The Coming Judgement

Tonight we are going to be in Jude 11-16 and Lord willing we will get through all of these verses. Similar to the last time that we were in Jude, these verses are not the easiest to understand and at times, they are not the easiest to swallow. But at the same time, there is much for us as the church to glean from. We know that every verse is in the Bible for a reason and I do believe and I hope that you truly believe the words of Paul in 2 Timothy 3:16–17 that “All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work.” All of Jude is sacred Scripture which means that all of Jude is inspired by God and profitable for us. The last time that we were in Jude, Jude gave us 3 great historical events that were common knowledge to the Jewish Christians that he was writing to and he told them, “Don’t forget what you know.” Jude was not teaching a new message to them but he was reminding them of what they already knew to be true. He reminded his readers and us that the God that judged mightily in the past will judge mightily in the present and will judge mightily in the future. Tonight we are going to continue in that theme by looking at the methods by which the false teachers of Jude’s day were attempting to win people over to their side. The problem with so much false teaching is how it seeks to slide up against true, orthodox Christianity. It’s not that Satan completely avoids the truth, He just does not present the whole truth. If you look at the major false teachings of the day, be it something like Mormonism or the prosperity gospel to just name a few, you will see similarities with the Gospel, you will even hear them say, “We’re united!” But that just isn’t true. Partial obedience to the Gospel and partial obedience to God is complete disobedience. The issue with false teachers as we are going to see is that they like to link themselves to the very words that the serpent said in the garden to Eve. What was it that the serpent asked Eve? “Did God really say you shall not eat from any tree of the garden?” Eve corrects him and says that He didn’t say any tree, just not the tree that was in the middle of the garden. But the seed is already laid in Eve’s mind. Did God really mean that when He said it? Is that the right interpretation? And Satan works in Eve’s mind by basically saying, “Look you have it all wrong. God is withholding from you and if you want to be like God, here’s the way to do it, here is the correct way and here is the correct interpretation.” That’s exactly how false teachers operate. They get a fraction of the truth, they get a fraction of the understanding, and they twist it and pervert it to serve their own means and their own agendas. That’s what makes it so functional and that’s what makes it so popular: How close it gets to the truth without being the whole truth. So that’s a long introduction for where we will be going this evening. Let’s pray and then we will read Jude 11-16

Jude 11–16 NASB95

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. It was also about these men that Enoch, in the seventh generation from Adam, prophesied, saying, “Behold, the Lord came with many thousands of His holy ones, to execute judgment upon all, and to convict all the ungodly of all their ungodly deeds which they have done in an ungodly way, and of all the harsh things which ungodly sinners have spoken against Him.” These are grumblers, finding fault, following after their own lusts; they speak arrogantly, flattering people for the sake of gaining an advantage.

Three Examples (Jude 11)

