Keeping in the Love of God

Transcript

GR 2300
10/04/2020
Keeping in the Love of God
Jude 20, 21
Gil Rugh

I was reading in a biography of Martyn Lloyd-Jones who pastored for 30 years or so at Westminster Chapel in London, some of you have read some of his work. He has multi-volumes on the book of Romans, multi-volumes on the book of Ephesians, and other writings. This book I have read before and I was just dipping into it. It was a doctoral dissertation on his ministry and life, attempting to put into more balanced perspective. Some of the biographies are hagiography where you write as though this person had no flaws. I read two volumes on Martyn Lloyd-Jones which I think fit that. I wrote in the front of that when I was finally done, I have finally found a man who is the exception to the Ecclesiastes statement: there is not a righteous man on the earth who always does good and never sins. So this man wrote his dissertation and trying to get a more balanced view of Martyn Lloyd-Jones and his ministry. In his writing he quoted one person who sat under Lloyd-Jones’ ministry for many years at Westminster Chapel. The man observed that they called him the doctor because he was a medical doctor before he went into the ministry. He could take 60 minutes to say what most of us could say in 20 minutes. I was comforted to know that I am very much like Martyn Lloyd-Jones, so take heart and if anybody asks you just say, “oh yes, our pastor is very much like Martyn Lloyd-Jones, I’m sure you have heard of him.” You don’t have to tell them how I am like Martyn Lloyd-Jones.

So for the next 60 minutes we are in the book of Jude, so go to the book of Jude, just before the book of Revelation. Jude started out with an introduction in the first two verses, then he told them why he was writing to them in verses 3 and 4. They needed to contend, stand strong, do battle for the faith because they had been infiltrated by unbelievers, men of ungodly character, of false doctrine, but somehow they weren’t recognized. The church didn’t take it seriously enough, so Jude is writing to urge them to recognize the seriousness and to act accordingly. So from verses 5 down through 16, he gave examples and told something of the character, and you could see it from Old Testament examples. There’s always been what we call apostates, individuals who profess to be believers and manifested certain characteristics that might make you think they were believers but upon further evaluation and time it becomes clear, they more and more reveal their character. So we want to take it seriously and not tolerate these kinds of individuals. We are not saying that unbelievers are not invited to attend. We want to be careful that they don’t find a way of acceptance, they will always be out of place, they cannot be allowed to have a prominent influence in the body, and so on. He talked about these men, said it’s not new what I’m telling you, all the way back to Enoch, he’s seven generations from Adam, he had talked about these ungodly people coming into the congregation, in verses 14 and 15. Then verse 16 they are grumblers, fault finders, they follow their own lust or desires, they are arrogant, they flatter people to get an advantage. We want to be careful because up in verse 4 he says these are the kind of persons, “ungodly persons who turn the grace of our God into licentiousness and deny our only master and Lord, Jesus Christ.” Well, we will recognize them, these must of really been weak believers if they tolerated this. But that is their true character, that is what they are really accomplishing. It gets more subtle because remember they are hidden reefs, in verse 12, as they attend the communion service, the love feast. They are clouds so they look like they have something to offer but they don’t, fruitless trees, and these pictures.

