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Yet it says so much, dear God, it's such a deep book in the Bible, and Father, I pray that you would help us to glean some great truth from it tonight. We could only scratch the surface of the greatness of this book, but I just pray that you would speak to our hearts through the forces that we choose to spend time on. And in Jesus' name I pray, amen. Now, the book of Jude, just a short book right before the book of Revelation, and I'll be honest with you, I don't believe that anything in the Bible is coincidental, or accidental, or incidental, or just happens to be the way it is. You know, I even believe that the books are in the order that God wants them to be in. You know, I mean, I just believe that the Bible that's been delivered to me is just the way that God wanted the Bible to be for me in 2007. And you'll notice as you're reading these books that when you get into 1 Peter, 1 Peter, 2 Peter, 1, 2, 3 John, and Jude, you're kind of leading into the book of Revelation. You might have noticed a lot of talk in these particular books about the last days, the last time, things that are going to happen toward the end. You remember in 2 Peter, the Bible talks about in the last days, in chapter number 3, mockers will come saying, where is the promise of his coming? You get into the book of 1 John, he says, little children, it is the last time, and as you've heard that antichrists shall come, even now there are many antichrists, whereby we know that it is the last time. And on and on through these books you'll see that kind of a theme. And the book of Jude is no different. Let's look at verse number 18, we'll see that. It says, how that they told you there should be mockers in the last time who should walk after their own ungodly lusts. Now let's talk about these mockers, these scoffers, these devils is really what they are. And you read through the book of Jude and the whole book is talking about these people who crept in, who will sneak into churches, who will sneak in among God's people. That's what the whole book's about. Let's begin in verse number 1. To Jude the servant of Jesus Christ and brother of James, to them that are sanctified by God the Father and preserved in Jesus Christ and called. Now who is the book being written to? Well flip over, keep your finger there and look at Hebrews chapter 10 and understand something doctrinally that's very important. Look at Hebrews chapter 10. The word sanctified is the same word from which we get the word saint or if you speak Spanish you might know the word Santa means holy like Santa Biblia, Holy Bible. You'll notice words like sanctuary which in the Bible, in the Old Testament there's a place called the Holy Place. In the New Testament Jesus Christ quotes the Holy Place as sanctuary. Now God knows how to quote himself so we know that the sanctuary means the Holy Place. We know that sanctify in Exodus chapter 12 means to set apart as holy. And so we know what a saint is or sanctification is by studying the Bible itself. Look if you would at chapter 10 of Hebrews and look at verse number, let me find the verse here that I was thinking of, look at verse number 10. The Bible says by the which will we are sanctified. Now what does it mean to be sanctified? Well it says we're sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. So how many times do you get sanctified? Once. Okay, how do you get sanctified? Through the body of Jesus Christ once for all. And then the Bible says in another place that we are sanctified through the blood of the everlasting covenant and I won't take the time to turn there. So we're sanctified by the blood of Jesus Christ. We're made holy, we're saved, declared righteous saints before God through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. So in Jude 1 here when he says I'm writing to those who are sanctified by God the Father. So I'm writing to those that are saved. I'm writing to those that have been washed in the blood, that are born again, saved children of God. But look at the next word, and preserved in Jesus Christ and called. Now what does it mean to be preserved? Well we hear a lot about the doctrine of preservation. You hear people talk about preservation. A lot of times they're usually talking about the Bible. Praise the Lord for the preservation of the Bible. Jesus said heaven and earth shall pass away but my words shall not pass away. It's easier for heaven and earth to pass away than for one jot or one tittle to pass from the law till all be fulfilled. And then there's the great verse in Psalm chapter 12 where the Bible says the words, notice it's always the words that are being emphasized. Not the thoughts, not the ideas. The words of the Lord are pure words. You see we believe the Bible is authoritative. We believe that every word in the Bible is exactly the way that God spoke it before the world even began. Okay, that's what we believe as Bible-eating Christians. And so the Bible says the words of the Lord are pure words as silver tried in the first of earth purified seven times. Thou shall keep them, O Lord. Thou shall preserve them from this generation forever. So we believe that God's words are preserved from the time that he spoke them in eternity past until now in 2007. And to every other generation we believe God's word will be preserved. I remember when I was in Bible college, some of the teachers in Bible college did not believe that. I remember they brought in this preacher. And these days any preacher who's an old man, if he's still in the ministry he's some kind of a hero. Doesn't matter what he believes, doesn't matter what he stands for. If he's old and he's a preacher, he must be a hero if he's still an independent fundamental Baptist. So they bring in this old-timer named Joe Boyd. And boy, this guy's famous. Famous evangelist, Dr. Joe Boyd. And he would come in and he would teach for two weeks. And his whole purpose in being there every day, every day, was to tell us that the King James Bible had mistakes in it. Now this is not what the college believed that I went to. And we took them to task on this different times and said, Why in the world did I come to this college to listen to this guy tell me that the Bible I hold in my hand is wrong? Get him out of here. We don't want him. And this is what they said. Well, you know, he's just old. He's just going a little senile. But he's a great hero of the faith. That's what they said. I'm not kidding. It's a true story. They said, he's a great hero of the faith. This guy's been, he was buddies with this old guy. He was so famous and blah, blah, blah. He's a hero. So we just, we don't believe that. But, you know, that's just kind of what he believed. But everything the guy said was just wrong the whole time he was there. And if that's your hero, if you've heard of him or something, I'm sorry. I feel sorry for him. Sorry about that. But anyway, so here's what happened. So summer school