And this is going to be our fifth message in this short epistle. And the final one, Lord willing, may be probably sometime in the new year. And our concentration this morning is going to be on verses 17 to 23. Before we begin, I'd actually like to read that for you. And if you notice, as I read, I'm going to be reading, the first five verses will be from the New King James Version, but the last two are going to actually be from the ESV. And I'll explain a little bit later why it is that I have those two in that specific translation. But nonetheless, let's look to Jude 17-23. But you, beloved, remember the words which were spoken before by the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ, how they told you that there would be mockers in the last time who would walk according to their own ungodly lusts. These are sensual persons who cause divisions, not having the spirit, But you, beloved, building yourselves up on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life. And have mercy on those who doubt, save others by snatching them out of the fire, to others show mercy with fear, hating even the garments stained by the flesh. Now it's been some time since we've been in Jude, it's been a few months. I think it's fitting for us to actually go back a little bit and do a little bit of a summary of what we've talked about up until this point. So as we know and we've mentioned before that the letter of Jude is actually written by Jude, who is a half-brother, earthly half-brother of the Lord Jesus Christ, and he is also the brother of James, the writer of the letter that bears his name. Jude's epistle is unique, that is the only New Testament book that is exclusively devoted to confronting apostasy, or the idea of defecting from the faith. Jude makes it clear from the onset that apostasy and false teachers are a danger to the church because they're not always obvious. And they answer through deception, or as he puts it in verse 4, they creep in unnoticed. Since this danger is real, and it has been predicted, Jude, through a series of examples for us, tells us what it is that we ought to look for and what it is and how we ought to be on guard. So if you remember, as we went back, we saw in verses 5 through 7, Jude provides for us three Old Testament examples that include the unbelieving Israel in the wilderness, the angels who had left their proper domain, and of the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. In all three of these cases, their departure from biblical truth into unbelief led to their eternal condemnation. In verses 8-11, Jude provides with us other examples involving Cain, Balaam, and Korah. He points out that among apostates there are key characteristics, namely that they are dreamers, they are defilers of the flesh, they are rejecters of authority, and they're willing to speak evil of dignitaries. These three men being examples of that. In verses 12 to 16, Jude uses very poetic and very descriptive language to further describe their actions. He concludes in verse 16 with telling us that apostates and false teachers are grumblers, complainers, self-seeking, arrogant and flatterers. Within these verses also we have mentioned of two incidents. The dispute of Michael the archangel with the devil over the body of Moses and a prophecy that's attributed to Enoch. What's interesting is that in these accounts, they're not found in what we would consider the canon of scripture. They're found outside of non-canonical sources of scripture that we talked about last time. And we thought that we explained that although that might be a problem for us because here Jude is referencing something that isn't in what we know to be the scriptures. It really isn't a problem for us because of the fact that Jude is writing under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. So the account of Michael the archangel disputing with the devil was found in what's known as the Assumption of Moses. The prophecy of Enoch is in the book of Enoch. These two sources, although not equal to scripture, can have validity if they're speaking truth. And since he's writing on the inspiration of scripture, we know that the inclusion in here is okay for us, and that we can see that that's fine, and something that can kind of bolster and add to what he's telling us. So we see that not only through the scriptures, but through even outside sources, the idea of apostasy and false teaching is something to really be taken seriously, and he provides for us tons of examples in order to prove that point. So that's a little bit of what we've kind of seen up until this point, right? We see that he focuses very much on the negative, right? Jude is written almost like a sermon. How the way he's beginning, a nice meat section, and then he kind of brings towards the end an application. And that's where we're headed to this morning in our text, verses 17 to 23. Now I mentioned in an earlier message that Jude is one of the most neglected books of the Bible. And like we said, the subject matter is quite depressing. And had Jude really ended the epistle after verse 16, it might cause some of us to come away feeling overwhelmed. He laid for us all this negativity and repeated reference to false teachers and the dangers that they pose to the church. It kind of leaves us with the question, you know, what are we to do? You laid this out for us. You laid out everything that's going to be set forth and everything that we have to be looking out for. What do we do now? And I think even If you will look at some of the characteristics that are mentioned, particularly that last verse of 16 about being grumblers and such, the question is, is he talking about me? I know he's talking about perhaps false teaching and apostasy, but could he be talking about me as well? Because sometimes I fit into those categories. But thankfully in God's providence, we're not left without an answer. We're not left without an answer on how to deal with this. And beginning in verse 17, we're seeing now a transitional portion of the letter. And it provides for us in these next seven verses, kind of a how-to for us as believers of how we are to contend with the faith. Remember, that's how he starts the letter. It was a call for us to contend for the faith. And in that how-to that we see in these verses, there are certain imperatives. that are going to be required of us, imperatives that are speaking to urgency, and imperatives that are going to speak to us to be consistent in our walk. So let's look, beginning with verse 17. He begins by saying, But you, beloved, remember the words that were spoken before by the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ. But you, there's your transition, right? All the negativity, but you. So now he's directing it to a specific audience here. And then he uses the word Beloved. Now he's used this before, and we see this a lot in the Bible. It's seen in 1 John a lot, Beloved. Beloved is really, if you think about it, when you look at the Greek, it's really one of the most comforting words in all of Scripture. Especially because it's directed to believers. Beloved is a Greek word, and it's used only in the context of being united to God, or being united to one another. So