False brethren harm the church

Well, grace and peace to you all in the name of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. I'd like to ask you once again to turn to Jude's epistle. That's the second last book in your Bible. Today, I want to be looking at verse 11, just verse 11, where we're going to hear more from Jude about the false brethren. or false teachers that he's been warning us about, and particularly about how these false brethren harm the church.

We've already heard quite a lot about these people whose presence in the church has compelled Jude to write this urgent letter about contending for the faith. We've heard about their sins, about their unbelief, and how they are condemned by God. What we haven't heard too much about yet is about what threat these people actually pose to the church. Now, if we understood the church to be merely a gathering of strangers who come together every Sunday and hear the same sermon, then perhaps we wouldn't have much of a problem. There wouldn't be much to be concerned about.

But we know that the church is supposed to function as a body, as a unified community. The church is like a lump of dough, and as we know, a little leaven leavens the whole lump. False brethren in our midst are a threat. They can do terrible harm to the body. And while I've discussed some of these harms here and there in some of my previous sermons, Jude hasn't been talking about it directly until now in verse 11.

But actually, he's not actually going to be all that direct in verse 11. All we're going to get from him is three more historical comparisons. This is something that, as we've seen, Jude quite likes to do. What he's going to tell us in verse 11 is that these false brethren are like Cain, Balaam, and Korah from the Old Testament. You won't feel the need much to elaborate on that.

That's because these comparisons are potent with meaning if we take the time to consider them. With these comparisons, he's going to help us answer the question, how do false brethren harm the church. And that's what we're going to be exploring today. So I am going to pray and then we'll read the text as I like to do. I'll read the entire book of Jude.

It's nice and short, so we'll get through it. But let's turn to the Lord in prayer. Our Father in heaven, you are good and glorious and gracious beyond all measure. To you be all praise and all honor and all glory and wisdom and power. I ask you, Lord, you would grant us a little measure of your wisdom today, that we would have discerning hearts and clear minds, that we would have spiritual ears to hear and receive spiritual truth.

Lord, I know that your people don't need to hear my opinions today. They don't need to hear my views or my thoughts. They need to hear from you, Lord. They need to hear your word, your truth, that food that nourishes spiritual life. So Lord, insofar as I do speak your word today, faithfully communicate your truth, may that word be applied powerfully and effectively.

May it bear fruit for your glory. Lord, teach us. Lord, protect your church. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen.

So this is Jude's epistle from the English Standard Version. So please pay particular attention to verse 11. Due to servant of Jesus Christ and brother of James, to those who are called, beloved in God the Father and kept for Jesus Christ, may mercy, peace, and love be multiplied to you. Beloved, although I was very eager to write to you about our common salvation, I found it necessary to write, appealing to you to contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints. For certain people have crept in unnoticed, who long ago were designated for this condemnation, ungodly people who pervert the grace of our God into sensuality and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.

Now I want to remind you, although you once fully knew it, that Jesus, who saved the people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed those who did not believe. And the angels who did not stay within their own position of authority, but left their proper dwelling, he has kept in eternal chains under gloomy darkness until the judgment of the great day. Just as Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding cities, which likewise indulged in sexual immorality and pursued unnatural desire, serve as an example by undergoing a punishment of eternal fire. Yet, in like manner, these people also, relying on their dreams, defile the flesh, reject authority, and blaspheme the glorious ones. But when the archangel Michael, contending with the devil, was disputing about the body of Moses, he did not presume to pronounce a blasphemous judgment, but said, the Lord rebuke you.

But these people blaspheme all they do not understand, and they are destroyed by all that they, like unreasoning animals, understand instinctively. This is verse 11. Woe to them, for they walked in the way of Cain, and abandoned themselves for the sake of gain to Balaam's error, and perished in Cora's rebellion. These are hidden reefs at your love feasts, as they feast with you without fear. Shepherds feeding themselves, waterless clouds swept along by winds, fruitless trees in late autumn, twice dead, uprooted, wild waves of the sea casting up the foam of their own shame, wandering stars for whom the gloom of utter darkness has been reserved forever.

It was also about these that Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied, saying, Behold, the Lord comes with ten thousands of his holy ones to execute judgment on all, and to convict all the ungodly of all their deeds of ungodliness that they have committed in such an ungodly way, and of all the harsh things that ungodly sinners have spoken against him. These are grumblers, malcontents, following their own sinful desires. They are loud-mouthed boasters, showing favoritism to gain advantage. But you must remember, beloved, the predictions of the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ. They said to you, in the last time there will be scoffers following their own ungodly passions.

is these who cause divisions, worldly people, devoid of the Spirit. But you, beloved, building yourselves up in your most holy faith and praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ that leads to eternal life. And have mercy on those who doubt. Save others by snatching them out of the fire. To others, show mercy with fear, hating even the garment stained by the flesh.

Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling, and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory, with great joy, to the only God, our Savior, through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority before all time, now and forever. Amen. So as I said today, I want to address the question, how do false brethren harm the church? Perhaps it's not the most uplifting or inspiring topic for a sermon, and that's probably why you don't hear a lot of sermons from Jude.

