Jude 1:9 Yet Michael the archangel, when contending with the devil he disputed about the body of Moses, durst not bring against him a railing accusation, but said, The Lord rebuke thee.
10 But these speak evil of those things which they know not: but what they know naturally, as brute beasts, in those things they corrupt themselves.
In verse 6 God spoke of the fallen angels. Now God speaks of one of the good angels. This angel is special. He has a name. The name Michael is found 15 times in the Bible. Five times it refers to this particular angel. Three times he is mentioned in the book of Daniel, once here in Jude and once in the book of the Revelation of Jesus Christ.
He is called the archangel. Daniel 10:13 tells us that he is “one of the chief princes”. In Daniel 10:21 he is referred to as “your prince” in reference to Daniel and the Jews. In Daniel 12:1 he is described as: “the great prince which standeth for the children of thy people”.
Michael has a special role that he fulfills as a messenger of God to the nation of Israel. He is a good angel and thus a messenger from the LORD. In his position, he obviously had authority. However, as we see here he realized his limitation. The Old Testament does not give us any detail on his actions at Moses’ death. However, we are told here that the devil tried to interfere with the death of Moses; however, Michael was there. Michael knew the power of the devil. He knew the ruthless nature of Satan. He was not equipped to take him on personally. He, as the archangel understood that the Lord would take care of the devil. He was not a coward. He was not intimidated. He understood his place and he understood the power of the devil.
In the Charismatic camp, there are people who assume they have the authority to rebuke the devil. They assume they can tell him to get lost. They are fools. They are tools of the devil, masquerading as angels of light. Sadly too many people are willing to entertain such heresy.
In verse 10 Jude again describes those who crept in unawares. They speak evil of those things they know not. They speak evil of God and of His servants. We know the chief priests, the scribes, the Pharisees, spoke evil of the Lord Jesus Christ. They did not know Him. They did not want to know Him. Yet, they were content to mock Him.
Jude pointed out that these fools only had a natural knowledge. They were as brute beasts. Brute beasts have a natural knowledge. They know how to graze and how to reproduce and how to be destructive at times. They have no ability to change and become anything other than brute beasts.
These two-legged brute beasts, in their natural state, corrupt themselves just as those four-legged brute beasts do. You see crude behaviour among animals. They do not know any better. Lost people can degrade themselves to behave worse than animals. Lost people know better, but they reject that which they can know. They allow themselves to be corrupted by the devil. He uses lost people as play things. Lost people do not have any power over him.
God shows us that Michael understood that he did not have the power to fight against the devil. However, he knew where to turn for help and protection. He turned to his Creator, the Lord. He left matters beyond his control with the Lord.
That is what true saints need to do as well. Wickedness has been around since the fall of man. By Genesis 6 that wickedness had corrupted just about all of humanity. Wickedness has no boundaries, except for the limits God puts on it. God is gracious and He wants people to be saved.
We know that England has grooming gangs, operated by Muslims, that are protected by the state. France has them as well. We have them in Canada as well but not to the same extent yet.
As we mentioned yesterday, the Rolling Stones were well know for their immorality. Among the rock & roll crowd, that is the norm. There are thousands of men and women who lost their innocence because they chose to follow their hearts, rather than listen to their conscience. They are not innocent. God will forgive those who repent toward Him and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ for salvation. Those who just want to sweep it under the rug will have all of eternity in torment to regret their “sowing of wild oats”.
Jude was warning of this wickedness coming into churches. Worse than the physical immorality is the spiritual corruption that was there in his day and is rampant in our day.
Anyone that is honest will admit that there are not many good churches around. There are many communities in Canada that do not have a good church. There used to be churches in most communities. Most of those churches were social clubs. They were religious but lost. They have changed with the times and continued to be friends of the world.
There are some churches that once were good but they turned away from the truth. They rejected the authority of God’s Word. When that is gone, everything else falls apart. There is only One True foundation upon which we must build. There is only One True God Whom we must know. There is only One True Saviour Whom we must know. Without Him, there is no hope.
Jude’s letter is not very long. However, it is a powerful warning against apostasy. Be sure you are not falling away from the truth. Be sure you are not tolerating that which God says is evil. Submit to God’s Word and know His peace and blessing.
Pastor Bartel