Jude 4
Picture of an Apostate
“For there are certain men crept in unawares, who were before of old ordained to this condemnation, ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness, and denying the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ.” - Jude 4
Introduction
Charles Spurgeon used to tell the story of the 55th Doge of Venice, named Marino Faliero. During his rule, Marino unsuccessfully attempted a coup and was later beheaded for the crime of treason. Now, in the hallway of portraits displaying all the Doges with explanations of their faithfulness, one space remains empty. In place of Marino’s portrait, there is a painting of a black curtain which reads: Hic est locus Marini Faletro decapitati pro criminibus ("This is the space reserved for Marino Faliero, beheaded for his crimes"). When people pass by the famous hallway of portraits today, this black curtain for Marino often gets far more attention than all the other portraits of Doges who served the office well.
So it is that we Christians often focus too much of our time on the hypocrites and apostates in our midst, despite the fact that we are surrounded by a massive crowd of faithful believers with testimonies of never compromising! It’s far too easy to be overwhelmed by the seemingly endless multitudes of heretics whenever our God is still accomplishing His will, building His Church, and knows He will receive a pure and spotless Bride when He returns; and make no mistake, He will come back with a victory sealed in blood, guaranteed by His own resurrection.
As we continue our study on this epistle of Jude, we turn our attention to verse four, which gives us the ultimate portrait of an apostate. As we study this portrait, let us not lose heart considering the evil and darkness we behold. Remember, for every one Judas there are eleven faithful disciples who became martyrs for Christ; for every fraudulent megachurch, there are thousands of faithful congregations preaching God’s Word as they walk the narrow road. Also, keep in mind the exhortations of our previous message, that while we contend for the faith we are given the promise that true Christians will never be lost. We are called, loved by the Father, and preserved in Christ (v. 2). With that in mind, we consider five characteristics of the apostates portrayed in this picture: their deception, damnation, depravity, degeneracy, and denial.
The Deception, “certain men crept in unawares”
These men can be understood as wandering prophets, false members of a true church, or anyone with devilish motives dwelling amongst God’s people. The Greek paints the picture of a person who was exiled from their nation of origin who later sneaks back into the country with intent to destroy. This could be the abusive pastor who goes from church to church, leaving a trail of destroyed souls as he goes. This could be the liberal professor who signs the statement of faith at a solid seminary, and then teaches heresy to his students. This could be the long-standing church member who only wants power in the community and seizes control of multiple church committees to have it. They sneak, they lie, and they plot for power intending to putrefy the Church.
Many forget that Harvard University was established in 1636 with the intent of raising up qualified Puritan ministers for future generations. In fact, the original motto of Harvard was “Christ and the Church.” Later, it was changed to “Christ, and the Church, and Truth.” 200 hundred years after the institution’s founding, their president Charles William Elliot assumed it was possible to have truth without Christ or the Church, and changed the motto. Now, their motto is merely “Truth.” By assuming truth can come with Christ or the truth, you can only imagine the depravity which was to unfold. Today, the president of chaplains at Harvard is an atheist named Greg Epstein. Take a second to grasp the insanity of that reality; an institution which was originally established to train Puritan ministers now has an atheist as the chief chaplain. The same can be said of almost all of America’s poison ivy league schools.
Many people get upset with theological conservatives who constantly have a combative spirit. They say, “Stop fussing over those little things! Let’s just have unity!” What they don’t grasp is that the conservatives are the ones who truly understand the tactics of satan warned about in Scripture. The devil rarely gathers his forces and attacks the Church in a straightforward charge. Rarely does the devil call his apostates to build their own seminaries, churches, or missions organizations. Their primary method of domination is to sneak into existing institutions and poison them from within.
In this church, know that if you want to deceive me, you can probably get away with it. But God knows your heart, and your sin will find you out. In the Church at large, keep in mind that not all that glitters is gold. You must have discernment when it comes to the people you trust and the content you consume. Lastly, when it comes to Christian institutions, know that they will never naturally remain orthodox. People only serve God by the supernatural grace of God. If we assume all is well and ease up our defense of the faith, we will naturally drift to the left every single time. You have to fight every compromise the second you see it, or else you’re doomed to destruction by the end of your generation. The “slippery slope” isn’t a conspiracy theory, it is a guaranteed reality the moment we let our guard down.
