It’s good to be with you. I know we have a lot of folks out doing last-minute vacations. It’s how it is in the summer, but I’m looking forward to getting back into rhythm with you. We’re going to start back into Matthew week after next. I’ll be out of town next week. We’re going to the beach. And so Chase will be preaching and some friends will be leading worship for us. So if you’re here next week, that’ll be a blessing for you. And then the following week, we will be back into Matthew’s gospel, working through the Sermon on the Mount. So I’m looking forward to that. We’re going to be back in Jude this morning. We did the first bit of the letter, and I want to finish out the rest of it.
Mostly in Jude chapter 17-25 is where we’re going to hang out. Jude 17-25.
Jude writes, But you must remember, beloved, the predictions of the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ. They said to you, in the last time there will be scoffers following their own ungodly passions. It is these who cause the visions. Worldly people, devoid of the Spirit, but you, beloved, building yourselves up in your most holy faith and praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves.
In the love of God, waiting for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ that leads to eternal life. And have mercy on those who doubt. Save others by snatching them out of the fire. To others show mercy with fear, hating even the garment stained by the flesh. Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of His glory with great joy, to the only God, our Savior, through Jesus Christ, our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority before all time and now and forever. Amen.
Growing up in Kentucky, there’s no such thing as fire ants. It’s not a thing. I never heard of fire ants. So that was never a deal when you’re outside, like watch out for ants. Never heard of that. I remember when I first moved to Alabama, I was at a rest stop and my feet were on fire. And I looked down and like, here are all these ants. And I’m so confused. Like what in the world is going on? And so that wasn’t the first time it happened to me. You’re cutting grass and you hit a little mound of ants and they go everywhere. I did this like two, three days ago. I was cutting my grass and I thought I had missed it. And I didn’t. And I looked down and had these ants biting me. So, you know, you got to kill them all real quick. So they’re terrible things. They look just like ants, harmless good ants, but they’re not harmless good ants. They have a real bite. They’ve got a poison in them. And it won’t kill you, I think, unless you have an allergy, but certainly it hurts. It hurts really bad. And I want to remind you, that’s what Jude is writing here to talk to us about. He’s saying you’re in the church and what you can’t do, what we can never do, is just assume everyone that says they’re a Christian, everyone that looks outwardly like they’re a believer, they’re going through the motions. Oh, that person is sure. This is a genuine believer. There’s a brother or sister. He says not so. He says, if you’re not careful, you’ll find out though they look outwardly like the thing they’re supposed to be, there’s a poison there. There’s a real disease, a spiritual disease there. So he’s writing us, remember, to both characterize what that person looks like, but more so this week, I want us to see, he’s saying you have to characterize them and fight against them, but he’s talking about this week how to do that. What does it mean to contend and struggle for the purity of the gospel, which means, for us this morning, also the purity of the church. Because if you lose the gospel, you lose the church. The church rises and falls solely on the purity of the gospel and everything from the scriptures that build up the gospel message, everything that flows from it, all the truths that we find of what it means to be a follower of Christ, to come in to Jesus.
So he starts back there in 17, I want you to see, and he says, remember,
you must remember.
And I think that’s an encouragement, because what he’s not saying is, hey, there’s something new I need to tell you, there’s this new threat, and so I’m going to have to give you this brand new doctrine, I’m going to have to give you this new magical power you didn’t know about, like we knew about it, we didn’t tell you all about it. That’s not at all what he’s saying. He’s saying, hey, remember, the apostles had already said that this was going to happen. Remember, remember that we taught you about this, and remember we already gave you the gospel. Remember you already have what you need in Christ Jesus. So there’s, I think, a comfort in Jude starting his letter saying, hey, remember, because it means God already knew about it, and God was already prepared for it, and knew how He was going to protect and love His church. Jesus never leaves us without. So that’s encouraging.
