This morning, with the Lord's
help, we're going to look in this Epistle of Jude that we
read through. In a sense, it's a neglected
book. Certainly, I find that. I don't
look at it perhaps as often as I should. Perhaps not many sermons
are preached on it. There are many memorable parts
in this little book. In this morning we shall be,
our doctrine, our area of study really is the life of faith which
is in Christ and is a true look at the world that we live in.
When we try to live this life of faith, what is it that we're
dealing with? And in particular, I would draw
your attention to verse 20. but ye beloved, building up yourselves
on your most holy faith and praying in the Holy Ghost. and it's the
Batchi, he's drawing attention in a sense to what has gone before
in the epistle, in quite strong words. The person of Jude, there
are different opinions as to who he should be. It's also the
brother of John, John is referred to as the brother of James, of
course there are the two Jameses in the Bible. We know that there
is James, the brother of John the Apostle, who was killed in
the early days of the Church, and there is another James, also
called the son of Alphaeus. It can be deduced from this that
if Jude be his brother, he is called the brother of James,
he's also a son of Alpheus and therefore he's a kinsman of course
of Mary and he's also James is also called the brother of the
Lord and it might be that link others take different view about
this and I'm not going to throw this at length you can read it
my own personal view is that Jude is this is the apostle Jude
and the James referred to is also the apostle James, who I
believe is that apostle who presided in Acts 15, over the church at
that particular time. My own view is that the epistles
are all written by apostles. They have apostolic authority. But you go off up in different
views of this. It's an interesting book. We
see twice the word but in verse 17, but beloved, And verse 20,
but ye, beloved, calling attention to what he said before. And it's
a time as it were to take stock. He warns them about the state
of things in the world, even in the church, in a sense, of
course, when we preach, that's what we do. It's an interesting
apostle because epistle we find in verse nine, he mentions Michael
and the archangel disputing about the body of Jesus. And we read
also of Enoch in verse 14, the 7th from Adam, who prophesied,
saying, Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousand of his saints.
Don't find those things in the Old Testament. Find them in the
Jewish traditions. He's quoting there things that
the Jewish people would have known. So, again, we don't know
who the epistle was strictly spoken to. It's called, probably
in your Bible, if you've got a TBS Bible, it says the general
epistle of Jude. It means it's written, as it
were, to all the church, rather than being written to a specific
person or to a specific church. And therefore it's a bit unique
in having those quotes, because Paul does quote, for example,
from Greek poets, as he does in Acts 17. It's not usual to
draw material that was known from elsewhere to support what
we said. But it follows very strong words. Verses 15 to 19 he speaks strong
words there. In verse 15 he uses the word
ungodly four times. thinking of Enoch is prophesying
against ungodly people and who are going to come to judgment
and to convince all that are ungodly among them all their
ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed and of all
their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him
people speak against the things of God we know they do today
aren't their wicked voices raised murmurers, complainers, walking
after own lusts, mouths speaking great swelling words, having
men's persons in admiration because of advantage. But, beloved, remember
ye the words which were spoken before of the apostles of our
Lord Jesus Christ." Remember those words. Don't listen to
these words indeed. And they are very strong things.
In our preaching, we probably don't preach as strongly as is
written here and elsewhere. I can remember one who used to
attend this chapel many years ago saying that, well, we were
speaking, you know, preaching rather strongly from the pulpit.
We found some of the things a bit hard to swallow. And I took him
immediately to Matthew 23. And I said, well, just to be
careful about this, we have a very strong message to proclaim. our
example is the Lord Jesus Christ and if we go to Matthew 23 you'll
see he deals with the Pharisees and the scribes and he says in
verse 13 woe unto you scribes and Pharisees hypocrites verse
14 woe unto you scribes Pharisees hypocrites you devour widows
houses for a pretence you make long prayers woe unto you swipes
and Pharisees for you, compass C to make one proselyte, and
when he is made, you make him twofold more the child of hell. Then he says, Woe unto you, you
blind guides, you swear by the temple, it's nothing, and so
on. Our Lord spoke very strongly
at times. I think if we always preached
in that way, you might be concerned that there are times when we
need to preach and open up and reveal very strong things. And if we find them hard, we
need to say, well, what is this man saying? Is it hard because
I don't like him? I don't like the way he says
it? I don't like what he says. But can we say, ah, but is he
speaking that which is not in the word of God? You've got to
judge what I say, what the pastor says at times, what Brother Cliff
says. We sometimes have to say strong
things and firm things. And to Brother Andrew, because
they are the word of God. These are the words of life.
