Sneaking In

Jude 5-12

[previous sermon]

I. INTRODUCTION

Ia. Last week

In our first adventure last week we were introduced to the epistle of Jude, the tiny one-chapter book hidden at the end of the New Testament right before the book of Revelation.  Jude gets less notice than the larger (and flashier) epistles written by Paul, Peter, James and John, because of its placement, its size, its subject matter, its use of non-biblical examples and for its non-apostolic author (it was even one of the final books to be admitted to the officially recognized canon of scripture).  This is a shame, however, because this book is needed, contains powerful truths, unmasks a great danger to the church and contains a command to all Christians that it is important to obey: “Contend for the faith”.  It is not the only book that contains this command, but it is a useful manual for this task.

Remember that Jude is unique in that it is the only book whose author states at the beginning that he tried to write about one subject but ended up writing another.  Verse 3 tells us about this and gives the command that Jude delivers to us from God:

Jude 1:3  Beloved, although I was very eager to write to you about our common salvation, I found it necessary to write appealing to you to contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints.

When Jude says that he was “eager to write… about our common salvation” the verb actually means “to make every effort”, which means that the extremity of his current situation (and the leading of the Holy Spirit) over-rode a clear purpose on his part.  He HAD to write this appeal to all Christians to contend for THE FAITH.  Thinking about this all week caused me to write on FB: “In verse 3 of his letter Jude directs his readers to "contend for The Faith". The word translated as contend is epagōnizomai, the word from which we get the English word agonize. How sad that so many self-identified Christians not only don't agonize to defend the faith against error, they don't even know what "the faith" is, and they would consider going to church occasionally to maybe hear some of it the definition of agonize. Since Jude makes it clear that his writing to all Christians this is extra sad to read, but it easily explains a lot of the weird stuff coming out of "churches" nowadays”.  This is the issue.  There is one “The Faith”, as Jude makes clear here, and it was once for all delivered to the saints: in other words

• It is from God, not from human minds – delivered, not discovered.
•  It is a unified whole – every part necessary and every part sacrosanct.
•  It is not still being dribbled out or figured out – once for all is one time in the past.
•  It was delivered to us and now we are stewards, responsible for keeping and defending it from attack.

 

Ib. Note on Structure

 Jude follows a pretty straightforward outline in roughly three parts between the beautiful bookends of doctrine and praise:

1.  Command – Contend for the Faith.
2.  The danger to the Faith – False teachers sneaking into the church
3.  What to do about it – how to contend and how to deal with “these certain persons”
   

Today we will look at what Jude says about these false teachers and next week we will look at what we should do about them – in other words the practical side of how to “Contend for THE FAITH”

As I mentioned briefly last week, when we look at the book of Jude we see that he tends to arrange his thoughts into groups of three.  We already have seen three of these triplets in the first two verses:   

his threefold description of himself:

1. Jude,
2. Servant of Jesus Christ,
3. Brother of James

his threefold description of the intended recipients of the letter:

1. Called, 
2. Beloved in God, 
3. Kept for Jesus Christ
   

his threefold wishes for them:

1. Mercy,
2. Peace,  
3. Love 

Depending on how you count, there are 8-13 more triplets in the remaining 23 verses of the book:

        ABOUT THESE PERSONS:

vss. 5-7 Examples of Judgments: 

1. Unbelievers among Israelites, 
2. Angels who sinned, 
3. Sodom and Gomorrah

vss. 8-10 What the dreamers do: 

1. Defile the flesh,   
2. Set at naught dominions, 
3. Rail at dignities

v 11 False teachers went: 

1. In the way of Cain, 
2. Error of Balaam, 
3. Rebellion of Korah

v12-13 Descriptions of them (two triplets):

1. Hidden reefs, 
2. Self serving shepherds, 
3. Waterless clouds 
   

1.  Fruitless trees, 
2. Wild Waves, 
3. Wandering Stars

v. 16 False Teachers are: 

