Living in the Last Days

Well as the war against Hitler and Europe raged on in 1940, Winston Churchill in his first statement as Prime Minister once England got into the war they realized they needed a new prime minister. Neville Chamberlain had pacified the Germans over and over and over again and Winston Churchill was a pit bull. They knew that. They needed someone like him to be able to make it through the war in his first address to the House of Commons on May 13th 1940. He said these words which have become famous almost synonymous with Winston Churchill. I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, sweat, tears and sweat. Well that would be put to the test not long after that when British ships rescued some 300,000 French and British troops from Dunkirk who had been cut off from any land retreat by the Germans. 30,000 soldiers were killed in that battle and the resulting aftermath of being pinned down. In the next meeting when he stood before the British House of Commons he said this. He said we shall not flag or fail. We shall go on to the end. We shall fight in France. We shall fight on the seas and oceans. We shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air. We shall defend our island. Whatever the cost may be. We shall fight on the beaches. We shall fight on the landing grounds. We shall fight in the fields and in the streets. We shall fight in the hills. We shall never surrender. I can't say it with that bro that he did or the emphasis he did but that became a rallying cry to the British people and as they then endured months of bombardment in the city of London and in other places across England you may recall that what kept them strong, what kept them going was Winston Churchill strong, resolved to earnestly contend for the preservation of his country. He would not let that country go under. Well there's one of the apostles that wrote a book in the New Testament. It's one of the one chapter books. I like to refer to them as New Testament postcards. But this little postcard was written by Jude. So turn with me please to the little book of Jude next to the last book in the New Testament. Talked away right up next to the book of Revelation. Is this little book of Jude? Jim when was the last time I preached in Jude? He could probably tell us. But Jude says in verse three, dear friends although I was very eager to write to you about the salvation we share, I felt compelled to write and urge you to contend for the faith that was once for all entrusted to God's holy people. Just like Winston Churchill, Jude stands up in a crisis moment in a moment where the fighting is intense and fierce and he says I am urging you. In fact what I was going to write to you about I sense I can't write to you about and obviously the Holy Spirit was prompting him to write about what he ended up writing this book on to earnestly contend for the faith. Now our enemy is the denial of the faith. Our enemy is apostasy which is a word that means no faith or leaving the faith departing from the faith. So Jude takes that on head on we must preserve the faith at all costs. So he goes on in this book to describe the false teachers that are seeking to turn over the faith undermine the faith. It calls us to lose our faith and by faith we're not talking about faith in Christ as savior we're talking about the faith earnestly contend for the faith which is the body of teaching of scripture. The basic doctrinal teaches of scripture the basic truths that we all hold dear and believe and stand on and hopefully would die for. Jude says we've got to earnestly contend for those we've got to fight for those. So he warns of these false teachers and he describes God's judgment on them. And then in the last part of the book in verses 17 through 25 which we're going to look at tonight Jude closes his appeal to us as believers to be strong. And basically what he says is these are perilous times and we've got to learn how to live faithfully in these last days. In these last days where the truth is going to be thrown overboard and where people are going to just do away with the faith and question everything the Bible teaches. We've got to stand up for the truth and contend for the faith and fight fight for the faith. That's what this book is about. Now as he challenges us in these last days to stand true and to live faithfully in these last days he gives us four basic commands to protect ourselves and to stay faithful to the Lord. We're going to look at those four in the next few minutes. The first command he gives us which is an imperative for living in these last days is this. Remember the warnings. Remember the warnings. In verses 17 through 19 he talks about the warnings. First of all he says these warnings are from the apostles verse 17 but dear friends remember what the apostles of our Lord Jesus foretold. Now I want to pause for a moment and just describe the unique role of the apostles in putting together the faith in writing the scriptures. There were many followers of Christ in his ministry and obviously in the book of Acts as the church began to spread. Multiple thousands of people followed Christ up to 500 or more met with Christ after his resurrection. So we know there were lots of people who followed Christ who knew Christ who could be called