Fortification Against Apostasy - 12

Well, we have been away from the Book of Jude for the last couple of Sundays as we have enjoyed the Spring Bible Conference with Mark Webb and also gave attention to the subject of the Resurrection of Christ on Easter Sunday.

But now we return to this Book of Jude penned by the brother of James, both of whom are the half-brothers of the Lord Jesus Christ. Ralph is a traveling evangelist in that first century who visited many churches and observed what was going on and saw the intrusion of false teachers and apostates into churches around the Roman world and that concerned him. And so he wrote this epistle to be circulated among the churches. He tells us in the beginning that he intended originally to write an epistle about salvation, various aspects of the glorious salvation so that Christians could think about that and strengthen themselves with that and rejoice in such glorious truth.

But the circumstances which he recognized in the churches at that time compelled him to do something else, namely to write an epistle to urge Christians to contend earnestly for the faith, which was once for all delivered unto the saints. The first part of his epistle is all about these dangerous intruders, these false teachers. He describes them. He illustrates what their activity is like and how they relate to various characters given to us in the Old Testament. He tells us about their judgment, which is certain. And so in every way possible, he makes it clear how Christians can identify these individuals when they show up in their own churches. The last part of the epistle, approximately one third of it, is addressed to believers, not about the apostates, but to believers.

And we see that change takes place first of all in verse 17, where after talking about the apostates and describing them, he says in verse 17, But you, beloved. This is the contrast. I talk about them, this about them, that about them, something else about them. They're like this.

They're like that. But you, beloved. And then he says the same thing again in verse 20.

But you, beloved. In that first address to believers, but you, beloved, Jude tells them to remember the warnings of the apostles. But you, beloved, remember how the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ told you that apostates like this were coming. Now they're here. Remember, they told you this.

Don't forget that. But the second one, the one we're taking up today in verses 20 and 21. But you, beloved. And here's what you are to do in the face of the apostates. The first, but you, beloved, remember, inform yourselves, be certain that what I'm telling you is the truth because the apostles have already told you this was going to happen. But now, you, beloved, here's what you are to do in the face of this apostasy. And what they are to do, what we are to do as believers, divides again into two categories. First of all, what you are to do in regard to yourselves, verses 20 and 21. And secondly, what you are to do in regard to others, verses 22 and 23. And when we finish that part, we're at the closing benediction. Now, we're going to take up verses 20 and 21, what believers are to do in regard to themselves in the face of this apostasy. Before I can expound this section, I need to make reference to a technicality, which normally I would not bother you with. But it does hinge, the interpretation of this passage hinges upon which way you answer the question that is raised by this technicality.

So bear with me for just a minute. There are four things in verses 20 and 21 that Jude tells us that believers are to do. But you, beloved, building yourselves up on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life. But a close examination of these four phrases in the Greek language will reveal to us that three of them are participles and only one of them is a verb, an imperative verb, which has led some, I would say a good many commentators to conclude that what you have here is one prevailing command, keep yourselves in the love of God. That's the verb that is in the imperative. Keep yourselves in the love of God. You find that in the beginning of verse 21.

And the other three phrases, participles that are not exactly, it's hard to explain what a participle is, but it's a verb form, but it's not a straightforward verb and it usually modifies something else. And therefore the idea would be because there's one command, one imperative command, and then three participles that surround it, that the command is to keep yourselves in the love of God and the three participles tell you how to do that. You keep yourselves in the love of God, number one, by building yourself up in your most holy faith. Number two, by praying in the Holy Spirit. And number three, by looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life.

I accept that as a very valid way of approaching this, but after weighing this for quite a while, in my own mind, I have come to a different conclusion and other commentators take this view. And that is noting that in the New Testament, participles are often used as imperative verbs. That's why we can't tell the difference in reading these four phrases. They all look like imperative verbs to us.

