Jude 1:8-11 (Part 3)
Jefferson M. Williams
Chenoa Baptist Church
3-3-2024
Rob Bell
In the early 2000s, I saw Rob Bell preach several times, in large and small settings. A graduate of Wheaton and Fuller (you can’t get much more solid than that) he was funny, Uber-creative, and presented the Gospel in ways that were winsome and effective.
In 1999, he and his wife started Mars Hill Church in Michigan which quickly grew to over 10,000 attendees.
He started releasing books that my brother and I both enjoyed, at first.
He made a series of short films called “Nooma” that my young group and many other student ministries watched.
Then came “Velvet Elvis” and “Sex God” and the innocent-sounding title “Love Wins.”
My brother Mark called and asked if I had read Love Wins, which I was doing then. We both agreed that Rob had wandered out into left field and left the stadium.
In the book he questions the existence of hell and that you have to be a follower of Jesus to get to heaven. He writes:
"It's been clearly communicated to many that this belief (in hell as eternal, conscious torment) is a central truth of the Christian faith and to reject it is, in essence, to reject Jesus. This is misguided and toxic and ultimately subverts the contagious spread of Jesus' message of love, peace, forgiveness and joy that our world desperately needs to hear.”
In June 2011, Time Magazine named him to the list of the most influential leaders in the world.
Three months later, Rob Bell resigned from Mars Hill due to the backlash from his false teaching in Love Wins.
He is now an author, speaker, filmmaker, podcaster, and spiritual advisor to Oprah and other celebrities.
In 2018, a film documentary about his life was released entitled, “The Heretic,” a title he gladly embraces.
A blurb from the documentary states:
“Bell believes that so much of organized religion today has become corrupted and needs to be torn down. Today, he states, that religion and spirituality need to be inclusive, not exclusive, and that so much of what goes on in Jesus' name is actually anti-Christ in its energy and direction.”
One ministry leader was asked how a person survives for decades in Christian ministry. He answered that “they believe two things about the gospel: that is both true and wonderful.”
Rob is just another person on the long list of apostates who
Revere the truth
Reject the truth
Ridicule the truth
Replace the truth
This is nothing new, as Jude told us the last two weeks.
Review
Last week, Jude gave his readers three examples of how God will judge those who reject Him and lead others to do the same.
Jude wants us to remember the:
The danger of unbelief.
Over a million Israelites died in the desert due to their stubborn, will-fill stiff-necked refusal to trust God and do what He said.
The disgrace of rebellion
Angels don’t get a hall pass. The angels that joined in the rebellion of Satan were kicked out of heaven and were kept in chains and darkness until the time of judgment.
The Destiny of the Immoral
Sodom and Gomorrah, and the surrounding towns, were wiped off the face of the earth with fire because of their outrageous sexual immorality.
Peter and Paul shout, “The false teachers are coming!” Jude’s message is, “The false teachers are here!”
If you weren’t here last week, you can always watch the sermon on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and on our website. All the sermon manuscripts can be found on SermonCentral.com.
Could you turn with me to Jude?
Prayer
The Body of Moses
Jude loves threes. He gave us three examples of judgment against apostates. This morning, he will give us three characteristics of false teachers, and three representatives of their influence and destruction.
In the very same way, on the strength of their dreams, these ungodly people pollute their own bodies, reject authority, and heap abuse on celestial beings.
Jude begins with “in the very same way” or “likewise,” pointing us back to the stubborn Israelites, the rebellious angels, and the immoral cities of Sodom and Gomorrah.
Who are “these people?” Jude writes that they
slipped in among you. They slid in through the side door.
their condemnation was written about long ago.
they are ungodly
they pervert the grace of our God into a license for immorality
they deny Jesus Christ, our only Sovereign and Lord
Jude gives us a snapshot of three characteristics of these people. But first, he says that they are “dreamers.” These aren’t the normal dreams that each of us has at night. These dreams are visions of new revelations.
They say things like “God spoke to me in a dream.” Or “God gave me a vision.” Or “I’ve got a new take on that verse.”