But he says,
remember the predictions of the apostles. They said to you there’s going to be scoffers. Scoffers, like they’re constantly making lies, they’re constantly poking at, they’re constantly criticizing the genuine faith. They don’t like it. They’re in the church with their calls and division among God’s genuine people, because the gospel, remember we talked about last week, the gospel, believing the Bible, believing the truth, it requires faith. And when I don’t have that genuine faith to believe in everything I can’t understand, my flesh is going to hate it, because my flesh has desires that genuine faith is saying, no, you can’t have that. So you’re going to find these people, they’re scoffers who push against the faith, and also, they cause division. They’re incognito inside. And worst of all, Jude says, these people are devoid of the Spirit. There’s an absence of God within these people. They’re spiritually dead. They’re spiritually diseased. And Jude’s point in all this is, remember, if you don’t contend and fight that spiritual disease, it’s going to spread and contaminate the rest of the church.
So that’s a pretty good characterization of who they are. They’re for self. They’re willing. They’re willing to change, pervert the Gospel and the truths of Christianity for selfish gain. And we looked at that last week quite a bit. We kind of gave those two big characteristics of the false teacher, the false Christian.
Remarkable disbelief. So they’re not believing what God has plainly said in the Gospel and in the Scriptures, nor are they obeying it. And in verses 8 through 13,
I’m just going to kind of go over it. Jude gives several more characteristics. One of which I think is really interesting. He said they’re hidden reefs at your love feast.
Now, we obviously, you know, we don’t live in an age where ships are as important as they once were. But you think about a ship coming into harbor and if there was a reef underwater you didn’t know about and you couldn’t see, it would be your life. It would be your ship. It was a hidden reef. So again, realize what he’s saying. They’re hidden. It’s not like you can just go about your business. Everything’s great. Everything’s going to be fine. It’s not producing a paranoia like, I wonder if that person’s a fake Christian. Oh my gosh. Like it’s not that. But he wants it to run. These people, they’re hidden reefs. And if you’re not wise to the faith, you don’t know what you believe, you don’t know how to defend it, you’re going to end up in trouble and so is your church. So devoid of the Spirit, they’re hidden reefs. So we can’t be careless believers. So he says that’s who they are. That’s what they’re like. But he goes on in verse 20. He says, but you. It’s a contrast, but you. That’s who they are. That’s what they do. But he says, beloved, this is who you are.
So he’s describing now our lines of defense against the false Christian. But you, beloved, he says in verse 20, building yourselves up in your most holy faith.
Now notice what he says to whom the letter’s written.
What he doesn’t say anyone specifically, does he? He says, but you, which is all of you. So it’s not like this is a special letter for a pastor. Like, hey, here’s how you govern the affairs of the church. Like, here’s something for leaders only. Here’s something for like academic elites. Like, most people can’t get it. And so we’ve got to give it to the people who like understand higher theology. That’s not at all who the letter’s to. The letter is to no one, which means it’s to everyone. In other words, Jude is expecting if you claim to be a follower of Jesus, if you love the Gospel, then this letter’s for you, which means the instructions are for you.
So again, I want to make sure we don’t tear it out. Like, this is for a different kind of Christian who cares a little more or who’s more able-bodied. Not so. If you’re a Christian, it should matter to you. He says, but you yourselves building yourself up in your most holy faith. What does that mean? Well, it means to find out more of who Jesus is and to go deeper into that. We defined faith last week, being in the faith as that submission to Jesus, all that He says, all that He wants from me, all that He wants me to know and to do and to be like. We talked about happy slavery, which sounds paradoxical, doesn’t it? Like, there’s those things, happy slavery. But Jesus says, I’m going to command you to do everything that’s good for you and I’m going to teach you how to love it. That’s what it means to be built up in the faith. It’s to know Jesus and go deeper into Jesus, deeper into my knowledge of Jesus, deeper in my love of who Jesus is, deeper in my likeness to Jesus. And in my likeness to Jesus, I become a better servant for Christ.
So again, we don’t see in Jude and we don’t see anywhere in the Bible this like, hey, if you’re one of those just saved Christians, this part’s not for you. Like, I’m just saved. Like, I got my fire insurance, as people say. But like, contending for the faith, like knowing what I should believe, like getting involved in that kind of stuff, that’s not for me. It’s a non-category. And again, I think a lot of people say, oh yeah, that’s true. But when the rubber hits the road, friend, are we that involved in our gospel? And it’s a question I don’t get asked. Is it, man, it’s my gospel. It’s not like the Christian faith I grew up with, so yeah, I’m involved some way. Like, it’s my gospel. These scriptures were written to me from God. So there’s an ownership there when I really want to be built up in the faith. I’m not just getting saved. I’m going deeper into Christ so I can be a more able-bodied servant. You should do that. I desire to be a more effective servant for Christ.