Building yourselves up in the most holy faith sounds like a command, build yourself up, and so forth down through all of them. And because participles in the New Testament are frequently substituted for imperative verbs and in the New Testament are frequently interspersed with other imperative verbs. In other words, you find them together back to back in lists like you do here, participle, participle, imperative verb, participle, all mixed together. And keeping that in mind, which therefore tells us that we could possibly and maybe should possibly understand this as four parallel commands rather than one command with three supporting instructions.

But I think so far I would have a hard time knowing which way to lean on those two options. But then when I realize that the imperative verb doesn't come at the beginning, it's number three in the list, I think, therefore, these are to be understood as four parallel imperatives. It would seem to me that if Jude wanted us to see this as one command with three supporting instructions as to how to carry out the command, he would have started with the imperative first. Keep yourselves in the love of God by building yourselves up in the most holy faith, by praying in the Holy Spirit, by looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life.

And so excuse that foray into technical Greek grammar, but I think you understand why I made that explanation. I take this as four parallel imperatives. And I take this as four elements essential to prevent the success of apostasy. Apostasy is here, said Jude. It's infiltrating our churches. Now, what are we who are believers to do about it to keep it from succeeding in destroying the Christian faith? Four elements essential to prevent the success of apostasy.

What are they? Number one, Bible knowledge. Number two, fervent prayer. Number three, cultivated fellowship. And number four, watchful expectation. Number one, Bible knowledge.

But you, and by the way, you is emphatic. But you, in contrast with the apostates, but you, beloved, number one, build yourselves up in the most holy faith. Bible knowledge is the first element essential to prevent the success of apostasy. Defend the faith, understand the faith, strengthen your faith. But you, beloved, now listen, this is important. You might have expected that after describing the apostates, Jude would say, now here's what you do. But you, beloved, go on the offense, attack the apostates, do warfare against them. But he doesn't. But you, beloved, build yourselves up in your most holy faith. He does not at this point emphasize battling false teachers, which is what we would have expected.

I would have expected, wouldn't you? But he doesn't. There must be a reason for that. Now, it's evident that when it comes to the apostates, Jude exposes them thoroughly. That's what the bulk of the book is all about. Jude believes it is necessary for him to identify and describe and warn against them and to do so thoroughly enough so that everybody understands what he's talking about. Even though his preference would have been to write about salvation, he found it necessary to write about this.

He's not ignoring them. And in this way, he is preparing us to do battle with them. He identifies and describes and warns them. And the Bible tells us that we are to pass on all of the instructions of Christ and the apostles to each generation. We are to teach others what we have been taught. We are to find other men who believe the gospel and to teach them what Christ taught the apostles and what the apostles taught us.

It's a chain of things. We are, according to the Great Commission, to teach everything that the Lord commanded us as we go into all the world. And Jesus himself warned about these apostates. Remember the wolves in sheep's clothing and so forth, a lot of things that Christ said about them. So what I'm suggesting, I'm not saying that the Bible does not tell us to identify them and to warn about them and, yes, to battle against them. But maybe there's a better way to do our battle against them than what we often believe. In other words, battling is secondary to cultivating spiritual health.

That must come first. Weak Christians cannot contend properly for the faith once for all delivered unto the saints. Yes, we are to contend. That's battle. Contend, that's oppose. Contend, that's identify.

Contend, that is resist. To contend earnestly, back to verse three, the opening of the book, contend earnestly for the faith that was once for all delivered unto the saints. But we cannot do that if we do not give careful and constant attention to our own spiritual health. And so, but you, beloved, number one, building up yourselves in the most holy faith. We must defend the faith in this way by understanding the faith, building yourselves up in the most holy faith. The faith here is the Christian faith, the same thing that was referred to at the beginning of the book. Contend earnestly for the faith, the body of truth, the apostles doctrine. Contend earnestly for the faith that was once for all delivered unto the saints. And Jude here calls it the holy faith.

