Dreams That Never Come True

Known for his unique ability to simplify profound truths so that it can be applied to everyday life, Adrian Rogers was one of the most effective preachers, respected Bible teachers, and Christian leaders of our time. Thanks for joining us for this message. Here's Adrian Rogers. We're talking today in our continuing series in the Book of Jude under the general heading of a handbook for survival. And we are looking today at the verse that we've come to, which is verse eight.

Now we're going to read this one verse, but later on we'll refer to a lot of verses around it.

So keep your Bibles open to Jude, just one chapter—the only chapter there is—and verse eight. Likewise, also these filthy dreamers defile the flesh, despise dominion. And speak evil of dignities. I'm going to speak to you today on this subject: dreams that never come true, dreams that never come true.

Now, General William Booth was the founder of the Salvation Army. He was a great and a godly man, but he had good insight. And General Booth thought about the time in which we're living, and General Booth said that the great danger of the twentieth century will be: Are you ready for this? Religion without Christ, forgiveness without repentance, salvation without regeneration, politics. Without God, heaven without hell.

They said that's the state that the church will come to. He was talking there about the apostasy that was going to come. It was the same apostasy that Jude warned us about when he said here in verse four: For there are certain men crept in unawares, who were before of old ordained to this condemnation. Ungodly men, turning the grace of God into lasciviousness—that means unbridled lusts—and denying the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ.

Now, look if you will at verse four again. The Bible says that these men crept in. That is, they just slipped in so stealthily. They slipped into the Church of God. This same word that is here in our English Bible was used in Greek language years ago to describe a number of things.

I've already told you it describes somebody who could slip into water without making a ripple, like a crocodile slithering off the bank. It speaks of a person who had been exiled from a country. Who slips back in across the line? He he comes back in and repatriates himself, coming over back into the country across the boundaries illegally, coming back in a banished criminal. It speaks of a lawyer who, in a very clever way, in an argument, just slips a thought in.

Slips a word in. Nobody pays much attention to it at that particular time. But he's so clever that he knows he's going to come back later and make a tremendous case on that thing that he just slipped in very carefully. It speaks of somebody who slips in the side door when there is a gathering. He's not invited.

He doesn't have credentials. He doesn't come in the main door. But when the side door is open, he slips in.

Now that's the way liberalism is. That's the way apostasy is. And by the way, what do we mean by the word apostasy that I'll be using very much in this message? The word apostasy means to turn away or to fall away from the truth.

Now remember what an apostate is. An apostate is not somebody who is in a false cult. That's wrong, but that's not an apostate. An apostate is not somebody who is a sheer unbeliever. Unbelievers are lost, but that's not what an apostate is.

An apostate is somebody who has received the truth, and he has rejected the truth, and now begins to ridicule the truth. That's what an apostate is. An apostate is somebody who has first of all received the truth, then he has rejected the truth. And then he begins to ridicule the truth, and he denies the only Lord God. He turns the grace of God into lasciviousness, and that's the thing that Jude is sounding the alarm about.

Jude said, "I wanted to preach a gospel sermon, but the Holy Spirit wouldn't let me. The Holy Spirit told me that I should earnestly exhort you, that you should earnestly contend, agonize for the faith that was once for all delivered unto the saints." Now, in verse eight, we have. Another description of these apostates in verse eight, they're called filthy dreamers.

Now, why on earth would an apostate be called filthy dreamer? Does that mean that he had a bad dream one night? No, that's not what he's talking about at all. He's not talking about that kind of a dream. He's talking here about a vision, a conjecture, an imagination.

Something that he dreamed up. You see, in the book of Jude, there's a contrast that is given. For example, in verse three, the Bible says we should earnestly contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints. And when he says the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints, look up here. He's talking about this, folks: the Bible, the faith, God's word.

This body of truth is called the faith. And that's what we should contend for. There is a battle for the Bible. There is a fight for the faith. We should earnestly contend for the faith.

Now, over and against the faith is what we call the dreams or the imaginations of men. This is not something that God has revealed. This is something they have dreamed up. That is, they have their own imaginations, they have their own intuitions, they have their own subjective religion, they have their own ideas, they have their own existential ideas, rather than the revealed word of God.

