We're continuing our study in the little general epistle, a small book of Jude. It's only one chapter. We saw that Jude wanted to write about the common salvation, but he said, you know, when I wanted to do that, verse three, it was needful for me to write unto you and to exhort you that ye should earnestly contend for the faith that was once delivered to the saints. And what he was noticing was there was already some attacks happening on the gospel of Jesus Christ and on the true faith that was delivered to the people back in his time. And what he's going to do is he's going to write his little address and then he's going to sound his alarm. And his alarm is there is now heresy and apostasy beginning to enter into the church of Jesus Christ. Apostasy is from a Greek word that means to... stasis is to stand. And apo is to move away from your stand. It's to abandon the stand you once took. It's to walk away from the faith. And Jude's concern is people are going to walk away from the faith. the faith that brings salvation, the faith of the gospel and the truth of Jesus Christ. They're gonna abandon that faith. And what happens then is something called heresy. And heresy, from the Latin word, to hold. And heresy is to hold an unsound doctrine instead of true doctrine. And we saw how important God has given the doctrine of Christ. as we read about in a couple books before, the second epistle of John, that the doctrine of Christ is the doctrine that gives one a relationship with both God the Father and God the Son, and whoever does not have that doctrine no longer has a relationship with God, no matter what he says. And so, his concern is we need to stand for this, and the alarm is there's heresy and apostasy already beginning. So, verse 4, now that he's warned us in verse 3, what's going on? Well, there are certain men that have 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. And he's gonna give the who, the what, the why, the how, and the when we're gonna look at of the problem that's going on here, why he feels I've got to write about this and sound the warning now. Now this warning is sounded in the second last book of the Bible. And this warning is sounded right before the book of Revelation. And I think God placed this book in the King James Bible as the second last book. It didn't come out this way when all the books were being written because the books were written in a different chronological order. But God knew in the time we live in, once the printing press was out, once people would be going to school and learning to read, once millions, yea, billions of Bibles would be circulated and people to read, he set it up in a setting and an order that makes sense to our time. And what he's trying to say is this is going to be one of the great problems before the second coming of the Lord. Before Jesus is revealed again, one of the problems we're going to face is Ungodly men who've crept in have now taken the grace of God and turned it into something else and when they've done this it ends up Causing people not to have salvation these certain men that he says in verse 4 in the middle of the verse are ungodly men The the problem is they're denying our Lord Jesus Christ Translating this is they're not saved These ungodly men are not saved. Now, he's bringing this out for us to read here because he understands, and he wants us to understand, that the devil's attack is going to be in the spirit realm and in the realm of religion. The devil isn't so much into setting up pornography and drugs and alcoholism. Those are sins of the flesh. The flesh will do that all by itself with no devil around. The devil is going to get into the business because the devil was one that wanted to be like God to set up false religion. And these are unsaved men creeping into false religion. Go to Galatians chapter one. They're creeping into religion and they're gonna set up a counterfeit religion and sadly people are gonna follow after it. And sadly, it's going to harm them, their souls, and the souls of their children and their loved ones. Book of Galatians, chapter one, a great little epistle that Paul writes just to nail down the doctrine that salvation is by grace alone. No works need to be added to it. Verse three, grace. Comes to you and peace from God the Father and from our Lord Jesus Christ Jesus Christ is the one who gave himself for our sins that he might deliver us from this present evil world According to the will of God and our Father and of course to whom be glory forever and ever amen We say thank you Lord for doing that Oh There's interference they're saying I'm like I'm going to try and reset the connection. All righty. Something, something. to all the speakers well if if let me ask you this then it's interfering with the YouTube I gather is it inner or even even the audio pickup this is not important anyways look the people that came can hurt it Dying on the cross to deliver us from the mess. We were in now he continues in verse 6 Because some of the people of Galatia some of these things Jude was warning about and Judas piggybacking on it He's writing about the same time Paul is writing here is Some men had crept in I marvel that ye are so soon Removed from him that's God the Father that called you into the grace of Christ. That's God's call and Well, I wanna know God. There's only one thing God's gonna tell you. Come to my son, Jesus, and get his grace. That's his call. But some of you have been removed unto another gospel. There's the gospel of Christ, and then there are other gospels, like the one I grew up in, in the Catholic Church. That was the gospel of the Catholic Church in sacraments. And I was told I had to keep the sacraments in order to be okay with God. No, all I need to do is to grab on to Christ and hold on to Him and let Him do the rest. That's another gospel, which is not another. Verse seven, but