Satan wanted the body of Moses

1) If you received the latest issue of the Gospel Advocate(7/07) you have in your possession some interesting reading.

2) Several of the articles show that a lot of things taking place right now are not new.

a) One article (ending on page 19) refers to the Da Vinci Code.

b) People have acted like this is something brand new; no one has heard of it till recently.

c) It appeared in a different form several years ago; then it was known as the “Jesus Seminar.”

d) If you are at least 40 years old, you may remember what predated the Jesus seminar.

e) It was the “God is dead theology.” Prior to that there was “neo-orthodoxy.”

f) People are saying the same things but using a different name and marketing strategy.

3) If we go back about 2000 years we find that these items existed back then as well.

4) There was a different name for it and some slight variations, but it is the same basic information.

5) Since God gave His word people have been trying to twist, change, deny, and destroy it.

6) Perhaps it is for this reason that a significant portion of the New Testament deals with false teaching.

a) In various ways the writers of the New Testament write about false doctrine and those who teach error.

b) One warning takes up an entire Bible book, the book of Jude.

7) Since this book is very short (only 25 verses), there are a lot of things we do not know about it.

8) We can tell that it was written to Christians who were facing false teachers.

a) A key verse in this one chapter book is verse 3 – READ.

b) In the first century God delivered “the faith” (a body of truth we call the New Testament).

c) Jude said Christians needed to “contend earnestly” for this information.

d) God’s word is our guide to heaven; if we use something else we will not be saved.

e) Because the Word of God has an inseparable link to our salvation, it needs to be near and dear to us.

9) We need to know what the Bible says and follow that information.

a) Today a lot of people think God is still sending down messages from heaven.

b) It may come through a dream, vision, sign, feeling, an angel, or maybe a “new book.”

c) More than 2000 years ago Jude said “the faith” had been delivered “once for all.”

10) There are not many things in life that are “once for all events.”

a) It would be nice if we could go to the grocery store “once for all.”

b) If that were possible, we would stock our homes one time and would never again need to go shopping.

c) No more Wal-mart, Martin’s, Krogers, or somewhere else.

d) The shopper in our household may go “once a week,” “once a month,” or “once every two weeks.”

e) Not one of us goes “once for all.”

f) Holidays come “once a year,” but they are not generally not“ once for all time.”

g) God’s word has been “given once for all time.”

h) This means God provided this information to the world and after this no more information has been given.

11) I once had a man tell me that he was a member of a certain religious group.

12) I knew he probably believed the Bible was true “as far as it is correctly translated.”

13) I asked if this was his position as far as the Scriptures and he said it was.

14) I then asked if he believed God had given other religious information to man within the last 200 years.

15) He said “yes” (this man was a member of the Mormon faith). He believed Joseph Smith received revelations.

i) I then said this to him: Jude 3 is translated correctly.

b) God says He gave information to man 2,000 years ago and that was all heaven is going to give.

c) Based on what you believe and have told me, your beliefs cannot be right.

d) He did not want to provide an answer to what he had been told.

e) Jude is a small book but it has some very useful information.

f) In addition to telling us that no more information from God will be given, it has some warnings.

g) As noted earlier, Christians are warned about false teachers.

h) In fact, it warns about false teachers who were morally corrupt.

i) Not all false teachers live morally corrupt lives but some do.

16) Let’s read verses 8-9 of Jude – READ.

a) What Jude wrote in verse 8 is not too difficult to understand.

b) False teachers were behaving in the worst possible way.

c) We read about their “dreamings” (this may indicate they thought they were receiving information from God).

d) We ought not to be surprised today when someone says, “I have received a message from God.”

e) People have been making that claim for more than 2,000 years.

17) False teachers and crackpots have been claiming revelations for longer than America has been a nation.

18) When we hear about these claims today it ought not to surprise us.

19) These false teachers “defiled the flesh” (the were involved with sexual sin).

20) Jude does not use the word hypocrite, but this is what these men were.

21) They “set at nought dominion” (the rejected divine authority and the Word of God).

22) Just because a man is a preacher that does not mean he is committed to the Word of God.

23) These men also “railed at dignities” (used irreverent speech about God and spiritual things).

a) To further illustrate just how awful these men were we have more information in verse 9.

b) Michael the archangel met up with Satan. This suggests they two know who each other is.

c) These two powerful and spiritual creatures had a “dispute” (disagreement).

d) They did not agree on the “body of Moses.