came around and I didn't take his class. You know, I heard him. He came and taught in classes that I had just one day. And he preached in chapel. And I didn't want anything to do with this man. Well, my friend Jason, he took summer school with him. And he started in on it. The first day, it was Greek class. You know, you have to take a Greek class. And he's sitting in the class and Joe Boyd gets up and says, there's going to be a test tomorrow on these different discrepancies that I'm showing you in the King James Bible. This is at Hyles Anderson College. You know, which is supposedly King James only. And so he stood up in the class and started to fight him in the class. He stood up and said, you know, I believe the Bible's been preserved, word of God. You know, he started preaching to him and arguing with him. And I remember he told me that this is what he said. And eventually he stormed out of the class and went down to the office and they gave him a different class. And he requested to get a different class because he said, this is heretic. But anyway, oh, I'm sorry. Does that offend you when I name people's names like that? Does that bother you? Okay, good. I didn't think it did. But anyway, this is what he said. He said, the book of Jude says that we're preserved in Jesus Christ. You see that in Jude verse one there? And he said, if you don't believe that the Bible's preserved, if I can't trust God when he says the Bible's going to be preserved, how can I trust God that I'm going to be preserved? That's exactly what he said to Joe Boyd. He said, how do I know that I'm going to be preserved? Hey, the same Bible that promises that God's going to preserve his word is the same Bible that says if you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, thou shalt be saved. And you're not only going to be saved, you're not only going to be sanctified, you're going to be preserved. That means once you get saved, you are sealed unto the day of redemption. It's eternal security of the believer. Hey, once you're saved, not only you're saved, you're preserved. Praise God. Boy, if I weren't preserved, how do I really know I'm going to heaven? I mean, good night, I may go out and commit some sin. I may have a weak moment. Hey, the thought of wickedness is sin, the Bible says. What if I fall from grace? Good night, I'd never know I'm going to heaven. But the Bible says these things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God that you may know that you have eternal life. Why? Because you're not only sanctified by God the Father, you're preserved in Jesus Christ. And look at the next verse. He says, preserved in Jesus Christ and called. Mercy unto you and peace and love be multiplied. Beloved. Now let me stop and explain the word beloved. Beloved is his way of saying, I love you. That's what that means. Beloved, he's referring to them as loved. If you take the B off there, it might help you understand. It means loved. It means that somebody, he's saying, I love you. He's saying, I'm speaking to you, I'm writing to you right now because I love you, so I'm calling you, beloved. When I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation. The reason he says common there is because he's saying common of both you and myself. We both have this salvation. He says, I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation. It was needful for me to write unto you and exhort you that you should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints. He says, I sat down, he said, I made it a priority. I took all diligence and I decided that I must write to you about the common salvation. But he says, I sat down to do that and the first thing that came into my mind, the thing that I really decided that I needed to write to you about salvation was that you should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints. He says, the most important thing I could write to you about salvation right now is that you need to fight to keep salvation and to keep what we believe about salvation the way it was delivered to the saints. Getting back to the original truth of what God says salvation is, earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints. You know what contention means, right? Arguing. You hear people talk about contention. Someone's very contentious. It means that they argue. They fuss. They get mad. They fight with each other. That's what it means to contend. Remember the Mormons, they have a verse in their Book of Mormon that says, contention is of the devil. That's what it says in the Book of Mormon. They always showed me that because I tried to argue with them to show them what's right. And they showed up. No, we won't argue with the contentions of the devil. Now what's God say about contention? Now there are other places where God says, don't contend about genealogies and foolish questions and strivings about the law. They're unprofitable and vain. He says, if you want to fight about something, fight about the faith which was once delivered unto the saints. Hey, fight about what salvation is. Fight about what the Gospel is. Hey, there's something that you need to fight about. This is what we need to be fighting about. And the Bible says here, fight about whether God's Word is preserved. That's some of the preservations of the fight about. A lot of things to fight about. A lot of things to fight about. But it says, the faith was once delivered unto the saints. For there are certain men, crept in unawares, who were before bolder deigned in His condemnation, ungodly men turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness and denying the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ. Now do we always notice or do we always recognize these people when they come in? No, the Bible says we don't. The Bible says that they creep in unawares. I mean, they come in under the radar. They sneak in. You see that? He says that they creep in unawares who were before bolder deigned in His condemnation. Now don't be confused by that statement, before bolder deigned in His condemnation. It's not saying that God ordained from the foundation of the world for, you know, John Smith to be a heretic that would ruin people's lives. And that's what God's plan was. That's not what it's saying. It's saying that anybody who teaches this is ordained to a certain kind of nation. You know, the Bible says for whom he did foreknow he did predestinate to be the sons of God. Okay, it doesn't mean that he picked certain people and predestinated them to be saints. It says the people who believe on Jesus Christ that he foreknew, he says their destiny is to become the sons of God. He says that they're going to be glorified with Him and so forth. See, that's God's will. God's will concerning these people is that they would have a condemnation that He's before ordained, that He created for them long before they ever came along, and we'll see what that is. The Bible says in verse 5, 