Well, the Epistle of Jude, as
I've told you, was written 30 to 35 years after the ascension
of Christ to glory. But it was by Holy Spirit inspiration
that it was written. It's not just the words of a
man writing to some of his friends. This is by Holy Spirit inspiration. And by Holy Spirit preservation,
think of it, it's nearly 2,000 years old. It's written to the
true Church of Christ today. It was about prophecy that was
being fulfilled. And the prophecy at this time
was the prophecy that had been given earlier by our Lord himself
in his earthly ministry, and by the apostles such as Paul,
warning of false prophets who would come into the church, of
false teachers, and how deceiving they would be. How much like
the truth they would look and sound, but be careful. Because
they're spinning you lies. They're spinning you falsehood.
And so it's about the fulfillment of it. He wanted to write about
the common salvation. He wanted to extol the beauties
of that pearl of great price. The common salvation. But it
was needful for him, he says in verse 3, to write and exhort
about the salvation. The faith once delivered to the
saints. To earnestly contend for it because of the error that
was coming in to the church. He warns about ungodly men, and
about their hypocrisy, and about their deception, about the presence
that they have. You know, they're all around.
You look at what calls itself the Christian Church, the Evangelical
Christian Church in our day. You know, these men have got,
they've got presence. They've got, they speak with
a voice, with power. They've got presence. But what
they speak is empty when it comes to true salvation. The words
they speak may be with presence, but it's empty. It's devoid of
any value when it comes to true salvation. For the words they
speak, the gospel they preach, is another gospel, which is no
gospel at all. And Paul says quite clearly,
if any man come and preach any other gospel to you than that
which I have preached to you, let him be accursed. Quite clear. Well, as I said, I'm making this
the last message of this short series. We could have looked
in detail at every description Jude gives of ungodly men. It goes on from verse 8 to verse
19, he's telling us about these ungodly men. We could have looked
in great detail and spent several weeks, but I didn't want to overburden
you with a negative sounding message. I didn't want to overburden
you spending too long on that. Preachers are exhorted by Isaiah
chapter 40 to comfort my people, comfort. So I'm going to wrap
it up this week, at least that's the way I'm feeling led. And
my text in wrapping it up is found in verse 22 of Jude, verse
22. And of some, have compassion,
making a difference, making a difference. That's my text, making a difference. Making a difference between three
types of people, concerned with religion, that we come across.
They came across them in Jude's day, we come across them in our
day. Three types of people, making a difference between them, making
a difference, making a difference between the ungodly men that
we've already heard about, making a difference between the ungodly
men which forms the bulk of this epistle, and then in verse 22,
of some have compassion. There's a company that are called
some, making a difference for them, and then finally making
a difference with yourselves, individually and plurally, together.
Making a difference. Making a difference. Different
ways of responding to or regarding these different groups of people
associated with religion, associated with true religion even. You
know, our Lord Jesus Christ told his disciples when preaching
the gospel to beware not to cast pearls before swine. It sounds
such a cruel thing to say, but what he's saying is there are
those who will just trample the truth of God underfoot. They'll
do violence to it. They'll give it no respect whatsoever. And he said, don't cast your
pearls of gospel truth before them, they'll just tread all
over it. Use some discernment. Making a difference of the way
that we respond to these different groups. Let's look at these different
groups. Ungodly men, secondly, some,
and thirdly, yourselves. The ungodly men. I know we covered
a lot of this last week, but I wanted to remind you of it
briefly. Why are they called ungodly men? Why are these, that Judy's warning,
why are they called ungodly men? I told you it was not because
they were openly immoral. It wasn't because of openly immoral
living. How do we know that? They crept
in unawares. The people of God, the true church,
those who were redeemed by the Lord Jesus Christ, those who
were brought out of darkness into his marvelous light, those
who were children of wrath even as others, but by grace have
been saved, and have been given eyes to see the truth of God,
and have had gospel principles written in their hearts, they
didn't see what these men were like. They crept in unawares. They crept in undetected. It
obviously wasn't that they were peddling openly immoral living. But these ungodly men, they're
ungodly for this reason. They don't believe the gospel
of God. Of course they do. They believe
that Jesus died for sinners and they say all the right, they
may say all the right words, but they're like angels of light.
