Books of James & Jude - Jude's final words - Jude 1:22-25

All right, so I'm going to have us read beginning of verse 12 down to the end of the chapter, which is only about 14 verses. So it's not going to be laborious, but I think it really does set the stage for the closure of this epistle. So Al, you up to reading 12 through 25 for us here this morning? He's a good reader. He is. We'll take advantage of him as long as we have him. We're not going to have him. We're not going to have him after this.

When I was young, and knew everything. I got a chance to be on the radio in Cleveland, Ohio that had an education station, WBOE. And so all along through my life, it's been my voice that nobody cared about me, they just wanted my voice. When I first moved to Littleton, a new church started, which is still going, Bethany Evangelical Free Church. I'm a charter member. And the first pastor there had a little 15-minute radio program that asked the pastor type of thing on Sunday morning.

We're encouraging people to come up front today. Everybody's complied. We're going to start with 12. Verse 12 to the end of the chapter. These are spots in your love feasts, while they feast with you without fear, serving only themselves. There are clouds without water, carried about by the winds. Late autumn trees without fruit, twice dead, pulled up by the roots. Raging waves of the sea, foaming up their own shame. Wandering stars, for whom is reserved the blackness of darkness forever.

Now Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied about these men also, saying, Behold, the Lord comes with ten thousands of his saints, to execute judgment on all, to convict all who are ungodly among them, of all their ungodly deeds which they have committed in an ungodly way, and all the harsh things which ungodly sinners have spoken against him.

These are grumblers, complainers, walking according to their own lusts, and they mouth great swelling words, flattering people to gain advantage. But you, beloved, remember the words which were spoken before by the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ, how they told you that there would be mockers in the last time, who would walk according to their own ungodly lusts. These are sensual persons who cause divisions, not having the Spirit. But you, beloved, building yourselves up on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life. And as some have compassion, making a distinction, but others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire, hating even the garment defiled by the flesh.

Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy, to God our Savior, who alone is wise, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and forever. Amen. Well, the benediction here is just outstanding, isn't it? There's clearly one of the most uplifting and encouraging pieces of scripture that the Lord has given us. I mean, there are many benedictions to many of the epistles, but this one kind of stands above all, I think.

All right, so let's begin with verse 22. So here Here we're kind of in this setting, and that's why we started at 12 today, to kind of see the apostates that were surrounding the believers that Jude was addressing here. And so I think that puts it in the context of how to interpret 22 and 23. So 22 and 23, I combined those two as I did 24 and 25. because that really is, again, this is the bad news, good news, but in a sense there's good news coming out of the bad news here, so we need to look at this through the eyes of the believer. And have mercy on some who are doubting.

This is New American Standard, by the way. Roger, I think this version does more justice to this passage. Save others, snatching them out of the fire, and on some have mercy with fear, lusting even the garment polluted, or hating even the garment polluted by the flesh. So I kind of used Hebert. I thought Hebert was a good source, and I looked at other ones, but this was probably the best overall synopsis of this section.

It appears that we have three classes of earthly heavenly citizens here. Keep in mind, these are believers, all of them. There's no apostates that are being addressed here. You've got to believe that the epistle is addressing believers. Okay, although some say there are two.

Apparently, according to Hebert, the early scriptural language was difficult stylistically, and apparently the way you interpret the passage relates to what version, what text you're using. I don't want to go there. I just think looking at three classes of believers, is what we're dealing with. I think the best interpretation, this is my opinion, of these two verses is that all three groups appear to have been deceived and influenced by the apostates among them.

I'll read 12 and 13 again. Would you please? You read that so beautifully before. These are spots in your love feasts while they They are clouds without water, carried about by the winds. Late autumn trees without fruit, twice dead, pulled up by the roots. Raging waves of the sea, foaming up their own shame. Wandering stars, for whom is reserved the blackness of darkness forever. Okay, so those are the apostates. And so I think what Jude is addressing here are three groups of believers that are to be handled somewhat differently each class.

