Enemies Within The Walls: Apostasy (part 1)

And he will continue next week on failing to reconcile and that part of it. But I wanted to continue to stay within the same overall subject matter, enemies within the walls, and today we're going to talk a little bit about apostasy.

Apostasy as an Enemy Within the Church

My desire this morning, amongst other things, is to encourage you, to exhort you and to equip you, at least in the beginning kind of stage, to know how to minister in the age that we live in, which is an age of apostasy.

And that's what I want us to look at this morning briefly. Last year I'd done a Sunday school. We had kind of looked on one of the Gospels, John chapter 6, a classic chapter on apostasy. It's called the bread of life discourse where Jesus is talking, claiming that he is the bread of life.

And the eternal life is found only in him and you have to eat his flesh and drink his blood. You've got to partake all of him and the people were offended by his teaching. And it says in the scriptures there in John 6 towards the end, verse 60, I believe that a number of disciples stopped following him at that point.

And of course he turned to the 12 then and he said, will you leave also? Of course with Peter's great exclamation, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. And as we went through that passage, I think I mentioned an example of a friend, dear friends of ours in New York who we found out from another mutual friend, a couple that my wife and I had been involved with, who had, it seemed, apostatized from the faith and gone back to the Greek Orthodox Church, which does not believe in the biblical or teach the biblical gospel.

So this Christmas my wife and I went to visit her side of the family. And so we went one morning to a classic New York diner. And after that I said, why don't we stop by unannounced and visit them? Uh-oh.

So we did. And we haven't seen them for about 10 years, 12 years maybe. But we've been in touch over these years by phone, by email. And so we showed up. Their youngest son had... Now we hadn't seen their children for, like I said, 10 years.

So we knew their kids when they were yay high and now they're in high school and some of them in college. And we saw their youngest one whom we didn't know. He wasn't born at the time. And we asked if his folks were.

And anyway, to make a long story short, as all the other kids came out, they remembered us. And we just embraced. We hugged the children. We embraced them. We loved them. They loved us. And so mom and dad came out after.

And so we just naturally started talking, just making chit-chat. And my friend who I was in a discipling relationship with, his wife kind of opened the can of worms, which was fine, and said, you know, God had to strip me of doctrine.

That was her initial response to us. God had to strip me of doctrine. And I was so happy of that. Now, as you walk into their living room, you'll see, I don't know what you call it, where you put the dishes with a mirror.

What do we call that? Yes, the hutch. It was a hutch full of icons from the Greek Orthodox faith. I mean, it's just right there. You can't miss it unless you're totally blind. So when she said that, we started talking about some of the things that was going on in their lives.

And they mentioned how both their parents had been struggling through cancer and how they got through that and how difficult that was. And we were listening. And then as they were relating that, I began to relate to them, as they know the passage, but it was a good reminder, the story of Joseph.

I kind of walked through them with that. And at the end, I said, you know, Joseph's response was quite amazing. That he said that you intended to harm me, but God intended it for good. These brothers of his who initially intended to kill him sold them into slavery, and we saw the providence of God in the big picture.

And I said, Joseph was able to say that. You know why? Because he believed in the sovereignty of God. Now, mind you, let me back up a little bit. This was about 18 years ago when we were involved with them, and particularly myself in a discipling relationship.

At the time, they were very diehard believers in the doctrines of grace. They believed that in salvation, God is sovereign and man cannot cooperate with God. And at the time, I believed that man needed to cooperate with God.

And yet I was helping this man in his faith, helping him grow and mature in his faith. And now they've gone to the other extreme. They don't believe that God is sovereign in salvation, that man has to cooperate.

So when I made that statement, going back to Joseph, that God is sovereign, and Joseph saw that, her response was, his wife's response was, Hallelujah! Amen! This is after telling me five minutes earlier that she was thankful that God had stripped her of doctrine.

And I said, do you realize what you just said hallelujah and amen to? She's like, what? The doctrine of the sovereignty of God. You just told me that God stripped you of all that. Anyway, we continued discussing some things about, and she, underneath her hutch with all her icons, she had on the bottom shelves a full set.

We're talking about 18 years ago. They were diehards, believing fully in the biblical sovereignty of God. And they had, both of them, the whole set of Pastor John MacArthur's New Testament commentaries.

She doesn't want to touch them. They don't want to touch them anymore, either of them. So they gave them to us. I'd rather that they didn't give it to us, rather than they would continue on. But we continued to talk to them about it, and talked about how a person, reminding them that a person is spiritually not only dead in sin, darkened in their understanding, and we can go through a whole list biblically, in bondage to sin and Satan.

