Open up your Bibles to Jude, Jude, as you're doing that. In our church, there's a bit of a tradition among the pastors, and that is what they refer to as a pre-sermon, a sermon before the sermon. We'll finish by lunch. Last night, and Brother Paul at their home for a Sabbath meal. And it was just a wonderful, wonderful time of worship. I don't know, how many songs did we sing? I don't know, probably 12. A dozen or so, and it was wonderful. It was just an absolutely wonderful time. And as I was driving over here this morning, Of course, I turned on the radio in my car, and I put on a quote-unquote Christian radio station. And I heard, I don't know, a half a dozen songs or so. And what a contrast, what a contrast between the worship I enjoyed last night and the muck that I sat through in my car on the way over. I was really tempted to go back to a station and play what is now elevator music, which was very popular contemporary music when I was the age of some of you. But what a glorious time it was just to work among his people to fellowship, and it was just a tiny glimpse, a very tiny glimpse of what heaven's going to be like for us someday. What a joy. This morning's sermon is titled, Snatching Them Out of the Fire, Evangelizing a World Bombarded by Falsehood. Verse 17, would you stand with me for the reading of God's word? I'm gonna read through the end of the letter, beginning in verse 17. God's word tells us this. But beloved, remember ye the words which were spoken before the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ. How that they told you there should be mockers in the last time, who should walk after their own ungodly lusts. These be they who separate themselves sensual, having not the Spirit. By ye, beloved, building up yourselves on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost. Keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life. And of some have compassion, making a difference, and others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire, hating even the garments spotted by the flesh. Now unto him who that is able to keep you from falling and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy. To the only wise God, our Savior, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and ever. Amen. You may be seated. Worldly, godless constructs such as LGBTQism, critical race theory, social justice movement, neo-Marxism, and the list goes on, have captivated the minds of many, we could probably go so far as to say the minds of most, rendering them fools as they worship the creature rather than the creator who is blessed forever. Today, feelings and experiences determine truth for most people. Reason and objectivity have been replaced by what is called viciously circular reasoning. They say things like, what I believe is true because, well, I believe it. Instead of people determining what they believe by what is true, nowadays what is true is determined by what a person says he or she believes. And to tell a person he or she is wrong because what he says or thinks what he believes is contrary to objective reality is to be unloving, unkind, oppressive, intolerant, violent, even dangerous. Such people, reasonably objective people that is, instead of being credited as intelligent and discerning or being canceled as belligerent and degrading, we are considered haters of the first order. People around the world, saved and unsaved, are buying into these worldly, godless, anti-intellectual constructs. to varying degrees. And yes, sadly, all of the things I've mentioned thus far are infiltrating evangelical churches all around the country, again, to one degree or another. So I see three primary groups. There are, of course, maybe many others. truth from error. The self-deluded, those seemingly willfully hurling themselves headlong into the flames of falsehood and who need to be snatched from them, these are those who are insistent that the lies they are telling themselves are the truth. Then the last group we can call, as preachers of old called them, the diabolical those wholly given over to the spirits of the age, immovably committed to propagating false teachings and worldviews and demanding submission to those worldviews. Puritan John Bunyan once wrote, quote, whatever, and I would add whoever, but he said, whatever contradicts the word of God should be instantly resisted as diabolical, end quote. Jude's New Testament letter written to unspecified Jewish Christians addresses these three categories of people, all of whom desperately need to hear the gospel and receive Jesus Christ as their Lord and their Savior. And while Jude addresses unspecified false teachers and teachings that had already infiltrated the church of his day, I see the text having a wider application to the many false teachings infiltrating the church. today, the church at large today. Now, I'm not a pessimist. While I do not see the world getting any better before the Lord returns, I am actually filled with hope, contrary to my beloved brothers who would say that I'm a pessimist. I'm confident that the Lord is going to save every human being he has determined to save, a determination he made before the foundation of the world. It is a combination of realism, not pessimism, and hopefulness about the future that gives me a sense of urgency about reaching the lost with the gospel now, today. I believe there has been an infiltration of zeitgeist into the visible evangelical church because most churches, yes, I believe most churches lack a sense of urgency. an urgency expressed by Jude in his letter for reaching the lost with the gospel. And I'll go so far as to say that there are many churches naming the name of Christ who could give a rip about where people spend eternity. We'll probably run into some of those folks out on Huntington Beach today at the pier who will say that we're doing it wrong, we're pushing people away, we're Not actually helping anybody, and I think it was Moody who once told someone, or was once told by someone when he was open-air preaching that, hey, you're doing it wrong. And he said, words to effect, well, I'd rather be doing what I'm doing than doing what you're not doing. So we may run into that today. And I do meet the byproducts of these spiritually negligent churches every day of my life out on the streets of primarily now my community and beyond. Church people who are unsaved and do not have a clue as to what the gospel is, let alone any appreciable desire to make the gospel known to anyone else. You can't be saved by a gospel you don't know, and you don't want to communicate a gospel you don't know. That's why many professing Christians in our country today aren't communicating the gospel because they don't know it themselves. They haven't yet been saved by it, if they ever will be. Now, brethren, this sermon will likely mean nothing to you if you do not possess any semblance of urgency for reaching the lost with the gospel. You may walk away with a little bit more Bible knowledge this morning, but it will be tainted by an attitude of so what if you have no present urgency for reaching the lost? That