“Wolves in Sheep’s Clothing”

A Sermon Series in Jude

“The Apostate’s Corroding Effect Upon the Church’s Witness and Worship”

Jude vv. 8-11

Introduction

The book of Jude is a warning to every church, and he is warning them of dangerous people who come into the church disguised as angels of light (2 Cor. 11:14) or wolves in sheep’s clothing (Matt. 7:15) – apostates are difficult to identify. So, Jude encourages the church to “contend for the faith,” because these hidden false teachers will constantly work to corrode the foundation of the church (like termites) until it collapses. So they have to be recognized and exposed.

“Jude prophesied that during the last days apostates will do two things. First, they will pollute the witness of the church through immorality, insubordination, and irreverence. Second, he wrote that they will pervert the worship of Christ in mode, motive, and manner. Apostates pollute the witness of the church and pervert the worship of Christ.”[1]

Apostates pollute the witness of the church (vv. 8-10)

(v. 8) Yet in like manner these people also, relying on their dreams, defile the flesh, reject authority, and blaspheme the glorious ones.

(v. 8) “Yet in like manner,” – this is a reference to what had just come before referring to Sodom and Gomorrah in verse 7, “just as Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding cities, which likewise indulged in sexual immorality and pursued unnatural desire, serve as an example by undergoing a punishment of eternal fire.” These cities were consumed with lust and pursued an immorality they should not have, here they, “relying on their dreams, defile (their own) the flesh, reject authority, and blaspheme the glorious ones.” Remember, apostates are those who have “secretly crept in” and turned the “grace of God into a license to sin. (v. 4)”

“relying on their dreams,” – these are phony visionaries. The word Jude uses for dreams is also used in Acts 2. “In that passage, Peter (preaching on the day of Pentecost) declared, 2:16-17 “But this is what was uttered through the prophet Joel:17 “‘And in the last days it shall be, God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams;”

There will come a time in the last days when these revelatory prophecies, visions, and dreams will return. So false teachers claim dreams to be a source of “new truths” and they act as a substitute for the authoritative Word of God. The OT often uses the word “dreamer” as a substitute for false prophet.[2]

They “defile their flesh” (similar to Sodom and Gomorrah) in that they are given over to it. The word used for flesh (sarx) refers to the physical body. And defile is from a word meaning to dye or stain something, such as clothing or glass. When they are put together it is a moral corruption of the body – to defile. The apostate is morally corrupt, and does not seek to control their impulses.

But this does not mean that everyone who has a sexual sin is an apostate. John 8:7 is the story of the woman caught in adultery, “And as they continued to ask him, he stood up and said to them, “Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her.” Jesus stands ready to forgive our sin, he says to the woman, “go and sin no more.” Apostates do not seek forgiveness. They justify their behavior by using the grace of God as a license for their immorality. How many people doing that in the church does it take for the witness of the church to be tarnished?

The apostate “reject authority,” they like to be in places of authority, but they don’t like someone having authority over them. They want to rule their own lives and want to be free from the lordship of Jesus Christ, (v. 4 “. . . and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.)

Ultimately, all authority comes from God. Authority in the home, in the church, in government, all come from God. The apostate rejects every authority that God has established. The ultimate rejection of authority is God’s Word itself. The Word of God is our sole source of authority for faith and life.

“Apostates are ignorant people who do not know what they are speaking. They live in a dream world, having accepted the lie of Satan has used since the garden of Eden when he said to the woman, “You will be like God” (Genesis 3:5).”[3]

“blaspheme the glorious ones,” – The glorious ones is a reference to the created order, even going to the angelic host (glorious because of their appearance), who carry out the will of God in their duties. But it is also a reference to those who God places in positions of leadership and authority. So how does the apostate, the false teacher, blaspheme these glorious ones? By speaking evil of, undermining, and resisting what god has established.

Apostates undermine the established authority in the Church.

 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.”

This passage is a little difficult to work through because there is no other reference to this event. Jewish tradition claims that since Moses was a murderer that Satan is saying that the body belonged to him.[4] We do know what Deuteronomy 34:5-6 tells us, God showed Moses the land that his ancestors would inherit and then, “So Moses the servant of the Lord died there in the land of Moab, according to the word of the Lord, 6 and he buried him in the valley in the land of Moab opposite Beth-peor; but no one knows the place of his burial to this day.” So at Moses’ death the devil and the archangel Michael dispute over Moses’ body.

