Jude 1:22-23

The book of Jude, I’m going to read verses 20 to 23. Our focus tonight on verses 22 and 23. But ye, beloved, building up yourselves on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost, keeping yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life. and of some have compassion, making a difference, and others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire, hating even the garments spotted by the flesh. May God bless to us His sacred and holy word this evening. The Ocean Liner, California, was bound from London to Boston in April of 1912, and it was close enough to receive wireless messages from the sinking Titanic. In fact, the Ocean Line at this point had 47 empty rooms because they didn’t have any passengers on board. And so they could have put passengers on board from the Titanic. However, the Californians’ regular. operator was not on duty. He had shut down the radio for the night, went to bed. And so he never heard any of the distress calls that were sent out. And so he was unable to provide help in the most crucial period of time for those who were in need. Jude has spoken about personal concern for faithfulness to God in order to be kept. from following into the error of any false teachers. He’s talked about maintaining spiritual growth in verse 20, engaging in sincere prayer to remain faithful, also in verse 20, promoting the love of God in your heart, verse 21, and looking earnestly for Christ’s return in verse 21 also. So here he talks about your personal needs. but when we get to verses 22 and 23, since we’re supposed to love our neighbor as ourselves, he talks about you being concerned about others who may fall into the hands of false teachers. It’s only fitting that you would be alert and pay attention to the case of others so that we’re not oblivious to the case of others. the desperate state of others like the radio operator on the Californian. First, you should look out for your own spiritual state, but you also have an obligation to consider the spiritual state of others. While you may be able to discern false teachers, there are others who are often taken in by false teachers and deceived and fall prey to them. So Jude would have you to warn others. to keep them from the destructive teaching of those who pretend to be religious leaders. Now those who use the NIV or the NASV, you’ll notice in verse 23 there’s a difference. NIB has be merciful to those who doubt and NASV has and have mercy on some who are doubting. Well, let me just say that the majority of manuscripts support what’s in the King James version here, and it’s very scant evidence for any alternative rendering of this verse of scripture. Only the elf, the sciaticus is one of the major ones that has it. But that’s about it, a corrupted manuscript at that. And so there’s no question in my mind that we should just stick with what we have here. in the King James version of Scripture. Let me begin tonight by saying this. You have a responsibility to watch out for the souls of others. It’s your duty to rescue others. You notice he says here, he talks about saving some. Others save with fear. Saving them. False teachers bring in what Peter calls. calls damnable heresies. They’re dangerous. They pull you away from Christ. They pull you away from the truth. And both those who teach and their followers are headed for eternal destruction. Notice the phrase, pulling them out of the fire in verse 23. An indication that they are indeed to reach out to those who are headed for hell far. I mean, it’s like getting them, just in time. It’s like your firefighter going into a burning building and trying to get somebody and rescuing them before the place burns down. Not that you and I have the ability to eternally save anyone, but we are the means perhaps that God will use to pull these people out of the danger. Obviously, you and I are required to do all that we can to rescue those in danger as this. And it might be that we have to use extreme measures to do so. We can’t be a cane and claim I’m not my brother’s keeper. Christianity is not an isolated event between you and God so that you can ignore others. When it seems that others are going to make shipwreck of their faith, you have a responsibility to sort of act like the lighthouse to shed light on the situation, keep them from the dangerous rocks so that they’re not crap. They don’t crash. And while it’s the duty of the minister to act in particular as the shepherd of the flock, there’s a sense in which each of us in the body of Christ have an obligation to watch out for one another’s souls. If you look at James 5, the last couple of verses of that, 19 and 20, I think there’s some important. teaching that’s similar to what we have here. James 5, 1920, it says, brethren, notice it’s not addressed to the elders per se, but brethren, if any of you do err from the truth and one convert him, let him know that he which converteth the sinner from the heir of his way, shall save a soul from death, shall hide him all to the sins. So we have an obligation to save him. those who have been caught up in error. James 5, verses 19 and 20, as we see. So you have a duty to rescue others. Now, you must use wisdom to rescue others. You notice in verse 22, he talks about making a difference. Making a difference. Jude is going to tell us here that there are two types of individuals that may need rescued. And each one requires a different approach. The one he talks about showing compassion to, and the other one, he says, save with fear. So there’s sort of a distinction here between those that need rescue. Some we treat more gently and tenderly and others more severely severely as the situation warrants. When you go to a physician, even if you have the same disease as someone else, you could receive different treatment depending on the headway, the disease is made in your body, your physical condition as the patient, and your immune system’s response. Two people may go to the doctor and be diagnosed with cancer. Treatment may differ greatly depending on where the cancer is. located