The gullibility found amongst God’s people

Photo by Benjamin Sander Bergum on Unsplash

“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,” Jude 1:3.

This is a verse with which I have beeb acquainted from my earliest days as a Christian. It was frequently quoted and expounded from the pulpit of Ravenhill Free Presbyterian Church but the minister, Ian R K Paisley.

I have often employed it to expose the dangers facing the people of God from the agents of the devil who creep in to the assembly of the saints surreptitiously in order to destroy the gospel and wreck the work of God.

In recent days I have seen that there is another implication set forth by these words and it is that the people to whom Jude was writing were in need of being warned for they obviously were unaware of the dangers these ‘creepers’ presented! It was not just the wickedness of the creepers that concerned Jude, but the naivety of the saints!

I suppose we can all recall responding to the revelation of a deception wrought upon someone who believed a fraudster with the words, ‘How did they not see that it was a deception?’

We likely have reacted to some newspaper story of how a swindler had obtained from some person a large sum of money by using deceitful words that ought to have been obvious to the one deceived! That has happened and will continue to happen despite the warnings issued and the reports of others being duped!

Why is that so?

Christians, for it is them we want to think of in particular, are likened unto sheep and rightly so for they are easily deceived and led astray. They are in constant need of guidance and guarding.

“But made his own people to go forth like sheep, and guided them in the wilderness like a flock,” Psalm 78:52.

Being sheep and gullible, God’s people have often been brought into captivity. “But if ye will not hear it, my soul shall weep in secret places for your pride; and mine eye shall weep sore, and run down with tears, because the LORD’S flock is carried away captive,” Jeremiah 13:17.

The wisest amongst God’s people have been deceived. The story of David, of Solomon, of Jehoshaphat, of Peter and many others, those naivety is recorded in Holy Scripture for our learning, illustrate this to be so.

Thus Jude’s words indicate that:

I. IN THE EARLY CHURCH MANY WERE UNAWARE OF THE DECEIVERS AT WORK AMONGST THEM!

1. Times of Holy Ghost blessing and power do not deter the devil and his agents! The words of Jude were written at a time when the Spirit of God was amongst His people as never before and which has been unequalled since! Yet even in such a time of spiritual awareness and discernment, many of God’s people were blind to the workings of the enemy!

Jude says: “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.” The saints needed to be told of the corruptions at work in their midst.

2. Such deceitfulness was to be found amongst the rulers of the churches. Paul indicates that with his famous words to the elders of Ephesus, one of the most spiritual of the early churches.

“Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock, over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood. For I know this, that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock. Also of your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after them. Therefore watch, and remember, that by the space of three years I ceased not to warn every one night and day with tears,” Acts 20:28-31.

3. Here is instruction for today’s preachers! 60-70 years ago, Free Presbyterian ministers did not need to be told to preach against apostasy. They certainly do today! If I am not mistaken, there are but few who regularly do what Paul said a minister should do in order to show he is a good minister! After informing Timothy of the inroads of evil teachings in 1 Timothy 4:1-2: “Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils; speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a hot iron”, the man of God goes on to say: “If thou put the brethren in remembrance of these things, thou shalt be a good minister of Jesus Christ, nourished up in the words of faith and of good doctrine, whereunto thou hast attained,” verse 6.

In the light of that truth, there are few ‘good’ ministers to be found today!

Where would we be had the Lord Jesus and His servants not issued warnings to their respective generations of the dangers they faced?

Have we not all benefitted from such words as:

“Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it,” John 8:44.

What of Paul’s warning about deceivers?

“But what I do, that I will do, that I may cut off occasion from them which desire occasion; that wherein they glory, they may be found even as we. For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ. And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light. Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness; whose end shall be according to their works,” 2 Corinthians 11:12-15.

And again: “If any man teach otherwise, and consent not to wholesome words, even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, and to the doctrine which is according to godliness; he is proud, knowing nothing, but doting about questions and strifes of words, whereof cometh envy, strife, railings, evil surmisings, perverse disputings of men of corrupt minds, and destitute of the truth, supposing that gain is godliness: from such withdraw thyself. But godliness with contentment is great gain,” 1 Timothy 6:3-6.

