Chag sameach Rosh Chodesh kol beit Yisra'el and Mishpachah! Shalom and welcome to the first day of the 8th month of the year, the day for consulting with the nevi'im (prophets) and indeed with the prophecies themselves.

When we first began observing Rosh Chodesh, many years ago now, I must admit that I found it a little nerve wracking at first because I had no idea how this day was to be 'done' - I just knew that it was important to ancient Israel as it therefore must be for Messianic Israel in the New Covenant of Yah'shua the Messiah (Jesus Christ). After many years of experience now I have learned simply to leave matters in Yahweh's hands and to never force anything. Prophecy is not a small matter, it is never to be taken lightly and it is never to be undertaken on man's own initiative. Sometimes, though happily not so often, I come empty-handed to Rosh Chodesh and so I do something else on the Day of the New Moon, and that is as it should be. My motto, as far as prophecy is concerned, is 'if in doubt, say nothing.' If, as Scripture says, "it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living Elohim (God)" (Heb.10:31, NKJV), then it is surely a fearful thing also to speak presumptuously in His Name.

One thing I have learned about the nevi'im (prophets) is that Yahweh chooses them precisely because they are out of sync with their particular generation. Yahweh, I have discovered, chooses and uses a person in the prophetic, not because he fits in, but precisely because he does not fit in...and I don't just mean he doesn't fit in with the world but that he does not fit in with the churches either. Those who are aligned with society and church are almost certainly false ones because Yahweh doesn't need to call nevi'im (prophets) when everything is functioning as it should be.

The navi's (prophet's) task is to shake people, and to shake them hard, and he can only do that if he is authentically called and spiritually endowed of Yahweh, in the same way that Aaron was (Heb.5:4) called to the office of Cohen Gadol (High Priest). Likewise, only the Ruach haQodesh (Holy Spirit) calls nevi'im (prophets):

"...no prophecy of Scripture is of any private interpretation, for prophecy never came by the will of man, but qadosh (holy, set-apart) men of Elohim (God) spoke as they were moved by the Ruach haQodesh (Holy Spirit). But there were also false nevi'im (prophets) among the people, even as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Master (Lord) who bought them, and bring on themselves swift destruction. And many will follow their destructive ways, because of whom the way of emet (truth) will be blasphemed. By covetousness they will exploit you with deceptive words; for a long time their judgment has not been idle, and their destruction does not slumber" (2 Pet 1:21-2:1-2 NKJV)

So, let us be clear, the true nevi'im (prophets) never call themselves. Moreover, the true ones are guaranteed a rough time so no one in his right mind would ever want to be one. The nevi'im (prophets) are called to speak to those who are stubborn of heart and hard of hearing and do not expect to be received well...if at all. And frequently they are killed carrying out their assignments. Thus the flesh only gives approval to false prophets and false prophecy for what thee false prophets say is usually liked by the wicked.

People have all these sterotypical pictures in their heads as to what a true navi (prophet) looks like. The best example we have, apart from Yah'shua the Messiah (Jesus Christ) Himself, is John the Baptist whom the Saviour acknowledged as being the greatest of all the prophets before him (Mt.11:11; Lk.7:28). His head ended up on a platter after a long spell in a first century dungeon and all because he called a king to repent of adultery.

Adultery means very little these days, even in the churches, but to Yahweh it is still the second most serious sin there is after murder itself. Worse, in some ways, most Christians and Messianics don't even know what adultery is scripturally because their minds have been blinded by so many false traditions about the positions and rôles Yahweh has assigned to those in marriage. So many believers are living in adultery because they have been wrongly taught by their ministers.

I mention this because one of the chief tasks of today's true nevi'im (prophets)-to-the-nations is to call out the murderers, adulterers and sexual abusers in high places. And believe you me, kings, potentates, dictators, presidents and prime ministers - let alone all the officers of state under their authority - don't like being called out on such things. It makes them burn with murderous rage which, if they have the power and the means to conceal it, they will carry out to prevent their consciences being troubled any longer.

The authentic nevi'im (prophets) - and especially those called to the nations to speak to such wicked rulers - are called even before they are conceived in their mothers' wombs. To Jeremiah Yahweh said:

"Before I formed you in the womb (before conception) I knew you;
Before you were born I sanctified you (set you apart);
I ordained you a navi (prophet) to the nations"
(Jer.1:5, NKJV).

Such men made premortal covenants with Yahweh to fulfil their tasks on earth. And though their memory of such a calling may be lost until the Ruach (Spirit) reminds them of it on day they are called again, but this time in the flesh. So this is not the first time they are called, it isn't 'new' by any means. Yahweh knew - that is to say, had a relationship with - His navi (prophet) Jeremiah, ordained him before the witness of the heavenly hosts, and sanctified him (equipping him for the task) after he had agreed to go to wherever Yahweh would send him in mortality, and go to and speak to whomsoever Yahweh would send him.

