I will therefore put you in remembrance, though ye once knew this, how that the Lord, having saved the people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed them that believed not. Jude 1:5

Today we are going to take a look at maybe one of the most interesting verses in the entire New Testament. The Apostle Jude under the influence of the Holy Spirit makes reference to the Exodus of the Israelites, however Jude gives us a deeper revelation, as He reveals it was Jesus Christ who actually led the Israelites out of Egypt and through the wilderness.

This little detail brings so much confirmation to our essential doctrines of Christianity, such as the Trinity and the Deity of Christ. Yes Jesus Christ is God incarnate, if there is any doubt of that, you would have to reject text such as this from the Apostle Jude. If you actually look at  the original Greek, its actually the name of  Jesus (Lesous) instead of Lord (Kyrios) There is no doubt , it was our Lord Jesus Christ that was with the Israelites throughout the entire Exodus and beyond

So lets get into the heart of the text, what is the point the Holy Spirit is trying to make here? Some would suggest this text supports the idea you can “lose your salvation”, as if somehow you earned your salvation and then somehow you lost it. As you can probably tell, I reject this idea of losing your salvation, because first of all you never earned your salvation to begin with. The grace of God is something we can’t earn , its a gift of God , so none of us should boast (Ephesians 3:8-9) This idea that we did something to gain favor with God, and then lost it, in my opinion is a complete lack of understanding of the grace of God

So what is the Apostle Jude talking about? And how did these Israelites become destroyed? The late Dr. Michael Heiser made an interesting point, and I’m paraphrasing from the top of my head. But he suggested election and salvation are not the same thing, just because someone is an elect doesn’t mean they are automatically saved. And we can apply this to even todays world, there are alot of people who are born of Jewish descent, does that mean they are automatically saved? No, the only way to salvation is to be Born Again in Christ, so the fact that these are Israelites and they were still destroyed shouldn’t be a big hurdle for us to wrap our minds around.

What is the difference between the Israelites that were saved or anyone who is saved? As the Apostle Jude state here “afterward destroyed them that believed not” Again if we look at the Greek, we can see the root word “Pistis” which is primarily translated as faith, that is translated as believed. These people didn’t truly have faith in Christ for salvation, this is what separates all of us from salvation. We can’t save ourselves or earn our salvation, its genuine faith in Jesus Christ that can only save us, Amen!

Beloved, while I was very diligent to write to you concerning our common salvation, I found it necessary to write to you exhorting you to contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints. For certain men have crept in unnoticed, who long ago were marked out for this condemnation, ungodly men, who turn the grace of our God into lewdness and deny the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ. Jude 1:4-5

If we are being honest right now, Christianity is a mess. Liberalism has crept into the majority of our denominations, and has misled most people with a false gospel denying the Deity of our Lord Jesus Christ. As you can see, this is nothing new in the Church, as the Apostle Jude was dealing with this already in the first century. 

As the Apostle Jude wrote under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, “Concerning our common salvation” We are united by Christ, and we are united by basic doctrines that are not negotiable. The Trinity, the Bible is the inspired Word of God, the Deity of Christ, these are doctrines most false groups deny and are unfaliable. These are doctrines that unite true believers in Christ. The true gospel message that we are all sinners, Christ became a man and died on the cross for our sins, and Christ rose from the dead on the 3rd day defeating sin and death forever. 

If you want to be able to discern false teachers and false religions, look for the red flags. Do they deny the Bible is the inspired Word of God? Do they deny the deity of Christ? Do they deny we must become Born Again? 

As the Apostle Jude continues to say “for certain men have crept in unnoticed, who long ago were marked out for this condemnation, ungodly men” We see this even today, look at what just happened to the UMC, wicked reprobates infiltrate the Churches and implement heresies to mislead the masses. They are ungodly and they are planted by Satan to try and destroy the Church

But as a Born Again Christian, you need to be led by the Holy Spirit, you need to be grounded in scripture, you need to be in prayer with God continually, and you won’t fall for these traps of Satan. As the Apostle John said “Don’t believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone into the world” (1 John 4:1)

“They turn the grace of our God into lewdness and deny our only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ” A common denominator with cult groups is they employ a “works based salvation” they deny the grace of God through our Lord Jesus Christ, they say you must do this and that or you can’t be saved, let them be accursed! (Galatians 1:8) The only way to salvation is through our Lord Jesus Christ, its by grace you are saved, beware for false religions and false groups who promote heresies! Amen!