DREAMERS WITH BIG MOUTHS
Posted by Pastor Greg Allen on June 27, 2018 under AM Bible Study |
AM Bible Study Group; June 27, 2018 from Jude 8-10
Theme: Apostasy shows itself in its arrogant tendency to speak irreverently of spiritual realities.
(All Scripture is taken from The New King James Version, unless otherwise indicated).
In this tiny book of Jude, we’ve been studying a big subject—and that is the call of the church to stand for the truth of the gospel in a time of apostasy. Jude set the theme of his little letter for us in verses 3-4 when he wrote;
Beloved, while I was very diligent to write to you concerning our common salvation, I found it necessary to write to you exhorting you to contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints. For certain men have crept in unnoticed, who long ago were marked out for this condemnation, ungodly men, who turn the grace of our God into lewdness and deny the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ (Jude 3-4).
This is a call to which the church must perpetually heed. It is the gospel of Jesus Christ alone that saves souls, and the enemy of our souls seeks relentlessly to prevent its proclamation. He often tries to prevent that gospel from being preached by persecuting the church into silence. But when that fails—and when, as it often does—it only results in the church being strengthened and even more faithful to proclaim the gospel, the enemy often switches his tactic; and he seeks instead to corrupt the gospel through false teaching and through a departure from that faith once for all time entrusted to the church. Jude was writing to Christians who were suffering the latter form of the enemy’s attack, and he was calling them to defend the gospel from those who were corrupting it.
We have been studying from the section in verses 5-19 in which Jude described these apostates. In what almost feels like a reverse approach, he began by affirming the precedent for their judgment in verses 5-7. In verses 8-10, he describes their rebelliousness. In verses 11-16, he writes of their Character. And in verses 17-19, he speaks of their practice. Today, we consider their rebelliousness; and what stands out as a particular manifestation of their rebelliousness is their arrogant speech. To put it simply—when it comes to things they ought to be silent and reverent toward, we can know them by their irreverently big mouths.
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Notice first what Jude says about …
I. THE STYLE OF THEIR SPEAKING.
In verse 8, Jude writes, “Likewise also these dreamers defile the flesh, reject authority, and speak evil of dignitaries.” The individuals he is speaking of are those who were mentioned in his warning in verse 4—that is, those “ungodly men, who turn the grace of our God into lewdness and deny the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ”. Notice how inherently their identification involves some form of declaration or speaking. They have to “turn” the grace of God—which is declared in the gospel—into something other than what it is; and they, in the process, practically and professedly ‘deny’ our Lord. And notice also what Jude ‘nicknames’ these apostates—that is, “dreamers:”. Because the word itself (enupniazō) is used by Peter in Acts 2:17 to speak of prophetic visions (“your old men shall dream dreams”), some suggest that this means that they base their departure from the truth on false “visions” and “dreams” that they boast in having (like those Paul mentions in Colossians 2:18 who take their stand by “intruding into those things which he has not seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind”). But because Jude had just gotten through giving us Old Testament examples of how those who apostatized from God’s truth in the past had suffered terrible and sure judgment (see verses 5-7), then the name “dreamers” is probably meant to suggest that they think that they can knowingly rebel against God’s truth and somehow escape judgment. Dream on, rebels!
In the original language, Jude actually says that these “dreamers”, in spite of knowing how the apostates of the past have suffered God’s just judgment, “nevertheless” or “however” engage in three acts of rebellion against the truth:
1. They “defile the flesh”; which suggests an action that involves immoral behavior— most likely in the form of giving themselves over to inordinate sexual passions. When Peter speaks of this matter in his very similar passage in 2 Peter 2, he refers to them in verse 10 as “those who walk according to the flesh in the lust of uncleanness”. Experience teaches us, sadly, that false teaching and apostasy from the truth often go hand-in-hand with sexual immorality.
