I love the book of Jude. It warned us and still warns us, of the days leading up to our Lord’s return to end all evil and rebellion on the earth; that deceivers and scoffers who do not have God’s Spirit but rather follow their own ungodly desires, work to divide us. Jude also encourages those who have God’s indwelling Spirit and Word - to persevere in the truth of God’s Word and praying in the Holy Spirit as we wait for the Lord Jesus Christ to bring us to Himself, the eternal life of God.
“KEEP yourselves in God’s love as you WAIT for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to bring you to eternal life. Be merciful to those who doubt;” (Do not judge them for their lack of knowledge, but instead tell them why you trust and love the Lord.) “save others by snatching them from the fire;” (Warn them of the coming judgment of God and PRAY for them to turn to Jesus their Savior with repentance.) “to others show mercy, mixed with fear – hating even the clothing stained by corruption.” (Be around unbelievers without being comprised in the least; be in the world but not of, and like the world.)
The Spirit of Christ is this, according to Jesus Christ’s own words about His Holy Spirit: “He will guide you into all the truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears from Me, and he will tell you what is yet to come. He will glorify Me because it is from Me that he will receive what he will make known to you.” John 16:13-14
And we are told to "test the spirits," because the spirit we are listening to may not be Christ's Holy Spirit. How do you test the spirits; you test what you hear by what the Word of God says about EVERYTHING.
We hear today so many so-called Christians using God’s Word to mask their own evil agendas. Or like the apostle John says about those who say they believe in the Son of God, yet they run ahead of His pure teaching with their OWN fine-sounding teaching and prove themselves to not have God living in them at all by His Spirit. (2 John 2-10)
John warns us that we are not to welcome ‘false teachers’ into our houses of worship (church organizations or private homes); that any such person is a deceiver of the antichrist. “Watch out that you do not lose what we have worked for, but that you may be rewarded fully.”
It grieves me that most American churches today have compromised the Word of God and therefore have ignorantly allowed deceivers to infiltrate their houses of worship. What church leaders should be able to discern and protect, they have not, but rather forfeited the power and presence of the Lord’s Holy Spirit to serve their own “religions,” instead of serving the Lord Jesus Christ who is the chief cornerstone of His Church worldwide. Jesus Christ is the Head of the Body of all believers.
John says that anyone who welcomes a “deceiver” shares in their wicked work. (2 John 11)
A deceiver is not the same as one who is searching for the truth to believe in the truth. The deceiver KNOWS the truth but twists, perverts, and works to destroy ALL truth from God. Satan, the great antichrist, knows the truth better than anyone and uses the Word of God to deceive and destroy faithfulness to the Lord Jesus Christ. If Satan and his deceivers can’t stop someone from believing in Jesus Christ as their Savior, he will work just as hard to keep a believer from their reward of faith in what God has called them to do.
How many believers today faithfully sit down each morning with God’s Word, and to pray? If the Word does not live in us, we can be easily deceived. If the Holy Spirit does not live in us, we cannot understand the Word of God as it should be understood. To all faithful believers…..
“To Him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you before His glorious presence without fault and with great joy – to the only God our Savior be glory, majesty, power and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord, before ALL ages, now and forevermore! Amen.” Jude 24-25