This is living. Waters of Grace, the teaching
ministry of Lewis Harold, assistant pastor of Calvary
Chapel of Westmoreland County in Greensburg, PA.
Now here's Pastor Lewis as he continues teaching through God's
Word. Pastor Clark always said there's
a famine for the word of God and it's so true.
There's a famine for the word of God.
And that's why I love this church because when you come to
church, you come bringing Bibles, you come with the
intention to hear the Word of God.
You come with the intention to learn more about the Word of
God, to dig into the Word of God.
So we thank God that in here we can be able to share the
Scripture one verse at a time and to hear what God has to say.
As Christians, we journey through life with Jesus by our
side. However, there are times when we
may overlook the fact that His Word provides the sustenance we
need. We might find ourselves running
on empty, and before we realize it, we can end up in a difficult
situation without thinking about turning to Him for help.
That's why in today's message, Pastor Lewis reminds you that
attending church is not just about fulfilling an obligation
or participating in a social event.
It's an opportunity to fill up your spiritual tank.
Now here's Pastor Lewis in the Book of Jude, chapter one with
today's edition of Living Waters of Grace.
Before we go into all that, I do want to share or just kind of
give us a backdrop of where we've come so far.
If we remember a few weeks ago when we first started this, the
whole idea is the reason why we're talking about these false
teachers is because Jude, who initially intended to write this
letter for the purpose of being able to just encourage the
believers, encourage them in their in their faith, just to
talk about the common salvation and all the things that they had
in common being saved. But the Holy Spirit moved on
them and said, no, I want you to take this a different way.
We are in a time right now where there's so many false teachers
and so many such a big famine for the word of God and, and,
and we need to do more than just talk about the common salvation,
but we need to exhort the believers to contend earnestly
for the faith. So he decided that he would
write this to exhort us and them to be steadfast to be unmovable
when it comes to the faith, and not just a faith that comes with
someone's opinions or faith that includes someone's psychology or
someone's philosophy. But he said the faith that was
once for all delivered to the Saints, that mean the very word,
the very doctrine that was passed down from the apostles
that they received from Jesus Christ, that they gave to the
people. And we now share with each other
that faith is what we need to contend for, that striving to
strive for that faith, to agonize for that faith and to to
do it earnestly, to do it with everything that we have on the
inside of us. And then he goes on and he tells
us he said been the reason why we need to contend for the
faith. And it's not much different than
what it is now. We need to contend for the faith
because you know, there's false teachers, there's teachers that
are teaching things contrary to the faith that was given to the
apostles, just like today, there's teachers that are
teaching things that are contrary to the faith.
Pastor Clark always said there's a famine for the word of God.
And it's so true. There's a famine for the word of
God. And that's why I love this
church because when you come to church, you come bringing
Bibles, you come with the intention to hear the word of
God. You come with the intention to
learn more about the Word of God, to dig into the Word of
God. So we thank God that in here we
can be able to share the Scripture one verse at a time
and to hear what God has to say. But here he said in verse four
said that there's certain men crepin.
I said that they were creeps that crept and they crepin and
they came in unnoticed and they begin to do ungodly things and
speak ungodly things and speak things that were untrue, abusing
the very grace of God, even denying Jesus Christ.
And then in verse 5 he says, but we can always be encouraged when
he used that word. But he said, but I want to
remind you and he wants to remind them about the and us
about the character of God, the holiness of God, the
righteousness of God. And in doing that, he gives us 3
examples of those who sinned against God and were judged.
And of course, if you remember, we talked about the children of
Israel who was in, you know, once they got out of Egypt and
he delivered them out of Egypt, how they were unbelievers in the
wilderness. And those who, who, who were
unbelievers, they perished in the wilderness, they were
judged. And even the angels in verse 6,
he talked about the angels who didn't keep their proper domain,
but they end up sinning against God and rebelling against God,
even coming down and committing sexual acts with, with people.
You can read about that over in Genesis in chapter 6, how he was
these, the sons of men came in and, and, and had sexual
relationships with the daughters of men.
And they created these giants and these Nephilim and, and
thank you. And these people and these
people end up being they, they perished in the flood.
