Good afternoon and welcome to the
Panhandle. Well the big news is COVID-19 is here and all around us.
We are a rural area so it has taken awhile to get here. I'm praying
it doesn't take off like it has in other places. I'm still streaming
my sermons, my Wednesday Night devotions and so on. But Lord willing
next Sunday or the one after that maybe we can meet for worship at
least.
Today I want to talk to you about
judgment and rebellion. How many of you have heard, “Them are
fightin' words”? When some one insults you or your family well
then, “Them are fightin' words.” There are just some things that
we care about deeply, so to talk bad about them “riles” us. I
have heard and even said it before, “You can say what ever you want
about me, but don't go talking bad about my family!” Is there
anything as Christians that we should be willing to fight for? Or
have we become so use to sin and compromise that anything goes and
nothing makes us angry any more?
Just as Jude reminded the early
believers, there are times when we must rise up and contend for the
faith, or else loose it. This is a command of Almighty God and we
must not ignore it. There are some truths worth fighting for, some so
evil that they must be opposed – even if it means loosing friends
or family.
Jude called out certain persons who
were creepers in verse 4. He introduced us to these people who had
crept into the church and were trying to lead God's people astray.
There are 5 words that begin with D that described these people –
they were deceivers, they were declared of old, they were destitute
of God, and they were desiring to change doctrine and deny our Lord
and Saviour, Christ Jesus.
I have heard of Christians who have
said that the Old Testament isn't relevant any more because that was
the old covenant. I really don't understand their logic, how can you
understand the New Testament without the Old Testament? As a matter
of fact Jude is about to refer to three Old Testament judgments in
citing how God is going to deal with those false teachers of His
Word.
Jude 5-7
5
Though you already know all this, I want to remind you that the Lord
delivered his people out of Egypt, but later destroyed those who did
not believe. 6 And the angels who did not keep their positions of
authority but abandoned their own home-these he has kept in darkness,
bound with everlasting chains for judgment on the great Day. 7 In a
similar way, Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding towns gave
themselves up to sexual immorality and perversion. They serve as an
example of those who suffer the punishment of eternal fire.
1. Three Judgments (vs.
5-7)
After
exposing the characteristics of these false teachers, Jude speaks
very specifically about the judgments that will come upon those who
walk according to their own ungodly lusts and who would seek to lead
others astray.
The first judgment
that Jude cites is the remembrance of a disobedient Israel. God had
led the children of Israel out Egypt and out of captivity under the
leadership of Moses. However not all of the Israelites were true
believers. Not only did they not believe, they were actually
rebellious against God. As a result, God destroyed them in the
wilderness.
So yes, even some of the
“chosen people” suffered judgment for their unbelief. God will
judge those who do not believe no matter where they are found. Just
because you are from a Christian family does not mean you will not
face judgment. And yes, even those who are Christ follower will stand
in judgment some day. But if you truly know Christ Jesus as your Lord
and Saviour your judgment will not keep you out of heaven and the
eternal presence of God. If you were to step into eternity today
would you be ready to face God and His judgment?
The second judgment
Jude called to mind was that of the angles who along with Satan
rebelled against God. It is interesting to see Jude use this almost
obscure incident as an example of judgment. Of course as you read
through the Book of Revelation you will see these angles along with
Satan mention several times.
Jude's
account parallels with the teaching of Peter concerning the judgment
of disobedient angels;
For
if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell
and committed them to pits of darkness, reserved for judgment;...then
the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from temptation, and to keep
the unrighteous under punishment for the day of judgment, (2
Peter 2:4,9). So in
Ezekiel 28, Isaiah 14, this account found in 2 Peter 2:4,9 and this
passage here in Jude about these fallen angles, we are left clueless
as to all the circumstances surrounding the event. We know that
the pit or abyss is a place that even the demons do not want to go.
Look at Luke 8:30-31 ~ 30
Jesus asked him, "What is your name?" "Legion,"
he replied, because many demons had gone into him. 31 And they begged
him repeatedly not to order them to go into the Abyss. We
do know is that these angels abandoned their original position to
follow Satan the “prince
of demons” (Matthew 12:24).
