Living as Hypocrites in the Church
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5 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. 6 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— 7 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.
8 Yet in like manner these people also, relying on their dreams, defile the flesh, reject authority, and blaspheme the glorious ones. 9 But when the archangel Michael, contending with the devil, was disputing about the body of Moses, he did not presume to pronounce a blasphemous judgment, but said, “The Lord rebuke you.” 10 But these people blaspheme all that they do not understand, and they are destroyed by all that they, like unreasoning animals, understand instinctively. 11 Woe to them! For they walked in the way of Cain and abandoned themselves for the sake of gain to Balaam’s error and perished in Korah’s rebellion. 12 These are hidden reefs at your love feasts, as they feast with you without fear, shepherds feeding themselves; waterless clouds, swept along by winds; fruitless trees in late autumn, twice dead, uprooted; 13 wild waves of the sea, casting up the foam of their own shame; wandering stars, for whom the gloom of utter darkness has been reserved forever.
14 It was also about these that Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied, saying, “Behold, the Lord comes with ten thousands of his holy ones, 15 to execute judgment on all and to convict all the ungodly of all their deeds of ungodliness that they have committed in such an ungodly way, and of all the harsh things that ungodly sinners have spoken against him.” 16 These are grumblers, malcontents, following their own sinful desires; they are loud-mouthed boasters, showing favoritism to gain advantage.
Verses 5-7 flow directly out of verse 4 and it’s warning about false teachers. The coming judgment opens and closes the unit of verses 5-16. We read about how the false teachers were marked out and designated for destruction long ago because their sin resembles the sin of three well known events in the Old Testament history.
After God saved the people out of the land of Egypt He destroyed those who did not believe, i.e. the golden calf situation.
Big Idea: Unbelief is at the root of all sin.
The historical events are not new news for them anymore than the gospel was now new news to them. Still in our human state of sinfulness we have a tendency to forget, or neglect the lessons and truths that we have learned from the past.
Jude sounds the call with the word, “REMEMBER.” (A Call to Remember)
Have you ever been called to remember something significantly important that you had been told in the past?
All Marines are trained to throw M67 fragment grenades. When at MCT Marine Combat training part of our training was to learn how to properly throw a hand grenade. Here is a quick video of what the training entails.
We went through about a 15 minute class on how to throw a hand grenade. It was stressed over and over about making sure you throw the grenade and not the pin otherwise you will become Johnny one arm because you did not remember the most important part of throwing a grenade.
We are all prone to forget what we have learned even the most significant things in life. This is why in the military we have to constantly go through re-qualification on important skills. In the professional world professionals have to continually go through continuing education and qualifying courses.
This is why we need to stay in the word so we will not forget what God has revealed to us in His word. Hebrews 4:12 reminds us that the word of God is like a scalpel used to cut to the thoughts and intentions of our heart.
1. Remember the Danger of Unbelief
1. Remember the Danger of Unbelief
Jude 5-6
*Do not Trust in the Security of a Past Experience
*Do not Trust in the Security of a Past Experience
God saw the suffering of his chosen people.
Therefore he “saved” delivered, or rescued them from their oppressors. He sent plagues on Egypt, parted the red sea, destroyed Pharaoh’s army, and provided manna, quail, and water. He was their glory cloud by day and pillar of fire by night. So Israel had an amazing past, a marvelous legacy. The book of Exodus is a witness to God’s amazing grace in salvation.
However the issue for them and for us today is:
WHO OR WHAT ARE YOU TRUSTING?
WHO OR WHAT ARE YOU TRUSTING?
Not once does the Bible tell us to look back to a past experience for our security. Look what Paul tells us to do in 2 Corinthians 13:5
5 Examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Or do you not realize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?—unless indeed you fail to meet the test!
Walking an aisle, praying a prayer, signing a card, going into water—these are not the avenues of assurance.
Today, right now, are you looking to the cross? Are you trusting Christ? Do not trust in the security of a past experience.
*Do not doubt the power of God today.
*Do not doubt the power of God today.
Jude reminds us that “later” God destroyed all those who did not believe. Jude has in mind Numbers 14. After the twelve spies returned from their recon mission into the promised land. The majority report of ten said, “We cannot do this. They are giants and we are like grasshoppers.” The minority report of the ten (Joshua and Caleb) said, “No problem. After all, grasshoppers plus God equals one giant killing machine.”
