Jude: Hey Christian, Remember the Wilderness, Fallen Angels, and Sodom!

I want you guys to look at this question on the screen. I found it provoking, but it's why does one assume that abundant life exists beyond the boundaries that God has drawn? Why does one assume happiness, joy, abundant life exists beyond the boundaries that God has drawn? Christianity has the stigma about it that God is a prud, fuddy dud, constantly barking. No, and thou shalt not. But that is a bad reading of God. Rarely is it this thing is bad. Instead scripture pushes this good thing belongs here. So the sin isn't sex, the sin isn't power, the sin isn't wealth, it's those elements outside the place that God has designed. So for example, fire in a fireplace, delightful, fire in your kitchen, deadly. The problem isn't the fire. Rather it left its proper place. Why does one assume that abundant life exists outside the boundaries that God has drawn? The lie is that biblical life or a faithful biblical life is mundane, it's meddling, it's mediocre that his commands are the slow death of joy, limiting you rather than liberating you. And only outside of those divinely drawn circles true happiness can be found. And if that's true, I just want to think about that for a second if we can and just ask why. What might make somebody think this way or feel this way that happiness is beyond what God would have for us? Why would somebody feel this way? Well, Dostoevsky, the prized Russian author in his prison memoir notes from a dead house, explains how a serial killer becomes a serial killer and that he says the feeling of killing is this. As if having leaped over a line that was sacred to him, he begins to admire the fact that nothing is holy for him anymore. As if he feels an urge to leap over all the gality and authority at once. To revel in the most boundless and unbridled freedom, to revel in the thrill of horror. So in other words, to cross God's sacred lines means what? What the Bible called transgression, what does that mean? We feel like God's. Oh God said no, I can go past. I am a God. The serial killer feels exhilaration because he has drawn his own divine lines. But for him our mirages of something that is boundless and unbridled. Every cross to boundary whispers, I know better than my creator. To feel like God's creators of our own meaning. And so again, transgression, as we see in Scripture, promises kingship which it only produces bondage. So this is why all of that, take that with you. We're going to carry that with us. Take that with you. This is why Jude feels so urgent. These people that Jude is writing to didn't simply struggle. They normalized what put Jesus on the cross. They celebrated what put Jesus on the cross. They made transgression a virtue. Now all of that stuff, the boundary crossing, that's good. It's glory. So Jude, our author, is the brother of Jesus Christ. If you're just here for the first time, you haven't been with us in Jude. I want you to feel as if Jude feels like an older brother who comes back from war. He gets on one knee. He looks you in the eye and he tells you to be strong. Stay strong. The tone of Jude is an older brother who leavenly warns us what happens if we cross sacred lines. No, no, no, don't do that. I've been there. I've seen it. I've heard about it. Don't go there. I've been in that war. Remember, Jude is writing a letter that he believed was necessary. If you were here last week, Jude says this is necessary. So there is something in the short, neglected book that we should tell our hearts right now. Whatever Jude is going to say to us today, I love for you and the quietness of your own heart to go, this is necessary for me. This is necessary. The Bible says so. So today should feel like we're like I said officially starting Jude. The last two weeks have been appetizers of his intro, his purpose. Today is going to be beef. Today is heavy beef. He just goes from zero to a hundred thousand miles per hour. And today is going to be spicy, chewy, salty, spiritual protein. Everybody with it, I hope you're ready for this. If you weren't here last week, Jude tells us to agonize for what we're about to go over. He says, "Contend that your belief and your behavior are biblical aligned." He said, "Contend and exert every intense effort you have." Why? Because there are people in your midst, he says, who are teaching and flaunting and practicing that God's grace has given them license to cross sacred lines. All the way to those individuals that Jude is talking about are singing worship songs. They're in discipleship groups. They bring in Shalada's to neighborhood dinners. They're setting up coffee. These are the people he's talking about. They declare every doctrine of scripture and then Jude comes along and goes, "Those dudes ungodly, they're ungodly. Why? They're doing all the stuff. They're saying all the right stuff because they start denying Jesus practically." So they're saying holy things but living unholy ways with God's approval they declare. So here's the haunting part. I want us to get this. Jude says they have gone unnoticed, which means what? In their church, their audience, that could be their friends, their mentors, their small group leaders, their favorite Christian author, whatever. So how does Jude solve this problem? There are snakes in your midst. How does