The Epistle of Jude.
We will read the whole epistle. It is a very short one, only twenty-five verses. The reason why I like to read it is because probably you have never read it before.
Jude, a bondman of Jesus Christ, and brother of James, to the called ones, beloved in God the Father, and preserved in Jesus Christ:
mercy to you, and peace, and love, be multiplied.
Beloved, using all diligence to write to you of our common salvation, I have been obliged to write to you, exhorting you to contend earnestly for the faith once delivered to the saints.
For certain men have got in unnoticed, they who of old were marked out beforehand to this sentence: ungodly persons, turning the grace of our God into dissoluteness, and denying our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.
But I will put you in remembrance, you who once knew all things, that the Lord, having saved a people out of the land of Egypt, in the second place destroyed those who had not believed.
And angels who had not kept their own original state, but had abandoned their own dwelling, He hath kept in eternal chains under gloomy darkness unto the judgment of the great day.
As Sodom and Gomorrah, and the cities around them, having in like manner with them given themselves over to fornication and gone after other flesh, lie there as an example, undergoing the judgment of eternal fire.
Yet in like manner these dreamers also defile the flesh, and despise lordship, and speak railing against dignities.
But Michael the archangel, when disputing with the devil he reasoned about the body of Moses, did not dare to bring a railing judgment against him, but said, “The Lord rebuke thee.”
But these, whatever things they know not, they speak railing against; and what they understand by mere nature, as the irrational animals, in these things they corrupt themselves.
Woe to them! For they have gone in the way of Cain, and given themselves up to the error of Balaam for reward, and perished in the gainsaying of Korah.
These are spots, or rocks, in your love feasts, feasting together with you without fear, pasturing themselves; clouds without water, carried along by winds; autumnal trees without fruit, twice dead, rooted up;
raging waves of the sea, foaming out their own shame; wandering stars, to whom hath been reserved the gloom of darkness for eternity.
And Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied also as to these, saying, “Behold, the Lord hath come with His holy myriads,
to execute judgment against all, and to convict all the ungodly of them of all their works of ungodliness which they have wrought ungodly, and of all the hard things which ungodly sinners have spoken against Him.”
These are murmurers, complainers, walking after their lusts; and their mouth speaketh swelling words, admiring persons for the sake of profit.
But ye, beloved, remember the words spoken before by the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ, that they said to you, “At the end of the time there should be mockers, walking after their own lusts of ungodlinesses.”
These are they who set themselves apart, natural men, not having the Spirit.
But ye, beloved, building yourselves up on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit, keeping yourselves in the love of God, awaiting the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life.
And of some have compassion, making a difference; but others save with fear, snatching them out of the fire, hating even the garment spotted by the flesh.
But to Him that is able to keep you without stumbling, and to set you with exultation blameless before His glory—to the only God our Saviour, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, might, and authority, from before the whole age, and now, and to all the ages. Amen.
Shall we pray?
Dear Father, we thank Thee for the privilege of remembering Thy Son together this morning. Oh, how we praise and thank Thee that, in Thy beloved Son, we are now accepted by Thee; that we belong to Thee, to the family of God.
We do praise and thank Thee that Thou hast given us holy boldness to enter into the holiest of all, even Thy very presence, to behold the glory of the Lord in the face of Jesus Christ.
Our Father, we ask Thee at this moment that, by Thy Holy Spirit, Thou wilt enlighten Thy Word to our hearts, that Thy Word may not just be letters, but that it may be life and spirit to us, to the praise of Thy glory. We ask in the name of our Lord Jesus. Amen.
This little book of Jude is one that is very much neglected by God’s people. Probably some of the Lord’s people have never read it. Yet this little letter is most relevant to our days.
Why is it so? It is because this letter gives us some history—certain things that happened to the early church after the time of the Book of Acts. We know the Book of Acts gives us the beginning history of the church. But this little letter of Jude, written after the Book of Acts is finished, gives us some history of what happened in the church after the record of Acts was finished.
In a sense, it tells us what will happen at the end of the church period. Someone has said that the Book of Acts, which gives us the beginning of church history, is the acts of the apostles; but this little letter of Jude, which gives us the history of what will happen at the end of the church age, is the acts of the apostates.
Why? It is apostasy that introduces to the world the man of sin, the man of perdition.
