A Stark Reminder

Read Jude 5-7

PRAY

Introduction

I’m grateful to Mr. Carter for preaching God’s word faithfully last week while I was gone. We continue on in verses 5-7 tonight.

What I hope you’ll notice with me is verse 3 gives us what Jude is going to write about. Verse 4 then gives us the why for what Jude is writing.

Carter preached this last week but just to remind you, the what is for the believers Jude is writing to to contend for the faith. To equip themselves and FIGHT for it.

The why is that there are certain people, false teachers, that have crept into the church unnoticed, they are ungodly people who pervert and distort God’s grace.

That is what brings us to this next section in Jude’s letter. Based off of what he’s just written, Jude is then sure to provide believers with “A Stark Reminder”. This is my sermon title tonight.

Verses 5-7 provide for us a specific and bold reminder of the punishment of God for unbelievers and abusers of His grace.

Although this can be a difficult topic to embrace, it is one we must observe and study. For we cannot know the love of God or the grace of God without understanding His holiness, wrath, and perfection.

Don’t ever let anyone tell you otherwise.

The Reminders

We know that Jude is giving a reminder to Christians because that’s literally what he writes here. He desires to remind them of something.

The wording here is a bit deceiving. Most people who study the word tend to say that Jude in verse 5 isn’t saying that these people forgot these truths but that they have recieved them…once for all time…therefore Jude wants to simply bring them to mind again.

My wife reminds me of things ALL. THE. TIME. Genuinely. And I need it! I don’t know why…but there are some things that just slip my mind. I can be so incredibly forgetful.

SEU finances example.

This is true for all of us! We humans are a forgetful people. We need to be reminded of the truths of Scripture constantly, lest we fall into the lies of our flesh, the enemy, or this world!

Daily prayer and Bible reading/study…thinking about and caring about the things of God are how you fight this!

In our text…Jude provides three reminders for his audience to consider…for us as well.

The first reminder is Jesus saving a people…Israel…out of Egypt and afterward destroying those who did not believe.

2 things here: 1) Jude is clear…JESUS did this! He delivered Israel out of Egypt in Exodus. Jesus Christ is God. He has eternally existed and will eternally exist forever! And this Jesus, our Savior, destroyed unbelievers! This is the same God…OT to NT!

2) These unbelievers were destroyed due to their unbelief in the God of their deliverance! Thomas Manton says that unbelief is the mother of all sin.

What he means by that is most, if not all sin can be directly traced back to unbelief.

These Israelites were punished because in the face of a holy God that delivered them from the slavery and brutality of Egypt…they decided to forget their Lord rather than worship Him. They “moved on” and trusted their own ways.

Verse 6 is a little tougher to break down. The verdict is out regarding what instance Jude is referring to with the angels here. Either way though, the main takeaway for us is clear: God won’t even let angels who sin go unpunished…let alone us humans!

These disobedient angels are being held for the day of judgement at the second coming of Jesus Christ.

Lastly in verse 7 Jude reminds his audience of the Sodom and Gomorrah account. Because of the peoples heinous sin they underwent destruction by fire.

This was a mere picture of the eternal fire of judgement to come on the disobedient. This was a just punishment…Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding cities sinned willingly in blatant disobedience to the holy God of the universe.

They preferred their vile and sinful ways over the all satisfying, grace abounding, loving, and merciful Almighty God. They sinned against the holy God and their sin needed to be punished in light of God’s holiness and perfections.

Conclusion

These reminders, as tough as they may be to digest, serve an important purpose. Jude has provided examples from which he will provide application in the next few lines.

What you need to see here, the big picture, is Jude is encouraging the believers. He is not trying to depress them with these reminders/examples…rather he is encouraging his audience.

To press on, contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints. These false teachers were destined to condemnation long ago. God will make an example out of them.

False teachers will NOT get away with false teaching. Therefore, stand FIRM! Contend with love and gentleness for the faith given to you by God. He will allow no sin to go unpunished and He will deliver and KEEP His people!

So repent, place your faith in Christ, rejoice that if you are His He WILL keep you for Himself…and from this position, study the Scriptures that you may be able to sniff out false teaching and fight for the faith.

PRAY