But today we are going to continue through the book of Jude, this tiny little letter that you could literally preach on for months, there's so many little things. Because of the timer strain and wanting to get through it, there's some things that we're going to be passing over as I kind of said last week, some things that I might not go into as much detail on this pass through. Just a quick recap for those of you who might not have heard the sermon last week. Last week we opened up this letter, we introduced it, and we began talking about Jude's necessity for writing it, right? And what we learned was that had prompted him, the reason that prompted him to write this was the fact that people had made their way into the churches and they sought to do harm to the people of God. He defines those people in verse 3, he defines them as people who have crept in unnoticed, further down in the verses, that they are ungodly people who turn the grace of our God into licentiousness. Some of your Bible versions may say sensuality. And they deny our only master in Lord Jesus Christ. And what Jude tells us is that these people, that they, in light of this attack, their purpose in this attack is to attack the faith. Because what he tells us to do, and what he tells these people to do is to contend earnestly for this faith. Because that is specifically what is under attack. And the way they attack this faith that's once for all been handed down to the saints is that they twist things that God has said. And they try to entice the people of God to sin. And when that has worked, if it graduates over time, it then becomes destructive heresies as we read about in 2 Peter chapter 1, right? And with that being said, I do need to apologize. I think I preached too strongly from the perspective of the heretic and I confused some children. So if that was the case in here, forgive me, I will try to reel that back some as far as being so hard on the heresies. That was my fault in that. Here's the point. This type of thing started in the garden, right? Those who are creeping in in order to twist God's word, we see that through the Old Testament, we see these destructive heresies even in the infancy of the church. Whether it was Paul dealing with the Judaizers, whether it was John and 1 John dealing with the protonostics, these have always tried to make their way inside of the church. And even Jesus himself through the Apostle John in Revelation chapter 2, when he talks about Pergamum, that they had started to follow the way of the Nicoladins. Who were these heretics? Who were these people who had crept in unnoticed in order to lead God's people away from the truth of his word and more towards these imaginations, these destructive heresies? And unless they repented, Christ promised that he would visit them in judgments. And this kind of thing has happened even unto this day. And this is the thing that we've been talking about. While we see in our day and age, at least in our section of the world, we should be praying that we are still in the Pergamum stage, right? Where God is calling us to repent, and Lord willing, we are in that place if he'll tear it. But at any rate, where we finish was Jude giving this first example, right? It's almost as if these people that creep in unnoticed that they are going to receive the penalty of their error from God. And he goes into these examples that explain how God deals with these specific types of sins with these examples from the Old Testament that were widely understood. And the first example that we got was the people of Israel, the people who were let out of the land of Egypt, and for their insolent complaining, and their even supposing that the thrice holy God was a liar. We had read that in Numbers 14 last week where they had charged God with the idea that their kids were going to fall dead in the wilderness as if God would not fulfill his promise and bring his people into the promised land. And their God destroyed everybody. He let all of them die in the wilderness besides the children. He still kept his promise. He still saved the children of these people. Well, today we're going to move our way through the next few examples. So we're going to start reading here in verse 6, and I'm going to complete our reading in verse 10. I doubt we're going to get further than that today. There's a lot to go through here, but here read with me. This is the word of the Lord, Jude verse 6, "And angels who did not keep their own domain, but abandoned their proper abode, he has kept in eternal bonds under darkness for the judgment of the great day. Just as Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities around them, since they in the same way as these indulged in gross immorality and went after strange flesh, are exhibited as an example in undergoing the punishment of eternal fire. Yet in the same way, these men also, by dreaming, defile the flesh, and reject authority and revile angelic magices. But Michael the archangel, when he disputed with the devil, and argued about the body of Moses, did not dare to pronounce against him a railing judgment, but said the Lord rebuke you. But these men revile the things which they