So how can a person ultimately cooperate with God? Because a person in and of themselves will never seek God. There is no one who seeks after God, Romans 3. So anyway, it was a good opportunity to minister to them.

Came back, we followed up with an email, and we encouraged them, we called them to repentance. And they felt that they haven't left the Lord. The icons are just a way of remembering and honoring the saints, and so on and so forth.

And I encouraged them to look into the Greek Orthodox Church, that it is contrary to the biblical gospel. And sometimes when a person is in a situation like that, they can't see clearly, so they think that the Greek Orthodox Church, if you don't know about it, they believe that you have to be saved by being baptized as an infant, by them, not through the finished work of Christ.

No, no, they believe Ephesians 2, 8 and 9, by God's sovereign grace. No, they don't. So I share that story to say that enemies within the walls, we don't know ultimately what's going to happen of them.

If ultimately they return to the Lord, if their defection is not full and final, then we know that they were truly of the Lord. But the fact that we're able to still engage in conversation is a good thing, and take them back to scriptures, and point them back to Christ.

What Apostasy Means

So this morning, based upon that, I want us to look at, biblically, some things concerning this enemy within the walls, apostasy. Apostasy simply comes from two Greek terms, stasis, which means a stance, where you stand, and apo, which means away from.

So it's to stand away from, and as it's used primarily in scripture, it's to stand away from truth, from biblical truth. That's apostasy. To stand, to have an attitude or a stance spiritually, to stand away, not wanting to do anything with biblical truth.

So let's look, let's have some, I have all the scriptures here so we don't have to be turning to them, and we'll have some discussion and have you read some of these passages. Let's look at what the Bible says about apostasy, that it is a reality.

So let's have, somebody can read 1 Timothy 4 there, and Mark, thank you, and then somebody else. So I'm not going to have you raise your hands, Mark will begin with 1 Timothy 4, and whoever wants to read the second one, and we'll have four different people read those passages.

So just pay close attention as we read. Go ahead, nice and loud. So clearly, the first two passages, the pastoral epistles, Paul writing to young pastor Timothy, 1 Timothy 4, the Spirit expressly says that in a line of time some will depart from the faith, as was read there, and notice, how are they going to do that?

They will devote themselves to what? The teachings of demons. Interesting. Apostasy has to do with teaching, with truth. Do you stand close to the truth of God's Word, or do you stand away from the truth of God's Word and follow the teaching of demons?

2 Timothy 4, classic passage, we'll return back to that. Paul's swan song, it was his last letter written before he went to be with the Lord, making it very clear that people would not endure what? There it is again, sound teaching.

They're following the teaching of demons, so why would they want to endure sound teaching? They want to tickle their ears. They have itching ears, they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their what?

What's the text say? Their own passions, what they want. It's not what they need to hear, it's what they want to hear. But in doing so, Paul continues in 2 Timothy 4, not only will they accumulate and listen to teachers, teachings of demons from teachers to suit their own passions, but in doing so they will turn away, apostasy, turn away from listening to the truth and while they turn away from the truth, biblical truth, they turn aside to what?

Teachings of demons. Acts 20 was a passage of Paul again, speaking to the Ephesian elders, he meets with the Ephesian elders. That whole chapter is a passionate plea by the Apostle Paul. And notice the language he uses, language of assurance.

This is the reality of apostasy. I know, not I think or I hope, I know that after my departure, notice how he describes false teachers, fierce wolves, fierce wolves and what will they do? Not sparing the flock.

This is after he said in the verses previously in context to the elders, to the shepherds of the church in Ephesus, watch over the flock which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers. Well, the flock that the elders are to watch over is these fierce wolves who are going to attack this flock.

And in verse 30 he continues, from among your own selves, this is enemies within the walls, from among your own selves will arise men speaking twisted things and what's their purpose ultimately? To draw disciples after them.

So as false teachers and apostasy increases as Paul makes it very clear to Timothy and to the Ephesian elders, it's because these false teachers are not teaching biblical truth, they're teaching the teachings of demons.

People want to listen to it because they're after their own passions and they will draw disciples after them. And in Jude, Jude also highlights the reality of apostasy as was read by our brother Scott.

I won't reread it again. There will be scoffers and what do they follow? Their own ungodly passions. This is a reality of apostasy. It was true in Paul's day, in Jude's day, in Christ's day and we can go back even to the Old Testament, but I wanted to highlight some of the pastoral epistles and some of the apostolic teaching on apostasy, that this is a reality and it's happening in our day today.

