Hello and welcome to the Middletown Baptist Church podcast,
where we are proclaiming the truth to the world.
My name is Pastor Josh and I want to thank you for listening to
this podcast.
I hope that this podcast can be a blessing to you and strengthen
you in the word of God.
Now come along, let's look into the Bible and see what God has
for us here today.
Let's go ahead and get into our Bible study here this evening.
We are going to be in the Book of Jude.
If you have your Bibles, turn there with me to the Book of Jude.
You have a hard time finding the Book of Jude.
Go to the end at Revelation and go back one and you will find
the Book of Jude.
And encourage you to follow along with me as we go through this
study.
Don't want you to take it for granted what I'm reading.
I want you to follow along with me if you can.
And we started last week looking at what the theme of Jude
is.
The Book of Jude is all about contending for the faith, fighting
for the faith.
What does that mean?
That means to fight for the truth, fight for the gospel.
And the.
The challenge here from Jude and ultimately from the Lord, is
that we as individuals and as a church should contend for the truth.
Why?
In this specific case, we see verse number four tells us that certain
men crept in unawares.
And so we have some false teachers.
We have false teachers, false teaching, false truths, if you will.
I guess that's an oxymoron, false truth.
But what we can see here is that they were coming in and.
And claiming to be truthful, claiming to be preaching the word
of God, but yet they were abusing grace.
And it tells us in verse four specifically what they were teaching
in heresy.
And that was they were turning the grace of our Lord God into lasciviousness.
They were.
They were turning what we know in the Bible to be true grace.
And grace is a wonderful thing.
Grace gives us that freedom to live for Christ.
Grace gives us that understanding that we are saved by
that grace and not our works.
But sometimes the Bible says that we can use grace as a veil for
our sin.
We can misunderstand grace.
We can impose our human nature upon grace and live in a sensual
fashion, basically fulfilling the lust of our flesh in the name
of grace.
And so in so doing, it says at the end of verse four that these
false teachers were denying Jesus.
Now, it doesn't claim specifically that they were out now
denying Jesus.
They could have been, and they might have.
But what we can see here is that just by the way that they were
teaching, they were denying Jesus.
And so by the way that the message of the Gospel is preached
is an indication on where someone stands in Jesus, what they
preach about Jesus and his identity and his character in his,
in his deity.
All of those things is, is, is a deciding factor on whether or not
someone is a false teacher or a true Bible preacher.
And so in this case, these individuals were twisting the truth
of God and misleading people.
And so he says, you need to go back, you need to go back to the
truth.
You need to contend for the faith, you need to protect the truth.
And I think as a church that's something that we should stand upon.
It's very easy for us to assume that everything that's being
preached to us is true, especially if people use religious
terms, especially if people will, you know, open up a Bible when
they begin to preach.
Especially people maybe look the part sound apart.
But the Bible says that these people came in unawares, meaning
it was unknown to the people, they weren't wearing on their chest,
hey, I'm a false teacher and I'm just going to let you know what
I'm about to teach you is false teaching.
They didn't do that.
And so we need to be discerning.
We need to allow the Holy Spirit to guide us in truth.
And so what we talked about last week was what is the test of
a false teacher?
How do we know that someone is preaching heresy?
Well, it's in accordance to Scripture.
What does scripture say about what they are saying?
Check them in Scripture.
And so we can cross reference that passage to what we talked about
on Sunday night.
If some of you are here, we were in Acts, chapter 17.
What did the Bereans do?
They, they, they checked it.
They, they received the Word, but then they checked what was being
preached to them from the Scriptures.
And so I would encourage you to do so.
That's one way that we can defend the faith.
Later on in Jude, he's going to explain a little bit more about
how to contend for the faith.
But in verse 5 he begins to go into some explanation about what's
going to happen to people that reject Jesus, what's going to happen
to these false prophets.
And, and he's actually going to talk about three different groups
of, of people and angelic beings that went a certain route
and what happened to them in their judgment.
And so this is a very interesting passage of Scripture.
It essentially shows the certainty of God's judgment against
certain people that reject the truth of God.
And so that's what's going to happen here.
So he's going to reference the Old Testament.
And one of the things I really appreciate about Jude is he, he deeply
references the Old Testament and actually other Hebrew literature.
And the reason why he would do this is because the people that he
was writing to, they would have had a grip on this.
They would have understood what he was referencing.
So he's basically calling back to something that they know and tying
that together with what they're dealing with in that moment.
