Good afternoon, everyone. I'd like to welcome you to our afternoon service at Calvary Baptist Church of Trehearne. Take your hymn books and turn to number 445. 445, no, not one. There's not a friend like the lowly Jesus. No, not one. No, not one. None else could heal all our soul's diseases. No, not one. No, not one. Jesus knows all about our struggles. He will guide till the day is done. There's not a friend like the lowly Jesus. No, not one. No, not one. No friend like Him is so high and holy. No, not one. No, not one. Weak and lowly. No, not one. No, not one. Jesus knows all about our struggles. He will guide till the day is done. There's not a friend like the lowly Jesus. No, not one. No, not one. There's not an hour that he is not near us. No, not one. No, not one. No night so dark, but his love can cheer us. No, not one. No, not one. Jesus knows all about our struggles. He will guide till the day is done. There's not a friend like the lowly Jesus. No, not one. No, not one. Did every saint find his friend, forsake him? No, not one. No, not one. For sinner find that he would not take him. No, not one. No, not one. Jesus knows all about our struggles. He will guide till the day is done. There's not a friend like the lowly Jesus. No, not one. No, not one. Was there a gift like the Savior given? No, not one. No, not one. Will He refuse us a home in heaven? No, not one. No, not one. Jesus knows all about our struggles. He will guide till the day is done. There's not a friend like the lowly Jesus. No, not one. No, not one. Our Heavenly Father, we're thankful that we can have this friend in Jesus. Thankful, as the hymn writer wrote in verse 5, that all who trust in Thee for their salvation will be forgiven and saved. We're thankful that Thy Word makes it clear that not everybody is going to heaven, but those who are born again have a home in heaven, have eternal life. So we pray for each one that's listening this afternoon. Thou knowest the heart of each one. If there's anyone listening that's not saved, that they might see their need to humble themselves and to know thy forgiveness and have thy peace in their hearts. We think of Eddie. We pray that he might see the importance of truth in his life and want thy forgiveness and blessing. For Diane and for Chad, that they too would see the importance of truth. that they would want thy forgiveness and see the importance of trusting in the true and living God in these days of grace. We pray for others, we pray for the Dick family who are not well, pray that they would trust thee in this time of physical weakness and allow thee to minister to their needs, and I will be accomplished in their lives. We pray also for Ken. We ask that thy will be accomplished in his life, that he would want thy peace and truth. And for Carl, as he is suffering from neurological problems, we pray that thy will be accomplished in his life and his family as well. We desire to know thy forgiveness and thy peace, and we can be a help to them. We ask that thy will be accomplished in our web internet services, that we can be helpful to others and people would know thy peace and truth. Pray for the Amatis that they would glorify thee. For the land of Israel, we pray for many Jews to be saved and for the soldiers as they fight and as they seek to defend their nation. They would trust in the true God and not just in their weapons, but that they would want thy peace in their hearts. We thank thee that we can know the truth and be set free from sin. We do pray for Elon Musk, a man who is very wealthy and much in the media these days. We pray that he might be saved and want to know thy peace and truth. For Jordan Peterson, a very confused man who is seeking for truth, but still on his own terms. Pray that he might allow thee to draw him to thyself, that he could know thy forgiveness and blessing. And for this police officer that tried to interfere with our service, pray that she would be saved. I want thy forgiveness in her heart. Guide and direct us here, and may we honor thee in this time together. We pray in Jesus' name, amen. Number 488. I will sing of my redeemer. I will sing of my Redeemer, and His wondrous love to me. On the cruel cross He suffered, from the curse to set me free. Sing, O sing of my Redeemer, With his blood he purchased me. On the cross he sealed my pardon, paid the debt, and made me free. I will tell the wondrous story, How my lost past stayed to save. In His boundless love and mercy, He the ransom freely gave. Sing, O sing of my Redeemer, With His Son, He purchased me On the cross, He sealed my pardon Paid the debt, and made me free I will praise my dear Redeemer, His triumph our urchin tell, How the victory He giveth over sin and death and hell. Sing, O sing of my Redeemer, with his blood he purchased me on the cross he sealed my pardon paid the debt and made me free Sing of my Redeemer, and His heavenly love to me. He from death to life hath brought me, Son of God, with Him to be. Sing, O sing of my Redeemer, On his blood he purchased me On the cross he sealed my pardon Paid the debt and made me free Then over to number 247. 