A THREE-FOLD WANDERING
Posted by Pastor Greg Allen on July 11, 2018 under AM Bible Study |
AM Bible Study Group; July 11, 2018 from Jude 11
Theme: The three-fold nature of apostasy is illustrated from the Old Testament stories of Cain, Balaam and Korah.
(All Scripture is taken from The New King James Version, unless otherwise indicated).
For such a tiny book, the little New Testament book of Jude is packed with sober warnings of an eternally consequential nature. Every portion of this little book is worth our careful attention. And so, in this lesson, we will not apologize for considering just one verse. It’s a short verse; but it’s one that takes us through much ground in the Old Testament; and provides us with great lessons for our current times.
As we have seen, this book is about the call that the New Testament writer Jude—the half-brother of our Lord Jesus—gave to his believing brothers and sisters. It was an urgent call to “contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints” (Jude 3). And the reason he felt compelled to issue this call was because “certain men have crept in unnoticed”; who he describes as “ungodly men, who turn the grace of our God into lewdness and deny the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ” (v. 4). In verse 8, he refers to them as “these dreamers”—most likely because they either based their teaching on ‘dreamy’ falsehoods, or because they ‘dream’ that they can rebel against God and still escape judgment. In verse 10, Jude writes that “these speak evil of whatever they do not know; and whatever they know naturally, like brute beasts, in these things they corrupt themselves.” It is against these apostates that believers are called to contend for the faith.
As we have also seen, the section in Jude’s letter that describes these ‘wanderers from the faith’ can be broken into four parts; verses 5-7 describes (1) their ultimate judgment, verses 8-10 describes (2) their rebelliousness, verses 11-16 describes (3) their character, and verses 17-19 describes (4) their practice.
In this lesson, we consider #3—the part of the description of these apostates that speaks of their character. It can itself be further divided into three parts: verse 11 describing (1) how they are like those who, in Old Testament times, took paths of destruction; verses 12-13 describing (2) how they are like things in creation that symbolize loss; and verses 14-15 describing (3) how they are prophetically spoken of as objects of divine judgment.
Today, we look only at verse 11; which describes how these false teachers are like those who, as illustrated to us through characters and stories found in the Old Testament, followed dreadful paths that led to destruction and eternal loss. And what we find in this verse is that a three-fold nature of their apostasy is laid out before us. Jude writes;
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 (Jude 11).
How sobering and serious these words are! They describe to us the three-fold path that is followed by those even today who depart from “the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints”.
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Notice how this verse begins. Jude writes, “Woe to them!” That’s a Hebrew expression—one that can be transliterated “Oy to them!” It is a word that expresses anguish and sorrow—a word that sounds like the heartfelt agony that it is meant to express. How sorrowful it is to think of the destiny of these apostates! How painful to consider! How grievous! How it should sting us! “Woe to them!” “Oy—!”
And why “Woe to them”? Jude goes on to call upon his readers to think back to three Old Testament stories that provide a description of the paths of these apostates—and of the destruction that is sure to come upon them.
First, he calls our minds back to the story of the first family of Creation—back in the first few chapters of Genesis; and tells us that these apostates follow …
I. THE WAY OF CAIN.
The Bible tells us that God told our first parents not to eat of the tree that He forbade to them; for “in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die” (Genesis 2:17). It also tells us that after they ate and fell in sin, they sought to hide from God. They even tried to cover themselves over with fig leaves. But God’s response was to clothe them in skins (Genesis 3:21). In order for there to be skins to cover them, something first had to die in their place. And this was the first manifestation of the promise of atonement that God made concerning them. God had told the serpent;
And I will put enmity
Between you and the woman,
And between your seed and her Seed;
He shall bruise your head,
And you shall bruise His heel (Genesis 3:15).
Now; their son Cain knew about all of this. He knew that God did not accept sinful man’s attempts to cover over his own sins; but that he must trust in God’s promise of ‘the Seed of the woman’ as an atoning sacrifice. And yet, when he and his brother Abel came with an offering, Cain deliberately offered the fruit of his own efforts rather than expressing faith in God’s provision of atonement (4:3-5). Hebrews 11:4 tells us, “By faith Abel offered to God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, through which he obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts …” And so, Cain’s offering was not one of faith in God. It was one that arrogantly and disobediently declared his own works. His act symbolizes for us every form of man-made religious effort or every kind of religious cult that seeks to somehow ‘earn’ God’s favor by works—while, at the same time, willfully rejecting God’s gracious provision of atonement through Jesus Christ. That is the ‘way of Cain’; and these apostates follow his sinful way.
And more, they also follow in the pattern of Cain’s hatred for those whom God declares righteous by faith. As we know, Cain went on to slay his brother in jealousy (Genesis 4:8-15). This hatred, too, is the legacy of Cain. As the apostle John put it in 1 John 3:11-12;
For this is the message that you heard from the beginning, that we should love one another, not as Cain who was of the wicked one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his works were evil and his brother’s righteous (1 John 3:11-12).
Those apostates who depart from the way of faith—willfully rejecting God’s provision for atonement through Christ by faith, and setting up their own system of ‘works righteousness’ instead—end up hating and seeking to slay those whom God declares righteous by faith in Christ. It is a pattern repeated throughout history. Man-made religious systems of ‘works’ ascend to power; and then, from that position of power, seek to silence and destroy those who trust only in God’s gift of justification by faith in Christ.
