The Bible Provocateur
The Bible Provocateur
Clouds Without Water - (Jude 8-16) Nick Kennicott
What happens when the darkest corners of human nature mirror the spiritual deceptions found within the church? In this gripping episode, we bridge the unsettling world of true crime with the spiritual warnings of the apostle Jude. We begin by dissecting the notorious actions of real-life criminals like Dennis Rader, the BTK killer, who astonishingly concealed his gruesome acts in everyday life. This shocking exploration sets the stage for a deep dive into the book of Jude, where the apostle's caution about spiritual criminals—apostates and false teachers—comes to life. Verses 8 through 16 of Jude’s letter guide us in recognizing and understanding the dire repercussions of their deceitful actions.
Have you ever wondered how false teachers manage to captivate and exploit their followers? We focus on the shameless behaviors of apostates as described by Jude, using the notorious example of TB Joshua, a false teacher known for his deceitful practices. Through our discussion, we shed light on the perils of both spiritual and physical corruption, reinforcing the apostle Paul's warnings in Romans about the dangers of rejecting God. This crucial segment serves as a strong reminder to remain vigilant against misleading leaders and to stay rooted in authentic Christian faith.
Balancing law and grace is no simple task, but it’s essential for maintaining true holiness. As we delve further into Jude's comparisons to biblical figures like Cain, Balaam, and Korah, we expose the hypocrisy, rebellion, and greed that pervade the actions of false teachers. By doing so, we highlight the necessary caution against such deceptions and the inevitable judgment that awaits those who pervert the gospel. We wrap up this episode with a heartfelt call for discernment and wisdom, urging believers to examine both their own lives and the lives of those they follow. Join us as we seek to fortify our faith and guide others away from the looming dangers of false teachings.
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I know you're wondering what chapter, but there's only one chapter. So we're in the book of Jude Now. I am a sucker for a good mystery. My wife loves them too when she's reading them. But if it's a book or a movie or a series or a true crime podcast, whatever it is, I'd love it. I like to think through the evidence and follow the leads and see if I can figure it out before the big reveal in the end.
Speaker 1:The investigative process for me is fascinating. I prefer true crime stories to fictional ones because when you watch a mystery in a fictional movie, you just know everything doesn't always fall into place in real life like it seems to in the movies. I know it has to fit within a certain amount of time or people get bored, but it seems like they always get what they need right when they need it and that's generally not the case in real life. But one of the things you learn when you start to watch these kinds of shows or movies or read these books on investigations and what detectives are looking for, is that there are often very specific characteristics that they initially begin with, depending on the type of crime that is committed. In other words, depending on the crime, there is a general profile of the type of person who usually commits that kind of crime. So when investigators, when they're trying to find what's going on, that's where they start with the characteristics. So, for example, often if a young lady is murdered, they start to investigate the boyfriend or the husband and then they look at jealous co-workers or neighbors and they move on from there. Why? Well, because most of the time in those instances it's among those groups of people where the true criminal is found. Now, this whole process is fascinating, and if a movie or a show is done well, you see how much goes into how frustrating it can be. Among the most intriguing to me are criminals who hide in plain sight In real life. These are mostly serial killers and drug dealers. You're wondering what in the world?
Speaker 1:A lot of you probably remember a guy named Dennis Rader who was the BTK killer because he bound, tortured and killed his victims. This is getting very grim very fast. The BTK killer started killing people in the suburbs of Wichita, kansas, in 1974, and he continued this for 15 years, claiming his last victim in 1991. Now, throughout the years his day job was as a home security specialist, installing alarm systems and specializing he actually advertised this. He specialized in installing alarm systems. And specializing he actually advertised this. He specialized in installing alarm systems for those who wanted protection against being the BTK killer's next victim. There was widespread panic and so his business was to supposedly help calm the people's fears.
Speaker 1:Amazingly, he was also married to his wife for 34 years without having any suspicions of his lethal nighttime hobby. That sounds crazy, right, but here's the thing Even if she was suspicious about his whereabouts, sometimes, when he came home late or snuck out in the middle of the night or whatever he was doing, I'm guessing her first thought wouldn't be what if my husband's a serial killer? Now, there are many other things that a person probably thinks go on before they come to that conclusion, so it's not all that surprising when they talk to her that she didn't know. I believe her. Now there are more of these stories than most of us realize, which really says a lot about the assumptions we make about people and what we all hide, and whether or not we are forthcoming with others about the type of person that we are. Who is the person behind the mask?
