Study in the Epistle of Jude # 40: Verses 8-9

by Chris McCann

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

Welcome to the Electronic Bible Fellowship’s Bible study. We are going through the Epistle of Jude, that one-chapter book that comes before the book of Revelation in the New Testament. We have been looking at verse 8, where in the last part we read that the unsaved individuals who have entered into the congregations of Jesus Christ and profess that they are the people of God “speak evil of dignities.”

We have seen that the word “dignities” is the Greek word “doxa,” which is translated as “glorious” in 1 Timothy 1:11. This word is used in describing the glorious Gospel of God and it is the same word that is used in Jude when we read that these men who have crept in unawares are speaking evil of glorious things. What they are speaking evil of is the Word of God itself, the Bible.

They are doing this in their ignorance. They are doing this because they think that they are serving God and that they are the true people of God. Yet, as they develop their doctrines and their teachings, as they teach things that are coming from their own minds or the minds of theologians or from any source other than the Bible, they are speaking evil of the true Way, the right Gospel.

In 2 Peter 2, which is a parallel chapter to the book of Jude, we read in verse 10:

But chiefly them that walk after the flesh in the lust of uncleanness, and despise government. Presumptuous are they, selfwilled…

These people are not operating under the will of God. They are not in submission to Him or humble before Him, nor are their wills broken before God and His Word. They are self-willed. They are the ones who are leading their own lives. They are leaning upon their own understanding and not on the understanding of God as it is found in the Bible.

It goes on to say:

… they are not afraid to speak evil of dignities.

Why is this put exactly this way? Why does it say that they are not afraid? The reason is because they should be afraid. They ought to be afraid. We are talking about the Word of God, not the word of some man or some earthly teacher. We are not talking about some philosopher whom someone is daring to contradict; we are talking about the Word of God. This comes forth from the infinite God, the everlasting God who inhabits eternity. It comes forth from the eternal God whose thoughts are so superior to man’s thoughts that they are not even worthy to compare, whose thoughts are higher than our thoughts as the heavens are higher than the earth (Isaiah 55:9). We are talking about the Almighty Creator. Man is only the creature.

There are those who have entered into the congregations and usurped the authority of God by placing their tiny, finite, puny little minds above the infinite, all-comprehending, brilliant mind of God. God is looking at them, yet they are not afraid. God has the power to cast them into Hell in both body and soul (Matthew 10:28), yet they do not fear.

Why do they not fear? 2 Peter 2:12 tells us:

But these, as natural brute beasts, made to be taken and destroyed, speak evil of the things that they understand not…

They do not understand. The Gospel, the glorious Gospel of God as He has outlined it in the Bible, is totally misunderstood by these individuals, these sinners who have come into the church. They do not understand spiritual things. It is just as when the Lord Jesus would speak in a parable; the Pharisees would not understand what He was saying and they would speak evil of Christ. We know that this reached a terrible point to where they dared to accuse Christ of having an evil spirit and of performing miracles by the power of Beelzebub (Matthew 12:24). That is how wicked man can get. These Pharisees are standing in the very presence of the Lord God Himself and they speak evil of Him right to His face and accuse Him of being under the power of Satan. What arrogance and what perverseness lie in man that he can say such things!

It is no wonder that the Gospel of God, the Gospel of Christ, is evil spoken of. It is no wonder that the glorious Gospel of the Bible is despised by so many, mocked and ridiculed and made a reproach. They speak evil of the idea of election. If it is put forth to them that the Word of God says there is not to be divorce, they will not have that. There must be divorce according to man’s understanding and reasoning. He will give examples of horrible circumstances wherein a man and a woman cannot coexist, so he thinks, and reason that divorce must be allowable. That is man’s mind arguing against the mind of God.

We could list other doctrines, such as the one of the end of the Church Age. How ridiculed it is. How evil spoken of it is. Many are calling it heresy and saying that this is not found in the Bible. They are ultimately saying, when you get right to the bottom of it, that the idea that God would judge His church is of Satan.

Yet what does the Word of God say? No one is saying from their own minds that God is judging His church and that the Holy Spirit has come out of it and Satan is ruling in it—that is not from their own minds. No one is saying, “I had a dream.” No one is claiming, “I had a vision of God.” If they were claiming these things, they would of course be wrong. We know that this is impermissible because God has said that we are not to add to or subtract from His Word (Revelation 22:18-19).