And it will continue to happen, right? 1 Timothy says, expresses that in a later time some will depart from the faith. It will continue to happen. So apostasy, people who do not want to hear the true teaching of Scripture, don't want to stand close to biblical truth but stand away from biblical truth, is happening.

And of course we have a plethora of false teachers to accommodate what people's itching ears want to hear. That's the reality of our day. Any comments or questions, Joni? Well, okay, based on Jude there, if we were to study the good question, Joni, she's asking what does scoffers mean there.

That's a reference to the, it's another term used that Jude uses earlier in his epistle when he says, there will be false prophets who will creep in. So it's not the deceived who are listening to the false teachers.

The scoffers is a reference to the false teachers who will be scoffing and making. Peter also uses that terminology, right? In 2 Peter 2 he spends a whole chapter talking about, beware of false teachers.

And in chapter 3 when he talks about Noah and stuff, he refers to them, there will be scoffers saying, where is this coming? He's talking about the false teachers that are deceived. He's a reference there specifically to the false teachers, yes.

And we're going to address that at the end as to how we go about, in terms of who we minister. We felt that we wanted to continue to minister to our friends. They wanted to engage in us in conversation.

Okay, what's going on here? Let's turn back to the scripture and point you back to Christ. Any other comments, questions? Okay, reasons for apostasy. Obviously, we can go through a whole plethora of reasons.

Of course, ultimately it's predicted in the scripture. God says this will happen. Ultimately, it's because of different manifestations of man's sinfulness, rebellion against God that begins not because of action, but because of an unregenerate heart with a heart of flesh.

But let me highlight a couple, a few actually here. Why there is such a growing state of apostasy in our land, and there was back in New Testament times. The first one is the neglect of doctrine. Just as I mentioned to our friends there, they said, well, God needed to strip us of doctrine.

And then in my follow-up letter to them, why would God want to strip somebody of that which teaches about him? Help me understand that. Doctrine is nothing more than truth, biblical truth about God and the things that he's revealed.

So you're claiming that this God is stripping you of truth that reveals about himself. Why would he do that? It doesn't sound like the God of the Bible that I know. But there's a neglect of doctrine. Let's have some others read Ephesians.

He's writing to the church in Ephesus, which he had just addressed the elders in Acts 20. Okay, Ephesians 4. And then somebody else, if you can read 1 Timothy 1. Anybody who would like to lead that, that would be great.

Thank you. Thank you, guys. Okay, Ephesians kind of brings out some important truths. Can you have ecclesiastical unity apart from doctrinal unity? Question. Why and why not? I see a lot of smiles. That was the intent of the question.

There was motive behind it. Can you have unity in the body apart from doctrinal unity? Why not? Okay. Okay. Superficial unity, but not biblical unity. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Good point. Very well put.

Thanks, Charlie. Now, notice here, it's highlighted by Paul. Of course, this is the passage. We didn't have the, looking at the context, Ephesians 4. Early in Ephesians, Paul highlights the headship of Jesus Christ overall, even to the church, Ephesians 1.

And the same Jesus in chapter 4 is the one who, Jesus Christ, the head of the church, he gave gifts to people. And one of those gifts, he gave some as apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers for the equipping of the saints.

And that was verses 11 and 12. For what purpose? Until we all attain to what? The unity of the? Of the faith. The unity of the faith. And we'll see later on when Jew uses that terminology and some other apostles.

The unity of the faith. Unity comes because of faith meaning apostolic teaching. It's a body of truth. The unity of the faith in terms of what we believe, biblical doctrine in teaching. And then he talks here about the neglect of doctrine happens because as a result of that, what happens is that people are carried away by every wind of doctrine.

And they're infants, children. There's no maturity. So doctrine, what Paul is highlighting here, a couple of things amongst other things, that in Ephesians 4, that doctrine is important not only for maturity, but it's also important for unity in the body.

You can't have it otherwise. Doctrine is important not only for maturity, but it is also important for unity. And notice 1 Timothy that Paul read there, that Paul wrote to Timothy there. Later on in 1 Timothy, he gives his authorial intent in chapter 3 where he tells us why he is writing.

So that you would know how you ought to conduct yourself in the church of God, the pillar of the truth, right? But here he states specifically to Timothy why he left him in Macedonia, in Ephesus rather.

