The little epistle of Jude. I
want to take the liberty this morning to read this whole book. It just has one chapter, 25 verses
in this chapter. If you want to turn there with
me, the book of Jude, and we'll look at this little epistle this
morning. Jude, a servant of Jesus Christ
and brother of James, to them that are sanctified by God the
Father, preserved in Jesus Christ and called. Mercy unto you and
peace and love be multiplied. Beloved, when I gave all diligence
to write unto you of the common salvation, It was needful for
me to write unto you and exhort you that you should earnestly
contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints.
For there are certain men crept in unawares, unnoticed, who were
before ordained, set aside to this condemnation. What kind
of men are they? Ungodly men, turning the grace
of our God into lasciviousness. and deny him the only Lord God
and our Lord Jesus Christ. I will therefore put you in remembrance,
though you once knew this, how that the Lord, having saved the
people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed them that
believed not. And the angels which kept not
their first estate, but left their own habitation, he hath
reserved in everlasting change under darkness unto the judgment
of the great day. even as Sodom and Gomorrah and
the cities about them in like manner, giving themselves over
to fornication and going after strange flesh, are set forth
for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire. Likewise
also these filthy dreamers defile the flesh, despise dominion,
and speak evil of dignities. Yet Michael the archangel, when
contending with the devil, he disputed about the body of Moses,
does not bring against him a relent accusation, but said, The Lord
rebuke thee. But these speak evil of those
things which they know not, but what they know naturally. As
brute beasts in those things they corrupt themselves, woe
unto them, for they have gone in the way of Cain. and ran greedily
after the arrow of Balaam for a reward, and they perished in
the gangsan of Korah. These are spots in your feast
of charity when they feast with you, feeding themselves without
fear. Clouds they are without water,
carried about of winds, trees whose fruit wither without fruit,
twice dead, plucked up by the roots. They are raging waves
of the sea, foaming out their own shame, wandering stars, to
whom is reserved the blackness of darkness forever. And Enoch
also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, saying,
Behold, the Lord comes with ten thousand of His saints to execute
judgment upon all, and to convince all that are ungodly among them
of all their ungodly deeds. which they have ungodly committed,
and of all their harsh speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken
against Him. These are murmurers, complainers,
walking after their own lust, and their mouths speak great
swelling words, having men's persons in admiration because
of advantage. But, beloved, remember ye the
words which were spoken before of the apostles of our Lord Jesus
Christ. How they told you there should
be walkers in the last time who should walk after their own ungodly
lust. These be they who separate themselves,
sensual, having not the Spirit. But ye, beloved, building up
yourselves on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost,
keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of
our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life, and of some have compassion
making a difference, and others save with fear, pulling them
out of the fire, hating even the garments spotted by the flesh.
Now to Him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present
you faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy,
through the only wise God our Savior, be glory and majesty,
dominion and power, both now and forever. What an awakening
little epistle this is. Jude confronts us with some truth
here and with some facts, awakening facts. Some of them are dreadful
facts, dreadful truths. And he does this to get our attention
and to keep our attention. The church is in a battle. That's
what he's writing about. Contend means to struggle and
wrassle. Get your arms. Put on your battle. It's a war. The church is in
a war. And He sets before us here a
field of battle. We see friend and we see foe
in this battle. But it's a spiritual battle.
It's not a carnal battle. It's not one we can fight with
our hands or our physical weapons. But it's a spiritual battle. And we look out over this battlefield
here. And what we see, we see some
people he speaks of here in the latter part of this chapter that
has been wounded, they're needy. He tells us to look upon them
with compassion. And we see others that are enemies,
enemies of the truth, enemies of the cross of Christ, enemies
of God, enemies of the church. We see several of them here.
And though this battlefield is wet with new blood because the
battle is still going on, it's an old battlefield. Boy, there's
some old weapons laying around in this battlefield. There's
some dried blood, strange blood in this battlefield. He tells
us about them here in verses 5 through verse 7. Look how long
this war's been going on. Those are the children of Israel
that he brought out of the land of bondage. brought them through
the Red Sea, and many of them were destroyed in the wilderness
because they believed not. What privilege these people had.