Believers, rather, are saying, “Read the Bible. Read Matthew 24, where it says the abomination of desolation will stand in the holy place. Read 2 Thessalonians 2, which says that the man of sin, who can be shown to be Satan, will take his seat in the temple, showing himself that he is God. Read Revelation 20, where it says that Satan was bound but will be loosed for a little season. Read Revelation 11 and 13, which speak about the two witnesses who are lying dead in the street and the loosing of Satan as he comes against the saints and overcomes them. Read the book of Jeremiah.” On and on we could go in offering up Scriptures from the Bible.

When men today say, “I am not going to listen to that; it is ridiculous,” they, in actuality, are not speaking evil of those believers who are faithfully bringing God’s Word. When they begin to mock and out of their own minds and their own understanding and their own reasoning refuse to even look at the verses, they are not speaking evil of me or of you, if you believe these things, but they are speaking evil of the Lord Jesus Christ Himself.

Let us read a verse in 1 Peter 4, the same chapter that says in verse 17, “Judgment must begin at the house of God.” In this context, God, in His infinite wisdom and in His ability to see into the future and know fully what will take place, begins to speak in verse 12 about the fiery trial that will come upon the people of God. This is just like what we read in verse 17, which is getting into the matter of the Great Tribulation. God is forewarning His people that once the judgment begins at the house of God, it will be a time of great reproach for the name of Christ. It will be a time when the Gospel, the glorious Gospel of the Bible, will be evil spoken of in a way perhaps that it has not been at any other time in all of history. Millions upon millions in the church itself will rise up and put forth this doctrine and cast it out from their presence, speak evil of it, stamp upon it, and tread it underfoot because they will not accept it with their own understanding.

In this context, God speaks to the elect in 1 Peter 4:14. He is speaking directly to the children of God who have come out of the church and encouraging them, saying:

If ye be reproached for the name of Christ, happy are ye; for the spirit of glory and of God resteth upon you: on their part he is evil spoken of, but on your part he is glorified.

Saying “Happy are ye” is the same as saying “Blessed are ye.” We are blessed if we are reproached for the name of Christ. How is someone reproached for the name of Christ? We are reproached for the Word’s sake. In Matthew 13, as Jesus is explaining the parable of the sower, He says in verse 21:

Yet hath he not root in himself, but dureth for a while: for when tribulation or persecution ariseth because of the word, by and by he is offended.

It is for the Word’s sake, for the Word of God, and that Word is Christ. Believers will be reproached for the name of Christ as we hold to the truth of the Word of God. That truth may be that Sunday is the Sabbath day and we ought to observe that day in its fullness by removing our own foot from it, not doing our own pleasure, but involving ourself in spiritual activities (Isaiah 58:13). Whether we are reproached for that or whether we are reproached for the sake of the Gospel of election, it is for the name of Christ. We may be reproached for the teaching of the end of the Church Age, but if it is coming from the Word of God, the Bible, then we are being reproached for the name of Christ. As some would speak evil of election and belittle that doctrine even though it is what the Bible teaches, they are speaking evil of Christ Himself. As someone speaks evil of whatever true doctrine it might ultimately be, they are speaking evil of Christ.

God says through Peter, “On their part, He is evil spoken of.” Their speech is going against Christ Himself. “But on your part, He is glorified.” God is glorified when the saints of God hold to the truth of His Word. Men may disdain the truth of God’s Word and despise the true Gospel. They may speak evil of glorious things, of the glorious Gospel of the Bible. However, when the child of God simply witnesses the truth of the Word of God on any point, then Christ is glorified, the Word of God is glorified.

This is the desire of the true believer. As God moves in him to keep His commandments, he will be a witness of what the Bible says, no matter what type of reviling or evil speaking others might do. Let them speak evil; let them vilify and revile and reproach—it is just revealing the character of their heart, for God indicates in the Bible that we are not to speak evil of other men.

As we go on to the next verse in Jude, let us first read Titus 3:1-2, which says:

Put them in mind…To speak evil of no man, to be no brawlers, but gentle, shewing all meekness unto all men.

This is exactly what we are going to get into in Jude verse 9. We read there:

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.

