In a culture filled with confusion, deception, and competing voices, the Book of Jude delivers a sobering warning that believers cannot afford to ignore. Jude 12–16 exposes the dangerous nature of false teachers—hidden reefs beneath calm waters, shepherds feeding themselves, and wandering stars destined for darkness. In this Light on Life teaching, we confront the spiritual instability of our age and call believers back to one unshakable anchor: God’s secure Word. When emotions lie, culture shifts, and voices multiply, Scripture alone tells us where we are, where we’re going, and how to land safely. That’s why Jude is intense—because God is intense about protecting His people from spiritual disaster. Why Your Lifetime Commitment Should Be God’s Secure Word, that’s our focus on this week’s Light on Life.

This Week: Why spiritual survival depends on a lifetime commitment to God’s secure Word.

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Accept the Challenge

Each week’s podcast contains a call to action. The Word of God will not produce in your life unless you put into operation.
This weeks call is:

Stay Anchored. Stay Steady.

This week: Make God’s Word your final authority—not feelings, voices, or trends.

Remember this: A life anchored in Scripture will not drift when storms come.

Join the Conversation

Each week’s podcast also contains a question designed to encourage testimony. Testimony is vital to a believers life. We overcome by it (Rev. 12:11).
This week’s question is:

Question: What voices compete most strongly for your trust today? 

Share:

Share: How has God’s Word brought clarity or stability during confusion?

Remember:

You were never meant to drift—God gave you His unchanging Word to anchor your life and guide you safely through every storm.

About Emery

Emery committed his life to the Lord Jesus Christ over 49 years ago and has served as both a full-time pastor and an itinerant minister. Both he and his wife Sharon of 44 years emphasize personal growth and development through the Word of God. The ministry of the Holy Spirit is both the focus and the hallmark of their mission. Read more about them here.

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Podcast Notes:

• Well again, welcome.
• Let’s pray.

Father God grant unto us a mind for your Word and your Word only. Give unto our hearts eyes to see. Reveal to us by the Holy Spirit in our Spirits a knowledge of the Holy and the path to excellence in this Jesus walk you have called us to. We give you all the praise and glory for these things in Jesus’ Name, Amen.

God’s Secure Word: What’s Important?

Jude 12–16 (ESV) — 12 These are hidden reefs at your love feasts, as they feast with you without fear, shepherds feeding themselves; waterless clouds, swept along by winds; fruitless trees in late autumn, twice dead, uprooted; 13 wild waves of the sea, casting up the foam of their own shame; wandering stars, for whom the gloom of utter darkness has been reserved forever. 14 It was also about these that Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied, saying, “Behold, the Lord comes with ten thousands of his holy ones, 15 to execute judgment on all and to convict all the ungodly of all their deeds of ungodliness that they have committed in such an ungodly way, and of all the harsh things that ungodly sinners have spoken against him.” 16 These are grumblers, malcontents, following their own sinful desires; they are loud-mouthed boasters, showing favoritism to gain advantage.

• We have talked about the issue of false prophets and teachers in a number of podcasts.
• Jude, inspired by the Holy Spirit, talks about it and so that’s why we’re talking about it.
• So, why so much conversation on this subject?
• I mean if you read the entire letter of Jude, he just goes on and on about it.
• For one thing, one great principle in Bible interpretation is to match God’s intensity.
• Whatever you see Him repeat in the Bible should make you stand up and take notice.
• God’s secure Word must be, ought to be, should be the major in our thoughts.

God’s Secure Word As Your Instrument Panel

• Many years ago, 1982 to be exact, Clint Eastwood starred in a movie called FireFox where a retired American pilot is talked into the notion of stealing an ultra-high tech Soviet fighter jet.
• This fighter jet had the capability of connecting to the thoughts of the pilot.
• That’s what made it worth stealing in the eyes of the novelist who wrote the book.
• Of course, this is a novelist fantasy version – in 1982 this didn’t exist
• What did exist were the heads-up-displays that were installed in the planes high-tech cockpit.
• I know this to be so because at that time I was working for the Bendix corporation as a junior engineer and our prototype display was used in this movie.
• Again, we’re talking 1982.
• So, I enjoy military jets — I love seeing them do their thing which is why I am partial to the following true story of military pilot training.
• And with that thought, here is the Illustration of the Day.

