The last few weeks, we've seen Jude's description of these false teachers. It's been a scathing review of what the apostate looked like. Again, these are characters that are not just teaching error, but they are teaching it in the ranks of God's people. They are seeking to draw away God's people from his church, from Jesus Christ. But now Jude is going to arrive at what is really the climax of his letter. That's what we're going to examine this morning in verses 17 through 23. It has to do with our response. It's a call to action. Let's stand once again out of respect for the reading of God's Word. Let's read our text Jude 17 through 23. But you Beloved, ought to remember the words that were spoken beforehand by the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ, that they were saying to you, in the last time there will be mockers, following after their own ungodly lusts. These are the ones who cause divisions, worldly-minded, devoid of the Spirit. But you, beloved, building yourselves up on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting anxiously for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to eternal life. And have mercy on some who are doubting. Save others, snatching them out of the fire. And on some have mercy with fear, hating even the garment polluted by the flesh. That's the reading of God's inerrant, infallible word. You may be seated. Let's seek our Lord's help in prayer. Holy Father, as we come to you this morning, we're coming to you as a God who sees your church and cares about your church. You love this church. We know that Jesus Christ gave himself for this church, and so I pray because of that great eternal love, would you now look upon us in our great need to hear your word, to hear truth, You know the the weakness of our heart, Lord. You know the pressures that we are facing in these last days. And I pray that you would strengthen your church, that you would call us to action in a way we will not forget. Prepare your people, O God, prepare us for what is to come. O Lord, let not one be unprepared for the trials and tribulations that are to come. And I pray for anyone in our midst who doesn't know Christ. Would you speak to them the gospel where they come to the Savior, even this morning. This we ask in Jesus' name. Amen. It started out as a quiet, sunny, beautiful morning, just like any other Sunday morning on the island of Oahu. No one could have guessed what the next few minutes would hold. But in an instant, suddenly, the sky was swarming with wave after wave of Japanese warplanes, dive bombing, torpedoing ships. And the whole thing suddenly turned into a nightmare. On that single day, December 7th, 1941, casualties would mound at Pearl Harbor to nearly 2,400 U.S. personnel killed and 1,300 wounded. Most of these casualties were young sailors, many of them boys fresh out of high school. And so many of them killed just as they woke from sleep that fateful morning. What's even more tragic, if you read about it, is to learn of the multiple serious warnings and alarms that confronted U.S. intelligence prior to this attack. the historian Craig Shirley described the US intelligence error in these terms. So many mistakes through so many levels of Washington. So many mistakes through so many levels of Washington. And over 80 years later, we can only think to ourselves, what if certain people had just paid attention to certain warnings? How might things be different? How might these tragedies have been prevented? But there are consequences for passing up warnings. And that is really why June is writing to us. He's given us dozens of warnings in the past dozen verses. We've seen him describing extensively these apostates and their error. He says in verse four that certain persons have crept into the church unnoticed. Verse 8, he says, these men and then he follows up a scathing indictments against him. Verse 10, he says again, but these men revile the things which they do not understand. Verse 12, these are the men. And then he supplies five graphic metaphors from nature describing them. Verse 14, it was also about these men. And he goes on to explain a prophecy that we saw from Enoch. It's a prophecy of their coming doom. Verse 16, these are and he describes more marks of their character. He's been describing these men, these apostates, so we can be warned. But now he says in verse 17, but you, but you, this is to God's beloved. This is to the church. And this is the first time that Jude is going to give any imperatives directly to his readers, directly to his church. This marks a incredible turning point in our letter. It is the climax of this letter. Jude's told us about the infiltration of the apostate. He's told us about how we can recognize them, sketching us a forensic portrait. He's told us how that God will severely deal with them on Judgment Day. We've received the warning. But now he's calling for us to respond. Remember the purpose of this letter back in verse three? Why is Drew written this? He said, I'm writing this that you as the church, God's beloved, that you would know to earnestly contend for the faith once for all delivered to the saints. It's time for God's people to combat this false teaching, the dangerous influences around us. Not by drawing blood, right, like some crusaders, but by giving our lives for the gospel. It's time for us to respond to the