Our theology is not formed in a vacuum. What we believe about God, man, the Bible, Jesus Christ, the Church, etc. is not something that we simply lock ourselves in a room and figure out. When we come of age to deal and think about these things, we are not shipped off to some deserted island to make our decisions about what we believe.

Because I decided not to take classes this summer (due to my involvement in other activities like marriage!), I have been able to read some books that I have been wanting to read. One of the first books on my list was Robinson Cruesoe. I do not want to spoil the book for anyone, but most of you are probably aware that the book is about a man shipwrecked on a deserted island (or at least semi-deserted). Anyway, as Robinson is struggling to survive on this island, one of the objects that he was able to save from his ship is a Bible. Now he had not been very religious up to this point and had lived in rebellion to his father’s desires. But as he is on this island, in this desperate situation, he begins to read his Bible. As he reads, he is convicted of his sin and his need for Christ to be his Savior, he begins to pray and be thankful that God has spared his life. In short, he is consumed with the book and sets time aside daily to read and meditate on the Word, and in turn to develop what he believes.

Needless to say, no one in this room has had a similar experience. This is not how are spiritual development took place. And rightfully so. What we believe has been cultivated in a context, not a vacuum. We have been influenced by others along the way. For many, that context has been a Christian one. In other words, they were raised in a home that believed in the Bible and that was a part of a local body of believers. For others this may not be the case. In the Bible, we see this idea of a Christian context, of believers in God living in community, throughout. And this is a right and good thing.

Yet, what happens when the Christian context is corrupt? In other words, what happens when the church, or those teaching in the church, no longer hold to the basic tenants of the faith? What happens when belief in Christ becomes optional? Or belief in the Bible as our ultimate authority becomes negotiable? We might be tempted to think that this is a recent phenomena, but as we have been looking at Jude over the past two weeks, we have seen that even the early church fell victim to corrupt and false teaching. If you look at the epistles in the New Testament you run into this struggle over and over again.

Thus, the question for us becomes: How do we persevere in the faith and prevent the context, or the church, in which we live from becoming corrupt? How do we ensure that our children will grow up in a context that teaches truth and labors for the gospel? Much of the New Testament letters are spent on answering these very questions. This morning we want to continue looking at how Jude tells us to respond.

Basically, I would like to look at our text this morning in two parts. The first part deals with what we are to do, or what we are to persevere in. The second part is the doxology and deals with our hope in perseverance.

As for the first part, read with me verses 20-23: (20) But you beloved, build yourselves up in your most holy faith; pray in the Holy Spirit;(21) keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ that leads to eternal life. (22) And have mercy on those who doubt; (23) save others by snatching them out of the fire; to others show mercy with fear, hating even the garment stained by the flesh. In these four verses, Jude gives us two groups of commands that we are to persevere in. The first group deals with what we are to labor in as we persevere. Let’s look at these four commands together.

First, he tells them to build yourselves up in your most holy faith

This idea of building yourselves up is an idea of community. Jude is using the imagery of a building for the people of God which is often used by Paul and other New Testament writers. As you will see with these other commands, the command to build up is in complete contrast with what these false teachers and ungodly people have been doing. Look at verses 17-19: But you must remember, beloved, the predictions of the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ. They said to you, ‘In the last time there will be scoffers, following their own ungodly passions.’ It is these who cause divisions, worldly people, devoid of the Spirit. We see the contrast here. We are not to be about tearing down, but rather we are to build up. There is to be a unity among us, a coming together as we labor together in the truth of our faith.

Two other things I would like to mention here. First, we are not to build ourselves up by ourselves. There is no doubt that we have personal responsibility. Yet, we must remember that Jude is writing to a group of believers, the beloved if you will. And this language of building ourselves up is community language in the New Testament. Consider 1 Peter 2:4-5: As you come to him, a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious, you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. Or the end of Ephesians 2 where Paul speaks to the Gentiles and says, In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit. Second here, we must be reminded as Lee told us two weeks ago, that the faith we are to be built up in has content, namely the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. We are not to follow our own ungodly passions (v. 18) as the others were doing, but we are to follow that which was once for all delivered to the saints (v. 3). May we be built up into the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Second here, Jude calls them to pray in the Holy Spirit

It could be argued that Jude is talking about some special type of spiritual prayer, and this may be so. Yet, in context, one can see that Jude is at least speaking in contrast to those who are devoid of the Spirit (v.19). We are to be guided by the Spirit, which guides us by the Word, in our prayers for one another. This is one of the ways we can labor to build one another up. As we have been talking in Sunday school about the importance of praying for one another, we see here a clear command to do just that. How can we say that we are laboring in one another’s lives if we do not even pray for one another? We cannot get around this. We must begin to labor in prayer that God would build our faith, that he would teach us truth, that he would give us unity, and that he would protect us from falsehood. We must be people who pray for one another.

Third, Jude calls them to keep themselves in the love of God

We will speak more about this, but notice here the clear command. Jude is calling them to take responsibility in this. They are as a community called to keep themselves in the love of God, as we are as well.

So what does this mean? Probably the easiest way to understand this is to look at Jesus’ words in John 15. Let’s read this together: I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser. Every branch of mine that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit. Already you are clean because of the word I have spoken to you. Abide in me and I in you, As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me. I am the vine, you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in me he is thrown away like a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned. If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you, By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and prove to be my disciples. As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love. If you keep my commands, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love. These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.

