A Deeper Look: Verses 5-7 Series

Sermon Brief

Date Written: July 16, 2014

Date Preached: July 15, 2014

Where Preached: OPBC (Wed - PM)

Sermon Details:

Series Title: A Deeper Look: Key Verses

Sermon Title: Verse 5-7

Sermon Text: Jude 1:5-7 [ESV]

Introduction:

5Now 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. 6And 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— 7just 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.

So far in our study and indepth look into this letter from Jude to the church we have learned that Jude had a close relationship with this fellowship and loved them dearly.

We also know that his original intent for writing them was going to be in celebration and examination of the salvation they all share in common… In Christ!

However, a situation had arisen and Jude had to take immediate action and address this situation in this letter instead of what he had desired to do…

You may be thinking, well why did he not do both? Well one reason was probably he did not have the resources. Writing a letter in the 1st century was a task that required great resources and supplies were limited.

He may have only had enough parchment to send the letter he did write…OR he may not have had enough ink to complete a letter that contained all he wanted to say…

The one thing we can surmise from the 1st few verses of this letter is that Jude believed he had to make a choice between celebrating this ‘common’ salvation he shared with this fellowship OR correcting a false teaching he had discovered that had crept in (apparently without notice) and was threatening the fellowship!

In the 1st 4 verses we also learn of his love for this fellowship and that he believed God was using them for His kingdom. Jude quickly reveals this major concern about what is now happening in the church and begins to detail how these believers should handle this situation…

Tonight we are going to look at v5-7. In v4 he had laid out WHAT the situation was… it was a false teaching that perverted the Grace of God and that they were denying the deity of Jesus…

In v5-7 he describes these people in some not so flattering terms… His description is couched in three separate illustrations that represent WHO these people who are teaching this false doctrine are… about WHO they represent!

5Now 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.

FIRST… Jude spoke about unbelieving Jews in the wilderness after God had rescued them from Egypt! He says, “Now I want to remind you, although you once FULLY knew it…” This is Jude saying, “I know that you KNOW what I am about to say, but I’m gonna remind you anyway…”

The Greek word Jude uses to ‘remind’ these believers is a word that was used by parents when they KNEW their children were aware of something, but they chose the wrong thing anyway…the would scold their children saying, “You know this… I shouldn’t HAVE to remind you but I am going to…”

The term used here was a term to get attention! It’s place in the sentence if important because it is used as the 1st word of this particular sentence and in Greek syntax the most important thought is always toward the first of the sentence!

Then Jude follows up his comment of, “…I want to remind you…” with, “…although you once FULLY knew it…”

In other words, you ALL know that God delivered our people out of Israel and that when faced with going INTO the promised land, they did not believe God’s promise and began to preach a message from their own heart… God sent them out to the wilderness where EVERY one them died before the nation could enter into the promised land.

Jude is saying, ‘you KNOW this story about how these people perverted God’s promise and how God destroyed them…’ SO… the implication here is that these people are doing the same thing!

These people who are teaching you these things about God’s grace are perverting His promise of Grace into something of their own creation… a message of their own making, and God is not going to stand for it NOW just as He would not stand for it then…