“For certain men whose condemnation was written about long ago have secretly slipped in among you. They are godless men, who change the grace of our God into a license for immorality and deny Jesus Christ our only Sovereign and Lord.” - Jude 1:4

Many believers today expect a great End-Times revival where large portions of the world’s population convert to evangelical Christianity.  Many Christian books and preachers popularized this view.  It is true that the Bible describes a special outpouring and operation of the Holy Spirit for the faithful church immediately before the Rapture, but there is nothing in Scripture to indicate that that there will be an easy, massive harvest in our time.  Jesus told the disciples that the harvest was plentiful in their day (Matthew 9:37) , but then told them that in the Last Days, the love of most would grow cold because of the increase in wickedness (Matthew 24:12).

Instead of describing the Christianity of the Last Days as universally triumphant, Jesus described it as riddled with false teachers, false prophets, lies, confusing deception, and even false miracles and healings (see Matthew 24:10-25).  It is a depressing prediction of events, but it is exactly what is happening around us today.  Those of us who are part of the faithful remnant need to stop promising our church members that glorious revivals and prosperity are coming.  We must instead prepare them for the “increase of wickedness” that they will encounter in deeper measure every month until the Rapture.  The Bible calls this the “apostasy” or the “great falling away.”

The tiny book of Jude, at the end of the New Testament, is a prophecy about the Christianity of the Last Days.  They saw early signs of this apostasy even in the Apostolic Era, so they could describe the nature of the spiritual syndrome that would one day permeate Christianity.

Many Christians have the mistaken notion that the biggest threat to Christianity comes from outside – from the world around us.  In Western countries, the godless secular society, with its focus on material things and its belief that right and wrong are “always relative,” stands in mockery of traditional biblical values.  In some African and Asian countries, Christians still face severe persecution from other religions around them.  Even so, persecution has never stopped the spread of the Gospel; in fact, it usually causes Christianity to grow even more. (Nor can anyone block the Holy Spirit from spreading the Gospel through means of witchcraft, curses, or the like – God is much greater than any of these things). The early church faced persecution, and true believers have encountered martyrdom, harassment, and discrimination in various countries all through the centuries.  The greatest danger or threat to Christianity comes from within - through bad pastors, leaders, and ministers.  Those outside can make things difficult and painful for us, but the false brethren inside can ruin the church, grieve away the Holy Spirit, deceive the brethren who were trying to find God, and bring disgrace on the Gospel.

“Secretly slipped in among you” - Those who endanger the spiritual lives of the sheep do not announce themselves as false teachers or heretics.  They do not come into the church as hostile intruders, nor do they attack anything at first.  They are already in the midst of the evangelical and Pentecostal churches before we knew they had come.  Some are men who had no job or source of money, and decided that the ministry was a way to get income, so they suddenly felt “called” to preach the gospel and have a church – even though their real motives were to have a source of income or support.  They are already in the midst of churches, holding public crusades and religious events, and people trust them.  That is why Jude warns that they secretly slip in among us.  They are already in positions of trust – they are already ministers at the pulpit – before anyone realizes that they are not even true believers.  Jesus wanted us to be aware of this ahead of time, and each of the Apostles repeated the warning in their books in the New Testament.

“Godless men” – What is a “godless” person?  It is not merely someone who claims to be an atheist, although those liberal priests in the Catholic Church who follow Karl Marx instead of the Bible would indeed fit this description.  This term refers to people for whom God makes no difference – their behavior does not reflect any belief in a God who punishes sin.  They may preach against certain vices because this is popular in some regions, but they do so only to attract members.  In their own lives, they do not live as if they fear God.  If we truly believe in God, we believe that He sees everything we do and calls us to account.  Preachers who cheat, who embezzle money, who spend church money on luxuries for themselves, who use the church as a means to benefit their own family or tribe – they must think God does not know or cannot do anything to punish them.  This attitude is the essence of godlessness.

“Change the Grace of God into a license for immorality” – This describes much of modern Christianity.  Usually they state it in more subtle terms, like the saying, “Christians are not perfect, just forgiven.”  Others teach “once saved, always saved,” as if a person can commit any sin they want to after they say a “sinner’s prayer,” and still go to heaven.  They believe all our sins are already forgiven ahead of time, so we are saved no matter what we do – this is a license to sin.  They deny it is a license to sin, but the members know it is – and their lives reflect it.

