Continuing our studies in the book of Jude, and let me just get, I know I have some notes somewhere on it, but basically what we've been observing is God placed this book, although Jude was one of the first books written chronologically, God had it placed in his King James Bible in 1600 as the second last book. of the Bible, because he kind of had an understanding of the times, and he knew that what would be needed is for us to, at this very end, before the revelation of Jesus Christ, end of verse three, to earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints. And he was warning at his time that certain men are gonna creep in unawares. And these men are going to be ungodly men, in verse 4, and they're going to change the grace of God into lasciviousness. They're going to deny the only Lord God and the Lord Jesus Christ. And so he's again showing us we need to stand for the faith. We have an enemy. He's been attacking forever and ever and ever. He gave a number of examples of the problems that happened in the past when they, during the Exodus, there was the mixed multitude that didn't believe. There were angels that wouldn't keep their first estate. There were grievous, wicked sinners who were beyond fornication. They were actually sodomites, abominable, I guess they didn't have the word homosexual back then, but that's what they were. they were given the vengeance of eternal fire. God doesn't like abominations. But what he's saying is to us to be aware of is, verse 8, these filthy dreamers, these men that want to creep into the church, They despise dominion. They speak evil of dignity. They, verse 10, speak evil of those things which they know not. And what they know naturally as brute beasts, they just corrupt themselves going back after the flesh. Verse 11, woe unto them. And then he talked about the three errors that we looked at last week. The way of Cain, the very first man born on the planet to Adam and Eve killed his brother. And we saw what his problem was, he would not sacrifice God's way. He wanted to bring what he thought was the best of his own offering to God. And I was reading in here that, let me just see, this is a book written back in the 1920s by a man named Harry Ironside. And he wrote a number of books back in the 20s, and he was taking a look at it and the indictment that God has of these evil workers, and he talks about Cain, the way of Cain. And he said, basically, what you have, there's only two religions in the world. True religion is doing what God said, and false religion is doing what you think is best. And that's what Cain did. Cain denied the offering that God told Adam and Eve, you must bring a lamb. Abel brought a lamb. Cain brought an offering according to the promptings of his own heart, but the heart of a natural man is deceitful. and desperately wicked, his sacrifice may have seemed fair to himself. Here's a fruit basket. Here's the best fruit that I have. It looks lovely. It's the fruit of the ground brought forth by my labor and my toil, but Cain says, God, there's no recognition of sin and the punishment. There's no recognition that God's sentence of sin is death, and I've refused it. No blood has been shed. No life was given. This is natural religion. And God said, look, I need a substitute because you've sinned. And the substitute is the Lamb. And he was pointing forward to the Lamb of God that would take away the sin of the world. And the way of Cain is to deny God's sacrifice, the error of Balaam. is to alter the scriptures. And Balaam threw out two-thirds of what God told him to tell the king Balak. No, no, let me, I've got my own things. And he wrote some of his own codicils and teachings. And the error of Balaam is altering God's word. I get rid of the sacrifice, I get rid of the scriptures, I get rid of God's word. And then the final one was the gainsaying of Korah. And Korah's rebellion is this. Korah was not a high priest. He was a Levite. None of the company that joined together with him were high priests, they were Levites. And by pride, they wanted what God had given to Moses and Aaron. And so one's denying the sacrifice, one is altering the scriptures, and this one is saying, I'll change the order of service around here. I mean, God, you may have determined that this man will be the pastor or this one will be the Sunday school teacher, but I'm just as good as they are. After all, I'm a child of God. I can do whatever I want. And it's usurping position and turning against the service of God. He said, these are the errors that are gonna creep in to the church. People are gonna change the sacrifice, they're gonna change the scriptures, and they're gonna change the order of service. And they're gonna do it because, I don't know, that's what they want to do. And he says, verse 11, this is a woe, this is a curse. The only way you can get blessed is if you do things God's way. And if you do things another way, well, take a look at the world, they're doing it another way, how's it working out? It's a woe, it's a curse. And when you attempt to turn this into religion, verse 12, they become spots in your feasts of charity when they feast with you. Look, we don't mind if they do it in the world, do it out there, but don't bring it into the church house. Make it separate. Put a wall of separation between, let them do what they want out there, but not in God's house. There's spots in your feasts of charity. They're feasting with you. They feed themselves without fear. They are without water. They're carried about of winds. They're trees whose fruit withereth. They're without fruit. They are 