Jude 5-8 05/10/2026

Welcome and Prayer: Jim Calhoun

Come Lord, join us here today.
We ask for blessing for our moms
The ones by birth
And the ones by choice
For those who magically
Or so it seemed at the time
met our needs
Real and imagined
Known or unknown
And helped us feel loved
In every part of our souls
Through and through
Without question

And grace and peace
For our moms who struggled
And sometimes won
And sometimes didn’t
And sometimes fell apart completely
And bless them for their trying
And trying again
And the hope that it might go right
This time
If just maybe…
And the tears
And the frustration
And the sorrow
And the heartbreak
And the shame

And bless us each
Again
Today
With the mothers
you have already
Given
Reminding us
By their example
Or by wounds
That this life is for loving
Setting about
Setting things right
In your way
In your love
So their lives will be honored
In our lives
Today
Amen

Morning Talk: chuck smith, jr.

Intro: There have been songs, that I loved the first time I heard them

There are others that I had to hear several times to appreciate
– but the ones that I’ve loved at first sight had two qualities:
• the sound of music (instruments and vocals) and the lyrics
◦ psychologists refer to this response to music as “emotional resonance”
◦ the sound waves and meaning of the music find a string that vibrates deep in the soul
• for me, one of the songs that instantly moved me was Van Morrison’s
When will I ever learn to live in God?

“When will I ever learn to live in God?
When will I ever learn?
He gives me everything I need and more
When will I ever learn?”

– from the time I turned my life over to Jesus, he has said to me,
• “I have given you everything; when are you going to give Me everything?”
◦ and I wonder, when will I learn that is the only way my life works?
• when I give him only some of what I live, it is the rest of my life doesn’t work

We’ve seen that Jude is responding to a crisis
– he sent this letter as a warning – respond to an emergency
• the Christian community had been infiltrated by posers
◦ he refers to true believers as “the beloved”
◦ and to the posers as “certain people” (v. 4)
• the bulk of this letter is dedicated to exposing the “certain people” group
◦ he wants to prevent them from deceiving anyone else
– we will find that Jude likes to work with sets of three
• for instance, last week “certain people” were characterized as
(1) being ungodly, (2) perverting grace, and (3) denying our Lord Jesus
◦ this week he lists another set of three
◦ and each one in this set illustrates the consequences of contradicting God
• anyone – even “the Beloved” – can self-destruct by the choices they make

Jude tells them what he wants to do in these verses
“Now I want to remind you, although you once fully knew it, that Jesus, who saved a people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed those who did not believe Jude 5

The Greek word translated “want” can mean “desired” or “determined”
– either way, this is not new information for Jude’s readers, but a reminder
• so there are no surprises here, they “fully knew it”
• but it’s possible they had never looked at history in this particular light
– these three reminders that share one theme:
• the unavoidable destiny of anyone choosing to turn away from God

The first example is God’s delivery of Israel from Egyptian slavery
– this is one of the most frequently stories told in the Scriptures
• but here, what Jude says has confused many scholars:
“Jesus, who saved a people out of the land of Egypt”
◦ Jude’s readers, like everyone before them, had learned, it was Moses God used to lead Israel out of Egypt
• some interpreters have suggested translating the name, Joshua (cf. Heb. 4:8 KJV and most any modern translation)
◦ but Joshua isn’t mentioned in Exodus until much later–and he did not lead Israel out of Egypt
– Jude didn’t make a mistake, instead he’s making a statement
• he’s already told them the work that has to be done: “contend for the faith”
◦ that faith is specifically rooted in the person of Jesus
◦ all that’s revealed in Jesus’ life, teaching, miracles, and resurrection
• and Jesus is even more than all he did in the short span of his earthly life
◦ we might note that Hebrews says that Moses, although he lived and died centuries prior to Jesus
“considered the reproach of Christ greater wealth than the treasures of Egypt” (Heb. 11:26)
◦ I doubt that the passage of time runs the same in our four-dimensional universe as it does in God’s dimensions
– rather than let this become a problem or distraction, maybe we can simply honor the mystery
• the person and ministry of Jesus, who is “the same yesterday and today and forever” transcends space and time
“Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am” (Jn. 8:58)

