EVENING SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 7/17/2025 6:14 PM
My Worship Time Focus:
“The Portrayal of the Apostates”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference:
Jude 4c
Message of the verse: “ungodly persons who turn the grace of our God into licentiousness and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.”
This evening will begin to look at Jude 4c, and this will
be broken up into this “main section” followed by three subsections, which I
will do this main section this evening and one sub-section, and then will do
two more sub-sections in tomorrow’s SD, Lord willing.
I
will just quote from MacArthur’s commentary from this main section: “Without question, the apostates of Jude’s
day (as with false teachers of any time period) were primarily characterized by
ungodliness (cf. v: 15).” “15 to execute judgment upon all, and to convict all the
ungodly of all their ungodly deeds which they have done in an ungodly way, and
of all the harsh things which ungodly sinners have spoken against Him.’” “They claimed to belong to God and speak for Him; however, their hearts
were far from Him (cf. Matt. 7:15-23).” “15 "Beware of the false prophets, who come to you in
sheep’s clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves. 16 “You will know them by
their fruits. Grapes are not gathered from thorn bushes nor figs from
thistles, are they? 17 “So every good tree bears good fruit, but the bad tree
bears bad fruit. 18 “A good tree cannot produce bad fruit, nor can a bad tree
produce good fruit. 19 “Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down
and thrown into the fire. 20 “So then, you will know them by their fruits. 21 "Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord,
Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father
who is in heaven will enter. 22 “Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord,
Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and
in Your name perform many miracles?’ 23 "And then I will declare to them, ‘I
never knew you; DEPART FROM ME, YOU WHO PRACTICE LAWLESSNESS.’” “In light of this, Jude portrayed their character, their conduct, and
their creed as corrupt.”
THEIR CHARACTER
“ungodly persons” (4c)
First we will look at the Greek word
that translates ungodly persons, which is asebes; the false teachers were not able to worship God
properly. Now in fact, they were and are
devoid of any and all reverence for Him, and I think that this is a good way to
show who they are. In fact they were and
are devoid of any and all reverence for Him, another way to identify them. The early church fathers used the term asebes in reference to atheists and
heretics. MacArthur writes “now such people only play at religion, while
possessing no genuine fear of God or love for Him (cf. Matt. 23:25; 1 Tim. 6:5;
2 Tim. 3:5; Titus 1:16). Although they
purport to be spiritual leaders, in reality they egregiously betray their
constituents’ trust in shockingly immoral and unethical ways. They all claim to know and speak truthfully
of God, Jesus, and Scripture, but their character undermines that claim.”
I
think that the best way to identify these ungodly persons is to know your Bible
very well, because they obviously do not know the Bible well, and so this, to
me, is the best way to identify them.
7/17/2025 6:45 PM
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