Hear and Hasten

Introduction

I want to begin this morning by confessing that I committed some crimes as a child.

I am not proud of it.

If the FBI had known about it, I would have been in some major trouble.

Maybe some of you will recall this screen:

SHOW OLD FBI WARNING IMAGE

For those of you born in the 21st Century, that is an image they would show at the beginning of an movie you rented on VHS—or video tape.

And I must confess that this meant nothing to me as a child.

In the 90’s, all you need was a slightly doctored blank tape, two VCR’s and some wires and you could make copies of pretty much any VHS you wanted to.

And I may or may not have take advantage of this loophole many times with no regard for the warnings of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

This may seem like a deep, dark secret, but I am pretty sure that if I polled the room, I was not the only 90’s kid who engaged in such activities.

Because here is the deal—we call kind of knew this was a warning we could ignore.

As long as you weren’t selling the tapes down on the corner or something, nothing would ever come of your bootlegged copy of Batman Returns.

But there other warnings that you know you cannot ignore:

WARNING: High Voltage

WARNING: Highly Toxic

WARNING: Easily flammable

This morning, we have a warning of the second kind.

Jude gives the church a warning that cannot be ignored.

Context

The last time we were in Jude, we saw Jude’s clarion call for the church to contend for the faith once for all delivered to the saints.

A call to guard the deposit of truth given by Jesus, to the Apostles, to the church.

And this call was urgent—so urgent that Jude changed the subject of his letter.

The urgency came from the fact that false teachers had wormed their way into the church.

They brought a perversion of grace with them.

An attack upon the truth and a denial of Jesus as the only Lord and Master.

Ultimately, these teachers seemed to be promoting a sort of Christianity where you could live however you want.

Since God had brought deliverance through Christ and gave you grace, you can now sin as much as you want without repercussion.

And they claimed they should be listened to because of their supposed elite status as those who receive direct revelation from God in dreams.

Ultimately, these false teachers were self shepherds and clouds who bring no rain.

Fruitless.

And they should not be listened to.

This morning we see Jude warn the church about the dangers of false teaching, walking away from the truth and making a shipwreck of the soul.

Let’s read the passage.

Text—these are the very words of God

Jude 5–7 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. 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— 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.

Outline

1. Hear the warnings God has given.

2. Hasten to persevere with purity.

Hear the Warnings

1. Hear the warnings God has given.

In light of the danger of the false teachers, we see Jude give three warnings to the church, given in the form of biblical examples.

The fact that Jude gives three should be no surprise.

This is how we see Jude write throughout his letter. He loves a triad.

Called, loved, kept (v. 1)

Mercy, peace, love (v. 2)

In verse 8, we will see three negative actions of the false teachers:

Defiling the flesh, rejecting authority and blaspheming the glorious ones

This goes on throughout Jude’s letter.

Here is verses 5-7, he gives the triad of warnings, relying on Old Testament history.

The Sin of God’s Delivered People After Egypt (v. 5)

The Sin of God’s Angels Who Went After Women (v. 6)

The Sin of godless Sodom and Gomorrah Who Went After Unnatural Desires (v. 7)

In each of these cases, what we see is people stepping out of God’s order and design to rebel against Him

And in each of these cases, things do not end well for the rebels

Notice that as Jude issues these warnings, he says, “Now I want to remind you, although you once fully knew it...”

This is not new information for Jude’s audience.

In these warnings, he is reminding them of well-known history.

He is reminding them of things that they should be well aware of because these were moments in biblical history that were ingrained into the hearts of those in Jewish culture.

Americans know about Normandy, the Moon Landing and 9/11.

The Jews knew about the Exodus, The Flood and Sodom and Gomorrah.

These things were common knowledge because of the Scriptures, as well as other Jewish writings and oral tradition.

So often, this is the nature of warnings, is it not?

By the age of 2 or 3, children know that they should look both ways before they cross the road, but we keep warning them about it because cars keep coming.

Well the cars are still coming in the church in the form of false teaching.

Therefore, Jude is going to remind his audience of these three instances so that they will remember the destruction that came for those who were spiritual rebels.

These are not pretty stories.

But they are necessary to recall so that Jude’s hearers don’t make the same mistakes and go after these false teachers who pervert grace.

