In this sermon, Pastor Joe Babij examines Jude 14-16 and the fourth characteristic of false apostate teachers: the punishment they earn. Pastor Babij explains from the passage three things that show false teachers have earned their judgment and condemnation:
1. Their condemnation is determined beforehand (v. 14)
2. Their condemnation is definite and comprehensive (v. 15)
3. They are condemned because of their debauched characters (v. 16)
Full Transcript:
Let’s take our Bibles and turn to Jude, right before Revelation. I was talking to someone, and they said, when I’m done with Jude, I didn’t know what I was going to preach next. They say, well, why don’t you just keep on going? That’s the book of Revelation. That’s a big task, but I’m thinking about it.
Let’s pray. Lord, thank You this morning. You have been so kind to us. I pray that You would be kind to the people of Ukraine. I do ask You, Lord, that that’s a David and Goliath situation. I pray, Lord, David would have that small stone and put it right in the forehead of Goliath. And I pray that he come toppling down. So Lord, let Your will be done there. Watch over the people. I pray that it would be a new avenue of the gospel as people realize how quick things could happen and how much they need to answer the question, when they die where will they go? Will they be in heaven or will they not be? And Lord, we know, Lord Jesus, You are the answer to that question. And I pray, Lord, the gospel would be alive and well there during these troubling days. And Lord, this morning, open Thy word again to us. Help us to grow in our discernment so we are not duped by false teaching whenever it raises its head. And I pray this in Christ’s name. Amen.
So we’re in the epistle of Jude. And in this epistle, again, Jude is writing because he came across “Christian teachers” denying Christ and using the grace of God to justify immoral behavior. And so he believed something had to be done about it. Something had to be said about it. And that’s exactly what he does. He warns and rebukes the church. In verse three:
“I felt the necessity to write to you appealing that you contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all handed down to the saints.”
So Jude seeks to motivate the Christians to wake up and be discerning in order to identify and expose false teaching and false teachers and for those who reject the truth. Now, it’s interesting that when people move away from the truth of God’s Word, really foolishness aboundsI ran across this article about a Christian publishing house who was publishing Christian Sunday school material. And the thing about this particular Sunday school material was that it really showed how foolish things get when people are driven by the foolishness of man while they’re kind of including the Word of God. And so the book of Romans, you know, the Apostle Paul warns us about those who would exchange the truth of God for a lie by worshiping and serving the creature rather than the creator. In other words, we are to worship God, the creator, not the creation. Well, those who do otherwise bring really the seeds of pantheism into the church. And yet, in spite of warnings like this, there was a Christian publishing house who carelessly marketed a Sunday school curriculum that sounds more like material written for members of a radical environmental Greenpeace group than for the children of Christian parents. They were claiming that the Christian youth must learn to think green, and they introduced a green activity to learn stewardship of God’s creation.
With that objective, they blindfolded the children, gathered them outside in the midst of trees to hug the trees and to feel them with their hands. Then after everyone had a chance to hug a tree, the teachers instructed them to proceed with touchy-feely questions such as, how did you feel when you hugged the tree? How did you feel when you recognized the tree that you hugged? Now, suggesting to Christian youth that hugging a tree is going to bring about a positive human response is more than absurd. It raises many questions about the kind of material being published by Christian publishing houses. Now, consequently, to engage in green activity, they think, will condition youth in the church to accept God’s creation. That was their philosophy, but that philosophy is at odds to biblical truth. It actually shows how much they have drifted from the truth and how much the foolishness of man is seen in an activity like that.
So when unorthodox teachings are accepted and tolerated, we should not be surprised by the unorthodox activities and practices that would follow them, no matter where they would show up. So conversely, theologically sound understanding of stewardship must recognize the biblical parameters that nature is not sacred and that the worship of a single, all-powerful God transcends His creation and excludes hugging trees.
Now, I just say that for this reason, that when there is false teaching and it is embedded in things, it comes out in all kinds of strange ways. And usually it’s recognized by foolishness. It’s recognized by absurdity. It’s recognized by completely no common sense and nowhere to hang it on any place theologically in scripture.
