Warnings from History

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Me

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Several years ago I had to have surgery. Nothing dramatic — but they put me all the way under. With the good stuff. The kind where they tell you to count backward from ten and you make it to about eight.

So we live in Owensboro — but the doctor who performed the surgery worked out of that surgery center over in Rockport. So Blaire drove me — across the river — out of town — somewhere we don’t go everyday. And when it was over — they wheeled me out to the car the way they do — and we started to leave.

Now — I need you to picture the condition I’m in. I was unconscious about 20 minutes earlier. I was — to use the medical term — higher than a kite. I couldn’t have told you my own phone number. We hadn’t lived in the area very long. And as we’re pulling out — Blaire isn’t quite sure of the way back — and so she turns to me.

And she asks me. For directions!

My sober — capable wife — looked at the man who’d been asleep on a table 20 minutes ago and said — “Which way?”

And friends — without a second of hesitation — I told her. With total confidence. Complete authority. I said, “Ehh, just go that way and turn left.”

I had no idea where we were. I couldn’t remember how we got into Rockport. I surely didn’t know the way out of Rockport. I’m not even sure I knew I was in Rockport. But I pointed — and spoke like a man who had personally surveyed every road in Spencer County.

And here’s the amazing thing: I was right!

We got home. Every turn. Owensboro — right where we left it. I called it perfectly!

But here’s the thing — it’s more than just a funny story. It actually feels like a warning.

Here’s why: the most dangerous thing that can happen to a person who has no idea where they’re going… is to be right one time. Because if I’m wrong — I learn something. I learn don’t trust the guy coming out of anesthesia. But if I’m right — if I get away with it once — I will trust that impaired, no-idea-where-I-am confidence for the rest of my life. One lucky turn — and I’m convinced my instincts are reliable when they’re the least reliable thing in the car.

And that’s not a driving problem… that’s a discipleship problem.

We

Because here’s how most people walk away from God. It’s almost never a dramatic — door-slamming moment of rebellion. Most people drift away from God the exact same way I got us home from Rockport. Completely sure. Completely impaired. And convinced they’re fine because they got away with it last time.

No alarm goes off. No turn feels wrong. You just trust your own sense of direction — mile after mile — until one day you look up and you’re nowhere near where you thought you were.

We are people who keep handing the wheel to the impaired version of ourselves. We trust our own sense of direction precisely when we’re least equipped to have one.

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This morning we’re continuing our series in the Book of Jude called “Kept”. And in this book — this little one-chapter letter near the back of the Bible — Jude is about to introduce us to some people who were sure they could leave their place and be fine. They were sure they could drift and it would all work out. They were confident. But they were impaired. And they were wrong.

And today’s message — and what this whole letter is going to show us, is:

“KEEP YOUR PLACE” GRAPHIC

Keep your place, or be kept in it.

God

So turn in your Bible to the Book of Jude — it’s all the way at the end of the Bible — a short letter right before the Book of Revelation. Our text today is going to walk us through history — and show us a pattern. And this pattern is a warning. And what we’re going to see — is that this warning — is really mercy from God.

Exposition

v. 5

Take a look with me — starting in Verse 5:

Jude 5 CSB

5 Now I want to remind you, although you came to know all these things once and for all, that Jesus saved a people out of Egypt and later destroyed those who did not believe;

Notice how Jude starts — he says: “I want to remind you.” Not — “I want to teach you something new.” He’s pulling up stuff his readers already know. And Jude’s doing this — because he’s about to make remembering a spiritual discipline.

Disciples — the Bible’s word for people who are learning to follow Jesus with their whole lives — disciples are people who rehearse what God has done so they don’t drift from it. Forgetting is the first step of drifting. So Jude says: “Let me remind you.”

Jude reminds us that God rescued a whole group of people out of Egypt. He pulled them out of slavery — and parted the sea — and fed them in the desert. And Jude says the very people who were saved out of Egypt were later destroyed because they didn’t believe.

Really sit with that for a second. They were rescued… and then they drifted — and the rescue didn’t protect them from the drift.

And notice here what Jude says in Verse 5:

Jude 5 CSB

5 …Jesus saved a people out of Egypt…

Think about that — back in the Book of Exodus — Jesus wasn’t physically on the scene yet, right? But Jude is showing us that Christ was always the plan. He didn’t have a physical body yet — but Jude says it was Him doing the rescuing. And that changes everything about how we see God working in and through our lives. The One issuing the warning isn’t some distant, cosmic prosecutor. The Judge of the wilderness is the Savior of the Cross.

The same Jesus who saved them is the one who held them accountable for drifting. And — the same Jesus who warns us is the one who took the full weight of that warning — on Himself — on the Cross.

In a Book about judgement — Jesus is the hero.

v. 6

Look at Verse 6:

Jude 6 CSB

6 and the angels who did not keep their own position but abandoned their proper dwelling, he has kept in eternal chains in deep darkness for the judgment on the great day.