Brothers and sisters, speaking prophetically, the last period of the church age is the Laodicean period. As we find in the Book of Revelation, the seven churches prophetically speak of the church in its various stages. The last church, Laodicea, represents the church in its last stage.
We are living at the end of the last days. Therefore, generally speaking, we are living in a Laodicean period. The characteristic of Laodicea may be described in one word: lukewarm. The church is neither hot nor cold.
And you know, leaven is going to leaven the whole loaf. It needs a lukewarm temperature. You remember how the Lord Jesus said that the mystery of the kingdom of the heavens is like a woman who puts leaven into three measures of meal. This leaven begins to work until the whole loaf is leavened.
As a matter of fact, even toward the end of the apostolic period, leaven was already being secretly put into the three measures of meal. It continues to work until it comes to the Laodicean period. With that kind of lukewarm temperature, it is just the right temperature for it to work, until the whole loaf—which represents the whole church—seems to be completely leavened.
This is the period in which we are living. Therefore, it is of utmost importance for us to know what is happening today in the church, to recognize it, and by the grace of God to avoid it—to keep away from it and to keep on course toward the Lord.
That is the reason why this little book of Jude is so relevant and so important to us.
This letter was written by Jude, a bondman of Jesus Christ and brother of James. Jude, or Judas, is the same word. It was a very common name at that time, and even in the New Testament you find five persons who had the name Jude or Judas.
Of the twelve apostles of our Lord Jesus, in Matthew 10 you find Judas Iscariot, the one who betrayed our Lord Jesus. Among the twelve apostles there was another Judas, Judas of James. You find that in Acts 1. In Matthew 10 he uses another name, Thaddaeus.
In some versions you may find in parentheses, “the brother of James.” But in the original it simply says, “Judas of James.” According to the usage of that time, when someone was said to be “of” another person, it generally meant that he was the son of that person. So, actually, that Judas was the son of James, not the brother of James. This is the Judas, not Iscariot, who asked the Lord Jesus a question in John 14.
Then, in Acts 9, when the Lord appeared to Ananias and told him to go and see Saul, Saul was staying in the house of Judas in Damascus. So you have a third Judas. Again, in Acts 15, when the church in Jerusalem sent a letter to the Gentile churches, they sent two brothers with the letter, and one was Judas, also called Barsabbas. So you have a fourth Judas.
Then you have the fifth one: the brother according to the flesh of our Lord Jesus. In Matthew 13 and Mark 6, we find that our Lord had a number of brothers, and one of them was Judas, or Jude.
Which of the five Judases was the writer of this little letter? It seems that all agree this Jude was the brother of our Lord Jesus according to the flesh. There are many reasons for this, but we will not go into them.
Now, this brother of our Lord Jesus according to the flesh called himself a bondman of Jesus Christ instead of saying, “Brother of Jesus Christ.” If we were the brother of Jesus Christ according to the flesh, probably that would be what we would put in. But instead of doing that, he says that he is a bondman of Jesus Christ.
Perhaps, on the one hand, it was because when our Lord Jesus was living on earth, His brothers according to the flesh did not believe in Him. It was after the resurrection of our Lord Jesus that His brothers according to the flesh came to know Him as their Lord. Maybe because of that, Jude did not want to use the natural relationship because he felt unworthy.
But I think there is a better reason behind it. Our relationship with the Lord Jesus is never according to the flesh; it is always according to the Spirit. Even though he might have been a brother to our Lord according to the flesh, that would not be the relationship anymore. The relationship is a relationship in the Spirit.
That spiritual relationship is that he is a bondslave to the Lord Jesus. The Lord Jesus is his Lord and Master, and he is but a loved slave to Him. Dear brothers and sisters, I think this is most appropriate. This is what our relationship with our Lord is today.
Yet Jude wanted to identify himself, so he said, “Brother of James.” Everybody knew James at that time because James was the leading brother in the church in Jerusalem. By calling himself brother of James, everybody knew which Jude, or Judas, he was.
Now, this is the writer of the letter. And he wrote to certain people. The letter does not tell us specifically to whom he wrote, but most likely he wrote to the same people who received the letter of James and the letters of Peter.
Instead of specifying to what place or what kind of people he wrote, he simply says that he wrote to the called ones—to those who are called, beloved in God the Father, and preserved in Christ Jesus. So he specifies, in a sense, the qualifications of those who received the letter: the called, the beloved, and the kept.