So this Lord’s Day, as we look at Jude, I want to examine the punishment that is deserved for false teachers and not only that, the punishment they actually earn by what they do and what they teach. So I want to move forward and proceed to the fourth characteristic of false apostate teachers. The first one was the pride of false apostate teachers; the second one, the profound resemblance the Old Testament apostates had to the New Testament apostates. Then we looked at the portraits that they exemplified, and now we are looking at the punishment they deserve.
And so as we think about that, I said last time that when the subject of the judgment of God comes in and is brought up, Satan, the enemy, tries to persuade people to doubt whether God exercises judgment on people at all. And this present day, in this present day, that’s the idea that God would judge people is often rejected as being an especially archaic understanding of God. The wrong understanding of God, however, ignores the biblical notion of God as being a personal God, being an active God, being a God rightly offended that His creation and holy law are being defiled by people, and people claiming to be his children and even his preachers. See, God’s justice demands that sin be dealt with, which is why there is a real place of final judgment where those who have broken God’s law will go. Biblical revelation teaches that salvation from our sinfulness comes only through Jesus’ life, His death, His resurrection, and it is never, never, never, never through human effort. We cannot save ourselves, no matter what we do.
So we need to realize that once you get rid of the idea of judgment and the consequences of disobedience towards God and His word, then everything’s up for grabs. You can teach anything you want. And when people do that, they’re under God’s judgment because people believe that there is no consequences for their actions. And this is what these apostate, scoffing, false teachers were doing. Whether intentionally or not, they were convincing people of the promise of freedom from moral accountability and final judgment. As long as you believed in Christ, you could do anything you want. And if there’s one thing, as I mentioned last week, that has already become clear in the epistle of Peter and Jude is judgment has fallen in the past with much evidence, and it is coming again. It is coming in a big way.
So there are three things that show that false teachers have earned their judgment and condemnation. And the first one is this. In Jude verse 14, let me read it to you. It says:
It was also about these men that Enoch, in the seventh generation from Adam, prophesied, saying, “Behold, the Lord came with many thousands of His holy ones,”
So in other words, the first thing is that their condemnation is determined beforehand, way beforehand. And it’s identifying Enoch as the seventh from Adam, and that he was the seventh from Adam. You have Adam and Seth and Enoch and Kenan, and then you have Jared, and then finally Enoch. So Enoch becomes a character that Jude brings up, saying that, listen, Enoch was a prophet back then, and he prophesied the coming judgment of God. In fact, it says there, behold, the Lord came with many thousands of His holy ones. It is identifying Enoch. Now that could bring up several observations for us, and if you like to take your Bibles, you should turn to the book of Genesis for a moment, chapter 5, because we want to say, well, is Enoch in Genesis? Well, yes he is. So the first observation would be Enoch is actually a real person. It says in Genesis 5, verse 21 through 23:
Enoch lived sixty-five years, and became the father of Methuselah. Then Enoch walked with God three hundred years after he became the father of Methuselah, and he had other sons and daughters. So all the days of Enoch were three hundred and sixty-five years.
Now, it could be here that it is written in such a way to give this sense – that Enoch lived for 65 years unconverted in the sense. Then he fathered Methuselah. Then after he fathered Methuselah, he had a conversion experience that Enoch had experienced after the age of 65. Because if you notice in verse number 22, it says, then Enoch walked with God 300 years after he became the father of Methuselah. It could be read like that, and that may be the very case there, but he was a real person. He had a real relationship with God. He understood the day in which he lived.
But another thing about Enoch is that he prophesied before Noah, before the flood. They had Noah as a herald of righteousness. We find this in 2 Peter, and if we take note of what’s being read and said in the Word of God – before Noah, they had Enoch the prophet. Enoch, it says in Jude, prophesied saying, behold, the Lord came with many thousands of His holy ones. So this was a word of judgment on Enoch’s own wicked generation that lived at the time of the flood. Enoch also prophesied in this prophecy of a final judgment that will come upon all the wicked at the end.
So judgment was given way before Jude wrote. In fact, it says in Thessalonians, when the Lord Jesus will be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels in flaming fire. So Jude was looking way ahead, way past the mountaintops of prophecy, right into our present day, and he was giving us a word to us, and that’s what Jude is bringing up.
