"The Great Escape"
February 3, 2008

Jude 14-15 the apostates fall…
Jude 16-19 the character of the people
Jude 20-21 "But ye, beloved, building up yourselves on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost, Keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life".
He gives us the backdrop of the character of Enoch. Now he looks at us individually, and the verses we are going to look at today - verse 20 and 21 - give us a fourfold formula of how we can stand against apostasy.
Jude 20 "Beloved" a new language… different distinction…"I want to talk to you at your crossroads…
- you haven't reached the stage that these boys have reached
- you are still holding on to the faith, but there is a danger that you will let it go, there is a danger you'll dilute it and you will fall away!
* If you are standing firm in the faith today that is once delivered to the saints - God has done it!
*** Jude is telling us today how not to apostatize, how to survive in an age in which we live, how to escape the spirit of the age and live holy and godly lives, like Enoch, when the whole world is against us!
I. First of all his injunction is this: 'Build up! Build up!'

Now there are three questions:
A. The structure. Look at the verse: 'building up yourselves' - you are the structure, you are the one who must be built up to prevent apostasy, you are the building. 1Pe 2:5
B. Who is the builder? You must build yourself up.2 Timothy 2:
C. What is the foundation? Look: 'on your most holy faith'. The faith! Acts 20:32
There are four injunctions upon the Christian concerning the word of God, how many of them do you fulfil?
- One: read the word of God
- Secondly: we are to meditate upon the word of God. Psalm1:2:
- Thirdly: do you memorize it? Psalm 119:9
- Fourthly, there is studying the word of God, understanding the word of God to show yourself approved unto God..

* It takes 72 hours read the whole word of God, at reading speed. Two weeks television would get us through the word of God!

II. (v 20b): 'Praying in the Holy Ghost'. Do you pray?
* E.M. Bounds: "No prayer, no blessing. Little prayer, little blessing. Much prayer, much blessing."
That is the function that we must get down to, and if you want to see the measure of a man or a woman's Christianity, look at their prayer life!
* To pray in the Spirit,
1) Is to pray in the will of God upon the word of God.
2) It is to pray in surrender to the Spirit of God.
3) When you are walking in the Spirit.

III. (v21): 'Keep yourselves in the love of God'.
Now that does not mean 'Keep God loving you', because God does love us!
Neither does it mean: 'Keeping us loving Him'.
- Let's see what it does mean. Well, it's personal - you see that, it's just like the building up your faith - verse 21: 'Keep yourselves in the love of God'.
A. It is not only personal but it is relational.
That's he talking about in keeping yourselves in the love of God? He's talking about fellowship.
*** He is saying walk consciously every moment in the enjoyment of the love of God.
They weren't doing that, if you look at verse (v11):
- They went in the way of Cain - the way of works, not the way of God.
- They ran greedily after the error of Balaam, that was not the way of the love of God. They perished in rebellion, that was not the love of God.
1 John 1:6 'If we walk in the light, as he is in the light'...
IV. And fourthly: 'Looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life'.
It means this:
- 'looking earnestly, earnestly expecting the second coming of the Lord Jesus Christ'. Don't let any cold, calculated theologian or preacher throw cold water on the embers of the fire of looking for the Lord Jesus. Looking for Him!
- Waking every day and thinking, 'Perhaps today Lord?' - Why? Because He is our Saviour, we look for Him - and by Him coming for us it is showing His mercy. For we are not appointed unto wrath, and we will not go through that great tribulation that will be poured upon the earth for its apostasy, for its unbelief - but we are to comfort one another with this fact: to look for the mercy of our Saviour!
1Jo 3:3 "And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure."
* The way to avoid apostasy is:
1. Not just building yourself up upon the word of God,
2. Not just praying in the Holy Ghost,
3. Not just keeping yourself in fellowship with God,
4. But it is looking for the Lord Jesus Christ our Savior and our salvation!
Do you do that?
Romans 13:11 "Knowing that the time now is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed."
Do you remember Enoch?
Methuselah= 'when he dies it shall come' - and from that moment on he walked with God. * * * Once God told him, 'I'm coming!', he walked with God.
* When are we going to start?
*** Do you know [that] not to build yourself up in your most holy faith, not to pray in the Holy Ghost, not to keep yourself in the love of God, not to look for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ is sin.