Well, let's look here again at
Jude. Our subject tonight is three
warnings, three warnings, three examples of warnings. That's
what he says, you know, having saved the people out of the land
of Egypt, the angels that kept not their first estate, and even
of Sodom and Gomorrah. We see that the most treacherous,
subtle enemy is the one on the inside. For there are certain
men crept in unawares. Oh, my, ungodly men turned the
grace of God into lascivious, denying the Lord that bought
them. You know, our Lord Jesus says that a man, while he slept,
he sowed some seed, and while he slept, and he got up the next
morning, and there were some tares among it. And tares just
look almost like the real thing, but it's not, don't have no fruit
on it. And they said, let's go tear them up. And he says, no,
let them alone. Let them alone. Because if you
do, you'll get up the wheat with the tears. So there's tears that
Satan sows among the wheat. And our Lord warned us about
wolves who come in sheep's clothing. And then it talked about here
that they deny the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ. Now, nobody except very few people
don't deny the Lord openly. These men don't deny the Lord
openly. No, no. They use his word just like we
do. But all the true gospel is denied. The gospel of the grace of God
is denied. True grace is denied. And to
deny Christ is to be without God, to be without hope in this
world. And what they deny is the power
of the blood of Christ. They deny the effectual work
of Christ, the blood of Christ, the particular redemption of
Christ, the election of grace. They deny all those things. They'll
preach that, yes, Jesus died, but he died for everybody. Yes,
his blood is good and it'll work for you, but it won't do you
any good unless you got faith to mix with it. Unless you got
repentance to mix with it. Unless you got some works to
mix with it. And your faith and your repentance and your works
will make the blood of Christ effectual if you use it. So they
don't deny Him openly. They deny the redemptive work
of Christ. They deny it. Not just by their
words, but also by their works. And God called us with a holy
calling And I tell you what, this holy calling has something
to do with the way we view Christ and the way we view God's word
and the way we view the way our Lord Jesus died for his people.
Now look what he says in verse 5. He said, I will put you in remembrance. I will therefore put you in remembrance. And look what else he says. I'm
going to put you in remembrance, though you once knew this. You
knew it. This is not something you know. I'm just putting you in remembrance
of something you already knew. Something you already know. And
that's the way it is, you know. And there's a certain fear for
looking of judgment for those talks about. Those who don't
contend for the faith. Those who deny the Lord Jesus
Christ. Those who turn the grace of God
into lasciviousness. And I'll tell you something.
Men cannot contend what they don't know. They can't contend
for what they don't know. They cannot contend for what
they don't know. And yet, they're without excuse. If ever a man's
without excuse, he gives three examples and three great warnings
of people and what will happen to them through unbelief, through
not contending for the faith, to turn the grace of God into
lasciviousness. deny the Lord Jesus Christ in
any way, in any way. And He gives us three examples,
and oh my, He gives these examples to prove the danger of falling
away from the faith, falling away from the truth, turning
from the common salvation, going from the faith that's once delivered
to the things. And He gives us three examples.
He gives us Israel, and their murmuring, the apostate angels,
and Sodom and Gomorrah. And these things are given us
for our warning, for our examples. Now you keep Jude and look over
in 1 Corinthians chapter 10. Go in 1 Corinthians chapter 10.
Look what happens now. That's what
he said, I want to put you in remembrance. So you know these
things. You know Paul's talking here
to the Corinthians about these people, these people that left
Israel, they all had the same meat, they all had manna sent
down from heaven. They all drank from the rock,
the Lord Jesus Christ. And but it said in verse 5 here,
1 Corinthians 5, but with many of them God was not well pleased
for they were overthrown in the wilderness. Now these things
were our examples to the intent that we should not lust after
evil things as they also lusted. Don't be idolaters as were some
of them. As it is written, the people
sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play. Neither let
us commit fornication. This fornication he's talking
about is spiritual fornication. and some of them committed and
fell in one day, 23,000, one day. Neither let us tempt Christ,
as some of them also tempted and were destroyed of serpents.
