Living in the Realm of Mercy

Transcript

GR 2301
10/11/2020
Living in the Realm of Mercy
Jude 22, 23
Gil Rugh

We're going to the book of Jude, we are in the heart of the book when we get to verses 17-23, and we're taking our time here. Jude is writing to encourage people, believers, to realize the seriousness of the battle for truth. They were to earnestly contend for the faith in a world filled with ideas, religious ideas and otherwise. But there is only one biblical truth—the God who cannot lie, the God who is truth has spoken, this is His word. The church is to be the pillar and support of the truth. If we yield the truth, if we move away from the truth, you understand, where will the world get the truth? God has placed us in this day at this time to give forth His truth, to live His truth in the midst of an ungodly world, to preserve His truth. And Jude is particularly concerned for infiltration that takes place among believers. It happens in churches, it happens in other evangelical institutions. But unbelievers make their way in, in disguise and over time they make their influence felt. More subtly to begin with, just offering maybe a little different view, a little different way of looking at things, a moving away from the clarity of scripture because they think they have certain insights. And the doctrine gets corrupted and life gets corrupted along with that.

And it is happening among believers in Jude's day and he is the half-brother of Christ, so we are back at the beginning days of the church. But Jude said it didn't even begin here, it began and was evident in the Old Testament. He took us all the way back to the seventh generation from Adam with Enoch and there quoted the prophecy. Then reminded us of Old Testament accounts that showed the danger to God's people from the corruption from within. It is the world and the worldly making their way into the church but they don't get in by looking like the world and the worldly. But you can see if you look at major denominations, I'm not picking on them but just to use that as an example that is so clearly seen because time has gone by, and they now are unrecognizable as far as biblical truth is concerned, as far as biblical practice is concerned. So what seems subtle at the beginning is really an undermining and a weakening of God's people and of the church so that over time the corruption becomes more evident and growing.

So what Jude is doing in verses 17-23 is pulling together our responsibility as believers. That has been unfolded, we're to contend earnestly for the faith and then he showed the seriousness of the situation, then he gave us reasons. One of you remarked that you thought the rapture was close because I preached a three point sermon last week. I haven't drawn attention, but Jude is filled with what we would call triads, three points, three things, and they pervade. And as he ends here, really there are three areas of responsibility, and then you can break those down into individual with three parts of them, and we looked at that. But I want to just note the verbs here in these that are given as commands, we call them imperatives, the main sections within are built around this. In verse 17 the first command we saw, ‘remember,’ that's given as a command, a firm command so it is translated you “ought to remember.” We could translate it with the force of English, you ‘must’ remember, to get that imperative, it is required, it is commanded, you must remember. The second command is down in verse 21, ‘keep,’ we could say you must keep, it's another command. And then we looked in our last study of the participles that are built around that command. Then when you come to verses 22-23. where we will be today, we really have three commands and two of them are the same. The command ‘have mercy’ in verse 22, then there is a command to ‘save’ beginning in verse 23, then the command to ‘have mercy’ is repeated again in the middle of verse 23, so you get an idea of where the force is.

And what Jude is doing here is showing the three areas that we have to be aware of. That first command covered verses 17-19, ‘to remember.’ Part of the problem, we get into trouble, is not with things we haven't learned but things we have learned, forgotten or set aside. Here the command was “remember the word spoken beforehand,” build on the word of God. Jude is adding to that under the direction of the Spirit. Sometimes we get off-track because as believers we learn, and I meet people different times and they'll say, I appreciate their encouragement and compliments, they'll say I've appreciated the foundation I received at Indian Hills, the teaching there. And I usually follow up with, now where are you? And I'm always encouraged if they are in another Bible-believing church, that the Lord is using them there, and they are growing, that's great. But sometimes I meet people, I've had people say to me when I ask them where are you now, they say I'd rather not say. You'd rather not say, are you embarrassed where you are? I've had some tell me, then they tell the church, and I know they are hesitant, right now we are going to… And I have followed up on occasion and asked, that's not a Bible-believing church, why are you there? I know, I know, I knew you were going to say that. Well, that's encouraging. Well, my kids had friends there and they wanted to go and I thought it might be good for them at this time to go and have their friends, or reasons like this. We ought to be careful we don't move off our foundation, a foundation is not laid so you can go over someplace else and build, we talked about that when we went through this. In 1 Corinthians 3 Paul warns, I've laid the foundation, you have to build on the foundation and we've looked at other passages. So we want to be careful that we stay with that. So that's the first responsibility, to remember, and when we remember we will be able and ready to identify these apostates. That's what he is talking about in verses 17-19, these apostates coming into the church, we shouldn't be surprised by that, we shouldn't be caught off guard. And that's the history of God's people, being corrupted by the enemy, often covering themselves as friends when they really are there to destroy.

