LivePrayerSermon 2994. Jude's Doxology
(No. 2994)
A SERMON PUBLISHED ON THURSDAY, JUNE 28, 1906.
DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,
AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON LORD'S-DAY EVENING, NOVEMBER 7, 1875.
"Now unto Him who is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of His glory with exceedingjoy, to the only wise God our Savior, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and forever. Amen." Jude 1:24,25.
PAUL'S writings abound in doxologies. You will find them in different forms scattered throughout all his Epistles. But heis not the only Apostle who thus pauses to magnify the name of God. Here is "Judas, not Iscariot," but the true-hearted Judewho has been writing an Epistle which seems all ablaze with lightning, it burns so terribly against certain orders of sinners.Almost every word that Jude writes seems to have the roll of thunder in it-he appears to be more like the Haggai of the OldTestament than the Jude of the New. Yet he cannot close his short Epistle until he has included some ascription of praiseto God!
Learn from this, dear Friends, that the sin of man, if we are ever called to denounce it, should drive us to adore the goodnessand glory of God. Sin defiles the world, so after you have done your best to sweep it out, resolve that, inasmuch as man hasdishonored the name of God, you will seek to magnify that name. It is true that you cannot actually redress the wrong thathas been done, but, at any rate, if the stream of sin has been increased, you may increase the stream of loyal and reverentpraise! Take care that you do. Jude is not satisfied with having rebuked the sons of men for their sin, so he turns roundto glorify his God!
Observe that these doxologies, wherever we meet with them, are not all exactly the same. They are presented to the same Godand offered in the same spirit, but there are reasons given for the doxology in the one case which are not given
in the other. Our morning text [Sermon No. 1266, Volume 21-PAUL'S DOXOLOGY] told us of what God is able to do and so doesthis. They both begin with praising God's ability, but while Paul spoke about the greatness of that ability in what it coulddo for us, Jude speaks of the greatness of that ability in preserving us from falling and perfecting us so that we may bepresented faultless before the Presence of the Glory of God. Let us, in an adoring frame of mind, think over this sublimesubject. I. First, LET US ADORE HIM WHO CAN KEEP US FROM FALLING.
I now address myself, of course, only to God's own people. When shall we ever see a congregation in which it will be needlessto make such a remark as that? I cannot call upon some of you to adore God for keeping you from falling, for, alas, you havenot yet learned to stand upright! God's Grace has never yet been accepted by you. You are not on the Rock of Ages-you havenot yet set out upon the heavenly pilgrimage. It is a wretched state for you to be in-in which you cannot worship Him whomangels worship. It is a sad state of heart for any man to be in! To be excluded-self-excluded-from the general acclamationsof joy in the Presence of God-because you feel no such joy and cannot, therefore, unite in such acclamations!
But to the people of God, I have to say this. Dear Brothers and Sisters, we need keeping, therefore let us adore Him who cankeep us! As saved souls, we need keeping from final apostasy. "Oh," says one, "I thought you taught us that those who areonce saved shall never finally apostatize." I do believe that doctrine and delight to preach it-yet it is true that the savedones would apostatize-everyone of them-if the Lord did not keep them! There is no stability in any Christian, considered inhimself. It is the Grace of God within him that enables him to stand. I believe than the soul of man is immortal, yet notin and of itself, but only by the immortality which God bestows upon it from His essential
immortality. So is it with the new life that is within us. It shall never perish, but it is only eternal because God continuesto keep it alive. Your final perseverance is not the result of anything in yourself, but the result of the Grace which Godcontinues to give you and of His eternal purpose which first chose you and of His almighty power which still keeps you alive.Ah, my Brothers and Sisters, the brightest saints on earth would fall into the lowest Hell if God did not keep them from falling!Therefore, praise Him, O you stars that shine in the Church's sky, for you would go out with a noxious smell, as lamps dofor lack of oil, did not the Lord keep your heavenly flame burning! Glory be unto the Preserver of His Church who keeps Hisloved ones even to the end!