Speaker 1:I'm not telling you that we should go and start looking at everyone with suspicion, or wondering if your husband is really playing golf with the guys or if your wife is really getting her hair done. Because, let's be honest, guys, most of you don't notice. When your wife gets her hair done, she can change the color, cut it shorter and come home and you don't know. So you wonder where has she been? But something I've noticed through the years with political figures even fallen and disgraced pastors and celebrities is quite often the thing that they rail against the most, the thing that can be identified as their hobby horse or the thing they seem to be most animated about, is what they are often guilty of themselves. Now again, that's certainly not to say that we shouldn't investigate everything everyone says to determine if they're trying to hide something. That's not the point, but it does raise questions worth considering. How do we know the truth about others, for that matter, how do we know the truth about ourselves?
Speaker 1:And we're going to look at this short letter of Jude this morning and we have to embark on some investigatory work to discover some true criminals, some wicked men who are hiding in plain sight. And Jude has a very specific mission in writing this letter, he's detailing the consequences of apostasy and the judgment that comes upon those who are lured away from the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints into all kinds of sensuality and ungodliness. And he is laying. And so, in a sense, we're talking about spiritual serial killers. And so, in a sense, we're talking about spiritual serial killers, men who come in unawares and they kill the gospel in their churches and they kill the truth in the hearts and the minds and the souls of God's people. So we're going to read the entire letter. It's only about 25 verses, but we'll focus specifically this morning on verses 8 through 16 and get some insight into these people, these apostates and false teachers, as Jude details their characteristics.
Speaker 1:So let's read the epistle of Jude together Jude, a servant of Jesus Christ and brother of James. To those who are called, beloved in God the Father and kept for Jesus Christ, may mercy, peace and love be multiplied to you, 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, 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. 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 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, 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.
Speaker 1:Yet in like manner, these people also, relying on their dreams, defiled the flesh, reject authority and blaspheme the glorious ones. 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. But these people blaspheme all. They do not understand and they are destroyed by all that they, like unreasoning animals, understand instinctively. Woe to them, for they walked in the way of Cain and abandoned themselves for the sake of gain to Balaam's heir and perished in Korah's rebellion. These are hidden reefs at your love. Feasts as they feast with you without fear, shepherds feeding themselves, waterless clouds swept along by winds, fruitless trees in late autumn, twice dead uprooted. Wild waves of the sea casting up the foam of their own shame, wandering stars for whom the gloom of utter darkness has been reserved forever.
Speaker 1:It was also about these that Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied saying behold, the Lord comes with 10,000 of his holy ones 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. These are grumblers, malcontents following their own sinful desires. They are loudmouthed boasters showing favoritism to gain advantage. But you must remember, beloved, the predictions of the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ. They said to you in the last time there will be scoffers following their own ungodly passions. It is these who cause divisions, worldly people devoid of the spirit. But you, beloved, building yourselves up in your most holy faith and praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ that leads to eternal life, and have mercy on those who doubt. Save others by snatching them out of the fire. To others, show mercy with fear, hating even the garment stained by the flesh. Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory, with great joy to the only God, our savior. Through Jesus Christ, our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion and authority before all time and now and forever. Amen.
Speaker 1:Well, as good detectives and good investigators, where do we start? There's a profile here that Jude gives us. What attributes will we look at to see if someone is truly apostate or whether or not they can be charged with a spiritual crime? Jude will give us some of these attributes to consider and then we'll see the fate of those who reject true Christian faith. And the first attribute we will look at is in verses 8 through 10. And he shows us that apostates are shameless.
Speaker 1:Now notice, there are three very specific things that Jude says apostates do, proving their shamelessness. You see, here in verse 8, they defile the flesh, reject authority and blaspheme the glorious ones. He says that they rely on their dreams, which is not to say that they have a dream and they're making decisions based on that dream, but rather they are dreamers. In other words, they have their heads in the clouds and do whatever they want. However they want based upon their own whims and desires. They are, in that sense, asleep to the reality of the condition of their own hearts. They're like every other worldly person that, as Isaiah says, is in a deep sleep, snoring on their beds of ease and no sense of danger. Well, while the judgment of God hangs over their head, they continue in complete denial of the fact that they will face destruction. And, in the meantime, they continue to shamelessly live to the fulfillment of all of their own personal desires, relying on false delights and vain hopes that their dreams provide.
