Jude - Part 3: Church Beware

Book of Jude, second to the last book in your Bible, so you go from the second book in the Bible, Exodus, to the second to the last in the book of Jude.

Just one chapter, but boy, does it pack a punch. And I think we saw that a couple of weeks ago. Our author is Jude, if you weren't with us, this is the half-brother of Jesus himself.

His mother was Mary, like Jesus. His father was Joseph, unlike Jesus. And he is writing with an apostolic authority to a church where an alarm needs to be sounded.

Yes, after telling these believers in verse 3 of this letter that they need to contend, to fight for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints, Jude warns in verse 4 of how certain people, ungodly people he calls them, have crept in unnoticed.

And they've got some bad intentions, some very bad intentions. They want to pervert the grace of God into sensuality. And so last time we began to look at how Jude was offering these warnings in verses 5, 6, and 7, using three ominous examples from the Old Testament.

First, it was those rebellious Israelites in the wilderness. They refused to go into the promised land. Then the next example was those boundary-breaking angels who mingled with human women.

Genesis 6. And then the third example was an even more perverse and unnatural boundary-breaking behavior from the men of Sodom and Gomorrah.

And he went on to compare all of them to these false teachers here in this church in Jude's day who have infiltrated the church. And Jude went on to talk about what characterizes them and what their tactics are.

And are their tactics the clear teaching of the Word of God? No. They, verse 8, rely on their dreams. Their dreams. Their personal revelations and their own thoughts.

Their dreams. And they defile the flesh. And they reject authority. And they blaspheme the glorious ones. If you weren't with us last time, with this charge, blaspheming the glorious ones, what we think Jude is getting at here is that these infiltrating false teachers were attacking the messengers of God's law.

The givers of His Word. Attacking specifically the moral teaching of God's Word, which clearly forbids all forms of sexual immorality. And they were doing it arrogantly, Jude says, and instinctually blaspheming what they did not understand.

He even called them unreasoning animals because they are pursuing all of their basest instincts. And so we're going to pick up our reading today in verse 11 if you want to take a look.

Verse 11. We'll read through verse 16 of God's Word.

Verse 11.

It was also about these that Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied, saying,

Behold, the Lord comes with ten thousands of His holy ones to execute judgment on all and to convict all the ungodly of all their deeds of ungodliness that they have committed in such an ungodly way

and of all the harsh things that ungodly sinners have spoken against Him. These are grumblers, malcontents, following their own sinful desires.

They are loudmouth boasters, showing favoritism to gain advantage. Let's pray, shall we? Lord, I thank you for this church. I thank you for the ability to gather together today, to be together, to encourage one another, Lord, to do life together as the family of God.

I thank you, Lord, for all who have come and that are just visiting with us today. Thank you for this place being a church home for so many.

And, Lord, will you open your Word today? Will you let us humble ourselves to hear from this important part that Jude is writing? I pray, Father, that you would let the Word do its work and, Lord, soften our hearts to receive it.

And we pray this in the name of our Savior, our beautiful Savior, in Jesus' name. Amen. Now, I don't know about you, but I was raised to be a good boy and not call people names.

And I just listened to Jude. God, grumblers, malcontents, loudmouth boasters. Next time you want to call somebody that, you can say, it's biblical.

It's in there. Hidden reefs at your love feasts. Shepherds feeding only themselves. If nothing else, I think we see this as a serious indictment.

Let's remember, though, that this is inspired Scripture. It's not some guy going off half-cocked. He does this under the inspiration of God's Holy Spirit.

And so sometimes what we need to do is like take our modern notions of what sounds nice and what's polite and diplomatic. And just check those for a minute and hear the serious warning from God's word here.

Because that's really what this is. It's a warning. And it's a warning because there is a lot at stake for this church. Because as it stands, this faith once for all delivered to the saints, it was under attack.

This church that Jude writes to had been infiltrated by these false teachers who had crept in. What we call these infiltrating false teachers.

And there they are. They're at the church. Jude even says here that they're attending all of their events. Their worshipful events. Their family events.

Their fellowship events. Their potluck dinners. Which is kind of what a love feast is. They're watching each other's kids. They're being worshippers side by side with these people.

And leading everybody to think that, oh, we're all just one big happy family. Everything's fine. And yet, meanwhile, they scorn parts of God's revealed word.