But there are other ways of falling beside falling finally and fatally. Alas, Brothers and Sisters, we are all liable to fallinto errors of doctrine. The best-taught man, apart from Divine Guidance, is capable of becoming the greatest fool possible!There is a strange weakness which sometimes comes over noble spirits and which makes them infatuated with an erroneous novelty,though they fancy they have discovered some great Truth of God. Men of enquiring and receptive minds are often decoyed fromthe old paths-the good old ways-and while they think they are pursuing the Truth, they are being led into damnable error!He only is kept, as to his thoughts and doctrinal views, whom God keeps, for there are errors that would, if it were possible,deceive even the very elect! And there are men and women going about in this world with smooth tongues and plausible arguments,who carry honeyed words upon their lips, though drawn swords are concealed behind their backs! Blessed are they who are preservedfrom these wolves in sheep's clothing! Lord, You alone can preserve us from the pernicious errors of the times, for You are"the only wise God, our Savior."
And, dear Friends, we need keeping from an evil spirit. I do not know whom I should prefer-to see one of my dear ChristianBrother fall into doctrinal error, or into an un-Christian spirit. I would prefer neither, for I think this is a safe rule-oftwo evils, choose neither! It is sad to hear some people talk as if they, alone, are right, and all other Christians are wrong.If there is anything which is the very essence and soul of Christianity, it is brotherly love-but brotherly love seems tobe altogether forgotten by these people. And other Christians who, in the judgment of sobriety, are as earnest and as true-heartedand as useful as themselves, are set down as belonging to a kind of Babylonian system-I hardly know what they do not callit, but they give it all sorts of bad names-and this is thought to be a high style of Christianity! God grant that the manmay be forgiven who thought it to be a worthy purpose of his life to found a sect, whose distinguishing characteristic shouldbe that it would have no communion with any other Christians! The mischief that man has done is utterly incalculable! AndI can only pray that in the Providence of God, some part of it may die with him.
O Brothers and Sisters, I charge you, whatever mistakes you make, not to make a mistake about this one thing- that even ifyou have all knowledge, and have not charity, it profits you nothing! Even if you could get a perfect creed and knew thatyour modes of worship were absolutely Apostolic, yet if you also imbibed this idea that you could not worship with any otherChristians and that they were altogether outside your camp, your error would be far worse than all other errors put together-forto be wrong in heart is even worse than to be wrong in head! I would have you true to God's Truth, but, above all, I wouldhave you true to God's Love! My Brother, I think you are mistaken about this matter or that, but do you love the Lord JesusChrist? If so, I love you. I have no doubt that I, also, am mistaken about some things, but do not, therefore, withdraw yourhand and say that you cannot have fellowship with me! I have fellowship with my Father who is in Heaven and with His Son,Jesus Christ, and with His blessed Spirit. And I think that it ill becomes you, if you call yourself a son of that same God,to refuse to have fellowship with me when I have fellowship with Him! God save you from this evil spirit, but you may readilyenough fall into it unless the Lord shall keep you. Your very zeal for the Truth of God may drive you into a forgetfulnessof Christian love! And if it does, it will be a sad pity. O Lord, keep us from falling in this way!
But there are falls of another sort which may happen to the brightest Christian. I mean, falls into outward sin. As you readJude's Epistle through, you will see what apostates some professors became and you will be led to cry, "Lord, keep me fromfalling!" And if you were the pastor of a large church like mine, you would see enough to convince you that traitors likeJudas are not all dead-that amidst the faithful, the unfaithful are still found-that there are bad fish to be thrown away,as well as good fish to be kept. And every time we execute an act of discipline-every time we have to bemoan the fall of onewho looked like a Brother-we may thank God that we have been kept-and may sing this doxology, "Unto Him who is able to keepus from falling, be glory and power forever."
And, dear Friends, there is a way of falling, out of which people are not so often recovered as when they fall into overtsin. I mean, falling into negligence as to natural or Christian duties. I have known professors who have been very lax athome-children who were not obedient to their parents-husbands who did not love their wives as they ought- wives who were quiteat home at this meeting and that, but very negligent of their domestic duties. And, mark you, where that is the case, it isa thing to mourn over, for the Christian ought to be absolutely reliable in everything he has to do! I would not give twopencefor your religion if you are a tradesman-but not fair in your dealings! I do not care if you can sing like David, or preachlike Paul-if you cannot measure a yard of material with the proper number of inches, or if your scales do not weigh rightly,or your general mode of business is not straight and true-you had better make no profession of religion! The separation atwhat is called, "religious," from the, "secular," is one of the greatest possible mistakes. There is no such thing as a religionof Sundays, and of chapels and churches. At least though there is such a thing, it is not worth having. The religion of Christis a religion for seven days in the week-a religion for every place and for every act! And it teaches men, whether they eat,or drink, or whatever they do, to do all in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and to the glory of God! I pray that you maybe kept from falling away from that religion, and that you may be kept up to the mark in serving the Lord in all things andattending diligently to the little commonplace matters of daily life.
