Latest / HBCWestminster / Jude 8-23 Condemned Part 2 10.27.19

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Jude 8-23 Condemned Part 2 10.27.19 · HBCWestminster

• 0:00
  We are in the letter of Jude, Jude's letter to the churches. And so if you guys want to turn there, you can. The one-page letter before the book of Revelation, second-to-last book in the Bible. Don't go too far earlier than Revelation because you'll miss it. It is one page long. Our text this morning is going to be verses 8 to 23, if we have time, 8 to 23. But that's our goal. We'll just see how far we get.
• 0:26
  I'm going to read those for us, beginning in verse 8. If you guys are able, I would ask you to stand in honor of God's word as we read, and then we'll pray and begin. Starting in verse 8, it says, Yet in like manner these people also, relying on their dreams, defile the flesh, reject authority, and blaspheme the glorious ones. But when the archangel Michael, contending with the devil, was disputing about the body of Moses, he did not presume to pronounce a blasphemous judgment, but said, The Lord rebuke you.
• 0:57
  But these people blaspheme all that they do not understand, and they are destroyed by all that they, like unreasoning animals, understand instinctively. Woe to them! For they walked in the way of Cain and abandoned themselves for the sake of gain to Balaam's error and perished in Korah's rebellion. These are hidden reefs at your love feasts, as they feast with you without fear. Shepherds feeding themselves, waterless clouds swept along by winds. Fruitless trees in late autumn, twice dead, uprooted.
• 1:27
  wild waves of the sea, casting up the foam of their own shame, wandering stars, for whom the gloom of utter darkness has been reserved forever. It was also about these that Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied, saying, Behold, the Lord comes with ten thousands of his holy ones to execute judgment on all and to convict all the ungodly of all their deeds of ungodliness that they have committed in such an ungodly way and of all the harsh things that ungodly sinners have spoken against him. These are grumblers.
• 1:58
  malcontents, following their own sinful desires. They are loudmouthed boasters showing favoritism to gain advantage. But you must remember, beloved, the predictions of the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ. They said to you in the last time there will be scoffers following their own ungodly passions. It is these who cause divisions, worldly people devoid of the Spirit. But you, beloved, building yourselves up in your most holy faith and praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in the love of God.
• 2:27
  waiting for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ that leads to eternal life. And have mercy on those who doubt. Save others by snatching them out of the fire. To others, show mercy with fear, hating even the garment stained by the flesh. Let's pray. Lord, we thank you for interrupting our routines with worship and fellowship and with your word. And Lord, whether we have heard this news many times over or are this day listening with brand new ears,
• 3:03
  God, I pray that you would surprise us with your spirit and truth that we may receive forgiveness. Startle us, God, with your grace and mercy that we may repent of wrong directions in our lives. Stagger us, God, with your hope and peace that our lives may be genuinely transformed and different as we leave this place. And it's in your son's name we pray. Amen. Amen. Thank you for standing. You can be seated.
• 3:35
  Well, we've been studying the book of Jude, the letter of Jude to the churches for the last couple of Sundays. We will study it for a couple of more. And as we have studied previously, we've said that apostasy, apostasy is abandoning of spiritual beliefs. Apostasy was rampant in the first century church. There were many who professed, but very few who were committed. Many who said that they believed, but few whose belief had actually penetrated their hearts and minds.
• 4:04
  People who had once professed belief were abandoning the faith and the church. We've called them to this point spiritual pretenders. And Jude challenges us to contend for the faith which was once for all delivered. We're going to pick up right where we left off last week. And so just imagine this to be a continuation of last week's sermon. Last week's sermon, we began studying some Old Testament examples of apostasy.
• 4:30
  and specifically the heavy prices paid due to their faithlessness. If we have time this morning, we'll finish then with how to combat that spiritual apostasy, both in the church and in our own lives. Last week, we studied the first two examples. Example one was the example of those who died in the wilderness in verse 5. That God, Jesus, verse 5 says, saved an entire generation out of Egypt, and yet that generation died because of their disbelief.
• 5:00
  and disobedience in the desert. Example two from verse six was the example of the demonic, those demons who did not stay within their own position of authority and have since that day been kept in eternal chains under gloomy darkness. We pick up now with example number three in verse seven, what I'm going to call the example of Lot or the example of Sodom and Gomorrah. Look at verse seven.
