How do false brethren creep..

So let's now turn to the Epistle of Jude. As usual, we'll be reading the whole book and from the English Standard Version. So please pay particular attention to verses 12 and 13. This is the letter of Saint Jude. Jude, a 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 a 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 is 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 to file 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.

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. This is now our text. 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. It 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. 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, 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 for all time, now and forever.

Amen. So I want to consider the question, how do false brethren creep into the church unnoticed? Because as I said, given everything that we know about them, it seems like they should be rather obvious. These are not believers. They're not repentant.

They deny Christ. They indulge in sin and teach false doctrine that radically departs from the faith once for all delivered. to the Saints. But somehow they have entered the church, and they've been accepted as part of the church. As our text says, they feast with you without fear.

So they're right there in the midst of the church, comfortably participating in the activities of the church. Yet they've done all this, apparently unnoticed and undetected. How is this possible? Well, in verses 12 and 13 of Jude, I think we're going to get some insight into this. In these verses, Jude gives us several illustrations, which is something that he really likes to do.

He rarely just tells us what he means directly. He prefers to give us pictures and metaphors and comparisons. That's how he can say so much with so few words. So in our text today, he's going to pile on the metaphors all around a common theme. He says these people are hidden reefs, shepherds feeding themselves, waterless clouds, fruitless trees, wild waves, and wandering stars.

Most of these metaphors, the idea is pretty clear. They're something that outwardly looks good, something that looks promising or helpful or safe, but in reality is empty or useless, even actively dangerous. Jude's main theme in these two verses then is the deceptiveness of appearances. Judah's reminding us that looks can be deceiving. He's telling us something very similar to what our Lord says in Matthew chapter 7.

Beware of false prophets who come to you in sheep's clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves. It's this deceptive false appearance that allows these people to enter the church unnoticed. This is why I've been calling these people false brethren. They claim to be brethren. On the surface, they look like brethren.

But the reality is that they're not. They are wolves dressed as sheep. They are unbelievers masquerading as Christians. So in answering the question, how do false brethren creep into the church, I want to address a few things. We first want to explore the sheep's clothing that these wolves are wearing.

That is, we'll look at the metaphors that Jude is using to illustrate that positive appearance that these false brethren present to the church. Next, we'll look at the underlying reality, that hungry wolf that's hidden under a false appearance. We'll look at the illustrations that Jude uses to show their fruitlessness, how under the appearance of something useful and beneficial, the reality is worthless. We'll also see other illustrations that show that under the appearance of safety, what we have in reality is something destructive and dangerous. Finally, we'll think practically and ask this question.

How is it that we can look beyond this false appearance and avoid being deceived? How does scripture teach us to deal with the reality that very often people are not who they appear to be? And how can we do this with a Christian spirit of love and charity? So I want to start by considering that wholesome and respectable exterior that the false brethren present to the church in order to sneak in unnoticed. Let's read our text again.

Just verses 12 and 13. This is what it says. wandering stars for whom the gloom of utter darkness has been reserved forever. So what I want to do is to just walk through each of these metaphors and explore these pictures that Jude's painting gives us pictures of hidden reefs, shepherds, clouds, trees, waves, and stars. He first talks about hidden reefs at your love feasts.

Other translations say dangerous rocks. The idea is a ledge or reef of rock that you can find in the ocean. So Jude's saying these people are like rocks in the sea. And the thing about these rocks is that they're very hard to spot from the surface. They might be jutting out just a little bit or lurking just below the surface.

You might be sailing along, keeping a lookout, and everything ahead of you looks great. It's clear. It's safe. And you could be entirely unaware of the hidden danger. Jude then adds some context to this.

He says, these are hidden reefs at your love feasts. So these love feasts are where we're going to encounter this hidden danger. This is where we might be lulled into a false sense of security and run the ship of our faith aground. on these dangerous reefs. We should briefly discuss these love feasts because we don't find this term anywhere else in scripture.

