The Call to Persevere
This week we are continuing our series in Jude. If you were with us last week you’ll remember that we talked about how the things that we need to look out for in the church are the times when we notice someone seems to only ever have complaints, and specifically with a purpose of creating division. Because what these divisive complaints do is ultimately separate people into groups, and in doing so, pit them against each other.
And you know, as I thought about Jude’s warning over the last couple of weeks, I was reminded of a story that my friend told me once about a time when he was working out at Pantex about 17 miles northeast of Amarillo, TX, where I grew up. If you don’t know, Pantex sits on a 16,000 acre site, and is the primary United States nuclear weapons assembly and disassembly facility who’s primary purpose is to maintain the safety, security and reliability of the U.S. nuclear weapons stockpile.
You can see the guard towers all around the plant - and they’re not really for show either. Nope, they put a lot of money, training, energy, into their security. To the point that when some hunters just happened upon their land - the security team at Pantex knew those hunters were there long before the hunters even realized that they were even close to Pantex property. Cameras, facing every which way. Guards that know what’s going on on the 16,000 acre property. Down the point that a couple of hunters accidentally venturing onto part of the land warranted a convoy of armed guards heading out to meet them, and to understand why guns were being fired on part of the U.S. Department of Energy’s land.
Yet, do you know what one of the threats that they train for - possibly the most? And this comes from a government website.
An inside threat.
A person who is trusted, including employees, organization members, and those to whom the organization has given sensitive information and access.
A person given a badge or access device identifying them as someone with regular or continuous access (e.g., an employee or member of an organization, a contractor, a vendor, a custodian, or a repair person).
A person to whom the organization has supplied a computer and/or network access.
A person who develops the organization’s products and services;
A person who is knowledgeable about the organization’s fundamentals
A person who is knowledgeable about the organization’s business strategy and goals
In short, they train for the potential for an insider to use their trust or understanding of an organization to harm that organization.
And that’s because when someone is brought in from the outside. Especially into a place like Pantex - they have such a large potential to wreak havoc on the inside. And that’s what Jude’s warning is about, that’s what he’s urging us to be on the lookout for. If we could put that Pantex picture back up - that’s the kind of defense that he’s wanting us to have. And the thought of a church being destroyed - especially from the inside, well it’s a thought that he almost just couldn’t bear. For someone to get into the inside and wreak havoc. If we can pickup just a little bit before our main section today, read with me starting in Jude 17:
“But you must remember, beloved, the predictions of the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
“But you must remember, beloved.”
Who is he addressing? Beloved.
“But you...beloved.”
Even though last week we were introduced to this potential for divisiveness from within the church, even though Jude is warning us to be on the lookout - I just really and truly love this phrase right here in verse 17. “But you, beloved.” Because what that means is that there’s an alternative pathway for the believer in the midst of a difficult world. In the midst of an inside threat. In the midst of a dark world. Thank God that there’s that alternative pathway for the believer in the midst of all of that. You know, you’ve got everything going on in the world around you. Maybe you’ve got stuff going on at your family. Maybe you’ve got stuff going on at work. Maybe you have a list like I presented last week. Maybe some of you just did the exact opposite of my advice and you thought through a list on your own of all the things that have “gone wrong” in your life in recent history. And then we get to this...”But you, beloved. You have a different pathway. Remember the predictions of the apostles. You get a different way of responding to these things as a born again believer. With all these difficulties, with all these challenges, remember the words that were spoken of by the apostles.”
And you know, over the years when I’ve been praying to God for these things - I keep coming back to this: if Satan is throwing all of those things my way - a slab leak, an AC leak in wall, the death of a beloved pet, a wrecked car, and then another wrecked car, and then another wrecked car, family health issues, the death of Cassy’s grandpa, and list keeps going - if Satan has thrown all of that our way in just a couple of years, then I’m chalking that up to joy. Because what an encouragement that we’re where God wants us, if Satan is trying that hard to get us to stumble. It reminds me of the church in Acts - where we learn that the early church was strong because they chose to continue steadfastly in the apostles’ doctrine. And that’s what Jude is saying here:
“You guys, with this threat of inside havoc, with false teachers, with all these difficulties - but you - you stay in the Word. Don’t forget what you were taught. Don’t forget what you were given. Because it’s bigger than any of those things.” And, like I said last week - sure those things can happen and they can come our way - in fact they will. The life of a Christian isn’t one where we’re promised for things to be easy. But it’s what follows those difficulties that I want to focus on. Let’s continue in v. 20:
“But you, beloved, building yourselves up in your most holy faith and praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ that leads to eternal life. And have mercy on those who doubt; save others by snatching them out of the fire; to others show mercy with fear, hating even the garment stained by the flesh. Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy, to the only God, our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen.”