Speaker 1:And so Judah is dealing here specifically with religious leaders, those who put themselves in positions of leadership over the people of God in churches, and what's clear from verse 8 is that they are outwardly rejecting God. It seems crazy, it seems irrational that religious leaders are denying God and rejecting God, but that's the very problem that Jude is addressing Now. It's unlikely that they're rejecting God by their words. They will give you all the words that you want to hear about God and how good he is and what he's doing, and how they're talking to him and walking with him, and all of these sorts of things. No, their rejection of God is with their lives. Their rejection is the shamelessness by which they defile the flesh and oppose the authority of God and blaspheme the angels.
Speaker 1:Now, as of late over the last week or two, all of my Nigerian friends and contacts are are abuzz over a three-part series that the BBC just released about a false teacher named TB Joshua. He was one of the biggest names among all the false pastors, false teachers in Nigeria, and his reach was international. He called himself a prophet. He claimed to be a Christ figure. He claimed to be able to cast out demons and heal people and know what people were doing in their private lives. He made demands of followers and they all did whatever he said. Now, any faithful Christian who knows the scriptures could look at what TB Joshua was doing and say immediately that this guy was a complete fraud. But there were hundreds of thousands of people all around the world who fell for it.
Speaker 1:This documentary series. It interviews people who left the UK and the US and Australia and other places around the world to go live as his disciples in Nigeria. Some of them lived there for over a decade. Now. The man was, he was a cult leader there's no other way to say it and he had disciples who called him daddy and he had them do all kinds of perverse and wicked things for him. He was all about fame and money and women, and he got it all. Now, when I first started working in Nigeria, he was a big, big man. He had a lot of political influence, not just in Nigeria, but all around Africa. In 2004, there was a building that he had built without the proper inspections and it wasn't properly engineered and this is where all the people who traveled in to see him where they would stay and that building collapsed and hundreds of people were inside of it. But his political influence was so widespread and he paid off so many people that nothing happened as a result of that. To this day, family members are still calling for accountability, but there is none. In 2021, tb Joshua died, but now his wife leads the cult and they continue to have thousands of followers. Now I wish we could say this was a unique situation, but it's not.
Speaker 1:This sort of thing has been happening all throughout history and, sadly, these wicked men prey on vulnerable people for their own purposes Desperate people who want quick solutions to their problems and false teachers who will wickedly promise them the world, only to take advantage of them in the end. If you have time, you should watch it. It's called the Cult of TB Joshua on YouTube by the BBC. You'll be shocked and outraged, and you should be. It should make you righteously angry. It's disgusting and it's tragic.
Speaker 1:Now, something you see with a man like TB Joshua is one of the main things that Jude points out about these false teachers who have sought to infiltrate the church. They are taken over by sensuality. They are sexually immoral and they even encourage or approve sexual immorality within the church, and we see here that Jude is further elaborating on that reality. They defile the flesh, they use and abuse the flesh in ways that it was never attended. Paul addresses this activity of those who reject God in Romans, chapter 1, verses 24 and 25. He deals with their regular indulging in the perversions of the flesh. And Paul writes Therefore, god gave them up, in the lust of their hearts, to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshipped and served the creature rather than the creator, who is blessed forever, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the creator, who is blessed forever.
Speaker 1:You see, spiritual perversion is nearly always accompanied in some way by physical perversion. When we are not abiding in communion with God, our hearts are so prone to wander toward the immediate desires that we want to experience Physical sexual desire. It's natural. However, if it goes unchecked and if it's unrestrained by God's word and the work of the Holy Spirit and the grace of God in helping us persevere in the faith, we will misuse, abuse and pervert a good thing and we will make it an idol and, like the false teachers, we will stray into all forms of sexual perversion and sensuality.
Speaker 1:Now Jude also says that these people reject authority, which is to say, as we read back in verse four, they reject the Lordship of Christ. Remember verse four. It says they deny our master and Lord, jesus Christ. And specifically the way they were doing that was by abusing the grace of God. They were saying well, if we sin, god will forgive us in Christ, because God is gracious and God is merciful. So we're just going to sin, why not? And in fact we know that when we sin, god shows us even more grace, and so he will be all the more glorified as he shows us grace and forgiving us of our sins. So we should sin all the more, remember, the apostle Paul addressed this very error. Should we all sin, all the more that grace may abound? What was Paul's response? By no means. This is an abuse. It's a perversion of the grace of God.
