All right, let's look at Jude,
beginning at verse 8. It starts with likewise, or in
the same way. Back up in verse 4, Jude made
this statement. He says, look at verse 4, it
says, For there are certain men crept in unawares. And he's talking
about false preachers, who had literally crept into the church,
and that means sneaked their way. This is talking about the
word, you've heard the word stealth, you know, it's like flying under
the radar. These were false preachers who
claimed to be Christian, who claimed to preach Christ. And
what they would do subtly, introduce heresies. Now, somebody asked
me last week about such men like this. Are they deceived? You
know, there are all kinds of false preachers. I mean, you
know, there are obviously, there are false preachers who don't
even claim to be Christian. There are false preachers who
are so off the wall that they fool some people, but very few.
You know, I mentioned last week, I think people like, you remember
out in Waco, Texas, this fella David Koresh, who started this
cult and claimed to be the Messiah, you know. He fooled a few people,
but not a lot. And certainly he couldn't fool
true Christians. You know, what we're talking
about here, you know, think about the churches in Galatia. These
false preachers came in there and they were diverting true
believers. So, and that's why it's written.
But now people like Caress, Jim Jones, you know, drinking the
Kool-Aid and all that, they fool some people, but not a lot. And
then there are some who are in their lifestyle. I mean, you
know, I could name some preachers who I think, it's kind of obvious
to me and probably to you too, who are in it for the money.
You know, they're in it to get rich. And they do it under the
guise of godliness. They really think they deserve
that because of the work they're doing, but the Bible won't support
them on that. Now it's true that God's preachers
are to be supported by the people of God, but we're not to have
the lifestyle of the rich and the famous, that kind of thing. Celebrity and all of that. But
here, what Jude is talking about is one of the greatest problems
that faces the church in the last days, and that is false
preachers who come in under the radar. And in verses 5 through
7, Jude compared these false preachers and their followers,
first of all, to the unbelieving Hebrews who had so much privilege. The unbelieving Hebrews that
God brought out of Egypt, Think about what all they saw in Egypt
through Moses. All of the miracles, the plagues,
and the crossing of the Red Sea. And yet, those miracles did not
bring them to faith in Christ. In fact, after they crossed the
Red Sea and Moses went up into Mount Sinai, what did they do?
They built a golden calf and worshipped it. That was a carryover
from Egypt. which show that their hearts
were still back in Egypt. And they perished in the wilderness
because of unbelief. Read it in Hebrews chapter 3
and chapter 4. So what his point there is that we're here sitting
under the preaching of the gospel. Don't be like the unbelieving
Hebrews. Apply your mind to understanding
and see these things. I'm going to be talking about
things like that in the message from John 8 about disciples indeed
and continuing in the Word. He compared them to the fallen
angels. The Bible teaches that the company
of angels that followed Satan, Lucifer, in his fall when he
rebelled against God. And think about how privileged
they were The non-elect angels is what the old writers called
them, and that's what they were. There are elect angels. There
are angels who did not fall, who are providentially kept by
the power of God. But those fallen angels are the
ones, they were so privileged, and yet they rebelled. And then
he compares them to Sodom and Gomorrah. Now when you think
of Sodom and Gomorrah, what do you think of? We think of the
grossest acts of perversion and immorality. Now if some preacher
crept into the church and started promoting gross acts of perversion
and immorality, that wouldn't fool true believers. Now it may
fool some people. And I know I mentioned last week
about how the church is becoming more and more accepted, more
and more inclusive of things like homosexuality and things
like that. And they do it under the guise
of love, but that's not godly love. Now, we don't have any
mandate as Christians to go out and start killing people like
that or treating them wrong. We're to pray for their salvation.
But we cannot accept, we cannot agree, we cannot promote such
things as love because it's not godly love, it's selfish love. But why does he compare him to
Sodom and Gomorrah? Because the two cities of Sodom
and Gomorrah, everyone who was in Sodom and Gomorrah perished
under the wrath of God. And he said that's the fate of
these same false preachers unless God intervenes and saves them.
