Jude pt 2 = Be Wise As A Serpent

How does God's grace and mercy join together with God's justice? Open to the book of Jude, the second to the last book of the Bible, as we discover that truth today. Amen. Good morning. While you're standing, would you open your Bibles with me to the book of Jude? Jude is just a small one-chapter book right before the book of Revelation.

We're going to be looking at verses 5 through 11 today, but I want to begin with verse 1 to set the context. Jude verse 1 states, "Jude, a bondservant of Jesus Christ and brother of James, to those who are called, sanctified by God the Father and preserved in Jesus Christ, mercy, peace, and love be multiplied to you."

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 God into lewdness and deny our only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ.

But I want to remind you, though you once knew this, that the Lord, having saved the people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed those who did not believe. And the angels who did not keep their proper domain but left their own abode, He has reserved in everlasting chains unto darkness for the judgment of the great day.

As Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities around them, in a similar manner to these, having given themselves over to sexual immorality and gone after strange flesh, are set forth as an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire. Likewise, also these dreamers defile the flesh, reject authority, and speak evil of dignitaries. Yet Michael, the archangel, in contending with the devil when disputing about the body...

Of Moses, did not bring against him a reviling accusation but said, "The Lord rebuke you." But these speak evil of whatever they do not know, and whatever they know naturally, like brute beasts, in these things they corrupt themselves. Woe to them! For they have gone in the way of Cain, have run greedily in the error of Balaam for profit, and perished in the rebellion of Korah.

Father, we are just saying that you are perfect in all of your ways. It is such an important truth to understand and to know with certainty, to hold in our minds and in our hearts that you are perfect. Perfect in your goodness, perfect in your love, perfect in your mercy and your grace. You are also perfect in your justice. You are perfect in your holiness and your wrath. Those are the things that we sometimes struggle with.

I pray that as we consider this text this morning, we would more fully understand and grasp who you are and your nature. We need to understand that your goodness is not in conflict with your justice, and that your grace is not in conflict with your wrath. So teach us, God. We ask this in Jesus' name, and all those that agree said, Amen. You can be seated.

Jesus, on the night that he would be betrayed by one of his own, Judas Iscariot, after he had washed his disciples' feet and after they had partaken of what we call the Lord's Supper, told his disciples there in that upper room in Jerusalem that they will know that you are my disciples by the love that you have one for another. The world, people who don't know Christ, will know the followers of Jesus or should know the followers of Jesus by the love that they have one for another.

Jude, in this passage in verse two, says that we, followers of Jesus, Christians, are to grow in mercy and peace and love. May mercy and peace and love be multiplied to you. I know for myself that I need God's mercy, his peace, and his love multiplied to me.

But most certainly, I need God's mercy, peace, and love to be multiplied through me. And you do, too, if you're a follower of Jesus. God, multiply your mercy, your peace, and your love through us so that people would know that we are your disciples by the love that we have for one another.

Peter, in his second epistle, which we will study after we go through the epistle of Jude, says that we are to grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. I think the longer that we walk with the Lord, the more we realize how much we need to grow in His grace—grace with others, grace with those inside the church, and grace with those outside the church.

However, we come to passages like the one we are looking at here in Jude, and like Peter also mentions in the same passage where he says to grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. He also warns us to beware of those within the church who might subvert the grace of God. Here, Jude says that we are to contend earnestly for the faith. In verse three, he writes, "I found it necessary to write unto you, exhorting you to contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints."

Why do we need to do that? The Apostle Paul, in his parting words to the church at Ephesus, recorded in the New Testament in the book of Acts, gives us insight. In Acts 20, you can turn there if you'd like or just note it in your notes. His final words to the leadership, the elders of the church at Ephesus, are recorded in Acts 20:29: "For I know this, that after my departure, savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock. And also from among yourselves, men will arise, speaking perverse things to draw away disciples after themselves. Therefore, watch and remember that for three years I did not cease to warn everyone night and day with tears."

