Jude 1:8-10

The book of Jude, I want to read verses 8 through 10 for our text and study this evening. Likewise, also these filthy dreamers defile the flesh, despise dominion, and speak evil of dignities. 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. But these speak evil of those things which they know not, but what they know naturally as brute beast in those things they corrupt themselves. And God blessed to us his sacred and holy word this evening. After 60 years and over 6 million visitors, the zoo in Milan, Italy was shut down. It seems that the animal rights activist got their way and said it was cruel for these animals to be in cages and so forth. so they were all moved out. However, when the animals moved out, the homeless people moved in. And until the city leaders intervened, hundreds of them actually took up residence in the cages of the animals that had left. Ironically, the zoo was only a five-minute walk from one of Europe’s most expensive shopping districts. There’s something sad about people. who live like animals. Jude describes those who behave like brute beast here in verse 10 of our text. The Apostle’s concern is the war in his fellow believers concerning those teachers, those counterfeit Christians, who engage in doctrinal error and creep into the church. of Christ. These individuals are like brute beasts in the manner in which they give themselves over to sinful lust and also wallow in those lust. Now Jude has given three past examples of those who have defected from the faith. Versus five to seven. We talked about Israel’s unbelief. We talked about the angels fall, and we talked about Solomon Gamoire’s destruction. Now he’s going to provide a contrast and a comparison in order to apply the teaching to the present situation, to take the Old Testament text and say, here is how we apply it to our present circumstance. Jude’s purpose is to demonstrate that these Apostle’s purpose is to demonstrate that these apostates are vessels of wrath, who shall not escape judgment. In fact, as verse four has already told us, they are ordained to condemnation by the Lord. He desires to warn you and I, too, not to become entangled with such wicked people lest we come under God’s wrath. It’s sort of like lot. If you don’t get out of Sodom, things are going to be back. that. And so, you know, a lot has to flee. He has to be actually manhandled out by the angels, he and his two daughters and wife. And so we see that the message for God’s people is don’t get entangled with these people because the judgment of God is going to fall upon them. Let me begin by saying this. You should be aware of the evil characteristics of false teachers. verse 8, likewise also these filthy dreamers defile the flesh, despise dominion, and speak evil of dignities. Now you have a basic description here. He calls them dreamers in this text. You’ll notice that the word filthy is italicized. It’s not in the original text here. It’s not found in the Greek. Jude seems to be alluding, however. to the book of Jeremiah chapter 23. If you want to look there with me, here’s the warning that was given to the people of God in the past. It seems that he’s on the same thought pattern, same track here. The spirit has guided him to mention this same idea that has been mentioned in the past. verse 25 through 32. I have heard what the prophet said, that prophesied lies in my name, saying, I have dreamed, I have dreamed. How long shall this be in the heart of the prophets that prophesy lies? Yea, they are prophets of the deceit of their own heart. What think ye to cause my people to forget my name by their dreams? which think to cause my people to forget my name by their dreams, which they tell every man to his neighbor, as their fathers have forgotten my name for bail. The prophet that hath a dream, let him tell a dream. He that hath my word, let him speak my word faithfully. What is the chaff to the wheat, said the Lord? Is not my word like as a fire? said the Lord, and like a hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces. Therefore, behold, I am against the prophets, said the Lord, that steal my words every one from his neighbor. Behold, I am against the prophet, said the Lord. They use their tongues and say he saith. Behold, I am against them, that prophesy false dreams, said the Lord. And do tell them, and cause my people to err by their lies and by their lightness. Yet, I have, I sent them not, nor commanded them. Therefore, they shall not profit this people at all, said the Lord. So we have the idea that these false prophets and teachers in Jude’s Day were engaged in fictitious dreams, may be claiming a divine vision. some new commandment from the Lord, maybe some revealing of some future events that they think will come to pass. It’s very likely that these religious con artists pretended to receive some type of special revelation from God. A supernatural dream is what we’re talking about here. Isn’t this what Joseph Smith said he received? With the golden plates that led to the founding of the Mormon religion? Did he claim to have special revelation from God? Whenever someone claims they’ve received a special revelation from God to do something, be on your guard. The simple believe every word. And we should be wise as serpents and weigh carefully what is said. I read an interesting article in the Trinity Review back in 1994. And it was an article that was referring to the Reconstruction movement, but he was referring to David Chilton, a testimony that he gave about something that happened in his life. And this