Well, I appreciate the music tonight. It's ministered to my heart and I know to many of you as well. We are looking together in the little epistle to Jude, who is a half-brother of our Lord Jesus Christ. And we find in these few verses located just before the book of the Revelation in the New Testament some strong words dealing with false teachers. And Jude had wanted to write a more positive epistle dealing with salvation. But the present circumstances in that day forbade that.
The Spirit of God directed him rather to write to the issue confronting him and the believers in that day. The false teachers were abounding and so he writes to warn his brothers and sisters in the faith and to encourage them as well that these false teachers would one day pay the price for their false teaching.
We're going to begin reading in verse 3 where he says, Beloved, while I was making every effort to write you about our common salvation, I felt the necessity to write to you appealing that you contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints. For certain persons have crept in unnoticed, those who were long beforehand marked out for this condemnation, ungodly persons who turn the grace of our God into licentiousness and deny our only master and Lord Jesus Christ.
Now I desire to remind you, though you know all things once for all, that the Lord, after saving a people out of the land of Egypt, subsequently destroyed those who did not believe, and angels who did not keep their own domain but abandoned their proper abode, He has kept in eternal bonds under darkness for the judgment of the great day.
Just as Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities around them, since they in the same way as these indulged in gross immorality and went after strange flesh, are exhibited as an example in undergoing the punishment of eternal fire. We have covered this epistle up to that point, and one thing I want to follow up on from last week is found in the very last phrase of verse 7.
The way in which Jude pens this, again by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, suggests that these people who were judged at Sodom and Gomorrah are yet in the very present undergoing the punishment of eternal fire. The original language here is a strong word indicating that judgment in hell is not something that happens and then one is annihilated or destroyed, but rather that it is something that is eternal, it's ongoing.
We see this underscored again in the book of the Revelation when after the Lord Jesus Christ returns to the earth and conquers the armies of Antichrist, Antichrist and his religious leader termed the false prophet are cast into the lake of fire. And then a thousand years later Satan is cast into the lake of fire and it says where the Antichrist and the false prophet are indicating a thousand years later they are still there in the lake of fire suffering their judgment and so shall they forever.
But that is not something that we delight in talking about. I don't think there are any of us that get little thrills out of thinking of people suffering forever and ever in torment because of sin. But I simply mentioned that tonight because it is important for us to be reminded of the fact that hell is real and that those who choose to reject the Lord Jesus Christ or in the context of Jude to follow false teaching condemn themselves to eternal fire.
Now he goes on to say in verse 8 and this is where we'll pick up this evening, yet in the same manner these men, and again in verse 10 you notice that, but these men, Jude writes this in a contemptuous way. He is not following the advice of some and positive thinking as he writes this. He is very straightforward, he is contemptuous as he writes about these men who lead people astray and condemn their souls to hell.
He says, yet in the same manner these men also by dreaming defile the flesh and reject authority and revile angelic majesties. But Michael the archangel when he disputed with the devil and argued about the body of Moses did not dare pronounce against them a railing judgment but said, the Lord rebuke you. But these men revile the things which they do not understand and the things which they know by instinct like unreasoning animals. By these things they are destroyed.
Woe to them, for they have gone the way of Cain and for the pay and for pay they have rushed headlong into the air of Balaam and perished in the rebellion of Korah. Well Jude goes on in this harsh epistle to describe to us what false teachers are like. We today are faced with an array of false teaching. Even when we hear the phrase false teachers we think of someone who is cloaked in clerical robes or who has reverend before his name. But false teachers refer to a broader scope than that.
Today we have a pantheon of gods in our 20th century America that espouse false teaching and lead people astray. Yes, there are the false religionists, those who are in the realm of religion and who by their theology filled with error lead people astray from the truth. There are those who do that. But there are also others who would not claim to be religious who are nonetheless false teachers. I think for example of many of the celebrities in the entertainment world.
When they get on television and speak on a talk show or in other forums, people absorb every word they say as though they really knew what they were talking about. They suddenly become the experts in areas of which they actually are ignorant. And whatever they say, masses of people follow because they are their gods. They are part of the pantheon of 20th century America.
I think as well of many who are in secular higher education, who again when they speak have masses of people who follow them and who believe because they have certain degrees in the secular world are therefore experts in all areas and the two do not necessarily follow. Indeed, I believe that these people in particular are the evangelists of humanism in our day. For they are winning men and women and young people to the error that man is his own god.
