Jude 1:11 Woe unto them! for they have gone in the way of Cain, and ran greedily after the error of Balaam for reward, and perished in the gainsaying of Core.
12 These are spots in your feasts of charity, when they feast with you, feeding themselves without fear: clouds they are without water, carried about of winds; trees whose fruit withereth, without fruit, twice dead, plucked up by the roots;
Apostasy involves the deliberate rejection of Truth. It is not a matter of ignorance and needing to be instructed. It is a matter of knowing better, but knowingly rejecting the Truth.
When a true Christian looks at Bible Colleges and seminaries, and many churches, he can see men and women who have willingly rejected the truth. Of course when a person is studying from a perverted text, the power of God does not rest on that text. However, each person is given a conscience by God. A person who falls away from the Truth is one who at least has some idea of what Truth is, but who chooses to reject the pursuit of that which they should know.
In verse 11, God pronounced a woe upon these deceivers. They have gone the way of Cain. Cain had a knowledge of what a true offering should be. He was the firstborn son of Adam and Eve. He would have been told of God’s requirements for atonement of sin. He chose to bring an offering that was unacceptable to God. He proved that he was unwilling to be corrected. God rejected his offering, and rather than repent, he became angry. He rejected every opportunity God gave him to repent. He just continued to become more angry and murdered his righteous brother. Even after that, he refused any counsel from God.
Balaam knew some things about the true God. On his third attempt to curse Israel, he even admitted that there was no point in consulting with God. He knew God would never sanction a curse against Israel. However, Balaam also knew the weakness of the flesh. He knew that the nation of Israel could be weakened through the lust of the flesh. He encouraged the Moabites to send their women to lure the Jewish men and he also encouraged the Moabite men to go and lure the Jewish women. As in any nation, there were Jews who were not saved and their men and women were enticed to look at “forbidden fruit”. God had commanded Israel not to marry with the ungodly nations around them. God eventually punished the Moabites and killed Balaam.
The filthy dreamers in our text were trying to entice the saints to let down their guard and to indulge in the lust of the flesh, both physically and spiritually. Imagining things that are not taught in the Bible cannot be all that bad, so they thought. God has given us all we need in His Word. We have more than we need in the pages of the Bible. We do not need to waste time imagining things that have no basis in Truth.
Core/Korah, led a rebellion against Moses and Aaron. He tried to weaken God’s leadership. “Gainsaying” is rebellion against Truth. That is what Core was guilty of.
We have the records of what God did in each of those cases. There was nothing to be gained by any of them. Yet those dreamers ignored the facts and assumed they could win where others had not.
In verse 12 we see that Christians like to get together for fellowship. They would hold feasts of charity, but these false teachers would try to infiltrate these events and they were spots. The spots would be like a rock in the water that if hit could smash a hole in a ship. They would be like the large pothole in the road that could cause a flat tire or ruin the suspension. They were disrupters and destroyers.
God directed Jude to use many descriptive words to describe these people. God is not pleased with anyone who would want to destroy His Work. Jesus promised that the gates of hell would not prevail against His church. He would make sure of that. As we have noted, Jesus addressed seven churches in the book of the Revelation. He cares about His sheep and will not allow them to get eaten up by the wolves.
We see further that these apostates are not ashamed to infiltrate a true church. They are quite brazen in their approach. They are not afraid of defying the True God.
God said they are like clouds that carry no water. Sometimes it is nice to have cloud cover to lessen the heat of the sun. However, it is also nice to see clouds that carry rain to water the ground. God stated that the waterless clouds were worthless when it came to watering the ground. These clouds were carried with the wind, but they had nothing to offer the ground.
The apostates were not interested in learning. They were not interested in building up others. They were interested in corrupting saints. They were selfish and needed to be warned and exposed.
Jesus walked up to a fig tree expecting to find figs, but found none. That was a picture of the nation of Israel that should have been a light to the Gentiles, yet they were not. In our text, God talked of trees where the fruit withers, rather than matures. It is not good to see a tree with nice fruit developing and then seeing it wither before it matures. We have had tomato plants where we see what looks like a ripening tomato, only to find that it has blossom-end rot.
God says these deceivers are without fruit, they are twice dead, plucked up by the roots. Not a good assessment. God is warning the saints not to yield to this treachery. He is also warning the deceivers to repent and get saved. They may think they are quite intelligent, but they are in big trouble. Things will not go well for them.
It is important to accept God’s Word as Truth. It is important to yield to the Truth. God warns of those who want to defy Him. We need to mark them and avoid them. We need to reach out to the lost, but those who want to promote heresy need to be avoided.
Pastor Bartel