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[0:00] I'm going to try and cover verses 5 to 7.

[0:21] so in lesson 6 we'll cover verse 6 we've already looked at and we will continue to look at the fact that we are commanded to contend earnestly for the faith that command was given almost 2,000 years ago and it's just as applicable today as ever you wouldn't say more applicable but we certainly need it in our day be contenders for the faith Jude's thoughts there of course the Holy Spirit whispering in his ear but this was primarily brought about by the infiltration of apostates into the church and we've been mentioning that word apostate or apostasy now for several weeks this whole book is about apostates and apostasy and I know you will recall that apostates in the church are those that are exposed to the truth often at a high level but ultimately reject that truth and depart from the faith probably the saddest thing about apostates is that many remain in the church after departing from the faith trying to influence others to reject the light they have received and I've seen them

[1:59] I've seen them do that apostasy has plagued the church from the beginning of the church age all the way back in the book of Acts but interestingly apostasy did not start with the church apostasy existed before the church and today we're going to look at a type of apostasy apostasy that was around before the Lord Jesus formed his church so let's read our focal passages tonight verses 5 to 7 in the book of Jude now I want to remind you although you once fully knew it that Jesus who saved a people out of the land of Egypt afterward destroyed those who did not believe and the angels who did not stay within their own position of authority but left their proper dwelling he has kept in eternal chains under gloomy darkness until the judgment of the great day just as Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding cities which likewise indulged in sexual immorality and pursued unnatural desires serve as an example by undergoing a punishment of eternal fire wow contained in this brief passage is the inspired information given to us by the Spirit of God on three of God's past judgments on apostates and these three examples are cited as apostate Israelites apostate angels and apostate Gentiles they were the ones who inhabited the region of Sodom and Gomorrah now

[4:20] I told you weeks ago that Jude in many respects is a brief commentary on 2 Peter they really parallel each other so I want to read to you 2 Peter chapter 2 verses 3 to 10 and you'll see the similarities in their greed they will exploit you with false words their condemnation from long ago is not idle and their destruction is not asleep talk about apostates and now listen to this for if God did not spare angels when they sinned and that's obviously fallen angels but cast them into hell and committed them to chains of gloomy darkness to be kept until the judgment if he did not spare the ancient world but preserve Noah a herald of righteousness with seven others when he brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly if by turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to ashes he condemned them to extinction making them an example of what is going to happen to the ungodly and if he rescued righteous Lot greatly distressed!

[5:51] by the sensual conduct of the wicked for as that righteous man lived among them day after day he was tormenting his righteous soul over their lawless deeds that he saw and heard then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials and to keep the unrighteous under punishment until the day of judgment and especially those who indulge in the lust of defiling passion and despise authority well that's what Peter has to say about this portion of scripture so the first thing we want to mention here is apostate Israel and this is what this is where Jude goes first again verse 5 now I want to remind you although you once fully knew it that Jesus who saved a people out of the land of Egypt afterward destroyed those who did not believe by going all the way back to ancient

[7:04] Israel Jude is reminding his readers that those who defect from the truth will always be subject to divine judgment there are no exceptions God saved the Hebrews from bondage in Egypt God led them through the wilderness the story of the Jews rescue from the bondage of Egypt is a powerful Old Testament example of redemption I mean it was just amazing in the 1950s on our little black and white TV to watch the Ten Commandments by Cecil B. DeMille remember that everyone was glued to their television set and it's a powerful Old Testament example of redemption we see in this story God's love and grace for his people the greatest example of this is the Passover when the blood was applied remember to the post of the home the lintel up the sides and over the top and God said you'll take an innocent lamb slay him take the blood and paint it on the door and when the blood was applied the angel of death passed over that's where we get the name Passover it's not rocket science now

