So turn with me once again to the book of Jude Our study tonight will focus on two verses verses 22 and 23 Just to set this up as you know Jude has just explained to his readers that everything that has happened to them by way of this introduction of false teachers is into the church shouldn't come as any great surprise. In verses 17 and 18, he writes, but you beloved ought to remember the words that were spoken beforehand by the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ, that they were saying to you in the last time, there will be mockers following after their own godly lusts. And as we saw last Wednesday evening, this is true. There are several places in scripture where Jesus himself, as well as his apostles, warn consistently of the dangers associated with those false teachers who would seek to lead others astray by introducing strange doctrines among them. These individuals, Jude writes, are the ones who cause divisions, worldly-minded, and devoid of the spirit. And then in verses 20 and 21, he contrasts these false teachers with his readers saying, but you, beloved, by building yourselves up on your most holy faith and praying in the Holy Spirit, you keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting anxiously for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to eternal life. Now, Jude is not so naive as to believe that everyone that he's writing to here would be the stellar representation of what it means to be a Christ follower. He's not so naive as to believe that everyone is going to follow his admonition here and build themselves up on their most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit. He knew that there would be those in the church And certainly by extension in the churches like our own, who would read this in the generations to come, he knew that there would be those who were weaker in their faith. He knew that there would be those who would doubt, those who might even be tempted to leave the church altogether, having fallen so helplessly into sin. This is why he says, in verses 22 and 23, and have mercy on some who are doubting. Save others, snatching them out of the fire, and on some have mercy with fear, hating even the garment polluted by the flesh. I pointed this out last week, but let me just remind you of what Jude is talking about here. He's actually pointing out the fact that there are three distinct categories of individuals that will find themselves in the local church. I would add a fourth to that. The fourth category would be those who are mature in their faith, those who are making sure that they are tending to those spiritual disciplines, which will grow them and mature them more and more into Christ-likeness. But in addition to those, the mature, we're going to have in every church, in every situation imaginable, those in these three groups. The first category of individuals that we're going to find in any given church, including this church, are those who doubt. those who doubt. The word doubt here can be translated literally as one who goes back and forth. back and forth from one position to another. They never quite understand where it is that they're to settle in terms of their understanding of basic doctrines, basic Christian principles. And so they tend to waffle. These are the vacillators or the wafflers. Again, this is usually a telltale sign of doctrinal anemia. This is a telltale sign of immaturity in the faith. You'll find this most often in people who are just coming to a serious realization and understanding of what it is the Bible teaches. How many of you for years were content to just go to church and you believed what you believed because that's what you were taught and you really had no inner compulsion to search the scriptures to find out if these things were true. You had no inner compulsion to really question what you were being taught and be critical about what you're being taught. You just kind of went with the flow and we've all been there, right? Now, how many of you who will admit that you've been in that situation will admit that when you first came to understand or hear the doctrines of grace, it took a little while because you might've felt betrayed by people who had taught you in the past. You might've felt like you were shortchanged. You might have felt as though you're starting right at the beginning again to really understand for the first time. what the scriptures say about these certain things. This is the way a lot of people find themselves vacillating back and forth. They want the comfort and safety of what they've always held to be true. And yet The truth itself attracts them to understand more deeply what scripture says about certain things. And it causes this natural cycle of doubt and assurance and doubt and assurance. Now, what happens as you build upon your faith and you start to understand the scriptures better and better with each passing day, week, month, year, you'll find that those periods of doubt start to vanish. They start to be eclipsed by the truth. And you gain that assurance that you've sought for so long. And finally, you land at a place where you're now mature in the faith and you understand things more correctly. And from that perspective, I hope it's easier for you to look with mercy on those who are still doubting. They're in a pitiable condition. Doubt is one of the greatest plagues that the Christian can ever experience. Because if you're having doubts about your eternal security, If you're having doubts about how you were actually saved, if you're having doubts about how you might have lived up to this point where you're suddenly coming to this realization of the truth, that can be a devastating thing. And so we're told here how to deal with these people. We're to have mercy on those who vacillate between certainty and uncertainty between truth and error. And this is actually, Not surprisingly, one of the most effective weapons of the false teacher. As a matter of fact, I would say this is the primary weapon that the false teacher uses to draw others away from the church. He comes in. You'll notice that when false teachers do arise in our midst, they don't go for the