Why so? Well, certainly because it comes from a holy God and is therefore perfect. As God is perfect, so his word is perfect. As God is incapable of error, so his word is incapable of error. God has given us a perfect revelation of truth, which in its final form comes to us in the Bible. It is an infallible perfect Bible. It is the holy faith because it comes from a holy God. If it had errors in it, then it couldn't have come from a holy God because a holy, perfect, errorless God cannot produce an imperfect, sinful, mistaken book, you understand. But that term holy faith probably has a little bit different nuance.

It really comes down to the same thing. But holy at its root means to be separate, to be set apart, to be different, to be unique. God is holy because he is unique. God is holy because he is separate and undefiled from sinners. God is holy because he is unlike anything else in all this universe.

He is holy. And this faith which he has delivered to us is also unlike any other body of knowledge. It's utterly different. It is set apart. It is unique.

And so that, as I say, is another way of saying what I said a moment ago. The Bible is unlike any other book. The Bible is a perfect book. There are no other perfect books. The Bible is a holy book.

There are no other holy books. Build yourselves up in the most holy faith. And building ourselves up is a construction metaphor.

We find it frequently in the Bible. We are to build up ourselves. We are to build up the church. And we are to build ourselves up in the most holy faith. And so we are to strengthen our faith through increased knowledge of truth.

It is an individual endeavor of necessity, but it is also a corporate responsibility. He doesn't say build up yourself, singular, in the most holy faith. He says build up yourselves, plural, an emphasis there upon the body, working together.

It's a corporate responsibility. Yes, if individual members of the body give no attention to the word of God, if they're not building themselves up individually, then of course the church is not going to be built up in the way that it ought to. But in order for individuals to build ourselves up in the most holy faith, we not only need to give ourselves to individual study of God's word, but we need to give ourselves to active participation in a healthy church that is focused upon the word. That helps us to grow in the faith. That's God's design for how we are to find help in growing for the faith.

Healthy churches produce healthy Christians, if healthy Christians are actively participating in the healthy church. And one of the aspects of that church is to teach the word of God. That's why this pulpit focuses upon preaching, teaching the word of God. That's why your Sunday school classes focus upon teaching the word of God. That's why our impact clubs on Wednesday night focus upon teaching the word of God. You say, don't you do anything else with that church besides study the Bible? Well, we do other things. We do enjoy good fellowship. We do other things, but our main focus is upon the word of God.

Why? Because we've got to build ourselves up in the most holy faith. None of us have as much knowledge of God's word as we can have and as we ought to have. And the more we have, the better we can contend for the faith, which was once for all delivered unto the saints. And to the extent that we don't have much Bible knowledge, we're not going to be very good as a Christian warrior.

Just understand that. So number one, build yourselves up. Bible knowledge. Number two, fervent prayer.

Praying in the Holy Spirit is the second imperative. The battle against false teaching is not won by argument. What did Paul tell us in Second Corinthians 10, three and following? For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty in God for the pulling down of strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ. And he tells us in Ephesians, we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers and the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. Our warfare is not carnal. Yes, the opposition that comes to us, the tactics of the apostates, the opposition of the world, it comes to us with carnal means. And how do we battle it? With spiritual means. You say, wait a minute, that's an unequal battle.

Yes, it is. Our warfare is mighty. It's mighty to God to the pulling down of strongholds. We've got the advantage here if we do it God's way. And one of the most important tools, one of the most important weapons in our arsenal is prayer.

Prayer, fervent prayer, praying in the Holy Spirit. Now, what does it mean to pray in the Holy Spirit? Many people read that and they immediately assume he's talking about praying in tongues. Probably you don't, but a lot of people do.

A lot of people do. Praying in the Holy Spirit means praying in tongues. Well, if that's what Jude means, he fails to mention it in this passage.

You can't prove anything unequivocally by an absence of a statement. But he doesn't say anything about tongues. He just says praying in the Holy Spirit. So people who think that that means praying in tongues will read that into the phrase in the Holy Spirit.