Listen to this one now. Neither murmur, as some of them
also murmured and were destroyed of the destroyers. Now all these
things happened unto them for their samples, And they are written
for our admonition, for our warning, upon whom the ends of the world
are come. Wherefore, take heed that he
that thinketh he standeth, lest you fall yourself. And so he
gives us these warnings. These are examples. And all the
destruction, this destruction that God sent and he destroyed
these people should make us be still and know that I am God. You know, God's justice is the
same as it was then. God's wrath is the same as it
was then. God's immutability is the same
as it is then. The same power He used to destroy
all these things. You know, He says, though we
may deny Him, He cannot deny Himself. He'll abide faithful.
Now, what that means is that we may deny Him in words sometimes,
and may deny Him in works that we do sometimes. We may deny
Him when we get an opportunity to witness for Him, but we don't
do it. But when Christ dwells, where the Holy Spirit dwells
with the gospel, and Christ dwells in a man, God cannot, though
we may sometimes deny Him, He cannot deny us. He cannot deny
Himself. Himself in us, Himself that's
in us, He cannot deny Himself. I and my Father are one, and
I will abide with you. So God, if we may, oh my goodness,
how much a mess we've made out of our lives at times. And yet,
God abides faithful. He cannot deny where His work's
at. He cannot deny Himself what He's
done in our hearts and in our lives. That's what He's talking
about. He cannot deny us. Wherever He's
done the work, He will. That's why He said, I'm not ashamed
to be called their brother. He said, God's not ashamed to
be called their God. Now you think about that. I've
done things that I'm ashamed of, but God said I'm not ashamed
to be called their God. I'm not ashamed to be called
their brethren. And oh my, be still and know
that God, now He has the same power to destroy. And with all
the changes in this world, one thing that absolutely never changes,
that's God. God cannot change. He doesn't
have the ability to. And oh my, you know the same
God that struck Ananias and Sapphira down for lying. That made Zacharias dumb for
unbelief when the angel come and said, your wife's going to
have a baby. John the Baptist, who's going to be? He didn't
believe it. God said, well, I'll strike you
dumb. And you won't have a word to say until that child's born.
And then when they open up your mouth, you're going to tell what
the child's going to be named. And he kept Moses out of the
promised land because Moses got rash and said, must I strike
this stone again, this rock again for you? And God kept him out of the promised
land because you don't strike that rock but one time. Christ
was smitten just one time. And oh my goodness. And he turns
Lot's wife into a pillar of salt just for looking back. And oh,
look what he says here in verse one, five. I will therefore put
you in remembrance, put you in remembrance. That's what preachers
are calling to do, to put people to remember, to remember. And then he says, though you
once knew this, or you once knew this. You know, look over in
2 Peter chapter one, verse 12. 2 Peter 1, verse 12. He says this three times in three
verses, putting people in remembrance. And that's what preachers are
called to do. He said here in 2 Peter 1, 12,
wherefore I will not be negligent to put you always in remembrance
of these things, though you know them. and be established in the
present too. As long as I'm in this body,
I want to stir you up by putting you in remembrance. Shortly,
I've got to die myself, so I want to put you in remembrance. Remembrance,
all these things in remembrance. You know, with our Lord Jesus
Christ, he says, as often as it, when he's talking about taking
the Lord's table, as often as you do this, do it in what? Remembrance of me. Remembrance. Remember God's mercies in Christ,
the free salvation that he provided. We preach the same thing over
and over and over. Remember the works of the Holy
Spirit, bringing things to our remembrance. And you know why
we have to be reminded so much and deal with things over and
over and over again? Because we're so forgetful. Oh, how forgetful we are. And
I'm probably the worst in the bunch. I was looking for something
today in my office back there. I was looking for it and I thought,
I'm sure I know where it was. But I got four boxes of outlines
in there and I looked through every one of them and couldn't
find what I wanted. And you know what I did? I forgot
where I put them and then I remembered where I put them. And so, you know, I found everything
I wanted, you know, but that's what I'm talking about. You know,
it's so easy for us to forget. You know, we have a service,
and I put people in mind and remembrance and bring things
that you all know these things, but yet you want to hear them
over and over and over again. You know them. And that's what
you knew this. And how did these men know this?
