Study in the Epistle of Jude # 58: Verse 11

by Chris McCann

EBible Fellowship (http://www.ebiblefellowship.com)

Welcome to the Electronic Bible Fellowship’s Bible study. We are going through Jude, and we have come to verse 11. We have already looked at Cain and Abel and Balaam, as Jude 11 has directed us back into the Old Testament to study these Old Testament prophets or individuals. Verse 11 says:

Woe unto them! for they have gone in the way of Cain, and ran greedily after the error of Balaam for reward, and perished in the gainsaying of Core.

We have begun to look at Korah. He is a man who shows up in the Old Testament book of Numbers, right as the Israelites are coming out of Egypt and are having their various trials and tribulations while traveling through the wilderness.

All throughout the journeys of Israel, you would think that their deliverance from Egypt would be a tremendous cause of joy for the people of God. You would think that they would be singing praises to God constantly just for the fact that they had been delivered out of bondage, out of slavery, and out of many generations of cruel and hard bondage. The people of Israel had been sorely oppressed by the Egyptians, and God miraculously delivered them in sending terrible plagues upon Egypt that literally destroyed a mighty nation, perhaps the mightiest nation on the face of the earth of that day. God brought the Egyptians to their knees in order to let His people Israel go.

As the Israelites were escaping the Egyptians, God parted the waters of the Red Sea (Exodus 14). This is one of the most tremendous miracles that we could imagine—this sea had its water parted asunder and the Israelites walked upon the base of it as upon dry ground. They traveled across, and as the Egyptians attempted to follow, God closed the waters up and they were drowned. They were dead men upon the seashore, Pharaoh being with them.

Of course, there is a great spiritual picture here of God’s salvation and of Judgment Day itself; but nonetheless, these things did happen historically. These Jews, these Israelites, witnessed the mighty power of God in accomplishing all these things and in delivering them. The praises of God should have been on their lips for the rest of their days.

However, then they arrive in the wilderness and begin to experience some hardships. The hot sun is beating down upon them. It is a long, hard road that they are traveling and there is no end in sight. They lack food and water at times. Because of this, the Israelites begin to murmur and to speak against Moses and Aaron on many occasions. That is where Korah comes into the picture. He was one of the leaders of Israel, as we see in Numbers 16:1-5:

Now Korah, the son of Izhar, the son of Kohath, the son of Levi, and Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliab, and On, the son of Peleth, sons of Reuben, took men: And they rose up before Moses, with certain of the children of Israel, two hundred and fifty princes of the assembly, famous in the congregation, men of renown: And they gathered themselves together against Moses and against Aaron, and said unto them, Ye take too much upon you, seeing all the congregation are holy, every one of them, and the LORD is among them: wherefore then lift ye up yourselves above the congregation of the LORD? And when Moses heard it, he fell upon his face: And he spake unto Korah and unto all his company, saying, Even to morrow the LORD will shew who are his, and who is holy; and will cause him to come near unto him: even him whom he hath chosen will he cause to come near unto him.

Korah and these other men, namely Dathan and Abiram, sons of Reuben, were men of renown, famous in the congregation. They took 250 other well-known men and they amassed themselves and gathered against Moses and Aaron to speak against them. That is why God says in Jude, “Woe unto them, for they have perished in the gainsaying of Core.” “To speak against” is what “gainsaying” means.

We will look at this word “gainsaying” that we find here in Jude 11, and then we will go back and look at the historical account in the book of Numbers regarding Korah. That account is interesting because of the way in which God settles the rebellion. He quenches it by opening the ground, and Korah and his company go down into the pit. Yet first, let us look at this word “gainsaying” and we will have a much better idea of what is going on in the book of Numbers. This word means “to speak against.” In Acts 13:44-45, we read:

And the next sabbath day came almost the whole city together to hear the word of God…

By the way, when it says “the next Sabbath day,” it would actually be better translated as “the between Sabbath.” The word “next” is actually the Greek word “between.” This verse would better be read as:

And the [between Sabbath] came almost the whole city together to hear the word of God.

We wonder, “What does ‘the between Sabbath’ mean?” We understand what it means once we realize that when God instituted the New Testament Church Age, he made a change of the Sabbath day when Christ arose. As a matter of fact, that change was made so that the Old Testament seventh-day Sabbath was completed; it was fulfilled in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. That Sabbath day pointed to the rest of the people of God that they would experience in the salvation of Christ. Then, Jesus rose from the dead early on the first day of the week, as we read in the Gospel accounts. This indicates that it was the first of the Sabbaths. “In the end of the Sabbaths as it began to dawn toward the first of the Sabbaths,” is how Matthew 28:1 reads in the original Greek. God has made a change of Sabbaths.

