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Speaker 1: Thank you for listening to Your Nightly Scripture, a Calming

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Speaker 1: the Scripture Center devotional podcast designed to help you end

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Speaker 1: each day with God's Word in your mind and on

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Speaker 1: your heart. Right after this short word from our sponsors,

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Speaker 1: we'll reflect on.

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Speaker 2: Tonight's scripture and Jude chapter 1.

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Speaker 1: Tonight's scripture reflection is written by Clarence Haynes and read

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Speaker 1: by Carrie Eichberger.

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Speaker 2: Jude chapter 1.

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Speaker 1: Jude, a servant of Jesus Christ and a brother of James,

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Speaker 1: to those who have been called, who are loved in

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Speaker 1: God the Father, and kept for Jesus Christ. Mercy, peace,

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Speaker 1: and love be yours in abundance. Dear friends, although I

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Speaker 1: was very eager to write to you about the salvation

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Speaker 1: we share, I felt compelled to write and urge you

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Speaker 1: to contend for the faith that was once for all

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Speaker 1: entrusted to God's holy people. For certain individuals whose condemnation

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Speaker 1: was written about long ago have secretly slipped in among you.

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Speaker 1: They are ungodly people who pervert the grace of our

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Speaker 1: God into a license for immorality, and deny Jesus Christ,

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Speaker 1: our only Sovereign and Lord. Though you already know all this,

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Speaker 1: I want to remind you that the Lord at one

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Speaker 1: time delivered His people out of Egypt, but later destroyed

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Speaker 1: those who did not believe, and the angels who did

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Speaker 1: not keep their positions of authority but abandoned their power dwelling.

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Speaker 2: These He has kept in darkness.

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Speaker 1: Bound with everlasting chains for judgment on.

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Speaker 2: The great day.

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Speaker 1: In a similar way, Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding

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Speaker 1: towns gave themselves up to sexual immorality and perversion. They

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Speaker 1: serve as an example of those who suffer the punishment

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Speaker 1: of eternal fire. In the very same way, on the

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Speaker 1: strength of their dreams, these ungodly people pollute their own bodies,

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Speaker 1: reject authority, and heap abuse on celestial beings. But even

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Speaker 1: the archangel Michael, when he was disputing with the devil

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Speaker 1: about the body of Moses, did not himself dare to

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Speaker 1: condemn him for slander.

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Speaker 2: But said, The Lord rebuke you. Yet these people.

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Speaker 1: Slander whatever they do not understand, and the very things

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Speaker 1: they do not understand by instinct, as irrational animals do.

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Speaker 2: Will destroy them.

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Speaker 1: Woe to them! They have taken the way of Cain.

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Speaker 1: They have rushed for profit into Balaam's error. They have

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Speaker 1: been destroyed in Korah's rebellion. These people are blemishes at

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Speaker 1: your love feast, eating with you without the slightest qualm,

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Speaker 1: shepherds who feed only themselves.

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Speaker 2: They are clouds.

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Speaker 1: Without rain, blown along by the wind, autumn trees without

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Speaker 1: fruit and uprooted, twice dead. They are wild waves of

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Speaker 1: the sea, foaming up their shame, wandering the stars for

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Speaker 1: whom blackest darkness has been reserved forever. Enoch, the seventh

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Speaker 1: from Adam, prophesied about them. See, the Lord is coming

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Speaker 1: with thousands upon thousands of his holy ones to judge

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Speaker 1: everyone and to convict all of them of all the

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Speaker 1: ungodly acts they have committed in their ungodliness and of

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Speaker 1: all the defiant words ungodly sinners have spoken against him.

