Volume 21, Number 2 July Summer 2026
Bible Study in the Book Of Jude
Contending for the Faith
(Part IV of IV)
Jude 17-19
17 “But, beloved, remember ye the words which were spoken before of the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ; 18 How that they told you there should be mockers in the last time, who should walk after their own ungodly lusts. 19 These be they who separate themselves, sensual, having not the Spirit.”
After Giving an In-Depth Description of Evil Apostates
God Warmly Encourages All “beloved” Believers
By the very fact that God addresses the “beloved,” indicates where there will always be a believing remnant even in the worst periods of apostasy in the history of the church (v.17). Accepting and cherishing God’s message of hope is a mark of sonship, while turning away from God’s Word is a mark of apostasy. A clear and unmistakable mark of an apostate church is that God’s Word is not their top priority. Therefore, true believers are admonished to “remember” (which means don’t forget) “the words which were spoken before of the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ.” We are always to “remember” that Holy Scripture is the divinely inspired and inerrant Word of God (II Pet. 1:21). We are also to “remember” Paul’s warning to the church of Satanic attack against her (Acts 20:29).
“Jude” gives a final description of apostates that can be expected in the “last days” (v.18-19). When we come across the words, “last days,” in Scripture there is sometimes confusion as to the exact period of time in history this is applicable. Generally speaking, as most likely it is in this text, the “last days” began with the resurrection of Christ and will continue until He returns the second time to this earth (II Tim. 3:1-17). Needless to say, there will be a latter part of the “last days” just before Christ comes again at which time it will continue to grow spiritually worse upon the face of the earth as it did in Noah’s day. In other words, things in this world will keep getting worse and worse rather than better and better until Jesus comes again. Herein, we are given one last description of apostates to add to our previous list.
Apostates are “mockers” (v.18a). In this case, “mockers” are people who simply scorn the teaching of God’s Word (II Pet. 3:1-3). Sinners most often mock God in one of two ways, either by ridiculing the Gospel by laughing and making fun of it or by trying to imitate and counterfeit it while living in sin and professing to believe it.
Apostates “walk after their own ungodly lusts” (v.18b). They consider their own selfish desires to be more important than the will of God. The “ungodly lusts” of an apostate is like the mere animal-like behavior of “brute beasts” like it is called back in verse 10. Just as an animal is in bondage to his master, the lustful apostate is in bondage to corruption. Even though they make an outward profession of faith, there is no inward change of nature and they remain enslaved to sin and Satan.
Apostates “separate themselves” from the divine limits of Almighty God (v.19a). While Christians are to “separate” (II Cor. 6:17) from sin unto God, apostates “separate” from God to sin and are content living outside the boundaries of God’s holiness (I Pet. 1:16). This compromising with sin will bring division in the true church of Jesus Christ (Matt. 16:18). The division that came to the church during the days of the Reformation was brought about by men who did not respect the authority of God’s Word as we find Martin Luther holding to divine Truth and the apostates departing from it. Today, apostates are still guilty of separations and factions with the church by holding a liberal attitude toward the Word of God. “Diotrephes,” during the days of the apostle John, is a good example of one who rejected spiritual authority for the sake of his own “preeminence” (III Jh. 9).
Apostates, like we’ve already seen, are “sensual, having not the Spirit” of the living God within them (v.19b). “Sensual” is a word that doesn’t mean lascivious or lustful, but is equivalent to that which refers to the natural man outside of Christ. As sinners, we’re all born in the natural state and are prone to live carnal lives. Unsaved people are natural because they are dominated by their selfish senses. It’s possible for a Christian to sin and drift into an act of carnality, but impossible for them to persist in it without the Holy Spirit bringing “chastisement” upon us (Heb.12:5-11). Therefore, it’s a clear indicator that an apostate is a lost sinner who has never become a member of the family of God. It doesn’t matter if an apostate is a church member or if he/she has made a public profession, or if he holds a prominent position in a local church, when the Bible calls him “sensual” it means that he is a natural unsaved person. To make that perfectly clear, Scripture declares that such a person has “not the Spirit” of God (Rom. 8:9). Every person is born with a body, soul, and spirit (I Thess. 5:23); however, one does not possess the Holy Spirit until conversion to Christ who is the very source of our salvation to begin with. A genuine believer has been baptized, sealed, indwelt, taught, and led by the Holy Sprit. An apostate on the other hand is not a mistaken Christian or one who merely doesn’t understand Scripture properly, but one in whom the “Spirit” of God does not dwell.
