AUTUMN TREES WITHOUT FRUIT – DOUBLY DEAD AND UPROOTED Jude 1:12
What was the title of the last message? And how did Jude describe the false teachers in the one before that? Remember, what the false teachers represent, but then the Christians must be the opposite. (This is part of understanding).
Jude 1:12 “These men are those who are hidden reefs in your love feasts when they feast with you without fear, caring for themselves; clouds without water carried along by winds; autumn trees without fruit, doubly dead, uprooted;”
We continue the descriptions Jude is using to reveal these dangerous men doing the devil’s work. These evil teachers have been in the church since the earliest days. What changes, are the approaches they use, and the novel doctrines they keep bringing forth. Jesus told a pertinent parable that is so full of meaning, and it’s got prophetic application, about a sower who went to sow the good seed, but it was not long before the enemy contaminated the seed with false teaching the bible calls weeds or tares or darnel. From the earliest apostolic ages, God’s truth has been attacked, silenced in places, adulterated, added to, and subtracted from. We continue to see all sorts of distortions, errors and denials from false teachers. After likening these wicked men to Cain, Korah and Balaam in verse 11, Jude continues the descriptions into verse 12. We have already looked at hidden reefs and waterless clouds, and the next in line is “autumn trees”.
These evil false teachers now are presented as trees without fruit, being doubly dead, and uprooted. This is our subject today. It is a very strange expression, and Jude has thought about this to arrive at a fitting choice of words. All the descriptions in this verse are drawn from events in nature. That makes him like so many writers who draw illustrations from nature, just like the Lord did also in His parables and descriptions. Jude, we know, unless you have forgotten, is the half brother of the Lord, raised by Mary and Joseph, and as children they may have spoken about natural things and observed their world as they lived and played.
On one occasion Jesus was hungry and came to a fig tree without fruit. The gospel writer indicates that it was the season before the fruit was due, so, naturally, there were no figs on the tree. It must have been about the end of winter or the beginning of spring. Maybe we could argue that a tree without fruit was no better than an Autumn tree which was dead to fruit bearing. Because it had no fruit the Lord cursed that fig tree and it withered up and died. As far as that fig tree was concerned, in regards to bearing fruit, it was just as good as dead, because it had no fruit when visited, and again it was dead because shortly after, the disciples noticed it truly died and was never to produce fruit again. Therefore, that fig tree was doubly dead.
That illustration just referred to, was both revealing and prophetic. The fig tree in all of scripture is always a picture of Israel. When the Lord visited Israel, He expected (hoped for) fruit, and that fruit would have been righteousness and godly people, but He found none. The fig tree was barren, and the fig tree of Israel was barren. It had not been the season for fruit, so the Lord found no national fruit. However when He comes again at the Second Coming, the season is full and matured and the Jewish Tribulation saints will be the fruit of Israel's fig tree.
DOUBLY DEAD
Getting back to Jude, his reference to autumn trees without fruit plainly means that the false teachers are unproductive, and their own lives are in chaos as we know many are, in the charismatic movement. These false teachers may have a following, even very large followings, but the fruit is illusionary, and nothing lasting will occur. Also, because it is autumn, the trees shed their leaves, so you have no fruit, just dead and dying leaves, and a mess. That is a picture of the false teachers who leave behind death, dying, and a mess. The autumn trees doubly dead means they are dead (look dead) with all their leaves gone for winter, and they are dead for fruit, because they had none.
How then does the “doubly dead” apply to false teachers? Firstly they themselves are dead to God, not being converted, or having a pseudo conversion; and secondly, all they produce is deadness. This is Jude speaking and if you think it is tough speaking, then it is Jude who speaks. Correct doctrine and correct relationship with God are so important that any deviation from that, is condemned very strongly.
Sometimes in autumn you see trees still with some fruit. Actually apple trees produce their fruit late summer and early autumn. Often, though, autumn is the time when the last of the fruit is withering, and has that rotting fruit smell. It is not always the “season of mists and mellow fruitfulness” Keats mentions in the poem. Unpicked fruit lies withered at the base of the tree rotting back into the soil. Withering is the first step in the breakdown of the fruit. In {{Mark 11 v 20 we read, “and as they were passing by in the morning, they saw the fig tree withered from the roots up.”}} The cursed fig tree withered from the roots up.
