Compassion`s Foundation

Q: What does the Bible say about compassion?

The Bible teaches that compassion is a response rooted in the knowledge of God’s love and mercy, which is to be extended to others. In the book of Jude, compassion is closely linked to the foundational aspect of faith in Christ. Jude mentions that those who are built up in their most holy faith and praying in the Holy Spirit are positioned to show compassion. This compassion isn't just an emotional response; it's a distinct Christian compassion that seeks the glory of God and the good of others. True compassion recognizes the spiritual state of others, making distinctions based on God's judgment rather than human sentiment. In this way, compassion operates not merely from a place of goodwill but from the depth of understanding God's mercy toward sinners.

Q: How do we know that God shows mercy?

God shows mercy primarily through the sacrificial work of Jesus Christ, which calls sinners to repentance and provides grace. The mercy of God is seen through the act of salvation as preached in the Christian faith, notably in the gospel of Jesus Christ. In 1 Corinthians, Paul emphasizes that the message of the cross, which may seem foolish to the world, is in fact the power of God for salvation. This act of mercy through Christ's death and resurrection serves as the foundation for believers to look for mercy themselves. Only those who recognize their need as sinners can genuinely seek God's mercy. Moreover, God's mercy continues as He calls His people throughout history, offering grace to those who respond to His call.

Q: Why is building on the foundation of faith important for Christians?

Building on the foundation of faith is crucial for Christians as it strengthens their relationship with God and equips them for effective ministry. The foundation of faith, as discussed in Jude and 1 Corinthians, is the relationship believers have with Christ Jesus. This foundation is essential because it determines the authenticity of one's faith and the effectiveness of their witness. Jude emphasizes that one must be built up in their most holy faith, which means understanding and being rooted in the gospel of Christ. This foundation not only supports personal spiritual growth but also empowers Christians to engage with others compassionately, distinguishing right from wrong and truth from falsehood. A robust faith allows believers to navigate the challenges of life while demonstrating the love and mercy of God.

Q: What is the response of Christians to those who separate themselves from the faith?

Christians are called to respond with compassion while also exercising discernment and, if necessary, fear. In his letter, Jude outlines the importance of responding to those who separate themselves from the faith. He encourages believers to show compassion to some while recognizing the need for discernment with others. This dual response reflects the seriousness of spiritual separation. For Christians, this means that when approaching those who stray, they must do so with a heart of love and compassion, aiming to draw them back to the truth of the gospel. Yet, there is an element of fear; a reality check regarding the consequences of denying Christ. This understanding necessitates a careful, prayerful approach that is built upon their own faith and reliance on the Holy Spirit as they engage with all people.

I'd like you to turn with me back in your Bibles to the book of Jude. Tom's going to come and read from 1 Corinthians in a minute and I hope you will be able to sort of follow along and the Spirit, Holy Spirit, might just lead us into the wonders of what it is. I wanted to I wanted to look at the first of these verses that follow on and are joined to what we looked at last week.

The context is that there are people who separate themselves from the children of God and from the church of the Lord Jesus Christ. at the end of a long list of attributes of these people and declarations which should chill people. They speak against him. They do not have any fear. They speak evil. And they are ungodly, ungodly, ungodly, ungodly. There is no reverence for them.

And so after that long list, at the very end of it, there is a summary statement which encapsulates all of it, and that is having not the Spirit. And so you might remember the lists in 2 Timothy 3 and other lists in the Bible in Romans. At the end, the summary statement at the end wraps it all up. and ultimately all of that is pointing to this one thing. And then we come to these glorious, we have one of these glorious buts.

But you beloved building yourselves up 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. And so I want us to note very carefully that both those two statements in verse 22 and verse 23 begin with an and, which means that they are intimately joined to the others. If you're going to have compassion on someone and if you're going to make a difference, literally the word means to make a distinction, to make a judgment. you're gonna have to build. You're gonna have to be built on your most holy faith.

And I love the way the Holy Spirit has so organized these things. I love the way he speaks. I love the way he writes. I love the way that we look into the word of God and it just becomes more and more and more and more significant. So if you're gonna have compassion on someone, you're gonna have mercy on someone, you're gonna have to know about the most holy faith. But don't you love what he says?

