All right, we've been studying in the book of Jude. We're working our way through the New Testament and eventually we will get to the final book of the Bible, which is Revelation. But God put this book right here before the book of Revelation, because the Revelation is about the second coming of his son. And what God knew was before the second coming of his son, there would be a mess in the church. And the mess he's talking about is verse three. Beloved, I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, but it was needful for me to write unto you and exhort you that ye should earnestly contend for definite article, the faith, the one and only faith, which was once, not multiple times in translations, once delivered unto the saints. Not to the scholars, not to translation committees, but to believers. And so God knew this problem would be here at the end days, and we're in such a mess today with so many fake Bibles. I feel like Elijah standing against the 450 prophets of Baal. By the way, Time Magazine had an article recently, there are 450 English translations. Yeah. And the average Christian has no idea which Bible is the Lord's. Frankly, they don't care. That's why God's looking for a few people that do care. By the way, you cannot care and still be saved. No, it's true, you can't. God's good. Yeah, yeah. But if you're looking for rewards, you better do it with his book. Because that's the way he works. Except a man strive lawfully, he cannot be crowned, Paul told Timothy. And this is the law of the Lord. So we need to earnestly contend for the faith. The problem is, verse four, there are certain men who crept in unawares. And we talked about them last week. We saw that initially, back in the first century, it was Judaizers. with circumcision. A couple hundred years later, it was Catholics with the sacraments. And in the 17, 18, and 1900s, it's scholars. By the way, God doesn't like scholars, you do know that. If you ever read the book of Habakkuk and Malachi, God doesn't like scholars. We've taught that before. He's not impressed with scholars. They're high-minded. He doesn't like a high mind. Men of high degree are a lie, God says. You do know who runs the education system of this world. It's the devil and the Catholics. First university was Catholic, University of Bologna, Bologna. That was the first one. That's a truth. And the Jesuits run most colleges, and they run most of our seminaries. Remember I told you about that man, if you want to go on his site, I forget his name, I think his name is Vespi. He's about my age. He has a site called The Bible Mindset. You go on YouTube, The Bible Mindset, one word. And he'll tell you about how when he got saved, he went to seminary, and he said all they did in the seminary was mock and pick on the King James Bible. And he'll give you his testimony. Yeah. Now, thankfully, he knows that the King James Bible is the truth. By the way, the only religion that's picked on in the world is born-again Christianity. So you already know what the truth of salvation is. Now, if you want to know the truth, God is willing Go to 1 Timothy 2 just to show you real quick. 1 Timothy 2. 1 Timothy 2 and verse 3. Verse three and four is just one sentence. For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who will have all men to be saved and come unto the knowledge of the truth. If you look at it very carefully, he uses an ABAB pattern. It's a Hebraic parallelism carried through by Paul as he grew up as a Jew in verse three. For this is A, good, and B, acceptable. There's something good, there's something acceptable. who will A, verse four, have all men to be saved, that's the goodwill of God, and B, come unto the knowledge of the truth. So God wants someone to get saved and then learn which Bible is his. And today in Christianity, it's such a mess like Jude wrote about. There are very few people that know the faith which was once delivered. but we need to contend for it. And these scholars crept out and they lied and they made up false versions and they've got false Hebrew and false Greek and false English. I guess they like falsies. I don't know these guys, but that's what they do, and they're scholars, and they're liars, and they're not saints. Saints are believers of God's word. They are ungodly men, turning the grace of God to lasciviousness and denying the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ. So what he was doing is, as he was opening up the epistle, he was first just making his address in the first few verses, then he sounded the alarm in the next couple verses and his alarm was there's there's apostasy there's there's heresy there are men creeping in and changing what God has written and now what he's going to do in the third portion, he's going to give the account. He's going to address the alarm and the account. And the account is, I'm going to show you the history and the horror of the apostasy and the fact that God is a judge and his judgment is on display as you go and look through the history as to what God has done. Verse 5, the first group, I will therefore put you in remembrance. God's desire and the writers of the scriptures were to put us in remembrance of great truths. Why? We tend to forget. So God had things written down. God knew that a short pencil is better than a long memory. So he had someone write these things down for us. And Peter said, this second epistle, beloved, I now write unto you, in which I stir up your minds by way of remembrance, that ye may be mindful of the words which were spoken before by the holy prophets and the commandment of us, the apostles of the Lord and Savior. And know this in the last days are gonna be scoffers. and people aren't gonna care, but I want you to know, I wanna put you in remembrance. Now, here's what he wants us to remember in Jude, verse five. Though you probably once knew this, and remember, Jude is a Jew, and so you understand God was moving from the Old to the New Testament, and the foundation was built on Israel. The oracles of God were committed to the Jews. And all your Bible writers are Jews, despite the fact that some recent liar in the past hundred years said Luke was Gentile. Luke was a Jew. How do I know that? Because God said, I gave the oracles to Jews. So you're gonna