Nepaug Bible Church - http://www.nepaugchurch.org - Pastor's Evening Sermon Notes - http://www.nepaugchurch.org/ev/ev20080427.htm

THRU THE BIBLE EXPOSITION
Jude: God's Call To Contend Earnestly For The Christian Faith
Part IV: Jude's Exemplary Exposure Of Formidable Apostates, Jude 4-16
A. Jude's Critiquing Formidable Apostates By Relying On God's Precedents
(Jude 4-10)
  1. Introduction
    1. Scripture predicts a coming apostasy in passages like 2 Thessalonians 2:3 and 2 Peter 2:1-3, and we are to expose their unfruitful works of darkness according to Ephesians 5:11 NIV, ESV.
    2. However, apostates are quite formidable to face in their evils as they are typically supported by evil spirits (1 John 4:1), so Jude 4-10 shows us how to face even taxing apostates by relying on God's precedents:
  2. Jude's Critiquing Formidable Apostates By Relying On God's Precedents, Jude 4-10.
    1. Jude began to critique his formidable apostate foes by summarily reporting their beliefs and deeds, Jude 4:
      1. The Apostle Jude noted that certain men had crept into the Church under false pretenses, Jude 4a.
      2. They were thus evil men whom God had before ordained unto condemnation, Jude 4b.
      3. These were also formidable foes, men who brazenly turned God's grace into sensual license ('aselgeia, "sensual 'debauchery,'" Theol. Dict. of the N. T., vol. I, p. 490), and who then denied Christ's Person:
        1. The error Jude opposed was an incipient form of Gnosticism that held the material world was evil versus the spiritual world that was good; they thus "cultivated their 'spiritual' lives and allowed their flesh to do anything it liked, with the result that they were guilty of all kinds of lawlessness," Ryrie Study Bible, KJV, 1978 ed., p. 1782, "Purpose." (Jude 4c)
        2. In usage, the word, 'aselgeia also carries the accompanying attitude of arrogance in its dedication to sensual license, Robert C. Trench, Synonyms of the N. T. , 1973, p. 56.
        3. In viewing the flesh as evil, the Gnostics Jude faced naturally denied Christ's Incarnation, for God could not be associated with the flesh in their view. Thus, they stoutly denied the Person of the Incarnate Christ, in turn undermining His work a s mediator on the cross, Jude 4d.
    2. Jude then appealed to God's precedents to denounce the formidable apostates he faced, Jude 5-10:
      1. Typical of the arrogant rebellion of the apostates in Jude's day was the Old Testament Israel in the wilderness journeys; their repeat, insolent refusals to trust and submit to God and His Word eventually led to their doom of dying in the wilderness in judgment, a fact recalled in Jude 5 (cf. Num. 14:22-23).
      2. Typical of the gross rebellion of the angels who left their first estate, and whom God had thus judged to be reserved in eternal chains unto the final judgment day, the apostates of Jude's day brazenly denied the authority of the Incarnate Christ, a fact Jude recalled in Jude 6.
      3. Typical of the brash, disrespectful homosexual men of Sodom (cf. Genesis 19:1-5) whom God judged to die by raining fire and brimstone upon them (Genesis 19:24-25) as an example of God's judgment of eternal hell (Jude 7; Revelation 20:15), the apostates of Jude's day were brazenly disrespectful of God's righteousness in their indulgence in sensual sins, a fact Jude recalled in Jude 7.
      4. Accordingly, Jude applied these divine precedents of God's denunciation and judgment to the apostate teachers to denounce them as relying on false dreams, defiling the flesh, rejecting authority and slandering glorious beings like Christ (when they denied His Incarnation), Jude 8.
      5. Such brazen evil by these apostates was very wicked: as Jude notes in Jude 9, even Michael the archangel dared not slander the powerful Satan when he disputed with him over the body of Moses; rather, he appealed to God's authority by replying to Satan, "The Lord rebuke thee".
      6. Nevertheless, the apostates of Jude's era spoke abusively against whatever they did not understand, and what they did understand by instinct, these are what destroyed them, Jude 10 NIV.
Lesson: In facing taxing apostates who were proudly, brazenly committed to their evil beliefs and ways, like Michael in facing Satan (Jude 9), Jude HIMSELF hid behind the AUTHORITY of GOD in appealing to the PRECEDENTS of GOD'S condemnations and judgment of similar evil parties.

Application: If facing taxing, sinful spiritual foes, may we NOT rely on our OWN strength or wisdom, but hide in GOD'S PRECEDENTS in His WORD and in its PROVEN APPLICATIONS in the past!