is before he came into the reform movement. But here’s what he says. And I thought this might be interesting for us to ponder because these are the kinds of things that happen when people claim that they have special revelation. He said, in 1970, I was running a coffee house ministry. We had kids on drugs coming in, and we would have rock concerts there, and I would preach at them. There was a young woman who showed up at Calvary Chapel named Sandy, lovely blonde. She was reputed to be a prophetess. She would float. in and prophesied. Then she would sing a little bit, play a guitar, and then she would float back out. We were all in awe of her. And one evening, very unexpectedly, she showed up at my coffee house, which was some 30 miles from Calvary Chapel. And came in, we all made way for her, and she came up to the stage and announced that she had some prophecies, and then she sang and exhorted us for a few minutes, and then floated back out. We were all very impressed. A real prophetess of God had been in our midst. Well, one night she came in and delivered a prophecy, and she took me aside. I had never spoken to her directly. I was too much in awe. We all were. She was really somebody important. Everybody told us she was important, and all the important people in the Jesus movement made great deference to her. And so we really didn’t know what to say. So nobody ever talked to her. She came in, made prophecies, and went out. She came up to me, and she needed to talk to me personally. She took me aside and informed me that God had told her that she and I were to be married. Here this woman, here’s this woman, I don’t even know. And she tells me, we’re going to get married. And so she looked at me expectantly, so I said, but I don’t love you. and she looked at me with infinitely prophetic sadness in her eyes and said, Oh, David, I’m so disappointed. Surely you know by now you are to walk by faith and not by feelings. There was no answer to that. So we walked back into the coffee house a few minutes later and announced our engagement. I was miserable. I could know. And the longer this relationship went on, he said the more miserable, God. Finally, he said, I didn’t know what to do, but he said, the thing that really bothered me is that nobody ever tested to see what she said was true or not. They just accepted her prophecies. And everybody submitted to it. So finally, he broke it off with her. He said, I was looked down upon by everybody in the movement, this Jesus movement, because I had spurned the prophetess. he had, and as they told him, I had rejected the word of God because of this woman. Sandy was the walking word of God. She was infallible. What she said was the word of God, and we could not question it. She eventually pulled it on a couple of other guys, and one of them fell for it, and they got married. These are the kinds of things that happen when people supposedly get special revelation. God told me that we’re supposed to get married and so forth. This is one of the reasons why the so-called present-day gift of tongues and direct revelations from God are so dangerous. People are easily deceived by someone who claims. God told me. God spoke to me. And so this is what was happening in Jude’s day, and we have it happening in our day, too. I took a class one. time with Dr. Gershner was about Jonathan Edwards in evangelism. And I’m in this class. And there were a bunch of students in here. And someone, one of the students in his class, somewhere along the way as he was discussing these matters, said to Dr. Gershner, said, well, God told me this or that of the other. Dr. Gershner looked at him, said, really? What did he say? Did you hear an audible voice? You know? In other words, he wasn’t buying this, that God speaks to you directly like this. But this is the way people sometimes speak. Now, these people were having these dreams, they’re prophesying. They’re saying this is what God told me, and this is what we should do. So this is a general basic description. They’re dreamers. And truly, their dreams are filthy dreams. And if we want to take a look at it, they’re evil at least. They’re chaff. compared to the wheat of the scriptures of God’s Word, as the book of Jeremiah makes clear to us in the passage that we read. So that’s the basic description. Now you have a comparison here next to the three examples of history. The first thing he says here is, they defile the flesh. This corresponds to the sin of Sodom in verse 6. just as Solomon Gamoire polluted themselves with vile sexual practices, so do these evil teachers. We already mentioned verse 4 in the lasciviousness they were engaged in. 2.14 says they have eyes full of adultery. 2.10, they walk after the flesh and the lust of uncleanness. and Jude charges these deceivers with all sorts then of lewd sexual practices. No doubt homosexuality was included here with the illusion to Sodom. Now we talked about last week how easily there are religious groups who are accepting more and more this terrible sin. But we see that this is something. This is the alarm. Judah is sounding the alarm. Be watch out for those who defiled the flesh. These are not true servants of the Lord. These are deceivers. These are deceivers. men are involved here, these false teachers, in the practice of these things. It’s true that a true believer may fall into a sin. But we have the idea of practicing the sin here. They make allowances for it. They call evil good. Fornication, uncleanness, let it not once be named among you as become a saints, as Ephesians 5-3 indicates. They defile the flesh. Here’s one indication. The second. They despise dominion. This corresponds to the sin of the angels in mention in verse 6. The word dominion is translated government in 2 Peter 2 and verse 10. Literally, it speaks of some type of lordship, power, authority, government, something of that nature. The angels which fell rebelled against God’s authority, over them. They left their own habitation. They were not content with their place. They didn’t want God ruling over them. They despise God’s government. Well, here the idea, I think, seems to be related to civil government. 