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Speaker 1: These people are grumblers and fault-binders. They follow their own

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Speaker 1: evil desires. They boast about themselves and flatter others for

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Speaker 1: their own advantage. But dear friends, remember what the apostles

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Speaker 1: of our Lord Jesus Christ foretold. They said to you,

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Speaker 1: in the last times there will be scoffers who will

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Speaker 1: follow their own ungodly desires. These are the people who

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Speaker 1: divide you, who follow mere natural instincts and do not

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Speaker 1: have the Spirit. But you, dear friends, by building yourselves

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Speaker 1: up in your most holy faith and praying in the

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Speaker 1: Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in God's love as you wait

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Speaker 1: for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to bring

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Speaker 1: you to eternal life. Be merciful to those who doubt.

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Speaker 1: Save others by snatching them from the fire. To others,

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Speaker 1: show mercy, mixed with fear, hating even the clothing stained

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Speaker 1: by corrupted flesh.

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Speaker 2: To him who is able to keep you from.

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Speaker 1: Stumbling and to present you before his glorious presence without

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Speaker 1: fault and with great joy, to the only God our Savior,

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Speaker 1: be glory. majesty, power, and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord,

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Speaker 1: before all ages, now and forevermore. Amen. Jude offers one

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Speaker 1: of the most amazing and comforting promises in all of Scripture.

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Speaker 1: Yet when you read through the chapter, it does not

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Speaker 1: begin there. You first read about ungodly people who have slipped.

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Speaker 2: In among the believers.

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Speaker 1: And bring with them immorality, perversion, and denying Jesus Christ.

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Speaker 1: Aside from that, we see the destruction of those who

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Speaker 1: were delivered but later failed to believe. Jude talks further

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Speaker 1: about those who were perverted, defiant, and scoffers who follow

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Speaker 1: their own ungodly desires. Despite all this, this chapter leaves

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Speaker 1: us with an everlasting hope, and here it is.

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Speaker 2: To him who is able to keep you from stumblings.

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Speaker 1: And to present you before His glorious presence without fault

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Speaker 1: and with great joy, to the only God our Savior

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Speaker 1: be glory, majesty, power, and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord,

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Speaker 1: before all ages, now and forevermore.

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Speaker 2: Amen.

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Speaker 1: The hope we find in Jude transcends anything and everything

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Speaker 1: that is happening in our culture. It focuses our attention

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Speaker 1: not on our ability to keep ourselves, but on Christ's

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Speaker 1: ability to do that. This is the essence of our salvation.

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Speaker 1: We are saved by Christ and the finished work on

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Speaker 1: the cross. However, we are also kept by Christ, and

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Speaker 1: the one who saved us is the one.

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Speaker 2: Who will preserve us.

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Speaker 1: This truth makes all the difference in the world. When

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Speaker 1: you grasp this truth, then you realize that your salvation

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Speaker 1: comes by grace through faith, and it is kept by

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Speaker 1: grace through faith. You don't have to hope in yourself

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Speaker 1: to bring about salvation. You must keep your hope in Christ.

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Speaker 1: He is the one who keeps you and who will

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Speaker 1: present you faultless before God's throne. That is an everlasting

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Speaker 1: promise that you can hold on to. Lord, today I

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Speaker 1: want to pray a prayer of rejoicing. I thank you

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Speaker 1: for saving me by your grace and that it is

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Speaker 1: not by my own works. I also thank you for

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Speaker 1: keeping me by your grace, knowing that too is because

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Speaker 1: of your promise and not my own works. Help me

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Speaker 1: rest in the truth that you are the one who

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Speaker 1: is holding and upholding me. You are the one who

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Speaker 1: has saved me, and you are the one who.

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Speaker 2: Will keep me.

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Speaker 1: Teach me not how to strive harder, but to trust more.

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Speaker 1: Help me understand that trusting always leads to your perfect rest.

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Speaker 1: I pray all this in Jesus' name. Amen. How did

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Speaker 1: tonight's scripture speak to you? Share your thoughts in the

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Speaker 1: Your Nightly Scripture Forum discussion.

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Speaker 3: Thank you for listening to Your Nightly Scripture. Tonight's scripture

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Speaker 3: Word of God.

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Speaker 1: Thank you.