Bible Survey - James, Jude
Vern Peterman · Dec 14, 2014
Bible Survey, No. 49
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/4926449355074

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

question held over from last week, and this is, there was a question, I think Pat may have brought it up, about 1 John 5, 6-8, and you got the water and the blood, and what does that mean, right? And you have on the last couple sheets of your handout, it's on the back, a write-up on that, and I'm not going to cover it all because we don't have time to, but you're certainly free to do that. What I did in the write-up was first quote John 5 1 through 12, so we have context, right?

And then the other thing that complicates it a little bit is that the King James has some additional wording in there that confuses the interpretation. The The thing is, this passage has had about four main interpretations. The oldest interpretation views the waters referring to Christ's baptism.

And the blood is his blood on the cross. That is, I believe, the correct interpretation. The other interpretations, Augustine adopted the view that the water referred to the separation of water and blood at Christ's crucifixion. There was water and blood, but I don't believe that's the correct interpretation. And also it's blood and water in the Gospel of John, so the sequence is different. The third view introduced at the time of the Reformation is that water refers to baptism of the Christian, and blood refers to taking the Lord's table.

So one from each. And then the fourth view is the water of Christ's birth has been suggested. And then the blood of Christ's birth or sometimes the blood of the cross. So those have been suggested. What I do in here, and I'm going to jump to page three. Page two is just some interlinear, which is nice to study in depth. But the bottom line is that you have You go through on page 3, and we underline some of the key terms.

The Son of God, the water, the Spirit testifying, etc. And then we go through John chapter 1, 29-36, and look to some of those same words, same indications there. The Son of God testified, you know, those kinds of things. Then I go to Matthew 3, 13-17, which has equals in Mark and Luke, and then there, after being baptized, Jesus, and it refers to the water, and then the Spirit of God, and the Son again. So what I have in summary on page 4 here is 1 John 5, 6-8, is in a context of testimony, presents the Trinity, so the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit are all presented, with Christ as the Son.

John 1.29-36 is in the context of testimony, presents the Trinity with Christ as the Son.

Matthew 3.13-17 is in the context of testimony, presents the Trinity with Christ as the Son, as do Mark and Luke in those passages.

And then Matthew 3.13-17 in Mark Luke and then John 129 all relate the water to baptism by John the Baptist. So in view of the above, I think the Gospels and 1 John are pretty consistent about noting those things. The testimony, presenting the Trinity and Christ as the Son with all of those. So I think that's consistent with the Gospels and consistent even with John's own writing.

So anyway, that's the quick answer. What's that? Difficulty usually is there are three things that speak together on earth and trying to figure out what those three things were on earth. The three things in heaven, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are pretty consistent interpretations, but trying to get the three things on earth is something that people... Yeah, but verse 7 is an insertion. It's not in the original text. And that's what gets a lot of people derailed.

Now we're covering James and Jude. And the first thing, these are the two books written by Jesus' half-brothers. James and Jude being brothers. James is the first, and then there's Joseph, who didn't write a book, and then Jude. So we have those two brothers, and we'll let you pursue that.

But can you just put yourself in the place of James and Jude, who did not believe, John chapter 7 tells us that, who did not believe until Christ was resurrected. And in 1 Corinthians 15, Paul writes that Jesus appeared to James after he was resurrected. And it shows in the Gospel of John that his brothers wanted him dead. Can you imagine what went through their minds? Whoa! I'm Jesus, I've been crucified, as you probably heard, but I'm alive now. That has to have just been a blowing away kind of experience, you know, for them.

And so you can imagine, James, when he writes the book of James, doesn't say, I'm Jesus' brother. He calls himself a bondservant. And then Jude says, I'm James' brother, but he doesn't say, I'm Jesus' brother. They're kind of amazing that way. They don't claim their relationship to Christ as an earthly brother. having the same mother, right? Well, you know, it's real interesting. I think that they probably recognized that this could be a point of pride.

We do have the James ossuary, that is the bone box, which actually says, you know, James, son of Joseph, brother of Jesus. So it was put on his bone box. But neither James nor Jude claimed, when they wrote, they didn't claim the relationship to Jesus. I think they probably would have thought it was a point of arrogance, you know, pride and arrogance. And possibly especially because they didn't believe him when he was carrying out his ministry. So I think that's key.

The book of James is probably the earliest New Testament book that we have, written about 45 AD. And the evidence is stacking up more and more that Jesus was crucified on April 3rd, 33 AD. And so this would have been about a dozen years after Christ's death, burial, resurrection, ascension, and seating. And then the book of Jude appears to have been written later, probably about 66 AD or so.

