The Character of False Teachers - Jude 4-13
INTRODUCTION:
Last Sunday we began to study the book of Jude, and as I mentioned last week Jude is a much-overlooked book in the Bible. Hopefully, since last Sunday you have all taken the chance to read the book. It is only about a page long, sandwiched between the book of 3 John and Revelation. Jude is a book for our day as we see so many churches compromising on the truth of God’s Word. Jude warns us of false teachers coming into the church and leading the church away from the truth. Last week we looked at the three aspects of the true faith and ended with Jude exhorting us to contend for the faith that was once for all time handed down to the saints. We must make sure that we keep and guard the truth of God’s Word so that we can hand it down to the next generation uncompromised and undefiled, it must be the pure words of the faith which we believe resting on the full authority of God’s Word from Genesis 1:1 to Revelation 22:21.
This morning as we continue in our study of Jude, we are going to be introduced to the character of these false teachers and we are going to see what their end shall be. Jude gives us a present, past, and future view of the false teachers. First, he gives us a present view of these teachers that have come into the church and how we can identify them. Then he gives us examples from the past of how those with these same characteristics were judged, then he speaks of their future destruction. Let’s pray and then get into Jude’s warning about false teachers.
--PRAY--
SCRIPTURE:
Turn in your Bible again this morning to the book of Jude. This morning we will be looking specifically at verses 4-13, but let’s begin our reading in verse 3. Please stand for the reading of God’s Word and follow along as I read.
Jude 3-13,
“Beloved, while I was making every effort to write you about our common salvation, I felt the necessity to write to you appealing that you contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all handed down to the saints. For certain persons have crept in unnoticed, those who were long beforehand marked out for this condemnation, ungodly persons who turn the grace of our God into licentiousness and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ. Now I desire to remind you, though you know all things once for all, that the Lord, after saving a people out of the land of Egypt, subsequently destroyed those who did not believe. And angels who did not keep their own domain, but abandoned their proper abode, He has kept in eternal bonds under darkness for the judgment of the great day, just as Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities around them, since they in the same way as these indulged in gross immorality and went after strange flesh, are exhibited as an example in undergoing the punishment of eternal fire. Yet in the same way these men, also by dreaming, defile the flesh, and reject authority, and revile angelic majesties. But Michael the archangel, when he disputed with the devil and argued about the body of Moses, did not dare pronounce against him a railing judgment, but said, ‘The Lord rebuke you!’ But these men revile the things which they do not understand; and the things which they know by instinct, like unreasoning animals, by these things they are destroyed. Woe to them! For they have gone the way of Cain, and for pay they have rushed headlong into the error of Balaam, and perished in the rebellion of Korah. These are the men who are hidden reefs in your love feasts when they feast with you without fear, caring for themselves; clouds without water, carried along by winds; autumn trees without fruit, doubly dead, uprooted; wild waves of the sea, casting up their own shame like foam; wandering stars, for whom the black darkness has been reserved forever.” (Jude 3–13, NASB95)[1]
THE PRESENT (Jude 4)
After giving us the command to contend for the faith, Jude goes on in verse four to tell us that presently certain persons have crept into the church. In the book of 2 Peter the apostle told us that these false teachers were coming, Jude tells us that they are here and they have crept into, have by deception and conniving have come into the church. These persons are deceptive shown by the fact that they have crept into the church, they have gotten in and taken on some leadership role by deceiving the people in the church. Their false teaching is leading people astray from the true faith. Their deception either is in lifestyle or in false doctrine or both.
Jude then tells us that these false teachers were marked out long beforehand for condemnation, for judgment. This cannot be talking about believers in the church because Paul tells us in Romans 8:1, “Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” (Romans 8:1, NASB95)[2] Those who have put their faith in Jesus Christ, agreeing with God that they are a sinner who can in no way make himself righteous before God, but believing that Jesus is God in the flesh and that He died on the cross shedding His blood as the payment for their sin and that He was buried and was resurrected from the dead three days later triumphing over sin and death once and for all. Those who believe this are no longer condemned, they are justified before God because they are covered in the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. These who have crept into the church, who were marked out for condemnation are not believers, they may claim to be, they may say some of the right words, but they do not believe that Jesus died for them, they do not believe that they are sinners who need saving, but believe that by their own actions they can make themselves acceptable to God. They pretend to be believers to deceive.