In Zechariah 3:2 he has a vision of Joshua the high priest (who led the first group of Jews back from Babylonia captivity), was standing in heaven before the Angel of the Lord. The devil was at the right hand of Joshua accusing Joshua and the nation of Israel, “Then he showed me Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of the Lord, and Satan standing at his right hand to accuse him. 2 And the Lord said to Satan, “The Lord rebuke you, O Satan!

Satan was arguing that based on Israel’s breaking the covenant promises they should be condemned. Joshua is wearing filthy clothes symbolizing the nation’s sin. In response, the Angel of the Lord (preincarnate Christ) defended Israel by deferring to God the Father and asking Him to rebuke Satan (1 John 2:1). The Father honored the Son – and God reaffirmed His commitment to Israel’s future justification, promising to forgive Israel’s sin and clothe her with garments of righteousness (Zech. 3:3-5). Jesus as the Son of God could have pronounced judgement, but instead deferred to God the Father.

When Michael contended for the body of Moses, he did just what the Angel of the Lord did. The Son submitted to the authority of the Father. Jude wants us to recognize that the archangel Michael submitted to the order of creation – Michael did not see it as his place to pronounce judgement (that was God’s job.) Even though he was a high-ranking angel, he still did not outrank God’s created order and plan for the universe. So, if (Jesus as the Son of God didn’t and) an angel didn’t (who is much higher on the food chain than us) didn’t do it, we surely should not do it.

Hebrews 13:17 “Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they are keeping watch over your souls, as those who will have to give an account. Let them do this with joy and not with groaning, for that would be of no advantage to you.” Jude says, “But these people blaspheme all that they do not understand,” – apostates speak evil of their leaders, God’s plan in the church, because they don’t know and they do not understand the things of God.

God buried Moses (through Michael), and no one knows where he was buried. Jude is about to transition into how apostates affect worship, but the devil has always fought to be worshipped, and when that doesn’t work, he tries to corrupt worship within the church. He constantly offers a counterfeit. If people knew where Moses was buried, they would gather at the site, and it would be worshipped as a relic.

Apostates don’t understand the things of God,

yet they fight against what is good in the church.

 10 But these people blaspheme all that they do not understand, and they are destroyed by all that they, like unreasoning animals, understand instinctively.

Here Jude contrasts the archangel Michael with the apostates in the church in two ways. First, they “blaspheme all that they do not understand,” this refers at least to angelic beings, but probably extends to other spiritual matters. They don’t understand spiritual things, the things of God – so they revile them and slander them. They do not understand “the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints.”

Secondly, the false teachers are destroyed by all that they, like unreasoning animals do – by going against God’s Word and His church there are consequences of their own destruction which they can’t see as being their fault. They are governed by their own natural fallen instincts, and that immorality leads to their destruction.

Apostates pervert the worship of Christ (vv. 11)

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.

Jude pronounces three cases of woe, and all three relate to worship. Let’s first go back to Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. They both ate of the forbidden fruit and sin entered into the world. They tried to cover their sin by the work of their own hands which God rejected. God killed an animal (shed its’ blood) and used the hides to cover their nakedness. This was the God given way of dealing with sin, blood had to be shed. Hebrews 9:22 “. . . without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins.”

 The Way of Cain

(v. 11) “For they walked in the way of Cain is a reference to Genesis 4:3-7, the first recorded worship service in history, “In the course of time Cain brought to the Lord an offering of the fruit of the ground, 4 and Abel also brought of the firstborn of his flock and of their fat portions. And the Lord had regard for Abel and his offering, 5 but for Cain and his offering he had no regard. So Cain was very angry, and his face fell. 6 The Lord said to Cain, “Why are you angry, and why has your face fallen? 7 If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is contrary to you, but you must rule over it.”

First off Cain was religious (he went to church), but he wanted religion on his terms. Cain offers a sacrifice based on the work of his hands. He worked hard, went out into the field, planted the seeds, harvested the crop, brought a portion of his hard work as a sin offering – and God does not accept our works as a means to cover our sin.

Hebrews 11:4 “By faith Abel offered to God a more acceptable sacrifice than Cain, through which he was commended as righteous, God commending him by accepting his gifts. And through his faith, though he died, he still speaks.” Abel’s act of worship was by faith in the shedding of blood to cover his sins. Apostates corrupt the worship of God by taking it away from faith and moving it toward works. Cain rejected the way of substitutionary atonement.

