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.
Is Jesus delighted to consign people to hell? Maybe this verse answers that – {{2 Peter 3 v 9 “The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance.”}} His mission was to deliver men from hell, and that could only be done through His sacrificial death that conquered death, and him who had the power of death. It is a travesty so great, that these false teachers of all ages - and of our age, probably more than at any other time – are filling hell up.
FILTH AND MIRE LIKE SHAME
We note these waves cast up their own shame like foam. It reminds me of a sight I still remember vividly after 60 years. Each year my family went to Currumbin in June and July for holidays, and in 1956 I think it was, there was one of these strong east coast low pressure systems that came dumping lots of rain in the Tweed River catchment and the south Queensland beaches. As a result the fresh water and the salt water mixed and when it does in the presence of pounding waves, lots of brown scummy foam is produced. I remember it over the road and all over Elephant Rock, and covering all the sea wall that used to be there in those days. Well, this is something like what Jude is alluding to. These evil ones cast up their filthy foam, which is their shameful behaviour, in their operation and ministry. Luther well translates it: “which foam out their own shame.” The Greek word for “shame” is in the plural, as indicating the manifold forms of the impurity of the false teachers. Lit., shames or disgraces. They have no shame but the discerning know it, and see it. By their ministry the evil ones speak what is shameful, and like wild waves, they keep putting it out there and advancing with it, as the waves propel the foam forward. You could use a lot of colourful language describing these false teachers, and Jude and Peter do. Jesus and Paul said directly and unequivocally what the false teachers were. You don’t adopt the ostrich behaviour regarding false teaching. It must be exposed. There is so much New Testament support for doing that.
FALSE TEACHERS OR FAILED CHRISTIANS – WHO HAS SHAME?
I want to look more carefully at one word in this Jude verse, and it is the word “shame”. The shame in that verse is nailed exactly where it belongs, to the evil destroyers of God’s word. Who do you think has more shame, the false teachers or Christians who fail the Lord, even in a big way? Think about that. (Give time). When we study in the bible we need to look carefully at each passage, then at each verse, then at each phrase and word. In verse 13, what does Jude say about the shame there? He says their shame is cast up, but note carefully, he does not say that the false teachers have shame. In fact, the opposite is true. They are puffed up and arrogant, self-willed and calloused. The shame in that verse is cast up so the ones with discerning eyes can see it. False teachers do not know shame because they have a seared conscience.
Going back then to the question, “Who has the most shame – false teachers or those who fail the Lord?” We will look at Peter on the betrayal night. When he failed the Lord, was he indifferent or casual about it? He certainly was not. It cut him to the quick. This is the big difference between God’s people and the world’s people. The people in the world sin and do shameful things, but they nearly always have so sensitivity about what they are doing. It is like water off a duck’s back. The Christian however, when he and she fails, there is a conviction and an associated shame as the Holy Spirit ministers to the individual, and that person knows and feels shame, for one true purpose, and do you know what that is? Well, the reason for it is to highlight the holiness of a holy God, and to reveal to us how we fall short, and what is the purpose of that? Well it is to return the person to the Lord in restoration. Restoration is a precious thing; it is the sweetness of the abiding presence of the Lord.
You know, when a Christian sins, even in bad sins, at the time, there may not be any real awareness of how bad it is because we can be deluded as Satan enticed and deluded Eve. However, when a person is restored to the Lord, he can look back, but he sees the shame of what happened, and knows the true measure of it, even though forgiven, and God has moved on with us. That is what sin does to a Christian. It catches him and her out, but later, the event is recalled with shame. Now it is not correct to sin, but the conviction with shame for that sin, is correct. God uses it to restore us. The point is these evil false teachers have no shame, but their shame is there for the discerning to see.
THE WILD WAVES OF FALSEHOOD
Raging waves are a terror to sailing passengers; but when they get into port, the noise and terror are ended. False teachers are to expect the worst punishments in this world and in that to come.
So it is with these noisy and vaunting teachers. What they impart is as unsubstantial and valueless as the foam of the ocean waves, and the result is in fact, a proclamation of their own shame. Men with so loud professions should produce much more but they are raging waves of the sea, foaming out their own shame: wrathful words, frothy and obscene language, and filthy doctrines and Balaams stealing the Lord’s heritage; and which expresses the issue of their noisy and blustering ministry, which ends in uncleanness, shame, emptiness, and ruin. Yes, it is sad, but their shame is cast ashore, more so than at any time in the history of the world because they almost seem to control the religious broadcasting of television, the internet and to a lesser extent, the radio.
We have just looked at wild waves of falsehood. There are other wild waves you know, in the bible. Let us look at some of these.
