Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] If you take your Bibles, please, and turn to the Book of Jude. The Book of Jude. If you don't know where the Book of Jude is, just go to the very last book of the Bible, the Book of the Revelation.
[00:00:12] And it is directly in front of it, the Book of Jude. Short book, only one chapter.
[00:00:21] So, Jude. And we're going to be looking in verse four this morning.
[00:00:27] Jude, verse four.
[00:00:32] We've been studying now for the past two or three weeks.
[00:00:37] And it's an amazing book, this Book of Jude. It's a book with heavy doctrine, very weighty doctrine, troubling doctrine.
[00:00:50] And if you'll remember, we've learned so far that Jesus chose twelve disciples.
[00:00:58] And out of those twelve disciples, two of those disciples had the name Judas.
[00:01:07] Most of us are familiar with that one, Judas, aren't we? Judas iscarities, the one that betrayed Jesus.
[00:01:15] But there was another Judas. One Judas was a servant of Jesus Christ. The other Judas, was the betrayer of Jesus Christ. So two, Judas's, following the same Jesus, serving in the same ministry, sharing the same name and having the same training. They were all taught by Jesus. One was a born again child of God, and the other was a wolf in sheep's clothing. Isn't that amazing?
[00:01:50] And the Judas, who was a true child of God and who loved the Lord Jesus Christ, he's the one that we're reading from today, the Book of Jude, short for Judas. You can call me Richard, you can call me rich. Some people called me Robert before, but it's the Book of Jude, this other Judas. And in verse three last week, we've learned that Jude is writing a letter to the Church, the Church of Jesus Christ, to warn us about people who are corrupting the gospel of Jesus Christ.
[00:02:29] They're turning the truth of God into a lie. And so in verse three last week, if you'll look with me now in Jude verse three, Jude told the Church, beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you and exhort you that ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints.
[00:02:58] So last week we learned that the salvation of Jesus Christ was a common salvation. He said, when I gave all diligence to write unto you concerning the common salvation, one person's not saved one way in one church. Another person's not saved some way in a different denomination.
[00:03:19] And someone on the other side of the world where maybe they're saved a different way. No, Jude says there's a common salvation, you're going to come one way or there's no way to come at all. Jesus said, I am the way, the truth and the life. And no man comes of the Father, but by me.
[00:03:38] The only way to come to God is through the Gospel of Jesus Christ. That's the message. The good news about what Jesus has done for us, when he lived the perfect life in our place and then went to the cross and God charged him with our sin, and Jesus was condemned on our behalf, that God may impute unto us his righteousness.
[00:04:02] The Apostle Paul said that the Gospel, that Gospel I just described, it's the power of God and the salvation unto everyone that believes.
[00:04:14] But if that Gospel message is corrupted so much, if it's corrupted to the point towards no longer the message God gave us in his word, then that corrupted message, not being the Gospel, won't have the power to save anybody.
[00:04:33] You see why it's so important to earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered to the saints. This is why Jude is telling us we must earnestly fight contend for the faith that God has given to the Church. In the Bible, the Gospel of Jesus Christ makes the difference between heaven and hell, eternal life and eternal death.
[00:04:56] The Gospel of Jesus Christ is the only thing that stands between us sinners and the righteous condemnation that we all deserve.
[00:05:06] So if the Gospel, if that wonderful message is the only thing that gives life, then it's worth us fighting for unto the death.
[00:05:16] This was the all important subject that Jude was writing about. But what was the occasion that caused Jude to think, hey, we need to fight for this faith? What was happening at that point in time that prompted Jude to address this situation?
[00:05:34] Well, what was happening in Jude's time is the same thing that is happening in the church today.
[00:05:41] It's the same thing that has been happening in the church since the very beginning. Shyster preachers, the devil's undercover agents, back in Jude's day, were infiltrating the church and introducing damnable heresies, damnable doctrines, changing the truth of God into a lie.
[00:06:03] So in verse four, Jude explained why he wrote this warning to the church. Look with me in verse four. Now he explains why he said we should earnestly contend for the faith, why verse four. For there are certain men crept in unawares, certain men.
[00:06:29] So there's a certain type of people that Jude is warning us about this morning.
[00:06:34] They are the type of people you want to stay away from. They're the type of people that you don't want your children around. They are very dangerous people. And they won't think twice about destroying another person's life for their own personal gain.
[00:06:54] Do you know what makes these people so dangerous?
