Symptoms of Ungodliness (Jude 6-18)
Use this guide to help your group discussion as you meet this week.
Transcript
Good morning. My name is Chet. I am one of the pastors here. We are in the book of Jude. It's a very short letter written by Jude, the brother, and he says servant of Jesus. It is on page 594 in one of the blue Bibles that's in the row in front of you.
I would encourage you to grab a Bible, have it open with you this morning. The scriptures will be on the screen, but there's a lot to this passage we're looking at this morning. We're going to jump right in and then I'm going to kind of set the tone for what we're going to do, but we need to start off in verse 8. We're going to look in verse 8 through 16 today. We're going to jump right into 8, explain kind of what we're going to do this morning as we walk through this, and then get to work. So verse 8 starts like this.
Yet in like manner manner, these people also. Yet in like manner, these people also. Every single word in that phrase means that you need some context. Yet means that he's referring to something he just talked about. In like manner means that he's referring to something he just talked about. These people means that he's talking about some people that he just talked about.
And also, so let's just set the context and then we'll see what we're going to do this morning. What he, what has happened so far in this letter is he has said that there are people who have crept in unnoticed. So he's writing to the church, but he says there's some people who've crept in unnoticed and they are perverting the grace of God into sensuality. So they're saying God's so loving, God's so kind, God's so gracious that we can have license to sin, that we can pursue these things because of his grace, because of his kindness, because of his forgiveness. And then he says denying our only master and Lord Jesus Christ.
Those are the two things that they're doing. And then we looked at verses five through seven. He gives historical examples of the ways that we've tried this before. So he talks through the rebellious Israelites after they were brought through the Exodus of Egypt, they rebelled against Jesus and Jesus destroyed them. Then he talks about angels who left their proper place.
Is he, is that he's going to give us some clarifying information as we go through this? There's a, there's a phrase that has become a part of my life, a question that, um, if a couple of years ago you had told me you will both ask this question and answer this question on a semi regular basis, I would have had no clue as to why that would happen. I'd have been very confused. If you said, here's a question that's going to become a part of your life. I would have just been like, why? I think it's actually a part of your life too.
Here's the question. Can you still taste food or could you still taste food? Now, under what circumstances prior to 2020, would you have needed that phrase, that question? Head injury, severe hot sauce, tongue burn, like what? But in 2020, we all became infectious disease experts and we learned a series of symptoms that we needed to know about in order for us to continue in life.
And I don't know about y'all, but I learned that the one that seems to only go along with COVID was the inability to taste food. Everything else was like, well, I don't know. That could be allergies. That could be something that you ate other than like completely having no energy. But if like someone's trying to hang out with you and they're like, hey, I will come, but I got to run down my symptoms with you real quick.
My throat's hurting. Okay. Have you been coughing? Not really. But we all learned how not to cough in 2020.
That's not the best test. But then you finally say, can you still taste food? Yeah, you can come hang out. If they're like, not really. It's like, stay home. That was actually how I learned when I was hanging.
I was with my family on vacation. It was like our extended family, my brothers, their families. And I realized I could not tell the difference between peanut butter and sour cream other than texture. I was like, oh no. But what we learned was a series of symptoms that helped us understand what illness we had.
If you, if you call up, you go to the doctor or whatever, they're going to ask for symptoms. Now the symptoms aren't the disease. They're how it shows up. And what we're going to see in Jude is he's giving us symptoms of ungodliness. Symptoms of someone who does not have the spirit. He calls them devoid of the spirit.
So these are symptoms that show up in our lives and in the lives of others that indicate ungodliness or a lack of the work of the spirit. And I think this will be primarily helpful in two ways for us this morning. One, so that we can diagnose ourselves. So that you can look at Jude's version of ungodliness, WebMD, and run down the list and go, oh, okay. That's actually an area where there's some lack of work of spirit in me. That's an area where there's some lack of the work of the spirit in me.
