Study in the Epistle of Jude # 39: Verse 8

by Chris McCann

EBible Fellowship (http://www.ebiblefellowship.com)

Welcome to the Electronic Bible Fellowship’s Bible study. We are currently going through the book of Jude. We have come to verse 8, which says:

Likewise also these filthy dreamers defile the flesh, despise dominion, and speak evil of dignities.

We have looked at the first part of this verse and we saw that “dreamers” have to do with those who are dealing with the Word of God, because God gave His Word through dreams and visions. “Filthy dreamers” is language pointing to those who are bringing false gospels and perverting the true Gospel of the Bible. It points to those who have another kind of salvation plan other than the one that God has developed and designed in His Word.

As verse 8 continues, these filthy dreamers “defile the flesh.” In Titus 1:15, we read that to the one who is pure, all things are pure; but to the one who is defiled, nothing is pure. Nothing is pure to the defiled because they are still in their sins and they are under the wrath of God. Their false gospels bring no blessing or spiritual benefit at all, but rather further defilement. That is the point that God is making in Jude.

We are now going to go on and look at the rest of verse 8. This verse goes on to say that these filthy dreamers “despise dominion.” Let us remember that these filthy dreamers are the ones who have crept into the congregations unaware, as we see when we go back to verse 4 to find the context of what God is saying. Therefore, God is speaking in verse 8 of those who have entered into the churches as tares (Matthew 13:25). These people have never become saved, yet they have taken the name of Christ to themselves and call themselves Christians. They attend church, they have been baptized, and they partake of the Lord’s Table. Some of them even rise to positions of authority, such as deacon or elder or pastor.

These are the filthy dreamers. They have never become saved; therefore, they have never been broken in heart and made contrite. Their hearts are still proud and arrogant. With their natural minds, they dare to lift themselves up above the Word of God. They think that they will decide the meaning of the Scriptures that are found in the Bible, that they will be the judges over the Word of God. They will use their own reasoning and superior intellects to try to understand God’s Word. Because they approach the Word of God from a position of being unsaved, they come up with doctrines and gospels that suit themselves as well as others and are very appealing and attractive to unsaved man’s natural mind.

Yet God says that they despise dominion. What does it mean to despise dominion? Let us look at Colossians 1:15-16 where the word “dominion” is also found. We read there, speaking of the Lord Jesus Christ:

Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature: For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him:

Here we see that Christ, God Himself, created everything. He created the universe and He created the world—He is the Creator. We also see that He has established rule over the creation in that He has given power to civil authorities. They have jurisdiction given to them by God to rule over the people of whatever land they are a part of. God has given them the right to judge the people. As we read in Romans 13, they do not bear the sword in vain. God is the One who has established thrones, and He is the One who lifts up sometimes even the basest of men to be seated upon the throne of a kingdom. He is the One who has established dominions and principalities and powers. All powers that be come from God.

Of course, we know that man perverts his power and his authority. Man sometimes causes great evil to develop, as when an evil king or an evil ruler takes power. This is within the will of God in the sense that God has permitted it to happen. However, God is not responsible. He is not the one who is doing those evil things. An evil dictator might slay some of the people of his country, but God is not responsible for that or for any of that dictator’s other sins.

What God is saying is that He has established all authority. If an evil king does rise to the throne and reign, it is because God has allowed it to happen (Daniel 2:21). Therefore, the dominion ultimately has to go back to God Himself, to Christ Himself. Principalities and powers all stem from God; they all flow from the Lord Jesus Christ.

God had also established authority in the churches during the Church Age. Therefore, when those false prophets whom we are reading about in Jude despised dominion, this means that they were not only despising the civil ruler, but if they were not submitting to the spiritual oversight of their elder, then they were likewise despising the dominion that God had established over them in the churches.

God has set up dominion in many areas. In the home, for example, there is the role of the husband as the ruler of the house (Ephesians 5:23). Yet these false prophets, because they have forsaken the true Word of God and have run after the imaginations of their own hearts (Jeremiah 9:13-14), are said to despise dominion. When someone despises dominion, they are at the same time despising God.

We read in Romans 13:1-2:

Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God. Whosoever therefore resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance of God: and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation.

