Characteristics of Apostates
Notes
Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
Good morning. Please open your bibles with me to the book of Jude.
For those of us who are old enough, we all remember where we were when we heard of the events of September 11, 2001. The world seemed to stand still as we flocked around the nearest radio or television to see what was unfolding. Terrorists hijacked several flights and changed the course of human history. Terrorism then became the reality in which much of the early 2000’s would be remembered. There was a war against terrorism that spanned several continents. There were bombings in London, Paris, at embassies and shopping malls in Africa and people were frightened.
What is even more frightening than those who can kill the body with bombs and planes are those who can use lies to destroy the soul by leading people away from the Gospel of God’s truth. In the same way Al Qaeda operatives infiltrated the United States to carry out their nefarious purposes, operatives of Satan infiltrate the church to try and send souls to hell through their false teachings.
The same way our nation became hyper-vigilant to be on the look out for potential terrorists and terrorist plots within our borders, Jude charges the churches to be vigilant to be on the look out for these people and to contend for the faith. The NSA and other government agencies had several things that they looked for to spot potential threats, like nationality, gender, travel history, purchase history, internet browsing history, etc. to see who the radicalized agents of Al Qaeda were and where they could find them. In the same way, Jude is giving us a few characteristics to look for when we search for the spiritual terrorists, the agents of Satan.
But before we jump into these characteristics, it is important to understand their method. Al Qaeda terrorists prefer planes and bombs - how do spiritual terrorists do it?
Read with me in
8 In the same way these people—relying on their dreams—defile their flesh, reject authority, and slander glorious ones.
When he says , “In the same way...” he is linking that to what he had just written, so lets read just a little earlier from the passage we covered last week.
5 Now I want to remind you, although you came to know all these things once and for all, that Jesus saved a people out of Egypt and later destroyed those who did not believe;
6 and the angels who did not keep their own position but abandoned their proper dwelling, he has kept in eternal chains in deep darkness for the judgment on the great day.
7 Likewise, Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding towns committed sexual immorality and perversions, and serve as an example by undergoing the punishment of eternal fire.
He has three examples of people who were destroyed because of their wickedness against God. Those who weren’t able to enter into the Promised Land because of their disbelief were destroyed because of their unbelief. The angels who Satan lead astray are locked away because they believed Satan over God, they are awaiting judgement for their foolishness. And Sodom and Gomorrah were obliterated from heaven because of their sinful wickedness.
Jude is saying that the apostates he is warning the church about are like these people: they are unbelieving like the Israelites, they are foolish like the fallen angels and they are sinfully wicked like those in Sodom and Gomorrah - and they are headed for destruction. One of the things that separates terrorism from war is the terrorists willingness to kill themselves in the process.
I think using the illustration of terrorists is a good one because it rightly demonstrates the self-destructive ends that the apostates have as well. They want to lead others astray and are themselves headed to hell for their denial of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
So in the same way, unbelieving, foolish and sinfully wicked, headed for destruction, these people rely on their dreams. Rely on their dreams? What does Jude mean here?
The idea of relying on dreams brings out the imagery of those who have hyper-spiritualized view of their imaginations. These are the people who claim they have a direct line of connection with God where they don’t only talk to Him, but He talks back to them in an audible way the way I am speaking to you now.
Dreams are nearly synonymous with revelation claims of false prophets. When they want to tell you their own opinion or their own command as if they are from the Lord, they will simply say that it was given to them in a dream and who are we to tell them any different?!
Moses warned the nation of Israel about people like this in
1 “If a prophet or someone who has dreams arises among you and proclaims a sign or wonder to you,
2 and that sign or wonder he has promised you comes about, but he says, ‘Let’s follow other gods,’ which you have not known, ‘and let’s worship them,’
3 do not listen to that prophet’s words or to that dreamer. For the Lord your God is testing you to know whether you love the Lord your God with all your heart and all your soul.
4 You must follow the Lord your God and fear him. You must keep his commands and listen to him; you must worship him and remain faithful to him.
5 That prophet or dreamer must be put to death, because he has urged rebellion against the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt and redeemed you from the place of slavery, to turn you from the way the Lord your God has commanded you to walk. You must purge the evil from you.
