Books of James & Jude - Building yourselves up in the faith - Jude 1:20-21

I think maybe what we'll do is next week we'll go back and enter into a more extensive text in terms of the lesson, but today I think we'll just start at verses 20 and 21, because the verses that follow 22 through 25, particularly 22 and 23, are those that really relate, I think, more so to the entire epistle in terms of the apostates. And today are verses that don't stand alone, but they kind of are those that are very, very much encouraging and uplifting, and I think relate in part to what's proceeding and what follows. But let's just, I think, spend today on the couple of verses that are before us. And next week, we'll put the last four into context, more so with a more extensive reading of the text. So, versus 21 and 22, alright.

Is there a switch that needs to be on over here for the remote? This is on. It's working now. Praise the Lord. That was my seventh click. Maybe there's something about the number. So I've combined the two verses today because they very much run together and relate one to another. There's a period afterwards and there was a period before them. So we'll look at them as two in one. This is the New American Standard version. I'm using that as Rutgers suggested that might be better for next week's verses and I'm using it for today's too.

But you, beloved, building yourself up on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting anxiously for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to eternal life. In terms of what's included in these two verses, it's absolutely incredible. You know, when Margaret and I were at the Messiah last week, it's incredible the verses the Lord gave Handel to bring forth. It's everything from the Incarnation through the Eternal Kingdom, the New Heavens and the New Earth. It's absolutely unbelievable. What's amazing about it, it's all Scripture. I had a friend, a dear friend who went through, he found every verse that backed up every line in the Messiah, because it's all Scripture.

You know what we were talking about too on the way. How many people in the world have heard the Messiah? And I was thinking, boy, if the Lord wanted to get the message out to everyone in the world who were even non-believers, the Messiah, Handel had no idea what his mission was. One of the greatest evangelists of all time, actually. The world has heard the Messiah.

That is the message. And so for those that say they've never heard it, they have heard it. I mean think about the people that have heard the Messiah in their lifetime sung somewhere. And sung in it. Millions and millions of people around the world. That illustrates the power of song to communicate. And people don't even realize they've heard the message. They'll remember the music.

Well, Wayne was sensing to be on the way in the door today, actually, about being in Orlando at Disney World. At Disney World, there were three performances a day when they were down there, the Christmas carols. Huge choir, 350 people. And a lot of the traditional hymns were sung, including the Messiah.

Again, what led us to this, James and Ingrid and Pat, is these two verses are as jam-packed with gospel truth almost as you can have in terms of the the encouragement of the body once they're saved. So again, but you beloved, building up yourself on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting anxiously for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ, eternal life. Now notice, you'd have to be a believer to have this verse mean anything to you, right? This couldn't be interpreted by anybody else.

It's just interesting, a word that jumped out at me that hadn't jumped before. On this translation, building yourselves up on your most holy faith, as opposed to in your most holy faith. And it just makes me think about a foundation. You have to have a foundation to build up. Absolutely. And so if you don't have the faith to start with, you've got nothing to build on. Good point. Very good point. We'll get to that here in our discussion.

So what I said before, those who just came in, was that we didn't read a lot of verses leading into this, but we will next week as we talk about the conclusion of the epistle in terms of the apostates. But these verses, put them in context now. Jude's been addressing the apostates, basically. And he won't end addressing them except for the benediction, which is the last couple of verses. but these verses don't stand alone, you put them into context, but just because of time today we decided not to read probably 8 to 10 verses that precede them. Alright, notice again verses 3, verses 17, and verses 20 to whom this is addressed. This is addressed to the Beloved, right? The Beloved. Is that you?

Is it all of us? It's the Church. Yeah, it's basically the body of Christ. So Jude is appealing to the entire body here. The beloved, esteemed, dear, favorite, worthy of love. And the question I'm going to pose here is why are we worthy of being loved? Because we're in Christ. You working at this? No. But we're in Christ now because we're believers. And now we are worthy. We weren't worthy before. And it goes into what we're studying on Friday nights at our home.

