Turn with me back in your Bibles to the book of Jude. I'm thankful that Jude repeats phrases that we might concentrate our minds on. the world that we live in and particularly the religious world that we live in and that we might be caused again and again and again by the circumstances around us to go back to the Word of God and ask for the Lord to be merciful upon us in these days.

He's speaking about the Lord coming with 10,000 of his saints in verse 15, 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. So all false religion is speaking against him.

These are murmurers and complainers walking after their own lusts and their mouth speaketh great swelling words, having men's person in admiration because of advantage. But, beloved, remember ye the words which were spoken before of the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ, how that they told you that there should be mockers in the last days. in the last time, who should walk after their ungodly lusts. These be they who separate themselves, sensual, not having the spirit. The Lord has gone to great trouble in this time of ours to so clearly define what are the false teachers and what at the heart of the issue is, isn't it, that they walk after their own ungodly lusts. ungodly, ungodly, ungodly. Five times in three verses he talks about these people who have no reverence for God, no fear of God, have no interest in worshipping God. Rather than God and his word and his Christ being glorified, they're interested in man, their own lusts. and great swelling words.

I've heard a lot of great swelling words in this last little while. I've heard great swelling words this last week. I hear it's extraordinary, isn't it, that man, when he had a righteousness, In his creature walk in the garden, had no regard for it, and ever since he lost it, all he's wanted to do is speak great swelling words about what he can do. I will, I will, I will.

These own lusts. It's interesting, isn't it, that the scriptures speaks of these. things that we own, their own ungodly lusts. It means an ardent or an earnest desire. It means a desire that is above and there is a good desire. We read about it in Galatians last week, in Galatians 5.17, there is the flesh lusts against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh.

These are contrary one to the other so that you cannot do the things that you would. You cannot. Sin is constrained and ruled in the hearts of God's people because they're not under law but they're under grace. And the flesh lusts against the spirit and the spirit lusts against the flesh. Thank God the spirit lusts against the flesh. There is both in that word ungodly our own lusts there is an exhibition of the natural depravity of all men. And it lies dormant so often and it's not so easily perceived.

But I want us to be reminded that the issue that exposes mankind is the issue of Christ being Christ. And particularly in the religious world, when he declares himself to be God Almighty. He declares himself to be the elect one. He declares himself to be the one who rules over all flesh. He is spoken against. It's interesting, isn't it?

Pilate and Herod despised each other in Jerusalem in the days of the Lord Jesus Christ until they both found an enemy in the Lord Jesus Christ. The Pharisees and the Sadducees were at each other's throats all the way through their time together until they found an enmity against him. These are ungodly lusts and those of us who have been guilty as we all have at some stage in our lives of speaking against him. We have been murmurers and we have been complainers and we have spoken great swelling words and we don't have any doubt what the great swelling words are.

I will. I will be against all of them, doesn't it? He speaks of their ungodly lusts, their evil lusts. They're evil as to their object, these lusts, aren't they? Because it's always after things forbidden by God, they're evil in their measure. there is in the heart of all of God's people, and there is in the walk of all of God's children in this world, a need for us to have desires to do things.

And there are many things that are lawful to us, but that word in, that epithumia word, the epi word means above and inordinate. So for example, you think about it, it is, It is acceptable for the children of God to have a glass of wine. I'm not encouraging it, but Timothy was encouraged by Paul to have a glass of wine for his stomach. But obviously, an excess of that, and when it takes captive of people, then it becomes an abundant, an inordinate lust. You think of food.

Food is absolutely essential to our existence, but gluttony is a damage to our bodies and damage to others around us in so many ways. You think of the very natural desires that we have to care for our children, and yet you hear the word, spoilt child. It's a desire that's not kept inbound as it ought to be. But ultimately these lusts, these own evil lusts, are evil in their end because the glory, it's not about the glory of God, it's about the glory of men. Ephesians warns us in chapter four and verse 22 that these are entangling lusts. you put off concerning the former conversation, the old man, which is corrupt according to deceitful lusts. They that sow to their flesh reap corruption.

And that's part of what the flattery is about. Why are they flattering men? They're flattering men so that they will be flattered in turn themselves. They are speaking They're walking and they're speaking these things for advantage. The advantage is to them and to their flesh.

Their walking in these lusts means that there's a labour involved, it means there's a skill involved and there's a progress being made. In the last days, these people will wax worse and worse. And the scriptures talk about twice, it says, walking after their own ungodly lusts, which means we can't blame others for them.