He says building on. You can only build on something if you're in it. You can only build on the foundation if you're on the foundation. And you're praying in the Holy Spirit or praying by the Holy Spirit or praying with the Holy Spirit. The only way you can do that is if he's in you, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.

So there's no point talking about compassion. This world talks about compassion. We're talking about something completely different here. Jude's talking about something different. He says, keeping yourselves in the love of God. You can only keep yourself in the love of God if you are in the love of God. not the love of God that this world talks about. He's talking about this particular love, this particular love that speaks of this particular Lord Jesus Christ, who is the faithful one.

And you're only looking for mercy if you've received mercy. And the only people who look for mercy, who? Who are the people who look for mercy? Sinners are the only people who look for mercy. Everyone else is looking for a reward. There are only two groups of people in this world when it comes to them meeting God. There are those that are looking for a reward of what they've done and those that are looking for mercy. It doesn't matter whether they're the most vile sinners you can possibly imagine or the most self-righteous and most esteemed religious people you can possibly imagine.

One of the glorious things about the Word of God is that it just speaks so clearly and it's designed and the purpose of it is to comfort the children of God, that we might come to Him. Don't you love the fact that the Holy Spirit's called a comforter? Who needs comforting? The only people who need comforting are those who are troubled.

And so one of the extraordinary things, one of the reasons I wanted Tom to read 1 Corinthians for us is that it's remarkable that we have two different responses to people who separate themselves. And one is to have compassion and one is to say with fear.

And the Corinthians were the most extraordinarily wicked bunch of people you could possibly imagine. They were doing the most extraordinary things. They called themselves Christians and they were. And there were the Galatians who were living the most esteemed, moral, religious lives. And God speaks to them with fear. With fear, Paul speaks to them.

Anyway, so turn in your Bibles to 1 Corinthians chapter 1. and Tom's going to read it for us, and I trust that we will see, I want us to see how this most holy faith that saves immortal souls comes to God's people. So 1 Corinthians chapter one. I think it's on about page 1056 in your Bibles, but anyway. So Tom, you come and read to us, please, and then we'll sing again. Chapter 1, yes. Well, good morning all. So 1 Corinthians chapter 1. Let us hear the word of the Lord.

Paul, called to be an apostle of Jesus Christ through the will of God, and Sosthenes, our brother, Unto the church of God which is at Corinth, to them that are sanctified in Christ Jesus, call to be saints with all that in every place call upon the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, both theirs and ours.

Grace be unto you and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ. I thank my God always on your behalf. for the grace of God which is given you by Jesus Christ, that in everything you are enriched by him in all utterance and in all knowledge, even as the testimony of Christ was confirmed in you, so that you come behind in no gift. waiting for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, who shall also confirm you unto the end, that you may be blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is faithful, by whom you are called unto the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. Now I beseech you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment.

For it hath been declared unto me of you, my brethren, by them which are of the house of Chloe, that there are contentions among you. Now this I say, that every one of you saith, I am of Paul, and I of Apollos, and I of Cephas, and I of Christ. Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul?

I thank God that I baptized none of you but Crispus and Gaius, lest any should say that I had baptized in my own name. And I baptized also the household of Stephanus. Besides, I know not whether I baptized any other. For Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the gospel. Not with wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ should be made of none effect. For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness. But unto us which are saved, it is the power of God. For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise and will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent. Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the disputer of this world? Hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? For after that in the wisdom of God, the world by wisdom knew not God.

It pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. For the Jews require a sign, and the Greeks seek after wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified. Unto the Jews a stumbling block, and unto the Greeks foolishness. But unto them which are cold, both Jews and Greeks, Christ, the power of God, and the wisdom of God. Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men, For you see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble are called.

But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise, and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty. and the base things of the world, and the things which are despised hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to naught things that are, that no flesh should glory in his presence. But of him are you in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom and righteousness and sanctification and redemption. but according as it is written, he that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord.

I want to come back and look at some of that again in a little while when we sing again. Don't you love the fact that the Word of God is living and active? I've read that. As Tom was reading it to us and then all of a sudden you just see things that you'd never seen before as clearly as you ought to. And it says, the testimony of Christ, that's preaching of the Lord Jesus Christ, preaching him as God declares him to be, was confirmed, where was it confirmed? In you.