Those that follow the way of Cain say, “Joe is hard-working, he is nice to other people, see how he provided for his family. God should accept him into heaven, he’s a good guy.” No. “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God – all need the shed blood of Jesus.” Salvation is by God’s grace, through faith, in Jesus’ bloody sacrifice upon the cross.

Balaam’s Error 

“abandoned themselves for the sake of gain to Balaam’s error” – His story is found in Numbers 22-24. A Moabite king named Balak wanted to hire a prophet of the Lord, named Balaam to curse the Israelite army.

Balaam originally sent them away, but the more he thought about it the greedier his heart became. Balaam then returned to the king and said something like, “I can’t curse them (God had told him not to do it), but I have a plan which will cause God to curse them for you (for a fee of course). So, Balaam arranges for women to invite Israelite men to a big sensual feast. Fornification took over and the curse of God came upon His people, resulting in 24,000 Israelites being judged and killed.[5] Balaam used his spiritual insight to obtain material gain. He was involved in religion for what he could gain from it.

2 Peter 2:15-16 says, “They have followed the way of Balaam, the son of Beor, who loved gain from wrongdoing, 16 but was rebuked for his own transgression; a speechless donkey spoke with human voice and restrained the prophet’s madness.” Balaam’s error was that he used his position as a prophet “for the sake of gain” so it leads us to ask the question, “What is our motive for worshipping? Is our motive to obtain or to see what we can get out of it? Or do we gather to give God glory?

 Korah’s Rebellion

“perished in Korah’s rebellion,” – We find the story of Korah (a cousin of Moses) in Numbers 16, who was a Levite, but he was not chosen to serve as a priest. He was angry because he was not chosen and lured by pride formed a conspiracy with three other men and led two hundred of Israel’s elders in a rebellion against Moses (God’s prophet) and Aaron (God’s priest). God had appointed Moses and Aaron, and Korah was too blind to see that it was God who had appointed them, so when he opposed them, he was opposing God. Korah didn’t like Moses and did not want to submit to his leadership – so he formed a rebellion.

Korah did not like having Moses being over them as a leader, Numbers 16:3 “You have gone too far! For all in the congregation are holy, every one of them, and the Lord is among them. Why then do you exalt yourselves above the assembly of the Lord?” We have just as much right to lead, as you do, “we are all holy.”

Numbers 16:32-35 “And the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them up, with their households and all the people who belonged to Korah and all their goods. 33 So they and all that belonged to them went down alive into Sheol, and the earth closed over them, and they perished from the midst of the assembly. 34 And all Israel who were around them fled at their cry, for they said, “Lest the earth swallow us up!” 35 And fire came out from the Lord and consumed the 250 men offering the incense.”

This form of apostacy is the person or group who is divisive and brings dissension into the church. But look at Moses’ reaction to this rebellion, Numbers 16:4 “When Moses heard it, he fell on his face,” because he understood something the rebellious group led by Korah did not – Moses did not take their attack personal. The rebellious group were going against what God had established – God was with Moses and not with them, and they didn’t even know it. He left the issue in God’s hands.

“The experience of Korah is recorded for all posterity as an example of a man who, in his own quest for power and recognition, defied God’s legitimate authority over the people of God.”[6]

“Cain ignored the word of God, Balaam opposed the Word of God, and Korah rebelled against the word of God. This is the progression of the apostate. He begins simply ignoring what the Bible says then progresses into opposing the Bible by trying to say that it is not the Word of God but simply contains the Word of God. Once they are at this point, it will not be long before they openly rebel against God and His holy Word.”[7]

Apostates undermine and corrupt genuine worship. How?

They want the church to be focused on a false gospel (Cain), personal gain (Balaam), and a rejection of authority (Korah).

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[1] O.S. Hawkins, In Sheep’s Clothing, Jude’s Urgent Warning about Apostacy in the Church (Neptune, New Jersey; Loizeaux Publishing, 1994) 52-53.

[2] John MacArthur, The MacArthur New Testament Commentary, 2 Peter & Jude (Chicago, Illinois; Moddy Publishing, 2005) 172.

[3] Hawkins, 53.

[4] Matthew S. Harmen, Expository Commentary, Volume XII, Hebrews-Revelation (Wheaton, Illinois; Crossway Publishing, 2018) 513.

[5] Numbers 25:1-9, 31:15-16.

[6] O.S. Osborne, 70.

[7] O.S. Osborne, 68.