Now, that includes all of us. Are we not the called ones? Thank God, we are. Out of every tribe, every tongue, every nation, and every people, God has called us unto His beloved Son.
God has chosen us even before the foundation of the world in Christ Jesus. He has called us by His mercy and glory. He has called us by His grace. We are not volunteers. If you are volunteering, you can volunteer out. But we are called, and once you are called, you are caught.
Thank God, we are the called ones. And we are not only the called ones, but we are the beloved in God the Father. We are dear to our heavenly Father. He loves us dearly. We are dear to Him.
We are preserved in Christ Jesus. We are being kept by Him and in Him. This is preservation; this is the perseverance of the saints. Sometimes you hear the term “the perseverance of the saints.” Actually, the perseverance of the saints is the perseverance of Christ, because He is the One who has preserved us. He has kept us.
Thank God, we are not only called; we are loved, and we are kept. It is to these people that the letter is addressed. So, brothers and sisters, this letter is addressed to us.
When Jude started to write this letter, he really had something in his mind. He wanted to write about the common salvation—the salvation that we all share in Christ Jesus. This was a subject very dear to his heart.
But when he thought to write, he was moved by the Spirit of God to write something else: to write an exhortation. Instead of describing our common salvation, he was turned by the Holy Spirit to give us an exhortation. Why? He was stirred in his spirit by what he saw in the church, or coming to the church.
An exhortation means two things. On the one hand, it is a warning; on the other hand, it is an encouragement. Exhortation always includes these two elements: it warns, and it encourages. It warns us against something that is not of God, and it encourages us into something that is of God.
So he said, “I have been obliged. I feel urged to write to you, exhorting you to contend earnestly for the faith once delivered to the saints.”
What is the faith once delivered to the saints? The faith once delivered to the saints includes all the revelation, all the truth, that God has given to the church through the apostles and the prophets. It is our heritage. It is our faith. It is that on which we build.
It is called “once delivered” because all the truth of God that composes our faith has been delivered to us in the Word of God. All revealed truth has once been delivered to us, and it is now in the New Testament, or in the whole Bible. There is no more new truth or new revelation as such, because all the truth that composes the faith has been once delivered to the church.
Thank God, we have the faith that was once delivered to the church. Jude says that we are to contend earnestly for the faith once delivered to the saints.
Now, this verse has been very wrongly used. Some people become very enthusiastic and very zealous, and they argue with people and fight with people over what they call the faith. For instance, some people fight with others over what they call the truth of the rapture. They say, “This is what the rapture is,” and if you do not believe in the same way, they throw you out.
They say it is because we have to contend earnestly for the faith. Throughout two thousand years of Christianity, God’s people have fought against each other over certain aspects of the faith. They say, “You cannot compromise, because if you do, then you give up your faith; therefore, you have to fight to the death.” This has happened in Christianity for two thousand years.
Actually, this verse is wrongly used. To contend earnestly does not mean that we have to fight to the death for whatever interpretation we hold concerning the truth. The word “contend” means to agonize; it means to strive.
It simply means that we need to agonize with reference to the faith once delivered to the saints. We need to strive for the faith once delivered to the saints. What does it mean? Just as Paul said, “I have fought the good fight, I have run the race, I have finished the course.”
There is the faith once delivered to the saints, and this is a faith we must strive after. This is a faith that we must win. This is the faith over which we must agonize, so that we may have the faith once delivered to the saints and may not lose anything that God has given to us in grace in Christ Jesus.
It is not to use what you call faith to fight with one another. Instead, seeing the faith, you strive after it. You diligently seek after it lest you miss out. This is what is meant here.
We live in a time of apostasy. That is the reason why we have to contend earnestly for the faith once delivered to the saints. Otherwise, we will fall away just as other people do.
Do not give up anything once delivered to the saints. Live it, work for it, strive after it, agonize over it until you win it—until you gain it, until that faith becomes your heritage, your property, your possession.
This letter of Jude is a letter on apostasy. The word apostasy is not used in this letter, but the substance is there. What is apostasy?
Apostasy in English has no inherent meaning because it was not originally an English word. It is a transliteration of the Greek word apostasia. Instead of translating it, the translators simply transliterated it—in other words, they turned a Greek word into an English word.