WILD WAVES FOUND IN SCRIPTURE
1. THE WILD WAVES OF JUDGEMENT. In the early chapters of Genesis we read of Noah’s flood, though that is a misnomer, because it should be called God’s flood of judgement. Noah just happened to be a righteous man of that generation. It was not his flood. It was God who judged the world because of its grave sin. The Genesis account actually does not mention the word “waves” so we are assuming something when we mention wild waves here, but the account tells us the fountains of the deep were broken up, and there must have been very wild waves. The same thought can be applied to the destruction of Babylon – {{Jeremiah 51 v 42 “The sea has come up over Babylon; She has been engulfed with its tumultuous waves.”}}
2. THE WILD WAVES OF DEATH. I want to read a portion from 1 Samuel – {{2 Samuel 22 v 1-7 “David spoke the words of this song to the LORD in the day that the LORD delivered him from the hand of all his enemies and from the hand of Saul, and he said, “The LORD is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer; my God, my rock, in whom I take refuge; my shield and the horn of my salvation; my stronghold and my refuge; my Saviour. You save me from violence. I call upon the LORD, who is worthy to be praised and I am saved from my enemies,”}} {{2Samuel 22:5 “for the waves of death encompassed me. The torrents of destruction overwhelmed me. The cords of Sheol surrounded me. The snares of death confronted me. In my distress I called upon the LORD. Yes, I cried to my God and from His temple He heard my voice, and my cry for help came into His ears.”}}
We need to be discerning here. Death for a Christian, and for one of the saints of God in Old Testament times, is not a fearful thing. For the Christian, to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. How do we reconcile that thought with David’s experience here, when he was overwhelmed by the possibility of death’s destruction? Well, it is not difficult. Death takes on a fearful aspect when you are being hunted down by your enemies, and you are trying to preserve your life. David’s enemies were fierce and ruthless. Death stared him in the face, and he did not know if in the next hour, they might burst upon him and run him through with the sword, but God delivered him out of their cruel clutches. For that reason, he could rightfully use the term, “the waves of death” but these waves encompassed him as if there was no escape. I do not know personally the horrors of soldiers in war who must face the same. Christ has conquered death and for that reason death has no hold on the Christian.
3. THE WILD WAVES OF TROUBLE. {{Psalm 42 v 7 “Deep calls to deep at the sound of Your waterfalls.”}} All Your breakers and Your waves have rolled over me. Korah wrote this psalm, one with most wonderful images, along with the next psalm. Although he speaks of his own experience, some have applied the term, “All your breakers have rolled over me,” to the Lord Jesus Christ at Calvary. If we think again of Noah, those in the ark were safe but the wild waves crashed against the ark and possibly over it. Jesus Christ is our Ark, He who endured the crashing of wild waves against Himself in order to save and protect those who are in Him. The wild waves of judgement for Him, now provide gentle breezes of eternal peace for us.
4. THE WILD WAVES IN THE LORD’S HAND. {{Psalm 107 v 23-29 “Those who go down to the sea in ships, who do business on great waters, they have seen the works of the LORD, and His wonders in the deep, Psalm 107:25 for He spoke and raised up a stormy wind which lifted up the waves of the sea. They rose up to the heavens; they went down to the depths. Their soul melted away in their misery. They reeled and staggered like drunken men and were at their wits’ end. Then they cried to the LORD in their trouble and He brought them out of their distresses. Psa. 107:29 He caused the storm to be still so that the waves of the sea were hushed.”}} We could also add here this verse – {{Psalm 65:7 “Who stills the roaring of the seas, the roaring of their waves, and the tumult of the peoples.”}}
This is quite a famous passage used in the context of the sea even at naval events, though I would find it a bit disconcerting at least if I was a young recruit putting out to sea. Verses 25 and 29 indicate very clearly that nothing lies outside the control of God. We read in Psalm 31, “My times are in Your hands”, and it is God who raises up, and God who deposes. He caused the stormy sea with its wild waves, and He subdued the stormy seas into a hush. I wonder if our lives might be calmer if we realised God is truly in control over every single, raging wave.
5. THE WILD WAVES OF PEACE. This is our last one. {{Matthew 8 v 23-27 “When He got into the boat, His disciples followed Him Matt 8:24 and behold, there arose a great storm in the sea so that the boat was covered with the waves but He Himself was asleep, and they came to Him and awoke Him, saying, “Save us, Lord. We are perishing!” He said to them, “Why are you timid, you men of little faith?” Then He arose and rebuked the winds and the sea and it became perfectly calm, and the men marvelled, saying, “What kind of a man is this that even the winds and the sea obey Him?”}}
Let us look at that in summary.
The disciples were in the boat - PEACE.
Jesus was in the boat – THE PRINCE OF PEACE.
A great storm arose - DANGER.
The wild waves threatened to drown the boat - FEAR
The disciples were alarmed - UNBELIEF.
Jesus slept – THE PRINCE OF PEACE.
The disciples woke Jesus - FAITHLESSNESS.
The waves were under His control - AUTHORITY.
He demonstrated His godly power – GOD AMONG US.
What we take from this is that Jesus is the Master of the storm. Every single aspect and point of nature is under His control. He is the God of Circumstances AND the God who goes before every situation. The wild waves of the sea obeyed His voice. The “wild waves of the sea”, a description of these false teachers, is what Jude calls them, and he is saying they are so self-willed, they are uncontrollable. All nature submits to God, but false teachers submit to no one. They are “wild waves of the sea casting up their own shame like foam.”
That is the one striking difference between the true and the false – the true are under God’s control; the false are under Satan’s control.
God bless you all. In the next message we will think about advice Jude gives to Christians.
ronaldf@aapt.net.au
