No, no, no, no. Start reading the Gospel of John. It's very simple. The whole Gospel is written with a 500 word vocabulary. The Greek is very simple in the Gospel of John. So students who learn Greek, one of the first things they do is start reading John. You get excited. In Archeanologos, in the beginning was the word. Very simple. Wonderful wisdom in the Gospel of John with a very simple vocabulary. So let's pray. Father, we thank you that we get to look at your word. We pray that you would encourage us and teach us. We pray, Father, that as we look at it, your sins, your spirit to teach us, Lord. We thank you for the book of Jude and the encouragement there that we would contend for the faith. And as we ask, how would you want us to do so in a proper and a godly manner? We ask you, our Lord, to teach us. We pray, Father, that as we look at your word, we would be convicted of our sin, but all the more driven to Christ, our wonderful Savior. In his name we pray. Amen. Let me turn this on. Well, we are just finishing up the first part of this doxology in verse 24 of Jude. Now, to him who was able to keep you from stumbling and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy, that part. At the end of the class last time, or maybe somewhere in the middle of the class, Troy asked me, What was the word here to keep you from stumbling? Is that related to the word for Christ, the stumbling block? You know, people stumble over Christ. And the word, I wanna show you why I don't think so, and it's a good lesson for us to review our hermeneutics. First of all, the words are completely different. In Greek, they're not even related. The word for stumbling block for Christ is this word. How do you pronounce that? Skandalo. Skandalo. Da, I'm sorry, lone, like that, alone. We get what word from English? Scandal, right? Okay, we get that in English. And this is the word when Christ is the stumbling block. There's another time when it's actually a combination of two words, lithos, which is the word for stone, and you know, you would fall over a stone in the path, okay? The word, however, here in Jude is completely different, and it's, A-P-P-A-I, is that right? A-P-P-A-I-S-T-O-U-S. Okay. And not at all related. You know, a completely different word. But not only that, when you look at the New Testament references, Christ is the stumbling block. What is the stumbling block about Christ? The answer is justification by faith alone. You are saved because of what Christ did for you, not because of what you do. That whole message of the gospel, that's the stumping block to the Jews. And I have some references here. Romans 9.33 is a good one. So we can turn there. A little context, verse 30. What shall we say then? The Gentiles who did not pursue righteousness have attained to righteousness, even the righteousness of faith. But Israel, pursuing the law of righteousness, has not attained to the law of righteousness. Why? Because they did not seek it by faith, but as it were, by the works of the law. For they stumbled at that stumbling stone, that's the other term, Okay, not either one of these, but the third one, the stone that which you stumble over. As it's written, behold, I lay in Zion a stumbling stone and a rock of offense. Okay? Okay. And whoever believes in him shall not be put to shame. What is it about this that makes Christ a stumbling stone? The context tells us these people that were righteous by faith, not because of what they did. Another reference for you, 1 Corinthians 1.23. For Jews request a sign and Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified to the Jews a stumbling block and to the Greeks foolishness. And that's this word skandalon again. Okay. So why is Christ a stumbling block to Jews? Because guess what? God doesn't accept you because you're a Jew. God accepts you because of Christ. All right. That whole concept is a stumbling block. But yet when we go to Jude, we see, what is Jude saying? And to whom is Jude talking? Remember, this is a doxology, right, at the end of the letter. And he's talking to believers to encourage them, you know, the God who's going to keep you from stumbling. We saw last week that the word keep there was the idea of guarding You know, like the keep is a, sometimes it's a term for a prison or a dungeon in the old castles, okay? It's that word that God's going to guard you from stumbling. And what is that all about? And the idea is in your Christian life, and this word is used many times in the New Testament that way, in your Christian life, you go down and you fall on your face because you sin. That's the idea of stumbling, not stumbling over the doctrine of the gospel of justification by faith alone. So believers accept justification by faith alone, yet we sin. And the point here in Jude is that God is able to keep us from falling on our face and to make us stand in his presence. Remember, we saw the whole posture there. Instead of stumbling, God causes you to stand in his presence with joy. So that's