Another way to look at it might helps us to make more sense out of it: what do we call people lost in their imaginations? Dreamers! or Day dreamers! Dreamers, the way Jude is describing them for us are those who rely on their imaginations. They rely on their imaginations. But what does it mean to rely or depend on dreams?
The same way the false prophets did in the Old Testament, the apostates in the New Testament rely on their imaginations as their source of authority - and that is what the spiritual terrorist desire to do as well- to undermine the authority of God by replacing the authoritative word of Scripture He gave us and replace it/change it/augment it with aspects of their own imagination and opinion.
In history, we see people like Muhammed who claimed to have a vision, and in his vision, Jesus is just another dude who is going to come back, get a little work done and then die like everyone else.
We see people like Joseph Smith who morally would not be considered qualified to pastor a church, let alone start one. He claimed that he received in a vision the idea that Jesus is not the only Son of God, and that He is not eternally pre-existing with the Father before time began, but that God was just a guy like you or me who was a faithful mormon on another planet, did everything right and got to be God of our planet as a reward for His good works.
And while Joseph Smith and Muhammed are huge examples, we need not look any farther than Spokane Valley itself to find people who espouse some really creative theological assertions that are completely based from their own mind. They cook this stuff up from their own imaginations. The take God and try to form Him into an idol of their own liking, one more worthy of worship than the God of the Bible would be on His own.
We all have opinions about the things of God, how He moves in the lives of humanity and how he goes about things, but we need to train ourselves to be students of the Word so that our own imaginations will not dominate what we learn about God from His own very Word.
Spiritual terrorists who infiltrate our churches are on mission from Satan to pull us away from worshiping the Triune God only and tries to get us to reinvent who God is based on the dreams and revelations they “recieved.”
So we know what they are: Spiritual Terrorists
We know what their goal is: to lead us away from God’s truth.
We know how they prefer to do it: by appealing to hyper-spiritualized hysteria about the dreams or visions they have had.
There are entire denominations that are full of people who follow these kinds of teachers and philosophies and think down on those of us who do not practice them. For further reading on these movements and denominations, I would recommend a book called Strange Fire: The Danger of Offending the Holy Spirit With Counterfeit Worship by John MacArthur. It is an eye-opening read and considered widely to be one of his best books.
Another book I would recommend is by a guy named Costi Hinn, and it is called, God, Greed and the (Prosperity) Gospel. It talks specifically about the apostates in the Word of Faith and Name It and Claim It circles that would have a person donate to their ministries instead of pay their rent and electric bill. By the way, Costi Hinn is the nephew of Benny Hinn, so this man has experience in this field, this book is definitely worth the read.
Now we know who they are, what their goal is and how they intend to accomplish it. So now we need to get a better idea of what they look like. Jude gave us a brief list of characteristics to help us identify those who would try and lead us away from the truth. The apostates we are to be on the lookout for are depraved, defiant and disrespectful… depraved, defiant and disrespectful.
They are Depraved
They are Depraved
Jude says specifically that the apostates he is warning about will be defilers of their flesh. Many times in scripture, “the flesh” is the name given to our sin nature, that part of us that, though we believe and are redeemed is still waiting to be redeemed. There is a dichotomy between the flesh, the sin nature, and the spirit.
8 because the one who sows to his flesh will reap destruction from the flesh, but the one who sows to the Spirit will reap eternal life from the Spirit.
There is a responsibility believers have throughout our sanctification to deny the flesh and take up the Spirit.
Paul says in
16 I say, then, walk by the Spirit and you will certainly not carry out the desire of the flesh.
The apostates that Jude is warning about, however, are not those who are satisfying their flesh, but those who are defiling their flesh, so I don’t believe this is an example of the flesh representing our sin nature. I think Jude is actually speaking more literally - these people defile their flesh. He is speaking of indulging in sexual sin.
18 Flee sexual immorality! Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the person who is sexually immoral sins against his own body.
There was a man who passed away at the end of last year. He had a very prolific ministry and wielded a lot of influence in Christian circles. Just after he passed away, those who had been sexually abused and exploited by this man for years on end came forward. And just like that, almost a lifetime of unrepentant sin came to light. It made people understand the need that para-church ministers have to be in church. Many people blamed this man’s sin on the isolation from the body of Christ he had, but I would say it was more of a result. The only blame for his sin laid squarely on his shoulders.
