Let us return now to the epistle of Jude. We have observed in earlier messages how Jude's purpose was to write of the great common salvation, the salvation they shared together in common as God's people, but the entrance of trouble, trouble in the form of troubled souls, deceptive, ungodly, false men, who had subtly infiltrated the church, necessitated that Jude abandon his original intent and write instead to admonish his readers that they contend earnestly for the faith. And so that is the theme of his epistle. And we've noticed how God is able and willing to defend his truth. It was evident in the angels that sinned and were cast out of heaven, in Sodom and Gomorrah's destruction, in the fact that not all that left Egypt at the deliverance God gave to Israel entered into the promised land. We've noticed how God, through Jude, gave encouragement to his people to earnestly contend for the faith, pointing out the fact that this was the fulfillment of an Old Testament prophecy by an Old Testament hero, Enoch, and that indeed God's apostles had said the same thing. And so there was no need for despair, but indeed need to earnestly contend for the faith. Well, this morning we are focusing, God helping us, upon the instructions given to God's people in the midst of such defections around them as to what their response is to be. Some of the examples we've given in earlier messages of people within the visible church, people who would profess to be Christians, and yet are advocating the most unbiblical, unchristian behavior. They are denying Christ, they are bringing all of the corruptions of the world which the scripture condemns inside the visible appearing church, and are proclaiming while indulging in all of these things and defending them that they in fact are true children of God, that they are believers in the Bible. What is our response to be to that as we earnestly contend for the faith? Well, that is our focus today. If you received a copy of the notes entering in the sanctuary this morning, you notice there are four points. highlighted for the message this morning. The first two we trust to dispose of very, very swiftly. Focus on the third and save the fourth, God willing, until next Sunday. So you get some idea of where we're going, I trust. And as we come to this matter of how we are to respond in a day when there is such blatant infidelity and departure from truth, such arrogant vaunting of wickedness in the name of Christ of all things, what is our response to be? Well, as Jude writes concerning these matters, He gives, first of all, five metaphors describing these false teachers, beginning in verse number 12. He says, they are spots in your feasts of charity. Now the feast of charity simply is a love feast. Try to transplant yourself into the first century. We can't really do that in our minds because we have grown up in a culture profoundly influenced by the gospel of Jesus Christ and by Christianity, so we don't know what it is to be hounded and hunted and persecuted as the early church did, to be cast aside as a mindless follower of some dead guy about whom stories were told. We're not there yet in this country. We may soon be, but you can imagine that if that were our circumstance, we would relish with great, great desire every opportunity to get together with our brothers and sisters in Christ. There would be no question, am I going to the ballgame or to prayer meeting? Prayer meeting is where I want to be with God's people. If we were so oppressed, We would want to be together. And the love feasts of the early church were there coming together and eating together after they had worshipped together. It was far, far more than our fellowship meals would be. May our fellowship meals be love feasts indeed. Feasts they are. May they be love feasts indeed. But for the believers to whom Jude was writing in the first century, every opportunity to get together and stay together with God's people was greatly relished, and as they would come together for their love feasts after having worshipped together, these false and evil men who had crept in subtly were spots and blemishes upon those feasts. Now the spots spoken of here There's been some question as to exactly how the Greek term should be translated. Indeed, blemishes, spots, I think is an appropriate rendering, but there is a root to that Greek term which gives, I think, even more idea of what's involved here. The root of the word is a term for reef in the sense of a reef that is underwater in the sea. Chances are most of you remember, it was January 12th, I think, or January 13th, 2012, when the huge luxury cruise ship, the Costa Concordia, Being piloted in the Mediterranean Sea, as it had just left port several hours earlier, I believe, the captain, for some reason, left the prescribed course that he was to steer that vessel. And this enormous ship came too close to the shore where an underwater reef plunged through the bow of the vessel. And the captain didn't take it as seriously as he should have, didn't announce to the officials the danger. It wasn't until customers, passengers, over 4,000 of them on board, by means of their own technology and communication devices, informed people on the shore what was happening. The ship began to tilt and eventually the ship was a total loss and 32 people lost their lives. And the captain himself