do not understand, and the things which they know by instinct, like unreasoning animals by these things they are destroyed. So you can see why we can only go through four verses, there is a lot to unpack there with these examples that Jude gives. So let's take the first two examples that he uses here. You will see a similar pattern as we saw in the first example. Jude explains what the widely known event is, and then in order to identify the sins that he is seeing in these people who are creeping in unnoticed to the church. And then what he does is demonstrate the judgment of God towards those people that committed the sin in the event. So for our first example, Jude uses the rebellious angels who did not keep their domain, and they abandoned their proper abode. Okay, so what does that mean? Where do we find that in the scriptures? So first and foremost, let's deal with what their domain and their proper abode means. What Jude means by this is talking specifically about their rank, their rank within creation. And their domain, obviously, because we know where angels are supposed to live, where their habitation is interesting, the only place where the Greek word for habitation is used in all of the Bible is right here, this is their habitation. They live in the heavenlies. They live in the third heavens. These, let's first deal with the rank, okay? So they have fallen from their ranks, which means how were the angels created? They were created good, right? They were created holy. Their job literally is to serve in the presence of God. Now when we talk about rank, there is this idea that's applied to the scriptures that we can pull, that God has certain hierarchy of angels. It's kind of something that we read. It's not something that the Bible speaks of. That's not what it's talking about here. Angels in their proximity have very close relation to God. They live where he lives. They serve him, some of them, the cherubim and the seraphim that are flying around him are literally in his presence at all times. In terms of the pecking order of God's creation, angel is about as high as it gets. They are able to be in the presence of God. If we were to look at Psalm 8 or Hebrews 2, and Hebrews 2 uses Psalm 8 to speak of Christ and his state as a man, that mankind is of a lower rank than the angels, right? He was made for a little while lower than the angels. Man is below in the pecking order of God's creation. We are below the angels in that regard, right? And the proximity of our place to God proves that. Angels directly in the presence of God, we have been cast out of the garden. We have forsaken our place in a lot of the same ways. The original man is guilty of the exact same sins as the angels, right? We have been cast out of God's presence. And these angels, these spiritual beings, despite their elevated rank, despite the fact that they live in paradise in the very direct presence of God, some of them became prideful and unhappy with their place, they began to covet God's position and being persuaded by a leader, they decided to rebel against him. Now you might ask where you would find this in the Old Testament, and you only find it alluded to in the Old Testament. You find it explained actually in the New Testament, and we will get there. But this leader and his angels were then after rebelling against God, after the rebellion was thwarted, they were then cast out of heaven. And where we find that is typically in really two different places. We could look in Isaiah 14, or we could look in Ezekiel chapter 28. But in Isaiah chapter 14, this is what he says, when he's speaking of Nebuchadnezzar. He's speaking of this king of the earth to describe the fall of Satan. He says, "Oh how you have fallen from heaven, O star of the morning, son of the dawn. You have been cut down to earth. You who have weakened the nations, but you said in your heart, I will ascend to heaven. I will raise my throne above the stars of God." That is the mindset, that is the mentality, that is the rebellious nature of Satan and his angels that Jude is talking about here, that he's applying to these people who have crept in unnoticed, right? I will ascend into heaven. I will unseat God from his throne. How do we know that that Satan's fall is symbolized by those things? Well, please turn in your Bibles to Revelation chapter 12, and it shows it far more clearly. Revelation 12 verse 3, "Then another sign appeared in heaven, and behold a great dragon having seven heads and ten horns, and on his head were seven diadems, and his tail swept away a third of the stars in heaven and threw them to earth. And the dragon stood before the woman who was about to give birth, so that when she gave birth he might devour her child. The dragon is Satan. The stars in heaven are his angels. He was struck down to earth, so that he might devour the woman, and if you think this is going to happen in the future, this has clearly happened in the past. Because the child, the Christ, is spoken of in verses 5 and 6, then this has gone on. This is explained in verse 7, "And there was a war in heaven, Michael and his angels waging war with the dragon and the dragon, and his angels waged