THE SURE RESULT OF DEPARTURE – Jude 5-7
Posted by Pastor Greg Allen on June 20, 2018 under AM Bible Study |
AM Bible Study Group; June 20, 2018 from Jude 5-7
Theme: The Bible gives a clear declaration of how unrepentant apostasy ends in divine judgment.
(All Scripture is taken from The New King James Version, unless otherwise indicated).
In our last study, we were introduced to the tiny New Testament book of Jude—and to its great theme. That theme is one that we need very much to heed today—the call of faithful believers to defend the gospel; which is the faith once-for-all-time given to the saints.
Jude wrote this letter to his brothers and sisters who were living in a time of apostasy. To ‘apostatize’ means to deliberately depart from a path or a way. Paul wrote that in latter times, “some will depart from the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons …” (1 Timothy 4:1). And what was a future prospect when Paul wrote those words was becoming a present reality when Jude wrote this letter.
Jude told his readers in the first few words;
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 3-4).
And what was a present threat in Jude’s day is most certainly one in ours today. It is a threat of great significance—one that has terrible eternal consequences. Souls are lost by apostasy, and those who knowingly and intentionally depart from the path of Christ—hardening their hearts without repentance—suffer horrible judgment. The writer of Hebrews puts it this way;
For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted the heavenly gift, and have become partakers of the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come, if they fall away, to renew them again to repentance, since they crucify again for themselves the Son of God, and put Him to an open shame. For the earth which drinks in the rain that often comes upon it, and bears herbs useful for those by whom it is cultivated, receives blessing from God; but if it bears thorns and briers, it is rejected and near to being cursed, whose end is to be burned (Hebrews 6:4-8);
As the apostle Peter wrote of such apostates;
For if, after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overcome, the latter end is worse for them than the beginning. For it would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than having known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered to them (2 Peter 2:20-21).
Now; Jude has begun by introducing this threat in the first few verses. In those words, he urged his readers to stand ready to defend the faith once delivered to the saints. And now—in a section in which he describes the nature of the apostates within his readers’ midst (vv. 5-19)—he begins by telling them of what the Scriptures have always taught about the sure and certain judgment of those who intentionally and high-handedly turn from the way from that faith.
Notice how he begins in verse 5. He writes, “But I want to remind you, though you once knew this … (v. 5a). And what he reminds them of are three representative stories from the Old Testament that confirm the fact that turning away from the path in hardened and willful unbelief leads to terrible judgment.
Why was it that he had to remind these readers of these things? He says that they once knew them (in the perfect tense of the verb; meaning known them once for all). Those who apostatize are choosing to ‘willfully forget’ the things that the Bible teaches (see 2 Peter 3:5). But as is so often the case, we who seek to follow our Lord can know something and yet still need to have it brought back to our conscious awareness for application. We often need the same kind of reminder that Jude was offering to his readers.
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First, Jude takes his readers back to the story of the deliverance of the Jewish people from bondage in Egypt, and reminds them of …
I. THE EXAMPLE OF THE UNBELIEVING PEOPLE OF THE EXODUS (v. 5).
In verse 5, he reminds them of what they once knew; “that the Lord, having saved the people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed those who did not believe” (v. 5b).
This would have brought the minds of these Christians back to the story that began in the Book of Exodus—the story that told of how the people of Israel were delivered from their slavery. God was graciously bringing them to the Promised Land. It is a wonderful Old Testament picture of our own salvation through Christ. But sadly, when the people came to that land, they rebelled. They turned away from the good path upon which God was leading them. They refused to enter the land because it seemed hard to conquer, and because it was occupied by giants—even though God promised that He would give them victory over the giants and give their land to them. In their complaint against God. They shockingly cried out;
“If only we had died in the land of Egypt! Or if only we had died in this wilderness! Why has the Lord brought us to this land to fall by the sword, that our wives and children should become victims? Would it not be better for us to return to Egypt?” (Numbers 14:2-3).
God was very angry with them for their refusal to trust Him and to take what He was giving them. They were despising His deliverance from bondage; and were daring to talk about going back into bondage again! And they suffered for this unrepentant ‘apostasy’. God said to Moses;
“How long shall I bear with this evil congregation who complain against Me? I have heard the complaints which the children of Israel make against Me. Say to them, ‘As I live,’ says the Lord, ‘just as you have spoken in My hearing, so I will do to you: The carcasses of you who have complained against Me shall fall in this wilderness, all of you who were numbered, according to your entire number, from twenty years old and above” (vv. 27-29).
