Study in the Epistle of Jude # 35: 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 the book of Jude. We have come to verse 7, which speaks of the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, and we have been looking at Genesis 19 in order to learn more about that destruction. We see there how God details the destruction of Sodom and the events leading up to it. We read of how He rained down fire and brimstone from Heaven upon those in that city and upon the cities of the plains also, completely destroying them all.

We have seen that Sodom is a type and a picture of the church. It is, in this case, a picture of the church during the time period of the Great Tribulation. During that time right before the end of the world, the church, due to its apostasy and its unfaithfulness towards the Word of God, spiritually has become “Sodom.”

In Genesis 19, God is painting the picture that His plan is to completely destroy Sodom. However, He first sends a message. He carries it Himself; He personally enters Sodom and warns Lot and his family. Lot is a type of the true believers who are within the churches during the time of Great Tribulation. The command to him in Genesis 19:14 is:

…Up, get you out of this place; for the LORD will destroy this city…

Lot shares this same message with his family, yet his sons-in-law mock him. They simply do not believe the Word of God. Despite this, God’s commandment is still for Lot to get out of the city. We read in verse 15:

And when the morning arose, then the angels hastened Lot, saying, Arise, take thy wife, and thy two daughters, which are here; lest thou be consumed in the iniquity of the city.

God is pressing upon Lot. He is impressing upon him the tremendous urgency of this matter. Sodom does not have a great many years to go before its destruction. It does not even have a great many months or weeks. There are not even days left, but Sodom will be destroyed in a matter of hours. We can see how urgent this was. We can see why God is hastening Lot in commanding him to flee the city so that he will not perish or be consumed in its iniquity.

We have seen how this relates to Revelation 18. There, God again gives a command to His people, again in figurative language. Just as Sodom represents the church in the historical parable in Genesis 19, so Babylon, in the parabolic language of Revelation 18, is typifying the unfaithful church that has come under the judgment of God at the time of Great Tribulation. God says in Revelation 18:4 regarding Babylon:

Come out of her My people that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues.

If Lot had stayed in the city, he would have been consumed in the iniquity of it. God’s plan was to rain down fire and brimstone upon Sodom. Anyone within the city limits of Sodom would experience that judgment. “Oh, but Lot is a true child of God. He could stay, could he not?” That is what some who are in the churches like to think. They reason, “I am a child of God. I am a true believer. Therefore, nothing can harm me. I can stay and I will not feel any harmful effects.”

It is true that when a child of God becomes saved, he is eternally saved and can never lose his salvation. However, the character of a child of God is one of obedience. He desires to obey the will of God. He desires to do His will. Jesus said, “If you love Me, keep My commandments” (John 14:15). The child of God has been given a heart that loves Christ and wants to do things His way. Because of this, he will be obedient regardless of the command. When God tells us to worship Him on Sunday for that is His Sabbath day in the New Testament era, then we worship Him on Sunday. When He tells us to remove our foot from that day, we do because we want to do things God’s way (Isaiah 58:13). If God says that the Church Age is over and it is time to come out of the church, then the child of God will obey (Revelation 18:4).

We may not like it at first, and we can see why Lot might struggle with this command. He has family there; he has his daughters who married his sons-in-law. There are attachments and ties to Sodom. It is not a strange city to him. If it was, he would care less if it was destroyed. But no, Lot has loved ones within this city. Therefore, it is no wonder that we read in Genesis 19:16 that “he lingered.” Even after receiving the urgent command from Christ, he lingered for a period of time.

God is letting us know that it is possible for a child of God to be hesitant with a command such as the one to leave the churches and congregations when the Church Age is over. It is possible for someone to resist initially. At first he might be hesitant because he is leaving behind his friends and his family and a lot of history that has been established there. This is not an easy thing for some people to do. It is very difficult. Lot is longing for his daughters. He is longing that his family might also understand and that they might also obey the Word of God and come out of the city.

We know that Lot will obey. That is guaranteed because he is a child of God. Now if he had stayed, he would have been destroyed with the city. That would be an indication that Lot was never saved, that he himself was never a true believer. However, he does obey because God has mercy on him.

