The General Epistles - Part 18

Well, greetings again, everybody! We are John 2 John, so if you would turn to 2 John.

2 John, the epistle to the dear lady.

I don't know how much study you did on this, but most scholars agree today that this epistle is addressed to the Church, the elect lady. This epistle was written from Ephesus somewhere between 80 and 90 AD, and by the Apostle John. 2 John, the elder, and an elder is prespitouros. And prespitouros is a Greek word that can be translated for an elderly person or for a minister. Prespitouros unto the elect lady. And probably you wouldn't use the word elect in writing to your wife, though you may have chosen her in some way, but you probably wouldn't use the word elect for the wife. And the lady here, the Greek word is kureos, and kureos is used for a lady, but a lady the feminine gender can be used for the Church. For example, in Galatians chapter 5 and verse 26, it says Jerusalem above the mother of us all. So John is addressing the Church and her children. So those who have been baptized, those who have been called, whom I love in the truth. This epistle, and 3 John also, is about the truth when all is said and done. The overriding theme of the two epistles is the truth. The truth you can twist it, you can deny it, you can kick it, you can do anything you want to do that is in a negative sense to the truth, but the truth is, the truth remains, you cannot destroy the truth. And not I only also, all those that have known the truth. And you probably wouldn't write that to your wife either. All those that have known the truth, you would be more personal. So all those that have known the truth. The membership also says, hello, how are you? I wish you God's grace, God's divine favor. Verse 2, for the truth's sake, for the truth's sake which dwells in us and shall be with us forever. As I said, you cannot destroy the truth.

Grace be unto you. Grace is karyos in the Greek, or karyos, not karyos, but karys, C-H-A-R-I-S. Karys, grace be with you. Grace means divine favor. God has favored you, he has called you, he has placed you in the body. Grace be with you. Mercy, peace from God. From God the Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of the Father. Notice that John inserts here the Son of the Father, truth and love. Jesus Christ is the Son of the Father, just as we are begotten sons of the Father, and we shall be glorious, radiant spirit beings and sons and daughters in the kingdom of God. That's an important distinction to remember. Remember in Hebrews 2 it says that Jesus is not ashamed to call them brethren. He continues, I rejoice greatly that I found of your children, the church's children, the church members walking in the truth as we have received a commandment from the Father. The Father wishes us, of course, to keep the commandments. Jesus Christ said I've kept my Father's commandments, so we are to keep the Father's commandments as well. And now I beseech you, lady, not as though I wrote a new commandment unto you. So you wouldn't say to your wife, I'm writing a commandment. He says, as though I wrote a new commandment unto you, but that we had, that which we had from the beginning, we love one another, that we should love one another. And of course, that would be elementary in a personal greeting to one's wife. And this is love that we walk after his commandments. And it's very similar to 1 John 5.3, which says, for this is the love of God, that we should keep his commandments, and his commandments are not grievous. And this is the commandment that we have heard from the beginning, we should walk in it. For many deceivers are going out into the world. And of course, one of the chief parties that had gone out into the world of the deceivers were the Gnostics. And the Gnostics taught that Jesus had not come in the flesh. For many deceivers are going out into the world of the devil, who confess that Jesus Christ, who does not confess that Jesus Christ is in the flesh. Of course, the Gnostics said that Jesus only seemed to be the practice and form of docetism or docetism, in which they said Jesus did not make footprints, he only seemed to be. And so therefore, some called it seamism. This is a deceiver and an antichrist. He who does not believe that Christ has come is an antichrist. And of course, we have an old segment, an ethnic group that does not believe that Christ has come, though many have been converted. And that is Judah. Look to yourselves that we lose not the things which we have wrought, that we have worked out, but that we received a full reward. So don't let that reward slip away from you. I'm looking for my glasses now. I don't see them. Perhaps I can get along without them.