“TEREO” GRAPHIC

I want you to catch something that we don’t see in English. In the original Greek — the word tēreō (TAY-reh-oh) — means to keep. To guard. To watch over. To hold something in its place. And Jude uses the same word twice in this verse — on purpose.

The angels did not keep — tēreō — their position. (He’s referring to the angels that rebelled in Heaven with Satan.)

So God has kept — tēreō again — them in chains.

See what He did there? The very thing they refused to keep became the thing that keeps them. They would not hold their place — so now judgement holds them in place. Same word. But two destinies.

And that — church — is the whole Book of Jude summed up in one sentence: Keep your place, or be kept in it.

And this also describes us. We are going to do one of these two things. There is no third option.

Either we hold our place in the grace of God: we stay — we remember — and we let ourselves be kept, or

One day we discover that judgement has kept its place in us.

These angels are “Exhibit A”. These were not weak creatures. They weren’t unaware. They had a front-row seat to the glory of God and they still walked off their post — sure it would be fine.

They were confident. They were impaired. and they were wrong.

v. 7

Now look at Verse 7 with me — and the warning Jude gives us here:

Jude 7 CSB

7 Likewise, Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding towns committed sexual immorality and perversions, and serve as an example by undergoing the punishment of eternal fire.

This is an entire city that gave itself over to its appetites until appetite was all that was left.

Here’s the thread — and once you see it — you can’t unsee it. Every one of them had a place — and they left it.

The wilderness generation in from Egypt — they had a covenant and left it in unbelief.

The angels had a position and abandoned it.

And Sodom had a design — and traded it for desire.

Three snapshots — but the same pattern: they didn’t keep their place.

v. 8-9

Now if Jude just stopped there — we might picture drifting as something dramatic: a clenched fist — or a defiant speech — or a moment you’d notice. So he doesn’t stop there. He spends the rest of this passage showing us what drift actually looks like on the ground — and it’s both more silent — and a lot uglier than we expect.

Look at Verses 8 and 9:

Jude 8–9 CSB

8 In the same way these people—relying on their dreams—defile their flesh, reject authority, and slander glorious ones. 9 Yet when Michael the archangel was disputing with the devil in an argument about Moses’s body, he did not dare utter a slanderous condemnation against him but said, “The Lord rebuke you!”

Jude turns from history to the false teachers around his readers — and the charge is arrogance. They claim private dreams to justify themselves — they chase their appetites — they reject any authority over them — and they even mock angels.

…does that sound anything like the culture today? Everybody runs on feelings… and “vibes”… and whatever “their” truth is.

And then Verse 9 holds up the opposite: Jude is pulling here from a story his first readers knew from Jewish tradition — this isn’t in our Bibles — so don’t worry if it’s not familiar — but when Michael — an archangel — argued with the devil himself — he simply said, “The Lord rebuke you.” — reminding Satan of his place.

v. 10-11

Look at how Jude describes these people he’s warning against. Verses 10 and 11:

Jude 10–11 CSB

10 But these people blaspheme anything they do not understand. And what they do understand by instinct—like irrational animals—by these things they are destroyed. 11 Woe to them! For they have gone the way of Cain, have plunged into Balaam’s error for profit, and have perished in Korah’s rebellion.

If you’re unfamiliar with some of these stories — here’s the Cliff’s Notes version of what Jude is saying: Cain let resentment build with his brother Abel until it became violence. Balaam sold his calling for a paycheck. Korah couldn’t stand not being in charge.

Here’s the point — notice — none of these started as a dramatic rejection of God. Each one started as a small thing left un-kept. An appetite. A feeling. A grievance. So let me ask you the uncomfortable question — and the one I had to ask myself this week: What's the small thing you've been leaving un-kept this week?"

v. 12-13

And then Jude reaches for pictures of nature in Verses 12 and 13 — and they are devastating. Take a look:

Jude 12–13 CSB

12 These people are dangerous reefs at your love feasts as they eat with you without reverence. They are shepherds who only look after themselves. They are waterless clouds carried along by winds; trees in late autumn—fruitless, twice dead and uprooted. 13 They are wild waves of the sea, foaming up their shameful deeds; wandering stars for whom the blackness of darkness is reserved forever.

Hone in on that last part of Verse 13. He says they’re wandering stars. Think about what a star was for in the ancient world. You navigated by stars. You crossed oceans and deserts for them — because a star keeps its place. That’s the whole point of a star. It’s fixed — so you can find your way home by it.

And now we don’t even navigate by stars anymore. We’ve got a lady in our phone who’s never once admitted she’s wrong. She just says “recalculating”. And she’s never sorry about it.

We’ve outsourced our sense of direction and we still get lost!

So a wandering star is a contradiction. It’s a star that won’t stay put — which means it’s a star you can’t steer by — meaning it’ll lead you straight into the dark.

That’s the portrait of drift. Not a clenched fist — but a star that came loose.

v. 16

And Jude continues his warnings and examples in Verses 14 and 15 — but look how he lands this and describes these people who don’t keep their place in Verse 16:

Jude 16 CSB

16 These people are discontented grumblers, living according to their desires; their mouths utter arrogant words, flattering people for their own advantage.

