JUDE 1:20-25
FROM HERE TO ETERNITY
In one of his books, A. M. Hunter, the New Testament scholar, relates the story of a dying man who asked his Christian doctor to tell him something about the place to which he was going. As the doctor fumbled for a reply, he heard a scratching at the door, and he had his answer.
“Do you hear that?” he asked his patient. “It’s my dog. I left him downstairs, but he has grown impatient, and has come up and hears my voice. He has no notion what is inside this door, but he knows that I am here. Isn’t it the same with you? You don’t know what lies beyond the Door, but you know that your Master is there.” Christian Theology in Plain Language, p. 208
A widely respected man known as “Uncle Johnson” died in Michigan at the incredible age of 120. Perhaps his advanced years could be credited in part to the cheerful outlook that characterized his life.
One day while at work in his garden, he was singing songs of praise to God. His pastor, who was passing by, looked over the fence and called,
“Uncle Johnson, you seem very happy today.”
“Yes, I was just thinking,” said the old man.
“Thinking about what?” questioned his pastor.
“Oh, I was just thinking that if the crumbs of joy that fall from the Master’s table in this world are so good, what will the great loaf in glory be like! I tell you, sir, there will be enough for everyone and some to spare up there.” Source unknown
A little girl was taking an evening walk with her father.
Wonderingly, she looked up at the stars and exclaimed; “Oh, Daddy, if the wrong side of heaven is so beautiful, what must the right side be!” Charles L. Allen in Home Fires
In his classic devotional book titled The Saint’s Everlasting Rest, English Puritan pastor and author Richard Baxter (1615-1691) wrote:
“Why are not our hearts continually set on heaven? Why dwell we not there in constant contemplation?…Bend thy soul to study eternity, busy thyself about the life to come, habituate thyself to such contemplations, and let not those thoughts be seldom and cursory, but bathe thyself in heaven’s delights.” Our Daily Bread, July 28, 1997
(ALL OF THE ABOVE ILLUSTRATIONS CAME FROM http://www.bible.org/illus/h/h-21.htm#TopOfPage)
I have entitled tonight’s message From Here to Eternity. There was a movie by that name, but the movie had nothing to do with Heaven.
Those of us who are Christians are looking forward to everlasting life or eternity in Heaven.
The trouble is, when we were saved, Jesus just didn’t take us there. In fact for some us it will probably take us a long time to get from here to there. In the meantime, how do we, as Christians, go about living, moving ahead until the day the Lord calls us home? How do we get from here to eternity?
The little book of Jude is a pretty fiery book. For most of the book, Jude, a half-brother to Jesus takes on apostasy and tells his readers to earnestly “contend for the faith”. Alexander MacLaren calls Jude’s outburst against apostasy “thunderings and lightenings”. At the end of the book, however, Jude tells his readers what to do with their lives while they are moving from here towards eternity.
Alexander MacLaren - “The storm ends in gentle rain and he tells the brethren who are yet faithful how they are to comport themselves in the presence of prevalent corruption, and where is their security and their peace.” Alexander MacLaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture, Volume XVII, (Grand Rapids, Michigan, William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1944) p, 97 (This is a reprint.)
So tonight we are going let “Brother Jude” show us how to move From Here to Eternity.
PROGRESSING
PRAYING
PRESERVING
PURSUING
PARTICIPATING
PRAISING
PROGRESSING
Jude 1:20 - But ye, beloved, building up yourselves on your most holy faith,
What takes longer, building something or destroying something? Why?
It wouldn’t take long with the right equipment to destroy a house, but ask anyone who builds one, and they’ll tell you it takes much longer to build one.
It wouldn’t take long to destroy your character or ruin your testimony.
But character building as a Christian is never done. Building and maintaining your testimony are an ongoing process.
A saint no less holy than the Apostle Paul said this in Philippians 3:12-14, Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect: but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus. [13] Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, [14] I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.
So how do we progress in the Christian life?
…building up yourselves on your most holy faith,
What is your most holy faith?
It is the same faith mentioned in Jude 1:3, 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.
The “faith once delivered” is found in the Word of God.
In order for you to progress in your Christian walk, to increase in personal faith, and to be sound in your beliefs you need to be daily in the Word of God.
Romans 10:17 - So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.
2 Peter 3:18 - But grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and for ever. Amen.
You can find all sorts of excuses for not reading your Bible every day, and yet you can find time to do whatever you really want to do. If at all possible, Bible should come before breakfast as was true of Chinese Christians of another generation. They would say, “No Bible, no breakfast! Warren Wiersbe, Bible Exposition Commentary, Volume 2, ( Wheaton Illinois, Victor Books, 1989), p. 559
Being grounded in the Word of God for the day will help you progress in the things of God
Psalm 119:11 - Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee.
Jeremiah 15:16 - Thy words were found, and I did eat them; and thy word was unto me the joy and rejoicing of mine heart: for I am called by thy name, O Lord God of hosts.
So, how do we manage to get up earlier so we can read God’s Word in the morning? We go to bed earlier! Cut out a half hour of television or of whatever you do at night and get up a half hour earlier.
PROGRESSING
PRAYING
Jude 1:20 - But ye, beloved, building up yourselves on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost,
We all know that we should pray.
1 Thessalonians 5:17 - Pray without ceasing.
We all know that God answers prayer.
Matthew 7:7-8 - Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you: [8] For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened.
But what about praying in the Holy Spirit? What do we know or understand about that?
The power of the Holy Spirit is the secret to effective prayer.