1. Grumblers (Murmurers), 
2. Malcontents (Complainers), 
3. Walking after their own lust: 

v. 19 These are:   

1. They who make separations (dividers), 
2. Worldly (Sensual), 
3. Devoid of the Spirit

WHAT WE SHOULD DO:

v. 20 Christians are to: 

1. Build up yourselves, 
2. Pray in the Holy Spirit, 
3. Keep yourselves in the love of God

vv. 22-23 How to deal with those in error: 

1. On some have mercy, 
2. On some save, snatching them out of the fire 
3. On some have mercy with fear

v. 25 Praising:   

1. Glory, 
2. Honor, 
3. Dominion

Giving glory to God: 

1. Before all time, 
2. Now, 
3. Forevermore

 

II. The Reason to Contend – “Certain Persons” (False Teachers)

IIa. The Identity of the False Teachers

In verse four Jude introduces the danger to The Faith that we need to be able to contend with – false teachers (false believers) 

Jude 1:4 For certain people have crept in unnoticed who long ago were designated for this condemnation, ungodly people, who pervert the grace of our God into sensuality and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ. 

These “certain people” are described in a way to indicate that their actual intentions are subject to question.  These are not just people with innocent, ignorant questions about spiritual issues or those who just have not grown spiritually. They are described as “designated for this condemnation … long ago”.  Any doubt about their spiritual state will be squashed in vss 14-15, where Jude describes them as those who receive God’s judgment when the Lord returns.  In this section his most frequently used word for them (repeated over and over at the end) is “ungodly”, a term used throughout scripture to describe the unsaved.  They are “ungodly”, doing “ungodly deeds”, in an “ungodly way”, and finally “ungodly sinners”.

But ungodly is just the first of three characterestics of these “certain persons” – as usual, Jude gives us two more to make three.  These are echoed throughout the rest of the book, so we should understand what they mean. 

• First, these ungodly persons “pervert the grace of our God into sensuality”.  Upon being told that they are now set free from the law, they repeat the words of Paul’s imaginary question asker in Romans 6:15 ”…shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace?...”  This is ever the mark of false, unbelieving teachers.  Compare with Peter’s descriptions: [2 Peter 2] “²… many will follow their sensuality, and because of them the way of truth will be blasphemed. ... ¹⁰ … especially those who indulge in the lust of defiling passion... ¹³… They count it pleasure to revel in the daytime. They are blots and blemishes, reveling in their deceptions, while they feast with you. ¹⁴ They have eyes full of adultery, insatiable for sin. They entice unsteady souls. They have hearts trained in greed. Accursed children! ... ¹⁸ For, speaking loud boasts of folly, they entice by sensual passions of the flesh those who are barely escaping from those who live in error. ¹⁹ They promise them freedom, but they themselves are slaves of corruption…”.  Paul, when talking to Timothy about these persons, told him that they were: “[2 Tim 3:4-7] 4 “treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, 5 having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power. Avoid such people. 6 For among them are those who creep into households and capture weak women, burdened with sins and led astray by various passions, 7 always learning and never able to arrive at a knowledge of the truth.” 