believe what God wrote, or some recent scholar in 1903 said. You're gonna have to choose who you'll believe. I'm on the Lord's side, Jews. So the oracles were given to the Jews. And Jude's saying, I know you Jewish readers of mine have looked back through history, and you know these things. You once knew this. Verse five, how that the Lord, having saved the people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed them that believe not. He destroyed them that believe not. Now, what he's trying to show us is that God has, as the judge, God has a perfect balance to him. I'm thinking of that one verse in the book of the Proverbs, chapter 11, verse 1. A false balance is an abomination unto the Lord. But a just weight is His delight. False balance. It weighs things differently. In the modern Bible, some say this is okay, some say this isn't okay. What does yours say? What does yours say? God doesn't like that. God wants perfect balance, the ones that He's given. And God not only wants a perfect balance in what He's written, He wants you to understand He is balanced. He has a right hand. of fellowship and grace and redemption and salvation. He has a left hand of wrath and anger and hatred. Yes, God hates. Have you read his Bible? I've shown you many verses on the hatred of God. There are things that are abominable, things he detests. The workers of iniquity the Lord hates, okay? He has a perfect hatred. As a matter of fact, he commended his son, Jesus, for having hatred in the book of Hebrews, chapter 1. So God has this balance, and what he's trying to show you is that I have a balanced judgment. I want you to remember, I saved the people out of the land of Egypt. Out they came, Exodus chapter 12, on the selfsame day, 430 years later, if they went into the land by their armies. I can't remember the count. Was it 600,000, Mark? large count of the males, all they counted was the males over 20. It was about 600,000 and one, 601. Yeah, and God only counted the males over 20 because the Lord is a man of war and the Lord is calling men in his army to fight, not women and children. Women and children get behind, okay? Men step up and fight, not men under the age of 20, men over the age of 20. Christianity is a man's religion, not a wuss religion of the effeminate modern American male. I'm sick of wuss. They're woke. They're woke to what? Abominations? They're woke to lies? No. We need some men that'll stand. You stand on a street and preach? Will you stand up at the workplace? Men in pulpits, will you stand in the pulpit? That's what God's looking for. Now, God says, I brought all these men out. And we start on the wilderness journey. And I'm perfectly balanced. Look at in the verse, I saved. The Lord saved a whole bunch of people out of the land of Egypt. And you know what else he did? He destroyed a whole bunch too. I'm perfectly balanced, God said. The ones on my side, take care of them. The ones against me, I destroy them. I want you to know there's only two ends for souls. Salvation or destruction. There's no middle ground. There's no limbo. There's no purgatory. It's salvation or destruction. Either you believe in my son and you get everlasting life or you don't and you perish. Now the reason Jude is bringing this up is, you first thought is, wait a second, these were Israelites coming out. Yeah, that's right, those were Israelites coming out. Go to Romans 11. This is serious business. Now, I have a feeling that just as the Apostle Paul in the book of Acts, when he gave a similar warning in the 20th chapter and said something like, look, I know after my departing, grievous wolves will enter in among you, not sparing the flock. They're going to speak perverse things. They're going to draw disciples after them. He was speaking to the elders at Ephesus. The highest accountability is for the men who are in pulpits. The next highest accountability is for the men who are fathers in families. You fathers are to teach this to your children. You're to stand for the truth. You're not to bend. You're right, there are no bridges in the Bible. There are walls. Not only are there walls in the Bible, you ever read Revelation 21? That's called the new heaven and the new earth. That's the new Jerusalem. You know what's around it? A wall. Now, God does have walls, but he also has gates with a door called Jesus Christ. You can come in through the door of Jesus. And if you don't, he's shutting the door and you're out. And so these Jews in the Old Testament, they were given the oracles of God. But we're in Romans 11, picking it up around verse 6, 7. No, that's not what I want. I mean 9. I'm sorry, I was half asleep when I typed that up. Romans 9. It's the history. 11 is the future. By the way, if you ever study the book of Romans 9, 10, and 11, it's all about Israel. God had Paul put those three chapters in there because he loved his people. Like he said in the beginning of the ninth chapter, I have great heaviness for my brethren. So 9, 10, and 11 is the history and the present and the future of Israel in those three chapters. But going back in Romans 9, 6, not as though the word of God hath taken none effect, for they are not all Israel which are of Israel. Here comes a whole bunch of people out and God's saying just because they've got the name Israel doesn't mean they've got the heart of an Israelite. God is a God of the heart. He's always been a God of the heart. He'll always be a God. Samuel, go pick the next king. Oh, look at the big one. No, Samuel, men look on the outward appearance. I look on the heart. But he's a big Jew. That's okay. He's also a big jerk that doesn't believe my word. I'm looking for the little one there that has the right heart. And so what he was saying is, you come out and you're in this group of Israel, but you're not all Israel. Just because you're the seed of Abraham doesn't mean you're a true Jew. You've got to be in Isaac, shall thy seed be called. Isaac is a type of Jesus Christ. They which are the children of the flesh. These are not the children of God. The children of the promise are counted for the seed. And the promise was the Messiah and a true Jew. And if we lived in the Old Testament, God would expect us, men, okay, you women can stay home, men, three times a year, make the