and kind of a loose sense his disciples but there were only 12 apostles. An apostle is different from a disciple. Sometimes we refer to the 12 apostles as the disciples and they're called that in the scriptures as well. But there are many disciples many followers only 12 apostles. In order to be an apostle we know from the book of Acts chapter 1 that you had to have been with Christ since pretty much the beginning of his ministry and you had to have walked by him been especially called by him personally individually to that ministry and you were given you you had to be a witness of his resurrection and you were given miraculous powers. The apostles were given what 2nd Corinthians 12 12 calls the signs of an apostle they were signed gifts miraculous gifts. They could raise people from the dead they could speak in languages in Acts 2 that they had never studied they could do all they could heal the sick they were given miraculous powers and the reason for that was to be the credentials for these men these are the men who are going to lay the foundation for the church. The book of Acts and these are the men or men close to them who will write the New Testament. In the early church when they began to gather the books of the New Testament one of the criteria was that a book had to be written by an apostle or someone under the direction of an apostle for instance the gospel of Mark is written by John Mark under the direction of Peter. And so there has to be written by an apostle or has some close tie to the apostles Luke writing under the direction of Paul and so these men are especially gifted men who are given miraculous powers to perform miracles to serve as their credentials as they found the church. Now that's why it's important to understand that that Jude says we are to remember what the apostles foretold where did they foretell this in the Bible when the New Testament was written it was the apostles who wrote it and so they warned us to guard against the forgeries the counterfeits. People who were trying to overturn faith and there were lots of counterfeits there were people who even claimed to be apostles who were not. Paul talks about him in 2 Corinthians chapter 11 he talks about people who claim to be apostles and are not their false apostles and they were accusing Paul of being wrong and so there was there was a lot of false teaching even in the first century even in the New Testament era. John talks about in his second and 30 pistle people who are trying to undermine the faith and so this was a real concern a real a cause for standing firm even in the latter part of the first century in the New Testament. So so Jude says if you're going to stay faithful to Christ in these last days you have got to remember the warnings and these warnings come from the apostles but the warnings are not only from the apostles. The warnings are about the apostates and I mentioned earlier the word apostasy or apostate it comes from a combination to Greek words. Ah which just means no. Kind of like we use that today you're either moral or amoral if you're amoral you have no morality. So we use the same type thing today but the word pistis in the New Testament is a word for faith so apostasy is actually the Greek word for apostasy or people who leave the faith apostates are people who are our false teachers who teach against the faith the truth of the scriptures and what Jude does is he gives us warnings from the apostles about the apostates. And he says there are five things you can note to determine whether persons in apostate or not whether they're a person who's trying to lead you a straight five characteristics to watch for look at it versus 18 and 19. The first one is that they are scoffers he says they said to you the apostles said to you in the last times there will be scoffers okay that's the first characteristic there's scoffers what is a scoffer it's someone who cynically mocked. And ridicules the authority of scripture and the doctrines of the word of God and they are spread not only throughout our universities they are also spread through some seminaries and Christian colleges. So you have to be careful what you're hearing when people sneer and cynically mock the authority of scripture the Bible calls them scoffers their postates they will undergo the judgment of God that this book is not a sign of God. So what does the Bible talk about in the earlier verses and Peter has said in second Peter that they will particularly scoff the doctrine of the second coming but Jude just talks about it more generally they're just scoffers in general they mock the Bible they think those who believe the Bible are ridiculous ignorant no brain scoffers people who ridicule the truth that we are not going to do it. So we would give our lives for so their scoffers secondly they are immoral notice he says in these last times there will be scoffers who will follow their own ungodly desires they are intent on fulfilling their own selfish and lustful desires. So another characteristic of false teachers is that because they really don't care anything about the Bible they don't care anything about biblical morality and so their lifestyles just like the world and they live out the sinful lusts and desires of the sinful nature that people in the world do and these