When John the Baptist as a navi (prophet) arraigned Herod the Tetrach before the Heavenly Tribunal and called him to make teshuvah (repent) of his adultery, he did so repetedly and in public, confronting him every time their paths crossed, until Herod came to both fear and loathe him whilst, ironically, admiring him. In other word, the one who is authentically called does not question or challenge Yahweh's instructions once his calling has been 'activated' on earth. The message he has been given will remain in him, like an unquenchable fire, until he has completely delivered it in the manner commanded. That is why Jonah was pursued across the Great Sea by Elohim (God) until he had done what he had promised to do before he was born.

Today the Enemy is running rampant through Elohim's (God's) Flock all over the world because of their disobedience and rebellions, and the navi (prophet) is, in addition to confronting the secular rulers, also commanded to enter into these ravaged pastures wherever the sheep are torn and scattered. The false prophets, who always outnumber the true ones many times over, deny the dangers in the Flock, who have been deceived by hireling preachers (that's right, they receive a salary and view their job as paramountly a career), and laugh at all the dangers that surround them as though they were nothing.

The true navi (prophet) speaks the truth directly and uncompromisingly, even if he is consigned to great loneliness (as he usually is) upon being rejected, because most of his hearers, if not all, turn away from him in disbelief, their flesh offended. He can only ever minister to the poor and lowly because the rich and powerful are only interested in the things of the world. Indeed, as Jeremiah knew only too well, the soul harvest of a true navi (prophet) in times of apostacy is never large. The Final Gathering is, in the early days, very piecemeal. Speaking to the humble and repentant, Yahweh says:

"I will take you, one from a city and two from a family, and I will bring you to Zion" (Jer.3:14, NKJV).

So the true navi (prophet) is absolutely not 'seeker-friendly' nor are his meetings jam-packed with those who are his adoring fans. The true navi (prophet) is not a celebrity and he is not wealthy.

Finally, the navi (prophets) knows that he is a creature made of dust so he never lets his high and holy calling go to his head. One of his most frequent prayers is: 'Save me from myself!'

All I have said is by way of an introduction and follow-on to today's main message. All of this will make better sense after we have primed our minds and hearts with the little Letter of Jude consisting of but one chapter, the penultimate or last-but-one book of the Messianic Scriptures (New Testament). Small though it is, it contains a wealth of inspired information and counsel that is needed for our own day. So we're going to read through that now using the New King James Version (NKJV) and then I will explain what it is that the Ruach (Spirit) wants me to highlight for you.

I am going to divide the book up into three parts and we will discuss each in turn. We'll begin with Part A:

"1 Y'hudah (Judah, Jude), a bondservant of Yah'shua the Messiah (Jesus Christ), and brother of Ya'akov (James), to those who are called, sanctified by Elohim (God) the Father, and preserved in Yah'shua the Messiah /Jesus Christ): 2 Chesed (mercy), shalom (peace), and ahavah (love) be multiplied to you.

"3 Beloved, while I was very diligent to write to you concerning our common salvation, I found it necessary to write to you exhorting you to contend earnestly for the emunah (faith) which was once for all delivered to the qodeshim (saints, set-apart ones). 4 For certain men have crept in unnoticed, who long ago were marked out for this condemnation, ungodly men, who turn the grace (undeserved loving kindness) of our Elohim (God) into lewdness and deny the only Yahweh-Elohim (Lord God) and our Master Yah'shua the Messiah (Lord Jesus Christ)" (vv.1-3, NKJV).

We don't precisely know when this letter was composed but it was certainly written around the same time of 2 Peter so it could have been penned sometime between 65 and 80 AD. The Messianic Community was at least 30+ years old and maybe older and already there was trouble. Things were going wrong and what seemed easy at the beginning was now hard. Jude's hope had been to write about their shared or "common salvation", their rescue from sin and death by Yah'shua (Jesus), those great saving acts which we all love to celebrate, but there's a big problem: the Messianic Community had been infiltrated and another gospel - a false gospel - was competing with it. An entirely alien message was being preached. Without generations of experience behind them, these early believers were deeply vulnerable to false teachings and heresies. And the problem was, these new teachings sounded exciting and fun, and the temptation being laid before the believers was, why not give them a go? Why not taste 'forbidden fruit' to see if it's really that bad? And when that's done, before you know it, 'forbidden fruit' doctrines and practices soon become 'mainstream' by virtue of their popularity with carnal Christians over a period of time.

So as early as 65 AD, the very heart of the Besorah (Gospel, Good News) was under ferocious attack, and a lot of new believers, who likely didn't know better, were being sucked up by it and getting dizzy and giddy. I was talking with one of our ministers from Norway a couple of days ago, an ex-Pentecostal, and he was telling me something we both knew very well, namely, that a powerful false spirit has got hold of Christians immersed in all the psychic phenomena that holds charismatics captive, and it's so hard to shake them out of it. You can't reason with them because it is a religious spirit which feeds them with all sorts of emotional highs that has made them prisoner. Something similar was happening in the days of the first apostles. They were mesmerised by something alien that their flesh loved.