247 Jesus is calling. Jesus is tenderly calling thee home, calling today, calling today. Why from the sunshine of love wilt thou roam farther and farther away? Calling today, calling today Jesus is telling, is tenderly calling today Jesus is calling the weary to rest Calling today, calling today, bring him thy burden and thou shalt be blessed, he will not turn thee away. Calling today, calling today, Jesus is calling, is tenderly calling today. Jesus is waiting, O come to Him now. Waiting today, waiting today. Come with thy sins at His feet lowly bow. Come and no longer delay. Calling today. Calling today. Jesus' calling is tenderly calling today. Jesus is pleading, oh listen to His voice, hear Him today, hear Him today. They who believe on His name shall rejoice, quickly arise and awake. Calling today. Calling today. Jesus' calling is tenderly calling today. Take your Bibles and turn to the book of Jude. Jude, we're looking at, just trying to find it here on my... Jude verses 10 to 13. We'll stand in place for the reading of God's word. Jude verse 10. But these speak evil of those things which they know not. But what they know naturally as brute beasts in those things they corrupt themselves. Woe unto them. For they have gone in the way of Cain, And ran greedily after the heir of Balaam for reward, And perished in the gainsaying of Korah. These are spots in your feasts of charity, When they feast with you, feeding themselves without fear, Clouds they are without water, carried about of winds, Trees whose fruit withers without fruit, twice dead, plucked up by the roots. Raging waves of the sea foaming out their own shame, wandering stars to whom is reserved the blackness of darkness forever. Our Heavenly Father, we're thankful this afternoon again that we have thy word. We're thankful for the truthfulness of thy word. Thankful that thou hast preserved thy word, as thy scripture says, from this generation and forever. Thankful that even though the devil has been busy attacking thy word and many people today do not believe there is such a thing as a preserved word of God, we pray, Father, for many that they would come to understand that there is still a true word and that they will be held accountable by Thee, the true God and that true word. And that they need to humble themselves and submit themselves to Thee to know Thy forgiveness and Thy peace in their hearts. Because the excuse I didn't know will not work after death. We're thankful that we can know and that we have this opportunity this afternoon to gather together to study thy word. So we pray for each one that's listening, that each one would take their Bibles and follow along, and allow thee to direct their thoughts, to limit the distractions, and to hear the truth that thy will be accomplished in each heart and life. We pray in Jesus' name, amen. You may be seated. The title of the message this afternoon is Be Sure You Have the Facts. Be sure you have the facts. Godly leadership is a rare thing. It's always been a rare thing in every generation, and it certainly is a rare thing in the time in which we are living. There are many leaders, many worldly leaders, many individuals who think they have the responsibility to lead people. We know that our prime minister assumes that he is the only one that can lead our nation, but not just our nation. He thinks that he has the important duty of influencing the world with his ungodly ideas. He is a leader and he will be held accountable for what he's doing. There are many people trusting in him, but there are also many people who despise him. And the sad thing is that many of those people, they also have chosen leaders, but not chosen the true God as their leader. Most professing Christians today have no idea of how to choose a good leader. We know that because in the elections, professing Christians, most of them, choose one of the options that are offered by ungodly worldly people. They don't say, no, none of these are good. This is the one I want for a leader. They just say, well, this is what the world offers us, so we have to choose the best from what the world has to offer. No, we don't. As Christians, we don't have to do that. We have a higher authority, and that is God. And we have a Savior, who is Jesus Christ, who is to be the Lord of our lives, if we're saved. And we can choose wisely. And in choosing wisely, sometimes we need to just say, no, none of the above. And we need to demonstrate by that, that we are not going to bow to the wicked whims of our society. We're going to choose a better way. And that's important to have that voice in our generation. Every generation needs to make that choice. We see that in the nation of Israel, God gave the nation of Israel a leader in Moses. He chose Moses. Moses didn't want to be a leader. He had no intention of being a leader, but God chose him and made him a leader. He made him by training him, teaching him. Moses was reluctant to be the leader, but he took that responsibility because God said he wanted to be the leader. And so he took that and he was a good leader for the most part, but he was soon despised by the people because he didn't tickle their ears. He did not give them what they wanted to hear. And that frustrated him. And at one point, he sinned in his frustration and ended up missing out on the opportunity to enter the land of Canaan. So we have to understand that as leaders, that yes, we can get frustrated with people. They don't listen. They fight back and make false accusations. But we need to be careful that we don't allow our emotions to take over that we end up sinning and losing that important role of leadership. Aaron was also a leader in the nation of Israel, also chosen by God, but Aaron was not a faithful leader like Moses was. He was willing to be pressured by the people, not in frustration, but he was willing to be pressured by the people and willing to lead them into idolatry. He was to be the first high priest chosen by God for that position. He was to be the mediator between the nation of Israel and God. In Old Testament times, he was to be a type of Christ, but he failed miserably in that point. For Christians, we