This is living. Waters of Grace, the teaching
ministry of Lewis Harold, assistant pastor of Calvary
Chapel of Westmoreland County in Greensburg, PA.
Now here's Pastor Lewis as he continues teaching through God's
Word. I pray that somebody will say,
you know what? Enough of this lying to myself,
enough of this living this life of sin, enough of being in
bondage to something that I will never ever be able to pull
myself out of. Freedom only comes through Jesus
Christ, Jesus says in John 8. He said that if the sun sets you
free, you will be free. Indeed, He's the only one that
can set us free. Sometimes, when the struggles of
our daily lives become overwhelming, we forget that
we're not alone. We often overlook the fact that
there's someone with open arms who wants us to know that this
battle doesn't have to be so hard.
In today's message, Pastor Lewis encourages you to give your life
to Jesus. Allow him to be your strong
tower, your rock, your shoulder to lean on in the Lord of your
life. Trust that with his guidance,
you can navigate through life's challenges with renewed hope and
purpose. Now here's Pastor Lewis in Jude
chapter one with today's edition of Living Waters of Grace.
This is the point of example. He delivered them all.
All of them, and they all went into the wilderness on their
way, going to the promised land. They all did.
But while they were in the wilderness he destroyed those
who did not believe because of unbelief.
They were judged and they were destroyed and because of their
and it came in a lot of different ways.
It came in rejection, it came in rebellion, it came in sexual
morality, all kind of ways of just not trusting the those
Caleb and and Joshua, when they went in to spy out the land.
And when they went to spy out the land, they came back and
gave a report and said, look, we can go in and take it.
The other people that was there said, no, we can't take it
because they're too much for us. And because of their unbelief,
they didn't go in. So the first generation of that
group in Egypt, none of them went in besides Joshua and
Caleb. It was their children who ended
up going into the promised land. Their children.
None of them went in because they were judged because of
unbelief. Let's not have unbelief in our
hearts to miss what it is God wants to do for us.
Even as the the centurion said one day, he said, look, I
believe, but help my unbelief. And we all have some areas of
unbelief, if we're honest with ourselves.
And you find out those areas of unbelief whenever adversity hits
US and it hits US hard sometimes and it's hard for us to believe
that God will pull us out of this or even can pull us out of
this like, oh, I'm doomed. This is not going to end right?
And we take our eyes off of him and we started looking at people
who can help me with this. What can I do for myself to pull
myself out of this? Let's not be caught in unbelief.
And then the next example he uses, he uses the example of the
angels. And he said then the angels who
did not keep their proper domain, but left their own
abode, He has reserved in everlasting chains under
darkness. So you went from the children of
Israel to now he and, and how they were judged because of
their unbelief. And now he goes to the angels,
these angels and, and, and what we have to understand is that
angels have free will. Angels have free will and, and
Satan himself have free will. And he chose to rebel against
God, to rebelled against God. And because of that, he and the
angels who rebelled with him, which was 1/3 the Bible tells us
we're cast out of heaven. We're cast out of heaven.
They decided that they wanted their will and not God's will.
They wanted to do what they wanted to do and not do what God
wanted them to do. Oh, they had a proper domain.
They had a place in heaven. They were there, but they turned
away from them, turned away from God to follow their own will, to
follow their own heart. And the Bible says as a result
of that, He now has them reserved in everlasting chains
under darkness for the judgment of the great day.
Just think about that. Because they were looking to
have a life of freedom to do what they wanted to do, to live
their own free will and not surrender to the will of God.
They still end up in bondage. They still don't have any
freedom. They're in the darkness, chained
darkness because of their decisions to live their own life
the way they want to live it. But you know what?
That's no different than what we have and where we are when we
lived according to our own desires, when we lived according
to our own will, and we thought we have, we were having freedom.
We were living freedom. Oh my, I want to do what I want
to do. I don't want nobody giving me
rules and telling me what to do. Come in when I want to come in,
go where I want to go and do what I want to do.
We thought we had freedom, but we were in bondage to the very
sin that we gave ourselves to. And today I just want to say
that maybe someone can hear this.
You know, we think it's freedom to live in our own free will,
but God gives us His word that we obey for our protection.
Obedience is for the purpose of our protection.
That's why we want our kids to obey us, because it protects
them. Because we know, we've seen,
we've experienced, and we want to protect our kids.
So we give them structure, we give them guidelines, we give
them dare say it rules, but it's for the purpose of protecting
them. It's not to harm them.
It's not to stop them from having fun.
It's to protect them. God gives them to us, and it's
when we reject that protection, it's when we reject His will for
our lives, that we find ourselves in bondage to the very
sin that we give ourselves to. That's what happened with these
angels. And then in verse 7, it says
that Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities around them, in a similar
manner to these, having giving themselves over to sexual
immorality and going after strange flesh, are set forth as
an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire.
The vengeance of eternal fire. Very interesting.
And he says that these the Sodom and Gomorrah, Sodom and Gomorrah
very interesting because what Sodom and Gomorrah was actually
destroyed for was their immoral, sexual, immoral lifestyles and
their, their desire to go after what it calls here in in my
version says strange flesh. Other versions may say unnatural
desire. Some may even say perversion.
