Hidden Reefs Jude 8-13

Jude’s Warning Against False Teachers Who Revile Angelic Majesties

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 the 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.

These are the men who are hidden reefs in your love feasts when they feast with you without fear, caring for themselves, clouds without water, carry along by the 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.

Let's pray. Heavenly fathers, we come before you again. Lord, we would just pray that you'd be pleased to bless the preaching. Lord, that you would be honored and glorified in it, that your word would not return void, but accomplish every purpose for which you sent it.

It's in Christ's name that we pray, amen. Amen, you may be seated. So, if you're looking in your bulletin, the sermon title is Hidden Reefs, and I was trying to come up with a clever introduction that would tie it all together, but me being mostly one who resides on land, I couldn't think of something, so I was searching the web, always valuable, right, to find an example, and the interesting thing was, by the way, if you wanna know the definition of a reef, you see it's a ridge of jagged rock, coral, or sand just above or below the surface of the sea, and the largest and most famous is the Great Barrier Reef, located off the coast of Australia.

But looking for examples about reefs and how they can be dangerous to tie in to my sermon point, which will be coming later in the sermon, what I kept seeing over and over again was that it was talking about how the reefs are in danger, rather than the sailors being in danger, it's the reefs, and of course it's talking about the coral reefs, and they're living, and they're technically an animal of the sea, and yet, in our day and age, we get so focused on worshiping the creation, and though we are to be good stewards of the resources God has given us, and that means dominion over land and sea and all those creatures that are alive, we ought to remember our priorities, that image bearers are of the utmost importance, and they are to have dominion over everything else, and sometimes we get that backwards.

But it was interesting, because I feel like in today's day and age in the church, we do try to protect those hidden reefs, those poor people who are always getting accused of things, and that's when we hear scripture ripped out of context the most.

Judge not, or touch not the Lord's anointed, where we're so inclined to try to protect those people, and hopefully we'll see as we go through these verses today just how dangerous they are, and that the people that Jude is referring to are not people to be protected.

They're people to be spotted, marked out, and avoided, and we have to contend. So let's go forward. Last week we examined three notorious examples of unbelief, of rebellion, of immorality, which were also examples of just how serious and certain God's judgment is against the wicked.

Jude goes on to say, though, in verse eight, yet, yet in the same way, these men, also by dreaming, defile the flesh, reject authority, and revile angelic majesties. Yet, though they know these things, he says, I'm reminding you, they're well acquainted with these stories, and yet in the same way, they sin.

They follow the same path. It's outrageous, and what's the basis for this behavior? Again, our Baptist minister giving it to us in three points, right? Three examples, and he gives three characteristics of their behavior, but for you English majors, that word dreaming is the participle that modifies the three following verbs, right?

It's on the basis of their dreams, and here we have another contrast given to us by Jude. The dreams or visions of the false teachers versus the word of the Lord. We are people of the book. The scriptures, the sacred writings, Paul tells us, are able to make us wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.

Peter tells us that the scriptures inform us of everything we need to know for life and godliness. Peter, who's an apostle sent from God, who witnessed the transfiguration of Christ, and heard the voice of the Father, still reminds his readers that we have the prophetic word, which we must pay attention to as a lamp shining in the dark.

Peter reminds us that there's no prophecy that comes from one's own interpretation, no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.

And then he goes on to warn his readers in much the same way Jude does. We see tremendous parallel between 2 Peter 2 and the letter of Jude. Peter says that false prophets arose as false teachers will arise among you, exploiting you with false words.

And Jude tells us that these false people, they teach and engage in sin that is vile and worthy of the strongest condemnation on the basis of their dreams. Their imagination, the Lord says, as we read through Jeremiah 23.

That was just one of many passages we could have looked like, we could have looked at, hopefully it won't look like. That's what we're preaching this for, to warn you, so you don't look like that. Those Freudian slips.

