Stacey Wolf and Grant Perriman.
Grant Perriman's Debbie's brother. He's got to have a pretty serious
back operation coming soon. Also remember my sister Ann,
she's got to have a knee replacement. Cynthia's doing well in some
pain, but that's normal. I mean, she's got a whole knee
replacement, so she's going to be in pain for about six weeks
anyway, at least. So yes, Stan. Okay, alright. That's for Nancy
Rice, remember her. Stacy Wolfe is Arlene's friend
and she's developed some type of infection. It might be a blood
infection, might be sepsis, but they don't know for sure. So
remember her in your prayers and seek the Lord's help. And
also Debbie's brother, Randy. I tell you it's tough when you're
getting old. forget names. Random Randy since
he was a baby. But he's still in chemotherapy. So remember him in your prayers
too and seek the Lord's help for him. Ethel, remember Ethel
Connelly, she lost her daughter Joy. Joy was 65 years old and
developed, evidently she had some cancer in her liver for
some time, but they were not able to see it or predict it. She had just been losing weight
and feeling bad. and when they found out what it was in two
weeks she was gone. So it happened that quick. Remember Ethel in your prayers,
she's taken a horse, she's lost her husband and one son and now
one daughter. So remember her in your prayers. Mark? Unconscious? How old is he? Which Lambert clan is he connected
to? Birthday, okay. Tater diggers. That's what the
Lamberts, the Tater diggers. Okay, happy birthday this week
to Miss Jessa. Are you gonna be a teenager yet?
12, one year old teenager, okay. I don't say anybody can get that
pretty in 12 years, but, you know, it's amazing she did. That's
true. Okay. This Wednesday night, this
Wednesday night, no service this Wednesday night, Debbie and I
will be on the road headed toward Ashland, Kentucky to preach in
a conference up there with Gary Shepard and Norm Wells from out
in Oregon. remember us in our travels, no
Wednesday night service. Next Sunday, 11 o'clock service
only. Brother Sam Vance will be preaching the morning message
at 11 o'clock on Sunday morning. That's next Sunday. And there'll
be no lunch or afternoon Bible study that day. So remember those
things. They're on your bulletin. Sometimes
you put them on the magnet and on the refrigerator so you remember
and show up to your brother Sam because he always, always, every
time I ever heard him, preaches the gospel clearly. and to the
point. We're thankful for that. Okay,
let's begin our worship service with hymn number 258, He Hideth
My Soul. A wonderful Savior is Jesus my
Lord. A wonderful Savior to me. He hideth my soul in the cleft
of the rock where rivers of pleasure I see. He hideth my soul in the
cleft of the rock that shadows a dry, thirsty land. He hideth
my life in the depths of His love, and covers me there with
His hand. And covers me there with His
hand. A wonderful Savior is Jesus my
Lord. He taketh my burden away. He holdeth me up and I shall
not be moved. He gives me strength as my day. at shadows on my thirsty land. He hides my life in the depths
of his love and covers me there with his hand. And covers me there with his
hand. ? With numberless blessings each
home he crowns ? And filled with his fullness divine ? I sing
in my rapture of glory to God ? Born such a Redeemer as mine
He hideth my soul in the cleft of the rock that shadows a dry,
thirsty land. He hideth my life in the depths
of his love and covers me there with his hand. ? And come to them with his hand
? When cold in his brightness transformed our eyes ? We'll
meet him in clouds in the sky ? His perfect salvation is wonderful
I'll shout with the millions on high. He hideth my soul in
the cleft of the rock that shadows a dry, thirsty land. After scripture reading and prayer,
we'll sing hymn number 272, Solid Rock. your Bibles, turn to the book
of Jude. It's right before the Revelation.
I'm going to read the first 15 verses.
