and sing hymn number 106. 106 Tell me the story of Jesus, write
on my heart every word. Tell me the story most precious,
sweetest that ever was heard. Tell how the angels in chorus
sang as they welcomed his birth. Glory to God in the highest. Peace and good tidings to earth. Tell me the story of Jesus, cried
on my heart every word. Tell me the story most precious,
sweetest that ever was heard. Fasting alone in the desert Tell
of the days that are past, How for our sins he was tempted,
Yet was triumphant at last. Tell of the years of his labor,
Tell of the sorrow he bore, He was despised and afflicted,
homeless, rejected, and poor. Tell me the story of Jesus, write
on my heart every word. Tell me the story most precious,
sweetest that ever was heard. Tell of the cross where they
nailed him, writhing in anguish and pain. Tell of the grave where
they laid him. Tell how he liveth again. Love in that story. Glory so
tender, clearer than ever I see. Each day let me weep while you
whisper, love made the ransom for me. Tell me the story of Jesus, cried
on my heart every word. Tell me the story most precious,
sweetest that ever was heard. Be seated. We'll sing hymn number
318. 318. I need thee every hour, most gracious
Lord. No tender voice like Thine can
peace afford. I need Thee, O I need Thee, Every
hour I need Thee, O bless me now, my Savior, I come to Thee. I need Thee every hour, stay
thou nearby. Temptations lose their power
when Thou art nigh. I need Thee, O I need Thee, Every hour I need Thee, O bless
me now, my Savior, I come to Thee. I need Thee every hour,
in joy or pain, Come quickly and abide, for life is vain. I need Thee, oh, I need Thee
Every hour I need Thee Oh, bless me now, my Savior I come to Thee
I need Thee every hour Most Holy One, O make me Thine indeed. Thou blessed Son I need Thee,
O I need Thee Every hour I need Thee O bless me now, my Savior
I come to Thee Open with me to the book of Jude. We'll try to finish
this up tonight. Start reading in verse 20. But ye, 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, and of some, have compassion,
making a difference, and others, save with fear, pulling them
out of the fire, hating even the garment spotted by the flesh,
now unto him that is able to keep you from falling, and to
present you faultless before the presence of his glory with
exceeding joy, to the only wise God, our Savior, be glory, majesty,
dominion, and power both now and forever. Now, Lord, we come into your
holy presence, and as we've already sung, Lord, we need you. We need
you. Not just every hour, we just
need you all the time. All the time. We need you to
uphold us and keep us and preserve us from ourselves, from the world,
from our flesh, from our wandering minds, from so many things that
would hinder us and keep us from keeping our minds stayed upon
you. Lord, we live in a world that don't care for you. And
Lord, we, even ourselves, get so busy sometimes, Lord, that
we put you off while we do other
things. Lord, forgive me for that. And,
Lord, I pray that you'd be pleased, for Christ's sake, to meet with
us tonight. Please enable me to speak. Please
enable the saints to hear. And, Lord Jesus, we pray again
for our brothers and sisters who are having troubles, Deb
and Jim. We pray for them. Lord, that
you'd enable her to take care of him. And, Lord Jesus, we pray
again for Rick and Helen, Lord, they need you. Oh, how they need
you. And we know that you give them
grace and they are, Rick is so submitted to your will and I'm
so grateful for what you've done for him and for her. Please,
oh Lord, bring glory to yourself to us tonight. And Lord, please,
our children, oh, our children, and our grandchildren that are
grown. Oh, Lord, we stir up their nest, take the rug out from under
them, cause the darkness to come over them that would cause fear
in their hearts. Do whatever, Lord Jesus, that
you feel it would do to take them to yourself and bring them
to yourself. You do that, Lord. You'll do
what's right, I know that. Please, for Christ's sake, meet
with us. In his holy name, amen. In number 480, 480, on the third
verse, third line, we'll sing, I wondered How he could love
me to suffer such deep agony. How he could love me. In tenderness He sought me, weary
and sick with sin, And on His shoulders brought me back to
His fold again. while angels in his presence
sang until the courts of heaven rang. Oh, the love that sought
me. Oh, the blood that bought me. Oh, the grace that brought me
to the wondrous grace that brought me
to the fold. He washed the bleeding sin wounds
and poured in oil and wine. He whispered to assure me I found
thee, thou art mine I never heard a sweeter voice It made my aching