What do the false men claim here? I have dreamed, I have dreamed. The Lord says that they prophesy lies and prophesy the deceit of their own heart. He says, let the prophet tell his dream, but let him who has my word speak it faithfully.

Now we know that God sent dreams at times to his prophets, but he never, never contradicts himself. They always, the dreams that God gave his prophets always lined up with what he revealed before. He is always consistent.

And so the contrast is between those who stand on the word and those who stand on their dreams. The Lord declares he's against those who use their tongues and says, declares the Lord, who prophesied lying dreams, leading his people astray, profiting his people nothing.

And this is exactly what Jude is warning us about in his letter. These men claim authority, but they do so on the basis of their own imagination. They don't uphold the standard of scripture. On the contrary, they oppose it.

And what do they do out of their own vain imagination? They defile the flesh. Now this is an obvious reference to sexual immorality, but in our culture today, I wonder how quickly we pass by this phrase.

We think of everyone else's sexual morality. We think of homosexuality. We think of transgenderism. We think of the stuff out there. I mean, we do live in a society that tries to get children to question their gender.

I don't know if the wicked of Jude's day went that far, but reflecting on defiling the flesh, do we ever think about what that means? Or do we just assume that God is speaking about someone else and we can move on?

Every human being is an image bearer of the holy God who created them. We were created, if we read the scriptures, for purity, to keep the marriage bed undefiled, to possess our vessels in sanctification and honor, not in lustful passions like the Gentiles.

But we live in a day where modesty is scoffed at, it's written off as old-fashioned or legalistic. These are the days of hookups, sleeping together, living together, and putting off marriage to maybe never.

We live in a time, and I'm sorry, I have to share this knowing our mixed audience, but trust me, if they watch TV or listen to music or go to school, they've heard worse than you think. But we live in a time where pornography and prostitution is normalized and defined as sex work.

It's just another job. We live in a day that declares sexual freedom and sacrifices our children to the cause. And honestly, too many of us professing Christians are just trailing behind the culture, constantly allowing the boundaries to be moved, refusing to view purity the way the Lord does.

But how we view purity in sexuality matters. Our view on this topic will determine our conduct, it will determine what things we find funny, what things we engage in, what standards we'll hold and keep for our children.

It determines how we raise the next generation. Do we teach them to get married or do we teach them to get a career? Where do we see God telling us the priority should be? Both, right? But marriage is something that's supposed to be held in high honor.

It's something they should be looking forward to. And we say, wait till you're 30, you're 40. And we have young people, even today, who are suffering from a church that has lost sight of the importance of marriage and preparing for it.

That's another topic. When it comes to sexual sins, it's endemic. Endemic. We realize that there are many here who carry guilt and regret over past sin in this area. But be encouraged, there's hope. The blood of our Savior can wash away the deepest stain of sin.

There is no sin that the blood of Christ can't wash away and make you clean and make you new. You are, in Christ, a new creation. And that's not something to be taken for granted. But do remember that it did cost his blood.

And so we shouldn't regard it lightly. And if you're here, you're under the sound of this word, and you are engaged in this sin, whether it be pornography, fornication, or adultery, let's be clear, the Lord commands you to repent.

You have to understand the danger here. This letter in Jude identifies that behavior, defiling the flesh as a characteristic of those who are false. False teachers, false brethren. Even unbelievers recognize that it shouldn't be named in the church.

This is what we talked about last week as the introduction. It's a scandal. It's a scandal for us to engage in sexual morality. How much more so when the leaders who ought to be the examples to the rest are doing it?

It's thrown in our faces. It brings reproach. Even more importantly, it brings reproach on the name of Christ. So if you're engaged in that sin in one way or the other, if you're just flirting with it, or it's just a little bit here, or it's not that big a deal, it's a big deal.

It is one thing to struggle. As Christians, we will struggle with sin until the day the Lord takes us home or comes for us. But if you're struggling, you will be broken over your sin. True sorrow means that you will confess it and you will repent of it, and you will take steps to make no provision for the flesh, to mortify it instead.