However, the people who had seen God do so much failed to trust leading to their unbelief. The result: every person twenty years old and over died. All of them! They missed out on the promised land because of their unbelief. They missed God’s best.
Forgetting all of God’s grace and greatness, they ended up digging their graves in the wilderness within sight of the land God had promised them, saying, “God did it before, but I cannot trust that He can do it again.”
CHURCH CULTURE CONNECTION
We have far to man people in the church believe in their hearts and say with their lives, “He saved me in the past, and he will take me to heaven in the future, but, right now I am not so sure He can handle my current situation. I have so many issues, family, work, health, finances, ministry. Things are hard, and God is silent.
If I do not take care of things without him, then they will not get done.
Unbelief destroyed the Hebrew people, and unbelief in the providence and goodness of God describes those who have gone apostate in Jude. Remember the danger of unbelief today.
vs. 6 “Angels who did not stay in their own position of authority, but left their proper dwelling place, they are now kept in chains of gloomy darkness for judgment day.”
Jude 6 is one of the most difficult verses in the Bible to interpret. Who is Jude talking about? Who was Peter talking about in the parallel text in 2 Peter 2:4? Three views have been set forth:
An unknown fall of angels not recorded in scripture.
The original fall of Satan recorded in Isaiah 14:12-14 and Ezekiel 28:12-18. While these passages are referring to the kings of Babylon and Tyre, I believe they also refer to the spiritual power behind those kings.
We have the episode in Genesis 6 where fallen angels had sexual relations and cohabited with women and produced an evil race of men who brought God’s judgment on the world through the flood.
The third option I believe to be the plausible. These angels were not satisfied with God’s plan for them. They were convinced there was something better and God’s way was not the best way. They did not keep their own position, they “abandoned their proper dwelling.” They wanted something more, a different position of prominence, a better place of activity.
This sounds much like the ministers of the gospel today. Through self-deception like these angels they rationalize their lust for position, power, prestige and possessions.
2. Remember the Destiny of the Immoral
2. Remember the Destiny of the Immoral
Jude 7.
Just like Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding area that were engaged in Sexual Immorality:
“Specifically immorality of an unnatural desire”
There destiny is eternal punishment in the lade of fire......
There is no single story of the people of God that has so impacted the people of God as the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. It is referenced in one way or another more than twenty times in the Bible. The devastation of the cities stand as a horrific reminder of God’s just condemnation against sin.
*Sexual Perversion Can Consume You
*Sexual Perversion Can Consume You
There sin was homosexuality. The Bible is explicitly clear when it comes to homosexuality as a sin. Romans 1:26-27
26 For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; 27 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.
1). The Bible is clear in its treatment of homosexuality as a sin.
2). Any Sexual activity Heterosexual or homosexual outside of the marriage covenant between a man and a woman is sin!!!!
Note: Jesus himself said that a man and woman in marriage become one flesh.
3). Those who are enslaved to sexual sin need to be loved, including those who identify as gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, and any others.
We do not exile them outside of the reach of God’s mercy and grace. We graciously speak to them about truth in love and reach out to them with grace, mercy, and kindness.
4). Rampant sexual sin is not the worst sin, but it is the clearest evidence of a society that has rejected God’s truth and has been given over to his righteous judgment. (Romans 1:24-28).
*Eternal Punishment Can Claim You
*Eternal Punishment Can Claim You
The Bible is Clear about God’s Judgement
We are reminded in Jude 6 that Hell was prepared for the devil and his fallen angels, however, verse 7 affirms that unbelieving, rebellious, and immoral human beings will also be there. Matthew 25:41 reminds us that on that day Jesus will say, “depart from me I never knew you.”
Hell is real and Hell is eternal. The doctrine of Hell has fallen on hard times in the post-Christian worldview. Today you will hear fewer sermons preached on the reality of Hell, and fewer Christians who will acknowledge that it is a very real place.
It is a place of suffering, sadness, and separation. It helps explain the great need for the cross, and why, of the twelve times the word gehenna (hell) appears in the Bible, eleven are from the lips of Jesus himself. So terrible that Jesus said in Matthew 5:27-30 it would be better for you to enter the kingdom of heaven with only one eye or one hand than to have you whole body cast into hell.
Hell is a bad place. Eternity is a long time. The unbelieving, rebellious, and immoral will unfortunately find their destiny in this place.