How do we know these things? And why do we have to be put
in remembrance? You know, we're so forgetful.
And though you knew this, is what he says, how did they know
it? They knew it, first of all, from the scriptures. They knew
it from the scriptures. Secondly, they know it from being
told over and over and over again. And I'll tell you something,
what they knew, look what it says there. In verse 5, I will
therefore put you in remembrance, though you once knew this, though
you once knew this, that the Lord, having saved the people
out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed them that believed.
And they said, you know, having known that the Lord having saved
the people. He didn't say his people, the
people. and then destroyed them that
believed not. You know, God's chosen people.
He chose Israel out of all the other nations, and He chose them. They called them His covenant
people. He told Abraham, He said, before Abraham died, He said,
your children, your seed is going to go down into a strange land,
and they're going to stay down there 430 years, and then I'm
going to go down and get them. He told Abraham, 430 years later,
I'll go down and get these people. I'll go down and get them. He
called them his elect nation. They had the law. He called them
a holy nation. And he miraculously saved them
from Egypt. Oh, all the plagues that he brought
on Egypt, and the night he brought them out, They had to have a
Passover lamb. They had to be brought out by
blood. And they had to be brought out by power. And God miraculously
saved them from Egypt. But look what it says, afterward
destroyed them that believed not. He destroyed them for the
unbelief and their rebellion and their evil. God destroyed
them in the wilderness. I want you to look with me in
Numbers chapter 14. Numbers chapter 14. It's the third book in the Old
Testament, Numbers 14. And look what he says. Look what God says. Look down here
in verse 27. The Lord said to Moses and Aaron, how long shall
I bear with this evil congregation which murmur against me? I've
heard the murmurings of the children of Israel, which they murmur
against me. Look what he said in verse 29.
Your carcasses shall fall in this wilderness, and all that
were numbered of you according to your whole number from 20
years old and up, which have murmured against me. Oh, my. And then look what he said down
here in verse 35. I the Lord have said I will surely
do it unto all this evil congregation that are gathered together against
me in this wilderness and they shall be consumed and there they
shall die. And the men which Moses went
to search out the land who returned and made all the congregation
to murmur against by bringing him up from by all the congregation
to murmur against him by bringing up a slander upon the land. Even those men that did bring
up the evil report upon the land died by the plague before the
Lord." I mean, boy, I tell you what, that's murmuring and complaining. God called them an evil congregation. And I tell you, people still
murmur against God, still murmur against him. And oh my, I don't
care how privileged a person is, how strong a profession they
may have to have, that will not keep a rebel from the wrath of
God. He won't do it. And how dangerous
it is to sin against God's mercy, God's promises. They provoked
him at the Red Sea. They provoked God at the Red
Sea. They said, You brought us out of here for us to die in
the wilderness. They hadn't been out. They got out of Egypt and
got to the Red Sea, and they turned on God before they got
out of all of Egypt. They turned around and said,
You brought us out here just to die. Just to die. And all the cause
of their destruction, they believed not. That's why He destroyed
them. Ain't that what He said here in verse 5 of Jude, oh,
people out of the land of Egypt afterward destroyed them that
believed not. They believed not. I'll tell
you what our Lord said in Mark chapter six. Mark chapter six. It's what our Lord said about
unbelief. Mark chapter six, verse five. what he says here. Oh my, God destroyed them because
they believed not. And he could there do no mighty
works, save that he laid his hands upon a few sick folks and
healed them. And he marveled because of their
unbelief. And he went around the villages
teaching. He said he couldn't do no works. Why? Because of unbelief. He
marveled at their unbelief. Nothing, nothing honors God more
than faith does. Nothing honors God more than
faith does. Abraham believed God. And I'll
tell you what, to believe God, to believe what he says, to believe
his word, to believe what he says about anybody, anytime,
anywhere, and how he deals with people in this world. I'll tell
you what, nothing honors God more than faith. Nothing does.
