I was thinking about something. I don't do that real often, but sometimes I do. You have all heard, you've probably said, and you've probably meant it, as most do that say this. God is good. Some people will preface that with ain't God good. That's a true statement. God is good.

But we must be careful that we do not use the definition of men to define the goodness of God. Because God defines what good is. So, you know, men want to take their word, good, and say, well, because this is the way I view God, then God must be good. But the truth is that God is good, and we must derive what we understand about what good is from how God is, not vice versa.

You know, men say God is kind. Well, he most surely is. But he's not kind because we define what kind is and then we attribute that to God. God is kind because he's God. And kindness is found in God. And if you would understand what kindness or goodness or mercy or peace, you must find it in him. And you can't have peace, that's what the Lord meant when he said, my peace give I unto thee, not as the world giveth peace. Because all men have some idea of what peace is. Well, peace is when you're just, you know, you're just calm, you're at rest, and nothing's bothering you, that's peace. Well, that's peace as men understand it, but that's not the peace of God.

Now, the peace of God may bring about those very, feelings and thoughts and that sort of thing, but the peace which God gives, the scripture says, passeth understanding. So it's not in the understanding of men to even know what peace is unless the Lord brings it. That's why it's such folly when men speak about world peace. Now what they mean by that is that people will quit picking up guns and shooting one another. That would be in the minds of most people what world peace would consist of. But I would say that you could destroy every gun that ever was, take all the knives and melt them down, do whatever you want to do, and you still wouldn't have peace that Christ came to give. Because that's a peace that's outside the realm of man's understanding.

And so, you know, we need to be careful when we speak about, when we give our definitions to how God is. God is good, God is kind, God is full of mercy. But he's the one that defines what that is. And we rejoice and we worship him. That's what it is to worship him in spirit and truth. Because men often worship him because they, you know, a lot of people are happy with God when they're being blessed. Who wouldn't be? I mean, you know, if everything's going just exactly like you want it to go, why wouldn't you be happy? Everybody's happy then. But you see, God is good. He's kind. He's full of mercy when everything has gone awry. When we've lost loved ones, when we've lost fortunes, when we've lost whatever. and we don't have anything. All our friends are gone. See, that doesn't define what the Lord has in store for his people.

And so may we never be those that seek to define God by what we understand, but may we let our understanding be defined by what God is. He's full of glory and he's right and good in all things. And that's what the Lord showed that in Nicodemus, I mean to Nebuchadnezzar. He said, and no one can say unto thee, what doest thou? See, God's, He's beyond reproach. He's beyond question. How foolish is it for men to say, well, God, you know, this wouldn't be right if God did this like this, so we believe God does things like this, because it wouldn't be right if God did this. Well, you can't come up with a scenario where you could accuse God of anything. I mean, you can't devise it. It's impossible for men to devise a scenario where God could be put on trial. Not able to do it. Because he's God and there is none else. He's God and there's none like him.

May the Lord teach us such things as that. And may our minds and hearts, our thoughts and considerations of him be ever centered on that, on his glory, the fact that he's beyond us. He dwells in the light to which no man can approach, much less can we describe him. I read a book a long time ago by a well-known ancient author, The Attributes of God. And it's a good book. I mean, I would recommend anybody to read it, but We need to be careful when we're speaking about the attributes of God, that they're not things we come to Him saying, this is how God is. God is how He is. May we learn from Him. May He teach us who He is. Because if He doesn't teach us who He is, we won't ever know. You can't learn that in Sunday school. You can't learn it by the greatest teachers that's ever lived. They can't teach you who God is. They can't teach you how God is. But the Lord, when He's pleased to teach you, He can.

You know, Job thought he knew the Lord. And he did. He knew a lot of things about the Lord. A lot of what Job said is absolutely true. In fact, a lot of what his cohort said was true. But that was all in the dark. But when the Lord appeared to Job, he said, I've heard of thee by the hearing of the ear. But he said, now mine eye seeth thee, and I abhor myself, and I repent in dust and ashes. And as a man comes to know who God is, it always will bring him to repentance before God. It will always cause him to come down and be humbled and say, Lord, I don't know anything. Where's boasting then? I mean, what can we say? What do we know? We don't know anything unless the Lord showed it to us. May he be pleased to do so.

