Wretched Worship and the Worship of the Wretch
Notes
Transcript
Jude 8 ESV
8 Yet in like manner these people also, relying on their dreams, defile the flesh, reject authority, and blaspheme the glorious ones.
I remember early in my ministry, when I was the youth pastor and the associate pastor at my former church, and still very wet behind the ears concerning orthodoxy, sitting with my pastor and pitching to him a lot of ideas on how we could make the worship at our church better.
I told him that we needed to introduce new elements to our worship service that would make it more exciting. How we needed to do away with the old hymns and start singing the new, hip songs on the radio. I said that we needed to redesign the sanctuary to make it look less “churchy” and more inviting to people who aren’t really big into church.
But most of all, I told him that we needed to be more “spiritual” in our worship. You know, “feel the Spirit” and just go with whatever we feel like He is “leading us” to do in that particular service.
At hearing this, I remember him giving me a rather blank look, with his hand resting upon his chin when he told me, “Stop trying to reinvent the wheel”.
I shot back at him, “reinvent the wheel? What are you talking about? What does that even mean?”. And he said, “Don’t waste your time trying to change something that God has already put in place. We worship the way that we worship because God decreed us to worship Him the way that He is pleased with us to worship Him. Anything less would be a disgrace and an offence to the God Who we say we are worshipping”.
After hearing this, I thought to myself, “So, God defines Who God is, and I worship God the way that God commands me to worship Him”. Thankfully that comment went a long way in straightening me out.
In the day in which we live we see an abundance of this. We see an abundance of taking what God has ordained and trying to reinvent the wheel with it.
What God has ordained is simple, pure, devout, reverent worship wherein there are hymns sang, prayers offered up, the administration of the sacraments, and the sermon, where those who worship obtain knowledge concerning God… very simple, yet most effective worship.
But the supposed “worship” that many people seek today is emotionally driven. It is far from orthodox.
It typically consists of a lot of loud music that repeats the same words over and over again, which is a pagan practice by the way. And it’s typically done in order to whip those in attendance into an emotional frenzy so that they think that they are experiencing something spiritual, when in reality, their adrenaline is just pumping.
In addition to that, there will typically be some kind of charismatic aspect to the quote unquote “worship” experience, maybe consisting of supposedly speaking in tongues, casting out evil spirits, or miraculously healing those with afflictions.
And then there is a “sermon” of sorts that it usually very short and incredibly weak on theology where the speaker builds the message around lifting the listener up and making him feel great about himself.
Thus, the modern “worship” that has gained traction and attracted people far and wide is the kind that whips you up into an emotional frenzy to where you feel like you’re experiencing something spiritual, then it makes you think that you’re strong enough to go out and fight the devil, and lastly, it sends you away feeling like you’re the greatest thing that ever happened to this world.
So, think about it, an emotional frenzy that makes me think that I am embarking on a religious experience, something that makes me think that I somehow have power over the devil, and then lastly, a word on how great I am. And they call that worship…
And indeed, it is worship… self-worship. They’re not worshipping God. They’re worshipping themselves!
Alas! This is the worship sought after in modern times. This is the worship that young adults leave their mother and father’s church for, if they even continue to go to any kind of church. And it’s worthless! Indeed, it’s worse than worthless… it’s an abomination!
But I tell you friends, though I say we experience this in modern times, there has always been a thread of such abominable worship that has attempted to mingle with orthodoxy.
And as we continue this morning in our series of sermons from the epistle of Jude, expositing verse 8 of this epistle we see this, as we see Jude calling out those false teachers who had crept their way into orthodox circles and were leading those who had fallen under their influence in a way that is very similar to the way that I had just described is taking place in many modern churches today.
As it has been said before, there is nothing new under the sun… just recycled heresy.
And we see this in that not only is the “worship” that is offered in many modern churches recycled from what we will read of today, but even what we read of today is recycled from evil, heretical practices that came before it.
We see this as we read the opening words of our reading, found at the beginning of this eighth verse, where Jude says:
Jude 8a ESV
8a Yet in like manner these people also, relying on their dreams,
I want us to look at this beginning section of the verse in three different sections: 1. “Yet”, 2. “in like manner these people also”, and 3. “relying on their dreams”.
So, we start here with the word “yet”. Now, obviously, whenever we come across the word “yet” it signifies an addition, usually a contrast to what was said before the word.
For example, we may say, “There was a sign on an electrical fence that said, ‘Do not touch! Electrical fence!’ yet he touched it anyway, and it sent an electrical shock throughout his body!”.
In the same way, when we look to what comes before our reading for today, to verses five through seven, we are reminded of our reading from last week where Jude had warned of historical examples of the apostasy and the damnation that was meted out to three specific groups who had strayed from the orthodox worship of God.
And Jude says that though these examples are set before us, yet “in like manner these people also”. The people whom Jude refers to are in reference to those false teachers who had crept into orthodox circles unnoticed. Jude says that though these false teachers and those who follow them have these historical examples set before them, they are nonetheless “relying on their dreams”.
