Truth in Love Video Ministry Jude 1-4

ministry. I'm so excited that I am back with you doing the videos again. It feels like it's been a long time, it's been a while, and I feel like I'm out of practice, so I hope everything goes well and I continue to improve,

I continue to get better, because I have a zeal and a passion, just like many of you, for the glory of God and for the truth of God's Word.

Like I said, this is Truth in Love video ministry, and we get that from a

Bible verse found in Ephesians chapter 4, verse 15. And that verse says, But speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects into him who is the head, even

Christ. And so that's one of our goals here, is to speak truth in love, so that in all aspects, we're growing up in him, the head, who is

Christ. The purpose of this video ministry, and the purpose of the guys who are partnering with me, and whose videos we post on the network page, is the glory of God.

Number one, first and foremost, is the glory of God. We want to see

Him glorified, and then also, just as importantly, we want to see souls saved.

We want the gospel to go out. We want to use social media. We want to be in that modern -day marketplace, where we can, at least now, still have freedom to speak truth, to speak the gospel, to reach out to others.

So we want the gospel to go out there. We want souls to be saved. We want the truth of God's Word to remain pure.

We have a zeal, and a love, and a passion for God's Word. We believe that God has spoken to us through His Word, and we want it to remain pure.

We believe that there's power in God's Word, and we want that truth to go out, and that truth to be pure, and remain pure.

Let me talk to you while I try to share this very quickly.

I apologize for the delay. There we go.

All right. So we know that, and me specifically,

I know doing this video, the Truth and Love Video Ministry, and the videos that I do,

I touch on some, and I know as we go through Scripture, there are going to be differences, and that's okay.

We want to study God's Word, and discover the truth of God's Word, and we want that to remain pure.

But there's going to be differences as we approach God's Word, as we interpret. And I know I've become new friends with many of you on Facebook, and I know that some of us may have differences in the interpretation.

And like I said in one of the posts that I made earlier this week, I know that what

I do, and my interpretation, and the way that I communicate may not be everyone's cup of tea, but I and the others that are on here, we appreciate and we love your support.

We appreciate you, and I believe it's okay if we disagree, but as long as we're disagreeing with the intent to continue to search and study

God's Word, we get to the point where we know what He wanted us to understand and know, and not just hold on to things because it's been tradition, or the way it's always been, or whatever other reason it may be.

There's going to be differences, and it's okay, and I'm open to discuss those differences. And speaking of that, the floor is always yours.

We want to respect God's Word. Anytime we have God's Word open, we're speaking of Him, we're talking about scriptures.

We want to be reverent, but this is also an informal time, just a community gathering where we're family, and we love one another, and I would love to be able to communicate with you.

So if you don't mind, if you watch or if you're watching, I'd love to know that you watch, and so just comment high, let me know that you're watching.

If you have any questions about church, about the Bible, about some scripture verses in the

Bible, current events, anything that you would like to talk about, I'd love to talk about those things with you, and so leave me a comment, let me know that you're watching.

That's the one thing about this new format on Facebook that I really dislike, is that on the old format, if you decided to watch, it let me know that you were watching, and I really appreciated that because I like to speak to you, and say hello, and know that you're watching.

So the floor is yours, and I'd love to have that communication with you. Anything that we talk about, anything that you want to talk about, hopefully we can look at it from a

Christian perspective, and in a way that honors the Lord. So with all that introduction, anytime that you want to talk, anytime that you want to chat, the floor is yours, and the other thing that I aim to do through this, is to be here to pray for you, and with you.

So if you need prayer, if you would like for me to pray for you, all you have to do is type me,

I'll see that, and even if you watch the video later, I'll see that comment whenever I get the notification, and I'll know to pray for you.

So I want you to know that someone is out there that is willing to pray for you, if you need prayer, all you have to do is just type me, and I'll see that, and we try to pray at the end of the videos.

So as long as nobody comments, and has anything they want to chat about, questions, we're going to take a break from Philippians.