It's in Romans, in Romans 8, 15, 16. Let's look at that. And Margaret, you can make the additional case about the adopted sons versus even the naturally born sons after we read this. So whoever gets Romans 8, 15, and 16, please read. For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear, but ye have received the spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. The spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit that we are the children of God. And if children then heirs, heirs of God, and join heirs with Christ, if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together. Amen.

You know, Vern often talks about the relationship. The relationship we have with the Heavenly Father is that of adopted sons. Margaret, comment on adopted. Well, it's just that we know that adopted in this culture, if you were adopted, you had a higher standing even than a real or birth child. Because a birth child could be disowned. Whereas an adopted child or son was in fact had a contract and could never be disowned and was the legal heir. It had a higher standing.

Does that make us worthy of being loved? No, but God declared it as us being worthy because of who we are in Christ. It's almost the same kind of thought as reckon yourselves to be dead unto sin and alive unto Christ. It's that same kind of thing. It's a legal accounting reckoning. So the worthiness is not found in us, just as you're saying, but we are worthy. because God sees us in Christ. Right. Reckon, of course, considers it to be true, correct? Right.

James? I think in the scripture we see a difference between love and be loved and I think there's a difference in definitions because God loved the world and yet the illustration of a husband and wife relationship found in Solomon where we're talking about the beloved in Christ and where Christ talks about his beloved the church it's a special kind of love relationship that now it's not that we in that sense ever truly deserve it, but it's not the general love of God displayed towards the world in sending the salvation of Christ, but it's the be-loved relationship, an established relationship.

Now there is a friendship. A special intimacy. Right, exactly. All right, good. Any other thoughts about, you know, are we worthy to be loved? No, but we've been legally declared adopted and so therefore the relationship is ones of being loved. And I think that's where that changes then from we're loved and now we're beloved, you know, and there's a special intimacy there. And the next... challenge is to building up ourselves on our most holy faith. Wow, look at the superlatives. Most holy faith. It's kind of like more than just a little bit of faith. This is the most holy faith. So building yourselves up looks like a self-effort, doesn't it?

My question always, and you're going to see it before the end of the lesson, how do you do it? We're going to come back to that too. My point here is turning to the verb tense. This is present tense participle which means keep on being built up. So that's kind of the literal translation. So it's an ongoing effort, although you think it'd be perfect tense there, but it's actually present tense, but it's an application that has ongoing significance.

And here, the emphasis is not just the believer, but the body. Keep in mind, each one of us can relate to this, but it's the entire body that functions as a whole in terms of building themselves up on this most holy faith. rather than separating from it.

And if you look at Jude 19, I'll read you 19, because I said we wouldn't read any other verses, but Jude 19 particularly here does relate to this. These are sensual persons who cause divisions, not having the spirit. Divisions is separation, right? It's not what we're talking about here.

We're talking about building up oneself as a body of Christ and the truth of the word of God. on your most holy faith. We've heard comments about on already. And our only building block is faith in the source, which is the Word of God, right? How do you build yourself up in terms of the truth of the Lord Jesus Christ and all that relates to the gospel applied to the church going forward as a body other than the Word of God? Is there any other source of building ourselves up in the most holy faith? I mean, we can get it from fellowship, but the point is the Word of God is the truth, right?

It's our backbone. It's our source. And it's faith in the Word of God. We'll come back to this again because it's a bit of a repetition here, but do you believe what God's revealed? It's an allegorical thing, but I've been studying verses related to light. because next Sunday is my next time of golden affair. At the prison ministry. And it's very interesting.

Jesus says, I'm the light of the world. He that believes in me will not walk in darkness. And I immediately jumped to Psalm 119 verse 105, thy word is a a lamp to my feet and a light to my path. We have a number of verses in scripture which tie in receiving by faith and then transmitting by faith.

