Jude — Jude 1

0:00 Good morning. Good morning. I've been encouraged lately just some of the activities going on. Recently, think... Know, sled riding, young people have been involved in, and ice skating.

0:15 And I thought, you know, I used to ice skate a number of years ago. I'm in the ice hockey today. Yeah. Okay. Well, those skates, I think, have decayed by now.

0:26 I used to have. And I thought, well, maybe it's not too good an idea to go skating. But I'm glad you guys did. By the way, if you need some hockey sticks, we've got about five of them down our basement. There's lot of encouraging things happening.

0:40 I'm really encouraged by the young people. I've said that before. And just it's such a blessing to others, to us. And I look back on our days and as young people, Debbie and I, and we used to go to a young people's group in Cuyahoga Falls. And there was a guy there that played guitar when we had him sing.

1:03 The fellow is sitting here right now, Don. So he was an encouragement to the young people way back a number of years ago. I don't know why, I still think of myself as a young person sometimes. Anyway, you're only as young as you feel, right? We've had some neat meetings here lately.

1:25 And before we get started, let's just have a word of prayer. Father, we do thank you for your love to us. Each and everyone here is special to you, Lord. And and you're the good shepherd who gave his life for the sheep. So we pray that we would be fed and encouraged and built up today in your word.

1:44 We pray these things in Jesus name. Amen. Yeah. We've had some, I'll say, speakers here in the last month or so. Two weeks ago, it was Steve Price was here, and I wanna mention one thing, borrow something from his message.

2:02 Denzel had a fantastic display last week of high-tech stuff, but today, we're just gonna go back to the basics. And simple opening up the Bible and looking into scriptures, which is always good too. You can use your electronic device if you wanna, you know, go on one of those websites that have the the bible on it, but just don't be checking your email or Facebook or something at the same time. So one of the phrases... I'll just...

2:35 We're gonna be looking in the book of Jude, but I wanna... At the start, first of all, put my glasses on. One of the last meetings that Steve Price had here two weeks ago, I was list... Listening to it again this week. He left us with looking at some things in Revelation two, and I'll just read read a portion of what he took up.

3:08 Revelation two, this was written to the church at Ephesus. And just verse two, I know thy works and thy labor and thy patience, and how thou canst not bear them which are evil and has found tried them and found them which say the apostles and are not and has found them liars, and has born and has patience if my name's sake has labored and not fainted. Nevertheless, I have against thee because thou hast left thy first love. Left thy first love. And he said, abandon your first love.

3:47 Verse five is what I was thinking. Remember, therefore, from whence thou art fallen and repent and do the first works or else I will come unto thee quickly and will remove thy candlestick out of his place. And so he emphasized those three words, remember, repent, and redo. Remember, repent, and redo. I know it really is...

4:33 I thought, that was one thing. Know, just that that realization that god could hear my prayers and getting into the word of god and open up my Bible and think, wow. This is really the word of God. It's really the word of God. And it's different than any other book.

4:57 We know that the Bible is God's word and it's living and powerful. A verse in acts that tells us, so mightily grew the word of God and prevailed. Those early days of the church, if something is growing, it's alive. And it's just amazing. I think, Steve mentioned about how he...

5:21 When he was saved at camp, he came home, he was, singing more, you know, singing some songs. And, I can, remember growing up, my dad used to play on Sunday morning. He used to play a record album. It was... Some of you won't even remember this name, recognize it, but some of older ones might...

5:40 It was Tennessee Ernie Ford's album on hymns and all those hymns. And my dad... It was my dad's way of getting us ready to go to church services on Sunday morning. He'd crank that big LP on the old record player, and we'd be listening to Tennessee Ernie Ford's hymns. But I can remember, and some of you don't know this, I used to play guitar a little bit, but one of the songs I remember singing in those early days after just being saved was, I have decided to follow Jesus.

6:17 I have decided to follow Jesus. Well, we just need... And I I spoke to the Lord this week about it. You know, just how can I go back to that first love? And each one here individually, I think wanna do that too.

6:32 We wanna have that freshness. We wanna reach out to those around us in this world that's ever growing darker all the time. Let's let's turn back to Jude. It's only a few pages away from Revelation there. And I'm amazed at how many times in, Jude is very similar to the book of second Peter.

6:55 They like overlap. Some of the verses are almost identical. If you look back in second Peter. Well, let's just read this chapter of Jude, and I'll start reading verse one. We we won't get to every single verse, but I just wanna read the whole chapter and we'll touch on some things in this chapter.

