All right, thank you for joining us here yet again at the Everlasting Truth broadcast where we aim to give you everlasting truth in an ever-changing world. Certainly do appreciate you taking your time today. Stop by and be with us. I hope and I pray Weekly that these broadcasts are a blessing and a help to you Whether it be by means of radio or whether it be by video format. However, it is that you watch these I hope that they're a help to you and I hope the Lord will help us grow in these and let them become even more effectual in the days to come but I I want to go ahead and move right on into the subject because the subject we're dealing with is one that I'm probably going to run out of time on, and so we're going to need all the time that we can get. So I want you to take your Bible, and I want you to go to the book of Jude. Now, we started in our last broadcast dealing with the book of Jude, and the more that I look at this, the more I feel like we will probably work our way through the whole book, which, lo and behold, is one chapter. That's not saying a whole lot to go through the book of Jude, but I had originally had the idea of just going through the first half of it. The thought of the first half just keeps continuing on through the second half, so if we're going to have a conclusive, contextual look at it, I think we probably need to just go through the whole thing. And so, Lord willing, we will probably do that. But anyways, we started last week. We spent two broadcasts, both Saturday and Sunday, on the beginning of the book of Jude. That got us through verse number three and through the beginning of verse number four. And so I want to pick up on the secondary part of verse number four today, and probably still will not finish verse number four. It's probably going to take me two broadcasts to get through the rest of verse number four, because this is one of my favorite subjects to cover. It's one that I've dealt with a lot. And it's one that is of utmost importance. And I think the things that are very important should take a lot of our time. And we need to know why we believe what we believe and where we stand on certain things. And so I feel and I hope and I pray this will be helpful to you. But anyways, let's go ahead and read the Word of God and we'll get into expounding it. And verse number one, the Bible says this, Jude, the servant of Jesus Christ and brother of James, to them that are sanctified by God the Father and preserved in Jesus Christ and called, mercy unto you and peace and love be multiplied. Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you and exhort you that you should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints. And now here's why we need to defend. For there are certain men crept in unawares. who were before of old ordained to this condemnation, ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness and denying the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ. Now, just in case you haven't figured it out, the book of Jude is primarily on the subject of false teachers and the apostasy that'll be in the church in the last days, also known as the days in which you and I currently live. And so, Jude is writing about something that is going on during his time, but is even more so applicable in our time, because the Bible says that that day shall not come except there come a great falling away first. And the church has been falling away initially since it was established. Heresy started creeping in in the first century. Jude writes this letter in AD 66 roughly, C.I. Schofield dates it anyways, and he said, for there are, not there will be, there are certain men crept in unawares, ungodly men. And so the apostasy and false teaching began in the early church really within the first century of its establishment. But that progressively has gotten worse throughout the years to get to where you and I are at. And the beautiful thing about it is, is that God has not left you and I defenseless in this battle for truth. He has described to us what these false teachers are going to look like. He's given us a word-for-word description all the way throughout the book of Jude telling us exactly what they're going to look like. And not just the book of Jude do we find this in. 2 Peter chapter number 2 is almost a word-for-word mirror of the book of Jude. As a matter of fact, the more I've studied this, I believe that Jude is referring to what Peter had previously wrote in 2 Peter 2, and he also copies what Peter said in 2 Peter 3. And so, it's not just the book of Jude. 2 Peter goes hand-in-hand, and then it's been said that throughout the rest of the New Testament, there's only one New Testament book that does not warn against false prophecies and false teachers. And it's a common theme throughout the Old Testament. Jeremiah spoke very heavily against false teachers, and Isaiah and these other prophets were very vocal about the fact that there would be false teachers. And so, this was not new to the New Testament, but that apostasy is growing, and therefore, you and I need to be able to spot them. Now, we talked about verse number three, how it told us that we ought to defend. the faith. He said, I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation that it was needful for me to write unto you and exhort you that you should earnestly contend for the faith. We are to fight for the faith. We are to defend the faith. And then he gives a declaration as to why we should defend the faith. Verse number four, because there are certain men crept in unawares, ungodly men ordained to this condemnation. And so There were false teachers that were coming in, and he tells us that they're there, that false teachers are a reality in the church. And he says, therefore, you need to