The Lord is Coming to Judge

கர்த்தர் நியாயம்தீர்க்க வருகிறார்

Abraham David John • 23 March 2022

Jude 1:14-16

Judgement of Apostate

Jude 1:14-16, Now Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied about these men also, saying, “Behold, the Lord comes with ten thousands of His saints, 15 to execute judgment on all, to convict all who are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have committed in an ungodly way, and of all the harsh things which ungodly sinners have spoken against Him.” Judgment. Lord coming to execute judgment, to convict and to punish sinners. This, of course, is a theme throughout the teaching of the New Testament.

It is a very important part of the teaching of Jesus, who had more to say about hell than any other person in Scripture. Our society has become well-insulated from the reality of hell.

Preachers don’t preach about hell.
Writers don’t write about hell.
Evangelists don’t even warn about hell.

The culture thinks everyone is basically good and life after death is either happy and full of pleasure, or it doesn’t exist. Hell is neither politically correct nor socially acceptable. People have become so comfortable with the absence of hell from our evangelism that our superficial gospel has no threats, no warnings about eternal torment and eternal suffering.

But on the other hand, the Bible is very clear on the reality of hell, and eternal punishment. Scripture tells us that human history ends with God’s judgment on all the ungodly. 1. Judgement is a specific event. Lord coming in judgment is about a special event at a specific time.

It is not interminably and somehow God interjecting a certain level of judgment from time to time. When the Lord come it is the end human history and bring about final judgment.

Acts 17:30-31, Truly, these times of ignorance God overlooked, but now commands all men everywhere to repent, 31 because He has appointed a day on which He will judge the world in righteousness by the Man whom He has ordained. He has given assurance of this to all by raising Him from the dead.”

God raised Jesus Christ from the dead. Then, Jesus Christ is the Man by whom God will judge the world. God has fixed a day in which He will do that. Human history does not just continue along an unstoppable line. It doesn’t go on forever. It is very brief, and it comes to an end with a specific event or series of events, at a specific time, inaugurated by a specific person, the Lord Jesus Christ.

Romans 2:5-6, But in accordance with your hardness and your impenitent heart you are treasuring up for yourself wrath in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God, 6 who “will render to each one according to his deeds”: People will accumulate guilt.

They accumulate judgment by sin. All their sin accumulates or stores up wrath.

Romans 2:16, in the day when God will judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ, according to my gospel.

There is a day of judgment coming.

2 Peter 2:9, “The Lord knows how to rescue the godly from temptation and to keep the unrighteous under punishment for the day of judgment.”

The day of judgment. God splitting the sky and the stars falling and people saying to the mountains and the rocks.

Revelation 6:16, “Fall on us and hide us from the presence of Him who sits on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb; for the great day of their wrath has come, and who is able to stand?”

Jude 1:6, “Even 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 that great day.”

It is not a 24-hour day! It is an era, but it is nonetheless a fixed time.

Matthew 24:36, “But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, but My Father only.

We must understand that when the Bible talks about the judgment of God on sin, it is talking ultimately about a special

event at a very precise time, when the Lord Himself will come as judge. 2. Judgment will be public. We are not talking about living your life and just dying and going to hell and no one knows. You can’t get away with that.

The final judgment will be general, and it will be public.

Romans 14:12, “Each one of us will certainly give an account of himself to God,”

But it’s not going to be something hidden and something very private. Matthew chapter 25, as Jesus talks about His own coming.

Matthew 25:31-33, “When the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the holy angels with Him, then He will sit on the throne of His glory. 32 All the nations will be gathered before Him, and He will separate them one from another, as a shepherd divides his sheep from the goats. 33 And He will set the sheep on His right hand, but the goats on the left.

This is very general and very public. It involves all the world of sinners in a final tribunal before the throne of God. The day of judgment of all the ungodly.

A more vivid and specific picture is given.