is unless, of course, the Spirit of God doesn't work in you today. Now you will see the three groups of people I will identify for you this morning as little more than a nuisance instead of lovingly seeing them, all of them, as the mission field that they are if you do not have a sense of urgency for proclaiming the gospel, whether it be on the streets or whatever the context of life that God has given you, wherever he has placed you. Now before we further identify these three groups of people to whom our attention should be given urgent attention, let's take a 40,000 foot look. I was on a plane recently, so I can say that. A 40,000 foot look at Jude's letter just to provide some context to set the stage. Now Jude, the author of this letter, was along with James, the author of the New Testament letter by his name, one of Jesus' half-brothers. Contrary to the Roman Catholic Church, Jesus had other earthly brothers and sisters who came from Mary's womb. They were sons of Mary and Joseph. Jude, who was also known as Judas, not Iscariot, is the only New Testament writer who identified himself by family relation. He opens his letter with these words, Jude, the servant of Jesus Christ and brother of James, to them that are sanctified by God the Father and preserved in Jesus Christ and called. Jude doesn't specify again to whom he was writing. However, it is likely that he was writing to Jewish believers. His reference to Old Testament stories and even a citation of the Apocrypha gives credence to this idea that he was writing to Jewish believers. Now it would seem that Jude originally planned to write a letter of encouragement to his Christian brethren, And it appears that he changed his mind apparently midstream. Verse three, he writes, beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you and exhort you that ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints. Jude must have received word that false teachers had shown themselves in the church. Right. Verse four. For there are certain men crept in unawares, who were before of old ordained to this condemnation ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness and denying the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ. That Jew describes the false teachers as creeping in unnoticed indicates that whoever these false teachers were, their intent was evil from the beginning. And over time, they quietly, craftily and systematically introduced heresies into the church. Now, the specificity with which Jude describes how heresy entered the church leads me to believe that he had specific churches and specific false teachers in mind. Jude wasn't warning about what might happen in the future. He was addressing what was presently happening in the churches. Likewise, Jude's readers were familiar with both who the false teachers were and what heresies they were teaching. Jude then explains the subsequent, eternally destructive end of these apostates. He spends about a third of his letter describing these apostates. Literally, verses 8 through 16 is all about that. And he closes his letter succinctly and urgently, explaining to his readers what they are to do about the apostates in their midst. And this is where we're gonna spend the remainder of our time, specifically verses 22 and 23. Again, the context of Jude's letter is clear. He is addressing Christians, likely Jewish believers, about false teachers already present in the churches who were exposing the faithful to destructive heresies. These men were not errant fellow Christians. These men were apostates. These men were unbelievers. These men were wolves in sheep's clothing. They were never saved men. They were never Christians. Their agendas were never holy. They never had Christ and his churches best in mind or in heart. Their intent was to steal, kill, and destroy the church from within. They were of their father, the devil. for Christians throughout the world today. The exposure to false teaching is not limited to apostate pulpits on Sunday mornings. It's not limited to TVN or Christian bookstores or Christian radio stations or Christian conferences and concerts, all places of false teaching. We are inundated, bombarded, assaulted with false teachings, false teachings with spiritual influence and consequence every day of our lives, in every sphere of our lives. The world has lost not only its proverbial mind, but its actual mind. We are living in a Romans 1 world. We are seeing every day that God is giving this world over to a debased mind. Jude had a strategy for Christians for not only protecting themselves from false teachers and false teaching, but for also reaching those negatively impacted by false teachers and false teaching even for reaching the false teachers themselves who may very well be apostate. He gives instruction for what to do for the ignorant, the self-deluded, and even the diabolical. Jude's strategy is both urgent and, of course, it is evangelistic. So in verse 17 to 21, Jude writes, again we read, but beloved, remember ye the words which were spoken before of the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ. how that they told you there should be mockers in the last time who should walk after their own ungodly lusts. These be they who separate themselves sensual, having not the Spirit. But ye, beloved, building up yourselves in your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost, keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life. Jude reminds his readers of the warnings once given by the apostles Mockers in the last time who should walk after their own ungodly lusts will in fact infiltrate the church. And these worldly minded false teachers, these false converts were of course devoid of the spirit. They would cause division among the brethren. Now we are certainly seeing this happen today. Men once seen by their congregations and the broader Christian community to be true men of God, some who stand in very popular and respected pulpits, Some who have been honored green room fillers and speakers at some of the most respected conferences are being used not of God, but as tools of Satan to bring the most destructive worldly ideologies in the modern day evangelical churches. To the extent that the pastors and teachers who come to mind are false converts, apostates, ultimately I do not know, but I do fear for them. I fear for their souls. and you survey American evangelicalism today, and you will find churches, parachurch ministries, seminaries, with relatively orthodox statements of faith. Now, side note, parenthetical here, you don't know what a church or an organization believes by reading their statement of faith. Because many of those groups, many of those churches, they just copy and paste what they pulled from somewhere else, and they make it as generic as possible, so they really can't be held to it. It's a gateway drug, that statement of faith. They just want to get you in the doors so that they can expose you to what it is they actually believe. Go to any charismatic or new apostolic Reformation church, look at their church website, and you're going to see a relatively