Preserved in Christ: Confidence in Our Spiritual Battles
The central theme of this evening's service at Middletown Baptist Church, led by Pastor Josh Massaro, revolves around the imperative to contend for the faith, as elucidated in the book of Jude. In this enlightening discourse, Pastor Massaro emphasizes the necessity for believers to both fortify their personal spiritual lives and extend compassion towards those ensnared by false teachings. He articulates that while it is crucial to confront erroneous doctrines, it is equally vital to assess one's own spiritual standing before engaging with others. The pastor further expounds upon the dual approach required in the ministry of reconciliation, advocating for discernment in how we address individuals based on their unique circumstances. Ultimately, the message underscores the importance of relying on divine guidance as we navigate the complexities of faith and fellowship.
The podcast episode delves into the pivotal themes presented in the Book of Jude, specifically focusing on the exhortation to contend for the faith. Pastor Josh Massaro articulates the necessity of vigilance against false teachings that infiltrate the church, highlighting the characteristics of these deceptive doctrines as self-serving and contrary to the teachings of Jesus Christ. He emphasizes the importance of grounding oneself in the truth of Scripture, urging listeners to engage in self-examination before addressing the spiritual needs of others. This inward reflection is not merely for personal edification but serves as a foundation for effectively guiding fellow believers who may be misled.
Takeaways:
- To effectively contend for the faith, one must first engage in self-reflection and spiritual introspection.
- Jude emphasizes the importance of understanding the nature of false teachings and how they can mislead believers.
- Prayer is a vital component in the process of building oneself up in faith and contending for truth.
- Compassion and discernment are essential when addressing those who are misled or straying from the faith.
- The church is called to confront false teachings with love, while maintaining respect and humility towards individuals.
- Ultimately, we must rely on God's wisdom and strength to navigate the challenges of faith and spiritual warfare.
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This podcast is produced by Ralph Estep, Jr., host of the Ask Ralph Podcast, a daily podcast on Christian Finance you can find it at https://www.askralphpodcast.com/
00:00 - None
00:17 - Introduction to Biblical Teachings
05:29 - Contending for the Faith: Looking Outward
10:12 - Contending for the Faith: The Balance of Compassion and Rebuke
19:32 - Contending for the Faith: A Call to Action
29:59 - The Assurance of Preservation in Christ
38:34 - Introduction to Philemon: A New Study Begins
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Hello and welcome to the Middletown Baptist Church Podcast, where we are proclaiming the truth to the world.
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My name is Pastor Josh, and I want to thank you for listening to this podcast.
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I hope that this podcast can be a blessing to you and strengthen you in the word of God.
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Now, come along.
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Let's look into the Bible and see what God has for us here today.
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All right, let's go ahead and get out our Bibles, and we're going to look at Jude, and we're going to actually conclude our study tonight, Lord willing.
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And it has been a brief study, even though it's only 25 verses.
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And we've spent, I know, a handful of weeks looking at this book.
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I think there's a lot that we can learn and take away with us as we move on in our Christian lives.
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Obviously, we know the thesis, the summary, the main topic was listed to us in verse three, if you remember.
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Jude's message is for these folks to contend for the faith, to fight for the truth, to protect the word of God.
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And we know that there were individuals that were coming in to try to mislead the church with false teachings.
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And we characterize those false teachings by what we've seen here.
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They were selfish.
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They were defiling the flesh.
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They rejected authority.
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They spoke evil of authority.
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They were working in their own sensual desires.
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And so obviously, they were leading people astray.
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And they were actually talking about this idea of grace being used for an occasion of the flesh, which the Bible teaches against, right?
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We do have grace that's given to us from God.
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We do have forgiveness.
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We do have liberty, but we don't use that for the occasion of the flesh.
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We use that to serve the Lord and to share his love with other people.
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So they were leading people astray in that regard.
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And it says in verse four that they were denying the only Lord God, our Lord Jesus Christ.
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And so there was an out now denial of Jesus and who he was.
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And truthfully, the Savior of the world, they were denying him as Lord.
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So we looked at last week how we contend for the faith.
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And I think this is so important because we know now the reason to contend for the faith.
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We know the urgency to contend for the faith.
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But a lot of times we as Christians, when we do contend for the faith, we do it in an improper way.
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We do it in a way that isn't according to Scripture.
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So we looked at last week, the first step of how we are to contend for the faith, and that was to look inward, to look at our own lives, to See where we are.
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If you go back to look at verse number 20, it says, but ye beloved, building up yourselves on what?
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On your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost.
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And so the Bible says here that we should be built up in our faith, that we should be strengthened in our faith, that we should be strengthened in the power of God.