Here in Acts 13, it is the “between Sabbath.” It is not the Old Testament Jewish seventh-day Sabbath, not the Saturday Sabbath, but it is the Sunday Sabbath which comes between one Jewish Sabbath day and the next. Therefore, it is spoken of here as the Sabbath that is between those Jewish Sabbath days. On this day, the passage continues:

…came almost the whole city together to hear the word of God…

It was a very exciting time when this Gospel was going forth into the world. All kinds of people were hearing things that they had never heard before. This city came together to hear the Word of God. Would it not be wonderful if our cities today would respond to the Gospel in that same way? Our cities, especially here in America, are so much into the things of the world that they have no time for the Gospel any longer. Yet here in these days, the whole city came together to hear the Word of God. The passage continues:

But when the Jews saw the multitudes, they were filled with envy…

The Jews were the people of God in the Old Testament. They were the ones who were the special people. They were privileged to be the caretakers of the Oracles of God and the custodians of the Gospel. In other words, Israel is where the prophets came from. God dealt specially with the nation of Israel, but now something different was going on, something strange whereby others were claiming to be the people of God. They were saying that God was no longer dealing with a particular nation, but He was dealing with anyone. Anyone could come and possibly become a child of God by the hearing of the Gospel.

To the Gentiles, this was wonderful news to their ears, but the Jews were filled with envy. They were very much discouraged by this kind of Gospel. It was not lifting them up at all, but it was making them just like everyone else. Now, they were in the same situation as the Gentiles. They were not special anymore at all. They looked and saw that everyone was following this Gospel, the whole city was hearing this, and this disturbed them greatly. God tells us that they were envious. They were envious that this Word had such appeal and that this Gospel had such a power. What did they do? The Jews came and saw the multitude and were filled with envy, and as we continue to read:

…and spake against those things which were spoken by Paul, contradicting and blaspheming.

They “spake against”—that is our word “gainsaying” from Jude 11. Also, the word “contradicting” in this verse is again the word “gainsaying.” They were speaking against those things that were spoken by Paul; they were gainsaying those things.

What was Paul declaring? He was declaring the grace of God, the truths of the Word of God, and the character and the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. The Jews spoke against these things. They contradicted them; they said, “These things are not so.” God does not tell us exactly how they went about to argue and to speak against these things; He only tells us that they did speak against them.

If someone has a mind to, they can speak against any truth of the Bible or anything at all, whatever they please. If someone has a perverse mind or if they just want to try to show that there are many gods, they could go to the Bible and they could show verses that seem to indicate that God is more than One—that is because God does reveal Himself as three persons, yet one God. Someone could say, “You see, there is more than one God.” They could speak against the fact that God is One.

Again, if they wanted to, they could speak against the whole idea that there is a resurrection on the Last Day. There was, actually, a whole sect of Jews called the Sadducees who did develop a doctrine like that. They did not believe in the resurrection; they mocked the idea that there would be a resurrection. They came to Christ and they asked Him a question about a man who married a wife and died (Mark 12:18-23). This man, they said, had seven brothers and they all had her to wife. They asked Him, “In the resurrection, therefore, when they shall rise, whose wife shall she be of them?” They thought that this dilemma or problem of theirs proved that there was no resurrection at all; yet Jesus said to them, “Do ye not therefore err, because ye know not the Scriptures, neither the power of God? For when they shall rise from the dead, they neither marry, nor are given in marriage; but are as the angels which are in Heaven.”

If someone is of a mind to, they can speak against anything. They can take the doctrine of election and go to a few verses and say, “Look, it says here that you are to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.” Then they can go to some other verses that seem to indicate that Christ died for everyone. Of course, they are wrong; they arrive at erroneous conclusions.

This is how it is with every faithful and true doctrine of the Bible. If someone was of a mind to, they could argue about it until they are blue in the face and never accept the truth of the Word of God. Some people do ask questions, but the purpose behind their questions is never to arrive at truth but rather to avoid truth. They ask a question, let us say, regarding the end of the Church Age. They want to know about the Lord’s Supper during this time. They ask about 1 Corinthians 11, where it says, “For as often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do shew the Lord’s death till he come.” Perhaps it is a sincere question, and you point out to them what the Bible has to say—once God brings judgment, a ceremonial law cannot save a people; they cannot hide behind the observance of a ceremonial law.

We see this with the history of national Israel. They were commanded to observe certain ceremonies—they were to keep the fire always burning upon the altar and they were to perform sacrifices at certain times. Then God judged them and sent them into captivity into Babylon, where it became impossible for them to observe those commandments of God. Could they say, “God, you cannot do that. You cannot send us into captivity—we have to keep the fire burning”? No, that would be no excuse whatsoever. It is true God commanded them to keep the fire continually burning and it is also true God judged them so that it became impossible for them to observe that particular commandment. They had lost sight of the truth that those ceremonial laws were pointing to anyway.

Once a people becomes so unfaithful and apostate that they lose sight of the truth of the Word of God, they cannot hide behind ceremonial laws and say, “We have to keep the Lord’s Supper in this manner till He comes. You cannot judge us, God.” How ridiculous is that when everything that the Lord’s Supper stands for has been spoken against and blasphemed by the churches of our day. No one can hide behind that.

People can speak against any doctrine if they are of a mind to, and unsaved individuals always are of a mind to. They do not understand or see spiritual things, but earthly and natural things. If something is spiritually discerned, more often than not, they will speak against it.

God says this regarding the whole nation of Israel in Romans 10:21. We read there:

But to Israel he saith, All day long I have stretched forth my hands unto a disobedient and gainsaying people.

