How to Stay Strong When the World is Falling Apart (Jude 17-23)

In a world full of confusion, crisis, and collapsing values, how can you remain strong in your faith? In this episode, Pastor Chris Teien unpacks Jude 14–23 with timely insights on discerning truth from deception, standing firm in God’s love, and helping others hold on to hope. Discover how to guard your faith against spiritual shipwreck and become a lighthouse for others in the storm.

Link: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2285086/episodes/16845127

Key Points:

1. Remember that God Will Bring Judgment – Jude warns about false teachers who seem appealing but are spiritually dangerous. Like hidden reefs, they cause destruction beneath the surface. God will ultimately judge ungodliness (Jude 14–15; 2 Peter 2:1; Romans 12:19).
2. Stay Alert and Stand Firm in the Truth – Be prepared for spiritual opposition. False teachers and scoffers will arise, but we must cling to the truth we’ve been taught (Jude 17–19; Acts 20:29–31; 2 Timothy 4:3).
3. Take Action to Strengthen Your Faith and Help Others – Build up your faith through prayer, the Word, and godly community. Show mercy to doubters and reach out to save others from spiritual danger (Jude 20–23).
4. Live with Eternity in View – Keep yourself in God's love while waiting for Christ's return. Trust in His mercy and share His hope with those still lost in darkness (Jude 21).

Stories
Pastor Chris shares how current events—like local mining layoffs and cultural unrest—can make the world feel like it’s falling apart. He also illustrates how even small deviations from truth can lead to spiritual disaster, drawing from personal experiences in boating and taxes.

Quotes

• “What looked like guidance was actually a trap—just like false teaching that seems helpful but leads to destruction.”
• “Satan masquerades as an angel of light and uses culture, entertainment, and even relationships to pull you away from God.”
• “If you’ve shipwrecked your life, don’t stay stuck. Accept Jesus’ forgiveness and move forward with a new lease on your spiritual life.”

Takeaways

1. Are there areas in your life where you’re following a false light? Ask God for discernment.
2. Build your faith by spending time in prayer, Scripture, and community each week.
3. Share the truth of the gospel with someone who may be doubting or spiritually drifting.
4. Be a lighthouse—stand firm in God’s truth and guide others toward safe harbor in Christ.

Scripture

• Jude 14–23 – Judgment on the ungodly, mercy for doubters, and a call to snatch others from danger.
• 2 Corinthians 11:14 – Satan masquerades as an angel of light.
• 2 Peter 2:1 – False teachers will secretly introduce destructive heresies.
• Acts 20:29–31 – Paul’s warning about savage wolves from within the church.
• 2 Timothy 4:3 – People will seek teachers to suit their own desires.
• Romans 12:19 – “Vengeance is mine,” says the Lord.

Keywords
Jude Bible Study, False Teaching, Spiritual Discernment, End Times, Faith Strengthening, Christian, Perseverance, God’s Judgment, Standing Firm, Doubters

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The WELL Faith Podcast offers encouraging, Bible-based messages from Pastor Chris Teien and guests. New sermons are released every Sunday. Replay episodes are marked with an asterisk. Find us online at ChrisTeien.com and Rockwell.Church in Virginia, MN. Email comments to wellfaith24@gmail.com