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. He denounces them and makes a number of indictments against this when it's brought into the church. They are spots in your feasts. Remember what the Apostle John said. Let me just find it. Hating the garment spotted by the flesh. Actually, Jude is going to say it later in this book. Go to verse 23. We're trying to save others. Sometimes we've got to use fear, pulling them out of the fire, hating even the garment spotted by the flesh. In the Old Testament, the priests wore a garment. They were holy garments to give glory to the Lord. They were to be specially made, they were to be worn during the times of sacrifice and feasting, and a garment spotted by the flesh would be one if you had a leper come. touch not the unclean thing, and to allow the weeping wounds of a leper touch the holy garments of God." And that's what they are. These are the weeping wounds of men's sick mind coming in and spotting the very beauty of holiness and sacrifice that God's given to us in the knowledge of Him. I mean, we've been blessed, we've been chosen to learn about our Savior. He says, come unto me, learn of me. God says, draw nigh unto me. Through the way I've given you, the straight and the narrow way, come my way. And they come in and they spot and they make a mess of these things. They feed themselves without fear. They were talking about the Lord's Table at that time. And they were going to the Lord's Table, and at that time, the Lord's Table, go back to 1 Corinthians chapter 11, was one of the ordinances given to the church to do in remembrance of the sacrifice of our Savior. once-for-all perfect eternal sacrifice that you can't add anything to nor take anything away from It was done perfectly when Christ was done after six hours. He said it is Finished There's nothing to add to it. There's nothing to take away from it. One just marvels at the foot of the cross and thanks God for the goodness of the grace of the Lamb that laid down His life for you and for me. That's what we're supposed to do. And in 1 Corinthians 11, Paul says in verse 23, what I have received of the Lord is that which I also delivered to you. how that the Lord, the same night in which he was betrayed, he took bread, and when he had given thanks, he break the bread, and he said, take, eat. This is my body, which is broken for you. This do in remembrance of me. And he was using an object lesson. They did this lots of times. God would use natural object lessons. You are right now feeding your body on this piece of unleavened bread. but when you're remembering me in your mind, you're thinking about the perfect, unleavened, sinless life that I lived before you, and my father put in the scriptures for you, and how my life was broken in half. At 33 and a half years old, I didn't get to live a full life, but I laid it down and broke it in half for your sacrifice, and that's what you're thinking of. It's not so much you're eating the bread, it's what your mind is feeding on. The pure, sinless, perfect person of Christ. Holy, harmless, sinless, undefiled, separate from sinners, no guile, no sin, no iniquity, complete perfection. Is that what you see when you see Jesus? That's what you're supposed to be thinking of, and that's what they're supposed to be doing at the time they're taking communion, and they're communing and thinking about the great work of the Savior. You do this in remembrance of me. and remembering my work on the cross, Jesus is teaching them, and that's what Paul's saying. Verse 25, after the same manner, you take the cup, and when he supped, he said, okay, right now I have some fresh grapes of the vine, the new wine right here, and I'm gonna drink it, but this represents the cup of the New Testament, which is going to be in my blood, Jesus telling them the night before. I'll shed my blood tomorrow. And as often as you now do this Lord's Table, when you're drinking this fresh new wine, you're thinking of the new wine of salvation and how I shed my blood. You do this in remembrance of me. And you're thinking about my body was sinless, but my work was that of laying out my life and shedding my blood for you. and the blood was shed because without the shedding of blood, my father said there's no remission of sin and I've done this so that your sins can be remitted. And that's what you're thinking on. And your soul and your spirit are being cleansed by the communion, communication you're having with God and his spirit as you're thinking on these things. We are, I know we're physical beings. Okay, I understand that. But God says primarily you're a spiritual being. You're a spiritual being. And at the Lord's table, what you're doing is you're closing your eyes and now you're going into the spirit world and you're remembering and you're thinking on the great work that God the Father and God the Son did on your behalf. And you're doing it with thanksgiving. And that's what you're feasting about. The feast that I'm gonna, my Lord did this for me. And one day, as he promised, Where I am, there you'll be also. In my Father's house are many mansions. He's gonna take me. That's why he's saying, verse 26, as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you're showing, you're thinking of the Lord's death backwards till he come forward. You're thinking, not only did he do this in the past for me, he's got great plans for me in the future. I have not seen nor ear heard. And this is why we feast. This is why we come together. Why we're here this morning, to look at me. I mean, I can't even button my collar. I look ridiculous. My tie isn't well tied. I only know how to do a half