pilgrimage to Jerusalem. I want you there at Passover. I want you there at Pentecost. I want you there at Tabernacles. I want you bringing your sacrifices. You can bring them for your family, like Job did, and he sacrificed for his children, but you come, men, and you do this, and here's what God's saying, but don't you trust in that temple. Don't you even trust in that sacrifice. When you're at that temple, you're thinking about the promise of the Messiah that will come to us. A son will be born, a child will be born, a son will be given. The government will be on his shoulder. We're all waiting for him. The law was given to bring you to him. Is your heart looking toward the Christ, or are you looking to the temple and the priest? Are you looking forward to the Christ, or are you looking to your sacrifice right there? It's a heart issue. It's always been a heart issue. And the ones that looked right, I saved. and the ones that didn't and had the wrong heart, I destroyed." Well, thank goodness that was back then. It got nothing to do with us. Okay, we're in a New Testament. God has taken the oracles of God and removed them from the Jews, like the Apostle Paul said at the end of the book of the Acts, and now I'm going to turn to the Gentiles, and we've carried these oracles for the last 2,000 years. and we are part not of a nation, a physical nation, we're a spiritual nation, and we are called Christians. And what he's saying is, you better watch God's display. I'm warning you, men are gonna creep in. They're gonna start giving you other gospels. They're gonna give you other Bibles. They're gonna give you another spirit. They're gonna do all these things to you, and another Jesus even. And what's gonna happen is if your heart is not after the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ, you'll be destroyed, even if you put Christian on your tombstone, even if you wear a little cross around your neck every single day, even if you tell people at the hospital when they say, what's your religion? I'm a Christian, or any form of Christian. That's what he's warning. I wanna put on display the true balance of God's judgment. He knows exactly how to do it. And so you're standing before the living God. And it's a fearful thing to fall in the hands of the living God. It's better to fall on your face before him and receive what he says. So I wanna put you in remembrance. The Lord destroyed people that he brought out of Egypt. And the Lord's gonna destroy a whole bunch of things that call themselves Christian. I wonder if one out of 10 things on this planet that calls itself Christian is saved. Well, it's not my problem. The Lord will take care of it. But the question for you is, after the cross, he's dividing Christians. He divided the Jews before he's dividing the Christians. Now, how does he make the division? I gotta warn you, people are gonna come in unawares. Go to Romans chapter 10, or 16, Romans 16. Now, as we know and we tell you all the time, doctrine is important. All scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable, number one, for doctrine. A word removed in my NIV, it wasn't even there. Doctrine. And doctrine is the most important thing in God's eyes. And so, the greatest doctrinal epistle to a Christian is Romans. And if you're a Christian and you haven't read this book a number of times and haven't begun to learn it, my recommendation is start reading it and learn it. I mean, I tell our missionaries on the field, because I know the time is short, we don't have a lot of time left, folks. That rapture is not some eventual thing anymore. It's coming up real soon, folks. Real soon. And I tell them, there's not time to start a Bible Institute anymore. There's not time to teach 66 books of the Bible anymore. So here's what you do when you get these new converts in these villages, and you get a man that says, I want to serve God. You give him Romans so he knows the doctrine of Christ. Chapters 1 through 8 and 12 through 16. I don't care if he never learns 9 through 11 this lifetime. That's okay. 1 through 8 and 12 through 16. 1 through 8, the doctrine. 12 through 16, the duty of a Christian. Give him John so he knows the person of Jesus Christ, and then send him out into the villages, and he can show someone Jesus Christ and the gospel of John and the work of Jesus Christ in the first eight chapters of Roman, and he can reproduce after his kind. That's what God wants. Multiply, reproduce spiritually. That's what you need. I say, any other books? Yeah, if you want to give him two Old Testament books, give him Psalms and Proverbs. Proverbs will help him be a good father, and Psalms will help him get his heart right with God. And that alone will give him a firm foundation. What about you, Christian? You know Romans? Okay, well, let's see how Paul closes this book. And here's Paul closing this book, and he just gave a whole list of people in the 16th chapter of Saints of his. By the way, I love this. Does anybody know what is the roll call chapter of faith in the Bible? Hebrews 11. Yeah, Hebrews 11. Yeah, interesting. Have you ever read that chapter? Do you know the names in it? Give me a few. Isaac? Abraham? Okay, yeah, yeah. Anyone else? Noah? Samson? David? You ever read that chapter? You know every single name is an Old Testament name? So I asked God, I said, well, you got a roll call of Old Testament saints. Where's the roll call of New Testament saints? Right here, Romans 16. Now think about this. What chapter? Romans what? And Hebrews what? When was the King James Bible completed? That's a hidden, that's a little hidden thing there, folks. New Testament, 16, that's a number of love, salvation. 