Jude 1:14-21 (Teaching)

[0:00] We only done three verses last week.

[0:17] I recollect correctly. But you done them real good. Well, I appreciate that. We're gonna back glory to the Lord. That's right.

[0:28] And, Jude continuing last week, Rick happened last week, to talk about these certain men, Krypton unaware, these filthy dreamers, and how they're infiltrating the church, and what they're doing, and what they are.

[0:47] And, y'all recall last week, those of you that were here, they referred to them as spots on their feast days, and compared them to raging waves of the sea, and foaming out their own shame, and so on.

[1:05] And that's where we left off last week in verse 13. So, this week we get to pick up in verse 14, and it begins a little strange.

[1:17] But we'll pick up in Jude in verse 14, as in Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these saying, behold, the Lord cometh with ten 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 all their hard speeches, which ungodly sinners have spoken against him.

[1:46] So, back to verse 14. And, as I said, it kind of begins strange, because it says in Enoch also, who is Enoch? Well, we know Enoch from Genesis chapter 5.

[1:59] Enoch, he's the one that walked with God and was not. But why is Jude quoting Enoch here, when there is no book of Enoch in the Scriptures?

[2:11] Well, there is a book of Enoch. It's an apocryphal book. And you all have heard me touch on it before. Me personally, I don't recommend that you read the apocryphal books.

[2:22] I don't read the apocryphal books. And the main reason for that is, I'm sure it would be an interesting read, but I'm afraid I might get to witnessing to someone, and I might quote from one of these apocryphal books that is not part of the 66 books of the Canada Scripture.

[2:40] And I say, well, the Bible says this, but I'll actually be quoting from one of them other books. And then they go home, they do their internet search, or whatever they do, and they say, well, that's not in the Bible. That fellow lied to me.

[2:52] And what kind of name does that put on me, and what does it lead that person to think so? I steer clear of the apocryphal books. However, that brings us to a little dilemma here. Why is Jude quoting a book that is not part of the Canada Scripture?

[3:08] You know, Jude was a Jew. We know this. We know that he was the brother of James. He was the half-brother of Christ. If that indeed be the Jude or the Judas that is mentioned in Scripture, not Judas Iscariot.

[3:23] We established our first lesson through Jude. So he being a Jew, he would have been familiar with these books that the Jews held in high regard, such as the Book of Enoch.

[3:36] There is a man that's referred to as the father of Latin theology, his name is Tritolian. And he claims that the Jew, that the Book of Enoch was preserved by Noah on the ark.

[3:51] And once again, this ain't in Scripture. But this is what Tritolian surmised. And he says that the Book of Enoch was preserved by Noah on the ark and that the Jews continued to recite things from the Book of Enoch and hold it in very high regard all the way up until the first century church.

[4:12] Well, why was the Book of Enoch done away with? Well, if you look in Jewish history and you read up on it just a little bit, you'll find that there were many Messianic prophecies in the Book of Enoch, many very startling Messianic prophecies in that book, and the Jews didn't like that.

[4:32] So they removed it from their canon of Scripture. Therefore, it's not in our canon of Scripture either. I believe when I stand before God one day and I'm judged by the word of God, this is the 66 books that he will use to judge me.

[4:46] I don't believe that the Book of Enoch holds much clout as far as the canon of Scripture goes. But Jude here is quoting this book.

[4:58] Now, people will say, why isn't it included in the canon? And the Jews quoting it, it's got to hold some water of some kind. And that looks good on the surface and it sounds good on the surface.

[5:12] But I've heard it said and I may have said it here, may not have, but speaking of analog clocks, a broken clock is correct twice a day. So there must have been something wrong with the Book of Enoch for the Lord to have not wanted it included.

[5:30] And I said the Jews are the ones that removed it. But I believe this canon that we have right now is the correct canon. If you look at the apocryphal books, there were almost 100 books in the original Bible instead of just 66.