war, and they were not strong enough, and there was no longer a place for them found in heaven. They abandoned their abode, and the great dragon who was thrown down, the serpent of old, who was called the devil in Satan, who deceived as the whole world. He was thrown down to the earth, and in his angels were thrown down with him." This explains those passages in the Old Testament that were alluded to by both Isaiah and Ezekiel. It shows his fall clearly. Now, what is the punishment that God has given for these fallen angels? We were to go back to Jude, and we were to look at verse 6. He says that he has kept them in eternal bonds under darkness for the judgment of the great day. Now, what does that mean, right? It doesn't mean that God has these angels, these rebellious angels, these fallen angels, does he have them in a certain place that's very dark bound by chains? Not necessarily, okay? Because there is still demonic activity. While they are bound, they are still active in the world. We see that. It's unmistakable. What Jude means in this, the way the Greek lays this out, is that they are bound eternally in a darkened state. They have been given over to their rebellion, they have been given over to their wickedness, and there is no Messiah for them. There is no way that that box gets unchecked. And you could say, "Well, man, why isn't a Savior given for them? God's mercy, right? God Jesus came in the flesh in order to redeem man. He was made like man in every respect as we are so that he might redeem the whole man. In order for Christ to save angels, he would have to be fully angel and fully God, which we don't have any, there's nothing that says that. Matter of fact, it says the opposite here in Jude, that these are permanently and forever in their darkened states. They are held forever in this way. They are given over completely to the evil that they have committed. And they are awaiting the day of judgment. They know it too. If you recall, in the book of Mark, whenever Ryan was preaching through this, Christ had the conversation, right, when he comes upon the demoniac, and this guy is living in the tombs, and he's cutting himself, and he's acting like an insane person. And when Christ comes to him to cast the demons out when he comes into contact with Legion, the series of demons, and what does Legion say to Christ when Christ approaches him? Please don't torment us, right? Is it not the appointed time? Please don't start this right now. They are keenly aware of their end, and they are known, and they are bound in that position, and their destruction is assured. So how is Jude then relating all of this information back over to these people who have crept in these infiltrators of the church? He knows them, and their destruction is assured. They have the exact same fate. Though they try to unseat God, though they try to exert their will over him to make their throne above the heavens, their destruction is assured. In the first example, we have the disbelief of God's words, the twisting of his words, calling him a liar. Here we have outright rebellion, attempting to unseat God. One of the most fascinating things about this book, and I struggled with it, I struggled with it nine months ago, and I struggle with it now. And this just talking about sin, isn't this stuff just what sin is? Not believing God's word, thinking that God might not mean what he said, what he said, setting my own opinions and my own desires above God's desires, saying, "I know that God says that this is a sin, but my flesh is pulling me in this other direction, and I think, intentionally, speak intentionally, I am going to do that which God has said not to do, or not do that which God has said to do. Sins of omission and commision. Isn't, aren't we, just by virtue of the fact that we sin, isn't the warnings that are given to, or the judgment that was given towards these angels who rebelled and towards the Israelites who complained against God, doesn't that apply to us, shouldn't that apply to us? Why doesn't it apply to us? If this is how God reacts against sin, why does this not apply to me? What's the difference? That can, I mean, you can stew on that for a long time, right? Because I've sinned intentionally over the last couple weeks, didn't I do the same thing? What's the difference? Well, let me relax your souls a little bit. It's one thing to war and to struggle with our sin, but to trust in Christ. While we may have struggles in this life and some failures, Christians believe the promises that God has spoken. We believe that someone has come and has died in our place, taking the punishment that our sins deserve. And in our hearts, we have given a love for this Savior, one that desires to obey God, one that fails, our heart and our flesh may fail, but we trust God in His Word. That is not what the Egyptian, or what the Israelites who were freed from Egypt did. There is a difference there. And because of His work, we are justified, we know that our sins have been pardoned, right? What is justification? That our sins have been pardoned fully and completely in this life. And that our sin through sanctification is being subdued. It might not be fully