Now, Jude calls these people with their homemade religion and their cooked-up theology and their philosophy. He calls them filthy. Dreamers. I think you could understand it a little better if we turn to an Old Testament passage. Turn to Deuteronomy chapter thirteen for just a moment, and that'll be worth reading, worth turning to.

The book of Deuteronomy chapter thirteen. You'll get the idea here a little more clearly. God says, "If there arise among you, and by the way, that's the way prophets come. They just arise among you. God doesn't anoint them." Talking about false prophets now.

That's the way apostates come. If there arise among you a prophet or a dreamer of dreams, you know you just wonder where that guy come from, and giveth thee a sign or a wonder, and the sign or the wonder come to pass. He says it's going to be this way, and it happens just like he says. Oh, you say, hey, he must be of God. You better be careful, friend.

Listen, and the sign or wonder come to pass, whereof he spake unto thee, saying, "Let us go after other gods." Which thou hast not known, and let us serve them. Thou shalt not hearken unto the words of that prophet or that dreamer of dreams.

Now, just underscore that that dreamer of dreams. For the Lord your God proveth you; that is, God's putting you to a test. To know whether you love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, ye shall walk after the Lord your God and fear him and keep his commandments. And when he says his commandments, he's talking about his revealed word, his inspired and infallible faith that was once for all delivered unto the saints. You shall keep his commandments and obey his voice.

That is where God has spoken, and ye shall serve him and cleave unto him. And that prophet. Or that dreamer of dreams shall be put to death, because he hath spoken to turn you away from the Lord your God, which brought you out of the land of Egypt, and redeemed you out of the house of bondage, to thrust thee out of the way which the Lord thy God commanded thee to walk in.

So shalt thou put away the evil from the midst of thee. Way back here in the book of Deuteronomy. Moses was commanding them to earnestly contend for the faith. Don't let these dreamers, don't let these people with their imaginations, their visions, take you away from the word of God. What is the dream that he's talking about?

It is subjective religion that is not conformed to the word of God. It is subjective religion that is not controlled by the Word of God. It is subjective religion that is not confirmed in the Word of God.

Now Jude describes these filthy dreamers three ways. First of all, he says that they defile the flesh. Do you see that? Let me tell you something about apostates. Apostates generally go into deep sexual sin.

Are some kind of fleshly indulgence and immorality. An unbeliever may not believe the gospel, but he'll normally be a pretty moral person.

Well, not always, but he can be very. You know, there are a lot of nice folks who are lost. Is that true? I mean, they may be next door neighbors. They're happily married.

They don't run around on their wives. They pay their bills, and they're just lost. They don't know the Lord, and we have to feel sorry for them. But not an apostate. You're going to find out that an apostate goes into sexual sin or some other kind of immorality.

The Bible says that he defiles the flesh, and in the verse just above verse eight, remember he's been talking about Sodom and Gomorrah going after strange flesh and giving themselves over to fornication. And then he says, "Likewise," and he's just referring back to verse seven. Likewise, these filthy dreamers—that's the reason he calls them filthy dreamers. The word "filthy" is not there in the original, but it fits. It fits.

It's in italics in the King James version of the Scripture because he's talking about these people who go into sexual immorality. Why would an apostate be more prone to sexual immorality or to some sort of sensuous sin than an ordinary unbeliever?

Now, remember what an apostate is. An apostate is somebody who has received the truth, rejected the truth, and now ridicules the truth. Why is he more susceptible to that kind of sin? I'll tell you why. Because he has willingly and deliberately sinned, he has committed soul suicide, and he's kicked his conscience to death.

And he has lost his morals because he's lost his moorings. He no longer has the Word of God, and the Bible tells us that he's like a sow that was taken from the mire and washed, and then he goes back, or he's like a dog who returns to his own vomit. And then the Bible says, "Listen to it. His latter end is worse than his first. He's worse off than if he'd never heard the gospel.

His latter end is worse than his first. He is worse than an unbeliever." The Bible says it had been good for him if he'd never known the truth, than having known it to turn from the holy commandments. Because something happens to an apostate. And by the way, you find a boy or girl who go off to college, and he'll come back, and he'll get in that environment. He's never been saved, but he's been raised in a Bible preaching church.

