I said something in our Bonfire Bible Study last Wednesday that I think bears repeating. I said that there seems to be two basic types of theology out there. But only one is correct theology, and the other one is wrong, even though it is the most popular. The most common theology, the most popular theology, has as it’s premise that God exists to serve man. They may not say it so crassly, but nevertheless, that is the basics of it. That God serves man, God loves man, God gives things to man, God helps man. God is not much more than a miracle working genie who exists to serve man. And so, of course, God cannot judge man, He can’t punish man, because He loves us too much. The other theology, the correct one, has as it’s premise, that man exists to serve God. Man was made for God, to love Him, to serve Him, to do His will, and to live for Him. He is Lord and Master, and we are subject to Him.
And all of our attempts at understanding of God we try to fit into one of those templates. You might even go so far as to say that all of religion is man’s efforts to control God. Most of our preaching and teaching falls into that same error. We try to interpret the Bible to fit our paradigm. We try to create a message that fits our ideas of what is acceptable, what seems right to us. If we can develop enough knowledge about God, then we can control God and control the outcome of our dealings with God.
And it is obvious that God allows us to have a go at it. God doesn’t shut up fools. God doesn’t always stoop to answer man’s wisdom. God doesn’t always immediately respond to our foolishness with judgment. But as Jude shows us in this section of scripture, God promises to judge man’s disobedience, whether it is immediate or in the future. But God will judge rebellion against the truth.
Jude started off his letter by saying that he planned to write concerning their common salvation. He was planning on writing about the truth they held in common in salvation. There is truth that leads to salvation, and there is no salvation without holding to those truths. But at the urging of the Holy Spirit, Jude felt the necessity to write about the need to contend for the faith. Because, as we will learn, the faith, the truth that leads to salvation, was under attack.
Certain persons had crept into the church and sown seeds of bad theology, which served to give license to those who disobeyed the Lord and lived according to their lustful desires. Particularly the lusts of a sexual nature, and the lusts for money. Such people, Jude said, were already marked for condemnation because they turned the grace of our God into licentiousness and denied our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.
To turn the grace of God into licentiousness means that they disregarded the law of God, especially in the realm of promiscuity or immorality. They said that they weren’t under law any more but under grace, and therefore what they did in the body does not really matter. That’s the bad theology; God loves me, God forgives me, and God won’t punish or condemn me.
The other thing Jude said they did was deny our Master and Lord Jesus Christ. That doesn’t mean that they denied His existence. But they denied His lordship. They denied His right to reign in our lives. Again, they had the theology that God exists to serve me, not the other way around. I don’t have to serve the Lord with my life, my actions, my behavior. I am captain of my ship. I can exercise my freedom, my independence, in pursuit of my happiness, and the Lord is going to be ok with that because He just wants me to be happy.
Well, Jude disputes that type of theology. He says we need to contend for the faith, that is, we need to fight for the true theology. And furthermore, he says that those who have adopted the bad theology will be judged, and will receive condemnation from God, sooner or later. Now to support that he is going to give three examples of those that rebelled against God’s truth, and ended up being condemned and punished by God.
In bringing up these history lessons from the past, Jude says that we need to be reminded of them, even though we already know them. Vs 5, “Now I desire to remind you, though you know all things once for all…” The point being that as Christians, who know the truth, we nevertheless need to be reminded of the truth again and again, to keep the truth fresh before us. It is far too easy to become complacent about doctrines that once established our faith and now are taken for granted. It’s like the doctrine of salvation; though we are saved by knowledge of the truth of the gospel, by believing it, yet it is necessary to never let the glories of the cross fade from our view. In reminding ourselves, whether by song or by scripture, we are brought further along in our sanctification.
Such remembrance also serves to undergird us in the faith, and ensure that we do not make the same mistakes as those before us. As Winston Churchill once wrote, “Those that fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it.”
The first lesson from history that Jude reminds us of is that of the danger of apostasy. He says in vs 5, “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.”
He is, of course, reminding us of the story of Israel, who was delivered from captivity in Egypt by many miracles of God. God exhibited His power to them again and again. He gave them His word, His promises, His law. God dwelt among them. But nevertheless, they did not believe His word. They were faithless again and again. They rebelled against Moses. And ultimately, they did not believe that He was able to bring them into the Promised Land, and at the point of entry they rebelled and would not go into the land.