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And even if you go back to the very beginning, verse three, we know that it was the common salvation that we were talking about here.
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He's writing to them about the common salvation that they have.
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And we know that that's through Jesus Christ.
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And so it's always through the power of God.
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Verse 4 talks about the idea that they were denying Jesus Christ.
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And so what Jude is doing is he's saying, hey, point your life back to Christ.
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Re center yourself with the truth.
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Recenter yourself with your faith.
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And then it says, they're praying in the Holy Ghost.
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And we talked about the importance of that.
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We understand that we pray to the Father in the power of the Spirit in the name of Jesus.
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And so it takes prayer to contend for the faith, right?
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It takes reliance on God, because that's really what prayer is, by the way, prayer is certainly asking God for things.
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That's one element of prayer.
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But prayer in and of itself, we are to pray properly, we're to pray in faith.
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James talks about that.
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Let him ask of God in faith, nothing wavering.
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And so really what it means is that when we are praying properly in our faith, we are praying properly and trusting God that he will do what he says he will do.
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So when we go back to look at verse number 20, he says, look in your own heart, look in your own life.
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Where are you standing on?
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Who are you trusting in?
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Verse 21, keep yourselves in the love of God, meaning watch yourself in the love of God.
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Allow yourself to rest in the love of God.
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Allow yourselves to live in the love of God.
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Allow yourselves to show.
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Demonstrate the love of God to others around you, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life.
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And so there's this idea that we should be seeking mercy, hungering after God's mercy.
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We are in desperate need of God's mercy and grace.
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And as we experience the mercy and grace of the Lord in our life, we then are able to show mercy and grace to others around us.
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And that's really what the next step is.
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Because to contend for the faith, we have to step out.
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To contend for the faith, we do have to take the step of confronting individuals that need the truth.
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But before we do that.
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We need to take care of our own matters at hand.
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And so, you know, I think a lot of times, at least even in my own life, I've had an issue maybe with something that someone else is doing or someone else is teaching.
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But maybe I've got some things in my life that I need to shore up before I go and start trying to contend for the faith.
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Because if I go out into the battlefield not prepared, if I go out into the battlefield without my armor of God that he has given me, I'm vulnerable, right?
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You stick your neck out for the truth, but yet you're not preparing yourselves with the things that God has given you.
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Hey, Satan is trying to fire those fiery darts, as Ephesians says.
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And so we have to be careful when we do this.
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And so he says, well, watch out for yourself.
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So look inward.
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But then the next step would be to look outward.
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Look at this with me.
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In verse 22, it says of some talking about individuals that you're gonna have contention with, individuals that you're gonna contend for the faith with.
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So in this case, the individuals within the church that are being misled in the false teaching, okay?
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And of some have compassion.
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And so what we see here in this case is that as believers, as we contend for the faith, Jude is going to tell us here that we have to understand, as he's going to say here, making a difference.
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Now, I used to read this in the King James, and it says, and some have compassion making a difference.
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And if you take that out of context, you just quote that verse, it means, in my mind, have compassion on people and you'll make a big difference in their life.
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That's not what this is saying.
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This is saying, make a distinction on how you deal with people that are leading themselves down a wrong path.
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That word making a difference means making a distinction.
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So with that, let me give you an example for that.
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There are going to be maybe more than one person that we need to address in our life.
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We don't need to treat everyone the same way when it comes to addressing their needs.
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And so we need to have compassion and look into their life and ask more questions.
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Because there might be a person that truly has been misled, and we need to treat them with grace and mercy and come alongside of them and give them the truth.
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There might be others who know the truth and are willingly trying to go astray.
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And then there's other ways that we deal with them.
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So what he's talking about here is having spiritual discernment.
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We need to make a distinction based on where they are coming from.
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And so for some, certainly, we need to have compassion on.
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We need to demonstrate compassion in every regard when we're dealing with people that are going through difficulties.
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And so what we have to do is we have to use God's wisdom as we approach different people in different manners.
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And so by being sensitive to the Holy Spirit.
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That's why we go back and look at verse 20.
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If we're not grounded in the Spirit, we're not able to do this because we're acting in our own flesh.
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We're acting in our own experience, we're acting in our own feelings.
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But when we go back in verse 20, pray in the Holy Ghost.
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So we're walking in the Holy Ghost, We're.
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We're walking in the Spirit, then we're able to use the Spirit's direction on how to deal with people.
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And so by being sensitive to the Holy Spirit in our life, we can know when we should comfort someone, because there is a time for comforting.