What great miracles that they saw. Miracles like you and I
have never seen. Rivers turned to blood. Frogs
invading the land. A sea splitting and letting them
go across. And yet many of them never believed
and God destroyed them there in the wilderness. That's an
awakening thing, isn't it? What have I saw? I've often said
to myself. What have I experienced in the
spiritual realm? Am I a believer or am I not? Could I come this far and be
blessed with all the privileges and yet be destroyed because
I'm a non-believer? What an awakening thing! And
then he goes on in verse 6 and tells us this thing that's
tremendous, the angels which kept not their first estate.
They left their own habitations wholly created angels that were
in heaven around the throne worshiping God. I don't know very much about
Lucifer and these angels, but he seemed to be an intelligent
creature, a beautiful creature that got lifted up in pride and
tried to exalt his throne above God. And many of the angels went
along with him and God cast them down. into everlasting change
in darkness, and He's going to bring them forth at the judgment
at the last day. And I don't think there's some
kind of physical change or in physical place. We think sometimes
that the devils are in a place we call hell, the Scriptures
call hell, but they're everywhere, aren't they? The physical change
means they're bound. They can't deliver themselves
from the awful judgment of God that they're under. And they're
going to stay under this judgment until the last day, and they're
going to be brought forth and punished for their sin. And then
he tells us about Sodom and Gomorrah and how the Lord condemned them
when that overthrow set them forth to be an example of those
who should live ungodly. And Jude puts names on some of
the faces here that's gone on before us here in verse 11. He
tells us about men that have been in the battle. Look at this.
This was God's enemy. Warned to them. They have gone
in the way of Cain. Remember Cain? He was Abel's
brother. He hated Abel. And he hated him
because Abel believed in substitution. able to exercise faith in the
Lord Jesus Christ. Cain was dependent upon his works,
upon the garden that he grew and presented to the Lord. And
he got mad and slew his brother. He was of the wicked one. We've
got men like that around today, haven't we? They seem like they're
very good men. They work hard. But I tell you,
they despise God's grace. They despise real substitution. And when you begin to talk about
it, they'll hate you. They'll speak evil of you. And
then he tells us there of Balaam. This was a man who loved reward. He would do anything. He would
say anything. He would preach anything if he
could get paid enough to do it. He would even curse God's children
if Balak gave him enough money. And he did that. He tried to
pretend that he wouldn't and put up a good front. If you give
me all the gold in your house, he said, I wouldn't do it. But
yet he did it behind the scenes, didn't he? He said, I'll tell
you how. You just can't tell anybody.
I'll tell you how you can curse Israel. Send a bunch of beautiful
women among them. Let them commit fornication.
That will bring God's wrath upon them. And then, of course, we
have Corey, that rebellious man that was against all authority.
Man and God. Here are some of the faces on
the battlefield, and you can find their carcasses way yonder
of old. It's still on this battlefield
where God slew all three of these men. Then in verse 12 and 13,
Jude's father identifies them. And this is amazing. How to even
explain this? He calls them spots in your love
feast. They feed themselves. They come
among you, but they have no fear. They don't fear God's Word. They
don't fear Him. They're clouds that have no water. They're just
bouncing everywhere, carried about with winds of darkness.
He calls them in verse 13, raging waves of the sea, foaming out
shame. And He said, it's no marvel,
and this don't take God by surprise, and it shouldn't us either. Because
in verse 14 and verse 15, he says that Jude has foretold these
people. You and I think when trouble
rises and we see heretics on every hand, people withstanding
God and His Word, we think, what in the world is going on? Well,
just what God purposed to go on. That's what's going on. Paul
said you must need to have heresy among you. God raises these fellows
up without being partakers of their sins. He saw it a long
time ago, didn't He? And He raises them up right in
the churches. Why does He do that? To try His
saints. To see what He already knows. What's in their hearts, Larry.
To see if they'll stand for the truth. Or see if they'll compromise. It's needful to have these fellows.
Don't be afraid. Don't be tripped up by them.
