Others Save with Fear

I'm so thankful that we have the opportunity to get back into Jude. I pray that you will find looking at the Proverbs helpful. I've sort of found them extraordinarily poignant and amazingly relevant, and I trust that we can't look at all of them all the time, but they're just such a blessing. I just wanted to spend a little bit of time in Jude I'm excited that the last two verses of Jude are going to be verses of, in some sense, I'll be sort of celebrating 20 years of being back in Australia.

Not that this fellowship began at that time, but the seeds were sown some considerable time before that. I love the declaration that God makes of his children, beloved, Beloved. In verse 3, they're the beloved. In verse 17, it's beloved. Remember the words. Remember the words that were spoken. The words, the promises. And then, beloved, but beloved.

In the midst of these people who, according to Proverbs chapter 5, have been taken captive by the strange woman. And the strange woman's ways, as we saw, are movable. And these people have been taken captive by the strange woman. And she causes her servants to be, in verse four and in other places, several times they're called ungodly, ungodly. And she moves, and these people, in verse four, They turn the grace of our God into lasciviousness. They translate grace. They say that unless you preach some works and some law and some do's and some don'ts, the grace of God is not sufficient. to work in the hearts of God's people, to move them, to love Him, to care for Him.

And listen to what he says about these beloveds. We've read, we've looked at it over the last few weeks. But beloved, this is what the beloved do. They build yourselves up, building yourselves up, verse 20, building yourselves up in your most holy faith. Who's doing that? God's doing that. God's doing that in the hearts of his people. It's a most holy faith. Start praying in the Holy Ghost. The only true prayer is prayer that's prayed in the Holy Ghost. The rest of it is just words. Keep yourselves in the love of God. looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life.

And these next two sentences, we looked at the first of them last week, and of some have compassion. And we talked about the fact that it's making a difference. It's through judgment, through Trials, in a sense. So the trying of your faith. You are, as a Christian, you're going to be tried by God Almighty, and all of the trials are going to be good for you. And you won't like any of them at the time, otherwise there wouldn't be a trial. And if they cause you to cry out to God, they're going to be good for you.

And I love what Job said. Job was tried, as you can well imagine. He was tried. He says, but he knoweth the way that I take, and when he hath tried me, what a wonderful thing that God tries his people. He tries his people in such a way that all that happens as a result of it, they see him to be more faithful and more honorable, his word is more powerful, his work of his spirit, when he has tried me. That's where the trials come from. So they've gotta be good. And I don't like one single one of them. I'm not inviting any at all, but they're going to come to all of God's children. When he has tried me, I shall come forth as gold.

That's why Peter says that the trying of your faith. And these people we're going to be having in this church and in these churches. in these early days when the apostles were still around. I still keep being amazed by the fact that there was the apostle John, and you could argue with him. You could go to the apostle John and say, I don't think you're a believer.

The boldness of these people is just astounding. May God have mercy upon us. So it's just, there are trials. We're going to be, tried in many ways. And that's why, in the midst of those trials, two things are wonderful, aren't they? There's a but, you Beloved. The Beloved is still the Beloved. They've always been the Beloved. They can't be anything other than the Beloved. If they're loved by the Lord Jesus Christ, they're loved infinitely, eternally, sovereignly, electingly, perseveringly through all of these trials. And I love how Jude 24, which we sing at the end of our services, is now. Now. Now. Always. It's a now, right now. Now. I love it. I love to think about it. But in the midst of that, there are these two clauses which I think have been really wonderful.

And both of them start with and. and of some have compassion, making a distinction, making a difference, and others save with fear pulling them out of the fire, hating even the garment spotted by the flesh. And don't you love that in the midst of all that, in the midst of these people being taken captive by that deceit and by all of that wickedness, they're filthy dreamers, they defile the flesh, they despise dominion, they speak evil of dignity, they speak evil of the Lord Jesus Christ. Even as they're trying to honour Him in some way, they speak against Him. And they don't have the Spirit.

But in the midst of all of that, there's salvation. Don't you love it? There's salvation, and some save, and some have compassion, and some. Thank God there is salvation for the some. Thank God. There was a queen, wasn't there? She read those verses out of 1 Corinthians 1 about not many noble, not many wise, and she said, I thank God for the letter M. because he didn't say not any, he said not many.

