I preached this past Sunday (30th March 2025) but I’ve neglected to to upload the sermon from the 19th of Jan so here it is! There’s a condensed version of the transcript here, with most of the slides I used.
Intro
Is brushing your teeth a stupid waste of time? Well anyone who thinks so needs to really reconsider. When they fork out a fortune to fix their rotten teeth, they’ll realise the importance and need to brush their teeth. Maybe even floss.
Jude wants us to see in v17-23 that building up your faith is a bit like brushing your teeth. Be consistent at it, repetitive, maybe even mundane. He wants us to grow a heart to build up our faith and the faith of others.
We’ll see that heart of the fight of faith is to Hold on to and hold out the heart of God for us in Jesus Christ.
1. the heart to fight
I found it necessary to write appealing to you to contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints. For certain people have crept in unnoticed who long ago were designated for this condemnation, ungodly people, who pervert the grace of our God into sensuality and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.
- Jude 3-4
We heard about these ungodly people a fortnight ago when we covered Jude 1-4. Last week in Jude 5-16 we did a deep dive on them and their empty dangerous lies. Now, in v17, Jude returns to give us one last word on these ungodly people.
But you must remember, beloved, the predictions of the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ. They said to you, “In the last time there will be scoffers, following their own ungodly passions.” It is these who cause divisions, worldly people, devoid of the Spirit.
- Jude 17-19
Remember. These people have been predicted to come. So would you be surprised if …
people in your church were lovers of money rather than lovers of God?
(The Apostle Paul, 2 Timothy 3:1-5)you had to test what people say because they might be a false prophet?
(The Apostle John, 1 John 4:1)there were false teachers among you?
(The Apostle Peter, 2 Peter 1:3)there will be people who look like fellow sheep - fellow Christians - but inwardly are ravenous wolves?
(Jesus, Matthew 7:15-16a)
Well God is not surprised and these people are not outside of his plan. God has cared for us by passing these warnings from Jesus to the Apostles to Jude to them and to us.
We've been warned and we know what to look for. “Ungodly Passions” (v18). Those who make a habit of saying yes to sinful desires, which means they are saying no to God's rule over their bodies and lives.
So we must know God’s word well so we can fight for truth.
And we must know ourselves, our particular temptations, even if it means visiting the deepest darkest corners of our hearts, so that we can kick sin to the kerb.
And we also see the fruit of these scoffers. Division and worldliness. You'll recognise them by conflict and concern for things of this world that are basically a distraction from God. They lack the Spirit (v19) who brings unity and peace, and sets our hearts on the things above rather than the things of this world.
The first snare is falling into ungodly passion. The second? Disillusionment.
When you see conflict, division, worldliness in the church. Maybe in your church. Would you have the heart to fight?
Because a lot of people instead give up on a church, or their church, or even the church. You might have seen it happen.
It can be hard work to stay and fight. But we defend things we care about, don't we? We put passwords on our devices and PINs on our bank accounts. We turn into keyboard warriors when someone insults our favourite Harry Potter Fanfiction. When you really care about something you'll defend it even at the expense of your time, money, energy, or self-respect.
So would you prepare yourself to stick around and fight for God's church? For it to keep it’s heart fixed on the gospel? I pray you would.
2. the heart of the fight
Once we have the heart to fight, we also need the right battle strategy. And it’s this: keep building up your faith.
But you, beloved, building yourselves up in your most holy faith and praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting for the mercy of Jesus Christ that leads to eternal life.
- Jude 20-21
The secret is there is no secret. The key thing is to keep building on the same holy faith. Use the faith to defend the faith.
Let’s break it down in the text:
Build Yourselves Up: You can grow your faith. But it takes effort. It doesn't say stick your faith into a term deposit or purchase a faith ETF. It says build it!
Your faith: It's not something to acquire, it's the faith you already have. Once it's been passed down to you, it's yours. You've already got what you need.
Most Holy Faith: Your faith isn't a tiny mundane small thing. It's most holy. It's a wonderful, beautiful, transformative body of belief. It's good news from God. God is holy, and he's given us a most holy faith. This wonderful gift of God is the thing to build up.
And we do it by God’s power, as the triplet in v20-21 shows: praying in the HOLY SPIRIT, in the love of GOD, waiting for the mercy of JESUS CHRIST.
The heart of the fight is praying and staying; praying to him and staying with him, no matter what. It's keeping God's words and God's ways. It's to keep hoping in Jesus' return when we will enter the eternal life with him that is the prize of the gospel.
Does that seem too ordinary for you? I hope we can learn to see it’s not.
The write of Hebrews puts it so well.
