Jude 1 verses 5 through 7, these are God's words. But I want to remind you, though you once knew this, that the Lord, having saved the people out of the land of Egypt afterward, destroyed those who did not believe. And the angels who did not keep their proper domain, but left their own abode, He has reserved in everlasting chains under darkness for the judgment of the great day. As Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities around them, in a similar manner to these, having given themselves over to sexual immorality and gone after strange flesh, are set forth as an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire." So for the reading of God's inspired and inerrant word. And so Jude has already written that he wanted to go on and enrich them more, writing to them concerning their common salvation, but it is necessary for him to exhort them to contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints. And the reason he has to exhort them to do this is because they have been forgetful. Not that they are suffering theological amnesia, but they have fallen out of the habit. of contending for this faith in their own selves and in their own lives. This is the first great place that each of us must contend for the faith. It will not do for someone to develop a new hobby interest in apologetics, if they are not contending for the faith first in their own heart, in their own mind, day by day, in their own life, living from the life of Christ, in fellowship with Him, in the means of His grace, offering what they do all day long, every day, offering what you do all day long, every day, as service unto your Master, your Redeemer, the Lord Jesus. do not think that there is a contending for the faith that you can do if you're not contending for the faith in that way. Those to whom Jude is writing, quote-unquote, once knew this. So he says, but I want to remind you though you once knew this. In other words, they are backsliding. It is possible for those who are professing Christians, for those even who are converted, verse 1, they are called, sanctified by God the Father and preserved in Jesus Christ, to backslide, to become complacent. in their Christian walk. And when you become complacent, you are neglecting warnings that God has put in his work. Warnings that tell us that not everyone who professes to be saved has actually been saved. That there are those who are church members and there are even those who have high office and are esteemed by many and seem to have great spiritual attainments. who fall. And then he warns us about the greatness of the destruction into which such fall. And so he gives three examples, one in verse 5, one in verse 6, one in verse 7. The first is that the Lord, having saved the people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed those who did not believe. Church membership is wonderful because the church is the Lord's church. The Lord is the one who has gathered it from among the nations. The Lord is the one who has set it apart. The Lord is the one who gives her his word and his worship. And yet it is possible to be a member in this church that you have this wonderful church membership, but you don't have the Lord himself. And so it is not so wonderful for you. So the Lord saved the people out of the land of Egypt, but afterward it was the Lord who destroyed those who did not believe. And so we should not say, I have the Lord, if we are not trusting in him, if we do not belong to him by faith. You cannot say, I have the Lord, just because you're a church member and you're baptized. Now we know people, anyone who trends Anglican or Lutheran or even what we would call a federal visionist, Presbyterian, but nobody actually takes responsibility for being a federal visionist. They all deny the name and hem and haw and explain their way out of it. But anyone who says, I'm okay, I'm safe because I'm a church member, I'm safe because I'm baptized, is making this great mistake. Like the Apostle Paul says in 1 Corinthians 10, All the people passed through the Red Sea, all the people were baptized into Moses as the water, as they were sprinkled walking on the dry land. All the people ate the same spiritual food and drank the same spiritual drink. And yet God was not pleased with them and that entire generation fell in the wilderness. The end of Hebrews 3 and into the beginning of Hebrews 4 makes the same point. And now Jude is making this point. You could be a church member and be destroyed, and it'll be the Lord himself who destroys you if you don't believe, if you don't believe in the Jesus who is. Well, the second example that backsliding or complacent Christians are neglecting is that of the angels. The angels were holy. The angels were powerful. The angels had authority. And yet they did not stick to their own authority, their own place, their own holiness. A third of the angels sinned against God, were not content with the place that God had given them, but tried to take their own place. These two then were, in their own way, throwing the Lord off as master, which is what everyone does who uses the gospel, uses the grace of God as an excuse for sin. What a rotten and corrupt thing to do, to take the truth, the reality of God's free grace in Christ, and twist it into the grounds upon which you stop trying to keep his commandments. You don't care about holiness. And he reminds us that even angels fell. And how far did they fall? So even church members fall, verse 5, but even the angels fell. And look at how far they fell. From their place of authority, their own authority, which our English version here has translated proper domain, but it's own authority. Now they are reserved in everlasting chains under darkness. They are bound to their sin. They are unable ever to climb back up to attain to the place where they were. Hebrews reminds us that God does not give help to the angels who fell. He gives help to the children of Abraham by faith. those who believe in Christ, like Abraham believed in Christ. But the angels who fell, they're done. All the way from the great position they have, they are now in chains, everlasting chains under darkness. And when the great day comes, the chains will not be released, but they will then be cast into the lake of fire. And so how great is the fall of those who throw off the lordship of Christ. So who can fall, even church members? How far you can fall, even from an angel? And let none of us think, and this applies primarily to me at this point, but none of us think because of the office that we have or because we have been esteemed by others. Perhaps you are esteemed by others. That applies to you to some extent, that you are not in this danger, that it is okay for you to become complacent. No, we