God Will Forgive Me: Antinomianism, Apostasy and Angels

God will forgive me: antinomianism, apostasy and angels Jude 5-8

Anti-clothing, anti-lions and antinomianism

Do you ever wonder about how the law and grace fit together? I mean, we hear about grace all the time in the Bible…its grace grace grace grace grace all the time, but how does that fit with the law. I mean, there is a whole book of the law, the Pentateuch, and there are 10 commandments, and 613 other explicit mitzvoth (commands), so it seems to have a lot of history as well. Has grace cancelled all of these out? How does it work?

In 1539, Martin Luther coined the term “anti-nomian” in his treatise against a former student named John Agricola. The debate had been lively for a few years as John stressed that the law was good for nothing, not even inducing repentance. Repentance, he said, came only through preaching the gospel of salvation. Luther insisted that while the law was fulfilled in a very real sense, the law remained relevant in (1) revealing sin, (2) to establishing general decency in society at large, and (3) providing a rule of life for those who have been regenerated through faith in Christ.1

While Agricola recanted his stance in 1540, he was not the first or the last to wrestle with the place of the law in the life of the Christian.

Early Gnostics taught that a Demiurge, not the true God, created the world and gave moral law and therefore we not only did not have to follow it, we should not follow it.

In the fourth century the Adamites agreed and decided they were free from the restraints of civil, moral and social systems and regained their innocences by living as Adam did in the garden, without the restraint of cumbersome clothes.

Anne Hutchinson is famous for fighting against decent society arguing theologically that the law had no bearing anymore. She was banished from Massachusetts for her beliefs.

There was a new group of Adamites in the 1640 who also, interestingly, refused clothing. Can you imagine that in Puritan New England? William Blake, the English poet and painter, is said to be one of these, although he is a full century later.

Now I find some laws stupid (although I am happy that nudity is illegal, there are some things I just don’t want to see). The stop sign coming out of my cul-de-sac frustrates me greatly. The 25 mile an hour sign coming past the Episcopal Church. The fact that I have to pay taxes for schools that my children don’t attend. These are laws I don’t like.

It seems strange to me that if I am enjoying the Baltimore harbor and decide I really want to see the new Narnia movie, I am not permitted to take my Lion with me. That’s frustrating; it means I have to go all the way back to Rockville, where apparently I am permitted to take my lion to the

1 Better to say that this was formally established in 1577 with the Formula of Concord which claimed to establish once and for all Luther’s view of the law. 2 movies. Lions love movies and especially ones with Aslan in them. And if I have a sleeveless shirt on in Baltimore, I can’t go to the park because that is against the law, although apparently taking my lion to the park is okay. On the other hand, if I am in Rockville I am not permitted to use profanity or obscene language when on a street or sidewalk within the hearing of people walking by or in the car next to me. Apparently I can curse all I want in other cities in MD. I think in Poolesville I can wear sleeveless shirts and curse in the street. All we need is a movie theatre that my lion can go to.

My thesis this morning concerns the law of God. The question is what are we, as Christians, to think about it?

In order to answer that question, or at least begin to answer that question, we must go to the book of Jude. I think a more definitive answer is found in Romans, but this is not a topical sermon in which I seek to answer a question, but an expository sermon in which I figure out what Jude is trying to do in his text and then I pose the question to you that he will answer.

For those of you without bibles, we have one in the pew there for your to borrow. You can find the text on page ______

Jude 1:5-8 5 Though you already know all this, I want to remind you that the Lord delivered his people out of Egypt, but later destroyed those who did not believe. 6 And the angels who did not keep their positions of authority but abandoned their own home--these he has kept in darkness, bound with everlasting chains for judgment on the great Day. 7 In a similar way, Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding towns gave themselves up to sexual immorality and perversion. They serve as an example of those who suffer the punishment of eternal fire. 8 In the very same way, these dreamers pollute their own bodies, reject authority and slander celestial beings.

What I want to do this morning is 1) remind you of where we are, 2) take you through three stories from the ancient past 3) tell you how these stories connect to each other, 4) show you how this is VERY relevant to you

Where we are

Jude is writing to a church. A church, by definition, is a body of believers that God calls out from the world, loves like crazy, and holds onto forever. We spent two weeks talking about how we are called, loved and kept.