and if it’s spread. There’s a difference between having skin cancer and having liver cancer. And the treatments would be different for each. Lever cancer may require extreme measure. And it may be very difficult for the patient to undergo that treatment. But these are the kinds of things we know from the natural realm. Now, when we put this in the spiritual perspective, spiritually you have to use discernment when dealing with people who are in error. It requires some divine wisdom. Those who believe that you have to be circumcised to be saved, or today we might talk about being baptized to be saved or something of that nature, may need more harsh treatment, because they’re adding works to salvation and so forth. Those who deny the resurrection of the dead, perhaps we can be more lenient. Maybe like in Paul at 1st Corinthians 15, they don’t really understand exactly the implications of what they’re saying. And if they understood that it’s undermining the gospel and Christ’s resurrection and how we live and everything else, maybe they would change their mind about the matter. So what every believer ought to watch out for the souls of others, Paul speaks about those who are spiritually, they’re spiritual doing, the actual restoring. In Galatians 6-1, brethren, if a man be overtaken on a fault, ye which are spiritual, resore such a one. We’ll see why we have to be spiritual in a moment. But obviously, people need to be restored. The setting of the soul in place. If a bone is out of joint and you go to the chiropractor and you have to square you up, straighten you up, I usually go into my car practitioner and tell them that none can make the crooked straight. You know, because sometimes you seem like you always have to get straight, not. But, I mean, I’ve had time with my sacram went out and I was like, bent over, and I couldn’t get, like, stand up straight. It’s like, it locks up. And you have to get things put back into place. And so when it comes to restoring a soul here, and being able to admonish another person, it may be taking some skill in the Word of God to know how to counsel these individuals who need your help. This doesn’t mean you have to be a minister, but you have to be spiritually mature. You have to have some spiritual knowledge to be able to do this. So you have a responsibility to watch out for the souls of others. Secondly, tonight, you must sometimes use compassion in dealing with a soul. of others. Let’s focus on verse 22 a moment and if some have compassion, making a difference. Now, I suppose one of the great mistakes we could make in dealing with others immediately, say, because they have some kind of doctrine or error, they were going to make them and put them in the category of a heretic immediately. Jesus talked about people who have fallen into some type of sin. Some of them have moats and some of them have beams in their eyes, so to speak. some are just as a speck, some have locks. I mean, some are a much greater need of help in dealing with their problem. Maybe you have to go to more extreme measures to deal with those who have the beam in their eye than those who have the spec in their eye. Compassion means that we sympathize with those who have fallen into error. You know, one of the things we have to realize is but there for the grace of God go I. And so when we deal with those who have fallen into sin, maybe it’s a doctrinal error, maybe it’s a fault in their life, maybe it has to do with what they believe or what they practice, whatever the case may be, sometimes we just have to show pity and mercy realizing the weakness of human beings. And so in dealing with the most notorious sin or even the most grievous air. It usually, I think, is wise to begin mildly if you can’t. Sometimes we have to be more jump on it more harshly. It just requires it. But others should see your goodwill and your desire to provide spiritual help. And this is why the Bible speaks of using gentleness and meekness in dealing with those who oppose ourselves and have fallen into error. Now, when I was in seminary, and God opened my eyes to see the truth of the doctrines of grace. I strongly embraced them, and they were the bedrock, really, of doctrine to me. These are fundamental gospel truths. Now, I was in a seminary that was Armenian and dispensational, and so coming to the doctrines of grace meant that I was going to be in conflict with the majority of people with whom I was going to have contact in the door. and elsewhere. And it wasn’t long before the discussions with other students led to some heated arguments. And I had people actually coming up to my room to straighten me out on doctrine. Sometimes daily, it seemed. And for my zeal, for the truth, I really went after some people. I would argue them into the ground if I could. I would attempt to bury them. them with biblical evidence. I shot them with every scripture I could think of, and hopefully to leave them, you know, utterly defeated and wounded before me. I told you what one man said, you know, after dealing with him, he got Chuck, got so exasperated. He actually said, I don’t care what the Bible says. I still don’t believe. That’s how frustrated these people could get. You know, you people, it’s like they can’t answer the argumentation from someone. scripture and it just frustrates them. But it exasperated him, see. But it didn’t take me long to realize I wasn’t really making headway with these people. I could win the argument, but not the heart. And actually, in some cases, maybe even hardening them in their Armenianism because in their pride, it seems like they would stubbornly cling to their error no matter how much truth you tried to lay before them. And so God was teaching. me that this wasn’t perhaps the best way to handle this. I could muster all these verses. I could lay them all out there, but, you know, it’s the saying, because you can lead the horse to the water, but you can’t make them drink it. And so graciously, God had come, you know, God gave me a compassionate heart to others. So that I realized that what I was actually doing was not going to benefit them in the long run. And I had to change my tactics to some extent. So I tried a different approach. I would patiently go through the scriptures that taught the doctrines of grace, and then I would quietly answer their questions, and then I would ask them about a passage of scripture. I would say, well, what about this passage of scripture? Just leave it with them for a second. My roommate, the guy was across the hall from, he wasn’t across the hall, but he was across the bathroom. There was like four units connected together by a, a bathroom in between us. And so, Ricky Austin would come over, and he was reading at the time John R. Rice’s book, predestined for hell no. It was, you know, is this Armenian as you can get. Dispensational Armenian guy. And he’s given me, John, you know, 2 Peter 3.9, and John 316, and 1st Timothy 2. 