So these are not unsaved people. We're not talking about saving some and not saving others. We're talking about saving all three in the concept of saving as I was saved, being saved, and will be saved. So we have a mission before us here as believers in a church filled with apostates, although the Holly Hills, I think we have few, if any. I don't sense that we have any. This is the group to whom this is addressed. So let's look at the first group, those who are doubting.

And according to the text, they need compassionate aid. And some versions say making a distinction or difference, and I think that relates to the distinction between truth and error. I mean, that's what we're talking about, the difference. The difference of what is correct and God-given and what is in fact a lie. And these are the doubters. They're doubting kind of what the truth of the gospel is.

And ultimately, their intellectual difficulties must be opposed and refuted. And those are Hebert's words. I put those in quotes. So these are people who intellectually are having problems here. They're clearly being deceived and being led astray, but yet these are saved people. I know a few people like this, and I'm sure you do too. In fact, I think I shared one colleague of mine a few weeks ago, who in fact now is doubting, I think. Maybe he's an apostate, I don't know. Maybe he's in this class, he's being influenced by apostates.

True. He's all, for some reason, he got all excited about, you know, well is this scripture really true? There must be something, you know, that refutes scripture because we just can't look at scripture, we got to look at something else. That's right. There's always a telltale sign going the wrong direction. Right. What do we need to complement what's already there? Al?

Ever since the age of reason began, and people started thinking that they knew better than the old days, intellectual argument has been, well, the Bible's for old-fashioned people who needed to explain wonder and lightning and didn't know about the natural world, and that now we've outgrown that, and that we, by our intelligence, And our diligent study can reason our way to God.

And people don't realize that that's equating yourself to God. That if I study hard enough and think deeply enough, I'm going to know everything about God. Well, no. That isn't ever going to happen. accepting the fact that God is sovereign, and God is the creator, and God is the sustainer, and not we ourselves. And so these doubters, intellectually, and I've been there, I know sort of how they feel inside. They don't think of themselves as gods, because they don't think of it to the logical conclusion.

But in a sense, they're trying to reason their way to faith, and faith always has a jump. People think science is all step-by-step, observation upon observation, and here's the logical conclusion, and it must be the truth. And they don't realize that the biases are put in there, and the program is built according to the computer operator's whim.

He can make it say anything he wants to by what he puts into the... Are you criticizing my career? And yours too, self-criticism. Two points. One is faith is believing what God's revealed. It's that simple. And again, I've said this many times, Scofield's right. It's very simple. Faith is believing what God has revealed.

If we fall short there, we start believing just certain aspects. Our faith is weak. And by the way, of the three groups of people here, I think this is the easiest group to reach. I mean, these people are being intellectually deceived. Not that we're there to intellectually convince them. We need to return them through prayer and through fellowship and through the power of the Spirit to change their views that what God has revealed is true. And that's not an intellectual argument.

Because the world lives by faith, too. They just don't know it. Day in and day out, the world lives by faith. My son challenged me to a debate about faith in God. And he said, I'll ruin your faith, Dad, because I'll win the argument. And I told him, it's not about who's the better debater. That's really true.

So what the verse says, we have to have mercy on some. And so the mercy here that we're having is an atmosphere of love and mercy. And what's mercy? And by the way, imperative tense. It doesn't say, oh, by the way, if circumstances prevail, have mercy on these. It says do it. Have mercy on these people. And I think that's an active verb. What's mercy?

Versus grace. Not getting what you deserve. Right, and grace. Not getting the judgment you deserve. And grace. Getting what you don't deserve. Very good. Good. Al gets 100% for his attendance here in the class. OK, so the second group is those who need to be saved out of fire. And there's some sense of urgency here.

Oh, my bad. So let's look at Hebrews 6. I got these out of order here with my animation. Hebrews 6, 4 through 7. I saw that space up there. I said, what is that space? And that's why there's a space. So Hebrews 6, 4-7 is a very controversial section of scripture.