[8:38] I've often thought about this given the fact there were millions of Hebrews living in bondage in Egypt I think we can almost be positive that there were some who ignored the command to apply the blood of an innocent lamb to their doorposts I mean there's just so many of them surely there was some guy that said I'm not going to do that I got family members would have said I'm not going to do that I'll have to wash it off tomorrow I'll just leave it like it is if that were true I would submit the death angel would not pass over them but would instead strike dead the firstborn of that household God of course was on a rescue mission by the way that's a picture of

[9:39] Christ he's on a rescue mission God rescued the Hebrews from Egyptian bondage many of those rescued were not believers and were ultimately destroyed in the wilderness remember how they grumbled and grumbled and grumbled we don't have enough water we don't have enough food it's better if we go back to Egypt we had a better life back there they were grumbling and anytime you read where they're grumbling against Moses mark it down they were grumbling against God they were just afraid to say so in Numbers the book of Numbers chapter 14 beginning in verse 26 the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron saying now this is the Lord speaking how long shall I bear with this evil congregation who are grumbling against me

[10:40] I have heard the complaints of the sons of Israel which they are making against me say to them as I live says the Lord just as you have spoken in my hearing so I will surely do to you you know they were saying it be better for us to die in the desert than to starve to death the Lord continues just as you have spoken in my hearing so I will surely do you your corpses will fall in this wilderness even all your numbered men according to your complete number from twenty years old and upward who have grumbled against me surely you shall not come into the land in which I swore to settle you except Caleb the son of Jephunneh and Joshua the son of Nun your children however whom you said would become a prey

[11:42] I will bring them in and they will know the land which you have rejected but as for you your corpses will fall in the wilderness your sons shall be shepherds for forty years in the wilderness and they will suffer for your unfaithfulness until your corpses lie in the wilderness according to the number of days which you spied out the land forty days and you will know my opposition I the Lord have spoken surely I will do to all this evil congregation who are gathered together against me at this wilderness they will die as for the men whom Moses sent to spy out the land and to return to make all the congregation grumble against him by bringing out a bad report concerning the land even those men who brought out the very bad report of the land died by a plague before the Lord but

[12:44] Joshua the son of Nun and Caleb the son of Jephaniah remained the spies went in on all but Caleb and Joshua said we can't take this place there's giants over there there's no way we can do this God really told them to do it so the readers of Jude are given a vivid picture of Israel's judgment on those who did not believe it's just startling to read those Old Testament passages!

[13:21] and they died out there in the wilderness God said they would you know this often goes unnoticed when they left Egypt to go to the promised land took 40 years that was an 11 day trip you could get there in 11 days with that many people camp out at night rest pitch tents sacrifice to the Lord eat sleep get up the next morning start again that's 11 days they went like this yeah I mean 40 years I don't know how many the 40s but straight mileage is just a few hundred miles go through the Sinai pretty amazing well why did it take them so long because he's letting them die off he's letting the apostates die off so here we see the judgment of apostate

[14:27] Israel well then we have a very curious judgment on apostate angels Jude verse 6 and the angels who did not stay with their own position of authority but left their proper dwelling he is kept in eternal chains under gloomy darkness until the judgment of the great day the second example that Jude gives us is that of apostate angels theologians have disagreed for a long time over what this means theologians have offered various views as to the identity of these angels some claim that

[15:28] Jude's reference concerns an event that was unknown to his readers he was referencing something that he had heard about but no one else knew about and Jude is using this passage to describe a heretofore unknown event I can assure you that is not a majority view very few theologians over the centuries have held of that and actually in our day it's been fairly discarded the second view asserts that Jude was writing about the original fall of Satan of course he was known as Lucifer you remember Lucifer the highest created being that ever lived I just cringe when you hear about the Mormons talk about Lucifer and Jesus were brothers and they competed for the attention of God and God said I'm going to go with Jesus and so that's when

[16:30] Lucifer fell they're not equals Jesus is uncreated eternal Lucifer was created and we know Lucifer fell from heaven had a name change on his way down to Satan they claim it is an account of Satan's rebellion and his expulsion from heaven but Jude mentions and I think Peter did eternal bonds holding Satan and that's not true in our day there are demons that are bound not all of them unfortunately in our day Satan is a roaring lion he's prowling around on this earth looking for victims to devour it's very unlikely that Jude is referring to Satan's fall from heaven

[17:36] I had an acquaintance of mine I wouldn't say we're close friends but came to me and he said Satan's been attacking me I borrowed from the great E.V.

