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Weimar University

Don Mackintosh

Lessons from Jude: Fighting the Fight of Faith

Our scripture reading today is kind of a challenging 1.

Here at our church, we basically go through the Bible all the time.

So if you want to go to a church where they go through the Bible, this would be the church.

There's a study time that Pastor Rich led out beautifully this morning, And this particular study is through the book of Mark right now.

And then I'm not smart enough to go too far beyond God's Word, so I just go through books and preach to the books and go just verse by verse.

And then we learn what we can out of those verses.

And we're going through this little book of Jude.

And his book is right before the end of the Bible.

The last book of the Bible is Revelation.

So Jude, it's only 1 chapter, so it's just in that 1 chapter.

And we now are on verse 9, which is our study today.

Yet Michael the archangel, in contending with the devil when he disputed about the body of Moses, dared not bring against him a reviling accusation, but said, the Lord rebuke you.

How am I going to bring this together for a message that can bless us, whether we are a new start to depression recovery or the church?

So every week I have this beautiful challenge.

Let's pray that the Lord would bless us as we look at this more closely.

Father in heaven, Lord, thank you today for the opportunity we have to come and read your text messages to us and your personal interest in us that has been expressed through 40 different authors over thousands of years, brought together in the book we call the Bible.

And we ask that your blessing would be with us today, in Christ's name, Amen.

So here's what I want you to get out of this text, Okay?

Just in case you don't get this out of the text, I'll just start out with it.

The word faith and belief is the same in the Greek language, okay?

So a faither, a believer, might make a mistake.

Is there anybody here that will admit to having made a mistake this last week?

Those of you who have not made a mistake this last week, please come forward.

In this particular text, the example is Moses.

But Michael the archangel will defend the believer and put things in place to encourage and save him or her eternally.

So, I actually added an extra word things, so there are actually extra things that he actually brings.

So, that's the big message, that's what I want you to get.

How do we know this from this particular verse?

Number 1 is the identity of the archangel and number 2 is the activity of the archangel.

So this archangel Michael is mentioned here.

And if you have a Bible and you'd like to turn on the Bible to Daniel chapter 10, this word Michael is used several times in the Bible, and it's used in this book of Daniel, which some of us have been studying this week in the first several chapters of Daniel, but this is chapter 10.

He is stressed out and he is, has anxiety, you might say.

In verse 1 it says, the message was true, but the appointed time was long.

And that appointed time, the savah it is in Aramaic, is really talking about a long struggle.

And that long struggle was alluded to in a prophecy that was gonna last 23 centuries.

And he was like stressing out because of this prophecy.

And then verse 2, I, Daniel, was mourning 3 full weeks.

How many of you have ever been in mourning?

How many of you have ever experienced anxiety?

And here down in verse 13, we pick it up, He's been praying for 21 days.

And verse 13, the prince of the kingdom of Persia withstood me, someone is speaking here, and behold Michael, 1 of the chief princes, came to help me, for I had been left alone there with the kings of Persia.

Now in the book of Daniel, there is this trail of events that goes through the kingdoms, the major kingdoms in history.

And if I was to take you to the British Museum today, the museum is actually organized around those kingdoms.

If I was to take you to major history books like Edward Gemma's Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire, it's actually organized around those history books.

I just was in Israel not so long ago, and I read a history book of Israel, and as I read the history book, it was organized around all the kingdoms that had attacked Israel, and guess what it went through?

And this particular passage is saying that the prince of the kingdom of Persia withstood me, that being Gabriel, this is the angel who's speaking here, for 21 days.

And that's the same amount of time that Daniel had been what?

So the chief prince, it actually, when it says 1 of the chief princes, the word there, 1, is actually a khad, which means the first and the chief prince.

So in some translations it says a khad, it actually says a khad, it says the chief prince.

In this New King James Version It says 1 of the chiefs, so you think there's many chiefs.

But God only has 1 chief over his angels, OK?

So good military people would know that that makes sense.

And withstood me for 21 days, but Michael, the chief prince, came to help me.

I had been left alone there with the kings of Persia." So the identity is he is the chief prince and he's called what?

So if you go back in Daniel chapter 9, I don't have this up on the screen, it says in Daniel chapter 9, just back a little bit, verse 25, know therefore and understand that from the going forth of the command to restore and build Jerusalem until Messiah the what?

The Prince, and then it gives the time period there.

So this is called the Chief Prince, and the Messiah was also called the Prince.

Look with me now down in verse 21 of chapter 10, I wish to tell you what is noted in the Scripture of truth.

So this is in the Bible, it's true, This is Gabriel speaking now to Daniel.

No 1 upholds me against these, against the powers of Persia and then of Greece and then of Rome.

No 1 upholds me against these Except who?

So the chief prince is also Daniel's prince and it's also the people's prince.

At that time Michael shall stand up, the great prince who stands watch over the sons of what?

There'll be a time of trouble such as never was since there was a nation, and even to that time, your people shall be delivered, everyone who is found written in the book.

So this prince is called the chief prince, he's Daniel's prince, he is the people's prince.

We've already kind of hinted to some of it in the verses we've been reading, but let's go back and look.

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Lessons from Jude: Fighting the Fight of Faith

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