• 5:28
  It says, just as Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding cities, which likewise indulged in sexual immorality and pursued unnatural desire, serve as an example by undergoing a punishment of eternal fire. Now, Sodom and Gomorrah, what are now famous cities, were actually famous then. In their day, they enjoyed a prominent place on important and international even trade routes. You may recall...
• 5:56
  When Sodom and Gomorrah are entered into the biblical story, when Abraham and his nephew Lot are standing in that Jordan Rift Valley, they're standing there at the Jordan River. Abraham looks at his nephew and says, choose whichever way you want to go, right? We can't stay together. Our groups are too large. Our families and herds too large. So Abraham says, Lot, you choose wherever you want to go. If you go to the right, I'll go to the left. If you go to the left, I'll go to the right. Does everybody remember this story? Abraham.
• 6:25
  leaves it to him and looks one direction. He looks west and he sees Palestine, Canaan, what would eventually become Israel. It's rocky, difficult to tend, difficult to cultivate. The bedrock is actually very shallow. The soil there, relatively weak. In fact, and it still is. If you go to Israel today, you'll find that everything is rocks.
• 6:56
  Everything is rocks. You turn on CNN, you see people skirmishing in the streets. Even the way that they skirmish in the streets, they're picking up rocks and chucking them at each other. Everything is rocks, even today. Hebrew folklore. Now, this is not a biblical story, okay? But the ancient Hebrews used to tell a story that said that God, when he was creating the earth, commended, commissioned three massive angels.
• 7:22
  whose job it was to carry all of the rocks of earth across the earth and deposit them where they should. As each of these three angels were given their massive bag of rocks, and they all took off and began to spread out, one of those angels accidentally dropped his bag over Israel. And so a third of all of the planet's rocks ended up on that tiny little spit of dirt.
• 7:49
  And so Lot looks one direction and he says, well, I don't want to go that way. That's going to be a nightmare, right? He looked to the east. He saw massive cities, prominence, wealth. He saw lush and fertile, watered grounds, easy to cultivate, right? He saw influence and prominence. And although...
• 8:12
  2 Peter 2 actually says he knew the wickedness that was being practiced in Sodom and Gomorrah. He knew what was going on. He decided to take his family there anyway, even though God had warned him that it would not go well for him there, that his family would be influenced, that the cities were practicing what this says is sexual perverseness, sexual immorality, and even pursuing unnatural desire.
• 8:41
  be graphic about that here, but one of those cities even lends its name to a sin, the way that we even word that today, Sodom and Gomorrah. And so although he knew these things were being practiced there, he decided to go there anyway. Now, let me just ask you, how did that work out for Lot? Not so good.
• 9:05
  If you fast forward just a few more chapters in Genesis, you'll recall Abraham pleading with the Lord on behalf of Sodom and Gomorrah. Do you remember this? God says, I'm going to pound those places. And Abraham says, no. And how this all works in the prayer of God and changing God's mind, you guys, I don't know. Not the point of today's sermon, okay? The place of prayer and the prominence of prayer in the believer's life.
• 9:28
  Abraham pleading for God, if I find 50, if I find 45, will you spare it for 45? Will you spare it for 40? And he works all the way down. What about five people? If I just find five righteous people in these cities, will you spare them? And God says, not for five. You know of five, go get them out, right? And so Abraham goes in, he finds Lot, he finds Lot's wife and their two daughters. And he says, the Lord has brought punishment. He is going to destroy these cities. And indeed, that is what he did.
• 9:55
  He destroyed those cities. Today, the remnants of Sodom and Gomorrah, they're not able to be found. Archaeologists suspect that they are currently under the Dead Sea. That's where they are. Lot, as he's leaving the city even, loses his wife on the way out of town. Do you remember? She casts a glance. And you guys, listen, we don't serve a petty and trivial God.
• 10:24
  right? Like Lot's wife accidentally glanced in the rear view mirror and God was like, ah, you peaked, boom, you know, turns into a pillar of salt. That's not the God we serve. When this says that she cast a glance, she actually looked longingly back. She was warned God was willing to rescue. And she said, you know what? I'd rather be back there. And her life was lost. Lot, because of his compromise,
• 10:51
  paid an enormous price. Just like the people in the wilderness did, just like those demons did who left their allotted place, so did Lot and the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. That's example number three. Example number four, I'm calling the example of Enoch. The example of Enoch, you pick up in verse eight. It says, yet in like manner, these people also. Now, these people are the same people as verse four.