Jude 20-21
20 “But ye, beloved, building up yourselves on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost, 21 Keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life.”
In Contrast to the Apostate “mockers” Who Tear Down the Work of God, the “beloved” Saints of God are to Build it Up to God’s glory
We, as believers, are admonished to be found “building up yourselves on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost” (v.20). After warning against apostates (v.1-19), God tells believers how to react when apostasy strikes (v.20-23). Not only is the believer to “contend for the faith” (v.3), meaning to fight for the “faith,” but we are expected to BUILD (grow) spiritually in the “faith” and encourage others to do so. At this point we are reminded that there is a place for both the SWORD and the TROWEL in the Christian life (Neh. 4:15-17). We shouldn’t be so busy fighting the enemy, that we fail to grow spiritually and we are not to be so busy growing that we fail to defend the “faith.” To “contend” without building or to build without contending will cause the believer to be off balance.
According to the present participle in the Greek text, “building” speaks of the life-long process of maturing in Christ. Apart from yielding ourselves to the Word of God, there will be no GROWTH in the things of God (Acts 20:32). Christians need to subject themselves to a conducive environment whereby they can mature in the “faith.” A major way to do this is “praying in the Holy Ghost” which means that we pray seeking the will of God and yielding ourselves to it like Jesus taught us to do (Lk. 22:42). This is NO reference to speaking in tongues, which was actually speaking in a foreign language (Acts 2), but to a believer’s communion with God as he surrenders to God’s “will” alone (Eph. 6:18). To pray “in the Holy Ghost” is to pray from a heart that is yielded completely to God, illuminated, and controlled by the “Holy Spirit” (Rom. 8:26-27). All genuine prayer must be motivated by the “Holy Spirit” or else victorious Christian living would be impossible.
Believers are also admonished “keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life” (v.21). To begin with, a Christian cannot keep himself saved because that is the task of the Holy Spirit. However, we are responsible for keeping ourselves within the sphere of God’s blessings. In other words, we cannot deliberately and intentionally live in sin and expect God to bless us. A major way that we have of doing this is always expecting and waiting for the return of our Lord. In the Greek, “looking for” also means waiting for, which implies the patience of faith. “The mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ” along with His amazing grace, and matchless love is why we have the hope of “eternal life.” “Eternal life’ is not what a believer is waiting for because that is a present-day reality in the soul of every saint. Christians should be living in anticipation of Christ’s soon coming at which time He will bring His judgment on the “ungodly” and “mercy” upon the redeemed.
Jude 22-23
22 “And of some have compassion, making a difference: 23 And others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire; hating even the garment spotted by the flesh.”
After Telling Us What to Do for Ourselves, God Now Tells Us What to To for Others
In these final closing verses of this short, but jam-packed epistle, “Jude” reveals the sacred responsibility of believers toward lost sinners (v.22). I remind you that the sacred responsibility of proclaiming the Gospel of Jesus Christ has been commissioned to the Church (Matt. 28:19-20) with every member doing their part according to their spiritual gifts. It’s very clear that God expects us to make a “difference” in the world beginning in the very community where we live (Acts 1:8). However, the sad truth is that in the day we find ourselves, there is so much of the world in the church that you can hardly tell that the church is in the world which is attributed to its apostate condition. Although some sinners are apostate, Christians should never fail to look upon the lost with “compassion,” yet beware never to allow ourselves to think lightly of sin. Only God knows His “elect” (I Pet. 1:2); therefore, our job is to declare the Gospel and leave it to the Holy Spirit to convict, regenerate, and save.
Two groups of unregenerates are distinguished, indicating that some lost people will be saved while others will not (v.23). Since Christians have received God’s mercy, it’s only fitting that with “compassion” we show mercy to others. As a witness for Christ, we need to reach out a compassionate hand to the lost. Lot and his daughters in the Old Testament are a classic illustration of this passage as “Abraham” demonstrated God’s mercy to “Lot” (Gen. 13:3-8). Our “compassion” needs to even reach those who are knocking on the gates of Hell and need to be saved “out of the fire.” There is a Heaven to gain and a Hell to shun and realize that only God can do a supernatural work of Grace “pulling them out of the fire, hating even the garment spotted by the flesh.”
