what Deuteronomy said. Let's turn with me back there to where we looked a little while ago at the beginning of our service. I just want us to ponder these things and I want us to go to Jude and have a look. But I want us to, I want us to be, I'm just so struck by the way Moses as he was about and knew that he was about to go and Moses was called upon by the Lord to sing a song and to recite that song in the presence of Israel.

But there's something, as I said at the beginning of our service, there's something very precious about the fact that we are speaking to God. And God is our witness, and God is in our midst, and God sees all of the thoughts and imaginations of all humanity all of the time. And so that's why Moses is so precious in this song, isn't it? He says, give ear, O ye heavens. We have an audience of one. One day soon, we will have an audience of one. And Cole mentioned Owen, and it's just so precious to be with someone who is very, very close these days to having an audience of one and being in the audience of one. And it's so, so, so encouraging.

And then he says, give ear, O heavens, and I will speak. If the heavens speak, if God speaks, and hear, O earth, the words of my mouth. And then he says, my doctrine. People are offended by that word doctrine, but doctrine just means teaching. God teaching us. I want to be taught by God. And I love how it comes, doesn't it? They all shall be taught of God, says the Lord Jesus Christ, and Isaiah says they'll be all taught of God, and great shall be the peace of my people.

My doctrine shall drop as the rain. The rain just comes from heaven. God's teaching drops into the hearts of his people as rain. My speech shall as the small rain upon the tender herbs and as showers upon the grass. I love how he speaks of four different forms of rain. Sometimes we need the Word of God to come with us with with showers upon the grass, heavy showers, and sometimes we just need that quiet, still voice in God to speak as the dew, to distill as the dew and the small rain upon the tender herb. And so God says to his servants, you comfort my people. If they've been made tender by God, They need the small rain.

And then the reason is, isn't it, my doctrine shall draw, because I will publish the name of the Lord, ascribe ye greatness unto our God. How great is he? describing greatness, but how great is his na- strong tower, almighty, he's saved, upon the name, all upon the name, it's all of the great name, he is, verse 4, rock, his word, how much, all that he ever does, is is one for all his judgment of truth and without any just have corrupted themselves over false religion there as our role being judges of Sodom and the fields of Gambetta spent the new year hours after having a conversation and his notion the church scriptures nothing So without, he is not as clueless.

The next week, he went to a church with, and he waited, and after the service, he plucked up the courage to go to the front of the church. telling them that he gave his heart to the Lord but didn't know who the Lord was and he didn't know anything about who God was at all. There's nothing in the scriptures about you giving your heart to the Lord. God gives you a new heart. Your heart is deceitful and beyond. Why do you want to deal with that? Anyway, so these people took him downstairs in their church and whatever they did, I don't really know, but he got baptized in the Holy Spirit and he spoke in tongues. And he had this amazing experience. Then someone came along to the church a few weeks later and they performed all these miracles. And he saw all these things. That was 30, maybe 35 years ago. And I was just struck by the captivity of false religion. He was in the hands of satanic teachers in both of those places.

Tell us all your bible reading and in the last this course you just whether all of those things were true and real. No, no, they've just got strong. Rid to a lie that he was told by satanic people. The scriptures warn us on every page about false teaching. I don't think there's a page in the scriptures that doesn't speak about false teachers. Beware of false teachers. Paul says in Colossians, beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit after the tradition of men and after the rudiments of the world and not after Christ. Colossians 2.

So turn with me back in your Bibles to Jude. We've been looking at Jude for some time and it's just extraordinary that you go from being in the presence of Owen who wants to talk about how amazing the Lord Jesus Christ is and he's rejoicing. He's rejoicing not in anything that he did. He told us some little time ago, he says, I'm so thankful that there's not an atom of my righteousness in anything to do with my salvation. He's just looking to the Lord Jesus Christ. This other fella, people, God says that people die, go to meet him with a lie in their right hand. Their right hand is the right hand of power, it's their strength. I don't want that for me, and I don't want that for any of you.