7:15 Jude, the servant of Jesus Christ and brother of James, to them that are sanctified by God the Father and preserved in Jesus Christ and called. Mercy unto you and peace and love be multiplied. Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you and exhort you that you should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints. For there are certain men crept in unawares who were before of old ordained to this condemnation, ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness and denying the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ. I will therefore put you in remembrance though you once knew this, now that the Lord having saved the people out of the land of Egypt afterward destroyed them that believe not.

8:15 And the angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, he hath reserved an everlasting chains under darkness until the judgment of the great day. Even as Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities about them in like manner giving themselves over to fornication, going after strange flesh are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire. Likewise also these filthy dreamers defile the flesh, despise dominion, and speak evil of dignities. Yet Michael the archangel, when contending with the devil, he disputed about the body of Moses, Dares not bring against him a railing accusation, but said, the Lord rebuke thee. But these speak evil evil of those things that they know not, but what they know naturally is brute beasts.

9:06 And those things they corrupt themselves. Woe unto them for they have gone in the way of Cain, ran greedily after the heir of Balaam for reward, perished in the gainsaying of Korah. These are spots in your feasts of charity when they feast with you, feeding themselves without fear. Clouds they are without water, carried about of winds trees whose fruit withereth without fruit, twice dead, plucked up by the roots, raging waves of the sea, foaming out their own shame, wandering stars to whom is reserved the blackness of darkness forever. And Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these saying, behold, the Lord cometh with 10 thousands of his saints to execute judgment upon all and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds, which they have ungodly committed, and of their hard speeches, ungodly sinners have spoken against him.

10:07 These are murmurs, complainers walking after their own lusts, and their mouths beketh great swelling words, having men's persons in admiration because of advantage. But beloved, remember ye the words which were spoken before of the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ, how they told you there should be mockers in the last time. We see that if you look back in second Peter. There should be mockers in the last time whose walk after their own ungodly lust. These be they who separate themselves sensual having not the spirit.

10:42 They didn't have the spirit of God. They were not saved. But beloved, building up yourselves on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost, keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ onto eternal life. And if some have compassion making a difference, others say with fear pulling them out of the fire, hating even the garments spotted by the flesh. And this next verse is one of my favorites.

11:13 Now unto him that is able to keep you from falling, to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy. To the only wise God, our savior, be glory and majesty, dominion, and power both now and ever. Amen. I know there's a lot in those verses. And we've been talking recently, and I believe our brother Denzel has brought this up many times even last week.

11:43 He encouraged us to read first Samuel. And there's so many things in the Old Testament that are a real blessing if we will get into it and read. And they have real meaning, and they show us... They gave us an example really of some of the things that's been talked about in the New Testament. Well, who was Jude to start with?

12:26 James is son of Alpheus. And then it says, sometimes Jude is called Labaeus. If you look through the portions in the New Testament that that list all 12 apostles. But James or Jude was one of those. He was one of the 12 apostles.

12:49 And some have speculated that he was the brother of the Lord Jesus. I don't know that. But going... If you go on Wikipedia or something like that and others, They say that. I know that Jesus had already have four brothers and two sisters.

13:12 Anyway, if Jesus was really Jude's brother, he probably wouldn't have said brother of Jesus first instead of brother of James. But anyway, that's not a big thing here, but mercy, it says, unto you next, and peace and love be multiplied. I gave all diligence to write unto you the common salvation. And here's the extrication for us. It was needful for me to write unto you and exhort you that you should earnestly contend earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered to the saints.

13:53 How do we do that in a practical way? How do we earnestly contend for the faith that was once delivered to the saints? There's many things we could do. You know, we could probably give a list of things. A good starting place would be like to acknowledge that we've left our first love, but to simple things like getting into the word of God.

14:18 And let's just turn back real quick to to one verse in Colossians chapter three. I know that a whole message could be made of this one verse. Colossians three sixteen. Good advice for all of us. Good counsel for all of us.

14:46 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord. Isn't that something we could really do that would benefit us all? To let the word of Christ, that's living and powerful, let the word of Christ dwell in us richly in all wisdom. That means we we have to take the effort. We have to take the effort to read.

15:18 And I think the more we read, the more we spend time in the Word, the more we'll look forward to it every day. And it won't be a chore. It won't be like, oh, I better read today. If I don't read, I'm gonna have a bad day. No, that's not what the Lord wants, but he wants us to read, to hear his voice, and to just to get wisdom from him.