[5:47] So there's been that many of them removed. Most of us have heard of the books of Maccabees, the Book of Wisdom, the Book of Susanna.

[5:58] There's all kinds of books that have been removed from Scripture and rightfully so. The Maccabees were removed, I believe, most rightfully so because they were actually written during what we refer to as the 400 years of silence.

[6:11] So they could not, absolutely could not have been God-inspired if God was silent in that period. But I said this is a little bit of a dilemma, but not when you look at it as such.

[6:26] Because Enoch was far up for the Jews, they held it in high regard, paid a lot of respect to it, but the Jews are the ones that had it removed from their canon.

[6:37] And this isn't the only time we find this in Scripture. In Acts chapter 17, Paul quotes a pagan poet to the men there at Athens.

[6:48] Does that mean that pagan poet did everything that he ever wrote or said as scriptural, because God-inspired? No, Paul just quoted him as such. You look in the Old Testament, you look in the books of kings, you look in the books of chronicles, you see a lot of strange names pop up there.

[7:04] Is this not recorded in the Book of So-and-So or in the Book of Such-and-Such that we don't have in our canon of Scripture? So this isn't the only time that this pops up. But don't let that get in your way of understanding what Jude is getting at here.

[7:21] He says, Inic also, the seventh from Adam prophesied of these. What is these? Who are these? It's the same people we've been talking about for a few weeks now. These are the certain men, cryptid and unawares, we're continuing on with that.

[7:35] Jude is continuing on with that. And he said that the Inic, even Inic, the seventh from Adam, he's talking about how long these people have been prophesied of. He said, even Inic prophesied of people like this that we've been talking about.

[7:50] Say, and behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousand of his saints to execute judgment upon all. Now what I want you all to pay attention to here in verse 15 is the word all and the word ungodly.

[8:04] Because that's what Jude is concentrating on. He says to execute judgment upon all. Now it doesn't say all the ungodly. He says upon all. And the Lord is coming in.

[8:15] He is coming to execute judgment upon all. The Bible says that Jesus Christ is going to come and he will execute judgment. Paul says that we must all stand at the judgment seat of Christ.

[8:29] All is all. That's everybody. That's saved and lost a lot. We all must stand at the judgment seat of Christ. And Christ will judge us according to the works that we've done in our bodies.

[8:41] Whether they be good or whether they be evil. And the folks have scripture. You will give an account for what you've done. I will give an account for what I've done. And the lost will give an account for what they have done.

[8:53] That excludes no one. We must all stand at the judgment seat of Christ. But he says to execute judgment upon all. Then he gets into these other parts.

[9:06] And to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds. Which they have ungodly committed. And of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him.

[9:21] That's a lot of alls and a lot of ungodly. There in that one little verse of scripture in verse 15 of Jude. The Lord's coming with 10,000 of the saints to execute judgment upon all.

[9:35] To convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds. So he's coming to convince or to convict.

[9:46] To show people. To show the ungodly of their ungodly deeds. And he's going to do it to all of them. He keeps pressing in here.

[9:58] He's coming to execute judgment upon all. To convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds. Which they have ungodly committed. That's a strange succession of words in our English language.

[10:15] To read there when he says all ungodly committed. But he's throwing this word all in this word ungodly out there. So not only are they ungodly people.

[10:28] But they're committing ungodly deeds. I mean folks I know some ungodly people right now that do good deeds. And we all probably know people like that. We all know people.

[10:40] What is ungodly first? Ungodly is simply without God. They don't have God. They're unsafe. They're unregenerate. That's what makes them ungodly. It's not necessarily that they practice a wicked lie for their witches or wizards.

[10:56] Or anything along those lines. It simply means they have not God. If you're godly you have God. If you're ungodly you don't have God. It's that simple.

[11:07] But he's talking about these people. These men that are cryptic and unaware. These men that are spots in the love face. These men that come in with their false teachings.