it has a deep, deep meaning to it. There's a deep intimacy that comes from that. And that's how Jude is now referring to the people he's addressing. Beloved. So it's almost as if we're beloved of God, but we're also beloved of him as a fellow brother in Christ. That same word, beloved, is used in Matthew 17, 5 at the Transfiguration, when the Father says of the Son, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. So you see the intimacy there. You see the closeness that we find. It's almost as if Jude is writing here, and he knows that he's presented such a strong case against apostasy, about the dangers that true Christians are going to face. And it's like, all right, well, you know what? Let's transition out. You need to pick me up. You need to pick me up because you need to be reminded of who you are in him. He realizes, I think, and I think we would realize as well, that our mental makeup is often fragile. Encouragement that comes We need encouragement that comes from the reassurance that we really do belong to God. And sometimes that can be so timely, and I think as he transitions here, we see how that is timely. But notice that there's a contrast that's presented too, as well. We are seen as beloved, but you, beloved. What he was writing about prior to that, in verses 5 to 16 in particular, He's not, has that same devotion towards them, he's referring to them as these, these people. These people are ones who do this, these people are characterized by this, that and the other thing. You see there's no intimacy there, so there's a clear distinction of the two groups of people he's talking to. He points out apostasy and false teachers, he points them out, and they are these people, implication that they are outside of the camp of faith, they are not among us. Even though they may be among us, they may be in the churches and whatnot, but they are not truly among us. But Beloved, as he transitions, that has an intimacy to say that, no, that you are part of this. And what this does is, as he transitions now, is paving the way for us for a command that he is about to give us, which comes in the next word, remember. The command here is remember. Again, remember is used throughout the scripture and it's not used as something to be considered a suggestion, but rather it's a command, it's a necessity. But the question is, what are we to remember? The rest of 17 into verse 18 tells us exactly what we are to remember. We are to remember the words that were spoken before by the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ. And in verse 18 it says, how they told you that there would be mockers in the last time who would walk according to their own ungodly lusts. No matter what time period the people of God find themselves, we are never left unprepared. God has in the past and continues to this day to provide for us all the knowledge and power that we need in order to persevere. false teachers that entered the church are not the Achilles heel of God. They may be not always obvious to us, but God is not taken by surprise. The warnings about their arrival were proclaimed by the apostles and by the Lord Jesus Christ himself. And if we think about it, if we look into it, we realize that there are many, many examples throughout the scriptures of the warnings that are to be heeded. Now, again, we could go through all of them but obviously for sake of time and for this message we won't do that but for this morning I would like to highlight and focus on three specific ones that we'll see as calls to remembrance that we have to say hey look these things that are coming down the pike don't be surprised we warned you this is going to happen and here are the warnings the first one is found in Acts chapter 20 and this is as Luke is recording the ministry of the Apostle Paul We see here the Apostle Paul is about to embark on a journey to Jerusalem, which would be his last journey. Acts is coming to the culmination, to a conclusion. Before he goes to Jerusalem, he finds himself in Miletus, and he's ministering to the elders of the Ephesian church. So he has them all gathered there. In Acts 20, beginning in verse 25, we have Paul saying, as Luke records, And indeed now I know that you all, among whom I have gone preaching the kingdom of God, will see my face no more. Therefore I testify to you this day that I am innocent of the blood of all men, for I have not shunned to declare to you the whole counsel of God. Therefore take heed to yourselves and to all the flock among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church of God, which he purchased with his own blood. For I know this, that after my departure, savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock. Also from among yourselves men will rise up, speaking perverse things to draw away the disciples after themselves. Therefore watch and remember that for three years I did not cease to warn everyone, night and day with tears." We see here, Paul preached the whole counsel of God. He didn't leave anything out. He preached the whole counsel of God. And part of that was also the warnings that needed to be heeded about what was going to happen when he left. And you see, for three years, he says, I didn't cease to warn you. Every night and day. You see, it's a repeated warning that he gave. It wasn't a one-time thing. It's recorded for us only one time here in speaking that. But he spoke to them consistently about this because he knew that this was going to be a danger to them. And you see, with tears he did it. He had great concern. He knew that the problem that this was going to be for them. And he knew that that would have weighted them and how they needed to strengthen themselves in the Lord. But yet, he reminds them because he's faithful and that's what a minister is supposed to do. Even the difficult things that we don't necessarily want to hear. You know, we always want to hear the good things, but we also need to hear the bad things as well to be warned about them. You know, think of just in our nature in general, you think of people that ask you a question and we've all been posed this question before. I got bad news and good news for you. What do you want first? And it's always, well, give me the bad news first, you know. But we're also hoping for the good news. We want to hear the bad news first because we want the good news afterwards to kind of like soften the blow a little bit. Paul, preaching the whole counsel of God, is giving the bad news. He's also giving the good news. And that's what we're to do. But we're not to neglect the bad news as well, just as we preach the gospel to others. The gospel has no meaning and it's not good news unless we know the bad news first. So it's important to always keep the balance between the two. But you see, Paul, repeated warnings. The second example is from 2 Peter 2, verses 1-3. And we've made mention in prior messages that there is a great similarity between Jude and Peter in their writing. In fact, there's a lot of things that they kind of pretty much say the same thing about. We believe that Peter obviously was written first. I think from the context of it, Peter is actually warning as to what is going to come, whereas Jude is writing as