JUDE: PROTECTION FROM APOSTACY

III. Warnings From God’s Past Judgments Of Apostates

(Jude 5-7)

I. Introduction

A. Paul predicted that people in general would go from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived as the world drifted further into apostasy, 2 Timothy 3:13; 4:3-4. Rising deception coincides with a drop in trust wrought by the effects of people who have been painfully deceived, and a lack of trust in society tends to break down human institutions, the bedrock of society itself.

B. The Epistle of Jude addresses the problem of apostasy (Jude 3b), and Jude 5-7 offers warnings for us believers from God’s past judgments of apostates. We view the passage for our insight and edification:

II. Warnings From God’s Past Judgments Of Apostates, Jude 5-7.

A. The information provided in Jude 5b-7 of God’s past punishments on apostates is used by Jude to influence his readers to contend for the Christian body of truth that was once-for-all delivered to them:

1. Jude’s burden in his epistle is to get his readers to contend for the faith that was once-for-all (hapax) delivered to the saints, to the true Church, Jude 3; U. B. S. Grk. N. T., 1966, p. 832.

2. In doing so, Jude at verse 5a conceded that his readers knew the information he would mention in verses 5b-7, but that he willed to remind them of it to spur them to contend for the faith.

B. That information dwells on God’s severe punishment for various acts of apostasy, what acts not only to spur Jude’s readers to oppose apostasy but also to cause them themselves to fear drifting into apostasy!

C. Thus, Jude warned his readers of past judgments on apostates for various sins of defection, v. 5b-7:

1. Jude warned of the frightening end results of unbelief toward God, Jude 5b:

a. Though the KJV and NIV use the word “Lord” in verse 5b, some of the earliest manuscripts read “Jesus,” what may be the correct reading since Exodus 14:19 claims the Angel of God, the Preincarnate Christ, delivered Israel from Egypt at the Red Sea. (Ryrie Study Bible, KJV, 1978, ftns. to Exodus 14:19 and Genesis 16:10)

b. Accordingly, Jude revealed that the Lord Who had delivered His people of Israel from Egyptian bondage nevertheless destroyed that generation in the wilderness because of their unbelief in Him and His Word that they had expressed ten times, Jude 5b; Numbers 14:22-24; 32:10-13.

c. Thus, God’s people even today must avoid unbelief as it has awful consequences in punishment!

2. Jude warned of the terrible end results of rebellion against God, Jude 6:

a. Some Bible teachers claim the angels that left their first estate were the “sons of God” in Genesis 6:1-4, and that they cohabited with women to produce godless men. (Ibid., Ryrie, ftn. to Jude 6)

b. However, Christ in Mark 12:25 revealed that the angels are asexual, and Ancient Near Eastern pagans falsely believed that great human leaders had their origin in the union of the gods with human women, Bible Know. Com., O. T., p. 36.

c. Rather, demon-possessed men wed many women producing huge gangs of wicked murderers, filling the earth with violence that God had to judge with the Noahic Flood, Ibid.; Genesis 6:13.

d. Thus, the angels in Jude 6 were those angels who fell with Satan, joining in his rebellion against God, cf. Revelation 12:3-4, 9 with Ezekiel 28:15; Ibid., Ryrie, ftn. to Revelation 12:4.

e. The gloom and doom of God’s judgment on these demons warns of God’s similar gloomy doom for believers who rebel against the Lord!

3. Jude warned of the tortuous end results of abusing God’s natural order, Jude 7:

a. The men of Sodom and Gomorrah with their surrounding cities “gave themselves up to fornication” (ekporneuo, Abbott-Smith, A Man. Grk. Lex. of the N. T., 1968, p. 141) and went after “strange” (heteros, “other of a different kind,” Ibid., p. 183) flesh, a reference to their abnormal homosexual activity that violated God’s normal heterosexual order, cf. Genesis 19:5.

b. God thus made them an example of those who will experience eternal hell fire torment by destroying them by raining down on them fire and brimstone from heaven, Jude 7b.

c. God’s people must avoid abusing God’s natural order or suffer eventual tortuous punishment.

Lesson: We must fear God’s dreadful punishments of unbelief in Him and His Word, of rebelling against Him and of abusing His natural order that we firmly stand against them.

Application: May we fear God’s punishment for these sins so as to resist them firmly!