“But these speak evil of those things which they know not: but what they know naturally, as brute beasts, in those things they corrupt themselves,” 8-10.
We will take up where we left off last week. We dealt with verses 8 and 9, so now we come to verses 9-10. We were speaking of the task given to angels. I want just to complete what I started to say on that subject.
(A) The angels carry out a wonderful duty, guarding the people of God. “Are they not all ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation?” Hebrews 1:14.
(B) They even safeguarded the mortal remains of Moses. Such is the hatred of the devil toward the people of God he would wish harm to their corpses! We do not know anything about this incident other than what is stated here. But the devil hates the bodies of true believers while they are alive and, because of what the Lord plans for our bodies — resurrection to glory (1 Cor 15:52) — he hates them even when life has departed. This helps explain the bitterness that drove evil men to dig up the bones of John Wycliffe and burn them and have the ashes thrown into the River Swift at Lutterworth, in 1428, some 44 years after he died.
Now we move on to verse 10:
I. JUDE INDICATES THAT THE BEHAVIOUR OF THESE MEN HAD SUNK DOWN TO THE LEVEL OF ANIMALS.
“But these speak evil of those things which they know not: but what they know naturally, as brute beasts, in those things they corrupt themselves.”
This is the level men sink to when they reject the Word of God!
1. It is sinful man’s natural state! The gospel lifts man up from his fallen state. “Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust,” 2 Peter 1:4.
2. This truth explains the state of many Christ-rejecting nations. It is not that nations such as ours, which have great social, moral and technological benefits, are more intelligent. No, the gospel accounts for our past advancement. On many occasions it was Christian men and women who produced that which contributed to the comfort of the nation. Men like Isaac Newtown and Lord Kelvin. Women like Florence Nightingale, whose wisdom and labours revolutionised medical treatment of the sick and injured.
3. It explains the lawlessness and depravity presently sweeping our nation. Paul tells of the downward slide as a result of apostasy. 2 Timothy 3:1-5. They have forsaken that which makes them wise. “And that from a child thou hast known the holy scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness,” 2 Timothy 3:15-16.
4. As these ‘beast-like’ men increase their influence in these last days, we can see just what the world will become. The word “brute” means ‘empty of all understanding and wit’. Such an emptiness prepares the way for the acceptance of the Antichrist, ‘the beast’ (one filled with ‘beastliness’, Revelation 13) to be accepted as God - 2 Thessalonians 2:4.
5. The ‘family’ likeness can be traced in the ungodly. “Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it,” John 8:44. “And they worshipped the dragon which gave power unto the beast: and they worshipped the beast, saying, Who is like unto the beast? who is able to make war with him?” Revelation 13:4.