Paul says, "Listen, church, please understand, after I have left, there are going to be savage wolves that come up from within you, among you, and they will not spare the flock." So how do we reconcile these two ideas? Are they mutually exclusive? We are to grow in the grace of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, and they will know that we are His disciples by the love that we have for one another. May mercy, peace, and love be multiplied to you. How does that align with contending earnestly for the faith?

Beware of those who will come up, not sparing the flock, and who will bring destructive heresies. How do we join these two concepts? They seem, at face value, to be mutually exclusive. Can they go together? If mercy, peace, and love are to be the characterizing traits of the church, then how is the church also to defend and contend earnestly for the faith? How are we to stand against those who may be ungodly false teachers while simultaneously representing mercy and peace in our lives? How do we maintain those qualities together?

I honestly say that it's a fine line, and it is difficult. The church has tended to opt for one side or the other. At times in its history, the church has moved so far to one side that it becomes strict, unyielding, and hard, making the grace of God hardly seen at all. Conversely, the church can slide to the other side, becoming so liberal with the grace of God that anything goes, resulting in the church looking just like the rest of the world.

So how do we maintain consistency on this fine line in the middle, where we are gracious but also recognize the need for justice and a stance upon the holiness of God? To this very question, Jude presents three examples in which God, who is portrayed in the Scriptures as merciful, loving, gracious, and patient—slow to anger, holding mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity, transgression, and sin—is also just, where He by no means clears the guilty.

Beginning in verse 5, Jude turns us back to some examples from the Old Testament. The Bible is comprised of an Old Testament and a New Testament. The Old Testament makes up the first two-thirds of the Bible, while the New Testament comprises the last third. Jude takes us back to the book of Exodus, a story that you may know from reading it or perhaps from watching it in a movie, such as "The Ten Commandments," "The Prince of Egypt," or more recently, Christian Bale's depiction of Moses, which was interesting. In our minds, because of the culture we live in, we may have some frame of reference for these stories.

The reference of the deliverance of the children of Israel some 3,500 years ago from the land of Egypt and their captivity under Pharaoh is significant. You may remember that Moses was called by God to go down to Egypt and say to Pharaoh, "Let my people go." Pharaoh was unyielding. In His mercy and grace, God redeemed the children of Israel. This act was merciful and gracious to them, but it did not appear that way to the people of Egypt. What was merciful and gracious to the children of Israel in their redemption looked like wrath and vengeance to the Egyptians.

This situation presents two sides of the same coin: God, who is merciful, redeemed His people, while God, who is also just, judged the people of Egypt with wrath and vengeance. Ultimately, we come to Exodus chapter 14, where the people are delivered and go out praising God. However, this is not the example that Jude focuses on in verse 5. He says, "But I want to remind you, though you once knew this," in Jude 1:5, "that the Lord, having saved the people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed those who did not believe."

This is striking. Three thousand five hundred years ago, God, in His mercy and grace, redeemed for Himself a people called the nation of Israel. They came out of Egypt, crossed the Red Sea by miraculous means, and entered the wilderness. God provided for them, took care of them, gave them the law, and called them to be a people set apart unto Him. Yet, for the next 38 years, out of a total of 40 years, we find that every single one of those people from that generation, whom He had redeemed by His mercy and grace out of Egypt, was judged with wrath and ultimately destroyed in the wilderness.

How can this be? To answer that question, we turn to the New Testament again. You are in the book of Jude. If you turn to the left from there, just a few books, you will pass 1st, 2nd, and 3rd John, 1st and 2nd Peter, and James, and you will come to the book of Hebrews, a large book. In Hebrews chapter 3, verse 16, the author writes, "For who, having heard, rebelled? Who was it who rebelled there in the wilderness under Moses' leadership?"

After God had saved them and redeemed them under His grace and mercy out of Egypt, who was it that rebelled against this God? Indeed, was it not all who came out of Egypt led by Moses? It wasn't just a couple; it wasn't just a few. Every single one of those people who were redeemed by the mercy and grace of God out of Egypt rebelled against Him in the wilderness, including Moses. Even if it wasn't a small thing, Moses also did not fully obey the command of the Lord.

