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Jude 12-16
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By request we are continuing continuing to go through Jude the epistle of Jude and Tonight we are in verses 12 through 16 and we're going to look at that together. So we're going to Start that and we can stop at any point.
If anybody ever has any questions if I say something and you want to interject and what we're talking about. That's perfectly. Okay. This is kind of an informal time. We're looking at God's Word together.
And so Let me know if you have any questions if you want to say hello, that's perfect, too So without any further ado We're gonna look at this little epistle of Jude and we were going to continue in verses 12 through 16 I'm gonna read it and then we're just going to Go through the verses together tonight, and hopefully we won't be as long as we were last time we were together.
But starting in verse 12, it says these men Are those who are hidden reefs in your love feast. When they feast with you without fear caring for themselves clouds without water carried along by winds autumn trees without fruit doubly dead.
Uprooted.
Verse 13. Wild waves of the sea eating up their own shame like foam. Wandering stars for whom the black darkness has been reserved forever. And about those also Enoch in 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 of 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.
Verse 16. Those are grumblers finding fault following after their own lusts speaking. They speak arrogantly flattering people for their sake of gaining an advantage. So who are we talking about.
Jude.
Repeatedly says these men these men and he continues that in verse 12 these men and and those those are those men are the subject of This this little epistle that that Jude has written and who are these men?
He introduces those men in in verse 4 when he says. For certain persons have crept in Unnoticed. Why did he write about these men? Well in verse 3 He says I intended to write to you about our our common salvation.
It maybe was going to be a letter of encouragement a letter to go deeper in the gospel deeper about their salvation but either way This was such a pressing need That Jude saw the necessity to write to them to change his letter to them because there were certain persons that have crept in unnoticed those who were long beforehand and And this is this is the thing about these men That that Jude wants us to understand that These men were marked out for condemnation and I want us to grasp this they were marked out for condemnation and Like all these examples that we looked at last time.
Like Israel destroyed those who did not believe Like the angels they're in eternal bonds under darkness for the judgment of that great day and like Sodom and Gomorrah undergoing punishment of eternal fire.
So he's he's speaking of these men and in our in our modern context in theological terms The we would call them apostates. Those who are false teachers those who practice apostasy apostasy and teach apostasy.
So Jude is warning the church the believers About apostates false teachers who have crept in unnoticed and they have judgment Resting upon them. Now. I think what Jude foresaw here and what we need to grasp here is That this information when we read this book of Jude this information needs to Grab a hold of us.
It needs to arrest us. So we don't need to leave this book of Jude without being Arrested without be taken captive Spiritually emotionally intellectually. This message of Jude needs to take hold of us it is a serious message that he did a total 180 and Found it necessary to warn the church about these men who Who have judgment resting upon them being destroyed?
Being in bonds for that great day of judgment and and that eternal punishment by fire. That's to come Jude also, I think foresaw That when we as the readers and his audience would would read this and they would continue to read his words About this false teaching and about these false teachers.
It would also lead to a certain degree Degree of fear in us and so it should it would lead us to to fear and How does it do that?
Well.
We learn about these these false teachers and how they've crept in among us unnoticed and that God so abhors This this false teaching that he has this Judgment that is that is set upon them and is waiting for them.
And so we fear we fear that we don't want to we don't want to be one of these. Also, we don't want to. When he says Beloved I Was making an effort to write to you about our common salvation I felt miss I felt the necessity to write to you appealing that you and and this appealing I can I can almost Understand or feel or or grasp the the gravity or the weight of the situation.
That he is reaching out to them wanting to you know, grab them by the arms and An appeal to them in an earnest In a very in a way very in a way that's Extremely necessary that this information get to them and they're awakened to it.
But he says that you contend earnestly for the faith and so when we continue to read his words and It drives us and leads us to fear and he wants us to Contend earnestly for the faith. We fear that how how am I going to to stand up?
And.
Defend the gospel and contend earnestly for the faith. What if I'm alone? What if what if I'm the only one doing it? There's a fear there that That keeps us in our seats that keeps our mouths shut. We have a fear of man.
And it holds us back from contending earnestly earnestly for the faith. And then there's also there's also a fear that we may be deceived by these false teachers. And For seeing that fear that the readers may have John MacArthur points out that He thinks that's one of the reasons why he wrote in the very beginning of the introduction.
This.
Exhortation this encouragement to the readers. He says to those who are the called You are the called ones. You are the saved ones you are you are God's children to the called ones. Beloved in God the Father.
