The Bill family is incredibly talented. Thank you very much for playing for us tonight, Titus. Appreciate it. One announcement before we get started, in case you all did not see the email that was sent out earlier today, there's going to be a memorial service here at the church on Saturday at noon for Tim's Bradley. Tim died about several weeks ago. And we were unsure what his family was going to do. He's been cremated. But his friends and I think his sister were involved in asking if we could host or we could have a memorial service. So it'll be at noon on Saturday if you would like to attend. Matt will be presiding over the memorial. This evening we are continuing our study of the book of Jude. And we'll be looking at Jude verses 8 through 11. Let me read the passage we're going to be looking at this evening. Jude writes, beginning in verse eight, yet in the same way, or 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 him a railing judgment, but said, the Lord rebuke you. But these men revile the things which they do not understand, and that 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 have for pay, have rushed headlong into the air of Balaam and perished in the rebellion of Korah. Let's go to the Lord in prayer. Father, we thank you for your word. We thank you for the message that you gave to your beloved Jude our beloved brother, the brother of our Lord. We thank you, Father, for raising up men such as Jude and the others who received your spirit and recorded for us for all time the New Testament, those things which you would have us to know. The warnings, the exhortations, the doctrine, the Christian practice, all the things which you have given to us have come through your servants. And we thank you for the service of our brother Jude. And now as we continue to explore his warning letter, we pray that your spirit would be with us, guiding us and giving us understanding and that we would heed the warnings and that we would constantly be vigilant looking out for men such as these. We ask your blessing upon our time together tonight. And we ask this in Jesus name. Amen. So last week we looked at Jude verses five through seven in which Jude cited the historical examples, three specific events in history, as a warning of the danger of departing from obedience to God and the rejection of God's truth. And just to recap what we said last week in verses five through seven, Jude writes this, 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 do not keep their own domain, but abandon their proper abode. He is 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. And here, as he says at the end of verse seven, these are given to us as an example of what disobedience looks like and the various forms that this disobedience has taken, the different shapes it has taken, the different forms it has taken in history. In Jude 5, he points out to the disobedience and the unfaithfulness of the Israelites in the Exodus. But it pointed out last week, while he destroyed an entire generation of Israelites, he did as he promised Abraham. He brought the people of the Israelites, he brought the people, his people, out of Egypt and brought them into their land. So he did not, even though a great many people disobeyed and a great many people died in the wilderness, he fulfilled his promise that he would bring his people into the promised land. Then in verse six, we talked about briefly the judgment of the angels, a group of angels who abandoned their proper abode and accomplished a serious departure from what God had ordained for them. They entered into the natural realm. and they committed acts of immorality. We don't know exactly what they did, but all we know is that God judged them by placing them in pits of darkness where they are even to this day, and they will remain until the judgment of the end. And then finally, he reminds us of the great danger of Sodom and Gomorrah, the great danger that that warning of what happened in those cities, what it represents, the gross immorality, going after strange flesh. as a warning to those who would come after. I mentioned how all three of those appear to be the first of their kind in scripture, and they're given to us as an example, as a warning to those who would commit similar sins after them, as this is how God has judged it before. Don't think that if you get away with it for a time that God will forget or God will not hold you accountable for your sin. You will. God will judge all sins equally harshly. So then having cited these three historical failures of men and angels, Jude then moves on to address present dangers posed by the false teachers of his time, and in fact, dangers posed by the false teachers of every generation. He says at the beginning in verse eight, yet in the same manner, these men, who does this these men refer to? It refers to those who have crept in unnoticed that he mentioned in verse four. So here, these men, By dreaming, defile the flesh, reject authority, and revile angelic majesties. Note in Jude verse eight, he describes three actions and attitudes of these false teachers. As Jude, you will see, as I mentioned last week, and as you will see in the weeks ahead, Jude has this way of using triplets. He uses three examples, threes. He uses a great many of threes. And this is just another example. three different manners in which these false teachers act. The question that immediately arises as you read the beginning of verse 8, these men also by dreaming, the question, what does it mean to dream? What does this dreaming refer to? Well, the Greek word that is translated dreaming is a rare word. It occurs only twice in the New Testament. It occurs here and in Acts chapter 2 verse 17. At the end of Acts chapter 2 verse 17 it says, Your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams. So the word dreaming, apparently, from scripture has two different meanings. Positively, it can refer to dreams in which divine revelation and prophecy are given. There are many examples in scripture of God giving divine revelation to men while they were in a dream state. This positive divine revelation is what Peter is referring to in Acts chapter 2, verse 17, which is really a quote from the book of Joel, Joel 2, verses 28 and 29, in which Joel writes, and it will come about after this that I will pour out my spirit on all mankind, and your sons and daughters will prophesy, your old men will dream dreams, your young men will see visions, and even your male and female servants, I will pour out my spirit in those days. Secondly, this idea of dreaming has a negative connotation. The negative connotation of dreaming means to be beguiled or to yield to one's thoughts and imaginations. It's to give in to your carnal desires. It's to