Well, I'm glad to see that some of you got yourselves out of your driveways and got here for tonight. It's a little bit snowy this morning, but thank the Lord that that makes green springs, eventually. We are tonight going to continue this series in the book of Jude. As I do this, I want us to remember the theme that Jude takes up in his writing.
Jude had hoped to write to the people about the salvation that we share in common in Jesus Christ and to give a treatise glorifying Christ and explaining the doctrine of this glorious salvation that we have in Him. Although he wants to do that, he feels compelled to write to them regarding false teachers of their day. And he says to them, you must remember that you have to earnestly contend for the faith. In other words, there are those who are out to destroy the faith.
And it is your job as believers, says Jude, to earnestly contend, struggle for the advancement of our faith. Often, I think that we get to the point that we think we live in a dream world where there are no real enemies and where we don't have any real opposition in our day. When we read about false teachers, we think of other ages or the early church, but we neglect to realize that there are those in our day who are also leading people astray.
I want you to look at a verse in Romans chapter 16 for just a minute where the apostle writes to these believers and he says in verse 17, I urge you, brethren, keep your eye on those who cause dissension and hindrances, contrary to the teaching which you have learned. In other words, the apostle says, brothers, sisters, watch out for those people who try to pull you out of what you've been taught. Keep your eye on them. Mark them out. And he says, turn away from them.
One of the responsibilities of a pastor or a church leader, in my opinion, is to warn the people of God regarding false teachers. I think that Paul does this splendidly in Acts chapter 20 when he meets with the elders at Ephesus and he tells them about wolves who would enter in among them, not sparing the flock. He warns them. Part of my responsibility is to warn you of wolves.
What would you think of a shepherd who warned his sheep about wolves, told them to be careful because they're mean critters, but never described what a wolf looked like, never showed the sheep a picture of a wolf, and therefore the sheep had no idea what a wolf was except it was a wolf and it was mean? You say, well, that shepherd needed to step up a little bit to his responsibility, and I agree. Obviously, sheep can't look at pictures and they don't understand language, but God's people do.
The apostle Paul, in his writing to the early church, at times warned them of specific individuals. Now, I realize that there are some people today who say, well, you should never say anything ill about anybody. To do that is to bear an evil report, a bad report. I disagree with that. We need to be careful of bad reports. But there is a time and a place when individuals ought to be marked out so that God's people will be warned and can turn away from them.
The apostle Paul wrote to Timothy, and he in essence said to him, look out for Alexander and Hymenaeus, and he names them, and they're forever named in the word of God. He says they have made shipwreck. In his last letter to Timothy, he says, look out for Alexander the coppersmith. He did me much evil. God will repay him according to his deeds. He named him. The apostle John, in writing to the early believers, warned them about diatrophies.
A man in their midst who sought to have preeminence among them and was a divider, a false leader. And so it is not unbiblical or without precedent that specific false teachers at times should be named so that God's people can be warned. Now as we come to our passage in Jude tonight, we're going to be looking at some of the characteristics of false teachers. There are times when this seems to become almost academic, unrelated to our world.
And we understand what the word of God is saying, but we're not quite sure how that fits in with the present scene of religion. Well, I want to just give you three examples tonight of false teaching in our day. Those of you who are visitors will have to take my word for it that we don't usually get to the point of naming people and movements, but as I say, there are times when that needs to be done.
When you hear a man say, I had a vision of Christ and he was 900 feet tall, and he told me in a conversation to tell you, my followers, that you should give several hundred dollars to my cause for a specific purpose, you marked that man. And when he later says that he sat down and had a personal face-to-face conversation with Jesus Christ, you mark him for what he is. His name is Oral Roberts. When you read in a book statements like this, what do I mean by sin?
Answer, any human condition or act that robs God of glory by stripping one of his children of their right to divine dignity. Sin is any act or thought that robs myself or another human being of his or her self-esteem. And what is hell? It is loss of pride that naturally follows separation from God. When he says, what we need is a theology of salvation that begins and ends with a recognition of every person's hunger for glory. When he says, what is the basic flaw of modern Christianity?
I believe it is the failure to proclaim the gospel in a way that can satisfy every person's deepest need, and this is what it is, one's spiritual hunger for glory. In other words, what he is doing basically is redefining sin, and he's saying that sin is loss of personal pride and self-esteem. Basically it's a psychological definition of sin that falls far short of what the Bible has to say about it. And his definition of salvation comes completely short of what God says salvation is.
