Study in the Epistle of Jude # 80: Verse 16

by Chris McCann

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

Welcome to the Electronic Bible Fellowship’s Bible study. We are in the book of Jude and we will begin looking at verse 16, which says:

These are murmurers, complainers, walking after their own lusts; and their mouth speaketh great swelling words, having men’s persons in admiration because of advantage.

Once again, the focus is on (actually, it has never left) those who are ungodly, who are not true children of God, who have never become saved, yet have entered into the churches and congregations of the world and profess the name of Christ. We can widen this, actually—this could be true also of individuals who perhaps are not even in a church but profess the name of Christ. I think that this is a good way for us to look at it, considering the time period that we are in. Yet in any event, they are unsaved people, so their heart has never been born again. They do not have the Spirit of Christ; therefore, they will not have the fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22-23).

The evidence that someone is not saved is what God is referring to in verse 16 of Jude where He states, “These are murmurers, complainers, walking after their own lusts.” The two words “murmurer” and “complainer” are fairly closely connected. “Murmurers”—we remember as we read the account of Israel’s sojourn in the wilderness how often they murmured against God, and they did this despite the goodness of God. God was so merciful to them in bringing them out of slavery and in bringing them out of cruel bondage in Egypt. He brought them across the Red Sea through many mighty miracles and signs and wonders. He was pouring out His blessings upon the people of Israel in an incredible way.

Yet, we read again and again that the people of Israel would murmur against God—the book of Numbers is very descriptive as it informs us of this. When they felt that the time had come for them to have water and there was no water or when they were lusting for meat and there was no meat, they would murmur. They would murmur against Moses and Aaron; they would murmur about how hard the way in the wilderness was. They would murmur against the manna, that light bread which fell from Heaven that God miraculously provided for their nourishment during the forty-year wilderness sojourn—they murmured and despised that bread.

Murmuring is a terrible thing—it indicates a heart that is discontent; it indicates a spirit that is not waiting upon the Lord to sustain it; it indicates a soul that is troubled by life’s set of circumstances that God has placed in its path. They do not like this and they do not like that, so they murmur. Moreover, along with their murmuring is complaining. God says in Numbers 11:1:

And when the people complained, it displeased the LORD: and the LORD heard it; and his anger was kindled; and the fire of the LORD burnt among them, and consumed them that were in the uttermost parts of the camp.

God hears the murmuring and the complaining of those who profess to be His people, and He is certainly not pleased by it. It is the total opposite of when individuals are walking by faith, as Enoch did. Enoch pleased God, and Enoch is a picture of all believers who please God because they walk by faith, the faith that God has instilled within them. They learn to trust God and to wait upon Him. They learn to suffer their circumstances, to be afflicted. They learn that everything is done for a reason—”all things work together for good to them that love God” (Romans 8:28). Therefore, the child of God learns and realizes that even difficult times and trials and tribulations and difficult periods in the believer’s life are there to help them. God has placed those difficult times there to make someone trust in Him and the Word of God all the more, and it all works out for the good of the sinner; it all works out to the glory of God.

When God places these trials and tribulations in someone’s life, it is a test. It is a real test for the individual—will you trust God? Will you cast your cares upon Him and be anxious for nothing (1 Peter 5:7, Philippians 4:6)? Will you beseech the Lord that He would strengthen you to make it through the trial? Or will you become bitter? Will you become angry with God? Will you complain and murmur about the situation and about your circumstances, whatever they might be? This is failing the test; this is giving evidence that someone is not a child of God.

These men that God is speaking of in the book of Jude were not saved men, so they were murmurers and complainers walking after their own lusts. The phrase that God uses here is very interesting—these men who crept in unawares and were definitely not saved were “walking after their own lusts.” We find that same phrase in 2 Peter 3. In the early part of the chapter, God is discussing the flood. Let us read verses 2-3, which say:

That ye may be mindful of the words which were spoken before by the holy prophets, and of the commandment of us the apostles of the Lord and Saviour: Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts,

That is the identical word “walking,” and this is the identical phrase that we have in Jude. The murmurers and the complainers are walking after their own lusts, and God says, “There shall come in the last days…” Therefore, it is not just national Israel or the Jews who are scoffers and mockers and murmurers walking in their own lusts, but it is those who are members of the New Testament churches and congregations as well. More than that, those who are members of the churches in the last days can refer to the whole New Testament era, but it also has application to the final days of the church’s existence during the Great Tribulation.