The author of the book of Hebrews continues in verse 17, asking, "Now with whom was God angry for 40 years? Was it not with those who sinned?" God's anger is against sin, and so He was angry with those who sinned, and their corpses fell in the wilderness. In verse 18, it states, "And to whom did He swear that they would not enter His rest, but to those who did not obey?"

Three things are accounted to these people who were redeemed under the mercy and grace of God. They were taken out of Egypt, but now in the wilderness, they rebelled, they sinned, and they did not obey. Why did they do this? Verse 19 tells us that they could not enter in because of unbelief. Their unbelief led to a rebellion against God's authority, which resulted in sin against His grace through disobedience.

Why were they judged? Why did they experience the wrath of God? Although He was gracious to them in redeeming them, His grace did not bring about any sort of refining characteristic in their lives. There was no transformation. His grace came to them first; they didn't have to purify themselves or make themselves holy and right before God before they received His grace. They received His grace, but after that, they did not repent. They did not turn away from their old way of life. In their lack of repentance, God judged them for their unrepentance, even His own people, the ones to whom He had given grace and mercy.

Jude uses this as an example, the first of three. The psalmist writes in Psalm 106, verse 24, "Then they, the children of Israel who had been redeemed out of Egypt, despised the pleasant land. They did not believe God's word, but they complained in their tents and did not heed the voice of the Lord." Therefore, God raised His hand in an oath against them to overthrow them in the wilderness.

These words are challenging. They are sobering, not in the sense that they should make us afraid of God, but they should bring us into a place of proper reverence and fear of God. Who He is in His holiness is significant. He is gracious, merciful, and good. However, look at point number one on your outlines: God is gracious and merciful, but He is also just. We can never fail to remember this important truth. God is gracious and merciful, but He is also just. He is holy.

An interesting and striking example of the holiness of God is found in the Old Testament. The psalmist in Psalm 106 states that God swore an oath that He would judge these people, although He had previously saved them by His grace. In that same passage, the psalmist points back to a compelling example of the justice and holiness of God, which is found in the book of Numbers, chapter 25.

The children of Israel had rebelled against God and disobeyed His word to remain pure and set apart to Him. They began to commit adultery and idolatry with the false gods of the people around them, taking unto themselves a sexually immoral path. In the midst of this, one of the people among the children of Israel, a priest who was righteous before God, named Phineas, confronted this immorality.

Phineas took a spear, a javelin, and came upon a man who was in an immoral relationship with a woman involved in idolatry. He killed him. You look at that and wonder, "What is going on here?" The Scriptures go on to say, and the psalmist records this in Psalm 106, that God accounted it to Phineas' righteousness. He did a just thing before God. That is striking.

God is merciful, gracious, loving, and good, forgiving iniquity, transgression, and sin, but He is also just. Why point this out? Because sometimes church leaders and Christians are reviled in the church for discipline.

Church discipline is often spoken against, with people saying, "Don't you realize you're supposed to be loving, compassionate, merciful, and gracious?" All of that is true. We are to be loving, compassionate, merciful, and gracious. Mercy, peace, and love should be multiplied among us.

Yet, the examples that Jude brings out remind us that God, in His very nature, is the personification of love, peace, and mercy, and yet He is also just. In Exodus chapter 34, Moses is truly in awe of the mercy of God. The nation of Israel, the people that Moses was leading, had just two chapters before departed from God. They were dancing naked around a golden calf, proclaiming, "This is the God that brought us out of Egypt." In His mercy, God did not destroy them.

In Exodus 33, Moses expresses his awe of God's mercy, saying, "God, show me your glory. I want to see you." God responds, "It is impossible for you to see me because I am so holy and so pure that you will not be able to stand in my presence. But here's what I'm going to do: I will shield you, and I will appear in your presence. Then I will remove myself from your presence, and I will allow you to see the glory that remains."