tapped out just yet, but where we believe God by the work of His Holy Spirit, where we trust in Him, is that one day, even though I am struggling, even though there are times where I fail, there is a day coming where all of my sin will be completely subdued and it will be to the glory and to the praise of God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, amen and amen, and that is our hope. That is not what these other folks did. And we did not do it because we're better than them. As a matter of fact, we deserve all of the same things. The only reason why we think differently today is because God had mercy, period. This is such an amazing letter that causes us to reflect upon ourselves and the way that we think and the way that we live. And there is a massive difference between what I just said and infiltrating God's church in order that they might lead God's people to the same end as these two examples that we've gone through so far. But we should remember, because this is not all about the evil people that are coming into to try to pollute the church, if when we sin intentionally, we are doing the same thing. Repent, repent, put these things to death, seek the Lord in His power, look, find the Lord in His Word, find the Lord in the prayer closet, fast, do all the things that the Bible says to do in order that we might put sin to death, that we might not sin intentionally against Him. Absolutely do that. That's a part in. Praise the Lord. So what's the next step, right? We have a chain of events happening here, calling God a liar outright rebelling against Him. What is the final result of these two world's worst chain of events, wickedness, outright wickedness. And the third example displays this wickedness and it's found in the example of Sodom and Gomorrah. Let's read verse seven. Just as Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities around them, since they in the same way as these indulged in gross immorality and went after strange flesh, are exhibited as an example in undergoing the punishment of eternal fire. Now despite what the 1946 project might tell you, despite what some people who are not so unnoticed anymore, not so, they're far beyond the creeping in the church stage. This is not talking about being inhospitable. God did not destroy Sodom and Gomorrah because they needed to work on their hospitality. It was because of their gross immorality, sexual immorality. These two cities, and there is something to be said here, I wish that I could just preach the rest of the time on this topic, but it wasn't just Sodom and Gomorrah that was destroyed. There were other cities that surrounded them. Other cities that did not necessarily participate in the type of sins that Sodom and Gomorrah did. It was a, was the thing, casual, casualty, I can't, anyways, we understand what I'm talking about here, right? So God eliminated an entire area. He took out Sodom and Gomorrah in these surrounding cities, these beautiful cities. They're once called the cities of the plain. They were known as all of them obliterated by fire from Yahweh in heaven who sent fireballs who were called down from Yahweh on earth. Their sins of sexual immorality of the most devious kinds, including rape and sodomy or well known, as a matter of fact, their destruction, their depravity has been, has been, is now a proverb that we compare other types of immoralities to. Their destruction has become a proverb. They were so wicked, so depraved, it reached such a degree that they couldn't be reasoned with words and not even being struck with blindness would thwart them from trying to fulfill the desires of the flesh. And through the centuries they have been used as an example to show that God will not strive with man forever. And their destruction shows the way that God is going to treat that type of living, that type of person forever. That's exactly how Jude brings this up, even though the temporal destruction is what Jude is talking about here, or is what the Old Testament focuses on, the eternal destruction of eternal fire is what Jude is talking about. Serious business, right? So we have in these three examples. We have twisting God's word, we have rebelling against Him, and then we have where that ends, which is this abject, horrible depravity that we find. And in this, right, so what are we to do? In this, the church finds its urgency for contending for the faith. That's why Jude gives these examples. This demonstrates to us our urgency in contending earnestly for the faith, but before we get there. These examples only show the rotten fruits of these people, and the judgment that awaits them that God divvies out. Verse 8 explains what their motivation is. Let's read, "Yet in the same way, these men also by dreaming defile the flesh and reject authority and revile angelic magisties, these men dream." In the Septuagint, this same Greek word is used for false visions, delusions, imaginations. Ezekiel explains it best when he say, "Men who follow their own spirits, men who decide for themselves what is good and what is evil, and then live their lives in accordance with that, and then teach others to follow their own imaginations, what that leads