But it's certainly not necessary to do so. What does it mean? Well, I don't think it can mean praying in tongues for this very simple reason. Just keep in mind, there's a lot in the Bible about tongues.

Well, I say a lot. It's only found in two books, in Acts and 1 Corinthians. And you won't find it anyplace else, which in itself is rather telling, isn't it? If it's all that important, so vital, if the only way to pray powerfully is to pray with tongues, then you'd think it would be spelled out and mentioned at least a few more times. It's mentioned in the Book of Acts. It obviously is an historic activity that was valid and was given by the Holy Spirit at that time.

The question is, is that intended for us today? And the argument goes back and forth. No, it isn't. Yes, it is. No, it isn't.

Yes, it is. And so forth. And in 1 Corinthians 12 and 14, primarily, the apostle Paul takes up this question of tongues, has a lot of interesting things to say about it, including the fact that he spoke with tongues a lot. He said, I thank God that I speak with tongues more than you all. He was practicing tongues himself personally. But this, he had a lot of things to say about tongues there. But to me, this is the most telling thing. When he tells us at the end of chapter 12, for God has appointed these in the church, first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, after that miracles, then gifts of healing, helps, administration, varieties of tongues.

It's in the list. And then he says this in verse 29, are all apostles? How do you answer that question? Yes or no? No.

Nearly everybody understands that. Whatever you think about apostles and whether you even think there are apostles today or not, and again, that's some say yes, some say no, more say no to that than they do to tongues. But even if there are apostles today, are all apostles, are you an apostle? No. Are all apostles? No. Are all prophets? Do all speak Revelation, inspired Revelation given to them by God? That's what a prophet is.

Answer? No. Are all teachers? Is every one of God's people a teacher? He's talking here, of course, about the gift of teaching and public teaching.

And the answer is obviously no. Are all workers of miracles? Do all God's people have the gift to perform miracles?

If they are valid today, and again, that's the question, they certainly were in Paul's day, but if the gift of miracles, divine healings and so forth is valid today, is every one of God's children a divine healer? Are they supposed to be? Do we expect them all to be? Answer? No.

Do all speak with tongues? Now, why would we answer that question? Yes. We've answered all the others.

No. Do you understand what I'm saying? In the day when tongues were practiced, and when the apostle Paul practiced them, and when evidently there were people who prayed speaking in tongues, but in that day, that was not a gift that belonged to everybody in the church. If the command is for all of us to pray in the Holy Spirit, and if praying in the Holy Spirit means praying in tongues, then we must all do it, but then we'd all have to have the gift because it is a spiritual gift.

But Paul clearly says that not everybody has that gift any more than everybody has the gift of healing, and the gift of apostleship, and the gift of teaching, and so forth. So doesn't that make that clear that Jude cannot be writing here about prayer, prayer meaning everybody praying in tongues, that you should want to pray in tongues, and learn to pray in tongues, and cultivate praying in tongues? That's not what praying in the Holy Spirit means.

What does it mean? It means ordinary prayer empowered by the Holy Spirit. Nothing to do with tongues. Similar to what Paul said in Ephesians 6, 18. Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit. Praying always with all prayer, that's petitions, and supplication, another word for petitions. You come to the throne of God, you lay your petitions at his throne in the Spirit.

In other words, ordinary prayer, the petitions that we ordinarily bring to the throne, empowered by the Spirit of God. All true prayer is praying in the Spirit. It is motivated by the Holy Spirit. It is guided by the Holy Spirit. It is empowered by the Holy Spirit.

