All right, thank you so much for joining us here yet again at the Everlasting Truth broadcast, where we give you everlasting truth for an ever-changing world. I'm excited to be with you here again today, picking back up in the subject that we have been in for, I think this is our fourth broadcast now. On the subject of the book of Jude and the false teachers that Jude deals with there I'm not gonna do much recap I always tell you that I'm not gonna do much recap from the last broadcast and then I spend five to ten minutes Doing recaps. I don't want to do that today because I've got a lot to get through and so we're just gonna go ahead and jump straight into it and We are in the book of Jude, and obviously the context is false teachers, and we've come down to the end of verse number three. And Jude, by the inspiration of the Holy Ghost, is giving us this description of these false teachers that you and I need to be on the lookout for. And so the way you're going to spot a false teacher is not by appearance, Number one, Jesus said they're wolves in sheep's clothing. They've got the right clothing. They've got the right appearance. Paul said they transformed themselves into the apostles of Christ, 2 Corinthians 11. They make themselves look like the real deal, so it's not by appearance, but it's by these things that Jude lays out here that we'll continue to look at in verse number three and right on down through the rest of the book of Jude. And so, we come now to Jude, verse number three, and we will pick up where we left off. I think I've been saying verse three, but it's actually the end of verse number four, so forgive me for that. But we'll pick up at the end of verse number four and continue our study. But anyways, the book of Jude in verse number three says, contend for the faith." And so, you and I need to defend the doctrine that God has left us, it said, which was once delivered unto the saints. We only get it one time. We have to defend the doctrine we have. No such thing as God restoring and giving us more and different doctrine. We have the final embodiment in the New Testament Joseph Smith said he had another testament of Jesus Christ in the Book of Mormon. That's not true. It's been delivered once for all. And so, we have to defend the one that we have. And then he goes on and he gives us a declaration as to why. Verse number four, he said, For there are certain men crept in unawares, who were before of old ordained to this condemnation, ungodly men. And so he declares to you and I that there are going to be ungodly false teachers that have already crept into the church and they are here amongst us even now. The Apostle Paul said in Acts 20, and I believe it's around verse 29, verse number 30, he said that men shall arise of your own selves. that they would not spare the flock, that false teachers would come out of the church in and of itself. 1 John said this, he said, they continued not with us because they were not of us. For had they been of us, they would have continued with us. That's a summarization, but he says that there's going to be people who are going to walk out of orthodox doctrine that once seem to be in line with that doctrine, and so they're not going to get their origin outside the walls of the church. They're going to start in the church and drag people out of the church. Paul put it this way writing to Timothy. He said that many shall depart from the faith. They'll leave the faith. They were there, and they departed from it, giving heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of devils. And so, they may have even had a regular orthodox Christian background, quote-unquote, and then bring out some crazy stuff. And we need to be able to point that stuff out when it comes, and not just say, oh, well, they've got the right background, so they're real. No, we don't measure it by their background. We measure it by what Jude lays out here, which brings us to the continuation here in the book of Jude. The last line of verse number four tells us what the description of these ungodly men are. They turn the grace of our God into lasciviousness. That was the last broadcast. A false teacher is going to mar grace. They're going to turn the grace either into legalism or lasciviousness, as Jude says here. Now, in verse number four, it says, the next thing that they do, the next description and the next mark of a false teacher is that they deny the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ. You say, well, what does that mean? Denying the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ. Let me summarize it for you. They are going to deny the deity of Jesus Christ. They are going to say that he is not God. They are going to say that he was a great man, a good man. Some of them even say that he was endued with the power of God, but he in and of himself was not God. That is a heretical declaration about who Jesus Christ is. And anybody that holds to that belief, I'm not saying this, but the apostle John himself said this in 2 John, he that abideth not in the doctrine of Christ, Hath not God. He does not have God. Anybody who is outside of the doctrine that Jesus Christ is fully God and fully man does not have Christ. It does not matter what kind of appearance they put on or anything else. They must abide within the doctrine of Jesus Christ. And that's not my decision. God's