Jude 1:12-13

So you turn this on. Jude verses 12 and 13 for our text and study this evening. These are spots in your feast of charity. When they feast with you, feeding themselves without fear, clouds they are without water, carried about of winds, trees whose fruit withereth without fruit, twice dead, plucked up by the roots, raging waves of the sea, foaming out their own shame, wondering stars to whom is reserved the blackness of darkness forever. God blessed to us his sacred and holy word this evening. Dennis Waitley said he grew up in a farming community as a young boy. He said in one particular pastor, pasture, there was the biggest, meanest bull you’ve ever laid your eyes on. He said, now the owner posted a rather cryptic sign around the territory in which this bull was fenced in. And it read, don’t attempt to cross this field unless you can do it in 9. The bull can do it in 10 flat. So you’d be taking your life in your hands if you tried to cross the field where the bull was grazing. Jude here is posting a warning sign for us tonight about false teachers what they are like. And he’s pointing out the serious problem of these dangerous religious guides. and unless you pay careful attention to the scripture given of these false religious leaders, you may indeed endanger your soul. I’ll talk about dangerous religious guides from this text of scripture this evening. First, let me start with this thought. You must watch for religious guides who pervert good things. Verse 12 says these are spots in your feast of charity. They feast, when they feast with you, feeding themselves without fear. Now, feast of charity, what we are more commonly aware of is love feasts. The early church held these feasts for the benefit of the poor members of the church, the poor brother. They were designed to provide a full, and enjoyable meal now and then. It was an act of brotherly kindness, and hence the name. The French father, or excuse me, the church father, Tortolian, tells us that prayers were made, the scriptures were read, and then afterwards there would be a special supper that they would enjoy together. These love feasts seem to be made in obedience to Christ’s words that when thou make us to feast, all the poor and the maimed and the lame and the blind, and thou shalt be blessed. So the church had these love feast. However, what started out with good intentions ended up being perverted. Instead of promoting unity among the people of God, what happened was divisions were created based upon social status. It seems that each little clique began separating into their own group. And at times the poor went hungry and the rich feasted in a glutness manner. It was not a display of love, which was the purpose of the feast in the first place. It reached the point at Corinth, you recall, that Paul rebuked the church for it. In 1 Corinthians 11, 21, and 22, he says, for in eating every one taketh before other his own supper, and one is hungry, and another is drunk it. One doesn’t have enough to eat, and one has too much. What? Have you not houses to eat and drink in, or despise you the Church of God, and shame them that have not? What shall I say to you? Shall I praise you in this? I praise you not. Jude condemns these false religious teachers whom he is speaking about, in this section of scripture these hypocritical Christian professors with being condemns them for being spots or blemishes in these feasts of charity now when we think about spots or some type of rottenness on food it spoils it it ruins it and he’s so you mean to connect making the connection here between the food and these individuals. They were blights which ruined the feast. They perverted the feast by gluttony, by drunkenness, disgrace the church by their actions. As Romans 1616 speaks about it, they serve not the Lord Jesus Christ but their own belly, these people. And they did this without fear of God, and certainly without concern. for the professing believers around them. We should learn from this that what is for the benefit of the church is not to be perverted. Ananias and Saviari, remember when others were selling lands to take care of the people who didn’t have money, a lot of the people would come from different parts of the Roman Empire to the feast at Pentecost, came to know Christ, wished to stay with the church for a period of time and learn, they needed to be provided for. And so the church, you know, people would sell their lands and so forth. Barnabas sold his land and property and used his money. When Anana and Isanai and Fara were using it really to promote themselves because when they sold their property, they only gave a portion. They said they were given it all, but they were given a portion keeping some back for themselves. What was the sin of Aiken in the Old Testament? Was it not taking what was to be used for God? use and perverting it to his own profit or benefit. Unethical selling technique is what we call bait and switch. Retailer lures customers into his store by advertising maybe a well-known product at a very low price. So people show up at the store and droves to get the good deal. When the prospective buyer shows up and wishes to purchase, what is on the, the sale sheet he’s told that it’s out of stock but he has something just as good or even better he’s going to sell it and the salesperson then tries to sell them an inferior line of product of merchandise hoping to make even more profit than he would if he had sold the original product the brand name was used just to get customers inside the store this is what false teacher do. You know, they may talk about Feast of Charity, but they switch the occasion over to a means of gratifying the flesh with gluttonous behavior, with drunken behavior. Years ago when Rich Rossi, Reverend Rich Rossi was in the community, I don’t know if some of you remember him or not, he would teach you could learn