Judgment Ahead For Apostates
Jude 14-16
In days when false teaching is so prevalent, there is a great need to preach the truth. The apostle Paul, in II Timothy 4:2-4 talks about the last days and he says, "Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season:, reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables."
Paul says in days of apostasy, preach the word. Those days will be days when people will have itching ears. They will want to hear messages that are pleasing. They will want to hear messages that are ear-tickling, but Paul says preach messages that are spine-tingling. Preach the Word. In days of apostasy strong preaching is needed like the preaching of Jude.
Enoch is an Old Testament character mentioned in the book of Jude, verse 14. What do you know about Enoch? Probably you remember the account in Genesis 5 which tells us about this man, Enoch. He was as Jude tells us the seventh from Adam. The Old Testament tells us that this man, Enoch, lived in days of apostasy. Enoch lived right before the days of the flood. He was in that age, that period of time just before God judged the world in Old Testament times with a flood that covered the earth and in those days Enoch was a man who dared to live for God.
In days of pollution and corruption when the majority of people were going according to the culture of the time, Enoch dared to be different. Enoch walked with God, the Bible says. That proves to us that it is possible in days of apostasy for believers to walk in close fellowship with God. In fact, the Bible says that Enoch walked with God and that God took him, that he was translated and he was no more on the earth.
Enoch, then, becomes a picture to us in the Bible of the event we know as the rapture. The Bible says just before the days of judgment come in the end time, there is going to be a rapture and God's children are going to be caught away. God's children are going to be raptured away and then judgment will come. So, Enoch is an illustration to us that it is possible in days of apostasy to live in close fellowship with God, to walk with God.
What else do you know about Enoch? We also learn from verse 14 that Enoch was a preacher--that he was a prophet of God -- that he spoke the Word of God in his day. He prophesied -- that's past tense. That means that's something he did back in the Old Testament.
That’s a rather interesting statement. Enoch prophesied back in his day about the coming of the Lord and about the coming of judgment. We have no record of this particular statement in the Old Testament. Nowhere will you find, in the Old Testament, that Enoch preached this particular message as Jude reveals to us. But Jude tells us that’ what he did.
So, Enoch prophesied we are told here and he prophesied a message of judgment to come at the coming of the Lord. Isn't that interesting?
In a day of apostasy, in days when people like Paul predicted would come in our day, Enoch preached a message that was unpopular.
Wonder what he said? I think we can get a little peek into it by what Jude records here.
Let's notice -
I. The Substance Of The Prophecy
What did Enoch prophesy to his day? What are the truths that can be gleaned from the substance of this prophecy that will speak to us in our day also? He says, "Behold the Lord comes with ten thousands of his saints."
The reference is obviously not to the first coming of Jesus. The Old Testament predicted the first coming of Jesus and it also predicted the second coming of Jesus. But when you read the Old Testament prophets you will find that sometimes they viewed both of these comings of Jesus Christ as if they were one event.
Remember, the Old Testament writers had no knowledge of the church and what God was planning in regard to it. It was a mystery to them.
So when they talked about the coming of the Lord, I’m not sure they recognized there would be His coming, then a break concluding with the ascension, followed by the church age, and then a Second Coming.
So, here is Enoch in the very early days of the earth, saying far more than he could ever have imagined. He says, "behold the Lord comes with ten thousands of His saints." Not His first coming to be the Savior. But His second coming is to be the judge. He says he comes with His saints.
Now when Jesus was on this earth He specifically predicted that He was going to come back again. John 14 has comforted so many of our hearts in times of bereavement and sorrow. Jesus said, "Let not your heart be troubled, you believe in God believe also in me. In my father's house are many mansions. If it were not so I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you and if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you unto myself."
That is a promise from our Savior, the Lord Jesus
Christ Himself. He came the first time. He has promised He is going to come again the second time.
Then, when the Lord ascended back to heaven, his followers were standing there and two men in white apparel, angels we believe, said ye men of Galilee, why stand you gazing up into heaven. This same Jesus who is taken up from you into heaven shall so come in like manner as you have seen Him go into heaven."
So the watch word of the early church became, "The Lord is coming, the Lord is coming." In fact, early Christian believers had a little word that they shared with one another. Sometimes when they would dismiss their fellowships they would whisper in one another's ear, "Maranatha." Sometimes in meetings they would say to one another, "Maranatha." That means -- the Lord coming.
That was their watchword. They lived in the expectancy of the return of our Lord Jesus Christ. And here is Enoch, centuries before the first coming of Christ prophesying that he's going to come with ten thousands of his saints. Literally the phrase means "with myriads of His holy ones." Myriads -- an inestimable number of his holy ones.
Down through the ages there have been a lot of skeptics who’ve doubted whether the Lord is really coming again. To me, one of the most compelling reasons to believe that is all the fulfilled Old Testament prophecy about His first coming. Someone who has counted them has said there are over 330 of them. I haven't counted them, I'll take their word. You can take all 330 plus of the predictions that were made hundreds of years before the time of Christ, about the first coming of Jesus Christ. They go into detail.
They tell you just exactly where He would be born. They tell you exactly the manner in which he would be born. Minute details about the first coming of the Lord Jesus Christ that could not be accidental. The mathematical possibilities and probabilities of all those over 300 prophecies being fulfilled in one person are absolutely astronomical and yet, when Jesus came He fulfilled those prophecies in full.
Not a one of them was left unfulfilled.
If it was that way at His first coming, His second coming is as sure, more sure, than His first coming. The Lord comes with ten thousands of His saints.