The tone of Jude is grim. He is relentless. It's a short letter, but he's packed it densely with his righteous indignation as he condemns and denounces these people from every direction that he can think of. So, as we've been working through Jude, just a few verses at a time, I can understand if you're starting to think, do we need to dwell on this topic quite so much? I get it, the false brethren are bad, I know.

To that, I would say, first of all, that Jude would have some sympathy for you. He tells us at the start that he was eager to write about our common salvation. He wants to dwell on the wonderful truths of the gospel, as we've been hearing recently from the book of Romans, which has been wonderful. But Jude says he found it necessary. to write this letter about contending for the faith.

And that's my second point. This is necessary. Christian preaching should always ultimately point hearers to the gospel. And I want to do that today. But gospel-centered preaching can't come at the cost of proclaiming the whole counsel of God.

And I can tell you, God cares a lot about this topic that's before us today. Just think about how often it comes up in Scripture. The Old Testament has very frequent warnings and denunciations of false prophets and of rebellious leaders who lead God's people astray. Here's just one example that I picked out from the book of Jeremiah. Jeremiah deals with a lot of these false prophets.

It says, and the Lord said to me, the prophets are prophesying lies in my name. I did not send them, nor did I command them or speak to them. They are prophesying to you a lying vision, worthless divination, and the deceit of their own minds. The earthly ministry of our Lord contained many warnings to the same effect. He says this in his Sermon on the Mount.

Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves. And on the Mount of Olives he warns his disciples for false Christs. And false prophets will arise and perform great signs and wonders, so as to lead astray, if possible, even the elect. The same kind of warnings are repeated time and time again throughout the New Covenant epistles. It's hard to pick one just as an example.

But here's one from Paul writing to the Romans. It says, I appeal to you brothers to watch out for those who cause divisions and create obstacles contrary to the doctrine you have been taught. Avoid them. The reason that God cares so much about this issue is because he cares about the health of the church. And he cares about the health of the church because he cares about the health of each and every Christian.

It's true that healthy Christians make for a healthy church. But it's also true that a healthy church makes for healthy Christians. That is, the church is to be the context in which we're supposed to be discipled and grow up in the faith into maturity in Christ. Paul says this in Ephesians chapter 4. Speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.

So the church is supposed to be growing together, united, building itself up in love. This is vital. But each part has to be working properly. If this is broken, disrupted by false brethren and false teaching, we're going to have a significant problem with deep spiritual consequences. So I hope you don't mind too much if we continue to speak about this threat of false brethren in the church.

We have to talk about it because Scripture does, and Scripture talks about it because it's important. So I pray that God will use this time that we spend considering these things to equip us and to protect us against the ways that false brethren do us harm. So that brings us back to the question, how do false brethren harm the church? I want to answer this from verse 11, but you'll notice that it's not immediately obvious that the verse answers the question. Here it is again, Jude verse 11.

Woe to them, for they walked in the way of Cain and abandoned themselves for the sake of gain to Balaam's error and perished in Korah's rebellion. So Jude declares woe upon these false brethren, these three notorious old covenant sinners are the ones that he compares these people to. And so these comparisons are going to explain why he declares this woe. He says, they walked in the way of Cain. They abandoned themselves to Balaam's error for the sake of gain, and they perished in Korah's rebellion.

So he's making these comparisons to these Old Testament examples. But there's no mention of harm to the church, not explicitly. But when we consider the stories behind these three sinners, what we're going to see is that there's a common theme. Cain, Balaam, and Korah all sin very wickedly. But more specifically, they all sin against God's people, against the church.

Cain, out of hatred, murders righteous believing Abel. Balaam, out of greed, seeks to curse Israel, the old covenant church, and entices them into sin. Korah, out of envy, rejects the authority of Moses and Aaron and leads a rebellion that results in a terrible outpouring of judgment against the people. So in today's sermon, I want to work through this verse and see what characterizes these individual sins of Cain, Balaam, and Korah. And then what we're going to do is consider how Jude's false brethren are following in their footsteps and repeating their errors.

And we'll see how these errors do harm to the church. What we're going to see is that these false brethren harm the church in three different ways. First, they harm the church through the hatred of the righteous, like Cain. Secondly, they're going to harm the church through greedily exploiting the church, like Balaam. And thirdly, they harm the church through their rebellion against God-ordained authority, like Korah does.

Finally, we'll ask, how should we as a church respond to this, this threat of harm? Do we panic? Do we despair? Do we anxiously prepare for battle? The danger is that we'll respond to the threat of harm in a merely human way, in the flesh.

But I want to urge us to consider these things spiritually in the light of the gospel. We need to remember what the church is, the promises of Christ to preserve his church, and then we'll see what our place is in all of that. So that's what we have before us today. Let's look to our text, Jude verse 11. What I want you to notice first of all is Jid's unusual and slightly confusing use of language.

He says, for they walked in the way of Cain. Notice the past tense. Surely if this is something that happened in the past, it's no longer an issue. And it's the case with the other examples as well. He says, they abandoned themselves, past tense, for the sake of gain, to Balaam's error.