And nothing dishonors him more than unbelief. He that believeth
not God hath made him a liar, is what God himself said. And
I'll tell you, I'm going to show you something else here in Luke
chapter 7. Luke chapter 7. This is another one of those
things. I'll tell you what faith does. What faith does, Luke chapter
7, verse 27. This is he of whom it is written,
Behold, I send my messenger before thy face, which shall prepare
thy way before thee. For I say unto thee, that thou
art a born of woman, there is not a greater prophet than John
the Baptist, but he that is least in the kingdom of God is greater
than he. And listen to this now, and all
the people that heard him and the publicans justified God. What God does is right, that's
what he's saying. What God does is right. Being
baptized with the baptism of John. They believed John's message,
and he talked about Christ, and he believed him. He believed
him. And they justified God. God's
right in what he does. We's right in having John the
Baptist come and preaching what he was preaching. But all this
is what the next verse says. But the Pharisees and lawyers
rejected the counsel of God against themselves, being not baptized
of Him. They rejected what God said.
They rejected God's will. Oh, my. But I tell you, believers,
they justify God in anything He does. They justify Him. Yes, God's right. Now look down
at the next one here. Here's the second great warning.
And the angels will have kept not their first estate, but left
their own habitation. He hath reserved an everlasting
change under darkness, under the judgment of the great day."
Can you imagine angels? Angels are created beings, but
they're not created like us. God has elect angels. But you
imagine angels that God made and they lived in heaven. They
lived in the presence of God. They lived in the light of God.
They lived where Christ was. They lived there. And Satan,
the son of the morning, the scriptures tells us in Revelations 12 and
also in Daniel chapter 8, that he took a third of the stars
with him when he fell. And, oh, my, they was way up
there, way up there. But you know what they did? They
left. They left their first estate. This was the estate they stood
in the presence of God. And this they left their state.
And they fell. They fell all the way down. They
fell so far. And they dwelt in the light of
God, in the presence of God. It was a high place, an honorable
place, and a happy place. And yet they left it. They left
it. They deserted their places of
honor, unwilling. Here's what their problem was,
unwilling to be subject to God. If you not read Isaiah 14, when
you get home, you read about Isaiah 14, about Lucifer falling. You know what his problem was?
He didn't want to be under subjection to God Almighty. He said, I will
exalt my throne above the throne of God. I will rule in this world. I'll sit on the throne. I'll
put God out of business. And he tried that same thing
when he tempted Christ our Lord. I'll give you the world. Jump
off of that tippling and see if God will catch you. If you're
the son of God, command these stones to be brave. Tempted him
in every way, and he left his first estate. He was an angel. The high angel, and oh my, he
come fall down, unwilling to be subject to God. It's amazing
to me that an angel would be unwilling to be subject to God.
And then there's other angels that they, we've got angels,
and God said, they do always behold your face in the presence
of God. And when a sinner repents, there's
joy in the presence of God, in angels. Oh, look with me again
over here in 2 Peter chapter 2 and verse 4. Oh my. Listen. They kept not their first estate.
That's just like Adam. He kept not his first estate.
Kept not his first. But look what it says here in
verse 4, 2 Peter 2, 4. For if God spared not the angels
that sinned, but cast them down to hell and delivered them into
chains of darkness to be reserved unto judgment." Same thing that
Jude said here. Ain't that what he says? He said
they left their own habitation, their first estate, and he reserved
them. These fellows are reserved. These
devils are reserved. under darkness, under the judgment
of Gai, that great day. He turned them out of heaven.
