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have him preach. Brother, come
preach what the Lord has given to you. Thank you, Pastor. Thank you very much. Okay. I've often said that for a preacher, one of the greatest
forms of self-flattery would be to expect that somebody remembered
what you preached. I get asked once in a while,
when I was there last week what did you preach then? I knew then what I was preaching
but it's to think back on it. So, for a preacher to expect
that somebody would remember. Now, I do know there are people
that when you use a text they mark it in their Bible. Anybody
like to do that? Mark it in your Bible and who
preached it and such as that? So, maybe somebody did that.
Now, the reason I'm saying all that is two years ago I Now, you know, if we talk about
two weeks ago, we'd have trouble saying, oh, what was it? But
two years ago on this night, I was here at this church, and
I'm going to use the exact same text tonight that I did then. And some of you are probably
saying, well, it's probably because you messed it up and you want
to try to get it right. And I may have, but that's not it. We're
just taking a, we're gonna, I've got it, actually, this text,
I have it divided into about four parts. And so I'm gonna,
did part one the last time I was here, I wanna do part two tonight.
And it's found in the book of Jude, if you'd open your Bibles
there, in the little book of Jude. And while you're turning
there, I can go ahead and, with a little bit of a background
here because in the book of Jude we understand this, Jude set
out to write a devotional letter. He was going to encourage the
Saints and write to them in verse 3 of the common salvation. So I'm allowing that he was considering
a devotional letter of a letter that would help them all rejoice
together in the common salvation. Somebody says, what's the common
salvation? Well, are you saved? Are you saved? Well you all got
saved the same way. That's what we're talking about.
And I got saved when I was six years old. The Apostle Paul considerable
before me and a lot older than me. And I never had a Damascus
Road experience where I got knocked off a horse or a beast and where
I was blinded and heard the voice of God from Heaven. I never had
that experience. But Paul and I got saved the
same way by acknowledging our sin and our dependence upon Jesus
Christ. That's the common salvation.
So, he wanted to write a letter, but he said, I couldn't. The
Holy Ghost stopped him. instead he said, verse 3, I gave
diligence to write, but it was needful for me to write unto
you, and exhort you that ye should earnestly contend for the faith
which was once delivered to the saints. And the faith once delivered
to the saints is what we know as the body of truth that is
the Gospel of Jesus Christ. And so he said, I had to, I couldn't
write a devotional letter about how wonderful it is to be saved
and how we got saved. I had to write to you and exhort
you to earnestly contend for the faith. Now, if Jude is writing
by inspiration of the Holy Ghost and exhorting them to contend
for the faith, what is, what is he saying? What does that
say? It says the faith was under attack. Why else would you exhort
the people, earnestly contend for the faith, unless the faith
was under attack? And indeed it was. Because what
Jude does, beginning in verse number four, if I can explain,
I think I probably did it before, but not that anybody remember,
I'm just saying, that is, if you begin in verse number four,
go all the way down to verse number 19, watch me now, here's
what Jude is doing. cover off the false teachers,
and exposing their heresy, their error, and their motive, and
the fact that they are in line for the judgment of God. he does
that. And that's basically what he's
doing. People need to know false teachers exist. They did then,
they do now. Just like Jesus said they would.
Like John the Beloved said they would in the book of I John.
And so, so he is causing the people to confronting them with
the reality that false teachers are attacking the truth. The Apostle Paul put it this
way. He said, you got to be careful and you got to pay attention
to those that preach another Jesus. Now, if somebody's preaching
another Jesus, it's not the Jesus. Somebody help me, please. And
they preach another gospel. If they're not preaching the
gospel, but another gospel, then it's a false gospel. and they
are of another spirit. Now, if it's not the Holy Spirit,
then it's an unclean spirit. Is everybody with me here? Okay,
so they do exist. So what Jude is doing, I mean,
he lets them have it. I don't have time. If I get started,
I can never get off the subject in time for us to get to where
we're going in tonight. But I'm just telling you, he
makes it clear that these people have set themselves against the
truth of God and God is gonna deal with them accordingly. And
in no uncertain terms, he says that. So you come down to verse
number 19, and this is the end of what I would call a Holy Ghost-inspired
tirade, because this isn't a fleshly matter. Jude's not just a mad
preacher. And we all ought to hate the
truth. My life verse is Psalm 119, 128. Therefore, esteem all
thy precepts concerning everything to be right, and I hate every
false way. And so that's where Jude was,
he hated them. But this isn't the word of just
an upset preacher here. This is the Holy Spirit of God.
And look how he ends the tirade in verse 19. These be they who
separate themselves, sensual having not the Spirit. If you
say that in today's time and contemporary Christianity, there
would be a plenty people that would say, who are you to judge? And they kind of buy in the mentality
of the culture, you know, that if that's what you believe, then
it's right for you. And if that's what you believe,
then that's right for you. Yeah, but the Bible says, I know,
but this is truth for me. You'll never get that to fit
with the truth of the Word of God ever, ever. No, sir, this
is truth. And so Jude tells them that they
are sensual, reminds them that these false teachers, they're
not being led by the Spirit of God. It is sensual, selfishly
carnally motivated. In verse number 20, the tone
of the letter changes completely, where he says, but you, beloved,
see how it changes? a Holy Ghost inspired tirade
against false teaching and the false teachers to the beloved. Who are the beloved? What does
that mean anyway? Well, if my wife is here, I would
say, it wouldn't be unusual or inappropriate for me to say,
I want to introduce my beloved wife. What does that mean? It
means I love the woman. You would hope, wouldn't you?
But anyway, that's what the term means. beloved or our beloved
children. We have three children and even,
you know, another level up, beloved grandchildren. That's really
good stuff there. And we got five great-grandchildren.