there be some that trouble you. They would pervert the gospel of Christ and say it's Christ plus Mary, it's Christ plus the sacraments, it's Christ plus baptism, it's Christ plus anything. The entire book of Galatians is it's Christ plus nothing. I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me and otherwise I'm gonna frustrate the grace of God and I'm not gonna get saved. I must trust in Christ and Christ alone. It's very easy. This is not difficult, folks. If you've made it difficult, you've listened to another voice. So why don't you hear God's voice today and do what he said. Verse 8, though we, says if I do it, Paul, or Barnabas, or even an angel from heaven preaches any other gospel unto you than that which we've preached unto you, the death, burial, and resurrection, and salvation of Jesus Christ, let that individual be accursed. Paul, you can't write that. The Holy Ghost just told me to write it. So he just told me to double down on it in verse nine. As we said before, I'll say it again, if any man, I don't care what he's wearing on his head, I don't care if you're kissing his ring, I don't care if he's sitting on a throne in Rome, I don't care who he is or where he is, preaches any other gospel than what you've received, let that individual, let him be accursed. You know where popes go to hell? You know where every pope is? In hell. Never been a saved pope, not once, ever. Says who? God just said it in his book right there. What do popes preach? Another gospel. Every last one of them, burning and rotting in hell. I got two good books by an ex-Catholic priest here, and one by another one, The Vicars of Christ, The Dark Side of the Papacy, and the things that they've done. And Jude and Paul are trying to warn people right off the bat, watch out, this is coming. And it came, it did, like a wave, and it's all across the world. Back to where we are in the Exodus. These are lost men, ungodly men. Godly men don't tell you anything except what God said. That's what a godly man does. A godly man is honest enough to know, I don't know on my own, God knows. What do you think, Brother Mike? It doesn't matter what I think. What did God say? What is written? Search the scriptures, Jesus said. Seek ye out of the book of the Lord and read. Back to Jude. And Jude is warning. And he can see this is coming. And God's warning him to warn us and sound the alarm. There is heresy and apostasy coming in the church. Not in the world. The world's already a mess. It's headed for hell. But it's going to creep into the church. 2 Peter. Couple books back from Jude, chapter two. These ungodly men, you can be certain about this, they're ungodly. He says there's certain men, what can I be certain about? They're ungodly, they don't know God. It's just that simple. What do I think about an Orthodox priest, a Catholic priest? What do I think about an imam? What do I think of? Ungodly, they don't know God. It's just that simple. Said who? The Bible. You can be certain of this. These things are written that you may be certain. The certainty of the things that are written. 2 Peter 2 verse 1, there were in the old days false prophets among the people. Peter warns, there shall be false teachers among you. They privately, they're gonna sneak in damnable heresies. They will deny the Lord that bought them and bring swift destruction upon themselves. Verse two, and many shall follow their pernicious ways by reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of. The way of truth is you must be born again. Tell that to one of them, see what they say. I worked at a Catholic hospital. I had to deal with the priests and the nuns. You're one of those BACs, they used to call me, the born-again Christian. They knew. That's right, I'm a born-again Christian. I carry God's word. I don't carry a scapula. I don't carry a rosary. I carry what God said. They used to run, flee from me in the corridors. Book scares him, just like garlic does a vampire. Who are the men? They're certain ungodly men. They're unsaved with damnable heresies. What are they doing? They're turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness. Now, lascivious is from the French word, lascif, which means to loosen or to relax. And what they want to do is they want to relax the teachings and the standards of God's word. And what that does is it promotes indulgence, indulgences. They even sold indulgences at one point. But it promotes indulgences. Now, the word's only found six times in the Bible. It's all in the New Testament. And the first one ever to use it is Jesus himself. So go back to Mark chapter 7. People get mad at me, you hate the Catholic Church. Well, God hates it. Of course I hate it. It damned souls. It tried to damn me. It tried to damn my mother, and my father, and my brother, and my sisters, and my entire family with their false teaching. It's a damnable heresy. Someone's gotta stand up and speak the truth. Someone has to earnestly contend for the faith, and I will. As long as I have breath, I'll stand for God's word. And then I'll step aside and let God fight the Catholic Church. And he will when he comes back. Mark chapter seven. Are you without understanding? Do you not perceive whatsoever thing from without entering into the man? It cannot defile him. Verse 18. Whatsoever thing from outside cannot purify a man. He can eat all the white wafers he wants. Stuff you eat isn't gonna change things. Because the problem, verse 19, is it doesn't enter into the heart, the little wafer, but into the belly, and it goes into the draught, and it purges all meats. Here's the problem, Jesus says, that which cometh out of the man defileth the man. For from within, out of the heart, He's going to name 13 negative traits in here. Precede evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within and defile the man. The heart is deceitful above all things. And when