Jude solve this problem for them and for us? Well, he doesn't mention any of their names if you look at the Bible like Paul does. Actually, he lays out three intents, biblical examples of characteristics and verdicts. I'm going to tell you three stories, he says. I'm going to point out three things. It's real simple today. Three stories, three verses, three verdicts which cover every created being ever. Israel, angels, and everybody else. That's where these three stories cover. And if you want to nerd out before we get into there, I want you to pay attention to how Jude uses what's called triplets. He has already called, loved, kept. He's done that already and he will continue to use triads. So if people like to talk about the textual hermeneutics of things, Jude uses triplets. Why? Why does Jude always make a point in threes? Well first it's a very Hebrew thing to do, but it's also what? A very convincing thing to do. Jude does not rest any of his strong cases on one witness. That'd be far too easy to refute. Jude calls three witnesses to the stand again and again and again. All testifying to the same verdict. So then by the time the third witness gets up there and says their thing, the case has been one. They go, oh, I get it. You've made your point. So therefore if Jude is a lawyer of sorts, what is his opening statement before he brings up all his witnesses today, what's his opening statement? Verse five. Now I want to remind you, just picture kind of as like a court case, it's more exciting, like a Perry Mason type thing. Picture it in any way, no, is that exciting? Anybody? All right, whatever. Now I want to remind you, although you came to know all these things once and for all. Our lawyer is not introducing something unknown. I want to remind you, jury. He is writing to remind them of something they must never forget. And if you understand a biblical call to remembrance, this is a call of the heart. This is a call of duty. And ultimately what he is trying to get us, what he is trying to get us to remember. What happens if you cross God's sacred lines? That's what he wants us to remember. Let me tell you what happens. And let me just say, if you've read ahead this week and I hope you do with our weekly Bible passage, you might and hopefully probably are thinking, oh dear, these verses, these examples are about to go off the rails. Yes. Put your seat belts on. Put it on. Verse 5, "I want to remind you, although you came to know all these things once and for all, that Jesus saved a people out of Egypt and later destroyed those who did not believe." Wait a minute. Jesus and the Exodus. Jesus shows up at Christmas. He shows up in Acts 3. Nope. Look at this. Do we not find this amazing? Jude keeps inserting Jesus where you would not expect. Jude knows that Jesus, the second person of the Trinity, is present throughout the entire Old Testament, from the very beginning, and that Jesus, the Savior, saved them out of Egypt. So he just throws this in there, but then notice what he does. Who is the first witness that Jude calls to the stand? I'd like to call on belief, and unbelief comes up there. Unbelief is sitting there. And then Jude references one of the most arresting stories of the entire Old Testament. You're probably familiar with the context of Exodus 14. Jesus rescues this people out of bondage, right? So Christian or not, you know this story. Let my people go. Crossing the Red Sea, Prince of Egypt, Abhakeness. Christian or not, you're familiar. But what people can forget that they would have known is from bondage, an Exodus 14, to the Promised Land, that group Israel found themselves in the wilderness. What happened in the wilderness? They waited. They walked, and they watched. What did they watch? Man of fall, a pillar of cloud and fire, Mount Sinai burst with thunder and glory. All of this leading to the Promised Land flowing with milk and honey. This was God's promise. This was God's plan. But then like a courtroom drama, right? You can feel Jude setting this all up. Because this sounds amazing. And so then, you know, he says, so unbelief, that's not the end of the story, is it? Objection leading the witness, overruled. Like, whatever happens, I don't know. I've never been in jail or court. Whatever. What is Jude the lawyer getting at with this recalling? Why is he telling us this? Because in the book of Numbers, the people of Israel arrive right at the edge of everything God had ever promised them. Just, they get right there. So they send out scouts to see what's going on in the land. We haven't been here yet. And they come back with a very bad report. Ten out of the twelve saying, yes, it's flowing with milk and honey. But the people are huge. They're stronger than us. And they say we shouldn't go in there. We shouldn't go in there. No entry. But two of the spies, Joshua and Caleb, have a different conclusion to the hard, scary, intimidating circumstances. They go, yeah, they're huge down there. Our God is bigger. We should take the land that God has promised. I would encourage you in your own time. Please read Numbers 14. And I want it to hopefully, and to stir your soul towards not allowing fear and Christianity to trump faith. It's powerful. It's a powerful reminder that God's promises are promises to believe in the face of threats. I'd be curious for anybody in our church