3 Beloved, I decided that I must write you about our common salvation, feeling it necessary to appeal to you that you contend earnestly for the faith which was handed down to you from the saints. 4 Certain men have crept unnoticed into your midst. Their condemnation is certain because they have turned the grace of our God into licentiousness, and denied our only LORD and Master, Jesus Christ.

COMMENT: How can we deny Christ? Say that He is not fully God. Say that He did not always exist. By not letting Him change us.

5 I want to remind you that even though the LORD saved the people out of Egypt, He later destroyed them for not believing. 6 And the angels who sinned against God and abandoned their first estate, He has reserved in everlasting bonds under darkness until the great Day of Judgment.

COMMENT: Everlasting mean until judgment, and not forever. Judgment here is executive in nature. There will be a payment for choices that were made by the fallen angels. And so it will be for those of us who do not choose to trust in Christ's sacrifice in behalf of fallen man. Why wasn't this same grace offered to the fallen angels? We do not know that it wasn't. A merciful God surely offered them reinstatement if they repented. But Satan, who had gone too far in his rebellion convinced the other angels that they could not be forgiven. And for the angels in rebellion there came a time when the opportunity for repentance past them by. So it will be for mankind. Grace will not be extended forever.

7 Sodom and Gomorrah, and the cities around them, are examples of eternal punishment by fire to those who indulged in gross immorality and go after strange flesh.

COMMENT: The strange flesh mention was the unholy lustful activities that defaced the image of God in mankind. And the fire is not still burning. It burned until there was nothing more to burn. That is a form of eternity.

Jeremiah 23:14 "And among the prophets of Jerusalem I have seen a terrible thing. They commit adultery and walk in falsehood. They strengthen the hands of evildoers, so that no one has turned back from his wickedness. All of them have become to Me like Sodom and Gomorrah."

2 Peter 2:6 Sodom and Gomorrah, and the cities around them, are examples of eternal punishment by fire to those who indulged in gross immorality and go after strange flesh.

Genesis 19:24 Then the LORD rained fire and brimstone out of heaven on Sodom and Gomorrah,

8 In the same way, these men left the purpose for which God created them, rejecting His authority and speaking evil of heavenly beings. 9 And when Michael the archangel contended with the devil over the body of Moses, He did not speak against him but said, the LORD rebuke you.

COMMENT: Jesus did not Himself rebuke Satan, but referred him to Hid Father.

10 The men of Sodom and Gomorrah reviled the things they did not understand. They preferred to follow their instinct like unreasoning animals and this way of thinking destroyed them. 11 Woe to them! For they have gone the way of Cain. Like Balaam they make their choices for the sake of gain and perish in the rebellion of Korah.

COMMENT: All three of these men rebelled against God's revealed will.

12 Having no fear of God, these men are hidden reefs when they feast with you. They care only for themselves and they are clouds without rain, carried along by the winds. They are like trees without fruit, twice dead and uprooted. 13 As the waves of the sea, they cast up their own shame like foam on the shore. They are wandering stars and for them the black darkness has been reserved forever.

COMMENT: They will be totally separated from God's presence forever. Since all life depends on God for continued existence, they will cease to exist. There will come an end to sin and sinners.

14 It was of such men that Enoch, in the seventh generation from Adam, prophesied saying, "Behold, the LORD comes with ten thousand of His saints," 15 "to execute judgment upon all, and convict the ungodly of their evil deeds and of the ungodly things they have said against God." 16 We are talking about those who grumble, find fault, follow after their own lusts, speak arrogantly, and flatter for the sake of gain.

17 But you, beloved, should remember the words spoken to you by the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ, 18 when they said to you, "In the end time there will be mockers who follow their own lusts." 19 They will cause divisions, be worldly minded, and be devoid of the Spirit. 20 But you, beloved, are building yourselves up by your holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit, 21 keeping yourself in the love of God, and looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life. 22 Some need compassion when they doubt. 23 And some will save others, snatching them from the fire, while hating the sins of the flesh that have polluted them.

COMMENT: We must hate the sin while loving the sinner.

24 Now to Him who is able to keep you from falling, to present you faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy, 25 to the only wise God, our Savior, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and forever. Amen.

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