contend v2 (720p): 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. I want to know how to do that. And that is what we're going to talk about tonight. But before we get there, we're going to back up and we are going to look at this letter as a whole, move through it. Now, those of you who are on in my Wednesday night class a couple of Wednesdays ago, I taught from this letter and I spoke about things that I will not cover tonight. If you want to know what those are, then you can look back. We've got it. I know it's on Facebook, but we went through This letter, and we talked about some other things. When you look at Jude, your purpose statement is found in verse number three. Beloved, although I was very eager to write to you about our common salvation, I found it necessary to write appealing to you to convince. Delivered to the saints. Now you notice that the purpose statement started out as, hey, I was going to write to you about our salvation. But instead, I'm going to write to you to fight for the faith, to contend, to struggle to win for the faith. That's the purpose statement. of the book of Jude. Why? Look at verse four. For certain people have crept in unnoticed, who long ago were designated for this condemnation, ungodly people, who pervert the grace of our Lord God into sensuality and deny our only Master and Lord Jesus Christ. There are problems that will happen In the faith. Now there is a difference between your faith as an individual and the faith. And so Jude's talking about the faith. He's talking about the belief that we all have in Jesus. That we believe who Jesus is, the Son of God, that we believe in what Jesus taught and what he ushered in, the new covenant, his way. His teaching, he is the Christ. And so that is our faith that we have together collectively. And the challenge now issued is struggle to win. Fight for the faith. Fight for what we collectively, the church, believes in, because there will be people that will even be amongst us who are going to give us challenges or problems. Now, In the book of Jude, he likes to group things in triads and three things. For instance, in verse 1, you see Jude, a servant of Jesus Christ and brother of James, to those who are called, beloved in God the Father, and kept for Jesus Christ. May mercy, peace, mercy. Cold below Mercy, grace, peace. Jude likes to group things that way. He does it through the entire letter to help us see and remember what he wants us to know. And really, truly, what the Holy Spirit wants us to know. Let's pick back up in verse number five. Now I want to remind you, although you once fully knew it, that Jesus, who saved a people out of the land of Egypt afterwards, destroyed those who did not believe, and the angels who did not stay within their position of authority, but left their proper dwelling, he has kept in eternal chains under gloomy darkness until the judgment of the great day. Just as Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding cities, which likewise indulged in sexual immorality and pursued unnatural desire, served As an example, by undergoing a punishment of eternal fire. Did you notice the grouping of three? People saved from Egypt, they disbelieved. Angels who were ministering spirits made by God for specific purposes, left their purpose and their boundaries that God gave them. left their proper dwelling, and Sodom and Gomorrah, who chose to indulge in sexual immorality. Those are a a grouping of three, three groups of people or beings that we should not imitate, by the way. Look at verse number eight. Yet, in manner, these people also, relying on their dreams, defile the flesh, reject authority, and blaspheme the glorious ones. Now, this is interesting to me. Defile the flesh, reject authority, blaspheme the glorious ones. Who does that? Who does this grouping of three? People who rely on dreams. What does that mean? Well, when you go to sleep at night and you have dreams. I know sometimes we have dreams, we wake up and we think. Well, that was odd. Or we think, well, that was that was really neat. I went on some adventure. Or well, that was scary, or I I can't believe I dreamed about that. That was that was really bad. That was really scary, that really bothers me. But could you imagine that then now you dream of something and then you think, well, I'm supposed to go do that. Whatever was in that dream. And then there's the idea that we daydream or that we might even come up with a vision of our future. Not a vision as a prophecy, but here's what I want my future to look like. I'm gonna rely on my dreams, my vision, my thoughts leads to defiling the flesh, rejecting authority, And blaspheming the glorious ones. What's that? What's blaspheming the glorious ones? Well, that's blaspheme means to malign, to curse, to talk bad about, to misrepresent in some capacity. Who are the glorious ones? Those are designated speakers, heralds, ministers of God. Could be an angel, could be a prophet, priest. Someone that God designated for his purpose to speak on his behalf. And now look how this makes sense, verse number nine. But when the archangel