Well, we're looking still in the book of Jude, next to the last book in the Bible. The last book being the revelation of Jesus Christ, which he gave to John. I've mentioned this before, but I think it goes well that we mention it again and again because it's such a common thing for men to speak of that last book of the Bible as the book of Revelations. But it is not a book of Revelations. It is the book of the Revelation of Jesus Christ. And if you come to the book of Revelation and you're looking for something other than Christ, then you're looking for the wrong thing.

A lot of people come there because they want to interpret the hairs on the horse's tail and the toenails on the beast, and they want to find some dark, mysterious meaning in all these things. But that book, just as surely as all books in the Bible, have one message, one theme, and one purpose, and it is to magnify the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. And that is what the book of the revelation of Jesus Christ is. It is a revelation of Christ. It's a unfolding of the gospel in a panoramic view, if you want to say in that way.

And the Lord said, woe be to anybody who takes away anything out of that book, and I believe he, since the Lord ordained that the book of the Revelation would be the last book in the Bible, he's speaking about the whole Bible, because the whole Bible from the beginning to the end has one author. Now it's got several people whom the Lord inspired to take a pen and ink and set right these words down, but make no mistake about it, God breathed this book, the words that are in this book. And so whenever he said, woe be to anybody who takes from this book or adds to it, he's speaking about the whole book.

And so it is that we desire to preach the whole counsel of God. And you can't preach the whole counsel of God without preaching Jesus Christ and him crucified. You can preach about a lot of subjects in the Bible to some prophet. But you will never preach what the Bible is about until you preach Jesus Christ and Him crucified. For from the beginning to the end, that's the message. And we don't have any other message. We don't want any other message.

I get weary when I hear preachers preaching something other than that. You know, may the Lord give us a mind and heart to see that and to recognize that and to rejoice in it. That's the most glorious message we could ever hear is that Jesus Christ the righteous, the King of kings and the Lord of lords has died for sinners. I mean, that's a wondrous thing. I mean, how could it be? Could you have made that up? Could a man have sat down and written up some script or something and deciphered this and made all of these books from the beginning to the end of this book fit together and have one theme?

The Lord has to show a man that. Because a lot of people, you can read the Bible from beginning to end, you can memorize it, and never know what the Bible is about. I want you to know what the Bible says. And the only way you're gonna know what the Bible says is by reading it. And so I want you to read it.

But more than my desire for you to know what it says is my desire for you to know what it means. Because just like I heard an old preacher say one time, the Bible doesn't mean what it says, it means what it means. And God is the one who makes that plain. And that's what he sends his preachers into the world to declare. And that is the message that we desire to preach and none other. And that is Jesus Christ and him crucified.

Because that is the message Paul preached and that's the message we desire to preach. And so I hope that you'd run me out of town if I ever preach anything else. Because I don't desire to preach anything else. I don't know anything else. I'm an ignorant and unlearned man. I don't know anything but what the Lord is pleased to show me. And I'm as prone to make errors as the next man is. And when we open our mouths, we're just as apt to say something is wrong as we are to say something is right.

But when God is pleased to breathe upon his word, it's always gonna be true. and he's always going to apply it exactly as he sees fit. His word, the scripture says, will not return unto him void, but it will accomplish the thing that he sends it to do. May he send his word today. That's my prayer. I hope that he will, that he'll send it to my heart, and that he'll send it to your heart, and that we might receive those things that he has for us

Now, we're getting to the end of this book, and of course we've tried to set forth before you what the theme of the book is, as Jude writes to the children of God, and he tells, he warns them, most of this book is a warning about false teaching. It's what most of it's about. But false teaching is always in the scripture contrasted with that which is true. And they're often the Lord magnifies errors so we might see the truth. He's raised up wicked men in the earth that he might contrast the righteousness of Christ. Oh, that we might see that.

He gave us a law, as Brother Al was speaking about there earlier today. He gave the law. And a lot of people think that the law, you see this posted from time to time, people yard, they'll have a sign with the Ten Commandments on it. And sometimes at the courthouse down in Cross City, if you ride by the courthouse down there, the Ten Commandments is up there. That's a good thing, that's the word of God. You know, we're not opposed to having the Ten Commandments plastered anywhere you want to put them. But every time you read the Ten Commandments, if it causes you to feel good about yourself, you miss the point of why the Lord gave the Ten Commandments. He didn't give the Ten Commandments to people so they'd straighten up and do right. He gave the Ten Commandments to show men how far from God they were. And that's a blessing. You see, when God shows you how great a sinner you are, that's the best blessing you'll ever have other than him showing you what a great savior Christ is. And when he shows you both of those things, that's a glorious thing. Because that causes the name of Christ to be exalted. Because he's the one who has taken away the sin of his people completely. And there, as if they never sin, the scripture says they are justified in the sight of God.

