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Scripture Reading: Jude 1-3, 11-14, 19-21, 24-25; 2 Pet. 1:19-21
I. Jude exhorts us to earnestly contend for the faith — Jude 1-3:
А. “The faith” in Jude is not subjective faith as our believing but objective faith as our belief, referring to the things we believe in, the contents of the New Testament as our faith, in which we believe for our common salvation — Acts 6:7; 1 Tim. 1:19; 3:9; 4:1; 5:8; 6:10, 21; 2 Tim. 3:8; 4:7; Titus 1:13.
B. Our Christian faith is composed of our belief concerning the Bible, God, Christ, the work of Christ, salvation, and the church; all real Christians do not have any disputations about these items — Eph. 4:13.
C. This faith, not any doctrine, has been delivered once for all to the saints; for this faith we should earnestly contend — 1 Tim. 6:12.
II. We build up ourselves on the foundation of this most holy faith by enjoying the entire Blessed Trinity so that we may become the New Jerusalem as the totality of the eternal life — Jude 19-21; cf. John 4:14b:
А. Jude’s word concerning building up ourselves upon our most holy faith is equal to Peter’s word about being built up as a spiritual house into a holy priesthood to consummate the New Jerusalem — Jude 20; 1 Pet. 2:5; Rev. 21:3, 22; 22:3.
B. In order to enjoy the Divine Trinity for God’s building, we must not be like “those who make divisions, soulish, having no spirit” — Jude 19:
1. A soulish man is a natural man, one who allows his soul to dominate his entire being and who lives by his soul, ignoring his spirit, not using his spirit, and even behaving as if he did not have a spirit — 1 Cor. 2:14.
2. The Lord desires that all His believers take His grace to be a spiritual man, one who denies his soul and does not live by his soul but allows his spirit to dominate his entire being — v. 15; Rom. 8:6; 2 Cor. 2:12-14.
C. The entire Blessed Trinity is employed and enjoyed by us as we exercise our spirit by “praying in the Holy Spirit” to keep ourselves “in the love of God, awaiting the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life” — Jude 20-21:
1. Unto eternal life, or into eternal life (John 4:14b), is a particular expression; unto, or into, speaks of destination and also means “to become.”
2. By exercising our spirit to enjoy the Blessed Trinity, we become the New Jerusalem as the totality of the eternal life — Rev. 22:1-2a; 21:10-11.
III. As we live in the Triune God by enjoying Him, we keep ourselves from the way of Cain, the error of Balaam, and the rebellion of Korah to take the way of rapture, the way of Enoch and the overcomers — Jude 11-14:
А. The way of Cain is the way of religiously serving God according to one’s own will, heretically rejecting the redemption by blood required and ordained by God, and according to the flesh envying God’s true people because of their faithful testimony to God — Gen. 4:2-8.
B. The error of Balaam is the error of teaching wrong doctrine for reward, while knowing it to be contrary to the truth and against the people of God, and abusively using the influence of certain gifts to lead the people of God astray from the pure worship of the Lord to idolatrous worship; coveting for reward will cause the coveting ones to rush headlong into the error of Balaam — Num. 22:7, 21; 31:16; Rev. 2:14; cf. 2 Kings 5:20-27.
C. The rebellion of Korah is rebellion against God’s deputy authority in His government and against His word spoken by His deputy (such as Moses); such rebellion brings in destruction — Num. 16:1-40; Rom. 16:17.
D. The way of Enoch, who prophesied concerning the Lord coming back with His overcomers to execute His governmental judgment (Jude 14-15; Joel 3:11), is the way of rapture, the way to escape death and obtain the testimony of being well pleasing to God by walking with God (Gen. 5:22-24; Heb. 11:5-6):
1. To walk with God is not to override God, not to be presumptuous, not to do things according to our own concept and desire, not to do things according to the current of the age, and not to do anything without God.
2. To walk with God is to take Him as our center and everything, to live and do things according to God and with God, according to His revelation and leading, and to do everything with Him — cf. Matt. 1:23.
3. Enoch continually walked upward with God day and night for three centuries, becoming closer to God and more one with God each day until “he was not, for God took him” — Gen. 5:24 cf. S. S. 8:5-6.
IV. We must give heed to the prophetic word of the Scriptures as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in our hearts; God’s word shines in our darkness to save us from being “wandering stars” and to constitute us into living stars, bearing the living testimony of Jesus — 2 Pet. 1:19-21; Jude 13; Rev. 1:20; 2:28:
А. The wandering stars are those who are not solidly fixed in the unchanging truths of the heavenly revelation but are wandering about among God’s starlike people — Jude 12-13.
B. Christ’s faithful followers are shining and living stars, those who follow the heavenly, living, up-to-date, and instant vision of Christ as the shining and living Star — Num. 24:17; Rev. 22:16-17; Matt. 2:2-12; Dan. 12:3:
1. The living stars are the messengers of the churches, those who enjoy the pneumatic Christ as the Messenger of God and as the fresh message from God so that they can dispense the fresh and present Christ into the people of God for the testimony of Jesus — Rev. 1:20; 2:1; 3:1; Mal. 3:1-3.
2. The living stars are those who bless God’s people; the more we praise the Lord for God’s people and speak positively concerning the church in faith, the more we receive God’s blessing, but those who speak negatively put themselves under a curse — Num. 24:9b; Gen. 12:2-3; 22:17; Matt. 12:34-37.
3. The living stars have “great resolutions in heart” and “great searchings of heart”; they are lovers of God, who are like the stars who fought “from their courses,” fighting together with God against His enemy so that they may be “like the sun / When it rises in its might” — Judg. 5:15-16, 20, 31; Dan. 11:32; Matt. 13:43.
• As we are contending for the faith, enjoying the Blessed Trinity, and taking the way of rapture by giving heed to the prophetic word, our trust is in our precious Lord and God as the One who is able to guard us from stumbling and to set us before His glory without blemish in exultation; we give all our praise to Him — “To the only God our Savior through Jesus Christ our Lord be glory, majesty, might, and authority before all time and now and unto all eternity. Amen” — Jude 24-25; Zech. 2:8; Psa. 17:8; Deut. 32:10; 1 Pet. 1:5; 2 Tim. 1:12; cf. 1 Pet. 4:19.