One of the wonderful things about our God, The God of Scriptures does two things. He speaks, and the most powerful sound in this universe is the voice of God when it comes to people as gospel. That's the most powerful sound in all of this universe. God says it's powerful, and our God, speaks and our God hears. I just love that because Paul describes these believers in Corinthians as people who are the called of God. So God has called them. Now that's a powerful word.

When God Almighty who created this universe speaks to the hearts of his people and says, come to me, when he says, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved, when that's joined with the power of Almighty God, almighty things happen. And everyone who's heard that call, heard that voice, will never ever forget it.

Okay, we're gonna sing and then we'll go back and we'll look at these foundations of the faith. We're gonna sing number 58 in your hymn books, and the title of it is, Brethren, Let Us Join to Bless Christ the Lord, Our Righteousness. Okay. Well, keep your finger open there in 1 Corinthians 1, and I'll just read those verses in Jude that we are looking at, and I trust the Lord will be very, very gracious and kind to us as we walk through these things. So Jude chapter, well, Jude only has one chapter, but Jude verses 20 and 21, 2 and 23 we're looking at, but we need to see them in the context if we're going to see what it is.

I want to, verse 22 says, and of some have compassion. I want to be compassionate. I want to be compassionate. I want to be able to be compassionate, making a difference. That means making a distinction, discerning between what really is compassion and what is not compassion. A whole bunch of people do an awful lot of compassionate things, but they do it for themselves at the end of the day. They're showing some compassion to others, but they're showing an awful lot of compassion to their own well-being and their own self-esteem in the eyes of men.

But this is Christian compassion, and Christian compassion seeks the glory of God Almighty first, and the good of people in coming to know Him. So we looked last week at these four wonderful things that God works in the hearts of his people. If we go back to verse 20, he's talking about the response of the children of God to the religious world, both on the inside of the church and on the outside of the church. but mostly he's talking about these people that he's described in such extraordinary detail in the previous 18 verses. And then he says, but you beloved, verse 20, building yourselves up 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. He is eternal life. The Lord Jesus Christ is eternal life. To have eternal life, you must have Christ. You must be found in him. And I love how the next sentence begins, and it says, and, of some have compassion making a difference. So the and is a conjunction. So it joins all of what we've just read. Those building yourselves up and praying have compassion. Make a distinction. Your compassion, Christian compassion is compassion that actually has a foundation. It has a power. The foundation is your most holy faith.

The power is that God Almighty lives in people and they are the people who are kept in the love of God. They're the only people who know the love of God and they want to have, they want other people to join with them in the love of God. And they want to be those people who are looking to the Lord Jesus Christ. They're looking to eternal life. Their eyes are fixed on an eternal future. We are everlasting souls, all of us. And so we have an eternal future.

So I'd like us to go back and look at this foundation. And before we come to this, I want to look at this foundation that we built on. And as I said at the beginning, the wonderful thing about our God is that our God speaks. And he went to a place called Corinth. which was such a wicked city at the bottom of modern day Greece that to be called a Corinthian was a byword for absolute perverted wickedness of the most evil kind. these Corinthians but our God our God had his people in the city of Corinth and he sent his apostle there and he sent his apostle there to preach the gospel to these people so turn with me back to first Corinthians and I just want to look Look at this in the light of what it is to have a foundation because the foundation is the foundation of the Lord Jesus Christ and God's people are built upon him.

And to have a most holy faith, the most holy faith, there is only one most holy faith. Don't forget it, isn't it? Most means the most exceptional. There's only one, isn't it? There's only one top of the mountain. These two guys here are playing tennis. There's only one guy gonna win at the end of it all.

And so, let's turn in that, come back with me to 1 Corinthians chapter 10 and may the Lord be kind and merciful to us as we look for his mercy. Verse 10 I beseech you, this is his cry to these people, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all speak the same thing. God's people all have one message. There is just one gospel.

He wants them to be speaking the same thing, that there be no divisions among you. In Jude, there is a separation. People are separated, one from the other. They're separating themselves from the children of God. And he's saying he doesn't want there to be any divisions, that's his prayer, and that you might be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment.