• 11:19
  So if you've got your Bibles open, you go back up to verse 4. It says, for certain people have crept in unnoticed. Ungodly people, it says. Certain people, that's the same people as verse 8. In fact, it's the same people as verse 14, where it says, it was also about these.
• 11:40
  These people, this is that apostate group, but now specifically the apostate group that Enoch prophesied against. If you look at verse 14, it was about these people that Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied. Now, who was Enoch? The text says that he was seven generations removed from Adam, but these generations differed greatly from our own since men and women live significantly longer before the flood than they do now.
• 12:10
  Enoch actually became a hero among the Jewish people. And not because his story was so great. In fact, if you go back and read his story from Genesis chapter 5, one chapter before the flood, a chapter before Noah, it barely even mentions Enoch. What it says is he was seven generations removed. It says that he walked with God, right? So he was a godly man. And then what? And there was no more.
• 12:40
  says that he walked with God and then was no more. He is one of the two Old Testament men, supposedly, we assume, never died. He walked with God and then was translated to heaven without going through the process of death. Elijah, the prophet, was the other one.
• 12:59
  Okay. So Elijah walked with God and then a chariot came down and grabbed him and took him to heaven. Okay. He never died. Enoch was the other one because of that. He became kind of a hero to the Jewish people simply because he never died. All right. What's interesting about his story, not is the details given because there are very few details given. What's interesting about his story is not who he was so much as when he lived. Enoch fathered a very famous man named Methuselah. You guys all know Methuselah?
• 13:29
  That was Enoch's son. Methuselah's dad was Enoch. What was famous about Methuselah? He was old. That's the only thing he was famous for. He was old. 969 years old. It's the oldest recorded person in the Bible. 969 years. It makes me wonder what his last 900 or so years would have been like.
• 14:00
  If people aged the same way that we do now, he had his 69th birthday, right? 69 years and then lived 900 more.
• 14:13
  As his body began to break down and things stopped working and all of that, if that all happened like we do, what he must have looked like by the time he was 900, I don't know. I'm imagining a tiny little green guy with pointy ears, you know, holding a lightsaber. I don't know. You know, I don't know what he's doing. 900 years old. Can you imagine that? Well, why does that matter? It matters because Enoch, we find out here, was a prophet.
• 14:44
  Right? And he prophesied to the generation that would be wiped out at the flood. That was the generation to whom he prophesied. Does that make sense? He died before the flood. He didn't make it all the way there. But as he's prophesying, he's prophesying to the people that would call down universal punishment upon mankind.
• 15:12
  We think about what it's like here today and the wickedness and the rebellion and the flagrant shaking of our hands to God and ask the Lord, why doesn't he do something? But man, can you imagine? We complain even about the state of affairs we currently live in. Can you imagine living in that generation? That generation, God said, Noah and his wife and their three sons and wives get on the boat. We're hitting reset.
• 15:45
  How evil, how wicked. Genesis 6 says, filled with violence, murder everywhere. Murder everywhere. That was Enoch prophesying against this people. Now, that text, verses 8 to 16, describe that group of people. What Judah's going to give is a whole bunch more little examples of what that generation who were punished in the flood, what they were like. Okay? So if you continue.
• 16:14
  These people, verse 8, these people relying on their dreams. We said last week, rejecting the authority of God and replacing it with their own. Then it continues, defile the flesh. In other words, they were sexually perverse. They reject authority. The literal rendering of that, reject means to topple. Authority is the same word as Lord. Okay? What they were trying to do was topple.
• 16:43
  God from his throne. That would be a literal rendering of reject authority. It's not just speeding, okay? And you'll never catch me alive, you know, to the police, whatever. I mean, it was way more than that, trying to topple God's throne. It says, and they blaspheme the glorious ones. Now,
• 17:04
  Without a doubt, verses 9 and 10 in our text this morning are the weirdest two verses, okay? These are strange ones. Verse 9 says, but when the archangel Michael, contending with the devil, was disputing about the body of Moses. Was anybody else, when we read that the first time, like, what? What are you talking about? That happened? You know what's cool about the book of Jude? And there's a parallel text as well, 2 Peter.