And so God pronounced condemnation upon them, that they would all be destroyed. We find the record of God’s condemnation in Numbers14: 32, “But as for you, your corpses will fall in this wilderness. Your sons shall be shepherds for forty years in the wilderness, and they will suffer [for] your unfaithfulness, until your corpses lie in the wilderness. According to the number of days which you spied out the land, forty days, for every day you shall bear your guilt a year, [even] forty years, and you will know My opposition. I, the LORD, have spoken, surely this I will do to all this evil congregation who are gathered together against Me. In this wilderness they shall be destroyed, and there they will die.”
This event is also remembered in the Psalms, in Psalm 95 it says, “Do not harden your hearts, as at Meribah, As in the day of Massah in the wilderness, 9 “When your fathers tested Me, They tried Me, though they had seen My work. For forty years I loathed [that] generation, And said they are a people who err in their heart, And they do not know My ways. Therefore I swore in My anger, Truly they shall not enter into My rest.” And the author of Hebrews, quoting that passage, adds, “they did not enter because of unbelief.”
In that passage, we see that disobedience and unbelief are related. One happens because of the other. That’s why we must remember that Jesus correlated belief and obedience. He said if you love Me you will keep my commandments. Again and again Jesus urged His hearers not only to believe in Him, but to follow Him. Belief must be tied to obedience. As John told us in his epistles, you can’t say you have fellowship with God and yet walk in darkness. You can’t say you believe in Christ and yet disobey Him. You can’t say you believe and yet rebel against His word. And the lesson we are reminded of in this example is that God punished Israel for their unbelief and disobedience.
The second illustration from history of those that received condemnation because of unbelief is found in vs 6. “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.” Jude is renowned for bringing up obscure facts in this little letter. And this particular reference is such a one.
Jude is speaking of an incident regarding fallen angels which is mentioned in Genesis chapter 6. In that passage we read, “Now it came about, when men began to multiply on the face of the land, and daughters were born to them, that the sons of God saw that the daughters of men were beautiful; and they took wives for themselves, whomever they chose. Then the LORD said, “My Spirit shall not strive with man forever, because he also is flesh; nevertheless his days shall be one hundred and twenty years.” The Nephilim were on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of men, and they bore [children] to them. Those were the mighty men who [were] of old, men of renown.”
There are a lot that of questions that have arisen in regards to these verses which many have offered conjecture. But I think we can safely say that the sons of God refers to angels, which in this case are fallen angels, part of the demons in Satan’s realm, and they took on the form of man so that they could have sexual relations with the daughters of men. This act was not only rebellion against God, but it also was an attack by Satan upon the object of God’s love, which was the human race, made in His likeness and made in His image. Satan orchestrated this to destroy the human race. Many theologians believe that this unholy union caused a half human half demonic offspring that was unredeemable and thus God was forced to destroy the human race in the flood.
Jude goes on to say that those angels who left their proper place, God has kept in eternal bonds or chains under darkness for the judgement of the great day. The apostle Peter also references this event in 2Peter 2:4-5 saying, “For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to pits of darkness, reserved for judgment; and did not spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah, a preacher of righteousness, with seven others, when He brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly.” Because of the way Peter ties the sin of the angels to the flood is evidence that he is speaking of the same event as Jude.
And by the way, I’ve heard people use the Genesis passage to say that man was limited to live 120 years because of that reference God made that His Spirit would not strive with man forever, but man’s days shall be 120 years. But that’s not actually a reference to man’s lifespan, but a reference to the time left before the total destruction of the flood, which happened 120 years later.
Now there are a lot of rabbit trails that we could go down on this topic. But let’s not forget what Jude is trying to convey through this example. The reminder is that of the sin of autonomy, of denying the lordship of Jesus Christ. To disobey, to rebel is to deny the Lord’s position of authority, to set ourselves up as the god of our own life, to decide what we think is right, or what we think should be ok, and in so doing, to set ourselves in rebellion against God and due for condemnation at the judgement. If God did not spare angels when they sinned, neither will He spare us. God put those angels that left their proper abode in eternal chains, in bondage, some believe that refers to a special section of hell, awaiting the final judgement.
In speaking of the angels sin, Jude segue’s into another form of rebellion, which is similar to that of the angels. And he speaks of that in vs 7, “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.”
Notice than in referencing the sin of Sodom and Gomorrah Jude correlates it to the sin of the angels by saying, “just as.” “In the same way as these…” He is saying that the sin of Sodom and Gomorrah was like the sin of the angels, in the same way they were immoral and went after strange flesh.