[00:06:58] Do you know why Jude is telling us we have to earnestly contend for this faith? What makes these people so dangerous? He's telling us about the people Jude is warning us about. They don't dress like your common thugs and rioters that we're accustomed to seeing.
[00:07:16] In fact, the people Jude's warning us about, they're usually very well educated, well spoken, well dressed and well liked.
[00:07:27] But most importantly, the people Jude is warning us about here in the Bible, they're not lurking in some dark alley late at night on the wrong side of town. No, they're far more clever and sophisticated than that.
[00:07:42] These people are lurking in our churches.
[00:07:49] Look back. In verse four, Jude said, there are certain men.
[00:07:54] Say the next three words with me. Crept in unawares. Take your pins out. In, underscore in your Bible, the words crept in unawares.
[00:08:07] Jude's saying, these people have crept into the church so stealthily that the Church never even noticed. Isn't that amazing?
[00:08:20] I think maybe that's why we're having the sound trouble. DistraCtions we've had this morning because of this very important warning that God's trying to give to the Church today.
[00:08:32] And not only have they crept in, what's worse, they are now in control of our churches.
[00:08:40] They are preaching sermons to our families. They are teaching young men in seminaries.
[00:08:48] In our study of two, Peter, chapter two, many months ago, we saw where Peter warned us in two, Peter two, verse three, about preachers who use, quote, feigned words to lead people astray. In fact, he says, they'll make merchandise out of you.
[00:09:10] Feigned words, Peter said through covetousness, they, with feigned words shall make merchandise of you. And when we studied in second Peter back then, I told you then that the Greek word translated feigned.
[00:09:25] It's where we get our English word plastic from. Remember that?
[00:09:29] And then we came up with the word plastic preacher. And we talked to you about the plastic preachers that Peter was warning us about. And we used that to describe these type of men. They're plastic preachers. They're preachers who are not real men of God, but they are counterfeit Christians who have been craftily molded by the devil into the form of God's true servants so that Satan may use them to lead people astray and damn their souls to hell.
[00:10:05] Some of the little Jeremini kids, when I used the term plastic preachers, they thought that was kind of catchy.
[00:10:13] And to this day, I can be outside, though. Plastic preacher. And appointed me plastic preacher.
[00:10:22] But here in the Book of Jude, we're learning a little bit more about these false ministers of the Gospel.
[00:10:30] One of the characteristics he's telling us that's so dangerous, he says they have the ability to creep into a church completely unnoticed.
[00:10:42] In two. Peter, we had plastic preachers, but in Jude, we have creepy clergy. How about that?
[00:10:51] I just hear that you're now creepy clergy.
[00:10:57] But that's what they are. They crept in unawares. Creepy clergy. Satan's counterfeit clergyman creeping into the Church of Jesus Christ.
[00:11:07] Now, you may be thinking, but wait, Pastor, I find it hard to believe that some undercover agent of the devil can actually creep into God's church completely unnoticed.
[00:11:19] How many Judas's were there?
[00:11:21] There were two. And one of them was an agent of the devil. Betrayed Jesus Christ.
[00:11:31] And you know what?
[00:11:33] Judas Iscariot didn't take Jesus by surprise, but he crept in completely unaware of the other eleven.
[00:11:41] Now you think about on the night Jesus was betrayed. They're eating the Last Supper. What do you call the Last Supper? They're eating that Passover meal together.
[00:11:49] And Jesus said, one of you will betray me. Do you remember what those eleven people did? Yeah. They didn't say, oh, I bet it's Judas over there. No, you know what they did. Lord, is it me? Well, they're scared of death. Jesus was talking about them. See, a true child of God. They don't want to go. Oh, God, hope he's not talking about me. Old Judas, he didn't say a word. He knew it was him. He'd already made the deal to betray Jesus. But nobody said, I bet it's Judas. Those eleven feared it was them. The word translated crept in unawares. Here it means to lodge stealthily, settle in among others completely unnoticed, to hide in plain sight, if you would. That's what these creepy clergy do. In churches throughout the world.
[00:12:44] Some of the best known, most quoted and highest paid ministers are the agents of the devil who have crept into the church unawares.
[00:12:59] But Judas Iscariot didn't take Jesus by surprise. And these creepy clergy should not take us by surprise, because these people, look back in your text are those, look back in verse four, who were before of old, ordained to this condemnation, didn't take God by surprise. You've got people get up in the churches today, these megachurches, and they're telling people how good they are. They don't preach about sin. They don't preach about hell. They don't preach about the need to be born again by grace through faith in the atonement Jesus made.
