found in the book of Jude. The book of Jude, we're going to
finish that up tonight. The book of Jude. The book of Jude. That's a lot of
talking to do tonight. I hope this comes out like it
went in. Brother John, this is a joint
effort. Brother John Davis came by to study last night after
work, and we put this thing together together. We had a good time
thinking about these things, and I'd ask him a question, and
he'd ask me, and this message is a joint effort. Now, I see the providence of
God. I told you when we started this
book of Jude, I said it's going to be a three-part message. Well,
the first part, the first message, I didn't get past verse one.
The second message, I just barely did get through a few verses.
And the third message, I spent on one verse, verse 11. So, it's
at least a four-part message. Maybe five, but I'm going to
finish up tonight. I want to dwell on the last six
verses, verses 20 through 25 tonight. I see the providence
of God in postponing the finish of this book until now, because
this is very, very applicable. It's the perfect passage. Thank you, Terry. This is a perfect passage with
which to end the old year and bring in the new. Perfect. I see the Lord's providence in
allowing and postponing these verses until now. I didn't plan
it this way. I'd planned on being through with it. But I tell you,
I had a great time in preparation of this, and I sure hope we have
a good time in the hearing of it. Now the last two verses,
the last two verses here, verses 24 and 25, I hope you all got
some rest. We're not going anywhere for
a while. I'm going to take this watch off. We're not going anywhere. We're
here, captive audience, shut-ins. But the last two verses are what
you would call, what could be called a doxology, a doxology
That word doxology means a hymn of glory or praise to God. We have one in the back of our
book, Doxologies, front and back. And it's a song, these last two
verses, we quote it, particularly verse 24, unto him that is able
to keep you from falling. We quote those verses and they're
great verses of praise to God. And they speak of his sovereign
power and his sovereign saving grace and the way he keeps us
under him that is able to keep you from falling. And the first
four verses, though, are exhortations to us toward responsibility in
this thing. Now, the title of this message
is Freedom from Falling. Freedom from Falling. And this
is a paradox in the life of a believer. A paradox in the life of a believer
is that, and everybody in here who professes faith in Christ
can say this, you fear more than anything. Finally, one day, falling
away. You fear more than anything.
Finally, one day, you're going to prove to be an apostate, lost. You feel like most of the time
you truly esteem others better than yourself, and you feel like
I'm the only one that's not going to make it. Don't you? I do. I know I do. So the paradox is
the believer fears that someday he will finally fall away, yet
there's times when the gospel comes with power. God speaks
through the preaching of the Word. He gets full assurance,
because he hears verses like this, when Christ said, I give
unto them eternal life and they'll never perish. And we just say,
whoopee, I believe that. Christ says, we're kept by the
power of, Peter said, we're kept by the power of God through faith
unto salvation, ready, right now, ready to be revealed. in
the last time, and that gives us comfort and hope, but it's
up and down, isn't it? Up and down. One day we fear
falling, the next day there's no fear at all of falling. Faith
in Christ. Faith standing on the promises.
Now, our fear of falling, our fear of falling, I believe, arises
from two things. Fear of falling arises from two
things. Number one, our lack of faith. If we just half, like old brother
Jack said, just half believed in the sovereignty of God. Just
half believed the promises of God's word to sinners who come
to Christ by faith. Just half believed. Mustard seed,
not even half, just a tenth. Just a percentage. Mustard seed
faith. Just add a little bit. Christ
said there wouldn't be any mountainous trouble. Wouldn't be any trouble
that you could not mount over. Lack of faith. Lack of faith. God doesn't change. Who does
the changing? We do. We're up and down. Secondly,
our fear of falling arises from knowing ourselves. Our fear of falling arises from
our lack of believing God and from knowing ourselves. We know
ourselves. And like I said, if we only believed
God more fully, we would have more assurance. Yet, the more
we see of our own corruption, the longer we live with ourselves,
the more we fear falling, don't we? We don't get better in our
own estimation. We do get better. We do grow
in grace as far as everybody else is concerned. As far as
we're concerned, we get worse. Because we know ourselves, we
know our inward corruption and so forth, and so we just fear
falling. Now, the scriptures are full
of what we always talk about, warnings and promises. Warnings,
promises. Promises and warning. Warnings
and promises. Promises and warning. The scriptures are full of promises
of God's faithfulness to us, and this is the only place that
we can find assurance, God's faithfulness to us, not ours
to him, not our works, his work, his doings, his dyings, his deeds. Promises, yet the scriptures
are full of warnings against our unfaithfulness to him. Did
you read that in Deuteronomy with me? The Lord talked about
all these promises where I'm going to lead you in and so forth,
but you better watch out. You better keep my commandments.
