PICTURES OF APOSTASY
Jude 12-13
CIT – Jude describes apostates.
Proposition – Christians today must be aware of and avoid apostate teachers
11-08-06wed
First Swartz
INTRODUCTION:
An apostate is one who rejects the truth. It is rebellion or abandonment of the faith.
I) HIDDEN REEFS – THEY ARE DANGEROUS - Vs. 12 – spots in your love feasts
First, what is a love feast? A full meal followed by communion. Believers brought food and shared a meal together. Everyone brought what they could. The churches were house churches at this time, there were no formal buildings such as the one we meet in – these would have been illegal. This was one time in which the people all sat down together and fellowshipped over food. Note: Fellowship meals have been a part of Christian history from the beginning. We joke about his today, but there is a bond of fellowship that can be enjoyed around a meal that is unique.
For some of the slaves and poorer people, this may have been the only decent meal they ever ate.
There was trouble in these meals from the beginning. In Corinth there was division, unfairness between the rich and the poor, and even drunkenness.
“spots in your love feasts” The NAS rightly translates this “hidden reefs in your love feasts.” The noun is commonly used in Greek to describe rocks in the sea, close to the shore. They were mostly submerged, and dangerous to ships.
Apostates often hide in the fellowship of the church or Christian university. Their teaching is like hidden rocks or submerged ice-bergs just waiting to wreck and sink the faith of God’s people. ILLUS: Values class at LC – lead many to embrace a universalistic view of salvation.
A) THEY ARE WITHOUT CONSCIENCE – feast with you without fear – Literally this means without inhibition. They teach false doctrine, divide the church, and destroy the faith of many, without the slightest qualm.
ILLUS: Listening to Jimmy Swaggert yesterday – I don’t agree with him on everything – I did on this. He stated that the most dangerous false teachers are the one who really believed what they teach. Using Health and Wealth preachers as an example. Some know that what they are teaching is bunk. They’re just trying to make a dollar. Others really believe this garbage and they are the most dangerous.
There are people who will rip a church apart, and never lose a moment’s sleep in doing so. Some will do and feel they done the right thing – these are the most dangerous.
B) THEY ARE SELFISH – serving only themselves – Literally they are shepherds shepherding only themselves. They were arrogant. They were there for the food and the prestige.
Ezekiel 34:2 “Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel. Prophesy and say to those shepherds, ‘Thus says the Lord God, “Woe, shepherds of Israel who have been feeding themselves! Should not the shepherds feed the flock?
[1]II) WATERLESS CLOUDS – THEY ARE DECEPTIVE “They are clouds without water.”
The traveler in Syria and Jordan is often exasperated by heavy clouds that promise rain, but bring none. In fact, as they pass they only increase the heat and humidity.
ILLUS: My grandfather was a farmer, and two of his sons became farmers. I worked for one of them. The summer I did it was dry. Every time a cloud passed over that looked promising – he would get his hopes up. Sometimes, it the clouds would go black, the wind would blow, maybe even some lightening, but no rain.
These apostates are just windbags. All heat and no light, all smoke and no fire. They all show and no substance. They promise rain, but they only bring drought.
"WHOEVER FALSELY BOASTS OF GIVING IS
LIKE CLOUDS AND WIND WITHOUT RAIN." (PROV 25:14)
They have no water for thirsty souls, they only pretend to.
The Word of God is often compared to rain and dew.
Deuteronomy 32:2 “Let my teaching drop as the rain, My speech distill as the dew, As the droplets on the fresh grass And as the showers on the herb.
[2]Isaiah 55:10 “For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven, And do not return there without watering the earth And making it bear and sprout, And furnishing seed to the sower and bread to the eater;
[3]ILLUS: I HEARD ABOUT A MAN WHO HAD NOT BEEN TO CHURCH IN A WHILE. HIS PASTOR SAW HIM WALKING DOWN THE STREET ONE DAY, AND HE SAID, "SAM, I HAVEN'T SEEN YOU IN CHURCH FOR A WHILE." HE SAID, "WELL, YOU KNOW PASTOR, THE LAST SEVERAL SUNDAYS IT'S BEEN RAINING." THE PREACHER SAID, "WELL, IT'S DRY DOWN AT THE CHURCH." THE MAN SAID, "YES, AND THAT'S ANOTHER REASON WHY I DON'T COME."
There are many churches where dry preachers are serving up sawdust sermons to people with parched GodÂ’s people need the clear living water from the Word of God. They need hot bread fresh from the oven of GodÂ’s word.
They are carried about by the wind- they have no sure foundation. They are double-minded.
III) FRUITLESS TREES – THEY ARE DESOLATE – Late Autumn trees without fruit.
Autumn is the time of the year for harvest. The farmer expects fruit, but these trees are dead, they bear no fruit.
One of the evidences of salvation is spiritual fruit. IE – Parable of the soils – Matthew 13:1-9 the good soil, the saved person, appetite fruit. The apostate has no appitite for the Word, no desire to pray, no interest in witnessing. They are no concerned much about their attendance, or their quiet time. They are concerned about power, position, and prestige.
-A true teacher produces fruit in his preaching and teaching. You will not find souls saved by the preaching of the apostate. They do build great churches, they cannot, they are unconverted.
Twice dead – They are spiritually dead in their sins and trespasses, they are also bound to a devil’s hell.
IV) RAGING WAVES – THEY ARE DISOBEDIENT -Vs. 13 image deals with morality.
A) THEY ARE DEPRAVED – unclean and immoral. ILLUS: Walkng along the beach after a storm. All kinds of debri has been tossed up by the sea.