The pattern of unrepentance has lead many to believe that this man was a gifted teacher of a Word that didn’t exist in His heart - he was a wolf in sheep’s clothing. It is interesting though because theologically, there was a consensus while he was alive that his theology was pretty solid. Luckily for us, the only one who can judge the heart is God.
The apostates that Jude warn us to keep watch for engage freely in sexual sin because they are given to the depravity of their minds. Paul tells in Romans 1 that these kinds of people have been handed over to their own depravity for the destruction of their flesh. What categorizes them as apostates are that they have denied the truth of God’s Word and actively engage in unrepentant sexual sin.
These apostates who rely on a hyper-spiritualized sense of imagination are depraved, defiling their flesh, and they are also defiant.
They are Defiant
They are Defiant
Jude says specifically that the apostates he is warning about will reject authority. Theologians are honestly split on the specifics Jude had in mind when writing this. There are a few theories. Calvin and Luther thought that he was referring to civil authorities. One commentator thought he could be referring to angelic authority. Another, that I feel is more appropriate to the context of the entire epistle is that apostates deny the authority of Jesus.
To deny authority, one can take two different approaches:
a theological one - where they question the validity of Jesus’ authority on a theological basis
or a practical one - they say they accept the authority of Jesus in their lives but reject him in how they live.
Now, to a certain point, we are all guilty of that kind of defiance every now and the, but there is a difference. Apostates do not care that they are sinning because they do not have the holy Spirit to convict them of the sins they are committing. On the Other hand, when believers live defiantly, the Holy Spirit within them convicts and leads us to repentance so that we don’t stay there. Matthew 18 is the chapter we often go to when we talk about church discipline when someone is living in a state of unrepentant sin. In scripture and in the church, there are measures in place to make sure believers don’t stay in that place of defiance.
Apostates disregard the christian lifestyle. They fail the test John gives us in
5 This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light, and there is absolutely no darkness in him.
6 If we say, “We have fellowship with him,” and yet we walk in darkness, we are lying and are not practicing the truth.
7 If we walk in the light as he himself is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.
8 If we say, “We have no sin,” we are deceiving ourselves, and the truth is not in us.
9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
As a practice, we should have times of introspection and examining of our lives to see if we are falling into sinful behavior. We do this because we want to be as separated from sin as possible. We know that if we believe in Christ that our sins are separated from us as far as the east is from the west. But we also know that Jesus hates sin and as his followers we strive to grow into Christ’s likeness as much as possible. We will not be free from sin until we are reunited with Christ either through death or rapture.
What categorizes them as apostates are that they have denied the truth of God’s Word and actively engage in unrepentant sexual sin and unrepentant denial of the authority of Christ in their lives by how they live.
These apostates who rely on a hyper-spiritualized sense of imagination are depraved, defiling their flesh, and they are also defiant, shirking the authority of Christ by their lifestyle. They also have a bone to pick with the angels because they are disrespectful to them.
They are Disrespectful
They are Disrespectful
Jude says specifically that the apostates he is warning about will blaspheme “glorious ones.” What does he mean by “glorious ones?” The greek word Jude uses is δὁξας. This is a noun form of the adjective, glorious - it literally means, one who is glorious, or glorious one. It is the same term that Peter uses in
9 then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials and to keep the unrighteous under punishment for the day of judgment,
10 especially those who follow the polluting desires of the flesh and despise authority. Bold, arrogant people! They are not afraid to slander the glorious ones;
11 however, angels, who are greater in might and power, do not bring a slanderous charge against them before the Lord.
Notice how in both instances, in 2 Peter and in Jude that right after making mention of the glorious ones that they go one to talk about the angels using the term we know and normally associate with the angels, αγγελος?
We don’t know for sure what specific blasphemies the apostates were committing, but we do see how apostates and false teachers have claimed special close associations to angels.
To ascribe a holy being as having done something evil they didn’t do is a form of blaspheme. Some commentators thought that those Jude opposed may have taken prideful positions above the angels, speaking of them as if the angels were their servants instead of God’s holy messengers.
We also see how Joseph Smith, the founder of the Mormon religion, said that he recieved the golden tablets from the angel Maroni. He used angelic beings as his basis authority. But remember what Paul says?
8 But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to what we have preached to you, a curse be on him!
Our standard of truth doesn’t come from angelic influence, it comes from God’s Word.