And they perished, in the past, in Korah's rebellion. The last one is the strangest one, I think. Did these false brethren really perish in Korah's rebellion, which was over 1,000 years before Jude wrote this letter? Obviously, that's not what he means. But it's an interesting mode of speaking.

We might have expected him to say something more like, they are walking like Cain walked, or their error is like Balaam's error, or they will perish in their rebellion like Korah did. And I think that is effectively what Jude means, but he's doing something a little bit deeper and more creative. The best way I can describe it is that he's figuratively projecting these people back into these past events. And in so doing, he's highlighting how closely parallel these false brethren are to these ancient sinners. The false brethren are so closely identified with these ancient counterparts It's almost as though they were there, doing the same things that Cain, Balaam, and Korah did, participating in the very same sins.

So I think what Jude does is very effective. It makes us pause and think about it. And if you do think about it, it's very shocking. Jude's telling these churches that it's as though they have Cain, Balaam, and Korah in their midst. These are some of the most notorious villains of biblical history.

So what's Jude saying? So what Jude is saying should get our attention. So let's first consider the way of Cain. Judah's pointing us back into the deepest depths of history, to the very first child ever to be born, who's also, sadly, the very first murderer. This will give us our first answer to the question, how do false brethren harm the church?

So what is the way of Cain? And what is the heart of Cain's sin that is then reproduced in these new covenant false brethren? I want us to turn to Genesis chapter 4 and hear the story as it was originally recorded for us. So let's go there. Let's turn to Genesis chapter 4.

The context is that Adam and Eve has just been expelled from the garden. They're now facing life in a world groaning under the weight of sin. And in the story of Cain and Abel, we're going to see some of the earliest, most tragic consequences of this sin. So let's read, starting from verse one in Genesis chapter four. We'll hear this story.

Now Adam knew Eve, his wife, and she conceived and bore Cain, saying, I have gotten a man with the help of the Lord. And again, she bore his brother Abel. Now Abel was a keeper of sheep, and Cain a worker of the ground. In the course of time, Cain brought to the Lord an offering of the fruit of the ground, and Abel also brought of the firstborn of his flock and of the fat portions. And the Lord had regard for Abel and his offering.

But for Cain and his offering, he had no regard. So Cain was very angry and his face fell. The Lord said to Cain, Why are you angry? And why has your face fallen? If you do well, will you not be accepted?

And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is contrary to you. You must rule over it. Cain spoke to Abel, his brother, and when they're in the field, Cain rose up against his brother, Abel, and killed him. It then goes on from there to describe how God confronts Cain and places him under a curse.

A crucial question that's often asked about these passages is, why was Abel's offering accepted, whereas Cain's wasn't? Was it just the difference between the offerings themselves, vegetables versus sheep? Does God just prefer sheep? Well, the answer is going to tell us a lot about Cain, his heart, and why he goes on to murder his brother. I want us to turn to Hebrews chapter 11 and verse 4.

Here we're very fortunate to have a divinely inspired commentary on this story. So let's go there, Hebrews chapter 4. We're going to be told directly here what distinguished Abel's offering from Cain. So let's look at Hebrews chapter 11 and then verse 4. Here it is.

By faith Abel offered to God a more acceptable sacrifice than Cain, through which he was commanded as righteous, God commanding him by accepting his gifts. And through his faith, though he died, he still speaks. So the difference between these two offerings was faith. Abel believed and his offering was accepted because it was offered out of faith. Down in verse 6 in the same chapter of Hebrews we read, without faith it is impossible to please him.

And Paul says something similar writing to the Roman church. Whatever does not proceed from faith is sin. Cain's offering then must have been offered without faith. and thus not only failed to please God, but was in fact sin in God's sight. This is the difference between doing well and not doing well, to use the language of Genesis chapter 4.

The only way to do well in God's eyes is to obey in faith. Now, Cain's lack of faith was not that he didn't believe that God existed. God spoke with him directly. He knew perfectly well that God was there. But he believed only in the same sense that the demons believe.

You could say that he had knowledge of God, but he didn't trust God. He wasn't resting on God's promises or relying on God's grace. So Cain had no genuine saving faith. So his worship was false worship. And that's because God has no regard for faithless religion.

He is not pleased with empty external acts. So this is a situation with Cain, an unbeliever faced with the reality that he is not accepted by God. And this angers him. It's an interesting response, isn't it? If Cain really desired from the heart to be accepted by God, He knew what he had to do.

He should have repented. He should have thrown himself on God's free mercy. And God is very gentle with him, warning him, advising him to rule over his sin. But of course, his evil, unbelieving heart did not want to listen to God. It seems he wanted acceptance, he wanted outward blessing, but only on his own terms, not God's.

Perhaps he thought that his faithless offering should have been good enough. So instead of turning to faith, which would entail turning away from his sin and humbling himself, he instead turns to anger and to hatred. And this anger, this hatred, becomes now turned to the innocent. No doubt he's angry at God, but God is beyond his reach. So his anger is now redirected toward his brother, the one who was accepted, the one who enjoys the very peace and fellowship with God that Cain had rejected.

The Apostle John comments on this in 1 John chapter 3. He's urging Christians to love one another and he warns them. He says this in 1 John chapter 3 and verse 12. We should not be like Cain, who was of the evil one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him?