warnings of apostasy. That's the whole thrust of these verses, 17 through 23. It's our time to respond to apostasy. And our text indicates three responses that we must make to the dangers of apostasy. The first response you must make if you're part of Christ's Church is to be mindful of Scripture's warnings. Be mindful of Scripture's warnings. That's verses 17 through 19. Let's look at verse 17. But you, beloved, ought to remember the words that were spoken beforehand by the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ. Jude now addresses his readers as the beloved, the people of God. And he calls us to remember the apostles words. Although the New Testament was still being assembled in Jude's time, the apostles words were held in highest regard by Jude and the early church. That is because as Jesus Christ was understood to have inaugurated his new covenant before his death, The early church was also expecting that Christ would give his people a collection, a body of new covenant literature. And of course Christ appointed apostles for this very purpose. So Jude begins by calling his readers, remember, you ought to remember the words that were spoken before him by the apostles. And his readers understood this is the New Covenant Scriptures that he's talking about. Why? Why is it imperative that we remember the words of warning from Christ's apostles? Well, three reasons from verses 17 through 19 to be mindful of Scripture's warnings. First, we must be mindful of Scripture's warnings for the very fact they are given to us. Or I could say they've already been given to us. Now this might seem obvious, almost too obvious, but it's worth pointing out. Jude says these words of warnings were something to be remembered. If he's saying they were to be remembered, he means you already know them. I'm just calling them to your attention once again. You already know this, but you need to remember it. You need to be mindful of it. And Jude says that these words of warnings were spoken beforehand. The warning has already been given. Jude's saying you are no longer in the dark. You no longer have any excuse. What you need to be aware of has already been spoken of beforehand. They say to be forewarned is to be forearmed. To be forewarned is to be forearmed. And that's Jude's point. You ought to be forearmed. You ought to be prepared because you have the warnings already. We certainly would hope that our Department of Homeland Security would pay careful attention to warnings confronting our country. Obviously, that's a concern of all of us. And yet, There's been multiple times when our nation hasn't paid attention to warnings. I mentioned one of those just with regards to Pearl Harbor. What about September 11, 2001? You look at that and red flags and things. We wish that someone somewhere would have paid more attention. to these warnings. If only someone somewhere somehow would have just paid attention to warnings. Well, that's what Jude is saying. He's saying the same way God's given you warnings in scripture. He's spoken beforehand. We don't have an excuse. We shouldn't be in the dark about this. And he's saying what you need to know about your enemy. The one opposing the church of Christ in this time is all in this book. It's all in the word of God. Well, we must be mindful of Scripture's warnings because they were spoken beforehand. We would be fools to ignore them. God is saying we are on red alert. The church ought to be on red alert. We're no excuse for ignoring that. So we must be mindful of Scripture's warnings because these warnings have already been given to us. But we must also be mindful of these warnings because they were spoken of, he says, by the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ. What is that referring to? Well, that is we must be mindful of Scripture's warnings because of the authority of these words. The authority of these words. Who are the apostles? Why should we be concerned with what they said? What makes their words so authoritative? Well, the apostles were Christ's select messengers, just like the prophets of the Old Testament. The apostles were those whom Jesus Christ directly commissioned to carry on his message of salvation. to spread the gospel of the kingdom. And we do not believe in apostolic authority in the same way Roman Catholics do. We believe apostolic authority has been preserved for us in Scripture, but we don't believe, like Catholics will claim, that this apostolic authority has been passed down to the Pope. They would say that someone like the Pope is now standing in the place of Peter. These are our modern day apostles. And that is their tradition. But we affirm with you that apostolic authority, it does come down to us, but it comes down to us in that which was spoken beforehand by the apostles themselves. And the only place we have what the apostles themselves said is in Scripture. It has been preserved for us in the New Testament scriptures. There are no apostles alive today. Newsflash. And that is because those apostles were those who Jesus Christ directly commissioned. Acts 1 even tells us that two objective additional qualifications for being an apostle was that they had to be somebody who was with Jesus Christ from the time of John's baptism of Jesus to Jesus ascension into heaven. And not only that, they had to be one who personally witnessed the risen