And that might mean having to reveal your sin to someone else to get help, to get someone to pray for you, to counsel you, a mature brother or sister who can help bear the burden. That's what God calls us to.

Sin grows and it stays strong, or it gets worse because we hide it in shame. But the Lord tells us if we confess our sins, we pray it every Sunday. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all transgression.

Confess our sin. The Old Testament tells us whoever conceals the matter will not prosper, but he who confesses and forsakes will find mercy. This is the Christian life. And I say this, I did not initially amend to go this deep on this topic and to talk this much, but we are living in a time of judgment.

And we see this, we realize God's wrath is being revealed, and we should remember that the scripture calls us to examine ourselves and to repent where necessary. What's the next characteristic of those who are false?

The second sinful characteristic of those who are false is that they reject authority. Now, the Greek word here is kyriatetas, which also is the same word for authority that's used in 2 Peter 2. But it's a little interesting if you follow those things because the underlying Greek word there, normally when you see authority, the Greek word is exousia, right?

So this word, when it references authority, it's more talking, you'll see it translated in other places as dominion, but it'll be in the plural. It's dominion that's talking about the dominions and the majesties, the principalities.

Here it's in the singular. They reject authority. And it's from that root word, lord, lordship, dominion. This is the lordship of Jesus Christ, right? This is what he tells us right in the beginning. They deny our master, our Lord, Jesus Christ.

Now, if you think about the first charge that they defile the flesh, it would seem obvious that the second charge would happen, that they would reject authority. It seems like that would go hand in hand.

We would ask, the real question would be, why do they claim to be his if they're going to reject his lordship? But if we're honest, we recognize it's commonplace. Think about the Old Testament and how many of the people, the prophets of old, would prophesy peace, prophesy the Lord's favor, and yet the true prophets were coming to say, God is judging you.

You have forsaken him. You are breaking his law. You are oppressing the people, and you are under the judgment of God if you do not repent. Then in the New Testament, but they say, peace, peace, and the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, but they were under judgment.

The same happens in the New Testament. Jesus goes around and talks to the people, and they call him Lord, and he says, why do you call me Lord and not do what I say? He makes it clear. I mean, he says it outright.

If you love me, you will keep my commandments. But how do you know what his commandments are? Get to that in one second. You should know the answer. I have to ask the question again. How quickly do we pass by this phrase, assuming it's meant for others and not ourselves?

Others reject the authority of Christ, not me. I wonder how many would admit, as we look at our lives, that we reject the authority, that we deny Christ and how we live. I think many of us might have the tendency, the temptation to set ourselves as the bar, the standard for obedience in Christ.

If people don't maintain our standard, they're shameful sinners who should repent. And if they maintain a higher standard, they're Pharisees, they're legalistic. They've gone too far. We're the standard.

As I've mentioned, I feel like this is so timely because we're talking about the false teachers and the danger that they are, but we have to recognize they don't just start off coming in as teachers with a card.

I'm a teacher. Sometimes, but oftentimes as they rise up and they're among us and they're claiming to be one of us and then they rise to prominence. We're in a time of judgment. And I think many of us would say that as a nation, oh, we deserve it.

We deserve it. I think many in the church, we deserve judgment as a nation, sure. We think of the abortion rates. We think of the mockery of marriage. Oh yeah. But I wonder if we're only aware of the sins of the other guys, them over there.

You know who I'm talking about, right? Not us. I wonder how many of us would admit if only to ourselves that we as individuals deserve judgment. We know there's forgiveness in Christ. We know that the curse of death and hell is removed from the redeemed.

Praise God. But we have to recognize as scripture makes it clear, there are consequences for disobedience. And I wonder if we think about that, that there's consequences for disobedience. And if we wonder how obedient we really are.

I mean, sure, we confess our obvious sins, the stuff that anyone can plainly see, like, oh, you were really mean to your spouse there. You were kind of impatient with your kid. The neighbor, that was a little unacceptable, inappropriate, right?