The Sin of God’s Delivered People After Egypt (v. 5)

Let’s begin by looking at the sin of God’s delivered people after Egypt.

Verse 5 is referring to the Exodus and what comes after that great event of God’s deliverance.

Jesus/Lord in v. 5

One of the first things we notice in the ESV is that the text says “Jesus” saved people out of the land of Egypt.

Now this may seem strange, considering the fact that Christ was born in Bethlehem around 1500 years after the event of the Exodus has taken place.

I don’t want us to get too hung up on this because it is not ultimately going to impact the point of this reference from Jude.

But for the sake of explanation, I will say this:

Bible Translations are split on this.

The King James, the NIV and the New American Standard, all translate this as Lord.

For example, the NIV says:

Though you already know all this, I want to remind you that the Lord at one time delivered his people out of Egypt, but later destroyed those who did not believe.

Jude 5, NIV

The ESV, New Living Translation and Christian Standard Bible all say that “Jesus” is the One who delivers His people out of Egypt.

This discrepancy exists because some manuscripts we have use the Greek word for Lord instead of Jesus’ name.

However, the oldest manuscripts of Jude that we have use the name Jesus.

In light of that, I believe that Jude most likely wrote “Jesus’” name and not just the more broad title of “Lord.”

And that should not really surprise us.

As the New Testament writers are penning the God-breathed Scriptures, they had a thoroughly Christ-centered view of the Old Testament.

Understanding that “in the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God,” they knew that the Lord Jesus had a divine nature from eternity.

His divine existence did not begin when He was born of a virgin.

Instead, Christ was active in creating, governing and disciplining the nation of Israel.

Some commentators go so far as to say that when you see the Angel of the Lord in the Old Testament, that IS the pre-incarnate Christ.

But the bottom line—whether you think the text should read that “the Lord” delivered Israel or that “Jesus” delivered Israel, the ultimate point is going to be the same.

Deliverance came from heaven and it was responded to in unbelief by the people.

Failing to Believe God’s Promises

We see in v. 5 that at least some portion of the group of those who were delivered were destroyed because they “did not believe.”

The question is—What exactly is this referring to?

Well, I think it is most likely referring to what takes place in Numbers 13-14.

Unbelief on the border of the Promised Land.

God did not deliver His people from Egypt for them to persist in the wilderness.

He delivered them for the Promised Land.

As the Promised Land is approached, the Lord tells Moses to send out spies to the land of Canaan that God is giving to Israel.

12 spies were sent and only two of them came back with a positive report.

10 of them said, “It is too difficult for us to take the Promised Land.”

2 of them—Joshua and Caleb—said, “We can do it with God’s help.”

Ultimately, the people believed the pessimistic report and they rebelled against God and failed to enter the Promised Land.

They cried. They complained about their leaders. They wished they had died in Egypt and not been delivered by God. They wished they had died in the wilderness.

They doubted God.

God judged the unbelieving spies and they died by a plague.

And God judged this unbelieving generation of Israel by condemning them to wander in the wilderness for forty years until a new, believing generation of Israel had taken their place.

The New Covenant Parallel

There is a reason as to why Jude chose this instance to illustrate to the church how important it is that they reject these false teachers.

The Exodus deliverance and the entrance to the Promised Land serve as a parallel for us as New Covenant believers in Christ.

Much like the generation of Israel delivered from Egypt, we are a liberated people on our way to a Promised Land.

In our case, we are not liberated from the chains of Egyptian slavery, but the chains of spiritual slavery.

And we are not pressing on toward the physical land of Canaan, but toward a better and more permanent Promised Land—the New Jerusalem.

But like the unbelieving spies, here comes false teachers with bad reports among the church.

Jude is issuing this example from Numbers 13-14 and as a warning so that the church would not make the same mistake.

We must not doubt God and believe falsehood.

We must reject falsehood and keep believing the truth.

The Sin of God’s Angels Who Went After Women (v. 6)

Jude Speaks of Genesis 6

The second warning-filled example is found in verse 6 where Jude recalls the “angels who did stay within their own position of authority.”

He says they “left their proper dwelling” and have been kept in “eternal chains under gloomy darkness until the judgment of the great day.”

Jude doesn’t give us a chapter and verse here, but it seems pretty clear that he is referring to what took place in Genesis 6:1-4.