They perished in the flood. And then he also talked about
Sodom and Gomorrah. And again, we, we talked about
how God judged Sodom and Gomorrah because of their
perversions, because of them going after strange flesh,
having unnatural desires, men desiring men and women desiring
women and, and, and, and the place was just a mess, even to
the point where they challenged or threatened to abuse the
angels of the Lord who came to the check the place out because
they wanted to make sure before they destroyed it that they had
good reason to do so. And they did so these three
examples, Old Testament examples gave a a peek into the the, the
character of God and to the holiness of God and to the
righteousness of God. Sin will be judged.
So now we come here to verse 8
and he says likewise. I want you to look at that word.
He says likewise also these dreamers.
And I'm going to, I'm going to just go ahead and read it down
to read verse 8:00 and 9:00 and then we'll come back and we're
going to make comment about that.
He says likewise also these dreamers defile the flesh.
They reject authority and speak evil of dignitaries.
Yet Michael the Archangel, in contending with the devil, when
he disputed about the body of Moses, deter dared not to bring
against him a reviling accusation.
But he said, the Lord rebuke you.
There's a lot in this little one or two verses when he says
likewise, he's mean. Yeah.
In the same manner as or just like Sodom and Gomorrah, just
like they how they defiled their flesh, these dreamers defile
their flesh. Just like they rejected
authority and did not want to listen to the authority of God
or the word of God. So these dreamers reject
authority and they speak evil of dignitaries.
Now this dreamers, what in the world is he saying to be these
dreamers? What exactly is a dreamer?
Well, for them, they're dreamer. They consider them dreamers
because they're really, they don't, they don't really live
in, they don't really live realistic lives.
They they live their lives based on these dreams that they have
that they think came from God. But it obviously don't because
they're doing things that are contrary to the word of God.
So these dreams come from other places or these visions that
they have, and they live by these things thinking that it's
OK, it's OK, you know, to live this way.
Even these visions that say that sexual immorality is a part of
salvation and it's OK, you know, to defile your body sexually,
it's part of salvation because your body is evil anyway.
It's your spirit that you have to be concerned about.
That's evil. That is not of the Lord.
Those are visions that they're making up.
They're unrealistic. I told you a while ago, my
grandmother and her wisdom she taught me years ago when I was
young, she said to me, we're talking about how preachers are
called to the ministry. And, and she was explaining to
me how pastors and those who preach the word of God, they're
called by God and then they're sent out.
But then she warned me, she said, now there are those who
are sent and then there's those who just went.
And, and she was explaining to me that there's some false
teachers out there, that they were not called by God.
They were not called even by their authority.
They just got up and decide they want to start pre.
They just went. They just went, and that's
exactly what we're talking about here with these dreamers.
These are just men who they were not anointed by God, they were
not called by God, they didn't have the Spirit of God, and they
just start teaching and preaching, coming out from the
body, speaking things that are contrary to the doctrine of the
apostles. It's also true that they're out
of touch with reality and they live these unrealistic lives and
instead of believing according to the truth of Scripture, they
have their own way of doing things according to their own
dreams. They turn away from God's truth
and they feed themselves. They feed their themselves on
these false doctrine. And when you feed themselves,
they're feeding their own flesh. They're not filling the spirit,
they're not feeding the spirit, they're feeding their flesh.
Then, because they're feeding their flesh, their egos and
pride begins to rise out of that, and that encourages them
to rebel against truth. These aren't doctrines that come
from the Holy Spirit. These aren't doctrines that they
receive from the apostles. These are demonic doctrines,
doctrines of demons. First Timothy 41 and two says
that they depart from the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits
and doctrines of demons. These dreamers and one of the
things that there's three things that he said that these dreamers
do. First thing that they do is that
they defile the flesh. These dreamers defile the flesh.
Now obviously you're talking about the same way that they did
with the sexual immorality over here and what was Sodom and
Gomorrah over in verse 7, how those and that lived in Sodom
and Gomorrah and the surrounding areas, how they defiled their
flesh by having immoral sexual relationships going after
strange. But perversion is basically what
they what they end up doing. And in doing so, they defiled
their bodies, they defiled their minds and, and now what
defilement is basically it's being impure.
When you defile your flesh, it's being impure.
It's dishonor it desecrate desecration of the body and
mind. Usually when you talk about
defilement, they're usually referred to sexual immorality.
But like it like it wasn't solemn.