They, they, they, they sought perversion, strange flesh, same
sex relationships and so forth. And you know it, it talks about
it back in Leviticus. You know it, it gives a number
of scriptures concerning God's attitude and his position on
sexual immorality, particularly homosexuality specifically talks
about that. I'm not going to read all of
those all of those scriptures, but I am going to read the
verses because and the reason why is because I want you to arm
yourself is because there's a lot a lot of people in society
today isn't an interesting thing that God destroys Sodom and
Gomorrah from We actually this country actually embraces today.
Try to normalize it and God is saying no, it's an abomination
to me. Don't go in and do what the
inhabitants of this land did. It's an abomination.
It's sin. This country embraces it, even
celebrates it and call it pride, which is exactly what it is.
Because they're so prideful that they won't humble themselves.
We're so prideful sometimes that we don't humble ourselves before
the Lord. Thank you, thank God for grace,
Amen. Because the truth is, is that
even if they would turn and repent, if the children of
Israel would have turned and repented, God would have
forgiven them. If the people in Sodom and
Gomorrah would have repented, God would have forgiven them.
He told Abraham, he said, look, if I find Ted, they started at
50. He said, I'll tell you what, if
I find 1010 righteous people in the cities of Sodom and
Gomorrah, I won't destroy it. There wasn't 10 people in Sodom
and Gomorrah that did not pray that would repent does not
wasn't 10 and it was destroyed by fire.
So I want to read these verses so you can have them if you want
to write them down, put them in your phone however you want to
do it. But the first one is Leviticus
chapter 18 and verse 22. Also in Leviticus chapter 20 and
verse 13, also in the and then in Romans chapter 1 and verse 26
and 27, First Timothy chapter 1 and verse 10, and even in the
book of Revelations chapter 21 and verse 8.
But then there's another scripture that I actually want
to read, this one because not only does it shows God's
righteousness, but it also shows His grace.
It shows His grace. And this is First Corinthians
chapter 6 beginning at verse 9. And he says this.
Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the
Kingdom of God? Do not be deceived.
Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers.
Here we go. Nor homosexuals, nor sodomites,
nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkers, nor revilers, nor
extortioners will inherit the Kingdom of God.
Cannot make it any clearer of what God feels about that sexual
and moral sin. Not only that one, but it's not,
not not only when they listed you listed others, but that one
was listed as well. But this is the part that gives
me hope. This is the part that should
give us all hope. In verse 11 he says, and such
were some of you and search were some of you.
One of these in here captures some of all of us at one point.
And such were some of you. But that's why I like the butts
in the Bible. But you were washed.
You were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of
our Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.
So that is not a permanent condition for you to be a
homosexual. I'm sorry that people feel like
it is. It's not.
You can be delivered because Jesus says, you know, I mean,
the Bible says here and such were some of you.
So he delivered them, They were delivered, they were washed from
it, they were sanctified and they were justified.
That means they were declared righteous and that by the Spirit
in the name of Jesus and by the Spirit of our God.
I just pray that we understand that God is serious about sin.
He is serious about sin. He desires for us to obey Him,
but even more important is that there's grace there for all of
us, no matter what our sin is, no matter how long we've been
doing the sin, no matter what people call you concerned ought.
He ain't going to never change. She ain't going to never change.
No, you can. God can change you.
The Spirit of the Holy, the Spirit of God can come in and
cleanse you and make you new. If any man be in Christ, he is a
new creature, a new creation. Old things are passed away.
That means to die. They're passed away, passed
away, mean and died and now all things are become new, new.
It's a new you. And we all have that in Christ
Jesus. And the next line says, and all
things are of God, thank you Jesus, thank you Lord.
But it's because of this sin that the day is so special.
Our Palm Sunday, Jude took us back into the history and showed
us from the Old Testament God's righteousness and how He will
judge sin. He showed us that through the
example of the Israelites, the example even of the angels, and
the example also of those in Sodom and Gomorrah.
And that's why it was so important that Jesus Christ
came. If you ever have anybody that
tell me that they don't tell you, they don't know the
significance of Jesus Christ and him coming, come here, take them
here. Because some of these sins we're
still doing today. All these sins we're still doing
today, we're still rejecting them.
We're still living in sexual immorality.
We're still dealing with unbelief, but Jesus Christ came
so that we be forgiven of our sins and the hostility that we
had against God the Father, it's now we now have peace with him
because of Jesus Christ. Bible says back in the book of
Luke and also in the book of Matthew, when he talked about
the triumphant entry and when he talked about the triumphant
injury. We, we, you know, we're talking
about Jesus Christ who told the disciples that day to go on in
to Jerusalem when they got to Beth Fetch.
It's going to go over to the city or over or to the village
next to you and I want you to find a coat.
There's a coat that's going to be tied there.
The coat or the the, the the foal of a donkey.
No one's ever ridden on this thing.
I want you to go bring it to me. They said, wait a minute, we
can't go and take somebody's donkey.
It's just like you or use Clark's example.
You out there looking at his car, you get ready to take his
car. He come out and say, hey, what
are you trying to do with my car?