Just stand for the truth. The Lord will give you grace
to do it. And He tells us here that these fellows are going
to wind up just like all of those enemies of God that went before
them. Because the Lord is coming in
verse 15 to execute judgment on these fellows. He's coming. They're in the battle. They're
withstanding God. But He'll get the better of them
in the end. And in verse 16, he further identifies
them as being desires of men's admiration. I think that's what
he's meaning there in verse 16. Having men's persons in admiration
because of advantage. You know there's men, there's
a man out in Texas that's probably got the biggest church in the
United States, if not the world. And that man will do anything.
He will say anything. to be admired of other men. He'll deny the Lord Jesus Christ
rather than cause any kind of conflict. Because if he thinks
that anybody is against him, it breaks his heart. He's so
sissified, if somebody looks at him cross-eyed, it just kills
him. He wilts. He won't stand for
the deity of Christ. He wants to be admired by everybody. That's what Jude was talking
about. That's what he was talking about. And he tells us here in verse
18 now, and I want you to look at this because this tells us
this battle is not going to end as long as the world stands.
He says, These apostles of the Lord told you there should be
mockers in the last time. You and I are not going to escape
it. If anything, it may get worse in the lifestyle. The battle
is going to rage until the Lord Himself puts a stop to it when
He comes again. We're in a battle. That's what
He said. We're in a battle. So that's
what Jude is saying to us all through the body of this Scripture.
So he begins here in verse 1. what He says in verse 1 and then
what He says in the last of this epistle. He begins here to encourage
us, to give us instruction to encourage us. He begins by reminding
us of something critical. And this is so critical, brothers
and sisters. He reminds us that you and I
have a common salvation. I'm writing to you to remind
you of the common salvation. Now, when he says that, he doesn't
mean it's cheap, Shannon. It's not cheap. But what he means
by that is this. God has always saved men one
way. He's never changed the way He
saves men, and He never will. He saves sinners. That's the
only kind of people He saves. He doesn't save anybody but sinners.
I came not to call the righteous. I have nothing to do with righteous
men. They say they don't need saving. Okay, go on. I've come
to call sinners to repentance. And you know that's never changed.
That's never changed. The first man that I believed
that God saved was Adam and Eve. And the reason I say that was
because he clothed their nakedness. The second man I'm sure that
he saved was the son of Adam, Abel. And he brought a bloody
sacrifice and placed it between his guilty soul and God to be
accepted. Why did he do that? Because that's
the common salvation. That's the way God saves sinners. God has never saved anybody apart
from Jesus Christ and that redemption that's in Him. Never has and
He never will. Never will. And He never has
saved the first man apart from grace. Everybody who is saved,
Wayne, is saved by the free and sovereign grace of God. By grace
are you saved through faith, and that not of yourselves. It
is the gift of God, not of works. Now that is the way God saves
men. That is the common way, and there is no other way. Everybody
is saved just alike, a common salvation. And then he tells
us here in the last portion of verse 3, he encourages them to
do this, that you should earnestly contend for the faith which was
once delivered unto the saints. Now this faith here simply means
the body of truth. body of truth. Earnestly contend
for this body of truth that was once delivered unto the saints. Now, brethren, there's one verse
of Scripture. There's a passage in the Scripture, and I don't
know exactly where it is. I think it's in Proverbs. But
here's what it says. It's one of the most amazing
verses in the Bible. And when I'm feeling cold and
indifferent towards God's Word, When I feel like it won't help
me, it won't give me instruction, this is a verse sometimes that
comes to my mind. Every word of God is pure. Now, ain't that an amazing statement? You know there's only one book
in this world that we can get our hands on that's pure? There's
only one thing that you can see that is pure. Everything else
is corrupted, but this Word, and this Word is pure. God gave
it Himself. once delivered to the saints.
The saints didn't deliver it, did they? It didn't come from
their heads, their minds, their thoughts. But it was delivered
from heaven and given to the holy men of God, and they gave
it to the saints. We don't need anything else.
We don't need to add to this. It don't need to be given afresh.
It's already given. once given and God has sealed
it. He has given us the Word. The
great was the company of those who published it and then He
sealed it. And now He comes to you and He
comes to me and He says, fight for the truths of it. Dig out
as a gold mine the truths, the nuggets of this blessed Word.
