Make A Difference ~Jude 1:22

Good afternoon and welcome to the Panhandle. I am sorry I missed y'all last week. It was kind of a busy week and days got away from me. Have you ever heard someone say, “I just want to make a difference.” Or maybe, “I want my life to make a difference.” Jude in his little letter talks about making a difference, an eternal difference.

Building, Praying, Keeping, and Looking – these are the first four action words Jude uses to encourage believers of his day and believers today in our Christian growth.

Up to this point Jude has had us safeguarding ourselves by building ourselves up in the faith. Jude has had us looking inward, with the intent of strengthening ourselves so that we may reach out. In reaching out we are not only building ourselves up, we are building a strong church and reaching out to those around us. Jude shows us three groups of people that we need to look out for or look after starting with Christians who have begun to doubt. For what ever reason there are Christians, old and young in the faith that have started to doubt. Who knows it may even be you.

There is a war raging around us between the forces of God and the forces of Satan. One of the objectives of Satan in this on going war are the spiritually weak. Some are weak because they are new Christians, some are weak because they have been on the front lines for so long, some are weak because of life circumstances, what ever the reason they are weak and Satan in moving in for the kill. So we are not only to prepare ourselves for the fight, we are also given the responsibility of rescuing those that are weak. Instead of writing these who are weak and doubting off we are to be merciful to them. Such mercy forgives the false steps of new believers, and the stumbling steps of the war weary. This mercy causes us to come along side these to build up their faith, to build up their prayer life, to show them Godly love, and give them hope.

Why do we show mercy? Because we were first shown mercy, and because we are just as susceptible to be lead astray. Do you think the prodigal son set out to wind up in a pig pen? No, I don't think that he woke up one day and said, “I'll take my inheritance and blow it all. Then I'll go to work in a pig pin while starving. Yeah, boy that sounds like a plan to me.” Do you think Peter said to himself, “well the Master has given the prophecy of me rejecting Him so I'll just go along with it.”? No, just the night before Peter said he was willing to die for Christ Jesus. You see our slip, our falls are just the next step away.

In his Commentary Adam Clarke has this to say about verse 22: “Ye are not to deal alike with all those who have been seduced by false teachers; ye are to make a difference between those who have been led away by weakness and imprudence, and those who, in the pride and arrogance of their hearts, and their unwillingness to submit to wholesome discipline, have separated themselves from the Church, and become its inveterate enemies.”

Charles Spurgeon said, “Those who are in error are not equally guilty, some are deceivers and others are dupes.”

Jude 22

22 Be merciful to those who doubt;

1. Restoration

In case you have forgotten there are differences between the devil and our great God. One big difference is that the devil is the destroyer. He wants to leave our lives wrecked and ruined. He wants to leave us flailing in a pool of our own iniquities and wrong doings.

God on the other hand is the God of restoration. It is God who promised to sent a deliverer, a redeemer to restore our broken relationship with Him. It is God who fulfilled that promise by coming to Earth as God/man to pay the awful price for our sins. It is God who gives all believers that great verse of assurance ~ If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. (1 John 1:9).

I have a 2^nd cousin Bruce Miles who was in the restoration business. He would take old beat up cars or pick-ups and make them look like they just came off the assembly line. Or if the customer wanted a custom car or pick-up he could do that as well. People would come from all over the United States to have him restore their cars or pick-ups.

God has called all Christians to be restorers. Because He was willing to restore us, we should not hold back His grace from brothers and sisters who have stumbled or fallen. Proverbs 3:27 says, Do not withhold good from those to whom it is due, When it is in your power to do it. We are called to make a difference in the lives of those around us.

2. Realize That You Could be Next

Before you get the big head, before you start thinking of yourself as some kind of super Christian remember the Bible is full of fallen people. As a matter of fact you only have to go to Genesis, Chapter 3 to see the account of our first parents' fall.

And how about the man after God's own heart, David. He was an adulterer, a murder, and some would say an absentee Father. Yet God had compassion on Him and allowed him to enlarge the Kingdom of Israel and his son to build the first great temple. Look at what David wrote in Psalm 103:13 ~ Just as a father has compassion on his children, So the LORD has compassion on those who fear Him.