I quote from a book called Self-Esteem by Robert H. Shuler, the most listened to television program on Sundays in the United States of America. This book, in this book, he reveals himself for what he is. Someone gave me some tapes several weeks ago on which I heard several interviews of a lady named Constance Cumby. Mrs. Cumby is an attorney in Detroit, Michigan. In the printed material that I got subsequently, I learned that she is a member of a certain church that I know in Detroit.
I called her pastor yesterday to confirm whether she's legitimate. And basically what I heard was that her research is legitimate, though she may have looked in the microscope so long that she's lost some perspective on the larger picture of things that can happen. But Constance Cumby has specialized for the last several years in investigating what is called the New Age Movement.
Now you may not be aware of what the New Age Movement is, but you may have noticed a full-page ad in the October 1982 edition of Reader's Digest, page 203. It is a prayer called the Great Invocation. And this is what it says, From the point of light within the mind of God, let light stream forth into the minds of men. Let light descend on earth. From the point of love within the heart of God, let love stream forth into the hearts of men, may Christ return to earth.
From the center where the will of God is known, let purpose guide the little wills of men, the purpose which the masters know and serve. From the center which we call the race of men, let the plan of love and light work out, and may it seal the door where evil dwells. Let light and love and power restore the plan on earth. And it says, This great invocation belongs to all humanity. Will you join the millions who daily use this prayer to invoke peace on earth?
Become a co-worker of God's plan, for only through humanity can the plan, capital P, work out. That ad was sponsored by Lucius Trust in New York City. There was also a full page newspaper advertisement with the headline, The Christ is Now Here. Have you seen that? It appeared in newspapers across the United States in 1982. And basically what it says is that the Christ is on the earth now. His name is Lord Metreia. And it goes on to talk about the time of his appearing.
These ads are the promotion of what is called the New Age Movement. This movement is a network of literally hundreds and hundreds of organizations, many of which seem to be legitimate. There are thousands of people who are part of these organizations who know nothing of what the network is that they're supporting actually.
In the research that Mrs. Comby has done, she has found that organizations ranging from amnesty international to zero population growth are part of what is called the New Age Movement. It includes cult type organizations such as the Church Universal and Triumphant, the Christian of God, Unity School of Christianity, 3HO, which is a Buddhist Hindu Seekers sect.
This is Indian Ashram of Bhagwam Sri Rajneesh, which is a syncretic mixture of Buddhism, Hinduism, holistic health, Trantic sects, etc. And besides the cult type organization, it includes health organizations including most holistic and many homeopathic medicine practitioners and organizations.
It also includes political organizations such as the California New Age Caucus, the New Organization for American Revolution, the New World Alliance, Planetary Citizens, etc. The New Age Movement is also known as the Aquarian Conspiracy, the Age of Aquarius, Humanistic Psychology, New Thought Religion, the Third Wave, the Third Force, the New Spirituality, the New Wave, Human Potential Movement, Secular Humanism, and Humanism. All of those terms mean exactly the same thing.
And some of the people involved in writing the materials for New Age include Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, Alice Bailey, H.G. Wells, David Spangler, and a man named Benjamin Crane. Now you say who are all these people and what do they represent? Well, they represent the New Age Movement, which is at least a prototype of what it's going to take to bring the Antichrist into the world. It is their claim that they will, within this year, establish a New World Order. That is their goal.
And it includes the annihilation of every Jew, every Christian, evangelical Christian, every Catholic, and every Muslim committed to the concept of monotheism. You say that sounds far out. It sure does. And if I did not have some appreciation for the research done by Mrs. Comby, I would not tell you this, but I share it because I believe that what she has uncovered is significant. You may hear her on some talk programs.
I mention the name of Benjamin Crane and some of these others because they are coming to Minneapolis within a few weeks to have one of their seminars to indoctrinate and to bring people into the New Age Movement. With that kind of a background, folks, we come to the book of Jude to see how Jude describes false teachers. The last time we were in Jude, and it's been several weeks ago now, we began to see some of the descriptions in verse 8.
And just by way of review, we noticed that they were immoral dreamers. That is, they live in a dream world of unreality. They are impious rebels. They despise the authority of God, or for that matter, any authority. Verse 10 says they are like insolent animals. They live only as beasts, like on an instinctive level of animal passion. Verse 11 tells us that they are insensitive followers of three other false teachers who have gone before, Cain, Balaam, and Korah. Cain known for his jealousy.