Apostasia comes from a combination of two Greek words: apo, which means “from,” and stasis, which means “to stand.” When you put the two words together, it means to stand away from—to stand away from that upon which you originally stood.
That is why it means departure, departing, falling away: to stand away from where you originally stood, to fall away from what you originally possessed. That is what apostasy means.
In 2 Thessalonians 2:3, we are told that there will be a falling away—an apostasy—before the man of sin, the son of perdition, appears upon this earth. We know that the man of sin, the son of perdition, is the Antichrist.
Before the Antichrist appears, there will first be a general departure, a general falling away in the church. Because the church begins to fall away from where it originally stood, and because God’s people begin to lose what they originally had, that prepares the way for the Antichrist to appear.
Brothers and sisters, we are living in a day of apostasy. Strictly speaking, apostasy and apostates do not refer to unbelievers. Why? Because an unbeliever has never had a stand in the first place.
If there is some ground upon which you have never stood, you cannot fall away from it. You cannot depart from something you have never possessed. In the first place, you must possess something; then you begin to fall away from it.
If you read Hebrews 6, for instance, you find the writer of Hebrews describing certain situations. He says that if you have laid a foundation, that foundation includes repentance from dead works, faith in God, the doctrine of washings, laying on of hands, resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment.
In other words, these are believers because they have already had the foundation laid. They have repented from dead works and have faith in God. They know the teaching of washings, or baptism; they know the meaning of laying on of hands, which is identification; they know the resurrection of the dead; and they believe in eternal judgment.
The writer describes them as once enlightened, having tasted of the heavenly gift, having become partakers of the Holy Spirit, having tasted the good Word of God, and the powers of the age to come. These are not unbelievers. They have tasted the heavenly gift—eternal life—and are partakers of the Holy Spirit. They know God’s Word and the good taste of it. Yet they fall away. They apostatize.
Then, if you go to Hebrews 10, you find it described again, especially in Hebrews 10:26: “For if we sin wilfully after receiving the knowledge of the truth.” The word “knowledge” there is epignosis, the full knowledge of the truth.
After we have received the full knowledge of the truth—not just a little knowledge, but full knowledge—we come to know even the purpose of God in Christ Jesus, and yet we sin wilfully. It is like having trodden underfoot the Son of God, having esteemed the blood of His covenant, by which we were sanctified, as common, and having insulted the Spirit of grace.
These people have known the Son of God, but they fall away. They tread the Son of God under their feet. They had been sanctified by the blood of the covenant, but then they consider the blood as common, as nothing. They have the Holy Spirit, but they insult the Holy Spirit.
So, dear brothers and sisters, apostasy is not something in the world; apostasy is something in the church. People who have believed in the Lord Jesus, who have known the Lord, and who have received from the Lord, may yet fall away. They leave their early faith. It is serious—very serious.
Of course, we know there are different degrees of apostasy. If you read Hebrews, you find that those who apostatize in Hebrews 6 are not as serious as those who apostatize in Hebrews 10. There are different degrees of falling away. But the point is this: the things once delivered to us, we are to hold on to, strive after, and agonize over, lest we fall away.
Look at the church today. We find that Christianity has fallen so far away from the faith once delivered to the church. We live in a time of apostasy.
Now, who are the apostates? In Jude 4 it says:
For certain men have got in unnoticed, they who of old were marked out beforehand to this sentence: ungodly persons, turning the grace of our God into dissoluteness, and denying our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.
There is a similarity between the Book of Jude and 2 Peter. When we spoke about 2 Peter, we mentioned that we would leave some things until we came to Jude. Especially in 2 Peter 2 and Jude, there is much similarity. So the question is: who copied whom?
There are different opinions, but personally I think Jude used Peter’s writings. Why? In 2 Peter 2, Peter says, “There shall be among you false teachers who bring in destructive heresies, denying the Master who bought them.” But Jude says, “Certain men have got in unnoticed.” Peter says these teachers will come in; Jude says they have already come in.
But in any case, who are those who have apostatized? They are those who turn the grace of our God into dissoluteness.
These people know the grace of God—the grace of God in Christ Jesus. What is the grace of God? To put it very simply, the grace of God is His Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. God’s grace is His Son. “God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son.” The Lord Jesus is the grace of God.
