Untitled Sermon

We are getting very close to summer! With the opportunities to get out and enjoy the hot sun and enjoy nature, we have an opportunity to glory in God the Father as we appreciate and meditate on His majesty, glory and might that is evidenced in His creation. The natural world is full of sights and experiences that scream the power of God. But we also see aspects of our world that show us how the curse of sin is being thrust upon the world.

As an example of the outworking of the curse, we see these things we have come to call ‘natural disasters.’ But beloved, there is no such thing as a ‘natural’ disaster - that’s not what God created or designed - there’s nothing natural about it! It is all evidence of the impact original sin has had on nature itself. On December 26th, 2004, the world community stopped to watch the carnage and mayhem brought about by a tsunami off the coast of India. More than 230,000 people in 14 different countries were killed on or around that day in what is called the worst ‘natural disaster’ in recorded history. Almost a quarter million people. To put that in perspective, that is four times as many Americans that died in the Vietnam war - all in a single incident, on that day or soon after because of that one event.

Nature can be a force to be reckoned with. In it, we see the glory and majesty of God that brings us to worship our creator. Also, we see events like tsunamis, volcanic eruptions, tornados, wild fires, etc. that show us just how fleeting a moment our lives can be. Perhaps this is why so many teachings in scripture use natural phenomena as an illustration. Jesus gave the parable of the soils and the parable of the tares and wheat, both in Matthew 13 to name a few of His. The Psalms are also full of illustrations from nature.

In our passage today, Jude will follow the examples of the Psalmists, other biblical writers in using illustrations from nature to describe the apostates and to begin describing their eventual destination. Today, we are going to look at how Jude is moving the conversation from descriptions of the apostates to the consequences in place for them as enemies of God and combatants against the Bride of Christ, His church.

Please read with me:

Jude 12–13 CSB

12 These people are dangerous reefs at your love feasts as they eat with you without reverence. They are shepherds who only look after themselves. They are waterless clouds carried along by winds; trees in late autumn—fruitless, twice dead and uprooted. 13 They are wild waves of the sea, foaming up their shameful deeds; wandering stars for whom the blackness of darkness is reserved forever.

Before we begin, it is important to notice something in Jude’s writing. William Barclay, a well-known Scottish theologian, wrote on this passage saying it was one of the most invective writings in the New Testament. And I suppose if you know what ‘invective’ means without having to turn to a dictionary, you are one smart cookie. I had to look it up, and according to the dictionary, invective means:

vehement or violent denunciation, censure, or reproach.

a railing accusation; vituperation.

an insulting or abusive word or expression.

So Jude is not pulling any punches in how he is choosing to describe the apostates who would come in and lead the church astray. If he were a boxer, the gloves were off! Remember, the church didn’t have 2,000 years of history and theological study to fall back on when he wrote this. The church was, dare I say, much more fragile as a newer institution that was fighting to establish it’s orthodoxy. It needed that special care that we see entrusted to those taking on a parental role to protect their child.

A moose walking by itself in a field is a majestic sight to behold, but a moose walking with her young is scary because they will go completely berserk-o crazy to protect their young from any perceived threat. Jude is being aggressive in his language because the threat from these spiritual terrorists coming into the church was real and was extremely dangerous.

He was invective: insulting, accusing, denouncing, censuring and rebuking these false-teachers in how he described them. He is the moose you notice walking with it’s calf as its getting ready to charge. His writing isn’t what would be considered gentlemanly, especially in our culture today, but the time for that had past. He wrote with boldness because it needed to be done. What we see here is an example of ‘righteous indignation.’ Jude is writing with righteous indignation towards the people who had defiled what belonged to God because he took offense to it.

I believe that many in the church today have become so timid that righteous indignation doesn’t exist or only exists in rarest forms. When people see actions against the church - especially from within the church, the first thought is often the misconception that we are not allowed to judge others, or that we need to turn the other cheek or to extinguish the offense with grace and love - and those are great. We need to do that. We need to exercise grace and we need to turn the other cheek. We need to let offenses roll away like water off a duck’s back. But there is a time where the wise course of action is to act; when the Bride of Christ needs to stand in unison, with righteous indignation and rebuke those who mock God by teaching falsely about God within the church. I’m not talking about what unbelievers outside the church would say about us, but rather the influence of what can happen inside the church.

