Last week, we examined Jude verses 8 through 11 as Jude described the actions of what he describes as certain persons who have crept in unnoticed into various churches. And he introduced us to them, first of all, in verse 4. And he now has been continuing to describe their attitudes or actions over the past several verses. Up till now, I've been calling these certain persons false teachers. But in reality, these certain persons are any people who have a disruptive influence, who would encroach into the church. It just so happens that most frequently, those people happen to be false teachers, but it can be anyone. It doesn't have to be a teacher within the church. So let me read what we covered last week, and I wanna recover part of it again, but we studied last week in verses eight through 11, what Jude says of these men. He says, By dreaming, defile the flesh and reject authority and revile angelic majesties. But Michael the archangel, when he disputed with the devil and argued about the body of Moses, did not dare pronounce against him a railing judgment, but said, the Lord rebuke you. But these men revile things which they do not understand and the things which they know by instinct, like unreasoning animals. By these things they are destroyed. 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. Let's pray together. Father, we thank you for the writing of Jude, for the warning that is contained within this. We thank you that you have given to us your Holy Spirit through whom we are able to discern truth from error, through whom we are able to take these tests and adhere to this warning. and implement it into our own lives and into the protection of our own body of believers here. So we ask your blessing upon our time together this evening. We thank you and praise you in Jesus' name. Amen. So, as we mentioned last week, in verse 11, Jude pronounces an imprecatory woe. He wishes woe to come upon such men for their evil and rebellious actions. Then as we will see tonight in verses 12 and 13, Jude further describes the actions these disruptors. He says these men are those who are hidden reefs in your love feasts which when they feast with you without fear caring for themselves. They are clouds without water carried along by winds. They are autumn trees without fruit doubly dead and uprooted. They are wild waves of the sea casting up their own shame like foam and they are wandering stars for whom the black darkness has been reserved forever. But to begin with, I'd like to go back, before we look at verses 12 and 13, I'd like to go back and look at verse 11 again and add a few things. But I'd also, tonight is, I'd like it to be a little bit more interactive. I am going to solicit input from you. So it's a more, my style is less preaching and more teaching. And my teaching style happens to be one that I really enjoy hearing what people have learned. I'm going to ask a few questions, and I would ask if you have something that you would like to add, please do. We're not going to have a really involved discussion, but I do invite people. I'm going to ask you a few questions, and if you have some insights, I would like you to share it. To begin with, he talks about, in verse 11, he says, woe to them, for they have gone the way of Cain, for pay they have rushed headlong into the error of Balaam, and have perished in the rebellion of Korah. So the first question I'd like us to ponder is, what is the way of Cain? To give us a little bit of insight, I'd like to go back and look at Genesis chapter four, verses six through eight. This is the account of God accepting Abel's sacrifice, but rejecting Cain's sacrifice. Following the rejection of Cain's sacrifice, we read in verse six, then the Lord said to Cain, why are you angry? And why has your countenance fallen? 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. And Cain told Abel his brother, and it came about when they were in the field that Cain rose up against Abel his brother and killed him. John Gill points out that the phrase in verse eight, that begins verse eight, Cain told Abel his brother, that sounds like a very neutral kind of a statement. happened to mention this to his brother. But that's not really what that means. As John Gale points out, the phrase in verse eight, Cain told Abel his brother, likely means that Cain spoke to Abel in a kind and friendly manner and thereby got him to take a walk in the field with him. The Vulgate Latin version adds, let us go abroad. And the Septuagint says, let us go into the field, not to fight a duel, which Abel undoubtedly would have declined, had that been declared, but to have some friendly conversation. Hey, let's go out in the field and let's talk for a bit. So what action of Cain is Jude pointing to in verse 11 when he talks about the way of Cain? What was Cain's action? What was his attitude? What was Cain doing that he would bring this up, that he would talk about these disruptors going the way of Cain? Any thoughts? invite you to participate. What would be the way of Cain from what Genesis chapter 4 tells us? I'm sorry? Deception. Deception, yes. Deception is a great, I would chalk that up as one of the primary things. He gets his brother to walk out into the field with him so that he can then attack him. Yeah, deception, treachery, hatred, envy, mean he hated his brother he didn't outwardly initially he was he was pleasant to him hey come on into the field with me let's talk and then he rises up and it kills him so he was it was a predetermined plan you talk about premeditation Cain's action was premeditated murder he hated his brother he was deceptive it was treacherous he hated