05 - Three Sizzling Snapshots - 2011 By Pastor Jeff Wickwire Notes

Last time we looked at the apostasy of Cain, which showed how apostasy attacks the salvation of God; and the apostasy of Balaam, how apostasy attacks the sovereignty of God; and the apostasy of Korah, how apostasy attacks service of God.

Recapping: Apostasy (Greek: apostasia) implies that the one leaving the faith was at one time in accurate knowledge of the religion's belief system, and then "falls away" from it.

It is the abandonment or forsaking of faith or commitment to follow the Lord, often described as a turning away ( HYPERLINK "http://biblegateway.com/bible?version=NASB&passage=Jer+8%3A5" \o "Bible Gateway" Jer 8:5 NASB, NET) or falling away (Heb 6:6 NET).

Apostasy results in punishment ( HYPERLINK "http://www.gnpcb.org/esv/search/?go=Go&q=Jer+2%3A19" \o "English Standard Version Bible" Jer 2:19 ESV), hence the many warnings against it (2 Thes 2:3; 1 Tim 4:1f; 2 Pet 3:17; Jude 1). Apostates include Hymanaeus and Alexander (1 Tim 1:19-20), Demas (2 Tim 4:10) and Phygelus and Hermogenes (2 Tim 1:15).

The apostates Jude and Peter were focused on had also become teachers of heresy.

HERESY: Is teachings that threaten to attack the basic foundations of Christianity, primarily manifest in teachings regarding the nature of God and Christ, as well as the resurrection.

The Apostle Paul predicted a massive apostasy for the last days:

1 Tim. 4:1-2 “Now the Spirit expressly says that in latter times some will depart from the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons, 2 speaking lies in hypocrisy, having their own conscience seared with a hot iron…”

It is these heresy-teaching apostates that Peter, Jude, Paul and John were all concerned with in their writings.

Now this time we will look at three sizzling snapshots that illustrate three aspects of apostasy that cannot help but impress us in the backslidden day in which we live. The snapshots include the questions of successful delusions (v.12-13), secular humanism (v.14-15), and subversive criticism (v.16).

He writes, “These are spots in your love feasts, while they feast with you without fear, serving only themselves. They are clouds without water, carried about by the winds; late autumn trees without fruit, twice dead, pulled up by the roots; 13 raging waves of the sea, foaming up their own shame; wandering stars for whom is reserved the blackness of darkness forever.”—vs.12-13

The apostates are first tremendously deceptive. “These are spots in your love feasts,” Jude says.

The word “spots” can be translated “hidden rocks.” It denotes a rock or reef, reaching up from the depths of the sea yet hidden just enough to be treacherous to a ship.

“…when they feast with you…”

Dining together meant far more to the first century Christians than it does to those of us in the modern west. In those days, to sit at table with someone implied a bond of friendship and fellowship. Orientals would not break bread with someone they intended to betray.

The sin of the apostates was even worse in that they used every means available to profess oneness and unity with the very people they were seeking to undermine and betray.

“…feeding themselves without fear.”

The word for “feast” suggests “to revel.” The apostates were sparing no expense to make friends and influence people. They had an outward mask of good, hearty fellowship.

The word “feeding” is from a word meaning “to pastor,” or “to act as a shepherd does to his flock.” Apostates pretend to love the flock of God, to be spiritual shepherds, but are actually wolves in sheep’s clothing looking out only for themselves.

Jude goes on to show that the apostates are ultimately disappointing. They are “clouds without water, carried about by winds.”

In the time of drought there is no more welcome sight than an approaching rain cloud. Soon there will be water! Hope rises in every heart. Cattle lift their weary heads. The shriveled flowers yearn for water. But when the rain cloud blows over without releasing a single drop, great disappointment settles on the land.

It is exactly the same with apostates. The cloud of their false promises fails to deliver. They sound so convincing. But the thirsty people who look eagerly to them for that life-giving rain of revival look to them in vain. They have nothing, so can give nothing to bring life to a dying world.

Then, too, the apostates are spiritually dead. They are “trees whose fruit withers, without fruit, twice dead, plucked up by the roots.”

The phrase “whose fruit withers” refers to autumn decay, or to trees that bear no fruit at the time when fruit is in season. What could be more disappointing than a barren fruit tree? Jude says that the apostates are “twice dead.”

They are dead because, as children of Adam’s ruined race, they are born spiritually dead (dead in trespasses and sins,” (Eph.2:1). They are twice dead because, when confronted with the offer of “eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Ro.6:23), they spurned it.

They will be “plucked up by the roots.” There is no hope for them. It is impossible that they will ever bear fruit. They are both dead and damned. Jesus said, “Every plant, which my heavenly Father has not planted, shall be rooted up” (Matt. 15:13).