dream about the things, maybe daydream about the things that you desire, that are pleasurable, that you desire to do. It's interesting that this verb, to dream, is used in the middle voice, indicating that their self-centered visionary dreaming or thinking is to their own liking. They dream dreams that are pleasant to them, that they desire. In other words, these false teachers dream or invent things that they desire and that are appealing to them. So these are very self-satisfying dreams that they are having. So one of the questions that arises when you define this term of what dreaming is, is what would the product of such dreaming look like? Well, I think that in verse 8, Jude tells us of the sorts of things that these men dream or desire. And the first thing that they dream of is defiling, things that defile the flesh. Secondly, they reject authority. And third, they revile angelic majesties. We're going to take a look at each of those three. It is significant to note that Peter cites these same three attitudes and actions in his second epistle in chapter two, verse 10. Peter writes, and especially those who indulge the flesh in its corrupt desires and despise authority. daring, self-willed, they do not tremble when they revile angelic majesties." So we see the same three actions. They desire, they indulge the flesh with its corrupt desires, they despise authority, and they revile angelic majesties. So Jude and Peter are describing the same things, same attitudes, same actions of these false teachers. The first action that both Jude and Peter describe of these false teachers that they defile the flesh or as Peter says they indulge the flesh in its corrupt desires. Because the Greek word that is translated dreaming can mean to fantasize on sensual mental thoughts and images and to thus be led astray into immoral conduct. This fits well with this first action of defiling the flesh or indulging the flesh in its corrupt desires. They fantasize. They dream about things that they would enjoy doing. That's the problem. They're dreaming of an immoral nature. They are craving, they are fantasizing about immoral actions. And unfortunately in recent years we have witnessed the exposure of many men of reputation in the church and who have been exposed for their immoral behavior. Many of these men were held up by the church as great leaders and teachers and men of reputation and they only to be brought down by later revelations of their immorality and it's tragic. It really is tragic the number of men, even in just recent couple of years, who have been brought down because of their immorality, their desire to indulge the flesh. Does this mean that all church men who are exposed for their moral failings are false teachers? No, we're not equating moral failings with being a false teacher. I'm simply saying Jude and Peter seem to be teaching that it is a common failing among false teachers, that this is one of the actions that they engage in or indulge in. They are immoral. They act in immoral ways. They desire to act and dream about acting in immoral ways. The second action that Peter and Jude cite is that these men reject authority or they despise authority. Again, both Jude and Peter use the term authority in the same way. The word authority is the Greek word koryotes. from which we get the Greek word kourios, which means lord or sovereign. So the King James translates kouriotes as government, implying this, and they basically make the interpretive statement that this is not a reference to the Lord as it is to human government. So are Jude and Peter using kouriotes to refer to divine or human government, human or divine government and authority? And practically, both would seem to apply. These false teachers do defy and deny and despise both human government and divine authority. But is it which one is intended? One of the common traits of false teachers is their frequent rejection of human government and its authority over their lives. But it's also a trait of false teachers to reject Christ's lordship and authority. One of the common features of false teachers is their rebellion against the existing order whether it be divine or secular or even ecclesiastical. There are many false teachers who rebel against church authority. So is it divine? Is it government? Is it church authority? What authority is intended here? Of these three, I think the most serious is the rejection of Christ's authority and the authority of His word as being binding in their lives. Those who advocate that the Bible is an ancient book that hasn't kept up with the enlightenment of modern society would certainly fit into this category. There are a great many people who believe the Bible is just outdated and that modern society has outgrown the Bible. But creative and inventive false interpretation of God's word are probably the most common form of rejection of Christ's authority. If you deny the authority of scripture, if you say that man has achieved in a more enlightened state, we are a more enlightened spiritual state than those ancient people who believed basically in fables, who believed in the things that are taught in the Bible. We in modern society are living in a more enlightened time. I mean, that's really the gist of professing Christians who would advocate for the LGBT stuff and the social justice and all these things that have encroached into the church. These are the kinds of things that they are rejecting. They are rejecting the authority of Scripture. They are rejecting Christ as the head of the church, and they are now in place of the church. We, as the church leaders, now are defining what is right and what is good and best. You know, Christ, the Old Testament, especially the Old Testament, because that was a very ancient time, but even the New Testament writers, they lived 2,000 years ago. We live in an enlightened time. So there are a great many false teachers who use this false argument to say the Word of God is no longer authoritative, and they see themselves as becoming the authority. They claim to have a new enlightenment. They claim to have new revelation or new knowledge. So the rejection of the authority of Christ over them is a major theme of false teachers. Man and his insistence on his free will reject the authority of Christ and his word over them. There's so many, it's so prevalent in the professing church today. Why is Arminianism growing more and more popular? Because basically it puts man in charge. It takes Christ off the throne and puts man on Christ's throne instead. Man becomes now the one who decides whether he will be saved. Christ is now simply an advisor, but it's man who decides whether to be saved. It's man who exercises free will in determining what is right and what is