It is even, as Paul tells us in Romans, translated by the Holy Spirit. We don't even know how to pray as we ought, but when we pray earnestly in the power of the Spirit who indwells all of God's people, then God the Holy Spirit translates our feeble and sometimes mistaken efforts as we pray for things that really aren't the will of God, but we're doing the best we can. The Holy Spirit translates those into perfect petitions before the throne of God. We are really praying in the Spirit when we are praying in this way. And so how do we pray in the Spirit to elaborate on this a little bit? We do so by the indwelling Holy Spirit that all born-again believers have. Paul says in Romans 8 and 9, But you are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. Now, if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not his.

Everyone who belongs to Christ has the Holy Spirit. And the indwelling Holy Spirit enables every child of God to pray in the Spirit, motivated by the Spirit, guided by the Spirit, empowered by the Spirit as we pray. And so the second element of successful opposition to apostasy is praying fervent prayer in the Holy Spirit. It is prayer that is accomplished by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. It is prayer that takes place because of the faithful practice of prayer. We must take prayer seriously. We must schedule times for prayer.

We must discipline ourselves to meet with God in those times, those scheduled times of prayer. Praying in the Holy Spirit is prayer informed by the Scriptures. The Scriptures tell us how to pray. The Scriptures tell us what to pray. As I was thinking about this, I thought through the Lord's Prayer, which I highly recommend as a good pattern to think about how to pray. That's why Jesus gave it. Lord, teach us to pray like John taught his disciples.

All right. After this manner, pray you say, My Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come.

Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom and power and glory forever. Amen. That's the Lord's Prayer.

Short. But what does it do? If we follow through the elements of that prayer, I picked out these, it means we will have these elements in our prayers. Exaltation. Our Father, which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. We exalt the Lord God when we pray. A good way to begin. Exaltation.

What else? Submission. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Thy will be done in my heart, even as it is done perfectly in heaven. That's submission. We need to resubmit ourselves to the authority of God and to the commands of His word over and over again, because as fallen sons and daughters of Adam, even redeemed ones, we tend to, without even realizing what we're doing, trying to wiggle out under those commands, trying to wiggle out under that authority. So we keep coming back to it. Thy will be done.

Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Submission. What else? Confession. Forgive us or forgive me. Forgive me. You personalize this.

Turn the us's into me's and I's. Forgive me my trespasses, my sins. And at this point, it might be good to pause and name a few that the Lord brings to mind and to confess them. Confess your sins.

Forgive me my trespasses. What else? Petition. Petition. Give me this day my daily bread.

And what else? Adoration. Conclude with adoration. For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever and ever and ever and ever. Amen.

Good way to conclude, isn't it? That's praying in the Holy Spirit, because it's prayer informed by the word of God. And who wrote the word of God? The Holy Spirit.

There you go. So fervent prayer. But the third element is cultivated fellowship. Verse 21.

A. Keep yourselves in the love of God. What does this mean? Keep yourselves in the love of God.

That's a strange statement. Keep yourselves in the love of God. In the first place, we might ask, What love is this? Is this God's love for me or my love for God? Answer. Both.

They go together. We love him because he first loved us. It is God's love for us first. But our loving response to him second because of his love to us.

So you can't really pick out one of those two and say that's what it is. But another question that might be raised by this text. Keep yourself in the love of God. Can I do something to make God stop loving me?

If I'm told to keep myself in the love of God, is it possible for me to do something to make God stop loving me? And as I consider that the words of the hymn come to mind. Loved with everlasting love. Taught by grace that love to know.

Spirit speaking from above. Thou has taught me it is so. It's an everlasting love.

It's a divine love. God doesn't give it and take it and give it and take it. There's nothing I can do to take myself out from the love of God objectively. I'm always loved by God because if I'm one of God's children, I was loved by God before I was even born.

Before I'd done anything good or bad. So I can't take myself out of the love of God objectively. But I can take myself out of the sense of God's love subjectively. I can remove myself from the assurance of his love.

The enjoyment of his love. It's similar to being in fellowship or out of fellowship with the Heavenly Father. We can't stop being his sons and daughters when we've been born again.

