Jude 11-16 | Seeds of the Serpent

us. With one voice you will sing to the Lord. And with one heart will live out his word till the whole earth sings. The redeemer has come for he dwells in the presence of his people. Oh, how good it is on this journey. We share to rejoice with the happy and weep with those who mourn. For the weak find strength, the afflicted find grace when we offer the blessing of belonging. who with one voice will sing to the Lord and with one heart will live out his word till the whole earth cease. The redeemer has come for he dwells in the presence of his people. Oh, how good it is to embrace his command. To prefer one another, forgive as he forgives. When we live as one, we all share in the love of the son with the father and the spirit. So with one voice we'll sing to the Lord and with one heart will live at his word till the whole earth sees. The redeemer has come for he dwells in the presence of his people. With one voice will sing to the Lord and with one heart will live out his word till the whole earth cease. The redeemer has come for he dwells in the presence of his people. Yeah, I think so. Come praise and glorify our God, the Father of our Lord. In Christ he has in heavenly realms his blessings on us for for pure and blameless in his sight. He destined us to be. And now we've been adopted through his son eternally. To the praise

of your glory. To the praise of your mercy and grace. of your glory. You're the God who saves. Come praise and glorify our God who gives his praising Christ. In him our sins are washed away. Redeemed through sacriice. In him God has made known to us the mystery of his will. in our splend sorry his purpose to fulfill to the praise of your glory to the praise of your mercy and praise to the praise of your glory you are the God who saves Come praise and glorify our God. For we believe the word and through our faith we have a seal. The spirit of the Lord. The spirit guarantees our hope until redemption's done. one until we join in endless praise to God the three in one. To the praise of your glory. To the praise of your mercy and praise. of your glory. You are the God who saves to the praise of your glory. To the praise of your mercy and grace, to the praise of your glory. We are the God who saves. Amen. I don't know about you guys, but I think spring's probably my favorite time of year. I mean, the we didn't have snow, but snow's melting away. Stuff's butting out, and it's just a good reminder that we can put faith in God who makes all things new. Amen. >> Amen. >> Amen. Let's pray. Father God, thank you for each and every person here today. Thank you for all the new faces. Thank you for everybody who

braved Time Change Sunday to make it out here today. God, it's uh so good to sing together and to praise your name. Pray that you'll take this offering, use it mightily to further your kingdom. Bless each and everyone here today. Ask this all in your name. Amen. All right. So today's catechism question is what is the seventh commandment and what is forbidden in it? Uh the seventh commandment is found in Exodus 20:14. You shall not commit adultery. Our answers are found in Matthew 20 excuse me 5 28. But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart. And then our next answer is found in Ephesians 5:es 3 and 4. But sexual immorality and all impurity or covetousness must not even be named among you as is proper among saints. Let there be no filthiness, nor foolish talk, nor crude joking, which are out of place, but instead let there be thanksgiving. Thank you. If you would like to stand as we sing before the throne of God above. Before the throne of God above, I have a strong and perfect king, a great high priest whose name is love. Whoever lives and pleads for me, my name is craving on his hands. My name is Ren on his heart. I know that while in heaven he s no tongue can bid me then depart. No tongue can bid me then depart. When Satan tempts me to despair and tells me all the guilt within, upward I look and see him there who made an end to all my sin. Because the sinless Savior died. My sinful soul is counted free. For God the just is sisfied. To look on him and pardon me. Behold him there. The risen lamb, my perfect spotless righteousness,

the great unchangeable. I am the king of glory and of grace. One with himself. I cannot die. My soul is purchased with his blood. My life is hid with Christ on high. With Christ my savior and my God. I bow before the cross of Christ and marvel at his love divine. God's perfect son was sacrificed to make me righteous in God's eyes. His river steps I cannot know but I can glory in its blood. The Lord most high has bowed down low and poured on me his glorious love and poured on me his glorious love. Light of the world, you step down into darkness. Open my eyes, let me see. Beauty that made this heart adore you. Hope of a life spent with Here I am to worship. Here I am to bow down. Here I am to say that you're my God. You're all together lovely, allto together worthy, allto together wonderful to me. King of all days, oh so highly exalted, glorious in heaven above. Humbly you came to the earth you created. All for love's sake became poor. Here I am to worship. Here I am to bow down. Here I am to say that you're my God. You're all together lovely, allto together worthy, allto together wonderful to me. They'll never know how much it cost to see my sin upon that cross. I'll never