All right, we're looking in Jude, and we've been talking about these filthy dreamers that defile the flesh, despise dominion, and speak evil of dignities. We're speaking that they are those who are certain men crept in unawares, who the scripture says were before of old ordained to this condemnation. They are turning the grace of God into lasciviousness and denying the only Lord God, our Lord Jesus Christ.

Now, that is how you can tell a deceiver because he comes speaking some other message than Jesus Christ and him crucified. And who is this Christ but the true and the living God, the one who came and dwelt among men and is now risen from the dead and ascended back into the heavens at the right hand of God where he ever lives to make intercession for those that come unto God by him. And anybody that comes telling you some other message or preaching some other Christ than this one who has accomplished his purpose and will in the earth without fail is coming with a deceptive message.

Now I don't think that all deceivers knowingly deceive others. Many of them do. But many of the deceivers are deceiving themselves. Some of them, according to what this says, are ordained to this condemnation, ungodly men. And so he goes on.

Now, we had talked about some of these men, and we had kind of gotten down to about verse, 9, speaking about Michael the archangel contending with the devil, disputing about the body of Moses, and of course, you know, some people will take that verse, try to pull it out, and several of these verses. You can't take any of these verses out of the context in which they're given, you can't pick and choose it and say, oh, well, look, here's what this says, because what he's doing is describing what the nature of deception is and those who are deceived and those who are deceiving. And so all of these things are true. This is speaking specifically here in this ninth verse about those that speak evil of dignity, that is, they have no regard to authority. And of course we know that the ultimate authority is Jesus Christ. I mean, there is no higher authority.

And so when the Lord put order in the earth and he made those that would be rulers over us and in whatever realm it might be, he did that not simply just to keep us in line, although we needed that. See, you know, the scripture says a righteous man doesn't need the law. It wouldn't be necessary to have a law if you were righteous. Because righteous men don't need the law. They're gonna do that which is good and right, whether the law says to do it or not. But the wicked, they gotta have something to be corralled.

Now who are the wicked? Well, if you got up this morning and looked in the mirror, you saw him. People don't like to think of us that way. Brother Ed brought up something that was in a little devotional the other day that I had sent out, and a fellow made the comment, of course, the scripture, I mean, he didn't come up with it, but he emphasized what it was, and that was that the righteousness of man is no more regarded in the eyes of the Lord as being a favorable thing than his wickedness is. In other words, there's nothing you can bring to the Lord that will recommend you to the Lord.

Remember the rich young ruler, he came, he said, what can I do to inherit eternal life? The Lord said, well, you know what the commandments are. And he said, well, these things, if I kept from my youth up, I've done them all. The Lord didn't dispute with him, did he? He said, but if you'd be perfect. Because you see, in order to enter into the kingdom of heaven, we must be made perfect. And so it is that righteousness is not There's no degrees of righteousness. There is the righteousness of Christ and there's all else. Anything that is not the righteousness of Christ is not righteous. So it doesn't make any difference what you have done to the good or to the bad. That does not give you any place of standing with a holy God. because he's not looking for partial righteousness, he's looking for perfect righteousness. And the only place that can be found, has ever been found, among men, is the man Christ Jesus. He's a perfect man. He's a man who has walked among men as a perfect man, giving us an example.

And so, in consideration of that, We recognize that the Lord has set forth authorities, and any authority that is set up by the Lord that a man would argue against or would set himself against is in what he's doing in reality is setting himself against God. And all of us, you know, a child, The scripture, one of the commandments is honor thy father and thy mother. Obey. Children, obey your parents. That's what the scripture says. The scripture teaches that.

Now why is that? Why does the scripture teach even a child that he is to obey his parent? Is that Simply to cause him grief? I used to think so when I was a child, because I wanted to do what I wanted to do. And my mama, she often didn't think what I wanted to do was what I needed to do. I was convinced that it was. And so she had to correct me from time to time.

Foolishness is bound in the heart of a child. But the rod of correction will drive it far from him. And foolishness is bound in the heart of every man, whether he is one year old or whether he's 90 years old. Doesn't make any difference. Because we need the correction of the Lord and he's faithful to apply it to us.