So if that’s what it means to be built up in the faith, to know Jesus, the question becomes for us, where can I find Jesus? Like, if I’ve got to become a more able-bodied servant, Jesus is the only one to teach me how to do that. Where is Jesus?
I need Jesus to reveal Himself to me. Well, the answer becomes for us the Bible. The Bible becomes the place where you now discover and find out what Jesus is like, what Jesus expects of us.
And I think when I say that, even myself, I go, where’s the Bible? I feel like a preacher. I say, hold on, read your Bible, everybody. Read your Bible. Like, you hear that so often, read your Bible. But I want to make some distinctions here about what we mean when we say, read the Bible.
Because first of all, Jude isn’t teaching anything new. And you’ve got to hold that as a thing. As people, we constantly want something new and exciting, don’t we? Like, I just got to, I had to get a new cell phone. My cell phone broke. It was like, ooh, it’s something new. Even though it practically looks like the same thing I just had. It’s just a little bigger. But it’s something new and flashy, right? And we carry that over into our Christian life. Like, give me some new, exciting doctrine. Like, tell me something I didn’t know. And there’s a time to learn more. But friends, there’s more time to obey the things we’ve heard a thousand times, and yet we’re just not obeying them. We’ve been told to do this. We’ve been told to obey, but we’re not doing it. And that’s Jude’s word here. His word is not get something new. His word is make sure you fall in, fall in love with the fundamentals and basics of the Christian life, and you’re obeying that. That’s what’s going to save you here. That’s what Jude is talking about. But past that, I would say, I am not advocating for reading your Bible. I don’t know, honestly, that reading the Bible, and hold on, makes a whole lot of sense. I think you read magazines. You skim through books that aren’t very good. You read a lot of things. But we need to be convicted about the nature of the Scriptures. Like, what is the Bible?
The Bible is not a religious book. And honestly, the Bible is not an end in itself. And a lot of times, I want that high, like, oh, I did my quiet time today. I read the Bible. But the Bible really only exists as a conduit. It’s something through which I discover Jesus. So if I’m going to the Bible because I want to be a spiritual person or I want to know what it looks like to be religious, I’ve come to it for the wrong reasons. I’m coming to the Bible so that the Spirit would reveal through it Christ to me. So it’s very different from just reading something. I want to know this thing. I want to see Jesus in it so that I can become more like Christ. And I wanted to just kind of flash a few doctrines up here. They’re important.
And I think they’re important. And I don’t know that we always know all the things that we should know as Christians. But I want to give you some doctrines here. And the first one I want to throw up here is inspiration. I think Cameron has them on the screen. Yeah, the doctrine of inspiration. What is the doctrine of inspiration?
Inspiration refers to the absolute truth that the entire canon of the Word of God maintains divine authorship as it was written through human authors while being superintended by the Holy Spirit. So the good news about that is this. Man’s thoughts aren’t in here. What some dude thought 2,000 years ago or even what the church has changed its mind on over the last 2,000 years, that’s not this. This is what God… God thinks using the personality, using the pen of sinful man. So it is a perfect instruction to us because it was inspired by the Holy Spirit. So that’s inspiration. Next one would be inerrancy.
Inerrancy means that the Bible is completely and totally true in everything that it communicates and that it does not maintain or communicate any error whatsoever. So I can know that whatever the Bible says to me, it’s speaking God’s truth. God’s truth doesn’t change. God’s truth doesn’t wear out. It’s simply and only true. God loves me enough that He’s not going to give me a faulty word. He loves me enough to speak His truth to me and preserve that for the church throughout the ages. Next one is clarity.
Clarity, or the old word perspicuity, which is a fun word to say, means that the Holy Scriptures are understandable to human beings who seek to understand its truth through the leadership of the Holy Spirit. So that’s another incredible truth. When I go to the Bible, God is not in heaven going,
this person is wanting to know me.
