In the sermon titled 'A Description of False Teachers and Their Fate' by Robert Bosley, the focus is on the Epistle of Jude, particularly verses 8-13. The sermon outlines the characteristics, examples, and fate of false teachers who have infiltrated the church. These teachers are described as those who defile the flesh, reject authority, and speak evil of dignitaries. They follow the examples of Cain, Balaam, and Korah, displaying a rejection of God's law and authority. The sermon uses metaphors such as hidden reefs, clouds without water, and wandering stars to illustrate the fruitlessness and danger these teachers pose. It emphasizes the certainty of God's judgment on them, drawing parallels with past biblical punishments. Bosley urges believers to be vigilant against false teachings while ensuring they themselves are not led astray. The ultimate fate of these false teachers is eternal darkness, as they are reserved for God's judgment. The sermon calls for introspection among believers to ensure they are clothed in the righteousness of Christ and to guard against allowing such teachers to thrive within their midst.

We will continue our study in the Epistle of Jude, so if you could find the Book of Jude in your copy of the Scriptures. And as has been my practice in this epistle as well as in Philemon with shorter books, I think it's always best to read the entire epistle so you get a feel for the flow of the argument, you get an understanding of the context. And so I will read all 25 verses, but we will be focusing in on verses 8 through 13 today. Jude, a bond-servant of Jesus Christ and brother of James, to those who are called, sanctified by God the Father, and preserved in Jesus Christ, mercy, peace, and love be multiplied to you. Beloved, While I was very diligent to write to you concerning our common salvation, I found it necessary to write to you, exhorting you to contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints.

For certain men have crept in unnoticed, who long ago were marked out for this condemnation, ungodly men who turned the grace of our God into lewdness and deny the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ. But I want to remind you, though you once knew this, that the Lord, having saved the people out of the land of Egypt afterward, destroyed those who did not believe. And the angels who did not keep their proper domain but left their own abode, he has reserved in everlasting chains under darkness for the judgment of the great day. As Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities around them in a similar manner to these, having given themselves over to sexual immorality and gone after strange flesh, are set forth as an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire. Likewise, also these dreamers defile the flesh, reject authority, and speak evil of dignitaries.

Yet Michael the archangel, in contending with the devil when he disputed about the body of Moses, dared not bring against him a reviling accusation, but said, The Lord rebuke you. But these speak evil of whatever they do not know, and whatever they know naturally, like brute beasts. In these things they corrupt themselves. Woe to them, for they have gone in the way of Cain, have run greedily in the error of Balaam for profit, and perished in the rebellion of Korah. These are spots in your love feasts, while they feast with you without fear, serving only themselves.

They are clouds without water, carried about by the winds, late autumn trees without fruit, twice dead pulled up by the roots, raging waves of the sea, foaming up their own shame, wandering stars for whom is reserved the blackness of darkness forever." Now, Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied about these men, also saying, "'Behold, the Lord comes with ten thousands of his saints to execute judgment on all, to convict all who are ungodly among them all of their ungodly deeds which they have committed in an ungodly way and of all the harsh things which ungodly sinners have spoken against him. These are grumblers, complainers, walking according to their own lusts, and they mouth great swelling words, flattering people to gain advantage. But you, beloved, remember the words which were spoken before by the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ, How they told you that there would be mockers than the last time, who would walk according to their own ungodly lusts. These are sensual persons who cause divisions, not having the Spirit. But you, beloved, building yourselves up on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life.

And on some have compassion making a distinction, but others say with fear pulling them out of the fire, hating even the garment defiled by the flesh. Now, to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy, to God, our Savior, who alone is wise, be glory and majesty, dominion and power both now and forever. Amen. Let's pray. Father, we come before you in the name of your Son because it's only through His work, His life, it's only through Him that we can come before you.

And we thank you, Lord, that you have given us your Word, that you have kept it for us and that we are able to look at it and study it and learn, learn your will, learn your laws, that we can learn the glory of the gospel. And Lord, as we turn to these pages and these couple of verses, we pray, Lord, for your help. Help us to understand. Help us, Lord, to believe. And God, may you be glorified in all that is done here this afternoon.