And so it goes. Promises, warnings. Why is that? Well, before we get into the
text here, I want you to look at Deuteronomy chapter 6 with
me. I meant to have you turn to that immediately. Deuteronomy
6, before we get into Jude. Look here at Deuteronomy 6. Why is it that there are so many
warnings in the scriptures? Why are there so many exhortations
to obedience, exhortations for us to keep God's precepts, exhortations
to follow him? Why? Well, look at Deuteronomy 6 verse
1 with me. It says, now these are the commandments,
the statutes and the judgments which the Lord your God commanded
to teach you, that you might do them in the land whither you
go to possess it. That, now here's the reason,
that thou mightest fear the Lord thy God, to keep all his statutes
and his commandments which I command thee, thou and thy son, thy son's
son, all the days of thy life. And that thy days may be prolonged."
Look at verse 24, same chapter, verse 24. The Lord commanded
us to do all these statutes to fear the Lord, our God, for our
good. Anything, everything God says
is for our good. He doesn't say anything, do anything, tell us
to do anything for our condemnation. Was it? That he might preserve
us alive. Look at chapter 10, Deuteronomy
10. Look at verse 12, Deuteronomy chapter 10, verse
12. He says this, And now Israel,
what doth the Lord thy God require of thee, but to fear the Lord?
To fear the Lord thy God, to walk in all his ways, and to
remember this, to love him to serve the Lord thy God with
all thy heart, with all thy soul, to keep the commandments of the
Lord, his statute, and so forth. So you see, the reason, the goal,
the end of all of these commandments and these promises and these
warnings is that we might fear the Lord. Fear the Lord. The fear of the Lord. Now listen
to this. Stay with me. The fear of the Lord is the greatest
single restraining influence. upon the life of a believer.
Now, I'm talking about falling. I'm talking about what is it
that's going to keep us from falling. We fear falling, right? The fear of the Lord is the greatest
single restraining influence on the believer and will keep
him from falling, along with the love of God. Now, we're going
to see that in a minute. Fear of God and love to God. Don't seem like they go together,
do they? But they do. Now listen. Listen to these verses
I just didn't write down. I put it down. Computed down.
The fear of the Lord is to hate evil. Now, I don't want to love evil. I want to love righteousness,
don't you? I don't want to love this world. He says love not
the world, neither the things in the world. He that loveth
the world is not of God, right? I don't want to love the world.
I want to love Christ. I want to love the things of
God. I want to have my affections settled. Well, what's the point?
The fear of the Lord is to hate evil. The fear of the Lord is
the beginning of wisdom. The fear of the Lord prolongeth
days. In the fear of the Lord is strong confidence. The fear
of the Lord is a fountain of life. By the fear of the Lord,
men depart from evil. The fear of the Lord tendeth
to life, he says, hide in the dust for fear of the Lord." The
fear of the Lord. Now, turn over to Jude with me.
Let's look here. Let's begin here. The book of
Jude. Now, why did I start this out
like this? Because this is what the book of Jude is all about.
The book of Jude is all about people who fell away. The book
of Jude is about apostasy. about those who looked good,
who started well, who did not finish. It's about those who
claimed, who professed, who confessed something that didn't have it
in the end. Now this, we need this. On the end of this year and the
beginning of another, will this time next year, how many of us
are going to be sitting right here? Does that behoove us to
think about that? Doesn't it behoove us to really
Be concerned, concern ourselves with that. How many in here right
now are going to be here this time next year to worship God? I want to be here, don't you?
Nancy? I want you here. Well, Jude writes. These things. But he's about
to say to us after right after talking about the judgment of
God against some unfaithful people, and I started out by talking
about the angels back here in verse six, he says the angels,
which kept not. They kept. They kept not their
first step. The angel. Now, Terry Kinsman.
Buddy, we're not angels. We don't have the mental capacity.