And let's read that and put that into context here in terms of these individuals. Roger, if you've got it, go ahead please. For in the case of those who have once been enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and have been partakers of the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the age to come, and then have fallen away, it is impossible to renew them again to repentance, since they are again crucifying themselves as son of God and put him to open shame. For the ground that drinks the rain, which often falls upon it and brings forth vegetation, useful to those who forsake It is also to receive a blessing from God. Okay, just to be summarial and be succinct, there are two interpretations. People can lose their salvation. Or secondly, the fact that the Lord's graciousness is not going to pay the price again.

In other words, these people have been saved. They don't lose their salvation. But in fact, they need special attention, I think. I think it potentially is relevant here. These people are in urgent need of being saved out of the fire. Okay, so these aren't people who are going to lose their salvation, these are people who in fact, this passage, did Christ die? Does he need to die again? I mean, I think this is really the building up of the faith rather than losing it.

Compared with the passage here in June, if Roger had read that next verse as well, talks about the antithesis of very good fruit that's useful. If it bears briars and thorns, it's in danger of being burned. And we're going to go there perfect now. I mean, I think Al's really got this correct.

So this is, if you will, imminent danger that's being perceived here. I mean, these are believers who are really kind of, their lives have gone astray, their deeds are worthy of nothing but fire. And the question I ask here, is this spiritual salvation or simply a metaphor? And I think it's really a metaphor. And it relates to this. Is this rescuing them from the fire of hell? In other words, being unsaved? Or in fact, is it from the fire of apostate teaching? And I think the hell here is wrong doctrine. Okay? And so that reminds me of what you just said, Al.

1 Corinthians 3.15, if any man's work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss, but he himself shall be saved, so yet is by fire. I mean, that fits perfectly, I think, with this group of people. These people, their works are burning left and right. And by the way, hellfire is kind of where their works belong.

But yet these are, again, Judas addressing people who need our attention. And there's some urgency here. because these people are really out in left field. They may be biblically saved, maybe as a small child, maybe as an adult, but boy, their lives are really being influenced negatively by the apostates that are surrounding them.

Snatching denotes forceful and heroic activity. These people need attention. The elders, Roger, are very much in a position to identify these people and ultimately be meeting with them and praying with them. Everybody okay with this? This is kind of a second group. Some among you need mercy. They're intellectually deceived. Some of them, in fact, have works that are burning left and right, who need to be rescued from that work.

Al, you had another comment? Oh, just on the news. There just happened to be a snippet here. I was watching, I think, 12.3 on public TV. They have a number of news broadcasts. But the car that caught on fire and two men went over and snatched him out of the vehicle. They have that for example. They had a visual there in the news. You can just see that they're putting themselves in a dangerous position.

Sometimes you need to do these things in an attitude of prayer and humility. Because just as Paul says, when you haven't taught others, you yourself are in that position. And I guess we could turn to Roger here a little bit, but I think in these types of situations, that's the challenge to you as a spiritual leader, as an elder, to know how to go about dealing with this. prayerfully, thoughtfully, humbly, but yet these people need attention. This is an urgent, imminent danger that we're dealing with these believers in the presence of the body. And again, remember, these are people being deceived in a different kind of way by the apostate teaching. Is this the third group? No, it's the second group. This is the third group. The third group is those whose garment is polluted by the flesh and needing pity with some degree of caution applied. Perhaps this is the most difficult group.

In other words, the second group sounds like there's an urgent need. Perhaps this is a group with whom we should be most concerned for the following reasons. Approaching them with fear reflects the need for caution, I think. I mean, the text says, snatching them out of the fire, and the third is, and of some have mercy with fear, heating even the garments polluted by the flesh. Now, I think this, let's think about distinguishing this group from the second group. Can you think of how we might distinguish this group from the group where there's an urgent need?

It seems like this group, part of the warning is that you may be sucked into what they're doing. It may influence you. My takeaway from the last part of this is that there's caution and in helping them you may yourself be susceptible to their error. Other thoughts about why this group may need some more careful consideration or caution in approaching them? Let's see what we can figure out here. So approaching this group with fear suggests that this is to decrease the possibility that you may also be deceived, and I think Roger has hit the nail on the head with that one. We're in a position maybe to being influenced by them. Although I think that's unlikely, I think it's theoretical and possible.

