Merciful To All

Keep Yourselves In God’s Love

11.24.24 [Jude 20-25] River of Life (Christ the King Sunday)

You expect fighters to be physical, not philosophical. Intense, not intellectual. Strong, not insightful. You expect fighters to be destructive forces, not deep thinkers. But sometimes, people surprise you.

When you think of philosophical, intellectual, deep-thinking fighters, Mike Tyson probably isn’t on the top of your list. But in 1987, Iron Mike Tyson was slated to face a confident Tyrell Biggs. Biggs, the reigning Olympic Gold Medalist, claimed he had a plan to do what 31 other fighters had not—beat Tyson, the undefeated heavyweight champion. When Tyson heard this, he replied: Everyone has a plan until they get until they get hit for the first time.

Tyson touched upon something greater than the overconfidence of his next opponent. Reality can be a rude awakening. Things don’t always go according to your plans. How will you respond?

During Jesus’ earthly ministry, the Pharisees were among Jesus’ most frequent adversaries. The Pharisees were not clergy. They were lay leaders who took the Law of Moses very seriously. They fell into the false teaching of legalism—thinking that a person can be righteous enough to earn or deserve God’s favor.

This conviction is why they refused to acknowledge Jesus to be the Christ. In their minds, Jesus did not honor the traditions of Israel enough. Jesus spent too much time with gluttons and drunkards, tax collectors and prostitutes to be taken seriously. They were the first to accuse him of being a blasphemer or being in league with Lucifer.

Our Lord Jesus tackled this hypocrisy head-on. (Mt. 23:13) Woe to you, Pharisees, you hypocrites. You shut the door of the kingdom of heaven in people’s faces. You yourselves do not enter, nor will you let those enter who are trying to. Jesus made it crystal clear that God (Mt. 9:13) desires mercy, not sacrifice or rituals or traditions.

With his sacrificial death and resurrection, God’s Son showed his commitment to showing mercy, by making the ultimate sacrifice.

But after Jesus made full atonement for all our sins, new false teachings began to pop up like weeds after a heavy spring rain. In Galatia, there was a new strain of legalism, a remix of the Pharisees’ false teaching that a person had to keep a few of the laws of Moses to remain in God’s good graces. So Paul’s letter reminded his readers of the unconditional love of God and the freedom Christ earned for us.

Jude wrote to people facing a far different false teaching. In 25 verses, Jude warns his readers that Jude 4 ungodly people have secretly slipped in among the people of God and they are trying to pervert the grace of God into a license of immorality and deny Jesus Christ as our Lord. The attack of licentiousness—that because Jesus already picked up the tab of sin, you can sin as much as you like— is just as destructive as legalism. And it’s one we face today in spades.

How many times have you heard someone tell you that being a Christian means that you shouldn’t judge anyone?

How many times have you been told that loving your neighbor means accepting them for who they are?

How many times have you heard that nobody’s perfect and Jesus died for all sins and all sinners and so you should just show people more grace?

When people say these things to you, it feels like you’ve been hit right in the mouth. At first, you don’t know what to say. Do you know why? Because each of these assertions contains a kernel of the timeless truth of God’s Word. They sound right, at first. But they’re still wrong.

Christians are not called to serve as spiritual judges, juries, and executioners. Only Jesus has been given the authority to judge the living and the dead. But his verdict is not meant to be a surprise. The Word of God makes it clear. God hates sin. 1 Jn. 3:9 No one who is born of God will continue to sin. Christians can’t ignore that.

Loving your neighbor means treating them as God, who is love, does. God redeems sinners. He purifies us from all unrighteousness. He makes us his holy people. He receives us as we are, but he doesn’t leave us wallowing in the muck and mud of our wickedness.

And yes, all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. So God sent his Son as his gracious gift for sinners so that we might have eternal life in his name. This is the grace we are to show sinners, not social acceptance of sin. We are called to be patient, not tolerant.

Each of these is a modern manifestation of the kind of licentiousness Jude was warning his readers about. Jude 8 On the strength of their own dreams, these people pollute their own bodies, reject authority… Jude 10 and slander whatever they do not understand. Jude 10 They are scoffers who follow their own ungodly desires.

So what are we to do when we see and hear these false teachings?