What a dreadful and bloody way the ‘way of Cain’ is!
Jude not only reminded his readers about the way of Cain with respect to these apostates; but he also reminded them of …
II. THE ERROR OF BALAAM.
He wrote, “Woe to them! For they … have run greedily in the error of Balaam for profit …” Balaam has gone down in sacred history as the notorious example of ‘a prophet for hire’. Numbers 22 tells us of how, as the people of Israel were making their way through the wilderness to the promised land, the Moabite king Balak was so move by dread for them that he hired Balaam to curse them. Balaam—whom Balak counted a prophet and an expert curse-giver—offered him riches him to curse the Jewish people. God, however, confronted Balaam and warned him not to follow this course of action. Note that! Balaam heard the voice of God and knew God’s will; and yet, nevertheless went—God permitting him to do as he wanted. He was drawn by the promise of rich material reward from Balak. We’re given the perfect commentary on this in 2 Peter 2:15-16. Peter also wrote of apostates that follow after Balaam’s example; saying,
They have forsaken the right way and gone astray, following the way of Balaam the son of Beor, who loved the wages of unrighteousness; but he was rebuked for his iniquity: a dumb donkey speaking with a man’s voice restrained the madness of the prophet (2 Peter 2:15-16).
What Jude calls the ‘error’ of Balaam, Peter calls the ‘way’ of Balaam. It is the greedy desire to use the spiritual things of God in order to gain material wealth for one’s self. All false teachers of “corrupt minds and destitute of the truth, who suppose that godliness is a means of gain” (1 Timothy 6:5)—and who are found to be “teaching things which they ought not, for the sake of dishonest gain” (Titus 1:11)—have their example in Balaam.
But there is more to Balaam than even this! When he found that he could not curse the people of God, he became the instrument by which the devil led them from holiness into horrific sin. Numbers 25 tell us of how the people of Israel entered into illicit relationships with the people of Moab, and began to join them in their immoral worship of the false god Baal (Numbers 25:1ff). God brought terrible judgment upon His people for this. And as we read on in Numbers 31:16, we discover that the women of Moab had led the men of Israel into gross immorality and idolatry “through the counsel of Balaam”. Balaam was not only an apostate; but he also led the people of God into apostasy.
This is another way that apostates follow the error of Balaam. In Revelation 2, in the letter that He dictated to the believers in the church in Pergamos, the Lord Jesus said,
But I have a few things against you, because you have there those who hold the doctrine of Balaam, who taught Balak to put a stumbling block before the children of Israel, to eat things sacrificed to idols, and to commit sexual immorality (Revelation 2:14).
To these apostates, Balaam’s ‘error’ (a love of riches) leads them to Balaam’s ‘way’ (a willingness to use the things of God for gain), which leads ultimately to Balaam’s ‘doctrine (a persuasive teaching that leads God’s people into immorality and idolatry). It’s dreadful to think of how much of Balaam’s example is followed today—with Balaam’s destructive result!
There is a dreadful flow to the trio of apostate examples that Jude points to. Cain shows us how the spirit of apostasy works first inside a man; and Balaam shows us how this spirit then corrupts the people around such a man. Finally, the apostate spirit then leads a man to raise his fist in defiance against God Himself. Jude speaks, finally, of …
III. THE REBELLION OF KORAH.
Korah was a member of the tribe of Levi. It was his honored role to serve the priestly family of Aaron by covering and caring for the articles of the tabernacle. But Korah was not content with his role. In arrogance, he rose up against Moses and Aaron—God’s appointed representatives to His people. Korah gathered a team of two-hundred and fifty rebels to himself, and dared to say to God’s appointed servants:
“You take too much upon yourselves, for all the congregation is holy, every one of them, and the Lord is among them. Why then do you exalt yourselves above the assembly of the Lord?” (Numbers 16:3).
God Himself responded in the defense of His appointed priestly servants. At God’s command, Moses called for this company of rebels to take censers with incense for themselves (as if they were the priests that they claimed to be); and the Lord then called for the people to separate themselves from Korah and his company of rebels. And after Moses spoke God’s rebuke to them,
the ground split apart under them, and the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them up, with their households and all the men with Korah, with all their goods. So they and all those with them went down alive into the pit; the earth closed over them, and they perished from among the assembly. Then all Israel who were around them fled at their cry, for they said, “Lest the earth swallow us up also!” And a fire came out from the Lord and consumed the two hundred and fifty men who were offering incense (vv. 31-35).
God was merciful to the family of Korah. Apparently, some who did not join into the rebellion survived; and they continued to serve in the place that God had appointed for them. Later on, many of the offspring of Korah were used by God to compose psalms that we have in the Bible. But what a horrible end it was that resulted from the rebellion of Korah himself! He is an example of the dreadful end that is the destiny of all who, in apostatizing from the faith once delivered to the saints, choose to rebel against God and His appointed servants.
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These three examples give us a three-fold understanding of the true character of those who take the path of apostasy. They seek to set up their own religion of ‘works righteousness’—and thus grow in hatred toward all that God declares righteous by faith in Jesus. They take the holy things of God and use them for personal gain—and in the process, lead people into horrible sin and idolatry. And they even dare to rebel against God—and as a result, perish in destruction.
Woe to them! Watch out for them! Recognize them! Don’t be like them! Stand for the truth against them! That is the message that Jude declares to us.
EA