Windsor. My hair doesn't look that good. It's all cut wrong. You didn't come to see me. You came here this morning because the word of God was going to be open and you were going to have communication and commune with God. This is the feast today. And we don't want spots brought in here putting thoughts on the world when we want our thoughts on our Lord and his word. And he's saying, that's what they're doing. You don't want to let that in. The church is a place of holiness and truth, and in the center of the lampstand is the Lord himself, Jesus Christ, like John saw. So back to Aaron Jude, he's saying, you don't want this. You don't want these people let in. You don't want people who've got another sacrifice, people who've got other scriptures, people who won't follow the order of the service that God set forth. That becomes a spot. They're clouds without water. Now, I wasn't a farmer. I guess maybe it would make more sense to farmers, because I guess they think about this. They go out and they plant. And then, you know, we like a nice sunny day. Go play baseball. Want to go sit by the pool. You know, we're a bunch of lazy Laodiceans. But working people, they need some rain. Or that seed they planted, they're not going to have any crops. They're not going to have any food. And so they look, when there's a couple of dry weeks, they're looking on the horizon for a cloud to come to bring water. And finally, they see some clouds on the horizon. Good, good. Water's coming. But these are clouds without water. I mean, we need the water of the Word physically, spiritually, they needed the water physically to take care of their crops. Now, it took two verses for me to put this together. Let's see if I got them right. Clouds without water. Go to Proverbs 25. Now we don't think of a drought that often, but the fact of the matter is there's a spiritual drought. People's souls need the water of the word. And in Proverbs 25, These men, they creep into the church. When they creep into the church, one of the problems they have is they have that gainsaying of Korah, which means they don't just want to come in the church to sit in the pew. They want to come in the church, and like Korah, they want the preeminence. They want to get to become a deacon. They want to be an elder. They want to be a pastor. And the counterfeit denomination is they want to be a priest. They want the leadership position. When they have the leadership position, they know when people come, people come and they look to the leader. I know this morning some of you come, you look to me, hopefully you're not looking to me, although you are appreciative of the fact God taught me to study. and then I take what I study and I show you, and that's a blessing, but God confirms it all, and you're fed a spiritual meal. But someone with the wrong notion might, I might want that position. I wanna get up front, I wanna be heard. Okay, now the people coming are hoping to hear something. So here comes a cloud that's supposed to give some water to you, Proverbs 25, 14. Whoso boasteth himself of a false gift, is like clouds and wind without rain. These guys come in and say, yeah, I've got the gift, God gave me the gift, I can do that. But they don't have the gift. Because they've crept in unawares and they're ungodly. And they're trying to turn away the words of God to their own religious teachings. And you come in and you leave just as dry as when you came in. And you walk out of the service and go, I didn't get anything today. I'm still thirsty. I'm still hungry. Have you ever been to a service like that? You ever walk in and walk out 45 minutes later and go, I didn't get anything there? Right. And that's what these guys do. Now, I can assure you, God, in his determined counsel and foreknowledge when he, let's say, ordains a man like Jeremiah, And he chooses, I'm gonna use this man to my service. Now God will do everything he can so that man will be faithful to the service. But when that man is faithful to the service that God chose, I can assure you when you come in, you'll get fed. There will be a spiritual meal for you prepared by the chief shepherd who will teach the under shepherd what to do. And you won't walk out empty. But that's what these guys do. They're like clouds without water. They're carried about of winds, he says. carried about of winds. Now, Jesus told Nicodemus, he said, you know, when it comes to the new birth, the wind, singular, bloweth where it listeth. And the wind is a type of God's Holy Spirit, the Spirit of the living God moving at the right time in someone's life. So there is a true wind, a wind of truth that God sends, but the devil wants to counterfeit it. So he sets up his own winds go to Ephesians chapter 4 The devil is a counterfeiter. He's not a creator. He can't create he He doesn't like to build. He likes to counterfeit and steal. Steal that which God hath built and that which God hath created. And then he steals it, maybe even puts, he alters it, and then he puts a label back on as if approved by God. And so you think God did this, but it's the devil doing this. And instead of the wind of the Spirit, he has other winds. Now, in the fourth chapter of Ephesians, that great, great chapter, where Paul is beseeching his brethren, verse 1, to walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called. You see the word vocate? You've been called to something. You've been called to the cross of Jesus Christ. You've been called then Jesus said now that you're at my cross let's take up your cross and let's walk together and follow me and you to be lowly with meekness and long-suffering and forbearing