And you know, dear Friends, there is another sort of falling-that is when the heart gets gradually cold, when the Christianwanders away little by little-when the life become more or less inconsistent with the profession. Oh, how many professorsget into this state! They are like people who are not as well as they used to be. They do not know when they began to feelworse-it was months ago and every day they have got weaker-till now you can see their bones, though once they were full offlesh. Now they discover that whereas once they could have walked ten miles without fatigue, half a mile or less wearies them!Their appetite, too, has gradually gone. They scarcely know how. Ah, these are the sick folk with whom the physician has moretrouble than he has with those who are suddenly seized by some well-known disease! And that gradual decline of spiritual healthwhich does not come all at once, but, little by little, is one of the most perilous of evils and we have need to continuallycry, "Lord, keep us from this!" And to praise His name that He is able so to keep us!
Thus I have shown you that we need keeping and, Brothers and Sisters, none but the Lord can keep us. No man can keep himself.Without God's Grace, he will surely fail! And no place can keep us. Some people think that if they could get into such-and-sucha family, they could keep from sin, but they are mistaken. In every position which man occupies, he will find temptation.We have heard of the hermit who hoped to get rid of all sin by living in a cave. He took with him his little brown loaf andhis jug of water, but he had hardly entered the cave before he upset his jug and spilt the water. It was a long way to thewell and he got so angry with himself for what he had done that he soon discovered that the devil could get into a cave asquickly as he could! So he thought he might as well go back and face the trials of ordinary society. There is a story whichthey tell in Scotland of a family who were thriftless and, therefore, did not succeed. But they thought it was one of the"brownies" that kept them from getting on, so they decided to "flit." They put all their things into a cart, but just as theywere about to start, they heard a noise that made them cry out, "The brownie is in the churn!" So, wherever the churn went,the brownies would go too. And you may remove wherever you like and think, "If I get into such a position, I shall escapefrom temptation, but you will find that "the brownie is still in the churn," and he will follow you wherever you may go! Youcannot be kept from falling by choosing another situation. You had better stay where you are, Brother, and fight the devilthere, for perhaps the next place that you select as the scene of combat may not be as suitable as the one you have now. "Ah,"says one, "I wish I could get to-
A lodge in some vast wilderness,
Some boundless contiguity of shade
Where rumor of oppression and deceit,
Of unsuccessful or successful war,
Might never reach me again.'" Yes, yes. But that is not the way to conquer sin, is it? Suppose the battle of Waterloo is justbeginning and here is a soldier who wants to win a victory. So he runs away-gets off to Brussels and hides himself in a cellar!Is he likely to be
numbered among the heroes of the day? No, Brothers and Sisters, and if there is any sin to be overcome in this world, thereis no credit to the man who says, "I'm going to hide somewhere out of the world." No, no, my Brother, accept the lot thatGod has provided for you! Take your place in the ranks of His soldiers and whatever temptation comes, look up to Him who isable to keep you from falling-but do not dream of running away, for that is the way to fall-that is being defeated beforethe battle begins! Nobody but God can keep you. You may join whatever church you like. You may wear a hat with a broad brimand say "thou" and "thee." You may meet with those who break bread and preach nothing but the Gospel of the Grace of God.You may dwell among the best people who ever lived, but you will still be tempted! Neither place nor people, neither mannersnor customs can keep you from falling-God alone can do it!