It reminds me of the church in Acts - where we learn that the early church was strong because they chose to continue steadfastly in the apostles’ doctrine. And that’s what Jude is saying here: So Jude finishes up what is truly a pretty difficult letter, with what I’d consider to be one of the most beautiful, powerful, doxologies in the Bible.
It’s like this moment where Jude just pauses - and just thinks on the goodness of God. Just a pause, in which when thinking on the goodness of God results in declaring it to Him. Really really beautiful what we see here in vv. 24 and 25.
And Jude gives this instruction that I think is so applicable and on point for us today:
“Keep yourselves in the love of God. Don’t forget your how precious and how wonderful of a place you have in relationship with God.”
It’s unique to born again believers - where don’t only know of God’s love - a lot of people know of God’s love. They’ve heard about it. But for born again believers it’s a love that you literally get to experience. Don’t just let that be something that you hear and just go, “oh yeah - yep. I know. Makes sense. Heard that before.” You literally experience it. Not just the type of love that the world describes either. All roses and daffodils and syrupy and sweet, all romantic. The love that born again believers literally experience is so much more. It’s a sacrificial love - a love that gives.
CASSY’S RING
When Cassy and I were dating, we had talked about marriage a little bit, as couples do. Talk about the future and all of that great stuff. Well, I graduated from Texas Tech in May of 2014, Cassy and I had been dating about 4 or 5 months at that point, and then in November of 2014 I got my first “big-boy” job, and upon signing the papers I went and bought a ring. How romantic, right? Good decision, I knew from the moment that I saw Cassy on our first date that I wanted to marry here, so the decision to get a ring wasn’t really all that hard. So the second that I had a salary, and I knew that I could provide for her - boom - I’m going to go get a ring. And that would have been great if the story just ended right there. A sweet little story.
However, what immediately followed buying that ring, was hands down one of the dumbest things that I’ve done. Because for some reason, I was compelled to tell Cassy that I bought the ring. And I did. Literally as I was leaving the store. I called her up on the phone, “Guess what I just bought...”
Yeah, I ruined the surprise of buying a ring - whatever. I don’t think that it really would have been that big of a deal had I proposed soon...instead of 18 months later. Yeah - ask Cassy how happy she was knowing I had an engagement ring for a year and a half. Actually, I’ll save you the time, she wasn’t. Happy I finally proposed, yes. Just - a little later in the timeline than what would have been preferred.
But there’s a moment within those 18 months, that I think in just desperation for Cassy to get me to propose, probably month 11 or 12 of me having bought the ring, we end up signing up for a marriage class at our church.
And in the marriage class, they described love in a way that I hadn’t heard up until that point in my life - but it totally shifted the way that I thought about it. The world so often describes love the way that I said earlier, all roses and daffodils and syrupy and sweet, all romantic - and butterflies - and these just feelings of love. However, all throughout the Bible we see love being described as an action. Not a feeling. And in that class, I remember as if it was yesterday the guy leading the class (one of my youth pastors) saying, sure there’s feelings involved with love, but feelings come and go and change. But love, love is an action. It’s a choice that despite your feelings, you’re saying, “I’m choosing to love you each and every day.” It’s serving others. Love leads to action.
When Jesus was talking to Nicodemus what did He say?
That God so loved the world that He...gave.
The verse doesn’t go - for God so loved the world…. Cool.
For God so loved the world that He...gave His one and only Son.
Love leads to action.
And while we’ll talk about some ways to keep ourselves in the love of God - Jude is saying, remember what God has done for you.
Remember that God is the initiator.
“We love God because He first loved us.”
And so when Jude tells us to keep ourselves in the love of God, this is him speaking to our minds. It’s an instruction to our mind. It speaks to where we are in our thinking, like what Jesus said in John 15 - to stay there. “You already experience God’s love, so stay there.” So simple - yet how hard at times, right?
This is a reflection of Christ’s words, “Abide in me and I will abide in you.” Or put simply: “Stay put. Don’t move. Stay focused. Don’t ever forget that.”
And like I said last week - it’s easy to here those words in a church, and maybe even think something like, “yeah - I know. God loves us. Last week you were in children’s church, and now you’ve taken us back to the nursery - Jesus loves me this I know.” Good grief. How could anyone forget that? You’ll see. By the end of today, you’ll see.
How Do I Keep Myself in the Love of God?