I'm going to take my text from verses 14 and 15. Jude, the servant of Jesus Christ
and brother of James, to them that are sanctified by God the
Father, preserved in Jesus Christ and called, mercy unto you and
peace and love be multiplied. Beloved, when I gave all diligence
to write unto you the common salvation, it was needful for
me to write unto you and exhort you that ye should earnestly
contend for the faith which was once delivered to the saints.
For 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. I will therefore put you in remembrance,
though you once knew this, how that the Lord, having saved the
people out of the land of Egypt afterward, destroyed them that
believed not. And the angels which kept not
their first estate, but left their own habitation, he hath
reserved in everlasting change under darkness unto the day of
judgment." Isn't that a 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 as an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire.
Likewise also those filthy dreamers defile the flesh, despising dominion,
and speak evil of dignities. Yet Michael, the archangel, when
contending with the devil, he disputed about the body of Moses,
durst not bring accusation against him, railing accusation, but
said, The Lord rebuketh thee. These speak evil of things which
they know not, but what they know naturally as brute beast,
in these things they corrupt themselves. Woe unto them, for
they go after the way of Cain, and ran greedily after the error
of Balaam, reward and perishing in the gainsaying of Korah. These
are spots on your feasts of charity, when they feast with you, feeding
themselves without fear, clouds clouds they are without water,
carried about by the winds, 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 blackness of darkness forever. And Enoch also,
the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, saying, Behold, the
Lord cometh with ten thousand of his saints, 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 of their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against
Him. Let us pray. Our Father, we are thankful for Your Word,
for the fact that it's a lamp unto our feet and a light unto
our path, and also a warning for those who would corrupt the
truth and turn from the living God to worship idols. We pray, Father, for those of
our company who are sick and lost loved ones, especially remember
Sister Ethel. She might be pleased to show
mercy to her and comfort her in these times. For as we live in this world
and as our days grow shorter, we realize fully that everything
we know and possess will one day leave or will one day leave
us. And all we'll ever have is what
we have eternally. That is Christ in us, the hope
of glory, his spirit dwelling in us, and the hope of eternal
life. in the presence of almighty God,
worshiping Christ forever, for he is worthy. We can say with David, whom have
I in heaven but thee? And whom on earth do I desire
but thee? Pray for the others who are sick
and awaiting operations. We went through various trials
and tribulations. Remember our sister Cynthia,
she's recovering from this knee operation. We ask the Lord for
a quick recovery for her. Pray for my sister Ann who awaits
the same operation soon. We ask the Lord, He might be
pleased this hour. We consider these things to give
us a glimpse. For truly we cannot fully understand
or grasp your being. Your thoughts are higher than
our thoughts and your ways higher than our ways. We cannot by searching
find you out. But we know that you have revealed
some things to us. And what you have revealed to
us is so wondrous and so great that it causes us to bow our
heads in utter thanksgiving and praise for your goodness and
mercy. Help us to believe this hour. We pray in Christ's name, amen. From Christ the solid rock I
stand. ? Hope is built on nothing less
? ? Than Jesus' blood and righteousness ? ? I dare not trust the sweetest
frame ? ? But wholly lean on Jesus' name ? ? On Christ's solid
rock I stand ? ? All of the ground is sinking sand ? Other ground
is sinking sand When darkness veils his lovely face I rest
on his unchanging grace In every high and low On Christ the solid rock I stand,
all other ground is sinking sand. All other ground is sinking sand. His oath is calm, but not his
blood. My soul is way. He is all my hope and stay. On Christ's solid rock I stand. All other ground is sinking sand. All other ground is sinking sand. ? He shall come with trumpet
sound ? Oh, may I then in Him be found ? Dressed in His righteousness
alone ? All blessed to stand before the throne ? On Christ
the solid rock I stand on Other ground is sinking sand. Let's pray. Father, again as
we come to you in the presence of Jesus Christ, receive from
your people that which you've given them for the furtherance
of the gospel preaching here and in other places in this world.