One of our favorite groups to talk about in this arena are those in the prosperity gospel circles and the Word of Faith movement who are getting rich off the donations of the gullible and defrauded. There needs to be a balance between understanding that there are theological traditions that interpret scripture differently than we do, not letting those minor difference break our fellowship and unity as Christ’s church. There are some theological traditions, however, that have no scriptural basis, that were lead by false teachers from their inception and advocate that the church accept that which God calls unacceptable.

Brothers and sisters, our jobs as believers is to keep the church pure and holy as we wait for Christ’s return. We do that talking about sin the same way God talks about sin, even when we are guilty of that sin. When we find ourselves in agreement with God about our sinfulness and we confess our sinfulness to Him, and what does he promise to do? My favorite verse in scripture:

1 John 1:9 CSB

9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

Jude is mad, and rightly so. When we see these kinds of things, we should all get a sense of that righteous indignation he shows here. Our goal should be to be so close to God that we are offended by what offends Him. But in the same vain, we should be so close to God that we seek to glorify Him in how that offense manifests itself in our lives. Let me say that again: Our goal should be to be so close to God that we are offended by what offends Him. But in the same vain, we should be so close to God that we seek to glorify Him in how that offense manifests itself in our lives. We have the right to be angry about things, but we never have the right to sin, right?

Ephesians 4:26 CSB

26 Be angry and do not sin. Don’t let the sun go down on your anger,

Here, Paul is quoting from

Psalm 4:4 CSB

4 Be angry and do not sin; reflect in your heart while on your bed and be silent. Selah

Normally, when we preach a sermon, we try to take what is there and package it into something that is memorable so that we can continue to graze on it throughout the day as we ponder how the text impacts us. That’s why a lot of sermons get whittled down into two to three simple points. However, today, let’s walk through this passage together and unpack what Jude is saying they way he did. We are going to look at the five illustrations Jude gives us from nature so we can unpack them and consider what we can learn.

He speaks of the apostates in these terms:

Hidden Reefs

Waterless Clouds

Fruitless Autumn Trees

Wild Waves

Wandering Stars

So let’s dive in.

Hidden Reefs

Read with me again, starting in verse 12.

Christian Standard Bible Jude

12 These people are dangerous reefs at your love feasts as they eat with you without reverence. They are shepherds who only look after themselves.

The CSB renders the Greek word for reefs as “dangerous reefs.” The word it is translating is σπιλάδες and is defined as a rocky hazard hidden by waves, a rock washed by the sea, a (hidden) reef.

The English Standard Version and the New American Standard Bible both translate this as a hidden reef. But let me ask you a question: if you live in a society that is heavily reliant on boats for food and transportation, what is the most dangerous kind of reef? A hidden one! One that you don’t have the ability to go around because you don’t even know its there. What happens is, these boats would be going along, hit one of these reefs and the bottom of the boat would either be completely ripped off the rest of the boat or smashed into a gagillion pieces. A hidden reef is a dangerous reef.

But what do hidden reefs have to do with love feasts?

Jude is using the metaphor to show that when the church met together to do what the church is supposed to do, that the spiritual terrorists were hidden among them as unknown hazards.

A ‘love feast’ is what they called their gatherings. Love feasts were for mutual instruction - Acts 17:11, encouragement - Heb 10:24-25, confrontation, Heb 3:13, and care - Rom 12:10.

A love feast is very much the same idea as when we share a potluck meal on the Lord’s day. The difference is that this is also when they would share communion, we share communion during our services.

So think of it this way: if anyone tells you that potlucks aren’t scriptural, you can bring them to this verse and you should be good! In all seriousness though, these were important gatherings. Paul addresses the idea of people in the Corinthian church abusing the love-feast meal and communion in 1 Corinthians 11:17-22 and that is what lead to his famous discourse that we read whenever we take communion in 1 Corinthians 11:23-26.

So the apostates are likened to hidden and dangerous reefs at their love feasts, but Jude elaborates on this a little more and says

Christian Standard Bible Jude

as they eat with you without reverence.

What he is saying here is that their consciences aren’t bothered by sharing a fellowship meal while posing as believers because they don’t have consciences to start with - they are not afraid of the repercussions of their actions. They are expert hypocrites. Their goal isn’t to receive instruction, to encourage, comfort or confront - they don’t care to serve the church, their desire is only to serve themselves. That’s why he goes on to say that they are shepherds who look only after themselves. It’s another was of calling them ‘useless.’