Balaam for his greed. Korah for pride. Those were the three main motives of false teachers. Jealousy, greed for money or things or position, and pride. Now tonight we're going to begin with verse 12, and I'm going to ask you to follow along as I begin to read. Verses 12 through 16. These men are those who are hidden reefs in your love feasts when they feast with you without fear. Caring for themselves. Clouds without water. Carried along by winds.
Autumn trees without fruit, doubly dead, uprooted. Wild waves of the sea, casting up their own shame like foam. Wandering stars for whom the black darkness has been reserved forever.
Without these also, Enoch and the seventh generation from Adam prophesied, saying, Behold, the Lord came with many thousands of his holy ones to execute judgment upon all and to convict all the ungodly of all their ungodly deeds which they have done in an ungodly way, and of all the harsh things which ungodly sinners have spoken against him. These are grumblers finding fault, following after their own lusts. They speak arrogantly, flattering people for the sake of gaining an advantage.
This is not exactly a positive message tonight, but it's one that's needful in our day as we understand what false teachers are like. I've mentioned four words of description about them. Let me pick it up with the fifth one as we begin with verse 12. They are intruding defilers. He says, these men, these false teachers, are those who are hidden reefs or rocks in your love feasts when they feast with you without fear.
In other words, they intrude into the most intimate fellowship of believers, the love feast. Just referring to the agape, which the early church practiced, what is that? It was a meal, a meal to which those who had food brought everything they could and those who perhaps didn't have any just came, and they all shared together, hence the name agape they gave for the others.
A part of the agape was the observance of the Lord's Supper, that very special ordinance that we will observe together Thursday night. They combined it together in what was called the agape. What Jude is saying is that these false teachers dare without any fear to come into the most sacred, intimate times of fellowship with God's people. They intrude, but he calls them here hidden reefs, or perhaps a better translation is spots.
It's difficult to know which way that word should be rendered in the original language. If it's hidden rocks, Jude is warning those believers that these false teachers are like rocks below the surface of the water, which a ship may hit unsuspectingly and go down. He says, be careful of those people, even those who come into your fellowship, who are false teachers because they are like hidden rocks that can send you to the bottom spiritually.
But as I say, I think the better rendering of the word is spots or blemishes. He's warning them that these people come in, instead of the pure fellowship that there ought to be, they stand out as stains and as spots among God's people. So he tells us that they are unafraid to come right into the church and there to disseminate their false teaching. He tells us again in verse 12 that they are indulgent shepherds. He describes them as those caring for themselves.
The word caring means feeding or shepherding for their own sake. And the thought is that these are like shepherds who do not care for the flock, but care only for themselves. In other words, they use the church or their followers, they use the flock in order to promote themselves and their own ends. They are indulgent, self-indulgent shepherds. These are like the hirelings that Jesus warns about in John chapter 10, which do not care for the sheep, but only for themselves.
These are like the false shepherds that Ezekiel speaks about when he talked about the leaders of that day, the kings, who had no thought for the people of God, but were concerned only for themselves. And God through Ezekiel is grieved because the leadership is selfish, indulgent, and uncaring. John in verse 12, he describes them as unproductive clouds. He says these false teachers are like clouds without water, carried along by winds. In other words, they are windy and waterless.
Instead of bringing refreshment, instead of producing what they promise, they in fact cannot pull off what they say. It's as though you were in an arid land and you see clouds coming and your heart leaps with the thought that here comes rain, and yet the clouds pass overhead and produce nothing. He says that's what the false teachers are like. They promise this, they boast that, but they don't produce unproductive clouds. And he pictures them as being blown with the wind.
It's as though they themselves are carried along by that force that holds them captive, that is evil. They appear as though they have a word from God, and yet they are dry, unproductive clouds. Again in verse 12, he says they are like autumn trees without fruit, doubly dead, uprooted. Unfruitful trees. He says they are twice dead. In other words, there's no fruit, there's also no root to them. One commentator suggested it means that they are dead in sins, but they are also dead in apostasy.
Their second death confirms their first death. Unfruitful trees. And then in verse 13, he uses this phrase to describe them. He says they're like wild waves of the sea, casting up their own shame like foam. Today the ocean is kind of romantic to us, isn't it? We think about walking along the ocean hand in hand with our sweetheart and the waves rolling at our feet. My, what a nice thought that is. Boy, it is, isn't it? But you know, it wasn't so much that way in the ancient world.
To them the sea meant separation, and the sea was terrifying when it was rolling in in its fury. Have you ever seen the ocean that way? I remember several years ago we were on vacation in Florida and we had arranged a room that faced the Gulf at St. Petersburg Beach. Beautiful. We would look out our window just about 50 yards down the beach. The beach started about three feet out from our door and 50 yards down to the water's edge. It was a paradise kind of a situation.