[11:19] And remember that's the whole gist of what began this letter. Remember when you began this letter within the first few verses saying, I was going to write to you about the common salvation.

[11:32] But I've been urged to write to you otherwise to warn you of these false teachings and these false teachers that are coming in. These certain men that are cryptic and unaware. And that's still the subject matter that we're on.

[11:45] And they're ungodly men. They don't have God. And they're teaching ungodly things within the church. And that's what Jude is pressing on here.

[11:56] He says in all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him. So all their speeches are ungodly. All their ungodly speeches.

[12:08] Everything that they say, everything that they do. Ungodly people will act in an ungodly manner. I know y'all have heard me say it. Hathens will be heathens and pagans will be pagans. Because that's all they know to do.

[12:20] That's all they know. Before I was saved, that's all I knew to do. Was be a pagan, be a heathen, be an ungodly person. But once I got saved, that changed.

[12:33] But Jude here is saying, well, we'll go on into verse 16. Verse 16 says, these are murmurers, complainers, walking after their own lusts. And their mouths speak of great, swelling words, having men's persons in admiration because of advantage.

[12:50] These are murmurers, complainers, walking after their own lust. He's describing these certain men crept in unawares. But my goodness, how much of the church world nowadays is Jude describing here?

[13:04] Murmurs and complainers. And all of us are guilty of it. We all complain. We're all murmurers. And I like Charles Spurgeon's description of people like this.

[13:18] He actually says, you know the type of people that Jude is talking about. He said, even if the High Priest himself, speaking of Jesus Christ, he said, even if the great High Priest himself were here among us, they would find fault in the color of the stones of his breastplate.

[13:33] That's the type of people that Jude is talking about. That's the type of people that, or that's the description that Charles Spurgeon gave of these people. And it's true, they can't be happy with anything.

[13:46] They're not happy with their families. They're not happy with their jobs. They're not happy with their church. They're not happy with the gospel. They're not happy with anything. C.H. Spurgeon also said in that same quote, he said, they would want the bread of life cut in three pieces and served on dainty napkins.

[14:02] And I said that C.H. Spurgeon's description of these people, not my own. But we all know people like that. They're unhappy with anything and everything that is about them.

[14:16] These are the murmurs and these are the complainers. But what does that do? What does that do when it infiltrates the church? We're talking about ungodly people here that are murmurs and complainers.

[14:30] These ungodly people, the unregenerated, they come in amongst the saved people and they get to murmuring and they get to complaining and it spills over into a saved person's life.

[14:41] And that person gets to murmuring and that person gets to complain. And the same thing happened in the Old Testament with the Israelites, folks. The exact same thing. You read when the murmuring started amongst Israel.

[14:54] You read about a mixed multitude that came up out of Egypt with them. Who was a mixed multitude? That was the ones that were not the chosen of God. They were not the apollo gods. These were Egyptians.

[15:05] These were heathens and pagans that came up out of Egypt with the Israelites. But they're the ones that got the murmuring started and it spilled over into God's people.

[15:16] The people that He had just delivered out of bondage and out of slavery. It happened then and it happened in Jude's time and it happens now here in 2022. When murmurs and complainers and ungodly folks come into the church with their murmurings and with their complaining, it will spill over into the congregation.

[15:35] And when it spills over into the congregation, it creates a very negative atmosphere within the walls of any local assembly, any local church. And we've got to guard against these things.

[15:48] We've got to guard against these people that come in and murmuring and complaining. And as Jude says here, walking after their own lust.

[16:00] And I know we talked about this a little bit when I went through the book of James. Lust is not necessarily sexual desire and that's not what Jude is getting at here. No more than what James was getting at.

[16:14] That's your own desires period. Whatever you're lusting after, whether it is a man or whether it is a woman or whether it is a job or more money or cars or fame or wealth, whatever the case is.