Only God can cause us to hate our sin that stains our “flesh” and dishonors Him. Herein, we find multitudes of people who may be religious, but religiously lost sinners are even plowing the field of apostasy within the ranks of the institutionalized church. As we observe apostates, believers ought to be afraid of sin as we are of some communicable disease (Lev. 13:45-47). Just as the Old Testament priest was not to get his garments spotted by leprosy, the New Testament believer is to keep himself unspotted from the world (II Cor. 6:17).
Regardless of what some people tell you, believers need to learn how to love the sinner because he too is made in the image of God and has an eternal soul, while at the same time hating his sin. Through all of this, we also must stay on guard not to adopt the ways of the world, act like an unregenerate, and slide down the hill of holiness. For a Christian to become “spotted by the flesh” will cause him/her to lose their testimony in the eyes of the world. Many Christians have lost their testimony due to drunkenness, bad credit, covetousness, filthy language, compromising with unbelief, or toning down the Gospel, etc. etc. etc.
Jude 24-25
24 “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, 25 To the only wise God our Saviour, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and ever. Amen.”
In the Midst of a World Filled with Sin and Apostasy, It’s Possible to Live a Victorious Christian Life
Spiritual victory is possible because we have a Victor Who “is able to keep you from falling, and present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy” (v.24). “Falling” means to stumble or sin and although, a true child of God will never fall from Grace, he can stumble into sin whenever we take our eyes off the Word of God and the God of the Word. Someday, this earthly pilgrimage will be over only for the Christian to discover “the presence of his glory with exceeding joy” at which time we can sing, It will be worth it all when we see Jesus.
At such a time, we’ll bow and give Glory to “the only wise God our Savior” and declare His “glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and forever” (v. 25). Almighty God is all “wise,” meaning that everything He does is filled with true wisdom and without mistake even in His divine plan of redemption as “Savior” of an elect people. Therefore; He never should be questioned in what or why He does what He does, even in the salvation of sinners. He alone is deserving of “glory and majesty” and supreme “dominion” over all things because His “power” proves His deity and sovereignty without question. When we get to “glory,” we’ll be “faultless,” meaning holy and without blemish having received the imputed “righteousness” (Rom. 4) of Jesus Christ (Eph. 5:26-27). In “glory,” our state will be one of “exceeding joy” making the trials of this life worth it all.
Closing Thoughts on the Book of Jude
“Jude” has reminded us of how we can expect the dark shadows of apostasy to be cast upon the church throughout history. But, through it all, we are also reminded in the closing benediction of this Book to stay focused on “Jesus” and never take our eyes off of Him. Let this be a reminder of how we need to keep our eyes off of mortal man who can and will lead us astray and even discourage us. Throughout the epistle of Jude, God clearly shows how apostates can be clearly recognized. Just remember the old saying, if anything looks like a duck, smells like a duck, and quacks like a duck, then it’s a duck.
Apostasy has existed since the creation of the angels and has been widespread down through the history of both the Old and New Testament church. Each generation since the apostles has witnessed a deepening of apostasy, so don’t let anyone tell you that apostasy is something new to our day and time. It will no doubt worsen as the time of Christ’s second coming draws nearer. However, we need to keep our eyes open as never before in today’s world because Satan is still up to his same old tactics to invade the church. The Christian church is simply without excuse if she fails to recognize apostasy knocking at the doors. In fact, people within those doors who deny it, do so because they are apostates. Lost sinners don’t see anything wrong with sin because they are living in the world of darkness and have not the indwelling Holy Spirit.
Even though many believe in the existence of God, He is only “Lord” and “Savior” for those who believe by “faith” and commit themselves to Christ by the drawing of the Holy Spirit. Don’t forget these four attributes ascribed to “God our Savior” as the final words in the Book of Jude.
“Glory” is the manifested excellence of His Sovereignty.
“Majesty” is the incomparable omniscience of His deity.
“Dominion” is the infinite omnipresence of His rule.
“Power” is the irresistible authority of His omnipotence.
“Now and ever” indicates that these attributes are changeless and that God will sustain His people in the New Testament just as He did in the Old Testament (Heb. 13:8).
We have been warned and put on guard throughout this short epistle of what to expect down through the history of the church. The same God, will sustain His dear children today, Who sustained “Shadrach … Meshach … and Abednego” in the fiery furnace (Dan. 3:13), “Daniel” in the lion’s den (Dan. 6), “Paul” behind prison bars (Acts 16), and “John” on the Isle of Patmos (Rev. 1). Our God will preserve and see His “elect” (I Pet. 1:2) victoriously through even the darkest days of trial, trouble, and apostasy (Prov. 4).