Jude 17-21            DESTROYERS or BUILDERS  

As Jude approaches the end of his warning letter He reminds them again of the source of Christian teaching. It is God’s Word and not man’s imagination. He is reminding his readers that the truths which they have been taught have come straight from the Lord Jesus through His apostles. He is warning them that, as time goes on, people who mock the Christian truth and standards taught by the Lord Jesus would become increasingly bold in proclaiming their evil message. We are now living in the days of which Jude wrote. It may come as a surprise to some of us that those mockers of the first Century were already plaguing the Church just like those of today. Every vital Christian truth was then and is now an object of ridicule by those who should know better.

These people, by scoffing at sacred things and ridiculing the notion that there is any harm in sin or anything worthwhile in holiness, create a moral climate in which Christians feel that they can sin without a qualm of conscience. Mockery makes sin look as if it is a matter of little consequence. It does not matter. It is something Christians can indulge in without anxiety or remorse. This is sheer folly. It is more reasonable and less wrong to have a light-hearted attitude towards war, disaster or famine. We might better teach people to laugh at war or plague rather than sin because it is sin that has eternal consequences. Sin is the root cause of all this world’s ills. The horrible nature of sin may not be so clearly seen by most people, and personal experience may teach its lessons more slowly. Sin is more like blood poisoning than a wound in the flesh and can have caused incalculable damage before any serious pain is felt. This makes it quite easy for many to "walk after their own ungodly lusts" and at the same time "mock at sin" and its consequences.

These scoffers “separate themselves” from sound teaching in order to follow corrupt speculations. They “separate themselves” from Christian behaviour by quitting the faith which is the only genuine source of a Christian lifestyle. They go astray after the miserable delusions of licentious indulgence. In abandoning right belief and right conduct, they separate themselves from the true Church which is the body of Christ. There are many who still like to bear the name of Christian although they have no communion with Christ. They want to indulge passions that the Bible calls sinful and they hate any sacred influence that would restrain them from their sinful practices but they still find it advantageous to call themselves ‘Christian’. They are joined together by foolish habits or sordid pursuits, to a lifestyle far from anything remotely resembling Christianity. This distances them from the holy power that would break these sinful ties and would, if given the chance, introduce them to a new life in Christ.

The faith of the gospel is too much for them to accept but they assume the profession of its name, therefore they must corrupt its principles to suit their man made religion. The practice of the gospel is too pure for the lifestyle they have opted for so if they still pretend to live as a Christian they do it with many reservations and in fact out of a sense of duty, which actually amounts to a mockery of the Christian life. They separate themselves from the faith because in practice they are carnal. The root of all their evil, however, is simply that they do not have the Spirit.

Flesh and Spirit are contrary to each other (Gal 5:17). Those who cherish the one of necessity banish the other. As one grows stronger the other grows weaker. God’s Spirit is a free spirit, and carnal people are slaves; the Holy Spirit is a pure Spirit, and they are unclean; the Holy Spirit is an active Spirit, and they lack any desire to be active for the Lord.

Carnal people lack the enlightenment of the Holy Spirit. They have no appetite for spiritual things or for spiritual company. They know little of the comforts of the Holy Spirit because the comforts of the Holy Spirit come from meditating on the Word and works of God (Ps 104:34), of tasting His love (1 Peter 2:3), and thinking about our great hopes in Christ (2 Cor 4:18). Carnal people cannot enjoy any of this. They cannot exercise the love, or faith, or hope that would enable them to delight themselves in God, and have some tastes of eternal life. When the soul lies under the control of carnal pleasures, it is incapable of thinking about God and His works, or enjoying the consolation of His love.

That is enough about the mockers. We must recognise that the great majority of born again Christian people are not numbered among them. Jude now encourages the many dear souls who live for Christ and gives us a picture of them as builders who are building their own personal temple for God. This metaphor is quite apt when applied to the saints, for the Church and saints of God are likened to houses and they may be said to be built up and edified.

Jude teaches us two things here. First, all Christians should be edifiers or builders. As most will know, an edifice is an old fashioned name for a fancy building. We should be building ourselves and each other up into a house fit for God to dwell in. We read of the desire David had to build a temple, but God would not allow him to do it. Now, however, every man must build his own life into a temple for God. We read of the wealth Solomon spent upon the first temple in Jerusalem, but now God does not care for such temples made of stone. He desires rather that we build a temple made of living stones and all true Christians must be counted amongst the builders as well as the stones.