And I love the fact that these verses are an encouragement for the Lord's people to stand firm because there's only one salvation. There is only one gospel that saves. And therefore, we either stand by the grace of God or we turn back to the wandering, changeable, deceitful woman. But others you save. There is salvation. There's still salvation. This is still the day of salvation.

We have so many reasons to be deeply, deeply fearful of so many people that we have dealt with over the years that have heard the gospel and walked away from the gospel. When Paul talked about working out your salvation with fear and trembling, he knew what it was to be in fear and trembling, but also he knew what it was when the Lord gives people over and they wander off into any religion. If you turn, allowed by God, to turn from the light, you can turn 360 degrees from the light. You can turn to religion and morality, you can turn to all sorts of other things, but every direction, 360 of them. But others, save with fear, Saved with fear.

Paul knew what it was to be with the people that he preached to and he was with them in fear and much trembling and weakness. He wasn't there as this proud man. He was there trembling before God Almighty because the gospel is a message of life and death. and the end result of those people in Romans 3, when God gives a description of all humanity in Romans chapter 3, the summary of it, at the conclusion of it, to wrap it all up together. You listen to this description of humanity, see if you fit any of these categories. or all of them together.

And as it is written, verse 10, there is none righteous, no, not one. There is none that understand us. There is none that seeketh after God. They are all gone out of the way. They are all together become unprofitable. There is none that doeth good, no, not one.

Their throat is an open sepulcher. With their tongues they have used to seep. The poison of asps is under their lips, whose mouth is full of cursing, a bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed blood. Destruction and misery are in their ways, and the way of peace they have not known, and there is no fear of God before their eyes.

The fear of God is a treasure. It's a promised blessing of God to all of his people. Jeremiah 32 speaks of this covenant that God's children are in, and this is the covenant that he makes with them, this covenant of marriage in Jeremiah 32. I will give them, they shall be my people, verse 38, if you're making notes. They shall be my people and I will be their God. I will give them one heart and one way that they may fear me forever. They will, God's children, according to the promise of God, again, in reverence of God Almighty, for the good of them and of their children after them. And I will make an everlasting covenant with them.

Don't you love the fact that God makes the covenant? That's what David rejoiced in on his dying pillow. He said, God has made with me an everlasting covenant, ordered to ensure in every detail, and it's all my salvation, it's all my desire, and it can't change. He's rejoicing in the fact that God made the covenant. David didn't make a promise, God made a promise.

I'll make an everlasting covenant with them that I will not turn away from them to do them good, but I will put my fear in their heart that they shall not depart from me." We have over the years, and you will in the future years, you'll witness many of the Jude type people. And you'll never witness and meet one of them who has a serious fear of God, a God-given fear of God, because they will not depart from God and they will not depart from his gospel.

There is no salvation. He's talking about saving his people. There is no salvation. It's one of the absolutes. There is no salvation without hearing the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. It's the commonest notion amongst conservative reformed people in this world that you can be saved not hearing the gospel and then later on you can actually add some Calvinism and some reformed theology to that and then you just have a higher standing of salvation. Not according to God. not according to God.

God gets his gospel to his people and gets his people to his gospel and he brings it and they respond to him. The gospel of God's salvation declares God's Christ. The gospel is a person. We're declaring the person of the Lord Jesus Christ and we would love to declare him with more more glory coming to him and more honor and sovereignty.

We just can't preach him high enough. We can't preach enough of him. We can't preach him high enough. We can't have him as sovereign as he is. We can't have him as loving as he ought to be and as faithful. We can talk about him and we just fall so far short.

That's why we keep talking all the time. And God's people who were saved by the gospel, This gospel, this Lord Jesus Christ, they just love keeping on hearing about him. I just want, tell me the old, old story. I just need to hear it. Tell me again about the Lord Jesus Christ. Tell me about that blood on the cross of Calvary that washed away my sins and that I'm completely washed in them and he's put them away forever.

And God sees no fault in his people. He says, when I see the blood, not their obedience and not their activities, when I see the blood, I'm passing over them. Isn't that wonderful? We have a gospel that saves. Others save with fear. God set forth his son, and in the preaching of the gospel, God sets forth his son, and he preaches him. And so they just love it. God's children love it. But everyone who hears will have in the time of God's love a great salvation.

