Back here at Jude, I'm going
to deal with verses 8 through 10. Likewise, also these filthy
dreamers defile the flesh, despise dominion, speak evil of dignities.
Now, you know, we've seen the apostates that have crept into
the church. Certain men have crept in unawares. And Jude identifies them by certain
marks. First thing he says about them,
that they were ungodly men. There in verse four. Said they were ungodly men. They
had a lacking of reverence for God himself. And then they turned
the grace of God into lasciviousness. They were lawless. turned the
grace of God into living like it didn't make any difference.
They believed the grace of God freed them, freed them from all
external authority. They were authorities unto themselves. You know, the last verse in the
book of Judges says this, there was no king in Israel, and every
man did that which was right in his own eyes. And that's the
way these people are. They do what's right in their
own eyes. Ungodly men, turning the grace
of God into lasciviousness. They were authority unto themselves. They decided how to live, not
what God said about it. And then they says here they're
deniers of the Lord Jesus Christ and God Almighty. They deny Christ. They deny the Lord Jesus himself. They deny his power. They deny
his blood. They deny his authority. They
denied that he's the only savior. And oh my, they were saving,
they were their own masters serving any other master than the Lord
Jesus Christ. We'll not have this man to reign
over us is what they're saying. And then they gave us three examples.
He gave us the example in verse five about how God saved the
people out of Egypt. and their unbelief, and God destroyed
them for their unbelief, their unbelief of God, their unbelief
of God's warning, the unbelief of God's promises, the unbelief
in God's covenant. And then there were those rebelling
against God's authority, the angels, verse 6, that left their
first estate. They rebelled against God himself. God reserved them in chains,
carrying chains around with them everywhere they go. And then
in verse 7, it's talked about sexual perversion, like Sodom
and Gomorrah. And Sodom, and God set him forth
as an example how he's going to destroy them. And I tell you,
it's sexual perversion. And Sodom is a mean, the very
mention of it, Sodom or Sodomy, it exposes and tells exactly
what went on down there. So he continues to describe these
apostates, these heretics, these men that crept in, these old,
they're drained of this condemnation. He says in verse 7, excuse me,
verse 8, after he talked about suffering the vengeance of eternal
fire, likewise, these fellows are going to serve it too. These
fellows are going to have the vengeance of eternal fire. Likewise,
these dreamers, filthy dreamers, defile the flesh, despise dominion,
speak evil of divinities. He describes their sinful conduct
in three ways. First of all, they defile, they despise, and then they slander. The first thing they do is they
defile the flesh. Oh my, what does he mean? in
like manner, after the Old Testament prophets, that's what they did.
They defiled the flesh, like those in Sodom and Gomorrah,
like those who defied God and defied God and murmured against
God. And they defiled their flesh.
The reason they defiled the flesh, they're filthy dreamers. You
know, he refers to the false prophets who prophesied by dreams. Let me show you something. You
keep Jude here, and I want to show you something in Deuteronomy
13. Go back to the fifth book of the Bible. Deuteronomy 13. Look what it says over here about
this. Start in verse 1. He's referring
to false prophets who falsify by false dreams. And they had
these dreams, and they defiled the flesh. They didn't like God's
Word. They didn't like God's authority.
And look what he said in verse 1. If there arise among you a
prophet or a dreamer of dreams, and giveth thee a sign or a wonder,
and the sign or the wonder come to pass, whereof he spoke unto
thee, saying, Let us go unto other gods, which thou hast not
known, and let us serve them. Thou shalt not hearken unto the
words of that prophet or that dreamer of dreams, for the Lord
your God proveth you to know whether you love the Lord your
God with all your heart and with all your soul. So if a man comes
and tells you a dream and says, now listen, this is the way we're
supposed to do things. Look in Jeremiah 23, book of
Jeremiah chapter 23. God makes it so plain over here,
Jeremiah 23 and verse 25. He really makes it plain over
here. You know, God, Isaiah said their prophets are like sleep dogs,
sleeping dogs. They don't know how to bark.