to is the defiling of the flesh, which many who would seek to lead to God's people astray would say is a good thing. It's not even a bad thing, it's a good thing to follow the desires of your flesh. They will reject it, and they will hate God's authority. They will reject, and they will hate God's authority. Verse 8 says, "They reject authority and revile angelic magisties, they call God a liar, they rebel against him, they cast off his law, they hate his word, they unhitch from the Old Testament." Right? Andy Stanley? I think I brought this up nine months ago, but it's still worth bearing today because he hasn't changed his tune at all, and now he's open and affirming. As well, as churches open and affirming homosexuality, it starts with hating the words that God has said. Was he always like that? Did he always teach that? No, I don't think so, but it comes to that point, it gets there, it's slowly introduced over the course of decades, and now he has completely cast off God's word, he's called him a liar, he's rebelled against him, and he revile angelic magisties, that's a tough one to interpret. There are some scholars that believe that he's talking about angels who have delivered the law of God, that the law itself is angelic magisties, I have some texts here if you want to write them down and search it out for yourself, Galatians 3 19, Deuteronomy 33 2, Psalm 68 17, Acts 7 53, and Hebrews 2 2, if you didn't get those, get with me after I'd be happy to give you the list of them. But that the law, God's law, God's word was given by angelic magisties, it's well documented in the scriptures, I don't know that it actually means that. The translation of that word can also mean dignities, it can mean which would translate to something like true religion, true religion or true expression of faith, biblical religion or biblical expression of faith, both of these things apply. Don't do false teachers hate more than anything, they hate what God's word says and they hate true religion, anybody who practices true religion is considered to be a Pharisee. You pray the Lord's prayer every day, right? You actually believe what the law says, okay so homosexuality is wrong, are you wearing mixed fabrics? They hate God's word, they twist God's word, they revile angelic magisties. If we were to go to any one of these people and I have actually said this to one guy, it was online who was supposed to debate, James White, I had said to him, what about deny yourself, take up your cross and follow Christ, completely ignored it, attacked a few other things that I said but completely ignored it, he's not going to pay attention to deny yourself, he's preaching a gospel that is no gospel at all, that is the exact opposite of that, deny Christ and follow yourself, that's exactly what we're talking about in these examples, both of these things they hate, so what they do is they take their ultimate authority and they speak from that, what's the ultimate authority, their appetite, their desires, their own private list of what's right and what's wrong, they make themselves the authority and they do so not realizing just how sinful this actually is, Jude gives an odd example to demonstrate this in verse 9. But Michael the Archangel, when he disputed with the devil and argued about the body of Moses, did not dare pronounce against him a railing judgment but said, the Lord rebuke you. Now this is a notoriously hard verse to interpret, it's still fairly unclear exactly where he got this from. It's most likely a reference to an apocryphal work that was done pre-Christ, it's been around for a long time, it's called the Assumption of Moses, which today is widely lost to time. We don't even have an assumption of Moses to even measure this up against because it's been lost time. There's one manuscript that exists, we're literally only a third of it is readable. So we have very little, really what they rely upon is citations from the early church fathers, I know origin, sites at multiple times. There are other speculations. Some assume that this is an allusion to Zechariah 3. If you remember from nine months ago, it's been a long time, we've all slept since then, I went into greater detail showing how it alludes to Zechariah chapter 3. Either way, these people knew exactly what he was talking about. This story through tradition was widely accepted, it was widely known. Did it actually happen or was he just appealing to this story that was widely known by everybody? I don't know, truthfully, I have no idea. If we were to look in other places like, for example, the Apostle Paul, when he's writing his letter to Titus and he talks about these Cretans, he references their own poets to say that all Cretans are liars and lazy gluttons. Because Paul quotes this other work, does that necessarily mean that all Cretans are lazy gluttons? You see what I'm saying here? It's hard to know, but either way, the point that he's using stands, that even though Michael the Archangel would be disputing with Satan, he would not take the authority that belongs to God and rebuke Satan on his own ideas, thoughts and emotions. But he says, "The Lord rebuke you." That is a significant thing. He