heart to rejoice Oh, the love that sought me O the blood that
bought me, O the grace that brought me to the fold, wondrous grace
that brought me to the fold. He pointed to the nail prints,
for me his blood was shed, A mocking-crown so thorny was placed upon His
head. I wondered how He could love
me to suffer such deep agony. Oh, the love that sought me Oh,
the blood that bought me Oh, the grace that brought me to
the fold Forturous grace that brought me to the fold I'm sitting
in His presence, the sunshine of His face, while with adoring
wonder His blessings I retrace. It seems as if eternal days are
far too short to sound His praise. O the blood that bought me, O
the grace that brought me to the fold, wondrous grace that
brought me to the fold. So while the hours are passing,
all now is perfect rest. I'm waiting for the morning. The brightest and the best When
He will call us to His side To be with Him, His spotless pride
Oh, the love that sought me Oh, the blood that bought me Oh,
the grace that brought me to the fold, wondrous grace that
brought me to the fold. Down there it says, in verse
22, excuse me, verse 33, others say with fear, pulling them out
of the fire. That's the title of my message,
Pulling in from the Fire. You remember how our Lord told
us to build up ourselves in our holy faith. What makes it holy
is it comes from a holy God, purchased by the Holy Son of
God, worked in us by the Holy Spirit. And this faith is so
precious. Everybody don't have faith, and
the faith, that's why it becomes so precious to us. Precious,
precious faith. And then he says, you know, keep
yourselves, in verse 21, keep yourselves in the love of God. Keep yourselves where the love
of God's preached. Keep yourselves Loving God, because
he first loved you. Keep yourself loving the Lord
Jesus Christ. And oh my, may God keep us in
love with him all the days of our life. And oh, look, and then
he says here of some, verse 22, of some have compassion making
a difference. And when it says some, and some,
You got to keep the verses in context. He just got through
talking about keeping the faith, keeping ourselves, building ourselves
up in the faith, and keeping the love of God. And there's
some that doesn't do that. And that's what even some, some,
they don't do that. They don't do that. Some have
compassion making a difference. Some have fallen. That's what
he said. Some have fallen. Some have gone
astray. Some have great, great afflictions.
Some are being deceived and have been deceived. Some have been
tempted above they're able to bear sometimes. And then because
of ignorance and infirmities, you know, some, and then in the
face of temptation of some make a difference. And there is a
difference. There's a difference in somebody
that he's not saying these people are not believers. He just said,
you know, some have compassion on making a difference, making
a difference. I want you to look with me. You
know, some people, some people fall. I got to think of this
today. And I don't know if you'll agree
with me or not, but that's okay. You can be wrong if you want
to. But anyway, There's people that
can fall sitting in a church pew. There's people can sit in a church
pew and get so hard, get so callous, have some enmity towards somebody,
have some ill feelings towards somebody. And it's, you know,
you can watch them change right in front of your eyes. And so
that's what he said, of some making a difference. Now, who
is it that we make a difference in? He's talking about believers. He's talking about the saints
of God. And then he said, have compassion on them. And, you
know, compassion means to identify with them in what trouble they're
having. But now look over here with me
in Psalm 37. Excuse me, Psalm. Yeah, Psalm
37. You can Psalm 37 with me. Verse 24. Oh, I said that people's fallen.
My goodness, there's no telling how many times that I've fallen,
not even conscious of it. No telling how many times I've
fallen and knew what I was doing, but did what my flesh wanted
to do. You know, and that's why we need
Christ. Oh, we got to have him. But look
what he said here in Psalm 37, verse 24. Though he fall, though
he fall, he shall not be utterly cast down, for the Lord upholdeth
him with his hand. He going to fall. He going to
fall. And there's people that fall.
And oh, look in Proverbs 24 with me. Proverbs 24. I should have mentioned that
too while we was over there. In Proverbs 24, verse 16. You know, make a difference. Have compassion on them. And here he said in Proverbs
24, 16, if you're there, let me read it to you. For a just
man falleth seven times. A just man falleth seven times. You hear what he said? A just
man. How's a man just? Only Christ can make a man just.