him because and he was envious because God accepted his sacrifice but refused his own secondly Remember that the word error, we talk about the error of Balaam. And I mentioned last week how the word error is a rather neutral word. It can mean an honest mistake, a simple mistake. But last week I pointed out that in the error of Balaam, the word error means deceit or deception. So what is Jude referring to when he talks about the error of Balaam or the deception of Balaam? Anybody remember, any thoughts? Remember, as we talked about last week, the deception of Balaam was not what he had done with Balak, Balak paying him to curse the Israelites. Really, the deception, the treachery of Balaam was the fact that he convinced the Israelites to have a cordial relationship with the Moabites and the Midianites. And to which, what did, Balaam ended up doing, he basically persuaded the Israelites to commit idolatry and to commit adultery and to have a relationship with the Midianites when he knew that the Israelites would then fall into idolatry and they would be guilty of gross disobedience to God. And this was at the urging of Balaam. Balaam said, oh, these Midianites are great people. You should have a relationship with them. When in fact, he knew. It was deceptive. that the Israelites would fall into idolatry. That was the deception. That was the error of Balaam. And then thirdly, we have this reference to the rebellion of Korah. And what was the rebellion of Korah? What was on display there? What was the reason for the rebellion of Korah? Anybody? Power. Exactly. There was a rejection of authority and there was a desire by Korah to have the authority that Moses had as the leader of the people. Basically, Korah said, I don't think Moses is doing a good job. I think you ought to follow me. So there was a rebellious spirit. There was a desire to usurp Moses's authority. So that is a review of the three attitudes that we see described in verse 11. You talk about the way of Cain. You talk about the error or the deception of Balaam. And you have the rebellion of Korah. And that's the description that these deceivers have, these who are into the church and deceiving and leading the church in a wrong direction. So now we come to verses 12 and 13 in which Jude goes on to describe the actions and the character of these apostate false Christians. First Jude uses five illustrations to describe these certain persons who have crept in unnoticed. Again Jude verses 12 and 13, These men are those who are hidden reefs in your love feast when they feast with you without fear, caring for themselves. Clouds without water carried along by winds, autumn trees without fruit, doubly dead and uprooted, wild waves of the sea casting up their own shame like foam, and wandering stars for whom the black darkness has been reserved forever. So here in verses 12 and 13, Jude very aptly describes these certain persons as hidden reefs, clouds without water, autumn trees without fruit, wild waves of the sea, and wandering stars. So I'd like to examine each of these descriptions that he gives us. First, he describes these certain persons as hidden reefs, hidden reefs in your love feasts. You know, there are many dangerous coral reefs in the world's oceans that pose a navigational hazard to boats and ships. Sometimes less than a foot below the surface of the water, a shelf of hard granite or a hard reef, whether it be coral or whether it be some other outcropping. But simply, a reef is something that is hidden below the surface of the water. And it doesn't matter the size of your ship. It can be a wooden boat. It can be a gigantic supertanker. If you drive a big ship up onto a shelf or a reef, you will rip the bottom off that ship and it will tear a gash in the hull and possibly sink it. It will damage whatever ship runs upon that reef. So in the same way, false teachers can quickly ruin a local church. These certain persons have insinuated themselves into the local church so deeply and comfortably that they are participating in the most intimate fellowship of the church, and that was a first century love feast. Only those who were truly accepted as believers, as part of the congregation, would have been invited to participate in the church love feast. Obviously, these false teachers or these deceivers were successfully insinuating themselves into these various local church bodies. These people were not simply on the outside on the periphery. They were embraced by the church congregation. They were one of the congregation to the point that they were invited. They were a welcome guest at the love feasts that were held within the church. But as Jude points out, these certain persons were participating in the church love feasts for the purpose of caring for themselves. Their only care and concern was for their own self-interest. As D. Edmund Hebert puts it, these men insisted on participating in these love feasts not to express mutual love and concern, but to gratify their own appetites. They were in it for themselves. They were being provided a meal and they were taking advantage of it. In referring to these false teachers as hidden reefs in your love feasts, Jude is using the picture of how carefully these false teachers have hidden themselves in plain sight. You know, the interesting thing about a reef, unless you have a navigational chart, a reef is undetectable if you're above the water. If you're on the bridge of a ship or a boat and you come upon a reef, you don't know the reef is there until you run into it. I mean, all the navigational charts we have in the world that depict reefs on them are a result of somebody having