Military flight instructors tell a story that has been used for decades in pilot training. It goes something like this. A seasoned pilot is flying at night through heavy cloud cover. There were no stars, no horizon, no city lights—nothing visible outside the cockpit. Everything is black. When conditions are like this, the seasoned pilot said, your senses will lie to you. Your inner ear will tell you that you’re flying level when you’re actually banking. Your body will tell you that you’re climbing when you’re really descending. Your instincts will insist you’re safe—right up until you aren’t. He said, “In that moment, there is only one thing that matters: the instrument panel.” Not your feelings. Not your experience. Not what you think is happening. The instruments tell you the truth whether you like it or not. If you trust your feelings over the instruments, you will crash. If you ignore the instruments because they contradict how you feel, you will crash. But if you trust the instruments—even when everything in you disagrees—you will land safely. He summed all of this up with one sentence: “In darkness, the instrument panel isn’t just helpful—it’s everything.”

• Now, if you want to verify this phenomenon, there is an entire article on the FAASaftey.gov website.
• You know anything.gov is an official United States government site.
• The article is called “It’s a Confusing World Up There.”
• Can I tell you, it’s a confusing world down here!
• The first paragraph in this .gov article has this heading: “Seeing Is Not Believing.”
• So that’s one reason we have the Word of God and, why it’s so vital to life on Planet Earth.
• All Jesus followers are flying through a world filled with darkness, confusion, deception, pressure, fear, and noise coming from all kinds of places.
• It affects your senses — they lie to you.
• They tell you that you’re flying level when you’re actually getting ready to crash.
• Your instincts will insist you’re safe—right up until you aren’t.
• “In that moment, there is only one thing that matters: your instrument panel, God’s Word.”
• You can’t trust your emotions — you have trust God’s Word.
• Culture is constantly redefined what they think truth is.
• You have to trust God’s secure Word.
• They have even gone to rewriting the history books now to try and confuse the lessons we should be learning from the past.
• It’s mighty dangerous – Stalin this, Hitler did this, Mao Tse Tung did this.
• So, you can’t go by your hearing.
• You can’t buy into what the world puts in front of you to read and see.
• So many in our world are simply lying to us, misleading us and putting our spinning heads into a nosedive.
• But God’s Word tells you where you are and, where you’re going.
• He’s unchangeable Word, and I’m so glad about that, shows how we can land our live’s safely when everything outside is dark.

Psalm 119:105 (ESV) — 105 Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.

• Mark it down, on Planet Earth, the Word of God isn’t just important—it’s your navigation system.
• “In darkness, the instrument panel isn’t just helpful—it’s everything.”
• Ignore it, and you will crash.
• So, Jude is super-intense about these false believers who are spitting a deceitful agenda.
• And God is more than equally intense about warning you of them because He doesn’t want His people crashing.

God’s Secure Word Informs us of Sixteen More False Prophet and Teacher Traits

• Jude has already talked about seven sins of false prophets and teachers.
• We looked at those seven.
• He has already addressed the way of Cain, the way of Balaam and the way of Korah as it relates to these false people.
• We looked at all three of those ways.
• Here in verses twelve to sixteen, Jude, motivated by the Spirit of God, intensely gives Jesus followers sixteen more descriptors to help keep us flying level.
• After reading all of this, your reaction should be WOW!
• Sixteen more?
• Yep! — Sixteen, and here they are.

Descriptors of False Prophets and Teachers

• Lacking reverence.
• Shepherds who only think of themselves.
• Waterless clouds.
• Swept along by winds.
• Fruitless trees in late autumn.
• Twice dead.
• Uprooted.
• Wild waves of the sea casting up the foam of their own shame.
• Wandering stars.
• Destined to eternal hell.
• Grumblers.
• Malcontents.
• Following their own sinful desires.
• Loud-mouthed boasters.
• Showing favoritism to gain advantage.
• What’s your reaction to the Lord giving us sixteen more traits for false prophets and teachers?
• Do you thing, He might be trying to get something over to us?
• I mean we have seven sins at the head, three negative lifestyles to compare to, Cain, Balaam, and Korah and now 16 more traits!
• Shouldn’t we be convinced that this is something we should watch for?
• Whatever God talk’s a lot about should be important in your eyes.
• Now generally, if you know the real, you can tell the false.
• But what the Lord did here is give us the real and the false to help us out.
• Are you convinced yet that your lifetime commitment must be to God’s secure Word?
• Can I tell you, reading these five verses in Jude starting at verse twelve, should empower your Word life and your prayer life.
• ‘Lord, give me a spirit of wisdom and revelation. Help me to know and see.
• Help me to spot the real from the false so that I might help others to stay flying the course that you have set for them.
• So, Jude said these false Jesus followers are.