These things are serious. So, ah, so Judas is a faithful
apostle. This book is full of the realistic
situation that we're all in. It's a very firm, clear, realistic,
Epistle about the life of faith. That's why it's so valuable.
That's why it was included quite rightly in the canon of scripture
They could see the imprint here the hand of God the imprint the
power of the Spirit upon this epistle This is God speaking
to us and we take we take notes of it He's writing to believers
by sovereign grace. I love this verse one. I've preached
you on this verse one. It's just sovereign grace. We have the believers. We see
they are the called, called of God. They're sanctified by God
the Father. And they are preserved in the
Holy Spirit. This is what we believe. We believe
that we don't come by our effort. It's not by the will of men.
It's by the will of God's calling. And thus, in verse three, he
calls them beloved. with love because the God has
set his mark upon us, he's come in Christ and through Christ
to love us, to bring grace upon us, to bring light of truth,
and yet also we notice the apostle came again to give all diligence
to write unto you, when we preach we must surely It's my duty,
isn't it, to give all diligence to bring to you the truth. He
says the common salvation, that gospel that is common amongst
us. It doesn't mean it's anything
common and low and simple. For he said it's needful for
me to write unto you. Take note of that. He's not just
writing for the sake of it. The epistles, there aren't many
of them. They're written to situations where it was needful. There's
an economy, isn't there, in the word of God? It's not a vast,
endless book. There are those things that we
have that we need to have. Says Jude, he has this one epistle,
but he wrote that because that was what God told him to write.
It was needful. And I preach to you on this also,
that you should earnestly contend for the faith, which was once
delivered unto the saints. He's saying to you, you've got
all this contention and evil around you, which you've read
here. likening people to those found in Sodom and Gomorrah,
those with the error of Balaam, railing against the things of
God. Therefore it is necessary that
you, me, we must contend for the faith. This is not to be
contentious and difficult people. We are to live for and to contend
the life of faith, that is the burden of Jude. Therefore it's
not going to put you in remembrance of certain things that we see
in this book. And we read here of the angels
that kept their own estate and went into darkness. We read of
Sodom and Gomorrah. And today, if you spoke widely
about Sodom and Gomorrah and what God was saying, then you
would offend many people. You'd get soon into trouble with
the authorities. Why? Because of their filthiness.
Let's be clear of what they were doing there. Today, we've made
such things legal. But God showed his wrath against
Sodom and Gomorrah. And then there's that tradition
that there was a dispute over the body of Moses by Michael. And the angel said, the Lord
rebuketh thee. And so it is. With Satan, the
Lord rebuketh thee. That shall be in our heart. But
these speak even of the things which they know not." People
speak against God. We have many voices today, don't
we? Professors and others, they speak against God. And when they
speak, you see, they speak of things they know not. They know
not the first thing about true religion. They are in ignorance.
And yet there are some also in the church. They go in the way
of Cain. It's in the way of error, isn't
it? Cain, the maiden offering, it all looked good. It all looked
like religion. The way of Balaam. it all looked
like he was a true prophet. But he was a false one. I met
somebody who preaches. I meet him in the community and
they were talking to me about Balaam. Wasn't he a great prophet?
And when I pointed out that he was a false prophet, they were
deeply stressed about this and had been preaching on this. I
said, you look up your scriptures. You look up the death of Balaam.
but there were those in the church who were like that they appeared
to be true and good and religious but they were false he says there
are spots in your feasts of love and charity he says some of them
some of people in the church can be raging waves of the sea
it's terrible and they will be judged as Enoch be told here
from the Jewish tradition prophesied the Lord would come with these
angels to execute judgment oh dear murmurers and complainers. We see that perhaps in the national
church. People murmuring, complaining, they're wanting the church to
do this, to recognise that, to bring in this practice, you know,
all the things, the litany of things they're trying to bring
in that aren't in the word of God and they're giving in to
them. But says Jude, Beloved, remember
the words spoken of the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ. We
hear all that. We're not going to listen to
them. We're not going there, are we? I trust by faith we're
going to go God's way, aren't we? We're going to listen to
the word of God. This is the truth. This is what
Jude is saying. Isn't it great? Isn't it powerful the way he
puts this together? Oh, he calls them beloved. Keep
away from those, those who are sensual. They don't have the
spirit. You know, you've met people, you see people, and they
are preachers, and they all preach big words, but you see they're
sensual. They're only for themselves, lusty words and so on. But where
is God in all this? It's terrible to say that. We
are in a day where there are many, many false people claiming
to preach for Christ. But, ye beloved, we've got to
come to these things, the things that have been said by the apostles.