know how much it costs to see my sin upon that cross. Here I am to worship. Here I am to bow down. Here I am to say that you're my God. You're all together lovely, allto together worthy, allto together wonderful to me. >> Sing it one more time. Here I am to worship. Here I am to bow down. Here I am to say that you're my God. You're all together lovely, all together worthy, allto together wonderful to me. >> Lord, you are so wonderful. You are matchless. There is nothing greater than you. You're rich in love. Your mercy is deep. God, I pray that you would use your word this morning to convict us, to have us give us a better understanding of you and mold us to be more like Christ. And it's in his name we pray. Amen. Well, if uh you have your Bible, and I hope that you do, please turn with me to Jude. June 11th. Um, quick note, uh, the Annie Armstrong Easter offering is not next week. Um, I know that like there's day of prayer, everything, but we we do it on Palm Sunday. Uh, so that'll be on the what, the 28th, 29th, something like that. Um, yeah. And uh also please don't forget next week after the uh um John 3:16 chili lunch, you guys are invited, okay, to be there. We got all of our weekare families that'll be here. And so all the kids that are going to give their presentation next week and uh so last year I think that we were at like 290 something uh in service at that time. We have 293 chairs in this room. And so, uh, I I'm I'm asking you if, uh, if you could kind of fill in the back

and, uh, leave the front open for our family so that way they can get the pictures of their kids and all that kind of stuff. If you could, uh, just a very simple way, uh, for you to love on them and, uh, uh, be sure to welcome them, eat with them. Uh, a lot of these folks, they don't have a church family. And so, uh, it's a great way for us to be able to share the gospel with them uh, as they come into our church. U so thankful for uh Susie and the WeCare team in helping us to make that a reality. And then after that at 1:30 we will have just a regularly scheduled business meeting uh financial reports and stuff like that. Also going to be presenting some rough drafts of uh uh you know kind of rebrands for our church that go along with our uh uh new mission and vision statement and stuff like that. And uh we're not going to make any decisions. Just want to present it to you. And if you got ever other ideas, uh, of course you're welcome to present those as well. Um, was there anything else? I feel like there was one more thing and I've done forgotten it. So if you told me something to say, I apologize to you uh, whoever it was. Um, Jude 11 is uh, where we are. Last week, this is kind of a part B uh, sermon. Last week we talked about uh the fact that God does not overlook rebellion or unbelief or false teaching. And so Jude, what he does is he reminds us uh last week of unbelieving Israel, the fallen angels, Sodom and Gomorrah, and the fact that false teachers may appear bold and persuasive, but they stand under the righteous judgment of a holy God that is always good. And uh his judgments are always just. And the reason why the judgment is righteous is because they reject his authority. They defile the things that are holy. They use grace as a means for sensuality and they lead others towards destruction. And so in today's text, part B, uh Jude does not warn the church

about threats from outside. He continues to press his point about the dangers from within. uh because the the most dangerous thing to the church is not the the open atheist or the pagans that are in the world or the secular voices that are outside the church walls. Uh it is those that are smoothtalking, morally loose, doctrinally corrupt, insubordinate people who become part of a Christian fellowship and they present themselves as believers and yet they are not. And so that's what makes Jude very relevant for us today. Is because false teachers, they they still creep into churches unnoticed. They speak Christianes. They often sound gracious or open-minded or full of love. They seem insightful and compassionate. But beneath that fluffy exterior, they are dangerous. And so Jude, he wants the bride of Christ to see the danger very clearly and that the church must not be naive. Satan, he does have servants that attack the church from inside, from within the church. And so Satan, he sends people that sound spiritual but oppose the gospel, that oppose the truth that is found in God's word. It's kind of like uh the Greeks, right? Uh for for many many months they were unable to take the city until they left the Trojan horse outside. And once that horse was brought in, of course it was filled with Greeks and they were able to get out and wreak havoc in the city and let their friends in and Troy fell in the night. Satan. He knows that one devil inside of the church can do far more damage than a thousand that are outside of it. He knows that. And if you don't think that happens, then look at the state of many churches today. Even entire denominations have become synagogues of Satan. We do not live in a spiritual safe zone.

And nor do we wage war against flesh and blood, but against powers and principalities, against the very rulers of darkness. And so in verses 11- 16, Jude, he gives us four warnings about false teachers. He tells us about the path that they follow. He tells us about the danger that they pose and the judgment that they they that they deserve and the motivations that drive them. So with that in mind, let us all stand in honor of God's word as we read Jude verses 11- 16. God's word, it says this, "Woe to them for they walked in the way of Cain and abandoned themselves for the sake of gain to Balam's error and perished in Kora's rebellion. These are hidden reefs at your love feast as they feast with you without fear. Shepherds feeding themselves. Waterless clouds swept along by winds. Fruitless trees in late autumn twice dead uprooted. Wild waves of the sea casting up the foam of their own shame. Wandering stars for whom the gloom of utter darkness has been reserved forever. It was about these that Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied, saying, "Behold, the Lord comes with 10 thousands of his holy ones 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. These are grumblers, malcontents, following their own unsinful desires. They are loudmouth boasters showing favoritism to gain advantage. Let's pray. Lord, we do uh thank you for this time that we get to have together here. Uh we thank you for your word and uh Lord, how timely this is um for the church of God today. um who uh in in our world of uh