We pray for our missionaries as they are in these places foreign
to us, common to them, as they stand and minister the gospel
of Jesus Christ. Help them, Lord, and be with
them. Stand with every man today who declares the glories of your
sovereign grace. We pray, Father, that these gifts
will be given from the heart of thanksgiving in Christ's name,
amen. you. you I'd like your attention back
to the book of Jude, verses 14 and 15 of this singular little epistle
written by the brother of James. He says, the Lord's coming with
10,000 saints. He's talking about the day of
judgment. To execute judgment upon all
and to convince all that are ungodly among you of all their
ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed, and of all
their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against Christ,
or against Him. These two verses, our Lord gives
the account of the end of those who crept in unawares, and those
who were ordained to this condemnation, as it says back in the first
part of this book, of this epistle. These were ordained to this condemnation. There are certain men in verse
4, cryptian unawares, who were before of old ordained to this
condemnation, ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness,
denying the only Lord God, the Lord Jesus Christ. They were
ordained to this condemnation. Many years ago I was riding with
several preachers in a car. We were going somewhere. which
it was one of the young preachers you
believe in double predestination at the time i really had considered
because i believe in predestination set forth in scripture six times
one particular word used a reason is used for predestination predetermination
is used in all the reference in the christ and those who say
those six times beginning in Acts chapter 4 and ending in
Ephesians chapter 1 so I hadn't really considered
the fact that I think what he was talking about was did I believe
that men were predestinated to heaven and predestinated to hell
that's what he was talking about and I really didn't consider
it very much then I read this verse and I began to think about
these things I don't particularly care for the phrase double predestination
but i see in scripture plainly that there were certain ordained
to condemnation this word ordained here is the same word used in
acts chapter thirteen verse forty eight when it says as many as
uh... well let's turn to acts thirteen
forty eight No, it says, as many as were ordained to eternal life.
Same word. As many as were ordained to eternal
life believed. How many will believe? Those
that were ordained to eternal life. Same word is used there.
The word is not pro reso. It's pro grafo, which means they
are written. This is how their history was written. God wrote
down, this is what's going to happen to them. In another place,
in 2 Peter chapter, no, 1 Peter chapter 2, it speaks of others
that were ordained, if you will. Speaking of those who refuse
Jesus Christ, He is a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense,
even to them that stumble at the word, being disobedient,
whereunto they were also appointed. So He's talking about people
here who are ordained to condemnation. They've been described as to
their manner and character if you're reading along with the
first 13 verses. Now Jude goes back into history
to rehearse a prophecy concerning them. Though the man who is prophesied
is a unique character in the Old Testament, the prophecy itself
is not found in the Old Testament. What he says Enoch said is not
found in the Old Testament, but he says it happened. Of course,
there are a lot of prophets. who spoke, whose words were not
recorded in the divine canon, we know that. They are there, or they are,
because of the fact some who question the authenticity of
these other prophecies concerning the second advent of Christ,
they say that's what he's talking about. But they still can't find
a whole lot spoken by this prophet who was the seventh from Adam,
a man called Enoch. That book you gave me, the book
of Enoch, it's an interesting book. However, since it lines up well
with other prophecy concerning the second advent of Christ,
it's held as inspired canon. These words are inspired canon.
These are the word of God. Enoch is a prophet, spoken of
as a prophet here, quoted by Jude, and holds a unique place
in Biblical history. Something is said of him that's
said of no other person in all of Scripture. In Genesis 5, 24, He says he
was the seventh from Adam, the seventh generation from Adam,
if you will. In Hebrews chapter 11 it says,
by faith he was translated. He walked with God and was not. That's how it's put. That's a
wondrous saying. This man walked with God and then he wasn't here. He was translated. There is a Holy Spirit uniqueness
assigned to this man with whom said to be translated by faith
because he believed God and walked with God. That's how it's worded.