You end up with something like Matthew 5.16, let your light shine among men that they see your good deeds and glorify God in heaven. All this connection, if you take light as being faith in this case, faith in information and informed faith, it makes good sense. Where do you get the revelation? The only thing we know about God is by revelation, not by lab experiments. And where is God revealed? Right. So we walk in the light as he is in the light. That's it. Good. And the light shines into darkness. Pat?

If you made this keep on building up, that would be present. I mean, that's a present ongoing action, right? Keep on building up versus keep on being built up. So it seems like if being built up, that's by somebody else, whereas if it's you, what you call the self-effort. So is that an accurate translation to being built up? It is accurate in terms of Thayer's lexicon and several other sources. I went to the Interlinear and it's being built up.

The thing is, keep in mind now, when we are the passive recipients of the action of being built up, we have a requirement to live by faith. We're not robots. God just doesn't zap us. with this process of being built up, we have to respond by faith. And even though in context it seems like we're being built up, but we're being built up, the vehicle is our faith.

That's implied here, it's not in the first per self. But I think this idea of challenging the body to be building ourselves up in the faith must be about building ourselves up in the holy, what is it, holy Faith is in fact, how we build ourselves up to the holy faith is by faith. I mean it sounds often very redundant, but I don't know how else to describe it.

Well faith is our only, that's all I bring to the table. In our salvation and in our Christian walk, all we have is our trust and faith in what God has done. And so that's our part of the equation. Well it's kind of like, We'll come back to this again, I've said that three times now, but our faith is believing what God's revealed, right? I mean, it's very simple.

And I think here when we're looking at the position that we take as believers within a body that may in fact not be entirely one of the Lord, we have to in fact look at the Word of Truth. In John 17, 17, somebody look at that verse about what our faith is really related to. about the faith being holy and perfect and righteous. The source is holy, perfect and righteous, which again, my point is the word of God, which is where our faith is based. Sanctify them through thy truth. Thy word is truth.

Right. That's the Lord Jesus Christ. So, Pat, I know it seems like a contradiction. I mean, it seems like building yourselves up is your responsibility, but ultimately you build yourself up in the holy faith by living by faith. I don't know how else, and that's the Word of God. Well, it just comes to this question of who's doing the action. It's the same as keep. But the thing is, again, back to my analogy, we're not robots being zapped.

I mean, how would we build ourselves up in the faith? Well, I think we're here studying the Word of God, and the Word of God is the source of all truth and light. And that's the source of our faith. And the Lord himself just said in John 17, 17, this is the truth. My word is the truth.

Yeah, Al. It's a symbiotic relationship. It's like, how do you grow in a biological sense? You eat food that is nourishing, and you grow. And it is a natural result of your involvement, and in somewhat the same way, I get nourished by God's Word and I see examples in my life of His faithfulness, His constancy, His mercy, His grace, His love. As I see His character and actions and behavior either revealed in scripture or in my own life, then my response is an increase in the trust and the confidence and the thing that that's none but the hungry heart keeps emphasizing over and over again I rest in what he has done and is doing and my faith then grows because of the greater confidence I have in him so I'm being built up by his character and actions and I'm involved as the recipient and then the maturing better understanding of who he is and how he operates. Let me give a poor analogy. Let's say we have an automobile and you're training to become an automobile mechanic. The vehicle's been built. It exists. And the analogy is the Word of God. It's there for our information and our growth and grace.

But to become a mechanic, you have to continually operate on the car. You have to take it apart, put it back together, and you become proficient at that after a while because you're, in a sense, an act of faith that the car's going to teach you everything you need to know because it's got all the parts. I mean, engineering, I mean, think about your professions about it. It just didn't come automatically. The profession was there to be learned, whatever it is, but it's your ongoing performance, your training and reiteration of the process that works to building a car, having it break down and repair it. The Word of God is there, it's solidly in place. And this building ourselves up in the faith and the most holy faith really is a process of allowing life's experiences by faith to use the Word of God as our structural truth.