To go back to Jude just briefly, to have compassion and to make a difference, to make a distinction is to make a judgment. So it's compassion with a judgment and that's why this is such a powerful example of what Jude is talking about. And then he goes on to talk about what had happened in the lives of these people.

If you go back in the earlier part of that chapter, you'll see that there is a description of these people who have this most holy faith. In verse two, you listen to what he says. These are the people who have the most holy faith. Unto the church of God, which is at Corinth to them. This is the description of them. To them that are sanctified in Christ Jesus. To be sanctified is to be set apart for God's purpose. To be sanctified is to be holy. That's what the word means. It is to be holy. You can't be a little bit holy. You can't be a little bit righteous. You can't be a little bit pregnant.

And listen to, they're sanctified in Christ Jesus. If you're in Christ Jesus, you're completely sanctified by God Almighty. And listen to what they're called. They're called to be saints. They're called saints. The word saints, the root of that word is holy as well. And then he says, and he speaks about us. with all that in every place, call on the name of Jesus Christ, our Lord, both theirs and ours. The called exhibit the fact that they're called by God because they call on him. And they're calling on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's the most holy faith. It's a declaration of the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. His name is not just the words. His name is all of the attributes, the being behind the words, as it were. That's the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. And then he goes on to show and talk about how this came to these people. How did they come to hear this call? How did they come to have this most holy faith? Verse 18 with me. This is what preaching, preaching is defined here. For the preaching of the cross. That's what preaching is. Preaching is preaching the Lord Jesus Christ and him crucified. The preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness.

What a foolish thing it seemed in the eyes of those enlightened people in those days with all of their wisdom and all of their philosophy and all of the things that were going on in their world and all of their history. And a man called Paul, who looks like absolutely nothing to anyone, comes and he preaches about a carpenter from Nazareth hanging on a cross outside Jerusalem, dying, naked. bleeding on that cross, buried, but that's not the end of the story, he's resurrected. It seems foolishness, isn't it?

But unto us which are saved. It is the power of God. Preaching of the gospel is the power of God. This is the most holy faith. And then he compares the world's wisdom. People esteem themselves as wise in this world. how foolish they were when their creator came. All they wanted to do was kill him. The wisdom of man. The wisdom of man. The religious world's wisdom is just as wicked. We preach Christ, verse 23.

Verse 22, the Jews require a sign. That's all the religious Jewish people in the world was divided in their minds of the Jews, it was divided into two sorts of people. Didn't matter whether you're an Australian or wherever you're from. You're either a Jew or a Greek. A Greek is just the rest of the world. The Jews or the Greek. For the Jews require a sign. And the Greeks seek after wisdom, and that's exactly what they're doing today.

But we preach Christ crucified unto the Jews a stumbling block, and unto the Greeks foolishness, but to them which are called, both Jews and Greek. Christ, the power of God, and Christ, the wisdom of God. only to the called. The called hear a call from God. When Paul went to Corinth, he just preached the Lord Jesus Christ and him crucified out of the scriptures. And he just preached the Lord Jesus Christ and him crucified in his life and in his experience and in the history of what happened to the Lord Jesus Christ. And he just kept preaching him and preaching him and preaching him. And that was the foundation of this most holy faith that we're looking at. They're called. The called hear the call of God. They hear the shepherd's voice. The shepherd calls them and he says in John chapter 10, he calls them by name. So when God calls his people to himself, they hear a call. They hear a call.

That's how that most holy faith comes. It's a call from God who is holy, and it's a call from holiness to holiness. It's a call from the one who is faithful to faith. It's a call from the one who is the truth itself to the truth. It's a call from one who is love embodied to love.

It's the call of grace to receive grace. It's the call of light. It's a call from light to bring people from darkness into light. It's a call from bondage into freedom. It's a call from judgment that hangs over people to the fact that judgment is finished in the Lord Jesus Christ. It's his voice. This is the foundation of the faith. It's the voice. It's the word of God. His words, he says his words are powerful and they are spirit and life.

