Jude Session 8 (Verses 17-25) with Chuck Missler

[Music] well i think this should be our last session in the book of jude just to finish it up a bit short one chapter book written by our lord's brother brother of james we have two epistles in the new testament written by those that apparently were the brothers of our lord and savior in a human sense and as we have reviewed these last seven times jude is intensely focusing on apostasy and it's a very appropriate introduction the vestibule if you will of the book of revelation last time we got through the this business of enoch we looked at prophecy before the flood and we carried it down uh through verse 16 i believe all over lap 16 to flow us into 17 18 and 19 uh 17 18 and 19 are the verses that wrap up the major body of the epistle verses 5 through 19. but we'll pick up about verse 16 which i realize is review i believe speaking of these that enoch prophesied against jude continues these are murmurers complainers walking after their own lusts their mouth speaketh great swelling words having men's persons in admiration because of advantage it doesn't sound great but bear in mind what jews is talking about here are apostates we're going to shortly ask the question are apostates saved we'll deal with that by the time we get down to verse 19. how do we recognize an apostate well they're murmurs complainers and walking after their own lusts murmurs that's kind of rough now we've seen earlier in dude's epistle he focused on the murmurs specifically the people of israel and their sin of murmuring we covered that earlier and he covered complainers and you and i sort of i think would sort of wink at that saying gee we all have our bad days and we sort of moan and groan and complain but the jude's point is the angels that were dissatisfied with their assignment are now kept in a special place their main sin was initially that of being dissatisfied with their assignment and of course they took in their own hands and got themselves in deep trouble we read about those earlier and also walking after our own lusts the old testament example that jude called upon earlier was of course sodom and gomorrah but now jude is applying this practically to a personal walk he has shifted from these sweeping old testament corporate examples and he's also drawn in verse 11 of three individual examples kane balaam and cora he's going to shift and get right where you and i live and he's first of all highly these are murmurs this word is a noun is not found anywhere else in the uh the new testament and that we find murmuring by the jews against christ in john 6 the disciples murmured and then walked with him no more those those that did in john 6 and it's a not a sin of any minor importance to murmur it's a hallmark of apostasy first step and complainers here again as a nouns not found elsewhere in the new testament and complainers we find the pharisees finding fault in mark seven we've covered i think all this last time fault finding can be the mark of a christian who's turned his back on the truth so complainers may be apostates these are signs these are symptoms these are indications now complainers displeased the lord in the days of moses we saw in numbers 11 and also it displayed the lord jesus christ in mark 7. can i have you find a verse that says his attitude is shifted between then and today i don't think so so that's uh something we should pay attention in this will lead us to a verse you know i think i've told you many many times that we know that saint paul not jude now i'm talking about saint paul we know that he was a southerner right because he always says grace and peace to you all right did you yes you know i hadn't heard that did you know that he's not a texan did you know that paul was a southerner but not a texan he didn't know that because he said he's learned in whatever state he finds himself therein to be content okay all right and i you know that's obviously a very very childish little quip that we've used from time to time but it does make reference to philippians 4 11 where he does say that and of course he's saying it in a very serious sense that that he's learned as a christian that whatever state he finds himself whatever conditions he finds himself therein to be content and that's the contrast that's the new testament contrast between the complainer and the proper walk murmurs complainers walking after their own lusts i think we we understand that term walking after alone lost the same words used there by the way that the lord uses the parable of the sower in mark four but i think we know what that means and second peter three which we looked at several times throughout the study where this at the end time there there'll be scoffers coming walking after lust and we'll look at that again shortly for some reasons okay murmurs complainers and those that fell a lusting at old testament parallel jude hammered it in verse 16 but then he adds of course another hallmark of apostasy their mouth speaketh great swelling words and i think we talked about that it's the same expression that peter uses in the second letter in chapter two we looked at that last time and of course it's also an identifier not just of apostasy generally but of the great rebeller the leader of the rebellion uh the antichrist himself is identified in revelation 13 and daniel 8 daniel 9 you name it as mr big mouth having great swelling words if we we talked about that last time this just by way of sort of review and then we have this last phrase that i think we also highlighted in apostasy having men's persons in admiration because of advantage that's kind of clumsy king james language for really saying where people position themselves through their publicity through their flowery resumes whatever to gain advantage you know there's a place for that in business but in the church we should be appalled when professionalism takes the place of the call of the holy spirit when you start seeing that that's the time to have the caution flag flying verse 17 then jude here is going to shift gears now and talk positively i mean up till now we've been hitting apostasy all these bad guys and all the grim things that are going to happen to them both in the past and prophecies against them now now jude is going to shift gears here he says but beloved so he's shifting now from apostates to the believer but beloved remember ye the words which are spoken before by the apostles of our lord jesus christ that's the watch word remember the word collectively or plural here's words which are spoken before by the apostles of our our lord jesus christ you know it's interesting that jude opened his letter with quotes from the old testament references and he concludes of course with in effect the new testament apostles you say g chuck we've been talking about pastors a year and apostasy there what's your protection against it what's your protection against apostasy if you're worried about it if you feel is a threat we've been talking now for seven weeks on apostasy what's your protection against it right here verse 17 remember ye the words now that implies you know the words that implies you've read the words so what you cling to is the word of god those who are taking notes can and i won't take the time to go through all of these because it be cumbersome perhaps but proverbs 35 30 colon 5. psalm 119 162 we should rejoice in the word those that find great spoil in fact you can take psalm 119 the longest chapter in the bible and every verse is about one subject the word of god remember the word that's your main armament verse 17 but beloved remember ye the words which were spoken before by the apostles of our lord jesus christ how they told you there should be mockers in the last time