Whoever sins is a slave to sin. There is just one solution to all of this, and that is how Jude begins this letter when he says, sanctified by God the Father, preserved in Christ Jesus, and kept. These are the words that speak against him. Peter, if you turn with me to 2 Peter, he uses the same phrase as Jude does in 2 Peter 2 in verse 18. He says, speaks of these Servants of corruption, it's a heading in my Bible.

These are wells without water, clouds that are carried with a tempest, to whom the mist of darkness is reserved forever. For when they speak great swelling words in vanity, they allure through lusts of the flesh, through much wantonness, those that were clean to escape. from them who live in error. While they promise them liberty, they themselves are servants of corruption. For of whom a man is overcome, the same is he brought into bondage. For if they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, they are again entangled therein and overcome. The latter end is worse with them than the beginning.

For it had been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness. That's the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the only righteous one. It's his righteousness alone. It's better for them not to have known the righteousness, the way of righteousness, than after they have known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered unto them.

But is happened unto them according to the true proverb, the dog is returned to its own vomit, his own vomit again. And the sow that was washed to a wallowing in the mire. They're solemn, solemn words, aren't they, brothers and sisters? There are people in this world who would have been better off if they'd never heard the gospel according to Jude. They're ungodly in their lusts.

And I love the solution to it. It's a glorious solution, isn't it? But, beloved, remember I love that word, beloved. Remember ye the words which were spoken before of the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ. This is a solution, isn't it, to the mockers, to the murmurers, the complainers, to those that walk after their own lust. Remember the words, remember the words which were spoken before of the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ.

How that they told you there should be mockers in the last time who should walk after their own lust. their own ungodly lusts. These be they that separate themselves, sensual, not having the spirit." Mockers! Again and again, the New Testament is just absolutely full, as all the Old Testament is, of the warnings of God about these things. It's extraordinary.

One of the most moving passages in scripture for me is the passage in Acts chapter 20, where they finish in tears on that beach, and Paul says, to these people that he had loved and he had preached to, that he had cared for, he'd ministered to, he'd written to. He says, He says in verse 26, wherefore I take you record this day that I am pure, I am free of the blood of all men. For, and the one reason was, I have not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God.

What is all the counsel of God? Jesus Christ and him crucified is all the counsel of God. It's all the counsel of God. All of the counsels of God are tied up in the Lord Jesus Christ and him crucified. Take heed, therefore, unto yourselves and to all the flock, which the Holy Ghost has made you overseers, to feed the church of God, which he has purchased with his own blood. It's a declaration that the Lord Jesus Christ is God. It's a declaration that the Lord Jesus Christ purchased a church with his own blood.

For this, for I know this, that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock. Also, of your own selves, these are pastors he's talking to, shall men arise speaking perverse things to draw away disciples after them, after themselves.

Therefore watch and remember that by the space of three years I ceased not to warn every one, day and night, with tears. People say Paul was hard and harsh. With tears. And now, brethren, I commend you to God and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up and give you an inheritance among all them that are sanctified. I have coveted no man's silver or gold or prowler. You yourselves know that these hands have ministered unto my necessities and to them that were with me. Paul, warned these people.

He wasn't to see them ever again. These are the last words he physically spoke to those people. And he loved them and he cared for them. And he spoke to Timothy in a similar way in 1 Timothy chapter 4. He spoke about these mockers that should be there in the last times. In 1 Timothy 4 verse 12 he says, I think I have the wrong verse there. I'm sorry.

Let no man despise thy youth, but be thou an example of the believers in word, in conversation, in charity and spirit. Take heed, verse 16, unto thyself and unto doctrines. Continue in them, for in doing so thou shalt save thyself and them that hear thee. He says in verse 7, refuse profane and old wives' fables and exercise thyself rather in godliness. In 2 Timothy, as Paul's finishing his ministry on this earth in verse 3, you know these verses well, how there's This know also, 2 Timothy 3 verse 1, in the last days perilous times shall come, for men shall be lovers of their own selves.

And these are the ones that Jude's speaking about. Covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection, truth-breakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, traitors, heady-minded, lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God. And you would think, well, this is talking about the pagans down the street. You would think that this is talking about those who inhabit the places that God's people wouldn't go to.

And listen to them. Having a form of godliness. Having a form of godliness. May God protect us from having an outward form of godliness. And not God in us. but denying the power, or they have a form of religion and they deny the power thereof. What's the power of God? The gospel is the power of God unto salvation. They are denying the gospel. They are denying the gospel.

From such turn away, for of their sort are they which creep into houses, they creep into houses of worship as well as into other Silly women, laden with sins, led away with diverse lust, ever learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth. Now as Jannies and Jambrees withstood Moses, so do these also resist the truth. Men of corrupt mind reprobate concerning the faith, but they shall proceed no further. For their folly shall be made manifest to all men as theirs was also. In the next chapter, he says in verse three of chapter four, for a time, the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but after their own lusts shall heap to themselves teachers having itching ears.