if, hey, this is already here, now it's happened. So we have Paul speaking, now we also have Peter speaking as well. And in 2 Peter chapter 2, 1 and 3, it says, But there were also false prophets among the people. even as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Lord who bought them, and bring on themselves swift destruction. And many will follow their destructive ways, because of whom the way of truth will be blasphemed. By covetousness they will exploit you with deceptive words. For a long time their judgment has not been idle, and their destruction does not slumber." Again, They're about to come. They're about to come. By Jude's time, they're already there. But Peter is warning as well. And the beauty of this is that he warns it, but he also brings forth the truth that their judgment is already upon them, so we don't have to be afraid of them. They're not going to win the day. They may be standing on things that they believe to be true, and even though the whole world may follow them, we know at the end of the day what they're standing upon is falsehood, and it's not going to win the day. Their condemnation is already set before them. The last example is again from the Apostle Paul, and this is in 2 Timothy 3.1-5. Many of us are familiar with this. And as Paul is writing to Timothy, perhaps his last letter that he writes is pastoral letter instructing Timothy. He lets Timothy know in beginning of verse 1 of chapter 3. But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come. For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good, traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having a form of godliness but denying its power, and from such people turn away. And that's very descriptive. I think if we would look at our times and we would see and go through this list, we would see how that's really prevalent in the day that we live. It was prevalent back then, probably as each subsequent generation passes, it seems to be hold more true. But these are things that we have to be on lookout for. We have to be guarded against because these are things that are going to happen. They're going to happen because we're told in God's word that they're going to happen. And I think we can even see that from experience. So these three examples and like I said others that are found in scriptures are provided for us as warnings. We said Jude confirms their arrival in his epistle and his command to remembrance is to really serve as a wake up call for us. It's as if he's saying look I know things are really bad in the outside world. You probably, maybe you're at work and you got to deal with this. Maybe you're at home perhaps and you live amongst family where there's not believers and you got all these different things. You thought that when you come into the church that you could just be safe and you can let your guard down, right? This is the safe sanctuary that it's supposed to be and you can just completely let your guard down. And yes, the church is supposed to be that place. But the reality is that it's not always going to be that place. You still have to be on guard no matter where you are. Don't take for granted that everything that is spoken from the pulpit is true. That's why we're called to be Marines. We're called to be there. We're called to be together as brothers and sisters to help one another, encourage, to instruct one another. But we realize that in a church, and those that have been in a church long enough realize that there are always going to be people that are going to come in and try to do something different. You know, they're going to come into the church with their own agendas. I mean, we've all seen that probably in our own lifetimes. It's sad to say that it's going to continue to happen. That's why we're still to be on guard no matter where we are. And he's kind of telling us that. He's letting us know, look, you know, I know you might be tempted to do this, but you always got to be on guard. Always have to be on guard. The rest of the peace that we're looking for is not going to be complete neither till we go home, or that the Lord returns. And then we'll have complete peace. But until then, we're soldiers and we have to stand ready on guard. Now with that being said, that doesn't mean that we come into church and we sit next to somebody and be like, is he a heretic? You know, I don't know. Is that person a heretic? I don't know. We're not to be like that. We understand that. We're to love one another. We're not to be judgmental and stand there and just looking at everybody. As I glance right now and say, all right, well, who believes and who doesn't? No, that's not our job to do that. We'll call it a love upon and we'll see later how that manifests itself in showing mercy to others. But at the same time, we're still to be on guard. But until then, until this happens, either we go home or the Lord returns, we're to pay attention. We look at verse 18 and know that there are going to be mockers in the last times, right? There are going to be people that are going to make fun of us for our faith. Right? A lot of us experience that. You share the gospel with somebody, you're at work. Right? You recognize that you stand for something different, you're standing for Christ. People don't want to hear that. Whether you're actually preaching to them or not, just sometimes by the way that you live, they make fun of you because you're not participating in the same things that they do. Peter talks about that. So there are going to be mockers in these last times, and they're going to walk according to their own ungodly lusts. When we talk about walking accordingly, they're walking according to their subjective feelings. That's going to be their guide. And their pursuit is not going to be the glory of God, but rather it's going to be their desire for their own sinful satisfaction. That's their ungodly lust that they're looking for. And that's what false teachers bring into a church. Verse 19 tells us that there are sensual persons who cause divisions not having the Spirit. What is important to know from this is that the sensual person described here is someone who pretends to be of God but is not. And in our day you often hear people that call themselves spiritual. They'll say, I'm not religious, or I don't believe in anything, I'm spiritual. And it has a New Age connotation to it. And it's become popular. And as a society, as we go further away from Biblical truth, being spiritual is cool. It implies a certain level of manufactured holiness that allows for the appeasement of our conscience, but yet it has no foundational truth to it. In reality, those who would call themselves spiritual, do not actually have the Spirit, as the verse tells us. And that's their greatest indictment. If you do not have the Spirit of God, then you are not a believer. Romans 8, verse 9, the second half of it says, Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not his. So you can be spiritual and call yourself spiritual, but if you don't actually have the Holy Spirit living and residing inside you, then you are not really spiritual. So we have sensual persons that don't have the Spirit. Sandwiched in between that is the reality that these men cause