However, there's a lot of ways that we can defile ourselves
now. Now back in the Old Testament
when they talk about defilement, you know, there there you talk
about defilement in terms of, you know, not being clean.
So if someone touched the dead body, that was defiling to them.
If someone ate with unclean hands, that was like defiling to
them or any of those kind of thing.
Tucks A leper. You couldn't, you know, you were
defiled. You weren't clean until you had
to go through the ritual. And they had all these rituals
of how to make one clean, you know, washing the hands.
Jesus talked about that over in Mark 7.
He talks about how they did wash their hands several times and,
and, and how they have to do all these, these rituals to become
clean. Well, now you don't have to do
all those things to become clean.
You confess your sins to the Lord Jesus Christ and you repent
of those sins and it's the blood of Jesus Christ that cleanses
us. The blood of Jesus Christ
cleanses us, but there has to be a confession and there has to be
a repentance. That's the that's the humility
that we need that can make us clean.
And we can't cleanse ourselves. There's no way that we can
cleanse ourselves, but we can become cleansed through the
blood of Jesus Christ that he shed for us on Calvary.
And thank God for that. In that blood that he shed 2000
years ago, it's still just as efficacious today.
It can still cleanse, still cleanse sins today, hasn't lost
its power, thank God. So he talked about this, this
defilement and, and how they defile themselves.
They defile themselves even through the way that they think.
Jesus taught us over in Mark 7, and I'm just going to go there
very quickly because I want to read that scripture over in Mark
7. He taught us that defilement
doesn't come from anything that we put in to our bodies, but the
defilement comes from what comes out of us.
It comes out of the heart. And he talked about the things
that defile us. And over here in Mark Chapter 7,
speaking in verse, starting at verse 21, he says, For from
within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts,
adulteries, fornications, murders, thefts, covetousness,
wickedness, deceit, a lewdness and an evil eye, blasphemy,
pride, foolishness, all these evil things come from within a
man and defiles a man. So these are the things that
come out of the heart. These are things that we store
up in the heart that defiles us. It's not the things that we eat.
It's not washing, it's not eaten with unwashing hands.
But these men, these dreamers, these false teachers, they
defiled themselves because of the things that were in their
heart. They were covetous.
They were ungodly men. According to the Scripture here,
these were men who, who, who, who were involved themselves in
sexual morality and deceit of all types.
They defiled themselves. So then it also talked about the
fact that they rejected authority.
Well, if men are not godly and if they're doing things on their
own, then they will reject authority.
And that's exactly what these men did.
They rejected authority. They didn't want to do what was
according to the word of God, and they rejected those who God
had put in authority over them. It's a dangerous thing to be to
reject the authority that God puts over us.
He put something, He puts people in authority over us for a
reason. Not only when they reject the
authority, they think that they're rejecting the person
themselves, but they're not. When you reject the authority
that God puts in place for you're rejecting God, you're
rejecting God. Samuel told Saul that the
people, when they wanted a king, Samuel felt like the people were
rejecting him. And God said no, they're
rejecting me, they're rejecting me.
So God's authority and God put authority in place.
That's the authority that we should submit to.
But these dreamers, they don't practice submission to
authority, They practice rejection of the authority.
And we have to be careful with that, not to reject the
authority. Even if we don't agree with
authority, the word of God will deal and God will deal with the
authority that we may object to. He says, therefore, you know,
therefore, basically when they reject the authority, they
reject the authority because they want to be an authority
themselves. Often times that's what makes
them the Antichrist, because they want to be in authority
instead of Christ. So it makes them an Antichrist.
And then of course, the third thing that they mentioned is the
fact that they speak evil of dignitaries.
That's speaking evil with angels or the glorious ones speaking
evil with them. And then go a little further.
We can go down a little further. And once we get to verse 9, he's
going to give an example of what he means by that.
But you know, angels would play the a very prominent role with
the Lord, even though we know angels are lower than Jesus
Christ. But yet it was angels, It was
angels who was here during the time that the Lord had it even
brought in the law. I'm going to go back to
Deuteronomy, go Old Testament here for a second, and I'm going
to try to show this to you how important it is to God about how
important angels were in the prominent place that they had
with him because they were there for a number of very important
events. And over here in Deuteronomy
chapter 33, it's going to read this small verse here 33 and
verse 2. I'm going to read 1 and 2.
