This is living. Waters of Grace, the teaching
ministry of Lewis Harold, assistant pastor of Calvary
Chapel of Westmoreland County in Greensburg, PA.
Now here's Pastor Lewis as he continues teaching through God's
Word. Those who don't believe and
those who do not obey the gospel of Jesus Christ or unbelievers,
false teachers, the only thing they have to look forward to is
His judgment. We are the preserved in Jesus
Christ, those who are believers or the preserved in Jesus
Christ. So for Him we will experience
His mercy to escape the wrath to calm.
We're going to experience His. His mercy to be kept from the
hour of trial. Mercy to receive salvation and
not judgement and hope of eternal life.
When you look at the Bible as a whole, it tells a complete
story, one that reflects the history of what God has done out
of his love for you. Because God loves you, he
doesn't leave you in uncertainty as you wait for his return.
Instead, He reveals exactly what will happen.
In today's message, Pastor Lewis wants to encourage you by
reminding you that God is coming back for his family.
One day, God will restore everything to its intended
state, a world without sin, pain, sorrow, or death, but
filled with joy by his side. Now here's Pastor Lewis in the
book of Jude chapter 1 as he continues his message building
up yourselves and others. It will cause divisions, It will
go against what the Word of God teaches, and it will cause
divisions among the people. And then the last four words
says this, not having the Spirit.
And that's what tells us these people weren't saved.
They're not saved. They professed it.
They try to make us believe it. They try to act like it.
They talk like it. I was with this guy for I don't
know how long, you know, watching him worshipping God,
watching him read his Bible and talking about, I was about for
how long? And now you really get a chance
to hear what's in his heart. And there's no spirit not saved,
not saved. That's why our prayer is that we
be unified here, that we be unified so that we would be able
to watch after each other, to be able to hang with each other,
spend time with each other and be able to hear what's going on
in each other's hearts as we pray together.
Not allow the enemy to come and try to separate us and try to
catch us isolated and try to overtake us.
But in order to get to my brother here, you got to go
through me because I'm going to be I'm going to be ministering
to him and praying for him and in to get to her.
You got to go through me because I'm going to be ministering to
her and praying for her. We pray for each other as
brothers and sisters. We minister to each other's
brothers and sisters and we build each other up.
And it's a lot harder for Satan to come in and bring these lies
when we are being reminded of the word of God.
Verse 20 says, but you OK, he just got finished talking about
the ones who were not saved, right, Because they said that.
And verse 19 says these are sensual persons who cause
divisions, not having the spirit.
These people aren't saved but you, beloved, but you, the ones
that he said back in chapter 1 who are called because you're
the church, you're the called, you're the beloved, or you're
the sanctified and you are the preserved or you're the ones
that's kept in Christ Jesus. That's what he told us back in
verse 1 of this very same book. You are the called, you are the
beloved, you are the sanctified, you are the ones who are kept by
Jesus Christ. But you, you love it.
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.
He's now giving instruction. This is why I like books like
this or letters like this, because it gives us some
practical instructions on how we can avoid these things and not
just saying, you know, he's not just saying to us.
They look, watch out for those false seizures and leaving it
there. He's given us instruction on how
we watch out for these, for how we prepare ourselves and we
protect ourselves from heresy. And how do we do it?
He says, building yourselves up on your most holy faith.
What does that mean? That means studying the word of
God, reading the word of God. And we're on our on a frequent
basis continually to keep the truth in front of you, in front
of you. Somebody once asked Kobe Bryant,
why do you do the same drills all the time?
Kobe Bryant used to do drills where he would come into the gym
sometimes at 3:00 or 4:00 in the morning.
He would come into the gym and it may be almost an hour before
he ever touches a basketball because he's first working on
fundamentals, footwork, setting screens and all this is without
a ball and without anybody else there but just him.
And he's going through these things over and over and over
again. They're fundamentals.
One of the greatest players, probably one or two greatest
players that we've ever seen in the NBA.
And he does the same things over and over and over again because
it's the building blocks of everything else that he does.
So we get up in the morning and we read our Bibles or whenever
it is that we get a chance to read our Bibles and we go in and
we read it with the intention to hear from God.
When you come here, we do it with the intention to hear from
God. We build ourselves up on our
most holy faith, most holy faith.
And in doing that we we are constantly keeping the word of
God before us. David said Your word have I hid
in my heart, so I won't send against you.