And yet Jude says that those who are obedient to the original message of the apostles are "...called...sanctified...and preserved in Yah'shua the Messiah /Jesus Christ)" - they're being guarded and kept safe by, as Paul decared to the Roman believers, "Messiah Yah'shua (Christ Jesus), who died - more than that, who was raised to life - [and] is at the right hand of Elohim (God) and is also interceding for us" (Rom.8:34, NIV).

Difficulties and temptations assail all believers, without fail, but we have an Advocate with the Father. Nevertheless, we have our jobs to do because what Yahweh loves to do, He loves to do through others - through us, through you and me. We are all, on one level, prophetic agents of His message, all those "who keep the mitzvot (commandments) of Elohim (God) and have the testimony of Yah'shua the Messiah (Jesus Christ)" (Rev.12:17, NKJV). How does Yah'shua (Jesus) guard us? In many ways, but not-to-be-forgotten are those trustworthy, proven teachers encouraging, warning, and sketching for them the bigger picture which we are apt to forget or fail to see in corners of the frame where our lives are lived out. People need to make some sense of the puzzling things happening to them which is why He calls ministers - chiefly apostles, prophets, pastors and teachers to show them what's going on. And that is exactly what Jude is doing in this letter.

Two principal dangers were facing the Messianic Community at the time of Jude which are remarkably similar to those facing believers today:

• 1. Corrupted Christians were "transforming Elohim's (God's) grace into licentiousness ('lewdness' - NKJV)" (v.4a, KNT); and
• 2. Corrupted believers were denying the one-and-only "Elohim (God) and our Master Yah'shua the Messiah (Lord Jesus Christ)" (4b).

Let me translate this into the 21st century experience. Find people who today are saying that Elohim (God) loves everyone exactly as they are, so everyone must stay exactly as they are, doing all the things they want to do, because Elohim (God) is so full of generosity that 'obviously' He wants them to do that. Find such people, and you've found those whom Jude is writing about. Find people who are saying that Yah'shua (Jesus) is one religious teacher among others, one way of salvation amongst others, that there are lots of different ways up the same mountain of which Yah'shua's (Jesus') path is only one, and that it's important not to make exclusive claims or we'll become 'arrogant' and 'judgmental'; find such people and you'll find those of whom Jude is speaking about.

This false teaching is called 'cheap grace' and Paul writes about it several times in his epistles, notably in Romans 6 and Galatians 5. Nowadays people are coming into the Messianic Community (Church) teaching these lies head-on and the only way to deal with them is by head-on confrontation. Like I've said, part of the job of the teacher is to paint the bigger picture, within which confused believers can understand where they are and what's going on. People are as lost today as they were back then and they need a map which only a skilled teacher can give them. What Jude is doing is what the nevi'im (prophets) of old have always done and that is to map the way out of confusion so they can get on track again...on the Derech or Way that leads to eternal life. And understand, that this is nothing new or unusual. It is the typical struggle that Yahweh's people must learn to expect because life isn't easy and dark forces will always be there to confuse and confound. Showing the big picture is prophetic and apostolic. It's not a fun job because it's not a pretty sight to be sure but if we're to keep our balance and see the way out safetly we absolutely need to do this.

Let's take the next section of the text, verses 5-16 which is all about false teachers:

"5 But I want to remind you, though you once knew this, that the Master (Lord), having saved the people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed those who did not believe. 6 And the malakim (angels) who did not keep their proper domain (estate), but left their own abode, He has reserved in everlasting chains under darkness for the judgment of the great day; 7 as Sodom and Gomorrah, and the cities around them in a similar manner to these, having given themselves over to sexual immorality and gone after strange flesh, are set forth as an example, suffering the vengeance of æonean (age-long) fire. 8 Likewise also these dreamers defile the flesh, reject authority, and speak evil of dignitaries. 9 Yet Michael the ruling malakim (an archangel), in contending with the devil, when he disputed about the body of Moses, dared not bring against him a reviling accusation, but said, 'Yahweh rebuke you!' 10 But these speak evil of whatever they do not know; and whatever they know naturally, like brute beasts, in these things they corrupt themselves. 11 Woe to them! For they have gone in the way of Cain, have run greedily in the error of Balaam for profit, and perished in the rebellion of Korah.

