All right, get into our book here. In Jude, verses five through seven. We're gonna read here. It reads here, I will therefore put you in remembrance, though you once knew this, how that the Lord, having saved the people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed them that believed not. And the angels which kept not their first estate but left their own habitation, he hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day. Even as Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities about them in like manner, giving themselves over to fornication and going after strange flesh, are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire. So we got into these verses here a little bit, getting into some general things about the verses. We did say there are six characteristics that we see for every fight for the faith. We said that there will be conflict and opposers of the faith. Just granted, there will be conflict and there will be opposers. Second, we said that there will be two sides in the fight. We're going to see some of that today. Number three, we said that the side against the faith will always lose and die off. We also said that the side of the truth will always continue in the Lord's will, in the Lord's way. We also said in every fight, there will be testing. on which side to follow. And then lastly, we said, every fight presents the choice to unify with the truth and God's way. So some general things that we've talked about, we see that these stories here, they're set here as examples, examples for us to read and understand and to learn from. So they're here set as examples to describe these false teachers and how they're going to end. Showing that in the past it's happened. It has happened already. There are true stories of this happening, and now bringing it to the present time, it's going to happen again with false teachers. And so Jude is bringing this to light here, saying that this is nothing new. This is something you already know. These are stories you remember, stories you should remember. And these are very common stories that we know. We know these stories. The stories of the children of Israel wandering through the wilderness and not being faithful to the Lord. We know about the angels that fell. We know these stories. We hear these things growing up. Especially if you live in a Christian home, you'll hear these stories. And then Sodom and Gomorrah. That's a very common story of God's wrath against sin. So we see this and we know that the counterpart or the parallel passage of this passage would be 2 Peter 2. And we've been through that with Brother Glenn, seen that. And so we're seeing these passages in general. And then we got into this distinctive, that as we go through these three stories, there are various distinctives that we can see. And one of those distinctives that we saw is that blessed conditions are no guarantees for free passes. So just because people start out in a wonderful condition, maybe they have a wonderful environment around them, that doesn't mean that everything's going to turn out great for them. Because the soul that sinneth, it shall die. Everyone is responsible to do the right thing. So just because people have everything perfect around them doesn't mean that they're going to do the right thing, doesn't mean they're going to make the right choices, and doesn't mean they're going to get away. with doing the wrong choices. And so these are no guarantees. And we see that in every case here, that things looked good in the beginning, but then it turned out bad. Children of Israel, they experienced the salvation of God through the Red Sea. They saw that. They saw the blessings. Yet they turned away from God. We see that the angels, wonderful blessings in heaven, turned away from it. And then Sodom and Gomorrah, how many blessings those cities had just living in that land, and yet they turned their faces away from God and turned them to sin. These are things that we are seeing in our passages here. We're going to move on here with verse 5 and see more of this and kind of get into some of the details of verse 5. We see here in verse 5, you note here that it says in the middle, how that the Lord. How that the Lord. Jude here uses Kurios, this Lord, to express again the problem of both the children of Israel that who came out of Egypt and these false brethren in New Testament times, that the problem is their lack of submission and subjection to the lordship of God. This is a common problem. In essence, it's rebellion against God. It's a common problem among those who are false professions, false brethren, false people. Again, what is astounding about the story of the children of Israel is that Jehovah was the Lord of their salvation. The Lord of their salvation. And that's all the story of Egypt. All the plagues that God was doing through Egypt, what was it for? to save his people from Egypt. They saw that. Then the Red Sea was like the climax of it. And still they were unthankful and rebelled against his leading. After all that, they enjoyed the benefits and blessings of being rescued from slavery and hardship in Egypt, but they did not want his lordship over their provisions and their wilderness way. In other words, they submitted to God's lordship on their terms, not His. But it never works like that with God. It must always be on His terms. Otherwise, the consequences come. People don't get the option of pick and choose what they want to obey and do without suffering the consequences. Furthermore, the Lord had rescued these people from bondage in Egypt and promised to bring them to the Promised Land to fulfill His designs of the Abrahamic Covenant, but instead of trusting and