Michael, contending with the devil, was disputing about the body of Moses, he did not presume to pronounce a blasphemous judgment, but said, The Lord rebuke you. What is that? How is that in here and how does that even make sense? What are we talking about here? Why are we talking about Michael the archangel? Why is this important? Well, the idea is that Michael, one of the highest of angels, that God has given him power and strength and might, he is now in an argument with the enemy, the devil, who, by the way. was also an angel created by God, who left his proper place, who left his boundaries, because he wanted to pursue something different. He's now standing face to face with God's creation, the devil, the Satan. And he's arguing, he doesn't malign the devil, he doesn't curse the devil, he doesn't speak nasty to the devil. He doesn't it's his enemy, but what does he do? He says, The Lord rebuke you. As an example to us, don't blaspheme. Don't blaspheme God's creation. Don't blaspheme people. Don't malign and curse and talk evil about people. So look at verse number 10. But these people, those who rely on their dreams, these people blaspheme all that they do not understand, and they are destroyed by all they that they, like unreasoning animals, understand instinctively. So here we have two issues. Number one, people are relying on their dreams, and number two, they're relying on their instincts. How do I feel? What do I want? What do I want to eat? What do I want to see? What do I want to be? What do I want? What do I want? Dreams, instincts, dreams, instincts. And in those dreams and instincts, we find ourselves very much lost from God's way. Verse 11. Woe to them, for they walked in the way of Cain, abandoned themselves for the sake of Cain to Balaam's heir, and perished in Korah's rebellion. Did you notice the grouping of f three there? Don't walk in the way of Cain. Don't for the sake of Cain follow Balaam's error, and Do not follow Korah's rebellion. What well what are those? I'll just briefly mention this and you can go back to the class Wednesday if you want to know more about it. But the way of Cain, what did he do? He didn't bring a sacrifice that was pleasing to God. God told him, he got jealous, he got he was upset, so he killed his brother and then lied about it. And so don't do that. What's the ga what's the sake of gain for Balaam's heir? A minister, someone who is supposed to be following God, but has a price? Can be bribed and then encourage idolatry and adultery. Korah's rebellion. What happened there? Well, Korah and some of his counterparts wanted to be the leaders. They were tired of Moses. They wanted to be the ones to lead. They were hungry for power and leadership. All these you have to remember are amongst and with and in God's people. These are things that we contend and fight and struggle against. Verse 12, these are the hidden reefs at your love feasts. They are they feast without fear, shepherds feeding themselves, waterless clouds, swept along by winds, fruitless trees in late autumn, twice dead, uprooted, wild waves of the sea, casting up the foam of their own shame, wandering stars for whom the gloom of utter darkness has been reserved forever. Waterless clouds. What's that? Well, it looks like a cloud. Not a healthy cloud. Looks like a cloud, does not function like a cloud. Well, what is a fruitless tree? I mean, in this verse, it's not just fruitless, but it's dead. Twice dead. What good is a tree that's dead? Cannot bear fruit? Looks like a tree. But it's not bearing fruit. It's dead. Wild waves moving any and every direction. That sounds nauseating to me. I've been on a boat with waves moving every direction. It doesn't go well for me. Wild waves, not good. Toss to and fro, not good. No direction. Not good. Again, groupings of three. Things that. We must fight and struggle to win against for the Christian faith. It was about these that Enoch The seventh from Adam prophesied, saying, Behold, the Lord comes with ten thousand of his holy ones, to execute judgment on all and to convict all the ungodly of all their deeds of ungodliness that they have committed in such an ungodly way, and all of the harsh things that ungodly sinners have spoken against him. These are grumblers, malcontents, following their own sinful desires, they are loud mouthed boasters. Showing favoritism to gain advantage. But you remember, beloved, the prediction, but but you must remember, beloved, the predictions of the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ. They said to you, and t in the last time there will be scoffers following their own ungodly passions. It is these who cause divisions, worldly people devoid of spirit. And so here we have Again the triads of blasphemy. They cause division, worldly people, and they're devoid of the spirit. Does your Bible show the word spirit with a capital S? That's the Holy Spirit. The void of the Holy Spirit. So we have our Spirit, right? And then there's the Holy Spirit, which I'm going to talk about in just a moment. I get to this point in the letter of Jude, and I think to myself, well, at first I was worried about these terrible people I've got to fight against, and then I start reading all these individual things, and I'm like, woe is me. God's gonna judge me. Look at verse twenty-four. 