"12 These are spots in your agapé meals (love feasts), while they feast with you without fear, serving only themselves. They are clouds without water, carried about by the winds; late autumn trees without fruit, twice dead, pulled up by the roots; 13 raging waves of the sea, foaming up their own shame; wandering stars for whom is reserved the blackness of darkness forever. 14 Now Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied about these men also, saying, 'Behold, Yahweh comes with ten thousands of His qodeshim (saints, set-apart ones), 15 to execute judgment on all, to convict all who are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have committed in an ungodly way, and of all the harsh things which ungodly sinners have spoken against Him.'

"16 These are grumblers, complainers, walking according to their own lusts; and they mouth great swelling words, flattering people to gain advantage ('buttering people up for their own gain' - KNT)" (vv.5-16, NKJV).

Jude must have been a great preacher - he has a gift with words - and his message is as relevant today as it was then. You see, nothing much has changed in 2,000 years - people are still sinning in the same old ways, and the Enemy is laying the same snares with which to trap Yahweh's people. Then, as today, people are blind to the death traps that are being set up for them because they don't understand the devilish mind of the invisible principalities and powers (Eph.6:12). Millions are walking, voluntarily, without much protest, to their death, as the Jews of the 20th century did to the gas chambers. How many times have we said amongst ourselves, in the face of terrible wars or numerous attrocities, 'never again'? And yet we allow them to happen again, and again, and again. Today, for the first time in history the whole world has been turned into a kind of 'gas chamber' and people are believing the lie that they're just getting a pleasant 'shower'. You know what I'm talking about because we're still in this. People are getting their 'showers' to 'decontaminate' and get 'clean', so they've been told, when in reality they're just getting their 'Zyklon B' shots.

Before the war Hitler had lots of admirers from amongst ordinary, decent people in many nations. They really though that with his new form of socialism he was onto something good. And did you know that before Pearl Harbour there were plenty of people in the United States who thought that were America ever to get embroiled in another world war that they should be on the nazi side? And there were lots of sympathisers in Britain too, even in the Royal Family. When the war started, and the 'Final Solution' got underway, even after evidence of mass murder was trickling through, people would not believe that the national socialist régime was being systematically conducting genocide. The same happened between the two world wars in the Soviet Union - nobody believed that millions were being deliberately starved to death in the Ukraine or that Russians hundreds of thousands of Russians were being rounded up into Gulags and murdered. The same happened after World War Two when Mao Tse-Tung, whose face is still printed on Chinese bank notes, in the Peoples' Republic of China, set about murdering tens of millions of his own countrymen. Time and time again people were fooled into believing that Utopia was on the way. And the same dark forces are promising another Utopia whilst secretly...and sometimes not so secretly...planning to cull the world population by billions whilst millions of people file compliantly into clinics to receive their 'safety package' to deal with the current medical crisis when in fact they are just walking into a 21st century version of the nazi concentration camps and soviet gulags.

How does this happen again, and again, and again? Verses 5-16 of Jude's letter tell us. Humanity seems to have this childishly naïve view that Satan isn't 'so bad' after all, because the propagandists present him as benevolent, the 'progressive' one 'liberating' Eve from 'evil male patriarchy'. The writers of Star Trek: Deep Space 9, for those of you who like Science Fiction, tried to do the same thing with the character Gull Dukat, who's a psychopathic murderer and former dictator whose killed millions, who ends up presenting himself as a reformed, benign religious leader of the very same people he once enslaved. Satan is repackaged in the same way generation after generation to conceal his true intentions. Now he hangs out in technocratic corporations promising a new utopia if people will - once again - surrender their personal liberties in exchange for the promise of safety from the very malevolent forces they themselves have created. You would shudder if you knew what was being put in these death-packages, and why, which people are happily queuing up to receive in their millions thinking they're going to be 'saved'. And this is just the beginning of even greater evils planned.

Satan counts on the fact that the majority will distance itself from the enormous danger facing both the Messianic Community (Church) and the world itself. When we preach the Besorah (Gospel, Good News) it's not to enslave people into some dangerous religion but to warn them of the slavery they're already in but don't yet know it. We're accused to 'demonising' people that we don't like when we expose the nefarious things going on but the Enemy always manages to turn that round to make the good guys out to be the bad ones. And he has consistently done so in history. And believe me, there's absolutely no pleasure to be had when all the prophetic warnings come to pass. We don't take pleasure in saying, 'I told you do,' because by then it's useually too late.

So let's take a look at Jude's message beginning with verses 5-7. Here he reminds his readers that Yahweh can, and does, judge and condemn those who presume to rebel against His Way. It happened with some of those who came out of Egypt at the Exodus (v.5). It happend as well, even though this story isn't told in the Bible, but in later Judahite tradition, when the malakim (angels) rebelled against Yahweh's ordering of their different ranks and duties (v.6). It happened too in the better known story in Genesis, to the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, whose eagerness to use unexpected visitors as sexual playthings (Gen.19) was apparently typical of their regular life, just as is becoming typical again in our own day, and just as their awful punishment was seen as the fate that might be in store for other gross sinners (v.7).