Speaker 1:And these false teachers? They were licentious, they were pretending as though they could do anything and everything they wanted, because in the end, god would just forgive them. So they saw a license for immorality and in doing so they denied Jesus. In other words, they would consider the words of Jesus, who said if you love me, you will do what I command. And instead they interpreted that to say we will say we love you and we'll do what we want anyway, because in the end, we define grace as being our doing whatever we want to do without shame, and you will forgive us anyway. That's no love for God at all. That's not grace.
Speaker 1:If you're truly a Christian, your heart will be transformed, you will be changed, you will want to honor God with your life and you will want to walk in obedience to Christ because of your love for Christ and your thankfulness for Christ and all that he has done, and so you're not entertaining thoughts of really wanting to go out and dishonor him and rebel against him. Your desire, your life, is not to be shameless in your sin, rebelling against his authority. Christians love what God has commanded and want to live according to what God has commanded, because Christians know that what God has commanded is for our good. That doesn't mean it's always easy. It doesn't mean there won't be times that our flesh fights against it. It will. But the heart's desire of a Christian is obedience. It's submitting to the authority of the Lord Jesus Christ, even when it's difficult, even in those times when it's us simply saying I don't always, and maybe even right now, instinctively want to do this, but I will anyway, because I know it's for my good ultimately, and God will be glorified in the way that I live in this world, and I know, in the end, that my obedience will bring me far more joy than chasing after the sinful desires of the flesh that are right before me right here and right now. God's way is to lead us into greater peace with the Lord Jesus, while my ways, my own ways, my own fleshly desires, only lead to guilt and shame and grief and all sorts of other painful consequences.
Speaker 1:And so Jude goes on to say that apostate teachers blaspheme the glorious ones. Well, what does that mean? Very simple. The glorious ones. Well, what does that mean? Very simple, the angels were understood by some to be messengers of the law. The idea was that the law was given by God and to the people of God through angelic messengers, and so they were blaspheming angels because they were messengers of the law as they understood it. So you see the relationship here between all three of these. They reject the lordship of Christ, they blaspheme the messengers of the law. They live according to their own fleshly desires.
Speaker 1:So what does all of this equate to? Well, really, the issue is holiness, holiness. Now, you know, it's interesting that this is something that was a major issue here in the text, obviously, but it's a huge issue today, just as in Jude's day. Many professing Christians don't like to talk about holiness. Many Christians define legalism as anything more restrictive than what I want to do, anything more restrictive than what I want to do. And when you start defining a real problem like legalism with a false definition like that, we aren't protecting against anything. We've distorted the place of the law, we've abused the grace of God, and the place we end up is where these apostate teachers end up, and that is licentiousness.
Speaker 1:There's sometimes a mistaken or a false notion that if we are going to truly be gospel-centered, we won't talk at all about imperatives or the exhortations of the scriptures that Christians have an obligation to live a certain life, to follow a certain moral code. Now, to be sure, there is a lot of moralistic teaching out there, and you've probably heard a lot of it, because I would say, the vast majority of preaching in America is not always biblical, gospel-centered preaching, but moralistic. It's about your behavior all the time. But sometimes because of that, we go to the other extreme and we act as if the Bible shouldn't advise our morals at all. This became a very talked about thing several years ago when some very well known preachers were basically preaching what some called grace only Christianity. They had no place for the law of God in the Christian life and, wouldn't you know it? Several of those men preaching grace only Christianity were eventually exposed for sin in their lives and disqualified from the ministry. Nothing new under the sun.
Speaker 1:But we are so eager not to confuse issues of wisdom and biblical imperative, and that's an important distinction. But if we're not really careful we'll drop the imperatives altogether. We can sometimes be hesitant about words that we see in the Bible things like diligence and effort and obedience. We've downplayed verses that call us to do things like work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, or verses that command us to cleanse ourselves from every defilement of body and spirit or warn against even a hint of immorality among the saints, but to not do so. We are in danger of being the very kind of people that the apostate teachers were and that so many are today. Apostates are shameless, which means that they are not pursuing holiness and in fact they won't even talk about it. Our theology of the relationship between the law and the gospel is so important it's life and death and we have to get it right Now before we get off these verses. Just very quickly, I know you're wondering what is going on in verses 9 and 10? And you were afraid to ask because you thought maybe you missed something in your Bible reading that you should know about. So maybe I'll look it up later. But you can relax because what he's writing about is not in the Bible.