Well, what do you mean when you say you're, well, they're a part
of our loved ones. So who are the beloved in the
scripture? The loved ones of God. Those that have received
the gift of God, which is eternal life through Jesus Christ our
Lord, and we enter into this relationship with God, he's the
father, we are his children, we are his beloved children,
see? And so Jude says, but ye, beloved,
as opposed to the false teachers and how God exposes and deals
with them, but ye, beloved, building up yourselves on your most holy
faith, in the Holy Ghost, keep yourselves in the love of God."
Now that's as far as we got here two years ago, right there, stopped
right there. Keep yourselves in the love of
God. Looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal
life. And if some have compassion,
making a difference. and others saved with fear, pulling
them out of the fire, hating even the garments spotted by
the flesh. Now unto him that is able to keep you from falling
and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory
with exceeding joy, to the only wise God our Savior be glory
and majesty, dominion and power, both now and ever, and even people
that don't say amen ought to say it right here. Amen. Yes,
sir. want you to go back to verse
21 and this is at the heart of verse 19 through 23. His conclusion
or the doxology is verse 24 and 25. But what he is saying to
the beloved is in verse 20 through 23, here as is at the heart,
we call it in our preaching class, the central idea of the text.
This is what he is talking about right here. This is central to
why these four verses are here. Look at the words. Beloved, keep
yourselves in the love of God. And then what he says right before
that, and what he says right after that, in verse number 21
through 23, is directly related to that line right there. This
is about the beloved keeping themselves in the love of God. Father, we ask your blessings
in a wonderful way now upon the remaining time that we have together
in your word this evening, and we'll praise you for it in Jesus'
name, amen. Keep yourselves in the love of
God. Let's dispense with a problem that this verse presents to some. It shouldn't, but it does to
some. Keep yourselves in the love of God. And just a casual
reading of it, a person might think, okay, then it's my job
to keep myself in, well, for God to love me. I have to live
a certain way to be in the love of God, or for God to love me.
Now let's just clear this up right now. Because if you're
a true Bible reader, then you can see there's already an issue,
you got some kind of problem with that. If we think that we
can do something to cause the love of God to be upon us. And
we remember and understand from the Lord God, that when we were
yet sinners, Christ died for us. God commended his love toward
us, and that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
So the reality is, you didn't do one thing for God to love
you. I have not done one thing for God to love me. The second
verse of that is, I can't do anything for God to keep loving
me. He loves us because of himself, not because of something innate. within us that we have deserved
or earned the love of God. One of the ways I like to look
at this and use it is when God is speaking to Israel through
Moses in the book of Deuteronomy and it's chapter six where he
is speaking to Israel about his love for them. And he said to
the nation of Israel, I didn't set my love upon you because
you're more in number than any other nation. In other words,
God didn't say, I don't love you because of this, and then
make a list of all the reasons he loved them. Well, then somebody
might ask, why did he love them? All right, here's his answer.
But because I love you. So why did God love Israel? Because
he did. And if you're sitting there saying,
that's no answer, it's a good answer if that's what God said.
And that's exactly what God said. That he didn't look upon the
nation of Israel and say, oh, what a lovable people. If you've
read your Bible about the second grade level, you figured that
out. They're not that lovable a people. But then if we understand
the Bible clearly, then we understand neither were we, neither are
we. and yet he loves us. So whatever
he is saying here, he is not saying it's up to you now to
keep God loving you. That contradicts the revelation
of the Bible from the beginning to the end. That's not a fact
that we can do anything to earn the love of God. He loves us
because God is love. That's it. But I have everything
to say about whether I love God or not. I have no say about His
love for me. He loved me when I was lost.
He loved me when I was yet in my sin. He loved you in the same
way. And so you have nothing to say
about whether He loves you, even when we go astray. Read how Jesus
deals with the disciples. I don't have time to stop and
talk about this, but if you'll read after their failures, Jesus
confronted them about their failures and he dealt with them, but it
was always in grace and mercy and love and kindness. Why? Because having loved his
own, he loved them to the end, the Word of God says. See, that's
him. We don't earn the love of God,
but we do decide what we love or whom we love. That's up to
you. And so to keep yourself in the
love of God doesn't mean keep God loving you, but keep yourself
loving God. Now, how many of you got saved?
You can remember, you can remember, I actually remember when you
got saved, okay. Did anybody have to tell you to love God
when you got saved? I'm talking about when light
replaced darkness, when truth replaced lies, I mean, when God
moved into you by the Holy Ghost and shed abroad His love in your
heart by the Holy Ghost, Romans chapter 5, when God moved into
you and saved you from your sin, did anybody have to say to you,
now you need to love God? Probably not, because you love
God. How could you just have your
sins forgiven and not love God? How could you halfway understand? I have just passed from eternal
death to eternal life. How could you receive that and
not love God? How could you be under the burden and the guilt
of sin, the condemnation of sin, and now you are free from sin
and not love God? See, so nobody had to tell you
to love God anymore than they had to tell me. Sammy, that was
what they called me then. Not now, please, thank you. But
Sammy, you need to love your daddy. Nobody had to tell me
to love my daddy. You kidding me? If a child does
not love their father, something real, real perverse and weird
is going on. See, so you don't have to tell
a child to love their parent. And when you got saved, you loved
God. But I dare say that if most of
us, probably all of us, had, let's say, a chart put up, I
can clearly remember using this the last time I was here. And
that is when I used to work in a cafeteria, a nice high-class
cafeteria in Springfield, Missouri, and I was in Bible college when
it was, quote, cool to go to cafeterias. Last time I tried
to take my wife to a cafeteria, she said, I'm not going there.