This was a story passed down in Scripture, as well as in ancient Jewish tradition.

It was included in the Book of Enoch, a well-known piece of non-inspired, non-Scriptural literature that was written in the centuries just before the birth of Christ.

A large portion of it is dedicated to the story of the angels and women in Genesis 6.

The fact that Jude actually quotes the book of Enoch in v. 14 clues us into the fact that Jude is definitely talking about the perversion that took place in Genesis 6.

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.

What Happens in Genesis 6

There are many speculative theories on what exactly happened in Genesis 6. I am going to spend time on those this morning.

Instead, I will give you my best understanding of one of the stranger passages in Scripture.

Before the global judgment of the Flood, one of the signs of increasing wickedness upon the earth was that angels (sons of God), lusted after women and then they left there designated place of order to come and have relations with them as wives.

How exactly does that work?

I think it most likely means that they possessed men in order to fornicate with women.

So then, what you have is demonized men conceiving children with women.

John Calvin, one of my heroes in the faith, said that someone who would hold this opinion is absurd! Especially if he is a learned man!

He believed Genesis 6 was simply referring to the elect sons of Seth’s line taking wives from Cain’s line or from other debased tribes.

So if you think my interpretation is absurd, you stand with Brother Calvin.

But the reason I disagree with him is because more often than not, the term “sons of God” in the Old Testament is indeed referring to angels, not men.

And if these are indeed angels, then their sin is this— “They rejected the glory of God for the glory of man.”

They were dissatisfied with serving God in His glorious presence and they looked upon woman, whom Paul calls the “glory of man,” in 1 Corinthians 11:7, and they said, “We must have that.”

It was lustful rebellion.

It was a grab for autonomy.

To live their angelic lives according to their own authority and not God’s.

In their rebellion, they have followed the path of Satan.

They are demons.

The Punishment of the Angels

The punishment reserved for these demonic angels is spelled out in the rest of v. 6.

The Lord has kept them in eternal chains under gloomy darkness until the judgment of the great day.

The “Great Day,” is the Day of Judgment at is coming at the end of time.

This is when Satan and his demons will be tossed into the Lake of Fire and sulfur with Death and Hades.

But even now, there is already punishment for these angels who turned against their Maker.

They are in chains even as we speak.

They did not keep their position of authority by obeying God, so God will keep them in a position of punishment by His authority until Final Judgment.

The chains are eternal—they will never escape.

The darkness is gloomy—their state is miserable.

And this is how they will remain until the End.

In the same way that the example of Israel warns us against unbelief, the example of the angels warns us against autonomous rebellion—something the false teachers were promoting amongst Jude’s listeners.

The Sin of Godless Sodom and Gomorrah Who Went After Unnatural Desires (v. 7)

And then we have the final example in v. 7, which is that of Sodom and Gomorrah.

This is another biblical and historical reference to the time of Genesis.

In this case, it is Genesis 19.

In that text, you have Abraham’s nephew, Lot.

He settled near Sodom because of the land being of a high quality.

In Genesis 19, Lot welcomes angelic visitors into his home.

And when the men of the city learn of this, they come and demand to have relations with them.

Genesis 19:5 ESV

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 responds by saying that he will send out his virgin daughters instead.

This is not good either, to be clear.

The men press in on Lot and threaten him and ultimately he is rescued by the angels and the men at the door are struck with blindness.

But while Lot is rescued, Sodom is judged and destroyed by fire.

Genesis 19:23–24 ESV

The sun had risen on the earth when Lot came to Zoar. Then the Lord rained on Sodom and Gomorrah sulfur and fire from the Lord out of heaven.

Just as the unbelief of Israel was met with judgment and the rebellion of the angels was met with judgment, here we see the perversion of Sodom met with judgment.

The Perversion

And we know that what those men of Sodom desired was perversion because of how it is spoken of in v. 7.

It is called sexual immorality.

We get our English word for pornography from the Greek word that translates to sexual immorality.

In the 1st Century, it was a term that often referred to the behavior of prostitutes.

And Jude says the men pursued “unnatural flesh.”

This literally means “different flesh.”

They went after a different flesh than was natural to them.

They did not desire women, but men.