The Damnation, “before of old ordained to this condemnation”
Here, you could say these men have been written about long ago, and their destruction is part of God’s sovereign plan. Remember the “sin unto death” spoken of in 1 John 5:16-17. We are to pray for everyone, but we are also to keep in mind that some individuals have heartened themselves beyond the point of return. Our prayers for the restoration of some people will not be answered the way we hope; and this reminds us to pray the will of God, knowing that God’s will is always good and glorious. Sometimes, it just takes a while for us to understand.
When a father took his young son on a hunting trip, the two of them set their traps in advance of their prey. The young boy didn’t understand how the traps worked, and was afraid of the approaching beasts. However, the father remained calm and confident, saying, “Son, this isn’t my first rodeo!” He had done this many times before, and knew exactly what would happen. As the dangerous animals approached, the boy was afraid, but stood his ground on the faith of his dad. When the traps sprung, the father took action, and everything went as planned.
Proverbs 16:4 says, “The Lord hath made all things for himself: yea, even the wicked for the day of evil.” God knows about the existence and influence of apostates, and everything is still taking place according to his perfect providential purpose. The Old Testament prophets spoke of the false teachers who would come, Jesus warned of them, Peter warned of them, and now Jude merely confirms it. Because God is not taken back or surprised by the enemies within the Church, neither should we. Everything is ordained by God for a good and glorious purpose, even and especially when we can’t see it. When you find yourself in the valley of the shadow of death, surrounded by enemies and lies, understand that God is with you and that the defeat of God’s enemies has already been established.
The Depravity, “ungodly men”
The phrase “ungodly men” can be among the shortest but most convicting in this passage. For a person to be “ungodly” simply means that they live as though God didn’t exist. On a large scale, this could be the pastor who became an atheist/agnostic yet continues preparing and preaching sermons because he doesn’t know how to perform any other profession. People hear the words of these men, yet see completely contradictory lifestyles because, in reality, they don’t think God exists. On a smaller scale, an “ungodly” person is the common churchgoer who rolls their eyes at extended prayers, sermons, or the way people take worship so seriously. “Why do we have to do all this stuff?” They complain. Dear friend, we pray, preach, and worship with reverence because we actually believe God is real; we actually believe He hears us, answers us, and expects us to live a certain way!
The moment a person rejects the existence of God in their thoughts or confessions, they reject every reason for life. First, if there is no God, there is no morality. What law is there to objectively appeal to if there is no Law-giver? Second, if there is no God, there is no justice. How many tyrants, criminals, and villainous monsters have escaped the jaws of a just penalty in this life? There has to be a Judgment Day on the horizon; humans inherently know not to do wrong because the Creator of this world will hold us to account, in this life or the next. Lastly, if there is no God, there is no purpose. If we are not the special creation of a divine Creator, then we truly are just an accident in an ever-expanding universe, born from nothing and heading for nothing. It truly is only the fool who declares, “There is no God” (Psalm 14:1)! Ungodly men may live with the vestiges of cultural Christan ethics, but in their heart of hearts they have no sense of morality, justice, or purpose.
The Degeneracy, “turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness”
The Greek for this work “lasciviousness” is “aselgeia” and it can also be translated as “shamelessness” or “unbridled lust.” You could paraphrase the statement this way, “They use God’s grace to justify lawless lifestyles. They have abused the of the doctrines of grace in such an extent that they have lost their ability to blush.” Because of the specific references to Sodom in the proceeding verses, we can also conclude that Jude specifically has sexual sin in mind here. These are those who have rejected the true gospel, therefore they have no true conversion; because they have no true conversion, they have no means to mortify the sinful desires of the flesh. Behind every false doctrine is an equally depraved and degenerate lifestyle.
In 2 Peter 3:16, we read how people would take the writings of the Apostle Paul, and twist them unto their own destruction:
As also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things; in which are some things hard to be understood, which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest, as they do also the other scriptures, unto their own destruction.
