The Prayers of the Apostles - Booklet Six - Jude ,24, 25

The Prayers of the Apostles – Booklet Six
A. W. Pink

Jude :24, 25

“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” Jude :24, 25.

The prayer which is now to engage our attention is a particularly arresting one, but its beauty and blessedness appear even more conspicuously if it be examined in connection with its sombre background. It concludes the most solemn epistle in the New Testament, one which is to be put down with thanksgiving and praise. It contains a most awful description of graceless professors, of those who appeared to give much promise of fruit to God’s glory, but whose leaves soon dropped off and whose trees quickly withered away. Its theme is apostasy―or, more specifically, the corrupting and corruption of Christendom. It presents a picture which all-too-tragically depicts things as they now are in the religious realm—in the “churches” at large. It informs us how the process of declension began, how the evil leaven was introduced into the three measures of meal (the Roman church, the Greek church, and Protestantism), and will work until the whole thereof is corrupted. It delineates the characters of those who should be engaged in this vile work. It makes known the sure doom awaiting both leaders and those who are led. It closes with a glorious contrast.

The Lord Jesus gave warning that the sowing of the good seed by Himself and His apostles would be followed with the sowing of tares in the same field by Satan and his agents. Paul also announced that―notwithstanding the widespread successes of the Gospel during his lifetime―there would be “a falling away” before the man of sin was revealed (2 Thess. 2:3). That “falling away”―or the apostasy of Christendom corporately considered―is depicted by the …