need to understand that Jesus Christ is our ultimate leader. He is the good shepherd. and he needs to be the Lord of our lives. And so any Christian needs to understand that their pastor is to lead them. He has authority to lead by God, but he does not have the authority to usurp the place of the Lord Jesus Christ and make himself the ultimate leader. He has a responsibility, he has authority, he has some power given to him by God, but he does not have the power to lead the people contrary to the will of God. So every person has that safety in their lives. Now, again, in our time in which we're living, and I guess it's been a problem in every generation, there are some people who think that there is no good church, that's where all the denominations come from, where people didn't like the church they were attending, and so they started up a new one. But some people now, they think, well, there's no good church, so they're going to stay home. And they don't attend a good church. They surf the net and listen to this one and that one and another one and think they're getting the best of what's out there, when they're not. You don't grow that way. And the danger is that You miss out. You don't come under the leadership of the Lord Jesus Christ. You cannot claim that Jesus Christ is my Lord if you won't attend a good church. Now, Jesus said that he would build his church and the gates of hell would not prevail against it. He said that. He didn't say that we would find a sinless church on this earth. He addressed seven churches in the book of the Revelation, but he didn't tell the people to stay home. Those churches eventually collapsed because they didn't listen to his counsel. But other churches have risen up. And in every generation, there are true churches because Jesus keeps his word. And so there are true churches. And we need those churches. We need to physically attend those churches for our own physical and spiritual well-being. And that's important to understand that yes, you may go to a true church, and I'm not talking about Presbyterian, Anglican, Mennonite, some Baptist even. I'm not talking about a church that is openly compromising. No, don't go there. But God will lead you to a good church because they're around. We are one right here. And Christians will be led by God to a good church. And then it's your responsibility as a member of a true church to pray for your pastor. And if your pastor is teaching something that you don't agree with, talk to him and look into the word of God. What does God say? Submit to God. He's in charge. He's the Lord of our lives. So as we look at our text, Jude is continuing to address verse four, for there are certain men crept in unawares. He's continuing to describe them. And we see them in our verses. And the first point we have is judging from ignorance. judging from ignorance. In verse 10 it says, but these speak evil of those things which they know not. So there were these men that have crept in unawares, men who wanted to overthrow the truth. And you see, again, we have this safety that we have here for a true church. There are men who want to, and I found that in I think just about every church that I pastored, that there have been men who have wanted to overthrow the work of God. And in some of those churches, it was very obvious that their wives were encouraging them to do that. They were men who acted as if they were in charge, but their wives had them wrapped around their little finger. And they were bowing to the whims of their wives. Their wives were rebels, didn't want to do right. And so the men, rather than have trouble in the home and having an unsubmissive wife, which they had an unsubmissive wife, they would bow to the wife and go after the pastor instead. So that will be the case in places. And in our churches today, a lot of them, there is a way that churches can get rid of a pastor. Most constitutions, they have some clause in there that allows for a vote on the pastor, which again proves the weakness of the constitution. Pastors aren't voted in and voted out. They're chosen by God. They're ordained, and they should be in that place until God moves them somewhere else, not till the people say, we don't like you anymore. Now, yes, if the man is preaching heresy, yes, then yes. But a good pastor, the people should not have the, not think that they have the right to get rid of that man. But in today's world, that's how it is often. But God will hold each one accountable for our decisions. And those who want to get rid of a godly man will answer to God for that. So it's a very fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. But here we see that there are these men who speak evil of those things which they know not, but what they know naturally as brute beasts. And those things, they corrupt themselves. So there's a lot of people They're very ignorant of biblical doctrine. Very ignorant of biblical doctrine. I was reading in regard to a hymn that I thought we would sing this afternoon called Satisfied, and the author, the writer of that hymn, I found out, well, it says that she was a woman, but I found out that as a woman, She assumed that she had the right to travel around preaching in the 1800s. And it says in the write-up that she preached to fill the void that was missing. Well, if there was a void missing, it was not her duty to fill it. She was a woman. The Bible is clear that women are not to usurp authority over the man. They're not to teach men. So those who attended her services as well were ignorant of the word of God and not listening to what the Bible has to say. And she married, I think it was