They are remaking a Bible for all intents and purposes in their own image. They are taking behaviors that God clearly calls sin. And they're saying, oh, no, they're not sin.

And it's leading other believers down a destructive path. That's what's happening. And so it's almost like Jude is saying, hey, you may like their kids.

Their kids may play well with your kids. You might like the cheesy potatoes they bring to the potluck. But woe to them. Take a look at verse 11.

Woe to them for they walked in the way of Cain. Cain. Takes us all the way back to Genesis, doesn't it? To the firstborn son of Adam and Eve, the older brother to Abel.

And if you're familiar with the story in Genesis 4, you've got these two brothers. They work these different professions. Cain is a farmer. Abel is a keeper of the sheep, a herdsman.

And both of these brothers bring their offering to the Lord, we read. And yet the Lord looked favorably on Abel and his offering, but not on Cain's.

We're never told explicitly why. It could have been something to do with the quality of the offering. Maybe he didn't bring his best. It could have been the heart of Cain, which is what I believe.

But Cain gets really, really mad. As in, I'm thinking about murdering my brother mad. Don't any of you siblings out there. I know you've had those thoughts.

Don't do it. Don't do it. And so this famous warning came from God in Genesis 4 on the screen. Genesis 4, verses 6 and 7. Here's what the Lord says to Cain.

Genesis 4:6

Why are you angry and why has your face fallen? If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door.

Its desire is contrary to you, but you must rule over it. Well, Cain does not rule over it. It rules him. And he jumps his brother out in the field and he murders him.

The way of Cain is a murderous way. One scholar describes the way of Cain as shorthand for doing evil and angrily resenting others for doing good.

An unwillingness to submit to God's warning. A person who chooses a wicked path of evil. Like Cain, Jude says, these infiltrating false teachers among you are devoid of love.

And they are taking actions that will be to your brotherly harm. They walk in the way of Cain in the sense that they clearly understand God's expectations.

And yet they do what they want to do instinctively. The way of Cain. And, verse 11, they've abandoned themselves for the sake of gain to Balaam's error.

Again, back to the Old Testament this time. It's the people of Israel on the scene. They've been rescued out of the Egyptian bondage. They're in the wilderness wandering because of their rebellion.

And it's during this time that Israel has some enemies. There were some people who didn't like them and wanted to take them out. The Moabites were one of these people.

And their king, a man named Balak, summoned a well-known prophet for hire named Balaam. To come and curse God's people. So, Balak hires Balaam's services to come curse.

But, to make a long story short, over several chapters, the plan backfires. As in, big time backfires. God will not allow his people to be cursed.

And every time this prophet Balaam tries to do it, a blessing comes out. And our story seems to be over in Numbers chapter 24. Both men appear to give up.

Numbers 24 · chapter mention

Balaam heads for home. But later we learn more. We learn that Balaam goes on to give the king some very sinister advice. He advises him, the only way you're going to get God to do anything to these people that will be bad is if you entice them into sin.

And that way, then, God himself will judge them. And so, what happens in Numbers chapter 25, in what is called the infamous Baal Peor incident,

Numbers 25 · chapter mention

is on Balaam's advice, young, attractive Moabite women actually are sent in to befriend and entice Israelite men. And these are men with wives and families.

And these women get them, get the Israelite men to participate with them in their immoral pagan sacrifices. They're committing sexual sins. Adultery is running rampant in the camp.

At one point, it gets so bad that the Lord is talking to Moses, commanding Moses, and right out in front of Moses walks an Israelite guy, right past him, with a Moabite woman, taking her to his tent.

And why did all of this happen? On the advice of one man, Balaam. And what motivated Balaam? Greed? Gain? The fees of divination that we read about in Numbers chapter 22?

Numbers 22 · chapter mention

King Balak dangled silver and gold in front of this man's eyes, this prophet for hire, and he took the bait. And Jude takes this account and this bad apple in it, Balaam, and he now applies it to these infiltrating false teachers here in this church.

He says they too are motivated by gain. And like Balaam, they will entice others to sin because they get something out of it.

Now they say that the rabbinic tradition of Jude's day portrayed Balaam as himself a very sexually perverted man. It could be that he was. But we know that ironically enough, his name appears in the book of Revelation, where the Lord himself makes reference to Balaam.