who should walk after their own ungodly lusts these are they who separate themselves sensual having not the spirit jude is speaking in a tactical or local sense when we read that we can read it in a broader sense that our refuge is the word and the whole issue of the word of god of course is that it's not man's wisdom but it's by the holy spirit and you turn to first corinthians 2 13 first corinthians 2 13 which things also we speak not in words which man's wisdom teacheth but which the holy spirit teacheth comparing spiritual things with spiritual also the classical passage for this same idea same similar idea is second peter 1 21 for prophecy came not at any time by the will of man but holy men of god spoke as they were moved by the holy spirit those of you that have spent some time with us know that that's been my primary passion or interest we go through the scripture from genesis through the major prophets through the new testament gospels and epistles here and there and obviously the book of revelation from end to end and there's much that we've touched upon much that we've talked about but the primary mission that i personally would espouse or aspire to or what have you would be to instill in you an excitement and interest enthusiasm a passion for god's word that's really the beginning and the ending of it all as far as these gatherings are concerned as we go we've learned a lot but that's the real thing that i hope you've carried away now these apostles of our lord jesus christ warned of this very thing that jude is concerned about namely apostasy and let's take a look at acts 20 to one of the famous passages paul in acts 20 is talking to one of his many churches that he both started and and shepherded as he went around in acts chapter 20 in verse 17 on he is dealing with the ephesian elders but i'd like to pick it up about verse oh 28 verse 28 he says take heed therefore unto yourselves you speak to the leadership of the ephesian church take heed therefore unto yourselves and to all the flock over which the holy spirit hath made you overseers to feed the church of god which he hath purchased with his own blood verse 29 for i know this that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you not sparing the flock also of your own selves shall men arise speaking perverse things to draw away disciples after them and on he goes warning the ephesian church when he leaves they're going to be the victims of attempts to get them off track it's very interesting to see these strange christian cults extremists of one shape or another they don't convert off the street they proselytize in our parking lot here [Music] they don't go after unsaved they focus on the body and many of them are built around some basic truth slightly exaggerated and all of them have in that characteristic a failing in embracing the whole council of god a balance but paul here anyway in acts is warning the ephesian church that they would be victims if you will of wolves and so forth it's interesting to note that the lord jesus christ authored seven epistles in the new testament they are gathered together in what we call revelation chapter two and three and the first of these seven letters is to none other than the church at ephesus and it might be provocative to take a read now the lord jesus christ picked seven churches very interesting seven churches not the most important not the biggest but seven churches which served their literal churches at the time but they also served to model all spiritual conditions of the church individually and collectively it also happens to also chronicle uh the church history from that time on but the first church clearly identified as what you might call the apostolic church that first century era jesus himself says revelation chapter two verse one unto the angel of the church at ephesus right these things saith he that holdeth the seven stars in his right hand who walketh in the midst of the seven golden lampstands these are identifying phrases extracted from chapter one the book of revelations and code if you will in graphic idioms and these are reflexive to chapter 1 verse 2 he says i know thy works and thy labor and thy patience and how thou canst not bear them who are evil and thou has tried them who say they are apostles and are not and has found them liars and has born and has patience for my name's sake has labored and has not fainted very interesting the ephesian church both literally in terms of the church at ephesus but also generically for that era was diligent in terms of doctrine you would think apparently that they have responded to paul's admonition in acts 20 because he warned them there would be these wolves coming to give them deviations and apparently so far you would get the impression that the ephesian church did well on that except as we read on verse 4 the report card isn't finished lord says nevertheless painful word painful word nevertheless i have somewhat against thee because thou hast left thy first love remember therefore where thou art fallen and repent and do the first works or else i will come unto thee quickly and will remove thy lamb stand out of its place except thou repent it's interesting that the ephesian church here characterized was doctrinally sound but was missing something that's very very important what were they missing love that first love that passion for the lord it could be said they were so busy about the king's business they had no time for the king and so that's what he warns them he says in fact if they don't return to that position he will remove their lamp stand that is remove their witness how many of you ever attended a church in ephesus it's gone right well i won't badger that one but anyway okay so the apostolic warnings there's an example that we can springboard from jude in terms of this was spoken of before by the apostle lord jesus christ and uh he told them that there would be mockers in the last days who would walk after their own ungodly lusts same phrase that peter uses in his second letter chapter three in fact we've looked at it before but this is probably the worth taking another quick look at it second peter chapter three the second epistle beloved i now write unto you in both of which i stir up your pure minds by way of remembrance that you may be mindful of the words which are spoken before by the holy prophets and of the commandment of us the apostles of our lord and savior see in other words this is a common theme something not unique to jude paul mentioned in acts 20 peter here is talking about it 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 in other words they deny the second coming of jesus christ but go another interesting link verse four is very provocative for since the fathers fell asleep all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation in other words they're also mocking at this concept of creationism they're espousing uniformitarianism or you know darwin didn't invent that idea it was mentioned here by peter verse 4. you say well gee that seems like a non-sequitur what does the second coming have to do with creation you see they're linked they both are based on the premise that there's a god who intervenes in history the fact that god created us he overtly specifically acted with a purpose and that purpose will be climax in the second coming of jesus christ the concept of the creation and the concept of the second coming of christ are here linked a disbelief in one leads to a disbelief in the other so you may wonder gee all this business i don't know if you got in you know if you happen to get into this evolution creation thing you say well gee that's history it's genesis who cares well partly it's very very basic because it's uh you either accept what god says