Hidden reefs

Jude 12 (ESV) — 12 These are hidden reefs at your love feasts, as they feast with you without fear…

• Hidden reefs are rocks covered by water.¹
• That’s Titanic territory.
• These false teachers, with their hidden agenda, will crack the hull of your spiritual life.
• If you engage their material, if you reason with your head instead of your heart, you will sink.
• But, if you do as the writer of Proverbs said.

Proverbs 3:5–6 (ESV) — 5 Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. 6 In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths.

• The Hebrew word ‘understanding’ means the capacity for rational thought.
• Don’t lean on your capacity for rational thought to try and figure out the true from the false.
• Lean on the Holy Spirit in your spirit.
• The Holy Spirit in your spirit leads you and guides you into all truth and reality.
• He is the one true guide to safety.
• Get in the ark of God’s Word — shut the door to outside opinions and ride through the waters of many voices to dry land.
• The Word!, God’s Word!!, the Holy Infallible Word!!! is your path to security.
• Work the Word from the inside out — not from the outside in.
• You know I have come across listen well-meaning scholars who are work from the outside in.
• I believe that to be incorrect.
• Here’s what I mean by that.
• They will take an ancient piece of writing like a novel or a letter someone wrote or some fictional work that was discovered/uncovered.
• And they try to make imply that the Bible writers were influenced in their doctrine by these pieces of ancient fiction.
• That’s working from the outside in.
• And they will say, ‘See this is why the Bible writers were influenced because that’s what people were writing about at that time.
• In other words, this was the current opinion of the day.
• No, God’s Word spans generational opinions.
• False teachers work from outside the Bible and try to contaminate your thoughts with these outside references.
• “I had a dream, I had a vision,” these false people will say.
• These kinds of things are hidden reefs and that’s the first thing Jude mentions in verse twelve.

God’s Secure Word: False Believers Are Twice Dead

• Now, we have another descriptor.
• We won’t have time to do all sixteen.
• I encourage you to study some of the rest if this on your own.
• Jude says these false believers are ‘twice dead towards the end of verse twelve.’
• The phrase ’twice dead’ echoes from the pages of Genesis two.

Genesis 2:16–17 (ESV) — 16 And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, 17 but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”

• Twice dead — you see, that was Adam and Eve.
• God created the first man and women of Planet Earth spiritually alive.
• On the day that they sinned, they quit being spiritually alive — in fact, their spirits died.
• Nine hundred and thirty years later, Adam died physically.
• I say that because we have no record of how much time passed between the time God fashioned Adam in Creation to the day he sinned.
• But, it does appear that Satan’s sneaky snake encounter with the first humans of Planet Earth took place very quickly after they were created and placed in the Garden.
• The point is Adam died spiritually but remained alive physically for nine centuries after the fact.
• That’s what the Word of God means by ‘twice dead.’
• So, these false Jesus followers that Jude warns the Church about were ‘twice dead.’
• They were spiritually dead inside meaning they were not born again, they were not saved, Jesus was not their Lord.
• And of course because of the sin nature that was passed generationally by Adam and Eve, they were on a physical to death.
• This combination of being ’twice dead’ is the path to the judgment of spending eternity in a devils hell.

God’s Secure Word Matters

• Again, we are only covering two of these sixteen traits that Jude gives starting in verse twelve.
• Hopefully, you are seeing the need for God’s Word in your life in all of this.
• We need to stay close to the Word in these last days.
• Our need must be to stay focused on doing that same Word.

Scriptures on Doing the Word

• Now, we have many verses in God’s Word on ‘doing the Word.’
• These are His thoughts on the matter.
• God’s thoughts must become your thoughts.

James 1:22–25 (ESV) — 22 But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. 23 For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. 24 For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like. 25 But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing.

• How about?

Matthew 7:21 (ESV) — 21 “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.

• You can follow this up with Jesus teaching on building your house on the rock found just a few verses later in Matthew seven.
• Jumping out of Matthew and into John’s gospel, we have.

