The Destruction of Apostates

Jude 5‑7

I was encouraged in my study, this week, as the Lord opened up the passage for tonight to me, and I trust that God's really going to use it in our hearts as we share together. We're looking at Jude verses 5 to 7. Jude is the next to the last book in the Bible. Well actually, it's the third from the last. There's Jude, Revelation and Concordance. But Jude is just before Revelation. And some of you even have Maps.

But we're looking at the very brief epistle of Jude, though it is small, though it is short, though it is brief, concise, it is anything but unimportant‑‑it is very important. And looking at verses 5 through 7 we read these words:

I will therefore put you in remembrance, though ye once knew this, that the Lord having saved the people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed them that believed not. And the angels who kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, He hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day. Even as Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities about them, in like manner, giving over to fornication and going after strange flesh, are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire.

Now here you have a very interesting portion of Scripture indicating judgment on apostasy. We might entitle this three verse section of Jude, "The destruction of apostates," as we have seen this epistle of Jude deals with apostasy from just about every angle. And here we find the historical record of God judging apostasy.

You know, there are many signs of the end of the age. Many signs of the return of the Lord Jesus Christ, many marks that we can see that indicate to us that our Lord Jesus is coming very soon. And we have dealt with these in the past in many of our studies, but one of them that came to mind as I was looking through this portion was the fact that one of the characteristics of the end of the age is apostasy. The word simply means to depart from the faith, a departure, a leaving, a falling away. And throughout the New Testament we find the indication that in the end time, the end of the age, there will be a departing from the faith. There will be a falling away, as Paul put it in 2 Thessalonians chapter 2. Even Jesus predicted that this would happen in Matthew chapter 24, there are a couple of verses that would help us understand that? Beginning at verse 10: "And then shall many be offended and betray one another and shall hate one another and many false prophets shall arise and deceive many and because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall grow cold."

Our Lord says that in the end time there will be a waning, there will be a falling away, there will be an apostasy. This is one of the signs of the end of the age. And it is to occur not only with Israel in the indication of Matthew 24, but it is to occur also within the church. There will be within the church of Jesus Christ, quote/unquote, the church as its organization exists in the world, a falling away or a departure from the faith. More specifically, a denial of the truth. In fact, as I looked through my New Testament, I found that the apostasy of the end time is basically a series of denials.

To begin with, in the apostasy that characterizes the end time there will be a denial of the power and reality of God. In 2 Timothy 3:4 it says that: "Men will be traitors, heady, high minded, lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God, who having a form of godliness will deny the power of it." There will be a denial of divine reality and power.

Also, it is clear that the apostasy will be characterized by a denial of Christ Himself. In 2 Peter 2:1 it says that: "They will deny the Lord that bought them."

Thirdly, the apostasy will be characterized by a denial of the return of Christ. In 2 Peter 3:3 it says that: "There will come in the last days scoffers walking after their own lusts and saying, Where is the promise of His coming, for all things continue from the beginning as they were." They will deny Christ; they will deny His return as well as denying the reality and power of God.

Also, the apostasy will be characterized by a denial of the faith, and that, of course, sums up everything. In 1 Timothy 4:1 it says: "In the latter times, some shall depart from the faith." There will be a denial of sound doctrine. In 2 Timothy chapter 4 it says that: "The time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but after their own lusts they will heap to themselves false teachers, turning away their ears from the truth and being turned to fables."

So, they will deny God and His power. They will deny Christ. They will deny the return of Christ. They will deny ... wholesale the faith. They will deny sound doctrine. There also will be a denial of the separated life. In 2 Timothy chapter 3, perilous times will come and it goes on to say how men will be lovers of themselves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, etc., etc., etc.

There also will be a denial of the freedom of Christianity. There will be a reversion to legalism, apparently, within this apostasy if I Timothy 4 can be believed‑‑and it can. It says there will be forbidding to marry, commanding to abstain from foods which God has created to be received with thanksgiving. In other words, there will be some kind of a reversion to legalism ... ritualism.

There will be a denial of morals. You're in Jude, look at the eighteenth verse: How they told you there should be mockers in the last time who should walk after their own ungodly lusts." They are sensual, verse 19 says, having not the Spirit; a denial of morality.

