If you have your Bibles tonight, if you'll turn to the epistle of Jude, the epistle of Jude once again, just to catch us up where we're at in this wonderful epistle. If you remember verse one, we found our identity in Christ. We're slaves in Christ, beloved by God, secured by God, and we resist to be called by God. In verse two, we saw our blessings. In verse three and four, verse three would be the theme verse of the entire epistle, we find our orders. Our orders as believers are to continually focus in the midst of this battle to continually defend our faith and to examine all those who are around us. In verses five through seven, the apostle Jude gives us a glimpse into the destruction of our enemy. We're fighting a defeated foe. He's been defeated and we're just here going through the motions of these battles but the battle has already been won. In verse 4 and 8 through 19 we see these 25 characteristics of the enemy and really Jude left no stone unturned as we considered we face this enemy. There's many there and we should go back to this epistle. Uh may say probably often to look at this um how Jude describes the enemy that we face. So, tonight, we're going to start in verse seventeen and and my prayer is that we will work our way through verse twenty-one of our passage ourselves the great word of God says but below remember ye the words which were spoken before the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ how that they told you there should be mockers 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. Speaking to you tonight, we're continuing our series of the church at war, and we're looking at the believers preparation. The believers preparation. Bow with me as we ask the Lord to bless our study. here tonight. Father, we come to you once again as we did just a few moments ago. And Father, we thank you for everything that you are. Lord, we thank you for the faith that was once for all delivered unto the saints. Father, we thank you for making it possible for us to believe and to repent. Lord, we thank you for giving us this nice place to worship you in today. Father, we thank you for your word. We thank you for those who compiled it. We thank you for those who first authored it. Father, we thank you for your Holy Spirit who guided their pen. as they wrote these words. And Lord, now we ask that your spirit would lead us and guide us in our study tonight. Lord, we promise to give you all the glory for anything that is accomplished. It's in your son's name we pray. Amen. The believers, preparation. Proverbs chapter six, verses six through eight says, go to the ant, thou sluggard, consider her ways and be wise, which having no guide, overseer or ruler, provided her meat in the summer and gather her food in the harvest. You see, the ant knows to go gather the food while the food's there for the gathering. Proverbs chapter 24 and verse 27 says, prepare thy work without and make it fit for thyself in the field and afterwards build thine house. First Peter 3 15 says but sanctify the Lord God in your hearts and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is within you with meekness and with fear. You see we are to prepare to share the hope that lies within us. Jesus Christ himself in Luke chapter 14 beginning of verse 28 says, For which of you, intending to build a tower, sitteth not down first and counteth the cost, whether he hath sufficient to finish it? lest happily after he had laid the foundation and is not able to finish it all that beheld behold is begun to mock him saying this man began to build and was not able to finish or what king going to make war against another king, sitteth not down first and consulteth whether he be able with 10,000 to meet him that cometh against him with 20,000. Or else, while the other is yet a great way off, he sendeth an ambassador and desireth conditions of peace. You see, from Old Testament to New Testament, we are called to prepare. Prepare for war. Prepare for the building of a house. Prepare to share the gospel. Each of us prepares in everything that we set out to do as human beings. We prepare to go to work. Students, you prepare to go to school. You prepare to take that test. You prepare. I know I do. Prepare to eat. We make room. Life is all about preparation, and our Christian life is no different. Preparation is exactly what Jude had in mind as he penned verses 17 through 21 of this great epistle. So now we must prepare and be ready to read and to listen and to study and to interpret and apply what we hear so that our consciences can be as Luther said be held captive to the word of God. The believers preparation I believe the first thing that we come to in this passage in verse seventeen is that believers must first of all remember. Believers must remember. Look back to verse seventeen. But beloved, remember ye the words which were spoken before of the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ. The Greek word used for This is not our parents reminding us of something here. And if you really dig down into the original language, which we must do to correctly interpret the scriptures, we will find that this word, remember, is written in the middle voice. And that means that Jude meant for the recipient of this letter, that's you and that's I, to have a high level of personal involvement with this remembering. He is saying more than just to simply remember like you would remember the score of the UT ballgame yesterday. He is saying to be actively and personally motivated to remember. Jude is telling us to be all in in remembering. But remembering what? Verse 17 tells us the words which were spoken before of the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ. Jude in verses 18 through 19 goes into much more detail of what we have really already covered. Jude is telling us to be personally involved in our own active remembering of all the apostles have told us up to this point the enemy it's almost as if Jude is telling us pointing to us pointing to the Bible pointing to the active study of the Word of God and pointing to us to say you better remember this remember what I have told you Remember how I