We don't have the physical attributes. We don't have the spiritual capacity. We don't have, we're not, we're
lower than the angels. Aren't we? Oh, we're made so
much lower than the angels. The angels fail. The angels were
looking at God. The angels were in the presence
of God Almighty. Beholding his glory, actually
looking at him, and they rebelled against him. And so what in the
world makes me think I'm going to stay safe? And then he talks
about the Israelites. My soul, we just briefly read
about the Israelites. He talks about the Israelites,
what all the Lord did for the Israelites. And only two people over the
age of 20 entered into the promised land. Two people. In spite of all of those glorious
deliverances and God's providence, I'm talking water out of the
rock, I'm talking bread from heaven. We've never seen things
like that. We've seen glorious things. Every
one of us have seen miraculous things in our lives, wonderful
deliverances that perhaps we didn't acknowledge God for, but
nevertheless we've seen them. We've seen judgments. Right before
our eyes, hadn't we? We've seen every bit of what
the Israelites saw. Plagues. We've seen these things. But all of the things that they
saw, actually saw, quail, water out of the rock, the pillar of
fire, the cloud, the Red Sea. Don't you know? Don't you know
these people started out well? Think about it. When they came
out of Egypt, When the Lord God, you know, when they got them
all together, and boy, they were having a big old time. When the
Lord, when all work, all slavery stopped, the Jews, the Israelites,
when all slavery stopped, when Pharaoh said, OK, that's it.
Taskmasters, quit your, put down your whips. Don't you know there
was a cheer that went up? And all the Egyptians started
giving their gold and silver and sustenance and so forth.
They were having a party. We're going out of this place.
We're marching to Zion. Beautiful, beautiful Zion. We're
marching to Zion, the city of God. Here we go! How long did it last? Oh, it wasn't, they weren't out
of the city long at all until they complained, weren't they? Huh? What about when they came
to the Red Sea? Like Moses said, ask of the days
past and the days to come. Did anybody ever hear of such
a thing? I mean, how many million people?
I forget how many million. How many million were the Jews?
I forget. Two million. Came to the Red
Sea, this huge sea, the enemy pursuing them, and Moses said,
Don't worry, stand still and see the salvation of the Lord. And they walked through on dry
land and got to the other side. It must have took a long time
for that whole bunch of people to get across. And God had that
pillar of fire holding those other fellows back. And once
they got over and here they came, their enemies, and God closed
it back up again. Were they filled with praise?
Oh, we'll never doubt our God now. Weren't they faithful then? Oh, God's God. He's our God. He'll always be our God. Oh,
He has delivered us from our enemies. He saved us from slavery,
from bondage. Oh, they could sing of the mercy
of God, of the grace of God. Couldn't they sing? I will sing
of our Redeemer. They weren't five miles down
the road, so they wished they was back in Egypt. And then, Jude talks about the
Sodomites. Now this all began, well, I want you to consider
Lot and Abraham. You remember the story. Lot chose
the well-watered plains of Sodom. Now Sodom was a nice place to
live. It was fertile. It was a fertile valley. Riches,
gold, silver, all the pleasures of the world. Abraham, who believed
God and was justified and it was counted unto him as righteousness,
Abraham lived in the crags and the crevices. But Lot, he chose
the easy way. And Lot lived down there among
those Sodomites. And in the shortest verse in
the scripture, the second shortest, that carries the most weight,
perhaps, says to us, remember Lot's wife. Remember Lot's wife. God pulled
Lot out, but he didn't keep Lot's wife. And Lot, how long was it
before Lot was back into that stuff he left? He talks about the sodomites,
how God rained fire on them, and then he talks about false
prophets, false preachers. Here I am. How many men? Perhaps there are some men that
have stood in this very pulpit that I am standing in now who
are no longer preaching the gospel. How that ought to make me tremble
in my boots, right? And then he talks about apostasy
in general. And then he begins to warn us.
Now, that's what this is all about. That's what this book
is all about. Now, here, look at verse 20 with me. Now, he
begins to warn us. But you, beloved. Now, listen, he said, beloved.
Are you with me? You, beloved. Building up yourselves
on your most holy faith. You, beloved. building up yourselves
on your most holy faith." Now, the Scriptures plainly, clearly
tell us that there are ways to grow in grace and in the knowledge
of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. There are means that
God has ordained for us to exercise our spirits with. Now, the Scripture
says, bodily exercise profiteth little. And the context of that,
he's talking about religious observances, outward shows of
religion, circumcision, keeping the Sabbath, all these outward
shows of religion, bodily exercise, outward things like that profit
very little, outward form and ceremonies. But there are spiritual
exercises. which God has ordained for our
growth, and they tend to life, and life more abundantly." And
he says here, look at it, he says, "...building up yourselves
on your most holy faith." Building. What do you do when you build
something? When something is built, it's growing, right? It
goes up. Building. Building. You grow. It's growing. Building. And the
higher a building gets, the more settled it gets, too, doesn't
it? Scripture talks about us being grounded and settled. The older a building gets, the
more it settles. I keep finding cracks every day in our new house
and patching up. Someday, I hope, they'll stop.
