Welcome to the InTouch Podcast with Charles Stanley for Thursday, June 5. God warns us to be aware of false teachers. Strengthen your discernment as you continue the study of the New Testament book of Jude by learning the principles required for reinforcing our faith. He describes the whole theme when he says, Contend earnestly for the faith, that is, stand for it, be ready to defend it, and get on the aggressive about defending our faith. He describes the character and the conduct of these false teachers and how they deceive and divide the church. And all of these things he's been discussing through verse 16. And then beginning in verse 17, he says to the believers, That is, how do you live amidst these false teachers who are not going away? And he says in verse 17, remember what you've heard. And we discussed that and we discussed the philosophy of these false teachers and how they were dividing the people because their whole concept of a person and the spirit and soul and the body. And so then beginning in verse 19 or verse 20, he says, and this is where I want us to begin tonight, under the same idea. This is how you'd live amidst these false teachers.
But here's what you'd do. First of all, he says you'd remember something, what you heard and what they're like. And now he says you are to reinforce your spiritual life, reinforce your own spiritual life in the light of having to live among people who are teaching false teachers. So he begins in verse 20, Now, we're talking about living amidst false teachers who are teaching all kinds of false doctrine and that's our society. You've got every ism and wasm that you can think about today and every kind of ideology and philosophy and religion and belief, most of which is just pure humanism decorated and counterfeiting all kinds of religious cloaks. But he says, when you're in the midst of this, we must reinforce our own beliefs and our own faith.
And I believe there may have been a time when you could get by with knowing a little bit, but not anymore. If you don't know what you believe today, you're going to be in trouble. And if parents aren't teaching their children the truth, your children are going to get in trouble. And you send them off to an ungodly university and pay somebody fifteen thousand dollars a year to warp your child's mind. And if you're going to do that, be sure they're in a church somewhere that somebody is teaching them the truth. So when they hear error immediately, they're being able to sift that through the Holy Spirit and discern truth from error, reinforcing our faith.
So that's what he says. And I want you to notice, I want to give you about five ways he says we're to do this. Now, we could take a sermon on each one of these phrases.
But if we did, we sort of lose the context. But let's begin in verse 20. But you, beloved, building yourselves up on your most holy faith. Now, what he's referring to here is not my personal faith and I believe in God, but when he talks about building ourselves up on our most holy faith, what he's talking about is edifying ourselves in the word of God. That is edifying ourselves and strengthening and reinforcing by our own study of the scripture those basic doctrines that make up our theology. And if I were to walk up to you and say, would you give me a little capsule view of your theology? You'd say, I don't have any.
Yes, you do. Every single one of you has his or her own personal theology. Now, we'd like to believe that all of our own personal theology matches the word of God.
Maybe it will in some points and maybe it won't. But what Jude is saying here is there are times when you need to reinforce what you believe and what you stand for. So he's not talking about personal faith like faith in God, but he's talking about the whole basic truth that you believe in, what you believe about God, what you believe about Jesus, what you believe about the Holy Spirit, what you believe about heaven, what you believe about hell, what you believe about the condition of lost men, what you believe about faith.
He says we're to reinforce that building yourselves up, and that is a present part of simple, which means it's something that ought to be going on all the time. Building yourselves beloved up in your most holy faith. Reinforcing your own faith.
And so how do you do that? You do that by getting in the word of God. Now, there's so many verses I could give you, but let me just go back to Psalm 119.
Turn back there for a moment. And you might need to just meditate on this psalm a little bit in the light of this whole idea of the power of God's Word in your life. Look, if you will, in verse 9. How can a young man keep his way pure? What does it say?
By what? By keeping it according to thy word. Look in verse 11. Thy word I've treasured in my heart that I may not sin against thee. Look in verse 15. I will meditate on thy precepts. Look in verse 18. Open my eyes that I may behold wonderful things from thy law.
Look in verse 23, the latter part. Thy servant meditates on thy statutes. Thy testimony is also my delight.
They are my counselors. They give us direction and guidance for our life. Well, you and I could just go all the way through this passage and the many verses here. Look in verse 105. Thy word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path. And so, all through this 119th psalm, most of it relates to God's Word. Now, in the King James Version, he says, 2 Timothy chapter 2, 15. Study to show thyself approved unto God.