Your word that I keep before me all times, even on my right
hand, so I won't send against you.
Having the word of God as a constant reminder in our lives
helps us to not be deceived by false teachers.
It will help us to know it right away.
The red flags will go up immediately because we're in the
Word of God and the Holy Spirit is revealing truth to us
constantly. So we're building up ourselves
on a most holy faith. That's exactly what they did in
the old church back in Acts chapter 2.
That's what they did back in Acts chapter 2 around verse 42.
It says that steadfastly. They continued steadfastly and
the apostles doctrine steadfastly, continuously,
frequently in the apostles doctrine.
They weren't reading magazines and things coming from that
place and things coming from somewhere else.
They were in the apostles doctrine.
They kept that before them all the time, steadfastly.
And not only were they in the apostles doctrine together, but
they were also fellowshipping together.
So now I'm taking what I learned in the apostles doctrine, and
you and I are talking about this thing.
You're showing me how it applies to your life.
I'm showing you how it applies to my life.
And we're building each other up in these things.
Not only that, but they also broke bread together.
You get a lot done over a meal. You get a lot done over a good
meal. That's why we like to eat.
We don't mind church going. Folks don't mind eating.
It's spiritual to eat. And I'm just joking.
I'm not I'm that's not in the word.
That is not in the word, but it's a blessing when we can
fellowship with each other over food and break bread.
They did it on a consistent basis in the early church.
And of course, the other thing they did together was pray, was
pray. They were an apostle doctrine.
They fellowship with one another.
They broke bread with one another and they prayed with one
another. That's why it was very difficult
for somebody to bring in a heresy.
And just like it should be here, very difficult for somebody to
bring in a heresy. Amen.
Building ourselves up in our most holy faith.
And not only do we build ourselves up as we, as we study
the central word of God, but we also add to our faith.
Peter said We don't just be comfortable with the fact that
we're saved, but while we are saved, we continue to grow in
our faith and we add to our faith over and over.
In second Peter chapter 1, starting at verse 5, he says add
to your faith, add virtue, that moral excellence, add that to
your faith and then you add knowledge.
Learn more about this God that we that we're serving.
Learn more about it. Add that to your faith.
Add self-control. Learn how to control yourself.
Control those fleshly urges. Learn how to control those
things. Control our temper, control our
attitudes, control those things that are moved by our flesh.
self-control He's to add perseverance.
You know, you got to be able to endure because it's going to get
rough. The circumstances are going to
be tough. The enemy's going to throw
different things before you and try to stumble you, but you got
to endure with perseverance, perseverance after perseverance.
You got to add godliness, Godliness, God likeness.
We got to walk this thing out the way.
He does obey the word of God, not just be hearers, but doers
of it. And as we do that, we begin to
become godly. As opposed to what he says here,
they were walking to a according to their ungodliness because God
wasn't in there. He wasn't in their speech, He
wasn't in their hearts, She wasn't in their actions.
But we add godliness. So godliness comes out of our
conversation. Godliness comes out of our out
of our heart and the things that we do, it's our actions, our
godly actions. Our thoughts are more godly
thoughts. Now.
We need the Holy Spirit to help us with these things.
These are things we can do on our own.
But then he also says to the godliness, you got to add
brotherly kindness. We got to care about each other
and treat each other kind, treat each other kind.
And when we don't treat each other kind, the Holy Spirit lets
us know that. Let's go back immediately and
make it right. Brother, I'm sorry.
I said something to you the other day and the Lord brought
to my attention that it was wrong, it was offensive.
Or if he comes to me and tell me, you know what, man, you said
something to me the other day that really offended me.
I'm sorry, brother, I'm sorry. Let's take care of those things
immediately. Let's not let them fester.
We need brotherly kindness. We got to treat each other kind,
treat each other kind with kindness.
He said by loving kindness have I drawn you.
And then we add to our brotherly kindness, we add love.
That is the big foundation, the umbrella under which everything
else comes. If I love you, I am not going to
hurt you. Not purposely.
Not purposely doesn't mean that I want to offend you.
Because there may be things that I do or say that may offend you,
and I'm not even aware of it. That's why you got to love me
enough to let me know it. Speak the truth to me in love.
Don't come and snatch me up, you know?
Hey, looks, I got something to say to you, brother, You know,
you know, let's be kind, Let's be kind.
Let's love one another so we add to our faith and that helps us
to be built up in our most holy faith.
