Building that most holy Faith
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Text: Jude 20-23
But ye Beloved…
In the face of adversity we are told to contend for the faith.
We understand Why
We understand against whom.
But the how can allude us.
Does it allude us. Sure it does.
Exposition: The elusiveness of following Jesus.
It seems to allude us we make it very difficult to follow Christ. In our daily lives we hear things like read the word, and pray and these seem like monumental tasks.
We hear live pure and clean but when faced with temptation this seems the impossible dream.
When we hear serve others we have to act or put it on the back burners and blame our circumstances.
When we hear live for Jesus this seems like a lot. Let me remind you this is not meant to be a lot. It is meant to be our all.
Illustrate: Someone once told the story of how you live serving Christ. It is the difference of carrying a five gallon bucket on your head or being under the water with fifty gallons of water above you. The difference is environment. So it is with serving Christ.
Well this is where we get to the positive action of this text.
Contend for the faith = Build up your most holy faith
Contend for the faith = Build up your most holy faith
The believer is in desperate need of edification. This is the sad estate of the American church. We are aware of more information than at any other time in history but we are more depleted in our soul that any other time as well.
We need to be continually built up: learning more, loving more, and living more the grand truths of the gospel. Spurgeon, C. (2014). Spurgeon Commentary: Jude.
The essential of the Bible is that the Bible becomes a part of who we are. This is not accomplished by dating the book but by marrying the book.
We Build our Holy Faith in His Word
In Fellowship with the Church Body.
In Worship with the Body.
These three things share the commonality of that is what the false teachers in Judes day were attacking. They set out to divide, disinform, and silence the Christian. We must take time to feed the soul and to nourish our faith.
If we know more about the schedule of our favorite show that the the Bible reading schedule you are most likely not feeding the soul. You are likely malnourished as a believer.
I. Pray in the Holy Ghost
I. Pray in the Holy Ghost
Prayer is the first act of the Believer that has faith. If we are to have a nourished faith we will be prayer warriors.
You can do more than pray, but until you pray you can do no more. - Unknown.
You can do more than pray, but until you pray you can do no more. - Unknown.
Understand prayer is an act of faith. When you believe you can handle every problem you face then you turn to your bag of tricks but when you know you are at your end but that God can help and will help you call out in prayer. How do you know that someone has faith in God. God is who they pray to. How do you know when someone has faith in money - Money is what they turn to.
The one that does not have prayer does not have faith. This is the act of one that has faith.
Someone can ask why should I pray.
We pray because God Commands it.
We pray because Jesus modeled it.
1. His ministry commenced in Prayer (Luke 3:21)
2. His ministry continued in Prayer (Mark 1:35-38)
3. His ministry counted on Prayer (Luke 5:5-16)
4. His disciples were chosen by Prayer (Luke &12-13)
5. His miracles were consummated by Prayer (Matt.14:14-23)
6. His ministry was concluded by prayer (Matt26:39)
7. His ministry is continuing in prayer (Heb 7:25;7:7)
We pray because our Faith demands it.
General call to prayer. We are not just to pray as individual but we as a church are a house of prayer. This is meant to be an action for the people of God. We should open ourselves to prayer on a regular basis. Not just in formal ways. But in the informal.
What does this action of “Prayer in the Spirit”mean.
But while prayers are of various orders, there is one respect in which they are all one if they are acceptable with God: they must be every one of them “in the Holy Spirit.” The prayer that is not in the Holy Spirit is in the flesh; “what is born of the flesh is flesh” (John 3:6), and we are told that “those who are in the flesh are not able to please God” (Rom 8:8). All that comes of our corrupt nature is defiled and marred, and cannot be acceptable with the most holy God. Spurgeon, C. (2014). Spurgeon Commentary: Jude.
The how of praying may not be so much in focus here as the need for life in the Spirit which the false teachers did not have (v. 19). They did not have the Spirit because they did not pray for the Spirit and did not let the Spirit guide them in their prayers. Those who build themselves up in faith do so not by mystic journeys to the heavens or by self-glorying speech but by spending time with the Holy Spirit. Walls, D., & Anders, M. (1999). I & II Peter, I, II & III John, Jude (Vol. 11, p. 266). Nashville, TN: Broadman & Holman Publishers.
Illustrate: A park ranger at Yellowstone National Park was leading a group of hikers to a fire lookout. The ranger was so intent on telling the hikers about the flowers and animals that he considered the messages on his two-way radio distracting, so he switched it off. As the group neared the tower, the ranger was met by a nearly breathless lookout, who asked why he hadn’t responded to the messages on his radio. A grizzly bear had been seen stalking the group, and the authorities were trying to warn them of the danger.