11, that's Old Testament, that's administration of death, that's judgment. put them together it's 27 it's the books of the New Testament but still God these are little things God put here now here we are in the 16th chapter and and and Paul's writing all these great people and he finally ends up in verse 16 and salute one another with a holy kiss that's no tongues just on the cheek Maybe the hand, I don't know. And the churches of Christ salute you. And then he stopped, but he doesn't end it. Now watch verse 17. And now I beseech you, brethren, mark them which cause divisions and offenses contrary to the doctrine which ye have learned, and avoid them. Doctrine is your wall. Doctrine is the wall. You stand inside the wall of God's doctrine. What do I believe? Whatever's inside this temple wall right here. I don't believe anything outside of it. The whole world lieth in wickedness. The spirit of error is everywhere. The truth is inside the wall God built of doctrine. I got someone outside the doctrine while I think any Bible goes, I don't know where you got that from. There's only, Hebrews 4 says there's only one faith. There's only one faith. If there's only one faith and faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God, there's only one word of God. I don't know who gave you that idea. A scholar did. Well, you're gonna have to choose between the book and the scholar. Well, a better rendering is how can anything be better rendered than every word of God is pure? Every word of God, who said that? The book said it. Proverbs 30, verse five. You're not arguing with me, you're arguing with God's word. Avoid them, for they are such that serve not our Lord Jesus Christ, they serve their own belly. They use good words and fair speeches in Hebrew and Greek to deceive the hearts of the simple. Beware, Christians after the cross. Now, I gotta be honest with you. The truth is, even if you never figured out which Bible is God's, if all you've figured out that Jesus is the Christ, you're still saved. You won't be a good servant. You won't get many millennial rewards. You probably won't even talk to anybody about Christ. You'll be a nice, quiet, undercover Christian. Okay, and that's fine. The Lord's gonna work it out. That's what the millennium's for. We're in elementary school now, okay? Next is millennium, that's middle school. After that is high school, heaven. We get to go up in our third life. But next we come back in the millennium and Jesus teaches us. And he'll pass out the right book and we don't have to worry about it. But you've got to know this much, are you saved? That's at least one, that's a solid leg of faith to stand on. I say you should find out which Bible is God's, and they have two legs to stand on. But if even you are as a typical modern Bible believer with all your Bibles, and the devil can knock you over with one hand, fine, let him knock you down. He can't take your salvation. He can just take your service. I like to fight, though. I like to be able to stand on two legs and march forward and fight. So I'm glad that God showed me his book in the first year of my salvation, and I could leave that megachurch mess with all the different perversions in there. But God wants you to know, but you need to examine yourself whether you're in the faith. Because the example that he gave is there were Jews that were saved, there were Hebrews that were destroyed, there are going to be Christians that are saved, there are going to be quote-unquote Christians that will be destroyed, and Examine yourselves whether ye be in the faith of Jesus Christ. Prove your own selves. And so it's more for you to do. And the best way to do it, of course, how do you do it? Go to Acts chapter 17. By the way, you do remember of the Jews that left Egypt and they were working their way across to the Promised Land. It took them 38, 39, 40 years to get there. And God was destroying a bunch of unbelievers along the way. But the believers that were left There were some that served God faithfully, and they were given positions close to the temple and reward, and there were those that called on the uttermost parts of the camp. And they were kind of far away from God, and they weren't close to the tabernacle, but they were still saved. And so God would like, how close do you want, let's get personal, how close do you want to get to God? Do you ever wonder when you read the Gospels, who were the three guys that were always around Jesus? John, James, and Peter. I mean, every time you turn around, there's the three of them. Where were the other guys? Well, I think Jesus chose those three. No. No. Every time Jesus went somewhere, those three said, we're gonna be following him. And some of the others said, come on, man, they got a special today at Subway. I mean, they're given a free half a sub, and they went another way. And it's the same with any of us. In the course of a day, in the course of the 86,400 seconds God gives you every day, we're all equal when it comes to time. God says, redeem the time. You read your Bible, you pray, you serve the Lord, you help build Jesus's church with him. And so you can get as close as you want, or you can be on the uttermost parts of the camp. By the way, they have better reception out there for TV. So you can see, but the game is better out there. Something happens with the reception near the tabernacle. Have you ever tried that? My TV always goes out near the tabernacle. You put it together. Okay, back to Acts 17. How do you examine yourself, whether you be in the faith? By the way, Joel Osteen will be on this afternoon when you get home if you want an encouraging message. Act 17. examine yourself, whether you're in the faith. Paul had been teaching there, verse 10, and the brethren immediately sent Paul and Silas away by night into Berea. He comes to a new city, and coming thither, he immediately goes to the synagogue of the Jews, because the gospel's to the Jew first, and here's the Jewish Paul, and Paul starts preaching out of the book, obviously, and they're listening to him. Wondering I wonder if this is true and these were more noble than those in Thessalonica in that they received the word With all readiness of mind and they took notes, and then they searched the scriptures daily whether those things were so I How do you know if you're one of the Christians that's gonna be saved and not destroyed? You search the scriptures. Now, I wanna tell you the goodness of God, because, Miguel, we always talk about God is good all the time. I know God has permitted the devil to make his perversions. He's permitted false teachers. He's permitted all that. And he kinda keeps the devil on a leash. And if it's up to the devil, he would like to completely destroy that Bible to the point where there'd be no mention of Jesus in it. But God keeps him on enough of a leash that believe