described the apostate to you. Remember how I told you that we are winners in this battle already. Remember how I told you that we are to contend earnestly for the faith that was once and for all delivered. Jude is telling us to actively remember. He's telling us to recall what we have already studied. And what good is this? It keeps us from being caught off guard. You know, our soldiers do this on the battlefield all the time. That's why they have spy planes. And now you've seen a bunch of drones in this new Russia and Ukraine conflict. These drones with these high-tech cameras that have their eyes in the sky. And it allows soldiers to be able to study the enemy before they attack. And when the time comes for them to attack, you better believe that they recall all that they have studied, all that they have looked at, all those pictures, all those videos of that enemy, they actively recall it in their mind. They play it over and over and over again so that they can see their enemy spread out on the battlefield so that they can actively and accurately attack. Friends, we just spent the last five weeks studying about our enemy, the enemy that we are fighting, 25 different characteristics that Jude lays out for us in this epistle. And now Jude is saying, remember, remember this enemy that we have defined. This means we shouldn't be caught off guard when we see this enemy. This means that our enemy should not blindside us. This means that our enemy can be identified regardless of how well that the enemy tries to blend in in the church. But here's the sad thing about it. Christian after Christian because of laziness, find themselves in the midst of the battle trying to remember that which they never learned. So what happens? They get sucked into the deceiving works of our deceptive enemy. They get angry because of the murmuring and the complaining that the apostates have used to turn them against the church. They get to spinning in circles because they have followed that wandering star that had a moment of brilliance but yet vanished. in the sky, leaving them lost and turning in circle after circle after circle. This brings to light the importance of studying the scriptures because we can't remember that which we don't know and we can't fight those whom we can't identify. We must study so we can load our memory bank so that we can put those memories to work in the battlefield. Jude first of all says believers must remember. Secondly, Believers must build. Believers must build. Look to verse 20 of our passage. But ye, beloved, building up yourselves on your most holy faith. The key word here, of course, is building. It means to build upon a foundation using a pre-designed plan. This is not some dump-the-Legos-out-on-the-table type of building. This is carefully building upon a firm foundation while intentionally following a step-by-step instruction. And what is this foundation? Jude tells us, it's your most holy faith. Most holy or hagios in the Greek. It means set apart by the Lord. And faith, that's a God birthed faith. So we build upon a firm foundation of the most set apart, God birthed faith according to God's predetermined plan. The same faith that Jude mentions in verse 20 is the same exact faith that he is talking about in our key verse of this epistle in verse 3 when he said, 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 ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto thee. That phrase, which was once delivered unto the saints, we've looked at it one time before, and it is a wonderful mouthful of blessings. It is our faith. It was once delivered, hypox in the Greek. It speaks of something that is completed, that is accomplished, one time that has continuing and lasting results. Have we considered lately how that we have a faith that does not need a modern day prophet to interpret it. We have a faith that does not need a modern day antichrist to receive a new word from God. We have a faith given from the, we do not have a faith that is given from the Pope or any of these other apostates of today's time. We have a faith that was once delivered by God to the saints. It means nothing added, nothing taken away. It is perfect in its doctrine, relevant in its teachings. It's applicable in all circumstances. And it was once given by the inspiration of God. It is profitable for teaching. reproving, correction, and training in righteousness. It was once commanded to our fathers and sent through God's servants. Our faith was once said in the Spirit, Matthew says in chapter 22. It was once taught in the Spirit and not in human wisdom. It was once spoken to us by God, inspired by the Spirit, and written by the saints, Hebrews chapter 1. And we could go on and on with verse after verse that tells us about the origin of our faith and how that it does not rest in man but with our eternal God who literally breathed out his words for us in this wonderful book. It's in this book that contains our faith. It contains the Word of God. It's this book that Jude is calling us to build ourselves up both in the present and until the end of the age. You see, if you look back to verse 20, you will notice that this building up is not optional. Look back with me. It says, but ye, beloved, building up yourselves on your most holy faith. So all Christians everywhere are required to build their own faith. And we must make note here that it does not say pastors, build up the church's faith. Or parents, build up your children's faith. Or teachers, build up your students' faith. Or government, build up your citizens' faith. It says none of that. It is clear, building up yourselves on your most holy faith. So the responsibility of building your faith, your most holy faith, lies on you. It lies on me. You're responsible for building your faith. I'm responsible for building mine. We are personally responsible for building the faith that God gave to us. And the amazing thing is we're not alone in this building. God has given to us not only our faith, not only our Bible, but he has given us the interpreter of the Bible, the Holy Spirit, to reside in us, to never leave, to take up residence, permanent dwelling