It says now this is a blessing with which Moses the man of God,
blessed the children of Israel before his death.
And he said the Lord came from Sinai and dawned on them from
Sire and he shone forth from Mount Paran and he came with 10
thousands of Saints, in other words, 10,000 of angels from his
right hand came, came a fiery law for them.
And then verse 3 say yes, he loves the people and all his
Saints are in his hand. They sit down at your feet.
Everyone receives your words. So angels were there during the
time that when he came down and he appeared and even over here
and this is and this is one that I I thought was very interesting
as well over here in Acts. Let's go to the book of Acts
real quick concerning the angels in the book of Acts Chapter 7,
and most of you probably already know that we're talking about
Stephen. So now we're looking at what
happened when Stephen was being persecuted.
And Chapter 7, verse 53, and I'm going to start at verse 52, he
says, which of the angels did your father's not persecute?
He's talking to the Pharisees and those religious elites who
wanted to kill him. And they and they killed those
who foretold the coming of the just one of whom you now have
become the betrayers and murderers.
And verse 53 is the one I want you to pay attention to.
He says, Who have received the law?
How do they receive the law? By the direction of angels and
have not kept it. Direction of angels and have not
kept it. And then just one more Galatians
in the book of Galatians. Just trying to draw a picture
here of the significance of these angels and why he's
talking about how they basically speak evil of dignitaries of
these angels. Galatians chapter 3 and look at
with me at verse 14. I'm going to start at verse 2.
It says this only. I want to learn from you.
Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law or by the
hearing of faith? Are you so foolish, having begun
in the Spirit that you are now being when I'm now being made
perfect in the flesh? And then I want you to go over
to verse chapter 4 and in chapter 4, go to chapter 3,
verse 19. There we go.
OK, chapter 3, verse 19. This is what it says.
What purpose then does the law serve?
It was added because of transgressions till the seed
should come to whom the promise was made to.
The seed obviously was Jesus Christ, and it was appointed
through angels by the hand of a mediator.
Now a meteor does not mediate for only one, but God is 1.
So he talks about the importance of angels and how important it
was at the time of the law and the presenting of the law, how
the angels even came with him. Over in Exodus talks about how
the angels, the Lord came with him at the time when he came to
to Mount Sier, which is where he came to present the law.
So when you talk about all these things and all these things, how
they combine and these men who did not have a problem with
speaking evil of these dignitaries.
And so he gave an example. He said, no, wait a minute, you
being mere men don't have a problem speaking evil
dignitaries. Yet Michael the Archangel who is
more powerful than most men, he wouldn't even speak evil to an
Angel. So look at what he says in verse
9, back in Jude verse 9, he says, yet Michael the Archangel
and contending with the devil when he disputed about the body
of Moses, dared not bring against him a reviling
accusation, but said the Lord rebuke you.
So he's making a point here. And what he's saying is that
these dreamers, these false teachers, they don't mind
speaking evil about angels or dignitaries or these spiritual
authority, spiritual authorities, they don't mind
speaking evil of them and they don't know anything about them,
but yet they speak evil of them. But yet Michael the Archangel
who was constantly before the throne of God, who was basically
the battle Angel. I mean, he would come to me back
in the book of Dan and talked about Michael the Archangel
doing battle with the devil when he wanted to come to Daniel,
when Daniel had requested a word and he was coming, but he was
being delayed because he was in battle with the devil, with a
demon. So Michael the Archangel was not
a wimp. He was powerful Angel and had a
lot of authority. But yet he will not bring a
railing accusation against Satan.
He said the Lord rebuked you. You've been listening to Living
Waters of Grace with Pastor Lewis Harrell at Calvary Chapel
Westmoreland in Greensburg, PA. As Pastor Lewis continues to
preach through the book of Jude, we want you to realize that you
can't be a part time Christian. If you're going to follow Jesus,
He is going to ask for your undivided loyalty.
If you try to serve your own interests while following Jesus,
you find that you can't do either one successfully.
But if you run after Jesus with everything you have, you'll be
amazed at how He provides for you and sustains you on the
journey, even when you have no idea of where your provision
will come from. If today's message has
encouraged you, we'd love to hear your feedback.
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