And so whenever we speak evil of dignities, whether it's a child who's angry at his parent, for correcting him, telling him to do something that he doesn't want to do, or whether it's a man who is angry at the government because they have told him to do something. The scripture says that we are arguing against the higher authority than all these things being God, because He is the representative of all authority, and He's put authority in the earth.

Now, you'll have to work out all the... ramifications and things, I won't go into all that, and I don't have all the expectations, you know, as men, there can be wicked rulers in the earth, and there often are. And God raises up men sometimes to overthrow wicked rulers. So I'm not saying, you know, everything, and that's just really an illustration of what I'm saying. Everything in this world, even those things which God has ordained for our good among men, they're tainted.

You know, I mean, a sheriff, his purpose in the earth is to corral the evildoers. God, it says so in the scripture. He doesn't bear the sword in vain. That's what he's sent to do. But there are wicked sheriffs in the world. Men who do things they should not do and who overstep their authority and don't do right. That's because the Lord would illustrate that there's none Good. There's none righteous. No, not one. Even those things that are set forth. And I don't have all the answers for how all of that works, you know.

Men often speak about, you know, the Revolutionary War and how it was a righteous thing for the men that founded this country to rise up against the tyranny of the king that was over them. You know, I don't know. I mean, I don't know. I don't have the answers for all that. But I know this, that God put that king in place for a reason. And so what he's saying about here is that we're not to be those that go out to try to overthrow the powers that be. That's not what the Lord has sent us to do. And when men come fomenting revolution, That's not the place for God's people to be concerned about that. Our concern is that we walk in humility before Almighty God and that we obey insofar as we can in conscience and the direction of the Spirit of God. I believe that's what he's getting at about speaking evil of dignities

And he says, but these speak evil of those things which they know not, but what they know naturally is brute beasts, and these they corrupt themselves. Now, this is exactly what I was talking about earlier, about the way men think they can define God. He says here, things that they know naturally. Now, Solomon says, in fact, there's two proverbs, both of them say the same thing. It says, there is a way which seemeth right to a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death.

Now most of the time, whatever you think in your natural mind is the right thing to do, it's probably not the right thing to do. You need, oh Lord, give me wisdom and grace to know what to do. Don't let me rely, lean not to thine own understanding, but in all thy ways acknowledge him. Trust in the Lord, he shall direct thy paths. And so what he's saying here is when somebody comes teaching you to rely upon natural understanding in whatever it is, they're teaching you contrary to the way of God, which they know naturally as brute beasts.

Even the brute beasts in the world have a way they think. I mean a dog, he thinks, I mean, if he wants to get something, he's determined to get it, is he not? And that's the way men are. Oh, that the Lord might constrain us and let us not be in such a mind as that. Woe unto them, for they have gone in the way of Cain. Now, what was the way of Cain? Well, the way of Cain was the way of the flesh. the way of Cain was to consider his own righteousness because he was angry with God. When the Lord had favor to Abel, Cain didn't like that because he said, well, who does he think he is? I mean, my way is just as good as his. And that's what deceivers tell us. Your righteousness is good enough. I mean, you've got some righteousness. You can feel good about some things. That's what Cain did. He felt pretty good, did he not, when he brought his offering to the Lord? Because he said, my hands, I've went out here, and I have tilled this soil, and I have grown these vegetables and fruits and things, and I'm gonna bring this to the Lord. and the Lord didn't have any regard to that offering.

Cain, I mean Abel, brought of the beasts of the field that he had nothing to do with, and he offered this unto the Lord. He didn't have any effort involved in this, but it was a blood sacrifice. that he gave unto the Lord.

Our only place to come to the Lord is through a blood sacrifice, not of our own making, but of the Lord, that he gives it to us.

So Cain, the scripture says, he They have gone in the way of Cain, which the way of Cain is indeed the way of the flesh. It's the way of seeking after that which we have done before God. And not necessarily totally. See, very few people that call themselves Christians would not agree that their salvation is in Christ. They would say that. But what they do is an error that is greater, actually, than the man who is outside of Christ completely, without any knowledge of Christ.

That's why the Lord said that the righteous are not those who are called, but sinners, because sinners are those that come to the Lord without anything. The righteous come with something. Now, they may come and say, well, we believe we're saved by the blood of Christ, but we're also going to do good works that we might please him, that we might do things that would enhance his blessing to us. See, that's the way it is, and which is very close, and he says here to the heir of Balaam, what does he say about Balaam?