Jude’s point is this: not everyone who left Egypt made it to the promise land
– several times in the desert, people rebelled against God and Moses
• and several times God culled out the wilderness travelers
◦ like removing rotten fruit from an inventory
◦ and more than once, the offenders were “insiders” (like Korah, who was a Levite; Nu. 16:1)
• the specific reasons their elemination varied from one group to another,
◦ but there was an underlying cause: they “did not believe”
– Jude’s primary call to his readers is that they “contend for the faith”
• in this wilderness example, the fatal error was literally, that they “did not believe”
• they gave up on God – believing in him and trusting him
◦ when that happens, a person becomes vulnerable to all sorts of errors of discernment, belief and behavior

The second example is somewhat strange
“And the angels who did not stay within their own position of authority, but left their proper dwelling, he has kept in eternal chains under gloomy darkness until the judgment of the great day . . . Jude 6

Some scholars assume Jude is drawing this story directly from Genesis
– I think it’s more that Jude borrowed it from the Book of Enoch,
which contains an interpretation and fanciful expansion of the Genesis story
• it was known and read, though not considered Scripture
◦ nor were the three books of Enoch included in either the Hebrew Bible or the New Testament
◦ however, still seen as having value and influenced the formation of popular beliefs
(Enoch is where the notion of “fallen angels” originated)
• Jude can cite these references without endorsing them
◦ he’s using a tradition regard angels that was familiar to his readers
◦ anyway, it ramps up the magnitude of their defection, because as angels they were closely associated with God and his realm

These first two examples have something in common,
– and it’s a point that I believe Jude wanted to emphasize
• in both instances, the offenders were at one time “insiders”
◦ the people destroyed in the wilderness, were once members of God’s community, Israel
◦ the angels were once located in God’s inner circle
• this is at the heart of Jude’s warning
◦ the “Certain people” he exposed as dangerous frauds were spreading inside Christian communities
▫ this was a concern John also shared with Jude
“Children, it is the last hour, and as you have heard that antichrist is coming, so now many antichrists have come. Therefore we know that it is the last hour. They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us. But they went out from us, that it might become plain that they all are not of us” (1 Jn. 2:18-19)

In the third example angels are again present, but in the background of the story
“–just as Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding cities, which likewise indulged in sexual immorality and pursued unnatural desire, serve as an example by undergoing a punishment of eternal fire” Jude 7
Here is another instance of a tragic ending
– Sodom and Gomorrah became a recurring symbol of rebellion
(as the Red Sea had become a symbol of redemption)
• and again, not only in the Hebrew Scriptures, but in the New Testament as well
• “sexual immorality” has a specific reference to deviant behavior
– there are well-known prohibitions against this in the Bible
• specifically, experimentation in pursuit of sexual pleasure
◦ activity driven by lust and practiced outside the relational purpose of sex
◦ sex is about bonding, intimacy, pleasing one’s partner, and procreation
(but never procreation exclusively; cf. Abram and Elkanah)
• as in the previous verses, they “serve as an example by undergoing a punishment of eternal fire”
◦ note that the fire is “eternal,” but that doesn’t mean the punishment is

Jude brings his point back to his concern: “these people”
“Yet in like manner these people also, relying on their dreams, defile the flesh, reject authority, and blaspheme the glorious ones” Jude 8

In verse 4 Jude had identified the posers as “certain people”
– he saw them as contemporary representatives of the same error as the three examples given
• this is why he told his readers to “contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints”
• the imposters relied on a version of Christianity they had dreamed-up on their own
– now Jude provides another “set of three” to list their specific violations:
“defile the flesh” – there are sins that degrade and damage human body (cf. 1 Cor. 6:18-20)

“reject authority” – literally, “reject lordship” or “rulership”
• this is a refusal to submit to God and his revealed will for humankind
• think about it. Wasn’t this a factor in the very first disobedience?
“Did God actually say you shall not eat of any tree in the garden? . . . You will not surely die”

“Blaspheme the glorious ones” – Jude will expand on this in the verses that follow

Conclusion: For me, trudging through these verses,

Feels like hacking our way through a jungle – a dark jungle
It’s a relief to close the Bible, set it down and breathe again
Is it really necessary to spend several weeks in Jude?

Some days my walks take me near electrical towers
It isn’t necessary for me to read the warning signs every time I pass them
But it’s good for me to know the danger and obey the signs

Christianity has always been and will always be in danger of be infiltrated and diluted
Is there any point when will we say, “Enough is enough!”
Will people who identify as Evangelical Christians stop justifying blatant wickedness
and say, “Enough is enough!”
When will we ever learn to live in God
not partially, but completely?
It had better be now,
before we run out of time