And what of Matthew 23 where the Lord berates and displays for all to see the horrible hypocrisy of the Jewish elders!

Such warnings are as boundary markers which help us to keep on “the old paths, where is the good way, and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls,” Jeremiah 6:16.

II. THE GULLIBILITY OF GOD’S PEOPLE IS FURTHER REVEALED IN THE DREADFUL DOCTRINES THAT WERE INTRODUCED UNAWARES

As medicine indicates the seriousness of a patient’s illness, so the words of warning from Jude indicates the state of the churches to which he wrote.

1. The very core of the gospel was under attack. “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,” verse 4. This was a corrupting of the gospel to an ultimate degree. The word ‘lasciviousness’ is a reference to that which is born from the unbridled lusts of man’s depraved heart. That is taught by the Saviour. “And he said, That which cometh out of the man, that defileth the man. For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness: All these evil things come from within, and defile the man,” Mark 7:20-23. The devil and his agents are turning the ‘message’ of God into that which ‘defiles’ men rather than ‘delivering’ them!

Thus today, every form of depravity and perversity is endorsed and embraced by the mainline churches and political parties.

This is going on and few seem to be aware of it and fewer still pray and preach against it!

2. Churches today, as it was back in apostolic days, have those who masquerade as gospel ministers, but who deny Christ. “Denying the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ,” verse 4. The word ‘denying’ means, as is made clear in its first appearance in the New Testament, to so speak against Christ as to bring damnation upon them. “But whosoever shall deny me before men, him will I also deny before my Father which is in heaven,” Matthew 10:33.

This truly is the setting forth of a ‘damnable’ doctrine, even as Peter said would come. “But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction. And many shall follow their pernicious ways; by reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of,” 2 Peter 2:1-2.

3. That there is not much more earnest contending for ‘the faith’, is an indication of the subtlety of the devil and his agents. You would think that doctrines so incompatible and irreconcilable with the truth of God would be spotted immediately by God’s people and warred against most intently and resolutely! But know, even in those wonderful apostolic days, Jude found it “needful”to write unto God’s people and exhort them “to earnestly contend for the faith.”

This indicates the lack of spiritual discernment that was amongst some Christians back then. It also will bring home to us that it must be even worse in these dark days! The devil deceived Adam and Eve when they were sinless. What easy targets he must find today’s Christians to be!

Of course, it must be stated that we have the advantage over Adam and Eve of the inspired records of the devil’s deception and tricks over the years since the fall. Paul was able to say: “Lest Satan should get an advantage of us: for we are not ignorant of his devices,” 2 Corinthians 2:11.

We have the aid that God by His Holy Spirit grants to those who heed and obey His Word and yet the devil is able to work such a gross and horrible deception amongst God people as is referred to by Jude.

4. The devil’s skilled use of the gullibility of many Christians is further seen in that those who take up Jude’s message are deemed to be negligent in preaching the gospel. I can recall in the 60s and 70s how Dr Paisley was miscalled for his exposing the terrible apostasy that had invaded the Presbyterian, Church of Ireland and Methodist denominations here in Ulster. Christians, it has to be said, denounced him for such doing that commanded of God and required by the invasion of pulpits where once the truth of God was upheld!! Such critics were ignorant of the Bible, deceived by the devil, blind to the corruptions of the gospel and sadly siding with the devil against the Word of God! They were a great aid to the like of those referred to by Jude, the “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.”

How wrong ignorance and gullibility can render  child of God!

III. THE SUCCESS THE ‘CREEPERS’ HAD INDICATES THAT JUDE WAS RIGHT TO BE CONCERNED ABOUT THE GULLIBILITY OF BELIEVERS!

1. The success of the creepers is seen it that was ‘needful’ for Jude to issue the warning. The word is sometimes translated as ‘distress’, Luke 21:23, 1 Corinthians 7:26, 1 Thessalonians 3:7. As a result of the satanic invasion distresses had broken out amongst the churches and this required an immediate response.