He tells us: grumblers, finding fault. Now we have gotten to sins that are more tolerable among believers, grumbling and finding fault. You begin to see how they get in, they come in acting like believers, then pretty soon they’re becoming critical, we will see some further examples as we move along today in our study. Paul had to deal with this, some who would infiltrate the church at Corinth that we will look at. Now we are undermining the believers’ confidence in Paul and the truth that he taught. Their working is not just blatantly open. I’m here to tell you that I don’t… no, they are not that open but they come in and subtly undermine the truth. The result is over time, verse 19, these are the ones who cause divisions, worldly-minded, soulish people. We know what that means, they don’t have the Spirit, they’re devoid of the Spirit, they don’t have the Spirit of God, they are functioning just as natural, ungodly unbelievers. If they do not have the Spirit, of course they are going to cause divisions. They have no spiritual connection to believers, even though they may come in, meet with them, get involved with them, but they really have no spiritual connection. The division is very real and serious, it’s a child of God and a child of the devil. If the child of the devil comes in, naturally he’s not going to fit. There may be external things he can do to act like a believer. He can be a teacher in an evangelical seminary and be able to talk about doctrines and things. But at heart there is not truth in him, like his father the devil, there is not truth in him, he is a liar, so he causes division. What else is he going to do? Now the danger is that their influence will spread. Come back to 2 Corinthians, if you would, 2 Corinthians 12, as we noted this is a repeated issue. In the Old Testament with false prophets as Peter wrote in his letter, just as there were false prophets among the Israelites, there will be false teachers among you, us believers in the church. In 2 Corinthians, Paul warned in chapter 11, we looked at this passage where verse 13 of chapter 11 Paul says, “such men are false apostles, deceitful workers, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ.” They come in claiming the same kind of authority and understanding as genuine apostles, for example, the church at Corinth, so Paul’s concerned he had to define his apostleship with these people.

You are familiar with the letters to the Corinthians, 1 Corinthians, there were divisions. What is going on in divisions? Well, who causes divisions did Jude say? Unbelievers! They are divided at heart, that is the result of their work then. Paul’s concerned that this spreading influence because what he had to do at the church at Corinth, defend his apostleship. Come down to verse 19, chapter 12 of 2 Corinthians, and in this context he’s defending himself. He’s led the Corinthians to Christ earlier. Now he is writing letters, but you know, they didn’t have instant communication, positive and negatives about that. False teachers had come in and they undermined the confidence. Remember when we studied Corinthians together, one of the things they did was, didn’t Paul tell he was going to come and visit you? Yes! Did he come? Well, no. Doesn’t that tell you something about his character? Did he do what he told you he was going to do? So if he can’t be trusted in a little thing like keeping an appointment, how can you trust him with his doctrine? He’s just as untrustworthy.

Paul had to deal with it on that level. We say that’s trivial, with the little things that come in and begin to sow division, uncertainty, untrusting. Well, you know, I don’t know if it’s true but this is what I heard. Well, that comes in and that finds way in my heart as the book of Proverbs says. And I find, well, maybe… you know, I have had my doubts, too, maybe I ought to talk about it with so-and-so. Talking about it with so-and-so does what? Spreads the doubt of confusion, so look at the condition Paul says down in verse 19, “all this time you have been thinking that we are defending ourselves to you,” but really the reason I ministered to you was to take advantage of you as they’re accusing me of. That wasn’t it. I haven’t been defending myself but my concern in this, verse 19, “Actually, it is in the sight of God that we have been speaking in Christ.” That’s strong! God is my witness here, I’ve been speaking on his behalf, “and all for your upbuilding, beloved.”
We are going to see those two concepts again, building up and loved ones, in Jude, because that’s Jude’s concern as well. I want to build you up, and you are loved ones, you are loved by God and I love you. I mean, if you love God you will love the children of God, 1 John talks about that. What does he say in verse 20, “For I am afraid that perhaps when I come I may find you to be not what I wish and may be found by you to be not what you wish.” Conflict here, there’s division and some have succeeded in dividing the church at Corinth even against Paul. Paul will have to commit and deal with things and that will make his visit unpleasant. Why? Perhaps there will be… now look at this list of things that perhaps have begun to take place in the church of Corinth, “there will be strife, jealousy, angry tempers, disputes, slanders, gossip, arrogance, disturbances.” Doesn’t that sound like a great church, a church that really is a testimony to the unity we have in Christ, a testimony that we have for one another because God loves us and we love God and we love His children. “There will be strife, jealousy, angry tempers, disputes, slanders, gossip, arrogance, disturbances.”
I am afraid I’ll have to come, in verse 21, it’s going to be difficult because many… where does this lead? You know one sin goes to another, it’s a growing infection and corruption, so then sin of some other kind become tolerable. If you tolerate the sin of the tongue, you have tolerated the most destructive sin, that is James. James says the tongue is the most destructive cause it’s a little instrument and lights a great fire. We have the kind of sin going on, then other sin, pretty soon the sins that would have caused them grief. We saw they didn’t deal with immorality in their midst. Why? You begin to tolerate one kind of sin, you have broken down the barriers that ought to be between a believer and sin. Sin become acceptable in little steps. We all know what’s it’s like. You know what it’s like to tolerate something in your life that doesn’t belong there, pretty soon that spreads and there is more. Then we reach a point, this is where we have to be careful. Sometimes we are hesitant to deal with something because we all stumble in many ways. If we didn’t stumble with our tongue. You know what we ought to do when there is a stumble, it ought to be fixed, it ought to be stopped, if not, this is where it goes.