Earnestly contend for the faith which was once revealed and given
to the saints. What does this Bible teach? Well,
we know it reveals one God, don't we? One God in the Trinity of
His sacred Person. It reveals who man was and who
man is. It reveals the only way of salvation
from sin and hell and the wrath to come and the only way into
eternal bliss. It reveals what we are to believe
It reveals how we are to live. And it was once delivered unto
the saints. Once delivered. That's the same
word that says Jesus Christ once was offered. He don't need to
be offered again, does He? It's appointed unto men once
to die and after this to judge. It's delivered one time. And
this is everything you and I need to know We need to believe and
we need to understand to walk pleasing to our God and to make
heaven our home. It's all written right here in
this Bible. Earnestly contend for it. Earnestly contend for it. Jude says earnestly contend.
Here's what Paul says. I like the way Paul says it,
but he means the same thing. Let the words of Christ dwell
in you richly. Let them dwell there in your
heart, in your affections, in your understanding, in your memory. Don't let your Bible become a
dust rag just to collect dust. Don't let your Bible become a
file cabinet. This is God's Word, brothers
and sisters. We're in a battle. This is the
sword of the Holy Spirit. Dig into it. Spend time reading
it and meditating upon it. Blessed is the man who meditates
therein both day and night. Contend for the truths given
to us in this Word. I saw, I think I may have mentioned
this to you guys. They had video. I was watching
a video in China. And there was this whole group
of young people. They were young people. in this
cafeteria. And some men brought in a huge
box, and it was banded. And they opened that box up and
folded it back, and it was full of Bibles. And those young people
just made a beeline to grab those Bibles. And some of them were
weeping. And some of them were opening
it up, and you could see they were searching for places, starving
for the Word of God. And they just devoured that thing. I was watching now for a couple
of years, I've watched, I can't even remember his name, Wernbrandt,
Wernbrandt is his name. They had him in the Bogota prison
camps, the communists did in World War II. And he spent 14
years in solitary confinement. He hadn't seen light. He said
the only light he saw was just enough to see that his room was
all gray. He hadn't seen any colors in
14 years. Hadn't seen a woman or a child.
He went for years and never heard anybody's voice. It was a place
of silence, 30 feet down in the ground. And you know what his
chief burden was? He went to the Lord in prayer
one day. I heard him say this. And his chief burden was this,
Lord, I don't have your Word. I don't Have Your Word. Oh, brothers
and sisters, here we are with Bibles everywhere. And other
people are hungry and thirsting for it. Jude says we are in a
battle. Contend for the truths. And you
know the Holy Spirit is able to help us, is He not? The most
simple, He says, turn in here and be wise. Turn in to this
Word and be wise. Oh, take some time. Take some
time. to open up your Bibles and dig
into it. Read it. Read it. Earnestly contend for the truths
of this blessed Word. The Lord Jesus said it like this.
He said, Let these sayings sink down deep into your ears. And David said, Thy Word have
I hid in my heart. that I might not sin against
thee." Paul said to Timothy, from a child, you've known the
Holy Scriptures. Oh, the Word of God. Earnestly
contend for it. I'm telling you, you wouldn't
go to battle. Wouldn't you feel funny? Clerks, when they sent
you to Vietnam, if they sent you without a weapon, what would
you have thought? You'd have been scared to death,
wouldn't you? This is the weapon. Boy, it'll give you light in
your darkness. He'll give you strength when you're weak. He'll
give you joy when you're sad. The Bible. Oh, this Word of Truth. Earnestly contend for the faith,
the body of truth, which was once delivered unto the saints. Now look in verse 20. That's
what He said in the beginning. Now look in verse 20. He encourages
us to Read to let this Word dwell in us. Earnestly contend for
it. It's the only way we're going to escape being wounded and even
killed. Now in verse 20, look what he
says. He speaks of those who separate
themselves sensually. Boy, he's used some rough language
here concerning these people. And then he goes in verse 20,
But ye, beloved, ain't that wonderful? But ye, beloved, take a man that
can speak so harshly and seemingly so narrow-minded, and I'm sure
the world will read this epistle and they say, well, that's downright
mean. This is a cruel, vindictive man. But boy, when he comes to
speaking to the saints, he says, but ye, beloved, he addresses
the children of God in such an affectionate way. But you, beloved,
You're different, are you? God's made a difference between
you and these ungodly people, His enemies. Why is that so encouraging? I think myself sometimes to be
one of those wandering stars, don't you? I think sometimes
when I read this, foaming out your own shame, I think, boy,
Bruce, that's you. You've done that yourself. And
then you come here and you read this blessed Word, but you, you're
loved of the Lord. You're loved of the Lord. Jude
instructs us here how to build ourselves up. Look what he says.