We were in Philippians, and I was going to go through Philippians, and I will go back to Philippians, and hopefully finish

Philippians, but it was requested of me to look at the book, the small book of Jude, and what we're going to do is, now

I've been on doing the videos on Tuesday nights and Saturday mornings, and so what we're going to do is, in each of those time slots, we're going to go through Jude until we finish, and then we'll go back to Philippians.

A couple more things that I wanted to bring to your attention is the

Bible reading, the summer Bible reading challenge that Kelly, my wife, and I talk about when we do our videos together.

I want to continue to challenge you to join us in that Bible reading challenge. I use for this

Bible reading challenge, it's called the YouVersion app,

I believe, and you can look if you have a Bible version, if you have a

Bible app on your phone, and it has Bible reading plans on there, you can check to see if it's on there. I specifically use the

YouVersion Bible app, and search for Same Page Summer Bible Reading Challenge, and it's going through the

New Testament this summer, and I know we've already started, but the encouragement is to pick up whenever you, just get started, that's the encouragement.

And if you fall behind, like I do sometimes, just pick right back up. And if you use these

Bible apps on your way to work, on your way back home, on trips or wherever, or if you're on a walk or a jog and you have your your headphones on, you can listen to God's Word and complete the summer

Bible reading challenge. It's called Same Page Summer, look it up and let us know, let

Kelly and I know that you are joining us in the summer Bible reading challenge that goes through the

New Testament. We'd love to know that you're doing that with us. So let's look at Jude.

Let's look at Jude. Like I said, we're gonna go back to Philippians when we finish Jude, but let's look at start in Jude tonight.

And if you're just joining me, the floor is yours. Chat, ask questions about the

Bible, about church, about current circumstances, anything that you want to chat about, or at least let me know that you're watching.

I'd really appreciate that. And if you would like or share, we would appreciate your support with these videos as well.

So let's look at Jude finally. We're gonna look at verses 1 through 4.

Jude is a very small book. There's only one chapter in Jude, and we're gonna look at verses 1 through 4.

And all I'm gonna do is I'm gonna read verses 1 through 4, and then we're just going to take a look at these verses one by one and just discuss what

Jude has to say. So starting in verse 1, it says, Jude, a bondservant of Jesus Christ and brother of James, to those who are the called, beloved in God the

Father and kept for Jesus Christ. Verse 2, may mercy and peace and love be multiplied to you.

But verse 3, beloved, while I was making every effort to write you about our common salvation,

I felt the necessity to write to you appealing that you contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints.

And verse 4, for certain persons have crept in unnoticed, those who were long beforehand marked out for this condemnation, ungodly persons who turn the grace of our

God into licentiousness and deny our only Master and Lord Jesus Christ.

So it begins with Jude. He says Jude, and it can be

Jude, Judas, or Judah. All those three are interchangeable,

I think. They all work, but it's more commonly to us known as as Jude.

And then he says, a bondservant of Jesus Christ. And that word bondservant, when

I read that word in the New Testament, and especially here in Jude and going back to Philippians where we're reading

Paul, when I see the word bondservant, that word to me, because of what

I read in the text, comes with some weight to it. When I hear it from Jude and when

I hear it from Paul, just as it should with us in our lives, if we consider, if we would call ourselves bondservants of Jesus Christ, when

I see that used by Jude and Paul, I see weight in that word, bondservant.

I see depth behind it. And what am I talking about? If we go back to Philippians, when we were looking at Philippians, Paul introduces himself in his greeting the very same way.

He says, Paul, a bondservant of Jesus Christ. And then as we continue on in chapter 1, we don't even have to get past chapter 1, in chapter 1, we learn that Paul is in prison.

How does that help us understand bondservant for Paul? Well, though Paul is in prison physically, as a bondservant of Jesus Christ, he has freedom in Jesus Christ.

Therefore, his physical imprisonment is not what is on or in his mind.

His imprisonment physically is, to him, an opportunity for the gospel, an opportunity for the

Word of God, for the message to continue to go out. So, in Christ, Paul has freedom as he is a bondservant, a slave of Christ.