are supposed to be religious teachers. So they are scoffers they are immoral thirdly they are divisive. Verse 19 he says these are the people who divide you people who are like this apostates they become very elitist. They think they are very smart because they are very learned and they have studied at the best universities and they know all of the philosophy and everything else that you little peons who just believe the Bible that ancient myth stuff you really aren't smart enough to understand. So they become very elitist and they become very divisive they feel they have a deeper knowledge of things in general and you poor benited souls who still believe this old ancient book. So they sow the seeds of discord among believers and they rob our young people and they rob those who are influenced by their false teaching they become very divisive. And so they are scoffers they are immoral their divisive they are also fourthly worldly minded. Verse 19 these are the people who divide you who follow mere natural instincts. The idea here the word is literally the word for soul they are soulish which contrasts with the spirit. The soul in the New Testament is that part of you which you have by natural birth that relates to the world around you your self consciousness. That part of you like you say this is my hand well who's the my I can see the hand but who's the my that's your soul it's the part of you that inwardly you're born with that relates to the world around you that makes you self conscious. In contrast the spirit is that which God has placed in us to relate to him. So when you say someone is spiritual they are concerned about their relationship with God and relating to him properly when you say someone is and this is what you to say someone is solish their only concern is the world around them. So they focus solely on this world and its values they are entirely worldly in their outlook they are ruled by natural desires they adopt the world's way of life they are not spiritual they're not looking up to see how to please God they're just living a worldly lifestyle. Their concern is what this world has to offer so they're worldly minded they're solish not spiritual the fifth characteristic that defines these apostates is the end of verse 19 they do not have the spirit they do not have the spirit they're not saved they may have they may have gone through religious schools. They may have studied religion classes they may teach religion but the mark of an unsaved person is they do not have the Holy Spirit. So there is no spiritual understanding this book is really just like an ancient history book to them there is no connection with this as the word of God there is no connection with it as the expression of the power of God there's none of that if they're strictly from an earthly worldly rationalistic perspective they are not saved that's what he's saying they don't have the spirit so false teachers people. People who try to draw you away from the truths of scripture are marked by these five things and in these last days we need to be much aware of this and we need to be on guard against this we need to as Jude says earnestly fight for the faith and contend for the faith and make sure we don't let it slip because scoffers immoral divisive worldly minded unspiritual people are seeking to take our faiths. So if we're going to live for Christ in these last days the first thing we need to be serious about is we need to remember the warnings the warnings are there they become more critical the longer we go into the last days and approach the coming of Christ. I really do not think things are going to get better this way I think we're going to face greater attacks on the faith as we go along and so we've got to remember the warnings but the second thing Jude says in order to really live for Christ in these last days is this keep growing keep growing in verses 20 and 21 he gives us four steps to be serious about in our lives in the last days. So we're going to be in order to keep growing look at verse 20 he says but you dear friends by building yourselves up in your most holy faith there's the first one if we're going to keep growing we've got to do some building. Now what kind of building is he talking about is talking about building yourselves up growing building yourselves up growing and in what in your most holy faith. He's not talking about personal faith again not talking about whether or not you trust the Lord that's important but that's not the way Jude uses the word faith when he's talking about growing building yourself up in your most holy faith he's talking about the same faith he mentioned in verse three that we have to earnestly contend for the truth of God's word. Now what's the point Jude is making the point that the doctrinal truths of the Bible the kinds of things we typically study on Wednesday nights but the Bible teaches about God the Bible the Holy Spirit Christ all of these important doctrines of the Bible that's what we're to be building ourselves up in. The teaching of the word of God the truths found in the Bible that is our foundation for growth you cannot be a strong faithful Christian and ignore your Bible you simply cannot be because the way you build yourselves up is in your most holy faith is in this book you ignore