within us, and he will interpret the scriptures for us. This building up yourselves of your most holy faith It requires work. It requires some reading and studying and praying. We have all kinds of good helps and commentaries and study Bibles, all kinds of good God-given people such as pastors and teachers that will help us understand the Bible, but we must not take the responsibility of understanding it and give it totally to them. We must understand it for ourselves. We must study it. We must read it. We must try to interpret it. And we must apply it to our lives. It falls on us. You see, God's done his part. He gave us his word. He gave us his spirit. Now he's given us the orders to study it, to learn it. and to apply it. Believers must build your holy faith. Believers must first remember. Believers must next build, and thirdly, believers must pray. Believers must pray. Look back to verse 20 one more time. But ye, beloved, building up your most holy faith, praying in the holy So part of our preparation as believers before we enter in to this battle is to pray in the Holy Ghost. Now this is not some kind of apostolic denomination type of prayer where people are speaking gibberish and falling into convulsions on the floor. That's nonsense. Praying in the Holy Ghost means to pray according to the leading of the Spirit. Turn back with me to 1 John chapter 5. 1 John chapter 5, I want to show you just a passage that John revealed to us. 1 John chapter 5, since Scripture is the best interpreter of Scripture, which we must remember when we study the Bible, I'm going to look at a passage of scripture that gives us a clear picture of what praying in the Holy Ghost is. Look with me to verse 14, 1 John 5 and verse 14. And this is the confidence that we have in Him that if we ask anything according to His will, He heareth us. And if we know that He heareth us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of Him. This is praying in the Spirit. This is having our prayers yielded to the Spirit, praying in the will of God. You see, we read the Word of God, which, by the way, is the only way that God speaks to us. And any other person that claims that God speaks in any other way, they're either confused or apostate. Does he use other things to help us? Yeah. But we read the Bible to hear from God. That's the end of the story. And then, after we do that, we pray. We pray in the spirit. We must pray according to the scriptures. This is how we communicate to God. And anybody that is married knows how important communication is. It's a two-way street. God communicates to us through the Bible. We communicate to God through prayer. I ran across this quote and the source was not cited. So you English majors will just have to smack me on the hand later. Okay, but this source is not cited. I have no clue who said it, but it's great. It says prayer is not getting man's will done in heaven. It is getting God's will done on earth. And the only way that we can do this, the only way is to pray in the Holy Ghost. The Spirit, as we yield to Him, will join us as we pray, Romans chapter 8. The Spirit, as we yield to Him, will direct us in our knowledge and wisdom of the Word as we pray. That comes from Ephesians chapter 2. The Spirit, as we yield to Him, helps us approach the Father through the Son, we pray again Ephesians chapter 2 verse 18 the spirit as we yield to him will help us worship God as we pray Philippians chapter 3 in verse 3 the spirit as we yield to him listen to this will motivate us to pray Zechariah 12 10 MacArthur says this concerning praying in the Holy Ghost, and I quote, when we pray in the Holy Spirit, we submit ourselves to Him, rest on His wisdom, seek His will, and trust in His power. You see, friends, when we as believers completely yield to the Spirit, our prayers will always be in the will of God, so our prayers will always be answered. Believers must pray. To be prepared for this battle, believers must first of all remember. Believers must next build. Believers then must pray. And then number four on our list, believers must keep. Believers must keep. Turn back to Jude in verse 21. Jude. 21, Jude starts this verse out by saying, keep yourselves in the love of God. The word keep here, or tereo in the Greek, it has the idea of standing firm or persevering. So Jude is telling us as believers that in order for us to prepare for the battle that we are facing, we must stand firm in the love of God. This is his benevolent and undeserving but still given love. And how is it that we do that? The Apostle John tells us this back in 1 John chapter 2 verse 5. 1 John 2 and verse 5. John says, but whoso keepeth his word In him verily is the love of God perfected, hereby know we that we are in him. He that saith he abideth in him, ought himself also so to walk even as he walked. You see, our love for God is all wrapped up in our obedience to the Word. And this obedience is lived out in our walk. It's lived out in our life. It's lived out on the job site. It's lived out in the classroom. Only those who walk as Christ walked love God. There's no such thing as a rebel Christian. A person that has this rebel type of mindset to the things of God, you don't love God at all. Only those who keep his word and walk in it truly love him. And it's this keeping and walking that Jude is telling us to prepare ourselves with Think about that soldier once again getting ready to go to battle. Do they go into battle with a mindset that they are going to be obedient if they want to? If they do this, they're crazy because it could cost them their lives, or their fellow soldiers' lives. Think about what would happen if the commander tells them that the enemy is getting close, and to be quiet, and to hunker down, and to not move. What if they wanted to move just because they wanted to? They could cause the enemy to know their positions, and they'd get blown to smithereens. Their disobedience turned to defeat in an instant. We can't risk this in the church. We are at war. And in this war, every one of us, we must remain in the love of God by being obedient to all that God has told us to do. It only takes one church member