God is so awesome and glorious that if He were to appear in our presence and then leave, His glory would remain, much like that grandma whose perfume is just a little too heavy. You know she has been there, and even after she leaves, the scent lingers for a while. It's similar to the glory of God.

In Exodus 34, God appears in the presence of Moses. Moses is shielded in the cleft of a rock, and as God appears, He declares His name. His name is synonymous with His nature, defining who He is. This is how God declares Himself: "The Lord, the Lord God." The first word is "merciful." This is how God is portrayed—not just merciful, but merciful and gracious, compassionate, forgiving iniquity, transgression, and sin.

However, as He continues to declare His name, He states, "By no means clearing the guilty." In God, there is an intermixing of mercy, grace, justice, and holiness. In His church, which is the body of Christ, there is to be a mixture of mercy and grace.

And peace and love, and also, at times, justice. This is why Jude says to contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to you. To illustrate this, he goes back to stories from the Old Testament.

In verse 5, he talks about the nation of Israel and God's mercy in saving them out of Egypt, but then His justice when they rebelled, disobeyed, and sinned against Him in the wilderness. He gives a second illustration in verse 6. Jude states that the angels who did not keep their proper domain but left their own abode have been reserved in everlasting chains under darkness for the judgment of the great day.

Returning again to the Old Testament, Jude provides his second example of a God who is merciful but also just. In this second example, he points to something rather strange: angels who left their place, their estate, and did not stay in their proper domain. This begs the question, what is the proper domain of angels?

The Bible describes that angels exist. Interestingly, the majority of Americans believe that angels exist as well. Unfortunately, the picture that we sometimes have of angels is of chubby little beings with bows and arrows or wings. That is not the description given in the Scriptures. The Scriptures describe these angelic beings; Hebrews says they are ministering spirits, servants of God created to serve Him. They minister on behalf of God to His creation, and apparently, at times, they can manifest or appear in this world, even in human form, which is an interesting consideration.

The author of the book of Hebrews warns us to be aware because we might actually entertain angels unaware. There may have been times in your life when you have come in contact with angels. Many people have told me, "I had an experience; I think it was an angel." I see a few people out here nodding, indicating that you may have had that experience as well. Perhaps when we get to heaven one day, we will fully understand what those times were.

Angels are described as ministering spirits, serving on behalf of God. Yet here, Jude says that there were some who did not keep their proper domain but left their abode, and because of this, God has reserved them in prison under everlasting chains.

Chains in darkness are awaiting a judgment that is to come in the future. So, what is this? Who are these angels that did not keep their proper domain? There are two typical explanations or interpretations about this passage.

The first is that Jude is probably describing, as one of the views, the fall of a certain number of angels who chose to rebel against God and no longer maintain their place of service to Him. This is described in Revelation chapter 12, Isaiah 14, and other places in the Scriptures. The lead among these angels is one referred to in Isaiah chapter 14 as Lucifer, the one we might refer to as Satan or the devil. God will judge these individuals. However, Jude says that there is a certain segment of these angels that are kept in some sort of prison until the day in which they will be judged. Because of that, I don't think that the first explanation is sufficient in describing who these angels are that left their proper estate, their domain, and are now awaiting judgment.

The second belief, or interpretation, about who these angels are is a little interesting and odd. It comes to us from the Old Testament, specifically from the book of Genesis chapter 6. In Genesis chapter 6, verses 1 and 2, we read that there was a time about 4,000 years ago when the Bible describes the sons of God—a title applied to angels in many places in the Old Testament. The sons of God came into the realm of humanity and took to themselves, in a very twisted and sexually immoral way, the daughters of men who were attractive to them. You might wonder, really? This is what the Bible describes? Apparently, it is.

Genesis chapter 6 presents a very interesting and strange passage that causes much confusion, and a lot of commentary has been written on it. I know it causes confusion because more than a few people over the years have come to me and said, "Pastor, I've been reading through Genesis, and I got to chapter 6, and there's something really weird here. What in the world is going on?"