• The second great problem with these persons is what they do with Jesus: they “deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ”.  Just about every cult in the world – no matter what else they believe – can be identified as false by their understanding of who Jesus Christ is.  Whether it is the JW’s (Jesus is a created being, Michael the archangel), Mormons (Jesus is physical son of Elohim and his wife, brother of Lucifer), just a historical but wise guru (eastern based cults) or just one of “many ways to God” or just “a great teacher” (universalist “Christians” of all stripes, including many mainline denominations and branches of the emergent movement), the universal attack point is always Jesus.  Jesus told us that “[John 15:18]  "If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you.”, Paul makes Jesus the central point of our salvation: [Rom 10:9] “… if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” And [1 Cor 12:3] “… I want you to understand that no one speaking in the Spirit of God ever says "Jesus is accursed!" and no one can say "Jesus is Lord" except in the Holy Spirit.”  In the days when this was written, the growing heresy that the church was having to deal with was Gnosticism, which borrowed from the Greek idea that all matter was evil and only spirit could be good, leading to the conclusion that the person Jesus could only be a temporary residence for the Spirit and not the eternal God-Man.  Therefore they disputed the resurrection (no reason to bring back evil physical body).  It is easy to dismiss these things as “stuff that doesn’t happen nowadays, but there is one controversy in evangelical circles that touches this subject: the issue of what is called “Lordship Salvation”.  Many evangelicals of our day separate “accepting Jesus” from “receiving Jesus as Lord”, the second of which is thought of as a “work” that can already be done as a believer.  In other words, you can accept Jesus and get saved and later you can “make Him Lord”.  The idea that a person can attain saving faith without dealing with the truth that Jesus is Lord is foreign to scripture, including Rom 10:9 quoted previously.  Jude stresses three aspects of Jesus’ lordship:  (1) he is our ONLY master and lord, (2) he is our only MASTER (Greek despotēs– ruler with absolute power), and he is our only LORD (Gr. Kurios – owner with all authority, usually used as owner of slaves). 

We should note that these characteristics do not describe an especially evil type of sinner.  No, we should be able to recognize our old pre-salvation soul still represented in our old flesh and its unredeemable nature.  As Paul told the Ephesians: [Eph 2:1-3] “¹ And you were dead in the trespasses and sins ² in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience-- ³ among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.”  Before we were saved we did not love God, and out natural tendencies were the same.  John calls these people “antichrists” in his first letter [1Jo 2:18-19 ESV] “¹⁸ Children, it is the last hour, and as you have heard that antichrist is coming, so now many antichrists have come. Therefore we know that it is the last hour. ¹⁹ They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us. But they went out, that it might become plain that they all are not of us.”  Jesus said that the kingdom of God was like a field with wheat and wheat-like weeds (tares).  The farmer (God) would separate the good wheat from the tares at harvest time, but in the meantime they would be growing together and hard to tell apart.  The point at which wheat and tares look different is when it comes time for them to bear fruit.  THEN it is evident, which is what we see in Jude.

 

IIb. The Destiny of the False Teachers (from the past) 

In case there is any doubt as to the spiritual state of these false teachers, Jude next gives three examples of the judgements given in the past for certain types of unbelief and immorality – (1) the nation of Israel refusing to enter the land, (2) angels leaving their rightful domain, and (3) the evil cities of Sodom and Gomorrah.

Jude 1:5-7  ⁵ Now I want to remind you, although you once fully knew it, that Jesus, who saved a people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed those who did not believe. ⁶ And the angels who did not stay within their own position of authority, but left their proper dwelling, he has kept in eternal chains under gloomy darkness until the judgment of the great day-- ⁷ just as Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding cities, which likewise indulged in sexual immorality and pursued unnatural desire, serve as an example by undergoing a punishment of eternal fire.

• The first example cited by Jude is well known to us all.  After being delivered from Egypt and with the Exodus and God’s powerful deliverance from the great Egyptian army and crossing the Red Sea on dry land, after seeing God’s power and glory at Mt. Sinai and nearly being wiped out after unbelief that surfaced when they were waiting for Moses to bring the ten commandments, it was time to enter the promised land.  To prepare, they sent twelve spies, one from each tribe, to spy out the land.  When the spies returned they all reported how wonderful the land was that God had given them, but ten of the twelve complained about the military technology and size of the inhabitants of the land and told the nation that [Num 13]  “³¹ We are not able to go up against the people, for they are stronger than we are." and “^32b The land … is a land that devours its inhabitants...” Even though the other two spies (Joshua and Caleb) assured them that they would be victorious with God’s help, the people chose to disbelieve in God’s power and goodness. (Quote below then) and God sentenced them to judgment 

Numbers 14:1-4   ¹ Then all the congregation raised a loud cry, and the people wept that night. ² And all the people of Israel grumbled against Moses and Aaron. The whole congregation said to them, "Would that we had died in the land of Egypt! Or would that we had died in this wilderness! ³ Why is the LORD bringing us into this land, to fall by the sword? Our wives and our little ones will become a prey. Would it not be better for us to go back to Egypt?" ⁴ And they said to one another, "Let us choose a leader and go back to Egypt."

