A Daily Walk

Guest (Male): Today on A Daily Walk, we're helping you sharpen your discerning skills so you'll be able to spot a false teacher that crosses your path.

John Randall: Why is it so important for us to be aware and to be discerning in contending for the faith as it relates to false teachers? Because Jesus said that one of the signs, folks, that would mark the last days would be the increase of false teachers. That's what Jesus said.

Guest (Male): Hey, thanks for dropping by. Stick around, we've got a good study from Jude lined up for you today on A Daily Walk. If you'll recall when we left you last time, Pastor John Randall looked to a couple of Old Testament examples that really show us what false teachers look like. First was Cain, who represents establishing their own form of righteousness, and then there was Balaam, who would lead others to sin through greed.

Well, as we pick things up at verse 11, we're going to explore the rebellion of Korah. Pastor John will then go on to give us five analogies from nature further describing these false teachers.

John Randall: Look at verse 11 again. And perished in the rebellion of Korah. This takes us back to the Old Testament once again, folks, Numbers chapter 16 this time. God had set aside a group, a tribe, who were the Levites. The Levites were set aside for the purpose of being in full-time service to the Lord. That was their job.

So when the Lord eventually instructed Moses to build a tabernacle, it was like a tent in the middle of the wilderness. It had the Ark of the Covenant, and you can read all about it in the scriptures, but all the instruments and implements that were used in this tabernacle, the Levites were in charge of it. There were three families that were in charge of breaking it down and setting it up. It was like a church on wheels. They would just pick it up, pack it up, and go to the next spot. They'd watch the cloud. When the cloud would stop, they'd set up the tabernacle. Then when it was moving, they'd pack it up and move to the next spot. That was their job.

So you had the Gershonites. They were responsible for the care of the tabernacle tent, its coverings, the curtains, the entrance to the tent of meeting, the curtains of the courtyard, the curtains of the entrance courtyard surrounding the tabernacle and the altar. They were in charge of the curtains and the ropes and the things related to their use.

Then you had the Merarites. This was another family, and they were appointed to take care of the frames of the tabernacle, the crossbars, the posts, the bases, all the equipment, everything related to their use, as well as the posts surrounding the courtyard with their bases, the tent pegs, and the ropes. If you needed to know where the tent pegs were, you'd go ask the Merarites.

And then the third family, these were the Kohathites. The Kohathites were responsible for the care of the sanctuary, which meant they were responsible for the Ark of the Covenant, for the table of the showbread, for the lampstand, for the altars, for the articles of the sanctuary that were used in ministering, and the curtain that separated the holy place. This was an important job. They were all important jobs, and you can't have one without the other, but this was pretty significant. They would bear the Ark of the Covenant on their shoulders and carry it from place to place, which represented the throne of God. They were under the direct supervision of Eleazar, who was the son of Aaron.

Now over time, the Kohathites got tired of their job carrying around all this stuff, like the Ark and everything. It was a lot lighter to carry the curtains or the tent pegs. They got tired of their job and they wanted to do more. It wasn't so much about the changing of putting down the Ark. What they really wanted, and in an attempt to get their own way, they grew tired of their job and they wanted to be the priests. They wanted to handle the sacrifices.

Under the direction of an individual named Korah, Korah incited the people and came to Moses and Aaron and said, "Moses, you act like you're a prince over us. You think you're all that, Moses, well you're not. All of us are anointed. We're Levites, we're the Kohathites, and we think we ought to have your job, and I don't think Aaron's capable of doing it anymore."

So basically, they're approaching them in this way. Korah was so successful in getting a rebellion going that he rallied 250 men to come against Moses and Aaron. Two hundred and fifty people saying, "We're sick of you, Moses, get out of here!" And Moses, the Bible says he fell on his face. He was a humble man. He just fell on his face before the Lord. But then he got up.

When he got up, he summoned these rebellious men to stand before God and to burn incense, and he warned everyone to get away from the tents of Korah. This is what Moses said. He said, "Listen, if we're not called to be what we're called to be and you're supposed to take our spot, okay, that's fine. But if not, then let God do something amazing like open up the earth and swallow all of you. Then we'll know. How about that?"

Imagine the Kohathites were like, "Fine, open it up and do it!" And sure enough, Moses said, "Everybody get away from the Kohathites," and the earth just swallowed them up. There they were, all just gone, buried alive. The earth just closed. It happened. Read it. Donkeys talk, the earth opens up, this is in the Bible, folks. This is an exciting book right here. So it swallowed them up in that moment.