And Jude is saying to his first century audience, this is all well known. But the thrust of the second section of this extract (vv.8-13) is that the people he is now worried about are simply ignoring these stories! Likewise, the true nevi'im (prophets) today are similary worried about modern Christians and Messianics who are ignoring the lessons of the vast history of mankind that is no longer taught much in our schools (and you know why) or spoken about in the media. Today the Bible is riddiculed yet it speaks the truth. Have we learned nothing? Apparently not but then the devil wishes to keep us all in ignorance. One of the tasks of the nevi'im (prophets) is to remind the people of their history and admonish them never to forget it. Our history is a safety net. And that's why history itself is being demonised and rewritten - just look back at the last ten years and see how George Orwell's prophesied Newspeak is even now what's being rammed down our throats by a satanic establishment, and he was a secularist! Which goes to show that Yahweh uses all sorts of people to warn.

Two thousand years ago Jude warned how both foolish and wicked believers - who were not really believers but had returned to paganism in all but name - were treating Yahweh's grace - His undeserved loving-kindness, His unmerited favour - as an excuse to sin. The mantra then, as it is today, albeit it in more disguised terminology, is 'sin more so that grace may abound!' And it's a pernicious lie because, you see, grace is not boundless - it has an expiry date if no repentance is forthcoming. Grace is exhaustible as the accounts in Scripture prove. Look what happened to Israel. Look what happened to the Messianic Community (Church). Look at the state of the world and of Christendom today. It's the same old story, the same repeating cycle that is displayed in the Book of Judges.

Then Jude talks of malakim (angels) whom we have been duped into believing by our paganised culture are cute little chubby, feathery things who fly around impaling lovers with love-arrows. They have been reduced to 'feel good', vaguely religious, symbols. There's a whole idolatrous religious fad of angel worship going on in our day. Even a Norwegian princess is into it. But Jude knew the malakim (angels) were real and powerful and not to be messed around with. Every authentic navi (prophet) knows this. Jude takes his readers back to Zechariah 3 which is well worth your reading afterwards if you're not familiar with it. In this account the archangel Michael comes face to face in a dispute with Satan and simply invokes Yahweh's own rebuke against him. Michael won't curse Satan himself, he will hand over the problem to Yahweh. But, says Jude, these people - the people of his day - will curse anything they don't know, which is a familiar enough phenomenon today as people hurl abuse at the Christian/Messianic faith, and indeed any faith at all, revealing their ignorance with everything they say and every paragraph they write and speak in the media.

Here's the thing - and it's so important you pay close attention to this: once you reject supernatural authority, it's easy to reject human authorities as well, whether in the home, in the Messianic Community (Church), bosses at work, or rulers of nations. And once you do that, the most obvious thing is to cast off restraint in any and every aspect of behaviour, not least in relation to sex. It would actually be quite amusing were it not so tragic to see people imagining that sexual immorality is a comparitively 'modern' invention by 'liberals'. It isn't. It's as old as the hills. The much trumpeted 'march of progress' in our own day in which, we're told less and less sexual restraint is required, isn't new at all - Satan's been saying it for millennia. All such people succeed in doing is going right back to one of the oldest forms of satanic, dehumanising behaviour known to human beings. Do you really want to go back to Sodom and Gomorrah? Well, once Christian nations already have, so you know what's going to happen to them, because Yahweh's sentence has been pronounced in this Year of Penultimate Judgment. If you're in the cities you're in Sodom and Gomorrah now. And I think you know I am not just being religiously melodramatic. Anyone with their eyes truly open knows this to be the truth. So believe it and act on it. Get out while you still can and break your ties there. Don't end up like Mrs.Lot.

Next Jude goes through a list of biblical villains: Cain the murderer, Baalam the false prophet, Korah the leader of a rebellion against Moses. And it's rebellion that lies near the heart of the main problem. It's a motif you'll come across again and again in the Scriptures, about which we need constant reminding, and for good reason. The false teachers are overthrowing or ignoring the proper structures of authority which Yahweh ordained from the beginning and the result is moral chaos and pollution, signalled by a bewildering list of powerful metaphors:

• 1. Waterless clouds;
• 2. Fruitless trees;
• 3. Splashing waves; and
• 4. Wandering stars.

That's what these false prophets, these false teachers, these...rebels are like - agents of either destruction or nothingness, nihilists, worthless flotsam, stinking garbage. They seem to offer a way of life which is exciting, different and liberating - the health-and-wealth prosperity teachers, the dial-up $50 dollars-aøpiece prophecies, noisy, emotionally wild blabbering of gibberish pretending to be 'tongues' while sounding like a group of wild monkeys, stage entertainment, wild worldly music concerts, and the like. And yet the unsanctified, fleshy, self of man clamours for all this, keeping him so busy that the spirit is crowded out and the truth that sets a person free is never or hardly even known.