[00:13:38] And they can sell one book that says a whole lot of nothing and become millionaires.
[00:13:45] It's amazing.
[00:13:46] Everyone wants to go hear them.
[00:13:50] This didn't take God by surprise. Take your pens and underscore the word before who were before of old ordained of this condemnation. Creepy clergy didn't take God by surprise. God warned us about them before they ever crept in among us.
[00:14:10] They were before of old ordained to this condemnation. Jude said that Greek word translated, ordained there it means to be marked out ahead of time. In other words, in the Old Testament scriptures, even in the early New Testament scriptures, in the Book of Acts, even in the Gospels, by Jesus.
[00:14:33] God through the written word, marked them out and warned us before they ever came. How did God mark them out? He marked them out in the Old Testament. He showed how counterfeit servants of God loved to dwell among God's people and leave them astray. And we're going to learn more about that as we go on further in the book of Jude and our study. But for now, write down this verse in your Bible, in your margin of your Bible, or if you're taking notes, on your notepad. Psalm 41 nine.
[00:15:06] Psalm 41, verse nine.
[00:15:11] Remember, Jesus told them while he was eating that Passover meal with his twelve disciples, he told them that one person was going to betray him that night.
[00:15:25] And he disclosed who that person was.
[00:15:29] John asked Jesus who it was, who's going to betray you, Jesus? And in John chapter 13, verse 26, Jesus answered, it is he to whom I will give this morsel of bread when I have dipped it. So they would take bread, they would dip it like in fruit or whatever kind of like we would put toast and jelly or something, and they would dip it and then eat it. And so he says, the person that's going to betray me is going to be the one that I take this bread and when I dip it, he's going to eat it. It says. So when he had dipped the morsel, he gave it to Judas, the son of Simon the Scariot. That's how he revealed who was going to betray him that night.
[00:16:18] And Jesus had explained, before he ever handed that bread to Judas to eat, he told his disciples beforehand that someone was going to betray him.
[00:16:31] And when they did, it would be fulfilling an Old Testament prophecy about that person.
[00:16:41] In that Psalm 41 nine, it was written hundreds of years before they were, before the Old marked out this condemnation. It was written hundreds of years before in the Old Testament. Listen to when I read Psalm 41 nine.
[00:16:55] This is Jesus speaking in the Old Testament through a prophecy. He says, yea, my own familiar friend in whom I trusted, which did eat of my bread, hath lifted up his heel against me. Isn't that amazing? Judas was before of old, ordained to this condemnation. In those who were like Judas, Judas became an example. Why did Jesus choose Judas to be one of his eleven? Sorry, his twelve disciples.
[00:17:29] To show us how creepy clergy would enter into the Church and defile the doctrine. How they'd have no care for the souls of those they preach to. But they're only there for the money. They're only there for their own lusts. And they don't care about the souls of men.
[00:17:48] He was marked out, Judas was beforehand the Old Testament scriptures.
[00:17:54] These people, Jude says are, look back in your text, ungodly men. You see that? Ungodly men. Now, they look godly. They may have all the religious garb on. They may wear a priest collar, they may have a shawl around them. They may have their hair slicked back in the right tone of voice and step and shout and hold the right Bible in their hand. But they're ungodly people. They may always be talking about God, but they neither have the heart of God nor the spirit of God within them.
[00:18:28] Like wax religious figures. How many of y'all ever gone to. Used to. You'd go to these wax museums. How many y'all ever gone to a wax museum? How many of y'all have never gone to a wax museum?
[00:18:41] Goodness, Brother Shepard, y'all lived a sheltered life.
[00:18:45] I remember going to one. You two, you never gone. Oh, you've gone. Okay, all right. But y'all know those y'all who've gone to wax museum, but they look so lifelike. I remember seeing one to Archie Bunker when I was a kid. I don't remember where it was. I was with my mother. My dad was probably wOrking, making the money to buy the ticket to go in, but I remember seeing Archie Bunker, and it looked just like Archie Bunker, but it wasn't. But like religious wax figures, they appear real and lifelike and holy, but they're fake.
[00:19:23] They are without the life of God.
[00:19:25] But they are standing in pulpits across the world right now as I speak.
[00:19:34] Ungodly men. Listen to what Jude is saying. These people are not sincere people who happen to be mistaken about religion.
[00:19:43] Okay, well, they mean. Well, they're just awful a little bit. Now, you know the apostle Paul, now, he was like that he was sincere. He used to persecute Christians before he became one. He thought he was doing God a favor. He thought he was living for God.