And this is what we read in Revelation chapter 2, verse 14. This is the letter that Christ wrote to the church at Pergamum. He says, You have some there who hold the teaching of Balaam, who taught Balak to put a stumbling block before the sons of Israel

Revelation 2:14

so that they might eat food, sacrifice to idols, and practice sexual immorality. And apparently we have a lot of traveling teachers moving around this part of the world in the first century, and they would teach people whatever they wanted to hear for money.

And here in this church we have some unsavory individuals who are flaunting God's commands about morality, rebelling against the very clear teaching of God's Word, propagating error for the sake of gain, driven by a greed motive.

And they were enticing other people in the church into sin. Listen, it's always bad to tell God's people that sin isn't really sin. That sexually immoral behavior is okay.

That it's not wrong. That love is love and God wants you to be happy. But the true wages of Balaam's error would be paid out. He would earn his wages, but not from King Balak.

He would earn them from the King of Heaven. Because in Numbers chapter 31, Balaam will meet his death.

Numbers 31 · chapter mention

That's two examples, but we know that Jude likes three. So he goes on and gives us a third one at the end of verse 11. He says that they perished in Korah's rebellion.

This one might not be quite as familiar as Balaam. You know, we have the talking donkey. Or of Cain, the firstborn son of Adam and Eve. Numbers chapter 16 tells the story of Korah.

Numbers 16 · chapter mention

It talks about how Moses and Aaron, here they are, God's divinely appointed leaders. Two special men set apart. And yet here comes this Levite leader, this ambitious man, Korah, flanked by a couple of buddies.

He comes to Moses. And what he says to Moses is, what makes you two guys so special? I'm a Levite too. And these couple guys with me, and these 250 other men, we're all special.

And we can do any duty that you can do before the Lord. And Moses is like, you guys are already Levites. You've already been given special responsibilities with the tabernacle to care for it, and transport it, and supervise it.

You're going too far now. Here's what he says in Numbers chapter 16, verse 9. Is it too small a thing for you that the God of Israel has separated you from the congregation of Israel to bring you near to himself to do service in the tabernacle of the Lord and to stand before the congregation

Numbers 16:9

to minister to them? And you would seek the priesthood also? And then what happens next is that the Lord Himself judges Korah and his buddies.

The ground opens up and swallows them and their families. Even as fire comes out to consume all the rest of their rebel friends. Yes, they perished.

They perished, Jude says, and just as they perished, so also will these infiltrating false teachers. Because you don't get to replace God's commands with what seems right to you.

You don't get to dream up another set of standards. And in the case of this particular church again, Jude seems to be suggesting that these false teachers were refusing to submit to the authority of the other church leaders.

And perhaps with this reference to perishing in Korah's rebellion, and remember, this church would be very familiar with this story. Maybe it was a not-so-subtle way to warn them to move away from the tents, from the influence of these false infiltrating teachers.

Well, that's just the first verse. And when we come to verse 12, we can see the gloves come completely off now because Jude finally calls these teachers out for what they really are to this church.

Verse 12, he says, These are hidden reefs at your love festivals. Love feasts. The love feast, or agape festival, was basically a big fellowship event in the early church.

We're not sure if it was monthly or weekly, but it was a big fellowship event. You could imagine it like a day-long church potluck on steroids.

They ate. They prayed. They ate. They sang. They ate. And they enjoyed the favor of all God's people. And typically they would finish it with raising cups in the celebration of the Lord's Supper.

But Jude says that these people here are hidden reefs at these celebrations. Understand that in the ancient world, and really still today, a hidden reef under the sea is a real danger to a boat.

Without warning, if you strike a hidden reef, it could literally rip out the hull of your boat and you would sink. an undetected hidden reef could mean a shipwreck, literally.

And Jude is warning them of how these infiltrating false teachers can do just that to the faith of other people in the family of God. They can shipwreck other people's faith.

And he's saying, close proximity to such people is dangerous. They act all loving on the surface of the water. They share great fellowship with you, right?

They bring good cheesy potatoes. I don't know why I'm thinking about cheesy potatoes. I'm hungry. But they conceal under the surface of that veneer of niceness a dangerous teaching.

Under the waters of love, and can't we all just get along? Harmony, unity. They can shipwreck people even as they feast with you without fear.