But then he tells us, he says praying in the Holy Spirit, that
praying in the Holy Spirit be means being LED, being LED in
prayer by the Spirit. Be led by the Spirit.
Sometimes that could come in moans and groans that you can't
even utter. I mean, you don't even know what
you're saying. You just moaning and groaning.
You know, you, you, you know, you have a heart for God, but
you just can't put it in the words what you want to say to
him. And the only thing you can do is
just lay on your on your face or on your knees and you just moan
and groan. But the Holy Spirit searches all
things, even the deep things of God.
He knows because your spirit bears witness with his Spirit.
He knows what's being said and then sometimes it could be
praying in tongues. Now I know that that gets abused
and people don't like to talk about praying in tongues, but
tongues is a legitimate gift. It is a legitimate gift.
Then people that are in the in the church that does expository
teaching, they don't run away from talking about the tongues,
but it is done decently and in order.
If I'm in the church service with all these people, I'm not
going to stand up here and start talking in tongues because I'm
going to confuse most of you, going to confuse myself.
I won't even know what I'm saying.
And without an interpreter, it's not clear.
But if I'm praying by myself in my own prayer closet, I can pray
in tongues as much as I feel the Holy Spirit leading me.
Paul said, hey, listen, there's nothing wrong with praying in
tongues. I wish you all spoke with
tongues, He said however, but to prophecy is better and
prophesying just simply means sharing the word of God, He said
it's that's better because prophesying we can do that with
knowledge. We know what's being said.
We couldn't understand what's being said.
But if someone is praying in tongues, we don't know what's
being said, Paul said. I'd rather I'd rather speak 5
words with understanding than 10,000 words in tongues.
You can find that over in First Corinthians chapter 14.
He talks all about speaking in tongues, but it is a legitimate
gift and it should not be neglected.
However, we do all things decently and in order.
So it could mean praying in tongues.
And then he says looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ
unto eternal life. So that's looking for the return
of Jesus Christ coming back and His mercy that He shows us.
You see, we as God's people, those who are believers, when He
comes back, we're looking for the mercy of Him because we're
going to get mercy when He comes back.
Those who don't believe and those who do not obey the gospel
of Jesus Christ or unbelievers, false teachers, the only thing
they have to look forward to is His judgement.
We are the preserved in Jesus Christ.
Those who are believers are the preserved in Jesus Christ.
So for Him, we will experience His mercy to escape the wrath to
come. We're going to experience his,
His mercy to be kept from the hour of trial, mercy to receive
salvation and not judgement and hope of eternal life.
And that's why I pray that there are those who or may have be a
false teacher or those who may have confessed Christianity, but
in their hearts they know that it's not real.
We can still repent. We can turn and repent and ask
for God's salvation, ask for God's forgiveness of sins if
we're caught in them. That's the mercy of God.
Once we humble ourselves and we speak, we confess our sins and
our need for Him, which is really what it comes down to is
confessing our need for Him. He hears us and He forgives us.
So now we go on 22 and on. Some have compassion, making a
distinction, but on others saved with fear, pulling them out of
the fire, hating even the garment, defiled by the flesh.
So now Jude is talking about different people who may have
been persuaded or deceived by these false teachers or false
Christians. Some of these people who when he
says that they, you know, they're making a distinction
that means that they're wavering, they've heard some
things and they're questioning their faith.
So they're now wavering. They're doubting their faith,
doubting what they believed for years because they've heard some
things that they felt logically goes against it.
And their flesh says, well, I'd rather believe that than to
believe this. But you said with those, the
church is full of different people mature in different ways
in the church, they mature different levels.
Everybody doesn't mature in their faith at the same rate.
So with those who may need a little bit extra care because
they're wavering in their faith, because they've been deceived or
because they're now doubting, we need to be compassionate with
them. Have compassion.
Not just judge them, not just be condemning, but to have
compassion and lovingly and patiently walk them through the
Word of God, disciple them, but not make them feel like they're
already judged and condemned. And he said with some pulling
out with fear, and maybe these may be those who have slipped
back into sin and they're now practicing sin again.
You know, with those we have to be like a, a fireman going into
a burning building and snatching people out even when they don't
want to come out. I think about lot when the
angels came to lot to take him out of to take him out of Sodom
and Gomorrah, God was ready to burn that place up and lots
tiptoeing around, oh, wait a minute, I got to go do this.
