False Fronts (Jude 5-13)

Introduction

We have all seen those stores in movies that have the false fronts on them. Some may have seen them in real life.

These stores show that they are large and amazing on the front but once you get inside they are small and usually musty.

Some may even be nothing more than a false setup all around. Much like in the movie Blazing Saddles when Sheriff Bart and the townspeople built a fake town so that when Hedley Lamar sent Taggart and his men in to destroy and wipe out, it was not the town but a phony.

Many in churches today are like these false fronts. They look good and amazing on the outside but inside they are small and musty. Many are like the false fronts in the false town; they have nothing inside because they are not authentic.

Some have tried to be religious and pious but when the push comes to shove, they weaken to the ways of the world. Many will act like faith in the Lord Jesus Christ is what is important but then bring worldly worries as number one in life.

Many put on this false front and live life as one who is a believer only to fall prey to their instincts and crumble because they built their life on a faulty and crumbly foundation.

In the text this morning from Jude 5-13 we read

Jude 5–13 ESV

5 Now I want to remind you, although you once fully knew it, that Jesus, who saved a people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed those who did not believe. 6 And the angels who did not stay within their own position of authority, but left their proper dwelling, he has kept in eternal chains under gloomy darkness until the judgment of the great day— 7 just as Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding cities, which likewise indulged in sexual immorality and pursued unnatural desire, serve as an example by undergoing a punishment of eternal fire. 8 Yet in like manner these people also, relying on their dreams, defile the flesh, reject authority, and blaspheme the glorious ones. 9 But when the archangel Michael, contending with the devil, was disputing about the body of Moses, he did not presume to pronounce a blasphemous judgment, but said, “The Lord rebuke you.” 10 But these people blaspheme all that they do not understand, and they are destroyed by all that they, like unreasoning animals, understand instinctively. 11 Woe to them! For they walked in the way of Cain and abandoned themselves for the sake of gain to Balaam’s error and perished in Korah’s rebellion. 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.

In this we see three important points among many sub points.

We see that no one escapes the truth. Truth will find you out and when it does a judgment will fall on you.

The second point is that we cannot trust our instincts. Our instincts will lead us wrong in many areas.

And finally we see that we will crumble and fall when we have weak foundations. Weak foundations crumble. They do not stand because they are not built on the truth but our instincts and the truth will find us out.

Let us look at the first point

No One Escapes the Truth (5-7)

In this text we see that the chosen nation of Israel received punishment when they had been saved out of Egypt rebelled when they were to enter the land. They did not believe that God would deliver the land into their hands. They did not trust the Lord would give them what He had promised.

They were afraid to continue on because they did not believe and were only seeing what they could not do. The problem here is they had just had miracle after miracle happen to show them God was powerful enough and would deliver on His promises. Fear gripped them and they did not believe and they were punished severely for this. They wandered in the wilderness for 40 years until all of the age above 20 were dead.

The Angels who were with God and are supernatural beings who know God intimately and were with Him in the heavenly realm were misled and rebelled.

They rejected His authority and wanted their own. They believed they were greater and more important than God. Many of them have been locked away in eternal chains awaiting their judgment.

Then Sodom and Gomorrah. We all know the story of this place. They were in sexual deviancy and massively perverted. They were allowing any and every sexual fantasy as legitimate. They affirmed everything that the people did regardless of what it was. They said it was okay and loving to affirm everything anything wanted.

They found out the truth when they had the chance to change but did not. They were destroyed by fire and received their punishment for their wickedness.

These people and angels all had the truth before them but they decided they knew better. They knew better than God they believed.

These kind are creeping into the church today. They come in with a good front and act as if they are the bearer of the good news only to revel in their pride and inclusivity.

They are like the angels of old who rebelled. They decide they know what is better than God did. They say the words in our Bibles were written by people then who were writing what they understood about God then but it is not timeless truths.

They are like the character from the movie Catch Me if You Can. In this movie Leonardo DiCaprio plays an extremely intelligent man who disguises himself as many different people. A pilot, a doctor, and many others. Tom Hanks is trying to catch him all throughout the movie. He finally does get him.

See Leo was faking it in everything he did in that movie and he was good at it. He fit in and looked the part only to later find out he was a fake. This is what Jude is warning us about today. There are many in the church like this.

They have a good front and look the part but are unbelievers who think they know best, pride-filled arrogant people who think they know better than God, and those who affirm everything saying this is the right way.

They have rebelled and followed their instincts as the truth and proper way. As we see in verses 8-10...

Instincts Will Mislead Us (8-10)

Those who fell in the above mentioned verses did so because they relied on themselves. They trusted what they felt rather than what was right and true. As Jude says they relied on their dreams.

They think that they know what is right because it is what feels right. They do not hold to the truth and allow it to run even if it hurts. Remember from an earlier message, facts don’t care about your feelings.

These false front people are all about feelings and comfort. They do not want the truth told and if it is they condemn it as hate. Feelings have become the new religion and if you transgress feelings, you have gone against the god of these people.

They will rebuke and condemn what they do not even know and follow their instincts to be their guide in everything.

Jude tells us that Michael the Archangel did not pronounce a judgment against the devil but said the Lord rebuke you.

Michael the Archangel who is a high ranking chief angel did not even speak ill of the devil but said the Lord rebuke you.

These people are condemning and reviling the truth like they have the power to do so. Like they know what is right and good. Even if they did they have not the standing to pass this judgment on us who stand by the word of God.