One of the interpretations of Genesis chapter 6 is that the sons of God were angels who, by their will, determined they no longer wanted to maintain their proper domain and minister to God. They left that estate and manifested here upon the earth, taking to themselves human women thousands of years ago in a twisted sexual immorality.

As a result, scriptures say that God one day will judge them. He has reserved them in chains for darkness. Jude points to the nation of Israel, who were redeemed by the grace and goodness of God out of Egypt, and later judged by the vengeance and wrath of God for their disobedience.

He points secondly to the angels who left their position as ministering spirits created for that purpose, and now God will judge them. Thirdly, Jude gives us another example in verse 7. He says that Sodom and Gomorrah, along with the cities around them, in a similar manner to these, having given themselves over to sexual immorality and gone after strange flesh, are set forth as an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire.

The third example shows that the merciful God, in His mercy and grace, will also judge. The merciful God judges two cities, five cities actually. The story is described in Genesis chapter 19, where these cities existed in what is now the southern part of the nation of Israel. Today, it is a huge desert surrounding the Dead Sea, but then it was described as a very lush and beautiful pasture land. In that area were these five cities, with the two chief cities being Sodom and Gomorrah.

Because of their great wickedness, which included but was not limited to the sins of sexual immorality and going after what the scriptures describe as strange flesh, we could do all kinds of studies on that. Needless to say, they were a wicked and vile people. In Genesis chapter 19, it is described that God sent two angels down to inspect the wickedness of the people. Upon inspection, there was a determination by God that, although He is merciful and gracious, His mercy is seen in saving from that city the only righteous people, Abraham, the great father of our faith.

He prayed to God just before this in Genesis chapter 18, saying, "God, suppose there are 50 righteous people in Sodom and Gomorrah. Will you spare the city for 50 righteous people?" God, in His mercy, replied, "I will spare it for 50." Abraham then said, "Well, Lord, maybe there are not 50. What if there are 10 less than 50? What if there are 40 righteous people?" God answered, "I will save it for 40." Abraham continued, "That might be stretching it. I know those cities, Sodom and Gomorrah, are pretty bad. What if there are 30?" God replied, "I will save it for 30."

He keeps going and going with God, and God ultimately saves one righteous man, a man by the name of Lot. In His mercy, God saved the one righteous man out of the judgment that would come. But in His mercy, He also brought His just wrath upon the city. Again, it's a heavy, sobering thought. There are many of these in the Old Testament—many times where God's justice is brought forth in His judgment, although His default is mercy. I am so grateful that God's default is mercy.

Some people look at the Bible, though they have probably never read it. They look at the Bible and say, "Well, there seems to be some inconsistency here." In that big section called the Old Testament, God seems like a punk teenager who hasn't quite come through all of his jerk stage. Then, in the New Testament, God kind of wised up, got a little bit older, and a little bit more mature, and He is much nicer.

Listen, I am here to tell you that if you read through Genesis to Malachi, the first 39 books of the Bible, what you find is that God's default is mercy, patience, and grace. Yet, there is a time when God is just, and there is a time when He will judge. Think of the flood described in Genesis chapters 6 through 9. I think of not only the three examples that Jude gives but also the plagues upon the Egyptians in Exodus chapters 4 through 14, or the destruction of the peoples of the Canaanites, the Philistines, the Syrians, the Assyrians, and the Babylonians, as described during the times of Kings and Chronicles. God would bring His justice and His judgment, even though His default is to be merciful and gracious.

We, His church, as His ambassadors here, have a default to multiply in mercy, love, and peace. Yet, there is a time for justice. The justice that Jude is describing is not a justice against the world. We are not the sin police to go out into the world and judge people for their wickedness. No! The world is wicked; it will always be wicked. The only thing that turns around the wickedness of the world is the grace of God and salvation. When Jude, Paul, and Peter describe this justice, it is always within the context of sin within the church and those leading people toward sin within the church.

