1500. Part I.A Threefold Condition

Part I.

A Threefold Condition

Certain Men Crept in Unawares

"For there are certain men crept in privily, even they who were of old written of beforehand unto this condemnation, ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness, and denying our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ" (Jdg_1:4, A. S. V.).

1. "Ungodly"–no God.

2. "Turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness"–no salvation.

3. "Denying our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ"–no Saviour.

Grouping the statements above, let us discuss them as a whole.

The men who have crept in unawares have no God, for they are ungodly. They have no salvation, for they have turned the grace of God into lasciviousness. They have no Saviour, because they deny the Lord Jesus Christ, our only Master. There is a great hue and cry going up to-day on the part of the liberalists, that the orthodox should be willing to fellowship with them. Such a thing is impossible. Two can not walk together when there is an antagonism that separates them as far as the poles. We said, on a certain occasion, that those who deny the Deity of our Lord are not even saved. A minister wrote us a letter bemeaning us. We merely replied that, "if any man believe not, 'ego, eimi,' that I am He, he is yet in his sins." God's "I am," refers to Jesus Christ in His Deity, it proclaims Him God. It is never used save to express His Deity. The man who denies "ego eimi" is yet in his sins. Thus, we behold the sad condition of the certain men who have crept in unawares. They stand in many a pulpit, they teach in many a college, they instruct in many a seminary, and yet they have no God, no salvation, no Saviour.

A Threefold Comparison As to Their Falling Away

"Now I desire to put you in remembrance, though ye know all things once for all, that the Lord, having saved a people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed them that believed not. And angels that kept not their own principality, but left their proper habitation, He hath kept in everlasting bonds under darkness unto the judgment of the great day. Even as Sodom and Gomorrah, and the cities about them, having in like manner with these given themselves over to fornication and gone after strange flesh, are set forth as an example, suffering the punishment of eternal fire" (Jdg_1:5-7, A. S. V.).

Jude's "certain men" are likened unto three classes:

Like Israel–living with God's people but not of them.

Like Angels–leaving their high calling.

Like Sodom and Gomorrha–lusting after strange flesh.

We have summed up for us a threefold illustration of the apostasy of these certain men.

1. The children of Israel numbered many who were not truly Israel. Thus Jude's "certain men" are traveling with us, but, in their heart of hearts, they believe not. They are with us, but they are not of us.

2. The angels had a high calling. They were ministering spirits, doing the will of God, but many of them left their high estate. Thus Jude's "certain men" were separated unto a high calling, ministers of Jesus Christ, representatives of the God of Heaven, teachers of His Word, yet they have left their high estate, and have gone about enamored by the things temporal, things carnal; they have become preachers of civic and social righteousness; they have left the righteousness of God; they are preachers of salvation through the flesh, through good morals, through world standards. They have left the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.

3. Sodom and Gomorrha went to "lusting after strange flesh." Jude's "certain men" join in with everything that is of the world–they join secret societies and worldly clubs; they enter a false fellowship, and yoke themselves together with unbelievers.

A Threefold Comparison As to Their Faults

"Woe unto them! for they went in the way of Cain, and ran riotously in the error of Balaam for hire, and perished in the gainsaying of Korah" (Jdg_1:11, A. S. V.).

Jude's "certain men" are likened unto three characters–

Cain and his Crossless Christ.

Balaam and his craze for gold.

Korah and his contentions and gainsayings.

1. These certain men are like Cain because they have no "blood in the basin;" they know nothing of the slain sacrifice. They may preach the "Man of Galilee," but they know nothing of the "Man of Calvary." Their messages entirely eliminate the atonement and substitutionary sacrifice of the Son of God. Man, according to them, is his own saviour; he is his own helper; he finds in himself the Divine spark that needs no more than fanning to develop the flame of deity.

2. These certain men are like Balaam because in their error, they crave for reward. If the reward is not money, it is fame; if it is not fame, it is at least some recognition which they seek of men. They delight to stand in the lead in the assemblies and the conventions of the church; they seek to be called of men, "Rabbi, Rabbi." Their pulpit becomes no more than a profession, seeking preferment, instead of a Divine calling, seeking the salvation of men.

3. These certain men are like Korah because of their contentions and gainsayings against God's faithful ministers. They ransack their brains for epithets that they may fasten onto the men who still cling to the old Gospel, the message of the fathers. They rummage a dictionary to fling phrases against the orthodox who still cling to the old "one by one evangelism," and personal regeneration, the method of the fathers. As Korah withstood Moses, so do they withstand the Truth. The orthodox are known as "mossbacks," sustainers of "decadent documents" and tale-bearers of threadbare theories.

A Threefold Comparison As to Their Fruitage

"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;

"Raging waves of the sea, foaming out their own shame; wandering stars, to whom is reserved the blackness of darkness for ever" (Jdg_1:12-13).

Jude's "certain men" are likened unto three conditions:

The heavens and wandering clouds.

The earth and fruitless trees.

The sea and foaming waters.

Thus, does the Holy Spirit place before us three striking illustrations of the hollowness, the uselessness and the folly of certain men who have no God, no salvation, no Saviour.