Whosoever transgresses and abides not in the doctrine of Christ, hath not God. He that abides in the doctrine of Christ, he has both the Father and the Son. You can't have one without the other. You cannot have Christ without obedience to God the Father. Jesus says, I have kept my Father's commandments. He also says, Why call you me Lord, Lord, and keep not my commandments? If there come any unto you, and bring not this doctrine that is, that you were keeping the commandments, receive him not into your house, neither bid him God's speed. Now, I don't know if any of you have Jehovah's Witnesses knocking on your door, but I don't ever let them in the door. I never give them. I usually give them a little Bible quiz, and they can't pass it, so they pass on. For he that abides in him, or he that biddeth him, God's speed is partaker of his evil deeds. So if you give place to them, you listen to them, you entertain them, you give them cause for their evil, and they say, Oh well, he probably agrees with me. Sounds like he really is interested, and so on. You can dismiss them quite easily by giving them a quiz. Ask them a certain Bible verse, like, where in the Bible does it define sin? Well, we know that 1 John defines sin. Sin is the transgression of the law. 1 John 3.4. We know that the love of God is keeping his commandments. So we know also that the law is not done away. Final Greetings. Having many things to write under you, I would not write with paper and ink. So once again, he wants to be there face to face, lest he is misquoted that he is misunderstood from his letter. If you write something down, I guarantee you that there will be somebody who is going to misunderstand it, or who is going to pick at it. Of course, if you're face to face, and if you have a discussion, they're open for rebuttal, then you can rebut whatever is said. But I trust to come under you and speak face to face. And neither would you write that to your wife that you would hope to come to see you, and we can talk face to face. So I hope to come under you, and we can talk face to face, that our joy may be full. The children of your elect, who is the elect? The elect is the lady of the church. The elect is the church.

The children of your elect, the church, the sister church, greets you. Amen. And we are brothers and sisters in Christ in the Church of God.

Now we go to John chapter, and not John chapter, but to 3rd John. 3rd John and chapter 1 and only 1 chapter and a few verses. The elder unto the well beloved Gaius. Now the elder, once again, is prespiturus, and it means one who is elderly or an elder, an ordained person in the Church. John was elderly, and he was a true prespiturus. That is, he was over the churches of that area of the world. In Ephesus, of course, Ephesus was once a big Christian center. The Apostle Paul spent considerable time there, and so did the Apostle John. The Apostle John, way after Paul was martyred in Rome, probably by lions. They probably turned the lions loose on Paul. So unto the beloved Gaius, and Gaius was a church member there, who was very faithful, and John says, whom I love in the truth. But, beloved, I wish above all things that ye may prosper and be in health, and even as your soul. I've gone into that discussion of the soul many times. Matthew 10, 28 shows the soul can be destroyed. The soul really means the life essence. Jesus Christ's soul, it says in Acts chapter 2, that Jesus Christ's soul, his life essence, his being was not left in the grave, but he was resurrected. So the Father resurrected Jesus Christ, and he will resurrect us. So, in a sense, the Father is in both the Begettle and the bringing forth the birth role. He is our Father, and in a sense, he is our Mother. Now, in bringing us to resurrection, Jesus Christ apparently plays some role in it, but it is the Father. Our memory scripture for everyone is Romans 8, 11. Romans 8, 11. In Romans 8, 11, we see that by the same spirit that he raised Jesus from the dead, he was also quickened or make alive your mortal, showing we do not have immortal souls or immortality we must put on immortality, that you may prosper and be in health even as your soul prospers. So, obviously, the soul is the life essence of the person. He's talking about the physical condition of the person. His life essence is doing well. He's healthy and good health and all of that. Of course, that's one of the favorite verses of a lot of people that try to hawk various health products. And, of course, God expects us to eat right, to live right, but especially to eat right. We are what we eat because you have a new skin, and the skin is the largest organ of the body. Some people don't look at the skin as an organ, but you can look it up. The skin is counted as an organ that covers your whole body. And the skin, of course, to a large degree, tells the story of your condition in the general sense internally.

Now, verse 3. For I rejoice greatly when the brethren came and testify of the truth that is in you, even as you walk in the truth. So, John must be writing fairly locally in the Ephesian or in the Ephesus area because it says that the brethren came. Now, to come to Ephesus from other parts, like from Ephesus to Jerusalem, is a long, long journey. So, it was probably in the somewhere in the local area. It could have been from afar up, but I tend to doubt it. I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth.

And so, John's children, he fathered them in the Gospel. And, of course, the Apostle Paul had spent a lot of time there. And the children here are called and begotten believers in the truth, that they are walking in the truth. Support and opposition. Beloved, you do faithfully whatsoever you do to the brethren and to strangers.

In other words, serve the brethren, be with them, encourage them, and to the strangers, the same thing. Greet the strangers. Let them know that you care. Let them know that they are welcome. So, let them, greet the brethren and the strangers that are among you.