Jude goes on to describe these people, he says that they are ungodly, this word simply means that they do not act or seek to imitate God. They are unholy, impious, there is nothing about them that could be called godly. Jude says they have turned the grace of our God into immoral living, into impurity. In other word, they view the grace of God as a license to live their life in any way that they want, God’s grace to them is a license to sin. Paul knew that people would believe this, that they would want to give into their fleshly desires and would say that God’s grace will abound all the more because of my sin, Paul wrote reminding us that salvation and the grace of God means that we die to sin. Listen to his words in Romans 6:1-7,
“What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase? May it never be! How shall we who died to sin still live in it? Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death? Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection, knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin; for he who has died is freed from sin.” (Romans 6:1–7, NASB95)[3] These ungodly persons have not tasted of God’s grace, because if they had they would know that God’s grace frees them from sin, it does not give them a license to sin. Jude goes on to tell us that they deny our only Master and Lord Jesus Christ. They deny that He came in the flesh, they deny that He is the final authority in the Church, they deny that He is the Creator and Head of the church, and yet they have come into the church and have assumed leadership roles, teaching that we can live whatever lifestyle we want and that the flesh and the spiritual are separate and having nothing to do with each other, and because the flesh is sinful Jesus never really came in the flesh so He is not Master or Lord. They deny the very tenets of our faith and they are in the church today, they are in the church in the United States, they are in the church across the globe and they are gaining ground, we must contend for the true faith, we must expose their deception.
THE PAST (Jude 5-7)
Jude goes on in verses 5-7 to describe what these false teachers are like from examples from the past. He says I want to remind you of some things that happened in the past, but you already know these things, but let me remind you anyway. Jude says these false teachers are like the unbelieving Israelites who had seen God bring them out of Egypt, had seen God part the Red Sea so they could cross over on dry ground and then had watched Him drown the Egyptian army when they tried to follow the Israelites across the sea. But when God brought them to the border of the promised land they did not believe that God would give it to them, they were unbelievers and God condemned them to die in the wilderness, anyone 20 years old and older would die as they wandered in the wilderness for 40 years. These false teachers are also condemned to die without ever seeing heaven, because they are unbelievers.
Next Jude says that these false teachers are like the angels who did not stay where they belonged and exchanged what was their proper abode for what was not and now they are kept in eternal bonds under darkness until the judgment on that great day. Who are these angels, possibly those who possessed men so that they could have sexual relations with women in Genesis 6:1-4. Jude says they are condemned and bound eternally under darkness until they are judged and thrown into the Lake of Fire. The false teachers are like them, condemned and waiting judgment.
Thirdly, Jude compares them to the people of Sodom and Gomorrah who like these false teachers lived in sexual immorality indulging the flesh and even going after strange flesh as seen in the 18th and 19th chapters of Genesis, wanting to engage in homosexual relations with the two angels that looked like men who were staying with Lot. What happened to Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities around them is a picture of the eternal judgment of those condemned to the Lake of Fire, including these false teachers who are living in this same kind of lifestyle. In 1 Corinthians 6 Paul gives a list that includes the of the sins of Sodom and Gomorrah that led to their destruction because they did not acknowledge God, but were in complete rebellion to Him. Listen to Paul’s words in 1 Corinthians 6:9-11, “Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals, nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers, will inherit the kingdom of God. Such were some of you; but you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God.” (1 Corinthians 6:9–11, NASB95)[4] Those who practice such things God says will not inherit the Kingdom of God. But Paul doesn’t end there, he says there is hope, because some of you practiced these things, some of you were these people, but you came to faith in Jesus Christ, you were washed clean, you were sanctified, made holy, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. You are no longer condemned because the Spirit of our God lives in you. But those who openly rebel by continuing in these sins as the false teachers are condemned to the same fate as Sodom and Gomorrah. The only cure for sin is Jesus Christ, the one whom the false teachers deny.