YouTube and Tik Tok and Facebook and Instagram uh Lord there's a lot of people that sound really convincing and uh now they have the ability to spread um not just misinformation um but to uh spread poison and so Lord I pray that you would protect this flock Lord these are your people and uh Lord Lord, it's it's not about what I think is right. It's not about uh my preferences or anyone else's, Lord. U it's what your word has said clearly. And so God, we we submit to that u in every area. Where you have spoken, we say amen. Um where you have um uh directed us, we commit ourselves to obedience. Uh where we get it wrong, we repent and ask for your instruction. And father, I pray that you would help us today. Uh to understand what you want to say to us, God. I pray that if uh there's anyone here that that they don't know you as their Lord and Savior, I pray that today would be the day that they'd get saved. Uh that they receive you uh by your grace, God, that they would trust in you. If uh there's anyone in here that's walking in disobedience, I pray that today that they would uh make that right and repent and uh walk faithfully before you from here on out. We just submit ourselves to you, God. We ask for you to uh move among our flock and uh uh Lord, there's so many needy people. So many people are dealing with uh uh sicknesses and um uh hurts and um that that that some are even facing death. Lord, we know that death is an enemy. And uh we thank you for the victory that you've given to us in Christ. We thank you for that eternal hope. Lord, we want to continue to lift up to you the Reed family. Pray for Byron and Laura as uh she continues to decline. Father, I pray that uh uh the Church of God would rally around them uh in prayer, providing meals, doing whatever we can

to uh help Byron uh minister to his wife during these uh final weeks or months. God, we just love you. We ask that you would continue to minister to us by your holy spirit God in Jesus name. Amen. Um the the passage it starts out with this word woe which is a prophetic judgment. Um and uh in some ways it's also a cry of terror. Uh because uh I if you have ever read Isaiah, he he pronounces woe after woe after woe after woe all the way through it. Uh Isaiah chapter 5, he pronounces woes upon uh the nation of Judah constantly. I think there's like six or seven woes just in that chapter. Even in chapter 6 when he has a vision of the Lord, he says, "Woe to me for I am ruined." Uh he pronounces woes upon Assyria and Egypt. And all the way through that book of Isaiah, he is pronouncing those those judgments even upon himself. And it's not just Isaiah, it's also Jesus Christ. Jesus, he pronounced woes upon the the scribes and the Pharisees for their their their hypocrisy and their judgments. He uh didn't just do it to those hypocrites, but also to entire cities like Corism and and Betheda because they saw the work of God and did not believe. And what we learn is that all of these people talking about these false teachers, those that are faithless, they reject, we ought to reject false teachers because their rebellion always leads to ruin. Jude, he's not expressing frustration in his woes. He is saying that they are judged. So move away from them. And let me clarify this a bit because all right um uh there's a difference between a weak Christian, between an ignorant Christian and a false teacher. A weak Christian desires to obey God. Uh

they struggle with things like obedience. Uh they they struggle with conscious issues. Uh they love Jesus, but they lack maturity. And what that Christian needs is disciplehip. Amen. >> They need someone to come alongside of them and show them exactly how to walk with the Lord, how to have a relationship with him, to draw close to him. So those Christians, they need disciplehip, not confrontation. A a confused Christian or an ignorant Christian, they they would be someone that has likely picked up some bad theology. Okay? uh whether it's from a a a poor church experience or uh maybe they just mix truth and and error and bring along some synretatism into their worldview. And what those Christians need is they need teaching, not suspicion. They need to be encouraged and directed to what the word of God says. But a false teacher is someone who is extremely different. And how they are dealt with is sometimes unpopular from those that are weak or ignorant until they are taught and discipled. You see, Jude, what he decides to do here is he's talking about the judgment that these false teachers are under. And it it's a complete judgment. And what he does is he uses some Old Testament examples to prove how to identify a false teacher. Uh the first thing that we should notice is that a false teacher is marked by lovelessness. And he uses Cain as that example. He's the first example. And Cain, he's the son of Adam, the brother of Abel way back in Genesis 4. Cain, he was jealous because God accepted Abel's good offering. And as a result of that, Cain was filled with hate for his brother. He rejected the Lord's warning. God came to him and said, "If you do good, won't you be accepted as well?" But he rejected the Lord and was filled with unbelief and he

