When Donnybill comes, we're hoping to go down and have a few days in the providence of the mercy of the Lord. We'll have a few days down in Bermagui in Narooma and have a service or two down there. So if anyone has, we'll probably have a service on Wednesday and maybe have one in the nursing home at Owen and maybe have one elsewhere in Bega or somewhere down there.

So that will be on probably the 23rd or something. We'll give you notice of it. But Donny Bell will be here on the the weekend of the 19th and the 26th of April. It's in your bulletins, but yeah, I'm looking forward to it. I'm looking forward to sitting where you are and having my friend preach the Lord Jesus Christ to me as sweetly as I've heard it so many times before.

So what a blessing, what a blessing. God brings to his people to send people from the other side of the world and send them here for one purpose, isn't it? It's interesting, isn't it, with all the things that are happening in our lives and happening in this world. All of the events of this world are in a sense a stage, the backdrop of a stage upon which God is getting great glory for himself and his dear and precious son and one day the stage will be cleared and there'll just be one, just like there was on the Mount of Transfiguration.

They saw none but Jesus. There'll come a day when all of the things that cause us so much concern in our lives, there'll be none but Jesus. And that's how our friend Owen is spending his last days. He's waiting for the chariots to come and take him home, but there's just none but Jesus. and fellowship in the Beloved.

So if there's any chance you can come down with us for that time, you're very, very welcome, and any others you might know of. Okay, turn with me in the Scriptures to the book of Jude, and we don't have much time left today, and this verse in verse 16 is somewhat repeated. in verses 18. So we'll be looking at this in some sense in a way of introduction today and then looking at it further. But let me go back to verse 12 just so we have some of the context here.

"'trees whose fruit withereth without fruit, "'twice dead, plucked up by the roots, "'raging waves of the sea, foaming out their own shame, "'wandering stars, to whom is reserved "'the blackest of darkness forever.' "'And Enoch, also the seventh from Adam, "'prophesied of these, saying, "'Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands.'" I love the plural on the thousands, don't forget that. It's thousands and thousands and many thousands. Don't think that the Lord's return is going to be anything other than stupendous and spectacular and all-encompassing. 10,000, I'll be saying, to execute judgment upon all and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds, which they have ungodly committed and all their hard speeches, which ungodly sinners have spoken against him.

And this is our verse for today. These are murmurers. So they're really speaking against him. Please get that first. They get that. They are murmurers and complainers, walking after their own lusts, and their mouth speaketh great swelling words, having men's persons in admiration because of advantage." What a description.

That word ungodly in the previous verse, as we've looked at several times, is to be someone who is without worship. It is to be someone who has no reverence for God, no fear of God, no honour for the glory of God. And when God the Holy Spirit uses it four times in one verse, he wants us to get the message.

They're ungodly, but the thing is that they're among them. They are these ones that have crept into the church and I want us to understand that these are not outwardly wicked They are not outwardly wicked people, otherwise they couldn't creep into the church. These people not only crept into the church, but they crept into the church that Paul and the Apostle John and the other apostles had founded. They crept into those churches and into places of influence and prominence, even into the pulpits of those churches. So let's dismiss from our mind that these people are walking around with a pitchfork and a black cape and a scythe and are openly wicked people.

If you had been in Jerusalem 2,000 years ago and you had seen Caiaphas and Camellial playing with their grandchildren, you would have thought, what a lovely fellow. If you'd heard them bring the Word of God to you, you would be stunned and amazed at their knowledge of the history and the Word of God.

They knew it off by heart. And they genuinely thought, those people in the days of the Lord Jesus Christ, they genuinely thought that by their activities, they were not going to fall into the depths of depravity that Nation Israel had done in the past that caused God to send them from that place and destroy their temple. They had the best temple that had ever been. And they thought that by their activities, And by their holiness of life and their great devotion to God, they would be the ones that would be there when the Messiah came. They were expecting the Messiah to come at any moment. And they had everything ready for him, even their own lives.

