Episode Transcript
[00:00:01] We are finishing Jude today. We're going to be the last few verses, verses 17 to 25.
[00:00:11] And I do have a question to ask today. I have a question.
[00:00:15] Have you ever been in a spontaneous race?
[00:00:19] Anyone? Spontaneous race? Yes. Yes.
[00:00:23] Spontaneous means like out of random sudden.
[00:00:29] Like you just start racing.
[00:00:32] Lots of you, right? Yeah.
[00:00:34] I'm glad it's not just me. I'm glad it's not just me. I kind of thought, this is for children. And then Austin, when he was in college, because I did do this in college. One time I was walking back to the house we lived in with a good friend of mine, and for some reason, we just started racing.
[00:00:51] We were just running, running down Monroe. If you went to osu, you know where that is. And we were running down to our house just south of campus.
[00:01:01] There may have been a reason, I really don't remember.
[00:01:04] We were probably just saying, I think I'm faster than you. And he said, no, I'm faster than you. And so we ran. We ran down the street and we were both, I think, at that time, you know, definitely in our primes, we were pretty fast. But on the straightaway down the sidewalk, I definitely had him. I was smoking him. I was going so fast. I was running right at our house. And up on our house, there was kind of like a little bit of a ridge, like, of grass. Wasn't flat with the sidewalk, just a bit up. You know, I ran up that and I was still cooking. I mean, I was really flying and I was running. I could see the house and then bang.
[00:01:38] Gotcha.
[00:01:40] I hit my face on the ground.
[00:01:44] I was running so confidently.
[00:01:47] My face was in the dirt, my body rolled over my head, and I just, you know, went down. I had stepped in a hole.
[00:01:59] There was a hole in the grass.
[00:02:01] You know, it seems kind of obvious looking back that you probably should maybe watch your step when you're running through grass.
[00:02:08] You know, I was a freshman, though I was new. I was still kind of used to my high school days when I was running track. And, you know, the thing about a track is it's always there, you know, it's always like below your foot, basically at the same height as the step before.
[00:02:24] You know, tracks, especially sprinters, you know, they really drive their feet really hard into the ground. They get a lot of power. That's how they go so fast. And so I was used to doing that. And so I just drove my foot as hard as I could into a hole, you know, and just face first. Turns out the grass isn't Always there. Sometimes there's a hole, and sometimes you stumble and you stumble hard. Well, anyway, my friend and I, we had a good laugh for a while. I cleaned the dirt off my face and we looked at the hole that made me stumble. And I think now, thankfully, especially in light of Jude, the end of Jude here, the Christian race is different.
[00:03:02] Believers are kept from such stumbles.
[00:03:06] We are kept from having to have hard, difficult falls and trips.
[00:03:13] Now, as a reminder, before we get really into this, Jude's letter has a very similar message, an argument. As Second Peter. He is warning against scoffers, those who openly sin, maybe some false teachers.
[00:03:25] And yet all these people, they claim to be Christians.
[00:03:29] They're claiming to be part of the church. And as Jude explained the judgment that is due for the ungodly in the first section we studied last week, if you remember, he used two sets of three different Old Testament examples and then a couple of examples from outside the Bible just to drive home his point. And now today, in this last part, he's going to go for one more proof against the ungodly, against the scoffers. And that is the predictions of the apostles. What the apostles had taught, what they have written.
[00:03:59] That is what he's doing today. The apostles warned that this would happen, that ungodly and scoffers would come.
[00:04:07] But thankfully, Christians have no need to fear because they're equipped with God's spirit and his grace through their faith. So they can be kept, and they can encourage and love others who are struggling, all the while knowing that it is God alone who protects them and will present them blameless in the day of judgment.
[00:04:28] So again, as a reminder, whenever you're thinking of Jude, you can think that the main theme of Jude is contend for the faith and by God's grace, persevere.
[00:04:37] Just think, contend for the faith and by God's grace, persevere. That's kind of the whole letter. If I was going to boil down this passage. The main idea of Jude 17:25, which is the one that will be on your sheet, is Christ by his Spirit keeps us safe, makes us blameless, which is why we resist sin and scoffers. So Christ, by his Spirit keeps us safe, makes us blameless, which is why we resist sin and scoffers.
