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Tag: jude

When HE takes Vengeance
DOES THE FIRE OF GOD’S ANGER BURN WITH VENGEANCE?

Paradise on fire – Idolatry consumed!

Remember the lyric of lament over a lost love?

Won’t you look down upon me, Jesus?
You’ve got to help me make a stand
You’ve just got to see me through another day
My body’s aching and my time is at hand
And I won’t make it any other way..
Source:
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I've seen fire and I've seen rain
I've seen sunny days that I thought would never end
I've seen lonely times when I could not find a friend
But I always thought that I'd see you again
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You shall not make idols or any image of things that are in the heavens above or that are upon the earth or that are in the waters under the earth.
Exodus 20:4 New Catholic Bible

Of course FIRE and RAIN are elements of the 12 idolatrous signs of the zodiac,

even as love of a friend, family member or the EARTH or AIR may easily become your WORSHIP of idols.

So Those were the days, my friend, of Paradise

We SANG of them in the paradise lost of our memories. In the year of our Lord 1970, half a century ago – a time of imagined idolatrous paradise where one might honeymoon in Hawaii with the Eve or your dreams or perhaps worship each other’s nakedness in the mind-altering smoke of your California dreamin.

How we all sought the peace on earth of friends with benefits..

And that by the children of Jesus raised in the Commandments by the family of the Church — prodigal children wandering into a paradise lost of our own making.

WE KNOW THE STORIES OF SCRIPTURE,

Yet we try God’s patience

And fail to TEACH OUR CHILDREN WELL in the Commandments and Praises, the Proverbs and Gospel

of the HOLY BIBLE of the LORD God of our cultural prodigal witness!

The Imagery of Apocalypse

WE know it. Yet we quickly attribute God’s vengeance to ACTS of man-made cause.

What more idolatrous treason against the Creator of Heaven and Earth can you imagine than to attribute apocalypse to ‘mother nature’ and to ‘humankind’?

WHY do we so easily dismiss GOD’s warning of His vengeance against SIN and SINNERS (who we have become as we now wallow in the muddied cultures of self-worship and karma of the ashes of their phoenix fallen).

.. angels .. he has kept in eternal chains under gloomy darkness until the judgment of the great day— just as Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding cities, which likewise indulged in sexual immorality and pursued unnatural desire, serve as an example by undergoing a punishment of eternal fire.

Yet in like manner these people also, relying on their dreams, defile the flesh, reject authority, and blaspheme the glorious ones..

Woe to them..
excerpt from the letter of Jude, warning of ‘ungodly people, who pervert the grace of our God into sensuality and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ. – v.4b

A Repeated Warning behind the Headline

WE can ‘talk of’ KING JESUS all we want but best not dwell on the glory of grace without heeding the warnings of Christ our Lord.

Recognize the signs of false news which does NOT seek the TRUTH of God or acknowledge the LORD’s story of vengeance against SIN and justification ONLY in Christ.
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Likewise, just as it was in the days of Lot—they were eating and drinking, buying and selling, planting and building, but on the day when Lot went out from Sodom, fire and sulfur rained from heaven and destroyed them all—

.. Whoever seeks to preserve his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life will keep it.

“Where the corpse is, there the vultures will gather.”
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The Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ from Luke 17:

Deseret News
‘Apocalyptic’ Maui wildfires death toll reaches 80, making it the deadliest natural disaster in Hawaii — see the latest updates

Sat, August 12, 2023 at 1:16 PM EDT

TWO Pictures of Maui including our COVER PHOTO TODAY:

NOTE warnings IGNORED as you read FACTS

from the story of JULY 12 in A.D. 2019
- thousands were ordered evacuated,
- it was unclear how many people fled the west Maui coastal communities of Maalaea and Kihei.
- three shelters housed about 500 people
- The Maui High School housed about 200 cats and dogs moved from a local animal shelter
Have you NOT READ?
- He answered, “Have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female,
- “Because of your hardness of heart Moses allowed you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not so.
- And as for the resurrection of the dead, have you not read what was said to you by God: ‘I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? He is not God of the dead, but of the living.”
  - excerpts from the Good News of Matthew, quotes of JESUS CHRIST
Vengeance is Mine!

