Gloom and Doom! - Part A

In four verses, Jude reminds us of the danger that apostates are to the church. That's the gloom. They bring the gloom. And then after that, he speaks about the future judgment that those false teachers will incur.

That's the doom. False teachers have long corrupted the church, and that's why Jude, Jesus' brother, wrote his letter of warning to believers. Connect with Skip Heitzig today as he shares how you can be on guard against false teaching.

But before we begin, reading the stories of the Bible is a very good thing. Walking where these stories took place is at a whole other level. Skip Heitzig is planning his next tour, and you can be on it.

Here's the invitation from Skip. You're in for an incredible time as we travel throughout Israel and experience the culture that's so unique to that country. Now, I've been to Israel a number of times over the years, and I can honestly say that visiting the places where the events of the Scriptures unfolded, where Jesus lived, taught, and healed, it just never gets old. We'll start on the Mediterranean Sea and head north, seeing places like Caesarea and Nazareth, the Sea of Galilee, and the Jordan River. We'll spend several days in and around Jerusalem and see the Temple Mount, Calvary, the Garden of Gethsemane, and the Mount of Olives, and much more. This remarkable itinerary is made richer with times of worship, Bible study, and lots of fellowship. The Bible will come alive to you in a way it never has before. I hope you'll join Lenny and me on what is always an unforgettable trip.

I can't wait to see you in Israel. We're in the book of Jude as Skip Heitzig gets into today's message. I guess my question is, where are such preachers today? I haven't heard lately of many preachers who will speak about judgment, speak about a final hell that the Bible talks about.

Rarely do I hear that talked about. There's not much gloom preaching that I hear, not that I'm advocating that. But what I do hear, whether it's on radio or TV a lot of, is how to be successful. I hear sermons on that. How to be the best version of yourself. How to make your dreams come true.

How to be a prosperous type of a person. Now don't get me wrong, I don't like preaching on the subjects that are in front of us all the time. And Jude is a short book, so we're not going to be doing this long. But when it's plainly presented in the biblical text, I am not going to Skip over it. If it's uncomfortable for me, so be it.

If it's uncomfortable for you, so be it. It's in the biblical text. And here's what I discovered about this week's passage. Those two words, gloom and doom, perfectly describe the subject matter in the little paragraph beginning in verse 12 down to verse 15.

In four verses, Jude reminds us of the danger that apostates are to the church. That's the gloom. They bring the gloom. And then after that, he speaks about the future judgment that those false teachers will incur. That's the doom. So the false teachers bring the gloom. God's going to bring to them the doom.

So let's look at that. I think you'll readily see that as we go through these verses. Verse 12, these, speaking of these apostates, these are spots in your love feasts, while they feast with you without fear, serving only themselves. They are clouds without water, carried about by the winds. Late autumn trees without fruit, twice dead, pulled up by the roots, raging waves of the sea, foaming up their own shame, wandering stars for whom is reserved the blackness of darkness forever. Okay, that's pretty gloomy. That's the gloom. Now, the doom. Now Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied about these men also saying, Behold, the Lord comes with ten thousands of his saints, to execute judgment on all, to convict all who are ungodly among them, of all their ungodly deeds which they have committed in an ungodly way, and of all the harsh things which ungodly sinners have spoken against him.

Can you see how it easily falls into two parts? He talks first of all about the gloom that these people bring and he describes them using natural phenomena, and then the doom of the future. So it's divided into present and future, or as I put it in the outline, the current jeopardy, that's the gloom, and then the coming judgment, that's the doom.

But here's the thing. Neither one of these subjects, gloom or doom, are even acknowledged by the unbelieving world, by the modern mind. The modern mindset does not even acknowledge this as being valid or true. Hell is not politically correct, it never has been. This is the age of tolerance, this is the age of acceptance, and for some people, hell is a theological embarrassment, even to some evangelicals. And there are no false teachers, because we live in a postmodern world where no one can be absolutely sure of anything. So for somebody to stand and say, this is right, that is wrong, this is true, that is false, is to the modern mind an illusion, because truth is not objective, it is purely subjective. That's the modern mindset. In such an environment, discernment is not welcome. To have discernment and say, actually, I hear what you all are saying in our culture, but this is right and that is wrong, this is true and that is false, that kind of discernment is not welcome, and yet Jude provides that discernment in spades.