The second responsibility we have is to “keep,” that's the command, “yourselves in the love of God.” We are to keep ourselves, and we noted the way we do that with the participles there, “building yourselves up on the most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit… waiting anxiously for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ” at His coming. Stay the course, stay on track, strengthen yourself, stay where God wants you to be, we might say in the center of His will, right where His love puts you and wants you to be. Just like with your children, you want the best for them, it hurts, it grieves you when they wander. God wants us to stay the course, keep on track, keep yourself in the love of God. You note the responsibility that is there on us. Where would God want me? And He gave guidance on how to do that, and that's where we continue.

The third area we are going to be dealing with, our responsibility… We want to be ready to deal with apostasy, we want to be firm and steady, keep ourselves where God wants us to be and He put us, in the center of His will, where His love would have us be because that is best for us. Then the third area is with the verb to ‘have mercy,’ it is given as a command, to have mercy. He mentions that twice, he mentions the word mercy at the end of verse 21 and then twice he gives it as a command, once in verse 22, once in verse 23. And in the middle of that he gives the command to ‘save,’ to rescue, to get back certain people. And so I have lumped that together, the third area, we're on a rescue mission, we must save the needy. Now he's not primarily talking about initial salvation, although sometimes that happens in these contexts. But what do we do? With the apostates it is more clear, once we recognize their purpose in being here is not to learn and grow in the Lord, their purpose is to bring in their false doctrine, it's to corrupt the living. The seminary I attended for some graduate work, there was a professor there had professed to be a believer, and in part is considered an evangelical seminary, but there have been great changes. But this professor, accepted there as evangelical, but the last contact I had was recently in our city when he came to speak at a liberal church promoting homosexuality as an appropriate lifestyle for believers. Where did he get to there? How do you get to this? So they infiltrate everywhere believers are, and God's people have to be aware.

And some believers will get impacted by their ministries, if I can call it a ministry. Their purposes, they serve the devil so they are there on his mission, whether they recognize it themselves. Remember many will say to Christ on the judgment day, Matthew 7, many will say to Me on that day Lord, Lord, we did many mighty works in your name, we really went all out for You. And I'll say to them I never knew you, depart from Me, cursed ones. So we want to be discerning. We want to be careful in our discernment that as we would say, Jude didn't say this, I'm saying it, we throw the baby out with the bathwater. But that's what he is saying in different language, be careful when you are dealing with apostates. That doesn't mean everybody who may drift is given the boot, we have no tolerance for anybody who stumbles, you stumble you are out, you get off track, this is a place for the righteous, we are the ones who finally have arrived at the command, you shall be holy for I am holy. Jude says no, you have to be careful of that attitude, so he is warning them, mercy must characterize us, we'll see this as we move along and wrap it up at the end.

But keep in mind, mercy is an identifying characteristic of a genuine believer, mercy, without mercy you cannot be considered a believer. Remember Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount, blessed are the merciful for they shall receive mercy. Now if you don't receive mercy from God, where are you going? You are going to hell. It's an identifying characteristic of a believer. It's not a way that you earn God's mercy, because you can't earn mercy because mercy by definition is something you don't deserve. But those who had been the recipient of God's abundant mercy live in that environment, that realm. Back in Jude 2, what is Jude's prayer for the believer he is writing to? “May mercy and peace and love be multiplied to you.” We've been saved by God's mercy, we entered into salvation by mercy, by grace, words that are similar in idea and that both are undeserved, unmerited, it's the mercy of God, the grace of God. But that mercy we need to continue to receive from Him. Jude wants it to be multiplied to them, we need mercy and we keep needing more of it. Doesn't matter how long you have been a believer, every day brings new occasions where we need the mercy of God. Some occasions we are mindful of it more, the overwhelming situation reminds us and we find ourselves saying, Lord, I need your mercy, your grace to get me through this. But we are looking forward to future events, that's at the end of verse 21, “Waiting anxiously for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to eternal life.” Do you know what I'll need when Christ comes? Greater mercy, that's what I'm looking for because He has promised that it will be there. So my future is dependent on His mercy. So this is the realm in which a believer lives, God's mercy continually being provided for us.