Revelation 20:11-15, Then I saw a great white throne and Him who sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away. And there was found no place for them. 12 And I saw the dead, small and great, standing before [c]God, and books were opened. And another book was opened, which is the Book of Life. And the dead were judged according to their works, by the things which were written in the books. 13 The sea gave up the dead who were in it, and Death and Hades delivered up the dead who were in them. And they were judged, each one according to his works. 14 Then Death and Hades were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. 15 And anyone not found written in the Book of Life was cast into the lake of fire.

Judgment will be a specific event at a specific time.
Judgement will be general and public. 3. God is the judge.

Hebrews 12:23, to the general assembly and church of the firstborn who are registered in heaven, to God the Judge of all, to the spirits of just men made perfect,

God as the Judge of all.

God only possesses the perfect criteria to be the Judge because He is perfectly holy, perfectly righteous. All violations of God’s law are violations of His person.

Romans 2:2-3, But we know that the judgment of God is according to truth against those who practice such things. 3 And do you think this, O man, you who judge those practicing such things, and doing the same, that you will escape the judgment of God? No one escapes the judgment of God.

God judges justly and righteously.

Judgment will be a specific event at a specific time.
Judgement will be general and public.
God is the judge

4. Judgement through Jesus Christ

Though God is the Judge, God has delegated that judgment to Christ who is God, the second member of the Trinity.

John 5:22, For the Father judges no one, but has committed all judgment to the Son, Father has determined to commit all judgment to the Son so that the very one who has been despised and rejected

becomes the judge. The very one who offers Himself as the Saviour and Redeemer becomes the Judge and Executioner.

John 5:27, and has given Him authority to execute judgment also, because He is the Son of Man. Because Jesus has been identified with humanity and the incarnation. He was in all points tempted like as we are, He is a Judge who is suited to this responsibility. Jesus alone will render judgment as God grants Him that privilege.

Matthew 16:27, For the Son of Man will come in the glory of His Father with His angels, and then He will reward each according to his works.

The Lord Jesus Christ Himself, with delegated authority from God who is the Judge, comes at a moment in time to bring about the final devastating judgment on all the ungodly. The Son of Man who is perfectly suited to make that judgment and who Himself once offered as Saviour is now appointed as Judge.

Acts 10:42, And He commanded us to preach to the people, and to testify that it is He who was ordained by God to be Judge of the living and the dead.

Acts 17:31, because He has appointed a day on which He will judge the world in righteousness by the Man whom He has ordained. He has given assurance of this to all by raising Him from the dead.”

The world history is headed toward the judgment of God rendered by Christ at His return.

Judgment will be a specific event at a specific time.
Judgement will be general and public.
God is the judge
Judgement is through Jesus Christ. 5. Judgment is intended as a warning.

The promise of judgment is intended as a warning. The promise of judgment is designed by God to produce fear of divine wrath, which is critical.

Luke 12:4-5, “And I say to you, My friends, do not be afraid of those who kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do. 5 But I will show you whom you should fear: Fear Him who, after He has killed, has power to cast into hell; yes, I say to you, fear Him! Fearing terrorists, cancer, heart disease, war, etc. is one thing. Fearing eternal damnation is a far more important fear.

Judgment will be a specific event at a specific time.
Judgement will be general and public.
God is the judge
Judgement is through Jesus Christ.
Judgement intended to be a warning. 6. Judgment standard is the law.

The standard is the law. The holy law of God. All people are held accountable for obedience to that law. Even though man is deceitful and desperately wicked at heart, even though he cannot keep the law, he is still held accountable for it because he is wilfully disobedient and seeks not the forgiveness and grace of God which is available to him.

Romans 1:20-21, For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse, 21 because, although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22 Professing to be wise, they became fools,

2 Thessalonians 1:8, in flaming fire taking vengeance on those who do not know God, and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.

