Jude 11-16 | Seeds of the Serpent

Jude wants the Bride of Christ to see them clearly. The church must never be naïve. Satan does have servants and he attacks from the inside with corruption. He sends people who sound spiritual but oppose the truth, distort grace, resist authority, and lead others astray.

The Greeks outside the walls of Troy were unable to storm the city, but after a long war they succeeded by using a wooden horse. Putting some Greeks within they pretended to flee and left the horse to be dragged within the gates of Troy… In the dead of night they came out and opened the gates to their friends outside.

Satan knows that one devil inside the church can do far more damage than a thousand outside of it. If you don’t think that happens then look at the many denominations that are synagogues of Satan in our world. We do not live in a spiritual safe zone. In verses 11–16, Jude gives us four warnings about false teachers: the path they follow, the danger they pose, the judgment they deserve, and the motives that drive them.

Let’s stand together in honor of God’s Word as we read Jude 11-16

11 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. 12 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; 13 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. 14 It was also about these that Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied, saying, “Behold, the Lord comes with ten thousands of his holy ones, 15 to execute judgment on all and to convict all the ungodly of all their deeds of ungodliness that they have committed in such an ungodly way, and of all the harsh things that ungodly sinners have spoken against him.” 16 These are grumblers, malcontents, following their own sinful desires; they are loud-mouthed boasters, showing favoritism to gain advantage.

Jude pronounces a prophetic “Woe!” What is a “Woe”? It’s a cry of terror because of the coming judgment. Isaiah was famous for pronouncing woes upon Judah for their rebellion to the Lord. In several chapters he pronounces woes on Judah, Assyria, Egypt, even himself in chapter 6. Jesus pronounced woes against entire cities and the Pharisees and scribes.

These are all people that God has judged and so we should

Reject false teachers because their rebellion always leads to ruin

Jude isn’t expressing frustration, he is saying that they are judged, move away from them. Let me clarify this a bit: there is a big difference between a weak Christian, a confused Christian, and a false teacher. A weak Christian desires to obey God, struggles with conscience issues, loves Jesus but lacks maturity. These Christians need discipleship, not confrontation. A confused Christian would be like someone that has picked up some bad theology from Facebook, carries assumptions from past church experiences, sometimes mix truth and error. These people need teaching, not suspicion.

But a false teacher is very different and how they are dealt with is sometimes unpopular from weak or confused Christians until they are taught and discipled.

You see Jude chooses to use well known Old Testament examples to prove how to identify false teachers: Firstly,

False teachers are marked by lovelessness

Cain is the first example that comes to Jude. Cain was the son of Adam and brother of Abel way back in Genesis 4. Cain was jealous because God accepted Abel’s offering. Cain was filled with hate for his brother, rejected the Lord’s warning, was filled with unbelief and murdered the righteous brother.

False teachers do the same thing spiritually. They do not love Christ’s people. They don’t try to protect souls and direct people to the Gospel of Christ. They actually murder souls by misleading them. You see these false teachers were not literally murdering Christians because it’s bigger than physical violence. Cain is a representation of a heart that refuses to submit to the Lord and hates the righteous.

This still happens in churches today. There are people that really do hate biblical truth and resent godly authority. And they hate those that oppose them. A false teacher will talk about love and grace but if they despise God’s truth, they do not love the brothers and sisters in the Church. Love isn’t measured by the tone of your voice, it’s measured in faithfulness to the Lord and concern for others to know Him. Not everyone who talks about love and grace means biblical love and grace. Secondly,

False teachers are marked by greed and immorality

The story of Balaam is interesting. His story is found in Numbers 22-24 and he was asked by Balak and the elders of Midian and Moab to come and curse Israel and instead he said things like, Numbers 22:18

18 But Balaam answered and said to the servants of Balak, “Though Balak were to give me his house full of silver and gold, I could not go beyond the command of the Lord my God to do less or more.

12 And he answered and said, “Must I not take care to speak what the Lord puts in my mouth?”

26 But Balaam answered Balak, “Did I not tell you, ‘All that the Lord says, that I must do’?”

It seems that Balaam is actually a pretty decent person, right? It seems that way. He spoke with the Lord, he blessed Israel in the wilderness, he’s opposing an influential and powerful king to support God’s people. It seems really great! Except, that’s not how the story ends. You see time after time, even after God answer Balaam, he kept seeking to curse the people of God. Eventually, he advises Balak on how to bring God’s curse down the Hebrews.