So let's just read these first 10 verses, and we just want to look at them briefly, but I want us to have that in mind, and I want us to be mindful of the fact that there is a doctrine that drops from heaven like dew, and it waters the grass, and I'm praying that that will be our portion. Listen to how Jude begins.

due the servant of Jesus Christ and the brother of James to them that are sanctified by God the Father and preserved in Jesus Christ and called, mercy unto you and peace and love be multiplied, be increased.

"'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 you should earnestly contend "'for the faith.

'" Means strive to the point of agony for the faith. The faith is a glorious description of the gospel. It's the faith of the faithfulness of the Lord Jesus Christ. It's the faith, the faithfulness of Him. The faith which was once delivered to the saints, it was only delivered once, it doesn't need to be delivered again and again. We're just saying what God says. That's why that verse in Deuteronomy is so special, isn't it? Here are heavens. Let's speak the words of God and nothing more.

Four, there are certain men crept in unawares who were before of old ordained to this condemnation, ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness. and denying the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ. To turn the grace of God into lasciviousness is to say that God will not perform and fulfill by grace all that he has promised to do. It's simply saying that you have to do something of your works, something of your efforts for God's promises to be fulfilled. You know the story of Abraham. Abraham was promised a child. And Sarah was promised a child. Did it matter how old they were? Did it matter? Did it matter if Abraham was 100 years old? Did it matter if Sarah was way, way, way past childbearing age? God had promised. And Abraham and Sarah waited and waited and waited. Finally, they said, we must do something about this. We've got to do something about this. We've got to do something to help God along. We've got to do something of ourselves that will make the promises of God be fulfilled.

And you know the rest of the story and the Middle East is living it out day by day by day. Ishmael, Ishmael is the product of that and that's just a of what these people are saying. This is what it is to turn the grace of God into lasciviousness. But ultimately what it is, the problem is that it's denying the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ. It's a denial of the Lordship of God. It's denial of the deity of God.

I will therefore put you in remembrance. That's what preaching is. I want you to remember. I want to put you in remembrance of what God says about his son and about his son's salvation and about all who are in him. I want to put you in remembrance. I want your memory to go back as far as you can possibly imagine. You take your memory back to the halls of heaven before the foundation of the world. That's how far back we have to remember. We remember what God covenanted with God. We remember that God the Father gave a people into the hands of the Lord Jesus Christ from before the foundation of the world. They're the people he prayed for. They're the people he died for. I want you to remember that because that's what God says. You read about it in Ephesians chapter 1. Or over the scriptures. The scriptures begin with that. That's why Jude begins his letter by saying them that are sanctified by God the Father, they were set apart by God the Father from before the foundation of the world. They're preserved in Christ Jesus from before the foundation of the world. They're called. In time, the Blessed Holy Spirit will call them, and they will hear the voice of the shepherd, and they will come.

He puts you in remembrance, though you once knew this. We forget. That's why we need to be put in remembrance. We forget. We forget all the time. What is unbelief? Unbelief is forgetting what God has done and not living as if it's true.

The Lord, having saved the people out of the land of Egypt, hath would destroy them that believe not. And the angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, he hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness until the judgment of the great day. Even as Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities about them in like manner, giving themselves over to fornication and going after strange flesh, are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire.

Likewise also these filthy dreamers, they defile the flesh, they despise dominion, and they speak evil of dignities. Yet Michael the Archangel, when contending with the devil, he disputed about the body of Moses, didst not bring against him a railing accusation, but said, The Lord rebuke you. The Lord will deal with all of the enemies of his people.