Transcript

Chris T 0:16

Alright, so we even got to sing the lighthouse song today, so that was pretty cool because for this series in Jude, I've had lighthouses, and I'll even have lighthouses next week. I actually did finish the message last week, and I said I would jump in to point number five last week, which is point number one this week. But Jude is Jesus' half-brother. He's writing a book to alert people that there are false teachers among them, that they are teaching dangerous things, that you may really like them. They might be saying things that you like to hear, but they're not true. And it's harmful. And you need to be aware that if you follow after them, you could shipwreck. Paul said that you could shipwreck your faith. So the storms of life. How to stay strong when the world is falling apart. Does it seem like the world is falling apart now that our main industry up here, mining, 650 or so workers are given the notice that there could be layoffs, they could be for a while. I was talking to another pastor who said that it's been quite a while since there's been layoffs of all the mines, but just the thought of not having your job, the thought of, yeah, all the bad things that you can think of happen. On the other hand, God could do a good thing. God could take someone's anxiety and drive them to Jesus, in which the person gets saved and then they grow in their faith, and then for the rest of their life and all eternity, they know Jesus because they went through a hard time, but the world falling apart. Maybe you think the world is falling apart because of politics or finances or health issues or the price of eggs, or there's just so many things that you can think of that make you think. Relationships falling apart. So many things that you can think of that could cause you to be anxious. But we just want to look at what this passage in Jude says. In my Bible, the one that's most worn, the Bible that I've read the most, I don't have a whole lot of underlining in the book of Jude. Towards the end, I do, especially when it talks about snatching people from the flames. I like that part. That's the firefighter rescue verse for all Christians. And we're going to look at that today. I want to, I want to know what God has to say. I want to know what Jude's message was to the believers around the world. I want to know how that works. So in the midst of wars and rumors of wars and global unrest, it seems to me that we are more race, our culture is more racially divided now than it's ever been. It's almost like they're trying to get everybody to hate each other. There are just so many things. Moral confusion, where what used to be shameful is now celebrated. It's the world we live in, really does seem like it's fallen apart. And I read this great illustration, this great preacher's illustration illustration. And so I'm going to share it and then I want to analyze it for a minute. Okay. So in the early centuries, especially along rugged and dangerous coastlines, there existed a group of criminals known as wreckers. These men would light lanterns along cliffs near the sea, pretending to offer safe harbor. Ship captains, seeing the lights from a distance, believed they had found refuge from the storm. But those lights were a lie. They had been placed intentionally to mislead. Drawn by the glow of the light of a safe harbor, the ships would steer straight toward the hidden reefs beneath the surface, the result shipwreck, destruction, and loss of life. Once the vessels crashed, the wreckers would plunder the remains, looting the cargo and valuables. So what looked like guidance was actually a trap. And that kind of fits along with what Jude said about hidden reefs. We'll look at that in a second. But so think that story through for a minute. If it's truly a ship with a knowledgeable captain, are they really gonna fall for that? When you think of a lighthouse and the brightness of the lamp compared to lanterns, would they really fall for it? On the other hand, when you think about false lights and false things that lead you on, there can be truth to that because the Bible says in 2 Corinthians 11 14 that Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light. So what were the ship captains looking for? In the midst of the storm, they are looking for a safe harbor. So it could be that this story is myth, or it could be that it happened once or twice. So some say that along the coast, maybe Florida, in the reefs, that they would put lights on donkeys and lead them along to give the idea to the ship captain that there were other ships in port and that they were moving around and they had found safe harbor. So books have been written, and many people find that overall this is probably a legend. A legend that one maybe makes people fearful or makes people that live along the coast look greedy and evil. Because ships did wreck on the coast, and many of the villagers would go take whatever they wanted out of the ship thinking it was their right, you know, finders, keepers, losers, weepers. And so you think about that story, and it's like, okay, I could see how that could happen. But when I also think about Satan wreck masquerading as an angel of light, there are people that are faith wreckers. Faith wreckers that twist scripture enough to pull you away from God, to get you off of the true course of faith, to think that through appeal or logic or desire or deception that God owes you things, that God is there to just bless you, that there shouldn't be any obstacle in