Our Father, we are about to open
the Holy Book, the Book of All Books, the inspired Word of our
God, and read a passage for our instruction. And we pray that
You'll guide us in it, that our hearts be opened and attended
unto the Word of God this evening, how we pray that it might instruct
us, that we might see the things that come before us here, that
we might understand them better. And yet, Lord, knowing even now
that there is mystery about this, that we will be unable to look
into. We just ask You to bless Your
Word to our hearts and to the honor of Yourself and Your Son. For these things we pray in the
name of Christ, Amen. Alright, the first seven verses
of the epistle of Jude. A little book. but very, very
powerful. Jude, the servant of Jesus Christ
and brother of James, to them that are sanctified by God the
Father and preserved in Christ Jesus, and called, mercy unto
you and peace and love be multiplied. Beloved, when I gave all diligence
to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for
me to write unto you and exhort you that you should earnestly
contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints. For there are certain men, crept
in unawares, who were before Abel ordained to this condemnation,
ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness,
and denying the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ. I
will therefore put you in remembrance, though you once knew this, how
that the Lord, having saved the people out of the land of Egypt,
afterward destroyed them that believed not. And the angels,
which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation,
he hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness, under
the judgment of the great day. Even as Sodom and Gomorrah, and
the cities about them, in like manner giving themselves over
to fornication, and going after strange flesh, are set forth
for an example of suffering the vengeance of eternal fire. Now, our text is verse 6, principally. The angels, which kept not their
first estate, but left their own habitation, He hath reserved
in everlasting change unto darkness, unto the judgment of that great
day. The book of Jude is unusual. And someone has suggested that
this mighty little book tucked away here in the end of our Scripture
might well be regarded and called the Acts of the Apostates. Now, the book of Acts is a record
of the Acts of the Apostles in extending the Gospel. But here
in Jude, the Acts of the apostate. Here is the awful, awful acts
of apostasy away from God, and attached to them are the various
judgments that God has brought against those who apostatize,
who fall away, and who pervert the things of God or the order
of Almighty God. And we become aware of the importance
of this small but weighty epistle when we realize that this is
the only book in the Bible. Of all of those other books we
have, some large and small, this is the only one devoted exclusively
to the subject of apostasy. It is never lost sight of throughout
the book, one example after another. One sort of judgment after another
is brought before us. The rebellion of those against
God, and the open contempt for divine things, and the judgment
that God has put upon them. Well, other passages and epistles
do have accounts and warnings of apostasy and of falling away. There is a great one in Hebrews
6, verse 4 through 6, There's another great one in Hebrews
10 and verse 26-29. 2 Peter 2 runs greatly parallel
to this one of Luke. And then in 1 Timothy 4, verses
1-3, Paul there again, speaks of a day when false teachers
would abound and many would fall away and be drawn away. But when
the subject is apostasy, Jude is the one that we hear first. When we want to consider apostasy
in its nature and in its awfulness, we consult the book of Jude first. As one would consult a specialist
when plagued with a stubborn and a mysterious disease, one
wants someone that specializes in that particular field. Now,
the subject of apostasy and its judgment is not a pleasant one
for us to consider. And yet, is it necessary if we
preach the whole counsel of God? And it is Jude, more than anyone
else, who puts the whole history of apostasy in the Scripture
in its proper focus for our understanding. By the way, I'm using the word
apostate and the word apostasy, and we need to understand that
apostate is one who first professes a thing as if it were true, and
then turns from it and turns on it and repudiates it and talks
about it in a bad way. An apostate is one who has walked
in a certain way, then he turns away from it, and he abandons,
then he repudiates altogether what they had once professed
to be the truth of God. Now it has become my settled
persuasion over the years in studying it that the apostate
is the worst of all men. Let me say that again, that the
apostate is in the worst condition of any living man because apostasy
is the most flagrant sin that one might commit against God.
