It is quite clear the apostle
Jude writes for and contemplates the last state of things:what comes under the
Lord’s eye, and what the saints have to meet. He is showing that the resources
are the same even to the very end when such a state of things arrives as is
depicted in the earlier verses of this epistle. This we see thoroughly
fulfilled in the history and present condition of the Church. But the Spirit of
God gives us a word of cheer to carry us on at this time when things are
outwardly and inwardly so depressing.
Jude addresses the faithful
saying "But ye, beloved, building up yourselves on your most holy faith,
praying in the Holy Ghost, keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the
mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life." Four sweet words—"building,"
"praying," "keeping," "looking."
"Building"—take care you do not pull down. What the Spirit prescribes
here is building; this is beautiful, because Jude is describing decay and
dissolution as the fruit of the corruption all around. Faith is peculiarly
sweet to the eye of the Lord when all is going to ruins. What is the warrant
for saints meeting together? "Building up yourselves."
Jude describes the end here, and
there is a resource which is competent for the state of things and enough to
keep the saints joyful. Joy in the Holy Ghost is the expected and suited state
of the saints always. Is it not to be the same now? Surely. As the history of
God’s people darkens, God ever raises a light; the deeper the darkness, the
brighter the light. This principle is clearly illustrated in the Old Testament,
and I turn to three scriptures which show that the greater the ruin the
brighter the light where faith was operative.
First, (2 Chronicles 30, 31)
things were bad in Hezekiah’s day with doors shut and lamps put out, but he
addresses all the people of God, and they came together and kept the passover
on the fourteenth day of the second month, taking advantage of a privilege God
allowed (see Num. 9:11).
"Great gladness"
prevailed, so they determined to have seven more days, and we read "they
kept other seven days with gladness" (30:23). Hezekiah got before the
Lord, and as a direct and natural consequence, "there was great joy in Jerusalem:for since the time of Solomon the son of David king of Israel there was not the like in Jerusalem" (ver. 26).
The days were very prosperous in
Solomon’s reign, but these were even better. You find, too, that when all were
thoroughly happy before the Lord, they began to be occupied with the Lord’s
interests. The people brought in the tithe of all things
"abundantly," and the priests and Levites were "encouraged"
(31:4, 5). When they began to give, the Lord began to bless. As the joy in the
Lord rose, the interest in and care for His things increased, and
"heaps" meet the eye of the gladdened king (vers. 6-8). The Lord has
given us a brightening up many a time, but alas! how soon we sink down. So was
it also in Judah’s history.
Second, things got very low
indeed until Josiah’s time. Then there was another revival. Evil was judged (2
Chron. 34:3,7). Then "Hilkiah the priest found a book of the law of the
Lord," and "Shaphan read it before the king" (vers. 14,18). The
Word of God produced repentance and humbling, and thereafter "Josiah kept a
passover unto the Lord in Jerusalem" (2 Chron. 35:1). And the record is
given, "And there was no passover like to that kept in Israel from the
days of Samuel the prophet; neither did all the kings of Israel keep
such a passover as Josiah kept" (ver. 18). It was the most remarkable
passover since the kingdom had been established. Not even Solomon’s could
approach it. What an encouragement for faith!
Third, enjoyed blessing would
not keep the soul since the eye was not single; so deeper failure followed; the
people wandered away again from God, and then were taken into captivity. God’s
grace, however, never gives up His own, and through mercy there was partial
recovery in Ezra’s time. A remarkable revival occurred and many returned from Babylon to God’s earthly center, Jerusalem. This is but a type of what has happened in our
days, in which the Lord has worked blessedly by His Spirit, reviving interest
in His Word and gathering back His saints to divine ground. Nehemiah, following
Ezra, began to build his wall. That was separation. Ezra built the temple,
Nehemiah the wall, and many true helpers had they. Nearly all were in the work,
sisters and all. Some built two bits, notably the Tekoites (Neh. 3:5, 27),
though of them it is said, "but their nobles put not their necks to the work
of their Lord" (ver. 5). But the Lord noticed every mark of devotedness
evidenced by repairing the wall, whether "Shallum … and his
daughters" (ver. 12), or Baruch, who "earnestly repaired’ (ver.