what's going on in Jude. So I don't think it's a reference at all to the concept of Christ the stumbling stone, stumbling block. Questions on that? Okay, let's continue on. We were right at the bottom of page 23. We see here at the end of verse 24 that God is able to present you faultless, in other words, to make you stand, the Greek says, before the presence of His glory, faultless, with exceeding joy. And so we ask the question, what does it mean for God to present us with exceeding joy? And I think the reference there is to God being joyful rather than for us being joyful. Yes, when God declares you righteous in Christ, you will be joyful. But I think the point here is that God is joyful. So we ask the question, does God have emotions? A lot of people want to say God does not have emotions. So open your hymn books. So go to your hymn books. and go to page 849 in the hymn book. So 849, this is in the Westminster Confession. Chapter one of the confession is what? It's the chapter on scripture. And then chapter two starts talking about what God is like, and that's the order. You might want to know this. Historically, the idea of confessions of faith became real popular in the 1500s. What's the date of the Confession? 1645, about. 1647, right in that neighborhood. So the idea of writing thorough confessions was around for a hundred years. There were other earlier confessions and creeds, but the Reformed Church really started writing them. Why? Well, what is it that you guys believe that's different from the Roman Catholic Church? So they wrote it down. And most of those, when you read those historical confessions, do not have a chapter on scripture. Isn't that interesting? And you would think that historically, or fundamentally rather, your first chapter would be, this is what we believe on the Bible, and what the Bible is, because everything else is based upon the Bible. So Westminster is one of the earliest ones that actually has a chapter on the Bible. There's a couple earlier ones that do. But it's not very common. So chapter one is on the Bible. Chapter two is what's God? What's God like? Who is God? Those kinds of things. And so we look at chapter two. In paragraph one we see, There is but one only living and true God who is infinite in being and perfection, a most pure spirit, invisible without body, parts, or passions. See that one, passions? People want to look at that and say God has no emotions. The question is, is that what that's teaching, and is that what the Bible teaches? So can you think of any references about God having emotions? So let's put some up here on the board. So can you think of any reference about God having emotions? God is slow to anger, right? which implies he does get angry eventually, right? Okay, but he's not a hothead, right? Okay, what else? God so loved the world. So God loved the world. Okay, what else? Do not grieve the Holy Spirit. In other words, don't make the Holy Spirit sad, right? Okay. G-R-I-E-V-E, is that right? Okay, do not grieve the Holy Spirit. Okay? Yeah. What about them? Yeah, and? Bring them up. Joy, peace. Joy is sort of an emotion, huh? Okay, so we have the fruit of the Spirit. fruit of the Spirit, right? Okay. The implication here is that these are things that the Spirit gives us, and if we go down the list, one good thing to think about that list is it's a description of God, right? And so we can roughly say, you know, kind of big picture, when God works the fruit of the Spirit in us, He's making us more godly. Is that right? To be, what's the word godly mean? to be like God, exactly, right, okay? So when we look at those, it's possible for us to reflect back onto God, right? To use our thinking properly, so, okay? Love, joy, peace, patience, et cetera. Some of those are emotions, some of those are not, some of those are more behavioral, but truly emotions is part of it, yeah. Jesus wept. Okay, what else? Why did he weep? The death of Lazarus and all the implications of death, right? Okay, what else? Is compassion emotion? Yeah, I think it is, yeah. It's got an emotional... Sure, it's got an emotional component, does it not? Yeah, okay. What did Jesus do over Jerusalem? So Jesus wept at Lazarus at Jerusalem? Yeah. Genesis 6. And? I was threatened and I'm sorry that I repented. Yeah, that I repented and all that. That whole issue of Genesis 6 and what does it say about God is a much debated one. It's a very interesting one, is it not? Yeah, the whole issue at the flood and God being driven to the flood, okay? So I'm just going to say the flood event and all the things leading to it, right? Okay. There's all kinds of Psalms that talk about God rejoicing. Okay. Now here's my point. Okay. I think it's legitimate to say God has emotions. If it is, there's one of two things about the statement of the confession. Either it's wrong or we misunderstand it. And the usual understanding of that statement in the confession is that when it says God doesn't have passions, it means he's not passionate. What