This is unique to Jude, although we do have several descriptions of believers taking meals with each other elsewhere. The idea seems to be a kind of church fellowship meal and possibly included or was somehow connected to the celebration of the Lord's table. The church father, Tertullian, wrote about love feasts in the early church. He lived in the second and third centuries, so this is some time after Jude, but his writings at least reflect how this tradition grew and developed into the early church. Tertullian, writing to non-believers trying to justify the Christian church, emphasized how the love feasts were intended to benefit the needy.

that they were supposed to be modest. They avoided gluttony and drunkenness. The feasts also apparently involved prayer and the singing of hymns. They were focused on worship, on honoring the Lord. I imagine it was probably pretty similar back in Jude's day as well.

So we have this wonderful meal that was supposed to be focused on worship and fellowship, supposed to be an expression of Christian love and unity. Sounds like smooth sailing. What could be safer? But according to Jude, appearances can be deceptive. Just below the appearance of clear waters, there lies a hidden reef.

Of course, this is not Jude's only description of deceptive appearances. The next picture he gives us is of shepherds feeding themselves. The literal translation would be shepherding themselves. A shepherd ought to be a comforting picture. Shepherds are supposed to feed the sheep, to protect the sheep, to care for the sheep.

And of course, this is an image that has a lot of biblical significance. Shepherd imagery is often used in the Old Testament to depict God's fatherly care for his people. We have Psalm 23, of course. The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. In Isaiah chapter 40, we read this, speaking of the Lord.

He will tend his flock like a shepherd. He will gather the lambs in his arms. He will carry them in his bosom and gently lead those that are with young. It's a beautiful picture of the Lord's tender love and care for his people. Ezekiel also makes use of this imagery.

He says this in chapter 34. For thus says the Lord God, behold, I myself will search for the sheep and I will seek them out as a shepherd seeks out his flock when he is among his sheep that are scattered. So will I seek out my sheep. I will rescue them from all the places where they have been scattered. In the same chapter, there's a prophecy of the Messiah, who is going to be the shepherd to God's people.

It says, and I will set up over them one shepherd, my servant, David, and he shall feed them. He shall feed them and be their shepherd. Of course, we know that this refers to the Lord Jesus. He speaks of himself in exactly these terms. I am the good shepherd.

The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. And actually, this resolves a little bit of confusion that we might have had just by reading that passage in Ezekiel. Will it be God who's the one to personally shepherd his people, Israel? Or will it be this human king who was prophesied, seated on the throne of David? Well, with Jesus, we know it's not one or the other.

It's both. Jesus is the Lord God, Israel's true and only shepherd. At the same time, he's a man. descended from David, appointed by the Father to shepherd his people. He's one shepherd, shepherding as both God and man, according to both natures.

It's a beautiful picture of the ministry of Christ and his care for his church. On top of all of that, shepherd also then becomes a name given to the leaders of the church. After his resurrection, Peter is dressed by Christ. Christ says, tend my sheep, or literally, shepherd my sheep. Of course, Peter's role was unique as an apostle.

But the elders or overseers of the church are also sometimes called shepherd. In English, we tend to use the word pastor for elders, but this is just the Latin word for shepherd. So I hope you can see that this is a very weighty term for Jude to use. These people look outwardly like shepherds. They look like people who would care for you and protect you.

They look like pastors. They look Maybe even a little like Christ himself, but they're not. And we'll explore that later. So these people look outwardly like safe waters and caring shepherds. They also look like clouds.

Jude calls them waterless clouds, swept along by winds. They look like rain clouds. You see them and you expect rain. We often think negatively about clouds. Rain is a bit of an inconvenience to us.

Clouds are gloomy. We prefer the sunshine. We all know how important the rain is. When Jesus says that God sends rain on the just and on the unjust, he's talking about how God and his providence blesses everyone. the evil and the good.

So rain is a blessing, something that we're completely dependent on, on God to supply for us in his grace. So when Jude says, these people are like clouds, you should be thinking of something you would be happy to see. What a relief. We're going to get rain. The crops will grow.

There won't be famine. We'll have water for drinking and cleaning and everything else. And that's Jude's picture of these false brethren. They look so promising. They look like they're going to be a blessing to the church.

But sadly, the reality is very different. It's a similar situation with the next image. He talks about fruit trees. Fruitless trees in late autumn, twice dead, uprooted. If you have fruit trees in late autumn, you expect to find fruit ready for harvest.

