Come Quickly
Notes
Transcript
Jude 14-16 ESV
14 It was also about these that Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied, saying, “Behold, the Lord comes with ten thousands of his holy ones, 15 to execute judgment on all and to convict all the ungodly of all their deeds of ungodliness that they have committed in such an ungodly way, and of all the harsh things that ungodly sinners have spoken against him.” 16 These are grumblers, malcontents, following their own sinful desires; they are loud-mouthed boasters, showing favoritism to gain advantage.
One of the aspects of the epistle of Jude that I have come to really appreciate is the amount of time that it devotes to revealing what the inevitable outcome of those who oppose the true Christian faith will be.
And I think that there are two reasons why I appreciate this so much about Jude’s epistle. The first reason why is because it warns and keeps those who adhere to the faith from following unbiblical teachings.
When one is reminded or made aware of the fact that those who teach such heresies and those who follow them will inevitably be banished for eternity in the Lake of Fire, it certainly discourages God’s elect people from ever wanting to get tied up with them.
And the second reason why I appreciate it is because it serves as a reminder that though the wicked seem to prosper for now, still, in the end, God will be justified, and because God will be justified, we as God’s people will inevitably be justified.
And as we continue in this series of sermons from the epistle of Jude, we see him continue with these warnings to apostates and encouragements to faithful believers.
Throughout our exposition of this epistle starting back at verse 3 we have seen Jude establish his position concerning the inevitable outcome of these false teachers and those who follow them from a biblical perspective, an intellectual perspective, and an extrabiblical perspective.
In our sermon today, we will see Jude continue to make his case from an extrabiblical and an intellectual perspective.
We will first look at the extra biblical perspective, starting at the beginning of verse 14, where we read:
Jude 14a ESV
14a It was also about these that Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied,
Now, I’m sure that most of us know who Enoch was. We see first of all, here in our reading, that he was “the seventh from Adam” which signifies that he lived but seven generations from the first man, Adam, and thus descended from him.
The only biblical reference that we have of Enoch is found in Genesis, chapter 5, verses 21-24, where is says:
Genesis 5:21-24 ESV
21 When Enoch had lived 65 years, he fathered Methuselah. 22 Enoch walked with God after he fathered Methuselah 300 years and had other sons and daughters. 23 Thus all the days of Enoch were 365 years. 24 Enoch walked with God, and he was not, for God took him.
Thus, the remarkable feature of Enoch is that he never tasted death, for while he yet lived, God “took him”, bringing Enoch to Himself without experiencing death.
But while the Bible speaks of Enoch’s exceptional life in but four verses, there are extrabiblical works which attribute their authorship to Enoch, and the prophecy of Enoch which Jude will mention here is found in the extrabiblical book of 1st Enoch, chapter 1, verse 9.
We begin to read of this prophetic saying of Enoch in the last part of this 14th verse of our reading for today, where we read:
Jude 14b ESV
14b “Behold, the Lord comes with ten thousands of his holy ones,
The imagery that Enoch portrays for us here is of God coming from heaven, down to earth as a Divine Warrior. And he comes, Enoch tells us, leading “ten thousands of His holy ones”.
The “holy ones” who Enoch refers to here are holy angels who go to battle with their God, under His charge. And the number of these holy angels who accompany God, Enoch numbers as “ten thousands”. This number is not meant to convey an actual number, but rather, it is meant to convey the fact that there will be an innumerable number of holy angels who accompany God.
As we then go on to the 15th verse of Jude’s epistle, we see the purpose of God and His holy ones coming from heaven to earth, when Enoch says that they come:
Jude 15 ESV
15 to execute judgment on all and to convict all the ungodly of all their deeds of ungodliness that they have committed in such an ungodly way, and of all the harsh things that ungodly sinners have spoken against him.”
So, what we first see God and His holy ones come to do is the primary purpose of His coming, and that is to execute judgment. Crimes have been committed against God, sin, the act of cosmic treason has been committed, and now God, the righteous Judge, must come to not only pass judgment, but to also carry out the sentence of the judgment that He passes.
Indeed, this is indicative of the final and ultimate judgment of God, that which will ultimately bring about the full justice of God. Therefore, this coming of God and His holy ones that is spoken of is in reference to His judgment at the Last Day when God will finally and fully mete out that which is absolutely just.
And what this judgment will consist of, Enoch says, is the conviction of “all the ungodly of all their deeds of ungodliness that they have committed in such an ungodly way”.
Now, conviction is the formal declaration that someone is guilty of a criminal offence. And conviction is applied to both the godly and the ungodly, the saved and the unsaved.
The difference between the conviction of the saved and the unsaved though is that the God-given conviction of the saved leads to repentance. The uncovering of their guilt leads to not only recognizing their guilt, but to abhorring their offence and their sin nature because of their love for God.
The conviction of the ungodly, the unsaved also involves uncovering guilt and causing them to recognize their guilt, and they may not like the fact that they are guilty, but there is no repentance on their part because they have no love for God.