And it also seems clear to me that there will be a denial of biblical authority, according to 2 Timothy chapter 3.

Now you have then in the end times, the promise of an apostasy. The promise that there will be a great series of denials: to deny God and His power, to deny Christ, to deny His second coming, to deny the faith, sound doctrine, the separated life, Christian freedom, morals and even biblical and divine authority. There will be a denial of all of this and it is going to come, strange as it may seem, within the framework of Christianity, somehow connected to the church. And you and I are well aware that it is already occurring in what we know as modernism today and liberalism today, we see a denial of all these things. This characterizes the end time.

Now, let me hasten to say this. Even though it is clear from Scripture that apostasy will reach its zenith in the end time, it is clear that apostasy will be at a wholesale level that it's never been seen at before, it is not to say that apostasy is anything new, it isn't. The first apostate was Cain, and that goes way back. Apostasy, though it will reach an apex, though it will reach a‑‑if you like German‑‑a her‑pundt,(?) a high point,, though it will reach a level that it has not attained before is not something new. There have always been apostates.

In the same epistles that talk about apostasy in the end time, it talks about apostasy throughout all time. For Paul says, for example, in 2 Timothy 4, "Demas has forsaken me having loved this present world." He is an apostate.

In 2 Peter, Peter who also wrote about the future apostasy says in 2:20, "Speaking of those who escape the pollutions of the world through the head knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and are again entangled in it and overcome whose latter end is worse with them than the beginning. It would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness than after they had known it to turn from the holy commandment delivered unto them. They're like dogs going back to their vomit. They're like sows cleaned up and going back to wallow in the mire." Peter says we have them now as well as having them in the future.

     No, apostasy isn't anything new. In fact, you can even go back to Deuteronomy, why don't you do that and look at chapter 13? And in chapter 13 verse 13, we find an indication of some apostasy. "Certain men," it says, "worthless fellows, are gone out from among you and have withdrawn the inhabitants of their city." They didn't go alone. "...Saying, Let us go and serve other gods which ye have not known." Let me introduce you to some other gods. "Then shalt thou inquire and make search and ask diligently and behold if it be truth and the thing certain that such abomination is wrought among you, thou shalt surely smite the inhabitants of that city with the edge of the sword, destroying it utterly, and all that is therein and the cattle thereof with the edge of the sword. Thou shalt gather all the spoil of it into the midst of the street thereof and burn with fire the city and all the spoil thereof every wit, for the Lord thy God and it shall be in heap forever, it shall not be built again. And there shall cling nothing of the cursed thing to thine hand that the Lord may turn from the fierceness of His anger and show thee mercy and have compassion on thee and multiply thee as He hath sworn unto thy fathers. When thou shalt hearken to the voice of the Lord thy God to keep all His commandments, which I command thee this day to do that which is right in the eyes of the Lord thy God."

Now, here God says to the children of Israel, if you find one of your cities that becomes apostate‑‑wipe it out, wipe it out. There has always been apostasy and it is clear that God has always felt the same about it. Deuteronomy 17:2, "If there be found among you, within any of your gates which the Lord thy God gives you.' Now we're not talking about apostate cities but we're talking about apostate individuals. "A man or a woman who has wrought wickedness in the sight of the Lord thy God in transgressing his covenant and has gone and served other gods and worshiped them, either the sun or moon or any of the host of heaven which I have not commanded, and if it be told thee and thou hast heard of it and inquired diligently and behold it is true and the thing certain that such an abomination has wrought in Israel, then shalt thou bring forth that man or that woman who hath committed that wicked thing, unto thy gates even that man or that woman and shalt stone them with stones till they die."

Now, here you have in Deuteronomy an indication that a city that is apostate is to be destroyed and an individual that is apostate is to be destroyed as well. Apostasy isn't anything new and God hasn't changed at all in how He feels about it.

