EVENING
SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 7/28/2025 8:07 PM
My
Worship Time Focus: PT-2 Characteristics of the Apostate’s
Nature”
Bible
Reading & Meditation Reference: Jude 8-10
Message of the verses: “8 Yet in the same way these men, also by dreaming, defile
the flesh, and reject authority, and revile angelic majesties. 9 But Michael
the archangel, when he disputed with the devil and argued about the body of
Moses, did not dare pronounce against him a railing judgment, but said,
"The Lord rebuke you!" 10 But these men revile the things which they do not understand;
and the things which they know by instinct, like unreasoning animals, by these
things they are destroyed.”
“8 In the same way, these people — who
claim authority from their dreams — live immoral lives, defy
authority, and scoff at supernatural beings. 9 But
even Michael, one of the mightiest of the angels, did not dare accuse the devil
of blasphemy, but simply said, “The Lord rebuke you!” (This took place when
Michael was arguing with the devil about Moses’ body.) 10 But these people scoff at things they do not understand. Like unthinking animals,
they do whatever their instincts tell them and so they bring about their own
destruction” (NLT).
I
know that I got a little off the subject in last night’s SD, but I do believe
that what I wrote can be helpful to those who read it. Now this evening I will probably just stick
to quoting John MacArthur’s comments on these verses, and perhaps will have
some things to say also.
“False teachers often claim dreams
as the authoritative, divine source for their ‘new truths,’ which are really
just lies and distortions. Such claims
allow apostates to substitute their own counterfeit authority for God’s true scriptural
authority.
“Dreaming surely also includes apostates’ perverted, evil
imaginations. Rejection the Word of God,
they base their deceptive teachings on the misguided musings of their own
deluded and demonized minds. In the Old
Testament, the term ‘dreamer’ was virtually synonymous with false prophet, as
in Moses’ warning:
1 "If
a prophet or a dreamer of
dreams arises among you and gives you a sign or a wonder, 2 and the sign
or the wonder comes true, concerning which he spoke to you, saying, ‘Let us go
after other gods (whom you have not known) and let us serve them,’ 3 you shall
not listen to the words of that prophet or that dreamer of dreams; for the LORD your God is testing you
to find out if you love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your
soul. 4 “You shall follow the LORD your God and fear Him; and you shall keep
His commandments, listen to His voice, serve Him, and cling to Him. 5 "But that prophet or that dreamer of
dreams shall be put to death, because he has counseled rebellion against the
LORD your God who brought you from the land of Egypt and redeemed you from the
house of slavery, to seduce you from the way in which the LORD your God
commanded you to walk. So you shall purge the evil from among you (Deut.
13:1-5; cf. Jer. 23:25-32).
“Along those lines,
the apostle Paul cautioned,
18 Let
no one keep defrauding you of your prize by delighting in self-abasement and the
worship of the angels, taking his stand on visions he has seen, inflated
without cause by his fleshly mind, 19 and not holding fast to the head, from
whom the entire body, being supplied and held together by the joints and
ligaments, grows with a growth which is from God (Col. 2:18-19; cf. 1 Tim.
4:1-2).
“Having
identified the apostates as false dreamers, Jude went on to outline three
characteristic of their nature:
Immorality, insubordination, and irreverence.”
Now in a way these last two
Spiritual Diaries were like an introduction to these three characteristics that
we will begin looking at in tomorrow’s SD, Lord willing.
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