All they know is they like to sleep and slumber. That's what
he said the prophets were. They were dogs that didn't know
how to bark. And look what he said here in verse 25. I have
heard what the prophets said that prophesy lies in my name,
saying, I have dreamed a dream. How long shall this be in the
heart of the prophets that prophesy lies? Yea, they're prophets of
deceit of their own hearts. which think to cause my people
to forget my name by their dreams, which they tell every man to
his neighbor. And as their fathers have forgotten
my name for Baal, the prophet that hath a dream, let him tell
a dream. And he that hath my word, let
him speak my word continually and faithfully. What is the chaff
to the wheat, saith the Lord? Now this is what God says about
his word. Is not my word like a fire? and like a hammer that
breaketh the rocks in pieces? Therefore, behold, I am against
the prophets that saith the Lord, that steal my words every one
from his neighbor. I'm against the prophets, saith
the Lord, that use their tongues and say, he saith. Behold, I'm
against them that prophesy false dreams, saith the Lord, and them
that cause my people to err by lies and by their likeness. Yet I sent them not, nor commanded
them, therefore they shall not profit this people at all." At
all. I've been around people that
they really get into their dreams. Talk about what this dream means,
what that dream means. But he's talking about filthy
dreamers. Whenever you dream a dream and
you put it in the position, in the place of God and His Word,
when you put it into, you try to interpret that thing that
God is trying to tell you something by a dream or a vision, that
God's speaking to you through a dream or a vision. Listen,
when you got a Word to read, a Bible to read, and you gonna
go and say, listen, I dream this dream. And all of us dream. But what does it amount to when
it's all said and done? And, oh my, these false prophets
were liars. They were self-deceived. And
Jews describing those who claimed to have visions and dreams and
substituted it for the Word of God. Oh, anybody that, you know,
substitutes it for the Word of God. And then look what else
it says about them in verse 8. They defile the flesh by their
filthy dreams and by taking the Word of God and changing it and
telling these people, I dreamed a dream. And then they despise
dominion. You know what dominion is? That
means the one that's in authority. That means the constituted authority,
constituted rule. And they despise. What it means
is they set aside something that's been established, something that
they reject. And oh my, dominion. God gave
Christ dominion over everything in this world. I mean, I don't
care what part of this universe there is, Christ has dominion
over it. everlasting dominion. He rules
and He always will rule. He has dominion over everything.
But God has set up authorities in this world. He set up an order
in this world. And His Word and His dominion
and His authority that God Himself establishes, these people say
they despise it. They despise it. They reject
it. They set aside God's constitute
authority. Look over here in 2 Peter chapter
2 with me. 2 Peter chapter 2. And Peter's saying the same thing
over here. You know why people church shop,
go from one place to another, one place to another? They don't
want to be under subjection to any church. They don't want to
be under subjection to any authority. And I tell you, God set up an
authority in this world. He set up the police as authority,
set up the military as authority, set up a president as authority,
Senate and all these places of authority. And God set up an
order in this world. You know, He has an order and
we got to respect that. And these people despise it.
Christ is the head of the church. He's the head of the body. The parent is over their children. The husband is over the wife.
The masters over the servants. The pastors and the church leaders
have the authority in this church, in any church where they're at.
They're the ones that they despise the authority of. Paul told them,
he said, you know, he said, he said, you know, These people,
they despise authority, and when I come with authority, I'm going
to let them know that they can't do that. And, you know, but look
what he said here in 2 Peter 2.10. I think that's where I
was going. Look what he said here. But chiefly
them that walk after the flesh in the lust of uncleanness. Listen
to this. Despise government. Despise it. presumptuous are they, self-willed. They're afraid, they're not afraid
to speak evil of dignities. They're not afraid to take and
speak evil, you know. And I tell you what, I want you
to see this in Hebrews 13. You need to see this about authority. And I don't, I've never, Act
like I was the only one had authority in this place. I never have acted
that way. God help me if I ever have and forgive me if I have. I really feel like I'm the servant.
I'm the minister. I'm the servant of the everybody
here. And that's what the church, that's what the scriptures tells
us to do. But look what he said in Hebrews
13, 17. Obey them that have the rule over you. And that word
rule, have, means to guide. It means to guide. Obey them
that guide you and submit yourselves. Now, this is the reason why.
For they watch for your souls, not your bodies, your souls,
your eternal souls, that they must give an account. And the
first person they got to give an account to is God himself.
That's the first place I have to give an account for. I've
got to give account for my attitude. I've got to give account for
the word. I've got to give account for the gospel. I've got to give
account for how I treat you. I've got to give, I'm the first
one that has to give an account. And then look what he says. That
they may do it with joy. That they give an account. Now
when we go before God, what is the account that we give of you? What kind of account, when I
go to pray, when I go to pray, what kind of account would I
give of you? I do it with joy. Almost everybody
with joy. You know, I come before the Lord
with joy, not grievous, not with grief, not because you cause
such grief to me, because if you cause grief, that's unprofitable
for you, unprofitable for you. And oh my, you know, I tell you,
despise dominion, despise authority. And I tell you, I've met a lot
of people that despise dominion, despise authority. I've seen
folks walk out. I've seen folks say, who do you
think you are? You think you're the only one
who knows anything? No, I don't. But if anybody can ever show
me themselves that I'm not dealing with God's word, I'd love for
them to tell me and show me. I really would. I really would.
But God has set an order in the church, and we have to respect
that. We have to respect that. Would
you rebel against Christ, your head? He's the head of the church,
the body. Oh, my. Would your children you
know, by nature they're going to rebel, but you know the only
thing that keeps them from being rebels all the days of their
life is watch you deal with them when they're little bitty fellas.