Now, as we come to Jude we find this old story of apostasy being told again. And this time Jude deals very, very firmly with it as a warning. It's kind of like the book of Hebrews. You know, I think of all the books I've studied, Jude reminds me more of Hebrews than any other book because throughout the book of Hebrews you have periodic warnings to apostates, periodic warning to people who are on the edger who are on the fence just ready to come to Christ but are in danger of turning their back and walking away into apostasy and being damned forever. Jude equally warns against apostasy.

He begins this little letter with a greeting in verses 1 and 2. He progresses in verse 3 to a warning. Then in verse 4 he gives a description of apostasy, he defines it there. And now in verses 5 to 7 he speaks of God's attitude toward apostates, toward people who know the truth, who acquiesce to it intellectually or mentally and who turn their back on it and walk away. And he uses three past illustrations to show God's judgment of apostates. He picks three groups, the Jews, the angels and the Gentiles. These three groups recount God's wrath on past apostasy.

Now, all three of the stories we know well, as did Jude's readers and that's one of the reasons his epistle is very brief because there's no need to tell the whole story of verse 5 about how God dealt with the children of Israel in the wilderness. There's no reason to recount the whole story of verse 6 of how God judged the angels that sinned because they know that story. And there is no reason to tell the whole tale again of Sodom and Gomorrah, there's plenty of revelation on that already. We know the stories well as did Jude's readers, but Jude knows what we know, too, that the constant decaying of our minds and our memories demands that we be refreshed. And so Jude says‑‑in case you might want to be an apostate, in case you might know the truth and turn your back on it and walk away, let me remind you of God's attitude toward apostasy by giving you three graphic illustrations.

Number one, the people of God, verse 5, "I will therefore put you in remembrance though you once knew this that the Lord having saved the people out of the land of Egypt (having gone to all that trouble) afterward destroyed them that believed not." And here was a story that all of us know. God delivers Israel from the land of Egypt by a series of miracles,, God frees them from Pharaoh's hand. They're free. They enter into the wilderness, having passed through the midst of the Red Sea and its waters are rolled back which waters then close and drown the army of Pharaoh. They're now free and they're ready to approach the Promised Land. They're granted the law of God at the foot of Sinai, but in the process of all of this they have turned their backs on God, they become apostate and God says you're going to wander in the wilderness for 40 years till the whole generation of you die of f and you're not going to enter the Promised Land.

Now, Jude says, "I want you to remember the story." just a footnote here. "I will therefore put you in remembrance," reminds me of something that is important. In all teaching we must remember that everybody forgets, that built into us is the decaying process of death and our memory goes along with that. There must be constant reminder of the things of the Word of God. In Jude 17 he reiterates this same idea. "Beloved, remember you the words which were spoken before by the Apostles of our Lord Jesus."

Peter used this very often in terms of reminding people. He wanted very much to have people remember what he told them. In 2 Peter 1:12 he says: "Wherefore I will not be negligent to put you always in remembrance of these things." I want you to remember. And in verse 13 he says essentially the same thing, "I think it's fitting as long as I am in this tabernacle to stir you up by putting you in remembrance." verse 15, "Moreover I will endeavor that you may be able after my decease (or my death) to have these things always in remembrance."

So, three times he talks about reminding them. In chapter 3 verse 1, "I stir up your pure minds by way of remembrance that you may be mindful of the words which were spoken." In other words, he reminds them. One of the things that any good teacher remembers is that people forget and they must be reminded. And that's precisely what Jude is doing.

They had earlier apostolic teaching on the subject of apostasy. They had the Old Testament which would give them clearly the story of Israel in the wilderness. All they had to do is read the book of Exodus. They knew wel1 these events because it was the most‑told story of all of Jewish history. When anybody wanted to talk about the history of the Jews they always talked about the deliverance from Egypt because that was the greatest story in Jewish history simply because it illustrated redemptive love. It was the most common story, the most familiar to all of them. So they knew it well and that's one of the reasons why Jude speaks so briefly.

