Unbelievers and the One True God

One of the things that most preachers will tell you is the hardest topic to preach on is God’s judgment. Because, in our culture and our society, it is hard to believe that God could at the same time be both loving and yet still judge people for their sin. And, yet, I think the clear teaching of teh Bible, including this passage, is that God will judge those who reject Jesus. And that’s hard, because like most of of you, I have many friends and family who do not follow Christ. I have family members who I love dearly, who aren’t Christians. I have friends, and neighbors, and people that I know and love who reject Jesus. And it is hard; because we love these people, and we don’t want them to get judged. So how do we reconcile these two things? How do we make sense of God’s judgement? And why even bother talking about it? Well today I’m going to try to answer some of those questions. So today here is what I want to do, first, I want to walk through this passage, and I want us to see all the different ways that people reject Jesus. And once we have come to terms with that, then we can move to try to make sense of this.

God Will Judge

So, there are seven types of situations that this passage tell sus God will judge. But we have to understand that all this is in relation to vs. 4. Because what we saw last week in vs. 4 is that these are all those who reject our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ. And Jude in our passage this week defines who those people are.

The Exodus generation: The first kind of people is listed in vs. 5. These are the people that God saved in the Exodus generation. God brought them out of the land of Egypt: he sent a savior, Moses, and Moses performed great signs and God sent great plagues taht eventually pried Pharoah’s grip off of Israel, and Pharaoh eventually sent them away. So they got to the Red sea, and God split the sea from end to end and made a way for them to walk across on dry ground. So they come to Mt. Sinai, and God gives them his 10 commandments, and they receive the law. But while Moses is up on Mt. Sinai, the people make a golden calf and they start to worship it. So Moses comes down and sets the camp in order, and God says, “Okay, Moses, I’m going to destroy this stubborn people,” But Moses says, “God don’t do that. What glory do you get out of that?” So God says, “Okay. Go forth from here. Go to the promised land and take hold of it.” And Moses says, “God we’re not budging an inch until you tell us that you are going with us.” And God says, “okay, Moses, I’m going with you.” Then Moses says, “God, can I see your face?” And God says, “No, Moses. but you can get a glimpse of my back as I walk past.”

So Moses hides in the cleft of the rock, and God causes his glory to go past him, and Moses peeks out at the right time and beholds the glory of God. Well Moses comes back to the camp and his face is shining so brightly that the people can’t stand to be around them. And this is the God who brings Israel to the promised land. And God brings them right there, and then he says, “Go in.” And what do they do? They’ve seen God’s great power, they’ve experienced his forgiveness, they’ve been led by him, they’ve been rescued by him, they’ve been shown his mercy. What do they say? “Uh, God, we’re not going in there. There are giants in there.” So God leads them through the desert for 40 years until all of that generation dies. And Jude looks at that generation and says, “Just like God has judged them, so I will judge.”

The rebellious angels: Then Jude says in vs. 6, look at the rebellious angels. After all, before even history began, God was in heaven, being praised by thousands and thousands of angels. And yet, Lucifer was not happy, so Lucifer says, “Okay guys, let’s rebel against God.” They, as Jude says, “Would not stay within their own position of authority, and left their proper dwelling.” They were not content that God had made them angels, they rebelled against him with all their might. and Jude says, just like God is holding them in “eternal chains under gloomy darkness,” so he will judge the wicked.

Sodom and Gomorrah: He says, look at Sodom and Gomorrah. now, these two cities are pretty notorious in the Bible. If you are familiar with the story of Abraham and Loit, Lot was the nephew of Abraham. And Abraham and Lot split ways, and Lot went with all his men, and, after being taken captive and rescued by Abraham, Lot dwelt in Sodom. And one day, God sent these angels to see if there were any righteous people in the city. And the angels, dressed up as men, were taken in by Lot because he knew the city was dangerous. Well, after nightfall, the men of Sodom banged on the door so that they could rape these strange men. So here we are, they are violent men, they are dangerous men, they have absolutely no respect for God’s gift of sexuality as a gift for a marriage of one man and one woman only, and they are transgressing the social norm of hospitality. We get the sense in teh story that they hvae done this before. But, unfortunately, they knocked on teh wrong house, because the angels blind them all until morning. Well the angels get Lot and his family out of town, and as they are leaving, God sends down fire to burn up this wicked people. And Jude says, just like God judged them, so God will judge all those who reject Jesus.

Blasphemers: Then Jude points his finger at those who “blaspheme the glorious ones.” Now, this is an interesting sentence, but it seems to be those who basically make up their own reality, they defil the flesh, and they reject authority. But hte peak of their incredulity is that they blaspheme the “glorious one.” And here, he points to the example of the Devil. And the Devil here is mocking Moses, teh archangel, and wants to defile the body of Moses, and the angel says, “may the Lord rebuke you.” And specifically we’re meant to see the contrast between the Devil and between MIchael in this moment. Well, Jude says that they blaspheme what they do not understand, and they become like unreasoning animals. Jude says “Woe to them!” Jude says, we know God will judge such people. Then he cites three people in rapid fire succession which is meant to get to this crescendo of cursing in vs. 12-13.