That being the case, just as God says you shall be holy for I am holy, He requires that we be merciful as He is merciful. In other words, part of His work is to use us as His children who have received such mercy to now show that mercy to others of His children who are stumbling, who are wandering. Because what is happening, these false teachers, their corrupted doctrine and corrupting lifestyle, had begun to get a hold of some believers to one degree or another. And what he is going to do in verses 22-23 is set forth three groups that we have to deal with in mercy. It's not complicated, mercy is the heart of it. We'll walk through this and then we'll look at a couple of other passages that will remind us.

Important, the word ‘mercy’ is picked up from the end of verse 22, as he reminds them as believers the future glory promised to us will come to us because of mercy, we are anxiously waiting for the mercy. It's not like God saved me and I thank God for that mercy that saved me. Do you know what? I am looking forward to what His mercy has promised me for my future. And even when He saved me, I haven't earned the glory of His presence, I've failed many times. James says we all stumble in many ways, that's not an excuse but it is a reality in our not yet fully redeemed condition. 1 John 2 tells us that if any man sins we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous one, and He is the propitiation for our sins. That's why we are eternally secure because Christ intercedes for us in the presence of the Father, and then when it comes time for us to be called into the Father's presence, mercy will reach its fullness. We are waiting anxiously for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to eternal life. I have it in the sense that it is promised to me, but I won't enter into that provision; if the Lord doesn't come I am going to die physically, as all of you will. But I will someday enter into eternal life, that will even be beyond what it will be when I leave this body at physical death, because what is Christ going to do at His coming? These bodies will be called out of the grave, and that will be the final, full revelation of His mercy when salvation and its future tense is completed—glorification. And it will take mercy.

With that then, a reminder and on our mind, I'm looking for the mercy that will bring me the final phase of my salvation. Verse 22 transitions, you have that conjunction ‘and’ so you see he is connecting to what he just said. And you are to be “waiting anxiously for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to eternal life and you (must) have mercy.” Not so hard for me, yes, I have mercy, the hard thing and the challenging thing I better be alert to is I should be showing mercy. Why do I need mercy? We say that's obvious, you're a sinner and even as a redeemed sinner you sin, you stray. Well, do you know what happens when some other believer does? That's not only a test for that believer, that becomes a test for me. And not for me just to sit in judgment and say I don't know why they would do that, I would never think of doing that, there is no excuse for them to do it. But you understand there is never any excuse for any of us to sin as believers. The authority of sin over us has been broken. I sometimes due to stupidity exercise my will to sin, other believers do it. There is no excuse for me, I'm thankful for the mercy of God, but if I truly understand the mercy of God that is keeping me secure and we'll bring it all to fulfillment, then I must show mercy.

The first group he is going to mention, those who are doubting. He is going to deal with three kinds of people and we're going to see this fits other portions of Scripture, another major portion. The first kind of person we have to show mercy to is the doubter. And you'll note he says “have mercy on some who are doubting,” so this is just not isolated cases, this is more than one, this is some who are doubting. What happens with the false teachers? And Paul has to battle this continually, you see it in his letters to Corinth, his letter to the Galatians, it comes up in letters to the Thessalonians, and so on. That as the influence of the world and unbelievers presses in, some believers get caught up. And when these apostates that Jude has been writing about, sometimes their teaching begins to make sense, even to a believer. Because they say well, the Scripture says this, but doesn't it say this? Well… And pretty soon they are in doubt, it means they waver. They may be immature believers, we are all growing in maturity, none of us have yet been perfected. But here these doubters, and maybe we shouldn't be so harsh, maybe… God is a God of love, maybe these kinds of sins… Jude says the licentiousness… maybe that's acceptable.