orthodox statement of faith, and then you're going to enter their church and think you're reliving one flew over the cuckoo's nest. So they have these relatively orthodox statements of faith that are lending validity to not only critical race theory, these groups that have these seemingly orthodox statements of faith that they don't actually hold to. These places, these churches, these ministries are lending validity to not only critical race theory and social justice, but also unbiblical ideologies with temporal and eternal ramifications, such as the Alleged compatibility of same-sex attraction with the Christian faith. That's like mixing oil and water. The two do not mix. Or using terms like brothers and sisters when referencing willfully unrepentant participants in LGBTQism. Or gender euphoria. And accommodating those who have given into such delusions by acquiescing to changing how pronouns are used. Submitting to Caesar simply Ecumenism, Feminism, Egalitarianism, Women Preachers and Pastors. Again, contradiction in terms. And sadly, the list goes on. Now Jude's encouragement to his readers in the face of the unspecified false teachings entering the churches of this day, of his day rather, was this. By ye beloved, building up yourselves on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost, Keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life. Jude exhorts his readers to strengthen themselves in the faith by prayer, godliness, and hope. Jude is being emphatic here. In contrasting his readers with the false teachers about whom he warns them, he points a loving, exhorting finger at his readers and emphatically tells them, to not be like those he had just described. You be different than them, he's telling them. You are numbered among the beloved, they are not. Your prayers are empowered by the Holy Spirit, theirs are not. You stand firm in your love for God because he first loved you, they do not. According to the theologian Albert Barnes, quote the phrase, Most holy faith here refers to the system of religion which was founded on faith, and the meaning is that they should seek to establish themselves most firmly in the belief of the doctrines and in the practice of the duties of that system of religion. Jude tells his readers, and today he's telling us, that the best way to combat false teachers and false teachings is to make sure that they and we are grounded in and continuing to build upon our faith. Jesus Christ, of course, being the foundation, the cornerstone, and the sole object of our faith. Through well-establishing ourselves in the doctrines of our faith and the biblical practices that come from that firm foundation, in a word, my friends, know your Bible. Know your Bible, Christians. While it's useful to have a cursory, even working knowledge of the false teachings and heresies infiltrating the church, it is far, far better to simply know the truth. It's far better, far more profitable to spend your time studying the Bible than studying critical race theory or intersectionality or microaggression and the assortment of false teachings already mentioned. When I served as a deputy sheriff here in Los Angeles and counterfeit money would come into our area, we readied ourselves to combat it, not by spending an inordinate amount of time studying the counterfeit. Rather, we took the time to make sure we knew what real money looked and felt like, front and back. The better we knew what real money looked and felt like, the easier it was for us to spot a counterfeit, no matter who the counterfeiter was. And the reason we did that is because counterfeiters change. And the way they counterfeit money changed. But actual money, real, authentic, genuine money didn't change. It doesn't change. So by studying that which is real, no matter what the false counterfeit came in front of us, we were able to recognize it because we knew what the real thing was. So don't get yourself all tied up in knots studying Islam Mormonism, or Roman Catholicism, or the Jehovah's Witnesses, or Buddhism, or Hinduism, or any other kind of ism. Sure, have a cursory understanding of those things so that you can converse with those people, but don't tie yourself up at knots to the point with, well, I don't know enough about Islam, so I can't talk to a Muslim. My friends, there's only two worldviews in the world. Christ and everybody else. The Roman Catholic is in the same worldview as the atheist. The Mormon is in the same worldview as the Scientologist. Jehovah's Witness is in the same worldview as Oprah. They all have the same worldview. They're all dead in their sin and lost. They're all godless. They're all haters of God, no matter what color lipstick they put on the pig. So if you're conversant in the truth, if you're knowledgeable about the truth, if you're well-versed in the truth, if you believe and know the truth, you're ready to talk to anybody else on the planet. Anybody else on the planet. Because the gospel's the power of God for salvation, and it doesn't change no matter who you're talking to. The same is true for discerning, again, of course, the litany of false teachings permeating the church today. easy for you to see. Be confident in the truth. Don't be confident about what you know about the lies. Be confident in the truth and you'll be confident to talk to anyone who's believing a lie. It really is that simple. Now Jude exhorts his readers to look forward to the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to eternal life. Specifically, Jude is exhorting his readers to focus their sights on the return of Christ when he comes to once and for all receive his people unto himself. Paul wrote similarly to Titus. Titus 2, 11-14, For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world, looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Savior Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people zealous. Likewise, Peter instructs his readers in his second letter, but the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise and the elements shall melt with fervent heat. The earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up. Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness, looking for and pacing unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat. Nevertheless, we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness." Now, having spent most of his letter talking about the false teachers and the dangers they are to the church, and having set the table, as it were, for his readers to be encouraged in spite of the danger, Jude now launches into a strategy for reaching the people infected and affected by the false teachers with the gospel of Jesus Christ. The Christian response to the ignorant, the self-deluded, and even the diabolical who may already be in the churches, maybe even in our churches, as well as those who may never darken the door of a church, is to love them with the proclamation of the gospel. And as I've said before, Matters will not be resolved through education, legislation, or medication. I didn't coin that phrase. I think I first heard it from Voti Baca, who may have heard it from someone else. All I know is I've never had an original thought. But it won't be resolved through education, legislation, or medication, but by reconciliation, man to God, through the proclamation of the gospel of Jesus Christ. That is the only way. In verses 22 to 23, Jude writes, and of some have compassion, making a difference, and others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire, hating even the garment spotted by the flesh. In his commentary on Jude, Pastor John MacArthur introduces this passage with these words, quote, those who pose the greatest threat to the church also constitute part of the mission field. Not only are believers responsible to identify and oppose the enemy and his error, are also commanded to reach out and evangelize the enemy with the truth. That is precisely what Jesus sought to do when he had meals with the Pharisees. While he denounced them as heretics, he also proclaimed to them the way of salvation. Nicodemus, for example, was a Pharisee who sincerely sought the truth. His honest investigation into Jesus' teachings was met with compassion and kindness from the Savior. The first group of people Jude describes in verses 22 to 23 of his letter are those who are doubting. We can call them the ignorant. Now, I don't use that term ignorant as a pejorative. I'm not insulting this group of people. The people in this group are not unintelligent. On the contrary, many of them are brilliant, brilliant minds. Many more of them are certainly smarter than me, and that's not difficult. But they are ignorant of God's truth, and in most cases, they are ignorant of their own spiritual condition. So we can rightly, lovingly, compassionately refer to this group of people as ignorant. But not just leaving them there. We don't want them to stay there. We don't want to continue to refer to them as ignorant. we want to eventually refer to them as brothers and sisters in Christ. Right? Now this is by far the largest of the three groups. In fact, if we were to make a diagram representing the three groups to which Jude refers, we could do so with three circles. A large circle, following by a smaller circle inside it, followed by yet a smaller circle inside the second one. and that's about it. The outer circle would represent the ignorant. The next smaller circle would represent the self-deluded, and the smallest innermost circle would represent the diabolical or the immovable. To one extent or another, every unbeliever falls into this largest circle. A percentage of unbelievers fall into the second circle, and a still smaller percentage would fall into that smallest circle of the immovable diabolical. I guess we could add a fourth circle. One that encircles the other three and label that largest circle simply the lost or the world. Now according to some translations of the text, Jude exhorts his readers to have mercy on some who are doubting. To show mercy to someone is to show him or her compassion. It's to sympathize with the person. It does not mean to empathize with them. That is a very popular word you're hearing today. It's a word you're going to hear in a lot of pulpits. It's a word that really only existed for about a hundred years or so, if that. One of the false teachings being thrust upon Christians from outside and from inside the church is the notion that we should replace sympathy with empathy. Sympathy and compassion are synonymous biblical terms, sympathy and compassion. Empathy, on the other hand, is a modern psychological term. The term was coined by two German philosophers in 1908. It's not an old word. Empathy is translated from a German word that means in-feeling. That's what the word means, in-feeling. Empathy, not sympathy, is what the world demands today as evidenced by the rebranding of the false social gospel through the introduction of new unbiblical terms and philosophies, again, such as the so-called social justice movement, critical race theory, intersectionality. If you are following any of these things, or if you're on social media, or dare I say, if you watch Oprah, you're being exposed to stuff like this. And if you are watching Oprah, please, your pastor wants to meet with you immediately following the service before you make your lunch. American evangelicalism has for years been preparing professing Christians to take the rancid bait, hook, line, and sinker. How? By telling us we should just listen to people's stories and understand those stories by joining people in their pain, misery, sorrow, and accepting whatever they say as truth because of their experiences, experiences we may not share. The answer to people's and society's problems isn't me joining them in their problem. That's like seeing a lost person in quicksand and throwing sandwiches at them because they insist they're hungry and not dying in quicksand. What people need, what only Christians can provide, is the gospel of Jesus Christ. That's what people need. Much of American evangelicalism is calling us to jump into the quicksand with the people so that we can both die. In a sense, now, every analogy breaks down. This one does. We should be throwing them the rope of the gospel and yanking them out of the quicksand. Standing safely on the shore of Christ, not joining them in their sin, not coddling their sin, not comforting their sin, not patting them on the back and say, there, there, I understand, while they go under and breathe their last. We should be screaming at them to get out of the quicksand. That's sympathy. proverbial rope, if you will, that will pull lost people out of the quicksand of sin and death. The vast majority of lost people in the world are biblically illiterate. What they think they know about the Bible they learn by reading regurgitated ad nauseum articles and books by popular atheists who themselves are biblically illiterate. Worse still, what many lost people have wrongly learned about God and the Bible They have learned from pastors. They have learned from Sunday school teachers. They have learned from small group leaders, professing Christians who might be lost themselves. They're biblically illiterate because they go to a Bible study and someone who's unqualified, the lead says, Johnny, what does this verse mean to you? Sally, what does this verse mean to you? Stephanie, what does this verse mean to you? Look, we have four different meanings to the text. Let's have cake. The vast majority of the people with whom I speak on the street corners in my community, the vast majority of people you will encounter in your evangelistic endeavors are religious and non-religious people who are ignorant about the things of God. They fall into Jude's first category. Many of them grew up going to this church or that church. They were unconverted then and they are unconverted now. And today, they are not sure what they believe. Even if they are able to articulate what they believe, in most cases, they are unable to articulate why they believe what they think that they believe. I spend time on university campuses. We have one of the, I mean, every area says they have the finest universities, right? That's right. But certainly in the Midwest, the University of Iowa is considered a prestigious school, very prestigious school. I got one unit at the community college, and it was in choir. And that's because I met my wife there. I graduated with a degree in Marina. That was it. I mean, outside of a high school diploma, you know, that's it. But I can take a fifth or sixth year graduate student at the University of Iowa, and I can turn them inside out and watch them have neurotransmitter misfire go off in their brain simply by asking them one question. Why? One word question destroys their worldview. Why? Might get back to that. Lost people are spiritually dead, which makes them susceptible to any false teaching the world throws at them. Whether that particular part of the world that's lying to them has a steeple or not, they are weak and undiscerning. 