Mercy

Have you ever had someone who practically attacks you with scripture?

Someone who is so passionate that their approach starts to feel harsh and judgmental? That's not what the Bible promotes. And today on Truth for Life, Alistair Begg explains how instead we are to act mercifully. We're looking today at the book of Jude verses 22 and 23. Now, our word this morning, the sermon in one word, is mercy. Mercy.

Classically, in the merchant of Venice, in the conversation between Portia and Shylock, Portia says to Shylock, Though justice be thy plea, consider this, that in the course of justice none of us should see salvation. We do pray for mercy. And that same prayer doth teach us all to render mercy. I try and understand for myself the distinction, if we need a distinction, between grace and mercy.

There are really two sides of one coin. But if we think of grace in terms of what God lavishes upon us, even though we do not deserve it, then the flip side of that would be that in mercy God does not give to us actually what we deserve. And he refrains from executing justice upon us by executing judgment on his dearly beloved Son.

Now, Jude has been addressing these matters of great significance. We find ourselves at the end of verse 21, where he is reminding his readers that they are actually waiting for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ. And the Bible, of course, centers on this. You don't have to look very carefully for it, even taking your concordance and looking up the word mercy. You would find yourself immediately at passages like Ephesians chapter 2, where Paul is reminding his readers, quote, We were by nature, he says, children of wrath. That's what we deserved, just like the rest of mankind. But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ.

You see, religion, in terms of an external design, whereby an individual tries to make oneself acceptable to God, religion will eventually end in either despair, because we are aware of the fact that we cannot meet even our own standards, or pride, believing somehow or another that we actually are able to keep these standards. Now, what Jude has done, of course, in this last little section, is remind his readers of the scoffers who would come. And then he has encouraged them to make sure that in light of that, they—we as the readers—are keeping ourselves in the love of God, building ourselves up in the most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit, and awaiting the mercy of God. Now, he says, I need to exhort you to deal mercifully with doubters and with disputers. When this letter would be read in its first reading or first readings, the people that were assembled would hear it.

They would look on one another, perhaps, as it was read in a context where they were looking upon one another rather than in rows. And when he talks about scoffers coming, people's eyes would respond, they would be motioning to one another. And when it came to the mention of how to treat those who doubt, there would have been those who found themselves saying, Well, this is important, because I doubt. There's only reason for him to address those who are the doubters, because he knows that there are doubters who are there. And I don't doubt, but there are doubters here on a routine Sunday—people who have not actually come to a really convinced position about Jesus, a convinced position about the Bible, a convinced position about what it means to be in the wrong and how someone gets put in the right.

And you may even feel that it would be dreadful if anybody knew that you were in that position. Well, it would be dreadful if someone was to discover and decide that the way to respond to you would to take your doubts and denounce them, to take your distrust and seek to argue with you. That would be to violate the clear direction that is provided here. Jude is actually saying that dealing with the doubts and the disputers is not about winning an argument. It is actually about wooing them, winning them, saving them. And I take it that here in verses 22 and 23, he has three separate groups in mind. First of all, have mercy on those who doubt, group one.

Well, who are these people? I take it that these are folks who perhaps have been attracted by the story that has been brought to them by the folks who have crept in. They crept in, verse 4, unnoticed, and they are present.

It's not that they are unaffected by the error. It's just that they're not certain that it's actually better than the faith. So they find themselves in a quandary, doubting—doubting maybe about Jesus, who is our only Master and Lord. But of course, these people who've crept in are saying, No, we deny that he is our only Master and Lord.

I mean, Jesus is whatever you want to think he is, but he is not Master and Lord. And some people say, Well, I don't know whether he is or whether he isn't. They're doubting. Doubting about the dreams, because these people were the proponents of dreams. They were able to say to them, You know, I know you listened to many of these talks, and you studied the Bible together, but you ought to come where we are, because we dream some amazing dreams, and out of our dreams we're able to find a way to live this life that is not buttoned down and difficult in the way that Jude and others would present.

And the people say, Well, I don't know. I like the dream thing, actually. It seems more immediate. It seems more direct.

It seems more spiritual. And they're doubting. The same word, actually, is translated—doubt, that is—is translated dispute in verse 9. And so the person who begins to wonder, begins to doubt, may become a disputer. They inevitably become wobblers, and they need to be steadied. And what Jude is saying is, you need to say to them, Hey, look out!

That's dangerous. It is, if you like, a call to preventative care. It's a call to pray for our friends, to be patient with our friends, to be persevering with them. I mean, it's the call to be akin to a decent schoolteacher who recognizes that X or Y is having a dreadful time. They're not sure about Pythagoras's theorem.

