Praying, Keeping, Looking

I'm in a sense wanting to revisit some things and then as you know I preached on this many many months ago and I did a summary of this because Jude is talking about contending for the faith and I did a summary of these verses that are before us in looking at how in general we contend for the faith because that is what's going on all of the time.

But I wanted to go back and look at it in a little bit more detail and I want us to go to the verses 20 and 21. And I just, I have, the Lord has been opening up more and more of this to me in ways, even this morning and last night, which I had thought that I had all my notes sorted, but I've got some new notes. So I pray that the man is fresh from heaven and I pray that it feeds our souls. But these two verses are just remarkable, aren't they?

He's finished talking about the false teachers that creep. that creep and deceive and distort the word of God and they speak against the Lord Jesus Christ, they speak evil things and I think five or six times he says they're ungodly people, which means they have no awe of God, no fear of God, no reverence for God. And the reason is, the summary reason of it all is at the end of verse nine, having not the spirit. But, this is one of the most glorious buts in all of the scriptures, but you, beloved, and then this is the first of these four things, building yourselves on, you're 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. They're four glorious declarations of what God does in the hearts of his people, what he puts on the hearts of his people.

And I like to think of them as four great towers that finally finishes by looking So it begins by building, praying, keeping, looking. They're just wonderful things, aren't they? They're just wonderful. I see them as great, you know, those old-fashioned towers. Scriptures speak of a tower. The Lord Jesus Christ is a tower. You have been a shelter for me and a strong tower from the enemy, Psalm 61, verse 3.

Proverbs 18.10 says, The name of the Lord is a strong tower and the righteous run into it and they're safe. The church of the living God, the church where the Spirit of God dwells and where the Spirit of God is the teacher, where the Spirit of God is the comforter.

Who needs comforting? The troubled. The troubled need comforting. And this letter of Jude begins with a call for there to be, he's exhorting these people, and that word exhorting is the word that's often used for comfort. It means to call to one side. And this is a great sort of call to one side.

You call into this tower. and the church of God and the witnesses of God are called as Jeremiah was in Jeremiah chapter 6. I can just read you what God said of Jeremiah. He says, I have set thee for a tower and for a fortress among my people, Jeremiah 6 verse 27, that thou mayest know and try their way. Jeremiah lived in a world that's almost exactly like our world. Jeremiah lived in a religious world that was a religious world like us. How many friends did Jeremiah have in Jerusalem? Almost none. Almost none. And that's why I think one of the things that's been really wonderful for me to see is that it's a wonderful thing to build yourself up on your most holy faith. It's a wonderful thing to pray in the Holy Ghost.

One is the foundation and one is the building upon that foundation. The other one is an exercise of devotion to the Lord Jesus Christ. And then he says, keep yourselves in the love of God. And that implies our affections to God and then our affections necessarily to one another.

If you love God, you love his people, end of story. Otherwise, you don't love God. It's as simple as that. 1 John 2 makes that abundantly clear. You can't say you love God and not love his people. I love his people. If you're one of his and you rejoice in the same Lord Jesus Christ, that God who is love causes his people to love him and he causes his people to love each other. And it's wonderful. What a wonderful command. Keep yourselves in the love of God. I want to be kept in the love of God. And then finally you're looking. We're looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life.

God sets his servants and his messengers, his witnesses, on a watchtower. The watchtower that all the righteous have run into, the watchtower which is the Lord Jesus Christ, and from the parapets of that watchtower on top of that building, we actually get to see with a view that the rest of the world doesn't see. We are commanded here to look ahead. How far ahead?

We're commanded to look over the horizon and look to the sky and look and expect that the Lord Jesus Christ is coming back at any moment. And this is all wrapped up. And no matter what you think matters in this world right now, at that moment, nothing matters except Him. Nothing matters forever except Him. And so you're looking, in that sense, we're looking all the way forward. At the beginning, you're building yourselves up on your most holy faith, which is the foundation. And what is the foundation of our faith? Where do we go to the foundations? Where do you go?

If you're in Jeremiah chapter 6 with me, you go back, thus saith the Lord, stand ye in the ways, there are many ways, there are many ways of religion, there are many ways of men in this world, of all different sorts. You stand in those ways. So you stand there and you wait and you watch and you consider the ways of all of these ones, just as we read in Proverbs chapter 21. And you see, if you stand there, you'll see Jeremiah 6, 16 is where I'm at.

