CavanBaptistChurch - Sunday September 1st2002
Jude vs.20-25
Introduction
Throughout the month of August we have been looking at the little Book of Jude. It could be called “Jude the Obscure” because it is not often preached on, but I hope you have found it relevant for the world that we live in today. I believe it has a very timely warning for the Church of this particular generation. We saw that the key verse is v.4. In fact this was Jude’s reason for writing his letter:
“For certain men whose condemnation was written about long ago have secretly slipped in among you. They are godless men, who change the
grace of our God into a licence for immorality and deny Jesus Christ
our only Sovereign and Lord.”
The false teachers Jude was dealing with were so over-emphasising the grace of God and the liberty that we have in Christ,that they were ending up using the grace of God as a licence to indulge in all kinds of sinful and immoral activities. In v.3 he urges us to contend for the true Gospel against such dangerous ideas. The other extreme of course that we also have to contend against is legalism, which so emphasises the Law of God, that it loses sight of the liberty that we have in Christ and so ends up in a dead cold legalistic religion, which is just as bad as turning grace into a licence for sin.
I represented those equal and opposite dangers for the True Gospel in the form of see-saw diagrams on the OHP. I hope they were helpful in terms of understanding this.
So from vs.5-19 that we looked at over the last couple of weeks Jude has been exposing these false teachers for who they are, and where they have gone wrong.
He even uses two Apocryphal Books that they loved to refer to, in order to totally undermine their position. They were the Book of Enoch, and The Assumption of Moses. Jude wouldn’t have accepted these Books as inspired by God, but he used them to defeat these false teachers on their own ground. They refused the authority of Jesus as Lord, and the authority of Christ’s apostles too, so he had little alternative.
He finished that section by pointing out that The True Apostles of Christ such as Peter had predicted that such false teachers and scoffers would appear, and so we shouldn’t be surprised by them, but we must stand up for the truth of the Gospel and contend for it, in order to pass it on intact to our generation and the one coming after us. He finished in v.19 by saying that though such false teachers might accuse us, as Evangelicals, of causing division by our emphasis on true Biblical Doctrine (They say “Doctrine divides”), Jude says it is in fact them, as false teachers, who cause the divisions. They follow mere natural instincts which lead them into sin, and they simply do not have the Spirit of God – They are just not saved. They are condemned!
Q. So what are we to do in the face of such dangerous distortion of the True Gospel?
Well that is the subject of the final section of Jude that we are going to turn to now in verses 20-25. There are three things that Jude asks us to do:
1. Look in at yourself (vs.20-21)
2. Look out for each other (vs.22-23)
3. Look up to God (vs.24,25)
Three areas that we need to give attention in contending for the truth of the Gospel.
1. Look in at yourself. (vs.20-21)
It’s not often in Scripture that we are told to think of ourselves first, before others. But here we are. As Paul often said to Timothy, “Take heed to yourself” (first) and then “to the ministry.” If we don’t keep ourselves right we’re going to be of no use to anybody else. In these verses Jude mentions four things we are to do for ourselves.
I mentioned last week that false teachers have a tendency to abdicate personal responsibility, one of their slogans is “Just let go and let God!” But for us as true believers in the Lord Jesus Christ, we are never told to do that in the Bible. It’s true we are nothing without God, we can do nothing to save ourselves, we can accomplish nothing without Him. That’s all true, and yet the Bible still tells us to do things all the same. Here are four of them: Four verbs, four doing words, in these 2 verses:
Build – yourselves up in your most holy faith. Now very appropriately this morning, if you look out there you will see a good foundation. The foundation has been dug, the dead build put in, hidden beneath the ground, and the floor laid for our new church hall. We all know the importance of laying a good foundation, and only building up if we’ve first got a good foundation to build on. Well here we are told as individual Christians to build ourselves up in our most holy faith. So what are we to build on?
Well Paul said in 1 Cor 3:11, “For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ.” In other words we must build our lives upon the Lord Jesus Christ. He is our rock, our foundation stone, he is our be all and end all. Without Him we are nothing. If we forsake Him we will end up nowhere. And yet look back at v.4, the false teachers were denying Jesus Christ as our only Sovereign and Lord. They were forsaking Christ for another foundation, another touchstone. If you want to build yourself up in your most holy faith, you can’t do that – you can’t forsake Christ. And what did Jesus say about building in Matthew 7:24-27. He told the story about the wise and foolish builders: The one who built his house upon the sand, and the other who built his house upon the rock. One fell flat when the storms came, the other stood firm, no matter what came his way. And what was the difference between the two men, what was the point of Jesus’ story? Well there it is in v.24, “Everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock.”That’s the only way we can build ourselves up in our most holy faith, it is by hearing, reading and studying, not just at church, but day by day on our own, God’s Word, and with His help putting it into practice in our lives. That’s the first way that you’ll be able to contend for the true Gospel against all the faulty ideas that are floating around today. There is no alternative – start building if you want to be strong. Stop building and you’re going to be fair game for anything!
