“Wolves in Sheep’s Clothing”

A Sermon Series in Jude

“Failing to Remember God’s Word is Dangerous”

Jude vv. 5-7

Introduction

When our kids were younger Kimberly’s uncle and family were staying with us for a few days, and he was incredibly helpful. He helped me fix my weed eater, he installed an outlet outside, and on one of the days we were working in the attack. If you have ever worked in an attack you will know that it is typically hot, itchy, and difficult. I left to got to the big box store for supplies and while I was there Kimberly called and told me to get some drywall while I was there – David had fallen through the ceiling. Later when David and I were talking he explained that he just got too comfortable walking from rafter to rafter and for whatever reason decided just to step on the insulation in between the rafters, and down he went. One miss step away from disaster.

Satan works like that. He makes dangerous things look safe. He gives us a false sense of security. He makes it easier for us to make a mistake. Satan tries not to scare us to death, but rather to make us think we face little danger of a spiritual fall.

Jude warns of the dangers of false teachers, whose end is destruction. We must be alert for them, and recognize their deception. Earlier in verse 4 is says that false teachers had crept into the church “long ago were designated for this condemnation,” because their sin resembles three well-known events in the OT.

Prayer

Don’t Forget What God Has Already Done (vv. 5-7)

Now I want to remind you, although you once fully knew it,

Jude continues his warning of “wolves in sheep’s clothing” that have crept into the church by reminding them of something they once knew. Often, we don’t need new information, we just need to be reminded of something we already know. To enable believers to contend for the faith once delivered to them, Jude begins by recalling three biblical examples in which God judged those who departed from his ways.

The memory here is not just to recollect these stories. It is to remind them of the stories so that they will take action based on remembering what happens in the stories. All of the stories end in destruction. Hebrews 4:7 “. . . again he appoints a certain day, “Today,” . . . . ., “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts.” To wake up the apathetic pew person, he gives three lessons from the past:

Remember The Danger of Failing to Persevere in Faith (v. 5)

that Jesus, who saved a people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed those who did not believe.

The Israelites exited Egypt victorious. They saw God perform the plaques, ending with the death of the first born. They were spared everyone one of the plagues, and were given the Passover feast to remind them of how God had passed over their households. They exited Egypt plundering the Egyptians as they left.

At Kadesh-Barnea they passed through the Red Sea and watched the Egyptian army drown. They arrived at the edge of the Promised Land and they sent in spies, who came back and gave a report of what they saw. 10 of the 12 reported back that it was impossible to win a victory; only Joshua and Caleb said that it could be done.

But because of their unbelief and rebellious hearts they were not able to enter the promised land – instead that generation was doomed to wander in the desert for the next forty-year. They lost the victory because of their unbelief.

“Amazingly, the Israelites did not believe that the same God who had parted the Red Sea, destroyed Pharoah’s army before their eyes, provided manna from heaven every morning, led them with a cloud by day, and a pillar of fire by night, and provided water from the rock could enable them to overcome the land in Canaan after He had promised to do so all along.”[1]

Paul gives a similar warning as Jude in 1 Corinthians 10:1-5 “For I do not want you to be unaware, brothers, that our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea, and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, 3 and all ate the same spiritual food, and fall drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank from the spiritual Rock that followed them, and the Rock was Christ. 5 Nevertheless, with most of them God was not pleased, for they were overthrown in the wilderness.”

Why were they overthrown in the wilderness? Why was God not pleased with them? Because they refused to believe God in spite of the victories God had given them. Jude warns the church that God deals sternly with those who turn their back on Him in unbelief after having seen Him use such wonderful power. This supports our definition of an apostate, “Israel’s judgement was a vivid reminder of what happens to those who, having heard what God expects and witnessed what He can do, still fail to believe.”[2]

The truth of manna, and the parting of the Red Sea, and deliverance from Egypt, the plagues, etc. should have informed and strengthened their faith in the present. God never tells us to refer back to a time in order to show faith, He requires that we have faith in the present. Are you trusting God today, now?

The apostle Paul says, 2 Corinthians 13:5 “Examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Or do you not realize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?” Filling out a card at youth camp, praying a prayer when you were a kid, walking an aisle, getting wet in a tank years ago – are not avenues of assurance. Today, right now, are you looking to the cross, are you trusting in Christ? We must believe and trust God’s Word all the way to the end.