Lord. There's no apostles alive today. So how can we then pay attention to what the apostles have said beforehand? How can we pay attention to their words by paying attention to scripture? The apostles authority. is preserved for us in New Testament scripture. And where does that authority come from again? Well, from our Lord Jesus Christ. Jude is careful to qualify that the authority of these men is an authority sourced in Jesus. He says, pay attention. Remember the words that were spoken beforehand by the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ. That's the source of their authority. It's important. They're not speaking of themselves. They're speaking of what Christ told them. And Jude knows that this authority will be recognized by all who love Christ. That's why he says they are the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ, inclusive of his readers, as opposed to the apostate. They don't at all behold the authority of Christ. Well, what were the apostles saying? Specifically, verse 18, they were saying that he says that they were saying to you in the last time, there will be mockers following after their own and godly lusts. Now, there are other places where you get this nuance, this warning of false teachers who would come. I shared some of that in the introduction of this letter. But Jude is directly citing here from the Apostle Peter in 2 Peter 3, verses 3 and 4. Let me cite that for you. Know this, first of all, Peter warned, that in the last days mockers will come with their mocking, following after their own lusts and saying, where is the promise of his coming? They said, where's the sign of Jesus coming? Come on, we've been waiting for this for a long time. And those who warned us before, they're dead. They're long gone. But Peter warned in the last days, these guys will come. That phrase in the last days is a is a phrase throughout the Bible. It is used to describe this epic of time between Jesus ascension into heaven and his return. We are living in that period of time. As far as we know, we're on the far end of it, right? But these are the last days. And Peter warned that there will be mockers that will come in this period of time. They will follow after the Onan Galileus. They will lead others away. That's their intention. Peter said they will come. Jude says they're here. Oh, they've arrived. And this brings us to a third reason from our text to be mindful of Scripture's warnings. We should be mindful of Scripture's warnings because they're not giving us a false alarm. The words of the apostles, the words of the New Testament are no false alarm. They bring home the fact here or Judas bringing home the fact that these words were presently being fulfilled. He says they're right now in the church. Verse 19. These are the ones. Remember those mockers that you were warned about that would come in into the church? Oh, yeah, they're here. He says this is not a drill. Church arrives. This isn't a drill. The Ukrainians had We've been told anticipated an invasion by the Russians for years. They were on guard, they were waiting for this to happen. Finally, it actually happened. That's kind of like the idea here. What the apostles had spoken beforehand, Jude saying, it's not a boy crying wolf. He's saying it's happening. Oh, it's happening. It's still happening in our time. This is a real battle. Students in grade school. I'm sure you can relate to this too and think back on a time. You know, they often struggle with just seeing the relevance of something they're studying, right? Why do I need to know participles and gerunds? What is that? What is that? Sine, cosine. What's the point of all this I'm having to learn in school? And sometimes it's difficult as a parent to communicate the relevance of what it is we're learning. Well, the deal is when it comes to scriptures, we are dealing with realities. We are always dealing with things that God knows we need in life. Scripture isn't dealing with what was spoken of beforehand by Christ's apostles is not dealing with theoretical speculations. Scripture is about both what is and what will be. God's telling us this is important. Be mindful of Scripture because it's no false alarm. These warnings are no false alarm. Here, Jude claims these apostates These guys have been telling you about they are the exact fulfillment of what was predicted in Scripture. Verse 19, these are the ones who cause divisions, worldly minded, devoid of the spirit. This is Jude's final description of the apostate. It's like before he moves on, he just can't help but add three more details, three more marks of the apostate, one final triad about them. And he says, first, they cause divisions. In one of the churches where I was on staff, we had this guy who was well-respected, well-educated, well-liked, nice guy, very personable. But it became evident that he was creating a division within the church. by some aberrant doctrines. And I had to bring this to the pastor's attention. We had to confront this guy, and he kept doing it. And we had to disfellowship him from the church. Why? Because he's a threat to the body. And I just have to say, that was impressive to me for the fact that if it had not been for the warnings in Scripture of those who cause divisions, mark them, Paul says, those that cause divisions in the church. Jude says these are those that cause divisions. If