Is that help at all? I mean, just off the spur of the moment. Yeah, just a matter of who's doing the work in it. I want to make one other observation here. It says, keep yourselves in the love of God. Again, it sounds like you are being told to do something, to keep. You're jumping ahead, but we'll be there. We'll be there in a second. That is actually, this is, and we'll come back to that. Let's just delay a response to that in a second. James, you had a point.

Well, your illustration brings to mind the obedience of Christ has spoken in Paul in Romans chapter 6, no you are not to whom you yield yourselves, servants to obey his servants, you are whom you obey. And we have a decision every day to yield ourselves in obedience to righteousness or disobedience unto death. And that results in what we don't see as we approach 1 Corinthians 3, the judgment seat of Christ.

We come before with our works, let every man's work be tried. And yet God illustrates that as you have something beyond your works, wood, hay, stubble, gold, silver, precious stones, that has been built there, put there by God to give evidence of these works being truly in Christ or of your own strength. And so that faith that we have, I exercise faith to keep myself, to guard myself from sin in yielding myself in obedience to Christ. And then also God illustrates those works for me by building for me gold, silver, precious stones, which that comes from his work.

Going back to where I said, where you reminded me of, instead of feeding a car, feeding your body with meat, with solid food, from the Word of God, as we see in numerous scriptures, especially in Hebrews, that you ought to be eating meat. And that food is not something that I take into my own body and I make it, nourish myself, I feed on it, I grow on meat, and then that gives me strength. I grow on the Word of God, that gives me strength. So I build myself up on meat. Well, I think so.

This building up ourselves in the most holy faith is a life experience. Everything we weigh against the truth of the word of God. And that doesn't mean we have to micro-analyze everything, but when we live by faith and we see how the scripture implies itself in every avenue and direction which we head, then you're not there overly micromanaging yourself, but you walk by faith and you're being lifted up by the power of the Holy Spirit and the new creation of Christ Jesus that we are. So again, it's in part being done in us, but our response has to be to believe God's Word as to how it impacts our day-to-day experience. to yield ourselves continually, or we give ourselves over, which of course, we're not going to touch that yet, but following in, we're not guarding against the temptations of the world, we're not keeping ourselves in a position where we can continually feed on God's goodness and grow, and then of course edify and build up each other, but we're allowing ourselves to be in a situation where I can learn, where I can grow, and where I can yield and and the righteousness that's in them today. Kind of like the counterfeit bill or the false gem. I mean, when you know what the perfect gem looks like, then ultimately you know what the false one is. You don't study the false ones, but you study that that's perfect and true.

Don't you think, too, it's a rest? I mean, when you're in Christ and you're in the faith, there is a rest. that just the Lord and the Holy Spirit just give you. But that rest is an act of faith too, isn't it? It is an act of faith, that's what I'm saying. And believe me, I think we all know, I mean the Holy Spirit really lets us know when we're not resting and we're not in the faith, it becomes obvious to us very quickly that we're not. Because I think as believers, The Holy Spirit's job is to give us that uncertainty and that anxiety when we're not in rest. And I think if we're out of rest, we're definitely not where we need to be. That's what the faith is.

Perhaps one overarching meaning in this particular phrase reminds us that faith It's not a static thing, a once for all, but that faith is an active thing. And so, as has been mentioned in various ways by Pat and others, there is an interaction, there is an ongoing process, there is a growing. So the Christian life is not one of, yay, I believe, now I'm on my way to heaven, let's enjoy singing our songs and we're taken care of type of thing. The term most holy isn't two words describing it, it's simply holy. The superlative here I think is really just part of the translation, it doesn't represent anything very special, but I think in context it just reflects the ultimate nature of our faith. So here's the issue, how are we doing here in terms of building ourselves up in the Holy Faith?