So it’s important to point out here that Enoch’s prophecy foretold a final judgment, not just the present judgment that the flood was coming, but a final judgment, and that Enoch also was a godly person who walked with God.
Now, if you look at Genesis chapter 5, notice verse number 24. It says:
Enoch walked with God; and he was not, for God took him.
So here is Enoch walking with God. He is 365 years old, and he is a godly person, and he has a relationship with God in the middle of a crooked and perverse generation. God’s ready to bring a worldwide flood on the world. And so those who are made righteous by God and who walk in a pleasing manner with God are then taken into the presence of God and escape judgment. So Enoch is really a picture of those who believe in God and are justified by God and escape from this final judgment of God.
Now, if you know anything about the Word of God, you find out – who brings Enoch up again? The writer of Hebrews. And this is what Hebrews says about Enoch. It says in Hebrews 11:5,
By faith Enoch was taken up so that he would not see death; and he was not found because God took him up; for he obtained the witness that before his being taken up he was pleasing to God.
So if you want to ask the question, what does it mean to live godly? We have one answer here at least. To live godly means to live a life that’s pleasing before God. And many things are included in that, we know from Scripture, but you could ask yourself the question, am I living for God?
So he was a real person. He prophesied before Noah. Enoch was a godly person who walked with God and had that testimony. We also see here that Enoch, his departure is very similar to the description of the rapture of the church in Thessalonians. When true believers are gone, the false professors left will bring about the great apostasy. And there’ll be no difficulty in uniting Satan, uniting all Christendom, or whatever he wants to call that, into one great apostate religion. So the church will be taken out. In the rapture of the church, the church saints meet the Lord in the clouds. There’s no judgment mentioned. Both the dead and alive are given glorified bodies in Thessalonians. It occurs before the wrath of God is poured out on the whole world. Rapture is imminent, meaning there’s no signs to the rapture. And then believers are removed and only unbelievers are left on the earth at first.
So we see here there’s similarities in the life of Jude to what will take place, as it says in Thessalonians:
then we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air and will be with the Lord forever then.
So that’s the hope of believers. But here in Jude, he is prophesying way into the future that this condemnation will come upon those who are false teachers and also those who follow false teachers. Now, this is not the second coming. This is referring to really an unannounced time when Jesus Christ will return to the air above the earth, not to the earth. He will come in the air and will resurrect from the dead all true Christians who have died, transform their bodies, the bodies of all true Christians still living, and snatch both groups out of the world. And the admonition is that Christians, both physically dead and physically alive, will meet Jesus in the air and return with Him from heaven one day, where it is says in Thessalonians, and so shall we always be with the Lord. So Enoch gives us a picture for what will be and what will come in the future, not only the judgment of God, but the rescue of God’s people from judgment, that final judgment.
Now, just to note, the epistles do not contain really preparatory warnings of impending tribulation for the church age believers. What the epistles do warn about is error and false prophets, which we’re looking at here in our text and in this book. It’s warning about ungodly living, and it’s warning about present tribulation. So yes, the Lord is coming, and judgment was foretold and determined long ago. It’s going to take place. It’s going to be definite.
A second thing about these false teachers, and if you turn back to Jude, you’ll find that in verse number 15, their condemnation is definite, but it is also comprehensive. It is definite, and it is comprehensive. In verse 15, it says:
“to execute judgment upon all, and to convict all the ungodly of all their ungodly deeds which they have done in an ungodly way, and of all the harsh things which ungodly sinners have spoken against Him.”
We see here that the judging that God brings during this time will include all people who have rejected him, who have spoken against him, and this is a result of false teaching. This is a result of people thinking this is the truth, and it’s not the truth at all. This is the way to be right with God, and it’s not the way to be right with God. See, they have bought in to false teaching without examining with their hearing in the Word of God.
Also here, the conviction will strike all the ungodly. For what? For all their works of ungodliness. It’s amazing how Jude just piles on the word four times, ungodly, ungodly. So we get the point, that these are the ones who are coming under God’s judgment. They are not godly. Even if they are religious, even if they’re spiritual, they’re ungodly because they don’t have a relationship with God the Father through Jesus Christ the Son and His work on the cross.