James was written to believers of the 12 Jewish tribes scattered abroad, whereas Jude seems to have been written more to Christians in general. And here's one reason why they would be directed that way. Early on, Was the church Jewish or Gentile? It was absolutely Jewish. It was roughly a decade before Peter presented the gospel to Cornelius, and then Christianity began spreading among the Gentiles, especially with the work of the Apostle Paul.

Yeah? But you pointed out, when we went through Hebrews in the main service, the same sort of thing. It's interesting, you gave the earliness of James, so to speak, and so he speaks more about the practical side. Yes. Which, it's still grace, but he just brings in so many things that are manifestations of God working in you. Yes. Whereas Jude, talks about the people are creeping in and people are giving false testimony. They're perverting the gospel. Yes. You're farther along and you've got the true gospel, but then you've got everybody's private interpretation, so to speak. Yes. He talks about clouds without water and all these.

When you start going through the New Testament, as a larger picture, a great deal of the New Testament is dealing with false teaching. and particularly 2 Peter and Jude dealing with false teaching. Really significant that they battled false teaching from an early time and it continues to be an issue in the church. It continues to be an issue. Yeah, today it's a huge issue.

We have 30,000 denominations and none of them are right. Okay. Alright, now, the next thing we have Jude, written about 66 AD, and by that time the Gentiles, who were Christians, had begun to outnumber the Jews, who were believers. And that continued to be the trend, where Gentiles were increasingly what made up the church. You have James at a glance here.

Oh, excuse me, before I get there, I've got one other thing, and that's that if you look at the book of James, there are many parallels with the Sermon on the Mount. And we have on page 2 what those parallels are, a great many parallels with the Sermon on the Mount. Why do you think that would be? Why would there be lots of parallels between James and the Sermon on the Mount?

Yeah, one is he's talking to the Jews. That would be one reason. One person, you could say, inspiration of the Spirit gives the same message to whoever is the proclaimer. Okay, and that would be another reason why he would track with the Sermon on the Mount. Can you think of any others? How about Jesus his brother spoke those early, and he looks and says, you know, what can I take from the Sermon on the Mount that's relevant to these people here? So that would be another one.

Jude, on the other hand, tracks with 2 Peter more. 2 Peter is more about false teaching, and 2 Peter and Jude even have some verses that are in parallel, and those we show on the back page 4. There are some verses there that are very similar. So anyway, we won't go into the detail on that.

Now, looking at James, James kind of tracks out here, and I think there's probably a good line under this category topic, the development of the faith, the works of faith, and the power of faith. Now one thing that comes out in James, a lot of times people read James and it's like, whoa! This guy writes with intensity, similar to what 1 John writes. Statements are made that are like, you know, real potent statements.

And it has to do with the Jewish mindset. If you were a godly Jew, and Randy brought this up teaching through 1 John, if you were a godly Jew, you didn't have to have explained to you, you know, okay, if this is the truth then, you know, therefore do this and this and this. If you're a godly Jew, if it's true, of course you're going to do it. Of course you're going to live by the truth. That was in the Jewish mindset.

The Gentiles didn't have that and so a lot of times we become more accustomed to Paul's explaining things And saying, okay, here's your position, and here's who you are, and here's what Christ has done, and therefore, this is what you ought to do. Like, Ephesians goes through four and a half chapters before it gives you anything to do. Romans, you go through five and a half chapters before you have anything to do. Why? It's because there's all this explanation first.

James doesn't do that. He comes right out, boom, and boom, and he doesn't explain, here's your position, because for the Jews that was assumed. You knew what that was, therefore you do this. It can come across as legalistic if we don't understand that distinction. What are some of the passages in James that come to your mind when you think of the book of James? What sort of things jump out at you? Doers of the Word. And that's a key thing in James.

This is the Jewish mindset. If you're a godly Jew, of course you're going to do it. And they put that together, whereas for the Gentiles, Paul had to explain, here's your position, and therefore, because of who you are in Christ and who Christ is in you, therefore, this is what you do. And Paul takes time to explain that. James just goes right at it, because he's got the Jewish mindset that connects, if this is true, of course you're going to do it.

Get going. Tie in with Proverbs, it speaks to wisdom. The wisdom that you need. If any man lacks wisdom, let him ask of God. And later, the earthly wisdom compared with the heavenly wisdom. So the idea of getting the true picture of things. Getting the wisdom from God that is, first of all, peaceable, etc. What's the first thing that James comes out with? I mean, right after he's done saying, you know, James to the twelve tribes scattered abroad, what's the first thing he hits?