So that's what he compares them with. So he says in verse 8,
likewise or in the same way, Jude 8, also these filthy dreamers. Now why does he call them filthy
dreamers? Because their message is a dream or an imagination
contrived by man. It's not the word of God. It's
not just dreams in and of themselves, but that can be included. You
know, people put a lot of stock in dreams, don't they? Some people
try to derive their theology from dreams. Don't do it. It's more probably, instead of
a message from God, a bad meal. Probably. Now, that's not to
say that all dreams are bad. What I'm saying is this. You
may have some good dreams. You may even have some God-honoring
dreams. God used dreams in the Old Testament,
didn't he? Daniel was an interpreter of
dreams, Joseph was an interpreter of dreams, and God conveyed truth
that way. But now we have the Word of God.
Don't derive your theology from dreams or imaginations. What
he's talking about, these false preachers do not preach God's
Word. They don't preach the gospel.
of salvation, conditioned on Christ who fulfilled those conditions
and brought forth everlasting righteousness that's imputed
to God's people and leads to eternal life and glory. They
don't preach that. They introduce human things that
men dream up, that men concoct. And then he calls them, they
defile the flesh. The defiling of the flesh is
equivalent to idolatry. That's what that means. And anytime
a sinner is directed by a preacher to look elsewhere for a right
relationship with God, to look elsewhere other than Christ and
his blood and righteousness alone, that's idolatry. Why? Because God, the true God, will
not accept anything less than the perfect righteousness of
his son. A false god will accept other
things. If you're, like, for example,
Cain. Remember Cain and Abel. Cain
was an idolater. Because he served a god of his
imagination, he fully expected God to accept him based upon
his works. But the true God says He will
not do that. He forbids that. He says that
dishonors Him and denies His Son. If righteousness come by
the law, then Christ is dead in vain. Every time a sinner
preaches or believes a message of salvation conditioned on sinners,
what they're actually saying, whether they know it or not,
because this is a deception now, what they're saying is that Christ
died in vain. Because why did Christ die? He
died to fulfill all the conditions that God requires for a right
relationship with him, including the fruit of the Holy Spirit's
work in us. That's why Christ died. Now if
I come to God on any other basis, I'm saying he died in vain. His
death really didn't mean anything. And then he says in verse eight,
they despised dominion. What's dominion? Well, some people
say, well, that's domination. Well, what it is is simply this. God is sovereign. God's way is
the only way. It's God's way or the highway.
That's the dominion. The word of God settles the matter
for us. And if you don't bow to the word
of God, if you don't submit to God's word in the gospel, for
example, which is called a submission to what? To Christ as the Lord
our righteousness, then you despise dominion. God has the rule over
his people and he rules by his word and he reveals to them the
one and only way of salvation. Now if I stand up before you
and say, well, there are many ways to God, or every religion,
you know, people are saved under every religion, you know what
I'm doing? I'm despising dominion. Because
the king of kings and the Lord of lords says, uh-uh, no sir,
that will not do. God's word is law. And these false preachers are
saying otherwise, and then it says they speak evil of dignities. Now, dignities refers to the
ambassadors of Christ who preach his word. And that's what, you
know, you've heard the old term, don't shoot the messenger. Well,
that's what's going on here. They shoot the messenger. Remember
Paul in 2 Corinthians had to defend himself, his reputation,
his office as apostle? Why? Because the false preachers
who stood against him, instead of going after his doctrine,
they went after him. They'd say things like, Paul
is not a very polished speaker. Apparently Paul was not a very
polished speaker. Tradition tells us that the Apostle
Paul was not an eloquent pulpiteer. I guess he missed the class in
homiletics. But it says like a man like Apollos
was an eloquent Greek. So Apollos apparently was the
better preacher even though Paul was the Apostle. So they went
after Paul's character. Apparently he didn't have much
of a pulpit presence. Well, I like the way he says
it, you know, that kind of thing. And they went after him. They called him a braggart, you
know. I know what they were doing there.