1 Corinthians 2, 14-16, But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto him, neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. But he that is spiritual judgeth all things, yet he himself is judged of no man. For who hath known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ. We have the entire world at a distinct disadvantage. simply because we, as believers, have the mind of Christ and no one else does. The fight is over before it starts. We just have to believe that, right? As our brother Rick emphasized in that first message, Christ sits on the throne. He is universally in power and in control of all things, including any contact you're going to have with an unbeliever. As born-again followers of Jesus Christ, we have unbelievers, again, at a distinct, overwhelmingly, and eternal disadvantage. We have the mind of Christ. They do not. They are doubters. We are not. And whenever you doubt, you jump into their worldview. Get out of there. Don't doubt. You have no reason to doubt. They are, as Scripture describes in James, like the surf of the sea driven and tossed by the wind, double-minded, unstable in all of their ways. These people are not to be feared, they're to be pitied. They're to be pitied, not condescendingly, lovingly pitied, but not feared. They are, as Scripture describes in Ephesians, tossed to and fro, carried about with every wind of doctrine by the slight of men and cunning craftiness whereby they lie in wait to deceive. When communicating the gospel to people in this group, gentleness, meekness, patience, kindness, and mercy or compassion is the order of the day. Never patronize an unbeliever with compassion to the point you lead them to believe, intentionally or otherwise, that you think they are somehow unintelligent or intellectually beneath you. Don't be arrogant. Of course, you know more about God in the Bible than they do, or at least you should, Christian. But don't show off, don't flaunt your theological prowess, no matter how grand it might be in your own mind. Certainly don't do that at the unbeliever's expense. There's a soul in front of you here, not a target. There's a soul in front of you here, not a target, not a notch in your spiritual evangelistic or apologetic belt. That's a soul in front of you. someone for whom Christ very well may have died. Unapologetically and without compromise and or fear of man, speak the truth, of course, but speak the truth in love. The unbeliever in front of you should hear the fruit of the obedience to the two greatest commandments in your voice, and they should see it in your eyes as you simply, succinctly, clearly, compassionately, and biblically communicate the gospel to them. You don't want to empathize with the lost person in front of you. You do want to listen to him or her. Yes, we are not ashamed of the gospel. Yes, and it alone is the power of God for salvation. No, hearing a person's story and weakly standing there closed-lipped and allowing the other person to dominate the conversation will not save a single soul. But be willing to listen. Hear the person out. Ask probative questions. Don't be so enamored with the sound of your own voice that by conversation's end, the person is so mentally and emotionally exhausted from listening to you speak nonstop that he doesn't have the requisite energy to tell you what's on his mind. At the same time, don't so overvalue dialogue, the exchange of ideas, that you never get to the gospel. Conversation with lost people should never be more important than their conversion. Conversation with lost people should never be more important than their conversion. Yes, the gospel will do the work God intends it to do in every conversation, but wouldn't you like to know what the gospel is doing in the heart and mind of the person in front of you? Well, then you have to let him or her talk, too. You're not a mind reader, right? I'm not a mind reader. We must show mercy, compassion to the ignorant, and we must save the insistent, the self-deluded, by snatching them out of the proverbial fire. And as we move to the next smaller circle of unbelievers, we must not set aside our compassion. That has to be continual, regardless of which group of people we're talking to, whoever we're talking to, regardless of what category we must not set aside our compassion. We must hold tightly to it as we try to reach people in this smaller yet often more adamant group, those who are self-deluded and insistent in their errant beliefs, whether those beliefs are spiritual or secular. Jude writes, and others, safe with fear, pulling them out of the fire. Theologian Albert Barnes describes her second group of unbelievers this way, those who were of such a character, or in such circumstances, that a more bold, earnest, and determined manner would be better adapted to them." So, in other words, be ready. This group is sometimes tougher to love than the larger group of biblically illiterate doubters. The reason? Well, for one, some in this group are insistent that they know more than you do about the Bible you read every day. a book through which they may have thumbed a few pages. People in this group, again, we will call them the self-deluded, or we can call them the insistent, are often emotionally driven. Many in this group are angry. They're angry with the world, or at least the portion of the world that doesn't agree with them. They're angry with God, even though some in this group will insist that God doesn't exist. That is delusional. That is simply delusional. To hate a God you say doesn't exist. I've said this to many quote-unquote atheists. There are no atheists. The Bible's clear. There are no atheists. Romans 1 makes it clear that there are people who simply suppress the truth by their unrighteousness. professing themselves to be wise, they have rendered themselves fools. They're fools, they're not atheists. But I'll deal with an angry so-called atheist, they'll come up spewing their venom and their hatred for God, and I'll say, look, if I was dressed as the Easter Bunny, we wouldn't be having this conversation, because you know the Easter Bunny doesn't exist. If I was dressed like Santa, ringing a bell outside a store trying to raise money for the Salvation Army, you wouldn't