The examples given here reveal point number two on your outline: God will impartially judge unrepentant sin. He judged His own people, whom He had brought out of Egypt. He judged angels that He had created to be ministering servants, and He judged the wicked of Sodom and Gomorrah. We often think that God only judges the really wicked people, but He would not even spare His own people, the nation of Israel, from His judgment because of their unrepentant sin. All sin will be judged. The only way that we can escape the just judgment of a holy God is to put our faith in Christ Jesus, who took upon Himself the wrath and punishment for sin when He died on the cross 2,000 years ago. He took my sin and your sin upon Himself and bore our shame and punishment. Now, by faith in Christ, we can receive the grace of God. That's the good news of the gospel.

However, God will impartially judge unrepentant sin. In verse 8, Jude moves from the examples of Sodom and Gomorrah, the judgment upon the angels, and the judgment upon the children of Israel. He states that likewise, in the same way that God judged Israel, judged Sodom and Gomorrah, and judged these angels, He will also judge these dreamers. Who are these dreamers? We met them back in verse 4, where Jude mentions that certain men have crept in unnoticed into the church, who long ago were marked out for this condemnation—ungodly men. They turn the grace of God into lewdness and deny the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ.

Jude emphasizes that in the same way God judged Sodom and Gomorrah, these angels who did not remain in their proper estate, and the children of Israel who rebelled and disobeyed, He will also judge individuals who defile the flesh. They reject authority, as stated in verse 8, and they speak evil of dignitaries. Why are they judged? In verse 4, we saw that they subvert the grace of God, reject the rule and authority of God, and deny the Lordship of Jesus Christ in their lives. Now, Jude adds that they also defile the flesh.

They defile the flesh and bring impurity into the body of Christ. This is why they are so dangerous. Their character, their teaching, and their way of life affect and infect other believers within the church. As I said last week, the greatest danger to the church is not all the wickedness outside the church, although sometimes we focus on that. The greatest danger to the church is that which comes up from within, which is like a spiritual cancer to the body of Christ. It can go unnoticed and unseen until it manifests in such a way that, many times, it is at stage four—a place where it is incurable and inoperable.

Sadly, there have been many local churches within the body of Christ that, throughout the last 2,000 years, have found themselves in a state of stage four spiritual cancer. This is exactly what Jesus, the great physician, is dealing with in the first chapters of the Book of Revelation, chapters two and three, when He speaks to seven different churches. He says, "Listen, there are all kinds of signs of life; everything looks really good on the outside, but there are these problems that I have against you. There is a cancer that needs to be cut out and dealt with."

Here, Jude says that these individuals, like a spiritual cancer, defile the flesh. How do they defile the flesh? By rejecting authority. They despise, as another translation puts it, the authority of God. They hate that God is over them and want to rule themselves. We realize that this is basically one of the original sins of humanity: a desire to rule ourselves. When Eve saw that the tree was good for food and that it was able to make one wise, to become like God, she and Adam took and ate. Why? They wanted to remove God from His place of authority. At our basest level, we despise authority.

These individuals reject and despise authority because they hate it. One of the often-repeated concepts in the New Testament is the concept of submission—submission to God by submitting to the authorities He has set in place.

And why is it that we, in our nature, don't want to submit to the authorities that God has set in place? Ultimately, we don't want to submit to the authority that God is. Throughout the years, many atheists, people who say there is no God, have honestly stated that the reason they don't want there to be a God is because they want to do what they want to do when they want to do it. They desire no accountability, no moral accountability. Bertrand Russell, one of the greatest atheists of the 20th century, expressed this sentiment about atheism: he did not want there to be a God because he wanted to live as he wanted to live.

Unfortunately, this mindset, which reflects our carnality, finds its way into the church and can be so subversive. Jude says that these individuals defile the flesh and reject authority. Thirdly, they speak evil of dignitaries. The phrase "speaking evil of dignitaries" literally means they blaspheme glory, which refers to blaspheming the glory of God. They speak against His glory, just as the nation of Israel did thousands of years ago after God had saved them out of Egypt. They blasphemed God. Similarly, the angels who did not keep their proper place rejected the authority of God. Just as Sodom and Gomorrah defiled their flesh through sexual immorality, these individuals, like a spiritual cancer, infiltrate the church.