26), or the priests "every one over against his house" (ver. 28), or
Meshullam "over against his chamber" (ver. 30), for I suppose he was
but a lodger.
Again did the Word of the Lord
become precious, and was heeded (Neh. 8:1-8), and what good cheer it brought,
verses 9 and 10 indicate, as "this day is holy unto the Lord" twice
fell on their ears, and "the joy of the Lord is your strength" was
the trumpet call of the Spirit. "The joy of the Lord is your
strength." How beautiful! If our hearts are delighting in Christ there is
always strength and power, and understanding too. Next, they kept the feast of
tabernacles; they anticipated the millennium. In fact, there was more
apprehension of the mind of the Lord at this moment than there had ever been in
their previous history for "all the congregation of them that were come
again out of the captivity made booths, and sat under the booths:for since the
days of Jeshua the son of Nun unto that day had not the children of Israel done
so. And there was very great gladness" (ver. 17). Never in the brightest
day of kingly power did such a thing happen. I just show this principle in the
history of God’s people, that if there be faith and obedience and a desire to
follow His Word, the darker the day, the brighter will be the blessing. The
further into history you trace the ruin of Israel, the bolder does faith appear
in its action.
In Jude, which speaks of days of
Church ruin and failure, we are encouraged to expect great things, only if
faith be exercised. "Ye, beloved, building up yourselves on your
most holy faith." This evidently is the revelation of God—Christianity as
such—on which we are to build. The trowel is ever to be in the hand;
"building up," not pulling down, is our business. The Christian is
not an iconoclast—a destroyer of idols—but a builder, an unfolder and a living
expositor of the truth.
In Jude the Spirit of God is the
abiding source of power, realized by our having none, and therefore in
dependence we are to be found "praying in the Holy Ghost." Joy in the
Spirit is the result of our yielding ourselves unreservedly to the care and
guidance of this abiding Comforter of our hearts. Thus only shall we be kept to
the end walking in "the comfort of the Spirit"
"Keep yourselves in the
love of God." As born of God and objects of His love, you cannot help
loving. If one is kept in the enjoyment of the Lord’s love, love flows out
without effort; you cannot help it. No apple tree tries to grow apples. Do not
try to be anything; keep yourself in the love of God, and you will be like the
Son of God:you cannot help it. The atmosphere we live in will tell upon us,
just as the ointment of Aaron’s head went down to the skirts of his garments
and diffused an odor wherever he went (see Psa. 133). If we get near to the
Lord we shall carry away some of the savor of His presence. We always become
like the things with which we are occupied.
"Looking for the mercy of
our Lord Jesus Christ":this is not the Lord’s coming exactly, but the
effect of it. It is connected with our being taken out of this scene, and into
our home—heaven. We know we are welcome there—that it is our home. The Spirit
even now conducts our hearts there. Christ is there, and Paul was always
pressing thither by the pathway of resurrection from among the dead. It was his
goal. When you wake up in His likeness you will say, "Bless the Lord, His
mercy endureth for ever." The deepest desire of the heart will be
gratified when we reach the place to which the Lord is carrying us. It is the
greatest mercy the Lord can bestow upon us. We have to serve here and He is to
be manifested in us. But if every saint here were caught up today, each would
draw a deep breath and say, "Thank God, that is the greatest mercy I have
ever known; I am out of the world for ever, I am with the Lord and like Him and
shall never wander from or be unlike Him again." The Lord, in His grace,
keep us, and encourage our hearts to go on "looking."
How beautifully the epistle
closes with a doxology of triumph:"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, to the only wise God our Saviour, be glory and majesty, dominion
and power, both now and ever. Amen." Is not that thought lovely?
"With exceeding joy"—not ours, but the joy on Christ’s part, when He
presents to Himself that Church He has loved and cherished so faithfully these
hundreds of years. It will be the day of the gladness of His heart.
The Lord enable us to go on
"building" (do not drop the trowel!), "keeping,"
"praying in the Holy Ghost," and then "looking." That fills
up the whole life of the Christian and the next thing is that we find ourselves
gathered home in the cloudless perfection of His own presence.
FRAGMENT What God is, determines
what God does.
What
God does, proves what God is—Light and Love.