defend it. But then he leaves the declaration about false teachers, and he goes into the description of false teachers. And that's where we find ourself at the bottom half of verse number four. And he tells us this in verse number four. He says that these ungodly men will turn the grace of God into lasciviousness. and that they will deny the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ. These are the two main points that he makes that identify and describe what a false teacher is going to do. And for sake of time, I want to get straight into it. The first one he says in verse number four, he says, a false teacher will turn the grace of our God into lasciviousness. Now, he said the first way to describe and to see and to point out a false teacher is how they utilize and how they articulate grace. If you want to know if somebody is somebody you should be listening to, teaching or preaching, one of the main things you need to examine is how do they articulate grace? What do they believe about grace? Now, even the cults are going to tell you that, oh, well, we believe in God's grace. But what they mean by that is totally different than what God means about that. Let me begin to tell you and give you a rightful context of what grace should look like. A genuine teacher of God's Word will rightfully proclaim grace in its rightful context. And you say, well, what does that look like? It looks like this. They will preach grace in a way that makes it clear that they are against legalism. They're going to say that grace covers our sin because we cannot fix our sin because we have already sinned to the point where we have blown it, and grace is our undeserved favor that we receive from God, not based on our works, but based completely on Him and who He is. God loves us not because of us. God loves us because God is love, and it's a work of grace, John would describe in 1 John 4. But they're going to describe grace like this. For by grace are you saved through faith, and that not of yourselves. It is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast." Ephesians 2, 8, and 9 there. They're going to define grace as being completely apart from the meritorious works of man. that man has sinned, man has blown it, and there is therefore now nothing whatsoever he can do to merit God's favor. They're going to define grace as undeserved merit and favor of God. They're going to be against legalism. Legalism is the idea that you can earn God's favor by doing this and by doing that. by doing this work and that work, and therefore you can get God to be on your good side based on what you've done. Biblical grace says, no, you've already done everything wrong. There's nothing you can do to earn God's favor. And so a true teacher of God's Word will be against legalism in their definition of grace, but not will they only be against legalism, they will be against lasciviousness. Because this is what he said specifically Jude said they would do. He said in Jude 4, he said that they would turn the grace of our God into lasciviousness. Now, lasciviousness is basically unbridled lust. It is doing whatever you want to do. If you feel like it, then do it. That is lasciviousness by definition. And so what he's saying is that there are going to be people who are going to come along, and they're not going to say that God will take you like you are, but then he will change you. They will say, well, God will take you like you are, and then he will allow you to stay the way that you are. But this is not, my friend, the biblical idea of grace. The biblical idea of grace concerning lasciviousness we find in Titus chapter 2 and verse number 11. And he says this in Titus 2.11, he said, For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared unto all men. Now listen to what he says about this grace that saves us in verse number 12. He says concerning that grace, he says, it is teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world. So God saves us by grace apart from what we've done. That's why we're not legalists. But we're also not lasciviousness because after God gets us by His grace, God will begin to teach us by His grace and change us by His grace. Therefore, a biblical definition of grace is the simple truth that it takes you like you are, but it does not leave you like you are. And what people will do to distort grace is they'll turn it into legalism, which means God will not take you like you are. You have to clean yourself up. And then the other end of the spectrum in distorting grace that false teachers do is that they will say, oh, yes, well, God will take you like you are, and then he will allow you to stay the way that you are. Both of those are wrong. Here's the bottom line. Grace saves you apart from works, Ephesians 2. But grace changes you and you will begin to produce works, Titus 2. But false teachers will distort that. They will turn the grace of God into something else. He said in Jude 4, they'll turn it into lasciviousness. Now, that is the main accusation against them here in Jude 4. Not that they're going to be too tight, but they're going to be too loose. They're going to say, come as you are, stay as you are, do whatever you want, so long as you mentally ascribe to the fact that Jesus died for you, and so long as you prayed a prayer when you were six years old, that's fine, you're saved. What the Bible makes clear is that God saves us by His grace, but if we have truly received His grace, that grace will, in fact, begin to change us. 2 Corinthians 5.17 makes that clear. Therefore, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature. Old things are passed away. Behold, all things have become new. The Apostle Paul makes the argument at the end of Romans 5, after having been discussed being saved by grace. He says