So when you're dealing with these people, you can't pull them out of the fire unless they're already in the fire. And you can't hate the garment that's spotted by the flesh unless their garments are spotted by the flesh. And that means that any garment that you're wearing, any covering that you have, that has anything of your works in it, is spotted by your flesh. As someone said, if one stitch in the robe of your righteousness is of your doing, the whole lot will come undone on the day of judgment.

You can read about it in Revelation 14, there they are in heaven, what are they arrayed in? Cleaned in white, perfect linen. It's the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. There is only one righteousness. They have a great salvation. Or, having heard this gospel and walked away from it, they will have a greater condemnation. There can be no middle ground. You remember what the Lord Jesus Christ did.

He came to those cities and he declared himself to be God Almighty. and he proved that he is God Almighty. He proved it at his birth when he had no agency at all other than the fact that he's God Almighty was in his mother's hands and in the hand of the angels sang about him as a baby. And then he came and he preached and he performed these miracles. And he said to that generation, he said, Where unto shall I liken this generation?

It is like unto children sitting in the markets and calling unto their fellows and saying, We have piped unto you, and you have not danced. We have mourned unto you, and you have not laboured. For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, He hath a devil. The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, Behold, a man gluttonous and a wine-bibber, a friend of publicans and sinners, but wisdom is justified by her children."

Wherever the gospel comes, the Lord Jesus Christ comes. Wherever the gospel comes, you're confronting him. You're confronting him. You're in his presence. And for those, listen to what he goes on to say about these cities where he lived and where he performed these amazing miracles and where people witnessed. They witnessed God walking amongst them. God living there. They witnessed for the first time in all of their lives, perfect holiness lived out in a man.

And they hated him. They hated him without a cause. And he says, Woe unto thee, Chorazin! Woe unto thee, Bethsaida! For if the mighty works which were done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes. But I say unto you, listen to this. "'It shall be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon "'at the day of judgment than for you. "'And thou, Capernaum, which art exalted to heaven, "'shall be brought down to hell.

"'For if the mighty works which had been done in thee "'had been done in Sodom, it would have remained to this day. "'I say unto you that it shall be more tolerable "'for the land of Sodom in the day of judgment "'than for these people who heard the preaching of the gospel.'" I was talking to someone at the break, Stephen or someone, the one issue is, has God done a work? Has God borne witness to himself? Because listen to what he goes on to say, I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, for thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent and hast revealed them unto babes. What's the issue, babes? They're utterly dependent. They're completely teachable. They have nothing that they can sustain their life with by themselves at all. Completely dependent. Completely dependent. Even so, Father, so it seemed good in thy sight.

This last letter of the New Testament before we come to the book of the revelation of the Lord Jesus Christ speaks with such power, doesn't it? The preaching of the gospel requires that it be preached with fear and trembling. Fear and trembling in the preacher because if he is faithful, God will make him so. God will make him tremble, tremble in his study and tremble in his preaching.

And the hearers, God continually says, take heed what you hear, take heed who you hear, take heed how you hear. The blind lead the blind, and they both fall into the ditch. People, but out of this group that have rejected the Lord Jesus Christ, there are some that can be saved with fear. It's really interesting isn't it, the one common phrase in all of Jude about these people is they're ungodly, which means they have no reverence for God, no worship of God.

But listen to how the church grows in Acts chapter 9 verse 31, the churches were edified and walking in the fear of the Lord and the comfort of the Holy Ghost were multiplied." Aren't they two wonderful things put together? The fear of the Lord and the comfort of the Holy Spirit. I love that. To reverence God is to be blessed with the comfort of the Holy Spirit. We treat him and his word and his people with the greatest of seriousness. Paul says, I was with you in weakness, in fear, in much trembling. He said, within were fears. He feared, he feared the preaching of the gospel of Syria.

We perfect, 2 Corinthians 7.1, we perfect holiness in the fear of the Lord.

And we work out our own salvation, Philippians 2.12, with fear and trembling, with reverence for God and trembling. You pass the time of your sojourning here with fear, we're revering God. Our God is a consuming fire. He's not to be tampered with or played with. In our witnessing, we give the reason for the hope within you, with meekness and with fear.

1 Peter 3, 15. And in 1 John 4, 18, we perfect love. Perfect love, sorry, perfect love casts out fear. There is a gospel of salvation. I just love the fact that there is, we read it in Psalm 30 at the beginning of our service, there is forgiveness with thee that thou mayest be feared.

