Jude Wednesday Bible Study v. 5-10

01:01:37.360 | >> For those of you in the rooms, please come on out to the main area. We'll get situated to go over the passage together at this time.

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01:03:57.360 | >> All right, God, we want to pray that you help us recall and remember a lot of this we've actually covered, discussed, and we have looked at lengthily even in a previous study.

01:04:13.360 | We pray, God, that you grant to us remembrance so that, God, we would be alert and ready. And tonight as we go over the passage and even after the discussion, look at the details, I pray, Father, God, that your spirit would grant to us deep conviction. We thank you in Christ's name. Amen.

01:04:33.360 | >> Okay. By way of -- it's always good to do a quick review. So by way of review of the entire letter, last week we did the greetings and purpose and then today we're looking at the first half, part A, about these ungodly individuals, their pattern of sin and also the certainty of their destruction.

01:04:55.360 | And that is the bulk, the center bulk of the letter. Then we have exhortations for the beloved and then we have the doxology at the end. And by way of review, we had in Jude 1 through 4, it says, "Jude, a bond servant of Jesus Christ and the brother of James, to those who are the called beloved in God, the father and kept for Jesus Christ, may mercy and peace and love be multiplied to you."

01:05:23.360 | So we describe that as just the loving security that we have in God, that we are called out, that we're beloved and we're kept. And in the state of this kind of uncertainty and attack on the church, even being infiltrated by essentially wolves, there is great security in God.

01:05:43.360 | We saw the emphatic point of last week's study that Jude had this desire to write to us so that we would contend earnestly for the faith. And therefore, it should be actually circling in our heads, what does it mean for you to be contending for the faith?

01:06:04.360 | Last week, I made it seem as though, are you ready to fight this theology that's bad and this error that's wrong and this kind of influence of doctrine? But as we would think about it, there's more to contending for the faith than just simply knowledge, yes?

01:06:19.360 | There are aspects of contending for the faith where we're clinging to God relationally. There are aspects of contending for the faith where we are trying to stay hopeful and secure in all the promises, etc.

01:06:32.360 | We're contending for the faith even in the way that we minister. Later on in the letter, we know that there's a call for us to understand in wisdom what is the need of the hour and with different types of people, what are we supposed to do?

01:06:46.360 | So that strengthening the church doesn't mean just fighting the guy who's wrong, but actually strengthening the believers around you.

01:06:53.360 | So there's a lot that we can think and meditate in terms of the idea of contend.

01:06:58.360 | And then we highlighted that there was this because in terms of why contend is because there are certain persons that have crept in unnoticed, those who are long beforehand marked out for this condemnation, ungodly persons who turn the grace of our God into licentiousness and deny our only master and Lord Jesus Christ.

01:07:21.360 | And just so that I could remember, I had this idea, there are so many creepers around us.

01:07:28.360 | So that's the danger.

01:07:31.360 | And the passage that we're looking at today, I'm going to read for us. It says, "Now I desire to remind you, though you know all things once for all, that the Lord after saving a people out of the land of Egypt subsequently destroyed those who did not believe.

01:07:47.360 | And angels who did not keep their own domain but abandoned their proper abode, he has kept in maternal bonds under darkness for the judgment of the great day.

01:07:57.360 | Just as Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities around them, since they in the same way as these indulge in gross immorality and went after strange flesh, are exhibited as examples in undergoing the punishment of eternal life."

01:08:11.360 | So this passage in some ways was very easy to outline because he tells us already off the bat that they are examples, the things that he listed for us are examples of the punishment of eternal fire.

01:08:28.360 | And so whenever for me I highlight these orange terms, it gives to me little section breaks in terms of the relationship from one sentence to another.

01:08:38.360 | And what I saw was he's trying to remind us something that we already know and he says that and he brings up three, one, oops, one, two, and three, three examples.

01:08:50.360 | So that's going to end up looking like this for me.

01:08:52.360 | Now I know some of you guys, again, it may be kind of hard for you guys to see in the back, but I'll try to go through it in a way where later I'm going to summarize it in a nice chart.

