God's Judgement Series

Title: Jude – God’s Judgement

Theme: To show what happens when false prophets step in.

Text: Jude 1:5 - 7

Note: This message was taken from Daniel Akin messages on Jude. I used the outline and material. I wanted to add it. I don't claim the thoughts to be my own. https://ftc.co/resource-library/ftc-preaching-guides/preaching-guide-jude/

Jude 1:3 Beloved, while I was very diligent to write to you concerning our common salvation, I found it necessary to write to you exhorting you to contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints. 4 For certain men have crept in unnoticed, who long ago were marked out for this condemnation, ungodly men, who turn the grace of our God into lewdness and deny the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ.

Introduction

• Verse 5-7 flow directly from Jude’s warning in v. 4 about false teachers. Indeed judgment opens and closes the literary unit of vs. 5-16. The false teachers were “marked out,” designated for judgment long ago because their sin resembles the

sin of 3 well known events in Old Testament history:

1. God’s judgment of Israel for unbelief,

2. God’s judgment of fallen angels for rebellion,

3. and God’s judgment of Sodom & Gomorrah for immorality.

I. Remember the danger of unbelief v. 5

Jude 1:5 But I want to remind you, though you once knew this, that the Lord, having saved the people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed those who did not believe.

He begins with Israel because: 1) they were God’s chosen people and 2) because unbelief is at the heart of all sin.

• He tells them, “I want to remind you, though you once knew this” (NKJV). This reading connects his reminder to the “once for all delivered faith” of v. 3. These historical events are not new news to them anymore than the gospel was now new to them. Still, in our human sinfulness, we are prone to forget, to neglect lessons and truths from the past. This can be fatal as Jude makes clear, so he sounds the call: “remember!” Jude begins with his first of 7

Old Testament references in this epistle.

1) Do not forget what God has done

• Verse 5 reads literally, “The Lord a people out of Egypt saved (NIV,

delivered).”

Out of Egypt

1. God saw the plight of His chosen people and He rescued

them out of Egypt.

2. He sent plagues on Egypt,

3. parted the Red Sea,

4. destroyed Pharaoh’s army,

5. provided manna, quails and water.

6. He was their glory cloud by day and pillar of fire by night. They had an

incredible past, a marvelous legacy.

2) Trust God for the future – Numbers 14 – 12 spies

• Jude says “afterwards” (subsequently, later) the Lord destroyed, wiped out “those who did not believe.” Jude has in mind Numbers 14 when the 12 spies returned from their reconnaissance mission into the Promised Land. The majority report of 10 said we can’t do this. They are giants and we are grasshoppers. The minority report of 2 (Joshua and Caleb) said no problem. After all Grasshoppers plus God can beat any Giants! However, the people who had seen God do so much now in unbelief said, “well He can’t do this.” The result: every person 20 and over died. All of them! They missed the promise land. They missed God’s best. Forgetting God’s grace and greatness, they dug their graves in the wilderness in sight of the land God had promised.

Personal Application: Have you forgotten what God has done to get you where you are? Do you trust God to continue?

II. Remember the dishonor of rebellion. v. 6

6 And the angels who did not keep their proper domain, but left their own abode, He has reserved in everlasting chains under darkness for the judgment of the great day;

• One of the most difficult verses in the Bible to interpret is right here. Who is Jude talking about? Who was Peter talking about in the parallel text in 2 Peter 2:4?

• However, let’s not lose sight of the plain meaning in terms of application of the text. There are two principles for life we should respect that these fallen angels rejected.

1) Accept God’s plan for your life.

• 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.

• First, they did not keep their proper domain (NIV, “positions of authority”). Second, “they left their own abode” (they deserted and abandoned their own homes). Their place and position in God’s plan was not enough. They want something more, a different position of prominence, a better place of activity. Sound too much like too many ministers today! Through self-deception men, like these angels, rationalize their lust for position, power, prestige and possessions.