I want to propose something to you that will sound pessimistic at first, but if you will stay with me to the end of this sermon, I believe you will leave not only challenged, but hopeful. So here is what I want to propose to you this morning: There is a fierce battle in our world, nation, state, and city over the souls of men, women, and children everywhere between the forces of good and the forces of evil; the battle of your soul is between the kingdom of God verses the kingdom of Satan. Now, we know from the Bible that Satan has ultimately lost this battle, but as a defeated foe he desires to take down as many as possible with him, and I believe that Jude gives us the three primary ways he does just that; I believe that if you are paying attention, you can see it everywhere – even in the Church.
The three methods Satan uses are first seen in the Garden of Eden when Adam and Eve sinned against God; those three methods/strategies are as follows:
- Satan works to get you to doubt the goodness of God.
- Satan wants you to trust your own wisdom, as a creature, over the Word of the Creator.
- Satan hopes that you will seek your joy in what God has prohibited rather than in God as a benevolent Father.
This is what Satan was able to get Adam and Eve to do by getting them to doubt his goodness because he withheld fruit from one tree in all the garden. By getting Adam and Eve to doubt the goodness of God, he was able to get them to trust their own wisdom as to how they could become like God, so that they would seek their joy apart from their Creator. We see this in the three examples Jude gave us in verses 5-7 with the disbelief of the Hebrews, the rebellion of the angels, and the evil desires of the men of Sodom. This is why Paul wrote what he wrote in Ephesians 6:12, “For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.”
There is an ugly underbelly to the Spirit of the Age that defines the day and age we find ourselves in. What I mean by the “Spirit of the Age” is the set of beliefs, ideas, and aims that shape the television networks, social media platforms, politics, political agendas, and even some of the curriculum in our schools. The agenda is simple: to get you to doubt the goodness of God, reject His authority over your life and creation, and to get you to buy into the lie that your satisfaction and joy can be had with a life lived autonomously apart from the Creator-God.
The Reality #1: There is No Freedom Apart from the Creator
The “these people” Jude is referring to are those who crept into the church unnoticed who, “…were designated for this condemnation, ungodly people, who pervert the grace of our God into sensuality and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ” (v. 4). The danger that lurks within the Church because of the presence of “these people” is that they could deceive those within the Church to doubt the promises of God (v. 5), reject God’s design and plan for their lives (v. 6), and ultimately abandon God for sins that cannot satisfy (v. 7).
According to verse 8, these people, “rely on their dreams, defile the flesh, reject authority, and blaspheme the glorious ones” (v. 8). The dreaming these false teachers rely on has more to do with the reality they believe they live in. Literally, these people are dreamers who have reached a point in their delusion that they have grown convinced that they can defile their flesh in the same way the men of Sodom did, reject the authority of God as Creator in the same way the fallen angels did, and speak as though they have authority without consequence. Throughout history such men and women have been able to creep into the assembly of God’s people. One early church father described these people as those who, “…have lost their powers of reason and act as if they are sleepwalkers, stumbling from one thing to another.”[1]
The type of men and women Jude warns us of are the same types of people Paul mourned over in Philippians 3:18-19, “For many, of whom I have often told you and now tell you even with tears, walk as enemies of the cross of Christ. Their end is destruction, their god is their belly, and they glory in their shame, with minds set on earthly things.” These people do not usually start off this way but wander off the course of what the Bible teaches into doctrinal error. The word we use for the truth of the Bible is Orthodoxy (sound doctrine); the word used to describe the kind of lifestyle Orthodoxy produces is Orthopraxy (correct conduct).
One of the things that often happens when people buy into the bad theology of false teachers is that it will affect their behavior. In the case of the false teacher Jude warns us of, their doctrine resulted in a delusional state of mind where they believed that their practice of defiling the flesh, rejection of God’s authority, and warped understanding of their own authority over the angelic realm was okay.
The warped understanding that the false teachers have of themselves is contrasted with a dispute between the archangel Michael, and the devil. We are not sure what source Jude pulls this story of Michael from other than what was believed to be based on Jewish tradition. The fact that it is include in Jude, means that there was some type of dispute over Moses’ body after his death (see Deut. 34:5-6). The point Jude is making here is that the archangel Michael, as one of the highest-ranking angels, did not speak in a demeaning way against the Devil, but instead relied on the authority of God. These false teachers were known for assuming an authority over angelic beings that not even the archangel Michael would dare do.