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. Now, understand the parallel that he's making here. He's talking about the children of Israel when they left the land of Egypt and they crossed the Red Sea and they went into the Promised Land. Now, when they were in Egypt, there's a picture where they put the blood, remember they put the blood on the doorposts of the house and on the side lentils? That was a picture of salvation, okay? Now, was it salvation or was it a picture of salvation? It's a picture of salvation. I mean, everybody who put blood on their doorposts did not necessarily go to heaven, okay? But that's a picture of what salvation is. The blood of Jesus Christ, that's what we saw in verse number 1, the sanctification through the blood of Jesus Christ. Then when they crossed the Red Sea, that's a picture of baptism. You know, it's a picture of their taking the next step of following God. The Bible says they were baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea. Then when they crossed the Red Sea, they went into the wilderness and they were in a group there that was called the Tabernacle of the Congregation. Congregation. And then it's referred to in Acts 7 by Stephen as the church in the wilderness, okay? So we see here that some of the people who put the blood on the doorposts, some of the people who went across the Red Sea, some of the people who went into the wilderness were not necessarily saved. They were just going along with the group, okay? They did not actually believe on Jesus Christ. They were just going through the motions. They were with the group for some reason. They maybe crept into the group unawares. Maybe everyone thought that they were on board with what was going on, but they really weren't. And that's why it says here that afterward God had to destroy them that believed not. After they got out into the wilderness, there were still unbelievers and unsaved people among them. God destroyed them, okay? Now let me ask you this. Why did he destroy them? Because they didn't believe, right? Now what is salvation? Salvation is by grace through faith plus nothing minus nothing. It's John 3.15, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have eternal life. For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth, to the Jew first and also the Greek. Salvation is believing on Jesus Christ. There are those that believed and those that believe not. This is talked about in Hebrews chapter 4, the exact same thing. It said that it didn't profit all of them not being mixed with faith in them that heard it. See, only those who believed on Jesus Christ went to heaven from that church in the wilderness. Just because they went to church in the wilderness with Moses doesn't mean that they went to heaven. They afterward were destroyed if they believed not. And so the Bible says that he afterward destroyed them to believe not. So you see, in the Old Testament, and put your finger here and flip over to 2 Peter chapter 2. If you're going to understand the book of Jude, you must understand the book of 2 Peter chapter 2 because 2 Peter chapter 2 and Jude are exact parallel passages. Did you know that? I mean, if you put 2 Peter chapter 2 next to Jude, now you have Jude memorized, right? Read 2 Peter chapter 2. You of all people, it'll jump out at you. Whoa, it's the same exact things being talked about and it'll give you a totally different insight from a whole other angle of the exact same discussion that we're having. Look at verse number 1 and here we're talking about the exact same event of the children of Israel in the wilderness. It says, But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily, there's your crept in unawares, shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them and bringing upon themselves swift destruction, there's your destroyed them that believe not. And many shall follow their pernicious ways by reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of. Now keep your finger there. We're going to flip back and forth a little bit here. But you see here, God's saying, Back then there were people who crept in with Moses who were not believers and the people who crept in who were unbelievers, they weren't just your average unsaved people. These are ungodly men. These are evil men. These are false prophets. These are people who have no other purpose but to come in and bring in damnable heresies. No other purpose but to come in and hurt people. That's their only purpose for coming in. That's why they went across the Red Sea with Moses and crept in to the church in the wilderness. That's why they're going to creep in in 2007. That's why they've always crept in and that's what he's explaining here. We'll get into this a little more. Look at verse number 6 of Jude. It says, And the angels which kept not their first estate but left their own habitation, he hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness under the judgment of the great day. Flip back to 2 Peter 2. Same thing. Verse 4, God spared not the angels that sinned, verse 4, but cast them down to hell and delivered them into chains of darkness to be reserved unto judgment. See that? Same exact thing. Flip back to Jude. It says in verse number 7, Even as Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities about them in like manner, giving themselves over to fornication and going after strange flesh, of course we're talking about homosexuality is what the story is in Genesis 18 and 19 there. That's what the strange flesh is. You say, why are they called queers? Well, somebody was reading the Bible. And so it says, Strange flesh, strange means queer, are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire. Now flip back over to 2 Peter 2. Same thing. Look at verse 6. See how it just goes verse by verse, just the same thought for thought. It's the exact same outline as Jude. You could study this for hours and find all kinds of things if you compare these two. It says, For God spared not, I'm sorry, verse number 5, verse number 6, And turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes, condemned them with an overflow, making them an ensample unto those that after should live ungodly, and delivered just law. Next with the filthy, notice that word filthy, the filthy conversation of the wicked. Nice subject matter that they're talking about, huh? That's what they're saying, the conversation. Next with the filthy conversation of the wicked, For that righteous man dwelling among them and seeing and hearing vexed his righteous soul from day to day with their unlawful deeds. Now flip back over and on and on. We could go back. I'm not going to flip between the two the whole time just for sake of time, but you'll see that as we go through the book of Jude, everything that's addressed in the book of Jude is addressed in 2 Peter 2, and you can gain further insight. Now the Bible says here in verse 8, and here's the key, understand that the Bible is following a logical thought process. This book is