Pray – in the Holy Spirit. It’s not surprising then, that the second thing Jude tells us today is also foundational. You should know this since your first steps as a Christian. As well as reading your Bible, you need to pray. Not just at the prayer meeting, or whenever the preacher prays at the front on Sundays, but on you own at home as well. Pray in the Spirit. In other words, you need to pray for the Holy Spirit each day to fill you with his strength and to help you to face what ever is going to come your way that day. You can’t do it in your own strength. You need him to help you. This is something mystical or magical like praying in tongues or getting carried away in some sensational way – this is straightforward, down to earth praying for the Lord to give you the wisdom and discernment that you need to be aware of the devil’s schemes and plans to try to lead you away from the Lord and on to all kinds of other things that try to take his place in your life. Build yourself up on The Word, and pray in the Spirit, if you want to be able to contend for the faith of the Gospel once for all delivered to the saints. And then thirdly…
Keep – “Keep yourselves in God’s love” – How do we do that? Well turn back to John 15, a passage we keep coming back to, because again it is foundational. Jesus said in v.9,10, “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love (or keep yourselves in my love – but how?) If you obey my commandments, you will remain in my love, just as I have obeyed my father’s commands and remain in his love.”How do we keep ourselves in God’s love? It is by doing those things we know please God. How do we know what pleases God? Well that’s where the Law comes in. Remember my see-saw diagrams? Walking in the grace of God is not ignoring the Law, and it’s not ignoring the Liberty that we have in Christ either. It’s keeping the two in mind, keeping them both in balance. What the false teachers were doing was ignoring God’s Law altogether, even though the Law reveals to us what please God, and they were carrying on to do their own thing, to live whatever way they wanted to, thinking that God in his grace would still go on loving them no matter what. Well they were wrong! Jude says here, Keep yourselves in God’s love, and how you do that is by remembering what you know in your heart of hearts pleases him. That’s not bondage, that’s not legalism, but it is “loving the Lord with all your heart, soul, mind and strength,” and it’s “loving your neighbour as yourself.” Even on a human level it makes sense. If I knew my wife loved something, and yet I went out and did the exact opposite, and continued to do so, it wouldn’t be too long until there would be a strain on our relationship, and possibly an end to our love. Keeping yourself in God’s love is doing those things that you know please him. So keep yourselves in God’s love as you
Wait – for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to bring you to eternal life. - Be patient.
Sometimes you’ll wonder why you bother. Sometimes you’ll think you’d be better off just living like the rest of the world. Maybe sometimes you think they get away with life better than you do. But you’re not home yet. You’re still passing through. You’re still in enemy territory. But wait. Because there’s coming a day when all your building will be over, all your praying will be done, and all your keeping on the right path will be rewarded – when the Lord Jesus Christ in his mercy brings you to eternal life. You’ve got to keep the end in view. When things are getting you down, you’ve got to look ahead to Jesus, and to eternity, to Heaven itself, and then it will be worth it all when we see the Lord. “One look on His dear face, all sorrow will erase,
It will be worth it all when we see the Lord.”
2. Look out for each other. (vs.22-23) – (3 groups of people)
Show Mercy - Be mercifulto those who doubt – These are doubting Christians.
It’s alright for Christians to have honest doubts at times, particularly when subtle forms of false teaching are going around. Sometimes we’ve got to stop and think things through. Sometimes we are caused to doubt. That’s not the sin. The sin is giving into doubt, and allowing it to lead us away from Christ instead of to him.
So Jude says, show mercy to Christians who have been taken in for a while – who have some doubts, and help them come back.
Show Urgency - Snatch othersfrom the fire and save them – These are the Lost.
Yes we’re to be patient and generous to doubting Christians, but there’s an urgency about those who are still lost and outside of Christ, who are not saved. Remember back in v.7, Jude said that Sodom and Gomorrah were examples of those who suffer the punishment of eternal fire. Well that’s part of the true Gospel that we are called to contend for. Hell is a place of eternal torment – a lake of fire. And having reminded us about that, he now calls us to snatch people as brands from the burning and save them.
If we really believe this true Gospel, against the backdrop of all the false stuff, and half baked stuff going around today, then there should be more of an urgency about us to see people reached with the Gospel and saved. We can’t do the actual saving, but we are called to do the witnessing. How urgently do we see that task (Psalm 51:11-14)
Show Sensitivity - To others show mercy mixed with fear – (why?) hating even the clothing stained by corrupted flesh. These are the backsliders. These are those who have succumbed to the false teachers, that they can live whatever way they like, indulging in all kinds of immorality, thinking that the grace of God will still go on ignoring what they’re doing. But look at the words Jude uses. Show mercy (yes), mixed with fear (why?) Lest you also be tempted, and hate even the clothing stained by corrupted flesh. By their immoral behaviour (see Galatians 6:1). i.e. Show purity!
3. Look up to God. (vs.24-25)
How are we to keep going?
How can we avoid falling into sin?
How can we be sure we’ll make it to the end?
Only God has the answer – (cf. Philippians 1:6) How come? (Philippians 2:12,13).
He is the One who is able to keep you from falling– or stumbling into sin. (now).
He is the One who is able to present you faultlessbefore his presence. (then).
He is the Only God, our Saviour (contrast that with v.4!!) the false teachers
“denied Jesus Christ as our only Sovereign and Lord.”
The picture is of a horse and rider. Think of 3-day eventing in the horse world. The rider holding the reins of his horse, over all kinds of difficult and gruelling obstacles. Well, if Jesus is your Lord, you’ve given Him the reins of your life. You’ve placed them into his hands. Yes, like the horse you’ll do all in your power to keep yourself going, but he’s the Master, he’s the one who holds the reins, and He’ll steer you through, and one day, like in the dressage, present you faultless before the Judge!
Conclusion
To Him belongs the glory, majesty, power and authority. Through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all ages, now and forevermore. Amen.Jesus is worthy of our worship, because he is the only one who can save us, and He’s the only one who can keep us from falling, and keep us going, and one day make us perfect and make us presentable before His Father’s Throne in Heaven.He shouldn’t be denied as Lord of our lives. He should be thanked and praised and honoured and glorified. For He alone is worthy!