Warning of Past Judgment
Notes
Transcript
Intro; So far in the Book of Jude we have been challenged to know who we really are. Are we the called, sanctified and preserved in Jesus Christ who has had His mercy, peace and love multiplied in our lives. If that is who you are then we have been called to contend for the faith in these times of apostasy, or falling away from the truth!
We should be so grounded in the truth that we would be able to spot false teachers and refute their lies with the truth of Christ, with the intention of keeping believers from straying and hopefully to see their eyes opened. Paul puts it this way;
25 in humility correcting those who are in opposition, if God perhaps will grant them repentance, so that they may know the truth,
26 and that they may come to their senses and escape the snare of the devil, having been taken captive by him to do his will.
One of the ways that we help people see the truth is to tell the whole truth. Not just the Good News that Jesus Saves, but that He will also judge those who refuse to believe in Him!
Tonight we’re going to look at some “Warnings of Past Judgment” of apostates that hopefully will help people turn to Christ!
Text; Jude 5-8
5 But I want to remind you, though you once knew this, that the Lord, having saved the people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed those who did not believe.
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;
7 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.
8 Likewise also these dreamers defile the flesh, reject authority, and speak evil of dignitaries.
1. Past Apostates Judged; 5-7
1. Past Apostates Judged; 5-7
Unbelieving Israel- No people on the face of the earth have had such privilege as the nation of Israel.
Not only are they God’s chosen people, but God saw the plight of his chosen people, and he “saved,” and delivered them out of Egypt. He sent plagues on Egypt, parted the Red Sea, destroyed Pharaoh’s army, and provided manna, quail, and water. He was their glory cloud by day and pillar of fire by night.
Yet the first judgment Jude warns his readers about is upon God’s chosen people!
1 Moreover, brethren, I do not want you to be unaware that all our fathers were under the cloud, all passed through the sea,
2 all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea,
3 all ate the same spiritual food,
4 and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them, and that Rock was Christ.
5 But with most of them God was not well pleased, for their bodies were scattered in the wilderness.
6 Now these things became our examples, to the intent that we should not lust after evil things as they also lusted.
7 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.”
8 Nor let us commit sexual immorality, as some of them did, and in one day twenty-three thousand fell;
9 nor let us tempt Christ, as some of them also tempted, and were destroyed by serpents;
10 nor complain, as some of them also complained, and were destroyed by the destroyer.
11 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.
Out of 600,000 men of the age of 20 years and up, only 2 entered the Promised Land, Joshua and Caleb!
Just being “in the church” is no evidence of salvation. Many Jews were “in the nation” yet were destroyed because of their sin of apostasy! They rejected the authority of God and Moses.
17 For the time has come for judgment to begin at the house of God; and if it begins with us first, what will be the end of those who do not obey the gospel of God?
18 Now “If the righteous one is scarcely saved, Where will the ungodly and the sinner appear?”
Are you trusting God today? The Bible never tells us to look back to a past experience for our security today!
5 Examine yourselves as to whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Do you not know yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?—unless indeed you are disqualified.
Fallen Angels- Once pure, holy and living in God’s presence, these created hosts of heaven decided they were not satisfied with God’s plan for them. They were convinced there was something better and God’s way was not the best way. So they gave into pride and joined Lucifer [Satan] and rebelled against God.
First they did not keep their proper domain [position of authority]
12 “Son of man, take up a lamentation for the king of Tyre, and say to him, ‘Thus says the Lord God: “You were the seal of perfection, Full of wisdom and perfect in beauty.
13 You were in Eden, the garden of God; Every precious stone was your covering: The sardius, topaz, and diamond, Beryl, onyx, and jasper, Sapphire, turquoise, and emerald with gold. The workmanship of your timbrels and pipes Was prepared for you on the day you were created.
14 “You were the anointed cherub who covers; I established you; You were on the holy mountain of God; You walked back and forth in the midst of fiery stones.
15 You were perfect in your ways from the day you were created, Till iniquity was found in you.
Second they left their habitation [heaven, presence of God]
4 His tail drew a third of the stars of heaven and threw them to the earth. And the dragon stood before the woman who was ready to give birth, to devour her Child as soon as it was born.
4 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;
9 then the Lord knows how to deliver the godly out of temptations and to reserve the unjust under punishment for the day of judgment,
If God judged the angels in heaven, He will certainly judge the unjust man!
Sodom and Gomorrah- were in the plains of Jordan on the east side of the Dead Sea. It was a beautiful lush pastureland, like the garden of the Lord [Gen. 13:10] before the Lord destroyed it.
Sodom and Gomorrah are known for their sexual perversion by most, but God spells out all their sin which include pride, disregard for the poor, arrogance, injustice, and bigotry.
48 “As I live,” says the Lord God, “neither your sister Sodom nor her daughters have done as you and your daughters have done.
49 Look, this was the iniquity of your sister Sodom: She and her daughter had pride, fullness of food, and abundance of idleness; neither did she strengthen the hand of the poor and needy.
50 And they were haughty and committed abomination before Me; therefore I took them away as I saw fit.
21 because, although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened.
22 Professing to be wise, they became fools,
24 Then the Lord rained brimstone and fire on Sodom and Gomorrah, from the Lord out of the heavens.
25 So He overthrew those cities, all the plain, all the inhabitants of the cities, and what grew on the ground.
Sodom and Gomorrah is an example of what happens to a nation who turns from God and follows their own way. Wake up America!
2. Present Apostates; 8
2. Present Apostates; 8
Dreamers- empty opinions, vain deception, people who think the world brings complete satisfaction
Defile flesh- like Sodom and Gomorrah they accept all forms of sexual perversion out of pride, arrogance and rebellion against God. They think God’s plan is wrong and they have a better solution. “Everyone does what is right in their own eyes.”
24 Therefore God also gave them up to uncleanness, in the lusts of their hearts, to dishonor their bodies among themselves,
25 who exchanged the truth of God for the lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen.
26 For this reason God gave them up to vile passions. For even their women exchanged the natural use for what is against nature.
27 Likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust for one another, men with men committing what is shameful, and receiving in themselves the penalty of their error which was due.
Reject authority- both divine and human authority, breaking the law and creating chaos and havoc in society.
1 Let every soul be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and the authorities that exist are appointed by God.
2 Therefore whoever resists the authority resists the ordinance of God, and those who resist will bring judgment on themselves.
Speak evil of dignitaries- rejecting the existence of spiritual beings, especially the Deity of Jesus Christ.
16 For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.
17 For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.
18 “He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.
19 And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.
Close;
In this text we have seen three classes of God’s creation;
Saved men [Joshua and Caleb]
Angels [fallen heavenly host]
Unsaved man [Sodom and Gomorrah]
We have also seen that with all three classes that God judges unbelief and chastises the disobedience of believers.
You are in one of two of these categories; Saved or unsaved
Let the examples of the past serve as our warning for today!