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We're gonna talk a little bit about that down the road here in a moment.
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But there's a time and a place for us as we are contending for the faith to comfort somebody, maybe they've had an issue in their life that we need to come alongside of them and teach them what the comfort of God really means.
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Second Corinthians, chapter one says that we comfort those as we've been comforted by God.
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So there is a role of comforting in that contending.
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But not everyone needs that comfort.
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There is a time and a place for rebuke.
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We're going to see that here in a moment.
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And so the Lord Jesus gives us a perfect example of this.
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We see Jesus in certain scenarios dealing with people that are in their sin, and he deals with them in comfort.
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He deals with them in coming alongside of them and exhorting them and encouraging them and edifying them and allowing them to come alongside of him.
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There's other individuals where Jesus comes and rebukes them.
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You say, well, how do we know?
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Well, I don't know every scenario.
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You might say, well, should I rebuke this person or not rebuke this person?
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Well, I don't know the whole situation.
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And how is the Holy Spirit guiding you?
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And so what we can see here is that there's a time and a place for comfort, but there's a time and a place for rebuke.
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Look at it here with me, says, and others.
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So have compassion with some comfort, with some making the distinction verse 23.
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And others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire, hating even the garment spotted by the flesh.
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And so Christians should, at the point in time where we're contending for the faith, we should allow ourselves to let the Spirit guide us to a place of comfort or a place of rebuke, a place of patience and compassion, or a place of urgency.
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And as it says, they're pulling them out of the fire.
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What it does mean, though, is that we should continue in love no matter what.
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If you see that there, we see that words to walk in the love of God.
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And so therefore, we treat everybody in love.
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No matter how bad a person is or how misleading or terrible their teachings are, we are to not hate them.
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Obviously, we should hate the teaching.
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I think that we should be cautious of accepting things, but we should not get to a place where we reject them completely or be unconcerned for their salvation.
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The Bible speaks in many cases of restoration.
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And so what Jude is telling these folks is this.
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You need to make a distinction on how to deal with these people.
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Some of them might need compassion, others might need rebuke.
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But compassion often means watching over someone, helping them with accountability.
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Compassion isn't just yelling at them and telling them that they're wrong and walking away and never talking to them again.
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That's not compassionate.
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Jesus showed compassion by living with the people, staying with the people, being on the same level as the people, showing meekness and humility.
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And so for us, when we come to this scenario, verse 22, it says, and some have compassion, making a difference, making a distinction, and others save with fear.
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I think what I got from this was we need to ask the Lord to give us wisdom on how to contend for the faith.
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There's gonna be times where we need to dig our heels in and stand strong.
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There's other times where we need to extend grace, patience.
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And I'm gonna tell you, I've been talking a lot about patience.
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I get to speak a lot throughout the week.
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I preach on Sunday mornings, Sunday nights, podcast opportunities to speak.
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And the Lord has just been putting patience on my heart.
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And a lot of people have told me, pastor, don't pray for patience, don't preach about patience.
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But you can't avoid it in Scripture, right?
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So the truth is, is that the Lord's been really bringing the topic of patience in my mind.
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And when he does that, he definitely tests you anytime.
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If you've ever had an opportunity to do a Bible study, even on a small group level, maybe you've had an opportunity to speak in front of people or teach a class.
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At least in my experience.
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I can't point you to Scripture on this, but at least in my experience, when I've talked about something, God has always brought that opportunity in my life to test me on that.
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And so I'm being tested in my patience in certain areas of my life.
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And I think that the Bible teaches very clearly that as we walk in the Spirit, one of the elements of the fruit of the Spirit is patience.
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And so I think what the Bible's telling us here is that either way you look at it, we need to have patience with individuals when it comes to their false teaching, because it might be that that individual.
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Now, in this case in the Book of Jude, we know that they were willingly, and I believe, with an agenda, trying to mislead people.
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But let's say, for example, and if you teach one of my kids Sunday school classes, don't panic.
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I'm not gonna judge you.
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But let's say one of my kids comes up to me and says, hey, Dad, I learned this in Sunday school class.
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And it's like a total heresy, okay?
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It's a total misinterpretation of the Scriptures.
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Now, I could do a few different things.
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I could run up to that teacher and tell them every reason why they're wrong and tell them why they're misleading my children and tell them that they're, you know, you're going to be judged on a different level because you're a teacher.
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Or we could come in grace and say, hey, I don't know where you were going.
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Maybe my child misunderstood you.
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I don't know.
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But this is some things that maybe we could talk about.
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And you may or may not have even understood where you had gone astray, but let's just talk about it here.