that, but where sin did abound, grace did much more. And then he wants you and I to understand that grace, so he opens up Romans 6.1 and he says, what shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? And then he says, God forbid, how shall we that are dead to sin continue any longer therein? And so he makes it clear that grace is not a license to continue in sin, but when you get ahold of God's grace, the old you dies and he, by his grace, makes a new person who lives in newness of life. This is the miracle of conversion. But false teachers will deny that. They'll say, oh, it's all about grace. And that means that you can be what you want to be, how you want to be, and God will take you just like that, whether you're that way 20 years after you got saved or not. The Bible makes it very clear that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Christ Jesus. There should be notable evidence of God doing a work inside of you. Ephesians 2.8 and 9 said we're saved by grace, but Ephesians 2.10 said that that grace will do a work inside of us. He said, for we are his workmanship. created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them." So, lasciviousness is the idea that grace leaves you the way you are. Now, the other end of the spectrum that we've already began to talk about is the fact that grace will not be turned to lasciviousness, but grace is often turned into legalism. Now, here's why I might step on some toes, but they probably need to be stepped on if it steps on them. Catholicism is not Bible-believing Christianity. Catholicism is a part of the spectrum of false teachers and false doctrine that men like Jude and Peter were calling out. You remember what the Apostle Paul said in the book of Galatians? There were people coming in teaching legalism in the book of Galatians. They came in and they said, except you be circumcised after the manner of Moses, you cannot be saved. Grace is not enough. Faith is not enough. You must have faith and law-keeping. Faith and works. Faith and this. Faith and that. And they add to it. The Catholic Church is still doing the same thing today. And you say, well, that's just your interpretation of it. And let me just say this. No cult or false religion is ever going to come out and clearly say we deny grace. They're going to keep saying, oh, well, we're saved by God's grace. And I don't know if I have time to articulate this the way that I want to, but I'll try to. But the bottom line is Catholicism teaches legalism. I want to read you a part. of the Catholic Catechism, and it's way too in-depth and long for me to read on this broadcast, and so you go look it up yourself, but I'm just going to give you one part of the Catechism that I think summarizes it. The Catholic Catechism that you can find on the Vatican website, in part 6, 1129, says this, the Church, talking of the Catholic Church, the Church affirms that for believers, the sacraments of the new covenant are necessary for salvation. What are those sacraments? There's seven of them. So there's seven things you got to do to be saved in the Catholic Church. You got to be baptized, confirmation, mass, which they call the Holy Eucharist, all this stuff you have to partake of and you have to do in order to be saved. And their catechism, their document, they said this, that it is necessary for believers to have the sacraments to be saved. That is the exact same thing that Paul is condemning in the book of Galatians, where people were saying, except you take our sacrament, circumcision, you cannot be saved. The Catholic Church is still doing the same thing that the heretics were doing in Galatians. They're just not pushing circumcision. They're pushing their other sacramental duties. There's a lot more that we could say about that, but we don't have time for it right now. Not only Catholicism is a part of these false teachers that distort grace, Mormonism, most of us know this, and if not, you should. Mormonism teaches legalism. As a matter of fact, I'd like to read you something, and if you're watching on video, you can see it right here, but I've got the Book of Mormon in my hand. And I want to read you what the Book of Mormon says through the revelation of not Jesus Christ, but Joseph Smith, some man. 2 Nephi in the Book of Mormon, 2 Nephi 25. It says, 2 Nephi 25 and verse number 23, for we labor diligently to write, to persuade our children and also our brethren to believe in Christ and be reconciled to God. You say, huh, well, that sounds pretty good. Hey, we're reconciled by believing in Christ. That sounds like what Christians say. Listen to the rest of the verse, though. For we know that it is by grace that we are saved. Does that sound familiar? That sounds a lot like Ephesians 2, 8, doesn't it? Listen to the rest of the verse again, though. For we know that it is by grace that we are saved after all we can do. Listen to that. We know that it is by grace that we are saved after all that we can do. In other words, grace only applies when we do our best. And when we do all that we can do, then God gives us grace and saves us. But if we don't do all that we can do, and we don't push, and we don't work, and we don't labor to the best of our ability, then grace does not kick in. That is a twisting and a turning of grace, if I've ever heard it. That is what the Bible said that they would do. Paul said in Galatians 1.6, he said, I marvel that you are so soon removed from him that called you unto the grace of Christ unto another gospel, which is not another, but there be some that trouble you and would pervert the gospel of Christ. That word pervert means to turn. They're going to turn the grace of God into something else. And what Joseph Smith did in the Book of Mormon was he turned it into something else. Grace