Am I going to let them know me? God has given us His words so that we will know. And the Holy Spirit wants to reveal to you more of Himself, which is kind of crazy when you think about it. God wants to show Himself. I don’t know if I’m going to read this thing. You would find God if you read it. God wants to make Himself clear to you. The last one is authority.
The Bible is entirely authoritative in every respect for providing godly direction, reproof in every circumstance in life. The Bible does not lack in wisdom or guidance for living the Christian life. So I can always know in every situation the Bible is going to speak truth into me and it’s going to be right because it’s what God said, hey, this is my truth. This is what you should do. This is best. This is what you will be judged according to someday. So those are things that help us remember the Bible is not some good religious book. It is a living, active word, the Hebrew writer says. It penetrates to divide soul and spirit, joints and marrow. I mean, it’ll get down to the nittiest, grittiest parts of me and show me what in me is unlike God. And it’ll rip it out. And it’ll make me look like Jesus. So it’s unique in literature. Nothing else is like it. Paul says this in 2 Timothy 3, verses 16 and 17.
All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction,
and for training in righteousness.
Friends, if we’re going to be followers of Jesus, we’ve got to be people of His Word to know who He is. And I think alternatively, the psalmist tells us, here’s what a Christian life, if you want to call it that, would look like if you didn’t have a good relationship with the Bible. Psalm 119, 9-11. How can a young man keep his way pure? How is it possible for someone to live a pure life?
By guarding it according to your Word. With my whole heart I seek you. Let me not wander from your commandments. I have stored up your Word in my heart that I might not sin against you. So Jude is, he’s writing
so that the Christian church will be built up. Strong.
Right? You know the difference of being strong and weak? You know, as I get older and I continue to not exercise, it’s like, I think I used to be like a little stronger. Dawson asked me the other day, he said, Dad, are you normal or are you strong? And I’m like, I hate to laugh.
I don’t want to tell my son I’m normal. You know, I’m like, oh, I’m kind of strong, you know. But there’s a difference.
There’s a difference, though, when we are healthy and fit for a task. And then when it’s apparent in the moment, I’m not. You know, you’ve got to run a mile and you’re like, I can barely think about a mile, much less. Run one. That’s why Jude is saying you must be built up in Christ. Be built up in the Scriptures. If you don’t grow, you know what happens to a muscle? It shrinks. It retracts. It grows backwards. It devolves down. Friends, we’ve got to be a word-saturated people. We must be built up in the faith.
I’ve mentioned it before, but you know how the government knows when fake money is being printed. It’s not to look at the fake money as much as it is to know what the real thing is. And that is the duty of every Christian to know the real thing. Know the Gospel. Know the Word of God. Know what it means to genuinely, actively act like and follow Jesus. And so I want to give you, and just very practical here, some examples. I think it would be easy for me, especially like, everybody go read the Bible and know it, and everybody’s like, alright, I guess I’ll go figure that out. How do I do that? Because I think a lot of times it’s very intimidating to approach the Bible. And again, unless you just, you have special interests and you, you know, looked it up, or you just had a really great discipleship growing up maybe in your home or church, and you were given those tools. I think it’s intimidating to know what it looks like to study the Bible. So I want to give you a few very practical ways to begin doing it. So let me start by saying, it is almost a new season, kind of coming to the fall. You know, August hits, school starts. And secondly, as we sang this morning, the Lord’s mercies are new. So new season, new mercies. If you say, man, I so fail at knowing God and His Word. Okay, there’s mercy for you, and it’s a new season. So just change. Ask God’s grace to help you change. So here are a few very practical ways to do that. One,
pick a book of the Bible and read through it. Just like you wouldn’t buy any given novel. Like, I’m going to start in chapter 9 and just see what happens here. Like, each book of the Bible, it has a unit of thought all the way through. It has an overarching theme. The author’s trying to communicate something. So in the same way, pick a small genre. Like Jude, for example. So you know what? For the month of August, I’m reading through Jude. I’m going to read through it several times, and I’m just going to get to know this letter very well. Next month, change genres. I’m going to read one of the Gospels. Mark’s Gospel, 16 chapters. I’m going to get to know that pretty well. And I’m going to rotate that, and I’m going to go Old Testament. And just start in the beginning and just start working through books of the Bible until you just get it in your blood to just be seeing the overarching themes of the faith through these different books of the Bible. I think a lot of times we’re just like, I’ll just read this one before I run out the door. And it’s not that God can never use like air-dropping, you know, Scripture to help you, but I think there’s a lot more wisdom in saying, you know, I’m going to know it thoroughly. As the Holy Spirit, you know, inspired people to write it. On top of that, I would say this. As an ad, if you got my email, I’m going to do a How to Study the Bible class in August. So if you’re like, wow, okay, I’ll read the books through, but I still don’t know how to do it. It’s a three-week class. It’s like an hour and a half each come, and I’m going to give you a super practical,