And so people, at the end of verse 21, have “not repented of the impurity, immorality, and sensuality which they have practiced.” This is just now have a way, and the world and the church just becomes blended together, you could hardly tell it. We are dealing with believers, down in chapter 13 verse 5, “Test yourselves to see if you are in the faith,” put yourself to the test, “examine yourselves,” you got to get this resolved. Do you not recognize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you -- unless indeed you fail the test? But I trust you will realize that we ourselves don’t fail the test.” What does the believer look like? We become… oh well, I don’t want to offend them. Sometimes you have to have the conversation, you say you are a believer, let’s look at what a believer looks like. Go to the fruit of the Spirit in Galatians 5, you can read the works of the flesh, and then can you contrast the fruit of the Spirit, love, joy, peace, patience, and on we go. You say to a person, look, I want to be honest, I don’t see this in your life. Where is the love? There is bitterness, there is anger, there’s slander, why would you say you are a believer? I know I’m a believer. How do you know? Put yourself to the test! So there does come… I don’t know, sometimes I’ve just asked. We just have to deal, you say you are a believer, we will accept that testimony, we will put you under discipline. I want to be honest, you ought to examine yourself. You persist in the sin and yet you claim to be a believer, we discipline you, for example. We ought to be…

A person wants to come and they want to use my ear as the garbage can, I want to tell you what I hear, I don’t know if it’s true but, you know… and sometimes I want to hear it. Isn’t that the way the news runs? Everybody’s got a rumor, everybody’s got something, they throw it out there and it gets in your mind, and maybe that’s how Paul got discredited. Well, I think he was in it for selfish motives, I think he can’t be trusted. Even when he was here I don’t think he… you know he doesn’t keep his word. How does the church at Corinth, a core of that group was lead to salvation by Paul bringing them the message of Christ, how do they now begin to doubt his apostleship and accept the servant of the devil as the real apostle? This is why Jude, this is why the Bible is so concerned we take these matters seriously, even believers can get so confused, their emotions take over their mind, and now we just have a mess, we have all kind of disorder.

So come back to Jude, it was related to things we talked about in our previous study. You see what we have in verse 20, “But you, beloved,” ‘you’ in the contrast, as through this he has talked about ‘these,’ referring to these apostates. And this word, I was going to go through all of them with you but you can read that. The contrast is ‘you’ in contrast to ‘these.’ Jude is confident that he’s dealing with believers here, that’s why he called them to contend earnestly for the faith, in verse 3, only believers can contend for the faith, but you have to use discernment here. You have to will it and be willing to draw lines, to take a stand. You, you have to be different, you can’t be accepting. We get all frustrated about the world and upset with the world, look at the decisions they’re making and the practices they’re doing.

You know what the Bible is concerned about, those things being part of the church. How does the church get to the point homosexuality is acceptable? One of our leading Christian colleges, I have shared that in another context with you, has an alumni association for homosexuals. Are we missing something or we just being nice, we’re being open? We ought to take these things seriously. Jude verse 20 says, “But you, beloved,” there is a contrast and the emphasis is on ‘you.’ That is the first word, we talked about reordering the words, we have the same thing in verse 17, “But you, beloved,” you are not to be like them and you are not to be tolerant of it in the church. You are not talking about going out and trying to change the unbelievers’ lifestyle out there. What do you expect the children of the devil to act like? We bring them the gospel so that God can change their heart, they become His child, then they are expected to act like His child. We accept in the church the activity of the world then when you accept it you pretty soon become part of it.

