Stay the Course

Remember Your Training

Josh Duemler (Assistant Pastor at Fellowship Reformed Church in Mt Pleasant) continued our Sunday morning sermon series through the book of Jude. Jude writes to the Church to urge his fellow Christians to contend for the faith. And in verses 17 through 23, he urges them to not be unsettled by the threats of false teaching and bad actors in the church. Instead, they should persist in holding firmly to the same truths and the same training regardless of what they face. They should stay the course.

Jude 17-23

Specifically, Jude 17 through 23 says, “But you must remember, beloved, the predictions of the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ. They said to you, “In the last time there will be scoffers, following their own ungodly passions.” It is these who cause divisions, worldly people, devoid of the Spirit. But you, beloved, building yourselves up in your most holy faith and praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ that leads to eternal life. And have mercy on those who doubt; save others by snatching them out of the fire; to others show mercy with fear, hating even the garment stained by the flesh.”

Pastor Josh worked through the text by pointing out rephrasing the three general instructions Jude gives for how Christians should stay the course. First, they should remember their Bibles. (Christians should embrace the sufficiency of the teaching given by Christ and the apostles).  Second, they should show mercy (particularly to those who are getting ensnared by false teaching, to different degrees). And third, they should keep themselves in God’s love.

And for this third point, “keeping themselves in the love of God,” Pastor Josh identifies three phrases from the text that clarify what’s meant by this phrase. Christians are to abide in God’s love by building themselves upon the foundation of the Christian faith (Christ), by praying in the Holy Spirit (humbly relying on the Spirit’s power, and recognizing God as their Father), and by waiting with hope and expectancy for the return of Christ.

Stay the Course

In other words, Christian, when trials and threats come, recognize that God’s resources for you are sufficient, and stand firm. Stay the course.