Jude 6-7

Father God, I just pray that as we open up your word this evening and Then as we study what

Jude has to say to us in verses six and seven That Lord we would study it

That we would look at it with gravity Holy Spirit, I pray that you would do a work that none of us can do

That you would cultivate hearts That you would write your word on to them that you would bring conviction where conviction needs to be had that you would bring rejoicing

Where rejoicing needs to be had that Holy Spirit that you would take What I've prepared

And he would magnify it Lord so that it's for you and for your glory Lord, I pray that anything on these pages that is not from you would not be spoken

Lord, I pray that there's anything that isn't on these pages that needs to be spoken that Lord you would add it

And Lord, I pray that by the end of our time in verses six and seven That Lord our hearts would be filled with rejoicing for who you are and For who you've called us to be

It's in Christ's name we pray Amen So this is the eighth week two months into this tiny little church plant and every week

Honestly, I just I can't I'm beside myself that we still get to be here that we're still actually a thing and As I think about this,

I want to just review kind of what's been going on in the book of Jude We've seen over the course of the last seven weeks the thrust of Jude's argument that he is the brother of James that he was converted because the resurrection of Christ that he turned into a pastor and Defender of the faith and the reason that he wrote this book is because of persecuted believers somewhere in Palestine and Most scholars believe that this book was written very early to some of the first Christians that existed

This is first generation church that Jude is writing to and he's writing to them to help them

Navigate the problems that are going on in their church Now it's clear from verse 3 that Jude wanted to write a different book and we understand from that that the church was probably doing quite

Well, like many church plants there was excitement and there was energy there was the gospel being preached

There were baptisms happening people were probably getting saved and the church was actually doing quite well for a season of time

But unfortunately Jude was not able to write that letter The letter that he wanted to write in verse 3 is a letter addressing the common salvation that they all shared to encourage them and To build them up in the faith, but that's not the letter that we have before us

The letter that we have before us is about contending for the faith standing up for the truth in a culture of error and learning how to be faithful to Christ in an unfaithful culture and Generation because as Jude tells us false teachers came into the church

Wolves came into the church to undermine what was going on and he writes this letter

With that in mind now, you might be wondering I don't think we've covered this so far.

Where did these false teachers come from? Verse 4 tells us that they snuck in okay from where?

Well as you look at the history of the New Testament in the earliest days of the church, there were traveling teachers

Because congregations didn't have a Bible So they couldn't just open up the New Testament and start preaching from the

New Testament because it when Jude wrote there was not a New Testament Maybe the book of Mark Maybe the book of James and they would have had to have been quite wealthy to be able to afford to pay for those copies

So they didn't have a New Testament So these traveling teachers trained in the Bible would go around from congregation of congregation to teach them the

Word of God Now Most of the churches assumed that all of the teachers were faithful just like today we assume that just because a person has the pastor of title or a title of pastor that they must be faithful or Just because a person is on the radio or on YouTube or because a person has a ministry that they must be faithful And that's a dangerous assumption because we learn from history that there were actually three groups of these teachers

There were three of them the first Were the faithful ones these traveling teachers who went from town to town establishing churches planting churches raising up leaders like Paul and Barnabas and John and Peter These men who went from town to town building up the church installing healthy leadership so that the gospel could go forward and It's because of these men that we even have the

New Testament But they weren't the only group There was a second group an interesting group of mostly faithful teachers we get an example of this in Acts 18 from a man named

Apollos Apollos was a mostly faithful teacher. He understood the Jewish scriptures

He understood the Old Testament and he understood that Jesus was the Messiah from the Old Testament, but he didn't have

Training he hadn't interacted with the Apostles yet. So he needed further Education in order to be considered faithful by the early church in Acts 18

We learn about this traveling minister named Apollos. It says in verse 24 Now a

Jew named Apollos an Alexandrian by birth an eloquent man Came to Ephesus and he was mighty in the scriptures.

These are the Old Testament scriptures and this man had been instructed in the way of the Lord and Being fervent in the spirit.

He was speaking and teaching things accurately concerning Jesus Being acquainted only with the baptism of John So he didn't yet know about the baptism of the

Holy Spirit that the Holy Spirit comes upon his people So he was teaching Christ, but he wasn't teaching the full gospel

And he began to speak out boldly in the synagogue But when Priscilla and Aquila two dear brothers and sisters in the early church who knew the gospel when they heard him they took him aside and they explained to him the way of God more accurately and When he wanted to go to Achaia The brethren encouraged him and wrote to the disciples to welcome him and when he arrived he greatly helped those who believe through grace

For he powerfully refuted the Jews in public So Apollos is the second group and and others they needed to be trained in the gospel

But they traveled around from town to town because the New Testament was not written and they wanted to build up the church

But there's a third group that traveled around from town to town and they were the unfaithful teachers

They were the wolves They were the ones that came into the church trying to gain tremendous power wealth and status from tearing apart the church

These were like theological kamikazes as I've called them before or doctrinal suicide bombers

They came in not because they loved the church. They came in to rip it apart They came in through flattery they came in through sneaking they caused divisions and dissensions and ultimately

They tore apart these local churches and it was this group of people that entered into Jude's church

It was this group of people that found their way into this healthy church and you wonder how did this happen?