strongest. They don't go for the most mature people. What do they do? They find the weakest. most inexperienced, most immature people that they can, and they hold court with them. And they begin to teach them things that cause them to doubt what they've always believed. They seek to undermine their faith by introducing new things or seemingly mystical teachings that are kind of Gnostic in nature. And so they approach the weak and the immature and the insecure In 2 Timothy 3, 6 and 7, Paul gives us some helpful insight into the way the false teacher works. He says, for among them are those who enter into households and captivate weak women, weighed down with sins, led on by various impulses, always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth. The false teacher comes into the church with the same modus operandi. He comes into the church, With much the same thing on his mind, he knows that leadership will likely prove to be a hard target. He recognizes that there are certain individuals in the body who won't be easily swayed by his false teaching. So what does he do? He begins preying on those in whom he can sow seeds of doubt and uncertainty. It's with this reality in mind that Paul in 1 Thessalonians 5.14, urges us as a body to admonish the unruly, encourage the faint-hearted, help the weak, and be patient with everyone. This is also why the Apostle John in 2 John 8-10 says this, Watch yourselves. that you do not lose what we have accomplished, but that you may receive a full reward. Anyone who goes too far and does not abide in the teaching of Christ does not have God. The one who abides in the teaching, he has both the father and the son. If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, do not receive him into your house and do not give him a greeting. For the one who gives him a greeting participates in his evil deeds. The last thing a doubter needs is to be introduced to that which is contrary to sound doctrine. The last thing those who are vacillating between what is perhaps tradition and upbringing and trying to struggle with the truths found in scripture, the last thing they need is for error to be introduced. It just upsets the whole apple cart, so to speak. And here's where the admonition here becomes personal. Those of us in the local church who are strong in what we believe, strong in the faith, convinced of the truth of scripture, solidified, unified in our understanding of all that the Bible teaches, We bear the responsibility for ensuring that those who are doubting are shown mercy. It's our responsibility for the older to take the younger under our wings, as it were, and make sure that any doubts that they might have are not met with frustration, impatience, ostracization, The doubter does not need to be told how dumb he or she is. The doubter needs mercy. And it only takes a little while for us to remember back when we needed mercy. And somebody showed that mercy to us as we grew in our understanding of these things. What Jude means to say here is that the doubter should not be marginalized. The doubter shouldn't be ignored. The doubter shouldn't be written off just because they don't understand, because they don't get it. And what's the best way to show them mercy? Well, in a lot of people's minds, the best way you can show someone mercy is just to ignore them, or to give them a hearty bless your heart and move out of their way. That's not how you show mercy. At least not in this sense. The most merciful thing that you can do for the one who is caught up in doubt is to come alongside them and help them understand the word of God to the extent that they're no longer doubting. That is the most merciful thing you can do. Remember, we don't bear the burden of proof. We don't have to approach those in doubt as if we're trying to convince them or win an argument with them. We approach them with the understanding that the Holy Spirit can do what we can't do. So when we approach the one who is doubting, first we approach them having bathed the whole situation in prayer. asking the Holy Spirit to work through us and in us as we try to move this person from doubt to certainty. We do so with the realization that this might take time. And we do it with the understanding that where we are so prone to fail, God's word never fails. Remember what Isaiah said in Isaiah 55, eight and nine about the word of God. Remember, he says, just as the rain falls and replenishes the earth. and does not return to the heavens without doing what it was sent for, so is the Word of God. It will not return to him void, but will accomplish the purpose for which he sent it. The Word of God is, as the writer of Hebrews said in Hebrews 4.12, the Word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword. It's able to pierce through the division of soul and spirit. It's able to get right into the very marrow of someone's spiritual bones and do that transformative work that you and I can't do. So when we approach the doubter, we don't do so as the evidentialist who says, well, let me give you some facts and figures. Let me show you how this prophecy was fulfilled and that prophecy was fulfilled. We do so with the presupposition that if you're going to change from doubt to certainty, it will be because the Holy Spirit has done a work in you through the Word. That will actually inoculate us from taking any pride. in helping the one in doubt come to a knowledge of the truth. We must recognize that if it's going to happen, it's going to happen via the Word with the ministry of the Holy Spirit behind it. The Word of God doesn't operate independently though, does it? No. We bear the responsibility as God's human instruments for making this word known and for ensuring that those whom the Lord brings into our lives understand it. Again, with the full knowledge that it's the Holy Spirit who actually does that. So when you find those who are doubting, those who are vacillating between one doctrinal position and another, have mercy on them. Remembering that at one point you were in that position. Aren't you grateful for those who came alongside you? I know I am. Before I actually came to understand the doctrines of