I used that professor as an example that certain kinds of sexual relationships are fine… we misunderstand the Scripture… we misuse the Scripture when we cancel the love of God when these people were made this way. As one of those who is a public figure said, if you have a problem with my sexuality, you have a problem with the God who made me this way. And pretty soon believers start interpreting the Bible, yes, I can see what they are saying. We used examples in our last study in the evening -- eschatology, it's out here but then those who have changed their eschatology from a literal interpretation, pretty soon now we have to take care of the earth. And now we have to do social things to prepare for the kingdom. Wait a minute, I thought it was just about future things. But that just became a door. Now look, we don't have to divide over this, we have a different opinion. But between that different opinion, well, we're going to build our conduct on our doctrine. And if this is our doctrine of future things and we have to prepare the earth for the coming of Christ, then we ought to be worried about the climate and doing all we can to change the climate. And it is our biblical responsibility… And one thing goes to another. And besides, we are to rule over creation, and how can we have it prepared for the coming of the One who will ultimately rule? And they have a mixture here. Christ is coming and He will rule, but they have corrupted what that means and so some believers get confused and the corruption spreads. So the doubters.

Back up to James; James, who wrote the book of James, is the half-brother of Jesus. Both these men (James, Jude) were saved after the resurrection of Christ, they have grown in the Word, they would have known the basic facts of the Old Testament like Paul did in that they were raised Jewish men. James is writing, he has similar concerns, look at James 1, he is talking about trials and trouble, verse 2, “Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials.” These trials are providing opportunity for your faith to be strengthened and more evident, it's a testing of your faith. That produces endurance, endurance helps to bring you to further maturity, it perfects you so that you are a more well-rounded child of God, balanced in your godly life. Verse 5, “If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all generously and without reproach, and it will be given to him.” Lord, I need Your wisdom to handle this. I go to the Word, maybe I talk to mature believers, but I am looking to Him ultimately. “But he must ask in faith,” now note this, “without any doubting,” there is our word. So we have to show mercy to some who are doubting Jude said. Well, you must “ask in faith without any doubting, the one who doubts is like the surf of the sea, driven and tossed by the wind.”

That's the picture, here is a person now who has come under the influence of these apostates who have infiltrated among believers, and they are here driven about by the wind, they have doubts. Maybe what they are saying is true, maybe I haven't handled the Scripture properly, maybe I've been too legalistic in a wrong sense. “That man ought not to expect that he will receive anything from the Lord, being a double-minded man,” a two-souled man, is “unstable in all his ways.” So we have to understand. Part of it would be, if you were helping a person like this, is to explain that trials have a purpose. We don't get off-track on trials. I understand God is sovereign in my life, this is not what I planned for this but it is what God planned for me. Now how do I handle it? I need His wisdom, if you lack wisdom ask of God, and I want to know what God says. First place I go is to the Word, and I find out, Lord, I should be counting it a joy this trial has come. It is painful, it makes me weep, but in my heart I can have joy in knowing You brought this for Your purpose. So you can see, I get all caught up with the person who maybe is doubting. Well, we can't have doubters here, how are we going to get the blessing of the Lord if we have too many doubters. If you have too many doubts, maybe you ought to go elsewhere. No, that's not the way it is handled. Now you need mature believers, that's why James is writing, so you understand. You don't get what you ask of God when you doubt whether He can or will do it. You don't go and tell God, this is what I want; I don't care what Your will is, here is my will, that's not the kind of prayer that gets answered. I come humbly.

Come over to James 3:17. Verse 13 for the context, “Who among you is wise and understanding? Let him show by his good behavior his deeds,” his works, “in the gentleness of wisdom.” And you'll see it is very similar, we looked at this in an earlier portion of Jude. And then verse 17, “The wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, reasonable, full of mercy,” so we want to show them mercy. So we can't say you ought to seek wisdom from God. You are a doubter, you won't. We help them understand because if we have God's wisdom to share with them, it will be full of mercy. Unwavering. You know what a person who is wavering and doubting needs? A mature believer to come alongside them, love them, show them mercy, to help them walk back out of this situation, to settle these doubts, to get reoriented. If the mature believer just looks down on him, lets him go his own way, how are they going to get back on track? We don't do that with our children, a child left to his own way, that's not good, that's not an evidence of love, and it's not in God's family either. So we become the instruments that God uses because we have to be doing. It's easy to tell them, here is what God says, you don't have doubts… if you are two-souled, double-minded… you don't have doubts. Wait a minute, I need to tell them what Scripture says you should do, but I need to have mercy, I need to realize this is not only a test for them to grow, it's a test for me to grow. How am I responding to them? What am I going to do? In our day of parenting, abandoning totally any connection to Scripture, parents just think they let their kids go. If that's the way they want to be, let them go, I'm done, I'm out of here; fathers abandon their responsibility. Not really, it's a test. If I love that child well enough that I want to show them mercy of giving them my time, help them to understand why this is inexcusable. That's what God is doing and we become instruments, show mercy. So the first group we have to deal with are the doubters, they need mercy. Come back to Jude, we pick that up. Don't forget, we are looking for further mercy. And if we want mercy to be multiplied in our days, and we're looking for mercy. So I never will get outside the realm of mercy as God's child, so I want to share that same mercy that I received from the Lord with someone else.