Better ask, resting and receiving here, right? So back to Margaret's point, it begins with rest, but the rest that we have in our salvation and our position really reflects faith that we should enter into this rest. There's nothing we have to do, we didn't work at getting our salvation, nor do we work at, you know, from an earthly and intellectual perspective, at growing in grace. We rest and then we receive, and we receive the Word of God as truth. And we allow that to continue to multiply in ourselves as we live by faith. I don't know how to explain it any better.

I just found, I just did a search for the word that's used there, building, and I mentioned 1 Corinthians 3, and I said, oh that's neat. The word is the same word used, if any man build upon this foundation, gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, and stubble. And we look back at that passage, we know that that building is obviously, as you just mentioned, by faith, and that which is the wood, hay, and stubble is that which is done in our own flesh. That's a nice... Nice verse to add to our conversation here this morning.

What's prayer? When I first got to to the point in my life where I thought that there's more to this than working for God and pleasing Him, after I got saved, I got to know Miles indirectly. I've met Miles, but I sent him a little letter, it was before email, and I said, Miles, what's prayer?

And you know what his answer was? That's a very good question, Bob. And that was his answer, that's all he said. Alright, so I tried to dissect this yesterday to the best of my ability. Macaulay says it's a response to the body of truth. I mean, that's how Macaulay, yesterday, in the verbal that I heard, the lesson he gave on these two verses in Jude. It's a response to the body of truth.

And to go a little bit further, it's without ceasing. There are many places in Scripture, 1 Thessalonians, Ephesians, etc. that talk about prayer without ceasing. That's kind of interesting. So if we think about that as prayer, How you doing at this too? I mean it's a constant deal.

It's the absence of formality and that really relates to our intimate relationship and I think we read in Romans 8, Abba Father, and Abba Father is used in Mark, it's used in Galatians, it's used in Romans 8.15. This is that really intimate relationship we have like, you know, daddy, right? I mean it's really the constant communication and the ability to be in a relationship that's unchanging.

And then finally, my point was, it's often not even conscious, I mean, this prayer. We're told in Romans that sometimes the spirit utters things that we're not even knowledgeable about, that it's not a conscious experience, it's iteration. So what does prayer mean to people here? I mean, I grew up with prayers, you've got to be on your knees, and you've got to have a formality, you've got to have a list, and all this stuff. How sterile that is, right? Are you talking to your father day in and day out? I mean, you're communicating constantly, aren't you? Back to fundamentals of the faith. Is our faith based on our performance or by our inner attitude?

Our worldview of God's sovereignty and God's love, etc. And so, somewhere back down the line, I got the idea that prayer was just being in a position where whatever was coming into my life at that moment, I could thank God for it, I could ask God for help in it, I could... whatever the need or the attitude. Just a trivial example, I woke up this morning and had much less pain than is normal. And my first thought was, thank you, Lord, for giving me a good start to the day. And that's a prayer. A communication based on the relationship that I trust him for. By faith I have that relationship and by faith I cast my care on him because he cares for me. Any other thoughts on prayer? I listened to Macaulay as well on that tape. What struck me about that was in response to the body of truth. This is the body of truth. In a sense, I'm in a prayer service as I interact with this body of truth.

I had not before listened to that particular comment. It hadn't struck me. I realized that because many times things will occur to you or come to your mind. Boy, that's what he means. Wow, that's so amazing. So you're actually interacting this interaction.

Well I mean the idea, I mean sometimes even in our congregation to follow the Sunday School in terms of the church service ultimately I'll keep my eyes open and I sense that there's, I mean we close our eyes automatically but how traditional is that? I mean sometimes even keeping, I mean sometimes you may be more attentive, you close your eyes and either you start falling asleep or your thoughts go elsewhere. I don't know, yeah James. The prayer there for Shukumai is a wish toward someone or something.