So when you think of false teachers and you look at the words that are here tonight, don't just look for clerical garb, but realize he is talking about a vast array of false teachers who in our society today come in various disguises. Now he says about these false teachers in the first place, verse 8, the first part of the verse, that they are immoral dreamers. He says about them that they live in a dream world of unreality.
And he says, you'll notice, in the same manner, that is pointing back to the sins of Sodom and Gomorrah in verse 7, he says in the same manner these dreamers defile the flesh. In other words, these people espousing false religion, most prominently humanism in our day, are people who are given to various kinds of sexual excesses and perversions. And they promote these in the name of their teaching.
In the same manner as those in Sodom and Gomorrah who gave themselves over completely to the pollution of their bodies and their souls, so these do the same. And they live in a dream world, a world of imagination, a world of wishes, not realizing the reality of things. And one does not have to listen very long to some of the talk shows to see exactly what Jude is talking about here. By the way, I don't listen to a lot of them in saying that. I want to reassure you of that.
Just when I'm in the mood for a good fret, that's when I watch them. He says they are immoral dreamers, not able to get in touch with reality, spiritual reality as God reveals it in the Bible. They're out of touch, living in their own imaginations, fulfilling their own lusts to the point of excess. And then he says furthermore that they are impious rebels, the last part of verse 8 and verse 9. He says not only do they defile the flesh, but they reject authority and revile angelic majesties.
And it says they reject authority, literally it says they reject lordship. And it may well refer to the fact that they reject the idea of Christ's lordship. But I think it may be a broader indication of these people rejecting any kind of God-appointed authority in their lives. They want to be free from authority. They do not want to have government, the church, anyone looking over their shoulders.
They despise, they reject authority, and this is illustrated by their attitude toward what he calls angelic majesties or celestial majesties. The word there revile means to slander them. They slander the spiritual world, either taking it lightly or perhaps even denying it altogether. And this is a great sin according to Jude. They reject authority and supernaturalism, claiming only what is here and now. And he says they should have learned from the example of Michael.
Now verse 9 is a very strange verse, isn't it? Can anybody tell me the book in the Old Testament that verse 9 refers to? Where is this passage found? Is there a Bible scholar here tonight who can tell me? Hezekiah, did I hear? No? Not even in Hezekiah will you find this. There is no book in the Old Testament that refers to this account. Only the account mentioned in verse 9 is from a pseudepigraphal writing that was called the Assumption of Moses.
The pseudepigrapha is a title referring to certain books that were penned around the time of Christ from about 200 BC to about 200 AD, roughly in that period. These books were written by unknown men, but they were claimed to have been written by Old Testament prophets. They were never a part of the Jewish Old Testament and certainly not a part of the canon as we accept it today. Thus they are called false writings, pseudepigrapha.
But they nonetheless had a religious kind of theme and in one of them, which was titled the Assumption of Moses, and by the way which is referred to by a number of the early church fathers, there is this story about a dispute over the body of Moses, after he had died of course, and the dispute was between Satan and Michael the archangel. And as the story goes, after the death of Moses, Satan laid claim to the body of Moses.
For some reason he felt that he had authority over it, perhaps because Moses was a murderer, and he was. He killed a man in Exodus chapter 2. Or perhaps because Satan feels himself to be the Lord of the earth, he felt that he had the right for the body of Moses. And Michael on the other hand, so the story goes, disputed with him over that for the right to the body of that man.
And from that story, Jude draws an illustration and he says that these people who are false teachers should learn from that story about Michael. He disputed with the devil and argued with him, but he did not dare pronounce against him a railing judgment. Now who is Michael in the first place? Let's talk about that for a moment. We know who Satan is. Who is Michael the archangel? This is the only time the term archangel is used in the Bible and it refers to this one who is named Michael.
The name means who is like Jehovah, who is like the Lord. Michael is identified elsewhere in both the Old and New Testaments. He is mentioned several times in Daniel chapter 10 as being the angel responsible for God's plans with Israel. And it's in that connection that he's again mentioned in Revelation chapter 12 where he again fights with Satan in the realms of the heavenlies and as a result of that spiritual warfare Satan is cast down to the earth.
That would seem to take place about midpoint in the tribulation period after about three and a half years. From that time on Satan no longer has access to the air, but is cast down to the earth and his wrath is exceedingly severe against Israel. Well, it's in that whole context that Michael is once again named. Now he says that when Michael and Satan were arguing, Michael as powerful of an angelic creature as he is did not dare to pronounce against Satan a railing judgment. Why is that?