[00:19:59] And he wanted to know the truth. And because he wanted to know the truth, he finally found it.
[00:20:05] But the people that Jude is telling us about, the ones who creep into these churches, they're not sincere at all. They don't care about God.
[00:20:15] They don't care about the people in God's church. The only thing that they're sincere about is serving their own ungodly motives. That's it.
[00:20:27] So they don't creep into the church and begin preaching the true gospel of Jesus Christ. They creep into the church and they begin, look back in your text. They begin turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness.
[00:20:42] They turn, that is, they change the grace of God into lasciviousness.
[00:20:52] In order for us to understand what Jude is saying, we have to first understand what the grace of God is.
[00:20:59] And when I was trying to think of how am I going to define the grace of God? I'm going to have to hurry up, because at 12:00 you all know what happens. The Presbyterian church bells go off.
[00:21:11] Do you know what? If I'm not through, we're just going to keep on preaching. Over. I got this big speaker back here now, just blast right over.
[00:21:19] But I started thinking, how am I going to define the grace of God so that the people can understand what that means in a simple way?
[00:21:30] Think of it this way. The grace of God is God's goodness given to the Church through Jesus Christ.
[00:21:39] Simple enough.
[00:21:41] God's goodness, his blessing, his goodness, his mercy. Whatever's good about God, it's God's goodness given to the Church. And it's only given one way through Jesus Christ. God's goodness given to people through Jesus Christ. Through the Gospel of Jesus Christ, God gives restoration. He restores sinful man back to his Creator through the Gospel of Jesus Christ. God gives wisdom and direction to man through the Gospel of Jesus Christ. God will one day raise those who receive Christ from the dead so they can live again with him forever.
[00:22:20] Through the Gospel of Jesus Christ. God's one day going to wipe away all tears and restore to us everything that sin has ever taken away.
[00:22:30] The Gospel of Jesus Christ, therefore, is the grace of our God. You see, it is God's goodness given to the Church, given to men through Jesus Christ. Every bad thing comes to us on account of our sin.
[00:22:50] Lasciviousness.
[00:22:53] Every good thing comes to us through the grace of our God.
[00:23:00] The sin of man brings destruction. The grace of God brings salvation. Titus, chapter two, verse eleven through 13, says, the grace of God that brings salvation hath appeared to all men, teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldly lust. We should live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world, looking for that blessed hope and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Savior Jesus Christ. So the grace of God that brings salvation teaches us to deny ungodliness and worldly lust. But Jude says these creepy clergy are coming in and turning the grace of God into lasciviousness. They're getting it backwards, you see.
[00:23:46] What's lasciviousness? A lot of people out there thinking that right now, aren't you? All right, you told us the grace of God. What's lasciviousness?
[00:23:56] Lasciviousness is the opposite of the grace of God.
[00:24:00] Lasciviousness is the unbridled lust of man. It's man saying, you know what? I don't want to do things God's way.
[00:24:11] I want to do things my way.
[00:24:14] I don't want God's goodness coming down to me. I'll be my own goodness, and I'll get things on my own. I don't need God. I can be independent of God. That's lasciviousness. The grace of God teaches us to deny ungodliness and worldly lust. Lasciviousness teaches us to deny the grace of God.
[00:24:33] Think back with me. You want a good example?
[00:24:36] Think back with me to the Garden of Eden, where it all started.
[00:24:42] God created the world through Jesus Christ.
[00:24:47] The Bible says in the Gospel of John, chapter one, that everything in this world was made by the Lord Jesus. Everything, Bible says, without him was not anything made that was made.
[00:24:59] Remember, the grace of God is God's goodness to us through Jesus. God's goodness to us through Jesus. And you know what God did every time he created something through Jesus? Because Jesus is God the Son. He's the third person, the Trinity. Every time God made something, he would look at and he'd say, what was it? For the shepherd? It was good.
[00:25:19] God saw what he had made, and behold, it was good.
[00:25:23] And after God made everything in this world, he says, behold, it was very good. And God put man in the Garden of Eden, where all that goodness was, that God created through Jesus Christ. And there in the Garden of Eden, man was surrounded by the grace of God.
[00:25:44] But you know what happened?
[00:25:47] An ungodly serpent, the devil, crept in. Unawares, slithered in that garden. Brother Doug, they never even know what hit him.