the one who said that through the Apostle John. And so they're going to deny the deity of Jesus Christ. So we've been examining these false teachers, and in the last broadcast, we talked about how false teachers, they turn the grace of God into lasciviousness. And we highlighted three groups that very heavily do that. We highlighted Catholicism, Mormonism, and the so-called Jehovah's Witnesses. and how they distort the grace of God. But we leave that now, and we come to the fact that false teachers not only distort the grace of God, but they deny the deity of Jesus Christ. Now, Catholicism doesn't have as much of a problem with this. Mormons and Jehovah's Witnesses absolutely do. Catholicism, while they still hold to the idea that we work our way to heaven, they do at least believe in the Trinity. They believe in the deity of Jesus Christ, but they also, they're not going to come out and say this, but they believe ultimately in the deity of Mary as well. And that's a whole other conversation for another day, and that's a serious problem. Catholics, for the most part, do at least believe that Jesus is God. However, they don't believe the gospel because they believe they worked their way there to Jesus. But moving on from that, Mormons and Jehovah's Witnesses I want to talk specifically about in this broadcast because they are the first two groups that you think of when it comes down to discussing people who deny the deity of Jesus Christ. And let me just throw something else out there very quickly that I completely missed in the last broadcast, but when he talks about they turn the grace of God into lasciviousness, and they mar grace, not only is that Catholics, not only is that Mormons, not only is that Jehovah's Witnesses, but you have to watch out for the Seventh-day Adventists as well. They mar what the grace of God is. They are not in alignment with Bible-believing Christianity. They are still abiding under the law. And so, you need to be careful with those things. I just want to throw that out there because some people may not know what these people are and what they believe. And so, I just want to put that out there for some clarification. If you're a Bible-believing Christian, you don't need to be in a Seventh-day Adventist church anywhere. But anyways, moving on. They deny the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ. Now, Mormons have a very strange view of the deity of Jesus Christ. Mormons believe that Jesus was a god amongst many other gods. As a matter of fact, Mormons believe they're not even monotheists. They are ultimately pantheists. I don't think they'll take that claim, but ultimately they are, which means they believe in multiple gods. They believe that there are multiple gods, and they believe that within that realm of gods, that Jehovah or Elohim or heavenly father, as they refer to him as, had a sexual relationship with a goddess. And through that relationship between the father and some goddess, Jesus Christ and Lucifer were born as that offspring. Which puts Jesus Christ and Lucifer being brothers. That is not abiding in the doctrine of Christ. The Bible teaches no such thing. The Bible speaks nothing of the Father having any type of attraction to even produce offspring through some natural way, such as what the Mormons depict. The Bible says that God is a spirit, and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth. God is not some man upstairs, as people often depict Him with a gray head, and He's not looking for a wife. This idea that God had relations with a goddess is insanity. It is unbiblical completely and totally. As a matter of fact, the Bible declares there are no goddesses. There are no other gods. He said in Isaiah 45, he said, I am the Lord God. He said, there is none other God beside me. Isaiah 43, Isaiah 45, you come to the conclusion very quickly, there is one God and only one. But Mormons believe that Jesus Christ is a offspring of God the Father and Goddesses. And so Jesus is partially a God, but He is not the God in human flesh. They deny that deity of Jesus Christ. They view Him as a man who had some God-like powers, but He was not fully God, fully man. Now, there's a whole lot more we could say about that, but I'm trying to condense all this down into a less than 30 minute broadcast. So, yeah, just bear with me. But then you've got the Jehovah's Witnesses. The Jehovah's Witnesses do not believe that Jesus was God. Jehovah's Witnesses believe that Jesus was a created being. Now, the Bible declares in John 1, Genesis 1, and in Hebrews 1, and Colossians 1, that Jesus is not a created being, but that Jesus is the Creator. The Bible said in Hebrews 1 that God created the world through Christ. Colossians 1 says, for by Him were all things made. John 1 says, In the beginning was the Word, and the Word is with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. And then it goes on in John 1 and verse number 3, and I'm going to read it just to make sure I don't butcher it. All things were made by Him, and without Him was not anything made that was made." So Jesus is the Creator, not the created. But Jehovah's Witnesses believe that Jesus is not the Creator. He is a created being, and before His earthly existence in the human body of Jesus of Nazareth, they believed that Jesus Christ was actually Michael the archangel. The entire argument of Hebrews