These be they who separate themselves, sensual, having not the Spirit.
I include the whole of this awful portrait, though made up of different characters, under one view, because they all form but one and the same picture; and all come under one and the same condemnation. We shall do well, under God the Spirit's teaching, to look both at their persons, and their features, and mark them one by one.
First. They are said to have been certain men, which had crept in unawares. By which we learn that the Apostle is not speaking of men of the world among the infidels, who totally disown Christ; but certain men, which had crept into the professing Church; and therefore acknowledged him. Paul had foretold of such apostates, (Acts 20:29-30) and Peter had drawn somewhat more fully their characters. (2 Peter 2:13) But Jude had lived to see some of them, in his day, as actually come into the professing Church; and, consequently, he foresaw swarms would follow. And I admire the expression, ``they had crept in unawares.'' For, as the faithful in the congregations, in those times, no more than in ours, had the faculty of discerning spirits, or of reading hearts, such false professors had got in, and been found among them: but then they crept in. Serpent-like, they had wormed themselves in, by wriggling: and, as Satan transformed himself into an angel of light, the more successfully to deceive; so those his ministers, for a while, appeared in form, as the ministers of righteousness, in a pretended love for Christ before the people. (2 Corinthians 11:14-15)
What a mercy is it in all ages of the Church, that the child of God, in whose heart a saving work of grace, by regeneration is wrought, hath this grand consolation for himself, amidst all the coverings of men, the Lord knoweth them that are his! (2 Timothy 2:19) And it is an additional mercy, when, in proof of this, the child of God desires to be tried, and examined, and brought to the test, for the knowledge of himself, and his real character. And, fearing he may be tempted, from self-love, to judge too favorably of himself on this great point of decision, from the judgment of man, he flies to the scrutiny of God. 'Try me, O God, and seek the ground of my heart; prove me, and examine my thoughts; look if there be any way of wickedness in me, and lead me in the way everlasting!'. (Psalms 139:23-24) Here is a standard no hypocrite will have recourse to! This is a fire, and which no tinsel of unregenerated men can bear.
Secondly. Those certain men, which, the Apostle saith, had crept in unawares, appear to have been somewhat more than mere professors of the Gospel, among the people. It should seem, from the mention of certain characters, to whom they are compared, that they were the Korahs and Balaams of their day; famous in the congregations, men of renown! See Numbers 16:1 and Numbers 22:1. They blazed like comets for a while, and like wandering stars, as Jude calls them, they soon went out, ``to whom is reserved the blackness of darkness forever.'' Hence, those strong expressions, as descriptive of their real character. ``Clouds without water, carried about of winds.'' No grace of God in their heart. No work of regeneration upon their soul. A noisy profession only of a name to live, while virtually dead before God. Yea, twice dead; dead in the original state of nature, in the Adam-fall transgression in which they were born, and under the sentence of the second death, from having no part in the first resurrection. Observe the expression! Certain men: and of old ordained to this condemnation! (Revelation 20:6)
Thirdly. The Apostle hath drawn the outlines of their profession and practice. ``Ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness, and denying the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ.'' I pray the reader to observe with me that here are no charges of immorality. Had their lives been notorious, for any breaches of the moral law, surely it would have been said. Moreover, as they had crept in unawares into the Church, had their conduct been notoriously corrupt, in any flagrant acts of licentiousness, they would soon have been discovered and turned out. But they are called ungodly men; by which term, it should seem that their conduct was directly leveled against the truths of God. And indeed, the Apostle adds: ``Turning the grace of God into lasciviousness.'' By which, I apprehend, they presumed to charge the free grace of God, which bringeth salvation, with leading to lasciviousness; as if that grace countenanced evil; and that glorious plan, of God's own contriving, in pardoning freely, fully, and completely, the sinner, on the sole account of Jesus's blood and righteousness, was (as modern enemies to the free-grace salvation of Jesus have charged the same), opening the flood-gates of sin. This seems to have been their ungodliness, and for which they are condemned, as ungodly men. And, it yet appears the more probable, because it is added, that their turning the grace of God into lasciviousness, was also accompanied with denying the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ. How could they be said to deny the only Lord God, but in denying his free grace? They could not be supposed to deny his Being. They could not, while they made a profession in the Church of Christ, either deny the Being of God, or the Being of Christ. But they indeed virtually denied both, if like certain modern professors of Christianity, they denied the only Lord God, as existing in a threefold character of Person; and denied our Lord Jesus Christ in his Godhead, and in the efficacy of his blood and righteousness.
Reader! look at this Scripture in every way and direction in which it can be placed, and look for grace from the Almighty Author of inspiration, to have a right understanding of it. And then ask your own heart, what was Jude directed by the Holy Ghost to give all diligence to write to the Church of the common salvation, unless to have guarded the minds of the faithful against the creeping in of such certain men as are here described? What faith but the faith of God's elect, in God the Father's everlasting love, and God the Son's complete, and finished salvation, could the Apostle mean, when he exhorted the Church, ``earnestly to contend for the faith once delivered unto the saints?''
