Jude 1:5-7
Title: Corruption of
Apostates.
Analysis:
The
true people of God and the truth of the Word of God has been under siege from
the beginning of time. Pride was the sin that felled the first evil doer and
cast Satan from the highest heaven (Is. 14:12) to crawl on his belly on the
earth (Gen. 3:14). From that place he corrupted mankind with his lies, and the
lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh, and the pride of life (1 John 2:16)
destroyed the human race and tainted it with sin. From that point on the world
became corrupted day by day and when only four people lived on earth there was
the first murder. After generations of sin, hate, and rebellion against God the
Lord looked down from heaven on earth and saw that, “…the wickedness of man was
great on the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only
evil continually.” Thus apostasy reigned supreme for man had exchanged the
truth of God for a lie and worshipped and served the creation rather than the
Creator. One could, if they so wished, trace apostasy from the beginning of
time until the 21st century noting how all throughout the age’s men
have rebelled against God. Jude, the author of our letter, was a man who had
the keen discernment to notice this apostasy. Apostasy is a dangerous thing but
those who are most dangerous to the church are those who dwell inside it. These
men are the spiritual terrorists who corrupt the saints by twisting truth and
making it error. These men look like the real thing and some even have aspects
of truth about them and teach truthful things but there is always error mixed
into their teaching as well. Jude is writing no more than 35-40 years since the
church was formed and he has recognized that apostates have already infiltrated
it. This small but poignant letter to the saints exposes apostates for who they
really are showing how they are rebels against holy God. In our last section we
saw how these men infiltrate the church in a subtle way mixing truth with error
and deceive the people of God. Jude pleaded with his readers to contend against
these men as in battle for the faith. The faith is what is under attack and it
will be destroyed if it is not defended by faithful men. Jude marked out these
men by three distinct characteristics; they are ungodly, they turn God grace
into license for sin, and they deny the master and Lord Jesus Christ. Because
of their deceptions and that fact that they are spiritual terrorists Jude says
that they were long beforehand marked out for condemnation. These men will be
condemned and this reminder is a warning by Jude to those who read the letter
that those who try to pervert the scriptures will face a just judgment of the
Lord. They will not be able to escape God’s wrath. As Hebrews 10:26-27 says,
“For if we go on sinning willfully after receiving the knowledge of the truth,
there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a terrifying expectation of
judgment and the fury of a fire which will consume the adversaries.” The
judgment of God is a reality and whether you choose to believe in it or not,
it is coming. There is ample warning in the scriptures to turn from your sin,
to forsake your ways, and to live for God, but when one continues in sin after
he has a knowledge of the truth there will be no hope of escape. Such men who
do this are apostates, those who corrupt the church, who destroy families, and
who love sin. In our passage today Jude will give three Old Testament examples
of apostates and shows that although they may have thought they could escape
the judgment of God, they were utterly destroyed by His just and righteous wrath.
Let us therefore heed the warning of Hebrews 10:31, that reminds us that, “It is
a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God.” The three verses
that we shall study today can be divided into three sections, “Apostate Israel”
(5), “Apostate Angels” (6), and “Apostate Cities” (7). Each one of these
examples will show how mankind turned away from their previous loyalty to show
that they were never truly the Lord’s in the first place. Those who choose to
utterly reject God and sin in such blatant and immoral ways can only expect
God’s supreme and damning judgment.
Jude
writes in verse 5, “Now I desire to remind you, though you know all things once
for all that the Lord, after saving a people out of the land of Egypt,
subsequently destroyed those who did not believe.” Jude begins his description
of apostates by looking into the past and seeing how these men have been
displayed throughout history. He wants to provide further insight into these
deceivers and their methods showing that at heart, they are rebels against Holy
God, His Word, and His ways. Jude’s readers apparently know all too well of
what he is referring to as he says, ‘though you know all things once for all’.