Because his own deeds were evil and his brother's righteous. John uses Cain as an example of how the world hates the church. He says this in the next verse. Do you not be surprised, brothers, that the world hates you? Between those who are of Satan and those who are of God, there will, of necessity, be enmity.

There is division. Those who do evil will hate those who do good. And it's not just John who notices this pattern. David had noticed the very same thing long ago. He writes in Psalm 38 verse 20, those who render me evil for good accuse me because I follow after good.

And then again in Proverbs 29 verse 10, we read the same thing. Bloodthirsty men hate one who is blameless and seek the life of the upright. This is the way of Cain. It consists of a wicked, unbelieving heart that manifests as a murderous hatred toward the righteous, that is, true believers who are counted righteous by faith. So how does this apply then to the false brethren, to whom Jude says, or of whom Jude says that they walked in the way of Cain, this way of unbelief and of hatred?

Well, we can consider unbelief, first of all. Jude has already told us very clearly that these people have no true faith. He calls them ungodly people, in verse 4, who deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ. They're called worldly people, devoid of the spirit. So with that alone, these people are already well along the way of Cain.

They're in the church. Like Cain, who made his offering, these people are engaging in public worship, offering sacrifices of praise. but God is not pleased. These offerings are not accepted. Does this then drive them to murder?

Well, I think it's pretty safe to say these people aren't literally going around killing off members of the church. I think church members murdering themselves would necessitate a rather different letter than the one that we actually get from Jude. But of course, literal murder is only the last stage of a process that begins with hatred and anger in the heart. We of course know Jesus' teaching in the Sermon on the Mount. This is from Matthew chapter 5.

He says, you have heard it said, to those of old. You shall not murder, and whoever murders will be liable to judgment. But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment. Whoever insults his brother will be liable to the council, and whoever says you fool will be liable to the hell of fire. And John repeats the very same message right after the passage that I just cited before from chapter 3.

He says, We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brothers. Whoever does not love abides in death. Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him. So perhaps the false brethren stop short of actual literal physical killing, but scripture still calls them murderers because of the hatred that dwells within their heart. They're walking in the way of Cain.

So how does the way of Cain harm the church? We can just imagine that people in the context of the church who hate the brethren. Verse 19 of Jude says, it is these who cause divisions. So the first thing that we can say about the consequences of this hatred is that it can harm the unity of the church. But the church is meant to be united in love, with each part of the body working together.

Paul says, writing to the Philippians, complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. But where there's lack of love, the church is not in full accord. It's not of one mind.

Instead, these false brethren will be acting out of selfish ambition, looking only for themselves, rather than caring for the interests of others. And Jude knows perfectly well that these people are acting selfishly. In verse 12, he says that they're shepherds feeding themselves. They don't care about the sheep. They hate the sheep.

They only want what they can get for themselves. So they neglect, they abuse, they exploit others in the church for their own gain. And then this lack of love, this lack of unity, it harms the spiritual growth of the church. Remember the passage that I quoted earlier from Ephesians? It says, the whole body, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.

Where there is hatred and division, this vital process is hindered. The division and lack of love also harms the testimony of the church to the world. In John's gospel, our Lord points to Christian unity as the indicator to outsiders that we belong to him. He says, a new commandment I give to you, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another.

By this, all people will know that you are my disciples, if you love, if you have love for one another. So our testimony is harmed if there are false brethren in our midst, claiming the name of Christ, but who are walking in the way of Cain, acting with hatred for the brethren. We could go on, but these harms are serious enough. We do not want people in our church who are walking in the way of Cain and harm the church through the hatred of those who walk in the way of faith, like Abel. If Judah left it here, we would have sufficient cause for alarm.

But he gives us two more historical comparisons that are equally disturbing, showing us more ways that the false brethren harm the church. So let's look at the next example that Jude gives to us in verse 11. We read that they abandoned themselves for the sake of gain to Balaam's error. Balaam was another one of these notorious Old Testament sinners. Cain was motivated by anger and hatred, but Balaam is motivated primarily by greed.

We find Balaam's story in the book of Numbers. It's quite long and complex, so I'm not going to read everything. But if we turn there, I'll point out a few key verses. So let's go to Numbers chapter 22. The context is that Israel is wandering in the wilderness.

God has given them some significant military victories against the Amorites and against Bashan. And in chapter 22, they're now entering into the land of Moab. And the people there are understandably very nervous about this, this army, this nation that has just wandered into their land. So in chapter 22 of the book of Numbers, we read this in verse 3. So have a look at verse 3.

And Moab was in great dread of the people. because there were many. Moab was overcome with fear of the people of Israel. In response to this, Balak, the king of Moab, decides he needs some supernatural help. So he seeks out a man by the name of Balaam.

That's one way to pronounce it. I've heard many other ways. I've tried to work out which one would be best, but that seems to be a common English pronunciation. But that being said, this man, Balaam, has a reputation as a seer or a prophet who is able to pronounce effective blessings or curses. So this is the king's message to Balaam.