3. Remember from where true freedom comes from
3. Remember from where true freedom comes from
The church has continually struggled to balance it’s grace and freedom, liberty and responsibility. How can I enjoy my freedom in Christ from works as the way of salvation without crossing the line into works of the flesh?
I believe there is a revival of antinomianism (“antilaw attitude”) in the church in our day; people don’t want to observe the disciplines of the Christian faith. Our language too often parrots the language of the world. Our dress apes the dress of the world. Our morals copycat the morals of the world. Determined to fit in with the culture and to be relevant, we have lost and neglected God’s call to be a holy and special people (1 Pet 1:16; 2:9).
Today we claim to be spiritual, but we are not godly. We are sporadic in church attendance and stingy in our giving. We are frequent participants in the abuse of alcohol, tobacco and profanity, however, we mask in in the disguise of our freedom from the law and in Christ.
We continually dress offensively and seductively. We surf the internet for porn and mutilate or desecrate our bodies, which we claim are the temple of the Holy Spirit. All the while we say, it’s no big deal, I am free in Christ.
All of these sins are sins of the heart. Sins of the heart and sins of the flesh.
The half brother again turns his attention to the false followers of Christ who are “turning the grace of our God into sensuality and denying Jesus Christ, our only Master and Lord.”
*We must watch out for sins of rebellion, arrogance, and ignorance.
*We must watch out for sins of rebellion, arrogance, and ignorance.
19 Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, 20 for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.
You are not your own you were bought with a price........
False teachers will deny or at least minimize the authority of God’s ownership in your life.
Sins of Rebellion
DON’T BECOME DEFILED
This is the “God told me” and “I prayed about it” defense for what Jude calls “[defiling] the flesh.”
Claiming to have “a word from the Lord” does not legitimate what one says. False prophets in the Old Testament made such claims (cf. Deut 13:1–5; Jer 23:25–32). Claiming an extrabiblical source of authority, these false teachers attempt to justify their immoral lifestyle. The context would point to sexual sin as the primary, though not the exclusive, sin. This newfound freedom to indulge and feed the flesh was apparently credited to God.
DON’T BECOME DEFIANT
Someone who has an unchecked lifestyle rooted in rebellion and an unbridled spirit. Jude say’s that false followers reject authority. I believe Jude is speaking of the authority and Lordship of Christ.
DON’T BECOME DISRESPECTFUL
These people would say, I do not need accountability in my life. I certainly do not need someone sticking their nose in my business. They reject brothers and sister and choose not to be in community with the Church.
Sins of Arrogance
vs. 9
This is one of the more difficult verses in the Bible to interpret.
This verse includes a dispute or argument between Satan or the Devil and the Archangel Michael. It appears to recorded in a nonbiblical book called The Assumption of Moses or The Testament of Moses. Our best guess is that the story shows Satan wanting the body of Moses as a potential relic for idolatry, or perhaps challenging Moses right to be buried by God because he had murdered an Egyptian.
1). We must know our place in God’s economy
Michael is an archangel, a warrior angel, the greatest angel, but he still is a created being by God.
He knows his place in God’s plan something false teachers have neglected or failed to grasp.
2). Know that your power is in God’s Authority
Our authority for spiritual warfare comes from God, not in ourselves. In our own strength the devil will defeat us every time. Perhaps Michael could have taken on the devil, however, he knew the true source of his authority and power.
Sins of Ignorance
At the heart of false teaching is wrong thinking. Human depravity does not prevent us from using our minds, but it does prevent us from using them correctly. Animals think, but they think like animals. False followers of Christ think, but they too think like animals, and eventually they live like animals. (King Nebuchadnezzar lived like the beast of the field)
He was driven from among men and ate grass like an ox, and his body was wet with the dew of heaven till his hair grew as long as eagles’ feathers, and his nails were like birds’ claws. (Dan. 4:33)
*God Condemns the Ungodly
*God Condemns the Ungodly
1). God Condemns the Ungodly because of their decisions
God gave each one of you a brain with the cognitive ability to make decision about how and what you are going to do with the life that you have been given.
vs. 11 “Woe to them for they walk in the way of Cain and abandon for the sake of Balaam’s error.
The way of Cain: Murder, hate, jealousy, and anger, rebellion and disobedience. Self-centered character that chose their own way over God’s way.
The prophet Balaam led Israel into sexual sin because of the financial enticement offered by King Balak of Moab. He was basically a prophet for pay or hire, a profiteering preacher. God was his god and money his master. Ministry was all about making money, not caring for God’s people.