bringing one apostate Bible study into the church to stay in the church. It only takes one church leader allowing one apostate speaker to come and to speak to stay in the church. Daddies, it only takes one time of you allowing your children to watch one apostate program for their minds to be stained. The battle we are facing, it is so serious. It is serious, and we must be serious about obeying our Master and Lord. We must keep ourselves in the love of God, the agape love of God, His benevolent love, His love that we're not deserving of, but yet He gave it to us. I'll leave you with this thought. And it's this, the temperature of our obedience measures the temperature of our love. Believers must keep. We must remember. We must build. We must pray. We must keep. And lastly, we must look. We must look. Look back to verse 21. Keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life. You see the present tense of this verb looking. It carries the idea of an active looking and not just a looking but a looking with expectation. It means to actively look for and to actively wait on. It's an earnest expectation. And if you look back to verse 21, we are to actively look for and earnestly wait on and to expect what? The mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ and to eternal life. We're talking about having an attitude of life that is motivated by lifting our eyes and our whole being up You see, as we go into the battle, there's no doubt that our eyes must be fixed on the enemy, but our heart is fixed on the hope that we have in Jesus Christ. Our hearts must be fixed on the hope of the deliverance from our sins. It must be fixed on the hope of the deliverance of the church from this sinful world. I want to share just a few verses with you that blessed my heart this past week about this hope. John in 1 John chapter 3 spoke of this hope when he said this beginning in verse 2, beloved or most beloved as John loved to say so many times, most beloved now are we the sons of God and it doth not appear what we shall be but we know that when he shall appear we shall be like him for we shall see him as he is and every man that hath this hope in him purifies himself even as he is pure. Paul says in Philippians chapter 3 beginning in verse 17, Brethren, be followers together of me, and mark them which walk so as ye have us for an example. For many walk, of whom I have told you often, and now tell you, even weeping, that they are enemies of the cross, whose end is destruction, whose God is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame, who mind earthly things. For our conversation is in heaven. From whence also we look for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body, according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things to himself. Paul again in 1 Thessalonians 5 beginning in verse 8. He says, But let us who are of the day be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love, and for in helmet the hope of salvation. For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ. who die for us, whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with him. Wherefore, comfort yourselves together and edify one another, even as also ye do. The writer of Hebrews, last one, the writer of Hebrews in chapter six, beginning in verse 17, he says this, wherein God, willing more abundantly to show unto the heirs of promise the immutability of his counsel, the unchangingness of his counsel, confirmed it by an oath that by two immutable things in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation. who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us. Listen to verse 19. Which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, and which entereth into that within the veil. The hope that the writer of Hebrews was talking about, he says it anchors our soul. And it's this same hope and it's this same anchor that Jude is commanding us to look to, that Jude is commanding us to hook up to, that Jude is commanding us to hold on to as we prepare to enter into this battle. Believers must look. We must remember that which has been taught to us according to the scriptures. Believers must build, build upon our most holy faith that was once delivered. and to the saints. Believers must pray. This is prayer in complete submission to the will of God because we're praying in the spirit. Believers must keep. This is a continual keeping ourselves in the love of God by being obedient to the word of God. Believers must look. This is a hopeful and a continual looking into the merciful return of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Now let's consider the believer's application. And for our application tonight, I want us to look back to the verbs used in this passage one more time. And as we do this, I think that we can draw two conclusions from the grammatics that Jude uses. Look back with me to Jude in verse 17. But beloved, Remember ye the words which are spoken before the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ, how that they told you there should be mockers in the last time, who should walk after their own ungodly lust. These be they who separate themselves, sensual, not having 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. So the five verbs we have keyed in on. Remember, building, praying, keep, and looking. All of these verbs, if you look back, are written in the present tense. And we know that the present tense means action now. So we can apply this message by this, by being presently involved in our preparation. The present tense of these verbs demands this. We must be presently, here and now, remembering that which has been taught to us according to the scriptures. We must be presently building upon the most holy faith that God in His grace and mercy has once for all delivered unto us. We must be presently, right here, right now, praying in the Spirit that is in complete subjection to the Word of God. We must be presently keeping, that is, keeping ourselves in the love of God by being obedient to the Word. We must be presently looking, that is, presently, right here, right now, in the midst of this battle, be looking for the