The Apostate Described

I. Jude 8 ?Likewise also these filthy dreamers defile the flesh, despise dominion, and speak evil of dignities.? II Peter 2:10 ?But chiefly them that walk after the flesh in the lust of uncleanness, and despise government. Presumptuous are they, self-willed, they are not afraid to speak evil of dignities.?

A. Defile the Flesh

1. Engage in the pleasures of this world.

2. They live like they want

3. 2 Peter 3:3 "Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts,"

4. They dream and covet after positions, possessions, and pleasures.

5. Defile ? stain, tinge, or dye with another color ? contaminate

6. While the true believer struggles with the flesh the apostate does not struggle to keep his thoughts clean and pure

7. Romans 7:23-25 "But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. [24] O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death? [25] I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin."

8. They sometimes claim to have dreams from the Lord.

B. Despise Dominion

1. They reject the principle of authority (lordship).

2. They despise authority stressing rights, freedom, and liberty.

3. They stress the right to live like they want, to do their own thing.

4. ?Out of the night that covers me, black as a pit from pole to pole,

I thank whatever gods may be for my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance, I have not winced nor cried aloud.

Under the bludgeonings of chance, my head is bloody but unbowed.

Beyond this veil of wrath and tears clings but the harrow of the shading.

Yet the menace of the years finds in self I meet unafraid;

matters not how straight the gate, how charged with punishments the scroll.

I am the master of my fate. I am the captain of my soul."

5. Out of the light that dazzles me, bright is the sun from pole to pole.

I thank the God I know to be, for Christ the conqueror of my soul.

Since he’s the sway of circumstance, I would not wince nor cry aloud.

Under that rule which men call chance, my head with joy is humbly bowed.

Beyond this place of sin and tears, that life with him. And he’s the aide

That spite diminished of the years keeps and shall keep me unafraid.

It matters not, though straight the gate, He cleared from punishments the scroll.

Christ is the master of my fate. Christ the captain of my soul."

6. The Latin roots of "authority" means "that which allows growth and life.? Our resentment of the authority of God in Christ is, therefore, foolish.

C. Speak Evil of Dignitaries

1. The Dignities referred to here are spiritual beings

2. ASV ? ?they are not afraid to revile the glorious ones?

3. Scoff at the idea of angels and of spiritual beings (Jude 9-10 "Yet Michael the archangel, when contending with the devil he disputed about the body of Moses, durst not bring against him a railing accusation, but said, The Lord rebuke thee. [10] But these speak evil of those things which they know not: but what they know naturally, as brute beasts, in those things they corrupt themselves."

4. They do what angels would never think to do.

a. Michael would not personally rebuke (blaspheme, curse) the devil ? rather deferred to the sovereignty of God.

b. Ephesians 6:12 "For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places."

5. They speak evil of things of which they have no understanding

a. The tragedy of modern man is not that he knows less and less about the meaning of his own life, but that it bothers him less and less.

b. Intellectual arrogant and spiritually ignorant.

c. I Corinthians 8:2 "And if any man think that he knows any thing, he knows nothing yet as he ought to know."

d. If a person does not believe Christ, he has no right to claim to be a minister of Christ.

II. Jude 1:11 "Woe unto them! For they have gone in the way of Cain, and ran greedily after the error of Balaam for reward, and perished in the gainsaying of Core."

A. The Way of Cain (Genesis 4, I John 3:12, Hebrews 11:4)

B. The Error of Balaam (Numbers 22-25, 31; 2 Peter 2:15)

C. The Gainsaying of Core [Korah] (Numbers 16)