People Who Need Rescue - 13

Coming to the conclusion of Jude's epistle today, the conclusion of the body, not counting the closing benediction, we recall that the first two-thirds, roughly, of the epistle were Jude's warning about the description of the dangerous intruders that were already coming into the churches of the Lord Jesus Christ in this first century.

And then the last section, roughly a third of the epistle, was given to the believer's responsibilities in light of these intruders. And Jude tells us in regard to our own responsibilities that, first of all, we must be careful to build ourselves up in the most holy faith, that we are in no position to deal properly and effectively with these dangerous people if we ourselves are weak spiritually. And so we better be sure that we know sound doctrine. We better be sure that we are walking in the love of God and keeping ourselves in the love of God. We better be certain that we are regular in prayers by the power of the Holy Spirit within us and so forth. We must have that strength within if we're going to be effective in ministering to these counterfeits who are dangerous to the church.

But then, having built ourselves up in the most holy faith, we are to endeavor to rescue those who are in danger of God's judgment. For they indeed are included in the church's mission field, and sometimes we forget that. We think the mission field is in Africa. It's in South America.

It's in Montana. It's a long ways away. It's maybe in our community outside the church. But actually, there's a pretty substantial mission field that is either within the church or closely connected with churches that we dare not overlook, because sometimes those are our greatest opportunities. And even if they are not, they are certainly one of our greatest responsibilities, as this text tells us.

There are actually three categories of people who need rescue, three categories of people with some church connection who need rescue by the true believing members of the churches of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, in my translation, the New King James Version, it looks like there are only two. And that all has to do with both manuscript variation and translation variations.

That can be very technical, and I'm not going even to try to go into the details right now. But just to say that out of all the different possibilities, it really boils down primarily to the choice between two clauses or three clauses in these two verses. And though some translations, such as mine, have translated as two clauses, two people that we are to be reaching out to in one way or another, two kinds of people, I can tell you that the majority of the evidence, and I'm convinced by my own reading that this indeed is the case, would support the concept that there are three. And maybe one of the strongest supports for that assertion is that a number of modern translations that in their first edition had two clauses have rewritten it into three clauses in subsequent editions. They have come to be convinced that that is the stronger evidence for the correct reading of the text.

And so I'm going to assume that that is the correct reading. And therefore, I'm setting before you today three categories of unbelievers and how to deal with each one. And they are number one, doubters, verse two, number two, backsliders, verse three, and number three, heretics, also in verse three. First of all, doubters. My text in the New King James Bible says, and on some have compassion, making a distinction or making a difference.

I'll read what the ESV says, and that's similar also to what the New American Standard version says and others as well. But the ESV says, and have mercy on those who doubt. Have mercy on those who doubt, doubters, those who are doubting in some way, those who are confused in regard to their faith in Christ and in his word, those whose faith is wavering.

Have mercy on those who doubt. Now, in each of these three categories, we are going to look at three different aspects. And so I'll give them to you, but it'll be the same outline for each one. So in regard to doubters, first of all, understand the category. Secondly, understand our responsibility.

And number three, understand the potential. Understand the category, some who are doubting. And the first thought that came to my mind is, well, which one of us haven't doubted something at some time?

We all have, right? But this is talking about those who are wrestling with doubt, wrestling with doubt, wrestling with doubt, wrestling with doubt, wavering because of doubts. These can be doubts about doctrine. These can be doubts about salvation, which are related.

But nevertheless, these are people who are struggling with the Christian faith. They are having doubts about doctrine, this faith which Jude tells us in the opening of the book, which was once for all delivered unto the saints. This body of revealed truth, it is settled, it is complete, once for all delivered unto the saints.

We have it. It's in this book we call the Bible. It's all right here if we'll study it and believe it with the help of the Holy Spirit working within us. But there are some who are struggling with this faith which was once for all delivered unto the saints or with some aspects of this faith once for all delivered. Now, Jude does not give us any details about exactly which aspects of faith, which aspects of doctrine, which aspects of truth that he has in mind here.