[16:30] He says these are the things that these people are walking after. They're walking after their own lust. Not only do they murmur and complain, but they walk after their own lust. And their mouths speak with great swelling words.

[16:43] In other words, they're prideful. Great swelling words. You know, making themselves look good. Making themselves seem like they know what they're talking about. And Jude's already addressed a couple of lessons ago.

[16:56] He's already addressed that these people, they want to teach, but they don't even know about what they want to teach. They just want to stand before people and sound good. And this will be the great swelling words that Jude's talked about.

[17:10] Having men's persons in admiration because of advantage. They want the admiration of fellow men. They want to be called teacher.

[17:21] They want to be called rabbi. They want to be called master. They want to have a position in the church. Verse 17.

[17:33] But beloved, remember you the words which were spoken before of the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ. How that they told you there should be mockers in the last time who should walk after their own ungodly lusts.

[17:49] These be they who separate themselves sensual having not the spirit. I'll stop right there. But beloved, remember you the words which were spoken before of the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ.

[18:04] Remember the things that they've said. How that they told you there should be mockers in the last time who should walk after their own ungodly lusts. He's talking about the apostles.

[18:15] He's talking about the apostles. He's talking about the apostles. He's talking about the apostles. He's talking about the apostles.

[18:26] The men that walked with Christ, John and Peter and James and these other folks that actually walked with Christ and communed with Christ, ministered with Christ and went out to minister when Christ sent them to do so.

[18:42] He says, remember what these folks said. He said, they told you them themselves. Remember we're talking about the first century church here. This is the first generation of Christianity that ever walked the earth that Jude is addressing here.

[18:57] He says, how they told you there should be mockers in the last time. Now, if we take this in the immediate context that it's in, what would they be mocking in the immediate context that we're talking about?

[19:15] Well, we've been talking about their murmurs and their complainers and the verses before that. He says they were all ungodly and they were teaching ungodly things.

[19:26] So in the immediate context of that, he would be talking, as far as mocking, he'd be saying, they're mocking you for not going along with their ways.

[19:38] In the immediate context, that's what they would have been mocking. However, we know that the mocking spreads much further and much wider than that goes.

[19:50] Not only in the first century church, but even nowadays. What else was brought up here in the immediate context?

[20:01] The coming of the Lord. He said, when he quotes Enoch, remember, he says, the Lord cometh with 10,000 of his saints. I have a feeling that's what a lot of the mockery on one of those. Where's your Lord?

[20:15] You've been saying that he's coming. Where's he at? I'm standing out here. I'm looking up at the sky. I'm looking up the clouds. I don't see him. He says, but he refers to him as beloved. He says, remember the words at the very people that walked with Jesus Christ, the very people that ministered with Jesus Christ, and that heard his teachings, and that have spread his teachings.

[20:38] Remember the words that they have told you themselves and that they have left for us, the words that they spoke, that they have left for us to look back on.

[20:50] He's saying, encourage yourself with these words. Yes, there's going to be mockers. Not only is Paul told Timothy that, he said, the last days will be scoffers, there'll be mockers, there'll be people like this.

[21:02] And this is the same verse that says, you know, they have itching ears gathering teachers under themselves. You know, just in other words, getting people around them to teach them what they want to hear instead of what they need to know. And that's something that's prevalent in the churches now.

[21:23] Obviously, it was around in Jude's time because he was writing about it. But even now, 2,000 years later, folks, it's still prevalent in the churches. There's still a lot of people that have itching ears. They just want somebody to come by and scratch their ears for them, make them feel better about themselves, instead of telling them what the sayeth, the word of the Lord. And, you know, I want to be a reprimand. I want to be, I want to be rebuked if need be.

[21:52] I want to be corrected. I want to walk in line with the way God wants me to walk. And everybody that's born again should feel that way. Nobody likes correction. Nobody likes review. Nobody likes reproof. But it's helpful and it's needful in the church that we be reproved and that we be reproved scripturally and by scripture.