2.10, that corresponding passage, they despise government. Presumptious are they, and self-willed. God has established the office of magistrate or the civil rulers that we have in our society in order to restrain the evil actions of men. Romans 13 tells us this. They are a terror to evil doers, the scripture says. Many times opposition to government is a kind of an indirect blow against God himself. There’s no restraint or hindrance to their sin then. You see, if they can just do whatever they want. for if you resist the powers that be, the Bible says you’re resisting God in Romans 13. In verse 1. A contempt for God’s law leads to a contempt of any restraint of sin, so care must be taken in this regard. Proverbs 20 in verse 8 says, A king that sitteth upon the throne of judgment, scattereth away all evil with his eyes, all the evil which he sees. He brings the judgment. These false. teachers wish to be free from the fear of all laws so that they may sin more freely and not be restricted. They wish to do as they please without any interference whatsoever. No punishment. And so they despise dominion. The third thing is mentioned is they speak evil of dignities. Here we have the sin of unbelieving Israel, spoken of in verse 5. Dignities means it’s the word glory. or glorified ones or glorious ones. The term is used in reference to the glory of God. In this particular instance, Jude seems to be distinguishing civil rulers by using the word dominion and ecclesiastical or church rulers by using the word dignities here. 2 Corinthians 8, 323 says, Whether any inquire of Titus is my partner and fellow helper concerning you. Of our brethren be inquired of, if our brother, if our brother, if our brother and our brother be inquired of, they are the messengers of Christ and the glory of Christ. They’re the glory of Christ. So when we use the word glories here, you can see how it could be the servants of Christ that are mentioned. Thus the apostles, the ministers, the elders of the churches that may be considered the glories or glorious ones. It’s nothing new for those who were false guides to speak evil of the apostles or the true ministers of Jesus Christ. That happens all the time. The apostle John speaks to deatrophies, praying against us as the true servants of God with malicious words. When he is us, he’s including himself. as an apostle. You read that in 3rd John, chapter, or verse 10. Speaking evil means to discredit here, to scorn, to oppose, the true officers of Christ’s church. This practice is also mentioned in verse 11 of this book, as the gainsaying of Kor, or Korah. Remember the rebellion of Korah and his followers? against Moses and Aaron, who were the rulers of Israel. Same idea. This was part of the unbelief of Israel. They wouldn’t follow the leadership that God has established over them. False teachers are constantly putting down those who attempt to follow God’s ways. They hate the truth and those who espouse it. So you should consider this matter. You should be aware of it. of the evil characteristics of false teachers. In general, they are dreamers. They claim some type of special revelation from God. And we see them failing in three basic areas. Sexually and pure. Despising the civil government that God has established, despising the church government that God has also established. Secondly, you should be aware of the contrast between God’s mission. messenger and the false teachers. And he takes this up in verses 9 and 10, which is a very interesting passage of scripture to consider, but also complex. Yet Michael the archangel, when contending with the devil, he disputed about the body of Moses, does not bring against him a railing accusation, but, said the Lord rebuk thee. But these, meaning these false teachers and prophets and so forth, these speak evil of those things which they know not. But what they know naturally is brute beast, in those things they corrupt themselves. Here we have the example of Michael’s rebuke of Satan. Michael’s name means who is like the strong God. He is classified as a prince of the angels in the book of Daniel, an archangel here in the book of Jude, one who stands for the people of God, and according to Revelation chapter 12 and verse 7, one who has other angels under him who follow his commands. Michael appears to be the counterpart here to the devil. just as you read of the devil and his angels, you read about Michael and his angels in the book of Revelation. He is one of the highest orders of the holy angels. That was the easy part of the verse. Somewhat. Now we come to this phrase, the body of Moses in this dispute. There are two ways we can look at this, and to be honest with you, I have to say that both of them have some valid aspects to them and are worthy of consideration. Let’s take it first of all in the literal sense, the actual physical body of Moses. There is no biblical account in the Old Testament where Michael contended with Satan over the physical