Good afternoon and welcome to the Panhandle. We are officially on summer break now, well the kids are any way. And we have open our church back up, we met this past Sunday for an abbreviated service and will again next week. If there are still no cases of COVID-19 we will open all the way back up on the 31st.
President Clinton named Kristine Gebbie, a lesbian, as the new AIDS czar. Four months later she spelled out her perceptions on traditional morality. She said, [The United States] needs to view human sexuality as an essentially important and pleasurable thing. [Until it does so], we will continue to be a repressed, Victorian society that misrepresents information, denies homosexual sexuality, particularly in teens, and leaves people abandoned with no place to go. I can help just a little bit in my job, standing on the White House lawn talking about sex with no lightning bolts falling on my head." Associated Press, October 29, 1993.
The 76 years old Kristine Moore Gebbie is now a professor at the Flinders University School of Nursing & Midwifery in Adelaide, Australia. And some day just like the apostates Jude wrote about she will be in for a big surprise.
When you hear the name Enoch what do you think of? I thing of that passage in Genesis 5:21-24 where it says, “Enoch lived sixty-five years, and became the father of Methuselah. Then Enoch walked with God three hundred years after he became the father of Methuselah, and he had other sons and daughters. So all the days of Enoch were three hundred and sixty-five years. Enoch walked with God; and he was not, for God took him.” Well we will see this verse later. In the mean time think about this what do Enoch and Christ Jesus calling His church home. Also how do Enoch and God's final judgment compare? With these two questions in mind lets look at Enoch's prophecy.
Well here we are in verses 14-16. We have been awhile getting here so here is a little recap of what has been going on. In verses 1-4 you can read Jude's greeting to a group of Christians – we are not sure which group or church. What we do know is that in verse 3 Jude says, “that he had wanted to write to this group of believers about their common salvation through Christ Jesus. But his message was changed and he felt compelled to address their faith as handed down by the disciples of Christ Jesus.”
In verse 4 Jude notes that certain people had crept into the church unnoticed, and that these people were false Christians, false leaders, and false teachers. They did not preach the gospel of Christ Jesus, but instead preached a false gospel of self – self-pleasure, self-indulgence, self-promotion and so on. They were all about themselves, so much so that they bad mouthed God's representatives in the form of angels, and even denied the existence of Christ Jesus.
In verses 5-13 Jude compared the judgment that these creepers would face to some well known Old Testament judgments – the judgment of those who did not believe, the judgment of Sodom and Gomorah, and of the angles who followed Satan and were cast into hell. Next Jude uses three Old Testament infamous characters as examples of apostates – Cain, Balaam, and Korah. The creepers or apostates are also compared to a hidden reef which destroy unsuspecting ships, to clouds without water, to a uprooted tree that is doubly dead, to sea foam – it looks pretty but has no substance, to wandering stars that can cause a person to go off course.
Jude had been describing in detail these apostates. Again they had snuck their way into the church house. They claimed to be saved, they claimed to have a relationship with Christ Jesus. But Jude knew better and he exposed them for what they were – pretenders, professors of, but not possessors of salvation. Jude held nothing back, to him these apostates were enemies of the grace and mercy of God. This brings us to verse 14, where the Enoch of old is mentioned.
Jude 14-15
14 Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied about these men: "See, the Lord is coming with thousands upon thousands of his holy ones 15 to judge everyone, and to convict all the ungodly of all the ungodly acts they have done in the ungodly way, and of all the harsh words ungodly sinners have spoken against him."
1. Enoch's Prophecy (vs. 14-15)
Before describing the self-serving ways of these apostates, Jude mentions a prophecy by Enoch concerning God's judgment on them. Jude states, “Enoch, in the seventh generation from Adam, prophesied, saying,”
Some believe this is a quote from the Apocryphal book Book of Enoch. Others believe that under divine inspiration, Jude recorded an oral tradition carefully passed down from one generation to the next. Whether from the Book of Enoch or from oral tradition does not mean that Jude believed the whole book or that he accepted all of the oral tradition as being true. It simply means that under the divine inspiration, Jude accepted the prophecy as true.
Now a quick look at the Enoch that Jude quotes. First lets look at Hebrews 11:5~ By faith Enoch was taken up so that he would not see death; AND HE WAS NOT FOUND BECAUSE GOD TOOK HIM UP; for he obtained the witness that before his being taken up he was pleasing to God.
Now look back at Genesis 5:21-24 ~ Enoch lived sixty-five years, and became the father of Methuselah. Then Enoch walked with God three hundred years after he became the father of Methuselah, and he had other sons and daughters. So all the days of Enoch were three hundred and sixty-five years. Enoch walked with God; and he was not, for God took him.
The Enoch who prophesied is the son of Jared (Genesis 5:18) and the father of Methuselah (Genesis 5:22).
Enoch the man of God and prophet lived a holy life and walked with God. His prophecy was given in an age in of corruption. The world was ripening for the great flood. He was himself a good man, and, as would seem perhaps, the only Godly man or one of just a few of his generation. It would not be a far stretch to believe that he faced rebukes from those of his godless generation. So it wouldn't be out of place for him to speak pointedly to the people of his day about a future judgment.