Romans 8:26-27 - Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. [27] And he that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because he maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God.
Ephesians 6:18 - Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints;
In order to pray in the Spirit I must be controlled by or filled with the Spirit.
Ephesians 5:18 - And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit;
Galatians 5:16 - This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh.
How do I become filled with the Spirit?
First examine your life for all sin that would grieve or quench the Spirit. Confess that sin to God.
Ephesians 4:30-32 - And grieve not the holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption. [31] Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice: [32] And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you.
1 Thessalonians 5:19 - Quench not the Spirit.
Second, ask God to fill or control you with His Spirit.
Luke 11:11-13 - If a son shall ask bread of any of you that is a father, will he give him a stone? or if he ask a fish, will he for a fish give him a serpent? [12] Or if he shall ask an egg, will he offer him a scorpion? [13] If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children: how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?
When we pray in the power of the Holy Spirit we will worship God properly, for supernatural praise is a result of being filled with the Spirit.
Ephesians 5:18-20 - And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit; [19] Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord; [20] Giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ;
Not only will we worship properly, but we will ask properly.
1 John 5:14-15 - And this is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask any thing according to his will, he heareth us: [15] And if we know that he hear us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of him.
And remember, a prayer in the Spirit is a prayer of faith.
Mark 11:22-24 - And Jesus answering saith unto them, Have faith in God. [23] For verily I say unto you, That whosoever shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he saith shall come to pass; he shall have whatsoever he saith. [24] Therefore I say unto you, What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them.
We miss so much when we do not pray in the Spirit.
PROGRESSING
PRAYING
PRESERVING
Jude 1:21 - Keep yourselves in the love of God,
As H.A. Ironside notes, it does not say, ‘Keep God loving you.’ God loves His children and will not stop loving us.
Ironside also notes “Nor does the Apostle exhort us to keep loving God. The divine nature in every believer rises up in love to Him whose grace has saved him. ‘We love Him because he first loved us.’
“But here we are told to keep ourselves in the love of God. It is as though I say to my child, ‘Keep in the sunshine.’ The sun shines whether we enjoy it or not. And so God’s love abides unchanging. But we need to keep in the conscious enjoyment of it. Let nothing make the tried soul doubt that love. Circumstances cannot alter it. Difficulties cannot strain it, nor can our own failures. The soul needs to rely upon it, and thus be borne in triumph: above the conflict and the discouraging episodes incident to the life of faith.” H.A. Ironside, Epistles of John and Jude, (Neptune, New Jersey, Loizeaux Brothers, 1978, 17th printing), p. 54
The best way to keep myself in the love of God is to abide in Christ. I abide in Christ as I pray in the Holy Spirit and as I am obedient to Him.
John 15:9-10 - As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you: continue ye in my love. [10] If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father's commandments, and abide in his love.
PROGRESSING
PRAYING
PRESERVING
PURSUING
Jude 1:21 - Keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life.
We are to be actively looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ at his Coming.
· When Jesus comes for His own, He will in His mercy take us out of the World and all its woes.
· When Jesus comes for His own, He will in His mercy take us to Heaven.
· When Jesus comes for His own, He will in His mercy judge and reward us.
· When Jesus comes for His own, He will in His mercy give us new resurrection bodies.
So, how are we to look for the mercy of our Lord’s coming?
1 John 3:1-3 - Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God: therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not. [2] Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is. [3] And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure.
Titus 2:11-13 - For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, [12] Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world; [13] Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ;
Mark 13:35-37 - Watch ye therefore: for ye know not when the master of the house cometh, at even, or at midnight, or at the cockcrowing, or in the morning: [36] Lest coming suddenly he find you sleeping. [37] And what I say unto you I say unto all, Watch.
PROGRESSING
PRAYING
PRESERVING
PURSUING
PARTICIPATING
Jude 1:22-23 - And of some have compassion, making a difference: [23] And others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire; hating even the garment spotted by the flesh.
We are not to “sit, soak, and sour” until Jesus comes.
We have work to do!
There were those who were in danger of going to apostasy.
They needed to be helped. They needed to be reached.
According to other translations there are three groups here that need to be reached, but tonight, let’s just think of the two mentioned in the KJV.
There are some who just need compassion. Perhaps they are on the brink of turning their backs on the Lord.
There are others who have gone farther and they need to be yanked out of the fire.
Fear in this verse means caution. We need to be careful as we help others that we not fall into sins ourselves.
We need to be concerned about those who have gone off into false teaching and those who have not trusted Jesus as their Savior.
PARTICIPATING
PRAISING
Jude 1:24-25 - Now unto him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy, [25] To the only wise God our Saviour, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and ever. Amen.
We have reason to praise God from here to eternity.
It is God who will keep us from falling or stumbling.
It is God who will present us blameless before the presence of His Glory with exceeding joy.
I don’t think any of us can really imagine what joy there will be in Heaven when we are in the presence of His glory.
Perhaps one of Dwight’s favorite songs says it best.
What
a day that will be when my Jesus I shall see,
And I look upon His face,
The One who saved me by His grace;
When He takes me by the hand
And leads me through the Promised Land,
What a day, glorious day that will be. Jim Hill
We praise the “only wise God”.
We praise our Savior.
He is to receive from us all glory, all majesty, all dominion, and all power.
As we praise Him, we are to submit to Him as absolute sovereign.
From “Here to eternity” let us be:
PROGRESSING
PRAYING
PRESERVING
PURSUING
PARTICIPATING
PRAISING