But how many of us might suspect that perhaps the Lord is calling us to more obedience than we might be comfortable with? Obedience that might require sacrifice, maybe of our time or our money, maybe our energy, maybe our reputation, or maybe just a sacrifice of our creature comforts.

You know, in a world that's filled with sin and abundance of lukewarmness in the church, it's easy to ignore that feeling. We can compare ourselves to, you know, Joe down the pew or whatever, no offense, Joes.

It's, we can look at them and say, I'm doing just fine, right? I'm faithful, I'm here every week. I put in my tithe, I show up sometimes even for Wednesdays, you know, not bad. But I wonder, knowing that judgment is here and knowing what the scripture says that God does not stop until he accomplishes his purposes, do we think we're being as faithful, as obedient as God is calling us to be in our life?

Well, if you want to know, and it's something you would know, you have to know. I'm not here to put all the standards on you and tell you how you should be living your life in the minute details, moment by moment, day by day.

If you wanna know if you're being faithful and not rejecting his authority, you have to know the word. You must know what the word of God says. And I think too many of us like to avoid the word because you can't get conviction if you don't read something that tells you you should be changing.

But if you know the word, then you know what Jesus expects of you and those around you, including your leaders. And we must obey it. If Jesus is to be the savior, he must be acknowledged as Lord. And these men, these false teachers, these false brethren, by their conduct and by their teaching, manifestly rejected his authority, effectively denying our master and Lord, Jesus Christ.

They are antinomian to the core, turning the grace of God into licentiousness. They revile angelic majesties. Whew, I don't do that one, right? That third accusation may be a strange one to our ears. Some of you might be thinking about false teachers who those other charges would apply to, but this one comes along and maybe you're scratching your head.

And you're not alone. Even the commentators seem to have a hard time agreeing on exactly what this means. Wondering if the underlying word doxas might actually, or glorious ones, might be referring to men as in dignitaries, you know, those high up, or if it is referring to angels, are they good angels, are they bad angels, and why, what's going on there?

Rather than take you through all the possible scenarios, I'll say that I believe the simplest answer lies in the text, in the next verse. We are given the contrast that even Michael, the archangel, when disputing with the devil over the body of Moses, did not dare to bring a railing judgment.

Might be better translated, a judgment of slander against the slanderer, right? Though he's on assignment from God. As the story goes, and we'll talk about it in just a second, Michael is there to bury, we're told that God buries the body of Moses, and there's conflict apparently over whether he deserves a burial, he deserves to be accepted, so Mike's on, Mike, sorry, Michael, the archangel, like our old buddies, Mike, don't do that.

He's on assignment from the Lord, and he knows that Satan has no business talking about anybody, but he is the accuser, and he points to the law and says, well, he murdered that Hebrew, not the Hebrew, he murdered that Egyptian, and Michael doesn't dare to bring a slanderous judgment against him.

The account mentioned in verse nine is not recorded for us in the Old Testament, obviously, I'll save you the time to look for it, commentators who have researched this topic, they have found that this is probably the lost ending of the apocryphal book, The Assumption of Moses, and so those who have studied it and looked at all the manuscripts and other writings, they've kind of pieced together where this came from and what it's being referred to.

And again, as I mentioned last time, this is why I believe the audience that Jude is writing to is mainly Jewish converts. He's teaching them with a slew of well-known scriptures, well-known stories found not only in the scriptures, but also the Jewish traditions recorded in the Apocrypha.

It needs to be remembered that the Apocrypha is not inspired, even though, even the Jews, I should say, even the Jews knew that, and they did not put it on the same level as scripture, but it did influence their thinking and their understanding regarding history.

But Jude referencing this information is not putting a stamp of approval on the entire book, of each of those apocryphal books. What he is doing is he's drawing from that which is true and lines up consistently with the teachings of the inspired canon.

