Jude

Hey, good morning. Good morning. Welcome to Coffee and Devotions. This morning we are in the book of Jude. So we wrapped up. Oh man, my brain's gone this morning. I'm sorry. We wrapped up Jonah and now we're in Jude. Let's have some coffee. Obviously I need it. We'll pray and we'll get into God's word.
Let's pray. Father, we thank you so much for this day. We thank you for your word. We pray that as we read your word, your Holy Spirit would please help us to understand it. Teach us how it applies to our lives. Give us hope, Lord, we pray in Jesus' name. Amen.
Here we go. The book of Jude. It's a letter. A short letter. 25 verses.
Jude, a bondservant of Jesus Christ and brother of James, to those who are called, sanctified by God the Father, and preserved in Jesus Christ. Mercy, peace, and love be multiplied to you.
Beloved, while I was very diligent to write to you concerning our common salvation, I found it necessary to write to you exhorting you to contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints. for certain men have crept in unnoticed, who long ago were marked out for this condemnation, ungodly men who turn the grace of our God into lewdness and deny the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ.
But I want to remind you, though you once knew this, that the Lord, having saved the people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed those who did not believe. And the angels who did not keep their proper domain but left their own abode, he has reserved in everlasting chains under darkness for the judgment of the great day.
At Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities around them, in a similar manner to these, having given themselves over to sexual immorality and gone after strange flesh, are set forth as an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire.
Likewise, also, these dreamers defile the flesh, reject authority, and speak evil of dignitaries. Yet Michael the archangel, in contending with the devil when he disputed about the body of Moses, dared not to bring against him a reviling accusation, but said, The Lord rebuke you.
But these speak evil of whatever they do not know. And whatever they know naturally, like brute beasts, in these things they corrupt themselves. Woe to them, for they have gone in the way of Cain, have run greedily in the error of Balaam for profit, and perished in the rebellion of Korah.
These are spots in your love feasts, while they feast with you without fear, serving only themselves. They are clouds without water, carried about by the winds, late autumn trees without fruit, twice dead, pulled up by the roots, raging waves of the sea, foaming up their own shame, wandering stars from whom is reserved the blackness of darkness forever.
Now Enoch in the seventh from Adam prophesied about these men also saying, Behold, the Lord comes with ten thousand of his saints to execute judgment on all, to convict all who are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have committed in ungodly ways, and of all the harsh things which ungodly sinners have spoken against him.
These are grumblers, complainers, walking according to their own lusts, and they mouth great swelling words, flattering people to gain advantage.
But you, beloved, remember the words which were spoken before by the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ, how they told you that there would be mockers in the last time who would walk according to their own ungodly lusts. These are sensual persons who cause divisions, not having the Spirit. But you, beloved, building yourselves up 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. and on some have compassion making a distinction but others with fear pulling them out of the fire hating even the garments defiled by the flesh
now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to prevent present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy To God our Savior, who alone is wise, may glory and majesty, dominion and power both now and forever. Amen.
we need to ask ourselves our three questions. A. What's this about? B. What's the best verse to summarize this? And C. What are we called to do in response to these words?
So, what's this passage about? What's it saying here? Well, this is Jude, Jesus's brother, right? So, it's a bond. Jude. So, Jude isn't actually his name. Judah, right? But it's shortened down to Jude. So, Judah, a bond servant, a slave of Jesus Christ, And brother of James, well who is James? James is the brother of Jesus. He wants to identify himself more as a servant of Christ more than he wants to identify himself as Jesus' brother. He's not trying to get pedigree. He's not trying to raise himself up. He's just saying he's a servant of Jesus.
And so who's he writing to? It's written to people who are called, called by God the Father. They're sanctified. They're made holy. That word sanctified just means they're made holy and preserved in Christ Jesus. And then the greeting, grace, mercy, or peace, mercy, peace, and love be multiplied to you. Instead of just saying hey, the Greek word for greeting, he wants to say mercy, peace, and love be multiplied to you. He loves these people.
And he says, hey, look, I got stuff I want to talk to you about, but I can't talk to you about that type of stuff because there's issues going on. I was very diligent to write to you concerning our common salvation. He says, man, I wanted to write to you about all sorts of stuff with how much we hold in common, but I found it necessary to write to you exhorting you to contend earnestly for the faith which was once delivered for the saints.
He's saying, you guys, I'm actually writing you a letter, though, because you need to fight. you need to contend for the faith that was once given you because there are false prophets, sensual people, people who are going after their own passionate desires, epithemia, right? This is the burning passions of the heart. Don't follow them. That's the main point here, right? This whole letter is about him saying there are people who even the apostles warned us were going to come and they were going to follow after their own lusts They're going to be grumblers and complainers. They're going to be trying to rip people apart. They're going to be following after their own passions. And he says, don't follow them. Don't go near them. Don't go there. Just stay away. That's what he's saying here, right?