about one thing. Don't just look at these as disjointed verses. We talked about in verses 1 through 4, and in verse 5 about people creeping in, right? Deceivers. Then all of a sudden we jumped over and talked about the devils who rebelled against God, the angels which kept out their first estate. We got into God destroying the old world. We got into Sodom and Gomorrah, and we saw all this. Why? Why did he bring all that stuff up? Well verse 8 is where he ties it together, okay? He says in verse 8, likewise, which means in the same way, likewise also these filthy dreamers. So he's saying the filthy dreamers that we're talking about in verses 1 through 5 defiled the flesh, you see that in your Bible, in the same way that who defiled the flesh? Well, the people in verse number 7, the Sodom and Gomorrah, the Sodomites who suffered the vengeance of eternal fire. Likewise also these filthy dreamers defile the flesh, despise 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 against him a railing accusation, but said the Lord rebuke thee. But these speak evil of those things which say no not. Are we still talking about the same crowd? Absolutely. I mean the whole flow here, we're keeping talking about the same group. But these speak evil of those things which they know not, but what they know naturally as brute beasts. What does brute mean? Stupid. That's what I mean. I mean the word brutish, look it up in the dictionary, it means stupid. It's the exact definition. But these as brute beasts, what's a beast? A beast is an animal. The Bible does not use the word animal. The Bible uses the word beast. So the Bible says these as brute beasts, in those things they corrupt themselves, for they have gone in the way of Cain, and ran greedily after the heir of Balaam for reward, and perished in the gainsaying of Corey. These are spots in your feasts of charity, when they feast with you. You hear that? They want to come eat with you. They will come eat with you. They will sit down and eat with you, according to 2 Peter chapter 2. He says they were among them, they're here right now, and they're going to be among you. People will creep in. People will sneak in. False prophets will sneak in. We're not talking about just an unsaved person who goes to church. We're talking about a false teacher. That's what a prophet, a false prophet who's going to sneak into the flock, seeking whom he may devour. We'll see this story. This gets very interesting. These are spots in your feasts of charity, when they feast with you, feeding themselves without fear. Clouds they are without water, carried about of 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. Flip over to 2 Peter 2 again, and we'll see a little more. I hope you kept your finger there. I just meant that we wouldn't go back and forth continually, but we will go back a little bit and see a few things. These same people, let's read about them in verse number 12. But these, you know, you'd almost think the same person wrote these two. Oh yeah, God did. That's right. It was the same person. It says, but these as natural brute beasts made to be taken and destroyed. Well, that's the fourth time we've seen the word destroy. Did you notice that? Or a variation thereof. He says, these as natural brute beasts, stupid, filthy animals. You say, don't talk like that, Pastor Anderson. Hey, that's what the Bible talks about. I'm just preaching the Bible to you, okay? The Bible called them filthy three times, stupid two times, animals two times, okay? Speak evil of the things that they understand not and shall utterly perish in their own corruption and shall receive the reward of unrighteousness as they that count it pleasure to riot in the daytime. Spots they are in blemishes, sporting themselves with their own deceivings while they feast with you, having eyes, same sentence. They feast with you, what are they doing? Having eyes full of adultery and they cannot cease from sin. Now, can these people reform themselves? No, they can't, can they? Okay, look back if you would. I'm sorry to preach unpopular things, but look if you would at verse number three of chapter two. It says, their judgment now of a long time, we're looking at the latter part of the verse, the judgment now of a long time lingereth not and their damnation slumbereth not. Okay, having eyes full of adultery, verse 14, and they cannot cease from sin. Beguiling unstable souls. They're trying to trick people that are maybe new in church, right? Unstable, people who don't really know the Bible or even worship little children who are unstable, they don't really know what's right, they don't really know what's going on yet, they're unstable. It says that they, with covetous practices, an heart they've exercised with covetous practices, cursed children. You notice that? Which have forsaken the right way and are gone astray, following the way of Balaam, the son of Bosor, who loved the wages of unrighteousness. Look at verse 17, you'll see similar wording that we saw in Jude. These are wells without water, clouds that are carried with the tempest, to whom the mist of darkness is reserved forever. Let's see more about these people. Look at Matthew chapter 7. Matthew chapter number 7. I hope I'm helping you to understand the book of Jude a little more tonight as you read it and see that these are not disjointed verses put together. This is one constant flow of information, one group that Jude felt it so necessary, that God felt it so necessary to warn us about these people. He said, I want to write to you about salvation, but the best thing I could do to write to you about salvation is to warn you about those who do not believe on Jesus Christ. That's not what they believe is salvation. They're sneaking in to teach false doctrine, and worse yet, they're teaching in to defile your body. They're going to defile the flesh, much like they did in Sodom and Gomorrah. That's exactly what the Bible says. Look at Matthew chapter 7, we'll see the exact same thing taught. Look at verse number 15. Matthew 7, 15. Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves. You hear that? He says, watch out, Jesus is warning us of the same thing here. Now here's the most misquoted, misused verse in the entire Bible, are the next words, ye shall know them by their fruits. Now people will take this verse out of context, they'll also take the other verse out of context a little bit lower down in verse number 20, where it says, wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them. And they'll isolate this verse and they'll say, the way you can tell if somebody's saved is by their fruits. That's not what the Bible says. The Bible does not say, the way you can tell if somebody's saved is by their fruits. The Bible says here, you will know the false prophet by his fruits. That's the actual context of what we're saying here. Now, how do we know if somebody's saved? Well, look, what did Philip do to test the Ethiopian eunuch to see if he was saved? He said, if thou believeth with all thine heart, thou mayest. He said, you can be baptized if you believe with all your heart. And he said, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. And they went down into the water and baptized. Okay, now if somebody says that they believe right, somebody says that they believe that it's all by grace through faith, plus nothing minus nothing, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, you can't lose it, it's eternal, I'm preserved in Jesus Christ, I'm sanctified by the blood of Christ. Well, look, that person's saved. Now, they could be an infiltrator like a Judas Iscariot. They could be the one in twelve, you know, like Judas, who crept in to destroy, to hurt. Okay, they could be lying, but that's the indication. The Bible says, by the words of thy mouth thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned, that if thou shalt confess thine mouth to the Lord Jesus and believe in thine heart that God is raised from the dead, thou shalt be saved. Salvation's by faith. You show that with your mouth. Now, that salvation has nothing to do with your fruits, so to speak. What are the fruits? Well, reason with me for a moment, and I've taught this many times, but what kind of fruit does an apple produce? An apple doesn't produce any fruit. Silly question. When was the last time you saw an apple just start multiplying on the counter? I mean, you put an apple on the counter, right? Just think about this. Put an apple on the counter, water it, right? Give it lots of sunshine. That thing is never going to produce fruit, ever. How are you going to get the apple to produce fruit? Apples don't produce fruit, OK? That apple, if you take it and bury it underground, the apple will die, is what the Bible calls it. Jesus said, except if corn and wheat fall to the ground and die, it abideth alone. Corn is another kind of fruit. You know, it's wheat is what he's talking about, or corn or some kind of a grain. He says, except if corn and wheat fall to the ground and die, it abideth alone. Just like that apple would just abide alone on the kitchen counter, OK? But he says if the corn and wheat fall to the ground and die, it bringeth forth much fruit. Why? Because when the apple goes into the ground and dies and decays, then what happens? A new life comes forth, which is not an apple. A giant apple doesn't begin to just enlarge out of the ground, right? What comes out of the ground? A tree, right? Something totally different. You put an apple in, a tree comes out, OK? The tree comes out, and then the tree produces fruit. Now, what kind of tree, what kind of fruit does the apple tree produce? Apples. What did we start with? An apple, OK? So we start with an apple. The apple falls to the ground and dies. It becomes an apple tree, and it produces oranges. No, it produces apples, OK? Now, why is it that we don't understand this when it comes to the Bible, when the Bible talks about a Christian producing fruit? Jesus said, here it is, my Father glorified, that you bring forth much fruit. He said, except the corn and wheat fall to the ground and die, to buy the little bit of it die, it bringeth forth much fruit. He says, if you're willing to die to self, if you're willing to die to the flesh, you're not going to be able to win people to the Lord in the flesh. You're not going to be able to multiply and produce in the flesh. He says, if you'll die to self, walk in the Spirit. He says, you will become a tree of life. The Bible says, the fruit of the righteous is a tree of life, and he that win its souls is wise. Now, when the Christian dies, Paul said, I die daily. Maybe that's why he won people to the Lord every day, OK? When the Christian dies to self, he becomes a tree that produces good fruit. Now, will the good tree ever produce bad fruit? Let's read the Bible. It says here in Matthew chapter 7, where we were just reading, Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves. You shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns or figs of thistles? Even so, every good tree bringeth forth good fruit. But a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit. A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit. So that answers our question, right? The good tree cannot produce evil fruits. It isn't going to happen. Neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit. Is that ever going to happen? Never. And then it says, Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is shewn down and cast into the fire. Wherefore, by their fruits ye shall know them. And then again, followed up by something important, Not everyone that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven, but he that doeth the will of my Father which is heaven. Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? And in thy name have cast out the devils, and in thy name done many wonderful works. Works will not get you to heaven, my friend. Then will I profess unto them, I used to know you, but you lost your salvation. No, he says, I will not profess unto them, I never knew you. Depart from ye that work iniquity. Now let me tie this all together. Let me get at what I'm saying here. The good tree brings forth good fruit. If the bad tree is the false prophet, what's the good tree? The good prophet, the sole winner, who dies to self and becomes a tree of life and produces fruit some 30 fold, some 60 fold, and some 100 fold. Okay? Now, think about it. Let's go back to our apple illustration. The apple is sitting on the counter. The apple never falls to the ground and dies. No one ever plants the apple. It remains on the kitchen counter perennially. I guess it wasn't really an apple. It wasn't an apple after all, because it never produced apples. Hey, can I eat that apple? Not an apple. Okay? It doesn't produce apples. It cannot be an apple. No. Now, let's say we take something off the kitchen counter. We don't know what it is, you know? We kind of hide it under a little box or something, like door number one, door number two, door number three. And we take some mystery fruit off the counter. And we plant that mystery fruit into the ground. And a tree comes up, and oranges are growing on the tree. Can we rightfully say there's no way that that was an apple? Absolutely. Right? I mean, we can be pretty confident and say, look at this. Look at these oranges. There's no way that was an apple. Okay? But like, is the lack of apples enough to prove that it was not an apple? No. Okay? But is the presence of something totally different in evidence that it was not an apple? Yes. Okay? So a lot of people misunderstand and take this out of context. See, look. Am I breaking this down too simple? Okay. We're going real simple. But anyway, the bottom line is the bad tree, the false prophet, he's going to multiply his own kind, just like everything brings forth after its own kind. We can look at the bad fruit growing on his tree and say, this guy is not of God. This guy is of the