Introduction: Last week we studied verses 1-4, and learned that Christians need to do four things to resist false teaching: 1) Submit to God's Word; 2) Study doctrine; 3) Walk with God; 4) Earnestly contend for the Faith once delivered. In verses 5-7 Jude illustrates his points by highlighting three actual cases of apostasy: 1) Israel in the Wilderness; 2) Fallen angels; and 3) Sodom and Gomorrah.

Note: Paul predicted a great "Apostasy" in the latter days (2 Thessalonians 2:1-3). The word "apostasy" comes from the Greek apostasia, which is usually translated "falling away."

There are four lessons we need to learn from these three examples of apostasy...

I. In any group of believers, there will always be some who don't really believe.
A. Israel had seen God do great miracles in Egypt, had crossed the Red Sea on dry ground, had seen the soldiers of Egypt swept away, and so on. Yet many of them rejected God and decided to worship a golden calf.
B. The angels had lived with God in heaven for thousands of years, yet many of them fell away and followed lucifer in his rebellion.
C. Jesus' parable of the wheat and the tares (Matt. 13:24-30).

II. People who turn away from God will be punished by God.
A. This concept is out of fashion today. God is too nice to punish anyone, except maybe Hitler.
B. God punished the unbelieving Israelites by forcing them to wander in circles in the Wilderness for 40 years, until they all died.
C. God punished the rebellious angels by putting them in a spiritual prison to await judgment day (this may be the bottomless pit of Revelation 9:1-11). Obviously they weren't ALL put into the bottomless pit, for many are serving Satan today.
D. God rained brimstone on the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, and then he sent the inhabitants to suffer eternal fire (Jude 7). Note: The concept of eternal punishment in Hell is also out of favor in our generation, but there is no doubt that Jesus taught this doctrine (Matt. 25:41-46).

III. We need to be constantly reminded about spiritual truth.
A. The Bible tells us this over and over (2 Tim. 2:14; Titus 3:1).
B. We need to remind ourselves of the Great Commission. Why are we here?
C. We need to remind ourselves that we are still sinners, and we need to be humble about pointing out the faults of the brethren (the mote vs. the beam?)
D. We need to remind ourselves of blessings and answers to prayer.
E. We need to remind ourselves of God's Sovereignty. His will shall be done!

Conclusion: Jude says, "Watch out for the false teachers. They will come, and lead you astray, and you will fall away from the faith." May the Lord help us all to be faithful to Him until He returns.