May 31st, 2014. KEEP YOURSELVES IN THE LOVE OF GOD But you, beloved, building yourselves up on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life. Jude 20~21 Things are never as bad as we think they are. It is the devil that tells us all the negative things. He is the accuser of the brethren. He is a liar. He is a destroyer. He is a killer. He is a cheater. He usurps us. God surely does not feel that way about you. We believe lies about ourselves. If we will just pray in the Holy Spirit, open our mouths and call on the Lord, or sing with our hearts, we will discover that Gods love in us is what is real. We can keep ourselves in the love of God by praying in the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is within us. The love of God and the grace of Christ will flow in us in the fellowship of the Holy Spirit (2 Cor. 13:14). And that fellowship of the Holy Spirit is ours simply by praying in the Holy Spirit. This is how we keep ourselves in the love of God. Oh, what a love- life! This is an encouragement to everyone. Even if you feel like the most pitiful person, you are a candidate for the dispensing of this love- life. Just let the Lord in. And then keep letting Him in. Pray in the Holy Spirit, and you will discover how you feel about yourself from Gods point of view. You will say, I am really in a wonderful condition! God loves me! But ye, beloved, building up yourselves on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost [Jude 20]. But ye, beloved—he is talking to believers, those beloved of God. What can we do today? 1. Building up yourselves on your most holy faith. What does he mean by that? Well, building up yourselves on your most holy faith means that you study the Word of God. It is my conviction that since God gave to us sixty- six books, He meant that we are to study all sixty- six of them—not just John 3 or John 14 and other favourite passages. Oh, how many Bible classes go over and over the same books: John, Romans, maybe Ephesians, and they dont miss Revelation. Do not misunderstand me, all those books are very important, but what about the other sixty- two books? Why dont we study all of them? My friend, if you are going to build up yourself on your most holy faith, you must have the total Word of God. You cannot build a house without a foundation; then you will need to put up some timbers that will hold the roof; then you are going to need a roof on it and siding and plaster on the inside. And this is what the total Word of God will do for you. This is what we are to do in days of apostasy. Both Peter and Paul urged believers to study the Word of God in days like these. Paul wrote in his swan song:Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed … (2 Tim. 2:15). Then in the next chapter Paul said that all Scripture is given by inspiration of God. My friend, the recourse that you and I have as children of God in these days is the Word of God. The reason many folk fall by the wayside is because the seed (which is the Word of God) fell among stones. It didnt get deeply rooted. Unless you study all of the Word of God, get down in the good, rich soil, you are not going to become a sturdy, healthy plant. It wont be long until you will be stepped on and the sun will burn you out. You will not be able to stand in days like these. Peter in his second epistle, writing of the apostasy, says, We have also a more sure word of prophecy; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts: Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation (2 Pet. 1:19–20). You cannot just pull out one or two little verses and think you have a good knowledge of the Bible. It is a tragedy to build a system of doctrine based on a few isolated verses drawn out of the Scriptures. This reminds me of the story of President Lincoln having his portrait painted. The artist kept shifting Lincoln around trying to get him at an angle so the wart on his face wouldnt show. Finally, after he had him adjusted to his satisfaction, he said, Mr. Lincoln, how do you want me to paint you? Lincoln said, Paint me just as I am—wart and all. My friend, certainly there are parts of the Word of God that you will not enjoy reading. There are sections that will step on your toes, and you would like to avoid that. But today it is necessary to build up ourselves on our most holy faith because these are days of apostasy. Your most holy faith does not refer to your own personal faith. Rather, it is the faith, the body of truth which has been given to us in the Word of God. When the church first came into existence, this was called the apostles doctrine. Of this Mayor says: The faith here is called most holy because it comes to us from God, and reveals God to us, and because it is by its means that man is made righteous, and enabled to overcome the world. 2. Praying in the Holy Ghost. Jude mentions the second thing we are to do in days of apostasy. The word Ghost is the Greek pneuma, more frequently translated Spirit. Praying in the Holy Spirit is an unusual phrase, occurring at only one other place in the Scriptures. In the Epistle to the Ephesians, Paul mentions putting on the whole armour of God, and each piece of armour is for defence with the exception of two items. One offensive weapon is Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints (Eph. 6:18). The second offensive weapon was mentioned in verse 17, the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. This is precisely what Jude writes. First, we are to build up ourselves on our most holy faith; then we need to pray in the Spirit. Many years ago in Dallas, Texas, there was a very fine man, Mr. Will Hawkins, who had a radio program which he called The Radio Revival. I do not know of any program during the Depression and afterwards that influenced people more than his program did. One of the features of his radio broadcast was what he called a sword drill, a test of the knowledge of the Word of God, and I thought it was about the best way it could be used. My friend, you and I need a sword drill; that is, we need to listen to God first before He has to listen to us, because we could say a lot of foolish things. We are to take the sword of the Spirit, because we need to build up ourselves in the faith—we should learn to use that sword. Praying in the Holy Spirit is a little different from handing God a grocery list of Gimme, gimme, gimme. Dont misunderstand me, petition, as it is called in theology, is a part of prayer. But how about praise and how about worship? Our prayer should include adoration and praise to almighty God. Dr. Earl Radmacher once told about directing a prayer meeting in a church he pastored. The prayer meetings had been pretty dead, as most church prayer meetings are, unfortunately. They should be the real powerhouse of the church body, but they usually are not. One night Dr. Radmacher announced that they were not going to have any requests but