[22:17] But he says, they told you that there would be markers in the last time who should walk after their own ungodly lust. That's that word, ungodly again. And he's speaking of their own lust, their own desires. He says, this is what they're walking after. They're not walking in a way that, as Paul said, follow me even as I follow Christ.

[22:42] These people weren't walking that way. They're saying, this is my view on it. Just listen to me. Get in behind me. Lay down that cross that you're bearing.

[22:53] Lay down that cross that you're carrying and just follow me. It's a whole lot easier to go this way. And that's an ungodly desire that people have. And unfortunately, it's bled over into the church world. I mean, it's bled over into the saved world. Once again, even nowadays, people have that attitude.

[23:12] It shouldn't be this hard. Well, show me in scripture where Jesus said it would be easy. Show it to me and I'll teach it to you. I'll preach it to you. It's not in there. Christ never said that. In fact, Christ is the very one that said, if any man wants to follow after me, let him deny himself. Pick up his cross and follow me.

[23:31] That was the words of Jesus Christ. And it begins with the denial of self, not following after your own ungodly lust. That's what denying self is. You put your ungodly lust on the back burner. You toss them behind you. You put your hand on the plow and you tread forward for God and for his kingdom and for his cause.

[23:52] That's our job as Christians, not to follow after our own ungodly lust. But these men were doing just that. He says, these be they who separate themselves, sensual, having not the spirit.

[24:05] They separate themselves. Separate themselves from what? They separate themselves from the true blue children of God. But they're also creating divisions within the church, within the assembly, within the children of God. They're separating themselves and bringing other people with them.

[24:24] This would be what we'd call church split nowadays. That's exactly what Jude is getting at here. He says sensual. Once again, this word sensual a lot of times, we equate that with something sexual and that's not what Jude is getting at here. And James, we addressed this when we were going through the book of James.

[24:44] James rings it up in chapter three of his book, speaking of the wisdom. He says, this wisdom is sensual and devilish. He's talking about the wisdom that comes from below, the wisdom that's earthly when James says that. And Jude here says, these be they who separate themselves, sensual, having not the spirit.

[25:04] That right there, if nothing else that Jude has said, even in calling them ungodly, if nothing else that he has said tells us that these are unsafe people, that line right there does.

[25:15] They have not the spirit. Romans chapter eight says, if we have not the spirit of Christ, we are none of his. If we have not the spirit, we are not saved. We don't know Christ.

[25:26] And that's the people that Jude is talking about here. And that's who he's been describing through this whole little one chapter book that we've been reading here. He's been talking about unregenerate people coming into the house of God or into the assembly, wherever they were gathered at, someone else's house, a synagogue, a street corner, wherever they were at.

[25:47] These unregenerate people are coming in and teaching falsehoods and teaching others to follow along with them. That's the people that he's speaking of here.

[25:58] They have not the spirit. If they have not the spirit, they cannot and are not. They cannot be and are not saved. But ye, beloved, building up yourselves under most holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost, keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life.

[26:21] And once again, he started this little passage off a little bit nicer when he says, beloved, remember ye the words which were spoken. And then he kind of gets a little bit rough again talking about the certain men crept in unawares. And verse 20, he says, but ye, beloved, who is he just talking about in the previous verse?

[26:43] These be they who separate themselves sensually having not the spirit. He says, but ye. So there's a separation there. He's saying these men are unsaved, but ye, beloved, but you who do believe, you who have been saved, you who have received Christ, ye, beloved, building up yourselves on the most holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost is an important verse in the book of Jude.

[27:10] And really in all the New Testament, but ye, beloved, but ye, beloved, building up yourselves. Folks, this falls in our lap. Building up yourselves.

[27:23] I understand regeneration is of God. I understand salvation is of God. Salvation is of the Lord and the Lord is salvation. I get all that.