Fourthly. The judgments which are here threatened to such characters, bear an exact correspondence to the conduct, as I have described, under the former observation. When the Lord cometh, with ten thousand of his saints; he is said to come, to convince all that are ungodly among them. (Mark here are the same characters as before called ungodly men, Jude 1:4). And he is said to convince them, not only of their ungodly deed, but of all their hard speeches, which ungodly sinners have spoken against him. Who is this Lord, that is here said to come, but the Lord Jesus Christ? ``For, the Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment unto the Son.'' And the reason is immediately subjoined. ``That all men should honor the Son, even as they honor the Father''. (John 5:22-23) And all the parts of Scripture which describe the day of judgment, speak of Christ the Son of God, as the Judge in that day. (Matthew 25:31-32; Acts 10:42; 2 Thessalonians 1:7-10) And who is to convince these men of their ungodly deeds, and ungodly speeches, but He, whose eyes are as a flame of fire, and who, as the Holy Ghost by Paul saith, shall judge the quick and the dead, at his appearing and his kingdom? (2 Timothy 4:1) And who is this Him, which they are here said to have spoken all their hard speeches against, but the Lord Jesus Christ?
Reader! ponder well the subject. Look at it again and again. Beg for light from above, to shine upon this solemn Scripture, and to shine in your heart. Then look at the world, yea, the professing world, as it now is. Hear the hard speeches spoken daily against Christ, and by certain men, crept in unawares into the professing Church, and by a misnomer, calling themselves Christians. They deny his Godhead, deny the efficacy of his atonement, deny the merit of his blood and righteousness, and would fain reduce him to the level of a mere man, like themselves! Can your imagination conceive anything more suitable, between the sin and the punishment here foretold to all such characters, than when Jesus shall come in his glory, and all his holy angels with him, and by the overwhelming brightness of his Person, shall convince and confound, into everlasting paleness and horror, those awful men? Reader! do dwell upon the Apostle's words, concerning this tremendous judgment! ``To execute judgment upon all, and to convince all, of their hard speeches, '' which ungodly sinners have spoken against him: yea, against Him! Mark that!
Fifthly. There is one point more, which gives a satisfying account to the Church of God, respecting those men, in explaining the cause, wherefore, though they have crept in unawares into the Church, by profession, they are wholly void of the smallest possession, in respect to vital godliness; namely, they are sensual, having not the Spirit. Here is the discrimination of character which, in all ages, ever hath, and to the end of the world, ever must, and will mark the feature, ``between the righteous and the wicked; between him that serveth God, and him that serveth him not''. (Malachi 3:18) Hence, all we read in this Epistle, yea, and all we read in the other parts of God's holy Word, concerning men who are sensual, having not the Spirit; that is, who remain in the old Adam-nature of sensual corruptions, unawakened, unregenerated, and never quickened into a new and spiritual life by the Holy Ghost, is in exact correspondence to what might be expected. They ``speak evil of those things which they know not; but what they know naturally as brute beasts, in those things they corrupt themselves. They have gone into the way of Cain; they have ran greedily after the error of Balaam, for reward; and perished in the gainsaying of Core. These are spots in your feasts of charity. Their mouth speaketh great swelling words, having men's persons in admiration, because of advantage.'' These are different descriptions, like so many shades in the painting; but all belong to one and the same character, of sensual men, who have not the Spirit: that is, all that are unregenerate. Not that all men while unregenerate, are like Cain, the first Deist the world ever had. For God's children, while in nature, are so. Neither that all unregenerate men hire themselves out, as Balaam did, to curse God's people, while conscious in his heart, that Israel was God's people. Neither do all, that with unhallowed hands dare to enter the Priesthood, as Korah and his company, uncalled of God, perish, as they did, in the moment of their presumption. Neither do all unregenerate men, who mingle in the feasts of God's people at his house, or at his table, though spots of defilement at those places bad enough; yet, neither injure the Lord's people, nor benefit themselves. Neither do all unawakened professors bolster up the Pharisees they meet with in their places of worship, though too often compliments to men's persons, whom they have in admiration are paid, it is to be feared at the expense of God's saving truths. These different shades, are differently seen in different men; but they all belong to one family, and have, in this respect, the same family feature; namely, as Jude saith, they are all sensual, having not the Spirit!