They don’t obey the law, and they don’t obey the gospel. They don’t obey the law which they cannot keep. They don’t obey the gospel which could deliver them from the consequences of the law. So, the standard for judgment is the law. That’s why there are books, as we read in Revelation 20, and on those books are written the records of everyone’s sins.

The final judgment is made NOT on the basis of the record of our sins, but on the whether or not our names were written in the Book of Life. The names of those in the Book of Life are not those who never violated the law, but those who accepted the provision for sin in Christ and through faith in God came penitently to seek forgiveness.

Judgment will be a specific event at a specific time.
Judgement will be general and public.
God is the judge
Judgement is through Jesus Christ.
Judgement intended to be a warning.
Judgment standard is the Holy law of God.

7. Judgement on earth and in the throne of God

Final judgment is first on earth, and then before the heavenly throne of God. The first judgment takes place when Christ returns. The judgment of the sheep and goats Matthew 25th chapter. The judgment of the nations that takes place on earth when Christ comes to earth to set up His kingdom. That is the earthly judgment.

It starts with all the horrible, devastating, deadly judgments of the time called the tribulation, the seven-year period of time after the rapture of the Church, God unleashes His wrath through demons running amok, through the removal of the restraint of the Holy Spirit. It culminates in those sealed judgments, trumpet judgments, bowl judgments, and then Christ coming out of heaven on a white horse with a sword in His mouth to slaughter all that remains of His enemies all over the world. Then they are all brought before His judgment.

This judgment that takes place, in some measure, on earth. Then the final judgment, at the end of the thousand-year kingdom takes place before the throne of God when all the dead already dead – all the ungodly dead of all the ages are brought back from their place – their place of torment – to the

throne of God, at that point given bodies suited for an even more horrible torment, and that is the great white throne judgment of Revelation 20. So, there is an element of judgment that occurs on earth and culminates at the end of the time called the millennial kingdom. At that point, the whole of the universe disintegrates, and a new heaven and a new earth are created.

Those ungodly are cast out of it forever into the lake of fire. Those who belong to God dwell forever in the bliss, joy, and holiness of the eternal state. The sentence of this judgment is eternal hell. It is the judgment of damnation. That is very clear in the language of our Lord Himself.

John 5:29, and come forth—those who have done good, to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil, to the resurrection of condemnation. Jesus describes that place as weeping, wailing, gnashing of teeth, torment, the worm never dies, blackness of darkness and so forth.

Judgment will be a specific event at a specific time.

Judgement will be general and public.
God is the judge
Judgement is through Jesus Christ.
Judgement intended to be a warning.
Judgment standard is the Holy law of God.
Judgement on Earth and in the throne of God.

Back to Jude now! So, whenever you read about judgment in the Bible, you are not talking about something that just kind of happens now and then, sort of consequential, sort of the law of sowing and reaping. There is that kind of judgment.

But the judgment we are looking at Jude now, and the judgment that is featured in this epistle and throughout the New Testament is that judgment that occurs what we had seen so far. This is the final judgment. Closer than ever.

This final judgment that Jude has in mind. V 14-15, “Behold, the Lord came with many thousands of His holy ones, to execute judgment upon all.”

This is that final judgment. All unrepentant, God-rejecting sinners are headed for this final judgment and eternal torment in hell. Even those who have died and those who have died in centuries past, and those who will die before this happens will, upon their death, be judged and sent out of the presence of God forever.

They will, in the future, be resurrected and given a body suited for the eternal lake of fire, and they will be brought to that final tribunal. So, in that sense, judgment occurs whenever the sinner dies.

Hebrews 9:27, And as it is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment, Judgment is personal and private. But the final judgment is general and public. All impenitent, Christ-rejecting sinners are headed for this final tribunal called the great white throne and headed for the lake of fire and eternal torment, both of soul and body suited for hell.

Does everybody experience the same hell?

Does everybody experience the same torment? No.

Just as there are degrees of service in heaven, based upon faithfulness here, there are going to be some degrees of suffering. Jesus is addressing some towns around Galilee, where he had ministered.