Only God can justify a man. And for a just man falleth seven
times and rises up again. But when the wicked fall, they
fall into mischief. The believer don't do that. But
now, back over in our text, he said, of some, verse 22, of some,
have compassion, showing compassion, showing meekness, showing brotherly
love, forgiving, forgiving, and making a difference, making a
difference. You know when you start making
a difference, that means don't cut them off. You see people
get in pretty bad shape, and don't cut them off. Don't avoid
them. Don't treat them as you would
some false teacher, some false brother. No, no. Don't treat
them as a heretic. Don't do that. Because he said,
if I have compassion and make a difference in some, they haven't
kept themselves in the love of God. They have not built up themselves
in the faith. And everybody don't grow at the
same rate of growth either. And I want to show you, I'm going
to show you, keep this here, I'm going to show you a couple
of things that Paul dealt with. Look in 2 Corinthians 2, 7. 2
Corinthians chapter 2 and verse 7. This is a man that was in
the church and he, he done a grievous sin. He fell. He fell. And Paul made a... He caused them. Look what he
says in verse 5, 2 Corinthians 2, 5. But if any have caused
grief, he hath not grieved me, but in part, that I might not
overcharge all of you. Sufficient to such a man is this
punishment, which was inflicted of many. So whatever they done,
they dealt with him the way they done it. And now look what he
says in verse seven. So contrary wise, you ought rather
to forgive him, to comfort him, lest perhaps such a war should
be swallowed up with overmuch sorrow. Wherefore, I beseech
you that you would confirm your love toward him. Well, I tell you, that's what
I'd want people to do to me if I failed. That's what I'd want
them to do. And then look over here at 2
Timothy 2. Look at 2 Timothy. I want you to see these things,
that this is what he's making a difference. And he said, that's
why you do. You have compassion and you make
a difference. And in 2 Timothy 2, verse 24. Look what he says. St. Timothy 2.24, and the server
of the Lord must not strive. Don't argue with people, don't
strive with people. Don't fuss and fight with people,
don't strive. But be gentle unto all, apt to
teach, be patient. Be patient, that means to be
forbearing. in meekness, instructing those
that oppose themselves. If God peradventure, if God peradventure
will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth. And watch this now, that they
may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil, who are
taken captive by him at his will. So this is the kind of people
we're talking about here. Make a difference, show compassion,
show meekness, And I'll tell you what, it's, we don't know
what a person's going through in their home. We don't know
what they're going through in their marriage. We don't know
what they're going through in their body. We don't know what
people's going through. And so, you know, we need to
make a difference. We need to show compassion. And
when you see somebody, you know, you imagine, you imagine somebody
that you love, somebody that you really love and some brother
and sister in the church, and they start straying. They start
straying and they start fooling around with some kind of a strange
doctrine or started doing something that was contrary to the scriptures.
It would be for us to have compassion on them and make a difference
in them and try your very best to restore them and correct them
and bring them in meekness now. Don't get up there and say, listen,
you better listen to what I got to tell you. Now, don't you dare
do that. If I catch you doing that anymore, I'm going to get
you. We're not talking to children. We're not dealing with children.
We're dealing with the devil. And so we want to treat them like
what we are, grace believers. Treat them with grace and mercy
and compassion and love and forgiveness. Forgiveness. And then look what
else he says now in verse 23. Oh, this is a tough one right
here. And others, save with fear, pulling them out of the fire,
hating even the garment spotted by the flesh." Oh, my. And others, you have a great
fear for them. You're afraid for them. You have
such a fear that this is going to end up making shipwreck of
the faith. And oh, my. And you know, knowing
the terror of the Lord, put before them, when you see somebody in
an awful danger, You know, you tell them, and you warn them,
and you have a fear for them. You're scared for them, and you're
afraid that what's going to happen. You're afraid of what's going
to come upon them if you're not very careful. And if you're not
very careful, others save with fear. You have the fear of God. You're afraid. You have a fear
of what they're going to do, a fear how far they're going
to go, a fear how they're going to affect the gospel, a fear
how they're going to affect the congregation. A fear. And then look what else he says.
Pulling them out of the fire. That's exactly what God did to
us. We were brains plucked from the burning. We had old stinkin' smoke on
us. We was in that fire. And God
rushed down and pulled us out of that. that's what he's telling
us to do. We'll see somebody that's right
on the verge, verge of going so far away that there's no bringing
them back. And he says you make such a difference,
such compassion that you pull them, pull them by prayer, pull
them by talking to them, pull them by the scriptures, pull
them by what God says, pull them with love, pull them with compassion,
but pull them! Pull them! Oh my. And then he says, from the fire. From the fire. You know, pull
them out of the fire. You know, there's the fire soul-destroying
doctrine. There's doctrine that's soul-destroying.