Therefore, point number three on your outline is that we, within the church, must maintain mercy and grace while also dealing decisively with these cancers. This is what it means to contend earnestly for the faith. How do we identify these cancers? We discussed this last week, and it is evident in verse four. They are identified by their carnality, their rebellious blasphemy, and their rejection of God's authority in their lives. This must be removed within us—within myself and within you. There is a desire to not submit to the will and authority of God in our lives. This is why Jesus said we need to deny ourselves, take up our crosses daily, and follow Him.

Now, in contrast to these dreamers, who defile the flesh and reject authority...

Speak evil and blasphemy against glory. In the next verse, in verse nine, Jude turns to an example of how we ought to live. He cites another angel, saying, "Yet Michael the archangel, in contending with the devil, disputed about the body of Moses." He dared not bring against the devil a reviling accusation, a blasphemous word, but said to him, "The Lord rebuke you."

Now, Jude brings us to another obscure concept or idea that is not found in the Bible. Scholars have been speculating about what exactly Jude is speaking about for many years within the church. Perhaps he received this by divine inspiration or revelation. Like some first-century authors, this story that Jude refers to here apparently appears in a text called the Assumption of Moses, which we do not have in full. We only have fragments of this ancient book.

In the Assumption of Moses, there is a story presented that when Moses died, as described in Deuteronomy chapter 34, verses five and six, there was a fight over the body of Moses. I know this sounds far out; it resembles what you might find in a Hollywood blockbuster in the summertime. However, there is this great angelic fight between Michael the archangel and the devil, and they are fighting over the dead body of Moses.

Now, why the devil would want the dead body of Moses, I have no idea. In this fight between the devil and Michael the archangel, we are told in this passage that Michael dared not bring a blasphemous word against the devil. We could spend a lot of time trying to figure out exactly what is going on here in this passage, but that is not the point.

The point of the passage is that these dreamers within the church defile the body of Christ and reject the authority of God. They speak blasphemy of glory, whereas Michael the archangel, this great servant of God, would not even speak blasphemy against the blasphemer. Instead, he said, "The Lord rebuke you." You see, Michael is presented as one who understands authority.

He has given to me and to you an example of one who understands and sets himself under authority. He respected the authority of God. He did not use his own authority and say, "I rebuke you, devil." Instead, he said, "The Lord rebuke you." God in heaven is the authority over you, not me. The Lord rebuke you. Apparently, that was effective.

This Michael is presented as one who respects and honors the authority of God. However, he is also presented as one who would not even blaspheme the blasphemer.

Point number four on your outline: decisive church discipline is always executed in God's authority and not ours. Church, listen, there is a time—maybe it's a rare time—but there is a time when church discipline is necessary. What is church discipline? It is when the church has to remove someone from within the context of the church because they are defiling the body. They are rejecting the authority of God and speaking evil of the glory of God. Therefore, they have to be removed and set outside of the church, which is commonly referred to as excommunication.

When that happens, many times churches are called by the outside world or even by Christians unmerciful, ungracious, and unloving. They ask, "Why would you do that?" Yet Jude says there is a time when they need to be removed because they will destroy the church like a cancer. It is merciful for the surgeon to do what seems to be destructive and painful in removing the cancer. That is merciful, and that is what Jude is saying here in this passage.

Decisive church discipline is always executed under God's authority. We do not do it as, "Hey, listen, we're the authoritative leaders of the church." No, it is under God's authority; He has said to do this, and that is what Jude is pointing to.

Why? Because in Jude verse 10, these dreamers, these defilers, these spiritual cancers, speak evil of whatever they do not know. Whatever they know naturally, like brute beasts, in these things they corrupt themselves.

What is he saying? Well, the New Living Translation gives some enlightenment. It says, "But these people scoff at things that they do not understand. And like unthinking animals, they do whatever their instincts tell them. And so they bring about their own destruction."