“Israel’s apostacy stands as a warning to all those who think an initial commitment secures their future destiny without ongoing obedience. Those who are God’s people demonstrate the genuineness of their salvation by responding to the warning given.”[3]

Jude wants us to draw a connection between the Israelites and the church today. But remember that Israel was a country (a nation) and the people of God. So, not every circumcised member of Israel was truly circumcised in heart (Deut. 10:16: 30:6; Jer. 4:4).

“Jude constructed an analogy between the saving of Israel out of Egypt (a physical act) and God’s saving act in Jesus Christ, but we ought not necessarily to conclude from this that the Israelites liberated from Egypt were truly circumcised in heart, that they truly belonged to the people of God.”[4] There were those among the Israelites who thought they were God’s people, but their lack of faith showed that they were not.

 An apostate is a person who has received light but has no life.

 Remember The Danger of Failing to Do What You Have Been Assigned (v. 6)

6 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—[5]

The second lesson from the past is a reference to angels who lost their position, their vocation. Verse 7 tells us that the sin of the angels was similar to the sin of Sodom and Gomorrah, sexual immorality and perversion.

Genesis 6:1-4 may give us some insight into what Jude is referring to, “When man began to multiply on the face of the land and daughters were born to them, 2 the sons of God saw that the daughters of man were attractive. And they took as their wives any they chose. 3 Then the Lord said, “My Spirit shall not abide in man forever, for he is flesh: his days shall be 120 years.” 4 The Nephilim were on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of man and they bore children to them. These were the mighty men who were of old, the men of renown.”

“The term “sons of God” is translated “angels” in the Septuagint (the Greek translation of the original Hebrew text). Also, the Hebrew rendering of “sons of God” is used exclusively in the Old Testament to describe angels.”[6]

These angels left heaven and rebelled against God in order to have relations with humans, thereby losing their position in heaven. These angels of heaven and light now live with the consequence as they are, “kept in eternal chains under gloomy darkness until the judgment of the great day,” This sin was so severe that God placed the offending angels in chains to prevent them from committing such perversity again. They cannot go back to heaven.

“Scripture does not spell out the specific realms of angelic authority, but there are hints that some are assigned to specific roles (Dan. 10:18-21; Luke 1:18-38).”[7] Jude describes these angels as leaving their dwelling place (and the original language indicates a finality of their leaving) rather than remaining in their proper place of service, and did things they should not have done. They rebelled against God’s plan and design for their lives in order to pursue the lust of their heart. In the context of false teachers and the church, and our being the church – God has a purpose and calling for you here and now, don’t be pulled away from it by anything.

We see pastors and leaders step away from their calling, and pursue things they have no business pursuing. And once that happens there is no going back. What disqualifies a pastor or leader from ministry and is that disqualification permanent?

The church is being warned to wake up from its forgetfulness and apathy and hold a high standard based on the truths of Scripture – the church has a very special calling. James 5:19 says, “My brothers, if anyone among you wanders from the truth and someone brings him back, 20 let him know that whoever brings back a sinner from his wandering will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins.”

Remember The Danger of Being Immoral (v. 7)

7 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.

The third historical example or lesson that is to shock us into remembering, Jude gives is Sodom and Gomorrah. Jude is referencing Genesis 19. Two angelic visitors, appearing as humans, came to visit Lot. Lot invited them into his home for the night, and a crowd gathered outside of his house. The men of Sodom wanted the two visitors to be brought outside so that they may engage in homosexual acts with them.

Genesis 19:4-5 “But before they lay down, the men of the city, the men of Sodom, both young and old, all the people to the last man, surrounded the house. 5 And they called to Lot, “Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us, that we may know them.” The angels were not known to be angels; the men from the town thought they were men from out of town.

In an effort to appease the crowd, Lot offers his daughters to them (19:8). They did not want females, they wanted the two men. God strikes the crowd with blindness, but they still grope around looking for Lot’s door. The men of Sodom were consumed with lust for the men, and so God judged them. The angels, Lot and his family make their way out of the city before it is destroyed. “Somewhat like the perverted angels before them, the Sodomites in the same way as these indulged in gross immorality and went after strange flesh. They too perverted God’s intended design for them by soliciting sexual favors from His holy messengers.