division. They come in to cause division. And false teachers always cause division. And that's probably the greatest danger that they bring into the church. You'll hear the cry of doctrine divides. Doctrine divides is going to be heard. Doctrine divides. And invariably, doctrine does divide, and that's not always a bad thing. If it is an essential doctrine of the faith, such as the deity of Christ, the substitutionary atonement of Christ, His resurrection, or salvation by grace through faith alone, then those things must be preserved, and they're non-negotiable. So if we're dividing over that, then that's necessary because those are non-negotiable truths of the faith. However, the cry of doctrine divides is also used by false teachers to say that doctrine shouldn't be discussed at all. Let's just not talk about doctrine because it's really not important. What we need instead is we need to focus on love. But yet it's a love that really doesn't have any true meaning to it. It's a superficial love. Or focus on moralism, or let's pursue our own desires, no matter how sinful they might be. Because after all, doesn't God just want us to be happy? Right? That's what God really wants from us. He wants us to be happy. So what we believe really doesn't matter. And this is what you'll hear. And obviously we know this is flat out wrong. This is wrong. And needs to be confronted. Christianity, more than any other faith, is based on doctrine. Because that is where the truth is found. We see some of the things that become popular. I know there was a gentleman by the name of Rob Bell, and he became popular a few years ago. And he started off somewhat unorthodoxy. He was a young guy. He had an appeal. He was like, all right, he's trying to come along and be one of these guys that says, all right, well, you know what? All these old guys that are dressed in the suits and whatnot, that have been preaching doctrine for so long, they're boring and whatnot. We need something new, something invigorating. So he appealed to a younger generation, he was selling out books, headlining conferences. He ended up coming out with a book called Love Wins, where he completely went away from orthodoxy. He pretty much just said that the concept and the doctrine of hell didn't exist. Love wins, because at the end of the day, God loves everybody, and then it doesn't matter, really. I mean, when you follow it to its conclusion, you see that, really, it's an annihilationism type thing, which is an appeal, because hell is not something that's pleasant to think about. So, because it's not pleasant to think about, even though it's true, let's just say it's not true. And now you see where he has, and I've seen just in the last few weeks, now he's completely disconnected from all churches. And now he's actually aligned himself with Oprah Winfrey and he's on her channel. So he's become spiritual in a sense. So I think even in an interview recently he's kind of even denied most of the core doctrines of the faith. He just wants to focus on love. But love apart from Christ really is not love at all. And you see that, and he's just one example of someone, you know, the latest maybe flash in the pan sort of thing that comes forth. And we see that all the time, and false teachers have that, because they have that appeal to them. There's something that grabs you about them. Oh, you know, let's do something new, let's do something new. And we realize that lots of times things that come along that are new are really nothing new at all. They're really old things that have just been repackaged. So the first command that we have here, we saw in the verses, is the command to remember. The second one that we have, command, is actually broken into four in the next two verses, but really under the banner of the idea is that it's called for us to grow, for us to be active in our spiritual growth. Verses 20 and 21 are rich verses that highlight for us what is needed for us as Christians in order for us to be proactive in our own lives, And it's also for us to be proactive into contending for the faith. Look at these two verses. I think you'll find yourself, if you ask the question, how is it that I can grow in my walk with God? These two verses provide for us four ways in which that can happen. To really soak these in, really. I was talking with Pastor George the other day on the phone about this and just said, wow. I said, you know, when people just, well, I want to grow as a Christian. What is it that I need to do to grow as a Christian? And as you're looking through this, I'm like, wow, Jude. You know, 20 and 21 really kind of lays it out for us in this four real important things for us to do here that he gives us in these two verses. And we see, beginning in 20, it says, but you beloved, here we have this once again, but you beloved, building yourselves up on your most holy faith. The key words here are building up. But in order for us to build up, we must have a foundation to start with. For us as Christians, that begins with the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the cornerstone, he is the beginning and the end, and he is to whom our faith is directed. Ephesians 2.20 tells us, having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief cornerstone. And in 1 Corinthians 3 verse 11, we have for no other foundation that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. So we have Christ as our cornerstone. He is where it begins. And we have the apostles that come along as they preach the word and as they write for us in the scriptures. And we're building upon that. So the word of God for us is extremely important. The implication here is that for us to know Him better, we must know His Word. There really is no other substitution. And this never gets old. It never gets old to say this. His Word, which is true, must be internalized with us. It's our best defense against false teaching to know God's Word. As many of you might know, Pastor George actually started something recently where he's been emailing out chapters from the Bible, what they're doing is having different people being participants in it, and they're going through 1 Corinthians. So every day he's sending out some thoughts in regards to a different chapter of 1 Corinthians. So the idea is that everyone's coming together, reading that specific chapter together, he'll highlight some things that stick out to him, and then he's asking people to respond back with things that stick out to them as well. So it's like a kind of a collective thing that we're doing as a church, but it forces people to not just read the text, but they're digging a little bit deeper into it, and then sharing thoughts back and forth. So we can say, oh wow, I didn't see that, that's great. And then it also provides for a way of correction. Perhaps if you see something that's not right, it offers the ability to have correction in that, which is kind of cool. As we approach the New Year as well, you realize that so often in the New Year we have this idea of like, okay, part of our resolutions we want to do and maybe getting into the Bible, picking a Bible plan to follow through for the New Year might be something we're interested in. One of the ones that I've