The point in the Epistle of Jude is departure from original standing, and contains strong warning to us in the last days. It is not the same as 2 Peter, where you get the angels judged for having sinned. In Jude it is apostasy: “They kept not their first estate.” In 1 Peter we get the judgment of God's people (the house of chap, iv). It is the government of God exercised towards His people. In 2 Peter it is His government exercised against wickedness. The general character of apostasy is Cain, of ecclesiastical error, Balsam, of gainsaying, Korah. The mention of these things is meant to be a warning, and an admonition— “crept in” practically denying the grace of God. He warns against such. (Ver. 2.) Why is mercy introduced here? Because they needed the mercy, they were no longer addressed as the Church, but as individuals. In all the closing writings of the New Testament the Church is looked at as a thing judged (that is, the professing thing on earth). God is judging it as contrary to His mind. If God's judgment is on the Church, I cannot look to it for judgment: its judgment is worth nothing to me.
“Sanctified, preserved, called.” (Ver. 1.) Sanctification is the result of the accomplished will of God. “By the which will we are sanctified” (Heb. 10), accomplished thing. You do not get the operations of the Spirit in Hebrews. In Heb. 10 it is looking rather at the efficacy of the offering of Jesus Christ of which sanctification is the result. Here in Jude it is more individual, “by the Father.” “Sanctified by God the Father.” The sanctification goes rather farther than in Hebrews. Relationship comes in here, as “the Father.” In John 17:17, “Sanctify them through thy truth;” there it is the way in which it is wrought. He was going to write to them about the common salvation, but was obliged to write on this particular subject, because they were in danger. We have lost what he was going to write, but we have gained what he did write by the guidance of the Spirit. If the first estate is not kept, there may be long patience, but there is no remedy. And when God comes in to judge, He always goes back to the first departure from the original standing. Thus Stephen, when speaking of the departure and sin of Israel, goes back to the golden calf, their first departure. (Acts 7) We must go back to the original to judge the present state. “I planted wholly a right seed.” Verse 4 shows the character it suited the enemy to take at a particular time. Those who had “crept in unawares” are those on whom the Lord will execute judgment when Ile comes. Enoch prophesied of these. (Verse. 14, 15.) The same set of people who in the apostle's day were coming in the Lord will judge.
They deny the only Lord (despotes). The same word is used in 2 Peter 2:1, “denying the Lord that bought them.” He bought the world, just as Joseph bought up all the land of Egypt and the persons too for Pharaoh—like a slave bought. I will not know you apart from your master. It has nothing to do with redemption. It is His claim over them, but these “crept in unawares,” refuse to admit His claim.
How “contend earnestly for the faith once delivered?” This would be rather defending the faith which we have than attacking that which is false. If I see the mischief coming in, I stand out against it, setting my face as a flint. There is no good in your raising the devil if you cannot lay him. There is no use in your meddling with evil if you are not called of God to do so.
“Once delivered,” that is, I must go back to the beginning, to the original faith as it was delivered. In these days it is all-important to inquire what was from the beginning. You have certainly got what is in the Now Testament, what was in the beginning. If I abide in that, I abide in the Father and in the Son. (1 John 2:24.) Verse 14, Enoch's prophecy. The first testimony of God. Here we find that God had from His first testimony contemplated the apostasy of the Church. Just as in Deut. 32 at the commencement of Israel's history, He foretells what the end would be. At the starting point the apostasy was thought of. It strengthens faith to see this. I am not surprised at any evil that may come in. I am not looking at what He has put out of His hand, but at that which is in His heart. The tendency of the path all around was to shake faith. “Will ye also go away?” A person never sees beyond what he is. May not a person have light beyond his position? He cannot judge beyond the moral state he is in. A person may have light as to mere knowledge, but not as to their judgment of things around.
There is responsibility as to being clean in your walk. “Contend,” agonize for it. It may be in stating the truth—not only to teach but to convince gainsayers. (Ver. 11.) In Cain we get the first principles of apostasy, natural religion and evil, the world and hatred to that which is true. In Balaam we get religion for gain, selling his services for reward, and fornication (seducing God's people), and idols. In Korah we get open rebellion, the full apostasy, the denial of Christ in His titles as priest and king. Cain is the man in whose family the world was set up with a natural false worship. The Balaam and Borah forms of evil are going on both together. “Science and religion are twin sisters in the cradle.” With Cain it was the utter blindness toward God. What answers to the gainsaying of Korah now? It is open infidelity such as we find in Colenso and the “Essays and Reviews.” The error of Balaam for reward. Balaam's was religious seduction, taking the name of the Lord, and the real inspiration comes from the devil. “Stand here while I meet (the Lord) yonder.” The words, “the Lord,” are introduced by the translators. He was really going to seek enchantments, as we learn from Num. 24:1. Here we get Puseyism. He was professing to get his inspiration from the Lord, whilst really inspired by the devil.