spiritual truths from secular movies, and then he would show R-rated movies at the church. church. And this was devastating to families. It was not, it was a, it was a ruination of families. This was not to their spiritual benefit. As a believer, we must be careful that what should be used for their promotion of love and fellowship among the people of God isn’t perverted. If we have a church picnic, it shouldn’t end up being a place of contention and strife or glistence. or gossip or something of this nature. I remember Jack Howells, who was, in my younger years, he was like had the largest fundamental Baptist church in America, something like 5,000 members or something in that nature. In Hammond, Indiana. And he had a New Year’s Eve service, a watch night service. Now, we used to have those at our church when I was growing up, we used to have those at our church when I was growing, up and they would have several men speak at the church and they would have singing and they would have a dinner and so forth so that you would ring in the new year in a positive manner rather than go to, let’s say, a New Year’s Eve party where there’s drunkenness and so forth. It was a way of, I think, putting a Christian outlook on the matter. On December 31st, 1987, he told his people, be sac religious, don’t come if you want a spirit. time. Now can you imagine that? So you must watch for these religious guides who pervert good things. Secondly, you must watch for religious guides who prove to be spiritually unprofitable. Notice the second part of verse 12 here. Clouds they are without water, carried about of winds, trees whose fruit withereth without fruit, twice dead plucked up by the roots. Cloud they are without water carried about of winds. Proverbs 2514 said, He that boasteth of a false gift is like clouds and wind without rain. Similar thought. These deceivers appear to look like a black cloud is coming along. It’s going to be rain. That’s going to drench the parched earth. Vital for growth and fruitfulness. Only they don’t give you one drop. These people come and they make this great promise. You know, they’re going to give you something good, something beneficial for your soul. And sadly, not one wholesome notion is provided by these individuals. The Word of God in Scripture, is likened under rain. My doctrine shall distue like due, my speech, like the small rain. Deuteronomy 32, verse 2. Now, with these false teachers are clouds who should be dispensers of rain, of good things from the Word of God, but they are without rain. They are destitute of the grace of God. They cannot spiritually refresh their hearers. They are spiritually, spiritually, the spiritually parched souls are not going to get anything from it. Now, you and I have seen times when the clouds get real dark, and it looks like you’re going to get a really bad storm, and then we say it blows over. It just sort of blows by, and you didn’t get any rain. And that’s what happens here. It looks like they’re going to get rain, but they don’t get any rain. They don’t get any spiritual benefit. So they put on the appearance here of this great teacher of God, truth. And they promise, you know, secret discoveries in connection with the scripture. But after listening, your heart is not made any better and your life is not made any more holy. They boast of much, but they’re really barren and empty. They’re carried about of the winds. Now here we might think about what Paul wrote in the book of Ephesians about being blown about with every wind of doctrine. These people come along with the latest popular trends to promote. Whenever someone promises you something special and rare insight into God’s truth, you should be on your guard. There are many clouds which are without water. Years ago, I got a curious little booklet in the mail entitled 88 reasons. reasons why the rapture is in 1988. Right here. I didn’t order this. Evidently, whoever wrote this book, thought that all, you know, all the churches they could find, maybe all the Baptist Church, I don’t know. I think CJ got one of these two. So every church they could find, he sent you one of these booklets. If you open this booklet and you look through it, it has some fascinating stuff in it because he’s got dates for everything in here. He’s got, you’re going to tell you when the two witnesses are killed in the book of Revelation and when the new heavens and the earth began, the date of the new heavens and the new earth. Oh, it’s all here. It’s all you’ve got to do is read the book. You can understand it. So here I get this little booklet. So here he was written by a man named Edgar C. Weisnant. And he… Yeah, I know. Funny, isn’t it? Supposedly he’s going to reveal some secrets to us that have been missed by the church for ages. But he’s got the key to decipher the prophecy. He made all these decalculations determined the exact time of the Lord’s return. It was going to be either September 11th, 12th, or 13th of 1988. He didn’t give you the day of the hour, So, see, he didn’t violate the scripture. But he gave you the year and the month. And he boldly proclaimed that we will not see another national election before World War III starts and the United States is destroyed. Now, at this time, there was an election between Dukakis and Bush, number one. So that’s what we’re talking about. And, of course, as you well know, he was wrong. Now, you would have. think that that would humble me in. And he would think, well, I shouldn’t have done that. I was wrong. But no. What do I get next year? I get the final shout, the Rapture Report, 1989. Okay? So here we go. He said that 1988 was the shout. The bridegroom cometh from Matthew 25 in the 10 virgins parable. The bridegroom. So he said his book was the shout, warning everybody. But 89 would be the year that Christ now would return. For sure. He had made a simple miscalculation, forgetting