There certainly are many possibilities, but the overall context dealing not only with doubters but with backsliders and with heretics and with what's going on in this book, I think would lead to the conclusion that Jude is talking about those who are struggling with fundamental doctrines, doctrines that relate to Christ, doctrines that relate to the Godhead, doctrines that relate to the inspiration of Scripture, doctrines that relate to salvation. These fundamental doctrines, there are lesser doctrines of which some degree of difference of opinion is acceptable still within the framework of the faith once delivered unto the saints. The Bible will all be exactly the same mind when we get to heaven. There won't be any debates there. No more arguments there. No more saying, well, I believe in baptism by immersion and I believe in some other form of baptism.

That'll all be gone in that day. But right now we're talking about fundamental doctrines that pertain to salvation, which is most important, doctrines which, if denied, will lead one to eternal judgment. And so that's the kind of thing he's talking about here. Those who are doubters, who are confused, who are wavering about the faith once for all delivered unto the saints, doubts about doctrine, doubts about salvation, and those are related.

You can't really separate them. But sometimes they come across to us as those who have lack of assurance of salvation. The lack of assurance of salvation, I'm convinced, in most cases can really be traced to a weak understanding of various doctrines that relate to salvation. But we often treat it in a different category as if lack of assurance of salvation has more to do with activities, with interpretations of various elements of one's life.

They're often dealt with that way, very foolishly, I think. We've all heard some version that goes like this, and it varies, but nevertheless the basic version is the same. If you're doubting your salvation, if you can't seem to get assurance of salvation, then here's what you do.

Just right now pray and ask Jesus to save you. And then take a board and write on there the date that you did that, and go out and drive that stake in your backyard, and whenever you doubt, go out and take a look at it. There's the evidence. There's the proof. That's the date. Even if you did that before, you don't remember the date, so now you do.

There it is. The stake is in your backyard. That's not the way to come to a Bible-based assurance of salvation. Bible-based assurance of salvation is based upon truth. It's based upon doctrine. It's based upon a proper understanding of who God is, who man is, who Christ is, what he did for sinners.

How we come to receive the benefits of Christ's death upon the cross and his resurrection from the grave and so forth. So dealing with doubts about assurance is often dealing with doubts about doctrine. If we can get sound doctrine nailed down, then in most cases assurance of salvation will disappear. But at any rate, Jude is talking about people who are doubting either in doctrine or doubting in regard to their own position in relationship to the salvation of Christ. Even though they may believe the gospel and believe that other people are saved by trusting in Christ, they doubt their own relationship with him.

In other words, they're weak, they're wavering, they're stumbling. And these people, these doubters, may or may not be regenerated. And it's impossible for us to be sure, and frankly it's not important that we do be sure because that's not really our responsibility. It's God's responsibility.

He alone can look at the heart. So we don't have to figure out, now is this person truly saved or not saved? Just deal with the doctrine which underlies their confusion. And if they come to embrace it, if they come to understand it, if they come to make progress in it, that's pretty good evidence that the Holy Spirit within is teaching them and that they indeed are a regenerated child of God. But it's possible that in spite of all of these efforts, they won't make any progress.

And if they don't, they will undoubtedly move from category number one into category number two that we'll talk about in a moment. So these doubters may or may not be regenerated, but they have no doubt made a profession of faith in the past and are undoubtedly members of the congregation. These are people that are in our church. They're people that sit on the pews beside us. They are people who gave a sufficient profession of faith at one time to be received into membership, but now they're stumbling, they're wavering, they're doubting.

They are people who have demonstrated an interest in church life and probably are continuing to do so, continuing to attend, continuing to involve themselves in the life of the church in various ways, but they're confused about one or more doctrines of scripture and its application to their own lives. That's the category we're dealing with to begin with, doubters, how to minister to them. So understanding the category, secondly, we need to move on to understanding our responsibility.