It is the most dishonoring to God. It is the most insulting
unto the Lord Jesus Christ. For example, to expand upon that,
the apostate is worse than the infidel, and worse than the idolater,
and worse even than the atheist, as some of these may later be
called by God's grace and converted. That apostasy is the worst of
all conditions that one might fall in before God, in that the
true and the full apostate is irrecoverable. And that's the
point that I want to make. Why? It is such an awful condition
that there is no remedy provided for the recovery of such as have
rejected with contempt the gospel of Christ, the way of God, and
such like." Now, especially is this true of the gospel apostate. In Hebrews chapter 6 and verse
6 are some of the most sobering words found anywhere. For it
is impossible, the author writes, for those who were once enlightened
tasted the heavenly gift. if they fall away, to renew them
again unto repentance. Seeing, or since, they crucify
afresh unto themselves the Son of God, and put Him to an open
shame." When those Jews turned away from the gospel way, when
they turned and went back, it was a crucifying of the Son of
God afresh and making Him to be put to an open shame. Why is the apostate from the
gospel in such an awful state and condition? Well, Hebrews
10.26, there is no other sacrifice for sin. When one espouses the
sacrifice of Christ and then throws it away, there is no other
sacrifice for sin. For those who apostatize away
from the gospel, They're under the awful judgment of God. And Hebrews chapter 10 and verse
31 says, it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the
living God. And that verse comes at the end
of that discussion of apostasy. Now, it is true that the second
epistle of Peter closely parallels the epistle of Jude from which
we have read. Peter and Jude both use some
of the same examples, they name some of the same persons, and
they name some of the same cases of apostasy. Both of them sound
the warning concerning false teachers, and it is also true
that both of them set forth the fall of a large number of the
angels." Both Peter and Jude consider the apostasy of the
angels. Now, coming to the epistle of
Jude, working our way up into our text and our subject, first
notice in verse 1, the author identifies himself for his readers
in a threefold way. His name is Jude, or some say
Judas. His spiritual state was a servant
of Jesus Christ. And finally, his kinship is a
brother of James. And Gil calls him one of the
twelve apostles. Now the designation of those
to whom he writes these things, he refers to them in verse 1
two, I believe it is, as the sanctified, the preserved, and
the called. That is, they're God's people,
they're saints, they are professing Christian, those that have been
called and had salvation applied to their soul and called out
of the world. The elect, in other words, whom
the Spirit of grace has quickened and converted and called them
to be a follower of Christ. Then notice the reason for the
writing of this epistle in the third verse. He says, I write
to exhort you that you earnestly contend for the faith which was
once delivered unto the saints. Now the faith here I take to
be the body of Christian doctrine. The doctrine of Christ or the
gospel or the common salvation. And says the apostle, This was
once delivered, and I think that is important. To whom was it
delivered? It was delivered to the saints
of God, the people of God, the children of God, them that are
called and preserved and sanctified in and through Christ. Now, for
whom was it delivered? Yes, for the sake of the children
of God. Not just in that time, but in
every time. Just as Paul says, in Romans
3 and verse 2, that unto the Jews were committed the oracles
of God. So here he said, unto them was
committed or delivered the word of the Lord, the faith. This
Paul mentions in Romans 3 as an advantage unto the Jew over
the Gentile in that unto them the Jew had been committed or
entrusted are put in their hand the Word of God. By oracles,
Paul means the Holy Scriptures in the Old Testament in that
particular place. Even so, Jude here, in his epistle,
said the faith was delivered unto the saints. Now, let's notice
how once delivered. Why does Paul say, or Jude say,
once delivered? Since it is declared over and
over and over. is declared in this place, in
new places, here and there, in the past on to the next generation,
the gospel, the faith. It means that the revelation
is complete, I believe, and that it is irrevocable. In fact, one
said, the faith will stand forever because it is, quote, irrevocably
delivered, unquote. This faith, this word, this gospel,
this teaching, William Jenkins, in his very large commentary
on Jude, had this to say about the meaning of the word, once. And those Puritans had a way
of saying things, but he said this, quote, once and no more,
once and for all, once and not again, once and only once, unquote. Now you can't put it any clearer
than that. A thing that is done so completely
and so perfectly that it never needs repeating again. This puts the faith delivered
to the saint in the same category as the death of Christ who died
one time. Christ died one and only one
death. And it's emphasized in Hebrews
9 and verse 28. Christ was once offered to bear
the sins of many. Hebrews 10 and verse 10 has the
same thing again. The offering up of Christ once
for all. Same word that we have here in
Jude. This saying that the faith was
once delivered unto the saints means it will not only not be
delivered ever again, but it will ever remain the same. There will be no new revelation.
