Jude: How to Spot a Charlatan | Associate Pastor: Matt Armstrong

All right.

We are preaching through the book of Jude this July.

And maybe you're thinking, I've never heard a sermon in the book of Jude, and I haven't either.

So that is not unusual.

I was on vacation last Sunday, so I didn't even get to hear Keel's sermon, which I hear was great.

I'm looking forward to listening to that.

It's a bit of an obscure book.

And maybe as uh the scripture was being read earlier, you're like, oh, what are we talking about today?

Devils and angels arguing over Moses' body?

Tell me more.

Well, I'm about to.

But first, uh, is anybody watching the World Cup?

Okay, you guys.

I know we're in Marietta, but you know, I want you to respond with gusto.

Anyone watching the World Cup?

Yeah.

All right.

If you're a soccer fan, you would just be I have never, I've heard of the World Cup.

I know it happens every four years.

I have never watched it this year, probably because it's hosted in, you know, the North America, US, Canada, Mexico.

I have just fallen in and I am, I am all in.

I watched two soccer matches yesterday.

I've probably I know that I've watched more soccer in the last month than my whole life.

Uh but it's so fun.

It's really fun.

Uh, and I'm enjoying it.

But one of the funniest and most frustrating things about soccer, and now's when I get to share my opinions on this sport I have recently discovered.

Um, and my daughter loves to point this out.

If you watch soccer for more than five minutes, you realize that one of the consistent things that happens is that the players are constantly falling on the ground and they grab their shin.

Here we go.

I found this was not hard for me to find on the internet.

Uh you know, and you watch, and soccer is so much more physical than I thought, right?

I'm a football guy, American football, I should say.

I love that smash mouth stuff.

These guys need pads.

I mean, they just like grab each other, throw each other to the ground.

I thought you weren't allowed to touch each other in soccer.

Um, so some of these, sometimes when they fall like that, they are seriously hurt.

Often it is really a penalty because they're just tackling each other.

But sometimes uh what it is is called a dive, which I guess is like taking a dive in boxing or whatever, but it's it's when you fake kind of an injury or fake being fouled.

Uh and and apparently the men are awesome at this.

They're just constantly falling over and, you know, and then they then they just jump up and they're great and they just run on.

You're like, oh, I thought your leg was broken.

Um so a dive is acting, it's pretending to be one thing, right?

Hurt or injured or fouled in order to get something that you want, right?

The other team to get a penalty for you to get an advantage, for you to win the game.

And it's become so prevalent that they actually have come up with a foul for this.

You can get a yellow card if the referee can tell that you're faking, if you're a faker, if you're making a dive.

And I just it's hilarious.

I've noticed they'll get some people get yellow and they just smile, they just know they're caught.

You know, other guys like argue forever.

Um, and uh it's so you know, you want to be able to, the refs need to tell, need to be able to figure out is this a dive or is this a real foul?

And in some ways, that's what our passage is about this morning.

See the connection?

Okay.

World Cup, false, uh false positives.

Um, in the early church, right, these the letters of the New Testament, right?

This is very early in the life of this new community that Jesus was birthing out of the nation of Israel.

Very early, false teachers came into the church, and they were threatening to lead God's people astray.

And this book, Jude, Jude is the half-brother of Jesus himself, and he says in the opening of the letter, he wanted to write just a letter of encouragement to this church of just celebrating and reveling in their common salvation.

But this issue of false teachers had become so prominent, so prevalent, that he needed to contend for the faith and to call on God's people to contend for the faith as well.

In our specific passage, Jude is uh encouraging the people to uh learn how to discern a false teacher.

Let me read.

I love the way Eugene Peterson phrases it in the message and uh kind of rephrasing Jude verse 4.

He says, What has happened is that some people have infiltrated our ranks.

Our scriptures warned this, warned us that this would happen.

But beneath their pious, beneath their pious skins are shameless scoundrels.

Their design is to replace the sheer grace of our God with sheer license, which means doing away with Jesus Christ, our one and only master.

So a Jude wants is like a good soccer referee.

He wants us, he wants you to learn how to discern, how to spot a charlatan teacher when he comes into the church.

Because this is not just a problem of the past.

This is a problem that's very much with us today.

Let's look again at verses eight through ten.

Yet in like manner these people also, relying on their dreams, defile the flesh, reject authority, and blaspheme the glorious ones.

But when the archangel archangel Michael, contending with the devil, was disputing over the body of Moses, he did not presume to pronounce a blasphemous judgment, but said, The Lord rebuke you.

All right, point one the false teachers claim God's authority for themselves.

This is a key feature.

This is how Jude describes these false teachers.

He calls them dreamers.

What this most likely means is that they are claiming new, direct, special revelation, which means God has given them a unique word that is only come through them and therefore giving them a special authority, because God's word comes with authority.

Like Muhammad with Islam or Joseph Smith with Mormonism, these teachers claimed to have a fresh word from the Lord that ultimately contradicted the authoritated, authoritative teaching of Jesus that was handed down through his apostles.

This is what Jude calls the faith that was once and for all delivered to the saints.

Or Paul in his second letter to Timothy says, Follow the pattern of the sound words that you have heard from me in the faith and love in the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus, by the Holy Spirit who dwells with us, guard the good deposit entrusted to you.

This good deposit is what became the contents of the New Testament.

This is what was handed down.

This is why I and other pastors, Bible study leaders, can speak with authority on the matters of God only when we speak in accord and in submission to that greater word.

Now, in contrast to this, these apostles, these false teachers were claiming a direct word from God that ultimately contradicted that word that was handed down from Jesus to his disciples.

Now we don't have time to get into it, but but the New Testament or the Bible itself is often criticized.

And if you have problems or or questions about the forming of the canon, as we call it, or the scriptures, specifically the New Testament scriptures, I would love to talk with you.

We we can't get into those details this morning, but I want you to know that we can have incredibly strong confidence that the scriptures we have are f are the apostolic witness to Christ's teachings.

So, in contrast to this, uh to these false teachers, Jude points us to what to us is a relatively obscure or out of left field extra-biblical story.

The story about Michael and the devil arguing over the body of Moses.

Now, what is going on here?

Interestingly, this specific story, which was most likely, most Bible scholars believe that this was a well-known story in Jewish tradition during uh you know this period of ancient Near Eastern history.

And uh, but the the actual kind of written-down story has been lost to us in history.

But we've uh certain experts and and archaeologists have reconstructed the story, uh, kind of you know, make sense here, that after Moses died, the archangel Michael came to bury the body of Moses.

Now the devil came and inserted himself and argued that the body should be given to him, the devil, because Moses was a murderer.

He had killed an Egyptian early in his life.

And thus Moses did not deserve an honorable burial by the angel Michael.

Now, Michael appealed to the judgment of God by saying, The Lord rebuke you, and the devil withdrew, knowing that God would decide in favor of Moses and against the devil's slander.

Now, it is a bit of a strange story, but there is an equivalent story in Zechariah chapter three, if you want to check that out later, where the mo uh where the devil comes and accuses the high priest and um and an angel argues in favor of the high priest by God's grace.

So, now a lot of research in this this week.

I would just love to spend the next hour telling you about it, but we don't have time for that.

So let me just say two things about this.

First, this is not the only extra biblical story reference in the New Testament.

There are a number of them, and it shouldn't surprise us, right?

Um, just like we use an illustration of the World Cup, you guys know hopefully what's going on.

So Jude trusted his audience to know this story so that he could make his point.

And the point is clear whether you know the story or not.

In the story, the devil is taking upon himself God's authority.

He is coming and saying, Moses doesn't deserve an honorable barrier, he should come with me.

Well, who's the only one who can determine who gets an honorable burial?

It's God.

But Michael, he doesn't take that authority upon himself either to say, no, I argue for God.

He says, the Lord rebuke you.

Michael doesn't rebuke him himself.

He doesn't claim God's authority for himself.

So whereas the devil is claiming God's authority inappropriately, Michael, even in response and defending God and defending Moses, he doesn't take that authority on himself inappropriately, but he continues to give honor, glory, and authority to God.

So what is Jude saying?

That's what these false teachers are doing.

Subtly, they claim God's authority for themselves.

Why?

Because they are telling God's people, yes, yes, the scriptures have said this, that we're not to do that or we are to do that, but we have a fresh word, and that's no longer relevant.

We can do X, Y, or Z.

And so this is what Jude is warning the people about.

First, how to recognize them is they the false teachers are those who step outside or above the authority of God, telling God's people that it's okay to disobey the scriptures, whether that is license, right, doing the things that God tells us not to do, or whether it's legalism telling people that they can't do what God says that they can do, right?

You can fall off the horse on either side.

What Jude is saying is know the scriptures, know the gospel, and you will begin to be able to sniff out the false teachers.

Let's continue.

Verse 11.

Woe to them, for they are they walked in the way of Cain, they abandoned themselves for the sake of gain to Balaam's heir and perished in Korah's rebellion.

Point two, false teachers seek to lead God's people astray.

Right, it's one thing to go your own way, it's one thing to sin by yourself.

It's a whole other thing to lead a group of God's people astray.

And we see the gravity of this in Jude's strong words of woe, woe to them, he says.

Now that's not the way we speak today, but but Jesus pronounced woes.

Many of the prophets pronounced woes.

And this was basically a grave warning of judgment.

If you keep going in this way, you will fall under the wrath and judgment of God.

These false teachers, he's saying, they're following the Cain's example.

They're chasing after Gain like Balaam.

They are perishing in Korah's rebellion.

So in Jewish tradition, Cain, he not only offered the wrong sacrifice to God, not only did he kill his brother, but he also led other people to disobey the Lord.

That's not something really recorded in scripture, but again, well known in Jewish tradition.

Balaam was uh a fascinating story.

Again, we don't have time to get into it, but a foreign king, the king of the Moabites, tried to hire, pay Balaam, this prophet who was not an Israelite, but but still corresponded with God.

He tried to get him to curse uh Israel and he wouldn't do it.

But we come to find out that Balaam had a scheme to corrupt God's people to lead them to worship false gods, which they did, and so he made a lot of money by leading God's people astray.

But Korah in particular, Korah's rebellion is a poignant example.

Korah was uh an Israelite, he's one of the Jews that was led by Moses out of slavery in Egypt.

But shortly after they had left uh Egypt, Korah challenged the authority of Moses and Aaron, making a somewhat reasonable argument.

He says, uh in Numbers 16, he argues, he says, Look, all of Israel is holy.

God loves us all, he is among all of us.

So why, he says in 16.3, he says, why do you then exalt yourselves above the assembly of the Lord?

Interesting.

But the thing is, Moses didn't exalt himself, he tried to run away from God's call, if you know the call of uh Moses in the burning bush.

The Lord had called called Moses and given him authority to speak on his behalf and to lead God's people.

And so Korah's argument, though it had uh the a form of logic and reasonableness.

Oh, yes, yeah, that's right, we're all equal.

So why are you leading us?

He he fed this deception into the community and and he led people astray to question and to and to rebel against Moses and Aaron.

But what he was actually doing was questioning God's authority.

God had the authority to call Moses to give him his authority.

And what happened to Korah is that God, his wrath fell down upon Korah and uh those who followed him, and the earth swallowed them up.

Hence Jude's woes.

He's saying, Those who sin against the Lord, but even more lead others to rebel against the Lord will face God's wrath.

And that can strike us as odd, unfair, maybe make us a little queasy, but but we have to see the heart of Jude and the heart of God behind all of this.

He loves his bride, he loves his people, and he is jealous to protect them about those from those who would lead them astray.

Godly leaders do not exalt themselves, nor do they entice God's people to focus on them, the leaders, at the cost of God.

Rather, they teach God's people to know God's word and to seek to follow it over any individual teacher.

There's an interesting point that Jude is kind of making under the surface here, which is that in some ways, teachers, church leaders, are very important because it is our job to teach you the scriptures, to know the gospel and to disseminate it among the community.

But on the other hand, teachers are not important at all.

Because it is God who we follow, not individuals for who they are.

All right, let's keep going.

Read uh verses uh twelve and thirteen.

These false teachers, they are hidden reefs at your love feasts, as they feast with you without fear, shepherds feeding themselves, waterless clouds swept along by winds, fruitless trees in late autumn, twice dead, uprooted, 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.

Point three, false teachers promise everything, but they deliver nothing.

Uh Jude kind of uses a number of kind of illustrations or examples to describe these false teachers.

First, he says they are shepherds who feed themselves.

Now, shepherds was a common way of describing a church leader or a you know a leader of God's people, Israel.

And it right, everybody knew in that agrarian culture what a shepherd did.

They cared for, they protected, they nourished the flock.

And so these leaders of Israel were to protect, nourish, and to lead God's people.

But like the leaders rebuked in Ezekiel chapter 34, these false teachers are only interested in feeding themselves.

Ezekiel 34 · chapter mention

Rather than feeding the sheep, they take from the sheep, they kill the sheep, they eat the sheep.

They are self-focused.

Jesus, right, he said he is the good shepherd because he lays his life down for the sheep, whereas the hired hands they flee when the wolves come.

This is a metaphor throughout the scriptures.

Similarly, they are clouds, waterless clouds, right?

In this arid, uh, arid environment that Israel lived in, if you saw a cloud in the distance, you you hoped that it would bring the nourishing rain that would feed the ground, that would produce the crops that would feed God's people.

And yet, these false teachers, they bring the promise of nourishment, and yet they just blow by.

They never really give what they promise.

Fruitless trees, right?

If you know Jesus' teaching, he's talking a lot about good trees produce good fruit.

Well, these are fruitless trees in late autumn.

This is long after the harvest when the fruit and the produce of the trees and the orchards should have been gathered in, and yet these trees have brought in nothing.

If you're familiar with the name Elizabeth Holmes, she became famous uh for leading an incredible medical tech startup called Theranos.

Anyone remember Theranos?

It promised this miracle machine with one drop of your blood, it could run hundreds of tests.

And these machines could go into any corner drugstore.

It was gonna revolutionize the medical field, it was gonna revolutionize uh kind of the the economics of medicine.

Uh investors poured in more than$700 million into this tech startup, and it it was became valued at nine billion dollars before it had produced one effective machine.

The problem, of course, is that the machines didn't work, they didn't do what the company and what Elizabeth Holmes promised.

But Holmes herself played the perfect role.

She had the Steve Jobs turtleneck, she lowered her voice, she spoke with confident visionary um confidence.

Sorry to use that word twice.

And brilliant people, wealthy people were convinced, and they lost a lot of money.

What did they do?

They bought into the persona before they saw any kind of result.

And beloved, the same thing happens in the church all the time.

Beware, beware of excellent speakers who grow big churches and promise so much.

And then you find out later that you know your life hasn't changed at all.

They've just kind of whipped you up into a frenzy, right?

There's all sorts of promises that come out of the church.

Promise to live without suffering, to live without boundaries, to live however you would like to live, or to live with such a weight on your back that God must be pleased with you because you've given so Much.

Alright, point four.

These false teachers are dangerous and are to be avoided at all costs.

Finally, Jude uses three metaphors to show us this why we should avoid them.

They are hidden reefs.

I love this imagery.

Jude is so creative.

All right.

When you're in a ship, when you're when you're going along, one of the things you've got to watch out for is the reef just beneath the surface that you can't see.

If you're not careful and you follow these false teachers, your faith will run aground and become shipwreck.

They are the wild waves of the sea.

The sea was often a symbol of chaos, of confusion and danger in the land-based agrarian culture of Israel.

In his letter to the Ephesians, Paul encourages the believers there to grow in their maturity so that they may no longer be children tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness and deceitful schemes.

This is the exact same thing that Jude is warning about.

In contrast, Jesus and his teachings are the rock upon which we can build our lives.

Finally, these false teachers are wandering stars.

This was my favorite kind of metaphor to dig into.

For ancient peoples and even people today, if you if you know how to sail a ship, which I do not, you set your course by the stars, right?

The constellations, they are set, they are steady.

Yes, they they move with the seasons, they rotate as the world spins, but they are predictable and secure, and you can set your course accordingly.

But some stars don't do that.

Some stars, the ancient people would observe, they would follow paths, but but then they would seem to wander.

They would go in the other direction, they would act irregularly.

They called these the wandering stars, and the Greek word for wandering stars is planetus.

That's where we get the word planet.

These planets, they look like stars as the sun reflects off of them and comes back, and they they seem to follow paths across the sky, but if you watch them, they actually seem to wander.

It is irregular, and you cannot chart your course according to them.

Of course, they looked like stars, but they were something completely different.

Jude warns us if you set the course of your life according to these wandering stars, you will end up lost.

Whereas a faithful teacher of the church only seeks to serve and to follow Jesus and to teach you to do the same.

Beloved, as we close, I want to make sure that we know that Jude's point is not to make us paranoid.

This is an intense letter, and he uses a lot of strong, forceful teaching to help us learn how to spot the charlatans in the church.

But his real underlying message is to know and to revel in the gospel, to know the freedom that is ours through the utter forgiveness and love of God, the grace that has been bestowed upon us, the forgiveness of sins, so that when a false teacher comes into our midst, and and Jude's words are that it's hard to spot these false teachers.

It's not easy.

They slip in, they sound so believable.

But his encouragement is to know the gospel ourselves.

Yes, we come to church to learn the gospel, but we also come to be encouraged in the gospel that we already know and have learned.

And so it is an encouragement for you as a believer and follower of Christ to study and to celebrate the gospel yourselves.

But don't worry, don't get yourself all tied in a tizzy.

The Lord protects his church.

There's been false teachers from the very beginning, and yet today, 2,000 years later, and really far more thousands of years, God has faithfully led his church.

And so do not place your trust in man or teachers ultimately, but in the Lord Jesus Christ, who loves you, who gave himself up for you, and who is able to keep you from stumbling.

If you have any questions, I'll be down front.

We can talk, we can pray together.

Come see me.

Let's pray.

Our Father and our God, we thank you that you are the one in whom our faith ultimately rests.

Thank you, Lord, that you do provide good leaders and shepherds for your flock.

But Lord, we do pray that you would protect us against those who would come in and who would lead us astray.

Give us discernment, give us wisdom, but ultimately protect us by your Holy Spirit.

And we thank you for all that you've given us in Christ.

We pray in his name.

Amen.