So he says, you see how there's people teaching these heresies
within the church.
This is what's going to happen to them.
Just like these people that you know, that you are familiar with.
And so let's look at that here this evening.
This is talking about the judgment of God upon those that reject
the truth of God.
So verse five, he says, I will therefore put you in remembrance.
And so he says, remember, remember this, though ye once knew
this how that the Lord having saved the people out of the land
of Egypt, afterward destroyed them that believe not.
So.
So what is he referencing here?
He's.
He's talking about the story that you are all familiar with.
And they would have been familiar with that God saves his
people out of the bondage in Egypt.
And as they are out wandering in the wilderness, they.
They lack belief, they question God and they deny God.
And so in that denial, in.
In that lack of belief, as it says, they were destroyed.
And so Jew knew he wasn't telling anybody something new.
They.
They had already been taught this example, but he needed to bring
it back up again to remind them of their present situation.
And so I think it's important for us to go back to Scripture to
see, hey, these are given to us for examples.
These, these stories are not just entertaining stories.
These are not just stories for us to tell our children so that they
can learn moral lessons, even though that might be the case.
But these are true stories that we can learn from in our lives
and apply to our daily decisions.
And so that's what he's doing here.
He's referring back to something that they would have known
as scripture.
And he's saying, look, just as the people were saved from the land
of Egypt and rejected, so if you continue on in this path, you
will reject God as well.
So Jude reminds us of what happened in Numbers, chapter 14.
God delivered the people out of Israel out of slavery, and then
they went out into Egypt or they went out from Egypt, I should
say.
And what happens?
They're tempted to doubt.
They're tempted to question they're tempted to think that God
doesn't care about them.
And then every time God does something for them, there's that
immediate joy.
And then what happens?
They go back to default.
They go back to saying, well, you know what sent Mana to us?
Now we're tired of that, right?
You're doing this for us, but now what are you going to do next?
And so think of what God did for the people of Israel in that
situation.
And then think about how they responded to Him.
Think about the Israelites in the wilderness's response to what
God had done for them, save them completely.
He had taken them across the Red Sea, split the Red Sea.
They were there at the foot of Mount Sinai.
They had received daily care in the wilderness as you are familiar
with.
Yet they still go back into unbelief.
And because of that, they were rejected.
At least everyone except a few were rejected into going into the
Promised Land.
And so this speaks of God's judgment to those that don't believe.
And so the warning I believe here to from Jude is clear that the
people of Israel started out from Egypt well enough.
They started out from Egypt in a good place.
But even though they had many blessings, they regressed and they
went back to their default mode.
And that was humanism, that was selfishness, that was rebellion.
And so they failed to believe in God's promises and his power.
And so we can see for our own lives one of the ways that we can
fall into false teaching is when we deny the promises and the
power of God in our own life, when we reject those blessings that
he has given us in our life, or at least forget about those blessings
and lose the gratitude that God calls us to have.
And without gratitude, it's impossible to have humility.
And without humility, it's impossible to experience God's grace.
And so I think a lot of times within the church, one way that heresy
can be spread, one way that false teaching can be received, is
when we forget about what God has done in our life, when we forget
about his blessings, and when we take the focus off of him and
what he has done, and we put the focus on ourselves.
And we miss really the deeper message that God has showed us throughout
all of our lives.
And that is his love and his power and his promises.
And so I would be very cautious here as a church to get
to a point in our lives where we forget about the promises of God.
When we go back into the promises of God, we're able to tap
into the truth that we can find in Scripture.
So that is one example, and that is the example of the people
that were freed from Egypt and the judgment that came with their
rebellion.
So we're going to get to verse number six and this is where things
get a little bit interesting.
You heard me before say groups of people and angelic beings or supernatural
beings.
And we're going to see an instance here where Jude references
the judgment of angels and which many people would call befallen
angels.
And, and so verse six is, and the angel which kept not their first
estate, but left their own habitation, he hath reserved in everlasting
chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day.
So what is he talking about here?
Well, and Jude is bringing up a very interesting concept that was
given to us in Genesis chapter six, and it's a controversial passage.
I believe that he's talking about that second reference in Genesis
6.
I don't believe personally you could reference that.
This is talking about the original fall of the third of the
angels that followed Satan.
But we do see that in verse 6 it says that they were an everlasting
chains.
Well, we know that not all of the original angels that fell with
Satan are in everlasting chains.