In the last part of this extract (vv.14-16) is a quotation from an ancient text that has since become lost, though parts of it remain scattered throughout a very distorted and misleading hodgepodge of self-contradictory texts deceptively called the Book of Enoch but in truth the work of one or more Pharisees using their imagination to stitch together various disparate works, so be careful of it. The quotations made in the New Testament from the original prophecy, the loriginal of which we no longer have, are, though, immensely valuable. Here in verse 9, Jude echoes Zechariah 14:5 - Yahweh is coming with His qodeshim (saints, holy, set-apart ones). Judgment is on the way, not least for the ungodly (and here Jude repeats the word three times, a solemn signal, a red flag, that this is the heart of the whole problem. Yet what do the teachers do? They grumble, they complain and go off on yet another round of pleasure-seeking, supporting their behaviour with arrogance and greed.

It's a horrble calalogue of sins and indictments but we cannot ignore it, try hard though we may, complaining that it's 'too negative'. And this is the other problem: peace-loving people would much rather not notice that another country is preparing not only for war but for genocide. But we do not have that luxury which is why Yahweh sends nevi'im (prophets) to warn the people not to fall into complacency. But the reality of false teaching, especially the rejection of authority, the denial of the uniqueness of Yah'shua (Jesus), and the encouragement of sexual immorality (and now the 'normalisation' of gender dysphoria too), is with us today every bit as much as it was in the first century. We can, and should, pray that Yah'shua (Jesus) keeps us safe from all of this deception but first we need to be alerted to the problem and to listen to those doing the alerting, so that when it appears again - as it will - we will be able to recognise it for what it is.

Which brings us to the last section of Jude's letter (vv.17-25):

17 But you, beloved, remember the words which were spoken before by the apostles of our Master Yah'shua the Messiah (Lord Jesus Christ): 18 how they told you that there would be mockers in the last time who would walk according to their own ungodly lusts. 19 These are sensual persons, who cause divisions, not having the Ruach (Spirit).

"20 But you, beloved, building yourselves up on your most qadosh (holy, set-apart) faith, praying in the Ruach haQodesh (Holy Spirit), 21 keep yourselves in the ahavah (love) of Elohim (God, looking for the mercy of our Master Yah'shua the Messiah (Lord Jesus Christ) unto eternal chayim (life). 22 And on some have compassion, making a distinction; 23 but others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire, hating even the garment defiled by the flesh.

"24 Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling, and to present you faultless (perfect) before the presence of His glory with exceeding simcha (joy), 25 to Elohim (God) our Savior, who alone is wise, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and forever. Amen" (Jude 1:17-25, NKJV).

There's a tavnith or pattern in prophetic events that repeats itself with almost monotenous predictability. Do one wrong thing, and Yahweh guarantees a response. Do a thing right, and Yahweh will respond favourably. This is true individually as well as collectively or corporately. This is one way the nevi'im (prophets) know what's coming in very general terms - they recognise the signs because they've been taught to think using the science of Elohim's (God's) language. They know His character and how He has acted historically in different situations. But in more specific terms, obviously direct revelation is usually required, even though it is often veiled in various layers of symbolism so that only those with the Ruach (Spirit) can understand it and it remains hidden to the demonic hosts.

After many generations in which the people of Israel had gone from bad to worse, led by a succession of wicked kings, Yahweh finally sends the navi (prophet) Elijah to sort it all out. He prays for, and prophesies, a great drout, which comes upon the land. Then, when it is time for it to end, Elijah appears before King Ahab (1 Ki.18:17-19). Like King Herod with John the Baptist whom we looked at earlier, Ahab asks the navi (prophet), "Is it you, you troubler of Israel?" Elijah replies, "I have not troubled Israel, it is you who have done so, you and your father's house, who have done that, by leaving Yahweh's mitzvot (commandments) and following the Baals".

Isn't it typical when believers accuse other believers? Not so long ago one Pentecoctal minister here had the gall to tell me that the reason I was so ill, and required risky heart surgery, was because of my Torah lifestyle. In other words, he was saying that Yahweh was punishing me for not agreeing with his antinomian (lawless) version of Christianity. (His accusation was soon dismantled when I informed him that my need for surgery was a genetic problem from birth and had nothing to do with any theological or moral choices I had made - he at least had the decency to apologise for his hasty accusation). I have been accused of being 'divisive' for insisting on biblical truths that orthodox Christianity has rejected for centuries. As one South African brother, who is very supportative, remarked to me the other day: "You are no doubt aware that some of your teachings do not go down well with the traditions of our churches".

