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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; 13 Raging waves of the sea,
foaming out their own shame; wandering stars, to whom is reserved the blackness
of darkness for ever. (Jude 1:11-13)
In
the foregoing devotions in Jude, we have read of the denunciation of false
teachers. If the church is sterile and puny of spirit, it is owing to false
teachers who have not led the sheep over whom they have been appointed
shepherds. There is no dishonor in a church being small in numbers as long as
it is large in biblical truth and doctrine. But the churches that are the
largest today seem to be the very ones that are weakest on biblical doctrine
and practice. Though they grow to cover the earth, the poison drippings from
the birds (demons) that have come to live in her branches (Matthew 13:32) have
poisoned her fruits and ruined her foundation. Those demons of the branches
that inhabit the life of the modern church are the same as those “certain
men crept in unawares, who were before of old ordained to this condemnation,
ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness, and denying the
only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ.” (verse 4). Shall we remain
forever oblivious to these wicked compromisers among us?
The testimony of the Church is not only weakened by false preachers, but by the
lack of conviction and courage of her lay people who know better than to trade
truth for error, but do so for political considerations. “Just because my
pastor said so” is not an excuse; rather, it should be “Just because my Lord
has said so!” The Moral Law of God is not all that complicated to understand.
Why will we be deceived to believe that the very things that the Lord has
called an abomination are suddenly acceptable to the Church? Have we lost our
backbones as Christian men and women? We are deceived for only one reason: we
have CHOSEN to be deceived rather than to take up arms against the enemy of
God. We would prefer to cringe in our spiritual hovels and be fed the devil’s
cake.
The world is the eternal sea. It is fraught with hidden reefs and rocks that
may not be visible from the surface. The pilot of the ship needs a dependable
chart and compass to navigate free of these dangers. Voila! He has such a Chart
and Compass in God’s Holy Word. And not only does the pilot have the Chart and
Compass of God’s Word to guide him, but he also has the starry host of heaven
to reckon his course and position just as surely as the Christian, equipped
with God’s Word, has the Light of the Holy spirit to illumine that Word of God
in his heart.
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;”
The false prophets are much like the stones and reefs of the outer shelf at sea
to wreck the ship of Church and cause her to founder and sink. Our undertakings
of love and charity are spoiled by these blemishes of false prophets who
gobbled up our love offerings with impunity.
While living in the high desert of
central Iran, I used to see very promising clouds arise over the dry and
parched desert at the afternoon hour. Surely, life-giving rain was in the
offing! But these clouds offered no relief at all. They teased the desperate
farmers and herdsman below with an appearance of rain, but they had no water.
They dissipated as gradually as they had built up. The blistering winds of the
high desert carried the clouds away and evaporated their vapors. So does false
doctrine offer promises of abundance, healing, and satisfaction, but those who
are tossed about with every wind of doctrine will end their days with not a
drop of the Water of Life. How then must the children of God weather the storms
of the Sea and the Winds of Doubt of the High Desert? “That we henceforth be
no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every
wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness,
whereby they lie in wait to deceive; But speaking the truth in love, may
grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ
.” (Eph 4:14-15) See? These are the Bright Stars of Holy Scripture that
will Guide our souls into safe harbors and havens of peace and joy!
The false prophets are not unlike the
Scribes and Pharisees of the time of Christ of whom He spake: “Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for
ye devour widows' houses, and for a pretence make long prayer:
therefore ye shall receive the greater damnation.” (Matt 23:14) If
your Bible does not contain this verse, throw away your worthless NIV or ESV
and buy yourself a REAL Bible! Why would modern prophets desire to exclude
references to long and public prayers, or the devouring of widow’s houses? No
imagination required for the answer to that question – look around and see them
soliciting money at every opportunity with false promises of wealth, success,
and special blessings. Indulgences did not end with the courageous stand of
Marin Luther in old Germany!
13 Raging
waves of the sea, foaming out their own shame; wandering stars, to whom is
reserved the blackness of darkness for ever.” How often do we see false
professors, as well as false prophets, divide the church over the selection of
carpets, drapes, or cut-glass windows? They insist on the non-essentials and
neglect the very rock-bed of the essentials laid out by God in His Holy Word.