Wait, I got to go do this. Some angels say, man, come on,
get your get out of here. It's time to move.
It's time to go now. And sometimes with people who we
see that they're on that path because they've now been sinking
into sin and they're on that path to, to hell.
Sometime we have to be like the angels or we got to be like
those firemen and just basically snatch them out of the flames.
We got to be more aggressive with our approach with them to
really just give them truth. Look, this is leading you into
judgement, man. And to be very direct, but
loving, hating even the garment. But we got to do it.
That means that we do it with fear, and that fear means that
we do it cautiously because you might have some people that's
caught up in a sin that may be a sin that you used to be caught
up in, a sin that you may have been weak to at one time.
So when you go to rescue them, you got to make sure and be
cautious that you yourself don't get caught up.
Or as the Word of God said, when you do it, you do it with
meekness. But considering yourself, unless
you get caught up in that sin. Look, if you weak the drinking,
you know, don't go to somebody and sit in the bar with them and
try to talk to him about about the word.
If you if you're into sexual immorality, don't go into a a a
strip club and sit down and want to talk to him about the word of
God. If somebody is is into gossiping
and you weak the gossiping, you know, don't sit around at the at
the table and then listen to them gossip for an hour and
didn't want to talk to him about the word of God.
We have to be able. To be cautious when we pull them
out of the fire and then we come to the close here says now unto
him who was able to keep you from stumbling.
He's not only able to keep you from falling, he's able to keep
you from even stumbling. You know, we listen to some of
these things and and and and people get deceived and they
start to stumble and to move closer and closer to that sin.
But he says, look, I'm even able to keep you from stumbling.
Not even falling, but just from stumbling period.
Praise and worship team, please come forward.
Proverbs 323 says you will walk safely in your way if you listen
to wisdom and knowledge and your foot will not stumble.
He able to keep us from stumbling and present you
faultless before the presence of his glory.
What a beautiful picture that is.
What a beautiful picture that is over in the book of Ephesians in
chapter 5, he talks about how the husband or Jesus Christ
presents the church faultless before him and how the man of
God, you know, when he's when he's the the husband or he's
the, the head of his household as the man of God, we present
our wives faultless, blameless before Christ.
And we do that with the washing and the cleansing of the Word,
not with the beating and the, and the, and the controlling of
the word, the washing, the cleansing and the sanctifying of
the Word. And here he, he gives that
picture that Jesus himself is able to present you faultless
before the presence of his glory.
Are we faultless? No.
Are we blameless? No.
But because we're covered by the blood of Jesus, when God looks
at us, he sees us as being faultless.
Blameless just as he did with the children of Israel and the
Passover. All of them weren't faultless,
but because of the blood that was attached to the door, the
Bible says the death Angel went past them because they were
covered with the blood. And so are we.
So are we. We're covered with the blood of
Jesus. What a blessing that is.
And he does that with joy to God our Savior.
And in the Hebrew, or I'm sorry, in the Greek, it's the only God
our Savior or the true God, who alone is wise.
Be glory and majesty be glory. Glory is the sum total of
everything God is and all that he does.
It's glorious. It's glorious.
I know in my life when I look at the things that He's done, it's
been glorious. The things in here that He's
done has been glorious. I see it in your own lives, the
things that He's done in your lives has been glorious.
And it says the majesty that means the greatness and his
magnificence there is none greater than He is none greater.
And dominion, that's His sovereign rule over all things.
His rule over all things because of how small or large they are.
He's ruled over heaven and earth and everything in them.
There's nothing that he doesn't have rule over.
He has authority over everything.
He can speak a word and whatever He wants to be done is done.
And power, that's his authority and the right to use his power.
He has the right always to use His power, both now and forever.
Amen. You've been listening to Living
Waters of Grace with Pastor Lewis Harrell at Calvary Chapel
Westmoreland in Greensburg, PA. As Pastor Lewis continues to
preach through the book of Jude, he wants you to realize that you
can't be a part time Christian. You're going to follow Jesus.
He is going to ask for your undivided loyalty.
If you try to serve your own interests while following Jesus,
you find that you can't do either one successfully.
But if you run after Jesus with everything you have, you'll be
amazed at how He provides for you and sustains you on the
journey, even when you have no idea of where your provision
will come from. If today's message has
encouraged you, we'd love to hear your feedback.
You can visit ourwebsite@calvarychapelonline.com
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