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. We need to take a moment and pause and say, Wow, this is a lot of heavy stuff. We're faithful, not perfect. And who we are fighting against, they're not faithful. That's the difference. Their intent is to not be faithful. Whether it's in the church or whether it's in the world, our contention, our struggling to win for the faith is with people who do not have an intention to be faithful. All of this very weighty. I love how Jude starts off very positive. You're called, beloved, and kept. Then we go through the weighty matters. And now we're here at my most favorite place in Jude, the desert. Verse 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. I wanted so badly for this to be a triad, but it's really not. There's really four components here. I I I even made a slide trying to make it three, but you just can't do that. It's just not there. There's four things. he's been comparing he's been holding three things together this entire section, but this section has it. There's four things. And so when we think about the purpose statement, there's there's the slide that that I don't want you to see. Okay, and that that's a good one too. We'll talk about that one in just a moment. So There in this letter is the is the challenge to contend for the faith. And this is how to do it. Verse 20 through 24, sorry, through 23 is how to do it. First, beloved, remember you are called, beloved, and kept. Beloved, beloved, Build yourselves up in your most holy faith. Remember, we're talking about contending for the faith. We're talking about struggling to win for the faith. And so when we read building yourselves, that's plural. We are not talking about you as an individual. What we're talking about is us as a collective body, the church. We are to build ourselves up to literally hand me another brick. Let's become stronger together. How do we do that? Well, we can reflect back on scripture and see how the Holy Spirit intended on us doing that. We can look at the very first implementation of the gospel rolling out on the day of Pentecost and see four areas of pillars for us to build upon. And we see that they continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine, that is, the teaching of the word of God. We build ourselves up with God's word. We see that they continued in prayer. And so we must continue in prayer, which we're about to talk about next. And then we see that they continued in fellowship. There's a lot of things going on. with our church family. Outside of worship time, there are time where we get together for worship. Outside of those times, there's a lot of things going on. Our Connect group a couple of weeks ago, or last week, we met at Montgomery Bell. And there were two other groups out there in the community or seeing people, getting to run into people, talk to people. There's a lot of things going on at different events, whether they're ball games or whether they're get togethers for whatever whatever reason. There but there's areas of fellowship where we get to spend time with each other, people hanging out and friends, and we've got individual small groups with ladies and men's iron sharpened iron groups, and there's different areas where we're building ourselves up. In fellowship and in communion. And so partaking of the bread, remembering Jesus' death, burial, and resurrection. Those four areas in the gospel in in the book of Acts, as the gospel goes out. Are our four pillars where we build ourselves up? When we sing with one another, we're admonishing one another in psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, making melody to the Lord in our heart. When we worship together, when we encourage each other, we're building ourselves up. But listen, if we are going to contend for the faith, and I shouldn't even say if, it's a command. Contend, struggle to win for the faith. Build each other up. Encourage each other. Strengt each other. We need one another. We are stronger together. Stronger together. In the same verse, verse number 20. Praying in the Holy Spirit. This is my favorite. What does that mean? Ephesians chapter six verse eighteen says the same thing, so it's it's obviously something we're meant to to think about, to study, to to know. What does it mean to pray in the Holy Spirit? First, for the penitent believer, we know from Acts chapter two, verse thirty eight, the Bible says to repent and be baptized, every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins to receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. And so for the penitent believer, we we know from Scripture that we are given the Holy Spirit who has fellowship with us, who is a seal for us, much like if you were to mail a letter and you have a stamp, it is it it's a it's a notification, it's a seal to go to a certain place. The Holy Spirit is our seal. He identifies us to God and bridges that gap. of whom to whom we belong. And so the Holy Spirit dwells within us. And I remember Paul writing in First Corinthians chapter 14, verses 23 through 30. He mentions, I pray with my mind, but I pray with my spirit also. So to help us understand praying in the Holy Spirit, we see that, well, we pray with our minds, we pray with our spirit, and then yet there's still the Holy Spirit. Look at Romans chapter 8. This is beautiful. Romans chapter 8. I want you to notice verse 11 first. If the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Jesus Christ from the dead will also give you life to your mortal bodies through his spirit who dwells in you. Talking about the dwelling and indwelling of the Holy Spirit. Verse 26. 