soul-destroying. And then there's soul-destroying
sins that people have. And we see them and we pray for
them and help them and by God's grace, restore them. Look over
in Galatians chapter six, look over in Galatians chapter six
with me. You know, we, uh, And there's people that come
in and they start hearing the gospel. And that's what God's
actually doing. He's teaching them, instructing
them, and saving them. And that's why it's so imperative,
so imperative that we preach the gospel. But look what he
said in Galatians 6, 1 and 2. Brethren, and that's who he's
talking to, brethren, Brothers and sisters, that's the way Bruce
calls people out, my brothers and sisters, brethren, if a man
be overtaken in a fault, you that are spiritual, got any spirituality
about you, you got the grace of God in you, you got the love
of God in you, You which are spiritual, restore such in one. And again, he talks about in
the spirit of meekness. Don't go being there overbearing. Don't go trying to correct them
and straighten them out. Meekness means you submit. You
come in a quietness, in a in a submissive attitude that you
tried. The only thing that they're going
to listen to is somebody loving them and caring for them and
wanting to save them from the condition they're in. And then
he goes on to say, Considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted. Think about what would happen
to you if you're put in that situation. That's why he says
you consider what would happen to you if you was put in a certain
situation. And then he says, bear ye one
another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ. What's the
law of Christ? Love, love, and oh my. And he goes back over
here, go back with me again. Others save with fear. Oh, have
such a fear for them. Have such a fear for them. And
then he says here, but pull him out of the fire, Hating even
the garment. Garment spotted by the flesh. Now the garment he's talking
about, there's only one garment, you know, that in the scriptures
that's worth having. That's the garment of Christ.
And here he says, you know, that's God that's spotted. It's spotted. You know, you despise and condemn
their behavior, yet you Their conduct makes them filthy,
and their garments filthy according to the flesh. And you know, when
we talk about saving out of the fire, sins compared to fire,
trials are compared to fire. And this person's danger is,
is he is in the fire. He's in the fire. Pull him out
of the fire. Get him out of the fire. And
he must be pulled out with fear. Fear for him, fear for God, fear
for the congregation and the consequences that have happened
from it. It's like Lot. Lot. You know what they had to do.
An angel had to go down into Sodom. Lot did not want to leave. He knocked on the door, tried
to get his sons-in-laws and his daughters to go with him, and
they seemed as one that mocked. And he stood there, and stood
there, and stood there, and an angel had to come and get him,
and drag him, drag him out of Sodom. He never left on his own
will. He had to be, and that's exactly
what it means to pull down the fire. God pulled him, and Them
angels pulled him out of the fire. He would have stayed right
there and perished. But he was a just man and God
said, I'm going to save this man. And an angel had to bring
him out. And that's exactly what we sometimes
will see. You know, we all have fear for
our children. We all have fear for our children. But oh my. There's some things, you know,
that trouble us and we can't hardly, you know, the best thing
you can do for a fella is pray for him. Pray for him and talk
to him graciously if you can and you see what's going on.
But then look what he says in verse 24. He says, you know, now you're
gonna leave this Condition that these people in says but now We're gonna change the subject
now unto him Now unto him That's able to keep
you from falling and to present you faultless before the presence
of his glory with exceeding joy and all here he comes and he
closes this thing ascribing glory to God and Oh, such a beautiful
note that he does here. Whatever's going on in the church,
whatever's going on in a man's heart, whatever's going on in
our lives, we ascribe glory to God. We say, Lord, and look what
he says now unto him. Talked about pulling him out
of the fire, garment spotted with flesh. Some make a difference
having compassion, but now, I want to tell you, the only way that
you're not going to fall is now unto Him that is able. Oh my, unto Him that's able. You know, two blind men come
to the Lord Jesus, one of their sight, and he asked them, he
said, do you believe I'm able to do this? They said, yes, Lord. Yes, we believe you're able. What is he able to do? Anything
that we need. Oh, that what he's talking about,
his ability. Thank God that he's got the ability. He's got the
power. Now unto him, that's what he
goes on, says we are dealing with all this other stuff here.
We're dealing with all these sins and all this flesh and all
these judgments and we're dealing with all these things and these
men crept in and away. But now I'm going to tell you
there's a way and a person that can keep you from falling. And
nobody won't have to pull you out of the fire. Nobody won't
have to make a difference having compassion on you. Now unto him
that's able. And I like this right here, to
keep you from falling. Oh, Lord. The righteous fall
seven times, but the Lord picketh him up. Oh, my. Able, willing to keep you from
falling. Falling away from the truth. Falling away from the love of
God. falling away from the faith, falling away from Christ. Oh,
my. He's able to keep us from falling.
No, there's a thousand ways we can fall, but he's able to keep
us from falling, falling. And oh, look what he says. And
not only able to keep you from falling, but he's able to present
you faultless. There's not a soul in this building
this morning say, boy, I tell you what, you wouldn't believe
my, you know, I've got more faults and I hope people don't see them
all. Listen, we got them. But Christ said, I'm gonna present
you faultless. You ain't gonna have a fault. Not a fault. I'll not find a fault in you.