I said, well, what's wrong? Why? Only old people go there,
so she didn't want to go. And so, anyway, but I remember
I had to clean up after business meetings and such like that they
had in some of these rooms, and they'd have these flip charts
there. And on these flip charts, they would, I guess, be showing
loss and, I mean, I'm sorry, profit and loss, gain and decline,
on and on, sales are up, sales are down. And they would have
these charts, and they looked like a meter, you know, on a,
and a heart, what's that heart thing, you know, that goes up
and down like that? And that's kind of what it looked like,
up and down, up and down, sails are up, sails are down, sails
are way up, sails are a little down, on and on, it looked like
that. And I thought, I'm ashamed of this, but if they put the
chart of my life and measured my love for God from the time
I got saved until to this present day, I'm afraid there'd be too
many peaks and valleys meaning I was really in love with God
here and less here, and really and truly in love with God here
and less here, and love here, up and down, up and down. And
somebody say, well, what are you doing up there preaching
for? Well, because I'm not a finished process, a project, and neither
are you. But what Jude is saying is, in
the midst of all the confusion of the day, which it was there
politically, it was a political chaos in the days of the Jews,
it was a mess theologically because of the false teachers and the
damage they were doing among the young believers and in young
churches. I mean, it was a day of difficulty.
But Jude settles down and he says to the saints of God, but
you, focus on this. Keep yourselves in the love of
God. Keep yourself in love with God. Let's get rid of the peats and
the valleys. especially teenage years, most of you could relate
to the ups and downs and the process of growing up and going
through those years. And I can remember that we'd
have a revival in our church at the fall, and man, the preacher
would come and preach, and I loved it, I loved it. If I could, I'd
sit right there where David is, or where the preacher is right
there, I love front row. And the more, the louder they
preach, the better I like it. Preachers with cowboy boots from
Texas come up to Oklahoma, Our preacher, our pastor was from
Texas. He had all those guys come up, man, they would preach
and they were loud and they spit about four rows back. And they
were, I mean, they were go-getters. You know, I thought, man, that's
real preaching. And we get done with our revival, man, my love
for God, I couldn't wait to go to school and talk to my friends.
I brought friends to revival. Some of my friends got saved.
I got to lead a couple to the Lord. But you know, that was
in September, and long about the time of Christmastime, well,
I mean, a whole lot's going on, and my friends aren't really
where I am in this Bible and being a Christian stuff, and
so there were times I loved the approval of my friends more than
I loved God. Maybe some of you can Relate
to that And then there were times that I remember when I got a
car I have to say this is ridiculous a car for crying out loud But
I got this car and it was a slick one. I mean it was a 50 chevy,
man I wish I'd have kept that thing. It was a 1961 had 26,000
miles on it when my dad went to pick it up. He wouldn't let
me get a v8 Nope, he said you're not getting a v8 as long as you're
living at my house because they're too much power And so he said
no and he bought this car and he bought it off an old lady
The car was 11 years old and had 26,000 miles on it. And so
he bought it off his grandma and it looked just like a grandma's
car. But I had a vision. I know what to do with this car.
It ain't gonna look like a grandma's car by the time I get done with
it. And it didn't. So I had this
car, man, I was so happy to have my own car. I probably loved
it more than I loved God at times. Now, don't look at me like you
pig and you heathen. You can love your property and
your house more than you love God at times. And a car, and
that boat, and that lake house, or whatever you want to talk
about, the stuff and the things of this world that go up and
down. And then we'd have my dad go to youth camp. That's when
I told my dad, Dad, I'm not going to camp this year. I would be
16 soon. I'm not going to camp. My dad
said, boy, you're going to camp. I said, I believe I will. So
I went to camp. And I went to camp and I got right with God
and I surrendered to preach about two weeks after camp. And I mean,
I was moving along and I was a testimony and a witness at
school. And then Sandra, my wife, her family came and joined our
church. And she and her brother doubled our youth department,
because it was just my sister and me, and there wasn't much
harmony in our youth department, you know. And so, anyway, it
doubled, and here came Sandra. And she was singing up in the
choir with about eight people, and I'm sitting right about where
you are, Austin, right there by one of my dad's good friends.
I was sitting there, and I looked up there, and I saw Sandra up
there singing, and that head kind of sheepishly down, and
a sweetness on her face. And I sat there, I was 17 years
old, And I sat there and I just, I said, that's her. I'm going to marry that girl.
And it wasn't like, I'll marry that girl. No, it wasn't that.
It scared me to death. I couldn't even go talk to her.
I'd get sick of my stomach thinking about talking to her. I had to
have my little sister who caused me all kinds of problems. I had
to have her go talk to my, to Sandra to even get us together. I couldn't handle it myself.
Yeah. And she came into my life and
took over. She did. Because I do believe,
I mean, I don't know when I actually began to love her like a man
ought to love a woman or not, but I loved her more than I did
God. And it wasn't her fault. It wasn't
her fault. She just being her sweet self.
It was me that lost my mind. and everything, yeah, up and
down. Is everybody with me here? Up
and down, up and down, up and down, up and down. You know what
Jude says? Let's stop that. Beloved, keep
yourselves in love with God. Set your affection on things
above, not on things on the earth. Love not the world, neither the
things that are in this world. If any man loved the world, the
love of the Father is not in him. In other words, you can't
have it equal where you love the things of this life and the
things of the world equal to what you love God. That is an
insult to God. And what is the first and great
commandment? Does anybody know? It's in the King James, so we
may not be able to understand it. But let's try. Thou shalt
love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul,
and with all thy mind. Now that is clearly stated by
Jesus. What is the first and great commandment?