Well, because Michael recognizes the power even of one who had fallen like Satan, the power, the spiritual power of him. He did not take Satan on in his own strength, but rather his retort to Satan's argument for the body of Moses was, the Lord rebuke you. By the way, that is a good lesson for us too. I get concerned with some Christians who are rather flippant about the whole realm of the supernatural and who speak of Satan in terms that are light and frivolous. We ought not to do that.
I heard a preacher one time on the radio talk about the victories that we have won over Satan and was daring Satan, calling him old, smutty face. You know, if I were that preacher, I'd be a little concerned with that kind of superficial talk.
When we speak about spiritual realities, whether it be on that side of things or on God's side of things, we need to have a certain reverence in the way that we speak and recognize that if Michael, who is a powerful angelic being, did not in his own strength take on Satan, then we who are mere human beings need to respond in a similar way in saying, the Lord rebuke you when we resist Satan. We dare not take him on in our own strength.
Now these people, these false teachers, says, Jude, think nothing about reviling angelic majesties. They are impious, irreverent rebels. And isn't that the spirit of our day? Rebellion against authority? Who's going to tell me how to live? Who says I have to keep the Ten Commandments? And on and on it goes, rebellion against God's authority. Verse 10, he describes them here as insolent animals. He says, these men revile the things which they do not understand.
In other words, they are ignorant of spiritual realities. And he gives us a hint later in the book why this is true. Look at verse 19. The very last phrase says they are devoid of the Spirit. No wonder then that they are ignorant of spiritual things. They do not have the Holy Spirit and spiritual things are discerned by the Spirit, aren't they? And taught to us by the Spirit. And so they revile things. They speak against, they slander things of which they basically are ignorant.
It is theologically criminal to hear some of the comments that are made by entertainers and other so-called educated people regarding the Bible and theological truths. They speak against things of which they are ignorant. They've never studied them. How many times, for example, have you heard a person say, the Bible is full of errors and contradictions? The best way to handle that is to hand them a Bible and say, well, show me one.
And what will probably happen is they'll open it upside down and won't even recognize it because they're ignorant of the Bible. They couldn't show you. They're simply parroting something that they've heard somebody say. False teachers are that way. They speak against things of which they have no enlightenment. And he says the things which they know by instinct. And he puts that in a rather crude way. He says they function on an instinctual level. They're like animals.
They have only instinct, he says, as though they didn't have minds. They have only instinct. He says like unreasoning animals, by these things they are destroyed. In other words, the very things that they espouse, the very things that they promote by those things, they themselves are destroyed. A prime example of that is a man who's now been dead. Oh, I've forgotten how long, maybe 10 to not more than 15 years, and that is Bishop James Pike. Some of you may remember him. A tragedy in his life.
He was a tragic human being, a religious leader who had no understanding of spiritual things, the bishop in his church, famous for false teaching and writings which denied the Bible, lost his son, turned to spiritism to try to get in contact with his dead son, ended up dying in Israel where he went to be in communication with the other world and was told by the spirits to go out into the wilderness, and there he suffered his death. By the very error that he promoted and lived, he died.
Thus is the end, says Judah, false teachers. And then he brings before us three Old Testament people, and he says in verse 11 that they are insensitive followers of other false teachers. They are successors to three Old Testament men who were ungodly. The first one he mentions is Cain. He says they have gone the way of Cain. Now, you know who Cain is, the brother of Abel, the son of Adam and Eve.
Cain, instead of bringing a sacrifice which God had indicated was the one he would accept, rather, brought the works of his own hands, grain from the field, something in which he could boast instead of something which God provided. He in this sense religiously rebelled against God and forsook the only offering that he could bring for sin, the blood shed from an animal.
And when God rejected his self-made sacrifice, the grain that he brought, he became filled with jealousy for his brother's offering was accepted. And that jealousy, of course, led him to be a murderer. Now, what Jude is saying is this, that these false teachers have gone the same way of Cain. In other words, they have forsaken the provision that God has made for mankind's sin. They have manufactured their own religion of works as Cain did.
And now by promoting their own religion, they are guilty of spiritual murder because they lead masses of people astray from the truth, resulting in their condemnation in hell. So they have gone in that sense the way of Cain. Secondly, he says that they follow one called Balaam. Only he puts it this way. And for pay, they have rushed headlong into the error of Balaam. That rushing headlong is an interesting kind of picture.