is, for by grace are you saved through faith and that not of yourselves. That's what the Bible said. What the Book of Mormon said is, by grace you're saved after all you can do. That ain't the same thing. And you know the funny thing about it is, is both Catholics and Mormons and Jehovah's Witnesses, and we'll get to them in a minute, all three twist and misuse and abuse the same passage in James chapter number two to justify their heresy. All of them. They twist the same text. And let me just say this, they essentially believe the same thing. And you can mark down every cult like this. They're going to mess up the deity of Jesus Christ. Now, I will give the Catholics one thing. They do believe that Jesus is God. That's a step in the right direction. However, they're still lost if they're working their way to heaven. But they will mar the deity of Jesus Christ, and we're going to get to that in the next part of Jude 4, and they will distort grace and ultimately make it about works. So we've got the Catholics we've talked about, we've got the Mormons we talked about, but then you've also got the Jehovah's Witnesses. Now, Jehovah's Witnesses have got some crazy beliefs. For one, they don't even believe in hell. Number two, and we're going to get to this in the next broadcast probably, but they deny the deity of Jesus Christ, which is what Jude said they would do in Jude 4. He said they deny the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ. Mormons and Jehovah's Witnesses do that. But Jehovah's Witnesses believe you work your way. You ask a Jehovah's Witness, do you know if you're going to heaven? Which they believe only 144,000 are going to heaven anyways. And those are the super ultra faithful. The rest of them are just going to be left behind here on what they call paradise. If I understand their beliefs correctly anyways. But the bottom line is I've talked to them. Do you know that you're going to heaven when you die? They don't. The most devout Jehovah's Witnesses still don't know if they're going to go to heaven when they die. You say, why? Because they got to figure out if they can hold out to the end and do enough good works to get there. Because they're trusting in themselves. They are not trusting Jesus Christ. It's not Christianity. Mormonism, Catholicism, and Jehovah's Witnesses are not denominations of Christianity. They are heresies. They are apart from biblical Christianity. They are something altogether different. And Jude wants you and I to be aware of these things. He said false teachers would do this. They would turn the grace of our God into lasciviousness. They would turn grace into something it is not. Now I've tried in this short broadcast in a very quick rush to give you the biblical idea of grace. And I've tried to give you just a couple of these outlying religions definitions of grace so that you can see the difference. But the thing about it is Catholics believe they're saved by grace. Mormons believe they're saved by grace. Jehovah's Witnesses would say they're saved by grace. But do you see how what they mean by grace is totally different? For the Mormon, grace comes after all that we can do. For the Catholic, they say, yes, we're saved by grace, but that grace is what propels us to do these sacraments. And if you don't do the sacraments, then you're still not saved. And so they take grace and they hold it, but they're twisting it into something else. So when you talk to somebody like this and they say, oh, I'm saved by my faith in Jesus Christ and by God's grace, ask them, what do you mean by that? Because Paul would write in the book of Romans, and he would say, it's either of works or it's of grace. If grace is mixed with works, then it's no more grace. And if works is mixed with grace, then it's no more works. You can't put the two together. Paul makes the case in the book of Galatians. He said, if you go to be justified by works, you have fallen from grace. He would say in Galatians 2 that the law is not of faith. In other words, they are not the same thing. You are either justified completely by Jesus Christ and His finished work, or it's on you. And if it's on you, you are lost. You are not saved. If you are trusting your baptism, if you are trusting your church, if you are, that's another thing. They don't believe that you can be saved outside of their church. Hey, I'm an independent Baptist through and through, but the independent Baptist church ain't saving nobody. Jesus Christ is, and you might not be an independent Baptist, but if your faith is in Jesus Christ and you come to him in heart of repentance, you're saved. You ain't got to have my church to be born again. But these cults want to teach that. We need to be watching out for these things. You need to be mindful of these things and their influence that they're spreading out. I said this in the last broadcast and I'm about to wrap up, but the popular show, The Chosen, is highly influenced by Mormonism. It's got Mormon connections all through it. It's highly influenced by Catholicism. The lead actor, Jonathan Rumi, is a very devout Catholic man. This stuff is being poured into it. And I'm showing you here, this is not Bible-believing Christianity. And the Bible-believing Christian should not want to have anything to do with what he's been charged to contend and fight against. You and I need to have our glasses on and be looking and be aware. Be sober, be vigilant, because your adversary, the devil, has a roaring line, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour. Do you know your Bible well enough to point this stuff out when you see it? If not, I hope this will be a help to you to begin to head that direction. God bless you. We'll pick up tomorrow in the rest of verse number four, Lord willing. See you then.