Or it could imply that the fear of God relates to his righteousness and ultimately the behavior or the lifestyle of these individuals. This I think relates more to maybe lifestyle, the second one more to, although the second one has to be dealing with lifestyle here, but I think here we're thinking about maybe immorality is maybe kind of the driving force, whereas the second one could just be acts of anger and and frustration and other things that ultimately are works that get burned, or the self-righteousness of the flesh that the apostates may be appealing to. I mean, I'm... It might include these that have addictions of different kinds. Okay. I think of those sorts of things which in the natural man are almost impossible, are impossible to get away from.

Well, but how might the member of the body who's appealing to these individuals be dealing with that? I mean, would the concern about Mike Doyle becoming addicted, dealing with someone who's addicted? I mean, I'm not being, I'm just raising that as an issue. I mean, I see addictive behavior as possible, but addictive behavior could be more than heroin, right? I mean, it could be in other aspects of life. I mean, it could be alcohol. I mean, I think it's possible that that could be ultimately influencing the elder and his dealings with this.

The garment is that piece of clothing closest to the flesh. And I think, you know, that's in Jewish terms, the garment is that that's closest, if you will, our underwear. I mean, I mean, that'd be a colloquialism of garment. It's something very close to our flesh.

And I think that's very much in context of what we're dealing with here, polluted or spotted. is a perfect passive participle. It's something like being close to the flesh, that the clothing is going to be influenced by our flesh. And depicts the immoral nature of the flesh, I think. And not only sexual immorality, or leprosy, or the garments of the menstruous woman, all of those are scripturally capably documented. But all that the flesh brings, including the fleshly nature, All of this is why I think the garment is used and the garment is polluted here. So in the Old Testament we have all kinds of scripture, and I think one of the best passages is Leviticus 15, 4-17. We're not going to read all that now, but it deals with the garment and all those contexts that relate to being cast out. Also, garments weren't easily cleaned either. They didn't have a laundromat down the road. You couldn't clean that garment real quick. Soil, you may have to end soil by disease, you probably burn it or throw it away.

Correct. Outside the gate. I also think of this when it talks about the flesh as being also polluted by the world and the world system and being sucked into the world and everything the world has to offer. That's true, but it does say garment. It does say garment, but I'm saying closest to the flesh. But I'm just saying that to me, when it talks about polluted, spotted, the flesh, the garments closest to the flesh, it makes me think of the world. and the world system, and how this person could be sucked into the world system, which I think is one of the hardest things to pull people away from, is the world. Well, the fleshly nature, we're not just talking about, I mean flesh can be interpreted in multiple ways, but flesh here I think does imply more than simply the physical body, it implies the sin nature.

And keep in mind, that follows by sin as being, it says hatred here. The verse says hatred, and sin's the only thing God hates. He doesn't hate any of us. He hates sin. And we can find multiple texts that document that. That's a good connection between that. We're hating what God hates, and sin is what He hates, so that's good.

All right, so we won't look at the Leviticus passage because of time, but I did put Romans 7.18 to error. For I know that in me that is in my flesh dwelleth no good thing. For to will is present with me, but how to perform it, I can't find a way to do that, basically. So, I mean, in my flesh, no good thing.

So I think that's really what this reflects. And I think the easiest way for me to kind of put this into reality is the concept of a person who has very loose morals, you know, in terms of every aspect of life, not only sexual, but beyond that. I mean, this is a person who, and we approach them with caution because they may be in a position to want to influence their own behavior by justifying what they're doing. So any comments on that last passage at all? Roger, any thoughts that you have that I didn't touch on here?