It is through our Lord Jesus that we receive grace: a free gift, undeserved eternal life. These people know the grace of God; the grace of God has been upon them. Yet they turn the grace of God into dissoluteness.
Dear brothers and sisters, we have all received the grace of God. We need to stand upon the grace of God. We should not waste the grace of God. We should not turn the grace of God into dissoluteness.
People say, “Because God is so gracious, because God has so much grace, it does not matter if we sin. It does not matter if we live a loose life. God is gracious; He will forgive us. You can live your life according to self-will because the grace of God is so great.”
In doing that, you are turning the grace of God into ungodliness. The grace of God is given to us that we may be holy. That is what the grace of God is for. The grace of God is to make us holy.
Without the grace of God, how can we be holy? How can we be separated? How can we completely belong to God? How can we be godly, like God, with the character of God within us? It is impossible. But the grace of God in Christ Jesus has been shown to us that we may be holy, that we may be a separated people, that we may be sanctified, serve God, and glorify God.
That is what the grace of God is for. But sometimes people turn the grace of God into dissoluteness, into licentiousness, into loose living, into self-will. That is apostasy. That makes you an apostate.
The apostates also deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ. You cannot deny what you have never confessed before.
Here, they have not denied Jesus as their Saviour yet. Some apostates go even to the extent of denying the Lord Jesus as their Saviour. This is the spirit of Antichrist that John wrote about in his first letter. But these people in Jude have not denied the Lord Jesus as their Saviour yet. They have not denied the name of the Lord Jesus. But what do they deny? They deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.
The word “Master” here is a special word. In Greek it is despotes. “Despot” is a bad word in English today. We think of an absolute monarch who does everything according to his own wish, who can kill people and do anything he likes. But in Greek it is not a bad connotation here; it has a good connotation.
Our Lord Jesus is the One who bought us with such a price, with His own blood. He is to us our absolute Master. The Word says that we do not belong to ourselves; we belong to Him absolutely. He can do anything He likes with us. He is our benevolent Master. He is our Lord and Master.
We are His, and we should obey Him. We should surrender and yield to Him completely and absolutely. But instead of doing that, these people deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ. They may not have denied His name, yet they deny Him as the absolute Master.
They want to live their own lives. They want to do their own things. They do not care about the Lord’s interests. They will not subject themselves under the authority of Christ. This is apostasy.
Oh, brothers and sisters, should we not be warned about this? Lest, in carelessness, we too may turn the grace of God into dissoluteness; lest, in carelessness, we too may deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ. It is serious. That would be falling away from the faith once delivered to the saints.
How we need to stand on the grace of God and let the grace of God so work in our lives that our lives may be sanctified, holy for God. How we need to confess our Lord Jesus as our absolute Lord and Master, surrendering our lives completely to Him, lest we begin to do our own will and go our own way.
In Jude 8 we read:
Yet in like manner these dreamers also defile the flesh, and despise lordship, and speak railing against dignities.
These apostates are dreamers. There are two kinds of dreamers. One kind of dreamer is good. We need dreams whose source is from above—vision. God gives us vision; He reveals to us His mind and His heart in our spirit.
But there is another kind of dreamer that is bad. His dreams do not come from above. They come from his own life, from his own desire, from fleshly desire. When you think much about certain things, you begin to dream about them. It is not something given to you; it is something created from you.
These dreamers are not people who receive heavenly vision; they are people who dream their own dreams. They defile the flesh. As they dream, so they are. What are you dreaming? You become what you dream about. If you dream of the Lord, you will be like Him. If you dream of the world, you will be like the world.
They defile their flesh. In other words, they walk according to the flesh, not according to the Spirit. They despise lordship and speak railing against dignities. They do not obey authorities. To them, they despise all authorities.
All authority comes from God, and he who despises all authority despises God. They want to be their own master and their own authority. These are the apostates. They speak railing against things they do not even know, and what they do know, they corrupt themselves in.
In Jude 16 it says:
These are murmurers, complainers, walking after their lusts; and their mouth speaketh swelling words, admiring persons for the sake of profit.
They are murmurers. They murmur and they complain. They speak swelling words, big words, in order to gain. These are the apostates. In the church today there are many apostates, many false teachers, and false prophets. The spirit of Antichrist is already here in the church. We live in days of apostasy.