He is in chains to Christ. His physical circumstances, whether in prison or not, are not where he's chained to.

He is not chained to his physical circumstances. He is chained to Christ. And so, here with Jude, I see deeper, deeper meaning.

There's depth to the word bondservant, and there's weight to it when it comes from Jude, because Jude has a purpose in his book, and as we go through it, we'll see that his purpose is to address...

you have apostasy. It's a big word that we use. We have apostasy and apostates.

Apostasy is the false teaching of the apostates. Apostates are the persons that have fallen from the faith or are the false teachers, and that is what

Jude is addressing here in his book. And so, we get a key when he recognizes himself or introduces himself as a bondservant of Jesus Christ, and that ties into when he says, "...and

brother of James." Now, theologians have identified him as James, the half -brother of Jesus.

So, therefore, Jude would also be the half -brother of Jesus. So, what does that mean when it comes to Jude being a bondservant?

If you recall back in Mark chapter 3, verse 21, is one example.

The family of Jesus, at one point, opposed

Jesus. They did not believe. They did not follow him. They opposed him, and so when he identifies himself as the brother of James, therefore the half -brother of Jesus, he is a part of this family that, at one time, opposed

Jesus, but now he is a bondservant of Jesus Christ.

He has done a total 180. A total 180 to where he is now a bondservant.

The one whom he once opposed, he is now a bondservant of Christ.

And also, there's greater weight and depth that comes with the word bondservant with the subject of the book of Jude 2 because, as a true follower of Jesus Christ, it is our heart's desire to be a bondservant of Christ, but those of whom he speaks in this book would never be a bondservant of Christ because they will not bend the knee.

They will not submit to the Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, they could not be a bondservant of Jesus Christ.

So, there's the weightiness and the depth of Jude calling himself a bondservant of Jesus Christ as opposed to these apostates that are creeping in that he's mentioning.

If you're joining us and you didn't hear me before, the floor is yours. If you want to let me know that you're watching, I would appreciate that.

If you have any questions, you want to talk about anything, the floor is always yours. I'd love to communicate with you.

If you'd like me to pray for you at the end, I'd love to be able to do that too, but let's continue. To those who are the called.

Now, this is where we may come into some differences in our interpretation of Scripture, but I'm not going to go there.

I'm just going to briefly breeze over this and say it in these terms.

Jude, in my understanding, brings out and highlights the sovereignty of God, and how do

I know that? He's speaking to those who are the called, and if you have a group who are the called, then there has to be another group, and I'll let your mind wander on that.

I'll let your mind think on that. I'll let you go to other Scriptures and dive into that subject, but I believe that Jude is highlighting the sovereignty of God in the fact of whom he's addressing.

He's addressing the called. Now, to end verse 1, this is how the grammar of the sentence works.

He then speaks to a great blessing for them. He then says,

Beloved in God the Father, you are beloved in God the Father because you are the called, and then you are kept for Jesus Christ because you are the called.

And aren't those wonderful and tremendous and fantastic blessings that are true of us who are believers of Jesus Christ, who are in Him?

We are, because we are the called, we are beloved in God the Father, and we are kept in Jesus Christ.

And think of the depth of that. The God of the universe who measures the universe with the span of His hands, and He can number every hair on our head, we are beloved in God the

Father. When you feel unloved, when you feel alone, when you feel like you are on this journey and standing up for the truth, and you have enemies coming at you, enemies facing you, tearing you down, when you feel unloved and alone, you can always know this truth that as one of the called, you are beloved in God the

Father. Isn't that a tremendous blessing? And then the second one, kept for Jesus Christ.

And that's a statement of security. We are kept for Jesus Christ because we can't keep ourselves.

If our salvation was up to us, we would never have it. If it was up to us to maintain it, we would always lose it.

But we are, because we are the called, we are kept for Jesus Christ.

There's security in that. There's rest in that truth because we are kept in Jesus Christ.

Verse 2, may mercy and peace and love be multiplied to you.

More tremendous blessings that we receive or that he is speaking to these folks, to his readers.