They're ministers of Satan, and they appear as ministers of righteousness.
They're actually wolves, ravening wolves, fierce wolves, but they're
disguised as sheep. They're dressed up as sheep.
Nothing more dangerous, isn't there, to the flock of sheep
than something that looks like a sheep, but is actually a wolf
inside. They don't believe the gospel
of God. What is the gospel that they
don't believe? They don't believe the extent of the work of salvation
that Christ has accomplished. That sinners are saved from just
condemnation by one thing and one thing alone, alone, alone,
and that is Christ making complete satisfaction to the justice of
God. Christ did it all. Christ is
all and Christ is in all. There is nothing that the sinner
contributes in any respect. Not his own will to believe,
not his own good works to sanctify himself, nothing. Christ has
accomplished it all. They don't believe that. They
don't believe that in varying degrees. The gospel, the true
gospel is this. that Christ Jesus came into the
world to save sinners. Paul said, of whom I am chief.
He saves sinners. He said, I didn't come for the
righteous, I didn't come for the righteous, I came to save
sinners from their sins. How big a sinner can you be and
still be saved? If you read the account of the
kings in the books of 1 Kings, 2 Kings, 1 Chronicles, 2 Chronicles,
read the accounts of the kings and you come across some good
kings, very few, but you'll come across some dreadfully wicked
kings. Ahab was a dreadfully wicked
king. But there was one even worse than him, it says. A man
called Manasseh, who was the son of a good king. And Manasseh
did evil more than anybody that had ever gone before him. And
he was taken away into captivity. And in captivity, in captivity,
he repented. God granted him, even Manasseh,
Who's beyond salvation? Manasseh? Should have been, surely. Should have been. If ever there
was an Adolf Hitler of a man, it was Manasseh. He was a dreadful
man. But God saved Manasseh. By grace. By grace are you saved. Through faith. And that, not
of yourselves. It is the gift of God. It says
of our Lord Jesus Christ, Hebrews 7, 25, that He is able to save
a fair way, and then you have to do a bit yourself. It doesn't
say that, does it? It says He's able to save to the uttermost. To the uttermost. You imagine
the one drowning in the sea. Fallen overboard on a stormy
night. No ability to swim, just waiting for drowning to take
them. And the rescue boat comes and saves them. Saved to the
uttermost. Plucked out of certain death.
Taken out of that situation. Sinners saved. This is the gospel. It's all of grace without any
works. And ungodly men. And who are
these ungodly men? They're preachers. They're preachers. Yes, they're preachers in churches
that call themselves evangelical churches. Preachers, elders,
evangelists. They slander the free grace of
God in the gospel of his grace because Jude tells us in verse
4, they turn it into lasciviousness, into immorality. They say if
you preach that salvation is entirely by grace, without any
works whatsoever, that it only depends on what Christ has done,
that in election He chose a people and redeemed a people and saved
a people and brings them to Him. If you say that, then you will
invite people to go off and commit all kinds of immorality and sin.
And Paul says of that, shall we sin? What shall we say then?
It's all of grace. Shall we sin that grace may abound?
God forbid. But these say that it does. In
so doing, in saying that the gospel of grace, that the grace
of our God promotes immoral living, they do two things. They deny,
look at verse four, they deny the only Lord God. They deny
our Lord Jesus Christ. They deny the only Lord God.
