Episode Transcript
That said, we're going to be back in the book of Jude.
And I'm looking forward to this.
I'll tell you what, folks, God's Word is just so precious to me.
It is just so uplifting and truthful and it just brightens my day.
It really does.
And I love to get in God's Word and study God's Word.
And I love it when God starts revealing stuff to me.
It puts a smile on my face.
You can ask my wife.
I'll be sitting in the living room sometimes.
I'll just break out in laughter.
It's a joyful laughter because God reveals, shows me things.
I just wish so much I could teach y'all the same way that God teaches me.
I pray that God will teach through me today.
So with that said, let's go ahead and get started here.
Last week, we left off at verse 12 in the book of Jude where Jude says, "These are spots in your feasts of charity when they feast with you."
So today, we will pick up here where Jude says, "Feeding themselves without fear."
Let's pray.
Heavenly Father, we're so thankful, Lord, for the people that show up to hear your Word, Lord.
We want to pray for those who are sick here today, Father.
And we pray that you will be done in their healing, Lord.
And we just pray for the caregivers that are here today, Lord, that you would just help them to care for these people that are sick, Father.
And the ones that aren't sick as well, Lord.
We just thank you so much for each and every person here, Lord.
Thank you for this opportunity that you've blessed us with to come and share your Word, Father.
And we pray that your Word goes forth today, Father, and that people will learn, Lord, they will look to you, Father.
We thank you and love you.
In Jesus' name we pray.
Amen.
All right.
He says, "These are spots in your feasts of charity when they feast with you."
So today, like I said, we're going to pick up here where Jude says, "Feeding themselves without fear."
Now, this word, "feeding," hey, here comes Bill.
Excuse me for a second, folks.
Come on in, Bill.
Come on in, sir.
You ain't sick.
That's good.
A lot of them sick.
I just almost overlooked it.
That's okay.
Here's the verses we're going to be going over today, Bill.
Okay.
You can sit wherever you want to, sir.
You have plenty of room to speak today.
Yes, sir.
We were just getting started, too, so we're going to start right back over so Bill can catch up with us.
That's all right.
Just go ahead.
Last week we left off at verse 12 in the book of Jude where Jude says, "These are spots in your feasts of charity when they feast with you."
So today we're going to pick up here where Jude says, "Feeding themselves without fear."
This word, "feeding," it comes from a Greek word that means "to tend as a shepherd."
To tend as a shepherd.
Now, a good shepherd cares what happens to his flock.
A good shepherd wants his flock to get fed good food and make sure they have plenty of water.
A good shepherd wants his flock to have adequate shelter when the hot and cold weather comes and when the rain falls and the storms come.
A good shepherd cares about his flock and wants to keep them safe from harm of any kind.
A bad shepherd, on the other hand, does not care about what the flock eats or drinks or if they have adequate shelter to face the changing weather or the storms that roll through.
A bad shepherd only cares about himself and how he can profit or use the flock.
How much wool he can get from the sheep is what is on the bad shepherd's mind.
What is missing here, folks?
What is missing between the good and the bad shepherd?
The love of God is missing.
Let's turn to the book of John, chapter 21.
John, chapter 21.
John 21.
We're going to start reading on this other verse.
It's on page...
We're going to start right here at verse 12.
We're going to start here at 12 and then just flip on over and read down through.
It's all the way to 17.
You've got to build John, chapter 21.
Yeah.
Verse 12.
I'm going to start at verse 12.
So what is missing between the good shepherd and the bad shepherd?
The love of God is missing.
John, chapter 21.
And we're going to start at verse 12.
"Jesus saith unto them..."
Now, he's talking to his apostles.
"...come and dine."
Now, I want you to know something, folks.
Jesus is not only talking to his apostles when he says that.
He is talking to you and me as well.
"Come and dine," Jesus says.
"Come and dine."
"And none of the disciples asked him, Who art thou?
Knowing that it was the Lord."
Oh, I find that precious.
They already knew that it was the Lord that ought to come and dine.
"Jesus then cometh, and taketh bread, and giveth them, and fish likewise."
You notice here, folks, they came to Jesus, they got fed.
Ha ha!
They came to Jesus and they got fed.
Verse 14.
This is now the third time that Jesus showed himself to his disciples.
After that, he was risen from the dead.
Verse 15.
"So when they had dined, Jesus saith to Simon Peter, Simon, son of Jonas, Lovest thou me more than these?"
Now, chances are Jesus was talking about the fish.
You love me more than you do this food.