super reproducible way just to approach the Bible. Like, how can I really do that in my own life for 45 minutes before I start my day? Come to my class. Next thing. Sunday mornings. I know it’s summertime, so you’ve got people everywhere. Sunday mornings, I think, are the lifeblood of any given church. I think churches that say, we’re just not going to do that anymore, you know, put all that together, and it’s going to be super informal. Church should be informal in the sense of people doing life together. But friends, we can never forsake the gathering. What it means to come together as a people of God and hear the Word preached, to feed on that, take communion together. There’s great power in gathering on the Lord’s Day to rest in the truth of the Scriptures. So always, always be a Christian that values Sunday mornings and hearing the Word preached. We sing it, and we pray it.
The next thing.
Discipleship training. On Tuesday nights, I know I’m plugging stuff, but hopefully as a church, we’re saying, hey, everything we do, it revolves around the Word. On Tuesday nights, we try to do more basic stuff. Like, hey, how do we pray? How does the Bible teach us to be a community together? How do we share the Gospel together? How do we study the Word? So all those things are important too. Finding avenues in your local church, to discover that. Last thing, I want to make a note on this, and I’m giving you a lot.
How do you help the next generation be Word-saturated? And I think the answer is, at a very young age. I love our children’s ministry. Our ladies do so much to make that space over there such a wonderful environment for our children. Not to have fun and goof off. Probably churches maybe that do that. I don’t judge other churches. Our church, though, we don’t do that. We just, we make it a place where kids love the Bible and love Jesus through the Word. And we just really love that. We worked hard to find what’s a great thing that’s going to help us do that. But also, equipping you. I love that our children’s curriculum has a great take-home where you can take that thing home. And man, there’s scriptures for them to memorize, questions to ask, prayers to pray. So you need to be a parent, regardless of how old your kid is, if you are a parent, that’s saying, what am I doing in my home every day to teach? Teaching my child it’s important to be word-saturated. Whether that’s singing the songs, whether that’s working through children versions of stories. Whatever it is, that responsibility falls on you as a parent. Take it serious. Because you know what’s going to happen if we don’t take it serious? Our sons and daughters are going to be 19, 20 and going like, how do I approach this thing? Why do we do this? So we can help the next generation by instilling in them a love for the Word from a very young age. So new seasons, new mercies, just take advantage of it and go for it. We can do that together as a church, a word-saturated people. The next one is this, I want you to see, same verse, verse 20 in Jude. He says, But you, beloved, building yourselves up in your most holy faith, so we’re talking about the Word,
and praying in the Holy Spirit.
So just as growth is common for those in the faith, prayer should be common. And obviously, that’s not a disconnected thing. If I’m wanting to know Christ more and more in His Word, it’s going to be natural that I’m going to want to talk to Christ. I want to talk to the Father. And here’s the huge blessing about being a Christian, right? Christianity is not a religion and I’m learning a set of rules. Christianity, the Gospel, is this good news. I actually become one with Christ. When I receive faith in Jesus, I’m receiving Christ. The Bible says in some mysterious way, I’m considered one with Christ. I’m one with Him. Which means, the Bible teaches us through Christ’s Sonship, we get to go to His Father. We can go to the throne of grace, boldly approach it and ask whatever we would ask and God’s listening. So that’s good news for us that because of the Gospel, Christ is our Savior, but Christ’s Father is our Father as well. We’re sons and daughters through Jesus. Paul says this in Romans 8, verse 14, For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. For you did not receive the Spirit, the Spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons by whom we cry,
Abba, Father. So it’s a great privilege in coming to God. But secondly, I want to draw out this. Jesus was God. We believe that. We believe that Jesus is 100% man and 100% God. He’s the incarnate God. Yet Jesus, who is perfect, Jesus who is sinless, Jesus who did mighty miracles,
Jesus needed prayer while living on earth doing ministry.