We've got to, as I've said, believe the Word of God. Beloved, build
up yourselves on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost. Keep yourselves in the love of
God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal
life, that we should be in no doubt about these things. He
says, but, and I remember our pastors pointed out that word
and its use at times. I remember a dear, many years
ago, dear Sidney Norton, I think he preached this at so many ones,
on the word but, we might find that strange, but how it was
used, and how it was to call us to attention. It's to say,
this is what other people do. This is the wrong behavior. Beware,
you are warned. We are warned in this day of
what is going on around us. He says, Beloved, remember the
words of God, remember the words of the Apostle, the words of
Jesus. And then, second, that was verse 17, but ye, but you,
Beloved, I want you to notice also the change in tone. We now come, as we look at the
words of this verse, this fantastic verse, there's a great change
of tone. And so it must be when we preach,
we exhort, we encourage, We warm, but we also bring comfort. We bring hope. We bring the word
of life. So does Jude. He's a good apostle. He loves them. He says, but ye
beloved. I love that. So now, as it were,
the tone of the epistle completely changes. He's had to put down
things that we could read and say quite fiercely, evil things,
which they know not, he says. There was brute beasts, says
Jude. But ye, beloved, the church of
God, and the word beloved is the same as that lovely New Testament
special church word, it's based on the word agape, agape, from
the Greek, very special, it's that word that's used in 1 Corinthians
13 as love, when the apostle speaks of love as charity, it's
the same root, it's that heartfelt love, it's that love that the
world cannot express it is that love of God shed abroad in our
hearts that's that love in the church that we have one for another
beloved he says oh and now he wants to speak to them as the
beloved we want to look at what's here what's written in that sense
we've had the warnings Now we have the love, strong Christian
love and affection for the church. That's what all the apostles
had. They came in other things. He said it was needful for him
to write to you, he said. Needful that I should write to
you in verse three and exhort you. He didn't just write because
he wanted to. Paul wrote his great epistles
because it was needful and we know when we read them He was
dealing with matters that were in the church sometimes, dealing
with errors, dealing with people in the church perhaps, and he
names them at times. It was needful, and it's needful
for us when we bring the Word of God to bring these things
to you. They've been given to us for
all time, the Word of God, the Word of life. Beloved, he says,
building up yourselves. It's a very strange place to
be starting. Building up your faith. Now,
somebody could say to me, well, isn't that works? You're telling
people to build themselves up. You claim in this church to speak
of free and sovereign grace. You say all the works of grace,
all the works of life, they're of God. So how can Jude say,
building up yourselves? What does that mean? How can
we say that? Because surely we believe it's
God comes in our life by his grace. He brings faith to us. He brings light to us through
the resurrection of Christ. He reveals his truth to us. He gives us that strength to
labor day by day. How can we do this? But you see, these are works
Indeed they are works, but they're not works to faith. We're not
speaking of that. I've been accused, I've served
before people, I've preached this sort of passage. I've had
those who have said to me, oh, you're preaching free will. And
I've had others say, you never preach free will. I don't think
I ever do. I don't think I do. But you see, we've got to be
clear, aren't we? These aren't works to righteousness.
If we love God, it's our pleasure. We want to serve him. Why do
I do this? Because I want to. God's put
it into me, it's my pleasure, it's a privilege to do, it's
not a chore. And I trust you feel that about the life of faith.