the Bible you don't read it you don't hear it you don't study it and you know what I'm going to do. You don't study it and you will be a weak floundering Christian you will not be strong you'll not be building yourselves up. George Barnaby who is kind of the poster for Christian organizations once did a poll which indicated that 75% of Christians say it is important to read your Bible regularly but only 13% do it. It's easy to give mental ascent to the fact that I should read my Bible and I know I'm supposed to read but do we do it in these last days we've got to be building ourselves up keep growing by building ourselves up in the word of God we've got to be in the book. So the first part of growing is building second part is praying you see it in verse 20 dear friends by building yourselves up in your most holy faith and praying in the Holy Spirit so prayer is another important part of spiritual growth it gives us strength it gives us power and he says that we are to pray in the Holy Spirit does that mean we go into some kind of trance. You know we don't know what's going on does it does it mean that we talk in unintelligible words no no Paul uses the same expression in Ephesians 6 where he talks about praying in the spirit what does it mean well Paul describes what praying in the spirit is about when he talks about in Romans chapter 8 that the Holy Spirit takes our prayers when we do not always know what to pray for. The Holy Spirit takes our prayers and words them takes the the requests of our heart and mind which are so jumbled sometimes we don't even know how to express them and he words them properly before God so praying in the spirit is to recognize that he and he and her seeds for us and we are dependent on him and so we pray to the best of our ability and our wisdom and our knowledge recognizing that we are weak we have limited understanding and so we are dependent upon the Holy Spirit to take our feeble requests and refine them and purify them and put them in the right way to get them to the throne of God. That's what praying in the spirit is it's a praying in a sense of dependence upon the Holy Spirit to help us as we pray to strengthen us and when we are weak have limited knowledge to give us the ability to take our words and bring them before the Lord. You know I have read that the Apollo missions in the early days of the space exploration of space and part of our country that over 90% of the time the Apollo spaceships were off course so there were these constant changes in direction and corrections in direction to keep them on course. There was a tendency to veer off course computers were not real exact in that day and so there was a tendency to get off course very easily 90% of the time they were always correcting that is really a description of the believer's life. We all have a tendency to get off course that's our natural tendency because we still have a sin nature and so we need the Holy Spirit strength and power and wisdom to make those daily corrections to keep us on course and as we pray we need to pray with dependence upon the spirit of God to help us. That's what praying in the spirit is about. So how do we keep growing building praying thirdly obeying obeying you see it in verse 21. He says dear friends by building yourselves up in your most holy faith and praying in the Holy Spirit keep yourselves in God's love. Keep yourself in God's love. I know that at first glance that may look like it's saying that we have to keep ourselves saved but that is not what what Jude means. In fact if you'll look back in verse 1 Jude believed strongly in eternal security. He introduces himself to you to serve in Jesus Christ and brother of James to those who have been called who are loved in God the Father and kept by Jesus Christ. So do we keep ourselves saved or does God keep us saved God keeps us saved so what does it mean to keep yourself in God's love. Well Jude was actually one of the half brothers of Jesus and I think he probably heard Jesus say things like this before that Jesus said in in the upper room to the disciples listen to these words in John 15. Verse 9 Jesus tells us what it means to keep ourselves in the love of God. Listen to these words as the Father has loved me so have I loved you now remain in my love if you keep my commands you will remain in my love. Just as I have kept my father's commands and remain in his love. So what does it mean to remain in his love keep yourselves in God's love as Jude says it what does it mean to do it simply means to obey Christ. Jesus said that's what it means if you obey my commands you remain in my love and so to remain in his love means obedience. It means that we love what he loves we hate what he hates and what he commands us becomes our lifestyle and our passion and motivation is to please him and stay in close fellowship with him and live an obedience to him. So how do you keep growing by building yourselves up in the Bible in the word by praying independence on the spirit and by obedience obedience to Christ and his name. The fourth way that we keep growing is by waiting. You see at the end of verse 21 keep yourselves in God's love as you wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to bring you to eternal life. He's talking there about earnestly expecting