Jude clearly is writing a letter to them. So he's not with them maybe he was on a ministry trip and Traveling in the that era of time was really difficult and really slow in fact a letter maybe could get there faster, maybe he was in prison because Many of those early

New Testament saints were in prison for their faith in Christ Whatever it was Jude is not with them and they sneak into this church to destroy it and he writes this letter

He writes this letter to contend for the faith against the false teaching and against the heresy that was plaguing the church and and I'll just have to say there's no better letter that I think applies to the situation that we as Christians in America are facing because we live in a culture that is radically denying truth

Radically following away from God radically finding new and inventive ways that they can turn away from God and the church

Not all of them. Some of the churches are compromising the gospel Some of the churches are syncretizing themselves with the world in order to be more palatable to the world

They're scratching ears instead of preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ. That is what was going on in Jude's time

That is what is happening in our time as well Now last week we learned in verse 5 and verse 5 through 7 really go together

If we had two hours, I would have preached them together But you don't want me to do that, but they really go together 5 through 7 is the doctrine of destruction

Because Jude is writing to a people who are concerned about their salvation

He's writing to a people where these errors are creeping in and they're asking the question Am I saved are these wolves saved and 5 through 7 is the doctrine of destruction?

Last week we learned that Jesus Christ is not only the Lord of salvation

But he's also the Lord of condemnation We learned last week that Jesus entered into the pages of Exodus and he entered into the pages of his people in history

And he saved them dramatically at the Red Sea but those same people

Countlessly rejected him and honestly think that that's the most shocking point in all of last week's sermon is that these people

Who saw the wonder -working power of God? Who saw the miracles of God who saw

God faithfully deliver them time after time after time They saw his kindness his goodness his faithfulness his love and his mercy

These are the people who rebelled against him and who constantly rejected him They complained against him and grumbled against him and eventually were destroyed by him

Jesus Christ is not only the Lord of salvation, but he's also sovereign over condemnation

And they spent 40 years wandering in their unbelief Think about this for 40 years

They slowly decayed in their minds. They slowly decayed in their hearts

They slowly fell away from God so that 40 years later. They decayed in the ground just feet away from Palestine or from Canaan They rejected

God and in their unbelief God rejected them

That's what you five was teaching us that unbelief leads to destruction when we have a theology of what hell is or a theology of what

Condemnation is we have to understand that it begins with unbelief Unbelief is this insidious sin that works itself down into the recesses of our heart and it leads us away from God I've heard people say before that I'm not gonna repent today

I'll wait 15 -20 years while I've had my fun while I've lived my life and yet they never come.

I actually heard a story about a man who said that very thing in the very next day He was hit by a ricocheted bullet on a hunting trip

He had every intention that he was gonna repent one day, but unbelief deceived him

Unbelief taught him and made him think that he had more time Unbelief is this insidious sin that lies to us and deceives us and destroys us

That's what verse 5 is trying to get across And I know this concept is not a very popular concept today all across America Pulpit after pulpit is saying that we need to pump people up.

We need to tell them how awesome they are We need to tell them that they're God's special snowflake and that everything is gonna be okay

Because God is so happy to have them on his team because why wouldn't God be happy with rebellious?

Heartless creatures like us who constantly rebel against him That's the lie.

Now. God does love us. We know that God is gracious to us

But God's not impressed with us. The Bible talks about hell and it's real

The Bible talks about sin. The Bible talks about repentance. The Bible talks about the consequences of our unbelief which are destruction and While many many churches are going to erase this concept of hell and How many churches are not gonna preach this gospel the full gospel that we are saved from hell for Christ While many will go that way we cannot

We will stand on the Word of God We will stand on the authority of Scripture not with toothy grins giving a happy self -help talk

We will talk about what the Word of God says Especially when it's in the text We're not a church that is gonna preach hell every single week

Even when it's John 3 16 and it's talking about God's love. We're not just trying to do that But when it's in the text, we're gonna talk about it and this week it's in the text

Jude 6 and 7 is central the doctrine of destruction is there and we have to understand

What it means because it is incredibly applicable to our lives now

Before we do that. I want to make a few clarifications because the Temptation would be is that you wouldn't look at this text and you would say unbelief destroyed

Israel Sometimes I doubt therefore I'm destined for destruction That's what we would be tempted to think but we have to understand that Jude is talking to three particular groups of people

Some verses like verses 1 through 3 apply to believers Some verses apply to unbelievers and we have to understand that or we're gonna be confused

The first group that Jude is talking to that he addressed the letter to are

Christians These are people in verse 1 who were called by God Who are beloved by God and who are kept for Christ?

That word kept is a beautiful word That word kept is maybe even more beautiful than we realize in Greek.

That word is Toretto. It's fun to say it Toretto Do you know what that word means?