So, he says, "I want to put you in remembrance," and the next phrase literally says, "though you have known all along," I just want to remind you even though you've known it all along, and I want to remind you of two facts: the Lord miraculously delivered the Israelites out of Egypt; secondly, the Lord destroyed those who apostatized. The story, of course, of that terrible destruction is in the book of Numbers, chapters 13 and 14 tells about it. God's mighty hand had delivered Israel. He guided them safely across the desert to the borders of Canaan. At the door to Canaan and Kadeshbarnea, spies were sent out to spy the land before the final invasion was to take place. And you remember what happened, they sent out 12 spies, 10 came back and said, "Man, we can't handle those people, they're huge." And they got what I like to call the grasshopper complex, they came back and said, "Well, they're giants and we're grasshoppers." But two of them came back, Joshua and Caleb, and said, "No problem, God's on our side, let's go."

Well, the people believed those 10 negative reports and God said, "All right,, every single person over 20 is going to die in the wilderness. You're not going to the promise land." Why? "Cause you didn't believe Me." What an illustration. I mean, here these people had been delivered by miracles, here these people had been set free from the land of Egypt to enter into the land of promise, they had been delivered by God to walk across the desert and enter all that God had prepared for them in Canaan. But because of unbelief they died in the wilderness and never, ever entered the promise land. And Jude is simply saying, "Look, God deals sternly with those who turn their back on what they know is true.' They had every reason to believe God. God had proven Himself again and again and again, miracle after miracle had occurred.

Turn in your Bible to Hebrews chapter 3 and let me show you how strongly this becomes an illustration of the writer of Hebrews. Hebrews chapter 3 verse 7 and the writer of Hebrews is here calling to the Jews that he's writing to, some of whom were on the fence just ready to receive Christ, knowing it was true, believing all if having tasted of it, having seen it. All of the bounty of salvation was exposed to them. And they were just hanging there and they were talking about maybe going back because they were threatened by persecution, by ostrazation(?) from their former friends and family. And they're hanging on the fence and he says, "Wherefore as the Holy Spirit says today if you will hear His voice, harden not your hearts." Don't turn your back when you're right there ... as in the provocation, or as in the testing time, or as in the tempting in the trial in the wilderness.

And here's his illustration. Don't do what the children of Israel did. They were freed from the land, ready to enter into Canaan. They all died without entering cause they didn't believe God. They didn't think God could handle the people. They didn't think they could win the victory. They doubted the God who had parted the Red Sea. Don't do what they did, verse 9, when your fathers put Me to the test, proved Me, saw My works for 40 years. Those people continued to try to prove God. They were always saying, "God, prove, Yourself. God, prove Yourself." And He had proven Himself so many times it was ridiculous.

People who always look for miracles don't have great faith, that's just doubt looking for proof. In Numbers 14:22 it says: "Because all those men who have seen My glory and My miracles which I did in Egypt and in the wilderness, have put Me to the test now 10 times and have not hearkened to My voice, surely they shall not see the land which I swore to give unto their fathers, neither shall any of them that provoke Me see it." God says, "Look, I've proven Myself, this is unnecessary. This is simply your unbelief being evidenced, demanding, demanding more proof, more proof." And all the time in the wilderness when they wandered instead of believing God their hearts got harder and harder and harder. And the term that is used in verse 8, "the day of provocation," or the day of trial, literally means the day of provoking God, the day of temptation, covering the whole wandering period. Verse 11 says, "So I swore in My wrath, they will not enter My rest." God says, "They're not going into My land, they're not entering Canaan."

"Take heed, brethren," now the application, and he's speaking to Jewish brethren not fellow Christians. ‑Jewish brethren just on the fence, take heed, "Lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God." That's a warning against apostasy. Don't bail out now. "But exhort one another daily while it is called today, lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin for we have become partakers of Christ if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast to the end. While it is said today if you hear His voice, harden not your hearts as in the provocation, for who when they had heard did provoke, did not all that came out of Egypt by Moses but with whom was He grieved 40 years, was it not with them that had sinned, whose carcasses fell in the wilderness." For 40 years they provoked God and they provoked Him and they provoked Him and they died in the wilderness. Verse 19 says they never entered in because of unbelief.

God cut off a whole generation but Joshua and Caleb and those young ones. Cut them all off because of unbelief.

Chapter 4 verse 1 of Hebrews, "Let us therefore fear lest a promise being left of entering into His rest, any of you should seem to come short of it. For unto us was the gospel preached as well as unto them but the word preached did not profit the