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Jude is a very small book but it deals with a very important matter which is highlighted in v.3. It is an appeal for us to contend earnestly for the faith. We are called to arms to protect the faith and fight for the truth because v.4 certain persons have crept in unnoticed and intend to turn the grace of God into a license to sin and to deny Jesus as Lord and Master. The tares have been sown amidst the wheat. Satan and his ministers are disguised as angels of light and they have infiltrated the church. So we have to be discerning.
The subject is apostates, defectors from the faith. Some leave the church but others remain. I believe we all have known people who have professed to be Christians and profess to believe in Jesus, who appeared to love the Lord and love the church. At some point in their life, they utterly leave the church and seem to have abandoned the truth. Those people fall into the category of apostates. But not all apostates leave the church, some stay and propagate their heresies to destroy the church.
Why do people abandon the faith? The Bible gives us many reasons.
One is ignorance, that's the hard ground. Persecution is another reason; they do not want to pay the price of naming the name of Jesus. The worries of life, Jesus said, is another reason. The seed has a very short life and produces no fruit. A fourth is the deceitfulness of riches. Some just love materialism and wealth and prosperity in this life more than heavenly promises. Some defect because the teachings of Jesus can be hard. John 6:60. Jesus said if any man come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.
Another is Satan's devices. He comes in and confuses people as to the priority and person of Christ. Some people defect because they don't want to be alienated from the people around them. Demas in II Tim. 4:10 is an example of that. Some people defect because they don't pay close attention to the teachings of the scriptures. Heb.2:1 It is dangerous to give only superficial attention to the Bible.
An unbelieving heart is another reason Heb. 3:12. Some people defect because they have a hard heart Heb. 4:7 says today if you hear his voice; do not harden your heart.
Rebellion is another reason, like the Israelites. Hebrews 4:2 says some people can train themselves to hear the word of God but never make a commitment to obey it. They heard it but did not profit from it.
Others are just flatly disobedient Heb. 4:6 Heb. 10 says some are not interested in coming to church. Others are apostates because of bitterness, sexual immorality, or even disrespect of leaders. What I am trying to tell you is that there are just so many potentials for apostasy. Is it any wonder why many get on the broad road but few on the narrow road? Is it any wonder many call him Lord but he never knew them? Think about it, the majority of people who hear the gospel turn away from it. Most leave the church but many remain as the instruments of Satan.
So Jude is concerned about those that remain in the church so Jude tells us to contend for the faith. Before Jude gets too far he gives apostates a fair warning. It is like he is saying, I know you are there and I want you to know what awaits you. You are doomed to judgment, you who rebel and defect from the faith will end up in eternal fire. So the theme of these three verses is the destruction of apostates. And he does so by three well known illustrations. That is why he begins by saying, "You already know this."
Illustration 1 involves Israel V.5. He wants to remind us that after saving a people out of the land of Egypt, God subsequently destroyed those who did not believe. Because of their unbelief God told them they would die in the wilderness. And they did. A whole generation. Some estimate that there were a million corpses left in the wilderness during their 40 years of wandering.
Illustration 2 has to do with another group of apostates in v.6. It is those angels who did not keep their own domain or dwelling and now God keeps them chained in darkness until that great day. Jude assumes they already know about this. What is he talking about? What angels? When? Where? Notice this event is described in four ways: They did not keep their own domain. That is to say their own realm, their own rule, their own position of authority. Secondly, they abandoned their proper abode. They did not stay where God had placed them as holy angels around his throne. They deliberately left. That is an aorist verb. They decided to move out of that abode. They did in a similar way what happened in Sodom and Gomorrah.
What happened, gross immorality. So they did not stay in their own realm, did not maintain their own lofty dignity, but came down and engaged in a gross immorality or fornication similar to what took place in Sodom Gomorrah. What was that sin? These angels went whoring and came down and engaged in sexual immorality in a perverse fashion. How is that? They went after creatures outside their realm. The angels of Sodom lusted after angels and these angels lusted after human flesh. So what is it referring to?
There is only one O.T. reference and it is found in Gen. 6:1-6 . The phrase sons of god are used in Job 1:6 and Job 2:1 and Job 38:7 to designate angels The Septuagint actually translates these as angels. Being a son of God here means you came into existence by a creative act of God. The common Jewish view was that sons of God here refer to angels. Then what happened? Fallen angels left their domain and came down and possessed the bodies of wicked men and impregnated women whom the men married and then men and women began communing with demons. The corruption was so bad at this point that God decided to drown the whole human race. These demons did something God did not want them to do again so he made sure they couldn't. So he bound these angels in the pits of darkness to suffer until that great Day of Judgment where they will be thrown into the lake of fire.
One other illustration in v.7. We have seen the Jews, the angels and now the Gentiles, in particular the people of Sodom Gomorrah. Those people did the same thing the angels did. They left their normal place and indulged in gross immorality. They went after strange flesh. It is a terribly horrific story and you can read about it in Gen. 18 and 19. They knew about the living God. Lot was living there and had given testimony about the living God. But they did not want the truth. Two angels came to Sodom and when Lot saw them he invited them to his house. They were holy angels who from time to time God allows them to appear in physical form. But the angels wanted to stay in the town square but Lot pleaded with them to come to his home for food and rest. But before they could lie down, the men of Sodom surrounded the house and asked Lot if they could have relations with these strangers. Lot begged them not to and even offered them his own daughters to rape. Then the angels reached out and saved Lot by pulling him into the house and struck the men with blindness. One would have thought that would settle it, but the men wearied themselves trying to find Lot's door.
I don't think there is a more well-known story in the O.T. to the Jewish people. It is referred to in Deut., Amos, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Zephaniah, Lamentations, Ezekiel, and then in Matt., Luke, Romans, Peter, Revelations and in Jude. They wanted to rape these angelic visitors. We know what happened, don't we? God incinerated them. In fact, according to Gen. 19 other cities in the same area were consumed. Some archeologists say there is evidence of a great rupture in the earth's strata at that place. There was a terrific explosion in some subterranean pool of oil near the south shore of the Dead Sea where these cities were located. The gas became ignited and resulted in a blast that lifted a whole section of the valley floor into the air and dropped it down burying them all so that these cities were literally buried immediately in burning oil and sulfur. In one hour they were all gone. And Jude tells us where they went. They were undergoing the punishment of eternal fire, described as the lake of Fire in Rev. 20:10.
This is a very sobering message. We need to understand it. Hebrews 10:29 says, "How much severer punishment do you think he will deserve who has trampled underfoot the Son of God and regarded the blood of the Covenant by which he was sanctified and has insulted the Spirit of grace". Then God says, Vengeance is Mine, I will repay. It has been and will be a terrible thing to fall into the hands of the living God. If you're on the edge of rejecting the faith you are headed for an eternal Lake of Fire and brimstone. God is no respecter of People who reject Him. He didn't respect the Israelites who rejected Him. He didn't respect the angels who once sang his praise. And he didn't respect the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah who knew the truth and turned from it. And he will not respect nor will he forgive anyone who rejects the gospel. There is an eternal fire called hell and there will be no one there who doesn't deserve to be there.
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The Rev. Dr. James Barnes is currently the pastor of White Memorial Church in Milroy.