wrong. Again, it is the denial of the authority of Christ that has become so predominant in our society today and in the church today. And this is where Jude and Peter both correctly hit the problem. and they hit it directly. While Jude says that these false teachers reject authority, Peter well states that such men despise authority. Both attitudes are very descriptive. False teachers both despise and reject, or they refuse Christ's divine authority over them and the authority of Christ's word over them. And this hatred and rejection of Christ comes out in their blasphemous false teaching. What is one of the common threads In false teaching, it questions the authority of Christ. It even denies the authority. It denies, it rejects, it despises the authority of Christ. False teachers hate the restraints laid upon them by God's word, and they invent doctrines and interpretations of scripture that seek to rid them of any restraint. Such men chafe under the restrictions of laws upon their supposed freedoms. They wish to carry out their dreams without the encumbrance of divine or human laws. They want their own way. They want their free will. The third action that Jude and Peter cite is that these men revile angelic majesties. Like so many other phrases of Jude and Peter, the phrase reviling angelic majesties presents a pretty significant interpretive question. Who are the angelic majesties and what actions constitute reviling them? The term angelic majesties is the Greek word doxa, from which we get our word doxology. And typically, doxa is used 170 times in the New Testament. And of the 170 times it's used, 147 times it's translated glory. Only in Jude verse 8 and 2 Peter chapter 2 verse 10 is doxa translated angelic majesties or angels. So the question is, how do you get angels or angelic majesty out of glory, out of doxa. The King James translates doxa as dignities, while the ESV translates doxa as glorious ones. So you can see all the various translations of the Bible have all interpreted this word, this use of the word doxa to be a reference to persons, to angelic majesties, to dignities, to glorious ones. Why? The question is why would the interpreters translate Doxa, glory, into angelic majesties. Well, because of what follows the following verse states in Jude verse 9. Jude verse 9 says, But Michael the archangel, when he disputed with the devil and argued about the body of Moses, did not spare or did not dare pronounce against him a railing judgment, but said, The Lord rebuke you. And likewise, in 2 Peter chapter 2 verse 11, we read, Whereas angels are greater in might and power do not bring a reviling judgment against them before the Lord." So both Jude verse 9 and 2 Peter 2 verse 11 we have a contrast between the actions in the preceding verse in each of their preceding verses reviling they are there is reviling going on in verse 8 versus the actions of angels in verse 9 or the following verse in in 2 Peter 2 11. So in both Jude 9 and 2 Peter of 2.11, the Greek word for angel is actually used. Not doxa, angelos, angel. So, both Jude and Peter are equating doxa with angels. Contextually, they're equating the two. Even though a different word is used, it's speaking of doxa, these glorious ones, these glorified ones, are as a reference now to angels. So, it's simply in the context in which doxa is used here. So contextually, the translators saw both Jude and Peter using the term doxa as a reference to angels. It's definitely an interpretive question that the translators have determined. The translators determined that the word doxa was equal, in context, equal with the word angels or the actions of angels. But the next interpretive question is, does doxa in Jude 8 and 2 Peter 2.10 refer to holy angels, to fallen angels, or to the entire class of angels. Again, using the context of Jude 9 and 2 Peter 2.11, it seems that the use of doxa is primarily a reference to fallen angels. In both Jude verses 8 and 9 and 2 Peter chapter 2 verses 10 and 11, the writers compare the actions of the false teachers in reviling and despising angelic majesties with those of the actions of the archangel Michael, the archangel Michael who is from the highest class of angels. And arguing from the greater to the lesser, if the highest class of angel and archangel did not dare revile Satan, how dare a lesser creature do so? So using logic, using the context of that which is written, The Archangel Michael is an angel and he himself did not revile Satan when he was contending for the body of Moses. So here we see that the Archangel Michael did not revile the angelic majesty who was Satan. So why would these false teachers now revile angelic majesty? So there seems to be equating an example from the greater to the lesser. If the Archangel Michael did not revile Satan, how dare humans revile angelic majesties or revile Satan? We have to remember that while Lucifer, Lucifer is the name of the archangel who became the Satan. And we have to remember Satan is not a proper name. Satan is a verb. It is a description. He is the accuser. He is the devil. He is the demonic one. So if the Satan is now an unholy angel, He still exists in a state of glorious radiance that he has always existed in. When he fell, Satan did not go from being this beautiful angel to this creature with red skin, horns, and a pitchfork. Satan remains the same. Satan is a beautiful, glorious-looking, glorious-appearing angel. It's what he does, which is grossly evil. But in appearances, he is still a glorious being. If we were to see him, we would think that he is a holy angel in his glorious appearance, he would be overwhelming our ability to even process. So we have to stop equating Satan with this ugly beast. He is still a glorious appearing creature. We see this described, this description of Satan in Ezekiel chapter 28, verse 12, talks about Satan. You had the seal of perfection, full of wisdom and perfect in beauty. So scripture describes Lucifer as a beautiful creature. And though he is now full of evil and hatred, Satan's appearance is beautiful, and man's tendency is to equate great beauty with goodness and light. We automatically assume that which is beautiful must be good. Only bad things, only gross ugly things are evil. Pure pretty things are good, ugly things are evil. In this case, no. Satan is a glorious and beautiful creature, and yet he is the most evil. We read about this in 2 Corinthians 11, verse 14, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. On his outward appearance, he appears to be beautiful, and it is our mistake to think that that beauty is good. So while fallen angels appear radiant and beautiful, they are full of hatred and evil. Nevertheless, even though they are fallen from grace, they retain their