These messages of apostasy were not unfamiliar, they were common, and they were
well understood by his readers. Jude wants his readers to understand that these
defectors always meet the same fate, which is the judgment of God. The first
of these examples is not only familiar to his predominantly Jewish audience but
also very familiar to us Gentiles as well. His topic of choice is the salvation
of Israel from the land of Egypt. This account is recorded in the Old Testament
book of Exodus that describes God’s salvation of Israel and His subsequent
leading of them throughout the wilderness. Duet. 4:34 gives a brief description
of this by saying, “Or has a God tried to take for Himself a nation from within
another nation by trials by sign and wonders and by war and by a mighty hand
and by an outstretched arm and by great terrors, as the LORD your God did for
you in Egypt before your eyes?” God, by an amazing supernatural display of His
glory, majesty and dominion showed mercy and grace to Israel saving them from
the land of Egypt. They were His chosen people (Gen. 12:2) who He had promised
to make great and to magnify His name through them on the earth. But His name
was not going to be magnified through their sins. Jude makes reference that
God, ‘subsequently destroyed those who did not believe’ and this is a stinging
reminder to his readers. Israel had been saved by God through His many miracles
but when Moses went to go up on the mountain to speak to God for 40 days and 40
nights the people became restless. They murmured against God and lost hope in
Moses and in no time they had erected for themselves an idol and bowed down to
it saying, “This is your god, O Israel, who brought you up from the land of
Egypt!” Israel rebelled and worshipped this golden calf all the while
committing sins of gross immorality and reveling in their orgies. They had apostatized
from the Lord and proven that they were never His to begin with. At this moment
Moses and the sons of Levi were used by God in divine judgment to strike down
those who would not turn from their idolatry and immorality. But this is only a
small picture of Israel’s rebellion against God. Throughout their wilderness wandering
the entire congregation that God has saved grumbled and complained and rebelled
against His holy name. God’s ultimate judgment upon them is summed up in
Numbers 14:26-38, “The Lord spoke… “How long shall I bear with this evil
congregation grumbling against Me?” ‘As I live,’ says the Lord…so surely I will
do to you; your corpses will fall in this wilderness, even all your numbered
men…twenty years old and upward. Surely you shall not come into the land in
which I swore to settle you…your children…I will bring them in…” and thus the
Lord continues to outline the supreme rebellion of Israel. They claimed to have
a love for Yahweh but by their deeds they denied Him. They lived in the lusts
of impurity and worshipped false gods. In short, they apostatized and become
pagan. Israel is a vivid reminder to Jude’s readers of what happens to those
who (whether or not they are teachers) hear what God commands them to do and do
not obey. The Lord will condemn all such men!
Not
only is Israel a reminder of past apostasy but Jude also brings to the
remembrance angels who rebelled against God and fled from heaven to commit
heinous acts of immorality amongst the people of the world. This example is
perhaps a little less familiar to us but is still a vital example to us to not
become proud but to watch ourselves lest we fall. “And angles who did not keep
their own domain, but abandoned their proper abode, He has kept in eternal
bonds under darkness for the judgment of the great day,” Apparently, to Jude’s
readers this example of Apostate angels was familiar to them and with a careful
study of the Old Testament one would not take long to stumble into the text
that Jude is referring to. The text Jude speaks of Genesis 6:1-7. This passage
speaks of an unimaginable and supernatural occurrence that happened in the days
of Noah. Jude is not referring to Satan, and he is obviously not referring to
something we or his readers knew nothing about. This in fact is a heinous event
that was so severe that God placed these wicked demons under bonds until they
were to be judged.