[27:36] But how many of us have ever said, I want to closer walk with God and we put no effort forth in getting that closer walk? He says, building up yourselves. This is on our side of the fence. It's on our side of the court. It's laying right in our lap. It is up to us to build up ourselves.

[27:58] He says, building up yourselves on your most holy faith. Well, who gives that faith? God gives that faith. God gives everything. Faith is a gift. Faith is a gift from God that he gives. Period.

[28:14] You read about that in the book of Ephesians. But God gives that gift. He gives it to us. The believers utilize it to put their faith in Jesus Christ and to be saved.

[28:28] But he says that we build up, he says, building up yourselves on your most holy faith, not in your most holy faith, on your most holy faith.

[28:39] God has given it. God has given it. And he said, and Jude says, to build up yourselves, folks, if you're not getting any closer to God, it's your fault. It is not God's.

[28:52] If you're praying to God, God draw me closer, but you're not drawing closer to God. It's your fault and it's my fault. I ain't pointing a finger at you all. I ain't trying to stomp on your toes or anything like that. It applies to me just like it does you. But if we're not moving any closer to God, it is our fault because Jude gives us instruction in the canonized scripture that we had, which is the inspired word of God, to build up yourselves on your faith.

[29:22] You take what God has given you. You take the very foundation, which is faith, and you build on that and you build up yourself on that.

[29:33] Praying in the Holy Ghost. He tells us what to do and he tells us how by praying, by praying. But folks, once we pray, and again, it's something I've said several times, sometimes we need to put shoes on our prayers.

[29:52] We need to, we need to, not that God needs our help, but God's given us instruction in his word. I just read you all a verse worth of instruction to build up yourselves on your most holy faith and praying in the Holy Ghost.

[30:08] When we're building up ourselves on our most holy faith that God has granted us, how, how, what is the best way to initiate that by praying in the Holy Ghost?

[30:23] How do we continue to do that? We continue it by praying in the Holy Ghost, yes. But we continue it by following what this book says, to our absolute best ability. None of us will follow it perfectly.

[30:35] That's the whole reason Jesus Christ had to come. We couldn't follow the law perfectly. We couldn't follow the word of God perfectly. That's the entire reason Jesus Christ came and bled and died for us is because it was impossible for us, finite human beings, to do that.

[30:52] But Jude says, pray, build up yourselves on your most holy faith, pray in the Holy Ghost. You pray, you act, you pray, you act, you pray, you act, you act in the manner according to the instructions that we have in Scripture.

[31:11] Keep yourselves in the love of God. That's the action. That's the acting. Keep yourselves. Once again, this falls in our lap. It falls in our lap. It is up to us to keep ourselves in the love of God.

[31:25] I understand Romans 8. I understand that nothing can separate us from the love of God. And I get that. And I appreciate those verses. And that's wonderful and great and fine and well. But Jude here says, keep yourselves in the love of God. Keep yourselves in the love of God.

[31:42] How did he begin this entire passage of Scripture? Remember the words that the Apostles spoke. How are we going to do this? How are we going to know what to pray in the Holy Ghost?

[31:59] How are we going to know how to keep ourselves in the love of God? By remembering the words. By reading the word. You ain't going to remember anything if you don't read it. You ain't going to remember anything if it's not preached to you or talked to you. But the best way to remember these things is to read it for yourself.

[32:20] I understand it for a teacher all the time, blue in the face. But if you can't recall what I've taught a few days later, it ain't going to do you a whole lot of good.

[32:32] It won't do me a whole lot of good if I read out of this book and I don't recall it. I ain't saying you got to memorize all 66 books of the Scripture. I ain't saying that at all.

[32:43] That'd be wonderful, but I can't even do that. Billy Graham couldn't even do that. For any other preacher you can think of, none of us Christians have memorized the entire Bible from Genesis 1-1 to Revelation 22-21. None of us have.