In Christ's name, amen. Okay, so we're continuing in our study of the book of Jude, and before we get into verses 8 through 13, I want to do a little bit of a recap of our previous sessions. So first, in the first couple of verses, we looked at Jude's portrait of a Christian. He says that Christians are called, they're set apart, they're preserved by Christ, they receive God's mercy, his peace, his love, and because of all these things working in their lives, they fight for the purity of the gospel. And that was really the focus of the second session.

We talked more about what it means for us to fight for the faith and why we must fight for the faith. We contend earnestly for the gospel because there are those who have come into the church unnoticed and they pervert the grace of God. They use grace as a cover for sin. They will be the first to say, yes, grace, grace, but then they ignore what Paul said about grace, that it teaches us to deny ungodliness. And they use that wonderful word grace as a license for sin.

And then we looked at verses five through seven and we saw Jude laying before us these three very stark reminders of God's judgment in the past. Judgment against the apostate Israelites, judgment against the angels who rebelled, and judgment against Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities of the plain for their sexual immorality primarily. And so this has been Jude's movement throughout the letter. He's told them who they are. Who are you as a Christian?

This is what it means for you to be a believer. And this is what Jude wanted to write about. He wanted to write about their common salvation, but necessity arose and he had to shift his focus. And he tells them that there are these false teachers coming in and gives an example of God's judgment in the past. Well now in verses eight through 13 and really all the way down to verse 19, he lays before us what do these false teachers look like.

So you've warned us, Jude, there are these men who have crept in our perverting grace. What do they look like? What should we look for to unmask these pretenders? And so the title of today's message would be A Description of false teachers and their fate. A description of false teachers and their fate, because that's what we will see in these these few verses.

So first, well let me back up a second. As we go through verses eight through 13, I wanna look at four headings. We're gonna categorize this under four headings. First, the first three are the description of the false teachers and the last one, their fate. So first, the things that they do.

The things that they do, the things that the false teachers do. Secondly, the examples they follow, the examples they follow. Thirdly, the character they display, the character they display, and then fourth, the fate that they will suffer. So first, the things that they do, and this would be verses 8 through 10. He says, likewise also these dreamers defile the flesh, reject authority, and speak evil of dignitaries.

Yet Michael the archangel, in contending with the devil when he disputed about the body of Moses dared not bring against him a reviling accusation but said the Lord rebuke you but these speak evil of whatever they do not know and whatever they know naturally like brute beasts in these they corrupt themselves And so he begins with this connecting word, likewise. He's drawing a connection between these false teachers and what he has just talked about in these examples of judgment of Israel, the fallen angels, and the cities of the plain. Now I don't think there's an exact parallel. We can't say, well, a Sodom is an example of rejecting authority and the angels defiling the flesh and Israel speaking evil of the dignitaries. I don't think there's a one-to-one connection here, but rather there's this shared idea that's common throughout all these—a shared rejection of God's law, a shared rejection of God's ways.

Now, some of these are going to be more applicable to some of the examples he had just given. Defiled the flesh, for instance, obviously would tie directly to the sins of Sodom. Rejecting God's authority, where it says they reject authority, that would apply very directly to the angels who fell. But I don't think his intention is that there's a one-to-one correspondence between these examples and these actions. But his point is These false teachers are following in a long line of ungodly men who have faced God's judgment in the past.

These opponents that you're facing in the church, they're not new. They've been around for a long time. Sinners have done sinful things and been opposed to God's church for a very long time. Old covenant, new covenant, that hasn't really changed. And I think that's Jude's point here.

He's given us these examples and he's saying, these people you're dealing with, following the same path. They're following in the line that these others have tread. And he calls them dreamers. Likewise, also these dreamers. What does he mean by dreamers?

Well, it's possible that he's saying that they are experiencing, or at least claiming to experience, dreams and visions, which they then rely upon to reject God's law and God's standards in the gospel. I think probably more likely what he's getting at is they're deluded, they're self-deluded people. They do not have a realistic assessment of themselves or the world around them. It's not that they're dreaming actual dreams, they're not having actual visions, they're not even claiming it, they're just deluded. They don't have a right understanding of God's world.

The parallel in 2 Peter 2, 10 says that they are self-willed. And I think that's kind of a hint for us here that these dreams are not something that they're receiving from some sort of demonic forces or something that they're even just creating of their own imagination, but they're in intentional rebellion because of their delusion, not understanding what God's will is. So these dreamers, What do they do? Because they're dreamers, because they're deluded, they have this self-willed rebellion and self-importance. What do they do?