before we move on. Is there a promise of God that you're finding lacking for your own life today? Is there a particular one that you go that one? That one's tough. Is it his promise of joy? Is it his promise of strength? Is it his promise of comfort? Is it his promise of love, forgiveness, or help? If you feel that within you, I don't trust God with this. My encouragement would be to figure out why that's there. Not enough of us figure out why that's there. Why that lack is there. Because if it is fear or unbelief, I want us to see what happens. The story and the numbers, democracy won as God's people believed the fearful majority and not the faithful minority. Burthing one of the greatest collapse in all the Old Testament. All because they didn't believe what. You know, God's not very trustworthy. God's not trustworthy. So take all of that. What is Jude the Lawyer trying to say to us? Trying to say to his audience, there are people in your church who present themselves as trusting God. Yet in reality, they are like Israel at the threshold of God's promises. But because of their unbelief, they pull back. That's what he's saying. That is in your community, he says. And what was their verdict, verse 5? "Deader destroyed those who did not believe." So their character is unbelief. Their verdict is destruction. They were not allowed to enter the promise and so they had to wander until the next generation of faith could go in. It is a perfect image of heaven and hell and the need to trust Christ, work for our lives. So church, what sacred line did they cross? Well, unbelief wasn't about intellectual certainty. It was a refusal of trusting obedience. It wasn't intellectual issues. Well, I don't understand the cosmic nature of theistic evolution. No, that's not what the issue was. They did not have trusting obedience. So they crossed the sacred line from faith into autonomy. Hey God, you no longer get final authority over our life. My fear does. Is anybody here today? My fear has final authority over this. My comfort has final authority over my decisions. And what's the resulting in destruction? They were destroyed to which every Christian here or non-Christian should go, "What?" Wait, what in the world are you talking about? They have a moment of doubt and God will just let them or us rot in decisions and waste away. Casey, you're wrong. Your theology is wrong. There is no way that I can fall away from the living God, to which I would look at all of you and say, "Who told you that?" Who told you that? The very fact that Jude warns a church about the dangers of unbelief tells us what. There is something here we dare not ignore. If there is a danger, that means there's no danger that would be no warning. So I want us to look at Hebrews 3 real quick. And I want you, anybody here to see if this applies to your hearts and minds at all. Hebrews 3. Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God. Exort one another every day, as long as it's called today, that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. For we have come to share in Christ, if, if indeed we hold our original confidence, firm to the end. Were they firm to the end? So if anybody here is like, "Oh, crap, here's the thing. It's not that the people of God never hear warnings. It's that God's people truly respond to them. We respond to warnings. Warnings should not harden anybody's heart. It should awaken our hearts to hear a warning. The true follower of Jesus doesn't hear God's warnings from Jude and go, "Eh, eh, eh, they don't shrug. Here she hears, receives, repents, and runs as fast as they can back to the Father's arms. If moments of doubt meant destruction, then Abraham, Moses, David, Elijah, the disciples, Jesus, his cousin, all would be doomed." So what kind of unbelief is Jude talking about? Well, Israel didn't perish because they occasionally asked, "Well, God come through." They perish because they never settled that question in their hearts. Friends, there is a great need for us to exterminate any infestation that might enter our hearts. Why? Because there are answers. There is help. And there is power and intercessory prayer. So we cannot tolerate or entertain the rats of doubt. We cannot. We have to kill them with truth. I have so many heartbreaking conversations with people who get to the point of absolute radical unbelief and it started with them not actually seeking to exterminate the rats of doubt early on, early on, early on. They didn't entertain any answers, thoughts, or help. There is an eternal difference in someone saying, "Lord, I believe, help my unbelief." And somebody who says, "God, you are not trustworthy." One is struggling and the other is settled, so I don't know, but I'm curious where you might be at today with that. Firm faith is not merely informed. It is living and contending and persevering, and that was not Israel. So again, this is a gift for all. I want us to see this right now as a gift. I don't know if I say this. This is a gift for anybody who thinks that an initial sinner's prayer, that alone, secures future destiny without an ongoing, loving, obedient faith. Take the warning. So before I move. I do want to talk to those in this room who continually come up to the edge of truth. And you've seen it and you understand it. And you've watched people's lives be changed by