But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called today, that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.
- Hebrews 3:13
This sort of focus on one main thing can produce great strength. That's why Shaolin monks hit their shins over and over. That's why concert pianist Lang Lang spends hours practising scales every day. That's why people go through a laborious skin care routine every morning and that's why Bruce Lee fears not the man who has practised ten thousand kicks one time, but the man who has practised one kick ten thousand times.
That's why we brush our teeth.
The strategy is to keep growing the gospel and staying with Jesus. It's to put in effort to continue leaning on God's love and hoping in the mercy of Jesus, the mercy that leads to eternal life.
Jesus saw us following our ungodly passions, causing divisions, living for the world and ignoring God.
And he had compassion on us, because we were slaves to that sin. And the love of God is shown in the choice Jesus made: to lay down his life on a cross to save us. And Jesus will return to judge the world, but the good news is that he will judge us righteous because our evil deeds are nailed to the cross where he died. That's the mercy Jesus shows us.
Let us diligently apply this gospel to our hearts each and every day. The same gospel again and again and again and again and again and again and again.
3. the fight for hearts
If we know the mercy of our saviour, that shapes how we should treat others: with the same mercy that Jesus shows us.
keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ that leads to eternal life. And 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.
- Jude 21-23
Jude calls us to have mercy on ‘the full range of people’ - people who doubt, who struggle, even those who scoff. Mercy for all, even people we should rightly keep away from.
What does that mean? v21 mentions the mercy that leads to eternal life which we're waiting to receive from Jesus. That's the mercy we want to show: Mercy based on the mercy we've received from God, aimed at leading them to eternal life.
The purpose of having a heart for the fight is so we can fight for people's hearts. To stop them from slipping away.
Yet we must stay uncompromising on sin. The metaphor is to hate even the garment stained by the flesh. You shouldn’t even touch them! But even for those people we need to show mercy with fear.
We ought to fear gospel compromise and we need to hate sin. But we also need to fear that the immortal soul of such a person is headed to eternal judgement. Pray for their salvation. Be filled with compassion and pity.
Imagine you're a recovering alcoholic and you make a new friend, he says "I'm a recovering alcoholic too". Except... that new friend keeps inviting you to hang out at bars and pubs. Of course, you say no and you invite him to hang with your friends at your house instead. Except that night he turns up on your doorstep with beer on his breath and a bottle of wine in his hand.
You can feel it, right? A deep love for the friend and an uncompromising hatred for the bottle, walking hand in hand.
The church is a community of recovering sinnaholics, who have by God's grace discovered true drink. We drink from the rivers of mercy that Jesus provides. And it's our job to go to war. To fight to win over hearts by leading them to that true drink.
What kind of love can we show to people, to lead them to eternal life in Jesus? It's a sacrificial, merciful love. Romans 5:8 says "But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us". Let us live by that truth and show that love to others too.
Conclusion
practise 1 kick 10000 times.
What would that look like for you and me?
Treat your spiritual maturity as a matter of life and death.
Invest energy to building up your prayer life.
Meet up with someone to read the bible together.
Intentionally remember and enjoy the gospel every day.
Pray for Jesus to return.
We need to take our ten thousand practise kicks and kick sin to the kerb. Remember what the scoffers main issue was? Their ungodly passions. We got to be ready to kick away sin with uncompromising forcefulness. Be killing sin, or it will be killing you. You and I are recovering sinnaholics. Let's train up so we can kick that habit by holding on to the gospel of Jesus' mercy.
be merciful in messiness.
But we're not training so we can go around kicking everyone in the face. Rather we follow the instruction of v22-23.
Let's have patience for the person who says something "wrong" in your bible study. Be the person who cuts through the awkward silence to show appreciation that they would share their thoughts. Don't let them feel shamed in front of the group, but gently guide them to the truth. Be merciful in the messiness of doubt.
Let's be the kind of church where people confess their sins to one another and openly repent and forgive. Let's not be a church where people feel they have to hide their sins lest they receive judgement and not mercy from one another. Don't let it stay under the surface until one day, they decide to just give in and give up. Help each other fight sin. Be merciful in the messiness of sin.
And let's pray for our friends that have joined cults or left the church. Don't drop the friendship just because they're not identifying with Jesus anymore. Yet be self aware of the danger, and don't compromise on the gospel or let them lead you astray. Keep showing them practical love and pray for opportunities to bring them back to the truth. Be merciful in the messiness of falsehood.
After all Jesus showed us mercy in our messiness didn't he? He showed us the mercy that leads to eternal life for you and me. It’s good news, isn’t it?
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