Now man can't justify himself, but the Lord can, and he does justify his people. And so we're looking down here at verse 20, and he's speaking, of course, to the sons of God, but ye beloved, building up yourselves on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost. Now what is our most holy faith? Is it something that I've come up with and I just got, you know, by studying or praying or something and I gained it? Oh, buddy, he's really got faith. Well, if any man has faith, it's because God gave it to him. But this holy faith that he's speaking about here is not an activity, but it is what our faith is. Our faith is Christ. See, when the scripture says Abraham believed God and it was counted to him for righteousness, It's not talking about the fact that the Lord saw the activity of faith in Abraham and he said, well, man, there's somebody I'm gonna bless. No, Abraham believed what? He believed God. See, that was his faith. God was his faith. He cast himself.

You read about, or Brother Tim read about Jonah earlier. What was Jonah's? Faith. Was it faith? Did he have faith that he was gonna get out of the fish? No, he didn't think he was gonna get out of the fish. He figured he was done. But he did have faith. What'd he say? He said, salvation is of the Lord. See, that was his faith. Now where did he get that? Because he sure didn't get in the fish's belly with that, did he? He wasn't saying that when he was thrown overboard, was he? But when he was in the fish's belly, the Lord gave him that. And he said, salvation's of the Lord. And you know what happened? The scripture says immediately. The fish vomited him out on dry land.

I've often thought about that. I don't know if the fish was out there in the water and he just shot old Jonah out up onto the beach, or if he'd run up on the beach and he'd come out right on dry land, I don't know. But one way or the other, the Lord put Jonah on the dry land. But the first place he put him was in the fish's belly. That he might give him faith. Salvation's of the Lord.

But beloved, building yourselves up on your most holy faith. That is our most holy faith. That salvation's of the Lord. You can't save yourself. I can't save you, your mama can't save you, your daddy can't save you. Christ alone is the savior of sinners. But he is the savior of sinners. That's a glorious thing. See, that's the wonderful thing about the gospel is that he saves sinners. If a man knows himself to be a sinner, then by the mercy of God, he's been brought to a place to know that Christ is the Savior of sinners. Oh, what glorious thing.

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 the Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life, And if 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 and majesty, dominion and power, both now and ever. Amen.

Now, he's telling them as they're building themselves up, building up yourselves on your most holy faith. Now, do you have the power to do that? Well, except the Spirit of God gives it to you, you don't. But as the Spirit of God works in us both to will and to do of His good pleasure, He does indeed give us a mind and heart to build ourselves up in the most holy faith. We want to run to it. See, we're not gaining faith by our activity, but we're gaining faith by the fact that we are looking to the one who is our faith. And that's what he, building yourselves up on your most holy faith.

And then he says, keep yourselves in the love of God. Now, how can you keep yourself in the love of God? I mean, God has to keep you in his love, but you see, what he's saying there is the same thing he's saying as building up yourselves is keeping yourselves. In what? The love of God. That's the place we want to be. We can't put ourselves there. We can't make ourselves any closer to being there. But by the grace of God, we know that that's the place we want to be. And so we're keeping ourselves in the love of God. That's the place we want to stay. See, I don't wanna depart from there, I wanna stay there. And that's what he's saying, keep yourself. See, the exhortations that the Lord gives in the scripture are not just general exhortations given out to men, but they're for the people of God. They're for those who are awakened by his spirit, who have within them a desire to walk in the way of the Lord.

How do we walk in the way of the Lord? By keeping ourselves in the love of God. That's the place we want to be. Not keeping myself where I want to be, but keeping myself looking to him. Ever seeking out him. Building up ourselves on your most holy faith. Now he didn't say in your most holy faith, but he said on it. Why? Because our faith is that which we believe on. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved.

Praying in the Holy Ghost and no other kind of true prayer than that which is led by the Spirit of God. Now, I would venture to say that most prayer that people pray is not praying in the Holy Ghost. Praying in the Holy Ghost is not a religious experience. It's the work of the Spirit of God in the people of God that moves them to pray. See, Jonah prayed in the Holy Ghost. He prayed in the Holy Ghost. He wasn't thinking about the ball game. He wasn't thinking about what he was going to eat or where or where he was going when he got out because he didn't think he was going to get out. But he was praying in the Holy Ghost because his mind, his soul, his heart was centered on faith, not his.

What if he said, now Jonah, do you think you're going to get out of this fish? Well, Jonah, what you need to do is you need to just believe that you're going to get out of this fish. And if you've got enough faith, Jonah, you're going to get out of this fish. Now, that wasn't it at all. He didn't have any faith. He said, you see, he draped around my head. He says, I'm in the belly of hell. But he said, salvation's of the Lord. Oh, what a glorious gift that the Lord gave to him in that moment, that he might have that faith, which is saving faith, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life.