May mercy, peace, and love be multiplied to you. And why does he say multiplied?

It's not just a one -off thing here. He's speaking these things, this mercy, peace, and love to be multiplied, to be continuously applied and felt and received by the reader.

And this is my thoughts and opinions on this, about why he's saying multiplied to you.

You have, in the context of the reader at this time, you have the old

Jewish religion opposed to Jesus Christ and this new found religion.

You have the civil authorities opposed to Jesus Christ and this new religion.

You have the civil authorities arresting Peter. You have the civil authorities arresting

Paul. The Christians are being arrested and and then as time goes on it continues to get worse as Jerusalem becomes a bloodbath and they're just destroyed and the temple is destroyed in 70

AD. So they have at least three enemies coming against them.

And what's the third one? Jude is addressing that here in his book. Those that have crept in, even folks inside that have come inside, are opposed to Christ.

And he gets to that in just a second. So he makes this blessing, introduces this blessing, mercy, peace, and love, and that it may be multiplied to them.

Verse 3. Beloved. You can feel the compassion and the love that he has for the readers, those who this book was addressed to.

Beloved, while I was making every effort to write to you about our common salvation.

So his first inclination, his first approach, was to write to them about the truths of the gospel.

Maybe to continue to go in -depth in the gospel or at least a letter of encouragement in the gospel about their common salvation.

He wanted to write to them about it. But something happened. He was approached with something else that he needed to address with emergency.

There was the word that I want to use has left my mind.

But it became an emergency. It became very important.

And that's not the right word either. But this new information that has come to Jude has now taken the forefront of importance.

That he needs to change his course in writing this letter to a different topic, a different issue.

And what does he say that new topic, that new issue is? He says, I felt the necessity, and there's the word scripture uses it, the necessity to write to you appealing, imploring.

I mean this is an intense reaching out to you, the reader, to you

Christian. Appealing, imploring that you contend earnestly for the faith which was once delivered to the

Saints. So he's appealing and imploring to them to do something.

He's appealing to them as a call to action. Sometimes I believe based on the results that I see, scripture doesn't take a hold of us like I believe that it should.

And this is one of those cases where it doesn't take a hold of us like I believe that it should.

The results that I see from reading a verse like this is sometimes we, it translates into, so Jude wants me to contend earnestly for the faith.

And so that means, you know, when the pastor says you need to avoid this type of teaching, the pastor says to us we need to avoid that specific teacher.

And we, you know, we're jotting down our notes and we say such -and -such teacher, check.

I'm going to, you know, I'm not going to listen to him. If he comes on the TV or radio, I'm going to turn it off.

I'm not going to listen to that pastor. It's more of a, it's more of a passive reaction to this verse.

And that's not the intention of Jude here. He is appealing and imploring you,

Christian, to contend earnestly. This is an active word.

This is a call to action for us, Christian, and to the reader.

When you look at the original language in the Greek, you look up contend, you can see the word agonize.

And that's the depth of this word. We can think of it in terms of agonizing, a true zeal and passion for the truth that leads us to defending the faith.

It's a call to action, this contending. And you hear the word, we use the word contend when it comes to, hey,

I'm Etta. Thank you for watching. Thanks for saying hi. I appreciate that a lot. We use the word contend in boxing.

They are a contender. And, you know, in boxing is a violent sport where there's physical activity.

And this is a, this is a call to action. It's not a, it's not a call to be passive and just, you know, ignore, turn off your

TV or radio when a false teacher comes on. It's not a passive, passerby type of action.

It is a call to arms and a call to action to agonize and have a zeal for this, for this faith that we defend it.

We contend earnestly, earnestly for it. And then the second part, for the faith, once that was once for all delivered to the

Saints. And here's where we have a, may have another disagreement. So I'm going to kind of breeze over it by saying it like this.

When it says, for the faith, which was once for all delivered to the

Saints, that means this faith, which is defined as the gospel of Jesus Christ and the teaching of the

Apostles. So, so that contending of the faith is wrapped up in the gospel and the teaching of the

Apostles. And it was once delivered, once for all delivered to the

Saints. So therefore, this gospel of Jesus Christ and that the teachings of the

Apostles found in this book are not to be changed, they're not to be revised, and they're not to be added to.