• Of course we all know what happened.  God declared that NONE of that generation would be allowed to enter the promised land (except Joshua and Caleb).  The arrival in the promised land would be delayed for 40 years so that that entire generation would “die in the wilderness”. When they heard of God’s judgment, they tried to go ahead and do the conquest in their own strength, but without God’s help it was doomed to failure – their original, faithless prediction came true and they returned in miserable defeat.  Like the false teachers mentioned by Paul to Timothy, “having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power.” 

• The second group to receive God’s judgment in olden times are described as “angels who did not stay within their own position of authority, but left their proper dwelling”.  This probably refers to the story in Genesis 6 where “the sons of God saw that the daughters of men were attractive.  And they took as wives any they chose.”  The story is obscure, but it is the lead-in to story the worldwide flood and tied to the great wickedness of man that “grieved [God] to his heart” and caused him to hit the global reset button, starting the human race over again with eight people from Noah’s family.  Some suggest that fallen angels cohabitated with human women, but there is no evidence in scripture that creating living human bodies that can procreate is within their power.  It is far more likely that the story is describing some sort of widespread demon possession, invited by wicked men for wicked purposes.  In Genesis we see that the human world was destroyed, and in Jude and 2 Peter we learn that the angels involved in this disgraceful story were immediately cast into “eternal chains in gloomy darkness” to await judgment.  This was such a frightful fate that much later, when Jesus was casting demons from the Gadarene demoniac (Legion) they BEGGED Him not to command them to depart into the abyss.  Once again the story ends in judgment. 

• The final story talks about as “Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding cities”, whose gross sexual immorality and dedication to “unnatural desire”, left them as an example to us of judgment. So in each of Jude’s examples the warning is the same – the warning of God’s judgment on the ungodly who were guilty of unbelief, rebellion and immorality.  Remember these three faults as we read ahead in Jude’s argument.

 

IIb. The Character of the False Teachers

In the next section, Jude describes these teachers as people who rely “on their dreams”.  How many false prophets throughout history have proposed changes to the faith based on dreams and visions that they have had? But God warns us about this.  In Colossians 2:18 Paul says “Let no one disqualify you, insisting on asceticism and worship of angels, going on in detail about visions, puffed up without reason by his sensuous mind, and hot holding fast to the Head”.  Previously in the chapter he told them to “see to it that no none takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ.”  The only source of revelation to us is God’s word – human reason, dreams, mysterious spirits, etc., will not give us truth.  In Galatians Paul even says that “[Gal 1:8-9] “⁸But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed. ⁹ As we have said before, so now I say again: If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed.”  Why?  Because “the faith” was “once for all delivered to the saints”. 

Man is unable to improve on or correct God’s given truth in scripture.  Solomon said [Prov 14:12] “There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way to death.”.  Why?  Because, no matter how wise we declare ourselves, our hearts direct us to folly: [Rom 1:21-23 KJV] “²¹ Because that, when they knew God, they glorified [him] not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. ²² Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, ²³ And changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things.” In reality, though, it is even worse than that.  Without God’s direct help we can’t even evaluate the truths in scripture.  As Paul says [1Cor 2:12-13] “¹² Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God. ¹³ And we impart this in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual. ¹⁴ The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned”.

So, what do these false prophets do as they rely on their dreams? They do (of course) three things:

Jude 1:8 Yet in like manner these people also, relying on their dreams, defile the flesh, reject authority, and blaspheme the glorious ones.