“Scraps of filth and debri collect in the water and foam and spill over on to the shore. In the same way, these false teachers spread everywhere traces of their corruption and impurity.” JND Kelly
B) THEY ARE DRIVEN - Waves are produced by wind. The faster the wind, the longer it blows, and the larger the area in which it blows, the bigger the waves.
They are driven by their restless passions and lusts. Isaiah 57:20 But the wicked are like the tossing sea, For it cannot be quiet, And its waters toss up refuse and mud.
[4]V) WANDERING STARS – THEY ARE DAMNED
Shooting stars, meteors blazing across the sky briefly and then they are gone.
ILLUS: One night coming home from church – spotted a shooting star. It almost made me drive off the road! That is what an apostate is like – here today and gone tomorrow. They leave nothing lasting because it is never built upon truth.
They will therefore be swallowed up into the blackest darkness forever; eternal judgment is certain for them.
These apostates were not unfruitful believers, who would not receive rewards in heaven at the judgment seat of Christ. Instead they were impostors who would be judged according to their evil deeds.
[5] “To whom is reserved the blackness of darkness for ever.” This refers to hell. One symbol of hell is fire, and the other is blackness of darkness. The great emphasis has been placed upon the symbol of fire. Hell is literal, of course, but to say it is literal fire isn’t quite adequate for this reason: there will be spiritual creatures there as well as man—and the worst sins of man are spiritual sins such as unbelief. Therefore, physical punishment wouldn’t be quite adequate. My feeling is that man will wish it were literal fire because it will be so much worse than fire. The other symbol, “blackness of darkness,” is to me far more frightening. And I believe that a lost man carries his darkness with him—not only physical darkness but spiritual darkness.
My feeling is that the horrors of hell will be increased by those who go there. For instance, there is a place on earth called HellÂ’s Kitchen. Is the difference in the kind of real estate that is there? No, the difference is in the people who are there. This, together with the concept of physical darkness, is to me frightful beyond words. If you have ever been down in Carlsbad Caverns when the lights are turned out, you know what real darkness is. IÂ’d hate to be down there forever, my friend!
[6]CONCLUSION:
6. YOU KNOW A SAINT IS TO BE OPPOSITE IN EVERY WAY FROM AN APOSTATE. INSTEAD OF BEING HIDDEN ROCKS, I PET. 2:5 SAYS WE ARE TO BE LIVING STONES. INSTEAD OF BEING WATERLESS CLOUDS, JOHN 7:38 SAYS WE ARE TO BE BUBBLING SPRINGS. INSTEAD OF BEING DEAD TREES, JOHN 15:3 SAYS WE ARE TO BE FRUITFUL BRANCHES. INSTEAD OF BEING RAGING WAVES, IS. 48:18 SAYS WE ARE TO BE PEACEFUL RIVERS. INSTEAD OF BEING DARKENED STARS, DAN. 12:3 SAYS WE ARE TO BE GLISTENING LUMINARIES.
SEVERAL YEARS AGO, GEORGE BUSH SPOKE AT A PRAYER BREAKFAST WHEN HE WAS THE VICE PRESIDENT. HE TOLD OF A TRIP HE TOOK TO RUSSIA TO REPRESENT THE UNITED STATES AT THE FUNERAL OF LEONID BREZHNEV. THE FUNERAL WAS VERY PRECISE, VERY STOIC, EXTREMELY COMMUNISTIC. NO TEARS WERE SHED, NO EMOTION WAS DISPLAYED WITH ONE EXCEPTION. MR. BUSH TOLD HOW BREZHNEV'S WIDOW WAS THE LAST PERSON TO WITNESS THE BODY BEFORE THE COFFIN WAS CLOSED. FOR SEVERAL SECONDS SHE STOOD AT HIS SIDE AND THEN REACHED DOWN AND PERFORMED THE SIGN OF THE CROSS ON HER HUSBAND'S CHEST.
IN THE HOUR OF HER HUSBAND'S DEATH, WITH THE ENTIRE COMMUNISTIC WORLD WATCHING, SHE DID NOT TURN TO LENIN, TO KARL MARX, TO JOSEPH STALIN, OR TO KHRUSHCHEV. INSTEAD SHE TURNED TO A NAZARENE CARPENTER, WHO HAD LIVED 2,000 YEARS AGO, AND WHO SAID, "I AM THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD."2
10. SATAN CAN COUNTERFEIT PREACHERS, BUT HE CANNOT COUNTERFEIT THE GOSPEL. HE CAN COUNTERFEIT THEOLOGY, BUT HE CANNOT COUNTERFEIT TRUTH. HE CAN EVEN COUNTERFEIT CHURCHES, BUT HE CANNOT COUNTERFEIT JESUS. FOR HE IS THE REAL THING.
[1] New American Standard Bible : 1995 update. 1995. The Lockman Foundation: LaHabra, CA
[2] New American Standard Bible : 1995 update. 1995. The Lockman Foundation: LaHabra, CA
[3] New American Standard Bible : 1995 update. 1995. The Lockman Foundation: LaHabra, CA
[4] New American Standard Bible : 1995 update. 1995. The Lockman Foundation: LaHabra, CA
[5]Walvoord, J. F., Zuck, R. B., & Dallas Theological Seminary. 1983-c1985. The Bible knowledge commentary : An exposition of the scriptures. Victor Books: Wheaton, IL
[6]McGee, J. V. 1997, c1981. Thru the Bible commentary. Based on the Thru the Bible radio program. (electronic ed.). Thomas Nelson: Nashville