Cain: The first persoin he cites is Cain. Cain was the brother of Able. And wehn God accepted Abel’s sacrifice, but not Cain’s, Cain killed Abel out of jealousy. And God says, those who reject Jesus walk in this way.

Balaam: He then cites the example of Balaam. Balaam was a sorcerer in teh country of Moab. And Balaam was the one who the king of Moab hired to come and prophesy, and was on his way, but God put the words in the mouth of the donkey to warn him. So Balaam gets to the king, and he is unable to curse Israel. But instead, he tells the king of Moab how to really get at them. What he has to do is tempt Israel to disobey God, and then God will himself judge Israel. So here we have Balaam, who knew better, putting himself under God’s judgment, by convincing the king of Moab to get Israel to be judged. And Jude says, everyone who rejects Jesus abandons reason to follow in the error of Balaam.

Korah: And Jude’s final example of someone who is under God’s judgement is the man Korah. Now, Korah was an Israelite during the Exodus generation. And Korah was a fellow Levite. And he got sick of Moses’ leadership and he and some others conspired against Moses. Well, God judged Korah. He told everyone around him to move. And then God commanded the earth, and the earth opened up and swallowed him whole. And tehre is no more trace of Korah. And Jude says, Korah is the leader of all those who reject jesus. Who refuse to obey. Who will not bend the knee. God will deal with them.

Summary in vs. 12-13: Then JUde moves from example of those who are judged by God to describing their destructiveness. And we see that they are liable to judgement for two reasons:

Greedy: Look at the description in vs. 12. These people who reject Jesus don’t do this for godly reasons. They do it because they are greedy. And he gives three examples of this greed. First, they are those who are “hidden reefs” at teh love feast. A hidden reef is someone who is like a sandbar, just waiting for a ship to run into it. And this reef which sinks ship is the person who shows up to church feasts, or potlucks, which is essentially what they were, and they engorge themselves without fear. They are gluttonous, and they jump to the front of the line and they heap up their plate, and they don’t care if others don’t get here. In the book of 1 Corinthians, we find that there were some of these people who would show up to the feasts at Corinth early, and they would eat all the food and they would get drunk off the wine before everyone even got there. The point of Jude’s commenting on them is that they are gluttonous and greedy, they always want to receive and they never want to give. They are, as he goes ont o say, like waterless clouds, swept along by the winds.

They are like the dark cloud that rolls over the plains of the midwest during teh summer, when it has been dry and there has been no rain for weeks, and yet, they give no rain. they are promising, but they give nothing. They are unyielding, unwilling to water the crops which so desparately need it. They are like “fruitless trees in late autumn.” They are like a tree that refuses to give fruit, year, after year, after year. They provide no sustenance, nothing good. They require lots of tending, lots of pruning, lots of nurturing, but in teh final estimation tehy have no harvest. They take in but never give out, they are greedy.

No restraints: But Jude goes onto describe this kind of person. They are those who have no restriants, they are shameless. Jude describes them like the waves of the sea, that wash hidden things up on shore. They bring those things which are shameful to the light, and they delight in them. They cannot be rebuked. Or they are like the wandering stars. In the ancient world, the position of stars was somethign that the people relied on to make sense of the world. They needed to know where the starts were ta to help them understand harvests, to help them navigate, even to give them some understanding of the future. But, what he is probably talking about here is asteroids, or meteorites, or comets, which appear like a star falling, a shooting star that will not stay in its place. And Jude’s point here is that they should follow certain rules but they will not.

Jude sumamrizess them as those who are “grumblers, malcontents, following their own sinful desires, they are loud-mouthed boasters, showing favoritism to gain advantage.”

At the root of Jude’s description is this reality. These are the poeple who refuse to bend the knee to Jesus. They want Jesus to save them, but they do not want to follow him. they view salvation as a get out of jail free card. They are those who refuse to see their sin for what it is, and therefore they have no fear of God’s judgmen on them. While God has harsh words for legalists, God also has harsh words for all those who refuse to obey his eternal laws and decrees.

God will judge these: Therefore, God will judge these. THis is why God says, “it is about these that Enoch, prophesided....” That God will come and he will one day judge all those who raise their firsts at God and refuse to follow him and obey his way. Jude says, “there is a day coming where God will deal with every blasphemer, every law-breaker, every single person who rejects Jesus, will get their just condemnation.

God will judge every person who rejects Jesus.

Apply

Now, this is what this passage teaches, but how do we make sense of this? This seems so, angry, so mean, so cruel. What do we do with this? Can we relaly accept this.