In closing, I'd just like us to spend a few minutes in Galatians chapter three. I was really struck as I was studying this week that the question, there are several important questions that we ought to have before us all of the time when we're looking at these scriptures which provide such serious warnings, is what is the gospel?

And what are distortions of the gospel? Has God revealed the truth of the gospel to us Or have I been deceived? I don't want to be deceived, I want God. I want God to be glorified, but I want him to be glorified in such a way that he gets all of the praise for all of the grace in doing all of the saving by the blood of his Son in the covenant. But there is a gospel, isn't there?

Turn with me to Galatians chapter 3, and I just want to read some of these verses. I want us to look at this and contemplate what's being said here about these people that walk after their own godly lusts and these ones that are mockers. It remains extraordinary to me that these people were so brazen that they could stand opposed to someone who met the Lord Jesus Christ, as Paul did, and had lived such a life, as Paul did, and had such an extraordinary testimony, as Paul did, and they could stand opposed to him. Not only that, in Acts chapter 15 they stood opposed to Paul and Barnabas in Antioch and then they went all the way down to Jerusalem and they stood opposed to all of the apostles. Let's not for one moment think that these people aren't brazen and when they're walking after their own godly lusts and they're speaking against him, they're incredibly proud and incredibly self-assured. God's people are humble.

We're the Bruce Reeds and the Smoking Flaxers and we are made to come up out of this wilderness leaning on the beloved. These things make me to lean on the beloved and lean on him for your sakes and pray for all of us that the Lord would be gracious to us.

Listen to what Paul says, O foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you that you should not obey the truth. There is a truth to be obeyed which is a saving truth. And listen to what it is. The truth is the Lord Jesus Christ and him crucified, before whose eyes, this is the truth that Paul preached, before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently set forth crucified. Paul preached the gospel. What is preaching the gospel? Setting forth, evidently setting forth Christ crucified, Jesus Christ crucified.

That's the message that he went, that's the message which is the power of God under salvation. And any message which is denying the Lord Jesus Christ and him crucified in the terms of the success of what he did and whom he did it for and why he came is to be deceived, is to be bewitched. That word bewitched is an extraordinary word and it goes to the heart of the selfishness that's in man unrestrained by God. In Deuteronomy chapter 28, and I've spoken about this so I'll try and be really brief, but the worst crime, the worst judgement that could befall someone under the curse of the law, was to eat a baby. And that's bad enough. a man or a woman eating a baby.

But the thing that's extraordinary about it, they did it with such extraordinary selfishness. There was only one person they were thinking of. They weren't thinking about their starving family. They just thought about themselves. To be turned over where your thoughts are just about you and nothing else in the midst of all of that. And these were religious people in Deuteronomy 28. They were bewitched twice, it uses that word in Deuteronomy.

So what is the truth of the gospel to be obeyed? It's the Lord Jesus Christ and him crucified. What's the preaching of the gospel? It's setting forth evidently Jesus Christ crucified. What is it? What is the saving faith that the Holy Spirit gives? Verse two, this only would I learn of you, received ye the Spirit by the works of the law or by the hearing of faith. What is the hearing of faith? It's the hearing of the faithfulness of the Lord Jesus Christ crucified among you, evidently set forth crucified. It's the faithfulness. He was faithful unto death. He was faithful on the cross, being mocked. He was faithful to his father. He was faithful in the garden. He was faithful before Pilate. He was faithful before Herod. He was faithful. The hearing of faith.

Are you so foolish, having begun in the spirit, are you now made perfect by the flesh? How does Christian life begin in our experience? It begins by a spiritual work. It begins by the Holy Spirit taking the things of the Lord Jesus Christ. It begins by the Holy Spirit convicting us of sin and righteousness and judgment. It begins by the Holy Spirit showing us the Lord Jesus Christ.

For they that are after, Romans 8, 5 says, they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh. They that are after the spirit, the things of the spirit. For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Because the carnal mind is enmity against God.

For it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God. Verse nine, but you are not in the flesh, but in the spirit, if so be that the spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man not have the spirit of Christ, he is none of his. So the spirit dwells in God's children. And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin.

When was my body put to death? When was my body put to death? On the cross of Calvary. In my union with him God was crucified with Christ. But the spirit is life because of righteousness. But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies. He will give life to your mortal bodies. That's what Paul's saying in Galatians, isn't it? The Spirit gives life, the flesh profiteth nothing.