That's an area where I'm not following the Lord. If you go through the whole list and you're like, ah, this just is characterizing my life. Well, we have good news that Jesus Christ dies for sinners, but you're not a Christian, so you need to place faith in him. It's a diagnosis for ourselves that we might repent. Secondarily, it's a diagnosis for Christian leadership. Some of y'all have just moved to the area.
Some of y'all at some point will move to a different place and you will be tasked as a Christian with trying to find a church. Good luck. It's one of the most unfun things to ever try to do. It's really hard to do because you want to try to figure out what's best, but then you get in this weird consumer situation and it really messes you up. And this, I think, gives us a healthy diagnosis for trying to figure out where there's godly Christian leadership because he's talking about these leaders and how it shows up in their lives that they have ungodliness. It also helps us for, Lord willing, we stay, we grow together, we multiply groups, we continue to pursue this area with the gospel.
But also, some of you are reading books, you're listening to podcasts, you're listening to sermons, and this is a helpful framework to understand, are these people that I'm listening to, learning from, are they actually believers or do they have symptoms of ungodliness? So, that's it. We're trying to diagnose our own hearts, which is most important. Secondarily, trying to build a bit of a radar framework for understanding Christian leadership. And he says a lot of things. You ever had someone that, hold stuff in and then finally they like let one thing out, so then they say everything?
That's what this feels like. We got a lot of work to go through to just like, after he says it all, you're like, okay, let's start sorting this out. So, we're going to try to work our way through quickly as we can, but he says a lot of stuff. Let's pray for the Lord's help and the active work of the Spirit. Lord, we ask for wisdom. We ask for your help.
We ask for the Spirit to be at work in us so that we might understand your Word here. In Jesus' name, amen. All right, verse 8. Yet in like manner, these people also, relying on their dreams, defile the flesh, reject authority, and blaspheme the glorious ones. Okay. Relying on their dreams kind of works as like the gear that turns these other ones, or it's the fulcrum that moves these other ones.
So, we're going to talk about it first and a little bit longer, then we're going to work on the other three. But he says relying on their dreams, meaning these leaders, we're announcing, I've had a dream. I've had a vision. God has spoken to me. Now, that kind of thing does happen in the Scriptures, but what they do is they say, God's spoken to me, and then it leads them away from what we know from the Scriptures is God's will. They start defiling the flesh.
They start running into sin, running into sensuality. They start rejecting authority, and so they're using this as somehow, I've had a dream, and therefore, I'm an authority. Some of you might come out of a church background where that's a thing, where somebody speaks prophetically into your life, or declares they've had a dream. I know I've been in sermons before where someone said, I was reading this passage, and I was praying about it, and I felt like the Lord just told me something. And then they just leave the Bible. At that point, it's almost like they could have just folded it up and set it down, and they just start talking about things.
And after a while, I'm like, no, that's not what, that's not, we're untethered to the Scriptures, but that's what's happening. And that's a thing that happens in Christian leadership. But here's how it might show up in your life. Maybe you actually had a dream or a vision or something, and the way that you ought to weigh that out is to understand what the text says, have church family help weigh in that, try to walk in the Spirit with people under the authority of Scriptures. But here's how it usually seems to show up.
I just don't feel like this is wrong. I've prayed about it, and this just doesn't seem wrong to me. Or, studying the Scriptures, and you're going, I just, I don't know how God could say that's bad, so I just, it doesn't feel right. And what you're doing is the same thing they're doing, which is this sort of mysticism that says, my experience trumps God's Word. My experience trumps God's Word. I understand it says I probably shouldn't be, like, sleeping with my boyfriend.
I understand it says that I shouldn't necessarily be smoking weed. I get that. But also, I prayed about it, and I just, I don't feel like the Lord's telling me that personally. Which is a real misunderstanding of how this is meant to work. Your assumption in that is that your experience trumps the Word of God, or that everything that you disagree with the Bible on is an indication of the Bible being wrong rather than you being wrong. But if we actually believe that there is a God who came to save sinners, we should assume, we should expect to come to the Bible and it say some things we don't like.
