Contend for the Faith Against: Those Reserved for Punishment

Introduction

“Those reserved for punishment” = Those who are perverting the Gospel by making it a license to comment sexually immoral acts.

We must contend against such teachers and those who promote such a false gospel that says that we are permitted to act sexually in any way we want to.

If we do not, we will be under judgment just like some who have gone before us.

Three examples of those who went before us whom God punished for corrupting his word: Israel, Angels, Sodom and Gomorrah.

Example 1: Israel (5)

Jude 5 ESV

Now I want to remind you, although you once fully knew it, that Jesus, who saved a people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed those who did not believe.

Reference to Numbers 14

Numbers 14:1–4 ESV

Then all the congregation raised a loud cry, and the people wept that night. And all the people of Israel grumbled against Moses and Aaron. The whole congregation said to them, “Would that we had died in the land of Egypt! Or would that we had died in this wilderness! Why is the Lord bringing us into this land, to fall by the sword? Our wives and our little ones will become a prey. Would it not be better for us to go back to Egypt?” And they said to one another, “Let us choose a leader and go back to Egypt.”

Numbers 14:11–12 ESV

And the Lord said to Moses, “How long will this people despise me? And how long will they not believe in me, in spite of all the signs that I have done among them? I will strike them with the pestilence and disinherit them, and I will make of you a nation greater and mightier than they.”

Numbers 14:20–23 ESV

Then the Lord said, “I have pardoned, according to your word. But truly, as I live, and as all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the Lord, none of the men who have seen my glory and my signs that I did in Egypt and in the wilderness, and yet have put me to the test these ten times and have not obeyed my voice, shall see the land that I swore to give to their fathers. And none of those who despised me shall see it.

The Reference to Jesus

Jude 5 “Now I want to remind you, although you once fully knew it, that Jesus, who saved a people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed those who did not believe.”

The Point in Jude

Unbelief - The Israelites failed to believe God’s word.

Corrupting the Message of God - They corrupted it by saying there was no way they could enter the Land.

Example 2: Angels (6)

Jude 6 ESV

And the angels who did not stay within their own position of authority, but left their proper dwelling, he has kept in eternal chains under gloomy darkness until the judgment of the great day—

Who Are These Angels?

Different Interpretations:

Reference to Angels with Satan in Ezekiel 28:15

Ezekiel 28:15–16 ESV

You were blameless in your ways from the day you were created, till unrighteousness was found in you. In the abundance of your trade you were filled with violence in your midst, and you sinned; so I cast you as a profane thing from the mountain of God, and I destroyed you, O guardian cherub, from the midst of the stones of fire.

Reference to Angels in Genesis 6:1-4

Genesis 6:1–4 ESV

When man began to multiply on the face of the land and daughters were born to them, the sons of God saw that the daughters of man were attractive. And they took as their wives any they chose. Then the Lord said, “My Spirit shall not abide in man forever, for he is flesh: his days shall be 120 years.” The Nephilim were on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of man and they bore children to them. These were the mighty men who were of old, the men of renown.

(1) Sons of God As Godly Line of Seth

The line of Seth (after Abel) were thus marrying the “daughters of men” who were in the line of Cain.

(2) Sons of God As Angels

“Sons of God” used 4 others times in the OT and is always in reference to angelic beings.

The extensive and overwhelming Jewish interpretation throughout history is that these are angelic beings who became human men and had sexual relations with human women.

In support of view: (1) All throughout Jewish writings (2) context is about sexual immorality in Jude, as we will see with Sodom and Gomorrah.

Thom Schreiner:

1, 2 Peter, Jude (1) Three Historical Examples of God’s Judgment (5–7)

The story is certainly bizarre to modern readers, stemming from Gen 6:1–4. Unfortunately, this passage is the subject of considerable debate, and no consensus has been realized about its meaning.

The Point in Jude

Even when angels sinned, God brought judgement upon them. If God did this to angels, we cannot expect anything less when it comes to us.

Example 3: Sodom and Gomorrah (7)

Jude 7 ESV

just as Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding cities, which likewise indulged in sexual immorality and pursued unnatural desire, serve as an example by undergoing a punishment of eternal fire.

Reference to Genesis 19:1-7

Genesis 19:1–7 ESV

The two angels came to Sodom in the evening, and Lot was sitting in the gate of Sodom. When Lot saw them, he rose to meet them and bowed himself with his face to the earth and said, “My lords, please turn aside to your servant’s house and spend the night and wash your feet. Then you may rise up early and go on your way.” They said, “No; we will spend the night in the town square.” But he pressed them strongly; so they turned aside to him and entered his house. And he made them a feast and baked unleavened bread, and they ate. But before they lay down, the men of the city, the men of Sodom, both young and old, all the people to the last man, surrounded the house. And they called to Lot, “Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us, that we may know them.” Lot went out to the men at the entrance, shut the door after him, and said, “I beg you, my brothers, do not act so wickedly.