only praise and thanksgiving to God for what He had done for them. Dr. Radmacher said that it turned out to be the briefest prayer meeting they had ever had! It is amazing how few things we thank God for and how little praise goes up to Him. However, petition is certainly important, and prayer that includes that is a real ministry. When Paul asked the Christians in Rome to pray for him, he wrote:Now I beseech you, brethren, for the Lord Jesus Christs sake, and for the love of the Spirit, that ye strive together with me in your prayers to God for me (Rom. 15:30). The word for strive is agonize. We are to pray like that. Praying in the Holy Spirit means that we pray by means of the Holy Spirit; we are dependent upon Him. Paul wrote in Romans 8:26, 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 groaning which cannot be uttered. You and I actually do not know what to pray for. We are like little children. When my little granddaughter visit my house 34 Johnson drive, she wants everything she sees. She asks for things that she shouldnt even have because they would not be good for her. Then I think, Thats just the way we pray. We are like little children:Lord, I want this—Lord, give me that. God doesnt always give us what we want. Why doesnt He? Because when we pray like that, we are not praying in the Spirit. We need to learn to let the Holy Spirit make intercession for us. Years ago a missionary in Stoke-on-Trent, United Kingdom gave me a little cross on which was printed a definition of prayer:Prayer is the Holy Spirit speaking in the believer, through Christ, to the Father. That is a very good definition of prayer. My friend, we need to learn to pray. No wonder the disciples, having heard the Lord Jesus pray and thinking of their own little paltry prayers, said, Lord, teach us to pray (see Luke 11:1). Many of us need that, but there is very little instruction today about learning to pray. Yet we need to learn to really pray in these days of apostasy. Keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life [Jude 21]. This verse gives us two more things we as believers are to do in days of apostasy. 3. Keep yourselves in the love of God. We need to recognize that God loves the believer. We have seen that Jude addresses the believers as beloved. Let me repeat—this does not imply that he loves them or that they love him but that they are beloved of God. Again, let me say that you cannot keep God from loving you, although you can put up an umbrella or a roof so that you will not feel the warmth of Gods love. Jude is saying, Keep yourselves out there in the sunshine of Gods love. Let His love flood your heart and life. This is needed in days of apostasy. 4. Looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life. There was a man here in Cochin to preach in the church I attended, and someone questioned that he really believed in the rapture of the church. So I had lunch with him and asked him this specific question:Do you believe in the imminent coming of Christ? I do. On what basis do you believe that He will take the church out? That is, on what grounds do you and I expect to be taken out at the time of the Rapture? He said very definitely, I was saved because God extended mercy to me, and when He takes me out of the world at the time of the Rapture, it still will be by the mercy of God. That is a good answer, and it cleared up all doubts of his position on the rapture of the church. My friend, as we have seen, the mercy of God is the fact that God has a concern and care for you today. And He has an abundance—He is rich in mercy. He was so concerned about you that He extended His mercy to you and saved you by His grace. Notice that Jude says, Looking for the mercy. The word looking is the Greek word prosdechomai, meaning to expect, to wait for. The Lord Jesus wants us to live in an attitude of expectation for His return. At the time of the Rapture, I am expecting to leave this world, and I hope it will happen during my lifetime. But I will be going out because of His mercy, not because of who I am. If it depended upon who I am, I wouldnt make it. When I first went to Stoke-on-Trent, United Kingdom, there was a very fine Bible class there that had been taught the theory of a partial rapture; that is, that only the super- duper saints would go out at the Rapture. They were a wonderful group of folk, and they supported my ministry in Stoke. However, in talking with some of them, especially the leaders, they made it clear that they expected to go out at the time of the Rapture because they were the super- duper saints, but I had the feeling that they werent sure about me. Well, I want them and everyone else to know that when the Lord takes the church out, Im going along—whether you like it or not—because I am looking for that mercy of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now notice Dr. Wuests translation of verse 21: With watchful care keep yourselves within the sphere of Gods love, expectantly looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ resulting in life eternal. May 31 MORNING Thy name shall be called... Israel: for as a prince hast thou power with God and with men, and hast prevailed. By his strength he had power with God: yea, he had power over the angel, and prevailed: he wept, and made supplication unto him-- [Abraham] staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief; but was strong in faith, giving glory to God. Have faith in God. 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. Therefore I say unto you, What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive [them], and ye shall have [them].-- If thou canst believe, all things [are] possible to him that believeth.-- Blessed [is] she that believed: for there shall be a performance of those things which were told her from the Lord. Lord, Increase our faith. GEN 32:28. Ho 12:3, 4.-- Ro 4:20. Mar 11:22- 24.-- Mar 9:23.-- Lu 1:45.-- Lu 17:5. May 31 EVENING Little children, abide in him. He that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed. For let not that man think that he shall receive anything of the Lord. A double minded man [is] unstable in all his ways. I marvel that ye are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel: which is not another; but there be some that trouble you, and would pervert the gospel of Christ. But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed. Christ is become of no effect unto you, whosoever of you are justified by the law; ye are fallen from grace.-- Ye did run well; who did hinder you? As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me.-- If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.-- For all the promises of God in him [are] yea, and in him Amen, unto the glory of God by us. 1 JOHN 2:28. Jas 1:6- 8. Ga 1:6- 8. Ga 5:4, 7. Jn 15:4, 7-- 2 Co 1:20.
Posted on: Sat, 31 May 2014 14:42:43 +0000
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