your way, that you should be the head and not the tail, that you should be first in everything, because God is there to bless you, bless you, bless you, heal you. And if it's not happening, something is wrong with you. And then you go through all that and you're like, well, God must not be real or God must not care about me because that's not working out the way that you said. Faith wrecker, Satan wants to do everything he can to destroy your faith and to pull you away. And he uses culture, entertainment, reasoning, books, and even relationships to pull you away. There are homewreckers. Home wreckers, people that go out of their way to destroy your marriage, to destroy your home, to destroy your family. Maybe they hate family, maybe they just are jealous that they don't have what you have. Maybe it's enticing to them. Maybe it's fun for a man or a woman to try to steal, try to steal your spouse and put them on the trophy shelf and move on as they are home wreckers. There is a lot of wrecking going on. And wrecking did happen, but it probably didn't happen the way the legend says. Matter of fact, John Beale, a retired U.S. Navy officer and author of A History of Wrecking in the Florida Keys, states that such tricks simply would not work. He points out that mariners interpret a light as indicating land, and so avoid them if they cannot identify them. Moreover, oil lanterns cannot be seen very far over water at night unless they are large, fitted with mirrors or lenses and mounted at a great height. In hundreds of admiralty court cases, no captain of a wrecked ship ever was charged that he had been led astray by a false light. And in the Bahamas, a wrecker said we wouldn't use lights, we used darkness, hoping to get lucky at night. So it could be a legend. Some people think that faith is a legend. Some people think that the Bible is a legend. Some people think that you can't trust the Bible because it's 2,000 years old. And then when they chose the canon, how do you know they chose the right things? So these are some things that I would like to look at while we look at this passage that has very interesting things in it. So my point number five, which is point number one this week, is remember that God will bring judgment. So in this only one chapter of a book, one of the smallest chapters in the Bible, Jude again is trying to warn the people against these false teachers. And he lists all of the different characteristics and all of the things that they do that are so terrible. As a matter of fact, in Jude 1, verse 12, it says, When these people eat with you in their in your fellowship meals, commemorating the Lord's love, they are like dangerous reefs that can shipwreck you. They are like shameless shepherds who care only for themselves. They are like clouds blowing over the land without giving any rain. They are like trees in autumn that are doubly dead, for they bear no fruit and have been pulled up by the roots. False teachers. Second Peter 2, verse 1 says, There will be false teachers among you. They will secretly introduce destructive heresies in their greed. These teachers will exploit you with fabricated stories. Stories like Jesus isn't the only way. You don't need to repent. Truth is whatever you decide it is, because God just wants you to be happy. And those are messages that people find very appealing. But we remember that God will bring judgment. Now we move in to a verse that's kind of interesting. I'll tell you why in a minute, but let me read it. Jude 14. So it's Jude chapter 1, verse 14. Enoch, remember, Enoch was taken by God. So one of the two that he and Elisha didn't die, God took him up to heaven. Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied about them. See, the Lord is coming with thousands upon thousands of his holy ones, to judge everyone and to convict all of them of all the ungodly acts they have committed in their ungodliness, and of all the defiant words ungodly sinners have spoken against him. So Enoch in Genesis 5, verse 21, known for walking with God and being taken to heaven without death. So here it talks about Enoch, and also in Hebrews 11:5, by faith Enoch was taken from this life so that he did not experience death. But what's troublesome about this verse passage is the fact that it can also be a quote from the from 1 Enoch 1 9, which is a popular Jewish writing between the testaments, though not part of inspired scripture. And you'd think, okay, wait, if Jude, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, quotes from the book of 1 Enoch, then therefore it probably must be a good book that we should probably add in. But there's all sorts of weird, wicked, evil stuff in the book of First Enoch that can't be trusted as Scripture. It talks about the Nephilim Nephilim and all of these different things. So it wasn't recognized as a true gospel, though it was quoted. Maybe it was common knowledge, maybe as Jude was making his point because it was well-known information. Maybe Jude threw it out there almost like if I were to quote Mark Twain or something. So I don't stand for or agree with everything Mark Twain has ever said, no, nor would I say that you should go read Mark Twain's books if you're looking for spiritual inspiration. Actually, there's certain authors and stuff that I kind of try to be careful not to quote because they cause controversy. So sometimes if I share a quote from an author or a life experience from a pastor who's got some questionable things, it doesn't mean that I wholeheartedly agree with