it or not, if you are a modern version person, and you go home and you search even your modern version, which isn't true scripture, but it's close enough, you can still find out whether or not you're saved. I knew whether or not I was saved with an NIV in the first five months of going to that mega church. That's all I had was my NIV at the time. And I was trying to read through it. I was about 50 books into it when someone brought me the real gold and not the fool's gold. And then I put the other stuff aside. But yes, God is good. But my recommendation, I got to tell you, has anyone made the journey besides me from a modern version to the real one? Did you notice a difference? Yeah. Is there anyone who made the change and said it made no difference to me? I always recommend this experiment. Read the Psalms in the King James Bible, just the Psalms, for a week, nothing else. And pray, pray. Say, God, I saw an ugly old Italian man on Beers Irish Drive who said, you only have one book. And the guy really makes me mad. But he seems to be convinced of it. But I don't know. Is this true? Jesus said, ask. And then read just the King James Psalms for a week. And then when it's all done, Go back to whatever you used to have and try reading the Psalms again. And see if the Spirit of God doesn't show you which book is His. He'll show you real fast. He wants to show you. Question is, do you want to know? And the answer is, no, I don't, because all the other Christians believe you can have anything. And I want it that way, too. I understand tolerance. God will take care of this. Back to where we are. So the thing is, let me show you one other thing. Go to Exodus chapter 16. This is a great chapter. You know, the chapter and verse markings in a Bible were put there by God. Well, men did that. Yeah, men also wrote the Bible under God's direction, and they put the chapter and verse markings in here by God's direction. And don't listen to scholars, read it and learn for yourself. And here in Exodus chapter 16, it's when God, they've come out of Egypt, they've crossed the Red Sea, and now they're complaining for something to eat. Verse two, and the whole congregation is murmuring, and they want to have something to eat. And then in verse four, the Lord says to Moses, behold, I will rain bread from heaven for you. And the people will go out and gather a certain rate every day that I may prove them whether they will walk in my law or no. And the manna, if you study the chapter, is a type of the Word of God. This is the bread from heaven that we have. Now, I know Jesus was the bread from heaven with a capital W, and he was here for three and a half years, but then he left. And he left for us the bread from heaven with a little w that tells us about him. And this is the bread from heaven that feeds our soul. And God said about it, I'm going to rain this from heaven. And so forever, O Lord, thy word is settled in heaven. and in 1800 BC started to rain some down to Job and then started to rain some down to Moses in 1490 and then rain some down through the various prophets all the way to Malachi and then when the time was right in the New Testament, he rained it down to those men and he rained down first half a Bible and then when he was ready in English, he rained down and translated them together so you could have a whole Bible and we could study. And it's God's work. And why did you do this? End of verse 4, that I may prove them whether they will walk in my law or no. I want to test them. What do they think of my book? Well, I just want your salvation, I'm not interested in your book. Okay, fine. You will be in the Millennium, we'll be taught then. But you know what, I thought this was interesting, and I could do you a whole study in this chapter on how this is a type of the Word of God. But this is chapter 16 in Exodus. That's the second book of the Bible, correct? You know how many chapters there are in Genesis? 50. What's 16 plus 50? Do you know when you got 66 books? With the King James Bible, with the second giving of God's Word. I mean, He gave it once in Hebrew and once in Greek, and then He had to give it a second time in a new language, translated them over, and that's when you got it. Do you know when it was commissioned? If you read this chapter, verse 1, 2, and 3 is just some stories about them in the wilderness of sin. But all of a sudden, there's a paragraph marking in verse 4 when God says, I'll reign to them. And that's when He begins the whole thing in verse 4. Do you know when the Bible was commissioned? 1604 by King James. You know what was finished? In 1611. Look at verse 11. And the Lord spake unto Moses. And the Lord speaks unto you in 1611. These are just little hidden things. This is God's book. Yeah. And you know why He gave it? To prove you. Are you going to gather some every day? Are you going to walk in my law? Are you going to walk in something else? Now, I'm calling you to discipleship. I'm not calling you to salvation. You can be saved and not be a disciple. You do know that. That would be most of Christianity. By the way, Jesus experienced that. Luke 17. Ten lepers came. He healed all ten. Nine of them ran away. Where's the other nine? You know, they're at T-Mobile, getting a new cell phone. Only one came back to serve. Discipleship is a rare thing. But discipleship is based on God's word. God wants to know. Back to where we are. First thing we saw was the Hebrews after the exodus and the Christians after the cross. God is very balanced in his judgment. I want you to be saved. I'd also like you to serve, but just get saved, will ya? At the very least, get saved. The next thing he wanted to show us, verse six, the angels, which kept not their first estate, but they left their own habitation. He hath reserved them in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day. Second group God wanted us to see in terms of his judgment on display. Yes, I can take souls, I either can save them Or sadly, if they refuse salvation, I destroy them. That's what God does to souls that refuse salvation. He destroys them. Thank you, Lord, for that. He destroys lost souls. They don't live forever in the lake of fire. They're destroyed. Thank goodness for that. The mercy of God endures forever, not the