been following, and I'm looking to follow Lord willing in the new year, is the idea instead of just reading systematically through it, which is fine, don't get me wrong, but instead is trying to maybe perhaps pick a book and just read that book over and over and over again. In fact, for the month of December I was doing that with First John. So every day I was reading through First John, so that you're kind of, you know, each day you're getting more and more of it, so that you're trying to internalize that truth. You know, you get to day 7, 8, and you're like, no, keep pushing through, keep pushing through. And you can alternate that with books. Obviously a longer book, you might have to break it down. But just repetitive reading of it is something that's really important for us to internalize the truth. It's been said too often that people treat the scriptures as a tourist. But in reality, we need to be explorers. A tourist is one who travels quietly, stopping only to observe highly noticeable points of interest. So they will glean things that may be sticking out to us. While the explorer is one who takes his time to search out all he can find. The explorer searches out in the scripture and he finds those nooks and crannies perhaps that we weren't able to see. So we want to be explorers to the word of God. We don't want to be tourists. Anybody can be a tourist. We can skim through it. We didn't actually internalize that what we read. We pick up a little bit here and there like bullet points, but we're not actually having the word transform us. So be explorers of the Bible, not tourists. But it's important in this building up, like I said, it's ongoing, it's to be consistent. Just as you regularly need food to nourish your body, right? Even after eating a meal, you feel full and you said, alright, I'll never eat again. But you realize that quickly goes away. Same thing with the Word of God. We continually need to be in it. But we're not, our goal is not just to know facts about God, because there's a danger as well, right? It's not purely intellectualism. We actually want to truly know Him. And to truly know Him helps us with remembering. If we know His Word, then we're able to remember His Word. And how can you remember something if you don't know it in the first place? But to know also must be acted upon. We said internalized Word, we must act upon it now. It's not enough just to know it, now we must act upon it. Because if we truly know Him, we're going to want to act upon it in obedience. And if you look to, think back actually in the garden, and you see where actually this played out, where it didn't work out the way it was supposed to. Obviously, we're here today because of that. In the garden, in Genesis chapter 2, verses 15 to 17, God had given the commands to not eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. He commanded them, it wasn't a suggestion. They could eat of all the other trees, but they were not to eat of that tree. That was commanded of them. But yet we know shortly after, in Genesis chapter 3, the greatest false teacher of them all comes and he deceives Eve by casting doubt. Casting doubt. God didn't really said that, that you would die. He didn't really mean that. They end up partaking of the tree. The whole world falls into sin. They had known the command of God, but they didn't internalize it to the point where it caused them to act in obedience to Him. Instead, they were disobedient to Him. So it's not enough for us to just know it, we have to act upon it as well. The second part we see, first is building up in faith, building up in doctrine, building up in the truths. The second part is praying in the Holy Spirit, and this is the second part to growth. And again, this is the natural extension to building up on our faith. To pray in the Holy Spirit means that we are to pray consistently in harmony with the leading of the Holy Spirit. and it's not based on our own agenda. This is in submission to Him. And in the context here, we're not talking about speaking in tongues, but rather prayer that is in coordinates with His will. And the beauty of this is that we know that even when we're unsure of what His will is, the Spirit intercedes on behalf of those who are His. Romans chapter 8, 26 and 27 tells us, likewise the Spirit also helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what we should pray for as he ought, but the Spirit himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. Now he who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because he makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God." If I may borrow a page from Pastor George, a quick apologetic note there. When you see within this, when people say that the Holy Spirit is actually not a person, that the Holy Spirit is a force, It's like a Star Wars where people attribute the power of the Holy Spirit to that. We see clearly in these two verses here that he's not, that he's a person. He's referred to as he and himself. This is just a quick apologetic note for you on that. The Holy Spirit is a person and he intercedes for us so that we can know what it is that we're to pray. And prayer for us is a form of spiritual welfare and it's necessary for our growth. I would commence you that if you go back, we recently had messages from the pulpit here preached on prayer. One introductory message and then there was quite a long series on, as Pastor George went through, the Lord's Prayer or the Apostle's Prayer, right, verse by verse, and you see how important prayer is, how vital it is, how it's something that is often neglected and lacking in our lives and it shouldn't be. It's something we need to fight for, to fight, to be better at. It's something that we need to be actively involved in. So we have prayer, we have building up in the faith and the word. Third part of growth is found in the beginning of verse 21. Keeping yourself in the love of God. Again, the command to keep is an urgent and consistent command that involves being obedient to the commands of the Bible. It's active obedience that's based upon the previous two things and also the one that's going to follow this. This is the responsibility of the believer. It's the putting to death the deeds of the flesh. It's waging all out war against sin. But yet even though this is our responsibility and we're told to keep here, right, to be on guard, we know that we can only do that because it's God who is keeping us. God is the one who is actually keeping us. And this is known as the doctrine of the perseverance of the saints. Verse 1 and 2 and the concluding verses 24 and 25 within Jude teach us that God keeps us and preserves us to the end. But yet at the same time it's also our responsibility to be on guard. So there is a balance that needs to be established here. What we have here is not salvation by works, but we rather have God's empowering presence that allows for us to cultivate our relationship so that we're able to continuously experience the blessings that come from salvation. We have divine sovereignty and human responsibility on display for us here. And they may seem like they're contradictory, but they're really not. They're both taught in the Bible, and they're both something