You should expect that. You should read the Bible and go, ooh, don't like that. And it doesn't mean he's wrong, it means you're wrong. And if you pray about it and still don't feel wrong, it just means you're double extra wrong. When anybody ever says, I prayed about it and I don't feel bad, it's like, yeah, because you don't know how to listen to the voice of the Spirit right now. You're so far away from the Lord.
Like, repent, obey. Stuff that we would not let our children say. My seven-year-old can't go, I know that you said I shouldn't do that, but I've thought about it, and it just feels like something I should do. I'd say, you're very confused about how this house works. But that's what's happening here, and that's what can happen to us, and it's a symptom of ungodliness.
It's an area where it indicates that the Holy Spirit is not at work. It says they defile the flesh, meaning they pursue indulgence in sins that work for the flesh. They pursue sexual sins specifically, but it also would be pursuing any kind of indulgence of the flesh. We're going to see later that it's like they're driven by their bellies, that their passions and desires is what leads them in life. That's an indication of a lack of the work of the Spirit, because the Spirit gives us self-control. The Spirit works in us towards obedience, not just pursuing every desire we have.
It's a symptom of ungodliness. It says they reject authority. Boy, Americans love rejecting authority. It's our favorite. It's how we got started. I get to run a firework store twice a year.
If you were wondering how classy I am, super classy. I get to run a firework store twice a year, and I tell people sometimes, we became a country by blowing stuff up, so we celebrate by blowing stuff up. But there's this idea in us that it's like we're all cowboys, and ain't nobody going to tell us what to do. Those are the movies we watch. The authority tells you to turn in your gun and your badge. Well, guess what?
You got a gun at home because you're an American, and you're still going to solve this crime. That's what we celebrate. That's what we live in, but actually, the Bible is not anti-authority. God is not anti-authority. He's just pro-good authority. He's anti-biscuitary.
Bad authority. But if your life is marked by a rejection of all authority that you never got along with your parents, never got along with your teachers, hadn't met a cop you like, don't really, you know, be in a part of a church as long as they don't tell you stuff you got to do. We're like, you should join a group. And you're like, maybe. You ain't the boss of me. It's like, okay.
But if that's your whole life is marked by a rejection of any kind of leadership, any kind of authority, that's an indication of ungodliness. The Bible teaches a king who's good that we submit to. It teaches headship and leadership that are good that we submit to. An anti-authority, a rejection of all authority is a symptom of ungodliness. All right.
And blaspheme the glorious ones. That phrase, glorious ones, is just the word doxas in Greek, but glorious ones is a good, it'd be glories would be another way to say it, but it seems like since it's on its own, it's a glorious ones. And honestly, if that was all we had, we really would not know what he was talking about. He clarifies for us some. And so let's look at verse 9. Also, 2 Peter chapter 2 says a very similar thing that helps us understand this as well to give us some context.
But let's look at verse 9. So he says, they blaspheme the glorious ones. And then verse 9, he's going to give us something that fills that in a little bit for us. But when the archangel Michael, contending with the devil, was disputing about the body of Moses, he did not presume to pronounce a blasphemous judgment, but said, the Lord rebuke you. Verse 10, then we'll come back to verse 9. But these people blaspheme all that they do not understand.
And they are destroyed by all that they, like unreasoning animals, understand instinctively. All right. Look back at verse 9. They blaspheme the glorious ones. Now, blaspheme means to denigrate something holy, something glorious, so that we can blaspheme God. We speak about his name in an unholy way.