So yet again, we have a situation like the hidden rocks, the shepherds, the clouds, that appearances are so promising. It looks good. You expect a good outcome that doesn't ultimately match the reality. The fruit imagery Jude uses also has a lot of biblical significance, a lot of biblical connections. You can think, for example, of the parable of the sower.

Seed of the gospel is sown, the lands are different soils, but only the seed that falls on good soils bears fruit, produces grain. Jesus also talks about how a tree is known by its fruit. A good tree produces good fruit. Bad trees, bad fruit. We often hear about the image of a vineyard.

Isaiah compares the nation of Israel to a vineyard that was planted and tended by the Lord. But the fruit is wrong. It yields only wild grapes. So it's destroyed in an act of judgment. Jesus then picks up this vine imagery in the Gospels.

He is the vine, he tells us in John's Gospel. Those who abide in him, those are the ones that bear much fruit. But any branch that doesn't bear fruit is thrown away and burned. We should also remember the incident of the fig tree. Jesus sees a fig tree, has leaves, a sign that it should have figs.

But it was a false sign. There were no figs. So he curses the tree. It withers. So Jude is drawing on powerful biblical imagery when he compares the false brethren to fruitless trees.

We expect, in late autumn, to find fruit. But what is the reality? What do we find? And what will it tell us about the nature of the tree? I want to look at one last example from this verse.

We're going to skip over the wild waves because that's not quite an example of deceptive appearance. We'll look at it a little bit later. But we'll finally look at the wandering stars. I like stars. Many of you know that I'm a bit of an amateur astronomer.

Stars are wonderful. They give light in the darkness of the night sky. They mark the passing of seasons. They're also a vital tool for navigation, especially in the ancient world. Can't be sure, but I rather suspect that's what Jude is alluding to.

In the Northern Hemisphere, they have a star called Polaris, the North Star. I always point you due north. It's not quite so easy in the Southern Hemisphere here, but we have constellations down here that will help you find south. From the stars, you can calculate your position on the globe. The angle of Polaris will tell you your latitude.

As you go further south, new constellations appear. Polaris gets gradually lower and lower in the northern hemisphere until it finally dips below the horizon and you see an entirely new celestial pole. So stars are useful for navigation. Ancient sailors knew perfectly well that they could rely on stars for navigating in the open sea. So by talking about stars, you're just telling us of something bright and reliable, something trustworthy for navigation that'll show you where you need to go like a compass.

But what happens when you have a wandering star, a star that doesn't stay where it's supposed to be? In that case, you're very likely to be misled. So how is it that false brethren can creep into the church unnoticed? How do wolves sneak in among the sheep, although wearing sheep's clothing? What we've seen so far is that these people look good from the outside.

They seem safe, like the open ocean with no rocky reef in sight. They seem helpful, like gentle shepherds ready to feed the flock. They look promising, like rain clouds or fruit trees ready for harvest. They seem steady, dependable, like bright stars we can rely on for navigation. Translated to human terms, these are your model church members.

They can give you a good testimony. Maybe they attend diligently. They might know their Bibles really well. They can answer tough questions. Maybe they're really gifted and show themselves eager to serve in the church.

How easy would it be to accept these people, welcome them in, and perhaps pretty soon give them positions of responsibility? Everything seems so good. The sheep costume looks so real. And what's more, we want to believe it. We want it to be real.

This is important to emphasize. It's very easy to be deceived like this. You don't have to be particularly blind. You don't have to have any special lack of discernment. Given what we've heard about the evils of these false brethren, it would be pretty easy to assume that the churches or church that Jude's writing to are just particularly stupid.

But that's actually not the case. There's no hint of that in this letter. Yes, they clearly needed a wake-up call, and that's what Jude's doing. He's writing to warn them. Look deeper.

Look beyond that coat of wool. Look who's crept in among you. Those are not sheep. But it's understandable that they thought otherwise. They just welcomed people who looked like fellow Christians.

So don't think it can't be us who need Jude's warning, too. Don't think that you're too wise or too discerning. Don't think you or I wouldn't fall for that disguise, because we could. We easily could. And let's keep that in mind as we now then move on and look beneath the disguise.

