Jude

3 Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you, and exhort you that ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints. 4 For there are certain men crept in unawares, who were before of old ordained to this condemnation, ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness, and denying the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ.

12 These are spots in your feasts of charity, when they feast with you, feeding themselves without fear: clouds they are without water, carried about of winds; trees whose fruit withereth, without fruit, twice dead, plucked up by the roots;

Hypocrites: there's some in every fellowship. Jude wrote a lot in this letter about these individuals, being very careful to label them correctly. In this labeling process, he uses an interesting description that I would like to focus on for a while.

"These are spots in your feasts of charity". The first thing I want you to notice about this descriptive term is, "your feasts". In other words, there were some people in this church that had turned away from the truth, but were still "feeding themselves without fear". 

The NLT translates verse 12 this way: 12 When these people join you in fellowship meals celebrating the love of the Lord, they are like dangerous reefs that can shipwreck you. They are shameless in the way they care only about themselves.

I recently found out that some very influential people whom I used to respect and honor are now preaching false doctrine. However, they still claim to be Pentecostals. I have to admit that this disturbs me.  Jude went on to compare these hypocrites to the wicked people of Sodom and Gomorrah.

 7   Even as Sodom and Gomorrha, and the cities about them in like manner, giving themselves over to fornication, and going after strange flesh, are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire.

If you recall, the men of Sodom and Gomorrah were so wicked that God struck them with blindness, but even in their blindness, they still longed to do sinful things. Go back and read this story again and see if you can find anywhere in scripture where God ever gave them their sight back. I believe that these men were still blind when God sent fire from heaven to consume them.

There are many people that are as blind.  Study the story of Balaam and you will find that Balaam desired the rewards that Balak had offered him, but when he set out to meet Balak, an angel of the Lord appeared and stood in his way. When that didn't stop him, the Angel stood in front of him in a narrow path with a wall on either side. When even this didn't detour him, the Angel stood before him in a place that was so narrow that there was no way for him to turn to the right or to the left. God deals with us when there's plenty of time to turn around, but the longer that we refuse to listen to Him, the narrower the pathway becomes. If Balaam would've just turned around the second time, the outcome of this story could be completely different, but he kept going until he reached a place where it was impossible for him to turn around.

Perhaps you have an individual on your mind right now as you're reading this. Maybe it's someone you used to admire and their downfall has had a tremendous affect on you. While it's very easy for us to focus on the fallen brethren who still claim to be part of the church, we must pay close attention to another part of verse 12.

"These are spots in your feasts of charity". While Jude discuses the apostate Christians throughout most of his letter, he merely refers to them as "spots in your feasts of charity". Why would we stop a perfectly good feast to examine a few spots here and there? Let's spend our time focusing on the things that are most important. If these "spots" don't want to repent, that may cause us to be shocked and hurt, but it shouldn't affect our walk with God. Notice the way that Jude ended this letter.

20  But ye, beloved, building up yourselves on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost, 21 Keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life.

Instead of moping and worrying about those that have fallen, let's build ourselves up in the faith. I like verses 24 and 25:

24 Now unto him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy, 25 To the only wise God our Saviour, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and ever. Amen.

Forget about the person that is spiritually blind and place your hope in the One that is able to keep you from falling. There's an old song that says, "I've got no reason to quit, but one hundred reasons why I should go on. I may get low and sometimes fail. I'm not proud of it, but I've got no reason to quit."

Don't spend your time focusing on spots; instead, focus on the spotless Lamb, because He's worthy of our attention!!!

Jordan Mills