John 14:15 (ESV) — 15 “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.

• Do you love Jesus?
• I know you do and that means your future direction is certain because you are striving to be a doer of the Word.

1 Samuel 15:22 (ESV) — 22 And Samuel said, “Has the LORD as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the LORD? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to listen than the fat of rams.

• Are you convinced yet, I mean look at how many verses we have on this?
• If you’re not convinced, here’s another verse to feed on.

1 John 3:21–22 (ESV) — 21 Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence before God; 22 and whatever we ask we receive from him, because we keep his commandments and do what pleases him.

• And now for the win.
• Jesus the spotless Son of God said.

Luke 11:28 (ESV) — 28 But he said, “Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and keep it!”

• Game, set, and match.

Protecting Your Heart from the Winds of False Doctrine

• Okay, now you have decided to be in your Bible and to put into operation what God said to do.
• You have made God’s secure Word yours.

Joshua 1:8 (ESV) — 8 This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success.

• Constant meditation on God’s Word—keeping it in your thoughts day and night—creates the conditions for your life to prosper and have a successful life.
• Tripping over, or falling into false teaching is not the prosperous Jesus life and that’s why the Spirit of God made sure that we had the information that we needed to help us.
• Some of that information is in this letter that Jude wrote.
• One key to guarding your heart in this landmine of the false is this continual ‘meditating’ on God’s Word.
• The Hebrew word ‘meditate’ is the one we want to look at and, with that that thought, here is the Definition of the Day.
• The Hebrew word meditate means to coo, growl, mutter, read in an undertone, speak, utter, proclaim, muse, moan, to articulate, ponder by talking to oneself, to plan.
• It is the same word ‘growl’ used in Isaiah thirty-one.

Isaiah 31:4 (ESV) — 4 For thus the LORD said to me, “As a lion or a young lion growls over his prey, and when a band of shepherds is called out against him he is not terrified by their shouting or daunted at their noise, so the LORD of hosts will come down to fight on Mount Zion and on its hill.

• So, Isaiah says that a lion ‘growls’ over his prey.
• The Hebrew word ‘growls’ is the same word for meditate in Joshua 1:8.
• So actually, “a lion ‘meditates’ over his prey.”
• How does he do that?
• Well, the way of a lion is to catch some prey, kill it, eat it, and then, you watch it, they will growl over the remaining bones as they chew on them.
• It’s the same kind of sound a dog makes when you give them a bone.
• The dog becomes possessive of the bone and growls as he chews on it because he thinks you’re going to take it away.
• Both lions and dogs growl while chewing the bone.
• The point? Chew the Word.
• When you meditate the Word, when you mutter the Word under your breath, you are taking your cue from the real ‘King of the forest.’
• The King of the forest is our King, the Lord Jesus Christ.
• Now you will find this same Hebrew word ‘meditate’ used in another passage for another member of the animal world.
• Isaiah 38:14 says.

Isaiah 38:14 (ESV) — 14 Like a swallow or a crane I chirp; I moan like a dove…

• The word ‘moan’ used here in Isaiah 38:14 is, you guessed, the same word ‘meditate’ in Joshua 1:8.
• The moaning of a dove is the cooing sound of a dove.
• Bird people tells us that one of the purposes for a doves cooing sound is the defense of it’s territory.
• By cooing, the dove communicates that he is taking possession of ‘his space.’
• A person who ‘meditates’ the Word, who growls the Word, who moans the Word like the cooing of a dove, is, by this action, taking possession of the Word.
• The Word becomes yours when you ‘meditate’ on it so that you can do it.
• How else can a Jesus follower ‘meditate the Word?
• Well, another definition for the word ‘meditate’ is to read in an undertone.
• Read your Bible using your voice.
• Don’t just read the Bible with your mind.
• Let your ears hear the Word of God.
• Read it with your eyes and hear it with your ears.
• That allows the Spirit of God to pull different parts of the Word together expanding your understanding.
• It’s so much fun when He does this.
• And now when the Holy Spirit shows you the Word, now you speak these fresh thoughts out in an undertone — you mutter. them underneath your breath.
• You should be talking to yourself all the time.
• That’s meditating the Word.
• Athletes understand what it means to talk to themselves.
• Every serious athlete learns that when pressure and fatigue set in, the loudest voice they hear is their own.
• In the final miles of a race, champions don’t wait for cheers from the crowd to spur them on — they coach themselves.
• They talk to themselves.
• They say things like, “Stay steady.”
• “Keep it going — you can do it”.
• “You’ve trained for this, one more step, let’s go.”
• Athletes talk themselves forward to finish their races strong.
• Talk your way forward.
• The Jesus life works the same way.
• When you’re confronted with fear, pressure, or weariness, the voice you listen to most is the one you’ve been speaking to yourself all along.
• “Stay steady Emery, the Lord said He would never leave you nor sake you.”
• “Keep it going Emery, the victory is yours in Christ Jesus.”
• “You can do it Emery. You can do all things in Christ who strengthens you.”
• Build the Word into your heart.
• Create a victory life that emanates from within.
• This strong foundation is your key to success.
• For if who meditate the Word day and night so that you can do it, you will be prosperous and you will have good success.