understands his place when it comes to the authority of God. Satan, the one who is most deserving of any rebuke by anybody, Michael would not usurp the authority of God in rebuking him with his own thoughts and opinions, but he uses the word of God to rebuke Satan. But these false teachers will happily usurp God's authority. They will happily set up their throne above his or in their attempt to and they will boldly place themselves and grant themselves the authority to do and to say that which is contrary to what God has said. So where in, after everything that we've read, do we find our urgency to contend for the faith? We all we have to do is just follow the process of where this goes. Once doubt is casted upon God's word, now people are justified to make war with God and once they make war with God and they're given over to their sins, it eventually results in a depravity and if that happens within the church, if this is allowed to take place within the church, which is God's first use for the church. One of his first uses for the church is to preserve society. We are to go out into the world and we are to speak God's word to society. We are to be salt and we are to be light in a fallen world and the church, one of the church's roles is to preserve society. So what happens then if the church starts to crumble from the inside and practice the same types of depravity that we look out onto the world and we see that which preserves society, that which preserves nations is now weakened and is now not able to do so. The depravity will then move from one basement and they will find another basement. The depravity will continue to go lower and lower and lower and there will not be a strong church there to stop it, a strong church there to preach against it. This has been the design all along and it's been, I hate to use the word successful because we know God is on his throne, we know God is sovereign, that God is using all of this for the purposes of his own glory but the reason for our urgency is because if this call to action is ignored for too long then the wickedness of Sodom and Gomorrah is where we wind up and destruction follows closely behind it. It's just the truth of the word, you don't believe me? Am I going too far by saying that? Did anybody watch the opening ceremony to the Olympics? The sad part is it's not even shocking anymore. They illustrated the Lord's Supper with drag queens and transgender people in the places of the Apostle and one transgender person with a glorifying halo around the back of his or her head giving the heart symbol as they were portraying the Lord's Supper for the entire world to see. This is the kind of depravity that falls upon nations when the power of the church is not preaching against the sins of the culture. The reason why we are to contend earnestly for that faith within every aspect and every respect of our life is because this sin seeps into the family first, it can seep into our families, it can seep into our congregations, we are to contend earnestly, we are to bring every thought captive, we are to tear down strongholds, to destroy arguments and every lofty opinion that's set up against God, we are to give a reason defense for the hope that is in us to anyone who would ask us the question. We are to go into our elected officials, we are to tell them that their deeds are evil and that they will answer to God for all of them just as we will answer to God for all of ours. We must contend earnestly for the faith and we must continue to be salt in light in the world as Christ has told us to be. It's obvious now folks that society is not going to preserve itself, right? Our salt and our light must be visible to those who are lost. There have been faithful Christians and churches that do and continue to do this. There is no question about it, God's Christ Church has always been there, it has always been maintained, it has always been beautiful and blemishless, a bride that is exquisite that is waiting for her Savior's return. I'm not saying this like what's a losing battle down here, I'm not saying it like that. However, I find with myself and I find with other people, instead of being prompted to go out and be in salt and light for the world, I find that myself, what I like to do is to sit on the couch and watch the news and be angry, that I continue to detest the world and detest these things and there's things that are, I mean a lot of some of that stuff is biblical, yes, but why am I so prompted to sit in to be angry instead of going out and being salt and light? To share Christ at the place that I work, to share Christ in all of these places, the leaven has to spread, right? It's a process. Why do I usually get angry and despair over our country or our generation or all of these other things? That is not what contending earnestly for the faith looks like. As a matter of fact, that's actually what the Israelites were doing as they were brought out of the garden or as they were brought out of the land of Egypt and their slavery and when they were complaining against God of the state of their circumstances, it looks more like that and I'm saying this understanding that I am first