Or, in the New American Standard, be diligent. We're talking about the Word of God and rightly dividing it and rightly sharing it. God's Word should not be something that you open on Sunday, but should be something that you are reading and feasting upon, because what you're doing, you're reinforcing what you believe, what you stand for, what is your body of belief. And that's what Jude is saying here in this particular passage.
Now, why? Because God wants the principles by which we live to come from where? The principles by which we live are to find their source where? In the Word of God. So, what builds us up is the Word of God, all right? So, first of all, he says, Beloved, building yourselves up in your most holy faith. Then he says, second way we reinforce our spiritual life is praying in the Holy Spirit. Now, when he's talking about praying in the Spirit, he's not talking about praying in tongues, because when Paul talks about that in the fourteenth chapter of First Corinthians, he's not making them synonymous.
Now, look, if you will, in this verse. He says in verse 20, praying in the Holy Spirit. What does he mean by praying in the Spirit?
Well, go back to Romans chapter eight for a moment. Remember in this passage when he's talking about sometimes we don't know how to pray like we ought to pray? Look, if you will, in verse 26, he says, In the same way the Spirit, the Holy Spirit also, helps our weakness. And we have weaknesses in different areas.
We're not talking about just physical things. For we do not know how to pray as we should, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. So, what are we doing when we are crying out to God and praying and the Spirit of God is interceding for us? We are praying in the Spirit. Secondly, that also means that you and I are to pray under the guidance or in the guidance of the Holy Spirit. We certainly want to pray in the flesh. We are praying in the Spirit under the guidance of the Holy Spirit as He gives us direction as to what to pray for. The truth is that all of our praying begins with home.
Really begins with God. It begins with the Holy Spirit. He's the one who impresses our heart about what we should pray for. He's the one who directs our praying.
He's the one who encourages us in our praying. And He says there are times when we don't know how we should pray as we are and so what do we do? He says the Spirit makes intercessions, groanings. We're praying in the Spirit of God. But the truth is all of our praying ought to be in the Spirit.
The truth is it's either in the Spirit or in the flesh. Praying in the Spirit is where God answers prayer. Praying in the Spirit means the Spirit of God is involved in my petition, involved in my intercession. This is a partnership in praying. It is the Spirit of God and myself lifting these petitions to Him.
He's involved in this. And when the Spirit of God is involved in your praying, you can anticipate and expect definite, specific, clear answers from God. We can't afford to tolerate willful, known sin, expecting God to overlook that and answer our prayers. He will not.
He cannot afford to do it. You say, well, I've lived in sin. God's answered some of my prayers.
No, He didn't. He may have answered somebody else's prayers who've been, people who've been praying in your behalf and interceding for you. He didn't answer your prayers. Not if you're living in willful disobedience to God unless that prayer is confession and repentance. Don't bet God's going to answer prayer while you're living in sin. He's not going to do it. Now, He's going to do some things in your life that's certainly not an answer to your prayer. So doesn't He say, well, just ask and it'll be given to you?
But you can't take those verses out of context. Let me ask you as a parent. You're going to give your kids anything they want when they're living like the devil and rebellious towards you and independent? You're going to give them what they ask for? Not if you're a wise parent. So when you straighten up your act, I'll do it.
Until then, no. But there is a general idea that floats around when you know God, He's going to answer prayer. I love these sermons of prayer. I want to hear God answer my prayer.
Well, my offering to that begins with a clean life. To reinforce our faith begins in the Word of God, gets on our knees. And thirdly, listen to what He says. He says, praying in the Spirit, keeping yourselves in the love of God.
Now, that almost sounds like you fall in and out. The truth is you can't fall in and out of God's love. What He's really saying here is this, that we are to guard our intimate, loving relationship with Him. You know, all of us are busy. I cherish the time that I can be by myself with God. Because I learned a long time ago that if I spend too much time with people and not enough time with God, the time I spend with people won't be nearly as effective. It's as if I'd have spent that time with Him. And what is true in that area of my life is also true in your life.
You'll be more effective with anybody and everybody if you'll spend more time with Him. Alone, being quiet, no radio, no television, no books, maybe the Word of God, but just being alone. And let me ask you a question.
Nobody can answer this but you. Are you comfortable just being with God? What do you feel when it's just you by yourself?
Do you wait for somebody to call? And if I should ask you tonight, if you could pick anybody in the world that you'd like to be alone with for a little while, who would you choose? And, I suppose, many of you thought about somebody. But I wonder if you thought about God, Jesus. If I could spend a little time alone with anybody in the world tonight, I'd choose Jesus. Well, my friend, that's your privilege.