“But you, beloved,” you are loved ones, we are the objects of His love. We are loved by God, we just read verse 17, “you beloved,” Jude loves these believers. Why? Because he loves God and God loves his children, you can’t love God and hate his children. John wrote about that in his epistle, you love God, you love the children of God and that controls our behavior. You love your children so you want the best for them, you sacrifice for them, you do for them, that is the point. Back in verse 1 of Jude, he is writing to those who are the called and this is foundational. Loved in or by God, they are God’s loved ones, what a privilege, we are God’s loved ones, we are loved by God. God so loved the world that he gave His only begotten Son. That love has come to us in a particular, special way as he has bestowed His salvation on us in Christ. Act like those who are loved by God and in return, love God. Jesus said if you love me you will do what? Keep my commandments, you will desire to please me, obey me, honor me. He is writing to them as loved ones, here is not to divide believer against believer, the sermon is necessary.
The main verb here… let me give you the structure, then we’ll take it as Jude gives it. The main verb in verses 20 and 21, we are going to do all both verses, so don’t think we are going to go slow, 20 and 21 is one sentence. The key verb, you always want to identify the key verb, the key verb is ‘keep,’ that begins verse 21, it’s modified or explained by three participles. Participles in our English usually have ‘-ing’ on the end, that is true the way they’ve translated these participles. There are three of them, two in verse 20 and one in verse 21. He puts the main verb, the main command, you must “keep yourselves in the love of God.” How do you do that? He’s led into that. His first participle, verse 20, by “building yourself up,” ‘building’ is that participle. The second participle, “praying in the Holy Spirit,” ‘praying.’ The third is in verse 21, ‘waiting.’

He gives a command, you must keep yourself, keep, you must “keep yourselves in the love of God.” How do you do that? By waiting, by praying, by building… by praying, by waiting, that explains it. You might think when you read that statement, “keep yourselves in the love of God,” that’s strange. How would I keep myself, isn’t it true that God keeps me? But there is a responsibility on our side. We are going to see here, as we often talk about, the sovereignty of God and our responsibility. We always want to play the one off against the other. As I often tell you, God is completely, absolutely sovereign and we are fully, completely responsible. Those are Biblical truths, they don’t play them against one another. I recognize them. That gives me comfort and assurance that God is absolutely sovereign and it motivates me to know I am completely responsible. So that is what Jude is doing.

He works into that command by giving two of the three provisions, how we are to do this, before he gives the actual command. “But you, beloved,” loved ones, “building yourselves up on your most holy faith.” Here this is a contrast. There are those who are going to be causing division, they are worldly-minded, they’re devoid of the Spirit. This will happen in the last times, these times in which we live between the first coming and the second coming of Christ. These kinds of people are not only going to be in the world but they will have infiltrated in the church. The church is to be an assembly of the holy ones, saints, holy ones because God is holy. Unbelievers can come in to hear the truth but we don’t try to make them comfortable in the wrong sense. We want them to have a comfortable seat, we want them to be treated kindly but they are not part of us. “You beloved,” first way… Many of the commentators because of this they refer to this as an instrumental participle, they put the word ‘by’ with it. “You beloved, by building yourselves up” and that carries the idea that is what he means by building up. “Building yourselves up on your most holy faith,” this picture of a building, a structure, a temple, that is what he is talking about. You’re on a foundation, this is a building on a foundation, this is the building we are constructing. The foundation was laid, you could see it as you drive by, then the building is constructed on that foundation. It’s the responsibility of believers, individually and corporately. Note, building yourselves starts with me, then we together recognize that common responsibility that we share, “building yourselves up on your most holy faith.”