judgment of God enduring forever. But that's for souls. Souls are a lower creature than angels. Angels cannot die, Jesus said. Souls can die. The soul that sinneth, it can and will die and face a second death, it's gone. But angels, they can't die. And so what did you do with the angels? Well, they kept not their first estate. Now, the marginal reading in the AV 1611, we have one on the table back there, the marginal reading for first estate is kept not their principality. Now, what we understand when we read the book of Daniel is angels are given regions to which they are to oversee. Now, of course, God wanted obedient angels that would bring his messages, that would minister to who would be the heirs of salvation with physical safety and their well-being. That's what God wanted of them. But there were angels that decided to have pride in them. We learned about the first one in Ezekiel 28. Thou was perfect in the day thou was created until iniquity was found in thee. And iniquity is an inner soul, an inner sin inside the spirit that says, I don't want to do it God's way. I quit on you. Iniquity. I'm quitting on you. I'm doing it my way. Pride, the number one thing that God hates in Proverbs 6. You know the verses? You've seen the verses, Proverbs 6? Real quick, go there, I'll show you. Proverbs 6. The book of wisdom, learn things. Verse 16. These six things doth the Lord, H-A-T-E, hate. Yes, your God has perfect hatred. God is love. That's one facet. You know what he really is? He's holy. Holy. Holy is the Lord God Almighty. And every other attribute flows out of his holiness. But here's the things he hates. Number one, a proud look. Number two, a lying tongue. Number three, hands that shed innocent blood. Number four, in verse 18, a heart that devises wicked imaginations and feet that are swift to running to mischief. 19, a false witness that speaketh lies and he that soweth discord among the brethren. Can you see what's in those three verses, Mark? Well, I'll show you something else. That's the unholy trinity. Watch verse 17, that's the devil. He started with pride. He's a liar, the father of it. He's a murderer from the beginning. Number 18 is six plus six plus six, that's the Antichrist. He's got a heart that devises wicked imagination and stands in the temple and says he's God and he's killing Jews all over the place. And number 19 is, of course, the false witness that speaks lies, and so is discord among the brethren. Now, you don't need to know those doctrinal truths, but the thing you wanted to see was pride. Pride. Some people ask, Brother Mike, where do you get this stuff? I get this from reading my Bible. not commentaries, I read my Bible over and over and over. I've read it almost 70 times. And I, okay, Lord, and what? Oh, I never saw that before. And the Lord shows me little things. He's always willing to feed one of his children that's coming to his word. And that's what he does. Now, these angels kept not their first estate. I'm not gonna do what God wants me to do. I'm going to leave my habitation. So God says, how am I gonna deal with them? Go to Isaiah 45. Isaiah 45, this is a verse that they don't like. When I was on Ask the Pastor for all those years, they didn't like this verse, so I wouldn't bring it up, no need upsetting them. I can't kind of handle this verse. By the way, in Isaiah chapters 40 through 47, 48, it's God talking about himself a lot. It's God the Father just telling his attributes. So it's almost like reading John 14 through 17 where Jesus is talking and words are read. These are a lot God the Father talking. And look what he says in verse seven. Verse one, thus saith the Lord. Verse seven, I form the light and create darkness. I make peace and create evil. Oh, God wouldn't make evil. God created it, he said. I don't understand it. Well, read your Bible a few times. You'll get to understand it. We've taught this before. Go back to our Isaiah studies. I can show you all the cross references. But here's what he had to do. When those angels sinned, God is light. Light was emanating out from him. When he made the earth originally and the heaven around the earth, it was all bathed in his light. When God said, let there be light in Genesis 1-3, he was talking about, allow my light. God's light. God is light. In the new heaven and the new earth, there's no need for the sun or the moon or the stars, for the Lord is the light thereof. We have artificial light right now, the sun. That's artificial light. And then we have artificial man-made light, but that's artificial God-made light. He said, I gotta give them something while they're down there, but my light is the one I want. Now, when those angels sinned, he had to create darkness. because it's not natural for him. So I have to create darkness. Now, what am I gonna do? Well, light is my truth. Light is my goodness. Light are the attributes of my holiness flooding out. They don't want them. I've got to, like it says in Jude, confine them under chains of darkness. They cannot Believe it or not, the devil and his angels can't understand this book. Right? Remember 1 Corinthians chapter 2? They can memorize the book, but they can't understand it. It'd be like you being able to memorize some of the equations that NASA uses for space launch, but you couldn't understand them. By the way, I can show you where to find those equations if you want. You can look at them. You won't understand them. How many of you understand E equals MC squared? Okay. Right. And the devil's like that with this book, because God's put them under darkness, a spiritual darkness and a physical darkness. And they're confined to darkness. That's why they do most of their work at night. I wish Kevin were here. Mark, you know, you like to pass out tracts. I like to pass out tracts. We like to preach on the streets. Have you ever tried it when the sun goes down at night? I did it once on Chippewa. It's not the same. Something happens when that dark is out. Those devils are out getting in people's mind. It's a difference. It's much different. Not that they're receptive in the light either, but they're nasty in the dark. Big difference. Yeah. 1 Corinthians chapter 2. Verse five, your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God. We speak wisdom among