following His leading, they did not trust Him, but constantly complained and questioned all that He did after their saving at the Red Sea. That's all they did was question Him, question His leading. He saved them. That generation perished in the wilderness. He saved them, and they perished in the wilderness because of their unbelief. No longer did they need to deal with the afflictions in Egypt. And still, it was not good enough. It was not good enough for them to believe and trust their God. They had higher expectations and more requirements for Him. If God had only done the saving at the Red Sea, if that's all that God did, like let's subtract all the plagues, subtract all the provisions he gave in the wilderness, subtract it all. If only he did was the parting of the Red Sea and destroying the Egyptian army, don't you think that would be good enough? Just that alone would be good enough to serve him, to love him, to be devoted to him. It would be sufficient. But we know he did much, much, much more, before and after, saving and blessing them all the way through. Yet they did not believe." And we harped on this last time, how sometimes people are receiving so many blessed conditions, like they're just flooding around them. And they just forfeit it all, just give it all up. Why? Now, we know from the story that they were all happy when that Red Sea crashed upon the Egyptian army. I mean, they sang a song. They celebrated. But soon that happiness fled away as they journeyed further. And what we note here is that unbelievers have a fickle happiness about them. It turns in all different directions and goes short-termed. They are happy only when they get what they want. But this kind of attitude is never satisfied. There is no surrender and no submission to whatever the Lord provides, even if it brings hard times for a little while. They don't mind receiving the great benefits of God, and they might be happy for a day, but not for a lifetime, because they are happy only for self-interest. Self-interest. They will absorb the resources of the Lord and run on without a thankful heart and no surrender in their souls. They love when God provides what they need or want. But when God provides what they should have but they don't want, then they have a problem with God. Then they have a problem. When it's what they want, they don't have a problem. But when they don't get what they want, then they have a problem. They get selective with their love and service towards God. They take the goods and then run and play. They should run to the Lord with thanks and submission to whoever his will is for him. It reminds me of the lepers, where one came back, right? The others got what they liked and ran. But one came back and was thankful. OK? But they don't. Unbelievers don't, because their hearts are filled with unbelief and depravity. And so they don't mind soaking up all the resources, all the benefits that God provides. But when God puts on requirements, then they got a problem. Then they got a problem. And so they start, say, showing their true colors. OK? So unbelievers have a fickle happiness about them. Moreover, the children of Israel would not believe God, who then destroyed them in the wilderness. We know the great story of God's salvation for these people. Why would they not believe in the Almighty God and trust Him all the way through the wilderness to the Promised Land? Why not? Why would they not trust the Lord of their salvation? He's the Lord of their salvation. Why do people not trust the great salvation of the Lord accomplished in the sacrifice and bloodshed of the Lord Jesus Christ? Why not? Like it's such a great salvation, how can they neglect something so great? But they do. Do they not consider all the suffering and sin that Christ's body bore? Do they not see that? They're blinded. I mean, they don't see it. We want them to see it. It's like we want to shake their heads. Don't you see this? It's so great. Yet they trample on it as if it is nothing, make a mockery of it, and rebel against the Lord's leading and his will. You know, these false brethren here will take the goodness of the Lord and then rebel against His words and authority as if they have some good reason and some good excuse to do so. And this is the character of false brethren. In the beginning, they cherish the goodness of God, but down the road, they complain about His rules and leading. In the first, they sound good, maybe even doctrinally good, but later they roar. They scream against God's authority and spew out the stench of their false doctrines. It is the spirit of rebellion of which we must be aware of. We must fight against it and fight on behalf of the faith. This is going to be around us. It has already infiltrated Christianity, this kind of spirit. And we have to be on the lookout. We have to be aware of it. We have to be against it. We need to contend for the faith. That's what we're talking about here. Now, we see that God recompensed the children of Israel. He destroyed them that believe not. He recompensed the children of Israel for their unbelief and rebellious deeds. God is not fickle like man. He is righteous and just in all his ways. So recompense needed to happen for those people. And we read of these things, of these stories, recounted for us, repeated for us in the Old Testament. We see it in Psalm 106, Psalm 95. We see it in Hebrews 3 and 4. All these passages are hearkening back to these stories and saying, look at these bad examples. Bad examples. And then how God was very merciful. God was very gracious with those people. Allowed them to persist and give them time to change. But they didn't. But the same can be said for those who are false