We know that some of them are moving about freely.
But we do know that there in Genesis 6 that God chained up those
specific ones that rebelled against this, this mandate to not.
If you read Genesis 6, it's a very interesting story.
This is the story we get the Nephilim from.
So basically what the Bible says is the sons of God came and
have relations with the, the women of the earth.
And there's a lot of debate on what that actually is.
We're not going to get into that this evening.
But all we know is that these, these fallen angels, so to speak,
committed sensual acts.
They, they committed sexual sin and therefore they were judged
for this deviation from God's righteousness.
And so this offense was connected to some kind of sensual
sin, the union between the sons of God in Genesis 6 and the
human being or the daughters of men in Genesis 6.
And so we do know that there was some element of, of sin when
it comes to the, the sexual union there in Genesis 6.
And we know that because there's a tie together to verse seven,
to Sodom and Gomorrah, which we know that their sin as well was
tied to that fornication that we're going to talk about here in
a moment.
So we can, we can add another piece into the puzzle.
I, I believe too, because when it talks about the unique imprisonment
of them in verse six.
And so I believe this is referencing the angels that committed
that sin there in Genesis 6.
And therefore they were judged, eternally judged.
And so what can we take with that element of judgment?
What we can see is this.
Their, their rebellion caused God to judge them.
And that judgment in their unbelief and that judgment in their
sin cause eternal punishment.
And I think that's important for us to see that in our unbelief
and in our rebellion, we would face as well, without Christ, without
faith in him, without his grace, eternal judgment as well,
we would be eternally punished.
And again, we don't want to only preach judgment.
I know a lot of times people get uncomfortable talking about judgment
and hell and, and, and fire and brimstone.
And you know, sometimes we can err on the side of only preaching
that, but we also can err on the side of not preaching it at all.
And I think what the, the warning here is that there are eternal
implications to what we believe in our life.
Right?
So, so what I believe about God is not just going to be for the
here and now.
I think a lot of times people think, well, I've got maybe 80, 90,
100, you know, if I'm blessed 120 years here on this planet, right?
And then it's over.
But the Bible speaks very clearly that there is, we are individuals,
souls that are going to last for eternity.
It's whether or not we are going to last for eternity with God
in His presence, given everlasting life and faith, or we're
going to be on the side of punishment and separation for God
for eternity.
And so I think the importance that we can take from this passage
of Scripture is that just as those angels were judged eternally
and imprisoned, as it says they're in everlasting chains, we
as well as human beings in rebellion against God will face eternal
judgment as well.
And, and so you say, well, how does that tie into fighting against
false teaching?
Well, I would say it's this, the emphasis on the here and now
immaterial would be a character trait of false teaching.
Talking only about the here and now, talking only about your,
your morals today, which should we preach.
Morals.
Yes.
But to really, I would say emphasize the eternal nature of our
lives and that it's not just, hey, I don't want to sin because
this is going to hurt me today, I don't want to sin because
this is rebellion against God, that this is rejecting the Lord.
And so belief means that I have everlasting life.
Disbelief, rejection of God means that I am going to face eternal
judgment.
So I believe that that's what this passage is talking about here.
God judged these wicked angels, setting them up in everlasting
chains.
And by not keeping their proper place and not, not keeping
themselves in a place of righteousness, they left thinking
that they were going to find freedom.
Right?
Because most of the time when people sin, when most of the time
people pick their own sensual desires, it's because of, I want
freedom, I want to do what I want to do.
But what we can see here is that they went for freedom, but they
found what they found, bondage.
And so it's the actual opposite react, the, the opposite
reaction that they expected.
They expected, if I do this sin, I will have more freedom.
And that's what the world teaches.
The more you have pleasure, the more you fulfill your own desires,
the more you will have freedom away from God.
But it's the complete opposite.
The more you reject God and, and the more you seek after those
pleasurable things in this world alone, that's going to cause
bondage, that's going to cause us to be tied up into that and we
can't get out.
And so if, if angels cannot break the chains of sin brought upon
them on their own, we're, we're foolish to think that we as
human beings can break those chains of sin without the power of
God in our life.
And, and I think that that's important to see.
And you know, you know, a lot of times people will say, you know,
I, I found the right path, I cleaned myself up, and I know what
we mean by that.
But really, truly complete transformation does not come from
our hard work.
It does not come from, from effort, from any place in our own
stead.
It's, it's ultimately God's power working through us.