We have seen that so far. This is a very hard-hitting book. Now what we uncover here, beginning in verse 12, are some word pictures. Jude is giving us many parables to illustrate spiritual truths. It's like he scours the sky and the land and the sea and compares false teachers to five natural phenomena.

Why does he do that? He wants to show his readers just how dangerous these people are. These people who have still embedded themselves within the church body, these are like a cancer to the body of Christ. Now, as we are getting into this, I'm just imagining that for some of you this is the first time you've been back to church for like a year. So you're thinking, man, yeah, I'm going to go back to church, I really need to come back to church, I've got to be encouraged, built up, strengthened, and then this sermon, right?

It's like, oh great, gloom and doom. I want you to look at it differently if that is what you come in with. I want you to think about it this way, God loves you so much that he wants to warn you of these things. God loves you and cares for you so much that he is willing to tell you truth. And one of the most loving things you can ever do is tell people the truth.

And he does that. So we're going to begin with the current jeopardy. And what I want to show you in these verses are five reasons that these people that Jude is talking about, five reasons they are so dangerous. And look at how they're described, there are worrisome spots, there are waterless clouds, worthless trees, wild waves, wandering stars.

Let's begin with the first. There are worrisome spots, for he says in verse 12, these are spots in your love feasts, while they feast with you without fear, serving only themselves. This speaks of their defiling nature. Ever get a spot on your shirt or your blouse or your dress? You say, you know, I'm going to pull out the white shirt this weekend, honey. I've been waiting for a special occasion to wear this white shirt. Then you have a cup of coffee or you eat spaghetti and you get a spot on it. And then you say, we say when that happens, every time I wear this shirt, that happens, right? Every time I wear something white, it seems too attractive.

This is why I wear black today. When you get a spot on a piece of fabric, like a white blouse or shirt, the rest of it is clean. It all looks good. But you don't go out in public thinking, well, the rest of it looks good. It's just one spot.

Because when you're out in public, what do they look at? The spot. The spot, right.

Even though there's so much other material that's still intact. All the focus, all the attention is on the spot. I think that's partly here the idea is that these people embedded in the church that Jude is writing about are drawing attention away from the main thing and onto themselves. Like the spot. Verse 12 says, There are spots in your feast while they feast with you without fear, serving only themselves.

They're making it all about them. Now, a note about the love feast. The love feast was an early church way of doing church. It was a very common church service. Two thousand years ago, early Christians would get together and basically the order of service was a time of worship, instruction in the word. Then we take the elements together of the Lord's Supper. Then we have a potluck. People would bring food because many people in the community were poor and those who had food or were wealthy and could cook even more would bring food to these love feasts and everybody could eat of them.

The problem is these things started getting abused. So you can on your own read 1 Corinthians 11 sometime where Paul says, you know, your love feasts are like out of control. One person comes drunk.

Another person comes and gobbles the food before anybody else can get it. And so eventually what happened, history tells us, is the love feast as a church service went out of form, was out of vogue, just got washed off the scene because of the abuse that happened within them. Now the second mark here after worrisome spots are waterless clouds. He says in the next sentence, they are clouds without water carried about by the winds. I think this speaks to their false promise.

They promise you stuff but they don't produce anything. You know, clouds promise rain. When you see a cloud bank come in, it portends refreshment. It's going to rain.

It's good for the crops, good for the grass. One of the great things I love about New Mexico summers are the clouds that roll through, the big puffy cumulus clouds. And you're hoping that it's just going to have this rain burst, right? We love that.