01:09:01.360 | But if the purpose for Jude was to remind us something that we know, clearly here we have the example of Egypt to remind us of what we know, the example of the angels to remind us what we know,

01:09:15.360 | and the example of the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, sorry, Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities around them to show us the things that we are aware of.

01:09:25.360 | And the things that we are aware of is that throughout the history of mankind, it has been riddled with sin.

01:09:33.360 | It has been riddled with different types of sins and I think it would be for us then like a really good exercise of wisdom to thoroughly understand in what way and what pattern or the nature of their sin.

01:09:48.360 | But what's more, the point that Jude is trying to push to us is this idea that the false teachers and the guys who have crept in was pushing is denying to us the power of God.

01:10:02.360 | They're denying the master, they're denying the Lord, right?

01:10:06.360 | And what way do they do that is they give us this license that because God's always gracious, you can do what you want.

01:10:13.360 | You can be licentious.

01:10:15.360 | And so emphatically with three examples he's going to say actually no for every type of sin that the people of God or even angels or the pagans, right?

01:10:25.360 | So basically categorically he's covered everybody.

01:10:28.360 | It's like Romans chapter 1. You understand that everybody is judged under sin.

01:10:33.360 | And he begins with the group from the Exodus generation example. And he says, "After saving a people out of the land of Egypt, subsequently destroyed those who did not believe."

01:10:47.360 | I'm not going to go through it in depth, but I hope you guys had a chance to just say, "Okay guys, let's meditate on the wilderness generation."

01:10:55.360 | Since he uses it as an example, what do you guys remember about their sin?

01:11:00.360 | What actually was their sin?

01:11:02.360 | Well, here it just mentions as they didn't believe.

01:11:05.360 | Well, actually that's very appropriate because if you remember just from the get-go, they're coming out of the land of Egypt and then Moses goes up to meet the Lord.

01:11:14.360 | And everybody is starting to get impatient. They don't believe that Moses is even going to come down from the mountain.

01:11:20.360 | So what do they do? They erect this thing that they want to see with their eyes because it's hard to believe when they can't see it.

01:11:28.360 | They come to Kadesh Barnea, which is that land right before Canaan.

01:11:33.360 | And you guys know the classic tale. They see the land. They see that it's fruitful. They see that it has all these resources.

01:11:41.360 | But with their eyes, they see big people, fortified walls, fortified cities.

01:11:45.360 | So what was actually their sin? It was unbelief.

01:11:48.360 | They said, "We can't go in there. We're going to die like this."

01:11:52.360 | And for their sin of unbelief, God judged them.

01:11:57.360 | Now, those two then main themes, this is the nature of their sins and this is the nature of God's wrath.

01:12:04.360 | I do hope that you guys, even afterwards, take some time to think about what is the character trait of God's wrath in this.

01:12:11.360 | Because when I sat down and said, "Huh, God's judgment, some of it was kind of funny."

01:12:18.360 | Like when they were complaining about, "Oh, we don't have food."

01:12:22.360 | And then we started doing things like, "Hey, the manna, let's save it."

01:12:25.360 | And they put it into the pots and it spoiled and it fungus and all that kind of stuff.

01:12:29.360 | And then when they started complaining, "We have no meat. At least back there we had."

01:12:33.360 | And then God gave so much meat and they're like, "Ugh."

01:12:35.360 | And then some of them choked on the meat and all this kind of stuff.

01:12:39.360 | But then I started to think, "Whoa, it got really somber."

01:12:44.360 | Because if you recall, because they had no trust and the people said, "We can't go in and take this land."

01:12:52.360 | God said, "You're going to wander the desert for 40 years intentionally allowing those individuals to die off."

01:12:59.360 | Now, I want you to just take a brief moment to think about this.

01:13:03.360 | For us at our church, there's a sense in which there's kind of a joyous occasion pretty frequently.

01:13:09.360 | We have a lot of babies, baby showers, engagements, weddings.

01:13:14.360 | And already in 2023, I have on my calendar 12 weddings to go to.

01:13:18.360 | It's so much fun. I love weddings.

01:13:22.360 | I'm not being sarcastic.

