Jude Addresses Christians With Practical Advice For Living In The World – Jude 1:17-23 Series

JUDE ADDRESSES CHRISTIANS WITH PRACTICAL ADVICE FOR LIVING IN THE WORLD – Jude 1:17-23

Jude 1 v 17 “but you, beloved, ought to remember the words that were spoken beforehand by the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ, Jude 1:18 that they were saying to you, “In the last time there shall be mockers, following after their own ungodly lusts.” Jude 1:19 These are the ones who cause divisions, worldly-minded, devoid of the Spirit, Jude 1:20 but you, beloved, building yourselves up on your most holy faith; praying in the Holy Spirit; Jude 1:21 keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting anxiously for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to eternal life. Jude 1:22 Have mercy on some who are doubting. Jude 1:23 Save others, snatching them out of the fire, and on some have mercy with fear, hating even the garment polluted by the flesh.”

PRACTICAL ISSUES FOR CHRISTIANS

As Jude nears the end of his letter, his focus is coming off the false teachers and is being placed on the behaviour of Christians. As I see what is happening in churches here and abroad, it causes distress to see the attitudes of people who go under the name of Christian. Some are content to give up an hour of their time on Sunday morning as if they are doing the Lord a favour. Others don’t open their bibles from one week to the next. They have little, or no interest in bible study. Others live in the world as if they are part of the very world system from which the Lord delivers us. Even others live so carelessly that you’d be surprised to learn they even go to a church. Then you have those in churches who are influenced by the things of the world and false teaching, who even deny the Lord who bought them, and subscribe to liberalism, and the agendas of the world, especially to the socialist left, that very left wing that is pushing hard today for adoption of homosexual marriage and the abolition of religious education from schools, and the equality of multi-religious belief, and a socialist globalism, and a religious zeal for unproven climate change.

Jude, having spent the majority of his letter in exposing the false teachers and their evil teachings and life styles, now moves to the need of Christians to be true followers of the Lord. I feel I feel some preachers steer clear of these messages in Jude, which distresses me, for we are to know the signs of the times and every one of the Apostles in their writings addressed false teaching. We must know the true, so we can expose the false. We must know the false, so we can uphold the good. Jude is now moving to establish with clarity what is the correct path for Christians.

MOCKERS IN THE LAST DAYS

Let us see what he says, beginning at verse 17 where he reminds them of the Lord’s warning against mockers. Yes, there have always been mockers, but Jude is saying that in these last days of the Church age, there will be an increase in mocking, and those who do it. Any of you who know what current conditions are like in various educational institutions, will know that Universities are filled with cynics and mockers and self-inflated academics who delight in belittling Christianity at every opportunity. Many of the left wing news outlets such as The Washington Post and The New York Times and CNN and the Sydney Morning Herald and The Brisbane Times and the ABC, and SBS, keep pushing out articles to degrade Christianity and to question the beliefs of Christians, making out Christians are deluded and are foolish.

I don’t want you to do it, but if you listen to these so called comedians, and comics, and all who follow in their train, you hear these people mocking Jesus Christ and degrading our faith as if inspired by Satan to do it. In fact some of them are so vile in everything they distort, just for laughs from those who are fast-tracking to hell. The bible calls this “coarse jesting”. I would challenge every one of these comedians to stand up and do exactly the same thing to Mohammad and Allah. Cowards, they won’t, but bask in their evil under the umbrella of God’s grace and the laws of the land that does not strike them down on the spot. How many anti-Christian agitators and comedians are in hell in great remorse, but it is too late.

Yes, we will get mockers in the last days, as the New Testament writers have told us. If it happened to our dear Lord Jesus, it will happen to us also – {{Matthew 20 v 19 “and will deliver Him to the Gentiles to mock and scourge and crucify Him, and on the third day He will be raised up.” Matt 27:29 and after weaving a crown of thorns they put it on His head, and a reed in His right hand, and they kneeled down before Him and mocked Him saying, “Hail, King of the Jews!”}} (add scorners from Psalm 1 I have on a sheet)