But here is the mercy, God can do it. Notice how Jude's doxology puts it-"To the only wise God our Savior." It is becauseHe, alone, is wise that He, alone, is able to keep us from falling. He does it by teaching us the Truth, by warning us againstsecret sin and by His Providential leading. Sometimes He keeps temptation from us. At other times He allows a temptation tocome to us that, by overcoming it, we may be the stronger to meet another one. Oftentimes He delivers us from temptation byletting affliction come upon us. Many a man has been kept from falling into sin by being stretched upon a bed of sickness.Had it not been for the loss of the eye, he would have looked upon vanity. Had it not been for that broken bone, he wouldhave run in the ways of ungodliness. We little know how much preservation from falling we owe to our losses and crosses! Thestory of Sir James Thornhill painting the inside of the cupola of St. Paul's is probably well known to you. When he had finishedone of the compartments, he was stepping backward that he might get a full view of it and so went almost to the edge of thescaffolding-and would have fallen over if he had taken another step-but a friend, who saw his danger, wisely seized one ofhis brushes and rubbed some paint over his picture. The artist, in his rage, rushed forward to save his painting and so savedhis own life! We have all pictured life-what a fairy picture we made of it! And as we admired it, we walked further and yetfurther away from God and safety-and got nearer and nearer to perilous temptation! But when trial came and ruined the picturewe had painted and then, though scarcely knowing why, we came forward and were saved, God had kept us from falling by thetrouble He had sent to us!
God has often kept us from falling by a bitter sense of our past sin. We have not dared to go near the fire again for ourformer burns have scarcely healed. I have also noticed, in my own case, that when the desire for sin has come with force,the opportunity for sin has not been present-and when the opportunity of evil has been present, then, by God's Grace, thedesire has been absent. It is wonderful how God prevents these two things from meeting and so keeps His people from falling.
Above all, it is by the Divine Spirit that God bears us up as upon eagle's wings. The Spirit teaches us to hate sin and tolove righteousness-and so we are daily kept from falling.
Brothers and Sisters, join with me in adoring the Lord that He will keep us to the end. Have we committed our souls into thehands of Jesus? Then our souls are safe forever! Are we trusting to Him to keep us till the day of His appearing? If so, Hewill keep us-not one sheep or lamb out of His flock shall by any possibility be destroyed by the wolf, or the bear, or theroaring lion of Hell! They shall all be His in the day when they pass again under the hands of Him that counts them!
II. NOW, SECONDLY, LET US ADORE HIM BECAUSE HE WILL, AT THE LAST, PRESENT US
"FAULTLESS BEFORE THE PRESENCE OF HIS GLORY WITH EXCEEDING JOY."
There will come a day, Brothers and Sisters, when we shall either be presented in the courts of God as His courtiers, or elsebe driven from His Judgment Seat as rebels against His authority. We look forward with the confident expectation that we shallbe presented as the friends of Christ, unto God, even the Father and that is, indeed, a cause for adoring gratitude!
Do you notice how Jude puts it? "To present you faultless." There shall be none in Heaven but those who are faultless. Thereshall by no means enter into those holy courts anything that defiles. Heaven is perfectly pure and if you and I are ever toget there, we must be pure as the driven snow. No taint of sin must be upon us, or else we cannot stand among the courtiersof God. His flaming Throne would shoot forth columns of devouring fire upon any guilty soul that dared to stand in the courtsof the Most High, if such a standing were possible! But we are impure-impure as to our acts and, worst of all, impure as toour very nature! How, then, can we hope to ever stand there? Yet, dear Brothers and Sisters, our confidence is that we shall.Why?
Is it not because Christ is able to present us faultless there? Come, Christian, think for a minute how faultless Christ hasmade you so far as your past sin is concerned. The moment you believed in Him, you were so completely washed in His preciousblood that not a spot of sin remained upon you. Try to realize that whatever your past life has been, if you now believe inJesus Christ, you are cleansed from all iniquity by virtue of His atoning Sacrifice and you are covered by a spotless robeof righteousness by virtue of His blessed life of perfect purity and obedience to His Father's will. You are now without fault,as far as your past sin is concerned, for He has cast it all into the depths of the sea-but you feel that you are not withoutfault as to your nature.
"Oh," you say, "I feel everything that is evil rising at times within me." But all that evil is under sentence of death. Christnailed it to His Cross. Crucifixion is a lingering and very painful death-and the culprit struggles before he breathes hislast. But your sins have had their deathblow. When Christ was nailed to the Cross, your sins were nailed there, too, and theyshall never come down again. Die they must, even as He died. It will be a blessed hour when sin shall at last give up theghost-when there shall be not even the tendency to sin within our nature! Then shall we be presented faultless before theThrone of God!