Rejoice when you encounter various trials, okay? And by the way, you must rejoice, okay? You must rejoice when you encounter varying trials. And by the way, that rejoice is an intense rejoicing. Rejoice in this suffering. Rejoice when you encounter the various trials. That word various is where we get our word polka as in polka dots. Little ones, big ones, in between ones, here and there. Rejoice when you encounter various trials.

Is that insane or what? From the world standpoint, from a human standpoint, this is crazy. This is crazy. hope to it. And as Paul writes in that beautiful verse, may the God of hope fill you with joy and peace in believing that you might be filled with hope through the power of the Holy Spirit. I mean, there are just some wonderful tie-ins between different places in Scripture that say, as you pointed out in the sermons so many times, faith in the facts is like the train on the tracks, etc. That our faith is not a sort of a, well, it would sure be nice if someone would give me a new car, or it would sure be nice if this. It's faith and hope that are kind of hope so, maybe so, and we take a look at God's word and say, this is a foundation that I can build on.

I can anchor in it. I can rest in it. And then the joy and the peace and the rest come along as a natural consequence. Not that you have to wamp up some kind of false front. I'm laughing on the outside but crying on the inside type of thing. Think about it. The message, rejoice when your circumstances justify it.

Where does that come from? That comes from the world, right? And a number of Christians have embraced that in various ways. And it comes out in the prosperity doctrine. It comes out in a lot of the charismatic background. You're always looking for this feeling and experience. Feelings and experience. are all of what it's about, and you're looking for that.

And so that's why a lot of them will drift into the Holy Spirit comes and goes, and you're inviting the Holy Spirit back in. And you'll sing songs like, Take Not Your Holy Spirit From Me, even though it's from the Psalms. Spirit of the Living God, fall fresh on me. Those kinds of things, those are all inviting the Holy Spirit back.

What are you looking for? You're looking for the feelings. You're looking for the feelings. But that's not the biblical model. That's one of the things that James hits on. Faith is a key issue. Where's your faith? That's what he keeps pointing at. Where is your faith? Where is your hope? Where is your dependence? All those things are key things in James and he just goes right for it.

You talk about the Jewish mindset. One of the parts of the Jewish mindset was God was specially Jewish. It was quite a shock to have the Gentiles receive the same blessing as they had. James hits that pretty strongly with his If a rich man and poor man come in and you show partiality, you pay them one over another.

He gets that idea from a little different point of view, but still not by the same standard that you've been exercising, but by God's standard. Is James just being a legalist? Is he just spouting Old Testament Judaism? Let's test that at one point. If you follow the law, you're blessed. How are you blessed? You're blessed in the land physically and earthly ways. If you don't follow the law, then you're cursed in earthly and physical ways. If I rejoice when I encounter various trials, that is contrary to the principle of the law. Because if I'm encountering various trials as a Jew, it means I'm being cursed because I'm not following the law. So the immediate thing that James opens up with is completely reversed from the law. Completely reversed.

Yes. Yes. That's right. Yeah. Here is James and he says you encountered various trials. He doesn't say if you encounter various trials you must have been disobedient to the law. He turns around and says no you've got to rejoice when you encounter the various trials. Yeah. God's working. God's at work. You know. Get excited about it. Yes. The Jews what? Oh yeah, you think about that. What he says just immediately is very un-Jewish. Very un-Jewish. So he's writing to the Twelve Tribes as a Jew, writing to Jews, but he has caught on. We're not under the Old Testament law in the very first things that he says.

Okay? Yes? It seems like one of the strongest things he said is if you want to keep the law, you break one point. Ah, yeah. This is very important because Christians get all messed up over the law. I mean big time. Christians get messed up over the law. And so here is James who adds the principle. How many laws do you have to break before you're in trouble? One. Just one.

And let's just take the Sabbath for example. How many people are doing the Sabbath? Friday afternoon, Friday at sundown until Saturday at sundown. You keep the Sabbath and don't do any work. You don't turn on any of the switches in the house or turn them off. You don't do that. You break off all of your toilet paper sheets before the Sabbath because you can't pull the sheets off.

You're all observing that, right? No, what he is presenting here is a key thing. You want to keep the law? Good luck with that. You break one, you've broken the whole thing. It is like tempered glass. I have a little video clip that I showed back when we were going through Law and Grace. You go and tap the corner of the tempered glass. Just the corner of the tempered glass with a hammer. And the whole thing goes... You broke one, you broke it all. You broke the whole thing.