There will be no addition to it. I don't care how smooth-mouthed
is the preacher who claims that he has new and divine revelation. It is once for all delivered
to the saints of God, and this is the gospel, this is the doctrine
that we are to preach and that we are to worship by. Now, coming
to verse 4, And we see that it begins with far, or literally,
because, which introduces the reason why Jude so exhorts the
saints to contend for the faith once delivered unto them, that
is, the Christian doctrine. To stand firm, to recognize and
then resist the heresies of the apostate teachers who might come
among them. The reason is this. Earnestly
contend because. Earnestly contend on this account,
for there are certain men crept in, a certain number of them. And notice, they have stealthily
crept in. They have crept in, as it were,
the back door, silently, unnoticed, without pretension. They have
crept in in a secretive way. in a subtle and a deceitful manner. They have come in, perhaps, under
the cover of a Christian profession, saying, yes, we are one of you. And then, after gaining the ear
of the people by gainsaying words, they begin to instill their errors
and inject their eleven. And their main charge concerning
them is, They have turned the grace of God into lasciviousness,
and denying the Lord Jesus Christ, and He speaks of their condemnation
for doing that. Then in verse 5, the apostle
begins to remind them of a few examples of God's judgment against
apostates in olden times. And we notice that the first
are the Jews who perished in the wilderness, the apostate
angels who fell, and the pederasts in Sodom and Gomorrah. And in each case, he gives their
condemnation, or the judgment that God heaped upon them. Now,
we want to focus from now on on verse 6, and that is the apostate
angels, for Jude takes his readers into the unseen world, if you
will, and the amazing account of some angels which fell from
their original state or habitation. Now, why does Jude use the example
of the angels? What impression can that make
upon men? They are not human beings, so
what can there be in their case that is pertinent to Jude's line
of reasoning or of teaching. For he warns of certain men,
men, human teachers, who creep into the assembly, yet these
angels are not teachers, nor do they creep into the assembly.
Perhaps it lies in this. Why does Jude mention them? It
may have to do with their dignity. the highness of the privilege
and the closeness with which they stood to God, that the guilt
is the greater because their privileges were the greater and
the higher. And who would think that any
of the holy angels in heaven that God had created would fall
from such a high estate and come under the judgment of God? that they would be cast off in
that forever, and that they would suffer eternal punishment. Are not even the angels in heaven
immune from defection? My, that's a powerful argument
then, if some of the angels were not immune from defection. This
can teach us that former dignity and former privileges, though
much glorified in, cannot give one an exemption should they
apostatize from their calling. With this in mind, let's consider
the two cases here in verse 5 and verse 6. Two separate incidents,
one greater than the other. Now, in verse 5, how God saved,
how God delivered the people out of Egypt, but afterwards,
destroyed the ones who believe not. I'm going to turn to 1 Corinthians
10. If you'd like to turn there,
there's a very interesting passage of Scripture that runs closely
along this line and parallel under this. 1 Corinthians 10,
and I will be reading verse 1-5, and listen carefully to what
Paul has to say. 1 Corinthians 10, 1-5. Moreover,
brethren, I would not that you should be ignorant, how that
all of our fathers were under the cloud, and all passed through
the sea, and all were baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in
the sea, and did all eat the same spiritual meat, and did
drink the same spiritual drink, For they drank of that spiritual
rock that followed them, and that rock was Christ. What privileges they had! But
listen to verse 5. With many of them God was not
well pleased, for they were overthrown in the wilderness. Now notice
something. They all passed out. They all went through the sea.
ate the heavenly manna that came down, and they all saw the fire
and the cloud of God that led them here and led them there.