Matthew 11:21-24, “Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the mighty works which were done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes. 22 But I say to you, it will be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon in the day of judgment than for you. 23 And you, Capernaum, who[e] are exalted to heaven, will be brought down to Hades; for if the mighty works which were done in you had been done in Sodom, it would have remained until this day. 24 But I say to you that it shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom in the day of judgment than for you.”

Why? Because they were exposed to Christ. They were exposed to the Son of God.

Luke 12:47-48, And that servant who knew his master’s will, and did not prepare himself or do according to his will, shall be beaten with many stripes. 48 But he who did not know, yet committed things deserving of stripes, shall be beaten with few. For everyone to whom much is given, from him much will

be required; and to whom much has been committed, of him they will ask the more. It is in the context of judgment. If you knew God’s will, and you didn’t act according to it, you get many lashes. If you didn’t know it, you get fewer lashes.

The more you know about the gospel, the hotter hell will be. The less you know, the more tolerable it will be. What about the people who never heard the gospel?

Will they be in hell? Yes, but whatever level of relative tolerance there can be there, their experience will be less than the experience of those who knew the truth and rejected it.

Hebrews 10:28, Anyone who has rejected Moses’ law dies without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. People who disobey the Law of Moses are going to be punished. They are going to be punished mercilessly.

Hebrews 10:29, Of how much worse punishment, do you suppose, will he be thought worthy who has trampled the Son of God underfoot, counted the blood of the covenant by which

he was sanctified a common thing, and insulted the Spirit of grace? If you have trampled the gospel, particular if having known the truth you abandon the truth. The hottest hell, the severest torment is for those who knowing the truth rejected the truth, and that is what we call apostasy. To know the truth and reject the truth. Hell is horrible no matter who is there.

Hebrews 10:31, It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. That is why James warns us!

James 3:1, My brethren, let not many of you become teachers, knowing that we shall receive a stricter judgment.

If you know nothing about the gospel, if you know very little about the law of God, you still die and go to hell, and in judgment you suffer.
If you knew the law of God and rejected it, your suffering is greater.
If you knew the gospel of Christ and reject it, it’s greater.
If you knew the gospel of Jesus Christ and rejected it, and you have become a teacher of perversion and damnable error, your judgment is greater yet.

Now, if the judgment texts of Scripture are designed to warn people, false teachers ought to be terrified. They ought to be absolutely petrified. Of what awaits them. Those apostate false teachers, who stay within the framework of Christianity and pretend to represent God and even Christ and pervert the truth to the destruction of souls, theirs is the severest judgment of all.

The Pharisees who said they represented God, who said they taught the truth of God, they were the people of God, they knew the law of God, they were God’s representatives in the world. Jesus had very bad things to say to them about the impending judgement.

Matthew 23:15, “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you travel land and sea to win one proselyte, and when he is won, you make him twice as much a son of hell as yourselves.

Matthew 23:27, “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs which indeed appear beautiful outwardly, but inside are full of dead men’s bones and all uncleanness.

Matthew 23:33, Serpents, brood of vipers! How can you escape the condemnation of hell?

The severest denunciations given in the New Testament are against false teachers. Nothing is going to compare to the suffering of the spiritual phonies, the spiritual fakers, the false prophets, the false teachers, the Christian conmen, the liberals, the spiritual fakes in priestly garb, the gospel-denying theologians.

Theirs is the worst hell of all. Now, Jude, our Lord’s half-brother, and a full brother of James, was inspired by the Holy Spirit to write this letter about the issue of apostasy. Primarily deals with the judgment of apostates.

While it characterizes them for sure, it does so always with reference to judgment. He deals with their presence.

Jude 1:4, For certain men have crept in unnoticed, who long ago were marked out for this condemnation, ungodly men, who turn the grace of our God into lewdness and deny the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ. He talks about their presence in the Church.