run up on that reef and they've documented it on their navigational charts. So a reef is a great danger. And unless you know it's there, you have no idea what's about to come upon you. You could be very happily going along one instant, and then in the next second, the boat is being ripped apart because it's running around on this reef. So a reef was a hugely damaging, destructive force. Many ships throughout history have been dashed, have been sunk because they have run up on various reefs. The problem with a hidden reef is that it can go so easily undetected. It is only through the use of nautical charts and experience that ship captains know to avoid certain areas. But initially, a reef is an undetectable phenomena. So what is it that makes these actions of hidden reefs in your love feast so threatening that Jude would make mention of them? The picture of a false teacher being a hidden reef in your love feast is one of blissful ignorance. but while there is blissful ignorance, there is, at the same time, extreme danger for the church. Yes, the church may be going along happy, inviting these deceivers into their congregation, into their midst, into their love feast, when in fact, they are in extreme danger. They just don't know it yet. It's interesting that Jude mentions the detrimental effect of these self-serving false teachers having on the early church, in that they were enjoying, they were insinuating themselves into these love feasts Paul also mentions a problem in the Corinthian church concerning love feasts. Apparently in the first century church it was very common when celebrating the Lord's table that they would also sit down as a congregation and enjoy a love feast, enjoy a meal together. But it quickly became a problem. And the reason it became a problem was because certain people were abusing the love feast. Some people were coming in early, they were eating a lot of food, they were drinking a lot of drink, they were being disruptive, and they were not leaving food for anybody else. They were serving themselves to the point that a great many people went without. And so pretty soon this love feast was not so loving because people were angry. People were frustrated because certain people were helping themselves and other people were being left out. And it became a problem. I mean, I would venture to say that's why the practice was discontinued probably pretty quickly because it was, while well-intended, it did not work out well for the church. I mean, here, both Jude and we see in 1 Corinthians 11, Paul talks about the detrimental effect of people abusing these love feasts. Here in this letter, Jude seems to point to the same problem that Paul does. False teachers were caring for themselves in the church in these love feasts. They were watching out only for themselves, and they didn't care about anybody else. Secondly, Judah describes these certain persons as being what he calls clouds without water. Then these clouds without water are carried along by winds. You know, in the arid Middle East, clouds were looked upon as the bringers of much needed rain. They were looked upon, clouds were looked upon expectantly as I hope the clouds will bring rain because the rain was very much needed. There are many stories in Scripture of seasons without rain and how it devastated the society because all of a sudden their crops would not grow. They had famine. Famine was a very common problem in the biblical times. So the arrival of the spring rains, of the rains when they needed them, were very important. So the idea that a cloud would show up in the sky with the apparent promise of water, of rain, and then suddenly not deliver would have been devastatingly disappointing. A cloud that appeared and brought no rain was looked upon with great frustration, so much so that it would have been better if the cloud had not been there at all than to see the cloud and get your hopes up only to have your hopes dashed. The idea of rain being important, we see God says in Deuteronomy chapter 32 verse 2, God declares that his word is like rain. He says, let my teaching drop as the rain, my speech distill as the dew, and the droplets of the fresh grass as the showers on the herb. And while God's word is described as rain, which brings nourish and refreshment to our souls, The instruments by which the rain is deposited on the earth are the clouds. And in the same way, these certain persons who appeared to promise much but ended up being useless is what's depicted here, clouds without water. And worse than that, the hope of rain makes the disappointment even greater than if no cloud had ever come. You know, in meteorology, there is a term called Virga. I'm not sure if you all have heard that term before. Virga is a phenomena found in desert regions, which have a very dry humidity, very low humidity, like Arizona, the western part of the US. And the phenomena of Virga is you actually see a cloud. That cloud, if you look from the side, you will see rain falling out of the cloud. The problem is the air is so dry that the rain evaporates before it actually reaches the ground. And that phenomena is called Virga. It's rain that never reaches the ground. It rains from the cloud. but never actually hits the ground. Can you imagine how devastating that would be to someone in the desert going, I see the rain, how come I'm not getting wet? So when I see these clouds without water, that was the image that came to my mind, the idea that there are rain clouds and actually is raining, but the rain never actually arrives, which is what a great picture of how disruptive one of these deceivers could be within the church