Study in the Epistle of Jude # 34: Verse 7

by Chris McCann

EBible Fellowship (http://www.ebiblefellowship.com)

Welcome to the Electronic Bible Fellowship’s Bible study. We are currently going through Genesis 19 in our study of Jude. Verse 7 of Jude has led us to this chapter in the Old Testament in which God outlines the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. We have seen that God is using the historical destruction of these wicked cities to spiritually paint a picture of the end-time destruction of the New Testament church. God Himself identifies the end-time church as Sodom in Revelation 11, where He says that the two witnesses are lying dead in the street of that great city called Sodom.

We have seen that Lot has gone to his sons-in-law and told them exactly what God had said to him. He did not change the message in any way; he simply took what God had declared and relayed that information to his family. Genesis 19:14 says:

And Lot went out, and spake unto his sons in law, which married his daughters, and said, Up, get you out of this place; for the LORD will destroy this city. But he seemed as one that mocked unto his sons in law.

His sons-in-law simply did not believe it. There was a level of unbelief among them. We would liken them to believers in our present day who profess to be Christians and to believe God; however, the real character of their profession is seen when God comes with a test, such as a doctrine designed to force someone into obedience like the doctrine of the end of the Church Age does.

It becomes evident that Lot’s sons-in-law and his daughters who married them simply did not believe or trust the Word of God. They did not follow and obey it. If they had, they would not have mocked. They would have quickly gotten up out of their places without hesitation and followed Lot. They would have said, “What do we do?” and Lot would have then shown them the way out of the city.

That ought to have been their reaction. If someone has faith in God and trusts His Word then they would immediately obey when He brings warning or admonition or words that indicate that He is ready to bring about destruction. They would not hesitate, but they would quickly get themselves out of that place. They would do whatever God had commanded them to do (1 John 2:3-4).

In contrast to this, these sons-in-law mock, revealing that they are far from God. They never had any desire deep down within themselves to obey the Word of God.

Likewise, it is becoming evident that the churches of our day are in rebellion against the Word of God. This rebellion has already surfaced in a great many ways as the churches have forsaken the doctrines of the Bible.

This rebellion that is characteristic of the church of our day can be seen in their total abandonment of God’s qualifications for deacons and elders. The church has elected people to the offices of elder and deacon who do not meet those qualifications. They have instituted single men and divorced men into these roles where God has made it very clear that only a married man with children – and one who is raising his children well—would be qualified to fill these positions. This is just one small example.

The church has likewise demonstrated its rebellion against the Word of God by permitting divorce and remarriage. They do not maintain what the Bible says, which is that once a man is married to a woman, there is never to be divorce and certainly never to be remarriage. Yet the teachers and preachers and churches have allowed divorce, showing that they really do not hold very deeply to God’s commandments.

Yet it could always be said, “Oh, but we cannot judge a man. We cannot evaluate a church because it has one or two or three wrong doctrines. We cannot make that kind of judgment.” In the past, we have been restrained and have given the benefit of the doubt to the churches. We have said, “Still, they do some things right. They teach some truths.”

However, God has developed an end-time doctrine. He is bringing forth a teaching that comes directly and completely from His Word. This doctrine is that during the Great Tribulation, there will come a time when the testimony of the two witnesses will be finished. The Church Age will be over, and God will no longer use the churches and congregations of the world. Because of this, God commands His people to come out of the church (Revelation 18:4).

Let us look at a few places where we see this command of God. We find it here in Genesis 19, but it is also in Matthew 24. That is a chapter that we should all be familiar with. It is a chapter that is dealing with the period of Great Tribulation. In verse 15, the Lord Jesus Christ is answering the disciples’ question, “What shall be the sign of Thy coming and of the end of the world?” Christ answers:

When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place, (whoso readeth, let him understand:)

Spiritually, the “abomination of desolation” refers to Satan. He is standing in the “holy place,” which is the corporate church. Then we read in verse 16, where Judaea points to the churches and congregations:

Then let them which be in Judaea flee into the mountains:

This is exactly what we find with the situation in Sodom. What is God’s command to Lot and his family? What does God tell Lot to do? He says in Genesis 19:17:

And it came to pass, when they had brought them forth abroad, that he said, Escape for thy life; look not behind thee, neither stay thou in all the plain; escape to the mountain, lest thou be consumed.