does that mean? He's happy one day and angry the next. He swings back and forth, goes up and down like a sine wave, right? Those kinds of things is what it's saying. So when we see Jesus and what does he do when he makes the court together and drives people out of the temple? We see the angry Jesus, okay? That means that it isn't that Jesus was walking around, was unaware of what's happening, happens to walk into the temple area, and you know, he just gets infuriated. That's not Jesus. He knew all along what was going on, and his concern that my father's house shall be a house of prayer for all people is something that drove Jesus all along. And then here was the manifestation of what they were doing wrong, and he did something about it. Okay, when Jesus did that, was he out of control? One of the fruits of the Spirit is self-control. Okay, so Jesus was not out of control. So when we have the Savior in the confession has that idea of being so emotional about an issue that you're out of control, positive or negative, you know, happy or angry or whatever it might be. So back to the text in Jude. when it says, and let's put our verse up here so I think we need to understand our syntactical structure. Now, to him who is able, remember then we have two infinitives, right? What are they? To keep you from stumbling, there's the first one, right, to keep, keep you from stumbling, and the other one is to make you stand. Those are our two infinitives. So the God who is able to do these two things, make you stand before Him in His presence with joy, and the joy I think is God's joy. Now how could God look at us as wicked sinners and have any kind of joy by us standing in His presence? And remember the verb here is not God tells us to stand, God stands us up. Like you have a kid that's crying and you pick him up and you dust him off and you stand him up. Okay? That idea. Okay, so how can God do that? It's got to be the answer. It's got to be justification that Christ saved us and what Christ did for us. Therefore, God looks at us and he sees Christ, right? Okay. And therefore God has joy. One last verse. Do you all remember Hebrews chapter 12? I think it's verse three. who for the joy before him endured the cross. Something like that. Let me get, I'm not quoting it quite right. Let me, let me get that. But, but let's see. Yeah, at the end of verse two. Who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. For the joy set before him. Doesn't that look like the Lord Jesus had joy in us because of what he did for us? And that seems to be the idea that Jude has here. So, let's go on. So, now to him, so we have our to him who is able, then our two infinitives. Then it goes on, to God. So this to, to him, this is to God. This is more about God. So this is parallel to this. These are our parallel statements. Okay, and the Greek here is interesting. To God our Savior. Do any of you have a statement, who alone is wise or something like that in your translations? New King James says, what does the ESV say? For those of you who have the ESV. Verse 25. Somebody read me the first line or two. To the only God and our Savior. Okay, very good. That's much better dealing with the text, much better. To the only God our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Okay, so that's it, right? to the only God. That's really, given what the Greek text says and the different textual variants, that's a much better translation. I want you to note, I'm complimenting the ESV and saying the New King James is wrong. There's times when we want to do that. Now, here's what the text is saying. So, to the only God, our Savior. So the Lord is described as the only God and the one who is our Savior. Now, Let's go to the new handouts. Mr. Pleviac, would you please, and you maybe get Abigail to help you. Okay, thank you. So let's look at this, because this is the part that belongs over here is the parallel. To the only God our Savior through Jesus Christ our Lord. Now, this term here, God, the only God, our Savior, is that referring to the first person or the second person of the Trinity? Because remember, it's got this word Savior. It's got to be the first. Why? Because the second person says through Jesus Christ our Lord. Exactly. Thank you. OK, so it's got to be the first person of the Trinity. How often does Scripture ever call God the Father or Savior? And the answer is, once in a while, but not real often. I was reading, I think the word Savior is used something like about 21, 23 times in the New Testament. And of those, about eight of those are actually referred to God the Father. So, what, two-thirds approximately refer to Christ as the Savior. But God the Father is the Savior. So the question we have is, what does that mean? Your references are there for the ones for God the Father as the Savior. They're in your notes, okay? Well, why is God our Savior? Why is the Father our Savior? Because He, say it again, He sent the Son. Is God the Father at all active in our salvation? Of