previous glorious appearance and grandeur. The angels who have fallen still have the appearance of glory and beauty. And in stating that the false teachers revile angelic majesty, Jude is making the point that the fact that the fallen angels have fallen from God's grace does not diminish the fact that they retain the same glory and grandeur that they have always possessed. They appear the same. And even if the archangel Michael is not so arrogant as to revile a light creature, Who is puny man to do so? The question then arises, why do these men revile angelic majesties? I mean, that's the question. Why? Why do they feel that they can? Why do they feel that they should? It would seem that this reviling of angelic majesties is an example of the level of corruption and arrogance and the folly of their thinking. That a man would think that he could rebuke an angel or that he could belittle a being that has greater power than he is ridiculous. It's like a tiny dog barking at an elephant. But unfortunately, this is a common attitude among men. The charismatics believe that by simply naming the name of Jesus, they can bind Satan and cast out demons simply by naming the name of Jesus. As we recognize from Acts chapter 19, verse 15, I recognize Jesus and I know about Paul, but who are you? And I always read that and go, yes, I wish all the Charismatics would memorize that verse. I remember when I was first saved and I was headed to hunger and a desire to learn more. And you have to be careful when you're newly saved because you think that any book that has Jesus on the name on the cover must be good. You gotta read it. And I learned very quickly that there's a lot of really bad books out there. And one of the books that was recommended to me, to Cindy and I by someone, I don't even remember who, was a book by Neil Anderson called Bondage Breakers. And in his book, and this is back in the mid-90s, basically he advocated that as a Christian, you can get control over your life because you can cast Satan out of your life and you can bind Satan and you can tell him to be gone and Satan will bother you no more. And very quickly, I was reading the book and I said, wow, this is great. I didn't realize it wasn't true, but fortunately, I had discerning men around me who said, no, no, no, no, you need to throw that book away. because that is false. That is false teaching. That'll do no good for you. And very quickly, I learned that this was a false teaching. But it's amazing the number of books that that sold and the number of people who fell into that deception, thinking that they had the ability to bind Satan, to cast Satan and demons out of their lives, and that you could simply name the name of Christ and you would have this hedge of protection about yourself and they couldn't get to you. I mean, it was truly, really bad false teaching. But like I said, a lot of people bought into it. So not only do men have no power or authority over angels, but Jude and Peter teach us that these false teachers actually revile them. They don't simply think that they have power, but they revile them. And the word reviles is the Greek word blasphemo, from which we get the English word blaspheme or to blaspheme. What does it mean to blaspheme? To blaspheme means to speak evil of. It seems that this description of reviling angelic majesties means that they have no respect for the power that these angels have within the supernatural realm, whether it be the holy or the unholy angels. Though angels are often given authority by God to interact with men in the natural realm, and so angels have, if they are given authority by God, angels have the ability to interact with us to the point that God even gives them permission to reveal themselves to us. People have seen angels. there are many passages of scripture where angels interact with humans, but there is no evidence anywhere that men can interact with angels at all. There's no way we can see angels, we cannot touch them, we cannot interact with them, we certainly can't bind them, we certainly can't restrict their movements, we have no ability to do anything. But yet these false teachers revile angelic majesties. They think that they can curse angels and they can cast them out and they can do all these things. And again, it comes back to Acts 19. It's like, I know about Jesus, I know about Paul, but who are you? And it's folly for men to think that they have any authority or any ability to affect angels in any way. Like those in our day who believe that they can bind Satan and evil forces, such men truly do revile, they blaspheme, they speak evil of angelic majesties, and they have no ability, nor do they have any right to speak evil. Then as an example of the attitude and the respect that men should have for angelic power, in verse 9, Jude cites the example of the archangel Michael and his interaction with Satan. Remember, Satan, who was Lucifer, Lucifer was an archangel, Michael is an archangel. They were equal, equal in position. They were both archangels. They are both archangels. Satan as Lucifer has since fallen from that position. But Jews verse 9, 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. Again here we have an example from the greater to the lesser. If the archangel Michael is unable to revile the archangel or the angel Lucifer, Who are we, puny men, to think that we can revile angels? Even the archangel Michael is not so foolish as to think that he can speak evil of Satan. But there are several interpretive questions that emerge from this verse nine. First, what is the event in which Michael disputes with the devil about the body of Moses? And this is very contentious, and this verse is one of the reasons why there was late acceptance of the book of Jude in the canon. because there was nowhere else in scripture that this event is recorded. There is a place, it's called The Assumption of Moses. It's an Old Testament historical book. It's uninspired. It's much like much of the other Jewish writings. There are a great many stories located there, but it's not inspired. So to cite from or quote from an uninspired book, people say, well, then that makes the book of Jude uninspired. Well, not really. What it does is it validates what is contained in that account as being true. In opposition to the Lord's keeping of Moses's grave hidden, there was this, after Moses had gone up on the mountain and he died, no one was with him. So some suggest that the reference here to the Archangel Michael contending for the body of Moses is a reference to the fact that when Moses died, the Lord had the angels bury Moses' body so that the Jews would not know where he was buried. Because what happens if we know where something is buried? We're gonna put a big Catholic church