That's actually why they killed Jesus, because he was saying he was God, and they charged him with blasphemy, meaning he's not God, but he says he's God, and we've got to kill him. He was God, so he wasn't actually blaspheming. But it's interesting for him to give an explanation of blasphemy, but show us the archangel Michael and the devil. If there was one creature that I thought you kind of couldn't blaspheme, the devil seemed like a good guess, that you could say whatever mean thing you wanted to about the devil, and it would be true and fine to say. But he's saying that that's actually, they're ignorant in their approach to this.
And he gives us the example of the archangel Michael. Now, Michael is one of the only named angels. It's Gabriel and Michael. Michael shows up in Daniel, Jude, and the book of Revelation. A very powerful angel. And Jude is referencing a story that the only place we know anything about this story is in Jude.
It's not in any other historical writing. It's not in any of the other histories of the Jewish people outside of this. In a minute, he's going to reference 1 Enoch, but that's not in the Bible, but it's in their histories. We don't know where this came from at all. But it seems like he believed his readers or his hearers did.
And it's probably some sort of oral tradition that was passed along, but he's just giving them an example. So what he says is, the archangel Michael is disputing with the devil, and the archangel Michael does not presume to pronounce a blasphemous judgment. Meaning that it would be presumptive for the archangel Michael to speak in a certain way to Satan. But the archangel Michael doesn't do that. He says, let the Lord rebuke you. The Lord rebuke you.
He defers the rebuke to the Lord. Meaning that Michael shows humility. Michael does not exalt himself, but he leaves the rebuke to the Lord. He says, may the Lord rebuke you. So in some ways, what Jude is saying, it'd be like if I looked at my son and said, boy, I don't even talk to your mama like that.
Meaning I don't have to call her ma'am. We're on the same level. Like we discuss things differently. There's a different level of respect in the way we show each other, but you've lost your mind. That's kind of what Jude's saying. He's saying these people speak about evil angels in a way that angels don't even do this.
That's an odd concept for us to understand, but I think that word presume helps. The leaders that he's talking about have over-exalted themselves so that they are speaking in a way that indicates their ignorance about the actual power of the enemy and over-exalts their own understanding of their authority. So I'm going to give you a leadership example. I'm going to give you a personal life example, and then hopefully we'll wrap our heads around this a little bit. This is a bit confusing as to what he's talking about, and there's only a few places that reference it, this and 2 Peter. But 2 Peter basically says the same thing.
He says, bold and willful do they not tremble as they blaspheme the glorious one, whereas angels, though greater in might and power, do not pronounce a blasphemous judgment against them. So I've heard preachers preach and say things like, and we're going to storm the gates of hell and we're going to punch Satan in the mouth and we're going to bind that rat up and we're going to throw him in a hole. And it's like, uh, the problem with that, I think, in understanding what Jude is saying, is that we don't punch Satan in the mouth. We don't bind him up. We don't throw him in a hole. Jesus does.
And we, in humility, walk behind Jesus. We don't stand running our mouth behind Jesus. We defer to Jesus's glory and we, we walk behind him in humility. We don't presume to speak in such a way about things that we're ignorant about. The only, the personal example that I think is that you just need to watch how you think about, speak about Satan and demons, potentially some of the shows we watch, uh, lighten it, lighten that idea, lighten demonic things, lighten it as if it's somehow not something to take seriously. Uh, I saw this recently had never thought, never thought about it until I was reading Jude, but I know I've seen it in our church family and it's, I'm not saying it's wrong, but I'm saying this is the type of thing I think we need to consider, but there I've seen mugs and t-shirts and stuff that say not today, Satan.
When I first saw that, I thought, okay, but after reading this, I thought, maybe that's not, maybe, maybe that's a step too far and we just need to step back in a little more humility and, and actually let Jesus go before us in that, trusting in his rebuke, trusting in his leadership, trusting in his kingship and not in fearfulness of the enemy, but in fearfulness of the Lord, which is what Archangel Michael has. May the Lord rebuke you. And so that we get to walk in some authority that's in Christ, but it's in Christ. And we, I'll give you an example where this shows up in the book of Luke. Jesus sends out the 72.