He reserved them without any hope. Nothing but eternal damnation. And you know what they do now?
They drag their chains around with them. Satan had to ask Christ
to even speak to Job. He got a chain on him. And in
Bunya's progress, there's a time, you know, when they was going
up to this house, they saw some lights, and they wanted to go
up there, and it was Gaius's house, and they wanted to go
up there. But there was two great big lions right there by the
side of the road when they wanted to go up to Gaius's house. And
those lions, they roared and roared and roared like Satan's
a roaring lion. And boy, they... They sneaked
around there and they went around around and then they found out
that those Lions was on chains And they
said they can only go this far. So let's stay away from them
where their chain can't get us But God gave these men chains
Chained them And everywhere they go they got dragged that chain
around with them And wherever they had turned, they turned
away from God himself and reserved unto judgment, unto the day.
Oh my, what an awful thing. And here's a third great warning,
third great warning. Even as Sodom and Gomorrah, verse
7, even as Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities about them in
like manner, giving themselves over to fornication, going after
strange flesh, and set forth for an example, suffering the
vengeance of eternal fire." Oh, my. I believe everybody's heard
about Sodom and Gomorrah. Everybody's heard about Sodom
and Gomorrah. This is one example. This is a warning that everyone
has heard of one time or another. And this is a testimony from
God himself that he will judge and punish all them that left
their first habitation, them that saved who didn't have belief,
the angels that sinned and left their first estate. And here's
what he's talking about Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities around
about him in like manner. When people pervert God's gospel,
pervert God's grace, pervert His laws, and what He designs
for man, they will bring eternal condemnation. You know, God made
first a man and a woman, and this is what marriage is all
about. He said, He said, I'll take the woman and the man, and
they shall forsake their father and their mother, and shall cleave
unto their wife. And those two will become one.
That's a man and a woman. That's what God established.
God established marriage. Man didn't establish marriage,
God established marriage. And men try to do their dead
level best to ignore God and what He says. And oh my, look
what He said here, Sodom, Everybody knows Sodom stands for sexual
perversion. Everybody knows that there's
laws on the book against sodomy. And you know Sodom is a word
for sexual perversion. It means going against nature.
Look what it said here in verse 7. Giving themselves over to
fornication. They gave ourselves over to it. They just gave themselves up
to it. They didn't try to keep themselves anyway from whatever
they like their flesh to do, that's what they did. Oh my. And then look what it says. They
followed strange flesh. It's strange for a man to want
a man. It's strange for a woman to want
a woman. It's strange. God says it's strange. And I, you know, I don't like
to preach against certain, you know, but here's the thing, that's
what God says about it. Oh, my. Look with me over in
Romans chapter 1. Now, you can find this in Leviticus.
You know, God told these people. He said, if you ever catch a
man with another man, stone him. If you ever catch a man or a
woman with a beast, stone them. You catch a woman with a woman,
stone them. But look what he said here in
Romans chapter one. And this is why they're without
excuse. Look what he starts in verse 24. Wherefore, God also gave them
up to uncleanness, watch this, through the lust of their own
hearts. to dishonor their own bodies between themselves, who
changed the truth of God into a lie, God's truth into a lie,
and worshiped and served the creature more than the Creator,
who is blessed forevermore. For this cause, God gave them
up unto vile affections, For even their women did change their
natural use into that which is against nature. And likewise
also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their
lust one toward another. Men with men working that which
is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompense of
their error, which is meat. And this is what's so sad. This
is what's so sad. I know, I know, several folks
that's homosexuals and women with women. And here's the thing
that's so sad, is that they're proud of it. They brag about
it now. They have parades and proud of
what they're doing. A woman will marry another woman
and put on a white dress. Men will marry one another and
put on tuxedos. And they're not ashamed of it.