right over the top of it. I mean, they're gonna create a shrine, they're gonna create a monument, they're gonna worship. The body of Moses would be revered and it would become a source of great idolatry, believe me. If the Jews knew where the body of Moses is or was, they would create an idol to it. was so wise of the Lord, obviously perfect in wisdom. He did not allow any men to know where Moses was buried. But in opposition to the Lord's keeping of Moses's grave hidden, it has been suggested that Satan wished to reveal Moses's grave and thus create a stumbling block for the Jews for the same reason. If Satan were allowed to know and to tell humans where Moses was buried, you can bet they would fall into idolatry for that very reason. It has also been suggested that since Satan is here referred to by the title devil, the devil means accuser, that the devil was contending that Moses did not deserve to be buried because he was in violation of the Mosaic law. Moses was a murderer and he should be treated as a murderer. He should not be given the honor of being buried, that he should have been treated as the murderer that he was. The bottom line is we don't know what event Jude is specifically referring to only that he is referring to an altercation between Michael and Satan. So secondly, what is meant when Jude says that Michael did not dare to pronounce against him, that is the devil, a railing judgment? At first glance, this statement has the appearance that Michael is somehow inferior or less powerful than Satan, and thus did not dare to challenge Satan's authority or power. But that's not correct. Michael was not inferior to Satan in any way. So what does this statement mean? Well, for help, there's some help to be found in Zechariah chapter three, verses one through four. In Zechariah chapter three, beginning of verse one, we read, then he showed me Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of the Lord. The angel of the Lord is the Lord Jesus, pre-incarnate Christ. And Satan standing at his right hand to accuse him. And the Lord said to Satan, the Lord rebuke you, Satan. Indeed, the Lord who has chosen Jerusalem rebuke you. Is this not a brand pluck from the fire? Now Joshua, who was the high priest, was clothed with filthy garments and standing before the angel. And he spoke and said to those who were standing before him, saying, remove the filthy garment from him. And again, he said, see, I have taken your iniquity away from you and will clothe you with festal robes. So here in Zechariah chapter three, we have a vision in which Joshua, who was the high priest of Israel at the time, is in the presence of the Lord and the Lord is seated on his throne. With Joshua standing before the Lord, the high priest standing before the Lord, Satan stands at the right hand of the Lord to accuse Joshua of sin. But as he does with all the saints, the Lord Jesus rejects and repels the accusation of Satan saying to Joshua, I have taken your sin away from you. So you can see that the word rebuke is not a harsh verbal attack when Jesus himself says, the Lord rebuke you. He's not attacking him. What he's simply saying is I reject the accusation that you are making. Your accusation is rejected. I have taken, he says, I have taken your iniquity away from you. The accusation of Satan was invalid. It has been rejected. So you can see that the word rebuke is not a harsh verbal attack, but a calm, humble rejection of the accuser's accusation. In the same way, in Jude verse 9, we can then interpret Michael's response to Satan in the same way that the Lord Jesus rejected Satan's accusation of Joshua in Zechariah chapter 3. To paraphrase Jude verse 9, 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 disapproves of and has rejected your efforts. He's simply saying, no, the Lord says you can't have him. He doesn't rebuke him. He doesn't get in his face. You know, there's no anger. There's no hostility. It's simply a straightforward statement. The Lord has rejected your argument. You are rejected. You have your argument. Your request has no validity. It is refused. It is simply a statement, the Lord has refused you. And in this way, Michael is not directly attacking Satan, but is merely the messenger. He's merely the messenger that the Lord has rejected Satan's efforts and will not permit him to act. And again, Satan can do nothing other than what God permits. Satan cannot unilaterally act. He could not get into a dispute with Michael and said, I'm gonna take him anyway. And Michael simply says, the Lord has rejected it and Lord has refused you, be gone. You depart because you have no authority and your request has been denied. There was no appealing that. Satan had no way to appeal, say, well, I want to speak to the man himself. I want to speak to God. No, it's like, no, I'm the messenger. The Archangel Michael was delivering the message. The Lord has rejected your request. It's been refused. So by his example of the powerful Archangel Michael, speaking to Satan, we see that Michael does not insinuate superiority over Satan. They are, after all, equals, both being created archangels. And instead, Michael humbly delivers God's message to Satan. He does not revile or attack, verbally or otherwise, Satan in any way, unlike the false teachers who believe that they can, and they attempt to. They revile Satan and the demonic world with their words all the time. They attack them like a dog barking at an elephant, having no effect. having no power, no ability to affect anything. Next in verse 10, Jude continues to describe the attitudes and the actions of these false teachers, referring to these men. 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. So again, compare Jude now verse 10 with 2 Peter chapter 2 and verse 12. To continue on, Jude continues on parallel with 2 Peter. Peter says, but these, like unreasoning animals, born as creatures of instinct to be captured and killed, reviling where they have no knowledge, will in the destruction of those creatures also be destroyed. Similar language, similar events occurring, slightly different words, but the same meaning. Notice that both Jude and Peter speak of these false teachers as being unreasoning animals who are driven by instinct. So what does he mean? What do they mean? Well, previously, using the examples of the disobedient Jews in the wilderness and the immoral men of Sodom and Gomorrah to describe the false teachers, Jude and Peter now describe these men as being driven by their instinctive lusts. And furthermore, the fact that they engage in behavior that is contrary to nature, these actions are those equivalent to an unreasoning animal. It's describing these ungodly men as being unlike unreasoning animals. Jude is saying that their