We see how very important it is to be in subjection and in submission to the government when we understand that God is the One who has established government. Consequently, resisting the powers that God has placed over us means that we are resisting God. This is how our relationship should be to all lawful authority. These filthy dreamers who despise dominion are therefore despising God Himself. God has organized and arranged things in this manner so that those in authority would have dominion.

Jude verse 8 continues:

…and speak evil of dignities.

The word “dignities” is actually the Greek word “doxa” (Strong’s #1391), which is most often translated as “glory.” We can understand this to mean that they speak evil of glory or glorious things. They are not speaking properly of those things that ought to show forth the glory of God. These men have no concern for God’s glory, so they speak evil of glorious things.

What is a glorious thing? The Lord Jesus Christ is glorious (1 Corinthians 2:8). God Himself is glorious (Isaiah 33:21). If someone is not properly approaching and teaching from the Word of God, then in a way, they are speaking evil of God Himself who has given the Word.

However, I think that there is even a more definite idea that is involved here. If we turn to 1 Timothy 1:11, we read:

According to the glorious gospel of the blessed God…

The word “glorious” here is the word “doxa.” The Gospel is glorious; it is a glorious thing. There are many who speak evil of the glorious Gospel of the Bible, but why? They speak evil of it because they do not like it. They do not like the Gospel that God has developed; it is not their cup of tea. They do not appreciate a Gospel that indicates that man is dead in sin. They do not like the idea that there is absolutely nothing a man can do to save himself. They do not enjoy hearing that man is under the wrath of God and will end up being cast into Hell forevermore unless God has mercy upon him and draws him to Himself and gives him the gifts of repentance and faith. They do not like the idea that God must do everything in the matter of salvation.

Therefore, many speak evil of what they think is a wrong doctrine. They speak evil of predestination. They speak evil of election. Yet these are Biblical words. These words are found in the Bible. Still, they would dare to say that any kind of God who would elect a people to salvation and only save those elect people is an unjust God. This is how they speak evil of dignities. They speak evil of the glorious Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. They speak evil of Christ Himself, who is the Word.

What they are not realizing is that their argument is not with Calvin or Luther or the saints of God who have declared these things and taught that the true Biblical doctrine is election. Their argument is not with those men or any other believers who speak these truths. Their argument is with God Himself.

God is the One who has written His Word in such a way that we can come to no other conclusion than that man is absolutely dead in sin and that there is, therefore, not one man who does good (Romans 3:10-12). There is not one man who seeks after God, and there never has been apart from the Lord Jesus Christ. There is not one man who understands the Gospel. We could go on and on in this manner. We are dead in trespasses and sins. There is not one person who will respond to the Gospel call to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. There is not one person who will seek the Lord that they might find Him (Isaiah 55:6). None seek after Him; all are spiritually dead.

Furthermore, all would remain dead if it depended on a man’s response. If salvation depended on someone stirring themselves up to take hold of God, then absolutely, without question, not one human being would ever become saved.

We can see how this Gospel is offensive to many people. They do not like hearing it because they do not like that kind of idea. They want to play a part; they want to do some work in order to become saved. Therefore, they speak evil of God.

In Romans 9, God addresses this as He speaks of Jacob and Esau. He clearly lays out how He saved Jacob and how He did not save Esau. In Romans 9:13, we read, “As it is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated.” He made this declaration before either of them had done good or evil. He made this selection.

God is not looking at what man does to decide whom He will save, for all are dead in sin (Ephesians 2:1). There is not one man who is better than another. All are filthy, rotten sinners, and God, according to His own good pleasure, chooses one over another (Ephesians 1:5). He chooses a remnant out of mankind.

Then in Romans 9:15, He says:

For he saith to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy…

There is the salvation of God. This verse does not say that God will have mercy on the man who walks down the aisle or the man who accepts Christ, but God will have mercy upon the individual whom He intends to have mercy upon.

He goes on to say in verses 15-16:

…and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. So then it is not of him that willeth…

This verse addresses free will. What about man’s will? It says, “It is not of him that willeth.” It is not the sinner who must exercise his will to accept Christ’s free offer of grace. Man’s will is dead. No man can reach out and accept Christ.