at the age of 36, but her husband seems to have been one who didn't know the word of God either and supported her in her dealings and sometimes went out with her on her circuit riding tours. And that is, again, that's a sign of how many people are, they don't read their Bibles, and if they read their Bibles, they don't study their Bibles, they don't pay attention to what the Word of God says. I remember years ago, speaking on modesty, and reading from the book of Deuteronomy, I believe it was chapter 22, where it talks, a man should not wear that which pertaineth unto a woman. And same with a woman. I've got to make sure I get that right now. And as I was preaching that, a man in the congregation said, I've never read that before. Well, I read it straight from the Bible. Sorry, the woman, it says in verse five, the woman shall not wear that which pertaineth unto a man, neither shall a man put on a woman's garment For all that do so are an abomination unto the Lord thy God. So that verse is right there. It doesn't say that it was only for a certain time period. It's not just for the nation of Israel. The New Testament talks about modesty as well and explains what modesty is. So there are a lot of women today who ignore that, or not just women, but a lot of men as well who ignore that because they don't encourage their wives to dress properly. And that's because the wives are running the household. But these men, these men that have crept in unawares, they know things naturally. So they may have gone to school and learned math and some science, and probably evolutionary science. Even in Bible times, there were many people that didn't believe in creation already. And they know things naturally, and they speak of them. And it says, as brute beasts. So a brute beast is an animal that just wanders around and crashes through this and through that and just doesn't have any regard for anything else and just plows along. And that's what these people do. That's what politicians do. And that's what a lot of preachers do. They just plow along. They have a lie that they believe. And they just push their way through. They're not going to allow anybody to stand in their way. And if you do try to stop them, they have a word for you. I mentioned Peter Ruckman recently. That man was a vile man who would curse at you if you didn't agree with him and you questioned him. And I can't remember the name of the man that, well, there are many that follow him, but there's one man that we attended some meetings of and didn't know that he was a Ruckmanite until we got there. And I questioned him on what he believed and why he was a follower of Peter Ruckman, and he did the same as Ruckman, and he cursed me out, and didn't want to deal with the issue, and proved who he was. So there's a lot of people out there, they know things naturally, but they don't know things spiritually. You can study the Bible and you can be well-versed in the Bible. You can understand things in the Bible. You can quote Bible verses and not be spiritually versed, not be someone who knows the Lord. And so in verse 10, it says, but these speak evil of those things which they know not. They don't know what they're talking about. The Spirit of God is not indwelling them, and so therefore they cannot know the things of God. As I mentioned, they can quote a Bible verse here and a Bible verse there. Jack Van Impey was good at that. He could quote the Bible, claim to know the whole Bible forwards and backwards. He could quote it, and yet he supported Roman Catholicism, and many other things that were evil were wrong, but many people followed him. And so he had a lot of impact, a lot of influence over a lot of people, but he was a dangerous man because he could speak of the Bible, but he didn't know the God of the Bible. And so these people, God warns here about them. They're around, they're out there. they're spreading their lies and they're getting money in, there's no doubt about it. He was a wealthy man, he had a TV ministry for years and a lot of pictures, a lot of information on wars and things like that and things going on in Russia and elsewhere. So he was able to put on a good show But he was a deceiver. Brute beast, someone who pushed his way in through his impressive videos that he had, but someone that was dangerous and should have been kept away, stayed away from and warned about. And we have men today like Paul Chappell, another man who should be avoided. like the plague, and yet he is having a lot of impact on a lot of fundamental Baptist preachers, a lot of them using his material, and very dangerous, these kinds of men. The second thing that we learn here is greedy for immorality. Now, there are a lot of people that are greedy for money, says in verse 11, woe unto them for they have gone the way of Cain and ran greedily after the error of Balaam for reward and perished in the gainsaying of Korah. And so three individuals mentioned here, Cain first of all. Cain was the first man recorded to bring humanism into humanity. He was someone who wanted to start a different religion. He wanted to change God. He had a sacrifice that he wanted to bring. It was from his own doing, from his own hands. He had planted his garden. He had harvested the crop. And he picked what he wanted to pick from that to bring to God. And he thought that God should be pleased with him, but he was not bringing a thank offering. He was bringing a sin offering. And we know that from the text. And he brought a bloodless sacrifice and God didn't accept it. He could have gone, he could have learned from that and gone home and got the right sacrifice, but he