Speaker 1:Now. Jude is giving us an example and you see this all throughout his letter. You see where he's referring to various ideas and various writings that are from outside the scripture, and you see here that he likes to refer to angels and refer to these things not in the bible but are derived from other literature that would have been familiar to the original recipients of Jude's letter. Now the story here that Jude is referring to is that Michael the archangel, confronted the devil about the body of Moses. After Moses had died, michael did not dare issue a rebuke in his power, but instead he said the Lord rebuke you. Now all we know from the Bible about Moses' body is from Deuteronomy, chapter 34, verses five and six, which says Moses, the servant of the Lord, died there in Moab. The Lord buried him in Moab in the valley opposite Beth Peor, but to this day no one knows where his grave is. And that's it. So there are numerous stories that came along to explain what happened, but conservative biblical historians believe the most reliable records recount the historical understanding of what happened, not saying it's true or false. Just this is what most people believed.
Speaker 1:It is said that Joshua accompanied Moses up to Mount Nebo where God showed Moses the land of promise You're all familiar with that and Moses then sent Joshua back to the people to inform them of Moses's death. And then Moses died. Well, from there, it's believed, god sent the archangel Michael to remove the body of Moses to another place and to bury it there. But the devil opposed him, disputing Moses's right to an honorable burial. Some even argue that the devil wished to take the body to the people for them to make it an object of worship. So Michael and the devil argued over the body, and the devil brought against Moses a charge of murder because, remember, he killed the Egyptian and he hid his body in the sand when he was about 40 years old. But this accusation was no better than slander against Moses and Michael, not tolerating this slander, said to the devil the Lord, rebuke you. And then the devil took flight and Michael removed the body to the place commanded by God where he buried it. And no one saw the burial of Moses, and so no one knows where he is Now. It's an interesting story, but Jude's point here is what's most important.
Speaker 1:Michael's response is significant in the dispute over the body of Moses. First, he recognizes the limits of his power. He does not dare himself, in his own, to rebuke the devil. It's not his power to exercise judgment in this argument. Nor does he ascribe too much power to the devil. He does not think that he is above rebuke. Michael also recognizes where true power truly resides in the strength of the Lord, and he relies on it. He calls on God and he says the Lord, rebuke you. He's aware of the appropriate boundaries between himself and the devil and the Lord, and he leaves that which is rightfully the Lord's to him. But still, what's the point? Well, here's an archangel who's not willing to make use of his power in this dispute. Rather, he calls upon God to rebuke Satan.
Speaker 1:In contrast, these false teachers, these apostates, blaspheme things that they do not understand. Michael acted in this way. Verse 10 tells us, but these people act in a way that is quite contrary to the model offered by the archangel, who leaves the realm of judging to the one who can rightly judge. In fact, jude goes on to say that they act like animals and they're driven by irrational instincts, and in so doing they are destroyed. They aren't wise enough to know the limits of their own authority. They take action based on instinct rather than knowledge or wisdom. Because their actions and because of their actions are coming from this position. They're more likely to be destroyed by their own actions than helped.
Speaker 1:Now listen, this happens in churches all the time. All the time when men who are called to lead churches don't know the biblical boundaries of their authority and when they don't have a solid grasp of what God actually calls them to lead in and how he calls them to lead, there are always disastrous consequences for themselves and for the people in the churches they pastor. Many men willingly and joyfully take on the role of pastoral ministry because in their heart of hearts they are eager to exercise authority without knowledge, and in so doing they are destructive. Most often it means they seek to take control of the people's lives in the church, falsely calling it pastoral oversight or spiritual oversight, inserting themselves into every decision and action made by people under the guise that it is for their spiritual good. I know of one situation to this day.
Speaker 1:The pastors of the church meet with every member of the church every single week to go over their week, what they did, how much money they spent, the things they bought, the things they said, so they can confess or say listen, I love you, I don't want to meet with you every week, we don't have time. But see, most people look at this and they recognize it for what it is. But those groups are usually small, and so they can do that and they have the ability to exercise that kind of authority to tell them what to spend their money on and how they should conduct themselves at their job. After they hear all the details of the situation and the conversations they're having at home and the books they're reading and the movies they're watching and the things they're doing for entertainment, and the car they drive and the food they're watching and the things they're doing for entertainment and the car they drive and the food they eat, and on and on and on and on. There's no theology there of Christian liberty. They're very concerned about all sorts of things that the Bible doesn't give them the authority to be concerned about. We have to be very careful Anytime we are given a responsibility, whether that is in the church or in our home or at our job, whatever it may be. To exercise any level of authority whatsoever, we must understand the limits of that authority as God has defined them.