Vengeance is mine, and recompense,
for the time when their foot shall slip;
for the day of their calamity is at hand,
and their doom comes swiftly.’

Deuteronomy 32:35 ESV
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ESV Quotes on Vengeance

Hebrews 10: NEW CATHOLIC BIBLE


Douay-Rheims 1899 American Edition
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28 A man making void the law of Moses, dieth without any mercy under two or three witnesses:

29 How much more, do you think he deserveth worse punishments, who hath trodden under foot the Son of God, and hath esteemed the blood of the testament unclean, by which he was sanctified, and hath offered an affront to the Spirit of grace?

30 For we know him that hath said: Vengeance belongeth to me, and I will repay. And again: The Lord shall judge his people.

31 It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.

“Vengeance is mine; I will repay,”
and
“The Lord will judge his people.”
³¹It is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.
Hebrews 10:30b-31 New Catholic Bible
August 12, 2023
God’s Personal Love -3 Brothers Beloved & more
Father, Sons & Brothers – a more Personal love

We have begun this series about God’s love for us and see a MOST PERSONAL love between Jesus the Son and the Father God! Here we will glance at the personal love of Jesus’ brother Jude, a personal love of brothers, of sisters — family connections we do not choose. Yet as saints chosen by God in Christ, Jesus’ brothers grow in the Father’s love and nurture the faith of His church family.

Remembering my Brother

A few years ago one of my brothers died. Pictured here is the lake he loved near our childhood home. My sister and youngest brother also shared in many moments of life, some with our departed brother near this beautiful place on earth.

I give thanks to God that my mother and father raised a family which included my younger sister and two younger brothers. And like yours and the siblings of every family, we did not choose this relationship; never-the-less God made me their brother.

Brothers of Jesus

Imagine what life must have been like for James and Jude, the brothers of Jesus. Their brother Jesus was crucified on a Roman cross far from the Sea of Galilee near home. And He died beyond the gates of Jerusalem as they celebrated a feast of the Passover with the blood of lambs.

The Lord’s own brothers had not been disciples of the Messiah Jesus. But then, Jesus rose from the tomb!

Now, for a few weeks after His resurrection they could expect something new and different. What must it have been like for James and Jude to again walk with their brother Jesus after His resurrection near Jerusalem.

Can you imagine your risen brother walking with you in the hills overlooking Lake Galilee?

Years later their memories of Jesus would return to His glorious ascension into heaven.

After Jesus’ other return to Heaven

Along with the Eleven, Jesus’ brothers James and Jude had discovered to their belated joy that Jesus IS the risen Messiah and had also personally witnessed in awe their brother ascending into the clouds!

The Lord’s brothers both encouraged the church from this time until their own deaths years later. I have written series from each of their letters previously.

James and Jesus: Brothers – 6

James and Jesus would have been known as Galileans, Nazarenes and familial brothers, not Judeans or leaders of Jerusalem. But now he is one of more than five hundred witnesses to Jesus’ resurrection. James accepts the difficult call to lead the church in Jerusalem.

James – Come now, brothers – 8

Come now, —the Lord is compassionate and merciful. Count it all joy when the world tries your patience.

Jesus’ brother James was later martyred, even as most Apostles had died for their faith in the Messiah Jesus. James had led the church in Jerusalem for some 30 years until he was killed around A.D. 62.

Letters to a First Century Church

The first century Church grew rapidly and the Good News of Jesus Christ is now shared by believers in much of Asia.

The Lord’s other brother Judas, who now preferred to be known as Jude, also wrote a brief letter to fellow Jewish believers in Jesus (Yeshua). Like any letter Jude sent it to the saints by messenger sometime around A.D. 65-80, decades after Jesus’ resurrection and ascension.

‘Christians,’ as the Jews and pagens denounced them at every opportunity, continued to see the world’s hatred for them increase. In fact, the world seems to decay into hatred’s destruction of fires and wars of the Roman Empire in Jerusalem, Asia, Egypt and even Rome itself.