It shows them being fully consumed by something, and that something is money. Now the error of Balaam seems to have been thinking that God would curse Israel because Israel had sinned. And therefore, for a sum of money, read about it in Numbers 22, for a sum of money from the king of Moab, Balaam attempted to curse Israel. You know the story. It's kind of a lengthy one there and a very interesting one. He was unable to do so in the end. God forbade him to do it.
But the error of Balaam was thinking that God would, in fact, curse Israel because Israel had sinned. And Balaam was controlled by greed. And so it seems to me that he is bringing together here a couple of thoughts when he says that these false teachers have followed Balaam. He's saying in the first place, I think, that they have no understanding of God's grace and of atonement for sin. That is why God did not allow Balaam to curse Israel.
Israel had sinned, but Israel atoned for her sin and was forgiven of God. These people who followed after Balaam had no understanding of grace and of atonement. Likewise, Balaam, for a price, attempted to prophesy against Israel. And these people, it seems to me, he is saying, also do their work for a price. Their major concern in what they are doing is the bucks. And of course, entertainment is big bucks these days, and so is religion.
In fact, someone told me this last week that one of the television programs that we would see in this area, which I will not name and which is generally a decent one, last year that one program took in over $140 million. That's one of the television programs. There's a lot of money out there in communicating religious things, television, radio, and in books, etc. And there are some people who are very sincere in what they're doing.
I'm not condemning all of them across the board, but there are some of those people out there who are in it for the money. You know, Peter talks about this, and I think it would be good for us to go back and look in 2 Peter for a second just to get his perspective. 2 Peter 2, verse 15, again talking about false teachers, he says, Forsaking the right way, they have gone astray, having followed the way of Balaam, the son of Beor, who loved the wages of unrighteousness.
And so again, Peter says that Balaam had that motivation about him. And so there are those today who are motivated by the same thing. God help us, any of us, whether we are in the ministry or in whatever we're doing, that we should do what we do for money. Let me quickly go on now to the third follower, the third one which these false teachers were following in Jude, verse 11. It says, they perished in the rebellion of Korah. Read about that in Numbers 16.
Korah and over 250 other Israelites rebelled against God's appointed authority, Moses and Aaron. They came to them and they said, The whole congregation is holy. You take too much upon yourselves. And they rebelled and tried to bring a great revolt against the men. And for that, God judged them. And so I believe that Jude is saying that these false teachers, too, have gone in the rebellion of Korah.
They attempt to destroy the order that God has ordained, to destroy the order and the peace among God's people. And just as Korah was motivated by pride and seeking for position, so these do the same. Now if you think about it, you have three motivations which Jude seems to be pointing to. First, there is Cain who did what he did in killing his brother because of jealousy. Then there is Balaam who did what he did for the love of money. And finally there is Korah who was motivated by his pride.
If you look at false teaching these days, somewhere in there you will find at least one of those characteristics. There is jealousy, the love of money, or pride involved. That's the secret that Jude is giving us here as he tells us about these insensitive followers of these Old Testament men who were false. Now rather than continue on in the list here, I'd like for us to conclude this evening. We'll pick this up again on a Sunday night. But go back to 1 John chapter 4. Would you do that?
If we had to stop at this point, I'd be kind of depressed going home. So I want you to go back to 1 John chapter 4. You know it's interesting that each one of the apostles as he writes warns us about false teachers. There's a reason for that. Because in that day as in our day, it was so prominent. Someone says, beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God. Would you please put that over your television set as you watch Christian television?
Would you put that verse on your radio as you listen to some Christian radio stations? Believe not everything you hear. So the person says, this or that happened to me. This was my experience. Beloved, believe not every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God. Because many false prophets have gone out into the world. Not a few, many. And he says, by this you know the spirit of God. Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God.
John was writing about a particular false teaching in that day called Gnosticism, which denied that Jesus Christ actually came in the flesh. They denied his humanity because they felt that the physical body was evil and sinful and therefore God could not come into a sinful physical body. And so he points out the fact that in terms of that heresy, if they deny that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh, then they're not from God. Conversely, if they do confess his true humanity, they are from God.
Now we learn something from what Jude says here. How are we to test the spirits? To know who is true and who is false? There's only one answer to that, and this is it right here. This book. What God has revealed to us. My friend, this is the test. This is the test by which you are able to tell whether a man or a woman is teaching you the truth or error.