it gets religious, it's desperately wicked. and the lasciviousness comes right there. It's one of the traits of a lost heart, which is why Jesus looked at that religious man and said, Nicodemus, you must be born again. Your religion isn't gonna do it. Nobody's religion is gonna do it. Jesus said, I'm gonna do it. I'm gonna go and suffer at the hands of the elders and the scribes, and they're gonna put me to death, and three days later, I'll rise from the dead. You want a sign? I'll give you a sign, the sign of the prophet Jonas. I'll conquer all the sin. You must be born again, Nicodemus. Lasciviousness, to incite lust and promote indulgences. Go to Galatians chapter five. Another time he mentions it is in that great little book of Galatians. And you're taking grace, the gift of God, and you're turning it into a loose form of religion. And we're going to see how that began back in the first century and how it's continued all the way through down to our time, sadly. Galatians chapter 5. And in this one, in this chapter, Paul is showing that there is a difference between the flesh and the spirit. And so verse 16, he says, so my recommendation to you Christians is walk in the spirit, with a capital S. and allow your walk to be led by the spirit of the living God and the spirit of Christ and the Holy Spirit from above. And if you do that, you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. I can assure you Jesus didn't fulfill any lust of his flesh. Jesus, the Holy Spirit wouldn't fulfill the lust of the flesh. The battle is this, 17, the flesh lusts against the spirit. and the Spirit is against the flesh. These two are the contrary one to the other, so that you cannot do the things that you would if you follow one, you're not gonna be able to do the other. If you follow the other, you're not gonna do, it's one or the other, choose you. Verse 18, but if you're led of the Spirit, you're not under the law. The works of the flesh are manifest. People can see easily someone living in the flesh, adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness right next to idolatry and witchcraft. And it's a spiritual thing. And people who have abandoned the gospel of Christ and turned from grace now to lasciviousness get involved in witchcraft, necromancy, all kinds of spiritual things. That's a sad truth, and he's trying to warn Judah, saying, look, this is gonna creep into the church. God doesn't want you to be spiritual with a little s. He wants you to be born again and led of the Scriptures and the Spirit with a capital S. And that's what he wants. And that's unfortunately what happens. There's witchcraft, there's hatred gets involved, there's variance, they begin changing things. There's emulations, they imitate people and act like people. You're not supposed to emulate and imitate anybody. You're supposed to follow Christ. You're not even supposed to imitate him. You're supposed to follow him. Be yourself and follow him. And notice, there's drunkenness. in verse 21, that's all part of that big mess of the 17 works of the flesh that are named right there. And you'll find that one of the problems with these certain men that creep in and get in positions of leadership is they like alcohol. I had a friend of mine, a pastor that I knew, when he was a young man, he grew up Catholic, and he thought he wanted to serve God, so he thought, okay, become a Catholic priest, that's how you serve God. So he went and talked to his priest, and they said, you can come visit us one time at the rectory, which is where the priests lived. And he said, so one Saturday, I was coming to the rectory to visit with the priests, and as I was coming to the front door, Alcohol truck full of beer and wine and things was pulling up to the back door an unloading case of hooch And he said he said I was 16 17 years old this just didn't seem right to me Why is this being unloaded here where these men live? The drunkenness is part of it. It's one of the problems God dealt with in the Old Testament and Have you read your Old Testament? Bowls of wine that they were drinking, the priests. Look, the natural man likes a drink. The supernatural man doesn't. There's no beer in heaven. There is some fine, I don't know what they are, Chablis and stuff. No, there's no alcoholic beverages in heaven. And the drunkenness is part of this. back to where we are. These men, what are they doing? They're turning the grace of God in lasciviousness. So what is God doing? Now this is a very interesting phrasing here in the fourth verse. There are certain men, they crept in unawares. This one positive between the comma to the comma, who were before of old ordained to this condemnation. You could almost lift it out and you could read it. There are certain men crept in unawares, ungodly men, turning the grace of God into lasciviousness. But he throws this little positive in there between the two commas there, and it says, who were before of old ordained to this condemnation. And it might be possible to read it and go, well, God chose these men to live that way. I mean, God picked it. He ordered that they're gonna be that way. Now, the word ordained is from the word ordino, which is to order or to set or appoint or make a decree. But I gave a couple examples there in the notes first Kings 1232 Jeroboam once ordained a feast so he appointed we're gonna have a feast and even named the day it was if you go to that chapter Habakkuk praying one day. Oh Lord thou hast ordained them for judgment Now here's what God has ordered God has ordered his word in two separate directions and The one direction to the right hand is to follow Jesus, because he's at God's right hand. When you follow Jesus at God's right hand and you follow truth, then along that follows is God has ordered blessings to follow on the straight and the narrow way. And Jesus said straight is the gate, narrow is the