one another in love in the love of God and You're endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit. There's the true wind in the bond of peace There's only one body, one spirit. You are called in one hope of your calling. That's the rapture, that's seeing our Lord, the blessed hope, the second coming. That's our hope. Are you looking forward to that? Are you excited that the Lord is coming back? There's a crown waiting for you for those that love his appearing. There's one Lord, Jesus Christ. There's one faith. There's the faith once delivered to the saints. There's one Bible, that's what he's telling you. There's one baptism. It's spiritual, it's not water. You've gotta be baptized by the Spirit into the spiritual body of Christ, an eternal body. And there's one God and Father of all who's above all and through all and in you all. And every one of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ. Now what he did, the gifts, verse 11, he gave some apostles, he gave some to be prophets, he gave some to be evangelists, some pastors and teachers. God chose men. He said, my sheep need to be fed. I'm gonna call the shepherds. I'm gonna equip the shepherds. And if the shepherds are faithful, they'll be good shepherds. Not like these ungodly men creeping in in the book of Jude. These will be good shepherds to you. And what are they gonna do? Their job is to, verse 12, perfect the saints. I've got a new baby here. He needs to be perfected. And so I'm going to use the Spirit, I'm going to use the Scriptures, and I'm going to use this man to be able to feed and help that child to grow to the point where he can then feed himself. But he'll never leave the assembly because together I'm going to use everyone in that assembly. to do forth and go out and get other children born and then grow them up. And it's the perfecting of the saints for the work of the ministry, for the edifying, the building up the body of Christ till we all come in the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, not just know Him intellectually. know him personally, but begin to know him practically and daily and the way he moves, because he wants to use us. And this makes us a perfect man. The measure of the stature and fullness of Christ. And when we're like that, verse 14, we henceforth are no more children Tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of Doctrine, but these men are like Winds and they come in with new doctrines and new teachings and new thing there is no new thing under the sun If it's new it ain't true if it's true it ain't new it's eternal truth comes from an eternal God and There's no changing. There's no shadow of changing. There's no altering. There's no turning. God hasn't changed one bit from the moment He said, I'm going to create the heaven and the earth. I am that I am. I always am what I am. I ain't nothing else, God says. There's no changing. but they come in with every wind of doctrine. Where's it come from? End of verse 14. By the slight of men, by cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive, either outside or they want to creep in the building. These are ungodly men, turning the truth and the grace of God into something else. I just wish they would say it. I wish they would just come out and say it. I'm ungodly and I'm changing God's word. Follow me. But that's not what they say. Oh, I know the Lord just like you. And this is a godly study we're doing here. Now get my workbook and start filling in these things. You don't need workbooks. You need God's book. That's what you need to be reading. You don't need another man telling you what to fill in the blank with. You need to read God's word and let God fill in the empty spots in your mind and your heart. Let God do the work. Back to where we are, these men. They are, again, clouds without water, verse 12. They are carried about of winds, every new wind of doctrine that comes down. One of the new winds of doctrine that came out, I didn't bring the book with me, I should have, from the 1800s, is this new wind of doctrine that came out. It was actually birthed in the 1700s in Germany. by Griesbach and Wellhausen, but then it was carried over into England by Bishop Westcott and John Hort, who was a scholar, and it's called Textual Criticism. It's a new way of looking at the Bible and studying the Bible to see which words are right. No. That's a new doctrine. You don't criticize the Bible, the Bible criticizes you. You don't correct the book, the book is here to correct you. You don't change the book. God gave the book to change you. You're getting things backwards. That's a new doctrine that crept in. And based on that is every modern translation. Every single modern translation with the word N-E-W in it. If you're a Christian, that's the N-word. If you're a Christian, the N-word is N-E-W. New. You think you get in trouble down here for saying the N-word? Way to get in heaven. You have to face God with that N-word. These are new winds of doctrine, new winds that have come along. You get rid of these things. He says they're trees whose fruit withereth, they're without fruit. They're like a picture of that fig tree that Jesus cursed. Oh really, that's religion, Jesus said? He curses it. The next day it was just dried up. And that's what God does when he sees men like this in the book of Jude creeping in to an assembly of his. He'll dry that thing up if they let those men take the place of preeminence and prominence. He says something interesting here, twice dead, plucked up by the roots. So I was thinking about this, twice dead. Now we're gonna get theological and doctrinal. When