It says the 72 returned. This is Luke 10 verses 17 through 20. The 72 returned with joy saying, Lord, even the demons are subject to us in your name. So they're subject to us, but it's in Jesus's name. And he said to them, I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. Behold, I have given you authority to tread on serpents and scorpions and over all the power of the enemy and nothing shall hurt you.
Nevertheless, do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven. He says, that's not the point. They are subject. There is some amount of authority in Christ, but that's not the thing to be excited about. That's not the thing to walk around being bold in. That's not the thing to be excited about the salvation and the wonder of the Lord, giving him credit, not yourself.
If you want to talk more about that, we can. I think some of what we would be caught on is just some humility and some understanding. Are we pointing to Jesus? Are we pointing to ourselves? Verse 10, but these people blaspheme all that they do not understand, meaning speaking about spiritual things in a way that, that their ignorance shows their ignorance and they are destroyed by all that they like unreasoning animals understand instinctively. So like unreasoning animals, meaning they're driven by their passions, their desires, their instincts, that that's, that's ultimately what's destroying them.
They're not led by the spirit. They're led by the flesh. They're like an animal. And he's going to give three examples. Now he's going to give three old Testament pictures, and then he's going to give six pictures from, uh, just kind of creation.
And y'all, it's artful. I played football in high school and college, and there were just some guys who knew how to say mean things to somebody and they were friends, but they would get into it and they would just know exactly where to like, like you're just wordsmiths. And there's a bunch of stuff that as I was trying to think about examples, I thought of some, I'm not allowed to say them here. Um, and some of them are way worse because I'm white, but I've remembered some of the things that have been said that when I was growing through high school and college. And honestly, when I read Jude, I kind of feel that it's like he masterful pictures to try to help wrap around this idea of what these people are like and what's going to happen.
And so we're going to walk through those. He gives three from the old Testament. He says, woe to them for they have walked in the way of Cain, abandoned themselves for the sake of gain to Balaam's error and perished in Korah's rebellion. They've walked in the way of Cain, meaning that it's this symptom of ungodliness that he's saying this, this identifying marker of them is that, uh, Adam and Eve had two sons, Cain and Abel, and they presented the sacrifice to God. And, uh, Cain's sacrifice was not accepted. And God tells him sin is coming for you.
You need to have dominion over it. And Cain chooses sin led by his, uh, uh, his jealousy over his brother. And he kills his brother. He just heads in that direction. And what he's saying is they've chosen that path led by their passions, led by their desires, led by their anger, led by their jealousies. They followed Cain.
And then he says they have, uh, and abandoned themselves for the sake of gain to Balaam's error. Balaam was a prophet who God spoke to, but who was not a part of the people of Israel. And in Numbers, when the people of Israel are coming through, a king goes to Balaam and says, I'll pay you money. Come curse the people of Israel. And Balaam says, I'll only say what God wants me to say. He says, all right, cool.
Come sit over here and see if he'll let you curse them. Balaam shows up and he blesses them because that's what God wants to do. Balaam does this three times. The king keeps being like, well, maybe come over to this side, see if you can curse this half of their army. Come over here and see him from here. Maybe you can curse him here.
And Balaam just keeps being like, okay. And it's almost as if Balaam's like, I really want this money. So I'm hoping God will change his mind. That's kind of what he's abandoning himself for the sake of gain. He's giving up this relationship he had with the Lord where he was the Lord's prophet. He's just trying to get gain out of it.
And we eventually see that he helps the Midianites trick the Israelites into sin. That ultimately he does turn. That he was, they'd be like somebody offered you a job and you were like, no, I'm supposed to stay here. I'm supposed to whatever. And they say, okay. They call you back up and they go, we've raised the, the offering amount.