That's a forever thing. But we can feel the barrier between our Heavenly Father and us when we are disobedient. And we can feel the coldness of the distance, as it seems to us, of his love under certain conditions. And we're told here to keep ourselves in the love of God, which I take to mean to cultivate fellowship with him on a regular basis. So how is this accomplished?

And let me suggest several things here that will be helpful. How do we keep ourselves in the love of God? Number one, by constantly reminding ourselves of the greatness of our debt to God for which he forgave us. Remember that parable? Well, it wasn't a parable.

Well, it was a parable. It was Jesus speaking to the man, the Simon that invited him into his house, a Pharisee. And Jesus answered and said to him in Luke 740, Simon, I have something to say to you.

So he said, Teacher, say it. And Jesus said there was a certain creditor who had two debtors, one owed five hundred denarii and the other fifty. And when they had nothing with which to pay, he freely forgave them both. Tell me, therefore, which of them will love him more?

The issue is love, isn't it? Which of those two will love him more? The one for whom he forgave a debt of fifty denarii or one for whom he forgave five hundred denarii?

Simon answered and said, I suppose the one whom he gave more. And he said to him, you have rightly judged. Keep yourselves in the love of God by thinking about the greatness of the debt that you owe and that he has discharged for you. And the more you learn about your true state of failure in your responsibilities toward God, the more you see the size of your debt, the more it mounts up and up and up.

And yet you know by the word of God, by the Spirit of God, by the promises of God that you've been forgiven all of that. And when you realize the greatness of your debt, then you will love him the more. So keep yourselves in the love of God by recognizing the greatness of your debt.

That hymn we sing. When this passing world is done, when has sunk young, radiant sun, when I stand with Christ on high, looking o'er life's history, then, Lord, shall I fully know not till then how much I owe. When I stand before the throne, dressed in beauty, not my own, when I see thee as thou art, love thee with unsinning heart, then, Lord, shall I fully know not till then how much I owe. Chosen not for good in me, wakened up from wrath to flee, hidden in the Savior's side by the Spirit sanctified, teach me, Lord, on earth to show by my love how much I owe. So we keep ourselves in the love of God by recognizing the greatness of our debt, by meditating upon the greatness of Christ's sacrifice for us. I can't hear a sermon about the crucifixion of Christ without being reminded again, oh, what love that he should die for me, saving faith thus to supply for me. Oh, what love.

It's such great love I can't comprehend it. I was listening to a sermon this morning. You know that when I come in in the morning, I'm usually listening to the Lutheran Hour on station. It's FM 94.1. It comes on around 6.30.

It comes on at 6.30. And I was listening to an Easter sermon by a Lutheran minister who's now with the Lord. They're playing a replay that was preached in Jerusalem in a chapel that was right next to the Holy Sepulchre, as they call it, where they believe Jesus was buried. He was preaching it as an Easter message. It was a tremendous sermon. I wished I could have heard the rest of it.

But when I get to the church, I have to turn it off and go in and do my work. So I didn't hear it all. But he was describing those three men on the cross and the difference between the two on the outside and the one in the middle. And yet the sacrifice and the agony that all of them underwent. And it just increased my love for Christ that he would love me enough to die for me in that way. I keep myself in the love of God when I consider the greatness of his sacrifice for me. I keep myself in the love of God when I ponder the wonder of God's electing grace. First thing you have to do about the doctrine of election is embrace it because the Bible teaches it.

That's a struggle for some. But when you are convinced by the word of God that indeed this is what the Bible teaches, and then when you are convinced by the work of the Holy Spirit in your heart that you are one of God's chosen children, one of God's elect, then the question is, how can it be? How can it be that God should love a soul like me? How can it be? Why do I have that privilege? Why am I included in that number?

There's really no explanation for it. But if that doesn't increase your love for God, I don't know what will. And on it goes. One final text about keeping ourselves in the love of God.

Here's one, very practical. Jesus told us how in John 14, 15. He said to his disciples, If you love me, do you? If you love me what? Keep my commandments.