[00:25:59] He was the first creepy clergy. You know what? The devil didn't come in that garden and say, hey, man, you don't want to be holy. You want to be dirty and rotten and no good. You want to be a rebel. He didn't tell them that the devil came in preaching a sermon of holiness, of godliness.
[00:26:18] The devil told Eve and Adam that they would be like gods, knowing good and evil if they were to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Creepy clergy. You see how, I mean, who would want to be like gods? Who would want to be like their own God? I mean, my goodness, it'd be wonderful to be like God.
[00:26:42] It was a lie.
[00:26:45] The message sounded godly enough.
[00:26:49] Satan told her, you should be as gods. So she and Adam followed the creepy clergy's teaching and did what they wanted to do, rather than what God had told them to do. They went based on what the creepy clergy told them instead of the word of God that had already been given to them.
[00:27:08] And in so doing, they got kicked out of the garden by going for the lasciviousness.
[00:27:17] They lost the grace of God. You see what happened?
[00:27:21] They lost the goodness of the garden. And thus the creepy clergy, way back in the book of Genesis, turned the grace of our God into less seriousness. And he's still doing it through preachers today around the world. These false preachers enter into churches suddenly, and they begin craftily replacing the grace of God with the lust of men. When Adam and Eve accepted the lie of the devil, they denied the truth of God and benign the truth of God. They denied the goodness of God. And in like man of his, creepy clergy began cleverly substituting the truth of God's word, which rebukes sinners and points them to the cross of Christ with vain religious words that comfort sinners and appeal to the lust of men.
[00:28:19] Itching ears, telling them what they want to hear. So they keep on coming back and turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness. Look back in the text and denying the only Lord God. No, Lord Jesus Christ, you know, Satan in the Garden of Eden. He never claimed God wasn't real.
[00:28:45] He never said, oh, there's no God now. He said, no. God knows that the day you eat thereof, you shall be as God's, knowing good and evil.
[00:28:56] The most dangerous religious leaders are not the crazy men that start cults and ask their followers to drink poison Kool Aid like Jim Jones.
[00:29:08] They're not the people like David Koresh, who build a compound claim to be Jesus and start having people follow them and give their wives to them. I mean, don't get me wrong, cult leaders are dangerous. They damn souls to hell. But to the majority of people, they're a bunch of kooks. Most people can look at them, say, man, what a kook. Who could be crazy enough to follow them? They're obviously False teachers.
[00:29:32] But the most dangerous religious leaders are, in my opinion, the ones Jude is warning us about today. The ones who can slip into a church completely unnoticed, slip into a seminary and begin teaching and use the same religious words that they use, but start introducing false doctrine into the church and turn them completely away from the truth they once believed.
[00:30:00] That's what was happening in the Church of Galatia in Paul's day. False teachers had crept in unawares. And Paul told the church in Galatians one six, I marvel. Listen closely now. I marvel that ye are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of God unto another gospel. And that word removed. When he says that you are so soon removed, that word removed. There goes those bells. Butch, where's your gun? Go shoot him. I hate when those bells go off. I'm trying to preach too loud.
[00:30:37] Butch, I got a mission for you after church is over.
[00:30:43] But he said I'm honorable that you're so soon removed.
[00:30:47] That's the same Greek word translated turn in the Book of Jude. I marvel that you have already been turned from him that called you into the grace of God unto another gospel. Creepy clergy had slipped into the Church of Galatia. They had won their confidence and they began introducing a false gospel into the church, turning them from the grace of God unto another gospel that is unto lasciviousness.
[00:31:17] And the majority of people in that church never even noticed.
[00:31:22] There was a time when you could have gone to a Presbyterian church like that and you could have heard the gospel being preached.
[00:31:32] I don't think you'll hear it over there today.
[00:31:36] I don't.
[00:31:38] There was a time you could have gone in there and heard the word of God expounded. But you'd be hard pressed to hear the gospel in most Presbyterian churches today. You know why? Because many of them are too busy ordaining women pastors and homosexual pastors and standing against the nation of Israel. That's their official stance. Presbyterian USA Church. That's their official stance against the nation of Israel.
[00:32:04] Now answer me this question. Who's against the Nation of Israel in the Bible?
[00:32:10] The devil is. You go read the Book of Revelation. You'll see it plain as day. That serpent persecutes the woman from whom the child comes. She's against Israel.
[00:32:26] Creepy clergy have slipped into the Presbyterian ranks and turned them away from the word of God, all the while claiming to be the teachers of the word of God.