or you don't and the same premise that underlies both presentations that there is a god who does what he says he's going to do who did for a purpose cares about the result and involves himself in the history of men so it's interesting that verse 4 is it's not obvious that those things fall until you think it through the word for scoffers by the way is unique to both peter and jude scoffers and mockers are the same it's nowhere else in the bible by the way getting back to jude verse 19 says these are they who separate themselves if that's what your king james says more precisely they are they who make separations luther translated this those who make factions those who bring about divisions because of border lines or limits now when you get that far you also can easily assume that what they're talking about are ecclesiastical doctrines that actually is not what it's talking about the limits are talking about the limits of sin in a sense of the law and that's what's actually underlining that phrase it's not obvious from the from the way it's translated in the english the neglect of god's word will lead to heterodox teaching and that ultimately will lead to hopefully a reformation that was the context of luther's life and since now there is a reverse of that idea the positive side of it in first corinthians chapter 11 verse 19 you might want to mark first corinthians you always used to wonder why is it that in general you find a minister who's right on everything but one thing everyone knows that i don't know if you've run into ministers that are see they seem really right on but there's always something that you don't quite you may stumble on well first corinthians 11 19 deals with that because paul tells us there must be also heresies among you oh really why must there be heresies among you that they who are approved may be manifest among you is that interesting this issue is not a local one it's not one that was just unique to jude or just unique to some time it's it's intrinsic in the whole business of of building the body now before we leave this jude has an example if you're in your epistle of jude turn back one page there's an example or an illustration of what jude's talking about in third john that's the book just preceding jude the illustration occurs in verses 9 and 10. john is writing here and he says i wrote unto the church but diotrophies who loveth to have the preeminence among them receiveth us not wherefore if i come i will remember his deeds which he doeth pratting against us with malicious words and not content with that neither does he him himself receive the brethren and he forbideth them that would and cast them out of the church this guy's a bad apple but he's active in the church so he had a following he had a presentability apparently caused division of church refused to receive john and he loved his own preeminence that's why you know pride and this uh preeminence is always a symptom of you know something to give us caution christ is to have preeminence in philippians two verse three we're each to esteem the other better than themselves and so forth so here we have an apostate spoke evil of john used malicious words refused to receive the brethren forbid others who would have done so and even casting them out of the church and john goes on to summarize this in verse 11 beloved follow not that which is evil but that which is good he that doeth good is of god he that doeth evil hath not seen god now in verse 19 we're down to verse 19 in jude it also says the word sensual now all of us i'm sure if we took a written quiz believe we know what the word sensual means and i if i offered you a quiz to have you write that you'd probably discover if we were very strict that your presumption about what he's talking about here happens to be incorrect he's not talking sensual like lasciviousness that's not the concept here the word sensual here in the greek is psychos it means soulish soulish [Music] that is in the realm of the senses but not in the senses in the sense that it's lascivious or extreme it's just what they are here is they are soulish okay mark 12 i forgot to dig this out i should have i'm sorry mark 12 30. and um verse 29 and jesus answered him the first of all the commandments is is hero israel the lord our god is one lord how often we skip that part right but that's the shema okay if you go in any jewish home what's on the doorpost right yeah and what's in it a piece of scripture but typically it's the shema and thou shalt love the lord thy god with all my heart with all thy soul with all thy mind and with all thy strength this is the first commandment he adds something that the way it is in the torah he added a phrase where do you get that authority good good turns out that uh my wife got interested in this about five years ago because she wanted to know how to keep the first commandment the greatest commandment and she noticed there was a first of all you know what is the heart what is the soul what is the mind we use those words all the time and so she embarked on a word study it's taken about five years every word that's translated in any of those things in hebrew and in greek she tracked down every place that appears and tried turns out the mind see you and i when we think mind we think brain don't we that's what the scripture uses scripture has a different idea when it says mind it means something else and what is the heart the organ that pumps the blood no of course not it's idiomatically used but what is the heart what is the mind what is the soul your assignment [Music] it turns out that you are the temple of god right you've all heard that expression from paul it turns out the structure that's implied by the old new testament is the same structure it's in the temple and there are some differences in the temple between the temple and the tabernacle the body's soul and spirit is a tabernacle model there's something else added in the temple and when you go into all that it takes a long time so i won't take it tonight but i'm just teasing enough so you do some digging you discover that there's something in the temple that's not a tabernacle and relates to the mind and what is the mind turns out every detail of solomon's temple has a spiritual relationship just like the tabernacle doesn't say the tabernacle is the obvious one we've done that several times go back to exodus study the tabernacle every detail of the tabernacle obviously refers to jesus christ the temple is a expansion of that but also there's an intrinsic architecture that's in our very makeup that underlies all of this it's a hypothesis for you to test in the scripture and it would be grossly unfair of me to deny you the discovery of those things so i will leave that with you but getting back here when we say sensual here in jude we're saying soulish not sensual senseless lascivious there's sometimes the word sensual means that sensual in the bad sense here the word sensual is meant in a neutral sense but that makes it even more telling body soul and spirit we look at first thessalonians 5 what is the spirit i'm going to suggest just as a working concept for tonight it's worth much more study the difference between the soul and the spirit the soul is one's self-consciousness personality emotions will those are all in the domain of the soul at least as we would loosely use the term that's the field of psychology if you will what's the spirit the god consciousness that's the highest that's the element of communication with him and so forth so that that is very clumsy and imperfect and warrants much attention but i'll leave you with that for now well if that's the case what's the best english equivalent for the soulish man we find it in first corinthians chapter two first