since New Testament times. I learnt that in the 1960’s when a student and in my early ministry in the 1970s. The 1960’s book entitled Soundings taught that sex outside marriage could be for the “glory of God.” And in the early 70s from this same liberal theological stable came an infamous book entitled, The Myth of God Incarnate. Jude would have said, these are evidence of (Jude 4 again):

ungodly people, who pervert the grace of our God into sensuality and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.

Well this was the situation Jude is addressing – not totally unlike today. But how are we to react? That brings us to:

2. The Solution (Jude 20-23)

This is the heart of what Jude wants to say. All that precedes are the reason for these final encouragements and instructions. And it is in two parts. Part one (Jude 20-21), is about how the faithful can avoid drifting. And part two, (Jude 22-23), is about how the faithful can help those who have drifted. So look now at Jude 20-21 – the advice to avoid drifting:

But you, beloved, building yourselves up in your most holy faith and praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ that leads to eternal life.

Note first of all, this is addressed to the whole church. It is a message for all the beloved – beloved not by Jude but by God. So we need to help one another, but in what? Well Jude 20-21 forms in the original and in ESV bibles one sentence, with the main verb, in verse 21, being:

…keep yourselves in the love of God.

And there are three ways you keep yourself:

i). By (Jude 20) building yourselves up in your most holy faith.

And that most holy faith is the Apostles teaching, which we now have in the Bible. At that same meeting we earlier referred to with the leaders from the church at Ephesus, where Paul predicted false teachers, we earlier referred to, Paul also said this: (Acts 20.32):

And now I commend you to God and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up and to give you the inheritance among all those who are sanctified

It’s common sense – God’s word builds you up. We so need true and not false teaching in everything but supremely with regard to God. That’s why Stephen Hawking was so wrong when he said:

The scientific account is complete. Theology [the study of God] is unnecessary.

For science is incompete - it does not deal with the essential final causes that answer the question “what is the world and human life for?” while the bible and theology do. So, one, we need to build ourselves up in our most holy faith by studying God’s word, as it is privately read, publicly preached, and discussed in Bible study groups. But:

ii). We keep ourselves in the love of God by (Jude 20) praying in the Holy Spirit.

Why we need to pray in the Holy Spirit, is that these false teachers are all part of the spiritual war that is going on. As Paul said in 2 Corinthians 10.3-5:

For though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds. We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ.

And elsewhere Paul’s final words after listing the spiritual armour for this battle in Ephesians 6.18 are that we should pray:

…at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication.

And Paul said (Romans 8.26):

Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words.

So, two, praying in the Holy Spirit helps keep yourselves in the love of God. And:

iii) (Jude 21) You keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ that leads to eternal life.

So Jude says the faithful need to focus on the return of our Lord Jesus Christ at the end of history. And they are to wait with confidence trusting in Christ who died for them and who bore the punishment they deserve. For it will be an event for them of mercy and not condemnation. And the event for believers leads to eternal life. How Christians need to look forward to the hope of heaven! The great 19th century humanitarian reformer, Lord Shaftesbury, made it his practice to think about the Lord’s return everyday. And Jim Packer suggests in his book Knowing God, you should regularly say these words:

I am a child of God. God is my Father; heaven is my home; every day is one day nearer. My Saviour is my brother; every Christian is my brother too.

Heaven is my home; every day is one day nearer.

So, to recap, we therefore keep ourselves in God’s love which we don’t earn but are more conscious of, and don’t drift under false teaching, when we follow Jude’s threefold advice. One, we build ourselves up in our most holy faith – the Apostles’ teaching which we have in the Bible; two, we pray in the Holy Spirit; and, three, we eagerly wait for the Second Coming of Christ and the hope of a new heaven and new earth. Well, that’s part one and Jude’s teaching on how the faithful can avoid drifting. Part two is about how the faithful are to deal with false teachers and those who are drifting or led astray to a greater or lesser extent by the false teachers. So look now at Jude 22-23, Jude writes:

And have mercy on those who doubt; save others by snatching them out of the fire; to others show mercy with fear, hating even the garment stained by the flesh.

Here the original text is not clear, and there is a debate on whether there are two or three types of people being led astray by the false teachers. But the gist is clear enough. So assuming there are three as many think, Jude says this. First (Jude 22) have mercy on those who doubt, or, as the New English Bible translates it "There are some doubting souls who need your pity". According to Norman Hillyer:

These are church members who have been under the influence of the false teachers, but have not yet succumbed to their blandishments. So it is not too late for them to be recovered by the efforts of faithful believers.

But we need to be sensitive with such people. Don’t go in with all guns blazing. Then, secondly, others can be too far gone, for private and sensitive conversations. So Jude says, (Jude 23):

save others by snatching them out of the fire.

On such people Calvin, the great Swiss reformer, wrote:

When there is danger of fire, we hesitate not to snatch away violently whom we desire to save; for it would not be enough to beckon with the finger, or kindly stretch forth the hand. [John Calvin's Bible Commentaries On The Catholic Epistles]

Yes, there are others who can be still be rescued from spiritual peril but the fight for the truth has to be far more vigorous. And then, thirdly, Jude says, (Jude 23):

to others show mercy with fear, hating even the garment stained by the flesh.

Jude is warning true believers who try to help some people who have particularly been corrupted by immoral teaching. He warns them of being corrupted themselves. They should show mercy with fear. So, Jude is saying in effect, how you deal with false teachers and those who are drifting or led astray by them "be sensitive with some; be firm with others; and be very careful when necessary”. For no one size fits all in corrective ministry. But Jude doesn’t want to finish on a depressing note. Nor do we! So our third and final heading is:

3. The Saviour

Do you go through times when you feel your world is collapsing, or you are near collapse? Do you ever feel the Wider World in the West is collapsing with no agreed common good, and with no national moral authority to enforce it if such good were agreed? Well, a lot of the believers in the Roman world, at the time Jude was probably writing, were worried and confused and their personal worlds may have felt in collapse. For in the church there were not only false teachers but believers were worried for their own physical safety. They were a Christian minority with persecution and death an ever present possibility.

So Jude concludes with a wonderful and encouraging reminder that we have a God who is a Saviour. And he can defend us from anything that the devil may throw at us in terms of disillusionment or difficulty or even death. This comes in Jude 24-25 where Jude ends on a note of praise for, and a focus on, the utter goodness and glory of God. Let me read Jude 24-25:

Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy, to the only God, our Saviour, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority, before all time and now and for ever. Amen.

The good news is that while you have to (Jude 21) keep yourselves in the love of God, He, God our Saviour, at the same time (Jude 24) is able to keep you from stumbling. So when facing temptation in this confused world, believers have God working with them (literally in the original) to stand guard over you to prevent you from stumbling. And, also, God our Saviour is able to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy.

Blameless is a technical term from the language of sacrifice. So at the judgment day believers will stand acquitted as blameless through Christ’s sacrifice of himself for their sins. And that will be with great joy. But is God able? Jude would reply “yes” – a thousand times “yes”. For he knew the God who raised Jesus from death to life is the only God. And the early Christians soon learnt he was the one and only God but in three persons, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. And Jude knew that God, the only God our Saviour through Jesus Christ our Lord, of course, was able. For as Jude was inspired to write, finally – and with these words he closed his letter (and we shall close), to this God belong:

glory, majesty, dominion, and authority, before all time and now and for ever. Amen.