Jude

Covenant Reformed Baptist Church

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Right Jude we reading the entire letter or book hear the word of the Lord Jude a servant of Jesus Christ and brother of James to those who are called beloved in God the

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Father and kept for Jesus Christ May mercy peace and love be multiplied to you

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Beloved, although I was very eager to write to you about our common salvation I found it necessary to write appealing to you to contend for the faith

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That was once for all delivered to the Saints for certain people have crept in unnoticed who long ago were designated for this condemnation ungodly people who pervert the grace of our

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God into sensuality and deny our only master in Lord Jesus Christ Now I want to remind you although you once fully knew it that Jesus who saved a people out of the land of Egypt Afterward destroyed those who did not believe and the angels who did not stay with their own position of authority

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But left their proper dwelling. He has kept in eternal chains under gloomy darkness until the judgment of the great day

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Just as Sodom and Gomorrah in the surrounding cities Which likewise indulged in sexual immorality and pursued a natural desire serve in its example by undergoing a punishment of eternal fire

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Yet in like manner these people also relying on their dreams

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Defile the flesh reject authority and blaspheme the glorious ones But when the

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Archangel Michael contending with the devil with disputing about the body of Moses He did not presume to pronounce a blasphemous judgment, but said the

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Lord rebuke you But these people blaspheme all that they do not understand and they are destroyed by all that they like Unreasoning animals understand instinctively woe to them for they walk in the way of Cain and abandoned themselves

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For the sake of gain to Balaam's error and perished in Cora's rebellion They are hidden reefs at your love feast as they feast with you without fear shepherds feeding themselves

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Waterless clouds swept along by winds fruitless trees and late autumn twice dead uprooted

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Wild ways of the sea casting up the foam of their own shame Wandering stars for whom the gloom of utter darkness has been reserved forever

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It was about these that Enoch the seventh from Adam prophesied saying behold the

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Lord comes with ten thousands of his holy ones to execute judgment on all and to convict all the ungodly of all their deeds of ungodliness

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That they have committed in such an ungodly way and of all the harsh things that ungodly sinners have spoken against him

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These are grumblers Malcontents following their own sinful desires their loudmouth boasters showing favoritism to gain advantage

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But you must remember beloved the predictions of the Apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ They said to you in the last time that there will be scoffers following their own ungodly passions

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It is these who cause divisions worldly people devoid of the Spirit, but you beloved

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Building yourselves up in your most holy faith and praying in the Holy Spirit keep yourselves in the love of God Waiting for the mercy of our

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Lord Jesus Christ that leads to eternal life and have mercy on those who doubt Save others by snatching them out of the fire to others show mercy with fear

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Hating even the garment stained by the flesh Now to him is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with eternal

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Joy to the only God our Savior through Jesus Christ our Lord be glory

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Majesty dominion and authority before all time and now and forever

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Amen, may the Lord add his blessings to the reading of his Holy Word Well, what do you think is worth fighting for if You're agreeable You tend to think there's very few things we're fighting about you want to get along you want to be cooperative

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You don't want to be a jerk who just insists on his own way all the time you so you don't say no Too much.

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Anyway, you're you're easily pressured Maybe even bullied you want

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Peace just want to get along but there are things worth fighting for What are they?

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I? Read two articles this past week about what's worth fighting for one by a man and one by a woman a mr

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Mike Zimmerman, which means carpenter in German listed 18 things. He said we're worth fighting over Too many typical man willing to fight for too much.

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He wrote in an article in men's health magazine I'll give you seven of his 18. All right Your workout schedule really you're gonna fight it with that.

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That's that's weird to me sex Well, definitely a man your favorite band or movie or team even if they're bad

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Even if they lost to Duke this past week fight over that the remote control

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Again, definitely a man. He said one guy broke his leg fighting for the remote control and he would do it again the sanctity of the line

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Don't let people break in line either at the store or on the freeway You know in some lanes are merging and some guy

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It's always some guy that's got to drive all the way up until he has to absolutely has to merge

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Don't let him next happiness but will fighting for happiness make you happy and Finally, you're wrong on the ladder meaning promotion when you're next to get that raise or advancement fight for it

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Meanwhile a ms. Lauren Martin listed seven things worth fighting up for your dream job

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Okay, second your reputation sounds like a lot of concern for how others think about you

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Third for people who make you laugh Definitely a woman But does that mean

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I should fight for Jim Gaffigan and Jerry Seinfeld? What's that mean fourth the truth?