He's saying it's similar to when God brought the people in the Exodus out of Egypt. He redeemed a whole bunch of people, but not everybody was saved. there's a whole bunch of people who were baptized going through the Red Sea and yet when they got to the other side, a whole bunch of them were destroyed because they didn't believe, right? That's what he's getting at in verse 5. After we're destroyed those who did not believe and then he talks about those who were of the rebellion of Korah, right? It's not everybody who's looks like their Christians are saved and not everybody who calls themselves a leader should be followed. And so he says they'll come to you and they got big words but they're like clouds without rain. They're like going out to the garden to find a tree out in the garden that's supposed to have good fruit. And it's the time for fruit. It's the autumn. And you go, and you're expecting good fruit. And there's nothing. There's just disappointment. He says, that's the type of people they are, and don't follow them.
Not talking bad about everybody else, right? But not even the archangel Michael was going to go and try to fight Yet Michael the archangel, in contending with the devil, when he disputed about the body of Moses, dared not bring against him a reviling accusation, but said, The Lord rebuke you. They're willing to say all sorts of evil things about dignitaries and rulers and things like this, but Michael wouldn't even engage in that stuff. Archangel Michael wouldn't. Why are you following these guys?
And then he points to the Book of Enoch, which we believe is a deuterocanonical, right? It's a good history type book, but we don't believe it's part of the canon. Why? Well, it wasn't included in the original lists of the canon. When we look at the very early parts of the 1, 2, 3 hundreds, don't find the Book of Enoch accepted amongst Christians. And if I was to go over to my shelf over here and pull down, it would be right there. That's my Hebrew Bible. If I was to pull out my Hebrew Bible for the Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia, you wouldn't find the Book of Enoch there, right? Because it wasn't ever accepted by the Jews in Palestine. It was almost entirely accepted by Jewish people of the Diaspora.
So it wasn't one of the things for Catholicity, or for canonicity, for establishing what book should be in the Bible, is its Catholicity. And I don't mean Catholicity as in the Catholic R.C., Roman Catholic Church is the one who approves it, but the church Catholic means universal. all over the place everybody's accepting it and yet most Jews in the Levant did not accept it and so we don't think that this that's so he is quoting for the book of Enoch but he's not doing it in a way that's getting us to the place to accept this but we they can still say it right Enoch prophesied that God is going to execute judgment on all to convict all who are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have committed in an ungodly way and of all the harsh things which ungodly sinners have spoken against them. God's going to execute judgment against those who are speaking against the Lord himself. That's what Enoch was getting at. That's why Judah is bringing it up here in the book of Jude.
And so that's what this book is about. He wants them to fight. He wants them to know that there are people, even wolves amongst them. People who are following after their sensuality. Flattering people to take advantage. Big swelling words. But remember the words which were spoken before by the Apostle of our Lord Jesus. And I think we should maybe even highlight this, how they told you that there would be mockers in the last time who would walk according to their own ungodly lusts. These are sensual persons who cause divisions, not having the Spirit. happens in every age, happens in every generation and in every era. It's been happening since Jesus left and it's been going on all throughout these last days and we find it even today. There are people who are trying to use big flattering words and care for your psychological well-being but will never actually tell you about sin.
Full of sensuality, I mean, I was just reading a book recently that was written against some of the things that have happened in evangelicalism and the writer, the author was trying to talk about how sensuality is a good thing. And I'm not saying that senses in themselves are sinful, but the way in which this author was saying it made me really wonder. I think she's really actually talking about sensuality, like really giving over to those passionate desires. I just thought I'm not, I can't go there. because God warns us here.
And so we're able to enjoy the good gifts that God gives us and yet we need to be on our guard. There are people who will divide the church because they'll encourage people with their big words and their all sorts of promising of hope by indulging in sensuality. It just brings division.
He says, but you, Build yourselves up 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. That's what you've got to do. Pursue holiness. Abide in Christ. Pray in the Spirit. Cultivate those sayings in your life that lead unto godliness. That's what you should be about.
And so there's all sorts of things here for seek calling. As you look over this past year and you think about all the things that have happened and different ways in which your own heart has pulled you or different ways in which you may have been one of those who is speaking badly about dignitaries and those who are in authority and stuff like that, maybe it's a time for us to heart check ourselves. But also maybe it's a good time for us to wrestle whether or not we're following after what the Lord has for us or going after the ways of the world.
But as we wrap up this year, there's a debate here whether this is a benediction or a doxology or maybe it's a mix of both. Maybe it starts with a benediction and then switches to a doxology and I'd like to end us this year with this.
Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and presents you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy. To God our Savior, who alone is wise, be glory and majesty, dominion and power both now and forever. Amen.
Let's pray. God, we pray to you, the one who has all power and dominion and glory. your glory you will share with no other. God, we pray that you would protect us and preserve us. Lord, we pray that you would please let us fix our mind upon Jesus Christ, the author and perfecter of our faith, that we would pursue purity, holiness, sanctity, Lord, that we would abide in your Son, not seeking our own glory, not seeking our own perfection, but longing to be more like you. Lord, we pray that we would abide in you, and that we would bear good fruit. Please, Lord, let us not be like empty rain clouds, blown across, full of all sorts of promises but no hope. But Lord, please fill us with your spirit. Care for us, in Jesus' name we pray, amen.
Well, may you live your life to God's glory. May you walk in his ways always. And may your heart always be filled with the joy of the spirit. I'll see you next time, bye.