that the first century only had 99 years in it, supposedly. Now, obviously, this is not a simple miscalculation. We’re about 30 years past. the date. I think he’s pretty far off here. Interestingly enough, he also told you in the book the exact location of hell. It was in Southern Jordan and he has a map in all showing you where it’s located. And he said this, soon, someday soon, the fires of hell will burn through the surface of the earth and men will have visible evidence. Eternal punishment is real. These are crazy unbiblical ideas. Now, if you think that’s bad enough, I also got a book The day and the hour that Jesus will return. By somebody else. By a colon deal. He’s got it all calculated out here too. By the way, December 11, 3,000, is the Great White Throne judgment. You can put that down on your calendar. that’s what he says here, besides the other dates that he provides. Now, this Edgar Wisenot created quite a sensation. He was on TV talk shows. Oprah Winfrey and all these. He was like kidding all the rounds. Not just in religious circles, but in secular circles. Supposedly he was a great teacher of the Bible. Well, what did all this rapture, or do. What good did it do for the people of God? Nothing. It was a cloud without water. All his claims of special insight and knowledge proved totally false. He was a false prophet. So you must realize that what these religious guides are doing end up proving to be spiritually unprofitable for you. Thirdly, you must watch for religious guides who are spiritually dead. Now he says here, trees whose fruit withereth without fruit twice dead plucked up by the roots. False teachers are like fruit trees that produce only withered fruit. Fruit that can’t be eaten. Therefore, they are trees really without fruit. When autumn comes and you’ve got an apple tree, you’re looking on the apple tree and you’re hoping to find apples. I mean, it should be bowed low, the branches loaded with apples at this time of the year. But when you pick the apple that’s on there, you find it’s not something you can eat. It’s unedible. This is exactly the case with the apostate teachers. They may be looked upon as those who provide spiritual nourishment. At least they hold the promise out to you that that’s what they’re going to do. But they’re really worthless. there’s nothing edible to satisfy your spiritual hunger. Why? Because they’re dead. In fact, he says, they’re twice dead. You can’t be any more dead than twice dead. Thoroughly, entirely dead. They don’t have an appearance of life within them. They’re sort of like the church at Sardis in Revelation chapter 3 in verse 1. Thou hast a name that thou livest and are dead. Once, of course, they were totally dead. that’s their natural state. They came into this world, dead and trespasses and sins. But they seem to indicate that they’ve had a recovery, that they’ve were given life. Well, the Lord, they profess to be born again. But then they return to their wicked ways. So Jude says they’re twice dead. They were dead. They claimed to be alive, but they proved to be dead. So they’re twice dead. He says they’re plucked up by their roots. Now this indicates that there’s No hope of restoring them. There’s no like you do a little pruning, little fertilizing. Is it going to help? No. It’s not going to help at all. There’s no way to help. The trouble is down deep inside. It’s at the roots. When I was growing up, across the street from us with our neighbor, but then past him was this big piece of land that was owned by Dr. Allison. We lived in Allison Park, and I guess it was named after him. Dr. Allison lived there. And in the backyard that he had, he had like 50 apple trees. He had like an orchard back there. All these apple trees were growing back there. All these loaded down with apples. Well, eventually Dr. Allison got older and I guess the estate was turned over to the children, and they sold the piece of property to a Presbyterian church who wanted to build on the property. And so, lo and behold, one day the bulldozers are coming over, and what did they do? They plow up every one of those trees. All those apple trees got plowed up by the roots, and they’re sticking up in the air. They’re gone. They’re done. They’re finished. There’s no way to recover them. And that’s the idea. They’re plucked up by the roots. There’s no alternative, but to replace them. They’re past their point of return. This speaks of the doom. of these frauds, as we already saw in verse 4, they are ordained of old to condemnation. When dealing with religious teacher, it’s always important to try to look at the roots, you know, the heart state rather than listen to all their promises. Someone who is spiritually dead cannot provide you with spiritual nourishment. I mean, it’s as simple as that. Consider the true character of this man. How can someone who is in the dark spiritually present? provide you with any illumination with regard to spiritual things. As Isaiah says, there’s no light in them. Jesus condemned the Pharisees for what? Being blind guides. You can’t see how you’re going to lead anybody else. And he says, you’re going to both fall in the ditch if you follow these blind guides. So if we cut through all the glitz, all the propaganda, and we ask ourselves, does this person know the Lord, Do I see any evidence of spiritual life within this person? And if not, well, then how can they be a benefit to us? So you must watch for spiritual guides who are spiritually dead. Fourthly, you must watch for religious guides here who are full of pride and corruption. Let’s look at the first part of verse 13. Raging waves of the sea, foaming out their own shame. Have you ever been to the seashore when the ocean waves are raging? Or maybe a storm is coming up, a hurricane’s coming offshore, and all of a sudden the waves get, you know, five, ten, fifteen feet high, come crashing against