We got word though that there was a hurricane out in the Gulf. And they said, don't worry, it's not coming here. It's going to strike north. It's moving north into Alabama and the Panhandle. You will not feel it. Just a few high waves. So we went to bed that night and about three o'clock in the morning we heard the garbage cans and the lawn chairs all flying up against the building. And it caught my interest. So I awakened. I was not even stupid.
I awoke immediately and went to the window and looked out. The ocean that used to be 50 yards out there tame and calm was at my door. And I began to wonder how fast I could climb to the next floor of that building. It was a wild night. And when we got up in the morning, the foam from the ocean was all over the front of our motel. And the waves were still billowing in. It was unbelievable because the hurricane had taken a course they hadn't expected. Well I know what he's talking about.
He talks about wild waves and the foam. He says that these false teachers are like that. They have a lot of noise and wind. But what they produce is only foam. It's scum. It's rubbish on the shore. They are wild and ceaseless in their fury like waves. They are impelled by their restless passions, he says. But they only produce foam. It reminds me of what Isaiah says about the wicked being like the restless sea.
And then again in verse 13 he says, they are wandering stars for whom the black darkness has been reserved forever. Unchartered stars is the thought here. They claim, in other words, to be guides. More I suppose in that day than today, but still today we depend upon the stars for guidance. The most modern jetliner often locks into a particular constellation or star and uses that for on board navigation.
And what Jude is saying is that these false teachers claim to be guides for people spiritually to show them the way to God. But in fact they themselves are like wandering stars. They've gone off course. They're unpredictable. There's no secure guidance from them. Turn back to 2 Peter just a minute and let's let Peter say a word. After 2 verse 4, Peter's just dying to say this.
He says, if God did not spare the angels of sin, but cast them into hell and committed them into the pits of darkness, reserved them for judgment, did not spare the ancient world and so on. He says God will not spare these false teachers. Look at verse 10, and especially those who indulge the flesh in its corrupt desires and despise authority.
Daring, self-willed, they do not tremble when they revile angelic majesties, whereas angels who are greater in might and power do not bring a reviling judgment against them before the Lord. But these, like unreasoning animals born as creatures of instinct to be captured and killed, reviling where they have no knowledge, will in the destruction of those creatures also be destroyed, suffering wrong as the wages of doing wrong. They count it a pleasure to revel in the daytime.
They are stains and blemishes, reveling in their deceptions as they corrals with you, having eyes full of adultery and that never cease from sin, enticing unstable souls, having a heart trained in greed, accursed children, forsaking the right way. They have gone astray, having followed the way of Balaam, the son of Beor, who loved the wages of unrighteousness. And on he goes, these are springs without water, mist-driven by the storm, for whom the black darkness has been reserved.
That ties together perfectly, doesn't it, with what Judas told us about false teachers. He says they are wandering stars, and for them the black darkness has been reserved forever. Same thing Peter says. That is the awful judgment of eternal hell. Just as there are going to be varying degrees of reward in heaven, so there are going to be varying degrees of punishment in hell.
And I agree with Dante that the deepest part of hell will be reserved for those who have let others astray in false religion and teaching. That is what Judas is saying. And then if you skip down to verse 16, you find that he says they are ungrateful grumblers. This word grumblers is used only here in the New Testament in its noun form. It's used in 1 Corinthians 10, 10 as a verb where it speaks about the ancient people of Israel grumbling against the Lord.
The word is one of those that has automata-pia. Is that the right word? Is that the one I'm looking for? That's close anyway. If you want to know how to spell it, look it up in the dictionary. Don't you hate answers like that. You ask your teacher how to spell a word, well go look it up in the dictionary. Well if you knew that, you'd know how to spell it. Well this word is one of those words in its original that sounds like what it says. It's muttering.
It's an undertone of murmuring and speaking against. And he says that's what these people are like and they find fault. That is they are habitual complainers. They follow their own lust. They live by their passions, in other words. They have a critical attitude, habitually complaining. It involves the idea of passionate living, bombastic speech. They are mercenary. He says they flatter people for the sake of gaining an advantage. I hate flattery.
There's nothing wrong with a genuine compliment, but flattery. And he says here that these people go around patting others on the back and speaking well and never saying an evil word for the sake of gaining an advantage. They are the proverbial politicians, venal in their attitudes, mercenary. That's what false teachers are like.