way, and it leads to life, and there are blessings all along that way. God has also ordered and ordained on the left hand a number of paths. There's a way that seems right under me. Pick the one you want. I'm gonna be a Muslim, I'm gonna be a Catholic, I'm gonna be an agnostic, I'm gonna be Larry Flint. I mean, pick what you want. And what God has ordained over there is judgment. And Lord, thou hast ordained them to judgment. Why? Go to Matthew chapter 18, Jesus will tell you. God didn't choose the path they were gonna pick. God told them these are where the paths lead. And what I've ordered is, what happens at the end of the path if you continue on it? I'll give you time to repent and turn back the other way, but if you don't, and you continue on in your ways, there is judgment. There is cursing. It's been ordained of old. It's something God said from a long time ago. Matthew 18, verse seven, woe. unto the world because of offenses. It must be, needs be, that offenses come, but woe to that man by whom the offense cometh. God knew. He knew, I'm gonna give these people free choice. They're gonna make their choices. I'm gonna set two paths for them. And when they choose the path of offense, There's a wall attached to it. There's a curse attached to it. And I've ordained that a long, long time ago. And, God says, I put it in my words so anyone can read it and learn. And when they stand before me, I'll say, but I put it there for you. I never read it. Well, I don't know why. You read the newspaper. You read Jacqueline Suzanne. I don't want you guys to read, but you read whatever. And why didn't you read this, God says. Well, I'm not a good reader. Well, you didn't listen. I mean, you listen to the TV shows and you listen to everything else. Why didn't you listen to a preacher with my word? Don't be without excuse. God's ordained it this way. And for these certain men, they're ordained unto judgment. Now, the way they're gonna creep in is they're going to creep in unawares. They're not gonna come in and say, we're here to break the place up, we're here to destroy the place, we're here because we serve the devil. They're going to come in, go to Acts chapter 20, Lord, what will it be in the last days? Beware that no man deceive you. Many will say, I am Christ. I'm a Christian. And they're going to do it that way. The devil's gonna counterfeit. The devil, he's a wolf, but he's gotta put a sheep clothing over what he's gonna do, and he's gonna do that with his men, too, with his ministers. Acts chapter 20, that great chapter where Paul is bidding farewell to the pastors and the elders of the church in Ephesus, and he's telling them, verse 27 I Have not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God verse 28 take heed therefore if you're a pastor Take heed to yourselves and to all the flock over which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers feed the church of God which he hath purchased with his own blood that's a deity verse for Jesus Christ and It's telling you that Jesus is God. That's God's blood that flowed through his veins. You need to do this. You need to teach them why. Verse 29, for I know this, after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock. The devil knows that I'm a fighter, Paul says. And he knows he sent someone here when I'm here right now. He knows I'm gonna run them out. I'm gonna earnestly contend with them. I'm gonna banish them from the church. I will put them out on the streets. I won't allow them in the pews here. That's what Paul did. Put them out into the world for the destruction, Paul said in 1 Corinthians 5. The devil knows I'll do that, but when I leave, Paul says I'm like Moses, but when I leave you might get someone like Aaron up there Who's gonna let them sit around and then they're gonna come in and they're gonna enter in and when they get in They're gonna start home Bible studies and whispering to people and they're not gonna spare the flock. They're gonna pick them off one at a time by one, by one. And sadly, what's gonna happen in the next generation, verse 30, is that also after your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things to draw away disciples after them. So therefore, watch and remember these things. Back to where we are in the book of Jude. We were just reading in the Acts of the Apostles. Jude is giving us the Acts of the Apostates. And what they're gonna do is they're gonna imitate what the apostles did and try and confuse the innocent. The names and the doctrines are changed, not to protect the innocent, to confuse the innocent. And that's what they do. And they crept in unawares. Now, when did this happen? Well, it began in the first century, because when first century Christianity began, if you remember, the oracles of God were to the Jews. And the gospel of Christ, Romans chapter one, verse 16, the power of God to salvation, to everyone that believe it, to the Jew first, and also to the Greek. And when you read the book of the Acts of the Apostles, you'll see every time Paul comes to a new city, the first thing he does, he goes to the synagogue. To the Jew first. Because for 1,400 years, the Jews were the ones that had the only relationship with the true God. Every heathen religion is a lie of the devil. Every man-made religion is a lie of the devil. God has nothing to do with those religions. They are abominations to God, right? I mean, you know God's thought on them. I'll read it to you real quickly in case you've forgotten. It's Deuteronomy 7, when I deliver you into the land, here's what you do to the other nations with their religions. Thou shalt smite them, utterly destroy them, make no covenant with them, show no mercy to them, don't marry their children, ye shall destroy their altars, break down their images, cut down their groves, and burn their graven images with fire. Thou art a holy people unto the Lord