Preparing to Snatch the lost from the Fire

September 6, 1998 AM

PULLING THEM OUT OF THE FIRE

TEXT: Jude 17-25

Jude’s Original Intent

A. As Jude was getting ready to write this epistle — this letter — he approached with a different theme in mind than what he actually wrote.

B. In verse 3 he says...

C. You see Jude wanted to write about...

1. The joy of salvation.

2. The glory of worshipping Christ as His church.

D. But the Holy Spirit says, "No!"

E. The Holy Spirit turned him into a different path, a path that spoke...

1. Of the perilous times these Christians were living in.

2. Of the ungodly men who had crept in to rob them of their faith in Jesus.

3. Of people who were, as he says in verse 12, "spots in your love feasts."

4. Of people who walked according to their own lusts.

i. Doing what is right in their own eyes.

ii. Not living according to the absolute truth of God's Word, but according to the fungible standards of modern society.

iii. Did you hear Sen. Joseph Lieberman's speech?

5. Of people who perpetually grumble and complain and find fault.

6. Of people who cause divisions in the church.

F. And so Jude determined to help these brothers and sisters in Christ by exhorting them.

Building Yourselves Up

A. He first exhorted them to keep on building themselves up on their most holy faith.

B. The men he warned against were doing everything in their power to tear down and destroy.

C. Jude said, "Don't tear down, build up!"

D. It's so easy to be carried away with the tearing down.

1. It's a whole lot easier to tear something down than it is to build it up.

2. My son and I love the sledgehammer and crowbar.

3. We can tear something down in no time.

4. It's the building part that takes time — especially if you want it done right.

E. There are many voices in our world, today.

1. They say, "Tear down the old-fashioned standards of yesterday!

2. "Be modern!

3. "Be free!"

F. These voices say, "Do this and you'll be saved." or "Do that and you'll be saved."

1. They promise happiness.

2. They promise freedom.

3. They promise it'll feel good, it'll look good, it'll be good.

G. But they are hucksters, they are con artists.

1. They don't care about you.

2. They just want to use you for their own personal gain.

3. They just want to use you as part of their power base.

H. Turn away from their loud, incessant screaming.

I. Turn to or turn back to faith in Jesus.

J. Turn to faith in Jesus that has proven itself down through the centuries.

1. Turn to repentance and godly sorrow.

2. Turn to salvation through the Blood of Jesus.

3. Turn to the grace He gives to those who sincerely seek Him.

K. If you are wavering because of the voice of the enemy...

1. Come into the peace that Jesus brings in the midst of turmoil.

L. Do like it says in Psalm 23, come into the valley...

1. Jesus' valley.

2. Nourish yourself on absolute truth — God's Word is absolute truth.

M. Be nourished and edified and encouraged and built up in Jesus.

N. Rest in His strength.

1. Get closer to Him.

2. Get more of the Word in your soul.

3. Pray for another outpouring of Pentecost into your being.

O. Don't let the world tear you down, be built up on your most holy faith!

Prayer in the Spirit

A. Not only that, but we need to pray!

Before you can be an effective soul-winner you need to be an effective pray-er.

Not just praying, but praying in the Holy Ghost.

Being lead by the Spirit, being empowered by the Spirit.

E. The Holy Spirit will lead you to pray according to the will of God.

1. (Rom 8:26-27 NKJV) Likewise the Spirit also helps in our weaknesses. For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. {27} Now He who searches the hearts (the Holy Spirit) knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God.

2. (1 John 5:14 NKJV) Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us.

