Woe to them! For they have gone in the way of Cain, have run greedily in the error of Balaam for profit, and perished in the rebellion of Korah.

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. (Jude 1:11-13)

Every teacher knows that if you want to teach something unknown, you need to use the known. When you are explaining something that your students don’t know, you use what they do know as a bridge to understand this new thing. An illustration, an analogy, a simile says, “this is like that”. Of course, the Bible is full of that kind of thing. God is compared to fire, to light, to a Shepherd, to a High Tower. Salvation is compared to a court case, a birth, a purchase from a slave market, a treaty between enemies, an adoption in a family. Christians are compared to children in a family, soldiers in an army, stones in a temple, sheep in a flock, branches in a vine. We know what those things mean, and so they help us understand these new things, like who God is, what salvation is, who we now are in Christ.

Jesus was a master at doing this. He knew His audience knew about farming, about servants, about travellers. So He told parables where he spoke about sowers throwing seed, to explain hearing God’s Word, or lost sheep to explain forgiveness, or servants to explain His return or stewardship.

Jesus’ half-brother, Jude, knew how to do exactly the same thing. Jude knew how to use things we do know to help us recognise something we might not know. Specifically, Jude wants us to recognise a particular kind of person who often goes unrecognised. Jude wants us to recognise the kind of person who slips into the church unnoticed, undetected, when he is not one of God’s people.

Jude wants us to be able to spot the false teachers known as apostates. An apostate is someone who denies the gospel, but infiltrates the church, and wants us to recognise him as a Christian. To contend earnestly for the faith, we need to know the enemy, understand who it is that is undermining the faith, who is the wolf in sheep’s clothing.

Last time we looked into Jude, we saw the teaching and speech of an apostate. We saw that in their words, apostates rely on private interpretations, they are selfishly motivated, and their attitude is one of arrogance. Jude didn’t tell us so much what to look out for in their teaching, but rather to notice how they teach: self at the centre, self the source, self the beneficiary.

But Jude is not finished helping us to recognise false teachers. There is more to say. So Jude proceeds, like a skilled teacher, to assemble a portrait of a false teacher, using a string of pictures, images, illustrations. Like a police artist who draws up an identikit of a criminal by a victim’s description, Jude will give us a detailed identikit of apostates. He uses three characters from the Old Testament, and then six images from nature and life to help us draw up a clear portrait of what an apostate is and does.

Each of these nine pictures are given so that we can unmistakably recognise an apostate seeking entrance to the church, a wolf at the door. Let’s begin with verse 11, and look at the first image.

Woe to them! For they have gone in the way of Cain

1. Apostates Are False Worshippers Like Cain

Jude pronounces woe on these apostates, the word used by the Hebrew prophets to announce impending doom and judgement. The first picture we are given is that apostates have gone the way of Cain. They have taken the path, the route that Cain took. What path is that? We all remember Cain for murdering his brother, so we might suppose that Jude means that false teachers are jealous and hateful within their hearts. But I think more in context would be that Jude has been showing us that these men are ungodly – that is irreligious. They have no reverence, no fear of God, no sense of God’s glory.

The way of Cain was the way of a man who wanted to worship God on his own terms. He brought his own works to God, without faith, without reverence. The book of Hebrews tells us:

By faith Abel offered to God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain (Heb. 11:4)

Cain did not come to God through God’s revealed means. He made up His own way, and offered what he wanted. God did not receive it. And we read in Genesis that Cain knew better. That’s why when Cain was angry, God said to him,

So the LORD said to Cain, “Why are you angry? And why has your countenance fallen? If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin lies at the door (Gen. 4:6-7)”

Cain knew how to do well, he knew how to worship God acceptably, but chose to worship God falsely. Abel humbly submitted himself by faith to what God had revealed. Cain refused to accept God’s grace, and God’s revelation. He wanted his own way.

An apostate is primarily a false worshipper. He talks about God, he speaks of God, but it’s not the God of Scripture, the God of Israel. It’s a god of his own imagination.