His words raised the dead. The Lord Jesus Christ went to the tomb of a man who'd been dead and his body rotting in a tomb for four days. And he said, Lazarus, come out. You think of physiologically, if you have any medical knowledge whatsoever, and you think of what happened in Lazarus's body in that instant when the Lord Jesus Christ said, come forth, come out of there, Lazarus. He was given life. He had his body restored to him, a rotting body was restored. And he came out and he told those people, if you believe, you'll see the glory of God. The glory of God is in his resurrection, raising people from the dead, his voice. is quick, his voice is life-giving.

Hebrews 4.10 says, his voice is sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing a soul of spirit and soul. How powerful is the word of God if it can penetrate that far into people, into the joints and marrows?

And the word of God is a discerner, Hebrews 4.10, it's a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. It's actually the word of God is discerning the thoughts of our hearts right now.

Don't you like that? I love it. Lord let me think, let me think, let me think in such a way that you are honoured by my thoughts, not just my life, my thoughts. His voice convicts and exposes sinners as sinners and when His voice comes and they are called, they'll call on Him.

Verse 26, in this verse. For you see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble are called, but God has chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise. God has chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty and the base things of the world and the things which are despised. God has chosen, yea, the things which are not, to bring to nothing the things that are. Mankind in his natural state thinks he's something. Paul thought he was something. The fellow who wrote this, he was something. He was the brightest scholar that the Jews had. They reckon he had two PhDs by the time he was 21 years of age. He was a star.

God brought him down to nothing, where he said that everything that I had gained is just manure. God can do that. God can do that. And then he built him on a foundation. And he never left it by the power of God for the rest of his days. And the ultimate The reason is that, verse 29, this is why God does what he does in the preaching of the gospel. This is why God does all that he does in saving his people, in calling his people, and them calling on him.

First, that no flesh should glory in his presence. No human being will boast in the presence of God Almighty. But of him are you in Christ Jesus. who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption, that according as it is written, he that glories, he that boasts, he that has confidence, let him glory in the Lord.

That's the most holy faith. That's the most holy faith. It began before this world began. It's an eternal most holy faith. It speaks of eternal things. It speaks of the glory of God. And listen to what he says. I just love this verse 30. It's just wonderful, isn't it?

But of him, God put his people, a particular people, he put them in the Lord Jesus Christ, And he made the Lord Jesus Christ to be all my wisdom. I'm looking, I look, Sunday by Sunday, I look at some extraordinarily wise people. Extraordinarily wise people. You can read all the books of philosophy in the world. You could put all the philosophers that have ever been in this world, you can put them all together and sit them alongside John Newell, and John Newell is wiser than the whole lot of them put together. Isn't that wonderful? Don't you reckon that's wonderful?

He's all of our wisdom. He's the only wisdom we ever need. If you have the Lord Jesus Christ, you don't need any other wisdom. And he's all of our righteousness. He's perfectly obeyed the law of God for all of his people. And he's all of our righteousness. We kept the law, brothers and sisters, everyone that's in the Lord Jesus Christ, we were in him before the foundation of the world, we walked in him when he walked on this earth in union with him. And he's all of our sanctification, he's all of our holiness, he's all of our holiness. and he's all of our redemption.

Norman and I were talking about yesterday, absolutes. They are absolutes. That's 100% of our wisdom is the Lord Jesus Christ. 100% of our righteousness is the Lord Jesus Christ. 100% of our sanctification is the Lord Jesus Christ. 100% of our redemption, which is a redemption of our bodies ultimately to be glorified with his glorified body, it's all him. This is the most holy faith.

When you are having compassion on someone... You go back to that. You go back and you tell them, this is who God is. And that's what Paul did. He's dealing with the most extraordinary rebellious group of people. And what's he do? Right at the beginning, he wants to tell them who they are in the Lord Jesus Christ and who the Lord Jesus Christ is for them.

And it's the power of God. They need to hear the power of God again. We all need to hear the power of God. They call, to go back to verse 2, all that in every place, this includes all of time and all of humanity, all that in every place, call. on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, our, theirs and his.

I want us to go back and just have a brief look at Acts chapter two. If you turn with me in your Bibles after the gospels back to Acts chapter two. This is the beginning of the most holy faith. That we are to build each other on and we are built upon. Acts chapter 2 I want us to just see this again in verse 22 Peter is preaching you know the story Peter is preaching this is the foundation of the church it's 50 days after the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ he's gone back to heaven 10 days earlier he went back to heaven and here the Holy Spirit is poured out this is praying in the Holy Spirit this is To pray in the Holy Spirit is to pray in this way.