And that's one thing I really appreciate about some of the
Lord's people here. Their children are so well-behaved,
and they always have been well-behaved. If they had to take them out
and deal with them, they took them out there and outside or
took them in the bathroom. And after a few times, they sat
down and be quiet and be still. And that's the way it ought to
be. And a husband over a wife. Now that's something, but the
first thing he says about a husband over a wife, husbands love your
wives even as Christ loved the church and gave himself for it.
You love your wife. And see that the wife reverence,
reverence her husband. Not obey, reverence him. That's what preachers want to
do. Obey, obey, obey. It says, let him reverence her.
Let her reverence him. Show some respect and show some
reverence. And, and, and, and, well, you
know what I'm talking about. And then there's a fella, a boss. You go, you go to jobs. You all
go to jobs. And most of you have worked somewhere,
or if you won't, you do it yourself. And if you're a boss, you got
people working for you. Now, how are you going to treat
them people that work for you? Are you going to be mean to them,
cruel to them, demanding things from them that they're not able
to do? And then there's pastors and church
leaders, you know, and then, oh, look what else, they despise
dominion. Look what else it says back over
in our text. And they speak evil of dignitaries. of dignities. What does that
mean, dignities? People that's so much higher
than they think themselves to be. They slander. When it says they speak evil
of dignities, that means they slander. They, you know, they
make fun of them. They say something awful about
them, slander them, scoff at them. When he talks about dignities,
the next thing he mentions is angels. Dignities. And he mentions angels here.
Because the next one says like this. You know, they despise
dignities. You know, but for us, ourselves,
we were made lower than the angels. Oh, my. When these men were rebuked
for their behavior, They told them they would share in the
devil's condemnation. And all like the angels that
left their first estate. And so here's what he's talking
about, speaking evil of dignities. Yet, he said, yet, Michael, an
archangel, they speak evil of angels, speak evil of dignities,
speak evil of powers that be, speak evil of Christ even. And
you know, and they, yet Michael the archangel, when he was contending
with the devil, he disputed about the body of Moses, durst not
bring railing accusation against him, but said, the Lord rebuked
thee. And when these men were rebuked
for their behavior, he said, likewise, this is what's going
to happen to you. You know, you're going to, you're
going to have the same condemnations as the angels left their first
estate. They laughed, they scoffed, denying the devil any power over
them. The devil ain't got no power
over us. And he illustrates it here in
verse 9. Their proud, proud arrogance,
and oh my, speaking evil of dignitaries, pointed to the two highest ranking
angels, Michael the archangel. He is mentioned in Daniel chapter
10 and verse 13, Michael the archangel came to Christ and
he came and took care and brought some things to Daniel. And then there's Satan, he was
the chief of the devils. He had been an archangel one
time, but he failed. And oh my, so here's this Michael
archangel. Oh, he's mentioned in Daniel,
he's, And there's two archangels mentioned, Gabriel and Michael. And oh, my. And they disputed
about the burial of Moses. They got arguing about where
Moses was buried. Nobody knows where Moses was
buried. God said nobody will ever know
where Moses was buried. Look at Deuteronomy 34.6 with
me. You need to see this. 34 6 what he said over here Verse 5 it says Deuteronomy 34
5 so Moses the servant of the Lord died there in the land of
Moab According to the word of the Lord and he buried him He
buried him in the valley of the land of Moab against Beth Peor,
but no man knoweth of his sepulcher unto this day. So here's the
devil. Michael is on an errand. Michael's going to do something
in the book of Daniel. Gonna go down and bring a vision
to Daniel. And here comes Satan along and
he starts arguing with him about where Moses' body was buried.