[17:54] Hill you know that name black creature from Los Angeles great man of God now with the Lord and because a woman in his church did the same thing and this guy came and he said Satan's attacking me and I said Satan's not attacking you Satan's one person he's not omnipotent he's not everywhere like the Lord is he's not attacking you you've not done anything that is so threatening to Satan that he has to launch an attack on you and I said now don't feel bad neither have I neither have I now there are plenty of demons out here but most likely you're dealing with flesh because that's where the heart of the attack is we hear the world of flesh and the devil the flesh is where the center part of that is he didn't come back to see me I think

[18:58] Jude is referring to what is obviously a heinous crime committed allegedly committed by fallen angels demons during the Old Testament period let me read to you from the sixth chapter of Genesis verses one to four now it came about when men began to multiply on the face of the earth and daughters were born to them that the sons of God saw the daughters of men were beautiful and they took wives for themselves whomever they chose and then the Lord said my spirit shall not strive with man forever because he also is flesh nevertheless his days shall be 120 years the

[19:58] Nephilim were on the earth in those days and also afterward when the sons of God came in to the daughters of men and they bore children to them those were the mighty men who were of old men of renown now we read about this grotesque sin but we're left with a problem to hurdle the problem is just what was Moses referring to some very good theologians and pastors believe that the sons of God referred to here are angels but those who fell with Lucifer and they believe they cohabitated with earthly women they tried to create and we could say pollute the human race and we remember that

[20:59] Christ did not die for angels only for humans if in fact there were offsprings of angels and humans they would represent a third kind of being beyond the reach of the atonement of Christ in that way Satan could corrupt the human family but problems still exist with this interpretation angels are spirit beings and the Bible is clear they don't cohabitate they don't reproduce I say this almost jokingly but on Monday night some of you guys remember that guy that came to our class and said he was an angel well you weren't around in those days I don't think he came to Monday night and said he was an angel sent from God he said last night I was flying over the solar system and

[21:59] I was looking down at the various planets I was police chief I just knew I wanted to get him out of town he kept showing up at VOM saying God told me he was supposed to go to work there and they said well God hadn't told us that so they wouldn't let him in the building finally he needed to go to Mexico and he needed a bus ticket to Arizona so I bought him one and I picked him up at the lighthouse and I took him to the bus station those who point out the fact that angels don't procreate hold that men of neighboring pagan tribes cohabitated with Hebrew women in an effort to pollute the nation of Israel Dr.

[22:51] Coleman held to that Don did and you know that's okay it's not going to affect your salvation one iota but that too has problems not the least of which is this reference to the Nephilim who are they the word means giants they dwelt in Canaan they may have descended from a man named Anak I didn't know anything about him but we don't know anything about them the remains of the Nephilim their villages is not yet to be discovered by archaeologists we don't know anything about them but this we do know whatever happened it was one of the most severe sins described in scripture and the Lord dealt with it harshly we also know that it did involve fallen angels because he took a bunch of them and locked them away in chains awaiting still from our day a future judgment you know

[24:05] I was thinking they've been in there four or five thousand years are they on the same clock that we're on boy that'd be a long time to be chained up wouldn't it wow what were these fallen angels trying to do as I said earlier many think they were trying to have a!