everything the person has ever written or said or done. But what I'm quoting is something that I thought was thought-provoking or helpful or inspirational. And so I shared that. And so please don't cancel me if I quote from somebody that you don't agree with. So I think there's a lot of that. You take the good things because sometimes they're good quotes. Matter of fact, counterfeit teachers often will be 90, 95, 98% true, and you know, five, two, one percent false. And it's just that small percentage that causes the issue. So I don't know a whole lot about boating, but my father-in-law was part of what they called the Minnetonka Power Squadron, and they taught safe boating on Lake Minnetonka. And I remember we were heading out with him to Madeline Island, and I couldn't see the island when we left the shore. I didn't, he knew where it was. But so if you're heading out that direction and any big body of water, and you're only like 1% or 2% off course, you'd like totally miss the island and totally go out of the way. And so that is the way that false truth is sometimes. All scripture is God breathed and useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness, that this portion, this section, this thing must have been something that Enoch said. So Enoch was a long time ago. So I don't know how he wrote a book in between the testaments. Somebody wrote a book and put his name on it. I'm sure that teaching was passed down, and I'm sure that Jude is quoting a truth, not the whole book, but ungodly. The ungodly acts is a life without reverence for God, openly disrespectful toward divine truth and morality. So three times in this verse it says ungodly to show the depth of their rebellion. Is there any part of your life that is in rebellion against God? Is there any part of your life that God is not welcome to be in, participate in, see that you need to repent in? Have you turned your life over to Jesus? Would you be considered a godly person because you're born again? Because when you receive Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, you receive the Holy Spirit. And so it is Jesus in you that makes you holy and godly. When you receive Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, you are adopted into God's family, adopted as a child of God. And when we remember that God will bring judgment when people stand against us, when people teach things that are wrong, when people mock us or criticize us, we know that eventually God's going to make things right. Vengeance is mine, says the Lord. And someday God will make all things right. We can trust in his justice. We can trust in his judgment. Now, because I love people, I don't want them to face God's judgment. I want them to find forgiveness and to be able to experience being in God's eternal presence, the forgiveness that comes with that, and the life change that comes with that. So we can trust. In verse 16, Jude gives some characteristics of these people that are basically in the church that are doing bad things. And I hope that nobody here would be on a list like this. But on this list, Jude writes, These people are grumblers and fault finders. They follow their own evil desires, they boast about themselves and flatter others for their own advantage. Grumblers, those who murmur or mutter in discontent, especially against God's authority. Grumblers complain continually, doubting God's sovereignty, undermining spiritual leaders, and weakening church unity. And I think even in our church covenant, it says, you know, that if you're going to be a member of this church, you can't do that. That's not helpful for anybody. It kind of like destroys everything. So if you find somebody's doing that, come alongside of them and say, Do you realize that you have a really bitter attitude toward everything? And so maybe you should talk to the church leaders or talk it through or pray about it and see what it is that's making you so angry, making you so bitter, making you a grumbler and a fault finder. A fault finder is a chronic complainer who always finds something wrong, never satisfied, and it tears down unity and discourages the truth. And if you get people in the church that are all bothered, point you point it out to them through your grumbling and fault finding how terrible everything is, more than likely, they'll either try to divide the church or they'll leave the church or they'll just walk away from Christianity altogether. It's a very unhealthy thing. And they follow their own evil desires. They did whatever evil they felt like doing. So they had strong cravings, often sinful, of lust, greed, power, and were driven by impulse, not godliness. They did whatever they want. 2 Timothy 4.3 says, to suit their own desires, they will gather around themselves teachers that will tell them what their itching ears want to hear. Well, you can do that on YouTube now. My goodness. You can find anybody that says anything that you want to hear. I wasn't looking for a false teaching, but I was doing my taxes this week. And if you're a pastor, taxes are very strange because you're considered an employee of the church, but for social security purposes, you're considered self-employed, which means that while the average person pays like 7.65% Social Security, the pastor pays 15.3%. And so if you can get any deductions off of that, so you don't have to pay so much, that's good. So I looked on tax, I looked in tax books and I looked online and I watched some videos, and there are some people that said you could deduct