More marks of false teachers, Jude 12-16

Introduction

It is said a picture is worth a thousand words. In this case it is worth your eternal life. Jude has been carefully revealing the teaching, the character and the actions of false teachers that were plaguing the church less than 30 years after Christ. It is amazing how quickly people are swayed to a false gospel.

I. False teachers pictured, v.12,13

We know false teachers are out there, we just don’t think they will be our teacher or pastor. Jude posts six pictures from the world to explain the dangers of listening to and following these false teachers.

notice how these false teachers are characterized:

We have six pictures of false teachers

1, Hidden reefs at your love feasts

The word ‘spots’ is Greek spilades which means a rock in the sea, as in a sandbar, or reef upon which ships are shipwrecked. These are hidden to the sailors oftentimes or they attempt to steer clear of them when they know they are near them.

the love feasts are those fellowship gatherings for the purpose of remembering the sacrifice of Christ. We call that communion or the Lord’s supper. In other words at a time when the partakers should be all believers Jude warns of the presence of false professors who can make your faith shipwreck. It is akin to Judas Iscariot being at the last supper with Jesus. But He knew he was there.

The metaphor is that of secrecy, hidden. They are not overt in their teaching. They ate with the other church members posing as genuine believers even deceiving the true believers. But they are not true believers either. Evidently, the church thought these men were spiritual, but rather than enhance their holiness, they defiled the gathering by their false teachings and corrupt morals.

2, Shepherds feeding themselves - They are called fearless They did not shepherd the flock, but only themselves. I like the colorful way the Message puts it “They’re giving you a black eye—carousing shamelessly, grabbing anything that isn’t nailed down.”

(Peterson, E. H. (2005). The Message: the Bible in contemporary language (). Colorado Springs, CO: NavPress.)

In other words they take care only of themselves. Wiersbe says Jude may be referring to ; where the prophets take to task the leaders of the people for exploiting the people for their own gain.

The idea of ‘without fear’ has to do with their arrogance and audacity. They do this without batting an eye.

We need to be careful about our leaders so that me are not taken advantage of by them for their own gain.

The trouble is that those who follow them are out for their own gain too. Listen to , again from Wiersbe.

A true shepherd cares for the flock.

3.waterless clouds - they are empty clouds. They promise the farmer rain for his crops, but produce nothing. They are mere puffs of moisture that has no good effect on the growing seeds. But to produce hope they cannot deliver, because they don’t have the truth.

They are blown about by the wind meaning they too are carried about where ever the wind of emotion and experience blow them. they should be teaching the truth of the Word of God, but are just giving out cotton candy, that tastes good going down and later gives a belly ache.

4.fruitless trees in late autumn

twice dead? Uprooted.

what does that mean?

They are basically dead trees. They should be giving off good fruit, even some kind of fruit, but instead produce nothing. There are high hopes, expectations, but nothing comes of it in the end when they should be producing fruit. Even my fruit trees gave fruit this year, though I haven’t been a good husbandman to them: I didn’t prune, fertilize and spray them as I should have. these false teachers do not produce good fruit. The second aspect of this is they are uprooted. They are twice dead because they not only do not produce fruit that would have seeds to produce more fruit, they also do not have roots, because they are uprooted. True believers produce spiritual fruit. That is they reproduce themselves and they demonstrate growth in themselves as well. But these produce neither. Jesus words in apply here: the false teachers like the pharisees were plants God didn’t plant and would be uprooted.

5.wild waves of the sea - this speaks of trubulent waves. waves that can do great damage. There is a lot of power in the sea, or the lake. Sharon and I are amazed at the waves of lake michigan. They seem to be getting bigger and bigger. I have seen them powerful in the ocean too. The danger of swimming in the powerful waves. After a storm goes through the waves churn up all the flotsam, driftwood, scum onto the beach. I have been through a typhoon on the ocean too and it is rough. These false teachers are also very dangerous and in their wake they leave a lot of trash. Again Wiersbe reminds us to look at where the prophet speaks of hte “Wicked are like the troubled sea, when it cannot rest, whose waters cast up mire and dirt.”

True teachers produce spiritual treasures from the Word.