Someone might say, “Oh, but what about a verse such as John 1:12,” which says:

But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name:

That is where they stop reading and that is where their discussion ends. “As many as received him,” they say. However, when we are turning to the Bible, it is helpful to read everything that pertains to what we are looking at to make sure that our conclusion is harmonizing with the whole Bible. In this case, we do not have to travel very far. We simply have to read on to the next verse, which says:

Which were born, not of blood…

God is going to talk about how someone becomes born again. It has nothing to do with the family that they are a part of. Having a physical bloodline from Abraham did not benefit the Jewish nation as they developed in any way. Just because they were Jews did not mean that they were saved. Let us listen to this. God is saying how someone is born again. He says:

…not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh…

It is not our will. Now He goes on to say:

…nor of the will of man…

We are born again, but it is not of our will. We can throw accepting Christ right out the window. The whole idea of somehow gathering up enough strength or willpower within one’s self and repenting and turning from sins and doing things God’s way through the strength of our own will—throw it all out the window. Salvation is not of man’s will in any way. The will of man is perverted. Man will always choose evil.

That is where we have a free will. We can choose this false god or that false god. That is what Joshua said back in Joshua 24, when he declared, “Choose you this day whom ye will serve,” and then gave the people the choice of the various false gods. That is the only choice that man’s will can choose. That is where we are a free agent and have a few options. We can make the choice of choosing one evil over another evil. That is the extent of our will because it is dead in its trespasses and sins.

We are therefore subject to spend eternity in Hell, and the terrible predicament of man is that we can do nothing about it. We are trapped in our sin. We are in the dungeon, the pit of our sin, and we are under the wrath of God. It is a guaranteed certainty that we are going down into Hell unless God has mercy upon us, and we have to realize that God will only have mercy upon whom He will have mercy. This is entirely in His control.

We do not know, though, who God’s elect are. We do not know if it is you or that one over there or another one over here. We do not know out of mankind whom God—according to His good pleasure—has predestinated to eternal life or whose names He has written down in the Lamb’s Book of Life (Revelation 21:27). We just do not know.

Therefore, we bring the Gospel to everyone, and God will draw His own. He will begin to bring the individual that He is drawing to Himself against his will. He will draw him contrary to his desires and his wants, which will always be in the direction of sin and evil deeds. God will compel that one to come to Him, and that sinner will not be able to resist. This is the doctrine of irresistible grace, as the Bible lays it out.

John 1:13 says that we are born again not of the will of man. It is not the will of man. The answer of how we are born again is in the last part of the verse, which says:

…but of God

We are born of God. Salvation is of the Lord (Jonah 2:9). We are in no sense born of any kind of declaration that comes forth from our mouth, such as “I believe.” We are in no sense born again by any kind of action, such as walking down an aisle and kneeling down. We are in no way born again by the force of our will. Rather, we are born again by God.

Is that not what Jesus said in Matthew 19 when He was dealing with the rich young ruler? We read in Matthew 19:23:

Then said Jesus unto his disciples, Verily I say unto you, That a rich man shall hardly enter into the kingdom of heaven.

Then verse 25 says:

When his disciples heard it, they were exceedingly amazed, saying, Who then can be saved?

If this rich man who confessed that he desired to keep the commandments and honor his parents could not be saved, who then could be saved? Christ answers in verse 26:

But Jesus beheld them, and said unto them, With men this is impossible…

What is impossible? Being saved is. Salvation is impossible with man. It is not of the will of man, but of God. Jesus goes on to say:

…but with God all things are possible.

It is possible only for God to draw a dead sinner who is completely contrary to Him, who is in rebellion against Him, and who would never come to the light of the Word of God because he loves the darkness of his sin. That is possible only with God.

However, as we were saying, there are some that despise dominion and speak evil of glorious things, the glorious Gospel of the Bible. God has this to say in Romans 9:18-23 to that individual who has exalted himself above the very Word of God in making such a claim and saying such a thing:

Therefore hath he mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom he will he hardeneth. Thou wilt say then unto me, Why doth he yet find fault? For who hath resisted his will?…

This is God, and He is speaking to you if this is what you think about election and if this is your opinion about predestination. He says:

…Nay but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus? Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto honour, and another unto dishonour? What if God, willing to shew his wrath, and to make his power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction: And that he might make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy…

We do not have more time in this study to go further into this. Lord willing, we will continue to look at Jude verse 8, which speaks of filthy dreamers who have crept into the congregations unaware and profess to be Christians.