THE FUTURE (Jude 8-13)
Jude goes on in verses 8-13 describing the utter rebellion of these false teachers and the fact that they will one day be destroyed, they will meet their final fate because they are already condemned. Their end will be the same as those that he just described from the Old Testament, and he says even though their fate is sealed this is what they are like: they are dreamers, this word is used to describe someone who is captivated by sensual images and carried away to a sinful course of conduct by what they see and so they defile the flesh, they reject authority, they have no regard for God’s authority or for anyone in a position of spiritual authority, they are an authority unto themselves and listen to only themselves and do what they want to do. Finally, Jude says they revile angelic majesties. This word that is translated “angelic majesties” is a word that has to do with God’s glory and the word “revile” means to blaspheme and this may mean that they are blasphemous about anything that has to do with God’s glory, including His angels and Jude reminds us that the angels are so much mightier than we are and he describes for us an incident that is not mentioned anywhere else in the Bible, but an incident that took place in the spiritual realm when Michael the archangel and the devil were disputing over the body of Moses. If you remember when Moses died God buried him and no one knew where he was buried. The purpose was so that the people did not make an idol out of Moses or his burial place. This is possibly why Satan wanted the body to lead the people into idolatry. I have seen this happen, in Moscow, Russia in red square there is a mausoleum in which the body of Lenin is on display, he has become an idol, when you enter the building you are not allowed to talk or make noise and you must move through in a reverent manner. Possibly something like this would have happened to Moses if it was known where he was buried. Michael understood the power of Satan, and he did not rebuke him, but said the Lord rebuke you. Jude’s point is that we must always show reverence toward the glory of God and we must come to God in God’s way. Jude says these false teachers revile the things that they do not understand, the supernatural, the Scriptures because they do not have the Spirit of God to give them understanding. Everything they know and do is from instinct, just like unreasoning animals, and this is to their own destruction. Jude goes on to compare them to three more Old Testament characters. First, he says they gone the way of Cain. Cain thought he could do religion his own way, that he could approach God in his own way, these men believe the same thing. Hebrews 11 tells us that Abel approached God in faith with a better sacrifice than Cain’s. 1 John tells us that Cain was of the Evil one and his deeds were evil. The same is true of these false teachers. Second, Jude says that for pay they have rushed headlong into the error of Balaam. Remember Balaam was the prophet that was hired to curse the Israelites, but after a talk with his donkey he could only bless the Israelites thus forfeiting his pay. To make up for it he told the king who wanted to curse Israel how to lead the Israelites to sin and thus got paid for his help. These false teachers are not in this business to help people, there desire is to lead them into sin and make a profit while doing it. Thirdly, Jude says they are like Korah and will perish as he did when he rebelled against godly authority. Korah rebelled against Moses and Aaron and said that they had no more authority than anyone else and God opened the earth and swallowed Korah and his family and all that belonged to him and closed the earth back over them, showing that when God puts someone in the position of authority we need to listen to them and follow them. These false teachers reject authority.