corinthians chapter two we looked at verse 13 a moment ago i want to now take you to verse 14. in fact let's repeat verse 13 so you get the context first corinthians chapter 2 verse 13. we read a little while ago which things also we speak not in the words which man's wisdom teacheth but which the holy spirit teacheth comparing spiritual things with spiritual that's the realm in which the holy spirit illuminates the spiritual things but paul goes on to explain to the corinthians why that requires supernatural agency because verse 14 the natural man the soulish man okay receiveth not the things of the spirit of god for they are foolishness unto him neither can he know them because they are spiritually discerned okay it wouldn't be a chuck mr bible study if i stayed on the subject how many of you here have ever seen a hologram you know okay this is wonderful see this i have a wonderful analogy but it only works to physicists or people who are in optics because to use my analogy you have to understand what a hologram is analogies fail if i have to explain what it is before i do the comparison but you all know what photographs are photographs are images that are in the space-time domain it's a it's a plane that you if you have a photograph you have a spatial representation of something that you saw a hologram is a fourier transform of a spatial image it actually is a three-dimensional image if i had one here and held it up a piece of film in this light it would look like a dark room mistake it would be fogged i'm not using those different kind i'm not looking at master charges right now but a basic hologram what it really does it carries just the interference patterns but if you saw it looks gray now the way i do a hologram is i take an object i illuminate it with a laser light laser is light that is very organized it's very coherent both in in terms of parallelism and in terms of time and so i illuminate the object with the laser and i let the light also hit the film and what the film actually records is the interference of the light waves from the laser directly and for the reflections of the object it has just the interference bands if i look at in natural light it looks fogged if however i illuminate this plane this film with a laser that created the picture in the first place you get an image what makes it dramatic and provocative is the image is three-dimensional if you move your eye you can look around things in the for example i have a tie on if i held my bible up like this and you took a picture with a camera in the picture you could not tell what kind of tie i'm wearing because they're not bibles in the way right if you took a hologram you had a hologram of that you could move your eye over this way and look around the bible and see my tie he says what they mean by a three-dimensional image as you move it actually has it appears to have substance now it turns out if you take the mathematical properties of lasers they have an analogy to light the first direct quote of god in the bible is let light be and you can i'll spare you all that tonight to keep it simple but what's interesting is is that if you take this book and hold it up in natural light it looks like a collection of old legends and stories and quaint ideas it has no form or comeliness that we should desire if i hold up a hologram without illuminate by the laser it looks meaningless in natural light it has no form nor comeliness that we would desire it if i illuminate the hologram with the laser that created in the first place you get an image okay if i take this book and have it illuminated by the light that wrote it in the first place you get an image the image of jesus christ now something interesting about a hologram if i had one here and i cut out one square inch of it if i did that to a photograph you've lost one square inch of the photograph if i do it to a hologram you haven't lost anything because whatever that square inch is covering you can look around now we have a hologram here they want to say 10 by 10 inches and a square inch cut out of it you can look around that hole what you lose is resolution because the whole image is not quite as precise if i take the scripture the 66 books and i reach in there and i tear out a chapter or two what have you lost you haven't lost the perception of jesus christ his his destiny his mission his account you know the benefits you know there is no there is no chapter in the scripture on any doctrine there's a chapter on baptism there isn't a chapter on salvation everything's diffused okay that's exactly what a communication engineer does if he anticipates sending a message down a channel in anticipation of hostile jamming defuse the message over the available bandwidth that's exactly what god has done and he explains that in isaiah chapter 28 i have established my truth line up online precept on precept hear a little there a little it's distributed the same way that you would do with a hologram it has certain properties the properties if i bored you with a physics lecture on the properties of a hologram you discover they all have a spiritual analogy with the scripture the natural man cannot perceive the truth of god without the agency of the holy spirit which put this together in the first place so whenever you get into a debate intellectually i'm not saying you shouldn't do it the reason you should do it but don't expect that to convert somebody because there's only one way that someone gets converted to a belief in jesus christ and that's by the agency of the holy spirit that's the way you came whether you know it or not that's the only way anyone else will so that doesn't mean there's not an appropriate place where we call apologetics it's the classic name for giving a reason of the hope that is within you but you need to understand that what really you're hoping to do is something only the holy spirit can do and that's to give him the insights the perception of don't ignore the fact the holy spirit might be using that discussion for some effect it typically is not his immediate gee i didn't realize that and roll up his sleeves and you know life isn't that simple but recognize that what we're dealing with here is a supernatural situation that's why getting back to jude the word sensual here means soulish okay there are places judas talked about lusts and lasciviousness and so forth this isn't one of them he's talking here just a soulish man these guys are soulish having not the spirit it says in verse 19. see that's the distinction it isn't that they're you know doing pornographic magazines it's not that kind of sensual i mean doing something wrong it's just that they're sensual they're natural they're limited they have not the spirit now that raised to the question is an apostate saved told you right there they have not the spirit can you be saved out of the spirit no believers are spiritual if they're obedient to the word of god they may be carnal they may stumble they may be babes first corinthians 2 15 first corinthians 3 1 there's a number of verses there but believers in the scripture are never said to be sensual or natural men they're believers they're born in the spirit uncomfortable though it may seem philosophically the world is in two camps two camps there's no gray area either born of the spirit or they're not and whoever you have no matter how noble how giving of themselves however high a plane they might be on in a natural sense that doesn't mean they're saved they're only saved by one thing jesus christ and the only way they come to an awareness of jesus christ is the holy spirit there's no passage of the scripture which could be made the basis for the concept that a natural man ever was anything else but an unsaved man unsaved or natural men