And that's a key part here that Jude mentions, how they have no fear. What it means is that they didn't act like what they were doing was wrong.

They had a seared and therefore clear conscience about what they were doing. They were quite sincere, quite confident, and even emboldened. No pang of conscience, no slightest qualm, and they would encourage others to flout a godly lifestyle

and give in to their sensuality.

Because they're not really shepherds who care for other people. No, they are, as Jude says, shepherds feeding themselves.

We do realize the shepherd is supposed to be the epitome of someone who cares for others. One who selflessly watches over other people's souls, cares for the sheep, and specifically feeds the sheep.

But here, Jude echoes the indictment of an Old Testament prophet named Ezekiel. Because in his day, Ezekiel delivered a blistering indictment against Israel's bad shepherds.

Here's Ezekiel 34, verses 2 and 3. Thus says the Lord God, Ah, shepherds of Israel who have been feeding yourselves. Should not shepherds feed the sheep?

Ezekiel 34:2

You eat the fat. You clothe yourselves with the wool. You slaughter the fat ones, but you do not feed the sheep. Instead, what they fed was their own egos.

What they were obsessed with was their own sense of self-importance. And Jude says, Jude warns, they're only concerned about what they can get from you.

They selfishly pursue their own advancement and their own ambitions and desires. And they starve you, the sheep, from any nourishing teaching.

That's just the first half of verse 12. And then we come to the second half. And Jude pivots now to some metaphors. What he gives us are four more metaphors.

And each of them are based on sort of the four main elements of the ancient world. It starts with the sky. He says, they are waterless clouds swept along by the winds.

Think about what that would mean in a hot, arid climate like Palestine is, where the appearance of a cloud signaled much-needed rain. And should that promise of rain in that cloud fail to deliver a drop and give the land no benefit, you can imagine the bitter disappointment.

In the same way, Jude says, these infiltrating false teachers, they promise a lot. And they deliver nothing. They claim to be your teachers, but they are not offering you anything of value.

Next, it's a metaphor from the earth. He says, they are fruitless trees in late autumn. Autumn, a time when fruit ought to be present. Nothing.

Jude describes them as twice dead. Dead before conversion and now dead again because of apostasy. And just like Jesus once predicted in His ministry, fruitless trees will be uprooted at the judgment.

Next, Jude takes us back to the seas again, describing these teachers as wild waves of the sea casting up the foam of their shame. Now, for non-seafaring people like the Israelites were, they were not really like, you know, the Phoenicians, the seafaring people, the Romans.

The Israelites really weren't. And so for them, when they talked about the sea, and you find this throughout Scripture quite a bit, the sea is a metaphor for chaos and danger.

I get that because I'm not a sea person myself, really. I like to look at it, but that's about it. And here, Jude, he does actually now grant that these false teachers, they do leave something, they do produce something, but it's only the foam of their shame.

Because like wild waves, they boom and crash with a lot of their loud talk. But the only thing they produce is filthy scum. Their bad teaching foams up and foments and encourages shameful, immoral living.

And finally, they are wandering stars too, Jude says. Wandering stars. Now, he doesn't mean the actual stars. He's talking about the planets.

But of course, in the ancient world, they didn't know the difference between the two. And remember that the ancient world depended upon the night sky for navigation.

You would read the stars to know where you're at. You would look at those fixed stars, or at least what appeared to be fixed to them, and that would help you get where you wanted to go.

But when some of those stars, those planets are in their orbits, and they appear to move across the night sky, that could be dangerous for a traveler.

It could make you stray off course. You've been following a wandering star. And Jude is saying that that's what these people are like, these unreliable guides.

They are straying. They have wandered off from the truth. They are untrustworthy, shifty leaders. And if you get in their orbit and you follow them, you could end up lost and in danger.

And what's in store for them? What's been reserved for them up ahead? Jude says, the utter gloom of darkness forever. And that's judgment language.

Darkness. Confinement. Fire. All metaphors for judgment that we've seen in this letter. This is what's in store and what is being prepared for these infiltrating false teachers.

They have a reservation with judgment.

By verse 14, Jude continues in his diatribe and he now comes to this quotation from this man, Enoch. He's already alluded to parts of this book of Enoch before.

We talked about that last time. Here he says, Enoch, the seventh from Adam, which some of you are going to look back and count up the genealogy and say there's only five in between them.

