Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit · Sermon No. 1286
“Keep yourselves in the love of God.” Jude 1:21.
JUDE gives a very terrible picture of what will happen in the last days. He describes apostates and paints them in the blackest colors. And he then informs us that there will come, in the last time, mockers and with them separatists and sensualists, all of whom will assail the Church of the living God. It feels very natural, that after foretelling our adversaries and describing them, and so bidding us view the hosts assembled for the war, he should next instruct us how to prepare our defenses and set our forces in battle array. In the 20th and 21st verses of his epistle, Jude mentions the great Christian Quadrilateral, the four forts which must be well manned and carefully maintained if we would battle the advancing foe.
I shall call your attention to the four important points, though I must do so with the utmost brevity. The Apostle says, “You beloved, building up yourselves on your most holy faith.” Edification is a grand defense against the assaults of skeptics and heretics. These prey upon the ignorant and unestablished, but fail to overthrow those who are rooted and grounded in the Truth of God. We need to be continually built up—learning more, loving more—and living more the grand Truths of the Gospel. We must see to it that the foundation is right, for it will be useless, or worse than useless, to be built up upon false principles—it is “on our most holy faith” that the building must be based.
We should be so established in the Doctrines of Grace as to recognize their holiness and to imitate them in our own lives. Only a “most holy” faith is safe for the soul and woe unto the man who rests content with any other. See, then, Brothers and Sisters, that to ward off the ills of these last times we must labor to know the Truth ourselves, and must endeavor to instruct our Brethren in them. Personal and mutual edification in the Church should be zealously maintained as one of the most valuable defenses against the invasion of error.
The second most necessary defensive principle in the Church is devotion. “Praying in the Holy Spirit” is the weapon with which the hosts of the Lord will put to rout the armies of the alien. The prayers of saints are the mighty artillery with which the walls of our Jerusalem are protected. Supplication is a cannon which throws tremendous bolts against the advancing foe, as Sennacherib knew when Hezekiah pleaded with God. The prayers, however, must be deeply spiritual, written on the heart by the Holy Spirit and presented with energy of His creating. Formal, lifeless petitions are but a Chinese painted fortress—while praying in the Holy Spirit is an impregnable castle!
Those “groans which cannot be uttered” are pieces of ordinance which make the gates of Hell tremble. But we must put our hearts under the influence of the blessed Spirit of God, to have this, and then lift them up in continued intercession before God. Then there can be no fear about the preservation of our minds from the error of the wicked. A praying Church soon tries the spirits of false Prophets and casts them forth as evil. I have far more faith in prayer than in controversy. Keep the Prayer Meetings going! Maintain private prayer with earnestness and we may laugh to scorn all the sophisms of unbelievers and deceivers!
Jude next mentions as a third important matter the affections of the Church. If the hearts of the members of the Church are right, mockers and scoffers can do very little against them. “Keep yourselves in the love of God,” for a warmhearted company of Christians who love the Lord with all their hearts and with all their souls, are not likely to be overcome by mockers and sensualists. Love to God will be as a wall of fire round about them. In dull, decaying Churches, errors spread like ivy on the crumbling walls of an old abbey. But life, zeal, earnestness, warm-heartedness throw off these evils even as a red-hot iron plate evaporates the drops which fall upon it. Love God and you will not love false doctrine. Keep the heart of the Church right and her head will not go far wrong. Let her abide in the love of Jesus and she will abide in the Truth.
The fourth point to which he calls attention is the brightness of our expectancy. “Looking,” says he, “for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life.” Expect that Christ will come and come with blessings undeserved, which shall display the mercy of God to us! Expect that when He comes it will be to end our conflicts, to tread Satan under our feet and to reveal and perfect that eternal life which He has already implanted in us! Looking forward to the sure coming of Christ, the Church will not be afraid of the great swelling words of men, nor dread their murmurings. She will have an answer to the tyrant’s question, “Where is the promise of His coming?” She will reply, “Behold the Lord comes with 10,000 of His saints to execute judgment upon all, and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed, and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against