Verse 23, here is another command, “Save others.” So he is talking about the same thing. When he says “have mercy on some who are doubting,” what is he talking about? Rescuing them, saving them out of their doubts. Like James was talking about, explains why trials come and why it is important, and how that builds endurance and maturity. He just doesn't write them off as doubters, but he does make clear that is not acceptable, you can't go forward in your walk with the Lord if you are always doubting Him. Now save others. So you are going to work on these the same way you did with the others to rescue them, to save them, you are “snatching them out of the fire.” Now we have gone, these people are in a more serious condition, they are not just doubting and wavering in what they should do, how they should do it, what conduct maybe they get involved in or doctrine they adjust. These are people who have gone further than that, they are in danger of going over to the apostates. “Snatching them out of the fire,” they are in great danger, they are on the edge, as we would say. Now if they go over to the apostates, now things will even get more blurred.

But as far as I can tell, and it has happened, there have been people here, years of ministry, have been a great blessing to me, a great encouragement to me and yet where they've gone… I don't know. We had an evangelical church in this city that was torn apart because people in leadership went over to Roman Catholicism and before they left their church, their subtle influence, they built relationships, they subtly spread the doctrine. Finally it came time to deal with it, the church exploded and they are just left as a little remnant. It happens. You want to rescue people from the fire and those who go all the way over, then it becomes you don't know where they are. But you wonder with some people, and some of those had been part of this congregation. How did they end up where they did? I'd love to call them back. Are they just confused or are they totally gone? We don't give up.

Come back to Zechariah, we'll just use this one reference, Zechariah 3, and note how the chapter begins, Zechariah getting this vision. “Then he showed me Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of the Lord, and Satan standing at his right hand to accuse him.” Satan wants to claim him. “The Lord said to Satan, ‘The Lord rebuke you, Satan! Indeed, the Lord who has chosen Jerusalem rebuke you! Is this not a brand plucked from the fire?’ ” See that picture? It's like you threw that stick and it's going to burn up, you grab it out before the fire can catch to it. But it couldn't be in a more dangerous, precarious position. So that's where he uses that command -- save others. They are like a brand that needs to be plucked from the fire, they are in danger of going into the fire but you have to be an instrument of mercy to get them out. And you see how God does at the end of verse 4. “See, I have taken your iniquity away from you and will clothe you with festal robes.” God is on the rescue mission, He's not willing that any of His children perish and some of them can get so entangled that they are in a very dangerous situation. All I can deal with is they profess to be believers, they seem to have evidenced it, even in conversations they seem, but they seem to be going over. Never underestimate the power of the enemy.

I've shared with you a number of times, the man that was a professor in an evangelical school, I did some graduate study there. Now I've shared with you on a number of occasions I left there. They were very nice to me, said you should stay. They recognized that we weren't in agreement because they said we like having you here because you bring a different opinion. I said that's not my concern, my concern is that I might get turned over to where you are. This is the danger, you have to realize how dangerous the situation is. And that's where we have to have mercy and compassion, any of us can become entangled and messed up, so to speak, and again I can't think clearly anymore. What am I doing? How did I get to where I am? You need believers that have mercy, that are mature, they are there, we're not going to let go of you, so to speak. Mercy. So you see here when Jude has been so hard on these apostates and he cuts them no slack, we have to keep the balance of Scripture. We cut the apostates no slack, you're not allowed to teach and promote false doctrine, you are not allowed to teach and promote licentious living. We want to be careful we don't throw out every believer who maybe gets confused and misled by that kind of teacher and teaching. We get them thrown out, too. No. Maybe what they have done, I don't know. Paul had to deal with a couple of men who denied the bodily resurrection, but he didn't say they are godless men. They were people who knew him. Do you know what he said? Some people have made a wreck of their faith by allowing themselves… He didn't say they never had faith, but they are like a ship that gets wrecked, they hit the reef and with the storm it begins to come apart. We just don't stand by and watch the ship disintegrate, we are on a rescue mission, save them, snatch them out, that's the picture.

