In order to fully understand the connection between not contending for the faith and denying the Lord, we will examine the focal passage (Jude 1-4).  It is important that we recognize to whom and about whom the epistle was written.

In verse one Jude reminded his readers that he was a true, God-called, God-appointed, God- anointed servant who spoke and wrote God’s Truth.  Those characteristics set the apostle apart from the church leaders he was writing about who were false, Satan-called, appointed and anointed servants who spoke and wrote his perverted version of God’s Truth (Gal. 1:6-9).  As the Scriptures will show, the people Jude was writing to did not recognize the difference between the gospel he taught and that taught by their local leaders.  The question is: Why?  Being totally different, why could they not recognize the different?  The answer, as usual, was in the “fine print.”  Avoidance of the Lord’s fine print study has a long history.

Jude was obviously frustrated because he was having to remind God’s “beloved” people (vs 3) that, though the Lord had delivered their ancestors out of Egyptian slavery, He had then killed 3,000 of them.  Jude also had to remind them that God had also destroyed Sodom, Gomorrah and the surrounding cities (vs 7).  The Almighty destroyed those all of those people and all of those cities for the same reason:  SIN.  He killed the 3000 for having a sex orgy and bowing to another god.  Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed because of their homosexuality.

To emphasized his point, the apostle equates those sinners of the past to the false prophets and their followers in the church at the time of his ministry–between 40 and 50 A.D.  He characterizes both groups as filthy dreamers, brute beasts, Cain-level sinners, worshippers of Balaam, spots in their gatherings.  He noted that they had no fear of God.  He called them waterless clouds, fruitless trees, twice dead, raging waves of the sea who proclaimed their shame (vss 8-13).  What could these false prophets have been teaching the people that would bring on such condemnation from God’s apostle?  Let us return to verses 3 and 4 to find out.

In verse 3 Jude reminds the church of the common salvation that was based on the faith which the apostles of God had preached to the saints from the beginning of the New Testament Church.  THE faith had not changed.  Neither had THE salvation that THE faith would produce for them.  But CERTAIN MEN had arisen in the church and were causing trouble.  Note that these false prophets had CREPT into the church and had then risen up to leadership positions.  They had slipped in under the church’s spiritual radar, which had apparently not been in operation.  They had not only been welcomed in, but had risen, by the agreement of the congregation, to ministerial status.  Read Ministerial Ordination.  Key word–Ordination.  These men bore the same spiritual characteristics Jude had described in verses 5-13.  These self-proclaimed “ministers of righteousness” were openly declaring doctrines and practices dictated by the self-proclaimed “angel of light” (2 Cor. 11:13-15).  The congregations had obviously not noticed that their “truths” were directly opposite of what the apostles had taught the church from the beginning relative to THE (COMMON) FAITH AND THE COMMON SALVATION.

Jude was reminding the church that THE “Faith comes by hearing THE Word of God” (Rom. 10:19).  The “beloved” were not hearing the Word of God, but rather the word of Satan.  They were basing their faith on Satan’s word, just as had Adam and Eve.  And like them, they assumed that because they were hearing what they wanted to hear, and because their leaders used some of God’s Truths (“headlines”) there could be no doubt that they had been sent from God and were hearing directly from Him.

In Matthew 24:4,5,11 Jesus had warned about that very thing.  He tells us to beware that such people (wolves) would present themselves as sheep.  The would proclaim that He–Jesus–was indeed the Messiah, then, having gained the people’s confidence, would deceive many of them.  In fact they have deceived all but a few (Mat. 7:13,14).  In verse 12 Jesus warned that, due to their teaching that the Law had been done away with, iniquity (Lawlessness) would abound, causing the love of many to grow cold.  The men Jude was writing about were very likely performing signs, wonders and miracles.  Read All That Glitters.  Key word–Glitters.

This is a good point at which to remind the reader of what God tells us in Deuteronomy 13:1-4.  Here He warns that if a PROPHET arises among the people and tells them that the Lord has given him a sign that something is going to happen, AND THAT SIGN COMES TO PASS, that they are not to automatically assume that the prophet is a true servant of God.  “By their fruits (not their miracles) you shall know them.”  If that miracle-working prophet asks them to worship other gods, they are to understand that GOD IS TESTING THEM TO SEE IF THEY LOVE HIM WITH ALL THEIR HEART AND SOUL.  He told them (and us): “You must WALK after the Lord your God and FEAR Him and KEEP His commandments and OBEY His voice and SERVE Him and CLING to Him.”  There are many miracle workers healing the sick, casting out demons, pastoring huge churches, etc. today who are not preaching God’s Truth.  They have huge followings, some operate on a world-wide level and have rock-star status within the church community.  They have deceived the masses to “go after other gods” as Moses warned in Deuteronomy 13:1-4.

The men Jude was warning the people about were like those Moses warned Israel about in Deuteronomy 13 and Jesus warned about in Matthew 24.  The popular, seemingly “holy men” of Jude’s day were trying to deceive the people into “serving other gods.”  Their ministerial descendants have deceived the masses into following “other gods,” in fact, two of them.   They are the false god and false christ of Catholicism/Protestantism who lead a false church and offer a false salvation and false eternity.  Read Bait and Switch.  Key word–Switch.

In Jude 4 the apostle describes today’s ear-scratching hirelings as men (and women) who are ordained to condemnation for “… TURNING THE GRACE OF OUR GOD INTO LASCIVIOUSNESS AND (THEREBY) DENYING THE ONLY LORD GOD AND OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST.”  THEY DENY GOD AND CHRIST LORDSHIP OVER THEIR LIVES.  THEY IN FACT HAVE MADE THEMSELVES THEIR OWN GODS.

Like Adam and Eve before them, the people Jude was writing to had been deceived by Satan.  He has done the same thing to their spiritual descendants ever since.  Question: How did this happened?  Answer: lack of vigilance.  “The devil is like a roaring lion, going about seeking whom he may devour” (1 Pet. 5:8).  He devours those who fail to “test the spirits” of those who minister to them (1 Jn. 4:1).  Professing Christendom has failed to “Prove all things (of God) and to hold fast to that which is good” (1 Thes. 5:21).  How do we prove what is of God and what is not?  How do we know what is good?  How do we know what to hold onto and what to reject?  There is only one way–“Study to show yourself approved of God” (2 Tim. 2:15).  Study what?  “ALL SCRIPTURE is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction and for instruction in righteousness” (2 Tim. 3:16).  “All Scripture” included God’s “fine print” which church people refuse to study.

The people Jude was writing to had failed to study the Scriptures.  Rather, they, along with their modern day descendants, study only what their hirelings tell them–God’s “headlines.”  Being ignorant of 99% of the Lord’s holy Word, the people failed to test the words of their leaders to see how they line up against God’s Word.  Nothing has changed.  False prophets continue to fill the world’s pulpits.  They repeatedly fill the minds (hearts) of their followers with Satan’s false messages about a false god, a false christ and a false salvation.  It is the responsibility of the congregation to compare the words of their leaders to God’s Words.  They refuse to do.  And when a man of God points out the differences to them, he is automatically rejected and accused of having “fallen from grace.”  I was accused of falling from grace because I had the audacity to compare God’s Word to church doctrine, and to do so in the local newspaper.  Hell has no fury like preachers who have been exposed.  Still, the people flock to hear them.  NEVER UNDERESTAMENT THE POWER SATAN HOLDS OVER THE INSTITUTIONAL CHURCH. He has the church exactly where he wants her–ignorant and determined to stay that way.  L.J.