They even went on to apostatize afterward. God had told them not to now try to conquer the land, because He would not go with them or help them. But they disobeyed and went anyway—suffering great loss (Numbers 14:39-45). On another occasion, shortly thereafter, a certain section of the people—the sons of Korah, who were of the tribe of Levi, were taking the lead in this—dared to rebel against Moses’ God-given authority. And what’s more, a large group of their co-rebels dared to assume a priestly role in defiance of Aaron. They told him,
“You take too much upon yourselves, for all the congregation is holy, every one of them, and the Lord is among them. Why then do you exalt yourselves above the assembly of the Lord?” (Numbers 16:3).
God responded by declaring judgment upon those rebels. He commanded Moses to issue the condemnation. And then, the Bible tells us,
Now it came to pass, as he finished speaking all these words, that the ground split apart under them, and the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them up, with their households and all the men with Korah, with all their goods. So they and all those with them went down alive into the pit; the earth closed over them, and they perished from among the assembly (Numbers 16:31-33).
And as for those who presumed to take on priestly work in defiance of God’s command;
And a fire came out from the Lord and consumed the two hundred and fifty men who were offering incense (v. 35).
What a dreadful lesson the Old Testament example of Israel’s disobedience in the wilderness teaches us. The apostle Paul wrote about it in 1 Corinthians 10;
Moreover, brethren, I do not want you to be unaware that all our fathers were under the cloud, all passed through the sea, all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, all ate the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them, and that Rock was Christ. But with most of them God was not well pleased, for their bodies were scattered in the wilderness. Now these things became our examples, to the intent that we should not lust after evil things as they also lusted. And do not become idolaters as were some of them. As it is written, “The people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play.” Nor let us commit sexual immorality, as some of them did, and in one day twenty-three thousand fell; nor let us tempt Christ, as some of them also tempted, and were destroyed by serpents; nor complain, as some of them also complained, and were destroyed by the destroyer. Now all these things happened to them as examples, and they were written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the ages have come. Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall (1 Corinthians 10:1-12).
That’s one example that Jude offers. Another points our attention to the spiritual realms and gives us …
II. THE EXAMPLE OF THE REBELLIOUS ANGELS (v. 6).
Admittedly, it’s hard to know from just where Jude draws this illustration. (Some believe he draws some of his information from the pseudopigraphical Book of Enoch; which he quotes from in verses 14-15). But in any case, the Holy Spirit led him to write in verse 6, “And the angels who did not keep their proper domain, but left their own abode, He has reserved in everlasting chains under darkness for the judgment of the great day … “ (v. 6).
Some have seen biblical support for Jude’s words by looking back to the strange story that we find in the beginning of Genesis 6. It’s there that we read—in the beginning of the story of the flood;
Now it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born to them, that the sons of God saw the daughters of men, that they were beautiful; and they took wives for themselves of all whom they chose (Genesis 6:1-2).
Many Bible teachers have taken ‘the sons of God’ to be angels who—in some way that it is difficult for us to grasp—left their proper place and sought relations with human women. (It may have been that they were seeking to corrupt the human race so that the ‘holy seed’—by which the promised Redeemer would be born into the world—would be defiled; somewhat similar to what we’re told in Ezra 9:2). But however we might understand this event in Genesis 6, it was clearly so horrible and defiant an act that it necessitated the destruction of the whole human race except for the eight people in the ark. Whether the story in Genesis 6 is the one that Jude has in mind or not, it is nevertheless clear from the Scriptures that a significant portion of the angelic race did indeed rebel against God and depart from the place He appointed for them. The greatest rebel of all in this was Lucifer himself; for Isaiah 14 says of him;
“For you have said in your heart:
‘I will ascend into heaven,
I will exalt my throne above the stars of God;
I will also sit on the mount of the congregation
On the farthest sides of the north;
I will ascend above the heights of the clouds,
I will be like the Most High’” (Isaiah 14:13-14).
That Satan drew a great number of angels into his rebellion with him is suggested to us by Revelation 12:3-4;
And another sign appeared in heaven: behold, a great, fiery red dragon having seven heads and ten horns, and seven diadems on his heads. His tail drew a third of the stars of heaven and threw them to the earth … (Revelation 12:3-4).
These also suffered for their ‘apostasy’; as is told us in verse 9;
So the great dragon was cast out, that serpent of old, called the Devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world; he was cast to the earth, and his angels were cast out with him (v. 9).