grace back in 1989, January of 1989, I was the most obnoxious, yeah you think I'm obnoxious now, prideful, spiritually belligerent people you'll ever want to meet. But someone saw something in me and knew that I could benefit from being taught by the Holy Spirit the truth. They were patient with me, they were merciful to me, and I'm eternally grateful for that. And you should be too if you have someone like that in your life. So there's the doubters. Have mercy on them. There's a second category of individuals. And that is those who have figuratively speaking, of course, fallen into the fire. And you could probably see how Jude is moving from the less severe condition to the more severe condition. These aren't just those who are doubting. These are those who have slipped completely off the tracks and have made their way into the fire itself. Those who are doubting can be helped by more accountability and further teaching. The next group of individuals, however, they've gone beyond mere doubting, slipping into the fire. And these are those who have fallen for the false teacher's doctrine and are almost, if it were possible, almost lost in error. They're in over their heads. Now notice I said almost. They can still be saved, but something needs to happen in order for them to be on the right track again. And what is that something? Someone needs to reach into the fire and pluck them out. They need for someone to reach into the fire and pull them out. Now let me explain what this doesn't mean. This doesn't mean that we are able to save those who are perishing. It's not at all what Jude is teaching here. He's not saying that we actually save people, we don't. Salvation is the business of God and God alone. Salvation has always been, is now, and will forever be by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, to the glory of God alone. That's how salvation works. So we don't save anyone. But as I said a minute ago, God does use human instruments to bring about his will, which includes our stepping in when necessary to rescue those who are in danger of ultimately proving themselves to be reprobate. You see how this differs from just doubting. The doubter is at least trying. He's vacillating, yes, but he's vacillating generally between error and truth, and he's leaning more toward the truth. He just needs that paracleta, someone to come alongside, pull him back into the right lane. The person who's fallen into the fire is in danger of ultimately proving him or herself to be reprobate. They're in danger. And in this case, we're told to snatch them out of the fire. It's really interesting, this word used, this word snatch is actually a word that in Greek is most often used to describe robbery. And there's good reason for that. What's envisioned here is the taking of something by force. extreme force and urgency. Again, those who are doubting, they can be gently led. Generally speaking, they can be gently led and instructed. But those who have fallen into the fire need to be grabbed and pulled from the fire. They need to be led to recognize the danger of their continuing in false doctrine. They need for somebody to reach into the fire and yank them out. Now the imagery here is actually used in Amos chapter four and Zechariah chapter three to describe how God rescued Israel from certain destruction. Israel is surrounded by her enemies on several occasions. And the imagery there in Amos 4 and Zechariah 3 is how God, in spite of all the odds seemingly being against their survival, he reaches in and literally plucks them as a brand from the fire. We're to do the same thing for one another when we find one another in error. And it might be a fairly violent, urgent thing I remember years and years ago in a past life, seems like it, my goodness, when I was working as an EMT, driving an ambulance around a small town. Didn't see a lot of action, but we got a lot of training. If you've ever been around firemen or EMTs or paramedics, I mean, when you're not really dealing with people, you're training to deal with people all the time. One of the rules of thumb. If you ever come across a car crash and someone is still in the car, there's a protocol. First thing you do is put a cervical collar on the person still in the car, a neck brace. Next thing, you want a spinal board. It's one of those big flat pieces of fiberglass, right? And you want to roll them out gently, securing the head and neck. and lay them back and secure them on the spine board so that you can put them into the ambulance for transport. That's just the way you do it. But there's an exception to that. Anybody know what that is? Yes. We were actually taught if the car is on fire, even if you suspect head trauma or neck injury, you get them out of that burning vehicle. Right? The philosophy is it's much better to have a living person with a severed spine than to have a dead person. I mean, it makes sense, right? And it always struck me until one time we had to do that. And we grabbed this individual who was unconscious, slumped over the steering wheel, front end of the car is on fire. We grabbed him by the collar of his shirt And with everything we could do, we just yanked him out of that car. Now, it was when they only had lap belts in the cars, right? We didn't even undo the seat belt. We literally, the adrenaline's pumping, you know? I think we probably did more harm to this poor old guy than actually help. But in the end, he would have burned alive in that accident. Jude's using the same sort of urgent speech here to describe what it means to find someone who spiritually has slipped into the fire. You better get them out. There's an urgency there. You might hurt their feelings. You might do damage to their. I'm not going to say it. You might hurt their feelings. I was going to say something really unkind, and I caught myself. But you've got to get them out of the fire. You just have to get them out of the fire. And that's exactly what Jude is saying here. They're in danger of burning up. And we need to reach in and drag them out before they do. Well, there's another category. And that is those who have fallen prey to false teaching. And these