And he didn't stutter. He said, Thou shalt love the
Lord thy God with heart, soul, and mind. And the second is like
unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. And on these
two commandments hang all the law and the prophets. So there's
a fairly important subject we have here. Keeping ourselves
in love with God. And we know that we should. And
we know those ups and downs shouldn't be there, don't we? We know that. At least me and the preacher
do. But we know those shouldn't be there. How do you get there? That's what I love about the
plainness and the clarity of this passage. Because what he
says is how it is that a person stays in love with God. Now look
in verse number 20. Verse 20, build up yourselves
on your most holy faith. And I preached most of the sermon
the last time, two years ago about that. Exercise in the word
of God. Nobody's, excuse me just a second.
Nobody's gonna ignore this book, the precious word of God, and
love God more. Nobody is going to ignore this
book without loving God less. It's just not going to happen.
And so that's what he is saying there. I don't have time to build
the case again, but build up yourselves on your most holy
faith, exercise in the Word of God. Secondly, he says, praying
in the Holy Ghost. which has nothing to do with
something strange and weird and some zap where somebody speaks
and nobody knows what they're saying and they say he's full
of Holy Ghost spoken tongues. Excuse me. That's not even remotely
related to tongues in the New Testament at all, at all. I said
at all. It's not even, what they call
tongues today is not even a distant cousin to what's here. Word of
God. What does it mean praying in
the Holy Ghost? Likewise, here's what Paul said, likewise also
the Spirit helpeth our infirmities. For we know not what we should
pray for as we are, but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for
us with groanings which cannot be uttered. And he that searcheth
the heart knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because he
maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God.
So what does that mean? Well, we don't go to God and
tell Him how to do things. We We do not go to God and demand
anything of Him. But we do go to God desiring,
as Jesus did, for the Father's will to be done. And let's face
it, we don't always know the Father's will. At lunch today, I got a phone
call and I called a guy back later after lunch and he told
me a situation they were in and wanted to know if I could work
it out and be there and such as that. And I said, well, it's
gonna take some doing, but we've got about eight days before a
decision has to be made. So he's gonna pray about it and
I'm gonna pray about it. And so we're gonna both pray
about it. My wife got involved in it. I was talking to her later
because this is gonna rearrange some plans that she had. And
so therefore, I got her praying about it too. And the truth of
the matter is, I couldn't sit there and say, this is of God
that I do this. And there's not a verse in the
Bible that says I have to do what he's asking me to do. There's
not a verse in the Bible that says he's gonna be out of the
will of God if he didn't ask me. We're both just seeking the
will of God. So what do you do? We don't go tell God how to do
it. We just say to God, know. You know what's right. You know
what would best serve your purposes. Not my calendar, not His wishes,
not His desire, not even what my beloved wife wants. It's not the most important thing.
What is the will of God? So you go to God and you pray
independent upon the intercessory work of the Holy Spirit of God
who knows the will of God and makes intercession for us according
to the will of God. So to pray independence upon
him. So how will you make a final
decision? I don't know. But I know the Holy Ghost is
in here. And I know my wife is a spirit-filled lady. And I know
the preacher I'm talking to is a spirit-filled man. So I'm just
allowing like he has done over and over and over and over again. He'll bear witness by the Holy
Spirit. That's what the Holy Spirit in
us does, bears witness to the truth, bears witness to the will
of God, and gives prompting to his saints to act according to
his will. That's praying in the Holy Ghost.
I think the bigger question is, do we pray? And that's what I
preached the rest of the sermon on two years ago about our prayer
life. Excuse me, just say, no love
relationship thrives without meaningful communion. And we
got people in this room today that have been married longer
than I have. My wife and I have been married 57, we're growing
up 58 years, and I've already met some that have been married
60 plus, 60 plus years. We have dear, a man that used
to be on our church staff, Bill and Joy Chevron. They got married
when they were 18. They have now been married 70
years. 70 years. Wow. And you ought to see them together,
and you ought to hear them talk together. And she looks after
him. Good gracious sakes, that guy's
so spoiled, it's just unbelievable. She loves that man, and he loves
her. But no love relationship thrives
without meaningful communion, meaningful communication. I emphasize
the word meaningful, because there's a difference in saying,
oh man, I gotta hurry, but I haven't had my prayers yet prayed, and
off we go. You can say your prayers to pacify
your conscience, that's not the same as meaningful communion. There are times, Sandra and I,
we drive a lot these days, and so we're together a lot that
way, and I love it, but there are times we chat a little here,
chat a little there, a little small talk, and she'll read,
and I'll talk and listen to my music, or a sermon, or something
like that, and we might just say this or that along the way,
and then there are times that the noise has to stop, that the
music is not on, there's not anybody preaching, and she and
I get into this very meaningful communication. Well, that's where
love grows right there. I said, that's how it happens.
And there are people that expect to know and sense and feel the
presence of God and the love of God, but totally ignore meaningful
communion with Him. parents and children, or a wife
and husband, or good friends, no love relationship thrives
without meaningful communion. You will not play games in your
prayer life and love Him more. Amen. Why did it get so quiet
in here? I don't know. But anyway, look
on. Now, what are we talking about? Well, we're talking about
the main thing, verse 21. Verse what He says, Keep yourselves in the love of
God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal
life. Well, what's that have to do
with anything? It has to do with keeping yourself in love with
God. That's what he's talking about. Is everybody with me here?