It's interesting that that's in that he spent all this time about the apostates, which are unsaved people, and then he switches gears at the end. It's interesting that, and I guess that probably makes sense, that the apostates, if they're among your body, they have some influence, and people can be sucked into that. something that can be very disastrous or very, you know, it can destroy a body or break up churches. Well, in fact, there's plenty of examples of that, I'm sure. In fact, many of us maybe have experienced some of that in our past lives. So to summarize, yeah, Pat, go ahead. Just another, this may be way off the wall.

No, never from you. Well, you think of a garment as somebody's display of their wealth or their position. And perhaps, you know, you get these really fancy clothes and high position, and it's really empty and polluted by your immorality. Your position is worthless. Or your display of your position would be worthless.

Anyway. Okay. So let's summarize three groups of people. The first are kind of intellectually deceived and are really on wrong doctrine. these people we approach with mercy and really love. I think those are the people who you're not going to intellectually win the argument, but your appeal is based on Scripture, and that has to be Spirit-led. The second group, their works are going to hell, and these could be outward mostly, I would think, but certainly the heart is... you know, deceived above all things, and these people have some urgency about their behavior because it could be influencing the body of believers around them. That's kind of my attempt to put that in context. And the third is a group who, probably through mostly acts of immorality, but also I think intellectually positioning themselves into defending this kind of activity, ultimately can be influential in terms of the body. This group needs to be approached with caution because they're going to justify their immorality by potentially even using scripture. So that's an attempt to try to put these three groups of people into perspective in terms of the way we should approach them.

The first group with mercy. The second with really some urgency and I think the hard facts of scripture and what they indicate in terms of the importance of them being spirit led. And the third with approaching with fear and that these people potentially could be having a greater influence on the body as a whole. Okay? Everybody okay with that? So these are all saved people. We're not talking about saving some and not saving others.

We're talking about approaching these three groups somewhat differently, and I presume Jude knew better than we did exactly how two differs from three, but we're just speculating as to the best way to deal with that. And again, I use Hebert as the main argument for these various groups of people. All right, now the good news, although this isn't bad news, I think it's bad news that transcends into good news in terms of the role of particularly the spiritual leaders in the church. Verses 24 and 25, now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to make you stand in the presence of his glory blameless with great joy to the only God our Savior through Jesus Christ our Lord be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority before all time and now and forever."

Wow. That has a lot in there, doesn't it? Let's piece it apart here. To him who is able is one word, dynami. And I found this kind of interesting. And to him is implied, but consistent with other uses of dynami in scripture. So to him is not the text, but it's implied. And if we looked elsewhere in scripture, we could find some support for that. And who is able? Us? Is that what the verse says? Now, to him, who is able to keep you from stumbling, he said, get your act together, Al. How are you doing at that?

Well, I like dynamite. part of the Greek word, you think power. You think explosive power. So it isn't just, oh, he's able, which sounds kind of nice. It's, he has the power. Bang! Like a bumper sticker I saw. The big bang. God said it, bang, it happened. Well, you're going to see that to follow in verse 25 too, right? In terms of how this really magnifies the presence of the Lord within us. All right, no, it's the Godhead. Let's look at Romans 16, 25 and 26.

I think that's worth turning to here. So Ingrid, maybe if you can get that and read it for us, please. Oh, by the way, before you came in, Roger, Al chuckled a bit at your title for this lesson, Jude's Final Words. He thought it was maybe a soliloquy. OK, Ingrid.

Now to him who was able to establish you by my gospel and the proclamation of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery hidden for long ages past, but now revealed and made known through the prophetic writings by the command of the eternal God, so that all nations might believe and obey him. So from stumbling is really equal to standing firm, and here it's in the presence of His glory. So keeping us from stumbling is really the negative perspective, but standing firm is the positive. And actually, if you look at the Greek, standing firm is probably a better interpretation rather than keeping from stumbling.

Romans 5.2, through whom also we have obtained our introduction by faith. into His grace at which we stand, and we exalt in hope of the glory of God. So again, that's bringing His glory into perspective. Stand firm. Ephesians 6, let's look at that 11 through 14. That's putting on the armor of the Lord Jesus Christ. That really deals... So Margaret, if you could do that for us. Yeah, please.

