JOTS FROM OLD JAKE
JUDE
Wednesday, Jan. 17, 2007 - 10:53 p.m.
Jude
This book of the New Testament is the smallest book in the New Testament but carries a big impact, an impact that is often overlooked by Christians today. It makes many references back to the Old Testament and gives a few observations that would otherwise go unnoticed. Such as talking about the Michael and Satan�s discussion over the grave of Moses, (verse 9) and references to the events that occurred on the way from Egypt to the Promised Land.
Jude, the brother of James, Jesus, etal, was sending a warning to us about the apostasy that is sneaking into the Body of Christ in the last days and comparing it to the times of old. He points out that there is only one salvation and that is through the Lord Jesus Christ. It is because Jesus shed his Blood on the cross that we have the opportunity to have our sins completely washed away.
The natural man has no way to purchase this salvation. I am speaking of the natural man as being the being that is earth born (bloodline of Adam) and the true nature of that person. Sometimes it is referred to as our sinful nature. This originated in the Garden of Eden when Adam and Eve committed the first sin.
Genesis 2: 17 �But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.�
We all know the story, Eve was deceived and Adam did also eat, thus committing the first sin to death. I, as a child, always wondered why Adam and Eve didn�t die right there on the spot. They were just kicked out of the garden and not allowed to return. Now I see that they did die. It was a spiritual death and only through the shedding of blood could they be reborn. When God made fur coats for them to wear before he 86ed them from the garden, he was showing them that blood of the innocent had to be shed to cover up sin and shame. The animal that died and shed its blood was a type of Christ.
Back to Jude:
"3 Beloved, when 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 ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints. 4 For there are certain men crept in unawares, who were before of old ordained to this condemnation, ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness, and denying the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ.
6 And the angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, he hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day.
7 Even as Sodom and Gomorrha, and the cities about them in like manner, giving themselves over to fornication, and going after strange flesh, are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire.
8 Likewise also these filthy dreamers defile the flesh, despise dominion, and speak evil of dignities.
9 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.
10 But these speak evil of those things which they know not: but what they know naturally, as brute beasts, in those things they corrupt themselves."
Anyway, I recommend that you go through the whole book and glean out what ever the Holy Spirit will show you. It sure brings a lot of things home to me� and even more each time I read it.
Blessings to y�all
Be ye filled with the Holy Spirit to overflowing.