[00:05:12] So now we're going to read Our passage, Jude 17:25.
[00:05:19] But you must remember, beloved, the predictions of the holy apostles of our Lord Jesus christ. They said to you in the last time, there will be scoffers following their own ungodly passions.
[00:05:32] It is these who cause divisions, worldly people devoid of the Spirit.
[00:05:38] 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.
[00:05:50] And have mercy on those who doubt.
[00:05:53] Save others by snatching them out of the fire.
[00:05:57] To others, show mercy with fear, hating even the garment stained by the flesh.
[00:06:04] 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.
[00:06:23] So tonight we are going to remember one more time the threat that stood against the early church, also against the Church today. We're going also to consider what it's like to rely on the grace of God and especially His Spirit. We're going to become motivated, I hope, to rescue and encourage those who are weaker in the faith. And finally, we're going to lay it all down and remember that in Christ we actually have rest.
[00:06:54] We get to rest even as the world gets worse and worse and more and more chaotic. And scoffers pop up here and there by God's grace. Those who have been called by God, loved by the Father and kept for Jesus christ have no earthly worry, because their identity, their value and their hope is in heaven. It's in God alone. That's what we'll see here. So point number one is remember the threat.
[00:07:24] See this in verses 17 to 19.
[00:07:28] So similar to Peter's goal, if you remember way back to this, his goal was to stir up his readers by way of reminder. He says, Jude uses a reminder to do the same.
[00:07:39] They need to remember what the apostles predicted.
[00:07:43] The apostles said this would happen. One such prediction by one of the apostles was Paul in Acts 20:29, 30. He said, I know that after my departure, fierce wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock. And from among your own selves will arise men speaking twisted things to draw away the disciples after them.
[00:08:08] So the wolves are scoffers, or probably false teachers, or even people in the church that claim they're Christians but deny Christ and how they live.
[00:08:17] So yet again, we're directed to one important way to that scoffers or false believers reveal themselves. And that important way is that you can know them by their fruit, based on what they do. The fruit of their lives reveals who they are.
[00:08:36] We see in this passage that they are following their own ungodly passions, passions in this sense, so you can kind of remember what that means are their emotions and that drive you, emotions that control you. They take the steering wheel and control you.
[00:08:56] It may be a confusing word sometimes, because I could be passionate about something good. I can be passionate about the Bible, and that might lead me to studying it and loving it, and that's a good thing. But to be driven and controlled by passions looks more like maybe this. You know, maybe someone is mean to you or betrays you in some way, and then in anger or sadness or just hurt, you turn and spread lies or gossip about them or try to get them back in some way.
[00:09:28] You try to embarrass them out of your anger.
[00:09:32] That is being controlled by your passions.
[00:09:36] Or maybe someone frustrates you in sports, in a basketball game or something like that, so you look for an opportunity to maybe take a cheap shot at him out of anger. Again, I think that, too, is being controlled by passions.
[00:09:50] We must not be controlled by passions.
[00:09:53] We can also know these scoffers that Jude is talking about, because, you know, when, especially when they're in the church, they cause divisions. They're divisive people.
[00:10:04] You know, it might even feel like such a person has drama that follows them everywhere they go to them. There's always a controversy, something to complain about, someone else to talk about.
[00:10:17] There's always something wrong in the world or in their life.
[00:10:21] Jude says something important and pretty stark about these people.
[00:10:29] He says that they are devoid of the Spirit.
[00:10:33] See that at the end of verse 19, they are devoid of the Spirit.
[00:10:38] So if the Spirit is promised to all who trust in Christ, and he is promised and he is given to all who trust in Christ, then this is really a declaration that these scoffers are not true believers at all.
[00:10:52] They have not the Spirit. They are devoid of the Spirit.
[00:10:57] So remember this, students. Remembering in this context is more than just recollecting ideas and facts. To truly remember what the apostles have written is to take it to heart, to know the gospel so clearly in your heart that it becomes the natural thing in your heart and mind to spot those who don't align, those whose fruit are out of place, those who are scoffers.