They deny his sovereignty. His absolute sovereignty. They
deny His wisdom. For God's way of salvation is
His wisdom. That's the wisdom of God. The
wisdom of God in Christ. They deny His wisdom. They deny
His purposes. They say, oh, it's not up to
God to have a purpose, it's up to man. No, they deny the purposes
of God. They deny the truth of God. They
deny the justice of God. They deny the Word of God. They
deny the only Lord God. And they deny the Lord Jesus
Christ. How do they deny the Lord Jesus Christ? They deny
the effectual salvation that He has accomplished for all that
the Father gave to Him. Who did Christ die for? All that
the Father gave to Him. That's who He died for. That's
who He came to save. Who are His people? Call His
name Jesus, for He shall save His people from their sins. Read
your Old Testament. Who is He the Redeemer of? Who
is God the Redeemer of? Jacob. Israel. A specific, particular
people. They deny our Lord Jesus Christ. They say that He didn't do that. They deny that what He did was
enough to save. Yes, He got you so far, but then
you need to do things yourself. That's what they deny. They add
their law works. They add legal constraint. as
necessary to acceptance with God, like the Judaizers did that
came to Galatia. They said, oh yes, this gospel's
good, this gospel of the Lord Jesus, but you know you need
to be circumcised, you need to obey all the precepts of the
law of Moses, you need to stone people that pick up sticks on
the Sabbath day, you need to do all of these things to be
true believers, because God's put that in place. You need to
go to the temple worship and have the animal sacrifices and
all that sort of thing, And Paul said, that's adding to the Gospel. And the moment you add anything,
you know those guards that are put at the end of Scripture?
They're put in Deuteronomy as well, but at the end of Revelation,
don't add anything. Don't take anything away. Leave
it as it is. No, don't add anything at all,
because in adding anything, it's like adding one drop of cyanide
to a glass of pure water. You wouldn't drink it, would you? Don't drink
that gospel. They're adding drops of poison.
They're taking vital things away. They devalue the blood of Christ.
They make it a common thing, whose efficacy depends on man's
will. Oh yes, the blood of Christ was
sufficient for the salvation of everybody, should they only
choose to believe it. That's a lie! That's not what
the Scriptures teach, but you'll hear them say it. They say they
want to offer this as an option to everybody. They say, no, we
declare the salvation that God has accomplished. And in this
little letter, they are likened. Look at verse 5. They're likened
to disobedient Israel. He says, don't you know this?
It's not what calls itself Israel that is saved. The whole of Israel
was saved out of the land of Egypt, but God destroyed those
that believed not in the wilderness. And he'll destroy these ones
too. They're likened to the fallen angels, which were in a state
of perfection in the glory of heaven, and they fell. They kept
not their first estate, but left their own habitation, and he's
reserved them in everlasting chains unto darkness, unto the
judgment of the great day. They're likened, these ungodly
men, these peddlers of a false gospel, are likened to Sodom
and Gomorrah, which once knew the truth, but went after strange
flesh, and gave themselves over to fornication, and are set for
an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire, because of their
disbelief of what God has clearly said. They slander. They speak evil. Verse 8. They
speak evil. They despise dominion. They speak
evil of dignities. By dignities he's meaning faithful
preachers who are highly esteemed in the kingdom of God. They speak
evil of them. They slander faithful preachers.
Do you know what they call them? Hyper-Calvinist antinomians.
What a blessed thing to be called by those who are false. Hyper-Calvinist
antinomians. We know what they are. They slander
dignities. Their religion is that of Cain. Down in verse 11. They've gone
in the way of Cain. What's the religion of Cain?
Works religion. It's a religion which hates the
religion of Abel. What's the religion of Abel?
Substitutionary atonement. Acceptance with God on the basis
of an acceptable sacrifice, of a substitute, dying in the place. Not what my hands have done,
not what my hands have done, but the blood of a lamb looking
to Christ, the Lamb of God. Behold the Lamb of God who takes
away the sins of a world of his people. They've gone in the way
of Cain. They brought the fruits of their
own works saying this is good enough. They come and they say
arrogantly, if this is not good enough for God, God's not a good
enough God for me to follow and I don't want anything to do with
him. Do you know of people like that? I certainly do. I certainly
do. That's a lie. We're sinners by
nature, through to the core. But no, they deny that. They've
gone in the way of Cain. Their motivation of these people,
what motivates them? A lot of them have got nice positions.