They will accept the murder of innocents in their mother’s womb as long as it
goes by a name other than murder. They will abide the desecration of God’s
first institution of marriage in the Garden as long as it is called something
other than the abomination which God’s Word labels it (homosexual unions).
If the Church will serve her
purpose as a Holy Vessel on the Seas of Life, she must navigate not only the
smooth waters, but the raging billows of the Sea. The false prophets will
create raging waves of doubt and foaming brine of fear. In such storms of
doubt, what will the pilot do? The ship of the Church will best weather the
storm by casting forth anchor into that Solid Rock of her foundation that is
Christ; turn the bow into the storm and face the oncoming wind with courage and
steadfast resolve. The Anchor will hold our position and prevent drift. Facing
into the storm head-on will reduce the effect of false winds of doctrine. If
our Captain is the Lord, He will remain at the helm and keep us stayed upon the
hope we enjoy in Him. And now, the storm having passed, we must weigh anchor
and get underway once more on the Sea of Life. How shall we navigate now that
the winds have abated and the raging waves have subsided?
Our most ancient means of navigating the ocean seas has been by way of
celestial navigation. The sextant focuses on the known position of the stars
and we fix our positions thereby. We navigate by those lights provided from
above just as we navigate God’s Word in view of that Sun of Righteousness that
has forever lighted our heavenly canvas. The Lord Jesus Christ is, at the same
time, our Bright and Morning Star, our Star of brilliance of the Evening, and
our North Star of constancy. If we fix our positions on Him, we shall not be
moved from the River of Life, and our steps shall always lead to the coming Day
Star: We have also a more sure word of prophecy; whereunto ye do well that
ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn,
and the Day Star arise in your hearts: Knowing this first, that no prophecy of
the scripture is of any private interpretation. For the prophecy came not in
old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by
the Holy Ghost.” (2 Peter 1:19-21)
What of those wandering stars “wandering stars, to whom is reserved the
blackness of darkness for ever.”? Who are they? These are those who
cannot maintain a sure focus on God. A wandering star is like unto a meteor. It
has not fixed position. It wonders from one end of the Universe to the other.
It has no light as does the other stars of God. It is only a stone, or a
conglomeration of vaporous gases, aimlessly wandering across the heavens whose
ultimate end will result in total darkness. At some point, it will enter the
atmosphere of another star or planet and will burn itself out in its rapid
descent into total darkness. It is thereby destroyed in darkness. These are
those false prophets, and their followers, who wander about with no light of
their own and who have no fixed position in God. They will one day confront the
Sun of Righteousness and be burned up as they come face to face with Him. This
fate is one which God has reserved for all who allow themselves to be
continually deceived by false lights and false prophets. They are destined to
share the fate of the false star they have followed.
I
hope that none will be shaken with the rising perils of our day in which faith
is famishing in the souls of men. There is always truth and hope in Christ. He
knows His people, and His people will forever know Him. Please hear the words
of that great Christian attorney, William Jennings Bryan:
“If
the Father deigns to touch with divine power the cold and pulseless heart of
the buried acorn and make it burst forth from its prison walls, will He leave
neglected in the earth the soul of man, made in the image of his Creator? If He
stoops to give to the rose bush, whose withered blossoms float upon the autumn
breeze, the sweet assurance of another springtime, will He refuse the Words of
Hope to the sons of men when the frosts of winter come? If matter, mute and
inanimate, though changed by the forces of nature into a multitude of forms,
can never die, will the imperial spirit of man suffer annihilation when it has
paid a brief visit like a royal guest to this tenement of clay? No, I am sure
that He who, notwithstanding man’s apparent prodigality, created nothing
without a purpose, and wasted not a single atom in all His Creation, has made
provision for a future life in which man’s universal longing for immortality
will find its realization.”
The only thing that shall suffer destruction will be evil and wickedness and
the hearts that harbor those.
