False Doctrine Its Source and Its Effects (Part 2)

Introduction:

Last week we focused on the consistent characteristics of false prophets and teachers given in scripture.

In particular the Word of God reminded us that our Lord’s word either gets challenged through deliberate perversion of its meaning or it gets set aside through the claim of “new revelation.”The end result is the same.

Man unmoored from the authority of God will lack any sense of God’s person or God’s authority over him.

A refusal to acknowledge divine authority also leads to the absence of any foundation for recognizing other forms of authority.

Man’s personal, lofty exaltation to the heights of divine power begins with his refusal to acknowledge the authority of God.

God, through the transformative power of His Spirit and through His Word, brings us to himself.

The Bible is clear that genuine believers long to know God.

They hunger and thirst for his righteousness.

We want to know His Word, meditate upon it, and obey it because we have a healthy, sound reverence for God.

Jude will expose that false teachers have not only lack fear of God but see themselves as the only power/authority that they know.

This will sound different from Paul’s warnings about Satan’s messengers. False doctrine brings disaster. Sound thinking believers/congregations will show a respect for that.

False Doctrine’s Effects: (Jude 8-10)

Jude uses specialized terminology to discuss how these false teachers behave.

He employs three verbs in the present tense: μιαίνωa: to cause someone to be morally tainted or defiled—‘to defile, to contaminate, to cause to be morally filthy.

Reject/DenyBlasphemeJude illustrates their lack of humility with a strange example.Michael refers to the archangel Michael.

In a dispute with Satan over the body of Moses, he did not overstep his bounds.

He left the judgment and censoring of Satan to the Lord.

Michael remained in his proper place.God’s people show restraint and humility rather than overstepping their bounds.

Jude describes their actions and character outright.

Notice the reference to their “instinctual understanding.”

It turns out what they do not know they slander and insult, but what they do know they corrupt themselves in those things.

This is confused lot.

They may only recognize a physical world with a supreme, divine God whose act of grace was meant to enable mankind to revel in his own animal-like instincts free from any guilt.