Then after the people were swallowed up, they began to complain against Moses, saying, "You've killed the people of the Lord! You've killed the people of the Lord!" They led this rebellion. That's how they sounded, I'm sure. But again, with strong warning, what Jude does is he connects and draws this clear connection and correlation between the false teachers seen in the way of Cain, the greed and the error and the way and the doctrine of Balaam, and the rebellion of the sins of Korah. They were coming into the church undermining, trying to rally their own groups to come against the leadership within the fellowships, and Jude is warning the church concerning them.

This is something that we need to be very aware of, even in the days in which we are living. Because as wonderful as the work is that we are a part of and that God is doing in the church and in churches, the enemy has his sight set on destroying the church and undermining the work of the Lord and keeping churches shut down or in courtrooms, etc. There is a war and there is an attack on the church right now. There always has been, but we're seeing it in the days in which we're living on a larger scale at this moment.

But here Jude is warning the church to be aware of these individuals, avoid them, have nothing to do with them, and be discerning concerning them. Jude now leaves these biblical examples and he looks at five analogies from nature to also describe these individuals. If you read through the book of Jude, just one chapter, you'll find that he's just building a case with more evidence from all different places to show these men are guilty and need to be avoided. They are dangerous.

So now he uses five analogies from nature to describe what they're really like. Look at verse 12. Concerning these false teachers, he said, "These are spots in your love feasts. 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." These natural examples: spots, clouds, dead trees, waves, wandering stars.

What does all of this mean? First of all, you'll notice he says here that they are spots in your love feast. This word for spot is only used here in the New Testament. It means hidden rocks. If you were in a boat and you were approaching the shore, for example, and you hear that awful sound, you understand when a boat hits a rock and it just grinds or it hits the prop and you've run aground. It's not a good thing. How did this happen? I didn't see the rock. It was underneath me. I didn't know it was there. I didn't see it coming, but it just put a big old hole in our boat.

And so it is with these individuals. They're like that. They're like unseen rocks. You didn't see them and you come up against them. They're hidden in the midst of the love feast, of all places. Now the love feast, again, this was something that was like the equivalent to a church potluck. You never know what you're going to get at those. You're hopeful, but you never know. Sometimes you look and you think, "I can't do that one. I don't know what that is." But sometimes it's really good. Everybody brings their best.

And you always feel guilty when you go to a potluck because some people are like, "Pastor John, did you get my dish?" And I didn't. I didn't. "My grandma passed it down from her mother." It looks like it. I'm just kidding. Sorry. But you need to just take it in, take one for the team. But that's what it was like, a love feast.

For some people, the poor people in the congregation, this was like the best meal that they had all week. This was something they looked forward to. The whole point of what they called the love feast was that it basically was a chance to share with one another and sit down to a meal and have fellowship. It's a real blessing. When you do have those times of barbecue or a potluck, as it were, it is a blessing.

But these guys at these love feasts, you just go there going to have an opportunity to fellowship with people and you run into these guys and it's like, "Ouch, that hurt," or "Ouch, that was damaging." You didn't expect them to be there, but there they are, spots in your love feast. They had an ulterior motive. They were hurting people in a place where they should have been loving one another.

So he warns them concerning this, but he said they're not only spots in a love feast, but you know what else they're like? They're like clouds without water. The clouds were useless. That's the picture here. These men came with big promise and you thought, "Oh man, it's going to rain on us," and it's nothing. It's empty. It's pointless. It looked impressive, but it was nothing but empty vapor just passing through. Nothing there. There was a promise of refreshment, a promise to bring rain as it related to their ministry. You'd walk away refreshed, but when they showed up, you walked away dry. There was nothing. I feel empty. I don't feel any refreshment at all. I feel nothing. It was just like a puff of wind. That's all. So that's what they're like. They look impressive. They say impressive things, but I don't walk away refreshed in any way. I don't feel like I'm growing. I haven't been watered with the word.

And so then he adds, not only are they like spots and clouds without water, well they're also like trees without fruit. By late autumn, you should have a tree with fruit on it. But these guys, there was no fruit. There should have been. The Bible says you will know them by their fruit, and in this case, there was a lack thereof. There was no fruit from their ministry.

You know one of the reasons why there was no fruit from their ministry? Because here you'll notice that Jude points out, when they feast with you or they're with you, in verse 12, he says they only serve themselves. That's the motive. They're in it not for you, they're in it for them. That's the whole point. And that's why there's really no fruit because it's all about them. Ministry is not all about us. It's all about the Lord. It's all about ministering to other people. But they were fruitless. There was no fruit.