truth. And you've come close enough to taste it. And you may even like this church and like Jesus. But you have never fully entrusted your heart to Christ. Be warned. This is the warning. Please do not confuse familiarity with faith. So just come. Not tomorrow. Not when you feel like your life is all figured out. Come today. Because every day somebody in here continues to postpone, your life will continue to grow more and more comfortable living without surrender. OK. Verse six. And before we read this, perka, perka, here we go. This is weird. This is hard. This is controversial. This is heavy. This is cosmic. This is supernatural. Every one of Jude's examples is going to get heavier and hotter. Buckle up. Verse six, we call the next witness to the stand. Who is it? Verse six. And the angels who did not keep their position, but abandoned their proper dwelling, he has kept. That's Jude making a pun. Jude is making a joke. They didn't keep our air. So God kept him. This is a joke. In eternal chains, in deep darkness for the judgment on that great day. Who is the next witness? Rebellion. Rebellion. Welcome to Crazy Town, USA. This is it. Jude explains rebellion, but by looking at angels who apparently fell by pursuing relationships with human women. Surely, Casey, this is not in the Bible, angels, fallen angels having sex with beautiful women of earth. This can't be in the Bible. Genesis six, here we go. When mankind began to multiply in the earth and the daughters were born to them, the sons of God, who are the rebellious angels, saw that the daughters of mankind were beautiful. And they took any as they chose as wives for themselves. Whenever angels appear to humans from old testament to New Testament, they almost always appear in human form and almost always pretty much just as male. So they decided, in the book of Genesis, to hop on bumble, meet some ladies, and end doing-- thank you, Vic. And in doing so, they had children which produced the most beastly beings who would help usher in the height of human rebellion, which launched the flood. OK, so Casey, make Jude make sense. God assigned angels, responsibilities, and regions. Those angels cross sacred lines of authority and the decided, now I'm going to help myself. Now I know you want me to in this area and doing this thing. I'm going to do what I want over here, however I want. So their character was rebellion. Their verdict was, "Chains of judgment," it says. Now I don't think we need to actually think of literal chains in a dungeon. I think it's completely appropriate for us to understand Jude's writing as a spiritual state of darkness, which they cannot escape. But I just need to say this. I am not immune to the craziness of all of this just because I'm a pastor. Admittedly, the story and Exodus and this idea of Nephilim, this stretches our minds. These are supernatural beings who exist beyond the ordinary course of nature. We barely have a category for angels, let alone mud-blooded angel babies. We don't even have a category for it. Thus, it would be easy for all of this, especially if you're visiting today, welcome to collective church. It would be easy for all of us to get lost in this. So if you're saying, I don't understand Casey how any of this works, uh-huh? Welcome to the club. Neither do I. Nobody does. I mean, what are you talking about? So I know this raises all kinds of questions about Nephilim and demonic realities, the unseed realm. But here's what's interesting. Jude doesn't answer our curiosity. He assumes the reader believes this. He knows his audience gets this easily. So he isn't trying to satisfy our fascination. What is he trying to do? He's trying to awaken our conscience. He's trying to awaken us. So what's the pastor we'll call? Well, church, we have to resist the temptation to dismiss passages like this, because they don't neatly fit into our modern worldview. We live in an age that assumes the only reality is the one that we can see or explain. But scripture insists there is a spiritual world that's just as real as a physical one. So as strangers, this might be to any of us. Jude treats us as our Christian history. Locked in? Cool? Anybody care? Anybody care? Whatever. OK, so here's the thing. Don't-- again, I want to hammer this home. Don't miss Jude's point. It's not fallen angels. It has absolutely fallen hearts. It's rebellious hearts. The same primal impulse that led angels to abandon the place that God assigned them is alive in every human heart here. You think, oh, God wants me here? I'm going to be over here. Even angels do. It's true for all of us. Just think about this. This is so true for us. Christians, we are so suspicious of God with our life. We're so suspicious of Him. Are you really going to do this? You're going to back me up in this? My heart quietly-- I know. And I'm speaking for me. My heart can quietly believe that the life that God has assigned me isn't enough. I told you, one of my greatest sins is comparison. Somehow, beyond his boundaries, is a better life waiting for you or I. Just beyond obedience, just beyond the church, beyond surrender is a better life, these fallen angels thought we can easily think. And guess what? Lies, lies, lies. Is it too much to say that this idea might be one of our greatest snares, Angelinos, people here? God, the life I need is over there. So we