them that are perfect, and yet not the wisdom of this world, nor of the princes of this world that come to naught. We're speaking the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom which God ordained before the world unto our glory, which none of the princes of this world knew, for had they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. I mean, the devil's right there saying to the Pharisees to tell the people, say, crucify him, crucify him, crucify him. And the devil's worked up in a lather. And if the devil had read the book of Deuteronomy, he'd have known if you crucify that guy, he can take away all the sin of the world. He should have been saying, stone him, stone him, stone him, run him through with a lance. But he didn't know. He doesn't understand this book. He doesn't understand it. So God has confined them to chains of darkness. And they're dark in the sense that they cannot appear to us. I'm sure they would like to appear to us. Angels are bigger than we are. They would bully us. They would overpower us. They're smarter than we are. They would beguile and deceive and lead us astray if they could appear to us even more than they... They'd love to use what little miracle working power they have. They don't have the miracle working power of God, but they have minor miracle working power. Got to study the first two law of thermodynamics. They can sometimes violate the second law. They can never violate the first. And you study the miracles in the Bible. And they'd like to do that, and people are impressed even when the second law is violated for a little bit. And so they like to do that, but God's put them under chains of darkness until the judgment of the great day, which is Revelation 20 and verse 10. So it's like, it's almost like, in a way, even though they can move about and do things, the chain that they're under is a chain of darkness. They can't appear. Now you say, well, the devil can appear as an angel of light. Only in a very few cases where God permits him. And those are great, great exceptions. Here's the way God looks at it. Look, no man hath seen God. Do you understand that? You haven't seen Him. I haven't seen Him. Before we say we didn't see Him, the people that lived in the 17th century didn't see Him. God doesn't allow that for many, many reasons, one of which is faith doth come not by seeing, but by hearing. And God wants people to hear what He has spoken and read what He has written to come to true faith. faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the Word of God." Okay, so he doesn't appear to people. He doesn't like the devils appearing to people either. He says, since I'm not appearing, you don't appear. Okay? You want to battle for people's souls? I'll give my word. You can have your scholars write all the words they want. They can write the words of Charlie Darwin, of Karl Marx, of the little guy in the wheelchair. What was that guy recently? Stephen Hawking you can you can have those guys Albert Einstein all those num num skulls you can Their stupidity and the theory of relativity Carl Sagan Carl Pagan, you know all of those guys Yeah, you can and and I'll give my words and What is the wheat to the chaff? And if you ever do taste of my word and see that it's good, you'll find it's better than the garbage you've been eating. So he keeps him under wraps, but every so often, he will permit when someone pushes the limit and pushes the limit and pushes the limit like King Saul did, he'll allow a spirit to appear. And he might allow an angel to appear as an angel of light. But to you and to me, the angels are not allowed to appear. You know that, right? Colossians You remember those verses you want me to show you in Colossians again go to the book of Colossians. Let me find you Colossians chapter 2 The angels were used in the Old Testament, like he said in the book of Ephesians and Galatians, that the law was given and ordained by angels in the hands of the mediator. And he would often use them as messengers to the prophets, to Moses and to Daniel and stuff like that. But in the New Testament, Because of the work that Christ did, the book of Colossians is all about the superiority of Jesus Christ. It's about our head, Colossians, Christ, our head. End of verse 2 of chapter 2, Christ, in whom are all the treasures of wisdom. We need to be, verse 7, root up and built up in Him. Verse 9, because in Christ dwells all the fullness of the Godhead, bodily we're complete in Him. And what he did was when he was on the cross, verse 14, he blotted out the handwriting of the ordinances. All those laws that were given to Moses and everything like that, the handwriting, the ones that Moses wrote, they were blotted out. That would be the Levitical law. That would be the civil law of Exodus 21, 22, 23. What was not blotted out was the one written with the finger of God. That's the Ten Commandments. God doesn't blot out His commandments. And those commandments are there to lead you to Christ. And after you've gotten Christ, through Christ, you keep those commandments. Yea, we don't make the law void. We establish the law through Christ. But the handwriting of ordinances are all blotted out. And so we don't have that. Verse 15, He spoiled principalities and powers. He made a show of them openly. He triumphed over them in it. That's His cross. So therefore, let no man judge you in meat or drink or holy day or Sabbath. That was all Old Testament, nothing to do with us. They're just a shadow of the things to come. The body is Christ. I mean, if you wanna, if a girl wants to meet a man, and she's been waiting for this guy her whole life, and it's the perfect guy for her, and he enters the room, she doesn't run over to the wall and hug his shadow. She runs and hugs him. So what the heck we wanna grab onto the Old Testament, we can grab onto Christ. Now watch it, verse 18, and let no man beguile you of your reward in a voluntary humility and worshiping of angels, intruding into those things which he hath not seen. God says, I will not allow my angels to appear before my born-again Christian children. They have my word and they have my spirit. And if that's not enough for them, we'll have a talk when I meet them one day. No angels. If an angel appears in your room, get