Jude 1:12, 13 These are spots in your feasts of charity, when they feast with you, feeding themselves without fear: clouds they are without water… I. THEIR SELFISH AND SINFUL PERVERSION OF THE CHURCH'S FELLOWSHIP. "These are they who are hidden rocks in your love-feasts when they feast with you, shepherds that without fear feed themselves." 1. They, like sunken rocks, wrecked those who unsuspectingly approached them. (1) Their profession of religion was so belied by their immoral ways, that men, taking them to be Christians, abhorred the true gospel and turned away from it to their destruction. (2) Their evil example led others into unchristian courses to their eternal ruin. 2. They mingled, without fear or misgiving, in the loving fellowships of the Church. (1) The love-feasts were connected with the Lord's Supper, which is itself, indeed, a love-feast. They were designed to maintain brotherly love, and especially to refresh the poor saints. They always began and ended with prayer. They were no places for self-indulgence or gluttony. (2) These godless persons attended the love-feasts, with no fear of the Divine displeasure, with no reverence for the holy society into which they intruded themselves. (a) It is not possible in this world entirely to separate the godly from the ungodly. It is impossible for ministers to read the hearts of men so surely as to keep a sharp line of distinction between believers and unbelievers. Yet the discipline of the Church ought to enforce a conformity to the terms of their profession. (b) These seducers were unfit guests at a feast designed to commemorate the unity of the body of Christ and the brotherhood of all believers. "Who shall abide in thy tabernacle?" 3. They feasted themselves luxuriously, regardless of the poor. Their conduct reminds one of the shepherds of Israel. "Woe be to the shepherds of Israel, that do feed themselves! should not the shepherds feed the flock?" (Ezekiel 34:2). (1) They feasted immoderately. "Their hearts were oppressed with surfeiting." Like the Israelites in their idolatry, "they sat down to eat and to drink" (Exodus 32:6). (2) They wronged the poor, whom they suffered to fast while they were feasting. II. THEIR EMPTINESS AND INSTABILITY. "Clouds without water, carried along by winds." 1. Instead of being like clouds dropping refreshing rain upon the earth, they, as rainless clouds, while promising much, were profitless and disappointing to the hopes of the Church. They could not give what they had not, but they professed to have something to give. Their deluded followers "spent their money for that which was not bread, and their labour for that which satisfied not." When people are athirst for God - " the heart punting for the water-brooks" - it is hard to find no water at hand to satisfy the soul. Yet the Lord says, "Open thy mouth wide, and I will fill it." It is a great sin to profess a goodness to which we are utterly opposed, because (1) it profanes God's Name; (2) it grieves the hearts of true saints; (3) it hardens the wicked; (4) it is utterly unprofitable to the empty professors themselves. 2. They were as unstable as clouds whirled every way by the wind. (1) They were unstable in doctrine, carried about by every intellectual caprice, like those who halt between two opinions, and are not settled in the truths of religion. They were not "grounded and settled" because they were off the true Foundation (verse 20). (2) They were unstable in their affections, now fervent, now cold, "framing to themselves such a moderation as will just serve the scantling of the times." (3) They were unstable in their practical conduct. At one time they were ascetic in their ideas; then self-indulgent, loose, evil. With all their changes they begin in the flesh and end in the flesh. (4) Christians ought to be warned against unsteadfastness. They ought to continue in the things which they have learned (2 Timothy 3:14), and not to be "tossed to and fro with every wind of doctrine" (Ephesians 4:14). III. THEIR UTTER UNFRUITFULNESS. "Autumn trees without fruit, twice dead, plucked up by the roots." Saints arc fruit-bearing trees of righteousness (Isaiah 61:3). Where is an evident climax in this picture of the godless seducers. First, they are like autumn trees, which ought to be full of fruit, yet they are without fruit, like the barren fig tree; then they are utterly dead - dead in appearance and dead in reality; then they are like uprooted trees concerning which there can be no more hope of fruit. There is a logical as well as rhetorical fitness in the picture. 1. There was no fruit because there was no life in the tree. These godless persons were spiritually dead (Ephesians 2:2). 2. This death implies ignorance, darkness, alienation from God. 3. The torn-up roots imply not only that there is no hope of growth, but that the world sees the secret rottenness that was at the root of such trees. They will never again be taken for fruit-bearers. "From them who had not, even that which they seemed to have is taken away" (Luke 8:18). 4. The picture before us is a solemn warning to believers. (1) It is their duty to be spiritually fruitful (Philippians 1:11; John 15:2; Colossians 1:10). (2) They must bring forth fruit at every season, even in old age (Psalm 92:12). (3) Believers, therefore, ought to plant themselves by the rivers of water (Psalm 1:3). (4) They ought to guard against apostasy. "Be not high-minded, but fear." (5) They ought, therefore, to pray for the dews of God's blessing. He alone can give the increase. IV. THEIR SHAMELESS AND TURBULENT TEMPER. "Wild waves of the sea, foaming out their own shame." 1. There was a restless agitation in their life. They were "like the troubled sea, whose waters cast up mire and dirt" (Isaiah 57:20). "There is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked." Their consciences were unquiet; they were fretful and arrogant; they troubled the peace of those Churches into which they crept, by their hard speeches, their obscene talking, their blasphemous suggestions. 2. As the wild waves lash themselves into foam, these seducers throw forth upon the world all the shamefulness that was buried in their wicked hearts. "Boldly belching out their abominable opinions and their detestable doctrines;" but, above all, giving a free outlet to all licentiousness. Evil things come forth from "the evil treasure of the heart." 3. It is the lot of the Church to live in the midst of these "raging waves" of wickedness and folly. 4. The Church is most districted by enemies within her communion. 5. The enemies of God proclaim their own shame, and bring confusion upon themselves. 6. The saints ought ever to pray that the peace of God may dwell in their hearts. V. MISLEADING GUIDES AND THEIR FUTURE DESTINY. "Wandering stars, for whom the blackness of darkness hath been reserved for ever." 1. These seducers were like stars, conspicuous by their position and their exploits. They were false lights to mislead the people into error and destruction. 2. They were wandering stars, (1) because they kept no certain course; (2) because they blazed brightly for a moment, then went out in darkness. 3. They threw down no light upon the world lying in darkness and the region of death. 4. It is a fearful thing to seduce others from the way of truth. "They which lead thee cause thee to err" (Isaiah 3:12). 5. God shows great forbearance even to seducers. He "endured with much long-suffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction" (Romans 9:22). 6. Divine judgments are often in kind. The seducers who loved darkness rather than light will be plunged into still deeper darkness - "into the very blackness of darkness for ever." 7. Let believers be warned to seek the light - to walk in the light, to walk decently as in the day. - T.C. Parallel Verses KJV: 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; |
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