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You'll now open your Bibles with
me to the New Testament book of Jude. I'd like to read Jude
verses 3 and 4, and then verses 16 through 23. And then for our
sermon this evening, we'll be focusing in on verses 22 and
23, as we think about engaging those influenced by false teaching. So let us begin then our reading
in Jude, verse 3 again. We'll read verses 3 and 4, then
drop down to verse 16 and read through verse 23. Hear now the
word of our God. Beloved, while I was very diligent
to write to you concerning our common salvation, I found it
necessary to write to you exhorting you to contend earnestly for
the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints.
For certain men have crept in unnoticed, who long ago were
marked out for this condemnation, ungodly men who turn the grace
of our God into lewdness and deny the only Lord God and our
Lord Jesus Christ. In verse 16, these are grumblers,
complainers, walking according to their own lusts, and they
mouth great swelling words, flattering people to gain advantage. But
you, beloved, remember the words which were spoken before by the
apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ, how they told you that there
would be mockers in the last time who would walk according
to their own ungodly lusts. These are sensual persons who
cause divisions, not having the Spirit. But you, beloved, building
yourselves up on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit,
keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of
our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life. And on some have compassion,
making a distinction, but others say with fear, pulling them out
of the fire, hating even the garment defiled by the flesh. As for the reading of God's holy
word, let us pray. Our God, teach us what you would
have us to understand tonight in this passage. We ask that
you would give us great wisdom in how we are to deal with those
who are deceived and even doubting about the truth of who you are
as God and of what your word says. and that we would be those
who have mercy and show compassion on them in the hopes that we
would be used by you to pull them out of the fire and to see
them saved from a multitude of sins. In Jesus' name we pray,
amen. As I thought about this section,
it really, as I studied this, came as somewhat of a surprise
to me. And I'll say that it came as
a surprise because when you understand everything that we have looked
at so far in this letter about these false teachers and the
teaching that they're bringing in, you would maybe expect Jude
as he turns to address how we ought to engage with those who
are under the influence of this false teaching, that he would
come out as I might come out with both guns blazing. Let's come out as strong as we
can. We're contending for the faith.
And I thought about the difference between a soldier and a firefighter. A soldier at wartime, their mission
is to seek and destroy. If the enemy is not crushed,
the enemy will crush us. But a firefighter's mission is
very different. A firefighter's mission is really
more of a search and rescue. A firefighter is not as concerned. I mean, where property can be
saved, that's fine, but as I understand it, and I know we have a firefighter
in our midst, as I understand it, it's the people that matter.
It's making sure that they, if at all possible, can be saved.
And I think, though, when it comes to contending for the faith,
We can so often default to a soldier mentality. Now, are we the church
militant? Do we sing onward Christian soldiers
marching as to war? Yes. But I think, and I've even
seen this in broader reform circles, particularly among younger people,
particularly upon the way they interact online. It's more of a soldier mentality.