They're not to be changed, revised, or added to. And we can have a debate on what that means and we'll probably have a disagreement between ourselves sometimes on what that may mean to you or what it may mean to me.

But it was the faith once delivered for, once for all delivered to the

Saints. It's not to be changed, revised, or added to. All right, now we're to the last verse, verse 4.

For certain persons have crept in unnoticed. So they're, so they're in, right?

They are in amongst other believers. I think that's the view here.

They're not in the faith, they are not members of the kingdom, but they have, they have crept in amongst the believers.

And they have crept in unnoticed. So there's a, there's the idea of, with my mouth outwardly,

I am, I'm portraying myself to be one way. But there's a, there's a difference to me that I'm not revealing.

So they have, they have crept in unnoticed, excuse me.

Those who were long beforehand marked out for the, for this condemnation.

Now we have to draw a line back up to the middle of verse 1, where we talked about Jude lifting up and exposing the the sovereignty of God.

When he says, this letter is addressed to those who are called. He is exposing and lifting up and shining a light on the sovereignty of God.

And, and how else, how else can you understand this other section of verse 4, other than it is a part of the sovereignty of God, where he says those who were long beforehand marked out for this condemnation.

So I'm not gonna go in depth into that conversation, but I believe that Jude is highlighting the sovereignty of God in such a way that we, he's wording in such a way that we can't, we can't miss it.

We have to address it. And I, and I hope that you will address it in your thinking and study it deeper.

And then the last part, ungodly persons who turn the grace of our

God into licentiousness. So licentiousness is, is excess.

And they, they turn the grace of God into excess, licentiousness.

So they do not submit to the, the authority of Jesus Christ to determine their moral behavior.

They do not submit to the lordship of Jesus Christ to, and authority of Jesus Christ to determine their moral behavior.

That's one. And that's one way to identify these folks and, and by looking at their fruit.

You know, God, God has, God has saved me by his grace. Now I can live how I want to.

They are not submitting to the authority and lordship of Jesus Christ in their moral, moral behavior.

And then the second part, they deny our only master and Lord Jesus Christ.

And I think this is more than just with their mouth, because this has got to be more than, than just with their mouth.

They say, I deny the Lord Jesus Christ. Because at the beginning of verse 4, what does it say?

They've crept in unnoticed. So they're, they're not coming out of the closet and saying,

I deny the Lord Jesus Christ. They couldn't do that because they have crept in unnoticed.

So with their, with their lifestyle, with their teaching, they're, they're twisting, adding to, revising, changing scripture, because it's more than just with our lips saying those words,

I deny. When you, when you deny our only master and Lord Jesus Christ, you are also denying his teachings.

Everything that comes with Jesus, you're denying that as well.

So when they deny our only master and Lord Jesus Christ, they're, they're changing, revising, adding to, twisting scripture.

So we, we can see their fruit in the, they claim grace, but then they claim they can live however they want to in, in excess.

And then they, they change, revise, add to, twist the scriptures, the teachings of the apostles, the teachings of Jesus Christ.

And so these, these are the apostates that have crept in unnoticed, that, that Jude is, is warning his readers and, and warning us about.

And there's a definition of bond servant that, that I like.

And, and if it can be improved upon, just let me know that, and we will improve upon the definition.

But, but it's a definition that these apostates, these false teachers cannot conform to.

Only those who have been born again, only those of us who are believers in Christ can conform to this definition.

And the definition of bond servant that I want to share with you is, our, our will is in submission to the will of Jesus Christ, so that his will is now our will.

Our will is in submission to the will of Jesus Christ, so that his will is now our will.

And that's a bond servant of Jesus Christ. So that's a look at Jude verses 1 through 4, and I want to finish on the last part there, our only

Master and Lord Jesus Christ. He is, he is the only

Master. He is the only Lord. He says that he is the way, the truth, and the life.