Amos 4:11, we won't go there for time, but God says concerning Jerusalem, that if it weren't for His mercy they would be destroyed. So Jerusalem is like a branch plucked from the burning, Amos 4:11 says. Same situation, it took God's mercy, just like Joshua, if it weren't for God's merciful intervention, there goes Joshua, there goes Jerusalem. It takes mercy, that is our security. Not saying a believer can lose his salvation, but God does work and He works through us. How does He pull His people back? With other godly people who just don't sit as the stern judges. But we have to have discernment, who is an apostate and who isn't. Now we're rescuing them, we're not compromising to keep them, we won't compromise our doctrine to rescue them, we can't compromise what is a required godly lifestyle to rescue them. But if they are believers, there is a point of contact there and we want to rescue them, that requires mercy.

Come back to Jude, the third group is the most difficult. The middle of verse 23, “and on some,” he keeps using this kind of language -- some, others, some. There are going to be these kinds of people so we have to be ready to get involved without becoming influenced. Some others. “On some have mercy,” the middle of verse 23, have mercy, there is the command again, same exact command as verse 22, “have mercy on some,” so he has broken them down into three kinds of people. “Have mercy with fear, hating even the garment polluted by the flesh.” Jude doesn't back off with softened language. That word ‘polluted’ is the word for excrement, this is really putrid, defiled. They have allowed themselves to get so entangled with the apostates, they have begun to adopt some of their doctrine or practice some of their practices. That's revolting in one sense. You have to hate even the garment polluted, defiled by the flesh. That word ‘garment’ is the one used close to them. It is pictured how this has gotten hold of them and it is on them. Now you want to still work on rescue, you have to show mercy to them. Again, we don't have to tolerate the false teaching, we don't have to accept that influence.

This is different, we are on a rescue mission, a salvation mission. We are going to bring them back, but be careful in bringing them back you don't get entangled. And that happens often, people start out, I'm going to help them, I'm going to… Pretty soon they have gotten tangled in and they say I think maybe they had a point and pretty soon they are getting drawn over. Maybe we haven't been loving, maybe God did make them that way, maybe… Now they are drawn over and pretty soon… You don't want anything to do with it but you still want to rescue the people. These are different than the apostates. How do you tell? Well, going on the basis of where they started with us, and the time they believed with us, they lived like us. If they are truly unbelievers then they are like-souled with the apostates and you won't get them back, that would become one of the evidences. But we don't quit, even when they seem entangled there. I remember, like I said, people who have been a blessing to me and positive influence… Well, I don't want to give up on them, you pray for them, you look for opportunity to reach out to them, but watch out. Then there will come a time when you realize they are not open to what I am saying anymore, they are not open to help, their only purpose is to draw me over to their side.

Come to Galatians 6, we'll pick up with verse 1. “Brethren,” so he is writing to believers, “even if anyone is caught in any trespass,” that's a sin, “you who are spiritual, restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness.” There we go again, another word, these words that can say similar ideas -- gentleness, mercy. I'll go in there, I'm going to lay it on the line for you, there is no excuse. Of course there is never any excuse for sin, not theirs and not mine so don't let me act like I am so much more holy than you. But they are the one entangled now, so I come with a spirit of gentleness, meekness, showing mercy, compassion. “In a spirit of gentleness,” now note, “looking to yourself, so that you too will not be tempted.” Same thing in James, you come with fear. Here these people are entangled, you want to rescue them but you have to be careful.