it hadn't been for the warnings of Scripture, I would never have guessed somebody like this could be doing this. But we need to be mindful of Scripture's warnings. Secondly, Jude says they are worldly minded from the Greek word tsukikos. That means soulish or natural as opposed to spiritual. It's the same word Paul uses in 1 Corinthians 2, verse 14, where he says, But the natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolish to him. And he cannot understand them because they are spiritually appraised. Ever tried witnessing to somebody who just mocked? They were so worldly minded and they said, eternal life? Forgiveness of sins? Come on. Really? You need to get with the real world. Come on, man. I'm concerned about... the things here and now in this world. And this is the worldly mindset, the worldly mindedness that Jude is describing. It's people who they can't appreciate things of true spiritual eternal value. They have no capacity with which to appreciate that which the scriptures teach us. That was the condition of these characters Jude describes. And that brings us to the third point. They were devoid of the spirit. That's pretty strong language because you're saying they weren't simply having an unspiritual moment. OK, they weren't simply lacking spiritual discernment. They were devoid of the spirit, period. They didn't have the Holy Spirit at all. And these are people partaking of communion with God's church. They are singing with God's church. They are teaching with God's church and they are devoid of the Holy Spirit. Imagine that. How could Jude be so dogmatic? I mean, Jude, how can anyone really judge spiritually somebody's spiritual condition? Isn't that judgment reserved for God alone? Well, yes, but that is exactly why God gave us his scriptures. And that and this is what Jude is doing. He is measuring by scripture, by the truth of God and the words of his apostles. He is measuring up these apostates and he's saying they don't measure up. They don't care for Christ's flock. They don't care for Christ's church. They don't care for the things that scripture teaches us. God's people care about. They are false. They are devoid of the spirit. And he could recognize them. How must we respond to the dangers of apostasy before us? Be mindful of Scripture's warnings. But a second response Jude gives us is be persevering in the faith. That's verses 20 and 21. Be persevering in the faith. Look at verse 20. But you, beloved, building yourselves up on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in the love of God. Now, stop right there. In these two verses, Jude gives us one command, one imperative, and it's this. Keep yourselves. That's the main idea. Keep yourselves. He's emphasizing the need for God's people to continue to persevere in the faith, the faith that he's already described for us as the once for all handed down to the saints faith in verse three. And he's indicated that these people he's talking to who are beloved through the church, they are those kept for Jesus Christ. Verse two. God's people are those who are kept for Christ. Christ preserves his people. That's God's side of the deal. Preservation. But here's our side of the deal. Here's the other side of the coin. Perseverance. Persevering in the faith. And surrounding this Command to keep yourselves are going to be three parts. Everything just modifies really how it is we are to persevere here in these two verses. So how must you persevere in the faith? Well, first of all, persevere by building up your faith. Build up yourself on your most holy faith. That's the process. And your most holy faith here is the same faith he's described in verse three again. It is not your subjective experience of faith. This is building yourself up on the objective truth of God's words. It's building yourself up on the word of God, the truth of God. Jesus said to the father, Oh, Lord, sanctify your people by your word. Your word is truth. We must be sanctified, we must be built up in our faith upon the Word of God. So being a Christian isn't then about simply some decision you made when you were 12 or 20. It's about being a builder. It's about building up your faith. Now, you say, well, Pastor, are you saying that being a Christian, becoming a Christian is about our works, then it's about what we do? Well, the Bible says, no, that Ephesians two, eight and nine, we are saved by grace through faith and not of works. It's not of ourselves. But did you know Ephesians two, 10 goes on to say that we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus to perform love in good works? That Jude is telling us the same thing here. If Christ saved you, he saved you to be his worker, one who is constantly building up your faith. There must be a present, continuous reality to your relationship with God, to your relationship with Christ. When when Christ saves a sinner, he gives you what? New birth, regeneration. Praise God for that. New birth means the beginning of new life. That's the point. It's the end of your old life. It's the beginning of what Scripture describes as sanctification, this process by which God intends to strip you of selfishness and sin and to make you more like his son. And that is a process. And this kind of building process is impossible apart from a genuine relationship with Christ. You've got to be truly connected to the vine. You've got