this. And other people said, no, you can't deduct that. And it was back and forth. And I have a professional tax guy in Ohio, and finally I got a hold of him. I'm like, hey, people say this, people say that. What do you think? Can I deduct this? And he asked me a couple of questions. He's like, yeah, you can deduct that. I'm like, all right, awesome. He's a really nice guy, too. So if it's not right and we go to jail together, we're gonna have a great time. But you look for people that affirm what you want to hear. But when it comes to marriage, when it comes to relationship, when it comes to faith, when it comes to living a life that pleases God, you can't afford to be wrong. You can't afford to be chasing after the wrong things. And if you're gonna teach other people, if you're gonna disciple them, if you're gonna help them to grow in their faith, you definitely can't be afraid or you can't be doing teaching what's wrong. So you don't want to be a grumbler or a fault finder, you don't want to follow your own evil desires, you don't want to boast about yourself and flatter others for their for your own advantage. So to be a boastful flatterer, speaking arrogant things, showing favoritism for personal gain. So loudmouth braggarts, they were boastful men, swollen with pride, one commentary says. They denied Christ and spoke against him with bombastic words, with erroneous doctrine, spoken loudly with hopes of impressing others and making a name for themselves. So flattering, I had a human resources lady at one place I worked, and she was always like, flattery will get you everywhere. And maybe flattering can be good, but Proverbs 26, 28 says, A flattering mouth works rune. Romans 16, 17 says, watch out for those who cause division by smooth talking, flattery. Flattery. So it's really important that we tell our, if we're married, we tell our spouse how much we love them over and over and over again. Many times people go to work and they find somebody, like a woman goes to work and finds a guy, or a guy goes to work and finds a woman who tells him how good he looks and laughs at his jokes and shows him just care. Maybe the kind that he doesn't get at home. Maybe between the kids and all the stress of life and everything, maybe that part of filling up the love cup has been forgotten. And then someone goes off to work, and maybe they don't have a physical affair, maybe they have an emotional affair, or maybe they do stupid things like say, Oh, this is my work husband or this is my work wife. It's like, no, if you're married, you don't have those. And so to make sure that type of flattery isn't going to destroy your marriage. There are kids that are desperate for love. And so they don't hear at home how much they're loved, how much they're cared for. And you know, this teenager, this teenage boy, some girl comes along and says how great he is and how much they love each other and all this stuff, and that it can lead to a relationship that is happening too early. It can lead to a relationship that's not healthy, that is not good. So flatter others for their own advantage. Number two, stay alert and stand firm in the truth. So stay alert and stand firm in the truth. So in Jude 17, dear friends, remember what the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ foretold. So here we have this compassion where Jude is saying, friends, we're in a relationship here. I care about you, friends. Remember what the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ foretold. So he said that these difficulties, these things, these false teachers, it was foretold in Acts verse 20, in Acts chapter 20, verse 29. Paul is writing this thing, he's about He thinks that he's going to be killed for his faith and all these difficulties and everything. So it's kind of a goodbye passage. You can read that in Acts 20, verse 23 through 31, but right now I'll just read verse 29. He says, I know that after I leave, savage wolves will come in among you and will not spare the flock. Even from your own number, men will arise and distort the truth in order to draw away disciples after them. In 2 Peter 3, 2, I want you to recall the words spoken in the past by the holy prophets and the command given by our Lord and Savior through our apostles. So to know what was being taught, so that you know what to expect. So we may face more persecution than ever in the future, and we should expect it, because we have been told, we have been warned in Scripture that it will happen. In the next verse, Jude says, This is what they said to you in the last days and the last times there will be scoffers who will follow their own ungodly desires. So the last times is anything from the time that Jesus ascended into heaven until the time he returns. So that is now. And people will scoff, people will talk against us, people will chase after things that are not spirit-led and are self-serving, and that will cause troubles as they follow those things. Scoffers, Greek. Those who mock the truth, mock holiness, and treat God's word with contempt. So don't be surprised. Don't be surprised when people mock you, when people speak against you. Expect it, be prepared for it, pray for them, and see it as an opportunity to help lead them to the Lord. Maybe some of those people who are very vocal about their objection to Christianity are open to hearing a solution to reasons for your faith. Be ready to share that. Be ready to be used by God to make a difference in their life. Next verse. These are the people who divide you, who