Let us go on in Genesis 19:16, which further states:

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

God is merciful to Lot, even though Lot does not want to leave at the present. He wants to stay and try to convince his family of God’s command. He wants to pray for them and try to use other language and other ways to convince his sons-in-law and his daughters. Perhaps he thinks, “If only I was a better preacher and I could declare what God had said a little bit better, then they might understand.” His concern for his family was holding him back from immediately getting out of the city. That is why he lingers.

God is indicating that He has a plan whereby His people will obey. Even if a child of God initially remains in the church for a short period of time, Genesis 19:16 is telling us that they will eventually come out. God will lay hold upon the hand of that believer.

The hand in the Bible represents the will of an individual. God is grabbing Lot by His will. How can God grab a child of God by their will? The Word of God accomplishes this. God opens up His Word and reveals the truth of His Word to an individual, showing him that this is the commandment of God. God then moves within that individual to will and do of His good pleasure (Philippians 2:13). God is taking all the action and doing all the moving as this person is being obedient. His people will be brought forth and set without the city. His people will come out of the church. It is entirely the action of God as anyone obeys God’s command to any degree.

We see that it is God’s concern that His people might be blessed and that they might escape the judgment. This is what we read in verse 17, which says:

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.

God is giving further direction to Lot. Not only is he to come out of the city, but he is to escape for his life. He is to take off running as though his life depended on it. We are to flee the church not leisurely, not just strolling out of the church building, but running out of its door as quickly as we can.

We have to stop for a second and ask, “Is this really so? Could the spiritual meaning of these passages really be that it is this bad to stay in a church? Why is it so terrible to be in the church during the time of the Great Tribulation? How can it be so dangerous to remain in the church? What makes the church such a spiritually dangerous place?”

Let us listen to the language in Matthew 24:19-22. God says there:

And woe unto them that are with child, and to them that give suck in those days! But pray ye that your flight be not in the winter, neither on the sabbath day: For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be. And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect’s sake those days shall be shortened.

Matthew 24 can be a difficult chapter to read because of the terrible woes that are coming upon the professed people of God, the church. “Woe unto them that are with child.” Woe to the parents with children who are members of the congregation. How awful and how terrible it is that these people are seated within the churches on Sunday morning. Why is it so bad? Because the Holy Spirit of God has left the church (2 Thessalonians 2:7). The church has finished its testimony (Revelation 11:7). God is no longer using the congregations. His Spirit has come out of the church.

Jeremiah is a book that has much to say regarding the Great Tribulation period, typified by the destruction of Jerusalem by the Babylonians. In Jeremiah 6:8, we read:

Be thou instructed, O Jerusalem, lest my soul depart from thee; lest I make thee desolate, a land not inhabited.

God is indicting that His Soul, the Holy Spirit, will depart from Jerusalem. This is what it means to be “desolate.” Desolation is the departure of the Lord Jesus Christ. When Christ, the Holy Spirit, comes out of the midst of a church, immediately that church becomes a wilderness and a desolate land. Immediately it becomes “a land not inhabited.”

When God says many times in the book of Jeremiah that the city will be without an inhabitant, immediately we think, “He is talking about the people of Jerusalem. He is saying that there will be no people in that city.” However, the true meaning of that statement is much more horrible than that. God is the inhabitant of Jerusalem. He inhabits the praises of His people (Psalm 22:3).

God was in the midst of Jerusalem, spiritually speaking, as He was in the midst of the churches and congregations throughout the Church Age. However, God says that if they continue in their wickedness, He will come and visit them. He will cast them into a bed of Great Tribulation (Revelation 2:22). His Soul will depart from them, causing them to be desolate, a land not inhabited; that is, not inhabited by the Spirit of God. This city is without an inhabitant. There might be multitudes of people within it, but if the Holy Spirit of God is not there, then it is a desolate wilderness.

So it is with the churches and congregations of our day. There are still millions of people who profess the name of Christ and attend church. You cannot say that the churches are not inhabited. However, you can say that they are not inhabited with the Spirit of Christ. The Spirit of God has come out of them.