Christ makes it clear that if we are to abide in the Father’s love then we are to keep his commands. This is our call. And as we saw last week, this is exactly what the false teachers Jude is addressing were not doing. In fact, Jude calls them fruitless trees in late Autumn, twice dead, uprooted (v. 12). Shall we not heed Christ’s warning about what happens to fruitless trees? Judgement is real and our call is to remain in God’s love by keeping his commandments.

This is why, as the church, we are to be concerned with all disobedience to God’s word. We cannot claim to love God and claim to love our brothers and not take disobedience seriously. We must labor for one another’s souls by holding each other accountable to the Word of God. Accountability among our members is not so that we can meet and just get to know somebody and their sins, it is so we can labor for one another’s soul in holding them accountable to the Word. Church Discipline is not something we want to do simply because it seems like a good thing to tell people we practice, no, we do it because we want to labor for the soul of the one who is caught in sin and will not repent. May we as a church be able to look at one another and say, “I will labor in your life to make sure you remain in the love of God by keeping his commands.” By this, may we prevent false teaching and false practice from taking place in our church. In refusing to do this, we are opening a door for falsehood to corrupt our church and our lives.

Fourth, Jude calls them to wait for the mercy of Christ

It has been said before, but we need to constantly live with eternity in mind. To some degree, all these other commands need to be done in the hope of Christ’s return. We persevere in the faith because we know Christ is coming back. We pray because we know who will call us home on that day. And we labor to remain in his love because we know judgement approaches. As we labor in these may we be reminded that we do not labor in vain and may we be upheld by the mercy that leads to eternal life.

The second group of commands in this first part deal specifically with how we are to deal with those who have been corrupted by false teaching and practice. It can be difficult to get at exactly what Jude is saying here because of textual variances. Yet, I believe we can summarize what he is trying to get across.

In short, Jude is calling us to show mercy without compromise

Look at verse 22-23 with me again: (22) And have mercy on those who doubt; (23) save others by snatching them out of the fire; to others show mercy with fear, hating even the garment stained by the flesh. We see here Jude’s repeated call to show mercy. Yet, lest we misunderstand what mercy means, as many often do, we must see that Jude is not telling them to compromise in what they call sin and disobedience. In fact, he tells them to hate even the garment stained by the flesh.

This exhortation is very important for our day. There is pressure on the church to be merciful at all costs. And at times, there is pressure to be unmerciful at all costs. Yet, we must not fall off either side of the horse. Jude tells us to show mercy. To not give up on those who doubt, but to labor in their lives so as to snatch them from the fire. Yet, Jude also tells us to beware. We must not be willing to join ourselves with them in their folly. Again, we see the purpose of accountability and Church discipline coming to play here. We call each other to repent and show mercy as they do and discipline as they do not. And as we have already said, we cannot grow lax in dealing with disobedience in our churches. For it is merciful to call one another to repentance and unloving to allow one to remain in disobedience.

Yet, at the end of all these commands, we may be left wondering just how are we to do all this? By what strength are we to labor in this? Is the call of Jude for us to simply lace up our bootstraps and do our best, hoping that we are strong enough in the end?

In closing today, let us look at the second part of our text, the conclusion of the book. We read in verse 24-25: (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, (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.

This is our hope for perseverance. Not that we are strong enough in and of ourselves. Not that by our might we are to preserve ourselves and our community. No. 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. Is this not our hope this morning. As we look at this task of building ourselves up in the most holy faith, praying faithfully for one another, remaining in God’s love, showing mercy to those who doubt and fall away, we should be overwhelmed at trying to accomplish this on our own strength. We should shutter at the weight of the task. Yet, he is able.

If God is so passionate about preserving a people for His glory that He would crush His own Son under the weight of their penalty, in the fury of His wrath, shall we not consider Him able to keep us and present us blameless before His presence on His glory with great joy? If we lack hope, if we lack strength to persevere, may we cast our gaze upon the cross, may we look away to the One who died and was raised again, who conquered death that we might live without the fear of death, may we look to Him who is able to keep us from stumbling. We must realize that God is more passionate about the holiness of His bride than we will ever be. And He is able!!

Thus, we persevere in hope this morning. Not a hope in ourselves, but hope in God. For He will persevere His bride for Himself on that day, that we may stand blameless before the presence of His glory with great joy, bought by the blood of His Son. We shall stand there to proclaim His excellencies that He might receive all glory, majesty, dominion, and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen. God is laboring in us to present us blameless for His great glory.

So labor on in hope this morning. Persevere in the faith, trusting that God will persevere you. Take responsibility for your actions, knowing that He is Sovereign over all.

In looking for new songs for us to sing in corporate worship, I ran across the old hymn “Jesus I My Cross Have Taken” by Henry Lyte. It has encouraged me so much and summarizes well what Jude has called us to today. Listen to the last two stanzas:

Soul, then know thy full salvation,
rise o’er sin and fear and care
Joy to find in every station,
Something still to do or bear
Think what Spirit dwells within thee,
Think what Father’s smiles are thine
Think that Jesus died to win thee,
Child of heaven, canst thou repine

Haste thee on from grace to glory,
Armed by faith and winged by prayer
Heaven’s eternal days before thee,
God’s own hand shall guide us there
Soon shall close thy earthly mission,
Soon shall pass thy pilgrim days
Hope shall change to glad fruition,
Faith to sight and prayer to praise

OUR CALL TO PERSEVERE AND OUR HOPE IN PERSEVERANCE

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