thy God, The Lord thy God have chosen thee to be a special people unto me above all the people that are on the face of the earth There you go. It's real simple. That's kind of black and white, isn't it? Yeah, I hope you're getting this stuff Boy I pray you're getting it It's black or white, choose you whose side you're on. And so what we're seeing is in that first century, God was beginning the work with Jews. Peter was a Jew. John was a Jew. Matthew was a Jew. Jesus was a Jew. He chose Jewish apostles. Paul, Saul of Tarsus, was a Jew. He sent them forth to all the Jews. And so, the beginning of the work of the church was a work with inside the synagogues, reaching out to the people of God. Yes, God was reaching out to Gentiles too, but he was trying to convert his people to the fact that Jesus Christ is their Messiah. And so it began as a sect of Judaism. That's how it began. Now, what happened is the Jews rejected it, and they spit it out. And so then it grew, and they became Christians in Acts chapter 11, verse 26. And they got a new name, and it became the Christian church, and more and more Gentiles were attracted to it. But it began with the Jews. So the initial people to creep in early on, go back to Galatians chapter two, were Judaizers. they were the first ones to bring in a heresy, a heresy that denied the Lord. And Paul is giving a historical Account of what had happened to him on his journeys trying to preach that gospel. He went to an area preached to a synagogue and And then he preached on the streets and he's talking about verse one 14 years after I went back to Jerusalem with Barnabas and I took Titus with me also Titus was a young man. He had preached to in a region. I can't remember where it was Lystra Derby I don't remember and and Titus got saved he heard the preaching of Paul and And God's desire is that anyone that hears the preaching of Paul, which is the grace of Jesus Christ, by grace through faith, not of works, lest any man should boast, would get that salvation, and this young man got saved. Verse two, and so he's following Paul and Barnabas to Jerusalem. I went by revelation, and I communicated unto them that gospel which I preach among the Gentiles. And I'm telling the people in Jerusalem, I'm out there preaching the gospel to the Gentiles. And they're all Jews back in Jerusalem. And he says, and I did this privately to them, which were of a reputation, lest by any means I should run or I had been running in vain. I wanted them to know, I respect you as elders. You've been elders in the Jewish church. I want to show you the gospel that God's given to me. If you've read the Bible, you will begin to see that the gospel I have, that that man, Jesus of Nazareth, is the Christ, is kind of prophesied in your book, and you will accept it. And in the meantime, verse three, neither Titus, who was with me, being a Greek, was compelled to be circumcised. And the Jewish men in Jerusalem were thinking, well, wait a second, this is a new convert of yours, Titus, and now he's converted to the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. By the way, that's my God. Is that your God? Okay, your God is the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. His son is the Lord Jesus Christ. Okay, but the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, that's the Jewish God that God revealed to the Jews. So these Jewish men said, wow, Titus now believes in the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Yes, he does. Well, if he believes in the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, he ought to do what's said in the Old Testament and get circumcised. Because Abraham had his kids circumcised, Genesis 17. So let's have them circumcised. And Paul said, well, it's not necessary for them to be circumcised. Because it's a New Testament, it's a new covenant. And the handwriting of all those ordinance has been nailed to the cross. Christ has paid for all sins, and Christ has fulfilled the law to the letter for everyone. All one does is believe and receive, and all the law is fulfilled in that individual through Christ. So Titus doesn't need to be circumcised. Verse, and why is he getting this message? Verse four, because of false brethren, unawares, brought in. These men had crept in, and they were trying to bring in this thought, well, you know, it is good to believe in the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and it's okay to believe Jesus is his son, and it's even okay to believe he died on a cross and he rose again, but you got to do something. How about just the circumcision? I mean, Jesus plus one thing. and Paul ends the chapter closing it, that frustrates the grace of God. Verse 21, I'm not gonna do that. God's grace comes through Christ alone, plus nothing, minus nothing. It's 100% you believing and receiving what he did on the cross. You don't even need to have water sprinkled on your head, you don't need circumcision, you don't need your nails done, you don't need any, all you need is Christ and Christ alone. But false brethren came in and started this, and the Judaizers were the first, and they were quite successful in the first century. And Jude, who happens to be a Jew, obviously, doesn't like the Judaizers. and he's trying to warn the people. I gotta warn you to contend for the faith. These certain men have already crept in, and they're ungodly men, and they're taking God's grace in the Lord Jesus Christ and turning, or loosening it up and saying, well, you know, it's not grace alone. It's grace plus one thing, circumcision. You say, no, it's grace plus nothing. It's Christ alone. God's not gonna have anybody boasting in heaven based on what you did. He wants your heart. Now sadly, what happened was, because in the first century they were considered a sect of Judaism, the Jews obviously turned on the Christians. At first they thought they could