body. So in the same way, these false teachers, These disruptors are represented as clouds. They have the appearance in the office as teachers. They have the appearance of righteousness, and from outward appearances, they have sound doctrine, or sound doctrine is at least expected of them. But these teachers are like virga. They bring no refreshing rain because they have none to give. In his second epistle, Peter uses the same language to describe these false teachers. In 2 Peter 2, verse 17, Peter writes, These are springs without water and mists driven by a storm. Again, Peter uses very descriptive language, spring without water. Again, think about the desert environment. What is it that allows you to cross a desert in ancient times when you're crossing by camel? You hope that you can make it to the next spring, make it to the next oasis. And what was an oasis? An oasis was simply a spring of water And the vegetation around it was fed from the spring. That's why you had trees. You had palm trees. You had grass. You had a place to get some shade. You get some water. You get some refreshment. Now can you imagine what would happen to that oasis if its spring dried up? All the vegetation would die. It would simply become another part of the desert. So they were springs without water. The idea is how devastating to that oasis it would be if the spring simply dried up. Or in the case of these deceivers, spring never had any water to begin with. There was nothing there to feed the vegetation. So you can see how devastating it would be to the ground or to the oasis. Can you imagine that same devastation coming upon the church? You have someone who professes they are going to teach you something of value and in the end they teach you nothing or even worse they teach you wrongly. The devastation would be terrible. Peter also refers to these men as mists driven by a storm. Again, the picture of Virga is very helpful. Mists, it falls from the sky, but the storm pushes the clouds away before the rain has a chance to reach the ground. You know, the language that Jude and Peter both use here, clouds without water and springs without water, are very descriptive. And they make me think of, you know, in the society in which they live, which was an agrarian society, those were terms that everybody understood. It made me think, what are some of the terms that we could use in our, some idioms that we use in our own language that talk about the disappointment that is described here? I was thinking of a couple different phrases. All talk and no action. We're familiar with that. Job says, God says in Job 38 verse two, who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge? Words without knowledge is a great term. We've all heard of the term, an empty suit. Someone, there's nothing there. As probably one of Matt's favorites would be, all steak and no sizzle. When I was flying in the Air Force, someone who was really, really aggressive but didn't really know what he was doing, we would say he was all mock and no vector. He was going really fast, he just didn't know where he was going. Can talk the talk but can't walk the walk. We've heard that phrase. Writes checks with his mouth that his body can't cash. Those are similar type idioms or phrases that we're used to, we've heard before, but convey the same idea. There's a lot of bluster, but there's really no substance there to back it up. They are clouds without water. There's nothing there. They don't edify the church. They don't feed the church. They don't provide the necessary rain of God's word to the church. They are a great disappointment. And then to add to his description of the useless nature of such clouds, without water Jude adds to the description that they are carried along by winds. And again, this is a very good description of these false teachers and disruptors who have been deceived and are unstable in their beliefs as they carry forth their false teaching. The Greek term that is translated carried along means to be carried to and fro or to be blown about without any control of direction. The use of the passive voice here talking about them as being carried along by the winds means they're being driven. They don't have any foundation upon which they can bring their teaching. They're very unsteady. They have no solid foundation upon which they can bring God's word. This description is very similar to what we read in James 1, verses 6 through 8 in describing a spiritually unstable person. James writes, for the one who doubts is like the surf of the sea, driven and tossed by the wind. For let not that man expect that he will receive anything from the Lord, being a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways. This idea of instability is the idea of being carried along by winds without any control over where you're going. Thirdly, Jude describes these certain persons as autumn trees without fruit. They are doubly dead and uprooted. The term autumn trees is a Greek term used only here in the New Testament. What comes to mind when you think of a tree in autumn? Well, two things. If it had any fruit, it dropped its fruit already. But a tree in autumn has dropped its leaves. It's now a bare tree. But at least in nature, a bare tree is entering its winter rest after having produced its fruit in its season. But here we also learn that these are autumn trees and they're without fruit. Again, thinking about the agrarian society, if someone had fruit trees on their property and they counted on the fruit that was provided by those trees to take to market and to provide them with income or to provide them with food for the year, and