When I was young I used to like to swim, tried to limit it to 8 hours a day, then I finally decided when I got to college I thought (we used to live 45 minutes from the ocean) maybe I should be a lifeguard. No sense in letting this physique go to waste. So I liked to swim, so I went and took lifesaving lessons to be a lifeguard. I learned something there, they said you have to be careful, you are going to have to go out to people who are flailing around and they are going under. You don't want to grab onto them because they will pull you down with them and if you get in that death grip you won't get out because they are hanging on for dear life. And you can't help them because you are all tangled with them so you have to be careful to stay far enough away. When they are finally, totally exhausted and going down for the last time and they have no strength left then you go in and grab them. And so there is that kind of discernment. I never did become the lifeguard, but the reality of it. That's what we're on, a spiritual mission, so we want to be wise. And that doesn't mean we stand back and just let them go, but the point is we have to be careful we don't become entangled with them, then there are two of us in trouble. And that stuff begins to spread because so-and-so, they've gone that way, I wonder… That's how the church I mentioned that got destroyed, it just seemed to spread. One person says to another and another and another. By the time they realized they had to deal with it, it was too late to salvage, but a remnant… Not everybody went the apostate way, others just scattered and some of them don't know where to go. That's how some of them have come to talk to me, we're just in despair, sheep without a shepherd. So those are the three groups we have to deal with.

Come back to Matthew 18, I think Jesus dealt with this, I've talked to you about this passage before, but it's in the context of mercy. We don't have time but I want to just look at it. We call this the passage on church discipline, I think it is a misnomer, and I am guilty of that as well. It's the passage on church restoration, believer restoration, it's a salvage operation, if you will, rescuing the perishing. Here, believers confused. It starts out with Jesus talking about little children. “He called a child,” Matthew 18:2, “to Himself and set him before them.” Now be careful, there is a transition here, I'm amazed at the commentators who don't even acknowledge it. He takes this child, He is going to do an object lesson. “Truly I say to you,” verse 3, “unless you are converted and become like children, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven.” And that's the ultimate salvation, that's what Jews were looking for. We will all end up there when heaven comes on earth and the kingdom and heaven are merged in Revelation 21-22. So you won't have salvation. “Whoever then humbles himself as this child, he is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. And whoever receives one such child…” He's made a transition here, you have to become like this child, humble as this child, you set aside your self-esteem, your pride, your arrogance. I am but an unworthy sinner, deserving of hell, I have nothing to bring, but I claim, God, Your mercy, the provision You have made for me because I couldn't save myself. It's the humbling, that's what is so hard. We are all proud, arrogant people and to humble ourselves and say I am unworthy, I am on my way to hell, get rid of it all. Well, I'm too proud, I don't want people to think I am that kind of person so we go on in our religiosity. Note the warning in verse 6, “whoever causes one of these little ones,” He's not talking about little children. I'm not saying that mistreating little, physical children is okay, but that's not what Jesus is talking about. He has used that as an example to transition to God's little children, those who have their faith in Him. That's what He said in the previous verses here, the context settles the meaning. If you cause one of those little ones to stumble, be better for you to have a millstone hung around your neck and you be drowned. That millstone, the big grinding stone, they wrap that around your neck, they throw you into the water, you're going quickly to the bottom. That's __________. Remember Judas is in this, he can hear these talks, he knew what Jesus taught. He's one who would have been better that a millstone… So you don't want to cause God's children to stumble, lead them into sin. That's a mark of an apostate, he is corrupting the truth, he is corrupting the life, he is trying to lead God's people astray. The worst of hell is his destiny.

“Woe to the world because of its stumbling blocks!” Now a warning, they'll come but you better not be a cause of it, and don't have excuses. That's where he goes on here, verse 10, “See that you do not despise one of these little ones, for I say to you that their angels in heaven continually see the face of my Father who is in heaven.” He's not talking about guardian angels for little children, he's not even talking about guardian angels for adult believers. Hebrews 2 says the angels were created to be serving spirits for the heirs of salvation, so they operate on our behalf as God's children, not necessarily a particular angel for a particular… When Daniel needed answers to prayer, an angel was sent from heaven to give him the answer, he was serving on Daniel's behalf to bring God's answer to him, and so on. So this is it, the angels. When it comes to the kingdom we will rule over the angels Paul wrote to the Corinthians. “The Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost.” Then He uses the analogy of the lost sheep. If you have 100 sheep and you lose one, you don't say I have 99 left, I'm not going to worry about one. No, you go find that lost sheep, that's what Jesus says God does with His children. Look at verse 14, “So it is not the will of your Father who is in heaven that one of these little ones perish.” So remember the fellowship of believers, and as far as we can tell it is, gets entangled, no matter what level we are talking about. From the doubter, to the snatching from the fire, to the one whose garment has been polluted in a defiling and repulsive way, we're on a rescue mission. Mercy. Mercy.