Let’s start at verse 11. Here Jude compares the false teachers with three more historical examples from the first 5 books of the Old Testament. You may have picked up on it in our readings but Jude loves grouping things into groups of 3. The three that Jude references are Cain, Balaam, and Korah. So who are these 3? How are the false teachers of Jude’s day like them? Now chances are the bulk of us in this room know Cain but we may not be quite as familiar with the other 3. But who was Cain and what did he do? Cain is introduced in Genesis 4 as the first son of Adam and Eve and he has a brother named Abel. As the boys grow up, Cain becomes a keeper or tiller of the grounds and Abel is a shepherd or a herdsman, whatever you want to call it. Both men bring the Lord a sacrifice, Cain brings an offering from the ground but in Genesis 4:4 we see that Abel brings the Lord the firstlings of the flock and the fat for an offering and we see that God had regard for Abel and his offering but in verse 5 that God had no regard for Cain’s offering. And then we read that Cain became very angry. God calls Cain out on this and says, “Why are you angry? If you do well, will not your countenance be lifted up? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door; and its desire is for you, but you must master it.” The difference between Cain’s offering and Abel’s offering was a matter of the heart. Abel gave willingly, he gave the best of what he had, and he gave lovingly. None of that can be said of Cain and what ends up happening in verse 8 is that Cain takes Abel to a field and murders him. Now is that what Jude is saying that these false teachers are doing by going the way of Cain? No, they weren’t taking people out into fields and murdering them. What many commentators say is that by going the way of Cain, they are actively pursuing the same hatred, the same violence, and the same rebellion that Cain showed to God and his brother. What Jude is saying is that by pursuing the way of Cain, these men despise those that they are trying to influence. In a very real sense, they are just as guilty of murder as Cain was. Maybe even more so because these teachers are really murderers of the soul by leading them away from the only Gospel that can truly save. Jesus Himself in the sermon on the mount that the bar for murder isn’t the physical death of someone, it is the active unrighteous anger towards anyone. John writes in 1 John 3:12 that we should love one another, “not as Cain, who was of the evil one and slew his brother. And for what reason did he slay him? Because his deeds were evil, and his brother’s were righteous.” Then he writes in 1 John 3:14–15 “We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brethren. He who does not love abides in death. Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer; and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him.” James Montgomery Boice said, “We must not miss the fact that the nature of Cain is seen in many examples of jealousy and hatred even though actual murder does not always flow from it.” That’s where these false teachers have found themselves. The second accusation that Jude makes against these false teachers is that for pay they have rushed headlong into the error of Balaam. We are introduced to Balaam in Numbers 22-24. In these chapters, the Israelites are encroaching on the territory of the Moabites and their king, Balak has heard all that Israel and the Lord has done to the surrounding nations and he calls Balaam to come and curse the people so that Moab wouldn’t be destroyed. Balaam reluctantly goes and rather than cursing Israel, he blesses them. On the surface, it sounds like a good story but again, it comes down to a matter of the heart and what comes next. Balaam didn’t care for the people, he only cared about his own well being. Jim Shaddix said of Balaam, “He was a prophet for pay, a hireling, a profiteering preacher. Gold was his god and money his master. Ministry was for making money, not caring for God’s people.” In Numbers 31 we find out that Balaam continued to influence the king of Moab and is directly responsible for the temptation and sin that came in Numbers 25 where many of the men of Israel found themselves taking part in this great sexual sin with some of the Moabite women and 24,000 were killed as a result of that sin. As the Israelites slaughter the people in Numbers 31, Moses writes in Numbers 31:15–16 “And Moses said to them, “Have you spared all the women? “Behold, these caused the sons of Israel, through the counsel of Balaam, to trespass against the Lord in the matter of Peor, so the plague was among the congregation of the Lord.” What was it that motivated Balaam? It was payment, it was greed, it was riches and that is the exact same thing that these false teachers pursued. Finally Jude says that these men have perished in the rebellion of Korah. The rebellion of Korah is another event that takes place in Numbers in chapter 16. Korah is a priest and with 250 others, he rises up and rebels against Moses and rebels against the Lord. We read in Numbers 16:3 “They assembled together against Moses and Aaron, and said to them, “You have gone far enough, for all the congregation are holy, every one of them, and the Lord is in their midst; so why do you exalt yourselves above the assembly of the Lord?”” This is a matter of spiritual mutiny. He is saying that they don’t need a mediator, they don’t need a teacher, they don’t need a leader, and in a sense, they don’t even need God. Korah assembles these leaders and as we see in later verses, he has a number of people that are sympathetic to his cause that the Lord sends a plague on and 14,700 are killed. God responds to the rebellion of Korah by putting him and the 250 to death by having the earth swallow them up along with their households and all their possessions. They experienced the wrath of God and Jude is saying that just as the rebellious false teachers in Moses’ day were put to death and judged, the same will be true for the teachers of Jude’s day. Now, what was it that these men were doing and what were they teaching?

The Content and Actions of the False Teachers (Jude 12-13, 16)

Jude writes in Jude 12-13

Jude 12–13 NASB95

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.