Put on the whole armor of God that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. Wherefore, take unto you the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. Stand therefore having your loins girt about with truth and having on the breastplate of righteousness.

Yeah, isn't that really appropriate for the apostates that are surrounding the believers that Jude's addressing here? I mean, standing firm is not, I mean, he keeps us from stumbling, but that's because we stand firm in the armor in which we're clothed, right?

I think that's a very good set of verses to deal with that. And in the presence of his glory, blameless or faultless with great joy, and isn't this just wonderful positional truth? The verse says, in the presence of his glory, blameless or faultless with great joy. And that's great.

And what a positional truth. I mean, our condition reflects our position. So theoretically, if we're founded in our position and we put on the armor and stand firm, ultimately, our position becomes our condition. But the statement relates to our positional truth.

In the presence of His glory, blameless or faultless, with great joy. If we look at our condition, it's often not that, but our position is always that. Well, we go back to the first phrase. Unto Him who is able. Absolutely. Not us. Did you read The Hungry Heart today, by the way? Yes. I mean, it dealt with that very issue, didn't it? In terms of assuming the ability yourself to deal with these issues that come before us.

I mean, the harder you try, the more failure exists. And boy, aren't we repetitive in our behavior in these areas? I mean, I don't know about you, but it seems like the same things keep coming up all the time. But, you know, he looks at us as righteous. Isn't that great? Boy, and if we don't begin there, all you're doing is you're being frustrated with yourself and you're feeling depressed. I mean, think about how many believers feel depressed day in and day out because they're not meeting God's expectations for what needs to be done.

Another beautiful thing about this is that as we are reminded of our position based on God's ability to keep us, we then go to these three groups of people with that position. And confidence, right? And then we can exhort them as it were to join us in that position. and let God work on the condition of our lives. And that's ultimately what we do, is just point the way and say, here's a way to get out of that cycle. And the expected outcome there is that there's a joy about this, right? Once your position and rest is understood, then the Christian life becomes more joyful and more freeing. And if you go back to where we started this year, consider it all joy.

Colossians 1.22 In the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and unblameable and unreprovable in his sight.

Ephesians 1.4, just as he chose us and him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him in love.

Luke 1.44, for behold, when the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the baby leaped in my womb for joy. I mean, all these things just really are incredibly exemplary of his glory, and that we're in fact found blameless. All right, here's our last section of Jude.

To the only God our Savior begins the oft-repeated and what I consider beautiful benediction that focuses not on the Trinity of persons in general, nor the Father in particular, but the Lord Jesus Christ himself, who is truly God, though not to the exclusion of the Father and the Spirit.

See, if you look back at this verse, I mean, the question is, who's this about? to the only God, our Savior, through Jesus Christ, our Lord, be glory and majesty. Now, that doesn't exclude the Holy Spirit or the Godhead, or Theos, or the Lord himself. But the term in the Greek is monos theos soter. So the only God, Savior. And that's, I think, in context, the Lord Jesus Christ. Well, he just points to the singularity, that there's only one, the oneness, the single saviour. There's not multiple saviours, there's a single saviour.

And that's where, Alec, your thoughts here, but I appreciate this concept that the earth is in fact a planet that has the perfect distance from the sun, with an appropriate atmosphere that can be conducive to water. I mean, from a scientific perspective, people say there's got to be planets around all these solar systems that ultimately are equidistant from their suns, that ultimately could confer life. But if you think about this, and again, we can't prove this, but it just seems unlikely that Christ would die on another planet at some time. So I think That's an argument by faith. When you taught science, did you have that question come up ever, or did that ever come into mind, in terms of the idea that there's life somewhere else in the solar system?

Well, I kind of did, like C.S. Lewis in his Paralandra and Out of the Silent Planet and other writings, that if God wanted to do something else, the same or differently in another place, that's not really our concern. It's not. But it's hard for us to conceptualize, though. But nevertheless, it doesn't mean it can't occur. And scientifically, we have no evidence for or against.