So, next thing is that the judgment will judge all words, all the harsh things they said against Him as ungodly sinners. These apostate mockers mock at the parousia, the coming of the great Judge, and they derided the very idea of His coming. As it says in 2 Peter, they mocked at it. Where is He? Where is He? All things have been the same since the beginning of time. Where is He? He’s not coming. Come on. You believe that? He is coming, and He’s coming to judge. He’s coming to this earth to judge. So, none of these are justified by faith nor walked in a manner pleasing to God or the adjective ungodly would not be connected to their name.
We must not forget that this prophecy was given before the time when Moses wrote the Pentateuch, the first five books of the Bible. Actually, Jude uses a non-biblical source to bring this to our attention. The Ethiopic version of the book of Enoch has this prophecy in two sections. Let me read it to you. It says this in Enoch chapter 1 verse 9, not scripture, And lo, he comes with 10,000 of his holy ones, ones to execute judgment upon them, and he will destroy the ungodly and will convict all flesh of all that the sinners and ungodly have wrought and ungodly wise committed against him. And then Enoch 5:4 says, You have slanderously spoken proud and hard words with impure mouths against his greatness.
Jude is a small book with a big message, and it has been truly attested through the years by the Holy Spirit of God. Jude was accepted into the canon of scripture by the church as a book truly from God. But some people would have a problem with this passage and for this reason – how should we respond when biblical authors cite non-biblical sources? Well, it’s clear that extra-biblical material and even non-Christian material may inform the biblical authors’ writing as the Holy Spirit guides them. This has happened several times in scripture. In Acts chapter 17, Paul quotes an uninspired Greek writer named Oretus, where he says, For in him we live and move and exist, and even some of your own prophets have said, for we are also his children. Paul uses it again in Titus, where he quotes another uninspired Greek name, a prophet of their own that said, Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, and lazy gluttons. So, they’re using sources other than Scripture, but guided by the Spirit of God. And then in 1 Corinthians 15, again Paul quotes from another uninspired writer, Menander, and it says this, Do not be deceived, bad company corrupts good morals. You’ve heard all these passages.
And so, we have to keep in mind that even in quoting or referring to a non-biblical source, it’s being guided by God’s Spirit. And in this case, Jude quotes Enoch and not some book. Jude and the book of Enoch actually say about the same thing, neither lending to nor distracting from the message of judgment, because that is the drive of the passage – the message of judgment.
Now, this brings me to a third thing that comes under why these false teachers are judged, and this becomes more personal and specific. Look at verse number 16 – they are condemned because of their debauched characters, because of their debauched characters. And notice what it says in verse number 16:
These are grumblers, finding fault, following after their own lusts; they speak arrogantly, flattering people for the sake of gaining an advantage.
This is really showing us here just the unconverted nature of these teachers. The first thing it says about them is that they grumble without trepidation. They have no fear about what they’re saying. But what is grumbling? You know what grumbling is? Grumbling is an inner attitude of the heart. You don’t necessarily have to say words to grumble. In fact, in the Old Testament, God knew they were grumbling in their tents, or they were grumbling in their spirits, or they were moaning because of what was taking place in their life. But God knew this. So this shows the inner attitude of how wrong they understood the nature of God. They were grumbling to Him about what was going on. And this is who were there. And of course, if the teachers were grumbling, then the teachers were teaching their followers also to grumble.
If we have been reading through the Bible every year, you will be pretty well informed about how God views grumbling. He does not view grumbling at all in a good way. In fact, God bears long many times with people who grumbled, but if it continues on, God holds judgment upon it. Because what is grumbling, really? Grumbling is being discontent with your circumstances and what you think God is doing in your life, right? Grumbling is also faithlessness. There’s no faith. You’re not trusting in who God is and in His promises and in His word. It’s also a dissatisfaction that’s going on inside of you. It’s an unthankfulness about your life. And so what happens is you mumble and you grumble towards God and you complain about everything, and that is not something that is pleasing to God. That is not something that is pleasing to God.
