Mockers In The Last Time

Jude opens our passage today with a reference to brotherly love. He reminds us of this principal feature of Christian fellowship. Our love for the Lord Jesus arises from God first loving us. Our love for the Lord, as His followers, thereafter manifests itself in our love for one another. This is spiritual union. Because the Lord loves us we love those whom He loves. We do not love as He loves, nor love as we should, but we endeavour to emulate our Saviour by loving the brethren.

Beloved of God

Jude does not wish to unduly frighten or trouble the Lord’s little ones. He knows that when a true child of God hears of false professors their first reaction is, ‘Is it I?’ Despite powerful and fearsome descriptions being applied to those who have crept into the church unawares, Jude is careful to reassure the Lord’s people of God’s love. All God’s elect are beloved of God. They are loved everlastingly, purposefully and particularly from before time began. They were foreknown by God, set apart in Christ, and predestined to be conformed to the image of God’s Son. ‘Beloved’ is a very apt and suitable title for the Lord’s people!

A good pastor

Like a good pastor protecting his flock, Jude has been warning his beloved brothers and sisters of the presence of ungodly men and false teachers within their congregations. These are not openly wicked men in a moral sense. They have honed their deception. Yet, Jude likens them to brute beasts ‘who speak evil of those things which they know not’. In our passage this week the faithful apostle concludes his denunciation of these enemies of Christ by tracing their motives to its source. These men, he tells us, are ‘sensual, having not the Spirit’. The Spirit of Christ is not in them.

Evil done and evil spoken

As we have seen, Jude is not alone in alerting the church to imposters. The other apostles warned of the coming of such men. Jude lived to see it happen. He tells us the ungodly corrupt the gospel of God’s grace and deny the efficacy of Christ’s work on the cross. The apostles condemned works-righteousness and universal redemption, or as Jude calls it, ‘the ungodly deeds’ they commit, and ‘their hard speeches’ spoken against the Saviour.

‘Having not the Spirit’

The key to recognising these men and understanding their motivation is revealed by Jude. They have no spiritual life in them. He tells us, ‘they are sensual, having not the Spirit’. This is the distinguishing mark, ‘between the righteous and the wicked; between him that serveth God, and him that serveth him not’. These men have not the Spirit of God. There is no godliness in them. Jude’s emphasis on ‘ungodly’ is intentional. Nothing they do is from the right motive and we shall be wise to give these warnings their proper weight. They are as pertinent today as they were in Jude’s day.

Unsaved men in pulpits

Just because a man can preach a pleasing sermon does not make his message true. There are many clever yet unsaved men in church pulpits. It is notable that each of the examples provided by Jude, namely Cain, Core and Balaam were prominent leaders, yet they opposed God for their own ends. Each employed a sacrifice in their approach to God but it was not a sacrifice of faith, nor did it point to Christ.

Mocking God

Similarly, these ‘mockers in the last days’ as Jude calls them, ‘walk after their own ungodly lusts’. They belittle God the Father and mock Him by denying His sovereign purpose and the uniqueness of His way of salvation. They diminish the Lord Jesus Christ making His death ineffectual while mockingly presenting it as bountiful, generous and unlimited. They mock the Lord’s church by offering membership on man’s terms. They mock the unsaved by preaching a gospel that cannot save while concealing the true Christ. But God is not mocked.

A parody of the truth

Freewill religion and human works religion are a parody of the true gospel and a mockery of Christ’s saving work of redemption. It is this false gospel that these ungodly teachers present as truth. This is the great distinction by which they separate themselves from the true church and thereby self-identify as Christ’s enemies and deceivers within the church. The separation is not a physical thing, it is abandoning gospel truth. 

Earnestly contend

The Lord Jesus promised He would protect His church from false teachers who inveigle their way into gospel congregations and charm those with itching ears. These men cannot and will not deceive God’s elect, at least not for long. Men can learn doctrine from a book but it will soon become clear if the Spirit, and the truth, is not in them. And, because the Lord’s people cannot separate from the doctrine of grace and the gospel of God our Saviour, it will ultimately become necessary for us to separate from those who have separated from the truth. 

Amen