I love that. What I don't love is when the clouds come carried by the wind and it blows in all the dust and then there's no water. They're promising me something but they're not making good. They're not delivering on the promise. In Proverbs 25, 14 we're told, whoever falsely boasts of giving is like clouds and wind without rain. False teachers are like big puffy clouds.

All vapor, no water. All bluster, no benefit. I've always loved the story of the church service, the country church service where the preacher came to church ill-prepared for his sermon, didn't study that week very much. And he tried to make up for his lack of preparation by pounding the pulpit, yelling, moving around a lot, holding his Bible up so people went, you know, like a pep rally.

But not really much substance. So after the service, some of the people were really excited about that and they were getting together in groups and talking about it and some even said the preacher really preached up a storm. Well, they asked one of the older church members, an elderly Native American man, what he thought of the sermon and he gave six words. He said, high wind, big thunder, no rain.

It's all bluster but no benefit. It's all cloud, it's no rain. That's the idea there, waterless clouds. Third is the description of worthless trees.

Now get this. Late autumn trees, verse 12, late autumn trees without fruit, twice dead, pulled up by the roots. You can't get any more fruitless than that. This speaks of their barren profession. Now the autumn time is the last opportunity for harvest. It's before the winter comes, before the hard freeze.

So you really want to have a good autumn harvest because if not, you might face starvation in the coming months. But it's interesting that the text describes them as being not just dead but what? Twice dead.

How does that work? Sort of like Princess Bride. He's not dead, he's mostly dead. Not all dead but mostly dead. Isn't dead dead? So what does it mean to be twice dead?

How can you be twice dead? I think what he means is these are trees that are fruitless and trees that are rootless. Because they're not connected to the ground, there's no life-giving coming into them. Therefore, there's nothing going out of them. They don't produce any fruit because of the root system. They're pulled up by the roots. Now this happens to be the opposite of the description of the godly man or woman spoken about in Psalm 1. Right? They're planted by the rivers of water who has fruit given in its season and whatever he does shall prosper.

This is the opposite of that. Now from a distance, I suppose these trees look like any other trees. You're kind of coming up to a grove. You go, oh, there's a tree. And then you get closer and go, well, there's no fruit on it. And then you look and go, well, it's because it's been pulled up by the roots. But it's still sitting here. So people can be like that. They can kind of look the part, sound spiritual, sound very sincere about their belief system and yet be dead.

Jesus said, Every plant which My heavenly Father has not planted will be uprooted. Do you know how many people sit in lifeless, dead religious systems? So many.

And let's narrow it down. Do you know how many people sit in lifeless, dead churches? Well, it's a church building and they sing songs and they get together and they do stuff.

They mean well and they're very sincere. Yeah, but where's the life? I found a website. This is the Center for Contemplative Spirituality. And they say, We come from a variety of secular and religious backgrounds and we each seek to enrich our journey through spiritual practice and study of the world's great spiritual traditions. Oh, it sounds so noble, so positive. We desire to draw closer to the loving Spirit, so generic, the loving Spirit, which pervades all creation and which inspires our compassion for all beings. In other words, we're taking what we like from that religion and what we like from that system and what we like from there and putting it all together, even though they all contradict each other.

We just kind of like that they make us feel good and you're okay and I'm okay. Problem is they're dead. There's no life. There's no life change. There's no capacity for transformation. So there are worrisome spots, waterless clouds, worthless trees.

He goes on. There are wild waves. Verse 13, Raging waves of the sea, foaming up their own shame.

This speaks of their destructive nature. If you spend any time on an ocean at all, you learn to respect it. Oh, you love it. You enjoy the sound. You enjoy the smell, the sights. But if you spend much time on the ocean, you learn to respect it because of the power that can be there. I love the ocean. I grew up going a lot to the ocean.

I grew up surfing. I love waves. But I love formed waves. I love waves when you see them build and then they build more and then they come to a crest and then they break and then they form a line on one side or the other and you know that's a right break or a left break and it's great for surfing. Formed waves are great. Storm waves are not so great. Now, I can't be sure, but I'm guessing that when Jude wrote this as a description, he had in his mind a passage from the book of Isaiah. 57 verse 20 says, But the wicked are like the troubled sea, when it cannot rest, whose waters cast up mire and dirt.