be ripping off my phony beard, because you know that Santa Claus doesn't exist. If I was the Tooth Fairy, let's not picture how I would be dressed. If I was the Tooth Fairy, or thought I was the Tooth Fairy, you might laugh at me, you might mock me, you might feel sorry for me, but you wouldn't be shaking your fist at me, angrily hating on me, because you know the Tooth Fairy doesn't exist. You're angry because you hate the God you know. You're angry because you hate They are so insistent that their anger is justified that they are self-blinded to the cognitive dissonance, the inconsistent irrationality of hating someone they know, or hating someone they don't believe exists, rather. Now, truth for this insistent, self-deluded unbeliever is more often than not determined by, again, what they believe, but also how they feel. Truth is relative and morality is subjective according to their worldview. To insist that there is such a thing as right and wrong, black and white, and not an endless number of shades of gray is to relegate you, at least in their minds, to the categories of, again, intolerant, unintelligent, hatefully exclusive, homophobic, racist, and dangerous. You are a threat to everything they know, even though in their worldview they can't and don't know anything for certain. Right. So Jude exhorts his readers to save others. While it goes without saying, it is good to remind ourselves that we, as Christians, we don't save anyone. Scripture is clear. Salvation is of the Lord. Salvation is the monergistic work of God. It is not a synergistic work. It is not a cooperative effort between God and man. We, as followers of Christ, are mere recipients of God's grace, mercy, love, forgiveness, reconciliation, regeneration, salvation, And again, God does all of the saving. We neither save ourselves nor anyone else. As it has been said of old, the only thing we bring to our salvation is the sin that makes it necessary. That's it. That's all we bring to the table. It's our sin that makes our salvation necessary. That's it. But God is a God of means, right? While the gospel is the power of God for salvation to all who believe, God uses his people as secondary means to accomplish that work. We as Christians are instruments in the hands of God who does all of the saving. God has chosen to save for himself a people by having his people communicate his spoken and written message to those he determined to save before the foundation of the world. God is a God of means. Amen. Jude exhorts his readers and us to seek and save the lost like people determined to snatch other people out of a fire. Jude uses a Greek word here to paint the vivid imagery of taking someone by force. Yes. Not in a hostile sense, not in the sense of a kidnapping, but rather motivated by compassion with a genuine desire to rescue someone on the verge of perishing. Because every moment of their life, the unbeliever is on the precipice of hell. as Jonathan Edwards preached in the most famous American sermon ever preached, they are literally being held by a spider's web over the flames of hell. Again, theologian Albert Barnes, who describes this kind of snatching, he describes it this way, quote, as you would snatch persons out of the fire, or as you would seize a person, seize on a person, that was walking into a volcano. Then a man would not use the mild and gentle language of persuasion, but by word and gesture show that he was deeply in earnest. John MacArthur has wisdom for us regarding this, quote, the only way to rescue such people is to crush their false ideologies before it is too late. And this can be done only by the power of God's truth. Jesus modeled this principle during his earthly ministry. To those who were confused, unsure, and filled with doubts, he patiently and gently presented the gospel. But to those committed to false teaching, such as the scribes and the Pharisees and their devotees, he bluntly warned of the gravity of their lost condition." End quote. Now, it is quite simple to crush an unbeliever's worldview. Most people in the self-deluded category have never asked themselves that very important question, why do I believe what I believe? You see, in the world's education system, the public school system, where some of you may have your children, forgive me if I offend you, get them out for the love of your children. Get them out. No, I'm not saying send them to a private Christian school, because they may not know the gospel there. The responsibility to educate your children is yours, dear mother, yours, dear father. Don't expect to give your children to Caesar and have them not come out Romans, as it's been said by others. So they don't ask themselves, why do I believe what I believe? The world's educational system teach people how to retain information, the information they want them to retain. The world's educational system teach people how to retain information and pass tests. But by and large, these same educational systems do not teach people how to think. They do not teach people how to think for themselves. They are the Roman Catholic Church that doesn't want their people to read Bibles. Centuries ago, you were killed by the Roman Catholic Church if you owned and read a Bible. The public education system's no different than Rome. Much of what is called education today is nothing more than indoctrination. Indoctrination into a godless, man-centered, emotionally driven, thoughtless, illogical, immorally subjective worldview. And they're starting with drag queen and drag king story times. For five-year-olds. That's what happened in our community. Quiet, somewhat conservative, Davenport, Iowa. 35 of us from our church were outside the library proclaiming the gospel as children were escorted by the police into a room with a drag queen and a drag king where the parents weren't allowed all government-sanctioned, all in the name of educating your children. Even a cursory understanding and basic application of a term that might be new to some of you, I don't know, of presuppositional apologetics will crush the godless worldview of the insistent unbeliever. Michael Butler on the Chalcedon website defines presuppositional apologetics this way, quote, The presuppositional argument starts where our faith demands, with God's revelation. It presupposes the truth of God's word and presents the Christian worldview as a necessary precondition for all knowledge. It refuses to grant that the unbeliever has any knowledge apart from God. and it refuses to answer the skeptic by appealing to principles and philosophies that are congenial to him. Rather, it attacks these principles and demonstrates their failure to provide a foundation for knowledge. Presuppositionalism maintains that questioning God's existence is on par with the satanic question posed to Eve. Eve succumbed to the seducer because she failed to stand upon God's word as her final authority. Presuppositionalism endeavors to answer the satanic question in the same way our Lord answered him, by appealing to the authority of Scripture." My friends, when you're having a conversation with an unbeliever, you're