We have it in verse 6. It says, Come now, curse this people from me. Come now, curse this people for me, since they are too mighty for me. Perhaps I shall be able to defeat them and drive them from the land, for I know that he whom you bless is blessed, and he whom you curse is cursed." So with this message comes an offer of money in exchange for cursing Israel.

What's surprising about Balaam is that though he's a very wicked man and doesn't belong to the chosen nation of Israel, he knows the true God. He knows him as Yahweh. He speaks directly with him, as the Israelite prophets would eventually do. The backstory of this relationship between Balaam and the Lord would be fascinating to hear, but we're just not told anything else about it. So it remains an enigma in scripture.

But going back to the story, the money that is offered to Balaam is very tempting. He would quite happily curse Israel and take in his reward. But he also knows that he can only do what the Lord allows him to do. This is what he says in verse 18. You can read it.

But Balaam answered, and he said to the servants of Balak, though Balak were to give me his house full of silver and gold, I could not go beyond the command of the Lord my God to do less or more. So there's this tension between what Balaam wants to do, what his greed drives him to do, and then what he's actually able to do given God's restriction upon him. And this tension plays out in the next chapters. We have an incident with this talking donkey, and then again and again, Balak the king is desperately trying to get Balaam to curse this nation. But despite himself, Balaam is restrained by God, and he ends up blessing Israel instead.

But that's not the end of the story. Balaam doesn't give up. After this, we hear about the incident at Peor, where many of the men of Israel are tempted by Moabite women into immorality and idolatry, bringing about God's judgment upon the people, with results that 24,000 die. We learn later that these women were acting on Balaam's advice. This is from Numbers chapter 31 and verse 16.

Behold, these on Balaam's advice caused the people of Israel to act treacherously against the Lord at the incident of Peor. So the plague came among the congregation of the Lord. So in the end, Balaam did in fact succeed in cursing Israel. He was crafty. He reasoned, I'm sure, that God clearly will not curse these people at my request.

But if they are drawn into sin, they will indeed face God's justice. And so they did. In later biblical reflection on Balaam's sin, these two elements are emphasized. One is his greed, as Jude emphasizes. He says, for the sake of gain, the false brethren abandon themselves to Balaam's error.

Peter emphasizes the very same thing. In chapter 2 of 2 Peter, Peter says about false teachers, forsaking the right way, they have gone astray. They have followed the way of Balaam, the son of Beor, who loved gain from wrongdoing, but was rebuked for his own transgression. A speechless donkey spoke with human voice and restrained the prophet's madness. The second element of Balaam's sin is how he tempts God's people into sin.

We see this element in Revelation in the letters to the seven churches. It says, but I have a few things against you. You have some there who hold to the teaching of Balaam, taught Balak to put a stumbling block before the sons of Israel, so they might eat food sacrificed to idols and practice sexual immorality." To summarize then, we could say that Balaam's error consists first of greed, and then as a consequence of that greed, of tempting the church into sin. And this fits very well with what we know about Jude's false brethren and the concept of false teachers that we have from the rest of the New Testament.

Greed is very frequently associated with false teachers. Peter says, in their greed they will exploit you with false words. And beside verse 11, Jude makes this very clear in other places as well. I've already pointed out in verse 12 where he says that they're shepherds feeding themselves. And if you look down to the end of verse 16 of Jude, we hear that they are showing favoritism to gain advantage.

Because these people hate true Christians, as we've established before, Christ's sheep are not special objects of care as they ought to be, but rather objects to be exploited for their selfish gain. They want to devour the sheep. They don't want to care for the sheep. And yet again, this naturally harms the church in some very serious ways. Those who enter the church with motives of greed do so seeking to exploit the church, to take from the church whatever they can for their own gain.

I'm not sure exactly how these false brethren in Jude's context were seeking gain from the church, but there are a thousand ways to do it. Through false teaching, lies, spiritual manipulation. Sometimes people like this target the tender-hearted and the generous. They want to profit off the gifts and charity of Christians. Paul had to deal with this writing to the Thessalonians.

There were people in the church walking in idleness, presumably living off the generosity of Christians. Paul was outraged. He wrote, if anyone is not willing to work, let him not eat. But there are others who enter the church wanting influence and attention. They want to have the reputation as being knowledgeable or wise.

Perhaps they want to be preachers or pastors because they want some kind of financial compensation. It is good and biblical for a church to support her pastors. Those who are called by God to be regularly laboring in preaching and teaching and overseeing the spiritual health of the congregation deserve to be compensated. Paul says those who proclaim the gospel should get their living by the gospel. This is biblical.

It's a biblical imperative. But this, of course, does pose some risks, because it makes the pastoral office more attractive than it otherwise would be to those who certainly shouldn't have it. You can imagine this being particularly a problem for those wealthier first century churches. Jude says the false brethren are showing favoritism to gain advantage. Well, you can imagine these people showing favoritism to the wealthier members of the church in the hopes of increasing their giving.

And if you're preaching out of greed, that's going to certainly corrupt your message. Faithful biblical teaching is difficult. It's challenging. It's offensive to the flesh. But greed gives rise to the kind of false teaching that will please the flesh, that will draw crowds, the kind of false teaching that perverts God's grace into sensuality, as we hear from Jude earlier in his book.