You're like, of course it means kept it's bigger than that So much bigger than that This word came out of the

Roman prison systems this word Was about a Roman guard who was professionally hired to make sure that someone did not escape

They were paid money. If they didn't perform their job correctly, they would die

These are people who oversaw people in shackles and in chains and they were up all night long

Ensuring that that person did not escape. I worked in a prison I had to make my rounds every 30 minutes to make sure that we had a proper headcount that no one escaped now

That words applied to us That word is applied to us that we are being kept by God Just like an inmate in a cell is being kept from society we are being kept by God It's almost as if the writer is saying that we were transferred out of hell's prison cells and into the jail of grace

It's almost like he's saying that you're in the shackles of God and that you can't even

Unentangle yourself from God that God is so good and God is so gracious that he's protecting you from yourself

What he's saying is that because of our sin and because of our nature and because we are at war with God if you could leave

God you would If tomorrow you woke up and you said, you know,

I think I'm alright. I don't need God You wouldn't leave him if it were not for the grace of God that is holding you and that is keeping you so that if You're a

Christian you cannot be lost That's what this word means that we are being guarded by someone bigger and better than a

Roman guard a Roman guard would lose their life if they let an inmate go guess what Jesus Christ lost his life so that you could never be

Let go That's the gospel That's what this word means

God is keeping watch Over our souls like a warden who loves us and who is keeping us from ourselves if you're a

Christian Being lost as an impossibility If you're a

Christian you cannot escape from the love of God Romans 8 says there's no Condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

There's nothing you can do to separate yourself. Not just from God What does it say in Romans 8?

You can't even separate yourself from the love of God. It's even better Jesus says in John 29

My father who has given them to me. My father who's given Christians to me is greater than all and No one is able to snatch them out of the father's hands

The father is greater than all even us. So therefore we can't even Disentangle ourselves from God you are not important enough and you are not powerful enough if you are in Christ to lose your salvation

Because he's holding you firmly Inescapably praise

God so we have to know who Jude is talking to Because then we would think if we didn't understand that there's this apparent paradox

Israel was destroyed for their unbelief. Therefore. I doubt I'm destroyed. That's not what the text is saying as Christians don't we sometimes doubt?

Yeah If you said no you just lied in church Don't we sometimes grumble

Route three hate that Yes, we grumble yes, we doubt yes, we struggle with unbelief.

So how is it that unbelief doesn't destroy a Christian? How are we any different than Israel? Because we have to understand what it actually means to be a

Christian Israel was saved physically from the

Chasing armies of Egypt. What do we say from? It's not just physical.

It's total We are saved physically When God returns in glory

We are saved spiritually Being delivered from the curse of death and sin

We are saved in in our renewing of our minds in the giving of a new heart in the in the giving of a new

Transformed will that now desires to know who Jesus is. We are saved in total not just physically and The difference between us and Israel is that we as Christians if you are indwelled by the

Spirit of God You can doubt for a season But not over the course of your entire life

You cannot if you were being kept by God if you were truly saved Spend a lifetime of doubt and apostatize meaning you can't start with Jesus and then leave

Jesus If you're a Christian you're secure Now that has massive implications because we look at many who apostatize

Many who started out as Christians and then who left and who died in their unbelief We have to reconcile with Scripture that they were not in Christ if they left him permanently

They were not with him they were not of him Christians struggle with sin

But a Christian doesn't struggle with the same sin for an entire lifetime with no repentance

With no growth in grace Christians are people who are indwelled by the Spirit of God The same

Spirit of God that rose Jesus Christ from the dead now lives within every single one of us. So therefore

We will grow not because we're spiritual not because we're so Incredible in our own strength because God is in us and because God is saying that healthy things bear fruit

What more healthy thing could you have in you than the Spirit of God and he will produce fruit in those who are his

So we have to understand that we are not like Israel in that fact. We have been saved totally

Without him we're not special we would be just like Israel we would grumble we would complain

We would leave him forsake him reject him and we would be destroyed We would die in our unbelief if it were not for God's gracious hand holding us

This is why a Christian can be safe It's why a Christian can have hope this is why a

Christian can have confidence because they're being kept by God Unbelief destroys, but it doesn't destroy the

Christian Unbelief destroys the unbeliever That's what Jude is trying to say and it's there that we see that there's two other groups

He's writing to and I'll go through these quickly. The second group is the Wolves Verse 4 he says they're marked out for destruction.

So if they don't repent they will be destroyed the third group of people is

Anyone who follows them in their error and you may be like, I don't know the people that were in Jude's Church How am

I following in their error? Well their chief error in verse 4 was that they denied their only master and Lord Jesus Christ so therefore anyone

Who does not affirm the Lordship of Christ anyone who does not believe in Jesus Christ?

New Testament says that he is the way he is the truth He is the life and no man comes to the father

Except through him if that is where a person is at then they will experience destruction if they don't repent

It does not matter if you're the kindest atheist it does not matter if you're the most Pleasant and loyal Buddhist it doesn't matter if you're an altruistic

Hinduist It doesn't matter if you give a billion dollars to charity It doesn't matter if you're a Christian who sits in the pew and who lives in unbelief.