wicked one. Okay? This guy is not of the father at all. We can look at somebody who's producing good fruit and say, this prophet, this tree is a tree of life. Hey, this is a soul winner. This is a righteous man. Now remember how it said in Jude and in 2 Peter, call them trees whose fruit withereth. Without fruit, twice dead, plucked up by the roots. Twice dead. Twice dead. You notice that? Okay? Children of the devil, not children of God. Now you say, well, we're all God's children. The person who's born in this world is not God's child. A person who gets saved becomes God's child. Behold, what manner of love the father hath bestowed upon us that we should be called the sons of God. Beloved, now are we, and it said, therefore the world knoweth us not because it knew him not. Beloved, now are we the sons of God. Only those of us who are saved, but his name is received, and to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name. Again, that's the emphasis. And so we see that the children of God are manifest as those that are saved. Now, who are the children of the devil? Well, remember, Jesus said to the Pharisees, he said, you're of your father, the devil. They were false prophets, okay? And he also said that when they go and make a prose line and convert somebody into their phony false religion, he says, you're making them twofold, there's a twice dead, twofold more the child of hell as yourselves. Okay, and so the teaching is good. Don't use this verse to say, well, if there's no fruit, a person's not saved. Well, let's follow your, oh, what do you think fruit is? Well, they went to church. How is that fruit? How is that reproduction? Okay, take the apple to church. You still come home with one apple, okay? Take all the beer out of the apple's fridge. It's still the same single apple. It has not brought forth fruit. Well, we cleaned up the apple. We wiped all the dirt off. It brought forth fruit. No, this is not true. This is false, okay? Bringing forth fruit is multiplying. I wonder when God said, be fruitful and multiply, if he was telling them, clean up your life, would you? Have love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, meekness, temperance, faith, would you? Would you clean up your life a little? Would you do right by me? Is that what he meant when he said, be fruitful and multiply? See, you go back to the book of Genesis, you're going to get the definitions of these words that people struggle with, okay? You'll get your definitions in chapters one, two, and three, and then they'll carry through all throughout the Bible. And so, just because a person does not bring forth fruit, which in reality, we know what that means, that's winning somebody to Christ is bringing forth fruit. Just because they don't bring forth fruit doesn't mean that they were never really saved, that they believed on Jesus Christ. They're saved. Now, looking at someone and saying, well, they're not saved because they don't bring forth fruit, you're just showing a lack of understanding about what the fruit is. If every Christian won at least one person in the world, I mean, the whole world would be saved eventually. So that logic doesn't follow. The vast majority of apples, think about an orchard. And I'm spending a lot of time on this because it's important. Think about an apple orchard. How many of the apples that are growing on the tree do you really think are going to become a tree in the orchard? One in a hundred, right? I mean, think about it. Hundreds of apples are falling off the tree. How many of them are going to actually become a tree? Very few. The vast majority are going to be eaten. They're going to sit around. They're going to be taken somewhere else. They're not going to become a tree. Only the few, the proud, the sole winner. That's not copyrighted, is it, that slogan? Is that trademarked? But anyway, understand that. Study this when you get more time. You know, Matthew 7, great passage. But look back at the book of Jude, where we were. We've got to hurry because we're running out of time. It's interesting how God says in verse 7, just a side note, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire. Remember, God rained on fire and brimstone. I believe that what that's saying is He's pouring out like everlasting fire, like fire out of hell. Because that's where that everlasting fire burns that never shall be quenched, into the fire that never shall be quenched. That's what that everlasting fire is. It's like God literally scooped up fire out of hell and dumped it on Sodom and Gomorrah, saying, I'm going to set you forth from an example to anyone else who wants to live ungodly. I'm going to show you what hell is like by pouring out hell on earth, literally. And that's what happened in Genesis 18 and 19 in that story. Raging waves of the sea, verse 13, 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 things. I mean, he preached that they were coming. It says, prophesied of these things, behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his saints. So when Jesus Christ comes back, who's he coming with? The saints. The Bible says in 1 Thessalonians 3, 13, it says that the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with all his saints. So when Jesus returns on the white horse, he's got every single saint, born-again Christian with him. All his saints. What's the number? Well, it's ten thousands. You know, we don't know how many ten thousands, so it's going to be millions or however many. Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands 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 all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him. These are murmurers, complainers, walking after their own lusts. And boy, it doesn't put murmuring and complaining in a very good light, does it? Murmurers, complainers, walking after their own lusts. How many times are you going to bring that up? Lusts, uncleanness, fornication, adultery, strange flesh. He says, walking after their own lusts. Isn't it amazing how false doctrine and sexual perversion hand in hand. Do you notice that? In 2 Peter 2, hand in the book of Jude. Hand in hand. And he says, walking after their own lusts and their mouths speak of great swelling words, having men's persons in admiration because of advantage. But beloved, remember ye the words which were spoken before of the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ. How that they told you there should be mockers in the last time who should walk after their own ungodly lusts. These be they who separate themselves. Sensual, having not the spirit. I've always wondered what, you know, just reading the Bible, I always wondered what it means by these be they who separate themselves. I wonder what that meant, separate themselves. Well, I was thinking about it today, in fact. I was just going over my, what does it mean they separate themselves? And you know, I thought about how the local church is an assembly, isn't it? They were all