You know, like, no, I've prayed about it. I feel like the Lord really wants me here. And they call you back up and say, we've raised the offering amount. Like we will pay you this. And you go, I think maybe the Lord's telling me I'm supposed to go to Memphis. I just feel like now that, you know, you said that much, it feels like, and it's, that's kind of what he's saying.
He's like, they sold themselves out for money. He sold, and that's what they've done. They're driven along by their passions. And one of the things they understand is money. It says they perished in Korah's rebellion. Korah was a priest who said in the, with Abraham, with Moses and his brother Aaron, he said, we're priests, but how do y'all get to be the ones who talk to God?
How are y'all in this special spot? How did only the sons of Aaron get to be high priests? And they rebelled against them and Korah was swallowed up by the earth. So he had a position of authority, but he didn't want to stay in it. He wanted a higher one. He wanted to rebel against God's authority.
And so what he says is they're driven along like animals and they understand three things. They understand their own desires, their own passions. They understand their pocketbooks and they understand power. Now what's scary is, if you looked at many of our lives, we've charted them out along our desires, our wallets, and power. And when you picture future you, it's future me, but I get to sit on a beach and drink mojitos. It's future me, but I'm getting to, my house is bigger, more comfortable.
It's nicer. It's future me, but I have more money. It's, it's future me, but I'm, I'm, I've moved up in my office. I've moved up in authority. I've moved up and I'm more well-respected. And all you've got is this.
And he says, that's, that's instinct. That's what animals do. And if that's all you've got, that's an indication of a lack of the work of the spirit. All right. Now he gives six, starting at verse 12, six, um, pictures from, from creation.
I'm going to read them all at once and then we'll walk back through them. But he says, these are hidden reefs at your love feasts as they feast with you without fear. Now the picture is hidden reefs. We'll explain that in a second. First, we've got to talk about love feasts. Spencer was supposed to preach today, but we rearranged the schedule.
Um, if you're new, Spencer and I preach rotating around. Um, and, uh, he was going to acknowledge that when he mentioned love feasts kind of offhandedly in his first sermon in Jude, he mentioned it in a purely negative context, but love, love feasts are not by design negative. They're mentioned kind of negatively here, but love feasts are like a fellowship dinner. So in biblical terms, we have love feasts in our fellowship hall or in our gym where we eat a meal together because we're church family. They would often do that. And then they would have communion.
Love feast sounds negative to us. Like if you came to me and said, Hey, you want to come to my house on Saturday? We're going to have a love feast. I would say, no, I'm a, I can't, I don't, I don't, I don't want to. And also I don't want, I don't want to know what that is, but I feel like I'm not into it. So it sounds negative.
It's just a fellowship dinner. And that's why we call them fellowship dinners. Because if we put on here, Hey, love feasts coming up. Some of y'all be like, not the church for me. I was just swinging by, but that's what it was. But he says they're hidden reefs.
Now a hidden reef is the water looks good. There's something underneath it. That's going to shipwreck you. So if these other things have been symptoms, he's now giving us a prognosis. He's telling us where this disease goes. He's saying, if you follow this leadership, if you follow this path, here's what will happen to you.
Here's what this type of leadership does. Seems good, destroys you from under the surface. Shepherds feeding themselves. Shepherds exist for the sake of the flock. The flock does not exist for the sake of the shepherd. The shepherd is there to defend, to guide, to protect, to care.
And he says, that's not what these, that's not what they're doing. You exist for their good. They're shepherds who feed themselves. Waterless clouds swept along by winds. In a agricultural society, clouds are a beautiful, beautiful thing. Even here sometimes it rains and you're just like, oh, we need, this is great.
We needed some rain. He's saying these clouds, they come along and they promise life and they just keep on going. Looks like it's going to do something. Doesn't do anything. Brings no life, no health. They're waterless clouds.
Fruitless trees in late autumn. Meaning it's already past the season for fruit. They should have already borne fruit. They haven't borne fruit. They're fruitless. And then he doubles down and says, not only were they fruitless, now they've been uprooted.