That gets pretty practical and uncomfortable for some people. Some Christians would rather talk about love in emotional terms, in squishy terms, in feeling-oriented terms, but Jesus said it's in very practical terms. If you love me, you'll obey me. If you love me, you'll keep my commandments. If you love me, you'll do what I tell you to do. If you don't have a fervent desire to do that, needing, of course, the help of the Holy Spirit to do that, but if you don't have a fervent desire to do that, you don't love me. You don't love me.

Whatever you say, whatever you're talking about, you don't love me. If you love me, keep my commandments. So cultivating personal fellowship with the Lord is the third element in combating apostasy here. How do we keep ourselves in the love of Christ?

By surrendering to His will and by endeavoring to obey His commandments. By that, we keep ourselves in the love of God. And finally, number four, watchful expectation, the last part of verse 21, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life. This is looking for the second coming.

That may not be apparent immediately, but that's what it is. That looking for should probably be translated something like looking earnestly for. It's this watchful expectation, earnestly looking for and longing for the second coming of Christ. It is an intentional focus upon the second coming of Christ, which the Bible tells us is a purifying and strengthening truth. And we're looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life. Well, I thought I'd already received mercy unto eternal life. You have, if you're saved, you have life now. Jesus said, whoever believes in me shall never die.

Do you believe this? If you do, you have it. You'll never die. You have eternal life.

But you don't have all of it yet, do you? Full redemption awaits His coming. We are saved. I've told you this several times in three stages. You and I are in stage number one. We've been born again.

We have promises ahead of us, but we've been born again. That's a life-transforming operation of the Holy Spirit in our hearts. But that's stage one. Stage two is when we die. Our bodies go on the ground. Our souls go to be with the Lord. And then we achieve the sanctification of our souls in the presence of the Lord, sinless.

That's a big promotion. But it's still not complete. What are we waiting for? The redemption of our bodies.

They're still in the grave. When does that happen? When the Lord returns and the dead in Christ shall rise first. Then our redemption will be complete.

We'll have reached stage three. God's salvation includes the redemption of the whole person, body and soul. Or if you believe in trichotomy, body, soul and spirit.

The whole thing, the whole package. And that final package is not complete until the Lord comes. And so we are looking expectantly for the final expression of God's mercy. And as we keep our eyes focused upon that, we are better prepared to combat apostasy. That full redemption and His coming, the glorification of our bodies. Only then will we fully understand the extent of God's mercy in Jesus Christ. It's a glorious future, eternal life. When that is reached, it will eclipse all of Earth's sorrows. Some of you are burdened down with sorrow.

I don't want to be flippant, but that's life. You can't escape it. Sometimes it comes in bigger portions than others, but you can't escape it. As long as you are alive in a fallen world under the curse, you are going to experience sorrows in great number. But someday, the glory that we shall enjoy will eclipse every earthly sorrow. We will enjoy the uninterrupted presence of our Savior.

We've never even seen Him. Someday we're going to be in His presence and never separated from Him. We're going to enjoy perfect, sinless, glorious worship. We are going to be consumed with gratitude, wonder and praise. And that's why we need to keep our mind focused upon the blessed hope. We get our minds off of that. We wander and we err. But if we keep our minds on that, we will be prepared to deal with apostasy.

Now, let me wrap it up with four applications, if I can do it quickly. Number one, there's a danger of battling without appropriate preparation. We know in this world that soldiers who are poorly trained and inexperienced in combat generally fail. We keep hearing reports of the great numbers of the Russian army that are defecting and that are even surrendering to the enemy.

And why? They aren't prepared to fight. They're not motivated to fight. They can't fight well. They're not prepared to fight. And so it is with Christians. If we're not prepared to defend, to contend for the faith, which was once delivered for the saints, then there are two things that happen.

Either, number one, we'll flee from the battle, and a lot of Christians do. They just turn a blind eye. They ignore it.