Remember Hebrews chapter 11 is about faith. By faith Enoch was
translated. Translated and was not. Now much
can be made of what it means to walk with God. Writers tend
to get ethereal here when they try to explain this phenomenon
as to the translation is best left to the arena of wonder and
worship. as to walking with God, it simply means that Enoch was
a believer. By faith, he walked with God. By faith, he was translated. He was one who walked by faith
and not by sight. Every believer walks with God
and does so by faith, and to some degree, what happened to
Enoch applies to every believer, to every believer. because in
the sense that he has made a new creature in Jesus Christ, Scripture
says he's translated. He's translated over in Colossians
chapter 1. verse 12 says giving thanks unto
the Father which hath made us meet or suitable to be partakers
of the inheritance of the saints in life who hath delivered us
from the power of darkness and hath translated us unto the kingdom
of his dear Son translated like Enoch was we was one thing and then We
were something else altogether, a new creature in Jesus Christ.
I don't say this to diminish what Enoch experienced, but rather
to show that the language employed in Genesis belongs to the New
Testament. The same language is used in both the Old Testament
and the New Testament. It relates to the estate of every
sinner saved by grace. Old things are passed away. Behold,
all things are become new. in Christ neither circumcision
or uncircumvail of anything but a new creature, a new creation
and to understand the new creation you would do well to read Genesis
chapter 1 and 2 and look at the old creation, the creation of
the world and see that it's a picture of the creation of the child
of God. The literal meaning of translate
is to change place That too is Old Testament and New Testament
language. He was not sin. But we change
places too. We are saved by the grace of
God, aren't we? What happens when we're saved
by the grace of God? Look over to Ephesians chapter 2. Ephesians chapter 2 says in verse
5, Even when we were dead in sins, He hath quickened us together
with Christ by grace ye are saved, and hath raised us up to sit
in heavenly places in Jesus Christ. We change places too. That's
what the word translated means. The important thing about this
prophecy is the subject of it, this prophecy of Jude. This man,
Ezekiel, was the father of Methuselah. Methuselah, whose name meant
after the death, the deluge. which shows the mercy of God.
Methuselah lived longer than anybody lived. He lived 969 years. God said there's a flood coming,
and He named him Methuselah. There's a flood coming, and He
let this man live longer than any other man before he was sent
to flood. The birth of Enoch's son was the foretelling of the
judgment of the flood, the end of evil men on the earth who
opposed God. God saved eight people that day
in an ark when He made it rain. For 40 days and 40 nights, the
rain covered the mountaintops. Rivers underneath the sea, which
they've just found out really exist, they filled up. Water come from beneath, water
come from above. You see the damage that's happened
on the east side of these mountains. These little towns on the east
side of these mountains, you've seen that damage. That was just
a few days of hard rain. water ran off the earth close
to a year imagine what kind of damage it
did to this planet how it changed the planet topographically God's going to send a flood he
said after this man dies but I'm going to let him live longer
than anybody else ever lived that's the mercy of God the mercy
of God Enoch was uniquely a prophet of doom for the wicked In the
case of prophecy reported by Jude, it was likewise a prophecy
of utter deliverance of the elect of God. For when you find out
in Scripture, when you talk about the deliverance of the people
of God from all the way from the beginning to the end, two
things take place. One, God's people are delivered.