15:43 Let the word of Christ, get into the word of God. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another. Another place that tells us that we should be exhorting one another in Hebrews, exhorting one another daily while it's called today. So how are we gonna do that if we don't come together? That's what it...

16:06 I think it's really important to, to come together with other believers, be it a little small bible study group or coming together in a chapel somewhere. It's important to come together. Now I've talked to some people over the years, I'm sure you have too. They say, well, there's so many things messed up with the churches. I'm not gonna go anywhere.

16:25 I'm just gonna sit home on Sunday morning. But if you have the attitude, how are you going to be encouraged? How are you gonna be able to exhort someone else? Use your gift. We've talked a lot lately about being members of the body of Christ, and it's such a clear picture for us.

16:46 But God has set the members, every one of them in the body as it has pleased him. How do we really discern? God has set the members. He set you and me in the body of Christ, and we have individual, an individual job to do. What that is?

17:05 How do we know that? Well, you could simply say, just pray and ask the Lord to show us. I think sometimes, God will give wisdom to our fellow believers and they'll say, you know, I think this is a good fit for you. Or, I think, of... I'll use this example.

17:23 I think I've used it before, but some here might remember Bob Devine. He was a... Had a radio program for a number of years on WCRF, and I used to listen to him every day on my way to work in Parma. Just... I thought, man, he is so gifted for that work.

17:41 He did all those little voices, the children's stories, the animal things, and always had such an encouraging word. Was really called to that specific work to be involved in that radio program. In fact, they still call it the Bob Devine studio, I think, now where they broadcast from. But again, I'm just using him as an example. I felt like, man, he's really gifted at doing that.

18:07 I've seen others that have been able to have worked with children and I think, wow, I they are... I couldn't do that like that. They are so gifted at pulling children in and holding their attention and giving a lesson and giving a gospel message, that's a special gift I think. Others, there's many kind of things, many things we could do. But let's continue on in Jude.

19:04 I'm gonna take some time to pray. And of course, you're retired, you got all kinds of time, right? But I know people have busy jobs and you gotta be at work at six or whatever and you just, you know, sometimes are running out the door or praying in the car on the way to work. That's alright. But if we can develop a good habit and how long is the right amount of time to pray?

19:29 I don't think there's an answer to that question. You can't pray too much, but you can pray too little. I know from experience that. And some days that you go on and you think, why did this happen? And you think, well, I didn't start off the day right.

19:49 I want to use the right example here. I didn't ask the Lord's help. I didn't say, Lord, keep me from this or keep me from that. And if we're not vigilant, we have an adversary as we know the devil goes around seeking whom he may devour. I was just talking about Tennessee Ernie Ford, and I didn't know something about him that he had radio programs, he had a TV program, and they sang hymns and things like that.

20:22 He had a beautiful voice. But later on in life, alcohol got ahold of him, and he ended up dying of liver disease because brought on by alcohol. And his wife had committed suicide and just all these terrible things. I never knew that. But the only point of bringing that up is is the enemy is always there to try to turn us aside.

20:49 It doesn't matter if we've been saved for fifty years or five years. The devil wants to destroy our lives, destroy any testimony we might have. Many of us could think of other examples and we have a choice. Are we gonna learn from the example of others or are we gonna have to try to experience everything ourselves? We can look on here at verse five.

21:21 I will therefore put you in remembrance though you once knew this, the Lord having saved the people out of the land of Egypt afterward destroyed them that believed not. Now if we look back, there's a... There was great deliverance when they came out of Egypt out of the slavery there, and many examples in scripture, but what happened? They started to complain. They started to complain and murmur and just all kinds of things happened.

21:53 And it says here, afterward, he destroyed them that believed not. And the angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, he hath reserved an everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day. And as a reference to second Peter two verse four says, for God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell and delivered them into chains of darkness to be reserved unto judgment, and so on. And spared not the old world, but saved Noah, the eighth person, a preacher of righteousness. Continue, I'm just reading second Peter chapter two and verse six, and turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes, condemned them with an overthrow, making them an example unto us that after should live ungodly.

22:57 Well, God doesn't want us to to live ungodly. There's examples here of what happened. What's at the end of your life if you reject Christ? And even the angels that sin are facing eternal darkness forever. And verse seven says, even as Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities about them in like manner giving themselves over to fornication and going after strange flesh flesh are set forth for example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire.