I won’t take the time to read the account from Genesis 18 and 19 as I’m sure you are all familiar with the story. But as Jude says, we need to be reminded. The account says that the report of the sin of Sodom and Gomorrah had reached the point where God was going to destroy the city. He sent two angels in the bodies of men to speak to Lot and his family and take them out of the city, lest they be destroyed with them. But that night the men of the city congregated at the door of Lot’s house, demanding that he let them come out that they might have sexual relations with them.
Jude say that they pursued unnatural desires. The Bible teaches that homosexual desire is unnatural desire. It is rejecting the authority and design of God. It is rejecting the command of God. God said in Leviticus 18:22 ‘You shall not lie with a male as one lies with a female; it is an abomination.” It is a crime against God and man.
Peter spoke of this same event in the same passage we referenced while ago, 2Peter 2:6 “and [if] He condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to destruction by reducing [them] to ashes, having made them an example to those who would live ungodly [lives] thereafter.” The point both Jude and Peter make is that God condemned the sin of those people, and brought about destruction upon them, as an example for those that come after them. That we must not rebel against the command of God, lest we suffer the same condemnation.
Jude says they “are exhibited as an example in undergoing the punishment of eternal fire.” God brought fire and brimstone down upon the city and destroyed every living thing. But in the final judgement, the fire is eternal, it never goes out, and the soul must endure that punishment forever.
After offering these Biblical examples of the sins of apostasy, autonomy and immorality, Jude says in vs8, “Yet in the same way these men, also by dreaming, defile the flesh, and reject authority, and revile angelic majesties.” “ These men” refers back those of his day, the objects of his letter, the certain persons who had crept in unnoticed into the church, and used the grace of God as a cover for licentiousness and denied the authority of the Lord Jesus Christ.
He says these men are guilty of the same sins as those of the Israelites who refused to believe, as the angels before the flood, and as the men of Sodom and Gomorrah. He says these men also by dreaming, defile the flesh, and reject authority, and revile angelic majesties.
I’m not sure what he means by his statement that they were dreaming. I suppose it’s a reference to so called prophets who took their stand on visions that they had supposedly seen, which undermined, or over rode the scriptures. That’s the danger of extra biblical revelation. It’s not that God did not use visions at times in the past to reveal truth to His prophets. But the problem is that today dreams and visions are rarely subjected to scripture for authentication. Let me say this, if your dream is not supported by scripture, then it’s not of God. Dreams and visions will never go against the scriptures. But far too often today people claim a dream that they had to supply validation for something that they want to do, which is not aligned with scripture. In Colossians 2:18 Paul warns against those that take their stand on visions that they have seen, and as such, defraud you of your prize.
Jude says they not only sin by dreaming, but they defile the flesh. Defiling the flesh is probably a reference to immorality, which covers the gamut of sexual sins. False doctrine is often used as a covering for immoral behavior. Jude adds to that they reject authority. Rejecting authority is tied directly to immoral behavior. But it goes further than just that. It is rejecting the authority of the scriptures, it rejects the authority even of Jesus Christ, and sets itself up as it’s own authority.
I can’t help but relate this to many of the mainstream denominations that claim to be Christian but for all intents and purposes have become apostate. They began by denying the authority and inspiration of all the scriptures. They began to say that some things were simply cultural and we live in a different culture, and so there is no compulsion for us to keep certain restrictions and morals that Paul or other writers spoke of. And so on that basis they made the decision to allow women as pastors in the church, because that was just a cultural thing and we’ve gotten so far beyond that today.
And then they took it another step further and said that a homosexual lifestyle is not a sin, and that you can have full fellowship in the church irregardless of your sexual preferences. Then they took it a little further than that and said that since there was nothing wrong with homosexuality then there should be no restraint against ministers who are homosexual. That too should be allowed because we live in a different culture and a different time, and love is love, and God is love, and any scriptures saying otherwise are not to be taken literally.
The problem is that they have rejected the authority of the scriptures. They have rejected the authority of Jesus Christ; it is His church, and He placed certain restrictions upon it. And to reject His authority is to sin with the same terrible expectation of judgement that fell upon the Israelites, the angels, and Sodom and Gomorrah. And if you are still in one of those churches, then I would suggest that you get out like Lot got out of Sodom, lest you end up being condemned along with them.