You're a pretender You're not really in the faith. It doesn't matter if you claim something it matters if you are something and I would say in a culture like this that there will be many who surf their way to hell on a pew

Because they thought that their righteousness could save them they thought that their obedience was pleasing to God They thought that because they showed up at church that God would be happy with them

Unless a man be born again, he will not see the kingdom of God How are you born again to confess

Christ as your Lord? To confess that Jesus Christ died and he rose from the dead and to let that gospel change you

Jude said or James says without faith It's impossible to please God faith leads to works the two work together.

If you are really in Christ, you will grow You can test it.

There's fruits of the Spirit. Are you growing more like Jesus? That's what

Jude is trying to say because if not you will be Left to destruction and that's where we pick up today verses 6 through 7 where he finishes this theology

Last week we learned that unbelief leads to destruction this week. We're gonna learn that that destruction is certain

That it's irrevocable and we're gonna learn that that destruction is permanent It's everlasting and we're also gonna learn that that destruction praise

God is avoidable So turn with me to Jude 5 through 7 as we unpack the rest of this section as we look at what does it mean?

To be under condemnation Now I desire to remind you that you know all things once for all that the

Lord after saving a people out of the land of Egypt subsequently destroyed those who did not believe and Angels who did not keep their own domain but abandoned their proper abode.

He has kept in eternal Bonds under darkness for the great day of judgment

Just as Sodom and Gomorrah in the cities around them since they in the same ways these Indulged in gross immorality and went after strange flesh are

Exhibited as an example and undergoing the punishment of eternal fire Judgment is certain

Judgment is permanent Let's take a look at Jude 6 now to talk about what does it mean that judgment is certain?

Jude builds upon his argument in verse 5 that destruction leads to unbelief. Well that destruction is certain

He tells us in this passage that a group of angels are Destroyed for their unbelief and it doesn't say that they're held in temporary chains

It says that they're held in eternal chains meaning that their destruction is irrevocable meaning that they cannot escape

Meaning that God is not like he keeps us For him.

He is keeping them from him This word Toretto shows up twice in this verse

We've learned that God by his grace is keeping Christians preserved for the day that they meet

God For unbelievers who are lost in their unbelief and who will die in their unbelief

They're being kept eternally from God in the father's love

For us he keeps us but yet in the father's wrath. He keeps them from him. That's what this verse is saying

And you may be wondering who are these angels? Why weren't they kept the Jew doesn't get into a lot of specifics here

Why didn't they keep their own domain? What does that mean? Why didn't they keep their proper abode? Their dwelling place

Another word in there is why didn't they guard their lives keep why didn't they keep their lives?

Why don't they guard their lives and what the calling that God had given them the text says That the angels who did not keep their own domain

But abandoned the proper abode or the ones who experienced destruction who is Jude talking about here

The word RK the word for domain just means their authority their sphere of influence

And it's clear in verse 5 that Jude is referring to someone here who well

There's three views that have come down to us from scholars on who these angels are in Jude 5

And I think understanding this will help us understand what Jude's point is Is the first view we'll call this wrong view number one is

That Jude is referring to the the fallen angels that originally fell from heaven when

Satan and his armies rebelled against God this event is described in Revelation 12 7 through 9 and let's look at that really quickly so that we can see that this is not what

Jude is talking about and There was a war in heaven Michael and his angels waging war with the dragon and The dragon and his angels waged war and they were not strong enough and they were no longer a place found for them in heaven

And the great dragon was thrown down The serpent of old who is called the devil and Satan who deceives the entire world

He was thrown down to the earth and his angels were thrown down with him

Now the problem if you take that these angels in Jude 5 or 6 are the fallen angels is that they're not being kept

Satan is thrown down, but he's not bound The demons are thrown down, but they're not bound

We look all throughout the Bible and we see that the serpent shows up in the Garden of Eden. He's not in chains

We see that during the time of Jesus that demons are roaming around.

We read that in Matthew 8 today They're not chained. They're not bound It says in the Bible that Satan is a roaring lion traveling all over the earth to see that whom he may devour

Jude says that he shows up in order to persecute Jude This is not the event that Jude is talking about because they're not an eternal unbreakable bonds

So it must be something else Now we affirm that Satan fell we believe that he was cast out of heaven

But this is not what Jude is referring to so we reject this view the second view will call this wrong view number two is

That sometime after the original fall a second fall occurred that the faithful angels who remained in heaven some of them got the bright idea to rebel again and Because they rebelled their punishment was more severe and they were kept in eternal bonds forever

The others got to roam around and wreak havoc on earth They didn't get to they were put in an eternal sandbox under the earth and they were forbidden from ever leaving

That's what this view says. Now. The problem with that view is that Jude says

I'm gonna remind you of what you know That's not in the Bible There's no evidence of a second fall in any of the

New Testament in any of the Old Testament There's no evidence of a second fall in any other Jewish writing that exists

So, how could they possibly know about something that didn't happen? This is scholars in their imagination

Trying to figure out how to make the text work without just going to the Bible Which is where we're gonna get now to the third view and I call this the biblical view

Jude is reminding his people in five through seven of three events that are all referenced in Scripture Five is clear.

It's the people of Israel Seven is clear. It's Sodom and Gomorrah. So now who is verse six?