That building will become settled, grounded, there to stay. Until
then, I don't know. Grounded, settled. That's the
way I want to be, don't you? Grounded, settled. Unmoved away
from my hope, not carried about, not liable to be carried about
with every wind of doctrine or pleasure or whatever evil. Grounded,
don't you? Oh, that's what I want for me,
that's what I want for you. Building up, growing, grounded,
settled, unmoved, solid, mature, in Christ. Firm, and what I want,
I want to say like Paul, Terry, I want to say like Paul, I know
who I'll have believe it. I'm persuaded you ain't going
to sway me otherwise. That he's able to keep that which
I've committed. You see how that God's sovereignty
and our responsibility, he keeps, I commend. I didn't write this. I want to believe. I want to
be firmly persuaded of his ability to keep me. Now, here's a. Now,
you got it. You're going to have to stay
with me. If you don't listen to what I'm saying right now, you're going to misconstrue
it. All right. If you don't pay attention here.
I'm talking about being persuaded, faith, faith is being persuaded
of who Christ is. what he did, who God is, God's
power, God's faithfulness. That's what faith is, being persuaded.
God persuading us. Now, a firm persuasion, an assurance,
I want assurance, assurance of God's power to keep us depends
somewhat on us keeping his commandments. on us keeping ourselves. I told you, you're going to misconstrue
what I say if you don't watch. Look at verse 21. He says, keep
yourselves in the love of God. Now, I didn't write this. Like I said, I didn't write that.
He did. Stay with me. Let's leave, let
me use this word of admonition to all of us. Let's leave God's
sovereign will with him. Let's leave God's sovereign power
with him, not try to figure it out, not try to reconcile this
and that, not try to explain this and that. Leave it with
him. It's his sovereign will, his power. But let's do like
Mary said to his disciple. Whatever he says, do it. Is that
good advice? That's good advice. Leave God's
sovereign will and power. Don't try to figure it out. Don't
try to reconcile. Oh, if he said this, why is that? Whatever he
says, just do it. Do it. All right, now let's go
on. All right? How do we build ourselves up? How do we grow and grow? How
do we keep ourselves, like he says here, in the love of God?
How do we do that? Well, God has ordained means,
and like we read in Deuteronomy, the reason is to fear God for
our good always. Building, and these four things,
if you're taking notes, they're found right here. praying, loving, and looking. Four things are found in these
two verses here. Building, praying, loving, and looking. All right? Now look at verse
20 again with me. He says, Beloved, building up
yourselves on your most holy faith, that is, faith in Christ. He's the object of our faith.
is our faith, Christ, the gospel of Christ. And he says here,
the first way is that you pray in the Holy Ghost. Now, that's
not talking about jibber-jabberish. That's not talking about tongues.
Praying in the Holy Ghost, praying. You all heard this quote, prayer
changes things. You've seen that, haven't you?
You've heard it. Bumper stickers. Prayer changes things. Well,
that's the biggest lie I've ever been told. The scripture says,
Known unto God are all his works from the beginning. Now, how
in the world is prayer going to change what God has ordained
before the foundation of the world? Huh? How in the world
is prayer going to change what God has already ordained, what
God has already purposed? God has purposed it. He said
he'll do it. And that was a long time before man was ever born.
Prayer does not change things. But prayer changes people. Prayer does not change God's
mind, but prayer changes my mind about God. It does, and it's
a means God Almighty has used to change my mind, to turn me. The scripture says this, now,
Pray without ceasing in everything by prayer and supplication. Let
your requests be made known unto God. Let me find this real fast. Ephesians 6.18 says this. He
talks about praying in the Holy Spirit. Praying always with all
prayer and supplication in the Spirit. What is it to pray in
the Holy Spirit? What is it to pray in the Holy
Spirit? That's what he says here. It's
a means of building up yourselves on your most holy faith. Praying
in the Holy Spirit. What is it? Well, let me ask
you this. What is the Holy Spirit? What does he do? What's his office? What's the Holy Spirit all about?