reach, reach, reach as rebellious people, not children. And so I just want to encourage Christians. We need a much sweeter view of God as a father to the life that He's giving you. So let me just say this. The marriage He's giving you, the singleness you may be in, the gifts He's entrusted to you, the limitations you may have, the timing He's chosen for you is not second best. It's not so many people here think, this is the cards I've been dealt. This is a story in the middle of writing. Look at this work on James. James won. Don't be deceived. My goodness. James, Jude's brother is saying don't be deceived brothers and sisters. Every good thing you have, every perfect thing, it's from God. So what is He telling us? James is telling us there is a temptation for you or I to view God as holding out on us, not giving you what's best. He's withholding something from you. We're suspicious. James says, if you believe that, you're being deceived. Don't be deceived. And so for the angels, all this led to judgment. And that will lead to our own judgment as well. But I want us to be honest, angels, hooking up with women is just as hard to mentally grasp as the judgment of God. New Testament scholar Don Carson reminds us the first doctrine to be denied according to the Bible is the doctrine of judgment. Meaning what? The serpent said to Eve in the garden, you will surely not die. You're not going to die. There is no judgment for your rebellion. Satan is brilliant because he knows if he can get rid of the doctrine of God's beautiful and righteous and holy judgment, then rebellion has no consequences. You and I are free to do anything we want. Be a God, for example. But Jude won't let us throw it out. Our culture is trying to throw a God's judgment. Jude is like pulling that thing out of the cultural dumpster. He washes it, he buffs it up, and he gives it back to Christians. And he says, do not forget this. What is Jude says? What? Remember. So these warnings about God's judgment are meant to what? To protect us from God's judgment. All right, now the final witness is called to the stand. Verse 7. Likewise. Likewise. Why is he saying likewise? He's connecting the sin, the rebellion, from verse two. Number 6, number 7. He's connecting him. Likewise, Sodom Gamor and the surrounding towns committed sexual immorality and perversions and serve as an example by undergoing the punishment of eternal fire. Will you pray with me? I knew that joke wasn't going to go over, but I tried it anyway. I tried it. Because who wants to preach on this? I get up here. Who is the final witness? Sexual immorality. Sexual immorality. Unbelief, rebellion and sexual immorality are the character traits of the false teachers in Jude's audience or church. This is so specific that when this letter would have been sent shockwaves through the entire church, they would have been like, "Oh, this is not a guest. This is not random. They know what's going on." So the context is Genesis 19, where God said it's too angels to Sodom Gamor, to rescue a man named Lot and destroy the city because of their sin. Genesis 13 tells us that those at Sodom were great sinners, which means they had a heightened sense of rebellion against God. This is a "bove" average wickedness. We're going to read a handful of verses because context is so important and because this is easily the craziest story in the Old Testament, maybe one of them, top, and looking for Isaac's approval. It's got to be one of the top. So we're going to read it all of its context. It's that important. Verse 1 of chapter 19, "The two angels came to Sodom in the evening and was sitting at the gate of Sodom. When Lot saw them, he rose to meet them and he bowed himself with his face to the earth." And said, "My Lord, please turn aside to your servant's house and spend the night. Wash your feet and then may rise up early and go on your way." The angel said, "No. We'll spend the night in the town square." Lot knows how evil this town is. He's trying to get them to come to his house. But he pressed them, verse 3, "Strongly." So they turned aside him and entered his house and he made him a feast and baked on 11 bread and they ate. And they sat before they lay down the men of the city, the men of Sodom, both young and old. All the people to the last man surrounded the house and they called to Lot. Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us so that we may know them so that we can have sex with them. Verse 6, "Lot went out to the men at the entrance and shutting the door." So Lot does one of those things where it's like, "Hey." He shuts the door behind him. What's going on? And said, "And get this. Look at this. Look at Lot's heart here. I bake of you, my brothers. Do not act so wickedly." He knows their wickedness and he knows the power of the two on the other side of the door. Behold, I have two daughters who have not known any man, virgins. Let me bring them out to you and do to them as you please. The father of the year goes to? Crazy. Only do nothing to these men. They have come under my, my under my, the shelter of my roof. Verse 9, "But they said, 'Stand back.'" And they said, "This fellow came to Sojourn and he has become the judge. Now we will deal worse with you than with them." Then they pressed hard against the man-law and drew near to break down the door. But the men, this