• The first two we have already seen.  In seeking to turn God’s grace into licentiousness they readily seek to “defile the flesh”. 
• Secondly, in rejecting the lordship of Christ they reject authority. (the word translated authority is kyriotēs, related to kurios=Lord)
• “Blaspheme the glorious ones” is a bit more obscure – the terms literally translate to “slander or speak evil of glories”. There are several strong reasons to believe that this is blaspheming majestic angels.  First of all, Peter speaks of the same behavior and also Jude gives an example to show how to act.  He quotes an extra-biblical book that they would have been familiar with (called “the Assumption of Moses”) which tells stories from oral traditions about what happened to the body of Moses when he died.  (Note: this does not mean that he is equating it with scripture – Paul even quoted unbelieving philosophers to illustrate his points).  In the example, God’s most powerful angel Michael does not go beyond his place but leaves the judgment to God.  Modern heretics make themselves equal to Jesus (Moon) or say that God needs our permission to act in the world (some faith movement teachers).  Others conduct meetings where they talk to Satan directly, ordering him around and physically stomping on his head.  They should take Michael’s example, because when their dreams make them do these things, they are just being irrational.

Jude 1:8-10  ⁸ Yet in like manner these people also, relying on their dreams, defile the flesh, reject authority, and blaspheme the glorious ones. ⁹ But when the archangel Michael, contending with the devil, was disputing about the body of Moses, he did not presume to pronounce a blasphemous judgment, but said, "The Lord rebuke you." ¹⁰ But these people blaspheme all that they do not understand, and they are destroyed by all that they, like unreasoning animals, understand instinctively. 

 

IIc. The Hearts of the False Teachers

At the beginning of verse eleven Jude gives the central thought of the book.  The entire letter is mirrored around this verse, and the thoughts match up pretty well in each half of the letter in reverse order.  The central thought is this: “WOE TO THEM!”. Woes in scripture always portray judgment from God.  The destiny of these false teachers is given.  Jude now counts off three examples from the Old Testament that illustrate the heart problems of these false teachers:

Jude 1:11b “For they walked in the way of Cain…” 

First Jude sites the story of the first murderer in human history.  Cain and Abel were the first two sons of Adam and Eve after they sinned and were kicked out of the garden of Eden.  Taking up the narrative in Genesis chapter 4 verse 2:

Genesis 4:2-8  ² And again, she bore his brother Abel. Now Abel was a keeper of sheep, and Cain a worker of the ground. ³ In the course of time Cain brought to the LORD an offering of the fruit of the ground, ⁴ and Abel also brought of the firstborn of his flock and of their fat portions. And the LORD had regard for Abel and his offering, ⁵ but for Cain and his offering he had no regard. So Cain was very angry, and his face fell. ⁶ The LORD said to Cain, "Why are you angry, and why has your face fallen? ⁷ If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is for you, but you must rule over it." ⁸ Cain spoke to Abel his brother. And when they were in the field, Cain rose up against his brother Abel and killed him. 

• The story is very sad and it shows how quickly and fully the disease of sin acted in the first inheritors of it. Abel brought a blood offering (it is believed that even at that date God had made it clear that blood was required to cover sin) from his flocks, but Can  pretty much went ahead and invented his own way to worship God from his own imagination.  God should have been pleased with his creativity, or so he thought.  But instead God did not accept it.  Instead of taking the clue from God and bringing the offering called for by God, Cain took out his frustration on his own brother, his own flesh and blood.  “I’ll show YOU a blood offering!”  The Apostle John, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, gives insight into Can’s heart: [1Jo 3:12 ESV] “We should not be like Cain, who was of the evil one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his own deeds were evil and his brother's righteous.”  Jealousy and selfish ambition always tear a church apart, and in this case it tore the first family apart.  God does not sing the Burger King song to us “Have it your way”, and no one will walk into heaven singing Sinatra’s “I did it myyyyyyy waaaayyy!” 

Jude 1:11c “…and abandoned themselves for the sake of gain to Balaam’s error…”

Balaam is an interesting case in the OT.  He was not an Israelite but he was a prophet who was able to speak to God.  As we spoke of a few months ago, Balaam was contacted by Balak, the king of Moab, with a very profitable job.  He only had to come and curse the nation of Israel, something which Balaam was fine with doing (and working for a rich king was his big break!). Unfortunately God was not willing to do it, which really got on Balaam’s nerves.  We learn later that though Balaam was forbidden to curse Israel, he was seemingly able to give Balak advice which resulted in the deaths of many Israelites at God’s hand when they were tempted to sin.  For this, Balaam was later killed and becomes an example of monetary greed being the wrong motivation for ministry.