Because of their delusion, he says, they defile the flesh, reject authority, and speak evil of dignitaries. Defile the flesh again calls to mind immediately sexual immorality, which he has hinted at as being a common problem with these false teachers. And we've saw it in the example of Sodom, and we can look back at history and even our own day. How many times have we seen false teachers fall from their ministry because of sexual immorality? How often can we look back at history and see heretical leaders who put on a good show, but behind the scenes were engaged in all sorts of immorality?

This is not new. We should not be shocked when we see it today. Do you understand there was a time in the Middle Ages, I believe it was the 14th century, that the papacy was called the pornocracy? The sexual immorality in the Vatican was so prevalent it was defined by immorality. And that is a common characteristic of false teachers.

And that's what he's getting at here. They defile the flesh. God has given the gifts of sexuality to be enjoyed in marriage, but men twist it and pervert it, and in that they destroy themselves. So he says they defile the flesh. They defile the flesh and they also reject authority.

And I think the authority here is a reference to all godly authority. It's not simply a rejection of God's authority or the rejection of human authority, but all God-ordained authority, both God's authority and right, proper human authority. These men will not have God to rule over them, and they will not submit to the elders of the church. There might even be that they are rebellious against the state, But at least they are in rebellion against God and they refuse to submit to the leadership in the church. And again, common things that we can see when we look at history, how do false teachers act?

They think of themselves as the one who has the key of all knowledge. They are the ones that everyone else needs to come to. They are too smart for them to submit themselves to the elders. They are too spiritual to be in the congregation listening to these other men. No, they feel like they need to be the ones up front.

Now, there is a good desire to be an elder. I'm not saying all desire to be teaching and preaching is bad. I wouldn't be up here. But there is a point where that kind of desire becomes rebellious and it becomes a rejection of authority. When you want to replace that one, that elder in your church.

Like, no, he shouldn't be speaking, I should be speaking. He shouldn't be telling us what God's will is. He doesn't know what God's will is, I do. It's a dangerous mentality. And that is such a common thing that we see in false teachers and that's what Jude is telling us here.

They reject authority. They reject the claims of God's law and they reject the rightful authorities that God has put over them in their lives. And there's also, as the New King James renders it here, speak evil of dignitaries. Now, this is a difficult phrase to understand, And if you look at other translations, you will see that there is wide disagreement on what exactly this means. Some versions render it as they blaspheme the Glorious Ones, which is the ESV rendering.

That's actually pretty accurate to the Greek. Some say they speak evil of angelic majesties. That's a much more interpretive idea. Literally the text says they blaspheme the glories. Well, what does that mean?

The glories or the glorious ones? And I do actually think it has to do with the angelic realm because the following verses are all about Michael and the devil. The parallel in 2nd Peter, remember Jude and 2nd Peter are very closely connected, the parallel in 2nd Peter also ties it into angels. And so I think what he is getting at here is they blaspheme or they slander, it's the same same word in Greek, the angelic realm, the spiritual realm. They vilify angels.

They, In some form or fashion, they do not show the proper respect for angels. And there are two ways that you can show an improper respect towards angels. One is you act as if they're not real. You think that angels and demons are myths, fairy tales, things to be utterly unconcerned about. That would be a way of slandering the spiritual realm, at slandering angels, acting as if they do not exist.

On the other hand, you can act as if they are all powerful and the source of all good and ill in the world. And we see these two extremes even in the church today, often. You have some who will go throughout their life and act as if angels have nothing to do with the world around us, and then you have others who think there's a demon hiding under every bush. What exactly the error that Jude is trying to argue against, I don't know. But whatever it is, they do not have the proper respect in one way or another against or toward the angelic realm.

They blaspheme or they slander the spiritual realm. They slander the angelic realm either through improper worship or complete disregard. And Jude moves on in verses 9 and 10 and says, but even other angels don't do what these men do. These men are so ignorant. They are so deceived.

They go ahead and they do things that even the archangel does not do. And he gives the example, yet Michael the archangel, in contending with the devil when he disputed about the body of Moses, dared not bring against him a reviling accusation, but said, the Lord rebuke you. Michael the archangel, apparently, seemingly, one of, if not the most powerful of the angelic creatures. Even he would not personally condemn Satan. He left it to God.