and then in Jude 16 we read, “These are grumblers, finding fault, following after their own lusts; they speak arrogantly, flattering people for the sake of gaining an advantage.” Let’s start by just taking this almost line by line. The first thing that Jude says of these false teachers is that these are the men who are hidden reefs in your love feasts. Now a love feast meant something to the early Christians. A love feast was not a weird sexual party that some might think by the title. It was a Christian gathering that had a meal and was centered on love to Christ and showing love to each other. These false teachers were basically attacking the Baptist’s potluck! By referring to them as hidden reefs, Jude is saying that they are like hidden rocks and coral that would cause a ship to wreck. If left to their devices, we see the church turned into an unsafe place where there can be a shipwreck to faith. These teachers have no issue causing pain and turmoil to the faith of others because as Jude points out, they only care for themselves. Jude then refers to them as clouds without water. In the Middle Eastern climate that Jude’s readers were used to, they recognized the need for rain for the lives of everyone. These teachers give the hope and anticipation of life saving rain only to offer nothing of any value. Instead, they get the hopes up of individuals and instead of bringing life, they only bring death. Jude refers to them as trees without fruit, doubly dead, and uprooted. These teachers offer a feast of spiritual wealth and prosperity but they don’t have anything. Not only do they not produce good fruit, the fact that they are described as uprooted means that the tree has been pulled out of the ground and will never offer any fruit again. They’ll always be barren. They are dead at their very core. Jude refers to them as wild waves of the sea that cast up their own shame like foam. During that time, the sea was seen as this deadly and dangerous place that most people tended to avoid. It was seen as this place of uncontrollable chaos and wickedness. If you’ve been to the ocean, you know that when the waves crash onto the beach that this foam comes onto the beach and whatever was caught up in the waves, if it isn’t drawn back into the sea, is left on the beach. I remember years ago in Delaware where I grew up, Rehoboth Beach, one of the few places in Delaware that actually draws a crowd, was coming under fire because there were all of these hypodermic needles that were washing up onto the beach and they even closed off for a while all water access because of this glass and these needles that were washing up onto the shore. These false teachers that Jude refers to are these reckless and wicked waves that just toss out their sin and false teaching and leave it for people to suffer from. Jude refers to them as wandering stars, for whom the black darkness has been reserved forever. What Jude may be referring to is something like a shooting star. You know that when you look up and see a shooting star that it doesn’t stay in that spot for very long. Dr. Shaddix said, “Because they wander about, these teachers show no consistency or reliability. They promise spiritual light; but they are aimless, erratic, and destined for God’s condemnation, which is described as the blackness of darkness reserved forever. They may fool men, but they do not fool God.” These teachers would come for a moment, deceive and excite the people, but then just as quickly as they got there, they would be gone, leaving a lost and confused flock behind. They deceive and then leave. Before we look at verses 14-15, Jude continues to describe them in verse 16. He refers to them as grumblers that follow their own lusts. They are arrogant in their speech and they choose to flatter people in the hopes that if they win enough people to their side that they will win the popularity contest. Everything that Jude writes about here sounds exactly like what Peter writes in 2 Peter. I said this a few weeks ago but Jude reads a lot like 2 Peter and that is because Jude follows chronologically from 2 Peter and there is a chance that since 2 Peter was a circular letter that Jude was familiar with the content of the letter. Peter talking in 2 Peter 2:13–14 about false teachers says, “suffering wrong as the wages of doing wrong. They count it a pleasure to revel in the daytime. They are stains and blemishes, reveling in their deceptions, as they carouse with you, having eyes full of adultery that never cease from sin, enticing unstable souls, having a heart trained in greed, accursed children;” Doesn’t that sound exactly like what Jude is describing? Even some of the same words are used! What we gather from these verses is that these false teachers are willing to do practically any sinful action in order to win people over to their cause. There is nothing that they are now willing and eager to do in order to influence people and pervert the church. The issue with so many young Christians is that when false teaching enters into a church, they are so inexperienced that they don’t know any better. All they see and hear is a motivated, bold, authoritative person and they don’t know any better. This is why it is so important that we know true doctrine. The only way that we can combat false doctrine is with an ample supply of true doctrine. This is exactly what Jude said back in verse 5 when he says that it is his desire to remind the believers of what they already know. These teachers have used a false gospel, false humility, false authority to influence and direct weak, immature Christians. If left unchecked, these weak, immature Christians and false teachers may be able to push orthodox believers and leaders out of the church. This shouldn’t surprise us, just look at the state of so many denominations and churches today. Look at all of these denominations that are accepting of sin and false gospels that came from once very strong, doctrinally sound churches. The Presbyterians went through it about 100 years ago when J. Gresham Machen, pastor and professor at Princeton Theological Seminary, was forced out of Princeton due to his opposition to the liberal theology that was coming into Princeton and into the Presbyterian denomination. Not long before that, Princeton was one of the greatest seminaries, I would say in the world, at the time and in its history, there were theological giants on staff like Jonathan Edwards for a short period, Archibald Alexander, Charles and A.A. Hodge, and B.B. Warfield, all incredibly sound teachers were connected to the seminary. But false theology, liberalism, came and to this day the seminary is a shadow of its former self. Machen went on to find Westminster Theological Seminary and that seminary is still a very doctrinally sound organization but I want you to listen to what Machen wrote in his book Christianity and Liberalism. This is probably one of my favorite books ever written and it is partially because it sounds like he could have written it this morning. Machen writes, “A terrible crisis unquestionably has arisen in the Church. In the ministry of evangelical churches are to be found hosts of those who reject the gospel of Christ. By the equivocal use of traditional phrases, by the representation of differences of opinion as though they were only differences about the interpretation of the Bible, entrance into the Church was secured for those who are hostile to the very foundations of the faith.” That is exactly what Jude warns about. Jude says that the crisis comes from the fact that Christians have let these teachers and their teachings in even though their very position is openly hostile to the truths of the Gospel. False teachers will always use a teaching that is open and affirming in the pursuit of wider acceptance and popularity. Dick Lucas said, “In order to win followers and gain influence, these men have deliberately chosen to teach a wrong gospel that will make fewer demands and more promises of instant blessing. That formula proves an attractive danger to any tender hearted Christian faced with teaching some of the hard parts of the Bible. Every Christian feels tempted from time to time to soften the impact of God’s Word, and here are people who have a ready-made alternative. But that, as Jude warns us here, is a treacherous path to follow, and one we must take great care to avoid.” We need to be prepared. All Christians need to be prepared. The issue is not necessarily an interpretation issue. The issue is a perversion of what the Gospel really is. Like I said earlier, false teachers basically use the same method that Satan used on Eve in the garden. So what’s going to happen to them? What’s going to happen to us? Will evil win? Will wickedness prevail? Will falsehoods go unchecked? No what we see in Scripture and what we see in really every Disney movie is true. Good will conquer evil and justice will be done. Look again at Jude 14-15