We serve a great king. We wish to serve him and obey
him. We often quote these lovely words
in Ephesians chapter two. We're saved by faith, it's by
grace, it's the gift of God, it's not of ourselves. He says,
it's not of works. So we can't do anything to be
saved. Does any man should boast? We can't boast of our work. We're
not the Roman church and others who say, oh, we've been on a
pilgrimage and we did that and this great saint was supposed
to have done this great work and so on. We don't know. We
read rather in verse 10, key verse, we are his workmanship. This is what Jude is building
upon, created in Christ Jesus unto good works. So wait a minute,
where are we? Is this Paul versus James? No,
it's not. as pastor said on Thursday, James
is speaking of those works not to faith but of faith and we
are speaking here of the same thing those works, good works
which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them this
building up yourselves is that walking as we should it's living
the Christian life the actual work is not building up, it's
actually it's rather more, it's a building upon What are we building
upon? We're building upon faith. We're
building upon the word of revelation of Christ. We're building upon
the word of God in our own souls. And that building up is a natural
thing. It's not a contradiction to what
we normally preach. It is most sovereign grace, and
I trust that we see that this morning. But there is, as it
were, an imperative here in the Christian life that it's not
passive. You can go to some places and
it's seen that when you make a decision or you say I'm saved
and you become a member of the church and you sit in the pew
and we see you meeting my meeting and attending the church, that's
the Christian life. I attend the church, shut my
Bible and that's the Christian life. No, it's not. There's a
building up, there's a going on in the Christian faith. We
cannot stand still. You'll be swept away. You have
to go on. And he expresses it here as building
up yourself and we see that what are we building up ourselves
on? Our most holy faith. Most holy. This is another word
misunderstood. There's one in Rome they call
the Holy Father which is a blasphemy. The Holy Father is God in heaven.
None of us are truly holy. Not truly holy. we are holy in
that sense that we are sanctified and the word behind this Haggios
is the word for saint and the saint is the one who is set apart
by God for God for God's to impart grace to reveal Christ, not to
set themselves up as saints and popes and holy people. That's
a misunderstanding. That is the will of man. No,
it's a holy faith. It's a sanctified faith. It's
a set-apart faith. God is saying there is a faith,
a holy faith. It's a separated faith. That's
what he's pointing out to them. You're not to walk as all these
evil people have walked before you. You're walking the life
of faith, you're walking in those things that have been revealed
to you, and that is what your building up is all about, and
our faith is that gift of God, it's that belief in Him. We find
that by that gift we are able to believe God, we are able to
trust Him, we're able to say and to behold Christ by faith
and to own Him as a Saviour. We're able to come through the
Gospel and say as we can in the Gospel age, as Christ taught
us, we can say, Our Father was art in heaven. Isn't that a privilege?
To know and to feel that and to be able to say for ourselves
that you in heaven called upon the name of God. He called upon
Jehovah. But Jesus said you will pray
Our Father because he links us with him, us we are joint heirs
if we be in Christ we are joint heirs with the Son he is the
firstborn of the elect that be raised from the dead in his humanity
we shall see the risen Christ and so we have this holy faith
and it's not of ourselves, we don't work on it, we don't come
to faith because we fill up a card, we make a decision. So I used
to be told in my younger days, we come to faith because Jesus
Christ has come graciously, by the Spirit, made himself known
to us, each one, that's a precious thing, when you suddenly feel
you are alive, when you come to see, you suddenly come to
that point where you know, and you come to see your sins, you
come then, to see you need to repent because you've seen the
Lord of glory all that God would bring us all to know such things
and we see it's by the Holy Spirit isn't it the Holy Spirit we this
is a Trinitarian thing you see that it's the love of God the
Trinity is everywhere in scripture Jehovah's Witness will come to
your door the mongrel will come to your door and deny these things
here in this verse the love of God the mercy of the Lord Jesus
Christ unto eternal life. And we see there, it's also praying
in the Holy Ghost. This eternity is in the scriptures
before us. And we see here in our verse,
it's praying in the Holy Ghost, in the Holy Spirit. What exactly
is that? Well, the faith is the gift of
God. It's by that work of the Spirit. And when we pray, Again,
we want to pray by the Holy Spirit. And again, the name behind holy,
this youthful spirit, has its origin in the word haggios, or
saint, or separated. He's the Holy Spirit. God is
so separate, and so apart, and so different. For us, God is
holy. He's not like us when we use
it in that sense. He's not holy. He's separated. God in three persons in his holiness. It's that Spirit who comes to
us. Isn't it remarkable that the
Spirit should come to us? And we read that in John 14. I love the words that are there.