They blaspheme and condemn. Because they follow their instincts alone and not the truth. They do not realize there is beauty in truth and love and good. It is our guide. We want truth when it comes to treatments for us when sick that will help us. We want truth in a relationship. We want truth in elections and politics. We want truth everywhere but many do not want this when it comes to the Lord.

We learn two things from this.

We allow the Lord and His word to condemn others. Even if we are angry and they are pushing false nonsense and teaching wrong we do not condemn. We allow the word of God to bring that condemnation. Like Paul wrote in 2 Tim. 3:16-17

2 Timothy 3:16–17 ESV

16 All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, 17 that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.

Gods word will bring the judgment and condemnation. We just do as Michael did and say the Lord rebuke you and allow His word to do so.

2. These people who are speaking this way and relying on their instincts do not even know what they are doing. They are only doing their instinctive thing. They are like a bear that attacks a person in the wild, or a shark that attacks, or a lion. That is their instinct and they do not even know what they are doing wrong.

This is why we must know the word of God. We must so we can know what it is that these people are doing wrong and so we can allow His word to rebuke them.

Not only this but knowing the word will allow us to have strong foundations. Whereas these who have crept in and are creeping in have weak foundations. And...

Weak Foundations Crumble (11-13)

Cain, Balaam, and Korah are more examples of those who have went against God that knew better.

Cain killed his brother Abel over jealousy because Abel had an acceptable sacrifice when Cain did not.

Balaam was a prophet who had his donkey talk to him. He was sent for by Balak of Moab because he wanted Balaam to come pronounce a curse on Israel. He wold not do it because the Lord did not allow for him to. He was to bless not curse. But Balaam could not help himself from taking the money. He wanted it and even though he never pronounced a curse on Israel he did tell the king of Moab what to do to deceive them.

Then there is Korah. They rose up against Moses and tried to take over as the leaders of Israel. God had Moses tell them to bring censors of incense before Him. The ground swallowed Korah and his people because they had placed themselves above God.

This type of person is still here in the midst of many churches today. They will find a person or two and stir up controversy. They will get a few of the more vocal members on board and speak ill of someone. They want division because they want things to be how they want them.

They are following their instincts and pride and not the Lord. They will hide like reefs in the water that the sailor cannot see and wreck the vessel. They have no foundation like clouds without water. They are swept along by any wind. When they get what they want it is not enough. They need more and more. They devour themselves and whoever follows them.

Cain received a curse, Balaam was killed by the Israelites and Korah was swallowed up and killed.

The truth found them out and they received punishment. The same will happen to all who rebel against God and stir up trouble.

This is even to those who think they know it is right. They are following instincts rather than the word. They are seeking comfort and pleasure over truth and Love.

We see in Scripture that we are to love God above everything and to love others as ourselves.

Do you know what truly loving others is?

It is to want what God wants for them based on what He has revealed in His word.

It is not what we think is love. It is not what we think is right. It is not what we want.

It is what God has said in His word. But to know this and to live in harmony with each other we must know that word. Sometimes this may not be as much fun as other things. But I disagree with that. We have God’s word right here. We have God speaking to us right here. We have ultimate truth and purpose revealed to us right here. This is fun. This is joy. This is pleasure.

It is all of that because this gives us all we could ever dream of and more. When we apply the truth of God’s word to our lives we will find it is Ps. 119:103

Psalm 119:103 ESV

103 How sweet are your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth!

We will also find that it is Ps. 19:10

Psalm 19:10 ESV

10 More to be desired are they than gold, even much fine gold; sweeter also than honey and drippings of the honeycomb.

There are so many more verses that could be given on how important the word of God is for us, but these will suffice.

What I am trying to say here is that knowledge of God stops false fronts from deceiving you. It allows you to know what God desires. It allows us to live in harmony because we all know God’s word.

We will not succumb to pride like Cain, Balaam, and Korah. We will not turn away from the Lord in unbelief as the Israelites did, we will not rebel against God like the angels, and we will not fall into a moral abyss as Sodom and Gomorrah did.

Conclusion

I want to end with the story Jesus told about building your house.

All who hear and does the Word of the Lord will have built their house on a foundation of stone and nothing can remove it. No flood or anything because it is built on the rock foundation. It is built on His word.

But if you build on a foundation that is not His word then it is like building on sand. When the storms come it will wash out and fail. The winds will sway you and all will falter.

The world is building on sand and wanting us to do the same. The world wants us to be like them and fall into their false fronts.

My question and challenge to all of us is will we do that? Or will we stand with the truth and elevate the word of God back to its proper place?

Will we place worldly concerns over eternal concerns? Will we allow pride and arrogance and unbelief cloud our thoughts?

Our number one job as Christians is to proclaim Jesus Christ and Him crucified, buried, and raised again and by believing in Him alone you may have everlasting life, to as many as we can. We do this with love and grace and genuine compassion.

We are also to defend the faith and give reasons for the truth of it. We do this to fulfill the first aspect and when we do this, worldly concerns work out because we are serving God well.

So the challenge is, will you desire God more than gold and material and desire to see people saved? Or will you allow pride and arrogance and unbelief to ruin you?

Truth sets us free but desires of the flesh, desires of the eyes, and the pride of life condemns us and sets us on a path of judgment.

Let us always seek the Lord and seek to show Him to as many as possible. He is worth it. He is worth the ridicule and grief we will receive. He is worth that and so much more. He is certainly worth us letting go of some false beliefs and the false fronts we may have set up.

Let us build our lives on the stone foundation and not on the sand. The sand will crumble and be washed away. Let us be a beacon and not a hidden reef that destroys. Let us stand firm for the faith and truth.