Study in the Epistle of Jude # 70: Verse 12

by Chris McCann

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

Welcome to the Electronic Bible Fellowship’s Bible study. We are currently in verse 12 of the book of Jude, where we read:

These are spots in your feasts of charity…

Let us keep in mind that God is still speaking about the false prophets, the false teachers, the unbelievers, who are in the churches and congregations of the world. The verse continues:

…when they feast with you, feeding themselves without fear: clouds they are without water, carried about of winds; trees whose fruit withereth, without fruit, twice dead, plucked up by the roots;

We have mentioned that the reference to “twice dead” has to do with the fact that they are in their sins and under the wrath of God, and will therefore experience the second death of eternal damnation (Revelation 20:14). They are under the awful judgment of God for their transgressions against the law of God. They have never become saved or been delivered from their sinful condition, so they are twice dead.

Then the verse says, “plucked up by the roots.” What does God mean by this—to be plucked up by the roots? In Ecclesiastes, that book that God moved King Solomon to write, we read in chapter 3:1-2:

To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven: A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted;

God likens Himself to a husbandman. He likens Himself to one who has planted a vineyard. Actually, He uses several different pictures. He speaks of His salvation program as a vineyard that will produce fruit or He refers to it as the tree that brings forth fruit or He speaks of it in several other ways. He speaks about growing wheat in His field while the tares grow up beside it. God is looking, when He’s dealing with fruit, at those whom He intends to save.

There is a time and a season for everything in God’s salvation plan. He chooses a time to plant—He planted national Israel as the corporate body, the people of God, in the Old Testament. Then He plucked them up at the Cross, where they ceased to be the people of God, and at that point, He planted the New Testament churches and congregations. We see that there is a time for everything. God picks His time to plant something, and He also chooses the time to pluck up that which has been planted.

As we read about these unbelievers who have crept unawares into the churches and congregations, those who are typified by Cain and Balaam and Korah, God says that they are without fruit and, therefore, they will be plucked up. They are twice dead, and as Jude 12 says, they will be “plucked up by the roots.” God is not going to simply cut them off from the top and allow them to continue growing since the root remains, but He is going to dig into the soil and get at the root of the problem and pluck them up by the very root, indicating that they will never grow again.

That is what He did with Israel. We see a reference to this in the Gospel of Luke. In Luke 17:5-6, we read:

And the apostles said unto the Lord, Increase our faith. And the Lord said, If ye had faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye might say unto this sycamine tree, Be thou plucked up by the root, and be thou planted in the sea; and it should obey you.

Jesus is responding to their statement, “Lord, increase our faith.” He says, “If ye had faith as a grain of mustard seed…” That is significant because in the Bible, the seed is a reference to Jesus Himself (Galatians 3:16). He is basically saying, “If you had faith as a grain of mustard seed, if you had the faith of God, if you were God Himself, then you would have the power of God and you could say to this sycamine tree [a sycamine tree is a fig tree] ‘Be thou plucked up by the root and planted in the sea,’ and it should obey you.”

That fig tree is a picture of national Israel, in the first instance. Israel was typified by the fig tree in the Bible. Now Christ has come to Israel, and He has come to examine them to see if they have born fruit. They have not born fruit and there is, therefore, only one thing left: the judgment of God—to be plucked up by the root. Israel will no longer be a tree amongst the trees of the world. It will no longer be something that you could look to for fruit. Once Jesus went to the Cross, national Israel ceased to be the corporate body, the people of God. They became like all the other nations of the world; there was nothing more or less special about them at all.

In Matthew 21, we find that Christ approaches the fig tree. In verses 17-22, we read:

And he left them, and went out of the city into Bethany; and he lodged there. Now in the morning as he returned into the city, he hungered. And when he saw a fig tree in the way, he came to it, and found nothing thereon, but leaves only, and said unto it, Let no fruit grow on thee henceforward for ever. And presently the fig tree withered away. And when the disciples saw it, they marvelled, saying, How soon is the fig tree withered away! Jesus answered and said unto them, Verily I say unto you, If ye have faith, and doubt not, ye shall not only do this which is done to the fig tree, but also if ye shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; it shall be done. And all things, whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive.