Remember, he had spoken to the Ephesian elders, Acts 20. We know from the full counsel of Holy Writ, especially in Revelation, Ephesus, what happened to Ephesus in Revelation. And here he specifically tells Timothy the reason he left him at Ephesus, so you may charge certain people not to teach any different doctrine.

Timothy, I want you to stay in Ephesus to teach the people how to love one another. Timothy, I want you to stay in Ephesus so you can do something positive, encourage the people. It sounds like a negative exhortation almost.

Charge people not to teach any different doctrine. This is why I'm leaving you, this is your sole and primary purpose for staying on at Ephesus and why I'm leaving you behind. So part of the major reason for apostasy back then and even today is a neglect in doctrine.

You don't want to talk doctrine. That's not important as our friend said, you know, doctrine, God stripped me of doctrine. That's an oxymoron. God will never strip somebody of doctrine when doctrine is truth from the Bible that teaches people about God's revelation about himself and everything else important including salvation.

Let me read you, this is from Pastor MacArthur's book, Truth War, he wrote back in 2007. It was really a response to the emergent church why he wrote it, but a lot of the principles still apply biblically.

But listen to what he says here, very poignant. Many Christians today are wary of the long war over truth. They are uneasy about whether doctrinal disagreements and divisions are a blight on the spiritual unity of the church and therefore a poor testimony to the world.

These and similar questions are constantly heard nowadays. Isn't it time to set aside our differences and just love one another? Rather than battling people with whom we disagree over various points of doctrine, why not stage a cordial dialogue with them and listen to their ideas?

Can't we have a friendly conversation rather than a bitter clash? Shouldn't we be congenial rather than contentious? Does the current generation really need to perpetuate the fight over beliefs and ideologies?

Or can we at last declare peace and set aside all the debates over doctrine? End quote. Doctrine is not important. Why fight about it? Let's just love one another. Our friends, which kind of segues into my next point of the reasons for apostasy, a few years ago they were going to church that taught the sovereignty of God, that did expository preaching in New York and highlighted all of the aspects of biblical doctrine that are essential.

But they were going through some difficult times in their personal lives and in the church and at one point we were talking to them on the phone and I remember them saying, well, you know, 1 John, which we're going to get to in a second, talks to us about love.

Let's love one another. God is love. Yes, but the first six verses of 1 John 4, before he introduces all that, he talks about the spirit of truth and the spirit of error. He talks about false prophets who have gotten into the world.

And that's why I think, secondly, as you see there in your notes, another reason for growing apostasy in our land is the unbiblical disconnect between love and truth and between the love of God and the wrath of God.

Well, we've heard it before and I know we've discussed it here. Pastor Mike has done a few things on it. Oh, I don't want the God of the Old Testament, I want the God of the New Testament. Okay, let's go to Acts 5 and Ananas and Sapphira.

You want the God of the New Testament. Well, you want the God of the Old Testament. How about the minor prophet Jonah? Jonah wanted to basically think in suicidal thoughts because God was so compassionate because he was showing his compassion towards the people of Nineveh.

So what is your view of the God of the Old and New Testament? But there's this disconnect from love and truth and also love and the wrath of God. Let's do the first verses there. Somebody can read both of them from 1 Corinthians 13.

Read first verse 13 as I have it there in that order. I did that intentionally and then verse 6. Thank you. Amongst the other descriptive terms of love, love rejoices with the truth. And also let's do John 3.

Somebody else want to thanks for reading that. John 3, verse 16 and then jump to verses 18 and 19. I was confronted with this a couple of years ago just sharing a story, not to highlight myself but just to highlight just in church circles, evangelical circles, this growing thinking.

I had the privilege of speaking at a friend's funeral a few years back and I exhorted the people when you have a funeral or a wedding, great opportunity to give the gospel. You give the gospel at funerals and weddings.

That's what you do. There are dead souls there and need to hear the gospel. Some of the people didn't like that I did that. So some friends of mine that I kind of grew up in the church when I was young came and talked to me and said, you know, we believe in that 1 Corinthians 13 verse 13, but the greatest of these is love.

I said, I believe that too. I really do. But I also believe the whole chapter, not just that one verse. I believe that the one that abides, faith, hope, and love, the one that abides, love, that love, Paul says, rejoices with the truth.

And because I care and love souls, that's why I'm going to give the hard gospel truth. But we believe in John 3 .16. I do too. I believe in John 3 .16. God used that verse in my life to bring me to saving faith.