No one comes to the Father but by him. He's the only way.

It's not any, anything that we can imagine, no other religion. It's only Jesus Christ. And Jesus himself makes this religion exclusive.

We don't do it, and we get, we get hated for bringing it up, and that's okay.

But it's Jesus himself. The gospel itself is offensive. We don't have to be, I'll definitely pray for you,

Almeta. Thank you for, thank you for that. In our tone, in our attitude, we don't have to be hateful.

We don't have to be abrasive. The gospel itself is offensive enough.

Jesus says he is the only way. He makes this religion exclusive, and Jesus tells us to repent.

That means we're sinners. There's, that means that there's something that we need, we need to repent of. So, so the, the gospel and Jesus, they're, they're offensive to our natural selves on their own.

And so, if you have not, if you have not turned to Christ, we want you to know him.

We want you to come to him. We want you to be saved. We want you to, to have eternal life here.

Have joy in Christ here in this life. Be beloved of God the

Father, and kept, have that love, and be kept for Jesus Christ. Have that security here while you're on this earth, and in eternity.

And the only way to do that is to come to Christ. We've all sinned.

We've all fallen short of God's glory. There's an equality there. We are all image bearers.

We were all created in his image. We are all affected by the fall. We've all sinned and fallen short of God's glory, and we're all one race.

We're all from Adam and Eve. We're all in blood. There's equality there, and we're all in the same predicament.

No one is good. No, not one. James chapter 2 verse 10 says, if you've kept the whole law and yet stumbled at one point, you're guilty of it all.

There's equality there. We're all in the same boat, but you have to, you have to receive it, that information, personally, because you have sinned against God.

I have sinned against God, and you have to receive that information personally. And we have a rescuer.

God sent his one and only Son. He was born of a virgin, lived a sinless life. He died on the cross, taking upon the sin of the world.

He died. He was buried. He rose from the grave. He fulfilled all prophecy.

Then he ascended into heaven, where now he sits in the place of authority at God's right hand, interceding for us, those who would call out to him.

And he's sitting there until all his enemies will be made his footstool. And he tells us in his word, repent, apologize, and turn from your sin, and believe the good news.

Believe the gospel. Put on the Lord Jesus Christ. Believe in him. He says you will be born again.

You will be saved. He will take your heart of stone and give your heart of flesh. You will be his child, if you will come to him in repentance and faith.

So that's the way, and that's the message that we want to share with you. I hope that was encouraging to you.

I hope that was helpful. If you have any questions, you want to talk about anything else, or talk about anything that we discussed tonight,

I'd love to be able to do that with you. If there's anyone else that would like prayer,

I'd love to be able to pray for you. All you have to do is type me, and we want to pray for Almeta.

And let's go ahead and close in prayer tonight. Father, we thank you so much for allowing us to spend time together, looking at your word.

Thank you for giving us, for communicating with us, so that we know your way, and that we know what to look out for, and we know the warning signs.

You've warned us. You've given us the right path, and you've given us your Holy Spirit that will lead us and teach us.

So, Father, we thank you for your kindness and your mercy to us.

Father, we worship you for who you are. You are the only true and living God. Jesus, we worship you as the

Lamb who was slain, who takes away the sin of the world. You are the Savior. You are the only

Master and Lord, and we worship you. And, Spirit, we thank you for abiding with us, and being our comforter, and our healer, and our teacher.

And we just worship you tonight, and thank you. Father, we pray for Almeta, that you would comfort her, help her in the needs that she has.

Father, we ask that you would meet them tonight. And, Father, would you receive the glory in her life, and the glory through this time that we have together in this ministry.

In Jesus name, we pray. Amen. Alright, thank you guys for watching. Thank you for joining me.

Let me be a part of your evening, be a part of your family. Continue to like, to share, to pray for this ministry, that God would continue to, and hopefully,

He has received the glory through what we all do. And remember that Jesus is

King. Go live in that victory, and continue to go out there and proclaim the gospel. I hope you have a good evening, and we hope to see you soon.