Jesus, as he departs, this is his last night with them, he
comes to them and he brings these great words of comfort to them. I can't find the right verse.
He says in verse 16, he's going to pray the Father and he shall
give you another comforter that he may abide with you forever.
Christ was going to leave them. and they would know and feel
the grief of that. They would see the horrors of
the cross. Imagine one like Christ. How you could understand how
one like Christ so perfect could be taken by cruel men. He said,
I will not leave you comfortless. We're not left comfortless. If
we be in Christ, we have another. That he may abide with us. He
is with us. Even the spirit of truth, whom
the world cannot receive, because it sees him not neither knows
him but you know him he says for he dwelleth with you and
shall be in you he says i will not leave you comfortless i will
come to you isn't that wonderful oh every believer must hold on
those words that's if we know that we know an awful lot about
the work of the spirit i'm sure we all know times of stress,
all known at times, I do, where, not in despair maybe, but I feel
a need of that comfort, I feel a need of one to come to us.
And there is one there, in the hymn book, he's always there,
remember? Our Lord never leaves us nor forsakes us, in our hymn
book, heart, right, we have times of the human spirit, he feels
deeply, that almost as though the Lord has departed from him,
he's desperate for the Lord to be with him, he feels he's departed
for a season because he's there and all he prays that the Lord
will reveal himself will come and bring comfort to us we are
not comfortless and we must pray be conscious that we pray that's
how we make contact with God we don't just pray and ask for
things we pray to seek him to bring the deepest things of our
hearts to him time has been to stop We might be in prayer but
we stop, as it were, we wait, we think about things, perhaps
like a verse of scripture, even this one, then we wait on Him
in prayer. Perhaps we think of a word here,
about building up our most holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost.
Think about that. Let God speak to us when you
pray. Let Him come and reveal His truth. Bring comfort and strength. Now this is a practical word.
I want to bring a number of practical things to you this morning. The good old Puritans always
had their usage, didn't they, for truths. And if you read their
books, you'll know some of them went perhaps overboard on this.
But I like that because they said, we've talked of a passage,
let's just be really practical about it. And I like that. I'm
going to try and be that this morning. I've got 10 points.
It's not the usual three points of a sermon, but we go through
these because it's such a a powerful piece of scripture don't we have
some wonderful examples to encourage us in this we could be frightened
but you know we could say well i couldn't attain to be poor
but we have men who came to these things by the truths of scripture
when they didn't really have a lot of people to teach them
but they came by searching the lord themselves you know i mentioned
you have mentioned other names i mentioned names you may not
agree with my names Augustine. I quoted him recently. I've got
his great book, The City of God, at home I'm looking in. He came
to a correct understanding and realised the Church had drifted
even in the end of the fourth century. They drifted from the
doctrines of Scripture and he brought them back strongly. And
of course Martin Luther. What could we say about Martin
Luther? buried as a priest and as a teacher and as a professor
in the Church of Rome and teaching students the epistle of Romans,
his eyes were open suddenly justification by faith and then he delved in
and brought out he brought forth in all these hundreds of books
he was like nearly a book of fortnight this man he brought
out the truth that the whole he was the reformation as our
pastor said what can we say he was a great liar and a giant
He came to them by the grace of God. And if we haven't read
Luther, we should. Mark, John Calvin, the same.
Wonderful. The impact they had. And then,
people closer to home, who we love. John Gill. John Gill. You read his books, his commentaries
can compare with John Gill's. He was largely self-taught. Because
he wasn't a Baptist, he couldn't be recognized by any of the universities,
Oxford, Cambridge in England. But he got his doctorate from
St. Andrews in Scotland and he was a wonderful scholar. And
then same with William Gatsby, just an ordinary working man
but you can buy his books at the back, they're wonderful.
We read his hymns in the hymn book. What God did with and through
that man. and there's that lovely biography
that Cliff has been selling I recommend there's the the bite-sized biography
as well as Mr Ramsbottom's biography that bite-sized biography of
Gasly is a wonderful book it's very touching it's a very moving
book and others William Huntington when you think of the he was
just an ordinary murky man lost sinful known as the coal heather
because he used to load coal onto barges and he rose up to
be a man mighty in the word of God and people hated him despised
him because of that an outspoken man Charles Spurgeon the same
when you think of the fantastic impact he had and how he was
a warrior for these doctrines and almost stood alone in them
at one point brought a mental breakdown he broke down his faith
not his faith but his health broke down because he was contending
with everybody for the doctrines of grace But we have to have
a desire. They didn't just come to it automatically. They worked the work of faith.