I said, you think you know it all and everybody else is wrong,
Paul. So they speak evil of God's preachers,
of God's ministers who preach his word. So, and listen, I mean,
we preachers, we're not above criticism, don't get me wrong.
And when I say criticism, I'm not talking about looking for
things to put people down by. I'm talking about, I tell you
this, when you listen to me preach or listen to any man preach,
listen critically. Not trying to find things that
are wrong, but critically in the sense of checking us out
with the word of God. In other words, understand that.
I'm gonna get into a subject today that you might wanna do
that a little bit here, all right? But that's what he's talking
about. But look at verse nine. Now here's the verse I'm gonna
camp on for the rest of the message. And he says, 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 this, he said, the Lord rebuke thee. Now, the Lord rebuke
thee, say. Now, there may be some things
that I'm gonna say here that you will disagree with, all right? But the things that you can disagree
with are not gospel issues in and of themselves. For example,
I'm gonna make the case, I believe, that Michael the archangel is
the Lord Jesus Christ himself. And I'm gonna tell you why. And
the contention over the body of Moses is not an argument or
debate over Moses's dead body, his corpse, but over the body
of the law which condemns. Now that's what I believe. Now
you can disagree with me on that, okay? And we'll still be brothers
and sisters in Christ, all right? The gospel issue cannot be disagreed
upon by the people of God. But I'm gonna show you why I
believe this. The main point of verse nine
is this, and this is what we can all agree on. What's the
main point? The main point that Jude is making as he's inspired
by the Holy Spirit is this. The word of God settles every
issue. Now that's the main point he's
saying. The Lord rebuke thee. In other words, if a false preacher
or a false professor comes to me and says, I don't agree with
what you're saying. I believe this, that, or the
other. I'm not to bring against that person a railing accusation,
which actually is a blasphemous accusing of somebody. That's
what a railing accusation is. In other words, I'm not going
to go after, say, well, you're ugly, or you're stupid. Something like that. That's what
he's saying. He didn't bring a real... See,
these false preachers, they speak evil of dignities. They go after
the person rather than contend with the doctrine in the Word
of God. Let's go to the Word of God.
So when Michael the archangel was disputing over the body of
Moses, he said this. He said, the Lord rebuke thee.
The Lord rebuke thee. And that's how we're to settle
any debate, any disagreement over the word of God, especially
in the gospel. Don't bring railing accusations.
Just take them to the word of God. Now that's what Jude is
teaching. Now we're all agreed on that,
right? That's what it's teaching, okay? But what about this, Michael
the archangel? Well, there's a lot of disagreement
on this, you know that. And when we talk about angels,
archangels, you all know there's a lot of mythology that has been
raised up over angels, who the angels are, what they do, what
their role is. The word angel, and what I believe
is happening here, and because of what Jude is doing in exposing
false preachers, he's bringing the issue down to the gospel
message. this dispute over the body of
Moses. I believe it's gospel related and I'll show you how.
But you know as well as I do that the word angel simply means
messenger. That's what the angel means.
Now there are angelic beings. We do have another one named
Gabriel. Now, I've got scripture listed
in your lesson here if you want to look these up. We don't have
time to turn to them all this morning. The Gabriel. And see, I've got it in here. This Gabriel, the name Gabriel
in the Bible, Gabriel, he brought messages to Daniel. He was an
angel. He was a messenger. I believe
an angelic being. He brought messages to Daniel.
He brought a message to Zacharias, who was John the Baptist's father,
and he brought messages to Mary, the human mother of Jesus. The
name Gabriel means man of God. Well, why would you call him
a man if he's an angelic being? Because he appeared to Daniel,
he appeared to Zacharias, he appeared to Mary in the form
of a man. But his name was Gabriel. So
angel can describe angelic beings. They were messengers. They are
protectors. God providentially uses angels.