is found guilty of manslaughter and has been sentenced to 20 some years in prison for his negligence. It was a reef, a rock structure under the water beyond the sight of man into which that ship scraped and it literally tore a gash in the side of it which was the end of a multi-million dollar vessel. and far worse, of 32 lives. And it's from the concept of the buried reef that this term that Jude uses that is translated spots in our King James Version comes. When you gather as the people of God in the tight fellowship that is so precious in Christ. For your love feasts, these in your midst are blemishes and they threaten the vessel. So the metaphor there spots blemishes in your love feasts. It says further that they are only feeding themselves. Their purpose there is not love of the truth or love of God's people. It's just a good hot meal that they're getting. And while feeding their stomachs, they are feeding their own private hidden agendas. to connect in whatever ways they can in a way that will mar and wreck the ship of Christ's church. A second metaphor that describes them there is clouds without water. Anybody with a garden or a flower bed, any farmers know the crops must have water. And when the clouds come, they seem to suggest water will be with them. But when the clouds come and there's no water, why the crops can shrivel and die under a cloudy, rainless sky. And that's what these who've crept in are like. They're like clouds without water. They may promise nourishment and promise that the liquid will come that is so badly needed, but they will not deliver clouds without rain, without water. They're described in verse 12 as being trees whose fruit withereth. There's the tree in the orchard. We've watched through the year as it gave blossom, and then the blossom began to develop into the fruit. But suddenly, for some reason, in mid to late August, the tree just withers up and is gone. And no one will ever taste its fruit, for it drops to rot on the ground. And now it is but a piece of wood rooted into the ground and taking up the space where it sits to produce no fruit ever again, only to be a spot that is an obstacle that you cannot mow where the weeds will grow, trees withered. Twice dead, it describes, not only have they died where they are, but they are more than a death. They are an obstacle and a problem. This, another metaphor with which Jude describes these deceivers. Verse 13, he describes them as raging waves of the sea. How the waves come, driven by the tides and by the billows of the wind and storm, and they come crashing upon the rocks of the shoreline, and the mist and the spray flies scores of feet into the air, the foam is tossed, perhaps the debris that the damaging storm and waves have swept away comes crashing and splashing amidst the spray. And when it all happens, you've got nothing, vast energy in those waves, but unharnessable for any good. All of it, if doing anything, only destroying more that is in its pathway. Raging waves, as if they are angry, as if they've declared war themselves. But when all of their sound and fury and all of their splash is calmed, there's nothing but destruction and rubble. And he describes them as well in verse 13 as wandering stars. Keep in mind, this was an age where the ships on the sea had nothing to guide them but the stars. Look all around them, no land to be seen, just water. But the bodies of the heavens, the stars, and the planets at night tell them where they are and by that means they navigate. And if the star which is the focal point of their navigation moves, then they follow it to their own destruction. They are lost. These who've crept in professing to be believers and yet Promoting evil and abomination, anyone who follows them is like the mariner who follows a wandering star that will only lead him to ruin. Not only do we have these five metaphors, but characteristics of the false teachers beginning in verse 16 are also given. And I keep saying false teachers. They didn't, they're not identified necessarily as teachers by Jude. They are false men who will lead astray, however, and that is their ultimate purpose. They're described in verse 16 as being murmurers. Murmuring is a great sin. that the people of Israel were guilty of in the Old Testament record, and they would murmur against Moses and against Aaron, who were the God-appointed leaders. And as they murmured against the God-appointed leaders, they were thus murmuring against God who appointed them. These false ones that Jude warns against are murmurers and inherent in the idea is speaking against the servant of God. To be distinguished from the next descriptor, they are complainers. Those who murmured against Moses did so because they were complaining about their circumstances. They murmured against Moses because he was their leader and they found themselves in a desert where there was no water. And so they cried out about their circumstances around them. Oh, that we had been left in Egypt where we had the onions and the garlics to eat and water to drink. And you've brought us out in this wilderness. They complained about their circumstances and thus murmured against their leader. These complain about their circumstances. They are grumblers. They are never satisfied and the reason they are never satisfied is because they seek satisfaction only in the things of