Jesus pronounced an eternal curse upon the fig tree, upon Israel. “He came unto His own, and His own received Him not” (John 1:11). The Lord Jesus Christ entered into the human race and grew up in the midst of Israel, the people of God, yet they rejected Him; they did not honor God. They did not worship Him as eternal God, but they thought that He was of Satan, of Beelzebub. Israel, therefore, was fruitless; it bore no fruit. As Jesus was examining the fig tree, He found nothing but leaves; therefore, it was to be cursed. He did curse the fig tree, and it was an eternal curse—”Let no fruit grow on thee henceforward forever.”

That is exactly what we see as we examine Israel, yet there are some in the churches and some theologians and teachers who make a big deal out of national Israel. They think that God still has some plan for the Israel that is over there in the Middle East. However, they are not reading the Bible correctly at all. They are not reading Matthew 21, where it says that Jesus found no fruit thereon and therefore cursed that tree with an eternal curse. That means that never again would they receive the blessing of God or be the people of God. It was over and done with; God would no longer use national Israel.

From the time of the Cross, when the veil of the temple was rent in twain (Mark 15:38), that has been the case. Israel is now just like any other nation, like China or Russia or India—there is nothing special about them, nothing holy about them. They are just another people who are in their sins and need a Savior. It is possible, however, for a Jew, an Israelite, someone who is born in Israel, to become saved, just like it is possible for any other person of the world to become saved, if they happen to be one of God’s elect.

We see that this curse upon the fig tree is related to what we read in Luke 17:6—”If ye had faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye might say unto this sycamine tree, ‘Be thou plucked up by the root, and be thou planted in the sea.’” Only God, only Christ, has that kind of faith because He is faith Himself. Jesus is really saying, “If you had faith to pronounce an eternal curse upon Israel, upon the fig tree, then you would be Christ yourself; you would be God yourself.”

Only God has that type of faith and power to declare an eternal curse and to carry it through. That is what it means to be plucked up by the roots, as we are reading in Jude. These false prophets are trees without fruit and their fruit withereth; they are twice dead, plucked up by the roots. God is going to pluck them up.

We read this statement in Matthew 15:13, the Lord Jesus being the One speaking:

But he answered and said, Every plant, which my heavenly Father hath not planted, shall be rooted up.

God is not going to root up those plants which He has planted, and God has done some planting of His own. In Isaiah 61:3, we read:

To appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the LORD, that he might be glorified.

That is a reference to those whom God intends to save—they are trees of righteousness. They are not like the trees that these false prophets pretend to be or liken themselves to, but these are trees that God has planted and established. It is just as we read in Psalm 1:3, which says, speaking of the one who delights in the law of the Lord:

And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.

The false prophet, the false believer, the one who is a man of guile whether he knows it or not because he is not truly born again, is likened to a tree without fruit whose fruit withereth. However, the one whom God is dealing with, the person whom God is truly blessing through His Word, the one whom God has created a new heart within, the one whom God has made born again—he is like a tree planted by the rivers of water whose fruit shall not wither. It is as Jesus says in John 15. We read verses 1-2:

I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman. Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away: and every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit.

Then verses 4-6 say:

Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me. I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing. If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned.

That is what Matthew 15:13 is saying—”Every plant, which My Heavenly Father hath not planted, shall be rooted up.” That is because they are not abiding in Christ the Lord. Jesus Christ, the root of Jesse, is not their root. They are a plant of a strange vine unto God, so He will root them up. He will dig deep into the soil and get the entirety of them and rid His field of such plants. As God speaks of this, He uses different pictures—the vine, the tree, the field where the wheat and the tares grow together.

In Matthew 13, we find a very interesting parable. It says in verses 24-25:

Another parable put he forth unto them, saying, The kingdom of heaven is likened unto a man which sowed good seed in his field: But while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat, and went his way.

Now we see what God means when He says, “Trees of righteousness, the planting of the LORD.” The wheat is planted by the Lord, but the tares are not—they are planted by the enemy who sows them amongst the wheat. The enemy is Satan himself; he is the adversary to God and to the people of God. He has sown the tares amongst the wheat, the unbelievers among the believers.

