Unmasking False Teachers: A Study in the Book of Jude

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.

Acts 17 · chapter mention

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.

Numbers 14 · chapter mention

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.

Deuteronomy 34 · chapter mention

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.

Deuteronomy 34:5

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.