• 17:38
  Chapter 2 reiterates many of these same things. But what Jude does is he pulls back the curtain on one little event that we would have no idea about otherwise. You guys recall Moses' death, the end of the book of Deuteronomy, right? There's that generation of unfaithful believers, the generation of the wilderness, the ones that lost their lives in the wilderness. We've just talked about them. Moses was their leader.
• 18:06
  Okay, Moses goes to the top of Mount Nebo and from the top of Mount Nebo can see across the Jordan River to the other side where the promised land is. But he's told by God, you're not going to go there. You're going to hand off the staff to who? Joshua, you're going to die here. And he does. Says that Moses died at the age of 120, still full of life and vigor. Says his body did not fail, nor did his eyes fail.
• 18:35
  The guy never slowed down. He died at 120 years old and was buried there on Mount Nebo. Everybody following so far? He hands the staff off to Joshua. Joshua then takes the people down to the Jordan River. We have the book of Joshua, right? They cross the Jordan River miraculously. God stops the river. The people go across and thus begins the conquest of the promised land, right? Everybody knows that part of the story. Apparently though,
• 19:06
  What was going on behind the scenes was that Moses died, he handed off the staff of leadership to Joshua, Moses is buried, and Lucifer, the devil himself, came up with a plan. And the plan was to do what? Yes, it's inferred there, right? What did the devil try to do? He tried to steal the body of Moses.
• 19:34
  It's not talked about in Deuteronomy. It's never mentioned in Joshua. It's mentioned here in Jude and in 2 Peter 2. He tried to steal the body of Moses. And you may say, well, what on earth? Why? Why? You know, the Bible never gives his motivation behind it. Never says, here's why Lucifer decided to do that. It never says that. But we can certainly figure out, we can deduce what the devil's motivation is. Why would he want the body of Moses? What do you guys think? That's gotta be, listen.
• 20:06
  If we know one thing about the devil, it's that he's an idol maker, right? Idolatry, that's what he wants. What would he do with the body of Moses? Think about the parts of the story we know. Joshua takes the mantle of leadership. He leads the people into the promised land. And for the next said generations, everything went smashingly. No problems, no distorted theology, right? No lack of harmony or unity.
• 20:39
  The people conquered throughout. They fulfilled the letter of the law down to the minutest detail, right? No. The next 10, 11, 12 generations were some of the most wicked generations in Israel's history. Those were the generations of the conquest and the judges, where it says everybody did what was right in his own eyes. Nobody even had any concept of right and wrong. Things did not go well. In fact, as they crossed over, there was even a little coup against Joshua.
• 21:11
  You remember this? Let's go back. Who is this guy? We don't want to be here. Do you remember? We had it better in Egypt, some of them said. Let's go back. At least we had food. Joshua was like, and we were slaves. What are you talking about? We're not going back. Can you imagine if the devil had been able to show up with a reanimated Moses in that moment?
• 21:41
  Not a resurrected one. I don't even know how totally this would work. Everybody following? He doesn't have the power of life and death, but he can fake that stuff. And can you imagine if he had been able to show back up? These people so venerated Moses' life, so venerated his law. If he had shown up at the right time when the people were vulnerable, there was already division among the people, it would have been catastrophic. Catastrophic. He's an idol maker.
• 22:12
  And Moses' body would have made a tremendous one. John Phillips says this, Right? We see that in some religious traditions. Anything that they think a saint might have touched, a saint might have held, they'll even accept it, he says, as having magical powers. If it is properly venerated and adored.
• 22:43
  That the relic is not even genuine makes no difference as long as the superstitious worshiper can be persuaded that it is. If people can be persuaded to crawl and grovel and weep and worship and plead and pray before any old moldering piece of corpse, Satan is delighted. No doubt that's what he would have done. And so what did the Lord do? The Lord, it says in verse 9, dispatched the archangel Michael. The archangel.
• 23:12
  Michael. Michael is mentioned many times throughout the Old and New Testaments. Michael. Calls him an archangel. Now, this could be in reference to a hierarchy of demons and angels. Maybe that's how it works. There are all kinds of classifications of angels. Honestly, the scriptures don't go into too much detail about that. Archangel, we suppose, would mean one in high authority and powerful.
• 23:42
  In the angelic host, Michael wields some authority. And so God, knowing that Satan is doing this, trying to get in there to steal the body, dispatches Michael and his guys down there to go and handle it. And you can imagine this confrontation over the body of Moses. And I just, I would love, listen, there are some very creative movie makers in our generation. Creative, they're incredible. I wish they'd make movies about better stuff.