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Well can't argue with that fifth change But maybe true a lot of people that will fight to avoid change

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Six the person you love. Okay, finally Your freedom that is to be who you want to be but what if you don't want to be a fighter

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Would you fight for the freedom of being? agreeable Well, what about for you?

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Now you agreeable or are you a fighter and the role of religion? Some people love to fight they'll fight over anything.

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They're fighters who feed on fighting about something There's always some there's some heretic or false doctrine to fight and if they can't find one

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They'll make one up That's why Paul and Titus Warns us against the fighter who just digs up some controversy something to argue about and it doesn't matter how trivial it is

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But more often today the problem is on the other extreme those who won't fight over anything they're agreeable and want to be seen as kind and sympathetic and Accommodating and winsome and of course kindness is a fruit of the

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Spirit But there can be a problem if you're always agreeable about everything that means you're averse to conflict you avoid

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Confronting people if at all possible, so you won't say no to someone you won't say something that others find harsh or Hard or disapproving you won't disapprove of what they're saying or doing you won't take an unpopular stand

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Like I'm going to church even if it means us losing money Agreeable people are more easily manipulated even to doing terrible things

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Even participating in torture because they won't oppose those who are pressuring them

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They'll compromise their beliefs because they're less capable of resistance the agreeable always want to be like Caleb, you know positive and encouraging and that means they won't be negative and discouraging

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To whatever needs to be rejected and discouraged When I first arrived here,

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I was preceded by a pastor who aren't hardly ever Disapproved of anyone or anything at least not directly to their face.

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He had always find a way to avoid saying no To stay agreeable.

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Someone might ask him, you know Would you perform the wedding between me and my living girlfriend and he'd try to sound accommodating and agreeable But he'd said well, you know,

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I'll have to talk to my deacon board about that Something like that. In other words, I want to accommodate you, but someone else won't let me never

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Never resisting never putting up a fight and in my opinion in our day

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That kind of person that type of personality It's commonly made into pastors

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But here there is something worth fighting over particularly what Jude calls the faith in verse 3

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The faith is worth fighting for and we see that here in six parts first the problem second the precedence third the portraits fourth the prophecy then the

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Perseverance and finally the power. Well first Jude introduces himself as a servant of Jesus Christ and brother of James James in his letter also introduces himself as a servant of God and the

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Lord Jesus Christ Now if you didn't know anything else about them You'd never know

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They both of them were brothers technically half -brothers of Jesus Now if I were them

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I'd want to boast about my connection when you I was raised with Jesus.

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I know Jesus I'm connected we're brothers, but since there were not believers in Jesus their own brother before his resurrection

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They don't Know their their their faith in him is all after the resurrection.

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And by the way That they were not believers in Jesus before he was raised

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But became believers after he was raised is evidence of the resurrection

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Why else would they become believers in the one that they were not believers of when they lived in the same house?

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Well, they were literally raised side by side with him But then became believers after he had died and was gone why else would they had happened unless They knew he was raised

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Jude likes groups of threes Triplets you see this all through this little letter Jude writes to people designated by three characteristics called loved and kept

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To those in God the Father who have been that is have been notice the tense the verb tense is here have been in the past by God's decree called loved and Kept and notice especially kept it's kept as past tense as if done

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Being kept is not a promise For the future that may be one that you can lose if you if you don't hold up your end of the bargain

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It's an accomplished Reality, you're one of the Saints you are kept like in Paul's golden chain

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The last one is glorified like it's done already. You are glorified even though we're still something in our experience

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We're waiting on but it's an accomplished reality they are already called loved and kept and the prayer for them and for you is also three things a triplet that you loves mercy peace and love and May they be not just added

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But multiplied to you so for you and for your knowing

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Jesus Christ Jude is willing to fight Jude says he was very eager to write about what he called our common salvation probably a book like Romans something like that Describing salvation, but he thought it was necessary instead to appeal to us appeal

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To to encourage to call us to to call appeal to that called love to kept people to us to contend

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He's appealing to us to fight Now some of them apparently didn't want to fight.