2. They also “reject authority” The word for “authority” that is used is one that speaks of a kind of appointed authority against which these ‘dreamers’ rebel. The apostle Paul taught us that
… there is no authority except from God, and the authorities that exist are appointed by God. Therefore whoever resists the authority resists the ordinance of God, and those who resist will bring judgment on themselves (Romans 13:1-2).
These apostates show themselves by the fact that they reject the idea that anyone can be ‘over’ them. In fact, as Peter puts it in 2 Peter 2:10, they “despise [or 'mock'] authority”. The context suggests that they do so in words as well as in actions.
3. Finally, Jude says they “speak evil of dignitaries”. The word that is translated “dignitaries” or “dignities” (doxa) is one that means “glories” or “glorious ones”. This may be describing how they dare to speak in a reviling manner about human rulers and spiritual authorities; but the context suggests something even more notorious than that. They actually dare to rail at angelic authorities—or perhaps at the Lord Himself. Jude literally has it that they “blaspheme” these “glories”; and Peter—in 2 Peter 2:10—has it that they are “not afraid (literally ‘do not tremble in fear’) to speak evil” of them. Whoever these “glorious ones” are, these ‘dreamers’ should be dreadfully afraid to speak evil of them—but they are not afraid at all.
It’s interesting to note how these three types of rebellious conduct parallel the examples of judgment given in verses 5-7. The people of Israel who wandered in the wilderness were punished for daring to speak evil against God and against His appointed leader Moses. The angels who had left their proper domain rejected the authority of God over them and refused to remain in the place He had set for them. And the people of Sodom and Gomorrah were characterized as worthy of judgment because of their defilement of the flesh through horribly inordinate sexual lusts. These apostates that Jude warns us about “likewise” recklessly do these things—and boast about it in their words!
The fact that they dare to ‘speak evil of dignitaries’ led Jude to illustrate …
II. THE INAPPROPRIATENESS OF THEIR ARROGANCE (v. 9).
These apostates are not afraid to speak evil of those whom they should rightly fear; and by contrast, Jude wrote in verse 9, “Yet Michael the archangel, in contending with the devil, when he disputed about the body of Moses, dared not bring against him a reviling accusation, but said, ‘The Lord rebuke you!’”
This is a strange reference; and there has been a lot of speculation over where it was that Jude got his information. Some have suggested that this was taken from an apocryphal book from the Old Testament era titled ‘The Assumption of Moses’; or sometimes called ‘The Testament of Moses’. This is certainly possible; because we can see from verses 14-15 that Jude quotes from another apocryphal book that was believed to have been written by the Old Testament prophet Enoch. But if Jude is quoting from ‘The Assumption of Moses’, it must be from a portion that is missing; because there is nothing of what remains today of this apocryphal book that would resemble what Jude said. Others have suggested that Jude is making a reference to Zechariah 3:2; where, in a vision, Zechariah sees ‘the Angel of the Lord’ rebuking Satan; saying, “The LORD rebuke you, Satan!”. But this also is unlikely; since that verse has nothing to do with Moses. All that we can know for sure about the source of Jude’s words is that the Holy Spirit has not chosen to tell us what it was—but has chosen to preserve these words nevertheless as an illustration to us that possesses His authority. We should be content with that until the day—perhaps in glory—when we can know more about it.
But there are some things we can know for sure. Jude’s illustration has to do with Michael, who is here called the ‘archangel’ or ‘chief-angel’. The Bible does not speak of ‘archangels’ in the plural. There appears to be only one; and his name is Michael. He is mentioned elsewhere in the Bible in Daniel 10:13, 21; 12:1; and Revelation 12:7. He seems to be referred to in 1 Thessalonians 4:16; whose voice announces the coming of the Lord. As the ‘archangel’, he is a being of unspeakably great power and authority and majesty.