And that's one of the things we can do in the smaller congregations that we have now. We can know everybody pretty much intimately. We have witness of your charity, which is Love Agape, or your love before the Church, your spiritual love, whom, if you forward on their journey after a godly sort, you shall do well. So those who come among you and who are journeying somewhere else, receive them well, give them support, do whatever you can do to help them and encourage them, because that for his name's sake, they went forth taking nothing of the gentiles.

So he's talking about those apparently traveling, I guess you would call them, evangelists, who traveled among the people trying to convert them and turn them to God. And they didn't take anything from strangers, as it says here.

They only took things from converted people. So that is quite a testimony to their faithfulness, to their endurance, and to what they were inside. We therefore ought to receive, we ought to receive such that we might be fellow helpers of the truth. I wrote under the church, but Diatrophies, Diatrophies of course is a Greek name, Diatrophies who love to have the preeminence among them, receive does not.

So Diatrophies had set himself up as the head of the church, and he was receiving only those that he wanted to receive, and he was casting some out of the church that he did not think was supporting him or on his side. He even refused, as we shall see, he even refused the Apostle John. Can you imagine a person refusing the Apostle John? Not only was he elderly, advanced in age, but he was the presbyteros, he was the head of the churches in that area.

Wherefore, if I come, I will remember his deeds, which he does, parading against us with malicious words, and not content therewith, neither does he himself receive the brethren, and forbids that would, and casts that would means that would receive us, he receives not the brethren that would receive us, there's an ellipse there, that would receive us, and cast them out of the church.

So he was disfellowshipping people who did not agree with him, and even casting out of the church those who wanted to receive the presbyteros, the Apostle John, who was head of the church, who had been taught by Jesus Christ for three and a half years. It's difficult to imagine that anyone would be so brazen. Beloved, follow not that which is evil, evil is lawlessness, that which is good.

He that does good is of God, but he that does evil has not seen God. One of the comments that I wanted to make this evening is that so much of the Bible is written in symbolic terms, and we need to understand that the symbolism, they were living in terrible times. They could have their life taken away, and John almost had his life taken away. The Apostle Paul and all the Apostles apparently suffered martyrdom. Some say that the Apostle John did not suffer martyrdom, but died of old age.

So, but many of them, most of them did, and then there were those who were of lesser importance in the church sense, not in God's eyes altogether, but in the church sense of having authority, having been taught, many of them, by Jesus Christ. Not all of them, not all the Apostles were taught by Jesus Christ, but most of them were.

Demetrius has good report of all men and of the truth. Demetrius. Demetrius has a good report. So listen to him, rally to him. Yes, and we bear record, and you know that our record is true. How could they possibly not believe the Apostle John? So we're living in perilous times, so we need to be aware. I had many things to write, but I will not write with ink and paper under you. Once again, the same as he closed 2 John, that he wanted to be face to face when he talked to them, so that they could discuss whatever it was, and he would not be misquoted. But I trust I shall shortly come to you, and we shall speak face to face, and peace be on you. Our friends salute you. Greet the friends by name. So there he changes the friend, he changes the brother into friends. And probably he did it in a symbolic sense, that they would know who were friends, and that diatrophies would not know, neither his followers would know, but the, if you want to call them, civil authorities would not know either. So there we have 3 John. Now we go to Jude.

Jude is quite the book, and quite overlooked by most of us. We don't really give Jude due attention. And I think it might be because he quotes Enoch, I don't know. Enoch was in the, he was in the canon for a period of time, and then when the, some meeting, I don't know if it was the final meeting or not, Enoch was, Enoch was taken out of the canon. It is said, of course, that in the scripture that Enoch was translated, and God took him, and a lot of the Protestant world believes that he was taken to heaven. But the Gospel of John, chapter 3, verse 13, refutes that. John, the Gospel of John, verse, chapter 3, verse 13, refutes it, which says, no man has ascended unto heaven except the Son of Man who came down from heaven. So, no one has seen the Father except the Son, and no one has ascended to the Father. So Jude did not go to the Father. Jude went to another, it was translated, it was moved, transported might be a better word, to another place. Jude the servant. Now, initially, none of Jesus Christ's brothers believed on him. He had four brothers. They were James, Joseph, Jude, and Simon. None of them believed on him until after his death and resurrection. And after his resurrection, they believed on him and became, Jude probably was not an apostle, but he probably was a traveling evangelist who went forth with the Gospel and preached, as we think of evangelists, going forth one sent by God. That is the meaning of an evangelist, one that is sent by God.