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They were people probably like a lot of us Who want to be agreeable? But he's saying listen, you got to wake up There are other people that he's about to describe for coming into the church, they're running amok and No one is doing anything about it

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They probably the people Jude is writing to the call loved and kept Probably thought is unspiritual to fight.

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They're the agreeable type after all they they wanted always to be positive encouraging And so Jude writes to plead with them.

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You have to fight I know you don't want to but you have to contend for the faith And that's what we have the faith that's what he calls it

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It's not just not just faith don't just contend for faith is for believing or for my faith alone my experience my personal feeling of Trust in the

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Lord my personal relationship with Jesus two sets of footprints of the sand not just that but not just the religion either

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The doctrine the worship the church It's all of that that's the faith and It's the faith that's once for all

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There's not gonna be another revelation Jude is telling us no other new revelation coming not a new prophet coming in a cave in Arabia and 600 years

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That's not gonna happen. There's not gonna be golden tablets found in the woods of upstate, New York Somewhere in 1 ,800 years that's not gonna happen.

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It's once for all delivered. The faith has been fully perfectly delivered also past tense accomplished once for all

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God once for all delivered it To the Saints to those called loved and kept the faith that God once for all delivered to his people is worth fighting for The problem is that the agreeable people in the church weren't fighting for it

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They weren't fighting because against the what he called certain people who have in verse 4 crept in Unnoticed their infiltrators

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The people of the church didn't notice they were probably people in the church are gentle and meek and sincere agreeable And they assumed that these other new people coming in certain people that they were just like that too

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Now sure these certain people they may have been a little hard to get along with sometimes or a little wild Maybe a little abrasive but surely they're they're like me

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They're gentle meek and sincere and they meant well But they weren't these certain people were infiltrating the church and they and they would these people if left unchecked

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They would destroy the church and so if the church is destroyed and Paul said in first Timothy chapter 2 verse 15 that the church is the pillar and the

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Bulwark that the pillar that is the church is the body and it's a pillar That is it holds up like a pillar bearing weight like these big girders here on the side of the building or the bulwark

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It's a it's the fortress it defends The truth the gospel the faith

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Then if that's lost then the faith is lost if the church is lost The faith is lost.

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So if it's worth fighting for the faith, it's worth fighting for the church Certain people are coming into the church who do not belong now.

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I'm sure they at first look like they belong They said the right words They apparently made the right confession to be considered

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Christian to be considered part of the church. They almost certainly got baptized But in verse 4 they weren't the called loved and kept

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But they were people who were Long ago This is interesting to me because I didn't hadn't seen this before of this week.

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They were long ago in eternity past They were ESV puts it designated the

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Greek word literally means written about beforehand. They've been written down Beforehand it was written that these certain people get

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What you says this? Judgment this condemnation that they be condemned.

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Well written by who? by God long ago God wrote down their fate he pre -wrote their condemnation thus designating them for Condemnation there are actually very few verses in Scripture Which described what called double predestination people predestined for condemnation most of the time

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Bible speaks of predestination It talks about the predestination of the Saints for salvation But this is one of them.

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This is talking about there being designated predestined. There's another way of putting it for condemnation now the problem is that such people have snuck into the church and the

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Saints Are not fighting them and these certain people are he calls them ungodly

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Phrase he'll use a lot ungodly. That is they are irreverent. They don't tremble at God's Word They may fake it, but they don't really in the heart

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Fear God that they may be violating his word or fear of his judgment. They don't they don't love

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God They don't say with Psalm 76 whom have I in heaven, but you and there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you

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They might be religious because here if they're in the church, but their hearts are not directed toward God They might love to fight about some doctrines or what

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Bible translation to use But it's never really about the glory of God They also pervert the grace of our

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God into sensuality. They think grace means that they can indulge the flesh They can they're often sexually immoral that is they have sex outside of marriage and if you challenge them about that They'll say just not

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I'm free in Christ, you know grace Grace covers me up everything I do and by living like that they deny in practice

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The Lord they deny our only master the word that means sovereign the absolute ruler and Lord Jesus Christ, they're denying him by living contrary to his word and then claiming

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Grace lets them do that The grace means you don't have to repent

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The grace means you don't have to be baptized and some teach that today And they're often sexually immoral too.