Why did Christ say that the Holy Spirit would come? Well, he said
the Holy Spirit would come to teach us, to bring to remembrance
all things that Christ said unto us. The Holy Spirit is a witnesser
of Christ. Christ said he shall not speak
of himself. But the things he hears about me, that's what he's
going to show to you. He's a witness of Christ. So
the Holy Spirit, the whole duty of the Holy Spirit is to bring
people to faith in Christ, isn't it? That's the purpose of the
Holy Spirit. The purpose of the Holy Spirit
is to bring people to faith in Christ. How are we going to pray
in the Holy Spirit? We're going to have to pray with
this desire. This is going to be the chief desire in our prayers
and this building up of faith and praying the Holy Spirit.
The chief desire is, number one, oh, that I might win Christ and
be found in him. Number one. That's going to have
to be our chief and foremost desire in order to pray in the
Holy Spirit. Paul said, there's one thing
I desire. That's it, to win Christ, be found in him. Oh, that I might
know him and the power of his resurrection. The promise has
come. God has promised in his word.
He said, I'll honor those who honor my son. Isn't it? I'll honor those that
honor my son. The scripture, the promise says,
seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness. What's
that? That's Christ. Christ said, I'm
the kingdom of God, kingdom of God's among you, standing right
in front of you. And his righteousness, Christ is the end of the law
for righteousness to everyone who believes. He's the Lord our
righteousness. Seek ye first Christ and his righteousness,
and all these things will be added to you. He said, don't
start out, Lord, I need this, I need that. That ain't what
you need. That's not what we need, is it?
Not first, not foremost. He said, man doesn't live by
bread alone. Oh, no. We need to know Christ better
if we don't... 2 Timothy 1, 9, called with a holy
calling. That is the gift of God. Now
look at verse 21. Building yourselves in your most
holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost, that is, praying with
a desire for Christ, a desire that God will send his Holy Spirit
to take the things of Christ and show them to you. Verse 21,
keep yourselves in the love of God. Keep yourselves in the love
of God. Now, it's a tough passage. It's difficult, isn't it? Keeping
yourselves in the love of God. Why does any man love God? Why does any woman love God?
There was a time when every one of us in here did not like to
retain God in our knowledge. The carnal mind, the average
man, the natural man, every one of us hated God. Hated the thoughts
of God, hated everything to do with God. We loved ourselves
cheaply, supremely. Loved the world, not the things
of God. Why does any man love God? What's
the safest description? We love him because he first
loved us. Now, Romans 5, John contributed
this. He says, The love of God is shed
abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit. Right on the back of
that. The love of God is shed abroad
in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who is given unto us, which is
given unto us. So how do we keep ourselves in
the love of God? Be mindful of and filled with
and consumed with God's love for us. God's love for us. If we meditate and think about
and consider God's love in Christ for us, what he did for us, greater
love is no man than this. Scripture says, "...scarcely
for a righteous man." Scarcely for a righteous man would one
die. I don't know if there's anybody in here who would die
for the best man in here. You'd have to think about it
a while. Scarcely for a righteous man would die. Yet peradventure,
somebody might, for a good man, some would dare to die. Not many,
just some. But God, the Scripture says,
commendeth his love toward us. Isn't that why we were yet guttersnipes? low down, no good, worthless,
wretched, God-haten, rebellious, scum of the earth. Christ died for us, he said.
Sent his Son down here to be a bloody, dying, ignominious,
horrible, torturous death in our stead, in the place of maggots, here in his love. Not that we
love God, but that He loves us. So how are we going to keep ourselves
in the love of God by keep thinking about His love to us? Keep loving
Him? How? You know, we do love God. Peter said, when Christ asked
him, Peter, do you love God? He didn't have to think about
it. He didn't say, I'm not sure. I'm not sure about myself. Sometimes
I do something. No, he didn't say that, did he, Henry? He said,
Yea, Lord, I do love you. Thou knowest, as you put it there. Do you love me, Peter? Yes, I
do, Lord. I do love you. You know. Know
ye, how many times have I quoted this? Know ye not your own selves?
How that Christ dwelleth in you, except ye be reprimanded, that
is, have a mind totally void of any good sense or judgment
at all. Are we so deceived? Let me give
you an illustration, as Spurgeon used, this thing of the love
of God. He loved us, or we love him because
he first loved us. And how that we do love God.