For an example, let’s take our Bibles and turn to Exodus chapter 15. Let me just look at a couple of verses about the Old Testament people when they grumbled and why they grumbled. Remember, God brought the people of Israel out of bondage in Egypt, and they’re moving into the desert. And of course, they’re going from what they’re used to in Egypt, and now into a desert where they didn’t have some of the things they had in Egypt. Look at Exodus chapter 15, verse 24 to 26. So the people here grumbled at Moses because they were now in a desert place and that they did not want to be there, and they had no water to drink. Verse number 24 says,
So the people grumbled at Moses, saying, “What shall we drink?” Then he cried out to the Lord, and the Lord showed him a tree; and he threw it into the waters, and the waters became sweet. There He made for them a statute and regulation, and there He tested them. And He said, “If you will give earnest heed to the voice of the Lord your God, and do what is right in His sight, and give ear to His commandments, and keep all His statutes, I will put none of the diseases on you which I have put on the Egyptians; for I, the Lord, am your healer.”
God was simply saying to them there, listen, I want to do good to you. Yes, you’re in the desert. I’ve just rescued you from 430 years of bondage and slavery, and now I’m going to take care of you. That’s what he’s communicating to the people. Well, look at verse number 27:
Then they came to Elim where there were twelve springs of water and seventy date palms, and they camped there beside the waters.
So they’re complaining about not having anything to drink, then God brings them to this oasis, right? And He’s saying to them, I’m going to supply to you abundantly. Don’t worry about it. I’m going to take care of you. And so they’re sitting there. They drink to the full. They’re eating the fruit that is available to them there from the trees, and they’re just happier now, right? Discontentment is gone. No more grumbling, right? Well, look at chapter 16, verse 2 and 3. You think once they were satisfied with spring waters and nourishing dates that they would be satisfied. No, that’s not the case. Now they wanted meat. Look at verse number 2 of chapter 16:
Then they set out from Elim, and all the congregation of the sons of Israel came to the wilderness of Sin, which is between Elim and Sinai, on the fifteenth day of the second month after their departure from the land of Egypt. The whole congregation of the sons of Israel grumbled against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness. The sons of Israel said to them, “Would that we had died by the Lord’s hand in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the pots of meat, when we ate bread to the full; for you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger.”
They weren’t satisfied with having their thirst quenched and having abundance. They weren’t satisfied with what God has given them. And then what does God do here in Exodus chapter 16:4? He allows manna to come down from heaven. And He says, I’m going to feed you every day. Every day you’re going to have food to eat. You’re not going to starve. You’re not going to go thirsty. I’m going to provide all your needs. And we know that’s exactly what God does to them in the desert.
But as we read through the Scripture and we get into other parts of Exodus and into Numbers, in Numbers chapter 14, verse 27, what does the Lord do with such grumbling of heart? Well, first he gives a lot of time for repentance, a lot of time for repentance. And then if the sin persists, He deals with it accordingly. Now, if you notice in Numbers chapter 14, verse 27, it says,
“How long shall I bear with this evil congregation who are grumbling against Me? I have heard the complaints of the sons of Israel, which they are making against Me. Say to them, ‘As I live,’ says the Lord, ‘just as you have spoken in My hearing, so I will surely do to you; your corpses will fall in this wilderness, even all your numbered men, according to your complete number from twenty years old and upward, who have grumbled against Me.'”
What does God do? He gave them plenty of time to repent of their grumbling. They did not. And so God held judgment upon them. Now you think, well, what does that have to do with us? Well, take your Bibles and turn to the New Testament. And I want you to notice in 1 Corinthians chapter 10, verse 9 and 11, what it says there to you and I as New Testament believers. It says,
Nor let us try the Lord, as some of them did, and were destroyed by the serpents. Nor grumble, as some of them did, and were destroyed by the destroyer. Now these things happened to them as an example, and they were written for our instruction, upon whom the ends of the ages have come.