Students will say, well, we're finding planets around other suns. And I'm saying, yes, but only if they're close enough and big enough so that we can see a perturbance in the orbits of the major bodies, and if they were in that position, there's no life possible, as we understand it.

But I guess you could conceive of the fact that the Lord Jesus Christ could be crucified, and nevertheless. But I mean, the point is, I think the focus here is on Christ, and he's the only God and Savior, right? And as Roger pointed out, this is really two components of the triune God, the Holy Spirit is not mentioned here, but he's not purposely excluded, is the focus is on the Lord Jesus Christ.

Right? Okay. Your first group of people that you talked about with the intellectual outings, it's sort of like when Peter was given his commission by Christ and he turned and looked at John in the distance there and said, but what about that man? And Jesus said, that's not your concern. Your concern is what I've told you. And that's sort of what it is.

Sometimes people like to take science and make all these what-ifs, what-ifs, what-ifs. And my basic answer is, If God wants to do some other things some other way, okay. But here we are on this planet, here and now, and it's up to us to connect with God in our here and now, and not do it.

Try to second-guess it, not other. The interesting thing here is that to the only in this verse is only used one other time. That's why I ask Ingrid to read verse 27 of Romans 16, because that was the other place that this is found. We don't have to look back at that at this time.

Through Jesus Christ our Lord, phrase also in Romans 5.21, Romans 7.25, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority. I kind of did a word search on all these very quickly. So what an incredible description. Think of these terms, glory, majesty, dominion, and authority. They seem to have some overlap, don't they? But in fact, they all stand alone. Glory is duxa.

165 times used in the New Testament, and I picked out one verse of many, many wonderful ones that I thought reflected this description. Romans 11, 36, for from him, and through him, and to him are all things. To him be the glory forever. Amen. Another benedictory type of comment, although that's in Romans 11, not at the end of the book.

Majesty, megalysine, three times only in the New Testament, Hebrews 1.3, and he is the radiance of his glory, glory used again here, the exact representation of his nature and upholds all things by the word of his power. And when he had made purification of sins, he sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high. So that's the use of that one.

Dominion or Kratos, 13 times in the New Testament, and here's what I selected in Revelation, and every created thing which is in heaven and on earth under the earth and on the sea and all things in them I heard saying to him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be blessing and honor and glory and dominion forever and ever."

So dominion is in a sense related to authority. I mean these two are... but dominion is more power and authority is more positional. It could be interpreted as power, but authority clearly is where the truth presumably is exemplary and ultimately overseen. 103 times in the New Testament, I selected Matthew 28-16, and Jesus came up and spoke to him saying, all authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth. I think that sums up authority. By the way, authority is usually used for earthly authorities.

I mean, authority of governments, the authorities that relate to the powers of this earth versus those of the Lord. etc. So most of it is not related to the Godhead, but I thought Matthew 28.16 represented it. Before all time and now and forever, Amen. And the Godhead is eternal, right? Surely, truly, of a truth, so it be, let it be, amen. All just kind of provides some sort of a conclusive phrase to this statement.

And I'm going to close here by just maybe going around the room and feeling free to share, but what was the most important takeaway message that the Epistle of Jude provided us? Can anybody want to state what they think that was? Roger, we'll start with you. What's the main take-home from Jude, do you think?

Well, first of all, that there are apostates out there. I guess that's one of the things that, you know, we kind of don't really think much about that, but there are people whose intent is really to tear down what we have in Christ. I mean, to bring some other gospel, some other message, which is contrary to what what scripture is teaching.

And they do that knowing the truth. It's amazing they have been exposed to it. That's kind of a shocking thing to find out is that they know the truth, but still they have known the truth. But not to salvation, but they've given up on it and gone off on something else. That's kind of a sobering thought.

And I'm thankful that many bodies of believers don't have to deal with that. We have not, to my knowledge, here at Holly Hills, maybe at some time in the past, but not while I've been here. So I'm thankful for that. But it still doesn't mean that we aren't very careful to make sure as we teach and listen to the teaching that we're like the Bereans, we're careful about what's taught and we teach against God's will. I think that's the bottom line. That's right.