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By the way, I doubt that they were verbally denying the Jesus of Lord They were probably saying the words Jesus the

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Lord because otherwise the church would have known that they don't belong They were denying him by how they lived and then saying that the grace lets them still say that they are in the faith, but they aren't and That's the problem

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Next is the precedence Jude recounts for us at verses 5 to 7 how that problem has arisen before and What God has done about it?

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I? Want to remind you what was the things that's happened before in verse 5 of the precedence? He's reminded them of something that they well knew before these are not new

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Bible lessons for them But he's got to remind them because they forget Notice the second half of verse 5.

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What's the precedence? Well, there's three of them do you like just threes but first Jesus saved a people out of the land of Egypt think of that Don't pass over that too fast and that is probably the best

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Greek Translation Jesus not just the Lord generally Jesus saved a people out of the land of Egypt.

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This is Jude Think of it. It's Jude the brother of Jesus. He is saying, you know, my older brother

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My older brother was the I am who called Moses from the burning bush and told him to tell

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Pharaoh let my people go that was Jesus and Who afflicted Egypt and led them out

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Jesus my older brother did that and delivering Israel by grace? Now here's his point to bring it up here

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Jesus delivered Israel out by grace right save them by grace Were they allowed them to continue in sin after that?

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Think of the story, right? They just God said what whatever you want to do live how you like I've saved you now by grace.

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You're free grace covers up by your sin Were they well the certain people claiming free grace were saying that their salvation by grace

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Allows them to keep sinning Did Jesus allow that before what's the precedent?

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No, if you remember the story from the Old Testament, absolutely not Jesus afterward

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Destroyed those who did not believe and they showed they didn't believe by their sinning their refusal to believe the promise

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That God was giving them the promised land and so they could go in and take it. They didn't believe it They disobeyed they were destroyed

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Jesus did that and then Jesus said that They will all die in the desert over 40 years

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That's Jesus you find the same thing today They think if you start talking you can't live in sin You have to repent you have to live according to God's Word by the

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Spirit you condemn sexual immorality Some people say what Jesus was elected. Jesus just allowed everyone to do anything they wanted.

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They don't know Jesus They don't know who he is. Neither do these people Jesus is the one that these certain people say gives them grace that lets them sin, but the precedent is the opposite Another precedent is some of the fallen angels at verse 6.

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They left their proper place like Adam and Eve They tried to grasp for equality with God.

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And so those fallen angels are kept in eternal chains under gloomy darkness until the judgment of The great day.

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It's the same Judgment we were reading about in 2nd Thessalonians They're kept net even now

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This is about all we know of this So don't expect any more speculation about all this than this here all about all we know of this is what you read here

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There are angels kept in confined fallen angels who wanted to be like God tried to overthrow

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God and they've been kept in eternal chains until this day and waiting for the final judgment and The third precedent is

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Sodom and Gomorrah in verse 7. They likewise that is like the certain people indulge in sexual immorality

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Grace does not let you willfully live in sexual sin. Okay, you can't say well, okay

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I'm gonna do this sin, but grace will let me get away with it No, that's not the way a believer thinks grace does not let you willfully live in sexual sin and and still claim to be in the

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Faith Sodom and Gomorrah pursued a natural desire. That's literally different flesh different that is natural

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Referring to homosexuality. We have people today who claim that grace lets them be a gay Christian.

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No, you can't The precedent proves it those cities underwent punishment of eternal

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Fire actually says they're undergoing punishment of eternal fire, which is hints of of hell

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They're still undergoing it even now. There was the literal punishment on earth with fire, but now there's still an ongoing

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Punishment of fire. So those are three precedents that show that grace is not a license to sin

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We have to be willing to fight people who try to excuse those sins in The church

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About a decade ago We had a member who indulged in sexual immorality and we went through the church discipline process and finally excommunicated her we were fighting for her and for the faith and we had to our doing that Preserved the church and I also think our doing that preserved her and led to the end of that immoral and unhealthy

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Relationship and now she's married and going to church next third our portraits of the certain people

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Who are infiltrating the church and must be fought and there are over ten depending how you count them

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But there's over ten pictures of what they are like coming in rapid fire Machine gun like sprayed in verses 8 to 13.

