BOOK OF JUDE #6

A. Jude 4-11. Jude meets, head on , the biggest problem that faces the Church in every generation. A problem that began all the way back in Genesis Chapter One. When Satan convinced Adam and Eve that God’s Word was not important. You can ignore it, violate
it and replace it with your own desires. And you can do it with immunity. You can be your
own God and worship any way you want to.
Jude describes these people as those who worship self and the things self craves. They go about planting the seeds of self delusion and destruction in their own hearts and in the hearts of others.
a. For the naive who say, “Surely that can’t happen—People would not do such a terrible thing
as that.” For them Jude begins to cite the behavior of the false teachers.
(A) They creep in from the side. They blind side you. They creep in privily, secretly.
(1) They operate covertly, as spies or traitors to accomplish the overthrow of the faith.
They are not what they appear to be outwardly. Wolves clothed as Sheep.
God, in His Word, warned us about them before hand.
They are ungodly??without reverence for God??not merely irreligious, but they literally act in overt, open opposition to God's Word.
(2) They’ll try to convince you that God is so good he will not punish sinners and turn
the grace of our God into lasciviousness. Lasciousness means excess, the
absence of restraint. It leads from one level of indecency to another until it leads to wholesale wantonness until they become filthy like the people of Sodom and Gomorrah. The idea that’s set forth here is the idea of shameless conduct!
They pervert the grace of God and turn it into something it is not.
They even deny the deity and authority of Jesus.
(B) Vs. 5-7.
Three examples of what happens to those who reject God and His authority.
ISRAEL (V. 5) ?? Israel's problem was UNBELIEF!
ANGELS (V. 6) ?? Some Angels in Heaven REBELLED!
SODOM & GOMORRAH (V. 7) ?? These Twin Cities were IMMORAL!
What’s the message? Those who rebel against God and teach or practice error will be punished.
God went to great lengths to being Israel out of Egypt Yet He destroyed every last one of those who did not obey him.
Angels, in heaven, who rebelled are in chains and in dark confinement waiting the final judgment.
The apostle Peter warns about what happens to everybody who rejects God and refuses to live by His word. 2 Peter 2:4?6.
b. Vs. 8, “dreamers”
Dreamers. People who go against God are called "DREAMERS" Thinking they can do as they please and get away with it THEY ARE "Rebellious to God.”
Paul describes them in Rom. 1:18-32.
2 Thess 2:10?12.
(1) Examples: Exod. 10. Deut. 2:30.
(2) When God sends you a strong delusion and hardens your heart you’ll live in rebellion to God and at the same time think you’re God’s faithful servant.
Jude 8. “naturally,”

Word Naturally is PHUSIKOS. Like a brute beast. Governed by animal instincts. Act like brutish beasts. Defile themselves by living by their animal instincts.
(3) There really are people like this in the church. The only explanation is that they are in a deep spiritual sleep because God has sent them a strong delusion and they are in a Drunken Spiritual Stupor. Intoxicated with sin and self.
(4) Ever see a drunk staggering down the street. Oblivious to what he looks like, to what he’s saying. And he truly believes he is ok and having a good time.
Why follow someone in a Spiritual Stupor who has no Idea of where he’s going or what he’s doing as he stumbles along? And yet people do!!!
B. I don’t want to follow someone like that. I don’t want to end up where they are going.
1. Guess where all wandering stars end up? Swallowed up forever by a black hole.
2. 2 Pet 2:12?17.
1. These kinds people have been around since Cain slew his brother.
2. They have been a thorn in the side of God’s people from the very beginning.
(1) They are real and God inspired Jude to remind us of the heart break they can cause.
(2) God’s Word, The faith we are to defend tells how to deal with these problems.
(1) Rom 16:17?18; Phil 3:17?19.
(2) Acts 20:32.

Spur - 4/8/2001 am