Have you ever gone out as a kid, Stan, have you ever had a magnifying
glass and taken it out in the sunshine and burned it? You take
a magnifying glass and take it out on a bright, sunshiny day,
and you really don't even have to be out in the sunshine, a
cloudy day to sun them, or work. Take that magnifying glass and
take it out there, and here are some old dead, dry branches or
leaves. Dead, dry, they're fit for the
burning. That's all they're good for.
Useless, worthless. You take that magnifying glass,
a go-between, and hold it between the sun and those dry leaves. And a little while, you wait
a little while, and the sun, which is a ball of fire itself,
consuming fire. Looking through that go-between,
that mediator, will burn, set on fire, those dry leaves, dead,
dry branches. Now those leaves, the more they
catch on fire, they're burning, aren't they? They're burning. They're producing heat, light,
aren't they? Sure they are. Why? They first burned because it
first burned, and they burned through a mediator, through the
magnifying glass of the sun. This is Christ, the mediator,
the go-between, where we see the love of God. We see the love
of God. God Almighty burns with love
through Christ, that sacrifice, and sets on fire. The heart of
an old, dead, dry, dead dog-center. And we burn. Yeah, we do. We burn. Did not our hearts burn
within us, the apostles said? With love, yeah, we do. Yeah,
we do. I love God. Not like I want to,
but I do. And I want it to grow. How's
it going to grow? We see through a glass. Right
here. Here's the glass. Have a good
illustration? There's the glass. We'll set
our hearts on fire. How do you keep yourselves in
the love of God? Verse 21. Looking for the mercy of our
Lord Jesus Christ. Looking. Looking unto Jesus,
he said, Hebrews 12, 1 and 2. Looking for the mercy of the
Lord Jesus Christ. Let me backtrack just a hair
here. Let me give you some practical
things about this thing of keeping yourselves in the love of God,
okay? Here's some good things. Got
these from old Charlie, Charlie's Purge. Number one, meditate. Like I said, meditate, think
about, consider God's love to us in Christ, what He has done
for us in Christ. And that'll burn, that'll make
your heart burn, if it won't, your heart's dead. You know,
if a gospel of God's love and sacrifice in Christ does not
kindle a flame within our hearts, it's dead, it's stone cold. Right? And got a new heart. Secondly,
avoid things that dampen your love. Avoid those things that
dampen love to God. What might that be? The world? Huh? What else is there to love? God said you can't love, you
can't love, you can't serve mammon. This is the thing about it. I
can't love two women at the same time. I'm going to have one wife,
right? I can't serve two masters. I can't love two things the same. There's an old Latin saying,
I can't quote it, but it says what it means is one love extinguishes
the other. One love will extinguish the
other. I remember I used to think that I loved some girls back
in school. They call it puppy love. Puppy love. Oh, I dated a girl named Mindy,
by the way, in high school. Mindy, oh, I was in love. Oh, we were just going to get
married and live happily ever after. Some guy, tall, dark, and handsome
came along. He left me like a hot potato.
But I found somebody I really loved. I don't think about but
one Mindy now. She's forgotten. That other one's
forgotten. One love extinguished the other. True love will extinguish
all these other loves. And he says, advises us to avoid
things that dampen your love. Love not the world. Commandments
come, not an option. Love not the world, neither the
things of the world. If any man loved the world, the
love of God is not in him. Right? Sure it is. A man who is wholly consumed
with ambition, with riches, with honor, with pleasure, he doesn't
love God. Who's he fooling? He may say
it on Sunday morning, oh, how I love Jesus. He loves that little fire escape.
It's going to get him out of hell after he has a good old
time all his life. Thirdly, avoid people who dampen
or deaden your love and growth in love. That's what that passage I just quoted said.
Love not the world. That's the people of this world. Love not the world. There's a passage in Deuteronomy,
I think it's 13, isn't it, where this is what Christ is talking
about when he said, if any man come unto me and hate not his
brother, his mother, father, brother, sister, wife, so forth.
He's talking about Deuteronomy 13. I think it's Deuteronomy
13, where the Lord said, now, if anybody come to you and tell
you, come after other gods, come with us, come worship with us,
come church with us, Let's do this. Family. He said, I don't
care if it's your father, your mother, your brother, your sister. Get some stones out. Didn't he? Do you remember reading that?
He said, you be the first one to hit them in the head with
a rock. Why? God said, thou shalt love the
Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy soul. Right? All thy mind, all thy strength,
all your person. God won't have half a heart.