They all saw the mighty hand of God and that in many miracles. But Paul says, with many of them
God was not well pleased. And Hebrews 3.17, their carcasses
fell in the wilderness. And in Hebrews 3 and verse 18
and 3 and 11, He swore to them in His wrath that they would
not enter into His rest. You remember sending them up
to go view out Canaan? I think it's probably Numbers
14. And they came back trembling,
most of them, and said, the people are giants and we're like grasshoppers. Many of them, God was not well
pleased. And this refers to that God swore
to them that they should not enter into His wrath. And they
wandered in the wilderness forty years until all of that generation
was dead before God took them in. But in the case of the angels,
there is made an arrangement or argument here from the greater
to the lesser, that the Most High God spared not even the
angels that sinned, in spite of them having been created in
great number as excellent beings, and residing in heaven, and once
serving about the throne of Almighty God, in spite of that. And the
point to be made from this question, our greater lesser argument,
which we have here, greater to the lesser, is if God spared
not the angels that sinned, neither will He spare the apostate from
the gospel. If the angels apostatized and
fell under eternal judgment, how much more they who count
Christ an unholy thing in His blood." Now in Peter's parallel
passage, in 2 Peter chapter 2, he says that the judgment of
God against apostates is not idle and it is not sleeping. It is not idle and it is not
sleeping. That's in verse 3. And to support
that, Peter then in that chapter gives three examples. Verse 4,
2 Peter 2, that if God spared not the angels that sinned. Verse 5, that if God spared not
the old world, in Noah's day, and verse 6, He spared not the
cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, then the implication is all gospel
apostates will also receive their just due. At this point, let
us put the apostasy of some of the angels on hold for the time
being and take time to consider A couple of things concerning
the angels or the angelic family. Number one, let's think of their
origin. How they receive their being. To whom do they owe their existence? What is the source of their being
and of their existence? Surely we can't deny that even
the angels owe their existence to the creative power of the
sovereign God. For without it was not anything
made that was made, except that God made it. When were they given
being? Gil reminds us that Genesis 2
and verse 1 says this, Thus were the heavens plural, and the earth
were finished, and all the hosts of heaven. And some might relegate
that to the stars, sun, and moon. But there are other places of
many where the host of heaven include the angels, such as Luke
2 and verse 13. We read of the heavenly host
that celebrated and glorified at the birth of Jesus. As to
their nature, they are spiritual beings and incorporeal beings,
though we have instances of them able to appear. in the form of
men as they did to Abraham in Genesis chapter 18. And Hebrews
13 and 2 exhorts us to entertain strangers because some have entertained
angels unaware, perhaps referring to Abraham. It was an angel that
came and delivered Lot out of the city of Sodom and hastened
him away. Now, as to their service, They
are called messengers of God. And in the Hebrew word, there
are some very interesting things that are said about the angels,
such as in Hebrews 1 verse 7, quoted from Psalms 104 and verse
4, who makes his angels' spirit and his ministers a flame of fire." Hebrews 1.14,
that the angels, our ministering spirit, sent forth or out to
render service or to minister to them who are the heirs of
salvation. That is, who are to be saved. They serve at God's will and
at God's disposal and of which we have many examples in the
Scripture. But the second thing now about
them Paul makes an amazing statement with regard to angels. I think
it is amazing. See what you think. 1 Timothy
chapter 5 and verse 21, Paul speaks of this. I charge you
before God and the Lord Jesus Christ and the elect angels. Now let's look at that a bit.