They had never met Pythagoras, and they weren't sure what they would do if they met him. And so the teacher said, What an idiot you are! No! The teacher said, Here, let me help you. And she stayed a little while extra.

And she helped us through. I shouldn't let you know these details about my life, should I? This is what Jude is saying. You met one of your congregants in the coffee shop, and they told you that they're not sure about the return of Jesus Christ. They're wondering. They're unsettled by some of the things that they've been reading or that have been coming their way.

And what he's saying is, Love them to win them. They're not going to be won by argument. In fact, Peterson paraphrases this opening line, Go easy on those who hesitate in the faith. Go easy on them. Not suggesting that you diminish the gospel, not suggesting that we do anything other than contend for the gospel, but he says, But when you come across those who are really struggling with this, here's your mentality. That's the first group. Secondly, snatch others from the fire.

Save others by snatching them out of the fire. I take it that these individuals that he has in mind have gone a step further. These individuals are not just unsettled by what has been said, but they've actually begun to embrace some of it. They've begun to dilly-dally. They've begun, as it were, to take a seat along with some of the scoffers themselves. And so here's what's happened. They once really delighted in the law of the Lord, but now the scoffers have come and told a different story.

And so they began to say, Well, I think I'll take my seat there. Been enamored with a new way of seeing things. Instead of embracing truth as being objective and universal and verifiable and ultimately proclaimed in Jesus himself, they've succumbed to the idea that there are all kinds of truths. In fact, it seems far more appealing if you can have your own truth, if you can have your own spirituality, if you can put it together like a Lego but with no directions. Just make your own image.

Just believe what you want to believe. This seems far more attractive. After all, it's far more flexible.

The other way seems so restrictive. You see, for these people, I take it, the holy faith was wholly unappealing. And so he says, You'd better snatch them out of the fire. It's interesting, isn't it, that he says that you are to save others by snatching them?

Saved by snatching them. Well, of course, only God saves. But the means that he uses in salvation include those who are his children. And Jude has already pointed out in verse 7 what happened to Sodom and Gomorrah when they went down the same road that these people who have crept in were suggesting they go down.

It is impossible to miss the direct correlation between a deviation from the truth of God's Word and a complete aberration in terms of human sexuality. There's no doubt they pursued unnatural desire, and they sell for, as an example, by undergoing a punishment of eternal fire. They're being scorched. They're being burned. They're in great danger.

Go get them! So, in other words, if group one is, Go easy on group one. It is, Go after group two. Now, what is the snatching mechanism? The snatching mechanism, if you can put it in that way, is the gospel. It's the gospel. It's the story of the immense love of God in Jesus for those who are tempted to take a different path, believe a different story, and try it in their own way.

It's not an argument. It's an adventure. It's a love story. You see, the reason we're close to Jesus is because God has reached out to us in Jesus. He took the initiative and took hold of our hand. Now, what are we to do with those who are sitting, as it were, in the dangerous position of doubting and dissenting and disputing? We're not to walk idly by. We're not to leave them. We're to save them.

Save them by snatching them. And the snatching mechanism is the story of the gospel. We become the means whereby God brings people to salvation. Whenever this has laid hold of somebody, it propels them.

And there is no doubt that there are people who are peculiarly gifted in evangelism, who just have an obvious knack at engaging people in conversation and, without being a nuisance or a pain in any way, are able to move things in the direction of a consideration of the gospel. Fanny Crosby wrote lots and lots of hymns. She was blind, if you will remember. And after the age of sixty, she moved not from hymn writing, she continued, but she moved into what she regarded as the second phase of her life. She relocated to Lower Manhattan.

She took an apartment there in order that she might work in rescue missions for three days a week. She's blind. She's a hymn writer.

She's got royalties, enough to fill your downstairs study. But she's there. Why is she there? What's she doing there?

She is actually living the lyrics of her own hymns. Rescue the perishing. Care for the dying. Snatch them in pity from sin and the grave. Weep o'er the erring one. Lift up the fallen.

Tell them of Jesus, the mighty, to save. Isn't that what Jude is on about here? This is what James says, my brothers and sisters, if anyone among you wanders from the truth and someone brings him back or brings her back, let him know—listen to this—let him know that whoever brings back a sinner from his wandering will save his soul from death.

That's what's involved here. That's why he says, I had to urge you to contend for the faith once delivered to the saints, because if that goes, you've got nothing left. Don't listen to these people that have crept in. The scoffers will come. Keep yourselves in the love of God. But don't get smart. Don't get smug.

Don't get argumentative. Don't get self-righteous. Don't become an ugly congregation. Have mercy on those who doubt. Save those by snatching them out of the fire, because you will save their souls from death and cover a multitude of sins.