Come back to Philippians 2:12, “So then, my beloved”, there is our word again, my beloved, my loved ones who are the object of God’s love and, of course, then my love. Do I love the ones God loves? How could I say I love my heavenly Father but I don’t love His children? No, I am writing my beloved, loved ones, “just as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only”. It is a characteristic of true believers functioning as God would have them function that they would listen to God’s word and they desire to do it. “You have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence.” Paul can’t be there, he is in prison, but he is writing to them. Look at what he says, “Work out your salvation with fear and trembling.” That is what he is saying, you are to be “building yourselves up on your most holy faith.” “Work out your salvation,” that is the building process. Well, I thought God was sovereign in it. Next verse, “for it is God who is as work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure”.
Well, I say, wait a minute, am I to work out my salvation or is God working it out? The answer is yes. Both! God is at work, when I entered into that salvation it was His work of mercy and grace. It is to this day. I live out day by day by faith in His word, so I obey Him because I… what? Love Him, believe in Him. He is God! Upon what basis would I claim to love Him, obey Him, and disobey Him? It’s God at work so as I’m working out my salvation with fear and trembling out of a reverence for Him and a concern not to displease Him in any way. It’s really God doing the work that only He can do within me, and the presence of the Holy Spirit conforming me more and more into the character of the God that I serve. In 1 Peter, that opening chapter, you can read some of those qualities. These would be the fruit of the Spirit as they are developing, and God is at work in me as I work out my salvation in fear and trembling. You never want anybody to break apart those two truths, I working out my salvation, God working in me. I work it out in fear and trembling, fear… of reverencing Him, honoring Him, desire of not displeasing Him in any way. When I leave that kind of perspective I can get caught up by perhaps apostates who have infiltrated the church and they are not working God’s purposes. They are trying to draw me over to his side, Satan’s side, away from God’s side. Wait a minute.

So we are building ourselves up, come back to Jude, “on your most holy faith”, he is talking about that body of truth that we believe so it is called the faith. This is what Jude said we were to contend for in verse 3, “contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all handed down to the saints”. The holy ones, the word ‘saints’ is the holy ones. The basic word is holy, sanctified, saint, ‘hagios’ in its various forms, one set apart from sin for God. You should be holy for I am holy, so we are God’s holy ones. Your most holy faith, the truth that God has revealed, this is God’s word, His very words, so it is most holy, a superlative. He doesn’t say it’s holy, is very holy; he says it is most holy. Understand this is God speaking, when I disobey what He says I am disobeying Him. So we are talking about building ourselves up with a life of obedience to His word and that’s growing, more and more I want my life to be a conformed life to the word of God. A number of passages on this, and it’s so foundational, we will look at a few. Look in Acts 20, we don’t have time to look at the context but if you jot these down I encourage you to go back and read the context cause you are going to find each of these it’s very much like Jude.

It is false teachers, unbelievers, that have come in and are influencing believers. When that happens we are no longer building on the foundation and being built up on our most holy faith. We are being dragged into the realm of the unholy, not obeying God, not giving Him reverence, and obedience, not fearful. Our emotions maybe have taken over, we have gotten swept along as we say ‘in the emotion of the moment,’ you haven’t stopped to take consideration. It is hard, once our emotions get a grip on us, it’s hard. Let’s just look at the Word, I don’t want to get out of control. You see this with a two year old, they just let their emotions swing them over and they want to throw a tantrum. Now wait a minute, we got people roaming the streets committing all kinds of lawless acts because they think someone else did a lawless act. So in response to that I got to go out and do something lawless, that make sense to you? Remember our foundational theological statement, ‘sin makes you stupid.’
Alright, you had a chance to get to Acts 20, Paul says his life has been about the ministry of God’s truth. Verse 20 of Acts 20, “I did not shrink from declaring to you anything that was profitable, teaching you publicly and from house to house, solemnly testifying to both Jews and Greeks of repentance toward God and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ”. He’d give His life, verse 24, “to testify solemnly of the gospel of the grace of God” and this is what I’ve done, verse 26, “I am innocent of the blood of all men. For I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole purpose of God”. Where does he go with that? “Be on guard for yourselves,” (verse 28), they have a personal responsibility in this and then for the body of believers of which we are a part. He is addressing elders here who have a responsibility for caring for God’s people. We ought to remember that, remember this passage, and what God has ordained, “be on guard for yourselves and for all the flock, among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers.

