Saints are Triumphant

In the Old Testament Lesson for today we read, "There will be a time of distress such as has not happened We don't know for sure that these words are applying to right now, but it sure feels that way sometimes. God's laws totally disregarded. Basic freedoms being taken away. Economic malaise. Islam taking over in one nation after the next. How do we overcome the distress that comes into our lives from all these causes?

Jude has some advice: "{20} build yourselves up in your most holy faith." Our faith in Jesus as our Savior, our trust that His death washes away our sins, that His perfect life covers us with holiness, and that His resurrection guarantees that we will live forever, is a gift of God. We don't produce it in ourselves. The Holy Spirit gives us that faith and keeps it alive. So, technically we don't build ourselves up in our most holy faith. The Holy Spirit does.

He uses tools to do that. He keeps us trusting that Jesus lived and died and rose for us and increases our trust in Jesus by working in our lives through the Bible and through the Word of God as it is attached to the bread and wine of the Lord's Supper. So, when Jude wrote build yourselves up in your most holy faith, he is telling us to immerse ourselves in the Bible and regularly participate in the Lord's Supper so our faith might be built up. Then we can triumph over the distress in our lives.

More advice from Jude: {20} pray in the Holy Spirit. We might have expected him to write, "pray for the Spirit." Since the Holy Spirit is the One who keeps our faith strong, we would pray that He would continue to do that through Word and Supper. Praying in the Spirit adds two thoughts. Since the Holy Spirit is the One who has given us faith, praying in the Spirit is praying under His influence, that is, from our position as believers in Jesus. Not praying on the basis of thinking we are right with God on our own. Praying in the Spirit would also mean praying under His direction, asking His help to ask for the right things and to take the right direction so that our most holy faith gets built up. Asking His help in triumphing over the distress in our lives.

Sometimes we get really impatient with our present situation with all its distresses. We want Jesus to come back today. Jude reminds us that it is God's mercy which determines when Jesus will return. "{21} You wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to bring you to eternal life." Jesus loves us. He wants to benefit us. He has compassion on us. He understands the difficulty of our present distress. His mercy will bring us to Himself through death or Judgment Day at the time that is just right for our souls. Believing that makes us able to be triumphant over our present distress.

Since the timing of Jesus' removing us from the present distress is up to Jesus and dependent on His mercy, we just have to wait. While we are waiting, Jude's advice is: {21} Keep yourselves in God's love. We don't deserve God's love. We can't bribe Him to give us His love. We can't do something to earn His love. The only thing we can do to surround ourselves with His love is to keep subjecting ourselves to His Word which keeps reminding us that He loves us and gives us forgiveness, holiness and eternal life. That's why we worship each week, come to Bible study each week, and use the Bible daily. So God can keep reminding us that He loves us. So God can keep His love surrounding us. When that happens, we are able to be triumphant over our present distresses.

You are not the only one who is going to be subject to the present distresses. Everybody else in the world will be subject to the same distresses because they are living in the same world dominated by the same consequences of sin. How are they going to get through it? By doing the same things for themselves which we just discussed: immersing themselves in the Word and by participating in the Supper. How are they going to get through it? Jude reminds us that we can help others get through it.

"{22} Be merciful to those who doubt." Who are the people who doubt? We are. When distress happens, we doubt that we can handle it. We doubt that God is with us, otherwise it wouldn't have happened. We doubt that God loves us, otherwise He wouldn't have let it happen. When someone expresses those thoughts to us, how do we respond? Do we say, "How can you doubt? How can you think like that? You sound like an unbeliever."

Jude's directive is: "{22} Be merciful to those who doubt." Why? Because when we doubt, we need help. We need somebody to listen to us and have a conversation with us. We need somebody who is willing to say, "You know, I have the same doubts. But my faith doesn't make God's truth true and my doubts don't make God's truth false. God's Word is true. God says in His Word, "Jesus is with us always. God loves us. God can give you the strength that you need in your present distress." Be merciful to the doubter. That will help the doubter triumph over the distress.