I believe there are guardian angels, ministering angels. They were used very much in the
Old Covenant. Hebrews chapter 1 talks about
that, how they were ministering spirits in the Old Covenant,
messengers. And you remember the point the
Hebrews is making is that Christ is better than angels. Angels
cannot save you. I don't care what that TV show
says, Touched by an Angel. Angels cannot save you. They're
not saviors. They're not the redeemed of the
Lord. That's sinners saved by grace. The glory of salvation by Christ,
by God's grace in Christ, is something the angels are amazed
at. They desire to look into it,
the scripture says. Now, angels is a term that is
sometimes used for the preachers of the gospel. Somebody told
me one time, said, well, you're no angel. Yeah, I am. I'm a messenger of God. John
the Baptist was referred to as an angel in Matthew 11 and verse
10. He was a sinner saved by grace.
That means he was a messenger of God, a human messenger of
God. The pastors or the elders of the seven churches in Revelation
are referred to as the angel of the church. I believe that's
talking about them. So keep that in mind. But now
also the Lord Jesus Christ himself is called in the Old Testament
the angel of the Lord. He is the chief, final, complete
messenger of the glory of God. He's the Alpha and the Omega,
the beginning and the end. And he's also in Isaiah called
the angel of God's presence. In other words, you want to see
God, you want to meet God, you must come through Christ. Christ
is the embodiment. He's called the tabernacle. That
means the place where God's glory resides. He's the angel of God's
presence. In Malachi 3.1, he's called the
angel of the covenant because the covenant of grace is all
in Christ. So you see that? Now how do we
know what this word angel means? Context tells us what it means. So angels are described as messengers
of God. But now Michael, this one Michael,
turn to Revelation chapter 12. Now wait a minute before you do it,
let's see. I've got Daniel listed here. I want you to see a verse,
I think, before we go to Revelation 12. Go back, I'm sorry, go back
to Daniel chapter 10, I'm sorry. Go back to the book of Daniel,
chapter 10. And what I'm telling you is that
when I first came to this position, it was through studying the book
of Daniel. But listen to this. Now, first of all, let me tell
you what the name Michael means. Michael's not in here, is he?
Okay. The name Michael can be translated
different ways. First of all, it can be translated
as one who is like God. That's what the name Michael
means. It can also be translated literally as one who is God. Certainly context would determine
the meaning. Now there are human beings in
the Bible who are named Michael, just like our Michael. And certainly
we wouldn't say that's one who is God. We wouldn't even necessarily
say that's one who is like God, but you know what names are.
The name Joshua is the old covenant the Old Testament equivalent
transliterated as Jesus, Yeshua, Jesus. Joshua was not Jesus,
Joshua that led the children of Israel against Jericho, he
wasn't Jesus, he was a type of Christ. So don't get bogged down. The name of Michael the Archangel
here does not prove my point. I'm just giving you that information,
okay? It doesn't prove my point because
of that. Because context determines that.
But what I believe proves the point is the work that is attributed
to this one called Michael the Archangel. The work. Now look
at Daniel chapter 10 and verse 13. He's talking about how the
prince of the kingdom of Persia, look there, verse 13, withstood
one and 20 days, all right? It's talking about Cyrus, the
king of the Medes and the Persians, or it's talking about the king
of the Medes and the Persians. But it says, but lo, Michael, do
you see that? One of the chief princes came
to help me, and I remained there with the kings of Persia. So
Daniel's talking about how God providentially kept him there.
through the power of this one called Michael, whom in the King
James Version, it says, is one of the chief princes. Now, if
you've got a concordance there, when it says chief princes, it
means first, doesn't it? You might see that. Actually,
what this construction, this language means in the original,
is not Michael one among many, It means Michael the first among
the princes. In other words, it's talking
about one who has the preeminence. That's what it means. So this
Michael is first. He's got the preeminence, all
right? Now, go back to Revelation 12. And I won't go through all the
stuff on Daniel here because we don't have time. Where in the Bible, all right,
now somebody says, well, this Michael is the archangel. That
means the chief. That means the highest. Where
in the Bible do you see any hierarchy in heaven? Now let me tell you where the
hierarchy comes from. It comes from the false Catholic
church. All right? And they even pray
to angels. But angels, we don't pray to
angels. All right. Let me tell you what the hierarchy
in heaven is. There's Christ and everybody
underneath him. That's the hierarchy of heaven.