Now, we look first at the word, “relying”. These false teachers and their followers intellectually assent to the truths found in the scriptures. They see the historical accounts found in the scriptures and recognize them as true, yet they do not rely on the God of the scriptures.
Instead, Jude says that these rely “on their dreams”. The “dreams” that are spoken of here are in reference to the foolish desires and longings that these false teachers and all others who fail to rely on God and His Word possess.
They are those things which are foolish and in opposition to God. And as was said, to make it worse, these know the historical accounts concerning those who left off from orthodox worship and what the terrible end result was for them, yet they push along doing as those who came before them did and expect a different result than the ones who came before them experienced.
And thus, it is not God and His Word which they stand on and rely on, but rather, what they rely on is their own fleshly desires. And because these rely on their own dreams, on their own fleshly desires, they then, as Jude says here in our reading:
Jude 8b ESV
8b defile the flesh,
Thus, because these have willed to rely on their own desires and longings and have chosen to dismiss God and the commands of God, they then defile their own flesh.
Now, this defilement of flesh that is spoken of here is in reference to the defilement of the flesh in a religious sense, and how this defilement takes place can refer to a very wide range of acts, but the root of any of those things which defile the flesh is a reliance upon and a determination to partake in any activity that is either not found in the scriptures or is spoken against in the scriptures and slapping the word “religious” on it in an attempt to justify, or even sanctify their fleshly defilement.
Now, in doing this, in relying upon their own dreams rather than what God clearly commands, these clearly do what Jude speaks of next when he says that these:
Jude 8c ESV
8c reject authority
As has been said already, these know the truths concerning God, they even recognize the authority of God as an established fact and thus intellectually assent to it.
But because these prefer to rely upon their own dreams, on what is contrary to God and His Word, Who is, of course, the only real Authority, they then willingly, knowingly reject the authority of God over them through their rebellious and sinful lifestyles and religious practices in not only stubbornly and proudly insisting upon their own way in rebellion against God, but also in insisting others to follow suit.
Thus, these false teachers and their followers both then and now were prone to relying on what they desire rather than what God commands and thus proudly, rebelliously reject the authority of God.
And the last thing that Jude mentions these false teachers and their followers doing in this verse, is they,
Jude 8d ESV
8d blaspheme the glorious ones.
Now, many have speculated on what exactly this means, who these “glorious ones” are and what constitutes the blasphemy that the false teachers and their followers hurled at them.
Some believe that the “glorious ones” are in reference to orthodox church leaders and these false teachers’ rejection of the orthodox doctrines of the faith. And there’s a good case for that conclusion. Others believe that the “glorious ones” are in reference to heavenly angels, and there is a good case for that conclusion as well.
But there is another belief concerning the identity of the “glorious ones” spoken of in this verse, and with the context surrounding the verse that we will be expositing next week, verse nine, I believe that the position that the “glorious ones” is in reference to is that of evil, fallen angels.
And so, these false teachers and their followers were prone to “blaspheme” these “glorious ones”, fallen angels. And blasphemy is in reference to “demeaning slander”.
Thus, when Jude speaks of these false teachers and their followers blaspheming these “glorious ones” these evil spiritual authorities, it likely means that these false teachers and their followers, dreaming themselves to be powerful and authoritative, indeed, dreaming themselves to be so powerful that they reject the authority of God, seek to, by their own supposed power and authority, dismiss and destroy these “glorious ones” who, though being evil, possess much more power and authority than they do.
We see this all the time. People who reject the authority of God, who disregard the proper worship of Him and opt for something abominable who will nonetheless shout, “Satan! Get behind me!” or “I command you to get out of here Satan!”.
Well, for one, as was said, the devil and his minions have much more power and authority than we do, so it’s pretty silly for us to think that through our own supposed power, we can make the devil do anything. That would be like me standing on the railroad tracks while a train is coming at me and saying, “Train! I command you to get off of the tracks!” and really thinking that everything will turn out ok.
You see, I’m not powerful enough to stop trains and I’m not powerful enough to take demons down either. That power belongs to God alone. But these both in Jude’s day and in our day, reject the authority of God, yet will boldly declare to this or that power, “I command you, you demon!”. Now, how does that make sense?
Alas! Brethren! The “worship” which so many seek is self-serving. I hear it all the time, “I want to attend a worship service that best suits me!”… that best suits me?! That doesn’t even make sense. Worship, real worship is not supposed to suit me, because real worship is not directed towards me.
What we need is worship that suits God, worship that God commands, worship that is directed towards God.
And that worship is humble, that worship is reverent, that worship does not lift me up, no, it humbles me, it places me in the dust and ashes, and in light of the holiness of God, with adoration, it causes me to say, “How amazing is that grace that saves a wretch like me!”.
Amen?
