An infestation
False prophets and teachers have always been around but in these last days will multiply and infest the Body of Messiah. Many claim to hold to the basic tenants of Biblical truth but on a closer examination it is not what they are saying so much as what they are failing to say. Many are using the Bible as a prop to bolster their own doctrines. They always use Bible verses in isolation from their context and co-texts. There are false and deceptive doctrines around today. Some of the more prominent ones are the Word of Faith mammon loving preachers of the so called wealth and health gospel peddling their wares for profit. Then you have the Immerging Church with its emphasis on icons, candles and mysticism and not Biblical evangelism and discipleship.
Seductive and insidious doctrines
Then you have more seductive and insidious rather laid back doctrines such as the seeker friendly and purpose driven agendas or the Alpha course all of which play down the true nature and character of God, the awful nature of sin and the stark reality of hell and judgement and the need for a heartfelt repentance and for that holiness without which no one shall see the LORD. Then you have those into the manifest sons of God doctrines that teach the Church is going to triumph over the nations and present the Church to Jesus when He comes back. They teach replacement theology namely that the Church has replaced Israel and ignore the coming of Antichrist, the apostasy and the wrath of God that comes before the Millennial Kingdom is established.
Signs, miracles and wonders?
Others base their teaching more on signs, miracle and wonders than they do on salvation. The Television and the internet are rife with these false prophets and teachers all plying their wares today and “profiteering on the blood of the Lamb.” Whether it is waving a coat over a crowd or blowing on people or rolling and writhing around on the floor laughing hysterically or so called Christian television with their constant appeals for money it is all spiritual seduction and deception.
Unprincipled men and women
Many of these false teachers appeal to the lusts of the flesh. Jude had already mentioned them as those who “have crept in secretly” by stealth and who are “ungodly persons who turn the grace of our God into licentiousness and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.” These are unprincipled men and women who have no qualms about indulging the sinful nature and the fleshly appetites. The biggest spiritual deception of course is still the Roman Catholic Church with its unbiblical doctrines and practices. These are some of the major ones but there are others. We all know about the cults such as Jehovah’s Witnesses or the Mormons or the Buddhists and other religions but Jude is more concerned about those within the Church who are perpetrating false and unbiblical doctrines, spiritual seduction and deception.
Faithfulness
Jude now writes about what happened in the past as a warning to us who are saved and part of the Body of Messiah. We are saved now but in order to stay saved we must persevere and fight the good fight of faith to the end. When the Lord Jesus comes back He will be looking for faithfulness (Luke 18:8). In both Testaments the word for faith includes not only believing but being faithful to what we believe. With the apostasy now in full swing we need to have the spirit of the Bereans “who searched the scriptures everyday” to see if what they were being taught was Biblical. We will now look at this second study…
(Vs.5-7) “Now I desire to remind you, though you know all things once for all, that the Lord, after saving a people out of the land of Egypt, subsequently destroyed those who did not believe. And angels who did not keep their own domain, but abandoned their proper abode, He has kept in eternal bonds under darkness for the judgment of the great day, just as Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities around them, since they in the same way as these indulged in gross immorality and went after strange flesh, are exhibited as an example in undergoing the punishment of eternal fire.”
Exposition
(Vs.5) “Now I desire to remind you, though you know all things once for all, that the Lord, after saving a people out of the land of Egypt, subsequently destroyed those who did not believe.”
When we see the Israelites coming out of Egypt it is a picture or a foreshadowing of our deliverance out of the Egypt of this world and from its overlord Satan of whom Pharaoh is a type. When the children of Israel passed through the Red Sea with Moses they were effectively cut off from the Egyptians and Egypt. This symbolised water baptism by which we demonstrate publically to others that we have died to the appetites, desires and ambitions of our old life in this world and have been resurrected spiritually into a new life in the Kingdom of the world to come wherein righteousness dwells. Paul wrote about this in his first letter to the Church at Corinth but also gave a warning to the believers at Corinth. After seeing God do miraculous things and providing for His people in the desert all of the Israelites, except two of those who originally came out of Egypt, failed to enter into the Promised Land because of unbelief. We are told that the people of God craved evil things and practiced idolatry and engaged in revelry of all kinds leading them into immorality and licentious behaviour and in one day 3,000 of the Israelites died.