We find two parallel situations in Genesis 19 and Matthew 24—one a historical parable in which Lot is commanded to leave Sodom and Gomorrah and to flee to the mountains; and another in which God uses spiritual, parabolic language as He speaks of the abomination of desolation and identifies the churches as Judaea and commands, “Flee to the mountains.”

Satan has been loosed and it is the time of the Great Tribulation. Satan is now in the “holy place.” This is the same picture that we see in 2 Thessalonians 2:3-4 where the man of sin has taken his seat in the temple. The “temple” once again refers to the church, and that is where Satan is now ruling. God has forsaken the churches and congregations of the world, and the Holy Spirit has come out of them. Therefore, it is now time, God insists, for His people to flee, to escape, and to come out because He will destroy the church.

The church will first be destroyed spiritually as Satan overcomes it. The gospels in the churches will be full of deceitfulness. There will be no blessing of God upon the word that is being declared in the churches, and God will not be saving anyone there. Then the church will be destroyed on the Last Day, which is what the fire and brimstone falling from Heaven upon Sodom pictures. The fire and brimstone will fall upon “Sodom,” upon all those who are located in the churches and congregations of the world. Anyone remaining in Sodom will be destroyed and come under the awful fury and wrath of God. They will stand for judgment and be cast into the pit of Hell to experience eternal damnation (Revelation 20:15).

“What is this?” we can hear all kinds of people saying. “Are you stating that if I go to church, then I am going to end up under the wrath of God in Hell? I thought that the church was a place to escape from Hell. I thought that it was where I could find security and safety from the wrath of God.”

It is true that the church was the place to go during the Church Age to hear the Gospel. Through it, God did save a great many people throughout the nations of the world. However, the church itself has never been any kind of security. The church has never saved anyone from the wrath of God.

Now God is saying that during the Great Tribulation, the church is the last place you want to be. It is the most dangerous place, spiritually speaking, in the whole world. You want to leave your church, whether it is Catholic, Protestant, Presbyterian, Lutheran, Baptist, or Episcopal. Whatever kind of church it is, get out of it. The church is “Sodom,” and Sodom will be destroyed by fire and brimstone.

We are now living in the time when God is warning the church. He is opening up His Word, and His Word is declaring the truth that the wrath of God will fall upon the corporate body on the Last Day. Anyone found within the boundaries of a church will be burned up. They are as the tares that have been bundled for burning (Matthew 13:30). You must come out of the church. That act alone, however, will not save anyone. At least though, if anyone who is not saved comes out, they will be in a position where God could bless His Word to their hearts and save them. That can no longer happen within the church.

Let us look again at Revelation 18 where God assigns the spiritual title of Babylon to the church because they have rebelled against Him. He says in verses 4-5:

And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues. For her sins have reached unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities.

This is the command of God—”Come out of her, My people.” There is no getting around it. There is no avoiding or ignoring it. Some might say, “I am not going to listen to that. You are speaking in parables and saying that this spiritually represents this and that spiritually represents that. None of that has any significance. Show me a plain, literal statement.”

People can say that if they want, but they are merely tempting God. They are tempting Him because He is the One who has written the Bible in this way. He is the One who has spoken in historical parables and allegories, and He is the One who has assigned these spiritual meanings to Sodom and to Babylon and to Judaea.

We are responsible and obligated to know what God is saying. The only reason that someone does not understand a spiritual parable—or anything else spiritual from the Bible—is because of his sin. It is our sin that prevents our understanding. Sin, however, is no excuse. Sin is no reason not to obey. We are bound to obey the Law of God. When God gives a command, whether it is a plain, literal command or a command that is in parabolic form, it is a command nonetheless that we are obligated to obey. If we disobey, then we are in rebellion against God.

When God says, “Come out of her, My people,” He is speaking to all who profess to be Christians. He is speaking to you and to me when He says, “Come out…that ye be not partakers of her sins and receive not of her plagues.” You can do with this what you will. You can mock and you can laugh at it and you can disbelieve it just as Lot’s sons-in-law did, but if you do so, just keep in mind what happened to them. Where are they now? Where is their laughter now?