But remember, the Jewish way of counting always includes the first and the last. So the seventh from Adam, he prophesied about these guys. You may remember, we talked about this book of Enoch and how it's really kind of this strange, mystical, intertestamental literature.

It's not on the level of the Bible by any means. It is based on a character from the Bible, the Enoch of Genesis. The Enoch of Genesis is described as a man who walked with God.

In fact, very little is said about him other than that he walked with God and that God took him from this life. Hebrews says that he did not experience death.

And mostly for this reason, Enoch became a very fascinating and mythical figure for the Jews in Jude's day. Now we don't know exactly who composed this book because again, it's much later and we certainly do not put it on the same level as scripture or believe everything that is in it

must be true. But apparently it contains at least one legit prophecy. Right here, Jude tells us, Enoch rightly prophesied that the Lord is going to come with ten thousands of his holy ones, the angels and he's going to execute judgment on all the ungodly.

In fact, if you've noticed, Jude's quote from Enoch actually piles up these words for ungodly. Convict all the ungodly of all their deeds of ungodliness that they have committed in such an ungodly way and of all the harsh things that ungodly sinners have spoken against him.

So he's describing ungodliness in behavior, in deeds, things people do, but also ungodliness in speech, in things people say and teach.

You do realize that you don't actually have to do ungodly deeds to be ungodly? You can say and teach ungodly things and you can sin by teaching other people wrongly.

Enoch prophesies of how they will be judged for this. Their judgment is imminent. It's coming. Judged for all of the harsh things that ungodly sinners have spoken.

Harsh things. You know, it takes a certain amount of moxie to speak harsh things against a person, another person. How much more when it's against the Lord?

And it's no coincidence that Jude goes right on in the next verse to describe these kinds of things that these ungodly speakers are doing. The grumbling, grumblers, malcontents that they are.

Clearly, again, a nod back to the Old Testament to the Israelites who grumbled. Inasmuch as they back then spoke harsh things against Moses, which was really speaking them against God.

So these infiltrating false teachers here in this day are speaking harsh things against God's messengers now. Those who bring His word in the church.

Verse 16, yes, these are grumblers, malcontents who follow their own sinful desires, and these loud mouth boasters, they show favoritism to gain advantage.

And there it is again, just like old Balaam, right? People currying favor of other people in exchange for gain. Bad actors showing partiality to certain folks who want to live in their sin and therefore perverting that grace into

sensuality.

Well, Jude's done a lot here, hasn't he? He has named some patterns for us. He has profiled some people for sure, and he has given this particular church he's writing to the sober assurance that judgment is coming.

That's a theme we cannot miss today, that that judgment is coming. But you know what? At the heart of everything Jude is doing here in these verses, I think we hear a warning.

His inspired letter is sounding an alarm of warning, and the message is essentially, church, be where? Church, be where and take heed. And if you just give me a minute or two, I think it could be helpful for us if we would just highlight what it

is that we as a church are to beware of, because are not the things inspired and put into God's written word meant for an early church, also applicable for every church, including ours?

Yes. So here are some things I think that we hear Jude telling us to beware of. The first one is this, number one, beware of the way of Cain.

Beware of the way of Cain, where God's commands are clearly understood, but you give in to sin anyway. Give in to sin anyway.

You know, today you and I don't have to rely on tablets etched in stone, delivered by angels up on a mountain. Neither do we have to wait for the gradual unfolding of these New Testament letters.

We have a completed Bible, perfect, written, incomplete, word of God in Scripture, all of which is God-breathed and useful. And sometimes that Bible, God's word, speaks to us in some very specific ways.

words. And yet we have instinctual feelings and urges that are contrary to what it says. And sometimes we can get upset like Cain. Sometimes we can give in and behave according to our basest instincts.

Yes, we very much have, as the Lord said to Cain, we very much all have sin crouching at our door at one point or another. And we can clearly hear and understand what God commands from his people.

And we must not give in to our sin. It wants to have us. Please understand that. It wants to have you. But like God told Cain, you must master it.

And you have something, and I have something, that Cain did not yet have. And that's the Holy Spirit. We're not left to ourselves to do this.

Because of the death and resurrection of Christ and his ascension to heaven, the Spirit could come. And he has come. And God has given us help.