If we can't agree on this central idea here, then I'm just gonna
say a bunch of words. But if we understand what he's
trying to do is help us. Help us understand that if we're
gonna stay in love with God like we're supposed to, and love him
as Jesus said the first commandment requires, it's not gonna happen
without exercising the word, and it's not gonna happen without
meaningful communion, and it's not gonna happen if we are not
looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ eternal life. Now, about that line, I went
for a long time just assuming that that meant the second coming
of Jesus Christ. And Pastor, assuming, everybody
else assumed the same thing. And then when I got to working
on it one time in a little different way and started the little series
I'm talking about here, then I thought, you know, I need to
look into this and make sure I'm right because I could read
it and sure, that's what it looks like to me, but is it so? So
what I did is I did some digging into this phrase, looking for
the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life. And there
wasn't a whole lot said about it by commentators and such as
that. And so here's what I did. I told you before, I'm big into
looking up definitions and such as that. And probably if you
said to the average person, I was just looking in a Bible, good
Bible dictionary, to see what it means looking unto. You have
to look in a dictionary to see what it means to look into or
unto or to look for? You have to look that up? Yeah,
I know, it's pretty sad, isn't it? But it's not because I have
no mental capacity. No, I don't have exceptional
mental capacity, but I wanna be true to what's the scripture
say. And so when I looked this up, I found out that looking
unto these words that we have here, it has to do with anticipation. This is no surprise, but it has
to do with anticipation of something ahead. Or, watch this now, anticipation
of a promise made being fulfilled. That's what he's talking about.
So what we then want to do is look at this and say, Jude is
talking about staying in love with the Lord, and he has said,
look unto the mercy of our Lord Jesus, looking for the mercy
of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life. Well, then the
question comes is, did Jesus give his disciples then and all
subsequent disciples? Did he give us any reason to
look ahead to something that he promised? Now, he did promise them something.
He told them, I'm gonna go to Jerusalem, be delivered into
the hands of sinners, and the publicans, and the enemies, and
I'm gonna be killed. That's what he said. He made that promise. That's
when Peter got ahold of him, no, no, no. Peter said, no, this
shall not be unto you, not under my watch. This ain't gonna happen. and there's a whole lot of preaching
that should be done about that, but I'm just saying, Peter said
that. No. But he said, no, I'm going
to Jerusalem. So one thing we know, if Jesus
said, I'm gonna go to Jerusalem, and I'm gonna be delivered into
the hands of people that hate me, and I'm gonna be crucified
or killed, if he said that was gonna happen, then we know already,
you might as well take that to the bank. Because he doesn't
say things just to say things. And he didn't make that statement
and then expect them not to believe it was gonna happen. He fully
meant for them to understand this is gonna happen. But that's
already happened. So how could you and I take Jude's
words that already happened by the time Jude wrote? And he is
saying to the saints then, to the saints as it lives in the
word of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ
unto eternal life. What has he given us to look
forward to that hasn't come to pass? Well, you study that yourself. And what I found out is this,
that Jesus, well, he said to them, as they were troubled about
his coming death, he said, let not your heart be troubled. You
believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father's house are
many mansions. If it were not so, I would have
told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go to prepare
a place for you, come on now, here it is again. It's King James,
but if you think real hard, I think we can get it. He said, I will
come again. Now you may need some real experts
to figure out what that means, but I think the Bible makes it
pretty clear what it means. When he says, don't let your
heart be troubled. I'm gonna go to prepare a place
for you. And this is after his death. And then when I go to
prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you unto
myself that where I am there ye may be also. Now that's a
promise that has yet to be fulfilled. And we call that the second coming
of Jesus. Naturally, the second coming
of Jesus, in spite of all the effort of the devil to confuse
the issue, and it seems to come in waves, and there's a wave
of it going on right now, but when we talk about the second
coming of Jesus, we understand that Jesus is gonna come again,
and we're gonna be caught up to be with him, and go to be
with the Lord. there is a time He is coming
from Heaven to this earth and He is going to rule and reign
for 1,000 years and we are coming with Him. So when we say the
Second Coming we are talking about the whole package. We are
talking about the Rapture where the word Rapture is in even the
Bible. Oh, Ravon for crying out loud. The definition of it is I will
come again and receive you unto Myself. That is the definition
of Rapture. The apostle Paul said, let not your heart be troubled. No, let's see, what did he say?
There in 1 Thessalonians in chapter four, how was it he put that?
How's that start? I would not have you to be ignorant,
brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that your sorrow
not, even as others which have no hope. For if we believe that
Jesus died and rose again from the dead, even so them also which
sleep in Jesus will God bring with him. For this we say unto
you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain
under the coming of the Lord shall not prevent or proceed.
Them which are asleep for the Lord himself shall descend from
heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, with
the trump of God, and the dead in Christ shall rise first. Then
we which are alive and remain shall be caught up. That's the
definition of rapture. The word rapture isn't there.
caught up, that's the definition of the word rapture. If somebody
doesn't say amen, I'm gonna preach this for about a half an hour.
I mean, he said he will come again and receive us unto himself,
and that's where we're gonna go and be with the Lord. Jesus
is coming again. There are 7,957 verses in the
New Testament. 7,957. One, as it averages out, one
in every 25 verses is going to confront us on an average about
the coming of Jesus Christ. That would be in the New Testament
318 times. So 318 times in the New Testament,
if you just read the New Testament, I'm just starting Matthew, and
read through the Revelation, there are no less than 318 times
that we are gonna be confronted with the reality that Jesus is
coming again. And that's what he is talking
about. The apostle Paul wrote in the book of 1 Corinthians
in chapter 15, he said, behold, I show you a mystery. We shall
not all sleep, but we shall all be changed. In a moment, the
twinkling of an eye at the last trumpet, the trumpet shall sound,
and the dead shall be raised incorruptible. For this corruptible
must put on incorruption, this mortal must put on immortality. So when this corruption shall
have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on
immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying, O death,
where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? The sting of death is sin, and
the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be unto God, which
giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. He's talking
about the coming of Jesus. moment, in the twinkling of an
eye, the imminent anytime return of Jesus Christ. Oh, it's amazing. Paul wrote in the Philippians,
and he said to the Philippians, he said, that when Jesus comes,
He said He is going to change this vile body that it might
be fashioned like unto His own glorious body by the same working
whereunto He is able even to subdue all things unto Himself.