"Can that ever be?" asks one. Well may you ask that question, Brother. Can it ever be that we shall not be tempted by onefoul lust, nor be disturbed by one unbridled passion, nor feel the emotions of envy or of pride again? Yes, it shall surelybe! Christ has secured this blessing for you. His name is Jesus, Savior, "for He shall save His people from their sins." Hemust and will do this for all who trust Him. Rejoice that He will do this, for no one but God can do it. It must be "the onlywise God our Savior" who can accomplish this-and accomplish it He will! Does your faith enable you to picture yourself asstanding faultless before the Throne of God? Well then, give to the Lord the glory which is due unto Him for such a wondrousact of Grace as that!
This is how you are to be presented by Christ in Glory. There is a great stir in a family when a daughter is to be presentedat court and a great deal is thought of it. But one day you and I who have believed in Jesus, shall be presented to the Father.What radiant beauty shall we then wear when God, Himself, shall look upon us and declare us to be without fault-when thereshall be no cause for sorrow remaining and, therefore, we shall be presented with exceeding joy! It shall be so, my Brother!It shall be so, my Sister! Therefore do not doubt it. How soon it shall be, we cannot tell- possibly, tomorrow. Perhaps beforethe sun rises again you and I may be presented by Christ "before the Presence of His glory with exceeding joy." We cannottell when it will be, but we shall be there in His good time. We shall be perfect! We shall be "accepted in the Beloved" and,therefore, "unto Him be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and ever. Amen."
III. That is the note with which I have to close my discourse. LET US, BECAUSE OF THESE TWO GREAT
BLESSINGS OF FINAL PRESERVATION AND PRESENTATION BEFORE HIS GLORY, OFFER UNTO THE LORD OUR HIGHEST ASCRIPTIONS OF PRAISE.
Jude says, "Both now and forever." Well, we will attend to the "forever" as eternity rolls on, but let us attend to the praiseof God "now"-at this moment! "To the only wise God our Savior be glory and majesty, dominion and power" now! Come, Brothersand Sisters, think of what you owe to Him who has kept you to this day-and will not let you go! Think of where you might havebeen and think, I may say, of where you used to be in your unregenerate state. Yet you are not there now-but here you are,without self-righteousness, made to differ from your fellow men entirely through the Grace of God! You have been kept perhaps20 years, 30 years, 40 years-possibly 50 years! Well, unto Him be the glory! Give Him the glory even now!
How can you do it? Well, feel it in your hearts! Speak of it to your neighbors! Talk of it to your children! Tell everybodyyou meet what a good and blessed and faithful God He is, and so give Him glory now. And be happy and cheerful. You cannotglorify God better than by a calm, quiet, happy life. Let the world know that you serve a good Master. If you are in trouble,do not let anyone see that the trouble touches your spirit-no, more, do not let it trouble your spirit. Rest in God-take evilas well as good from His hands and keep on praising Him. You do not know how much good you may do and how greatly you mayglorify God if you praise Him in your dark times. Worldlings do not care much about our Psalm-singing unless they see us inpain and sorrow and observe that we praise God then. I like, and the world likes, a religion that will wash-a religion thatwill stand many showers and much rough usage. Some
Christians' joy disappears in the wear and tear of life-it cannot endure the world's rough handling. Let it not be so withus, Beloved, but let us praise, bless and magnify the name of the Lord as long as we have any being!
I know that in speaking thus, I am only addressing a part of my congregation. I wish that every man and woman here were nowpraising the Lord-and I am sure that you could not have a better occupation to all eternity. Remember that if you do not praiseGod, it is impossible for you ever to enter Heaven, for that is the chief occupation of Heaven! And also remember that praisefrom your lips, until those lips are divinely cleansed, would be like a jewel in a swine's snout, a thing altogether out ofplace! For you, dear unsaved Hearer, the first thing is not praise, but prayer-no, not even prayer first, but faith "Believein the Lord Jesus Christ, and you shall be saved." And then, in faith, pray the prayer which God accepts. But you must firstbelieve in Jesus. "And what does believing in Jesus mean?" you ask. It means this-your sin deserves punishment, for God, whois just, must punish sin. But His Son came into the world to suffer in the place of those who trust Him. And now, God canbe just and yet the Justifier of every soul that believes in Jesus! In the Person of His Son, God hangs upon a tree and diesa felon's death-will you believe in the merit of that death and in the love of God who spared not His own Son in order thatHe might spare us? Can you trust Jesus as your God and Savior? Will you do it now? Then you are saved!