Today, there are all kinds of characters in churches and who have televised platforms where they openly and arrogantly rebuke powerful beings as if such power came from an authority they do not have. Like the false teachers of Jude’s day, they rely on a dream world that is not real. They do not understand the “glorious ones” they slander nor do they understand, “…the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints” (v. 3). Because they do not, or no longer, hold onto the faith that was once delivered, they are governed by their depravity that will ultimately result is their own destruction. This is what I believe Jude means by verse 10, “But these people blaspheme all that they do not understand, and they are destroyed by all that they, like unreasoning animals, understand instinctively.”
In an effort to be free from the true God, they became slaves to their own sin and fools due to their own reasoning.
The Reality #2: There is No Life Apart from Jesus as Master and Lord Over Your Life
The second reality that the dreamers (aka false teachers) ignore is that there is only One through whom the life they were created for can be known. Again, Jude provides us with a series of images to describe those who crept in and threaten God’s people: “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” (v. 11). The three things that these false teachers have done that resulted in Jude’s pronouncement of the prophetic curse upon them. It is worth considering each example briefly.
They have walked in the way of Cain. “Walking” in the Bible is a metaphor for the way a person lives his/her life (see Psalm 1:1-2; Eph. 2:10; 4:1); false teachers follow after the manner of Cain. Consider the life of Cain, who was the first son of Adam and Eve; a son Adam and Eve hoped would bring good, but was evil instead. We learn from Hebrews 11:4 why Cain murdered his younger brother: “Abel offered to God a more acceptable sacrifice than Cain.” God judged Cain for his sin by making him a fugitive where he was forced to leave the presence of the LORD and eventually settled in the land of Nod, east of Eden (see Gen. 4:9-16). Cain is forever associated with violence, greed, lust, and wickedness; the apostle John also warns us of walking the way of Cain: “We should not be like Cain, who was of the evil one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his own deeds were evil and his brother’s righteous” (1 John 3:12).
They have abandoned themselves for the sake of gain to Balaam’s error. Balaam was a prophet commissioned and called to speak on behalf of Yahweh to the Hebrew people, but accepted a bribe from Balak, the king of Moab, to lead Israel into sin (see Num. 22-24). As one commentator observed: Balaam, “was a prophet for pay, a hireling, a profiteering preacher. God was his god and money his master. Ministry was for making money, not caring for God’s people.”[2] Where did Balaam’s error lead? Listen to the apostle Peter: “Forsaking the right way, they have gone astray. They have followed the way of Balaam, the son of Beor, who loved gain from wrongdoing, but was rebuked for his own transgression; a speechless donkey spoke with human voice and restrained the prophet’s madness” (2 Pet. 2:15–16). Balaam perished by the edge of the sword and then found himself before the presence of God (Num. 31:7-8; Josh. 13:33).
They have perished in Korah’s rebellion. Korah was responsible for leading a rebellion against the leadership of Moses and Aaron in Numbers 16. Korah assumed an authority he was not given and accused Moses and Aaron of exalting themselves above the people and deceiving them about the land God promised. Just as Korah undermined the leadership of Moses and Aaron, these false teachers were undermining the leadership of the church, and like wolves, they lead the people away from the shepherd God had called to care for their souls, so they then become easy prey. How do they do this? They, like Korah, attempt to draw those in the church away from the protective care of those God appointed as leaders within the Church; this is one of the reasons the author of Hebrews instructed: “Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they are keeping watch over your souls, as those who will have to give an account. Let them do this with joy and not with groaning, for that would be of no advantage to you” (Heb. 13:17). What happened to Korah? He and his followers, along with those who grumbled against Moses and Aaron, were swallowed up by the ground and died. Jude uses Korah to make the point that although the false teachers live in a dream world, God’s judgment over their sin is imminent and there will be no escape.
So, what do we make of the teachings of these false teachers who, “pervert the grace of our God into sensuality and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.” (v. 4)? What makes them so dangerous? Why must we hold onto, “the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints.” (v. 3)? Jude provides us a list of six reasons: “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; 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” (Jude 12–13). Permit me to list them for you:
- They are hidden reefs at your love feasts. As hidden reefs, their danger is just below the surface of visibility where their doctrine and teaching threaten to capsize the faith of the unsuspecting and ignorant.
- They are shepherds feeding themselves. Unlike the under-shepherds Jesus appoints to care for his sheep (1 Pet. 5:1-5), the false teachers are only interested in exploiting the sheep for their own gain (see Ezek. 34:2-24 as an example).
- They are waterless clouds. Like clouds that hold no rain in the midst of the desert, false teachers promise life through their teaching but do not, and cannot, provide the kind of life offered through the Gospel.
