Justice prevails, Jude 5-7

Introduction

We have have been getting a better understanding of the nature of false teachers, what they do and what they believe. This so that we might better be able to single them out as false teachers and avoid them, even warn others about them. We have been realizing that these are really false professors who make light of the Holy Spirit though they claim to hold up and stand for the Holy Spirit.

We have also noticed that these false teachers have been around since the first century early church. Jude has to warn his contemporaries about them. They have been around the church since in some form or another. The early church fathers dealt with them, Calvin writes warning about them even in the reformed faith, calling them libertines or antinomians.

And today we would call them extreme charismatics, word of faith, name it claim it, who emphasize their experiences of speaking in tongues, slain in the spirit, healings, prophecies, apostolic succession or purchase. They think the manifestation of the baptism of the Holy Spirit is barking like a dog, laughing uncontrollably, running around falling down out of control, ecstatic manifestations, speaking an angelic language of jibberish and so on. They controvert the true ministry of the Holy Spirit into a circus of apparent controlled chaos.

This is dangerous stuff and Jude reminds us of the danger, not just of the kind of bondage trap it leads too, but also and more importantly the judgment of God. These teachers and their followers are headed for divine judgment. Jude reminds of that by pointing to three events in the OT where those who displayed such disregard for the holiness of God were severely judged.

And by the way, Jude said his readers knew this. In other words, they are accountable for their actions. They know the outcome of resisting God, making a mockery of what God calls holy. They know what happens to those who willfully sin against God by their disobedience. So while they must acknowledge the truth of what Jude says, because it comes from the Word of God, they must also examine their own practices and beliefs and make sure of their own salvation. That is really the crux of the issue. Notice that these examples come from the Word of God. Thus, there is a clear appeal to authority. This is something, we have seen, the false teachers reject or gloss over by denying that is what they are doing or by claiming that is just myth. so they (false teachers and followers) would mock those who appeal to that old irrelevant book. But that book (OT) is exactly what Jude appeals to in order to make his case.

Now their traditions (that of the Jews) would also know of these things and for the most part accept them as true.

The first event he refers to is the wilderness wanderings of Exodus. You will recall that a short time after leaving Egypt after the passover, the miraculous crossing of the Red Sea, the drowning defeat of Pharoah and his pursuing army, they came to the edge of the promised land. They had their Mt. Sinai experience, the idolatrous sin of the golden calf episode, the giving of the ten commandments witnessed all of that provision and forgiveness and judgment. They were at the edge of the promised land to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Now they were called to go into that land and drive out the inhabitants. They sent the spies who came back with bad news. It was too much for them, though God had said they were to take it. Only Joshua and Caleb called to obey and enter the land as God said. The result was that they didn’t enter the land because of unbelief. Their judgement was that all of them would die who were 20 and older before they entered the land. All but Joshua and Caleb. The spies died soon after, the rest over the course of the 40 year wandering. In the midst of that they had Korah’s rebellion which will be mentioned later by Jude. it was a rejection of authority. It was also during this time Balaam tempted Israel to sin which is also mentioned later. Though they were supposedly God’s people, Israel was severely punished. On e final thing I want you to notice is that it was the Lord not only who saved, but who also judged those who believed not. Now what is interesting here is that if you read other translations like ESV it will say the Lord was Jesus. That is, Jesus is not only the one who saved them out of Egypt, but also who judged them who believed not.

We can make the case very clear that is in fact who is referred to by just drawing our attention to v.4 where we have the word LORD tied to Jesus Christ. The LORD And Jesus Christ are the same. They denied the LORD in the Wilderness as they also Deny the LORD in our text. WE can also go for further proof to 1 cor. 10:4,5,9 to show that Paul states the LORD in Wilderness is Jesus. We read the same thing in .

Thus, it is interesting that Jude uses this passage to show that just as they rejected Jesus authority in the wilderness and were judges for that, so these false teachers are judged for the same thing here.

The second event

The second event is the rebellion of the angels. Now we don’t have a certainty as to what Jude is referring to. I think he is referring to where ‘the sons of God’ cf. (where they come with Satan before God) who I think were angels engaged in sex with humans and were judged for it. AS one commentary on Genesis puts it, “these were not divine; they were demon-controlled. Their marrying as many women as they wished … was to satisfy their baser instincts.”(BKC) This would fit with the context of rampant sexual immorality among these false teaches. Some think that Jude refers to the book of Enoch. Either way, any concrete determination is not possible. The point is that his readers would have known what he was saying. I think that since this is a polemic for the authority of God’s Word, it fits that Genesis would be the reference point. This view also fits with the way Jewish tradition viewed . We know Jude referred to 1 Enoch with regard to the judgment of them in vss. 14,15. If he was to depart from that tradition he would have had to explain himself. Third, the close connection with the sexual immorality of Sodom and Gomorrah shows this is the correct view.

If you look at the words of our text we see that these angels didn’t stay in their own sphere. They stepped outside the boundaries of their authority. IN other words, they rejected the authority of God, their creator, to follow their own desires. They abandoned their own home, sphere of authority and became men in some way and had relations with women. The sexual immorality was a mere manifestation of their rebellion against God’s authority. They were judged not for their sexual immorality alone, but for their rebellion against God. The result was they are kept in chains until the judgment day when they will be cast into the lake of fire. ; ; .

So then just as the angels did not escape judgment for their sin neither will these false teachers. Jude then was encouraging true believers to resist their teaching.

The third event is that of Sodom and Gomorrah. The record is in . They, likewise, indulged in sexual immorality and unnatural desire (euphemism for homosexuality) these, Jude says, are an example of judgment on those who do likewise. Now we know that these false teachers have as a mark they are false that they too indulge in sexual immorality and so like our three examples will fall into judgment. So the common denominator of all three examples is judgment by God. They all three have sexual immorality as part of their sin and the rejection of authority of God as the basis. We will see next time in vs. 8ff do the same thing.

Now then, what of it?

Well as I stated earlier, resist their false teaching. Don’t go down that path. Make sure your authority is the word of God.