knowledge and thinking is worldly. The natural and carnal reasoning of unspiritual men. That's what he's saying. These are merely carnal, unspiritual men acting in the way that all men do instinctively who are without Christ. Such men are described by Paul in 1 Corinthians 2, verse 14. But a natural man does not accept the things of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised." These false teachers, they are unbelievers. And because they are unbelievers, they do not understand spiritual things. But they profess to. They think that they are spiritual. But the things that they claim to know spiritually are wrong. They are inventions of their own mind. Inventions of their own dreams. Their own desires. As William Barclay states, their way of life is to allow the instincts they share with the beast to have their way. Their values are fleshly values. Their gospel is the gospel of the flesh. Jude describes men who have lost all sense of and awareness of spiritual things and for whom the things demanded by the animal instincts of man are the only realities and the only standard that they adhere to. They are driven by their fleshly desires, their instincts, their human instincts. They have no spiritual instincts because they do not have any spirituality. They claim to, but it is all a delusion. And then at the end of verse 10, Jude and Peter both state that these men are creatures to be destroyed. And this question is, what does this destruction look like? The Greek word for destroyed means to destroy or to corrupt or to deprave. The idea behind Jude's use of the word is destruction in the sense of irreparable corruption and depravity. As we previously saw, the reason such men are destroyed is because they reject Christ as the Son of God. Paul refers to such men as enemies of the cross in Philippians 3. Paul writes, They are enemies of the cross, whose end is destruction, whose God is their appetite, and whose glory is in their shame. who set their minds on earthly things. Very similar to the words that Peter and Jude use. But interestingly here in Jude 10 and 2 Peter 2.12, the destruction that is spoken of is not a reference to future judgment or future destruction, but to present corruption and present judgment. The word destroyed is used in the present tense, and it is in the passive voice, meaning this destruction is presently going on. The fact is, in their corruption, they are in fact being judged. Their corruption is a form of God's judgment upon them. Even in their continuous action, in so doing, they are being judged by God. They are being corrupted. And as they act more and more, they are becoming more and more corrupted. Their destruction is becoming greater and greater. But it is not a future destruction at the Great White Throne, but it is a present corruption and destruction going on within them as false teachers, which is really a scary thought. The more you bring your false teaching, the more corruption comes upon you. The farther into the deception you fall. It's a scary place. And then in verse 11, Jude pronounces the well-deserved punishment that God is pouring out on them. Jude says, woe, woe to them. For they have gone the way of Cain, and for pay they have rushed headlong into the air of Balaam, and perished in the rebellion of Korah. And once again, we see a triplet of description that is used by Jude. The way of Cain, the error of Balaam, and the rebellion of Korah. The phrase woe to them is what Dr. Tom Constable terms to be an imprecation of doom. The word imprecation means something rude or angry or hostile that is said to or about someone. In other words, it means to wish ill upon someone. You know, in the Psalms, there are imprecatory Psalms. An imprecatory Psalm is a Psalm in which the writer actually wishes harm to come upon someone. There are at least five that I know of in which David, David prays that God will judge the men who are chasing him, who are trying to destroy him. David is actually calling upon God to destroy them, to punish them for their evil. So there are, There are places in scripture where David calls upon an imprecation upon his enemies, that God would judge them, that he wishes ill will upon them. So the term woe means ruined. And being an imprecation, the term woe to them can be interpreted by Jude as, I wish ruin to come upon them. And here you sense the emotion of Jude. knowing the damage that these false teachers are doing to the church and will do to the church, he's saying, I wish ill and ruin to come upon such men because they are damaging the church of Christ. They are damaging those people for whom Christ died. And who of us does not have a righteous indignation when we learn of someone who's trying to intentionally mislead the church and and damage the church. We wish ill upon them. We wish ruin to come upon them. And that's what Jude is doing here in verse 11. Woe to them. I wish ruin to come upon them. Strong language. And you see the word woe is used throughout scripture. And it is not a, it is a term that wishes difficulty, wishes ruin to come upon people or warns of ruin to come upon people who persist in their activities. So here in verse 11, Jude cites the examples of three notorious characters whose wickedness brought upon them divine punishment. First, we have what is described as the way of Cain. And scripture teaches us that Cain was the first murderer. And why did he murder his brother Abel? Because Cain was faithless and he was a self-centered man who was consumed with hatred for his righteous brother. Secondly, we have the error of Balaam. And Balaam stands as an example of a covetous man who was prepared to curse the Israelites for the sake of a monetary reward. And thirdly, we have the rebellion of Korah. The sin of Korah was open rebellion against God and against Moses in that he attempted to usurp the authority of Moses. And this is recorded for us in the book of Numbers, Numbers chapter 16. But why does Jude cite the examples of these three men? Well, first, the way of Cain is an example of those who worship God on their own terms. Cain's sacrifice was not regarded by God because it was not a worthy sacrifice. His brother Abel, God accepted his sacrifice, but Cain's, God refused. So Cain was envious of his brother. He was angry with his brother because his brother's sacrifice was accepted, but his own was refused. And what did he do? He rose up in anger and he killed his brother. Secondly, we have the error of Balaam, which was, Balaam's motive was selfish gain. Or as Peter puts it in 2 Peter 2.15, having followed the way of Balaam, the son of Baor, who loved the wages of unrighteousness. So Balaam, his motive was selfish gain. He was willing to curse anybody if the price was right. Balak called upon