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 with groanings too deep for words, and he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. This is a beautiful thing when we when we study prayer, when Jesus showed us how to pray, we pray to God our Father in heaven, and we ask in the name of Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit takes our prayer and brings And thereby you have a an understanding of the complexity and the involvement of the Godhead. The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit all working together in our prayer life. So how do we pray in the Holy Spirit? As a penitent believer, the Holy Spirit dwells within you and you pray. You pray according to God's will. You've got to know what God's will is, right? And you pray according to God's will, and you still ask, you still You pray, you still ask for things, sure, but knowing where your where your boundaries are, you're praying for God's will to be done in your life. Because the Bible tells me that we know for those who love God, all things work together for good for those who are called according to his purpose. Praying the Holy Spirit is the prayer of the faithful Christian, and the Holy Spirit is helping you. And I want us to remember that. In fact, if you leave here tonight and you don't remember anything that was said, I want you to remember as a faithful Christian and a follower of Jesus Christ, your prayers are being changed and glorified and carried to our Heavenly Father in a way that you can't even imagine on your behalf. That. Is one area of confidence that we can have when we think about contending for the faith. But there's more. Let's turn back to Jude. There was more there. Keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ that leads to eternal life. You know, sometimes when we read things, I know I ha I've done this. We might look at it and think it says something, but actually it says something different. Keep yourselves in the love of God. That is not telling you to love God. Keep yourself in God's love. That's what it's saying. There's a difference. There's a difference in saying, hey, you need to love God, and there's a difference in that, and saying, keep yourselves in God's love. Well, what's that? What's this agape here pertaining to God's goodness and kindness? Stay. With God and His goodness and kindness. Keep the Greek word for keep is tore. And that means to guard, to protect, to stay. Guard yourself. Protect yourself inside God's love. Stay there. Stay where God's love is. And I want you to understand how important this is because angels didn't do this. There are angels who did not stay. Angels left the boundaries of God's love to venture out on their own, and it did not work out for them at all. And so we are to stay in God's love, in the confines of his love, staying in his goodness, in his kindness. Brothers and sisters, that means staying in his will. All the things that God tells us to do. I remember I remember one of the first times that I met Michael Haselheim and one of the fur first things we talked about and he said to me, and and I always talk about it now, I love it, it stuck, is all the things that God has told us to do, they're for our benefit. Think about that for a minute. What does God need me to do for him? But what he has asked of me is honestly and truly, despite my own personal opinion, a benefit to my spirit. Staying in his boundaries, in his goodness, in his loving kindness. Staying in His will, in His direction, and His path. Keep yourselves there. Waiting for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ that leads to eternal life. I think that word waiting is there for a very, very important reason. Because we as human beings are selfishly impatient. We are impatient. We want things done. On our time, by the way. In our way, by the way. We want things done. One of the ways that we need to remember when we are, when we're when we're putting our armor of God on and we're thinking about, hey, I want to struggle to win here. I'm called to do this. I want to stand up for the faith. One of our ingredients to be successful on how to do this is wait for the Lord. Don't give up. Don't give in. Don't be dishearted, despondent, and quit. Wait for the Lord. He's coming. Not just that, but look what it says. Wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ that leads to eternal