No, indeed, and we should not at all be surprised, for in Yah'shua's (Jesus') and the apostles' day the man-made Talmudic "tradition of the elders" came up against the teachings of the Saviour many, many times (Mk.7:3,5,9,13; Col.2:8; 1 Pet.1:18). However, do not confuse the necessary separation that Yahweh makes between the righteous and the wicked when truth is proclaimed and the destructive divisiveness that caused when false teachers teach and preach untruth. They're not the same. Part of the work of truth-telling is separate the godly from the ungodly so that the godly are not overwhelmed:

"Do you think I came to bring peace on earth? No, I tell you, but division. From now on there will be five in one family divided against each other, three against two and two against three. They will be divided, father against son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against mother, mother-in-law against daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law" (Luke 12:51-53, NIV).

So it is at best ironic, and at worst flatly hypocritical, for Ahab to tell the navi (prophet) Elijah off for "troubling Israel", just as we and others are accused of troubling the churches and messianic synagogues for teaching the mitzvot (commandments) of God which trouble their consciences. All the navi (prophet) did was blow the whistle on wickedness that had been going on unchecked. And as we know, the fate of whistleblowers is not a pleasant one. Look at what's been happening to whistleblowers in our day - they're either in prison (where they're being tortured), in exile or murdered. The problem is that people don't want to make a fuss. I have been told many times by Swedes 'not to rock the boat' because it would just make things worse. People don't want to seem 'out of line' or 'behind the times' because for them being acceptable to man is more important than being acceptable to Elohim (God). So they don't say anything, even when they may find new developments disturbing. Then, when someone with courage finally stands up and speaks out, they are labelled as 'divisive'. And so it has always been and always will because the default nature of the flesh is cowardice.

And so we have it in Jude, verse 19. These are the people who "cause divisions". No doubt the teachers would have said that it was people like Jude himself who caused divisions, by dragging them back to an 'old fashioned' morality based on 'funny old stories' in the ancient scriptures (Tanakh/Old Testament) rather than on the freedom they had discovered through what they took to be Elohim's (God's) grace. But Yah'shua (Jesus) and the first apostles had given the same warning as those ancient scriptures: scornful people will come, mocking you for your so-called 'silly little rules', eager to follow whichever desires happen to be uppermost at the time, whatever the current fad might be. Such people, says Jude, simply do not have Elohim's (God's) Ruach (Spirit), for all they may claim to do so, and for all the 'proofs' and 'evidences' they may say vindicates them like 'tongue-speaking', for example. Well, guess what? Pagans and sdatanists also speak in 'tongues', so what do authentic tongues look like and what does the counterfeit look like? The truth is, such people are living at merely the human level, mistaking the psychic for the spiritual.

But then, in Jude's letter, after all the warnings and denunciations, comes the word we need to hear, the word of strengthening, the word of promise, the word of holiness. This is what we must do in order not only to be on our guard against Torahlessness or lawlessness, but to brace ourselves for the shock for the outcry and backlash of disobedient believers, let alone the world. Once again, Jude puts his ideas together in quick succession: build yourselves up in emunah (faith), pray in the Ruach (Spirit), keep yourself in Yahweh's ahavah (love), and wait for the ultimate mercy of Yah'shua's (Jesus') return (vv.20-21).

I think we ought to finish by considering each of these in turn because they're important:

• 1. First, build your selves up - be strengthened - in your 'most holy faith'. This is the same 'faith' for which Jude said, in verse 2, that they were to struggle hard. 'Faith' here doesn't mean in any old kind of 'faith', or the 'principle of faith', but both the body of teaching (the New Covenant Torah) and a heart-level commitment to it, which is the firm ground on which we stand - it is 'the faith' (and our 'faithfulness' to it) and we must learn to stand tall at this point and not be ashamed;

• 2. Second, pray in the Ruach haQodesh (Holy Spirit). As much of a mystery prayer is, it is nonetheless a mystery to which Christians/Messianics are totally committed. And whether prayer is from the Ruach (Spirit) or from the flesh, only the fruit of such praying will ultimately tell us which is which (Gal.5:22-23; Eph.5:9). One of the most important works of the Ruach (Spirit) is to call our prayer forth from the depths of our hearts, even if it may be a prayer of lament, on the one hand, and a prayer of protection on the other. It is Yahweh's lament we share as we look in sorrow at human wickedness and arrogance invading the Messianic Community (Church) itself. It is Yahweh's protecting power and ahavah (love) we draw down as we pray by His Ruach (Spirit) in the midst of turmoil;

• 3. Third, keep yourselves in the ahavah (love) of Elohim (God). Now this might seem strange because surely it is Yahweh's job to keep us in His ahavah (love)? Nevertheless, it is also our job not to wander away, which is why we must sometimes struggle to stay true in the face of opposition - there is no guarantee of 'once saved, always saved', another doctrine invented by false teachers. We are to daily "work out []our salvation with fear and trembling" (Phil.2:12, NKJV). The Good Shepherd doesn't keep us locked up. He wants us to learn to follow Him as talmidim (disciples) because we love and trust Him. Let's not give Him more work to do by going and getting ourselves lost somewhere; and

• 4. Fourth, wait patiently for the mercy, leading to Yahweh's New Æon and its promise of new chayim (life), which will come when Yah'shua (Jesus) is revealed. All Christian/Messianic discipleship has the forward look, as we see moral and spiritual disarray all around us, we long and pray for that 'mercy', for ourselves and for the Messianic Community (Church), which will come at the last and, we beg, will also come, in plenty, in times of healing and renewal, in advance of that day if it is delayed.