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They are in like manner These people like the sexually immoral in Sodom and Gomorrah They defile the flesh they reject authority

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They don't want to submit to anyone. They're like the fallen angels and they blaspheme or literally they could slander insult the glorious ones

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Like the grumbling Israelites slandered Moses and the Lord They do that because they are he says dreamy

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They rely on their dreams They're led by their dreams either literally their dreams while they sleep

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They're guided by them instead of the Word of God or their daydreams Their grandiose visions of themselves of how great they are their feelings

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About the who they are what they can do. They want to have that relationship They want to have that affair in their dreams and they think their dreams make it

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Okay, or they can call themselves an apostle or a prophet or someone great as their dreams and they're led by that They think they're so great in their dreams

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They think that they can contend with Satan himself principalities and powers Some people have taught that we we should do that that we should address

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Teachings territorial spirits and we bind them we bind the strong man

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That's what they'll teach but in verse 9 tells us that even the archangel Michael fighting with the devil didn't presume himself an archangel to have the right to curse and pronounce a

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Judgment on the devil when he was disputing with the body of Moses over the but about the body of Moses instead

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He referred to the Lord said the Lord Rebuke you other words

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The Lord he has the authority not me in their dreams the troublemakers think that they have more authority than Michael Second they're like unreasoning animals

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They're not open to being persuaded With Scripture with reason you can try to talk to them.

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We won't make any progress They think church exists for them to hear what they want to hear about the right

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Bible translation or the right interpretation of the beginning creation or the end or the rapture of the millennium all of that They're just totally unteachable in verse 10.

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They blaspheme or insult or that is they they rail at Anything they do not understand

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Something new and different they just insult it. You're a heretic. You're a liberal. You're an unbeliever.

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You're satanic. You're a cultic You're a racist. You're a misogynist. You're a bigot. Whatever It can come from either in they just insult anything that they don't already understand.

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They're totally unreasonable like unreasoning animals And so they're destroyed

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It's like a dog You can't talk into not chasing cars

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You ever try that dog takes you can't talk to it and reason with it Look dog, if you chase that car, you might get hit by the tire.

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No, you can't do that So it eventually gets run over by one Third they're like Cain Cain hated

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Abel Because God accepted Abel and his sacrifice and not

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Cain and his sacrifice. So instead of repenting Having a heart toward God Being godly

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He chose to destroy his brother instead the troublemakers

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Will come into the church in order to destroy the people God accepts the called

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The loved and the kept That's why they must be fought woe to them

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Fourth they're like Balaam. They abandoned themselves for the sake of gain to Balaam's error. Balaam was willing to plot against God's people the church

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For the money. It's all he cared about. He loved money now. He knew the Lord.

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He knew the Lord was real He knew the Lord could do miracles. He could make a donkey talk to him, but he still wouldn't listen to the

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Lord He knew who God's people were He knew he couldn't curse them because God said you can't do that But he would find other ways to make money off of his gifts.

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It didn't matter because Making money making the cash Came first Balaam thought that he could serve

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God in mammon, but Jesus told us we have to choose It's either God or money. You can't serve both the infiltrators

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Are serving mammon And so they'll treat the church like a career ladder Say or not say

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Whatever helps them get to a bigger church with more money their professionals

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Fifth they're like Cora. They're the rebellious They refuse to submit to the leadership of the one God appointed as the head of his people this frost is

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Christ They promote themselves over him their teachings and their tradition are authoritative.

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They say very self -serving It's all about their traditions tell you to obey them.

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So that's why there's so much in support of them Not the Word of God Or at least you can't read it yourself.