murdered the righteous brother. And false teachers, they do the same thing spiritually. They do not love Christ people. They don't try to protect souls. They direct people away from the gospel to lean on their own understanding. And what they do is they actually murder souls in the process by misleading them. They're not literally murdering Christians. That's not what the false teachers are doing here because it's bigger than physical violence. Cain is the representation of a heart that refuses to submit to the Lord and he they hate righteousness. And that still happens in the church today. There are people that really do hate biblical truth. They despise it. They resent godly authority. And they hate those that oppose them. And a false teacher, they're going to talk all about love and grace. But when they despise God's truth, it's not God's love and grace that they're talking about. They don't love the brothers and the sisters that are in the church because love is not measured by the tone of your voice. It's measured by faithfulness to the Lord and concern for others to know him and to love him. Because not everyone that talks about loving grace means biblical loving grace. Secondly, false teachers are marked by greed and immorality. Jude uses the story of Balum. And the story of Balam is really interesting. Most people just know Balum and the talking donkey, but it's much more than that. In in Numbers chapters 22- 24. I would encourage you to read it uh today because uh Balum he um he practiced the art of divination which is talking to the gods which is expressly prohibited in the law of god and what what he does is uh he's approached by the the the king of Moab

and Midian his name is Bailac and the elders of Midian and Moab Moab they come and they ask Balam to curse Israel and instead here's the things that Balam says. He says things like, "Though Bailac 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." Right? That sounds really great, doesn't it? I mean, that sounds like a whole like I wouldn't I would not speak against what God would allow me to even for a house full of gold. Sounds sounds really good. He even goes on to say things like this. Must I not take care to speak what the Lord puts in my mouth? We would we would look at that at a preacher today and say, "Wow, PRAISE THE LORD. LOOK AT THAT FIRM STAND THAT HE'S TAKING." OR, "Did I not tell you that all the Lord says that I must do?" That sounds like an obedient heart. It sounds like he's a pretty decent person. In in that story, he actually converses with the Lord and he blesses Israel in the wilderness three times. He opposes an influential and powerful king. Seems like he supports God's people. Except that's not how the story ends. You see, time after time, even after God would answer Balam, Balam would still go to God and say, "God, can I do this? God, can't I just go with these men and see what's going on? He kept seeking to curse the people of God. And eventually, he advises Bailac on how to bring down God's curse on the nation of Israel. Balam's plan was to send Midianite women, Moabitete women, to seduce Israelite men. get them to to be seduced and leave the Lord to worship Baales. And as a result, God brought a curse and 24,000 people. 24,000 of God's chosen people perished

in the wilderness because of Balum's deception. In Numbers 31, it says, Moses said to them, "Have you let all the women live? Behold, these women on Balum's advice caused the people of Israel to act treacherously against the Lord in the incident of Teor. And so the plague came among the congregation of the Lord. Balam loved gain and he used his spiritual influence for selfish ends. Jude's point is not to say that these men are are greedy for money. Although that's definitely true, they are willing to twist the truth even to their advantage. They might skip verses. They might lower standards. They might make sin feel safe. They tell people exactly what they want to hear. And what a warning that is for us that false teachers will use grace to excuse sin rather than as a means to help people be free of sin. And so they don't reject grace, they redefine grace. They turn it into permissiveness and they make holiness really seem extreme. They make compromise seem to be mature. Balam would say today, "Well, doctrine divides. You need to stop being so rigid." Or, "Love matters more than truth." They both matter. We need to let people draw their own conclusions. It's another thing that they would say rather than pointing them to what the word of God says and say, "Believe this, brother. Believe this, sister." Biblical grace never commands us to relax holiness in our lives. It trains us to renounce ungodliness. Third characteristic here is that false teachers, they reject God-given authority. Kora is a famous example of spiritual insubordination. Back in the book of Numbers in chapter 16, Kora and some

other families, they rose up against Moses and Aaron. And here's what they said. You have gone too far. For all the congregation are holy, every one of them. And the Lord is among them. Why then do you exalt yourself above the assembly of the Lord? And as a result, the Lord brought a challenge and the Lord destroyed Kora's families and the other leaders. In fact, all of those clans perished and 14,700 people died that day. But you know, that rejection of Moses and Aaron was not ultimately a rejection of Moses and Aaron. It was a rejection of God because God is the one that called those leaders there. And false teachers, you know, they they really hate God's appointed leaders. They hate the boundaries and the constrictions that the Lord's leaders keep. They don't want accountability. In fact, they are more content to run in isolated ministries and avoid leaders. They resist correction. They desire greater influence without submission to godly leaders in the church. And we experience this as well when people use biblical language but they have a kora like heart things like well I just want to ask some questions. I I just think that we should get other perspectives or I think that we should have more conversations. But if those questions and views and conversations undermine the clear doctrine of the word, if they are against our church's confession, subversive to biblical leadership, and threaten the unity of the church, then it's not humbleness. Those aren't genuine questions. They're subversive questions. Those aren't genuine conversations. They're subversive Hear me out. I I'm talking about motives here, not not the actions themselves. Recently, we had people that came into our church and got involved and gave