1. They are like waterless clouds wandering through the heavens. As they pass over the thirsty soil, the earth cries unto them for water, but they merely pass by, borne along by the winds.

Thus it is with men who are carried hither and thither by the winds of men's doctrines. They stand before their audiences, and their crowds cry for the Water of Life, but they have no Christ to offer, no salvation. They preach ethics, they preach eugenics, but what is there in all of this for a poor, sin-sick soul, bound and imprisoned in his sins?

2. They are like the trees of the earth which are autumnal, without fruit, without leaves, plucked up, twice dead.

The Lord said, "Herein is My Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit," but these men know nothing of a ministry fruitful in the Spirit. Their churches never hear the cry of the newborn soul, their ministry never produces saints. They are fruitless.

3. They are like the sea and its waves dashing upon the shore, foaming out their shame. They can cry out in maddened fury against the faithful, but they know nothing of the quiet calm which comes to those who rest in the Lord and delight in Him. They are like "the troubled waves which have no rest."

A Threefold Condemnation and Judgment

"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" (Jdg_1:15).

Jude's "certain men" are under condemnation,

For their ungodly walk.

For their ungodly works.

For their ungodly words.

It seems wonderful to us that in presenting this judgment of God against the ungodly, the Holy Spirit should have gone back in history to Enoch, the seventh from Adam, and yet, we believe the Word. This man, who lived far back, half-way between the Garden of Eden and the deluge, prophesied of the coming of the Lord with ten thousands of His saints, taking judgment against the ungodly. There are, to be sure, many ungodly among men, but the Holy Spirit singled out the certain men who have crept into the church unawares, men who feast with the saints, who even profess to be saints. Against them He brings the condemnation.

1. They are ungodly in their walk or life because they are called the ungodly.

2. They are ungodly in their works because their works are human works, the works of the flesh which they have ungodly committed.

3. They are ungodly in their words because their mouths have spoken against the Lord of Glory. The word, "ungodly" does not necessarily mean base and lewd and vulgar in the immoral sense. It does mean that these men have a walk, a work, and a word wherein they utterly repudiate our only Lord God and our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ.

A Threefold Centering in Self

"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" (Jdg_1:16).

Jude's "certain men" are self-centered,

Walking after their own lusts Murmurers, Complainers,

Speaking swelling words,

Admiring persons for profit.

The Holy Spirit in the Epistle of Jude does not commend the "certain men" who deny the Lord Jesus. He does set forth God's opinion of the critics.

1. They walk in their own lusts or desires. They are thinking of themselves and living for themselves. They are described in Isaiah 56, "Come ye, say they, we will fetch wine, and we will fill ourselves with strong drink; and to morrow shall be as this day, only much more abundant." "They are looking everyone to their own way, everyone for his own gain, from his own quarter."

It is quite natural in seeking one's own desires to murmur and to complain against God. This is just what the children of Israel did in their wilderness wanderings. They cried for the flesh pots of Egypt. They murmured and complained against Moses and against the God of Glory.

2. They speak great swelling words. This is the natural thing for those to do who are self-centered. With pharisaical precision, these certain men know how to make long prayers and to utter wordy sentences. Their words are great swelling words, words of assumed authority. They feel that what they say must be heard. Their scientific and philosophical deductions, no matter how contrary to the more sure Word of the Living God, must be received.

3. They admire men's persons for profit. Men whose lives center in themselves, who live for their own desires, will naturally seek profit by parading a false pleasure in persons of prominence. Such will bow before the authoritative leaders in church or denominational life. They know that worldly preferment and personal profit, with rapid advance toward a better pulpit, can be more rapidly attained through bowing down to men who are higher up. They admire men's persons, not in sincerity and in truth, but because they profit thereby.

A Threefold Conclusion

"How that they told you there should be mockers in the last time, who should walk after their own ungodly lusts.

"These be they who separate themselves, sensual, having not the Spirit" (Jdg_1:18-19).

Jude's "certain men" are last-time mockers–they are

Separatists–making separation.

Soulish–men of souls.

Spiritless–having not the Spirit.

Only yesterday we heard a man contend with clinched fist and with excited, angry mien, for love and co-operation. He said that two great doctrines were causing a split in the church. The first was the doctrine of the Second Coming of Christ, which certain people believed and propagated; the second was the doctrine of evolution, which these same people would not believe. He said that the men who cling tenaciously for the coming of the Lord, and who fight just as tenaciously against evolution, are separating and dividing the Church of God.

He demanded that we should reach over the fence and shake hands with the Roman Catholic; that we should stand together with men of different creed and faith, that denominationalism and denominational bars should be removed. He went so far as to quote the song, "Blest be the tie that binds," and angrily, misrepresented and denounced the orthodoxy of premillennialists; asserting withal that they were making separation.

We could not longer refrain ourselves. We arose and said that God in the Book of Jude said that the men who have crept in unawares, turning the grace of God to lasciviousness and denying our Lord God, were making separation necessary, that the Lord our God clearly told us to come out and be separate; that we could not welcome into our home or church the deniers of the faith, lest we become partakers with them in their evil deeds.

Autor: R.E. NEIGHBOUR