• 24:12
  I would love to see what the Marvel guys could do with this. Listen, just stick to the text. You don't have to embellish at all. There was a war going down, swords drawn. Michael and the devil himself rolling around inside the tomb of Moses over the dead body. Can you imagine that? An actual infinity war. He dispatches Michael to go down and handle it. And in all of that, you imagine, you know, Michael and...
• 24:43
  Tradition says this flaming sword. I don't know. The Bible doesn't say that. Can you imagine in that moment the authority, the power of the archangel Michael? He's a powerful being. In fact, I think if he showed up here right now, we would fall down on our faces and worship. He would have to rebuke us to keep us from doing that. So radiant and glorious and scary and powerful would he be.
• 25:12
  Not even he dared blaspheme against Lucifer. Not even he, in all of his authority, dared rebuke the devil, but instead said, may the Lord rebuke you. His authority. Mine is meaningless. His authority. May the Lord rebuke you. Look at verse 10.
• 25:37
  Verse 9, but he did not presume, verse 9 says, to pronounce a blasphemous judgment, but said, the Lord rebuke you. But these people, these apostate people, they blaspheme all they don't understand. It's like they're just walking around as if they own the place, as if they have the authority to judge. They blaspheme all that they don't understand. They are destroyed by all that they, like unreasoning animals, understand instinctively. In other words, he says, they have no idea what they're doing. They're not thinking, they're just...
• 26:08
  reacting. They blaspheme the glorious ones. He continues in verse 11, woe to them, for they walked in the way of Cain. Cain was the first murderer, right? They've abandoned themselves for the sake of gain to Balaam's error. Let me stop there for just a minute. All of you guys who are younger than sixth grade, perk up for just a minute. If you've been coming on Wednesday nights, this last Wednesday night, you just heard about Balaam. You guys remember Balaam?
• 26:40
  Do you remember Balaam from last Wednesday night? No. He's like, yeah, yeah. No, I don't remember. We talked about this this last Wednesday night. Balaam had a very famous pet, right? He had a very special donkey. Did you guys talk about this on Wednesday night? Did I miss it? You did, right? Okay. He had a very special donkey with a very special ability. What could his donkey do? He talked. You know what was interesting about Balaam's donkey?
• 27:10
  is that the donkey said more true things than Balaam did. Do you remember that? Was Balaam a good guy or a bad guy? Bad dude. He was a prophet. So you'd think, well, a prophet is good, right? A prophet tells the truth, not this prophet. This prophet was willing to say whatever he was paid to say, right? He was a hypocrite. He was a prophet for hire. The donkey spoke more truth than the prophet.
• 27:42
  with Balaam. That was him. He was bad news. Now, all of you same kiddos, think back to two Wednesdays ago. Look at verse 11. They died, it says. They perished in Korah's rebellion. Two Wednesdays ago, you guys learned about Korah. You guys remember Korah? Remember, okay, Moses. Moses is leading the people. This guy Korah stands up and he says, we don't want to listen to you anymore. Everybody follow me from now on, right? He starts this rebellion against God's anointed.
• 28:15
  Everybody who wants to follow me, stand over here. Everybody who wants to follow Moses, stand over there. Do you guys remember what happened to Korah and all of his buddies? Anybody remember for real? They died. I believe they perished. Yes. We just read that. That's cheating. You guys remember what they do? God opened up the ground, everybody fell in, and he closed the ground back up. Can you imagine Moses standing there like, anybody else have a problem with my leadership?
• 28:46
  Anybody else have something to say? I'm good. I don't have anything else. Yay, Moses. You know, like, that's it. Ari Davis, one of our preschool teachers, was talking a couple of Wednesdays ago. She said she brought all these little figures, you know, the little little people guys. She put two tables next to each other, right? She was talking about Korah's Rebellion. She stacked them all up, all the little buddies. And then it says, okay, she pulled the tables apart. A bunch of them fell in. Like, that is a pretty graphic illustration. Slammed them back shut.
• 29:14
  You know, one of the guys on the bad guys stayed up. One of the preschoolers said, you know, Miss Ari, he lived. You know, she cracked that thing back open, slammed him down, cracked it back shut again. It says they perished, verse 11 says, in Korah's rebellion. He's talking about this punishment of God coming on people. He's not joking. Cain, Balaam, and Korah. He goes on in verses 12 and 13 to talk about six physical...