Jude was written, of course, by the brother of Jesus Christ, the half-brother of James and Joseph and Simon. They all were together growing up, and you can't imagine, or it's hard to imagine, five brothers in the household. And Jesus knew what his mission was, and for quite a while, he kept it a secret, and then it was made manifest. They really made it manifest when he went to Jerusalem and he stood up in the synagogue, and he read from the 61st chapter of Isaiah, which says that this Gospel is preached unto you, and the vengeance of the Lord is coming upon you. Jesus Christ did not bring vengeance. He brought the good news. He brought the Gospel, but he is a God of judgment along with the Father, and the wicked will be judged. So Jude the servant didn't say the half-brother of James, but he said Jude the servant of Jesus Christ and the brother of James. So later he says the brother of James. Now, to write in Heaven be canonized, you needed some standing in the Christian community. So James adds the brother of James. I mean Jude adds the brother of James, giving validity, giving weight to listen to what I have to say. So the brother of James to them that are sanctified by God the Father and preserved in Jesus Christ and called. Notice that it's sanctified by God the Father. Jesus Christ works in each one of us, and He reveals the Father. He brings us to the Father. He teaches us what the Father taught him. When all is said and done according to Jude, we're sanctified, set apart by God because no man can come to Christ except the Father draw him. The Father calls him and sets him apart. And of course, He has to remain faithful until His dying day. Mercy unto you and peace, love be multiplied. James, not James, but Jude uses triads. Jude the servant of Christ, James, then God in verse 1. Here is mercy, peace, love, be multiplied, be multiplied. Agape, spiritual love, be multiplied unto you. Spiritual love, be multiplied. Can you increase in love? Apparently, you can increase in love according to this verse. Peace be multiplied. Judgment on false teachers. What are false teachers? False teachers are ever among God's people, always trying to get them to turn away from the truth. Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, I wanted to write it and let's just have a joyous time and I could praise you and thank you as the apostle John had done to the faithful in his epistles. Of course, he had opposition, but he found after that it was needful for him to write unto you and exhort you that you earnestly contend for the faith that was once delivered. Now, the faith that once delivered, it doesn't talk about a man. Some people talk about, well, the faith once delivered was Mr. Armstrong. Well, Mr. Armstrong delivered the truth as much as he knew it, and probably none of us older ones would be in the church if it hadn't been for Mr. Armstrong. But it's talking about Jesus Christ who received the truth. Jesus Christ, the words that I speak are not mine, they are the fathers who sent me. And Jesus Christ received the revelation in the book of Revelation from the Father in verse 1. The Father gave it to Christ. Christ gave it to John. John, I mean, Christ gave it to an angel. An angel gave it to John. The faith that was once delivered. So the faith once delivered was the faith that began with God through Christ unto the saints, was delivered unto Christ from the Father through men to the saints. The saints are holy ones. No one. The word for saint is hagios, and the translators did not choose to say holy ones, but that's literally what it means. Delivered unto the holy ones, the saints. Hagios is the same word that is translated holy. So unto the holy ones, unto the holies.

And holy things of God's active presence within them. Sacred things point to a higher reality. We sing sacred songs points to a higher reality. We do not sing, per se, spiritual songs, but we can sing spiritual songs if we sing the words of God. For there are certain men corrupt in unawares who were before of old ordained, men turning the grace of God, the divine favor, of our God into lasciviousness. Lasciviousness means license to sin. So it's once again this today it parades under the Protestant doctrine of only believe. You only have to believe and you'll be saved. Call upon the name of Jesus, repeat after me, and you'll be saved. And so lasciviousness means lawlessness. Lasciviousness means license to sin.

So turning the grace of the divine favor. So the divine favor is that God sent forth his son, he died on the state, he took upon himself the sins of the world, he made it possible, he opened the door, he was the forerunner, he gave us the method to repent and exercise faith in his sacrifice that our sins could be remitted. That's what the grace is divine favor. Grace does not in of itself have a power like the Holy Spirit, but God's divine favor has power in that he makes it possible. And sometimes God helps us fight our battles and he showers us with divine favor and he showers us with blessings. But grace is not an active force like the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is an active force and power of God, and it is his very essence, as flesh is the active power, essence of a human being.

Turning the grace of our God unto license to sin and denying the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ. So once again, combating Gnosticism, denying the Lord Jesus Christ who came in the flesh.