Margaret? That's what I would have said that we have to be aware that there are apostates and I think Jude is challenging believers to be watchful and then here at the end what we need to do when we know that people have been influenced by the apostates who we care about and who are part of our body and how we then can deal with that and that in the end it's all about our position. Okay. Ingrid, can you hear any thoughts from you?

Pretty much the same as what you guys have said, just that there are these apostates among us and all over and I think what I would take away is just the admonition to stay strong in the word, keep in prayer. I like that. I was glancing down at verse 20, but you dear friends build yourself up in your most holy faith and believe in the Holy Spirit and keep yourselves in God's love so that we're not tempted to follow them. I mean if we're strong then we're not going to be following them. Okay, good. Pat, any thoughts? You have to sing a word, vigilance. Good, that's good. Okay, Katie, any thoughts from you? You've been with us spottily. Okay, Al, how about you? Take home.

I kind of look at the whole thing and I think of the fact that no matter how Satan may seem to be winning the battle, especially when you look at our culture and all these apostates who even creep into the church, but the sovereignty and the power, the authority is still in God's hand. For me, the takeaway is no matter how bad things look either in my individual life or in the culture in which I live, that God is able to keep me from stumbling or falling. He is able to put me in well, to keep me in the position that I have.

And that's an encouragement for me to follow through on the exhortation. I think all of you touched on various aspects of Jude that really are important. I like the second part of verse 3, and if you want to turn to there, it's not necessarily the best answer, but it's one that I really like. Jude says, I felt the necessity to write to you appealing that you contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all handed down to the saints.

And I think, I mean, the backbone of dealing with the apostates is being firmly based on the truth of the Word of God. And, you know, we think about, you know, love, hope, faith, all these great terms that we hear that Paul addresses repeatedly. I still think the most important word for scripture is truth.

And truth is without error. And back to Al's comment about science being repetitive and confirming the observations and coming to a conclusion. I mean, if we come to the scripture with the doubt that what we're reading is true, yeah, people might find subtle, the world system can find subtle little discrepancies that they would point out, put the Bible in error. But there's just too much foundation. to what we read, that I'm going to trust that any of these subtle things that people are pointing out are just not worthy to have us be attentive to. We have to believe that we're looking at truth.

And truth is the trump card, isn't it? I got saved, by the way, because of truth. I ultimately, as I saw a wife change that I'd known for a long time before me for a year, and ultimately then got into looking at myself and how that reflected to what she had gone through in terms of salvation, and ultimately realizing that I bring nothing to the table. And since that time, since that point, the truth of the Word of God is the foundation.

And I think that's what Jude is saying here, you know, earnestly contending for the faith. And I think that's what Jude tells us. The apostates are going to be surrounding us. We've got believers in our presence who are falling short. By the way, we, in fact, potentially could fall short intellectually or through some immorality. I mean, I pray that we don't. But the point is that The foundation of the faith being truth is really what we need to be about.

Al? Just to add a couple of words to that, a favorite verse of mine is speaking the truth in love. And that relates very definitely to today. talked about. We want to speak the truth, but we want to do it with the proper attitude and with the proper timing. And the question I was always asked about that is, you know, how you doing at this?

This is not something we work on. It's in itself based on the truth of faith that the nature of the Lord Jesus Christ is increasingly being modified in our lives that ultimately the glory be to Him, right? Not to us. Christianity, the Christian life, I think, is not a choice of good versus bad. It's a life lived out by faith that ultimately allows the good to trump the bad. I mean, the Lord Jesus Christ as he lives through us isn't something we take credit for along the way.

Let's close in prayer. Roger, will you close us, please? Dear Father, we thank you for our time today, Lord, and thank you for the blessings we have in our Savior. Thank you for our time. this last year in James and Jude, Lord. Really marvelous truths that you've allowed us to study and think about and consider, Lord. We praise you for that. In Christ's name. Amen.