• 29:51
  things that happen, six natural things that happen that are unexpected. You'd think one thing, but it ended up being something else. Verse 12 says they are hidden reefs at your love feast. Love feast is communion. That's all that means. It's not some weird thing. It's communion. When you're taking communion, they are hidden reefs. Reefs, they're obstacles. They're blockades that you can't see. They feast with you without fear. They're shepherds who feed themselves. Shepherds are meant to feed the flock. But these shepherds, he says, shear the flock.
• 30:22
  They're waterless clouds. What's the point of a cloud if it's not going to rain? They're swept along by winds. They're fruitless trees in late autumn. Fruit trees with no fruit. They don't make any sense. Twice dead, uprooted. Wild waves of the sea casting up the foam of their own shame. They're wandering stars. Wandering stars. They used celestial navigation. And until relatively recently in human history, we still did too.
• 30:48
  World War II pilots used celestial navigation. There was no Vortac or GPS or anything else. You look at the stars, you can tell where you are. And the only reason you can do that is because the stars never move. Now imagine stars that shift. You never know where they are. It says, for whom the gloom of utter darkness has been reserved.
• 31:10
  Forever, they are deceptively destructive. They're shepherds who shear the sheep rather than feeding them. Dry clouds, trees that don't produce. They are unpredictably catastrophic. Catastrophic. And he says it was about these that Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied. Now, in Enoch's prophecy, he uses a word over and over, this repeated word, and it's the word ungodly. If you like to circle in your Bibles.
• 31:37
  You'll notice that this same word is used six times. It's only 25 verses long. But six times the word ungodly is used. Four of them are in the next one verse. Look at verse 15. He's coming, sending 10,000 of his holy ones. And it says why? To execute judgment on all and to convict all the ungodly of all their deeds of ungodliness that they have committed in such an ungodly way. And of all the harsh things that ungodly sinners have spoken against him. Ungodly.
• 32:06
  ungodly, ungodly, they're grumblers, malcontents, following their own sinful desires, loudmouth boasters, showing favoritism to gain advantage. Enoch's fourfold use of the term ungodly identifies their basic attitude toward authority. They had no reverence for God and were therefore swept away when the flood came. They paid an enormous price. Well, that's...
• 32:33
  Apostasy, what do we do about it? How do we combat apostasy in the church and in our own lives? How do we combat spiritual lethargy, laziness, which may lead to apostasy? J.B. Phillips has said this, no apostasy could exist apart from something else. And that's apathy. Spiritual apathy promotes spiritual apostasy. What should we do? How do we combat apostasy? And the answer is constant.
• 33:03
  vigilance. I got to do something really cool this week. Pastor Bob Jones and I visited Cheyenne on Thursday. We went there for the day. We spent the day with a guy named Derek Mittelstadt. Derek is a member of our church. He's also the chief of District 1, Laramie County District 1 up there in Cheyenne. He is the fire chief in that district.
• 33:25
  I've got a couple of pictures. We went up there. We were going to spend the day with him. He said, why don't you guys come up for the day? I'll take you on all of our calls. We'll do all of these cool things. Literally nobody called. We sat there. I mean, we sat there for hours. And he's like, well, this is kind of weird, you know, wishing that people would call because.
• 33:41
  You don't want that to happen. You know, like, I don't want to wish awful things, but man, this is not the day I had planned. And so at some point he said, let's just drive around in the fire truck. That sounds good. You know, so he grabbed one of these fire trucks. We're just driving around town. Little kids are waving at me through the window, you know, like as if I'm a fireman. I'm like, you know, don't choke. I don't know what to do. You know, like we're driving around. It was really fun. Here's a picture of Derek. That's him on the left there. Really just a wonderful man, godly man, and a member of our church.
• 34:09
  Eventually, though, you show the next picture. Eventually, though, we ended up outside. We got so bored that he just said, you know, let's start pulling out all the toys. What do you want to play with? Firemen have the coolest stuff, you guys. They really do. And so we're getting all the engines out. We're pulling everything out. He's showing us how to use all of this stuff. I put on the boots and the pants, the jacket, the helmet, and then the air tank that they normally wear. Just that stuff weighs 65 pounds.
