ment upon the ungodly! Moreover, you will note in Jude 7 that, though the cities were destroyed, yet the souls of the wicked who dwelt therein were not annihilated; they are still “ suffering the vengeance of eternal fire." Thus the false doctrines of soul-sleep and an nihilation are definitely contradicted by the Word of God. Those apostates who pervert such a pas sage as Malachi 4:1, 3, trying to make it teach annihilation, find no argument in the face of Jude 7. What the Holy Spirit does refer to in Malachi 4:1, 3 is not judgment after death, but the purify ing of the earth before Christ’s millennial kingdom. Then the bodies of the wicked shall be burned up, reduced to ashes, but there will be a resurrection of the wicked dead after the thousand years’ reign of Christ on earth. Then body and spirit re-united will suffer “ the vengeance of eternal fire.” My unsaved friend, the Lord Jesus said, “ It shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrha in the day of judgment” than for those who reject Him! Do not rush on to eternal con demnation. Christ loves you. He died for you. He wants to save you. There is no other way to escape eternal judgment and to find Heaven and Christ except by the way of His cross. “ Likewise also” (Jude 8). Note these connect ing words. Apostasy is no new thing. Although it will be more and more in evidence as this age of grace draws to a close, the men we call “ liberals” today are proclaiming no new doctrine. If they are liberal and modern, so were Pharaoh and the fallen angels and the inhabitants of Sodom and Gomor rha. “Likewise also” : the parallel is striking. Like the apostates of old are the false teachers o f our own day: like them in their manner o f living, like them in their teaching, like them in their coming doom. No L ove for G od — No F ear of S atan . Jude describes these liberal apostates in no uncertain terms in verses 8-19, a description which he began in verse 4. He calls them “ filthy dreamers” who “ de file the flesh, despise dominion, and speak evil of dignities” (Jude 8 ). They have no fear of God; nei ther do they fear Satan or hell. On every hand today we meet these “ filthy dreamers” who deny that there is a personal devil, and laugh at the thought of a hell. Modern apos tates deny God’s grace, and they have no fear of the certain judgment which will overtake them in their sins. Satan has led scores and scores to be APOSTATES TODAY
lieve that he is a joke. He wants men to believe that he is only a myth, for then they will fall into his snare and refuse the light of the God o f all grace. Satan is behind all apostasy of all time. Ungodly men, in their foolhardiness, “ 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” (Jude 9). Michael, great and powerful as he is, recognized the pres ence and power and personality of the devil. He dared not even rebuke him, but said, “ The Lord rebuke thee.” Yet poor, miserable, frail creatures of dust, ungodly men, presume to say that there is no devil. They speak lightly, flippantly, cynically about this terrible personality whom the Lord Jesus told us to fear. They ignore the teaching o f the Word of God which plainly declares that our holy God must judge sin, simply because He is holy. In Jude 17,18 we read that “ the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ” said that “ there should be mockers in the last time.” Surely we must be living in the closing days of this age, for the “mockers” at the truth of the Word of God are on every hand, even in many pulpits of our denominations. Let us pause here for a moment to examine more carefully the strange reference to Michael and the devil and their contention over the body of Moses. Jude is the only inspired writer who men tions this event. We turn back to the thirty-fourth chapter of Deuteronomy to find the record of the death of Moses. There we read that “Moses the servant of the Lord died,” and God buried him “ in a valley in the land of Moab . . . but no man know- eth of his sepulchre unto this day.” Why did the devil want the body of Moses? Was it because Moses, whom God buried, and Elijah, who “was translated that he should not see death,” are to be the “ two witnesses” referred to in Revela tion 11:3-12? We do not know. But certain it is that, whether these two witnesses are to be Moses and Elijah, or a company of faithful witnesses to God, coming in the spirit and power o f Moses and Elijah during the short reign of the Antichrist, they will perform miracles like unto those per formed by these two great men of God (Rev. 11:6). It seems probable that for some reason God preserved the body of Moses, so that it did not see corruption, while Satan contended for it, to turn it into corruption. Michael, the prince and champion o f Israel, withheld his railing accusation, so well did he real ize the power of the devil. But Michael’s time will come! In Rev. 12:7-12 we read of another “war in
JULY, 1966
17
Made with FlippingBook flipbook maker