Sermon Central
-
The Enemy's Lifestyle Series
Contributed by Terry Williams on Aug 26, 2013 (message contributor)
Summary: A look at the characteristics of apostates.
Sermon #6 of 11
Jude: A Call to Defend
The Enemies Lifestyle
Passage
8 Yet in like manner these people also, relying on their dreams, defile the flesh, reject authority, and blaspheme the glorious ones. 9 But when the archangel Michael, contending with the devil, was disputing about the body of Moses, he did not presume to pronounce a blasphemous judgment, but said, "The Lord rebuke you." 10 But these people blaspheme all that they do not understand, and they are destroyed by all that they, like unreasoning animals, understand instinctively. 11 Woe to them! For they walked in the way of Cain and abandoned themselves for the sake of gain to Balaam's error and perished in Korah's rebellion.
Introduction
Apostasy is turning away from the faith. It is saying that you are a Christian, but not living like one or talking like one.
It is false teaching and false living.
In the early church there were people who as Jude puts it “kept in unnoticed” and began to pull the church away from the truth of Scripture.
4 For certain people have crept in unnoticed who long ago were designated for this condemnation, ungodly people, who pervert the grace of our God into sensuality and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.
The call to defend is a call to fight against such teachings that these false teachers and false “livers” are doing.
Last week we look at 3 examples that Jude gives about judgment that fell upon people in the OT who were apostates.
The unbelieving Israelites
The self-centered angels
The godless Gentiles of Sodom and Gomorrah
Today, we look at what the lifestyles of the apostates of the early church.
1. They relied on Dreams.
Dreams are not bad. God spoke through dreams and visions throughout the Bible.
However, we must remember that when God speaks through dreams, visions, and other people, He will not contradict His Word.
If you get a dream that you believe is from God, but it contradicts God’s Word, the dream is not from God.
18 I warn everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: if anyone adds to them, God will add to him the plagues described in this book, 19 and if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God will take away his share in the tree of life and in the holy city, which are described in this book.
1 Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, 2 but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world.
God can still speak to the human heart through dreams, but it will not contradict His Word.
These dreams that these apostates relied on spoke against God’s Word.
One big dream they believed in was as a believer you had freedom to sin in Christ.
They believed it, they lived it, they taught it in word and deed.
They were wrong!
What are you relying on to justify your beliefs and actions? Is it man’s teaching? Is it your mind? Or is God’s Word?
2. They defile the flesh.
These folks liked to party! They liked to live it up!
The word defile here, when used in the Bible, generally talks about sexual sin.
Basically they disregarded God’s teaching in the Bible when it comes to sex.
That teaching is that God created sex to be enjoyed and done within the boundaries of a marriage relationship between a man and woman.
Anything outside those boundaries is a perversion of something beautiful that God created.
These apostates did not like that teaching so they took their 1st century sharpies, or their 1st century xacto knives and either marked it out of their Bibles or cut it out.
Instead, they would say, God told me in a dream that this was alright, so let us indulge in it.
They did this to justify their sinful nature and sinful habits. It was too hard for them to allow God to change them, so they changed what God said.
Are you like that?
3. They reject authority.
Two thoughts on this ….
One, they rejected the Lordship of Jesus in their life.
They refused Jesus to be their Boss, their Master.
They wanted the salvation, but not the change.
They did not understand that part of the salvation process is the one receiving the salvation allows the one who does the saving complete control of the saved life.
In other words, if you want Jesus to save you, you must surrender your life to Him. Your life is not yours any longer, it belongs to Jesus.