But beloved, building up yourselves. That word simply means to edify
yourself on your most holy faith. You know how we should edify
ourselves. You know how we should build up ourselves. We've got
to start that way. We've got to start with ourselves.
If you're so discouraged and down, You ain't going to help
nobody. I've went into people's houses,
and they were up until I got there, and I left them down.
And I've left feeling awful at myself, because I went there
to discourage myself. We've got to encourage ourselves. Building up yourself. How do
we do that? You know one way we encourage
ourselves? By talking to ourselves. Have you ever talked to yourself? When you get discouraged, when
you get down, there's nobody else there to talk to. Talk to
yourself. Paul said, speaking to yourselves,
didn't he? Talk to yourself. You're talking
to yourself. Boy, when David got down, he got low and he got
afraid, he started encouraging himself. Why are you cast down,
O my soul? Why are you disquieted within
you? Hope thou in God. Why are you
so discouraged? Is God not your hope? I shall
yet praise Him who is the help of thy countenance. He went on
in two or three different psalms talking to himself and encouraging
himself. I shall yet praise Him, he said.
I shall yet praise Him. Boy, he was in condition one
time. A different time, he thought he was a dead man. He let Saul
go one time and he said, he'll kill me one day. I've let him
go, but he'll kill me. One time he acted like a madman.
He thought he was going to kill him. He was slobbering on his
beard. He got desperate. Boy, he got desperate. When you're
desperate, when you're down, talk to yourself. Encourage yourself. He gives us a good example of
this. Look here in verse 21. Here's a good example of the
way that we encourage ourselves. Look here what He told us to
do. Keep yourselves in the love of God. Keep yourselves in the
love of God. Keep yourselves. How would you
keep yourself in the love of God? That doesn't mean do your
best to keep God loving you. Now that would be silly if we
interpreted that like that, wouldn't it? Please God, stay near Him
so He'll love you more. That would be the silliest thing.
You must never think that what you do causes God to love you
more or what you abstain from doing causes Him to love you
more or less. God doesn't love you because
of who you are or what you are. His cause of loving you is found
in Himself, not in you. What does this mean then? It
means keep yourself in the faith and knowledge of His love for
you. Did you ever forget the Lord
Jesus loved you? John Bunyan told seven abominations
that was in his own heart, and one of them was this, forgetting
Christ's love for my soul. Convince yourself and keep yourself
convinced that God in Christ loves you. That's the most difficult
thing to do. Hold that in your memory. Get
it in your heart and don't let it go. Paul said, I live my life
through the faith of Him who loved me. And how easy we go
off and forget that. And when we forget that God loves
us, oh, we're down then for sure. This is the way we encourage
ourselves, brothers and sisters, building up ourselves on our
most holy faith and encouraging ourselves that God loves us. Keep it fresh in your heart.