And yet these false teachers, they speak out of just pure ignorance and defile and slander angels in the spiritual realm. Now, you may be wondering, where does this story come from about the the devil and Michael the archangel arguing about the body of Moses and if you try and find it in your Old Testament I'm sorry you won't find it This is a story from a book called The Assumption of Moses, which is an apocryphal book. It's not part of our canon of Scripture. So what is Jude doing quoting this? And I've had a couple people ask me that kind of a question.

And unfortunately, we don't have time to dig into that today. So I'm sorry, Sid. But we will next time, because Jude not only quotes from this book, but he also quotes from the book of Enoch, which is another apocryphal book. And so we'll look at these together in a few weeks. But the point that Jude is bringing here is that what even angels fear to do, these false teachers, they have no fear, they have no understanding, they have no knowledge, they just go ahead and they do it.

They, where angels say, nope, I'm not going there, they go right ahead and they feel free to speak evil even of the angels. Michael wouldn't even condemn the devil. And yet these false teachers abuse and mis-teach and slander angels in one form or fashion. They show that they have no respect for God or God's Word or the world God has created. Because what does scripture say about angels?

It teaches us angels are real. They are powerful. There was one angel that wiped out an entire army in the Old Testament, 180, 000 people. They're real. They're powerful.

They're to be respected, but they are never to be worshiped. They are servants, they are fellow servants, even one of the angels tells John in the book of Revelation, I am your fellow servant. So they are to be understood, they are to be respected, but they are not to be worshiped. I don't know what ditch these false teachers fell on, but it is very easy to fall onto either side. In verse 10, Jude says, but these, talking about the false teachers, speak evil of whatever they do not know.

Now, the speak evil is actually the same word. They blaspheme or they slander whatever they don't know. And I think the whatever is just spiritual matters in general. They don't know. They have no understanding.

They have no knowledge of the things of God. They set themselves up as teachers, but they are incredibly ignorant. They don't know the first thing about God or his ways. They don't know. They don't understand the gospel.

But they take for themselves the role of a teacher. And so they're in their ignorance, they blaspheme, they slander. How many times have you seen someone who doesn't know anything about the Bible, who doesn't know anything about God's Word, say something that is just incredibly slanderous, incredibly blasphemous? I would think we've all seen it. If nothing else, you see it on Facebook.

Ignorance often will lead to blasphemy. It will often lead to slander. And this is why scripture tells us that we are to study, we are to grow in grace and grow in the knowledge of God so that we do not slander. But these false teachers, they don't understand and they don't want to. Whatever they don't know, they speak evil of, they slander, they blaspheme in whatever they do not know, and whatever they know naturally or instinctively like brute beasts in these they corrupt themselves so the natural impulses the natural animal impulses that's all they understand that's it They don't have any understanding of the spiritual at all, just natural animal impulses.

They are like unthinking animals living only to satisfy their instinctive desires and emotional impulses. That's all that guides them. And so, like an unthinking animal, they walk into the snare, and it's as they corrupt themselves or they destroy themselves. Through their ignorance, through their inability and unwillingness to learn of God and God's ways, they destroy themselves. So this is the things that they do, these three things that Jude starts out here, they defile the flesh, they reject authority, and they speak evil of dignitaries.

They blaspheme the spiritual realm. Then secondly, the examples that they follow, verse 11, the examples that they follow, woe to them, for they have gone in the way of Cain and have run greedily in the error of Balaam for profit and perished in the rebellion of Korah. Now when he says woe to them, what is woe? This is a pronouncement of judgment, of doom. You remember Isaiah chapter 6.

Isaiah is taken in a vision and he sees the throne of God and he sees God in his glory, in his majesty, high and lifted up, his robe is filling the temple. And what is Isaiah's response? Woe is me, for I am undone. Destruction on myself, doom on me. Why?

Because I'm a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips, for my eyes have seen the Lord, the King of hosts. These men have woe pronounced against them, doom, judgment pronounced against them, because they are following in the path of heretics and false teachers that have come before. And Jude gives us three examples. Jude tends to group these examples and his things, his characteristics and descriptors in groups of three, it seems. And here he gives us three examples that these false teachers follow.