There's no other way. See, we're not looking for something we did. We're not looking for something that happened to us. We're looking to Christ. The mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life. Because it is the mercy of God. See, it's not... The Lord said to Moses, you know, whenever Moses asked him to see his glory. He said, I will show mercy to whom I will show mercy. Now everybody kind of thinks, as a general rule, man born kind of thinking this way, that God should show mercy to him. If God's merciful, I mean the scripture says that he's merciful, then he's gonna show mercy. But God may show mercy. He will do right. He will be just. He will be holy. But he may show mercy. And that mercy is bestowed and dispensed according to his sovereign purpose and will. And he said, I will show mercy to whom I will show mercy.

Now, the most glorious thing about that is he said, I will show mercy. He could have said, I'm gonna just kill the whole bunch. Probably should have, I mean, insofar as we think, I mean, insofar as we can see what men have done in spite and in opposition to God. Why should he show any mercy? I don't know. But when Moses said, what's your glory? He said, I'll show mercy. I'll show mercy. Oh, what a glorious God he is. He is a God of mercy. The scripture says he's a God of mercy to all who call upon his name.

Jonah called upon his name because he didn't have anything else to call upon. He couldn't go anywhere else. He couldn't turn anywhere else. Where could he go? Looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life. Because if we're to have eternal life, it must come from him. We don't have any life.

Now, a lot of people think they're eternal. They just think they're eternal. Well, we're just gonna live on somewhere. Well, no, you're not. Those who are in Christ will live forever. What scripture says. There's no hope for those who are outside of Christ. They have no life.

And of some have compassion making a difference. Now he's talking to The brethren, as I believe, as we might say, to the church, and he's saying, beloved, not just individually, but beloved corporately, that we are to build up yourselves on your most holy faith. That is, as brethren, that's why we come together, is to build one another up in the faith. That's what the scripture exhorts us to do. We're to help one another. We're to guide one another. We're to point one another to Christ.

And so that's what he's saying here as a corporate group. Beloved, building up yourselves as a group, as a body of Christ on your most holy faith, that is on Christ. That's where our foundation is. Praying in the Holy Ghost. Prayer is the language of the saints. I mean, the Lord gives men prayer, and he causes his people to pray, not for what they want. I mean, a man doesn't have to be taught to pray. The Spirit doesn't have to teach you to pray.

When you get into a bind, and you say, Lord, help me out of this. If you would do this for me, Lord, I'll never, Do a bad thing again. I'll go to church and I'll do all the things I'm supposed to do. If you'll just help me out this one time. That doesn't work. No, it doesn't work at all. Why? Because it just comes from the flesh. You can make all the vows and all the things.

I heard a story one time about this fella. He was on an airplane and He was praying, the airplane started to go down, and this man started praying. And he said, Lord, he says, if you'll get me off of this plane alive, he says, I'll give you everything I got. And this, after a while, the plane straightened out, everything was good. And this fella tapped him on the shoulder and he says, I heard what you said. And he said, or what he said the first time I got ahead of myself. He said, Lord, I'll give you half of everything I own.

And when things settled back out, the fella said, well, will you You gonna do what you said? And he said, well, he says, actually, I made the Lord a better deal. He says, I told him if I ever get back on one of these things, he can have it all. Now, see, that's the way that men think they can make deals with God. Lord, if you'll help me out this one time, you know, will you do this? And in the back of our mind, we know, don't we? that we got an out, because really we figure, well, if we do get out of it, I mean, you know, we're out of it then, so we can kind of go on about our way, and then we'll try it again.

But that's not praying in the Holy Ghost. That's praying in yourself. And that's what the Lord said about that Pharisee in the temple. Pharisee prayed a wonderful prayer, did he not? Lord, I give tithes of all that I possess. And I do all these different things. And Lord, I'm not like these other sinners out here. And the Lord said about that man, he said, he prayed thus with himself. But there was an old publican in there. And he didn't even lift up his eyes to heaven. He didn't have an eloquent prayer. He just said, God, be merciful to me, a sinner. And I'm here to tell you, he prayed in the Holy Ghost. Because only the Holy Ghost can move a man to pray such prayers at. And the Lord said that he went down to his house justified.

Praying in the Holy Ghost, keep yourselves in the love of God. We're to exhort one another. If we see somebody moving away from the truth as we know it, if they're our brother in Christ, we ought to go to them and say, look, brother, you need to get things straightened out here. Go back to where you were. Look to Christ. Don't be caught up in all these things.

looking for the mercy of God, and he said, if some have compassion, making a difference. Now he's saying to the brethren, as he's speaking to the brethren, all men are not in the same place. All men don't have the same understanding. And some people are more hard-headed than others. And some people need one kind of stimulation, and some people need another one.