Any time we tune out the Holy Spirit or ignore the warnings of the Bible we put ourselves and those around us in danger.
Source: 750 Engaging Illustrations for Preachers, Teachers, and Writers, Craig Brian Larson
II. Keep yourselves in the love of God
II. Keep yourselves in the love of God
Keeping oneself in God’s love does not suggest that our salvation depends on our own effort, but rather that we live in faith and obedience to God. Repeatedly in his Gospel and in his first epistle, John reminds us that if we love God, we keep his commandments (John 15:10; 1 John 3:24). So keeping ourselves in God’s love must include keeping God’s commandments from the heart (Rom. 6:17). Keeping those commandments finds its ultimate expression in love of the brothers
Walls, D., & Anders, M. (1999). I & II Peter, I, II & III John, Jude (Vol. 11, pp. 266–267). Nashville, TN: Broadman & Holman Publishers.
Let me remind you that love is a regular theme in this book. Multiple times the believers are called “the beloved” They are reminded here that they are loved by God. But this is not to say that they can walk away from God’s love but rather that they would fail to demonstrate his love.
Last week we looked at a practice known as feasts of Charity. Where the congregation came with a generous spirit to demonstrate love to those that had suffered for the cause of Christ. it was these feasts that were disrupted by the false teacher who came with a “Feed Me" attitude. Understand then… Keeping yourself in the love of God is not making God still loves you but that you are still demonstrating God’s love to each other.
What good is a church that doesn’t love God. NO GOOD. None Zip Zilch. We must love God. We can go further… What good is a church that has no love for each other. Or no love for the lost. Or no love for their community. Let me say it again. No Good None Zip Zilch.
Illustrate: When 67-year-old carpenter Russell Herman died in 1994, his will included a staggering set of bequests. Included in his plan for distribution was more than
two billion dollars for the City of East St. Louis,
another billion and a half for the State of Illinois,
two and a half billion for the national forest system,
six trillion dollars to the government to help pay off the national debt.
That sounds amazingly generous, but there was a small problem—Herman’s only asset when he died was a 1983 Oldsmobile. He made grand pronouncements, but there was no real generosity involved. His promises were meaningless because there was nothing to back them up.”
Source: The Chicago Tribune, June 13, 1995.
Calvary was the highest demonstration of Love ever expressed. You and I are meant to Sacrifice ourselves for the purpose of demsonqrating God’s love to the World.
III. Looking for the Mercy of Jesus Christ
III. Looking for the Mercy of Jesus Christ
Refers primarily to the hope of Christ’s return. Jesus might come at any moment. Titus 2:13 captures the idea: the “blessed hope—the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ.” Waiting in hope infuses all of life with expectancy and the desire to do all that Jesus expects of us so we will have no shame when he returns. This expectant waiting is a means of building ourselves up.
Even if Jesus doesn’t come in our lifetime, when we die and go into the presence of the Lord, we will receive his mercy and eternal life. That promise should be enough to motivate us to resist false teachers and to obey Christ by building ourselves up through prayer, love, and hope.
Illustrate: Biblical prophecy provides some of the greatest encouragement and hope available to us today. Just as the Old Testament is saturated with prophecies concerning Christ's first advent, so both testaments are filled with references to the second coming of Christ.
One scholar has estimated that there are
1,845 references to Christ's second coming in the OT,
17 books give it prominence.
In 260 chapters of the New Testament, there are 318 references to the second advent of Christ
an amazing 1 out of every 30 verses.
23 of the 27 New Testament books refer to this great event.
For every prophecy in the Bible concerning Christ's first advent, there are 8 which look forward to His second!
Today in the Word, April, 1989, p. 27
Consider what would happen if a church took literally this call to build up our faith. Through prayer, Through Charity, Through Hope in His Second Coming. That kind of Congregation would look like the church illustrated in verse
Illustrated - vs 22-23
People full of compassion, pulling the lost from the fire while keeping their garments spotless.
It would be a people that wanted to have a Godly lifestyle, clean, pure, and God honoring. But would have a love and mercy for the lost. This is a church with a Nourished faith. This is what a congregation that builds their faith would be.
You say then Preacher How does Christ expect this to be accomplished. How am I supposed to be the one to Build up my Holy Faith.
“You hear that impossibility?” - You don’t.
Now unto him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy,
to the only wise God our Saviour, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and ever. Amen.