2. Jude also uses another word which indicates the success of the ‘creepers’. He was acting with diligence. “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.” ‘I could not stay silent in the face of what was happening,’ he says.

I say that there is a need today to rush to the ‘gospel dykes’ that surround and safeguard the church of Christ and repair the breaches before the witness of truth in this land is swamped and overwhelmed!

It would be most tragic indeed if what was said in Ezekiel’s day, just a few years prior to the final overthrow of Jerusalem and the captivity of Judah, has to be said of us. “And I sought for a man among them, that should make up the hedge, and stand in the gap before me for the land, that I should not destroy it: but I found none. Therefore have I poured out mine indignation upon them; I have consumed them with the fire of my wrath: their own way have I recompensed upon their heads, saith the Lord GOD,” Ezekiel 22:30-31.

There is a great need, because of the success of evil men, to repair the hedges of gospel truth and restore and re-erect the ancient landmarks.

3. A further evidence of the need for urgent concern is seen in the measures Jude demands that must be taken in response to the attack upon God’s truth. Jude says: I “exhort you that ye should earnestly contend for the faith.” The words ‘exhort’ and ‘earnestly contend’, indicate that a most intense response was required! The first use of the word translated ‘exhort’ is found in Matthew 2:18 and is related to the massacre of the innocents by Herod. “Then was fulfilled that which was spoken by Jeremy the prophet, saying, In Rama was there a voice heard, lamentation, and weeping, and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children, and would not be comforted, because they are not,” Matthew 2:17-18. Here the Greek word is translated “be comforted”.

We can imagine the distress amongst the poor mothers of Bethlehem following the evil massacre of their little ones. There was just nothing that could comfort them! Jude, by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit was indicating something most uncomfortable was happening in the churches. There was a spirit of slaughter and death at work, seeking to kill off the truth of God!

Such an occurrence required but one response — “Earnest contending”! The Greek word underlying the phrase “that ye should earnestly contend” appears only here in the New Testament. It embodies all the other calls to a war-like spirit to show itself in the defence of the gospel.

There is a need for plainness in the pulpit, boldness in the pulpit! There is a need to “Fight the good fight of faith,” 1 Timothy 6:12, otherwise we will not exit this world with Paul’s great words on our lips. “I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith: Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing,” 2 Timothy 4:7-8.

Paul’s words to Timothy are ours also to obey. “This charge I commit unto thee, son Timothy, according to the prophecies which went before on thee, that thou by them mightest war a good warfare; Holding faith, and a good conscience; which some having put away concerning faith have made shipwreck,” 1 Timothy 1:18-19.

Faithful contending is no easy thing! This the Saviour made plain when writing to the church in Smyrna. “Fear none of those things which thou shalt suffer: behold, the devil shall cast some of you into prison, that ye may be tried; and ye shall have tribulation ten days: be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life,” Revelation 2:10.

Those evocative words of Hebrews 11:32-12:2, so full of poignancy, indicate and underscore the price that many have been willing to pay in order to “earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints.” Here is an honourable host whose courage and example we should follow.

“And what shall I more say? for the time would fail me to tell of Gedeon, and of Barak, and of Samson, and of Jephthae; of David also, and Samuel, and of the prophets: who through faith subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made strong, waxed valiant in fight, turned to flight the armies of the aliens. Women received their dead raised to life again: and others were tortured, not accepting deliverance; that they might obtain a better resurrection: and others had trial of cruel mockings and scourgings, yea, moreover of bonds and imprisonment: they were stoned, they were sawn asunder, were tempted, were slain with the sword: they wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins; being destitute, afflicted, tormented; (Of whom the world was not worthy:) they wandered in deserts, and in mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth. And these all, having obtained a good report through faith, received not the promise: God having provided some better thing for us, that they without us should not be made perfect. Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.”

Much ground has been lost but by God’s grace it can be recovered if we do as was urged upon the army of Israel by its general, Joab; “Be of good courage, and let us play the men for our people, and for the cities of our God: and the LORD do that which seemeth him good,” 2 Samuel 10:12.

Amen and amen.

Rev Ivan Foster (Rtd)
28th October 2024