So we think about the shortest prayer of Peter as he's sinking in the water. Well obviously he didn't pull his hands and close his eyes and say, Lord save me. His arm was up and reaching probably, speculation. But as he screamed, Lord help. As Christ pulled him out of the water and said, you have little faith. he was displaying his wish toward his Savior. And so, as you just point towards, you know, there's no prescription on what Christ said, you know, when they said, you know, how do we pray? And he said, well, pray like this.

Bow your head, close your eyes, hold your hands, and then our Father, you know, he doesn't go through all that. But simply just expressing our wishes, our desires, you know, which is different from, of course, prayers, supplications, thanksgivings, but simply communicating with God through, in the Holy Spirit. In fact, good introduction.

And why is prayer in the Holy Spirit? I mean, there is a qualification here. Why is it in the Holy Spirit? Well, the Holy Spirit is an intricate and essential part of the Trinity, and that's really brought out nicely here. God, Theos, the Father, our Lord Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit are all included here. So this is a nice place in Scripture to find the Trinity, all stacked into one verse. And what is the primary purpose of the Holy Spirit? From the Gospel of John, John 16, to show us the things of Christ. Does anybody have that open, by the way? John 16, 13, and 14? I mean, you hate to... I'm kind of a reductionist in the way I think, so I want to kind of try to make things as simple as possible. And I often, with the Holy Spirit, go to here in terms of... Go read that, Roger. Okay, verse 13.

But when He, the Spirit of Truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth, for He will not speak on His own initiative, but whatever He hears, He will speak, and He will disclose to you what is to come. And He shall glorify Me, for He shall take of Mine, and shall disclose it to you.

So praying in the Spirit really is foundationally related to the truth and that's ultimately to reveal Christ in us. So when we pray in the Spirit, that doesn't mean we have to kind of go plug in the Holy Spirit here. But I think we recognize that when we take things to the Lord, the Spirit is in the business of making that transmission based on truth. We're kind of tuned in to this when we say ask anything in my name, because that's exactly the same kind of thing. And so people think that if we say at the end of our prayer, in Jesus' name, that that somehow puts some stamp of approval on us.

And I spent a long time in my early Christian life thinking that if I didn't end my prayer with those specific words, I was in big trouble. And it took me a lot of time in the word and just reading and thinking and getting outside information and you know, Sunday school, church, whatever, to find out that didn't mean using the name, it meant being tuned in and related in line with God's will and God's purpose. Then when I ask, I'm on God's agenda and then the response.

It's so critically important now. The reason Miles gave me that answer is I wasn't ready for anything more than that. Very good question, Bob. In other words, live about 10 years or 20 and you're going to figure this out. By the way, how often are our predecessors to be selfish?

I'm going to submit yesterday that about four or five times I took something to the Lord that was really kind of protect me or help me, that kind of thing, but I went to him that way putting it into the perspective. of he makes no mistakes about the circumstances I'm finding myself in and he looks at me eternally in his son that we're just citizens here and you know he heard this I mean I you know the answer could have gone either way but I asked him you know with that is my framework not to be expecting him to change the circumstances but to change me in my circumstances but that doesn't mean I can't take the request to him I mean Even as selfish as driving to the Colorado Symphony last night. The conditions weren't great, but I still took it to him, realizing that if in fact we didn't get there safely. But again, I took it to him.

Yet it was in the framework of the truth of the word of God that we're citizens in heaven and he's here to allow our circumstances to build us up in grace and truth. You bring up an important point there, that when I'm in an attitude of prayer, Then I'm also in the attitude where I can receive what he's going to say in response to it.

I had a sign posted in my office for many years that was on the back of a commercial to buy books, of all things. Buy a science book and we'll have this slogan you can put up in your office. It said, prayer changes things, me. Again, if we think of the Holy Spirit and his work in us to glorify the Lord Jesus Christ, then everything we pray about, when we pray in that context, we are praying in the Holy Spirit.

