[Jude 1:14] And Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, saying, Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his saints,
And Enoch also, the seventh from Adam - The seventh in the direct line of descent from Adam. The line of descent is Adam, Seth, Enos, Cainan, Mahaleel, Jared, and Enoch. Genesis 5:22, 24
There is apocryphal writing called "the Book of Enoch," containing a prediction strongly resembling this. "Behold he comes with ten thousand including both angels and the spirits of just men made perfect, to execute judgment upon them, and destroy the wicked, and reprove all the carnal, for everything which the sinful and ungodly have done and committed against him," chapter 2.
When the writer alludes to ten thousands of His saints, he is saying a countless, an innumerable host. Myriad originally meant ten thousand, but the writer made this an unknown plural of ten thousands. They will come with the L-rd to execute judgment.
[15] To execute judgment upon all, and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed, and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him.
To execute judgment upon all - That is, he shall come to judge all the dwellers upon the earth, good and bad.
The word convince we now use commonly in a somewhat limited sense, as meaning to satisfy a man's own mind either of the truth of some proposal, or of the fact that he has done wrong, as being in this latter sense synonymous with the word convict. This conviction is commonly produced by argument or truth, and is not necessarily followed by any sentence of disapprobation, or by any judicial condemnation. But this is clearly not the sense in which the word is used here. The purpose of the coming of the L-rd will not be to convince men in that sense, though it is undoubtedly true that the wicked will see that their lives have been wrong; but it will be to pronounce a sentence on them as the result of the evidence of their guilt. The Greek word which is here used occurs nowhere else in the New Testament.
All that are ungodly among them - All which are not pious; all that have no religion.
Of all their ungodly deeds - Of their wicked actions and words, this is the common doctrine of the Bible, that all the wicked actions and words of men will be called into judgment.
Quoted from an ancient prophecy, we may remark:
1. That the style bears the marks of its being a quotation, or of its being preserved by Jude in the language in which it had been handed down by tradition. It is not the style of Jude. It is not so terse, pointed, and energetic.
2. It has every probable mark of its having been actually delivered by Enoch. The age in which he lived was corrupt. The world was ripening for the deluge. He was himself a good man, and, as would seem perhaps, almost the only good man of his generation. Nothing would be more natural than that he should be reproached by hard words and speeches, and nothing more natural than that he should have pointed the men of his own age to the future judgment.
3. The doctrine of the final judgment, if this was uttered by Enoch, was an early doctrine in the world. It was held even in the first generations of the race. It was one of those great truths early communicated to man to restrain him from sin, and to lead him to prepare for the great events which are to occur on the earth. The same doctrine has been transmitted from age to age, and is now one of the most important and the most affecting that refers to the final destiny of men.
4. It is certain that there was such a prophecy of ancient date, of long standing, and universally received in the Old-Testament church; and it is a main point of our New-Testament creed.
Who will stand in the court of the Captain of the Hosts of the Armies of the L-rd? He is coming to judge the ungodly. He will judge them according to all their ungodly deeds. The idea of judging each of their ungodly deeds certainly points to degrees of punishment. Four times in this one verse Jude uses the word ungodly. Ungodly men, ungodly sinners, ungodly deeds, and, as to the manner, ungodly committed. G-dly or ungodly signifies little with men now-a-days, unless it be to scoff at and deride even the very expressions; but it is not so in the language of the Holy Ghost. It certainly expresses the anger of the L-rd against these people that Jude has described in this epistle. Specifically, he is referring to those who have sinned against G-d by mistreating His Body.
Omissions, as well as commissions, must be accounted for in the Day of Judgment.
Hard speeches of one another, especially if ill-grounded, will most certainly come into account at the judgment of the great day. Let us all take care in time. If you smite fellow Believer and G-d fines a real saint bleeding, look you to it before it is too late, or you will answer for it. It may be too late to say before the angel that it was an error, Ecclesiastes 5:6.
Preaching is not designed to teach us something new in every sermon, somewhat that we knew nothing of before; but to put us in remembrance, to call to mind things forgotten, to affect our passions, and engage and fix our resolutions, that our lives may be answerable to our faith. Though you know these things, yet you still need to know them better. There are many things which we have known which yet we have unhappily forgotten. Is it of no use or service to be put afresh in remembrance of them?
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