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And then if the person came back to me and goes, oh, no, no, I believe that, and I think that's the way we should be, then we deal with that person differently, right?
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But if the person goes, oh, I'm so sorry, I didn't know.
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So you see how.
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See how we're still contending for the faith, we're still contending for the truth, but there's a way that we go about it to allow the Spirit to guide us in that.
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And so I think that's what Jude is trying to get across here.
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But let's say, for example, someone gets up in front of our church, and right before he goes up to speak, he looks over at me and he goes, watch this one Watch what happens here.
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And I'm like, what?
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And he gets up there, and he willingly and knowingly misleads people.
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That's the point where, you know, as it says here, it says, pulling them out of the fire, okay?
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Hating even the garments spotted by the flesh.
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Meaning, I hate that you're defiling the truth here in front of our fellowship.
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And so there's a time and a place to fight for that.
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So this second group of individuals, the one that we have more rebuking with, must be confronted strongly.
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But it says here, in fear, not with pride or superiority.
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Like I said on Sunday morning, I'm not coming from the pedestal of perfection.
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And so we come up to people, we still do it with fear.
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We still do it.
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That word fear means respect.
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We still do it with respecting that individual.
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We don't tear them down.
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We don't do the thing where if we have something wrong with someone, we just tear them down for something else.
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Right?
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You ever seen an individual do that?
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You're having a conversation with them.
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It's like, well, you know, you did this.
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And it's like that.
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Totally unrelated.
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Like, we still treat people with respect when we go through this.
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And so you may need to pull them out of the fire.
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But we never do it in pride.
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We do it with a sense of restoring the truth.
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And so this outward look is vital because it demonstrates that we're not only concerned with ourselves, but we're concerned with those around us.
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And I think that this is one area.
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I think this is one of the most difficult areas within churches today because we live in a very independent society.
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And we live in a society that.
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And I'm going to just try to be as honest as I can with this.
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We live in a society that gets offended very easily.
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And so what we do is, you know, who are you to say.
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You ever heard that phrase?
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Who are you to say that I can't do this?
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Right.
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So how do we go about this?
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You know, I think one of the things that we do, obviously, is we go back and we ask the Lord to give us wisdom through prayer, right?
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We ask the Lord to give us wisdom.
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We ask the Lord, is this the time that I need to take a step?
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Am I contending in this moment in my flesh, or am I contending in this moment in the spirit?
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I was talking about this in my Sunday school class on Sunday morning, if you remember back in the story of Jesus turning over the tables in the temple, okay.
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Jesus definitely was on the second side of that.
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He had compassion in doing this.
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But he was on the side of rebuking at that point, and he had the right to do so.
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But if you remember the story, Jesus goes, and he takes time, it's premeditated.
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He makes the lashings himself.
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And he didn't just do that in the flesh, right?
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We know that Jesus didn't act in the flesh.
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Why?
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Because he never sinned.
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And so one of the things that I've been trying to do is when people come and say, is this right or is this wrong?
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I try to find an instance in Jesus life where we could correlate the two and say, well, we know that Jesus didn't sin, so we know that this is how we should act.
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And so I think that one of the things that we should do when we're contending for the faith is really check ourselves to say, are we doing this in our pride?
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Are we doing this in our ego?
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Are we doing this to make ourselves look better?
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Are we doing this to fight for the truth, Truly for the kingdom of God?
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So this might mean that there is a time and a place where, if it's not an urgent matter, that we need to go and we need to pray over this.
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We need to take some time to see that in 24 hours.
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Is that something that really needs to be said?
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Is this something that really needs to be contended for?
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Is this an opinion of mine?
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Is this a preference of mine?
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Or is this truly something that I need to do?
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And now other people might say, well, is that even my role?
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Isn't that the pastor's job?
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I mean, I get that quite frequently.
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Pastor, that's your job.
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We're gonna pass that off to you.
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And there are certain elements of leadership and there's certain elements of teaching that are certainly the pastor's job.
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But what we can see in this case in the book of Judas, is this isn't exclusively for pastors.
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We do know that all Christians are to contend for the faith.
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And so what I would say is that if you are aware of something, it's your time to fight.
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It's your time to contend.
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But there's a way that we do it.
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There's a way that we do it in grace, in compassion and meekness and respect.
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And so I think that that's one of the things that Christians have messed up over the years within the church, is that sometimes when we are in the guise of fighting for the truth, we are kind of building our own kingdom and trying to make someone else look smaller.
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And then what it becomes is just like this theological debate that, hey, I'm superior, I'm smarter, I have more intelligence, I have more pool at the church.