him and paid him handsomely to curse the Israelites, but God had other other things in mind and he actually pronounced a blessing upon the Israelites which just drove Balak nuts. Three times he attempted to curse the Israelites and it didn't go well. But it's not because he didn't want to and it's not because he didn't give the money back either. Even though he pronounced a blessing upon Israel, Balaam did not give the money back. He took the money. So in the phrase, the error of Balaam, The Greek word for error does not really convey the meaning of the Greek word that's used here. We typically think of an error as simply a mistake. And it was an honest mistake. Yeah, I made an error. I tried, but it was an error. You play baseball, you make an error. Hey, I didn't try to fumble the ball. I just made an error. It was an honest mistake. But the Greek word used here means a deception. A deception for the purpose of leading others astray. Well, that's much more serious than simply a mistake. This was an intentional deception. As William Barclay says, Balaam stands for two things. He stands for the covetous man who is prepared to sin in order to gain reward. And this refers to him accepting King Balak's reward. But Balaam also stands for the evil man who is guilty of the greatest of all sins. And that is the sin of teaching and encouraging others to sin. This is a reference to Balaam's encouragement of the Israelites to embrace friendship with the Midianites, thus causing the Israelites to both fall into idolatry and adultery. So by encouraging the Midianites to intermarry and to socialize with the Israelites and the Midianites, he encouraged them into idolatry because the Israelites, they were prone to worship any false god that came along. And so when the Midianites, they began to worship the false gods of the Midianites, they began to intermarry, they began to commit adultery. And for that, Balaam was encouraging that. So Balaam really stands as an example of someone who teaches others to sin and encourages them to sin. Thirdly, we have the rebellion of Korah. And this is an example of those who desire to usurp authority. As a refresher, the rebellion of Korah occurs in Numbers chapter 16. And in that chapter, we learned that the rebellion of Korah was a dispute instigated by Korah in which he basically gathered around him 250 men who were leaders of their tribes, of their families. And being of the tribe of the priesthood, Korah was one of the priests. But the problem for Korah was his family had been assigned by God the role of performing priestly duties in that Their role was to maintain the tent of meeting and all the articles within the tent of meeting. When the tent of meeting was moved, they would take it down, they would pack it up, they would transport it. When they got to the new destination, they would set up. In other words, it was Cora moving in storage. Wherever they went, Cora's clan was in charge of being the moving company. They weren't involved in the sacrifice. They weren't involved in performing any of the priestly duties, the glamorous duties that that were desirable, they were simply responsible for moving the tent of meeting. And Korah chafed under that. He wanted a better role. He wanted a more important role. And so he began to criticize Moses and all the things. Here's Numbers chapter 16. This is right after the rebellion at Kadesh Barnea. The rebellion at Kadesh Barnea, the people refused to go into the land. And for that, God then condemned them to stay in the wilderness until that generation died off. So now Korah is unhappy. A great many people are unhappy because they see Moses as being responsible for them now wandering in the wilderness for another 38 years. So Korah wants to displace Moses. He wants Moses to be removed. And he, I think, I'm going to do a better job. So Korah thinks I ought to be the leader of the Israelites. Moses, he's not doing a good job. You need to appoint me. And somehow Korah managed to get 250 influential men to back him up. Now, for the sake of time, we're not going to read through it. But basically, Moses says, okay, here's what we're gonna do. Tomorrow, you're gonna bring your pan of incense, you're gonna present it before the Lord, and I will present mine, and we'll see what the Lord does. And the Lord basically tells Moses and Aaron, move away from them. So they move away, and God causes the ground to open up, swallowing all of Korah, his family, his children, everything that he owned was swallowed up, and then the ground closed in over the top of them. The 250 men who had been supporting Korah, who brought their incense, God brought down fire and consumed them. God destroyed them. So the people obviously were frightened. They ran, they scattered, they realized, don't mess with Moses. Moses is the guy. But again, Korah was unhappy. He was rebellious. He was rebelling against God, God's authority, because Korah thought he could do a better job. Which is, I mean, you think about false teachers. Isn't that one of the things that they do? Say, wow, these church leaders, They don't know what they're doing. They're leading the church in the wrong direction. You put me in charge, I'll show you how to get things done. It's interesting that Korah, because they were related, Korah actually turned out, he was a cousin of Moses. So this was a family dispute as well as a leadership dispute. I'm gonna skip down here a little bit, to get to the end of this long section. I'm not gonna read through Numbers chapter 16. So remember in Jude verse 11, this is an imprecatory statement by Jude. It is an expression of Jude's wish that ruin would come upon these men at God's hand. Woe to them. I pray, I call down God's judgment upon them, God's ruin upon them for the damage that they are doing to the church. As I said earlier, when Jude says woe to them, Jude is saying, I wish ruin to come upon them. And in citing the examples of Cain and Balaam and Korah, Jude is reminding his readers of the woe, that is the ruin that came upon all three of those men, Cain, Balaam, and Korah. For Cain, the first murderer, his ruin was the curse that God put upon him for having murdered his brother. In Genesis chapter four, verses 11 and 12, we read of this curse. God says to Cain, now you are cursed from the ground, which has opened its mouth to receive your brother's blood from your hand. When you cultivate the ground, it shall no longer yield its strength to you. You shall be a vagrant and a wanderer on the earth. As I was reading through Genesis chapter four also, then Cain laments the fact, but then I will be hated and they will try to kill me. And God says, well, I will place a sign upon you so that you will not be, no one can injure you. No one can harm