"Certain Persons” – The Creepers Who Slipped In, Quietly In Slippers – Jude 1 Verse 4 Series

“CERTAIN PERSONS” – THE CREEPERS WHO SLIPPED IN, QUIETLY IN SLIPPERS – Jude 1 verse 4

MESSAGES IN JUDE – MESSAGE 3 Jude 1 v 4

Jude 1:4 “for certain persons have crept in unnoticed, those who were long beforehand marked out for this condemnation, ungodly persons who turn the grace of our God into licentiousness and deny Jesus Christ, our only Master and Lord.”

[A]. CERTAIN PERSONS: Who are these persons that are sent by the evil one to adulterate the pure gospel and the faith? They are called “certain persons” in the NASB and NIV. Peter in {{2 Peter 2 v 1 - 2 wrote – “But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing upon themselves swift destruction. And many will follow their sensuality, and because of them the way of truth will be blasphemed.”}}

Where did they come from, and who are they? They had a certain acceptability about them, great imitation, subtle enough to fool the genuine saints who did not have the discernment to detect what these people were up to. Remember that Satan can transform himself into an angel of light. Deception is Satan’s work. In the coming day in the Tribulation it tells us that conditions are such that even the elect are likely to be deceived. In Jude’s day it was becoming clear that false teachers were spreading abroad, exactly the same conditions that Peter wrote about. John too, saw that very clearly when he wrote to his readers – {{2John 1 v 7 “Many deceivers have gone out into the world, those who do not acknowledge Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh. This is the deceiver and the antichrist.” 1John 4 v 1 - 3 “Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God because many false prophets have gone out into the world. By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist of which you have heard that it is coming, and now it is already in the world.”}}

Paul had to warn the Ephesian elders about what was coming – {{Acts 20 v 28 - 31 “Be on guard for yourselves and for all the flock, among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church of God which He purchased with His own blood. I know that after my departure savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock, and from among your own selves men will arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away the disciples after them. Therefore be on the alert, remembering that night and day for a period of three years I did not cease to admonish each one with tears.”}}

We can not say with certainty who these “certain persons” were, but there are several contenders. The Gnostics added to God’s finished revelation with this “higher knowledge” on a more spiritual plane, and added to that, false doctrines. The Nicolaitans are said to have maintained that marriage was a human invention, not binding on Christians; on which account they had women in common, and practised unnatural lusts, as is plain from Jude’s account of them. Other false teachers messed with the doctrine of Christ and the Holy Spirit, while others again, wanted to bring the saints into bondage by keeping the Law of Moses. These weeds proliferated from the beginning, and abound today also.

[B]. CREEPERS AND SLIPPERS: What is the significance of the word “crept”? (crept in unnoticed and quietly). The sense of crept is a slow and gradual change. It starts with just small change, small steps. These people want to bring in a change to what is orthodox teaching because they don’t understand what the truth is. They water down the gospel or they dwell only on small parts of it. They bring in emotionalism to replace careful discernment, and give themselves to experience to replace faith. They had come in "by stealth". They had not come by a bold and open statement of their real sentiments. They professed to teach the Christian way and made themselves as woolly as the rest of the flock, when in fact, these wolves denied some of its fundamental doctrines. They professed to be holy, when in fact, they were living most scandalous lives.

Yes has a no. The giant has a dwarf. Strength has weakness. Pretty has an ugly. Hot has its cold. Good has its bad. Truth has its falsehood. The wheat has its tares. The tares sneaked in. They are the devil’s agents. The godly believers, the faithful ones, are as lambs amongst wolves, as lilies amongst thorns, as doves amongst ravens. Many malign the faith, therefore we must be ready to defend it, yea, strive for it unto death, because ungodly persons are subverting the faith.