that we are to teach and to bring forth. And I know people have had problems with this, and they wonder, well, how does that exactly work? Well, we don't really know. That's for God to know. We know that ultimately he's sovereign, he keeps us, he's the one that initiates salvation, he's the one that saves us. And then once we're saved, we realize the sanctification that we have a part in that, that we're active in that, we're supposed to be obedient to that. Yet at the same time, his hand is keeping us and holding on to us. So we're not really holding on to his hand, because if we did that just alone, we would let go. He's holding on to our hands. And it was said that The idea is that Charles Spurgeon, when people approached him and said, well, how do you reconcile divine sovereignty with human responsibility? I just don't understand it. And his response was, I never try to reconcile friends. And they are, they're friends. The two of them are friends. How they work, we don't completely understand, but we know that it's true, because the scriptures teach us that. So we're building up, we're praying, we're keeping. The last one, part of our growth, as we are looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ onto eternal life. The Christian life is one of hope based upon future promises. This is cause for joy and eager anticipation. This past week, Christmas, kids get so excited, the anticipation of Christmas, can't wait for Christmas morning, to open up gifts. Some adults are the same way, I don't know, perhaps. But we realize that as Christians, we're supposed to look for the eager anticipation of either the Lord's return or for us to go home to be with Him. We look to Titus 2.13, looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ. As Christians, we long for the day when we're free from the presence of sin. We can't wait for that day. And I was thinking, as I was reflecting upon this, I was thinking of yesterday. As many of you know, there was a funeral for Officer Ramos yesterday. I wasn't there, I was at work, but most of my office went. I stayed back to work in the office. By all accounts, it was a pretty incredible experience. There were about 25,000 cops that were there. That's not just from New York City, we're talking about cops from around the country. There were cops from Brazil, Austria, Germany. It was an amazing sight to behold. They had it on the news, I don't know if anyone had seen it. And what you have is you have, again, everyone gathered, and typically when I've been to funerals in the past, everyone gets in their dress uniform, everyone's wearing their white gloves, we're wearing little morning bands, black morning bands over our shields, and everyone's gathered together. And I think when we're standing there, there's always a sense, more times than not, you don't know who the person is, you know, we're a rather large department. But there's a sense at some point, and people probably wouldn't tell you this, they wouldn't share this out in the open, but everyone at some point that puts on the uniform thinks, that could have been me. And what if that was me, and how would this unfold? The funeral comes, and very often these funerals turn into political affairs, where it's not so much about, you know, we would see at a regular funeral, there's a lot of politicians that come and speak, and that's understandable, that's part of that. And a lot of the speeches that were given yesterday were fairly good. I mean, I didn't really find anything that was objectionable, really. But you see that there's something there that's lacking. There's lacking that's there. It's almost a defense mechanism. We can't talk about this. Or if we talk about it, we speak it in nice platitudes that really don't have any kind of meaning to it and whatnot. And yet, the Ramos family, from what we understand, Officer Ramos was a believer and his family were believers. And the way that they've handled this situation has been incredible. Right off the bat, they said they forgave the killer. They forgave the killer. There was controversy with the mayor about whether he should come to police funerals or not. They said, we wanted him there. All of the different things that they did in order to make this situation better in the midst of terrible grief and suffering. I mean, they're grieving right now. Obviously, and we don't diminish that, certainly. And I'm sure they don't as well. They lost a husband, a father, a son. And what they're going through is, especially during this time of year, is quite terrible. But yet, at the same time, you see that the family, and because of their faith, because of the faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, of the mercy of the Lord Jesus Christ, they can look forward to realizing that yes, they laid him to rest, his earthly body to rest, but they know that because he was trusting the Lord Jesus Christ that he's home with him now and he has eternal life. And I think for them, as a family, that has strengthened them amazingly as well. To realize that at the end of the day, for us as believers, this is an all that there is. There is the hope of eternal life. And that's part of our growth as well, is that we're looking towards that hope that's set before us. We're not looking for, you know, for anything else, the latest fashion affair that comes down and most of the world will say, but they don't truly know. They might believe that, yeah, we're hoping that there's something else out there. We're hoping that maybe if I die, if there is a God, he'll let me into heaven. As Christians, we can know that. We can know that because of the work of Jesus Christ on the cross. That we can know that. And I think he's seeing that in this family in the midst of such tragedy. And to me that was such a strengthening thing. It was an encouragement. Because yes, you grieve. You think about the situations and how different things can be. But when you think about that, looking onto it, because ultimately it's about him. It's not about us. So praise God for him. Praise God for just his work and everything that goes on. So far we have remembrance and expectations to grow as two positive aspects of how we're going to contend for the faith. The final one that we see and the command for us is found in verses 22 and 23. And that is for us to be merciful. Just as God has granted mercy to those who have been called, so too must we show mercy to others. And this should be a natural outflow of a changed heart. We're to put our faith in action. And one of the ways we put our faith in action is to be merciful. Now you see, first we had to get ourselves right. We have to make sure that we're strengthened, right? We have to make sure actually we're believers and we have to build upon that. It's almost like when you're in the plane and they're doing the safety announcements and they say, alright, if the mask comes down, if the cabin pressure changes, affix your mask first before you help anybody else. It's kind of like what we're supposed to do. We're to affix our masks first by doing the things that He called for us to do in those previous two verses. But now that we've affixed our masks to ourselves, now we're to help others and we're to show