Summary:
Jude 11 pronounces woe on three ungodly men, the first of whom is expounded on in this sermon. Three main characteristics of an ungodly man, taken from the example of Cain:
(1) Having merely an appearance of godliness
(2) Serving oneself, not serving God
(3) He insists on walking in his own lusts

Great men of faith in the Bible often come in groups of three. One example would be Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Another example is found in Ezekiel 14. There are three righteous men there - Noah, Job and Daniel. On the other hand, there’s a group of three ungodly men in the Bible!

Before we take a look at who they are, let’s take a look at Jude 15.

‘to execute judgment on all, to convict all who are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have committed in an ungodly way, and of all the harsh things which ungodly sinners have spoken against Him.’

This verse can be said to be the most ungodly verse in the Bible. The English Bible uses the word ‘ungodly’ 4 times and the Chinese Bible 3 times. The original language uses it 4 times.

What is the purpose of God’s judgement? It’s to convict the ungodly of their ungodly deeds, which they have committed in an ungodly way. This group of people are considered ungodly sinners.

What is our first impression when we read this particular verse? Very often we think to ourselves, this group of people has nothing to do with me. Even if I were not the most godly man, I’m not like these ungodly people. But if you read Jude, you’ll realise that this group of ungodly people are not outside the church. They are actually within the church. And they are characterised by three ungodly men in the Old Testament.

Jude 11

‘Woe to them! For they have gone in the way of Cain, have run greedily in the error of Balaam for profit, and perished in the rebellion of Korah.’

If Noah, Daniel and Job were the three righteous men of the Old Testament, then these three people would be the three great ungodly men of the Old Testament. The first is Cain, then Balaam, and the third, Korah.

Why are they grouped together? What do they have in common?

Firstly, all three of them had something to do with God in the beginning.

Cain was a worshipper of God. Balaam was originally a prophet of God. And of course, Korah was of the tribe of Levi. They were not people who had nothing to do with God.

Secondly, God actually gave all three of them many opportunities to repent.

Thirdly, these three ungodly men forsook the right way and went astray.

For this sermon, we will take a look at the first character, Cain.

What is the way of Cain? In Jude 11 it says, ‘Woe to them for they have gone in the way of Cain.’ Cain walked a particular way. What was that way?

First Characteristic of Cain’s Way: Having an appearance of godliness

Gen 4 tells of Cain’s story.

We are all familiar with Cain’s story. Cain was not one who did not have a r/s with God. Cain was the firstborn of Adam. Luke 3 tells us that Adam himself was the son of God. Naturally, Cain was also born of the son of God. Because in Genesis, the lineage of those who worship God were considered the sons of God. Here, it tells us that he was also a worshipper of God.

Gen 4:3

And in the process of time it came to pass that Cain brought an offering of the fruit of the ground to the LORD.

He was the first person recorded to have offered a sacrifice to God.

V4 mentions his brother Abel, who also brought of the firstborn of his flock and the fat. We know here that Cain was not compelled by anyone to offer.

Nobody put a gun to the head of Cain and forced him to offer. He did it voluntarily just like Abel did. Their aims seemed to be the same as well. It seemed that Cain also wanted to please God. Otherwise why would he bring an offering to the Lord?

What they offered to God also had very close similarities. They took what they had earned from their livelihood to offer to God. From a superficial perspective, both of them looked to be doing the same thing. But God’s response was completely different.

Gen 4:4

And the LORD respected Abel and his offering, but He did not respect Cain and his offering. And Cain was very angry, and his countenance fell.

Why was Cain’s offer rejected?

Recently the speaker read about a Roman emperor Julian, grandson of the famous Constantine. He was the last non-Christian Roman emperor. In fact, the emperor read this particular story about Cain. After he read the story of Cain and Abel, he concluded God acted unpredictably. This was probably why he never converted to Christianity in the end.