What about group three? 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 take it that these folks are so far gone that it will not be possible to intervene without putting oneself in danger. Doesn't it seem that's what he's saying? To others, show mercy with fear. Why does he introduce fear?

What fear? Well, maybe he has in mind the fear that Paul has in Galatians 6, where he says, Brothers and sisters, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. And then he says this, Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted. In other words, if you go into that environment where they are, do so in the fear of God and in the realistic fear of your own sinful heart. Take care that you are not carried away by the lawlessness of sinful people, lest you lose your own stability.

Now, let's just be honest about it. This is one of the great problems with marital collapse involving pastors—pastors sitting down one-on-one with women who come to tell the pastor that their husband doesn't love him the way that he should. And the pastor, who has a sinful heart, shows compassion to the individual, which goes beyond compassion to affection, which goes beyond affection to lust.

And before you know where you are, the whole church is up in absolute flames. Why? Because the person should not have been there. He should not have done that. He thought he could show mercy without fear. He didn't fear God. He didn't fear the judgment of God. He just didn't fear. He didn't hate sin. That's what he's saying.

There's no way to bypass this. Howell Jones, professor at Westminster of Old, he says, Those who would save gross sinners have to go nearer to sin and Satan's domain than it is safe for them to go. In other words, over group three, there is a big sign, and it says this, Approach with extreme caution, so as not to be contaminated. In other words, be tender with sinners, but don't get soft on sin. Because sin stinks to high heaven.

That's the point he's making here. Hating even the garment stained by the flesh. If you want cross-references, Zechariah 3, Revelation chapter 3, I'll leave it to you. Avoid all contact with sin so that it doesn't contaminate you.

Hate sin as you would loathe filthy undergarments soiled by human excretions. I can see your faces. You're like, Whoa, watch. I can't believe you even said that. He said it.

He said it. In fact, you just look at Revelation chapter 3. Jesus uses the very same picture. Yet you have still a few names in Sardis, people who have not soiled their garments, and they will walk with me in white.

That's the point. For Jude's readers and for us is to hate the sin but treat the sinner with mercy. To realize that from our perspective, such people as in group three appear to be, it would seem, beyond hope. But they're not beyond hope. Because they may still be the recipients of God's grace.

Because Jesus can save fully and completely those who approach God the Father through him. With God, failure is never final. It's never final. We don't give up. You see, the challenge, I think, to us as a church family is in part this—that a church such as ours that is very, very clear, seeks to be clear, about the importance of the gospel, the finality, the fullness, the sufficiency of Scripture and everything, can actually lose Jesus in that process. So, we're very clear about our theology, very clear about our convictions, very clear about this, very clear about that. We can't believe that somebody isn't clear.

Maybe they should be somewhere else. This is where the clear people are, whether you'll never have any doubt or sit next to you. If what we exude is that kind of self-righteous clarity, then we have no right, actually, to have people coming. God does not grant adoption to families that are incapable of caring for the spiritual children—amongst whom there are those who doubt, those who need to be snatched from the fire, and some who need to discover the gospel, need to discover that the hands that reach out to them have scars in them.

The hands that they think are there to push them away are actually the hands that reach out to draw them in. Because the answer to every group is at the same place, in the same person, at the cross of Jesus, before whom we all come and bow down and say with the tax collector, God, be merciful to me. I'm the sinner. Have you ever said that to God? It's not a question about if you ever get interested in religion.

Have you ever actually faced up to that? You're listening to Alistair Begg on Truth for Life, where we are learning how we can be involved in helping to win souls rather than winning religious arguments. If you have been enjoying our study in the book of Jude, you can re-listen online to any of these messages. Go to truthforlife.org.

All of the messages are free there to listen to, download, or share with others. And if you'd prefer to own Alistair's teaching through the book of Jude, the complete 12-message series is available on a USB drive for our cost of just $5. You can purchase USB studies online at truthforlife.org slash store. And if you add a donation to your purchase today, be sure to ask for the book we are recommending. It's Alistair's book for children titled C is for Christian. In this book, Alistair teaches children five years and up about the benefits and joys of being a Christian. He does it by presenting 26 words from A to Z that describe 26 aspects of who we are in Christ. Ask for your copy of the book C is for Christian when you donate today through the Truth for Life mobile app or online at truthforlife.org slash donate, or you can call us at 888-588-7884. I'm Bob Lapeen. Thanks for studying the Bible with us this week. Do you ever feel like just giving up, like it's too hard to live a godly life in an increasingly ungodly world? Monday we'll discover how we navigate safely all the way to the finish line. The Bible teaching of Alistair Begg is furnished by Truth for Life, where the Learning is for Living.