Christ, he has the preeminence and everybody's underneath him,
angels included. There's no step down, you know. That's a human concoction based
on human pride. But look at Revelation chapter
12 and look at verse 7. He's talking about Satan attacking
the church. And he says in verse 7, there
was war in heaven. Now that's not talking about
war up there. What it means is the warfare
he's talking about is a spiritual warfare. This is not earthly.
This is not with guns and knives and rifles and tanks. All right? Michael and his angels. This
is one to whom the angels belong. That's what that means. Michael
and the angels that belong to him. Do you suppose there is
an angel in heaven who has possession of the other angels? I don't
think so. I know so. But Michael and his
angels fought against the dragon. The dragon is Satan. And the
dragon fought in his angels. And prevailed not, neither was
their place found any more in heaven. Michael won. He fought
Satan. All right? And then look at verse
9. And the great dragon was cast
out, that old serpent called the devil. Now what does the
devil mean? You know, Satan has many names. What does the term
devil mean? It means accuser. The accuser. Now in Jude 9, who was Michael
the archangel contending with? The devil, the accuser. And Satan,
which deceiveth the whole world, he was cast out into the earth,
and his angels were cast out with him. That's the fallen angels
that he's talking about. So here, as angels are messengers,
here Michael is not just a messenger, he's a warrior. He's a warrior. And here's Michael and his messengers
fought against the dragon. So here the word archangel means
chief or head of the angels. And as I said, there's nowhere
in the Bible you can prove that there's some kind of a hierarchy.
It's Christ and everyone under him. And it's clear that the
work described here in Revelation 12 is the work not of any angel,
but of Christ. Go on, look at verse 10. It says, and I heard a loud voice,
this is Revelation 12, I heard a loud, who cast out Satan? Go
through the scriptures. John chapter 12, Revelation chapter
20, that's Christ. And he says in verse 10, and
I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, now has come salvation
and strength and the kingdom of our God and the power of his
Christ. Some people say, well, see there,
he makes a distinction between Christ and my, not necessarily. It's just a further description
of Messiah. Christ goes by many names. Read
Isaiah chapter 9 and verse 6. He's what? His name is wonderful. His name is the Prince of Peace.
He's all those things, see? And it says, for the accuser
of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before our
God day and night, and they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb
and the word of their testimony, and they loved not their lives
unto death. That's the work of Christ. So what we have here is the accuser,
Satan. Remember, he held the Gentile
world in bondage and idolatry and ignorance throughout the
Old Testament, but he was cast out by Christ on the cross. Read it in John 12. I've got
these scriptures related here, or cited here. And by his death
on the cross, Christ opened the way for the gospel to be preached
to the whole world so that he could gather his elect out of
every tribe, kindred, tongue, and nation. And he stands as the advocate
and the mediator who contended with Satan. Well, Jude writes
here, back over in Jude 9, Jude writes here that he contended over the body of Moses, disputed
about the body of Moses. Now some believe this refers
to Moses' actual dead corpse. and that Satan tried to hinder
the burial of Moses in order to leave the body there so that
people would worship the body. The problem with that is there's
nothing in the Old Testament that would indicate that. And
again, there's a lot of mythology that rises over that, but that's
a speculation. Now, you might believe that,
and that's okay. I mean, you know. You know what
I always tell you, you can be wrong. It's not a gospel issue. Okay, you understand that. I'm
not saying if you disagree with me, that means you don't believe
the gospel, all right, on this. But you may believe that and
you may continue to believe that. You may be that kind of hard-headed
person, I don't know. But I'm just teasing you all,
you know that. But I believe the best explanation
of the body of Moses refers to the body of the law. that was
given to Moses and sometimes it's referred to as Moses. Sometimes
the law itself is referred to as the one name Moses and the
body of the law. Now this and what I believe this
is referring to because of the false preachers and because it