Christ to demonstrate his mercy in his coming when he ushers us into eternity the fullness of eternal life. The full realization of eternal life is in heaven. That'll have a definite impact on the way we live if we are earnestly looking for Christ to come. If we're asking for God to be merciful in coming and ushering us into heaven that's going to have a definite impact on the way we live. John the Apostle John said in first John 3.3 he that has this hope of the second coming of the rapture which he'd mentioned in verse 2. He that has this hope in him purify at himself even as he is pure. And so having that hope that earnest expectation and waiting for Christ to come back has a tremendous impact on our lives. So in these last days how are we going to live? Well first of all we're going to remember the warnings so that we earnestly contend to the faith. Secondly we've got to keep growing. We have to keep growing and we do that by building, praying, obeying and waiting. But there's a third thing that Jude says we need to do to be living for Christ in these last days and it's to carefully help others. Carefully help others. We'll notice it verses 22 and 23. We'll reach out to other people who are being influenced by false teachers in verse 22. He says be merciful to those who doubt. Save others by snatching them from the fire. To others show mercy mixed with fear hating even the clothing stained by corrupted flesh. James mentions three different kinds of people who are being influenced by false teachers and how we ought to reach out to help them. Very quickly let me give you the three. The first are doubters, verse 22. Be merciful to those who doubt. Now doubters are people who are wavering. They're saved. They know Christ but maybe they're not well grounded in the faith. Maybe they've not been well taught. And so they're influenced by false teachers. Somebody comes along with a PhD behind their name seems to be real smart and they're just swept right along with that. What Paul calls ever learning but never able to come to the truth. They're just swept up with that and maybe this false teaching or even a sinful lifestyle. They're attracted to that. So what do we do with these doubters? People who begin to doubt whether or not they really believe the Bible or doubt whether or not they should really live for the Lord and maybe are attracted to sin. What do we do? Do we criticize them? Do we abandon them and discuss? Do we kick them to the curb? Do we rebuke them? Harsley? Do we shun them? No, no. Jude says be merciful to them. Be merciful to them. In other words, be moved in your heart by their weakness or their failure to the point that you want to help them. That's what mercy is. Mercy is to have pity but it goes beyond feelings of pity and sorrow and hurt for someone. Mercy always takes the step of reaching out to help someone. So mercy, be merciful to these people. Help them. Restore them. Be moved by their weakness and reach out to help them lovingly, patiently work with them to bring them back. That's the doubter. But then you've got a second person who I'm going to call the de facto first 23, save others by snatching them from the fire. These are obviously people that are in more danger. These are people that have gone further than the doubter. These are people that have left the church for some kind of apostate group. They're in great danger. They're in danger of abandoning completely their faith and they need to be snatched out of the fire. He's not talking about hell here. He's just talking about someone in picturesque language, someone who's on the verge of real danger. And so you're going to snatch them out of that from harm's way. This is a little more radical. This is determined action to rescue someone. This is like an intervention. This is someone you see going down the wrong path and you do something to move and pull them out of harm's way. This is a little more than just being merciful and encouraging and reaching out to people. This is really intervening in their lives and being very direct with them and saying, you're going to harm your soul. You're going to destroy your family. You need to come back to Christ and bring them back. Those are defectors. And then there's a third group. These people I'm going to call the dangerous. He says to others, show mercy mixed with fear, hating even the clothing stained by corrupted flesh. Now these are people that have gone even a step further. These are people that are entrenched in false teaching or they are entrenched in a sinful lifestyle. Now we're still to show them mercy. We're to pray for them. We're to reach out to them but we're to be more careful with this kind of person. With this kind of person that is not just wavering, not just doubting, not just in danger of going over to sin a sinful lifestyle or false teaching. This is a person who's already gotten there and they're entrenched in it. They are dangerous. Why? Because of their influence. So that's why I said, yeah, still show mercy but mixed with fear. And the fear here is a fear of their influence because you may get trapped yourself. There are many rescuers that have been drowned themselves because they were trying to rescue people who pulled them down. I read an account one time of a lifeguard who on a beach somewhere