life. I know Jesus is coming back. Praise God. And I know that He's coming with mercy to His followers. Praise God, I need that. I need that mercy. Which brings us right to our next point in verse twenty two. While you're waiting for mercy, guess what's expected of us? To have mercy on those who doubt, save others by snatching them out of the fire, and show mercy with it with fear, hating even the garment stained by the flesh. Hate sin. Not the sinner. That's the idea of hating the garment stained by the flesh. Show mercy upon people. I think that this letter was written much later in the first century. I think this letter was written much after some of Peter's writings, maybe? Maybe even some of Paul's later writings. I think by this time where Judas writing such heavy things, the church had already been infiltrated by all these different challenges. People who used to believe but don't anymore. People who were leaving the boundaries and the doctrines by which God has prescribed and doing their own things, much like the angels. You had people that were indulging in sexual immorality or He had people who were following the way of Cain, following the way of Balaam, following the way of Sodom and Gomorrah. He had people who were fruitless in their life. All these things had happened, I think, by this time. And so, really, what we read about in verses 22 and 23 is Jude saying, Hey, hey. Our contention is with people who have a purposeful intent to harm the faith that we believe in. But there are people who are being swept away, who are following things that aren't true. Save those people. Have mercy on Patient with these people. They're being swept away. Our contention is not to pronounce a blasphemous junk to be mean, ugly, or hateful or judgmental to anybody. Even the Archangel Michael doesn't behave that way. Our intention, though, is to build up, to pray up, to stay in God's love. And to wait for his wonderful mercy leading to eternal life. The triads and Jude seem to connect to me. We are called, beloved, and kept by God. That's how he refers to us as his. Called, beloved, and kept. We have his mercy, grace, and peace. That's from God to us. And what do we do? We wait for the Lord's mercy. He's coming. He's coming any day now, anytime now. It could be tonight. We're waiting. And while we wait. We build we build ourselves up each other. We pray up together and we keep ourselves in the love of God. We guard and protect and stay in God's goodness, in his way, and in his love. Verse twenty-four. Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling, to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy. I want to pause there for a minute. I want you to realize that this letter would have been read just like you're reading it now to the first, very first recipients who think, Wow, we have a really big battle. These people who are doing all these things, we can think, we can see, we know what we know what's being referred to here. But I can't help but to read that I'm not perfect either. I I have sinned too. But in verse 24, it's written for us. It's written for you. It's written for me to understand that God knows that we stumble. We're not perfect, but we're faithful. Our intention is to be faithful. And this is what he does for his faithful people. He presents us blameless before the presence of his glory. It's not where it stops. My verse keeps going with great joy. I don't know about you, but when I read the Gospels now more than ever, I feel like I see Jesus smiling more and more and more. And this verse verifies that to me. God presents you blameless in the presence of his glory with great joy and a smile on his face. Think about that for a minute. That God smiles about you, that He enjoys presenting you blameless. to the only God, our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority before all time, now and forevermore. Amen. How about that for a prayer to God to remind God, not that we he needs to be reminded, to remind ourselves to God. How about praying this to him? You are have all glory. Majesty, dominion, and authority, not just right now, but before all time, right now and forevermore. Amen. Brothers and sisters, the calling tonight is very clear. You are called. You are loved, and you are kept. Fight for the faith. Those of you who are hearing this message hopefully are pricked in the heart. Tonight is a great night to respond to the gospel of Jesus Christ. To believe in our Lord with all your might, all your heart, all your soul, with all your mind, to repent and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, to receive the gift of the Holy Spirit, thereby which your prayers. Are carried along in an extra special way. Tonight you have an opportunity to do that. To come forward, I'll meet you right here. It's God's invitation for you to be baptized in the name of Jesus tonight, or to come and ask for prayers of this wonderful church family so we can build you up and pray you up and help keep you in God's love, waiting together for the Lord's mercy that leads to eternal life. Won't you come forward as we stand in Insane.