In Ecclesiastes 8:13, Solomon writes, “But it will not be well for the wicked man, and he will not prolong his days like a shadow, because he does not fear God openly.” If we don’t have a proper fear and respect for God – and listen, when we talk about the fear of the Lord, and everybody says, “That does not mean don’t be afraid.” Ha! Really? “Our God is a consuming fire.” It’s a terrible, horrible thing to fall into the hands of the living God. And they say, don’t fear God. God hasn’t given us the spirit of fear. When you see God, you understand a right view of Him leads to terror, and to trembling, to people fainting and passing out, almost as if they were dead, because they see the glory of God.

They see the holiness of God, and they understand how wicked we are. The fear of God is not just to stand in awe of Him. The fear of God is not just to respect Him. The fear of God is to see that He is God, and we are not. And who are we, and how are we going to stand in His presence outside of Christ? We can come boldly to the throne of grace, but that does not mean that we come without fear, because He is God, and we are not.

The wicked does not fear before the Lord, and so He will not prolong His days. Psalm 36:1, David writes, ” Transgression speaks to the wicked deep in his heart; there is no fear of God before his eyes.” There is no fear of God before His eyes. Proverbs 3:7 tells us, “Do not be wise in your own eyes; fear Yahweh and turn away from evil.” Proverbs 8:13, “The fear of Yahweh is to hate evil; pride and arrogance and the evil way
and the mouth of perverted words, I hate.”

When we look at the example here, they revile and speak evil even against angels. They’re not afraid of any authority. The concept here too is there is thinking that they’re already denying that Christ is coming back and if there’s no reason to fear judgment, who knows what they were teaching about the angels. We know that there were groups that taught that angels didn’t exist. There was no such thing as demons. It was all made up. What does that sound like? That sounds like the scientific community today, doesn’t it?

“Oh, it’s not demonic. It’s just mental illness.” How much do you think that we see going on in this world today is not just a physical cause but a spiritual cause. Folks, the demons exist. They are real and active, but here’s the good news according to what we learned in 2 Peter 2, they’re chained. They can go no further than God will allow. We see that in Job, don’t we? Every time Satan goes before God to do something to Job, God sets the limit and Satan can’t pass it. You know why? Because God’s sovereign and the devil is not. He’s on a chain. He’s being bound. He’s being restricted, but we do have an example this given. These are so proud and so bold and so presumptuous and so self-willed, they will slander even the angels.

Peter says, “Whereas angels who are greater in strength and power do not bring a reviling judgment against them before the Lord.” The angels who are greater in power and might. If anybody had a reason to boast, shouldn’t it be the angels? And yet they don’t. If anybody should be able to revile a false teacher or even a demon, it should be an angel, right? But they don’t. This is very similar to what Jude writes. Jude says, “Yet in the same way these men, also by dreaming, defile the flesh, and reject authority, and blaspheme glorious ones. But Michael the archangel, when he, disputing with the devil, was arguing about the body of Moses, did not dare pronounce against him a blasphemous judgment, but said, “The Lord rebuke you!”

We have the story in the Old Testament of Moses dying. God buried Moses. We don’t know where that is. Aren’t you glad? There’s no shrine. God sent and told Joshua, “Moses, my servant, is dead.” Didn’t tell him where he was buried.

There’s a thought that what he’s referring to here is that Satan decided, “Hmm, if I could get the body of Moses, I might accomplish some things.” And we’re given a conflict here where one of the mightiest angels, Michael, is contending with the devil himself, disputing over the body of Moses. And you would think that Michael certainly should be able to put the devil in his place. And instead, what does Michael do? He says, “The Lord rebuke you.” A holy angel will not even speak and pass judgment. They know that that is reserved for the Lord.

In Zechariah 3, we have another instance where “Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of Yahweh, and Satan standing at his right hand to accuse him. And Yahweh said to Satan, “Yahweh rebuke you, Satan! Indeed, Yahweh who has chosen Jerusalem rebuke you! Is this not a brand delivered from the fire?” Now Joshua was clothed with filthy garments and standing before the angel. And he answered and spoke to those who were standing before him, saying, “Remove the filthy garments from him.” Again he said to him, “See, I have made your iniquity pass away from you and will clothe you with festal robes.” Then I said, “Let them put a clean turban on his head.” So they put a clean turban on his head and clothed him with garments, while the angel of Yahweh was standing by.”

You see what the angels know is when it comes to passing final judgment, vengeance belongs to the Lord. This belongs to God alone. Romans 12:19, quoting from the book of Leviticus, “Never taking your own revenge, beloved—instead leave room for the wrath of God. For it is written, ‘Vengeance is Mine, I will repay,’ says the Lord.”

So what we’re told here is that false teachers in their covetousness, in their lust, in their rebellion, in their arrogance, in their presumption, in being self-willed, they will even slander and pass judgment on others, even the holy angels. And Peter and Jude tell us the angels don’t even do this. They have the power and the might to do this, but they tell us that these things belong to God. These things belong to Him, leave judgment to the Lord.

Now, why would we be left with this lesson to leave judgment to the Lord? Because while we might be quick to run in and to judge false teachers, and while we are right to note who they are, to mark them, to shun them, we’re told, there still may be a time when that false teacher repents and believes. One of my favorite examples is a man who was a pastor and had been for years, until one day he preached a message and got saved. How did it happen? He preached for years, because he just had always wanted to be a pastor. He liked everybody depending on him to teach and to be important and to counsel and to comfort and to lead and to do all of that. He was in it for all of the wrong reasons. And one day in the midst of preaching a gospel sermon about what the remedy for sin was, he preached the gospel, he heard the gospel, he believed the gospel, and he was the first one to the altar. He repented and he believed. We never know when that point in time will come.

Have you believed? Look at the fruit, Jesus says. Look at the fruit. The fruit of the false teachers is that they are full of themselves driven by their evil desires. They’re bold and arrogant and daring and they slander and they rebel.

There are those who are reserved in judgment. God will bring that judgment in His time. It will be certain and it will be sure. What do we do in the meantime? We mark those men who are false teachers. We look at the fruit of their teaching in their lives. We warn people about them, but we also pray for them and we preach to them because they, just like us, need to hear the gospel, need to repent and need to believe because that’s the only remedy for the judgment of God.