• 34:37
  It's like having a second grader strapped to you, okay? And so when they're, you can imagine, when they're hauling up these stairwells and going up to save people's lives and all of that, it's for real. I mean, they are no joke. And then he says, now here are some of the tools. And we're getting out, you know, the famous ones with the jaws of life. We played with those for a little while. You know, they just, I mean, they will rip open anything you can imagine, no problem. Huge steel saws, you know, just, I mean, it was really, really fun.
• 35:05
  Um, he, he said, you know, somebody, it was really funny too, because the guys in there, uh, the firemen that were in there, most of whom were young, uh, were so excited to have the chief there. You know, I don't know. I can hear I'm whispering. It's just Derek, you know, but for them, it's like, oh, the chief is here. The chief, the chief, you know, I can hear. And, uh, and they don't often get to use all of those things. Some of them haven't even been trained on some of those tools yet. So he says, Hey, this is my pastor, Danny.
• 35:30
  Uh, we're going to get out all of the stuff. We're going to, um, use it. If you guys want to join us, you know, their eyes get all big. Yes, we'll be out, you know, so they're strapping on, they're doing all their stuff and running outside and they're just using all of this. And, um, I, I went to pick up that tool that, that it's basically a giant pair of scissors. Okay. That's not what they call it. Um, but that's what that thing is. It's got a couple of hydraulic hoses. You hook it to a generator and, uh, and that thing will cut anything.
• 35:58
  There's nothing you can imagine that that thing won't cut through. It's designed to cut through the frame of your car. If you're ever stuck under one, he says, you know, imagine you're on I-25 and a truck has rolled over and there's a woman pinned underneath the truck, you know, and you've got to cut the frame so that you can spread the thing out enough to get her out of there. That's what that does. And so we started grabbing chunks of steel and we're just chopping through. It was incredible, the power that those little scissors have.
• 36:28
  I went to pick it up. You know, I bent down and grabbed it. It was on the ground. And all of the other guys that were out there were all young. You know, they're all early 20s, all excited, all enthusiastic, all of them just physical specimens, okay? All of them jacked, their chests, their backs. I mean, huge muscles on these kids, you know? And then there's me.
• 36:52
  And so I'm standing there. I've got the 65 pounds of gear on already. I bent down to pick up this tool. And just that tool weighs, he said, 75 pounds. And so I went to pick this thing up. I didn't know that. So I just bent down to grab it. You know, I'm going to go like this. And it didn't budge. You know, I got all these guys watching me. You know, and one of them says, hey, you just got to pick it up like a firefighter. Punk, you know. I'm picking that thing up. There is no way I'm not picking that thing up. It will come off the ground.
• 37:23
  You know, I thought I'll call Dr. Casagrande tomorrow. He can do all of my adjustments or whatever it's going to take. That thing's coming off the ground. Even the way I'm holding it there, you can see how I'm leaning back. It's laying on my leg. It was so heavy. You know, we're hauling these things around. I was having fun, but they were dead serious. They were dead serious. The next time we get that thing out, it's because a woman is trapped under a truck.
• 37:52
  They are required to lift weights. They're required to exercise an hour a day. There's a weight room inside the fire station. They're required to be in there. They log it an hour a day because if you look like me and you have trouble lifting that thing off the ground, people die. It's no joke for them, right? I'm having fun and we're laughing and having a good time. And, you know, Pastor Bob's making his jokes and whatever. And we're just, you know, cutting stuff up and having fun. They're watching this like.
• 38:19
  Okay, I better remember if I twist this way, it closes. And if I twist that way, it opens. And I better not forget because when it's minus 10 and blowing and snow everywhere, and there's a semi flipped upside down. Now, one of the times Derek told me they had to lift a tank, like an actual tank, like an Abrams tank. We're going to figure out how to get that thing off the ground because it was strapped to a train and the train derailed and it flung an Abrams. You know, like, and we, now who do you call? You call the fire department. I wouldn't know what to do.
• 38:51
  The answer to spiritual apostasy, what do we do? What do we do? The answer is constant vigilance. Constant vigilance. It's lifting and exercising, contending for the faith. It's exactly what we said two weeks ago. I'm just going to read these next few verses and just look at the words. I'll point them out as we go. What must we do? And verse 17 says, but you must.
• 39:19
  Here's the answer. We've looked at the examples. What do we do about it? But you must remember, and that's the first one. Remember, beloved, the predictions of the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ. In other words, recall what the apostles said. They said to you, in the last time there will be scoffers following their own ungodly passions. The apostles said these days would come. They warned us. This is no surprise.
