can probably understand is para. We are called alongside, the Holy Spirit comes alongside, but three times that preposition is used in these three words. To earnestly, the word of God has been entrusted, para, dittime, into the hands of the people that's been entrusted together. And then the warning is that these people have crept in alongside, they've crept in unawares, they've come para estuna, but I shouldn't be, I'm not wanting to spend a whole lot of time on the Greek, but I think the thing that's really interesting is that three times in that preposition at the beginning of a word, the combination word is used.

And then down at the bottom it says, these are the ones that separate themselves. He's calling his people to stand together. He's calling his people to stand as one for the sake of the gospel. These ungodly men, their destitute of the fear of God, their destitute of the knowledge of God, and their destitute of the worship of God. They have no reverence for God and no awe of Him.

Jude has written, and we have to remember that this letter is written, this is not talking about the salvation of God's people. This is written, this is a letter written to them in verse 1 that are sanctified by God the Father. This is a letter written to the elect children of God in the midst of a contention that God has promised. They're sanctified by God the Father, they're preserved in Jesus Christ, and they are called by the blessed Holy Spirit. They are the recipients of mercy, they are the recipients of peace, and they're the recipients of God's love.

So this is not a letter about how to be saved or how to keep saved, although the gospel is so wonderfully declared in it. But Satan desires to sift. the children of God as he did Peter. And the sifting is painful, isn't it? Satan masquerades as an angel of light and he's a prowling lion who walks about seeking those he may devour. And if you ask Peter what it's like to be sifted by Satan, and any of you who have been sifted by Satan, you know that it's an extraordinary, uncomfortable place to be. exposes our sin and our weakness and we are exposed in ways that horrify us. But in the mercy of the Lord, all of those things cause us, who are kept by the Lord Jesus Christ, to come back to him. The trials of life send the children of God back into the arms of a Saviour. We don't want to be sheep out there on our own, straying away. We want to be God's people are flock animals. Sheep are flock animals. If you're a shepherd and you go to a paddock and there's a sheep all the way on its own somewhere, you know that that sheep's in strife, in serious, serious trouble.

But Satan is a master deceiver and a master liar, and these people... in the very presence of the saved children of God who had the gospel undiluted and unblemished from the lips of the apostles themselves. And it's remarkable, isn't it, that all of the trials that the church was going to go through until the Lord returns are trials that the children of God went through at the very beginning and wrote it down so that we know. And I want to know how to contend I want to know why I contend, I want to know how I contend. And the lies of this religious world, I love what Ezekiel says about the lies of the religious world in his day. He says, Ezekiel 13, 22, because with lies you've made the heart of the righteous sad. whom I have not made sad, and strengthened the hand of the wicked, that he should not return from his wicked way, by promising him life." Peace is what false teachers are saying all the time. So the exhortation here and all of the Lord's exhortations are vital and important and we need to take them seriously and before we go back and look at the rest of the letter I wanted us to spend just this little time looking at these seven declarations of how we contend against these people that we've read about here.

This letter is written so that we can come alongside, that we can stand alongside our brethren in contending for the faith. We love the fact that the Lord stands by his people and this is all going to be achieved because of the work of the Spirit of God in the hearts of his people. It's going to be achieved only because we're kept by the Lord Jesus Christ. I need to be kept from everything. I need to be kept from myself. I need to be kept from Satan. I need to be kept from this world. I can't keep myself. every time in all of my life I've just needed to be kept. I'm thankful that goodness and mercy has followed me. I'm thankful that goodness and mercy.

So let's look at these seven things briefly. I went through them earlier with you, but in verse 20, they begin. These are in response, but this is, I love the buts of scripture. This is one of those glorious buts. They, the other ones, they separate themselves. We don't separate from anyone. They separate themselves. We separate from false teaching and those who bring false teaching, but we are not the ones that create the separation. The gospel separates, and God does that separation. and he does it in his way. But they separate themselves, they're sensual, all they have, they begin in the flesh and they carry on in the flesh.

And here are these seven things, but ye beloved, I love that word beloved, I love that word, I love that I can look out from this pulpit and I can look out from pulpits in other parts of the world and I'm looking, I'm beloved. I'm looking on beloved people. Beloved. Beloved of God Almighty. Building yourselves up. This is the first one. Building yourselves up in your most holy faith. Secondly, praying in the Holy Ghost. Third, keeping yourself in the love of God. Four, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life. 5. And of some have compassion, making a difference. 6. Others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire. 7. Hating even the garment spotted by the flesh.