Jude 1:11d “…and perished in Korah’s rebellion.”

Korah was a cousin of Moses, but was not from the line of Aaron.  As a member of the priestly tribe of Levi and a Kohathite he had significant and important work with the temple, but he could never be a priest.  That rankled his pride greatly, so he gathered over 250 “well-known” men to rebel against the leadership of Moses.  Like in most church splits they were not satisfied with their lot and accused Moses of being an elitist (who they were going to cut down to size with their prestigious people and numbers).  Their cry was “You have gone too far! For all in the congregation are holy, every one of them, and the LORD is among them. Why then do you exalt yourselves above the assembly of the LORD?”  (Num 16:3b)  God made it clear who was boss the next morning, when He caused the ground to open up and consume Korah and his crew.  None survived and the people got a very valuable lesson: when God tells us what to do, He is not calling for a vote.  But false teachers are always doing “what seems right in their own eyes” and heaven help anyone who gets in their way!

IId. The Fruitlessness of the False Teachers

Jude now gives a poetic description of the fruit (or lack of fruit) that comes from these false teachers/professors.  Remember two passages dealing with fruit.  Jesus said that we would “know them by their fruits.”  In Galatians 5 Paul compares the fruit of the Spirit (love joy peace, etc.) with the deeds of the flesh (lots of bad stuff).  Jesus in the parable of the sower describes four types of people, using soil as his picture: 

• The first type hears the word but never even responds – it is taken away before it can try to sprout. The person represented there never comes near the door of a church and therefore is not the type of person spoken of here by Jude.
• The last type is the good soil, which bears great amounts of good fruit and therefore represents true believers.
• The two middle types of soil, however, describe those “tares among the wheat”. In other words, the seed seems to be growing but there is no living harvest when all is said and done.  One group has no “depth of soil” and the fledgling plant dies.  The other seems to have growth but never comes to fruition because the “concerns of life” crowd it out and it withers.

In the same way, these false professors in the church are a cheat all around, and Jude gives TWO groups of three images to illustrate their fruitlessness in poetic terms:

• 12a: “These are hidden reefs at your love feasts, as they feast with you without fear,” They look like us (remember that they have crept in unnoticed), but they are actually great potential dangers to the church.  A hidden reef is a navigational hazard and will become a graveyard of ships if it is not detected and avoided.  Likewise these false professors come to communion services and seem to participate.  Feasting without fear speaks of their brazenness (for those with malicious intent) or perhaps, if these false professors are misled people, this lack of fear is due to poor teaching in the church and people not contending earnestly for the faith.  In so many churches around the world this is the case – the gospel and the whole counsel of God is so infrequently taught that unsaved people can live in the church without ever knowing that they are in trouble and under judgment from God.  (think Schuller’s determination never to speak about sin because he does not want to cause loss of self-esteem).  This is a terrible indictment of the church!
• 12b: “shepherds feeding themselves;” Jesus described himself as the Good Shepherd.  The characteristic of a shepherd is that he “gives his life for the sheep”.  A false teacher is in it for themselves.  A false believer says “what do I get out of this?”, not “how may I consider one another (Heb 10:24-25) in order to stir up love and good deeds?”  A true believer thinks of other people as “more important than himself”.  Not so with a false teacher.  This is the person who leaves a church when he has a argument with someone or something does not go his way or he perceives some slight from another member.  Ten years later he has never gone back to church because “he had a bad experience at his last church” or alternatively he has attended 17 churches during that time, moving on when his needs aren’t especially met.
• 12c: “waterless clouds, swept along by winds;” Farmers look to the arriving clouds with hope that rain will come and bring life to their crops.  Christians come to church looking to be built up by others.  False believers bring fluff but no life to church, and the people are not fed.
• 12d: “fruitless trees in late autumn, twice dead, uprooted;” Again another picture of hoped-for fruit.  This one is especially vivid.  Not only is this a tree without fruit – it is fruitless in harvest season when fruit would be expected, it is “twice dead” – withered and dried up, and it is uprooted.  No way any fruit will ever be gathered from this one. Nope.
• 13a: “wild waves of the sea, casting up the foam of their own shame;” Here we see the sinful sensuality of the false teacher.  Waves are always destructive – they destroy buildings, cliffs, and anything else in their way.  And these waves destroy while displaying all of their shame in the open, sinning with impugnity.
• 13b: “wandering stars, for whom the gloom of utter darkness has been reserved forever.” Finally, they are wandering stars – useless for navigation.  In fact, the image here is of a meteor – a shooting star.  Flashy for a moment but then burning out – fallen to Earth, never to shine again.  Woe to them!