The sins of Sodom and Gomorrah:

(1) ἐκπορνεύω - “sexual immorality = fornication” - umbrella term for sex outside of marriage (in the traditional sense) - making a public covenant of vows between one man and one woman before God and his people.

(2) “pursued unnatural desire” - (Gk. ἀπελθοῦσαι ὀπίσω σαρκὸς ἑτέρας) - lit. “to go out after other flesh”

NASB: “went after strange flesh”

The idea: the men of Sodom and Gomorrah desired and went after flesh other than that of women.

Confirmation that homosexual practice was condemned:

OT Law: Leviticus 18:22; 20:13;

NT: Romans 1:27; 1 Cor. 6

The Point in Jude

Just as God judged Sodom and Gomorrah for their sexual perversion, he will also judge those who are turning the Gospel of Grace into a license for sexual immorality and perversion. Because Jude uses Sodom and Gomorrah as a warning here, it is reasonable to conclude that the false teachers among these Christians were practicing not just adultery, fornication, etc, but homosexuality and possibly other types of perversions.

We see the seriousness of sexual sin here. There is something peculiarly egregious about sexual sin.

Perhaps bc sexual sin strikes at the heart of what defines true and good relationships, which in turn is a reflection of the nature of God. God is the definition of love, purity, and relationship. The Persons of the Trinity have been in an enteral communal relationship of love and purity for eternity. We, as made in God’s image, are meant to reflect this relationship in marriage. When the concept of marriage is marred and destroyed, the nature of God as love and faithful and relational is besmirched and mocked.

Ephesians 5:22–27 ESV

Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its Savior. Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit in everything to their husbands. Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish.

But note Ephesians 5:32 “This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church.”

Sexual sin is also devastating for human relations—spouses and children.

The devastation endured by children from divorce is well documented, but consider when those divorces occur due to adultery, pornography, or some other sexual behavior outside of the marriage. Or, even if while married, children know about sexual behavior of one their parents with another person.

The marriage covenant made before God is broken—a promise made to God is done away with. Trust, faith, integrity, honesty, and much more all broken. Security for children is no longer present, which makes their life very unstable emotionally, mentally, and otherwise.

It is also specially egregious because it is a sin against one’s own body: 1 Corinthians 6:18–20 “Flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body. Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.”

Mark Taylor Commentary on 1 Corinthians:

“Sexual immorality is a sin against Christ and a violation of the sanctity of the temple.”

Sexual sin is in some way worse than other sins.

This may sound odd to us because the Christian sub-culture has told us that all sins are equal. But Scripture tells us they are not. Examples:

Matthew 23:23 ““Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and cumin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness. These you ought to have done, without neglecting the others.”

John 19:11 “Jesus answered him, “You would have no authority over me at all unless it had been given you from above. Therefore he who delivered me over to you has the greater sin.””

The way in which it is worse: because it is “uniquely body-joining, … [and] uniquely body-defiling.” [Fisk, “Body Joining,” in Roy E. Ciampa and Brian S. Rosner, The First Letter to the Corinthians, The Pillar New Testament Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI; Cambridge, U.K.: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2010), 264.]

Sexual union is a part of “becoming one flesh.” There is a unique aspect of sex that all other sins do not do: join two people together. All other sins done with the body do not join you to anyone else. Sex does.

Consider, too, that your individual body is the temple of the Holy Spirit. When you sexually sin, your body as a temple of God residing in you, is much more egregious:

Brian Ciampa and Brian Rosner, commentary:

The First Letter to the Corinthians 5. A Strong Admonition: The Incongruence of Sexual Immorality and Christian Identity, 6:18–20

Naming the indwelling Spirit as Holy carries the implication that the privilege of being God’s temple carries with it the obligation not to desecrate (or destroy; 3:17) the temple. Jewish history had been marked, and would continue to be so, by appropriate and inappropriate behavior in the temple of God. The purpose of the temple was to bring glory to God and to sanctify his name. The fact that the Holy Spirit resides in the believer’s body adds further weight to the responsibility not to sin against that body. The Spirit’s origin as a gift from God (cf. Ezek. 36:22–32) further emphasizes both the fact that believers “stand in grace” (Rom. 5:2) and that God’s authority stands over their lives (1 Thess. 4:8)

“Your body is not your own.” It’s the Lord’s and the Holy Spirit dwells in you, making you a temple of God.

Do we see why we must defend against turning the grace of God into sexual immorality? That we must defend the faith once for all delivered to the saints against anyone who teaches sexual immorality?