didn't. He realized this was not accepted, and yet his brother Abel's was accepted, and so he turned against his brother. And he was jealous of his brother, called a meeting, and in his anger, he killed his brother. That didn't fix his problem, it just made things worse. But in his mind, he had to get rid of the opposition. I guess he figured if I get rid of my brother, then God will accept my sacrifice because there will be no other one. Wrong decision. God doesn't need our sacrifices. He taught the nation of Israel, he taught Adam as well, the importance of a blood sacrifice. And he expects a right sacrifice from his children. And of course today we don't bring animal sacrifices, but we are to give ourselves unto God if we are saved. We're to lay down our lives, Romans chapter 12, you turn there in your Bibles, chapter Romans 12 verses 1 and 2. The temple being gone, we don't need a temple, but we need to give ourselves. It says in verse 1, I beseech you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice wholly acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world, but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. So we accept the blood sacrifice of Jesus Christ. We are saved by having that blood applied to our sinful hearts and our hearts changed by that blood. And then being saved, we are to present ourselves to God as a living sacrifice. And that living sacrifice is to be holy and acceptable to God. So we don't bring to God our bodies in whatever way we want to. So we look at today's modern idea of a church, which is emergent, and we see the rockers get up on the platform, dressed like the world, dressed very poorly, and they have their microphones, and they have their keyboard, and they might have a set of drums, often they do, bass guitar, and they turn the volume up, and they try to swallow their microphone, and they act like they have to go to the bathroom, and they're up there, and they're supposedly leading the crowd that's there in worship. Well, they're worshiping all right, but they're not worshiping God. And so they are presenting their bodies, but not as a living sacrifice to God. Their bodies are not holy, and it's not acceptable to God. We know that. And it says that it's our reasonable service once we're saved to present ourselves before God. But these people, again, they're just like Cain. They're changing. the scriptures for their own benefit, and they're claiming that God is in it. And they have a gullible following who, because they like the music, because they're not saved either, therefore they like the devil's music, and they go along with it. So the warning is here, woe unto them, for they have gone the way of Cain. When God pronounces a woe, it's not a good thing. Woe unto them. So these worship teams that are so popular today, they should read this. Woe unto you guys. You're going the wrong way. And then it says they ran greedily after the heir of Balaam for reward. Well, what did Balaam do? Well, Balaam was a man who presented himself as a true man of God. He prayed to God, he got a message from God, but he had a design, he had a goal, and his goal was money. And he said, well, I'm not gonna go and guess God says I can go, but the enemy persisted and Balaam gave in. If he was really intent on, no, I'm not gonna go, doesn't matter because God said no, But he continued to go back to God and say, well, God, what do you think? He knew already. So when God says no, we don't go back to him a second time with a different slant on the same question and say, well, what do you think now? The answer is no. But Balaam persisted, and he finally went. And when he went, again, he inquired of God, what should I say? And God told him what to say, and he said it. And everything seemed like, well, this is good. It's all good. It's going the right way. But we know that before Balaam left Balak, that he counseled the Moabites that what they should do if they wanted to break down Israel. He didn't consult with God on this counsel, by the way. But he knew that Balak wanted to break down Israel. He wanted to be able to attack and take over Israel. So he counseled them how you can do this. And you do it by intermarriage. You do that by intermingling with the people. That's how you break them down. And we know that that happened. But we also know that God killed Balaam in a battle. And so Balaam, he had a goal, and his goal was money. And Balak offered him money. But he didn't get it the way that Balak at first thought he would give it to him. But he gave counsel that was very effective in breaking down Israel. But God had some godly men in Israel who stopped that ungodly counsel and took it out of the way momentarily. But again, we see that in the nation of Israel, they were willing to accept that bad counsel because their hearts were not right. So there's only so far that you can go with external forces. Same goes in the church. There's only so far you can go with external forces. The heart needs to be changed. And if people don't want to change their heart, they don't want God to change their heart, then there's going to be trouble. And we have a way to deal with that trouble. And that is found in the book of Matthew. And we need to follow that in order to keep the church going in the right direction. Now, sometimes God uses that to move a pastor on from one place to another, but it's still not right when a church chooses to try to interfere with God's work in the leadership of the church. So the second one that we have here is Korah. Now Korah here, spelled C-O-R-E in the New Testament, K-O-R-A-H in the Old Testament. You can read about him in Numbers