God’s Secure Word: What’s the Future of Light on Life?

• So, we are coming into 2026, a new year.
• This is the last podcast for 2025.
• God’s secure Word will continue to go forward on this platform.
• We will be going into our thirteenth year of the Light on Life Podcast in 2026.
• Our mission is still the same: To ‘write a running commentary on the New Testament and to publish it.’
• This next year will see a redesign of the website that houses the podcast: www.emeryhorvath.com.
• We’re doing this to help you do the Word.
• When the redesign of the website is completed about mid-year 2026, specific podcast episodes will be accompanied by a dedicated Episode Resource Package designed to help listeners go deeper, reflect longer, and apply God’s Word more intentionally.
• We’re here to help you prioritize the Word and to extend the podcast teaching beyond the realm of audio and into your everyday life.
• These episode’s resources will include: number one, an Interactive Study Guide.
• The Interactive Study Guide is built to help you go deeper in the Word.
• The guide will contain the core points from the lesson.
• It will include key scripture passages, teaching points, definitions, reflection and application questions as well as a weekly challenge
• That’s the Interactive Guide.
• Second, there will be a Student Handout in PDf format which will a clean, printable companion resource designed for your personal use.
• This Student PDF Guide is great for listening and taking notes, and reviewing the main points later on.
• The Student Guide will help you with personal reflection and for keeping a personal study record.
• The third resource available, mid-year 2026, is a Teacher’s Guide for Small Groups.
• This is the guide I am most excited about.
• This guide will help Jesus followers teach the Word of God, as they heard it in the podcast to the people in their world.
• When you think Teacher’s Guide, think teaching the Word to your family, think small group Bible Studies, think home group fellowships, think other discipleship settings.
• Could you use a clear teaching outline with discussion questions and practical ways to lead people into applying the Word of God in their everyday life?
• Well, if the answer is YES, we will have this guide for you mind 2026.
• All of these episode resources will help Jesus followers review what God has spoken.
• Their design is to make it easier for you to return, review, and build upon God’s Holy Written Word.

God’s Secure Word Call to Action

• As we get ready to close, let me challenge you to not allow the Word of God to slip from your grasp.
• As we said in the opening paragraph, the world is filled with darkness, confusion, and competing voices.
• There is so much trying to influence your emotions.
• Don’t rely on then.
• They can lie to you.
• There is so much of the current culture that is trying shift the foundation beneath you.
• Don’t trust your instincts — they will fail you.
• But, God’s Word will never be guilty of letting you down.
• Make a fresh, deliberate commitment today to anchor your life in what thus says the Lord.
• Get into the Word of God daily.
• Meditate on it.
• Speak it.
• Do it.
• Allow God’s Word to become your instrument panel when everything outside your cockpit is dark.
• If you trust God’s secure Word—even when it contradicts how you feel—you will stay safe.
• The book of Hebrews reminds us that, “We must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it” [Hebrews 2:1].
• Don’t drift.
• Stay anchored.
• Build your life on God’s unchanging Word—and let it carry you safely home.
• If this episode strengthened you, share it with someone who needs that steady anchor of hope.

Now Father God, thank you for unchangeable Word and your unchangeable nature. You are a God that cannot lie. Thank you for keep us secure in your Word in Jesus’ Name, Amen.

• Why Your Lifetime Commitment Should Be God’s Secure Word.
• You guys have a great God week and we will see you next week for another season of Light on Life.

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