So this thing that happened to them in the Old Testament is for our instruction today. In other words, don’t be grumblers. But how do you know sometimes when you start grumbling? You don’t really start grumbling. You start questioning. You start asking unanswerable questions, the why questions. Is God really in control? Does God know what He’s really doing? How could God allow this to happen? Why did God bring this into my life at this time? See, those questions are revealing something much deeper in the heart – that you don’t trust God, that you are not thankful, and that you don’t understand the nature of God and what Jesus Christ actually did for you and does for us every single day.
James chapter 5 says it like this,
You too be patient; strengthen your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is near. Do not complain, brethren, against one another, so that you yourselves may not be judged; behold, the Judge is standing right at the door.
This is for us. When we find ourselves grumbling and complaining, we need to catch ourselves very quickly when we find ourselves asking and doubting God. You know why? In many cases, the person’s why questions arise from misguided desires to debate with God in order to prove God did something wrong in your life, that He doesn’t really understand me. That’s not helpful. Relief is found in trusting the character of a loving and a wise God, not in debates and answers. God may never answer our questions. He may never answer them. But you know what? It’s not in the answer to the question, it’s in the character of God. What God says He does, what He promises He will bring to pass. See, there’s where our trust ought to be.
In the context of Jude, that’s not where false teachers bring people. They do not bring people to trust God and in His character and what He’s done, even in the most difficult and trying trials of our life. What happens there is that when we have wrong teaching, we start to grumble and complain and whine and do all those things that shows we have an inner heart attitude that is wrong before God, that is not pleasing to the Lord.
So in other words, stop asking the why questions and start asking the how questions. How can I get through life with my faith intact and my faith growing in the Lord Jesus Christ and what He has done for me? See, one’s attention must be turned toward God and the gospel as the true hope of all believers. Since Christ is our hope, Christians always have a hope and our hope is built up when they grow in the true knowledge of Jesus Christ.
You think that there were not some believers in Ukraine that lost their lives maybe in the last week who were believers? That’s not a good situation. Some believers had to flee and are at the borders of Poland and other countries there. The line is so long, they have to leave their cars and walk. Some women just having babies and are pregnant. That’s not a good situation. But for a Christian, you say, well Lord knows about this. And what good is it going to do for me to complain? And then some testimonies that have been given already that God actually supplied people’s needs. People coming out, giving them food. people helping them out. People making sure that they’re taken care of and not being abused. All those things are taking place. That’s the hand of God, just trusting Him no matter what’s going on.
Now, I’m not going to say that that’s an easy thing to do when it all falls out and the bottom is taken out from underneath us. But we have to always be driven back to Scripture. What does James say? Count it all joy when various colored trials come into your life. Wait a minute. The joy goes out the window right away. If you’re going to be grumbling, you’re not going to have joy. And you’re not going to be reminded of what God has already done for you. And not only that, God promises us heaven and the eternal kingdom of God. He doesn’t promise us to have always a long life, right? It doesn’t promise us that we’re not going to have trials and tribulations. We’re born to adversity, the Word of God tells us. We’re going to have it. But God is faithful.
And I think that anybody who understands that has to get up every day of their life and say, I am so thankful. God has given me way more than I could ever ask or think. He’s given me way more than I ever deserved. That is a person who’s understanding God’s sovereignty, that He is in control. Just like Psalm says, the Lord has established His throne in the heavens and His sovereignty rules over all. And that God’s omniscience and wisdom means that not only does He know everything, but He also knows what to do with the information. God assembles and disassembles and reassembles seven billion piece puzzle every single day of our lives in order for us, for every person on the globe, because that’s who He is. As Job discovered in the last part of Job, he says, I know that you can do all things and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted. Job didn’t know that yet. Even though he was a godly man, he had to learn some things.
No matter how much you know about the Word of God, we are still in a place to learn, right? No matter how long we live, how much we’ve been introduced with the Word of God, we have a long way to go. Can you and I claim that we know everything about God that we need to know, even from Scripture? No way. We don’t know everything. So see, embracing God’s sovereignty, His wisdom, His goodness will help you and me to respond humbly and trustingly in every circumstance that would come our way and may come our way in this life. It will help us to hedge against grumbling and complaining under our breath, knowing that a thankful and cheerful attitude is God’s will. That’s how we know we’re growing. It doesn’t mean all our questions are answered. It doesn’t mean we understand what’s going on. What it does mean is that God is the same yesterday, today, and forever. And He’s not going to change because your circumstances change. In fact, He ordered it. This is what it says in Thessalonians 5:16-17:
Rejoice always; pray without ceasing; in everything give thanks; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.