But I also believe in the rest of what Jesus told Nicodemus. Verses 18 and 19. People who do not believe stand condemned already. They love the darkness rather than the light. And that's why we need to give the gospel.

1 John, we already highlighted. I won't have us read that. Okay, let's do a fun thing here. Any comments on these first two, then I'll get to the last two reasons for apostasy or questions. Okay, the third one that I think is why there's such a growing apostasy besides the neglect of doctrine and disconnect between love and truth and love of God and the wrath of God, is the seduction of trends.

I have a Yahoo e-mail account. So initially before I get on there, you go to the Yahoo home page. It has a section which says trending now, right? What's trending now? And it changes every five minutes or so.

It usually has to do with the Hollywood industry or whatever. But what's trending now in the church? What was trending five years ago? What was trending ten years ago? Let me read this quote. I'm not giving you who wrote it.

And I want you to, because if I tell you who wrote it, you'll know when it was written. But I'll read this quote and we're going to play a game and see if you can guess approximately what decade it was written and who wrote it or one of the two.

And to see that this is, you could read this today. This is a commentary of today. But you'll be shocked as to when this was written. So when something new comes up and you see people getting very excited about it, you happen to be in the position of being able to remember a similar excitement, perhaps, 40 years ago.

And so one has been and seen fashions and vogues and stunts coming one after another in the church. Each one creates great excitement and enthusiasm and is loudly advertised as the thing that is going to fill the churches, the thing that is going to solve the problem.

They have said that about every single one of them. But in a few years, they have forgotten all about it. And another stunt comes along or another new idea. Somebody has hit upon the one thing needful or he has a psychological understanding of modern man.

Here is the thing. And everybody rushes after it. But soon, it wanes and disappears and something else takes its place. Any guesses? Yes. Close. The language is almost Spurgeon-esque, but it wasn't Spurgeon.

What's that? Not Tozer. J .C. Ryle. J .C. Ryle, no. The Doctor. Charlie? It was the 70s, but it wasn't McGee. Dearly Beloved. Yes. Martin Lloyd-Jones. Martin Lloyd-Jones in the 70s, written in the 70s.

It's funny, J. Vernon McGee, I have to say that. It's not part of the discussion, but I was listening to him recently, and he said, Dearly Beloved, as he introduced himself, he says, I'm going to give you the most theological point nobody else will give you on the radio.

And so I was gearing up and saying, okay, this is something new I've never heard before. So he said, the Apostle Paul, in writing, I think he was in the book of Philippians, says, I pray for you and I pray in every remembrance of you all.

I pray for you in every remembrance of you all. And he says another point, the Apostle Paul says reckon. So the fact that he says reckon and you all means that the Apostle Paul was a southern boy, he says.

So anyway, that's a little side note. Thanks, Charlie, for that digression. No. Yes. Nineteen seventy one. This is taken from his book Preaching and Preachers. We're in what? Two thousand fourteen. Forty two, forty three years later.

This is a commentary of today. Do you remember? I remember when I first when we first moved from New York, when we came to church plant under the Southern Baptist banner, all the other church plant pastors that I used to gather and meet with every so often would say to me, are you doing P .D .C.?

Anybody know what P .D .C. is? I see some faces. Are you doing P .D .C.? Purpose Driven Church by Rick Warren. Is your church plant going to be a P .D .C. church? No. No. Everybody in the Southern Baptist is doing it.

I know. Or when the time came, do you remember the trends or some of the the Alpha Course? You know, you're driving by and all the churches are advertising the Alpha Course. The prayer of Jabez now. This is the thing.

This is the thing. I will do it next Sunday school. This is the thing. And it goes from one to the next to the next. Trends. Finally, I would say it's the lack of discernment in our churches. First John 4 .1.

Can somebody read that? Very powerful. I alluded to it earlier. First John 4 .1. Nice and loud, if you will. Thank you. We seem to believe every spirit nowadays so easily. It says clearly, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits.

It's a command because many false prophets have gone out into the world. There's no sense of discernment nowadays. We just believe and follow everything that comes down the pike. Well, it goes back to number one.

Since we're not doctrinally, have a doctrinal sure foundation, then we just, like the winds and the waves, get tossed to and fro. Okay. Any comments or questions about some of the reasons for apostasy in our day?

How the Church Should Respond to Apostasy

Okay. How should we respond? Now, here some of you might say, well, look, I'm not an ordained minister. I'm not an ordained pastor. Some of these don't apply with me. Nice try. Let's see what the Scripture says.