So that's a key principle that many Christians forget. 613 laws, don't break one of them. And the principle that Paul brings up in Galatians, if you follow one, you're obligated to the whole thing. He says, if you so much as get circumcised, you are volunteering to take on the whole thing. You don't go parts and pieces with the law. The part of the law that you choose not to follow is the part that you have decided is going to break the whole thing. And it makes all the rest of the law keeping that people try to do useless. So James is a key indicator, insight into the character of the law.

This is out of Galatians. It's in Galatians. He says, if you so much as get circumcised, you're signing up for the whole thing. That was the one item that he cited specifically? If you so much as get circumcised, you're volunteering for the whole thing. And then James gives the truth, if you break one, you've broken the whole thing. So you can't go parts and pieces on the law.

And Jesus said the same thing when he said, I didn't come to get rid of the law, I came to fulfill it. But he said in his preaching about the law, that if you're guilty of Yeah, that's right. The teaching of the New Testament is consistent. It's consistent regarding the law. Here's one other thing that I think is very important to get straight. Do Paul and James use the word justified the same way? Yeah. The key point here is, no they don't. And here's the difference. They use the same word, justified, but they mean something entirely different.

When Paul says justified, that's a positional statement, and it means declared righteous. Declared righteous. But declared righteous before who? Before God. That's what Paul means when he says you're justified. You're justified, you're declared righteous before God, and who does the declaring? God does God does the declaration you're justified. Okay. God does the declaration you're justified That's what Paul meant by the word justified James uses the same word, but he means something entirely different and what he is looking at James is writing about is justified is justified before men What will men call? righteous, okay, what will men see as righteous and And so they use it in entirely different ways.

And if you don't understand that distinction, you can end up reading James and greatly misunderstanding what he's trying to say. Because then you think that the works justify it. Yes, that's right. If you read James and use Paul's definition of it, you're going to then think that you're saved by works.

But that's not what James is saying. James is saying, what message are you sending to other people? That's what James is talking about. When I say I'm a Christian, even though people are in the world, they expect certain behaviors. They expect a higher standard. what the Bible talks about. So that's a key issue in James to look at.

James takes an entirely different use of the word justified and if you don't understand the difference you get really confused because then it sounds like a message opposite of what Paul taught. You're not justified by works And then you read James and it says, well, wait a minute, it says here, I am justified by works, right? Justified before men, yeah. And Luther didn't like James because he didn't understand the distinction. Okay? It's justified before men, and it's very important to get that straight. Yes? No, it's the exact same word, but Paul's talking about we are declared righteous by God, and it's between ourselves and God.

When James is talking, he's talking about execution, how things get carried out in life among people. One is that James, when he writes, he talks about inconsistencies among people. Take for instance, here's this guy and he's fine and he's well-dressed and wealthy and then we'll treat him better than this poor fellow over here. It's all about human relationships before God rather than You know, what does God declare of you?

Right? Yes. Yes, the context. A good example is when he says, a pure religion and undefiled is taking care of the widows and orphans. So James is practical in human relations. You're showing love. Let's see some love. Don't worry about tithing your herb garden and saying that you've followed a righteous act. What are you doing about the poor people in your midst and the widows? James is concerned about practical living in human relationships.

That's what he talks about. And so his expression of justified is not justified before God. That's already been taken care of. But his thinking is, what are other people going to see as a message if you come in with this hypocrisy? If you have life, you're living life, only it's not consistent with what you teach and preach and say. What verse contains the word justified here in James?

You have to get into chapter 2. Another key point that is lost is James says there is no shadow of changing. God and and there is a there is a portion of Christianity over the last 30 years roughly that has begun to embrace what's called open theism the idea that one God changes and two God doesn't know the future and That's that's been embraced by a number of Christians Essentially God gets reduced down. So he's more human like in open theism James counters that says nope I There's not even the shadow of changing, right?

Yes. There's a book called Four Views of Free Will and Sovereignty of God, and it has that same kind of thing. God deliberately shuts off part of his knowledge, or shuts off the future. Yeah, and this doesn't work, but James counters that. You know, God doesn't change. And God doesn't, you know, the way it's stated among the open sea is God likes surprises. So anyway, it's... Yes. Yeah. Look at when God changed his mind about or going with Moses through the wilderness. And so they pick up Old Testament examples and say, see, God changed his mind. Right.