And by following them, they bring God's wrath upon their head, they bring God's judgment. So first, they follow the way of Cain. Who is Cain? The fact he doesn't elaborate on who Cain is means it's almost certainly the main Cain that we would all think of, the Cain of Genesis chapter four. What happened with Cain?

He and his brother Abel brought sacrifices to the Lord. Cain brought a sacrifice of the produce that he had created and Abel brought a sacrifice of an animal that he had raised and slaughtered and God accepted Abel's sacrifice, but he did not accept Cain's And what happened? Did Cain go like, man, I messed up, I'll do better next time? No. Cain hardened his heart, and it turned into hatred for his righteous brother, and ended up murdering him.

So when it says they follow the way of Cain, what should we learn from this? Well, partly I think we should understand why was Cain's sacrifice rejected? Partly, possibly, because it was not an animal sacrifice. I'm not convinced that that's the whole case, but that might be part of it. If you look at the book of Hebrews, it says that Cain, or sorry, Abel brought a more excellent sacrifice, So possibly there was something in the sacrifice itself that was more excellent, a bloody animal sacrifice.

But what's the key there? By faith, Abel brought a more excellent sacrifice. Abel brought his sacrifice by faith. Cain brought his sacrifice. He came and rendered worship, but he had no faith.

Cain was a faithless worshiper going through the rituals, copying his brother, and his sacrifice was rejected because it did not come with faith. And that's what we have in these false teachers. They come, they're in the church and we'll see in a minute they're actually at the Lord's table. They're in the church, they're in the body, They're going through all the rituals of Christian worship. They're there for the prayers.

They're there for the singing. They're there for the preaching, but they do not have faith. They're there following their father Cain as faithless worshippers who will suffer God's punishment. Secondly, Balaam. He says that they have run greedily in the error of Balaam for profit.

Now who was Balaam? The story of Balaam is in Numbers 22 to 24, and again he pops up in Numbers 31 when he is killed. Numbers 22 to 24, you can go back and read what happened with Balaam. Balak wanted a man, a prophet, to curse Israel because he couldn't stop the Israelites any other way. And Balaam was a self-styled prophet who would prophesy and curse and bless whatever you wanted as long as you paid him enough.

And that's the error of these false teachers. They have run greedily in the error of Balaam for profit. They are prophets for profit. They will do and say anything, even remotely spiritual, as long as they get a cut. They're in it for the money.

They're in the church presenting themselves as teachers, as a true authority, not so they can be a blessing to God's people, but so that they can be a blessing to their own wallet. That's all they care about. And what was the end of Balaam? In Numbers 31-8, we read that he was killed by the sword by the Israelites. God used his people as a judgment against them, as against him, sorry.

Thirdly, Korah. They have perished in the rebellion of Korah. Who is Korah? In Numbers 16, Korah and a few of his friends lead a rebellion against Moses's rightful authority. And what happened?

God brought judgment. The earth itself opened up and swallowed in Korah and his rebellious band and they were destroyed. So again, an unwillingness to submit to God's appointed authority. Korah said, no, I should be in charge. No, Moses, you're messing everything up.

Everything would just be better if I was in charge but God had put Moses in charge and Korah's hard-hearted rebellion he would not submit He would not submit to God's appointed ruler. He rejected Moses' authority and God destroyed him for it. So these are the examples that the false teachers follow. They go in the way of Cain as faithless worshipers who ultimately hate the righteous. They follow the business plan of Balaam, seeking to peddle spiritual matters for money's sake.

And they join in Korah's rebellion against God's anointed rulers and authorities. And Jude says they perished in Korah's rebellion. He's referring to still the false teachers. They've perished. He uses a past tense, but he's looking ahead.

It's so certain, is God's judgment on these false teachers, that he can even put it in the past with Korah's rebellion. It's as if these false teachers in the first century were there just coming out of Egypt. Their doom is so certain. But this is the example of these false teachers. Now finally, the character they display.

The character they display. And as we look through verses 12 through 13, we see multiple metaphors used to describe the character traits of these false teachers. And what is the unifying theme here? There's a lot of detail here, but what is the unifying theme? And I believe what ties all these metaphors, all these word pictures together is that these false teachers have nothing to offer those who follow them.