that those trees did not bear any fruit, those trees would, again, be worth less. As a matter of fact, they would be terrible because not only had they taken up the farmer's time to care for them, taken up much-needed water to water them, but in the end all that this time and effort and water that was given to them for their care, and they yielded nothing back, would have been better off had they not been there to begin with. I wouldn't have wasted my time tending this fruit, whether it be vineyards or trees, and I wouldn't have wasted all the precious water trying to care for them if I had known they were not going to provide any fruit. So again, the idea of a bitter disappointment. Fruit without, I mean, trees without fruit would have been useless. He uses the, goes on to follow, Jude goes on to describe these false teachers as doubly dead. You know, the meaning of these men being doubly dead is difficult. So in what way were they doubly dead? Because that's a very interesting phrase. Professor Tom Constable says that these men are doubly dead because they actually bear no useful spiritual fruit. because they are incapable of bearing any spiritual fruit. That's reasonable. But a second view of being doubly dead is that these false teachers are both dead in their sin by nature being descended from Adam. And though they profess to be spiritually alive in Christ, they actually remain spiritually dead. So they are physically dead and they are spiritually dead. And I kind of favor that view that they are doubly dead in that they are by nature physically dead or will be physically dead But more importantly, spiritually, they are dead. And spiritually, men are not able to discern or understand the things of God because they are spiritually discerned. In keeping with this idea of being doubly dead is the picture of death itself. You know, the first death is the death of all men. The physical death, the separation of our spirit from our physical bodies at the end of our life. But for those who die without Christ, there is the second death, which is the lake of fire, the eternal punishment in the lake of fire. So they are doubly dead, both physically and spiritually dead. And finally, he goes on to describe them as being uprooted. This term is used to speak of those who are under divine judgment. As we see twice in Proverbs chapter two, verse 22, we read, but the wicked will be cut off from the land and the treacherous will be uprooted from it. uprooted being a divine judgment against them. Likewise, in Jeremiah chapter one, verse 10, see, I have appointed you this day over the nations and over the kingdoms to pluck up or uproot and to break down, to destroy and to overthrow and to build and to plant. So there is the idea of judgment upon those who are being uprooted or being plucked up. So this idea here that these autumn trees are being, are doubly dead or being uprooted is, There is divine judgment upon them that they will be uprooted. And what does a farmer do who has a fruit tree that no longer bears fruit? He doesn't allow it to grow and take up space. He digs it up and he uses it for firewood. He burns it, gets rid of it, and plants another tree that hopefully will produce fruit in its season. So a tree that produces fruit is of no use at all. And it is to be dug up and burned, to be gotten rid of. Just as farmers dig up and burn trees that are not fruitful, so God will burn up those certain persons who bear no fruit, or worse, who bear bad fruit. And fourth, Jude describes these certain persons as wild waves of the sea, casting up their own shame like foam. Occasionally, if you're a beach person, I know that Obi and Cindy are beach people, and there are probably some other people who are fans of going to the beach. Occasionally you go to the beach, And after a storm, you'll see that there looks like a whole, there's a whole bunch of foam on the beach. It looks like somebody poured gallons and gallons of dishwashing fluid into the water. And it's just got this big foam, but it's not pretty white foam. It's brown and dirty and gray. And it's got trash in it. It's holding all kinds of stuff. It's foul smelling. It is of no value at all. Just basically the beach is unusable if you go there to enjoy the beach. until eventually the water washes away the foam. But that's really what's being described here. This sea foam that just casts up all kinds of dirt and mud and refuse onto the shore. In the same way false teachers and these disruptors spread evidence of their filth and impurity wherever they go. We see this described in Isaiah chapter 57 verse 20. But the wicked are like the tossing sea for it cannot be quiet and its waters toss up refuse and mud. The refuse and mud are often part of the sea foam that's deposited on the shore. As D. Edmund Hebert compares the casting up their own shame-like foam as a manifestation of the restless and unrestrained nature of these men. In the description of these men being like wild waves, the adjective wild does not refer to the unrestrained exuberant energy or quantity of their action, but instead the unedifying and ungodly quality of their action. They are either bad teachers or worse, they were false teachers. Hebert says of these false teachers that they are restless and untamed, constantly dashing themselves against the divinely ordained barriers of order and morality. Like the useless and unsightly litter left on the beach after a storm, so in the eyes of the beholders are the deeds of these men. They are a reproach to the church and repulsive to God and His holiness. like wild waves and this seafoam that's deposited on the shore. It is useless. It