That's what they were asked, just what Jesus was telling them
to do. But see, what they didn't
understand is that Jesus had already worked in the heart of
the owner of that donkey. So he said, no, go ahead and
tell them if anybody asks you why are you taking that donkey,
you tell them that the Lord has need of it.
Now, I don't know if that's going to work with Clark's car.
So, so don't y'all go out there and car his car trying to get in
his car and then say, hey, the Lord got need of it because you
want to take it on Route 30 and see what it can do.
But Jesus had already worked into the heart of the owner of
that donkey and said the Lord has need of it.
He brought the donkey back to Jesus.
They put the coats on the back of the donkey.
They set Jesus on the donkey and as they're bringing him down as
they can, that that descent that goes into Jerusalem.
When the people finally get a chance to look up and see Jesus
coming on that donkey, the Bible says they begin to shout, they
begin to holler out. Hosanna, hosanna, hosanna in the
highest. Save, save us, save me in the
highest. Jesus comes down and he's riding
on that donkey. And not once did he tell any of
them to not worship him. That time he didn't say, no,
don't tell anybody because he was presenting himself as the
king. He was presenting himself as the
true Messiah. David Holland out and said, Son
of David, which means that you are the Messiah because we heard
about you back in Zechariah. The prophet Zechariah told us
that the son of David will come and he's going to be riding on
his coat as he's a king. That's you, son of David.
He's coming down this hill and the people were seeing him and
they're crying out, but unfortunately they're crying out
because they're thinking that he's coming to save them from
the Roman rule that he's coming to start a revolt against the
Roman government. They didn't realize that he was
coming in to save them from so much more.
He was coming to bring them eternal life.
And they're yelling hosanna, Hosanna in the highest.
He's the king and the and the Pharisees are saying rebuke your
disciples. You hear what they're saying.
They're calling you king. They're calling you son of
David. That means they're saying that
you're the Messiah, the son of the living God.
And Jesus just simply said, look, if I if these keep solid,
the very rocks will cry out. All of his creation worships
him. So he's come in and they're
waving palm branches and they're celebrating him.
He knew even his disciples didn't know or understand, but
he knew then in about 5 or 6 days that many of those same
people who are crying out Hosanna who are calling him
king. Who are praising Him and
worshipping Him? Many of those same people will
be crying out, Crucify Him, crucify him.
But He did it. He presented himself as a lamb
going to the slaughter that day. He presented himself as King.
He knew what would happen, but He did it for you.
He did it for you and you.
He did it for me. He never turned back.
And then of course, next Sunday we'll talk a little bit about
that cross. But I'm grateful today.
Praise and worship, take and come forward, please.
But I'm grateful today that Jesus Christ came.
Bible says over in the book of Mark that even the Son of Man
did not come to be served, but to serve and to give his life a
ransom for many. I'm one of those many.
Bible tells us that He came to seek and save that which is lost
and that it's not his will that any should perish, but all will
come into repentance. I thank God for that because I
was a loss. I am the lost.
But now I'm found and I pray today that the message reached
someone's heart. I pray that somebody will say,
you know what? Enough of this lying to myself,
enough of this living this life of sin, enough of being in
bondage to something that I will never ever be able to pull
myself out of. Freedom only comes through Jesus
Christ. Jesus says in John 8, He said
that if the sun sets you free, you will be free.
Indeed, He's the only one that can set us free.
So I pray today that somebody receives His salvation, that
somebody understands that it was because of the sin of those
examples and the sin that we do today that He had to come.
We need a Savior, we need a Savior, and Jesus Christ is that
Savior. He is the way, He is the truth,
and He is the life. He is that Savior.
Nobody comes to God except through Him.
He is that Savior. So we need to come to Him.
I pray to somebody does that. You can just tell.
Lord, look, I confess, I am a Sinner and I am in need of a
Savior. You could just tell Him that you
believe that He died for your sins.
You believe that he was buried in, that he rose again on the
third day and asking for forgiveness for your sins and to
be your savior and to come into your heart and teach you, show
you, lead you in how to live the Christian life.
You won't see stars. You won't see any kind of big
meteors in the sky or hear fireworks go off.
You don't hear any of that, but in your soul, the Bible says
when you believe that the Spirit of the Son of God comes to live
in your heart and He will change you, He will change you.
This has been Living Waters of Grace, a ministry of Calvary
Chapel, Westmoreland in Greensburg, PA Pastor Lewis
Harrell has been teaching through the book of Jude.
This is a book of warning as the audience that Jude was writing
to was coming under attack from false teachers.
Even in the early days of the church, there were teachers who
claimed to have a unique revelation from God that
superseded Scripture. Pastor Lewis wants you to be
sure to be on your guard against those teachers today as they
will try to distract you from following the way of Jesus.
By focusing on what God's Word says, you can call out false
teachers for what they are and stay on the good path.
Do you want to hear more teaching from Living Waters of
Grace? You can do so by visiting our
website at calvarychapelonline.com.
There you will find an archive of past teachings from Pastor
Lewis and Pastor Clark. Find a link to our mobile app or
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