They have nothing to offer those who follow them. First, he says, they are spots in your love feasts. While they feast with you without fear, serving only themselves. Now, if you have a different Bible translation, the word spots may be rendered as hidden reefs or rocks. There's debate over what exactly that word means.

It seems most likely to me that it's got the idea of a rock on a beach, a seashore. It seems that the King James, the new King James, wanted to harmonize Jude with Second Peter, because Second Peter does use the word for spots or stains. Either way, it doesn't much change the meaning, But I will take it from the perspective of they are hidden reefs or they are hidden rocks on the the seashore. In other words, these these false teachers they're there at the love feast. Well what it was the love feast?

The love feast was the time that the church would gather together and have a fellowship meal. Essentially what we just did was akin to an early church's love feast. It was also the time that they celebrated the Lord's Supper. The supper was instituted during a meal, and for many centuries, churches had the ordinance during a meal. Now, I don't think that's necessary because what are the elements of the supper?

The bread and the wine, not a full meal. But that's what the early church did. They would have the supper during an actual meal. It would be a part of it. And so that's what these love feasts are, is a shared meal where the church came together to partake in the Lord's Supper and to build one another up in the faith.

And these false teachers are there. And they are these dangerous rocks hidden below the surface, not easily seen. In fact, they look like they could be a place of refuge. But if you get too close, you'll be shipwrecked. They are dangers.

They are feasting without fear. They feast with you without fear. They do not show the proper reverence and honor that God requires. They are not afraid to come into God's presence to enjoy the fellowship meal with the church, they have no fear of God, no reverence for God, no fear that God will judge them for their sin. They feast without fear.

They are bold, arrogant, and they refuse to consider that God may be against them. And it says they are serving only themselves, and again I would have to, I have to quibble with the New King James rendering of serving only themselves. Some take this as a reference to, they are violating what Paul said in 1 Corinthians 11. You remember what Paul said at the problems of the church in Corinth? When they came together to partake in the Lord's Supper, some people went ahead and they ate their fill while others went hungry.

Some people were getting drunk at the Lord's Supper. They were abusing it while others were not getting any food at all. And Paul condemned them for that. And some think that's what's being referred to here, that they are serving only themselves. When they're at the table, they are just gorging themselves.

I don't think that's what's meant here. The verbiage doesn't seem to fit. The word here is actually related to the word for shepherd. It's actually the verb form of shepherd. They are shepherding themselves.

And so I think what the idea here is, again, remember they reject authority. They're teachers. They're trying to teach people these false doctrines. And so they are shepherding themselves. So my understanding of this is they are using the Lord's Supper, the time when the church should be gathered together just to celebrate how good God has been to them, and they're using this as a time to pull disciples away from themselves.

They're using that time of intimate conversation to be like, hey, you know, our pastor was saying this, but really, this is this and this is this and this. Now I'm not saying you should never say, well I'm not entirely sure if the pastor got it right, but you should not take this time of fellowship together to then try and set yourself up as the ultimate authority and drawing disciples away from yourself and and threatening ultimately to split a church over your own self-importance. And I believe that's what is happening here. They're shepherding only themselves. A true shepherd cares for the flock.

They're willing to lay down their life for the flock, but these shepherds, they don't care. They are self-appointed shepherds and they will throw the sheep to the wolves for their own benefit. They do not care for the flock. They care only for themselves. So that's the first character they display.

They are these hidden rocks. They are these dangers at the love feasts. They are clouds without water carried about by the winds. A cloud without water is useless and they're carried about by winds. They're unstable.

They're useless and unstable. From true shepherds, we expect the benefits of the water of God's word. We expect to be washed in the truth of the gospel week after week as we come to hear God's word proclaimed. But the self-appointed false teachers, these self-appointed shepherds, They leave their followers dry and parched in a desert. They do not give them the water that is expected.

They bring no nourishment. They're useless. And ultimately, like a cloud blocking the sun, all they do is serve to block out the light of the gospel. They are a hindrance. So fruitless trees, sorry, clouds without water carried about by the winds, then late autumn trees without fruit twice dead pulled up by the roots.

What does this mean? Late autumn trees without fruit. Autumn, the time that you would expect a harvest, the time of the year when the trees should be most heavy with fruit. They have nothing to offer. They're barren.