There can be no doubt that Jude has in his mind Genesis 6 And we'll read that together and we'll show you how this is what

Judas describing now it came about when men began to multiply on the face of the land and The daughters were born to them that the sons of God saw that the daughters of men

Were beautiful and they took wives for themselves Whomever they chose and the

Lord said my spirit shall not strive with man forever because he is also flesh

Nevertheless his day shall be 120 years and the Nephilim Were on the earth in those days and also afterwards when the sons of God came into the daughters of men and they bore children to them

They were the mighty men who were of old men of her noun and then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually and The Lord was sorry that he had made man on the earth and he was grieved in his heart and the

Lord said I will blot Out man whom I have created from the face of the land from man to animals to creeping things to birds of the sky

For I am sorry that I have made them. This is the precursor to the flood When God destroys the world by washing it and by purifying it with water

Now as we know Genesis 1 through 5 is really the story of how all of this happens that God Created the world out of nothing and he installed human beings to be the pinnacle of his creation and he gave human beings a job to glorify and magnify

God Our job as human beings was to make much of God and to be fruitful and multiply having lots of kids that spread out all across The planet so that the entire world would sing the praises of God Every square inch of the planet filled with the glory of God every square inch of the planet looking like a worship service in heaven

That was the purpose of the original creation, but that is not what happened. Of course we know Human beings before they even had a chance to duplicate themselves

Rebelled against God And instead of multiplying the knowledge of God they multiplied the knowledge of sin so that in Genesis 3 4 5 and all the way to 6

Humanity is spreading like a fungus No longer spreading Healthily and for the benefit of the world and for the glory of God now

They're spreading like kudzu in the south. You don't know what that is. Look it up. It's fascinating grows over two feet a night

It's impossible to stop they were multiplying the knowledge of sin and The text says that their thoughts were evil

Continually and they were so intently polluted the world with wickedness that God had to destroy it

By washing it clean and restarting with a new Adam and with a new Eve in a sense

Noah his wife and their kids That's kind of the context of this story

But now who are these sons of God? That's the part that's confusing and I'll tell you almost no passage of Scripture has caused more confusion than the sons of God in Genesis 6 the

Nephilim and all how I wish we had more time to cover this but I'll have to give you a summary of Three views that people think that these people are and maybe later

We'll be able to throw an extra podcast out there that dives a little bit more deeply for anyone who would like But there's essentially three views on who these people are

The first scholars say that these are kings of the ancient days. These are men of renown

These are men who said that they were sons of God the Egyptian Pharaoh said this the Canaanite Kings said this they said that they were

Literally descendants of the gods and what they would do is that they would claim women for themselves they would rape and pillage towns they would set up their brutal empires and These scholars say that these are the sons of God the ones who claimed that they were divine who were causing all this damage on Earth and because they were doing that God was displeased and he was going to destroy the planet.

That's view one The second view is that these are the holy race in Genesis 3 we see that God is going to redeem humanity through a child of Eve that child is

Seth Seth is the child with whom the Messiah is going to be born. So scholars, especially in biblical theology

Have said that that there's one race of the sons of God and there's one race of the children of man

The sons of God are a spiritual race who believe in the Lord and who follow the Lord the children of man are the race of Cain the cursed race the race that fell headlong into sin and The reason

God destroyed the world is because now they were intermarrying The race of the godly line of people was corrupted by the race of the ungodly line of people and in the homogeny of that moment

No, faithful people were left except Noah and his family and God was going to destroy the earth. That's the second view the

Jewish view which I think Jude leans on is That these were members of the fallen angels that were originally kicked out of heaven

That this was a subset of those fallen angels not all of them and these angels inhabited bodies they took wives and they corrupted human race by filling it full of sin and Wickedness and all -out rejection to God.

This was the Jewish view for a thousand years before Jesus even came this view is

Brought down to us most popularly in a book called first Enoch Which Jude actually quotes from first Enoch is not a book in the

Bible first Enoch I'm not even sure makes it into the Catholic Bible. There's an Apocrypha, which is the extra books and then there's a pseudepigrapha

Which this book is a part of pseudepigrapha just means that I'm pretending to be

Enoch And I'm gonna write a letter to you because I'm claiming his authority I saw an example of this on Facebook the other day

It was an open letter from the Apostle Paul to all the complementarians all the people who believe that Men are called to preach and women are called to equally but also different roles

And I was like, huh? How did the Apostle Paul resurrect himself come to the 21st century hijack this man's

Facebook page and write us a letter? It's pseudepigrapha It's a man pretending to be

Paul so that he can make a point. That's what the book of Enoch is And the book of Enoch describes to us this is the story that it tells

I'm going to summarize That before the flood at the time of Jared when God was deciding to destroy the world about 200 fallen angels grew in their lust for human flesh and As they grew in that lust they took on human wives and they impregnated them and spread their demonic

Seed so that they had a race of Giants Now let's just be clear first Enoch is a fictional book that's trying to Describe the events of the fall in a creative way so these race of Giants Led humanity into all kinds of sin and they tricked humans and they taught humans new and inventive ways to sin against God and according to first Enoch God was so to please so Displeased with this that he caused the

Giants to go into civil war with each other That he caused the angels who had started all of this mess to be trapped under the earth in bonds and Chains awaiting the day of judgment and that God destroyed the world and started over with Noah so What we see is that Jude actually leans on The fictional book of Jude I mean a fictional book of first Enoch when he describes this event and there's a few things

I want to point out on why Because we would ask ourself why is Jude a writer of Scripture quoting a non -biblical book?

