From His Heart

Dr. Jeff Schreve: We like stories where the bad guy gets it in the end. We don't do well, it messes with our sense of right and wrong, if a bad guy in a movie gets away with the evil that he's doing. We want to see him come to justice, so to speak.

Somebody can get away with murder in this life and not be held accountable for it, perhaps, but not in the next, because all of us have to do business with God in the end. Just because these guys seem to be on top right now, just know that their judgment is certain.

Larry Nobles: This is From His Heart with Pastor Jeff Schreve with a sobering, eye-opening, and even encouraging lesson today, explaining how the wheels of justice turn for God. God is love and God is grace. Yes, but God is also judge, judge of truth and justice.

The Bible gives us clear warnings from history that show the certainty of God's judgment. And as believers, we must take these warnings to heart and not presume upon God's grace while living in open and obvious rebellion. At least it's obvious to God. His justice is sure and His call to obedience is urgent.

The lesson today is taken from Pastor Jeff's new six-lesson series, Faith Under Fire, a study of Jude. And it's our gift of thanks to you for your support to From His Heart this month of any amount. Get yours when you make that gift today by going to fromhisheart.org. If you can, now open your Bible to the book of Jude and let's learn from Pastor Jeff how to understand the wheels of God's justice.

Dr. Jeff Schreve: The Bible says in Ecclesiastes 8:11, "Because the sentence against an evil deed is not executed quickly, therefore the hearts of the sons of men among them are given fully to do evil." God is patient with people. And so often we take the patience of God to be our license to sin.

How different would life be if things happened just immediately? If you go and eat a big lunch today at the Golden Corral and you walk away and all of a sudden you gain 10 pounds in an hour? That would be scary, wouldn't it? How does a person gain weight? Little by little by little.

But it would probably change our eating if we gained weight immediately. I still remember a guy in my Sunday school class years and years ago. We were at a class fellowship and he was a big guy and he was getting his plate and he was seeing the desserts and he said to himself as he grabbed a piece of cake, "My waistline can take it."

I thought to myself the words of Roberto Duran, if your waistline could talk, it would say no mas, no mas. Your waistline can't take it, but you're teasing yourself and if you just saw instant results from things like that, overeating or whatever, it would change the way we live.

But because the sentence against an evil deed is not executed quickly, therefore the hearts of the sons of men among them are given fully to do evil. We're in a study of the book of Jude and today we want to talk about this subject, the wheels of God's justice. It is well been said that the wheels of God's justice grind slowly, but they grind exceedingly fine.

And you might be out there saying, "I don't understand what that means. What, God's wheels? Is he running over us with a car?" No, he's talking about the wheels of a grinding mill and nobody gets away with sin. I want you to see today that God does not turn a blind eye to false teachers, to sin, and to sinners.

God will hold us all accountable and especially those who call themselves Christians but, as the Bible would say, they're false apostles, they're false brothers, they're false teachers. They're wolves in sheep's clothing. Paul said as he wept with the elders of Ephesus in Acts chapter 20, "Upon my departure, savage wolves are going to come in from among your own selves who won't care about the flock and they will lead people astray."

Savage wolves. The devil always has tares sown in God's field, tares among the wheat. A tare is a weed that looks just like wheat and growing up, you can't tell the difference. But a tare doesn't have any fruit and a false teacher, a false prophet, he doesn't have anything to say except lies.

First John 4:1 says, "Beloved, do not believe every spirit but test the spirits to see whether they are from God because many false prophets have gone out into the world." Well, what does God have to say about these people from the book of Jude? Jude's all about false teachers and false prophets and apostates.

An apostate is somebody that says they believe but then they defect from what they believe and then they attack what they believe, but they may stay in the church, they may stay in the seminary, they may stay in the organization, but they're changing the message.

And Jude tells us we need to fight with everything that we have and contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints. And that is the theme of the book. So we'll begin reading in verse three. "Beloved," Jude said, "while I was making every effort to write you about our common salvation, I felt the necessity to write you appealing that you contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered, handed down to the saints.

For certain persons have crept in unnoticed, those who were long beforehand marked out for this condemnation, ungodly persons who turn the grace of our God into licentiousness, a license to sin so to speak, and deny our only Master and Lord Jesus Christ.