course. Of course. So it's legitimate to call God the Father our Savior. And then why does it say then, if that's true, through Jesus Christ our Lord? Why is there this phrase right here? Yes, because of what Christ did for us. So Jude is bringing out the point that when God is our savior, he just doesn't forgive us because he's a nice guy. You know, don't worry about it this time, but you better straighten up. Okay. God doesn't do that. Okay. He's our savior because of what Christ did for us. So Jude is saying, now remember this is a doxology. Jude is trying to say, what does the word doxology mean? A word of glory. He's trying to praise God because of what God has done. To him who is able to keep us from stumbling, to make you stand before him with joy, to the God who's our savior through Jesus Christ our Lord. Why is Christ called the Lord? Are you all familiar with this term? Y'all read the Old Testament? Say yes. Okay, we've talked about this, right? We read the Old Testament, and we see the word Lord, and sometimes it's spelled like this. Sometimes it's spelled like this. Sometimes it's spelled like this, right? All lowercase, all uppercase, but usually these O-R-D are kind of small, uppercase, but they're all uppercase. And then sometimes just the first L is uppercase. So what are the translators doing when they do this for us? Well, this is Hebrew. Kurios is Greek. Yeah, this is Yahweh, God's name. No, Jehovah is the same as Yahweh. This is Adonai. That's where we're going. This is also Adonai. Adonai. Now sometimes it won't have the I at the end. The I is the possessor. My Lord. Okay? So this is like you would refer to the king. Like Diane refers to me. Yes, my Lord. Did you see the look on her face? Head shot straight up. That's right. Cold supper tonight, huh? No, the question was with Sheila. Okay? Okay? I'm so in trouble. Okay? Anyway, so this word is the word, and sometimes, see it's the same word in Hebrew, but when it refers to God, the translators help us, they put an uppercase L. When you read it in the context, and someone says, oh my lord, he's talking to his superior. In context, there's the capital that means he's a god. So is that Sarah talking to Abraham? Yes, when Sarah's talking to Abraham and said, how can this happen when my Lord is a hundred years old? How can I have a child? Now this one is the word Yahweh or Jehovah. Now, why don't they just say Jehovah or Yahweh? Why don't the translators do that? The answer is, do you remember what the Jews did? They wouldn't say God's name. Why? Okay, a misunderstanding of the third commandment, which is, don't take the Lord's name in vain. So how do you guarantee you don't take the Lord's name in vain? You never say His name. But you have all kinds of scriptural injunctions where people say God's name. So you see how that's misused, okay? So that's this, okay? Sometimes when you have these words together in the same sentence, the translators will translate it, Lord God. just to help us understand. The word God is a completely different word. That's Elohim, a completely different word, okay? So, now, let's do where you were headed, okay? Oh, 170 B.C. or 70 B.C., somewhere in that era, a lot of God's people spoke Greek, but they didn't speak Hebrew, and they couldn't read Hebrew. How many of you are really fluent in Hebrew? I'm not. I imagine none of us are. And one of the things that's great is we had the Bible in our own language. Well, they put the Bible in the language of the people. And what was the language of the people? It was Greek. Right? Okay? The Septuagint, it's called. Okay? So, this word here, Yahweh, how are they going to translate that? And they would translate that with this word. I'm going to keep... Kurios. Which is the word for Lord. So in the Septuagint, when it was this, it would be kurios. So when you read the New Testament, which is Greek, and you see the word kurios, you want to say, hmm, is that a reference to God? Because sometimes it is, sometimes it's not. And you want to say, huh, are they bringing in the Septuagint concepts, meaning the Hebrew concepts of who God is in his name? The answer is yes. So when, remember 1 Corinthians 15, no one can say Jesus is Lord, except by the Holy Spirit. What is that statement? You're saying Jesus is Yahweh. That's what that is saying. So when we have this, the only God, our Savior through Jesus Christ, our Lord, Jude has got loads of implications about the deity of Christ. Because all that Yahweh is, Jesus is. That's what's going on. So that's what we're being told. Yes? I'm sorry, can you? No. The whole Old Testament. Whole Old Testament. I have a Septuagint. I can bring it to you guys if you read Greek. Okay, it's in Greek. It's the Old Testament translated in Greek. And it's called a Septuagint. There's two different theories. Septuagint is spelled how? S-E-P-T. What does S-E-P-T mean? Seven, right? Okay. That's why the ninth month of the year is called September. You put that one together. It is, isn't it? Well, they