teachers and false brethren. Recompense needs to come upon them according to the righteousness of God. Just as God needed to clear out the rebels and the unbelieving and save those who did believe and obey him, the same needs to happen with our world and our dispensation. is important then to reject the ones who rebel and go on their way out of God's will and to be the ones who remain true and faithful to the Lord's way. Because there's a day coming when the rebels shall perish. And that is the point that Jude is striving at, is that those who are the rebels, they shall perish. They shall have an ending. You say their doomsday is coming. So this is a point that he's making with these stories. So I want to come now to another distinctive about these stories, another distinctive that I see here. It's the distinctive that rebellion and righteousness are jumbled together. Rebellion and righteousness are jumbled together. but rebellion shall soon crumble." I'll say it again. Rebellion and righteousness are jumbled together, but rebellion shall soon crumble. It seems that for each of these three stories, there is a mixture of both the rebellious and the righteous. In all three, the rebels fell away into destruction, while the righteous were saved. and preserved by the good hand of the Lord. And like we said already, there will be two sides in the fight. There will be two sides. And there will be a testing of which side a person will follow. And so we address this part now. We expand upon this part now. There are two sides of the fight, and there's gonna be a testing of which side one will follow. But there's going to be a mixture of both the rebels and the righteous. Each case, there's an intermixture of those who did right and those who did rebel. And one could argue that if that's the case, then we all who are holy and faithful, we should just live as monks. OK? That's a common argument out there. Well, maybe we should just live as monks. Go find a cave up in the high mountains and just dwell there by ourselves by a nice warm fire. OK? OK. No. We're not called to do that. OK? We're going to live in this world. And there's going to be an intermixture between the rebels and the righteous. OK? It's just that a reality is stated here. False men have crept in unawares, and now there's an intermixture of both rebel and righteous. And now it is for us to contend for the faith and be sure that we follow the way of the faith. We see in the story of the children of Israel in the wilderness, we know that people like Moses Aaron, Joshua, Caleb, and others were among the group of about 2 million Israelites going through the wilderness. That's a lot. The majority of them perished in the wilderness because of their unbelief. And only a few of them led the next generation into the land of Canaan. We can turn the pages of this story and see several situations in which the believing group was needed to contend and stay on the right side of each situation. We think of the story of the golden calf, right? There was a decision that had to be made. Who's going to be on that side? Who's going to be on that side? Or the story of Korah and his men. Who's going to be with them? Who's not going to be with them? Or the story of the 12 spies. Who's going to listen to that group? Who's going to listen to Joshua and Caleb? Right? Some believed, and many did not. And in every case, the unbelieving party fell away into a tragic ending. Think about the angels in heaven. At the first of the creation of the angels, all the angels were on the right side. Now, we don't know the fullest parts of the story of the angels and how some of them fell, but we are certain that they began all together in heaven. A group of the angels fell with Satan, and some of them are chained in darkness. Some roam the earth with Satan, the god of this world, and a lot of things that happen nowadays with angels. did become elect angels. There were those who became elect angels, or we call holy angels. So a decision had to be made. The angels had to make a decision. Which side are we going to be on? That side or this side? A choice was made. We find that a choice had to be made. And those angels that chose the wrong side fell away into a tragic ending, never to return. So in that story we see it again, just like we see it in the children of Israel. Sodom and Gomorrah, with Lot there. Lot is noted in scripture as a righteous man, 2 Peter 2, 7 and 8. He got vexed by being in the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. He was uncomfortable. with the sins of the people, which is the right behavior of what says just lot, righteous lot. It's the right behavior to be uncomfortable around that. And he was. Though Lot was there, and we don't know whether or not Lot tried to have any righteous influence upon the cities, we don't know, but Sodom and Gomorrah carried on its way perverse in its sins. It persisted headlong in its wickedness all the way up to the end. But we find in the story that Lot and his family had the need, but also the choice, to leave Sodom and Gomorrah. Lot believed it, though he was lazy about it. Others of his family were fence dwellers on the decision. But his wife and daughters did go along. We know Lot's wife fell later. What was left was Lot and his daughters, just a remnant out of a wicked place, out of the rubbish and ashes of a sin-dwelling place. But the point is that rebellion didn't make it. It got destroyed. It got plummeted. It was on fire. It returned to ashes. But a just man like Lot got out of there. And the contending is in this way sometimes. It is the contending of the loyalties of the heart and getting out of there, and getting out of there, getting pulled