[24:27] sexual union with earth women they were going to create this race that was neither human nor angel and thus non redeemable and today are held in darkness whatever the sin they're in darkness and they're reserved there until the judgment you know John MacArthur offers somewhat of a middle of the road explanation that sounds reasonable to me he believes these beings cohabitating with Hebrew women were in fact fallen angels but since they cannot cohabitate on their own they needed help and they found that help by indwelling pagan men in the surrounding gentile lost tribes surrounding Israel and induce them to procreate with

[25:29] Jewish women so in that sense there would be a pagan man with an Israelite woman which was a sin but he would be indwelt by a demon is that I mean that's not in stone this is just one of those areas in the Bible where we're not going to solve it but I know this whatever the explanation God was not pleased and he passed a severe and eternal judgment on these creatures well then there's the third category and that is apostate gentiles Jude verse 7 just as Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding cities which likewise indulged in sexual immorality and pursued unnatural desire serve as an example by undergoing a punishment of eternal fire here

[26:35] Jude reminds his audience about Sodom Gomorrah and remember that was a whole region there were like five other cities in addition to Sodom and Gomorrah so it wasn't just those two it was a whole region you get a feel of my time here and like the angels of Genesis 6 these humans engaged in horrific sins which are an abomination to God their horrible debauchery is also described in Genesis and while we're getting close to the end we're going to be in Genesis for a few minutes but it's important and you remember

[27:36] God sent two angels the Lord came down Lord Jesus met with Abraham had two angels with him and he sent them on to Sodom where we get the word Sodomite now the two angels came to Sodom in the evening as Lot was sitting in the gate of Sodom he was a public official Lot of course was Jewish right Lot saw them he rose to meet them and bowed down with his face to the ground and he said now behold my lords please turn aside into your servants house and spend the night and wash your feet then you may rise early and go on your way they said however no we shall spend the night in the square yet

[28:43] Lot urged them strongly so they turned aside to him and entered his house and he prepared a feast for them and baked unleavened bread and they ate before they lay down the men of the city the men of Sodom surrounded the house both young and old all the people from every quarter and they called to Lot and said to him where are the men who came to you tonight bring them out to us that we may have relations with them and you know what that means right homosexual relations with them!

[29:30] but Lot went out to them at the doorway and shut the door behind them and said please my brothers do not act wickedly now Now behold I have two daughters who have not had relations with man please let me bring them out to you and do to them whatever you like only do nothing to these men in as much as they have come under the shelter of my roof let me say to you parenthetically that's a big deal in the Middle East I've been in Arab homes in the Middle East and I'm going to tell you we think when we say that word Arab we think of terrorism and all that let me tell you you go into an Arab's home and you'll eat a feast and you'll sit there with your shoes off and cross legged and you'll have a feast

[30:31] I've been at goat crabs where you pinch food off it's amazing and they will defend you with their life as long as you're in their home so this is what he's referring to they're under my roof they're under my protection but they said stand aside furthermore they said this one lot came in as an alien and already he's acting!

[30:59] like a! now we will treat you worse than them so they pressed hard against lot and came near to break the door but the men reached out their hands and brought lot into the house with them and shut the door the angels struck the men who were at the doorway of the house with blindness both small and great so that they wearied themselves trying to find the doorway then the two angels said to lot whom else have you here a son in law and your sons and your daughters and whomever you have in this city bring them out of this place for we are about to destroy this place because their outcry has become so great before the lord that the lord has sent us to destroy it lot went out and spoke to his sons in law who were married to these are other daughters and said up get out of this place for the lord is going to destroy the city but he appeared to his sons in laws to be joking he was just jesting when morning dawn the angels urged lot saying up take your wife and your two daughters who are here or you will be swept away in so the angel seized his hand and the hand of his wife and the hands of the two daughters for the compassion of the lord was upon him and they brought him out and put him outside the city when they brought them outside one said escape for your life do not look behind you and do not stay anywhere in the valley escape to the mountains or you will be swept away your has found favor in your sight and you have magnified your loving kindness which you have shown me by saving my life but

[32:59] I cannot escape to the mountains for the disaster will overtake me and I will die now behold this town is near enough to flee to and it is small please let me escape there that my life may be saved he said to him behold I grant you this request also not to overthrow the town of which you have spoken hurry escape for I cannot do anything until you arrive there that's interesting I can't do anything until I get a believer in Christ out of the way therefore the name of the town was called Zoar the sun had risen over the earth when Lot came to Zoar then the!