follow mere natural instincts and do not have the spirit. So there are false teachers in the church teaching religious things that aren't true, that do not have the spirit of God. And the Bible says that if you don't have the spirit, you're not a Christ follower, so therefore you're not saved. So these are religious adversaries. These are people trying to pull you away. These are being used by Satan who is seeks to appear to be good as an angel appears as an angel of light, trying to deceive you, trying to pull you away. Number three, take action to strengthen your faith and help others. Take action to strengthen your faith and help others. So you are remembering the truth that you've been taught. You expect opposition, you're living a spirit-led life, and now you're strengthening your faith and trying to help others grow in Christ. So, verse 20, you dear friends, by building yourselves up in your most holy faith and by praying in the Holy Spirit. So we know these things. So we worship God, we pray in the Spirit in Jesus' name. So we seek not just to hear the word, but we seek to apply it to our lives, to understand it and to apply it to our lives. We try to surround ourselves with faith-building relationships. We try to find teachers and audiobooks and things that we can listen to that help us to grow in our faith. We remember God's faithfulness in the past. We're faithful to give. We're faithful to share our faith and to invite people into a relationship with Christ and even to church, like your Easter invitations and your bulletin. We serve with humility and love and we endure trials with perseverance and hope. And those are good things. And verse 21 says, keep yourselves in God's love as you wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to bring you to eternal life. And that is our hope of the church. The hope that we have in the church is that this is just temporary time when we are faithful in this. Jesus will reward us. We'll spend the rest of eternity in Jesus' presence. Life is going to be so much better once we get past this. It reminds me of high school. I tell high schoolers this all the time. It's like high school is not a normal world. You will never have that much peer pressure in that controlled of an environment. Most likely you'll never have that kind of existence again. When you're an adult, you can make choices and have that freedom. But to keep yourselves in God's love as you wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to bring you to eternal life. Verse 22 says, Be merciful to those who doubt. So like I said, be kind to those people who are questioning, even those people that are scoffers, and give them answers for what you believe. Answers in Genesis gives a lot of good resources about evolution and things like that. And I'm going to talk more about this next week, too. But save others by snatching them from the fire, to others show mercy mixed with fear, hating even the clothing stained by corrupted flesh. That's actually that's actually my favorite verse in the whole book of Jude. So I'm going to talk more about that next week when we get together and talk about how to live in victory until Jesus returns. But I've said a lot of things, but more than anything, the important thing is to realize that you're in a spiritual battle, and Satan's going to do everything that he can to pull you away, to lead you astray, to try to get you to shipwreck your faith, to try to get you off course. He wants to destroy your life, he wants to destroy your family, he wants you to destroy your reputation. He wants to do everything he can to incapacitate you so you can't do good things for the kingdom of God. And maybe you have shipwrecked your life at some point, and maybe you have asked for forgiveness, and now you need to accept that forgiveness and move forward. Maybe you own the embarrassing, shameful things of the past and move forward and say, I'm not that person anymore. I've been forgiven. I'm moving forward with a new lease on my spiritual life. And those are good things. So if you've or if you're watching or you're here and you've never received Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, you need to acknowledge that you are a sinner in need of salvation, and Jesus already paid the price. But you need to place your faith in Jesus to turn from sin, run towards the things of God. And I encourage you to invite Jesus to forgive you of your sin and come into your life. And maybe you would pray something like this: Lord Jesus, I acknowledge that I'm a sinner and that you died on the cross, and that you rose again, and that you're alive today, and you can hear my prayer. Forgive me of my sin and come into my life. Save me, make me the person you created me to be. I want to follow you and live for you for the rest of my days in Jesus' name. And if you've done that, let us know so we can give you some resources to help you grow in the Christian faith. And so with that, the worship team will come up, and I'm going to pray again. Lord Jesus, it is so good to be able to read your word, to publicly proclaim your word that applies to our life, even though it was written 2,000 years ago. Lord help us now, when we see people that act like this among us, to be wise in the way we act toward outsiders, to be quick, to give a reason for our faith, to pray that you would empower us to do your will and your way, your work, and that you would do great things through this church and through these people in these last days. In Jesus' name, Amen.