God came to Israel with prophets and brought His Word. Constantly, they spoke against the Word of God. Let us remember Jeremiah. God put the words in Jeremiah’s mouth, as He tells us in Jeremiah 1:9. “I have put My words in thy mouth,” God said, and told him that he would be a prophet unto the nations. God sent the word via Jeremiah to Judah, to the people of Jerusalem, telling them that they would go into captivity, especially after many of them had already gone into captivity.

There was a remnant that remained, and they came to Jeremiah and asked him to seek the Word of the Lord for them (Jeremiah 42). They told him that whatever the Lord said, they would do. Ten days later, Jeremiah comes back with the Word of the Lord. He tells them that the Lord says to remain. They immediately say, “Thou speakest falsely: the LORD our God hath not sent thee” (Jeremiah 43:2).

Immediately, they are speaking against what God has said and they are gainsaying. This has been the character of the nation of Israel in the Old Testament, and unfortunately and sadly, it is the character of the New Testament church, especially in our day, as we have entered into the time of Great Tribulation. The church has greatly fallen away from the truth of the Bible. They have become a disobedient and gainsaying people (Romans 10:21).

They hear the declaration of the truths of the Word of God, and it is not just the end of the Church Age that they gainsay. You can speak to the church regarding election, and the vast majority of churches refuse it; they speak against that doctrine. You can speak to them on more basic issues, such as the qualifications for deacons and elders. You can point out to them that the Bible says that the pastor should be a married man having children and raising his family well. They might agree to that, but they also begin to speak against it and say, “Well yes, but you cannot disqualify single men. They are good and faithful men as well, and they, too, can understand the Bible.”

That is not the point. God is not saying that a single man cannot be a faithful man or that a divorced man cannot be a faithful man who understands the Bible. He is not saying that a man without children cannot definitely have some spiritual insight. God is not saying any of that—He is only saying that if someone is to be a deacon or an elder or a pastor, they must meet those qualifications. The church goes right around that because they want their own way. They speak against the truth of the Bible.

What about women and their role in the congregation today? The pressure is on to put them in the pulpit so that they can teach and preach. The pressure is on to make them deacons and elders and to have them read the Scriptures, and to do these things in total rebellion against what the Bible says. 1 Timothy 2:11 says, “Let the woman learn in silence with all subjection.” She is not to usurp authority over the man (1 Timothy 2:12). What about that verse? They say, “Alright, but we are in a different day. We are in a whole other age where we have learned that women have much greater use in society and in the church than to simply be keepers at home raising their children. We see that women are just as intelligent as men are and they can even know the Scriptures better than men. They can also be more faithful in their attendance of church and in keeping the commandments of God.”

All those things are true—a woman could be more faithful than a man and she could even have more Biblical knowledge than a man, but that is not the point. God has said, “I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man,” (1 Timothy 2:12) and to do anything besides obey is to gainsay the Word of God. It is to speak against the Gospel itself. That is the point that God is making regarding Korah and those who go in his way.

The word “gainsay” is made up of two Greek words—one is anti and the other is logi. The word is antilogia (Strong’s #485), which means to be against speaking or against the Word. That is what it is to gainsay. Someone has declared some aspect of the Word of God, some doctrine, some truth of the Scriptures, and a man who is a gainsaying man will refuse it. He will not hear it. He will speak against it as he always has. He may come and say, “Yes, but what about this and what about that. Have you thought about this?” He will do anything but obey the Word of God.

Here is a good example of a gainsaying—we can just use a very familiar example in the home. A mother and a father tell one of their children, “Go and do this. Go and clean your room.” The child replies, “But first, I have this to do, Dad or Mom. I am not finished here.” All of a sudden, he starts talking back to you. You just told him to clean his room, and children are bound to keep their parents word according to Ephesians 6:1, which says, “Children, obey your parents in the Lord.” The parents just told the child to go clean his room, but he responds, “But I am not done here,” or “Can I not go out first?” There is a whole discussion that could follow, but really, it has to be stopped right there. “No, you were told what to do. If you speak back, if you are speaking against that, then that is disobedience.” Right at that point, as soon as the child begins to argue and put up a defense as to what he has been told, that is disobedience.

That is the character of the church of our day—they speak against the Word of God. We can see how this is significant when we get to the point of the end of the Church Age and God commands His people, “Come out of her, My people (Rev 18:4). Depart out of the midst of the congregations.” “But,” they argue, “it is all spiritual. Show me a plain, literal statement. It is all spiritualizing and allegorizing; it is looking at the Bible in a spiritual way.”

Again, that is an excuse. It is speaking back to what God has said. If God had said it very plainly, as He did for instance regarding the command that a woman is not to teach or usurp authority, they would disobey that as well. God very plainly lays down the law for the qualifications of deacons and elders, and that is openly disobeyed. It is only an excuse that they use—if it is said plainly, they disobey it; if it is said in a spiritual way, they disobey that as well. The problem is not in the way that God has declared these things, whether it be in spiritual or plain, literal language; but the problem lies with the hearers who do not have spiritual ears.