And you ask, who asks? Those who are in need, you ask. The needy people ask. And you ask for the old paths. What's the old path? A path that goes back, As far as you can possibly imagine. Where's the beginning? That's the path you're looking for. This is the foundation of our most holy faith. You have to look back all the way. How far back can you go?

In the beginning, God. In the beginning, God. That's how far back, that's the foundation of our faith. The God who is, the God who was. Time is just a product of this creation we live in. God lives outside of time. And he is, he was always perfectly self-sufficient and he was never in need of anything. So that's where you stand in this building yourselves on the most holy faith.

You ask for the old paths, where is the good way? Who determines what's good and not in this world? God determines what's good, not man. God determines. If God says it's good, it's good. God is good. You ask for the good way. Who is the good way? The good way is the Lord Jesus Christ. He's the good one.

And then he says, and you walk therein. The course of your life is in there. I'm looking at building yourselves up in your most holy faith. You walk therein. That's the course of your life. And you shall find rest for your souls. This is building ourselves up on our most holy faith.

What was the response of the people in Jeremiah's day? Isn't that a wonderful set of promises? Commands and promises from God, but they said, we will not walk therein. And God says, I have set watchmen over you saying, hearken to the sound of the trumpet. But they said, we will not hearken.

Isn't that extraordinary? God was in the process of destroying Jerusalem. How precious it is to have hearing ears and seeing eyes. Here's our God, this great tower. Micah 4, verse 8 says, and thou, O tower of the flock, the stronghold of the daughter of Zion, unto thee shall it come. So like Jeremiah, God's servants are standing on this watchtower, they're standing on the parapets, and they are encouraging the children of God, they want to look back.

Where does your faith, what's the foundation of your faith? Tell me what happened in eternity. That's where I have rest for my souls. When I'm looking forward, where do I go? I'm looking forward to the new creation. That's remarkably stable, isn't it? What's the religion of men based on?

I. The foundation of the faith of God's children has no beginning. And it has no end. And it's all centered on the Lord Jesus Christ and him crucified, who was the lamb slain from the foundation of the world. the foundation of our faith.

But I wanted us to see in the context of Jude and in the context of the rest of the Scriptures and in Jeremiah's context, that these four glorious provisions and commands of the Lord, these four Just, I don't know, they're just such blessings. You're building yourselves up on your most holy faith, praying. These four commands of God, these four great blessings of God to his children are exercised in the midst of opposition to it, which is what the context of Jude is. that Jude and the people that he loved, and the people who loved each other in that church, were assaulted continuously from outside and sadly from within. But it's in the context of that sort of opposition, and this is why I think 1 Peter is such a what such a wonderful declaration of what we're looking at here in Jude. And Lord willing, we can finish looking at it a bit more closely next week.

But Peter says, blessed be the God and father, verse three of chapter one, blessed be the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ, according to his... which according to his abundant mercy has begotten us again into a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.

And he's writing to these people, you listen to the people he's writing to, the strangers scattered. throughout Pontius and Galatia and Cappadocia and Asia and Bithynia. Everywhere they went, they met opposition. There were trials all of the time. And listen to what he describes.

This is the building yourselves up in your most holy faith. Elect according to the full knowledge of God the Father. That's love. The foundation of this is the love of God. If you distill all of the glory of God in the lives of his people right down to the very core of what it was for God to elect us, it's love. That's what foreknowledge means. It means that he loved us with an everlasting love and therefore with loving kindness he's drawn us. elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, there is the faith of God's elect. You pray in the Holy Spirit, you're praying according to the faith of God's elect through sanctification of the Spirit. The Spirit sets the children of God apart and the Spirit tells them that their sanctification is the Lord Jesus Christ and that's all their sanctification. Amen. Full stop. That's all they're saying.

He is made of God under us, wisdom and righteousness and sanctification and redemption. He gets all the glory and we get all the comfort. This is what it is to build yourself up in your most holy faith. Unto obedience and the sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ. That's grace. Grace unto you and peace be multiplied.

And then he talks in the same terms that I think Jude's talking about. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy. You can't get to the end of God's mercy. It's abundant and it flows and it flows and it flows.

Grace and truth came by Jesus Christ and law came by Moses. Grace and truth came by the Lord Jesus Christ, and of his fullness have we all received grace for grace, for grace, for grace, for grace. That's all of what Christian life is. Blessed be the God and Father. Abundant mercy. He has begotten us. He's made us to be born again into a living hope. What's the hope that Jude's talking about?