These, then, are four very simple, yet powerful, steps that can be taken now - in the present. Note that Jude does not say, 'Take up cudgels and fight these false teachers on their own ground. We are not to weaponise the Scriptures to force people into the Kingdom. He first and foremost wants us, his readers, to recognise the grave danger they are in, and to learn the heart-habits of genuine Christian/Messianic discipleship which will mean that the storm, though it may rage, will not overwhelm them. There are those with specialist callings - the nevi'im (prophets), the evangelists, and those teachers skilled in apologetics - who can can, and must, oppose them by preaching pure emet (truth), as these ministers have done in every generation. We are, after all, commanded by Paul to "have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose them" (Eph.5:11, NKJV) and the most effective way we can do that is by dwelling in the light of truth in love.

And then, from the great spiritual disciplines, Jude turns to the pastoral needs. The next verses (vv.22-23) sound a bit like a team of rescuers arriving on the scene of a disaster - a train crash, a factory explosion, a sudden flood, or a tsunami, for example. There are people in all kinds of trouble, and those who are firm in their faith must go to the rescue. Now the three instructions Jude gives here are not exhaustive - he's just saying: 'Make sure you look carefully to see what condition people are in, and apply the mercy of Elohim (God) appropriately in each case'. There are people out there who have been carried off with this strange teaching or that, with its immoral practices. They need rescuing. Some are teetering on the bring of moral collapse: don't sneer at them or harrass them, but show them mercy, the same mercy we expect from Yah'shua (Jesus) Himself when we need rescuing from our sins. Others are already in the flames of hell and need emergency rescuing. Now it can admittedly be hard if they claim they are enjoying the warmth of the fire that's consuming them, but the effort must be made. Others again are deeper into sin, and it has left its mark on them, and on everything about them. But in rescuing them you must also beware. Their very clothes may carry the memory, and the moral stain, of the sinful life they have been living.

But Jude doesn't quite end there. His instincts as a writer grow straight out of his instincts as a believer: that whenever joys and sorrows have come to pass, all must in the end be gathered up again in praise to the one true Elohim (God). The form his concluding praise takes embodies in itself, in verse 24, the particular thrust of his epistle: the Elohim (God) "who is able to keep you from stumbling, and to present you faultless (perfect)" (NKJV), or as N.T.Wright translates this passage, "the Elohim (God) who deserves all praise is the one who is able to keep you standing upright" (KNT). When the smoke settles on the battlefield, there you'll be, still standing. Other translations express this in more negative terms, like saying Yahweh will 'keep you from falling', and whilst that expresses truth as well, the way Jude puts it is more positive - literally, 'He who will keep you unstumbling' which is a little hard to put into English. The image Jude uses is of someone walking along who might have tripped over but who has not done so in fact. I like that. That is what we should pray for, and that is what we should prause Yahweh for when it happens.

Finally, consider this: the unstumbling walk - yours and mine - is moving towards a definite destination. The goal towards which we are moving is that moment when we shall be presented before Yahweh's glory, undefiled by the world and joyful in His ahavah (love). This letter we have studied today has much to say about defilement, because it's something we should shun like the plague, and so the whole tone has been gloomy as a result. And, of course, looking into the murky pit of human wickedness is always like that. This is the alternative to the licentious and Yah'shua/Jesus-denying teaching of the infiltrators which say that what we preach, and teach, and live is a gloomy, kill-joy religion when the opposite is in fact true! It isn't. It's about glory, it's about purity, it's about glad and thrilling celebration, which is what we were actually made and designed for!

Jude ends, as shall we today, by gathering the whole thing up in one of the all-time classic bursts of Christian/Messianic praise - praise which wells up when the Ruach haQodesh (Holy Spirit) has flooded the heart with the knowledge of Elohim (God) in Yah'shua (Jesus) and of the salvation - the rescue - which Elohim (God) has accomplished through Christ:

"To the one and only Elohim (God), our Saviour through Yah'shua (Jesus) the Messiah our Master (Lord), be glory, majesty, power, and authority before all the æons (ages), and now, and to all the æons (ages) to come. Amen" (KNT).

And, you know, if the Book of Revelation had never been written, and this letter had been the last book of the Messianic Scriptures (New Testament), this last verse would not have been a bad way to conclude the whole New Testament and Bible. So that's how I am going to conclude today. Blessings to you all! Amen.

Acknowledgements