I've got to tear down and I've got to destroy the enemy. But
that's not what Jude brings to light here. Now Jude is serious
about what is going on in the church at the time of his writing
and that's continuing on. We live in the last times. There
are going to be mockers who come. There are going to be those who
cause divisions. This is a serious thing. And so Jude takes it seriously. But Jude's response is not one
of going out to war, of seek and destroy, but his response
and his encouragement to those to whom he's writing is one of
being on a search and a rescue mission. As I reflected on this,
I thought, what if we did take the soldier mentality? We went
out there at all costs, we tore down everyone. Might not God
rightly come and say to us, you are destroying the very ones
I sent you to rescue? We must be careful. But the question remains then
how should we engage with those who are influenced by false teachers? And maybe even the false teachers
themselves. There are some, certainly, and Jude has made that clear,
there are some that are marked out for condemnation. They do
not have the spirit. But that does not mean that everyone
who is a false teacher is outside of God's salvation. Many who have taught falsehood
by God's grace have been brought to see the truth. And so when
we engage not only with those under the influence of false
teaching, but even false teachers themselves, we must, I think,
and Jude brings this out, we must have at least going into
it a search and rescue mentality, much like a firefighter would
have when they go. They seek to pull people, and
Jude uses that illustration, to pull people out of the fire
so that they will not burn. Jude has instructed his readers,
and by extension us, on how to keep themselves in the love of
God. We saw that last week in verse
20. Build yourselves up on your most
holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit. In verse 21, looking
for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life. In
all of these things, the main command there is keep yourselves
in the love of God. Now Jude moves on now in the
next two verses to move from how we should operate internally
to how we should operate externally. In other words, Jude says, and
this order is important, we must keep ourselves in the love of
God if we're going to be able to show the love of God to anyone
else. We must be those who are looking
for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ if we are going to be
able to go out and proclaim mercy to others in the name of Jesus
Christ. And so he says, begin with yourselves,
build on your most holy faith so that you can go out there
and having a good foundation, you can go on a search and rescue
mission for others. Now there are, I'm not going
to go into the weeds here, there are a few textual issues here. If any of you are reading from
the ESV or maybe the NIV, you'll see that there are three clauses
in this text. I think they say, some convince
some who doubt, save some by snatching them out of the fire,
and on some have mercy with fear. Here in the New King James Version,
we see a two clause text. on some have compassion making
a difference or distinction and others say with fear pulling
them out of the fire. Either way, the main point that
Jude is bringing out is that he is describing those who we
are engaging with as people who need rescue. People who need
rescue. And how we engage with them and
how God uses us to engage with them really matters. So as we
look at these two verses, 22 and 23, I want to do so under
this main idea, that as Christians, we should engage those influenced
by false teaching with compassion, caution, and confidence. Compassion,
caution, and confidence. The first thing I want to think
about is that we should engage those influenced by false teaching
with compassion. It begins that way, doesn't he,
in verse 22. On some, have compassion. On some, show mercy. Now why is it that we can have
compassion, show mercy? Well, because we ourselves, and
this was right before verse 21, we are those who are looking
for mercy. It's very difficult to have mercy
on other people when you are not experiencing mercy yourself.
But when we know the mercy that is ours in Jesus Christ, it becomes
easier to actually show compassion toward others, to have mercy
upon them. And I think the idea here that
is being brought up by Jude on some have compassion is the same
idea that Paul brings up when he writes to the churches in
Galatia, Galatians 6, verses 1 through 2. Brethren, if a man
is overtaken in any trespass, You who are spiritual, restore
such a one in a spirit of gentleness, considering yourself lest you
also be tempted. He goes on to say, bear one another's
burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ. He says the same thing
to the The church in Thessalonica, 2 Thessalonians 3, verses 14
through 15. If anyone does not obey our word
in this epistle, note that person and do not keep company with
him that he may be ashamed. Yet, do not count him as an enemy,
but admonish him as a brother. And so this idea is found throughout
scripture. And Jude is picking up on that.
You see, our job is to show mercy, to proclaim the gospel and the
grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. Judgment is not our job. Judgment belongs to God, and
He will judge. But our job is to go and to show
mercy where it is possible, by proclaiming the mercy that is
found in Jesus Christ. He goes on, he says, after having
said, on some have compassion, that we are to make a distinction.
A lot of debate on what this Greek word is to be translated
into English. Some say it is distinguishing
between two types of people, and certainly it could be that.
That's wise counsel. Maybe we are to distinguish between
those that we are to have compassion on and those that we are to save
with fear, pulling them out of the fire. Some translations will
bring out another meaning of this word, on those who are doubting.
I think of those that James describes. He says, those who are doubting
are like a ship on the waves of the ocean. They're being tossed
here and there. Either way, again, the point
here is that we are to look at others and make a distinction
as to how we should engage them. On some, maybe those who are
doubting. Maybe those who, they're not
fully bought in to whatever false teaching they're dealing with.
They're questioning. Maybe on them we have a certain
level of compassion. We aren't as strong with them.