And this is a verse I just wanted to look at very briefly, and I want it to be something of a prayer for us as we go embark on this new year. But these, speak evil of those things which they know not. But what they know naturally as brute beasts, in those things they corrupt themselves. We'll look at this in the next few weeks. Woe to them! Woe to them! They have gone in the way of Cain, and ran greedily after the error of Balaam for reward, and perished in the gainsailing of Korah. He gives three more examples which we won't look at in any detail now, but they are like the examples that he gave of the angels in Sodom and Gomorrah and Nation Israel that was taken out across the Red Sea out of Egypt. All of them witnessed the most extraordinary To witness who he is, to witness his glorious works, they heard him speak. They heard God speak.

to hear God speak, but also I want us, by the grace of God, to take the things of God as seriously as we ought. These are ungodly men. Ungodly means that these are people who have no reverence for God, they have no fear of God, there is no worship of God in them and they're not glorifying God. And that word, speak evil, which is used in verse 8 and verse 10, they speak evil. That word is to blaspheme. If you've heard the Greeks speaking it, that's exactly what the word means. It is to blaspheme. It's to speak evil of God. It's to make God less than he really is. It's to have and to set up an iron

But what is worse is that these people were in churches that the apostles taught. They had a pure gospel delivered to them. They speak evil of dignities. They blaspheme God. That word dignities is glories. They speak evil of glories. They speak evil of the glory of God. And yet they were in the church and leaders in the church. and so much like the Apostles, that they looked the genuine article. They blaspheme in things that they know not, but what they know naturally, what they know physically, as brute beasts. That word brute is extraordinary. It means to be without the word of God. God breathed into humanity in the garden. God breathed his word God breathes his word into his people. The beasts don't have that word. The beasts are different. I know we love our animals, but our animals are a different creation to us according to Genesis 2. In those things, they corrupt. And that word corrupt means that they defile and they destroy.

The question that lies before us again and again is what is false teaching? What is false teaching? What does false teaching look like? What in your mind and what on account of the scriptures offends God and does harm to What is the lie about God that would cause you to come out of false religion and stand with the people of God? As we read in Ephesians chapter 3, there is a cause. Book of David says there's a cause. There's a cause. The cause is the glory of God and the cause, personally for us, is our eternal destiny. We are saved according to God. Paul says in 2 Thessalonians 1, I am bound to give thanks. We're bound to give thanks.

In the midst of all of the delusion, God sends a delusion, a strong delusion that they should believe a lie. That fellow that I met down the cut, he had been sent a strong delusion for 30 odd years. He had been zealous in religion. He had been to all sorts of conferences, listened to all sorts of preachers, been a faithful member of several churches. and he believed a lie. He believed a lie about himself and he believed a lie about God. For this cause, God shall send them a strong delusion that they should believe a lie, that they all might be damned who have believed not the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness. Anything of your righteousness is unrighteousness. But, I love this verse, but we are bound, 2 Thessalonians 2.13, we are bound to give thanks always to God for you, brethren. I'm bound to give thanks for you. I'm thankful for my brethren in Christ. I'm thankful for Owen, I'm thankful for my brethren here, and I'm thankful for my brethren overseas.

Beloved of the Lord, what a lovely description. They're brethren beloved of the Lord. The Lord has loved them. The Lord has loved them everlastingly, eternally. and has from the beginning for God, because God has from the beginning chosen you to salvation, and listen to it, through sanctification of the Spirit. Not your personal sanctification. You are looking to the Lord Jesus Christ alone for all of your holiness before God. and belief of the truth.

Now listen to what Paul goes on to say, I just love these words, this promise. Where unto he called you, that's what we read in the beginning of Jude. He called you by our gospel, that's the calling. The calling is the calling to the gospel, it's the calling of the gospel. The gospel says come, come unto me, all you who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest. The gospel continually says come. called you by our gospel to the obtaining, listen to this, to the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. The obtaining of the glory. What is the destiny of God's children? To obtain the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. To be with him, glorified, to be with him and see his glory.

Therefore, brethren, stand fast and hold the traditions, hold the teaching that you have heard. That's what Judas is saying, you remember. Hold the traditions which you have been taught, whether by word or our epistle.

Now our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God, even our Father, which has loved us and given us everlasting consolation and good hope through grace, comfort your hearts and establish you in every good word. How are we going to be established? God's going to establish it.

So what is the issue? What is the issue that Jude's talking about here? It's about the glory of God. These people are denying the glories, the dignities. They're denying the very dignity of God Almighty. That's their blasphemy. They speak evil. They blaspheme. They don't have the Word of God. What they know, they know naturally. And they're brute beasts.