Then he goes into his purpose statement. It’s the eye of the tiger. Contend for the faith once for all delivered to the saints. That body of doctrine which encapsulates the good news of Jesus. Do not let anyone lead you away. And verse 4 says that’s exactly why Jude is writing, because certain people are now leading you astray. There are what amounts to two problems: there are people doing the wrong things, leading lives however they feel and 2) legitimizing these things 3 by their doctrine. They are false doers and false teachers. We see this idea just as clearly in verse 8. Verse 8 is a transitional verse between two sets of illustrations. 5-7 include three stories, and 11-12 include three more. Verse 8 is the transition, verse 9-10 is the explanation for 5-7. Getting confused? Just look at verse 8 for my big point that they are saying wrong things and doing wrong things. In the very same way, these dreamers pollute their own bodies, reject authority and slander celestial beings. You see they are dreamers, getting visions from somewhere and doing things with their bodies that aren’t okay (we will see that in a second) and rejecting authority and blaspheming or slandering angels.

Three stories of the ancient past

Okay, too hard to jump to the conclusion without the cool stories as foundation. So let me transport you back in time as we look at verse 5

Grasshopper syndrome, Israel disses God (and the angels): illustration #1 5 Though you already know all this, I want to remind you that the Lord delivered his people out of Egypt, but later destroyed those who did not believe.

Most of you probably know this story, so you don’t have to turn there. It’s most readable in Numbers 14 though if you want to check it out.

Basically, Israel, God’s chosen people, whom he has called out of Egypt, through the Red Sea, destroyed their enemies, promised them a glorious land, these people who belong to him, decide that they will not trust him. They send in 12 spies and you might recall that 10 of them bring a negative report. We are grasshoppers and they are giants. Only two men say that Canaan can be taken—Joshua and Caleb.

And who do the people side with? The ten spies who called them to ignore God’s promise and not to go in. And with that they incur the judgment of God. God causes them to wander for 40 years in the desert as nomads. That generation died in the desert and never inherited the land.

32 But you--your bodies will fall in this desert. 33 Your children will be shepherds here for forty years, suffering for your unfaithfulness, until the last of your bodies lies in the desert. 34 For forty years--one year for each of the forty days you explored the land--you will suffer for your sins and know what it is like to have me against you.' 35 I, the LORD, have spoken, and I will surely do these things to this whole wicked community, which has banded together against me. They will meet their end in this desert; here they will die." (Num 14:32-35 NIV)

Big picture point here: God’s people apostasized. They fell away from God and God destroyed them. This is harsh and brutal and in your face. Jude isn’t mincing words here. 4

What have they done? They have ignored the authority of God . . . the law of God. There are some other cool things here, but let me save that until we bring the three stories together. The other two stories are a lot longer and more detailed to tell.

Angels making out with human women: illustration #2

6 And the angels who did not keep their positions of authority but abandoned their own home--these he has kept in darkness, bound with everlasting chains for judgment on the great Day.

Okay, ready to have your mind blown? This story is found in Genesis 6:1-4. In its context it is used as the culminating atrocity taking place in the world that is the last straw to God destroying everything by a great flood. You know that story right? Noah’s ark. But if you are like most people you haven’t a clue what these first four verses are about. So now I am going to tell you.

The reason that people don’t understand these verses is because they read the Bible but don’t know anything about second temple exegesis and rabbinic interpretation. But fortunately for you, Jude lives in the period of the second temple and he knows well the interpretational milieu, and fortunately for you, I sat under some of the greatest minds of second temple interpretation in the world and I have read pretty much everything (that has been translated in to English) from this period.

That’s my little Adlerian and Nietzcheian “will to power” to make sure you know that as crazy as this story sounds to modern ears, this is how pretty much everyone from the writing of this story until at least 200 AD would have understood it.

This brief excerpt is meant to summarize the story of angels, who before the flood, came down, saw the hot ladies on earth, and took them to bed. The earliest extant account of these Watchers (angels) appears in 1 Enoch. I have it here for those of you who are fascinated with ANE (as it is portrayed, but really second temple) myth. Basically it says that in the days of Jared (Gen 5:18) two hundred angels taught men forbidden knowledge and all kinds of sin. Here is chapter 7:

And they took wives into themselves, and everyone (respectively) chose one woman for himself, and they began to go unto them. And they taught them magical medicine, incantations, the cutting of roots, and taught them (about) plants. And the women became pregnant and gave birth to great giants whose heights were three hundred cubits. These (giants) consumed the produce of all the people until the people detested feeding them. So the giants turned against the people in order to eat them. And they began to sin against birds, wild beasts, reptiles and fish. And the flesh was devoured the one by the other, and they drank blood. And then the earth brought an accusation against the oppressors.

It continues to speak of Azazel teaching them to make swords and weapons and incantations and makeup and other horrible things and the people cry out to heaven. Michael and the angels above hear their cry and ask God what to do. Enoch is chosen to go tell the watchers that they are going 5 to be judged. The watchers ask Enoch to write a prayer of repentance for them but God does not permit Enoch to do so.

You get the general idea.