So what is he talking about? He said, our conversation or
our citizenship is in heaven, from which we look for the Savior,
the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall change this vile body, that it
may be fashioned like unto his own glorious body. That's what
the Apostle Paul said. Jesus is coming. Now don't get
too excited. We're just talking about Jesus actually, literally
coming. It's nothing to get worked up
about. It's just a reality that could happen at any second. For the grace of God to bring
us salvation has appeared unto all men, teaching us that denying
ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously,
and godly in this present world, looking for that blessed hope
and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Savior,
Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us, that he might redeem
us from all iniquity and purify unto himself a peculiar people,
zealous of good works. What did he say? He said, Jesus
is coming again. That's what he said. He's coming. 318 times in the New Testament
we're confronted with it. Don't you love the words of John
when he said, behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed
upon us that we should be called the sons of God. Now again, let
me calm you down a little bit, not get too excited. We're just
God's children. God who is God is our Father.
We call Him our Father. Jesus taught us to pray. When
thou prayest, enter into thy closet and shut the door and
say this, our Father. And if you're ever having trouble
with self-esteem, why don't you go in the closet and go to God
and say, Father, and then think about what you just said. That
on the authority of His Word, you called the God who is your
Father. calls you as a believer in Jesus,
His child. Now calm down. Don't get excited. We're just talking about the
relationship that we have with God. Oh, and that's why John
said, behold. He said, behold is not a No,
it's passion. Behold what manner of love the
Father has bestowed upon us. Therefore the world knoweth us
not, because it knew him not. Beloved, now are we the sons
of God, the children of God. Now are we the sons of God. It
doth not yet 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. Oh yeah, he's coming, absolutely. Well, why are we
talking about all this? It's directly related to keeping
ourselves in love with God. It's directly related to that.
Excuse me, do you think if a person goes along long stretches of
time and they are not living with any expectancy of Jesus'
return, their love for Him is growing? Because if they're not focused
on His coming, where is their focus? I said if they're not
focused upon Jesus, if they're not focused upon His promise,
if they're not looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ
and to eternal life, if there's no anticipation of that, then
where is their focus? Probably here. Probably things
here. Stuff here. Duties here. Activities
here. Money here. On and on. Relationships here. And that's why he says, set your
affection on things above. Looking for the mercy of our
Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life. And it has everything to
do with whether we're staying in anticipation has to do with
the expectation that Jesus is coming again. We are thinking
of him. He is going to come. He gave us every reason to believe
it. In 1966, Sandra and I got married. In 1967, we graduated from Bible
College. And they had given me a diploma
at the graduation, but they said if I really wanted anything on
it, I should stay for summer school and do a couple of courses.
Okay, so I'd messed up some grades. But anyway, so I stayed for summer
school. at the end of summer school during
that summer the pastor that was a childhood hero of mine that
preached the revival meetings in our courthouse park in our
hometown that God used to get our church started and all it's
a it's an incredible story I don't have time to tell it all well
he came and he said to me Sam you and Sandy need to come and
visit City, that's the southeast Oklahoma
City suburb. You need to come and I'll talk to you when you
get there. So you come on this weekend." I said, well, I don't
think my job, I doubt if I can get off to come. He said, then
quit your job and come. He was not a real patient man.
So he said, then quit your job and come. And I said, yes, sir.
So I went and told my boss and he said, yeah, go ahead. So I
went off and went down there and I And he had me give a devotion
to some men. And he talked to me, took me
to his house. And that night he said, well,
you and Sandy need to go back. And now that you're finished
with your summer course, he said, get your stuff together and quit
your jobs and get down here. The sooner the better. And I
said, okay. He didn't say anything about
here's what we'll pay, here's what your job is. He didn't say
anything. He just said do it. So I said, OK, and we're driving
back to Springfield, Missouri. And I said, did he just hire
us? Or what are we doing? She said, I don't know what we're
doing. So we both agreed we didn't know what was going on. But we
did move down there. And they had a house. The church
owned homes. So he gave me the responsibility
of starting an adult Sunday school class. telling the pastor and
the guys on Monday that when I started this class I could
have nobody that just came in off the street to visit the church.
None of them could come to my class. I could only have the
people not from any other class in the church I had it could
only be people that Sandra and I brought to church. And we're
going to build a class with them. And if in one year the class
does not pay my salary then I can go find another job somewhere.
And that was how it was. And he meant it. He meant it.
And so I told them the upside of that is I didn't get paid
much. So it wasn't quite as hard as you might think, you know.
But it was a challenge. Well, in the midst of that, we
both volunteered for a bus route and started working a bus route.
She over in Midwest City. She over in, yeah, North Dale
City and North Midwest City. I over in Central and South Midwest
City, Oklahoma, a suburb there by Tinker Air Force Base, a big
area all attached to Oklahoma City. So anyway, we started a
bus route. Well, there were many military
personnel that lived off base, married men. And so in knocking
doors and trying to build a bus route, I'd find prospects. And
so that's how we built a class, just like that. And so I can
remember early on I'd probably been there two to three years,
somewhere right in there. And I had two couples, now these
two couples, there was more than this, but two couples that were
military and neither one of them were members of our church yet.
I think one of them needed to be saved, one of the men, the
others professed to be saved. And so I was just working with
them along. And teaching the class and visiting their home
and trying to encourage and such as that. Well, about like that,
the men got called up, these two men got called up to go TDY.