Speaker 1:Often false teachers in the church. They are incessantly quoting passages that call the people of God to submit to their leadership. They're very concerned that people address them according to their title. They're always very, very busy deliberating with people, as I said about the decisions they make and how they make them, insisting that if anything other than what they've said to do is pursued, it's a sin, because they've rejected spiritual authority in their lives. It is a radical abuse of authority.
Speaker 1:I have met with many Christians over the years who've come out of these situations and it is so destructive. So many of these people never want anything to do with the church again In some ways. How can you blame them? They've been beaten, they've been abused, they've had a huge yoke laid upon their shoulders and massive weight put upon them of a law that was created by man and never given by God. How could they ever come and and hear the gospel afresh, and hear any of the imperatives of the scripture, without recalling all of the trauma they've experienced from those situations? Well, only by the grace of God. Thank God that some do understand it for what it is and are able to come around and continue to walk with the Lord faithfully. But often is not the case, and those who do such things with such authoritarian heavy handedness and legalism will be harshly judged by the Lord.
Speaker 1:It's the very kind of person that Jude is writing about. This is shameless, and these apostates will take over and will insert themselves in the place of God and insist that authority is theirs when it is not. And so Jude's warning to the people is beware. There are many false teachers who would love to control your life for you, and once you know it, when they do it, it almost always turns out for their benefit in the end. Well, the next evidence for us that Jude provides in verses 11 through 13 is that apostates will be known by their rebellion. These are hidden reefs at your love feasts, as they feast with you without fear. Shepherds feeding themselves, waterless clouds swept along by winds, fruitless trees in late autumn, twice dead, uprooted. Wild waves of the sea casting up the foam of their own shame, wandering stars for whom the gloom of utter darkness has been reserved forever. And so now Jude is shifting, and he's giving us three examples from the Old Testament to highlight the hypocrisy of these apostates.
Speaker 1:He begins with Cain, the son of Adam and Eve, who killed his brother Abel because of a jealous disagreement over a sacrifice. Surely you remember that when Abel sacrificed some of his sheep to God, cain offered some vegetables from his farm. God accepted Abel's sacrifice, but not Cain's. What becomes clear from the story is that Cain knew that he had acted out of line with God's law. And after Cain became angry, god's law. And after Cain became angry, but before he murdered Abel, god asked him why are you angry? Why is your face downcast? If you do what is right, will you not be accepted, but if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door. It desires to have you, but you must master it. But even after such a clear warning from God, cain proves his unwillingness to submit to the Lord. So what we have with Cain is a man who was warned by God of the consequences of his actions, but he decided to go ahead and do it anyway.
Speaker 1:Well, what's the comparison that Jude is making with the apostates? As he looks at the situation, he says that the apostates take the way of Cain. They understand very clearly what God expects and they will give lip service to it by doing something like making an offering they know will not be acceptable, but at least on the outside it looks genuine. I brought you vegetables. I just imagine some limp carrots, sort of hanging, and some shriveled potatoes that you can push your thumb through right. A terrible sack. But I brought you something right. But they know. They know that this is unacceptable. They're rebellious hypocrites. They do what looks good and sacrificial to others, but it is in no way what God actually requires of his people. They're selfish and they're wanting to hold back for themselves as much as they're able, as if it was theirs in the first place.
Speaker 1:Jude then brings up Balaam. It was theirs in the first place. Jude then brings up Balaam, who takes Cain's sin a step further. Remember Balaam doesn't just sin against God, he encourages others to do the same. The first mention of Balaam is in Numbers, chapter 22 through 24. He's hired as a prophet of Balak, the king of Moab, to curse Israel, and Balaam responds to Balak by saying Even if Balak gave me his palace filled with silver and gold, I could not do anything great or small to go beyond the command of the Lord. My God. Well, that sounds great, doesn't it? Well, a chapter later, we see that the Israelite men began to indulge in sexual immorality with Moabite women who invited them to the sacrifices of their gods. The people ate and bowed down before these gods, and so we read that the Lord's anger was fierce. And we now see a very clear and shocking contrast with the blessing of the previous chapter, and we're left to wonder what happened with the blessing of the previous chapter, and we're left to wonder what happened.