Jesus needed to pray to His Father in the Spirit for strength, for encouragement. Jesus would go out early in the morning while it was dark to rest in the truth of who His Father was and what His mission was while on earth. So Jesus was a true believer in prayer. That’s why He said to His disciples, Hey, up until now you’ve asked nothing, but from now on, ask in My name and you’re going to receive whatever you ask for. So I know it’s a bigger thought than we want to sit here and think about, but the God who created the universe, He’s like ready and willing. I always get this picture of God, like there’s a storehouse with grain in it, like a cartoon, the sides are bending, it’s getting ready to bust. And He’s just holding it back. He’s like, would you ask already? Would you ask? I really think that’s a good picture though of what it’s like when we’re not praying. God wants to give us what we’re asking for when what we’re asking for is in line with His will. You know? Like if I’m asking for those things like Jesus, God is going to answer you. He’s going to do great things when you’re desiring the things of His kingdom. So friends, if Christ needed prayer, should we not also say we desperately need prayer?
Paul says God will supply our every need. Are we asking that every need would be met in Christ Jesus?
And that does raise the question, what do I pray for? Because there’s a million things you could be praying for, right? And you’re like, well, there’s like poor kids, all over the world, and like where do I start? And like where do I stop? There’s a million things. I think first of all, there’s the encouragement that the Spirit leads us and guides us in prayer. And even the Bible says the Spirit intercedes for us when we don’t know what to pray for, with groanings that can’t be understood. That’s encouraging. But two, it builds up the first point. When you know the Scriptures well, you know the heart of God, which means you know what to pray for. So you can’t divorce, I think, a healthy relationship with the Bible and a healthy relationship with God. You can’t divorce a healthy relationship with prayer. I can’t pray, dear Lord, you know, I want a big house and I want a car and I don’t want any of my family to get sick, alright? And I want a job. I can’t pray for those things because those things aren’t honoring the Lord. But when I go to the Word, I can say, Lord, may Your will be done. Isn’t that what Jesus prayed in His deepest hour even? He said, Lord, not my will, but Your will be done.
The prayerless life is the powerless life. I would say the prayerless church. The prayerless church is the ineffective church. Friends, if we never want to see God do incredible things, we should stay away from praying.
If you never want to be changed into a fuller, mature follower of Jesus, stay away from prayer. One of my favorite books, it’s really not even a book, it’s just a collection of thoughts on prayer. It’s called The Kneeling Christian. No one knows who wrote it. It’s something I had to read in Bible college.
There’s so many good things in it. And he says this in that book, and this is just, it’s always been such a, I don’t know, I just love this. He says, when we stand with Christ in glory, looking over our life’s finished story, the most amazing feature of that life as it is looked back upon will be its prayerlessness. We shall almost be beside ourselves with the astonishment that we spent so little time in real intercession, it will be to our wonder. It will be to our wonder.
I know, you know, I make this point a lot. I think I’m going to have to keep making it. But friends, we’re busy people.
And to put it into the context of ministry, so like I don’t have a job. I don’t have a job.
And it’s easy even in ministry to be like, I’ve got to get this stuff done. I’ve got to get this stuff done. I’ve got to get this stuff done. And working for the Lord replaces knowing the Lord. Replaces talking to the Lord. Like I can even do any good thing in ministry that God’s going to bless us. It’s going to be effective if I haven’t taken the time to pause and wait for the Lord first. And that gets to the heart of the matter. The problem with prayer is the problem with our flesh. And that problem is this, friends. We don’t want to wait. I want to figure it out. I want it done now. I want it done my way. Prayer is a walk of faith to say, I’m going to just put my hands down. I’m going to wait on God to do what only God can do. Right? That’s what the praying life is. It is slowing down and trusting God to do what only God can do. To be only who God can be.
Counter the fleshly impulse to do something.