WITHERING IS SOMETIMES JUDGEMENT
(a). Withering or drying up, is often a sign of God’s judgement upon people and nations. This is the first example we will look at – {{1Kings 13 v 1-5 “Now behold, there came a man of God from Judah to Bethel by the word of the LORD, while Jeroboam was standing by the altar to burn incense, and he cried against the altar by the word of the LORD and said, “O altar, altar, thus says the LORD, ‘Behold, a son shall be born to the house of David, Josiah by name, and on you he shall sacrifice the priests of the high places who burn incense on you, and human bones shall be burned on you.’” Then he gave a sign the same day, saying, “This is the sign which the LORD has spoken, ‘Behold, the altar shall be split apart and the ashes which are on it shall be poured out.’” Now it came about when the king heard the saying of the man of God which he cried against the altar in Bethel, that Jeroboam stretched out his hand from the altar saying, “Seize him,” but his hand which he stretched out against him dried up, so that he could not draw it back to himself. The altar also was split apart and the ashes were poured out from the altar, according to the sign which the man of God had given by the word of the LORD.”}} Wicked Jeroboam was determined to silence God’s appointed prophet, but the Lord intervened in judgement upon him. Withering is the last stage for the few remaining fruits on a tree soon to have no fruit.
(b). Here is the second passage – {{Hosea 9:16 Ephraim is stricken. Their root is dried up. They will bear no fruit. Even though they bear children, I will slay the precious ones of their womb.”}} These Samaritans, Jews of the northern kingdom, were on the edge of being uprooted from their land. They would be doubly dead – dead in the own land, and dead in a foreign country. No fruit is produced because the root is withered. The root dies, the rest follows. They will dry up and die in judgement.
WITHERING FOLLOWED BY UPROOTING
Withering and drying up is the first step in their rejection by God. The complete step is the uprooting, when the tree is pulled out of the ground, totally separated from any chance of reviving. It is finality. Here is the third one – (c). {{Deuteronomy 29 v 28 “and the LORD uprooted them from their land in anger and in fury and in great wrath, and cast them into another land, as it is this day.”}} This verse is very significant. Before they entered the promised, land Moses spoke to the people giving blessings and warnings which would apply to all their descendants. That makes these verses very prophetic. If they followed not in the way of the Lord then eventually, the people would be cast out of their land, and people would ask why such a catastrophe happened to the people God rescued out of Egypt. Verse 28 gives part of the answer. The Lord uprooted them in anger, in fury, and in great wrath. Sadly, as we know, that actually happened, firstly to Israel, then to Judah. The evil false teachers, the tares of the church, will go the same way.
(d). Here is the fourth one – {{2Chronicles 7 v 17-22 “As for you, if you walk before Me as your father David walked, even to do according to all that I have commanded you, and will keep My statutes and My ordinances, then I will establish your royal throne as I covenanted with your father David, saying, ‘You shall not lack a man to be ruler in Israel’, but if you turn away and forsake My statutes and My commandments which I have set before you and shall go and serve other gods and worship them, then I will uproot you from My land which I have given you, and this house which I have consecrated for My name, I will cast out of My sight and I will make it a proverb and a byword among all peoples. As for this house which was exalted, everyone who passes by it will be astonished and say, ‘Why has the LORD done thus to this land and to this house?’ and they will say, ‘Because they forsook the LORD, the God of their fathers who brought them from the land of Egypt, and they adopted other gods and worshipped them and served them. Therefore He has brought all this adversity on them.’”}}
SOLOMON FORSOOK THE LORD AND TURNED TO IDOLATRY
This is a passage of privilege. How many people even have such a privilege to have God speak personally to them? I don’t believe this happens today, certainly not in this way. God appeared to Solomon at night to place before him promise and warning. This was done because God is gracious and wants to bless all, but blessing comes with responsibility. It was Solomon's responsibility to walk honestly with God but we know he forsook God and became one of the worst idolaters in Israel's history. I won’t look at what he did today, even desecrating the very temple God allowed him to build, but I do want to focus on verses 19 and 20.
It is so good of God to promise Solomon a continuous line of descendants on the throne if he obeyed and followed the Lord, but Solomon did not do that, but did the extreme opposite by filling Jerusalem with all sorts of pagan idols. As a result, the promise of God would happen, that which verse 20 promises – Solomon would cause Jerusalem and the whole nation to be uprooted, for this man introduced evil idolatry into Israel and forsook God. It took centuries before the Lord threw the nation out of its land, and uprooted them, but the false teachers are considered as already uprooted, we know from Jude’s comments. They may be active still, but as far as God is concerned, they are already uprooted.
THE UPROOTED TREE AND FRUITLESS
(e). The last one is Job. His description of himself is a sad gathering of thoughts as to his plight – {{Job 19 v 10 “He breaks me down on every side, and I am gone, and He has uprooted my hope like a tree.”}} The uprooted tree image is used by Job to describe his hope which is dead and gone. To him, his future was non-existent. The uprooted tree was an apt image to use for something ending. It well and truly fitted the false teachers who had no future for they were to end in judgement.