I'm going to be the one to present you faultless. You can't present
yourself faultless. I was thinking, you know, the
other day, people that have to work for their salvation, that
have to be obedient and work for it, how tiring, tiring that
would be. That would be so tiring. I mean,
you'll never ever be able to relax. You'd always think, did
I do enough? Did I pray enough? Did I give
enough? Have I read enough? Do I tend enough? You know, it's
always, always do I have enough? Well, Christ says here, I'm not
only able to keep you falling, but I'm able to present you faultless. I'm able to do that. No wonder we rest in Christ.
And look what else he says, to bring you faultless before the
presence, the presence of His glory. You
see that? His glory. That's going to be
His glory to present us faultless. That's going to be His glory
to keep us from falling. That's going to be His glory
and this is exceeding joy. And I tell you what, I believe
that Christ will have exceeding joy presenting us faultless.
And I know we're going to have exceeding joy being presented
faultless. So He's going to have it. He
said there's joy in the presence of God over one sinner that repents. So I tell you what, there's going
to be joy Christ's gonna have joy. We're gonna have joy. And oh my, and when he comes
and we see him in his glory, whoo. That does my heart so much good.
I'm gonna see him in his glory one of these days. I see his
glory now. But I see it through a glass
darkly. I see just a little here, a little there, a little here,
a little there. But one of these days, we're going to see him
in his glory. And he's going to present us in his own presence,
in the presence of his own glory. And oh, my. Oh, my. We have plenty of faults. We've
had plenty of them, but we see ourselves. But he'll present
us faultless, like he presents somebody at the court of a king. And then look what he says, oh
my, to the only wise God. You know why he says the only
wise God? Because God's the only one that's wise. There's lots
of gods in this world, but they're not wise. Everything God does
is based on his wisdom. Everything is wisdom. And oh
my, and then he's got the, you know, How could He declare the
end from the beginning had not His infinite wisdom known exactly
what needed to be done from the start to the finish? He saved
us in His own wisdom. And to the only wise God, listen
to this, our Savior. This wise God is our Savior.
He's our Savior. He's the only wise God. That's
what Titus says that to. The only wise God. Our Savior. And look what he says. Be glory,
and majesty, and dominion, and power, both right now and forever. And you know what he says? Amen. Let it be so. That's what that
word. Amen. Let it be so. Oh my. I tell you. He's the only wise
God. There's nobody like him, our
Savior. And I'll tell you what. And we
want, we're going to see him. Oh, to see his glory. We've seen
it some now. We see his majesty now. We see
his dominion. That means he has all, you know,
America's from sea to shining sea, from the North Canadian
border to the Gulf of Mexico. But I tell you what, That's just
a part of his dominion. Ain't no place you can go in
this world or in the heavens where he doesn't have the dominion
over it. Can't do it. And I tell you, and power, both
now, right now, and forever. Let it be so. Let it be so. I hope I can go back and deal
with that verse 25 and deal with it the way it ought to be dealt
with, now unto Him. Now, I love that now. Every time you get in trouble,
now, He is able, right now, now unto Him that's able. It's always
gonna be that way. It's always gonna be there. It's
gonna be like that until we're presented faultless for the presence
of His glory. Our blessed Savior, thank you
for allowing us to meet here tonight. And thank you for allowing
us to deal with your precious, precious word. There's things
in here that's hard to be understood, hard to explain the way they
ought to be explained. But, oh, Lord, I pray that we
had some understanding tonight. And some of your saints were
blessed by it and encouraged by it. Lord, there's so much
in your precious Word that we do see it through a glass darkly
now. We do. Oh, but one of these days,
we'll see face to face, face to face with Christ our Savior,
face to face with our Lord. Oh, what a blessed, blessed hope
we have in Christ. And God bless our dear brothers
and sisters as you keep them. And Lord, when Cody comes to
Bring a message this Lord's Day, this coming Sunday. Be with him.
God bless him. And Lord, when Brad takes the
Sunday, the 14th, the Sunday, Lord, bless him. God bless him
mightily. Bless these two brothers mightily.
Quicken their minds. Warm their hearts. Give them
messages that will be a blessing, edifying, Christ-glorifying,
God-honoring. And Lord, use them to your glory
and the good of your people. And Lord, keep them till we all
can meet again and worship this side of eternity for Christ's
sake. Amen. Amen. Thank you, Lord,
for saving my soul. Thank you, Lord. for making me whole. Thank you.