Jesus gives us a good illustration of the difference between the Good Shepherd and the kinds of shepherds Jude is talking about in:

John 10:11–13 CSB

11 “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. 12 The hired hand, since he is not the shepherd and doesn’t own the sheep, leaves them and runs away when he sees a wolf coming. The wolf then snatches and scatters them. 13 This happens because he is a hired hand and doesn’t care about the sheep.

It is a dangerous thing for a church to have leaders who only care about themselves. Thats why Peter reminds his readers in his first epistle to really shepherd and take ownership over the responsibilities entrusted to them by God. He says:

1 Peter 5:2 CSB

2 Shepherd God’s flock among you, not overseeing out of compulsion but willingly, as God would have you; not out of greed for money but eagerly;

There needs to be an intrinsic motivator to shepherd God’s people, and that motivator is the calling God placed in their lives. The apostate, false teachers are hidden hazards in the church community, serving only themselves, making no positive contribution, proving themselves to be completely useless.

And that brings us to Jude’s next illustration:

Waterless Clouds

They are waterless clouds carried along by winds

Clouds are supposed to have water in them. When they don’t deliver rain, they fail to deliver what they advertise to possess.

Perhaps Jude is getting this example from

Proverbs 25:14 CSB

14 The one who boasts about a gift that does not exist is like clouds and wind without rain.

This kind of follows this idea of being a hidden reef - they use camouflage. The are expert hypocrites and experienced liars. They do not possess what they claim to have - they do not have the saving faith in Christ that defines what it means to be a follower of Christ. They are clouds that have no rain.

Fruitless Autumn Trees

trees in late autumn—fruitless, twice dead and uprooted.

Farmers have a lot of investment into their crops. Autumn is when they are supposed to reap and harvest the fruit of their labor. A ‘fruitless autumn tree’ is another way of conveying disappointment but it has the added caveat of that disappointment coming at great cost. Not only is it disappointing to see the work you put in bare no fruit, but it also means a winter of hardship is inevitable.

Like Jude mentions with them being waterless clouds, there is something they claim to possess that they don’t.

But what does it mean to be doubly-dead? The idea reminds me of what the Apostle John wrote in

Revelation 21:8 CSB

8 But the cowards, faithless, detestable, murderers, sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars—their share will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death.”

This idea of the second death is foreshadowing what it is in store for the apostates Jude is writing about. We’re starting to see some of the transition from what they are like to what they have to look forward to. The second death is the final - eternal separation from God in eternal hell.

Part of their second death is being removed from the church.

The apostates will not last in the real church. God protects His church but He also takes measure to see it grow. He corrects those He loves and, through the Holy Spirit, guides and directs the paths of the church. This protection extends to defending against false teachers. He cultivates what is His and gets rid of the weeds.

Matthew 15:13 CSB

13 He replied, “Every plant that my heavenly Father didn’t plant will be uprooted.

We turned on our sprinkler systems a while back and now, not only is the grass that we like growing, but so are all the weeds! We have to take the time to go through and dig the weeds out so they don’t overrun parts of our lawn because they serve no real purpose. There is no life in the apostate to produce any kind of good fruit so they are uprooted and thrown out.

Their destination is made known, and the fact that they’re going to be uprooted in made known, but Jude also gives us a look at how they will be exposed.

Wild Sea Waves

They are wild waves of the sea, foaming up their shameful deeds;

When waves are wild, they can be very dangerous. The culture of Jude’s day was, again, heavily reliant on boats. The boats they had back then were very modest compared to what we have today. They would have been more susceptible to the dangers of the sea than a modern boat would be for the sheer sake of what they were made of and their size. This is an illustration that many of Jude’s original readers would have understood from personal experience. Waves bashing up against their boats was a sign of immanent danger. And that is probably why Jude chose this illustration, but he’s not the first. The prophet Isaiah wrote in:

Isaiah 57:20–21 CSB

20 But the wicked are like the storm-tossed sea, for it cannot be still, and its water churns up mire and muck. 21 There is no peace for the wicked,” says my God.

Inside the church when an apostate creates commotion, they are creating hazards that believers need to take special care to navigate carefully. When their deeds are exposed, we must remember our initial instructions from Jude to contend for the faith. Their deeds will eventually expose them like how sea foam is evidence of rough waters. And how do we deal with sin inside the church?