Because of this God
confined them to darkness, waiting their eternal judgment. Some Bible
scholars see the verses in Genesis 6:1-4 the “sons
of men”
interpreted to be angles who left their position of authority in
heaven and cohabited with human women
“daughters
of earth.”
As a result of this heinous sin, God
wiped them out immediately. The New Testament makes it clear that not
all the fallen angels are confined, but some are.
Others see this as a
reference to a book called the Book of Enoch, which is not a
part of the Bible but is usually included in Jewish writings known as
the Pseudepigrapha. Since Jude did not tell us what he was referring
to, we have to be content with ambiguity. But suffice to say – God
judged the angels for their rebellion. And God will judge all mankind
who continue to rebel against Him!
The third judgment:
Jude used the historical example of Sodom and
Gomorrah and surrounding cities which had been destroyed by God's
judgment of fire. This is the most explicit of these three examples.
The towns gave themselves to sexual immorality and perversion. They
willfully and intentionally sought after sexual pleasure. Their
destruction by fire should be an example and warning to those who
would seek after sexual immorality and yet we have a generation that
like Sodom and Gomorrah indulges themselves in all kinds of natural
and unnatural sex.
Is our
society over sexed? Well, look around you and you decide. There are
clothing manufactures who make clothes that make little girls look
like harlots and parents, grandparents and other call it cute. Books,
magazines, movies, commercials, and our society talk about sex openly
– too openly I think. And because of this a young ladies' purity is
being assaulted at an earlier and earlier age.
And then
there is homosexuality or going after strange flesh. Just look around
us today, I think I would be safe in saying that just about every
family has been affected by this. And then same sex marriages
legalized, gender identification blurred in bathrooms, on legal
documents, in the military and the list goes on. Now let me take a
minute to say I am not judging the person, but what they are doing.
Homosexuality is a sin and therefore wrong in God's eyes. And just
like Sodom and Gomorrah there is going to be a judgment theirs was
fire from heaven. This time it will be eternal separation from God
and the eternal flames of hell for all who refuse to turn from their
sins.
Once again
the choice is yours. Will you invite Christ Jesus into your life or
will you continue to live your life without Him?
The Christian
life is or should be a separate life from the world. There is to be a
difference between the ways of God and the ways of the Satan. The
closer you live to the Lord the less you should desire the things of
the world. The closer you get to the flame of His righteousness, the
less you should desire the coldness of unrighteousness.
2. Rebellion
Against Separation (vs. 8)
Rebellion
has become a part of American society. Rebellion is defined as: open
resistance to lawful authority. Know this, no matter what the world
says, God is the final authority. One of the all time great movies
is, Rebel Without A
Cause with James
Dean. And then there is that famous exchange in the movie The
Wild One, a girl
asks Marlon Brando's character, “Hey, Johnny what are you rebelling
against?” To which Brando responds, “What have you got?”
The truth is
that rebellion has become so much a part of our society that it makes
it hard to recognize. Oftentimes rebellion is masked as
individualism, a person or persons are just being themselves. Or some
will say they are just making a statement. But however you try to
mask it or make it presentable – rebellion is still rebellion.
Now
some times rebellion or the form it takes is harmless like wild hair
color, tattoos, body piercings or even styles of clothes. But to
rebel against God is a very dangerous thing. The
godlessness of false teachers reject
God's authority. Claiming
divine revelation through dreams, “These
dreamers defile the flesh” (vs.
8), which they felt gave them permission to participate in immoral
acts. Rebellion against God may be hidden or mislabeled by most, but
rest assure God sees it for what it is, sin. How tragic, sin always
destroys and leads to ultimate death. 23
For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in
Christ Jesus our Lord.
(Romans 6:23).
Those who
walk in the flesh rather than the Spirit are actually involved in
defiling or polluting their own bodies. What a contrast to the
biblical teaching that our bodies are precious in the sight of God
and are actually temples of the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 6:19).
One of
the great sins of the latter part of our day has been the sin of out
right rejecting God’s authority. It is the breaking of the first
commandment, “You
shall have no other gods before me”
(Exodus 20:3).
There are those today in the church who do not wish to live under the
lordship of Jesus Christ, or under the godly discipline of the
church. They
“reject
authority”
(vs. 8). To reject
a godly appointed person is one thing, to reject Christ Jesus is
another thing altogether. You may not like what I preach, or how I
preach or how I lead as the under shepherd of this church. You can
reject me and it may hurt, but I can live with that. What I have
trouble living with is when you reject the saving message of the
Great Shepherd, Christ Jesus today? “I
am the way, the truth, and the life, no one comes to the Father
except through me.”
(John 14:6). Do not reject Him again today.
John
Paton was a missionary in the New Hebrides Islands. One night hostile
natives surrounded the mission station, intent on burning out the
Patons and killing them. Paton and his wife prayed during that
terror-filled night that God would deliver them. When daylight came
they were amazed to see their attackers leave. A year later, the
chief of the tribe was converted to Christ. Remembering what had
happened, Paton asked the chief what had kept him from burning down
the house and killing them. The chief replied in surprise, "Who
were all those men with you there?" Paton knew no men were
present--but the chief said he was afraid to attack because he had
seen hundreds of big men in shining garments with drawn swords
circling the mission station.
Today in the Word, MBI, October,
1991, p. 18.
3. Rebellion
Against Heavenly Messengers (vs. 8-9)
As if denying
the God-Head of Christ Jesus, or promoting sexual misconduct, or
rejecting godly appointed leaders were not enough, now these false
teacher revile (reject, rebel against) celestial beings. Boy talk
about digging the hole deeper. But wait there is more. Jude brings
the archangel Michael into the mix to fight against the devil
(Satan). So out of the three angels named in the Bible we see two
here in verse 10.
Once
more Jude is quoting from a Pseudepigrapha book The
Assumption of Moses.
this is also an Apocryphal book (a book not included in the 66 books
that make up the cannon of Scripture). Let me point out here that
just because Jude quotes this passage it does not mean that he is
condoning the entire book, or that Divine approval has been given to
the Apocryphal books. I also believe that while The
Assumption of Moses
is an Pseudepigrapha book and can't be taken as a whole, but if this
battle really did not happen I think Jude would not have included it
in his book.
I have read
that some pastors will skip over verse 10 because it is from an
Apocryphal or Pseudepigrapha book, but Jude felt it important to
include it so lets see what we can glean from it shall we. It is
enlightening to get a peek behind the historical curtain that we
don't get in the Old Testament. We now learn that Michael was sent to
bury the body of Moses when he died atop Mt. Nebo (Deuteronomy
34:5-6). According to Jewish tradition (supported by this passage),
the devil (Satan, an angel) argued with Micheal (the archangel) about
it, apparently claiming for himself the right to dispose of Moses'
body.
It's a
cool glimpse of history, but don't miss the point here, Micheal's
office (the archangel) was definitely higher than the creepers and
deceivers that reviled the angels. And I don't know it for sure, but
I think Micheal could have probably held his own with the devil. Now
here is what I want you to see, instead of confronting Satan; Micheal
simply said, “The
Lord rebuke you!” Instead
of handling Satan on his own Micheal basically said, “I leave you
to the Judge of all, to the Lord Himself!” Folks if
Micheal didn't want to mess around with the devil, who are you to
think you can. The devil is not a man in a red suit, with a pointed
tail and pitch fork, he is not a man at all, but is like
a roaring lion looking for someone devour
(1 Peter 5:8).
Unlike
those false teachers you are not to seek out the devil, he will only
bring you destruction. But you don't have to run from him either.
Instead you are to stand firm, to
contend earnestly for the faith;
with the whole armor of God (Ephesians 6:11, 13)
Put
on the full armor of God, so that you will be able to stand firm
against the schemes of the devil...Therefore, take up the full armor
of God, so that you will be able to resist in the evil day, and
having done everything, to stand firm.
So
stand firm in Christ Jesus and let Him fight for you. But before you
can stand firm in the Lord you must know Him personally as your Lord
and Saviour. How does this happen? 9
That if you confess with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and
believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be
saved. 10 For it is with your heart that you believe and are
justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved.
(Romans 10:8-10).
Until
next week. May God watch over and bless you,
Bro.OH
Well done brother...
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