I know on Sunday mornings,
we do things a certain way and we print it out. Adoration, confession. We do those things because I think they’re very important rhythms to live in. Hopefully that rhythm is teaching us as much as actually what we’re doing. Just like with the Bible, it’s 6 o’clock in the morning. It’s like, I don’t know what to study in the Bible this morning. When you know how to approach it, it’s a lot easier. It’s the same thing with prayer. When I look at Jesus’ model of prayer, I can go like, okay, when I come to God, the first thing I need to do is I need to adore God for who He is. Right? And when I adore God for who He is, it shows me how sinful I am. And so I confess those sins and instead of judging me, He forgives me. So I’m thankful and I’m ready to know this Lord and to supplicate and ask for the things that I can ask for to live for Him again. So prayer is important to have a rhythm and a model just as much as how I’m approaching it. Now I’m not saying, okay, if you’re driving down the road and something’s on your heart, make sure you put it in that model. Don’t just say something to God. I’m just saying on a normal basis, if you practice praying, praying becomes so much more of a way of life than it does. I guess I should pray because I haven’t done it in two weeks kind of thing. Right? You want it to be in your blood. You want it to be just like, yes, I’m the kind of person that talks to God. Describe that person to me. Well, that’s the kind of person that talks to God. You know? Like just descriptive of the Christian. Like that person is prayer dependent. Like that person just loves talking to God. I would like, you know, to be described, that person, you know, we’ll just be talking. It’s like, hey, let’s stop and pray for that. Hey, let’s ask God for that. Hey, let’s depend on God for that. What if God’s power showed up there? Hey, maybe God could do something about that. Right? I think that’s the effective church is just depending on and humility God in prayer. Prayer is a great gift for us as a church.
I would also say on that, new seasons and new mercy. Oh, I haven’t prayed in forever. Okay. Start. God is not like, well, I’m going to, I’m going to like shame you and browbeat you because you didn’t do it for a long time. And then I’ll let you pray again. Like, no, God’s like, hey, I forgive you, Jesus. Die for that. Start praying. Start asking for things so I can start doing great things for my kingdom in your life and in your church and just in your family. Right? So just start. Start.
Verse 21.
He goes on to say after this, keep yourselves in the love of God
waiting for the mercy of our Lord Jesus that leads to eternal life. And we’ve already talked about that extensively if you don’t realize it. Like, keep yourself in the love of God. Like, that’s not helpful. Like, am I doing it right? Like, am I keeping myself in the love of God? To keep yourself in the love of God is to know this God. It is to know the gospel so that you love it more and more. Right? Jesus said, he who loves me obeys me. So it’s a dead giveaway when I know the person of God and I know his commandments, the more that I meditate on them and ask the Lord to teach me them and to put them in my heart, the more that I’m keeping myself in the love of God. So basically, what we’re saying is knowing Christ in the Scriptures and praying Christ, those words of the Scriptures, that’s how we’re keeping ourselves in the love of God. Keep yourself in the love of God. Remember your faith. Remember what you believe. Pray it. Study it. Share it. That’s how we’re keeping ourselves in it together.
And this gives you what?
Well, this gives you the power to contend. This gives you the power to struggle. This gives you the power to fight. Because you know your faith. You’re filled with the Spirit of God. You’re prayed up. You’ve asked for spiritual wisdom. You’ve asked for spiritual discernment. You know the sword of the Spirit. You’ve got your armor on and you’re ready to fight when opportunity or chance arises that you need to do it.
And Jude gives, right after this, okay, if you’re going to contend in the faith, here are the things you’re going to need to be able to do. So keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ, and here’s the commandments. Have mercy on those who doubt.
Save others by snatching them out of the fire. To others, show mercy with fear, hating even the garment stained by the flesh.
So Jude’s saying there are going to be people that doubt the authentic faith, because they’ve been taken captive for a while by the false Christian, false teacher. Now my impulse is to smack somebody in the back of the head. Like, you fell for that? Like, you’re that lazy in Bibles? Like, you thought that was the truth? Like, you thought that was what you should have done? Like, you thought that made sense? And Jude’s saying that’s not how you deal with people. You’ve got to be merciful. It kind of feels like a patience here. Like, wait. Like, you’ve got to be loving. He says you’ve got to snatch people out of the fire. You’ve got to be loving. Snatch there, it means with force and strength. So imagine someone, like they’re getting ready to be burned up. Like, they’re getting ready to lose it. Remember we talked about last week, the eternal condemnation? Like, they’re going to that place where they’re leaving the faith. They’re going for something completely perverted and manipulated. And Jude’s saying you’re going to have to be strong enough in your faith with force and energy to snatch them out of the fire.
