Study in the Epistle of Jude # 84: Verse 20

by Chris McCann

EBible Fellowship (http://www.ebiblefellowship.com)

Welcome to the Electronic Bible Fellowship’s Bible study. As we are going along in the book of Jude, we have come to verse 20, which says:

But ye, beloved, building up yourselves on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost,

As we read this verse, we realize that God is making a transition when He says, “But ye, beloved.” He is no longer speaking to those men who have crept in unawares. He is no longer focusing on the ungodly sinners who have committed ungodly offenses against the law of God, but He is making a change in focus as to whom He is now addressing.

Throughout the chapter, the focus has been on the unsaved individuals who have entered into the church. They have come in, and they call themselves Christians. They look like Christians, just about as close as anyone could look and appear to be a child of God, yet they are not and never were true Christians who have been born again by the Spirit of God.

However now, God is addressing the true children of God. “Beloved”—God identifies those whom He has saved as “beloved of the Lord” (2 Thessalonians 2:13). Those children whom God has saved are certainly greatly loved by God. This is a very endearing term that God uses for the elect of God. In 1 John 3:1-2, we read:

Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God: therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not. Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is.

God reserves this term, we could say, for those who have been the recipients of His grace, those who are truly recipients of the love of God; that is, those whose sins God has taken upon Himself in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ and paid for. Certainly, they are beloved with everything that that term can conjure up and everything that that word means. They are loved of God to such a degree that Christ gave His life and died the equivalent of an eternity in Hell for them. How much more beloved could someone be?

God speaks of someone dying for his friend (John 15:13) and dying for a righteous man (Romans 5:7). Christ, however, showed His love as He died for us while we were yet sinners (Romans 5:8), and He died the most horrible type of death that is imaginable. He died suffering the wrath of God. He drank of that cup, the fullness of the dregs of the wrath of God; He drank it dry and paid the penalty in full. It is no wonder that God calls us beloved and says that we are loved of God. We are the objects of His affection; we are His dear children.

By the way, in Ephesians 5:1-2 where that language is found, the word “dear” is the word “beloved.” We read:

Be ye therefore followers of God, as dear children…

That is, beloved children. It continues:

And walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and hath given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweetsmelling savour.

God is calling us “dear children.” As a husband will call his wife “dear,” the word is commonly used and may be misused. It becomes simply a way of addressing someone. It becomes a way of speaking to one’s spouse. Rather, the full meaning of the word “dear” means “beloved,” someone who is precious to me, someone who I love genuinely and truly.

How much God genuinely, honestly, and deeply loves His people! He loves them to an infinite degree. Certainly, if anyone has ever shown their love for another, if anyone has ever proven their love, it is the Lord Jesus Christ. He has demonstrated the depths of His love as He has paid the tremendous penalty of going down into the pit of Hell and suffering for each and every one of His dear children.

Perhaps no one loves you or cares about you. Maybe your fellowman does not treat you dearly. Maybe you are not beloved of any other human being. But if you are saved and your sins are washed away by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ as He has given His life for you, then you are loved with a tremendous love that cannot be shaken (Romans 8:38-39). You are loved as much as anyone could possibly be loved, and you are dear and beloved to the Lord Jesus Christ. You might want to ask yourself the question, “If God loves me, then what does it matter who is against me? What does it matter who else does not love me if God loves me and if God has bestowed His love upon me?”

John 3:16 says, “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son.” God gave His Son for His people, for the whole company of the elect. This is how God so loved the world. This is the manner in which God has loved the people of the world—in sending His Son to die exclusively for that remnant of mankind, those whom He predestinated from before the foundation of the world to salvation (Ephesians 1:4-5).

We can say, “God loves me,” but we have to be careful when we make that kind of a statement. We have to know that we are really and truly loved of God and that we are really and truly saved. All kinds of people think that God loves them. All types of people erroneously believe that they are beloved of God and that they are one of God’s dear children. They have confidence in their relationship with God, yet the reality of the situation is that they are far from God. They are under the wrath of God, and God does not love them at all, not one bit. Rather, they are hated of God (Psalm 7:11), and God will show this hatred on the Last Day, on Judgment Day, as He will most certainly throw them into Hell forevermore.