And this is where we can draw a connection to Balaam's era of tempting God's people into sin. There's a big market for teaching that comforts people in their sin, that says God doesn't really require you to repent. God doesn't care about how you live your life. God just loves you the way you are. That's fine.

And of course, when these kinds of teachings begin to infect a church, It's on a very bad trajectory. So just like the way of Cain, the error of Balaam can greatly harm a church by greedily exploiting a church, tempting the church into sin. Jude is one more comparison to draw, where we're going to see Yet another way that false brethren harm the church. Let's look again at Jude verse 11. It says, So what we need to consider now is the rebellion of Korah.

This again takes place in the wilderness wanderings of Israel. We read the story in Numbers chapter 16, so let's turn there. Korah is a Levite. who with a few others leads a rebellion against the leadership of Moses and Aaron. He gathers a large number of people.

In Numbers chapter 16 and verse 2, it says this. And they rose up before Moses with the number of the people of Israel, 250 chiefs of the congregation chosen from the assembly, well-known men. So this is a significant rebellion. These are prominent leaders in the community who have been incited to rise up against Moses. We hear their complaint in verse 3, again of Numbers 16.

They assembled themselves together against Moses and against Aaron, and he said to them, You have gone too far, for all the congregation are holy, every one of them, and the Lord is among them. Why then do you exalt yourselves above the assembly of the Lord? When Moses heard it, he fell on his face. So this is a significant problem. They're objecting to the idea that Moses and Aaron would occupy these unique spiritual offices.

Aaron as high priest, Moses as a prophet and leader, mediator of the covenant. These are positions of authority, of exclusive and sacred responsibilities and privileges. And this inspires envy in the hearts of Korah and his followers. Isn't the whole congregation holy, they say. Why are you uniquely singled out?

Why should we be excluded from these holy, priestly activities? To my ears, this objection sounds very modern, because we hear about this kind of thing all the time. There's always concern about equality, about democracy. There's always an allergy to hierarchy and authority. No one wants to feel excluded because someone else has a unique role.

Sadly, this is common in the Christian world today. For example, you might have heard about the movement to ordain women as pastors. This ultimately comes from envy. Why should women, they say, be excluded? Why should only men have this privilege?

And even more radical is the movement to reject church offices altogether. This is increasingly widespread. These people say that we shouldn't have pastors or deacons. The idea is that having unique roles in the church would be exalting one man or some man above the rest. Any activity in the church therefore has to be open to everyone who wants to do it.

And they'll speak very similarly to Cora's rebels. They'll say, all the congregation are holy, are they not? Maybe they'll point to the priesthood of all believers, or the idea that we are equal in Christ. But whatever the excuse, it's ultimately the same thing. It's an impulse born out of sinful envy.

Moses responds to Korah's envy by proposing a test. The whole company will take censers of incense and offer it before the Lord. Aaron will also take his censer, and the Lord will show once again whom he has given the priesthood. This is what Moses says, starting in verse 8, again of Numbers 16. And Moses said to Korah, Hear now, you sons of Levi, Is it too small a thing for you that the God of Israel has separated you from the congregation of Israel, to bring you near to himself, to do service in the tabernacle of the Lord, and to stand before the congregation to minister to them?

And that he has brought you near him, and all your brothers, the sons of Levi, with you? And would you seek the priesthood also? Therefore it is against the Lord that you and your company have gathered together. What is Aaron that you grumble against him? So Moses points out that they're already in a very privileged position as Levites in the service of the tabernacle.

And there's an element of ingratitude here. They're refusing to be satisfied with the blessings of God and the vocation that he has called them to. Instead, they're coveting what he's given to others. Secondly, Moses makes clear that when they're rebelling against Aaron and Moses, they're really rebelling against the Lord. Moses and Aaron didn't ordain themselves.

They were equipped, they were called and appointed but to these holy offices by God himself. The author of Hebrews points this out, talking about the office of the high priest. And no one takes this honor upon himself, but only when called by God, but only when called by God, just as Aaron was. So claiming this office for themselves is to reject God's own choice in the matter. And that's a very serious thing to do, and results in serious judgment.

We hear about the outcome of their rebellion, starting in verse 28. Let's hear it. And Moses said, Hereby you shall know that the Lord has sent me to do all these works, and that it has not been of my own accord. If these men die as all men die, or if they are visited by the fate of all mankind, then the Lord has not sent me. But if the Lord creates something new, and the ground opens its mouth and swallows them with all that belongs to them, and they go down alive into Sheol, then you shall know that these men have despised the Lord."

And as soon as he had finished speaking all these words, the ground split. the ground under them split apart, and the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them up with their households and all the people who belonged to Korah and all their goods. So they and all that belonged to them went down alive into Sheol, and the earth closed over them, and they perished from the midst of the assembly. And all Israel who were around them fled at their cry, for they said, lest the earth swallow us up. And the fire came out from the Lord, and consumed the 250 men offering incense.

So God makes it abundantly clear that he would not have anyone usurping the priesthood. That is a matter of divine calling, not of human choice. Of course, bringing us to Jude's context, we recognize that the offices of the church, by which I mean these ordained roles that we have, They're different under the new covenant. We don't have priests standing between us and God offering incense or sacrifice. We have one great high priest who made a perfect sacrifice once for all and is now seated at the right hand of the Father.