But he's never been saved. He may have sung in the choir, may been in Sunday school, may have played on a basketball team, he may have led in a youth fellowship. But he has never really made Jesus Christ Lord of his life. He has received the truth, but he's never been born again, never been saved. He'll go off to college somewhere.

He'll get in that fast crowd, and he'll start with drugs, or he'll get into fornication, get into beer parties. You know, there's no restraint there, and so he doesn't have the Holy Spirit in him. And then at the same time, he'll get caught up in liberal religion. And some professor will ridicule the Bible, and that finds a spark there in his life. And after all, he's got an ungodly lifestyle, or he wants to get into an ungodly lifestyle.

That boy, that girl, come back. And he say, "Mom and Dad, I don't believe what you folks believe. I don't believe what the pastor preaches up there anymore. I don't believe this anymore." And I'll tell you, almost every time you find a college student to come back that way, you find a college student who is living in deep sexual or alcoholic type of sin, or drugs, or some kind of debauchery that has gotten hold of the flesh. There's something about it, dear friend.

These sins are linked together: apostasy and sexual license, and apostate. Defiles the flesh. It is an amazing thing how people who've been in religion, when they turn from religion, they turn to sexual sins. I clipped this out of our newspaper the other day. It's one of our local columnists.

He went down to New Orleans during Mardi Gras. He's describing Mardi Gras. He said it's a curious thing to an outsider to see this revelry, this spectacle. This wild press of people here under the banners of ancient gods such as Bacchus, you know Bacchus is pagan god of wine, and Isis, an Egyptian deity of darkness. They celebrate their human half, the darker side of their nature.

Here, wine literally flows. The streets reek. With the fermented sopp and trash cans bearing oyster shucks and other restaurant scraps, line the curb, carrying for the destitute.

Now listen to this: here, between Christianity and paganism, affluence and want boils something of the human spirit. Here, emboldened by alcohol and the mass. They shout back in the face of the street preacher, "Be gone!" That is, they don't want to hear this man preach. And if they feel guilty later, well, at least it is later. But here, all things are suspended—pain, guilt, conscience—in favor of the more pleasant pursuits of drink and sex.

A strong undercurrent of sex pervades the entire carnival, and I'm going to come back to the word carnival in just a moment. Women don garter belts and expose their breasts. Men parade in masks of leather and masks of demons, their feral tongues extended. For this is, after all, the celebration of the arrival of spring, a return to fertility after a winter's pause. Yet it is also the beginning of Lent, the celebration of the death and resurrection of Christ.

And these two dwell side by side a curious coexistence. It is a contradiction as New Orleans itself a testament to these misplaced Frenchmen and their zest for living.

Now, I'm not here to pick on New Orleans, but let's think about Mardi Gras. You know what Mardi Gras means? Mardi Gras means Fat Tuesday. Why do they call it Fat Tuesday? Because it comes before Ash Wednesday.

What is Ash Wednesday? The beginning of Lent. This is a time where we're supposed to get ready for the holy season of Easter.

Well, people said if we're going to have to spend all that time getting ready for Easter, don't you think we'll have a big time before we do it? Don't you think we ought to have a Fat Tuesday before we have an Ash Wednesday? Don't you think we ought to have a carnival? Do you know what the word carnival means? Farewell to the flesh.

Carnis is the word flesh. When we have a vow, victory—that is to say goodbye. Carnival. Put those two words together, and you've got it. Farewell to the flesh.

That is for a certain number of days. We're going to have to say goodbye to this old flesh.

So we're going to eat, and we're going to drink, and we're going to fornicate, and we're going to booze, and we're going to dance, and we're going to take drugs. All in the name of Christianity, friend. It had its beginning in Christianity. That debauchery, that worshiping of pagan gods, and they literally worship these gods. They're made up like these gods.

They name the parades and floats after these gods, pagan gods. And it all started in Christianity. That's what apostasy does. As people get away from the Word of God, as they get their imaginations and their dreams and the tradition of the church, rather than the Word of God, filthy dreamers, filthy dreamers, they defile the flesh. And sooner or later, you watch every apostate, and there will be that sexual or fleshly.

Or sensual sin that is there, that's one of the marks. Second mark of an apostate: not only do they defile the flesh, they also despise the Father.

Now here in Jude it says they despise dominion.

Now what does he mean by dominion?

