Study In Jude
by Sandy Simpson
Lesson 2 – Vs. 5-10
Vs. 5-7 Though you already know all this, I want
to remind you that the Lord delivered his people out of Egypt, but later
destroyed those who did not believe. And the angels who did not keep their
positions of authority but abandoned their own home--these he has kept
in darkness, bound with everlasting chains for judgment on the great Day.
In a similar way, Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding towns gave themselves
up to sexual immorality and perversion. They serve as an example of those
who suffer the punishment of eternal fire.
Jude reminds us of the judgments of the past. Remember that Israel was
God’s elect, His people. But there were those who, though they claimed
to be God’s people, did not believe in God, did not trust Him. Be aware
that God will judge those who do not believe, even if they claim to be
His people. The basis for judgment is always a lack of belief. Even some
of the angels, who were made to serve and worship God, abandoned God for
their own selfish ambitions. When we pit our will against the will of God,
we are going to be judged unless we repent
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Is: 14:12-17 How you have fallen from heaven, O morning star, son
of the dawn! You have been cast down to the earth, you who once
laid low the nations! You said in your heart, "I will ascend
to heaven; I will raise my throne above the stars of God; I will
sit enthroned on the mount of assembly, on the utmost heights of the
sacred mountain. I will ascend above the tops of the clouds;
I will make myself like the Most High." But you are brought down to
the grave, to the depths of the pit. Those who see you stare at you, they
ponder your fate: "Is this the man who shook the earth and made kingdoms
tremble, the man who made the world a desert, who overthrew its cities
and would not let his captives go home?"
Satan said “I will” and was thrown down to the earth and he will ultimately
be thrown into hell. Jude reminds us that even the angels, the chosen servants
of God, can be judged for unbelief. Sodom and Gomorrah gave themselves
over to sexual sin and were judged. If there had been ten righteous men
in those cities God would have spared them. I wonder how many righteous
men there are today? I’m afraid there are very few left. God has left us
His warnings in history to remind us that if we do not repent and believe
we will be judged. There are many false prophets and false teachers today
who have been warned repeatedly to repent. Kenneth Copeland, Kenneth Hagin,
Benny Hinn, John Arnott, Randy Clark, John Kilpatrick, Steve Hill, Rodney
Howard-Browne, Rick Joyner, Paul Cain, Mike Bickle, Paul Crouch, Marilyn
Hickey, Morris Cerrulo, Paul Crouch, Robert Tilton, C. Peter Wagner, Ted
Haggard, Cindy Jacobs and many, many others. They pretend to be the leadership
of Christianity, but they are really unrepentant heretics. The Lord will
judge both them and those who follow them.
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Jeremiah 5:31 The prophets prophesy lies, the priests rule by their
own authority, and my people love it this way. But what will you do
in the end?
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Jeremiah 27:15’I have not sent them,’ declares the LORD. ’They are prophesying
lies in my name. Therefore, I will banish you and you will perish, both
you and the prophets who prophesy to you.’"
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Revelation 18:4 Then I heard another voice from heaven say: "Come
out of her, my people, so that you will not share in her sins, so that
you will not receive any of her plagues;
These are examples Jude gives of those who have blazed the trails to hell.
The point is that we should follow Jesus Christ and His Word and not those
who are false teachers and false prophets who are really working for the
enemy. Let’s look at the verses in Acts 20:28-31 again.
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Acts 20:28-31 Keep watch over yourselves and all the flock of
which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers. Be shepherds of the church
of God, which he bought with his own blood. I know that after I leave,
savage wolves will come in among you and will not spare the flock. Even
from your own number men will arise and distort the truth in order to draw
away disciples after them. So be on your guard! Remember that
for three years I never stopped warning each of you night and day with
tears.
Paul warned the Ephesians with tears about false teachers who would arise
from their own church who would “distort the truth”. They are not called
“brothers” but “savage wolves”. They do not spare the flock. They
kill
every sheep they can. This is not something we are supposed to live with.
We are supposed to separate ourselves from these killers. I shed tears
over many people who allow false doctrines into the churches today because,
as Paul said with tears, they will “not spare the flock”. The flock can
end up dead!
Vs. 8 In the very same way, these dreamers pollute
their own bodies, reject authority and slander celestial beings.
How do we tell who these wolves are? They come in sheep’s clothing.
In other words, they look and sound like Christians.
(1)
They are dreamers. They make dreams/visions more important
than Scripture, even when Paul tells us not to go beyond what is written.
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1 Corinthians 4:6 Now, brothers, I have applied these things to myself
and Apollos for your benefit, so that you may learn from us the meaning
of the saying, "Do not go beyond what is written." Then you will
not take pride in one man over against another.
The wolves brag about how God has spoken directly to them. They colorfully
tell about some fantastic dream they had where an angel took them to heaven
or hell. They do these things so that they will be considered to be “holy
men of God”, which is what they incessantly and continually drum into their
follower's heads. This is exactly what Paul was saying should be avoided.
If Christians do not go beyond what is written, they will not end up becoming
prideful. This is not to say that God does not give dreams and visions.
But they are rare, and when they are truly from God every detail will check
out with the written Word of God. Every part of that dream or vision will
be biblically correct, come true if predictive, and be in line with the
revealed character of God in the Bible. But today we see churches carrying
around “prophesy notebooks” instead of Bibles. We see people putting more
faith in "words of knowledge" than in the Bible. When you see people who
always have another dream to tell, you can be sure they are wolves.