[00:11:29] So we know what the gospel says. We know what gospel people should look like. And so we can spot those who might be sneaking in unannounced, as Jude might say, into the church.
[00:11:41] So we need to remember the threat and what the word says about that.
[00:11:46] But then Jude moves on. So we'll go on to point number two, which is rely on God.
[00:11:53] So here, toward the end of the letter, we're now looking at verses 20 and 21.
[00:11:59] Jude is turning his attention away from the scoffers and away from their condemnation that they deserve in order to encourage the believers that are reading this letter.
[00:12:12] So he said he wanted to write about them, about their. Write to them about their common salvation, but he wanted to contend for them. But he is coming back to encourage them. So verse 20 says, but you, beloved.
[00:12:25] He calls them beloved.
[00:12:29] Remember the great love of the Father we talked about last week. It is by this love that they can be called beloved, as if it's a title, it's their new name. They are the beloved of God.
[00:12:42] They are the special recipients of the Father's love. They receive his electing love, his redeeming love, his eternal love, and his wonderful love.
[00:12:52] They are the beloved of God, and importantly, the love of God. The Father naturally then sends them himself. He sends them the Spirit. So this is contrasting with those who are devoid of the Spirit.
[00:13:06] God's love is communicated and given to believers through the work of the Holy Spirit.
[00:13:13] He is the power by which we can do all things, specifically, keeping ourselves in love of the God, in the love of God the Father.
[00:13:24] So in verse 21, we have this main charge by Jude. So if you're looking at verses 20 and 21, there are different things he says you should do. But 21, keep yourselves in the love of God. That's kind of the central one.
[00:13:39] That is the central command that he is giving. Keep yourselves in the love of God and the love of God. The Father is where we want to be, right?
[00:13:48] That's where we want to be.
[00:13:50] His love keeps us alive.
[00:13:53] And in his love we are kept alive also eternally.
[00:13:58] His love is like the fourth man in the fiery furnace that Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego were thrown in. His love is like the ark that delivers Noah and his family through the flood. His love is like the voice of Jesus that calls Lazarus forth out of the dead. His love gives us life, it protects us. It delivers us from death.
[00:14:21] So, of course, we want to keep ourselves in the love of the Father, but how do we keep ourselves in the love of God the Father? How do we do this?
[00:14:30] There are three phrases, if you're looking around. That central one in verse 21 and Jude is using these phrases to describe that main one.
[00:14:41] And the reason we think. I think it's the main one is because these others are, you know, it's a grammatical term, but of course, you guys all know Grammar very well. These are. There are participles in other words, you see these words with ing at the end. Not every ing is a part of participle necessarily. But you see these. You see building yourselves up in your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit, waiting for the mercy of our Lord and Savior Jesus christ that leads to eternal life. That's what is telling us how we can keep ourselves in the love of God the Father.
[00:15:17] So first, the first of those is build yourselves up in the faith.
[00:15:22] Build yourselves up in the faith.
[00:15:25] Jude is acknowledging that we won't derive ultimate benefit from merely thinking about scoffers and ungodly people.
[00:15:34] That's not the end of what we are doing.
[00:15:37] We need to set our eyes on our own faith. Our faith needs to stand up against them.
[00:15:44] We need to know what we believe and we need to love what we believe.
[00:15:50] So we need to build ourselves up in the faith.
[00:15:54] Second, praying in the Holy Spirit. We need to pray in the Holy Spirit.
[00:16:00] This keeps us in the love of God.
[00:16:03] Praying in the Holy Spirit doesn't mean it's some special or mystical kind of prayer. It's not an unknown type of prayer language. I don't think praying in the Spirit is just the proper way to pray.
[00:16:17] We must pray in the spirit.
[00:16:20] In Ephesians 6:18, Paul says that we should pray at all times in the Spirit.
[00:16:26] Of course, again, this is contrasting us with the or the believers, with the scoffers who are devoid of the Spirit. If you want to pray in the Spirit, you can't be devoid of the Spirit.
[00:16:39] So again, this contrast is strong. So we should pray at all times in the spirit. And Romans 8:26 helps us to understand how the Spirit is active in our prayers, saying likewise, the Spirit helps us in our weakness, for we do not know what to pray for as we ought. But the Spirit himself intercedes for us.