chapter 16. Korah led a rebellion in the days of Moses. He thought that Moses was taking on too much authority, that he was not the only one who had spiritual insight, that others did too, and he thought that Moses should be sharing the leadership more. And so he gathered his family, supported him, some others supported him, and so he went out there and bad-mouthed Moses. and tried to turn the people against Moses. And Moses was a meek man. He didn't get an army together and say, let's go and kill them all. He pleaded before God and God said, I'm going to do a new thing. I'm going to open the earth and swallow up these rebels. And so Moses warned the people, told the people to get away from Korah and from his tent. And many of the people got away, but some of them stayed there and defiantly stood there and said, let's see what's going to happen here. And so Moses said, God's going to do a new thing. Earth's going to open up and swallow you up. And that's exactly what happened. And the people heard the screams of Korah and his family as they were swallowed up by the earth. But what happened to the people? They continued to blame Moses. They didn't realize that Korah was wrong. They thought that the punishment was far too harsh if there was any punishment needed at all. So these people that Jude is addressing in verse four, they were of the same type as Cain and Balaam and Korah. Same type. They were out there to destroy the work of God. And so, yes, there are people like that today. So, yeah, there are people today who have had experience with that. They've attended a church where somebody got up and they had the power, whether it was a woman that had taken power from the people or a man, but they had managed to gather a certain following and they were going to change the church. And many times they do, they change the church. And the ones who want the truth, they're not listened to, they're overrun. And what can they do? They feel helpless. And so their solution then is, okay, we're not going to church anymore at all. We don't want to go to another one and start going there, and then it turns bad, and then we have to go to another one again, and we don't want to keep going. You see, we project into the future when we don't trust God, and we come up with imaginations when we don't trust God. And so we imagine that every church is eventually going to fall, and we don't want to be a part of that, so we're going to stay home, and that's not the way God intends it. doesn't build a strong Christian. And so, yes, there are troubles in a local church. There sure are. God tells us that. He also tells us how to protect ourselves from those troubles and tells us also the importance of strong leadership to protect the people against these troubles. So the third thing we see is that there are spots that need to be removed. In verse 12, it says, these are spots in your feasts of charity. Now, we don't know much about these feasts of charity. We're not sure what that's about. But they had these feasts that were going on, charity and love, another word for charity. And they were having these feasts, and people were coming together. And these men were also coming to these feasts, and they were abusing these feasts. It says they were feeding themselves without fear. So they were coming to these feasts, and again, they were enemies of the true God and of his work. But they're coming to these feasts, and they're trying to pretend that they are a part of the group. and that they want fellowship and they want to enjoy fellowship and they're just trying to gain a following one way or another. And so here they're even doing this, it says, without fear, feeding themselves without fear, no fear of God. They think we can go to these things, we can participate in them, we can act like we're one of the good group while all the while we're interested in destroying them. And so we need to be aware of these. And we know that we've had people like that. Even in this church, we've had a man that came here for a while and he didn't present himself as a Calvinist at first, but later on he did. And then he tried to talk to some of the people behind my back and tried to encourage them to become Calvinists, that Calvinism was the right way, the right theology. And I found out about it and I addressed it in teaching, first of all, taught the people about Calvinism, spoke to the man about his belief in Calvinism, and told him that he was welcome to come as long as he didn't try to spread his Calvinistic doctrines. But if that was his intent, then he was not welcome in our church. And he decided to leave. We don't need that. We don't want that. We don't want someone in here that's going to spoil the truth or try to spoil the truth. And so it's important for us to recognize these spots. And a true church cannot have spots in it. Now, in the secular world, you can buy spot removers for your upholstery, for your clothing, and different things that removes the spot, because if you get a spot on there, it stands out. And in a church, if you have a spot in your church, if you have adultery going on in your church, that's a spot. If you have thieves in your church, you have druggies in your church that are members, we're talking about here, alcohol in your church as members, those are spots. You can't have that. They can come, they can attend and listen and learn, but they cannot be members and they cannot serve in the church. But a lot of places that's the case. Now, again, I know based on personal experience, I know that when you take a biblical position, And you stand for that, that it can cause problems. Not everybody's