EVENING SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 7/01/2025 9:11 PM
My Worship Time Focus:
PT-2 “Introduction to Jude 1-3”
Bible Reading & Meditation
Reference: Jude 1-3
Message of the verses: “1 Jude, a
bond-servant of Jesus Christ, and brother of James, To those who are the
called, beloved in God the Father, and kept for Jesus Christ: 2 May mercy and peace and love be multiplied to
you. 3 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 which was once for all handed down to the saints.”
At the end of last night’s SD we looked at a lot of
warnings, that is the references in the New Testament of those warnings and I
think that I will go ahead and quote that last paragraph on this SD in order to
keep the train of thought going.
“I will conclude this SD with a
quotation from John MacArthur as he writes ‘The rest of the New Testament records similar warnings,
instructing believers to guard themselves against the deceptive nature of false
teaching masquerading as Christian truth (Matt. 24:10-14; 2 Thess.
2:3-12; 1 Tim. 4:1-3; 2 Tim. 3:1-9; 2 Peter 2:1-3:7; 1 John 2:18-19; 4:1-3; 2
John 7-10; Rev. 2:6, 14-16, 20-23; 3:1-3, 14-18; cf. James 5:1-6).’”
It
is very true that those warnings were well-founded as by the end of the first
century, when the apostle John wrote the book of Revelation, only two of the
seven churches he addressed, which were Smyrna and Philadelphia, remained
completely faithful. Now if you are interested in a study of the book of
Revelation, I have two complete studies on that great book that are found on my
blogs. Now the other five churches, to
one degree or another, had fallen prey to infiltrating doctrinal error and its
moral consequences. Now think about that
fact for a moment as Jesus was giving His analysis of these seven churches
found in the 2nd and 3rd chapter of Revelation there are
only two churches that He had nothing bad to say about them, and as talked
about the other five churches He had critical things to say to them, and here
is the kicker, the last church, Laodicea He was standing at the door trying to
get into the church. You may have seen
the painting of Jesus knocking at the door of the Laodicean church and if you
look closely there is no door handle on His side of the door, which means the
only way that He could get in if they opened the door. Now one more thing I want to mention and that
is that I believe that as one goes through the church age we can see the main
churches are in order of what are in the book of Revelation, chapters 2-3. If that is true, and I believe it is then we
are living in the Laodicean church age and have been for probably 50-60 years
as this type of church is the last type of church before the Rapture takes
place. I guess one could say it will
only get worse as the world is heading for the seven year Tribulation period.
Thus,
Christ commanded them to repent, stand firm, and combat the falsehood they
encountered; they were to wage war against apostasy and overcome it, and that
is a wonderful thing to do, even in the times we are living in.
No
although it is believed that Jude’s letter was written some twenty-five years
earlier, he also recognized that the battle for the truth in the church had
already begun, as Peter only a few years earlier had prophesied in 2 Peter
1:1-3 and 3:1-3. That’s why Jude devoted
his entire letter to the presence of apostate false teacher. Again this is one
of the reasons that I believe that the Lord has allowed me to write my
Spiritual Diaries on what was written near the end of the writer’s life, as I
am studying 2 Timothy now, and am almost done with that book that Paul wrote
right before his death. Now we are
looking at Jude, and then 2 Peter, and I believe both were written near the end
of the writer’s life. John MacArthur
writes “That’s why Jude devoted his entire letter to the presence of apostate
false teachers. He wanted his readers to
stand strong against the spiritual deceptions that threatened to wreak havoc in
their fellowship. And he also wanted all
who propagated such errors in the church to be exposed and expelled.”
Now
as the last of the New Testament epistles, the book of Jude serves as a
literary vestibule to the book of Revelation, and that was a wonderful place
that the Holy Spirit placed this book.
In Jude, false teachers are examined, their motives uncovered, and their
doom predicted. Then in Revelation, that
inevitable destruction is developed in detail, as our Lord’ future triumph
ultimately eliminates error and then establishes truth forever.
John
MacArthur concludes this section by writing:
“Jude wrote this letter in A. D. 68-70, shortly after Peter finished his
second epistle. The two letters are
closely related, containing several nearly identical descriptions of false
teachers and apostasy. In fact, Jude is
likely a sequel to 2 Peter, perhaps written to the same group of Christians to
tell them that what Peter had said was coming was now present. Second Peter 2-3 uses future tenses in its
references to false teachers. Jude wrote
in the present tense. As he began his
letter, setting the stage in the first three verses, he revealed his
background, his audience, and his exhortation.”
Lord
willing tomorrow I will begin to look at “Jude’s Background” found in verse 1a.
7/1/2025 9:40 PM
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