Those about whom Jude was writing are fruitless, dead to God and worthless to man, doubly dead and they are as fruitful as an uprooted tree. Unfortunately, they carry along many people into error. Like an uprooted tree these evil men will face failure and judgement. They are barren because they do not hold to the pure truth of the gospel, and like a fruitless, autumn tree, they are empty.
By their fruits you will know them, and so by their fruits, the false teachers will be known. To God’s glory, He has raised up fine men of God who can expose these evil teachers and protect the flock. Also, He has given His word to lay the path before His people in exact detail, so any true student of the bible should be able to recognise error; to recognise the false teachers who creep into the fold.
WE DON’T MINCE WORDS – BE DIRECT
We are warned frequently about those who are not of God. In the Old Testament they were called false shepherds because they did not feed the people but fed themselves. They did not teach correctly about God, and they used their position for personal gain. In the New Testament much is said about those who are not true to the word of God. Jesus called the Pharisees - the accepted, usually respected clever men - He called them hypocrites. He called those who made a name for themselves, but were not of God – He called thieves and robbers. Jesus spoke about the false ones as wolves in sheep’s clothing. Paul spoke about the wolves coming to ravage the flock. Paul called these men troublemakers who are to be cursed. Jude devotes more than half his letter to these evil men and Peter uses a whole chapter. John speaks about many antichrists in the world. Remember, if it wears a Christian dress, it is not necessarily Christian.
I know many would accuse me of intolerance but I will not accept those who say Christ is not the only way to heaven. I will not accept those who teach a liberal gospel of denial. I will not accept those who say God plans for us to be wealthy and the more we give, the more we get back. I will not tolerate the notion of those who say Christ died for our sicknesses, and to be sick is a lack of faith or to be in sin. I will not accept the changing of the gospel of faith, to add extra experiences to it. I will not accept those who teach we must keep the Sabbath and the Law. I will not honour autumn trees without fruit.
May we all guard the simplicity and the core of the true gospel in this place. God will bless us if we do. If we compromise the truth, we will not be blessed. The tares will be removed forever from the kingdom, but the children of the kingdom will continue.
LOOKING AT THE ANTONYMS:
What Jude has been saying of these false teachers is everything Christians must not be - autumn trees without fruit, doubly dead, uprooted.
I want to look at the three sections. 1. “Autumn trees without fruit” = that is fruitlessness and deadness. What was the creation, or refashioning of creation by God on the third day in Genesis? Do you remember? It was all to do with productivity – the vegetation and trees that produced fruit. God is all about fruitfulness. God ordained that all life be fruitful, and day 3 saw that applied to the vegetation and trees. That is why abortion is a total abomination to God. It is the opposite of what He ordained. What was the first thing God said to Adam? It was to be fruitful and that was ordained by God.
A Christian must be fruitful. I don’t apply that to having great big families, which matter is a constant upset for me. A Christian, when born again, is born to reproduce. A Christian must live a fruitful life for God. A Christian, unlike the false teachers, lives in Spring and Summer, not in Autumn and Winter. This is clearly given to us in Psalm 1. In speaking about the man of God, the psalmist wrote – {{Psalm 1 v 3 “and he will be like a tree firmly planted by streams of water which yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither and in whatever he does, he prospers.”}} That is exactly what false teachers don’t do, and they will be like the chaff that the winds drive away.
How do we apply the next one to Christians, about being “doubly dead”? Well, can Christians be doubly alive? What do you think? Life and life. This is how I would understand this double life. Let us think about two verses. The first is this one – {{Romans 8 v 10 “If Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, yet the spirit is alive because of righteousness, Rom 8:11 but if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who indwells you.”}} We have been made alive to spiritual things through the Holy Spirit so we are alive in Him. We have spiritual life. Life to mortal bodies and spiritual life.
The second is this one – {{John 10 v 27 “My sheep hear My voice, and I know them and they follow Me, John 10:28 and I give eternal life to them, and they shall never perish, and no one shall snatch them out of My hand.” Eternal life is our possession through the Son. Alive in the Holy Spirit, and eternal life in the Son.
God says the false teachers are uprooted, so what antonymn is that applied to Christians? Well Christians are established. These verses attest to being established:-
{{Romans 16 v 25 “Now to Him who is able to establish you according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ according to the revelation of the mystery which has been kept secret for long ages past,”
2Corinthians 1 v 21-22 “Now He who establishes us with you in Christ and anointed us is God, who also sealed us and gave us the Spirit in our hearts as a pledge.”
Colossians 2:7 “having been firmly rooted and now being built up in Him and established in your faith, just as you were instructed, and overflowing with gratitude.”}}
God bless us all and keep us form falling in the pitfalls of false teachers.
ronaldf@aapt.net.au