In
the days of Noah men were multiplying rapidly on the face of the earth and
daughters were born to them. When these angels in heaven saw that daughters of
men they rebelled in heaven breaking their natural order and left the realm
that God had put them in. They had abandoned their proper abode which was the
spiritual world and became influencers in the natural. The point remains, that
they rebelled against God and were defectors to His law. These perverse angels
came to earth and possessed the bodies of men controlling them with a demon
influence. By doing this they were able to fulfil their sexual passions and
immorality by cohabiting with women and breeding a race of human hybrids. Jude
compares them to those in Sodom and Gomorrah who committed gross immorality. No
wonder the thoughts of man were, ‘only evil continually’ because of the
powerful and perverse influence of these demon possessed men who tore the world
apart. God even said that He was sorry that He made man upon the earth. And
because God is just, their judgment was not idle. God destroyed the entire
human race, save Noah and his family, by the sending of the global, worldwide
flood that consumed and drowned all life. Only that which was on the ark was
spared from the complete judgment. And not only was all life killed, but these
angles specifically were cast into pits of darkness reserved for them by God.
Because they broke the natural law God would never allow this to happen again.
These angels are kept in eternal bonds and one day they will be judged, thrown
into the lake of fire and be tormented for all eternity.
The
third and final example that Jude gives his readers is that of “Apostate
Cities” and by this he covers all his bases, Jews, angles, and Gentiles. This
third and final example may be the most familiar to us of the three as Jude
briefly explains how Sodom and Gomorrah were in complete and utter rebellion
towards God. “Just as Sodom and Gomorrah, and the cities around them, since
they in the same way as these indulged in gross immorality and went after
strange flesh, are exhibited as an example in undergoing the punishment of
eternal fire.” This final indictment that Jude refers to is the judgment of
Sodom and Gomorrah as outlined in Genesis 18-19. God saw that the sins that
were committed in these cities was exceedingly wicked and evil in His eyes.
Their sin of choice was homosexuality or, historically known as sodomy. Just as
the angels did, the men of Sodom and Gomorrah indulged in gross, disgusting,
and debauched sexual sin. The Lord himself sent two angels to Sodom to warn Lot
of the coming judgment of God and the men of Sodom wanted to take them and
have relations with them. Their minds were twisted and perverted in the vilest
way and they burned for homosexual passion. When Lot, his wife and two daughter
fled the city Genesis 19:24, “Then the Lord rained on Sodom and Gomorrah
brimstone and fire from the Lord out of heaven, and He overthrew those cities
and all in the valley, and all the inhabitants of those cities, and what grew
on the ground. But his wife, from behind him, looked back, and she became a
pillar of salt.” Total, complete, utter devastation from the hand of sovereign
God.
And
thus Jude gives us three examples of those who rebelled against God. This is a
sobering reminder to his readers and to us of the ultimate fate that awaits
those who defect from faith in the Lord. Because of this we are then forced
passionately into our defense of the truth for men today are no different than
these Old Testament examples and they will come to the same end for their
wicked deeds that they purport within the church. These men do not realize that
the severest and worst eternal suffering in hell is reserved for them because
they knew the truth, they knew the gospel of Christ and yet they trampled
underfoot His blood. And worse than the fate of those who practice unbelief are
those who teach others that their damming heresies are true. Corrupt Apostates
will be damned by God and cursed forever.
Response:
The
message of Jude cannot be but a sobering message, but oh what an accurate one!
I am humbled by the Lord that he has chosen me to be a defender of his truth
and I pray with all my heart that He would expose in me any form of falsehood
or any lie that would be of cause to twist and pervert His gospel. I shudder to
think of the consequences that men will face for leading thousands away from
the gospel of Christ and for twisting the Scriptures to their own fancy. I
shudder to think of the responsibility that the ministry carries and the burden
it is to handle the Word of God rightly. I pray that the Lord would make me
heed the warning given and that I would be a man who can discern truth from
error so that I would, by some humble way, be a means of blessing to the people
of God. For those who know the truth and yet reject it and purport their damming
lies, may they be accursed (Gal. 1:9) and may they be called to a saving
knowledge of God before it is too late. If they do not, they can be sure to
face the judgment that these three apostate groups faced, that of eternal
torment in the fiery hell.