Well, who is dominion or what is dominion? Look in verse 25 here. To the only wise God, our Savior, be glory and majesty. What's the next word? Dominion and power, both now and ever.

Amen. When they despise dominion, they're despising the only wise God, who alone has that dominion. You see, apostate literally hates God. Look in the last part of verse four. They deny the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ.

Now I want to remind you: these are not deniers of God outside the church. These are deniers of God inside the church. These are people who despise dominion, who sit on church pews, who teach in seminaries, who teach in Bible colleges. They despise dominion. That is, they are rebels at heart.

They do not want anybody to box them in. Their battle cry is freedom, liberty. They don't want anybody to tell them what they must believe or how they must behave. They despise dominion. Now, I want to tell you, dear friend, anarchy and apostasy are Siamese twins.

Rebellion is in the heart of the apostate. That's what makes him an apostate. It's the same thing that made the devil the devil to begin with.

Now, again, in our newspaper, I clipped this out. Here's a picture of some Japanese policemen. These Japanese policemen are searching the candy counters, and it says seeking deadly candy. Japanese police checked candy at a supermarket after nine packages of sweets carrying threatening messages were found in Tokyo and Nagoya. Five were laced with cyanide.

Police said the deadly candy was placed by a gang of extortionists. Calling itself "Man with Twenty-One Faces," at least thirty food firms have been threatened since last year. You say, Pastor, that's terrible. You mean when you go to the supermarket and you're going to buy something to tickle your palate, you're going to buy some candy and you put your money down and you're buying cyanide and you don't even know it and you take it and eat. That's terrible.

Well, it is terrible. I tell you something more terrible: for a person to come to a church. Sit there and put his money in the offering plate, and have poison peddle from the pulpit. Right under that story, seeking deadly candy, is another story. There's a reason why I clipped this.

I don't think the editor put these two together on purpose, but it says Bible stories or gospel. Church searches its soul. London, Associated Press. The Church of England's ruling synod searched its collective soul in public yesterday. Prompted by a bishop's statements that cast doubt on the literal truth of the virgin birth and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Now, listen. This is a bishop. He's no little fellow. This is a high muckety muck who said this. The troublesome bishop, a former professor of theology.

You'd believe that too, wouldn't you?

Now he's a professor. He's teaching others. Listen to this: provoked an uproar last April by saying on a television program that the traditional account of the resurrection reduced it to a I'm quoting now conjuring trick with bones. He declared that Christians are not obliged to believe Jesus was divine. Of the virgin birth, he said, "I'm pretty clear.

It is a story told after the event." In order to express and symbolize a faith that this Jesus was a unique event from God—that is, it's just a lie somebody made it up. He has since made clear that he will continue to say, "quote excitable things." That is exactly what Jesus used to do.

So I couldn't have a better example to follow. In other words, he's saying Jesus was a heretic just like me.

Now listen. The Reverend David Holloway, who led a group of evangelical clergymen to demand the debate, described Bishop Jenkins' view as a cancer that would gradually strangle the church. Or I might say, he could describe it as candy on the shelf laced with cyanide.

Now, listen to this. I want you to hear what the Archbishop had to say. You'd think the Archbishop would step in, wouldn't you? But listen to what he said. But the Archbishop of Canterbury.

Robert Runcie reminded the synod that Anglicans enjoy intellectual freedom and independence.

Now, suppose the Tokyo police here said, "Let's do something about this candy," and they come to the chief of police. He says, "Now, wait a minute. The people in Japan they enjoy gourmet freedom." Don't don't take that away. I mean, people are free to eat what they want to eat, and if they want to eat candy, it's not our job to take the cyanide off the shelf. Dear friend, how ridiculous can the people of the church be?

They're not even as smart as the children of light to know what to do.

Now the point I'm trying to make is they despise dominion. You see, this archbishop went on to say the church is not like a schoolteacher who must expel a boy from school lest he influence the others with his wickedness. That is, they just despise dominion. They don't want anybody to say this is the word of God. This is what you must believe.

They don't want shackles put upon them. And you're going to find out that every liberal and every apostate is a person who is a rebel. And by the way, you're going to find them generally in rebellious movements. If there's a movement to overthrow the United States, you can look and there'll be some apostate clergyman out there leading it. If there's any kind of a rebellious movement, they despise dominion.