How do you recognize them? By their ways, by their actions, you know them. Jude says that they have gone in the way of Cain. What is the way of Cain? That goes back to Genesis 4.
In Genesis 4, Cain offered the produce of his land to God as his sacrifice. In other words, he thought that he was good enough for God. He did not recognize himself as a sinner who needed to be redeemed by the shedding of blood.
He thought that he was good enough, and he tried to offer his good works to God, thinking that God would accept them. But he was rejected, and the result was that he became angry and killed his brother Abel. That is the way of Cain.
We can recognize apostates by the way they go. They do not go in the way of the Lamb of God. They despise the blood of the Lord Jesus. They are so self-confident that they think they have enough goodness and merit to please God, and that they can be accepted on their own merit. This is the way of Cain.
Secondly, they have given themselves up to the error of Balaam for reward. This goes back to Numbers 22 to 24. You remember the Gentile prophet, Balaam. Balak, the king of the Moabites, employed him to curse the children of Israel. But God would not allow him to curse them. God changed his curse into blessing.
Because of that, Balaam counselled how to entice the children of Israel into sin so that they might be cursed. He sold his prophetic power for money, for gain. Dear brothers and sisters, we can recognize these apostates because they always enter into the error of Balaam.
God may have given them prophetic gifts, but they try to use them for their own gain instead of faithfully uttering the oracles of God.
Thirdly, they perish in the gainsaying of Korah. That is Numbers 16. Korah was of the tribe of Levi. He and his conspirators, leaders among the congregation of Israel, conspired against Moses and Aaron because they wanted position and power. They began to speak evilly of Moses and Aaron. That is the gainsaying of Korah, and they perished.
Brothers and sisters, these are apostates. They are always trying to get some place or position. They are ambitious for something God has not given them. They are not satisfied with what God has given them; they want something more, and finally they perish in it.
Jude uses several images to describe them. They are like spots—or rocks—in the love feasts. The word translated “spots” in the original can be translated “rocks.”
In the early church, they used to come together for what they called love feasts, agape feasts. They came together to eat as an expression of love. But these people were in the church, so they came too. They were like sunken rocks with a little water over them. When a ship goes over them, it is sunk.
They are like rocks there, pasturing themselves. Everything is for their own interest. They are like clouds without water. You see the cloud and you may think there must be rain, but there is no water there. It is just a pretense—hypocrisy.
They are like autumnal trees without fruit. There is no fruit there, only an appearance. They are like raging waves of the sea, foaming out their own shame. They are like wandering stars, and they end in destruction.
You find these are apostates, and their punishment will come quickly. We do not have time to go into it, but you read it and you find that the Lord will come and judge. Let us be warned of apostasy, lest we too may fall away from the faith once delivered to us.
But thank God, this letter does not end here. If it ended here, it would be negative. Even though Jude felt constrained to exhort us to contend earnestly for the faith once delivered to the saints, and did not have time to write about the common salvation, yet deep down in his heart was still the common salvation.
From Jude 20, he turns back to the positive side. Now, brothers and sisters, who are called, beloved in God the Father, and preserved in Christ Jesus, what should you do when you live in such a time of apostasy?
People apostatize all around you. Does that mean that because they fall away, you too must fall away? No. Because you find apostasy around you, you need to strive even more than ever before for the faith delivered unto you.
But ye, beloved, building yourselves up on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit, keeping yourselves in the love of God, awaiting the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life.
Brothers and sisters, when people are losing faith, when people are falling away from the faith, this is the time when you should build up on the most holy faith.
If you are not going forward, you are going backward. You are not able merely to stand. That is the reason why Hebrews 6 says that we have to press on unto perfection; we have to press on unto maturity. Other people are falling away or falling back. The only way for you to keep on is to press on, is to build up. If you do not build up, you will be torn down.
We cannot afford to stand still. Brothers and sisters, let there not be an unholy contentment. There must be a holy discontentment in us. Do not be so contented with your own spiritual condition, or with the brothers and sisters, or with the meetings and the assembly where you are.
Do not become so contented that you think you have arrived, that you have everything now, that there is nothing more for which you need to contend or strive. If you have that kind of attitude, beware lest you fall.