So let's begin and obviously we'll be brief with them and we'll, Lord willing, have time to come back and look at this in the future. But I want us, as we go back, to look at the issues that are raised and the declarations that are made about these people in the book of Jude. I want us to, as we think about our contending, I want us to have this before us as we go back and look at those things.

Building yourselves up. In your most holy faith, all of these are plural. It's not something that I do on my own, it's something that we do together, we do alongside one another and with our brethren around the world. To build up is to build upon. To build up is to build upon. There was, there is a common salvation, there is The faith which was once delivered to the saints. We build ourselves up. We build ourselves upon the Gospel. We continually go back and preach the Gospel to ourselves and remind ourselves of the Gospel. The Gospel is a person, and the Gospel is that person, the Lord Jesus Christ, and all that he has done. It's Jesus Christ and him crucified. It's Jesus Christ. He is Lord of all. It's proclaiming the Lordship of our great God and Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ. It's proclaiming the fact that He is Lord, He always was Lord, and even now He still is the Lord Jesus Christ. He is Lord. God has given Him power over all flesh. And God's children say, Amen. But please exercise that power over my flesh. I'm not going to contend unless I'm going to start by being built up in the most holy faith.

Tom read it to us in Ephesians chapter 2, and you can go back and look at it again, but Ephesians 2 gives us glory as a declaration of faith, and I'll just give you a seven-fold declaration from an old sermon of Ebenezer Erskine's, but it's the most holy faith. This is a faith that has come from the Holy Ones and declares the faithfulness of the Holy One, the Lord Jesus Christ. It's most holy. There is no other faith that's holy. This is the most holy faith.

Faith is the gift of God. It's not the product of free will, it's the operation of the Spirit of God by the Word of God. And it's the parent of all other graces. It begins all other graces. This is the foundation. Faith has Jesus Christ, the Lord Jesus Christ, as its principle. object, for it is the faith of Christ. The faith of God's elect is the faith of Christ. Our Lord, our Saviour, our mediator, our hope. Christ is the bread. Faith is the mouth which eats. Christ is the brazen serpent. Faith is the eye that looks. It's an empty hand that receives from the hand of God. Faith is receiving Christ, not just hearing about him or acknowledging him, but a committal to him. If Christ is meat, then eat. If Christ is the living water, then drink. If Christ is the city of refuge, then flee to him as Lord and then worship him. Faith is to rest upon Christ, not just hearing about him or acknowledging him, but it's to rest on Christ. We rest in the Lord.

Faith is not an isolated act based on some intellectual knowledge of some facts, but it is trusting in and it is resting upon a person, Christ, to perform all that I need for him to perform all that he has promised. I love what David said in 2 Samuel chapter 7 when he received those amazing promises. He just turned to the Lord and said, just do as you've said. Just do as you've said. Isn't that a great prayer? Do as you've said. Be faithful. You are faithful. You are the faithful one. Do as you've said.

Faith rests upon Christ as He is presented in the Gospel with us for no other sign than the Word of God. Faith is to believe the record that God has given concerning His Son. He that has the Son hath life. Faith rests upon Christ for salvation, for sanctification, for righteousness, and for full redemption. The goal of faith is the salvation of our souls. And this the Lord undertook in the eternal covenant, which he completed on Calvary and said, it is finished. Faith just looks to him. Nothing either great or small, nothing sinner, no. Jesus Christ did it all long, long ago. It is finished, yes indeed, finished every jot. Sinner, is this all you need? Tell me, is it not?

Building yourselves up on your most holy face, so it begins, it begins by hearing the word of God. As newborn babes, you desire the sincere milk of the word that you may grow thereby. It's going back again and again and again to the word of God, to hearing the gospel preached, to being with those who preach the gospel, and to stand alongside, to exhort, to come alongside those who proclaim the gospel and those who proclaim it by their presence.

Don't forget the gospel's only preached because there are people to have it preached to. There are no low ranges where God raises up a gospel witness. He raises up a gospel audience, and they're as much a part of the proclamation of the gospel as the person preaching. The person preaching bears an enormous responsibility before God, and it's not to be treated lightly in any way at all. But every preacher is so, so thankful that he looks out on people who hear the Gospel and just smile and rest in the Lord Jesus Christ.

So the foundation is laid in the Gospel and then all the growing and all the building upon just returns to this foundation. We just continually go back to that foundation. God has laid in Zion for a foundation, a stone, Isaiah 28, 16, a tried stone, a precious cornerstone, a sure foundation. He that believeth shall not make haste.