F. We need the Spirit to lead us to pray correctly.

G. And we need the Spirit to empower our prayers.

H. The devil is doing all that he can...

1. To discourage us.

2. To distract us.

3. To defeat us.

I. We are in a spiritual battle.

1. Our prayers must be Spirit-powered.

2. Not things of the flesh, but things of the Spirit.

3. (2 Cor 10:3-4 NKJV) For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh. {4} For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds,

J. We must pray in the Spirit to be an effective soul-winner.

KEEPING YOURSELF IN THE LOVE OF GOD

A. Next we have to make sure that we are constantly placing ourselves in the love of Jesus.

B. The world system inundates us with...

1. Hatred

2. Jealousy

3. Greed

4. Anger

C. These are NOT the marks of a Christian.

1. These are NOT character traits of our Lord Jesus.

D. But they WILL easily infiltrate our being, if we don't constantly keep ourselves in the love of Jesus.

E. This is obviously not an automatic action.

1. You can't just drift into the stream of Jesus' love.

F. It is a premeditated, deliberate, intentional decision on your part.

G. We have to decide to keep ourselves in the middle of Jesus' love.

LOOKING FOR THE MERCY OF CHRIST

A. The next thing you must do to be effective in pulling people from the fire is you have to be a seeker.

1. You have to be looking for the mercy of Jesus.

B. The Lord wants to pour out His mercies on us everyday.

1. New mercies.

2. Mercies we didn't need yesterday, but today is a whole new ballgame!

3. His mercy preserves us!

4. (Lam 3:22-23 NKJV) Through the Lord's mercies we are not consumed, Because His compassions fail not. {23} They are new every morning; Great is Your faithfulness.

C. The ultimate mercy, and the one particularly alluded to is the Jesus' soon return to give us eternal life.

1. (Mark 13:19-20 NKJV) "For in those days there will be tribulation, such as has not been since the beginning of the creation which God created until this time, nor ever shall be. {20} "And unless the Lord had shortened those days, no flesh would be saved; but for the elect's sake, whom He chose, He shortened the days.

D. Our prayer needs to be "Maranatha!" which means, "Even so Lord, come quickly!"

1. "Lord, we're looking for and expecting your mercy!"

HAVE that mercy with the Fear of God

Pulling them from the fire

A. As you look for Christ's mercy you will become aware of those around you.

Those who are in danger of the fire.

C. On JULY 8, 1741 Jonathan Edwards preached a message to his ENFIELD, CONNECTICUT congregation entitled:

1. SINNERS IN THE HANDS OF AN ANGRY GOD

2. The sermon was based on the text:

i. “Their foot shall slide in due time.” Deuteronomy 32:35

3. One paragraph of this sermon went like this...

i. O sinner! Consider the fearful danger you are in:

ii. it is a great furnace of wrath,

iii. a wide and bottomless pit,

iv. full of the fire of wrath,

v. that you are held over in the hand of that God,

vi. whose wrath is provoked and incensed as much against you, as against many of the damned in hell.

vii.You hang by a slender thread, with the flames of divine wrath flashing about it, and ready every moment to singe it, and burn it asunder; and you have no interest in any Mediator, and nothing to lay hold of to save yourself, nothing to keep off the flames of wrath, nothing of your own, nothing that you ever have done, nothing that you can do, to induce God to spare you one moment.

4. The people's reaction to this wasn't indignation and anger — it was repentance.

D. Most (not all! but most) people apart from God know they are in danger.

E. They are looking for someone to tell them the way of escape.

1. They are looking for the fire-escape.

F. Some are like Lot, the nephew of Abraham.

1. He lived in Sodom and Gomorrah.

2. He hated what he saw each day.

3. But he felt powerless to deliver himself.

4. God sent angels (in reponse to Abraham's prayers?).

5. These angels had to forcibly remove Lot from certain incineration.

6. (Gen 19:15-16 NKJV) When the morning dawned, the angels urged Lot to hurry, saying, "Arise, take your wife and your two daughters who are here, lest you be consumed in the punishment of the city." {16} And while he lingered, the men took hold of his hand, his wife's hand, and the hands of his two daughters, the LORD being merciful to him, and they brought him out and set him outside the city.

G. Maybe you are God's angel to someone in your life.

1. Your obedience and faithfulness are imperative to their salvation.

H. Will you have compassion?

I. Will you pull or snatch the lost and dying from the very flames of hell?

Hating the garment polluted by the flesh