Everybody likes to hear about God’s grace and forgiveness.  Few people want to hear challenging preaching.  Yet some preachers take a biblical doctrine – GRACE – and extend it to such an extreme that it becomes a lie, saying it does not matter who we live.  They promise people prosperity, health, and wealth – citing passages from the Bible – without ever mentioning that God’s promises are all conditional on our faithful obedience to Him. When they Preach week after week that God wants to “bless” and “prosper” everyone present at the service, without ever mentioning consecration or surrender to God’s will, they create the false impression that people can live however they want – even in serious sin –  and still “cash in” on God’s abundant provisions.  This is essentially a license for sin.  They change the grace of God into a license for immorality.

“Deny Jesus Christ our only Sovereign and Lord” - Of course, they do not deny Jesus as Savior, or as Healer, or as Provider. They love to sing songs about Jesus as the Provider, Healer, Savior, Friend, and Victor.  They just never get around to talking about Jesus as the SOVEREIGN – that is, the one who OWNS us, our bodies (we are his servants), and our possessions (we are merely his stewards).  A SOVEREIGN has absolute say over what happens.  Is this a good description of most Christian’s lifestyles?  Do they ask Jesus for His Will about everything they do?  Or do they do what they want most of the time, and ask God’s will only when they have a problem?  If you are in control of your own life, following what you want, then Jesus Christ is not your ONLY SOVEREIGN.  At best, you are forcing him to share his sovereignty with YOU.  “Lord” has a similar meaning – the Greek word can be translated “Master” or even “Slave-master.”  Do we live in a way that denies Jesus from his role as the MASTER whom we obey, whom we serve?  Do we live to please Him, or do we merely try to please Him when we have a special request we want Him to grant?

We are not saying that Jesus does not heal, save, bless, provide, and protect us.  All these things are true.  The problem is that the deceivers about whom Jude warns us will acknowledge all these things – even preach these things, but will omit discussion of Jesus’ SOVEREIGNTY over our lives (and the church activities!) and Jesus as Master over his servants.

“Woe to them!  They have taken the way of Cain…” (verse 11) – What is the “way of Cain”?  It refers to Cain’s journey into perdition, the series of steps he took.  First, Cain substituted his own sacrifice to God in place of the one God wanted (the blood of a Lamb).  Many Christians today have the idea that God should accept whatever they want to offer as a sacrifice – dancing, laughing, clapping, money, etc. – because it is what they want to give, what they like offering.  They have no interest in hearing what God prefers to receive from them.  Second, Cain resented Abel for offering something God accepted.  It is appalling to watch the prideful political games that many church leaders play in order to eliminate anyone they perceive as “competition” or a threat to their position and control in the church.  Ultimately, Cain killed his brother out of envy, rather than humbling himself before God.

“…they have rushed for profit into Balaam’s error…” - What was “Balaam’s error”?  Balaam prophesied in exchange for MONEY.  When the King of Moab tried to hire Balaam to “prophesy against” or curse Israel, God told Balaam not to go, it was clearly not God’s will to curse Israel (Numbers 22:7-12).  Then the King sent an offer for MORE money, so Balaam went back to the Lord hoping God would change His mind (see Numbers 22:15-20).  His motive was to get MONEY through his ministry.  How terrible!  God allowed him to go but was angry enough with Balaam to kill him (see Numbers 22:22-23).  We know how the story ends – Balaam was unable to prophesy anything bad against Israel (Numbers ch. 23-24).  Instead, he told the king to send pretty women into the Israelite camp to entice the men into immorality and idolatry (see Revelaton 2:14; Numbers 31:16), which brought a terrible curse from God (side lesson: the only curses that God’s people need ot fear are the ones we bring on ourselves through our sin).  Balaam undoubtedly made a hefty sum from this “ministry” event.  Balaam’s error is doing the ministry for money.

“…they have been destroyed in Korah’s rebellion” – Korah was from the same tribe as Moses and Aaron, and he challenged their authority, saying that God speaks to everyone (see Numbers 16:3).  Korah rejected the idea of real BODY, where God could give a unified, coherent revelation to a leader besides himself.  In rejecting Moses, God said they were rejecting Him.  This is a frightening example of what we see all around us today – everybody claiming that God told them something that is completely self-serving.

God wants us to be aware of the spiritual dangers that permeate Christianity in our days.  The Bible foretold the developments we see around us.