24) Jude 9 has been called one of the most difficult passages in all the New Testament to explain.

25) Some writers have said this verse is so difficult the entire book of Jude should be regarded as uninspired.

26) Both of these positions are extreme and are rejected by mainline scholars.

27) Jude 9 is certainly a very curious text; two angels having a dispute about Moses.

28) We may not know the exact nature of what the discussion involved, but we may conclude this much.

29) Satan had some type of plan; he had come up with a scheme that involved Moses’ body.

30) This piece of information leaves us with a very practical point.

31) Satan is not above using religion to carry out his plans.

32) If religion will help him fulfill his goals, he will use it.

33) If a religious person can be used to carry out the devil’s will, Satan will try to use that individual.

34) Moses could have been a very useful tool in the devil’s arsenal, as we will see in a moment.

35) As this text is studied people sometimes ask where Jude got his information.

36) How did Jude know Michael and Satan had a discussion about Moses?

37) Jude did not get this from the information in our Bibles.

a) We have no record of this event recorded in the Old Testament.

b) We are also not told the exact nature of the dispute, but there are several possibilities.

c) It may be that they had some type of dispute over the location of Moses’ body.

d) Others have thought the matter related to Moses’ body being forth in the resurrection.

e) A common view is that Satan attempted to steal Moses’ body or take this lawgiver’s eternal spirit.

f) An interesting thought is that Satan wanted Moses because he did not make it to Canaan.

g) Another intriguing explanation is that Satan wanted Moses’ body for a shrine.

h) Israel might have eventually led to worship Moses in addition to God.

i) Satan had some type of nefarious purpose.

38) Although we are not told the exact nature of the dispute, we know some things about the end of Moses’ life.

a) We read about the end of Moses in Deut. 34.

b) In Deut. 34:7 we find that Moses did not die from natural causes.

c) He was 120 years old, but he still had great eyesight.

d) Deut. 34:7 says he had great eyesight, but that was not the only strength he had.

e) At 120 years old he still had a lot of strength and vigor.

f) Moses was 120 and very healthy, but his time for departure had come.

39) He died and Deut. 34:6 says God buried him. He was buried in the land of Moab.

40) All this information is not too striking, but one little detail from Deut. 34 does attract our attention.

41) We are told that no “man” knew where Moses was buried. This was a secret.

42) We are not told why God did things in this manner.

a) Someone has said history can be a great teacher.

b) Abraham Lincoln’s casket is now cemented in a grave.

c) This was done after thieves took it and tried to extort money for its return.

d) Moses’ body could have been used in any number of evil ways.

e) Certainly Satan saw some way to exploit it.

f) God may have had other reasons for keeping the location of Moses’ grave secret.

g) Rich and famous people were often buried with treasure. Looters might have gone after him.

h) Another reason that God may have acted in this manner involved Israel’s enemies.

43) Earlier I mentioned this month’s issue of the Gospel Advocate.

44) In an article about the life of J.D. Tant we read about another interesting character, J.W. McGarvey.

i) McGarvey was at the front of what we now see in the Da Vinci Code.

b) People hated McGarvey. In an article (p. 16) we find this interesting piece of history.

c) McGarvey died and some who did not like him took his body into a church building.

d) There they played an organ over his dead body.

e) McGarvey had opposed instrumental music in worship so this was done in spite; it was malice and hate.

f) Moses had surely made some enemies in Israel who would have desecrated his body.

45) I do not know why Satan wanted the body of Moses, but the reason does not matter.

46) Satan’s hope to take Moses was dashed; he did not win this battle.

47) An angel of God was used to stop the devil in his tracks.

a) Moses had died, but God was still interested in protecting the container that houses his eternal spirit.

b) This is a point to think about long and hard.

c) If God was interested in the shell that housed who Moses was, what about Moses himself?

48) When we look at the humanity we have a container (the body) and what is in the container (our soul and spirit).

49) Our container is temporal, but the spirit in that container is eternal.

50) If God cared about the temporal container, He is certainly interested in the eternal part of us.

51) His interest in Moses is no less passionate than His interest in us.

a) Does God care about our physical bodies? He does.

b) In the New Testament we have information about sickness and injury.

c) God is interested in our flesh, but that is just the beginning point.

d) He wants to save our eternal spirit so we can be with Him in eternity.

e) Tonight we hope you understand that and have made things right with God.