mercy to those that are outside. And I mentioned at the onset as I read that these last two verses I actually, for our purposes this morning, I had them in the ESV translation as opposed to the New King James. And the reason for that is I believe that the manuscript testimony actually supports the ESV translation of this as being better than the New King James. And I think it's also more accurate because it kind of fits into Jude's pattern, if you see. In the ESV, Jude kind of has a pattern of threes that you're seeing throughout the letter, and these two verses kind of fit into that pattern of three. Verse 22 and 23 say, Have mercy on those who doubt. Save others by snatching them out of the fire. To others show mercy with fear, hating even the garments stained by the flesh." Now there's dispute as to whether the three groups listed here are believers or non-believers. I'm not entirely sure. I think that perhaps the first group he's speaking of would probably be believers and the other two not. But either way, I don't think it really matters for what we're called to do because at the end of the day we're still to show mercy. So whether or not they are saved, it's really God's business. We're just called to show mercy, because we've been showing mercy. And that's for us to do as well. But you see there's a kind of a progression here in the three groups of people. The first one is those who doubt. The second is those who have been fooled. And the third are those who are really kind of connected deeply into immorality. Now the first group, those who doubt, they're a pretty common group. Again, a lot of them can be believers, some of them may not be. Again, we're not entirely sure. But these are people who doubt based upon false teaching that they might have heard. They may not be well-versed in the scriptures and they are easily led astray. Paul tells us that in Ephesians 4.14, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine or human cunning. You know, a lot of us in having conversations with Christians, we're going to come across people who believe very strange things. Right? We'll see that. And just because they believe some strange things, it doesn't necessarily mean that they're not believers. Right? They may just be uninformed. They still may be spiritual babes in Christ, or they might be under the influence of something that's not necessarily true. Either way, we're to have mercy on them. You know, a lot of times people will get caught up in the flavors of the day. especially if that truth that's being purported is something that has to do with subjective feelings. And that's a tough one, and I know a lot of people heard me mention that, and I say it all the time, especially in my line of work. Feelings are a tough enemy to fight, because everybody has them. Everybody has feelings, and they're like that shadow enemy, because you don't really know how to confront them sometimes. And when someone has something and they feel so strongly about something, it's very hard to convince them otherwise. And it can be tough for us, but As Christians, we deal with this group with patience. You know, we're to pray for wisdom, pray for discernment, of knowing when to speak, of when how to speak. And very often when you have conversations with people that are doubting about certain things, or maybe just confused, you know, as you instruct them, and as you do it so in a loving way, you'll hear it so many times. Oh, wow, I really didn't know that. Oh, is that really true? Oh, I thought it was this. And the Lord will open up eyes of people to do that. So it's just incumbent upon us to be compassionate to understand that at one time we didn't know these things either. And we don't know them because we're so much smarter than everybody else. We know them because God's chosen to reveal them to us. The second group though is a little bit more difficult. They've been fooled and they sincerely believe what they've been told. Our approach here is a little bit different. Instead of kind of laying back a little bit, we're told to act with urgency. The text tells us to snatch them out of the fire. The implication is that they're close to God's judgment here. It would definitely appear that this group would probably be non-believers. We think of people that are caught up in various cults, predominantly like Mormonism, Jehovah Witnesses, those who think that they're another Christian denomination when they're really not. Our call for mercy here is important as well. I think what's great is that there have been countless testimonies over the years of people that have come out of those cults. And they've come out of those cults because of Christians who were firm and direct with them, but yet loving them at the same time. And they saw that, that that combination of those two working hands-in-hands brought them out of that cult. So we exhibit compassion, but we do it in love. Now the last group is most dangerous. They're the ones that are really heavy connected into immorality that comes from false teaching. And the text tells us that although we are to show mercy to them, we are to do it with fear. So that we ourselves are not influenced by the very ones we are trying to help. There is a story of a man who went out by himself and he wanted to have a ministry to prostitutes on the street. So he went out to the streets and he would meet them and he was trying to witness to them about Christ. What ended up happening was that he ended up falling into repute with one of the prostitutes. And his coming back and his testimony was that I went out to try to win them over and they won me over. So there's this caution to us is that yes we still have compassion and mercy but for some we have to be very very careful because we don't want to fall into sin as well and that can easily happen. But the idea that to hate even the garment stained by the flesh is really the sense that we hear all the time of hating the sin but yet loving the sinner. And the imagery of the garment stained by the flesh is taken from Zechariah chapter 3 verse 3 to 5. What we have here is that it's a vision that's set forth where we have Joshua the high priest, he's one of the leaders of the exiled people as they come back into the promised land. And he's, as the vision unfolds for us, he's standing as a defendant in the heavenly courtroom. And Satan is standing there as his accuser. Much like us, right? Satan is our accuser. And he's standing there in filthy garments. And Satan is accusing him. But the Lord doesn't listen to the charges that are brought for him. Instead, he tells his servants to remove those filthy garments from Joshua. And put onto him pure vestments. And that pure vestments that he has, which his sin is being taken away from him, the pure vestments that he's been given is the new righteousness that he has. And when you think about that, isn't that not a picture of us in Christ? I mean, is that an awesome picture? Right? It's a perfect illustration of what happens for us at the moment of salvation. When we place our faith in the personal work of the Lord Jesus Christ, our sin is removed as that filthy garment and sent to the cross. And his righteousness is given to us as pure vestments. Just as