chapter number one is that Jesus is greater than the angels. He's higher than the angels. For unto which of the angels did he ever say, My son, this day you're begotten of me." That's the purpose of Hebrews 1. He's higher than angels. This idea that Jesus is a created being completely falls apart. I want to read you something directly from JW.org, which is the Jehovah's Witnesses official online website. Listen to this. They said, Jesus is not God. Period. That's what they said. Jesus is unique. He is the only person created directly by God. So they believe that Christ was created by God and then Christ created all these other things. But Jesus in and of himself is not God according to the Jehovah's Witness. Well, I've got some Bible passages in front of me that that have a problem with that. Isaiah. Chapter number six. And verse, well, I'm having trouble finding my passage here. Forgive me. But the bottom line is we all know the verse. We, we quote it, uh, during Christmas time and it talks about, and his name shall be called wonderful counselor, mighty God, everlasting father, prince of peace. That's Jesus. That is the name ascribed to him. And it says that his name is mighty God. How do you then come up with the conclusion that Jesus in and of himself is not God? How about Matthew chapter number one and verse number 23? Speaking of Christ, behold, a virgin shall be with child and shall bring forth a son and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is God with us. Jesus was God with human man. That only happens if Jesus, in and of himself, is God. John 1.1, In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. We know that when Jesus comes back in the book of Revelation, His name is called the Word of God. So when it's talking about the Word, it's not necessarily talking about the written Word. It's talking about Jesus being the living Word. That's why the W in John 1.1 is capitalized. It's a proper name. It's referring to Christ and His personhood, that He was God, but He was also in the beginning with God. This is why we believe the Trinity, because Christ is God, but yet He's with God, which means the Father and the Spirit are also there for Him to be with them. Now, here's another one. The book of Colossians. This is one of the most clear ones when you're speaking with a Jehovah's Witness about who Jesus Christ is. Colossians 1.15. And this is a passage uniquely that they will try to use actually to teach against this very thing. But it actually proves the thing that Christ is deity. Colossians 1.15, speaking of Jesus, it says, Who is the image of the invisible God? Now, if I remember correctly, that word image is the Greek word icon. It means exact representation. When you have an icon on your computer desktop, it is an image that represents the program behind it. And it says that Jesus is the icon of the invisible God. He is the exact representation of a God who you cannot see. He is showing and declaring to you and I who God is. He said, I and the Father are one. It says, Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature? For by Him were all things created that are in heaven and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created by Him and for Him. All things were created by Him. Now, do some Bible thinking here. Who created all things in Genesis 1? In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. Genesis 1. But yet in Colossians 1, all things were created by Christ. You say, well, how is that? Because John 1.1, in the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God. How about Colossians 1.19, for it pleased the father that in him should all fullness dwell. So all the fullness dwells in Christ. And you say all the fullness of what? Well, Paul writes a little bit more, Colossians chapter two, verse number nine. For in him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. The complete fullness, not partiality, but the complete fullness of the Godhead and what comprises and makes up God dwelt in Jesus Christ's human body. That's what that says. When you looked at the human body of Jesus Christ, you were looking at God dwelling inside that body. He was God. This is one that I have yet to see a Jehovah's Witness even attempt to have an answer for. Hebrews chapter 1 and verse number 8. There, and I'll just say this, the Jehovah's Witnesses have their own version of the Bible. They will at times use the King James Bible, but they also have their own translation called the New World Translation. And they will hold the New World Translation beside the King James and claim that they are saying the same thing. Virtually no Hebrew or Greek scholar whatsoever outside of the Watchtower organization validates the New World Translation, which we're King James only anyway, so we don't have that problem. But even for the rest of the people out there who use other translations, it is universally agreed the New World Translation is a heretical document. And in John 1.1, they changed it to where it doesn't say, in the beginning was the Word and words with God. It says the Word and He was a God. And so they've twisted that. But you can get around that here in Hebrews 1.8, because they... from the best of my knowledge have yet to find an answer to this one. So listen, Hebrews chapter number one, verse number eight. It says, but unto the son, now who is the son? It is