And so this, this reminds us of the eternal judgment of God and
God's hatred for this type of sin.
Speaking of that type of sin, we get to verse number seven.
Even as Sodom and Gomorrah, and most of you are probably familiar
with that story, obviously Sodom and Gomorrah is referenced
in the Old Testament.
And these, they're actually two cities, and the surrounding areas
stand as an example for, for many, as a place of God's judgment.
Their sin was a sexual sin.
The Bible speaks of that in the Old Testament as specifically
the sin of fornication and the sin of homosexuality.
And, and there were many sins involved with Sodom and Gomorrah.
The Bible also references in, in Ezekiel, the sin of pride and
and, and abundance of idleness.
And they, they weren't generous.
They were the opposite of that.
And a lot of people will actually use that as a proof text
that God wasn't upset with their sexual sin there and Sodom
and Gomorrah, they were only just upset with their pride and their
lack of generosity.
But ultimately what we can see is they have multiple issues.
And, and so you, you know that story.
I don't need to go into all the details, but essentially I will
say this.
There were angels there in Sodom.
The men of Sodom wanted to forcibly have relations with these
men.
And obviously God judged them and there was none righteous there
in that area.
And obviously Lot and his daughters are the only ones that,
that got out.
And so what does this say here?
It goes in to talk a little bit more about their sin.
It says so even as Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities about them
in like manner.
So it's not just Sodom and Gomorrah giving themselves over to
fornication.
Now, what is fornication?
Essentially, biblically speaking, fornication is any sexual
activity outside of the bonds of marriage.
And I know that sometimes we get a little comfortable talking
about that within church, but it's in the scripture, so we got
to talk about it.
Right?
And a lot of people don't understand, well, you know, if there's
love involved or, you know, if it's, if it's this or it's that.
No, the Bible very clearly says outside the bonds of marriage,
that's.
That's fornication, that's sin.
That's a sin of the flesh.
And then it says even further, so they were practicing fornication,
so all different types of sexual sins.
And then it says, and going after strange flesh.
And so that's a reference to the inordinate affections of man
with man.
And so it says because of that, they are set forth as an example
suffering the vengeance of eternal fire.
And so, so Jude is referring to the account of Genesis 19.
You could read through that story for yourself at some other
time.
But the lesson being taught here is that in their rejection of
God, in their chasing of fornication, in their chasing of
strange flesh, they were used as an example of suffering the vengeance
of eternal fire, that God made things right.
So first, first it assures us that these certain men that were.
And so what we can take with this, and I would say this, what
we can infer from this example and many examples that are here,
that most likely what was happening with whoever Jude was writing
to.
We don't know specifically what church it was, but whatever
group of people that it was, the false teachers, were probably
giving over to sexual sins within the church.
And you know that within First Corinthians, there's.
There's talks of that, how they were intermingling with the.
The culture and allowing themselves to actually blend in together
these types of sins with worship.
And so no doubt what was happening here was that these false
teachers were telling people, hey, you have God's grace, so do
whatever you want.
There's no repercussions.
Live freely.
And so what's happening here is that Jude is warning them, no,
there are repercussions for these types of sins.
Ultimately, the vengeance of eternal fire from God.
And so what we can see here is that it warns us that we must continue
walking with Jesus or we will find danger and we will find, ultimately
destruction if we take that path.
And so I think that that's important for us to.
To see there.
And then he takes those three elements.
So he takes the.
The.
The Israelites wandering in the wilderness and their rebellion
and their judgment.
He then takes this story of the angels falling from heaven and
going and sinning and therefore being judged as an eternal
implication of our sin and our rejection.
And then he talks about Sodom and Gomorrah and the danger of falling
into fornication and chasing after these sensual desires.
So then he goes back to the teachers.
He says, likewise.
Likewise, meaning this is how these false teachers are living.
So he doesn't just attack their.
He doesn't just attack their teaching, which is that normally
what we would do, we would say, okay, this false teacher is
wrong because he's teaching these wrong things.
And so, yeah, that would be a mark of a false teacher, but he actually
goes a little bit further and says, that's how these people are
living.
And so another test to a false teacher is, look at their life.
So what are they saying and what are they doing?
What's their testimony?
What's their.
What's their life like outside of the pulpit?
And, and, you know, that's a.
That's a hard thing, because a lot of people say, well, you know,
don't all pastors and religious leaders live in a glass
house?
Yes, if you look at a pastor long enough, you will find faults
in him.