So let's not be led astray by thinking that these people are so outwardly wicked that you can see them from a mile off. These crept in. And the only way they were exposed was when God arrived. When God arrives in holiness and in the awesome beauties of holiness, when God arrives in his word, when God arrives as holy and sovereign When God arrives, revealing himself, all of a sudden, these people are exposed. And the nicest, most religious people that this planet had ever seen to that stage were the ones that plotted and schemed against the Lord Jesus Christ until they finally had got him where they wanted him, hanging on a cross of Calvary, where according to their understanding of their book, he was cursed of God. hanging naked, bleeding, mocked by all the world, and mocked by them. There is nothing more dangerous and nothing more damning and nothing more deceitful than religious people in their zeal, in their open, professed knowledge and walk with God who don't know God. And Jude is speaking about them. And we need, because of the word of God, to follow Jude, which is why he gives 30 descriptions of them. He gives three descriptions of his people and here he calls them beloved, beloved, beloved. I love that. It's a lovely word, isn't it?

He's writing to the beloved. He's writing to those who are loved of God from all eternity. They are loved of God and they are put in the Lord Jesus Christ. And he's writing to them about the common salvation. He's writing to them to contend for the faith. He's writing to them so that when these people are exposed by the hand of God at God's time, They will see that God is faithful. They will see that we can trust this Word of God.

This is not God losing control. This is God exercising his sovereign control. All of us, whether we know it or not, have met these people and have been in their company. I'm not one of these filthy dreamers. I'm not one of these people that defile the flesh and despise dominion and speak evil, blaspheme the dignities of God.

And only by the grace of God will we hear what God is saying. And only by the grace and mercy of God will we be caused to take the holiness of God and the glory of his son and the preciousness of his blood as serious as it ought be treated. That's a gift of God. That was a gift of God.

And God's people, like Jude and all of the other apostles, are forced. by the hand, the sovereign hand of God upon them to stand and say, God has revealed himself to me as this holy and this precious and his salvation, this wonderful, this grace so amazing that anything that's said against him and his word is directly said against the Lord Jesus Christ. These men are a picture of all of us in our flesh, and so let's not for one moment also think that somehow this is not something that we are capable of. These verses should cause us to run to our God, to flee to our God, to cling to our God, to pray, that we would be protected and shielded from what we are by nature. So listen to what these people say, what Jude, what the Holy Spirit says about these people.

He gives them these five descriptions here. He loves using a lot of descriptions so that you'll get a clearer picture of it, isn't it? He says they are murmurers. They are mutterers. To murmur is to use those words. It's all about words, isn't it? It's all about the mind, if you think about it, isn't it?

Where did Satan's fall begin? Satan said in his heart, Isaiah 14, he said in his heart. And then what did he say? I will, I will, I will, I will, I will. I'll be like the Most High. So the start of the problem is in our minds, isn't it? And our minds are corrupted naturally.

But these people are in the church and who are they murmuring against? We read it in verse 15, they murmur against him. They murmur against him and they murmur against his servants. They are murmurers. So it begins with their own words in their hearts, doesn't it? They mutter against God and his servants.

And you can murmur very quietly. and very discreetly, and no one else need know. And then you can find another murmurer somewhere nearby, and you can do a little bit of murmuring together. And after you've done a little bit of murmuring together, you can do the next thing on this list, which is to express those things.

They are complainers. They are complainers. Complaining is just loud murmuring, isn't it? And if you start complaining, I promise you, if you start complaining, you'll find another complainer just nearby. and then you can take that other complainer who's just nearby and then you can have a little complainer's club. Generally the little complainer's club is outside of the general gathering of the church. We've had a lot of complainer's clubs and they're generally outside and often they'll go around the corner to have their little complaint.

Again and again and again. But where did it start? They speak against him They murmur. They murmur. It's very quiet. And then they complain. They become complainers. We have seen, Jude has given us lists of many of them here in his book, hasn't he, those that murmured against God. Cain murmured against God. It's not fair.

My sacrifice, which is the best that I can do, look at my carrots, look at these, look at these mangoes and watermelon, look at all this amazing produce that I brought. Don't think that it was a little tiny sample that Cain brought. He had a cart full of it and it was magnificent. You know those displays they have at the Royal Easter show with all of those and they make a picture of it? It would have been amazing. And Cain says, surely this is good enough.

God had already told him what he accepts. God accepts the blood of his son. God accepts the sacrifice of his son. God accepts a lamb. God clothes his people with a lamb. He knew that and he was told about it and he was reminded and he kept on complaining. What's the solution then? God. The grace of God and the power of God is the only solution to it. Cain was dissatisfied. Korah was dissatisfied. The Israelites whinged for 40 years in the desert, didn't they? They wanted to go back to Egypt all the time. These are murmurers. They're complainers.

