Wk 2: Remember the Warnings

Jude 5-11

But, remaining faithful does not always mean learning something brand new. Sometimes, we need to be reminded of something we already learned. 

That is exactly what Jude does in his epistle. He follows up his previous command with:

"I will therefore put you in remembrance, though ye once knew this, how that the Lord, having saved the people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed them that believed not." (Jude 5)

They knew the stories about Israel. The Jewish people of the time knew them very well, inside and out. They knew about the rebellious angels of Genesis 6, Sodom and Gomorrha, Cain, Balaam, and Korah. Though, Jude reminds them anyways.

Why?

Because each story is a warning of what happens when someone turns away from what God has said. And God's Word has not changed, regardless of our circumstances. 

Israel had experienced the incredible deliverance of God firsthand. However, many still refused to fully believe Him. The angels of verse 6 rebelled against God and His authority (they failed). Sodom and Gomorrha as in verse 7 rejected God's boundaries and will to pursue their own fleshly desires (they failed).

Jude then brings it full-circle to talk about the apostates of his day:

"Likewise also these filthy dreamers defile the flesh, despise dominion, and speak evil of dignities" (Jude 8)

That first word "Likewise," is important. 

Jude is showing us that although generations change and cultures rise and fall, rebellion against God has been constant since the very beginning of time. 

When Lucifer in Heaven "asserted" himself above God's Kingship, he rebelled. When Adam ate of the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil and "asserted" himself above God's command, he rebelled. When Abraham "asserted" himself above God's providence and took Hagar of his own accord, he rebelled. When we are apathetic to reading His Word and living like Christ, we "assert" ourselves above God's standards, and we rebel. 

The same unbelief, rejection of God-given authority, and pursuit of sinful, personal desires in the past was appearing again in the first century with Jude.

And it happens just as much, if not more, today. 

Many times we read the Scriptures and witness someone fail in the faith. Take King David for example, a man "after God's own heart" (1 Samuel 13:14), yet he had one of the most famous failures in the faith in history. His sin against God with Bathsheba. Many men look at that and think, "How could David do that?  How could he forget what all God has done for him? And blessed him with? He so idiotically sinned against Him." Yet, to their own sin, they turn a blind eye and downplay the severity. 

Every sin we commit earns the same debt: eternal death (Romans 6:23). 

We are capable of forgetting what God has done for us too. 

Very few people ever openly say, "I reject God and His Word." But, their lives and their hearts reflect that sentiment. It may appear when we view one part of the Bible as inconvenient and fall into the post-modern mentality that "What is true for thee is not true for me." 

We do not serve a God who makes exceptions per person. We serve a God who is not a respecter of persons. 

If you have accepted Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and Savior, you have full security in your eternal destiny. You will, without a shadow of a doubt, be in Heaven according to God's Word. However, every believer will stand before the Bema Seat of Christ, and before you get your eternal rewards you will give an answer before the Lord. Why would you wish to add more to your account than you need? Christian liberty, though sufficient to cover all sins, is not a license to continue in sin. 

Christians, we must continue in our sanctification in following God's will for our lives, and turn from the departing apostates.

Jude continues to elaborate on this and give more warnings against these apostate people in verse 11:

"Woe unto them! for they have gone in the way of Cain, and ran greedily after the error of Balaam for reward, and perished in the gainsaying of [Korah]." (Jude 11)

Cain, Balaam, and Korah, were very different men, but they all departed from God's will. Cain approached God on his own terms and standards. Balaam was corrupted by his own greed and personal gain. Korah rebelled against the authority in which God instituted. 

Jude looked at the apostates around him and noticed the same old roads to Hell being traveled once again. 

In today's America, we can recognize them too. 

There will always be pressure to alter what God has said. Man will always try to compromise to get gain. Though, it reminds me of the Words of Christ, "For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? " (Mark 8:36). 

Remember that those departing from the faith are not new.

We live in an Age of Apostasy. An age that looks at God as a problem and not the Solution. An age that looks at God as a lie and not as Truth. An age that looks at God as something less than the El Shaddai.

When the world questions what God says, search the Scriptures for answers. When compromise seems easier than faithfulness, remember where compromise leads. 

We do not study the failures of those who came before us so we can look down on them, but rather, so that we do not repeat them. 

In an Age of Apostasy, faithfulness sometimes means refusing to forget what God has already made clear. As we go throughout this next week, look for ways to remember what God has done already, and remember to heed to the warnings from aforetime to not make the same mistakes.