But there.
There are issues that certainly cannot characterize a teacher
or a preacher of the gospel.
And so what he's saying here is, like, you see these people in
Saddam Gomorrah, you see these fallen angels uh, you see the Egyptians
that were wandering the wilderness, that's how these people
are acting in their lives.
And so he says, likewise.
Also, these filthy dreamers, and it's an interesting use of words.
He calls them filthy dreamers.
And so I, I, I looked that up because I wanted to see what was
he talking about?
Why did he call them dreamers?
And there's, there's a couple theories about that.
When it comes to this idea of, of calling them filthy dreamers,
it's possible that Jude meant that these certain men were out of
touch with reality.
Like, because, you know, you ever meet someone and they've got,
they've got their own reality maybe, and it's not the reality that
we're all living in.
And we go, yeah, they're just, they're out there in dream world,
right?
That could be a reference of what he's saying.
They're just not based in reality.
They're based in their own reality.
Or it possibly could be that it was that they were claiming to
have prophetic visions in their dreams and saying, I had a
dream yesterday, and this is why we should do this.
And they weren't based in truth.
They were based in manipulating people and saying that
they had dreams.
So either way you look at it, it's wrong, right?
One way you could look at it is they're, they were just delusional,
thinking that this way was going to be a success.
Or you could say that they were utilizing dreams as an excuse
to give the false teachings.
So it'd be like me getting up here tonight and going, I had a dream
last night and we should all start doing this, and it's contrary
to scripture.
Well, I might have had that dream, but we all shouldn't do that,
right?
So the idea is, is that we can base ourselves in our whims and our
thoughts when it comes to these fleshly things.
Now, can God give us things and dreams?
That's a highly debated topic.
I'm not saying that he can't, but what I'm saying is, is that we
have to always match it with Scripture, right?
So, for example, let's say, Let me say, for example, I had a
dream last night.
And my dream last night was that all married couples in the church
should stay faithful to each other.
And I got up and I said, I had a dream last night.
And I was really encouraged to say that all married couples in this
church should stay faithful.
I don't think that's a false teaching.
I'm just thinking, hey, that's just an emphasis of a biblical truth.
Now, whether or not I, I want to say that or not with I'm preaching,
it doesn't matter.
But what I'm saying is, is if I get up and say that I have a dream
or a vision or a thought or a word and it's contrary to Scripture,
that's where we throw up the red flag and say that's a danger,
that's, that's an issue.
And, and you'll hear that, you'll hear that within different
circles.
You'll hear, you know, I, I have a thought or a word or I saw
something.
And that's okay until, was the test, until we get to Scripture.
And, and, and so I would, I would be cautious with that.
And, and again, there's that idea there that he calls them filthy
dreamers.
And so it's not just that he's saying, hey, they're talking about
dreams, but there's filthiness in it.
And it's, it's, it's sensual, it's, it's dirty.
And that's what he's referencing here.
And so he goes on to say more about them.
He says they defile the flesh, which we know that the Bible says
that there are certain sins that defile the flesh, their sins
against our body.
And so again, that's tied to that sensual fornication that they
would have probably been tied up in.
So, and I don't want to take this too far, but you know, we do
see in our culture today, especially in the news, a lot of
times religious leaders can abuse their positions for these types
of sins.
Not, not saying that, that everyone that has fallen into a sin
is a false teacher.
But we do know that people have used their position of leadership
to, to prey upon people within the church.
And so there is that danger as well that he says here, that they
defile the flesh.
Filthy dreamers.
They despise dominion, which is, which is interesting thing here
to say.
They, they, they basically, they reject authority is what it's
saying here.
So many words, they reject authority.
Now what type of authority are we talking about?
Most likely it would be biblical authority, the authority
that they, that they would have within the confines of the church.
And they would, they would disrespect authority.
They would disrespect the apostles, most likely the, the people
that were passing down the truths of God to them.
They would disrespect that.
So basically, I guess you could say it this way.
Like I would get up and say, well, so and so across town said
this, but let's forget about that.
We're going to do our own thing.
Well, if so.
And so across town had some sort of biblical authority over us,
or, or maybe there was some kind of accountability amongst them.
The mix it would be basically, they're questioning other people's
teaching, they were despising the authority, and then it says they're
tied together with that they would speak evil of dignities or
dignitaries.
And like I said, most likely it would have been leaders in the
church sowing seeds of discord.