Faithful followers of Christ Jesus refuse to conform to worldly standards and consequently suffer in an environment of sociatal sin.

Jesus’ biological brothers, the same ones who once urged the Lord to refrain from such radical teaching now write to the saints of many churches — Christians who now also suffer for His Name.

What Jesus said about his brothers

One time when Jude, James and Mary went to see Jesus among the crowds the Lord had claimed only those who followed Him as family.

“Who is My mother, and who are My brothers ^G80?”
And extending His hand toward His disciples, He said, “Behold: My mother and My brothers ^G80!
Matthew 12:48b-49 NASB20 – Strongs G80 – adelphos

Now in the many years after Jesus’ death, resurrection and ascension Jude humbly claims Jesus as His bond-servant. Jude does not take advantage of his biological connection to this first Son of Man, also a son of Mary.

The Letter of Jude
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It's very short. (Read it above on a secure link.)
OR
Read & Comment on my previous 3-part series on Jude (linked below).
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Jude – Now I will praise the Lord

The brother of James could have begun his letter to the church as a ‘brother of the King and Messiah,’ implying his authority of position via his family..

Jude -2- Necessity is the Father of Exhortation

Jude will exhort believers to keep in Jesus’ love, abide in His love or live as Jesus taught us by His example..

Jude -3- Apostates

apostasia
Definition from the Greek: defection from truth (properly, the state) (“apostasy”):—falling away, forsake.
מְשׁוּבָה
Definition from the Hebrew mĕshuwbah : turning away, turning back, apostasy, backsliding

Jude greets faithful saints:

Hear a tenderness of Jude’s greeting to the church, the very same personal love Jesus exemplified throughout His thirty mortal years:

Jude, a bondservant of Jesus Christ, and brother of James,

To those who are the called, beloved in God the Father, and kept for Jesus Christ:

May mercy, peace, and love be multiplied to you.

Oh mercy, how by grace we all need it.

Peace – εἰρήνη, that is: eirēnē, Christians know best from benedictions at closings of church gatherings and departure from each another.

“Peace I leave you, My peace I give you; not as the world gives, do I give to you. Do not let your hearts be troubled, nor fearful.
John 14:27 NASB20 – Jesus’ encouragement to the Disciples prior to His crucifixion

And ‘love‘ of which we have just spoken.

God’s Personal Love -2 His Love of the Church

agapē love (as Jude uses in his greeting)

‘āhaḇ in Hebrew [i.e. thou shalt love ^H157 thy neighbour as thyself: I am the LORD.] – אָהַב

AND also phileō love defined for the church — That’s right, same as a city church to which the Apostle John will write — Φιλαδέλφεια.

Known for its “brotherly love,” philadelphos – philos or ‘friend’ and ἀδελφός adelphos – literally ‘a brother from the womb.’

Jude, a brother of Jesus who had not believed his brother IS the Messiah, now urges the Church through a letter to keep to their true faith.

Christians: Called, Beloved and Kept

Jude.. To those who are the called, beloved in God the Father, and kept for Jesus Christ:
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Called, because the Lord chose you to receive His grace
Beloved, because God loves those who accept His immeasurable love &
Kept, for eternal life and the glory of Christ's holiness.
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Christians to whom Jude now writes may hear his message as Good News. It is the same Gospel James and Jude had heard before straight from their very own brother, Jesus.

Yet like Jesus’ brothers before, not all will receive the Gospel written for the saints to whom Jude writes.

Then and now some so-called ‘christians’ gather in the guise of worship without mention of Jesus our Lord and only Savior. And some pulpits bring rise to power as well as false teachers (just like now), Jude’s central concern for the church.

How do we know who to believe?

Jude now humbly preaches Christ crucified and risen in the flesh as he has witnessed personally in the Person of his own brother Jesus. He addresses his letter and his preaching to those attentive to the Spirit with ears to hear.

Who are the true saints and followers of Jesus Christ? They are those whom Jude exhorts to faith.

Christians who receive this word of Scripture are: Called – invited by God or divinely selected ; Beloved – agapaō (You recognize this love from our previous post) and Kept for Jesus Christ.