we have a child, a child is born in the image of Adam, just like I was born in the image of Adam. So I had a living body that came out that the doctor could slap, I could start to cry, and my mom could hold that body. I had a soul in there, and I had a spirit. God gives the soul to give life to the body, and he gives a spirit to give, let's say, a life force to the soul, so that my soul could stay alive, like a battery he puts in the soul. That battery is a human spirit. That battery is good enough to connect to my soul, to allow me with my soul to meet other people and have a soulmate and talk with them, and we can go spirit to spirit, but that battery doesn't connect with God. And so I am one third dead, I'm spiritually dead. is what I am. I'm one part dead. These guys are twice dead. They're twice dead. This is a different judgment of God placed upon them. It's a severe judgment. It's a word that he uses in other places only four times in the Bible. God first told Jeremiah about it. We'll check that out in a minute. But we're gonna go backwards through our Bible to find it. Go to Titus chapter one. Titus chapter one. It'll be found in Titus and Timothy because Paul is trying to warn these young preachers to watch out for these men. And what he's saying about these particular men, verse 16, they profess that they know God. Again, I wish these guys would come in the church and say, just look, I see you have a church here. It's an evangelical church about Jesus Christ. I just want you to know I'm coming in, I'm working for the devil, and my job is to overthrow Jesus. Do you mind if I take the pulpit? But that's not how they come in. I'm a Christian just like you, and I've been studying, and I went to the seminary or whatever. They profess they know God, but in works they deny him. They are abominable and disobedient, and to every good work they are reprobate. Reprobate, a compound word. First the word probate. Probate is the word to prove. Prove all things, hold fast that which is good. Reject the evil. So your job is to prove and test certain things. Now God also, proves and tests things. What God proves and tests are the hearts of people. He searches the heart. He asked the same kind of question Jesus asked that man one day. Wilt thou be made whole? Do you have any will inside of you to be made whole? Wilt thou Desire to know the truth. Dost thou desire truth? There's got to be a will in there. God will not twist anyone's will. He wants the individual. He made us all with free will. Do you wanna know? So God tests these hearts. And the most important thing that God knows is that they only have a battery. The battery's gonna run out. When the battery runs out, I take the battery back, God says, and I put it in my storehouse there. And then the soul separates from the body. The body goes in a grave, and a soul that no longer has a spirit in it is cast into hell. And I've lost it. And my desire is to put not just the batter in there, put my spirit in there through the new birth. So this little child, who's now 12 or 13 years old, has a living body, has a soul. I don't want to call it a living soul. I think of it more like a dying soul. And just watch him over 70 years and see the attitudes as it goes down and down and down. I mean, you ever notice kids are more smiley and cheerful when they're young, and at 70 years old, they're bitter and angry and muttering about all the problems in the world? OK, that's a dying soul going down, headed toward death. But I want to put my spirit in it and give it life. So what I do is I prove it. by sending the wind of my spirit in the direction of that soul. It says, the spirit of man is the candle of the Lord. And what I do is I move my spirit in to his spirit and give it light for a minute. And I say, would you like that? Would you like that? Remember John chapter three? Here's the condemnation. Light has come into the world, but men love darkness. And most people say, no, I don't really want that. I don't want that light. Now, it's good for you, but it's not good for me. I'm good. I'm good. I'm fine. We knocked on doors yesterday, and not only did we offer tracks, my wife had a brilliant idea that we used. And it was so nice. I could say, and my wife. So I got a pad of paper with a pen, and I said, and yes, and we're the church around the corner. We're your neighborhood church. Here's a little packet the ladies made for you. We'd love to invite you to come any time you want. And one other thing, my wife would like to pray for you and the ladies, so is there anything you'd like me to pray for right here? And I asked every house, you know, we'll pray for you, anything you want. Oh, no, I'm good, no, I'm good, no, I'm good. I mean, you just go, one person, yeah, pray for world peace. I said, okay, I'll pray for world peace. Anyways, you know, I mean, stupid stuff like that, just to sound like they care. But God says, I send my light and I prove them and they can say, no thank you, no thank you. Now I can reprove them and send my light a second time. Now, if they are, verse 16, professing to know me, and this is where the difference comes. This is why Jude is mostly written to teachers, and apostles, and prophets, and evangelists, and pastors. I'm not saying you can't get good practical instruction out of it. Your practical instruction is to avoid the bad teachers, prophets, evangelists, pastors, apostles, that claim they know God. But with these guys, God holds them to a much higher accountability. When God, and you can talk to him about it, when God makes people, he determines in the making of people, these are sheep, that's a