dominated by the senses or the self they're dominated by the psyche they receive not the things of the spirit for their foolishness and that's what first corinthians the whole second chapter is all about and if you would like to explore that more take it upon yourselves to read first corinthians 2 in depth what is the foolishness of god god goes out of his way in in his whole plan of salvation his whole from from beginning to end god has gone out of his way to do things in a way that you and i would never think of gonna save eight people by a barge you know you can go through the scripture and and just take item by item by item and god goes out of his way to do things in a way it's going to seem bizarre whether it's the jawbone of an ass one place or name in the syrian bathing in the muddy river or another the whole scenario is strange what paul talks about first corinthians 2 is the whole idea that the foolishness of god is wiser than men and the ultimate foolishness the most ridiculous idea to man that the entire universe is redeemed by the death of a carpenter's son on a roman cross in judea a little over 900 years ago that's going to be the pivotal fulcrum of all the history of the universe before and after that's foolish that's exactly what the bible says the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness but unto us who are saved is the power of god unto salvation to everyone that believeth the jew first and also the gentile if any man is not the spirit of christ he is none of his romans eight nine you want to nail that one down now in contrast that a christian is baptized by the spirit of the body of christ sealed by the spirit indwelt by the spirit taught by the spirit led by the spirit so he can say abba father and we could give you verses on each one of those i don't think i need to this group if that's foreign to you time to do some homework gang see me after the hour and of course apostate knows none of those things okay we made it believe it or not to verse 20. so now we shift to another four verses and we're going to be talking here about um well the first couple of verses about building praying keeping and looking for verbs or participles or whatever okay verse 20 but ye beloved building up yourselves on your most holy faith praying in the holy spirit keep yourselves in the love of god looking for the mercy of our lord jesus christ unto eternal life doesn't that sound easy but ye beloved building up yourselves that's a little uncomfortable i thought we just sort of sat back and let him do the whole job well he does do the whole job that is in terms of your salvation what's our side of that we bear the responsibility for our self-development building here is a present participle which implies it's a lifelong task it's never done you're not you know you're not true now we talk about building we could talk we could from here go to a lot of different places we could talk about um building the church from matthew 16 on the foundation of apostles prophets and so forth christ the chief cornerstone but here we're talking really we as living stones building part of a spiritual house first peter 2 5 for those who might trace that down now there are actually nine steps second peter 1 will give you something you can make charts out of when you get home should you choose to second peter 1 5 through 7. there's 9 steps here we'll see ii peter chapter 1 verse 5 beside all this giving all diligence that's step one add to your faith virtue to virtue knowledge to knowledge self-control to self-control patience and to patience godliness and to god in this brotherly kindness and to brotherly kindness love so there's your steps now that sounds good how do we do this how do you build up your faith faith cometh by what hearing okay romans 10 17 in hearing by the word of god the way you build up your faith is to get in the word how do you cleanse from sin well we've had that in ephesians 5 26 john 17 17. now you're clean to the word which you know i've spoken unto you jude after assigning us the responsibility beloved building up yourselves on your most holy faith then he talks about praying in the holy spirit whatever our reference is there ephesians 6 18 and romans 8 26 and 27. i don't think i have to amplify that for this audience praying in the spirit here's the here's your admonition to do so verse 21 keep yourselves in the love of god well that's a little little strength keeping yourselves we are kept for jesus christ first peter 1 5 tells us and the same word there is the same kept as the angels that are kept in darkness the angels that sin remember in jude 6 we went through all that but the thing that you can trip here is this does not say keep on loving god what does it say we don't care if it's important otherwise we'll misunderstand what you're saying here keep yourselves in the love of god it's not our love of god that's in view here it's his love for us but you say well gee if he loves then what what's my responsibility i'll suggest that we review when you get home luke 15 and the story of the prodigal son remember the prodigal son he removed himself from a place where he can enjoy the benefits of his father's love right that is to the father's love to the fullest he did not keep himself in his father's love did the father stop loving the prodigal son no but did the prodigal son organize his life so as to take the maximum fullest extent of his father's love no see so what what i'm speaking by analogy here that's really what he say keep yourselves in the love of god now how do you do that listen to his call for obedience john 15 10 and first john 3 23 will be your marching orders for those of you that would like to know how to keep yourselves in the love of god john 15 10 and first john 3 23 and your first assignment will be to go dig it out so i'll move on keep yourselves in the love of god looking for the mercy of our lord jesus christ unto eternal life the word looking for the word in the greek is translated four times waiting for and four times looking for an example of the waiting for is in luke 12 36 and the looking for in titus 2 13 but it's looking for in the sense of awaiting expecting anticipating and most of us i think in the in this group that are prophecy oriented in the first place are i think sensitive to but that is what the lord would have us do and this progressive concept here faith love and blessed hope which is the holy spirit the father and the son if you want to partition that and make something of that but we're going to move on to verse 22 because i am determined to finish jude tonight okay okay now verse 22 he goes on he says and of some have compassion making a difference and others save with fear pulling them out of the fire hating even the garment spotted by the flesh now what he's doing here the structure of this is that he has exhortations here for us to grow right like building yourselves up on the faith praying in the spirit keeping yourselves in the love of god and looking for so you got those you know those four things the building the praying the keeping and the looking what's our response to all of that and that's our sacred duty that is to be a witness and he's here giving you advice about having a witness of some have compassion now there are some translational differences here some manuscripts have a phrase in here and some refute while they dispute that's the third caddy here if you look at your translation the king james you'll probably find two groups some manuscripts have a third group but the main idea is that on some he says have compassionate understanding some people have sincere doubts it's our mission to deal with those doubts the word mercy in verse 21 his first mention the new testament blessed are the merciful