And then lastly, he said there are people that need mercy with fear. Like, alright, I’m going to have to figure out a way to tell this guy the truth firmly and like him get the fear of God in him without being so harsh I push him away or be so passive about it that he doesn’t take me serious. Like, it’s going to take a lot of spiritual wisdom. That’s going to take a lot of like praying. That’s going to take just a lot of God working in me and through me to help such a person. Like, that’s big stuff, isn’t it? That’s really big stuff that Jude is commanding us to do. Friends, we’re not going to be able to do any of that stuff if we’re not what? Built up in the faith. If we’re not being a word-saturated people, a word-saturated church, a prayer-dependent church, it’s simply not going to happen. That’s the fight. Jude says you’ve got to fight it. Which means you’ve got to be built up in the faith. It’s a love for Jesus because it’s a love for His church. And Jesus loves and died for His church. So if you love Jesus, you know what it means? It means you love the people sitting around you and you’re not willing for someone to come in and ruin their Christian faith. I’m going to contend for you. I’m going to contend for you. I’m waking up. I’m going to wake up at 6 a.m. because I want to know this love of this God so we can arrive home together. I love Christ and what He’s done for not just me, but us. I love Him. I love His church. That’s the heartbeat of a true, genuine Christian.
But I would say at the end of this,
that’s exciting and it’s like, man, that’s awesome. But at the same time, it’s daunting, isn’t it? Because I know in my heart, a lot of times, I fail at growing. I don’t read the Bible the way I ought to. And I don’t spend time in prayer the way I ought to. So if Jesus is saying, hey, this rides on you building yourself up in your most holy faith or this bad stuff can happen, I’m like, well, that’s a really big responsibility for me. I’m going to fail, you know? So I think at that moment where we’re crushed with discouragement about what a task, a privileged task, but what a task it is to be a church member,
to be on the pilgrimage through this life, in the name of Jesus with other people and bear these kinds of responsibilities, we get this very kind, loving word that pushes us forward. He says in verse 24, now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling,
present you blameless before the presence of His glory with great joy to the only God our Savior through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, authority before all time and now and forever. Amen.
It doesn’t rest on us. The same gospel of grace that called us to faith in Jesus is the same power that’s going to bear us up to do the work and even when we stumble, we’re not going to stumble to the point that we fall away. God is gracious and God is good and Jesus said, I will build my church, friends, and even in the midst of our failures, Jesus has given us the promise He’s going to keep us and He’s going to preserve us until we get home. That’s encouragement to me in the spirit to obey because I know it doesn’t rest on me or how well I obey. It rests on the power of Christ. It rests on the power of the gospel and what He’s already done. So friends, we can freely give ourselves to the work of knowing Christ and helping other people know Christ, of following Jesus and helping other people follow Jesus because we’re promised He’s with us along the way and we will get home together. What a privilege it is to be a church member. I know that’s more like the formal church member. You know? Like just, we’re brothers and sisters in Christ. Like we’re going to spend eternity together. You know? I want to see you there. You know, I just want to take these few years I have here to like love you and make sure you get there. That’s the same heartbeat for you. Like I want to make sure you get there. So let’s do this together and have joy along the way that the King with all authority and power is saying it will be so. It will be so. Amen.
Amen.
Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.
Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Thank you for your word
that it is living and active and it’s eternally
always revealing who you are to us.
I pray that you would give us just a fresh love
for just Jesus who lived a perfect life. He died a perfect sacrifice. He was raised a perfect and eternal King. Savior. Love Him and submit to Him.
Know Him and know His Word.
Desire to teach His Word to others. Protect this precious Gospel that has brought us eternal life.
Stir us up to be a
word-loving church, a praying church.
Work through our obedience, and Lord, even when we fail, we can know that You are with us. Forgive us, Lord, and You are so
omniscient, You are omnipresent, and You’re still going to work all things together.
Amen.