I will therefore put you in remembrance, though you once knew these. So that's a warning to all of us. We once knew this. We once knew these things, but now they are letting them slip. And we can ask ourselves, are we letting them slip? How you once knew this. Now how that the Lord, having saved the people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed them that believed not. So you have the example. He gives two or three examples here of people who knew God and were delivered by God. For example, as we just see here in this verse, that they were in servitude. They were in slavery in Egypt, and God came and saved them out of Egypt. But only only Caleb went into the Promised Land. And so that is about it. By Caleb, that is those above the age that he set above 20 years of age. Only Caleb went in. Of course, there were others born after that affair.

So they believed not after they were delivered from Egypt. And the angels, what about the angels? The angels which kept this is an important verse, maybe one of the reasons why this is not in the Bible. Jude contends that these fallen angels cohabited with humankind and from there was born the Nephilim, the giants, and they had children, and God had to step in and stop it. So that is in the book of Jude, and it might be the reason why it was not canonized. The angels which kept not their first estate. Now, whether they kept their first estate in that sense of cohabiting with women, but they did leave their first estate, they first, they followed Satan as it says in Revelation 12 that Satan's tail drew one-third of the angels, that's hundreds of thousands, but left their own habitation. He has reserved an everlasting change unto darkness, unto the judgment of the great day. So those angels that left their first estate are in Tarnamur, and it's translated hell as hell in 2 Peter chapter 2 verses 3, 4, 5, along there. There are three words that are translated in the New Testament as hell, and they are Greek words, Hades, shield, that is the shield is the Old Testament, yihinaphire, it is the grave Hades, it is yihinaphire, the fire that burns you up, and Tarnarur, a condition of restraint which the angels were placed in for the judgment day. And it says in 1 Corinthians chapter 6, don't you know that you shall judge angels? So perhaps we will judge those angels that are in Tarnarur in the kingdom of God. Then he uses another example of those that were disobedient did not escape, even as Sodom and Gomorrah, and the cities about them in light manner. Sometimes we skip in the cities, and it's like the world is now. This thing of homosexuality and sodomy is spreading across the land. Now, of course, a lot of people say that not so many people are homosexuals, but we have now the LGBTQ, and they've added other letters to the alphabet. B would be one, bisexual. I guess that's part of the LGBTQ formula that they set up. Are set forth for an example suffering the vengeance of eternal fire. Now, guess what? Here the term eternal fire is used, but that fire is not still burning. So that shows the symbolism that I was talking about earlier. Now, if you take that literally, that fire would be burning. That is, the term eternal fire and other things that some might take literally is not literal, but it's symbolic. Perhaps we will get into that more later. Likewise, also, these are filthy dreamers. They defile the flesh, despise dominion, that is, rulership, government, and speak evil and dignities, those that are in charge. So it's evil to speak and criticize. And on the other hand, we should not be duped. You have to understand the difference. You have to respect the office, but you do not respect sin.

Likewise, also, these filthy dreamers defile the flesh, despise dominion, speak evil and dignities. And what happened to Michael? You would think, as we say, that Michael would have cursed out Satan, but it says, yet Michael, the archangel, when contending with the devil, this was contending with the devil over the body of Moses, where he would be buried. So Moses was buried secretly because God knew that if everybody knew where Moses' grave was, that they would be visiting that, and they would make Moses into an isle or into God. So Moses was buried secretly, and no one knows where Moses was buried. So about the body of Moses, dare not bring an accusation against the angel, against Michael, but said, the Lord rebuke you. And so we are to rebuke Satan when we sense any wrong spirit that is about us. And yes, the spirits do seek out places where they are welcomed, and where a person is open to reception of them. So you have to be careful that you're not open yourself up to demons. But these speak evil of those things which they know not, what they know naturally as brute beasts in those things they corrupt themselves. In other words, the only thing they know is what they've been taught by this world, and this world is filled with brute beasts that really don't know the truth. Then they are corrupt, and they lead their children down the wrong path. This past Sabbath I gave a sermon. Do we need fathers? The answer is a resounding, yes, we need fathers. And God the Father has so taken care of us through Christ, and He has sent us His good angels, and He has sent us prophets and apostles, and all of those things that the Church is built upon, and we know the truth, and we're to hold fast to it. Woe unto them, this is verse 11, woe unto them, for they have gone in the way of Cain. Of course, Cain killed his brother because of jealousy. Cain taught his sacrifice. He brought a fake sacrifice, I guess, thinking he was the Messiah. Now, yeah, he did beget a son after the Adam seed, but Adam is not the one to beget the Messiah, and neither was he the one that Adam, even though he beget Cain and Abel, Adam is not the Messiah, of course. But Cain thought that since he was of the seed of woman, Eve, that he was the Messiah, and ran and brought a fake offering, and ran greedily after the era of Balaam for reward, and perished in the gainsaying of Korah. Here is Korah, but it's Korah in the Old Testament.