John said, We have known and believed the love that God has
to us. We have known and we have believed
the love that God has to us. Having loved His own which were
in the world, He loved them unto the end. That's just one of the
ways that we build up ourselves in this battlefield. They used to be, I don't know
if they still do this or not, but it used to be in the war,
after you've been on the battlefield for a while, you go to R&R. Did
you ever do that, Clarence? They send you to R&R? They sent, when my brother was
in there, right before he got killed, he was scheduled to go
on R&R. Rest and recuperation. This is a battlefield. We need
some rest. We need recuperation. We need
to encourage and feed our own souls. Building up yourselves. Here is something else in the
last portion of verse 20. This is so important. But ye,
beloved, building up yourselves on your most holy faith. Praying
in the Holy Ghost. Praying in the Holy Ghost. I often ask the Lord when I go
to prayer, one of the first things I do is say, ìLord, give me your
Spirit so that I can pray.î I believe I have the Spirit. I believe
He has regenerated me. But the Lord Jesus said how freely
the Father gives the Spirit to them that ask Him. And we cannot
pray without the Spirit, can we? We do not know what to pray
for. We'll pray two or three minutes and we'll quit. We'll
get discouraged. Praying is a difficult thing
until the Holy Spirit comes and He holds us up in prayer. He
makes intercessions for us. He strengthens us. And I'll be
honest with you, brothers and sisters, I have learned more. I have been more encouraged by
praying in the Spirit than I have with all the messages I've ever
preached. And that's the truth. I bet I can't tell you two or
three messages I've preached that stuck with me. But there's
times when I've bowed before the Lord and I've felt my utter
weakness and I've asked the Lord, give me Your Holy Spirit that
I can pray. And He has come and taught me
so much. I've learned more on my knees
than I ever have reading books. And I've enjoyed I've enjoyed. I think that's the reason the
one fellow wrote Sweet Hour of Prayer. We wonder at those old
Puritans, that some of them that prayed two hours a day. And you
think, how in the world could a man pray two hours a day by
the Spirit? When the Spirit comes. And it's
a sweet, sweet hour of prayer. Praying in the Holy Ghost. And look what else he says in
the last portion of verse 21. This is just some things that
he writes to us as warriors, that we need these things. Contending
for the faith, building up and encouraging ourselves. And then
he says here in the last portion of verse 21, look at this. Looking for the mercy of our
Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life. looking for the mercy. As far as I know, Jude was not
an apostle. Of all the commentators that
I've read about him, he was not an apostle. The brother of James,
if that was him. And isn't it wonderful to read
these holy men? Can you imagine how they lived?
I mean, they were just separate. They were just separated and
God blessed them. No telling how many miracles
this man did. And to read here, Him talking
about looking for mercy. He's looking for mercy, yes.
And so am I. And so are you. We begin by seeking
mercy. And we obtain mercy. And we're
living, looking to someday obtaining what we still feel our need of.
And that's mercy. Mercy. We're going to need mercy. I've told you so many times,
but I can't get over the story of the old dying preacher that
was known all over Great Britain for being a faithful preacher.
And he was dying, and his friend went to encourage him, and he
got down next to his side and said, Dear brother, you're going
to receive your reward. And the old preacher raised his
eyes open and said, Dear brother, I'm going to receive mercy. I'm
going to receive mercy. Isn't it an encouragement to
your heart to know that the Lord realizes we're still in need
of mercy? And when we come before Him there,
we'll need mercy. Looking for mercy. I can't understand
these people that got so sanctified they don't need mercy. If that's
sanctification, I've sanctified enough. I don't want to get over
my felt need of mercy. God, be merciful to me. That's
the way I've started my race. That's the way I got into this
battle. That's the way I continue it. And that's the way I'm going
to live and die. Be merciful to me. Ain't nobody
talking about obtaining mercy today, are they? At Paul's conversion,
he wrote to Timothy and he said, I obtained mercy. Everybody today
is making decisions. They're deciding for Jesus. being
baptized for the remission of sins, joining churches and all
this stuff. And you open your Bible, and
here's this great man saying, we're looking for mercy. Looking for mercy. I'm almost
finished. Just a few minutes longer. We're not having service,
and I always keep you just a little bit longer when we're not having
service. Look what he says in verse 22.
Now he turns here. from ourselves for just a minute
to other people. And of some have compassion,
he said, making a difference. Some people need compassion more
than others. They're full of doubts, they're
in struggles, they're in trials, and they need our compassion. They're not a bunch of corers
and a bunch of vellums. I don't have much time or patience
or compassion for those fellows, do you? I'll be honest with you,
I don't like that guy out in Texas preaching in the old Lucas
Oil Stadium. I don't have any sympathy for
that man. I don't have any patience with him. I'll be honest with
you. But there are people that are
down and need your compassion. They need your time. I was in
a house this last week. And this lady wasn't complaining. She was making excuses for people.
She said, we don't ever see anybody. Our family won't even help us.
She said, but I know they've got their own lives. Well, isn't
it awful that we're so busy that we can't stop to show some compassion
for people that's hurting, people that's in trouble, that's desperate,
confused, And then he goes on in verse
22 and said, others, there's others, there's others that you're
half mad at. You save them with fear, plucking,
pulling them, snatching them out of the fire, hating even
the garment spotted by the flesh. They've got yourself in trouble.