shepherd. These are sheep, that's a shepherd. It's his business. If you feel you've been shortchanged because he didn't make you a shepherd, tell him. Tell him right now. There's an altar. You don't want to tell him right now? Then tell him when service is over. Tell him, who do you think you are, making me a sheep and not a shepherd? Tell him. Be honest with him. Let's get real around here. I'm sick of fake religion. You're either a sheep or a shepherd. If God made you a shepherd and God made you a shepherd, you'll know. And then what God does with these people, he sends his spirit to them. And they say, no, no, not interested, first time. He sends it the second time, no, I'm not interested. But even though I'm not interested in what you got, I see there's a lot of money in that wipeout. Where did I read that comment by that one Pope? Let me just see if I can find it again. It was during the time of Pope Leo X, the one that fought with Martin Luther in the 1500s. Pope Leo X is a very interesting guy. You read this guy's history. His father was a wealthy, wealthy man, something de Medici, and he was like the president of the Florentine Republic. He had tons of money. And what the father wanted for the son, kind of think of like, You guys remember John F. Kennedy? Remember his dad was Joe Kennedy? Joe Kennedy wanted his, one of his boys to be president. Joe Kennedy had been in Wall Street, Joe Kennedy had been in Hollywood, Joe Kennedy had worked real hard, sort of, so to speak. And he wanted the best for his kids. And like the Godfather, like when the Godfather said to Michael, I didn't want you in my business. I wanted you to be Governor Corleone, Senator Corleone. I mean, what Joe Kennedy knew and what the Godfather knew is you really want to make it, get control of the government. That's where the money is. The government has all the money. Give me a few more seconds. I'll develop it a few more seconds for you last night There was a movie on from years ago called the fugitive with the guy from Star Wars Harrison Ford And in the movie he was a doctor and at one point they're chasing him down and the guy chasing him is Tommy Lee Jones, is that his name? Tommy Lee Jones, he goes to the hospital one day, and when they're at the hospital, he comes home back to the office, and he's reading through about this company that, not that Ford worked for, but some of his colleagues worked for, and it was a company that does heart research, and he said, man, I should have been a doctor. I said, these guys, their net profits last year was $7.5 billion. $7.5 billion in one year. That's a monster. To which I said, yeah, sure. That's for the stupidity of the average audience. The government spends $7.5 billion in 16 hours. In 16 hours. in two shifts, and then another two shifts, they do it again, and another two shifts, they do it again, and then another two shifts. That company is nothing compared to the government. Senator Corleone, Governor Corleone, Joe Kennedy, you can be president. That's where the real money is. You control the government, you got the power and the money. Corporations are nothing compared to the government, the biggest monopoly in the world. Okay, and when Medici had his little boy, Leo X, that wasn't his name, but he wanted his little boy, he said, you can work with me, and I'm the president of the country, but if I can get you to be a pope, that's where the real money and the power is. In 1500, the Catholics controlled all of Europe. I'm just a little guy here running a small republic. That pope's got control over everything all over Europe. So he wanted him to be a pope, because that's where the money was. Remember, remember God. I gave this kid talent. I sent him my word. I want him to get saved and serve me. He says no once, he says no twice, but then he doesn't say, I'm gonna go out and be an alcoholic. I'm still gonna go and pretend I'm serving God. God says the penalty for that is a reprobate. I'll explain it in a minute, but here's what so so Medici he bought a position for his boy at the age of seven he bought him the office of Cardinal at 13 years old that's how much money he had, and the Pope at that time made him a cardinal at 13. Never been a priest, never been to seminary, not that I care, but he hadn't done anything. Finally, when the Pope died, Medici was able to buy the papacy for him, and they said, oh, we got a problem, you're not a priest. We can't ordain you pope. So here's the plan. Thursday we're gonna ordain you pope, but Tuesday we're gonna make you priest. So they made him a priest on Tuesday, made him pope on Thursday. You know what he said when he got in control? He said, man, what a profitable thing this myth about Jesus Christ has been to us. And they profess they know God. What a profitable thing this myth about Jesus Christ has been to us. And the reprobate. So let me go a step further and explain what that means. You know what that means? God says, your coworker, wherever you work, that's rejected you a few times. He ain't reprobate, he's just lost. God says when he's reprobate, I've proved him twice. He's twice dead. Remember what it said in Jude? He's twice dead. He's plucked up by the roots. Translation, the only thing left living in that pope is that body. I've already killed that soul. That soul can't get saved even if it wants to. It's a reprobate. It's reprobate silver. You can study the word out on your own. I've given it up. It's all gone. Back to where we are. See, you wanna reject Christ, go be an alcoholic. Go be a drug dealer. Go get elected to office. Go do something else. But don't reject Christ and put on a robe and go out there and say you're leading sheep, you're misleading sheep and goats in the wrong direction and souls. Woe unto you. That's a curse, reprobate, serious stuff. 