Speaker 1:Well, later in the story we find out that Balaam was actually behind the strategy all along. The text points this out. It refers to the women who followed Balaam's advice and were the means of turning the Israelites away from the Lord in what happened at Peor, so that a plague struck the Lord's people. So Balaam's greed took over and vast sums of money he said wouldn't influence him actually did. And so we see, just like Cain, balaam was faced with a clear statement from God about God's intentions and then decided that what mattered more was what he wanted.
Speaker 1:Balaam was a biblical warning, an example of a man whose greed led him into rebellion. He was a hypocrite. He denied wanting anything to do with rebellion against God and yet behind the scenes he was willing to sell it all for silver and gold. You see, jude is showing us that apostate teachers will say all the right things in public, they will make all the right overtures toward truth and what should happen and how it should happen, but they will work behind the scenes to do that which ultimately serves them the most. Another evidence we see of the apostates is that they are greedy. They frequently work for their own gain.
Speaker 1:The third example from Jude is the rebellion of Korah. We see the seriousness built from Cain to Balaam to outright revolt that ends in judgment. Korah's story is found in Numbers 16. Numbers 16. He, together with the Levitical priests Duthan, abram and on, instigated a revolt of 250 soldiers against Moses. They obviously hoped that they could overthrow him and sort of start a coup against this small group of leaders who Moses was working with. Their problem was with the leadership hierarchy they wanted to be in charge. They even accused Moses of being arrogant. How could you accuse the man who wrote of himself in the Bible that he was the most humble man? He wasn't arrogant. But long story short, god intervenes and the earth swallows up the rebellious leaders and the text says they went down alive into the grave with everything they owned and the earth closed over them and they perished and were gone from the community. Can you imagine seeing that? But the Israelites did not learn from that lesson and within the next few days they had a further argument with Moses, at the same place, and once again in Korah.
Speaker 1:A man considers God's order of things and decides that his ways are better. So what we see from Jude, why he's bringing up these examples, is an unmistakable judgment that will fall on any pastor or any teacher who loves freedom or money or sex or power more than faithfulness to God's word. Apostates are rebellious and a horrible ground opening punishment awaits every apostate teacher who succumbs to personal temptations by capitulating to culture to accommodate compromised faith. Nothing less is at stake for those of us who call ourselves teachers. What Jude is writing is brothers and sisters, hear me on this. These people today who pervert the gospel, these church leaders who reject God's word, these preachers who are out for your money, these pastors who permit you to have both Jesus and sensuality, have already perished long ago. They died with Korah. These guys who are eating and drinking with you were those guys. So watch out and be careful. Their way is deadly.
Speaker 1:And then he goes on, and this is one of the most beautiful literary explanations. In the midst of all of this, he gives us this beautiful, very poetic line here to explain these apostates and how they truly are. He calls them waterless clouds swept along by winds, fruitless trees in late autumn, twice dead uprooted, wild waves of the sea casting up the foam of their own shame. Wandering stars for whom the gloom of utter darkness has been reserved forever. That will make any literature teacher's heart sing. It's beautifully written and yet what he's describing is utterly shameful. It is utterly shameful and it explains in vivid detail the kind of judgment that God is bringing upon them. Anyone who abandons the faith and promotes sensuality and seeks out their own gain or works to undo the true nature of authority are clouds that cannot bring rain, trees that won't bear fruit and wild waves whose shame is their finding pleasure in the exposure and public display of what is better left hidden. Those among us are those for whom the gloom of utter darkness has been kept forever.
Speaker 1:Jude is obviously writing to protect God's flock from leaders who are nothing more than waterless clouds and dry riverbeds. He knows that the church's health depends on preachers who are truly Christians, who possess living water, clouds of blessing that can burst on the heads of God's people. The stakes are very high, and so, in the end, jude reminds us once again verses 14 through 16, that apostates will be judged for their ungodliness. It was also about these that Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied, saying behold, the Lord comes with 10,000 of his holy ones 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. These are grumblers, malcontents, following their own sinful desires. Now here Jude is actually referencing another non-canonical book called First Enoch, and he's referencing a section that supports his teaching that God is executing judgment against everyone who perverts his ways.
Speaker 1:Now Enoch clues us into the idea that the false teachers were circulating in their own sermons, that God is a God of love but not a God of wrath. That God would never condemn anyone. That no person and no behavior could ever be called ungodly. That unconditional love must mean that God places no demands on his children or really anybody. That entering into a relationship with Christ doesn't require any meaningful life change. Have you ever heard things like that from pulpits or from professing Christians? We hear it all the time. Again, nothing new under the sun.