On earth, we have been given the office of elder or pastor. We also have the office of deacon. So the situation is different, but I would argue that the same principle applies. These are not offices that you can take upon yourself at your own will. It's first a matter of gifting.

God gives different gifts to different members of the church for different kinds of service. Paul teaches this in a few different places. He emphasizes that all the gifts are important, but they're not the same and they're not interchangeable. Just like how the eye and the ear are different members of the body, they each have different functions, but they're all important. But just like how the ear can't demand to be an eye, none of us have the right to demand of God a different gifting than the one he's given.

Our responsibility is to humbly accept his gifting, grow in that gifting, and then make good use of it, not for ourselves, but for the sake of the church. And it's not just a matter of gifting. When it comes to church offices, their gifting has to be recognized by the church. That's why we have lists of qualifications to help us to recognize those whom God has called and gifted for these specific tasks. And it's the task of the church then to recognize qualified men, call them to ministry, and then appoint or ordain them.

to these offices, authorizing them to carry out their duties under the authority of Christ, exercised through scripture. Socorro's rebellion, when translated into a new covenant context, means rebelling against the authority structure of the church, as ordained by Christ himself. What Jude probably has in mind is that these false brethren are seeking to usurp the pastoral office in order to spread their false doctrine. In Jude verse 8, we hear about how these people reject authority. That probably includes rejecting the authority of rightly ordained pastors in favor of imposing their own authority.

These people have not been gifted or called by God to this role. They have no right to demand that any Christian listen to them or obey them. But they do demand it. And insofar as they do get a hearing, they do terrible harm to the church as false teachers and false pastors. They spread lies.

They lead members of the church into heretical doctrine, rejecting the faith once delivered to the saints. They lead them, then, into soul-destroying sin. And just as Korah led hundreds of Israelites to be swallowed up by the earth and burned up by the fires of God's wrath, these false brethren lead professing Christians straight into the fires of hell. So false brethren harm the church. They walk in the way of Cain, filled with murderous anger and hatred toward those who were supposed to be their dear brothers.

They abandon themselves for the sake of gain to Balaam's error, exploiting in their greed the church, abusing the church for selfish gain. They also perish in Korah's rebellion, leading the church to rebel against their rightfully ordained leaders, and claiming for themselves the authority to teach and shepherd the church. an authority that God had never granted them. Having such people in the context of the church leads to chaos, leads to division, it leads to professing Christians being drawn into the very worst sins and heresies. They damage, I should say, the public witness of the church.

They undermine the way that the church is supposed to make disciples. And through the work of the Holy Spirit in the community, it's supposed to nurture and grow Christians in the faith. We can respond to this in different ways. Do we panic? Do we despair?

Do we put our heads in the sand and ignore the problem? Or do we draw swords and prepare to fight? The reality is there are plenty of deeply unhealthy ways that we can respond to this threat. We can respond in the flesh rather than in the spirit. We can resort to unbiblical means to achieve what we believe to be biblical ends.

So before closing, I just wanted to take a step back and place this situation in its proper context. I want to ask, how do we as a church respond to this threat of harm? Well, we have to consider this question in light of its context of the gospel. Christ promises to the church coming under this category of the gospel, good news. And in that light, we'll have some perspective and hopefully some comfort after these concerning words that we've just heard.

But it's also important in the midst of this comfort that we can get from the gospel that we're also not complacent. So we also need to talk about what our role is in all of this. So I hope you have heard the gospel. This is a good news that is at the very heart of the Christian faith. It's a good news of the coming of the divine son of God, for he's taking on our humanity, for his righteous life and sacrificial death and glorious resurrection, all on the behalf of sinners.

That whosoever believes in him should not perish, as we all deserve, but have everlasting life in him. The gospel needs to inform how we understand the church. The church of Jesus Christ is to be that assembly of those whom he has called out of the world. The church is his own bride for whom he has secured redemption perfectly and infallibly. He promises that whosoever comes to me, I will never cast out.

He will lose none of his sheep. He said, I will build my church, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it. Indeed, this is a prominent theme of the book of Jude itself, where we hear about those who are kept for Jesus Christ, and that God is able to keep us from stumbling. Christ's church is assaulted and assailed, yes, but we have this comfort. Christ will defend and keep the bride for whom he died.

He will certainly and infallibly present her glorious without spot or wrinkle. And there's real deep comfort in that truth. But this being true, does that mean that false brethren can't really harm the church? Did Jude really need to write with such urgency? Have we been concerned for nothing?

Well, Jude obviously didn't think so. He believes firmly on one hand that God will keep his people. And on the other hand, he believes that Christians have an urgent duty to contend for the faith against this threat. So how do these things fit together? First, consider this question.

In what sense is this church secure, and in what sense is she vulnerable? It's important here that we're clear on what we mean by church. We need to distinguish between the visible church and the invisible church. Hopefully some of you have heard this distinction before. The invisible church consists of the whole number of Christ's elect, past, present, and future.