Look at what Jude says. Jude 20-21 Dearly beloved, keep yourselves in God’s love, by building yourselves up in your most holy faith and praying in the Holy Spirit, as you eagerly wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to bring you to eternal life. This is how we fight false teaching. We rally together, at the foot of the cross. We exhale to God all that exhausts us about living in a sinful world. And we fight for those who are falling into all kinds of temptation. Including ourselves.

We keep ourselves in God’s love by recalling the precious & powerful nature of God’s love. We did not love God. At one time, we, like all other sinners, hated God. Our minds were hostile to his Word and scoffed at his will. The sinful nature always and only thinks it knows better than its Sovereign Lord.

Rom. 5:8 But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. This is the most holy faith, that Jesus loved us and died for our sins, even when we hated him and loved to sin. In dying for our sins, Jesus was not trying to rob us of joy. Our sinful nature thinks of sin as a thrill, a pleasure, as delightful, or as satisfying. God knows how damaging sin is. So he took upon himself the impact. On the cross, Christ experienced the consequences of all mankind’s wickedness. Only a fool would look at the terrible punishment Jesus endured and conclude God doesn’t care about sin.

But there’s more to this. Jesus dealt with the ultimate consequences of all of our wickedness. He knows where sin leads. And because he loves us and wants what is eternally best for us, he warns us.

You’ve know this on a far smaller scale. Someone faces some terrible tragedy because of a thoughtless decision. They didn’t wear a seatbelt. They jumped in a lake and didn’t check how deep it was. They trusted someone with their life’s savings. Then it all went horribly wrong. What do they spend the rest of their life doing? Don’t they warn people: Don’t do what I did!? Doesn’t their warning hit home powerfully? Because we know that they care and they know what they’re talking about. Why should we think Jesus’ warnings about sin are any less serious?

But the most holy faith isn’t just a visit from the ghost of Christmas yet to come. The most holy faith is that Jesus took care of all our sins. The most holy faith is that Jesus takes great care in creating in us a new heart and an upright spirit. The most holy faith is that God keeps us in his love and keeps us loving what he loves. We pray, in the Spirit, that God would continue to forgive our sins and continue to work in us a spirit that despises sin, until he comes again.

But we don’t just concern ourselves with ourselves. We fight for all those who are facing all kinds of temptation. We know there are many who have been led astray by legalism or licentiousness. They aren’t sure what to think, what to say, or what to do. They doubt God and his Word because they have seen many disregard God and his Word. They have only seen how sin sparkles, not how it shatters souls.

Having been brought to gether with other Christians by Christ, having been built up in the most holy faith by the Holy Spirit, we know what they need: mercy. Not muttering I told you so. Not self-righteous self-help advice that leads a sinner to believe they can redeem themselves or make up for their past mistakes. Mercy is found on the cross.

The world expects us to treat people in one of two ways—either being hyper-critical or overly indulgent. Mercy is neither of those things.

All sinners need God’s people to point them to God’s mercy, while also maintaining God’s holiness. This mercy is mixed with fear. We recognize that temptation incites our sinful natures, too. There, but for the grace of God, go we. Were it not for God’s glorious mercy, we would stumble and fall into temptation. We would deserve to be cast into the fire. But God is rich in mercy and abounding in faithful love.

So, as he sent his Son, to snatch us from the fires of hell, so he sends his servants today to do the same. As God’s people, you are not called to sacrifice yourself for sinners. Christ did that already. But you are called to speak up when you see sinners dancing too close to the fire. Those who know the mercy of God, as we do, cannot just sit on their hands and say It’s none of my business. We can’t remain silent and tell ourselves we’re not supposed to be judgmental.

You wouldn’t let a toddler wander near a fire pit. In fact, you’d rebuke your dog if you thought its tail was in danger of getting lit up. Why would you do less when you know the stakes? Christians cannot sit idly by and watch the world burn. We must train. We must pray. We must act. And we must trust that God will keep us. He will keep us from stumbling into legalism or licentiousness. He will give us the words to say when we get punched in the mouth. He will also bring us to be with him for eternity.

Jude 24 To him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy—25 to the only God our Savior be glory, majesty, power and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all ages, now and forevermore! Amen.