good testimony of faith, were baptized. Then a few months after, they began having very questionable conversations. Turns out they knew exactly what they believed. They just wanted to change the church. They wanted to move it into a different direction. It still happens, guys. Let's move on to verses 12 and 13. It says this. These are hidden reefs at your love feasts. Love feast there is just another way of saying like your fellowship meal because that's what the church would do. They would gather together. They would have the the the worship and the preaching of the word and people they would stand up. It was a much smaller uh thing back then, but they would they would each share a a a verse or or or uh give a praise to God or sing a hymn and and they would they would break bread around the table and they would eat and then they would have communion in the Lord's supper every week. And so they would call those the uh agape, love feasts. And as these people, these false teachers, they feast with you without fear. Shepherds feeding themselves, waterless clouds swept along by winds, fruitless trees in late autumn, twice dead, uprooted wild waves of the sea casting up the foam of their own shame. Wandering stars for whom the gloom of utter darkness has been reserved forever. The second point that I want to make to you guys is to recognize the danger of false teachers because they destroy from within while pretending to belong. You see, a a a hidden dangerous doesn't seem very a a hidden reef doesn't seem very dangerous at first glance. And that's why they're deadly. It's kind of like a a log in the middle of Lake Ozarks, right? You know, you don't just motoring along. You don't want to hit one of those guys. But they destroy those who don't see it.

False teachers, they're not obvious. They sit at the Lord's table without fear. Then they participate in the fellowship and they look like they belong, but they are hazards. And that teaches us that someone, they can be charming and friendly and likable and engaging and generous and they're able to recite scriptures and all that stuff, but that doesn't mean anything. We must find out if they love Jesus. Do they know the Lord? Do they belong to the Lord? We can be welcoming to people. We're called to be welcoming, but we also need to be dis discerning. We're called to be hospitable, but that doesn't mean that we have to be naive. But these are also their shepherds that are feeding themselves. Apparently, the church that Judah is writing to already has some of these false teachers in leadership positions, in teaching positions, because real shepherds, they feed the flock of God. They spend time with the flock. False shepherds, they're just focused on feeding themselves. And that food, it might be different for false teachers, though. Let me let's just clarify this because it could be money, definitely. Could also be influence. It could be status. It could have a bunch of followers. It could be simply a place to spread their ideas. But a true shepherd is there for the sheep. A false teacher uses the church. Just uses it. A true shepherd serves the church. A false teacher builds up isolated networks away from the general body in order to gain influence as best as they can. A true shepherd openly ministers alongside others for accountability and harmony. A false teacher cultivates trust in order to direct authority away from biblical leadership and sound doctrine.

A false teacher, they can they can appear to be very active while doing a lot of damage to the local church. False teachers are also waterless clouds on in the arid area of Israel. You would look out over the Mediterranean and you you see clouds coming over and you know that a storm is coming or at least with it being so aid you hope that a storm comes because your crops need water. It looks promising but they aren't. false teachers. They seem really balanced and and gifted at first, refreshing even bold, but they ultimately do not increase your holiness or deepen your assurance, produce authentic worship, mature saints, or comfort anyone. There are also fruitless trees that are twice dead. They're uprooted. Late autumn is when there should be fruit on the trees. That's when we celebrate the harvest, right? But these these false teachers, they're they're not immature. They're barren. They're not weak. They're barren. They're not struggling through a season. They're barren. They're twice dead. It's in reference to two seasons of a tree not producing fruit. You know what a person does when there's no fruit on a tree for two seasons is they cut it down. They get rid of it because it's not doing what it's supposed to do. They're uprooted, which shows that there's no life in them at all. It's like a a a rower in a boat. He's got his his face towards the horizon. And it looks like he's heading out with his face towards the heavens, but as he strokes, he's going all the way to shore. You see, it's not your ability to discuss theology or to articulate what you're learning uh or anything like that. It's not about critiquing. Is is there holiness? Is there humility? Is there growing love for the Lord? Is there submission to Christ? Is is there