must by perseverance, zeal, diligence, all given by grace. It's not by the merit or force of our persistence, our zeal, or our diligence. But this is the fruit, part of the fruit of the work of the Spirit in us. The fruit of the Spirit is self-control. And so that's what real salvation looks like. It looks like being right with God only through who Christ is and only through what Christ has done. But it also looks like being sanctified by the same Christ and rejoicing to be his bond slave. throughout our life and increasingly so, as his spirit grows us in grace. So who can fall, verse five, how far you can fall, even from a place of high esteem and authority and office, verse six, and then into what those who do not have Christ as Lord fall. And here, the example is Sodom and Gomorrah. So verse 7, as Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities around them, in a similar manner to these, OK, so the cities of the plain. Remember, I think one of them was Zoan or there are a couple others. But the cities of the plain, similarly to Sodom and Gomorrah, gave themselves over to sexual immorality and went after strange flesh. That's not where the sin starts. Okay, that is the end stage of the cancer of being under the wrath of God. Remember Romans 1, the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all unrighteousness and ungodliness of men. It starts with denying God as creator, denying his glory as creator, denying his lordship over us as creator. For although they knew God, they neither glorified him nor gave him thanks. and they exchanged the glory of God for the service of idols, images, creatures. And it was as a consequence of that that God gives men over even to the sorts of sexual immorality that Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities of the plain fell into. And so they're not just an example that if you fall into the alphabet soup perversions that are celebrated in our culture, you will burn forever and ever. They're examples of how denying God as creator and denying the Lord as the Lord ends in burning forever. And so, yes, when the antinomian comes and says, the grace of God means you don't have to work so hard. In fact, some of them say it's wrong to try so hard to obey his commandments and to be holy. They are giving you the logic by which someone ends up in the same fate as Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities of the plain. Note the end of verse seven when he says, are set forth as an example, suffering the vengeance or the just penalty. The word there is taken from the root for righteousness or justice, suffering the just penalty of eternal fire. Well, if they were to, at the time of Jude writing, go and look, they wouldn't still find Sodom and Gomorrah smoking. What he's saying is that the way that God destroyed those cities was an example in time, in a moment of history, of what will be everlasting for all of those who do not have Jesus Christ as Lord. He is King of kings and Lord of lords. and every knee will bow and every tongue will confess. And those who do not belong to him as master and who do not serve him as master, they will have no place in heaven or earth, in the new heavens and the new earth. Because in the new heavens and the new earth, righteousness dwells. Those holy angels who never fell will dwell. Those holy people who have been redeemed in Christ and sanctified, justified and glorified, they will be. But the devil and all his angels and all those whose names are not found in the book of life will be cast into the lake of burning fire, which Jesus tells us in Matthew 25 is prepared for the devil and his angels. But we see all of those. who oppose the Lord, cast there in Revelation. And we see all those whose names are not written in the book of life, the cowardly and so on, that whole list of folks. They have their place in the burning fire. And so it tells us this warning of into what we are destroyed or fall if we are not redeemed into subjection to Christ. And so we might feel like, because that's the subtlety, that's the deceptiveness of our remaining sin, that backsliding or becoming complacent, lazy in our Christian life or with our spiritual life or with the service of Christ, whether lazy in attending upon the means of grace, in our own personal life, or in our family life, or our worship life, our congregation life, or whether lazy in terms of not living moment by moment throughout the day as someone who belongs to him. becoming complacent or slacking in those things is ignoring the example of the people who came out of Egypt and that even church members can fall. It's ignoring the example of the angels and that even those of such high position and esteem may fall and great is their fall. And it's ignoring the example of Sodom and Gomorrah and into what great eternal fire and what great sin we may fall by denying Christ as Lord. They turn the grace of God into lewdness. They turn the grace of God into lewdness, he says in verse four. So into what great sin we may fall and ultimately into what everlasting and great punishment we may justly fall by our sin. We would justly fall by our sin apart from being saved. And so may the Lord help us to remember these examples. Like Jude says, I want to remind you, though you once knew this. So right now you're in family worship, you're hearing it read, God helping you. I hope you are thinking about it and meditating upon it. Right now is a moment in which you knew this. But God helping you, may the Holy Spirit keep us mindful, keep us remembering the examples, keep us thinking of Jesus as Lord and relating to him as Lord, so that we won't come to a place in our life where The Word has to come in a Bible reading or a sermon and say, I want to remind you, though you once knew this, may He give us to live in the knowledge of it. And if we do backslide, if you do become slack, may God mercifully remind you. Let's pray. Father, please give us by your Spirit to not be slack in knowing your Son, Jesus, as our Lord, our King, our Master. How we thank you that this is one of the mediatorial offices you have given Him for us and grant that we would not have seared consciences or quench your spirit, but keep our consciences tender and grant that your spirit would not leave us alone, but would always be calling us back to yourself if we fall and stumble into such complacency. Don't let us end up being those self-deceived who discover that we were never saved at all and that our fall has been into everlasting flames. Please, Lord, don't let that happen to me or anyone of our dear family. Grant that we would enter glory together by your Spirit's use of this portion of your word and of the rest of your word to conform us to Christ. In whose name we ask it, amen.