They did not desire a female spouse that was their own flesh, but male strangers.

They were like those referred to by Paul in Romans 1:26-27

Romans 1:26–27 ESV

For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error.

The Judgment

This is a perversion of God’s good, created design for sex.

And that perversion brought judgment.

The cities were consumed with fire.

Jude reminds his hearers of this so that they would know that those who depart from God’s design and indulge in the perversion of grace with the false teachers, would end up in eternal fire.

They would be judged like Sodom.

This is the third warning in the text.

Summing Up the Three Warnings

So taking the three warnings together, here is what we have:

A warning against unbelief—which brings judgment.

A warning against rebellion—which brings judgment.

A warning against sexual perversion—which brings judgment.

In each case, what we truly have is a warning against apostasy.

Maybe apostasy is a word you have never heard before.

Or maybe you have heard it, but you don’t know what it means.

I will use Sinclair Ferguson’s simple definition to help us out:

Apostasy is the old, vigorous word to describe the abandonment of Christ.

Sinclair Ferguson

To abandon Christ is to cease claiming devotion to Him with words and/or actions.

It is going after a different Gospel.

It is departing from the faith.

And in this text, Jude is warning the recipients of his letter that this is just what they are doing if they go along with these false teachers who were saying that in light of grace, you could live however you wanted.

To agree with them and live a sinful lifestyle would be to abandon Christ.

To cease trusting in the true Christ who says that if we love Him, we will obey Him.

To cease following the true Christ, who says take up your Cross and follow Me.

To cease being holy as the true Christ is holy, deciding for yourself right and wrong and indulging sinful passions and lusts.

For wherever you find the appliance of Apostasy, if you follow its cord, you will find it plugged into the outlet of unbelief, rebellion and perversion.

We cannot afford to drift into such sins.

We cannot afford to even place so much as a toe on these paths.

Therefore, Jude throws us these warning signs and we must heed them.

But what exactly does that look like?

It can’t just be listening.

How do we put feet to this knowledge and be sure we are not wasting these warnings?

This brings us to our 2nd point, which is really all about application.

Hasten to Persevere

2. Hasten to persevere with purity.

Understanding these warnings, we must speed on to persevere in Christ with a holiness that is patterned after the Lord Himself.

After all, this is Jude’s goal for his audience—that they would reject the false teachers and their perversions of grace and that they would remain steadfast in loving and obeying Christ.

The Warning Passages

Now, before I go further into how we persevere with purity, I want to stop and ask, “Why are these warning passages in the Bible at all?”

After all, isn’t the New Testament quite clear that a true believer who is justified by faith, cannot lose their salvation?

The 1689 London Baptist Confession says:

Those whom God has accepted in the beloved, effectually called and sanctified by his Spirit, and given the precious faith of his elect unto, can neither totally nor finally fall from the state of grace, but shall certainly persevere therein to the end, and be eternally saved...

1689 2nd London Baptist Confession

This sums up the doctrine we see taught in passages like:

John 10:28–29 ESV

I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand.

Romans 8:38–39 ESV

For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Philippians 1:6 ESV

And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.

So if that is the case, why would Jude need to issue these warnings?

Why does the author of Hebrews offer similar warnings in Hebrews 6?

Well going back to our first example of Israel in the wilderness, what we know is that there were unbelieving Israelites, whom God destroyed.

Meaning, not everyone delivered from Egypt, who had Hebrew blood in their veins, were truly Israelites at heart.

They may have claimed the name Israel, but they proved to not be devoted to the God of Israel.

Their dug-in lack of trust in the Lord showed they never belonged to Him to begin with.

Similarly, there are many in the church who are the same.

They may claim the name of Jesus, but they are not devoted to Him.

And this is proven in the way they depart from the faith and commit apostasy in unbelief, rebellion and perversion.

God does not place the warning passages like Jude 5-7 in our Bibles because true believers must be warned that they could truly lose their salvation.

Instead, the passage are there to warn us that those who would depart from Christ show they never belonged to Him in the first place.

And this leaves them in great danger of great judgment.

As John write his first epistle, he says this:

1 John 2:18–19 ESV

Children, it is the last hour, and as you have heard that antichrist is coming, so now many antichrists have come. Therefore we know that it is the last hour. They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us. But they went out, that it might become plain that they all are not of us.