Balaam’s plan was to send Midianite and Moabite women to seduce the Israelite men. Get them to leave the Lord and worship Baal and this will bring a curse on God’s people. 24,000 people died because of Balaam’s deception. Numbers 31:15-16

15 Moses said to them, “Have you let all the women live? 16 Behold, these, on Balaam’s advice, caused the people of Israel to act treacherously against the Lord in the incident of Peor, and so the plague came among the congregation of the Lord.

Balaam loved gain and used spiritual influence for selfish ends. Jude’s point is not just to say, “These men are greedy for money.” Although that’s definitely true. They are willing to twist truth to their advantage. They skip verses. They lower standards. They make sin feel safe. They tell people what they want to hear.

What a warning for us. False teachers will use grace to excuse sin rather that use it as a means to free people from sin. They don’t reject grace, they redefine it. They turn it into permission and make holiness seem extreme and compromise to seem mature.

Balaam would say today, “Doctrine divides! Don’t be so rigid!” or “Love matters much more than truth.” or “We need to let people draw their own conclusions.” Biblical grace never trains us to relax holiness, it trains us to renounce ungodliness. Thirdly,

False teachers reject God-given authority

Korah is a famous example of spiritual insubordination. It’s another story found in Numbers 16. Korah and some other families rose up against Moses and Aaron and said,

3 They assembled themselves together against Moses and against Aaron and said to them, “You have gone too far! For all in the congregation are holy, every one of them, and the Lord is among them. Why then do you exalt yourselves above the assembly of the Lord?”

As a result, the Lord destroyed Korah’s families and the other leaders families. 14,700 died in that tragic incident. But you know, that rejection of Moses and Aaron was ultimately a rejection of the Lord because Moses was God’s appointed leader. False teachers hate the boundaries and constrictions that the Lord’s leaders keep. They don’t want accountability, in fact, they are more than content to run in isolated ministries and avoid leaders. They resist correction and desire influence without submission to godly leaders.

We experience this as well where a person can use biblical language and still have a Korah “like” heart. “I just want to ask questions.” “I just think we should get other perspectives.” “I think we should have more conversations.” But if those questions, views, and conversations undermine clear doctrine, our confession, biblical leadership, or threaten unity then it’s not humble, its subversion. Hear me out, I’m talking about motives here, not the actions themselves.

Recently we had people that came to our church, got involved, gave good testimony of faith, were baptized and then after a few months began having very questionable conversations. Turns out, they knew exactly what they believed but they wanted to influence our church into a different direction.

Let’s move on here: let’s look at verses 12-13

12 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; 13 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.

Recognize the danger of false teachers because they destroy from within while pretending to belong

A hidden reef isn’t dangerous at first glance. That’s why they’re deadly. They destroy those who don’t see it. False teachers aren’t obvious, they sit at the Lord’s table without fear. They participate in fellowship. They look like they belong but they are hazardous.

This teaches us that someone can be charming, friendly, engaging, generous, and maybe are even able to recite Scripture, but that doesn’t mean anything. We must find out if they love the Lord and know Him. We can be welcoming, but we also need to be discerning. We are called to be hospitable, but we’re not called to be naive.

But they’re shepherds that feed themselves. Apparently the church Jude is writing to has some of these false teachers in leadership positions. Real shepherds feed the flock of God. False shepherds are focused on feeding themselves.

The food may be different for false teachers though: it could be money, influence, status, followers, or simply a place to spread their ideas. A true shepherd is there for the sheep. A false teacher uses the church. A true shepherd serves the church. A false teacher builds isolated networks away from the general body to gain influence. A true shepherd openly ministers alongside other ministers for accountability and harmony. A false teacher cultivates trust in order to direct authority away from biblical leadership and sound doctrine. In fact a false teacher can appear very active while doing lots of damage to the local church.

False teachers are also “waterless clouds”. These are clouds that should bring rain and look promising but aren’t. They seem balanced at first. Refreshing even. Often bold but they ultimately do increase your holiness, deepn your assurance, produce authentic worship, mature saints, or comfort anyone.

They are fruitless trees that are twice dead and uprooted. Late autumn is when fruit should be there. It’s the harvest! But these false teachers aren’t immature, they’re barren. They’re not weak, they’re barren. They’re not struggling through a season, they’re barren. Twice dead is in reference to two seasons of a tree not producing fruit being labeled as “dead”. Uprooted shows there is no life in them at all.

It’s like a rower in a boat who sits with his back to the shore. It looks like he’s turned his back and is facing heaven but is actually rowing toward the world. You see, its not about your ability to discuss theology or ability to articulate your Bible study. It’s not about critiquing. It’s is there any fruit of holiness or humility? Is there submission or love? Is there any fruit of the Spirit? Some people know how to talk big but are dead.