[00:16:58] So we pray in the Spirit as those who have faith in Christ and have been given His Spirit.
[00:17:03] And the Spirit himself intercedes for you.
[00:17:06] This is praying in the Holy Spirit.
[00:17:10] And then it's not us by our actions keeping us in the love of God. It is the Spirit who is interceding for us, who is indwelling the believer that is keeping us in the love of God.
[00:17:24] And then that third participle, that third phrase is, wait for the mercy of the Lord Jesus christ that leads to eternal life.
[00:17:35] Now, waiting for this mercy is like the idea of hope. So in this little passage we just see. It's kind of maybe subtle, but we see Some really beautiful features of the Bible and how wonderfully and again, beautifully it's written.
[00:17:49] So waiting for mercy is the idea of hope.
[00:17:52] Well, Jude has already mentioned keeping yourselves in the love of God and building yourself up in faith. And so we see Jude kind of hitting on the three, what some people call the cardinal virtues of faith, hope and love. And he kind of just weaves in here as central to the Christian life.
[00:18:09] And he does weave them together. We keep in God's love by building up your faith and hoping in Jesus christ.
[00:18:19] That's his message here.
[00:18:22] But it's not just these three. Faith, hope and love. There's more to it. Look, there's also this little triad that I think points us to the Trinity as well. We hold to the Trinity in part because so often in Scripture, the three persons are presented together. Well, here they are in this passage.
[00:18:39] Keep yourselves in the love of God.
[00:18:42] We can understand that as God the Father. And we do this by praying in the Holy Spirit and waiting for the mercy of the Lord Jesus christ, who is the Son.
[00:18:52] So we see all of these beautiful little things that Jude weaves in here that inform our theology. While maybe not necessarily the main point gives us something beautiful to reflect on, we see here that Christ's work for salvation and the work of the triune God gives us our only hope in life and death.
[00:19:14] Now, the distinguishing factor between the scoffers and the genuine believers is that the believers have the Spirit and the scoffers are devoid of him. They do not have him.
[00:19:28] So students rely on God, the Spirit. If you're in Christ, rely on him.
[00:19:35] We so often rely on our own selves. I know this is especially a temptation for me. It seems natural, right?
[00:19:43] When things are tough, especially if you think you might have the ability to get yourself through something, maybe you've done it before. It's just natural to think, what am I going to do? How am I going to do this?
[00:19:53] But we need to, I think, put a much greater focus on how the Spirit helps us.
[00:20:01] What the Spirit does in His Word. We just need greater attention, greater reliance.
[00:20:06] We ought to go to God first instead of thinking, how am I going to do something?
[00:20:13] And when doing this, then when doing this, keeping ourselves in the love of God, relying on the Spirit, waiting for the mercy of our Lord Jesus christ, then we can better rescue others. When your faith is built up, you then can help others as a third main point, which is rescue others.
[00:20:33] See this in verses 22 and 23. Rescue others.
[00:20:37] So this next part points to the reality that in the church there will always be both stronger and weaker believers.
[00:20:46] Now, this is not a phrase that should merit any sort of status or value to each person. That's not the point. It doesn't mean that some people are more saved than others and some people are more likely to be saved.
[00:21:02] That's not true because the most important factor for justification is the person in whom we believe, not the strength of our faith. It is the object of our faith. He is the one who saves us.
[00:21:15] But that being said, it's just true. Some are weaker in the faith than others.
[00:21:21] Some struggle with doubt. Others are maybe just young in the faith and will grow stronger over time in a stressful world or environment. I think it can be easy for maybe some people who might feel stronger in the faith to be frustrated with the weaker. But Jude wants to warn them instead to show mercy to those who need help, to those who are weaker, to those who are doubting.
[00:21:48] Rather than toss them aside, they need to be helped patiently.
[00:21:55] This is something that the church does.
[00:21:58] So maybe one day you'll find yourself discipling someone who struggles with doubt, or someone who is new in the faith, or someone who still struggles with maybe some seemingly basic sins.