What he's saying is that these individuals pose as those who are speaking on behalf of God, but they don't know anything about God's true nature. They reveal God in a very base manner, doing only what they instinctively do in very animalistic ways. They present themselves as ministers of God in heaven, but they know nothing of God. They know only earthly things. In their earthly wisdom, they bring about their own destruction and ultimately will bring about the destruction of others.

So Jude says, "Listen, don't follow these individuals because they will destroy themselves. They will also destroy those who follow them." The Apostle Peter wrote his second letter around the same time that Jude wrote this letter. They were written in concert with one another. We don't know which one was written first, Jude or Second Peter. I think that it was Jude, but they are very similar.

Peter says this in Second Peter, chapter two, verse ten: "And especially those who walk according to the flesh and the lusts of uncleanness and despise authority. They are presumptuous. They are self-willed. They are not afraid to speak evil or blasphemy of dignitaries, whereas angels who are greater in power and might do not bring a reviling accusation against them before the Lord. But these, like natural brute beasts made to be caught and destroyed, speak evil of things they do not understand and will utterly perish at their own corruption."

They use the same words. So what is Jude's final word on these dreamers? He says this in Jude 1, verse 11: "Woe to them! Woe to them!" The word "woe" could be translated as "What sorrow awaits them" or "certain destruction will come." Woe to them! Why? For they have gone in the way of Cain. They have run greedily in the error of Balaam for profit and perished in the rebellion of Korah.

What sorrow awaits them? Why does sorrow await them? Because they are like three more examples that Jude gives. I don't have enough time to go in depth into who these examples are, but just quickly, they are like Cain. Who is Cain? Cain was the first child born to the first human beings. God, as described in Genesis, created Adam and Eve, and they were joined together as husband and wife.

In Genesis chapter four, Adam and Eve had their first child, a son named Cain. They later had another son named Abel. This chapter describes the murder of Abel by Cain. Jude warns that woe awaits certain individuals because they are like Cain. But why are they like Cain? Is it simply because they are murderers? No, it goes deeper than that. Cain became angry and killed his brother because Abel's offering to God was acceptable while his own was not. These individuals, the false teachers, have offerings to God that are unacceptable as well. Thus, they are like Cain.

Not only are they like Cain, but Jude also compares them to Balaam. Balaam is an individual described in the book of Numbers, which is the fourth book of the Bible. In Numbers chapters 22 through 24, we read about Balaam, a prophet for hire who was only interested in profit. God judged Balaam and those who followed his counsel. In His grace, God tried to reach out to Balaam, warning him not to proceed. Remarkably, God even used a donkey to speak to him. You would think that if your donkey or dog spoke to you and said, "Hey, you probably shouldn't do this," you might consider listening. But Balaam did not heed the warning.

Finally, Jude states that these false teachers perish like the rebellion of Korah. In Numbers chapter 16, there is a story about a group of men called the sons of Korah, who were priests among the Levites in Israel. They rebelled against the authority of God as expressed through Moses. God judged them in a strikingly divine manner, as described in that chapter. These false teachers who infiltrate the church are, in essence, practical atheists. Although they pose as preachers of God, their way of living demonstrates that they do not believe God is real or just.

And we, as the followers of God, must be on guard. As sheep among wolves, we must be as wise as serpents. Understand, just as Paul said in Acts 20:29, "After my departure, I fear that savage wolves will come in, not sparing the flock." The scary part is that too often those savage wolves masquerade as helpless sheep. But you will know them by their fruits. God help us. Amen.

Let's stand as we close in prayer. Father, I ask that you would give us your grace and help us to follow you by faith. Help us to be aware that there are those within the church who will come in and bring seductive false teaching that destroys. God, I pray that we would be merciful, that we would be gracious, and that we would be known by the love we have for one another.

May we also have your wisdom, that we would be as wise as serpents. Though we are as gentle and helpless as doves, we would be, just as you said, as wise as serpents. God help us, that your glory would be exalted and known among your church. We pray this in Jesus' name.