I believe we have a perfect example of this here in Jude. We can imagine someone reading Romans 4:5, “But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness.” Or, Romans 3:23-24, “For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.” And then, by twisting these passages out of context, they would conclude, “I don’t have to worry about the Ten Commandments anymore! I’ve been saved by grace, therefore sin isn’t sin anymore for me, and I can do what I want! After all, how could you ever be forgiven unless you have some sins in the first place?” Even if they never say these things out loud, this is the way they think, and it destroys them.
As Paul wrote his epistle to the Romans, you can almost hear these critics declare, “If I’m saved by grace, I can continue in sin!” To this mindset, Paul aggressively rebutts, “What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein” (Romans 6:1-2)? The grace of God kills our old life without Christ, and then raises us to walk in the newness of life with Him in righteousness! It’s not possible to be killed and resurrected by grace, and then keep living the same way you did before! Again, in Titus 2:11-13, Paul clarifies further how grace works:
For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world; Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ;
Grace doesn’t tempt us to sin, it teaches us to deny ungodliness. I can think of no greater wickedness than to take the very means of freedom God has provided, and then use it to tighten the chains of sin.
The Denial, “denying the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ.”
Here, I prefer the reading of modern translations like the NASB, “only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.” Master and Lord are two titles which belong to the same person of the triune godhead, Jesus Christ. It’s unclear as to whether the false teachers Jude has in mind denied Jesus openly with Gnostic heresies, or simply lived as though Jesus wasn’t the Master and Lord He claimed to be. I believe we can conclude that the nature of Christ as God, as well as the office of Christ as owner/Master of our lives are both in question by the belief and practice of these apostates.
I know of a preacher who used to explain how in ancient Rome, a slave would be marked with the brand of his master. In one such case, a slave suffered greatly under the cruelty of his master. One day, that slave heard tale of a kind-hearted and merciful master in another town; therefore, he devised a risky plan to improve his condition. The slave broke out of his quarters late at night and ran for his life to the other town and took the brand of that new master known for his goodness. At that point, when the old cruel master located his lost slave, the slave held up his new brands and declared, “You have no claim on my life anymore! I bear the marks of a new master!” This sort of thing is likely what Paul had in mind when he similarly declared in Galatians 6:17, “From henceforth let no man trouble me: for I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus.” The true Christian passes all ownership of his life to the Lord and Master Jesus Christ, crucifies his own rights. Why would a person become the slave of Christ? Because to be Christ’s slave is to be free from the tyranny of sin, satan, and this crooked world!
We in the Western Church are quick to proclaim “blessed are all who take refuge in Christ!” However, we are slow to warn, “Kiss the Son, lest He be angry, and you perish in the way.” Yet, both proclamations are seamlessly placed side by side in Psalm 2:12. Yes, Jesus is our Savior, the one who graciously removes all our sins in unfathomably eternal pity. Yes, Jesus is our elder brother, and great High Priest, who makes it His business to secure our place before the Father. Yet, in the midst of these glorious truths, may we never forget that He is our King, our Master, our Lord. We are bond-slaves to Christ. He owns our souls and bodies, and we do not have the right to think, speak, or act how we want. The Christian life is a crucified life. When we live for Christ, we die to ourselves, this world, and every rebel thought which pulls us away from utter commitment to the only good God and Master Jesus Christ.
Conclusion
I have provided you with five characteristics of an apostate from this text. Now, I’d like you to picture in your mind the opposite of all these traits. First, if an apostate deceives the Church with ill intent, then a true Christian joins a local church with love in order to build it up. Second, if an apostate is foreordained to destruction, then a Christian is prepared by God for glory, from before the foundation of the earth. Third, if an apostate is depraved, living as though God didn’t exist, then a Christan lives, moves, and breathes with an awareness of God’s providential goodness. Fourth, if an apostate is degenerate, turning the grace of God into a license to sin, then a Christan views grace as the ultimate reason to glorify God in a life of holiness. Lastly, if an apostate denies Christ as Lord and Master, then a true Christian surrenders his rights to be fully governed by the perfect will of the perfect Lord Jesus. Consider these two portraits. Which one does your life resemble more? Remember, the only way to display the characteristics of a true believer is by God’s grace. Look to the cross, and live.