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You have to accept their interpretation of it You have to submit to their interpretation and their interpretation quite conveniently tells you to submit to them

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It's all about them in the end Or today they could be those who refuse to submit to the body of Christ who reject church membership in church covenants

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I've done a lot of research into church covenants over the past year or two and I learned how important they used to be

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Church covenants used to keep out the Cora's that is rebellious lawless people and now

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That we used to be the Baptist churches in particular all had church covenants And they were very prominent important and they kept the

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Cora's out now. We're one of the unusual churches for still using ours

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That's because we have a culture around us now in which everyone is rebellious Everyone's like a

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Cora basically and they infiltrate into the church and they say Why do we need this covenant?

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It's too restricting It it It binds me and I want to be rebellious

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So they'll we don't need covenant. We need a vision statement something like that something amorphous doesn't restrict them

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Because their self -exaltation makes their doom sure Jude writes at the end of verse 11. Notice the verb tenses again

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That they have perished Maybe you say what do you mean? They're perished. Why are we fighting with them that they've perished already?

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Well No It their judgment their punishment they have been destroyed it's as good as done

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Now six they are like hidden reefs in verse 12 They're hidden because they're not obvious They don't stick out.

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There's no warning buoys or lighthouses So if you're not looking out for them

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You could hit them the ship of the church Things just as smooth sailing ahead

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So they're not paying careful attention to the water But then it hits one of these hidden reefs and it's run aground or even sunk

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They may be our love feast he says eating with us if we're not careful They'll be eating without fear

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If we're not fighting them Seventh they're shepherds feeding themselves

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Or literally self -shepherding they shepherd themselves wherever they want to go for their own benefit

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Leading themselves to where the food is the best their selfish Pastors the word for shepherd same word is for pastor

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They're they appear agreeable By only saying what people want to hear because they don't want to make anyone upset because they want to be popular and they want to be big and Use the church to advance their career.

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They're self -serving shepherds of of israel like those in ezekiel chapter 34

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Should not shepherds feed the sheep Ezekiel said you eat the fat You clothe yourself with the wool

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You slaughter the fat ones But you do not feed the sheep Eight they're like waterless clouds.

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They appear promising You know the farmers look up. Oh, there's clouds good. We need rain. I think it's going to bring rain for their thirsty crops but then nothing

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They're empty just swept along by the wind Going wherever the world takes them like people who speak well

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They look like they're going to water god's field the church, but nothing comes No benefit

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No refreshment nothing like ninth fruitless trees They look like they're going to produce

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Something we can use apples olives oranges figs sound teaching

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Good leadership good service, but by harvest time late autumn They're dead

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Twice dead. I don't know what that means, but it's bad. They're really dead Uprooted there's no life.

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There's no possibility of refreshing us no matter how promising they appeared at first They are 10th in verse 13

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Like wild waves of the sea Otherwise instead of the predictable waves, you know go up and down There's a wild one that you couldn't foresee

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They could capsize us if we're not on the lookout for them the ship of the church Thinks it's smooth sailing But then a wild wave comes

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It could up turn it they cast up shame like foam Leaving behind a trail of shame

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Like a wave leaves foam. They're unpredictable like finally wandering stars

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Well, we now know our planets in their day before they understood why some of the lights in the sky at night moved unpredictably

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For them the the gloom of utter darkness has been reserved Forever they're out there in deep outer space alone gloomy

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Like that again It's reserved Means it's predestined for them

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Their condemnation has been predestined beforehand reserved Like that written about in verse 4

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Well, those are the portraits of the infiltrators Next fourth is the prophecy about them from verses 14 to 16.

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The prophecy comes from enoch Now that prophecy was preserved in an ancient book

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It's not in the bible, but that doesn't mean everything in that book is true or that it should be in the bible But only that the holy spirit

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Led jude and told jude that that particular prophecy is true. And so jude recovers it for us

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Enoch's prophecy says that the lord comes with 10 000 of holy ones That's his saints

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And that he will execute judgment On all the ungodly ungodly is the key word here

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Those who don't love god who don't revere god don't tremble at his word And so don't have god in the center of their lives.