A.W. Tozer told us “The essence of idolatry is the entertainment of thoughts about God that are unworthy of Him”. Listen to the quality of a man’s spoken thoughts about God. Is it an exalted God? A transcendent God? A holy God? A sovereign God? A gracious God? Or is his god more like a superhuman, more like a genie in a bottle, more like a fairy godmother, more like a pagan deity? Does he teach you to come to the God who really is, through God’s appointed method, in God’s way, or does he invent his own way to approach God?

2. Apostates are Religious Hirelings Like Balaam

have run greedily in the error of Balaam for profit,

When we hear the name Balaam, we remember Balaam’s donkey. And we might remember in Numbers 23, the king of Moab, Balak, wanted to hire Balaam to curse Israel. And no matter how Balak attempted to get him to curse Israel, he could only bless it instead. We might think Balaam was actually a good man with integrity.

But we find out that Balaam refused to curse Israel not because he loved God or Israel, but because he literally wasn’t able to. But he did find a way to help Balak harm Israel, and thereby get the money that Balak was offering.

Num 31:16 “Look, these women caused the children of Israel, through the counsel of Balaam, to trespass against the LORD in the incident of Peor, and there was a plague among the congregation of the LORD.

Once Balaam realised he could not directly curse Israel, he knew he could find a back door to harm Israel. He knew that God would judge Israel from within if they sinned. So Balaam told Balak that if he sent his women among the Israelites, and caused them to fall into sin, God would bring death to the sinning Israelites. And that’s exactly what happened. In Revelation 2:14 we read that Balaam “taught Balak to put a stumbling block before the children of Israel, to eat things sacrificed to idols, and to commit sexual immorality.”

In other words Balaam was a prophet, who, even when stopped by a talking donkey and by the angel of Yahweh, he still found a way to extract money from his prophetic gift. He had the ability to prophesy, he was given insight into the truth about Israel, but instead of using that for good, and refusing the dirty money of Balak, he manipulated his gift to get the money he wanted.

In other words, he was a religious hireling. He was a mercenary. He did what he did entirely for money. He was in it for sordid gain. The description of the false teacher here is that they have rushed headlong, they have poured after the straying of Balaam. They have the same greed, the same sticky fingers.

One of the safeguards God gives His church is to say that those who are elders must not be greedy for money, (1 Tim. 3:3). Would the man be willing to live on less than he could earn outside the ministry? Would he be willing to do what he does even if he gives up career advancement, or an easier, better life doing something else? Would he be willing to work part-time to support what he does? This is not saying that churches should seek to impoverish their pastors to keep them humble honest. It means the right kind of man is not driven by a profit motive to do the ministry.

We could probably clear Africa of 90% of its so-called prophets if the governments made it illegal to give money to churches. We don’t hope for that, but it would certainly be interesting to see who would still be in ministry.

3. Apostates Are Religious Rebels Like Korah

and perished in the rebellion of Korah

Korah was the leader among a group of rebels who decided that Moses had taken on too much, and that they deserved equal authority. They challenged Moses’ right to lead, and accused him of egotistically leading Israel. You may remember that Moses commanded people to get away from Korah and his associates, and a moment later, the earth opened up underneath them and swallowed them up.

Jude says apostates are like that. They too, rail against authority. The word translated rebellion means to speak against, to gainsay. They don’t like God’s authority, but they can’t say that out loud. So they undermine apostolic authority by twisting God’s Word. And then they mock authority in the church, and in the angelic realm, and in the civil realm.

In God’s kingdom, those with authority are always under authority. David writes, “He who rules over men must be just, Ruling in the fear of God.

And he shall be like the light of the morning when the sun rises, A morning without clouds, Like the tender grass springing out of the earth, By clear shining after rain.’ (2 Sam. 23:3-4)

If you want to put a face on a false teacher, look for the man who rejects the authority of God’s Word, rejects biblically-sanctioned authority in the home, church, and nation. And just like Korah’s destruction was certain, so is theirs.

Jude now moves to images taken from the natural world and from human culture.

These are spots in your love feasts, while they feast with you without fear

4. Apostates Are Hidden Dangers Like Reefs

The word translated spots here is a Greek word that means hidden reefs. Peter uses a similar word in his epistle which means blemishes, and so some translators feel that because of the similarity between the books, that the meaning of spot or blemish is meant. But really, the meaning of this word is a rock hidden underwater, a reef. Reefs are hidden by the waves, but if a ship’s hull hits one, it can sink. This is an image of hidden danger, a concealed threat.