That's when He tells, verses 15-20, how do you rescue them. Well, He gives three steps which would be similar to Jude's three steps. First one is you go and talk to him, maybe just a personal conversation, that's the doubter. This is added material here, you take all the context here, but basically you are walking through these steps. If he doesn't listen to you, don't say I tried, I guess I'll keep my mouth shut. No, you get some other witnesses to go with you. It's like the brand plucked from the fire, he's too far along. We've joined together to share with you, here's what the word of God says, you are seriously off-track, you are on a road you don't want to be on. The third, that's the one you have to be careful of, he is already polluted with the defilements of the doctrine or the practice. He is a danger to you, be careful, and if he doesn't respond you have to cut off the relationship.

And how often do you go through this? God does not give up on His children. This is where we just take these verses out and call this church discipline, it is not, it is church rescue, you never give up. Peter asked, how often do I go through this process, seven times? The rabbis taught three, Peter is being very magnanimous, Jesus said I wouldn't tell you seven, I would tell you 70 times 7. In other words, you don't keep count, then He shows how much Peter and others have been forgiven and how little we forgive. Now I want you to see forgiveness and mercy are interchangeable for the one who would not forgive a debt, a small debt compared to the big debt he had been forgiven. You'll have to read the context. Verse 33, “Should you not also have had mercy,” He says you forgive, it means you have mercy, “on your fellow slave, in the same way that I had mercy on you?” There is the measure, how much has God forgiven me. Well, it's infinite, it's immeasurable. All right, don't be keeping count on somebody else. You rescue, doesn't matter, doesn't matter whether you are the object. Sometimes if you are the object of the offense, that's just God is giving you opportunity to grow. We're all caught up on their offense when really God has provided. Count it all joy, my brethren, when you fall into various trials. One of the trials may be the disrupting of your life even by another believer who is off-track. Well, I have to first be sure I am where I am, and then I respond to them the way God says I should. After what they've done, I'm not going to show anymore mercy, we've run out of mercy. What do you mean, you've run out of mercy? Where are you going to be if God runs out of mercy with you? You are still depending, waiting anxiously for the mercy that will be shown you when Christ comes. You don't want it? I don't think so. But a warning, if you don't show mercy, no matter how many times it is called for, then verse 35, “My heavenly Father will also do the same to you, if each of you does not forgive his brother from your heart.” From the heart, this is where we are, forgiveness is a mark of a believer, mercy is a mark of a believer, grace is a mark of a believer because these are the characteristics of God. We have become partakers of the divine nature. An unforgiving Christian is an oxymoron, unforgiving is a sign of an unbeliever, a Christian is a sign of one who is merciful. What do we mix here?_______________________

I have another couple passages, they'll have to wait. We ought to be sure we pick up where we are. Are we being what God says we ought to be? We talk about apostates, we want to be a church that's clear, we stand for sound doctrine and pure life, there is no compromise on that. But that doesn't mean we're a mean church, doesn't mean we are an unforgiving church. What did they do? How many times did they do it? I don't think… What do you mean? Who is keeping count? Is God keeping count on us? Boy, I think… I've been a believer for over 50 years, if He's keeping count I'm sure I ran out long ago. We all stumble in many ways, that's what God says. I hope I don't run out of forgiveness. But you say you won't because God has promised to be merciful and I am His child, partake of His divine nature, what ought to characterize me. And this is where we begin to depart from what we say we believe. I know what the Bible says. I had a Christian say don't talk to me about forgiveness. What do you mean, what can I talk to you about? Are you not forgiven, were you not shown mercy? It's pretty clear. This is why Jude wraps up this section by drawing what he is saying about the apostates' influence in the church and how we deal with it. And we want to be careful we are doing what we should do, not just pointing out what other people are not doing in light of what they should do.

Let's pray together. Thank you, Lord, for the riches of Your word. Thank you for the grace that we have received, mercy, Lord, mercy we receive every day, Lord, countless times. And You love us, You are not willing that any of Your children should perish. And Lord, You give us the privilege and opportunity of rescuing even Your children from the dangers that always confront us. I pray that we'll not lose sight of this truth but we will be instruments of mercy used of You to accomplish Your work in the lives of Your children who may stray so that we might receive those benefits as well. We pray in Christ's name, amen.