This is a great moment to do some self-examination but every believer should be able to ask themselves if their profession of faith is real. What good is being warned about fruitless false teachers if there’s no fruit in your own life?

They are also “wild waves”. No one can tame the sea except the Lord. But for humans the ocean is restless, wild and dangerous. So are false teachers. They “foam” meaning that what is in the sea comes out eventually. Shameful behavior, sick doctrines, disorder, arrogance, confusion. It rises to the surface because bad doctrine and bad living go hand in hand.

We have to stop believing that doctrine is useless! If you’re loose in doctrine, you’ll be loose in living. When truth gets minimized, immorality soon follows.

False teachers are also “wandering stars”. Instead of guiding the flock, they mislead it. They aren’t stable and fixed but shifty and always changing. A false teacher can seem bold and secure but they always move away from settled truth.

14 It was also about these that Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied, saying, “Behold, the Lord comes with ten thousands of his holy ones, 15 to execute judgment on all and to convict all the ungodly of all their deeds of ungodliness that they have committed in such an ungodly way, and of all the harsh things that ungodly sinners have spoken against him.”

A quick note here: If you look up where this quotation is from: it’s not in the Old Testament. It’s from an ancient book called 1 Enoch which interestingly wasn’t written by Enoch at all. It was a popular book in the 1st century that wasn’t considered “canon” by the Jews. It’s quoted here because it’s true, but that doesn’t make 1 Enoch Scripture any more than Paul quoting pagan poets in Acts 17. Just a helpful note.

Remember the certainty of judgment because Christ will expose and condemn all ungodliness

This is the center of Jude’s warning. False teachers may be tolerated for a season, but they will not escape Christ. Christ is coming soon! This is the first emphasis and this changes everything. Many churches tolerate false teaching because dealing with it is exhausting, divisive, uncomfortable and costly. Jude reminds us that Christ is coming and we will answer to Him.

So we can’t afford to treat doctrine like a secondary issue when Christ will judge every soul by truth. We preach truth here not because we like controversy but because we love Jesus and He is coming soon!

Christ is coming and will judge the ungodly. He repeats this over and over in these verses because the main issue with false teachers isn’t that they’re controversial or wrong or its difficult to explain. The problem is that they are ungodly.

The issue is that they do not know God. They don’t love God. They treat God without reverence. They refuse to fear the Lord or the table or honor the church’s leaders. They refuse to honor the Word.

Remember that grace is not casual toward ungodliness. Christians are called to be gracious toward the lost sinner. We are called to be gracious with each other. But grace never minimizes sin or makes holiness optional. Grace teaches us to fear the Lord, love Jesus, hate sin, and cling to truth. If “grace” makes people careless with doctrine, soft on holiness, dismissive of correction, or suspicious of boundaries, it is not biblical grace.

Christ will come to judge deeds and words. This is striking because words matter. Teaching matters. False teaching is not misquoting a reference or getting some characters wrong like I embarrassingly did last week accidentally referencing Ananias and Sapphira instead of Priscilla and Aquila. False teaching is rejecting a core Christian doctrine and being unwilling to receive what the Word has to say on the subject.

But also note that Christ’s judgment is final. Jude says that these false teachers are apostates. These false teachers were spoken about by Enoch and it says that he comes to execute judgment.

This judgment is hell. Going back to verse 13, it says “for whom the gloom of utter darkness has been reserved forever.” Jude leaves no room for a temporary or symbolic judgment. Forever means just that. There is no escape and the blackest hell is reserved for false teachers.

Richard Denton was a Lollard who passionately preached the Gospel of Christ. He led men to faith in Christ and when the Roman Catholic Church caught him and charged him with heresy they ordered him to recant or be burned at the stake. He renounced his faith to save his life.

Not long after, his home caught on fire. He rushed inside to save his worldly treasures and was trapped. The man who denied Christ to escape the flames died in the flames anyways. If a man is to die, let’s pray that he dies in any way other than as an apostate because the gloom of utter darkness is reserved for them forever.

The Bible consistently teaches eternal conscious torment for those who do not know Jesus Christ. We don’t talk about hell with joy, but we don’t want to soften hell because God has spoken clearly. If we relax on the doctrine of hell with eternal judgment then we will lose seriousness about truth, holiness and even the Gospel itself.