Jude 1:12, These are spots in your love feasts, while they feast with you without fear, serving only themselves. They are clouds

without water, carried about by the winds; late autumn trees without fruit, twice dead, pulled up by the roots; Jude spoke about their character. Jude spoke about their influence. Jude spoke about their end.

Jude 1:13, “black darkness has been reserved for them forever.” V 14-15, Now Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied about these men also, saying, “Behold, the Lord comes with ten thousands of His saints, 15 to execute judgment on all, to convict all who are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have committed in an ungodly way, and of all the harsh things which ungodly sinners have spoken against Him.”

This should be absolutely terrifying to anyone contemplating being a false teacher. This epistle is so terrifying and frightening. It is so fraught with warning that a Christian reading this might be scared to death that somehow these false teachers would influence him to his eternal damnation.

Four certainties about the final judgement of God.

1. The Lord will come. Because the writer puts the prophesy in the past tense, “Behold, the Lord came.” In this prophetic word, which was obviously recorded in a non- canonical, non-biblical prophecy of the name of Enoch, the truth was reiterated. The truth can be found in several sources outside the biblical.

The book of Enoch was a popular book at the time, historically. The people had read it and were familiar with it. In that book was an accurate statement, and the assurance and the certainty of the coming of the Lord is indicated because it’s as if this person who’s writing, called Enoch, is having a vision, and he sees the Lord came. Stated with the shock of one who saw it happened. Enoch’s prophecy was spoken as if the judgment was being seen, so certain was it.

2 Peter 3:3-4, knowing this first: that scoffers will come in the last days, walking according to their own lusts, 4 and saying, “Where is the promise of His coming? For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of creation.” 5 For this they wilfully forget: that by the word of

God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of water and in the water, 6 by which the world that then existed perished, being flooded with water. 7 But the heavens and the earth which are now preserved by the same word, are reserved

for fire until the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men. Since Messiah has come, and since He has promised judgment mockers will come with their mocking. ‘Where is the promise of His coming?’” This is mockery. He is not going to come because He never has.

It escapes their notice that by the Word of God the heavens existed long ago. The earth was formed out of water and by water. Creation was not a result of uniformity. It wasn’t evolutionary uniformity. It was catastrophe.

It was upheaval beyond description for God to create the entire universe and all the life we know on this earth in a six- day period. Creation shows that there is no uniformity.

2 Peter 3:7-9, But the heavens and the earth which are now preserved by the same word, are reserved for fire until the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men. 8 But, beloved, do not forget this one thing, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. 9 The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness,

but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance. Another catastrophe is coming, this time not water but fire! It has been certainly no more than 10,000 years since creation, maybe closer to 6,000 years since creation.

The end could come very soon. It will come. Since you know that, what kind of people should you be? The Lord will come.

He will come to judge the ungodly,
Will start in a period of time called the tribulation,
Judgement of the seals,
The trumpets,
The bowls,
The return of Jesus Christ,
The establishment of His kingdom,
End of which is the destruction of the whole heavens and earth, and
Great white throne into eternal hell. 2. Lord will come with thousands of Angels.

So, we are told the Lord will come.

V 14-15 “Behold the Lord came with many thousands of His holy ones.” He alone is Judge, but He will be accompanied with many thousands of His holy ones. Some have thought this could be us, saints. We are saints. We are called saints,

1 Corinthians 1:2,

1 Thessalonians 3:13,

Revelation 19:14, He comes riding out of heaven in that magnificent imagery, and with Him come the armies which are in heaven, clothed in fine linen.

It seems best to see that as believers, having been gathered with Him for our marriage supper and our time of rewards during the time of tribulation. We then come at the end back to this earth. We return with Christ in a holy array in that glorious return in judgment.