Jude says they are among you in your love feasts. The early church held fellowship meals, often combined with the Lord’s Supper. These apostates would be there, claiming fellowship, claiming to be one with everyone else. Jude says they feast without fear. No qualms, nothing on their faces shows guilt or discomfort. They don’t look tortured by their church-splitting ability.

Christians can be so easily fooled by appearances. We think that we will spot a false teacher by his face, or his appearance. We think he will have a sinister look, a malevolent and devious stare. We imagine he’ll look like a false teacher. Well, false teachers don’t look like false teachers! They look like sweet, gentle, amiable Christians with courteous manners, compassionate attitudes, kindly faces. They fit right in, if you are judging them by personality, by facial appearance, by conversational ability.

But that’s what makes them like reefs. Their evil is under the surface. It is not something you can judge by deciding how friendly or nice they have been to you.

serving only themselves

5. Apostates Are Selfish Shepherds

This word translated serving in the NKJV is the word ποιμαίνοντες. In the NT poimano mean to shepherd, to tend, to feed. So some translations have this as feeding themselves at your love feast. But that would be redundant – everyone feeds himself at a meal. So I think the best way to take this is “shepherding themselves”.

If you imagine a shepherd sitting out there, with a feast spread out before him, while his flock of emaciated sheep desperately look for grass in the overgrazed, dry pasture they’re in. Creatures who need a shepherd to guide them, end up suffering because of his brazen, callous selfishness. God had strong words for selfish shepherds in Ezekiel 34. He said,

“Woe to the shepherds of Israel who feed themselves! Should not the shepherds feed the flocks?

You eat the fat and clothe yourselves with the wool; you slaughter the fatlings, but you do not feed the flock.

The weak you have not strengthened, nor have you healed those who were sick, nor bound up the broken, nor brought back what was driven away, nor sought what was lost; but with force and cruelty you have ruled them.” (Ezek. 34:2-4)

Apostates are men who claim the role of leading and feeding others, but all they do is fleece the sheep, and eat the sheep. They take people’s money, they take other men’s wives, and other men’s daughters, they consume, but they do not help, and heal, and guide, and encourage, and teach, and correct, and lead. The Good Shepherd gives his life for the sheep; every true undershepherd likewise sacrifices, but the false shepherd feeds only himself.

You say, how do I know if he serves only himself? One place to look is his family. A self-serving man will be self-serving in the home and in the church. Look at the state of his marriage. Look at the state of his children.

one who rules his own house well, having his children in submission with all reverence (for if a man does not know how to rule his own house, how will he take care of the church of God?); (1 Tim. 3:4-5)

They are clouds without water, carried about by the winds

6. Apostates Are Empty Promisers Like Clouds Without Water

We have all experienced those hot, summer days, when the heat is uncomfortable. We begin to see clouds gathering, and the darkness of the clouds seems to promise the cool relief of a thunderstorm is on its way. But as we watch and wait, the wind blows them on and away, and the promise of relief gives way to disappointment.

All the more intense for farmers looking for rain on their crops.

Pro 25:14 Whoever falsely boasts of giving Is like clouds and wind without rain.

In the same way, Jude says these apostates make promises to people. Perhaps promises of freedom, or pleasure, or secret knowledge, or mystical insight, or power over others, or wealth, or health. People by the droves, suffering under the weight of life under the curse look to them. People want relief from guilt, from physical pain, from poverty, from loneliness, from bondage to sins.

So they come to their churches, and listen to their messages. They try their methods, they give their money to the teacher, they pray that special prayer, they chant those prescribed phrases, they buy the special oil or water, they say the prayer or perform the ritual as many times as they’re told.

But what follows is the painful, unspoken reality: it’s not working. No change has come, no healing, no job, no spouse, no child, no promotion, no freedom from addiction, no real sense of God’s presence, no visions. The disappointment is painful, and the false teacher can always say, “Well, you didn’t have enough faith, you didn’t give enough money, you didn’t do it exactly like I told you.”