For example, Michael's response to the devil is the same as the Lord's response to the devil in Zechariah 3, when Joshua the high priest is being accused and the Lord says, the Lord rebuke you. The Lord is the one who renders the final judgment and no one else, but these men, these dreamers, who in their conduct and teaching reject the authority of Christ, somehow imagine that they are full of authority to the point that they can revile demons.

But can you actually heap abuse on celestial beings, as the NIV puts it, and what would the reasoning be? Well, obviously, according to Jude, you can revile them, though it's not our place, and we are never instructed to, never.

In the Gospels, we see disciples casting out demons. That's not the same thing as reviling. It's not the same thing as judging. And even then, it's done with the authority of Christ that's been given to them from Christ to do so.

And there's an example in Acts 19, where seven sons of a Jewish high priest, seven brothers go, and they try to invoke the authority that didn't rightly belong to them. Oh, in the name of the Lord Jesus, whom Paul preaches, demon says, I know Jesus, and I have heard of Paul, but who are you?

And then he overpowers these seven brothers and beats them that they flee the place naked and wounded. They did not have the authority to be even casting out a demon, nevermind reviling and judging them.

But what is the reason for reviling these angelic majesties who still retain a glory of sorts even in their fallen state, just as man continues to be an image bearer of God even in his fallen state? Jude tells us that these men revile all that they don't understand.

If you read the Apocrypha, if you were steeped in it like his readers were, you might come away with the misconception that the angels were the ones who brought about the full corruption of man. And the angels are the one, are the reason why God brought the flood.

But if you read Genesis, the Lord makes it clear, the charge is on mankind for bringing about the flood. And perhaps they heard about the teachings of others like Paul, who says, don't worship angels.

He preaches against that. And so they went to the extreme opposite side, said, worship them, we'll judge them. After all, Paul said, we're gonna judge angels. And perhaps they developed an over-realized eschatology.

Paul says, we will. I'm not even sure what that means. I don't know what that's gonna look like. But he didn't say now, and he didn't give instruction on how to do it. But these men, not understanding either what Paul is saying, perhaps they took it and ran with it.

Peter tells us that some of Paul's letters are hard to understand. They contain things which are difficult, which the untaught and the unstable distort as they do the rest of scriptures to their own destruction.

And that fits together perfectly with what Jude is saying here. These men revile things they don't understand. And as we reflect on this charge, perhaps now you are starting to think about false teachers that some might apply to.

This particular charge would most likely be seen in the false teachers who tend to populate the ranks of our Pentecostal brethren. They're constantly binding Satan, constantly rebuking this demon and that demon.

Demons fall for everything that bad that goes on. Not you, not your sinful habits, not your refusal to obey God. Nope, it's a demon. And so they rebuke the demons. Seems very authoritative, very exciting.

Yeah, you tell that demon who's boss. It's nonsense. There's no scriptural backing for it. But these men, on the basis of their dreams, really their imagination, do these things. And Jude concludes this particular thought, this thought with the assertion that they don't understand the truth.

What they do understand are the things of instinct. They understand things like unreasoning animals. Their basis, most fleshly desires, is all they really know, all they really understand. And Jude tells us that it's these things that they know, that drives them, that will destroy them.

And he says, woe to them. They are cursed. After talking about some of these characteristics, we get three more examples. Threes and threes and threes. He's trying to make it as easy as possible for you to remember this and all this information.

He gives you in sets of threes. He says, they have gone the way of Cain. Now, Cain is notorious in the scriptures. He's the first murderer of all mankind. And that doesn't mean to say that the teachers were murderers, but their teaching and their conduct will be destructive.

But Cain also demonstrated no reverence for the Lord by his refusal to offer acceptable sacrifice. One commentator stated that he is an example of a person who chose wickedness over goodness. When God confronted him regarding his sacrifice, instead of repenting, he grew angry and killed his brother.

From that point on, he became an example of sin and envy. His legacy is one of exile and an ungodly line that ended up perishing all in the flood. And then he goes on to talk about Balaam. He says, these false teachers for pay have rushed headlong into his error.