01:13:24.360 | In fact, if that sounded sarcastic, I'm not being sarcastic.

01:13:27.360 | It is a whole lot of fun.

01:13:30.360 | But can you imagine?

01:13:33.360 | Think about how many people left together out of Egypt.

01:13:37.360 | That journey from Egypt to that land of Canaanites, it should have been 12 days.

01:13:45.360 | And then from there to start wandering so that all that generation would die.

01:13:50.360 | Think about how many funerals there were.

01:13:53.360 | Imagine one child saying, "Can you come and say a good word because my father died?"

01:14:01.360 | And the next child is like, "Can you come because my parents both passed?"

01:14:05.360 | And each person saying they never got to see the land.

01:14:09.360 | And this was God's judgment upon them.

01:14:12.360 | And each time someone would pass, there would be this reticent awareness like, "We could be right there."

01:14:20.360 | But we're here. Why?

01:14:22.360 | Because God told them, "You tested me and didn't believe what I said."

01:14:27.360 | Just for your reference, Numbers 14, 20 to 23, God says,

01:14:31.360 | "Surely all the men who have seen my glory, my signs that I performed in Egypt and the wilderness,

01:14:36.360 | yet have put me to the test these ten times and have listened to my voice,

01:14:41.360 | shall by no means see the lands that I swore to their fathers."

01:14:46.360 | And many times in the New Testament, one of them is 1 Corinthians 10,

01:14:51.360 | it just delineates, "Man, you guys, you saw the miracles walking through the waters.

01:14:57.360 | You saw the miracles receiving bread.

01:14:59.360 | Don't be like these people."

01:15:02.360 | Yes?

01:15:03.360 | Another one is Hebrews 4, verse 11, where it says, "They were disobedient in distrust,

01:15:10.360 | and that's why they did not enter the rest."

01:15:14.360 | So I want you to take a moment to think about that.

01:15:16.360 | If we sometimes unpack what it means to sin,

01:15:20.360 | does it also include our conviction that when we fail to trust God

01:15:26.360 | and really, really diminish the power of the Lord of what is capable,

01:15:30.360 | like what he's capable of, what he's called us to do,

01:15:34.360 | does that enter into the category of sin that deserves judgment?

01:15:39.360 | And I'll ask you this question, the nature of his judgment, what can we deduce just from that example?

01:15:44.360 | Yes, the judgment of God is sure and certain, but what else can we deduce?

01:15:49.360 | Well, let's talk about the next example.

01:15:51.360 | The example are the angels.

01:15:53.360 | And it said, "These angels"--and I put a question mark there because I'm pretty sure a lot of you guys asked,

01:15:57.360 | like, "Which angels are we talking about?

01:15:59.360 | Who are these people?" Right?

01:16:01.360 | Nevertheless, in this passage it says, "These angels did not keep their own domain,

01:16:07.360 | but abandoned their proper abode."

01:16:10.360 | I hope you guys took a moment to look at that one.

01:16:13.360 | You know how in our Bible study methodology we sometimes look at other translations?

01:16:19.360 | This is one where you would kind of get a more nuanced read of that passage because of the other translations.

01:16:27.360 | The ESV says that the angels did not stay within their own position of authority, but left their proper dwelling.

01:16:35.360 | The NIV says the angels did not keep their positions of authority, but abandoned their home.

01:16:41.360 | And so the idea here is that they did not keep their own domain,

01:16:46.360 | but the literal word for that word "domain" is often translated as "domain,"

01:16:50.360 | but it's that kind of sphere of their authority.

01:16:53.360 | So what are we talking about here?

01:16:56.360 | Well, we kind of get an insight into the nature of their sin.

01:17:00.360 | It wasn't just that, like, "Oh, you accidentally stepped out of bounds."

01:17:04.360 | You know? Beep, beep. Out of bounds. There you go.

01:17:08.360 | It wasn't one of those.

01:17:10.360 | It was a more sinister stepping outside of their authority.

01:17:15.360 | Not knowing their place.