- They are fruitless trees, twice dead, and uprooted. False teachers do not provide life-giving fruit through their teaching. Trees in “late autumn” would have been expected to hold fruit, but not only does these trees not have fruit, they are twice dead and uprooted. The point is that the false teachers are dead from top to bottom and death runs throughout their teaching.
- They are wild waves of the sea that cast up the foam of their shame. Like the raging waves of the sea where the waves toss up the dirt from the bottom, the ungodliness of the false teachers surfaces to the top for all who are paying attention to see. One person wrote in light of Jude’s image: “They make a lot of noise with great swelling words, but they do not have a life to back it up. They may tour and fill arenas, get on television and write books, blog and gain a following, but none of this proves their genuine faith. Jude says, ‘Watch their lives. Time will tell. They are filthy.’”[3]
- They are wandering stars, for whom the gloom of utter darkness has been reserved forever. Just as a shooting star is gone in a flash and cannot be depended upon for guidance. Wandering stars are not consistent and will lead anyone using such stars for guidance off course. False teachers are not reliable and just like the wandering stars, they are erratic and will lead the lives of those who follow them to destruction.
The point Jude is making in verses 12-13 is why would you want to follow false teachers when your map is the, “faith that was once for all delivered to the saints” and the captain of your faith is the one such false teachers deny: “Our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.”
In closing, permit me to share something with you that I reflected on while working on this sermon:
Unlike the hidden reefs that destroy, Jesus said: “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die…” (John 11:25-26).
Unlike greedy shepherds that exploit the sheep, Jesus said: “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep” (John 10:11).
Unlike waterless clouds that leave the thirsty empty, Jesus said: “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst” (John 6:35).
Unlike fruitless, doubly dead and uprooted trees, Jesus said: “I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing” (John 15:5).
Unlike the wild waves of the sea that spew up filthy, Jesus said: “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life” (John 8:12).
Unlike the wandering star that leads to death, Jesus said: “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6).
So, what does this mean? Every one of those statements Jesus made begins with “I AM…”. In each of these statements Jesus is associating and identifying himself with the divine name of God which is Yahweh from Exodus 3:13-15. After Moses asked God who he should say sent him if the Hebrew slaves asked, God said: “You tell them that, ‘I AM WHO I AM’ sent you. You tell them, ‘The LORD, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you.’” This is why the book of Hebrews begins with these words:
Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world. He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high… (Hebrews 1:1–3)
The reason Jesus is able to keep you is because of who He is. The reason Jesus is associated with delivering the captive Hebrew slaves from Pharaoh in Jude 1:5 is because of who He is. The reason Jesus is “Master and Lord” is because of who He is. So, what does it mean to have Jesus as Master and Lord? Here are some of my thoughts in light of the “I AM” statements of Jesus:
The world and the devil can bring their worst, you can trust that you will not be destroyed or consumed because, He is the resurrection and the life.
When you find yourself walking through the valley of the shadow of death metaphorically or literally, you can know that you are not alone because, He is the Good Shepherd.
The world and the devil will tell you that the slop they offer will satisfy, but you can reject their lies because you know the one, who is the bread of life and the Living Water.
When you feel like a failure or that you have little to nothing to give, remember that the one who keeps you is, The True Vine whose life runs through yours.
When the devil, the world, or the temptation from your own flesh seek to entice you to believe the way of righteousness will not get you very far, you can trust the Jesus as your True North, for He is the light of the world.
The devil and the world will try to convince you to walk another way, but you know the One, “…through whom also he created the world. He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power.” You can follow him knowing that He alone is the Way, and the Truth, and the Life.
The goal of Satan, his demons, and every false teacher is to undermine Jesus as Master and Lord. Jesus said of Satan, “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy” (John 10:10) This is the goal of the spirit of the age and the motive behind every act and plan of the devil. The reason Satan wants you to doubt the goodness of God, trust your own wisdom over the wisdom of God, and to seek your joy in anything other than God is because he has come, “…only to steal and kill and destroy.”
In contrast to what Satan wants to take from you, Jesus said: “I came that they may have life and have it abundantly” (John 10:10). This is the reality Satan does not want you to see.
[1] Thomas C. Oden. Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture: James, 1-2 Peter, 1-3 John, Jude (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press; 2000), p. 252.
[2] Jim Shaddix and Daniel L. Akin. Christ-Centered Exposition: 2 Peter and Jude (Nashville, TN: Holman Reference; 2018), pp. 168-69.
[3] Ibid., p. 170.