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. You know, it's interesting to read, I got a couple of books here, commentaries on Jude. This is from the 1920s by Ironside. But this is interesting. This was written in the 1500s by Martin Luther. And he had to deal with the Pope, Leo X. That was the one he had to deal with. And it was quite a back and forth battle. But he marks all through here that the problem has been the Roman Catholic Church. that these bishops desire to be lords. They consider themselves a higher order than anyone else. We can read this in the writings of Jerome. Jerome was one of the apostles of the Roman Catholic Church. Jerome went to the catechetical school of Alexandria, the oldest catechetical school in the world, founded by a Greek scholar, Pantaneus, in 200 AD, who was a Stoic, who tried to blend Greek philosophy and the New Testament. The School of Alexandria became the most important institution of religious learning for Catholics, where students were taught by scholars such as Athenagoras, a philosopher from Athens, who liked Greek philosophy and tried to dabble it with Christianity. What concord hath light with darkness? There is no mixing of black and white with God. It's either good or evil. There's no shades of grey with God. It's one side or the other. What part hath Christ with Belial? And this is what religion has done. Clement of Alexandria, well-versed in Plato, Greek philosophy, Egyptian religion. He founded something called Coptic Christianity. Origin of Alexandria, the one who founded textual criticism, and then it was picked up 1,700 years later by Westcott and Hort. If you want an interesting book on philosophy and science, Dr. Ruckman took the time to review the Harvard classics and go and find about these teachers. Clement of Alexandria, these are the founders of the Catholic Church. These are where all the priests and the cardinals and the bishops, they all come from here. This is what they study. Clement of Alexandria, who took over this catechetical school, catechism in Alexandria, where they teach Catholic apologetics. There's no salvation outside the church. Wrong, there's no salvation outside of Christ. You can get saved outside of this church. on the street. We had a lady we led to the Lord. It was December. It was Christmas shopping season. We went downtown to pass out tracks. One of us was preaching, the other passing out tracks. At that point, I think Bill was preaching, Bill Eubanks. I was passing out tracks. She stopped me. She said, what's that man talking about? I said, about salvation, about souls, about what Christmas is about. It's all about Jesus Christ, the Savior. Do you know about him? We spent about 20 minutes. She got on her knees right there and prayed on Main Street and got saved. There's salvation outside the church. There's no salvation outside of Christ. Clement says nothing about the main theme of both Testaments. He talks nothing about the second advent of Jesus Christ because he knew nothing about it. His student, Adam, Adamantius Origen, the successor at the university, taught in soul sleep. He taught reincarnation of souls. He taught regeneration comes by water baptism. He taught there's no such thing as hell. He taught that a pastor should be called a priest. Roman Catholic Church. God gave pastors. Anyone who is saved is a priest of the Most High God through the new birth. You're priests. We're all priests, spiritual priests. He taught no millennial reign of Christ. He taught no restoration of the nation Israel. He taught there's no rapture and no judgment seat of Christ. These are the men that put this stuff together. And you read through the commentary of Martin Luther and how he had to fight with the battle at the Reformation, trying to get the truth out. Solo scriptura, solo grace, solo fide, solo faith. It's grace alone and faith alone in the scriptures and Christ alone, that's what he preached. And these men come in and they do that and so, I guess this has gone on a long time because, verse 14, Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, so if you were to go back and read Genesis chapter 5, You will read 10, they call them the pre-flood, what's the word for pre-flood again? Antediluvian? Antediluvian patriarchs, big fancy word, the pre-flood patriarchs. And the 10 men from the Garden of Eden to the flood that called on the name of the Lord. And it names those 10 people there from Adam all the way to Noah. And the seventh one is a man named Enoch. and he was the seventh one from Adam, and he prophesied of these, saying, Behold, the Lord cometh with 10,000 of his saints. And why is he coming? To execute judgment upon all. Now at the time that Enoch was prophesying, what we learn again about the prophecies of the Bible is they're usually dualistic because Christ was both God and man, because the Bible is both Old and New Testament, because you're both physical and spiritual, because there's both a heaven and an earth. And so things are dualistic, and the dualistic preaching of prophecy is there's a first and a second coming. so he's preaching here in the near term of the first judgment that God is going to do back in Genesis when he's going to bring a flood and so Enoch is out there preaching And I guess Noah was a preacher of righteousness. Enoch was a preacher of righteousness. What God had was two good, solid witnesses preaching to all those people before the flood that there's a flood