So in verses 12 and 13, Jude's illustrations not only tell us about the nice outward appearance of these false brethren, he's also very clear about the horrifying reality that lurks beneath. So now we need to take a look at that ravenous wolf that's hidden below these sheep's clothes. What we'll notice, looking at Jude's illustrations, is that he brings out two different aspects to the reality of these false brethren. One of these aspects is false promise. That is, while these people look like they'll be good and helpful, they don't deliver.

They turn out to be worthless and empty. The other aspect is that they not only fail to be what they promise, which would be bad enough, but also that they're actively dangerous, which is even worse. So we'll look first at the idea of failed or unfulfilled promise. And I think this is clearest in the waterless clouds and the fruitless trees. Let's take a closer look.

Jude writes, waterless clouds swept along by winds. I said before that clouds hold the promise of precious life-sustaining rain. These are waterless clouds. They're useless. They can't help anyone.

They're just swept away in the wind and leave the ground barren and dry. The idea of being swept along by the winds is interesting because it suggests the temporary nature of the appearance. It's as though you looked up, see the clouds, thought of rain, but before you know it, the clouds are gone. What this suggests or points to is the temporary nature of the false brethren's profession of faith. They're unstable, promising appearance of faith and commitment to the church won't necessarily last.

These are the kinds of people who are led astray by diverse and strange teachings, as it says in Hebrews, and are tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, as Paul writes to the Ephesians. These are the kinds of people who will eventually go out from us because they were never truly of us. When we turn to the fruitless trees, we see another example of failed promise. Jude says that they're fruitless trees in late autumn, twice dead, uprooted. Trees that should be laden with mature fruit, ready for harvest, are in reality bare.

They're fruitless. And the reason they're fruitless is that they're dead. There's no life in these trees, meaning they have no ability to bear fruit. To emphasize the point, Jude tells us that they're not just dead, but twice dead, meaning they're really dead. You might have seen trees that look rather dead, they might have lost all their leaves, they might have been cut down to the stump, and yet somehow they can spring to life again.

Well, that's not happening with these trees. They're twice dead. They're uprooted. They're very, extremely, definitely dead. And this ties in nicely with Jesus's illustration of himself as the vine.

Let's turn to John's gospel and read a little bit of this because it'll help us flesh out Jude's illustration. It's in chapter 15. Here he's gonna tell us the only way that anyone can ever bear spiritual fruit. I'm gonna read from the beginning of the chapter. John chapter 15.

It says this. This is the Lord Jesus speaking. I am the true vine, and my father is the vinedresser. Every branch in me that does not bear fruit, he takes away. Every branch that does bear fruit, he prunes, that it may bear more fruit.

Already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you. Abide in me and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me. I am the vine, you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, it is that bears much fruit.

For apart from me, you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in me, he is thrown away like a branch and withers, and the branches are gathered and thrown into the fire and burned. So here's the problem. The false brethren are dead and withered. They cannot bear fruit because they're disconnected from the vine.

The only source of genuine spiritual life is Christ himself. If you are to bear fruit, you must abide in him. This refers, of course, to union with Christ. We've spoken about this many times here at Cornerstone because union with Christ is at the very heart of how our salvation works. All of the spiritual blessings that we have as believers, we have in Christ.

Our union with Christ is the reason that God can regard his death as our death, as payment for our sins. Our union with Christ is how God can regard his righteousness as our own righteousness and declare us just and accepted on the ground of Christ alone. Our union with Christ is how we're made and we're kept spiritually alive. He is the source of our spiritual life. He is the ground of our justification and our sanctification.

It is because we are in him that we are made like him. We grow in faith and love and all the fruit of the spirit. But apart from Christ, there's only death. A branch cannot bear fruit by itself. The best you can get is a false appearance, a lying facade.

So Jude's illustration of the dead trees and the waterless clouds shows us that there's no substance to the wonderful, promising appearance of these false brethren. It was all an illusion. But as I said before, Jude's other illustrations will go even further, show us that behind the illusion is hidden danger. Let's look at the beginning of verse 12 again. These are hidden reefs at your love feasts, as they feast with you without fear.