“There shall come scoffers, walking after their own lusts.” What does God mean by that? When are we walking after our own lusts? God speaks of the spiritual road that we travel and God discusses the Christian life as walking with God. For instance, what did God say of Enoch in Genesis 5? He said in Genesis 5:24:

And Enoch walked with God: and he was not; for God took him.

Enoch walked with God. He did the will of God; he did the commandments of God. Enoch was a true man of God, and he walked with God. He did not walk after his own lusts, but he walked in submission to the Word of God. This is in contrast to walking after one’s own lusts.

Let us look at Luke 1:6, which is speaking of Zachariah and Elisabeth, the parents of John the Baptist. We read:

And they were both righteous before God, walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless.

They did not walk after their own lusts, but they walked in the commandments and ordinances of the Lord. We could also look at Acts 9:31, which says:

Then had the churches rest throughout all Judaea and Galilee and Samaria, and were edified; and walking in the fear of the Lord, and in the comfort of the Holy Ghost, were multiplied.

This is what is contrasted by walking after their own lusts. These others, these souls whom God was dealing with and giving a new resurrected spirit and an ongoing desire to do the will of God, they walked in that desire of keeping the commandments of God and walking in the fear of the Lord.

However, when someone is not saved, when someone has not received a new spirit and a new soul and therefore does not have the desire to do the will of God implanted into their spirit, they walk after their own heart’s desires. What is coming out of their heart is nothing but lust; it is nothing but sin and rebellion, nothing but that which is contrary to the Word of God.

These men are in the churches. Out of their own minds and their own intellects they develop their doctrines, which are contrary to the doctrines of Christ and the doctrines of the Bible, and they walk in those doctrines. They, for instance, say today that you can be married, but for certain occasions and certain situations, you can be divorced. “It is Biblical,” they say, “to be divorced. You can divorce and you can even remarry.” They allow that in their doctrine.

So many in the churches today walk in this particular doctrine that has no Biblical basis whatsoever. The Bible says that once a man and woman are married, once God has joined them together, they become one flesh and man is not to put that asunder (Matthew 19:6). There is not to be divorce, there is not to be the putting away, and there is certainly not to be the remarriage of someone who has been divorced.

Yet the church has developed its own teaching, and they walk within the boundaries of that teaching. They have their guidelines; they have their particular “do and don’ts” within that doctrine that they have developed out of their own hearts, yet they are not walking in the commandments of God. They are not walking in the fear of the Lord, but after their own lusts. We could, of course, look at many doctrines that the church has erroneously developed from the Bible, and we could see further how they are walking after their own lusts.

God says in 2 Peter 3:3-6:

Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts, And saying, Where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation. For this they willingly are ignorant of, that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the water: Whereby the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished:

They are willingly ignorant in their own teachings and doctrines. In this particular example, they were ignorant that there was a historical, worldwide flood that destroyed the earth and that destroyed man off the face of the earth except for Noah, his sons, and their wives. That is just an example of how these individuals can develop teachings that are contrary to the truth that is found in the Bible.

Jude verse 16 says:

These are murmurers, complainers, walking after their own lusts; and their mouth speaketh great swelling words…

“Great swelling words”—what does God mean by that? What does He mean by “their mouth speaketh great swelling words”? Let us again go to 2 Peter, but this time, to chapter 2, which has much in common with the book of Jude. We read in verse 18:

For when they speak great swelling words of vanity…

Once again, there is the same phrase, the same wording that we have in Jude—”when they speak great swelling words of vanity.” Is not God wonderful as He writes the Bible? Is not God magnificent as He gives us this type of language? Only God could write the Bible and use these words that are so descriptive and picturesque. As we picture these false prophets, they are boasting and they are speaking great words that are causing them to swell up in their pride and in their arrogance. It is seems as though they are really declaring great truths from the Bible.

Yes, you can see them in their tent meetings as they gather great crowds around them. No one said that a false teacher could not be dynamic. No one said that someone who is not bringing the truth could not be exciting or tremendously talented as they preach the Gospel; that is, talented in their ability to draw men’s attention to themselves and to their words. They can use the vocabulary very well and they can speak their particular language, the English language, in such a way that they have men captivated. People are just listening and thinking, “Oh, what a wonderful preacher he is!”