being the angels, reached out their hands. They reached around the door. They brought Lot back in with them and shut the door. And then they struck them with the blindness, verse 11. And the men who were at the entrance of the house, both small and great children, both small and great. So they wore themselves out, groping for the door. Even in blindness, they were still trying to sexually assault these two men who walked into Lot's house. This is a lot. Now I know what I'm about to go over. I know what I'm about to go over will be, will be hard to hear and just as hard to understand. So I offer myself to anybody here, time after our service or a burrito or a coffee throughout the week to go as deep and talk blue in the face as much as you want. I'm telling you, five, five hour long sermons could not exhaust this. But I also want to encourage you to look, everything up on your own. I'm going to ask our church to be students of the Bible and continually and always fact, check everything that I've ever said from this stage always. Just don't take my word for it. Always fact, check everything I'm saying. I remember one time we had a visitor come in one time and she had chat, GPT open as I was preaching right here and she would check every once in a while to see if it was true. You can do that. I don't care. You should be doing that. Here's the thing. I know that the very mention of Sodom invites controversy. Just the very mention of Sodom and Gomorrah because the observable sins as seen in Genesis 19 as we just went over include an attempted gang raid, unnatural lust and homosexuality. And Gomorrah is the most famous biblical narrative regarding homosexuality. But because it's filled with so much gunpowder and full of such backlash, I can't even explain the sacred line that they crossed until we understand Jude's language. If you don't understand Jude's contribution to this discussion, Jude actually adds a little bit of confusion overall to the whole thing. Think of verse 7, committed sexual morality and perversions. Do you have that verse? Yes, perversions. The Greek per perversions as you see right here means other or strange flesh. So here's the confusion. Is that a reference to having sex with angels as we just read about or same sex activity? Which exactly is Jude trying to talk about? We have to understand. Well there are so much Greek work in this and Jewish traditions, even historians, great historians like Josephus and Philo speak into this. But here's what you'll find if you have good commentaries and a proper Greek scholarship speaking into this. A simple reading of the text of Genesis 19 and understanding Jude leans towards this not about being relationships with angels. For example, if pursuing unnatural flesh made a reference to angels, how do we make sense to the beginning of the verse 7, which includes Sodom, Gomorrah and the surrounding cities of this sin? They didn't even know the angels were there. What about how about the same with the men of Sodom, which didn't even know the angels, or didn't even know the men were angels? They had no idea. They're just asking for them. Give them to us. So here's the thing, wherever and whichever interpretation you adopt for yourself, Jude's point still lands. Sexual immorality, and I want us to know this, circling your Bibles. That word that he uses for sexual immorality is the only word like that in all of the New Testament. It is the most intense sexual immorality that somebody can describe in the Bible. The most intense. This is not a normal word. So sexual morality, whatever your point is, wherever you're going to land in the interpretation of Jude, sexual morality is what? Any sexual behavior outside of God's design for marriage between a man and a woman. That is what he is saying is sexually immoral. Anything which is willingly going beyond those sacred lines invites God's disapproval. So whatever Jude's audience was doing, they did not merely experience disordered desires. We all have those. I have those. What they were doing was actively pursuing those disordered desires, proclaiming in Christ these are good. This wasn't, hey, we're dealing with temptations or fighting. This was, do whatever you want with your passions, with your body, with your lust, because this God is love. Lust had no restraints in their church and it was all under the banner of God's approval. So this is where, as we see, if you remember, as we saw last week, the temptation of that the church must change or die to its outdated biblical sexual ethic. This is what we talked about last week. The church must change its biblical sexual ethic or die. I'm just going to say this. This will not be the case for collective church. We will not change our sexual ethic. We will not heed to cultural pressures more than biblical faithfulness. We will shut our church down before that ever happens. This has always been our way. We've talked about this from day one and we will talk about this until we die. We have not changed any of it in almost 11 years of being a church. So we're not going to change our biblical sexual ethic. While still hoping and desiring to be a shelter, a family and a lighthouse for those who have same sex attraction, but desire to be faithful to God's sacred, drawn lines. The gospel invitation is not alienation or affirmation. It's, "Hey, everyone, come