you. And there's been a lot of speculation as to what this sign would be. The one I liked the best was a description of he must have had a horn sticking out of his forehead. Oh, there's the guy with the horn. Don't pick on him. We don't know what the sign was, but we do know that he was cursed by God. For Balaam the greedy, his ruin was execution by the sword at the direction of Moses. And his execution was for the crime of having caused the sons of Israel to sin against the Lord by their idolatry and their adultery with the Midianite women. And for Korah the rebellious, his ruin was God causing the ground to open up and swallow him and all of his family and all of his belongings. And he went down alive to Sheol. So here in Jude verse 11, God is expressing the level of anger and righteous indignation that comes with seeing and knowing great harm is being done to the church. being done at the hands of ungodly men who are attacking the church. This is Jude, not God. This is Jude expressing the level of his anger and righteous indignation at what they're doing. And when we all see a false teacher having a damaging impact on our congregation or some other congregation, we feel the same indignation. We do wish, Lord, why do you not come down and consume them? Take them out now. We do wish that Lord, I pray that you would do something to remove them so that they don't do any further damage. And we don't know why the Lord allows some false teachers to persist for a time, but it is all according to his divine sovereign plan. I have to admit that I have often wished such immediate ruin to come upon some men that I've witnessed as false teachers and seeing the damage. I mean, Matt was talking about the other night, TBN, the other day, TBN, the false teaching that is on television, on some television channels. Men have made millions, tens of millions, hundreds of millions of dollars, preying upon weak and unsuspecting and unspiritual people. And you just wish, I wish just one time a bolt of lightning would come out of heaven and just fry them. I mean, just to let them know God is watching. As much as you wish this imprecation of doom to come upon them, it never seems to happen. But we have to rest in the knowledge that in the end, God's justice may grind slow, but it grinds fine. They will answer for what they are doing to the church. And we have to understand that also, God is sovereign. He will protect the church. He has given to us His Holy Spirit. The Spirit will protect us. It's not like they're gonna get away with anything. The false teachers may do some damage, but God will still, the Spirit will still protect those who are His own. And when you think about those false teachers who do teach and teach falsely for so long without immediate judgment upon them, you often wonder what God's plan is. It makes you marvel at God, how infinitely patient He is in dealing with or not dealing with and allowing these false teachers to continue with their false teaching for a time. But we have to remember, that all these things are ordained by God to accomplish the purpose that He has decided, that He has ordained. It's difficult for us as we live in the here and now and we're seeing these events play out. It's not like we're looking back on them in history and we see how those false teachers were ultimately treated. We, in the here and now, wish ill upon, we wish woe upon someone who is damaging the church. But all we can simply do for ourselves is to rest in the knowledge that we are being faithful in what we've been given. We are being diligent to learn and make sure that we are able to defend what we believe and that we as a church body are able to defend the sound doctrine of our church and watch out for one another as you use the example of the Roman phalanx. When we are attacked, we huddle together, we protect one another, we prevent the flaming arrows of the enemy from getting through. As a church body, we're all responsible for helping to defend the doctrine of the church. So when the false teacher does arise, we are all able to point to him and say, no, that is wrong. That is wrong. That is, that is wrong teaching. We are rejecting that teaching because it will happen. It will always happen and every church will experience it. So the warning of Jude is not only to the churches that he was very familiar with, but it is to the warning to every single church that has ever come into being since the day Christ ascended to heaven, and the Holy Spirit came upon the men, and the church age began. The church has always been under assault. The Holy Spirit had no sooner come upon the men and women at Pentecost than the devil was right behind him, sowing the seeds of deception and false teaching. He has been attacking since the very beginning. It's a war that will never end. It's a war that will not end in this lifetime. It will continue until the end. But the good news is we read the end of the book and we know God prevails, God wins. And not simply because there's any combat, God simply says it's done. Satan has no power. Satan has no authority. God is in control of all things. The devil is the devil, but the devil is God's devil. The devil does what God ordains, what God permits. The devil does not act on his own. He only does what he is permitted to do as we see in the book of Job. You can do this and no more. You can go this far, but no further. So the devil can only do that which God permits. So when we see false teachers arising, this is because God has ordained this for whatever purpose. It's part of the sanctification process. It's part of the winnowing process. We don't know what God is doing, but we rest in the knowledge that God is sovereign and that He has everything under control. We thank Him and praise Him. Let's pray together. Father, we do give you thanks. We thank you that your ways are truly unsearchable. We don't know, we cannot understand why and how you do the things you do. But when we see the effect and what is accomplished through your will, we marvel. We are constantly marveling at how you do things. You do things that we would never understand, we would never devise ourselves. Your ways truly are unsearchable. We thank you for the warning of Jude. We thank you that, and we pray that we would heed this warning, that we would take these things, keep these things in our mind, that we would meditate upon them. And when the false teacher arises from within our own midst, we pray that we would have discernment from your spirit to give us understanding, that we might resist the ways and the teaching of the devil, that we would remain sound and steadfast in our faith and in our doctrine. We thank you for our time together tonight, and we thank you and praise you in Jesus' name, amen.