So you have this fear you're reading through this book and you have this fear. The this fear of man this fear of contending earnestly for the gospel this fear of being deceived. This fear of standing up and being the only one.
Jude says you are the called you are in him and You are beloved by God the Father. And number two you are kept for Jesus Christ, there's love and there's security in In God and his son Jesus Christ, and then he gives a threefold Blessing where he says may mercy and peace and love be multiplied to you.
And MacArthur thinks that Jude foresees that fear that may creep in when we read this message. That he reminds us that we are the called ones and in God. We are beloved by him and we are kept we are secure and That he then he gives that blessing of mercy peace and love that it may be multiplied to us so we can we can let fear do its work and And drive us to the arms of Christ.
Drive us to repentance and drive us to our father. But we can also at that point cast out that fear and know that we are the called. We are the kept. We are loved and we are secure. So now let's continue.
I remember in the verse previous to 12 that we just read verse 11 Jude says woe to them. Jude cast out this judgment upon these These apostates these that have crept in unnoticed and it's it's a strange Contradiction to what he just said when He talked about.
These people defile the flesh they reject authority and revile Angelic majesties and and I explain that to be the the order in which things are done in the heavenlies and Where these these apostates these false teachers would would Cast judgment upon Satan, you know I rebuke you Satan in the name of Jesus and then he gives an example that Michael the Archangel didn't even do that.
So we need to respect how things are done in the heavenlies, but it seems to be different. There's a different way of doing things here in the earthly realm in the flesh where Jude Gives this judgment to another man.
Where he says woe to them Woe to them. Now we begin in verse 12 and we've we've started out by looking and reminding ourselves who these these men are. These men are those who and did and what he's going to do now is give us a a vivid vivid description of Of who these people are.
And so let's let's let this vivid description Sink into our minds and in our hearts and I am NOT the best gonna be the best here to to paint that picture. But I hope that The Holy Spirit will help us see it together.
He says that these men Who are hidden reefs in your love feast? So let's start with hidden feast hidden reefs. Hidden reefs think about the reefs that are in the water and You can barely see maybe the the very top of the reefs skim the top.
But then below the water these reefs are huge and large. Now let's transfer that that picture to the story of the Titanic and Right before it sank. They saw an iceberg Out in the water. But to them it was very small.
But what they didn't see was the large iceberg that it really was underneath the water. It was no concern to them what they saw on top.
So they ignored it. They thought it would just be a small bump but instead when they hit it it was so large it Crashed into the hole and and toward a gaping hole in the ship. So this is the hidden. This is the picture of the hidden reefs that you just can see maybe a small part on top of the water.
But underneath it is it is huge and.
Massive and.
Folks we are the we are the ship that is the kingdom of God and We the people Make up we are the material that makes up that ship and these these that creep in a notice. Try to try to stay underneath the water where we can only see maybe this a small Portion of who they are and what they are and we think we we're the great ship of the kingdom of God.
And and we don't need to stand up we don't need to say anything we don't need to warn others. We don't need to confront them about their heresy about their wrong teaching about their false teaching. You know, we just need to let it be.
We just need to keep the peace and then when this ship ignores these false teachers because it looks like such a small thing in.
In.
Reality the magnitude of it is greater than what we can ever imagine and it Causes more damage Than we could ever imagine it will crash into the whole of this ship and destroy lives. Destroy families destroy churches when we let these false teachers These apostates who are in our midst to continue he says they they come into your love feast.
When they feast with you without fear, what are the love feast? We will we can see some similarities to this love feast with things that we do. Things that something that we practice as a church. Traditionally, we'll have a meal together.
Some people call it a potluck. Some people call a reunion some people do it at homecomings. But we we gather together in in love in unity and we all bring food for everyone to to share and share alike and That was what they would do here.
That was the love feast that they would gather together on the Lord's Day and They would bring food for everyone to share and share alike. So everyone could could eat and And and not be hungry and it was so that they could be united so that they could love one another and These folks the these that had crept in unnoticed.
What would would creep into their love feast. And they would feast with them and feast with him without fear. That's a mark of these false teachers these apostates. That they would be creeping in and and what does Paul say.
Paul mentions these love feast and in 1st Corinthians 11 17 and following He says he condemns them for their for what happens at their love feast that there are divisions and Factions and there are those that that eat all their food and there's those that go hungry and there's some that are there that are even drunk and These may be those that Judas talking about that come in and they're driving wedges.
That are they're creating cliques at our at our gatherings dividing us causing factions. And it seems like such a small thing, but it's so large underneath and we're scared we have fear to say anything.
