## The Epistle of Jude

## Jude 5-7

Exhorting his readers to "contend earnestly for the faith", in verse 4 Jude introduces the reason for them to take such as stand...

a. "Certain men" have crept in unnoticed

b. They were "ungodly men", guilty of turning the grace of God into lewdness and denying the Lord God and the Lord Jesus Christ

Jude also writes of these men that they became apostates because they willfully turned away from the truth. And God ordained their punishment, that those who turn from God will not escape His righteous condemnation! To reinforce his point, Jude reminds his readers of three examples in which the ungodly did not escape God's righteous condemnation. v 5-7

a. Israel in the wilderness

b. The angels who sinned

c. The cities of Sodom and Gomorrah

I. ISRAEL IN THE WILDERNESS (5)

A. The facts about this example.

1. A well known event in Israel's history, God "saved" the nation by bringing them out of the land of Egypt.

2. Yet despite their being recipients of His wonderful grace, God "destroyed" those who did not believe

a. Their lack of faith required that they wander for 40 years in the wilderness

b. So that those over the age of 20 when they left Egypt, none but two (Joshua and Caleb) entered the Promised Land

3. We can read of this in Numbers 14 and in Hebrews 3:7-19

B. The point of the example.

1. God will destroy those who refuse to believe.

2. The reason? Lack of obedience!

a. "God destroyed those who did not believe" v 5

b. "they could not enter in because of unbelief" cf He 3:18-19

3. Clearly the issue at hand is unbelief.

a. Unbelief will result in judgment.

b. This is not a warning to the readers that they are in danger of judgment, but that these ungodly men who have crept in unawares will not escape God's judgment.

II. THE ANGELS WHO SINNED (6)

A. The facts about this example.

1. Very little is known from the Scriptures themselves.

a. As described by Jude, there were angels who:

1) "kept not their first estate"

2) "left their own habitation"

b. In a similar passage, Peter simply writes that the angels "sinned" - 2 Pe 2:4

c. One interpretation is that Jude is referring to what is described in - Gen 6:1-4

1) Where "sons of God" is under- stood to refer to angels.

2) Who chose to cohabit with the "daughters of men"

d. Another interpretation is that this is referring to the fall of the angels involved in the rebellion of Lucifer.

e. The point of Jude's inclusion is not in what they did, but in what God did.

2. What is clear about these angels is their condemnation.

a. God has them "in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day" b. As worded by Peter in 2 Pe 2:4, God...

1) "cast them down to hell"

2) "delivered them into chains of darkness"

3) "to be reserved unto judgment"

B. The point of the example:

1. God is prepared to render everlasting punishment to the wicked!

a. He has the angels in "everlasting chains under darkness" v6

b. For the "ungodly men" described later, He has "reserved the black- ness of darkness forever" v13

2. Just as He had a place prepared for the angels who sinned, so He has a place prepared for the wicked and unbelievers!

“But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death.” (Rev 21:8)

III. The Cities of Sodom and Gomorrah (7)

A. The facts of this example:

1. The judgment against these cities is vividly described in Ge. 19:24-28

2. Why this terrible judgment?

a. The LORD said it was "because their sin is very grievous" Ge. 18:20

b. Jude says they had:

1) "given themselves over to fornication"

2) "going after strange flesh"

c. We see a sample of this in Ge.19:4-11

B. The point of this example:

1. Both Peter and Jude make the point that Sodom and Gomorrah are an "example"

a. Peter, an example "unto those that after should live ungodly" - 2 Pe 2:6

b. Jude,an example of those "suffering the vengeance of eternal fire" - Ju 7

2. God has given us an example of the eternal fire awaiting the subjects of His righteous vengeance!

We may be like the original recipients of Jude's letter, well acquainted with these events... but Jude wanted to "remind" them, and we need to be reminded often as well!

- Remember Israel, as an example of those who were destroyed for lack of faith!
- Remember the angels who sinned, as an example of those whose incarceration tells us God has a place prepared for the wicked!

Remember Sodom and Gomorrah, as an example that God will not withhold the vengeance of eternal fire when the time is right!