01:17:17.360 | Wanting so much more than what God had given them as angels who are created beings for the service of God,

01:17:24.360 | and at many times, then, for the service of his redemptive plan.

01:17:28.360 | Yes?

01:17:30.360 | And so in this way they sinned.

01:17:32.360 | And then the scripture says that God, then, kept them in eternal bounds under darkness for the judgment of the great day.

01:17:39.360 | I want to take a moment to think about this because, like,

01:17:44.360 | the scripture has much to say also about angels, even though in some ways for us they're nebulous.

01:17:50.360 | One of the things I want to highlight is, whoa, that's pretty wild to me,

01:17:55.360 | that God's judgment, right, is -- and then the blank for me, the one I wanted to say, like, initially in my meditation was,

01:18:05.360 | "Man, it's merciless."

01:18:08.360 | There's no -- I guess the cool kids now say there's no chill, you know?

01:18:13.360 | They do something, they go out of bounds, and then whabam, right?

01:18:17.360 | The entirety of them condemned.

01:18:20.360 | But actually there is a kind of patience in God's judgment.

01:18:26.360 | There's a kind of reluctance in God's judgment.

01:18:29.360 | But also, typically, there's a kind of exacting nature in God's judgment, where it's typically they're just deserved.

01:18:36.360 | Meaning, God is not a God who is just impulsively reactive, but he gives to them exactly what they deserve, okay?

01:18:45.360 | Upon this, I'm not going to go a whole lot, but I do want to highlight a passage for you guys.

01:18:52.360 | And the passage is, I want to bring up because I want to highlight, I guess, God's mercy to us.

01:18:59.360 | In Hebrews 2, verses 9-18, there is this thinking through God's sending of his son as the incarnate son of God as a sacrifice to us.

01:19:13.360 | So if you have your Bibles, take a moment to turn there.

01:19:15.360 | Hebrews 2, verse 9-18.

01:19:21.360 | And then I'll just start reading from verse 9. It says, "But we do see him who was made for a little while lower than the angels, namely Jesus,

01:19:29.360 | because of the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honor, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone."

01:19:38.360 | Now I'm going to skip to verse 14.

01:19:40.360 | "Therefore, since the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise also partook of the same,

01:19:46.360 | that through death he might render powerless him who had the power of death, that is, the devil,

01:19:52.360 | and might free those who through fear of death were subject to slavery all their lives.

01:19:58.360 | For," and then take a look at this, "Assuredly, he does not give help to the angels, but he gives help to the descendants of Abraham."

01:20:07.360 | Whoa.

01:20:09.360 | The thing I want to highlight about this is, God clearly with the nation of Israel, that's his chosen people.

01:20:17.360 | But even though he was their deliverer, when they sin, God's judgment is sure.

01:20:24.360 | He will also become their destroyer.

01:20:26.360 | And the angels are God's created being, but here it tells us that God gave us his help and not them.

01:20:36.360 | Verse 17 says, "Therefore, he had to be made like his brethren in all things, so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest

01:20:43.360 | in the things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people."

01:20:49.360 | I just wanted to highlight that passage to say, going over this, man, like, we're talking about sin, and we're talking about judgment,

01:20:57.360 | and we're talking about the certainty of it, and it just naturally then pops out at us like, oh my gosh.

01:21:04.360 | What is it that we have in redemption?

01:21:06.360 | Where the angels, yes, they fell, but those fallen angels did not receive the kind of grace and redemption we have.

01:21:13.360 | Okay?

01:21:14.360 | Next, he describes the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, and then he describes how,

01:21:21.360 | "Since they in the same way indulged in gross immoralities and went after strange things,

01:21:25.360 | are exhibited as examples in undergoing the punishment of eternal fire."

01:21:30.360 | So, in summary of that stuff, I want to highlight there are different types of sins exhibited by the different examples,

01:21:39.360 | whether it was unbelief and distrust, no restraint, and kind of an arrogant moving out of their bounds of authority,

01:21:46.360 | indulging in gross immorality, but the highlight of this is this idea that God reserves all the right to judge in his way.

01:21:54.360 | And I hope you guys are able to ask each other this question, what can we deduce about God's judgment just from these examples?