Maybe on others who have bought it hook, line, and sinker, we
have to be a little bit more forthright. We have to be a little
bit stronger. We have to, as he goes on to
say, save them with fear, pulling them out of the very fire. And we'll get to that picture
later of fire. But ultimately what we see here
is Jude is saying, and he's beginning with this, he says, don't go
in with both guns blazing to tear them down, but go in with
compassion. And I think we need to understand
that Had God not pulled us from the fire, we would be right there. And I think that will help us
to have compassion on those who are going astray. But the second
thing, not only should we engage those influenced by false teaching
with compassion, but we should engage those influenced by false
teaching with caution. With caution. And so in verse
23 we see he goes on to say, So two things here that speak
of using caution. One, that we save others with
fear. Now this idea of fear here can
be interpreted two ways. It can be a fear of being contaminated
by the sin and the false teaching that they are under the sway
of. Or it can be also motivated by the fear of God. Much in the same way as Paul
in 2 Corinthians 5 verse 11 says this, knowing therefore the terror
of the Lord, we persuade men. And so we need to be careful.
We need to have caution. Because he goes on to say that
we, as we pull them out of the fire, we need to hate even the
garment defiled by the flesh. And I think this lends some Some
credibility to the interpretation that the fear that we have is
fear of contamination. Fear that somehow as we show
compassion for those who are under the influence of false
teaching, that we also might be led astray with them. But also I think it's true that
we ought to be motivated as Paul was. We ought to be motivated
when we know the terror of the Lord that is against those who
are outside of Christ. We ought to be motivated to persuade
others not to go down that road. Not to follow whatever false
teaching they are following. Think of the words of Charles
Spurgeon. I love this quote, he said, If sinners be damned,
at least let them leap to hell over our dead bodies. And if
they perish, let them perish with our arms wrapped around
their knees, imploring them to stay. If hell must be filled,
let it be filled in the teeth of our exertions and let no one
go unwarned or unprayed for. Now certainly Spurgeon Spurgeon
knew that it's not up to us, but the Spirit. But God uses
means. And that's what Spurgeon is talking
about there. Maybe God is going to use us as the means, as an
instrument in His hands by which He's going to warn others. And
these others that we are to save with fear are described as having
been pulled out of the fire. What a vivid picture. We're pulling
them out of the fire and this is the first allusion here to
Zechariah chapter 3. We read that earlier but to refresh
your memory, Zechariah chapter 3 verse 2. Remember Joshua the
high priest is standing before the angel of the Lord and Satan
is standing at his right hand to oppose him. And the Lord said
to Satan, the Lord rebuke you Satan. The Lord who has chosen
Jerusalem rebuked you. That is, God who has chosen his
people. And then he goes on to say this,
Is this not a brand plucked from the fire? Now, Joshua, there
as the high priest, he's representing. Remember, the priest would come
on the Day of Atonement and stand before God and represent the
people. Joshua, the priest, is representing the people. And
God says, this one representing my people is one who was destined
for flames and yet, like a brand, has been plucked out of the fire. Rescued and redeemed. And fire here is a picture of
eternal torment, eternal punishment. We've already seen that back
in verse 7 of Jude. Sodom and Gomorrah, who had gone
after strange flesh, they were set forth as an example, suffering
the vengeance of eternal fire. And so it's a serious picture
here. that God is instructing His people as we have opportunity,
whether that is opportunity to persuade or opportunity to pray
for, there is an opportunity to be used to pull people out
of the fire. And as I reflected upon this
and thought of this vivid picture being pulled out of the fire,
I thought of Sodom and Gomorrah. We already looked at that in
verse 7, but remember in Sodom and Gomorrah there were some
that were saved. Lot and his wife and their two
daughters. Well, his wife didn't make it
all the way, but as they were, as they were departing Sodom
and Gomorrah, they were delaying And in Genesis 19, verse 16,
we read this, while Lot lingered, the men took hold of his hand,
his wife's hand, and the hands of his two daughters, the Lord
being merciful to him, and they brought him out and set him outside
the city. What a vivid picture of being
rescued from fire and flame. And why were they rescued? Why
did these angels grab them physically by the hands and pull them out
of the city? Well, we're told it was because
the Lord was merciful to him. And again, I think this is the
way we ought to approach people. You see, far too often we can
approach people and think we simply need to win the argument. But you've heard the old adage.