Comfortable. Do you know, it's dead hard earning
your living out in the big wide world. You know, it's tough.
It really is. It's tough. It's such a competitive
place. It's really difficult. And they've
been greedy for an easy life. And they've gone in the motivation
of Balaam, which was for what? It was for reward. It was for
self-improvement. It was for reputation. For all
of those things in the eyes of men. That's why they're mentioned
here, Balaam. And their opposition to biblical
truth is like that of Korah, here in the New Testament in
the translation from the Greek, it's C-O-R-E. But if you look
in Numbers 16, where Moses and the children of Israel were in
the wilderness, it's K-O-R-A-H, Korah, the sons of Korah. 200
and odd of them and all their families. And they opposed Moses
and Aaron. Moses and Aaron were God's spokespeople. Aaron was God's priest set aside. They were pictures of the truth
of the gospel of grace that's in Christ. there was the tabernacle
and in the tabernacle the lambs of Passover were sacrificed,
there was the daily sacrifice, there was the annual, there was
the day of atonement, all of those things were given by Moses
from God on Mount Sinai and that was the picture of the gospel,
that was the picture of how sinful man is made just with God on
the basis of blood atonement. All of that in the tabernacle
and everything that they stood for and Korah and those that
were with him said you're taking too much on yourself Moses you're
getting beyond yourself look at all these people we're all
holy we're all holy isn't that what man thinks in his natural
state we're all holy we're good enough we're good enough for
God and if God doesn't accept us then we don't want anything
to do with a God that doesn't accept us don't worry he won't
accept you if that's your view No, he won't accept you. Korah
and his friends, they stood. Moses said, right, more or less,
I'm not trying to be irreverent, but I paraphrase it in this way. There'll be a contest tomorrow.
You stand with your holiness and we'll stand here with the
tabernacle of God. and the sacrifices of God, looking
to Christ, and we'll see what happens. And you know what happened.
Read number 16. God opened the earth and swallowed
up Korah, and their sons, and their families, and all of those
around him. And what's that picturing? Oh, what a harsh, cruel thing
to do. Is that not picturing the Day of Judgment? Depart from
me! depart from me, I never knew
you. Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, didn't we do
this, that and the other in your name? And I will say to them,
depart from me, you who work iniquity. But we were preachers,
you who work iniquity, you ungodly men, I never knew you. This is
the truth. This is what God's Word is saying
to us. What do we bow to? Do we bow to family pressure?
Do we bow to the traditions of men? Do we bow to not trying
to offend this person and that person? Or do we tell the truth
as God has it? God calls them ungodly men. Make
a difference. There are ungodly men in everything
that is to do with the religion that we come into contact with.
We had a conference recently. We came into contact with ungodly
men. People who were invited, honestly
and openly and sincerely, to come and hear the true gospel
of grace preached at a time which wouldn't clash with their services.
And they said they wouldn't have anything to do with it, and they
wouldn't tell their people about it. I'll tell you what God's
Word says about that. Ungodly men. Oh, you say you're
going too far in this. I think this is what God's Word
says and I'm gonna stand on it Ungodly men. No, they're empty
noises. He says they're empty noises
verse 16 You can look at it all. Their religion bears no fruit,
verse 12, in salvation accomplished. They're trees without fruit,
plucked up by the roots. In terms of getting people into
eternal glory, their version of salvation achieves nothing.
They're just what was prophesied, and they're all ordained of God,
who were before of old ordained to this condemnation. They're
all ordained of God to this situation. They're ordained to it for one
purpose, to make clear that which is the truth. To put some contrast,
to make clear. The message is clear. Make a
difference. Flee from them. Come out from
them. If you're listening to this online
and you're still going to a church where you know by the test of
this book there are ungodly men preaching to you, come out from
among them. Don't tolerate them. Try the spirits, says John. Try
the spirits. 1 John 4, verse 1. Try the spirits,
whether they be of God, because there are many who are not. He
says in 2 John, you only have to turn back one page. 2 John, verse 7. Look at this. Many deceivers are entered into
the world who confess not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh.