the shore. They don’t come rippling in. They come in with great turbulence, great force. And you can watch them forming offshore, and they are swelling. up the great heights and then they fall, crash against the shore. False teachers are like this. They’re swelling pride and arrogance. Caused them to be lifted up, puffed up, if you would. With a sense of their position and knowledge, their superiority in gifts. They are raging waves in the sense that they are certainly those who furiously attack the truth of God’s word. and the gospel of Jesus Christ. However, what comes out of these raging waves, we’re told to shame. Just as a raging ocean cast up mar and filth, so do these false teachers. You go to the shore after one of these huge storms and all kinds of debris is littered all over the shore. Their arrogance leads to all kinds of shameful activities. Corruption is what is behind their wake. One of the… recurring marks of false teachers is that they tend to be brazen, self-willed, arrogant, and full of pride. The cultist, Jim Jones, did not reveal his true colors at the beginning. At first, you might think, you know, what he was saying was, at least sounded authentic on the surface, some of the things that he was saying, at least. However, he truly revealed what he was saying. he was when he threw his Bible on the floor during a sermon and declared too many people were looking at this instead of me. A former member recalls he actually came out and said he wanted to be called Father, and he wanted us to pray to him, and he wanted us to carry around his pitcher in our wallets. He was a man puffed up with a sense of his own importance, actually deifying himself. And in the end, you remember the disaster. And the poison, Kool-Aid episode, and how to that. how he had all his followers, you know, forced him to drink the poison, Kool-Aid, and they all died. So you must watch for religious guides that are full of pride and corruption. And then finally, you must watch for religious guides who actually are leading people to hell. So he says here in the last part of verse 13, Wondering stars to whom has reserved the blackness of darkness forever. Now, most of us have seen a shooting star or have some ideas. of what a shooting star is. It’s a star which leaves its course, enters into the Earth’s atmosphere, and it flashes brilliantly for a period of time. It tracks people’s attention. But then the friction which it encounters eventually burns it to cinders, and it disappears, goes out. This is what Jude calls these false teachers. They’re wandering stars. Now, we’ve already touched on this in the book of Revelation, but you find it also in the book of Daniel. In the Bible, political and religious leaders are sometimes like another stars. They are the lights. They are the guides. They are the direct, the people will provide direction. Obviously, stars are used for guidance and navigation, like the North Star, if you’re sailing, and so forth. It is only appropriate, then, that stars should symbolize leadership. We could talk about political leadership. Daniel chapter 8 versus 9 and 10, Antiochus Epiphanes, who cast down some of the holst and stars to the ground and stomped upon them. And Daniel 8, 8 to 10, we read those words. He was a very powerful, arrogant ruler who meted out judgment upon the Jews. And the language refers to the noblemen of the Jews in round 165 BC. judges, the priests, the elders, and so forth. In the book of Daniel, chapter 12, verse 3, we read about, They who turn many to righteousness will shine as the stars forever and ever. Here we would probably put that in a category of those who will preach the gospel. Revelation 120, the seven stars are the angels or the messengers or the ministers of the seven churches. So these apostates may have some pretended allegiance to Jesus Christ, but they’re not true guides. They profess that they’re going to provide spiritual light and guide to people of God, but they don’t. Give you another incident from Jack Howles, the fundamental Baptist guy, and when I was growing up, who supposedly had the largest church, Baptist church in America. He had a sermon entitled, Don’t Cut the Grass. And he said, all of us have within us wheat and tears the good and the bad. He said, you let both grow side by side, and you don’t cut anything. You don’t mortify any sin, evidently. Lest we cut out the wheat, the good in us by mistake. Now that is a complete distortion. of what the Word of God teaches. But you can see, these are the kinds of things that are being taught to people. However, their profession is false. They’re shooting stars. They have their, you know, 15 minutes of fame, so to speak. They have a time when they are up there where they’re looked upon as great or something of this nature, but they’re doomed to eternal darkness. Hell itself. They’re reserved. for it. Of God’s eternal decree. A shooting star may attract a lot of attention, but it burns out. And so it is with these religious guides. The danger, however, is that they may lead other people to the same end. Jesus condemned the Pharisees for making their disciples twofold more than a child of hell than they themselves. Imagine that. This is what these spiritual fraud do they make disciples are actually worse than they are. Well, Dennis Waitley came to realize the danger of crossing a field containing a mean bull by reading the farmer’s sign the bull can do it in 10 seconds flat. Jude here provides you with the description of these false religious guides as a warning. We should be alert. We should be warned by the signs that are provided. Stay away from these kind of people. Because they They pervert good things. They’re spiritually unprofitable. They’re spiritually dead. They’re full of pride and corruption. And they lead people to hell. These are all the dangers associated with them. Let us close with the word of prayer.