Well, why do preachers quote the pilgrims progress? Why do preachers sometimes quote the

Wall Street Journal? It's not Christian. It's not sacred because they're making a theological point That's what

Jude is doing. And I just want to give you a few observations on why I believe that is The first we have to understand we're not the audience of this book.

Not at least originally Jude is talking to first century Jewish people

Who knew the book of Enoch? He's talking to people who had context for what this is saying and If we don't understand that we could go down the road of many questions like, you know

Why are these fallen angels intermarrying with humans and all of that? But that's not what

Jude is trying to write. He's not writing primarily to us He's not writing to people who have no context for this

He's writing to people who are acquainted with the book. The second thing I would say is that he's not endorsing it

There's no endorsement in Jude for the book of Enoch Jude is quoting it to make a theological point.

There is a difference It would be like me quoting the pilgrims progress and trying to make a theological point from that.

I'm not endorsing it as Authoritative. I'm not endorsing it as God's Word I'm just saying it's a good book and I'm gonna write a point from that.

That's what Jude is doing The second reason or the third is that it was a popular historical work of fiction

That Jude knew his community would understand It was so well known that he thought he should reference it

The next point I would say is that should that this was a highly educated pastor and a highly educated

Church And this is important Jude has Greek vocabulary that no other writer in the

New Testament has He has a command of the Greek that surpasses even Paul Jude is a

Greek scholar. He's a well intelligent well intellectual man and He has a handle on some of these concepts in a way that we we don't understand immediately from reading it

We also know that Jude was fluent in Hebrew. Jude doesn't quote the Old Testament in Hebrew He or in Greek he quotes it in Hebrew, even though there was a

Greek Old Testament available Jude reads the Hebrew and he quotes the

Hebrew back into Greek because he's Bilingual and because he has a command for the language. He also does this in Aramaic The book of Enoch was written in both

Greek and Aramaic and the version that Jude quotes is the Aramaic version so that he's

Trilingual he has a he's well read for a for a Jewish man at this time He was incredibly intelligent and his audience under his leadership would have been well versed in this kind of Argumentation this audience would have understood the point that Jude was making.

He's not endorsing first Enoch He's not teaching them that it is now somehow scripture. He's teaching them a point

Theologically the next reason I would say is that he's vague for a purpose.

He doesn't dive into the details He doesn't get lost in all of the different nuances of the book of Enoch I had to quote you from the book of Enoch because Jude doesn't provide that information

Why? Because again, he doesn't want us to get lost in the details He wants us to understand the theology that he is trying to give us and the last point

I would say is the Holy Spirit left this in our Bible for a purpose. It's not so we would go be masters of first Enoch It's not so that we would start reading the pseudepigraph.

It's not so that we would get our the waters muddied and our own beliefs And that we would start Wondering why this it's for a theological purpose

Jude is making a theological claim That rebellion to God doesn't just lead to destruction.

It leads to certain destruction These angels whoever they are, whatever view is right are being kept eternally in bonds

They are guarded under lock and key. They are bound in eternal chains and that there is no

Escape. Jude is reminding his church of what they already know and what they already know is that rejecting

Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior leads to certain destruction And this is important theologically because there's many in the church that will say that after you die

You'll get another chance After you die that Jesus will appear to you and he will give you a second chance in order to receive salvation

And that is not biblical Jude doesn't open the door for a post -mortem salvation

God gave them Christ and if they reject Christ they reject him There's no second chance

If you make it to the end of your life and you're still in your unbelief your destruction is certain That's the point that Jude is making and the people

I think who make this argument are trying to make God more palatable Seem more loving than he already

Infinitely is and they're taking the real God from Scripture and they're perverting him into an imaginary God that they've created

And that God doesn't save because he's no God at all. He's not the God of the scripture. He's not God God doesn't need us to make him more loving.

God is love He doesn't need us to help him be who he already is.

He is Love Christ was given to us to save us. Is there any more loving thing that could ever be done than that?

Is there any more loving thing that could ever be done? Then God sending his one and only son to die on behalf of you and I who were rebels of grace

To reject Christ God's most loving gift that he ever gave is to reject him and To reject him is to invite certain destruction upon your life.

It would be like Complaining to a doctor that you didn't like the medicine that he gave you

It would be like sitting on your roof during a flood and rejecting the boat that came because you didn't like the way that it looked

God has given us Christ Without Jesus Christ, there is no escape Revelation 20 describes this awful day of judgment for all who remain in their unbelief

He says then I saw a great white throne and him who sat upon it from those Presence earth and heaven fled away and no place was found for them and I saw the dead and the

Great and the small standing before the throne and the books were opened and another book was open, which is the book of life and The dead were judged from the things which were written in these books

According to their deeds and the sea gave up the dead which were in it and death and Hades gave up the dead which were in them and they were judged every one of them according to their deeds and Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire.