You want to know the will of God? Are you thankful? Are you thankful right now in your circumstances? Or have you been complaining, grumbling, been discontent, not satisfied? If you’re there, please repent of that. Get that out of your life. That doesn’t please God. It doesn’t help anybody. And it doesn’t help people around you. It’s not edifying to have people grumble. Do you want to be around a grumbling person all the time? No. Usually, you keep your distance from them. So that’s this first characteristic of this particular person, that they are grumbler. They are a grumbler. See, false apostate teachers are grumblers and they teach those who follow them to grumble. And that’s not pleasing to God.
But here’s the second thing, and Jude is piling these things on to let us know that they are not people to follow in their teaching or in their example. Look at verse number 16 of Jude, the second part. Not only are they grumblers, but they gratified their strong lustful desires. In other words, their motivation is lust driven. Whatever it may be, it’s lust-driven. These false apostate teachers do follow something. And what do these teachers follow? Look at verse number 16, following after their own lusts, their own desires, what they think they should have.
These false teachers believed that following their own lust and showing no restraint were signs of maturity. These false teachers actually are feeding the strongest urges of the fallen human nature. And what are those urges? Those urges are to be always healthy and peaceful and safe. Those urges are always to be prosperous, to have everything that we can possibly want, to want to be wealthy and that feeds greed. So the highest goal these teachers really offer to their followers is to pursue the passing pleasures of this world, not to please Christ. For them, the evidence of the Holy Spirit’s influence in a person’s life is material prosperity or mindless emotionalism or seeking spiritual experiences or supposed miracle encounters. And if you don’t encounter these things and other things as well, you don’t have enough faith.
So these teachers are popular. As it says in 2 Peter, many will follow their sensuality. See, sensuality is the reason for their popularity because they appeal to people’s base felt needs. They advocate the full freedom of the flesh, the unbridled living. Finally, these false teachers were propagating a wicked and a shameful lifestyle centering on shameful immorality as was brought up in 2 Peter, twisted sexual desires. They indulge in evil pleasures. They commit adultery. False teachers produce converts who are characterized by worldliness and ungodliness.
Now, you can ask the question – what about Christians who don’t act like Christians? What about Christians who say they’re Christians but they don’t act like Christians? They don’t live like Christians. Somewhere down the line they thought they had a conversion experience or they believed in Jesus. In other words, some people who call themselves Christians but over many years their lives show no evidence of the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit. And mark this down, worldly and ungodly living is not normal for real biblical Christians. Worldly and ungodly living is not normal for real biblical Christians. It’s anti-biblical to even think like that or live like that. Christians who don’t live like Christians, some say in our era either they’re carnal Christians or they’re backslidden Christians.
Carnal Christians would be the label given to this category of Christians that claim to have placed their faith in Jesus Christ but over time it’s difficult to distinguish from them from the world. They live shallow, dubious lives and defame the name of Christ.
And then there is a people who use the term backslidden Christian and usually a backslidden Christian is usually a family term. Oh, Uncle Bill used to be a Christian but he’s backslidden. How long has he been backslidden? Oh, he’s been backslidden for as long as I can remember. Do you think that would be a dangerous category to be in? I think it would be, right? See, a backsliding Christian, this term is used for people who, although they once professed Christ years ago, no longer even make a pretense to being Christian. Having professed Christianity in their youth or in earlier days, they have now turned their backs completely on Christ and the church. But if you were to ask them, do you believe in Jesus? They would say yes. However, the New Testament questions the salvation of those who claim Christ but live persistently apathetic, worldly, apostate lives. So-called Christians who live like unbelievers for an extended period of time are probably just that – unbelievers. So if someone lives persistently in an ungodly and in a worldly way, they would live like citizens of Satan’s kingdom, and most likely they’re still in that kingdom. God doesn’t want us to think one way and then live another way. What you believe does affect everything you do. Everything you think, everything you say, every action you have is based on something. If it’s a biblical basis or principle, it will reflect in your life, either in you identifying that what I just said was wrong and sinful and I need to change that behavior because it is not pleasing to the Lord and repent of that particular way of speaking, put that thing to death, and put on righteousness, right? That’s what a believer does.