He wants us to learn that these are bewitched people he's talking to. These are people that are hearing a bewitching gospel from a bewitching false teacher who is ultimately mocking and speaking against the Lord Jesus Christ. Are you so foolish, having begun in the spirit, are you now made perfect by the flesh? Have you suffered so many things in vain? if it be yet in vain. He therefore that ministereth to you the Spirit and worketh miracles among you, doeth he it by the works of the law or by the hearing of faith?

What do we do? We keep talking about the faithful one. We proclaim the Lord Jesus Christ and him crucified, the faithful one. What is it to be a fool O foolish Galatians, what is it to be bewitched in spiritual eternal matters concerning your eternal soul? It's disobeying the truth. It's going to the works of the law for justification and sanctification. It's going to the works of the law to perfect the flesh. And we'll just read on. I just love how the Apostle Paul is led to remind us of Abraham. Even as Abraham believed God and it was accounted to him, it was put onto his account, accounted to him for righteousness. Know ye therefore they which are of faith. What is the origin? That word of means the origin. What is the origin of their spiritual life? What is the origin of their spiritual walk? It's faith. It's faith. Know ye therefore they which are of faith.

The same are the children of Abraham. God's children are all the children of Abraham. They're the faith children of Abraham. But the scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the heathens through faith, preached before the gospel unto Abraham, saying, In thee shall all nations be blessed. So then they which are, which be of faith, those who walk in faith and live in faith and hear about the faithfulness of the Lord Jesus Christ and have their rest and their hope in the faithfulness of God, They are blessed with faithful Abraham. What was so blessed about Abraham's life? The great blessing he had was a child, the great blessing he had was an inheritance. How did he get the child? God did it. All of it. And he did it by promise, and he did it in covenant. And that's where life comes from, and that's where spiritual life comes from.

What is it to be bewitched and what is it to be foolish and what is it to not obey the truth and what is it to be lost for as many? For they which be of faith are blessed with faithful Abraham, for as many as are of the works of the law are under a curse. For it is written, cursed it is everyone that continue not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them, literally to have done them. If you want to go back to the law for your obedience before God, you have had to have done them all perfectly, in holiness and in love. For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse, for it is written, Cursed is everyone that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them, to have done them.

But that no man is justified by the law in the sight of God is evident, for the just shall live by faith. They live by the faithfulness of God. The life I now live in the flesh, I live by the faithfulness of God. And the law is not a faith, but the man that doeth them shall live in them.

Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law. being made a curse for us, for it is written, cursed is everyone that hangeth on a tree. That, what's the result of the curse coming upon the Lord Jesus Christ? That the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith. What did Christ do? all that he came to do.

What does he do in the hearts of his people right now? He gives them faith. When he says, behold my servant, his children, behold him. The just shall live by faith. What's life? What's spiritual life? It's living by faith. It's looking to the faithful one.

It's looking to the Lord Jesus Christ for everything that I need before God, I have one person to look to all of the time. That very proud person that spoke to me the other day says, I know where I'm going, as she mocked me and walked away. We know whom we're going to. I know whom I have believed. Let's pray. Our Heavenly Father, we live in what you declare to be perilous times. We live in a world where so much is spoken against your dear and precious Son.

And we thank you and praise you, Heavenly Father, that you will protect and preserve and set apart your people and you will keep them. Our Father, we just thank you. These things remind us of what weakness we have in our natural selves and how that weakness is used by you for us to cling to the Lord Jesus Christ. Heavenly Father, help us. as children in troubled times to run to our Father, to leap into His arms and cling, wrapped up in Him and find our rest and our peace in the Lord Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Heavenly Father, we know what it is for us, each of us, to have mocked You, to have spoken against You. And we just praise You, Heavenly Father, that those sins were laid on your dear and precious son, the faithful one, and they were all punished, our Father, to the full extent of your holiness and your justice. Oh, Heavenly Father, we read these words about the cursedness of your Son upon the tree, and yet, Heavenly Father, you alone, by your Spirit and by your grace, can make that blood that is shed precious and make him precious to us, and that we might find ourselves protected from the bewitching words of this world, Heavenly Father. that we might just look to Him and Him crucified. Help us, our Father, and cause us to obey the truth.

May Your Spirit work these things in our lives for Your glory and for our good and our comfort in our walk before You, our Father. We pray for the glory of Your dear Son. We thank You that we come accepted in Him. and in him alone we praise you for that acceptance our father we praise you for blood-bought forgiveness forgive us our sins for christ's sake our father preserve us and protect us in your love and in your grace and your mercy for christ's sake amen