[00:22:12] Well, it's your duty then to be merciful to them.
[00:22:16] Show them the mercy that you're supposed to know through Christ. The mercy that has first been shown to you, you can then give and show to someone else.
[00:22:26] Or maybe you are weaker in the faith, or maybe you feel like you're weak. You're pestered with doubts constantly in the back of your mind. You struggle with whether you've actually been saved or not, or if you're actually a believer when you were baptized, you struggle with these things.
[00:22:45] Well, sometimes your conscience might be revealing something true to you. But if you have no real reason to doubt, then you might just need help, help of another believer. So consider going to a more mature believer, a pastor, a parent, a friend. Ask him. Ask her to help you, to help you grow. In this way, a loving brother or sister will surely be merciful with you and will remind you of our merciful Savior.
[00:23:15] Now, some of you will need to be along with this. Maybe snatched from the fire, as Jude says.
[00:23:22] Others of you at some point might need to do the snatching.
[00:23:27] Maybe you're being snatched. Maybe you need to do the snatching. Sometimes people in the church stray from the faith.
[00:23:35] Probably most of the time it's not being done consciously, at least at first.
[00:23:40] But a sin is being chosen over obedience. That's kind of the picture Jude is painting here.
[00:23:46] When we sin bad, grievous sins and choose not to turn from them, we're choosing the sin as an idol over Christ.
[00:23:56] And sometimes we need that pointed out to us. We need a loving and merciful brother or sister to tell us to repent of that, to turn from it and turn back to the Lord.
[00:24:07] We need that.
[00:24:09] This is snatching someone from the fire.
[00:24:12] When we are able to lovingly identify something in someone's life and see them repent of it and come back to the Lord.
[00:24:20] This is also a term you've probably heard before around here, maybe church discipline. That's what that is. Sometimes it sounds like a scary word. That's what that is. It's loving someone enough to snatch them out of the fire and do whatever it takes to snatch them out of the fire of hell. So do you love your brother or your sister enough to point out their sins lovingly so that they can repent of them?
[00:24:46] Maybe you'll need maybe some counsel in how to do that. Well, and that's okay. But are we driven by love for others still? Others are so entrenched in sin or. And wrong belief.
[00:25:03] Hello?
[00:25:09] Did that scare anybody?
[00:25:10] Was that something I did?
[00:25:13] It's all right. No big deal.
[00:25:16] Was that the.
[00:25:18] That the fire? I don't know what that was.
[00:25:23] Well, anyway, let's bring it back in.
[00:25:27] So what we're saying is, you know, sin can be serious.
[00:25:33] When we're working to lovingly draw someone back to snatch them from the fire, we get kind of close to sin and in sinful situations.
[00:25:43] So we need to make sure that we are wise. That's why Jude says to others, show mercy with fear.
[00:25:52] I heard it said somewhere that we should not be more kind or more stern than justice requires.
[00:25:58] We need to be kind and stern. Sin is serious, so we need to be stern. But we also need to show mercy at the same time.
[00:26:07] And we need to see that sin can be contagious. And in many ways we need to keep it at arm's length at all costs.
[00:26:16] Now this. How do we save someone from their sin or snatch them out or call them to repentance, but also stay arm's length away?
[00:26:25] I think that just requires wisdom in each situation. You need maybe pastoral guidance or guidance from a more mature believer.
[00:26:34] So we want to rescue others from sin while avoiding sin ourselves. Because as we've been saying in First Peter, two Peter, and even Jude, how we live does matter.
[00:26:45] It is not the ultimate means of justification at all, but how we live does matter as it reflects our Savior.
[00:26:54] And yet Jude ends even after discussing for a long time the condemnation of the ungodly, how we're talking about snatching others out of the fire, showing mercy with fear. He ends here by reminding us to rest in God's grace.
[00:27:12] So point number four is rest in God's grace.
[00:27:21] So we're looking now at the last two verses of the book. Jude re centers the readers after his punchy letter about the condemnation of the ungodly to reflect on the wonderful works of God.
[00:27:35] And here's what God does. First, he keeps you from stumbling.
[00:27:40] Now to him, he's talking about God. Now to him who's able to keep you from stumbling.