He makes me to lie down in green pastures. He leads me. In returning and rest shall ye be saved. In quietness and in confidence shall your strength be. We have a glorious gospel which proclaims a glorious saviour.

Secondly, we build ourselves up and then he says, praying in the Holy Ghost. Praying in the Holy Ghost is praying by the Holy Ghost. That same word in is praying in means to be by and to be with the Holy Ghost. I want my prayers to be real prayers. I'm very, very well aware of the fact that almost all of the prayers that have any serious meaning and seem to reach into heaven's courts are those that come with a plea and a cry. Just like parents run to the cry of their newborn babes. Our Lord heard the cries of his people in Egypt. He heard, he hears the cries of his people.

The best prayers in the scripture are the simplest one, aren't they? Lord, save me. Lord, if you will, you can make me clean. Just remember me. You know the circumstances. Just remember me. But to pray in the Holy Ghost is to ask, isn't it? So much of our prayers should begin with a glorification and an exaltation and a wonder that we can come into the very presence of a Holy God in the Lord Jesus Christ. We are commanded and exhorted to come to a throne of grace that we might find help in our time of need, Hebrews chapter four. And the Lord continually says, ask. He says, ask and you shall receive. Ask, Luke 11, 19.

The Lord continually says, listen to what he says in Luke 11, 19. It's wonderful, it's just so glorious. These are promises made by God Almighty. He says in verse nine of Luke 11, I say unto you, ask. And the context is that this person has been repeatedly asking and being turned back and he's encouraging his people to just keep on asking. I say unto you, ask and it shall be given. Seek and you shall find. Knock and it shall be opened unto you. For everyone that asketh, receiveth. You know about that from John 14 and 15 and 16. Ask and you shall receive. And he that seeketh findeth, and to him that knocketh it shall be opened.

If a son shall ask for bread of any one of you that is a father, will he give him a stone? Or if he ask a fish, will he for a fish give him a serpent? Or if he ask for an egg, will he offer him a scorpion?

Now listen to this description of the apostles. See if you can say amen to this. If you then, being evil, Can we say Amen to that? If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask Him? He has to provide it all. If you're evil, He has to do it all. It all has to be grace. It all has to come as a free gift.

We build ourselves up together in our most holy faith. We pray in the Holy Ghost. And then fourthly, He says to us, I'm sorry, I have to sort my notes out. He says in the fourth instance, he says, keep yourselves in the love of God. Keep yourselves in the love of God.

God has loved his people with an everlasting love. Why does God love? Because he loves. God is love. We love him because he first loved us. He doesn't love us because of what he sees in us. He is the source of love, isn't he? He is the source of love. The cause of all that love is in him.

"'The Lord did not,' this is Deuteronomy 7, 7, "'The Lord did not set his love upon you nor choose you "'because you were more in number than any people, "'for you were the fewest of all people. "'But because the Lord loved you "'and because he would keep his oath "'which he had sworn unto your fathers, "'hath the Lord brought you out with a mighty hand "'and redeemed you out of the house of the bondman "'from the hand of Pharaoh.

Keep yourselves. Keep yourselves. Build yourselves up in your most holy faith. Pray in the Holy Spirit. There's a wonderful article on love in your bulletin, so I commend you to read it. But in love, love is the first cause of all that God does for you people. Love is the remaining emotion of heaven. needed in heaven. Hope is not needed in heaven. But in heaven, love remains. Love. Love expressed in a love from a sinless one to those who are made sinless by the love of God shed abroad. by the Lord Jesus Christ.

In love, He receives His people as His own. In love, He undertakes their cause. In love, He works out for them a perfect righteousness, so bright, so perfect, so glorious, that Jehovah's eye can find no flaw or spot or blemish in it. There's no spot in you. There's no spot in you. In love he beautifies them with his shining robe and fits them for the banquet of the heavens of heaven. In love he guards them from every foe. In love he makes all things work together for their good. In love he leads them to lie down in. the rich pastures of the scriptures and instructs them in his word.

In love, he's returning to take his people to himself. In love, he presents them pure and blameless before his father. And as Jude said, in love he does it with exceeding joy. We have a joyful God who loves. In love he will dwell among them in eternity.

So you build yourselves up in your holy faith. We build it together. I need to be built up in my holy faith and I'm so thankful that I have brothers and sisters that build me up in my most holy faith and remind me of the gospel. Tell me thy God reigns, one more time. Tell me that it's all about him and his work. Tell me that he looks to his son and is satisfied. Tell me about my Saviour again.