What is the difference between Jezebel and Balaam?
In Balaam we get him selling what he really received from God to the devil for reward. Jezebel is the principle of national religion. Jezebel had no business with Israel at all. It is the Jezebel character of evil rather than that of Balaam now. “For reward” is the point here. We get the other in Pergamos. (Rev. 2) He had a certain and remarkable knowledge of Jehovah, but could not do what he liked—an awfully wicked man—with the love of reward, power, and gifts. “Feast with you, feeding themselves,” &c. They like the credit of being with God's children. Those who had crept in were feasting themselves at their feasts of charity, like those against whom the apostle warns the Philippians, “whose god is their belly.” Another thing which characterizes them was the absence of all conscience, “feeding themselves without fear.” Compare Ezek. 28, the prince of Tire. Conscience is always awake when we have to do with God. It may be sometimes reproved, but is always awake.
Verse 19. Without God's Spirit. “These be they who separate themselves.” They are like the Pharisees. “Stand by thyself. Come not near me, for I am holier than thou.” (Isa. 45:5.) The word Pharisee means “separate.” Here they are those who had crept in. In 1 John 2 the antichrists are distinguished by having gone out. Verse 20. That which characterizes the faith amidst all the evil is that it is a “most holy faith.” “Praying in the Holy Ghost.” The great difference between those who were really saints and those who had crept in was having the Spirit; the others are. described as “sensual, having not the Spirit.” The presence of the Holy Ghost in the saints is what characterizes the Christian state and the Christian Church in this dispensation. “The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God.” “He that is spiritual discerneth all things.” We do not make half enough of the fact that our bodies are the temple of the Holy Ghost. No Spirit, no life; no Spirit, no spiritual understanding. Prayer is not only dependence, but expressed dependence, absolute confidence too. “In everything by prayer let your requests be made known unto God.” It may be perhaps foolish requests. It is the emptying out of the heart to God. It does not say that you will receive all your request, but that “the peace of God, which passeth all understanding shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.” It is another thing to go and talk with Him about His interests. There is another thing needed—absolute confidence in God, asking in the name, being in the current. If the words dwell in us, we shall ask aright. Moses says to God, “You brought out. What will you do for your great name?” Until the Lord Jesus comes, the state will be evil. The last bit of the hill is the steepest; but climb, never mind, and “as thy day so shall thy strength be.” The days in which we live are perilous times, but the Lord is just as sufficient for perilous times as any other time. The power of the Spirit is always accompanied by a sense of weakness and difficulty, and therefore the need of mercy. “Looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life.” It is here the mercy needed along all the path, mercy reaching to the end and carrying us into everlasting life. It is not the same as Phil. 3—looking for the Savior, that is, actual deliverance. Peter speaks of the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. “Building up yourselves” is individual here. It is not building the Church but individuals. “Keep yourselves in the love of God” practically. It is one thing to know the love of God as a general truth” God so loved the world;” but it is another thing to know myself as the special object of it. It is knowing myself as the special object of. it that I get here. We get the two things in Eph. 1:4, 5. In verse 4 it is the general truth that we should be “holy and without blame before him in love.” In verse 5 the special thing is, “Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ unto himself.” We get the same thing of the love of Christ. He “loved me and gave himself for me.” Verses 22, 23. It is a man who will not let an evil in to hinder the enjoyment of divine love. When a man is ensnared, “have compassion;” but if he goes on recklessly, without conscience, have “fear.” Verse 24. There is a power able to keep the saints above circumstances. The epistle begins with “sanctified by God the Father,” and ends with the purpose carried out by the only “God our Savior.” “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.” “Faultless” as to our walk, our life. he is able to keep one. “Exceeding joy?” Yes. We ought not to lose sight of that, that there is a power efficient to keep us from filling. We are apt to get into the seventh chapter of Romans as a practical state. There is an evil nature and it will out. “That ye may not do,” &c. The Spirit hinders you from living after the flesh. Verse 23. “Saving” saints. Ha sees the saints in conflict, but above the circumstances. A saint above circumstances knows how to abound and to be hungry. We do not realize sufficiently that the power is there to keep us from falling—in all things more than conquerors, that is, over circumstances.
It is a great thing to have the inward consciousness of the love of God, that I walk in the perfect consciousness that God loves me. “Put on therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved,” &c. It is power as regards my walk, that I have the present and immediate consciousness that God loves me. I get a double character of His love—His nature. And all that He does flows from love. But it is another thing to be the personal object of His love. “He loved us and washed us.” “Loved me and gave himself for me.” God's love was manifested, and that in His general character. He might have had servants, but that would not satisfy Him.