God’s Perfect Judgement (Jude 14-15)

Jude 14–15 NASB95

It was also about these men that Enoch, in the seventh generation from Adam, prophesied, saying, “Behold, the Lord came with many thousands of His holy ones, to execute judgment upon all, and to convict all the ungodly of all their ungodly deeds which they have done in an ungodly way, and of all the harsh things which ungodly sinners have spoken against Him.”

Just by way of confession, these 2 verses are probably the 2 verses that have kept me this long from teaching through the book of Jude. I had thought about doing it in a Sunday School class at my old church, I thought about teaching through it on a Wednesday night but good old Enoch was what kept getting in the way. Before we talk about what Jude is talking about, we need to know who Jude is talking about. Who is Enoch? If you’ve read the early chapters of Genesis, you would recognize his name. Enoch is in the genealogy of Genesis 5 and he is a bright spot in a list of darkness and death. Enoch is the man that walked with God and he lived such a good and faithful life that after living 365 years, all Scripture says in verse 24 is that, “Enoch walked with God; and he was not, for God took him.” He didn’t die. God took him straight to heaven and he never tasted death. The confusion comes in what Jude says is Enoch’s prophecy because in the canon of Scripture, we never see Enoch’s prophecy. We see Enoch in Genesis 5:21-24 and he never says anything so what on earth is Jude referring to? Jude is referencing a non-biblical, pseudepigraphal document know as 1 Enoch or the Book of Enoch. Enoch was not the author of this book and there is nothing to indicate that any of the ancient Jews ever viewed the book as canonical with the rest of the Old Testament and as the early church, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, assembled the New Testament, nothing indicates that they ever considered the book of Enoch as a canonical, authoritative book of Scripture. Likely what the book of Enoch was was a oral tradition that was passed down, perhaps from Enoch himself, that was later recorded after the flood. Why then does Jude use this? Well first off I think that we need to understand that what was once not inspired by God as sacred Scripture can be used as an authoritative and inspired by God statement within the canon of Scripture. We know that Paul quoted Greek poets in the book of Acts and yet while he was not quoting Scripture when he said it, it became Scripture if that makes sense. There was truth in those statements that Paul was able to apply and of course Paul directs it to its proper location. Whereas the Greek poets talked about a god they didn’t know and a creator that they could not have a relationship with, Paul uses that to point them to the true God and creator of all things. Paul uses a non-biblical reference to make a legitimate spiritual point. Jude is doing the exact same thing. The statement that is recorded in the book of Enoch that Jude references still makes a legitimate spiritual point and can be backed up from other references in Scripture. There are numerous times in the Bible where we will see references to God’s judgement. John MacArthur said, “Enoch’s prophecy and Jude’s subsequent comments set forth three certainties regarding God’s judgment on apostasy. The first certainty is that the Lord will come. Second, the Lord will not come alone. Third, the Lord will come with a definite purpose.” These teachers will not escape the Sovereign Lord and Creator of all things. Numerous times in Scripture we see that God Himself will come with a multitude of holy ones or the angels. In Deuteronomy 33:2 we read, “He said, “The Lord came from Sinai, And dawned on them from Seir; He shone forth from Mount Paran, And He came from the midst of ten thousand holy ones; At His right hand there was flashing lightning for them.” In Daniel 7:10 Daniel sees, “A river of fire was flowing And coming out from before Him; Thousands upon thousands were attending Him, And myriads upon myriads were standing before Him; The court sat, And the books were opened.” In Hebrews 12:22 the author of Hebrews says, “But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to myriads of angels,” The Lord has thousands upon thousands attending to Him. Who knows the exact number of these holy angels that the Lord has at His command. Alistair Begg said, “As you go through the Old Testament Scriptures, you realize that there is this unfolding picture of God Almighty as the divine warrior appearing from heaven to establish justice and righteousness on the earth. That is the anticipation—which finds its fulfillment in the Lord Jesus, because Jesus is coming back, just as he promised.” Paul reminds us in 1 Thessalonians 4:16 that Christ Himself will come back for His people. This task isn’t left behind for another, this isn’t left even for the highest ranked of angels. No, God Himself returns for His people and God Himself returns in judgement. Jesus Himself in Matthew 25:31 ““But when the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the angels with Him, then He will sit on His glorious throne.” The day is coming where Jesus Himself will be seen in glory and when He comes a second time, He doesn’t come as a lamb to be slain, He comes as a King to rule and to reign. Revelation 19:11-16 says,