What that means is, it's not that they don't confess that
there was a man called Jesus Christ who claimed to be the
saviour. What this means is, they don't confess the Christ
of the whole of Scripture. That Jesus Christ who was born
of Mary in Bethlehem is the promised Messiah who fulfills all of God's
purposes in saving his people from their sins. He says, this
is a deceiver and an antichrist. Look to yourselves that we lose
not those things which we have wrought, but that we receive
a full reward, the full reward of salvation. Whosoever transgresseth
and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ The doctrine of Christ. This is it, confessing Christ,
the doctrine of Christ. Hath not God. He that abideth
in the doctrine of Christ hath both the Father and the Son.
If there come any unto you and bring not this doctrine, look
what we're to do. Look what the instruction is.
Receive him not into your house, neither bid him God. Oh, aren't
we to be hospitable, not to peddle as a falsehood, not to determined,
deliberate, violent, proponents of falsehood. No. No. You know, it's saying, when people
come and knock on your door and they're bringing that false message
of the watchtower, don't invite them in. Don't think you're being
strong, don't invite them in. This is what God's Word is saying.
For He, listen, why? Why? Why shouldn't we? He that
biddeth Him Godspeed, He that helps Him in any way, is a partaker
of his evil deeds. Is the word of God clear or not?
Make a difference. Ungodly men. Ungodly men. Look
at 3 John verse 9. 3 John verse 9. Here's a particular example of
one. I wrote unto the church This
is John writing again. This is 14 verses. I wrote unto
the church, but diatrophies, who loveth to have the preeminence
among them, receiveth us not. Wherefore, if I come, I will
remember his deeds which he doeth, prating against us with malicious
words, and not content therewith, neither doth he himself receive
the brethren, and forbideth them that would, and casteth them
out of the church. Beloved, follow not that which
is evil, but that which is good. He that doeth good is of God,
but that he that doeth evil hath not seen God. Here's a man that's
picked out for particular mention in the Word of God. Diotrephes,
who loveth to have the preeminence, when who alone should have the
preeminence? Christ. Christ has the preeminence
in all things. He pleased the Father that in
him should all the fullness dwell, that he should have the preeminence.
But there are these ungodly men in the church who love to have
the preeminence. They've gone in the way of Balaam,
in the way of Korah. Oppose them. Oppose them. Steer
clear of them. Don't have anything to do with
them, but make a difference. Peradventure, oppose them as
Paul told Timothy, you know, with gentleness, not with violence,
not returning evil for evil. 2 Timothy 3.25, in meekness,
instructing those that oppose themselves. It's unlikely, but
God, peradventure, perhaps, will give to some repentance to the
acknowledgement of the truth. Make a difference. Ungodly men.