The era of Balaam, where Balaam prophesied, tried to prophesy against Israel for for money. When Balaam's donkey tried to speak, he could only prophesy that which God had given him. So a donkey prophesied good to Israel. And the gainsaying of Korah, of course, he led a rebellion against the authority of Moses. And he said, has not God spoken by us? And he led a great rebellion. Korah did the rebellion of Korah. So all of these things are examples for us. And he calls them, Jude calls them spots. These are spots in your feast of charity, your feast of love. When they feast with you, feeding themselves without fear, clouds they are without water, water symbolic of the Holy Spirit. They are without water, carried about wind, trees, whose feet withers without fruit, twice dead, plucked up by the roots. Seems like they are committed to unpardonable sin because they're twice dead. It is impossible for those who tasted the good gift. This is Hebrews 12, 4, 5, and 6. To renew them after they've tasted the good gift of the Holy Spirit, to renew them back to life again. That is the Word of God. It is impossible. Raging waves of the sea, foaming out their own shame, wandering stars. Of course, this is talking about the devil and his angels, to whom is reserved the blackness of darkness forever.

So apparently the angels are cast out, and they roam, and they are reserved for that punishment forever and ever. And Enoch also the seventh from Adam. So Enoch, I think he is the only writer that, Jude is the only writer that mentions Enoch and gives credence to what he wrote. And Enoch also the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, that is, the fallen angels, behold, the Lord comes with ten thousands of his saints. So Jude predicted the resurrection, the Lord comes with ten thousands of his holy ones. They have God's active spirit in them. They've been resurrected to spirit life. Notice their purpose. To execute judgment. 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 all their hard speeches, which ungodly sinners have spoken against him. So people will curse Jesus Christ. And as I mentioned earlier in one of the sessions, in Revelation chapter 9, after the trumpet plagues are poured out and the two woes are executed, that those that are alive still curse and murmur against God. That's the last verse in Revelation chapter 9. And I think it's verse 27, maybe 29, but it's the last verse. These are murmurers, complainers, walking after their own lust, and their mouth speaks great swelling and great swelling words, having men's persons in admiration because of advantage. It's like here, you know, I hate to think about it, and I hate to talk about it, that one of our people can give a sermon on current events and prophecy, and it's not heated all that well. Yet some guru from a news organization or somebody who has an in with the president or somebody they know that's in the Senate and so on and so on, older, or yell, we're going to listen to him. He really has the inside scoop. No, God has the inside scoop through his prophets and through his ministers. They have the inside scoop. They do not have the inside scoop. I listen to them. I listen to several of the false ministers, and they come close to the truth, but they do not know the truth. They do not know that we'll be resurrected glorious radiant spirit beings in the kingdom of God. They don't know that. So, brethren, your judge, your calling, and the fact you're being judged now, there's such a blessing, such a blessing, because you have a head start. So, God is coming back to Jude, verse 15, to execute judgment upon all and convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds, which they have ungodly committed. So, we have the three angels message, and then we have the white throne judgment, in which the books are opened and they're judged out of the things written in the books. And of all their hard sayings, which ungodly sinners have spoken against them, these are murmurs, complainers, walking after their own lusts, their mouth speaks great swelling words, having men's person in admonition, in admiration because of advantage. I don't know how we're going to get an advantage by praising any of the leaders that are in government now. You tell me how, but if some of our people could tell the truth in a government setting, wouldn't that be wonderful? For, beloved, remember you the words which were spoken before of the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ. Now that they told you there should be mockers, I'm off in another book now.

Now let's continue in verse 19. These be they who separate themselves, sensual, having not the Spirit, so they don't have the Spirit of God. You need the Spirit of God. No man knows the things of God except the Spirit that dwells in them according to 2 Corinthians chapter 2 verses 10 and 11. But you, beloved, building up yourselves your most holy faith, God's active presence is in your life. You know what? You are holy. You are of the holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit.