The only way to keep us from falling away is to build up. Oh, we need continually to build up on the most holy faith. There can be no letup; there can be no letdown. We must continue to press on, strive after, agonize over, win it, and build up on the most holy faith.
Remember the words of Peter in 2 Peter 1. How beautiful they are:
For this very reason also, using therewith all diligence, in your faith supply virtue; and in virtue knowledge;
and in knowledge self-control; and in self-control patience; and in patience godliness;
and in godliness brotherly kindness; and in brotherly kindness love.
For if these things are yours and abound, they make you to be neither idle nor unfruitful as regards the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Wherefore, brethren, give the more diligence to make your calling and election sure: for if ye do these things, ye shall never stumble.
For thus shall be richly supplied unto you the entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.
Brothers and sisters, we have to build up on the most holy faith—from faith to virtue, from virtue to knowledge, from knowledge to self-control, from self-control to patience, from patience to godliness, from godliness to brotherly kindness, and from brotherly kindness to love. We have to build continually on our most holy faith.
And number two: pray in the Holy Spirit. Praying in the Holy Spirit does not mean praying in tongues. Some people think praying in the Holy Spirit is praying in tongues. But if you read 1 Corinthians 14, that is called praying with the tongue.
Praying in the Holy Spirit, whether it is in tongues or in plain words, simply means that when we pray, we do not pray according to our own mind and words. We pray relying on the Holy Spirit to help us, to teach us how to pray, so that we may be praying according to God.
Why do we need to pray in the Holy Spirit? Because if you want to build on the most holy faith, you discover how helpless you are. If you do not try, you think you are able. But if you try, you find how difficult it is. You can never make it on your own.
You begin to realize your own weakness and feebleness, and thank God, the Holy Spirit is here to help us in our infirmities. Prayer shows that you depend on Him. That is why you pray. You pray in the Holy Spirit as the Holy Spirit reveals to you your own weakness and feebleness, according to the mind of God.
Keep yourselves in the love of God. This is the way to be kept in the love of God. How are you to be kept in the love of God? In John 15, He says that if you keep His commandments, then you will abide in His love.
Here we find that we are trying to build up and we are praying. By the grace of God, we find that we are able to obey. As we obey the commandments of God and keep the commandments of God, we are kept in His love.
All the time we are awaiting the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life. We are waiting for the return of our Lord Jesus. When He returns, He will show mercy to us. It is all mercy. We do not deserve it. Do not think that you have accomplished something. It is all by His grace. It is mercy, and it is still mercy that we are waiting for at His coming.
Brothers and sisters, this is the way in which we strive after the faith once delivered to the saints.
Best of all is the last:
But to Him that is able to keep you without stumbling, and to set you with exultation blameless before His glory—to the only God our Saviour, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, might, and authority, from before the whole age, and now, and to all the ages. Amen.
After everything is done, you have to see that it is God who has kept us. Dear brothers and sisters, we cannot keep ourselves. But thank God, we know that He is able to keep us.
He is able to keep us from going astray. He is able to keep us from stumbling. Not only that, but He is able to present us with rejoicing, without blemish, before His glory.
Dear brothers and sisters, this is our blessed hope. This is our confidence. Our confidence is not in ourselves. Do not think that we are better than anybody else. Brothers and sisters, we would fall just like anybody else.
It is all because of Him who is able to keep us from falling and to present us blameless before the presence of His glory. To Him be glory, majesty, dominion, and power for ever and ever. Amen.
Shall we pray?
Dear heavenly Father, Thou hast warned us that we live in the days of apostasy. Oh, we do acknowledge that, if left to ourselves, we will fall just as other people do.
But we do praise and thank Thee that we know Thou art our God and art able to keep us from falling, and not only from falling, but even to present us blameless before Thy glory.
Oh, our Father, we desire to commit ourselves to Thee. We want to tell Thee, as Paul says, “I know whom I have believed, and I am fully persuaded that Thou art able to keep that which I have committed unto Thee against that day.”
So, our Father, today we commit ourselves to Thee—spirit, soul, and body—to Thy keeping, Lord. We believe that Thou art able to keep us until that day.
Oh, our Father, we praise and thank Thee because Thou art our confidence. Thou art our perseverance. Father, we pray that if there have been those who have begun to fall away, Thou wilt restore them, because Thou art the God of all compassion and love. We ask in the name of our Lord Jesus. Amen.