"These are the men who are hidden reefs in your love feasts when they feast with you without fear, caring for themselves; clouds without water, carried along by winds; autumn trees without fruit, twice dead, uprooted; wild waves of the sea, casting up their own shame like foam; wandering stars, for whom the black darkness has been reserved forever." Jude vs 12-14

Jude here says that false brethren and false teachers are like, "hidden reefs", "clouds without water", "autumn trees without fruit" and "wild waves of the sea." But the part of this passage I would like for us to focus on today is where he says that they are "twice dead." What does it mean to be twice dead? The Bible says that it is appointed for us to die once and then face the Judgment, so how can anyone become twice dead while still living?

The bible says that it is the Spirit which quickens the dead to life. Paul wrote, -"I have been crucified with Christ, yet I live. Yet it is not really I who live but Christ lives in me."

 As sinners we were dead in our sins, but when we received Jesus as our Savior we were risen with Him and are now alive in Him. Those who reject the Gospel or neglect so great a salvation offered are twice dead.

They are awaiting their appointed natural death and at the Judgment will be cast into the Lake of Fire which is the second death. Because they have neglected to receive Christ or have turned back from following Him, they are devoid of the Spirit which gives life. They are "clouds without water" -meaning, people without God’s Spirit. These are in the world as the living dead but those in Christ are the dead living.

God has demonstrated His awesome love for us by giving up His only Son to suffer and die to pay for our sins, but He will never force us to love Him or follow Him. God wants all to come to repentance and be saved and is even holding back the sands of time for sinners. But once God sees that a person will never turn from their sins He lets them go.

 God gives time to every person, sending conviction into their hearts in hope that they will repent, but when there is no longer any hope He turns them over to a depraved mind to believe the lie they hold so tightly. "For they exchanged the truth of God for a lie. . . And just as they did not see fit to acknowledge God any longer, God gave them over to a depraved mind, to do those things which are not proper."