He'll have all the heart. So avoid those things and those
people. And he says also, fourthly, use
the means of grace. God has given us prayer, prayer,
draw an eye unto God, He'll draw an eye unto you with a sense
of His presence, His love. Prayer, hearing the gospel, reading,
fellowship, communion, love, this thing just kind of rubs
off. You can find two of the most
honest fellows on earth hugging one another around here. Right,
Joe? Henry? Love, fellowship, kind of rubs
off when you're around the gospel. When you see what love God has
for us, it kind of makes you, you can love that other fellow,
can't you? You can forbear and forgive him. Communion with the
Lord, verse 21. Let's go on. He says, Keep yourselves
in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ
unto eternal life. Where is God's love found? Romans
8, 39, in Christ. The love of God which is in Christ
Jesus our Lord. The love of God is found in Christ.
How do you experience the love of God? How do we keep ourselves
in the love of God? By believing, trusting, looking
to Christ, the author and finisher of our faith. The scripture says,
kiss the Son. Kiss the Son. Not his cheek,
though. Kiss his feet in adoration, in
fear, in holy reverence and awe. Scripture says, look unto Christ
and be ye saved. Be ye loved. All the ends of
the earth. For he's God. There's none else. Christ is God. Them that look for him," the
scripture says, those that look for Christ, look for the mercy
of God in Christ, look to Christ, believe Christ, trust Christ,
depend upon Christ, consider Christ as their only hope, as
their all. But them that look for him or
to him, shall he appear the second time without sin, that is, without
our sins, unto salvation. Look to Christ as your all, as
your all. If you see Christ as doing everything
for you, you can't help but love God. If you see Him as doing
everything for you, I don't see how anybody can be taken up and
talk about this love for Jesus who didn't do anything. Can you? Rick, John, can you
see how anybody can be taken up and so fanatical and Oh, how
they loved Jesus, but their Jesus didn't do anything. He tried,
but he failed. I think that's a front. I think
that's a front. Just like all this fake healing
and everything. Be healed in the name of Jesus. That's why
give Jesus a hand. Give Him a hand. Right? The only way you're going to
love Jesus is if that name really means Jesus, Savior. Call His name Jesus. He shall
save. There's only one way you're going
to love the Lord your God, who is sovereign, who is holy, who
is unlifted. When you see that He's done everything
for you, He finished it. Oh, you can love him, and you
can keep loving him. All right, you look to Christ. Listen to this. Here's a profound
statement. Look to Christ as your all, and
God will look at you with love and favor. You look to Christ
as your all. You look to Christ, and God will
look at you. He won't look at you. outside
of Christ. Like Joseph said about Benjamin,
you're not going to see my face unless Benjamin is with you.
Right? God says you're not going to
have my love or favor or you're not going to get in my presence
unless Christ is with you. You look to Christ, believe him,
and God will look at you with compassion and love and favor.
And you'll see later on, that's why I did it. Verse 22, and of
some, now these are difficult verses, 22 and 23. Now he says
of some people we need to have compassion. Now remember, he's
been talking about apostasy. He's been talking about people
falling. He's been talking about false
apostles. Now I need to hear this. We've
got a real tendency to be hyper-Calvinistic. We do. We don't have the primitive
Baptist doctrine here. I mean, we believe sovereignty
and election and so forth like they do, but primitive Baptists
in a lot of other places don't believe in missions. They don't
believe you have to hear the gospel. Right? And right here, and they've got
a fatalistic attitude. You're going to be elect. You're
going to be saved. You're just going to be saved. God's just going to save
you. Be saved. Without the gospel, without anything. That's not
what the Bible teaches. God has pleased God with the
foolishness of preaching. But right here, he talks about
having compassion upon people. Now, I need this desperately.
I sure do. I need to learn something about
this. He says that some people have
compassion, have compassion, making a difference, making a
difference. We need discernment to know how
to deal differently with different people, don't we? Huh? We need
to know when we're casting our pearls before swine and when
to speak, when not to speak. You need that, Henry? I do. I
need that wisdom. And I need compassion. I'm too
hard on people. We have a tendency, every one
of us, most of us anyway, to beat people over the head. If
you don't believe this, you're just a dummy, you know. That's
not what Jude exhorts us to here. He says, of some have compassion
making a difference. We need the wisdom to deal with
different people differently, have a discernment, a wisdom,
a prudence of how to handle different people. God will give it if you
ask him. And he says here in verse 23, And of others, save
with fear, pulling them out of the fire. Others, save with fear,
pulling them out of the fire. Now, and hating even the garment
spotted by the flesh. There are some people out there,
including these false prophets, who are just hellions, aren't they? I mean, they're just hellbound,
just as sure as I'm standing here. They appear to be, anyway.