Balaam was known to all for his greed and his connection with sexual immorality. Like Cain, God spoke to him as well and made clear his expectations. And though Balaam professed to be limited to speak only what God speaks, it became obvious he was eager to find favor with those who are rich and powerful and to enrich himself in the process.

Though he was hired to curse the people of Israel by Balak, the king of Moab on behalf of the Moabites and the Midianites, God restrained him. He was forced to bless the people instead to actually speak what God spoke.

But even we see that his intentions were wicked. The pre-incarnate Christ stands before him, the angel of the Lord and that famous story of the talking donkey. You know that part, I'm sure, right? And the angel stands before him and says, I was going to kill you and let the donkey live because your way is perverse before me.

He knows what's in his heart. He knows why he wants to go. He's looking to find an advantage for himself. And even after all that, having to speak what only God would allow him to speak and even knowing that God would like to kill him, was considering killing him and had mercy on him and let him live, he advises the enemies of Israel how to entice them, how to get them to turn from the way God has called them to, that the Lord might turn on them and destroy them.

How outrageous to know what is evil and choose it anyway and encourage others. But that's Romans one. Balaam's example is one of greed and a willingness to lead others into sexual sin. And his greed and his encouragement of sexual immorality ultimately led not only to his death, but the death of thousands of others who made themselves enemies of the Lord.

Not only those who viewed Israel as a threat and warred against him, but those who were within Israel who took the bait and engaged in the immorality. The third example is Korah. And you notice that these aren't even given in chronological order, because Korah came before Balaam.

But the example he leaves off with, the destruction he leaves off with, is far more vivid than just dying by the sword like Balaam did. As serious as that is and as dead as he was. He's another example of rebellion in scripture, Korah.

He was among the people of Israel. He was a Levite, in fact. He was already set apart by the Lord for the honor of rendering service. Yet he, along with Dathan and Abiram of the tribe of Reuben, he gathered 250 men, chiefs of the congregation, and he opposed Moses and Aaron.

Korah, in his opposition of Moses, though, was actually in rebellion against the Lord and his sovereign right to appoint his leaders and those who would rule. And the penalty for his crime is a severe and wild example, reminder for us and any who follow.

Moses says, get away from these men. He says, listen, if they die like other people die, then the Lord hasn't sent me. They're right, I'm wrong. He goes, but if they die in a way that you've never even heard of before or seen before, then know, he didn't just say that the Lord sent me, he says, then know that these men despise the Lord.

And he says, if the ground opens up and the ground opened up and Korah and all those who were with him were swallowed up, going down to Sheol, a picture not of just physical death, but eternal death as well.

Jude says that these people have gone the way of Cain. They have rushed headlong into the era of Balaam and perished in the rebellion of Korah. They have perished. Notice the words, notice the little grammar.

That's past tense. He says, they, those who are among you have perished in the rebellion of Korah. It's already a foregone conclusion. It's an echo of what was said in verse four. These were long beforehand marked out for this condemnation.

And he says, woe to them. And then we come to the hidden reefs. Now, as we examine this short epistle and we're really unpacking it as much as possible, but even still more could be said. I wanna point out that it seems to follow up a chiastic structure.

And if you don't know what that is, you should go to Sunday school. And I'll just leave it at that. We've talked about that a bunch of times, but it brings that this passage here and verse 12 in particular seems to highlight the focus of this letter.

These men are hidden reefs. A hidden reef is a danger to ships and sailors because you don't see them. And you're unaware of the danger until it's too late. And then you're shipwrecked. Jude has been laying the groundwork to warn his readers of the danger and the necessity for contending for the faith.

And he also gives us a map of sorts to recognize the danger so that we can avoid it. He gave three well-known examples where entire groups were destroyed. And that's what we talked about last week, entire groups destroyed.

And he does this to remind us how vile their behavior was, how severe the penalty. And he connects that wickedness to these that he's talking about now. He says, in the same way, these men, by dreaming, defile the flesh, reject authority, revile angelic majesties.