going to agree with you. And so the situation can be one where you can control it. But sometimes it's one where God says, OK, these people don't want to listen. They don't want to follow the truth. So it's time to move on. And so that's something that a person needs to discern. So that's something that we are doing here as well, is we're serving God, following him, and honoring him here, teaching against the spots, and speaking out against them, and seeking to keep the body going in the right direction. says these people are clouds without water. So a cloud in the air that doesn't have water in it is a cloud that shades the sunlight, but doesn't bring any water. And so the ground needs water. The ground needs the sun. And yes, on a hot day, it's nice to have some clouds that can cool things down a little bit. You also need the water. And then it says also they're carried about of winds, trees whose fruit withereth without fruit, twice dead, plucked up by the root. So when a tree has fruit on it that's withering, you know there's something wrong with that tree. See, they're needing moisture. Or there's a bug that's getting at the tree itself and sapping it of its nutrients and that it cannot feed that fruit properly. There's a problem. Withering fruit is a problem. And then it says, without fruit, twice dead. So what's a tree for? It's there to produce fruit. And when it doesn't produce fruit, it's what's it for? So it's twice dead, plucked up by the roots. orchard farmer will do. He's going to look at his fruit trees, and if he finds a tree that's not producing well, he's going to take it out. In Ontario, when we lived there, peaches used to be a very popular fruit tree in Ontario, but due to other crops that grew in that area and increased, people were increasingly growing other crops. that were affecting and infecting the peach trees. And they got a disease called canker, and it would kill the tree. My uncle had an orchard, he had a peach orchard, and every year he had to pull some of the trees and replace them because of that canker disease. If he didn't pull them out and get rid of them, it would spread. And eventually it got so bad that he pulled out the entire peach orchard, planted apples instead. Peaches just did not do well anymore. The disease was too rampant in that area. So these men crept in unawares. That's what they're like. And they're just going to ruin everything unless you get rid of them. And that's why a church needs to have a right standard. And the right standard is the Word of God. We need to stand upon the Word of God. And when we stand upon the word of God, then we can say, no, this is not allowed. I've had a couple that came here and they wanted me to officiate at their wedding. And she was a divorced woman, he was not. And when I found that out, I said, well, I can't do that wedding because that would be adultery. And I explained from the Bible and She insisted that no, it was not that way and that she loved the man and that they were going to get married and he was weak. He agreed with me, didn't marry that woman, but he was weak and didn't continue to come to this church. And, but you see, we have to, again, we have to realize, no, this is something that's wrong and we're just not going to do it. We're not going to entertain it. I don't care how much you think you love the person. Divorce and remarriage is always wrong. There's no biblical grounds for it. I know that there are many churches that allow for it and teach that it is right. And that's because they use perversions to get their information. But the word of God does not allow for divorce and remarriage. And so it's important that we take the word of God again as our authority. Verse 13, raging waves of the sea. Foaming, it says, out of their own shame. So when the sea is raging, and we've lived in a place where we live close to the lake, and sometimes the winds would be high and the water would be rough, and it would be foaming. And when it's rough like that, it's stirring up the junk that's at the bottom on the bed of the lake, and stirring that up and causing the foam and turning the water dirty. That's exactly what these people are. They're raging waves of the sea, foaming out their own shame, demonstrating the dirt that's in them, making it very obvious who they are. And again, Jude is told here to point this out, to warn of these kinds of people. They're going to be around. But we need to be aware of them, and godly people need to stay away from them. They're going to tear you down. You don't need that. You don't want that if you're saved. You want to grow. Wandering stars. You see a star in Bible times. The stars were there to guide the people. Seamen would use the star, they would find the north star, they would find an important star, and they would use that star to guide them on their course. The wise men in the Bible, they followed the star, a particular star that was in the sky that led them to where Jesus was. So a star needs to be following a course, and it does. That's the way God designed them. But these people, God says here, they're like a wandering star that's here one time, next time it's over there. You never know where it is. You can't look up in the sky, well, the Big Dipper's over there, the Small Dipper's over there, and so on. You can't do that because it's always changing. That's not true in the real world because God has an order and he is in charge of the stars. But we see these wandering stars, and it tells us to whom is reserved the blackness of darkness forever. So stars give light, but these wandering stars, they have no light. And so what's reserved for