Yeah, I know it's there, but I can't do anything about it, so I don't try to do anything about it. Unprepared, poorly trained, inexperienced, immature. Or, number two, the other problem is to fight ineffectively for any number of reasons. To fight ineffectively because we do not possess sufficient knowledge. We don't know enough about God's word to really know how we ought to fight and who we ought to fight. We neglect our own spiritual health and development, and therefore we're not prepared to fight well. It's easy in this state to confuse militancy with devotion to the faith.

I'm a strong, devoted Christian because I am battling the enemy. You may be battling the wrong ones because in this condition you many times battle friends instead of enemies. Shoot, we are an army that tends to shoot ourselves in the feet.

Why is that? Because we're not prepared. Because we haven't been building ourselves up in the most holy faith. Because we don't understand what we need to understand. We don't battle well because we tend to make primary issues out of inconsequential matters. We don't know what to battle.

We try to battle everyone and everything, and pretty soon it's us four and no more. Like the Quaker who said to his wife, I think the whole world is... He used the word queer, but it's changed its meaning over the years.

It doesn't mean what he meant by it. But I think the whole world is wrong but me and thee, and sometimes I wonder about thee. We could get ourselves into that kind of a muddle, can't we? So we've got to build ourselves up in the most holy faith and continue out of all of our lives. We've got to pray regularly in the Holy Spirit, continue with that all of our lives. We've got to keep ourselves in the love of God, cultivate fellowship with the Lord all of our lives, and keep our eyes on the second coming of Jesus Christ regularly so that we'll be properly prepared to battle in an effective way. There's danger in battling without appropriate preparation. Number two, there's danger of solo engagement.

Sometimes in a television program or a movie you'll see one of these heroes who does the impossible. One man, he's going against maybe 20 or 30 people. They're all armed, they're all shooting at him, he's got one gun. Somehow every shot he shoots kills an enemy and all of theirs miss. He kills them all by himself. We say, wow.

Or if it's hand-to-hand combat, you know, he hits that one with this elbow, pokes this one with this fist, knocks that one with this foot, flips over, hits the other one, and all by himself he takes out 12 or 15 people. Oh, what a hero. We say, wow. Now we probably say, that's stupid, that's foolish, that's impossible, it never happens that way.

Right, it never happens that way. We may think that's really being a hero to do it all by ourselves, but not if we're paying attention to the Word of God. We're not going to try to do it all by ourselves.

There's the danger of solo engagement. This battle is a joint endeavor, it needs the whole body of Christ, which begins with a local body. If you can't do it in a local body, you're not really engaged in the whole body of Christ. But number three, the danger of emotionally shallow Christianity. Don't understand what it means to love God. Don't understand what it means to pray in the Holy Spirit and give emotional attachments to all of these concepts. Instead of paying attention to the Bible and realizing that growing in grace occurs through the mind, not apart from it, that love for Christ increases as our understanding of His Word increases, not apart from it. We grow by the mind or through the mind with the instrumentality of the mind, not by bypassing the mind. This idea that I'm so spiritual, I don't need all this study stuff, I don't need all this learning stuff, I don't need, I've got a direct line to heaven and I can love Him more and serve Him more and do all these things better without all this study business.

You are wrong and you are foolish and you are doing more harm than good. But number four, there's always the danger of deception. Christian identity without the new birth, that would describe the apostates.

They came into the churches, identified themselves as Christians, joined churches, were afforded Christian identity when they joined the church, but they weren't Christians. Could that be you? It could be. And this is the most dangerous of all, deception about your true spiritual condition. Have you been born again? Are you a true child of God? Or are you just identified as a Christian who's going to go into eternity and hear something like this recorded for us in the Bible by the words of Jesus, depart from me, you worker of iniquity.

I never knew you. Don't let that be you. Let's pray. Father, teach us your ways and show us your paths. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.