And the angels who did not stay within their own domain but abandoned their proper dwelling—these He has kept in eternal chains under darkness, bound for judgment on that great day.Angels who didn’t keep their first domain, but deserted their own dwelling place, he has kept in everlasting bonds under darkness for the judgment of the great day.And the angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, he hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day.And angels that kept not their own principality, but left their proper habitation, he hath kept in everlasting bonds under darkness unto the judgment of the great day.
3 sermons cite this verse
I told you there could be five sermons in here. There is a lot going on. Some of it is strange and confusing. It's enough to make you want to scream out, hey Jude! Okay, there's the obligatory, got that out of the way, no more Jude Bellingham, St. Jude's Children's Hospital, Jude Law, Jude the Obscure, no more Jude. Scholars recognize that Jude is an excellent writer. There's lots of illusions. You saw them. Some of them you probably knew, others you weren't sure what was going on. There's lots of examples piled up on top of each other, and there's lots of items. It's full of examples, three of this, four of that, five descriptive phrases, three different groups, four different attributes. The best way to explain the whole book is to simply try to explain it paragraph by paragraph and summarize at the end with this big picture idea, keep. So, you are kept, that's the very beginning. God is able to keep you, that's the end. And most of the letter there in the middle is to say, here's what you need to do to keep yourselves in the love of God. …
I. Without any further preface I am going to give you several illustrations of the Truth of our text, beginning with those we find in the Chapter itself. Paul has been writing concerning the principle of representation—THE FEDERAL HEADSHIP, FIRST OF ADAM AND THEN OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST. He has been telling us about our fall in the first man and our salvation in the second Man, the Lord from Heaven. He has been describing our ruin under our first federal head and our Redemption by our second Covenant Head, the Lord Jesus Christ—and in both cases, our text is clearly illustrated. It does seem at first sight as if the setting up of Adam as the representative man had been the means of making sin to abound because as soon as sin overcame Adam, it overcame the whole race of mankind! It appears as if it would have been better to have put every man on probation on his own account and to have let him stand or fall according to his own good or ill behavior. It seems as if it must have been a comparatively easy victory for sin to overthrow the whole race by a single blow. Certainly, sin did gain a great victory in the Garden of Eden and therein it abounded. But Paul shows that it was by this very principle of representation that "Grace did much more abound," for it is through the death of One, even Jesus Christ, our Lord, that all Believers live! It is the righteousness of this One that a multitude whom no man can number shall attain unto everlasting life! …
Departed spirits of wicked men are doubtless carried to some particular place in the universe, which God has prepared to be the receptacle of his wicked, rebellions, and miserable subjects; a place where God’s avenging justice shall be glorified; a place built to be the prison, where devils and wicked men are reserved till the day of judgment. 2. Here the souls of wicked men shall suffer extreme and amazing misery in a separate state, until the resurrection. This misery is not indeed their full punishment; nor is the happiness of the saints before the day of judgment their full happiness. It is with the souls of wicked men as it is with devils. Though the devils suffer extreme torment now, yet they do not suffer their complete punishment; and therefore it is said, that they are cast down to hell, and bound in chains. 2 Pet. ii. 4. “God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell, and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment.” Jude 6. “And the angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, he hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness, unto the judgment of the great day.” They are reserved in the state they are in; and for what are they reserved, but for a greater degree of punishment? and therefore they are said to tremble for fear. James ii. 19. “Thou believest that there is one God; thou doest well: the devils also believe and tremble.” Hence when Christ was on earth, the devils were greatly afraid that Christ was come to torment them. Matt. viii. 29. “And, behold, they cried out, saving, What hare we to do with thee, Jesus, thou Son of God? Art thou come hither to torment us before the time?” Mark v. 7. “And cried with a loud voice, and said, What have I to do with thee, Jesus, thou Son of the most high God? I adjure thee by God, that thou torment me not.” …