is an eyesore. It is unedifying and ungodly. Their teaching and their behavior is useless, repulsive and filthy as seafoam. And fifth and finally, Jude describes the false teachers as wandering stars. Wandering stars for whom the black darkness has been reserved forever. You know, one of the constants in the universe from the time of Adam and Eve, since men and women looked up into the sky and saw the stars, one of the constants is the stars are always in the same place in the sky. The stars can always be counted on to be in the same place. They've navigated, men have navigated from the stars since ancient times. However, other heavenly bodies, such as planets and comets and meteors, move about in the sky. They do not remain constant in their position. They cannot be counted on. They cannot be navigated from because they move around all the time. The Greek word planetes, from which we get the English word planet, literally means wanderer. So because the planets wander in the sky, they naturally wander in the sky because they are orbiting the sun. They never appear in the same place. And unlike the stars in the sky, which provide a constant frame of reference that can always be counted on, these deceivers and these false teachers are like planets or meteors, which are constantly moving in the sky. In fact, meteors are the most unreliable of heavenly bodies because when we see them, they are in the process of burning up. They are in the process of disintegrating and ending. So if someone sees a meteor, a falling star, shooting star, whatever you call it, it's a meteor or a meteorite. It is in the process of dying and it certainly can't be counted upon because it's about to be destroyed. But that's really what these wandering stars, these deceivers are like. They are shooting stars. They flash brightly for a moment and then they're gone. They provide no stability to those who are looking upon them. Such is the fate of the false teacher. They are like a meteor or meteorite. They flash momentarily and then they're gone and destroyed. The reference to their fate being the black darkness that has been reserved forever is a reference to the fact that their eternal fate is far away from the light of God. The black darkness compared to the light of God. Their fate is the black darkness which has been reserved for them forever. They will not enjoy the presence of being in God's light. Notice that their fate in the black darkness is being described as reserved. It's reserved forever. The term reserved is a term that speaks of someone who is preserved in a certain state or being watched over. And the fact is, these deceivers, these disruptors, their position, their fate has been reserved for them since before time began. Since God ordained to create. He ordained that these deceivers would be permitted to enter into the church. They would be permitted to bring their disruption and their false teaching into the church. but that ultimately they would be judged and they would be removed. So their fate has been reserved for them. The term reserved is also, it's in the perfect tense, indicating it is action that began in the past but continues into the present. The past action was God ordaining that they would be permitted to do what they do. The phrase concerning the state of these false teachers for whom the black darkness has been reserved forever speaks of the fact that these false teachers and disruptors have been predestined by God to their eventual end. In other words, these false teachers are not doing anything more than what God ordained that they would do. God has ordained that some unbelieving false teachers and disruptors would rise up within the church and do the very ungodly things that they are doing. And all this is by divine design and sovereign permission. When you think about that, it's truly remarkable. We might ask, why would God ordain to permit ungodly disruptors and false teachers to rise up and lead many astray? I mean, we would think, why would God permit someone to come in and injure his church, injure his son's bride? I mean, it's a good question. But in asking the question, I think it is also very helpful for us to think about what the answers would be. This is a very difficult question for us to contemplate. From our study of theology, we know that as the sovereign God, everything is under God's control, and nothing happens that God does not expressly permit. He ordains. He may cause it to happen, or he may simply permit it to occur. But nevertheless, whether he actively causes it or passively permits it, God ordains everything that happens. And so the question is, why would God ordain that these false and disruptive people allowed to gain a foothold in the church and do damage to his church. Well the fact is God does everything with a purpose for a reason. Now we don't know what God's will is because God doesn't tell us what his will is. But we do know because God is sovereign he is in control of everything. He has a purpose for everything that he does or he permits to accomplish his secret will. So think about some of the things that are being accomplished by the infiltration of the church by false teachers and deceivers. What could possibly be good that could come out of that damaging false teaching and disruption of the church? How could God be using that? And I think you think about it and I began to realize a great many good things could be happening, could be caused. Because of the threat of false teachers, true believers are forced or enabled by the working of the Holy Spirit to begin to strive to discern truth from error. If there was no false teaching, then