I get excited when I think about this second coming of this Lord Jesus Christ.
Someone asks, "Preacher, don't you think you're an escapist when you talk about getting out of here before the judgment falls?" I've got news for you, friends, this old world is going to get so bad before it's over that all of us are going to be looking for the EXIT signs to get out of here. I may not be right (I think I am, and I’m in good company), so I may not be right, but you better pray I am!
So here is Enoch’s message: First of all, the Lord is coming. But notice secondly, He’s coming to judge.
Verse 15
Who's the judge? Jesus.
He's coming "to execute judgment upon all and to convict all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds."
And notice the use of that word, ALL. It means that there will be none excluded from this judgment. He is saying that all of the ungodly are going to be judged in the future.
What about us? All of us are going to have to face God. Yes. But I have some good news for you. There are two ways to face God.
You can face God without Jesus in your sins, or you can face God with Jesus covering your sins.
If you are in Christ that means that your sins were already judged 2,000 years ago on Calvary's cross. My case was settled out of court.
But the emphasis in these verses is on unbelievers, all the ungodly will be judged.
Notice the repetition of the word, ungodly. He uses that word four times in that 15th verse. It means those without any reverence for God. Now he's talking in particular about the apostates, but this statement extends to all who do not know our Lord; all who do not have any time for Jesus; all who are not interested in the claims of Christ upon their lives.
He says He'll execute judgment on all and He will convict all. That means He will prove and establish guilt beyond question. They'll have no defense. They will absolutely be speechless as they stand guilty before God.
The world doesn’t like guilt. Michelle Bachman’s comments this week prove that. She dared to suggest that jhurricanes and earthquakes might be God’s way of judging Washington, and all hell broke loose. The same thing happened when Jerry Falwell spoke of the events of 9/11 in the same way.
We don’t like guilt. And I would agree that guilt is one of the most painful emotions of the human personality. But on the other hand, guilt can be a very beneficial thing. Guilt is to the soul what pain is to the body. You have a pain. What does that pain tell you?
There's a problem somewhere in your body. Pain is simply the attention getter to notify you of a problem somewhere.
Likewise guilt can be a healthy thing. I'm not talking about self-imposed guilt. Some people beat themselves to death with self-imposed guilt. Not talking about that kind of guilt. I'm talking about guilt which a genuine symptom of a deeper problem of sin.
If there is guilt in your heart, it may be that God is wanting you to look to some symptom beneath the surface of your life. It may be a cry of your soul to God letting you know that you need His forgiveness and His salvation.
One of these days, judgment will come and all the world will be guilty. The apostates will stand guilty before God. All unsaved people will stand guilty before God. He says that this judgment will be in reference to the ungodly deeds which they have committed through their ungodly ways.
Then, in particular, he mentions their harsh or had words and speeches. The word hard or harsh is the word from which we get our word, cirrhosis. Cirrhosis of the liver, hardening of the liver.
Notice, specifically it is harsh, hateful words spoken against God. Isn’t that amazing? The Lord, Jesus Christ who came into this world, never did an unkind thing, never said an unkind word, did nobody bad--everybody good, went to the cross and on that cross took the sins, not only of the whole world, but these very people who are mocking and blaspheming His holy name.
Yet, they are speaking these harsh, hard, words against Him. God says there will come a time of judgment and accounting before a holy God. This is not popular in days of apostasy. It wasn’t popular in Enoch’s day, and yet he prophesied.
That’s the Substance of his prophecy. Now very quickly, let’s see -
II. The Subjects of the Prophecy
verse 16
There are some statements here in verse 16 that give us some of the characteristics of the apostates.
"These are murmurers and complainers." That's the apostates' disposition. So, if you and I are murmurers and complainers we are living and behaving like the apostates do. Murmurers. Most interesting word. It was used to describe the cooing of doves, quietly making racket in the background.
Literally, the word, murmur, means an undercurrent of constant griping. It's what children do sometimes when they get unhappy with their parents. You've told them to do something and they aren't happy about it. So they off over there grumbling and murmuring. It's what Israel did in the Old Testament against God.
Then notice the word complainers. That's an interesting word, too. That means those who are constantly complaining about their lot in life. Some translate the word, complainer, here -- bellyachers.
One of the Greek writers described these kinds of people in an interesting little statement. "You are satisfied by nothing that befalls you. You complain about everything. You don't want what you have and you love for what you haven't. In winter you wish it were summer. In summer you wish it were winter. These who are discontent, never satisfied, that's apostate behavior.
Listen, as good as God has been to us, we don't have anything to complain about. AMEN? That's the kind of behavior God wants us to have. So, don't have apostate disposition.
Then he says, Don't have apostate desires. "Walking according to their own lusts." The word, lusts, there means strong passions. It includes sexual lust, but it's much bigger than this.
It includes anything that you set your affections on or that you desire. He's saying that apostate behavior is characterized by living in such a way that all you want to do is just fulfill your own selfish desires.
We are not to live to do just what pleases us. We are to live to do what pleases God. We are not here to just carry out our will, we're here to carry out His will.
Next phrase: "They mouth great swelling words, flattering people to gain advantage." They make up things. They lie, if necessary. They flatter people to get what they want. That's apostate behavior. He is saying that you and I as Christians are not to live that way.
So in days of apostasy strong preaching is needed. In days of apostasy people, strong prophets are needed as well. Mena nd women who walk and talk as Enoch did.
Judgment is coming one of these days.
In this day, the great question is - what will you do with Jesus?
But in that day the question will become - what will He do with you?
Let’s pray
