“The Prediction Concerning The Apostates” (Jude 4b)

 

EVENING SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 7/16/2025 7:02 PM

 

My Worship Time                                          Focus: “The Prediction Concerning The Apostates”

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                                Reference:  Jude 4b

 

            Message of the verse:  “those who long beforehand marked out for this condemnation,”

 

            I mentioned in my morning SD that John MacArthur passed away a couple of days ago, and also a dear friend of mine also passed away on the same day, and so it brought sorrow upon sorrow to me, but the good news is that both are now in heaven with their Lord.  I have been praying for the families of both of them in the evening.

 

            Now in this SD we want to look at what will eventually happen to these apostates, for as we look at Jude and what he has to say about the apostates this surely is not the first time that apostates have invaded the places of true worship, but it seems to me that it did take some time for them to begin in the church age as I believe that God gave the church great mercy when it began, and not when Jude writes it is a fairly long time since the church began, and so the apostates have invaded the church, and they are still here even today in churches, so keep an eye out for them.

 

            MacArthur writes “From the earliest times of redemptive history, God has promised to judge apostates with the upmost severity.  The perfect tense of the participle progegrammenoi (beforehand marked out) suggests that long ago God pronounced damnation against all apostates.  They are sons wrath whom He has ordained for this prophesied condemnation.  Jude would also refer to their condemnation in verses 14-15 of this letter,

 

 14 It was also about these men that Enoch, in the seventh generation from Adam, prophesied, saying, "Behold, the Lord came with many thousands of His holy ones, 15 to execute judgment upon all, and to convict all the ungodly of all their ungodly deeds which they have done in an ungodly way, and of all the harsh things which ungodly sinners have spoken against Him.’”

 

            Now we want to move to the Old Testament where prophets also made many predictions concerning the judgment of apostates, and here is a series of verses (Isa. 8:20-22; Jer. 5:13-14; 8:12-13; Hos. 9:7-9; Zeph. 3:1-8).  Now we will look at what the Apostle Peter has to say about this subject.

 

“3 And in their greed they will exploit you with false words; their judgment from long ago is not idle, and their destruction is not asleep. 4 For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to pits of darkness, reserved for judgment; 5  and did not spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah, a preacher of righteousness, with seven others, when He brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly; 6 and if He condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to destruction by reducing them to ashes, having made them an example to those who would live ungodly lives thereafter.”

 

            Now Lord willing in the future when we look at chapter six of this commentary that we are looking at “the verdict against these apostates was pronounced long ago, meaning that their inevitable, final judgment is unalterable” (MacArthur’s commentary).

 

7/16/2025 7:25 PM