They sought these things. And secondly, you've got to strive.
The Christian faith is striving, you know. If you haven't learnt
that, you need to. You have to work at it by faith,
not work at it for faith. This is what Paul says in Colossians
1 verse 28, preaching of Christ and the gospel, warning every
man, teaching every man in all wisdom that we may present every
man perfect in Christ Jesus, whereunto I also labour, says
Paul, striving according to his working, which work geth in me
mightily. He's working but he's working
as But he's moved by God, he's striving. And we have to strive
in this life of faith, not always easy. Like Timothy, Timothy had
to work, he had to prove himself, didn't he? In laboring the word
of God, prove himself, an able minister of the gospel. That
was his words to him. And thirdly, to be practical,
we must sit under faithful ministry. Let's tell people to do that. That's why I love coming here.
I say to Henry quite often in the morning, he sits and I say,
this is where I want to be. I want to be here because here
I know I'm going to hear the scriptures properly and truly,
open and openly expanded. I'm going to hear the doctrines
of grace. I'm not going to be told sensible
things, I'm not going to be told stories. We as a congregation
are not going to be told to hug each other and we're not going
to get the guitars out, we're not going to distract ourselves,
you'd be amazed what goes on in other places with music and
we're going to come here and we're going to worship God in
spirit and truth and we're going to listen to the word of God. That's imperative. We must do
that. Yes, we could go to other places
and they may see or those leave us to do that because they might
see more lively. We've been told we don't preach
the gospel here and I say that as a great offense. This is what
we're preaching. We are preaching the gospel.
This is the gospel. but they obviously did not understand
it. We want to preach that. Sit under faithful ministry.
We've had the privilege, I have, of sitting under Mr Matrimonio
and his wonderful ministry and now Mr Stanton and the same doctrines
we get here. And again, Mr Matrimonio, my
fourth point, he and his little booklet you can get, The Introduction
to the Gospel Standard Articles, and I put the quote at the back
of the chapel at one time, he said, every believer has to be
a theologian. And you might say, oh, we can't
all be theologians. Some of these books are very
difficult, aren't they? And they're thick and heavy.
It doesn't mean you've got to know Greek. It doesn't mean that
you've got to be thorough, that you've got to know what you believe.
You must know what is salvation. You must know what is that grace
of God that comes to us. You must understand something
about sanctification and redemption and some of these great truths.
The Atonement. Every believer should know what is the Atonement.
And that's alright. We must be theologians. Mr. MacTrode has ever taught us clearly. You remember what he taught you.
And fifthly, we're not talking here just to ministers. Some
people think I've been in places where, oh, well, reading the
boss board, reading all the books, and that's for the ministers,
the preachers, the deacons, the men. We just leave it to them.
No. It's an imperative. It's a challenge
to each and every one to be able. we all need to be able to stand
and to know the truth that we stand on in times of evil when
you're alone and there's no one around to ask there's no pastor
or deacons or anybody to ask and you're in a difficult position
you need to know the truth it's also the gospel it's a word for
those who are in unbelief and ignorance what I say this morning
you open if you're not in Christ you're vulnerable to the wiles
of the devil or you think you're not but you are and people are
being manipulated they don't know they're being manipulated
by the devil and there's no good also relying on your birth and
your family you know I come from that family and we are church
attenders or we attend regularly as a family or I had a good education
and I understand these things or whatever I've been very successful
in life it's nothing if we don't know Christ. Our country has
been manipulated. Gradually, gradually, gradually
accepting more and more evil. The devil is leaving us. You know the things that are
coming through Parliament. Gradually we're all being used
to these things. Accepting these things as a society.
Accepting as normal things that are perverse. We need to be in
Christ. To be protected against this
is what he's saying. And if we're aware of this battle,
if you are aware of spiritual battle, that's a good thing.
If someone hasn't yet declared themselves of faith in Christ,
if you're aware of the battle within you, the battle in society,
if you're aware that we are sinful people, that's a good thing.