out of the fire. I mean, that kind of reminds me of what it says later, right? Pulling them out of the fire. It's like those angels took the hand of Lot and the others pulled them out, OK? It's like Lot got pulled out of the fire. And some have different struggles and battles. Some are in the heart. Sometimes the contending is in the heart. But sometimes the battles are with those who are on the outside, contentious rebels, as we see in the story of the children of Israel and the story of the angels in heaven, that there are two sides, and you're contending with that other side. Sometimes that's how it is. Sometimes the battle is in the heart of the believer. Sometimes the battle is there. But we drive the point now. This inner mixture will often be this way in most cases, if not every case. The tares will grow among the wheat, and it will come to judgment day for the tares while the wheat is spared. The presence of a rebellious party or rebellious ideals, or however it shows itself, becomes the nature of the conflict. It is our duty to contend for the faith, to choose the way of truth in the face of great opposition, in the face of great falsity that is around us, not to be swallowed up by the just recompense that shall come upon the rebels, not to allow us to get swept up by it. So what do we gain from this? Be a Moses. Be a Moses against the angry mob of rebels. Be a Moses. Be a Joshua and a Caleb. Be a Joshua and a Caleb. Yeah, you are few. You're only two, and they are 10. But that's OK. Two got in, and 10 did not. Right? Be a Joshua and a Caleb and choose the right side, the choice of God's way and God's will. Be as the holy angels who made themselves no party to the angels that fell. Be as just Lot who fled and left the grounds of wickedness to dwell in safety from the terrible judgment of God. Don't turn to the other side. Don't get swept in by the other side. Make a separation, if need be, from those who will experience the horrible wrath of God. Either the rebels will die off, and the righteous will need to remain constant in the way of truth, Or the rebels will remain along their ways, and the righteous will need to flee the premises of the wicked, who will soon perish for their sins. Kind of reminds me of that story of Korah and his men. And God told everyone to separate from them, because the earth was going to cave in. God was going to destroy them. And God told them, get away from them, because they're going to get destroyed here. don't want to be on the same grounds where they are right now. So this is part of the fight, is we have to make these decisions. And it's going to be jumbled together, because that's the nature of the conflict. But there has to be a decision that's made by us, who are going to follow God's way, and not be party to this stuff. Not be destroyed with it in this way. Not be ruined by it in any little bit. Not have any of their ashes upon us, so to speak. Okay? All right. We see also here the story of the angels that fell in verse 6. It says, the angels who kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation. Let's talk about that. We see the word an, which is here a specific particle that's used to join two like things in a sentence or join things between thoughts. Here we're joining common scenarios. The angels of the past resembled the people who came out of Egypt and died in the wilderness. Again, we are not certain as to all the details of what happened with the angels in heaven, Many have speculated that we can only say what God has revealed to us. We know from 2 Peter 2.4, and so we can turn there, 2 Peter 2.4, go back to that passage, see what that says. It's a parallel passage, gives us more commentary on it. It says, for if God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell and delivered them into chains of darkness to be reserved unto judgment." So there we see it giving us some more information that will kind of fill in some gaps here. So we're provided two details. First, This class of angels, and it's a class of angels because it says here, the angels, and that's actually particularized here. The angels, this class of angels, sinned. That's what it says in 2 Peter 2, 4. They sinned. And secondly, we see from that passage that God cast them down to hell. We see that. We are beckoned the question of what sin? What sin? Well, we're here in the book of Jude, and we're seeing this normal characteristic, right? What is this normal characteristic? Rebellion. Rebellion, the sin of rebellion. We understand from this passage here that it was some kind of rebellion against God's sovereign rule. And for that, these angels were put in a prison of hell for a future date. Other angels, along with Satan, were cast to the earth to roam the earth, as they do, or sometimes roam the heavens, as we see in the book of Daniel. We don't know all that happens. We see stuff in Job, where Satan approaches God and accuses the brethren, things like that. We know these things happen. There's a lot of things that happen about angels, and we don't see. But we see enough from what the Bible shows us. Furthermore, the group of angels that sinned and God cast down must have been a special group of angels unique in the sin of rebellion. They were probably a special collection of angels now reserved. They're right now reserved in chains of darkness for a later judgment. From the context of Jude, we understand that they probably rose up against the Lord who made them. and he had to put down the rebellion, seeing that he is supreme and overall, according to Ephesians 1, 21 and 22. Note here, this comes to show us the price of pride and rebellion against the Lord. It does not end well. For the short term, it