Alright, I had no idea we were going to take this much time on this part of this. Back to Pat's question. Keep yourselves in the love of God. This is his love in us, not ours for him. And that's brought out by a couple of commentaries I've looked at. Important point. Keep yourselves in the love of God. It's his love in us, not ours in response to his love to us. Again, this looks like a self-effort. Pat, good question. And it is. This is aorist imperative active. That means do it, and be about doing it right now. It's an active tense, it's our responsibility.

So again, how do we deal with that? Well, how do we deal with it? We deal with it by faith, right? By faith is the only way we respond. So Pat, if you will, this kind of ties what we dealt with 15 or 20 minutes ago, in terms of being passively the recipients of this and responding. I think we have to tie these two things together. But you beloved, building yourselves up on your most holy faith is in fact a response to God's love in us and that we are keeping ourselves in the love of God. It all relates to faith. It's in fact we're being told to do it but yet we're the recipients of this by our active faith. I mean it seems contradictory but in fact those two are very tied one to the other in terms of process. Faith. Believing what God has revealed. I love this.

Again, being the reductionist that I am, I think if ultimately the Schofield Bible did anything for us, it was that simple reductionist view of what faith is. And that's been true from the garden to this morning at 9.45, which is what time it is. When we don't respond by faith it's not our relationship but our fellowship that suffers. When we're not building ourselves up by faith in the truth of the word of God and we fall short of that, it's not anything about God's love for us, it's in fact the fellowship that's broken. So by faith is the way we keep ourselves in the love of God.

This is one of my favorite verses right here. Read it. Go ahead, Roger. I like the Wyss translation. I can sort of do it. For he has said, I will never, no, not never. I'm trying to remember the Wyss. There's a couple of double negatives in both those nevers. So it actually comes across much stronger. I will never, no, not never. The double negative becomes a positive, right? In Greek it does not. Anyway, for I will never leave thee nor forsake thee.

But it's times two. And we've come to know and have believed in the love which God has for us. God is love. and the one who abides in love abides in God and God abides in him. Faith, right? There's Margaret's resting again. Abide. Do you believe this? Or don't you believe this?

So in fact, going ahead and ultimately, if you will, keeping ourselves in the love of God is an act of faith. and here he's never going to leave us. So how do we secure ourselves in that love? It's by our own faith and believing that it's true. What's faith? Faith is believing what God's revealed. When we abide in him, how do we abide but by faith? It's kind of the roots, the branch and the vine and ultimately that constant relationship of God feeding us with his truth and maintaining our faith in him. And as a body, what does this type of love look like? Well, remember, again, these words are being addressed to the body. So what does this love look like in a body? Well, I think...

I just show all men know you're my disciples if you have loved one or another. A new commandment I write. And keep in mind this is a setup for what's going to follow next week. Because we've got these apostates that are surrounding us here and that's really the challenge that Jude brings to us. We've got these false teachers all around us. We're talking about building ourselves up in the love, securing our relationship as adopted sons to the Father now. How are you going to respond to these people that are around you? Doesn't that sound a lot like Paul when he says put on the whole armor of God and then at the end of that he says stand fast.

Yeah, right. And this is the stand fast part of it. Waiting anxiously. Now it's interesting here. Keep in mind that we're not to next week yet. We're here and it says waiting anxiously for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to eternal life. waiting anxiously, present, middle, or passive voice. Present, middle, or passive voice just means that it's kind of happening right now. But this waiting anxiously may be in fact a position that we're placed in to ultimately allow this process to occur. And I think this waiting anxiously is relating to our hope. And what's our hope? Well? It's a secure hope. Is it something about which we're uncertain? No. No, it's not. It's something future in which we feel and are secure, right? New King James doesn't use anxiously, it just says looking for the mercy. Somehow anxious Sounds like you are worried about the outcome. Yeah, in our vernacular that's what anxious means.

I'm using the New American Standard Bible because our elder has suggested I use this version. Are you going to accept that for however you are? I think the use of English words changes. And anxiously is something like you're eagerly expecting. I think that's the interpretation. Like children are anxiously waiting for Christmas to open their presents.