Here is the big point. Angels decided that where God wanted them wasn’t good enough for them and rejected his authority and did what they wanted. They didn’t KEEP their place, so God KEPT them in chains. Everlasting chains, reserved for judgment. (Interesting parallel of how Christians should KEEP themselves [vs 21] and the fact that God KEEPS them not for judgment but for salvation [vs1])

So we have two stories one about people (and really about angels although I haven’t shown you that yet) and one about angels (and people) ignoring the command of God.

Going after really strange flesh: illustration #3

Okay, one more story before I wrap it all together.

7 In a similar way, Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding towns gave themselves up to sexual immorality and perversion. They serve as an example of those who suffer the punishment of eternal fire.

If you don’t know this story, feel free to turn to Genesis 19.

It’s the story of Lot being rescued from the evil city of Sodom. So these two men come (really angels, but all angels look like men) to visit Lot and plan to spend the night:

4 Before they had gone to bed, all the men from every part of the city of Sodom--both young and old--surrounded the house. 5 They called to Lot, "Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us so that we can have sex with them." 6 Lot went outside to meet them and shut the door behind him 7 and said, "No, my friends. Don't do this wicked thing. 8 Look, I have two daughters who have never slept with a man. Let me bring them out to you, and you can do what you like with them. But don't do anything to these men, for they have come under the protection of my roof." 9 "Get out of our way," they replied. And they said, "This fellow came here as an alien, and now he wants to play the judge! We'll treat you worse than them." They kept bringing pressure on Lot and moved forward to break down the door. 10 But the men inside reached out and pulled Lot back into the house and shut the door. 11 Then they struck the men who were at the door of the house, young and old, with blindness so that they could not find the door. (Gen 19:4-11 NIV)

So the crime here is against people who fornicated (that’s the word for sexual immorality) and went after strange flesh (best translation for heteros sarx is the KJV. NIV says perversion). 6

Now what this “perversion” is, isn’t actually that easy. Sodom, as you know, is where we get the language of sodomy, homosexual perversion. And this certainly fits. The men of the city see two new men, strangers in town, and want to have sex with them. That couldn’t be clearer. They don’t know they are angels. But Jude does, and I think he is wrapping these first three in a common angelic theme. It seems that there is certainly a homosexuality problem here. In fact, I think it is important enough to deal with that we are going to talk about it in our next sermon. I, and the elders think, that due to the cultural emphasis on homosexuality, that we should say something about it from the pulpit. That we should be strong and firm in our conviction and yet gentle and loving in our application. So come next week for an answer to how we should feel about this.

But for now, the main point is not even homosexuality specifically. I would say we should see the story as Jude does. He sees the OT Sodom and Gomorrah story about intentional homosexuality and extreme anti-hospitality but uses this story here to note the unintentional disrespecting of the angels’ status.

Connecting the three illustrations

So we are left with three angelic stories, where someone in each story ignores the position God has designated for them and ignores the command that God has required them to live by.

If you are very intelligent at this point you will trace the stories in your mind. 1. Sodom and Gomorrah—angels/homosexuality 2. Noahs ark—angels sex with women and creation of giants 3. Israel forced to wander—people ignored God, but . . . no angels.

But again, if you know your second temple interpretation, you will read this differently. But that is what verse 8 is for. It will close out the three stories, wrap them together and then apply it in verse 9-10 to the false teachers of Jude’s day.

8 In the very same way, these dreamers pollute their own bodies, reject authority and slander celestial beings.

So he begins verse 8 saying in the same way as these three groups of horribly punished losers acted and spoke, so these false prophets in Jude’s day acted and spoke. They polluted their bodies—considering the emphasis on sexuality in his examples it seems to be connected to this, they rejected authority. Rejected God about going into Canaan Rejected God about staying in the angelic world Rejected God about intimate relations only being for married heterosexuals And they slandered celestial beings. I think this last phrase is what jumps us into verse 9 and 10 but I can’t possibly dig in there. To do this properly I would preach one very very long sermon on 5-10 but that would assume you all knew his illustrations as well as his contemporaries did and that is probably not the case. 7

Still, it is the authority of God that is being questioned and connected with this angelic blasphemy.

So two minutes on how all this connects. Whew!

As I said, if you know interpretational milieu, you have no problem. And his readers would understand the general Jewish belief that the law of Moses was mediated by Angels (you ladies will see this if you ever get to chapter 2 in Hebrews). And that angels watched over the observance of the Law. Hence why they are called Watchers, they were guardians of the created order. (You can see it in 1 Cor 11:10 too).

So even our first story about Israel not going into the land is a rejection of the law which is mediated by angels. Especially at this point. They had just left Mt. Sinai and were going to take the land. The angels had just watched them receive the Law and now were traveling along with them to be sure they kept it, but the people of Israel rejected them.