You know, how do you pray in the Holy Spirit? You realize that God is in you. He is with you. And the prayer, the energy, the passion with which you show, you're praying in the Holy Spirit. Not like the holy rollers who get out and do all kind of things with their bodies and so on, speaking tongues, but praying in the Holy Spirit, energized by God's presence. Keep yourselves, keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life. And some have compassion. In other words, some of the people that have gone astray have compassion on them, making it different. And others save pulling them out of the fire, just like we talked about in James, and we talked about in other verses that you are to confront in the center, and no murderer has eternal life abiding in him. Pulling them out of the fire, here and to even the garment spotted with a flesh. Now, the commentaries really give high praise for the doxology of Jude, the closing comment, the complementary clothes that he gives. And mainly the focus is on God. Now, unto him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy, to the only wise God, our Savior, glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and forever. In other words, go to the source of the power. Don't be duped by men. So there you have it, the general epistles. And so we have an open mic here now. We have you ask any question you want to ask. Make any comment you want to want to make.

Dr. Ward, I just wanted to comment about Jude. It's a very interesting book and a very different writing style from the Apostle Paul, who was, you know, Paul was obviously more long-winded, had longer sentences, and Jude seems to just, you know, very succinctly, you know, makes his points. And he packs a lot into just a very short book here, 25 verses. And so, you know, that's...

Sorry, what was that?

Now, it was a... it's a very interesting book and definitely one that warns us to be careful about, you know, people coming in from the outside and, you know, having that urgency of staying close to God and not allowing ourselves to be deceived by those who would come in and cause division. So, definitely an interesting book to study. Great. It's a great book. It is. We ought to preach out of it more often. I think those verses that give some credency to Enoch has scared us. I don't know, it probably hasn't scared us, the ministers have gone away, but I think it has the commentators of the world.

Any other comments? Yeah, he certainly has some insights, too, just in things that aren't necessarily addressed in other places about, like, Michael disputing with the body of Moses and, and, you know, different things. You could just get, you know, so many tidbits out of every book of the Bible. Every book has its unique points, and yes, Jude is definitely very interesting. Yeah. Anybody else?

Dr. Ward mentioned about the fallen angels and having relations with physical women, but Christ said in Matthew 22-30 that there's no sex, that angels have no sex, because he talks about once you are in the God family, you will be neither man nor man, and it uses as an example, like the angels in heaven. So, you know, a third of the fallen ones were angels once. I don't think that they became male or female when they came, were cast out of heaven, but so they couldn't have that relation. I have difficulty with it as well. I'm very familiar with that scripture. I've taught the Gospels several times. I'm familiar with that scripture, and people bring it up as a reputation of refuting Enoch's claim that the Nephilim were fallen angels who cohabited with man. But that is a... The angels in heaven, the good angels, it says in the scripture they left their first estate burning with lust in their desire. You could twist that to make it appear like that, but your other scripture that you mentioned is a powerful reputation, refuting it as well. Well, they could be burning for desire, for power, because Satan convinced them over who knows how long of time that they should join him and take over the Godhead. He didn't try to get them to join him for physical women. He was trying to get them to join to take over the power of the Godhead. So I don't know... I think that's where the lust would come in.

The lust for power. The lust for power is a powerful force. Just a separate question. In 3 John, you were talking about diatrophies raised up and tried to get people to follow him. Was he already an officer in the church or ordained? Or is there any knowledge about that? Or is he just an individual? I haven't done a thorough research on diatrophies. Have any of you looked up diatrophies and seen what the... You could Google diatrophies and probably give you a ton of information now with artificial intelligence. It'll probably spew some... Yeah, I never think about using that. Yeah, okay. Thank you. Evidently, he had taken over that church would not even receive the Apostle John. I don't know how that's possible. It seems that John would have said, okay, all of you who want to meet me, let's meet at such and such a place. It was quite the hole that diatrophies had over the people, it seems. Right. Thank you, Dr. Warr.

Okay, anybody else have a comment, question? We are going to call it quits for the summer. Hopefully, we'll be able to have a Bible study after the feast like this every two weeks. If you have any suggestions what you would like to hear covered, you can send them to me, donnell.warr.at hotmail.com. Any minister in the church can be gotten by firstname.lastnameatucg.org. Any minister, any elder in the church, all you have to do is john.doatucg.org.