Next, some. Verse 22, on some, have compassion. making a difference. Now, I know
I've called this message making a difference based on those words,
and I've used that as a way of separating these three types
of people, but those words could easily be translated, having
doubts. On some, have compassion. because
they have doubts. There are some who doesn't have
doubts, who hasn't had doubts. Of course, in the flesh, we all
have doubts. On some, make a difference. Make
a difference between those who are the ringleaders in gospel
opposition, ungodly men, and some who have doubts. Some who
are tied up with them, but have doubts. Be patient. God might
grant repentance to them. They're blinded by their error,
by their false teachers, by their traditions. They're so hard to
break free from traditions. You know, one of the hardest
things they say is to get a Muslim to come out of Islam and believe
the truth of the gospel of grace, because the traditions and the
family pressure is so strong, even to the point of murder,
they'll murder one another for the sake of leaving Islam. It's
so difficult to do that. But don't forget this, when having
compassion on some, remember this, 1 Corinthians 6.11, Paul
says, he lists things that sinners are and do, and he says, and
such were some of you. weren't we all? Such were some
of you, but ye in Christ are washed, ye are sanctified, ye
are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit
of our God. I was blinded by the teachings
of orthodox Reformed Baptist legalists. They were gospel denying
in every respect. There was no gospel in it. It
was a religion of legal works. And I remember arguing as a young
man, vehemently, with someone I now know must have been a true
believer, trusting Christ alone. And I argued how wrong he was
about the law of God. But, but, via tapes Via cassette
tapes, you know we don't have those these days, but via cassette
tapes, God caused preachers of truth to cross my path, and my
deception was removed. Praise his name. It's all of
grace, entirely. Just by that means. He caused
preachers of truth to cross my path. Have compassion. Have compassion
on some. They have doubts. They're not
sure. While I was arguing vehemently with that other man, I must say
I wasn't convinced of it. I was only peddling what I'd
been told to pedal. And when I heard the true shepherd's
voice, via the true shepherd's underservants, I say, this is
it, this is the truth, this is what the Bible teaches, and by
his grace alone, I've never looked back, I've never looked back,
I've never gone back to it. Have compassion. Verse 23. others
save with fear, pulling them out of the fire, hating even
the garment spotted by the flesh. This is a call to evangelism.
Witness the gospel. Evangelize. I'm not talking about
being on a soapbox all the time. I'm not talking about being somebody
that people want to flee from because you can never open your
mouth without getting at them with something to do with your
belief. This is what I like, it's what
Peter says in, is it 1 Peter 3 15? He says, be ready, always,
be ready to give an answer to anyone who asks you a reason
for the hope. You've got a hope of eternal
life, surely that's not based on nothing, you've got a reason
for it. Be ready to give an answer when
somebody asks, what's the reason? I got an email yesterday that
was more or less doing that. And you can't leave it. I've
got to reply to that. What's the reason for the hope
that's in you? No, declare salvation accomplished for God's elect,
for the multitude that no man can number. Don't offer it! But
use persuasion. Listen to what Paul says, 2 Corinthians
5 verse 11, Knowing therefore the terror of the Lord, we persuade
men. Verse 20, he says, Now then,
we are ambassadors for Christ. As though God did beseech you
by us, we pray you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God. For, why, there's a good reason,
he hath made him. to be sin for us, who knew no
sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him.
Persuade them, persuade them, as you get opportunity, as you're
asked the question. Persuade them of the reality
of God. In these days when everything speaks to this new generation,
that there is no such thing as God. The thing that above all
else you must teach in schools is that there is no God. There
is no God. You mustn't teach it. You mustn't
teach that there's intelligent design in creation. You mustn't
teach it. Absolutely forbidden. when the whole of creation screams
out that there's intelligent design there. The reality of
God. The fact that there's no life without God. The fact that
not one of them, the evolutionists, even though everybody accepts
it, it seems, without exception, not one of them has a credible
explanation as to how the first living cell replicating DNA came
into being. Not one of them has a clue about
it. It's a paradigm of belief in
this godless age. They do not like to retain God
in their knowledge, that's the reason for it. It isn't a scientific
thing, it's a godless paradigm. They don't like to retain God
in their knowledge. Persuade them of that! Persuade them of
the immortality of the soul. Because everybody knows it. I
have a soul that shall never die. That when I leave this life,
that isn't the light switched off and annihilation. I have
an immortal soul. And I'm a sinner before the judgment
seat of Christ. And that judgment is certain.
For it's appointed to man to die once and then the judgment.
But then, but then, how should a man be just with God? By God's
love and grace in the gospel of his son. Go ye therefore,
said Jesus, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of
the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost, teaching them
to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you. And lo,
I am with you always, even to the end of the world. Make a
difference. There are those who are determined proponents of
falsehood, Nothing to do with them. Don't support them. Don't bid them Godspeed. Don't
do anything that would encourage them. On some, make a difference. Be discerning. On some, make
a difference. Because as such were some of
you at one stage. On some, make a difference and
be ready to witness the gospel of grace in your experience.