There's nothing there. It may from a distance look good, but there's nothing there, there's nothing to satisfy. There's no food that you can feast on. Their followers come to these false teachers, these self-appointed shepherds for spiritual nourishment, but they leave empty-handed and hungry, just as they come to them for the water of the word and they leave parched and dry. They're twice dead.

I think this is simply a reference to that. If anything, it can be dead twice. It's these guys. There's no hope for them. They're so dead, they're twice dead.

They are dead, dead and uprooted. And again, I think this is proleptic. He's looking ahead to that final day when all false teachers will finally be rooted out of the church. In this, they're like the Pharisees in Matthew 3 10 when John the Baptist said, And even now the axe is laid to the root of the trees. And therefore every tree which does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.

These false teachers following the footsteps of the Pharisees, teaching, enjoying the benefits of public recognition possibly, but in the end they'll be cut down. God himself will destroy them. They will suffer for their rebellion. Next, raging waves of the sea foaming up their own shame. So wild or raging waves, they're dangerous and they're unstable.

Just as a wave on the ocean, a raging wave is not a place you want to go sailing. These men are like the waves on the sea. They are a danger to anyone who gets close. Anyone who sails into a storm kind of deserves what they get. It's foolish.

And here these false teachers are a danger to anyone who comes close to them, anyone who comes to them for help. And just like a storm on the ocean, throws up debris and trash and garbage onto the beach. If you go to the beach the day after a storm, you see all the debris and everything littered all over the place. The same thing with these men. They have nothing good to show for all their instability.

All that comes up is their own shameful deeds. What he may have in mind, he may be thinking back to Isaiah 57 20, where Isaiah says, the wicked are like the troubled sea when it cannot rest, whose water cast up mire and dirt. All that comes up from all their excitement, all their exuberance of these false teachers, all that comes up is filth and dirt. There's no purity, there's no cleanliness. They just show more and more of their own corruption because what is in the heart will come out in the mouth and through the hands.

You cannot hide your nature forever. And that's what happens with these false teachers. They just bring up their shameful deeds. And they are wandering stars for whom is reserved the blackness of darkness forever. Wandering stars, they're uncertain guides.

As a sailor would navigate through using the stars to find his way from point to point, these false teachers are not stars that you can rely on stars to help you get from A to B these are wandering stars they move they're not stable they're not steady they're not something that you can rely on for any type of guidance or direction but they will lead you astray as they themselves are being led astray. And what is the result? The darkness of the night sky that the stars sit in, this becomes the imagery for the fate of these false teachers. They're wandering in darkness and therefore they are reserved. The darkness is reserved for them.

The blackness of darkness forever. A horrible fate. The blackness of darkness forever. So that then leads us into more of an examination of the fate that they suffer, and we see hints of their fate throughout. Verses 10, 11, 12, and 13 each gives a little glimpse at the fate of these false teachers.

Verse 10, they corrupt themselves or more literally they destroy themselves because their sinful actions satisfy only their physical and emotional impulses. They will destroy themselves So they will be destroyed. Verse 11, they follow these examples. They follow the example of Cain and Balaam and Korah. If you follow their example, what will happen to you?

You will suffer their fate. God's judgment. Verse 12, the trees in particular, they are the trees are uprooted. I mentioned that earlier looking ahead to that day when God will uproot all these false teachers. And as John the Baptist said, all the fruitless trees we cut down and cast into the fire.

And then again in verse 13, the outer darkness, the blackness of darkness forever. The Lord Himself spoke of this outer darkness several times. I'm going to flip to Matthew 22 and read a portion of what Jesus Himself said about this darkness. It is a serious and sobering thought to hear these words. Matthew 22, starting in verse 11, you know the story, the parable about the king's son.

But when the king came in to see the guests, he saw a man there who did not have on a wedding garment. And so he said to him, Friend, how did you come in here without a wedding garment? And he was speechless. And then the king said to the servants, Bind him hand and foot, take him away, and cast him into outer darkness. There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

For many are called, but few are chosen." So we know the story, God is giving this, or Jesus is giving this parable as an example of the gospel. The gospel first goes out to Israel and they refuse to come all throughout the old covenant. They would kill the prophets. They would rebel against God. And finally God goes and the king in the parable goes and He sends his servants and they bring in all these other men from the highways, as many as you find, invite them to the wedding.