Jude answers it. Read with me in verse 20:
“But you, beloved, building yourselves up in your most holy faith and praying in the Holy Spirit,”
If you’re taking notes - there’s number 1:
1.Building yourselves up in your most holy faith.
The Christian life is one of sanctification. There’s a theology word for ya: sanctification. The process of becoming more and more like Christ. To be made holy.
But our lives should be lives of growing. Of change. Of building upon a solid foundation. Not of sand. Not going backward. Because if you remember that parable that Jesus told, what tested the buildings? The storms/difficulties/lists of life. And the foundation determined whether or not the home stood in the midst of the storm. Yet as believers, as we grow and build - we get the incredible opportunity to build upon the foundation of Christ. We get to build up based on Christ. If we take that into our relation with others, we even have a word for that - edify. We get to build one another up. To be builders in this world - not destroyers.
Again, for you notetakers - point 2:
2. Praying in the Holy Spirit.
How amazing that we get the privilege to be able to appeal to our God, to be able to pray in the presence of the Holy Spirit. That we can surrender and pray? And in times that we don’t know what to say or pray for, like we read in Romans 8:26, the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans” (verse 26). God knows our limitations and frustrations. He knows that our flesh is weak even when our spirit is willing, so his Spirit intercedes for us, even for needs that cannot be put into words. I want you to notice, and I want to make this point that if you notice what Jude does - He breaks it down. Back to basics. This thought of “if you want to stay in the love of God - read your Bible and pray.”
“Remember the teachings, to build your life upon the rock (v. 17, 20), and pray (v. 20).” If you’re not doing it - let me challenge you, officially, right here and now - read your Bible and pray. Every day. There will be a change in your life. There will be. And maybe you have a past of church hurt - maybe you don’t trust pastors - that’s fine - because the advice that I’m telling you, the Jude is telling you, that God’s Word is telling you is to remain in God’s word, and remain in prayer to Him. If you do that, there will be a change in your life. You’ll be in a position to enjoy the love of God. And that leads to Jude’s third piece of advice:
3. Waiting and Looking for the Mercy of Jesus
If you want to be in the love of God, you will be waiting for, looking for, the mercy of the Lord Jesus Christ. Verse 21:
“keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ that leads to eternal life.”
You will be looking for and awaiting the return of the Lord. Jesus promised to come back, and this phrase, “waiting for” - in the original language is the word:
προσδέχομα - prosdechomai.
It could be written as “continually looking.” If you’re continually looking for something, there’s not a time where you’re not anticipating and looking for the moment when we get to be in God’s presence for eternity. The return of the Lord. So if you’re in the Word, you’re praying daily, you’re fixing your gaze above the horizon, anticipating the return of the Lord, anticipating our eternal state. If you were in Christ’s presence right now, wouldn’t a list like I shared last week be minuscule by comparison? Wouldn’t the burdens of life just be minuscule by comparison?
So why don’t we do those things?
Well, we get caught up in life, right? We have those burdens, or maybe it’s our possessions, our worries, our anxieties. And it’s almost just layer after layer after layer of just things that seemingly pull us away from our focus on Christ. We complain about them. We let it make us bitter. Maybe those complaints manifest in different ways, in things that you don’t really have issues with. And you find yourself thinking at time, “why am I even complaining about this?” All these things, when we lose that perspective of remaining focused on Christ, can easily take us away from anticipating being united with Him. In remaining in His love. And so after Jude tells us the things to do to remain in His love, these wonderful actions of spiritual and mental practices, “Read the Word, Pray, and anticipate the Lord’s mercy, anticipate eternity with Christ.”
He then shifts to saying, “okay, so here’s how you are to deal with different people.”
Verses 22-23:
“And have mercy on those who doubt; save others by snatching them out of the fire; to others show mercy with fear, hating even the garment stained by the flesh.”
So there’s a compassion and an intensity when it comes to ministering to people.
Because everyone experiences things differently, and how do we know how to care for them best, if we’re not reading, praying, and anticipating our Lord? If you’re a Connect Group leader here at New Hope, you’ve probably heard my schpiel about certain things practices that we uphold as a church, things that we expect of our leaders, the types of groups that I aim for us to offer to our congregation each semester - but you’ve also heard me mention that even though I have blanket, over-arching preferences for how our Connect Groups function - I’m well aware that different situations are just that - different. And therefore, if a leader has an idea for a group that doesn’t fit exactly into the mold of what we typically look for - cool, let’s talk about it! If a situation arises that we haven’t talked about - then let’s talk about it.
…But not this one.
