In 1935, an umpire in his rookie year, named Ralp “Babe” Pinelli once called Babe Ruth out on strikes. When the crowd booed with sharp disapproval at the call, the legendary Ruth turned to the umpire with disdain and said, "There’s 40,000 people here who know that the last pitch was ball, tomato head."
Suspecting that the umpire would erupt with anger, the coaches and players braced themselves for Ruth’s ejection. However, the cool headed Pinelli replied, "Maybe so, Babe, but mine is the only opinion that counts." [1]
Believers need to realize that God’s judgment is the only one that counts and resist the temptation to argue over disappointments. We need to rely on God’s sovereign choices for us regardless of whether they seem popular or not at the moment.
Today’s passage deals with the judgment for the ungodly. Jude knows that not everyone who calls Jesus Lord, or has had a conversion experience, or has prayed the “sinner’s prayer,” or has had spiritual experiences is in fact a true follower of Jesus. One recognizes the true followers by their obedience to their Lord. [2]
Matthew 7:21 (NKJV) “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven.
There are those in the church that are quick to say “Lord, Lord,” and know all the church vocabulary, and know all the right things to say, but the actions to not reveal a changed life.
Titus 1:16 (NKJV) They profess to know God, but in works they deny Him, being abominable, disobedient, and disqualified for every good work.
These are the ones that Jude has been warning against. A good portion of the NT warns against these false teachers.
Jude 4 (NKJV) 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.
God is well aware of what is happening, He has seen these false teachers, these false Christians, from the beginning of time, and their condemnation has already been laid out against them. They may have fooled the church, they may have fooled all the people around them, they may have fooled even themselves, but they have never fooled God.
And it may seem to many the wicked is winning. This is not a new theme:
Psalm 94:3 (NKJV) LORD, how long will the wicked, How long will the wicked triumph?
The warning has been given to them over and over in the Bible
Jeremiah 17:10 (NKJV) I, the LORD, search the heart, I test the mind, Even to give every man according to his ways, According to the fruit of his doings.
Judgment is coming. The scriptures is quite clear, Jesus will be the judge. He knows the heart and mind:
Revelation 2:23b (NKJV) … and all the churches shall know that I am He who searches the minds and hearts. And I will give to each one of you according to your works.
And Jude tells about the judgment that is coming:
Jude 14–15 (NKJV)
Now Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied about these men also, saying, “Behold, the Lord comes with ten thousands of His saints, 15 to execute judgment on all, to convict all who are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have committed in an ungodly way, and of all the harsh things which ungodly sinners have spoken against Him.”
First, let me explain the prophecy by Enoch, we read about Enoch in Genesis 5:18-24. Not to be confuse with the son of Cain named Enoch, but this Enoch is clarified by saying he was the seventh from Adam. So he was a descendant of Seth, not Cain.
Jude is quoting from the book of Enoch, that someone else wrote in the inter-testament period (110 BC?); which is another of the pseudepigraphal, apocalyptic writings of the times. Jude quoting from Enoch (well known in Jude’s day) only affirms the truth of that prophecy and is not his endorsement of the entire book.
Paul quoted Aratus (Phaenomena 5) in Acts 17:28, and he surely did not intend to teach that the entire work was inspired Scripture. Similarly, he quoted Epimenides in Titus 1:12, without any notion that he accepted the truth of the whole work. [3]
“Behold, the Lord comes with ten thousands of His saints” With the knowledge about Jesus, “Lord” here clearly means Jesus. Jesus is the Judge; it is Jesus that will be coming, again.
1 Thessalonians 3:13 (NKJV) so that He may establish your hearts blameless in holiness before our God and Father at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with all His saints.
Coming with His saints, All those who have been raptured to heaven to be with Jesus will return with Jesus when He comes again. Paul makes a brief statement in 1st Corinthians 6:2-3 that the saints will judge the world and the angels.
"to execute judgment on all" “All” in context is all who remain on the earth. All the ungodly. That little word “all” is mentioned 4 times in this one verse. All will be judged, none will escape.
However, those that are saved will not come into Judgement, Jesus said:
John 5:24 (NKJV) “Most assuredly, I say to you, he who hears My word and believes in Him who sent Me has everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment, but has passed from death into life.
True believers are granted immunity from Judgement. All will see Jesus. We either meet Jesus in life, or in judgment.
"to convict all who are ungodly" All the ungodly will be judged. The word “ungodly” is used 4 time in verse 15. Who are the ungodly? "All who have not believed in the only son of God"
John 3:18 (NKJV) “He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.