Jude 1:3 NASB –

Beloved, while I was making every effort to write you about our common salvation, I felt the necessity to write to you appealing that you contend earnestly for the faith that was once for all time handed down to the saints.

Jude has just written to the Church greeting Christians who are ‘called,’

(‘I know that,’ you will witness and claim your calling.)

..beloved (Not only important to us as Christians, but what attracts others to Jesus)

and kept (A rather quaint concept. What does Jude mean in calling us kept?) .

Kept in Christ’s Holiness

Let’s define this refining of faith that keeps Christians in Christ as exhortation. It’s a sort of ‘religious word’ which points to the loving fatherly discipline of the ‘One who will come again.’
- I urge you to consider our relationship of being ‘kept’ by Christ Jesus.
  - Can you answer this:
- Who keeps Christians ‘in Christ?’
In our NEXT message of this series on GOD’S PERSONAL LOVE, we will look to the Lord’s exhortations for seven churches.

Jesus’ message sent by revelation to John is specific exhortation for the ‘saints’ of His ‘Church.’

And just as the Lord’s brother Jude exhorts the church in his letter, Jesus will warn followers of the Lord — servants who claim Christ — that we must respond to Him who is to come.

Exhortation

παρακαλέω – parakaleō
1. to call to one’s side, call for, summon
2. to address, speak to, (call to, call upon), which may be done in the way of exhortation, entreaty, comfort, instruction, etc.
Suppose that your church received a letter from one of the Lord’s brothers AND that Jesus also sent an appeal for the faith of scripture.

How would you respond?
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Will you comment below, beloved brother or sister in Christ?

To be continued, God-willing...
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May 5, 2021
Jude -3- Apostates
Why did Jude write to the churches about apostasy? What is apostasy and how do we recognize apostates?

As we learned previously in the study of Jude’s reason for exhortation, certain intruders have joined the churches to which he writes. Jude describes them as ungodly people who pervert God’s grace. He accuses these apostates of denying our Master and Lord Jesus Christ.

Jude

5 [NASB] Now I desire to remind you, though you know all things once for all, that the Lord, after saving a people out of the land of Egypt, subsequently destroyed those who did not believe.

Why a reminder from the Old Testament?

The approach of the church is different in Christ than that of the Jewish culture from which they have been redeemed by the Lord.

A first century view of the church

Donald Guthrie in The New Testament Approach to Social Responsibility writes:

The New Testament assumes the validity of the Old Testament view that man was made in the image of God.1 The whole conception of sin requires that there must have been a state from which man has deviated.

Guthrie continues with reminders of the social nature of the church of the first century to which Jude writes:

The New Testament doctrines of redemption and reconciliation are central to the whole Christian message and involve a disarming of man’s natural enmity against God and of his self-centredness.7 …

The consequence of this is that redeemed man finds himself with an entirely new set of values and yet remaining in his former alien environment. A tension must at once develop between his former way of looking at social responsibility and his new principles in Christ.

The New Testament concentrates on the privileges and responsibilities of the Christian life, because this was the aspect which was new. The Christian faith demands new attitudes and actions which are of prior importance for those who have just turned away from a pagan background. This will explain the relative paucity of specific exhortations towards social responsibility.

Examples from the Old Testament

Jesus, nevertheless, teaches the validity of the Old Testament from where Jude takes examples of exhortations as contemporary reminders for our faith.

“For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.”
Matthew 5:18 KJV – the words of Jesus about the Old Testament

Jesus told numerous stories from the Old Testament as well. For an excellent of His view of Scripture you can read this article by Don Stewart.

Apostasy

Before we continue with the examples of Hebrew history, let’s define what Jude does not specifically name. (You already know the challenges of Hebrew, Greek and Latin translations into today’s English.)

Apostasy – definition

from the OXFORD dictionary

The abandonment or renunciation of a religious or political belief or principle.

‘the execution of their leader for apostasy brought widespread criticism’

Origin

Middle English from ecclesiastical Latin apostasia, from a late Greek alteration of Greek apostasis ‘defection’.

ἀποστασία – apostasia

Definition from the Greek: defection from truth (properly, the state) (“apostasy”):—falling away, forsake.

