This exposition of Jude 5-7 by Pastor Rod Harris was delivered at Trinity Baptist Church on Sunday evening, January 6, 2019.
Intro:
I’m such a dinosaur. My kind is all but extinct. I find myself in conversation with other pastors and think, “Are we talking about the same thing? Are we reading the same book? Is this what the church has become?”
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It’s not just that I’ve gotten cranky as I’ve gotten older and it’s not that I’m set in my ways and I don’t like this “new fangled music” or these entertainment palaces they call churches - it’s deeper than that. I don’t recognize the gospel they preach. Where is the denouncement of sin? Where is the call to repentance? Where is the absolute necessity of the cross? I hear the call to having your best life now. I hear the call to a happier, healthier, wealthier existence. I hear the call to claim your miracle now. I hear the call to social justice, the need to repentant of past racial and social injustices but where is the call to repent of the wickedness within the individual heart? Where is the plea for mercy because of rebellion against the will of a Holy God? Where is the acknowledgement that all have sinned and are deserving of God’s holy, righteous and unrelenting wrath? Where is the clear declaration that there is only one way to ever be made right with God and that is through the life, death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ?
In a world long on tolerance and short on fixed, settled truth, there is a need for the church to return to biblical faithfulness. A need for the Church to be the Church, the guardians of the truth once and for all handed down to the saints. His name was Jude, he was the half brother of the Lord Jesus and he was writing to a struggling church in a hostile environment. He pleaded with them to “hang on.” To be faithful to the charge given. Faithful to the truth delivered to the saints and to contend for it with their lives if need be. In verses 5-7 there is an urgent and needed warning. Our text this evening is Jude 5-7.
Text: Jude 5-7
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. 6 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— 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.
You’re not going to find that on a refrigerator magnet at your local Christian bookstore!
You not likely to hear from most pulpits across the land. But it is an urgent and much needed message within the church today. This was written to a church. This was not a message to the lost and unbelieving world but to the church. You need to make sure you read 5-7 in the context of 3-4 (I know, that’s profound). My point being this is part of contending for the faith. This is in recognition that there are those who have crept in unnoticed and perverted the grace of God.
As we work our way through these 3 verses we are reminded that…
Thesis: Biblical faithfulness demands that we warn of the terrifying consequences of sin and unbelief.
I get it, this is not popular preaching.
This is not what people want to hear but it is what we need to hear.
Kept in mind the recipients of this letter where converted Jews living in a hostile environment. They were thoroughly familiar with Old Testament and Jewish history. They were well versed in Jewish tradition. Jude is going to use three examples to drive home his message each one revealing a characteristic of biblical faithfulness.
- Biblical faithfulness demands that we warn of the danger of unbelief and of presumption upon God’s grace. (5)
- Biblical faithfulness tearfully proclaims the certainty of God’s holy judgment of sin. (6)
- Biblical faithfulness requires that we make clear the horror of God’s righteous judgment. (7)
Conclusion:
We must be aware of how easily we slip into immortality and unbelief and therefore maintain a staunch vigilance. We must never think, “Well, that could never happen to me.” Take heed lest you fall.
Biblical faithfulness demands that we warn of the terrifying consequences of sin and unbelief.
We must warn of the danger of unbelief and of presumption upon God’s grace.
We must tearfully proclaim the certainty of God’s holy judgment of sin.
We must make clear the horror of God’s righteous judgment.
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