01:22:01.360 | And maybe even recount, even for Sodom and Gomorrah, you guys remember the whole story of,

01:22:06.360 | "Oh goodness, God, far be it from you that you would destroy a city with good people in there."

01:22:12.360 | And then God's just like, "Good people in there? Who are you talking about?"

01:22:16.360 | It's like, "What if there's a hundred? What if there's ten? What if there's..."

01:22:19.360 | And then just to realize, again, God's judgment is precise, it's accurate, it's not impulsive.

01:22:27.360 | So, from there, I want to go to the passage in 2 Peter.

01:22:36.360 | You guys probably saw such an intense corollary or similarity between that.

01:22:43.360 | And the thing we want to highlight from 2 Peter is there was description on both levels of humans, angels, Sodom and Gomorrah.

01:22:52.360 | And the conclusion of the 2 Peter passage was that then God knows how to rescue the godly from temptation

01:22:58.360 | and to keep the unrighteous under punishment for the day of judgment.

01:23:04.360 | Okay, moving to the second portion then, the second half says,

01:23:08.360 | "Yet in the same way, these men also by dreaming defile the flesh and reject authority and revile angelic majesties.

01:23:15.360 | But Michael the archangel, when he disputed with the devil and argued about the body of Moses,

01:23:21.360 | did not dare pronounce against him a railing judgment, but said, 'The Lord rebuke you.'

01:23:27.360 | But these men revile the things which they do not understand,

01:23:30.360 | and the things which they know by instinct like unreasoning animals.

01:23:35.360 | By these things they are destroyed."

01:23:38.360 | So yet again, with each sentence, it begins with this idea of these men are the same?

01:23:46.360 | And so it's contrasting all these examples with his contemporary false teachers and those who are apostate in the church.

01:23:52.360 | And then he compares and contrasts them to compare that to even Michael the archangel, even though he's powerful.

01:24:00.360 | And then he comes back to show you and emphasize, look at the character of these men.

01:24:06.360 | So as I try to give an outline of this, I label the section as the character of the ungodly,

01:24:12.360 | contrast it to Michael, and then a highlight of that character.

01:24:16.360 | And what I would say is here, you have the depiction of what they do.

01:24:21.360 | They're dreaming, they're defiling the flesh, they're rejecting authority, they're reviling angelic majesties.

01:24:31.360 | And so if you are, let's say, thinking about the whole, like, you know, in the Bible study we do word studies.

01:24:38.360 | Sometimes it's difficult to do a word study on every single word in the passage you have.

01:24:43.360 | Where would you do them?

01:24:45.360 | Well, if you look at this passage, where is the emphasis?

01:24:50.360 | And even so, in contrasting these sinful and ungodly people with Michael the archangel,

01:24:56.360 | what's the point of bringing this up?

01:24:59.360 | Because Moses' body, the controversy is so profound?

01:25:02.360 | No. Clearly the example is being used because even an archangel of God who is so powerful,

01:25:10.360 | I mean, Michael the archangel could literally destroy nations, right?

01:25:15.360 | He could save thousands of people. But even he doesn't step out of his authority.

01:25:22.360 | Even he doesn't revile those who deserve to be reviled.

01:25:27.360 | But look at these people.

01:25:29.360 | Look at how many times it emphasizes this idea of these individuals, okay,

01:25:35.360 | are one who are reviling things they don't understand.

01:25:38.360 | They essentially talk in such a way that's irreverent.

01:25:42.360 | They talk in such a way that is rebellious, etc.

01:25:49.360 | So if you did a word study on this idea of revile, it's very interesting

01:25:53.360 | because it is often used for blasphemous.

01:25:58.360 | These individuals have no sense to think about the reality of who they're talking to.

01:26:07.360 | They're just human beings, created creatures, even lower than angels.

01:26:11.360 | And not knowing their place and their arrogance, their heart attitude of rebelliousness,

01:26:16.360 | they don't care. They're not restrained.

01:26:19.360 | They'll just say whatever they want to, to whoever they want to.