to truly know God. Do you hear about error creeping into the churches, churches closing, people deserting our ranks? Judas saying, all right. You know, this would happen. But take heed to yourself as for yourself, build up your faith. Forget about others for a moment and consider yourself, how is your faith doing? Has your faith grown or failed in the last few days and weeks? Let's build up our faith in God's word. How can we persevere in the faith? By this process of building up our faith on God's word, but also only by a special power. He goes on to describe, he says, praying in the Holy Spirit, praying in the spirit that is persevere. by praying in the Holy Spirit. Here's the power of perseverance. It comes by right of our connection to God himself. Jude has already told us the apostates were devoid of the Spirit. They had no genuine connection to God. Their religion was all external, was just going through motions. And those devoid of the Spirit might feel a desire for the things of God for a week, a day, maybe a year, but it's just a phase. You know, it's the exact opposite for the true people of God. If you have the spirit of God, if you're one of his beloved, you're one of God's people, then God's spirit within you is like a fire constantly burning. Now, sometimes the fire may not be burning so strongly and brightly, but it's always burning. And God will always draw his people back. It means this. You will never be able to completely get away from God. You'll never be able to completely close the book and walk away from Jesus Christ. If his spirit is in you. Jude exhorts us who have the Spirit of God, as opposed to these apostates who don't, be praying in the Spirit or take advantage of what prayer is. What is prayer? This morning we discussed the essential essence of prayer in terms of communion with God. Communion with God. And Jyotzingh, if you know God, if you have the Spirit of God, take advantage of that connection with your Creator. 1 Corinthians 2, Paul explains, none of us could know God except by the Spirit of God. You can't know God except by his spirit. But then he says God has given us the spirit that we could know the things freely given to us from God. That's good news. There's hope. Romans 8, 28 tells us we don't even know how to pray as we ought to. But the spirit of God in us helps us. He connects us to God. We don't have an excuse here. There is a power to any true child of God. And it's the power behind any true perseverance in the faith. It's God's spirit at work in us. We have and should take advantage of communion with God. Just think about that the next time you are struggling to pray, struggling to connect with God out of his word. God gave me his spirit within me. I should enjoy meaningful communication with God. We should. Prayer is our lifeline. How can we persevere in the faith by this process of building up your faith? and by this power that comes through praying in the Spirit, and by rooting yourself more deeply in God's love. Here's the basis for our perseverance. Persevere by rooting yourself in God's love. Verse 21, Jude says, keep yourselves in the love of God. The word keep, he's used many times already. He's told us, verse one, God's beloved are kept for Jesus Christ. Twice in verse six, he says those angels who did not keep God's law and order. Oh, yeah, they're being kept in eternal bonds for judgment. Verse 13, he says, the apostate are reserved, kept for a judgment in blackest, darkest, you know, the blackest, darkest abyss. Now in verse 17, Jude uses this word again, but it's a command. And he says, you keep yourselves, you keep yourselves in God's love. The resolution then is remain firm, fixed. Reserve yourself to the love of God and nothing else. Root yourself in God's love. This is not our love for God. It is God's love for us. You know, our love for God is it does waver. It is movable. It's not always fixed. Right. But God's love for us is an anchor for the soul. It is immovable. That's the foundation of any perseverance. God's love for us, for his people, it never changes. And Jude has already addressed his readers in verse one as beloved in God the Father. We are those beloved in God the Father. God's love for his people, then, is the basis for perseverance. And just think of a tree putting down its roots. That's kind of the image here. That's kind of what comes to my mind. It works two ways. God is keeping his people by his great love. Romans 8, Paul says nothing can separate his people from his love. That's good news. But it works the other way around where we as God's saints must be rooting ourselves deeper into a relationship with God by abiding in and meditating on his love. This rooting ourselves further in God's love isn't a matter of us getting God to love us more. God can't love you more. You realize that? God's love is perfect for His children. What's it about then? What's the point of us rooting ourselves in God's love for us? Well, we need to root ourselves deeper in God's love toward us just in the same way that Paul describes in Ephesians 3. Ephesians 3, 17, Paul prayed that the Christians in Ephesus would be so rooted and grounded in love that they would be able to comprehend, to know the unfathomable depths of Christ's love for them. That's paradoxical. He's saying you need to root yourself in Christ's love, pursue this understanding of how