body of Moses. However, you will recall that the Lord himself, was the one who buried Moses. I believe it was on Mount Nippo. When he told him to go up in the mountain and he wasn’t going to come back down. And his grave was hidden for all intents and purposes. Nobody knew where he was buried. Look with me, if you were, to Deuteronomy 34. This could be the reference to which he is looting. Deuteronomy 34 and verses 5 and 6, we read these words. So Moses, the servant of the Lord, died there in the land of Moab according to the word of the Lord, and he buried him in a valley in the land of Moab over against Beth Peor. But no man knoweth of his sepulchre under this day. He’s buried. and nobody knows anything about it. It’s possible, and this is what has been suggested, that Satan would have wished to have the body of Moses in order to have this leader exalted in worship. Like if there was like a grave site, the Israelites were already prone to idolatry. You can imagine Moses, the guy that was on top of the mountain, the guy that part of the Red Sea, you can see the danger where this might, lead to. And so it seems the Lord in a precautionary fashion says no one’s going to know where he’s buried. I will bury. And as the devil attempted to do this, he was opposed here by Michael. Now, this kind of a situation is not something that is unusual. Sometimes we’re told things in the New Testament that were not told in the Old Testament. You recall that Paul in 2 Timothy talks about Janus and Jambres, the two Egyptian magicians that are not named in the Book of Exodus Force. But by inspiration of the spirit, Paul was given this information. Now, some have foolishly suggested that Jude got this story from an apocryphal book of the Jews called the ascension of Moses. I adamantly deny that that is the case. As Dr. Gill carefully points out in his commentary, the concern of that book was not the body of Moses, it was the soul of Moses. The devil wanted to snatch away the soul of Moses, and supposedly Samayal, the chief of the devils, wanted his soul, but tried to take it. it without success because God took it away from the body with a kiss, we’re told. I think that Jude would quote such an obvious fabrication as pure nonsense. We do not accept that as the truth. We believe that what he does give us has been inspired by the Holy Spirit. And we don’t need, you know, we don’t need to go to something. apocryphal book of the Jews to come up with this thought. And when you really look at it, it doesn’t even match up anyhow. So if we look at this matter from a physical body, we can see that God buried Moses, and he did it himself, perhaps here using a Michael at this point, and maybe some of the other angels. I don’t know how he did it. We’re not told in the Old Testament. But obviously, Satan wanted the body and God wouldn’t let him have it. Now, another way to look at this body of Moses is to look at this phrase in a figurative sense. It’s possible that the passage is actually a reference to a dispute about the law of Moses and that the passage is taken from Zachariah chapter 3 and verses 1 to 4. Now, I want you to look with me at this passage. Zachariah chapter 3 and verses 1 to 4. You’ll remember if this was about Joshua the High Priest. The law of God has been restored after the captivity in the land and the Israelites have come back and they’re trying to get reestablished. There’s a sense in which Joshua, the High Priest stands for all the law of God, for all the people God. Now let’s look at the first four verses. And he showed me Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of the Lord, and Satan standing at his right hand to resist him. And the Lord said unto Satan, the Lord rebuked thee. There’s that phrase. O Satan, even the Lord that hath chosen Jerusalem, rebuked thee. Is this not a brand plucked out of the fire? Now, Joshua was clothed with filthy garments and stood before the angel. And he answered and spake under the Lord. And he answered and spake under the Lord. those that stood before him, saying, take away the filthy garments from him. And unto him, he said, Behold, I have caused thy iniquity to pass from thee. I will clothe thee with a change of garment. And we could talk about the righteousness of Christ being given to him and so forth, because all that I think is connected with this passage of scripture. What I want you to notice here, that the phrase, the Lord rebuked thee. In verse 2 is the same phrase as you find in the book of Jude, verse 9. And that’s not all. Notice here in verse 2, he also talks about a brand plucked out of the fire. And look at Jude with me a moment. Look at the book of Jude and look at verse 23. He talks about an other save with fear pulling them out of the fire. The third phrase we read about in verse 3 of Zechariah is that about the filthy garments, that he has filthy garments, and they need to be replaced. And look at Jude 23, the second part, hating even the garments spotted by the flesh. So you could see that indeed he may be thinking about this passage of Scripture. So I just suggest that to you. So the body of Moses, if we take it in this figurative sense, we’re talking about the body of his writings, the law. That’s what we have in mind. Now to show you that this isn’t fanciful, John Owen, in his book of Hebrews, if you read in Chapter Volume 6, it’s chapter 8 in verse 5. There’s one little paragraph in there. And here’s what he says. He references this. Jude tells us of a contest between Michael and the devil about the body of Moses. Verse 9. It is generally