Some of them are directed to pastors and the pastoral epistles. But some of these injunctions are directed to every person who has been saved by the sovereign grace of God. Okay. First of all, we looked at earlier, the first thing is to preach the word.

Of course, that's initially directed to Pastor Timothy. It's an injunction for pastors. It's in the context of what we read earlier, for the time will come. You would think Paul would say, you know, the time's coming when people will not put up with sound doctrine.

Therefore, knowing that, don't preach the word, because then people will listen. But knowing that people want itching ears to listen to non-biblical truth, yet, nonetheless, preach the word. Be prepared in season and out of season.

I give you this charge in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus. Preach the word. Secondly, be vigilant. This is Paul's address to the Ephesian elders. I'm going back to that, Acts 20. Can somebody else read that?

And notice the passion. If you can hear the passion in Paul's words as he addresses the Ephesian elders. Somebody read that? Three years. You think it was important to Paul? I think so. Thirdly, this is Paul's letter to Titus.

This is a list of qualifications for elders and leaders and pastors. Our response is to rebuke false teachers. Titus 1 .9. He must hold firm to the trustworthy word as taught, so that he may be able to give instruction in sound doctrine and also to rebuke those who contradict it.

So, Paul says a pastor, elder, leader should hold firm to the trustworthy word as taught, to Scripture, for a twofold purpose. One positive and one more from a negative perspective. So that first he can give instruction in what?

Sound doctrine. But then also to rebuke those who contradict it. To call them out for teaching that which is not according to Scripture. Fourthly, what do we need to do? On the back side of your notes.

Contend for the faith. Contend for the faith. Strong word that Jude uses. Somebody, would you read verse three there from Jude? The opening verse there. Thank you. Okay, this is Jude now. Remember earlier we talked about Paul, the unity of the faith?

Being a body of truth? A body of doctrine? Biblical, scriptural truth? Well, Jude uses the same terminology. To contend for what? For the faith. For the truth of Scripture. For sound doctrine. The body of truth that consists of our faith.

That was what once for all delivered to the saints. Contend is a strong word. The Greek has a sense of sweating over it, agonizing. Sort of like Paul said to the Ephesian elders in Acts 20. For three years.

Being passionate about it. As followers, as believers, as those whom God has saved by His sovereign grace. To really make this a priority. If you want to learn more about this, I encourage you to come back tonight.

Philippians 1. Bob will be addressing that tonight. Philippians 1, Paul says, Striving side by side together for the faith of the gospel. What does that mean as a body, as fellow believers, striving side by side for the gospel?

Okay, since you mentioned Spurgeon, do you have a... Did you get a copy of these? Would you read that quote from Spurgeon? This is a Spurgeon quote. Listen to what Spurgeon says. Thank you. Good job reading.

The church is the church militant. The church at war. The purity of truth must always, to emphasize the last sentence, Be at war with the blackness of heresy and lies. And just because time's running out, let me just run through these last ones.

Five through nine. This is taken from the book of Jude. Jude, that's what he devotes his one epistle to. Actually, he was intending to write to them about our common salvation, he says. But he was constrained to write about this instead.

Led, of course, by the divine author, the Holy Spirit of God. So how are we to do? And notice what he says. I'll just read these. I broke them down, the verses. They're just one phrase after another at the end of Jude.

It's just simple injunctions for us as believers. We're to grow ourselves. Jude says, but you, beloved, building yourselves up in your most holy faith. Grow. Continue to mature in the faith. Don't stop growing.

Secondly, pray. Jude 20, in praying in the Holy Spirit. Seven, obey. Keep yourselves in the love of God. What does the love of God constitute? Always tell my children. I love you, Daddy. Do you really?

Will you do what I ask you to do? If you love me, you will. Obey my commandments. Obey. Continue to live in obedience. Also, Jude says, to wait. For what? Verse 21, waiting for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ that leads to eternal life.

So knowing that this is happening, we look ahead expectantly for his second coming. But finally, last but not least, have a couple of minutes. Minister. Notice what he says in Jude 22 to 23. So how do you deal with people who are either the deceived or those who are the scoffers who are leading people astray?

It's kind of three sets of people that Jude highlights here. Have mercy on those who doubt. Save others by snatching them out of the fire. To others, show mercy with fear, hating even the garment stained by the flesh.

Strong words. And let me just close with these. This is, again, taken from Pastor MacArthur's book, The Truth War. But he really does a good job highlighting what Jude is addressing here in terms of these three groups of people.