You can spend as much time alone with Him, just you and Him, all by yourself. And I'll guarantee you this, it'll be more fulfilling, more contending, more rewarding, more reinforcing than anybody else in the whole world, no matter who it is. The fourth thing, listen, keeping yourselves in the love of God, waiting anxiously for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ through eternal life, which is really referring to Christ's coming again. Now look, if you will, in 1 John chapter 3, because this is the reason.
1 John chapter 3, look in verse 2. Beloved, now we are children of God. It has not appeared as yet what we shall be. We know that when He, that is Christ, appears, we shall be like Him, that is, in our physical makeup, not looks, in our physical makeup and our substance. We shall be like Him because we shall see Him just as He is. Now everyone who has this hope, what hope? That Christ is coming and we're going to be like Him. Everyone who has this hope fixed on him does what? Purifies himself just as he is pure. One of the reinforcing ideas in a Christian's life is to focus their attention upon the imminent coming of the Lord Jesus Christ because that is a purifying hope and a purifying thought that Jesus could come any moment. And if you and I really believe that He may come at any moment, that thought itself is purifying and defensive and protective for the believer. Verse 22 and 23, And have mercy on some who are doubting, save others snatching them out of the fire, and on some have mercy with fear, hating even the garment polluted by the flesh.
Now what in the world is he talking about? We're talking about reinforcing our faith. How does he say? First of all, in the Word, on our knees in prayer, guarding our precious intimate relationship with Him, looking for the coming of our Lord, which purifies and guards our daily conduct and behavior. And last of all, he says, reaching out to others who have needs. Now, verse 22, Have mercy on some who are doubting. He talks about three different categories of people here. First of all, he says, there are those people that you and I know who are sort of skirting unbelief and false doctrine.
They just sort of walk around the edge of it. And they're having their doubts. He said, Have pity on them.
Go after them. He says, Because they're skirting and playing around with ideas and philosophies, those who are his hearers and readers, and they are beginning to doubt or are doubting. Secondly, there's another group, those who are deliberately, willfully living in sin and who need to be saved in the nick of time. He says, Snatching them, look, snatching them out of the fire. I wonder how many folks you and I live around, work around all the time who are closer to the fire than you and I know it. You know what we say? Oh, we've got time. Haven't you ever said that? Well, I won't witness to them today.
I'll witness some other time. Now, friend, Jude says, Snatch them out of the fire. That means get them, get the gospel to them before it's too late.
There's a sense of urgency in that. And your friends and mine and the people we work around and strangers, neighbors, or whoever they might be, you know, I learned a lesson. When God tells you to do something, you had better do it or there are going to be consequences you won't like.
There won't be the same consequences all the time, but there'll be consequences you don't like. Then there's a third group of people He's talking about sharing our faith with. First of all, the doubters. Secondly, those who deliberately will it were living in sin and are heading toward the flames.
Number three, there's a dangerous group. Now, what does He, what do I mean by that? Listen. He says, And on some have mercy with fear, watch out, be careful, hating even the garment polluted, stained, corrupted by the flesh.
Now, here's what He's saying. There's some folks who need to be one that some people aren't equipped to win them. Their vile, wicked, diabolical life, so influential in their defense of their lifestyle, their sensual attitude about life, their enticements, He says some are so dangerous. When you reach out to help them, they are so contaminated with sin.
He says you almost have to hate the very thing they're dressed in. So He says the three types of people that you're not sharing faith with, those who are the doubters, don't know what's going on. Those who are deliberately living in sin and those who are dangerous to witness to.
Because I've seen some folks witness to some people, they come back so confused, thrown off base because they themselves were not sure what they believed. You see, that's why we're talking about reinforcing your faith because, listen, part of the reinforcing is in the sharing. But preparation for the sharing is in the Word of God on our knees, developing our own intimate relationship with Him and keeping ourselves pure by our expectation of the imminent return of Christ. Now, I told you five things that you know just as well as I do. That you can't live the Christian life successfully without being in the Word and praying in the Spirit of God and guarding your intimate relationship with Him and keeping your life holy before God and sharing yourself, Christ within you.
That's the part that's pure service. Thank you for listening to Reinforcing Our Faith. For more inspirational messages like this one, visit our online 24-7 station. And if you'd like to know more about Charles Stanley or In Touch Ministries, stop by intouch.org. This podcast is a presentation of In Touch Ministries, Atlanta, Georgia.