a concern for others? Is there any fruit of the spirit? Some people know how to talk big but are dead. And that's just a really great moment for us to examine ourselves because every believer should be able to ask themselves about their profession of faith. Was that was that real? Was my profession of faith real? Did do I know the Lord? Do I love him more? What good is being warned about fruitless false teachers if there's no fruit in our own lives? They're also wild waves. No one can tame the sea except for the Lord. Waves just they happen. They come up. I hate watching those uh anybody watch those North Atlantic like uh ships going over and you just see these massive waves and you see giant 35 50 foot swells and you're just like I'm getting sick just watching this. That there there's no control there. You're just kind of hoping for the best. And that's how that's how false teachers are. They're wild and they're dangerous and they foam. What that means is that what is in the sea is going to come out eventually. Shameful behavior, sick doctrines disorder arrogance confusion, it all rises to the surface because bad doctrine indicates bad living. It goes hand in hand. So, so we have to stop believing that doctrine is useless or that doctrine is divided uh divisive. If you're if you're loose in your doctrine, you're going to be loose in your living. And when truth gets minimized, sin soon follows. Immorality False teachers are also wandering stars. We would call those planets now because that they don't have a fixed spot in the sky. They're, oh, the Jupiter's over here, but now it's over here. You know that that's exactly what they're talking about there. And instead of guiding the flock, which is what the stars were put

in the sky for us to do. Instead of guiding the flock, they mislead it. They aren't stable, but they're fixed or or fixed, but they're shifting and always changing. A false teacher can seem bold and secure, but then they start to move away from settled truth. Jude, he continues on. It was also about these that Enoch the seventh from Adam prophesied, saying, "Behold, the Lord comes with 10 thousands of his holy ones, 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." Should probably highlight that word ungodly uh because it's repeated there plenty of times. Quick note. Um, this quote from Enoch is not found in our Old Testament. Okay? It's, uh, from a book called First Enoch, which interestingly was not written by Enoch at all. It was a popular book back during the temple time during the first century. Uh, that was not considered canon by the Jews, and we don't consider it canon either. It's quoted here because it's true. But that doesn't make all of First Enoch scripture any more than Paul quoting a pagan poet in Acts 17. Right? Uh just a little helpful note if you're curious about that. But the the next thing that we learn here is that we must remember the certainty of judgment that because Christ will expose and condemn all ungodliness. It's this is the whole center of Jude's warning towards the church is that false teachers may be tolerated for a season, but they will not escape the judgment of Christ. They won't. Christ is coming soon. Amen. He is coming and he will rule and he will reign forever and then we don't have to worry about any of this ever again. Amen. I look forward to that. >> Don't have to worry about blood pressure

issues or anything like that. Amen. We won't have to worry about cancer. We won't have to worry about false teachers. God will take care of all that. Now, just look forward to it. But but this is a this is a big emphasis for Jude here. It's it it's a main core part of his argument. And what he's saying is that behold the Lord, he comes with 10,00ands of his holy ones. He is establishing the fact that the Lord is coming. And that changes everything for us because many churches they tolerate false teaching because dealing with it is exhausting. It's unpopular. It's divisive. It's uncomfortable. It's costly. Jude, he reminds us that Jesus is coming and that we will answer to him even for how we tolerate false teachers. And so we can't afford to treat doctrine and the gospel like secondary issues when Christ, he will judge every soul by truth. And we treat we preach truth here, not because we love controversy. Hate that. Get that sweating feeling. It's terrible. But the reason why we preach truth is because we love Jesus. He's worth the uncomfortableness and you know the the div divisiveness that it seems to be. And we preach truth because he is coming soon. Christ is coming and he will judge the ungodly. And he repeats this over and over and over in these verses because main issue with false teachers is not that they're controversial or wrong or it's diff difficult to explain. Those things are true. The problem is is that they're ungodly. That's the problem. They are against God. They are antichrist. The issue is that they don't know God. They don't love God. They don't treat God with the reverence that he deserves. They refuse to fear the Lord or to fear the Lord's table or to honor the church's leaders or to honor the word of

God. Remember grace is not casualness towards ungodliness. Christians are called to be gracious towards the lost sinner. We are commanded to love the lost. We are called to be gracious with each other. But grace doesn't mean that we minimize sin. It doesn't mean that we make holiness optional. Grace teaches us to fear the Lord, to love Jesus, to hate the sin even in our own lives and to cling to truth. And if grace makes people careless with doctrine and makes us soft on holiness or dismissive of correction or suspicious of boundaries, then it's not biblical grace. Christ, he will come and he will come and he will judge. What does he say here? to execute judgment on all the ungodly, to convict the ungodly of all their deeds that they have committed in such an ungodly way. And of all the harsh things that ungodly sinners have spoken, you got the deeds and the words. And this is striking because words matter. Teaching matters. False teaching is not misquing a reference. Okay, we've all been in churches where, you know, a pastor, you know, might might call them uh might might get a quotation wrong or he might get a character wrong like I embarrassingly did last week, calling Ananas and Safhra instead of Priscilla and Aquilla. What a faux. False teaching is rejecting a core Christian doctrine and being unwilling to receive what the word says on that subject. But also note that Christ's judgment is final. Jude, he says that these false teachers, they are apostates. This is a perfect tense about his judgment. It means it's done. Get away from them like in Kora's rebellion. move away from them like with Balum because destruction is there for the false teacher.