Revelation 19:11–16 NASB95

And I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse, and He who sat on it is called Faithful and True, and in righteousness He judges and wages war. His eyes are a flame of fire, and on His head are many diadems; and He has a name written on Him which no one knows except Himself. He is clothed with a robe dipped in blood, and His name is called The Word of God. And the armies which are in heaven, clothed in fine linen, white and clean, were following Him on white horses. From His mouth comes a sharp sword, so that with it He may strike down the nations, and He will rule them with a rod of iron; and He treads the wine press of the fierce wrath of God, the Almighty. And on His robe and on His thigh He has a name written, “KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS.”

That robe dipped with blood, that isn’t His blood. That’s the blood of His enemies. When Christ returns, all is made right. When Christ returns, and He surely will, He comes to judge the living and the dead and no one escapes judgement. Everyone will receive what they have deserved. Notice in Jude 15 that judgement comes upon all, the Lord comes to convict all of all their ungodly deeds and to judge all of the harsh things that they have said. Nothing slips through the crack. Nothing is left alone. Nothing is left to deceive any longer. No the day comes when every false word, every clever lie, every false teaching and teacher will be brought to the bar and God will look upon them and say, “Are you the author of these things?” And there will be no serpent tongue, there will be no clever ruse, there will be no escape. The answer must and will be in the affirmative. He already knows. He already knew the heart of Cain, the heart of Balaam, the heart of Korah. Did they get away with it? We talked about that a few weeks ago remember? The testimony of Scripture, where all of history is heading points to the fact that in the end, no one gets away with it. God is on the bench and we are in the dock waiting for the sentence to be passed. Thank God that there is a Savior because each and every one of us deserves the judgement. Each and every one of deserves to have our lives weighed out and to see that we have fallen woefully short of what is required. You might remember a few weeks ago that Donald Trump had called in to Fox News and he was talking about the whole Russia and Ukraine negotiations and he said something along the lines of, “I want to go to heaven and I think that if I can get this worked out, that will be enough, then I’ll be allowed in.” The problem with that mindset though is that that still isn’t enough. The passing grade, the work that is required to gain entrance into Heaven isn’t do well on earth and be at peace as much as possible, the passing grade is perfection. A perfection that we cannot earn but it can be given. It can only be given if Jesus takes the failing grade that we have and gives us the passing grade that He has always possessed. The only way that we or anyone can escape the judgement seat of God is if Christ Himself takes that judgement first. We know that a judgement is coming. The question for us is whether or not we are ready for it? We should not forget what Peter says in 1 Peter 4:17 “For it is time for judgment to begin with the household of God; and if it begins with us first, what will be the outcome for those who do not obey the gospel of God?” We know the outcome. Scripture has always pointed to the outcome. For those who do not obey the gospel there is only one outcome. Only woe and destruction and perfect justice. The exact type of judgment that all men deserve yet praise God for the grace and mercy that only He can provide. Let’s pray.