Grumbling,

following your own desires,

flattering people to get what you want.

That’s the drift. It is rarely scandalous. It’s almost always slow. It’s grumbling on Tuesday — and appetite on Thursday — and a slightly colder heart on Sunday — until one day you look up and you can’t navigate by the thing that used to fix your whole life.

It’s the drive home from Rockport. Completely sure. Completely impaired. Convinced you’re fine because you got away with it last time.

That’s why a warning is the most loving thing Jude can hand us. Because the danger is real — and it doesn’t kick the door down. It creeps in unnoticed. So Jude does what love does when the danger is real: he turns on the light — points down the road — and says don’t go that way. I’ve seen where it ends.

Keep your place, or be kept in it.

You

So let’s get honest and practical. If keeping your place is the difference between two destinies — then the question that matters this morning is simple: How do you keep your place? What does this actually look like on Tuesday — when nobody’s watching and the drift is tempting?

But before I give you anything to do — I have to tell you one thing you can’t do. You cannot white-knuckle this.

Look back at the angels. They had every advantage. They stood in the presence of God Himself. If anybody could’ve kept their place by sheer willpower and proximity — it was them. And they didn’t.

So if your plan today is, “I’m just gonna try harder — I’m gonna be more disciplined — I’m gonna grip the wheel tighter.” — I love your sincerity — but you’re going to end up exactly where the angels ended up. You can’t keep yourself by gritting your teeth.

Trying harder is just you — coming out of anesthesia — and saying “I’ve got this.” …And we already know how that goes.

But here’s the good news — and it’s the only foundation strong enough to stand on:

“YOU KEEP YOUR PLACE” GRAPHIC

You keep your place because Someone is keeping you there.

Remember Verse 5 — the Judge of the wilderness is the Savior of the Cross.

The same Jesus who warns you is the one who walked the road you couldn’t walk — kept the place you couldn’t keep — and then took the judgement you’d earned for leaving it. He never once drifted. He held His place all the way to a Cross that He didn’t deserve — so that your place in the grace of God would be held by His grip and not yours.

So everything I’m about to tell you is not how you earn your place. It’s how you lean into the One who’s already keeping it. You’re not gripping the wheel. You’re staying in the car with the only Driver who’s never been impaired.

“REMEMBER ON PURPOSE” GRAPHIC

The first thing you do is Remember on purpose. Jude’s whole strategy in Verse 5 was “I want to remind you.” Drifting begins with forgetting — so disciples fight drift by remembering on purpose.

This week — write down one thing God has actually done in your life. A prayer He answered. The pit He pulled you out of. The day you came back. Write it in your Bible — or make a note on your phone. Put it where you’ll see it in the middle of the week — when the rescue feels far away.

You don’t drift from a God you’re actively remembering.

“NAME YOUR DRIFT” GRAPHIC

Second — name your drift to one person. The angels drifted in private. Sodom drifted in private. Almost all drift happens in the dark — where nobody can see the wandering star.

Pick one trusted person this week — maybe somebody in your small group or a friend you trust — and say the sentence out loud: “Here’s where I think I’m slipping.”

The moment you say it to somebody — it stops being a secret that’s pulling you off the road — and it becomes something that two people are watching together.

Keeping your place was never meant to be a solo sport.

—

And then for some of you — you already know the honest truth is that you’ve wandered off the path already. You’ve been navigating by a star that started wandering a long time ago — and you’ve gotten away with it — and you’re not sure you’re fine but you’ve kept driving.

“GET BACK IN YOUR ACTUAL PLACE” GRAPHIC

This week — get back in your actual place. Don’t wait until you feel ready. Don’t wait till you’ve cleaned yourself up. Don’t wait for a turn that feels wrong — because it won’t. Wandering stars don’t self-correct. They get pulled by a gravity outside themselves. So come let yourself be pulled back.

Call to Repentance

If you’re a follower of Jesus — then you have a place — and the call this morning is to keep it and go be gravity for someone else. Maybe there’s a name on your heart right now of somebody who’s come loose — somebody who’s drifting. You can be the warning that’s actually a mercy. You pull them back in. Because disciples don’t just keep their own place — they help others keep theirs. That’s our whole focus this year. That’s discipleship.

But maybe you’re here today and the honest truth is that you’ve never had a place to keep. You’ve been navigating your whole life by your own sense of direction — confident — and underneath it — not really sure at all.

Hear this: the reason Jesus can warn you is that He already did everything to save you. He kept the place you couldn’t. He took the judgement you’d dread. And this morning He’s not asking you to find your way home on your own — He’s offering you a home you didn’t earn and a grip that won’t let go. You don’t have to drift one more mile. You can come home today.

And all you have to do is call out to Him — He’ll pull you back in.

The good news of the Gospel is that the One who warns us is the One who is keeping us. Keep your place, or be kept in it.

Prayer

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