Oh, you know, Pastor so and so says this, but really he just doesn't
know.
And, and so there was that idea of speaking.
And it's more than that.
It seems like they were actually speaking evil, false things
about leaders in the church.
And so it.
Not only did they reject authority, but they spoke evil of
these leaders, of dignitaries.
And so their rejection of authority was connected to their
speaking evil about people.
And in so doing, we know that that can cause division within the
church, that can cause pain, hardship, lies, gossip, deceit.
It can go across the board.
And so what was happening was that these people, if you could summarize
it in so many words, they were sinning publicly, they were misleading
people, they were rejecting biblical direction, and they were
speaking evil of other people that were speaking the truth.
And so, so we have to be careful with, when it comes to this
is, remember, they, they slipped in unawares, they slipped
in silently.
And within the church, I think a lot of times our perception is
that false teaching is going to come from there, the pulpit.
And it could come from there very, very easily.
Could, you know, someone could get up and be preaching false.
But then we think maybe the classroom, maybe a small group, okay,
teacher.
But what we can see here is that by this example, it could happen
in the pews.
The false teaching could start with, hey, two people are talking
about another person.
And then, hey, you know what, we can go a little bit further and
start, you know, disrespecting them.
And it starts out kind of minuscule, but then it grows and
it begins to snowball.
And then now we've allowed ourselves to get into a bunch of
other stuff that continues to be sin.
It continues to grow worse and gets deeper, deeply rooted, and there's
bitterness.
And so what can happen is, is that false teaching could come from
any direction.
That's really the message that Jude is telling us.
False teaching can come from any direction.
It can come from the audience, it can nowadays, culturally speaking,
it can come from our phones, it can come from our TVs it can come
from the radio, it can come from podcasts.
We have to be on guard on every front.
We have to be prepared.
And we don't take things for granted just because this person
comes from this college or this person preaches in this type
of clothing, or this person uses this type of Bible, or this
person comes from this camp.
We.
We have to be cautious on the message as well, not just the character
traits that come along with that person.
And so this is a warning.
This is a warning.
And he says, be careful of these filthy dreamers who defile
the flesh, who despise dominion or authority, and they speak
evil of that authority.
That's a warning sign.
So, so if you want to be cautious and you want to separate
yourself from people that are going to lead you to a false way
of living, stay away from people that reject authority.
Stay away from people that despise and speak evil of authority
as well.
And so that's, that's the test that he says, watch out for that.
And then, and then I, I love verse nine.
And it's kind of an interesting insert here.
And I don't know about you, but this is not something that is.
Is commonly talked about in Christian circles because the, the
reference here is actually over a fight that Michael the Archangel
and Satan have over the body of Moses.
And some people, I've talked to people about this and they're
like, I've never heard of this story.
It's actually interesting story.
And we wouldn't know about it from Scripture, because if you go
back to the story of Moses, the last we hear of of Moses is that,
you know, he goes off into the wilderness and dies.
And, and that's Deuteronomy chapter 34.
So Moses, the servant of the Lord died there in the land of Moab.
And, and at the very end it says, but nobody knows where his
grave is.
That was the end of Deuteronomy 34, verses 5 and 6.
And then we see here that there's this, there's this fight
over Moses's body.
And there's a lot of debate about the why.
And Jude doesn't really get into the why there was a fight over
Moses's body.
There's some speculation that Satan had a plan to use Moses's body
as an idol for the Israelite people.
Right?
Who else would they want to worship then?
Hey, Moses's bones.
And they like some sort of idol.
I don't know for sure.
We can't say that that's scriptural.
Other people argue that Moses, you Know, obviously, Moses was there
at the mount of Transfiguration, his body.
And then some people believe that Moses is one of the witnesses
at the end times.
And so some people think that it was Satan's plan to kind of thwart
Jesus and his redemptive story and his second coming.
But either way you look at it, there's this.
There's this body that the angels are fighting over.
Now, I do like this verse because this verse gives us some
theology, because some people think that Satan and God are equals,
right?
You have God who is the good, and Satan who is bad.
And it's like this yin and yang, equal and opposite forces.
No.
Okay.
Satan is no match for God.
Satan is a created being.
Satan is limited, though.
He's more powerful than we are.
He is not on the same level as God.
And so our theology is that God is omnipotent, that God is.
That means he's all powerful, he's all present.
He's, um, he's all knowing.
Satan is not.