with one accord in one place, the Bible says, in Acts chapter 2, verse number 1. The general assembly, the congregation, it's about bringing people together. You notice that? We'll be the opposite of getting together in a group, separating yourself. Now, we believe in separation. Obviously, the Bible speaks volumes about the right kind of separation. That's not what I'm talking about. But I was thinking about people who like to get people off by themselves. These be they who separate themselves. You know, hey, come here, let me talk to you over here. You know, they don't want to be out in the open. They want to take people off to the side somewhere. This is the reason why I never let my kids go with anybody, ever. They're with me and my wife. I preach about that on Sunday night, a whole sermon about it. Well, they have the sermon. But anyway, separating yourself. I think of people, hey, come here, let me talk to you for a minute. I don't want everybody to hear what we're saying. See, usually when people want to talk to you in private like that, usually it's because what they're saying is wrong or what they're saying is offensive or what they're saying is ungodly. See, I'm the type of person, people come to me and say, we want counseling. That's why I say, I don't do counseling. Isn't that horrible of me as a pastor? I don't do any counseling. You don't need counseling. You need to come to church. You need to come to the assembly. Let's not separate ourselves into the office, okay? Let's get in a group, huh? Sit down and let's listen to the Bible preached. Let's all get together. Let's all sing out. This is my story, this is my song. Why don't we all sit together and learn the Bible as a group? Why don't we all, you know, I'm so tired of, I hate secrecy. I hate all this dark, behind closed doors, mysterious things. Jesus says, what you hear in the ear, preach you upon the house tops. That's Jesus' version of secrecy. I don't like all this hiding things under the rug and behind closed doors and secrecy and hint, hint, wink, wink, nod, nod. Hey, I like things to be above board, right? Just everything out in the open, huh? You want to talk to me about something? Talk to me right here in front of everybody. That's what the Bible teaches. The Bible says, whatsoever may manifest is light. But men love darkness rather than light because their deeds are evil. And so when I read this, I don't know all the depth of what God's saying here about people who separate themselves. I know he talks about people who went out from us because they were not of us. For if they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us. But they went out that they might be made manifest, that they were not all of us. Now again, another verse that's used mistakenly, if somebody leaves church, they must have never really been saved. No, he says, even now are there, let's get to context. 1 John 2, even now are there many antichrists whereby we know that it is the last time they went out from us, but they were not all of us. Again, false prophets, antichrists, false teachers. These same people that we're talking about all through the Bible were warned about. Maybe that's what it means, they broke off and take people with them. But I'm convinced that it's talking about people who like to just get people off. They like to separate themselves from the group because they're up to no good. Kids who like to go off in some corner somewhere and shut the door and do something back behind the building somewhere, back behind the playground, back behind the garbage can somewhere. Why? Because they're up to no good, that's why. Hey, be out in the open. Make it manifest. You say, what do you believe, Pastor Anderson? If you've been in this church for a few months, you know what I believe. What do you believe about such and such controversial subject? Well, hold on, let me wait those visitors around. Let me tell you a little bit later what I believe about it. That's too controversial. Turn off the cameras, turn off the TV cameras. Let me turn off the recording right now. This is out on the Internet, so we're going to have to turn this off for this part of the sermon. Oh, man, you say, Pastor Anderson, I can't believe that you just want... Good night, I mean, the invitation to church, it has the whole doctrinal statement? Yeah, we're making it manifest. We're making it clear to everybody. We're making it plain to everybody. This is what we believe, we're not ashamed of it. We'll tell you anything. Ask me any question. People come and say, we want to ask you questions. Ask me whatever you want. I'll take any question. I'll answer any question. I have nothing to hide. See, these are the ones who separate themselves. Beware of those who want to get away from the group. Beware of those who like to be in a real small group. Beware of those who like to take people off to the side somewhere, back behind a building somewhere. They're up to no good. That's why I love church. I love that word, church. I love that word, congregation. What does the word church mean to you, Pastor Anderson? It means to me what it means to God, an assembly, a congregation. That's what it means. That's the only thing it means. What about the universal church? It's not an assembly, it doesn't exist. The local church exists because it's an assembly of people. These be they who separate themselves, verse 19. There's so much I want to preach in this book, I don't have time. But these be they who separate themselves sensual, again, not again, God. The same thing again about the lusts, the flesh, the filth, again. Sensual, having not the Spirit, they're not saved. But ye, beloved, you on the other hand, he's saying, building up yourselves on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost, keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life. And if some have compassion, making a difference. And others, saved with fear, pulling them out of the fire, hating even the garment spotted by the flesh. Now an end that is able to keep you from falling, there's your preservation again. And to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy to the only wise God, our Savior, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and ever. Amen. I've heard people say this, they're offended when you say, I want somebody to the Lord. And I love new believers, new converts, because they haven't been so brainwashed by church, by wrong churches that is. I love talking to people, I love to just sit down and talk to somebody that I want to the Lord, or somebody that somebody else recently wanted to the Lord. And you can just talk to them about the Bible and these concepts, and they're brand new, they don't know anything about it. It's so refreshing just the logic that they bring to the table. Like when we talk about that fruit, they would understand that in like five seconds. And you show them any Bible documents and they say, well yeah, of course. Because they haven't been taught