Then you goes on Caring for themselves they are clouds without water carried along by winds and that's That's an easy easier one to imagine because they would have fields and they would have gardens and they would they would pray for Rain, they would ask the Lord to bring rain and these clouds would form in the sky and they would approach and they would Rejoice because they thought rain would be coming but these great clouds would form and They would pass over and then they would pass by.
They look to be everything that they desired and wanted but as they came and went without providing any rain the clouds left them high and dry and their gardens went without water and that's who these Individuals are that have crept in unnoticed.
There are clouds Without water. They look to be everything that we need and we want them to be but when they come and They pass by they will leave us empty-handed in worse shape than we were before and In this in this in a similar way They are autumn trees without fruit doubly dead and and uprooted they will look big and strong and sturdy and secure.
But they won't produce any fruit. Verse 13 there are wild waves of the sea casting casting up their own shame like foam and something I read gave the imagery of When a storm comes and and it stirs up the waves in the sea is.
And even in the Dead Sea where you have all that salt it would stir up all the the The wood the riprap the the seaweed and Eventually it would it would make its way to shore. Where the things that that landed on the shore because of the the foam and the salt It would destroy the wood.
It would destroy the seaweed and it would just trash the shoreline and the the things that were left behind would be worthless and useless and These folks they're like wild waves of the sea casting up their own shame like foam leave us devastated and With things that are worthless and useless.
And then this last section of verse 13 actually begins a prophecy of Enoch. He he invokes Enoch in verse 14. But but actually he begins the quote of a prophecy From Enoch at the end of verse 13 now Enoch is not part of our scripture.
But it is it is writings that the his original audience would have been familiar with. And so they would have known this prophecy they would have known this these writings of Enoch. So he begins this prophecy of Enoch when he says for whom the black darkness.
They are wandering stars for whom the black darkness has been reserved forever and there there's another section as We begin to think of the eternal eternality of it.
The.
Foreverness. The great length of time that that will never end. When it comes to those whom God's wrath is upon those who fall under his judgment. They are stars and and this is a description of what that time will be like that time of foreverness.
Will be black. Darkness and it will be reserved. And that that is such a scary fearful thing. To think of that time and eternity Where those who are under God's judge judgment will be in black? Not just darkness of black darkness forever.
It's an amazing thing. Then he continues with Enoch. He explains a little bit more in verse 14 and he says about these right now. Remember that these about these also Enoch in the seventh generation from Adam prophesied about.
Who prophesied about these about these. That Jude is writing about Enoch way back just seven generations past. Adam prophesied about these these have crept in unnoticed saying.
Behold.
The Lord came with many thousands of his Holy Ones literally. Literally, it says behold the Lord came with ten thousand 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 All of the harsh things which ungodly sinners have spoken against him.
Can you feel the weight. Can you feel the weight and the plea that comes from Jude when he says Contend earnestly for the faith reader brother sister contend earnestly for the faith eternity is.
A great.
Length of time. That never ends. And should our desire be for those apostates to turn from their sins and trust in Jesus. Yes,. And should our desire be that we not be deceived. Yes,. And should our desire be.
That our brothers and sisters and those they're in earshot of these apostates not be deceived. Yes, so it's vitally important for us to contend earnestly for the faith. We must be students of God's Word.
And please I would I would reach out to you and say those who. Those of us who try to make corrections of False teaching and bad theology on Facebook. Those of us who try to do it in love. Don't be harsh to those who try to correct.
Because it is a fearful thing to think sometimes you stand alone. But then verse 16 He gives another threefold message and a three-part description of these that have crept in. As he did earlier in the last session that we looked at he he used a method of three.
Three groups of threes in his. In his way of explaining. What was going on? But here's another group of three which seems to be common with you. These are and going back again. They are. These that have crept in unnoticed.
They are grumblers finding fault. So you can imagine us at our love feast at our at our potlucks at our.
Reunions.
Our fellowship meals is what we would call them.
They.
Come in and and drive wedges and Murmur and find fault and they and they secretly whisper or bring you to a side. What about such and such what about such and such this? What do you think about this? What do you think about that and and they are they are making divisions and fractions within the church?
Now in the the first Corinthian First Corinthians section that I brought up in chapter 11 Paul tells us that. The visions will come and they are good at times because it shows us who who is of the faith but at all it but Paul and Jude here are our warning of the apostates who are dividing with false teaching and fault finding for no reason.
That's what we need to be on the lookout for. I see a comment and I want to look at it and read it real. Quick. Thank you for commenting. Just can't stop sharing this great testimony of mine on how. Okay.