individuals have fallen so far into false teaching that they give us legitimate reason to believe that they might just be lost forever. Notice how Jude reverts back to the same prescribed treatment. as that given to those in the first category. He says we're to have mercy on them, but notice the qualifier. He provides a qualifier. We're to have mercy on them, yes, but with what? With fear. We're to have mercy on them with fear. Now, in addition to fearing that they might be lost forever, there are some who believe, as I do, that that was only one of two fears. Certainly the fear is that when someone slips so far away from scriptural moorings that they've departed from the faith to such a degree that they might be irretrievably lost, we fear for their souls, don't we? But there's another element of fear that accompanies our dealing with these kinds of people. And that is, we fear that they might be infectious. Make no mistake about it, false teachers are often very good at what they do. So good, in fact, that they might actually turn their listeners into little versions of themselves. When that happens in the local church, you have trouble. If I can come in as a false teacher and start subverting the minds and hearts of people in this church and make many me's out of all of them, and have them start spreading the same sorts of things. It's not going to be long before the whole church is in turmoil. So yes, we fear for their souls, but we also fear that they might have reached the point of becoming infectious. This is why Jude goes to such graphic lengths to describe how they're to be approached. He says that in such cases we are to hate even the garment polluted by the flesh. I wrestled with actually explaining this in such a way as to not offend. But as you know, very often the scriptures tend to pull their punches a little bit. They describe things that sound different than they really are. One of those cases, as you know, is when Isaiah says that our righteousnesses are as filthy rags. I'm not going to tell you what those filthy rags are. Do a little research and you'll find out that it's a really unsavory picture that Isaiah is painting there. Jude is doing the same thing. The particular word that he uses here for garment refers to undergarments. And again, not to be offensive, but just to put your mind where it needs to be with regard to this warning. He's saying that we are to hate what is the doctrinal equivalent of undergarments stained by excrement. Now, why is that important? Is that just gratuitous? Is he just saying that to put this in a gratuitous frame? No. He's saying that. I mean, I know a lot of you are probably saying, Pastor, did you really have to go there? Well, the answer is yes. Because what Jude is trying to say is we are to be just as wary, just as reluctant to befriend or entertain false teachers as we would be at the prospect of picking up someone's dirty underwear. Now that puts it in a lot different perspective, doesn't it? It should be so repulsive to us. And this is the basis for that part of that fear. You would never do that. Why? Because it's gross. I mean, it's unthinkable. Jude's saying the same feeling should be had when considering dealing with those who are spreading false teaching. Again, this kind of language was not avoided by the writers of scripture. You'll recall Paul. saying that, under inspiration even, that all of the things that he had accumulated for himself, he now counted as skubalar, dung. He wasn't being gratuitous again, he was being honest. He said, if you have a scale before you where, you know, everything I have in Christ is compared with everything I have in this world, yeah, by comparison, it's dung. And so Jude is saying this light precious faith that we all enjoy, this doctrine that we all hold dear is such that the truth so far outshines and eclipses error that it's as if that error itself is filthy undergarments. And yet how often do we soft sell the truth, and we act like, you know, doctrinal error, doctrinal variation is really not that big a thing. We'll just agree to disagree. No. No, that's not at all what Jude is saying. He's saying that, yes, we should have mercy on those who have strayed to that point. We should fear for their spiritual lives. But at the same time, we should be fearful lest they infect us with their own bad doctrine. And yes, the mercy we show them is the same mercy that we show all unbelievers. All who are trapped in ungodliness, false doctrines and false systems of religion. It's just that unlike your garden variety unbeliever, those in this category, know enough to be extremely dangerous, even to those who might think themselves to know better. John MacArthur doesn't pull any punches where these individuals are concerned. He actually refers to them and the false teachers that spawned them, he refers to them as spiritual terrorists. in a sermon to his own church. Listen to what MacArthur said by way of reminding them of this very thing. He says, churches that stop spiritual terrorism at its border by profiling them, understanding who they are, protect themselves, and then face the incredible responsibility to give those same terrorists the gospel. To this we are called, to this great challenge. And somebody's going to say, well, this could be scary. This could be really scary. Does this mean that if I get involved in this and I get myself soiled by this false doctrine and I begin to question certain things and I maybe get caught up in some of their sins and then I'm going to lose my salvation? He says, well, that's why the benediction comes at the end of Jude. Now to him who is able. To keep you from what? Stumbling or falling, and to make you stand in the presence of His glory, blameless and with great joy. To the only God, our Savior, through Jesus Christ, our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, authority, before all time, now and forever. Amen. He said, you're not going to lose your own, you're not going to lose your salvation, but if you're engaged with these people and you're not doing it with fear and great care, you will soil your garments. You may not lose your salvation, but the church will