not arguing to God, you're arguing from God. You're not presenting evidence and allowing the unbeliever to be the judge. You're not playing God's defense attorney in the unbeliever's blasphemous courtroom. God's not on trial. The unbeliever is, has already been found guilty, and is waiting their death sentence to be carried out. God's not on trial. Stop playing the unbeliever's game. When have you been in a courtroom where the defendant accused of a crime runs up to the bench, robs the judge of his black robe, sits on the bench, and demands that the judge take the witness stand? Where have you seen that? Good. You see that in evidentiary apologetics, which is propagated by most of American evangelicals. Right. That's where you see that. That's where you make the unbeliever the judge of God, the judge over God, the dead man the judge over the living God. Knock it off. Don't do that. Don't do that. You stand on the truth. You are a prosecutor in these conversations. A loving one, a compassionate one, a gentle one. But you are a prosecutor. You are not a defense attorney. You are prosecuting the unbeliever who's already been convicted in God's courtroom. You are not God's defense attorney making excuses and presenting evidence to the unbeliever to determine whether or not they want to take God at his word. So that was for me too. The Christian should never be satisfied, this is very important, listen to me. The Christian should never be satisfied with or have as an end goal the crushing of an unbeliever's worldview. That's not where it stops. To crush a person's worldview and leave them alone in the rubble is cruel and unloving, and it certainly isn't compassionate. The goal should always be to reduce an unbeliever's worldview to rubble so that they can clearly see, understand, and ultimately believe the beautiful, glorious gospel of Jesus Christ. That's the goal. Anything less than that is self-serving, prideful, arrogant, selfish, sinful. Yes, tear down their godless worldview, but build them up anew upon the cornerstone that is Christ and his gospel. We should be compassionate with the ignorant, and compassionate and fervent with the self-deluded. And this brings us to our last group, the immovable or the diabolical. With the diabolical, those who are of their father, the devil, and don't care. The other two groups are of their father, the devil, too. They may or may not care, but this last group simply, at least on the surface, they don't care. Those who are fixed, set, seemingly immovable, we should continue to be compassionate, we should be fervent, and we also have to be wise. We also have to be wise. Again, Jude writes in verse 23, and others say with fear, pulling them out of the fire, hating even the garment spotted by the flesh. John MacArthur describes this last group to be represented in Jude's discourse as the committed. He writes, quote, sometimes Christians may have the opportunity to reach out to the most committed apostates. Such heretics are profoundly deceived individuals who are deeply committed to their, pardon me, to their own deceptions. In some cases, they are even the articulators of heretical doctrine and the leaders within these false systems, end quote. Of the three categories of unbelievers, this is the smallest group to which Jude refers and is therefore the smallest circle in our homemade diagram. This is also the group of people with which most Christians are least likely to have direct contact. However, because of the advent of social media, Christians, while maybe not having direct contact with the actual purveyors of heresy, can be and often are exposed to people within this group every day of their lives. Today, again, because of social media, these people are called influencers. Have you heard that term? Yeah, how many influencers are you kids following on TikTok and other places? Influencers are called now. The fear to which Jude refers in this verse is not the fear of the Lord, which is the beginning of wisdom, but neither is it the sinful fear of man. The fear is the fear of the possibility of being in some way tainted by the false teachings of influential apostates. So adverse that falsely represents any person of the Triune God, that falsely represents any aspect of the Word of God, and that falsely represents any element of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, that he or she is very careful not to have his or her art or mine in the least bit tainted in any way by such blasphemous lies, whatever those lies might be. Yeah, we are actually supposed to be unstained by the world. But how many of us just frolic in the mud of the world all day long, and we look down, how did my clothes get dirty? How did that happen? So to drive this point home, Jude uses language that would cause readers of his day even, with eyes darting open and head pulling back, followed maybe by a wince and maybe a tilt of the head, to say the first century equivalent to gross. Jude's readers, with what he's about to say, with what he has said in this verse, they were probably taken aback. He uses the Greek word espilonon, and I know I mispronounced that. It's longer than some words. He uses this Greek word, which the King James translates as spotted, or as polluted in the NASV. More on that in a second. But first, let's take a quick look at the Greek word Jude uses, which is translated in both the King James and the NASV as garment, garment. Now, when we think of a garment, we think naturally of clothing, outerwear, suit, tie, jacket, pants. However, the garment to which Jude is referring isn't an outer garment, but rather what we would refer to today as underwear. That's what he's referring to. Now the Greek word translated as spotted or polluted literally means to be soiled by bodily fluids as a result of bodily functions. So you do the math with me. This adds up to dirty, filthy underwear. So visceral should a Christian's hatred be for false teaching that he or she is careful to exercise wisdom and discernment when engaging those who are fully committed to the false teaching, when trying to engage those who are the purveyors, the teachers, the leaders of these false ideologies. To be clear, the Christian should have no fear whatsoever of being so captivated by false teaching and false teachers that he or she runs the risk of falling into the same damnable apostasy as the false teacher. No one, no one who is truly born again has ever been unborn again. No one God has chosen before the foundation of the world, no one who has been appointed to eternal life, no one who has been regenerated by God, by His grace, through faith in Jesus Christ, and as a result has repented and believed the gospel, has ever returned to his or her pre-salvation state of lostness. It's never, ever happened. However, Christians, even otherwise mature Christians, can become polluted by false teaching, like putting on someone else's dirty underwear by mistake. Yeah, it's gross, isn't it? It can happen. If not, why would Jesus and Paul so often warn against Verses 6 and 12, that Jesus said unto them, take heed and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the Sadducees. Then understood they how that he bade them not beware of the leaven of bread, but of the doctrine of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees. He was speaking to his inner circle. He was speaking to his disciples. He was speaking to the ones who would found the church. He was warning them about putting on the dirty underwear of false teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees. 1 Corinthians 5, 6, and 7, Your glorying is not good. Know ye not that a little leaven leaveneth a whole lump? Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened. For even Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us. Again, Paul in Galatians 5, 7, and 9, Ye did run well. Who did hinder you that ye should not obey the truth? This persuasion cometh not of him that calleth you. A little leaven leaveneth the whole lump." The Apostle Paul warned Christians to be careful. Jesus warned Christians to be careful. We should be careful. Sadly, in today's modern evangelical church, We are seeing pastor after pastor and parishioner after parishioner falling prey to the false teachings we briefly looked at an hour or so ago, as well as others. It is happening to people, some of whom I thought it would never happen to. People I don't personally know, but are well known to me and maybe even to you. Some are showing themselves not to be Christians, temporarily polluted by false teaching, but outright apostates. in their imagination to suit themselves and to accommodate the false teaching, worldview, and false gospel that they now propagate. So again, with those who find themselves, or rather place themselves in this last group, the immovable or the diabolical, our gospel communication to them should again be compassionate, fervent, but it also must be wise. We must be wise. Our wisdom should include humility. We should not arrogantly think more highly of ourselves than we ought. We should not think that a professing Christian, who is seemingly immovable away from false teaching, therefore lacks our Bible IQ, ability to make a case, or their own strength of conviction. While errant in their theology, they may very well be smarter and more capable than we are. So proceed with due caution. Don't be afraid to engage such people, but be wise. Don't let your pride get you in over your head to the point your opponent has you sinfully doubting the truth. Be wise. Years ago, many years ago, on Brand Boulevard here in Glendale, I was open air preaching. A man and a woman stood in front of me listening for a little bit. The man had a smirk on his face. I'd been out on the streets long enough to know something was coming. And he announces to me while I'm preaching, I'm an astrophysicist. I can almost spell astrophysicist. I knew the man in front of me was certainly smarter than me, had far more education than me. So I'm not going to argue with this man about atoms, and I'm not going to argue with this man about how one figures out light years and things like that. I'm not going to try to debate this man on these terms, but I'm not going to run away. I have the truth. So I simply asked this, if he was indeed an astrophysicist, people sometimes lie to me out there on the streets. Shocker. But assuming this man was an astrophysicist, I asked him one question. Sir, do you honestly believe that something exploded out of nothing and became everything? And his wife goes, like, what is he going to say? What's my husband going to say? How does he answer that? He didn't. His mouth was closed, shouted some ad hominem, and walked away. It would have been foolish for me to stop preaching the glorious gospel of Christ to take, you know, one class in high school on astronomy and try to show this guy that I know what I'm talking about, the stars. That would have been stupid of me. But I could stand on the truth, ask him a very simple question, and close his mouth. It had nothing to do with my abilities. It simply was the truth being presented to a man who was arrogantly believing lies. Whether the person in front of you is ignorant, insistent, self-deluded, or diabolical, And if you won't open your mouth and communicate the gospel to them, I don't care how you feel about them, you don't love them. You don't love them if you won't open your mouth. You don't love them if you won't open your mouth. But love them. Show compassion for those inside the burning building of sin and judgment fervently, as if you were forcibly pulling someone from a burning building, proclaim the gospel to the person who insists the house is not on fire. These are the people we're dealing with. Their whole world is on fire. They are on fire. And they can't even smell the smoke. Because they're so ignorant. They're so deluded. They're so arrogantly immovable. They deny that they're burning. even if the person is immovable because he is so gripped with fear of changing his beliefs, and the personal costs that might come with such change, or so convinced that she is safer staying inside the burning building of false teaching than following you as you navigate through the flames to the safety of God's truth, proclaim the gospel to them. Love them. with gentleness and respect. Declare the hope that is in you, the hope of salvation by the grace of God alone, through faith alone, in Jesus Christ alone, and be careful. Fighting fires is dirty business. Your clothes might get singed and covered in soot. If that happens, don't get comfortable in the dirty clothes of pride, self-deception, arrogance, or even doubt. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts. You double-minded and hate anything that would put so much as a theologically errant smudge on the white garments of Christ's imputed righteousness. Be careful. Be careful. Be prepared. Be prayed up and studied up. Study. Read. Memorize the Word of God. Practice communicating its eternal truths to others. Preach the Gospel to yourself every day, multiple times a day. Sing it. Say it. Write it. Proclaim it to others. Know the Gospel so well. Communicate the Gospel so often that hearing the slightest variation of the truth is like a shock to your system. Like something, like someone throwing soft, fresh cow dung on a brand new suit of clothes. Clothes that you didn't buy, but were given to you as a precious gift by the person who loves you most. Jesus Christ, the one who died for you, so you can forever be clothed in his pure and perfect righteousness. There out there, my brethren in the ignorant, the self-deluded and the diabolical, with the love of God and with love for God and love for people, reach them, snatch them out of the fire, reach them for the gospel, for the glory of Christ. Father, thank you for our time in your word this morning. Thank you for those of us whom you have saved, whom you have snatched from the flames by your grace. Father, may we be so thankful for the grace that you have shown us. That we would be compelled with love for you and love for others. To show that compassion, to proclaim that gospel to those who don't even know they're on fire. All for your glory.