Jude verses 20-25
Snatched from the fire
One day a young boy sat in a pew at church,
listening attentively to the sermon on the consequences of the fall into sin.
His eyes grew wide as the pastor’s voice rose while he quoted from Genesis 3:19; “You are dust and to dust you shall return.”
The sermon made a big impression on the boy.
Later that same day the boy’s mother heard a yell from her son’s bedroom.
She went running up the stairs and he met her halfway.
“Mum”, he said with great concern,
“Do you remember that the preacher said that we are dust
and to dust we will return?
Well, I just looked under my bed and someone is either coming or going!”
It’s quite amusing but Scripture does say that the first man was made from dust.
Adam was not born from a mother’s womb.
Genesis 2 tells us “The Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground
and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life
and the man became a living creature.”
He was in every regard a perfect creature,
because God had breathed life into him and bestowed His image upon him,
and in the very beginning everything was very good,
not least mankind’s relationship with God our Creator.
Unfortunately it did not last.
Adam and Eve disobeyed God’s command.
They allowed themselves to be manipulated by Satan.
They thought there was some sort of special knowledge to be received,
and there was; Adam and Eve did not know about sin or the consequence of sin.
And because of the devil, they got what they wanted; further knowledge;
the knowledge that one day they would know what it is to die!
And they came to know what we know; that life is cursed by sin and evil.
And they learned that a perfect life lived in the glorified image of God
can be forfeited,
because the day would come when they would return to the dust
from which they came.
We will all go back to the dust from whence we came,
but not all will be the same kind of dust.
Those who have put their trust in Jesus Christ will be “gold dust”,
because on day God will gather our remains,
every one of our particles whether we were buried or cremated,
and we will be put back together;
not just as we were in physical life, but better.
We will be resurrected into the glory in which mankind once was.
We will be re-made in His presence; we will be perfect.
What makes the difference between being just like the rest of the dust
and dirt of the earth
and being as gold dust?
Certainly not our thoughts or words or deeds,
because every human being has sinned
ever since that first awful sin in the Garden of Eden,
we now possess that knowledge that Adam and Eve
came to know,
that our human condition is fallen
and without Christ we cannot please God.
We thought there was something that God was not sharing
and we desired further blessings,
as if God in His benevolence was not loving us enough.
And don’t we still today question the suffering in the world and blame God?
In what way can we be set apart from the average sinner? Or can we?
The boy listening to that one sermon should not have gone away with the message that there are people combusting into dust
or that men can simply rise out of dust today.
But there was a very profound message that he took home
that is only too true and heart wrenching today:
We shall die.
We will be brought back to the existence or non-existence that was before we were born.
It sounds morbid, but one day we will return to the ground that the first man came from
and our flesh will become one with the ground again.
It is very, very backward to the way God created us and intended us to be.
No one will rise from the dust of this earth again, except on the very last day.
The only time man shall rise from the dust is at the last.
That, as Christians, is what we look forward to and put our hope in
because death is then promised not to be the end.
Our dust is not thought of as just dirt but as I said, “gold dust”.
We are to be set apart as men and women
who will be gathered again at the last, as God’s precious Children.
For God is gracious and He is merciful. He is love!
And because of Who He is, He promises to raise us up from the dust once again;
to restore life and restore His image in us.
This will certainly not come about by anything that could come from our means,
our merit or our efforts or good works,
but rather God had promised that a champion, a Messiah,
will be delivered to mankind through the woman’s seed.
And God promises us today that this Messiah is doing battle with the evil one
and it is Satan who will be condemned to the dust of defeat.
As soon as God promised this to Adam and Eve the great battle began.
There is a war going on, not only in Afghanistan,
but in the Cosmos,
the battle between the Kingdom of Light and the Kingdom of darkness.
This battle that takes such a toll on us still today.
Every living being since the days of Adam and Eve
has toiled with the reality of sin and the devastation it brings.
Every day we feel the knife of mortality
as it cuts through our body with sickness and disease.
Every day we experience the gnawing of sin as its tears at our hearts and souls.
Every day we feel the darkness as it chokes us off from our God.
Satan, the world and our sinful flesh separate us from God
and intend that this division becomes permanent.
As Daniel tells us, this is a time of trouble like no other.
This is the greatest distress, the most devastating reality
and even though man is responsible for this environment,
there is nothing we can do to withstand the attacks.
In fact, Scripture tells us that if God had not cut this time short, no one would survive.
This is our life; this is the reality to which we have been brought by sin.
Look around: war, hunger, genocide, homicide, infanticide, hatred, anger,
broken homes;
all evidence of behaviour that shows no sign of a relationship with God.
A time of trouble such as has never been seen before.
The world around us is turning to dust.
Yet we still cling to a promise!
The promise given to Adam, passed onto Daniel and received by us.
Into the midst of this battle, into the midst of our oppressive need,
God sends His Son.
God sends His only-begotten Son into our flesh
that He might do battle on our behalf.
Christ has come to deliver us from sin, death and Satan.
He comes into our world, to walk in the dust of our destruction;
to do that which we cannot do.
Christ fights for us; not with us; for us! He fights in our place!
There is nothing we have done or can do.
Christ took the battle to the cross of Calvary.
There He shed His blood as a holy sacrifice for our sin.
There He poured out His life.
There He died.
And now in the victory of His Resurrection, he continues to fight for us
in the holy war of sanctification,
which is the daily cleansing of our souls according to our baptisms.
But for those who do not believe this now,
when they too will rise they shall awaken unto their shame
for they had rejected the Lord Who saves.
They will face contempt and suffer everlasting death with Satan and all his minions.
So listen again and cling to this message for dear life.
Christ, having suffered on the cursed cross of Calvary for you and me,
was placed in the tomb;
entering the dust of the earth in death; a death that was our doing.
But Christ was not buried into death for long!
After three days He won the victory by rising from the dust of the earth.
He is now the first fruits of all those who rise from the dust,
who have faith in Him for eternal life.
Truly He is the one Who overcomes the curse.
For out of the dust He is the one Who brings life.
The grace filled reality for us is this:
Because He has risen from the dead, so shall we!
Christ’s victory is our victory.
For He has fulfilled God’s promise and delivered us from sin and death
and has written our names in the Book of Life.
Daniel tells us that indeed our names are recorded.
We, who are wise only by faith;
we, who have been clothed in Christ’s Righteousness.
This is the promise fulfilled as told in the Book of Daniel.
Out of the dust will God raise the dead.
Those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake on the Last Day.
God promises a bodily resurrection;
believers who have been written into the Book of Life.
We shall all awaken unto everlasting life.
We shall shine like stars forever with Christ. We shall reflect His glory.
And we will remember forever that it is He Who shines.
We do not reflect ourselves but Christ Jesus,
Who is the Creator and Redeemer of the universe.
For those who believe, there will be a return to Eden.
All will be accomplished.
On the last Day God finishes His work of re-creating this fallen world.
Out of the dust of death He brings forth life and we,
His new creation, shall live in this life to all eternity.
For He Who created us from the dust, though we return to the dust,
will once again rise, as He still considers us His gold dust.
We shall live forever, united with God as He intended from the beginning.
Thank God that the rolling of the great stone over Jesus’ tomb was not the end.
The tomb became empty as He Who was risen from the dust of the earth
was no longer there.
And the one Who was raised from the dust of the earth will raise us up also,
to continue to sparkle and shine like the stars.
Just as we twinkle now as Jesus’ Gold dust, we shall shine in paradise forever
with Christ for all eternity.
Amen, and the peace which surpasses all human understanding keep
our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.