Speaker 1:It's as if Jude is shouting from his pulpit enough about this silly notion that God will not judge anyone. The ungodly who are everywhere and in every generation will be judged. You see, like us, enoch lived in an ungodly day, yet he had such character that people described him as walking with God. And remember, although Enoch lived in such an ungodly hour, there came a time when he was delivered from it and he was no longer found on the earth. Where did the righteous man go? All we know is he entered the presence of the living God, where he dwells happily forevermore.
Speaker 1:And here is an encouragement for us to remain faithful. Brothers and sisters, we must persevere in the faith, knowing that we are being kept by the Holy Spirit of God through the means of grace and his kindness toward us as we strive to journey through the narrow gate. Now, friends, some of you here are not believers, you're not Christians, and I pray that God's word here is a means that he would use to bring you to the end of yourself, that you might escape the judgment of God through faith in Christ. You see, so often we hear these things and we think here we go. Hellfire and brimstone, judgment of God, wrath of God. We hear these things and we balk against them. We pull back and say I've heard it all before. I hear it from the guys on the street corner shouting at me, or whatever it might be.
Speaker 1:But the reality is that the Bible does talk of a judgment. The Bible, very clear, tells us of that which is to come. And yet God, in his loving kindness, because he so loved the world, because he so loved the world, he sent his only son into this world that by faith in him we might escape that very judgment. What is God saving us from Himself? God is saving us from his wrath, and how are we saved from his wrath when we look to the one who came into this world and lived a perfect life, fulfilling the law that we cannot fulfill, the very law that our lives are judged against. And the Bible tells us if you are to be accepted by God on the basis of keeping the law, you must keep it perfectly. And I've never yet met a person in this world who's told me anything other than nobody's perfect. That's a problem. That's a problem for you.
Speaker 1:And because nobody's perfect, we needed the perfect one to come into the world and to fulfill the law of God in its entirety, to live a sinless life and then to go and die a death he didn't deserve, but to die a death in our place, taking upon himself all of the wrath of God that was reserved for you and for me, and then to be buried in a grave and raised three days later to defeat sin and death forever and ever. And God comes to us and says it's not by your works, it's not by what you do, it's not even by how obedient you are or the things you say, or how you say them, or position you hold in your church or in your society or your workplace. It's none of these things. It's by faith alone that you come to know and trust and love this Lord, this Savior, who has lived for you, who has died for you. And so, friend, if you do not know Christ, flee the judgment that is to come and flee to Christ. He is the one who has lived and died for all of his people, has lived and died for all of his people.
Speaker 1:Lastly, in verse 16, jude brings this section to a conclusion. In one short verse, he tells us how to see the difference between godly teachers like Enoch and the others in the church who are destined for destruction. These are grumblers, malcontents following their own sinful desires. Malcontents following their own sinful desires. There are loud mouth boasters showing favoritism to gain advantage. Brothers and sisters, he has given us the clues to look for and what's being taught, as we investigate to determine if a teacher is an apostate destined for judgment.
Speaker 1:So may we receive the warnings of Jude with humility. May all of us who are, or aspire to be, teachers of God's word take heed, and may we, as a people of God, be willing to examine not only our own lives but the lives of those under whose teaching and authority we place ourselves. May God help us to remain faithful and to finish well and to be persistent in our calling, as God's people, to be faithful to him all the days of our lives. Amen, let's pray together.
Speaker 1:Father, we are so very grateful for your kindness in showing us what it means to be faithful and for warning us of those who would seek to distort the truth, to blaspheme our great God, to twist the gospel itself. That we might be on the lookout and to see and to understand it for what it is. That we might flee from such false teaching, from such horrific distortions. That we might flee from these spiritual serial killers. That we might know true life in Jesus Christ. That we might live according to the gospel of grace alone. And so we pray, oh God, that you would help us by your word today that we would remember these evidences that you have provided for us and that we too might help others to flee from the wrath to come. We pray you do all of this in Jesus name, amen. All of this in Jesus' name, amen.
Speaker 2:We hope you were edified by this message. For additional sermons, as well as information on giving to the ministry of Emmanuel Baptist Church and on our current building project, you can visit us online at ebcflorg. That's ebcflorg.