The elect angel. His chosen angels, if you will. So that not only do we read of
an election and reprobation among the human family, but also among
the angelic family. For if there are elect, and not
all are elect, then the rest are reprobate. Paul mentions
here the most honorable witness to his charge. the most noble
and glorious, and that is three, God, the Son Jesus Christ, and
elect angel. Now this cannot refer to the
whole body of angels, every one that God made, for if they were
confirmed in election, it had not been possible for them to
defect from God or revolt from their Maker and become sinful
and evil and be everlastingly condemned and destroyed. Now,
as an example of the term elect used in reference to mankind,
it makes a distinction for all men are not elect. And besides,
the very word elect means to choose out or select out from
a greater number or from the whole. Otherwise, the word elect
loses its meaning if it's applied to the whole body or every one. Thus Paul speaks of elect angels,
and he refers to some but not all. Angels upon whom God had
bestowed a great majestic blessing. And how can we deny that this
was an act of divine sovereignty on God's part? There being a
difference put between the angelic family. For by this way there
is an undeniable example here of God electing out of the pure
mass. If you'd like to make an argument
for supralapsarianism in the human family, I think here is
a point. That God elected the angels not
after some fell, but out of the pure, original mass. Gil is one of a few expositors
that I have read, and there may be others, that deals with a
confirmation of the elect angels to any extent. Here are parts
of the thoughts of that chapter that he has written, that having
elected them, they were immutably fixed in the state of constant
and abiding obedience and holiness unto their God. God elected elect
angels, confirming them then that they would not ever be among
those who fell. But as several texts tell us,
there is the sin and the fall of the non-elect angel, even
though they were originally in the same state and condition
of the other. Let's put some Scripture to this,
such as they are called in 2 Peter 2, verse 4, The angels that sinned. Notice that. The angels that
sinned. Not men, but the angels that
sinned. In Jude 6, the angels which kept
not their first estate, but left their first or own habitation. Notice in the margin of your
Bibles that habitation might be rendered principality. or
it might be rendered dominion. They left their own habitation,
or their principality, or their dominion. And some translate
the two words as rule and habitation. They left their first rule and
their habitation. And one version of the Scripture
has them domain and proper abode. They left their domain and their
proper abode. Some, such as William Jenkins,
who wrote largely on every verse, contend that the words used sometimes
mean principality, and sometimes the word means beginning, he
says in the Greek, and means or answers to the word first
estate in Colossians 1 and verse 16. This they left And so, Manton
wrote, they are fallen from the condition of their original excellency
and integrity. Remember that the Lord said in
John 8 and verse 44, of the devil, get this, that he abode not in
the truth. Satan, the devil, John 8, verse
44, abode not in the truth. That is, he stood Not in the
truth. He fell like lightning from heaven,
as the Lord said in Luke 10, 18. And because Lucifer stood
not in the truth, those that follow after him and serve him
will not be in the truth. Because he is a liar, he is the
father of it, and lied from the beginning. It was by lies that
he deceived our mother Eve, was it not? How sin entered the creation
of God is a thing which taxes our understanding. We might as
well admit that. We might as well admit when we
think of sin entering into the creation of God, in Lucifer,
in the angel, then into the world and the Adamic family, how sin
entered is mysterious to us. We can believe it, but how do
we know it? We understand Eve sinned because
she had a tempter. And we don't know if the angels
that sinned followed the example of another. But we know that
Lucifer sinned without example or without temptation from without. Why? How could those angels sin? The answer some would give us
is if they are not God. Because they're not God, they
can sin only because they are immutable. God is immutable. They are mutable, the creatures
of God. There is this difference between
the holiness of God and the holiness of those that He has created
in that God's holiness is both innate and immutable. He has it because He is God,
and because He is God and has it, it is immutable. His holiness,
that is, that of God, is uncreated. That of the angels is created,
and that is the difference. And they retain it just so long
as God upholds them by His great and sovereign will. Now, their
punishment. We put both apostles together,
Peter and Jude. And we see that they're cast
down to hell, delivered into the chains of darkness, reserved
unto a day of judgment. Jude verse 6, reserved in everlasting
chains unto the judgment of the last day. Peter uses a word for
hell that stumps me because it is only used in this particular
place. But the thing is, they are without
remedy. These angels that fell, are cast
forever from the presence of God because Hebrews 2 and verse
16 says, Christ took not hold of angels. There is no remedy
provided for the sin of the angels. There is for that of mankind,
but there is no remedy for the sin of the angels. They are irretrievably
cast away. Now, I went a little bit long
for the second service, but I want to I can't deal with them, but
just raise four questions. You might say, why didn't you
answer them? Well, here they are. Number one, when did they
fall? When did these angels apostatize
and fall? Before or after creation. Number two, what was the essence
of their sin? Was it rebellion, disbelief,
stubbornness? What? Number three, how many
fell? We don't know. Some say a third
fell. And number four, are these the
demons that we meet with in the scripture? For we read that they
are cast under chains of darkness. Interesting subject, the angels
that sinned. And they are a mighty, powerful
example for any who would fling away the truth of God and leave
the gospel, the judgment of God upon such All right, let's bow
our heads together, please, for a word of final prayer.