And so what does a false teacher deny? And we'll just close. I just want to go back and let's look at these first verses in Jude and the last verses in Jude before we sing them. What do they deny? Jude says he's just a servant of the Lord Jesus Christ. It means he's a bond slave of the Lord Jesus Christ. He is bound by the work of God to be his slave. I want to be a slave. willing bond slave of the Lord Jesus Christ. He's a brother of James. He could have said that I'm the half-brother of the Lord Jesus Christ, but he takes the low place. And then listen to what he says, "...to them that are sanctified." It's the blasphemy, his work of sanctification. They are, they have been, and they will be kept in that sanctification. They're set apart by God the Father, and they're preserved in Christ Jesus. and they are called. They're the recipients of mercy. They're the recipients of peace with God. Where's your peace with God? That God the Father did something, and God the Son has done something, and God the Holy Spirit has done something, and they've done it all. Salvation is of the Lord and Him entirely. And that's the calling, isn't it? One of the great issues, and the great issues of false teaching, is the whole issue of sanctification, and the whole issue of what happened on the cross, and that's exactly what Jude is saying here. These people are speaking evil of what the Lord Jesus Christ did on the cross.

I love Hebrews chapter 10, and we can close by looking there, but I'd like you to, in your leisure, to go back and look at Ephesians chapter 1, and you'll see where the glory of God is in the glory of the triune God.

He says in verse 6 of Hebrews 10, in burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin, thou had no pleasure. We heard about that in Psalm 51. David had the opportunity to offer hundreds of thousands of sheep if he wanted them. But the sacrifices of God are a broken and a contrite heart, and that he will not despise.

Then I said, lo, I come in the volume of a book. It's written to me. I've come with all of the words of this book. written about me, to do thy will, O God. Above will he said sacrifice and offerings and burnt offerings and offering for sin thou wouldest not, neither had their pleasure therein, which are offered by the law. Then he said, lo, I come to do thy will, O God. He taketh away the first, that he may establish the second. By the which will, listen to it, we are sanctified through the offering of the body, Jesus Christ once for all.

Sanctification is the work of God the Father setting you apart. It's the work of God the Son setting you apart. Let's just go down to verse 14 for want of time. 4 by 1 offering. Listen to it. We read in Deuteronomy chapter 32 that His work is perfect, for by one offering He hath perfected forever them that are sanctified.

Whereof the Holy Ghost is also a witness to us, for that after he had said before, this is the covenant I will make with them in those days, saith the Lord. I will put my laws into their hearts and in their minds will I write them. Their sins and iniquities will I remember no more.

Now where remission of these is, there is no more offering for sin. He's already accepted an offering. That's what the resurrection is about.

Just in closing, we'll turn back over the page to Hebrews chapter 9. It talks about, in verse 14, it talks about the blood and the bulls of goats and the ashes of a heifer, sprinkling the unclean, sanctify them just to the purifying of the flesh. How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal spirit offered himself sacrifice, no sin, without spot to God.

The offering was an offering to God. Purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God. May God give us, as he's promised, a purged conscience. Have these washed wider than is purged, completely clean. I like the idea of having a clean conscience.

The only way I can possibly have a clean conscience before God is looking to the Lord Jesus Christ and Him crucified and Him resurrected and Him reigning and being in union with Him.

Let's pray. Our Heavenly Father, we do pray that you would cause us in this fellowship to simply speak your words of truth. Heavenly Father, that we might be protected and preserved from telling lies about you, that we might By your grace in our hearts, Heavenly Father, cause people to look to the Lord Jesus Christ and not to anything of their flesh, not to anything of their activities, no matter how profoundly significant they are in their lives. May they just be caused to have their eyes fixed upon the Lord Jesus Christ, who is both the author and the finisher of faith.

We just praise you, Heavenly Father. There is such a glorious saviour for sinners like us. And we pray, Heavenly Father, that you'd be merciful to us this year, merciful to all that we love, Heavenly Father. And may your word go out from here, resounding to the glory of your dear and precious Son. And may we, Heavenly Father, find our rest beneath his