it was for Joshua. So now, because we're the recipients of such great mercy, we should be merciful to others. It's just a natural extension. But sometimes we're guilty of bad theology when it comes to this. We know we've been saved by grace and not by works. Yet in our dealings with other people, we act as if they need to clean themselves up. Alright? And they need to save themselves. Well, if that person would just do this, or just do that. Why should it really be any different for them as it is for us? We're saved by grace through faith. Yet we expect other people sometimes just to do things and clean up their own act. It's not possible. No, the truth is that we need to be compassionate and proclaim the gospel and the truth that is inseparable to it. With that comes the realization that the message of warning is not going to always be eagerly received by those who need to be warned. But that shouldn't stop us from doing so. Our job is to heed the warnings and then to trust God for the results. Notice, right, in Zechariah, he's standing before the Lord with Satan accusing him and he's wearing these filthy vestments. God doesn't listen to the accusation of Satan. And then he tells his servants, remove those filthy garments from him. And that's kind of like what we're doing, right? While God alone saves, he uses men, right, in that process to do so. So while we're not the authors of salvation, we are the ministers of it through the preaching of the word. So just as he called his servants to remove the vestments from that, they're actually actively involved in that. They didn't do the saving, but yet he used them to take off the filthy garments from Joshua. And we ought to do the same thing. We don't save anybody, but yet we're used by God when we preach the gospel to others. And again, the results are up to Him. And looking at this section, I was kind of thinking about Jude himself, And how this would probably really hit home with him, this idea of showing mercy. Because remember, Jude and his brother James were half-brothers of Jesus. And what we're told from the scriptures is that they knew Jesus probably as well or better than anybody else, because they lived with him from the time that they were young. So they were with him for 30 years. Yet, during his earthly ministry, they did not believe in him. They didn't believe in him. And yet the Lord did not cast them away, the Lord ends up saving them. Not only does he save them, but he uses them to write two of the letters that we find in the scriptures. James becomes one of the prominent leaders in the church. If there were ever two men that would say, wow, we experienced mercy that we didn't deserve, it would be them. And yet now they go off and their call to us is to show mercy. James says it in his letter, the last verse of his letter in chapter 5 verse 20. that a person who brings back a sinner from wandering will save his soul from death and cover a multitude of sins. These guys have experienced a radical transformation and they could appreciate the importance it is for us to step out in faith and to share the gospel and to show mercy to others. I thought that was such a cool thing when you really think about it, like what they must have been thinking and how they reflected upon that, you know. And it's a call for us as well. So this morning, as we conclude, I want to conclude with one exhortation. We see that throughout most of this message, throughout these verses, there are a lot of built-in exhortations and applications that are found in it. We're to be in the Word, we're to pray fervently, we're to keep ourselves in the love of God, we show mercy to others. But the one thing I'd like to add by way of application for us is something that we see all the way back from the beginning of the letter that was in the third verse of the chapter. If you recall, Judith originally wanted to write about our common salvation, but instead he had to change course as he was led by the Holy Spirit to exhort believers to contend for the faith. Our goal this morning though is to realize that the best way to do both of these things, rejoicing in our common salvation and to contend with the faith, ought to be found by us being in the confines of the local church. That is where we need to be, and I think that's a call for us this morning. It's the church that should provide for us an atmosphere where growth, defending truth, and rejoicing in our salvation should take place. Again, our salvation is common, not because it's cheap, but because it's shared by all of us as believers. We share that together. We have something in common here as believers that we don't have in common with the outside world. And the church represents really the best hope for the world that's turned upside down because the church has the message that the world needs to hear, the gospel. So don't be discouraged by false teachers or those who would enter the building that aren't genuine. That's going to happen. Rather instead, what we need to do as we're in the church, we need to develop relationships with others that allow for us transparency, that allow for mutual encouragement, that allows for accountability, We saw about the guy who went off on his own to try to minister to the prostitutes and what ends up happening to him, he fell into sin because he was by himself when he did it. We're not to take on the fights by ourselves, we're to take on the fights collectively together. And the church is such an awesome thing. It's a wonderful gift that God has given us. And the church is something that we should want to be part of, desire to be part of, and we build up our faith in it. It's also a platform for us to where we can show mercy. We can show mercy to others in the confines of the church. So let's praise him for the gift of all local assemblies wherever they might be. We ask that he would continue to strengthen them as we stay in accordance with his will. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we come to you now, Lord, and we thank you for this morning, Lord, and for this time that we had through the epistle of Jude, your faithful servant. We know, Lord, that there is much truth that's found in these 25 verses. There is much by way of encouragement. There is much, Lord, for us to ponder, Lord, as we seek to grow and as we seek to develop our faith, Lord. We ask, O God, that you would help us, Lord, in doing so. We thank you, Lord, that you are so merciful to us, Lord. We realize, Lord, we are not deserving of that. But yet, Lord, you chose to have mercy upon us, Lord, and you did so, Lord, because you loved us. And you did so for your glory. So Lord, as we have been the recipients of mercy, Lord, let us, Lord, set forth, Lord, from this place, Lord, in desire to show mercy to others. Lord, let us not be judgmental, Lord, towards others. Lord, let us look upon them, Lord, as fallen sinners, Lord, like we were at one time. And let us pray, Lord, let us share with them the wondrous truth of the Gospel and exhort them, Lord, and just encourage them, Lord. And we ask, oh God, that you would do a mighty work to bring more to yourself, Lord. It is to that, Lord, we pray, and we give you all the glory this morning. In Jesus' name, Amen.