Next, Jude says that apostates are terribly dangerous. Jude says they are like “raging waves of the sea, foaming out their own shame.” Nothing can stand before the fury of an onrushing, angry sea. It sweeps away all in its path. Think tsunami.

These apostates are dangerous. They seem invincible. They are “raging,” meaning “wild and untamable,” or “savage and fierce.” The Greeks used the word to describe a malignant wound. That is God’s description of the apostates. They often occupy pulpits, media ministries, and high positions in seminaries and other places of influence. Their corrupt teachings sweep like a destructive, fierce, raging wave, leaving destruction and ruin in its path.

Finally, Jude says they are eternally doomed. He likens them to “wandering stars, to whom is reserved the blackness of darkness for ever” (v.13). The word for “wandering” means literally “a wanderer.” Perhaps Jude had in mind a shooting star that, from time to time, streaks across the black night sky only seemingly to plunge into “the blackness of darkness forever.”

Now again, Jude turns back to his Bible. As he does so, he reveals an original flash of revelation, an insight into something nowhere else recorded in scripture.

“And Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, “Now Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied about these men also, saying, “Behold, the Lord comes with ten thousands of His saints,”—vs.14

Jude emphasizes two things. First, the Lord’s coming with His people. He will return with “ten thousands of His saints…” By sheer divine revelation, Jude reveals what is not told anywhere else—Enoch predicted that the Lord would return with His saints!

Enoch, standing at the dawn of time, only the 7th from Adam, saw beyond his own day all the way to the last days, our days. This ancient man of God had no information or knowledge of the coming church age. Yet he saw the return of Christ in the 2nd Advent along with the formerly raptured church!

And why is the Lord returning? Jude says, “…to execute judgment on all, to convict all who are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have committed in an ungodly way, and of all the harsh things which ungodly sinners have spoken against Him.”—vs. 15

Notice the fourfold repetition of the word ungodly. The “ungodly” among them,” “ungodly deeds,” “ungodly ways,” and “ungodly sinners.” The promise is that the Lord Jesus will return to judge the ungodly.

At His second coming, the Lord is going to judge the nations (Matt. 25:31-46), those people of the earth who manage to survive the wars, famines, earthquakes, pestilence, ecological disasters, and the fierce persecutions of the Apocalypse. It will take place in the Valley of Jehoshaphat in Jerusalem (Joel 3:2, 12).

And the Lord will also summon and judge the lost of all the ages to the Great White Throne. Who can imagine the horror of this occasion when the living dead, small and great, stand before God, and the books are opened? This is the dreadful judgment to which the apostates will be summoned.

Jude says that the Lord will “convict all of the ungodly among them.” This means that He will show them to be “fully wrong.” They will be shown thoroughly to be wrong. All of the paper tiger lies of the apostates will be exposed, and they will enter a lost eternity fully aware of all of the deceit they have practiced, and of the vast damage they have brought to others.

And Jude makes a particular point of those that have done and spoken harshly against Him.

“Harshly” is the from the Greek word meaning “hard, fierce, violent.” Ungodly sinners have said horrific, blasphemous things against the Lord of glory. They have denounced the God of the O.T. as cruel, vindictive, and bloodthirsty.

They have mocked the virgin birth of Christ. They have created so called “works of art” that defile and offend the name of Jesus. They have called Christ Jesus every despicable name available in the dark alleyways of human depraved human verbiage. And they will soon answer to the One they’ve mocked!

Jude has now reached the end of his long exposure of apostates. He has one last look at their behavior. He underlines their obsessive godlessness. “These are grumblers, complainers, walking according to their own lusts; and they mouth great swelling words, flattering people to gain advantage.”—vs.16

In both their walk and their talk they expose their chronic godlessness. “These!” he says, (It is one of Jude’s favorite exclamations) are:

Grumblers: To mutter, to murmur, to say anything in a low tone. The same word is used of the muttering of the scribes and Pharisees against Christ (Luke 5:30). It is to express discontent.

Complainers: This Greek word occurs only here and it means “to find fault with one’s lot, to be discontented, to whine.

Nothing can be more contrary to the spirit of the Lord Jesus than a muttering, discontented spirit. It is utterly destructive of church life, family life, and national life. Apostates are chronic complainers.

Jude describes them further as “walking after their own lusts.” They mold their life after their own fleshly desires, not after Christ and His Word. The cravings of the sinful nature are their masters.

Jude continues, saying they speak “great swelling words.” They “talk big.” To hear them talk, one would think they are the epitome of common sense and intelligence. They cite their authorities, quote the philosophers, are smooth in speech, good with words, but all the while they undermine the truth of Scripture.

Jude lastly mentions their obvious goal: they are “flattering people to gain advantage.” They are always buttering someone up who they think important, or from whom they want something. They are after what they want, not what God may want.

Jude is finished with his lengthy exposure of apostates. Next time he will turn to us, the church.