These false teachers are spoken about by Enoch and it says that Jesus will come and he will execute his judgment. And this judgment is what? It's hell. Going back up to verse 13 where it says, "For whom the gloom of utter darkness has been reserved forever." See, I didn't skip it. I'm just making sure y'all notice that that that judgment is hell. Jude, he leaves no room for a temporary hell or a symbolic hell. Forever means just that means forever. There is no escape. And the blackest hell is reserved for false teachers. Was a a Laward. A Laward was someone that was a follower of U. John Wickliffe back in the day and they would they would go around they would preach the gospel even and it was highly illegal to be a Protestant at this time to be a reformer. It was before the reformation. Uh and these lawards they would go around they would powerfully expound on the word of God and try to translate the word into the vernacular so that way people had access to it. And there was a law his name Lawlerard his name was uh Richard Denton who preached the gospel and he was captured by uh Roman Catholic bishops. He was brought forward and they said you must recant your teachings. You must recant the gospel or be burned at the stake. And he recanted. He recanted everything that he believed. And shortly after his home caught on fire and he rushed inside to go and save the money and the treasures that he had and he was trapped and he died in the flames that he tried to avoid. Anyway, we would see that as ironic, wouldn't we? Valuing earthly treasures more than eternal life. If a man is to die, let's pray that he dies in any other state than as an apostate because the gloom of utter

darkness is reserved for them forever. The Bible consistently teaches of an eternal conscious torment for those that do not love the Lord Jesus Christ, that do not turn away from their sins and trust in him. And we don't talk about hell with joy and we don't want to soften hell because God, he has spoken clearly about it. If we relax on the doctrine of hell with eternal judgment, then we lose the seriousness about truth and holiness and even the gospel itself because Christ, he is coming. And when he does, every word and every 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 of sin is judged and it will be either judged on the cross of Christ or you will be the defendant in that case. And my prayer for you is that you would trust in the Lord Jesus Christ today. Believe on him. The last point that I want to make to you is to discern the mark of false teachers because their speech reveals their hearts. Look at verse 16 here. It says, "These are grumblers, malcontents, following their own sinful desires. They are loudmouth 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 that God has ordered the leaders or appointed the leaders. They resist. They resent the limits. They resent the decisions. They resent the truth when it confronts their desires. And I want you to know that grumbling is not a small sin. It it might go like this. A pastor might say, "This is the direction that we feel

like the Lord is leading our church as the elders. We've discussed. We've prayed. We studied. We met for months. We've discussed it. We want to implement this. The church votes, agrees, and then what happens? People start talking. Phone calls to each other. People talk in the hallways. They share it in prayer requests, also known as Christian gossip. can't say amen. You better say ouch, right? Remember that the Lord destroyed the Hebrews that complained against him, the ones that rebelled against his leaders. And I'm not saying that I'm perfect or the elders are perfect or the deacons are perfect or anything like that. We're not a perfect church. I'm simply showing you what the Bible says and how it plays out. Because what happens when a false teacher does that? How do you discern the difference between a well-intentioned brother that's struggling with something, someone that's just maybe concerned? How do you discern that between a false teacher that wants to be subversive? It's about habitual discontentment rather than biblical fa faithfulness. Look at what else they follow their own sinful desires. Doesn't matter what God's word says. Doesn't matter what the elders have said or what the churches have approved. They're going to do what they think is best in their own mind. That's the motor right there. They're driven by their selfish desires. They want what they want because false teachers, they want their own way. They want their own doctrine, their own morality. And eventually what you get is another gospel and another authority. This is why someone that wants to relent on on things like church discipline has a low view of sin. This is why when someone who wants to have a different view of sexual ethics becomes 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. Judy says, "They're loudmouth boasters. They use great words and they sound impressive and it's because they're just like the Antichrist." What did the Antichrist do? The beast was given a a mouth uttering and blasphemous words, boasting, and was allowed to exercise authority for 42 months. It opened its mouth to utter blasphemies against God, blaspheming his name in his dwelling, that is those who dwell in heaven. Confidence is not competence. Many false teachers, they sound powerful just because they don't have any restraint. They seem persuasive, but they're just flattering. They also show favoritism to gain advantage. They seek to use people and they build relationships strategically. Who can they influence to get more support? Who will help them get more money or encourage their position and further their personal goals? Often a false teacher is a satanic political operative in church clothes because they're charmers. They're they oftentimes present themselves as misunderstood moderates. They portray themselves as victims or truth seekers but ultimately deny their only master and Lord Jesus Christ. And what's their motive? Their motives is advantage. So don't be swayed by charismatic leaders who are relationally warm and they flatter you. Ask yourself, are they serving Jesus? Are they serving his bride? Are they just trying to build an audience to promote themselves and their influence? Because Jude, he's not writing this for us to be paranoid, but to prepare us. So we need to be sober and steadfast and discerning because false teachers are real church. They have always been real

