Becoming Reprobate

I am convinced the Church is totally unaware of the mind and heart of God concerning those who depart from the faith. We have nurtured sin so long in the house of God until we have actually become expectant of its presence among the people of God. But this was not so in the early church. There was a fear of God that came about as a result of preaching a sound word. It is however, expedient for us to discover the route to becoming a cast away; one who is without hope and unable to come to repentance.

JUDE 1:3-4

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.

Jude is very detailed as to how one actually becomes a reprobate.

Turning the grace: (metatithemi) to pervert, exchange, translate and change sides;

Uses the grace of God to work lasciviousness: filthy lusts, wantonness;

Denies Christ: refuse, rejects or contradicts the life of Christ.

In case you are wondering whether these people were ever once saved, Jude makes that fact clear in the next verse.

Jude 1:5

5 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

This may be a hard truth for you to digest; nevertheless it is truth. God will destroy those whom He has saved if they put Him to an open shame. If we trampled upon the grace of God it will not protect us from the wrath of God to come.

Unbelief: To reject known and witnessed truth.

JUDE 1:8

Likewise also these filthy dreamers defile the flesh, despise dominion, and speak evil of dignities.

FILTHY DREAMER: to harbor evil imaginations

DEFILE THE FLESH: to give over to lust and damnable practices

DESPISE DOMINION: refuse to submit to the government of God

SPEAK EVIL OF DIGNITIES: to speak evil of those who remain honorable before God and man.

JUDE 1:11-13

11 Woe unto them! for they have gone in the way of Cain, and ran greedily after the error of Balaam for reward, and perished in the gainsaying of Core.

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;

13 Raging waves of the sea, foaming out their own shame; wandering stars, to whom is reserved the blackness of darkness for ever.

TWICE DEAD: these people were once dead in sins and trespasses, they were saved by the grace of God, having been brought alive unto God by the infilling of the Holy Ghost. But now because of their gross wickedness and bold arrogance, their sins have been opened and judged beforehand (before the day of judgment). His Spirit is taken away and they are once again dead in sin.

Finally, these souls are plucked up by the roots. Their roots were in the Kingdom of God. Now that they are plucked up, where will they appear? There is only one place they might be found; the kingdom of darkness. They have no fruit. That which they once brought forth is withered. They are worthless to the Kingdom of Light and are left as angry waves of the sea, foaming at the mouth their own shame. They are as wandering stars whose light has faded. They are reprobate, rejected by God.

It will be a sad day if any of us should be left behind at the rapture of the Church. To stand on the earth and behold the glory of the Son of God in the sky, calling forth those who have kept His commandments would be quite a traumatic experience. This does not have to be the end for any of us. Let us be steadfast in the truth and hold on to that which is righteous. Avoid evil and evildoers. Don’t sit in the sit of the scornful, nor keep company with the workers of iniquity. Let this lesson be a format to examine yourself to see if you be in the faith.