also, they added two extra months. The one named July and the one named August. But anyway, that's why the 10th month of the year is, which means eight. And the 11th month of the year is, which means nine. And the 10th month or the 12th month of the year is December, which means 10. Okay, so we can put our math together and add two. Anyway, okay. They think the Septuagint was either translated by 70 people or in 70 A.D. or B.C. rather, 70 B.C. Okay. Now that we're done with the Bible trivia for the day, okay. So, to the God who is able to keep us from stumbling, the God who is able to make you stand before his presence with joy, and to the lonely God who is our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, notice how we got all of these piled up about who God is, and what he's done for us, then we have these four attributes that Jude says about God. May God be, or may God get, and there's four terms there. Okay, so what are they? Okay. So, to, right, glory. May God get, or glory, or may glory be to God. What's the next one? Next. Dominion. What was that? Is that the next one? Is authority the fourth one or the other translation for dominion? Now the New King James has it translated, be glory, majesty, dominion, and power. So it translates it that way. Do any of you have other translations? For right here, for the fourth one. Okay, yeah. Well, the Greek one is probably better with authority. The word is exousia. Okay, it's not, you know, dynamos or any of those kinds of power-related words. It's exousia. We'll get to that in a second, okay? So, to the God who's done these great things and who is this wonderful God, first of all, be glory. Now what does that mean? Well, look at how Jude uses the word glory. It's only used three times in the Holy Epistle, okay? Verse eight, talking about the false teachers. Likewise, also these dreamers defile the flesh, reject authority and speak evil of dignitaries or of glories, meaning people who are important, speaking evil of glories, okay? And then it's just in verse 24, able to keep you from stumbling, and to make you stand before the presence of His glory, and then may there be glory to Him. So we're not getting a lot of help there from the context, I don't think. So what does that mean? To the God of this thing, may there be glory. What does that mean? You tell me. Well, in the context of the thistle, it seems like Yes. And it's really similar to majesty, isn't it? Majesty sort of implies glory in the sense of the way he looks, I think, you know, and the things around him, the big room and the night, you know, that stuff, right? Okay. So this is sort of like his being and the things around him. But either way, surely they're talking about how great God is. That's what these are saying to us, don't you think? Okay. So may God, may there be glory and may there be majesty. Now this word majesty, glory is used a number of times elsewhere in the New Testament. This word majesty is only used three times in the New Testament. So it's a pretty rare word. Okay. And you see the references. One is in Hebrews, but the other two are both in Hebrews. Chapter one, verse three. And let's get to verse one of Hebrews one to get our context. God who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets has in these last days spoken to us by his son whom we appointed heir of all things through whom he also made the world. who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had himself purged our sins, sat down at the right hand of the majesty, that's the word, the majesty on high, sat down at the right hand of the majesty. That's an unusual word for God. We don't usually think of God as the majesty, but you see, and that the majesty can be located, because if you sit at the right hand of the majesty, the majesty is located. It's got to have a place. Sure. Yes. Except that's kind of a puny little picture of God. Yes. Right hand of the majesty on high, having become so much better than the angels, he has by inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they. Now the other place it's used is chapter 8 verse 1 in Hebrews. Now this is the main point of the things we're saying. We have such a high priest who is seated at the right hand of the throne of the majesty in the heavens, a minister of the sanctuary and of the true tabernacle, which the Lord erected and not man. So again, sitting at the right hand of the throne of the majesty. So God is spoken of as the majesty. And then we have in Jude. So may to God be glory and majesty. Then we have the word dominion, probably better translated strength or power. And there's some references here that I want us to look at. I think Ephesians 6.10 helps us understand this term a little bit. Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and the power of his might. That's this word dominion here. So strength. So do God be glory, majesty, power, or strength? And then finally, the last one here, authority. Now, this word is used in John 1.12. Okay. Doesn't mean power, really. It means the authority to use the power. So what is John 1.12? Many people rejected it, but As many as received Him, to them He gave the right, the authority, the power to become the children of God. The authority is the best translation of that term. Now, I've quoted this line from this old movie from the 60s, Dr. Chebago, to you. Some of you have seen Dr. Chebago. If you haven't, you should. It's a wonderful movie, historical movie. It's a fictional story, but about the Communist Revolution over in Russia in 1915, 1917, you know, that era. And Dr. Chebago is a physician. And he, as a physician, had a nice home and some land and things like that. And of course, the Marxists, being the thieves that they are, and I mean that literally, they took his home away from him. Okay? And all that he owned. And he's arguing with the Marxists, you are not to take my home away from me. And the Marxist says, don't you know we have the authority to do this? And Dr. Chivago answers, you have the power. but not the authority. Notice the difference in the nuance that's there. Not only is it true about the Marxists, and today with the government, you have the power to take my stuff, you don't have the authority to take my stuff. But that's exactly what this is saying. The authority. So God has the authority to do what he wants. Why? because he's God, right? Yes. So like in Revelation where they're all gathered there and John is there with them and he weeps because of the scroll. There's no one that has the authority, right? To open up the scroll? To open it up and then the angel says, He has the authority, yes. Anyone can just go up, they have, you know, weapons and force, and you can just push them away, but he has the legal right, if you will, to do it. Yes, and that's the idea of the charity. Okay? So, good analogy. So, to God, the one who's done all these things be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority. And then it ends with, Amen. My question to you is, because we're always asking the question, how do things relate to what we're doing and we're reading? How is this related to the book of Jude? Remember, what's the point of the book of Jude? To encourage us to contend for the faith that's once for all delivered to the saints, all right? So we're to contend without being contentious. How does this relate to this? What is Jude saying when he says these things? Now, are you going to win the fight against these guys who are the false teachers in the church? The answer is maybe not on earth. We don't know. Has the church ever apostatized in the history of the church? Has false doctrine ever won? Yes. But quite often false doctrine wins, right? For lots of reasons that we're not going to go into now. But in the long run, because God is this, False doctrine is not going to win, and the people who teach false doctrine are going to have their comeuppance, if we can use that kind of language. Exactly. Class is over. You like that sound, don't you? Yes, Diane. That's a good point. Yeah, right. Say it nice and loud, Diane. You want the mic? Diane says she wants to tie this back to the first line of the doxology, the God who keeps us from stumbling. Because God is these things, He can keep us from stumbling. Stumbling there almost has the idea, does it not, of getting suckered in by the false doctor, false teachers? Good. Okay, so here's your homework. It's to answer these questions about Jude. Okay? Who is the author? You notice that there at the bottom of the page? This is our review of the book of Jude. Who is the author? When was it written? What issue is Jude addressing? By the way, these are all questions you ought to ask about every book in the Bible you read, right? Okay? What is the structure of the book? Why? Structure helps you put things together, just like Diane just did. You know how these relate to the beginning of the doxology, etc. So you all know the structure of the book. What historical allusions does Jude make? He's loaded with historical allusions, right? We saw those. Okay, and finally, what steps are you to take to contend for the faith? Remember he talked about those four? Okay, so there's your homework. Questions about your homework? Okay, that's your final exam. Take it home. Do it. Okay. And I think next week Michael will be getting his course on the Holy Spirit, so we're going back to that. Okay? Let's pray. Father, we thank you that we have this wonderful book in your Word. Lord, we pray that we would think about what it means for us to contend for the faith, that we would do that and not be contentious. Lord, help us when we seem to be losing battles all the time, over and over and over, to be To ask ourselves the question, how do we serve you better out of gratitude, knowing that you are the God who has these wonderful things, this glory and majesty and strength, power, these things, the authority to do what you want. We pray, Father, that thus you would be glorified by us out of gratitude. In Jesus' name, amen.