otherwise, just the fresh thing. And I remember, I want somebody to the Lord, and people don't like this, but this is the truth, okay? I want this guy to the Lord, and this is the kind of terminology, and I've had probably, I must have had ten people say this to me. I had the guy, this is what he said to me, he said, a couple days ago when you saved me. Who? Who? Who did you just say, you know, or you say like, I went sewing and I won so-and-so to the Lord. You don't win anybody to the Lord. You're just a tool, and it's all God, it's all Jesus, and you're prideful, and you're blasphemous saying that you won somebody to the Lord. Look, this is what Paul said, and I'm sorry to confuse you with the Bible, but Paul said, I've become all things to all men that I might by all means save some. Is that what Paul said? What does the Bible say here? You, the reader, others save with fear. Now, we know that Jesus Christ is the only Savior. That's what it says right at the end there. It says, to the only wise God, our Savior. Hey, there's only one Savior. The Bible says in Isaiah, chapter 43, it says, I am the Lord. Beside me, there's none else. He said, I'm the Lord. Beside me, there is no Savior. Okay, but here's the thing. Think about this. If somebody is drowning in the ocean, you're on the cruise ship. Wouldn't that sound good to me? And so you're on the cruise ship, and somebody's drowning in the water. Help, help, help. You know, if I point to them and say, hey, look, right over there is a piece of driftwood. Grab that piece of driftwood and you'll be saved. And they grab the driftwood. Look, who saved them? Well, the driftwood saved them. But wouldn't it be also grammatically correct to say, well, you saved their life by pointing them to the driftwood? Look, Jesus Christ is the Savior. But when you point people to the Savior, you are saving that person from hell, okay? Now, I'm not trying to be blasphemous by saying that. Obviously, we know that Jesus paid it all. But the sad reality is, the real truth of the matter is, that Jesus cannot save anyone without you and me. So God can do anything. Well, God cannot lie, the Bible says. God's omnipotent. He has all power. But He can't violate the Bible, can He? He can't violate His word. He can't lie. And the Bible says that God has committed to us the ministry of reconciliation. We beseech you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God. That's 2 Corinthians 5. And so the Bible makes it clear that our job as Christians, yes, the common salvation is under attack. Yes, salvation by grace through faith is under attack. Yes, thou believe and thou shalt believe only. That's all that it takes to get saved is under attack. Yes, the preservation is under attack. Eternal security is under attack. Yes, people are creeping in and teaching false doctrine, and then they want to get their filthy hands on the unstable souls of the church. They want to separate them off by themselves. He says, yes, but your job, keep yourselves in the love of God. Some have compassion, making a difference, and others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire. You see, it's your job to be the soul winner. It's your job to preach the gospel to every creature. You're not the Savior, but when you point a person to the Savior and say, be ye reconciled to God, He says, you and I have formed a team effort, is what He's saying, and have saved that person. He says, get in the yoke with me. Remember, He says, take my yoke upon you and learn of me, for I am meek and lowly of heart, and you shall find rest unto your souls, for my yoke is easy and my burden is light. See, it's our job to yoke up with Jesus Christ and to produce fruit for God. Think about this. My wife and I have produced fruit. We've brought forth after our own kind. It's called the four children that I have sitting in the back row. Now, could she have done that by herself? No. Could I have done that by myself? No. Now, which one's more ridiculous, to say that I could do it by myself or to say that she could do it by herself? Stupid question, because it takes both, period, right? Okay. And so, who did 99% of the work? She did, right? Okay. It doesn't matter, okay? It still took both of us to have a child. It takes the male and female. Look, in order to bring forth fruit for God, God can't do it by Himself. Never did God win somebody to Lord by Himself in the Bible. Never. The only time you could say that is, well, when He used the human instrument of Jesus, but that's because Jesus Christ was robed in flesh as a human being. It was still a combination of man and God. Teaming up, okay? The Holy Spirit, the Word of God, is what saves. But God uses, He's chosen to use a human being to be the instrument that preaches the Word of God. See, faith is what saves. Faith comes up by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. And how should they hear without a preacher? So how are they going to be saved without a preacher, is the way you could extrapolate that in Romans chapter 10. Can't be saved without a preacher. Acts chapter 8, Acts chapter 8, how can I accept some man should guide me? I need a man for salvation. See, the man points you to Jesus. Jesus paid it all. We preach Jesus Christ. And we're in the soul-saving, soul-winning business around here. That's what we do. That's what our life's about. That's what we do. That's the whole positive of this. He says, here's all the negative. Let me write you the negative for about, you know, 19 verses of everything you've got to watch out for. I mean, I wish I could write them all positive. I'd be saying, it's needful for me to teach you these things. But then he says in verse 20 through 25, this is what you're going to do with it. And it culminates in verses 22 and 23 about soul-winning. He says, this is what your mission is, to save people with fear, pulling them out of the fire. And then he says, now unto him that's able to keep you from falling and to present you, follow us before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy, to the only wise God our Savior be glory and mercy. So who gets the glory for someone getting saved? God does. Okay. God gets all the glory, but he uses us to do it. We're the instrument that he uses. And we save along with Jesus Christ. You say, I don't like that terminology. This is the terminology that God uses. We don't speak in the words which man's wisdom teacheth, but in the words which the Holy Ghost teacheth, comparing spiritual things with spiritual. And so it says in the presence of his glory, to the only wise God our Savior be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and ever. Amen. Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Father, so much that we didn't get to in the sermon tonight, but God I just pray that you would help those that are here to take what they've learned and go to the book of Jude and study it further, study the book of 2 Peter chapter 2, study Matthew chapter 7 and learn the...