matthew 5 7 its last mention is here in jude the first mention of the word doubt is where peter is sinking in the sea we all know where the lord told him to come with him and when he looked down and it's that doubt in matthew 14 where the word doubt first shows up he's saying here have compassion on such and what i have prepared here some remarks for those of you that in your in your bibles you may have a phrase and some refute while they dispute let me comment on that the idea of being refuting that the word of god can refute punish convict or convert all those are valid substantiatable roles of the word itself the word refute carries a punitive sense as it does in hebrews 12 5. but the main challenge we have without getting excessively that is turn to first peter 3 15. i know you know these verses but i figure if i hit it long enough you'll put it in your bible memory list another way to summarize what jude is admonishing us to do here is first peter 3 15 where he says but sanctify the lord god in your hearts and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear be ready to give every man an answer that's your homework assignment it's not enough for you just to come and fellowship and commit your life to the lord that's step one part of your assignment is to grow in grace in the knowledge of our lord and savior why for many reasons one of which is that you can in fact be ready to give every man an answer of the hope that is within you don't conclude from that that it's reason that causes a person to believe i just went through that on the other hand you still have an obligation to defend and the classical term is apologize but in the classical sense to have apologetics that is to have your background in what you believe sound enough that you can stand up and be counted in that way now you say gee that's kind of tough well that's okay james has a help there if you turn to james okay james chapter 1 tells you how to go about it it isn't easy it takes a lot of work but james does give you a key tool james 1 5 is another bible verse you want to mark down [Music] if any of you lack wisdom let them ask of god who giveth to all men liberally in the bravest not and it shall be given him they're very specific asking ye shall receive kind of promise by james seems kind of appropriate to quote from james the lord's other brother that wrote an epistle so i thought we'll do that okay now back to jude of some have compassion making a difference and that's making a difference phrase a very difficult greek phrase and that's why some translated that some refute while they dispute with you and it uh i think we've dealt with that verse 20 and others save with fear pulling them out of the fire now say with fear is a strange phrase that what sort of carried on that is on the one hand recognize the unsafe person you're dealing with is in peril and your diligence and effectiveness at what god may have called you to do at that opportunity may save them from an eternity a punishment that's one idea it's obviously very clearly here this eternal fire is first mentioned in matthew 3 it's clearly the unquenchable fire the last mention is revelation 21 8 and the same ideas all through the scripture lot and his daughters we went through all of that it was in genesis 19 they were extracted from the fire but incidentally always by intercession even lot was saved by the intercession of abraham and why do i emphasize that because all of us have problems in the family a son a daughter a brother a sister a father a grandfather how do you witness the family tough what can you do best intercede that is pray god is in the miracle business and spouting off a favorite bible verse or arguing some doctrinal point is not likely to yield a commitment to the lord i'm not saying it won't because the lord can use many things but the point is you often often one of the most agonizing things i hear if you have an unsafe person family what can you do it's my own personal experience that the lord will usually you he will respond to a prayer and have somebody else reach that person some event sometimes you have the opportunity sometimes it'll be some other factor that will bring it to the moment of decision it's interesting i don't think anyone has ever saved without intercession i have to tell you one story you know i'm not sure i can prove this clearly but from this passage and others that i just mentioned i've had this view that the only way you can get saved is to be prayed for i had a an associate in a business venture that was saved beautiful beautiful christian guy but he he challenged me on that view because i mentioned once in one of our own bible studies and he felt that that sounds good but he didn't think it was true because in his own background he highlighted to me that he came from an entirely unsaved family background went in the navy and for a while but the point is he he could very rhetorically eliminate anyone in his family background having prayed for him as a kid in the service career there was no spiritual dimensions that at all and uh and the circumstances under which he finally did meet the lord and come to acknowledgement of the sin and trusting the lord jesus christ for salvation was was a situation that was very local to him and uh he used to argue with me on that and i had no rebuttal i didn't know his life but he got married into a beautiful gal but found out and he shared with us years later that the girl that he married had a thing she did as a small child when she was a little girl her mother taught her that she didn't know who her husband was but god did and so she used to pray almost every day for her husband is that wild and when chris heard that he just came to tears because he remembered and he shared that with me that blew him away that he'd been prayed for for 20 years or some period times a long period of time even though she didn't know who he was they figured lord knows when i want to meet him so that's kind of interesting guys and gals if you're not married you might consider that i think it's interesting interesting an idea because god knows who you're going to marry and you can pray she used to say i don't know where my husband is but god you know where he is and you know his needs and she used to just go through that you know like you'd like your girls to do with a pen pal or something that was she had a prayer partner so to speak somebody that she dealt with so i thought that was kind of neat okay there's another another tone in verse 23 that also probably should be mentioned he says and others say with fear [Music] there is a caution involved you can get into a ministry situation where you're exposed to and you need to be aware of that there are circumstances that you can get into that can endanger yourself too so uh i mean spiritually um so that caution is here but save others with fear uh pulling them out of the fire and then hating even the garments spotted by the flesh strange phrase we're dealing here with english is from very difficult greek but what this seems to point to is the spotted garment in joshua 7. remember aiken and the babylonian garment and it's the desires of this world uh uh spotting a life we need to have a not just a distrust but a hatred of those things that can interfere with uh the walk i uh if you are a soul winner it's amazing how many how many verses of support come out of not the new testament but the book of proverbs this whole idea that we are risk that we should mingle zeal with godly fear is mentioned in proverbs 1 7 proverbs 9 10 proverbs 14 16 and also proverbs 4 14 and 15. we also should not be tempted to tone down the gospel how easy it is sometimes to be you know a little less offensive i'm guilty that often i shouldn't be in certain