In Hart's hymns, he says, a very strange thing, we do sing it
here, a sinner is a precious thing. But God has made him so,
you see? We think, what a funny thing
to say, but you see, it's precious in God's sight, because he's
someone who knows he's a sinner, isn't that strange? We're only
sinners in God's sight. A natural man in his own sight
is not a sinner. I think I've said it before,
if you ask people, do you know anyone going to hell? I've never
met anybody who's going to hell. I've met people who don't believe
God, But no one I've met is ever going to hell, but they won't
believe the gospel. It's a good thing. It's a warning,
but it's a good thing if we're aware of it. And it's valuable
to build ourselves up. It's not just a personal thing.
It's for the church. Yes, we walk together, don't
we? And that's lovely in a smaller
church. One of the things we have, I think, is a closeness.
We know each other well. You do get a closeness and intimacy
of friendship in a smaller church. We thank God for that. In a larger
church, things can be more anonymous. But building up ourselves, you
do that, that you might be of value to others. You might be
of comfort to them. You might have a word for them.
You might be able to go alongside them in trouble. You might be
able to work with them. We, if we love each other, we want to
be individually built up in the faith. Those who preach, we must
build ourselves up in the faith, or what have we got to give?
And I get up here, if I'm not working on the gospel, the word
of God myself, I'm not building myself up, what have I got to
tell you? I have nothing. I have to apply all of this to
my own heart. My ninth point here is, this
is a true one, it's true of me, There are many, many distractions. There are many, many diversions
in life, aren't there? We've all got things we do. It's just the normal things of
life, aren't there? Just doing what we do, going
out to work, looking after the house, the garden, elderly neighbors,
and the rest of it, and all the things that we just want to do.
Perhaps we're not well, and so on. And I can put up my hand
and say guilty. I let things, at times, I'm sure
we all do, divert us. I'm guilty. But I should perhaps
be praying and reading, and I do try and set time aside. I'm quite
good at that. It's easier when you're retired,
of course, but just every day to set aside time to read and
pray, very important, and to have a note of things you really
want to pray for. But you can be diverted. Oh,
we've got the television, we've got music, and we've got friends
this time of year, there's the garden, it's a lot of work for
us or this time we want to go out and if you're retired you
want to go out and enjoy yourselves and it's a nice time of year
and we do try to get out and we can worship God and thank
him for what I used to see but beware of your diversions, beware
of habits and things that they come to dominate you And that
becomes, I've seen that again, of people in this church, not
here now, their lives are being dominated by outside interests
and societies, and become more important than the church. It
should not be so. And I find, number 10 of all
things, I must say, this is an exercise in faith. We need that help of the Spirit,
as we said earlier, the Spirit who will be with us and in us. And we need that, but we're not
alone in this. Again, we love what the apostles
say to us. We don't pray, as it were, alone.
In that great chapter, Romans 8, and then verse 26, we read,
Paul says there, likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities. Remember, we've got one who's
with us and in us. We're often in trouble, aren't we? And we're
ill. The Spirit helpeth us. For we
know not what we should pray for as we ought. We don't sometimes,
let's be honest, we don't fully understand situations. We don't
fully know how to engage in prayer. But this is God's provision.
But the Spirit itself, or himself, maketh intercession for us. With
groanings which cannot be uttered. Isn't that wonderful? We have
one who lives in, ever lives in heaven, from Hebrews 7, is
it verse 25? Ever lives and intercedes for
us. and we have one on earth with
us, alongside us, interceding for us. What a great God we have.
What a great doctrine is that doctrine of the Trinity. And all of this, let me say,
it's our privilege. Is it not, as believers, what
I bring to you? The demands and the cares of
the life of faith, of the Gospel, Isn't that our privilege to have
that walk? To serve Christ? The Lord said,
if you love me, you will keep my commandments. So we draw to
an end, or just a quick look at the thrust of this epistle. And these wonderful words, oh
yes, we are surrounded, aren't we, by a terrible world. But,
beloved, says Jude remember the words of the apostles of our
Lord Jesus all those things we taught you how they're going
to be these mockers in the last time who walk after their own
ungodly lusts they're here we're in the last times this is the
day we see these things but again he says changing the saying you
beloved building up yourselves on your most holy faith praying
in the Holy Ghost. Keep yourselves in the love of
God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ, unto eternal
life. Amen.