Can God speak to us in dreams? Yes, God can communicate to us any way He wants. But most of the time, our dreams are simply our subconscious putting together random pieces of our lives to make a movie and can be affected by our level of stress and the burrito we ate the night before.
But these false teachers were telling their followers, “God speaks to me through dreams and visions. All your pastor does is read the Bible to you. God has given me a special new message that only special people get to be in on. Come on down!”
If you think this is not still happening today, you can attend events like “Dream Interpretation and the Seer Realm” in which they claim to “unlock heaven’s solutions for business, family and everyday life.” There are over 6,000 people signed up on this event’s Facebook page!
This isn’t anything new. Jeremiah wrote:
“I have heard what the prophets say who prophesy lies in my name. They say, ‘I had a dream! I had a dream!’ How long will this continue in the hearts of these lying prophets, who prophesy the delusions of their own minds? They think the dreams they tell one another will make my people forget my name, just as their ancestors forgot my name through Baal worship. Let the prophet who has a dream recount the dream, but let the one who has my word speak it faithfully. For what has straw to do with grain?” declares the Lord. “Is not my word like fire,” declares the Lord, “and like a hammer that breaks a rock in pieces?
“Therefore,” declares the Lord, “I am against the prophets who steal from one another words supposedly from me. Yes,” declares the Lord, “I am against the prophets who wag their own tongues and yet declare ‘The Lord declares.’ Indeed, I am against those who prophesy false dreams,” declares the Lord. “They tell them and lead my people astray with their reckless lies, yet I did not send or appoint them. They do not benefit these people in the least,” declares the Lord.” (Jer 23:25-32)
Jude tells us that they
pollute their own bodies.
This is a Greek word that means “morally contaminated or stained.”
Just like Sodom and Gomorrah, these false teachers are marked by immorality, particularly in the sexual realm.
Remember that they “change the grace of God into a license for immorality.” Of course, they do!
You know all those rules about sex - boring! Don’t be a legalist! We have freedom!
reject authority.
The teachers have the attitude, “No one can tell us what to do.” We have ultimate freedom in Christ.
Jude told us that they deny Jesus Christ, our only Sovereign and Lord. And they lead others to do the same.
Peter wrote:
“But there were also false prophets among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you. They will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the sovereign Lord who bought them—bringing swift destruction on themselves. Many will follow their depraved conduct and will bring the way of truth into disrepute.” (2 Peter 2:1-2)
They are insubordinate and arrogant. They are the captains of their fate.
and heap abuse on celestial beings.
What in the world does this mean? Why would they, literally, “blaspheme angels?”
His readers would have understood this but we will need some help.
Angels have multiple assignments as ministering spirits. One of those assignments was when God gave Moses the Law on Mt. Sinai.
In Deuteronomy 33, we read that there were at least 10,000 angels with God and Moses on the mountain.
Stephen, before he was stoned, preached a sermon that ended with these words:
“You stiff-necked people! Your hearts and ears are still uncircumcised. You are just like your ancestors: You always resist the Holy Spirit! Was there ever a prophet your ancestors did not persecute? They even killed those who predicted the coming of the Righteous One. And now you have betrayed and murdered him— you who have received the law that was given through angels but have not obeyed it.” (Acts 7:51-53)
In Galatians and Hebrews, we are told that the angels played a very important role in the giving of the Law.
Therefore, to downplay or change the Law, was to disrespect angelic authority.
If you ever visit a Mormon Temple, you will see a huge golden “angel” at the top. This is Moroni, an angel who supposedly gave Joseph Smith a new “New Testament.”
This is a sample of blaspheming good angels by elevating the false gospel a demon gave a false dreamer to a worldwide cult.
Then Jude gives a bizarre example:
But even the archangel Michael, when he was disputing with the devil about the body of Moses, did not himself dare to condemn him for slander but said, “The Lord rebuke you!”
Only two angel’s names are given in the Scripture - Gabriel and Michael.
Michael is called the “archangel,” and “the prince” whose job was to protect and watch over Israel.
By the way, the opposite of satan is not God but Michael.
When Moses died, we were told that God buried Him. Maybe he didn’t want the Israelites to set up a shrine or use his bones for worship. We aren’t told.