God’s messengers live to serve God. We should neither worship them, nor disrespect them by attributing to them false testimonies about God. We shouldn’t imagine that we are better than them, we should respect the work they do and thank God that He will work through whatever means necessary to accomplish His purposes. The apostates Jude is warning us about try to put themselves on a pedestal and exalt themselves and their message over the Word of God and the messengers of God without a second thought.
What categorizes them as apostates are that they have denied the truth of God’s Word and actively engage in unrepentant sexual sin and unrepentant denial of the authority of Christ in their lives by how they live and their sense of superiority that would embolden them to bring a charge against a sinless servant of God.
These apostates who rely on a hyper-spiritualized sense of imagination are depraved, defiling their flesh, and they are also defiant, shirking the authority of Christ by their lifestyle. They are also disrespectful to angelic beings by speaking blasphemously against them.
Conclusion
Conclusion
Jude is issuing a standing order for the church: be on the look out for apostates who match this description. Notice how these characteristics aren’t of people who espouse the truth and are broken sinners like everyone else who acknowledge their sin and need for forgiveness? The apostates Jude warns us about have a calculated pattern of licentiousness that makes them stand apart from real believers.
I can see the potential for danger in this call, especially in our culture where it is not uncommon to see people get “cancelled” for a single instance of something they have once said or done. We should be vigilant but not on a witch hunt. Our hope should be that nobody would apostate and try to lead us away from Christ, but unfortunately, that’s not the case. The people Jude is describing are those in teaching positions who have patterns in their lives that reflect these characteristics. But the first things we should be aware of: where are they claiming their authority from? Are the teaching from the Word or are they claiming some kind of prophetic insight from direct revelation or a dream? That should be our first warning. The Scripture has all we need for life and godliness and God gave us the Scripture to replace those kinds of gifts seen in the past.
When people speak in tongues and say they are prophesying, they are appealing to a hyper-spiritualized emotional experience, not God’s Word.
When people claim to have a word from God that says we should embrace certain sins or hold less firmly to the Word of God, that person is merely espousing their opinion wrapped in a pseudo Christian package to make it seem more palpable.
When a woman says that Paul, in Scripture, forbids them to preach but that Jesus told them specifically, through personal revelation to preach, they are showing and outright defiance for the Word of God for personal gain.
Where are we going to find the most application for this verse today? My personal opinion is that we are going to find it in the authors we chose to read for spiritual encouragement. We should be very careful in who we allow to have influence in our lives. I don’t like name-dropping in sermons, but we do need caution and sometimes we have no idea unless we are told these things. If you read material from Joel Olsteen, TD Jakes, Joyce Meyer, Beth Moore, Joseph Prince, pretty much any of the authors who say that we need the bible plus anything else (like personal revelation, or health, wealth and happiness, or acceptance of sinful behavior) - you are potentially opening yourself up to a negative influence where you were looking for a positive one.
There are plenty of great authors out there Pastor Chris and myself would be happy to recommend who are or who were scripturally sound and effective in their ministries:
like John MacArthur, Jerry Bridges, CS Lewis, JI Packard, D. Martin Lloyd Jones, R.C. Sproul, Elizabeth Elliot, Nancy Demoss Wolgemuth, Linda Dillow, and more.
The main point is, be careful who you are letting have influence in your spiritual life. Scripture needs to take supreme authority in our lives - not because it is a good book, not even because it is the good book, but because it is the very Word of God, the very Word of Christ whom we serve. Don’t trade that in for the drunken ramblings of perverted people who would try to lead you astray for their own gain. Be careful to examine those you read, those who teach and those who would try to impart spiritual truth.
1 “If a prophet or someone who has dreams arises among you and proclaims a sign or wonder to you,
2 and that sign or wonder he has promised you comes about, but he says, ‘Let’s follow other gods,’ which you have not known, ‘and let’s worship them,’
3 do not listen to that prophet’s words or to that dreamer. For the Lord your God is testing you to know whether you love the Lord your God with all your heart and all your soul.
4 You must follow the Lord your God and fear him. You must keep his commands and listen to him; you must worship him and remain faithful to him.
5 That prophet or dreamer must be put to death, because he has urged rebellion against the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt and redeemed you from the place of slavery, to turn you from the way the Lord your God has commanded you to walk. You must purge the evil from you.
Let’s pray.