The Lord Jesus Christ has got this sorted right now, brothers and sisters, and you're safe in this tower, in him. And he's got the future sorted completely and perfectly. There will come a day when righteousness shall reign and the glory of God will be seen. And the Lord's people want to be found in him, in this tower. There's a living hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead to an inheritance incorruptible, undefiled, and fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you. That's looking for the mercy of the Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life. And you see, he begins with a foundation. He finishes with this glorious expectation. and this wonderful inheritance that's incorruptible, undefiled, fate is not away, and it's reserved in heaven.

What a great place to have all your bounty. People have money in the bank. What can happen to the banks? History tells you what can happen to them. You don't trust in men. and it's reserved in heaven, I just love that, who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation, ready to be revealed in the last time.

Listen to this, wherein you greatly rejoice. I rejoice in all of that. Though now fall a season. This is exactly what Jude's talking about. If need be, according to the wisdom and the providence and the glory of God, to glorify himself, to glorify his son, to glorify himself in his church, needs be. You are in heaviness through manifold temptations. That's the word's trial. And listen to this, that the trial of your faith, being much more precious than gold that perishes, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ. And here we have love. Whom, having not seen, you love.

Isn't that a great description of all the children of God? We love him. We love him because he first loved us. He's worthy of being loved. No wonder Paul could say in 1 Corinthians, if any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be anathema, Maranatha. He commands us to love him. Isn't that lovely? I love being commanded to love.

But listen to what he goes on to say. This is going to be, we love him even though now we don't see him. Yet believing you rejoice for joy unspeakable and full of glory, receiving the end of your faith, the salvation of your souls. This is what Jude's talking about here. These are the beloved that he's talking about.

And he's saying to the beloved, exactly what Peter was saying to the beloved, the scattered strangers. That the faith, your faith is going to be tried. The found, and when your faith is tried, these four pillars, as it were, of this fortress that God builds for his people are going to be made precious. Your most holy faith. Building yourselves up in your most holy faith. Your faith will become most holy to you and most precious to you when it's tried.

I don't want trials. I want to live in peace with all men. I want to be at peace. But there are trials and the most holy faith becomes most holy in the trials when everything's smooth and sailing and the wind's in our sails and everything's rolling along. We have no great need.

But when your faith is tried, when these trials, like the trials that Jude experienced, like the trials that God has promised for all of his people to have, if need be, they will be exercised, then building yourselves up, your most holy faith becomes precious then. Because the trial has forced you, like it has forced us for the last 20 odd years, to go back and say, what actually is true?

When I went to India, I went from a religious world here to a smorgasbord of religion over there. It was like a buffet. You could take your pick. From Catholicism, plus all of the Indian religions, they manufacture religions over there. Bible colleges are a cottage industry in some towns in India. And they came from all over the world.

And my faith was tried because I met with people who were saying things that I had never heard before. And it was good. It was tough. I suffered appalling abuse from many and contempt from many, but all the way through, it's like Jude is saying here, building yourself. My faith became most holy because it became more and more precious because I kept asking God, I want to know what is true. I want to know the truth of who the Lord Jesus Christ is. And I prayed. I trust I was praying in the Holy Spirit.

I was saying, I don't care what it costs. I just want to know you. I just want to truly know you. I don't care what it costs. I want to be a faithful witness to you. I don't want to be here wasting my time. I don't want to be here doing what many, many, many of those missionaries were doing, which was Satan's work. They were acting as ministers of righteousness.

And so my most holy faith became exercised in the trial. When do we really pray in the Holy Spirit? I don't like talking about my prayer life and I pray that I pray for you and I pray that the Lord would lead me in praying in the Holy Spirit. To pray in the Holy Spirit is to be praying in line with the most holy faith, which is the Lord Jesus Christ, which the Holy Spirit is revealing. He's the revealer and the sealer of the Lord Jesus Christ. So don't think you're praying unless you're praying in the Holy Spirit. You're praying in line with who God is, the God who is revealed by the blessed Holy Spirit.

What did that Pharisee do at the temple? God's description of him. He thought he was praying. Jerusalem thought he was praying. All the people in the temple thought he was praying, and he made sure they knew he was praying. And God says he prayed thus with himself. It never got, never got above the ceiling.