And then thirdly, here, make a difference. Make a difference.
Yourselves. Yourselves. Look at verse 21.
Keep yourselves. He's writing to the church, yourselves,
individually, but particularly as a group of believers. There
are those who are ungodly men who teach falsehood that we come
across in religion. There are those who have doubts.
Make a difference for them. Teach the gospel to them. Persuade
them. Persuade them. And then there's yourselves,
your brethren, you who believe. Keep yourselves in the love of
God. This is what you're to do with
yourselves as a company of people. Keep yourselves in the love of
God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal
life. Keep yourselves, not in your
own strength or ability, but in Christ alone. Do you know
We know that we have no strength in and of ourselves, and yet,
in the Scriptures we're often commanded to do those things
which we have no natural ability to do. Do you remember the account
in Mark chapter 3? It's in one of the other Gospels
as well, but in Mark chapter 3 verse 5, there was the man
that was paralyzed with what's called a withered hand. And what
did the Lord Jesus tell him to do? Stretch out your hand. What was the one thing he couldn't
do? He had no ability to do it. His hand was withered, it was
paralysed, he couldn't do it. But Jesus told him, stretch out
your hand. And this is what we're told.
We have no power to keep ourselves. And yet the word of God, I don't
understand it. The word of God tells us to keep
ourselves in the love of God. Keep ourselves. He tells us,
Peter tells his people, to add to their faith virtue, and to
virtue patience, and to do all of those things which are not
in the power of the flesh to do. But depending on him, depending
on him, you're given the strength to do it. The man with the withered
arm stretched out his arm. At the command of our Lord Jesus
Christ, he did that which he was incapable of doing. We need
to recognize, we need to recognize that like all of these others
out there, the ungodly men and those with doubts, there but
for the grace of, what is it that makes a difference? What
makes you to differ from anybody else? The grace of God. Not your
power of intellect, not your upbringing, not your traditions,
not the things that you've learned to do, the grace of God. There but for the grace of God
go I. He that thinks he stands in his
own strength, take heed lest he fall, because he will. but
keep yourself by Christ's strength. And the keeping of God the Father,
for we have the promise that God, our Lord Jesus Christ said,
His Father won't let anybody go. Neither shall any of them
perish, nor shall anybody pluck them from my Father's hand. My
Father is greater than all. How then, what are we to do?
We're to keep yourselves in the love of God. Or the word could
be translated, preserve yourselves by the love of God. How are we
preserved? How far do we need to look in
the Bible to find out how we're preserved? Look at verse one.
Look at verse one of Jude. Sanctified by God the Father
and preserved in Jesus Christ. That's how we're preserved. Preserved
in Jesus Christ. kept in Him. If God the Father
has put you in Him, He will keep you in Him. Preserved by the
love of God. God's everlasting love. I have
loved you with an everlasting love, and so I have drawn you.
God loved his people from before the beginning of time. Keep yourselves
in that knowledge and that assurance. It's not because you chose, it's
because God loved you before time began. And it's an unchanging,
what if I do this, he's going to stop loving me. No, it's an
unchanging, I have loved you with an everlasting love. You can't be lost. That love
cannot be lost, but there's an implication here that it can
grow cold, and it does in our experience. So what do we do?
What do you do when you're cold on a winter's day? Do some exercise.
