Woe to the Frauds

READ Jude 11-13

PRAY

Introduction

Has anyone ever tried a box of chocolates before? If you have then maybe you know…it can be a dangerous game. There’s sometimes carmel, dark chocolate, a like chocolate mousse type thing that are all not bad to pretty good. But…if you’re not careful, you’re entire day can be ruined with a cherry inside.

Same thing when playing bean boozled…y’all know what I’m talking about? Pure punishment, absolutely disgusting.

Like a gross chocolate hiding a cherry or a barf flavored jelly bean, Jude reveals in these verse how the false teachers are frauds. They give off an appearance of godliness, of teachers of truth, yet they are liars and frauds. Waterless clouds and fruitless trees.

That is why the title of my sermon tonight is “Woe to the Frauds”. This is what Jude is doing here…writing a “woe” oracle (Schreiner) dedicated to the false teachers. “Woe” here simply means grief, anguish, affliction. Jude’s woe to them here is a result of the grief and anguish they’ve cause within the church.

We’ll approach the text in two sections: we’ll see some OT comparisons and then some metaphors. The main point of our text here is Jude calling out the false teachers of his day for being frauds and doomed for judgement.

What I hope we get as an application here is a distaste for false teaching, an understanding of how wrong false teachers and their works are, and why we must take these destructive teachings seriously.

Old Testament Comparisons

Jude begins the OT comparisons with a woe to the false teachers. This is an acknowledgment of the coming pain and anguish they will experience as well. Their false teaching and deception among the church will not go unnoticed or unpunished by the Lord.

The specific Old Testament comparisons are the way of Cain, Balaam’s error, and Korah’s rebellion. Jude compares the false teachers with these three examples. He’s painting a clear picture of the sin that these false teachers are walking in.

The way of Cain is that of unrepentant sin. Cain in Genesis 4 kills his brother Able rather than repenting of his sin before God in the offering he provided. The false teachers in Jude’s day cared nothing for repentance but carried on in their sin willfully.

Balaam’s error in Numbers 22-24 was that he helped devised a plan for an evil king to entice Israel into sin…in order that he may make a profit. Jude shows us here that these false teachers must be receiving payment of some kind because of their teaching.

Korah’s rebellion in Numbers 16 was against the leadership of Moses and Aaron…and ultimately God. Korah gathered many others to rebel against the God-appointed leadership among the nation of Israel.

Jude compares the false teachers with these three examples from the Old Testament to further expose the sinful ways of the false teachers among the believers. They were unrepentant, greedy for any gain they could receive, and rebellious against the Lord Jesus.

Hopefully its obvious why Jude would warn the church about these individuals. What I also want you to see though is the sin that you and I must kill and run away from as well. You are not a false teacher…but you are still easily enticed by sin!

Don’t think that you’re safer than they were. Yes they weren’t believers…but you still have the fight the flesh daily! Be killing sin or sin will be killing you…just like it killed the false teachers!

Metaphors

After Jude compares these frauds to some OT examples he then uses some metaphors to more fully describe the danger of the frauds. He begins by calling them hidden reefs at the believers love feasts, eating without fear.

Hidden reefs are similar to hidden rocks. Anyone ever driven a boat over a rock you didn’t see in the water before? It jacks you up! These false teachers are hidden rocks out to sink believers.

The love feasts was a time where the church gathered for a meal which typically included observing the Lord’s Supper. Think about this: a sacrament of the church given by Jesus for believers to remember the price He paid for them…the false teachers who pervert the grace of God partake in this. Absolutely disgusting.

These FT’s were without fear, continuing on blatantly at these feasts without conviction.

Next Jude says the frauds are shepherds feeding themselves. Ezekiel 34:1–4 “The word of the Lord came to me: “Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel; prophesy, and say to them, even to the shepherds, Thus says the Lord God: Ah, shepherds of Israel who have been feeding yourselves! Should not shepherds feed the sheep? You eat the fat, you clothe yourselves with the wool, you slaughter the fat ones, but you do not feed the sheep. The weak you have not strengthened, the sick you have not healed, the injured you have not bound up, the strayed you have not brought back, the lost you have not sought, and with force and harshness you have ruled them.”

These kings/leaders in Israel at Ezekiel’s time were terrible shepherds of the people of Israel. They worried about themselves over the people. Just like the frauds of Jude’s time…they cared NOTHING for the people of God. They only worried about themselves.

They were also like waterless clouds being swept along. They bring the hope of rain but can’t produce any. They are hypocrites, all talk, all destruction, all nonsense. This is why false teaching is so dangerous. It over promises and completely under delivers.

STAY AWAY FROM FALSE TEACHING! Hopefully you see this as a major theme throughout the word. Have nothing to do with teaching and teachers that rejects the fundamentals of the faith.

While the metaphor is applied to false teachers here…the question should still be asked: are you a waterless cloud? Is your walk with Christ all talk? Or have you actually been changed from the inside out? If you haven’t…please repent of your sins and place faith in Christ tonight.

Jude also calls the frauds fruitless, dead trees. They produce no fruit because they’re dead in their sin…”twice dead” as Jude says. He includes “late autumn” to further the metaphor that these frauds haven’t produced fruit all year long.

They’re barren (MacArthur) because they’re uprooted, they’re not planted in Christ…no matter how desperately they want to appear to be.

Jude ends by calling them wild waves and wandering stars. They cause serious damage like waves and are useless in navigation and short lived like shooting stars or planets.

Notice how Jude ends: the false teacher’s judgement IS COMING. This judgement is reserved for the disobedient unbelievers. Especially for these false teachers who harm followers of Jesus.

Conclusion

False teachers and their destructive teaching is no joke to the Lord. It should be no joke to you as well. To twist the Lord and His truth is a serious offense that causes harm. Bad theology hurts people.

And God will see to it that false teachers are punished if they don’t repent. Be encouraged by how great a defender our God is of His children. Be encouraged to equip yourself against the enemy and how he may seek to use what is false to swallow you up.

Stand strong in the Lord and the power of His might.

PRAY