Wild Waves Of The Sea Casting Up Their Own Shame – Jude 1:13 Series

WILD WAVES OF THE SEA CASTING UP THEIR OWN SHAME – Jude 1:13

Jude has been decrying false teachers and using quite stunning metaphors to describe them. In previous messages we did these and saw that each one paralleled what Peter also wrote, for he too, addressed those bring havoc into the churches. These are the tares Jesus promised would enter the Church after the gospel was preached.

WILD WAVES - INTRODUCTION

Jude 1:13 “wild waves of the sea casting up their own shame like foam; wandering stars for whom the black darkness has been reserved forever.”

Just think of this for a moment. It is tempestuous, wild weather with high waves caused by gales and storms. These waves grow in strength and stir up the bottom of the sea and shore and throw themselves forward. They throw up on the beach muck from the sea floor, maybe carcasses of sea animals or old bones from some prior marine disaster along with sea bed mud. Jude would consider this as shameful objects exposed by the sea and thrown up to public view.

In fact, Jude probably draws heavily from Isaiah 57 v 20, which in the NASB, is

{{“But the wicked are like the tossing sea, for it cannot be quiet, and its waters toss up refuse and mud (“mire and mud” in some versions).}} The expression “wild waves” (NASB) is a???a (agria) in Greek. (Heard of agro?). Angry. It is also translated “raging”. These are wild, untamed waves. The waves are agro!

This is the fourth description of false teachers Jude gives in the list with one more to come. Do you recall the previous three? They were hidden reefs, clouds without water, and uprooted trees with dead, Autumn leaves and withered fruit. He calls the false ones wild waves. What do wild waves imply? They imply a force out of control, self willed and wayward, charging ever forward with energy and fury. They are dangerous and destroy men’s lives, and the false teachers do just that, but the results are more devastating than nature’s waves, for these men gather others for hell. That is serious language but it has its base in this verse spoken by the Lord – {{Matthew 23 v 15 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, because you travel about on sea and land to make one proselyte and when he becomes one, you make him twice as much a son of hell as yourselves.”}}

HELL AND ITS REALITY

Make no mistake about hell. Preaching on hell is uncommon these days, and liberalism has dispelled the notion of hell. It is an awful place, spoken on more in the New Testament than heaven is. The Lord often spoke about hell. Have you ever wondered why? Some might say He did that as a warning to His listeners, but often his listeners were those opposed to God such as the Pharisees who would not heed the warning anyway. I think the reason He spoke on hell was more connected with His own personal mission. He came to destroy him who had the power of death and hell. Satan was defeated at the cross. O, grave (hell, hades) where is your victory? O death, where is your sting? The grave has no victory and death has no hurt. The Lord knew what His mission was and the removal of the penalty of sin meant destroying the power of hell itself. Of course, the power of hell has gone for the Christian, but not for the unbeliever.

Why did God establish hell? It is said it was done as the final abode of the demons (Satan and the fallen angels) and men were never meant to go there. The question is asked, “Why do good people go to hell?” Well, apart from the fact that no one is good by the standards of God, people in hell won’t feel sorry for their sin or feel regret; maybe there will be regret. When people in hell are faced with the eternal reality of sin and judgement what do they do? In the face of God’s judgement, what do they do? They won’t and can’t repent. The answer is in {{Revelation 16 v 11 “and they blasphemed the God of heaven because of their pains and their sores, and they did not repent of their deeds.”}} I heard a preacher say that people in hell hate God more there, than they ever did on earth. Hell, though, is only temporary, because we read these most solemn words at the time of the great white throne – {{Revelation 20 v 14 “and death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire.”}} The first death is hell; the second death is the lake of fire.