And he's also provided a throne of grace before which you and I can go back again and again to help us in our time of need. Forgiveness is always there.

But we must be aware of the way of Cain. Because Cain, you see, was never sorry. Cain never repented. Cain never agreed with the Lord about his sin.

Even after he committed it and was punished. That's one caution from Jude. Here's the second one. Number two. Beware of Balaam's error. Beware of Balaam's error where people show favor to gain advantage.

To gain advantage. I don't have to tell you that in our world right now there are viewpoints that a person can have. There is teaching that a church can give that will try to curry favor with the world.

That will strengthen friendship with the world. But don't ever forget what the Apostle James said about that. About friendship with the world.

He said it's hatred toward God. God. When you need the world's respect and approval that's more important to you than God's. You know as I look around today I see a preponderance of teaching.

I don't know I mean I've only lived you know a few short years but it seems like there's more teaching available than ever before in the history of the world.

You can tune in to a podcast or go to a conference or pull up a video or read a book. I think they still do that right or listen to a book. read a post and the gain people are after who bring teaching takes a variety of forms.

Think it's not just money. Sometimes it's a platform because that leads to money. Sometimes it's clicks and likes and followers and sometimes there is just plain old money financial gain behind it.

And I would caution all of us. Please hear me. I would caution you beware of any teacher student relationship. If you're listening to the teaching that makes you the student.

Beware of any teacher student relationship that is based solely and only on gain. When podcasters and conference speakers and well-known writers don't know you and are not involved in your life at all, don't have any connection to their readers or their listeners

and they're not accountable to anyone, doesn't mean they're all bad, but it means they are susceptible and they can easily become a target and then become an environment for offering teaching that gets hijacked because they're teaching for gain,

teaching for some kind of compensation. people. Some people have the gain of a sizable audience and they want to keep that. They want to grow that.

Others need the gain of a significant platform and I would just simply say, church, beware of Balaam's error. And part of Balaam's error connects to that caution from Jude about flattery, which is what it is in verse 16 at the very end of this passage, showing favoritism to gain

advantage, showing partiality to gain advantage.

I know many churches want to be welcoming. I want this church to be welcoming. We want to include people, but not at the cost of truth. Some churches want to go out of their way to show a kind of partiality to a variety of groups.

And I'm telling you when we do that, that becomes pandering. That becomes partiality. It's dangerous to valorize any group of people, be it based on background, economically, rich or poor.

It's happened both ways. Be it based on race or gender or catering to those who have had a poor experience with the church and been hurt by the church or based on some other minority or victim status.

And this applies to LGBTQ folks, too, because some churches right now are going out of their way to show partiality to them. To gain advantage, to be seen as progressive and with the times, to be on the so-called right side of human history.

Some people right now are teaching and advocating false doctrine. in order to win a liking, gain followers, and have influence and friendship with the world.

But this morning, Jude reminds us that history will someday come to an end. And at the end of history, it will be God who determines who was on the right side of it.

Remember that. number three, beware of Korah's rebellion. Number three, Korah's rebellion where God's ways are forced to fit our ways.

Remember, Korah didn't like the setup. Korah didn't like God's ordering. It wasn't really Moses that he had a problem with. It was God. And he wanted to tailor his view of God and God's ways to fit more of what he wanted and he liked.

And that meant me and my friends get to be in charge too. We get to do whatever we want. Why not? And this is dangerous. When people want to tailor their view of God according to ways that fit their situation and their liking.

You know, sometimes it's just a good idea to ask ourselves once in a while, where might I have a view of God in his ways? That's maybe more reflection of what I want than with what God wants.

This is why it's so important to humbly come before his word and to submit ourselves to it even when it doesn't fit our preferences or our ideas or our notions.

Because the truth of it is, if we're honest with ourselves, sometimes our culture is shaping us more than we admit.

Fourth warning, number four. Number four, beware of hidden reefs and self-feeders. Hidden reefs and self-feeders where teaching and promises of life bring only wandering and death.

Wandering and death. Jude has reminded us that the people of God are going to encounter some teachers among them who will want to offer direction.

We'll want to tell you what you should do. Who will want to tell you what you should think and they will even promise that there is life, real life in it.

But Jude compares these teachers to fruitless trees, waterless clouds, wild waves of the sea. And when they tell you things that are contrary to the written word of God, they may promise you that this is the real life, but it's not.