It is built in. That's what makes them apostates to begin with. Number one, they defile the flesh. Number two, they despise the Father because the Father is dominion. The third thing they do is they disgrace the faithful.

Notice again in verse eight. They speak evil of dignities.

Now, this word "dignities" is the word we get our word "doxology" from. Doxa it literally means glories or glorious things, majesties. That is, there is nothing too glorious, nothing too holy that they will not ridicule. They will not defame. They will not disgrace.

They will not deride. You're going to find out that first of all, they receive the truth, then they refuse the truth or repudiate the truth, and then they ridicule the truth. You find that with this bishop that I just read about, who called the resurrection a trick with bones. You see, they have a way of speaking evil of glorious things.

Now, most likely, what he's talking about here is there were some people there who were ridiculing and blaspheming the doctrine of angels. That was the glorious things that they were ridiculing back here in the book of Jude. But you'll find this about an apostate. He has a quick lip. He knows how to ridicule holy things, and he's not ashamed to to speak about holy things.

There's nothing too sacred or too holy for him to revile and ridicule. And he doesn't do it from outside the church. He does it from inside the church. You might put in your margin Second Peter two verses ten and eleven. Peter talks about God's judgment on these false prophets, and he says, "But chiefly them that walk after the flesh." We've already talked about that in the lust of uncleanness and despise government.

Now we've also talked about that. You see, it follows. Peter and Jude are just neck and neck. Presumptuous are they, self-willed. They are not afraid to speak evil of dignities, whereas angels, which are greater in power and might, Bring not railing accusation against them before the Lord.

Now, what does that mean? We'll look in verse nine of Jude.

Now, yet Michael the archangel, when contending with the devil, he disputed about the body of Moses. Dares not bring against him a railing accusation, but said, "The Lord rebuked you." Now, what happened was this: there was an argument about the body of Moses.

Now, you know that Moses died prematurely on Mount Nebo. As a matter of fact, God took Moses' life. Moses committed the sin unto death, and Moses died as a young man. At least, while his strength was there, the Bible says, "His eye was not dim, neither was his strength abated." But because of his transgression against God, he died on Mount Nebo.

Now he was a saved man, but he died there on Mount Nebo. He died prematurely. He died before he should.

Now Moses was all alone, and the Bible says that nobody even knows where Moses is buried.

So who buried Moses?

Well, we don't know. Perhaps it was Michael, the archangel. God sent him down there to perform the funeral and to preach the funeral sermon.

Now, Michael went down there.

Now, all of this is supposition. We really don't know. I'm just saying this is what could have happened. I don't know, but we know this: that Moses died. Nobody knows his burial place, and we know at one time there was a great argument between Michael, the archangel, not an archangel.

People talk about the archangels. There's only one, Michael, the archangel whose name means "Who is like God?" A mighty angel. And here's the archangel, and here is Lucifer. Here's the devil. They're in an argument.

Now remember that Michael has truth and God and righteousness on his side. And here's the devil over here. Do you think that Michael reads the devil the riot act? Do you think that Michael speaks disrespectfully to the devil? He does not.

The Bible says he dared not bring a railing accusation against the devil, but Michael said to the devil with all somberness and all seriousness and all authority, but he said it in a dignified way. The Lord rebuke you, and the battle was won. Why did Jude bring that up? Listen, Jude was saying that an angel, the mightiest angel in all the glory. Spoke more respectfully about the devil than some of these people speak about God.

That's what he's saying. When even Michael, the archangel, wouldn't bring a railing accusation against the devil.

Some of these people speak so blasphemously against Almighty God, and and their tongue walks up and down the earth, and you find it follows as night follows day. That when a man receives the truth, refuses the truth, he begins to ridicule the truth. He gives himself over to the flesh. He despises the authority of God, and in his tongue and in his mouth he begins to speak blasphemous things. It is a terrible, horrible thing that happens.

Some people are more careless about holy things than the archangel was when he was rebuking the devil. Think about it. The Bible calls these people these apostates, filthy dreamers, and ladies and gentlemen, the world is full of them. If you would like to learn more about how you can know Jesus or deepen your relationship with Him, simply click the Discover Jesus link on our website lwf.org. For a copy of this message or additional resources, visit our online store at lwf.org or call one eight hundred two seven four five six eight three.

Thank you.