מְשׁוּבָה

Definition from the Hebrew mĕshuwbah : turning away, turning back, apostasy, backsliding

The Bible warns of the apostasy of the Lord’s chosen people more times than the New Testament church specifically warns believers against it.

“Your own wickedness will correct you,
And your apostasies will reprove you;
Know therefore and see that it is evil and bitter
For you to forsake the LORD your God,
And the dread of Me is not in you,” declares the Lord GOD of hosts.
Jeremiah 2:19 NASB

Jude’s Old Testament Exhortations

Various Biblical headings for the verses to follow from Jude’s letter read:
- Apostates: Past and Present -CSB
- False Teachers – NTE
- Old and New Apostates & Apostates Depraved and Doomed – KJV
- Judgment on False Teachers – NSRV
- Past history warns us that the unfaithful have mingled with the faithful & Be on your guard against these wicked men – PHILLIPS
So as not to extend exposition of this twenty-five verse letter into another post, I will link the important cross-references for these Old Testament verses for your further study. I suspect the the first century readers of Jude’s exhortations warning against apostasy knew these examples much better than I can remember.
1. Jude 1:5 – Egypt
2. v. 6 – Angels – a multitude of examples throughout both Testaments
3. vs. 7-8 – Sodom and Gomorrah
4. v. 9 – Michael the Archangel, concerning Moses
5. v. 11 – Cain, Balaam & Korah
6. vs. 14-15 Enoch
Egypt

For I should like to remind you, my brothers, that our ancestors all had the experience of being guided by the cloud in the desert and of crossing the sea dry-shod. … many of them failed to please God, and left their bones in the desert. Now in these events our ancestors stand as examples to us, warning us not to crave after evil things as they did.
1 Corinthians 10 excerpt – J.B. PHILLIPS

Angels and Archangels

For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places.
Ephesians 6:12 NASB

Michael, from the vision of Daniel 10 [audio]

Sodom and Gomorrah

“I destroyed some of your cities,
as I destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah.
Those of you who survived
were like charred sticks pulled from a fire.
But still you would not return to me,”
says the LORD.
Amos 4:11 NLT

Cain, Balaam & Korah

All apostates! And for the most part we know their sins. Yet do we recall their warnings from the Lord?

The Lord warns Cain

Then the Lord said to Cain, “Why are you furious? And why do you look despondent? 7 If you do what is right, won’t you be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is for you, but you must rule over it.”
Genesis 4:6-7 CSB

The Lord & an Angel warn Balaam

And God said to Balaam, “You shall not go with them; you shall not curse the people, for they are blessed.”
And the Angel of the LORD said to him, “Why have you struck your donkey these three times? Behold, I have come out to stand against you, because your way is perverse before Me.
Numbers 22:12,32 NKJV

Moses warns Korah & The Lord warns Moses & Aaron

Moses also told Korah, “Now listen, Levites! Isn’t it enough for you that the God of Israel has separated you from the Israelite community to bring you near to himself, to perform the work at the Lord’s tabernacle, and to stand before the community to minister to them?
The Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron, “Separate yourselves from this community so I may consume them instantly.”
Numbers 16:8-9, 20-21

Have we recognized the apostates opposed to the Lord and separated them from His church?

The Lord requires both our faith and our loyalty. He cautions us concerning those who would turn against the faithful, loyal congregation of believers.

Jude warns:

These people are dangerous. They share communion of Christ with you, but only care about themselves. These men (and presumably women) are a menace to good fellowship. They are shepherds (pastors and priests) who care not for their sheep. These opinionated apostates are clouds without water, trees without fruit, twice-dead, and uprooted. Do not listen to them.

Jude makes other comparisons of these apostates to raging waves splashing up their own shame and wandering stars ‘for whom the deepest darkness has been reserved forever,’ a clear reference to the eternal punishment of Satan’s apostate angels.

Enoch Predicted an Apostasy of Israel

The study of Jude’s source material [linked above] is complex. See Jude 1:14. Yet to simplify the apostasy of Israel which the Lord spoke to Moses at the time of his death, here is an excerpt from its scriptural background.