So if you did have an equal to Satan, because remember, Satan's
an angel, a created being of God, it would be Michael the Archangel.
I, I would say that they're more in line with being equals, so
to speak, when it comes to their power.
And so we see Michael the Archangel.
And Archangel just means he's the, the top.
He's the, the.
The highest angel.
When contending with the devil, he disputed about the body
of Moses, you say, why is that there?
We could get bogged down in the weeds here, but what I would
say is the next phrase is the reason why this verse is here.
And that is to say that even Michael the Archangel didn't use
his own power when fighting against the enemy.
What did he say here?
It says in verse nine, he says he durst not bring any against him.
A railing accusation which he could have but said, the Lord rebuke
thee.
And there's a lesson to be learned here that when we're dealing
with evil and when we're dealing with false teaching, and
when we're dealing with Satan himself, we deal with the power of
God and not our own power.
We refer to the power of the truth of God and not our own power.
And so Michael the Archangel, he's mentioned by name in different
passages.
Two of them in the book of Daniel, one in the book of Revelation,
I believe, and then here in Judea.
And usually when Michael is mentioned, it's in the context of
battle fighting.
And so he's an example for us and how we can contend for the faith.
And so we see that if anybody could have pulled any power from
his arsenal, it could have been Michael the Archangel.
But no, he refers to the Lord.
He says, the Lord rebuke thee.
And so we don't know all the details about this fight, so to speak,
but we do know how Michael the Archangel fought, and that was in
the power of God.
And so, so the manner of Michael's fight is a model, I believe,
for spiritual warfare.
We, we see that Michael was in a battle with the enemy, but we see
that he appealed to the Lord's authority and not his own wisdom,
his own strength.
And so I think that that's an example for us as we fight these
spiritual battles in contending for the faith, protecting
the truth, discerning whether something's false or true when it
comes to teaching is a spiritual battle.
It's spiritual warfare.
And Ephesians tells us all about that idea of spiritual warfare.
And so if Michael the Angel, the Archangel did this, so we should
as well when it comes to fighting against the enemy.
Now you say, how did that turn out?
I don't know.
I mean, you can read some, it actually comes from some, some Hebrew
literature they reference that you could read the rest of that story.
But I don't believe that's canon.
And by the way, let me just get something out of the way here
because you may or may not catch this.
As we study the Book of Jude, if you read any cross references,
you might catch this.
Jude does quote Hebrew literature that is not part of the
canon of Scripture.
Jude references the Book of Enoch here in this passage of Scripture.
Now some people say, well, if Jude references these historical
books and uses those stories, does that mean that those are the
Bible as well?
And I would say no, the moment it becomes Bible is when it's here
in the canon and we believe that God preserved his word here.
So just because, I mean, Paul, we're going to see that Paul references
in the Book of Acts, he references the, the, the, their own
people there from Athens and, and their own philosophers.
And so when.
Just because something is referenced in scripture does not
mean that everything that they pulled that reference from is biblical.
It just means now that that is canon and it's in the storyline.
And so that's what we're talking about here because you, you
may or may not find some confusion.
If you look the Book of Jude up, you might see people going, well,
the Book of Jude references the Book of Enoch.
So we all need to follow the Book of Enoch.
Now that's, that's that's a, that's a misnomer.
That's a misunderstanding of how the canon of Scripture was organized.
And so we take the book of Jude as the word of God.
And if it's here, it's the word of God.
And so it's like you're throwing the baby out with the bathwater
in, in a sense.
And so I, I would say be very careful when it comes to, you know,
commentaries that you read and books that you read.
But we'll stop there this evening.
I, I could talk about the book of Jude a lot because it's very,
very interesting.
And if I had more time, I would like to go into to more details
about the Hebrew literature that he's referring to.
And just a little quick side note, I don't think it's wrong for
us to correlate certain things that people in our society understand
to Scripture, right?
So if someone understands something in our society today, we
don't need to shy away from it as long as we can tie that back to
Scripture.
And so using cultural references, I don't think is a wrong
thing to do.
So, for example, if you're talking about a king in the Bible,
you say, well, you see how this person in our country has this
much power.
It's similar to that.
Or, you know, you saw this.
You know, if someone understands someone to be a certain
way in culture, you know, they're known for this.
Well, that could be that person.
That, that doesn't mean that we're saying that person's biblical
or that person's teaching us a lesson.
It's just a reference to a culture and way that people understand.
So I think that that done correctly is an example of good teaching.