Which tells you they weren't rooted and grounded in God's word. And so there was no fruit in their family, there was no fruit in their marriage, there was no fruit in their ministry. It was just barren. But you know something, God doesn't want us to be barren, folks. You say, "Well, how do I bear fruit as a Christian?" You sink your roots deep into the Lord. You remember in John chapter 15, Jesus said, "If you abide in me and my word abides in you, you will bear much fruit." It's just a natural byproduct of being deeply rooted, grounded, watered consistently. You bear fruit. You don't have to try, you don't have to strain, you don't have to force it. It just happens naturally. The fruits of the Spirit flow forth from the person who is filled with the Spirit and walking in the Spirit.

You have to try to produce it. When you try to produce fruit, have you ever eaten fruit accidentally that wasn't real, but it looked real? But it was fake. Maybe at your Nana's house. They decorate with fruit. Man, that looks good. You take a bite of it and your teeth get stuck. It's wax. It's not even real fruit. Somebody fabricated this thing. It's not even real. You don't want that kind of fruit. You want fruit that's real.

I've told this story before, but when I was growing up, my parents' backyard, one of the reasons why they bought the house that they bought was because they thought it was so awesome that we had fruit trees. They're really into fruit trees. This house had like an orchard, it felt like it. There was a grapefruit tree, there was an orange tree, there was an apricot tree, and there was a plum. There were a lot of them.

And my parents thought it would be so awesome. Just think, we can have orange juice every day. Now this is back before they had actual juicers. This was like the hand thing. You remember those little hand things where you'd have to squeeze it and get it on there and you'd get like a sip? It was mostly seeds and a lot of pulp. It didn't even taste like regular orange juice. It didn't taste like the stuff in the store. "Can't we just go buy a carton?" "No, no, no, we are going to make our own juice, okay?" And then grapefruits and all the rest of it.

The interesting thing is this house, the guy that had the house before us, he was really into it. He had green thumbs. We didn't. And my job as a child was to pick up all of the dead fruit. And it seemed like no matter what, every time I went out there, there was always dead fruit, always falling on the ground, half-eaten fruit by rats and things like that. They like rotten fruit, apparently. So I would go and pick up this fruit. I was so sick of these trees. I hated it. I just found things to do with the fruit and it wasn't always good.

But here's the point. We didn't even have a sprinkler system out there. We didn't even have sprinklers. My dad had a rain bird and he'd just go out there and turn it on. Sure enough, more fruit. Yay. Awesome. Great. And here's the point. No fruit. The trees never strained, never grunting, never groaning, never screaming, "Fruit!" They just produced naturally, naturally produced because they were watered. And I was there to pick up what was dead. They just kept producing.

Guys, God wants us to produce fruit. That's the point. John 15, read it, you'll be encouraged. It says also here that they were trees without fruit, they were spots, clouds without water, and then he calls them waves that were foaming. Foaming waves. Being near the ocean, I love the ocean, probably some of you do too. It's one of my favorite places to go and I love to surf. And it's always wonderful when you see it and it looks promising. You think, "Oh man, it looks good," looking from far away, checking it out. I think it's going to be good. Then you paddle out and it's not as good as you thought it was. And waves foam but they don't form. And you just say, "Why am I out here paddling? This is so pointless." That's what these guys are like. Just waves that were foaming but not forming. No one could ride anything, there was no fun. These guys were just a bummer. Waves foaming, they let you down, man. Paddle, paddle, paddle, nothing. It's really discouraging. Foam, just waves, no forming.

Then he calls them stars, wandering stars, for whom is reserved the blackness, it says. Have you ever seen a shooting star? It's pretty impressive. It shoots through the sky. It's just this "Whoa, did you see that?" and then it's gone. Just a flash. That's what these guys were like. They come in, they're stars, man. "Hey!" then they don't stick around. They just flash in and they're gone. They're here today and gone tomorrow, and that's it. That's what these false teachers were like. They blow into town, they get all the accolades and everything, and then on their way they go. Just, that's what they were like. A lot of flash, a lot of hype, but when all that was done, there was nothing really left, no substance. Something was missing.

Given this description, Jude turns now to the certainty of their judgment. He says that they are reserved in the blackness of darkness forever. Those who run after the way of Cain, into the doctrine error of Balaam, those who are in rebellion like the sons of Korah leading people astray and serving themselves and hurting people in the process and promising something and never really producing anything. There's no fruit. What is the result of these false teachers? Where do they end up? In blackness, in darkness forever. Anybody that teaches that Jesus Christ isn't God, anybody that leads people into sin and uses grace as a license, those people who are actually doing that, judgment from God is going to come upon them. That's what Jude says.