Luke 17:28-30 says, “Likewise, just as it was in the days of Lot—they were eating and drinking, buying and selling, planting and building, 29 but on the day when Lot went out from Sodom, fire and sulfur rained from heaven and destroyed them all— 30 so will it be on the day when the Son of Man is revealed.”

Israel’s sin was unbelief. The angels sin was rebellion of their assignment. Sodom and Gomorrah’s sin was sexual indulgence, Jude says, “indulged in sexual immorality and pursued unnatural desire.” And when the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed, they “serve as an example” for all to see. The destruction of these cities is mentioned more than twenty times in the Bible.[8]

Israel stopped doing what they were supposed to do because they didn’t believe God would do what He said, Angels stopped doing what angels were supposed to do because of their lust (they left heaven forever). An entire city was judged because it abandoned living as families were designed to live. What is the common theme? Apostates do not live by faith, they reject authority (especially God’s authority), and they cannot control their sensual passions – they depart from the truth of the gospel.

Israel’s dying in the wilderness because of their unbelief (consequence was not entering the promised land). Angels wanting to have sex with humans (consequence was eternal chains), then humans wanting to have sex with angels (consequence was death by fire and brimstone). Again, Jude’s words are not written to the lost world, it was written to the church. Those that are called, who are the Beloved of God, kept by Christ, and blessed.

Jude calls the apostates who have snuck into the church as false teachers, others. The Others are like the people of Israel, like the angels, and like Sodom and Gomorrah. These Others have fallen from a position of privilege and are headed towards destruction.

The best way to know if you are saved is what you do with the sin in your life.

Do you live each day trusting God and His Word?

Are you submitting to God’s Will for Your Life?

Are you daily turning from the sin in your life?

In 1818, Ignaz Philip Semmelweis was born into a world of dying women. The finest hospitals lost one out of six mothers to the scourge of “childbed fever.” A doctor’s daily routine began in the dissecting room where he performed autopsies. From there he made his way to the hospital to examine expectant mothers without ever pausing to wash his hands. Dr. Semmelweis was the first man in history to associate such examinations with the resultant infection and death.

After eleven years and the delivery of 8, 537 babies, Dr. Semmelweis lost only 184 mothers. He spent much of his life lecturing and debating with his colleagues. Once he argued, “Puerperal fever is caused by decomposed material, conveyed to a wound… I have shown how it can be prevented. I have proved all that I have said. But while we talk, talk, talk, gentlemen, women are dying. I am not asking anything world shaking. I am asking you only to wash… wash your hands.”

But virtually no one believed him. Doctors and midwives had been delivering babies for thousands of years without washing, and no outspoken Hungarian was going to change them now! Semmelweis died insane at the age of 47, his wash basins discarded, his colleagues laughing in his face, and the death rattle of a thousand women ringing in his ears.

How often do you wash your hands? How often do you wash your heart? We all collect “dirt” in our hearts each day. There are things we see, hear, or do that are not pleasing to God. Going on about our lives without stopping to clean our hearts from these things will harm us spiritually.[9]

“Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me.” Psalm 51:10 

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[1] O. S. Hawkins, In Sheep’s Clothing, Jude’s Urgent Warning about Apostacy in the Church (Neptune, New Jersey; Loizeaux Publishing, 1994) 42.

[2] John MacArthur, The MacArthur New Testament Commentary, 2 Peter & Jude (Chicago Illinois; Moody Publishing, 2005) 164.

[3] Thomas R. Schreiner, The New American Commentary, An Exegetical and Theological Exposition of Scripture, 1, 2 Peter, Jude (Nashville, Tennessee; Broadman & Holman Publishing, 2003) 446.

[4] Schreiner, 447.

[5] See also 2 Peter 2:4-8

[6] Osborne, 45.

[7] Matthew S. Harmon, Expository Commentary, Volume XII, Hebrews -Revelation (Wheaton, Illinois; Crossway Publishing, 2018) 512.

[8] Daniel L. Akin, New Testament Commentary, Christ-Centered Exposition, Exalting Jesus in 2 Peter and Jude (Nashville, Tennessee; Holman Reference, 2018) 158.

[9] https://ministry127.com/resources/illustration/wash-your-hands-after-dealing-with-death