It reminds me of a phrase that I heard a pastor say who was talking about a pre-marital counseling ministry that he was running. He said that another minister said to him, I understand that people are different and all of that, but man, I’ve done pre-marital counseling for hundreds of couples, and over the course of years. The pastors’ response to him:
“Yeah, but not this one.”
I think that one of the best things for us to remember when ministering to people is in Proverbs 3:5-6: Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight. So when you’re ministering, speaking into someone else’s life, you want to do it carefully, and most importantly - prayerfully. And as we see in Jude here this morning, Jude makes a distinction. There are those to have compassion on. To come alongside someone emotionally, or carefully. Or another word - empathetically. You’re not just feeling bad for someone (that’s pity), you’re feeling bad with someone. You’re with them. Compassionately caring for them. We see Jude recommending this, in the context of our passage, for those who are wavering, maybe they’re unsure, or new in their faith. Step in alongside them prayerfully and empathetically.
But Jude also makes a distinction. In verse 23:
“save others by snatching them out of the fire; to others show mercy with fear, hating even the garment stained by the flesh.”
It’s like this idea of just, “Man, you’ve just gotta go take care of it. It doesn’t matter what they look like. It doesn’t matter what they smell like. Get them out of that situation.” To this I think Jude would be referring to those like we’ve mentioned a couple of times today, and last week as well - those who are taking advantage of the flock. Those in rebellious sin, those who are unrepentant. Jude says, “Hey, look, you need to be a little more firm with them.” And like I said last week - I don’t think that this is a problem that we actively have to deal with here at New Hope right now. But that’s not to say we never well. Or that we never have. We’re just in a wonderful time right now in this church, and so what better time to hear and understand this. And it’s in this, I think in a broader application - is this: when we minister, we minister to people differently. But in so doing, you can serve them.
And here’s what I mean: You can serve people coming alongside them.
ROAD TO EMMAUS
It reminds me of Jesus with the two guys at the end of Luke on the road to Emmaus. What did He do? He walked with them and talked with them. Out of talking with them what did He do? Well He eventually gave them a whole Bible lesson, right? I know that I’m guilty of this, but how often do we make things more complicated than they need to be? When the solution could just be to walk alongside and talk with someone? Pray, ask the Holy Spirit for direction, wisdom, discernment, the words to say. But just walking alongside.
However, there are times when maybe the recommended approach is a face-to-face strong admonition.
Unrepentant false teachers. Sure.
Those that want to do harm to the Church. Local and “Capital C.”
Those who want to do harm to believers.
Those that want to divide.
Those in unrepentant sin.
The list could go on. Sometimes what’s needed there is some admonition and a warning. It doesn’t have to look like a knockdown dragout discussion, in fact it probably shouldn’t. I love what Sean McDonald shared with me when talking about apologetics, or defending the faith, “If someone gets angry - you both lose.”
How true is that?
But you don’t have to be angry to lovingly, and I’m using that word on purpose, to lovingly and even gently tell someone, “Hey - that’s not of God. That’s not God’s desire for you. That’s sin.”
Compassion. Intensity. They’re both needed. Maybe not at the same time. Maybe at the same time. But it’s through prayer, it’s through remaining in God’s word, in anticipating Him, in remaining in His love, that we pray to the Holy Spirit for discernment on how to best minister to others. What incredible, Godly, biblical advice for approaching how to minister to others. And then Jude ends his letter with this amazing doxology. And with it we get to the heart of it. Jude is saying, here’s the key: at the end of the day - even in ministering to others - get your eyes back on the Lord.
Because the danger of false teaching is that it can lead to false living.
That sounds radical, but it’s not really. If you believe things that aren’t godly, ungodly actions typically follow. And the inverse is also true. The remedy to false teaching is why Jude places such an importance on praying, reading God’s Word. And then, the behavior follows. Then the ministering. I’ll put it this way: It’s not my job to teach you how to behave. It’s my job to help you learn how to love God. He’ll teach you how to behave. And thank God that’s the way it works, because God will teach you, guide you, help you in your life. Trust me, that’s way better than the guy who complains about drivers just about every time he gets in the car. Thank God that we have a teacher, care-er, father, who is all sufficient for every need and who is utterly reliable in every way. And so Jude’s warning is that false teaching in the church can cause all sorts of pain, hardship, chaos. Apostasy. Lying, manipulating, people hurt, destroyed, even turning their back on the church. Because of what?
False teaching.
I was watching a pastor on YouTube speaking to an atheist who used to be a believer, but who turned his back on the church because of church hurt.
PASTOR HYPOCRISY
The clip starts with the atheist man saying, “Yeah, well I left the church. I left all of that, I was sick of it.”