Today, if you read what some bible academics say about this story, some of them are quite ridiculous. Some say, God is actually complicit in Abel’s murder, because God never explained why he didn’t accept Cain’s offering which resulted in abel’s death. Of course this interpretation is not according to the Bible. Though the story is short, it is very clear that God is not acting unpredictably.

V7

‘If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin lies at the door. And its desire is for you, but you should rule over it.”’

The bible does not explicitly say what he had not done well. But God had judged here that he had not done well. In other words, he was ungodly. Could God accept the offering of one who is ungodly? And if we were to examine their offerings more closely, we will notice that indeed, Cain had not done well.

Let’s first take a closer look at what Abel offered.

‘Abel also brought of the firstborn of his flock and of their fat.’

This was exactly what the Mosaic law demanded.

Num 18:17

‘But the firstborn of a cow, the firstborn of a sheep, or the firstborn of a goat you shall not redeem; they are holy. You shall sprinkle their blood on the altar, and burn their fat as an offering made by fire for a sweet aroma to the LORD.’

Here tells us that the firstborn and their fat must be burned by fire to offer to the Lord. Abel had offered what the Lord had required.

What about Cain? The bible says that Cain brought an offering of the fruit of the ground. Maybe not the rotten ones, but the bible says just an offering of the fruit of the ground. It’s not even the best of the harvest. What is the best of the harvest?

Num 18:12

All the best of the oil, all the best of the new wine and the grain, their firstfruits which they offer to the LORD, I have given them to you.

The firstfruits are the best. Clearly, Cain did not offer even the best of his harvest. But Abel offered the best of his flock to God. We also notice that people who read the book of Genesis or people who’d receive the law would notice that Cain’s offering was lacking something. Abel offered a blood sacrifice, Cain did not. Of course, one can argue that at that time, the law had not been given. This is true. But how did Abel know how to offer up what was required in the law? Did Abel come up with it himself? Of course not. Hebrews tells us that there is no remission of sins without the shedding of blood. This is a universal law. If we read about the men of faith even before the law was given, all of them offered burnt offerings to God. Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Job. Even Job offered burnt offerings for his children every morning. Job knew that these burnt offerings had to do with the forgiveness of sins.

When we compare Abel and Cain, we immediately see the differences in their offerings. One gave the best of his flock, one just gave an offering from the fruit of the ground. One gave a blood sacrifice required by God, the other did not give a blood sacrifice that was required by God. We learn that he had the appearance of godliness but did not have actual substance.

Jude 12

These are spots in your love feasts, while they feast with you without fear, serving only themselves. They are clouds without water, carried about by the winds; late autumn trees without fruit, twice dead, pulled up by the roots;

They are clouds with water. When you see clouds gathering you think there would be rain. Suddenly you notice that the clouds gather but there is no rain. Likewise, Cain also seems to be worshipping God, but his heart was not really devoted to the worship of God. What about our worship? We may seem to be worshiping God but are we truly worshipping God? We may seem to be praying but are we really praying to God? The speaker recalls of a youth who seemed to be praying earnestly for the Holy Spirit but was actually playing table tennis vigorously in his mind.

We may seem to be godly but are we actually ungodly? Does our worship have merely an appearance of godliness?

The second characteristic of Cain’s way: Serving himself not serving God.

How do we know?

Let’s look at how Cain responded to God’s rejection.

Gen 4:5

And Cain was very angry, and his countenance fell.

Obviously, he was angry and unhappy that his offering had not been accepted. But we have to dig a bit deeper. Why was he unhappy that his offering had not been accepted? There are many reasons why people get angry. Sometimes you become angry when you put in effort but don’t get the result. In fact the Bible has this particular example regarding David. But was Cain like David? Let us compare Cain’s anger to the anger of David.

2 Sam 6:8

‘And David became angry because of the LORD’s outbreak against Uzzah; and he called the name of the place Perez Uzzah to this day.’