[33:03] But that's a wonderful way for us to keep ourselves in the love of God. So keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life.

[33:16] We've got two commandments really there in Scripture. Building up yourselves and keep yourselves. Don't have yourselves on your most holy faith and keeping yourself in the love of God.

[33:31] What better thing to keep ourselves in? What do you think of when you think about the love of God? I mean, there's songs written about the love of God. There's wonderful songs written about the love of God.

[33:45] I've been quoted the song, the hymn, the love of God just two or three weeks ago, I guess, while he was preaching her teaching. Where it says, you know, every stalk on earth were a quill, the oceans were rink, and the sky parchment made.

[34:05] It was Dr. Andy Ocean's drive to write about the love of God. Just on a side note, do you know where those lyrics were from? If you read it in your hymn, it will tell you. And in Sanicillin?

[34:16] It was found in an insane asylum. In an insane asylum. Somebody in an insane asylum actually scratched those words on the wall of an insane asylum.

[34:30] But anyway, that's neither here nor there. That's just a side note. But the love of God is why you're sitting here saved this morning, if you are. It's the love of God. Now, y'all have heard me say it before, and I'll go to my grave saying it.

[34:48] God didn't save you because he loved you, but saved you for the sake of Christ. You can find that in Ephesians as well. Forgiving one another, you know, is God for Christ's sake, for giving you.

[35:01] He saved you for the sake of Christ. He saved you that his son, his only begotten son, would not die in vain. He saved you because of this. But all in all, in the grand scheme of things, you're sitting here saved this morning because of the love of God.

[35:18] Now, somebody can take a statement like that and say, well, if God loves me, then I'm saved. No, that's not the case.

[35:30] I mean, if that was the case, Pharaoh would have been saved. If that was the case, Judas is scary, I'm being heaven right now, so in his own place, it's the book of Acts. If the love of God worked like that, wouldn't none of us have to worry about keeping ourselves in the love of God?

[35:51] Would none of us have to follow any of these instructions that we read, building up to ourselves on your most holy breath? We wouldn't have to worry about that if that's the way it works. That's not the way to love that God works at all.

[36:06] Do I believe John 3.16? Absolutely. I appreciate John 3.16. I thank God for it. However, that's not how it works. We are to keep ourselves according to the words of the Jews, inspired words of the Jews in the love of God, looking for the mercy.

[36:25] This is how we keep ourselves in the love of God. We look for the mercy. You say, my goodness, he saved our soul. That's merciful right there. I mean, that's merciful enough.

[36:37] But, Jesus is telling them here, he says, keeping ourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life. That mercy is just as eternal as God is. God is eternal, God's love is eternal, God's mercy is eternal. Everything about God is eternal.

[36:58] And people will look at that and say, well, does that include his wrath? Yeah, it does. Everything about God is eternal. His wrath, his fury, his judgment, his sentencing. I mean, even the Psalmist said, if I go up to the heavens, they aren't there.

[37:17] If I make my bed in hell, they aren't there. God's in hell. His wrath is in hell. His fury is in hell. His judgment is in hell. God is everywhere. There's nothing that we can do about that. God is omnipresent.

[37:34] That means everywhere at all times. But, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life. That's how we keep ourselves in the love of God, by looking to the mercy that we have in Jesus Christ.

[37:51] So, all that being said, we can lean from all these things that we've read for the past few weeks from the book of Jude about these false teachers, and about how they are, and about how they act, and about what they are, unregenerate people.

[38:10] We just read that a couple of verses ago. They have not the Spirit. Therefore, they cannot be saved. They are not saved. And we read about all this, but the last few verses of this book is some of the most comforting words that we can find in the New Testament, because we can keep ourselves in the love of God by looking to the mercy, unto the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ, unto eternal life.

[38:42] And that's how you keep ourselves in the love of God. And I will stop right there. We might finish that up next week. If you guys have any questions or comments, do you think at all? Alright, God bless you all.