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And so what happens in this case is that I think many times in the guise of trying to contend for the faith, we now have caused division within the church and an unneeded offense happens.
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Now, I will say that even if you go about this perfectly, which none of us will, but even if we tried to do it perfectly, there will still be people that, when you confront them with the truth, will be offended and will get upset and will not listen.
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And the Bible speaks of how to deal with that.
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But all you can do is what you can do.
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And so the Bible says here very clearly that there are different ways that we deal with folks when we're contending for the faith, but the outward look shows that we genuinely care about other Christians who are edging towards a significant error.
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And so this is tough because I know I'm trying to put myself in the shoes of a church member.
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Well, Pastor, if I take a step and say something to them, that might offend them and that might drive them away, and they might say, well, who are you to say this?
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Are you perfect?
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So therefore, you know what?
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I'm just gonna keep my nose out of it.
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Well, if that's where the Holy Spirit's leading, you do that.
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Okay?
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If the Holy Spirit is telling you, hey, that's not something that I need to fight for.
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If there's truly the Holy Spirit doing that, then that means be patient, allow this to pass.
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But if we are not doing something because of the fear of man over not doing something because we're afraid that someone's going to attack us, that goes back to what we just talked about.
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Look inward, right?
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If I have something in my life that I need to take care of, let me take care of that before I go confront anybody.
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Okay?
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So if I'm living in an unrepentant sin or I'm sitting out there in the pew and my life is a spiritual mess, I don't need to be the one that's on the front lines contending for the faith.
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I need to take care of my own matters at hand.
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And so that's what I would say scripturally.
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And I think that's what Jesus was talking about with the idea of, you know, don't pick a speck out of your brother's eye when you have a plank in your own.
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But at the end of the day, I think that all of us, at some point in Time in our Christian life, some point in time in our spiritual maturity should look out for others, right?
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If when I was growing up, I was an only child, okay?
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So I didn't have siblings.
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But I do know that, that if I did have a sibling, it wouldn't have been in a perfect world.
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It's not the sibling's job to raise the other sibling, okay?
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Now, sometimes that happens.
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It needs to happen because of a situation or what have you.
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But it wasn't my role to raise a sibling.
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It would have been my role to grow up and become independent and become an adult, right?
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So that role of my life was to make sure that I'm doing what I need to do.
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My parents used to tell me, you don't have a lot of jobs, okay?
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Your job is to go to school, make good grades, respect your parents, obey your parents, do your chores.
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Hey, that's your job.
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We're not asking you to go out and make millions of dollars and support the family.
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But there was a time in my life when I took that maturity step and said, okay, I am now responsible for more than just me.
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I'm responsible for my wife.
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Then I had children.
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I'm responsible for my children.
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I'm in a spiritual leadership position.
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So I'm responsible for the people that are around me and how I lead them.
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And so do you see that as we mature in our lives, our sphere of influence grows?
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It's the same thing when we're believers, right?
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We're initially saved.
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We don't ask a person that's been saved for five minutes to now affect everyone around them, right?
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It's your job to get strengthened in the Word and to grow and to be deeply rooted.
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But there is a point in the spiritual maturity process that we need to be concerned for the souls of others.
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We need to be concerned for others around us and their families and their teaching and their walk that they're going on.
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And so, like I said, to look outward is not to be judgmental.
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If the spirit is judgment, if the spirit is tearing someone else down, it's not the right spirit.
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It's pharisitical.
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But if the spirit is, I want to build this brother or sister up because I love them, it's done in the right way.
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And regardless of how it goes, we know that we're doing the right thing.
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So now I look at my children and I say, okay, I have the responsibility to lead them.
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And I will tell you, I don't know about you, but, like, if someone tries to mislead my child, I'm gonna step up for that.
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Like, I'm not gonna get to a place where I'm.
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And sometimes we can be on the other side of things.
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Our children can never do anything wrong, and it's everybody else's fault.
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Like, no one in my church is wrong.
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So it's a balance, right?
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We understand that as Christians, we can get misled.
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I can get misled, you can get misled.
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But the truth is, is that when we keep ourselves with checks and balances and we're able to talk to each other and edify each other, that's what the Bible says in Hebrews, chapter 10, about coming together.
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He says, don't forsake the assembly of yourselves together.
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And he gives a reason why, because you can exhort each other, provoking each other to love and good works.
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And so that's the idea that Jude is contending for in this case.
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So we look inward, we look outward, and then we look ultimately upward, right?
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Because that's the end of all of this.
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That's the whole goal here.
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And so he gives them the tools to how to contend for the faith.
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Make sure you check your own life with your walk with the Lord.