This is the second death the lake of fire and If anyone's name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into that fiery lake

That Jesus Christ were doomed Without Jesus Christ. It is certain that we are doomed

That's the first point that Jude wants us to get in verse 6 verse 7 He wants us to understand that that destruction is permanent

Jude tells us in verse 7 just as Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities around them since they in the same way as these indulged in gross immorality and went after strange flesh are

Exhibited as an example in undergoing the punishment of eternal fire Jude again is not calling us to get lost in the details of this.

He's calling us to understand his theological point He's in a court case and he's presenting three pieces of evidence evidence.

One is Israel They were destroyed because of their unbelief evidence to these angels They were certainly held for the day of judgment because of their unbelief and Sodom and Gomorrah are eternally condemned because of their unbelief

Jude is referring here to Genesis 19 And he's saying that they stand as an example of the eternal fire

For all of those who do not believe in Genesis this event is described this way now the two angels

Came to Sodom in the evening as lot was sitting at the gate if you remember in chapter 18 the cry of their wickedness was so Heavy that it reached all the way to heaven and God sent these two angels to the city to investigate it

When lot saw them he rose to meet them and he bowed with his face to the ground and he said now behold my lords

Please turn aside into your servants house and spend the night and wash your feet Then you may rise and go on your way and they said however, no but we will spend the night in the square and Yet not urged them strongly so that they turned aside to him and entered his house

And he prepared a feast for them and baked unleavened bread The point here is that not knew this culture was so wicked that he didn't even want these two angels to sleep in the street

And it says in verse 4 before they lay down the men of the city the men of Sodom Surrounded the house both young and old and from all the people of every quarter and they called to lot saying where are these men?

That who came to you tonight bring them out so that we may have relations with them. This is where Sodom actually gets his name

From the sodomy that these people wanted to enact upon these two angels.

They were wicked They were subverting the godly order of male and female relationships that it should be explored in covenant marriage

And they're subverting that and going after strange flesh as Jude calls it in the debasement of their minds.

They're seeking after homosexuality orgies public defilement and whatever types of sin that you can imagine we're going on in this town this town is a type of the kind of rebellion that human beings

Unrestrained and their sin can get to if the grace of God does not protect them

Verse 6 says but not went out to them at the doorway and he shut the door behind him and he said please my brothers countrymen do not act wickedly and Now behold,

I have these two daughters who have not had relation with man. Please bring them out To you and do to them whatever you like only do nothing to these men and so much as they come under the shelter of My roof what a wicked response from lot

It's not our point to preach this text today But lot is only called righteous in comparison to the desperate wickedness of Sodom this man is not a righteous man in Comparison to the biblical standard he is only righteous in the way that Hitler is righteous in comparison to a petty thief

Both deserve judgment, but one clearly deserves it more This man is a weak man an awful father.

He's a selfish businessman and yet the text calls him righteous why because of grace Verse 9 it says but they said stand aside furthermore

They said this one lot came in as an alien among us and he's already acting like our judge

Now we will treat you worse than them So they pressed hard against a lot and they came near to break down the door, but the men these angels reached out their hands and they brought not into the house with them and they shut the door and They struck them in these angels struck the men who were at the doorway of the house with blindness both small and great so that they wearied themselves trying to find the doorway in their rebellion

They didn't even go home when they were struck blind They felt around all night long on the ground like animals because that's how depraved that they were

These two men the angels said to lot We are about to destroy this place because their outcry has become so great

Before the Lord that the Lord has sent us to destroy it Lot went out and spoke to his sons -in -laws who were about to marry his daughters and he said up Get out of this place for the

Lord will destroy the city, but he appeared to his sons -in -laws to be only joking When morning dawned the angels urged a lot saying

Up take your wife and your two daughters who are here or you will be swept away in the punishment of the city

But he hesitated so the men seized his hand in the hand of his wife in the hand of his two daughters for Compassion the compassion of the

Lord was upon him What a beautiful verse Lot is a monster in some ways and yet even he can be saved by God and they brought him out they put him outside of the city and When the angels had brought him outside one said escape for your life

Do not look behind you and do not stay anywhere in the valley Escape to the mountains or you will be swept away and then the

Lord rained down on Sodom and Gomorrah brimstone and fire From the

Lord out of heaven and he overthrew those cities and all the valley and all the inhabitants of the city and what grew on the ground

I Want us to see a few points in Jude's reference here Jude references this event for a theological purpose

He doesn't want us to get lost on all the details. He wants us to see that judgment is eternal

Jude mentions this scene because it's clear and it's noticeable and it's memorable and it's known to his audience

That this is a scene where judgment has happened Second Jude Compounds their destruction

We see that they're destroyed by fire physically just like we saw earlier That there was a compounding that happened with Israel who was saved physically

God rained down fire on the city until it was destroyed and the smoke probably lasted for a few days and Many who lived in the plains probably thought that's the last we'll ever see of Sodom and Gomorrah They're a heaping ash pile on a charred patch of ground in the middle of a field somewhere never to rise again

That is not what you to saying. He compounds it beyond the physical to the eternal Jude elevates this picture and he's saying to his people if you reject

Jesus Christ You are no different than the people in the plains of Sodom and Gomorrah Except that the judgment is not temporary.