No good, low life, unworthy, just worthless creatures. God ought to drop the floor out
from under them, send them to hell right now with their shoes
on, right? There's people out there. But let me ask you this. What were you like in the beginning? I was plucked, Terry, as it were,
as a brand from the burning, buddy. If you'd have seen me
15 years ago, you might not have talked to me. You might have
avoided me. Thank God. Old brother Gerald
I'd come to church with my hair down to here. It used to grow,
Stan. It used to be down to here. I did, a beard, looking like
I'd been up all night, which I had. Come to church, you know, all
the wrong reasons. And old brother Gerald would
come up to me and put his arm around me, smile. And that made an impression on
me. It really did. People there at the church, people
that I'd known all my life, and rebelled, left prodigal son.
You're looking at the prodigal. People I've known all my life,
faithful members of the church and all, here I come straggling
back in, and it's like I've never left. They said as much as, bring
the fatted calf, pause here. That made an impression on me. I thought, now that's something.
I don't have this with my cronies out here. They dropped me at
a minute, just as soon as my stash goes. Yeah, I made an impression
on me. Brother Gerald said, he said,
Paul, he said, I prayed for you every night. And I believe him. I believe him. I know somebody
who was praying for sure. A little woman. He says here to us, have others
save or at least use every means available. Considering your own
selves, Paul said, save with fear, pulling them out of the
fire, but hating the garments spotted by the flesh. You know,
where the hate, listen, people accuse us of hating Catholics. I don't hate Catholics. I hate
Catholicism. And we preach against it, right? We renounce the hidden things
of dishonesty. We hate its Antichrist, the Pope. Now, there's one fellow I'll
give my permission to hate, the Pope. But we hate Catholicism. We don't hate Catholics. These
poor people are just ignorant like we were. I hate Methodism
with its silly, emotional, not-saying-nothing, bloodless religion. I hate it. But I don't hate Methodists.
They're just ignorant. They're just blind. Right? I
hate the Episcopalian which endorses and ordains homosexuality and
all that. I hate that. The garment spotted
with flesh, that is, the religious garments, all this that has to
do with, supposed to do with God is spotted, that they've
defiled. I hate it, but I shouldn't hate
those people. Who maketh thee to differ? Right? Who maketh thee to differ? Now,
when it's all said and done, it's because God has said and
done." There's his statement. When it's all said and done,
it's because God has said and done. Because God hath purposed
it, and who shall let it? Who shall annul it? God hath
chosen. God hath loved. God hath sent
Christ. Christ hath died. Christ hath
finished the work. Proceeded back to the throne
to intercede for us. The Holy Spirit comes. The Holy
Spirit convinces of sin, righteousness, judgment. The Holy Spirit grants
us faith. When it's all said and done,
after all these things Jews have been telling us, building up
yourselves, praying, keeping, looking, seeking the salvation
of people, having compassion, when it's all said and done,
verse 24 sums it up. It's all said and done, it's because God
said and done. Now unto him, the doxology, unto
him that is able to keep us from falling and present us, hold
on your seats here, thoughtless. I told John, I said, that doesn't
even need a comment. Faultless. Do you remember when Pilate said,
when Christ, when he tried Christ, and he said, I don't find, I
find no fault in it. The all-seeing eye of God Almighty. Someday, we're going to stand
before Him, and He's going to look at us. Sammy, look through
your eyes into the depths of your soul, into your motive,
into your heart, into your affection. Look at you. I'm going to say,
I find no fault in it. How? Unto him that is able to
keep you from falling. and to present you faultless,
that is, by Christ making you righteous, by Christ paying for
your sins, justifying you, present you faultless before the presence
of his glory. And that's what we're going to
talk about later tonight, this glory we're going to go to, this
glory. We're going to talk about glory. faultless before the presence
of God's glory with exceeding joy." Joy? We've never experienced joy until
then. Mmm. My, my, my, my, my. The presence of it, joy unspeakable,
the Scripture says. The Scripture talks about silence
for thirty minutes in heaven. And when everybody gets together,
when finally, when all the sheep are there, And Christ appears
before them with that countless as the sun that shineth and all
its strength, the head as white as the wool, the feet that burn
like a fiery furnace. He appears before us in all his
glory. He can be silenced for thirty minutes.