we could just get spiritually lazy. Say, God's not gonna permit any false teaching to come into the church so I can just sit back, fat, dumb, and happy and not have to worry about being discerning. Well, but that's not the way it is. God actually wants us to work hard. He wants us to learn. He wants us to become discerning people. And one of the ways he helps us and forces us to become discerning people is he allows false teachers to come into the church to attempt to lead us astray. And we go, no, no, no, no, we're not buying that. But because we have enough discernment and we're Bereans enough that we can begin to discern truth from error. So by allowing this disruption, by allowing these evil people to enter the church, God is causing us to grow spiritually. He's causing us to mature. He's not allowing us to become complacent. Yeah, I'll buy that. Because of the deception of false teachers, many unbelievers are led astray and depart from orthodoxy and depart from belief in the truth. We all know that in every church body, there are sheep and there are goats. There are believers and there are unbelievers. There are unbelievers in our midst tonight. And when false teachers come in with their false teaching and they lead people astray, oftentimes they lead the goats astray. The goats will depart. So in a way, The deceivers leading people astray may be an act of God judicially moving some of the unbelievers out of the church. For believers who may fall under their spell for a while, we have the promise that we have the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit will not allow us to get too far astray before he brings us back. But he will lead unbelievers out. So it may be God using false teachers to help winnow the church. Because of their false teaching, false teachers increase God's justice and wrath upon them. They will pay a price. They will be judged for the damage that they're doing to the church. Because of the threat of false teaching in the church, the church comes together for the purpose of protecting one another and growing in discernment. One of my great passions as a teacher, and one of the reasons I'm teaching theology in Sunday school, my passion is to equip everyone who hears my teaching to be better equipped to defend what they believe, that they understand who God is and they can defend what they believe about who God is. So for Matt and I and Obie, whatever we teach, anybody who teaches here, our goal is to grow you spiritually so that you are able to defend what you believe and you are able to grow in knowledge and faith. So our goal is to grow you so that you are not dependent upon us as church leaders or teachers to When the false teacher comes in the door, we all gather together. We all stand together. Yes, we believe in sound doctrine so that we reject the false teaching. Again, God using that, using us as a church body to protect ourselves. Because of the false teaching, many who are appointed to apostatize from the faith do so. A great many people fall under the spell of false teachers and they fall into apostasy. They leave, they depart the faith. But again, that is God's judicial act upon them. showing that they were never really of us. They have departed because they have fallen under the spell of the false teachers. So as you think about why would God possibly allow these deceivers, these deceptive influences to come into the church, it's to grow us. It's to make us stronger. It's to make us stronger in our faith. Yes? You can learn from what God did. on what God instructed Israel in Deuteronomy chapter 13, verses one to three, which is very, very important, which can help us to understand the question, why would God ordain to permit ungodly false teachers? Because in Deuteronomy chapter 13, verses one to three, the Lord warns Israel and says, if there arises a dream of dreams, and the he that dream of dreams gives you a sign of a wonder, and the sign of the wonder comes to pass, God said to them, you shall not hearken, even as much as the sign of the wonder comes to pass, you shall not hearken to the words of that prophet, because the Lord, he of God, is testing you to see whether you are obedient to his word. So God does allow false teachers to test us, as you said, to see whether we stand resolute on salvation and upon his word. Exactly right. He uses that to increase our faith and to prove our faith. and to prove that what he says is true. Yes, so God has a good purpose. Even allowing trials and afflictions to come into our lives, they are for the purpose of increasing our faith, to making us spiritually stronger, to grow us in our knowledge and our dependence on him. So yes, while these things can be difficult and while we certainly may not understand them on the surface, we begin to realize God is doing great things. He allows false teachers and disruptors to come into the church But he's still protecting the church. He's still providing for us that we are not merely sheep and then the wolves come in and attack us at will. No, we have the ability to defend ourselves. So yes, times can be difficult and deceivers and disruptors can be difficult in the life of the church. But God, the Holy Spirit is still with us, leading us. There are innumerable numbers of reasons for the why God does things the way he does. The only thing we can always fall back on is God is a good God. He has our best interest in mind. He wants, he watches over us, he protects us. He allows difficulty to come into our lives. And I always come back to what Joseph tells his brothers in Genesis chapter 50, verse 20. As for you, what you meant, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good