23:32 Certainly, God does not want anyone to perish. You know, the word of God says, he's not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. There's another thing that talking about Sodom, that they were... Their sin besides the immorality. Don't know if I could find it in my notes now.

23:58 But it's believe it was in Ezekiel where it talks about the abundance of idleness and fullness of bread. That was the sin of Sodom. And they didn't care for those who were poor. So just they had gotten in a really bad way, and and yet God and his grace sought to reach out to Sodom. And when Abraham, you can go back and look up this account of Abraham when he talked to the Lord and God said, will I hide?

24:30 Shall I hide from Abraham the thing that I do? When the three were sent to speak to Abraham back in, I think, Genesis 19, Abraham said, shall I... Is it right with you, God? Are you gonna destroy the righteous with the wicked? Let me turn back to that a second here.

24:52 Genesis chapter, I believe it's 19. Let's see. Verse 25 that says, Abraham drew near verse 23 and says, wilt thou destroy the righteous with the wicked? Peradventure, there be 50 righteous within the city. Will you destroy it and not spare the place for the 50 righteous?

25:28 That be far from thee after this manner to slay... This is chapter 18. I've said 19. Sorry. That'd be far from thee to do after this man to slay the righteous with the wicked, and that the righteous should be as the wicked shall not...

25:44 That shall be far from thee. Shall not the judge of all the earth do right? And so if you read on, Lord said, if I find in Sodom 50 righteous, I won't destroy it. And it went down 45, 40, all the way down until in verse 32. At the end says, per adventure 10 shall be found there.

26:06 He said, I will not destroy it for 10 sake. Now we know there wasn't even 10 righteous people in Sodom and it was... That was why God destroyed it. They were exceedingly wicked, it says in other places. And yet, many things like this are going on in the world today, the country we live in, but God is still reaching out.

26:30 He's still reaching out and he wants all of us to be saved. He wants us to face our fact that we've sinned and come short of his glory and to be willing to repent of our sins and he will forgive us. We had those wonderful verses in Colossians and Ephesians this morning where it had that expression in whom we have redemption through his blood, through his blood. That's just so wonderful that god's has sent his son and his precious blood can cleanse us from all sin, all sin, no matter what we may have done in our lives. Even Paul said, about some of the realty of the same sins as Sodom, and he said to those in Corinth, and such were some of you, but you're washed, you're cleansed, and so on.

27:24 Well, they should be an example to us of what happens, the consequences for living, for rejecting god. And we read about Michael the archangel contending with the devil and disputed about the body of Moses. So, and I've wondered about this. It says, god buried Moses. If you read back in in I believe it's Deuteronomy.

27:49 Moses was told he couldn't go into the promised land because he spoke... He hit the rock again instead of speaking, he disobeyed God. Anyway, I've wondered, Michael appears in different places in the Bible and I just wondered, I don't have an accurate information on this. I wonder if Michael was the one that buried Moses, and maybe God sent him to do that. Anyway, that's just I throw that out.

28:16 You may read something else and said, no, that wasn't it. We read on here real quickly. We taught... It mentions Balaam, and it mentions Korah. Again, if you look at the references and you go back, you'll see that Korah was a...

28:35 He was of the tribe of Levi, and their job was to minister and take care of the things involving the tabernacle. And... But they weren't content with that. They said, no. How come Moses thinks he can be, you know, the priesthood or Aaron?

28:52 And they complained, and they, you know, disobeyed God. And so actually, Moses called him and said, the one that answers by fire or the one that if these guys die a natural death, then the lord hasn't spoken well. The whole family of... Not the whole family, the whole group of those who were with Korah. You go back and read it.

29:15 It says the earth opened up and swallowed them. I mean, that's pretty scary thing there. Anyway, you know, time is moving along fast here. Let's jump to verse 14 verse 14. Enoch also the seventh from Adam prophesied of these saying, behold, the Lord cometh with 10 thousands of his saints to execute judgment, to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds, which they have ungodly committed and all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken.

30:32 But God commends his love toward us and that while we're yet sinners, Christ died for us. Christ died for the ungodly. That's such love. How can we even put that in words? I don't know.

30:46 He is still working today. We hear people being saved all the time and yet, you know, we'd like to see more saved locally here. We need to some maybe need to be stirred up to go out more or in some kind of a gospel work and to, to spread the word, to sow the seed. And God will work, I believe. He's still working.

31:12 Our country in some ways seems to be going downhill right now. And yet, I believe that God could have a revival. I believe there could be in this country and that many would turn to him. There's still, I believe, many believers in this country. We know there are But what is God gonna allow us to go through?