And that means they're going to be gone from their military
guys know what that's about. And so they're going to be gone
from their family for a year. One was going to Germany and
the other was going to South Korea. And so before they left,
I went by their house and had prayer with them. You gotta understand,
I was no older than them. And I was 24, going on 25 years
of age probably. And so I went by their house
and I prayed with them, because they're gonna be apart. I challenged
them to communicate well while they're gone, you know, and make
sure they keep themselves right. Wife and kids stay in church
and on and on. We had a good time with them,
and they took off. then time passed. And one of the ladies dropped
plum out of sight. I couldn't find her, couldn't
get any response. My wife and I couldn't get any
response out of her at all. And the other one was hit and
miss and I could tell by her attitude something is not right.
And what happened in one case was the man from Europe I think
I'm almost sure he's in Germany or Belgium I can't remember which
but anyway he came back with a woman who and told his wife,
I'm divorcing you and I'm marrying her. And I remember at that stage
of my life, I was shocked and it was shit rattling to me. And the other one came back,
and his wife had met a man at work. She got a job, her kids
were in school, very early in school, but she got a job because
she needed to do something with herself, and met a man there
that was interested in her in a way that her husband never
had been, and in her loneliness, and on and on. And I sat down
with both of these couples, and both of them said the exact same
things. that from the time they left,
they had every intent of doing things right. They had every
intent. But I don't know, the time of
departure, then the communication dropped off, and then duties
called where the communication couldn't be quite like it was
before. And I don't know, there was just
kind of a communication breakdown, and then it seemed like it was
so long, too long. And they were weak and couldn't
wait. And it was heartbreaking. And I remember going to church when
I was, how old are you Austin, 16? 14, 12. Revival is about the Second Coming
of Jesus. I sat there as a 12-year-old kid thinking, I'll never graduate
from high school. Jesus is coming before I'll graduate.
I believed it. I did. And then it looked like
I was going to graduate from high school, or at least they'd
moved me on. And so I got to thinking, yeah,
well, this may work out after all, but I'll never get married.
Sandra came into my life and our revivals had so much to do
with about the coming of Jesus that I remember thinking if we're
going to get married we probably ought to hurry up and do this
because I believed Jesus was coming again. God called me to
preach and went off to Bible college. I remember in the prophecy
class we had a great teacher, Brother Sears was a wonderful
teacher and he was teaching about it while a lot of things were
going on in the Middle East and there was a whole lot of prophecy
interest and everything. And I remember thinking, well
I'm here and I've surrendered to preach but I'll never preach
because I thought Jesus was coming. And I did. I truly did. Now, here I am, 78 years old,
and Jesus hadn't come. What am I to do with that? What
do you mean, what am I to do with that? I'm supposed to look
for Jesus to come. Because that He didn't come in
the realm of my expectation doesn't mean He's not coming. We don't
want to be like those that said, oh, there's really no need, like
they said back in the book of Ezekiel. Oh, the things Ezekiel's
prophesied about, don't get worked up about that. Those things are
far off. There's no need to get excited
about what he's talking about, Isaiah, Jeremiah, about the coming
of Babylon and the judgment of God. Those things are way off. Just live it up, live it up.
We don't want to be among that number. We don't want to be like
the scoffers who said, where is the sign of his coming? And
there are some people that have reached that point, I'm afraid,
and they would never say that out loud, perhaps. But by the
observance of the dedication, the devotion of their life, and
what's really important to them, and what they really live for,
often doesn't have anything to do with the expectation of the
coming of Jesus Christ. Why? Well, because it's been
so long. They were preaching about it years ago and years
ago and years before you ever came along, Davidson. They were
preaching about that and Jesus hadn't come yet. I'm here to
tell you right now, ladies and gentlemen, we are confronted
with the Word of God that Jesus said, I will come again. And what kind of sense does it
make that we assemble less as we see the day approaching, instead
of assembling more. And who, in their right mind,
could look at the condition of our world right now, and in light
of the prophecies, while we're not looking for signs of His
coming, who could not be thinking If I lived in the last days,
which I did as a boy, and Paul lived in the last days, which
he did as an apostle, surely we're in the last days of the
last days. Surely we are. And we're supposed
to anticipate his coming. And if we're not anticipating
his any time coming, he'll still come, but our hearts, where will
they be? Our affection, where will it
be? Our devotion, to whom will it
belong? And if we're not anticipating,
expecting the coming of Jesus, then we'll flirt around with
the world like that lady did with the man at work. Like the
man did with the woman in Germany. Does everybody listen to this?