But before God's people are delivered, the enemy is destroyed. So when
you see the prophecy of the enemy being destroyed, you're seeing
also the deliverance of God's people, because that's what always
happens. We were held in check by the strong man, by Satan. We were in his company. We were
in his palace. We were at peace. We liked being
there. We were fine. And he wasn't about to let us
go, even though we really didn't want to leave. He wasn't about
to let us go. Well, how were we delivered? How did we find
out we were captive? by the grace of God who is preaching
the gospel. We found out we were captured,
but how can we get out? We can't. We're no more powerful
than Satan. Those bars are iron and we can't
get out. It says it took a stronger than him, one stronger than the
strong man to come in and bind the strong man and take his spoils. Take his spoils. But first he's
bound. First, the enemy is destroyed. When Jesus Christ died on Calvary
Street, the enemy to be destroyed was death. He destroyed it first. He died in the room instead of
his people. That enemy was put down, and
then his people were delivered by his grace. Enoch, 969 years
before the flood, prophesied of the coming of the Lord Jesus
Christ. that would take place millennia
later. It seems that for many commentators
cannot be resisted to leave the context and venture only into
the realm of eschatology or the days of teaching of last things. Though verse 15 does speak of
a day yet to come and certainly fits with other references to
eschatology, for in 2 Thessalonians 1 through 7, it talks about God
coming with 10,000 angels to destroy the enemies. The context
in which this prophecy is spoken is the ordained condemnation
of those false teachers who crept in unawares to destroy the faith
once delivered to the saints. That was their design. And Enoch,
the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, it says. Enoch prophesied
of these kind of men. Now he might have had something
to work with as far as seeing what was going on around him
at the time. but he prophesied of the days of the messiah and
prophesied of the church of the living God and men creeping into
the church, read the book of Galatians, read the book of Hebrews,
read the book of Colossians, men creeping in unawares, they're
always into espionage, they like to creep in unknown, they're
not going to stand up in the pews and the pulpits and say,
there ain't no God, they're not going to stand up and say Jesus
Christ didn't die for sins, they're going to say all that, but ultimately
they're going to draw attention to themselves and draw people
to themselves rather than to the Lord Jesus Christ. This is such a strong declaration
of God's sovereign predestinated purpose for the presence of these
people being in the church and trying to trouble it. He said
they're predestinated to die and perish and be condemned. some people have difficulty with
the concept of predestination they don't like that and yet
they do it every day of their life all day long they never
go anywhere they never do anything without first predetermining
what they're going to do and yet they say God can't do that
I do it you do it God does too God does too God's sovereign purpose here
He's ordained them to this condemnation They were there according to
purpose. They're in the church according to purpose. Must need
be heresies among you that which is true might be manifest in
his folk of the church and those who would seek to destroy the
faith. When he talks about the faith, he's not talking about
your personal faith. He's talking about the gospel of the Lord
Jesus Christ. Those words may be applied to
the second advent in reference to all things eschatological
to the second coming of Christ. The wonder of it is that Enoch
saw the church in time and spoke words of comfort to those who
would not exist for thousands of years. The time of these creepers
is marked, and their little season will end when Christ comes to
gather His own. Enoch spoke as John did in Patmos. John, in a vision, saw the Lord
coming. Enoch saw back yonder before the flood, 969 years before
the flood, Enoch saw the Lord coming with 10,000 of his saints
to destroy the enemy. He prophesied of these things,
he says. Just as these creepers were ordained
to this condemnation, the condemnation and judgment is on the way. It's
coming. The coming judgment is for these
who are ordained to this condemnation. That's who the judgment is for,
for these who are ordained to this condemnation. The meaning
of the word all in verse 15 says to get execute judgment upon
all. Who's he talking about? Judgment
is for all those who have not yet faced judgment. There is
a judgment coming, and it's for all those who have not yet faced
judgment. Because some people in this world,
they are called God's Church, God's Sheep, God's Elect, God's
Chosen, God's Severed, those who belong to God, God's Children. They are called that, and they
have already been judged. They're not going to be judged
again because they've already been judged. Judgment cannot
twice demand payment at my bleeding surety's hand and then again
at mine. The judgment is for folks who
have not been judged. We've been judged in Christ.