“The Lord rebuke thee.” Michael (whom we will look at later to understand from the Bible itself exactly who he is) is the archangel, which is better translated as the “chief messenger.” Michael had a contention with the devil. There is a dispute, and the cause of this dispute was the body of Moses. Moses’ body was in dispute as Satan was coming to Michael and making claims and accusations. This is the character of Satan. He is the adversary and the enemy of the people of God. He is the accuser of the brethren (Revelation 12:10). Therefore, the devil is doing what Satan naturally does as he is disputing with Michael.

The interesting thing and the very pertinent thing for us and for any who might think that they have a right to speak evil of others is that Michael “durst not.” In other words, Michael did not dare to bring against Satan a railing accusation.

We will identify Michael a little later on, but for now, we will say that it can be seen in several ways that Michael is another name for the Lord Jesus Christ. The name Michael means “who assuredly is God.” We will see later on how God uses Michael in a few places in the book of Daniel. We will see that no one else but Christ Himself could be in view. Christ is not an angel, and this verse is not talking about an angel. It is talking about the Son of God. It is talking about one of the persons of the Godhead, Jesus Christ—He is the Chief Messenger. We will also see how that can relate to Christ.

For now, let us just know that this is Christ. Satan is disputing with Christ, which makes perfect sense. It makes sense that he would go directly to God to bring an accusation against one of the people of God, such as Moses. Yet in this contention, Jesus, who is spoken of here as being Michael, does not bring against Satan a railing accusation.

We would think that if anyone deserves to be evil spoken of, it is Satan, and if anyone had a right to speak evil of him more than anyone else, it would be God Himself, the Lord Jesus Christ. Yet in this discussion, Christ does not speak evil of Satan. He does not bring a railing accusation against the very devil himself. Let us learn from this example of Jesus Christ. The context here has been speaking of those who speak evil of dignities, of glorious things. Even the next verse, verse 10, says:

But these speak evil of those things which they know not…

Verse 9 is in the context of those who are speaking evil of things that they do not understand and making serious charges and accusations and revilings. Then we read about the Lord Jesus Christ who has Satan before Him in His presence. Certainly He would be right and just to give Satan a railing accusation and certainly Satan is deserving of one. Christ should let him have it with full force. He should pour out terrible things upon this fallen angel who has caused such havoc in the world. Yet, all we read is that He said, “The Lord rebuke thee.” That is the extent of it; that is as far as it went. He did not speak evil of Satan or bring against him a railing accusation.

If only those who are out there today who find it so easy to speak evil of other men, which Titus 3:2 expressly forbids, would follow the example of the Lord Jesus Christ, whom they claim to serve. If only they would follow the example of God, then we would not have such accusations and we would not have such terrible things as are taking place in our day. We would not have so many people who have risen up, so they think, in serving God and have roasted someone over the fires that they have lit with their own tongues, bringing all sorts of evil and railing accusations.

God prohibits and forbids this. The child of God is to be gentle unto all men. He is not to point the finger. If anyone wants to point a finger, the place to start is within, at one’s own self and one’s own sins. If we really want to make any kind of accusation, we ought to look at ourselves first. There are plenty of things in our own lives that we could correct without trying to correct all that is around us.

What does God say to do if there is a false gospel out there? What would His teaching be in that situation according to these verses for His elect? Are the elect of God, the true believers, to campaign against sin? Are they to campaign against false gospels when they see a gospel that is not the true Gospel? Should they be going about warning people and putting up websites that are contrary to that gospel? Is this what they are to be involved with?

This is absolutely not what true believers should be spending their time and effort on! This is totally contrary to the Word of God. A believer is not concerned about false gospels; we just let them go. They are not going to go any further than God will allow them to go. We instead concern ourselves with sending the true Gospel out into the world.

It is extremely revealing when some develop almost an anti-gospel in which they have to campaign against what they think is heresy and they have to campaign against a certain teaching. It is very revealing that perhaps they themselves are not understanding the Gospel of the Bible. They are not understanding what the Lord Jesus Christ would require of one of His servants, which is to be gentle and meek and not to bring a railing accusation. We are not to be busy in campaigning against sin and other false gospels, but we are to be busy in serving Christ with the true Gospel. We see that many are failing miserably to follow the example that we read about in Jude 9 of the Lord Jesus Christ.

In our next study, Lord willing, we are going to look further at Michael the archangel. We will discuss what brought about this situation in which Satan is coming forth and bringing an accusation against God.