They attack all they don't understand, and what does drive them will destroy them. And then he gives us three more examples that we just talked about, but this time of individuals rather than groups. Their sin is infamous as well, destroying not only them, but all those who followed after them, all those who went along with what they said.

They died too. And Judah's warning as strongly as he can. These people are in your midst. They have crept in. They're feasting among you at your love feast. This includes not only the fellowship meal, but the Lord's supper as well.

They eat and drink without fear, he says. They're so hard in their sin that when they're supposed to be considering the body and blood of their savior, they partake with no repentance, no trembling. They're caring for themselves.

The ESV states shepherds feeding themselves, but the underlying word is yes, is regarding to the care that the shepherd is supposed to do, providing and feeding the flock. And this is what we read about a few weeks ago in Ezekiel 34 about the shepherds who the Lord was against.

It's a problem in the Old and New Testament eras alike. Those who are in positions of leadership who carry responsibility towards other, they're supposed to provide, but they don't. Instead, their focus is on themselves, putting themselves first, looking for honor, looking for wealth, and the satisfaction of their own sinful cravings.

And they do nothing for those that they're responsible for except to lead them astray. They are waterless clouds, Jude says. Clouds in an agricultural society bring the promise of rain. Rain brings life.

It causes growth. But these clouds provide nothing. You get your hopes up, and then the wind just takes them on to the next spot. They are fruitless trees, twice dead, uprooted. Again, providing no benefit to those who would look to get fruit, to see something, to benefit.

But they are condemned already, dead in their sin, dead in apostasy. They are marked for condemnation, uprooted. This is what Jesus says. Uproot this tree. Why should it use up the ground? It's already done.

They are uprooted. They are marked for condemnation. They are wild waves of the sea, casting up the foam of their own shame, leaving that gross, filmy residue that you see on the beach at times. Isaiah 57 .20 says the wicked are like the tossing sea.

It cannot be quiet. And its waters toss up mire and dirt. And fittingly, the sea is often given as a picture of the pagan Gentiles. The only, the pagan Gentiles who Paul says were not to imitate them in their lustful passions.

The conduct of these false ones bear far more resemblance to the surrounding pagan world than to those who are supposed to be belonging to Christ. They are wandering stars. Now, this reference is often used for planets.

The planets are the wandering stars. They wander in and out of the constellations. They're not particularly good for navigation because it's sort of unpredictable. They're not as steady as the other stars.

It could be referring to comets. Sometimes comets have been called wandering stars. They're just, right? You see them, they're bright. And then darkness, they're gone. He says, well, they don't provide assistance and guidance.

They don't provide assistance and navigation. It says though here, for whom the black darkness has been reserved forever. Again, certainty of destruction. It has been reserved for them. Now, next week, we're gonna discuss a little more of the promised end of these false teachers.

We've flown through 8 to 13, and there's still some more to discuss about what has been prophesied from the beginning, along with a few more descriptions of them. And we will also see what God has called us to as we contend for the faith and obedience to Christ.

But for now, we've been given a lot to think about. We have been reminded of how vile the sin of these people are. We've been given descriptions to enable us to identify them. And we must realize, these are not beautiful coral relief, coral, I'm almost there.

These are not beautiful coral reefs, right? These are hidden dangers that will shipwreck your faith, that will destroy your soul. They are not to be taken idly. They're not to be ignored. We must identify them.

We must avoid them, or they'll destroy us. And we also have to take some time to examine ourselves. In Hebrews 3, it says, "'Take care, brethren, that there are not in any one of you an evil, unbelieving heart that falls away from the living God.

But encourage one another day after day, as long as it is still called today, so that none of you will be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. For we have become partakers of Christ if we hold fast the beginning of our assurance, firm until the end.

And while it is said, today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts, as when they provoked me.". My friends, as you consider this message today, I pray that you'll examine yourselves as well.