Zechariah 14:5, Then you shall flee through My mountain valley, For the mountain valley shall reach to Azal. Yes, you shall flee As you fled from the earthquake In the days of Uzziah

king of Judah. Thus the Lord my God will come, And all the saints with You. It could be that He refers to saints. But I think it’s better, though we are coming with Him, that this, because it’s a judgment scene, be understood as referring to angels, because angels appear in other judgment environments.

Matthew 13:41-42, The Son of Man will send out His angels, and they will gather out of His kingdom all things that offend, and those who practice lawlessness, 42 and will cast them into the furnace of fire. There will be wailing and gnashing of teeth.

Who are the reapers? The angels. The sermon on the second coming, the Olivet Discourse, Jesus talks about how the angels are going to gather His people from the four corners of the earth, and He’s going to come with holy angels out of heaven as well in judgment.

2 Thessalonians 1:7-10, and to give you who are troubled rest with us when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with His mighty angels, 8 in flaming fire taking vengeance on those who do not know God, and on those who do not obey the gospel of

our Lord Jesus Christ. 9 These shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power, 10 when He comes, in that Day, to be glorified in His saints and to be admired among all those who believe, because our testimony among you was believed.

Lord comes with His holy angels. The holy angels are associated with judgment. So, He will come, and He will not come alone. But the angels, seen often in judgment action, even slaying people in the Old Testament, will come with Him.

3. Lord will come to execute judgment upon all. Everybody who has violated God’s law. V 15, “To convict all the ungodly” All the ungodly. So, the purpose of His coming is to execute judgment upon all. All the ungodly. There’s no hope to escape this.

They have no defence, no advocate, no lawyer. All crimes against God will be kept to the account of every sinner.

They will be judged out of the record of their sins in the books and sent to hell because although all of us have a record of sins, their names are not written in the Book of Life. Lord will come. Lord will come with Angels.

He will come to execute judgment. 4. Bring an end to sin. V 15, to execute judgment on all, to convict all who are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have committed in an ungodly way, and of all the harsh things which ungodly sinners have spoken against Him.”

Because God is righteous, and He is going to end sin. He is going to bring an end to sinners. He is going to bring in a kingdom of righteousness and eternal righteousness. How many times can you say “ungodly” in one verse?

Anti-God, irreverent, blasphemous. They are all going to be punished for all their ungodly deeds and all the harsh things that ungodly sinners have spoken against the Lord Himself.

The false teachers and the apostates in the earlier parts of this passage. All sinners are treasuring up wrath against a day of wrath, and they are going to pay in that day. V 16, These are grumblers, complainers, walking according to their own lusts; and they mouth great swelling words, flattering people to gain advantage.

Jude goes back to the apostates described in V14. Jude particularly looks at the sins of their mouths: grumblers, fault finders, speaking arrogantly, flattering people. These heretics are described as grumblers. It’s used to describe, in the Septuagint, the murmurings of the Israelites.

They grip against God. They murmur against the true and living God. The Jews were guilty of this.

John 6:41, The Jews then complained about Him, because He said, “I am the bread which came down from heaven.” Grumblers over the truth, complainers against God’s holy law, holy will, and holy Word.

They attack the Lord by attacking His truth.

V 4, 8, and 11. In fact, the illustration of the kinds of thing that they say against God is staggering. He says that they find fault. This is a funny Greek word, a rather long one. It means to blame. They never submit to God’s will.

They murmur about it. They complain about it. They gripe about it. They resist it. They rebel against it. This is always characteristic of false teachers. They won’t accept the truth. They never submit to God’s will and to God’s Word.

The only question really remaining is the “when.” The answer to that question remains with the Lord. We don’t know when, but we believe it will be triggered with the rapture of the Church, which is a secret event with no warning.

The Lord’s going to snatch the Church away, and then the judgment will begin. The hottest hell remains for the apostate false teachers.

Some of you may be sitting on a fence a little bit. Maybe you don’t know if you are a Christian or not. Maybe you are worried about false teaching and how much of it you are being exposed to.