in the United States who was being told and called attention that someone was out there struggling and they were flailing in the water and they would go down. They would come back up and the lifeguard just stay in there on the edge of the water watching. And people were saying, why aren't you doing something? Come on, it's getting you see. They said, I got to wait until he stops thrashing because if I go out and get him when he's thrashing and pull me down too when he gets weak enough to stop, then I'll go getting. Now that's the danger. If someone is entrenched in a sinful lifestyle or in a postate religious group, be careful. Yes, still reach out. Merciful, go reach out to them, try to wind them back but be careful. Have a healthy fear of being pulled under yourself. So what he's saying is you need to be careful if you're not really grounded in your faith, then you probably better leave that to someone else. If you're not really strong spiritually, you're allowed to get pulled into their lifestyle. So be careful about going after someone who's really entrenched in a sinful lifestyle unless you know for sure where you stand. And even then be careful, be careful. Never think that we're beyond falling. Remember what Paul said in 1 Corinthians 10-12, not of him, but think if he stand, take heed, less default. So we're to snatch people who have gone that direction, but we need to hate even the clothing stained by corrupted flesh, keep holy fear of sin and keep from being defiled. And then there's one other thing that Jude says, if you're going to really live for Christ in these last days, remember the warnings, keep growing, carefully help others, but forthily keep your focus on eternal things. Verses 24 and 25. To him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy. To the only God our Savior be glory, majesty, power and authority through Jesus Christ our Lord before all ages, now and forevermore. Amen. Keep your eyes focused on eternal things. Three of them, first of all the power of God to him who is able to keep you from stumbling. So the one who has the power to keep us sure-footed, to keep us from stumbling, you know there are chuck holes of temptation all over the place and there are loose gravel of false teaching all over the place and only Christ and His power can keep us from stumbling with those things strewn across our path in life. And so we need to be trusting him, the one who's able to keep us from falling. Only God can give us moral stability and spiritual discernment to maintain the faith. Only God can do that. So an eternal perspective means we look to His power. Secondly, we think about the judgment. He says to him is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy. We need to keep in mind the time when we will stand before Christ. That is a great motivator in Scripture, a great motivator to Godliness, the think of the consequences of blowing it, the think of the consequences of ruining your testimony, to think of what it would mean to stand before God with that blot on your life. So an eternal perspective, keeping your focus on eternal things means that I first of all looked to Him for power, but also remember the judgment seat of Christ. I'm going to stand before Him someday and then thirdly it means eternal praise for God that we live a lifestyle, a hard attitude of praise, verse 25. To the only God our Savior, be glory, majesty, power, and authority through Jesus Christ our Lord before all ages now and forevermore. What a great doxology that is. What a great expression of praise. Think of doing this forever. Think of being taken to heaven and giving eternal praise to our God. When you think about that time that keeps temptation to sin in the proper perspective that keeps false teachers and they're alluring teachings in proper perspective because you realize someday you're going to stand before God. And not only in judgment, but stand before Him to worship Him and praise Him forever. What a motivation that is to stay on the right path. We do live in perilous times. There is much temptation, there is much sin, there is much error to entice us. Some of it can be very alluring, some of it can be very enticing and Judas saying contend for the faith. Live faithfully for Christ in these last days. The only way we can do that. Remember the warnings. Keep growing. Carefully. Help others. Keep your focus on eternal things. It'll all be worth it when we get there. Group of people were stranded on an island. And finally a ship stopped by because their bonfire was noticed to smoke from their bonfire. And they were just rejoicing that someone was going to come rescue them. But before the captain of the ship came to land, he threw over a batch of newspapers and said, read those first and decide if you want to come back to civilization. Well, it does get discouraging, doesn't it? To read the newspaper sometime? Watch the evening news. And it feels like we're being delusional with mockery of the scriptures, anti-biblical lifestyles, and departures from the faith and sin all around us. Living in the last days was never promised it would be easy. But you are given instructions as to how to stay strong. Have a stay faithful. That's what Jude's done for us. Let's take his counsel to heart. Live it out. Okay? Let's pray.