How could God love someone if He was going to cast them into the pit of Hell? The problem is that God does not love every human being; God does not love every single person. God loves His people, His bride, His beloved. Therefore, if we are one of His people, if we are a part of that spiritual bride of Christ, then let us rejoice and be thankful and praise God that He has given us such a great salvation so that we can say that we are beloved of God.

In returning to Jude, we read in verse 20:

But ye, beloved, building up yourselves on your most holy faith…

It is interesting that God states this the way in which He does in this verse—”Building up yourselves on your most holy faith.” If we did not know any better, we would think that it is our faith, the faith that we muster up within, the faith that we must exercise to take a hold of Christ and to believe on Him that will build us up. However, that is not what God is saying.

What does building up something remind us of? It reminds us of what we read in 1 Corinthians 3:9-11, where we read of a spiritual building. It says there:

For we are labourers together with God: ye are God’s husbandry, ye are God’s building. According to the grace of God which is given unto me, as a wise masterbuilder, I have laid the foundation, and another buildeth thereon. But let every man take heed how he buildeth thereupon. For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ.

Jesus Christ is the foundation stone, the corner stone upon which any spiritual structure must be built. God likens the saving of His people to the construction of a spiritual house—the house of God. The foundation stone is Christ, and all those who become saved are as living stones placed upon that foundation, which is Jesus. In this manner, the house of God, the temple of God, is being built up.

This is what is in view in Jude 20 when we read, “Building up yourselves on your most holy faith.” Again, there is construction; you are to build up yourself on your most holy faith. Are we to build upon our own profession of faith? No, in no way. That kind of structure will collapse; that type of foundation will be revealed to be a false foundation. God has told us that the only foundation possible is the Lord Jesus Christ. He then must be our most holy faith.

We see this again, just as we saw it earlier in Jude. God is reiterating this point. We read in verse 3:

…that ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints.

We saw conclusively that this faith was Christ Himself. Just as the Bible says that God is love and that God is truth, likewise God is faith. Christ is faith, saving faith. Whenever faith is in view, it is always pointing to Jesus Christ. That is where we can build upon—we build up ourselves upon our most holy faith, upon the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. Upon nothing else can we build—not upon our own supposed saving faith, which is non-existent to begin with. We cannot muster up in ourselves the necessary faith to believe—that will bring us under judgment. Saving faith is Jesus Christ.

Jude 20 goes on to say:

…praying in the Holy Ghost,

What is God saying here? What does this mean when God says, “Beloved, building up yourselves on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost”? The Holy Ghost is God Himself. God is a triune God—God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost or Holy Spirit. He is eternal God. Therefore, when we are praying in the Holy Ghost, we are praying in the person of God, in the name of God; we are praying in the Holy Ghost. This would mean that our prayers are in keeping with the will of God and in accord with His commandments that are found in the Bible. We are praying not that our will be done, but, “Thy will be done.” This is praying in the Holy Ghost. This is praying in line with the revealed will of God. We pray that God’s purpose, His will, His desire, come to pass. As we pray this, we are praying in the Holy Ghost.

Let us take a look at Matthew 6:9-10, which says:

After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.

The disciples asked Jesus, “Teach us to pray,” though I do not think that we see that here in this account. In response, Jesus teaches them what is known as the Lord’s prayer, and a main ingredient, a very important part of this prayer, is praying, “Thy will be done in earth as it is in Heaven.”

We often pray to God for what we want—a new car, a new house, money. We can express our desires; we can come to God with anything. However, if we seriously want to pray, if we seriously want to come to God on God’s terms in prayer, then we should not be praying, “Oh Father, give me a new car. Give me that car that I have always wanted.” That is expressing our lust and our wants and our desires, but it is not expressing the will of God. It may or it may not be God’s will to give us a new car. We can, however, pray to God, “Oh Father, this is the situation that I am in. This is what I want; this is my desire, and I am troubled about this. Could it be that Thy will be done. You will give me peace concerning Your response and Your answer, whatever it might be, so that I will be content and satisfied knowing that this is the perfect will of God for me in this situation. May Thy will be done.” This is praying in the Holy Ghost.