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They don't seek first his kingdom And god will convict all the ungodly

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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

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Like in second thessalonians god righteous judgment comes and it comes in verse 16 on the grumblers like israel in the desert the malcontents always finding something to criticize following their own sinful desires

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Not led by the spirit not seeking god himself, but their own Self -fulfillment loud mouth boasters telling everyone of how

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Many people have responded to my sermon or how many books i've sold how big their church is

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How great their credentials are They show favoritism To the wealthy and the well connected to gain advantage for themselves

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That's what the prophecy says They are like and we must

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Fight them Do you think the church and the faith is worth fighting for? To keep it from those kind of people

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Well, if so you need fifth Perseverance in verses 17 to 23, but you

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You're not like those kind of people the ungodly you You're the beloved in contrast to them

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Who are the scoffing the ungodly led by passions and worldly carnal devoid of the spirit you but you you're different Be different in three ways first.

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Remember that the apostles predicted that in these last days now There will be people

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Like we've described creeping in You've been warned So don't act like you've been caught by surprise.

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I thought well the church is a safe play an enclave from that We don't have to worry about fighting here not here Don't be naive and think everyone in the church must be gentle and meek and sincere like me

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Don't be so agreeable That you're not able to fight Be ready to fight if necessary or at least allow

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Others those who can fight to do so We've been put on notice

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That we might have to fight the apostles have said it to us. So now we know To be able to fight or at least support those who do

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Second build yourself up But you beloved Not like them in verses 20 and 21 you keep yourself

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In the love of god, you might think well, he's promised To keep me. Remember i'm the capt

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Told me fast like we sang last week. So why do I have to keep myself? Well, because god works through means that means he uses the means he uses

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Are what you do to keep yourself? If you're one of the kept

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You will keep yourself The means he uses are those you use to keep yourself like building yourself up in the most holy faith

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That is feed on the word of god. You read it. You memorize you sing it listen to sermons you nurture your faith build it up and Pray in the holy spirit that is seek spirit empowered prayer not just mindless saying your prayers

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Like it's a routine But building yourself up in your faith with a word and being filled with the spirit through prayer

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You then through that you keep yourself in the love of god So you love god?

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And love like god And the third way to persevere is to show mercy on those who doubt

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In verse 22 now, that doesn't mean those who doubt I don't think he's referring to unbelieving scoffers it means believers who are doubting this or that maybe doubting whether they're saved because they're still struggling with some sin or or maybe they've kind of fallen for some of the lines of these

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Certain people have crept into the church and they kind of begun to believe like them and they've begun to doubt god's word

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You can have mercy on them and so snatch them out of the fire Because they're being dragged down by these certain people these false teachers and snatch them out

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So they're not condemned by them out of the coming judgment by warning them Telling them the truth mercifully

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Tell them what they don't want to hear To others maybe some fool by that false gospel of grace that permits sin show mercy with fear mercy on them fear

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For the judgment fear of what their sin Could do to them hating the garment.

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He says hating the garment stained by the flesh That is whatever just touches the sin that they've indulged in hate it.

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Love the sinner hate and fear the sin even anything tinged with it

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Finally The power if you're going to fight for the faith

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Once for all delivered to the saints you need You need the power. You need the power to fight

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And so as we're sent off As we're commissioned. We're blessed by jude.

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We praise god Who is? Jude says he is able that is now to him who is able who has the power

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To keep you So that you're one of the kept We were to keep ourselves in the love of god.

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Keep loving god because God has the power

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To keep us. He has the power to keep us from stumbling into pride Into rebellion into the sexual immorality of the infiltrators from falling for their lies

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He has the power to present us blameless So that when we come before the presence of his glory

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There will be nothing about us to be blamed Because all the blame that we had earned was placed on christ

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So there's no more blame left for us Then blameless before his glory

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We will have great joy God has the power to do that He has the power to get us before him

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Blameless Despite our sins, but he has the power to overcome our sins so that we appear before him without anything to blame and we have great joy

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That's the faith It's worth fighting for So finally

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Tim the only god Our savior through jesus christ our lord god was our savior

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Through becoming flesh and so to him Be glory because he's the one who saved us.

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We didn't save ourselves be glory majesty That is the position to rule power the ability to rule and authority the right to rule in our lives

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And may he have all that Literally it says in greek here before All the past ages

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Goes all the way back as far as you could go before all the past ages and may have that now

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And may have that into all the future ages for all time

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So we fight now with his power we fight to keep ourselves in the love of god

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And fight for the faith that god delivered to us we fight for his glory which lasts