We were in Christ when He went to Calvary. The elect of God
were, the chosen of God were, the believers were. They were
in Christ, and their sins were laid upon the Lord Jesus Christ
by imputation, and God punished their sins when they were laid
upon Jesus Christ, and after Christ fully suffered the eternal
death that they deserved in those three hours of darkness, He then
gave up the ghost. He willingly died. What Luke
records as Isaiah and Moses speaking of the death which he should
accomplish at Jerusalem. He accomplished death. You and
I don't accomplish death. Death accomplishes us. But he
accomplished death. What does that mean? He who is
life He who is life voluntarily by the power of his will and
sovereign majesty quit living. He died in the room instead of
his people because that's what we owe God. Even Shakespeare
knew that. He said, We all owe God one death. And when he did that, he died
in the room instead of his people. died in a room instead. They've
faced judgment. So who's this all? It's all those
who've not been judged are going to be judged because everybody's
going to be judged. They're either judged in a substitute
or they're judged in themselves. But they're going to be judged. All these ordained to this condemnation
are the objects of judgment. Those to be judged are among
them. Says they're among them. Who's at their church? They're
in the church. having affiliated and ingratiated themselves into
the assemblies of the brethren. Soon, like the tares among the
wheat, they will be gathered and bound up and burned." Enoch
made no bones about calling them what they were. We have seen
the Church's weapon against these creepers is a constant rehearsing
of the truth in Jesus Christ. If you read Galatians and Colossians,
you'll find that to be true. false teachers are not called
out they're left to the Lord for it says even Michael when
disputing with Satan over Moses grave would not rebuke him the Lord rebuked thee I know
people talk about putting people out of church and I'm sure there
are occasions when you know if a guy's holding a gun shooting
people you probably ought to put him out But in no occasion
in the New Testament church anywhere in scripture is somebody excommunicated.
Do you know that? A couple of them are killed, but
none of them are executed or excommunicated. That's a religious
dogma that you don't find in scripture. Why? Because God says,
let them stay. The truth will out. The gospel
will take care of its cause. even when Paul, when the Lord
said mark the heretic, he didn't say throw him out of the church.
When Paul said Alexander the coppersmith has done me much
evil, he didn't say throw him out of the church. Because we don't know who the
terrors are and who the wheat are. They don't have numbers
on their back. They don't have a yellow line
down their back telling us who they are. We don't know. You
don't know if I'm a believer. I know. But I don't know if you're
a believer. But you know faith cannot be
seen, nor can it be proved. It can't be proved. I know religion
likes to say, well, you works, you see your works, that proves
you got faith. No, it doesn't. It doesn't. When Paul, when Jane
talks about justifying your works being just, your faith being
justified by works, he's talking about before men, not before
God. Before men. He made no bones about calling
these folks what they were. He said they are ungodly. He
said it five times. The elect will hear and heed
the gospel and even if for a time the brethren fall prey to these
false teachers as Simon Peter did at Antioch. We stood him face to face and
eyeball to eyeball and said you despise the grace of God by what
you've done. What did he do? Well, there was a church meeting
there in Antioch, and there were some Gentiles there that had
received the gospel of grace. They didn't know anything about
no law, no circumcision, no Jewish rites and traditions. They didn't
know anything about that. All they heard was the good news
that Christ came into this world to save sinners, and they were
tickled to death to hear that. Because the grace of God had
shown them that there were sinners, and sinners in need, and they
joyfully came to the Lord Jesus Christ. And that's what they
had. And Paul said, These are my brethren. And Peter comes
to Antioch, and he's rejoicing with them. He's sitting down
at the table with them, having pork chops probably, enjoying life with
them. And in come these fellows who are called, creeping in unawares,
to spy out our liberty. these gentiles they've not been circumcised
so they can't really be the children of God they don't keep the law
so they can't really be the children of God and these were some uppity
mucks that came they weren't no common everyday Jew they were
top-notch guys top in religion they came and talked to Peter
and Peter began to sway a little bit and Peter says, well, I won't
fellowship with them anymore. I don't want to cause no trouble.
I don't want to make no waves. I don't want to rock the boat.
So I won't fellowship with them anymore. And then Paul came to
Antioch and he found out that Peter and Barnabas both had left
the fellowship of the Gentiles and joined up with these creepers,
these espionage guys. He had done that. Paul was treated
face to face. Don't think that you can't fall.