Exercise it. Exercise it. How do you exercise
it? Meditate upon it. Meditate on these things. In
those quiet moments, when you're going to sleep, think on these
things. If I'm an object of grace, God loved me from before the
beginning of time. Pray. Pray. Discuss with your
brethren, yourselves. Discuss with them. Anticipate
glory so that people will be asking you a reason for that
anticipation, that hope that is in you. And shun, turn away
from things which cool the love of God in your experience. What
cools the love of God in your experience? the world. Oh, enjoy
the things in the world, but don't let them take you away
from the love of God that's in Christ. The things that are in
the world, anger that's in the world, wrath, and malice, and
envy, and covetousness, and the things of self, shun them. And
then secondly, keep yourselves in the love of God, and then
verse twenty, build up yourselves on your most holy faith. Build
up yourselves on faith. When you build, you always start
with a foundation, don't you? You should do. If you don't,
the building's going to fall down. You start with a foundation.
What's the foundation that we have? There's only one. Christ. 1 Corinthians 3.11. Other foundation
can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ. He's revealed
in his word, as his gospel is preached. As you hear preaching,
as you hear true preaching, doesn't that put to flight the errors
of ungodly men? What's the means that God uses
to teach his people? It's the preaching of the gospel
of his grace, isn't it? It's preaching. It's preaching. That's what he uses. He puts
to flight the errors of ungodly men. Listen to preaching. Study
yourself. Feed yourself on the word of
God. Read good books, make space for reading good books. There
are many, they're mostly written by men a long time ago, but there
are some written more up to date. But read good books, where you
will get this teaching. Build yourselves up on your faith.
Then next in verse 20, verse 20, praying in the Holy Ghost,
praying. Prayer, there's a lot talked
about prayer, and a lot of prayer is prayer just of the flesh,
but do you know true prayer? It's as David said, the Lord
put it in David's heart to pray. The Lord put it there. True prayer
comes from the prompting of the Holy Ghost. Praying in the Holy
Ghost. We read in Romans 8, 26, that
the Spirit of God helps us. We don't know what to pray for
as we ought, but the Spirit of God helps us with groanings that
cannot be uttered. Pray in the Holy Ghost. Pray
in the Holy Ghost. True faith. If yours is true
faith, yourselves, individually and together, it's a living faith. And living faith communicates.
You know, you don't have a relationship with anybody without communicating.
You communicate, you talk. Husbands and wives, you talk.
Families, you talk. Communicating in the Holy Ghost
with heaven in prayer. Prayer for wisdom. Prayer for
discernment. Praying in the Holy Ghost. Verse
21. I know I'm rushing these things,
but we're running out of time. Looking for the mercy of our
Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life. Looking for it. Anticipating
it. Looking, as Hebrews 12 verse
2 says, with this great cloud of witnesses set before us. Let
us run the race that is set before us. There's a race set before
us to be there with this cloud of witnesses in eternal glory
when we pass from this life. But where should we look? He
tells us, looking unto Jesus, the author the beginner, the
initiator, and the finisher, the completer of our faith. We
didn't initiate it by choosing, and we won't finish it by clinging
on, but he will, the author. Look to him, the author and finisher
of our faith, looking, anticipating, anticipating eternal life, looking
unto, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal
life, to its accomplishment, to its completion, and finally,
Verses 24 and 25, one of the best known doxologies in the
scriptures. 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, power, both now and
forever, amen. Keep yourselves yourselves. How? By keeping yourselves in
the love of God, by building yourselves up on faith, by praying
in the Holy Ghost, by looking to the Lord Jesus Christ and
his mercy, and finally, by resting. by resting. You know there's
much talked about the Sabbath day in scripture and it's a picture. The day is but a picture of the
true rest that the child of God has in Christ. Resting in him
that is able to keep you. Second Timothy 1 verse 12, I
know, this is resting, I know whom I have believed. I don't
know about, I know him whom I have believed. And I'm persuaded,
I'm utterly convinced that He is able to keep that which I've
committed unto Him. What's that? My soul, my eternal
soul, my sinful soul, and His saving, redeeming power against
that day. What day? The day of judgment.
when he will take me to be with himself. Making a difference.
Ungodly men. They're all around us in our
experience of religion. Some. Oh, that God would cause
some to cross our paths. That we would be ready to give
a reason for the hope that's in us. Ourselves? Mutual encouragement
in the faith.