We've spoken about the appearance of clear, open water. All looks good from the surface, but what we find hidden below the surface is a reef, a ridge of rock that you can wreck your ship on. Hidden reef is a terrible hazard, and Judah's telling us these hazards are right there in the very midst of the church at our love feasts. When you least expect to encounter a hazard, there it is, hidden just below the surface. In 1 Timothy, Paul writes about those who make shipwreck of their faith, and that's the danger here.

If you heed the teachings and follow the practices of these false brethren, you are in grave spiritual peril. Then we have the shepherds feeding themselves. We've seen how shepherds are a very positive image in scripture. But here Jude seems to be alluding to a passage in Ezekiel that talks about corrupt shepherds. So let's have a look at that.

Let's turn to Ezekiel chapter 34. Here Ezekiel is going to be prophesying against those he calls the shepherds of Israel. These are the leaders, the priests of the nation, and I want to read just the first 10 verses here in Ezekiel chapter 34. I think you'll see the connection to our passage. This is what it says.

The word of the Lord came to me. Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel. Prophesy and say to them, even to the shepherds, thus says the Lord God. Ah, shepherds of Israel, you have been feeding yourselves Should not shepherds feed the sheep? You eat the fat, you clothe yourselves with the wool, you slaughter the fat ones, but you do not feed the sheep.

The weak you have not strengthened, the sick you have not healed, the injured you have not bound up, the strayed you have not brought back, the lost you have not sought, and with force and harshness you have ruled them. So they were scattered, because there was no shepherd, and they became food for all the wild beasts. My sheep were scattered. They wandered over all the mountains and on every high hill. My sheep were scattered over all the face of the earth, with none to search or seek for them.

Therefore, you shepherds, hear the word of the Lord. As I live, declares the Lord God, surely because my sheep have become a prey and my sheep have become food for all the wild beasts, since there was no shepherd, and because my shepherds have not searched for my sheep, but the shepherds have fed themselves and have not fed my sheep. Therefore, you shepherds, hear the word of the Lord. Thus says the Lord God. Behold, I am against the shepherds.

I'll require my sheep at their hand and put a stop to their feeding the sheep. No longer shall the shepherds feed themselves. I will rescue my sheep from their mouths, but they may not be food for them. Notice the terrifying image at the end. It's not just that the shepherds are failing to feed the sheep, it's that they're feeding on the sheep.

They're eating the sheep, which is representative of how the rulers of ancient Israel were exploiting and abusing the people for their own gain. And that's exactly what the false brethren in the church are doing as well. We discussed this last time where we saw how the false brethren abandon themselves for the sake of gain to Balaam's error. They're greedy. They seek gain at the expense of the church.

We have two more illustrations to look at briefly. Waves of the sea and wandering stars. These continue to illustrate the idea of the danger that these false brethren pose. He writes in verse 13, wild waves of the sea, casting up the foam of their own shame. Wild waves, of course, are another hazard faced by ships at sea.

To call people wild waves suggests an unstable, dangerous behavior. These people are sinful and unpredictable. Jude associates this with shame, because their behavior is shameful. It has shameful results, like nasty sea foam being cast up by the waves. A reminder of what Paul says to the Philippians, describing false teachers as those who glory in their shame.

This is what these people are doing, as they cast up their shame in their reckless behavior. Finally, I want to return to the stars. Earlier, I spoke about how sailors might use stars for navigation. They're trustworthy, dependable, unless, of course, they're wandering stars. The Greek word for wandering is planetai, from which we get our English word planet.

Ancient astronomers noticed that some of the stars, indeed some of the brightest stars, behaved rather strangely. These stars seemed to wander through the heavens against the backdrop of the fixed stars, the stars that behave themselves. These planets were quite a mystery to the ancient world, but we know today that they were observing the results of the orbits of the planets. But this means that the planets are pretty useless, I should say, for navigation. If you assume that they were going to stay in the same place, you'll be led astray.