They're twice dead, uprooted. Dead on their own, dug up dead, twice dead. I mean, he's straight up, he's, you know, he's getting after them. He calls them double dead here. 13. Wild waves of the sea casting up the foam of their own shame.
Meaning that all their activity, all their, when they get stirred up, all it ends up doing is showing their wickedness. Cast up their shame. Wandering stars for whom the gloom of utter darkness has been reserved forever. Use the stars to guide you. Use stars to help you navigate. And some of, and I only recently learned this.
I probably should have learned it a long time ago. Some of the brightest stars aren't stars, they're planets. And they move. And I'm always like, hey look, you can see that star. Where are the other stars? And it's not a star, it's a planet.
But the problem is they don't track with the rest of the sky. And so if you set your course by them, they get you off course. That's what he's saying. That they're a star that doesn't stay in its place, so it'll get you off course. They will lead you astray. Now I know, for many in our church family, and for some of you who I don't know, I know that some of the greatest harm that has happened to you is by following Christian leaders like this.
Christian leaders that were devoid of the Spirit, led you astray, harmed you, seemed like things were going to be good, but it was lurking under the surface. They were shepherds who were feeding themselves. And they caused great destruction. That's why Jude is saying what he says. Verse 14. It was also about these that Enoch, the seventh from Adam, so Adam was one, Enoch was seven.
It's just in his genealogy, in the genealogy of Adam. The seventh from Adam prophesied saying, so he's about to quote a prophecy from Enoch. He's going to quote it from first Enoch, which is not in the Bible, which immediately causes us a bunch of problems. So we want to time out and say, wait a second, should Enoch be in the Bible? Does he, does Jude say that Enoch should be in the Bible? And the answer is no.
And then we go, oh, well then should Jude be out of the Bible? These are all discussions that have been had a long time ago. First Enoch was never a part of the Hebrew scriptures. They understood some to be divinely authored, other ones not. What, what Jude is doing here is he is saying, hey, when Enoch said this, he was talking about these people. Paul does that with, um, epimenides.
And that's how you pronounce it. Don't question that. Epimenides. Um, he does this in Titus. He says, one of the Cretans, a prophet of their own, said, Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, lazy gullettins. This testimony is true.
Which is a mean thing to say about the Cretans. Maybe that's why he quotes somebody else. I'm not saying it, but he said it and he was right. That's what he does. But what he's not saying is go find everything epimenides said and put that in the scriptures.
He's just saying he said this and that's accurate. And that's what he's doing. He's saying first Enoch, Enoch said this and this is who he's talking about. This comes true in them. They fulfilled this prophecy. That's what he's saying.
So here's what he says. Behold, the Lord comes with ten thousands of his holy ones 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. He says ungodly four times. That's why I said these are symptoms of ungodliness. He's saying that's about them.
This is ungodly. It's anti-godly. They're devoid of the spirit. In verse 16, we're going to look at a few more and then I want to point out two things about Jesus. He says these are grumblers, malcontents, following their own sinful desires. They are loud mouth boasters, showing favoritism to gain advantage.
Some of us are very skillful in grumbling. Grumbling. You know, you know all the things you don't like. You can point them out. You can show up anywhere. It's like if there was a super team.
You'd be like, and everybody was yelling out their powers. You'd be like, grumbling! And put your ring in the middle. Like that's what you're good at. You can tell everything you don't like. You always know why everybody around you is an idiot.
And you don't mind telling other people. That's grumbling. Grumbling. And he says it's an indication that the spirit's not at work here. Malcontent. This constant discontent specifically with authority.
Every boss you've ever had, an idiot, all of your teachers, morons. Is life only always better in the future? Are you constantly discontent? If I can just get here. If I can just get this done. If I just get to this stage.