There was a time that men were ashamed of those things. But
now it's not nothing to be ashamed of anymore. They want to not
only want to let everybody else know, but they want the world
to know. And if you don't agree with them,
you're the bigot. You're the racist. You're full
of pride. You're out, you're old-fashioned,
you're out of step, you're out of tune. Well, I'll be out of
step and I'll be out of tune. God helpin' me. And listen, like
I said, I know some, and I've been around some. And I wouldn't,
I wouldn't, you know, I wouldn't, you know, that's why we don't
preach against homosexuality. That's why we don't, we deal
with these things as we come to them. But here's the thing.
The gospel is the only thing that can do anything for these
people. If God ever sends one of them in here, and if God ever
enables me to preach to them, I'll preach the same gospel that
I preached to you. That's the only hope anybody
like that has. Now I'm not gonna make my ministry
to preach against things. Preach against materialism, communism, every other kind of ism that
you can think of. But oh my, that's what he said. Now look
what he said in verse 28. This is what I mean, they're
without excuse. And even as they did not like to retain God in
their knowledge, they knew, they knew there was a God, they knew
he had power, they knew there'd be judgment, but God gave them
over to a reprobate mind to do those things which are not convenient. And oh my, look what it says
back over in our text then in verse seven again. They gave their selves over to
fornication, going after strange flesh, and this is what he says
here, and are set forth, Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities round
about are set forth for an example, again, suffering the vengeance
of eternal fire. God caused fire to fall down
from heaven and devoured all those cities, all those cities. And in all these three examples,
where there's unbelief, where there's pride, where there's
especially corruption, all these creatures had at one time or
another enjoyed a revelation from God. They were exposed to
the truth. but they would rather believe
a lie and be damned and do what feels right to them. And if you
say anything to them, I seen a woman the other day, a fellow
was preaching, I don't know what he was preaching, I don't know,
but this woman got right in his face. Said, why do you do this? Why are you out here cramming
this down our throats? He said, I'm not cramming nothing
down anybody's throat. I'm just standing here preaching.
And that woman got in his face, said, yes, we don't want to hear
this. We don't want to hear it. And he said, well, anyway, God
loves you. And she walked away so mad. She
was so angry. Because she said, you're cramming
this stuff down. Why don't you just leave us alone?
Well, God did, and God will. And that's a scary thing when
God says, when God gives up on you, God who is long-suffering
endures the vessels of wrath with long-suffering. And when God gives up, the God
of all grace, the God of mercy, the God of long-suffering, the
God of love, When he gives up on you, there's nothing else
that can be done for you. That's scary, ain't it? Oh, God,
don't. I want to retain God in my knowledge,
don't you? Oh, I want to know God. I want
to know him in my mind. I want to know him in my heart.
I want to know him in my will. I want to know him in my soul.
I want to know him. Our Father, all the things we
have to deal with in your word, and I'm grateful that you put
these things here. They're warnings, great warnings,
examples for us, examples for the world, examples for people
in their unbelief, examples of angels as Oh, they're
carrying around their chains. They live in darkness, will die
in darkness, and spend eternity in darkness because they would
not be subject to God. And, oh, Lord, it looks like Solomon Gomorrah's
around us once again. And I know someday soon, someday
soon, Lord, you'll wrap all this up. You'll wrap it all up, and
you'll take all your children home with you. And, oh, Lord,
we'll be with you forever and ever and ever. Never have to
face this old world and all this corruption, not even have to
face the corruption of our own mind and our own flesh. We'll
be done with it. And, oh, Lord, how we look forward
to that. God bless this word tonight.
Use it for your glory and our good. who ask in Christ's name. Amen. Amen. Thank you, Lord, for saving my
soul. Thank you, Lord, for making me
whole. Thank you, Lord, For giving to
me thy great salvation so rich and true. All right, I'll see
you Sunday morning, God willing. We'll have dinner Sunday.