31:37 I don't know. I don't know. I'm praying that God will to work a revival. He'll work that we will all turn to him. Maybe things like the pandemic and things like that have worked to get people to stop and think, I may not be here that long.

31:54 Or it's just what's gonna happen to me after I leave this world? So God is he's still working. And I pray that he'll he'll work in my heart and others that will take advantage of the opportunities we have. It might be just to write a letter to a relative, might be call someone on the phone, somebody we work with. And I've heard many testimonies of people that came to know the Lord because somebody they worked with shared the gospel with them.

32:25 It might have been a simple gospel tract or showed them the love of Christ, the concern for them. There's many different ways. You don't have to have a big crusade, but God can work in many ways. I'll just read, skip down to verse 17. Again, we know if the Lord's coming with 10 thousands of His saints, His coming for us must be near.

32:59 Because we'll be with Him when He comes, That is to come to execute judgment and so on, but the rapture will take place before that in order for us to be able to come with with him. Verse 17, but beloved, remember ye the words which were spoken before the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ. Now they told you there should be mockers in the last time who should walk after their ungodly lusts. But we see that today. That's been going on for years.

33:31 Those who will mock and say, don't tell me you believe that. You know, believe that, there was actually a flood or that Jonah was swallowed by a whale or a large fish or... You don't believe that kind of stuff. It's in the word of God, and the word of God is true. Absolutely.

33:47 There's one thing that we can learn in this world that will be with us for eternity, and that is anything we learn in the word of God. It says in Psalms, forever, oh Lord, thy word is settled in heaven. So anything I've learned in some book or about working on cars or whatever, that's gonna be left behind. But anything I've learned in the word of God will be in my knowledge, I believe, in eternity. So that's a wonderful verse.

34:17 I just... That came before me this morning. Forever, oh Lord, thy word is settled in heaven. Psalm a 119, I think 89. But now we're getting along here.

35:00 That's not what it's saying. It says, building up yourselves in your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost, keep yourselves in the love of God. I think one way we can do that... Again, I'm not saying we're gonna make God love us. He doesn't ever stop loving us.

35:20 Never will he stop loving us at all. But it's our hearts that grow cold. And I think the more we could spend time in prayer and in the word of God, that will help that will help us to to keep from growing cold. And in that exhortation that we've talked about, exhort one another daily. In Hebrews it says, while it's called today, lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.

35:47 Sin has a way of just breaking our fellowship with the Lord and causing us to get on a pathway that may lead to destruction, not for eternity, but it may just lead to our life being wasted, opportunities we may have had. And another place here farther down, well it says, some have compassion making a difference. Others say with fear pulling them out of the fire, hating even the garment spotted by the flesh. One thing that strikes me and you can correct me later if I'm wrong on this, pulling them out of the fire to me, it seems to be speaking of warning. And some people, some of us are...

36:37 When we realize that we're headed for hell and what a horrible place it'll be, it is used by God to bring us to our knees, to put our faith and trust in him. The night I got saved, I thought I was actually walking to hell. But God used that to make me realize I needed him, and he is still working by his holy spirit. You can get away from the sound of this message, but but god, if he's speaking to your heart, he will draw you to myself. Don't wait.

37:23 Now to him that is able to keep you from falling, presents you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy. Just imagine that. It just... What will that look like when we're home with the Lord? That exceeding joy, and we have to depend on him to keep us from falling.

37:44 As the world gets darker and dear young people, there's so many things that could pull you aside and us older ones too, but you're facing so much temptation in many different ways, but God is able to keep you from falling. He's able to keep you from falling. And again, said the older ones too. Present us faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy. To only wise God, our savior, be glory and majesty, dominion and power both now and ever.

38:21 Amen. And it just... Again, three points, those three main points that we started off with. Remember, repent, and redo. Earnestly contend for the faith.

38:38 Earnestly contend for the faith. And keep yourselves in the love of God looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life. Let's close in word of prayer. Father, we thank you for your word. We pray that you would just help us to apply it to our hearts.

38:58 Thank you for such love that would reach out to us. We're ungodly sinners And thank you for allowing your son to shed his precious blood for our sins. Lord, help us as we go this day to be ready for any opportunity you may give us to share that good news with others, lord and help us to to just be more diligent and seeking to spend time in your word and more time in prayer, lord. We pray. We ask these things in Jesus name.

39:34 Amen.