That's where many a saint is. I'm not accusing you, I'm not
able to say, it just appears as a pastor, I watched it, and
it's just hard to keep people focused on the fact that Jesus
is coming again. I was about five or six years
old, and after the wheat harvest, my dad loaded up his combine,
on a truck. Boy, the scenes of those days
are still in my mind. But he loaded that old Massey
Harris combine up on this little two-ton Chevy truck, 1946 Chevy. And so he loaded it up, and his
brother loaded up his combine, my uncle, and my grandpa loaded
up his three combines, and they took off because of my grandpa's
connections and went to Kansas to cut wheat. And so I was very
close to my dad, always was till the day he died. I was 37 years
old when he died. And so, you know, my dad was
leaving, and my brothers, they were 8 and 10 years older than
me, and so they were both teenagers. And so I couldn't ride the tractors
with him. We had two tractors. My dad put
them to plow and doing the work while he's gone on the wheat
harvest trying to make a little extra money. And so there I am
between my two sisters and missing my dad and, you know, feeling
sorry for myself and all that kind of stuff. My sister got
a new bike and about two weeks after my dad left and I was grieving
that, I was trying to ride my sister's bike. My sister, two
years older, she mastered it just like that. My little sister,
a year and a half younger, it was like she was born on a bike
and she just took off. And here I am out there in the
driveway crashing and hurting myself and all kinds of issues. And so I'm riding that thing
down at the end of the driveway. I looked down the road and I
said to myself, that looks like daddy's truck. But I knew it
wasn't time for him to come back. it sure looked like it. Then
I talked myself out of it, tried to ride some more, looked back,
and by the time I started back down again, my dad's turning
in the driveway. And when I saw my dad coming
home, I was totally, absolutely unexpecting it. And what happened
is he had an accident where he about tore a finger off, hooked
his ring on a bolt, jumping off the truck and hooked it on a
sideboard fastener there, you know, and about tore his finger
off. At the same time, it started raining. They couldn't cut wheat,
so he just jumped in the truck, took his opportunity to go home,
go to his own doctor, and get patched up again. So when my
dad pulled in the driveway, my mom came out of the house. She
knew he was coming. My brothers started coming out of the field,
and they saw him driving up the road. And they saw him coming. Everybody's
out hugging Dad. And you know what I did? I started
crying. When I saw him come, when I knew
it was him, I just started bawling. Why are you crying? I was just
so happy. I didn't know why. I just couldn't help it. I just
started squalling and bawling. And my sisters went up, and they
greeted Dad and everything. I'm standing over there. I'm
trying to work my way in. Dad said, Sam, he told me this about three
times, if you don't stop crying, I'm not going to pick you up
and talk to you. If you don't stop crying, I'm not going to
talk to you. So I'd cry more, louder. And I mean, I was just
having emotional issues at that time. And there was any medication
for me or anything. So I was just there bawling and
squalling and finally I got it under control and my dad picked
me up and we had dad and bud time and it was all great. And
I thought later, if somebody had told me, I wouldn't have
been squalling like that. I'd have been looking for my
dad and I'd have been delighted and happy and rejoicing, standing
at the front of the line for my dad to love me and pick me
up and give me that bud hug. No, I didn't know he's coming.
I got totally surprised by the fact that he's coming. Now, hold
on just a second. If you get surprised by the coming
of Jesus Christ, that's on you. Absolutely, no argument about
it, that's on you. Did I tell you how many verses
there are in the New Testament? I thought so. Do you remember
how many times it's mentioned? 318 times. Do you know why we
ought to be exercising ourself in the Word of God? Exercising
yourself in the Word of God is gonna give you a continual reminder
of the coming of Jesus. I found it in the 96th Psalm
today, in the Old Testament. Jesus is coming again. And if you get surprised by that,
then who is responsible for that? If you haven't been in communion
with him, you may not be expecting him. You may get all interested
in the things about you and think they're actually important. No,
I'm serious about this. But if you are in communion with
him and you are in his word, exercising yourself therein,
then you can't but live with the awareness that Jesus is coming
again. close with this. Paul said, I
fought a good fight. I finished my course and I've
kept the faith. He's not boasting except in the Lord. Henceforth
there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness which the righteous,
the Lord, the righteous judge shall give me at that day. And not to me only, but But to
all them also who love His appearing." Do you love Him? Then wouldn't it be sensible
to say, we will love His appearing? Did you love your dad, Sammy?
Yes, I love my dad. When he appeared, was you happy?
So happy I couldn't even talk. all I could do was squall. It
wasn't because of offense. It was just I was overwhelmed. I didn't know my dad was coming.
Look at this, my dad. I didn't expect him for weeks.
And there he was. He's coming. For all those that
love his appearing. You know where a lot of people
are today in this confused world? world of turmoil and upheaval
as we watch ourselves losing our country right before our
eyes. You know where a lot of people
are? I've heard it. I've heard it with these ears. I just wish
Jesus would come and get us out of here. I just wish Jesus would
come and get us out of here. And where I felt like I could
and I knew the people well enough I'd say, wrong motive. That is
not noble. You're selfish. Because it's
not we're to love our disappearing because of the craziness of this
world, but we're to love Him to the degree that our desire
is His coming and being with Him, not absent from here. Is
everybody with me? In other words, as my pastor
used to say, we're not to love our disappearing, we're supposed
to love His appearing. And that's where we're supposed
to be. But it all goes together. Exercising in the Word of God.
and we'll be reminded over and over. Holy Ghost. Keep in meaningful communion
with God. Pray, listen, we have a great
High Priest Jesus. Let us come before Him, the Scripture
says, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in the
time of need. Love Jesus. Commune with Him.
Sing of Him. Speak of Him. Worship Him. Talk
to Him. Talk to Jesus. He's real. He's
there. He wants you to talk to Him.
And and talk to Him, and then that anticipation of His coming
will keep the fire lit under the heart that will desire and
love His appearing. Father, help us. Help us. Help us not to get entangled
in the things of this life. We had the text of the soils
the other day. The rocky ground is shallow.
There's not much depth there. Not much can come of that. The
thorny ground, well, it's the cares of this life that choke
out any interest in the coming of Jesus and our communion with
Him. Oh God, may our hearts be good
soil. May our hearts be attuned. May we live with expectancy.
Help us, oh God, to be people of the Bible, not in a token
manner, but genuinely. As we read last night, great
peace have they which love thy law, and nothing shall offend
them. And we love the law when we are
in awe of it, when we love it. And we are affected when we act
upon your word, oh God, and obey it. All of this goes together. so that we might be prepared,
ready, anticipating the coming of Jesus Christ. We say with
John, help us to say it sincerely, amen, even so come, Lord Jesus. If there's somebody that can't
pray that with a sincere heart, then probably there's work that
needs to be done before your throne. Might your Holy Spirit
work. If somebody's here that's never
been saved, might they just acknowledge that and come down here to the
front and let us take the Bible and take them aside and show
them how they can know they have eternal life. Help your people,
oh God, work in our hearts in Jesus' name. Amen. Let's stand
together, shall we?
Keep Yourself in the Love of God
| Sermon ID | 10923141412382 |
| Duration | 1:06:40 |
| Date | |
| Category | Sunday Service |
| Bible Text | Jude 19-25 |
| Language | English |
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