Now my friend, I do not encourage you to investigate deeply false teaching, but to the extent that you do and to the extent that you become acquainted with false teachers, you put them beside what Jude says and you will maybe be amazed to see how accurately the Holy Spirit tells us what false teachers are like. Now I want to close with an encouraging word from the standpoint of God and those of us who love the Word of God, and that is the damnation of the false teachers.
Their description, but their damnation is given in verses 14 and 15. He says about these, Enoch in the seventh generation from Adam had something to say. Enoch was that man, you know, who walked with God and was not for God took him. Didn't die. Didn't want to be with the Lord without going through death. You can read about it back there in Genesis. Well he says that Enoch said this, and by the way this quote comes from a book called the Book of Enoch.
It's what is called a pseudepigraphal writing. That is a false writing. Those were a number of writings that were produced between 200 BC and 200 AD. There are a number of them. The Book of Enoch is one of them. They claim to be the writings of biblical characters, but they were actually falsely produced, hence their name pseudepigrapha, false writings. But the Holy Spirit causes Jude to pick out a statement from the Book of Enoch, which apparently was legitimately from Enoch.
In other words, that Book of Enoch must have been written around this saying that had been passed down from Enoch. This is what Enoch had said, Behold the Lord came, or the Lord comes, with many thousands of his holy ones, to execute judgment upon all and to convict all the ungodly of their ungodly deeds which they have done in an ungodly way, and of all the harsh things which ungodly sinners have spoken against him.
What Enoch prophesied way back yonder, thousands of years before Christ, before the flood of Noah, way back then, Enoch looked forward by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit and saw the coming of the Lord to the earth. This is similar to what Daniel pictures for us. In Daniel chapter 7 verses 9 to 14, as he sees the Ancient of Days sitting in judgment and the Son of Man coming to him.
This is what Jesus talks about in Matthew 25-31 when he says, The Son of Man will come with his holy angels in his glory. This is what Zechariah predicts, Zechariah 14-5, in the coming of the Lord, in that great and terrible day of the Lord. You'll notice that there are two words used four times in verses 14 and 15, the word all. In other words, this judgment will be total in its scope.
This is when the Lord Jesus Christ comes back to the earth at the conclusion of the tribulation, when he will come back to judge all the ungodly, and that's the other word that's used four times. If there's any word that describes our day, it's this word ungodly, no place for God. What are we to do in the meantime until the Lord comes and sets things right? We're to do what he told us earlier, we're to contend for the faith. Just keep on keeping on.
Don't get discouraged in the middle of the battle. If you look around you and you see false teachers who are being promoted and who seem to be successful and their work is going well, and you see the world literally going to hell, following after movements like the New Age movement, when you see that, do not be discouraged, but know that the Lord is in control.
And let it only be a stimulation to you as a believer to live more faithfully than ever as a child of God, as a son of light, that you may expose the darkness in the world. It's not going to make you popular and win you friends, but that's not why we're here. We are here to get a job done, to declare the gospel, to represent Jesus Christ, so that God can do his work in the world through us. It may someday result in our death.
I tell you, when I read things like I have read in these two books, it makes me wonder if our day of freedom in this land is not nearly over. It makes me wonder if the day of persecution, yes, even martyrdom, is not close for many of us. Indeed, Mrs. Comby says that there are unbelievable parallels between this movement and Nazism in pre-World War II Germany. That's the course we're on today.
And I remind you that in that day, it was not many years before there was a perfectly good excuse to exterminate millions of people, for the good of all, that they can come and come again in the world. And the next time, it may not only be the Jews, it may be you who love the Lord Jesus Christ. So may we be faithful until Jesus comes. May we contend earnestly for the faith, so that when Jesus comes, we may not be ashamed before him.
May we have the attitude of the Apostle Paul, that whether we live or whether we die, we're the Lord's. May we magnify Christ in our bodies, whether it be by life or by death. God help us to be faithful, to be worthy of our calling. Thank you, Father, for calling us to be your children. We are excited to be the called out ones. Thank you for the understanding that you give to us through your word of what's going on in our world today.
But I pray that our response as we see the degeneration of civilization about us, as we see the advancement of humanism, the worship of man, as we see the clouds of persecution beginning to develop on the horizon, may our response not be fear, but rather faith. May it not cause us to be quiet, but may it on the other hand cause us only to be more vocal, more bold in our proclamation of the truth.
Help us to realize that we're only pilgrims here, that we're heading for a city whose builder and maker is God. The time must end and eternity is long, and that that's where home is. May that encourage us. And we pray that the day of Jesus' return will be soon. Amen. Let's close tonight with a chorus.