Reader! pause once more, and ponder these things well. And observe, from the Lord's teaching, as plain and luminous, as though written with a sun bean; that regeneration, or the new-birth, is the only criterion, and standard of character, before God. All the flaming professions in the world, all the seeming zeal, in compassing sea and land to make one proselyte; all the high pretensions, of more love than God himself, to convert all the earth, and to save whom God hath not saved; al the alms-giving, and alms-gathering, for the innumerable societies, to manifest their possessing the milk of human nature; yea, even the martyrdom of the body, where there is no regeneration of the soul; all these and every other, leave the professor just where nature found him, in the old Adam-nature of sin, unrenewed by the Holy Ghost, unwashed in the blood of Christ, unsanctified, and unchosen by the Father; and plainly demonstrate, from Scripture testimony, that they have no lot or part in the matter. So that, as I have more than once before observed, in this Poor Man's Commentary, those five words of the Lord Jesus Christ, throw to the ground all pretensions void of spiritual life, and dash the hopes of all hypocrites: ``Ye must be born again''. (John 3:7)
Lastly, to add no more. What Jude begins with, in this awful account, the Church makes her first and last conclusion, in tracing the whole to its source; namely, the certain men the Apostle saith, which crept in unawares, under those several specious forms of character, were before of old ordained to this condemnation. This testimony to God's sovereignty, so hateful to the sensual, who have not the Spirit, and so precious to the faithful, who know, by distinguishing grace, their adoption in Christ Jesus; places the whole truths of God upon their proper basis; and explains the subject, in all its different bearings, and in all the variety of circumstances, in which, through all ages, the grace of God hath appeared.
Reader! pause once more. If the Lord hath mercifully brought you into an acquaintance with the plague of your own heart, and if (as cannot then but be the sweet and precious testimony to the truth as it is in Jesus), your views of God's sovereignty and your acquaintance with Christ, arising out of it, be in your own soul's experience, look with astonishment at the distinguishing mercy, in partaking in the faith once delivered to the saints. Every child of God, in the present awful day, of a Christ despising generation, is a wonder to himself, as well as to many. He is a living witness for God; and oh! How ought he to esteem it his highest honor, to bear his loudest testimony to his holy Name; that though the day is not unlike the day of Elijah, yet God hath still reserved to himself thousands, that have not, and will not bow the knee to the image of Baal. ``Even so now, '' (saith the Holy Ghost by the Apostle) ``at this present time also, there is a remnant according to the election of grace''. (Romans 11:4-5)
I do not think it necessary to dwell long on these several verses in this Epistle, which might be gratifying, in a way of curiosity, but are not immediately necessary to be known, in a way of salvation. Jude reminds the people, concerning the visible Church in Egypt. Though numbers of Israel after the flesh, which accompanied the people of God on their deliverance from Pharaoh, and thereby had all the advantages of a temporal salvation; yet, having no part nor lot in the matter, in the spiritual salvation by Christ, went no further, for their carcases fell in the wilderness. (Romans 9:6-7; Hebrews 3:16-19) And the angels, which kept not their first estate, not being elect angels, but left to the mutability of their own will, fell, and in that fall, were everlastingly condemned.
The Reader, in the view of this subject, if taught of God, will find subject for endless praise. For such is the unavoidable consequence of all created nature, whether in angels or men, that, if not preserved in Christ Jesus, must have been subject to fall. No one creature, either angel or man, being in their own nature secured from falling, unless kept by a power superior to their own. That power can only be the God-man Christ. Not as God only. For then there could be no standing in with God. And as man only, there would have been no omnipotency to have upheld. But as both, God and man in one Person, there is suitability to the glorious deed. And, therefore, both angel and man, in the election of grace, the former by dominion, and the latter by union, are elect and preserved. Oh! What cause there is, for unceasing thanksgiving and praise, for the remnant, according to the election of grace! And truly, we may say with the Prophet; ``except the Lord of hosts had left unto us a very small remnant, we should have been as Sodom, and we should have been like unto Gomorrah''. (Isaiah 1:9)
I have given my views, in my Poor Man's Concordance, concerning the Archangel, and therefore shall not enlarge on the subject in this place. There can be but one Archangel, from the very name. Those who talk of Archangels, or Arks, seem to have forgotten the sense of words. And as we meet with the name Archangel but twice in the whole book of God, and both when speaking of the Lord Jesus Christ, there can be but little question that it is him which is referred to, and that by way of office. He is called Prince, or Chief, in the prophecy of Daniel. (Daniel 10:13; Daniel 10:21) I would not presume to be wise above what is written, but, concerning the contention here spoken of, as no part of Scripture hath noticed it, I can say nothing of it with certainty. The chiefest feature in it to remark is, the Lord's meekness. See Zechariah 3:1-2
Of Enoch's prophecy, the Holy Ghost hath given no record. Perhaps it was not written, but oral. But the account here stated, is, perhaps, in correspondence with all the parts of Scripture which relate to Christ's coming. By the seventh from Adam, is not meant the seventh person, for, doubtless, numbers both of sons and daughters were born to Adam, and his children, before Enoch was born. See Genesis 5:4 and c. But, by the seventh from Adam, is meant the seventh generation, in the line of the Church, and which were Adam, Sheth, Enosh, Kenan, Mahalaleel, Jered, Enoch. (1 Chronicles 1:1-2)