Thank you for that. Maybe if someone is interested in your help with hepatitis type B. You can check that out. So that's the the first thing they are he do describes them as grumblers and fault finders.
And then the second one following after their own lust. I want to I want to expound upon that in Just a second by looking at another verse. But he says they they follow after their own lust and you you'll see how these these who who call themselves Shepherds do that in this text that I'm going to read.
So we're gonna look at that in just a second and. Then the last part flattering people for the sake of gaining an advantage. So you've probably seen this before those that that flatter. Flatter people and this is how they'll do it.
They will either they will. Depends on the situation and depends on what the situation calls for. But they will either flatter you and build you up. Depending on the situation and what it calls for to gain an advantage or if the situation calls for building themselves up and talking good about themselves.
To gain an advantage that that's the approach that we use and they will know which situation that they are in whether they need to build you up or whether they need to build themselves up in front of you and.
You've probably witnessed that before Judas telling us to be on guard for these that do that. Thank You Lawson. Love you, brother. Thank you for watching. All right, here's here's the last verse or the last section.
It's verses 1 through 10 of Ezekiel chapter 34, and it helps explain a little bit more about What Judas talking about when he says they're following after their own lust. They call themselves shepherds or leaders of teachers who follow after their own lust.
Listen, listen to Ezekiel 34 and the Lord's response to these. To these shepherds these that have crept in unnoticed in Jude. In verse 1 it says then the word of the Lord came to me saying son of man.
Prophesy against the shepherds of Israel prophesy and say to those shepherds thus says the Lord God. Woe shepherds of Israel who have been feeding themselves. Should not the shepherds feed the flock you eat the fat and clothe yourselves with the wool.
You slaughter the fat sheep without feeding the flock those who are sickly. You have not strengthened the disease. You have not healed the broken. You have not bound up the scattered have not brought back nor have you sought for the lost but with force and with severity you have dominated them and.
They were scattered for lack of a shepherd and they became food for every beast of the field and were scattered. My flock wandered through all the mountains and on every high hill and my flock was scattered over all the surface of the earth and there was No one to search or seek for them.
Therefore you shepherds hear the word of the Lord as I live declares the Lord God. Surely because my flock has become a prey. My flock has even became food for all the beasts of the field for a lack of a shepherd and my shepherds Did not search for my flock.
But rather the shepherds fed themselves and did not feed my flock. Therefore you shepherds hear the word of the Lord thus says the Lord God behold I am against the shepherds and I shall demand my sheep from them and make them cease from feeding sheep.
So the shepherds will not feed themselves anymore, but I shall deliver my flock from their mouth. That they may not be food for them. Contend earnestly for the faith against the shepherds. But let's rejoice.
Let's turn the page and let's rejoice because God said that he will. He will deliver his flock and he will send a shepherd and he sent that shepherd in Jesus Christ who came and salt and saved his flock and saved his sheep.
Jesus Christ. Come in the flesh. He was born of a virgin lived a sinless life. He died on the cross to take upon the sin of the world. He said he came to seek and to save that which is lost. He is our great shepherd the one that will never lead us astray.
The one that will always lead us in truth. The one that will always protect us and keep us and will love us. We have a shepherd a great shepherd in Jesus Christ if you do not know him as your Lord and Savior the command from Scripture is to repent of your sins and Trust in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Call on him today. While it's still called today. We're not promised tomorrow. So I hope that was an encouragement to you. I hope that was helpful. And if you do not know Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior turn to him today if I can pray for you.
I Love to be able to do that. We're gonna go ahead and pray and I know there's a small delay. So I'm gonna give anybody who's still with us. Just a moment if they would like for me to pray for them. Thank you again for watching.
I really appreciate it appreciate you watching if I can pray for you. Just type me if you watch the video later. All you have to do is type me. The Lord knows the situation. We don't need this. We don't have to spread everything out on Facebook.
The Lord knows your situation. And I'll see the notification and I'll be glad to pray for you when I see that notification. So I don't see anyone. Typing and someone may type that I see later and that's okay.
So let's go ahead and pray if you're still with me father. We thank you for this time that you've given us. Thank you for inspiring men to write warnings and teaching us what to look for and Also encouraging us that when we're yours that we are loved and we are safe.
Father, thank you for Jesus. Thank you for salvation that comes through him. And we ask all these things in his name for his sake and father for your glory. Amen. All right, thank you guys for watching.
I remember that Jesus is King. Go live in that victory and continue to go out there and proclaim the gospel. I hope to see you soon.