The way of Cain and ran greedily after the heir of Balaam for what? For reward. Now, many people serve God for a reward. There's preachers that preach this day and night, that we serve God for a reward. If we do certain things, God will bless those things. And if we do a lot of good stuff, God will bless us greatly. And so that we need to get out here and do more stuff so God will reward us. Now whether we think of that reward as something coming in the present time or something coming, you know, in the future, doesn't make much difference.

Now the health and wealth preachers, of course, I mean, they're wrapped up in the error of Balaam seeking reward. Why did Balaam, why was he, he thought he could use his powers to curse the people of God, but he was doing it because he wanted some money. found out that he couldn't, but he did finally figure out a way to make money. See, men that will monetize the gospel will find a way to do it. And those that are not running after the error of Balaam have no regard to it. Doesn't make any difference. The money is immaterial. They're not seeking to preach the gospel in order to make money. It's not a career choice. It's not something that they, you know, have to hammer out a deal in order to do it. They can't do anything else, whether there's any money in it or not.

But from the beginning, there's always been those that go grand greedily after error of Balaam for reward, and then those that perish in the gainsaying of Korah. You remember Korah? decided Moses is getting too big for his britches. Now we need to come up with something, we gotta corral this in, we can't, so he raised him up some men, and they went to Moses, they said, Moses, you know, you got too much going on here, we gotta take over some of this. And the Lord destroyed him along with his family and everything. Why? Because he dared to speak against the word of God. See, Moses was the spokesman of God. He was as Christ in illustration. And anybody that would come arguing against the way of Christ is Those who've run after the way of Korah. And their end is the same. They're ordained to destruction. And not only them, but all of those around them. See, all of those that run in the same way, those that stood with Korah, they were destroyed with Korah. And so it is, as he warns us. Perished in the gainsaying of Korah. See, Korah was the ringleader. But all those that was following him, they perished in his gain saying.

Oh, you know, that's why the Lord said, you know, you need to watch out for deceivers. You need to be on the lookout for those that would lead you astray and cause you to be looking to anything other than Jesus Christ and him crucified. And it's a subtle error. It's just a little bit at the time. Deceivers never come and give you the whole load at once. No, they give you a little bit at a time, because they know if they just dump the whole load on you at first, you'd say, oh, wait a minute, this can't be right. But they teach you a little bit at a time. You know, most of these false religions in the world, They suck people in with all the good sounding stuff. And then when they get you in and they got you kind of relaxed, then they start adding little things in there. I mean, you know, especially like you take the Mormons and the Jehovah's Witnesses and some of these outfits, I mean, they sound good. Some of that stuff. I'm not surprised that people get sucked up in it. But when they tell you the whole thing, see, by the time they tell you what the whole thing is, you've already kind of been lulled to sleep. But it's still an error. And there are many that perish in the game saying of Korah, who go about teaching something other than what the Lord has sent us to teach. May the Lord give us a mind and a heart to not be moved aside for these.

You know, most of what Paul wrote in the scripture, the teaching that he gave is also surrounded with many warnings. Practically every one of the letters that he wrote warns the people of God of some things. And the thing that he warned them about was men that came preaching some other message than Christ.

You know, everybody is not given the same gifts. Everybody doesn't say the exact same things. But those that come preaching the truth of God will always cause a man to realize that he has no hope other than Jesus Christ in him crucified. That he's a sinner. That he's gonna perish without Christ.

Oh, that the Lord might remind us of such. And if I never am able to get any message across in this world, it would be to impress on men to seek nothing but Christ. Don't be turned aside by the great swelling things. Don't be turned aside by those that pat you on the back and herd you along and say, you're doing fine. No, you're gonna perish without Christ. Christ is the Savior of sinners.

But that is the glorious thing. Christ is the Savior of sinners. See, those that know themselves to be sinners, the Lord is pleased to give them the eternal life. Because there's not a sinner that won't be saved. Every sinner will be saved. Because Christ came to seek and to save that which is lost. He came to save sinners. That's a glorious message. Oh, that he might teach us today.

May we be reminded that a bruised reed will not break and the smoking flax will not quench. The Lord's full of mercy. He's full of kindness to all who call upon His name. He's the Savior of sinners.