And if you follow their advice, that hidden reef will shipwreck your faith. Remember what Jesus said. Jesus says, not everybody that talks a good game is going to be in the kingdom of heaven.

Not everybody who says to me, Lord, Lord, and preaches and prophesies and podcasts and writes books is going to be in heaven. We're to test the spirits.

We are to weigh all teaching that we receive, including this right now, this morning against God's word. We are to beware of hidden reefs and self-feeding shepherds.

And finally, last warning from Jude today, number five. Beware of ungodliness, ungodliness of those who sin in both deed and word. How many times does Enoch's prophecy prophecy mention this

word or a variation of it? Ungodly. Four times. And both he and Jude speak of how ungodliness can manifest itself in both the things people do, deeds, but also in things they say in their words.

So, yes, there are ungodly actions. There is that kind of behavior that gives into your sinful desires where people pervert God's grace into sensual living and live according to what their flesh craves.

But we've been reminded today that the Lord is coming with ten thousands of his holy ones and that all the ungodly who are apart from Christ, who live in their deeds of ungodliness without seeking the cross, they're going to be convicted and judged.

ungodly. And then there are also the words. Ungodly words. Harsh things Jude talks about that ungodly sinners speak against God and his word.

This week I was thinking about some time in the past, about 13 years ago, I was part of a pastoral leadership program, not with our denomination.

It was something funded by Lillian Dowman with a lot of mainline church pastors and myself. And we were in a cohort together and I remember we were just getting acquainted with one another and they did this interesting thing.

They had us all fill out what they called a theological audit. It was really fascinating to pull that out. I pulled it out this week and I read it and there were questions that we were supposed to answer and a couple of them stood out.

One of them was what are your favorite passages in the Bible to preach? And then there was this question, what passages of the Bible do you try to avoid preaching?

I looked at my answer. I think I said something about genealogies and now I don't think I think I would like rebuff that question like we got to preach all of it.

It's all there for a reason. But what what passages of the Bible pastors do you try to avoid preaching? Let me read you some of the answers.

One pastor answered passages on judgment. Another wrote the six passages dealing with homosexuality. Some said passages on submission in marriage.

Another one said I all I couldn't believe this. I always shy away from preaching about adultery.

Someone else said Paul's list of sinners. This was 13 years ago. And by the way, this is why you do not go to liberal seminaries.

And why would they not want to preach on passages and subjects like these? Because they're controversial because they're controversial in 2013 or 2011.

Apparently, how much more so in the year of our Lord 2024, right? But Christian leaders, shepherds, who avoid these kinds of topics, are simply too interested in keeping in favor with their people.

Currying favor for the sake of gain. Telling churchgoers like you what you want to hear to stay in your good graces. And again, in our cultural moment, my friends, we now have LGBTQ affirming churches and

colleges and seminaries and parachurch ministries that have caved on that particular issue. Giving people a license for ungodliness. Leading people into sin by their words.

For the sake of gain. Balaam's error all over again. Because even if we church leaders might not be committing the actual sin ourselves, when we teach others with ungodly words, when we show

partiality to gain advantage, Jude says we will face judgment.

You need to come back next week. Jude's not done. And I want you to come back because we're not done either. And I want you to hear him because he's going to pivot and give this church some critical advice and some trustworthy, inspired counsel that will be couched and will culminate in one

of the most beautiful benedictions in all of scripture. scripture. And I know it will be an encouragement to you. Would you bow your head with me as we stand?

Would you stand and bow your head with me as we prepare to sing one more time and pray?

Father, we just pray for good shepherds. We pray for faithful shepherds. We pray for shepherds who, Lord, will lead your people to the pastures of your word and believe it as true, as complete, as clear, as sufficient, as for our good

and growth for our churches, Lord, for ourselves, for our children and our grandchildren and our families, Lord, that we might be people of the book as we grow.

Because that's going to be the only anchor that we have, Lord, in this truth in a world that is shifting and crashing and big waves, Lord, are breaking.

And there's sometimes a lot of foam out there of shameful things. So, Lord, we commit ourselves to you today. Guard us, Lord, by your spirit.

Thank you for the life that is truly life, for the redemption that is ours in your son. And we praise you and we thank you in Jesus name. Amen.