Series Title: Book of Jude (http://www.springvalleybiblechurch.org/pages/Jude.htm)
Series Sequence Number: 21
Lesson Title: The perversion of false teachers (http://www.springvalleybiblechurch.org/Audio/Jude/m3u/20030909Jude6.m3u)
Speaker:Herman Mattox
Date: 2003-09-09

Scripture List: Jude 1:7-11

Fellowship:
Teresa Swartz, Her operation was successful. Julie had something with her spine. Let me encourage you to pray for one another. We all have our little issues, and we need each other's prayers. Be in prayer for one another.

Opening Prayer:
Heavenly Father, your Spirit inspired Jude to write this brief letter just the way you want it. It an overwhelming book; there is just so much. On the one hand it appears like a simple, superficial, book telling christians not to sin, or we can allow your Spriit to take us in and show us the universal impact of what Jude was talking about from beginning to end. May your Spirit open our eyes to the things you would have us see and here tonight. May your Spirit give me the words of clarity and simplicity.

Introduction:
Jude 7-8 (NASB95)
7 just as Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities around them, since they in the same way as these indulged in gross immorality and went after strange flesh, are exhibited as an example in undergoing the punishment of eternal fire.
8 Yet in the same way these men, also by dreaming, defile the flesh, and reject authority, and revile angelic majesties. [1]

Remember Jude's purpose of writing this is to encourage us to fight for faith in the midst of false teachers.

Lesson Notes:

What is at the heart of a false teacher is that he distorts the truth. But remember that the secret of a false teacher is that he does this without people realizing that this is what he is doing. Without realizing that they have been lead away from the truth. The better the lie, the better the false teacher.

The "truth of the gospel" (Gal) is for both the unbeliever and the believer. The truth of the gospel is this: "I God will do it all, I will do it alone, and if you want My work, it is by faith."

If a false teacher can distort the truth of the gospel, then two things are accomplished:

• Get person to have a false view of God
• Prevent God's plan, specifically to prevent man's harmony with God

It's all about man coming into contact with God's plan and harmony, bringing mankind back to where he started with God.

In a A recent movie, (The End of Days?), I heard an actor say "Satan greatest accomplishment has been to convince man that he doesn't exist". It just about knocked me out of my seat.

Satan wants to distort the truth about God, to prevent man and other Angels from being in harmony with God. Distort God's order of things.

False teachers want to distort God's order of things. God has an order on being reconciled with him. It is true if you are an unbeliever, and it is the same truth as a believer. A false teacher wants to distort how to reconcile with God as a believer even if God manages to slip you by on the issue of reconciliation as an unbeliever. In doing so, they distort the view of God.

The truth about God is: All you have to do is trust Me. This is true whether you are an unbeliever or believer. A false teacher comes along and distorts the view of this truth. He distorts your vie of God, and ensures that you cannot be reconciled with God.

One group says all you have to do is repent. Another group wants you to go to Church and be baptized, etc. But both of these require that you do something. All this is wonderful stuff. This is the same with Cain. Cain offered God his very best, but it wasn't what God wanted. God wants your trust, He wants your faith, and nothing else is good enough, and nothing can be added to it or it destroys grace and becomes works.

God wants you to confess, He wants your godly sorrow, He wants your heart, He wants all those things. But non of them is what is necessary for God to act in your life. All those things are wonderful, but it takes your trusting God for you to be Saved and/or restored. Some might consider this splitting hairs, but this is a battle of wisdom.

Jude 7 (NASB95)
7 just as Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities around them, since they in the same way as these indulged in gross immorality and went after strange flesh, are exhibited as an example in undergoing the punishment of eternal fire. [1]

Jude 7 "strange flesh" is not a reference to homosexuality, this word means "different", in the sense of "of another kind".

The context of this Jude 6 is a discussion of Angelic creatures going after flesh of a different order, of a lower creation. The homosexuality in Sodom and Gomorrah, was men going after flesh of a type that was not designed for them.

Principles:

• The Bible is very clear on the issue that Homosexuality and Lesbianism is a sin, a perversion, a distortion, an abomination.
• False Gospel is a sin, a perversion, a distortion, an abomination.
• False Repentance is a sin, a perversion, a distortion, an abomination.

Jude is contrasting the astonishment of the self righteous believing Jews over the homosexuality common to the gentiles with the casual acceptance of false teachers which is an equally abominable act. The Angels were transgressing the Order of God in marrying human women; the Homosexuals of Sodom and Gomorrah were transgressing the order of God; False teachers are distorting the order of God.

Richard J Bachman "Jude's intention of stressing here both the sexual offenses of the Watchers and the Sodomites is probably to highlight the shocking character of the false teachers' violation of a God given order."

If homosexuality disturbs you, then any distortion of the Gospel on how to be restored with God eternally, and any distortion of the means of reconciliation out of sin ought to repulse you even more so!

Christians are fighting the issue of homosexuality, but casually accepting the presence of false teachers. Christians who would never accept a homosexual in the pulpit will accept works from the pulpit.

To say that it is right for a male to be with a male is like saying that a believer in sin may be reconciled with God by doing something like penance. To say that it is right for an Angel to be with a woman is like saying that a unbeliever may be saved that by water baptism.

The objective of the False teachers is to distort God's design by making it sound right. People are trying to make homosexuality sound acceptable. Trying to add works to grace is an example of distortion of God's design.

Jude 8 (NASB95)
8 Yet in the same way these men, also by dreaming, defile the flesh, and reject authority, and revile angelic majesties. [1]

Jude 8 "These Men" refers to the false teachers who come in to distort the truth of the Gospel, and who distort God's truth.

Three categories of the evil of the false teachers

1. "Defile the flesh"
2. "reject authority"
3. "revile angelic majesties" is to speak slanderously of Angels

Back In Genesis, in the original false teaching of Satan

1. "Defile the flesh"
   • The the flesh of man is continually corrupted
   • Deceiptful above all else
   • Incurably wounded
   • Full of evile
   • Insane
2. "reject authority"
   • God said don't eat
   • Satan said eat.
   • Adam and Eve both did eat.
3. "revile angelic majesties"

   • Jude 9-11 (NASB95)
     9 But Michael the archangel, when he disputed with the devil and argued about the body of Moses, did not dare pronounce against him a railing judgment, but said, "The Lord rebuke you!"
     10 But these men revile the things which they do not understand; and the things which they know by instinct [Satan's lie: the LAW], like unreasoning animals, by these things they are destroyed.
     11 Woe to them! For they have gone the way of Cain, and for pay they have rushed headlong into the error of Balaam, and perished in the rebellion of Korah. [1]

"Also by dreaming" is a reference to the fact that False teachers get a lot of their false teaching from dreams in the night. (There is some authentic teaching that comes through dreams as well).

False teachers want to distort the Gospel

Closing prayer:

False teachers have been among us since the garden. Satan disguised himself in a beautiful serpent, and taught false, but sounded right. Job, all the way through scriptures, Jude beckons us, Peter beckons us... the False teachers are going to sound right, and we think we can spot them but we have to trust you to open our eyes to the truth or they will deceive us. Father we trust you in Christ's precious name, Amen.

References:

[1] New American Standard Bible : 1995 update. 1995. LaHabra, CA: The Lockman Foundation.
[2] Strong, J. The exhaustive concordance of the Bible : Showing every word of the test of the common English version of the canonical books, and every occurrence of each word in regular order. (G4102). Ontario: Woodside Bible Fellowship.