(2)
They pollute their own bodies. Apart from the many problems
today of sexual sin in the churches, one of the biggest problems of body
pollution is people allowing demonic influence into their lives because
of doctrinal error in the church. There are so many false anointings out
there today. Benny Hinn has an anointing for every occasion. But none of
these anointings are biblical. Christians are allowing themselves to be
slain in the spirit by false teachers and then exhibit manifestations that
are not in the Bible as blessings, but as judgment or demonization. They
get drunk in the Spirit when the Bible says to be filled with the Spirit.
They are spending their time inebriated when the Bible calls for sobriety.
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Ephesians 5:18 Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery.
Instead, be filled with the Spirit.
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Romans 13:13 Let us behave decently, as in the daytime, not
in orgies and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and debauchery,
not in dissension and jealousy.
(3)
They reject authority. The main way in which wolves reject authority
is to reject the authority of Scripture. They use the Bible when it suits
them and use new revelation the rest of the time. Their teachings are not
in line with a correct interpretation of the Word of God in context. They
do not accept from the Bible what it is teaching, which is exegesis. Instead
they make up their doctrines then find Bible verses to support what they
want to teach. That is called eisegesis. Along with that, they will not
take rebuke or correction from others in the Church. They refuse to repent
of their sins. They then call everyone else "heresy hunters", and other
names. The final step they take is to curse their enemies to death, the
very people who have tried to help them see the truth.
(4)
They slander celestial beings. I have seen this so many times
in almost every meeting of Third Wave wolves. They speak directly to demons,
they yell at them and make fun of them, even laugh at Satan himself. They
say they are binding demons. They jump up and down and claim that Satan
has been bound. They fill drums full of "holy anointing oil" and spray
it all over their cities. They push stakes in the ground around towns.
They blow shofars from high places. They finger paint signs of the cross
on church furniture. They do these things claiming they will rid
the place of demons. But all this binding, prayer walking, and pragmatic
spiritual warfare introduced into the churches by people like John Dawson
of YWAM, John Wimber, Chuck Kraft and C. Peter Wagner and many others is
unbiblical. The Bible teaches we are to pray for protection from the evil
one. We are to pray for salvation of people from darkness. We can even
cast demons out of individuals. But there is nowhere in the Bible that
states we should be praying against territorial spirits, binding them,
speaking to them or using occult techniques to rid our land of them. Those
who make fun of celestial beings, which according to the Bible includes
Satan and his fallen angels, are in grave danger. Only the Lord can rebuke
Satan. We are only protected because of our relationship to Jesus Christ
who gained the victory on the cross. We must put on the armor and stand
against the devil and his schemes. But those who laugh and taunt Satan
and demons are wolves and they will end up destroyed.
Vs. 9-10 But even the archangel Michael, when he
was disputing with the devil about the body of Moses, did not dare to bring
a slanderous accusation against him, but said, "The Lord rebuke you!" Yet
these men speak abusively against whatever they do not understand; and
what things they do understand by instinct, like unreasoning animals--these
are the very things that destroy them.
(1)
Wolves speak abusively. Wolves speak abusively of celestial
beings, as we have talked about above. But I have also seen a lot of abusive
language against those they disagree with instead of using apologetics
to prove what they are teaching. We name names on our site as Paul named
names in his time, but we do so on the basis of the facts. We present the
case, including what wolves have taught and done, and compare those teachings
and actions to the Bible. We carefully footnote everything so anyone can
look up what has been said and done and will be able to draw their own
conclusions. But wolves speak abusively. They don’t deal with the facts
because they can’t. So they resort to abusive language. Jacob Prasch says
about wolves, “They can’t kill the message so the try to kill the messenger.”
Isn’t that always the case? There have been whole books written with this
abusive kind of language by Third Wavers like Michael Brown and Steve Hill
of Brownsville AG.
(2)
Wolves do not understand. They refuse to understand the truth.
They have no interest in understanding biblical realities. This is why
very few wolves, who are leaders in what is called Christendom today, are
able to come out of deception because they have no interest in teaching
or living in obedience to the truth.
(3)
Wolves try to understand by instinct. Their emphasis
is not on what they think but on feelings, which are inherantly subjective
and relativistic. They think that it is more important to "feel" the truth
instead of understand it and meditate on it. I have told the story before
about the UPC man who I overheard witnessing in a restaurant. I was impressed
by his boldness in witnessing until I heard what he said. He claimed, “The
disciples all learned a lot from Jesus while they sat around the table,
but since John laid on His breast he became the one who Jesus loved and
he got more of the truth.” This is Gnosticism. Gnostics claim that the
material world is entirely evil and the spiritual world is entirely good.
They claim that you can get to the secret deep things of the spiritual
only by leaving your mind at the door and allowing yourself to feel the
truth. Because of this type of teaching, by people like Rodney Howard-Brown,
Brownsville, the Toronto Blessing and many others in the Third Wave, they
make people into unreasoning animals instead of lifting them up to the
image of Christ. We are to come to know God with our whole person.
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Luke 10:27 He answered: "‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart
and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your
mind’; and, ’Love your neighbor as yourself.’"
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Romans 12:2 Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world,
but
be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test
and approve what God’s will is— his good, pleasing and perfect will.
Those who teach that we need to get rid of the mind are going to destruction.
Feeling without knowing is destructive. There is nothing wrong with feelings
but if they take over or become the primary source we use to discern truth
from error, we are lost. Feelings need to be tested with the Word of God.
Don’t base what you believe on feelings.
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