Thought experiment: Well, let’s say it like this. Let’s imagine that God never judged anybody for their sins. Stalin, Mao, and hitler, who each killed millions and millions of people, they are welcomed into heaven, no justice is required for them. All the child abusers, every person who has the same cruel and unusual treatment of each other, they get the same as you and me. Everyone is just welcomed to haven, and God never ever expected anyone to even try to live justly. Would such a God be good? NO, of course not. Because if God is good, then he will judge evil. He will not allow wickedness to go unpunished. He will hold all those who have killed and maligned, and treated one another cruelly accountable. There is a day coming, where God will judge every unjust person.

This applies to us as well: Of course, if God really is good, then he must judge every evil deed, every corrupt thought, and every perverted intention. He can’t just judge the actions that Mao and Stalin and Hitler committed. He will also judge their hearts. He will judge their desires. He will search and judge every single motivation that led to their actions. But if God is going to judge their motivations, their hearts, their intentions, then he must also judge every person whose motivtion or heart, or intention’s are corrupt, even if those motivations or intentions did not work themselves out the same way as they did for Hitler and Stalin. And if God is going to judge some that way, he must judge all that way. And that includes you and me. And that is the rub. Because we don’t like to believe that about ourselves, that we have sinful thoughts, that we have done wicked deeds, that we have shook our fists at God. But the reality is that when God holds all of us up under his scrutinizing gaze, none is found innocent. This is why Paul says in ...

Points us to Jesus: So what then, are we all stuck under God’s just condemnation? Are we all just condemned for eternity to continue in this judgement? Certainly not! Because this is why God sent his Son to be condemned in our place. says that Christ redeemed us from the curse by becoming a curse. That Christ bore teh guilt and the shame and the condemnation due our sins on the cross. You see, God will judge eveyr person who rejects Jesus, because Jesus is the one who was judged in their place on teh cross. Jesus was judged so that we might be justified. he was cursed so we might be blessed. He was killed so that we might live. The reason that God will judge every person who rejects Jesus is that jesus is the escape hatch, he is the way out, he is the sacrifice for our sins, our substitute, our scapegoat. People think that it is unfair that God would judge an innocent person. But the reality is that God only judged an innocent person once, and thank God that he did, because without him there would be no salvation.

Shall we continue in sin? So what then, do we continue in sin because Jesus was cursed in our place on the cross? Of cours enot. You see, God did not just come to forgive us of our sins, but to free us of our sins. God did not just send his son to give us pardon, but also to give us purity. If you have a friend who is being heled at a bar bedcause they have run up a tab that they can never pay, then it is not a loving thing to go and pay that tab so that they can keep drinking. Dear friend, if the only reason that God sent his son was to pay your tab on the cross, then he is not your savior: he is your enabler. But if God sent his son to pay your tab at the bar, and then to take you to rehab, then he didn’t just pay your debt, he made you whole. Dear friend, if Jesus is not your Lrod, he is not your savior. But if he is your savior, then he must also be your Lord. Which means that we get to walk according to his ways, we get to follow him, we get to escape the just punishment for our sins, and we get to find our joy in him.

We can trust: And here is the beautiful thing for Christians. When we feel that we are being persecuted, when we feel that we are suffering unjustly, when we feel that the world is going to hell in handbasket, we can trust that God will judge. Our great hope for Christians is that he has not abandoned us, he has not forsaken us, he has judged Christ in our place, and we can trust when life gets hard it will not always be this way.

We should try to help others follow Jesus: And yet here is also a great encouragement for us, that we should do everything in our power to get others to follow jesus. We need to try to share the gospel. we need to tell our friends and our family that Jesus alone saves. It is only by trusting in his sacrifice on the cross and his life from teh dead that we can be saved. We need to evangelize, becuase we do not want any person that we know to suffer this great and terrible judgement.

I do not know why you are here today. There is a good chance that a friend of yours brought you today because they thought that you were a difficult person and they thought you needed to have the hell scared out of you. Maybe you are here because that’s what you think that good people are here. I do not know why you are here, but can I encourage you. look to the cross. escaep the wrath to come. God’s judgment is a storm that is meant to make us take sheltere in Christ, there we will find a refuge from every tempest, a strong and secure place that will not let us go even though the earth and the waves fall beneath it.

When I was a child, I went to a Christian school. And every year our school would have a spiritual life week. And one year, this old baptist fire and brimstone preacher came in. And he railed and preached God’s judgment would come upon every person who trusted in Christ. ANd I remember thinking, even as a young man, well, that’s kind of silly. So I consciously rejected Jesus at a very young age.

But the funniest hting started to happen. at night, I started to get these really bad nightmares about fire and Hell. And I remember they were very vivid, and they at times kept me from falling asleep. And I just remember one day thinking, “I don’t want to go there!” So I prayed that God owuld forgive my sins, because i didn’t want to be judged. But here’s the thing. I put my faith in Jesus to escape my greatest fear. But I discovered that he is now my greatest joy. Dear friend, often we come to God because we are afraid to be judged. But we stay with God because he is our greatest joy. Will you come to him? Let’s pray.

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