Now you see we get into a realm of rebellion that somehow people can profess to be spiritual and be in rebellion. When you are in rebellion against the Holy Spirit you are in sin, there is no justification for sin. You are to “shepherd the church of God,” this is the responsibility of the elders, they have to take it seriously, they have to evaluate and determine we will do what is biblical. We must be biblical. You have to exclude all the others things. Well, if we are biblical this might happen, that might make things more difficult, may make it unpleasant. They have to have that narrow focus, you are “to shepherd the church of God which He purchased with His own blood,” verse 28. What’s the problem? Verse 29, “I know that after my departure savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock.” What are they? They’re wolves, savage wolves come among you. Again Jude is writing the same thing, it happens again, and again, and again, that is why the Bible keeps repeating the warning. “From among your own selves men will arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away the disciples after them,” be on the alert.

Look at verse 32, he is addressing elders, it’s the responsibility of the elders, and the church has to see it because they have to commit to it as well. “Now I commend you to God and to the word of His grace, which is able to build you up”. Now you see it? We are building ourselves up in the most holy faith. I commend you to God and to the word of His grace, the truth that He has given, which is able to build you up and “give you the inheritance among those who were sanctified,” among the holy ones, that God has set apart for Himself. We will get to that in the third participle, in a short time. It’s the word of His grace. Where is the devil going to go? Subtle ways, he begins to sow discord, a lack of trust in the truth of God and the elders that God has given. That doesn’t mean that they are a magisterium, when the elders are not biblical they must be dealt with.
We have to be careful we are on line with the Word. Somehow sometimes we will begin to drift. We get shut down to the word of God. I have had conversations, more than I could number and I wouldn’t want to, try to walk through the Word. The person’s says I don’t have an answer, I’m just upset. Well, no wonder, you are not willing to submit to the Word. Again we let our emotions dominate and since I’m emotionally worked up therefore… Therefore what? Therefore stop it! It’s like the two year old, you’ve got to stop it or you will be a three year old doing that, and a 20 year old out in the street burning a building. Spiritually, how did this get to go into the church again and again and again? Because somehow we get deluded and then something else takes over and we allow ourselves to be deluded. I keep something in my office that a person gave me many years ago to encourage me to be like Paul and stand alone. You know what happened to that person? He ended up getting lured into a cult, the last I heard they had joined the cult. I always see what they made for me, handmade, to remind me to be sure to stand like Paul and not yield to the… But somehow they opened themselves to an influence. And you can’t trust it, it is like a little bit of cancer, that is what sin is like. If I go to the doctor and he says you have a little bit of cancer, we are not going to pay any attention to it now. What do you mean you aren’t going to pay attention to it? I’m paying attention to it. Why? We know that it can spread, that is what happens with sin, it doesn’t just necessarily come as a big event, it’s that little thing that encroaches.
Come over to 1 Corinthians 3, we are going to verse 10. Same thing in Corinthians, we just read about the Corinthian church in the second letter of Paul. 1 Corinthians 3:10, look at this, “according to the grace of God which was given to me, like a wise master builder I laid a foundation, and another is building on it. But each man must be careful how he builds on it.” “Each man must be,” an individual responsibility here. We are building ourselves up in the most holy faith. Then it becomes a corporate responsibility as we together have the same commitment, shouldn’t we? It’s the same Spirit controlling us, it’s the same God, it’s the same Savior. Each man must be careful how he builds, “for no man can build on his foundation other than the one which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.” If you build with worthless materials you will end up with no reward. Each man’s work will be judged. Verse 16, “Do you not know that you are a temple of God and that the Spirit dwells in you? If any man destroys the temple of God, God will destroy him.” That is believers, because the Holy Spirit dwells in us individually and in us as a body, corporately. We have to be aware the temple of God is holy and that is what you are individually and now we are as God’s people, the household of faith.