The English bible uses the phrase, ‘David became angry’. He wasn’t just flustered but actually angry. Here it tells us that God struck down Uzzah when he was transporting the ark. David’s response was anger. Why? If we think about it, we can understand David’s anger. He had the desire to bring the ark of God to him. He had the right heart as well. He simply wanted to be close to the ark of God. And then, he put in all the effort to transport the ark. V1 says he gathered 30,000 men. V5 tells us that they played all kinds of music before the Lord. Let’s imagine how grand the procession was! David had the utmost desire to put in the utmost effort but did not get the result he wanted. Because his method was wrong. He should not have transported it using the cart but instead should have asked the Levites to transport it. But he didn’t know at this time that he had done something wrong. He was angry because his utmost effort did not produce the result he wanted.

Was Cain also angry because he was like David? Definitely not. David had the heart, but you notice that Cain did not really have the heart. David put in the utmost effort to transport the ark but Cain did not put in his utmost effort.

David was angry. But v9 says he was still thinking about how to bring the ark of God to him. How can the ark of the Lord come to me? David was still obsessed with bringing the ark of God to him but just did not know how to do it. What about Cain? Cain actually knew what he had to do. “If you do well, will you not be accepted? It shows that Cain was not really interested in having his offering accepted by God. That was not the ultimate goal of Cain. This was the ultimate goal of David. What did Cain actually want? It was the appearance of godliness. He had a facade of godliness. From an outward appearance he seemed to be a godly man. What he was doing didn’t really seem different from what his brother was doing. But when his offering was not accepted, this facade was torn down. If God did not accept his offering, this image would be in vain.

“You come to church, I also come to church.” “You pray and I also pray.”

We seem to be doing the exact same things. Others might be mistaken that we are also the same. “If you are a godly man, then others might think I am also a godly man.” But whether the heart is evil they don’t know. What we really want is revealed only when our facade is torn down.

There are a few examples in the Bible where they responded differently when their facade was torn down.

One example is David, when David’s facade was torn down by Nathan. When he was commenting on the story Nathan was telling before Nathan pointed out that he had been talking about David, David was very righteous and said, ‘how can this person do this thing? He deserves to die.’ But when Nathan pointed out that he had been talking about David, his facade was now torn down.

How did he respond? David is clearly a man who wanted to please God. He truly repents. Because godliness is what he actually wants. What he didn’t realise was that he had been ungodly at that point in time. It was just a facade of godliness that he had put up. When Nathan tore it down, he immediately repented.

The other character is Saul. He also had his facade torn down. And when Samuel exposes Saul and starts to leave, Saul actually asks Samuel to stay behind so ‘he may worship the Lord your God!’ But worshipping God was not actually what Saul was concerned with. He told Samuel, “honour me before the elders of Israel!” All that Saul was concerned with was his image and his honour, and not the worship of God. At least Saul could convince Samuel to stay behind and preserve his facade.

But when God rejected Cain and his offering, he was completely exposed. His godly facade was now completely torn down. Now everyone knew that he was not a godly man. That’s why he was angry, because he was humiliated. Humiliation and shame can turn to anger. He was actually serving himself and not God. This is also what Jude says about ungodly men.

Jude 12

These are spots in your love feasts, while they feast with you without fear, serving only themselves.

You eat in the love feast and they also eat in the love feast. But the ungodly man is actually serving his own self interest. Cain was exactly the same. He was serving himself. What about us? Are we truly serving God ? Or are we serving our self interests?

The final characteristic of an ungodly man: to insist on walking in his own lusts.

The ungodly man is also a very sensual person.

Jude 19

These are sensual persons, who cause divisions, not having the Spirit.

What is a sensual person? This is how they think: “Everything is about me and how I feel.” He is not concerned about what God thinks about him. And therefore we see that Cain is not just angry, he is very angry. Why? Because it wasn’t just that he was rejected, but that his brother’s offering was accepted. So he became jealous. Because his shame was now magnified. If his brother’s offering had not been accepted it wouldn’t have been as bad. Because when both don’t have something that is still tolerable. But when you have something and I don’t have it, then I will be jealous because I want what you have. It was actually a double blow to Cain because he was angry at his brother.