01:26:23.360 | And we kind of start thinking about, man, does this in any way show up in our culture,

01:26:28.360 | in our attitude, and sometimes our lives?

01:26:32.360 | I want to highlight for you another corollary from 2 Peter.

01:26:37.360 | Again, you guys probably saw a lot of similarities.

01:26:40.360 | So this is one.

01:26:42.360 | And it says, "And especially those who indulge the flesh in its corrupt desires and despise authority."

01:26:49.360 | So he's highlighting here two things.

01:26:52.360 | One is, you will notice the false teachers regularly give in to their appetites

01:26:57.360 | and have a hard time saying no to who?

01:26:59.360 | They can say no to every single person, but they can't say no to themselves.

01:27:04.360 | And instead, they despise authority.

01:27:06.360 | They're daring. They're self-willed.

01:27:09.360 | They do not tremble when they revile angelic majesties.

01:27:12.360 | Whereas angels who are greater in might and power do not bring a reviling judgment against them before the Lord.

01:27:18.360 | But these, like unreasoning animals born as creatures of instinct to be captured and killed,

01:27:24.360 | reviling where they have no knowledge, will in the destruction of those creatures also be destroyed."

01:27:32.360 | So I want us to take a moment to just think about, man, this passage, it's going to be a challenge to us.

01:27:41.360 | Because truthfully speaking, if you have a non-believer, if you have a struggling person,

01:27:45.360 | if you have a person with a lot of questions come, our natural bench should be,

01:27:49.360 | "You know what? Let me talk to you. Let me sit with you. Let me try to discuss with you all these things."

01:27:56.360 | But these individuals are in kind of a different category, right?

01:28:00.360 | They're not in the category of like, "Hey, let's take them out to lunch and let's go to dinner, show them some love,

01:28:05.360 | and hopefully they'll come around to the community." No.

01:28:07.360 | They're like a threat to the community.

01:28:10.360 | And Jude feels the necessity to tell us, "I want to remind you that these people exist."

01:28:18.360 | Is this part of the array of what's in your mind of how prepared you need to be?

01:28:25.360 | And he's going to say later, and I'm going to talk about it even in the next passage,

01:28:29.360 | "You're going to have to learn to deal with different people in different methods and different modes."

01:28:34.360 | But to the extreme, there are these individuals who actually are a threat to our community

01:28:38.360 | because they bring in a denial of God and a denial of sin and the deserving role of God to judge all sin.

01:28:45.360 | Are you ready for these people? Do you know how to identify?

01:28:50.360 | Do you know how to see? And are you ready to combat?

01:28:53.360 | So, as kind of a summary for us, this passage has a lot to do with judgment.

01:29:00.360 | And so it was a very somber tone. I just noticed like our whole room was quieter today.

01:29:06.360 | Because we're talking about these things, descriptions of their sinfulness.

01:29:11.360 | But the passage is really clear. Judgment in history was clear and certain.

01:29:17.360 | And the judgment are for those who do not believe, have no self-restraint, indulge in immorality,

01:29:23.360 | reject authority, revile in ignorance, and pride.

01:29:28.360 | And so as I think about that, I think about man.

01:29:32.360 | What are the characteristic traits of the spirit of both, like when we think anti-Christ, false teachers,

01:29:40.360 | and oftentimes it's the self-willed, uncontrolled, arrogant tenor.

01:29:47.360 | And I think that's why scripture when it talks about spiritual leaders, some of the very first thing he says,

01:29:53.360 | like he's not self-willed. He's humble. He's patient when he's wronged even.

01:29:59.360 | And he does not revile in this way. He's not contentious. He's not a man who's given to argumentation.

01:30:05.360 | Right? There has to be so much self-control in all of this. Why?

01:30:10.360 | Because scripture has warned, don't let a young man just come into leadership because Satan will always tempt his pride.

01:30:18.360 | That has a lot to do with just the spirit of temptation that comes in to the heart of man.

01:30:23.360 | Okay. So that was about 30 minutes there. Next week we're hitting verse 11 through 16.

01:30:30.360 | And as you, you know, when you did the reading, it's more description of these individuals, these certain persons. Right?