We can also know that he disputed with the devil over the body of Moses. In Deuteronomy 34:5-6, we’re told of how the Lord allowed Moses to gaze upon the promised land before he died; and then, after he died, that “He buried him in a valley in the land of Moab, opposite Beth Peor; but no one knows his grave to this day.” Could it be that Michael contended with the devil over the body of Moses—perhaps after he was buried—because the devil wanted to gain access to his body? Might it be that the enemy wanted to make Moses’ body available so that people would be tempted to worship it? That sort of thing happened. Just think of how, in 2 Kings 18:4, Hezekiah had to destroy “the bronze serpent that Moses had made; for until those days the children of Israel burned incense to it, and called it Nehushtan” (that is, “Bronze Thing”). Or think of how the people in Gideon’s day “played the harlot” with the ephod that Gideon had made for himself; and how it “became a snare to Gideon and to his house” (Judges 8:27). Perhaps Michael had to square-off with the devil in order to prevent him from taking Moses’ body and misusing it to the destruction of God’s people.
But the most important thing we can know from this passage is that Michael took care in how he spoke to the devil. We’re told that he “dared not bring against him a reviling accusation …” No doubt, as a mighty angel—indeed, as the archangel—he could have. But he did not transgress his authority or speak against even that ‘glorious one’ called Satan. Instead, he simply said, “The Lord rebuke you”; and left the matter to the Lord’s own judgment. And the lesson is clear: If even the mighty archangel Michael did not dare to speak against such a one as Satan while contending with him, how much less should we puny humans ever presume to do so!
And yet, the rebellious apostates that Jude warned his readers about do not scruple at all to “speak evil of dignitaries”. What horribly big mouths they have!
And that leads us, finally, to notice …
III. THE RESULT OF THEIR IRREVERENCE (v. 10).
In the first half of verse 10, Jude writes, “But these speak evil of whatever they do not know …” That seems to be a pastime for many today. If we’re honest, we’re all pretty guilty quite often of speaking evil about things or people or actions concerning which we truly know nothing. It’s a terribly wrong thing to do. We still, however, have a line that we do not cross. But in the case and particular context of these “dreamers”, they recklessly blather out evil where the archangel fears to speak! What arrogance! What irreverence! Peter, in 2 Peter 2:10-11, expands on this when he wrote;
They are presumptuous, self-willed. They are not afraid to speak evil of dignitaries, whereas angels, who are greater in power and might, do not bring a reviling accusation against them before the Lord (2 Peter 2:10b-11).
It may be that they presume to speak of such things from out of a mocking unbelief; and from out of a self-imposed ignorance that those things—or those ‘glories’; those ‘dignitaries’—truly exist! The Lord Jesus once said, “But I say to you that for every idle word men may speak, they will give account of it in the day of judgment” (Matthew 12:36). What a horribly dreadful thing it would be to be cast into the lake of fire!—but even more; what a horrible misery it will be for those to be cast in with the very same devil and those very same fallen angelic beings that they dared to mock and speak evil of!
But that—dreadful a thing as it is—is not the only result of their irreverent words. They dare to speak evil of what they do not know; but Jude then wrote, “and whatever they know naturally, like brute beasts, in these things they corrupt themselves.” There are things that can be known—even if known by the natural processes of fallen human reason. Even hard-hearted sinners can know that there are consequences to certain actions in God’s moral universe. But these apostates don’t even let that stop them. Their natural reasoning is set aside in favor of animal passions; and as a result, they suffer the consequences. This is itself a judgment from God. As Paul puts it;
And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a debased mind, to do those things which are not fitting; being filled with all unrighteousness, sexual immorality, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, evil-mindedness; they are whisperers, backbiters, haters of God, violent, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, undiscerning, untrustworthy, unloving, unforgiving, unmerciful; who, knowing the righteous judgment of God, that those who practice such things are deserving of death, not only do the same but also approve of those who practice them (Romans 1:28-32).
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Jude’s warning is meant to help us recognize such apostates. And one of the ways that they are identified is by their words. Their irreverently big mouths proclaim their rebellion against God—and help us to know who they truly are. Let’s learn to keep on guard against them; and to faithfully contend against them for the faith once-for-all-time delivered to the saints!
EA