The judgment is not instant. The judgment is eternal Judas saying that this temporal fiery picture in the

Old Testament is just the beginning That there's also an eternal punishment for all those who are not in Christ This again is important because many

Theologians in order in their opinion to rescue God Say that judgment is instant.

They call this Annihilationism and I tell you this so that you'll know it when you hear it That God and his grace destroys people instantly so that they don't have to endure hell for all eternity.

It's not biblical Jude says eternal fire. He doesn't say instant fire. And again, we can't rescue

God God is loving we can't add to his goodness. He is infinitely good

But I understand why someone would go down this road I do one of my favorite theologians a man named

John Stott his son died in his unbelief He had a son prayed for his son.

His son died really early and he died as an unbeliever and John Stott over the rest of his life redefined hell from an eternal punishment to an instant annihilation

Because he could not conceive of the fact that his son Would be in the eternal fires of hell.

I understand as a parent I Understand why this is hard. I understand why this is heavy say the least

But if our doctrine is not based on what the Bible says then it's not biblical and this says that it that the fire is eternal

Unbelief leads to destruction Unbelief is certain and the destruction is permanent.

I got a taste of this When I was I don't know a few years before I moved up to Massachusetts.

I Recently fell off a house. Well, I also got hurt about nine years ago when

I got second -degree burns on my legs it's always my legs and For 48 hours

I Watched my skin falling off of my legs.

I Watched it filled with fluid at the hospital and the doctors having to peel it off of me after they popped it

I Spent 48 hours in the most agonizing pain that I've ever felt in my life.

It was so bad I couldn't I can't even describe it to you. I Joke with my wife all the time that that she can never use the joke that that Pregnancy is more painful and that my man cold is not a big deal.

I've felt pain, baby Pain that I can't even describe to you and it was 48 hours before my nerve cells finally stopped sending the signal 48 hours.

I think about what that would be like for 72 hours. I think about what that would be like for a week.

I Think about what that would be like for a month a year a year unending pain a year of no relief a lifetime 500 lifetimes

Can't even imagine you can't even comprehend it and you don't have to That's why

I want to end with the final point that judgment is not Certain for the believer

It's avoidable Doesn't have to be your reality. We have 30 people a week who listen to this online.

We have people here. I want to say to every single person in this room and anyone who listens that judgment is avoidable and When I end our time with one of the most famous verses of all time

John 3 16 We think about God's judgment and let these verses wash over you for God so loved the world that he gave

His only begotten Son that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life

For God did not send his Son into the world To judge the world but that the world might be saved through him

He who believes in him is not judged He who does not believe has been judged already

Because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God hell is avoidable

God Demonstrated his perfect love in Jesus Christ the most loving thing ever done in all of history is the sending of Jesus Christ The Son of God and if anyone believes in him, you're saved if anyone rests in him

You're safe, but if you don't you're not and this is avoidable John 1 12 through 13 says but as many as received him that God gave the right to be called children of God We don't have to die in our unbelief

We can receive Jesus Christ. We can turn from our sin and we can be called children of God We can go from being orphans to being children made righteous with him that's what

Judah's saying and These three verses verse 5 judgment

Our unbelief leads to judgment verse 6 judgment is certain for all those who don't believe her seven judgment is permanent and lasting and The gospel that he gives us in verse 24

Now to him it's Christ who is able to keep you from stumbling the one who will hold you fast and To make you stand in the presence of his glory with great joy be glory and honor forever and ever

In Christ, we can be saved. That's it father

We thank you so much for this passage of scripture and Lord We even thank you for the fact that you're a

God who is just Lord we thank you for the fact that you are not an unjust judge who pardons every sin and doesn't care about Righteousness you're not a judge who looks at the at the victim of murder and just says get over it

No, you're a God who is righteous and holy and judges the wicked you're a God who judges the unbeliever you're a

God who is good because you do those things and Yet God we also confess

That all of us in this room are wicked that all of us in this room deserve your wrath that all of us in this room deserve your judgment and yet You made good

Inconceivable when you sent your son Jesus Christ You made grace

Unable to be comprehended when you saved rebels like us Lord only because of you are we delivered only because of you are we saved only because of you

Can we stand and can we sing and can we proclaim about a God who holds us fast?

Only because of you and only because of Christ and Lord I just pray that for all in this room are in Christ that we would sing these praises to God and that we would feel

The weight of what Jude is saying that we are saved only through Jesus Christ And Lord I also pray

For anyone who's here for anyone who listens to this whether it's tomorrow or 15 years from now

That Lord by the power of your Holy Spirit you would rescue them from their unbelief if that's where they are That you would deliver them.

He would awaken them That you would convict them of their sin and that you would propel them to Christ because there is no hope