However, many of these poor souls are missing the fact that he has not said anything that is true to the Bible whatsoever. These preachers have not said anything that has any Biblical basis or fact at all. They have basically invented a story, and they are telling a tale. They are quite a storyteller; they speak great swelling words of vanity. These are words of vanity because they are empty words. They are like clouds and winds without rain. You see a wonderful appearance and you think that there is going to be a thunderstorm and that the sky is going to burst and the rain is going to pour out, but there is no water; there is no rain.

So it is when you find yourself listening to these men. You might happen to have an understanding of the Bible and you are listening for the meat of the Gospel and for the bread and the water that will spiritually feed and nourish the hearers. You listen and listen, and they might tell a very interesting anecdote or a story that keeps your attention. You might be captivated with their mannerisms so that you cannot look away from them. You might feel that this is tremendous, that you are certainly learning something. You must be, because here you are listening to the Gospel like you have never listened before.

Yet at the end, when the sermon is through, when he has preached for his thirty minutes, what was there? You could honestly take your notebook and write down, “Now what did he say? Where is the Gospel in this? Where is the whole counsel of God in what this person was declaring from the Bible?” However, you are not going to find it. It is like a puff of smoke; it is vanity; it is empty. It is void of any real Gospel truth and void of any real Gospel blessing. There is absolutely no blessing of God.

It is like watching a TV show, something that entertains for a period of time yet at the end, you are left with nothing. You are no better off than you were before you turned it on, except that you wasted a half-hour. That is the point that God is saying—they speak great swelling words of vanity. Then He goes on in 2 Peter 2:18:

…they allure through the lusts of the flesh, through much wantonness, those that were clean escaped from them who live in error.

They allure through the lusts of the flesh; they are walking in the lusts of the flesh. This is where their allurement lies. They are trying to snare others into the same trap that they themselves have fallen into. It is like a fisherman casting his bait—that is called a lure, is it not? You put your bait on the hook and you try to lure the fish onto your hook. That is exactly what happens with false teachers of false gospels—they allure. There is something exciting here that is particularly titillating and particularly interesting. It is drawing not the spirit but your flesh; it is drawing the natural man. The natural man is very excited by this kind of a gospel, so he is allured. His intellect has been touched so that now he is interested in this sort of a gospel, or whatever it might be.

We see what a great allurement they have in verse 19, which says:

While they promise them liberty, they themselves are the servants of corruption…

This is the great bait, the great snare, of our day. So many preachers and teachers and elders and pastors and deacons allure the members of the congregations in this fashion. “Here you are,” they say. “Here is liberty and freedom from your sin; here is salvation from the bondage of sin and from being under the wrath of God. We can guarantee your salvation. We promise that if you follow these steps and confess that you are a sinner and say the sinner’s prayer and accept Christ and walk down the aisle, then you will be a child of God. We guarantee it—God is not a liar; He is not teasing anyone. God has promised, so we promise on God’s behalf that if you do this or that or this little bit of work, then God will do the rest and you will become a child of God.”

What a lie all that is; what a terrible falsehood all that is. They are promising liberty and freedom and eternal life, yet God says that they themselves are the servants of corruption. They lack that liberty that they promise to others, they lack that freedom from sin, and they lack that eternal life that they are guaranteeing to others. How can anyone whom they bring their gospel to, therefore, find salvation? Unfortunately, they will not.

God is letting us know that these men are under His wrath, under the severe judgment of God, and on their way to Hell. Furthermore, many of their hearers are going to join them unless God has mercy, unless He redirects them, unless He turns them from going down this broad road that leads to destruction and leads them to the narrow way of the true Gospel of the Bible (Matthew 7:13-14). Could it be that God might lead many of these poor souls away from the path that they are traveling on in these churches and congregations that we have in our world today! One way that God is using today to get people away from those kinds of gospels is to get them out of the church. He is through with the church; He is not using the church any longer. This serves the wonderful purpose of removing someone from the hearing of these types of sinful teachings.

We are not going to finish verse 16 at this time. Next time, Lord willing, we will look at the last part, which says:

…having men’s persons in admiration because of advantage.

That is an oddly-worded statement that God is making, and we will try to understand it and see exactly what it is that God has in mind.