[33:48] Lord rained on Sodom and! Brimstone and fire from the Lord of Heaven and he overthrew those cities and all the valley and all the inhabitants of the cities and what grew on the ground but his wife from behind him looked back and she became a pillar of salt now Abraham arose early in the morning and went to the place where he had stood before the Lord and he looked down toward Sodom and Gomorrah and toward all the land of the valley and he saw and behold the smoke of the land ascended like the smoke of a furnace thus it came about when God destroyed the cities of the valley that God remembered Abraham and sent Lot out of the midst of the overthrow when he overthrew the cities in which Lot lived is there any doubt about how God feels about homosexuality there should be no doubt nothing could be clear yet people around the world refuse to even contemplate that the destruction of

[35:02] Sodom and Gomorrah and the region had anything to do with that sin they deny the Discovery Channel several years ago ran a documentary on Sodom and that area they were pretty certain archaeologists had found that general area but at the conclusion it was well done until they got to the end and they said but we know for sure that since God makes people homosexuals and lesbians and transgender he would never condemn them so this was not a judgment of God I mean up to that point I was thinking about buying it and showing it to the class on Sunday morning there is no way to clean this up but anytime Hollywood produces a movie on this or when people seeking high political office comment on this they bend over backwards to try to make this clean and you can't the truth is these men were guilty of gross homosexual conduct and that's evidenced by the fact they got so turned on by these angels yeah

[36:18] I can put my glass on to hear you if the men of Sodom wanted to have sexual relationship with these angels who undoubtedly were in the form of men how come the fallen angels cannot prove the baby well they weren't going to make any babies we know that when I spoke earlier about procreation we're talking about offspring there's not going to be between males obviously that's my quick answer of course they probably didn't know they were angels I'm sorry yeah oh they were for sure yeah they were and this lengthy passage tells us how the eternal God feels about this conduct will the unrepentant and that's the key word will the unrepentant homosexual inherit the kingdom kingdom of God and the answer that's an emphatic no but in fairness let me say to you the unrepentant heterosexual sinner engaged in unrepentant sexual sins will neither inherit the kingdom of

[37:41] God so I want to be an equal opportunity let me close with this listen to what the spirit of God has to say through the apostle Paul Romans 1 starting in verse 18 for the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth for what can be known about God is plain to them because God has shown it to them for his invisible attributes namely his eternal power and divine nature have been clearly perceived ever since the creation of the world and the things that have been made so they are without excuse for although they knew God they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him but they became futile in their thinking and their foolish hearts were darkened claiming to be wise they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal

[38:46] God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things therefore God gave them up in the lust of their hearts to impurity to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshipped and served the creature rather than the creator who is blessed forever amen for this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions now know where he heads for the women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women who were consumed with passion for one another men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty of their error and since they did not see fit to acknowledge God God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done we got a lot of debased minds in this country at a high level he gave them up when you read that that's powerful

[39:58] God gave them up he gave them over they were filled with all manner of unrighteousness evil covenants malice they are full of envy murder strife deceit maliciousness their gossip slanderers haters of God insolent haughty boastful inventors of evil disobedient to parents foolish faithless heartless ruthless though they know God's righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die they not only did them but gave approval to those who practice them you notice how the Holy Spirit started with women he didn't start with men he mentioned the women first why is that women are typically the last to fall morally in a culture when the women fall men have already fallen why

[41:01] God built into a woman the mothering instinct it's there this desire to mother and to protect and he starts with the sin of lesbianism that's what he's talking about there he starts with the women anyone who has been exposed to truth has a higher calling and a higher responsibility before God and when they reject that truth and depart from that faith they are in apostasy and this is summarized beautifully and frighteningly in the book of Hebrews it is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God Thank you.