I am sure that they had a fun time with what Lot was saying for a few hours. They probably were teasing their wives about having a father who could come up with a crazy idea such as having to flee out of Sodom. Yet how long was it before fire and brimstone literally rained down upon them from Heaven? How long was it before the fire torched their house and their neighbor’s house? How long was it before the brimstone was heating the ground so that there was no escape, no way to leave the city any longer?

The awful furious anger of God was raining down upon them from Heaven. How did they receive Lot’s words then? I’m sure that they looked at one another and thought, “Why did we not listen? Why did we not obey the command of God to get up and leave this place? Why did we remain? Why did we stay?” That undoubtedly would have been their last thought as God would have destroyed them. Lot’s sons-in-law and his daughters and any children that they might have had would have been destroyed by the judgment that they had earlier mocked.

You can mock now. You can disbelieve. You can continue going to church each Sunday for awhile (there seems to be a little period of time in which God is warning the world). You can continue there and think, “Well, nothing is happening to me.” However, there will come a day very soon. We are very close to the end of the world and the time when God, the Lord Jesus Christ, will return upon the clouds of glory and gather His elect from the four winds (Mark 13:27).

That language of the four winds is significant because it can be shown from Zechariah 2 that it indicates God’s people have come out of Zion, out of their churches. It indicates that they have been scattered across the face of the earth, meeting in fellowships or homes or just with the Word of God itself because they can find none other (1 John 1:3). That is where the elect will be gathered—not from Sodom, not from the corporate church. There will be those who have been bundled and gathered all right. However, it is not for anything good or for any blessing—they have been gathered for the burning.

This is a dire and desperate warning that God is giving people today. God is not playing around; He is extremely serious as He relays these things to us. Let us go back to Genesis 19 and read verse 16, which says:

And while he lingered…

Lot lingered. He lingered for a short while, and we can understand why. He had family who were disobeying God rather than listening to Him. They would not believe, and it was obvious that they had no intention of leaving. Therefore, Lot is lingering, desiring that his family might come with him and leave the city.

Likewise, there will be some true believers who linger after hearing these things—perhaps because their wife or their children, their mother or their father, other family members or close friends do not see these truths. Therefore, they linger, trying to convince them of these things. However, the matter is extremely urgent. The command of God is an urgent command. Verse 16 continues:

And while he lingered, the men laid hold upon his hand…

Let us keep in mind that the hand in the Bible represents one’s will. God is laying hold upon the will of Lot, who is representing all believers. Likewise, God will lay hold upon the will of any child of God who is in the church. How will God lay hold upon one’s will? He will do so with His Word. His Word will convince; His Word will impress upon the true child of God that he must get out. God will take him by the hand, and God will lead him outside the church. The verse continues:

…and upon the hand of his wife, and upon the hand of his two daughters; the LORD being merciful unto him: and they brought him forth, and set him without the city.

It is God’s mercy that He is forewarning us and giving us some time before the final destruction. If anything, the news that we are in the Great Tribulation, that the Church Age is over, and that it is time to leave the church is a tremendous mercy of God. Some people do not see it that way. They think it is all negative, all judgment. They, however, are missing the point. God is being extremely merciful. It is as though God is waving a big, red flag to any who have eyes to see and ears to hear. He is waving the flag, indicating that the final judgment is right at the door. It is as close as it possibly could be.

What a mercy it is that we are being forewarned! What a mercy of God that we have time to pray for those whom we know are not saved! What a mercy of God that we have time to minister the Gospel to a world that is in darkness and soon to perish! What a mercy of God that He is given us these few days where every indication is that the end of the world is right around the corner!

Here we are, those of us upon whom God has had mercy. Here we find ourselves, having been led out of the city by God. All we can do is thank Him that He has blessed us in this way and thank Him that we will not be partakers of the sins of “Sodom” or “Babylon” or of the plagues that are soon to follow.

In our next study, Lord willing, we are going to look a little further at the historical destruction of Sodom. We will also look at God’s command in Genesis 19:17, which says:

…look not behind thee, neither stay thou in all the plain; escape to the mountain, lest thou be consumed.