Pray. So somebody who's smarter and
more clever than you are and nicer than you are, you can. And there's a part of us called
the old man that is still absolutely legalistic, 100 proof, 100 proof,
totally judgmental. one of these days we'll be rid
of them when we die, but not until then. Don't think that
you can't respond to that. Simon Peter. Simon Peter. Member of the inner
circle. Peter, James, and John fell prey
to that. Barnabas fell prey to that. So
can you. So we need not think we can.
But if we do, we will be returned to the fold
if we are a child of God. These creepers among them are
described in one repetitive way, ungodly. Listen to it, verse
15, To execute judgment upon all, all who have not been judged,
and to convince all that are ungodly among them for all their
ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed and all their
hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against them." Four
times he says the word ungodly. Four times. Judgment will be
executed upon the ungodly. They will be convinced, convicted,
or indicted for their ungodly deeds. Those wicked and covert
ever destroy the faith. The manner in which they committed
the ungodly deeds was ungodly, and their speeches were ungodly
because they were against God. And since their operations were
covert, done in darkness, their speeches were not openly against
God. They were ungodly and against God because they were for man, man-centered and exalted, man
in opposition to the clear declaration of the gospel. Listen, the gospels are not about
a man. it's about the man, the Lord Jesus Christ. It's not about
man. Salvation is about grace. And
when God saved His people and redeemed them by His blood, none
of us even existed, so it couldn't have been about us. We didn't
even exist. It was about the glory of God the Father. And signing of them to ungodly
causes the believer that naturally there's some difference, but
there's not. It is important that you remember
that these ungodly people by nature are the same as we all
are, for Scripture clearly says that
Jesus Christ came to save the ungodly. Romans Chapter 5. Those within the Church who oppose
God do not speak openly against God. They don't. They know the Bible. They use
biblical terms and seem to have a burden for the souls of men.
They refuse, but they refuse the gospel and in doing so put
salvation and glory in the hands of men. That's what always happens. They're talking about it in 2
Thessalonians 2. It's exalting themselves in churches
if they were God making the decision in salvation. That's what religion
says, making a decision in salvation. you don't decide. God decided
a long time ago. But I will tell you this, if
you can choose salvation, you can lose salvation. It's that
simple. But if God has chosen it, you'll never lose it. You'll
never lose it. Ungodly, hard speeches are the
destruction of the faith once delivered to the saints. That
faith rests in the merits of Jesus Christ alone and has no
confidence in the flesh. what the Gospel produces. That's
what the Gospel produces. The believer trusts entirely
for his salvation. He trusts entirely on somebody
else's merit. The merit of the Lord Jesus Christ. The singular way to destroy the
faith is to leave salvation somewhere else other than Christ. That's
how it's destroyed. Put it in the church. Come to
the church, you're saved, you're destroyed. You give. If that's the basis of your salvation,
you've destroyed salvation. you read your Bible, you pray,
all these things people talk about a great deal. How many
of them talk about Christ? They got this new app on the
thing called, I don't know what it's called, it's about praying.
It's a prayer app. People talk about it all the
time. One of the leading stars of action movies says, keep praying
up, you know, and things like that. You never hear the name
Jesus Christ. he's the name we're supposed
to pray in according to scripture. But you never hear that name.
People talk about religion, they talk about their faith, they
talk about their denomination, they talk about all those things.
But believers talk about Christ. Christ alone. He alone is my
salvation. The prophecy of Enoch is to comfort
the believer because it assures us that those who oppose God
will not prosper, but rather will perish at the return of
Christ. Also, it is a comfort to know that part of us, that
old man that still rebels against everything holy and right, will
be destroyed also and left behind in the grave. Judgment is coming for all those
who have not been judged in Christ. Judgment is coming in that right
soon, as the old saying goes. Father, bless us to understand
and pray in Christ's name.