I wanna know where Moses was buried. I tell you, Moses shouldn't
have been buried by God. He was, you know, he done some
awful things as a man. Oh, Moses, listen, he done some
awful things. You know, he killed an Egyptian
and buried him in the sand. And he also smote that rock instead
of speaking to it. Said, I must, I smote this rock
and bring you water again. Oh my. And he start, I want to
know where Moses is buried. Do you know what had happened
if you had found out where Moses was buried? It went there and
seen that everybody that ever found out where he was, they'd
put a big, big statue of him and people would have traveled
from all over the world to go see where Moses was buried. Oh, listen, I went where Moses
was buried. Oh, I tell you what, there's
nobody like Moses. And I tell you what, that's what
people do. You know, and that's why people,
you know, They will believe a lie is so easy, so easy. You know, there's people that
say they got part of the cross of Christ and got it as a shrine. If anybody has any part of the
cross of Christ, turn it into toothpicks. People will worship
a piece of wood instead of the person that was on the wood. And they've been searching for
the Ark, Noah's Ark. So what if they find it? What's
it gonna amount to? It'll just be another thing for
people to make an idol out of. Men don't need nothing to make
an idol out of. They idolize themselves enough
without something else getting them to idol. Oh, but I'll tell
you what, his arguing against Moses, you know, against Where's
Moses? Oh my God, you know, Michael
wouldn't tolerate it. Look what it says here in verse
9 back over in Jude. Yet Michael the archangel went
contending with the devil and Satan was disputing about the
body of Moses. But look what he said now. He
said, these guys are, these filthy dreamers speak evil of dignities. Yet Michael the archangel, when
he dares not bring a railing accusation against the devil
himself. He didn't say anything, accuse
the devil of anything. But what did he say? The Lord
rebuke you. I got no power, but the Lord's
got power to do something to you. The Lord rebuked him. He
never accused him, never spoke evil of him. Oh my. And oh, Michael didn't. Oh, the
highest of the angels wouldn't slander, wouldn't scoff the authority
of the worst, the chief of the evil angels. And what fools men
are to scoff or slander angels or anybody in authority or power
over them. Oh, my. I could tell you two or three
things that's happened over the years where people just, I mean,
people that sat here for a long, long time, whenever you cross
them in any way that they think's not the right thing to do, boy,
they got something to say about it. Got something to say about
it. But oh my, look what he says
down here in verse 10 then. But these speak evil of those
things which they know not. Things that they don't have a
clue about. They don't know nothing about. That they speak evil of
those things which they don't know nothing about. They don't know about dominions.
They don't know about authority. They don't know about how sorry
the flesh is. They don't know what it is to
tell a dream instead of believing God's Word. That's all they know
about. Oh my, they don't know. But look what it says here. But
what they know naturally. They're natural men. What they
know is natural to them. They don't know anything spiritual.
They don't know nothing spiritual. They don't have a spiritual bone
in their body or spiritual act in their minds. Look what he
says. What they know naturally, they
don't know what they don't know. They don't know where the powers
that be and speak evil of them. Those men told Christ, they said,
we will not have this man to reign over us. We ain't gonna
do it. We refuse to. And oh my, and look what he says. They speak evil of those things
which they know not. They don't know Michael. They
don't know God. They don't know Christ. They
don't know the scriptures. They don't know the blood. They
don't know anything. But what they do know, they know
naturally. What they know, they know naturally.
And look what else he goes on to say. As brute beasts in those
things, they corrupt themselves. Oh, my. And I tell you what,
as brute beasts, they corrupt themselves. You ever seen people
act like beasts, like animals? That's what he says. These false
teachers, these heretics, have no understanding of the spiritual
world. They claim to have a revelation
from God by dreams, by visions. But oh, they're natural. What
they know naturally. They lower themselves to the
level of brute beast. Brute beast. And look over here
at 2 Peter with me again, and I think it's verse 12. 2 Peter
2, 12. And he says the same thing. But these, as natural, brute
beasts, made to be taken and destroyed, speak evil of things
that they understand not. They shall utterly perish in
their own corruption. You know, when men reject scoff
and slander God's Word God's order and They live by
self-law by self-will It's like trying to reason with an animal
like trying to reason with a beast you can't do it reason with somebody
that don't know anything about God the Bible or anything and
they say they do and You're like talking to an animal, trying
to convince some animal to do something. Believe this. Believe that. I can't. I'm a beast. And they act like beasts. They
live like beasts. And they're gonna perish like
a beast. Oh, my. I tell you what. God told Ephraim, you know, Ephraim's
joined to his idols, just let him alone. And I tell you, men
that want to live like that and be like that, just let him alone. Let him alone. Just let him alone. And you all know, as well as
I do, that this world is full of people like that. Full of
them. You know where a lot of them's
at? They've crept in unawares. apostates and they only, they
take God's Word and use it naturally instead of spiritually. Our Father in the blessed, blessed
name of Christ our Lord, thank you for giving us a few minutes
this evening, giving us a little time to open your Word. Lord,
we We never want to despise any dominion, don't want to slander
any of your people in any way. But Lord, there are people you
try to reason with, and it's like trying to reason with an
animal, trying to reason with someone that has no reason, has
no mind, has no understanding, and think they know it all, think
that wisdom is going to perish with them. They think it's nothing
to take to task people who you appointed to be leaders and rulers
in this world, and yet they'll turn against them. Oh, God, have
mercy on us. Never let us be that way. Never
let us. Oh, God, keep us from ourselves.
Oh, keep us from ourselves. Keep us cleaving, keep us believing. in you, cleaving to you. We ask
these sayings in Christ's name. Amen. Amen. Did you hear what Jesus said
to me? They're all taken away, away. Your sins are pardoned and you
are free. They're all taken away. They're all taken away, away. They're all taken away, away. They're all taken away, away. My sins are all taken away. My sins are all taken away. My sins are all taken... God. See you Sunday, God willing.