They're walking after their own lusts. We're going to look at more of this, Lord willing, next week, but you want to look at what it says. To walk is to travel in a path deliberately, to a destination deliberately, and they walk after, they are following, and what do they follow? Their own lusts. They walk after their own lusts. And it's what comes naturally to them. They walk after their own carnal reason. They're motivated by their own personal ambitions and other things.

And we have many, many scriptures to look at, and Lord willing, we'll look at it next week. But if you're in Jude, you can just turn back a few pages to the book of James, and let's read what James says about these lusts. in light of the complainers and the murmurers. James 4, verse 1, from whence come wars and fighting among you? Come they not hence? This is where they come from. Even your lusts that war in your members, they war inside of you.

There are lusts that are good and there are lusts that are bad. The flesh lusts against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh. There is a lusting that is good. There's a good to lust after, good to be earnestly desiring of good things. And listen to what James goes on to say in verse two.

You lust and you have not. You kill and desire to have and cannot obtain. You fight and war, yet you have not because you ask not. And you ask and receive not because you ask amiss. that you may consume it upon your lusts. You are adulterers and adulteresses. Know you not that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God.

They mutter and they murmur and they work, walk after their own loss. And their mouths speak great swelling words. Verse 13 says, they foam out their own shame. Having men's person in admiration because of advantage. They're flatterers, aren't they? Their mouths speak great, swelling words, and they are flatterers.

So it begins in the thoughts of men, and that's where, when Satan tempted Eve, what did he tempt her to do? He tempted her to think, didn't he? He tempted her to use her wisdom and her will, ultimately, to stand above God in His holiness, in His sovereignty, in His justice, but most of all, just His word. He tempted her to think that it might be possible for her to stand in judgment of God's word. Did he really say? Did he really say?

And every one of Adam's children has been born like that, and we'll look at it, as I said, more next week. But listen to what Ephesians chapter two, you know these verses well. He says, you who he hath quickened, he's made you alive, verse one, who were dead in trespasses, and this is spiritual death, wherein in time past you walked according to the course of this world, you walked. As we see here, you walk after your own lust. You walk according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience.

Every time, and this world is bad and horrible things are happening and we ought to pray and pray and pray and pray. But every time I see how bad it is, I read verses like this and many others, and I'm thankful that God restrains the wrath of men. It's bad, and it can get really, really, really bad really, really, really quickly. And yet the most remarkable thing is that it's nowhere near as bad as it ought to be. God is restraining the evil that's in the hearts of men and he is restraining Satan's evil in this world to an extent that ought to cause us to sing Amazing Grace far more often and far more powerfully.

Because that's what that verse says. That's why they're walking. Why is there evil in this world? the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience. It means that he's working and working and working. It means that he hasn't stopped working and he doesn't stop working.

We need a saviour, brothers and sisters. How big a saviour do we need when that is what we are and that's who we're captive to? Among whom also we all had our conversation, we had our walk in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature the children of wrath." We were wrathful children. We murmured and we complained and we walked after our own lusts, even as the others.

So don't think you're above them. Don't think that you're above them. Just in closing, They have men's persons. We'll look more at this next week. I just want you to turn with me to see where this goes in the scriptures and how when these murmurs and mutterers met the Lord Jesus Christ. I just want you to turn with me to Matthew chapter seven and we'll just look at this first part of this chapter. And I just wanted to go through it quickly, but I want us to see if the Lord would allow us, I want us to see the progression of these people in their lusts. I want us to see where they begin and where they end up, and I want us to see God's judgment upon them, because the murmurers that murmured against the Lord Jesus Christ and the murmurers, the complainers that put him to death, A huge number of them donned the robes of Christians and came into churches and continued these activities. You listen to it with me. We'll try and read it quickly. I just want you to see what happens. Chapter 7 of Mark.

Then came together unto him the Pharisees and certain of the scribes which came from Jerusalem. And when they saw some of his disciples eat bread with defile, that is to say, unwashing hands, they found fault. So what did they start with? They looked at their eyes, they murmured in their hearts, and then they started murmuring together. Then he talks for the next couple of verses about why the Pharisees do that. In verse 5, then the Pharisees and scribes asked him, These complainers, why walk not thy disciples according to the tradition of the elders, but eat bread with unwashed hands? Now, it's not a matter of the cleanliness of the hands.

They had a whole ritual about how they washed their hands and how they had to hang them down and then hang them up. It was a religious ritual to show how pure and how clean they were. And they cleaned the outside of their cup all the time. The inside was full of dead man's bones.