It was the Apostle John who told us in 1 John, by this the children of God and the children of the devil are obvious. Anyone who does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor the one who does not love his brother. It’s interesting that practicing righteousness has to do with how I deal with people, how I respond and interact with people. So yes, real Christians can, though, fall into sin, sometimes terrible sin. But I would say this, they don’t stay there because the Spirit of God so convicts them of their sin that they can’t take it and they end up confessing that sin, repenting of that sin, putting that sin to death, and then putting on righteous behavior. They can then continue to live for and follow Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. That’s what they do. That’s how we know we’re growing. That’s how we know we’re understanding sound doctrine, that these things are taking place in us and the results are fruit on the branches, right? It’s not the old fruit. The old fruit’s gone. It’s decayed. It’s gone. It’s discarded. New things have come, and I’m different because of that.
So see, these false teachers were not only grumbling, but they lived by this desire for the flesh. Anything they wanted, they did. But this last thing, and let me close with this. In verse number 16, here’s the last thing it says about them. They use grand words to entice the naive. Look what it says, they speak arrogantly, flattering people for the sake of gaining an advantage. Is that love for people? No. That’s love for yourself, to use people to get what you want. That’s what they do. They are loudmouthed boasters and use swollen rhetoric by big words to captivate and entice people to come and follow them because they have the answers. They are well-trained in greed, and they keep the money coming in. They will say anything, and they will do anything to keep the money coming in. In other words, these greedy people, they have idle of gold upon their heart. They will fabricate words, they will make up words, and they will do that for one reason, and that is to keep people following them. They will say anything that they need to say to keep people following them. At the same time, people may not even know that they’re being used, and they’re not being taught the truth.
It’s like 2 Peter says, for speaking out arrogant words of vanity, they entice by fleshly desires, by sensuality, those who barely escape from the ones who live in error. That’s who these teachers are. Now why would you want to follow them? You wouldn’t, right? You wouldn’t want to follow them. But remember, true sound doctrine brings holy, godly living. Not perfect living, holy and godly sanctification. You’re progressing and becoming more like Christ. That’s how you are understanding sound doctrine, and that’s when sound doctrine comes to you. There will be a result. You will have fruit on the branches that are like Enoch. You walk with God every day, pleasing Him, in a pleasing manner. That’s the goal. That’s the goal for all believers today, to walk with God in a pleasing manner.
And then you have to ask yourself a simple question. Am I pleasing him? If not, get it right and keep on going. Don’t ever, ever get to the place where you complain, where you say, well I tried that, that doesn’t work. I’m going to try something else. No, if you’re following Christ, you know Christ, you really have God’s spirit, you will continue on. You will persevere to the end. Amen? And God’s spirit will do that. So let’s continue to press on, be discerning, and be joyful, thankful Christians who are growing in holiness and godliness and hedging against everything that you knew and did in the past, and hating it as God hates it, and be a testimony to Him and a witness to Him with the rest of the time you have on this earth.
Let’s pray. Lord, thank You again for the Word of God. Lord, it is a true blessing to have in our hands a word in print that we can actually read and study and hear preached and taught, and that we can meditate upon. And we can know, Lord, that what You say in the Word of God is Your Word. I pray, Lord, You would help us to understand it. You would help us every day by Your Spirit to put it into practice. And I pray, Lord, that we would be very sensitive to the Holy Spirit’s conviction of sin, and that, Lord, we would catch ourselves if we’re grumbling and complaining, knowing that that does not please You. We would quickly get to the place where we are being thankful, that we’re rejoicing, and that we’re living every day in a manner pleasing to You as we understand it from scripture. And we’ll give You all the praise, Lord. Thank You for what You’ve done already, and thank You for what You’re going to do in our life. And I pray this in the precious and the holy name of Jesus Christ. Amen.