And that they are destined for eternal judgment for their apostasy is made clear by our Lord. He speaks of Himself as exercising His role as Judge of all the earth; and says,
“Then He will also say to those on the left hand, ‘Depart from Me, you cursed, into the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels …” (Matthew 25:41).
So; here is another example of judgment that comes as a consequence of apostasy. It is even true of the angelic hosts. Even they who did not ‘keep their proper domain’ but ‘who left their own abode’ are now kept under guard by God in ‘in everlasting chains under darkness for the judgment of the great day’! What a dreadful example they give to us of the sure judgment of departure from the way!
And another—perhaps one of the most shocking of all because of its almost proverbial status even among unbelieving people—is the one drawn from Genesis 19;
III. THE EXAMPLE OF THE CITIES OF THE PLAIN (v. 7).
Jude had just spoken of the angels who rebelled against God—perhaps in their wicked unions with human women—and then added, “… as Sodom and Gomorrah, and the cities around them in a similar manner to these, having given themselves over to sexual immorality and gone after strange flesh, are set forth as an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire” (v. 7).
The “these” of the phrase ‘in a similar manner to these’ would be the angels mentioned in verse 6. In whatever way they sinned, so apparently did the people of the plains around Sodom and Gomorrah. This place was once lush and beautiful and desirable. We’re told back in Genesis 13 that when given the choice, Lot—the nephew of Abraham—desired this region over the land that God was promising to Abraham. We’re told;
And Lot lifted his eyes and saw all the plain of Jordan, that it was well watered everywhere (before the Lord destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah) like the garden of the Lord, like the land of Egypt as you go toward Zoar (Genesis 13:10).
But what a wicked place it was. God had sent angels—His angles!—to the place to see if the report of its wickedness was true. (Whenever God seeks to find out if something is true; it’s not because He doesn’t know. It’s always because He intends to do something about it.) And true to the report, the wickedness of the place was horrific. The angels of God came to Lot; and the men of Sodom gathered around Lot’s house and demanded;
“Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us that we may know them carnally” (Genesis 19:5).
Clearly, they too were willfully departing from God’s good place for them, and were—like the angels (in some sense) giving themselves over to sexual immorality and going after “strange flesh” (that is, some expression of sensual lust that was unnatural to their being). And as we know, terrible judgment came:
Then the Lord rained brimstone and fire on Sodom and Gomorrah, from the Lord out of the heavens. So He overthrew those cities, all the plain, all the inhabitants of the cities, and what grew on the ground (vv. 24-25).
If you were to look on a Bible map today to try to find the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, you might find them represented only by two dots centered somewhere on the surface of the Dead Sea—with question marks next to them to indicate the uncertainty of their location. The Dead Sea is the deepest pit on the surface of Planet Earth; and that’s where these once lush and beautiful cities are now located—a testimony to all humanity of the dreadful judgment that comes from willfully and defiantly rebelling against God’s good way, and from turning off the path in ‘apostasy’.
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After reminding his readers of these examples, Jude then puts the current challenge into perspective. He spoke of those apostates in verse 4; and now, in verse 8, says of them;
Likewise also these dreamers defile the flesh, reject authority, and speak evil of dignitaries (v. 8).
And the lesson is clear. We must ‘contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints’; because apostasy results in dreadful judgment from God. In words very similar to those of Jude, the apostle Peter also wrote;
For if God did not spare the angels who sinned, but cast them down to hell and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved for judgment; and did not spare the ancient world, but saved Noah, one of eight people, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood on the world of the ungodly; and turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes, condemned them to destruction, making them an example to those who afterward would live ungodly; and delivered righteous Lot, who was oppressed by the filthy conduct of the wicked (for that righteous man, dwelling among them, tormented his righteous soul from day to day by seeing and hearing their lawless deeds)—then the Lord knows how to deliver the godly out of temptations and to reserve the unjust under punishment for the day of judgment, and especially those who walk according to the flesh in the lust of uncleanness and despise authority (2 Peter 2:4-10a).
The Lord knows how to do this! What a warning! That’s something that we need to be reminded of by these stories! And so, let’s be very diligent to protect and defend that once-for-all-time faith—the message of the gospel of Jesus Christ—while we can! There is truly nothing more worthy of our protection and care in these dark days than the soul-saving gospel of Jesus!
Clearly, there is nothing more dreadful to depart from!