under your covers and start praying to the Lord to get rid of them. Because the only angel could be is, now it won't happen to you because you're not of that nature, but there are people that keep asking and asking and asking. And God says, okay, guy's asking for a rope to hang himself, let him hang himself. For the rest of us, we understand because of their sin they are under chains of darkness until the judgment of the last day. There is balanced judgment. There is, I guess you would call it, a partial judgment. Because he hasn't finished judging them yet. He's just draped them under darkness. At the last day, he's gonna take the darkness off, he's gonna display it to the whole universe, and we shall judge angels. What he means by that, he doesn't mean like we're gonna be sitting there going, you know, I think he deserves this, I think he deserves that. What he means is like we're gonna be in the jury box. Jesus Christ is gonna be the prosecuting attorney, and then he's gonna turn to the jury, have you made your decision? We're gonna go, yeah, you're right, guilty, just charge Jesus, yeah. We're gonna be agreeing with our Lord. The last thing I want you to understand is the angels after creation faced partial judgment and they're under darkness. Now watch this. Human beings can be placed under darkness as a partial judgment. Let me give you some examples and then we'll be done. This is deep. You don't need to know any of this stuff. Here's what you need to know. Jesus is the Christ. Except you be born again. You cannot see the kingdom of God I I wish I was teaching theology class to missionaries and pastors instead of you know This is just the way I'm wired folks. I'm sorry, so I think deep and that's it But you don't need to know any of this stuff We're gonna learn all of this in the Millennium when Jesus teaches us and much better stuff, but none the way Let me show you what he did to the angels. Here's what he does go to 2nd Corinthians 3 to certain groups of people God says, I can do a balanced judgment, I can do a partial judgment. 2 Corinthians 3, this is what's happened today, because they left their first estate, the Jews. their first estate was to be priests to the nation. Because they said, oh, we're not gonna do that. We don't want this man as our king. We don't want this man as our priest. So God says, okay, then I'm gonna move on. I'm gonna leave you behind. And what is the penalty? 2 Corinthians 3.13, Moses had a veil over his face when he used to go talk to God. Then he'd come back to see the people. That the children of Israel could not steadfastly look to the end of that which is abolished. What was gonna be abolished was the entire Mosaic law of the handwriting ordinances so that they would look beyond Moses and beyond the law and look to Christ. But a lot of them got so hung up on Moses, well Moses is our father, Abraham's our father, and they got hung up on the people and they missed the promise of the Messiah. So what happened? They left their first estate and their minds now are blinded until this day. God's got them under a veil, untaken away in the reading of the Old Testament. You talk to a Jew, I don't care how smart he is, and I've done it. I knew a Jew with an IQ of 150, he's in Time Magazine, he was on 60 Minutes, he's been written up all over the world, go online, check him out. Mendel Sacks, S-A-C-H-S. He was the son of a rabbi. I sat with him, and the Old Testament, he couldn't see a thing. Why? God's got him under darkness. Why is that? Well, look at the verse. The veil will be done away in Christ even to this day. Verse 15, when Moses has read the veil still on their heart, nevertheless, when it, when their heart will turn to the Lord, God will take the veil away. Oh, but I don't, Jesus, I don't believe in that. It's a, that was a New Testament thing. They hate Jews. Jesus was a Jew. He loves the Jews. So that's done right there. Now the blindness back up to Romans 11, just to show you God's plan for Israel in the future. He's not done. He let the nation be born again in 1948. And real soon, He's coming back to take it. Thank goodness. We'll be out of here. We'll finish up. And Romans 11, regarding that blindness that's on them right now, that God put there, it's a judicial blindness. I don't like it. Take it up with God. Something you don't like about what God did? Tell him. You're not man enough? You're not woman enough? Tell him. Go ahead. Tell him. I don't like the way you deal, God. wrestle with him like Jacob. I'll tell you what's gonna happen, he's gonna touch a hollow of your thigh, you're gonna limp away from that wrestling match. But do it. Don't look at me, talk to him. Romans 11, 25, I would not brethren that you be ignorant of this mystery lest you become wise in your own conceit like a Roman Catholic. and think you've replaced the Jews. Blindness only in part has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles comes in and then all Israel shall be saved. That's coming real soon. So God wants us to know his judgment on display. He has a balanced judgment of salvation or destruction. He has a partial judgment of holding people and angels in certain places. Now for the angels, it's over. For the Jews, it's not over. He wants them to be saved, they just have to turn their heart to the truth. By the way, one of the best ways to get a Jew to see that, what's the name of that site, One for Israel? Go on YouTube and type in O-N-E-F-O-R Israel. And that is amazing to watch the testimonies of Jews. You'll hear common over and over. We were told not to read the New Testament. One day I picked one up and started reading and go, wow, this is Jewish. And I found Jesus. And you'll hear the testimonies one by one. Because these things are written that ye may know that Jesus is the Christ and believing have life in his name to the Jew and the Gentile for the same Lord is rich over all to call upon him. And next week, we'll see how God can also do total judgment, like happened to Sodom and Gomorrah. I think that's what America's headed for real soon, folks. And we'll look at that next week. Lord, we do thank you for the book of Jude, and help us, Lord, to earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered to the saints. We pray in Jesus' name, amen.