"He saith unto him, Yea, Lord, thou knowest that I love thee.
He saith unto him, Jesus said unto him, Feed my lambs."
You notice he asked Peter if he loved him.
Peter says yes.
Jesus said, "Feed my lambs."
If you love God, you will feed his sheep.
You will feed his lambs.
Verse 16.
"He saith unto him again the second time, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me?
He saith unto him, Yea, Lord, thou knowest that I love thee.
He saith unto him, Feed my sheep.
He saith unto him the third time, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me?"
Peter was grieved because he said unto him the third time, "Lovest thou me?"
And he said unto him, "Lord, thou knowest all things.
Thou knowest that I love thee."
"Jesus saith unto him, Feed my sheep."
If Peter would have told Jesus that he didn't love him, Jesus would not have told him to feed his sheep.
That is what is missing between the ungodly men that Jude is telling us about here and between a good shepherd.
The love of God.
To be a good shepherd, you must love God.
Without the love of God, folks, a shepherd only wants to feed themselves.
They only want to feed themselves.
And Jude says, "Without fear."
Psalms 25, 14 says, "The secret of the Lord is with them that fear Him, and He will show them His covenant."
Now, folks, who do you tell your secrets to?
Hopefully, it's only to someone you know and trust.
The Bible says in Proverbs 3, 5, "Trust in the Lord with all thine heart, and lean not unto thine own understanding."
Psalms 40, verse 3 says, "And He hath put a new song in my mouth, even praise unto our God.
Many shall see it and fear, and shall trust in the Lord."
They had not the secret of the Lord because they had not trusted in the Lord.
Talking about these ungodly back in Jude.
You cannot trust in someone you don't believe.
And if you don't believe someone, how can you fear them?
Psalms 55, 19 says, "God shall hear and afflict them, even he that abideth of old."
Selah means think about it, or pause.
Because they have no changes, therefore they fear not God.
People who do not know God do not fear God.
Hebrews 12, 28 says, "Wherefore we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear."
Hebrews 12, 29 says, "For our God is a consuming fire."
People that do not know God, people that do not fear God, they are going to learn the hard way that God is a consuming fire.
Luke 12, verse 4, "And I say unto you, my friends," this is Jesus talking, "I say unto you, my friends, can Jesus call you his friend?"
If you do not know the Lord, you do not know Jesus, and you are not called his friend, you are still the enemy of God.
If you have not put your faith in Christ, you are the enemy of God, and you are not a friend of God.
"And I say unto you, my friends," Jesus says, "be not afraid of them that kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do."
Verse 12, verse 5, "But I will forewarn you whom ye shall fear."
Jesus says, "Fear him which after he hath killed hath power to cast into hell.
Yea, I say unto you, fear him."
The ungodly have no fear of God because they do not know God.
The ungodly don't care who they use or take advantage of.
We see that all the time.
People get their internet stuff hacked.
Next thing you know, they're checking their bank accounts and it's wiped out by some ungodly individual who do not care who they hurt, who they wipe out, who they financially ruin, somebody who's worked hard all of their lives.
And this ungodly individual who doesn't care about you, who doesn't love God, comes in there and hacks your bank account and wipes you out.
They don't know God.
They have no fear of God.
They have no fear of the consequences of what they have done.
We all come into this world born sinners, each and every one of us.
Now, if you do not fear God, you don't care that you are a sinner and that you are going to be consumed by fire.
But when you come to know the Lord and you put your faith in Jesus Christ, who died for us to cover our sins, we come into this world sinners.
Jesus Christ went to the cross.
He died for those sins so that we may be forgiven.
When you put your faith in Christ, you can now be called a friend.
God calls you friend.
You are no longer walking in your sins.
You are no longer condemned.
But Jesus calls you friend.
The ungodly don't care.
They don't care who they use and they don't care who they take advantage of and they do not fear God and they do not care what God is going to do to them.
They do not reverence God and they do not fear the consequences of what is coming.
Jude says these are spots, Jude says.
But they didn't have to be spots.
None of us have to remain ungodly unless we choose to remain ungodly.
Each and every one of us have the choice.
Somewhere I wish I would...
God will put verses in my mind sometimes when I'm preaching.
And I wish I had this written down.
Somewhere, Paul, I believe it's Paul who says, "What doth hinder you then?
What has stopped you from putting your faith in Christ?
What has stopped you from that?
What has stopped you from choosing to believe in Christ?"
The only thing that's stopping you is you.
None of us have to remain ungodly unless we choose to remain ungodly.