It is very similar to how the Lord Jesus Christ prayed when He was in the garden of Gethsemane. Let us keep in mind that when Jesus entered into the garden of Gethsemane, He had already begun to experience the wrath of God for the sins of His people. He had said, “For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale’s belly, so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth” (Matthew 12:40). This period of time began Thursday night in the garden; Thursday night He began to suffer. As we read the language in Matthew 26:36-38, we see that this is so. It says there:

Then cometh Jesus with them unto a place called Gethsemane…

The “place of the winepress” or the “olive press” is what that name means. The passage continues:

…and saith unto the disciples, Sit ye here, while I go and pray yonder. And he took with him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, and began to be sorrowful and very heavy. Then saith he unto them, My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death: tarry ye here, and watch with me.

Why would His soul be sorrowful unto death? It was because He was now experiencing the second death (Revelation 20:14). God was pouring out His wrath in a very real way upon Jesus, and He was suffering. In the account in Luke, it says that He was in agony while He was in the garden. Christ was going through the equivalent of an eternal damnation, so He is exceeding sorrowful unto death. Then verse 39 says:

And he went a little further, and fell on his face, and prayed, saying, O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me: nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt.

If anyone ever had a burden, if anyone ever had the most horrific and horrible and awful burden that could ever be, it was Christ. As He entered into the garden of Gethsemane, He was burdened with a terrible judgment of God. He had to drink of the cup of God’s wrath, and He had to drink it dry. He was suffering not for His own sins but for the sins of a great multitude, which are described as being as numerous as the stars of the sky in number. For each one, He was bearing a multitude of sins. All that iniquity, a great mountain of transgressions, was cast upon the Lord Jesus Christ. He bore those sins in His own body upon the tree (1 Peter 2:24). He began to suffer for those sins in the garden of Gethsemane and feel the wrath of a vengeful God, as God was punishing Him to the depths of Hell. Yet He prays, “O My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from Me: nevertheless not as I will, but as Thou wilt.” He is praying, “Not My will, but Thine be done.” Jesus is praying fully in line with the will of God.

This is how God would have someone approach unto Him in prayer. This is how He would have someone come to Him beseeching Him for whatever it might be—from the greatest possible torment like Jesus experienced, to some minor trouble that might be going on in our life, some minor annoyance that we might be experiencing in our family or in our neighborhood or at work. God would have us come to Him with such problems and troubles.

Whatever our problem or our burden is, we may go to God and beseech Him, “Could it be, Father, that You will lessen my burden. Comfort me in my burden; heal me and strengthen me.” Whatever it might be, we pray nevertheless, “Not as I will, but as Thou wilt. Not my will, but Thine be done. We know that Your will is perfect. We know that You have given us this situation, this problem; You have presented this difficulty before us. You are the One who has brought about our physical ailment or these developments that have cost us financially. You are the One, Father, who has brought this person into my life that is so much of a thorn in my flesh. You are the One who is bringing this situation and has allowed these things to occur, so I must pray, ‘not my will, but Thine be done.’” This is praying in the Holy Ghost.

This is what God means in Jude when He says that we are to build up ourselves upon our most holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost. We are to be praying that God’s will be accomplished.

Can we not rest in that? Can we not trust God? Can we not relax and lean back into the hands of such a wonderful and perfect God? Is anything really out of control in our lives? We might want or desire certain things, but what we have presently, what God has given us as far as where we are working or living or far as the things we possess or the people who are in our lives—everything that is going on right now in our lives—is exactly and perfectly as God would have it. Therefore, we pray, “Not my will, Father, but Thine be done.”

In our next study, Lord willing, we are going to move on to verse 21.