But it seems like God delegated the job of burying Moses’ body to Michael.
This story is not told anywhere in Scripture. There is an extra-biblical book called the “Assumption of Moses.” We only have a small fragment of this book.
While Michael is in the process of burying Moses, satan shows up and starts arguing with him about the body.
Did satan want the body so he could mutilate it? Did he not think he should be buried because Moses was a murderer? We aren’t told.
What we are told is that even Michael, the most powerful angel, did not try to rebuke satan in his own strength.
Michael said, “The Lord rebuke you!” He is quoting Zech 3.
One of my favorite stories from the Bible is about the sons of Sceva:
“Some Jews who went around driving out evil spirits tried to invoke the name of the Lord Jesus over those who were demon-possessed. They would say, “In the name of the Jesus whom Paul preaches, I command you to come out.” Seven sons of Sceva, a Jewish chief priest, were doing this. One day the evil spirit answered them, “Jesus I know, and Paul I know about, but who are you?” Then the man who had the evil spirit jumped on them and overpowered them all. He gave them such a beating that they ran out of the house naked and bleeding.” (Acts 19:13-16)
I get very uncomfortable when I hear people rebuking satan and “binding satan.” Even Michael the archangel didn’t do that.
I have dealt with demon possession several times and when the demon asked me my name, I responded, “My name is of no consequence. My name has no power. But I serve the One whose name is power and brought your downfall. He is the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords - Jesus Christ.”
Peter writes:
“Bold and arrogant, they are not afraid to heap abuse on celestial beings; yet even angels, although they are stronger and more powerful, do not heap abuse on such beings when bringing judgment on them from the Lord (2 Peter 2:10-11)
Jude tells us that these false teachers were immoral, insubordinate, irreverent, and spiritually ignorant.
“Yet these people slander whatever they do not understand, and the very things they do understand by instinct—as irrational animals do—will destroy them.”
Peter writes:
“But these people blaspheme in matters they do not understand. They are like unreasoning animals, creatures of instinct, born only to be caught and destroyed, and like animals they too will perish.” (2 Peter 2:11-12)
In Ephesians, Paul writes “that they are darkened in their understanding.” (Eph 4:18)
They are without reason and fools/morons, according to Romans 1:22.
Jude pronounced a woe upon them. In verse four, Jude wrote they are condemned. Here we are told they will be destroyed. This is serious! Hell awaits these false teachers.
Then Jude gives his readers a quick survey of the unholy trinity of apostates.
The Way of Cain
They have taken the way of Cain…
When I was first saved, I would become very frustrated when a teacher would say, “Well, everyone here knows about Cain, so we can move on.” At that time, I didn’t know anything! So I always try to remember that there are people who don’t have a church background and may not know these stories.
In Genesis 4, we see a joyful picture of the first babies being born. First Cain, which means “to get.” Even got a little man from the Lord. Then little brother Abel, which means “breath,” was born.
When they grew up, Cain became a farmer and Abel was a rancher.
It seems like they were in the habit of bringing sacrifices to the Lord.
“In the course of time Cain brought some of the fruits of the soil as an offering to the Lord. And Abel also brought an offering—fat portions from some of the firstborn of his flock. The Lord looked with favor on Abel and his offering, but on Cain and his offering he did not look with favor. So Cain was very angry, and his face was downcast.” (Gen 4:3-5)
Some would say that God didn’t accept Cain’s because it wasn’t a blood sacrifice. But that’s not what Scripture says.
We can see why his sacrifice wasn’t accepted. First, Abel brought the very best of his flocks. He was thoughtful, intentional, and worshipful.
We don’t see the same attention to detail from Cain. Something was missing.
The writer of Hebrews tells us:
“By faith Abel brought God a better offering than Cain did. By faith he was commended as righteous, when God spoke well of his offerings. And by faith Abel still speaks, even though he is dead.” (Heb 11:4)
What was missing? Faith, saving faith.