And their house is seemingly ready to be burnt down around
their ears. And here you are standing and
watching them and it aggravates you in what you do if you can
reach in there and grab them and jerk them out of the fire.
They've started themselves. Hating what they've done and
the snare that they've got themselves into. Boy, it takes wisdom to
live this Christian life, don't it? Helping others. Look in verse
24 now and we'll look at it. Boy, here's something amazing.
Amazing truth taught here. Look at this. Down to Him that
is able to keep you from falling. I say this is a marvelous truth.
I can't hardly believe it for joy. And I'll tell you why. Look
at those that we just saw fail. You consider those angels, brothers
and sisters, what beings they were. And they fell. Look where they fell to. Look
at them now. without any hope. And you, you
have the promise that God will keep you and is able to keep
you from falling? Put your name right in here.
The children of Israel, multitudes, their skeletons were laying there
in the wilderness when they left that place, a lot of them were.
A lot of them had the pit open up and went down alive into the
pit. A lot of them God destroyed in many different ways. And here,
you, He's going to keep you. What's the difference between
you and them? Man, that's something we ought to
ask ourselves, ain't it? Here's the difference. He's made
a difference. He's put a difference between you and them. He's kept
you. He's kept your feet from falling. Unto Him that is able to keep
you from falling. And boy, it's not just keep you
from falling. That's one thing. I may in some ways keep myself
from falling and even keep some of you from falling. But look
what else He does. Not only keep you from falling,
but to present you flawless before the presence of His glory or
His glorious presence with exceeding joy. He keeps you from falling
and sets you or places you or introduces you unto His glorious
presence right before His face. That's what that word means.
When I perform a wedding ceremony, I turn the bride and groom around
and I present them to the congregation. And here the Bible says the Lord
is able to present you to Himself. faultless in the presence of
His glory. How does He do that? How can
He possibly take somebody that's in such great need of mercy,
such sinful creatures as we are, and present them in His glorious
presence without any fault or wrinkle or any such thing? Now,
are you amazed at that? This will do to meditate on a
wall, won't it, while you're in this battleground? They just
had a split down in a little church where I was raised up
at in the Baptist church. My sister called me and said,
well, the church is split. I said, well, we've split so
many times, ain't nothing left but splinters anyway. It don't
surprise me who splits anymore. But the reason they split was
this right here. The teacher was up teaching that
this was going to take place. And then the pastor got up and
said, I don't believe that. So they split. This is incredible. I wouldn't believe it either
if the Bible didn't teach it. If it wasn't in the Word of Truth,
I wouldn't believe it either. But here it is. He shall present
you before His glorious presence with exceeding joy. How in the world can He do that
to you? I'm looking at you. You ain't
fooling me. I know some of you. And you that I don't know very
well, I know you too. And if I know that much about
you, how much does God know about us? How can He take such people
as we are and present us unto His glorious presence without
fault? I'll tell you how He does it.
Let me give you just three ways He does it. One is by washing
them. And here you see the power of
the blood of Jesus Christ. Here's why we learn what that
word means. The blood of Jesus Christ, God's
Son, cleanseth us from all sin. That's a bunch, ain't it? All sin. When God looks upon
your soul that He has regenerated, He sees no sin. He even says it will be searched
for. and not found. Why? There is
none. Why? It is washed. There is a
fountain that is open for sin and uncleanness. And men want
to sing this song sometimes, when he sees me, he sees the
blood of the Lamb. He sees no sin. Brother and sister,
believe that. Believe that. That's another
one of these truths that he says earnestly contend for. How can
you have any hope of facing God if you believe that He looks
upon you in your sins? You can't. You must live in the
faith and knowledge of this, that the blood of Jesus Christ
is so effectual and powerful and so full of merit that it
has actually washed your sins away from the face of God. There
is none there. You feel it. You mourn over it. You confess it. But all the while,
it's washed. It's cleansed. That's the first
way. The second way is the way Brother
Wayne has been teaching us in the Sunday School of Christ for
the last while. It's clothed in us with its righteousness. Here's why this is so important,
to have the righteousness of Christ imputed to us, put upon
us. He said this righteousness was
unto those and upon those who believed. It reaches all the
way from Christ to us and then it covers us. That little baby
in Ezekiel 16, remember how filthy it was? It was unwashed. Somebody had the little baby
laid in the field that was filthy and stinking, dried blood. And
He said, I spread My skirt over you and I covered your nakedness. What is that skirt? That's His
righteousness. He said, You were beautiful.