Jesus. But unto the son he saith. Who says? God, if you read the context. Hebrews one is talking about God and Christ. And it says, unto the son he saith, thy throne, O God. is forever and ever a scepter of righteousness and the scepter of thy kingdom." In Hebrews 1.8, effectively you have the father calling the son God. And he's quoting from a psalm, and if you go back and read that psalm, And I believe it's Psalm 45, verse number 6 and 7 that he's quoting there, Psalm 45. If you read Psalm 45, it becomes clear that it is a messianic psalm, which means it's referring to Christ, the Messiah. And then in that psalm, he calls the Messiah God. Because Jesus is God. How about this one? 2 Corinthians 5.19. to wit that God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself. Now let me be quick and get you these last couple of points here before we run out of time. So it's very clear that Jesus is God from the scriptures. There's more we could talk about, but we're just out of time. But Jesus is God. But then they make the accusation even further. And what's amazing is that you'll find that every religion outside of Bible-believing Christianity all uses the same points. Mormons and Jehovah's Witnesses have more in common with Islam than they do Bible-believing Christianity. Because I'm reading to you the Jehovah's Witness website and they say Jesus Christ never claimed to be God. That's the exact same thing that a Muslim will tell you. They believe that Jesus was a prophet. just like Jehovah's Witnesses, but they don't believe that He ever claimed to be God. Well, there's a problem with that. Look at, number one, I want you to go to John 8, but if you're actually opening your Bible while I'm on my way over there, and you're on your way with me, I want you to think about what Jesus said in John 14. Jesus said, you remember Philip was talking to Him, and He said, Lord, show us the Father, and it sufficeth us. And Jesus looked at him, he said, Philip, he said, have I not been with you so long? And yet has thou not known me? He that hath seen me hath seen the father. He said, Philip, if you're looking at me, you are looking at the father. He said, because I and my father are one. We are one in the same. And when you see me, you see the father. Jesus Christ said that those words are written in red and John 14. Jesus himself claimed that he and his father were one. And that if you saw him, you were looking at the father. That was Jesus' words. Jesus did in fact proclaim that He was God. How about this? John chapter 8 and verse number 56. He said, Now the Jews pick up on this and they say, you weren't even around when Abraham was here. How did he see you and rejoice? Verse 57, 58 Jesus said unto them verily verily I say unto you before Abraham was I am And he quotes the name of God from Exodus 3 14 and 15 Remember when Moses said, Lord, tell me what your name is so I can tell him who sent me. And he says, you tell him, I am that I am. And Jesus looks at these Jews, and he doesn't say, before Abraham was, I was. He said, before Abraham was, I am, ascribing to himself the name of God, Jehovah from the Old Testament. And then they knew that's what he was saying. This was blasphemy that he made himself God. And the punishment for blasphemy was being stoned to death. And we knew that they took it as blasphemy and him making himself God, because verse 59, then took they up stones to cast at him, but Jesus hid himself. They knew that he was claiming to be God. Let me give you one more before we close out, because many people say this. Oh, well, Jesus never claimed to be God. Yes, he did. He told the Jews, I am. And as if that one isn't clear enough, how about this one? John 10, verse number 30. Stay with me very quickly. Jesus said, I and my Father are one. Then the Jews took up stones again to stone him. They just tried to stone him in John 8 for claiming he's God, and here he is claiming he's God again in John 10 by saying, I and my father are one. They're giving him the punishment of blasphemy, which is stoning. Then the Jews took up stones again to stone him. Verse 32, Jesus answered them, many good works have I showed you from my father. For which of those works do you stone me? The Jews answered him, saying, for a good work we stone thee not, but for blasphemy, and because thou being a man, makest thyself God. The Jews said, we're stoning you because you are saying that you're God. You make yourself God. Now, are you still going to say that Jesus never claimed he was God? The Jews he was talking to clearly interpreted his message to be saying, I am God. I and my father are one. So this idea that Jesus never claimed to be God is just clearly not backed up by scripture. It's backed up by the minds of men who set out to dismantle and destroy good Bible doctrine that saves souls. You better make sure that what you believe about Christ is found in this book. You better make sure that it comes from this because there are deceivers out there. They turn the grace of our God into lasciviousness and they deny the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ. False teachers will do two things most of the time. They will deny grace, change grace, distort grace, and they will deny the deity of Jesus Christ. Make sure you don't get hung up in that. God bless you, friend. We'll pick back up, Lord willing, next week. See you then.