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Make sure you watch out for those around you with gentleness, with respect, with compassion, sometimes with urgency, sometimes with speaking the truth in love, which is sometimes a very difficult thing, especially if you're not normally a contentious person, or contentious is probably a bad word, confrontational person.
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Some people thrive on, like, you know, some people enjoy that.
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Like, hey, you know, I want to make sure we get this, all right?
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Like, some people love meetings.
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I'm going to tell you, I despise meetings.
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I don't like meetings, okay?
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Because I got to sit in front of everyone and come up with something for a.
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I'm like, oh, man, I don't know what to say.
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Like, I'm just trying to figure out.
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Just get through my day.
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And so I don't enjoy meetings.
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Some people do.
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Some people enjoy the minutia of administration.
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That's not something that I love.
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I have to.
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But I don't love it.
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And so for people that specifically don't like that, the Bible stretches us even more when it says that you have to be concerned for others around you.
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But then he puts it here, I think, in the great way of tying it all together, he gives this wonderful.
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You might have heard this before.
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It's a famous doxology.
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Now, unto him that is able to keep you from falling.
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Now, who is he talking about here?
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Well, he tells you at the end who he's talking about the only wise God, our Savior.
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So I want to break down this because I think we have to remember these next two verses when we're contending for the faith.
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We have to keep these two verses in our minds because it tells us who God is and what he is doing for us.
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So Jude closes this letter with this declaration of praise.
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And this reminds us of God's care for us, his wisdom.
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So now unto him that is our Savior, Jesus, that is able to keep you from falling, stumbling, being destroyed.
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This is talking about the preservation of the believer, I believe, the eternal security.
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I believe that this is speaking of God's hand on our life, holding us, preserving us, sustaining us.
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He's able to keep us from falling and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy.
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So it's his role to present us before God faultless.
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Now, he's the only one who can do that.
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Now, how can Jesus present us faultless because of the Gospel, because He died on the cross for our sins, because he's the one who paid the price.
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And so he's essentially telling them, as you contend for the faith, you're doing this because of what Christ has done for you.
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The only way that you can even fight on this side of the battle is because of what Christ has done for you.
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And he's the one that's holding you up.
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Because I think sometimes the fear is if I contend for the faith, I'm going to fail, I'm going to stumble, I'm going to be judged, I'm going to lose whatever it is.
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And he goes, no, it's the praise to him that's able to keep you from falling and to present you faultless.
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And then he says to the only wise God, our Savior speaks to his perfect wisdom.
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You know, there are times in my life where I sit down and I don't know what to do.
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James chapter one.
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I preach a sermon in James chapter one called what to do when you don't know what to do.
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And the answer, if you know James chapter one, is go to the Lord.
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Ask him, says, when you lack wisdom, ask him and he'll give it to you liberally.
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He doesn't hold it against us.
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And so to the only wise God.
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You know, I think sometimes we get to a situation where maybe this is just me.
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I'm sure that there are other people that have been here where you're sitting down, you're going, I don't know what to do.
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I'm at My wit's end.
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I don't see a good outcome for this.
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I don't see how this ends.
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Well.
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Go to him for his wisdom, his perfect wisdom.
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And the Bible says that he will bless us in that.
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So it says to him, be glory and majesty, dominion, power, both now and forever.
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Amen.
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So Jude's message of warning, his message of the inevitability of the fight, most likely he knew that that was going to possibly depress or discourage some people.
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Like, if I get up and say to the church, guys, we're in a fight, we're in a battle, it's going to be difficult.
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Some people are like, man, I'm not ready for that.
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I'm just trying to get through this day.
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I don't want to be in a spiritual battle.
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And so sometimes that can deflate people.
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And I think that this is Jude trying to rally the troops.
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Maybe he's trying to remind them of what they have forgotten.
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And maybe I think it's this.
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He's trying to remind them that they're not holding themselves up.
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It's God who's holding them up.
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I was talking to a pastor friend of mine, and he said, what's going on?
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I said, you know, I just.
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I just don't feel like I'm gonna.
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I'm doing a good enough job.
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And he says, why not?
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I said, I just feel like I'm gonna let God down.
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And he said something to me, and it really, like, put things into perspective for me.
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He goes, oh, really?
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You think you're gonna let God down?
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I was like, yeah.
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He's like, I didn't know you were holding him up.
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And I was like, yeah, you're right.
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I'm not holding him up.
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And he's like, he's.
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I'm like, you know what I mean?
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He goes, yeah, but it's selfish, right?
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You're selfishly thinking, I'm gonna mess up.