Those who go OUT of the church are those who were never IN the church.

If they had been OF the church, they would still be IN the church.

But their going OUT would say to us that they do not know Christ—even if they once claimed His name.

In Jesus’ parable of the soils He speaks of people who leave the church for two reasons.

The heat of persecution and suffering

The love of the world

In the case of Jude, he is using these example to warn his hearers of the latter—the love of the world.

These false teachers are offering up a false religion that says you can love Christ AND love the world and Jude is warning them that all of those who went down that trail, only found spiritual judgment and destruction at the end of it.

Hasten—Do Not Disregard

So then, we cannot afford to disregard the warning passages.

They are there to keep us away from the paths of heartless, undevoted religion.

They are there to warn us off the habit of hearing the Word and not believing it.

They are there to warn us off a rebellious attitude toward God’s authority.

And they are are there to warn us about trying to step out of God’s design for purity in sexuality.

In the end, we must hasten to come before the Lord and say, “I believe Your Words.”

We must hasten to come before the Lord and say, “I submit myself to Your throne.”

And we must hasten to come before the Lord and say, “I will be holy as You are holy.”

These are warnings we need because we live in a world that encourages us toward the opposite.

That which God cautions us against, the world certifies as good.

That which God restricts, the world reenforces.

That which God instructs against, the world endorses.

And I believe these things are especially true when it comes to the realm of sexual immorality, which Jude is particularly concerned with.

Jude’s opponents are those who “defile the flesh and reject authority” (v. 8).

They commit sexual immorality in the name of getting to call their own shots.

They tout grace around like a “Get Out of Judgment Free” card and they run around the board of sexual perversion with no regard for what God has decreed and designed.

And they would fit right in with the American culture that our church is seeking to be a witness to.

The Bible gives us the gift of marriage—a picture of the Gospel, according to Ephesians 5.

The Bible shows us God instituting marriage—declaring that a man and woman would leave their father and mother and cleave to one another as one flesh.

The Bible gives us the gift of sex—used for the good of multiplying and making image-bearing babies.

Used for the good of the sexual expression of love between a man and a woman, as Song of Solomon shows us in poetic language.

But our world has deformed God’s decree and design.

This is clearly seen in the PRIDE movement that has sought to normalize:

Homosexuality

Lesbianism

Pansexuality

Transgenderism

Bi-sexuality

And a whole slew of other perversions that would fall under the category of moral rebellion against God.

But we can’t be so foolish as to bang that drum and not say that there are other normalizations of perversions that run rampant:

Our society normalizes the perversion of pornography, which is ruining lives every day in and outside of the church.

Our society has normalized casual sex

Our society has normalized men and women living together prior to being married, failing to keep the marriage bed pure and undefiled

And in a culture like this, there are constant temptations to walk away from the faith in order to feed your flesh.

The temptation of the culture is not simply to affirm, but to participate.

Not simply to sign off on something, but to sample it.

To “not knock it until you try it.”

When we are so inundated by these ideas and these normalizations by our movies and TV shows and politicians, they can easily slip into our mindset.

We can so quickly begin to believe that these things are okay in world.

But even more dangerously, we can believe they are okay in the church and in our own lives.

Therefore, we must heed the warnings of Jude and hasten to persevere in Christ with purity.

We have to remember that when the world says there is happiness and satisfaction at the end of these roads, they are lying.

When false teachers say that there is true joy to be found in feeding the flesh, they are lying.

The Scripture is clear this morning—these things lead to judgment and destruction.

As those who are called, held and kept, we cling to Christ who has delivered us out of the Egypt of our sin.

We read His Word and we believe it.

We demonstrate our trust in Him through daily prayer.

As those who do not deny our Master and Lord, Jesus Christ, we bow down to His authority as the One and Only Sovereign.

We read His Word and obey it.

We humbly come before Him and ask for the strength to deny our flesh and serve Christ faithfully in all things.

And as those who contend for the faith once for all delivered to the saints, we also contend for our own holiness.

We do not make Sodom’s mistake of viciously chasing the supposed pleasures of perversion.

We flee from the city and we do not look back, knowing that a greater city lies ahead.

Heed the warnings. Hasten to persevere with purity.

This is what those who truly know Christ will do.