What are we to do to help others get through the present distress? Jude wrote: "{23} Snatch others from the fire and save them." This group is getting burned with sin. We are to snatch them away from sin and rescue them from the consequences of sin. Again, it is true that the Holy Spirit is the One who leads a person to repent of sin. But He uses people to bring His message of Law and Gospel to other people who are being burned in sin. One group of people God uses is our congregation. Your individual participation in our congregational ministry is used by the Holy Spirit to bring the Law and Gospel to each other and to others. Together through these ministries we apply the Law, trusting that the Holy Spirit will use it to lead the person in the fire of sin to acknowledge his sin. We apply the Gospel, trusting that the Holy Spirit will use it to lead the person in the fire of sin to grasp the forgiveness which Jesus won when He died on the cross. Thus, snatching others from the fire and saving them. We just helped others become triumphant over sin, a cause of distress.

Instead of snatching people from the fire, we have tendency to ignore the fire. "It's none of my business that the student next to me has all the spelling words written on his hand." Instead of snatching people from the fire, we have a tendency to redefine the fire. "Shredding our friends verbally is just the way people interact these days. Nobody really gets hurt." Think of the consequences of not snatching people from the fire. They keep sinning. They don't repent. They divorce themselves from God's family.

What are we to do to help others get through the present distress? {23} to others show mercy, mixed with fear-hating even the clothing stained by corrupted flesh. This is the comparison. We hate, we have an aversion to clothing stained by bodily discharges, especially if the discharges were caused by disease. It is a good aversion. We don't want to become contaminated by the bacteria or the disease. However, we do show mercy and love to the people who have the sickness or whose body produced the discharge.

We show mercy to people. We direct them to Jesus. We want them to repent of their sins and grab a hold of the forgiveness, holiness and eternal life which Jesus won for them. We want that for them because we know we are by nature sinners just as they are. And we know the joy of being triumphant over the control of sin in our lives. But we do it with healthy fear. We fear too much or too close contact with people whose lives are contaminated with sin, because we don't want to get contaminated by getting trapped in their sins.

More advice from Jude: "{25} To the only God our Savior be glory, majesty, power and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all ages, now and forevermore." We ought to regularly say, "God has been, is, and always will be(before all ages, now and forevermore) great and good (giving Him glory) by acknowledging His majesty (He is on a whole different level from us), His power (He made everything and can do anything), and authority (He is in charge of everything."

We also ought to regularly say, "God has been, is, and always will be (before all ages, now and forevermore) great and good (giving Him glory) because He is our Savior. He saved us from the guilt of our sins by removing it from us. He saved us from the punishment of death and hell that we deserve because of our sins. He saved us from our lack of qualifications for being in His family by giving us holiness. He saved us to an eternal existence with Him.

Why can God be our Savior? through Jesus Christ our Lord. If Jesus hadn't taken our guilt on Himself, God wouldn't be able to save us from the guilt. If Jesus hadn't suffered death and hell as our Substitute, God wouldn't be able to save us from that punishment. If Jesus hadn't lived a holy life in our place, God wouldn't be able to save us from our lack of holiness. If Jesus hadn't risen from the dead, God wouldn't be able to save us into eternity. We are triumphant because of Jesus.

Jude reminds us of two other things as we give God glory. "{24} To him who is able to keep you from falling." God is the only One who through His Word because of Jesus is able to keep us from falling away from Him and giving in to doubt. God is the only One who through His Word because of Jesus is able to snatch us from the fires of sin. God is the only One who through His Word because of Jesus is able to give us the courage to keep on showing mercy, while at the same time able to give us the wisdom to not become contaminated by sin. Keep your focus on Him who is able to make it possible for you to be triumphant over the causes of distress. We are triumphant because of Jesus.

"{24} To him who is able to present you before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy." God is the only One through His Word who can build up our trust that Jesus lived and died and rose to give us forgiveness, holiness and eternal life. God is the only One who through His Word can keep us knowing that He loves us. So, He is the only One who can present us to Himself with all of our faults gone because of Jesus. He is the only One who can produce in us the great joy of knowing that we are His, now and forever because of Jesus. Keep your focus on Him who is able to make it possible for you to be triumphant over the present distress by reminding you that you are acceptable to Him because of Jesus. We are triumphant because of Jesus.

Prayer: "{24} To him who is able to keep you from falling 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."