Church discipline. It’s a concept that really fell out of favor with a lot of churches in the 90’s because people thought it was too legalistic. Only within the last several years have we begun to see more and more churches be willing to stand up and do what the Bible says in terms of handling unrepentant sin. In Matthew 18, Jesus gives us guidelines on how to approach a member of the church who is in sin. First we go to that individual privately, and if they refuse to repent of their sin, we confront them again with a few witnesses so that by the testimony of two or three witnesses the facts might be established. If they still refuse to repent of their sin, it needs to be taken to the church. If they still refuse to listen to the church, they are to be separated from the fellowship. That is was the older term ‘excommunication’ means. We also see terms like dis-fellowshipped floating around. When the sinful deeds of an apostate are made known, scripturally, they need to be given the opportunity to repent and be restored to Christ. If they truly are apostates and unable to repent, they must be cast out of the fellowship for the sake of the holiness of the church and for the sake of the church’s obedience to Christ in setting themselves apart from people who falsely claim to be in the faith.

This is one of the clearest places where we begin to see the apostates certain coming consequences spoken of. Most of what Jude has said until now has been very general - ‘they will be destroyed like those in the past who did the same things.’ Now, for these apostates specifically, there deeds will be exposed and brought into the light to be seen by all.

And that brings us to our final illustration for this week:

Wandering Stars

wandering stars for whom the blackness of darkness is reserved forever

The way this part translates into English is kind of confusing, but holds a lot of metaphorical significance.

Stars and planets move so predictably that if you could travel in time, you could figure out the date you travelled to by the position of the stars and constellations. I really enjoy science, so when I first read this, I thought it may be talking about what is called a rogue planet, or one that has broken out of orbit with its star. There’s a problem though, the nearest one is theorized to be about 7.5 light years away, and it is only about the size of Pluto. That wouldn’t even be visible in Jude’s day.

John MacArthur reminds his readers that many of the terms we use to describe things today were not even around back then. He posits that the wandering stars Jude is referring to mighty actually be what we would call ‘shooting stars’ or meteor showers. And it makes a lot of sense when you consider what a shooting star does. It burns brightly as it dances across the sky to then be lost forever in the darkness of night. Jude says that is what the apostates do. They draw a lot of attention to themselves before eventually fizzling out or disappearing.

The blackness of darkness being referred to is the punishment of hell. Verse 6 shows how Jude equates darkness to the eternal punishment of hell.

Jude 6 CSB

6 and the angels who did not keep their own position but abandoned their proper dwelling, he has kept in eternal chains in deep darkness for the judgment on the great day.

So in this metaphor, the apostate makes himself known, perhaps even gains momentum in garnering influence, proves himself to be an apostate and then makes a spectacular bee-line towards the gates of hell. The big question we have to ask ourselves is how many people will he take with him? How many souls are we going to let them take with them?

Conclusion

Friends, we have a great calling from this little epistle: to contend for the faith that was delivered to the saints once for all. He warns us that these people would come in. And now, 2,000 years after he wrote this letter, we have a whole lot of history that proves that he was right. We have reason to be on guard for the faith against those who would come in like spiritual terrorists that try to lead souls to hell.

But we serve a God who loves and protects and guides His church, a God who is rich in grace and mercy, but also a God who is just and faithful to protect what belongs to Him. If you belong to Him, you have nothing to worry about. These apostates will not convince you to walk away from God because God dwells in you heart and you have the ability to read and understand the truth in God’s Word. But if you do not belong to God, you do not have God in your hearts, you don’t know Him and you have no part with Him. But therein lies the great news of the gospel. God sent His son to die on your behalf so that you could belong to Him and be eternally free from the wrath that is in store for those who remain in their sin, you can be free from this wrath and be free to worship Christ in faith and assurance that you do truly belong to Him.

Our greatest desire here is that you is that you know Jesus as your savior and Lord, and whatever we can do to help you know Him and serve Him better. None of us are perfect, but we can approach God in the perfection of His Son because He was pleased to make a way for us to be in right relationship with Him.

The Bible says that

Romans 5:8 CSB

8 But God proves his own love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

What this means is that we don’t have to change who we are to come to Him, He died for us knowing how bad-shape we were in. No false teacher could ever lead you to hell if you have the Holy Spirit living in your heart. If you don’t know if you have the Holy Spirit, we would love to talk to you about it. If you know that you are an enemy of God but want to be reconciled to Him through Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, we want to talk to you and help you.

Let’s pray.

1 Thessalonians 5:23–24 CSB

23 Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely. And may your whole spirit, soul, and body be kept sound and blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. 24 He who calls you is faithful; he will do it.

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