You can win the argument. but lose the person. And I thought
again to being a firefighter. A firefighter isn't as concerned
with saving the house. That might be winning the argument.
The firefighter is concerned with saving the people who are
within the house. That's reaching the person. Let us not be so
concerned with winning the argument that we forget that it's not
an argument to be won but it is a person to be pulled from
the very fires of hell. That is what is ongoing here.
And as we do so, Jude goes on, that we are to hate even the
garment defiled by the flesh. This is the second allusion to
Zechariah chapter 3. If Joshua the high priest is
the one who is a brand, is representing God's people as a brand plucked
from the fire. We read in Zechariah chapter
3 verses 3 through 5 that Joshua was initially clothed with filthy
garments. But God spoke and said to those
who were there, take away the filthy garments from him. And
then here's what God says to Joshua. He says, see I have removed
your iniquity from you. And so what were the filthy garments?
They were the sin. The sin that had to be removed.
And so when we think about that, we think about this picture that
we are hating the garment defiled by the flesh. That is we are
hating the sin that they are engaged in. Now this word in
the Greek that is translated garment is the garment, the tunic
that was worn against the flesh. Right up against the flesh. It
wasn't an outer garment. It was more like underwear. And the
picture here, not to be disgusting, but a defiled garment. Think
about a soiled piece of underwear. That's the picture here. We should
detest that. It's filthy. It's disgusting. I mean, in the natural, if you
had somebody else's defiled underwear, I'm sure, like me, I don't even
know if I'm touching it. If I am, I'm holding it way out
here. Probably going to throw it away or burn it. That's the
picture here. We ought to hate the garment
defiled by the flesh. But notice what is not said here. What is not said here is that
we hate the one who is wearing the garments. We hate the garment
that is defiled by the flesh. But we don't hate the person
that we're seeking to have compassion on. You know, we put it in modern
terms, we hate the sin, not the sinner. Now, yes, you can argue,
well, doesn't God, when He sends people to hell, hate the sinner? Doesn't Psalm 711 say God is
angry with the wicked every day? Yes, that's God, not you. We don't see all ends. We don't
see the heart. And so we are called to love,
to care for, to show mercy. But we must be careful, very
careful. That is the warning here. Save
others with fear, hating even the garment defiled by the flesh,
because as we deal with that sin, there is a real danger that
we may become contaminated, that we may come under the influence
of that false teaching. And so we have to have wisdom.
Some people we may be able to interact with and persuade. Other people we may just need
to pray for. That's where we need to pray
and ask God, God give me wisdom. How far should I go as I seek
to reach this person? Keep me keep me from going so
far as to be under the influence of what they are being influenced
by. That's what Jesus taught us to
pray, the Lord's Prayer. Keep us from temptation. It's part of that. God, give
me wisdom so that I may know how far I should go. And for
some people, it may be that God has called us to pray for them
and to plead with God on their behalf. And so we've seen that
as we engage with those, this is what Jude is telling us, he's
saying once we have dealt with ourselves, once that we have made sure that we are keeping
ourselves in the love of God. We are building ourselves up
on our most holy faith. We are praying in the Holy Spirit.
We are looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto
eternal life. That we are to go out and we
are to engage with those who are under the influence of false
teaching with compassion, but also with caution. And we are
to do so making a distinction on some have compassion, on others
we need to be a little bit more forthright. We need to pull them
as it were from the fire. but having that caution lest
we also be defiled with those garments that are defiled by
the flesh. But we must know that it is not
ultimately up to us to make this happen. God is the one who saves. Don't hear me in saying that
that just takes us off the hook. God uses He's used people in
my own life. I can tell you that, wow, was
I in the fire? Was I defiled by garments of
the flesh? Yes. But did God send someone
to come and pull me out? Yes, He did. Now why though? Do I go back
to those individuals and think back who came and worked and
persuaded me? Do I go back to them and I say,
thank you? Well, yes. But do I go back and I say, thank
you because you saved me? No. They didn't save me, God did.