We have to take this seriously. You know what? Those who would destroy the temple, they are the ones Jude is talking about, those are those devoid of the Spirit. Do I want to destroy the work of God? Do I want to do battle against the Holy Spirit and try to destroy what he is doing and yet claim to belong to God? This is serious business, this is not a game. It’s like the quartet song, It’s not a recreational room, it is a battlefield. It’s not a game we are playing, it is a war we are fighting. Believers subtly get wooed over to the other side and find out they are shooting at other members of their family, what a horrible thing. What are we doing? We take this serious. Oh, we read it, oh, we know that, we could quote those verses, remember we were told to remember these things, so call it to mind and act in light of them.

One more passage then we have to get back to Jude, Ephesians 2:20, verse 19, “you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints,” the holy ones, “and are of God’s household, having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets.” The truth of the gospel that they proclaimed and the truth that has been revealed through them, Christ Jesus is the cornerstone, same picture but he mixes it. Christ Jesus being the foundation, now the cornerstone, that holds it together. It is the same picture, that we are being built together. Anything that attacks that, weakens it, destroys it, is a work of the devil. There is no other way to deal with it, we are not being nice when we tolerate it. Whole denominations have been swept away from the Lord, schools, churches, because we didn’t deal with it, didn’t deal with it. Talked to my father, he used the analogy of cancer, he told me, I knew I had the problem, I just didn’t want to deal with it. By the time he did get to the doctor to deal with it, it was too late, it had spread so far that the destruction was too great. Sometimes we are like that in the church, we just let it go. Well, you know they may have a point. All these reasons we come up with to allow the unbeliever to assert influence among believers and it doesn’t go away. It spreads! Then pretty soon we are like the Corinthian church, Paul has to say I led you to Christ but I think you better examine yourself to see if you are even in the faith. How far can you get led astray and still claim to be a believer? It looks like the Corinthian church is pretty much a mess and then pretty soon the unbelievers take over and if there are a few believers left they go off and start another church. So the seriousness.
Come back to Jude, (there are other passages, we don’t have time for) you are “building yourselves up on your most holy faith.” Anything that moves you away from the truth… The Bible is a mind book, it starts with the mind. When people get caught up with their emotions they let their emotions drive them and then they try to fit the scripture in as much as they can. But their real decisions are made by their emotions. We are talking about being built on the most holy faith, we go to the Word, this is what is says. I know, but… No ‘buts’ here! This is what it says, this is what we do. As soon as we say there can be exceptions then we can’t get the door closed because the devil puts his foot in the door, then he pushes a little more and the further open he gets it the harder it is to hold it closed, pretty soon you’ve decided its useless. The most holy faith, that is the first. Building yourselves up, obviously we can’t spend as much time on the rest, they are not less important. But the foundational issue, once you move away from the word of God you’re just adrift and the current will take you wherever.
The second one is “praying in the Holy Spirit,” the end of verse 20, “praying in the Holy Spirit.” We have seen the Holy Spirit mentioned in the other passages that we mentioned. It’s the Holy Spirit, He intercedes for us. He dwells within us. I live my life in the realm, the sphere, what it means to be in the Holy Spirit, under His control, His influence. He knows! I am to be praying, where do I go? I can cut off conversations, people want to come and say, I heard something, I don’t know if it is true but I heard it. I say, let’s just stop. You have heard something, the Lord knows what you have heard, I don’t need to hear it, so let’s just pray about it. Lord, you know what so-and-so has heard, you know what is truth and what is not, you know what’s the proper response, we are going to leave this with you. We go and talk about it with the Lord, praying in the Holy Spirit. We need to pray for one another, that helps. Somebody offends you, they are believers, maybe they have been insensitive, it always helps to pray for them. You want to keep some kinds of people on your prayer list, pray that the Lord will work in their life; not, Lord, change them to know I was right, they were wrong. No! Let the Lord work in your heart, most important thing is not that I get my way or anything else, most important thing, Lord, is that you are honored by my life and their life if they are your child. ‘Praying in the Holy Spirit.” The first thing we think we have to do is talk to someone else, send them a text, and let them know what we heard. Rumors become, you know… what does the song tell us, “take it to the Lord in prayer”. What does the scripture tell us, “praying in the Holy Spirit.” Hebrews 4:16, we are to express our submission to God and His will, we come “to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need,” Hebrews 4: 16. That’s what we do, come to the throne of grace. We fuss, we fret, we talk to others, we get ourselves worked up, we get others worked up… for what? Why? Take it to the Lord in prayer. We are to be “praying in the Holy Spirit.”