Was his anger justified?

When God asked him why he was angry, it was for him to reflect on his anger. Was it justified? Of course not. It was entirely his own fault that his offering was rejected. Was his anger toward Abel justified? Of course not. The entire situation had nothing to do with Abel. Was his anger a result of God doing something wrong? If we take a look at Genesis 4, of how God spoke to Cain, we see that God did not even mention his brother. Sometimes parents do this - comparing siblings. But take a look at how God spoke to Cain. God avoids all mention of Abel. He knows that Cain is very angry because of Abel. So God does not bring Abel into the picture at all. God never compares Cain to Abel at all. God addresses Cain directly. “If you do well will you not be accepted?” He didn’t say, “if you do well like your brother will you not be accepted?

“If you do not do well”, - God referred to Cain and Cain only. Sin lies at your door. In this entire situation God was actually trying to turn him back. But did he listen to God? Of couse not. A sensual person is not concerned whether he is right or wrong. He feels that his anger is forever justified. All of us have been angry before.

When the speaker’s daughter is angry (she gets angry easily), he asks her, “Can you be angry?” She always answers, “Yes!”

If we think about ourselves we also often think we can be angry. It’s just that a young child will speak her mind. Anger often comprises a few stages.

The first is the experience: what happened?

In this case, Cain’s offering was not accepted and Abel’s was.

The second part is the emotional response. Fury, anger.

The third one is the most important. We start to think. This will result in either a series of anger or we will stop being angry.

If we truly reflect on why we are angry, we will find that it’s not justified and will actually put out the anger. Then our anger will stop at this stage. But what about a sensual person? He feels that his anger is always justified. “I am right.” All he thinks about is ‘what can I do to make myself happy again?’ This is the ungodly man.

Jude 16, 18

walking according to their own lusts;
walk according to their own ungodly lusts

The way of Cain was to walk according to this own ungodly lusts. His anger moves on to the last stage. The fourth stage is the outburst. And Cain acted on his anger. We know the outcome was very violent. He killed his own brother. When you are angry, the quickest way is to remove the source of your anger. He felt that his brother Abel was the cause of his anger, so he removed his brother. When there is anger bursting in our hearts we have to be extremely careful. When we are angry, what we do will bypass our rationality. Sometimes we don’t even know what we are doing. That is why in Ephesians, Paul tells us, “be angry and do not sin.”

We have to be especially careful if we are always giving in to our anger and bursting out in anger. Because then we are like Cain walking according to his ungodly lusts. One day, we might regret the consequences of our actions.

In fact, Cain’s ending was a very sad one.

We know that God had given him many opportunities along the way. God’s rejection of Cain and his offering was not the end. Not doing well was not the end. He could do well the next time. Being angry was also not the end. He could still wrestle his anger and overcome it. Even after he acted on his anger, God still gave him one more chance. God asked him, “where is your brother Abel?” But he was unrepentant to the very end. Because the way of Cain is to walk his own way to the very end. God had no choice but to pronounce judgment.

Gen 4:12

‘When you till the ground, it shall no longer yield its strength to you. A fugitive and a vagabond you shall be on the earth.”’

Gen 4:14

‘Surely You have driven me out this day from the face of the ground; I shall be hidden from Your face; I shall be a fugitive and a vagabond on the earth, and it will happen that anyone who finds me will kill me.”’

Cain himself repeats, I shall be a fugitive and vagabond on the earth.

Gen 4:16

Then Cain went out from the presence of the LORD and dwelt in the land of Nod on the east of Eden.

The name “Nod” means “to wander”. Cain actually ended up in the ‘land of wandering’. He was originally a believer and worshipper of God. But he was driven away from the presence of God. His life could have been so much more. Now, he was a fugitive and a vagabond. This was the end of Cain’s way. It is a lonely life and a pitiful end.

Which way are we walking on? Is it the Lord’s way or is it Cain’s way?