be the victim and your own life polluted by the defilement. It's not an easy thing to do. It takes the most care and the most vigilance and the disciplines of edification, prayer, living in obedience, and having a heavenly perspective to protect us. But notice what he says, it's not easy, but it's necessary. It's necessary that we engage these individuals. Last Wednesday I remarked that even now we have brothers and sisters in this place who fall into each of these three categories. And I was asked after the message, and it's not the first time I've been asked this, Somebody remarked, well, pastor, if that's the case, you need to tell us who they are. And what was my response? I responded the same way I've responded for years. We should be so unified, so well-connected with one another, so aware of what's going on in this small body that when something like this happens, Each of us takes it upon ourselves to be a part of Jude's prescribed solution. I don't know what made me sadder. The fact that I had to be asked who this was, which is just another way of saying, well, I'm not connected enough to know who you're talking about. So you need to tell me. Or the fact that it's just now dawning on some people that this might be a problem when the oldest of these situations is at least four or five months old. I was speaking to someone just last week about this, a fairly new member of the church. who told me that when he was being considered for membership and the congregation was told to get to know him, we do that, right? So-and-so's asking for membership, please get to know them. Please ask them questions. Please befriend them, become accountable to them, at least in some small way. This individual told me that one person approached him. One person, relative to his membership. Not saying one person approached him ever, but one person asked him about, where are you from? What do you believe? Why do you want to be a member of this church? What can you contribute to this church? What's your vision for your participation in this church? One person. Over a three week period, it was one of those odd weeks where The congregation had three weeks to ask this person anything relative to their membership. And if that's true, and I have no reason to doubt whether it's true or not, this is a genuine question, a serious question. If this is true, how in the world Are we ever going to carry out the admonitions in this passage, doing such work as requires us to pick up one another's dirty spiritual underwear? If even in the best of times, we can't even ask someone, why do you want to join us? Where are you from? More importantly, the job of protecting the flock against spiritual terrorists is not just my job. It's every one of your job. You can be rest assured that if you're a real flock of sheep, the first one of you that recognizes that that sheep has a wolf's nose, what happens in a real flock when that happens? Right? And the shepherd comes running. Because guess what? I might not notice. It's difficult, yes. But it's absolutely necessary for the preservation of the body. and the purity of the body. Instead of asking me who these individuals are, you should be asking yourself, why don't I know who they are? That's the real question. And I realize what I'm suggesting tonight is something you don't hear in a lot of places. Church has become a place where we just gather and we fellowship. We don't want to be encumbered by your problems. I don't want to hear about your problems. Me take responsibility for ensuring that you no longer doubt. Me taking you under my wing and holding you accountable and you me. Ensuring that we both grow up into this mature man Consistently glorifying God in everything that we think, say, and do? No, no, when I signed on, I didn't sign on for that. I signed on just to come to church. And it is the church. I was just gonna say that. The church is not a place you go. The church is who you are. All I'm doing, lest there should be any hubbub to the contrary, what I'm doing is simply revealing to you what the scripture says is our responsibility one to another, which is then translated into our responsibility toward God himself. Just look at the commands we have in our text. We're told to have mercy on those who doubt. We're told to save. We're told to snatch certain ones out of the fire. We're told to have mercy with fear on those who have succumbed to the wiles and the ways of the false teacher. And all of these are present imperative verbs. They're commands, not options. I pray that we'll all strive to be more than mere spectators in this critically important aspect of our membership to this body, as well as our fellowship one with another. The devil tries hard to undo what God has done. And I'm afraid that in churches like ours where there is so much love and you're to be commended for your love for one another, seriously. This is a church that's been such a tremendous blessing over the years to me and to many who have been here for a long time. And you are to be commended for the love that you have for one another and the concern that you show one another and the help that you provide one another. I'm not beating you up for anything that I'm not beating myself up for. Could I do a better job at reaching out and solving some of these issues before they become real problems? Absolutely. But guess what? I need your help too. I need your help as much as you need mine. And guess what? We all need the Holy Spirit's help to compel us to be the body that God has called us to be. Not just to go to the body, be the body. And as long as every part's doing what it's designed to do, we will be a body that glorifies and honors the Lord. Well, it gets better. We're finally, next week, we're finally at the great doxology. People say, well, it's a benediction. No, it's a doxology. I'll explain that later. But we get to hear the good news, because guess what? Everything I've challenged you with tonight and challenged myself with tonight, guess who's able to make that all happen? Only one. And not only is he able, he's willing. And we know him. Huh? And we're supposed to know him. And we know him, absolutely.