and they are very subtle. They are relationally skilled. They speak about love and grace and freedom and deeper understanding. But if they deny the truth of God's word, if they excuse sin, if they're resisting biblical authority or quietly subverting the faith once we're all delivered to the saints, they must not be followed. And just to maybe pump the brakes for us, if this is what happens to false teachers, then we should not be moved to being proud. should cause us to be humble because Judas betrayed Jesus. But what separates me and Judas? If Anonyas died with a lie on his lips, what separates me from Ananas? If you are saved today, if you are a follower of Christ today, it's not because you're so great. It's because God has had his grace on you and he loves you and he keeps you. And therefore, it's not boasting that we should have in ourselves. It's boasting in Christ. It's loving the Lord and declaring him as being so wonderful and worthy of our worship. So before we look at others, we must look at ourselves. Am I teachable? Do I love the Lord? Do I hunger for God? Do I love his truth or do I seek my own? Am I trying to submit to his word? Am I okay with correction? Am I bearing fruit? Do I use grace as an excuse to compromise and sin? Do I soften my view of sin and judgment and holiness? And as I ask you those questions, I'm sure that some of them hit some of you. The beauty of the gospel is this, that God, he saves to the uttermost. So trust in him. We are kept by abiding in Jesus. We are kept by and for Jesus Christ. And so let's agree to abide in his gospel and to love the Lord our God with all of our heart until he returns. Because our safety is not in our cleverness. It's in Christ. It's not in

our ability to identify these things. It's in Jesus. And the church is it's not kept by compromise. It's by abiding in the gospel in the Lord who keeps his people. Head, heart, hand, head. God, he wants you to know that false teachers are real and they are dangerous, but their end is judgment. So, let that be a warning to all of us. Part God, he wants you to believe that true grace loves God's truth and it leads us away from sin and into holiness. And God, he wants you to be discerning. So examine yourself and cling to the Lord Jesus Christ and his gospel. And so God, we do thank you so much for this day that you've given to us. And uh Lord, what a heavy warning uh for each one of us. Um I pray that we would just uh be faithful. We we want you because you are good. And we just ask, Father, that uh as we worship you, God, we just want to worship you in complete spirit and in truth. You are good. You are gracious. And if there's anyone here that maybe they they need to know about the grace and the mercy that's in Christ. I pray that today that you would just draw them to yourself. Help them to come up to me and say, "Pastor, I I I need I need to get this right. I I don't want to be separated in that uh gloom of utter darkness forever. I I want to know the abundant life that I can have in Christ. And I pray that they would know that today. Father, we submit ourselves to you. You are good. We just love you so much as we stand and worship together. May you be glorified in Jesus name. Amen. Light of the world, you step down into darkness. Open my eyes. Let me see. Beauty that made this heart adore you. Hope of a life spent with Here I am to worship.

Here I am to bow down. Here I am to say that you're my God. You're all together lovely. Allto together worthy. Allto together wonderful to me. King of all days, oh so highly exalted, glorious in heaven above. Humbly you came to the earth you cated. All for love's sake became poor. Here I am to worship. Here I am to bow down. Here I am to say that you're my God. You're all together lovely, allto together worthy, wonderful to me. I'll never know how much it costs to see my sin upon that cross. I'll never know how much it costs to see my sin upon that cross. Here I am to worship. Here I am to bow down. Here I am to say that you're my God. You're all together lovely. Allto together worthy. Allto together wonderful to me. So God, you are all those things. Uh you are lovely, worthy, and wonderful. And uh Lord, just thank you for that simple declaration of who you are. We ask that you would help us to go forth from here equipped uh to carry out every good work. Uh that uh we will be able to love the lost, reach people, disciple others. God, help us to go out of here ready to change the world in our community in Jesus name. Amen. Go in peace.