So, so we're going to come back next week and we're going to
start in verse number 10 and we're going to see more of bad character
from certain men.
So we, we already talked about groups of individuals.
So Israelites.
You had Sodom and Gomorrah and you had the fallen angels.
We're going to talk about more of the specifics of people and that's,
that's going to be more on the personal side of things.
So you're going to see folks like Cain.
You ever heard of, heard of Cain?
I'm sure the way of Cain.
What's the way of Cain?
We're going to talk about that next week.
The era of Balaam and the gainsaying of Core or Korah.
So we're going to talk about those three individuals next week.
Cain Balaam and Korah, and.
And we will continue on.
And then I love how Jude does it.
Jude then references certain things that you see in nature to
these false teachers.
And so he appeals to all these different areas.
He appeals to history, he appeals to individuals.
He appeals to what they see in creation.
And he starts trying to pull that in.
I think it's a really, really helpful book for us.
And then he goes back in verse 17, and then he.
He's like, that was a little bit of a parentheses there about
what false teachers are like now going back to contending for
the faith.
And so I think that it's something more and more that we need
to focus on is like, how do we as Christians engage our society?
How do we contend for the faith?
What.
At least in my ex.
My existence and what I've experienced, a lot of Christians
tend to, you know the phrase put our heads in the sand or turn
a blind eye.
When someone starts getting intellectual, we go, well, they sound
a little bit too smart for us to talk about.
They might just talk.
You know, we have to be very careful about that because we have
been given all the tools that we need to defend our faith.
God has gifted everyone in different ways.
Not everyone's going to be someone who's going to read volumes
and volumes of commentaries and history books, but all of us
have been given the truths of the gospel to stand upon.
And that means there's power in that.
Okay, when you're quoting scripture to people, the power is
not in you.
The power is in which you're speaking.
And it's, it's the word of God is what's coming out of your mouth.
It's not.
It's not, hey, my opinions.
When that's.
When we start to fail, when we start to waver in our contention
of.
For the faith is when we start to give opinions.
And, and, well, maybe, I don't know, we just say.
And this is a phrase I like to, to, to think about when I'm preaching.
And it's this.
Thus saith the Lord, right?
Thus saith the Lord.
That's not my.
It's not my gospel.
It's not my message.
It's.
It's the message of God.
And I'm ultimately the messenger.
And, and I think that that's.
That takes a lot of the pressure off of us when it comes
to contending for the faith.
All we are is just like, willing to say it, willing to do
it.
Now, some of you might say, oh, I'm not a.
I'm not a Contentious person, some of you might say.
I am a contentious person.
I love conflict.
Okay, I understand that.
I wrestle with that all the time.
I.
I do not like a conflict.
I will do possibly anything that I can do to get out of conflict.
But there are times and places where conflict does matter, and it's
the way you do it, and it's how you do it.
And.
And I would say that there is a time and a place for conflict.
Now, we don't need to stir up conflict.
All we do, and I think Peter mentions it this way, don't suffer
for wrong, suffer for good.
You're going to suffer for good.
So.
So don't do wrong to suffer.
Like, don't.
Don't treat someone unfairly to cause conflict and then say, look,
Lord, I'm suffering for you.
He's like, no, you're going to suffer for doing what's right.
And so just stand above reproach.
Stand in the word of God, stand in the truth of God, and contend
for the faith.
And we talked a little bit about this last week as well.
And I'll end with this.
When we say contend for the faith, we need to be very careful
what we mean by that.
It doesn't mean contend for your opinions or your preferences.
There is a time and a place to stand in your truth, and there isn't
a time and a place to actually exhort and confront others.
And there's a time and a place where, you know, you can say, that's
not the faith.
That's not the essentials.
And so I would say, you know, really?
And this is something that I've had to do in my own life.
I've had to sit down and I had to say what matters to me, what is
my essentials?
That I would say, you know, Lord, Lord willing, I don't have
to, but what would I die for?
What would I stand for and die for?
And what would I say?
You know what?
I've got some strong opinions, but I don't know if I would die for
that.
That might be your indication of what it means to contend for the
faith in a certain area.
And so maybe something to think about.
Maybe you never thought about that before, but interesting thought.
All right, well, we're gonna go ahead and stop there.
Thank you again for listening to the Middletown Baptist Church
podcast.
I hope that this sermon has been a blessing for you.
You.
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Thank you so much.
God Bless.
Have a wonderful day.