If we can finally fix this problem. Then I'll be happy. And if you actually trace your life back. That's never actually happened. Some of those things have happened. But you've never reached contentment.
Following their own sinful desires. We've talked about that a good bit. Led along by their stomachs. They are loud mouthed boasters. They tell you how wonderful they are. How smart they are.
How capable they are. Showing favoritism to gain advantage. That's a sneaky one. And it's more malicious than some of these other ones. I mean it can be malicious. But this idea of treating someone well.
For the sake of just using them. Coming to someone and saying. Hey I would tell our group this. But they don't understand. But you do.
Hey I would. You know you're the only person I can talk to about this. Giving gifts. Those kind of things. Just to kind of turn someone into your advantage. And some of you know that.
If you've been in a situation with really unhealthy leadership. They treated you really really well. And then hurt you very very badly. Because it was just to gain advantage. Alright I got.
Two pieces. Of good news. Look back at verse 14. The band's going to come back up here. And I want to highlight for us two things. As we close out our time.
Verse 14. He says this. Behold. Behold. The Lord. Comes.
With ten thousands of his holy ones. There is judgment coming. For those who lead in the name of the Lord. To the destruction of others. There is judgment coming. Some of you have deep wounds.
Because of what people have done in the name of Christ. And I want you to know. There is judgment coming. They will not get away with it. That he comes to bring judgment. On ungodliness.
That's wonderful news. Because every time something is ungodly or unfair. We say. Isn't somebody going to fix this? Isn't somebody going to show up? It's in us.
To see something unfair. And to want justice. We learned that with my. My. When my. Young.
My youngest son was like two. If he came running down the hall. Crying. And he ran to his mom. If we were both sitting in the room. If he ran to his mom.
He had hurt himself. He needed comfort. If he ran to me. His brother had hurt him. He needed justice. There's something in us.
That when these things happen. We go. I need someone to show up. And judge. And there's good news. A judge comes.
With ten thousand of his holy ones. But this is also fearful news. Because if we are ungodly. Unrepentant. Not redeemed in Christ. Judgment comes.
We will stand accountable for our sin. But here's the. Thing I want you to see. He says this is ungodly. Meaning that godliness is the opposite. Meaning that Jesus is the opposite.
Jesus didn't choose the way of Cain. He chose righteousness. On our behalf. Jesus didn't sell himself out for gain. He actually gave up riches. So that he could become poor.
So that he could humble himself to a cross. Jesus didn't reject authority. He actually submitted himself to the will of the father. To rescue and redeem a people for himself. Jesus is not a hidden reef. That will destroy us.
He is actually good. Calm. Glorious waters. That we can sail along. To a future. And a hope.
He's not a shepherd who feeds himself. He's the good shepherd who lays down his life. For the sheep. To rescue and redeem a people. That have hope in his name. He's not a cloud that promises water.
But doesn't bring life. He is the giver of life to all who will call on him. He's not a tree without fruit. But he brings substance. Joy. Filling.
Fills us with goodness. Patience. Kindness. Self-control. He's at work in us. That Jesus is good.
And he's a star that you can set your life on. That will guide you home. That will guide you forever. Forever. So the hope is that there is judgment against the ungodly.
And the hope is that there is forgiveness for the ungodly who will call out to Jesus. And we need both. So I'd ask you to diagnose yourself a little bit this morning. And to walk to Jesus in repentance. And hope for a future where he sets all things right. Including us.
Let's pray. Lord we thank you that you come with 10,000 of your holy ones. To bring about judgment on all of those who have sullied your name. All those who have rebelled against you and pursued ungodliness. And we thank you Lord that you already came. To pay for the sin of those who will call on you.
For forgiveness in life. And we ask Lord that on that day of judgment. That there would not be a soul in this room. Who stands before you in condemnation. But that we would stand in Christ.
In salvation. As we ask Lord that you would through your spirit lead us into repentance and faith. In Jesus name. Amen.