this world which can never satisfy. For true satisfaction exists only in the spiritual realm and in our being connected with the one who is utterly limitless. Jehovah God the self-existent one from whom and to whom all creation is. He is the only one who is infinite and thus boundless and thus never to be exhausted. There will never be an end or a limit unto our God, and therefore He is the only one in whom satisfaction will ever be found. Pursue satisfaction through accumulating stuff on this world, and when you've gotten it all, you still will not have enough. Because we are creatures made to be in communion with God and not with stuff. And the inner longing of man will never be satisfied until it rests in Christ and by Christ in God. This is why the psalmist wrote at the end of Psalm 17, the psalmist, mind you, a king, what more could he want than the power of a king, than the possessions of a king? He wrote, As for me, I shall behold thy face in righteousness. I shall be satisfied when I awake with thy likeness. This is the only thing that satisfies. And so these distractors that Jude writes about are complainers. They're never satisfied. No matter what they have, it's not enough. complainers who are described in verses 16 and 18 as walking after their own lusts. Their whole realm of existence is one driven by the fleshly appetites. Every decision is based upon the question, what will my body most enjoy? And following that as their moral compass, they are not only grossly immoral, but they are grossly unsatisfied. They seek only for the here and now. They are driven by their lusts. As well, verse 16, their mouth speaketh great swelling words. They are boasters. They brag on themselves. After all, their whole life is about themselves. They are driven by their lusts. They complain about their environment and they murmur against the spiritual leader. It's all a fleshly thing. And thus, They brag on themselves and it says too, also in verse 16, that their mouth speaketh great swelling words, having men's persons in admiration because of advantage. If they see someone who appears to be promising of a benefit to them personally, they will flatter that person no end. They will be the best friend of the rich. But by contrast, someone who would appear unable to add anything to them is disdained and ignored. I cannot help but think of the account in Luke 16 of the rich man and Lazarus. The rich man who was some body in his culture. He was rich and Lazarus but a beggar who was at the gate of the rich man with dogs licking his sores. But what a loss when the rich man lifted up his eyes in torments. The man who had drunk the most fine wine, expensive beverage, doubtless from golden goblets, now begs, begs only for one drop of water from the sore covered finger of the beggar. What a loss. What a contrast. These who boast and who cultivate through flattery whatever benefit they might get, they're called in verse 18 mockers. Mockers. They scoff and scorn at truth. Verse 19, they separate themselves. Literally, they divide people. They damage the flock. They create schism and division. In verse 19, they do not have the Spirit of God. Now, points one and two are finished. We come to the third. What is our response to be with regard to certain men who've crept in unawares? And in verse 17, Jude says, but beloved, remember ye the words which were spoken before of the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ. Number one, our response must be to remember the word of God. This is the faith spoken of in verse number three, of which Jude says, earnestly contend for the faith. That faith, that body of truth is the word of God. So let us remember the scriptures. And as Jude writes to those who are befuddled by the presence of these false ones, he says, remember what the Lord Jesus said and what his apostles said. And in fact, what he points them to is the fact that Christ and his apostles had foretold that this very thing would happen. Therefore, the presence of these false ones who crept in is not to be feared as the destruction of Christ's church, but to be recognized, in fact, as the fulfillment of the scriptures given by a sovereign God who rules and overrules even the assaults of his enemies. who by the action of his enemies accomplishes his own eternal glorious yet mysterious purposes. Because these false brethren had crept in, Jude changed the subject of his letter. and provided for us in a tiny compact capsule form one of the most powerful instructions from which the church ever since has grown and benefited and been stabilized and fortified. It is that attack which results in believers realizing we must earnestly contend for the faith and how do we respond to their presence and thus return to the scripture. It will never fail. It is true. It is true. It is more true than anything you've ever encountered in life. Go to the Word of God. My friends, we need to be in the Scripture. Are you reading the Scripture daily, regularly, spending time in the Scripture? Are you committing it to your own heart, to your own understanding? Are you searching the Scriptures? Return to the Word of God. That is the first, the first action that God's people should make in the face of such enemies of the truth. But then it adds to that in verse number 20, but ye, beloved, building up yourselves on your most holy faith. Building