Deuteronomy 31 & Intro from the Song of Moses

The Lord said to Moses, “Behold, you are about to lie down with your fathers; and this people will arise and play the harlot with the strange gods of the land, into the midst of which they are going, and will forsake Me and break My covenant which I have made with them. Then My anger will be kindled against them in that day, and I will forsake them…
“They have acted corruptly toward Him,
They are not His children, because of their defect;
But are a perverse and crooked generation.
“Do you thus repay the Lord,
O foolish and unwise people?
Deuteronomy 31:16-17a,32:5:6a NASB

A Reminder of Scoffers

Jude reminds the church that the Apostles also warn of those who deny the power and judgment of Almighty God and turn from the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ.

“In the last time there will be scoffers, indulging their own ungodly lusts.” It is these worldly people, devoid of the Spirit, who are causing divisions.
Jude 1:18b-19 NRSV

But you, beloved…

Jude addresses the church agapētos, beloved ones, just as James in his letter had cautioned: “Do not be deceived, my beloved brethren.”

Jude and also James knew the familial love of Jesus. Both letter writers love those saints of the church faithful to Christ, their brother, the risen Lord.

But you, dear friends, as you build yourselves up in your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting expectantly for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ for eternal life.
Jude 1:21-22 CSB

How shall we view the apostate?

Have mercy on some who are doubting.

Is this unexpected as our attitude toward some who temporarily turn against Christ?

Jude shares the same teaching as Christ.

“Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.
The words of Christ, Matthew 5:7

By our mercy and Christ’s grace some may be built up in the true faith.

Save others

‘Snatching them out of the fire,’ Jude pleads, a clear reference to saving their souls from hell.

σῴζω – sōzō – Save – to rescue from danger or destruction

It is the same Greek word for save familiar to all from John 3:16. Jude urges the church to save those of the world who come to us.

Have mercy with fear

“And on some have mercy with fear, hating even the garment polluted by the flesh,” Jude cautions.

But what fear?

φόβος – Most know the word phobos and its meaning: dread or that which strikes terror.

What strikes terror in your heart?

Your own death?

Judgement? Eternal damnation?

Or do you fear for the souls of others more than you fear them? For these are loved ones, friends and those who you know as a part of the church. Some apostate ‘christians’ have turned against the Lord Jesus Christ!

Do you fear man or the Lord God?

Luke tells us in the Acts of the Apostles,

So the church throughout all Judea and Galilee and Samaria enjoyed peace, being built up; and going on in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit, it continued to increase.
Acts 9:31 NASB

Jude’s reference to ‘hating even the garment polluted by the flesh’ clearly calls the church to hating the sin, yet not the sinner. Let us clearly identify the spotted speech of apostates among us, urging those with such worldly coverings to purify their sins in the blood of Christ.

And the tongue is a fire, the very world of iniquity; the tongue is set among our members as that which defiles the entire body, and sets on fire the course of our life, and is set on fire by hell.
James 3:6 NASB

Let us watch that we condemn the sins of the apostates among us, while not judging their souls which the Lord may choose to snatch from the fire.

Benediction

Jude wants to encourage the church, giving those saints faithful to the Lord praise. Yet he has chosen to exhort the church against apostates, warn us against the sins which defile us and turn our witness against Christ.

He briefly makes his strong warning and now closes with praise to the Lord. You may have heard such comforting benedictions from a pastor of your own church congregation.

Now to him who is able to protect you from stumbling and to make you stand in the presence of his glory, without blemish and with great joy, to the only God our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, power, and authority before all time, now and forever. Amen.
Jude 1:24-25 CSB Benediction

Christ Jesus can keep you from stumbling so that you may stand in His holy presence. You will know His glory, because of His mercy and grace of covering our sins by His shed blood.

God IS our Savior, through the sacrificial love of Christ Jesus, our Lord and Savior. Anyone who does not believe in the only One who can save us is an apostate, turned against the Lord our God!

To Him be all glory, majesty, power and authority. As it was in the beginning, it will be now and forever. AMEN.
July 25, 2019