The first moment of thus trusting God is the beginning of a new life-a life which will drive out the old death of sin. Themoment that you thus trust your God, you will be placed upon a new footing with regard to Him-your whole aspect towards Godwill be changed. Repentance will take such possession of your spirit that you will be actuated by new motives and swayed bynew desires! In fact, you will be a new man in Christ Jesus. This is being saved-saved from the love of sin, saved from returningto sin, saved from falling and so completely saved that Christ shall one day present you "faultless before the Presence ofHis glory with exceeding joy." May God do this for everyone of you, my Hearers, according to the riches of His Grace! It ismy heart's last, best and strongest desire that everyone of you may be saved. May we all meet in Heaven, before the Throneof God, never more to be parted!
While I am away, listen with all earnestness to other heralds of the Cross, and pray the Lord to bless their messages to yoursalvation, if mine have not been so blest. I pray that by some instrumentality, you may all be saved in the Lord with an everlastingsalvation. Amen.
EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: THE GENERAL EPISTLE OF JUDE.
Verse 1. Jude. That is to say Judas, not Iscariot.
1. The servant of Jesus Christ, and brother of James. He does not say, "and brother of our Lord," for we know that James andJudas were, both of them, among the Lord's kinsman according to the flesh. But now, after the flesh, knows he Christ no more,but is content and happy to be known as "the servant of Jesus Christ, and brother of James."
1. To them that are sanctified by God the Father. For the decree of election, the setting apart of the chosen is usually ascribedunto God the Father.
1. And preserved in Jesus Christ, and called. We have here a very blessed description of the whole work of our salvation-setapart by the Father, joined unto Christ and preserved in Him-and then, in due time, called out by the Spirit of God.
2. Mercy unto you, and peace, and love be multiplied. Christian letters should be full of love and good will. The Christiandispensation breathes beneficence-it is full of benediction! "Mercy unto you, and peace, and love, be multiplied." May theDivine Trinity give you a trinity of blessings!
3. Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was necessary for me to write unto youand exhort you that you should earnestly contend for the faith that was once delivered unto the saints. In the sense of beingonce and for all given to the saints, the faith of Christians is not a variable quantity. It is not a thing which changesfrom day to day, as some seem to suppose, vainly imagining that fresh light is bestowed upon each new generation. No, theTruth of God was delivered once and for all, it was stereotyped, fixed-and it is for us to hold it fast as God has given itto us.
4. For there are certain men crept in unawares. They did not boldly avow their heresy when they came in-they would not havebeen allowed to enter if they had done so-but they sneaked in, they climbed into the pulpit, professing to be preachers ofthe Gospel when they knew, all along, that they intended to undermine it. Basest of all men are those who act thus! "Thereare certain men crept in unawares."
4. Who were before of old ordained to this condemnation. Proscribed by God as traitors long ago! Those who have not the courageof their convictions probably have no convictions at all, but seek to undermine the faith which they profess to hold.
4. Ungodly men, turning the Grace of our God into lasciviousness, and denying the only Lord God, and Our Lord Jesus Christ.Antinomians, "turning the Grace of our God into lasciviousness," falsely declaring that the Law has no binding force uponthe Christian's life and saying that we may do evil that good may come-and Socinians, "denying the only Lord God, and ourLord Jesus Christ."
5. I will therefore put you in remembrance, though you once knew this, how that the Lord, having saved thepeople out of theland of Egypt, afterward destroyed them that believed not. If we have no real faith, we may appear to go a long way towardsHeaven-but we shall not enter the heavenly Canaan.
6. And the angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, He has reserved in everlasting chainsunder darkness unto the judgment of the great day. See, then, the need of stability, the need of abiding in the faith andabiding in the practice of it, lest we should turn out to be like the Israelites, who, though they came out of Egypt, lefttheir carcasses in the wilderness, or like the angels, who, though they once stood in God's Presence in Glory, have fallento the deeps of the abyss because of their apostasy!
7. 8. Even as Sodom and Gomorrah, and the cities about them in like manner, giving themselves over to fornication, and goingafter strange flesh, are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire. Likewise also these filthy dreamersdefile the flesh, despise dominion and speak evil of dignitaries. They cast off all restraint; they claim to have libertyto do whatever they like-and when reproved, they utter railing words against those who honestly rebuke them!