And what happens is there are places where there are statements that are made that are bringing things down to our level of expression. For example, God does things, it talks about God's hands. Does God make things with hands? No. That's a figure of speech that comes down to our thinking level. It doesn't mean God has hands. Any more than when it says in the Psalms that he keeps us under his wings, that he's a chicken. Right? It is a figure of speech, not a statement. Not a direct statement.

So anyway, James is just an amazing and very potent book. It needs to be understood what James is getting at. James focuses largely on the practical working out and the consistency between profession and belief and actions. So that's his focus. Unlike Paul who explains position, James spends no time explaining your position. Now let's turn to page 3 and take a look at the book of Jude here. Yes. Jane, this is where it says you'll be forgiven. Yes. This is on 515. It says, in the favor of the faith, so on and so on. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven.

And this is the issue of, well, aren't we already forgiven for past presentations? So why is he saying you're going to be forgiven? Think about this. In our position, are we completely forgiven? Yes. In our position, we are completely forgiven. Are sins then not an issue for a Christian? It's fellowship that's the issue, and I think that's what it's talking about. We, in our position, are completely forgiven. It's a done deal. It's not like God's obsessed with sin. But the only reason God wants to deal with it at all is because He wants fellowship with us, and sin gets in the way of fellowship.

So this is a fellowship statement, not a positional statement. It's important when we look at something, is this position or condition? And this is a conditional statement. And fellowship is the issue. Fellowship with the Lord and fellowship with my brothers and sisters. That's the issue.

Not the positional statement of, I thought everything was taken care of. Just like when it talks about, in that same section, it talks about a righteous man. Well, who's righteous? There's none righteous. But righteousness, when we're declared righteous by God. So the position, again, is secure. But the condition of living righteously and showing outwardly what we have inward.

Let's talk about this with the book of James. Is James more about position or condition? James is about condition and that's a key insight because what happens is we can get real messed up if we don't see the distinction there. He's not giving a theology. James is only occasionally touching on who God is and things like that. He is talking about condition, not position. And that's one reason why it's important to understand the distinction. When Paul uses the word justified, it's about position. When James uses the word justified, it's about condition. All right.

Now, page three, Book of Jude. Book of Jude is one book. There are a number, Book of Ruth, Book of Matthew, Galatians, in a chiasm form here. And so that's kind of the pattern in the book. It centers on this ancient trio of apostates. So whatever is the pivot point or the center, that's F. in the lettering system. Whatever is the center is a point of emphasis. So the book focuses on dealing with false teachers. What's interesting is Jude draws a lot on Old Testament images as he writes this New Testament book.

One of the reasons for, we have kind of four bullet points here for why a chiasm? You know, why a chiasm? Chiasm is emphasized by repetition and the pivot or the center of the passage, so it's a way of emphasizing. Chiasm is made for a memory tool and a cross check for copying by hand.

It follows a chiasm pattern. A chiasm is made for an orderly presentation. I'm going in. In one sense, you ever hear, you tell them what you're going to tell them, then you tell them, and then you tell them what you told them? Chiasms do that automatically. Chiasms serve to help us check our understanding of each part of the passage. If I interpret something that breaks from the chiasm, then maybe I don't understand it correctly.

So here's Jude, it's a short book, one chapter, just verses, still more than a couple dozen there. He starts off, he says, I was going to write to you about this, but, and so we have the slides underneath, Jude 3 and Apostolic Revelation. While I was making every effort to write to you about our common salvation, I felt the necessity to write to you appealing that you contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all handed down to the saints." There are some powerful words here that it's helpful to understand.

Part one here is contend earnestly. This is a agonizumai. You can kind of hear the word agony in there. Agonizumai. And then it has an intensifier, epi, in front of it. So the way I've carried it across, what I do, kind of expanded and explained, is I talk about, I urge that you put forth an intense Olympic-level effort. An intense Olympic-level effort. Because agonizomai was a word used in the Olympics and in other sports. Yeah, this is a wrestlers going through some intense conflict here. That's how the word is used.

And then for the faith, that faith has a definite article, that use of the faith in the slide next over there, is it starts in Acts chapter 6 and it continues through most of the New Testament books, the faith, all the way to Revelation 2.13.

So what THE FAITH is, is the specific set of teachings of the Apostles. And Jude is in a short book carrying out what a great deal of the New Testament is about, and that's defending THE FAITH. Keep it to THE FAITH. Because the problems are going to come when you start deviating. The problems are going to come when you start deviating from THE FAITH that was laid down by the Apostles. So here's Jude, I urge that you put forth this very intense athletic effort for the faith, the set of teachings of the apostles, which was once for all.