We all have in us the nature to become weak. Even though we are reminded to stand strong. And even though we do all that we can to stand strong, we can, and do become weak at times. All it takes to become physically weak is an infection, a microscopic virus, one part of the body not operating like it should. It is the same spiritually – a bad though, a slip of the tongue, a moment of indecision – and bamm you find yourself spiritually weak. This is when Satan, the roaring lion; will move in for the kill. This is when you need Christian brothers and sisters to be there for you. This is when you need the Holy Spirit to strengthen you.

3. React With Mercy - For judgment will be merciless to one who has shown no mercy; mercy triumphs over judgment. (James 2:13). Years after the death of President Calvin Coolidge, this story came to light. In the early days of his presidency, Coolidge awoke one morning in his hotel room to find a cat burglar going through his pockets. Coolidge spoke up, asking the burglar not to take his watch chain because it contained an engraved charm he wanted to keep. Coolidge then engaged the thief in quiet conversation and discovered he was a college student who had no money to pay his hotel bill or buy a ticket back to campus. Coolidge counted $32 out of his wallet -- which he had also persuaded the dazed young man to give back! -- declared it to be a loan, and advised the young man to leave the way he had come so as to avoid the Secret Service! (Yes, the loan was paid back.) - Today in the Word, October 8, 1992.

How do you react with mercy? You show compassion. The mercy of God should not only be enjoyed by us, but we should joyfully share it with others. The Greek actually reads, to have compassion. The word “compassion” is eleéō (el-eh-eh'-o) which is often translated as “show mercy.” It is closely related to the word éleos (el'-eh-os) which is translated as “mercy” in the previous verse.

Those who walk with God through faith in Christ Jesus do receive His mercy. And we should share that mercy with those who have gone astray. Jude states that we should do so making a distinction. In other words, we should attempt to reach out with mercy and compassion to those who have gone astray, to those who are weak and have been deceived. We should attempt to rescue them from the error of the false teachers. Our first reaction should not be to condemn them but to restore them to the fellowship of Christ and His church.

You should show compassion for all peoples, those who do not know Christ Jesus as Lord and those who have confessed Christ Jesus as Lord and Saviour. But remember you are to try and guide the wayward brother or sister back to Christ Jesus. You are to help them not abandon them.

4. Reach Them With Truth

You need to understand that sometimes when someone has been duped they believe the deceiver so strongly that they may not even desire to hear the truth. As I worked on this sermon I was reminded of the followers of Jim Jones and David Koresh.

Another way to look at it is like this. When you were lost, you did not want someone telling you that you were a sinner. You didn't want someone to tell you that without Christ Jesus you were bound for Hell. Instead Satan had you thinking that everything was just honky-dory, that you were doing just fine. But eventually the Holy Spirit helped the truth that you needed Christ Jesus to break through your wall of resistance. When that happened you realized you needed Christ Jesus and you were saved.

“and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free." (John 8:32). The truth is the Word of God. That is why we need to know what the Bible teaches. The devil knows the Bible inside and out, and he can use it with dangerous consequences. Those that deceive will pick and choose to build up a false truth and make one feel as though they are free.

Again the “truth” is the Word of God. That is why you need to be studied up in God's Word. You need to know what it says so that you can present the real “truth”. To be ready in season and out of season.

I am reminded of a time when my niece got hooked up with a man who claimed that only those of African decent could be saved. When I answered him back with verses like John 3:16 and Romans 12:13. After two or three e-mails he quit challenging me on this point. Not because I was some great Biblical scholar, but because I rebuked his beliefs with God's Word, God's Truth.

We are to restore the weak or doubting with the Word of God not beat them up with it. We need to remember the kindness that God showed us as we minister to our wayward brothers and sister. Brethren, even if anyone is caught in any trespass, you who are spiritual, restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness; each one looking to yourself, so that you too will not be tempted. (Galatians 6:1). Do you know someone who needs reminded of the “truth?”

Until next week then. Thank you for stopping by. May our Lord richly bless you and your family.

Biblesurfer