This has left the church in a terrible situation. Without the Spirit of Christ, there is no blessing of God in any way, shape, or form upon the Gospel that is being declared from the pulpits. This means that no one anywhere in any church is experiencing spiritual blessings. No one is experiencing the salvation of God from the ministry of the church. The city is without an inhabitant.

This is why Christ says, “Woe unto them that give suck in those days.” Woe unto them that have children. These people are raising their children in the church. Each Sunday that they are sitting down, there are two, three, four, five, or more children in the pews. The Word of God ought to be falling upon their hearts.

In the past, God would, if it was His will, bless that Word to this one and to that one. There was the possibility that He might bless it to anyone under the hearing of His Word. This was a wonderful possibility that existed within the churches throughout the Church Age. However, now it is the end of the Church Age. Now there is no inhabitant, no Spirit of God, to bless the Word. Therefore, there is no possibility that the Word of God could take root. There is no possibility that it could begin to bring forth fruit in a sinner’s life. There is no possibility of sins being forgiven or of salvation. This is why God says to Lot, “Escape for thy life. Flee to the mountains.” That is the spiritual dimension to that command.

The command is to get out of the church for your very life—not your physical life, but your spiritual, eternal life. If you remain, you will be partakers of its sins and of its plagues. You will be bundled as a tare for the burning (Matthew 13:30). You are being deluded if you remain because God is not there. God is not blessing the church any longer. Therefore, God’s command to Lot in Genesis 19:17 is:

…Escape for thy life; look not behind thee, neither stay thou in all the plain; escape to the mountain…

God is saying, “Come out of the church.” Spiritually speaking, to escape to the mountain is to flee to Christ. People can do this by staying home alone on Sunday with their Bibles. They can do this by listening to faithful radio programming or by listening to the Internet. They can do this by finding fellowship with a few other believers so long as it is outside the church and they are not returning to the congregation.

God warns very desperately against going back to the church. “Look not behind thee,” He says. Do not look behind you once you come out of the church. Do not look back and think about the wonderful times that you have experienced. Do not think about the wonderful social life that you had. Do not think of the coffee and cake after the service and the nice carpeting and the good heating in the winter. Do not think of all those luxuries that you experienced. Now, perhaps, you do not have that social life outside the church. You do not have a beautiful place to meet and worship in. Perhaps you are meeting in a very plain place now. Yet God is saying, “Look not behind you.” Do not look back.

Can you imagine what would happen if Lot came out and began to run, to escape for his life, and then suddenly stopped? Maybe because his heart yearned for his daughters or maybe for some other reason, he then decides to go back to the city. How awful that would be, for it was not very long before the fire and brimstone would begin to fall from Heaven! This would be a definite indicator that Lot was not a child of God.

God Himself warns us about looking back. In Genesis 19:23-26, He tells us what happens to Lot’s wife when she looked back. It says there:

The sun was risen upon the earth when Lot entered into Zoar. Then the LORD rained upon Sodom and upon Gomorrah brimstone and fire from the LORD out of heaven; And he overthrew those cities, and all the plain, and all the inhabitants of the cities, and that which grew upon the ground. But his wife looked back from behind him, and she became a pillar of salt.

God is extremely serious about His command not to look back. Once you come out—historically, of Sodom; but spiritually, of the church—you are not to look back. Lot’s wife did, and God turned her into a pillar of salt. In the Bible, salt is related to judgment. This was the judgment of God upon her. She was under God’s judgment even though she was moved enough by God’s command and by the Word of God to flee Sodom.

One thing that we can be sure God is indicating is that not everyone who comes out of the church during the time of Great Tribulation is a true child of God. Not everyone who meets in fellowships or worships in their own home is a true believer. Not all of them are righteous and saved individuals. Some will follow the believers out for whatever reason. In the case of Lot’s wife, it was because of family ties. Lot was her husband and he thought and believed that Sodom would be destroyed. Perhaps she did not want to damage their relationship so she followed, but her heart had never truly believed. Her heart had never left Sodom. Consequently, she looks back from behind him and becomes a pillar of salt.