looks like a winning enterprise. But by the end, one finds himself confined in his own folly, very much fallen into the pit of great judgment. It will always lose against God. We Christians need to remember this about our rebellious world. It will have its boldness and its hostility now, and it looks like it's winning. But the end will come. And we can be consoled that their shouts against saints will go only so far. And our good shepherd and king shall one day silence them for good." We also note here some description of these actions of these angels. See the actions of the angels here, which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation. That's their actions. Once you notice something here, these words here, kept and left, we call them participles. They're heirs' participles. And what that means is to be said like this, having kept not, having left, which means that the action of the participles, which is keep, kept not, and left, the action of those comes before the action of the main verb, which is, he hath reserved. So we see, who makes the first move? The angels made the first move, not God. It's often this way. The rebels make the first move, not God. It was the actions of these angels that caused their own demise. They caused it, not God. None of them could say that it was God's fault, or could they say that God made the first move against them. But isn't that often the accusation that's made? It's all his fault. It's all because of him and what he did to me. But what did you do to him? They were the ones who made the first moves. They were the ones who left. Then God cast them down to hell. They were the ones who didn't want what they had. They wanted to leave. So since they wanted to leave, God made them leave. God put them in a holding place. So they couldn't say that God forced them to leave or that he was unreasonable and kicked them out. They couldn't say that. Sometimes this becomes the story of rebels. They charge God or charge God's men of authority with making unreasonable moves against them, as if it were their fault for why they left or had to leave. Very common. Very common. Very common. They charge against them that it was God or God's man who kicked them out. When this is not the case, who left first? The angels. Who didn't keep? Who didn't stay? The angels. It was their choice. They made the choice. Almost every case, it is the rebel who leaves because he didn't want to be there where he had already decided his departure. He's already decided how he's going to make his leaving, his departure. And this is how it comes out. And so just a note there from just the tenses of these participles, it's the angels first. They made the first move. Their fault, not God's fault. It's always the rebel's fault, not God's fault. The idea of here first estate is literally the first or the origin or we call the principality of themselves. It was an origin that belonged to them. So they had some special ranking, some special place or position in heaven, a part or power of their own. We know that the angels are in different rankings and perform special duties. These angels here had their positions set for them, but it seems that they didn't want it as it was. So just as the children of Israel complained over God's placement of them and his provisions for them, these angels had their own complaints about God's ranking and positioning for them. However God situated them was not good enough for them. They were not content with their station in heaven, probably thinking that they deserved better. So they quit their posts. As for more about this, the word estate is the word for principality and ruling, a rulership. is used of office and dignity. It's used to describe some of the evil angels we wrestle with in Ephesians 6.12. We see that word principalities, right? These angels had rule, dominion, and offices of charge and leadership. They had positions and assignments, but they had a problem with God. They had a problem with his choices. So they decided not to keep their own rankings and status in heaven. They either wanted more or they wanted something else. So they abandoned their power and dignity that God had designed and arranged for them. And as we said before, it was something blessed. It was good. It was excellent. It was of truth and holiness and purity. But they left it. They left it. For some, these things are not good enough. They got what they got. They have what they have. But it's not good enough. They think they deserve more or something different. Isn't that the story of rebels? They have so much, and yet it's not enough for them. And so they'll forfeit everything that they are given. And guess where they're left with now? Nothing. Nothing good but misery. And so they are willing to leave all that is good to them to get what they think will be greater, but only find that it will be nothing but pure disgrace. And that's the story of the angels. We're not done yet, but that is the story of rebels. They leave what is so good for them. They leave it all behind. They think they're going to get greater, but they get nothing but pure disgrace. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for your word here, for instructing us, for helping us to see through these stories how rebellion does not end well, that truly you do resist against the proud. You give grace unto the humble. Father, I pray that we would be the humble ones today, that we would be faithful to you, devoted, that we would contend for the faith, that ourselves we would be diligent about our own hearts and be faithful to you and be devoted to your ways. Pray give us strength in this in Jesus' name. Amen. Is it cucumber? Cucumber. Thanks for coming.