contexts and proverbs 19 27 and 28 4 warn us against doing that so those are jude's final admonitions and then he comes to the last two verses of his epistle which are famous they're called by some a doxology they're called by some the grand benediction the two verses of jude are they they really are fabulous now jude's epistle is on apostasy but he both opens it and closes it with assurance because he knows he's going to get into heavy stuff here so he starts with and then also closes with assurance to the believer and verse 24 is about as eloquent as it could be now unto him that is able to keep you from falling to what comfort there is in that word he that is able to keep you from falling and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy and goes on psalm 37 much of this has all been penned before in the old testament and it's kind of fun to find those ideas in the old testament but you haven't discovered psalm 37 you want to you know obviously learn the whole psalm it's great you obviously know verses four and five i'm sure most of you memorize those delight itself also in the lord and he shall give the desires of thine heart commit thy way unto the lord and trust also in him and he shall bring it to pass what a comfort that is so if you haven't memorized verses 4 and 5 you ought to take a look at that and verse 7 is a summary of the book of hebrews rest in the lord wait patiently for him verse 11 i think a friend of yours quoted in one of his sermons but the meek shall inherit the earth that idea the lord wrote that down here long before he he addressed it on the mountain but the verse we're going for is verse 24. 23 and 24 if you like the steps of a good man are ordered by the lord and he delighteth in his way verse 24 is an important verse though he fall he shall not be utterly cast down for the lord uphold of him with his hand i kind of like that because it highlights the fact that doesn't mean you won't trip from time to time it doesn't mean in our own obstinacy that god won't let us get our faces dirty by falling flat on them now and then but really says is he won't let us utterly be cast down this is one of those places where you talk about uh you can just get into a whole thing about the walk proverbs 3 19-23 talks about the christian walk there's over 30 places that i listed from the new testament admonitions about our walk the good news i'll spare you all that let you use your own resources that's one approach turn to hebrews 12. you know paul didn't seem to be concerned about a christian walk he always said run right so he's my kind of guy see he says in hebrews 12 1 wherefore seeing we are also compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses let us lay aside every weight and the sin which doth so easily beset us and let us run with patience the race that is set before us looking unto jesus the author and finisher of our faith who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross despising shame and set down the right hand of god he's talking about running and it's interesting that we find that in proverbs 4 10 and 12 but the interesting place that perhaps puts us in a better perspective yet is isaiah 40. you've all seen isaiah 40. that's the second isaiah to the unlearned and of course i'm being facetious no one who's read john 12 carefully should understand have any doubt that there's one isaiah not two despite many presbyterian commentaries to the country isaiah chapter 40 verse 31 they that wait upon the lord shall renew their strength sounds great they shall mount up with wings like eagles they shall run and not be weary and they shall walk and not faint terrific comfort you find that quoted a great deal but i want to highlight something to you it's in climactic order it sounds backwards doesn't it see they'll run and not be weary that's fine [Music] but then what happens they shall also walk and not faint you see that's the the ultimate test finishing it all the way out they shall run and not be worried they shall walk and not faint isaiah 40 31 okay let's get back to judah now to him that is able to keep you from falling and to present you faultless to present you faultless greek amilos without blemish okay what does that mean ephesians 5 deals with this very subject ephesians 5. verse 25 speaks that christ loved the church and gave himself for it verse 26 that he might sanctify it and cleanse it by the washing of the water by the word verse 27 that he might present it to himself a glorious church not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing but that it should be holy and without blemish because the church did such a good job no [Music] but that he can impute to it his righteousness that's his goal that's his mission first john 3 2 says gives us a very important physics insight first john 3 2 beloved now are we the children of god and it doth not yet appear what we shall be but we know that when he shall appear we shall be like him for we shall see him as he is you've just entered hyperspace his body is not limited to three dimensions like we think of we've been through that in some other studies i think but just the recap was we speak in mathematics we speak of hyperspace right you and i are programmed in three dimensions we have four walls of ceiling on the floor and for us to leave this room without passing through the floor ceiling or four walls to us is impossible because we are limited to three dimensional thinking and i usually build this up if you've if you're mathematically inclined read the read the flatland papers that sort of thing they're very provocative now if you have a fourth dimension can be time it can be something else but if you have a higher dimension then there are accesses in and out of this three-dimensional space that do not pass through one of the bounding planes and we use this in engineering all the time you deal with multi-dimensional spaces because many mathematical engineering problems lend themselves to analysis by those tools now god is obviously not limited to three dimensions the body of jesus christ his resurrection body was not limited to three dimensions it was tangible handle me and see a spirit has not flesh and bone he said remember so he's tangible don't get me wrong but he's not limited three dimensions here john tells us that we shall be like him why how does he know because we shall see him as he is we can only fully apprehend them if you're in the same dimensionality and this makes more sense if we build up from one dimension to two you know two-dimensional being seeing a three-minute you know we did that once in one of the studies but incidentally there's a hilbert space which has an infinite number of dimensions that to me sounds like god would be right it wouldn't be limited three or n it would be infinite so hilbert space those of you that have mathematical background can chase that down with a spiritual insight that hilbert probably never guessed okay now we shall be like him for we shall see him as he is what's he like first peter 1. [Music] first peter 1 verse 19 it says but with the precious blood of christ as of a lamb without blemish and without spot he's the passover lamb right and what is the requirement of the passover lamb not spotted that's an attacking mechanical mechanical sense but it speaks of a spiritual truth much broader he being the passover was without blemish without spot first john says we shall be like him for we shall see him as he is therefore we must be of the same attributes not by anything we do but by his completed work to impute those to us without blemish jude says i do believe that's exactly what jude had in mind i'm not making something on building on this he's present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy well boy you can study joy in the scripture that's kind of fun you see in first peter 1 6 the joy is in the contemplation of our inheritance that gives us joy another several passages anticipation of christ's return gives us joy first peter 1 8 revelation 19 and so forth verse 25 jude continues to the only wise god our savior it seems like a strange tying together but it's in first timothy 2 5 you have the same thing and by the way believing god is not enough believing in god is insufficient believing in god is insufficient the devils also believe and tremble just because you believe believing god that's great where do you go from there the cross is essential john 14 6 i am the way the truth and life no man cometh unto the father but by me acts 4 12 there's others no other name given among men under heaven whereby we must be saved [Music] now we have a few last words jude says now unto him who is able to keep you from falling and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy to the only wise god our savior be glory and majesty dominion and power both now and forever glib phrases we can prattle out very easily what do they mean what do they really mean glory majesty dominion and power there's only two places in the new testament here and in hebrews 1 3 that all four of these things are wrapped up in one verse what is glory well most of us i think would define glory as the defined radiance that shines we see it visually luke 2 9 mentions that we see the glory blinding in acts 22 11. the glory is so bright that it is protected by smoke in revelation 15 8. so we think of the shekinah either in its unleashed form or if it's sheathed if you will in smoke glory we can sort of relate to that word what does majesty mean we use that word what do you mean by majesty [Music] this occurs only here and in hebrews 1 3 and in hebrews 8 1. three places majesty one suggestion is that it's the incomparable ineffable regal presence of the ruler of the universe incomparable that's glib word but it means there's nothing else to compare with so how do you talk about it ineffable impossible to describe [Music] but it's his presence it also suggests the omniscience of god upon his throne knows everything his majesty next word is dominion that we're probably a little easier to deal with dominion in this case it's the infinite extent of his rule throughout the universe we find in hebrews 1 3 uphold us all things by the word of his power remember colossians 2. we went through all that then his kingdom rules over all psalm 103 says it suggests presence of his majesty throughout the universe then we got this last word power irresistible divine authority and might omnipotence so you've got omnipotence omnipresence and omniscience in the last three of the four i think that's one suggestion one thing you do get the feeling is that jude has run out of words he has come across what we have to call the poverty of our language david ran in the same problem first chronicles 29 in david's prayer in first chronicles 29 and we'll pick it up about verse 10 i guess wherefore david blessed the lord before all the congregation and david said blessed be thou lord god of israel our father forever and ever thine o lord is the greatness and the power and the glory and the victory and the majesty for all that is in the heaven and in the earth is thine thine is the kingdom o lord and thou art exalted as head above all both riches and honor come of thee and thou reignest over all and in thy hand is power and might and in thine hand it is to make great and to give strength unto all by the way when you pray i don't know how many of you use the axe acts some people have suggested well you know adoration right what's the first adoration confession right thanksgiving and then supplication but when you pray it's worthwhile taking some time and just adore them and try in your own words to communicate what jude here summarized so succinctly in these two so here's jude he's comprehended his glorious brightness he's comprehended the unutterable regal being of the one on the throne he has contemplated the limitless extent of his rule and the unlimited strength of his might so he's all through he can write no more he says both now and forever he has business of time as you can tell because a lot of reasons that's one of my preoccupations whole concept of time both in the dimensionality what have you and i think i mentioned this to you the other day but i've been messing with telescope and a few how many of you are amateur astronomers but you look through a telescope and you can see not only millions of stars in our galaxy but you can see other galaxies and you start measuring distances you deal in light years you know the nearest star is four and a half light years away in the next 145 and i forget they quickly get very very large so that means that the light that came from that star that you're looking through on the telescope started before we were born started before our nation was founded and you can get stars that are a long way away and that light started a long time ago and yet before that star's light started on its way here the lord knew you before the foundations of the world was laid he tells us in ephesians that's when you were saved that's when he foreordained you that's when he had you on his mind by name that's when he knew how many hairs of your head that there are before the foundation of the world was laid that's the past now he exists forever infinitely the other direction you and i have no grasp on the past you and i have no capacity to even relate to the future the only part of that time domain that we relate to is the word now right now we'll stand shortly have a closing prayer you'll be driving home and that's now your eternity is in your hands in terms of how you react now if you're in the lord's hands your eternity is secure if you haven't committed yourself to the lord he won't violate your sovereignty he has given you out of the entire domain of history past or history future he's given you a segment that's entirely in your control than now and the reason he puts you in a time domain is that's the only way he can put you in a situation to make a decision that's really what it's all about now unto him that is able to keep you from falling and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy to the only wise god our savior be glory and majesty dominion and power both now and forever and the only way we can end this is with a amen let's stand for a closing word if there's anyone here who doesn't have certainty that he is in the lord's hands that he is saved that he is numbered by the lord among his own then that can be remedied tonight while we borrow our heads by simply committing your way into his hands he'll take care of the whole job he has made all the arrangements and he'll do the whole job but for a commitment than now in our life right now father we just praise you for this time together we thank you father for this epistle of jude we thank you for those insights that you have provided here for our learning and father we would just ask that you would increase in us an appetite for your word that we might grow in grace in the knowledge of our lord and savior we'd ask you too father if there anyone here that isn't committed to the lord jesus christ that you would give him no peace until he indeed rests in him we just thank you father for this time we thank you father for your spirit to enlighten us we would ask you just to put a hedge about us as we go forth help us to grow in grace in the knowledge of our lord and savior jesus christ amen [Music] you

Channel: Koinonia House

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Length: 72min 53sec (4373 seconds)

Published: Mon Dec 28 2020