up yourselves. The meaning is build one another. And it says to build one another on your most holy faith. In other words, the faith. Once again, verse three, the common salvation earnestly contend for the faith, the body of truth. That body of truth is summarized in one word, gospel, the good news. And the gospel simply put is this, Christ died for our sins. was buried, and the third day he rose again. And the whole of the content of scripture is a setting forth of that great truth. Christ died for our sins, was buried, and rose again. He is our Savior, and Christ is that body of truth, the embodiment of that truth. And upon that truth, we are to build one another. Thus, we've sung this morning, Christ is made the sure foundation. Christ, the living truth, inseparable from the written truth, is that which we build upon. We are to build one another upon that holy truth. Now, how do we build one another? Well, I think of what the writer of Hebrews gave us. when he said, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, but exhorting one another and so much the more as you see the day approaching. We build one another by gathering together. by being here with one another whenever we can be together. Anytime the church doors are open, if we assemble together, the effect of that will be the building of one another. I hear some say, what can I do? I'm just one. without talent, without the ability to preach or to sing or to do this or that, and I can respond, you can be there. And simply being there, Assembling together with God's people is a means of exhorting one another as we see the day of Christ's turn approaching. We build on the foundation of the faith, build one another by being present. I'm thankful to God for the technology that we have today. And as I stand here and preach, I can envision in my own minds dear members of this congregation, some of whom you know, some of whom you don't know, who are not here because they cannot be here. They are confined to their homes, but by way of the streaming video technology, They are with us. They are singing the hymns and the psalms with us. We had a request just recently from one couple. Could they buy a psalter? They already have the hymnal in their home. Could they buy a psalter so when we sing the psalms, they can sing with us as well in their living room as they watch the service with us. And they're with us. They're one with us. But every one of them would say, we're thankful for it, but it's not like being there. And indeed, it may be very easy now that streaming video is an alternative to get up on Sunday morning and, I don't feel like getting dressed today and going out. I'll just stay home and watch on the video. Well, that is an option, and I thank God for it. But there's one thing that that cannot accomplish, and that is the assembling of yourselves together. If you can't be here, praise the Lord that we have that medium so you can be here as much as possible. But if you can be present in body, that very presence is to all of the others present An exhortation, not forsaking the assembling of yourselves together as the manner of some is, but exhorting one another. And so much the more as you see the day approaching, you build up one another by mutual prayer. This is why public prayer meetings are of such a value to the Church of Christ. When you and a brother or a sister or a small group are gathered together for the one and only purpose of presenting petitions together unto God, there is a spiritually enriching element to that experience which cannot be duplicated by any other means. And the public prayer meetings of the congregation are an important part of its own building up one another in the faith. We ought to take them seriously. We build up one another in the faith as we get together for the purpose of the kingdom of God. Yesterday afternoon I had a delightful time with brothers and sisters in Christ as we met for a picnic at one of our brother's homes and being with God's people, meeting some that I had not met before from other congregations, fellowshipping with people from other parts of the country. What an enrichment it is and thus networking for the kingdom of God. I hear of Bible studies that are being conducted in homes of members of our congregation, coming together for such opportunities, for small home prayer meetings, why all of these are a part of building up one another in the faith. Now indeed, In any endeavor of building up one another, we must be very careful because of this. The Apostle Paul, yes, none less than the Apostle Paul wrote and said, when I would do good, evil is present with me. And wherever I go, whether it is to this pulpit or to the bedside of an afflicted member of the congregation, or to the living room of a couple that has a special need. Wherever I go, though I go with the scripture and I trust with a message from God, and I trust with a prayer that is anointed by God, yet I go also with a depraved nature. And when I would do good, evil is present with me, and the same can be so. In Bible studies, in group gatherings, the tongue must always be bridled, for we are so prone to say more than what we really know. and the spirit always in submission, but gathering together for those purposes. Let us do it, let us thus build up one another in the faith. Build up one another upon the most holy