That is what we are reading about in the book of Jude when we get right down to it. We are reading again and again, verse after verse, about those who have crept in unawares, those tares that are among the wheat, those who are spots in your feasts of charity. They give the appearance of being believers—they are clouds as believers are clouds, yet they have no water. They are trees as believers are trees, yet they have no fruit. Again and again, God is using language that relates to true believers, but there is a failure on the part of these men to measure up when it comes to an examination of their heart, an examination of what is deep down within them. They can give an outward appearance, but they cannot measure up when God looks upon the heart.

God always looks upon the hearts of men. He is never deceived by outward gestures or outward behaviors. He is not deceived by those who regularly attend church or by those who do things outwardly yet inwardly are like a tomb full of dead men’s bones (Matthew 23:27). God is not deceived by those who can give a clean appearance outwardly, but inwardly are filthy and are vile in their sins.

The enemy came and sowed the tares among the wheat and went his way. Then verses 26-29 say:

But when the blade was sprung up, and brought forth fruit, then appeared the tares also. So the servants of the householder came and said unto him, Sir, didst not thou sow good seed in thy field? from whence then hath it tares? He said unto them, An enemy hath done this. The servants said unto him, Wilt thou then that we go and gather them up? But he said, Nay; lest while ye gather up the tares, ye root up also the wheat with them.

The word “root” is the same word we are looking at in Jude when we read that they are “plucked up by the roots.” God is saying that there is a time and a season when He will pluck up that which has been planted. That is the Biblical principle established in Ecclesiastes 3:2—there is a time and a season to everything. There is a time to plant. In such a manner, the New Testament church was planted throughout the New Testament Church Age, and there is a time to pluck up that which has been planted. God is saying to His servants in this parable of Matthew 13, “You may not gather up the tares because the possibility is that you will root up also the wheat with them. We will let them both grow together until the harvest.”

Now we find the time that God has established for plucking up that which has been planted. We read in verse 30:

Let both grow together until the harvest: and in the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, Gather ye together first the tares, and bind them in bundles to burn them…

This is exactly what we read in John 15—when a man is not abiding in Christ, he is as a branch that is withered and is good for nothing but to be burned. Likewise, this is the final end of the tares. When they are rooted up, they are rooted up for burning. They will be put into bundles to be burned, pointing to the awful judgment of God and the fires of Hell that await each and every unsaved person who has sought to escape the judgment of God by fleeing to the cover of the name “Christian.” They have sought to escape by fleeing to the cover of some church or to the cover of doctrines and creeds or to the cover of some denomination, yet none of that is any covering for sin at all.

There will come the day of harvest, and actually, we are now in it. We are at the time of harvest now. The Great Tribulation is the harvest time; it is the time that God has chosen. It is the season of the latter rain, but it is also the season where the wheat and the tares are to be separated one from the other. It is the season when that which has not been planted by God is to be plucked up by the roots.

That is what we find once again—just as national Israel, the fig tree, was to be plucked up and cast into the sea, likewise the New Testament church has entered into that time phase, that period of history in God’s salvation plan, when He has come to find fruit. He has found no fruit thereon, and therefore, it is the time of the bundling of tares. It is the time where they are to be plucked up by the root, and they will cease to be the people of God. The churches of our day no longer have the blessing of God or the authority of God; they no longer have that grant given them of God to minister the Gospel to the world. They have become like any other gospel or religion that is out there. They have become like Israel of old, and Israel’s gospel was a gospel without power to save and without power to rescue a sinner from his sin and from the wrath of God. They are, henceforth, good for nothing, and all who remain in the churches and congregations will be gathered and bundled.

Actually, that is what is taking place each Sunday. If any are being drawn into the churches, it is not for blessing or for salvation; but if it is for any spiritual reason at all, it is for their gathering in bundles. Therefore, once Christ comes, all those who have remained in the churches will certainly face the judgment of God and be cast into the pit of Hell.

This is the terrible news of the Bible, as we now live in this time of Great Tribulation. However, there is good news, there is wonderful news for the people of the world—God is still working to save outside the church—but for those who remain in the churches, there is nothing but woe and mourning and lamentation (Ezekiel 2:10). This is the sad information that the Bible is presenting at this time in our day.