The prophecy of Enoch then goes on to tell us what the ungodly will be convicted of in that Last Day when he tells us that these will be convicted of “all their deeds of ungodliness that they have committed in such an ungodly way”.
So, Enoch says that the deeds that these have committed have their origin not in God, but in ungodliness; they are deeds of ungodliness. And the execution of these acts, Enoch says, are equally ungodly, having been committed in such an ungodly way. And the outcome of their deeds, Enoch says, produces more ungodliness.
But it isn’t just their deeds that are ungodly, it is also their words. Enoch says that these will be convicted too “of all the harsh things that ungodly sinners have spoken about Him”.
Rather than using their words to glorify and praise God, through their heretical teachings and practices, they are used to blaspheme God and His ways.
This is especially true of the false teachers referred to throughout this epistle, especially when we look back to verse ten when Jude says that these false teachers, “Blaspheme all that they do not understand”.
Thus, the prophecy of Enoch reveals that at the Last Day all of the deeds of the ungodly and all of their blasphemous words will be revealed, and they will receive the verdict of guilty.
So, having used the prophecy of Enoch to identify that which must come to pass in regard to these false teachers and their followers, Jude now goes on in verse 16 to further describe those who will receive the guilty verdict at the Last Day.
We see this as Jude goes on to say that such people are “grumblers”. To grumble means to “complain about something in a bad-tempered way”.
One prominent scriptural example that we receive concerning people grumbling is the people, Israel in their desert wanderings where they constantly complained against God and His servant Moses.
Well, these who Jude speaks of, in like manner, do not praise God for His good providence, but bitterly complain against God for their lot in life.
He further describes them as “malcontents” which is indicative of people who are dissatisfied and rebellious. Refusing to be content with what God has given them and what God has commanded of them, they choose a deviant, rebellious lifestyle and then complain about their lot in life.
It would be like me thoroughly instructing you over and over again about proper firearm safety and after thoroughly instructing you, giving you a gun and despite all of the instruction that you receive, you foolishly neglect to turn the safety feature on, accidentally shoot yourself in the foot, and then get upset with me for giving you the gun.
And we see this spelled out clearly as Jude describes these as those who, rather than obeying the clearly spelled-out commands of God are instead those who follow after their own sinful desires.
Obedience to the commands of God always results in true blessings, but following our own desires, desires which are ever sinful leads us only to our own destruction.
Indeed, they seek not God for their fulfillment, but instead, they seek after their own fleshly desires to provide them with what is missing in their lives.
And we see this further as Jude goes on to describe these false teachers and those who follow their manmade theology as “loud-mouthed boasters”.
I have always considered it wise to emphasize that the chief characteristic of a truly born-again Christian should be humility. Indeed, the legitimate Christian ought to ever be mindful of the fact that he has been saved by grace and he is maintained by grace.
He brought nothing to the table when he was saved, and he still brings nothing to the table now that he has been saved. Indeed, as the Lord Jesus said, after we do those things which the Lord commands of us, we are to only say that we are unprofitable servants of God who add nothing to God through our service to Him.
This is the kind of humility that a Christian ought to possess, but these false teachers and their followers, they aren’t content to be classified as lowly servants. They aren’t content to make their existence about worshipping and serving the God of heaven and earth, as was said, they seek after sinful desires in a vain attempt to fulfill themselves, and therefore, rather than possessing the vital attribute of humility, they seek to fulfill themselves by proudly boasting.
And they don’t just boast, no, Jude says that they boast loudly. Rather than redirecting the attention from themselves to God, they seek to draw attention to themselves, and they do so in such an obnoxious way that it forcibly grabs your attention.
True, undefiled religion does not seek the honor and praise that belongs to God alone, but the practitioners of it humbly and joyfully recognize that it all belongs to God, indeed, they get out of the way so that the spotlight can shine on Jesus. And they are eternally grateful that God has allowed them to witness His glorification.
And one more thing that Jude says these false teachers and their followers do is they, “show favoritism to gain advantage”.
The shepherd is to feed, protect, care for the entire flock that is under his care, even if some of those sheep that are under his care don’t always see eye to eye with him, or even if some of those sheep that are under him don’t have the means to be as generous towards them as others.
But these false teachers were prone to be partial towards those who were especially generous to them. But even the partiality that they showed was not shown because of love for these particular sheep, but as Jude says here, that partiality was shown so that they may “gain advantage”.
There was no real love involved here; it was simply spiritual partiality that was shown so that they themselves may prosper at the expense of their own sheep.
And while these may fool some people due to them performing what they perform in the name of religion, there is no fooling God. Indeed, the just judgment of God will overcome them. They who lived sumptuously on the wool of the sheep that they were meant to care for, and love will suffer the eternal judgment that their wickedness deserves.
But as for the people of God, we who humbly serve our Master, giving our entirety to Him, worshipping Him in spirit and in truth, we will shine like the stars in the heavens as the Lord executes judgment on the wicked and publicly favors we, His elect people!
Indeed! May the Lord come quickly!
Amen?