To keep yourselves in the love of God is to be kept this way. To call, to be saved, is to call on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's what Paul described those people as, calling people. We never stop calling. But men of Israel, verse 22 of Acts 2, ye men of Israel, hear these words. Jesus of Nazareth, a man. Jesus of Nazareth, a man, a man approved of God by miracles and wonders.

And those miracles were physical miracles, and those miracles were a description and a declaration of spiritual miracles that happened at that time and happen now. God is still raising the dead. God is still opening the eyes of the blind. God is still curing lepers, sinners. God is healing them.

And he was taken, the Lord Jesus Christ, he was taken by wicked men. And listen to what happened at the cross of Calvary. Him being delivered, verse 23 of Acts 2, by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, you have taken and by wicked hands have crucified and slain.

Your hands are wicked. Your hands are wicked. My hands are wicked. The hands of all of Adam's children are wicked. And you might say, well, I wasn't there at the time, but if you'd been there, You would have been wicked, your hands would have been wicked.

Don't you love that? The determinant counsel and foreknowledge of God. You've taken and by wicked hands you have crucified and slain whom God has raised up and he's list the pains of death because it was not possible that he should be holding of it. And then he goes on to quote the Old Testament scriptures. And I want us to go down, this Jesus, verse 32, this Jesus God raised up, we're of, we're all witnesses. Therefore being by the right hand of God exalted, having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost, he has shed forth this, which you now see and hear.

What did they see? What did they see? Fishermen from Galilee declaring the wonderful works of God. That's what they saw in languages of all of this world. And what did they hear? They see and hear, they hear the Lord Jesus Christ crucified, buried, raised again and raising. The Lord Jesus Christ, by the right hand of God exalted, received of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost, and he's shed forth, he's poured out the Holy Spirit on his people. And he's sitting on the throne of God. making his enemies his footstool. Verse 36 is just a wonderful declaration. Therefore, let all the house of Israel, let all of this world know assuredly that God has made that same Jesus whom you crucified both Lord and Christ. He is Lord and Christ.

When will they call? They'll call when he calls. When will they call? They'll call when they're pricked to the hearts. Verse 37, now when they heard this, they were pricked in their heart and said unto Peter and the rest of the apostles, men and brethren, what shall we do? That's what happens when God speaks and God calls, isn't it?

There's a cry that comes from a man. What shall we do? Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ, for the remission of sins, and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. If we're going to have compassion on someone, if we're going to have compassion that makes a discriminating difference, we're going to be talking to them about this Lord Jesus Christ again and again and again. And we're going to talk about what happens. When that cry comes, what shall we do? He says, repent.

He changes your mind. He gives you a completely new mind. He changes your mind about who God is. He changes your mind about who you are. And he changes your mind about how God saves sinners in the Lord Jesus Christ. Change your mind about your religion.

And to be baptized, is to declare that all of my eternal salvation is in union with the Lord Jesus Christ. His life is my life before God. His death is my death to sins. His resurrection is my righteousness declared before God. And who will call? He says in verse two, This promise is unto you and your children and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call. God is calling them. God is calling them. It's a call of holiness. It's a call of sovereignty. It's a call of justice. It's a call of love.

That's the love that we want our brothers and sisters to be kept in, in the midst of the trials of life. And that's what God brings to his church and Jude takes us to that. And after the break, we'll look at it some more. May the Lord have compassion on us. May we be compassionate. If we're gonna have compassion, we're gonna have to talk to people about that Lord Jesus Christ. If we're gonna love people, we're gonna talk to them. I love what Henry Mayan said to a fellow going off into ministry. He said, love them to cry. You go and love them to Christ. Amen.

Compassion`s Foundation

What does the Bible say about compassion?

How do we know that God shows mercy?

Why is building on the foundation of faith important for Christians?

What is the response of Christians to those who separate themselves from the faith?

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Compassion`s Foundation

What does the Bible say about compassion?

How do we know that God shows mercy?

Why is building on the foundation of faith important for Christians?

What is the response of Christians to those who separate themselves from the faith?

Sermon Transcript

About Angus Fisher

Comments

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