much Christ loves you, even though you can't possibly fully understand it. We'll never fully know the depths of his love, but we must be constantly seeking to root ourselves in that love. And when you realize how much Christ loves you, guess what? You're going to desire to obey him. You're going to hate sin. Sins are going to begin stinging you like they hadn't before. You will feel sin as that slap on Christ's face, as a lash on his back, as nails on his cross. You will see how much your sin hurts God because you see how much he loves you. And that's going to hurt you. And you'll cringe at the thought of offending God. This is a way that God keeps his people. It's by us rooting ourselves deeply in his love for us. So how can we persevere in the faith? Build yourself up. Build your faith on the Word of God. It's by the power that comes from praying in the Holy Spirit. It's by rooting ourselves more deeply in God's love. And fourthly, we can persevere by, be persevering by waiting anxiously for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ. Look at verse 23, the latter half. Waiting anxiously for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to eternal life. He's told us, Judas told us about Christ's return in verses 14 and 15. Enoch prophesied about it, he said. Christ is coming. It's going to mean doom, judgment eternally to the ungodly. But that same coming is eternal hope. It means mercy. for God's people. That is what we are anxiously awaiting them. Like Paul said in 1 Thessalonians 5, 8, God has not destined us for wrath, that's his wrath, but for the attaining of salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us so that whether we awake or sleep, we will live together with him. Therefore, encourage one another. Encourage one another with this truth. If anyone ought to have hope in a dark world, it ought to be Christians. You know, I know we can get down about the economy or COVID or whatever, you know, people we get our throw our hands up in the air because what we see going on politically, maybe in our country, we get discouraged. But, you know, if anybody ought to have a true optimism and a hope, it ought to be us because we know what we're waiting. We know how the story ends. That's our hope. That's the hope of our perseverance. We see the light at the end of the tunnel and that's what we're running toward. How must we respond to the dangers of apostasy? Be mindful of Scripture's warnings. Secondly, be persevering in the faith. But thirdly, Jude says, be merciful to others. Verses 22 and 23. Be merciful to others. And there's some debate as to whether these verses describe two or three different groups of believers. I'm not going to get into all of the reasons for that, but I do believe Jude is giving us another triad. It's a group of three. Most translations reflect that, and that's the way we'll be looking at it, but verse 22, he says, and have mercy on some who are downing. Save others, snatching them out of the fire, and on some have mercy with fear, hating even the garments polluted by the flesh. Judas told us to be mindful of Scripture's warnings about the apostates and be persevering, be looking to your own faith, persevering, lest you yourself fall away. But now he says, Be merciful to those who've fallen victim to apostasy, those who are being led astray by the apostate's false teaching. Jude says have mercy. And that's ironic, because what's he just told us? In verse. Twenty one, he's told us that we are anxiously awaiting the mercy of Christ, and if we are expecting to receive Christ's mercy, you know what? We've got no excuse. We have to be willing to give some mercy. Let's briefly examine who it is that we're to give mercy to. There's three groups of persons that need your mercy. Group number one, those who are doubting. Verse 22, and have mercy on some who are doubting. The same word for doubt is a word that James uses twice in James 1, 6 through 8. For those who are doubting God, they're really struggling to trust God. Ever been there? He says, these people are struggling to trust God. Their life is so unstable. They're tossed about. And Jude's saying, have some mercy for those people. Maybe they need some rebuke. Maybe. Well, I know they need the word of God. They need the scriptures. But you know what? How about some mercy? Don't just give them some Bible verses, throw the book at them, but give them your mercy. People ought to feel comfortable sharing with us our doubts or their doubts. Let people feel safe around you. Let them know they can be honest with you, because otherwise we really can't help them, can we? And as people can confide with us what they really think. We can tell them what God really says to help them. But these are those who they need to share their doubts without being hammered. They need some mercy. Group number two that needs mercy are those facing judgment, those facing God's judgment. He says, save others, snatching them out of the fire. The fire is an image of the judgment of God. And sometimes the mercy that we need to give people takes the form of a desperate measure, a desperate rescue mission. That's these category of people. And the snatching here means to suddenly sneeze as to suddenly seize as if by force. This is a desperate measure. Jude's image of snatching these people out of the fire is it reflects on an Old Testament image in