For these men that Jude is telling us about, it is already too late.
The one that Jude has been writing to us about here, the ungodly, back in the book of Jude, it's already too late for those people.
They have done died, they have been judged by the Lord and they have been condemned to an eternal pit of fire.
That, by the way, was made for the devil and his angels, not for you or I.
But that is where we go when we choose to follow the devil.
If we choose to follow the devil, we're going to follow him right into hell.
If we choose to follow the Lord, we're going to follow the Lord until he comes and takes us home.
And myself, Brother Edgar Rogers says, I choose to choose the non-smoking section.
So, they died without fear of repercussions of what they were doing.
They died without fear of what the sentence would become at judgment time.
They didn't care.
They died in their sins.
And the Bible says in Romans 6.23, "A for the wages of sin is death."
And the beat on that says, "But the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord."
That's not Brother Doug.
That's God's Word right there.
When Jesus was hanging on the cross, dying for your sin dead, and my sin dead, and the world's sin dead, there were two others beside him.
And we will close today with that story by reading Luke chapter 23.
Luke chapter 23, verses 39 through 43.
We're going to start right...
It says 23, maybe 39, right here.
And one.
Luke.
Luke chapter 23, verse 39.
"And one of the malefactors which were hanged railed on him, saying, 'If thou be Christ, save thyself and us.'"
Jesus is sitting on a cross, or hanging on a cross, I'm sorry.
Jesus is hanging from a cross.
There are two malefactors there beside him.
Jesus was not a malefactor.
These other two men were.
They were bad men that did bad things.
They were sinners.
Jesus Christ did not deserve to be on that cross, but he went to that cross for us.
The other two men deserved to be on that cross.
"And one of the malefactors which were hanged railed on him, saying, 'If thou be Christ, save thyself and us.'"
Verse 40 says, "But the other answering rebuked him, saying, 'Does not thou fear God, seeing thou art in the same condemnation?'"
Verse 41.
"And we indeed justly."
So the one malefactor that wanted to get back down off that cross and go continue doing what he's doing is being rebuked by the other malefactor that understood that he was being punished for his sins.
He knew he had made a mistake.
The Bible says the wages of sin is death, and that man knew what he had done.
He knew he had made a mistake.
He knew he was being punished for his sin.
The other malefactor didn't admit that.
He just wanted to get back down off that cross, continue on his life of sin.
The one says, "And we indeed justly, for we receive the due reward of our deeds."
And folks, if you do not know Jesus Christ as your Savior, you are going to be receiving the reward of your deeds.
But this man, talking about Jesus, hath done nothing amiss.
Jesus didn't do nothing wrong.
And that one malefactor, he knew it.
He knew Jesus is sinless.
He knew Jesus was the Son of God.
And he said unto Jesus, "Lord, remember me when Thou comest into Thy kingdom."
He done professed Jesus right there.
And Jesus said unto him, I love this, "Verily I say unto thee, today shalt thou be with me in paradise."
Now I want you to notice something here, folks.
The man that was saved right there, did he get back down off that cross and go get baptized?
No.
Did he get back down off that cross and go have a preacher say a prayer for him?
No.
He simply believed on Jesus Christ.
And Jesus said, "Today shalt thou be with me in paradise."
That man, when he died on that cross beside Jesus, he went to be with God in heaven, folks.
Right here, in black and white and red.
It's in God's Word.
That's not brother Doug.
That is God right there.
"For by grace are you saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not by our works, lest any man should boast."
We're going to close in prayer, and we'll sing one on the way out.
Since Bill's here, maybe he'll help us.
Heavenly Father, we thank you so much, Lord, for those who have come, Lord, to hear your Word taught, Father.
And I pray, Lord, that you will glorify here today, Father, by the reading of your Word and the teaching of your Word, Father.
And I pray, Lord, that you would just draw the unsaved to the cross, Father, the show of Christ, Lord.
And I pray that the ones that know Christ as their Savior, Lord, were edified today by the reading of your Word, Lord.
We want to pray for those who are sick, Father, and we miss them.
And pray, Lord, that for your healing mercies upon them, Lord.
And we thank you so much, Lord, for all that you do.
And we thank you that Jesus didn't come down off that cross, Lord.
Thank you for his faithfulness to you, Lord.
And I pray, Lord, that each and every one of us could be his faithful, Father.
Help us to share your Word with others, Lord.
And we love you and thank you, Father.
We ask these things in Jesus' name today, Lord, amen.