[00:27:45] No one wants to step in a hole at full speed.
[00:27:49] I can tell you that from experience.
[00:27:52] But God makes your path smooth and straight, like a track.
[00:27:58] At least for 100 meters, it's straight.
[00:28:01] When it's not straight, he brings light to it so that you can see the pitfalls and the holes and avoid them.
[00:28:09] Without the Spirit's guidance and power, you might be trying to run the Christian race through an uneven field while wearing a blindfold.
[00:28:20] That's not going to work.
[00:28:22] We need the guidance and power of God.
[00:28:26] And God can take off that blindfold that we're running in when we put our faith in His Son.
[00:28:32] And he keeps you from stumbling. If you rely on His Spirit, it is still possible that we stray from Him.
[00:28:40] Like Christian in Pilgrim's Progress, we can stray off the path and find ourselves gradually sinking and sinking and sinking. So we need to trust in Christ and depend on His Spirit for help. And in doing that, second, here's what God does.
[00:28:58] He presents you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy.
[00:29:04] Through faith, your filthy body is covered with the pure and clean clothing of Christ's righteousness.
[00:29:13] His perfection is credited to you through faith.
[00:29:19] This means in the judgment, you don't have to go up to God and say, hey, look, I got this filthy rag.
[00:29:25] Your sinful works are not put on the scale of judgment.
[00:29:32] Instead, it's Christ's. You're judged based on what Jesus did in his life.
[00:29:38] You get to share in the reward he gets. You receive his trophies, though hardly even a participant.
[00:29:46] No matter if you struggle with doubt or if your faith is strong and he can present you blameless before his holy self.
[00:29:57] So because God's magnificent grace that calls you to faith and makes you loved by the Father and kept for Jesus christ, here's what you must do. Verse 25.
[00:30:10] I get all of these, from verse 25, praise God who is the only God.
[00:30:17] Think about how he is the one true God. There is no other God that compares to the Lord God of Heaven, the Creator of heaven and earth. Praise God, the only God. Second, praise God who is your Savior.
[00:30:35] He's not a God who is aloof and absent and careless.
[00:30:40] He is intimate with the world, even dying so that sinners can be saved.
[00:30:47] Third, praise God who saves through the work of Christ.
[00:30:54] God saves sinners through Christ's perfect obedience, his death on the cross where he died as a substitute in the place of all who believe and his resurrection that gives believers eternal life.
[00:31:08] Fourth, praise God who is glorious.
[00:31:12] God works for his glory and deserves all glory from us.
[00:31:18] Fifth, praise God who is majestic.
[00:31:21] He is great and heavenly. His beauty is beyond our comprehension. Yet in heaven we get to look at God face to face.
[00:31:30] We don't think about that all the time, but that's the reward of heaven. That's what is in store for believers to get to behold the beautiful and majestic God face to face.
[00:31:41] Sixth, praise God who has dominion. The whole universe belongs to him as Creator.
[00:31:48] Seventh, praise God who has authority. If anyone else was in charge, it would be for the worse. But as it is, God rules and he is a good leader. So seek to obey him because he is the perfect ruler and he is good and merciful.
[00:32:05] Eighth, praise God who is eternal with God there is not beginning nor end. He is the same yesterday, today and forever. In his eternity, he is supremely patient with us.
[00:32:17] And ninth, and finally, praise God for eternity.
[00:32:23] This is the reality of heaven for those found in Christ. We get to spend each and every day, forever and ever gazing upon him and praising Him.
[00:32:34] So why not start now?
[00:32:36] If you believe in His Son, if you have been called by God, loved by the Father and kept for Jesus christ, let's praise him even now.
[00:32:45] Christ by His Spirit keeps us safe and makes us blameless, which is why we resist sin and scoffers. Let's pray.
[00:32:56] Father, thank you for your word tonight.
[00:33:02] The Book of Jude, especially God, we praise you that by your grace we can be presented blameless. You can keep us from stumbling.
[00:33:15] We praise you for your wonderful attributes and for your mighty grace. Lord, we pray that you would encourage us in our discussion times in Christ's name, Amen.