Why is it so important for us to be aware and to be discerning in contending for the faith as it relates to false teachers? Because Jesus said that one of the signs, folks, that would mark the last days would be the increase of false teachers. That's what Jesus said. Jesus said, you remember in Matthew chapter 24, he said, "Take heed that no one deceives you, for many will come in my name saying, 'I'm the Christ,' and they'll deceive many. For false Christs and false prophets will rise. They'll show great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect. And see, I have told you beforehand."

The Apostle Paul also warned Timothy in 2 Timothy 4. You remember he said, "The time's going to come when men will not endure sound doctrine, but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance with their own desires, and they will turn away their ears from the truth and will be turned aside to myths and fables in the last days."

And this is where we're living. And that is why it is so important for us to be men and women of the word. And you'll hear us emphasize it over and over and over again. Handling the truth protects you from error. Handling the truth helps you to identify what is false. Handling the truth helps you to recognize that's a lie because I don't see that here. And anybody that teaches contrary to sound doctrine, mark it, be aware of it. I don't care how many books they sell. I don't care how big their church is. I don't care what kind of TV show they have or how many people follow it. I don't really care. What matters to me is how do they live in accordance with God's word? What does this say in comparison to what they're saying? And what are they telling me? And how about this: what aren't they telling me? What are they leaving out that is equally important as what they're telling you? And is it biblical? And can I find it in the scripture? Is this just somebody saying something that sounds really good and fluffy and it tickles my ear, or is there any kind of real biblical content to what's being said?

Jesus said, "Whoever has ears to hear, let him hear." Are you listening? Do you have the filter of God's word? If you don't have the filter of God's word, if you're not in God's word, it's going to be really difficult when error comes. And I've seen, again, 25 plus years now of serving the Lord in full-time ministry, and I've watched people in the church get tripped up and sidetracked off on issues that were unbiblical because they got some book or they got into something that was aberrant, something that was weird. It was like, "Oh, this is the best thing I've ever..." Actually, it's not. "Oh, this is what you need to..." I don't think so. And you watch them just go down. They're almost like they're looking for something else other than what's right in front of them. This is living and powerful, sharper than any two-edged sword. There's nothing like the word of God. It endures forever. All the other books are not going to last. Listen, I've written a few, and they definitely aren't going to last. This one book is going to last forever, and that's the word of God. And so it's really important.

So I want to encourage you: be people of the book. Know the word of God. Hide it in your heart. Spend time reading it. Understand the Old Testament. Grab hold of the New Testament. Don't get sidetracked on little pieces of this and that. Stick to the word, friends, stick to the truth. Thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path.

Guest (Male): We've been in the book of Jude today on A Daily Walk receiving a strong warning about false teachers. Pastor John Randall will be back in just a minute. You can hear this program again when you visit adailywalk.org, oneplace.com, or wherever you get your podcasts. Pastor John's teachings are also accessible through our app too. Just search for Calvary South OC in the App Store or Google Play.

Well, since Mother's Day falls within this month of May, we picked out a special book for your moms. It's *A Mom After God's Own Heart*, written by Elizabeth George. You'll learn 10 powerful ways to love your children. It contains easy-to-implement principles for enjoyable and effective parenting, specific tools for teaching your kids about God's love for them, and biblical insight to encourage you along the way. The cost is just $12. Order it today at adailywalk.org or call us at 877-242-0828.

And thank you for helping us get the word out on stations like this one all across the country. People today desperately need the hope and encouragement that God's word provides, and your support helps to make that possible. To donate to the ministry, please go to adailywalk.org or call 877-242-0828. By the way, I also want to mention Pastor John is on X and Instagram. If you are too, start following him on X at pjrandall7 and on Instagram at johnprandall. Now let's finish things up in a word of prayer. Here's John to lead us.

John Randall: Father, we thank you tonight. Lord, that you have given us that which is true. Lord, that we don't have to be deceived, but Lord that we can be discerning. Lord, help us to be people of the book, of the word of God. Lord, help us not to go in the way of Cain or the error of Balaam or the rebellion of Korah, but instead, Lord, to follow hard after you, Jesus. Lord, protect your people, protect the church, Lord. Help us to have eyes that can see clearly. Lord, we thank you for your love for us tonight. Thank you for your grace. Thank you that by abiding in you, Lord, we bear much fruit. Thank you, Jesus. Thank you that the work is finished. You did it, Lord. And the work you're doing in us, you will finish and complete until the day of Christ Jesus. In your name we pray, Amen.

Guest (Male): We've got one more study to go in Jude and we'll have that for you tomorrow on A Daily Walk with Pastor John Randall.