Now think about that, he says, some save with fear, pulling them out of the fire, hating even the garments spotted by the flesh. Now we see an example of that in the dealings of the Corinthian church with the man who was overcome with the sin that Paul pointed out, of having married his stepmother. or not necessarily married, but living with her anyway. And he said, Paul said to the church, y'all should do something about this. That's what he's saying here. They saved him, he said, turn him over to the devil. That the flesh might be destroyed, but that the spirit might be saved.

And so he's saying here to God's people, if a brother be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual, restore such a one in the spirit of meekness, considering your own selves, lest ye also be tempted. And so that's what he's getting at here. Sometimes we don't need to come down on somebody with both feet because it may be We have to have the spirit of God to lead us and direct us. As he says here, some have compassion making a difference, being discerning in how we're dealing with one another. Everybody doesn't need to be slapped side to head. Some people just need a word of encouragement. But there are cases where somebody needs to be slapped. They need to have their attention, you know, God. And that's what he's saying here.

Others say with fear. Use a different method with them. It's tough love, as somebody might describe it. But it's love, nonetheless, because we are the children of God, and we all know that we are all prone to error. There's not a one of us in here that is not prone to error. And sometimes our judgment becomes clouded. And just because we're the children of God doesn't mean that we're gonna always be doing the right thing. Now we pray that we will be. And that's why we come together to encourage one another to always keep ourselves in the love of God. Keep your eyes on the prize. As Paul says, set your affection on things above, not on things of the earth, where Christ sitteth at the right hand of God. See, that's our goal. That's what we want to keep in view. And when things get that out of our view, we need to be corrected, disciplined, if you want to use that term. And the way the Lord does that is through the exhortations of the scriptures, but from time to time it's necessary that we need to go to one another.

You know, the scripture, to give you an example, it says, let the older women teach the younger women how they ought to be, how they ought to conduct themselves. That's a needful thing. I don't know that it's ever passed away. I mean, that that exhortation has ever become out of vogue, if you want to say that. I mean, that's what God's people ought to be doing.

And the men need to be looking out at the men for one another. We're our brother's keeper. You know, that's what we do as brethren, keeping ourselves in the love of God, keeping ourselves walking in the most holy faith, looking at Christ, always the view to Christ.

And if somebody starts entertaining some doctrinal notion that leads them off the track and they think it's something other than Christ, we need to get their attention. Look, whoa, wait. See, we're to earnestly contend for the faith, not to be contentious. We don't need to jump up and down on somebody. Beat them senseless, but we need to point them to Christ. I mean, that's always what we're to do as God's children. We're to be walking with Christ and pointing our brethren to Christ. That's our purpose.

We are put together for a reason. The Lord didn't just put us together so we'd come hear somebody preach, but he put us together that we might be helpers one another, building one another up on our most holy faith.

Well, we didn't have time really to get through all of this, but we'll start again maybe next week if the Lord sees fit, and we'll try to finish this up. But you know, the Lord's gracious. in not only bringing his people out of darkness and into the light, but putting them in a position and in a place where they can be encouraged and helped.

I mean, it's a lonely world out here for a man just walking by himself. If you don't have anybody to point you in the right direction, and all you God is what, you know, you're walking alone, but what a blessing it is when God is pleased to bring men together, women, men and women together in a church, in a gathering, a called out gathering of God's people. That's a blessing that we might minister and help one another.

And I appreciate every one of you all as we gather week to week. We can teach each other. I'm not the only teacher. Brother Tim shared a word with us today. And Brother Al shared a word. If the Lord gives you something, this is a place where you can get that burden off your mind. Or you may be given some, see, here's the thing.

The Lord gives men spiritual gifts, the scripture says, to profit the whole. The Lord doesn't give a man a spiritual gift just so he has a gift. I remember one time I knew this pastor person, and they counted off the different spiritual gifts that they had. I don't know how they really figured this out, but they figured out they had these gifts.

I think spiritual gifts are things that are recognized by others rather than yourself. The man who truly has a spiritual gift, he might not even know it. But the Lord gives that to men for the benefit of the body. He didn't give it for us. I mean, what if the Lord gave a man, you know, a word from him and he just kept it to himself? He might be teaching you something.

Yeah, you're right. Yeah, Jonah didn't want to, he didn't want to, he wanted to keep it to himself. That's right, that's a good point. Yeah, Lord said to Jonah, Jonah go down to Nineveh. He says, Lord, I don't wanna go down to Nineveh. And later on he confessed why. He said, Lord, I knew if I went down there to Nineveh that you was gonna show mercy to them people. I didn't want you to do that, Lord. I wanted you to destroy them.

You see, that's an example of the Lord's mercy. It exceeds our ability and comprehension. But the Lord does raise up his people to be of help one to the other. May we be so.