Then the command, you must “keep yourselves in the love of God” it is an aorist imperative. Some of you have taken Greek, most of you haven’t, just so you know that is the most forceful way to express a command, you must keep yourselves in the love of God. What does that mean? He told me back in verse 1 that I’m one of “those who are the called, beloved in God the Father, and kept for Jesus Christ.” I thought God kept me; yes, he does, this is my security, but I have a responsibility, an accountability to Him to keep myself in His love. How do you do that? By building “yourselves up in your most holy faith,” by “praying in the Holy Spirit,” by “waiting anxiously,” that means intently, “for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ for the eternal life.”

I’m looking for the coming of the Lord, that helps put it into perspective. Some of you are old, maybe not as old as me, but you look back over your life, and sometimes I look back over and certain things you remember and difficulties. You say I wonder why I made that such an issue? You know, it seemed important then, but look, life has gone on, here I am, it didn’t really matter. It seemed like at the time the bottom was falling out. Ecclesiastes, you can’t change yesterday and you can’t control tomorrow, be what you should be and must be today. We are waiting for the coming of the Lord. Look at the country, what are we going to do? Whatever the Lord leads us through, whatever he brings to us tomorrow. Does that mean I won’t vote? Yeah, you can vote. Am I worried? You could wake up tomorrow and the president could be dead. You can wake up tomorrow and something else would have happened that changed things overnight. Who is in charge here, why should I worry, why should I fret, why should I be discouraged? I’m watching for the coming of the Lord. We got our eyes so much on the world’s events we’ve forgot that He was coming. We are “looking for the blessed hope, and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ,” as Titus 2:13 says.
What do you think about world events? Boy, they sure are a mess, it’s hard for me to think about them. You know what I’m thinking about? I am thinking about the coming of my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, He is the one that matters. You can’t put this world together, it is disintegrating, it is coming apart at the seams, we might say. We hope it gets put back enough for us to get out. At my age I’m just saying I just got to be here a little bit longer, good luck to the kids and grand kids. Of course, I wouldn’t say good luck, I’ll say the Lord bless you. Are we really looking for the coming of our Lord and Savior? Believers are a lot more ready to jump into the politics and the issues of the day, boy, do they have opinions on it, they are really worked up and they are ready to get on it. We forget to tell people, your hope in a lost world is the coming of Jesus Christ. We are eagerly, anxiously, intently looking for the mercy. You know, we started out in mercy, it was by the mercy and grace of God we were saved. We live our lives in the context of that verse. You know what is going to happen when Christ comes, we are raptured into His presence, then I will realize the fullness of His mercy that I have not yet seen, I will be glorified in His presence. The last phase of my salvation, to prepare me for the eternity of glory. So I’m looking for the mercy. I don’t know how tomorrow is going to turn out but that is all right, the God that I serve controls tomorrow and He controls my life. So what do we want to do? We want to be sure to make this the goal of your life, keep yourself in the love of God by building yourself up in His most holy word by praying in the Holy Spirit and by waiting with anticipation for the coming of Christ. It will bring everything for you, to enable you to be gloried in His presence.

Let’s pray together. Thank you, Lord, for the riches of your word. Lord, it is a clear word, it is a word that comes from you, it is a holy word. We are your people, we are to be a holy people, set apart for you. You love us, we love you because you first loved us. We love one another because your love has been bestowed upon us. You have put your love for other believers in our hearts. Lord, may we take these truths seriously. May we put them into practice so that we can be protected against the wiles of the devil, the influences that may even come in among us that would lure us away from faithfulness of devotion to Christ. In His name we pray. Amen.