You might also call this the universal church. This is the whole body of genuine believers who are saved by Christ. It's invisible because it concerns spiritual realities that we can't see with the eye. We can't see who is elect and who isn't. We can't see who has been born again or who hasn't.

But it's this universal and invisible church to whom Christ has made all those wonderful promises of preservation and glorification. It's this church whose salvation has been secured forever. But then there's a visible church. This is that worldwide body of all those who outwardly profess the Christian faith. This is the church that we can see and participate in.

It includes each and every local church in which the Christian faith is proclaimed and practiced, of course, with varying degrees of purity. Cornerstone Reformed Baptist Church is just one example of many. The visible church contains the invisible church, but it's not identical to it, because not everyone who professes the faith and belongs to a local congregation truly belongs to Christ, hence the reality of false brethren and the need for Jude's letter. I want to emphasize here that the visible church matters a great deal to the invisible church. It's the context in which Christians hear the word, make disciples, and baptize, grow spiritually, take communion, and worship the Lord together.

Participation in the visible church is the normal way that Christ forms and keeps us. It is vital to our spiritual health. So if we ask, in what sense is the church secure, we can say that every member of the invisible church is secure in their salvation and will, by God's grace, be kept in the faith until the end. But if we ask in what sense is a church vulnerable, we can recognize that security and salvation doesn't mean security from all harms in this life. In God's providence, true Christians can suffer physical injury or death.

Think of Abel. Think of Paul and his sufferings. True Christians can also fall into serious doubt or doctrinal error that hurts their spiritual life. True Christians can fall into serious sin. And in this way, false brethren in the church can do serious harm.

We acknowledge, of course, that these are only temporary harms and that they'll all, in the end, work together for good. But the fact that God will ultimately bring about good from harm doesn't mean it wasn't genuine harm. And of course, if we consider the visible church, the scope of harm from false brethren is even wider. Any local church as a visible entity can be corrupted. It can depart from the faith and you only need to look around and see for yourself.

There are millions of such churches. Churches that deceive large number of unbelievers into thinking that they're Christians and that they're safe in their sin, comforting them straight into the fires of hell. It's a horrifying thought. Real harm, therefore, is possible. Local churches can be overthrown.

Genuine Christians suffer physically and spiritually. Unbelievers are taught lies in the name of Christ. Of course, God is sovereign over all these things. What he has decreed will infallibly come to pass, and his purposes are good. So once again, we should have a great deal of comfort in that.

But I also want to warn against what we could describe as a kind of pagan fatalism that thinks that just because the outcome is predestined, that nothing that we do matters, that we can just sit back and allow things to play out. But that is not the biblical view. To be faithful to scripture, we have to hold together the fact of God's sovereignty with the fact of our responsibility. The sovereignty of God does not erase the significance of our actions or our choices. It actually establishes them.

That is, God doesn't accomplish his will despite what we do or regardless of what we do, but in and through what we do. We are part of his plan. We have a role to play. Our role is not to inquire into God's secret decree or to try to figure out what he's up to. That is not for us to know.

But it is our part to obey what he has revealed. And it's through our obedience and our failures, our successes and our mistakes that God carries out his plan to perfection. So Jude is perfectly consistent when he insists on the responsibility of true Christians to contend for the faith against the harms of false brethren, as well as holding to the security of the church. So this is what God requires of us. It is our moral duty to stand up and fight for the church.

If God has decreed that we as a congregation will stand or fall, that is up to him. If we fall, our contending will be for the glory of God. But if it is in fact his intention that we stand, then our obedience may well be the very means that he has appointed to that end. In either case, our responsibility is to obey and then to trust Him with the outcome. So what does it look like to obey in contending for the faith?

There are lots of practical things we could say, and I've already mentioned many of those in previous sermons. Let's just think very briefly about how we can combat the specific harms that we've discussed today. Consider how the false brethren follow the way of Cain and hate the brethren. There's no better way to counteract the harms of hatred than to love the brethren all the more. The false brethren also were abandoned to Balaam's error, greedily exploiting the church, but we, in our love for the church, should be serving the church, placing the needs of our brethren above our own.

And the false brethren who perish in Cora's rebellion, rebelling against the oversight of godly pastors, who are called and appointed by God, but we should honor our pastor, submit to his guidance as he faithfully applies God's word in watching over our souls. The right response to the harms of false brethren is a spiritual response. It has to be a response of faith. It has to be a response motivated for love for Christ and love for his church. And though we know that we're facing a serious threat, we shouldn't respond in anxiety or panic, but in trust, knowing that God is working all things for the good of his beloved church.

Amen. Let's turn to the Lord. Lord, thank you for your word. Thank you for the wonderful, comforting assurance you give to your church. Thank you for your gracious providence.

But I thank you also, Lord, for your warnings. Thank you for showing us the various ways the church can be harmed and why it is so important that we contend for the faith once delivered to the saints. Lord, defend your church. Protect us and strengthen us. Indeed, strengthen Cornerstone.

Deliver this small congregation, Lord, from the harms of hatred, of greed, and of rebellion. Grant us, Lord, the grace to respond to all these things with wisdom, with biblical discernment, with true faith. In the name of our dear Lord Jesus, I pray. Amen.