Cain’s response gives him away. He is mad. He is furious! God is so gentle with him:
“Then the Lord said to Cain, “Why are you angry? Why is your face downcast? If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must rule over it.” (Gen 4:6-7)
Cain ignored this warning and murdered his brother in a field.
Cain arrogantly responded to God’s question, “Where is your brother?” by saying, “I don’t know…am I my brother’s keeper?”
God curses Cain and he becomes a wanderer in the land.
Cain is an extreme example of Frank Sinatra’s famous song, “I did it my way!”
He practiced dead, works-based religion but didn’t have saving faith.
John told his readers;
“Do not be like Cain, who belonged to the evil one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his own actions were evil and his brother’s were righteous.” (I John 3:12)
A Jewish writer tells us that Cain claimed “There is no judgment, no judge, no future life, no reward will be given to the righteous, and no judgment will be imposed on the wicked.”
Josephus, the early Jewish historian, wrote that “Cain incited to luxury and pillage all that he met, and became their instructor in wicked practices.”
Jesse James, the notorious outlaw, was a church-going man. He had a beautiful voice, sang in the choir, and taught others how to sing when he was in church.
The problem was that the coaches and trains that he wanted to rob ran on Sundays so he missed church a lot, robbing and killing people.
These false teachers are arrogant and self-righteous.
Balaam’s Error
they have rushed for profit into Balaam’s error…
The word “rushed” is a word picture of a river overflowing its banks. They run headlong toward the error of Balaam.
Who was Balaam?
He was a prophet for hire. For a fee, he would prophesy anything you wanted him to.
We find his story in Numbers. Balak, the King of the Moabites, is outnumbered by the Israelites evading the land. He sends men to the “prophet” Balaam for help.
Even though Balaam is a pagan, God speaks to him and tells him not to go with these men.
Balaam, always the con man, tells them that he would come for all the gold and silver they could give him. Wink wink.
God allows him to go and along the way, his donkey sees an angel in the road and tries to turn aside. The donkey finally gives up trying to get around the angel and lays down under Balaam.
Balaam then proceeds to beat the donkey. The donkey then begins to speak. Yes, this is in the Bible. The donkey saved Balaam’s life.
Rich Mullins wrote a song called, “Who is God Gonna Use.”
Now Balaam, he had a donkey
Who was gentle and true and kind
And the donkey saw an angel with a sword
So he slipped old Balaam past him
And when he done it three times
Well, Balaam got so me mad he beat the donkey
And so the Lord
Well, he gave the donkey language
And the donkey plainly brayed,
"Well, there's an angel about to strike you from the path"
Then old Balaam's eyes were opened
And he realized he'd been saved
By his donkey from the angel of God's wrath.
I was singing this song in Casey’s on Thursday and the lady that rang me up said, “I love to sing. What were you singing?’ I got to tell her about Balaam and the donkey and that if God can use a donkey, He can use anyone.”
When Balaam arrived in Moab, he went up on a high hill and got a look at the Israelites.
Then he opened his mouth to curse them and…blessed them!
“Balak brought me from Aram, the king of Moab from the eastern mountains. ‘Come,’ he said, ‘curse Jacob for me; come, denounce Israel.’ How can I curse those whom God has not cursed? How can I denounce those whom the Lord has not denounced? From the rocky peaks I see them, from the heights I view them. I see a people who live apart and do not consider themselves one of the nations. Who can count the dust of Jacob or number even a fourth of Israel? Let me die the death of the righteous, and may my final end be like theirs!” (Num 23:7-10)
Balak was furious! And then it happened again…and again…and again.
Seven times Balaam took Balak’s money to curse the Israelites and then turned around and pronounced blessings on them.
In Deuteronomy 33, we are told that Balaam gave up trying to curse the Jewish people and instead told the king to send some of the young Moabite women over to seduce the young Israelite men and lead them into idolatry. Which, unfortunately, worked easily.
Balaam is an extreme example of these false teacher’s greed.
Peter wrote of false teachers:
“With eyes full of adultery, they never stop sinning; they seduce the unstable; they are experts in greed—an accursed brood! They have left the straight way and wandered off to follow the way of Balaam son of Bezer, who loved the wages of wickedness.” (I Peter 2:15)
Korah’s Rebellion
they have been destroyed in Korah’s rebellion.