There is no peace, says my God, for the wicked. If you go to the beach after a storm, the health department in the state of California tells you don't go in the water for about two days. And that's because the storm has churned up human pollution. You go to the beach, you'll find hypodermic needles being washed ashore. You'll find trash.

You'll find flotsam, jetsam, all that stuff that is out there. And the water is toxic. So the idea is these people stir stuff up. They stir up the mud. They stir up the filth. They stir up the debris. Formed waves are productive. Storm waves are destructive. So there are worrisome spots, waterless clouds, worthless trees, wild waves.

There's a final fifth description in verse 13. They're wandering stars. He says this, Wandering stars for whom is reserved the blackness of darkness forever.

Here's the interesting thing about this description. Stars don't wander. Stars are in a fixed orbit. So fixed are the orbits of stars that the ancients would navigate by them.

You could look at a winter sky or a summer sky and you knew where constellations were and you could go in different directions on land or sea based upon your reading of the stars. But there is a phenomenon that we call a shooting star. It's not actually a star as much as it's a piece of debris or space dust or even a meteor. And when it gets close to our atmosphere, it burns up and it shows as a bright spot a streak across the sky. And whenever somebody sees a shooting star, what do they say?

Help me out. What do they say? You see it and you go, and what do you say? Ooh, ah, right? Am I right?

Do I have this wrong? So this is what I do. I don't know about you. When I see a shooting star, I go, wow! Okay, I say wow.

Or ooh or ah or awesome. But how long does it last? It's over now. It just happened.

It's over. So, and you have to have your eyes up to even see it. And then after that, nothing.

Because they're reserved for them the blackness of darkness forever. Now, I think you know where he's going with this. Many a teacher, there's been many a bright star that has come to a pulpit that has ended up a burnout like fireworks and people go, wow! Ooh, ah! Did you hear that? I've never heard that before. Well, maybe you've never heard it because it's actually not in the Bible.

Some dude just made it up. And you've got the oohs and the aahs going, but so? If you try to navigate by a fallen star, you'd be dead or lost. Compare that to Daniel 12. Daniel 12, those who are wise will shine like the brightness of the heavens and those who lead many to righteousness like the stars forever and ever. Now, those are fixed stars. That's what you want to be like, not a shooting star, not a firework, woo!

But just stay shining. Let people navigate by your life. That's Skip Hyten with a message from his series, Fight for the House. Now, we want to let you know about a resource that helps you dive even deeper into God's truths. Here's what Norm Geisler said about the book Tactics.

There is no better book to equip Christians to think clearly. Here's Skip Heitzig on the need to engage in active spiritual warfare. You'll never fight God's battles from a sofa.

You'll never contend for what really matters by just cruising in your La-Z-Boy all day. You're going to have to decide to get up as part of the house and join the fight. Become a contender for biblical truth with Fight for the House, a six-message series through the book of Jude with Skip Heitzig. This teaching series on CD equips you to get in the ring to defend the gospel and guard against false teachings. And it's our thanks when you give to connect more people to the truth of God's word. And when you give $35 or more today, we'll also send you the book Tactics by Gregory Kochel to help you speak the truth about Christianity with confidence and grace.

Call 800-922-1888 to give or visit connectwithskip.com. Did you know that Skip has important updates and biblical encouragement on social media? Just follow him on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram to get the latest from him and this ministry. That's at Skip Heitzig, at Skip, H-E-I-T-Z-I-G. Next week, Skip Heitzig looks to a future judgment that false teachers will face. It's also when Jesus will come back for you and His church. Make a connection, make a connection at the foot of the cross and cast all burdens on His word. Make a connection, a connection. Connect with Skip Heitzig is a presentation of Connection Communications, connecting you to God's never-changing truth in ever-changing times.