Then at another place in the wilderness God sent fiery serpents among them because of their disobedience and unbelief. They continued to grumble and complain, to whinge and to whine before the LORD and were destroyed in the wilderness. These things that happened to them were written down for our instruction (1 Corinthians 10:1-11). Jude was writing to warn the assemblies that they were not to take their salvation for granted. The faith of the true believers was under fire and being undermined by these false teachers who had at one time been part of the assemblies but who had now apostatized and given themselves over completely to indulge the lusts and appetites of the flesh and that without restraint or conscience and they were among the believers and in the fellowship. Unbelief is the doorway to apostasy. This is why all of the fiery darts of the devil are aimed at the shield of faith. The shield protects the breastplate of righteousness that covers the heart.
(Vs.6-7) “And angels who did not keep their own domain, but abandoned their proper abode, He has kept in eternal bonds under darkness for the judgment of the great day, just as Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities around them, since they in the same way as these indulged in gross immorality and went after strange flesh, are exhibited as an example in undergoing the punishment of eternal fire.”
In the book of Genesis we read “Now it came about, when men began to multiply on the face of the land, and daughters were born to them, that the sons of God saw that the daughters of men were beautiful; and they took wives for themselves, whomever they chose.” (Genesis 6:1-2) The sons of God were not humans but fallen angels. In Job 1:6 they are identified as fallen angels because they presented themselves before the LORD, and Satan came among them also. These fallen angels produced offspring who were giants and called the Nephilim meaning “the fallen ones.” In Greek mythology you have stories of the gods cohabiting with human women and producing men who were half human and half divine and these men has super ordinary power. Possibly Greek Mythology was based on these records in Genesis when these fallen angels engaged in sexual relations with human women. We are told that they abandoned their proper home in the heavenly realms and came to earth. As a result they were imprisoned and removed from human contact and chained up waiting the day of judgement. These were not demons as such but angelic beings.
The Lord Jesus spoke about the last days and said that what was happening in Noah’s time and in the time of Lot would happen again at the end of the age. People would be going about their daily lives unaware of the judgement coming just like they were doing before the flood came and swept them away. Today there are people who claim to have been abducted by ‘aliens’ and they have said that these so called ‘aliens’ were sexually molesting them. These ‘aliens’ were in reality demonic spirits. As far as we know there is no life on other planets and if there was would they visit this fallen world?
In the occult worship of Black Necromancy many initiates into some covens of witchcraft have sex with demons who have come to them during the ritual ceremony of initiation. In Sodom and Gomorrah unnatural sex was common place as we see in the case of Lot. Militant and violent homosexuality and sodomy was rife in those wicked cities on the plain and when the sodomites surrounded Lot’s house we are told that there were men and young boys from every part of the city wanting to have sex with the two angels staying in Lot’s house (Genesis 19:1-13). Jude calls this “going after strange flesh” and clearly said that this was what the fallen angels did. They committed sexual acts with humans that they were never created to do.
Likewise sodomites were engaging in unnatural sexual acts as we see today in our society as militant and violent homosexuality and Sodomy are making a come-back big time. The penalty for this sort of unnatural sex was seen in how God judged the angels that did this sort of thing with humans and Jude tells us that it was not only a place of darkness but eternal and conscious torment in the flames of hell. Those who indulge in sodomy will end up there as well. Possibly some of these spiritual reprobates Jude mentioned had secretly crept in as leaders and teachers but were in fact sexual predators much like multitudes of Roman Catholic priests today who have sexually molested and had sex with boys. This is a fact that is undeniable.
Today we are living in a time when sodomy and lesbianism is accepted as normal and even in some mainline protestant denominations they have been ordaining sodomites to the ministry. Upon this sort of thing the wrath of God is coming as it came upon the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. Clearly Jude tells us that this was unnatural sexual activity of a kind that men and women were never created for and that brought down God’s eternal judgement. Those who indulge in this kind of unnatural sex will not inherit the Kingdom of God (1 Corinthians 6:9) (Leviticus 20:13). Now we have them in the ministry! So then Jude was warning believers to be on guard against the sins of unbelief, pride, lust, greed, sexual immorality, sodomy and rebellion which these false teachers were indulging in and propagating in the assemblies. Some would say why does God delay judgement? He does this because He does not want any to perish but all to come to repentance and this includes those into Sodomy if they will repent and turn away from it (2 Peter 3:9). All sin is forgivable when repented of and the only unforgivable sin is to reject the Lord Jesus and the salvation that is found only in Him and to ignore the Spirit of God when He is doing His convicting and converting work.