6.wandering stars- These are not stars and planets, they have their set orbit. These are comets or falling stars that flash on the scene appearing for a little while and then appear to burn out. I ti si interesting that sailors and travellers the world over and throughout history have used the stars to navigate around the globe and still do today. Polaris, is always in the same place every night. But you cannot follow the comets or falling stars. Nor will these false teachers lead you to a good end.

These are wandering stars “to whom is reserved the blackness of darkness for ever.”

For these false teachers ‘the gloom of darkness” has been kept forever. This speaks of their judgment. Literally, it is “the gloom which is darkness.” It is a prediction of future judgment of those false teachers. We saw the word ‘gloom’ in v.6 “chains under darkness.’

What a powerful warning this gives us to make sure we keep false teachers out of our church. What is so disconcerting is that it is not just the false teachers who will be judged, but also their followers who willing promote their teaching and entice others to follow them.

II. False Teachers judged, v.14, 15

Enoch prophesied about these people, in terms of their judgment;

The Lord will judge them when He comes, v.14,15

“And he prophesied also to them seventh from Adam, Enoch, saying, . . . “

That is Enoch prophesied. Now we don’t know anything about Enoch save from ; He prophesied before the flood, He is identified clearly so this is not the son of Cain. But he walked with God. We have no record of this prophecy except in the book of Enoch from which many scholars assume Jude is quoting. He wasn’t saying that book was scripture any more than Paul in quoting Greek writings was insinuating those were scripture. He could simply be citing oral Jewish tradition as well. Either way, his point is that he is affirming the judgment on these false teachers when the Lord comes with His saints.

Look at how Enoch puts it “Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his saints, to execute judgment upon all, and convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed, and all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him.”

Note that four times he uses the word ungodly to refer to their character and the character of their deeds. He considered them ungodly. They were not even true believers else they could not have spoken such harsh words against Christ.

We have seen this in , in our Sunday morning studies.

Jude uses also the Word judge and the word convince which means to convict, or to prove one wrong. His judgment of them will be their own words and practices which they will not be able to excuse or deny.

So then their ungodly works, and words against Jesus will convict them and be the basis of Jesus judgment against them.

In other words, they deny Jesus authority and person, as we have already seen in this letter, v.4, 8 which in turn leads to their ungodly deeds described also in vs. 4, 8, 10.

Their judgment is certain. Do you see why it is so important to be on guard for them and not permit them a foothold in your life? They are not even believers. They are false professors.

III. False Teachers own words, v.16

Notice that there are four thoughts that are associated with their words.

These are grumblers, malcontents and boastful who are following their own sinful desires.

A. Grumblers are those who are malcontents, they are quarrelsome, These are like those in the wilderness who complained against the Lord, the next idea says basically the same thing. , , ;

B. They are also complainers, discontented persons who find fault. This person is dissatisfied with his lot, or destiny. They are dissatisfied with God and criticize his guidance.

They go according to their own lusts, desires. THey follow their own selfish desires. They are not seeking God’s will. This might be manifested by their prayers for health and wealth, commanding God to heal or even to speak into existence what they want.

They go according to their own lusts, desires. THey follow their own selfish desires. They are not seeking God’s will. This might be manifested by their prayers for health and wealth, commanding God to heal or even to speak into existence what they want.

C. They speak with their mouths boastful things. Bombastic things, THey try to impress people with their speeches. It is both their boasting about their own selves, but also they are arrogant in their rebellion against the Lord.

The last phrase, lit. wondering at faces for the sake of advantage means they use flattery or partiality, they show favoritism in or to gain advantage or influence. In other words they were becoming rich at the expense of others.

So here is what is going on: These false teachers grumble and complain causing others to also be dissatisfied with their lives. They criticize God’s plans and purposes by telling people God doesn’t want them to suffer, or be poor etc. They do so with words that are manipulative or flattering in order to gain a hearing and cause others to follow them and support them. This is akin to the grumbling of Korah and Israel in the wilderness.

Again Jude shows us just how important it is to avoid contact with these false teachers. We have clarity as to how to identify them. All we need to do is to think, look at their lives, their character, their practices and once we identify them we need to warn others to avoid them too. I am not advocating a witch hunt sort of thing. Rather for us to be like the Bereans who compared the teaching of Paul with the Scriptures to see if what he was teaching was true. In other words, we need to do the same thing with those we listen to .

Next time we will see what we are to do in light of this.