Analogies of Destruction
Notes
Transcript
Introduction:
Analogies are helpful to let us compare things or explain things. We have all kinds of comparisons and idioms.
It’s getting colder outside and some of you may have pulled out your hoodie and said something like, “I’m as snug as a bug in a rug,” to indicate you were warm and cozy.
You may have seen someone that looked nervous and you said something like, “He’s as nervous as a long tailed cat in a room full of rockers.”
Another one some of you may have used before to describe someone that is not very helpful is that they are “as useful as a screen door on a submarine.”
One last one for you might be fitting if you’ve done something wrong - “He’s sweating like a sinner in church.”
All of these expressions help paint a mental picture of what we are trying to communicate. Jude did the same when he was referring to these false teachers that the church needed to be warned about. He gives a series of analogies of the destruction these false teachers can cause.
Let’s take a look at a few of them tonight as we turn once again to the Book of Jude. Tonight we will be in verses 11-12.
12 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;
13 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.
1. They Shipwreck People's Faith (v.12)
1. They Shipwreck People's Faith (v.12)
Jude 12 (ESV)
12 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;
* Love Feasts - Agape Feasts
* Celebrated their unity in Christ
* Celebrated the Lord’s Supper
* The Love Feast or Agape Feast was a fellowship meal that was originally celebrated before the church partook of the Lord’s Supper. There were a lot of abuses of the meal. Many of the wealthy would gorge themselves with food and wine before the poor could join the meal. The poor would have been slaves or had to work and would not have had the leisure of sitting around the table and feasting. There would be little food left or the wealthy would be drunk with wine by the time that they celebrated the Lord’s Supper, making a mockery of it.
* Eventually at the Council of Carthage (AD 397) they were strictly forbidden - KJVSB.
* Can’t see a reef under the water, but they can destroy a ship
* They shipwreck people’s faith (see 1 Tim. 1:18-20)
18 This charge I entrust to you, Timothy, my child, in accordance with the prophecies previously made about you, that by them you may wage the good warfare,
19 holding faith and a good conscience. By rejecting this, some have made shipwreck of their faith,
20 among whom are Hymenaeus and Alexander, whom I have handed over to Satan that they may learn not to blaspheme.
* They feast without fear of being discovered
* Jesus warning (Matt. 10:26)
26 “So have no fear of them, for nothing is covered that will not be revealed, or hidden that will not be known.
2. They Feed Themselves (v.12)
2. They Feed Themselves (v.12)
Jude 12 (ESV)
12 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;
* God condemned the false teachers of the Old Testament
* Pastor comes from a shepherding term
* They were to look after the flock, feed the sheep, and bind up the brokenhearted
* See Jer. 23:13-22; Ezek. 34:1-4
3. They Are Full of False Promises (v.12)
3. They Are Full of False Promises (v.12)
Jude 12 (ESV)
12 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;
* They promise refreshing but fail to deliver
* See Prov. 25:14
14 Like clouds and wind without rain is a man who boasts of a gift he does not give.
* Swept along by every wind of doctrine (Eph. 4:14)
14 so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes.
4. They Are Spiritually Dead (v.12)
4. They Are Spiritually Dead (v.12)
Jude 12 (ESV)
12 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;
* Twice dead and uprooted is a spiritually dead person
These are compounded illustrations to describe the person that is fruitless and spiritually dead
Illustration:
When you cut down a tree, you may think that the tree is done, but wait! You give it a little time and that tree trunk will sprout new shoots that will come up and a new bushy tree will form. You might even get several trees out of the one.
If you want to kill the tree, you have to cut it down and keep cutting it down, or you have to uproot it.
* Don’t have the fruit of the Holy Spirit (Gal. 5:22-24)
5. They Are False Guides (v.13)
5. They Are False Guides (v.13)
13 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.
The false teachers are terrible guides. Jude uses several expressions to indicate this.
First, they are wild waves of the sea. In Ephesians 4:14 we see that the one who follows doctrine that is not rooted in the Word of God is like a wave of the sea that is tossed about.
14 so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes.
Jude describes the error of these teachers as casting up the foam of their shame.
Continuing the nautical illustration, Jude says that instead of these false teachers being guides, they are like wandering stars. In the ancient world when sailors were needing to navigate, they had to count on the stars and their positions for navigation. It’s one thing if a star moves its position according to the seasons. You could still track your position. However if the starts were like shooting stars or wandering stars, it would be impossible to be guided by them.
So for these false teachers, instead of people being able to get truth from these leaders and be guided by them, these stars were like shooting stars.
Conclusion
Jude’s conclusion regarding these wandering stars, these false teachers, is that they will have their light put out. They will be cast into utter darkness.
The last thing a star wants is to be unable to shine its light. These false teachers would be cast into the same gloomy darkness that the spirits who left their proper place. It is the gloomy darkness reserved for the Devil and his angels. It is the place of darkness reserved for sinners who reject Christ.
I hope than no one here tonight or watching online has rejected Christ. I hope we being careful of who we allow to teach and who we allow to influence us.