Now I desire to remind you, even though you know all things once for all, that the Lord, after saving a people out of the land of Egypt, subsequently destroyed those who did not believe. And angels who did not keep their own domain but abandoned their proper abode, He has kept in eternal bonds under darkness for the judgment of the great day.

Just as Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities around them, since they in the same way as these indulged in gross immorality and went after strange flesh, are exhibited as an example in undergoing the punishment of eternal fire. Yet in the same way, these men also by dreaming defile the flesh and reject authority and revile angelic majesties.

But Michael, the archangel, when he disputed with the devil and argued about the body of Moses, did not dare pronounce against him a railing judgment but said, 'The Lord rebuke you.' But these men revile the things which they do not understand and the things which they know by instinct like unreasoning animals, by these things they are destroyed.

Woe to them, for they have gone the way of Cain and for pay they have rushed headlong into the error of Balaam and perished in the rebellion of Korah." Three important observations from this passage of Scripture. And it's three because Jude likes to work in threes. He gives three illustrations of these things and he likes to work in threes.

First important observation for the apostates, for these false teachers, their judgment is certain. The wheels of God's justice grind slowly but they grind exceedingly fine. Just because these guys seem to be on top right now, just know that their judgment is certain and what does Jude use? He uses three examples.

He's going to tell us first about the Jews. Now he's talking to a group of people and his letter is going out to people who understood the Old Testament. And so he makes references to the Old Testament. He doesn't necessarily give all the background of it. Jude would be a lot longer if he did that, but he just makes mention.

And so in verse five, "Now I desire to remind you, though you know all things once for all, that the Lord, after saving a people out of the land of Egypt, subsequently destroyed those who did not believe." God judged unbelieving Jews in the wilderness. Now if you know about the Jews, they came out of Egypt through the ten plagues that God put upon Egypt.

He broke the back of Pharaoh and the Egyptians and he brought his people out. They come to the Red Sea, Pharaoh has a change of heart, he comes to get them, and God performs the greatest Old Testament miracle in parting the Red Sea and God's people walk on dry land. And when Pharaoh and his army come after them, they're drowned in the sea.

God took the most powerful army in the world at that time and turned it into fish food. And they got to witness all that. And in Exodus chapter 15, they're singing and dancing and praising the Lord. "I will sing unto the Lord for he has triumphed gloriously, the horse and the rider thrown into the sea."

But they were a fickle people because in three days after this event and after their big song, they're grumbling and griping at Moses because there's no fresh water to drink. And so these people came out of Egypt and the people came through the Red Sea. They came down south to Mount Sinai to receive the Ten Commandments and then they go up to a place called Kadesh-Barnea.

And in Kadesh-Barnea, that's where Moses sent out the 12 spies to spy out the land because that's where they're in the southern part of the Promised Land, the land of Canaan, the land that is Israel's now. They were going to spy out the land. Well, Joshua and Caleb and ten other guys that we can't remember any of their names, but they come back after 40 days of spying out the land and Joshua and Caleb are all jazzed.

This is great, God's going to give us this land. This land is awesome, it's a land flowing with milk and honey. But then the ten naysayers said, "Oh well, let me tell you about the land. That has giants. There are giants in that land. Yeah, it's got milk and honey, but it's also got giants and we were grasshoppers in their sight and so we were in our sight. We can't go take the land.

We need to go back to Egypt. It would be better for us to have died in the wilderness or to die in Egypt, but we can't go in there." And Joshua and Caleb said, "No, by all means, we should go in there." And then they were going to stone Joshua and Caleb and Moses and Aaron and the glory of the Lord comes.

Jehovah Nickatime shows up before they stone his men and God says to Moses, "How long will this people spurn me? How long will they not believe me in spite of all the signs which I have done in their midst?" You would think if you saw God part the Red Sea and destroy Pharaoh's army as one last big display of his power after the ten plagues, that you would be sold, I don't care what else happens from this day forward, I believe God.

But they didn't. We're a lot like them. We sing that Janet Jackson song, "What Have You Done for Me Lately?" and that's what they were doing. "Oh yeah, that Red Sea, that was over a year ago, Lord. We've forgotten about that. But how are we ever going to take the Promised Land?" And they didn't go in and they wandered around for 40 years in the wilderness.

Why? Because of unbelief. Their judgment was certain. Remember how God treated the Jews in the Old Testament who came out of Egypt? They were judged because they did not believe. Hebrews 4:2 says, "Indeed, we have had good news preached to us, just as they also, but the word they heard did not profit them because it was not united by faith in those who heard."

What is the key commodity when it comes to favor with God? Faith. Faith. Without faith, it's impossible to please God, for the one who comes to God must believe that he is and that he's a rewarder of those who seek him. Jesus said to that person coming to him for a miracle, "Be it done to you according to your faith."

Not according to your fame, not according to your fortune, not according to your winsome personality, according to your faith. So God judged unbelieving Jews in the wilderness. That judgment was certain.

Larry Nobles: Pastor Jeff returns in just a moment on From His Heart to explore more about why God judges and what that judgment looks like. But first, an observation we all have seen. People are tired of confusion and weary of shifting cultural messages. I know I am and so are you.

We want the whole truth and nothing but the truth that we can depend on, no matter what comes. We're not going to get that on social media, from politicians, from news anchors, even from most schools. But this hunger creates a tremendous opportunity for the Gospel, for the Gospel to be preached and heard.

And that's where you come in. From His Heart is a listener-supported ministry. Pastor Jeff receives no income from this ministry. All the gifts that come to From His Heart go to helping us share the clear message of Christ around the world. And the need is urgent and truth is in short supply.

For your gift to support From His Heart this month, we'd like to say thanks by sending you Pastor Jeff's new six-message series, Faith Under Fire: A Study of the Book of Jude. Would you consider a gift today? If this program has been a blessing to you, we'd appreciate you praying about that.

And when you do, go to fromhisheart.org or call 866-40-BIBLE, 866-40-BIBLE. Request the series in the format of your choice. And remember, your partnership helps proclaim this Gospel around the world, it helps strengthen believers, it helps bring biblical truth to people who may never hear it otherwise. Thank you. Now to conclude part one of this lesson called The Wheels of God's Justice, here again is Pastor Jeff.

Dr. Jeff Schreve: Secondly, God judged rebellious angels in the antediluvian world. Teaching you a new word there, antediluvian. I didn't want to make that one of the blanks that you had to fill out because that's hard to spell. All that means is the world before the flood. Antediluvian, the deluge that came upon the world.

This is the world before the flood. Now he says in verse six, "And angels who did not keep their own domain but abandoned their proper abode, He has kept in eternal bonds under darkness for the judgment of the great day." So you ask yourself the question, okay, when did this happen?

When did the angels not keep their proper domain and their proper abode? When did they rebel against God? Well, they did in the beginning under Lucifer. Lucifer, the star of the morning, he became Satan, the father of the night. He was the one that rebelled against God.

He took a third of the angels with him to rebel against God. We read about Lucifer in Ezekiel chapter 28 and in Isaiah chapter 14 and then it's retold in Revelation chapter 12, how his tail, the dragon who is another name for Satan, his tail swept a third of the stars from heaven. He got a third of the angels to go with him in this rebellion.

And so some say, well, is this what he's talking about in verse six? Well, no, because it says he has kept these angels in eternal bonds under darkness for the judgment of the great day. We know that Satan is not bound right now. The demons are not bound, but some of them are.

And some of them did something that was different than just the rebellion when Lucifer became Satan. And most people think it's Genesis chapter 6, when the Bible talks about the Nephilim. And that's the issue that he's talking about here. This is what it says in Genesis 6.

"Now it came about when men began to multiply on the face of the land and daughters were born to them, that the sons of God," that's a reference in Job to angels, very clearly to angels, "that the sons of God saw that the daughters of men were beautiful and they took wives for themselves, whomever they chose.

Then the Lord said, 'My spirit shall not strive with man forever because he also is flesh, nevertheless his days shall be 120 years.' The Nephilim were on the earth in those days and also afterward when the sons of God came into the daughters of men and they bore children to them.

Those were the mighty men who were of old, men of renown." Now that has been a troublesome Scripture for so many for so many years. Who are the Nephilim? People want to know, who are the Nephilim? I told you before my friends Alex McFarland and Bert Harper, they have the Exploring the Word program on American Family Radio.

They said the number one question they get asked is Genesis 6, who were the Nephilim? Well, the three answers we talked about this some when we did the series on Matthew 24 and 25. But the three basic answers are this. Either he's talking about the godly line of Seth mingling with the godless line of Cain's offspring.

And that's where the sons of God, Seth's godly line, mixes with the ungodly line. Or he could be talking about actual demons who become men and cohabit with these women and they produce this race of people, some half-human, half-demonic person. Well, that would seem very, very strange.

The book of Enoch describes that, the apocryphal book of Enoch. Or it could be, and this is where I land and it's a difficult subject, but it could be that there were people that were longing to be possessed by demons and the demons longed to possess the people so that they could go after the women and so you had these demonized, demon-possessed people that had children with these women.

At any rate, it was so bad that God said, the world has become corrupt, it's like rotten meat, and I'm going to destroy the world with a flood because every intent of the thoughts of their hearts are only evil continually. And here's the point that Jude is making. God judged Israel for unbelief, he judged the angels for doing what they did, where they transgressed their own domain, they stepped outside their proper abode and judgment came.

God committed them to pits of darkness. Peter says, "For if God did not spare angels when they sinned but cast them into hell," Tartarus is the Greek word for hell there, "and committed them to pits of darkness reserved for judgment." There were some angels. We don't know how many angels there are.

The Bible doesn't tell us, there's just lots. There're myriads and myriads and myriads of angels. Two-thirds are good, one-third are evil, they're the fallen angels. And out of that one-third, you have some that God has put in prison. They're so wicked, they're so terrible, he puts them in prison.

Now, Revelation chapter 9, there's a prison called the Abyss. And in Revelation 9, one of the plagues on the earth is the Lord opens the prison door to the Abyss and all these vile, foul demons that have been under lock and key for all these centuries, they come out and afflict men.

If you remember when Jesus was dealing with the man from Gadare in Luke chapter 8 and he had a legion of demons, it says the demons were imploring Jesus, "Please don't send us to the Abyss. Please send us to the swine." And he let them go to the swine and as soon as they went in the swine, they ran off the side of the cliff, they committed suicide and they died there.

I used that before, I guess it's not any good. thought I might catch you with that one. But anyway, they wanted to get away from the presence of the Lord because the threat in their minds of going to the Abyss, this pit of darkness, is terrible.

But the main point that Jude is making is God judged them. God judged unbelieving Israel, God judged the angels, and then he says that God judged grossly immoral Gentiles in Sodom and Gomorrah. Unbelieving Jews, rebellious angels, and grossly immoral Gentiles in Sodom and Gomorrah.

Verse 7, "Just as Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities around them, since they in the same way as these indulged in gross immorality and went after strange flesh, are exhibited as an example in undergoing the punishment of eternal fire." So he's bringing these pictures and these scenes from the Old Testament that they would know about these things.

Oh yeah, he did do that. Oh yeah, he did destroy Sodom and Gomorrah in a way that was punctuated like never before. I mean, the flood wiped out the whole earth except Noah and his wife and his three sons, Ham, Shem, and Japheth and their three wives.

Sodom and Gomorrah wiped out four cities: Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, and Zeboiim, the cities of the plain. And why did God do that? Because they went after strange flesh. And Sodom is known for homosexuality and the sin of sodomy, it comes from that city.

And the Bible says in Ezekiel 16, the Lord says about Sodom, "Thus they, the people of Sodom, were haughty and committed abominations before me, therefore I removed them when I saw it." Just like God judged the unbelieving Jews, just like he judged the rebellious angels, just like he judged the grossly immoral Gentiles in the cities of the plain.

Larry Nobles: Well, tomorrow on the broadcast, we'll continue right there after a short review, so make plans to be with us again then for the conclusion to the lesson called The Wheels of God's Justice. Today's lesson is surely one to be heard and apply these truths to our lives.

God is just against sin, and much of the struggles we have in this life are a result of sin in this world. But sometimes we go through difficult things that are not a reflection of our sin, other than the fact that we live in a sinful world. But we're impacted by sickness, the pain inflicted by others who have ulterior motives, and oh so much more.

Well, there is enormous comfort in the promises of God, and Pastor Jeff will explore those in detail next time. I'm Larry Nobles and we trust you'll be back with Pastor Jeff tomorrow for part two of the lesson called The Wheels of God's Justice. That's on Tuesday when Pastor Jeff Schreve will open up God's word and share real truth, real love, and real hope from His heart.