foundation of the faith. In addition, it continues in verse number 20, praying in the Holy Ghost. by our union with the Spirit of God being brought unto prayer. Communion with the Holy Spirit of God will instruct us of our need to pray without ceasing. And being the people of God means we ought to be a people of prayer. Our gatherings should be sanctified by prayer. Our aloneness should be sanctified by prayer. And in response to all the corruptions that creep into the church of this age, let us be remembering the scriptures, let us be building up one another in the holy faith, let us be continuing in prayer. And verse number 21 continues with the statement, keep yourselves in the love of God. What does that mean? How do we keep ourselves in the love of God? Well the meaning certainly seems to be this, that we are to love God ourselves. You remember in Matthew 22 when Jesus was asked which was the greatest commandment? And his response was that the greatest commandment was to love the Lord our God with all of our heart and our soul and our mind and our strength and to love our neighbors as ourselves. And those who love God will increasingly think in this way, what will please my God? And as they think in that way, That which they know will please God is that which they will desire to do. And by such love for God, they are motivated happily to do that which will please God and to exclude that which is not pleasing to God. And thereby, they keep themselves in the love of God. They are living a life which in its varied particulars is one that pleases God. And they know an unbroken communion. They know the love of God uninterrupted by the obstacles of sin, shed abroad in their hearts by the Holy Ghost. In addition, verse 21, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life. They live in anticipation of Christ's coming. Christ will appear. All who believe in him will then come into the full realization of eternal life. Those who are saved by God have eternal life. They know they have everlasting life. And yet between here and heaven, death will come to the body. But we are told here that in the face of all of the evil that infiltrates Christ's church, to live with an eye set upon the merciful coming of Christ and the realization that this life is an everlasting life to be continued in his presence forever, and that we live not for this temporal existence, but with an eye to the eternal and looking for his merciful coming, we live in anticipation. Christ will come and will take me to be with him. And as the church would appear to many to be more and more stained with the infiltration of corruptions, spots in our feasts of charity. We look unto Christ with the prayer, even so come Lord Jesus and blessed be the day when he appears and delivers us from this vile body and transforms it into a body made like unto his glorious body. This is how we respond to such who've crept in. And in addition to that, verse 22. Now indeed verse 22 is a challenge for many to interpret. For we read, and of some having compassion, making the difference and wonder, what does that mean? And it is perhaps a difficult translation that is placed here, but the meaning of it is simply this. In the midst of all of these evils that infiltrate the church, some will be brought to doubt. And upon those doubters, be compassionate. Have compassion upon the doubters. Go to them not with a wagging finger in rebuke, but with the open arms and the embrace to say, come, my brother. Look at the promises that are found in Jude. Look at the encouragements he gives us to earnestly contend for the faith. Look at what our response should be as he prescribes it to all of this deception. Come, let us stand together, arm in arm, fortified, doubt not but believe, have compassion upon the doubters. I recall hearing an illustration of a well-known preacher of the last century decades ago who was dealing with a young man who had responded to an evangelistic altar call. the young man could not find within himself to believe. And he continued in his doubting. And finally the personal worker grew impatience with him and took him by the arm and shook him and said, are you going to keep doubting God? And it would seem if the biblical record is true, that doubting God is about all I can do by nature, that I am a sinner, and that when one comes doubting, his very doubt is an expression of some level of belief. If he didn't believe some, the doubt wouldn't bother him. But the presence of the doubt is itself an indication of concern. Let us not rebuke doubt, but embrace with compassion our doubting brethren, that we might, in obedience to what Jude is saying, build up one another upon the most holy faith. And compassion on the doubter. indeed can make all the difference between persistent doubt and growing faith. But he adds another instruction at verse number 23, and others save with fear pulling them out of the fire. Now it's saying on the doubter have compassion. But then there are others who are well nigh consumed. And that being consumed means consumed as a fire engulfs that which it is made fuel of, consumed with the distractions of the brethren who are false brethren, consumed with the distractions of those who've crept in unawares And those, save them, lay hold upon them, pull them out of the fire of unbelief that would so shipwreck them. Take them