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I'm gonna mess up.
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It's just rely on God.
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He's gonna sustain us.
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Let me newsflash.
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We're all gonna mess up, right?
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God's not sitting in heaven going, well, you know, Josh messed up, so I still know what I'm going to do now.
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He's going to lift us up.
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He's going to keep us from falling.
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There's a psalm that says, though he fall, he shall not be utterly cast down, for the Lord upholds him with his hand.
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And I think that's what we have to understand as Christians is like, there's going to be times where we Stumble, but we don't get utterly cast down.
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And that's the beauty of God's hand in our life.
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And so this is an encouragement, I think, that there are times in my life where I'm thankful for folks that walked me through a situation.
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And I think that's something that we all should think about.
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But there is a point in time where we can't have our hand held by someone.
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Maybe it's something that we have to face on our own.
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But really, if you think about it from the perspective of a Christian, we're not going through it alone and God is holding our hand through it.
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And so by comparing all of these passages of Scripture, we can see at the very beginning in verse one, he says, Jesus Christ, we are preserved.
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He starts with verse one at the end and preserved in Jesus Christ and called so he starts with how he ends.
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He says, guys, you're preserved in Jesus Christ.
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Now let me tell you what's going to happen.
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And then he ends with, you're preserved in Jesus Christ.
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And I think here at the end, he concludes the whole thought of, hey, he's going to be the one that's going to sustain you.
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Paul gives us the same idea in Philippians chapter two.
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He explains to us that it is God who works in us.
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Philippians chapter 1.
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Be confident of this very thing, that he which started a good work in you will continue it to the day of Jesus Christ.
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There's this idea that as Christians we think sometimes that it's all on us and sometimes we put undue pressure on our backs.
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And though there is a responsibility for Christians to live the godly life, it's ultimately the pressure and the burden upon God.
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The Bible says, cast your cares or your burdens upon him, for he cares for you.
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And so keeping us spiritually safe is what God does.
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Keeping us spiritually sound is what God does.
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And so it's when we stray away from him, is when we get to a place of weakness, when we get to a place of false teaching, when we get to a place of division.
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And so as God is faithful, we get to a place in our life where we can have exceeding joy, as it says there at the end of verse 24.
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And so all of this doxology here reminds us of God's power, His glory, his wisdom, his all powerful knowledge and nature.
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And so I just, I think I love that and I think, I think we should quote the Doxology more often to the only wise God, our Savior, be power and glory and dominion both now.
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So Today he has that power.
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But then I love those next words, end ever.
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So he's eternally God.
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He's eternally our Savior.
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And so I think that that's so important for us to understand is that though Jude is a book of warnings, challenges, it closes with confidence.
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And I think that that's what we have in Christ, obviously, is confidence.
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So there's challenges and conflict and contention in this Christian life.
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That's inevitable if you're living the Christian life properly.
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The Bible says there will be challenges, there will be conflict, there will be contention, but ultimately there will be comfort and there will be confidence in him.
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And so that word confidence just means confide.
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It's a Latin term.
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It just means with faith.
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We live with faith, and therefore we can have confidence in God.
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And so dangerous times, difficult times, really, truly difficult times, reveal the truth about who we're trusting in or what we're trusting in.
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So what Jude is trying to teach us is this.
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When difficult times come, trust in the Lord.
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It shows us his mighty hand.
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Because for me, patience is easy when everything's going my way, right?
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Loving God is easy when everything's going my way, trusting in him is easy.
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But it's really in those times of difficulty that we're able to see him more.
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And I love what Roman says.
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I'm going to end with this.
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I'm going to end with Romans 5.
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I quoted this on a podcast episode this week about patience, but I think it's important for us to see in every context Romans 5.
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And we'll look at just the first.
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We'll just look at the first five verses for the sake of time, if you can just bear with me with this will be done.
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It says, therefore, being justified by faith, we're declared righteous by faith.
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We have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.
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So we only have peace with God because of Jesus, by whom, through Jesus also we have access by faith and to his grace.
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So we have access to the grace of God because of Jesus.
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And that's where we stand, wherein we stand and rejoice in the hope of the glory of God.
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So we have joy because we have hope in God's glory.
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But then he goes on to this and say this, verse three.
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And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also.
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And I'm always like, glory, I'll tolerate the tribulations, but don't make me glory in them.
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Glory means you're like, you're thankful, you're happy, like, more Lord.
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And I'm like, I don't why?
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How does he say that?
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Well, he explains how he can say that.
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He says we glory in tribulations also knowing that tribulation or trials or test worketh patience.
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So we learn, if we do it right, we trust in God through it we learn patience, we experience patience.