There's that word hapax, which is also used several times in the book of Hebrews. Hapax means once given, perpetually valid, or once done, perpetually valid. And so it's like, okay, this is done, and now it continues. It keeps on going on. It is a way of stating with a word what we often times think of with the perfect tense in a verb.

So that's what he's saying, that once for all, once given perpetually valid, handed down by the apostles to these saints. So, to put this together, I urge that you put forth an intense athletic level effort for the faith that was delivered by the apostles once for all. And delivered to who? To us. I urge that you contend for it. Why?

Because there are other people out there wrestling the other direction. People deviating from it. We have in our day people using marketing and communications technology and whatnot to spread the deviations. To spread the deviations as much as they possibly can.

So what's our response? contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the Saints. That's Jude's urging. So he then spends the rest of the book, and particularly using a lot of Old Testament images of those who, in the Old Testament times, like Balaam, began misleading people. And, uh... So Jambres, always in Moses. And so that's the theme of Jude. He talks about the believer in the faith, verse 3, and then you look at, because of the chiasm, verses 20-23, the believer in the faith. He returns to that theme before he closes there. He starts with assurance for Christians and he ends with assurance for Christians. But in between dealing with the apostasy.

Thoughts? Comments? Yes. I thought it was on verse 7 it talks about punishment. Yes. For your vengeance of eternal fire. Yes. This whole idea of hell. It seemed like some place talked about eternal darkness, sometimes fire. Yes. It's just kind of vague. It seems contradictory. You have darkness and you have fire. And you have varying stages. Hotter and colder. Is that all we know? Okay, so you're wondering about the mixed images? Outer darkness. Let's ask this question. What's that trying to communicate? Yeah, in other words, it's bad either way. One, is it possible to have things that appear to be contradictory at the same time?

Sure. Are there forms of flame that do not bring about brightness? The answer is yes. You can have flames of different colors depending on, for example, what minerals you put in the flame. It'll put off darker colors, purple and blue and things like that. So it's trying to communicate something that on the surface might appear contradictory.

But think about what is the darkness? What's the problem with the darkness? Is it spiritual? The absence of light. Separation from God. And when it talks about at a certain crucial moment the devil and his minions will be cast into the lake of fire. Which was prepared for Satan and his angels. I have wondered the same thing, Pat. Yeah.

If you look at it, what does the darkness communicate? It communicates the absence of God's presence. It communicates a lack of sensation on the one hand, but the fire communicates that the sensations you do have are negative. Yeah, things that on the surface look like, well, this is contradictory. You look at what is it trying to communicate, Because those are conveying a description. For us who are believers, there will be no more mourning, sorrow, crying or pain. For those who are unbelievers, they will have mourning and sorrow and crying and pain. Yes, there are.

Jesus, as a matter of fact, almost 11 times talks about degrees of punishment. And by the way, who's going to be doing the judging? Jesus, right? He'll be doing the judging. But yes, it describes in 11 different passages in the Gospels degrees of punishment or degrees of suffering. What did they do with the knowledge of Jesus? And also, what sins did they carry out?

Some years ago, this was like my late teens, I came to kind of a crossing point because I would at times have a problem with rage, just getting extremely angry. And combine that with being a weightlifter, it was kind of crazy. But I came to a crossing point where I just said, you know, this is terrible. I have to completely cut this off.

And one of the things was coming to an understanding that in the whole scope of all of eternity, wrong and injustice will be dealt with in three places. It has been dealt with on the cross. It sometimes is dealt with in this life, often not. A lot of injustice goes on in this world.

And it will also be dealt with at the judgment, the final judgment for everyone, which will happen differently for everyone. For believers who carry out injustice, and it happens, for believers who carry out injustice, it's a loss of reward. For unbelievers, it's eternal punishment, because they've died in their sins rather than belief. That's John chapter 8.

So all injustice has been is being or will be dealt with. And God will take care of it all. So I don't have to go into a rage about some injustice because God will take care of it all. There will be absolutely nothing that won't be dealt with. Your favorite verse at that time was probably, be angry and sin not. Yeah, be angry but sin not.

Okay, let's pray. Lord, thank you for these very special books of James and Jude these half-brothers who of Jesus who came at the resurrection to faith in you and Realized what's true, and we thank you for their practicality James talking about the living out of the face and Jude talking about the defending of the face and Lord we Just thank you for the insights from these books, and thank you that you're revealed through James and Jude because you love us and care for us so much. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.