You were perfect through My comeliness. I wove this perfect robe and
I gave it to you. And then when I looked upon you
in that robe, I said, you look just like me. That's the righteousness of Christ,
brothers and sisters, that's given to everybody that believes
in Him for it. Paul said we preach Christ, one
in every man, and teach in every man in all wisdom that we may
present every man perfect in You are complete in Him, completely
without sin and completely beautiful because you've got His marriage,
His robe of righteousness upon you. That's not something you
feel. That's just something you believe. And then lastly is this. Let
me see if I can quote this to you. And here's the work. Here's
the work. In Philippians chapter 3, verse
20 and 21, listen to this. Our conversation is in heaven.
Our citizenship is up there. We're dead and our lives are
hid with Christ in God. Our citizenship is in heaven.
From whence also we look for the Savior. Here He said looking
for mercy. Now we're looking for the Savior.
When He comes, He's going to bring mercy with Him. Who shall
change our vow bodies. See, you'll never get good enough
in this body to be saved. He'll never be changed. That's
what Martin Luther thought and about drove himself nuts trying
to reach perfection. He thought he could do so good
and be so separated in this body that he could get to the point
where he had no knowledge of sin. And he said, I watched those
men die that taught me that, and they died in despair. This body is a body of vileness. And you just have to keep it
subdued. That's all you can do with it.
It ain't going to be any better. But Paul said he's going to change
this vile body and fashion it like unto his glorious body. Like his? With a working whereby
he is able. That's what Jude said here, isn't
it? Unto him that is able. And when the Lord Jesus changes
this body and this corruptible puts on incorruption, this mortal
puts on immortality, we will have a glorious body just like
His. And then He'll take His whole
church and He'll turn them and say, Father, I and the children
that You've given to me, I've redeemed them, I've washed them,
I've clothed them, Now I've made them new in their bodies and
here they are. And the Father will look upon
them and He'll rejoice. He'll rejoice. I thought as Esther
was saying, boy, that's almost angelic, Esther, as you were
saying. Almost angelic. Can you imagine God saying it?
You know the Bible says that He will rejoice over them with
joy, He will rejoice over them with singing." Can you imagine
what God's voice sounds like? Can you imagine Him breaking
out into a solo when the Lord Jesus presents His church? He
said He would rejoice. This is going to be a time of
rejoicing. Jude said He would present you
into the presence of His glory with exceeding joy. The shepherd rejoices. You know
we'll rejoice. God Himself will rejoice. Do
you believe He's able to do this? You say, Bruce, I just don't
know. I think that's got a little bit of presumption. Is it presumption
on your part and my part to believe God is able? That's not presumption,
brothers and sisters. That's just faith. That's just
giving Him what He's able to do. Our faith is not in our ability,
it's in His. God made promise to Abraham. He said, Abraham, you're going
to have a son. Abraham said, Lord, I'm old.
My wife is past bearing. But if you said it, I believe
it. I don't know how you're going
to do it if you said it, I believe it. That's enough, isn't it?
He staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief, but
was strong in faith, giving glory to God, being fully persuaded
that what God had promised. And look at the promise. He has
promised us, brothers and sisters. Does God promise us that He will
keep us from falling? He sure does. He shall keep the
feet of His saints. He keeps them. And He has given
us a promise that He will present us. Do you believe He is able?
I tell you, we shouldn't be like the children of Israel. Can God?
Can God? That's all they ever say. Can
God give us water? Can God provide us a table in
the wilderness? Can He? Can He? Can He? Well,
I say He can. He can. He's able. He's able. We're out on this battlefield,
and the Lord Jesus has told us, I go to prepare a place for you.
and I'll come again and receive you unto Myself." He's able. He's able. Lord bless His Word.