Actually, I'll give you an alternate reading to the New American Standard. The Wyss translation, which I always kind of go to sometimes, it says, keep yourself, within the sphere of God's love, expectantly looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ, resulting in eternal life. Yeah, we can be anxious about something with expectation, right?

The New King James is positive. Absolutely. I mean, Bonnie said it could be positive, and it is here. This is not a negative thing. Looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ until we die. It's like your kids. Are we there yet, Dad? Are we there yet? Are we there yet? Watch the video screen in the back of the seat, if you will. Of course, we didn't have that one.

Titus 2.13, looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of the great God and Savior Jesus Christ. That's what we're about, right? This is something we're expecting and looking for. In fact, this isn't in desperation to get out of the earthly position. It's ultimately a very positive thing in terms of what we're expecting to follow.

For the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to eternal life. Why the mercy here? for the mercy of others. What? I thought mercy was already dealt with. Is this dismissal of just punishment, which is mercy, right? What's mercy? Mercy is not getting what we're due, right? Or an undeserved privilege, which is grace, right? Grace is an undeserved privilege, but mercy is not getting just punishment.

Mercy spares us from being separated from God, Romans 6.23, and the wages of sin is death, right? But yet, this also seems like an act of grace too, doesn't it?

Romans 5.21. Let's look at that.

Somebody pull Romans 5.21.

We know Romans 6.23. Wages of sin is death. But the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ. So that's mercy. The wages of sin, we've been spared that. by God. That is mercy.

Romans 5.21. That as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord. Okay, so sin results in death, but God's grace is not only does the mercy spare us from death, but goodness, the privilege is eternal life. By the way, being spared from the penalty of sin is one thing, that's mercy. But having eternal life is grace.

Right, so why is this, for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to eternal life, why is mercy the center of this phrase in this verse? Could you be focusing on the attribute of our Lord? You know, he's full of mercy. I mean, there's verses that talk about the character of Christ, and he's full of mercy. I can't quite quote the verse, but it kind of crosses my mind. I don't have an answer for you. I mean, just raising the question. And keep in mind, it could be applied to the past, the present, or the future here.

I mean, God's mercy is past. We've been saved from the penalty of sin. Two, that's applying itself day in and day out to our lives. And it's future, which is really the hope we're dealing with here. If you deal with the context here, of all of Jude, which we've been talking about, dealing with the apostates, what does he say about the apostates? are worthy of judgment and they are going to get their judgment theirs is coming but for us our hope is in the mercy of Jesus not the punishment aspect but the mercy of Jesus of not punishing us so I think because of the context because of the comparison with the apostates the emphasis here is on the mercy even though it leads to the grace which produces eternal life. And it's future tense.

That's in context what we're doing. Well stated out. That was really nice. All right. Well, I thought we might finish early today because of Pat's question and others. So Pat, I'm not sure I've totally reconciled this for you. You said it was translated as not imperative. You answered it and said no, it says that you're being built up. That's the answer.

So my final point on the side is next week we'll conclude our study of Jude. By definition, we will conclude. And by the way, I'm anxiously awaiting for next week. And partly that's my nervous about next week, because next week Roger has been preparing me for months now. It was just last week he put me on the spot. I haven't felt anxious until now. I can't wait.

God gives us rest and our fellow travelers give us anxiety. James close us in prayer. Lord God, thank you so much for the privilege to open your word and to know your truth and to see that truth that we are to be sanctified by it as even Christ prayed for us and I ask that you would work in our hearts to teach us to yield ourselves to you and obey and the righteousness. Thank you so much for the blessed hope that we have looking forward to the full consummation of the mercy of God as we see the security that we have for eternity in heaven and I pray that you would strengthen us now as we go from here to look under greater teachings in Hebrews and then as we fellowship one with another that you would just strengthen us to honor you in all that we do. Amen.