merciful return of our Lord and Savior. Friends, if we are not presently doing these things, we are presently being disobedient. And worse than that, we are not presently prepared for the battle. And to go a step further, we may at this time be currently sucked into the deceptions of the enemy. We must be presently involved in our preparation. Secondly, We must not only be presently involved, but we must be personally involved in our preparation. You know, if you look back, and I'm no Greek major, I'm just a student like a lot of you all, but if you look back to the Greek language, you will see that the verbs are written in three voices. That's active, middle, and passive. The active voice, it is used when the subject of the sentence is the agent of the action. The middle voice is used when the subject is both the agent of the action and is somehow involved. It's a personal involvement, this middle voice. And then the passive voice is used to simply show that the subject is simply acted upon. So all of these verses we have considered tonight, they're either in the active or the middle voice. So that means that the subject of this letter, that's us, The subject of this letter, we are both the agent of the action and are being acted upon by the action. Let's put it in layman terms. We, the church, we're the recipients of this letter. We are to complete the actions described by these verbs in a personal way. We must be personally remembering that which has been taught to us according to the scriptures. We must be personally building, building our personal faith. We must be personally praying, praying in the spirit in complete submission to the word of God. We must be personally keeping, keeping ourselves in the love of God by keeping our nose in the word of God. We must be personally looking. This is individually looking to the return of our Lord and Savior, keeping our eyes and our hearts and our whole being focused on Him. We must be personally involved in our preparation. Friends, all fingers, they're directly pointed at you, in order for us to both be presently and personally involved in our preparation. You know what that means? It means we must do something. There's no doubt about it, that the church as a whole and some dear members of our church have become so apathetic to the things of God. So I directly ask you, And I have directly asked myself many times this week and tonight, are you, am I, are we willing to presently and personally be involved in the preparation of our hearts for the battle that we face, you, me, every single one of us. We are personally responsible to prepare ourselves for the battle. It's as if Jude, it's as if he's holding his Bible and he lays it out before you. He says, God gave it to you. God gives you the spirit. Now, what are you going to do with it? That's the gulf that we all stand in. God's given us everything that we need. Everything that he saw fit for us to have, he's given it to us. But it all comes down to obedience. It all comes down to submission. And friends, if we're not obedient in what Jude is telling us to do, we will lead our families down a road to destruction. We will lead our families in the ways of the apostates. This is nothing to joke around with. There may be someone here tonight that you're thinking, I don't know if I buy all that apostate stuff. I don't know if I buy what Jude is talking about. Well, I'll just submit to you, the Word of God says it. And anytime that we start questioning the Word of God, we should turn back and question ourselves. Where do we stand? Are we saved? Have we come to a place in our life to where we have saw ourselves as a sinner, a rotten, vile sinner whose righteousness is as filthy rags, the most nasty, disgusting rags that you can think about. That's what our righteousness is before a holy God who, in his own attributes, must send us to the pit of hell for the sins that we commit. But yet, he was merciful. He was rich in His mercy. He provided His Son, Jesus Christ, to die on that cross for us, being that propitiation for our sins. And what does He require of us? He requires that we repent and believe. But it gets even better. He makes it possible for us to repent and believe. I don't know of a more comforting thought than that, than to know that God Almighty authored my faith. He paved the road for me. And all I had to do was trust him. And the reason it was easy is because he'd done it all for me. So I ask you, where do you place your faith and trust in? I hope it's not in the world. Because the world, as many have said many times before, Dustin will like this, it's going to hell in a handbasket. Hell in a handbasket. It's my prayer that nobody in here goes to hell. But there's two places. And it all comes down to a choice. Will we submit to the command of the gospel or not? If the answer is no, you'll go to hell. I don't know if it'd be in a handbasket or not, but you'll burn for the rest of eternity. God with me as we pray. Father, Lord, we love you. And we're so thankful that you had great men of God like Jude and Paul and Peter, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John and all the great men that wrote the scriptures for us. We are so thankful for them. Father, we're thankful for the people through the years that translated the scriptures into languages that we could read. We are thankful that they took the scriptures from the hand of the Catholic Church and the priest who kept it all to themselves and preached their own ideas and preached their opinions. And Father, I'm thankful that they translated it into the English language so that I could learn it, so that I could hold it, so that I could read it and study it. Father, we thank you for this church. We thank you for how it stands on the Word of God. Father, we thank you for the challenge that we've been given tonight. through your word. Lord, I pray that we would be serious about the apostates that are all around us. I pray that we would prepare ourselves for the battle that we face. I pray that we would take that responsibility and we would be faithful in fulfilling it. Lord, we love you. It's in your son's name we pray.