thought that the devil would have hindered the burial of it that in process of time it might have been an occasion of idolatry among the people. But that which was signified hereby was the contest he made to keep the body of Moses the whole system of mosaic worship and ceremonies from being buried when the life and the soul of it was departed. and this hath proved the ruin of the Jews and to this day. So he takes it in a sense a little bit different than I’m going to take it tonight, but he does take it in a figurative sense. And you can ponder that for yourselves. So if the law of Moses is referring here, or to the the body of Moses, the law of Moses is being referred to in scripture just as Moses. Sometimes Christ will say say Moses says this or Moses says that. So as the body of Moses would be the laws or the system of laws that Moses taught. We have an interesting passage in Colossians 217. When he talks about the various ceremonial, Old Testament laws concerning meat and drink and holy days and new moons and Sabbath, he says, these are a shadow of things that come but the body of those laws, the substance of them is Christ. Right? This agrees with the language of the Jews who spoke of the statute, service, and purification as the bodies of the law, according to John Gil. If you want to read up on this a little bit further, John Gill is an interesting section here in Jude on this. So how does this all fit with Zachariah 3? The law of Moses was being restored in the time of Joshua the high priest. Ezra and Nehemiah and the returning Jews and the Babylonian, from the Babylonian, captivity. Joshua breaks some of these laws. He’s charged with guilt by Satan so that this dispute might be about the body of Moses, the law of Moses, which Joshua broke. And in this dispute, Michael, the angel of the Lord rebuked him. Now, if one takes it in this sense, then we’d have to see Michael as probably representing the Lord Jesus Christ. That is disputed. by some, but some think that this is the case, that he represents the Lord Jesus Christ. I think that Zachariah 3 is speaking in the sense of Christ, and so that’s very possible. I mentioned that when we went through Revelation 12 12 about Michael, and I’m not sure how to understand that. So I’ll leave that for your thinking. But here’s the bottom line. The important thing is the rebuke. Whether you take this as the physical body or we take it in a figurative sense as the law of Moses, he durst not bring against him a railing accusation but said the Lord rebuked thee. So, regardless of how we interpret this, the main point that he’s emphasizing here, is how Michael addresses Satan. Michael did not choose sharp or bitter speech in dealing with Satan, the holiness of his nature would not prevent him to do so. This archangel simply refers to the cause of God, that God will silence you and restrain your arrogant pride and thwart your plans. Now, if a holy angel did not use abusive language against the worst possible creature that there is, Satan himself, the most evil, perverse, corrupt individual there is. How can these wicked false apostates here speak evil of civil and church rulers without any just cause at all? That seems to be like the flow of this past. They don’t have a right to do so. So we give the example of Michael’s rebuke of Satan. Now you have the basis of the evil speaking. of the false teachers in verse 10. The basis here is this, pride. They condemn things without knowledge. They speak evil of those things which they know not. They condemn those who rigidly refused to compromise God’s truth. They’re too strict. They’re too narrow-minded and so forth. They did not even perceive what was worthy of honor, and that is the civil and church rulers. They refuse to accept God’s rule that he has established. They don’t see the need for it. They’re like gods under themselves, but God has established civil rulers. God has established church rulers. God has established home rulers. And the parents over the children and the husband leading the wife and so forth. So these men were passing themselves off as being full of wisdom when really they were totally ignorant of spiritual concerns. They didn’t even know the first principles of godliness. They weren’t even following God’s rules or what he has established for leadership in any area. The second thing we notice is their brutish nature. The word naturally here means what they’re depraved nature instinctively new. The natural instincts of a brute beast rules it. The appetite of or desire of a beast governs it. What we talk about an ox or we talk about a lion or a hippo or a pig. Whatever the nature is governs that animal. Unlike beast, human beings are governed by their supposed to be governed by reason, by right judgment, not the appetites of the flesh. We’ve been made in the image of God, unlike the brute beast and the beast of the field. And yet like beasts, these false teachers were drawn to those things which gratified the senses of the body, like swine, they gorge themselves with the physical pleasures and lust that they engaged in. When I was in seminary, our campus was located on a site that was once a roaring 20s gambling house. Huge piece of property. Amazing, isn’t it, how things get turned around? There was a lot of stonework there. Beautiful gardens and a beautiful pond. Which the music teacher, who was an elderly gentleman, Mr. Walker, when I was in my first year at seminary, he stalked it with goldfish. And every day, he would go out and feed the fish. Bread. He’d go out and, you know, toss