Similar to that image, Jude gives a seventh image.

late autumn trees without fruit, twice dead, pulled up by the roots;

7. Apostates Are Empty Promisers Like Barren Trees

Just like clouds without rain, so trees without fruit in autumn are trees who tempt you with a coming harvest in the autumn, only to find them barren at that season. You have watered, and sprayed and protected all year long, awaiting the time of fruit, and now when it comes, they have nothing for you. So these false teachers can keep you hanging on their words, trusting in them for nourishment, but in the end, all you get is leaves.

But Jude adds something here. He says they are pulled up the roots, twice dead. What does that mean?

Mat 15:13 But He answered and said, “Every plant which My heavenly Father has not planted will be uprooted.

This again refers to their judgement. Twice dead means they were dead in sins and trespasses, but now they will face the second death in the Lake of Fire.

raging waves of the sea, foaming up their own shame;

8. Apostates Are Restlessly Sinful Like Churning Waves

Jude compares these men to wild waves of the sea. When the sea is rough, when a storm is stirring up the waves to rage and be wild, the waves churn up the dirt and sand in its own foam. The clear and smooth appearance of the sea is now speckled with foam, and the blue and green becomes dirty brown.

Jude may well be thinking of Isaiah 57:20, which says:

But the wicked are like the troubled sea, When it cannot rest, Whose waters cast up mire and dirt.

False teachers do not have the meekness and peace of the Holy Spirit. Within is the turmoil and agitation of a soul far from God. Give them enough time, and they will soon bring to the surface the moral pollution that is within.

It’s not hard to spot the restless teacher. Unable to stay long in one place, impatient for immediate results, unhappy with any disagreement with him, bored with regular teaching through the Bible, agitating everyone towards something more sensational, more hyped, longing for greater recognition.

A restless man disturbs the waters wherever he goes. And the absence of the peace of the Holy Spirit means you will see the unregenerate pollution eventually come out: the filthy mouth, the greed for money, the filthy mind, the lust, the ambition for power.

Finally, Jude has one more image for us.

wandering stars for whom is reserved the blackness of darkness forever

9. Apostates are Unreliable Guides Like Wandering Stars

In ancient astronomy, they noticed that most stars followed a fixed course across the sky. Because those stars were so consistent, you could use them for navigation when sailing, for direction when travelling.

But they noticed some stars in the sky that would travel along the sky, and then suddenly slow down and go the other direction. They called these wandering stars. Now, at that time, the ancients didn’t understand our rotation around the sun, so what they were seeing was the planets. When Earth goes faster than another planet, we overtake it on its orbit, and so from our vantage point, the planets appears to slow down and go backwards. One planet, Venus, rotates in the opposite direction to the others. The Greek word for wandering star, used here by Jude is planaitais.

If you were a sailor, and you chose to navigate by a wandering star, a planet, you could end up terribly off course, even hopelessly lost. If you didn’t want to risk your life, you navigated by a fixed star, not a wandering star.

False teachers are like that. People look to them as guides. They trust in them to lead them in life, to show them the right path, to tell them what it’s all about. They look to them for direction, to know what is important, what the priorities are, and how to get there. But they are looking to people who are wandering themselves, who are making it up as they go along. Indeed, Jude tells you where these teachers are headed: for whom is reserved the blackness of darkness forever. These men are going to Hell. They are going to the place and state of eternal separation from God, with all that the images of darkness and fire communicate about the place.

The implication is terrifying: those who follow these men are going to the same place. That’s why they are so dangerous. They lead you to another god, like Cain, call you to rebel against His authority like Korah. Their true polluted nature is hidden under the surface, while they promise you good things like clouds, like fruit trees. But they are lying, because they are serving and feeding themselves, like Balaam. Eventually it comes to the surface, but along the way, they have already led people to Hell.

What is the portrait of a false teacher? He is a wandering star, a polluted wave, a fruitless tree and a rainless cloud, a selfish shepherd and a hidden reef, a rebel like Korah, a hireling like Balaam, and an idolater like Cain.

With nine images, our God has given us a detailed portrait of the apostate. Let us mark them, and avoid them.