We'll see that in a minute. He answered, and said unto them, well has Isaiah prophesied of you hypocrites. What's a hypocrite? An actor. That's what the word means. It means to put on a mask, to appear religious, when inside we'll see what they are. Hypocrites, as it is written, this people honoureth me with their lips, but their heart is far from me. Please don't let me be like this. How be it, listen to what he goes on to say, in vain do they worship me. Their worship is empty worship. In vain do they worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men. They're saying the commandments of men, the religion that we've worked out for ourselves is equivalent to the religion of God and the word of God.

Laying aside the commandment of God is to pick it up and put it away from you so that it is no longer there before you. the commandment you hold, so you lay it aside so that you can hold the tradition of men, as washing of pots and cups and many other such things as you do.

So it's not just one thing. Once this thing starts, it breeds like anything, doesn't it? Like yeast, it breeds. And he said unto them, full well, listen to what he says, it says now, they started with a murmur, didn't they? They started with a look and a complaint.

Full well you reject the commandment of God, you've laid it aside and now you've rejected it. And you've rejected it for a reason, that you may keep your own tradition. And he goes on to speak about honouring your father and mother and how they turn that word of God. What they said is that all of the inheritance and all of what I have is devoted to God and therefore I don't have to look after my mother and father. God, what did God say? You honour your mother and father. They were saying, well, no, this is my religious devotion.

All of my goods are devoted to God and therefore I can use them for my own self and my own well-being and my own pride and I don't need to fulfil the word of God. Verse 13, listen to what they've done. making the word of God of none effect. They started with a murmur, and here they are, they're making the word of God of none effect. It no longer impacts them at all.

Through your tradition, which you have delivered, and listen to what he goes on to say, they started with a murmur and they end up with complaining. They follow their own lusts, they speak great swelling words, and then they're telling other people how wonderful they are so they can pat them on the back. And many such things do ye. And many such things do ye. Verse 20, I'll just close with these verses.

And he said, that which cometh out of a man, that defileth a man, for from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, What's it begin with? A thought. A mood. Evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murder, thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride and foolishness. All these evil things come from within and defile the man. They come out of your heart. You follow your own evil lusts. What is the only solution to a dilemma like that?

David looked. He thought, I don't need to go to battle. And then he went out for a walk and he said, I looked. And then he looked again at Bathsheba. What is the solution even for a child of God who is led down those ways? Psalm 51 and I'll close. Creating me a clean heart. Oh God. me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean. Wash me. Hyssop is what they applied the blood to the doorposts. Take the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ and apply it to this wicked heart.

Create in me a clean heart. It's a new heart. Take away this heart of stone and create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew in me a right spirit within me. Cast me not away from thy presence, nor take thy Holy Spirit away from me. Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation and uphold me with thy free spirit. Thank God it's a free spirit. Thank God that he loves his people freely.

Let's pray. Our heavenly Father, we thank you. We thank you for the wonder of redeeming love that's revealed In your dear and precious Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, we thank you, Heavenly Father, that His blood and His blood alone can make us clean in your sight and wash away our sins.

Heavenly Father, I pray that you might do that for all of us here today. You would create in us clean hearts, Heavenly Father. and put in us a right spirit that thinks rightly about who you are, rightly about who we are, rightly about the things of this world, Heavenly Father. Cause us, our Father, to walk in your footsteps. Cause us to walk in such a way that we honour your word.

Heavenly Father, we thank you. We thank you that you cause your people like you did David and all of us, Heavenly Father, you cause us to know a little of the depths of the wickedness of what we are by nature. And you do so, Heavenly Father, that we might run and flee to you, the only refuge for sinners like us. Heavenly Father, we thank you that there is a refuge.

We thank you that there is a saviour. We thank you that there is a throne of grace. We thank you that on the throne of grace sits the Lord of this universe, bearing the marks in his own body of our sins being washed away forever. And you remember them now. What a God and what a Saviour.

May we eat and drink in remembrance of Him and proclaim His death until He comes. Heavenly Father, send Him to us. Send Him in power into our hearts that we might rejoice. Rejoice with trembling and full of joy. Thank you again for your Saviour. Thank you for your Word. And thank you, Heavenly Father, for the blessed Holy Spirit. that brings the things and makes the things of the Lord Jesus Christ to be real to us. We pray in his name and for his glory. Amen.