Enoch's prophecy is a prophecy of the Second Coming of the Lord. The time when Christ Jesus returns, accompanied by thousands upon thousands of angels. The time when Christ Jesus will judge the ungodly deeds of men, as well as the harsh words [they] have spoken against Him, and even denying Him.
Jude declared that the godless creepers of his day were among those being referred to in Enoch's prophecy. They may have thought they were getting away with something, but they were not.
Look again at Genesis 5:22 ~Then Enoch walked with God three hundred years after he became the father of Methuselah, and he had other sons and daughters. One of the sources I am using for this series suggest that before Methuselah was born Enoch had not made a conscious choice to follow God. Whether he was following God before or not this verse shows that Enoch did make a choice, a choice to walk with God. You have that same choice today, will you choose to walk with God?
2. A Promise Made (vs. 14-15)
What makes the Enoch's prophecy of Christ Jesus' return so wonderful for the Christian and so detrimental for the non-Christian is how the promises of His first coming were fulfilled.
He was born like the Bible said.
Isaiah 7:14 – Born of a Virgin – Luke 2:26-35
Micah 5:2 – Born in Bethlehem – Luke 2:7
He died like the Bible said.
Isaiah 53:1-12 – despised, lamb to the slaughter
Psalm 22:11-18 – surrounded, dried up, pierced, heart melts, clothes divided
John 3:14 – Son of Man lifted up
Matthew 12:40 – Jonah – 3 days; Christ Jesus – 3 days
Mark 8:31 – The Son of Man rejected by the religious leaders; killed, raised 3 days later.
He arose from the grave like the Bible said.
Matthew 28:2-6
Luke 24:5-7
John 20:1-18
Christ Jesus is coming for the Church like the Bible says.
And after He had said these things, He was lifted up while they were looking on, and a cloud received Him out of their sight. And as they were gazing intently into the sky while He was going, behold, two men in white clothing stood beside them. They also said, "Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into the sky? This Jesus, who has been taken up from you into heaven, will come in just the same way as you have watched Him go into heaven." (Acts 1:9-11).
But we do not want you to be uninformed, brethren, about those who are asleep, so that you will not grieve as do the rest who have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who have fallen asleep in Jesus. For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we shall always be with the Lord. (1Thessalonians 4:13-17).
When Christ Jesus was on this earth He established the church and He is not going to abandon it.
There will be a rapture or snatching away of all who are Christians and all who are under the age of accountability. Next there will be the tribulation. It starts out good with three and a half years of peace, and then it goes down hill fast. The next three and a half years will be filled with death and destruction as has never been experienced by mankind. For then there will be great distress, unequaled from the beginning of the world until now-and never to be equaled again. If those days had not been cut short, no one would survive, but for the sake of the elect those days will be shortened. (Matthew 24:21-22).
At the end of those three and a half years will be the Second Coming that Jude says Enoch prophesied about. This is a time of final judgment. "When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his throne in heavenly glory. All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left.... "Then the King will say to those on his right, `Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world...."Then he will say to those on his left, `Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels...."Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life." (Matthew 25:31-34; 41;46).
If Christ Jesus called all the Christians to heaven today would you go to heaven or go through the Tribulation? Do you know Christ Jesus as Lord and Saviour?
Jude
16
16 These men are grumblers and faultfinders; they follow their own evil desires; they boast about themselves and flatter others for their own advantage.
3. How To Avoid Being An Apostate (vs. 16)
1. Do not murmur – What is murmuring? It is complaining under one's breath. These apostates saw the flaws in others, but never themselves. Those out of fellowship with the living God, tend to be “complainers” rather than praisers.
When the children of Israel praised God they enjoyed fellowship with Him. When they grumbled and complained it was when they had strayed from Him and followed after their own lusts.
2. Do not complain – This is the natural outcome of murmuring left unchecked. The apostates were discontent, quarrelsome, or looking to place blame. It is more common than we would like to admit for people to complain of their lot; to think that it is hard; to compare what they have or don't have with that of others and then blame God for not having made their circumstances different.
The virtue that is opposed to this is contentment-a virtue of inestimable value. Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said, "Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you." (Hebrews 13:4-5).
3. Do not walk after your own lust – That is living to please yourself not God. When someone decides to satisfy their own desire, grumbling and fault finding often follow, because evil desires are not easily satisfied.
4. Do not boast about yourself while flattering others – Don't get the big head, over inflating your own self-worth for self-gain. The apostates of Jude's time used flowery, and extravagant speech to bring glory to themselves and not to God.
If that weren't bad enough they were full of flattering words for the purpose of getting an advantage over others. One author says, “they were fawning and servile toward other people, smearing slimy, oily words around in hopes of getting others to think highly of them.” - Holman New Testament Commentary; David Walls and Max Anders
Enoch's prophecy was about a coming judgment. Jude was telling his readers, telling you to be ready and to be right with the Lord. So the question today is have you accepted the events of the First Coming and acted upon them? When Christ Jesus calls the church home where will you be? Will you join Him in the air or will you find yourself in the Tribulation? Are you ready for the final judgment that is coming? Because as sure as you are sitting there reading this when the Lord comes back the second time there will be a final judgment! And then it will be to late to decide. I pray you choose Christ Jesus and eternal life.
Thanks for dropping by and until next week, may the Lord keep and bless you and yours.
Biblesurfer
No comments:
Post a Comment