Korah’s story is found in Numbers 16. Korah was a Levite and cousin to Moses.
He attempted to lead a coup against Moses and Aaron:
"Korah son of Izhar, the son of Kohath, the son of Levi, and certain Reubenites—Dathan and Abiram, sons of Eliab, and On son of Peleth—became insolent and rose up against Moses. With them were 250 Israelite men, well-known community leaders who had been appointed members of the council. They came as a group to oppose Moses and Aaron and said to them, “You have gone too far! The whole community is holy, every one of them, and the Lord is with them. Why then do you set yourselves above the Lord’s assembly?” (Numbers 16:1-3)
Moses was dumbfounded that Korah would do this and fell facedown.
God had Moses call an assembly and then told Moses to move away from Korah:
“…the ground under them split apart and the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them and their households, and all those associated with Korah, together with their possessions. They went down alive into the realm of the dead, with everything they owned; the earth closed over them, and they perished and were gone from the community. At their cries, all the Israelites around them fled, shouting, “The earth is going to swallow us too!” (Numbers 16:32-34)
Korah led others into rebellion and together they were all destroyed.
Last week, New York mourned the passing of a celebrity Flaco. Flaco was a 14-year Eurasian eagle owl that escaped the New York zoo.
He evaded capture for almost a year, proving that even though he was raised in captivity, he could hunt and take care of himself.
The enclosure that he had lived in in his life was too restrictive and he wanted “freedom.”
Last week, Flaco was found dead on the sidewalk after flying into a building. Just like Korah, the freedom he sought led to death.
False teachers today are in rebellion to the Lord and we must separate ourselves from them.
The commentator William Barclay writes that there was a Gnostic sect that considered Cain, Balaam, and Korah their heroes!
Notice that they walked in the way of Cain, rushed into Balaam’s error, and were destroyed in Korah’s rebellion.
Jesus said that He is the way, the truth, and the life.
They traded the way of Jesus for the way of Cain. They traded the truth of Jesus for the error of Balaam. They traded life in Jesus for destruction like Korah.
Applications
Know the Word
Research from Barna tells us that only 19% of people who claim to be born again are consistent Bible readers, which they define as reading the Bible four times a week.
If you read the Bible for twelve minutes a day, you will read the whole Bible in a year.
I recently had a conversation with a person who was trying to convince me of something that I knew the Bible didn’t say. I simply went to the Scriptures and showed them what it said and that their position contradicted Scripture. In the end, they didn’t care what the Bible said.
We must know the truth to see error when it is presented to us.
2. Remember the Gospel.
Martin Luther said that we must preach the Gospel to ourselves each day because we are prone to forget it.
Erika Allen writes:
“However, an unfortunate thing happens to many of us after we have been a Christian for some time. The gospel becomes so familiar that we begin to take it for granted. Without even realizing it we start to view the gospel message as basic or rudimentary, as something we move beyond once we come to Jesus. But in truth, we will never arrive at a place where we no longer need the gospel. There is never a moment when our hearts and our minds do not need to be saturated with the message of God’s goodness and grace to us in Jesus.”
Satan works around the clock to make us believe things about God and ourselves that aren’t true - you’ve wandered too far and sinned too much, you are a bad Christian, and there is no way that God could love you.
Erika continues:
"Far from being something we move past once we are saved, the gospel is what keeps the hope we have in Jesus at the forefront of our minds. It does so by reminding us that sin and death don’t get the last word.
Though we are rightly grieved by sin’s terrible consequences, we know that “according to [God’s] promise we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells” (2 Pet. 3:13).
Every injustice, every sickness, every evil thing will be made right.
The gospel also keeps us from giving in to despair because it tells us—every time we read it or hear it or proclaim it—that our salvation is dependent on Jesus and not on us, “that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ” (Phil. 1:6).”
By remembering the gospel and preaching it to ourselves we remind our forgetful souls that “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (Rom. 8:1).
G.O.S.P.E.L.
Communion
Ending Song: Thank you Jesus