2.4, and looking up all the passages that he could think of of all men and world. I answered all those questions. for him. I explained the text the best of my ability to him. But then I would give him a verse of scripture, and he couldn’t answer. He’d come back the next day, because he’d do some more reading in the book, John Arr raised the book, and he’d come back. The next day was something else to say to me. And I’d answer that question, and I’d say, what about that verse of scripture I gave you yesterday? What do you think? Well, he didn’t have the answer to that. So this would go on for a while. But I often would end a discussion by saying something like this. You know, the Bible teaches the doctrines of grace all through it. All I ask is you read your Bible with an open mind and weigh the matter for yourself. And left it at that. And on several occasions, people came back to me afterwards and said, you know, Jack, you were right. I was reading scriptures, and there it was. Every time I turn around, I found it. I just didn’t see it. it before. If we can get the pride and the arrogance out of the situation and the idea I have to defeat this person and try to deal with them with compassion and try to say, well, they’re in error, but there but for the grace of God go I too. I was an Armenian at one point. And so that seemed to help that they realized I was trying to be helpful to them rather than just like cram the argument down their throats. So that lesson stuck with me. People need to know you have a compassion for their spiritual state. It isn’t matter of just piling on the scriptures, but being concerned about them personally. So some individuals are seduced by false teachers simply out of ignorance. They don’t know any better. They don’t realize the danger. Maybe they fall blindly some TV or radio preacher or something of this nature. And so you have to be cautious. Maybe we can help them. Maybe we can do so by approaching them in a proper manner. It’s interesting when you read about the rebellion of Absalon. In his rebellion against David, there were some young men who went, and according to Scripture, in the simplicity of their hearts and knew not anything. They happened to go with Absalon. I guess when he was offering his sacrifices and he was going to be anointed king. And they didn’t really. really know what was going to happen, and all of a sudden they’re in the middle of all this. They didn’t realize they were going to get caught up in all this. Well, some people get caught up in error. Don’t realize the danger they’re in. So some people are led astray by various sinful activities or by false teachers, and they sin, and they’re wrong, and perhaps they even get convicted about their sin. So they don’t always need a harsh rebuke, but they certainly need prayer, and they need a compassion and concern for them that they would move in the right direction and encouragement to do so. So you must use compassion in dealing with the souls of some. But thirdly tonight, you must sometimes use severity in dealing with the souls of others. And verse 23 tells us this, another is saved with fear, pulling them out of the fire, hating even the garments spotted by the flesh. There’s a time. time to use severity. You know, Paul in dealing with a man living in incest of 1 Corinthians 5, he said, you guys should have rebuked him already. He should have dealt with this thing. Now, you deal with him now, and you get him out of that church. You excommunicate him. You don’t have fellowship with him and so forth. So he had to deal more severely with that situation. You remember Peter in Acts Chapter 8, when Simon Magus tried to buy the power of the spirit. If I could, boy, I’d like to have that power. And he offered money to the apostles. And Peter tells him, Thy money perish with thee, repent and pray that your sin may be forgiven you. You’re in severe danger. He deals with them in a more severe manner there. Who are these others who have to be treated more sternly? Well, obviously, if we’re dealing with false teachers, they have to be treated sternly. Titus chapter 1, verses 10, 11th, and then verse 13, says this, for there are many unruly and vain talkers and deceivers, especially they of the circumcision, whose mouse must be stopped, whose subvert whole house is teaching things which they ought not wherefore rebuke them sharply. And so, there are some we have to be very severe with. We can’t let them continue to subvert whole households. Our Lord, you recall, was very severe with the Pharisees because of this. He saw that they were making disciples twofold more the children of hell than they themselves. And so he had to deal with them severely. They were placing traditions of the people. of the word of God. They were teaching a system of work righteousness. So he called them blind leaders of the blind. He calls them a generation of vipers. They’re whitewashed tombs, full of dead man’s bones. He talks about the judgment of God which hangs over them and says to them, how can you escape the damnation of hell? So these, you know, false teachers certainly have got to be more severely dealt with. Those who are obstinate, and appear to be irreclaimable when we talk to them about the truth. We start out more in a gentle fashion with some, but some people will stay opposite, and as we go along, we have to become more severe in dealing with them. Paul mentioned some teachers, Hymenius, Felitas, Alexander, who erred doctrine, saying that the resurrection was past. 2. Timothy. 