But one comes and he's not dressed properly. He gets in somehow, he sneaks in. Interesting parallel to what we've read in Jude. These men have secretly come in. And this man at the feast is not dressed in the proper wedding attire.

And the king comes in and he has him cast out. And now the parable kind of falls away. Bind him hand and foot and cast him into outer darkness. No earthly king has that authority, but the true king has that authority. Those who come to that wedding, that marriage supper of the Lamb one day, not clothed in the proper wedding garment, the righteousness of Christ, they will be cast into outer darkness.

And this is not just for these false teachers. It is for them. But it is for any on that day who are not clothed in that wedding garment of Christ's righteousness. They will be cast out into outer darkness. And so, for application, I want to ask you first of all, do you have this wedding garment on?

That when these false teachers are uprooted and taken out of Christ's Church and thrown into outer darkness, will you be one of them and will you go with them? Are you clothed in that wedding garment that we read in Matthew 22? Do you have the righteousness of Christ covering you? Have you come to Christ for the forgiveness of your sins? Have your sins been covered by him?

When we read about these false teachers and these vivid and horrific descriptions of them, our first thought can be to turn outward and be like, okay, that one and that one and that one. We do need to be on the lookout, but first look inward. Look to yourself first. Look in your own heart and ask yourself, do any of these character traits, do any of these examples, do any of these actions Find a parallel in my own heart? Is there a desire to defile the flesh in my own heart?

Is there a heart of rebellion against God's authority in my own soul? Am I only concerned for myself and not those around me, my brothers and sisters? Remember it is only the grace of God that keeps you from being one of these false teachers. There's nothing in you by your nature, there's nothing in me by my nature that makes me any different, any better. Is all of grace.

And so as we read through these things and we consider these false teachers and their fate and how they're described here by Jude, we must first ask ourselves on that day when they're uprooted, will we be going with them? And if you don't know, beg God. Beg God to save you. Run to Christ while there's still time. Run to him while there's hope.

Go to that one shepherd who does feed his flock and feeds them perfectly and did lay down his life for them. And secondly, yes, we do need to be on the lookout. Jude gives these descriptors so that we know what to look for. Not every false teacher is going to be the same, but there are consistent patterns. We can look throughout history and see these same types of patterns of behavior popping up over and over and over again.

We cannot be able, we cannot allow ourselves to be lulled into a false sense of security and say, well that could never happen here. I mean we know Scripture way too good for that to happen here. Don't be lulled into that false sense of security. There are wolves in sheep's clothing. They will sneak into the flock, and they will tear a flock to pieces.

And so we need to be aware and on the lookout. We must be vigilant to guard against these men who will destroy churches simply to satisfy their own lusts. But at the same time, we need to be sure that we do not become overzealous and take on the title of heresy hunter. Your pastors and God above all, do not need theological Gestapo reporting every little infraction of a brother or sister who does not cross their t's and dot their i's in the same way that you do. Disagreement doesn't mean heresy.

So we need to have that balance beyond the lookout, but don't in the end cross into becoming a false teacher yourself and setting yourself up as the standard. Be balanced And in the end, know that God will have his day. We can be so distressed by what we see around us, the church ravaged by heresy and false teachers, and we should be brokenhearted about it. But we can trust and know that God is doing a work in it. He intends it for the good of his people, and one day he will have his day.

There will be a day of judgment. There will be a day when God's justice is perfectly rendered. Let's pray. Our Father, we come before you and we pray, Lord, for your help. Help us as we consider these words and what it means to be aware that there will be false teachers and no church is perfectly safe from them.

Oh Lord, help us to be on guard. Help us Lord to be willing to fight if it is necessary. If we are called to go into the battle, may we not be cowards. And Lord, I pray that you would help us as a church, as a body preserve the integrity of your word. May we preserve the purity of the gospel.

Lord, may you be glorified. May you be magnified in our congregation, in each one of our homes, in each of our families, and in each of our own hearts, Lord. Oh Father, if there are any here who are starting to tread that path, God I pray that you would turn them back. Oh Lord, may you be gracious. Save our families, save our children.

And Lord, if there is anyone here who is on that path, God, show them the error of their ways and may you be glorified now and forever in Christ's name amen