from it. Bring them together to build them up in the most holy faith. Love them and nurture them. Stay close to them. that you might continue to pull them with you unto Christ and unto the obedience that Jude exhorts. And then he goes further in verse 23 saying, hating even the garment that is spotted by the flesh. There is certainly some figurative speech being used here, but I trust that we can make it very clear what he's saying. These who are on the verge of being consumed like a piece of wood thrown near the fire which will ignite if it is not pulled from the fire. These who are on the verge of being engulfed by the unbelief that flames forth from the false ones among you, bring them close to yourself. Pray with them and labor with them, and as you do it, hate the garment that is spotted by the flesh. Let this image illustrate what he's saying. You have a loved one who is very ill. You walk into the room where that loved one is bedfast and the odor of illness is in the air. It's evident that corruption is about. And you go to this aged loved one who has lost the capacity to care for himself or herself and you must change them like a baby. And the garments that are soiled by the bodily productions are loathsome and the task is a nasty task. And while you love that dear one and will serve that one, you hate the garments that are spotted by the flesh. You transfer that imagery into the spiritual realm. You have not only the doubters upon whom you are to have compassion, but you have those who are infected by the disease. And if there is not one there to tend to them, and to love them, and to nurse them along, and to bring them out of the affliction, they too will be overtaken like a house of fire. Pull them from the flame, and as you aid them, give yourselves in love unto them, but hate that which is their defilement. hate the sin by which they're overtaken. There is from time to time, seasonally, a series of events that takes place very near to this area that I'm aware of that are some of the most vile and profane and loathsome conduct human beings can commit. just this past summer. I was roused in spirit once again over what could be done about this, but it's the kind of thing that you don't even want to publicly announce because you don't want to publicize it. And a number of years ago, when the first report of this came to my hearing and I was burdened in soul about whether we should do something as a church, I consulted with a dear brother pastor in another county concerning the matter. And he gave this strange response to me, which I've not forgotten. He said, well, if you do do something about it, expect casualties. the danger that God's own people who are made of the same stuff and lusts as the most wicked sinner is made of. The people of God, who though saved and cleansed by Christ's blood and redeemed unto him with that blood, yet have within them the old nature that Paul so lamented when he said, the flesh lusteth against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh. And these two are contrary, the one to another. And the fellow pastor was warning and saying, if you get too close to it, expect casualties. And this is something of what Jude is affirming when he speaks of those whom we are to pull away from the consuming fire of sin that would overtake them and take them under. He says, yes, pulling them out of the fire, have mercy upon them, but hate the garment that is spotted by the flesh. One of the great blights of the church in this country today is that it does not hate the garment that is spotted by the flesh. The corruptions of this world system have come into even some of the most evangelical circles And under the misguided notion that if you relax and become a little bit more like the world on the outside, the world out there will be attracted to come in and hear what's on the inside. Under such misguided thinking, worldliness has been brought into the church so that the garments spotted by the flesh are not even discerned to be soiled. And evil has come among the church, which is the whole problem that Jude is addressing, and which we too must face. As the church of Christ is infected across our nation with so much contamination, let Remember the scriptures that we might build up one another upon the most holy faith. praying always and keeping ourselves in the love of God, looking for the glorious appearing of our God and Savior, Jesus Christ, with compassion toward the doubters and merciful love toward those who are in danger of sliding into the corruption, hating the garment that is spotted by the flesh. And may God keep us. And ultimately, that is our only hope and our deliverance. Thus, the last two verses of Jude, which God helping us, will be our focus next Lord's Day. Let us all stand together as we pray. O Lord our God, as saved men and women who yet know that within their own bosom the old nature would arise at any moment to usurp the spiritual, wilt thou keep us, keep us in the love of God, and may we respond as Jude would instruct us. in the face of the corrupting of the church today. We ask, O Lord, that we might be sanctified unto thee and be a people who increasingly hate the garment that is spotted by the flesh. Bless thy word to our nurture and to your own glory and to the salvation of sinners. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.