We save others with fear, pulling them out of the fire. What does the fire speak of? It speaks of the fire of judgment. Judgment begins at the household of God. Peter says, if the righteous are just scarcely saved, There is a fiery trial. The mountain of Sinai was a fiery mountain. It's a fiery law. To be in the fire, as these people are, is to be one captivated by legalistic religion. At that fiery mountain, they've gone to Mount Sinai for their salvation. And what's the hope? The one hope of them is that they will hear the gospel. The one hope. Isn't it wonderful that we have one remedy for every disease we ever encounter with everyone? We just preach Christ and Him crucified. We find a way, if the Lord will allow it, we find a way to go from whatever the circumstance are to go to the cross of Calvary and go to the one who is on the cross of Calvary.

There's that lovely story of the in the old days in America when they were crossing the prairies and the prairies were almost endless grasslands with this tall grass and in the end of the summer it got extraordinarily dry and the great danger for those wagon trains going across those those enormous plains of America was grass fires that could be started by lightning and there's nothing to stop them and it just, millions of acres could be burnt and with some hot wind behind it, they could be just ferocious.

So there was the story of this wagon train that was going along and they had a scout that goes way out in front and he came rushing back and saying, there's just a huge fire and it's coming straight toward us. It's coming straight toward us. And the people in the wagon train wisely knew what to do. So they gathered all the wagons together and then behind them, downwind, they lit a fire, a huge fire. And it burnt out this enormous patch of ground and kept on burning. And then before the big fire came, they got all their wagons and they put them all into the place where the fire had burnt.

And there's a story of a young boy who's sitting there in his father's arms as this enormous fire and the smoke and the noise and everything else comes raging towards him and he's trembling like anything. And the father says to him, everything will be fine, son. The fire can only burn once. The fire can only burn once. The fire that was lit in the altar in the temple was lit from God Almighty. And it's a picture of the fire that fell on the Lord Jesus Christ and the fiery wrath of God and his broken law fell on the Lord Jesus Christ and the sacrifice consumed the fire. and there's none now. It can't burn twice in the same place.

We continually go to people and say, this is who the Saviour is. And we're continually saying, we're hating even the garments spotted by the flesh, because if they have any righteousness of their own, any legal righteousness, any righteousness, any of the righteousness that came from all of the deceitfulness that we've been looking at this morning. If there's any one speck of righteousness, we hate that. We hate it. We don't encourage people to think that they have any righteousness. We don't encourage people to think that they can do any righteousness.

We also encourage people to know that if they are the chosen of God, then living a life in reverence for him here is vital to them. And if those same people think that because of that, that they have some standing with God on the basis of what they have done, then that's a garment hated by, spotted by the flesh.

It doesn't need very much flesh on it to be spotted. And that's why Song of Solomon, again, the Lord says to his bride, there is no spot in you. There is no spot in you. There is salvation with our God. Therefore, he is to be reverenced and honoured. There is salvation for these people. It's wonderful, isn't it? We have hope. We have hope. Let's pray.

Our Heavenly Father, we do thank you for the blood of your dear and precious son. We thank you, Heavenly Father, that when he walked on this earth, He wove a robe of perfect holiness and righteousness. And in him, all of his body were perfectly united to him. Oh, our Father. We thank you, we thank you that you robe your people in heaven with that, and they are our wedding garments, Heavenly Father. They are those that we will wear forever and ever.

And what a light and glorious and wonderful robe it is, and how precious it is, Heavenly Father, that the whiteness is because the sins that stained it have been washed away perfectly and completely in our Lord Jesus Christ. Oh, our Father, His blood is precious. Everything about Your dear and precious Son is glorious and precious, and we pray, Heavenly Father, that You'd make Him precious to us. that we might just look to him in his righteousness, in his sin bearing, again and again and again, Heavenly Father, fix our eyes on the Lord Jesus Christ, who is the author and the finisher of faith. What a glorious Saviour who declared, it is finished.

May we enter into that by faith, Heavenly Father, and live Live in this world rejoicing in how glorious our Saviour is, and to have the peace and the joy of believing. Bless these words to the hearts of your people, Heavenly Father, and help us to eat and drink, and help us to have a fellowship meal afterwards, Heavenly Father, just rejoicing in the fellowship of the Gospel of your dear and precious Son. For we pray in his name. Amen.

Others Save with Fear

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