absorb them and bring them in and build up their synagogues with them. And then they found these people will not accept teaching all they want is the New Testament salvation in Christ and they're not going to stick to the teachings of Levitical laws anymore and doing sacrifices and feasts because now it's just preaching the gospel to everybody and so they the church broke off and the Jews got mad and they persecuted the Christians for quite a period of time but Little by little, as these people broke off and began to be known as Christians, Acts 11, 26, they were no longer known as Jews. They're known as Christians. And as they began to increase and the Gentiles among them, more and more Gentiles got saved, a lot of Roman Gentiles got saved. Then the Roman leaders began to persecute them. And what was the name of that church? The, not the church, the Roman Empire, the pagan Roman Empire began the persecutions that went on from the end of the first century, all through the second century, all the way through the third century, until the beginning of the fourth century, when finally they found if you can't beat them, let's join them. And they did exactly what happened in the book of Isaiah. And in the book of Isaiah, remember Assyria tried, and they tried to attack and attack, and finally they gave up when the Lord beat them in the frontal attack. And then they came through Babylon, and they came to Hezekiah and said, we're your friend. we're just like you and then Hezekiah let them in and so the Roman Catholic Church began and and Roman Catholics began go to 1st Peter chapter 4 and then I'll give you some of the histories there remember that word lascivious they're turning the grace of God into lasciviousness 1st Peter 4 3 the time of our past life may suffice us the way we were before we were saved we were doing the will of the Gentiles when we walked in lasciviousness lust excess of wine Revelings banqueting and abominable idolatries and the things are going to be brought in in the fourth century is statues idols and Use of a lot of wine excess wine in the feast now I just remind you for those of you who've studied with us in the past. You know that Jesus never drank fermented wine Jesus never served fermented wine. So at the Feast of Cana, he made grape juice out of water. And that's all he did. And because fermented wine is forbidden in the Old Testament, Proverbs chapter 20, 21, 23, Habakkuk chapter two, I mean, Malachi, you can read all through it, how God doesn't like it because wine is actually a way, fermented products are a way for the devil kind of get ahold of your spirit. Well, it's a spirit sometimes sometimes the store say spirits and and it just it lets it in so so this is what began to happen in the fourth century as they brought this in now and This commentary I found written in 1523. And when this commentary was written, what had happened was, before the King James Bible was written in the 1600s, there was a man by the name of Wycliffe, who had made the first simple attempt of translation into English of the Bible, and the only thing he had was the Latin Vulgate. Look, you know I recommend don't read perversions, but I want to show you the goodness of God. God eventually was going to get his pure and his perfect word out. But initially, even in a Catholic Bible, there's enough there to get saved. And I don't think I have the Catholic Bible here. It's down in the basement if you want to grab it. But if you were to read John 3, or Romans 10 in a Catholic Bible, there's enough of the gospel message to get saved in it. And so Wycliffe translated that New Testament, just the New Testament, into English and sent it out. And it began to go through England, it got over into Europe, and in Germany, Martin Luther, who was a priest, he was a Roman Catholic priest, He was reading first the Latin Vulgate at the Vatican itself, and he got saved. And I'm not sure when he got saved. I know he finally nailed the thesis to the door of the Wittenberg Church in 1517 to tell them at the church that it's by grace alone, it's not our sacraments, and he is a priest. He renounces Roman Catholic priesthood, but I don't know when he got saved, 1515, I'm not sure when. but but later on what he did was he began to preach the gospel and he began what's called the Reformation and and and he started and he wrote a commentary on the book of Jude in 1523 now it's interesting to read it because He's reading it through the eyes of a Roman Catholic priest who's watched 1,000 years of the Catholic Church kind of rule Europe. Because when the pagan Roman Empire fell about 500 AD, the papal Roman Empire took over. And the popes began to have all this power. And around the fourth century on, it was the Roman Catholics that took over all the power. And he reads this thing through the eyes of someone who's watched the Roman Catholics kind of abuse the gospel and the New Testament more than anyone else. He says, For the past thousand years, the bishops have desired and wished to be lords and rulers. They've considered themselves to be of a higher order than the common man and even a common Christian. We see this in the epistles of Jerome. And Jerome was the one in the fourth century that was involved in the forming of the Roman Catholic Church. You can go online, go to Google, type up the name Jerome. It'll come up. He's considered one of the fathers and the doctors of the Roman Catholic Church, and you can read about him. And he's reading about this. through these eyes, and he's seeing that these men are filthy dreamers. They're teaching that they're not subject to civil authority, that the Pope's decree is like God's law. They wrote a bull called the Coveni Domini, and I have it here. Now remember Martin Luther is writing this in 1523, and he's got all the history at hand. He has the history of Gregory VII, who grew up as a boy in