So we pray in the Holy Spirit, we pray in the Holy Ghost, and when the trials come, just like the trials of all of those people that we read about in Jude, and that's when we keep ourselves in the love of God. We desperately need the love of God. We desperately need the fellowship of God's people when the trials come. That's what I want us to see, if the Lord would allow us, because that's what's happening in Jude.

Jude wrote this letter. He was writing about people he loved. He was writing about people he cared deeply for. And he was writing about people who, by their own willful rebellion, made themselves to be enemies. And Paul saw them again and again. He says, many there are, aren't they, who make themselves enemies of the cross of Christ.

They don't have the most holy faith and they don't have the Holy Spirit. I love that description of faith, and I'm going to have to close. I love that description of faith. It's called Most Holy Faith. There are several things I really, really love about that description of the faith that God's children build themselves on, and build themselves on particularly when that most holy faith is challenged.

If it's most holy, then God did it all. Thank you very much. If it's most holy, I had nothing to do with it. Faith is the gift of God. But what God gives becomes the possession of the people he gives it to. That's why you can say, it's your most holy faith. But firstly, if it's holy, it had nothing to do with me. And it comes as a gift, and it comes as a gift of pure grace.

It's most holy faith because it talks about a most holy God. It's called the faith in his blood. because the most holy faith speaks about the most holy covenant, that covenant in the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. which according to Hebrews 13, verse 20, is able to make you, listen to what he says about this. Now the God of peace that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus Christ, the great shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant, make you perfect in every good work to do his will. Why, how? Working in you that which is well-pleasing in his sight through Jesus Christ, To whom be glory.

There's glory in that, isn't there? There's glory in that. Be glory forever and ever. It's most holy faith because it speaks of a most holy blood. And it's most holy because God gets all the glory. And he deserves all the glory for everything he does. He deserves all the glory for giving us faith, for working that faith in us. It's most holy faith because it speaks of the most holy truth and a most holy way and a most holy life and a most holy coming to God.

He makes his people holy, washes them in the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. And that's the only way they can know him. That's the only way they can pray in the Holy Spirit. And it's a tried faith. It's a most holy faith because where this faith is, holiness is vital. Personal holiness matters to the children of God. It's his holiness.

But God's children want to live in this world in such a way that they do not dishonour the Lord Jesus Christ. But it's the most holy faith that's tried, and it establishes in that trial, God is able to reveal himself in his faithfulness in ways that can never happen when the sun's shining and everything's sweet in our lives. we rest in a sure and certain covenant. Before we have the Lord's Supper, I'd like us to turn, thinking of this fellowship, keep yourselves, all of us together, keep yourselves in the love of God. God's love is eternal, God's love is sovereign, God's love is gracious, God's love is effectual.

We love him, he says, because he first loved us. God's love is always returned. Love always gets to delight. Love. God's love is powerful. God's love is sovereign. 1 Corinthians chapter 10. May the Lord add his blessing to these words. Listen to this.

The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion, the common union of the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body of Christ? For we being many are one bread, and one body, and listen to this, for we are all partakers of that one bread. We proclaim, we proclaim his death till he come.

I want us to pray in the Holy Spirit. I've been pleading with the Lord all week that he'll teach me to pray all over again. I find that when my prayers have some meaning to me is when I'm praying desperately, when I'm most in need, when the trials are hottest. and the sin that's within and the sin that's out and the opposition is most fervent. I pray that the Lord will allow us to pray. Let's come before him now.

Heavenly Father, we do thank you for the gift of the most holy faith. And we pray, Heavenly Father, that you would do a work of building in our lives and use us, Heavenly Father, in this world to proclaim the glory of your dear and precious Son far and wide. Heavenly Father, use us for your glory. use us for your glory. And we pray, Heavenly Father, that we would be kept in your love, your love expressed in the death of the Lord Jesus Christ. And oh, our Father, as we eat and drink, we are proclaiming his death until he comes. We are proclaiming that he's coming again. Come, Lord Jesus Christ, come, that we might dwell with you and behold your glory, to see you as you are, to be made like you, to live with you in holiness and in your glory forever and ever. Bless your words to our hearts, Heavenly Father, cause us to be praying people, cause us to be building, cause us to be loving, cause us to be looking to our Lord Jesus Christ to provide all that he has promised. We pray in his precious name, amen.

Praying, Keeping, Looking

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Praying, Keeping, Looking

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