The word used here is convict: "of all their ungodly deeds which they have committed in an ungodly way." A lot of “ungodly’s” and a lot of “all’s” here. Do you begin to understand the point that Jude is making here? Ungodly ways and deeds are any way that does not have God as their source. “But wait a minute preacher,” a lot of people do good things. Yes, good in our eyes but not in the eyes of God. Remember the umpire. It is not our opinion of good, or the world’s opinion of good that matters. Only what God defines as good is good. Only that the performs through us is good. God did not ask us for our opinion.
"and of all the harsh things which ungodly sinners have spoken against Him." What harsh things have people said against God? Jude explains this in the next verse.
Jude 16 (NKJV) These are grumblers, complainers, walking according to their own lusts; and they mouth great swelling words, flattering people to gain advantage.
Grumbles and complainers: These are those who complaint about how God is working in this world. “If God was truly God, He would have never allowed that man to shoot up that school last week.” Often times it is directed against those God has place in position of authority. Like the example of Korah in verse 11, who was destroyed when he rose up against Moses and Aaron. These are fault finders, who find fault in everything the church does, with offering no solutions or help in resolving issues, rather they stir up God’s people against one another "with great swelling words, flattering people to gain advantage." They talk a good game. Jude goes on to say, he is not the only one who has pointed this out.
Jude 17–18 (NKJV) But you, beloved, remember the words which were spoken before by the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ: 18 how they told you that there would be mockers in the last time who would walk according to their own ungodly lusts.
Their ungodly lust, whether it is the lust for power over others, or the lust for wealth, or even a sexual lust; they operate on worldly knowledge, not spiritual insight, and they manipulate others to get want they want. Paul's heart was broken because he knew there will be those who will come in and destroy. He warned the church in Ephesus, the last time he saw them:
Acts 20:29–31 (NKJV) For I know this, that after my departure savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock. 30 Also from among yourselves men will rise up, speaking perverse things, to draw away the disciples after themselves. 31 Therefore watch, and remember that for three years I did not cease to warn everyone night and day with tears.
Jesus warned about wolves in sheep clothing. This is where He tells us to watch for the fruit.
Jude 19 (NKJV) These are sensual persons, who cause divisions, not having the Spirit.
Sensual people are those who go by what feels right and not what they know is right. They are driven by human feelings and emotions.
Our feelings do not count with knowledge. We should only act on what we know is right, not on our feelings which can desieve us.
But a sign of ungodly people are those who cause division in the church. Jude tells us “not having the Spirit.” How can they know the true and deep things of God without the Spirit of God within them.
1 Corinthians 2:14 (NKJV) But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.
Without the Spirit, the Holy Spirit, the ungodly can only fake it, put up a show for only so long. They may fool the church, they even fool themselves, but they can never fool Jesus, the Judge, who searches and know our hearts and minds.
Romans 8:9 (NKJV) But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His.
Do you have the Spirit of God in you? A life that is not changed is a good indicator of a life without the Spirit.
While no true believer is finally in the category of the “ungodly,” we cannot help but recognize how much ungodliness still clings to us, even in our redeemed state. Jude’s reminder that Christ is coming to judge ungodliness, then, should create in us not a smug satisfaction that we are not among those to be judged; it should stimulate each of us to ask about the ungodliness that is still too much a part of us.[4]
Next week we will cover verses 20-23, on how we will maintain and save others.
An atheist once told William Booth, founder of the Salvation Army, "If I believed what you Christians say you believe about a coming judgment and that impenitent rejecters of Christ will be lost, I would crawl on my bare knees on crushed glass all over London, warning men, night and day, to flee for refuge from the coming day of wrath!"[5]
The coming judgement will be a terrible things. What side of judgment will you be on? How will you meet Jesus? Will you meet Jesus in Life? Or will you meet Jesus in Judgment?
[1] https://www.sermoncentral.com/illustrations/sermon-illustration-paul-fritz-humor-judgment-4853?+ref=TextIllustrationSerps and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Babe_Pinelli
[2] Peter H. Davids, The Letters of 2 Peter and Jude, The Pillar New Testament Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Pub. Co., 2006), 91.
[3] Thomas R. Schreiner, 1, 2 Peter, Jude, vol. 37, The New American Commentary (Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 2003), 470.
[4] Douglas J. Moo, 2 Peter, Jude, The NIV Application Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1996), 275.
[5] https://www.sermoncentral.com/illustrations/sermon-illustration-sermoncentral--quotes-evangelismurgency-79939?+ref=TextIllustrationSerps