and foremost the one who is guilty of all of this. That's not what contending looks like. We heard two weeks ago a sermon that was preached by Ryan, Psalm 2, which was timely because this letter is written with the Psalm 2 lens on, right? The kings and the agents of those kings who want to make war against God and against his anointed, those who seek to devise their plans to unfetter themselves, to tear off the cords of God. We don't need these who are going to stand outside and throw rocks at the moon hoping to hit something, hoping to thwart this God and this king that he has set upon Zion. What is God's response to all of this? He laughs, he scoffs at them, he snorts at them and then it says that he will terrify them in his fury, brothers and sisters, we know how this thing ends. We are not to sit and to be angry and to despair and to worry and to fret over these things. We are to take up our cross, to stand up, to deny ourselves, to obey Christ because all authority in heaven and earth have been given to him, therefore go. We're to get up and go into the nations, Judea and Samaria and all the ends of the earth to proclaim the message of peace. We don't have to live a defeated Christianity because we don't lose. Whether you're post-mill or whether you're on-mill, whether you're pre-mill, it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter. We're breathing Christ has given us an order, go. We live like we win because we do. If I'm angry or I'm in despair, you can be sure that I have forgotten Psalm 2. You can be sure that I have forgotten Psalm 110. Let's turn there. Psalm 110. It's been called God's favorite Psalm, God's favorite verse. It's quoted more than any other verse in the Old Testament, in the New Testament. Psalm 110. The Lord says to my Lord, sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet. The Lord will stretch forth your strong scepter from Zion, saying, "Rule in the midst of your enemies. Your people will volunteer freely in the day of your power, and holy array from the womb of the dawn, your youth are to you as a do. The Lord has sworn and will not change his mind. You are a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek. The Lord is at your right hand. He will shatter kings in the day of his wrath. He will judge among the nations. He will fill them with corpses. He will shatter the chief men over a broad country, and he will drink from the brook by the wayside. Therefore, he will lift up his head. Now Christian, do you believe that? Do you believe that? We don't lose. We've been given orders to get up and to go, and to contend, and to strive. That sounds a whole lot better than being mad all the time, doesn't it? How miserable is that just to be mad all the time? We can cheerfully serve God. We can joyfully serve Him. We ought not get bitter. Look at verse 10 in Jude. But these men, these who have crept into the church, these men revile the things which they do not understand, and the things which they know by instincts like unreasoning animals by these things they are destroyed. That's the case not just for people who make their way into the church. This is true for all people who were lost. They march to the beat of their flesh, and it is by those things that they will be destroyed. Let us be salt and light. Let us be a people who are repenting and depending upon the Lord to kill our own sin, that we might not be so easy to attempt. Let us look at these people, let us pray for these people, let us share the gospel with these people. Our enemy comes after churches, he just does, usually church plants. Let us be built up in the Lord and in His Word. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, Lord God, we thank you for saving the people out of this place. Lord God, I pray for your people here today, for your church universal, for all of your believers and all places around this globe. Lord God, that you would not allow us to think that since we are saved, that the work is done. The work of our salvation may be in our future and our guarantees are certainly done once for all, but Lord God, impress upon our hearts that you have given us something to do as your people. Lord God, embolden us to be brave, to be strong in your sight. Build us up, O God. Lord God, let us cast off the bindings of this world, the care for our comfort, the care for all of these worldly things to realize they are just but they are but dust. Lord God, help us. Send your people out. Let us be the change. Let your church be the change that we see in this nation. Lord God, you have granted revival to nations that were far more lost, far more destitute. Lord God, do the same with us. Let it begin in our homes, then let us see it pour out into our churches. Let us see it pour out into our communities, into Clovis, into New Mexico, into Texas, and on and on it goes, Lord God. Give us the sense of victory. Let us be still and know that you are God, whether judgment or whether revival. You are God, for there is no other. We love you and we thank you for your great mercy that you have shown upon us in Christ. For it's in His name that we pray. Amen. Amen. Alright Church, if you'll please stand for our doxology