Of course, before we build they must know how to build, and the way to learn this is through the Scriptures. No builder will attempt to build a house without plans and tools. The plans and tools for Christian building is the Word of God. By it our hearts and souls are squared, and made fit for God's house.

Solomon's workmen were one month engaged in the work of the temple, and two months at home going about their own business. Let us do better than that. Let us spend two months about the Lord's building, and one about our own business. Let us first seek the kingdom of God.

While we each must build our own houses we must also help one another.

We must exhort one another and edify one another as we encourage one another (Heb10:24).

Secondly, keep on building. This teaches us that it is not enough to begin to build in faith and good works, but we must go on, go forward, and keep at it. Our progress in the Christian faith is compared to progress in building.

We must notice the important parts of this building and the order of building it.

Houses are built from the foundation to the walls and from the walls to the roof. The foundation is essential and it must be solid. If it is poorly laid no future care, toil, or expense can succeed in building a solid house. Human nature is like quicksand, in which are thrown all man's best efforts, his works, his wisdom and his love for the Lord. However, all of them put together cannot furnish a sure foundation for Christian character. “Other foundation can no man lay than that which is laid, which is Christ Jesus.”

Having secured the foundation Rock, we are to be careful to build upon it, not near or in the vicinity of it, but upon it, and upon nothing else. Think of someone carefully laying a strong foundation, and then building to one side of it.

The position of the superstructure is also important. You are to build under the guidance of the Holy Spirit. Every stone we lay must bear a relation to Christ and Him crucified. The centre of gravity must fall within this base. The leaning tower of Pisa is a wonder to all who see it, because it does not fall. It leans fifteen feet over the base but the centre of gravity is still ten feet within the base. That is the reason it does not fall. There are some Christian characters like that leaning tower. They seem so strange and eccentric in many things. They are so far out of plumb, that we wonder why they do not fall to utter destruction. Here is the secret: the centre of their heart's gravity is still within the Saviour. Character building is a progressive work. Character, like a great edifice, is of slow growth. As the builder lays brick after brick and stone after stone and then puts in the beams, one after the other slowly and laboriously, the building takes shape. That is how this character work advances. There is not an act of our lives, however small, nor even a thought, that does not add to the building of that edifice.

The materials to be used are important. (1 Cor3:9). It is not every quarry that can furnish the materials for a cathedral. Character will stand longer than even stone, or gold, or silver. If a man is to build for the future he must select materials that will last. Gold, silver, precious stones -- love, faith, hope, self-denial, and patience, these are the materials for a lasting character.

We must build for eternity. We must live forever in the house we build. Character, not circumstances, makes a person happy or miserable. If a man has a pure and holy character, do what you will you cannot make him unhappy.

We build for inspection. How careful were the old cathedral builders that the most distant work should be as well done as that nearest the eye. They were building not for man's eye, but for the eye of God, who sees all. So in character building this should be our motto, ‘Not for man, but for God,’ whose eye sees the most trifling act or thought.

We must not mistake the scaffolding for the building. We meet a friend and ask, How is your business, your health, your family? This is all scaffolding. Instead, we should ask, “How is your character getting on? How is the inner man?” Then we get to the heart of the matter. Scaffolding may be swept away by the storm, but character remains just as we form it, unchanged for ever.

The spiritual atmosphere in which you live will determine your progress in Christian building. “Praying in the Holy Ghost, keep yourselves in the love of God.” This is the indispensible necessity for building a worthwhile life in the conscious knowledge of the constant presence of God.

“Keep yourselves in the love of God” says Jude. There are many aspects in which the love of God is looked at in these Scriptures; and I think this is as remarkable as any of them. That to be in the love of God, to live in the constant sense of it, is one of the indispensable conditions of spiritual growth that Christian discipleship is impossible without. 

“Praying in the Holy Ghost” is the Divine recipe for maintaining steady, constant spiritual growth. Prayer keeps the sense of God and heaven alive in our soul. It maintains the connection between earth and heaven. Prayer facilitates the entrance of God into the soul and it puts the soul in touch with spiritual realities. If there is a God, He must reveal Himself to the soul that prays. Stand in the middle of the wealth of this glorious revelation. Do you want to understand it? Do you want the light of heaven to fill your soul? Then “pray without ceasing.” This opportunity is ours free because of God's mercy shown to us in Jesus Christ.

Cowal Baptist Church