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The word patience in the Greek is not the word patience necessarily completely in English.
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When we think of patience, what do we think of?
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Sitting down, twiddling our thumbs and just waiting for something to happen.
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The Greek word has a little bit more of a meaning.
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It is waiting, but it's waiting with endurance.
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And so there's this idea here in this case that we learn how to preserve through this in the power of God.
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So he says, so we glory in tribulations knowing that tribulation worketh patience.
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And then what does patience bring?
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Patience, experience.
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And this idea of experience is not just I've gone through this, but it's I've gone through this with the understanding of having more character like Christ.
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So I have the experience of Christ in my life.
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And then it says experience what?
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Hope.
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So the ending of trusting in God through the tribulation is patience, experience and then hope.
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That's the confident expectation that God is going to keep his word.
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And hope maketh not ashamed.
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So there's no shame in the hope of God.
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So there's no shame in a trial because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us.
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And so that's a very in depth way to say that the more we preserve, the more we persevere through the trials and the power of God, the more we understand his love.
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It's counterintuitive.
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We think if I'm going through a hard time, God doesn't love me.
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But it's actually as he gets me through this, it shows me how much more he loves me.
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And that's the beauty of it.
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It's the beauty of the difficulty is the confidence and the comfort at the end.
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And so that's.
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I always tell my kids, nothing that's good is going to be easy.
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Nothing worth it is going to be easy.
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They always want to take the easiest route.
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And then I look at my own life and I go, I do the same thing.
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Everyone's looking for that get rich quick scheme.
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Everyone's looking for that quick pass through.
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But you know what?
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The best things come through patience and endurance.
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And that's the beautiful thing.
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And so I think that as Christians we have to grow in that.
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And I think even in our Culture today, with the accessibility of everything, it's trained us to not look at the long picture, the big picture.
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It's trained us to have immediate responses.
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If you look back at Jesus time and you look back at the Eastern mindset, it was all about long term things, eternity, distance.
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And I think for us, instead of seeing today as the final, you know, how's my day going?
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Well, it's, you know, it might not be going great today, but I can say I'm having a good day because I know where I'm ultimately going to be, right?
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And so I think that's, you know, sometimes when you go on vacation, you might have the worst.
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I don't know about you guys, but right before I go on vacation, things just start happening and I'm like.
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But you know what I do like, it's almost there.
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I'm almost ready to go.
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I'm almost ready to be where we want to be.
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And I know all those problems are gonna be back when I get back, but I'm gonna get there.
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And I think that's in a beautiful way, that's kind of how our Christian life is.
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Like, yes, there's something today, but we got something better coming.
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We've got something coming and that's not gonna run out.
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Cause we're never gonna have to come back to those problems one day.
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And that's the beautiful thing.
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So thank you so much for following along in the study in Jude.
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Contend for the faith.
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Not contend for your opinions, not contend for your pride, not contend for your status, but contend for the truth of God.
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And there's many ways to do that, but we do that in confidence and we do that in compassion and we do that with comfort.
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So encourage you to think through that as you're contending for the faith here in your life.
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So next week.
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Next week.
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Yeah, next week.
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Next week we will be studying a new book of the Bible.
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And it's going to be a short study, but we're going to be studying the book of Philemon.
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And I don't know if any of you have ever gone through a study in that book.
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It's a very, very important book, even though you might not think it's that important because it's short, it's even shorter than Jude, I believe, and it's Paul's shortest letter.
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But there's some really, really amazing things in the picture of what Christ has done for us and in his forgiveness and his grace.
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And that story of Philemon, it's basically a story of Onesimus, who is a I'll kind of give you a little teaser.
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He's the slave of Philemon and he runs away.
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He wrongs Philemon and he runs away.
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And then after that he gets saved.
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And there's this beautiful picture of restoration and then receiving him back in, not as a slave, not as a servant, but as a brother.
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And it's a picture of Christianity.
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It's a picture of what we have in Christ and the unity there.
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And so it's a beautiful, beautiful study.
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So we will be back studying that next week.
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And tell your friends, tell your neighbors we'll be here, Lord willing.
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Thank you again for listening to the Middletown Baptist Church podcast.
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I hope that this sermon has been a blessing for you.
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You you would like to find out more information about our church or this sermon, you can find us at middletownbaptistchurch.org or find us on Facebook or YouTube.
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You can also email me directly at Josh Massaro, Middletown BaptistChurch.com if you've enjoyed this podcast, please subscribe and follow along for future podcast and updates.
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Thank you so much.
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God bless.
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Have a wonderful day.
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