Jude in his love to use examples draws 5 more examples from nature to again show us what these false teachers are like, he does not want us to miss them. He wants us to be able to recognize them when they creep into the church. He says they are like: Hidden reefs, in other words they deceive, they disguise themselves. If sailors do not know about hidden reefs in the sea they can cause shipwreck. In the same way, these false teachers are hidden reefs that cause spiritual shipwreck with their false teaching and their immoral lifestyle. Jude says they come into your love feasts as hidden reefs and feast or eat with you without fear, the love feast was a meal that followed or preceded the Lord’s supper and these men participated in this without fear, when they should have feared because their lifestyle and theology made them come before the Lord’s supper in an unworthy manner. Jude says that they are only caring for themselves, not the people of the church. Next Jude says that they are like clouds without water, carried along by winds. This is something that we don’t understand here, our clouds always seem to have water, but in other parts of our country they see this, it will cloud up and there will be lightning and thunder, but no rain. These false teachers talk big, but it is nothing which can nourish us. It is empty, lacking content. They are blown by the winds from one false doctrine to the next. Paul speaks of this in Ephesians 4 where he speaks of spiritual growth and being equipped as believers, becoming mature believers and he says in verse 14, “As a result, we are no longer to be children, tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness in deceitful scheming;” (Ephesians 4:14, NASB95)[5] These are who these men are as clouds without water carried about by every wind of doctrine, clouds, but no substance. Next Jude says they are like autumn fruit trees, when they should be laden with fruit and ready to be harvested, but they have no fruit, no spiritual fruit, because they are dead, Jude says doubly dead because they are uprooted. They are dead because they produce no fruit and they are dead because they are not planted in the soil of God’s Word. Doubly dead. Then fourth, Jude says they are like the waves of the sea, they are uncontrollable and unpredictable and they bring no treasure, but only foam and that is their own shame, they are unreliable and deceptive and in the end their true colors will be shown to their own shame. Finally, Jude says they are wandering stars for whom the black darkness has been reserved forever. These wandering stars are what we call shooting stars or meteors which burn up in the atmosphere, here today and gone tomorrow. If you try to follow a meteor to where it burns out, what is left? Darkness and Jude says black darkness or utter darkness is reserved for them forever. In Slovakia, they have a huge cave system throughout the country, and while we lived there we had the opportunity to tour many of their caves, and in everyone when you got into the heart of the cave they would turn out the lights and you were in utter darkness, you could not see your hand in front of your face, you did not move around because you could not see anything. Jude says that these false teachers have this black darkness reserved for them forever. This tells me that it is going to be dark, utter blackness in the Lake of fire. I have heard people talk light of hell or the Lake of Fire, talk about partying with their friends there, it is not a place to speak lightly of, it is a place of utter darkness, loneliness, and separation. The book of Revelation calls it the second death where you live forever separated from God. These false teachers want to lead people into the utter darkness that is reserved for them; for this reason, we must contend earnestly for the faith.
CONCLUSION:
There is one star that we can fix our eyes on and He will lead us into His Kingdom of light. He is a fixed star that does not move. Listen to these words near the end of Revelation. Revelation 22:16, “’I, Jesus, have sent My angel to testify to you these things for the churches. I am the root and the descendant of David, the bright morning star.’” (Revelation 22:16, NASB95)[6] Do you know this star? Jesus Christ will never lead you astray. Just as the northern star is the point from where sailors fix their course, Jesus is the star that can direct our course to heaven. If you have put your faith in Him, agreeing with God that you are a sinner unable to make yourself right with God, and it is only through the death and shed blood of Jesus that you can be forgiven for your sins, and you believe that He died to pay the penalty for your sin and that He was buried and three days later rose from the dead forever triumphing over sin and death for you, then you are saved from the utter darkness reserved for those who do not believe. No longer are you under condemnation, rather you are justified before God clothed in the righteousness of Jesus Christ. Now let’s contend earnestly for the faith.
[1]New American Standard Bible : 1995 Update. LaHabra, CA : The Lockman Foundation, 1995
[2]New American Standard Bible : 1995 Update. LaHabra, CA : The Lockman Foundation, 1995
[3]New American Standard Bible : 1995 Update. LaHabra, CA : The Lockman Foundation, 1995
[4]New American Standard Bible : 1995 Update. LaHabra, CA : The Lockman Foundation, 1995
[5]New American Standard Bible : 1995 Update. LaHabra, CA : The Lockman Foundation, 1995
[6]New American Standard Bible : 1995 Update. LaHabra, CA : The Lockman Foundation, 1995