You would go the wrong way, just like if you were to follow these false teachers in the church. As an added warning, Jude reminds us of their fate, wandering stars for whom the gloom of utter darkness has been reserved forever. It's ironic that these bright heavenly lights would be doomed to eternal gloom. Remember that the planets are some of the brightest stars in the sky, but their light is a deceptive light, and so utter darkness is the fate that they deserve. That's the fate of the false brethren in the church, those wolves in sheep's clothing.

They seemed so bright, they seemed blessed and gifted, but judgment awaits them. So having unpacked these examples, let's return to our question. How is it that false brethren are able to creep into the church unnoticed? Well, Jude's shown us by way of these illustrations that the appearances don't always match the reality. False brethren are compared to things that appear good and promising and safe, like clear waters, shepherds, rain clouds, fruit trees, and stars.

They appeared like brethren, like true believers in the Lord who would be a blessing to the church. But the reality was that underneath this promising appearance, there was no substance, only danger. There was no rain. There were waterless clouds. There was no fruit.

These people, like uprooted trees, were spiritually dead. These shepherds weren't feeding the sheep. They were eating the sheep, abusing the church for personal gain. What appeared to be clear waters hid a dangerous reef of false doctrine ready to wreck the ship of your faith. And if you were to navigate by these wandering stars, you'll be sent far off course.

So what do we take away from all of this? The point, I think, is very simple. It's something that I think we already all know very well. Appearances can be deceptive. We can't judge a book by its cover.

It's not just a reality in the church, but everywhere we go. Think of relationships that look so good to start with only to go off the rails terribly down the track. Think of an investment opportunity that looks so good but ends up losing you money. Think of how claims that you read on the internet or in news media, they seem so plausible when you first hear it and you only learn later that they were complete fabrications. We all know that what we see is often not what we get.

But how often have we been deceived, nonetheless? All of us have probably been burned, we've been lied to many times. Because here's the challenge. If we can't judge by appearances, what can we judge by? Isn't that all we can do?

When it comes to people, we can't see the heart. So is it just inevitable that we're going to be deceived? Well, I want to make a few observations from the scriptures that I hope will prove somewhat helpful. particularly with respect to dealing with false brethren in the church. I want to argue that yes, while we can't overcome our natural limitations as human beings, and that yes, we do have to rely on our observations, we can be a lot more careful in how we do that.

So that rather than being distracted by superficial or surface level appearances, we can look deeper. I want to first turn to the teaching of our Lord in Matthew chapter seven. I keep alluding to this idea of wolves in sheep's clothing, so I think it's time that we read the whole passage. Matthew chapter seven tells us about false prophets. And Jesus explains to us how we can recognize them.

So let's read Matthew chapter seven and start with verse 15. This is the word of the Lord. Beware of false prophets who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly ravenous wolves. You will recognize them by their fruits, grapes gathered from thorn brushes, or figs from thistles, so every healthy tree bears good fruit, but the diseased tree bears bad fruit. A healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a diseased tree bear good fruit.

Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Thus you will recognize them by their fruits. So Jesus begins with a metaphor very much along the same lines that we've been hearing from Jude today. False prophets are like wolves who want to sneak into the sheepfold to eat the sheep. They're able to enter in unnoticed because they look like sheep.

They're wearing sheep's clothes. Jesus and Jude are both telling us that there's something evil and dangerous hidden behind a false appearance. But Jesus will then switch metaphors. Now he's going to be dealing with trees rather than wolves. This is another bit of imagery that we've already heard a bit about.

His point is that we can recognize a tree by its fruit, and that's brilliant. The inner nature of a tree determines what fruit it can produce. Maybe from the outside, just looking at the tree itself, the leaves and the trunk, maybe that's ambiguous. Maybe we won't recognize what it's going to do. But grapes only come from grapevines.

Figs only come from fig trees. So these are outward signs, visible signs that tell us something of the inner reality. So it's true that we can't look to the heart, but we can see what is produced by the heart. Jesus is asking us to look beyond surface level appearances. Those can't be trusted.

We need to look deeper. If someone claims to be a Christian, well and good, But are they producing Christian fruit, the kind that only comes from abiding in Christ? One fruit of Christian belief is, of course, profession of faith. You confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord. But as James points out in his epistle, it's not enough just to say the right things.