them is the blackness of darkness forever. That's the lake of fire. It's an interesting thing when you think about the Lake of Fire. When you think of a fire, it gives light. They showed of a boat, I can't remember where it was now, that was docked somewhere and it exploded. And the big fire that was there. They show the pictures of the bombs in Gaza and Hezbollah, in Yemen, and how they light up the sky. And if you've ever been somewhere where there's a fire, you know that it creates light. But yet, the Bible says that the lake of fire is a place of darkness. And that's an interesting thing, because there's no light there, because the light is Jesus Christ. And without him, it's darkness. So even right now, we have the sun shining outside. Very nice to see the sun shining outside. But yet, for most people, the Bible says, they're walking in darkness. Even though the light is shining, they're walking in darkness. Why is that? Because they've rejected the light. They can see where they're going physically, but they're not aware of where they're going spiritually. They're not willing to heed the warnings that we give out. that others give out, they're not willing to listen to that, just gonna carry on, no, no, it's all good, it's all good. And they're in darkness. And God says that these people that are like this, that's reserved, God is reserving blackness of darkness for them. It's there, the lake of fire is there. It's not gonna be built someday, it's there now. And the fuel for that is there too, never running out. And it'll be there for all eternity. And those who reject the Lord Jesus Christ, as we've read about here today, they will spend their eternity in that blackness of darkness. So these are verses that are meant to warn. meant to warn those of us that are saved to realize, yes, these problems will be there. That's a guaranteed thing. And for those, again, who are not going to a church because you're scared, you're afraid there's no good church out there, you need to understand that the fact is that you can't run away from these kinds of people. They're around. And yes, if you go to any church, you're going to find people that are going to try to make a mess of it. They're going to try to destroy it. But you don't have to be a part of those people. You can be a part of a good church. You can attend a good church. You can grow in a good church. And as you draw an eye to God, you will find that he is drawing an eye to you, and you will find that he is protecting you from those people, and he has his way to deal with them through church discipline, through sickness, through death, not by violence from the membership, but God has his way of dealing with rebels. He gives us his word to explain how they function, how they think. And he also gives us his word on what things we can do to deal with them. And that's important for us to follow that, to honor God, and to allow him to lead and direct us so that we can be a help to the community. Because that's what it's all about, to be a help to the community, to help others to know the truth, to know the peace of God. And so that's what we're here for. That's what God has raised us up for here. And that's what we intend to do, is to continue to preach the truth, teach the truth, and to help people to see that there's a better way than to being a rebel. And as I've mentioned, we've had several individuals who have come here in the past and they've decided they didn't like the teaching. Some of them stayed for a while and tried to change what was going on here, but eventually they decided to move on. They decided they're not going to win here. And we had one other church that I pastored where the man told me later on that he came because he thought that he could improve my ministry. He was a self-taught Greek scholar in quotation marks, and he thought he was going to improve the ministry that I had in that church. And eventually he left because he realized he was not going to change me. And I'm willing to learn, I'm willing to listen, but not from individuals who are self-made and not willing to submit to the word of God. Doesn't help anybody. So, the encouraging thing is that we can stand true to God, in spite of these problems that we face. And as we look at verse 25, it says, to the only wise God, our Savior, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and ever. Amen. That's the answer. Trusting in God, serving him, and following him faithfully. Let's pray together. Heavenly Father, we're thankful again that we have thy word for the truthfulness of thy word for the blessing there is in following the truth and that we can have that blessing today. We can be a help to others. We pray that thy will would be accomplished in each one that's listening today. that we would see the importance of walking humbly with the true God, submitting to thee, realizing that it doesn't help us if we don't like the truth to just shut it out and think, okay, now I feel better because I'm not listening to the truth and it's all good. But that each one that's listening today would see the importance of accepting the truth, submitting to the truth, and following the truth. Thankful for the new birth that changes us to give us that ability to accept the truth, gives us the power to become sons of God so that we can submit to the truth and grow in the truth. We're thankful for that opportunity. So we pray that thy will would be accomplished in each one that's listening. Each one would know thy peace and blessing. and that we can be a help to people to know the truth and walk in the truth. May thy will be accomplished. We pray in Jesus name. Amen.