 

IIe. The Inevitable Final Judgment of the False Teachers

Jude 1:14-15  ¹⁴ It was also about these that Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied, saying, "Behold, the Lord comes with ten thousands of his holy ones, ¹⁵ to execute judgment on all and to convict all the ungodly of all their deeds of ungodliness that they have committed in such an ungodly way, and of all the harsh things that ungodly sinners have spoken against him."

For all this God’s judgment is upon them.  Jude quotes another extra-biblical book that probably originates from ancient oral traditions (perhaps passed down from before the flood).  In the quote Enoch gives one of the earliest referenced prophesies of the final judgment.  He repeats the term “ungodly” four times in this passage.  The Lord will come and judge all of the ungodly for three things:

• They are ungodly
• They have committed ungodly deeds (in an ungodly way), and
• They have blasphemed the Lord himself with their words.

But Jude gets more specific to elaborate these general descriptions. One more list of three will finish Jude’s description:

Jude 1:16 These are grumblers, malcontents, following their own sinful desires; they are loud-mouthed boasters, showing favoritism to gain advantage.

• They are grumblers.  This is the only usage of this word in the NT (Gr. goggystēs) but it is used in the Septuagint (Greek translation of OT) to describe Israel’s murmuring against God.  Remember what the people said when they murmured against God?  How often do self-professed Christians do the same in church?
• They are also malcontents.  This word means to find fault or to blame.  They do this because He does not do thing the way that they want them to be done (since they are following after their own lusts, or strong feelings, instead of God and his wishes).  “If I was God I would…”  Many biblical doctrines, from hell to sovereignty, are rejected by professing believers because, well, because they are “icky”.
• They show off their eloquence, using grand speech to puff themselves up.  They show favoritism – flattering to get what they want.  Why call people wretched sinners when you can tell them that they are “gods in training”?  This is what Paul warned Timothy about:

[2Ti 4:3-4 NASB]  ³ For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires, ⁴ and will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths.

 

IIe. The Inevitable Final Judgment of the False Teachers

So this is why Jude was moved to encourage all believers to contend earnestly for the faith.  The church is a battleground (not just the world).  Every single believer needs to be diligent that they (a) Know the faith, (b) understand the faith, (c) recognize the faith (or imposters), (d) can explain the faith, and (e) is ready to FIGHT for the faith.  Anything less will produce a dying or dead church, filled with unbelievers who do not even know that they are unbelievers, led by unbelieving imposters who can just make up anything that comes to their minds (or in their dreams) without having to worry that anyone will contradict them or question them.

Woe to US if we ever let our church get to that point, but it can easily happen if any of us reaches the (terrible and untrue) opinion that that ministry is “for others”, or “just for the Sunday school teacher” or “just for the professionals”. 

Contend for the faith!  Now!  Always!  Be prepared to give a defense for the hope that is in you!  Defend and protect the faith “once for all delivered for the saints”.  There is no other, and if we lose it we are lost.

Next week we will see what steps Jude gives to accomplish this task.  Don’t miss it!

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