If faith is not accompanied by good works, it's a dead faith. He says, I will show you my faith by my works. As the saying goes, faith alone saves, but saving faith is never alone. The same grace that grants us saving faith unites us to Christ and continues to operate in our lives. Saving faith, produces true repentance, not just outward repentance, but inward turning from sin to Christ.

John the Baptist, addressing the Pharisees and the Sadducees, tells them, bear fruit in keeping with repentance. Fruit of real repentance is a changed life. This is the work of the Holy Spirit, who cannot fail to produce good fruit. In Galatians, the Apostle Paul contrasts the work of the flesh with the fruit of the Spirit. Famous text, this is what it says.

Now the works of the flesh are evident. Sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such things there is no law.

Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. So if we want to recognize false brethren, we need to look at their fruit. Judah's writing to churches that seem to have been way too easily satisfied with the superficial appearance of religiosity failed to look deeper at these people's lives. That's why he's been telling us about how these people are utterly given over to their sins, about how they're condemned by God. He's reminding his audience to take a closer look at the fruit.

And we can see that if the fruit is bad, the tree must therefore be bad. Of course, this is much easier said than done. In practice, a lot of biblical wisdom and discernment is going to be required. One way we could do this badly would be to treat each other with suspicion. If someone, perhaps a new visitor, tells us, yes, I'm a Christian, I love the Lord, we shouldn't respond with doubt.

We shouldn't say, oh, I won't believe you until you prove it. That would be terrible. We can't start with a presumption that everyone is insincere. That would be unjust. Nor should we be suspiciously scrutinizing each other's lives, trying to spot some sign that someone's an imposter.

That would be a terrible violation of Christian love. Paul says, love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Our hearts need to be ready to forgive, to overlook offenses, to bear with each other in our shortcomings and our sins. We can't be jumping to conclusions about people, assuming the worst. We can't jump straight to removing someone from the church just because they're struggling with some specific sin.

But as we've been emphasising today, we also can't be naive and blind ourselves to real problems, because Paul also says that love does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. So in our love, we can't minimize sin. We can't deny reality. That would, in fact, be the unloving thing to do. The way that we can balance these things is to be motivated by a real biblical love that cares deeply for the spiritual condition of those in the church.

If we care for people, we ought to care first and foremost for their souls, their eternal destinies. We ought to care whether people are savingly united to Christ. This is the motivation that Jude himself calls us to have. Let's look down to verses 22 and 23 in Jude. I've had occasion to reference this passage before because I think it's crucial to provide proper context to what Jude's been saying.

Let's read it, 22 and 23 of Jude. He says this, If we were to be motivated by anything else, we're likely to be unbalanced. It's what Jude is correcting against with these words. Say we heard Jude's warnings and out of a sense of fear and panic, we became desperate to root out false brethren from the church. In that case, we're very likely to become overzealous.

We'll become suspicious rather than welcoming. We might condemn viciously where what was needed was gentle correction. We could drive away real brethren who are simply weak and immature in the faith. In short, we could do a lot of spiritual harm by failing to show mercy. But if what we cared about most was the salvation of souls, our approach should be very different.

We'll get to know each other. We'll be attentive to each other's spiritual condition, not because we're testing each other, but because we care about each other, because we want to edify and encourage each other in the faith. With this kind of church culture, it's going to be very difficult for false brethren to remain hidden for very long, because we'll notice bad fruit, and we're going to be concerned. Remember, these people are engaged in false teaching, unrepentant sin. These are very bad fruit, signify a very bad tree.

They tell us that there's a wolf hidden there in sheep's clothing, no matter how lifelike the wolf appears to be. And if we were truly concerned for souls, we're not going to just pass that by. We'll first be concerned for the individual who's showing signs that he or she might not be saved, is on the path to hell. We'll also be concerned, secondarily but more importantly, for the rest of the church. The influence and harm that these people could have would greatly harm the rest of the congregation.

For the individual, false brother or false sister, there'll need to be loving correction. We'll have to apply the gospel to that situation. If there's repentance, then wonderful, we've gained that brother or sister. The Holy Spirit can absolutely use those uncomfortable moments to draw back a wandering brother or even bring about true conversion in someone who had been a false convert. But if there is resistance, if there is stubbornness in their sin, the matter naturally has to escalate according to the biblical pattern, leading ultimately to excommunication, which is to say public removal from the church and treating that individual as an unbeliever.