The pastor said, “really? Why?”
The man, pretty angrily, said, “Because of all the hypocrites.”
The pastor smiled, already you could tell catching the man a little off guard, and responded with, “Oh yeah. That makes sense. Let me ask you this: do you know who hated hypocrisy even more than you?”
The man responded, “Jesus?”
The pastor, smiling: “Yep.”
And the clip ends.
And I share that with you because in an age where false teaching can slip into the church - like we talked about last week, our perspective needs to be - no, HAS to be on Christ. On His word. We need to be in prayer. Because He doesn’t teach false things. Because when our perspective drifts back down to people. When that’s the highest we see, that’s when those things like pain, hardship, chaos can really sink in and take root in our life. Rather than looking up to Christ, gaining that perspective, and letting our behavior then follow. And to then minister to others.
And we see this in v. 24:
“Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy,”
So in our passage today we’ve had this recurring phrase from Jude, “But you, beloved...” and now we’ve switched, “Now to him...”
And we get these amazing benefits of what the Lord does for us as believers:
Now to him who:
1. “Is able to keep you from stumbling…”
On my own, I know full well I’m not able to keep me from stumbling. There’s things in my life, I listed them for you, that could easily have been seen as things that were more than I could handle. But there’s nothing on that list, or any list that any of you could ever come up with that is more than God can handle. You can trust Him. He will help you avoid the temptations and stumbling of sin. Because I know that left to my own devices, I’m not capable of it on my own.
2. He is able to present you blameless.
Some translations use the word “faultless” there. Am I faultless/blameless? Are you faultless? If someone walked up to you and said, “Hey - I’m Jim. I’m blameless.” You’d probably be like, “Okay - that man’s a felon.” Good first impression.” Because we know our imperfections. We know our weaknesses. We know our shortcomings. Chances are something crossed your mind just now. I know for sure I’m not waking up in the morning and looking in the mirror and saying, “And good morning to you Mr. Faultless.” But the Bible says that God is able to keep you and present you as blameless. How? By the real, actual, price paid for you by the blood of Jesus Christ.
3. He will present us blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy.
Here’s the truly amazing and wonderful thing. As a believer, they day is going to come when you will awaken in the presence of the Lord. I mean, that gives me chills! By the grace of God, by the power of God, according to the promises of God, He is going to present you blameless before the presence of His glory. It might be a surprise to everyone around you, but as a believer you’re going to be there. Because what He began in you (Phil. 1) He will complete on the day of Jesus Christ - forgiven, cleansed, kept. What joy! By comparison, all those other problems seem so small.
And not only that, v. 25:
“to the only God, our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen.”
Jesus is infinitely wise. In possession of all wisdom. In fact, James says in James 1 that if any of you lacks wisdom, you can ask of God and God will give to you wisdom. And in light of what we’ve been talking about today - do you know the context in which James says that? In the midst of trials, difficulties, challenges, and when you don’t know what to do, say, or where to go - you can ask God for wisdom. I know you can ask a family member or friend - but if their wisdom is that of God, you don’t really need it. Go to the one who is infinitely wise. What does God want me to do? That’s the question. Because I know my wisdom. I know my shortcomings. I know my human desires.
Even just in the Bible:
“we want revenge.” “Turn the other cheek.”
“We want to fight back!” God says, “Be quiet.”
“We want to act! Now!” God said, “wait.”
Usually when I pray for wisdom, I find that the best course of action isn’t usually the one that I would have thought up on my own. Now maybe that just says a lot about me, and that’s fine if it does - but it says so much more about our God. Because it’s through His wisdom that I’m even able to discern how to minister to others. How I’m able to handle different situations with a grace, mercy, compassion, or intensity. And that I’m even able to - and this is my encouragement for you all today as we wrap up this series, and to Gavin will speak more to this next week - but to take today, this week, to just picture being back at home with Jesus. That we can think of that place of pure rest. Of compassionate worship. In the eternal realm.
Think of this, home in the heavenly realm - in perfect reunion with those who have gone before us. As you sit here today, do you know what awaits us? A heavenly reunion. It’s so wonderful. And I know that right now, for all of us, myself included - it can be hard and chaotic to be a Christ-follower. That the world can be mad and confused and frustrated. But the day grows ever-closer when that will be done away. That’s what we have to look forward to. And as we follow Jude and keep ourselves in the love of God, and as we remain in His love, and seek His wisdom as we minister to others both compassionately and intensely, we get a constant taste of hope - of what’s to come. Every time we worship, we get a taste of heaven. Every time we think of God’s faithfulness, we get a taste.
And thank God for that.