Woe to the person who receives everything that he hears as though it were coming straight from God because many false prophets have gone out into the world. Isaiah said if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no what? No light in them. You see, this book is the test. Now he goes on to say, picking it up in the middle of verse 3, and this is the spirit of the Antichrist of which you have heard that it is coming and now it is already in the world in about 90 A.D.
He says it's here. You are from God, little children, and have overcome them. Isn't that a great thought? In contrast to all the false teachers who are sent out into the world and who are energized by Satan, we who are children of God are from him. He is in us and he has sent us into the world. And he says, furthermore, we have overcome them. The victory has already been assured to us.
You know, there are times when you feel like there is a great flood of false teaching that is going to sweep away everything. But my friend, when the enemy comes in like a flood, the Spirit of the Lord lifts up a standard against him. There is already victory assured for the truth. Do not fret yourself before you go to sleep tonight that somehow false teaching is going to prevail. It cannot prevail. It will not prevail because God has already ordained that the truth will triumph in the end.
In the meantime, we are involved in a great spiritual warfare. But the victory has already been assured. And then he says, and this is the verse that we had this morning for meditation, because greater is he who is in you than he who is in the world. Who is he in the world? Well, that's Satan. And he is described over in chapter 5 of this epistle as having the world in his arms rocking it like a little baby. You see, the world system is Satan's thing. It's his creation. It is of his manufacture.
And he carefully cradles it and guards it and employs it to accomplish his aims. It says here, greater is he who is in you than he who is in the world. And who is in us but the person of God himself in the Holy Spirit? Why have we already overcome the enemy? Because the Spirit of God himself lives in us. He says, they are from the world. For they speak as from the world, and the world listens to them.
Do not be surprised when these false teachers that I've suggested tonight get on the television or on the radio or in a public forum somewhere and everybody listens and applauds and says, isn't that marvelous? Don't be surprised at that, because they are from the world and the Bible tells us that the world in general will listen to them. But he says, we are from God. He who knows God listens to us. He who is not from God does not listen to us.
By this we know the Spirit of truth and the Spirit of error. There's a great division within the world today. Those who listen to God and those who listen to the Spirit that is in the world. What are you listening to? I trust that your ear is tuned to the Word of God. That the Spirit of God dwells in you because you are a genuinely saved person. If I were not saved tonight, one of the motives for getting saved immediately would be the great danger of the deceit of false teaching in our day.
The false teaching of our day is so cleverly designed and disguised that it quickly can overcome an unconverted person and blind him to the truth. That's Satan's goal. He blinds the minds of those who do not believe the truth that they might not see the glory of God in Jesus Christ. If you've never trusted Jesus Christ but tonight you sense your need for him, then you need tonight to trust him.
You dare not put it off and neglect it any longer because every time you do, you are putting yourself in danger of being deceived and blinded to him. You're putting yourself in danger of turning away from him and going to the eternal fires with false teachers. And those of us who know Jesus Christ tonight, let us have confidence in the message that we proclaim. And let us not be ashamed of it. But as the apostle tells to Timothy, preach the Word. Declare it to the world. Proclaim it.
We don't have to run and be on the defensive. All we have to do is speak the truth courageously and boldly. Let God do his work. Lift up the standard against the enemy. The Word of God will overcome him. There's another great little verse in John that says, as he is, so are we in the world. As he is. What does that mean, as he is? Well, he's in victory. He is enjoying victory and glory. And it says, as he is, so are we. That is, we are enjoying glory and victory in this world.
So if you're fretting and discouraged because of false teaching, if you're worried about the fact that there's a lot of false out there, stop that. And as he is, claim the victory even now in this world. And live confidently and boldly and courageously for Jesus Christ. And remember that you are from God. Heavenly Father, may we tonight recognize that by your grace we are more than conquerors, that we are on the victory side.
And as we look at this sad list of characteristics describing false teachers, we are able to see that there is much around us that is of the enemy. And yet, as we look elsewhere in the Word and see that the victory is assured, we rejoice tonight. We rejoice in Jesus Christ. We thank you that our victory is in our faith in him. May we be living on the victory side.
Not defeated, not discouraged, not overwhelmed by the enemy, but rather boldly and confidently representing you in this world and recognizing that you are in us and that you are greater than he who energizes the world. Thank you for the victory, in Jesus' name, amen. I'd like for us to sing just a verse of number 512.