• 39:47
  They said it. So remember first, it is these people who cause divisions, worldly people devoid of the Spirit. That's first. Remember what the apostles said. Second, but you, beloved, building yourselves up in your most holy faith, building first, praying in the Spirit, keeping yourselves in the love of God, and waiting for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ that leads to eternal life. Second, not just remember, but remain.
• 40:14
  Remain by building yourselves up. It's the same wording as Ephesians chapter 4, referring to the church. Ephesians 4 says, Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, makes the body grow so that it is built up in love. Remain by building yourselves up in the church, building up the church, and praying, it says, in the Holy Spirit. Praying.
• 40:47
  Man, there is nothing like the conviction that comes when we recall that we are supposed to be praying. I've never met a person proud of their prayer life. Even the people that we deem prayer warriors always say that they are lacking in prayer. And I think that that could be because we don't actually know what prayer is for.
• 41:11
  praying in the Holy Spirit. Most times in my life, if I were to go back and look at the dictated prayers, the prayers, if I just wrote them all down, here are the last prayers of my last years. Sometimes I feel like my prayer life is just a convenient way for me to tell God what to do. Give me this. Provide this for me. Please do this. Work here. Grow this. Bless this. And he invites us to ask. There's nothing wrong with that. But often I feel like I'm presumptuous in my prayers.
• 41:42
  I loved hearing about the prayer life of one of our two-year-olds here at the church. Jade Madsen, Spencer and Jana's daughter, has been praying. She is two years old. She folds her little hands, and Jana has been talking to me about this. Unfortunately, she's growing in her prayer life because I love the way she did it before. She folds her hands, and she says, Dear God, and then there's a few-second pause, and then she says, Amen.
• 42:11
  I just think, okay, we can learn from that. What if we didn't get to fill in the blanks? What if God got to fill in those blanks? What if we literally said, dear God, and then just let him whatever you want. Amen. I would radically transform our prayer lives. Dear God. Amen. This is praying in the spirit.
• 42:38
  Keeping yourselves in the love of God, it is easy for us to become complaining, critical spirits, even those who genuinely know the Lord and are forgiven, but become critics, crossing swords with unbelievers rather than lovingly calling them to the love of God. It says, waiting for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ. I've found that we are lousy at waiting. We're not very good at it. Waiting for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ that leads.
• 43:08
  to eternal life. Remember, remain, and then last, and with this we'll end, respond. Respond. And look at verse 22. Have mercy on those who doubt. Have mercy on those. There are those within the church who are genuinely confused. They may think wrongly, but they are not to be rejected. Scripture says that when Christ saw the wicked religious leaders, he was indignant. But when he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them. And that's how we are to respond. Mercy on those who doubt. Save others by snatching them out of...
• 43:39
  the fire, save others, respond, pulling them out, calling them back to the truth and to others show mercy with fear, hating even the garment stained by the flesh. Fear is the same Greek word as phobos, phobos, phobos, where we get phobia from. And more than just a simple dislike, phobias cause us to do strange things. And we got to remember that while we minister to those who oppose the faith, we're in constant danger of being pulled into their lies.
• 44:10
  The language that Jude uses regarding the garment is graphic. Hating even the garment stained by the flesh, it literally means, I don't mean to be irreverent here, it's the wording that he used. It literally means it's like stained underwear. Stained undergarments, he says. That's how you are to treat people who have rejected the gospel. His encouragement is to handle critics of the faith the same way that you'd handle a dirty diaper. You know, you don't put it in your pocket.
• 44:39
  You hold it at arm's length until you can find the giant trash can outside. You know, that's what he says. Constant vigilance. I was reminded on Thursday of how weak my physical muscles are because I am not prepared. I'm not prepared to save a life on I-25, but I better be prepared to combat spiritual lethargy, laziness, and apostasy in my own life. Actively combating those things in our lives is how we can have victory over them. Let me pray.
• 45:12
  God, thank you for your word this morning. And thank you, God, for the reminder from your word of how dangerous it is, how dangerous it is to rebel against you. And God, I pray that you would be glorified in our spiritual effort to build up our spiritual muscles, God, so that we can be ready to combat apostasy when it rears its head, either in the church or even in our personal lives. God, we love you and are grateful. And it's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen.