The Great Day

False teachers might suggest they know an easier, freer, more fun way to get to heaven, but the Bible makes it clear that their real destination is in heaven. And today on Truth for Life, Alistair Begg considers the dangers of following false teachers.

We're looking at the book of Jude verses 14 through 16. Well this evening we're going to have the joy of recognizing a number of our seniors—that is, young men and women who have made it all the way through the journey of high school and who have been able to face their final examinations with sufficient success to be able to move on to the next phase of their lives. I was thinking about this as I was preparing this week and said to myself, I wonder what finals are really like, because it seems so far in the past. And then I said, but no, actually, I take my finals every Sunday morning in front of a large group, so I do know what it's like. But then it got me intrigued, and so I just googled finals to see what Google had to say about finals. And I came across, for example, a little piece that said, Maybe one day final exams will be a thing of the past, but for now it looks as if finals are sticking around in one form or another.

So just take a deep breath and start preparing. But then I came on a number of advertisements that go like this. I hope none of the graduating class of this evening has been susceptible to this kind of advertising technique. It reads as follows, Save loads of time by hiring someone to take your exam for you. Our, quote, Take my exam service is known as the premium solution to online learning problems. Is this true? You don't have to put up your hand and say, Oh, yes, I use it all the time.

But is it really possible that someone can take your final exams for you? Such a strange notion. We say, Well, what about it? We're dealing with Jude. Yes, we are.

That's why I mentioned it. Because here in these verses, we come face to face with the reality of finals—finals that no one will escape, finals that everyone will take, and the finals that are there represented in the judgment of that great day. So I want us to have that in mind—the idea of a place of finality, a place of reckoning. And what Jude has been writing about is in light of the fact that his concern for those to whom he writes is framed by the finality of that great day when each of us will stand before God. He's writing, as he tells us at the very beginning—and this is by way of rehearsal—but he's writing to the saints, and he's urging them to contend for the faith that had been once for all delivered to them.

He's been alerting them to the fact that there has crept in among them false teachers. And last time, in verse 12, we recognize that these people had made great promises—promises that they couldn't fulfill. And so he is warning his readers about the dangers of following them. And again, as we've said throughout our studies, it's important, too, that we keep in mind that what Jude is alerting his readers to is not a threat that is coming from outside, but rather it is the threat of declension from inside. And in verse 14 and following, he then, as we're about to see, goes on to reinforce what he has said about the condemnation that awaits these individuals—the condemnation that you see there in verse 4. As we noted in a previous study, too, he is now, in verse 14, referring to material, extra-biblical material, with which his initial readers would be familiar. And he introduces this by reminding them of Enoch. It was about these also that Enoch, the seven from Adam, prophesied. Now, we know Enoch, if we know our Bibles at all. We know him because he appears in the genealogy in Genesis 5.

We also know him as the one who walked with God and was taken up by God so that he might not see death. The writer to the Hebrews chronicles that for us in chapter 11. And Enoch wrote his own letter—1 Enoch. And in that letter, he prophesied of the judgment that will come on that great day. Now, what Jude is doing is he is simply referring to the way in which what Enoch said, which was extra-biblical, which was not inspired as in the Scriptures, but what Enoch said actually reinforced everything that you can find in the Bible itself about these things. And he is writing not theoretically but with certain people in mind. And what he's saying is that the prophecy of Enoch had immediate application to these folks, these infiltrators, who had crept in.

Now, I want to go down to verse 16 and come back up and pick it up in a moment or two. But he then identifies them similarly to what he did back in verse 13. And we just note the feature of these characters. First of all, these are grumblers. These are grumblers. Now, we are not to think that it's somebody moaning because their coffee was cold or something like that.

There's enough of that, I know, but that's something far more significant. The reference, of course, is to the experience of the people who were brought out of Egypt, remember, but then they sinned as they thirsted for water, and they grumbled against Moses, and they said, Why did you bring us up out of Egypt to kill us and our children and our livestock with thirst? So, in order that we might be clear, they were complaining to God. They were complaining about what God had done. And as a result of rebelling against him, they forfeited entry into the promised land. And so, Jude is saying, Be very, very careful that you don't follow these people, these wandering stars. Because in the same way as happened before to the grumblers all those years ago, those who face their finals in this mentality will not enter in to the promised land.

Beware. Secondly, they're malcontents. Malcontents. They're unhappy with their given place. You'll notice that it's the place that they have actually chosen for themselves.

It's not that they were put somewhere that they didn't want to be. Notice the phrase, following their own evil, sinful desires. So, by their own evil desires, they have rebelled against God. They've said, We're not going to do it God's way.

We're going to do it our own way. And now they discover the consequences of their unreasoning, instinctive, degrading behavior. In verse 10, unreasoning animals understand… They understand instinctively. Woe to them! Now, loved ones, this is difficult stuff, isn't it? I mean, let's not be casual about this in any way.

If your mind is running at all, you'll probably find yourself saying, Well, this reminds me of Romans chapter 1, that they turned their backs on God. They said, We don't want to do it your way. We'll do it our way.

We don't care about your views on marriage or sexuality. We'll please ourselves. And they're malcontents. They're unhappy people. They're angry people.

Beware. Thirdly, they're loudmouth boasters. They have all kinds of big stories, big words—big words about themselves, little words about God—saying, essentially, to those around them, You know, we are the mature people. We are the free people. We feel sorry for you, you slavish people, you literal-minded people, paying attention to the Bible, listening to God in that way. Why don't you get out of that group?

Why don't you come and join us? Here's the way to maturity. Here's the way to freedom.

Here's the way to joy. You cast all that aside. Don't be restrained by these things. Loudmouth boasters.

And showing favoritism, you will notice, in order to gain advantage. You're a very attractive group, they would say. Don't listen to those things that the Bible says. Listen to us. We have dreams. We're in touch with God.

We know him in a mature way, in a real way. Do you realize how new believers are so easily susceptible to such a story? And sadly, some who have been believers for a long time, who for whatever reason find themselves attracted to these things. And Jude says, I'm giving you a picture of what these people are like so that you do not swallow what they have to say. It's very, very important here that we understand the nature of what he's addressing. This is not just another perspective on things. This is a flat-out denial of Jesus Christ as Master, Lord, and King.

It is a complete reversal of that which has been delivered from the very beginning to the people of God. Now, I found myself this week saying, Oh, I wish I could get to the positive side of Jude faster than this. And perhaps you're feeling the same way. I recognize that. There is great danger to be distracted in this material.

I recognize it in myself. I spent a lot of time chasing down rabbit holes that I should just have left alone, because it was no benefit to me in understanding or in preaching. And so, I stood back from it, and I said, Well, the main things are the plain things. The plain things are the main things. Let's just say three things that we could be absolutely confident of in this. Here they are. Number one, the Lord comes.

You don't have to make that up. It's right there. Behold, the Lord comes. He prophesies he will come with ten thousands of his holy ones. This is not conjecture.

This is fact. Matthew 25 and verse 31, When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne. 24 of Matthew 30, And they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven, with power and great glory. And he will send out his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.

I mean, think about this. Here's Enoch all that time ago, before the flood, and he writes this. And somehow or another, Jude decides to pick it up and reinforce what is being said with it, and pointing always forward, because we've said always that the Bible is a book about Jesus.

The way to understand the Bible is to keep our eyes on Jesus. And so we may say with confidence that the day of the Lord will actually be the end of history. Because Christ will appear on earth—on earth—to establish and to display his eternal victory manifested in salvation for all those who have faith in him and revealed in the destruction of those who have persisted in rebellion.

Jude says, I want to remind you of this so that you don't go wrong. I think this is a fading note in Christian preaching at the moment—the return of Jesus Christ. I think it may well be a fading note in my own preaching, if I'm not careful, that the Bible beats, if you like, not simply with the advent of Christ or with the atonement that he has effected or with the ascension that he has experienced, but with the promise of his return, and a return that brings a final day—that is, the day of verse 6, that great day of judgment for whom these things are prepared, the designation that has been for these people. It's staggering stuff. But I wonder, have you noticed that if you like, in the absence of apocalyptic material on the part of the Christian pulpit, we are dying under the weight of apocalyptic stories in our news every single day?

It's very, very difficult to figure out just what date to put in your diary, when we're all gonna burn up, or when the monsters are gonna come and take us over. And those same people who want to threaten me with this would say, Alistair, you can't possibly be sincere in suggesting that Jesus of Nazareth is coming back in power and in glory. Yes.

Yes. Jesus is coming. Secondly, Jesus comes, Jesus judges. Jesus judges.

Judges who? Judges all, you will notice, in the verse. Four times all, four times ungodly.

There are no exceptions, and there are no excuses. For we are by nature ungodly. That's what the Bible says. All we, like sheep, have gone astray.

Isaiah 53. And each of us has turned to our own way. It's not simply that we're all going in the same direction lost. We are going in the same direction lost, but each of us has got our own angle on it.

We're all up our own path, which runs contrary to the perfect path of freedom which God provides for us in Jesus. And Jesus will judge. Now, the fact of the matter is, judgment is immediately refuted in the minds of people. Maybe in your mind this morning. I don't know. Because all divine judgment sounds, actually, strange.

It actually sounds unjust. Until we see God as he is, and we see ourselves as we are. Until we see God as he is, he's coming on the clouds. He's the only holy God. If he is perfection in his holiness, it's hard for us to conceive of how good is the goodness of God, and at the same time to face up to how messed up and spoiled and evil I am by nature.

Both of these positions, pole positions, are hard to swallow. That's why we need our Bibles. There's not the slightest possibility—not the slightest possibility—that God can ever accommodate the evil that he opposes. It's not possible.

He would have to be something other than he is to be able to say, Oh, it doesn't matter. There's no final exam. Don't worry about it. You'll all be okay. That's what people want us to say. That's what some of us want the Bible to say. Because it cuts us free. So we think.

Actually, it brings us into bondage. Are we stuck? Jesus comes, Jesus judges, Jesus saves.

Otherwise, we would be stuck. Because, you see, the wonderful story of the Bible, if we stand back from it for a moment, we realize that God has created us for himself, that we have rebelled against him, that he has determined that we must be justifiably punished for our rebellion, but he still continues to love us, and he has sent his Son on account of his eternal plan to save those who believe. Jesus comes on a rescue mission. The Jesus who comes to separate the sheep from the gods is the Jesus who stands before Jerusalem and says, Oh, Jerusalem, Jerusalem, I wish I could have gathered you all to myself, but you wouldn't come to me." He's the only God and Savior, verse 25, when we finally get there.

He's the only God and Savior. Here's Newton in a hymn that we never sing. It begins, Day of judgment, day of wonder's heart, the trumpet's awful sound. And then verse 3, At his call the dead awaken.

Rise to life from the earth and sea, all the power of nature shaken by his looks. Prepare to flee, careless sinner. What will then become of thee? What are you gonna do with the finals? That's what he's saying.

Make sure that you don't swallow this. John Woodhouse summarizes this so perfectly, pointing to the way in which Jesus saves. This is what he says. The demands of God's law have been met in the perfect obedience of Jesus. The penalty for sin has been paid in the sin-bearing death of Jesus. The power of death has been broken in the resurrection of Jesus from the dead. Sin means not simply that death is the end of life, but sin means that death brings judgment.

And it is that striking note that is sounded out. All we, like sheep, have gone astray. Each of us has turned to his own way. The Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all, so that the deserved punishment for my rebellion and for my alienation has been borne by another in the sinner's place so that the sinner might be spared on that day.

What do you have to do? Frankly, all that you can do is to accept what Jesus has done for us and to receive him with open and empty hands. Religion of self-endeavor can never address the longings of the human heart nor the needs of our rebellious souls. And because Jude loves his people so much, he's prepared to continue to sound out the warning in light of that great day.

You know, if you think about it, I don't know if you can pay for somebody to take your finals. But in one sense, in Jesus, we have someone who has actually taken our finals. And this is the annoying mystery of the gospel to the self-righteous, because it goes like this.

Jesus takes my F and gives me undeservedly his A. You're listening to Alistair Begg on Truth for Life. We're learning about that great day, the day when Jesus will return to judge everyone and to save those who have followed him. If you're wondering what it looks like to follow Jesus, let me recommend to you a free ebook we're offering. It's a book Alistair has written called The Christian Manifesto.

It's a close-up look at Christ's landmark sermon in Luke chapter 6, sometimes referred to as the Sermon on the Plane. In this book, Alistair guides you step by step through Jesus' radical instruction and the happiness you'll discover when you adopt these countercultural ideals. Download your free copy of The Christian Manifesto ebook.

It comes with a corresponding study guide. You can ask for yours at truthforlife.org slash manifesto. While you're enjoying the book, The Christian Manifesto, if you have young children in your home, they will enjoy learning about what it means to follow Jesus with a brand new book Alistair has written for children ages 5 and up. It's titled C is for Christian, an A to Z treasury of who we are in Christ. The book C is for Christian is yours when you donate to support the Bible Teaching Ministry of Truth for Life at truthforlife.org slash donate. Thanks for studying God's Word with us today. Tomorrow, we'll learn about the battle that began in the Garden of Eden and continues to this day. The Bible teaching of Alistair Begg is furnished by Truth for Life where the Learning is for Living.