and die." The gospel invitation is the love of God has more power than anyone's unnatural desires. And so as C.S. Lewis said in mere Christianity, "Sexual ethics are not the center of the Christian message. Jesus is." This is collective church. And if anybody is thinking, "Come on, goodness, Casey, collective, you're so prehistoric. You're so prehistoric. If you would just listen to the words of Jesus, your entire world would change." Okay? Let's listen to the words of Jesus, Matthew 11. And you, Comperniam, will you be exalted to heaven? No, you will go down to 80s. For if the miracles that were done and you had been and done in Sodom, it would have remained until today. And I tell you, it would be more tolerable for the land of Sodom on the day of judgment than for you. Then for you. Sodom was destroyed. Their super, their character trait was a sexual morality and their condemnation was the punishment of fire. But what does Jesus say? "Dude, they would have been around. They would have been here. Sodom would be here if they saw what you saw, Comperniam." So what is Jesus saying? Well, he's not excusing Sodom. He knows Sodom deserved judgment. Instead he's saying something even more shocking. Comperniam is in greater danger. Why? Well, Sodom had, general revelation, had the witness of law. What does Comperniam have? Jesus. Living there. This is where Jesus paid rent. Just, you know, Comperniam. This is where he paid rent. This is where he was living. This is where he preached. This is his miracles. This is his presence. The kingdom breaking in and yet the entire city felt unmoved by it. Nothing. Jesus is showcasing a much heavier rebellion than sexual morality, violence or perversions. Jesus is saying that deeper sin is seeing him, acknowledging him, liking him, but never loving him, giving our orientations over to him, our fears over to him, our doubts over to him. Church, I beg of you. I beg of you. I beg of Los Angeles. Please do not let your desires and preferences blind you to the beauty and worthiness of Jesus Christ. The absolute worthiness of him. That every word he says is worthiness to us to come and die too. And so I know I can probably be pissing people off fine, but here's what I'm going to say. Jesus Christ of response at least, Jude is writing all of us to get a response from us. He wants his audience to respond before it's too late. This is a warning. And all warnings require response. Faith requires response. Change requires response. Transgression requires response. Conviction requires a response. And the temptation would be for all of us to hear everything we just went over and go, "Ah, dear, I'm chill with unbelief. Ah, dude, I don't want to have sex with angels. I'm chill with the unbelief. I'm not doing that. Oh, dude, no. I'm actually around fine. Tacos for lunch. That's Jude's fear. If we do that, so my goodness, my pastoral hope is we don't leave here today thinking about somebody else's rebellion. I hope them over there really heard that part about this and that. Jude doesn't write so that you and I will become experts on angel stuff. He's writing because he believes the Holy Spirit is confronting the church to contend for holy hearts. Jude is trying to get us to contend for faithfulness. When fear desires us and pulls us back, continue, persevere. Stay firm to the end is what Jude's saying. And it starts in this room. Jude was writing to what? A church. A church. He's expecting a response. Every sermon, scripture, conviction, every prompting of the Holy Spirit is moving us towards thinking that life is actually sweeter and better and more pure within those sacred lines. I love what the great G.K. Chesterton said. He goes, "The more I considered Christianity, the more I found that while I had established a rule and order, sacred lines, the chief aim of that was to give room for good things to run wild." What does that mean? The ways and words and truth of God are not an enemy to your life, as much as they may feel like one. The enemy has convinced our generation that freedom means living without limits. Guess what? The freest person in the entire world was Jesus. And nobody had greater joy or purpose or freedom. And one who absolutely, perfectly delighted in the will of the Father. So how will you respond today? Do you delight in God's truth whether or not you understand them or they're hard to hear or believe them? So let's ask the Holy Spirit, "Where am I resisting you today?" Let's ask the Holy Spirit, "What boundaries have I crossed that you've drawn?" Let's ask the Holy Spirit, "Where have I quietly decided, you know what, over here, my way is better than yours. I like the heaven stuff. I like the church singing stuff. I don't like the stuff on sexuality." Jude is calling the church to trust that God's promise is greater than your fears. God's boundaries are greater than our desires. God's design is greater than our alternatives. God's authority is not our enemy. The tragedy of Capernaum wasn't that they hated Jesus. That they just became familiar with Him. Familiar. Familiar was a life He offered. So please don't let familiarity become a substitute for faith. I beg of you, collective church, please don't tolerate that, which in your life and heart crosses sacred lines thinking. It's fine. He's grace-filled. It's fine. Would you stand with me?