coming, that there's judgment coming, that you need to get ready. God always has a witness of faithful men that will preach the truth that when the Lord comes, He's coming to execute judgment upon all. The scary thing about that verse is it includes us. Comma, and convince all that are ungodly. But when he does the judgment, the first one to get judged is the godly people. Judgment begins at the house of the Lord. So when Jesus comes back, first one to get judged, that's us at the judgment seat of Christ. When Jesus finally puts his feet on planet Earth and sets up the judgment of nations, the first one he does in Matthew 25 are the sheep. And then after the sheep, okay, you guys are gonna come with me. Now you goats, bop, bop, bop, bop, bop, depart from me into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels. And he, but. When the Lord comes, he brings his judgment first upon his own people. But Enoch was so, he was trying to warn maybe the sons of Adam that were faithful, you guys better stay on the straight and narrow too. And I think one of the reasons Enoch was doing it was a lot of them weren't staying on the straight and narrow. I only read about one of them that was walking with God. The other eight weren't, when you read through there. They knew God, but they weren't walking. I'm sorry my teachings are deep, but they're deep. It's not just enough to know God. It is. It is to get saved. But for your own sake, it's better to learn to walk with Him. He is going to come back and bring judgment. And it'll be embarrassing. Like John said, you'll be ashamed if you have to stand before Him. And he, really, seriously, he asks, you couldn't find a good church. Is that true? There really wasn't a good church in Western New York. I've looked around. I got a whole bunch of Bible-believing churches in Western New York. A lot of them have empty spaces in them. You couldn't find one, you say. No, could you? You couldn't find time to read that book at all during the week. You couldn't find any time to make a prayer meeting. It's gonna be interesting to stand before him. The Lord's coming. to execute judgment. Who does he think he is? He's the judge of all the earth. He has every right to do it. And let's get personal. You make judgments every day. You watch the news and go, he should have did that, she should have did that, the government should do that, the police should have done this, my insurance company should have done that. You make judgments all the time. You have no problem sitting in the judgment seat. So the Lord, He'll get in the seat one day. He'll displace you, put you in front of Him. And He's coming to execute judgment upon all that might include you and me. and also then 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. You read that verse about 10 times and think about it, and turn on the news, or listen to the gossip, or go on social media. Do you ever go on social media? I did for a very short while. I had a, what's it called, Teresa? A Facebook page, yeah. Somehow they shut me off of it. I haven't been able to get on it in two years. But when I was on it, I invited people to church and to the Bible, and every comment I wrote was a Bible verse. No matter what they wrote, I would respond with what I thought was the most appropriate Bible verse for them. I figured they don't need to hear about me. They don't need to look at my face, but maybe they should hear from the book. And so I would write Bible verses. And you'd be amazed at how people don't like Bible verses. And why would you not like something as pure and precious and perfect as a word from God in the midst of a day when you hear idle and curse words the rest of the time? What is their problem with it? Well, the judge is coming back to ask them some questions about that. Now we're just about out of time. These people are murmurers, they're complainers, they walk after their own lust, their mouth speaketh great swelling words that they learned, you know, when they went to university and they speak these Compound words that nobody knows and they have men's person and admiration because of advantage again He's he's going back to these guys creeping in trying to take leadership positions some of the most ungodly hard speakers around our people in leadership and they know some great swelling legal words, and medical words, and Hebrew and Greek words, and Latin words, and people are impressed because they can speak that. Verse 17, but beloved, why don't you remember the words which were spoken before of the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ? And we'll close this with a good thing that God would like for us to do as the children of God in Philippians chapter 4. What you need to do, brethren, finally, is whatsoever things are true, Philippians 4.8, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, like a good balance of whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of a good report. If there be any virtue, if there be any praise, think of these things. That's what you want to do, and then what you'll see is the peace of God which passeth all understanding shall keep your hearts and your minds through Christ Jesus. Twice dead, isn't it good to be born again? Good to be saved. Father, we do thank you. I think Jude writes a powerful little epistle here, Lord. The sad thing is that down through the centuries so few took heed to it. Help us this day. to be those that would be like Mary, that wanna sit at the feet of Jesus and hear His pure and perfect words. And Jesus one day can say, He and she have done the better part. These things we pray in Jesus' name, amen.