was the was probably one of the most common deceptions given
throughout the New Testament, you can read about it in just
about every epistle, where false professors of Christianity who
were Jews tried to impose the Old Covenant law on Gentile believers. And that's a satanic effort. Satan deceived the Jews into
believing that the Old Covenant law was a system of work salvation. Remember, and the Pharisees were
the main teachers of it. And remember what Christ told
the Pharisees in John 8, 44, you're of your father the devil,
the accuser, and you do his works. You can read about it in Romans,
in 1st and 2nd Corinthians, and go on Galatians especially. But
Satan attempted to keep the Law of Moses in force after it had
already been totally abolished by Christ when he fulfilled all
righteousness for his people on the cross. And that which
was old was taken away. And so he inspired them to impose
the law, Satan inspired them to impose the law on Gentile
believers. And the reason Satan, now listen to it, the reason
Satan wants to keep the law imposed on people is because it is a
condemning law. Read 2 Corinthians chapter 3,
the ministration of condemnation, the ministration of death. What
is Satan's desire? What is his goal? It's to keep
sinners from seeing the glory of God in Christ and His righteousness
and keep them condemned. That's his goal. And as the accuser of the brethren,
Satan desires to bring sinners under the law for condemnation.
Well, why was the law given? To expose our sin and the fact
that if God were to give us what we deserve, it would be damnation.
It's an accusing law. And I believe, because of what's
described here about Michael and in Revelation 12, that this
contention in Jude 9 can be connected to show how Christ is the advocate
of His people, pleading His righteousness imputed, His blood alone as the
ground that turns back all of Satan's accusations. Now, in
closing, turn to Zechariah chapter 3. Here's another example of
what I'm talking about. Turn over to Zechariah chapter
3. I can find Zechariah. It's right
after Zephaniah. Two or three books after Daniel. This is how Satan is always represented
in scripture as the enemy of God's people. Look at chapter
three, he showed me Joshua, verse one, the high priest standing
before the angel of the Lord and Satan standing at his right
hand to resist him, to accuse him, the adversary. And the Lord
said unto Satan, the Lord rebuke thee. Now what's happening in
Jude nine? The Lord rebuke thee. O Satan, even the Lord that hath
chosen Jerusalem rebuke thee. There's election. Is not this
a brand plucked out of the fire? There's redemption. God chose
a people, he plucked them out of the fire. How? By the death
of Christ on the cross. That's righteousness established.
And here it's already said there that the angel of the Lord is
Christ, the advocate, stepping in. Satan's accusing Joshua,
the high priest. What happens? Christ comes in
to contend on behalf of one of his chosen people, one whom he
redeemed out of the fiery wrath of God by his death on the cross.
And he says, now Joshua, verse three, was clothed with filthy
garments and stood before the angel. Joshua was a sinner. And he answered, verse four,
and spake unto those that stood before him, saying, take away
the filthy garments from him. That's redemption right there.
That Christ was manifested to take away our sins, our guilt,
the debts paid. And unto him he said, behold,
I have caused thine iniquity to pass from thee, and I will
clothe thee with a change of raiment. There's the imputed
righteousness of Christ. Now, I believe that's what Jude
9 is teaching. I know this, whether you agree
with me or not on whether Michael the archangel is Christ and all
of that, you agree with me on that gospel message, don't you? On that issue. That's the life
and death issue. But I believe that's what's happening.
What Jude is saying is that the issue that exposes these false
preachers is the ground of our justification, which is the righteousness
of Christ imputed, which is the only way that we can turn back
the accusations of Satan when he accuses us. They defeated
Satan. They turned back Satan by the
blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony. What's
the word of our testimony? The Lord rebuked them. I have
a Savior, Satan. You can accuse me all day and
all night long. I have a savior. I have a redeemer. I have a righteousness
that answers the demands of God's law and justice. Your accusations
won't stay. Don't bring railing accusations.
Don't bring blasphemous accusations and arguments and debate. Just
simply go to the word of the Lord, rebuke thee. All right.