in order to bring about this present result. to preserve many people alive. And we live with that promise. God is going to preserve us. God is going to watch over us and care for us, even in the midst of difficult situations. And though we have no idea what God is doing, we can find only comfort and reassurance that whatever God is doing, He is in complete control and doing things to accomplish His good purpose. So now we've examined these five descriptions of the false teachers in Jude. verses 12 and 13 and what he's warning us about. And as we look at all five, the question is, what is Jude saying here? What's the common warning here? What's the common message? What's his purpose in describing the false teachers in this way? In using all this very vivid and descriptive language and illustrations, Jude is trying to paint as complete a negative picture as he can regarding the threat such men pose and the havoc that they can inflict on an unsuspecting church body, an unsuspecting and uninformed, spiritually undiscerning church body. In each of these descriptions, a different aspect of the damage they inflict is seen. We see the disappointment when they fail to deliver what they have promised, the damage they create in leaving their wake, and the darkness that result from their teaching, having promised to bring light, but delivering none. So we look at Jew's description of these false teachers again. They are hidden wreaths in your love feasts when they feast with you without fear, caring for themselves. They are clouds without water carried along by the winds. They are autumn trees without fruit, doubly dead and uprooted. They are wild waves of the sea casting up their own shame like foam. and they are wandering stars. What do these descriptive phrases teach us about these disruptors? They pose a very real danger to the church, just as a hidden reef does to an unsuspecting ship. They make promises that they can't keep. Their teaching is all hype, but is actually empty, or worse, it's damaging. While promising to be an asset to the church, they produce no fruit. Being unstable in all their ways, their false teaching leads to their shame. And because their teaching is not based on the truth, there is no certainty and nothing can be counted on as truthful in what they teach. If you examine what they teach, you realize there's nothing here. There's no substance. There's no truth. So Jude and Peter and the other writers of the epistles, they go out of their way throughout their writings to warn us about false teaching, to warn us about the dangers of taking other men's word for it without being discerning on our own part. The warning to us as individuals in the church is you need to learn. You need to be able to defend what you believe so that when false teaching comes into your doors, comes through your doors, comes into your church, you are able to recognize it. Not only to recognize it to protect yourself, but recognizing to protect our entire church body. There have been times when people have come up to Matt or to me and Obi, and express concern about something that has been said. It's like, I'm not sure that's what they intended to say, but if that's what they intended to say, I've got a problem with that. Well, that's great. We are called upon to have discerning spirit. So this warning by Jude, again, remember we're talking about the first century church. They did not have the New Testament yet. They were still depending upon the verbally taught word. So there is an opportunity for false teachers to come in and sow a lot of falsehood. So we have the benefit of having God's word that they did not yet have. Yes, they had the apostles and they had the Holy Spirit working in them, but we have a great benefit by having God's written word. So it is incumbent upon us to learn, to be able to defend what we believe. So next time, as we continue our study through Jude and he continues his warning, we're gonna examine the attitudes, actions, and fate of these disruptive influences as they encroach into the church. And like I said, Jude uses very harsh language. He pronounces, whoa, I pray, I call upon God to ruin these people for the damage that they're doing to the church. So his imprecatory woe to them is one, he is furious that these people are trying to do damage to God's church. So he writes this letter for our benefit and it is our responsibility to take these matters to heart, to learn these things that he's teaching. Let's close in prayer. Father, we do give you thanks that you provide us your Holy Spirit, but you also provide us through your word the warnings and exhortation, encouragement, comfort, all these things that you give to us. You give to us the ability to learn, and the Holy Spirit gives us the ability to discern truth from error. We thank you, Father, for raising up men such as Jude and the apostles and other men whom you have raised up throughout history to teach whose writings, even hundreds of years later, their writings are so informative and so beneficial to us. We thank you that you have given men the desire to teach and given them the ability and knowledge to teach these things. And we ask, Father, that you would, as you do, that you would continue to watch over us and care for us, provide for us protection when the false teacher, the disruptor, comes in our doors and attempts to sow the seeds of discord attempts to lure other people, lure some of us astray. We pray, Father, that your spirit would give us strength to discern truth from error. We thank you for our time together tonight. We thank you and praise you. In Jesus' name, amen.