The fourth one is looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life. He wouldn't ask you to look for mercy if it wasn't there. And he wouldn't ask you to look for mercy if mercy wasn't to be found. Goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life. No wonder Jude says, mercy unto you and peace and love be multiplied. I want to see the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ. He who delights in mercy. I'd love to see his mercy upon the people I love. Excuse me and careful. Mercy for the undeserving and the unworthy. And how did our mercy come to us? Because he emptied himself of everything that he might give to us.

Keep looking to the Lord Jesus. Excuse me, I'm sorry. Keep looking to the Lord Jesus Christ and Him crucified. We'll find mercy at the mercy seat. We are told to come to the throne of grace that we might find grace and mercy in our time of need. Mercy is for the needy. Mercy is for the helpless.

and do this together. Number five, Jude 22, and of some have compassion, making a difference. If we're going to earnestly contend for the faith, then let's make a conscious decision to love one another, really love one another, to make it real. I don't want to play games with God and I don't want to play games with God's people. I don't want to play games with God's word. I want love to be sincere. I want love to be fervent among the children of God.

And one of the lovely things that I've witnessed over the years is just the many, many, many acts of kindness and love that I've witnessed amongst my brethren that no one else knows about, and they won't brag about. And some have compassion. There is a particular compassion for the children of God. And some have compassion. We have to stand in love for our enemies against those who, as Paul says in 2 Timothy, who oppose themselves and deny the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ.

We are told to come out from among the false teachers and the false teaching and we're told, and Jude is warning us, not to become entangled in their schemes and their debates and their contention. We have a higher calling, brothers and sisters. We're in the business of declaring the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ to each other and then through each other to all of this world.

I love what, Moses said to Jethro and others, he said, come with us and we'll do you good. Come with us and we'll do you good. Love one another. That's how we contend for the faith. Isn't it extraordinary that all of the things that are involved in contending the faith are just so precious to all the children of God?

Verse 23, and others save with fear, and I must close, with fear pulling them out of the fire. How do we save them? We don't save anyone, but we have a gospel that declares the salvation of people in the work and the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ. I can't pull myself out of a fire, let alone anyone else, but we can point them to the one who does. We can keep telling them about how glorious our Saviour is.

And we do it with the reverential awe that God is right in all that we do. We long for the salvation of everyone. We don't desire any ill to come upon anyone. We want to stand, we want them to stand alongside us. We want them to come with us and we will do them good. If we earnestly contend for the faith, then we contend for others to share this faith. We want others to come and worship the Lord Jesus Christ.

I love what Job was asked to do at the end after those miserable comforters had harassed him and Job was finally brought to the place where he's defending his own righteousness and God met him and Job says, behold, I'm vile. I abhor myself and I repent in dust and ashes. And then God says to Job, and the Lord, Job 42.10, the Lord turned the captivity of Job when he prayed for his friends. And also the Lord gave Job twice as much as he had before. And the last one, and I'll be brief about it because we might get the Lord willing to talk about this later on, but hating even the garment spotted by the flesh. What is the garment? The garment that's spotted by the flesh is anything that's done in the flesh and anything that is. involved in us feeling some self-righteousness about what we've done and what we haven't done and what we might do.

Everything this flesh desires and craves, we're just called to turn from it. We're not here to brag about what we have done. We're here. We're going to contend for this faith. We're going to be doing it in such a way that nothing about my flesh matters at all. If I could hide behind this pulpit and you could hear and hear and look to the Lord Jesus Christ, I'll be more than satisfied.

What's the great desire of God's children? I want to be found in Him. I want to be found in Him. I want to be found so clearly and completely in Him as He declares it to be, that when God looks on me, all He ever sees is His Son, because I'm hidden. Our life is hidden with Christ in God. We're not bragging about anything in our flesh in any way, shape or form.

How do we contend? I found this very convicting and very encouraging. I pray the Lord blesses it to your heart. Build yourselves up in your most holy faith, beloved brethren. Pray in the Holy Ghost, and pray for each other, and pray. Contend by praying, isn't that wonderful? Isn't that a great way to start, contending by praying? How often is prayer the last thing we turn to?

Keep yourselves in the love of God. Look, keep looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life. The one life that matters is eternal life. Keep yourselves in the love of God. On some, have compassion. Others, save with fear, pulling them out of the fire. Hating even the flesh, the garment spotted by the flesh.

May the Lord bless his word to our hearts. Let's have a break.