2, 17 and 18. Evidently, these individuals clung to their error despite the warning of the apostle who tried to reclaim them. Such error could not be tolerated. However, upon being corrected, these men blasphemed, according to Paul. They reviled, they scoffed at the doctrine of the resurrection of the dead. And they denounced those who taught such a doctrine and disgraced the name of Christ by their behavior and their sinful living. And so Paul dealt with them severely, 1. Timothy 1, 19, and 20, holding faith in a good conscience, which some having put away concerning faith, have made shipwreck, of whom is Hymenas and Alexander, whom I have delivered unto Satan, that they may learn not to blaspheme. And so we say, see his severity in dealing with them. The serious nature of the situation is portrayed, I should say, by the snatching of this person out of the fire. Now, when you snatch somebody out of the fire, you don’t just gently tug them. You yank them. You grab all of them and yank them, and you pull them out as fast as you can get them out. In other words, you’re just gently tug them. you’re not gentle, you’re forceful in doing that, because you’re rescuing their soul. There may be an illusion here to Lot in his situation where he was plucked out of Sodom by the angels and spared the outpouring of God’s wrath upon the city just in time because he lingered. Remember how the angels had to forcefully grab him and take him out of the city and his wife in two young daughters. Fear can be properly used in dealing with those who have gone astray. Some say with fear, knowing the terror of the Lord, we persuade men. You know, Paul so oppressed the truths of righteousness, temperance, and judgment to come that Felix trembled. He laid it out for him. And sometimes, you know, it can be faithful. frightening when we lay out the truth of what God’s word says. But some people need, perhaps, to be frightened. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. There’s nothing wrong with reasoning with people and showing them the dangerous state that they are in if they continue on this path. Some cases, severity is necessary. Acts 8, we find a sharp rebuke. In first, 1 Corinthians 5, we find excommunication. In Titus 310, we have the idea of shunning or rejection of the person. Those are more severe majors, but sometimes necessary majors, in bringing people to repentance. So you must sometimes use severity in dealing with the souls of others. My fourth point is this tonight. You must be careful not to be defiled yourself in dealing with. the souls of others. The last part in verse 23 says here that we have to be careful here pulling them out of the fire, hating even the garments spotted by the flesh. Now there seems to be an allusion here to the ceremonial law, like Leviticus 15, where if you touched a defiled garment, or even a piece of furniture, of an unclean person. It would make you unclean. An Israelite could become ceremony unclean by touching the flesh of a man or a woman with an open sword, a running sword. However, you could also become ceremony and unclean by touching the seat or the bed or the saddle or the garment of an unclean person who have the open or running sore. Perhaps this is the idea behind the garment being spotted. There’s oozing sore, or maybe blood is oozing or something of its nature. In this case, it is contaminated by the flesh, and here he’s talking about the sinful behavior of people. The lesson is this. As we deal with others, there’s always a danger of infection. That we would get caught up in the same sin or in the same doctrinal error. So the idea is be cautious. You know, when a doctor works on people that have some kind of infectious disease, they have a mask. They wear a mask. They’ll wear a mask. Keep from getting the breathing in the disease, the bacteria or the germs or whatever that may infect him. So care must be taken that false teaching and sinful practice does not contaminate you while you’re trying to rescue these people. Suppose that you’re at a private swimming pool somewhere at the lake or something of this nature and you see a person that’s out there drowning. They’re going under, crying out for help. Now you know how to swim and you could go out and rescue that person. However, one of the first things you’ll be told if you ever take any type of lifeguard class or anything of this instruction of this nature is try to use a pole or a rope or some type of floating device. and get it to them first. If that’s not possible, we may have to dive into the pool and then actually rescue them that way. But the danger is when you’re dealing with someone who is drowning, they can panic, grab hold of you, and you’ll both end up at the bottom of the lake or the pool. They can drown you. So you have to be cautious. Otherwise, you might find yourself in the same situation as the person you’re attempting to save. And that wouldn’t be good. so it’s not enough just to abstain from touching the sin itself, but anything near to it, anything associated with it, you must hate. The corrupting influence even of the sin or the doctrine must be hated and we must keep away from it. Well, the ocean liner, the Californian, was not able to help the sinking titanic. passengers because the radio operator was asleep. He didn’t have his ears on. He wasn’t listening. As a believer, we’re supposed to be alert to the spiritual dangers of those around us, who especially those are our brothers and sisters in Christ. Use our wisdom. Use our discernment that God has given us in dealing with them. With some, use compassion. With others, you may have to use severity. But with all, be careful that you yourself are not contaminated and defiled in the process. Well, let’s close with a word of prayer.