Korah and his rebellion as recorded in Numbers 16 rejected God’s ordained spiritual authority of Moses and Aaron. As a result, God destroyed him, his household, and his followers. Like Korah, these men in Jude’s day were a law unto themselves, rebellious in heart. Arrogance and Pride are always on the radar of God.
2) God Condemns the Ungodly because of their Deceptions
They are Destructive
Without fear they serve only themselves on the reefs of love feasts. They are hypocrites and dishonest to the core. Pretending to be full of love and concern for others while their only concern is for their own passions and position in leadership. They are like destructive reefs hiding just below the surface of the water. They are slow to show themselves but when they do arrive the can bring unheard of damage and destruction to the church.
They Disappoint
They are waterless clouds. In Texas last summer I think that is all we experienced is waterless clouds. Have you ever seen clouds coming after a long time without rain and thinking this is going to be the one only to be disappointing. Appearing to bring refreshing waters of the word, they blow past once they have taken what they want, preying on others as they move on across the sky.
These false teachers promise liberty and freedom only to leave us fruitless and rootless, dead top to bottom.
(Illustration Ferris Buler’s Day off)
They Defile
Immorality is closely related to all false teaching. Belief and behavior are twins that are virtually impossible to separate. These teachers are raging waves of the sea, foaming up the filth and shame of their false teachings and immoral living. They crash like waves and all they do is stir up moral filth (contradictions)
The Disappear
False teachers are like shooting stars, here today and gone tomorrow. They burn bright for a night and then vanish into the midnight sky, never to ween from again.
Because they wander about these false teachers show no consistency or reliability. They promise spiritual light; but they are aimless, erratic, and destined for God’s condemnation.
3) God Condemns the Ungodly because it is their destiny
4 For certain people have crept in unnoticed who long ago were designated for this condemnation, ungodly people, who pervert the grace of our God into sensuality and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.
Enoch walked with God; then he was not there because God took him. This informs us, “He did not experience death.... for before he was taken away, he was approved as one who pleased God.
Their condemnation is predicted
Prior even to the flood, God made known his verdict concerning false teachers as well as the certainty of his coming at the end of time. Enoch declared, “Look!” Behold! Take notice! “The Lord [Jesus Christ] comes.” It is as if condemnation has already commenced, so sure is its coming.
The 10,000 of his holy ones is referring to the host of heavenly angels. Numerous times in both the Old and New Testament God is pictured as coming with his angels.
At this coming things will be radically different than his first coming. Here he comes to a crown, not a cross. He comes to a throne, not a cradle. He comes to rule and to reign, not to die. He comes to judge, not to be judged.
The next time we see Jesus he will be coming, and his angels will be both his escort and his agents of judgment.
Verse 15 Notice that Jude uses the word ungodly four times in this one verse.
4) God Condemns the Ungodly because of their Deeds.
They are grumblers
They complain without shame. Like the Hebrew children wandering in the wilderness, they find fault in God, gripping and complaining, accusing him of withholding his best and what they believe that they deserve. They are critical, negative, possessing a cloudy disposition.
They are Malcontents
Malcontent: A person who is dissatisfied, and rebellious.
Following their own sinful desires
They live by the personal pleasure principle, they were consumed with what they wanted. Their desires trumped all others, including God’s.
They are loud mouthed boasters
They are big talkers who say more about themselves than about the Word of God. Have you ever listened to a sermon that was all about the person preaching, you heard very little about God or His word.
They portray themselves as the hero of every story, giving the appearance of a spiritual superiority. Such teachers fin an easy target in the biblically illiterate and theologically immature culture we live in today.
They are experts in flattery in order to take financial advantage of the gullible and unsuspecting. In other words they are good at identifying itching ears and telling people what they want to hear and what makes them feel good.
They are masters of manipulation, they empty the pockets of others and fill their own. The suffering servant named Jesus is banished to the sidelines.
CONCLUSION
Some liberal Theologians today talk of a “softer” view of God, a God whose vengance and condemnation have slowly waned or evaporated and disappeared over time. They speak of a God of love but not a God of wrath.
Such theologians obviously have not read Jude. Be careful that you do not follow in their footsteps. If you do you will walk the path of deception and destruction. You will be fooling yourself in to a life of disillusion and self-gratification. To do so will walk the path of deception and destruction. It will all come down to a face-to-face encounter with the living God who condemns all ungodliness and the ungodly - every single one of them with out question.