9. Yet Michael the Archangel, when contending with the devil when he disputed about the body of Moses, dared not bring againsthim a railing accusation, but said, The Lord rebuke you. To what does this refer? I am sure I do not know. I cannot thinkit refers to anything recorded in the Old Testament, but to some fact, known to Jude, who here speaks by Revelation and recordsit. We believe it and learn from it that when an archangel disputes with the devil, he does not use hard words even againsthim, for hard words are an evidence of the weakness of the cause which they are used to support! Hard arguments softly put,are the really effective weapons, but it takes some of us a long time to learn this and generally, in our younger days, wewear away our own strength by the violence with which we use it.
10. But these speak evil of those things which they know not but what they know naturally, as brute beasts, in those thingsthey corrupt themselves. It is a horrible thing when a man's sin goes the full length of his knowledge and he sins up to thedegree of his possibilities!
11. 12. Woe unto them! For they have gone in the way of Cain, and ran greedily after the error of Balaam for reward, and perishedin the gainsaying of Korah. These are spots. "These are spoilers," so it may be rendered.
12. In your feasts of charity. They spoil your love feasts at the Communion Table. They mar your fellowship when you gathertogether for worship.
12. When they feast with you, feeding themselves without fear. Some of the best Christians who come to the Lord's Table, comethere in great fear and trembling. And I have known some who have had an undoubted right to be there, half afraid to come.Yet those very persons who have a holy fear lest they should come amiss, are those who really ought to come. "Feeding themselveswithout fear" is the mark of those who are further off from God.
12. Clouds they are without water, carried about of winds. They believe according to what is said to them by the last manwho speaks to them-they are easily persuaded to this doctrine, and to that, and the other.
12. Trees whose fruit withers, without fruit. They seem to be bearing fruit, but it drops off before it ripens.
12, 13. Twice dead, plucked up by the roots; raging waves of the sea. They have nothing to say for Christ, yet they must saysomething, so they are "raging waves of the sea."
13. Foaming out their own shame, wandering stars, to whom is reserved the thickness of darkness forever These are the falseprofessors of religion, the members of the church for whom there are seats reserved in Hell! This is a dreadful thought-"towhom is reserved the blackness of darkness forever"-not for the heathen, not for the open refusers of the Gospel, but forsuch as creep into the churches unawares, teach false doctrine, live unholy lives!
14, 15. And Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, saying, Behold, the Lord comes with ten thousands of Hissaints, to execute judgment upon all, and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which theyhave ungodly committed, and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against Him. How Jude knew that Enochsaid that, I cannot tell-it is another instance of Divine Inspiration.
16. These are murmurers, complainers. You know the sort of people alluded to here, nothing ever satisfies them. They are discontentedeven with the Gospel. The bread of Heaven must be cut into three pieces and served on dainty napkins, or else they cannoteat it! And very soon their soul loathes even this light bread. There is no way by which a Christian can serve God so as toplease them. They will pick holes in every preacher's coat and if the great High Priest, Himself, were here, they would findfault with the color of the stones of His breastplate!
16-19. Walking after their own lusts; and their mouth speaks great swelling words, having men's persons in admiration becauseof advantage. But, beloved, remember the words which were spoken before of the Apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ, how thatthey told you there should be mockers in the last time who should talk after their own ungodly lusts. These are they who separatethemselves, sensual, having not the Spirit. People who must, if they make a profession of religion at all, be continuallybreaking up churches and holding themselves aloof from others, having no fellowship with anybody but those who can say "shibboleth"as plainly as they can, and sound the "h" pretty loudly.
20-22. But you, beloved, building up yourselves on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in thelove of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life. And of some have compassion, making a difference.Some of those professors who are not living consistently with their profession, in whom you can see signs and tokens of sin,yet there may be some trace of repentance, some reason to hope that they will forsake the evil when they see it to be evil-"havecompassion" upon them.
23. And others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire; hating even the garment spotted by the flesh. When you have todeal with unclean professors, there must be an abhorrence and detestation of their sin even when there is great gentlenesstowards the sinner. We must never be such believers in the repentance of the guilty as to be willing to wink at sin, for sinis a great evil in any case and repentance cannot wipe it away. And though it behooves us to be tender to the sinner, we mustnever be tender to the sin. How beautifully this short and sad Epistle ends! Having described the many who, after making aprofession, yet turn aside, Jude bursts out with this jubilant doxology!
24, 25. Now unto Him who is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of His glory withexceeding joy, to the only wise God our Savior, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and ever. Amen.