But that's why I think we can have confidence. That's the last
thing I want to think about is that we should engage those influenced
by false teaching, not only with compassion and with caution,
but with great confidence. In fact, Jude has that confidence
here. Jude would not instruct, and remember Jude is writing
under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. And so this is not
simply Jude's words, it is God's words. And God would not instruct
us to do something that had no chance of happening. And so even
in giving these instructions, we learn a couple of things.
We learn that there is no one, no one, from our perspective,
from our vantage point, that is beyond rescue. Those who are
doubting, upon whom we need to have compassion, those who are
confused, they are not beyond redemption. Those who are knee-deep
in the fire, even those who are propagating false teaching. They are not beyond rescue. Again, the words of James chapter
5, verses 19 and 20 are very applicable here. He says, brethren,
if anyone among you wonders from the truth. And certainly here
in Jude he's speaking of individuals who had wandered from the truth.
If anyone among you wanders from the truth and someone turns him
back, let him know that he who turns a sinner from the error
of his way will save a soul from death and cover a multitude of
sins. And what is amazing is that God
uses us, feeble though we are, not with much eloquence when
it comes to speech. He uses us, sinners that we are,
to do His mighty work in the lives of others. Why? Why does He do that? Well,
because that's what He came to do. Remember, Jesus came. He said, I come. In His first
coming, in the incarnation, He came to seek and save, not to
search and destroy. He came to seek and to save the
lost, to ransom captive Israel, to provide rest to those who
were under the heavy burden of sin. And I think Jude, remember
Jude is his half-brother, Jude reflects this same heart attitude
toward others. You would think that Jude would
come in with guns blazing, with a soldier mentality. These false
teachers are coming in and anyone who follows them, they are the
enemy and they are to be destroyed. But he doesn't do that. He comes
in with a heart of compassion, like our Savior. And he says,
you show compassion to them. You, you show that there is a
way of freedom. You have received mercy. You
are the ones who are looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus
Christ unto eternal life. And as ones who are looking for
that mercy, you show that mercy. Be wise how you do it. On some
have compassion, on others save with fear, pulling them from
the fire. Be cautious as you do it. Have
nothing to do, hate even the garment defiled by the flesh.
But know this, no one, no one's beyond God's redemption. You
don't know what God's going to do in the life of another person.
You don't know what He's going to do. You don't know when He's
going to do it. That's not what matters. What matters is that we follow
God's Word. And we do what He calls us to
do. And what does He call us to do?
Here it is, on some have compassion making a distinction, but others
say with fear pulling them out of the fire, hating even the
garment defiled by the flesh. And God will give success in
this. In fact, I'll put it this way,
as long as a person is alive, there is still time to be used
by God as part of His divine rescue mission. And so let us
remember this. Let us remember that we are dealing
with the eternal realities of life and death, heaven and hell,
peace and torment. Let us have compassion on those
who are doubting and confused, and if need be, let us pull people
even out of the fire, knowing this, that he who turns a sinner
from the error of his way will save a soul from death and cover
a multitude of sins. Amen, let us pray. Our God, we
ask that you would give us this heart, a heart of compassion
for others, a heart that is willing even to save others with fear,
pulling them out of the fire, but a heart that is wise, using
great caution, lest we also be defiled with the garments of
the flesh. And ultimately, we trust you
That as we go out and as we obey and as we seek to show the mercy
of Christ to others, that mercy that we have received. that your
spirit will go forth and you will accomplish your will in
drawing all of your people to yourself. And so we can do these
things even as we engage with those who are under the influence
of false teaching. We can do so with great confidence
for you are God and you will save your people. In Jesus' name
we pray. Amen.
Engaging Those Influenced by False Teaching
Series JUDE 2024-2025
| Sermon ID | 126252248321792 |
| Duration | 33:20 |
| Date | |
| Category | Sunday - PM |
| Bible Text | Jude 22-23 |
| Language | English |
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