bread and feed the fish. Well, one night, there was a student in the dorm who decided to snatch a duck from a nearby park, random mill park, I believe it was, and put it in a cemetery pond. I guess he thought it was sort of, you know, enhancing it a little bit further. We’re going to get a duck here. The only problem is, the only The problem was, it must have been a very hungry duck. He gobbled up every single goldfish there was in the whole pond. And when he waddled out of that pond, his belly was dragging on the ground. He didn’t know when to stop. He just, you know, his natural appetite was just keep eating. Needless to say, Mr. Walker was furious. No one ever found out who put the duck in the pond. But I can tell you this. Secret inside information, it was a friend of Ernie Brown, our missionary. Do I have to ask him about that one. Now, these false apostates are just like the duck. See? They pursue their lust until they’re completely gorged by sin. They don’t know when to stop. They corrupt themselves totally. So you should be aware of the contrast between God’s messenger and these false teachers. Finally, let me just mention a couple brief practical implications for you to ponder. The first is this. Let’s talk about your response to the civil and religious governments. Civil rulers, when we look at this situation, it is a dissent to despise dominion. Titus says, put them in mind to be subject, be submissive, to principality, and powers, to authorities, to obey magistrates, to be ready to every good work or be willing to do any honorable thing, Titus 3-1. God’s command is submit yourself to every ordinance of man for the Lord’s sake. 1 Peter 2, verse 13. We’re not to be rebellious, anarchist. In general, government itself has been established by God. even the form of government, though it differs in various places, it’s still God’s government. Now, I believe that the scriptures would teach us that a republic, a representative republic, is the biblical way that government should be established. And we can talk about, in fact, how that each tribe had its own territory, with its own leaders. They all met together and made decisions and things like that. But we’ll let that slide at the moment. The ruler’s task, though, is the preservation of society by working for the public good through the punishment of evildoers, upholding the biblical law. Actually, the moral law should be upheld by the government. So you were to submit to civil rulers because God is a civil rulers, establish the position. The only exception to this is when it comes in conflict with God’s law. Then we ought to obey God rather than man. When it comes to church rulers, it is a sin to speak evil of dignities. John writes of this evil. And look at 3 John. I mentioned this earlier, but just back up a page here from Jude. 3 John verses 9 and 10. I wrote under the church, but diatriies who love it to have the preeminence among them, receiveeth us not. Wherefore, if I come, I will remember his deeds which he doeth, praying against us with malicious words, not content therewith, neither doth he himself receive the brethren, and forbiddeth them that would, and casteth them out of the church. Church rulers are set up by God, and we should honor them. Hebrews 13-7 says that they should be obeyed. They should be given respect and honor, according to 1st Thessalonians 5, 12, and 13. And we should be careful about taking accusations against them, according to 1st Timothy 519. There has to be two or three witnesses in that area. Now, you live in an age where church authorities despise. It’s not respected at all. And, you know, if they come under some type of discipline in one church, they just leave and go to another church, and the elders can eat crow. They don’t have biblical reason for leaving. They just are church hoppers. So we see this happening. So we should realize God has established these leaders. Not all of them, you see deatrophies was way out of bounds. Not all of them may be sound and good, but we should respect the office. The second thing is, you must be temperate in your speech. He durst not bring against him a railing accusation. was said of Michael. Harsh and bitter words usually come from a proud spirit. And harsh and bitter language is really unfitting to your calling in mind as Christians, although it happens at times. I don’t know if you’ve ever been to town meetings. You’ve seen town meetings where things get out of hand when the state representative is there and people are screaming and it gets something. Sometimes it gets wild and unruly, disrespectful. We should be respectful while you are firm, perhaps, about our disagreement with the person in charge. James 120 says, The wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God. Your Christian warfare does not need to have a carnal weapon in it. The true faith is one where meekness and humility reign. and 2 Timothy 2.24 and 25 says, The servant of the Lord must not strive but be gentle unto all men, apt to teach, patient, in meekness and instructing those that oppose themselves, if God, peradventure, will give them repentance the acknowledging of the truth. Jesus, when reviled, reviled not again. Paul stated that when we are slandered, we answer softly in 1st Corinthians 413. Proverbs 264 says, answer not a fool according to his folly, lest they’ll be like him. Don’t answer a railing, scoffing fool, just like he has spoken to you. And so these are the kinds of things that we could learn from this passage of scripture tonight. Well, let us close with a word of prayer.