01:30:39.360 | And so I want to meditate on, because of the passage, please meditate on some of the lesser known examples.

01:30:47.360 | It's going to bring up the rebellion, right? Balaam.

01:30:50.360 | There are lesser known examples than the Exodus generation, etc.

01:30:54.360 | So we want to meditate and think about what do those examples tell me about the character of their sin and the character of God's judgment.

01:31:04.360 | Also, next passage has a lot of impetus for us to actually kind of meditate because it's poetic.

01:31:12.360 | And when this using poetic language, we're supposed to try and picture, you know what?

01:31:16.360 | We may be duped to think, oh yeah, everybody comes to church with good intentions.

01:31:21.360 | And we have to give everybody the benefit of the doubt and everybody should be included.

01:31:25.360 | Shouldn't the church have no walls? Shouldn't the church be a place of acceptance?

01:31:30.360 | Well, scripture is going to give to us against some of those assumptions.

01:31:34.360 | What's the reality? What's the spiritual reality? Okay.

01:31:38.360 | And then so again, verse four, question four is just repeat of what I said.

01:31:44.360 | We should be, after reading the letter of Jude, if Jude's purpose is met, I should be very, very clear as to when I see certain characteristics,

01:31:54.360 | this is the characteristics of individuals who are in danger of apostasy.

01:31:58.360 | Okay. Then for today, please go ahead and get into your group, discuss amongst yourselves.

01:32:05.360 | You guys are already in the groups. Number one again is we know God's judgment is sure.

01:32:10.360 | Sin will be judged. But what other characteristics of God's judgment can we deduce from this passage?

01:32:17.360 | Not just it's going to happen, but what are the other characteristics of God's judgment?

01:32:22.360 | What also happens when Christians forget or question, maybe even deny that God has the authority to judge sin?

01:32:29.360 | Number two, how aware do you think you or our church is about apostasy in general?

01:32:36.360 | Okay. Where do you think apostasy like typically starts, meaning it like starts to reveal itself?

01:32:42.360 | Clearly some people join the church and then eventually decide to expose some of their beliefs or wayward ways.

01:32:50.360 | Where is that turning point? Number three, why in description of these people,

01:32:55.360 | it was pretty emphatic that their character, in their character, they tend to revile things greater than them.

01:33:01.360 | Why do they do that? Number four, in what ways do we see pride, rebelliousness, irreverent or unrestrained spirit

01:33:09.360 | expressed in ourselves? Okay. Number five, what do we learn from the Archangel Michael's words and attitudes

01:33:18.360 | when he says, you know, the Lord rebuke you? What do we learn from that?

01:33:22.360 | And what would be the difference of saying, well, I'm going to have to rebuke somebody who's wrong,

01:33:26.360 | but I rebuke them in the name of the Lord. What's the difference between the two? Okay.

01:33:31.360 | So hope you guys have a good time of discussion. Let me pray to wrap up this section and then you guys can start discussing.

01:33:37.360 | Father God, we really do pray for a kind of living in reality. Lord, it's not pleasant talking about evil people,

01:33:52.360 | people who are infiltrating the church, but we know it happens. And what's more actually, especially in our day

01:34:00.360 | currently, there are many individuals who question your word, start to redefine your love, redefine your holiness,

01:34:09.360 | and it's all around us. I pray, Father God, that we would have courage, clarity, and conviction so that, God,

01:34:17.360 | we do not pendulum swing so far the other way that we become revilers ourselves, but nevertheless with both

01:34:24.360 | brokenness, true sense of sadness over the condition of the state of man, but also with courage, Lord,

01:34:32.360 | that we would stand our ground. I pray in all of this, Lord, give us your mercies. We struggle with our own sins,

01:34:40.360 | inner thoughts that are wayward, desires that need to be crushed and killed. Grant to us mercies, God, that we would

01:34:48.360 | fight against all the things of the flesh and we would turn strongly and intentionally to the love of Christ in our lives.

01:34:55.360 | We thank you now for the time that we have to discuss. We pray for a fruitful time of sharing these things.

01:35:01.360 | Amen.