All three stories are reviling celestial beings.

So now let me try to bring this around to the opening point. Anti-nomianism. A rejection of the law. A rejection of authority

Perhaps you can imagine the people in this church Jude is writing to—these false teachers.

Perhaps they were involved in some significant sexual immorality which would offend the guardians of morality, the angels. And someone brought that up to them. And, in order to justify themselves, they said that as Christians they were free from the law. Basically telling the angels to sit the heck down and shut up. They were rewriting freedom to mean freedom from moral authority. Perhaps they were the beginnings of what would become gnostic heresy that argued that the angels were actually anti-God and that they were followers of the Demi-urge, another god who created the world and bound people by the law. Now they were under grace and could do whatever they wanted. And not only were they doing whatever they wanted, they were teaching others that they could do whatever they wanted to.

How is Jude relevant to you?

What does this look like specifically in today’s world and today’s church? Well, let’s just stick with the sexuality theme for a moment because this is obviously of great concern to Jude (and I think the Holy Spirit).

Extremes: 1. Orgies, etc: I don’t want to assume anything here in conservative Poolesville. I know things take place even among so called Christians. Orgies, bestiality, religious eroticism More probable: 2. Living together. 8

We call it “living together, preparing for marriage, making sure this is the right person.” But this is nothing more than playing house. It’s a forgone conclusion that sex is taking place. 3. Premarital sex in general. But its more than just living together, sex can be had anywhere, anywhen. 4. Casual or serious It can be casual, it can be serious, but outside of the bounds of marriage, it is an egregious sin 5. Other variations Then of course there are other variations, we call them Experimentation, the cultural fascination with lesbianism (even men seem to like it), and the titillation that comes from voyeurism either at that place off the highway, or in your office looking at live sites, or even prerecorded pornography

But these are not for us Christian. We are not permitted to play games. We can’t say that we submit to God’s rule and live the same way we did. Maybe sexuality isn’t your major problem. But ignoring the law in any respect should cause you to examine yourself and find out if the Holy Spirit really has changed your life.

If you use your money for the lottery and not for kingdom advancement and somehow rationalize this or admit it’s wrong but think “Well, God forgives.” Think carefully.

If you know the Bible permits you to drink alcohol and you are relying on that and God’s grace to rationalize your consistent drunkenness then think carefully.

If you are smoking and trusting God’s grace and not even trying to stop, think carefully.

If you put things into your mind that are slowly wearing down your convictions: watching movies and TV that destroys your perspective on what God expects and what he cries over, then think carefully.

If you harbor grudges against someone here who did something to you 10 years ago and you just know you were in the right and they were wrong then think carefully.

If you find yourself without a real marriage relationship and you see no reason to try to improve it, think carefully.

The people in the church Jude is writing to are relying on grace but they don’t truly understand. They would be the ones saying that it may not be okay to get a divorce, but I just can’t handle it anymore and God will forgive me.

In fact, this is the constant refrain of an antinomian. God will forgive me. Better to ask forgiveness than to ask permission. Whatever I do, God will forgive me.

Friends, Jude finds that attitude reprehensible. 9

So does Jesus who says 22 Many will say to me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?' 23 Then I will tell them plainly, 'I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!' (Mat 7:22-23 NIV)

Could this be you? Have you been rationalizing and deceiving even yourself? Thom Rainer’s research among Southern Baptists indicates a sad truth Nearly one half of all church members may not be Christians.2

Baucham laments this in his fantastic book on Family Driven faith This is not just disturbing for SBC churches-it is indicative of a much larger problem. Thousands, if not millions, of people have been manipulate into “repeat after me” prayers and “if you ever want to see that dearly departed loved one again…” altar calls without a trace of the Spirits regenerating power.

Do you hear me Poolesville Baptist Church? Jude starts off talking about how the people he is writing to are called, loved and kept, but then he also says there are some among them who are not called loved and kept and they are starting to influence others. He cries out to them to contend for the faith. Don’t let others misrepresent the grace of God. It is not grace like that. They can’t keep on sinning that grace may abound. They can’t rationalize their lack of spiritual education in the home and their skipping church services and their overeating and their addictions and their gaming, and their gossip and say, well Jesus loves me so it’s okay. If you speak or even think that way, examine yourself.

The law is still here. Of course it doesn’t save us, only God’s miraculous grace saves us. But we are saved to good works. We are in a sense justified in accordance with our life lived. I hesitate to even say this because I am afraid you might get the impression that we are saved by our works. This is not true. But we are saved unto good works.

Gospel, emphasizing grace still.

2 Baucham, Family Driven Faith, 12.