Amos chapter four, Zechariah chapter two, where God says, I plucked my people out of the fire. You were going to be consumed in my judgment. I snatched you out. That's God's mercy. And mercy for troubled souls ought to drive us to emergency measures. I think that's a great application. Be willing to stop what you're doing. Be willing to change your plans, change your schedule. Be willing to, at an inconvenient hour, reach out to somebody who needs some mercy, because that's what mercy does. That's the mercy Jude's after. Group number three, there are people who need our mercy, those who are polluted by the flesh. Second half of verse 23, he says, And on some have mercy with fear, hating even the garment polluted by the flesh. Now just talking about having mercy on people that are so stained with sin, it could become a problem for us. Their sin could possibly become our problem. Jude says, have mercy with fear, have a healthy fear. And I think he's he's saying that because if you aren't careful. If you don't have a fear of God. Their sin could easily become yours. And if you haven't noticed, that's because the Bible teaches us sin is contagious. Paul told us and warned us that sin, like leaven, just a little bit tolerated in the midst of a congregation can leaven the whole lump. It has a leavening effect on us all. It affects us. It affects our success. It affects our assembly. And I know that. Some churches might be a little more serious about how they handle COVID-19, perhaps, than how they handle sin. But that's a shame to us. Are we more concerned about COVID? Probably do a pretty good job, you know, quarantining, being careful. What about sin in our midst? Is the church concerned about that? We ought to think about that. Paul said, when you see a person caught in sin, restore such a one in a spirit of humility. Why? Because you better be considering yourself, lest you also be tempted. Help them, yes, but help them knowing I could fall into that same error. I like to use the imagery of building a bridgehead. You know, when you establish a bridge with somebody, trying to help them, just be aware that you establish a bridgehead. Be discerning, lest their errors cross over into you and become your own. Jude says, that we are to have mercy with fear, hating even the garment polluted by the flesh. It's not just having a healthy fear. It's having a holy hatred, a holy hatred for sin. The garment polluted by the flesh is figurative for a life that's defiled by sin. And all of us are there at one point, right? I think Specifically, he's describing those who've been defiled by the errors of apostasy. The immorality that the apostates were teaching and enjoying in their lifestyle, it has corrupted some of these in the church. Some of these believers and some of it led away into their divisive doctrines or their greed, whatever it is. And Jude's saying, keep a holy hatred for the sin. We use this cliche, but this is one place it would apply. He's saying, love the sin, love the sinner, but hate the sin. Love the sinner, but hate the sin. That's the sense here. It's like an old preacher I heard that said once, if you're going to help somebody out of a bog, sinking in a bog and you want to help them, you can't get down in the bog with them. You're both going to die. That's not the kind of merciful act that God is after here. He's saying we've got to keep our foot on solid ground. We've got to be in the right place. We have to have a holy hatred and loathing for sin so we can be in a position where we can help somebody out of their error. Jude's given us a lot to think about. He's given us a call to action. That's the essence of this text. So how have we responded? How are you responding to the errors around you? You hear about the stuff on the news. If you're a Christian in the word of God, you you see error all the time all around us. It's in our schools. It's in churches. And it could creep into our very assembly. But if we're going to respond right. We need to be mindful of Scripture's warnings. We need to be persevering in our own faith. It's not just about others, right? It's about our relationship with Christ. And we need to be merciful toward others who are falling prey to these errors. We need to try to help them. Hearing the truth and obeying the truth are two different things. So we need to respond. It's been good. All the things we've heard about apostasy from this letter, it's good. It's helpful for us. But if we don't respond as a church, if we don't do the things that Jude is telling us here, that does us no good. This truth of God in this letter does us no good. Of course, you could be listening this morning and maybe you've never responded to the gospel of Jesus Christ. You've maybe even you've heard the gospel. You've heard Jesus inviting you to receive his offer of eternal life. You've been a churchgoer for a long time, but you've never responded. Well, Jesus said this. He said, if anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. Come. And I will give to you the waters of life. He said, if you come to me from your innermost being will flow rivers of living water. Christ wants to give you something genuine that religion and church can't. And so if you've never responded to call the gospel, there's not a better time than today. Please see me about that. That is our passion at this church. Let's pray.