If someone is an unbeliever, this is what they need to hear. The motivation has to be the care for that person's soul. It would be a great barrier to their true conversion to Christ if they remained convinced that they were true Christians. We do them no favors at all if we help them maintain their delusion, coddling them straight into hellfire. Excommunication can be the crucial wake-up call that someone needs.

Even if it does them no good in the end, if they remain stubborn and refuse to repent and join the church, then we'll at least have done our duty in warning them. The other concern I mentioned was concern for the spiritual health of the rest of the church. This is another reason why excommunication is often the only loving thing to do. These are Christ's precious sheep who can be misled, tempted into sin, exploited or otherwise harmed by the presence of wolves in the church. If we care for them, we need to be able to deal with the wolves.

We can't sit by and watch as the wolves devour the sheep. Far too often, churches are soft on wolves at the expense of sheep. I'm sure many of us have seen this before. There are so many church leaders who are quite happy to sacrifice a few of Christ's lambs as long as it keeps the wolves in the pews. Because, of course, they don't want to appear judgmental.

They don't want to be unloving. And Jesus ate with sinners, after all. You might have heard that excuse. But it's despicable. Empathy is shown to perpetrators while the victims are cast aside.

And that ought to simply never be the case in Christ's church. Real biblical love for both the wolves and the sheep leads to the same result. The wolves need to be driven away. We've covered a lot today, but I hope you've been able to follow what was a relatively straightforward point. Judah's been reminding us that it's so easy to be deceived by false appearances.

And this is how false brethren creep in unnoticed. They look like Christians. They seem so promising, they seem so good, but the reality is the polar opposite. They not only fail to be what their appearance suggests, but they actually pose a significant threat, like wolves in sheep's clothing. Jude wants to put us on our guard.

That we would be aware not to trust to surface-level appearances, but instead look deeper. We consider Jesus' teaching about how false brethren, or false prophets in his case, will be known by their fruits. What someone truly is will be reflected by how they live their lives. If we're patient, we pay attention, we'll be able to look past the deceptive exterior, and identify false brethren for who they really are. My final point was just how we ought to approach this.

We shouldn't be scrutinizing each other's fruit with a suspiciously critical eye. We're not fault-finding or heresy-hunting just to be mean. Rather, Jude calls us to mercy, to have a loving concern for each other's souls. When we care about each other, we'll naturally be attentive to each other's spiritual conditions, and we'll naturally notice if there's a pattern of bad fruit. We can then address that biblically, with the aim of good for both the wolf and the sheep.

Brethren, this is very difficult. To put in practice, what I've just described is no easy feat. I know I'm no good at it, because far too often I want to choose the easy path over the loving path. But if we want to honor the Lord, and if we want Cornerstone Reformed Baptist Church to be a community where faith can thrive and Christ's sheep are fed, then we have to choose that difficult path of love, that is real love, tough love, that values eternal things over temporary peace and comfort. For that, we're going to need a lot of grace and wisdom from above.

The wonderful thing, though, is that Jesus offers these things to us freely. So let's pray. Lord, you have promised wisdom to those who ask for it in faith. And Lord, we do need that wisdom today and every day. That wisdom that is found only in Christ, in whom you have hidden all treasures of wisdom and knowledge.

Grant us, Lord, a right heart, a right spirit for dealing with matters that arise in the church, whether from false brethren or from true brethren who are merely strayed and deceived by false doctrine. Lord, grant us hearts to show mercy with fear, hating even the garments stained by the flesh. Grant us grace to snatch sinners out of the fire with your gospel. May we care about each other enough not to be content with superficial appearances, But may we be attentive to real spiritual fruit. Indeed, Lord, let us hate all sin and love righteousness.

Let us not choose peace over truth. Let us never sacrifice your sheep for the sake of wolves. Grant us true discernment. Grant us to judge with righteous judgment according to your word. Lord, protect Cornerstone for the sake of your sheep.

In Jesus' name, amen.