The third thing Jude says is a characteristic of these false prophets, is that they revile angelic majesties. I can only assume that he is referencing the account of the angelic messengers who were sought after in the house of Lot by the men of Sodom and Gomorrah. To revile is to insult.
Jude says that these men revile angelic majesties. However, in this case, Jude makes no distinction whether they be holy angels or fallen ones. But he gives us an illustration of reviling an angel, though in this case it is a fallen angel. In vs 9, Jude once again speaks of an event that is nowhere else mentioned in the scriptures. He says, “But Michael the archangel, when he disputed with the devil and argued about the body of Moses, did not dare pronounce against him a railing judgment, but said, “The Lord rebuke you!”
Its very interesting that Jude says that Michael is an archangel. An archangel, from what little we know of such things, is the highest order of angels in the entire hosts of heaven. The Bible indicates there is a hierarchy of angels. I wish we could spend some time talking about angels and their positions, and look at the other references in scripture to Michael. I don’t have the time to do that today, however. But if you’re interested in further research you can look at Daniel 10:13, and 1 Thess. 4:16.
Our purpose here today, and the purpose of Jude, is not to give a dissertation on angels, but to make the point that certain men in the churches were reviling angelic majesties of which they had no business doing, and did so to their own destruction.
As you probably know, Moses was not allowed to go into the Promised Land, however, God took him up on a high mountain that he might see it from a distance. And then Moses died and the scripture says that God buried Moses in a place that no one knew. We can read about that in Deut. 34:5-6 “So Moses the servant of the LORD died there in the land of Moab, according to the word of the LORD. And He buried him in the valley in the land of Moab, opposite Beth-peor; but no man knows his burial place to this day.” The indication from Jude, however, is that the devil attempted to claim the body of Moses. We are not told why, but we might guess that he intended to use it to cause Israel to worship the body of Moses.
The point though that Jude wants to make, is even though Michael is an archangel of God, and has the full authority of that position and incredible power, yet he did not dare pronounce against the devil a railing judgment, but said, “The Lord rebuke you!” Michael relied upon the Lord’s authority, and not his own.
Jude has told us that we are to contend, or fight for the faith. It is a spiritual battle. And the manner of Michael’s fight is a model for spiritual warfare. First, we see that Michael was in a battle, such as we are when we contend for the faith. Secondly, we see that he battled in the Lord’s authority.
Michael did not mock or accuse the devil. God hasn’t called us to judge the devil, to condemn the devil, to mock him or accuse him, but to battle against him in the name of the Lord. That doesn’t mean we go around claiming the blood of Jesus over every thing and every body. But that we contend by the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ. In His name comprises all the truth of Christ.
But in contrast to the example of Michael, who would not pronounce a railing judgement upon the devil, these certain men Judes speaks of spoke evil, especially when they rejected authority and reviled angelic majesties. Jude says in vs 10, “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.”
I am reminded by this passage of the seven sons of Sceva, who were casting out demons by the name of Paul. These were men that were in effect false prophets, who were trying to cash in on what they saw Paul doing, but which they had no authority to do. And it says in Acts 19:13-16 “But also some of the Jewish exorcists, who went from place to place, attempted to name over those who had the evil spirits the name of the Lord Jesus, saying, ‘I adjure you by Jesus whom Paul preaches.’ Seven sons of one Sceva, a Jewish chief priest, were doing this. And the evil spirit answered and said to them, “I recognize Jesus, and I know about Paul, but who are you?” And the man, in whom was the evil spirit, leaped on them and subdued all of them and overpowered them, so that they fled out of that house naked and wounded.”
Jude says these certain men revile things they don’t understand, and by those things they are destroyed. I find it telling that so many false prophets claim to have authority to cast out demons and they love to proclaim judgements that make them seem like a great man of God, with great power over the spiritual realm, when in fact they are often being duped and even controlled by the very powers that they purport to have authority over.
Well, in this last illustration, Jude has given us an example of whom we are to emulate. We certainly don’t want to emulate the examples of the rebellious Israelites, nor the fallen angels, nor the men of Sodom and Gomorrah, but the example given we should emulate is that of Michael the archangel. We are to recognize and bow to the ultimate authority who is Jesus Christ the Lord. We are to contend for the faith which is His gospel. We are to obey HIs commands. We are to fight in the strength that He supplies and rebuke sin and licentiousness in the name of the Lord. And in that way of following Michael’s example, we will ensure that we do not fall into the same condemnation as those who rebelled and did not believe.