Christ is coming and when He does, every word and deed will be exposed and judged. The difference will be whether you pay for it eternally or whether you repented of your sins and trusted in Christ to pay for you. All sin is judged. It’s either been judged on the cross of Christ or it will be judged. My prayer for you is that you will trust in the Lord Jesus Christ today and believe on Him.

Last point,

Discern the marks of false teachers because their speech reveals their hearts

Look at Jude 16

16 These are grumblers, malcontents, following their own sinful desires; they are loud-mouthed boasters, showing favoritism to gain advantage.

Do you know someone that is constantly complaining and grumbling about things? False teachers are complainers. Not all complainers are false teachers okay. But all false teachers are complainers. They aren’t happy with things. They don’t like God’s order or the leaders God has appointed. They resent the limits and correction. They resent the truth when it confronts their desires.

I want you to know that grumbling in Scripture is not a small sin.

It goes like this, a pastor might say “This is the direction we feel like the Lord is leading our church. We have prayed, studied, met for months, discussed it, and want to implement this.” The church agrees and then the people talk. They give phone calls to each other, they discuss in the hallways, they share it in “prayer requests” also known as Christian gossip.

Remember that the Lord destroyed the Hebrews that complained against the Lord and rebelled against His leaders. I’m not saying that I’m perfect or our elder are. I’m simply showing you what the Bible says and how it plays out. But what happens when a false teacher does that? Well the issue is about habitual discontentment instead of biblical faithfulness.

Look at what else, they follow their own sinful desires. It doesn’t matter what God’s Word says, or what the elders say or what the church votes on, they’re going to do what they think is best in their own mind. That’s the motor right there. It’s driven by their own selfish desire.

False teachers want their own way, their own doctrine, their own morality. Eventually they get another gospel and another authority. This is why someone that wants to relent on church discipline often has a low view of sin. This is why someone who wants to have different sexual ethics is seeking more permissive sexually. Someone that resists biblical church authority typically has a reason to avoid it and it’s typically not because they’re so mature.

They’re loud-mouthed boasters. They use great words and sound impressive. It’s because they’re like antichrist. Revelation 13:5-6

5 And the beast was given a mouth uttering haughty and blasphemous words, and it was allowed to exercise authority for forty-two months. 6 It opened its mouth to utter blasphemies against God, blaspheming his name and his dwelling, that is, those who dwell in heaven.

Confidence is not competence. Many false teachers sound powerful because they have no restraint. They seem persuasive but are simply flattering.

They also show favoritism to gain advantage. They seek to use people and build relationships strategically. Who can they influence to gain support? Who will help them get more money or encourage their position and further their goals? Often, a false teacher is a satanic political operative in church clothes.

They’re charmers. They seem like misunderstood moderates. They portray themselves as victims or truth-seekers but ultimately deny their only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ. But what’s their motive? Advantage. Do not be swayed by charismatic leaders who are relationally warm and flatter you. Ask yourself: are they serving Jesus? Are they serving His Bride? Or are they simply building an audience to promote themselves and their influence?

Jude does not write this to make us paranoid but to prepare us. We need to be sober, discerning, and steadfast. False teachers are real. They have always been real. They are often subtle. They are often relationally skilled. They may speak often of grace, love, freedom, or deeper understanding. But if they deny truth, excuse sin, resist biblical authority, or quietly subvert the faith once for all delivered to the saints, they must not be followed.

If we see false teachers, we should not be proud. it should cause us to be humble because while Judas betrayed Jesus, why couldn’t I have been Judas? If Ananias died with a lie on his lips, why couldn’t I have been Ananias? If you are saved today it is only because of God’s grace on you. So, do not become a hypocrite and think you are self-righteous.

Before we look at others, we must look at ourselves: Am I teachable? Do I love the Lord? Do I hunger for Him? Do I love His truth? Do I submit to His Word? Am I okay with correction? Am I bearing any fruit? Do I use grace as an excuse to compromise? Do I have a softer view of sin, judgment, and holiness?

Listen, you might be here and some of those questions hit you and they hit us all. This is why we have to realign ourselves with the Gospel. We are kept by abiding in Jesus Christ. We are kept by and for Jesus Christ. So let’s agree to abide in His Gospel and love the Lord with our whole heart until He returns. Our safety is not in our cleverness, but in Christ. The church is kept not by compromise, but by abiding in the apostolic gospel and in the Lord who keeps His people.

Head: God wants you to know that false teachers are real and dangerous but their end is judgment.

Heart: God wants you to believe that true grace loves God’s truth and leads us away from sin and into holiness.

Hand: God want you to be discerning, examine yourself, and cling to the Lord Jesus Christ and His Gospel.