[00:32:40] There was a time when you could have entered a Methodist Church and heard the Gospel preached and the word of God expounded.
[00:32:48] But instead, you can enter a Methodist church today. You can watch them perform a homosexual marriage.
[00:32:54] You'd be hard pressed to hear one of them preach the Gospel.
[00:32:58] Creepy clergy has slipped in and turned the people from the grace of God into less seriousness.
[00:33:06] I was talking to a member of a different denomination the other day, Friday, in fact, and we were talking about what it takes to go to heaven. And he told me, to go to heaven, you've got to make sure that you are fully submersed under the water, not part way, he said, but you've got to go all the way down under the water, completely under the water, and be baptized.
[00:33:34] The truth is, there's not enough water in this world that can wash away your sins.
[00:33:41] The truth is to go to heaven, you have to make sure you're fully immersed, completely in the blood of Jesus Christ. For the Bible says without the shedding of blood, there is no remission of sins.
[00:33:52] He told me the only way that he could be sure that he was going to heaven 20 years from now is I said, I know I'm going to heaven. I'm going to heaven a day, and I know if I live another 20 years, I'll go to heaven 20 years from now. He said the only way that he knew that he could go to heaven 20 years from now is if he kept living for God for those next 20 years. He said, because if I ever stop, I'll lose my salvation.
[00:34:19] Went to a Church of Christ Church there in Lufkin, Texas, and I explained to him, I said, I am working for Jesus because I am saved.
[00:34:31] You are working to be saved and to stay saved, because if you quit working, you're telling me you're no longer saved.
[00:34:42] I told him the reason that I know I'm going to heaven is because I trust in what Jesus did for me. And the reason he did not know that he was going to heaven is because he was trusting in what he was doing for Jesus. Do you see the difference?
[00:34:58] One is the Gospel, the other is not.
[00:35:02] Creepy. Clergy and many Baptists are just as bad. Isn't that right, Leah? Just as bad. Ain't that right, Brother Chan?
[00:35:12] Just as bad.
[00:35:16] How did so many churches get so messed up like this cause creepy clergy have slipped into the churches and averted the Gospel of Christ. And when they did, the people in the church, just like Adam and Eve, didn't stand up for the word of God that had been given to them. So Jude wrote this book so he could warn us of these snakes in the garden and call on us to earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered to the snakes church. We are facing today unprecedented times in this world. People don't even know what gender they are anymore. Many pastors don't stand for the truth anymore. Many so called Christians don't know what the truth is.
[00:36:00] Our nation is growing dark because the light of God is going out of it. And the only thing that can save this land and save our homes and save our souls is if Christians quit playing around and start picking up their Bibles again and stand for the truth that God has given us.
[00:36:21] And that'll be a good place for us to stop today. And Lord willing, will take back up in verse five next week. As Jude begins to describe these clergymen more particularly, he's going to be just like an old wanted poster in the Western movies. He's going to be writing us a description so we can recognize them when they come.
[00:36:50] We'll go ahead and close the word of prayer, and I'm going to go ahead and close in prayer since I'm along with the microphone this morning. Our sound systems this way. Heavenly Father, Lord, we thank you for all you've done.
[00:37:03] I thank you, Father, for the truth of your word, Lord, that when the world is clearly beginning to go the direction that you described in the prophecies, when Lord, as you said, there would be a great falling away from the truth of Scripture before Christ came, before the Antichrist came.
[00:37:35] And Lord, we see it beginning to happen.
[00:37:39] What you warned us about beforehand in the Scriptures is beginning to form up.
[00:37:45] And I pray, dear God, that the solemn warning here in the Scriptures will be taken to heart by every person here this morning and every person listening online.
[00:37:58] And Lord, more than that, I thank you with all my heart that we don't have to worry about false doctrine slipping in as long as we stand on the Gospel of Jesus Christ, as long as we take the word that you've given us, learn it, believe it, obey it, and as Jude said, earnestly contend for it. Thank you for giving us the blessed truth that saves our souls, sets us free from sin and death, and guides us in the way of God.
[00:38:41] It's in Jesus'precious and wonderful name I pray. And I pray you'll bless the food that we're about to receive to the nourishment of our bodies. Help us have a wonderful time of fellowship together. And I pray for the singing and the devotions that are coming up after the service is over and the meal is over. And I pray your blessing upon that. If there's anyone here today, Lord, that does not know Christ as their Savior, I pray, Father, that they'll get with me or brother Shepard as someone and let us sit down and share with them how they can know that they are saved.