Tuscany. His name was Hildebrand. and he became the Pope in, and I'm not sure if he's got the dates here. I'd have to go look. Was it the 11th century? In the 11th century. And he drew up a decree called Dictatus, a list of 27 theses outlining his power as the Pope. Number one, the Pope can be judged by no one on Earth. Number two, the Pope, the Roman Catholic Church, has never erred nor can it err until the time of the end. Number three, the Pope alone can depose bishops. The Pope alone is entitled to an imperial insignia. The Pope can dethrone emperors and kings and absolve subjects from allegiance. All people are obliged to kiss his feet. His secretaries, even if they're not priests, take precedent over all bishops. A rightly elected Pope is without question a saint and made so by the merits of Peter. Now, the interesting thing about his work that Martin Luther has here is his thesis was based on forged documents. He had forgeries made. He had a team of forgers available that made his absolutist claims look as though they were based on ancient records. A whole school of forgers under his very nose would turn out document after document and put the papal seal of approval on it, to cater to every one of his needs. Pope Gregory was a great forger, so when you see Pope Gregory the Great, just think the great forger. And this is the stuff that was going on. These are ungodly men creeping into what is considered the church. I challenge you to ask any person you know what is the greatest Christian denomination in the world, and they'll say the Roman Catholic Church. Yes? I'm not sure. I'm really not sure. I'm just looking at this part here. Yes, yes. Forgers, yes. Yes. Yeah, anytime the Pope required justification for any action he wanted to do, he would get his secretaries to produce an appropriate document, no need for research. Everything was done right on the premise, and earlier documents were touched up to make them say the opposite of what they originally said. This instant method of inventing history was marvelously successful. All his forgeries were at once inserted into canon law. By innumerable subtle changes, they made Catholicism seem as though it were changeless. This would not have worked in an era of universal literacy printing or photocopying or carbon dating. It worked without a hitch in the age of rare manuscripts, inept scholars, and even while most emperors could not read or write on their own. And so he goes on and he lists a lot of the forgeries going on here. Now he's warning there. So this went on, first the Judaizers in the first century, the fourth century the Roman Catholics took over and carried this thing on. I wish it had just ended with them. But sadly, this book is given to us before the revelation of Jesus Christ. Why, what happened? Well, we know what happened, the Reformation occurred. When the Reformation occurred and the printing press came, Bibles got out. When people got Bibles, little by little, the Roman Catholic Empire fell apart. And yeah, there are still Roman Catholic churches today, but they don't control nations like they once did. They no longer have the influence they used to have. People are abandoning it left and right, and today, because of agnosticism. The issue was with the Reformation came back the gospel. With the gospel came people being born again. With people born again, sadly, because people tend to bicker, denominations were formed. Initially the denominations were close to the Word of God. With time, evil men, ungodly men, crept in there and began to change those small bastions of truth, like the Lutheran Church originally preached the gospel for about a hundred years. But by 100 years later, it was no longer preaching the gospel. The Presbyterian Church initially preached the gospel for about maybe 200 years. And then after that, it no longer preached the gospel. And these denominations would creep up, and then these men would creep in and change it one by one. The way they did it is with the Reformation came what we call the Enlightenment. And with the Enlightenment came the growth of universities and colleges and the God of all gods, education. And there probably isn't, well there may be a few, but most moms and dads want their kid to have the best education. I want them to go to Ivy League school. I want them to have the best of the best, and that's their concern. But the problem is education is run by scholars, and scholars are philosophers and unsaved agnostics for the most part. And so what happened was with education, the denominations wanted respect. So we need people with degrees and education. So now we send our believers off to a college where they're educated, and they come back as an expert in the original languages of Hebrew and Greek. And scholars now have crept in unaware, and they've turned the gospel and the grace and the words of God, and they've loosened it with lasciviousness. and brought in indulgences in the changing. Go to Romans chapter one. And that's where we've been for the last 150 years. And we saw before how the gospel was perverted. What was a spiritual gospel, these philosopher professors turned into a social gospel. And then now, in the last 50 years, to a psychological gospel. And today the gospel's all about you and me, but it's no longer about God and his son and his glory. Romans chapter one. So we went from first Roman Catholic prelates, now to scholars. I mean, we wouldn't allow a Roman Catholic prelate to come into our Wesleyan church, would we? And teach us, but we'd allow a scholar in, wouldn't we? A Hebrew scholar, a Greek scholar. Please, take the pulpit, teach us. And the scholars come in. Romans chapter one. Verse 18, the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness. These are ungodly men that are creeping in. And the reason God is upset with them, end of verse 18, is they're holding the truth in unrighteousness. Well, this isn't the right translation here. You know, this could be better translated, this thing. And that which may be known of God has manifest them, for God hath showed it to them. Look, God showed it to them. It's right there. By the way, if they really have Hebrew in a Masoretic text, it's said in Hebrew, most of them can't read Hebrew anyways. If they had the Greek text, the Receptus, it says it right there, they can't read Greek anyways. They just tell you they can read Hebrew and Greek, and they tell you that they translate from Hebrew and Greek. But like Kevin showed just recently, they did a study with 10 Greek scholars on translation committees and gave them words to translate, gave them 10 words to translate into English, and they can only get two out of 10. Words, let alone sentences. Yeah, that was the best scores, two out of 10, yeah. Anyways, now, verse 20, the invisible things of God from the creation of the world are clearly seen. Now, historically, Paul's going back to back when they got out of the garden, I understand that. But today, the invisible things from the writing of the Bible can be clearly read because God has taken by his spirit and put them there for us, being understood by the things that are made. We have no problem reading this book. We can understand his eternal power and Godhead. We have no problem with that. God's made it plain and clear for us. were without excuse. But these scholars, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful, but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened, and professing, see, professors, scholars, themselves to be wise, they became fools, and they changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to, well, to them, a copyright. That's the image they like. They like copyright. little C with their name on it because they don't love God they love mammon and they love money and they love preeminence the very things that Jesus warned against and and what we're seeing is the apostasy in our time the heresies in our time it started with Judaizers it went to Roman Catholics but now it's in Christian denominations and Christian churches. I got a magazine here. This is the leading Wesleyan university in the world, Indiana Wesleyan University. They sent me their magazine recently, and I was reading through it to see if there was any Bible verses at all in here. I mean, this is to their alumni. This is to promote their university achieving through faith. And I read through it and I was stunned. Let's see. There was almost no Bible all through here. The keynote address was the new, Daryl Rimple, I don't know who he is, the president of the university, laid the foundation in his address by the text he used was The Hymn of the Pearl, a story from the apocryphal book Acts of Thomas, in which a boy is the son of a king and he's sent on a quest to Egypt to retrieve the pearl. And that was the keynote address there. No Bible. An apocryphal book. Do you know what an apocryphal book is? That's a book that was written in about the fourth or fifth century after Christ. Was it called the Gospel of Thomas? Thomas was dead in the fourth century, fifth century. He couldn't have written it. And even if he wrote something, God didn't put it in the 27 books of the New Testament. So he sounds the alarm of heresy and apostasy in the church. The acts of the apostates creeping in and trying to get us. I don't know if you remember, only five minutes to go, when God gave the land to Joshua. and the people settled the land in Joshua. In the 22nd chapter, they went and they made an altar on the other side of Jordan. And everybody bowed down to that altar, and it's called the Altar Ed, E-D. And the problem was all of God's people were bowing down on another altar on the other side of Jordan off to the east. And bad things happen in the east. In the temple, you're always supposed to go west to enter into the most holy place. When you go east, you're going forward, away from God. And they all bowed down at the altar ed. at his education, editorials, editions, okay? That's the altar that people are bowing down at today instead of God's Word. Now, we're out of time, so next week I'll get to the rest. What Jude is gonna do here after sounding the alarm is what he wants to do is he wants to warn the people in the church I'm gonna give you an account of the history of apostasy and what things, and again, many examples. The example of the Hebrews after the accident, the angels after the creation, the cities after sodomy is legalized. He's gonna give all these examples, and he'll give a few more. He's gonna talk about Cain and Balaam and Korah, and he's gonna lay these down because what he wants to show us is, yes, God has grace, but God also judges. And if you think you're gonna escape because you've put the name Christian label on you, it's not gonna work. God's not looking for what's on the outside like a white old sepulchre. He's looking for what's on the inside. And an inside, I look on the heart, God says. And He wants the heart. And so we'll look next week and we'll see the account of the history of apostasy and how God deals with it. And just like we saw in the book of Lamentations, God would much rather give the right hand a fellowship But God has the left hand of wrath and anger. And for the unsaved, the wrath is total destruction. And for his children, the left hand of anger will spank you for quite a while. And so God is God, and it's best we get to know him and get to love him and follow him. So next week we'll look at that. Father, thank you for Jude writing to us. to earnestly contend for this faith, and to watch out for heresy and apostasy. And Lord, the only way we can know is by the word that Thou hast given. Thy words are pure. Thy words are perfect. Thy words are a lamp unto our feet. We thank You for them in Jesus' name. Amen.