And the text is clear. We are to have mercy on those who doubt, have mercy, or as some versions say, compassion on those who doubt. People who are stumbling in doubts are not to be ignored. We are to have compassion upon them and reach out to them.

They are not to be disdained. Oh, come on, you dummy. You've heard the same sermons I have. You've had the same truth I have. What's the matter with you? Straighten up. Figure this out for yourself.

No, no, no. Mercy, compassion, be patient, be helpful, be understanding. Aid them all that you possibly can in coming to a better understanding of truth, which is why we have to build ourselves up in the most holy faith to be able to minister to these people in this way.

Do your research. Listen to what they're saying. Figure out why they're having trouble with particular doctrines and then think about that. And what's the best way to approach it? And what's the best occasion to talk to them about it?

Take this as an assignment. Take it as a responsibility and show compassion and mercy upon them and endeavor to bring them into a settled faith before they stray farther away, before they move from category one doubters into category two backsliders. And understand the potential of doing this, of demonstrating mercy to people like this, because you very well may be used of God to ground them in the faith, which they are now not grounded in.

And you very well may keep them from straying further. You may be the instrument that God uses to keep them from going from the doubting category into the backslidden category. And what a wonderful, wonderful accomplishment that would be in the hands of God. So those who are doubting demonstrate mercy and compassion through which we are often enabled to make a significant difference, even an eternal difference in their lives. I have experienced over many years of pastoring that there are sometimes members of the church who would appear to us to be truly born again people who aren't.

And sometimes we don't know that until they are. In other words, when God truly regenerates them and then they understand, I thought I was saved but I wasn't, but now I am. I now can tell the difference. Now I have truly been born again. Now I really understand. Now the Lord has opened my eyes. Now the Lord has given me life. Now there's something new that I didn't have before. I didn't know I didn't have it before because I didn't know what I didn't have.

But now I do. That happens. That has happened a number of times throughout the history of our church. If I gave you the name of the person who's come to my mind right now, some of you would remember, some of you would not. But an individual and his wife who came into our church good, good, good many years ago now, gave a good testimony of faith in Christ, became involved in the church, and then during the course of an expository series, I could tell you the book, but I won't mention it because that would pinpoint the era, and I'd rather just kind of skip that, but this person came to a saving faith in Jesus Christ, and today is a Baptist minister.

Imagine that. A lost church member, seeming to be active, but wavering inside, doubts that we were not aware of, and then God, through the preaching of the word, brought that person to true saving faith and has used him in a very significant way. And I'm sure many of you may not even know, if I told you who this individual is, may not even know that he had become a Baptist minister, but indeed that's what happened in that case, and I could tell you other cases similar.

For some reason, a thought flooded through my mind as I was telling you that. I read one of these religious surveys online sometime in the last week or two that said most pastors who were polled said they prefer preaching and teaching to discipling. And my response was, I thought a major part of discipling was preaching and teaching. It may not be all of it, but it's certainly a major part of it.

I don't know how you could separate those two. The way people are discipled into becoming stronger, more effective Christians is through the preaching and teaching of God's word. Isn't that what Paul says in Ephesians chapter 4?

Christ gave to the church some apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastor teachers for the building up of the saints to do the work of the ministry, for the building up of the body of Christ. Remember that passage? That's a major way of discipling is to preach the word of God. It's not that you preach publicly and nothing happens, and then you get along with people privately and something happens.

No. But it is true that when people are wavering, they're doubting, and they make that known, and they're there for apparently asking for help, then we do give them individual attention, don't we? We do counsel them. We do come alongside them. We do work with them one on one. We do do everything we can. We show mercy. We reach out to them.

We try to help them, try to give them resources. I think if you would read this, this would be helpful to you. I think if you would listen to this sermon online or in whatever form you give it to, I think that would be helpful to you. And going back to what I was saying, sometimes people like this who are struggling are people who are very irregular in church attendance, and probably the best advice you can give them is get in church regularly under the sound of the word. That'll help you more than anything else.

I can't counsel you into better help than I can preach to you from the pulpit, seriously. Doubters have mercy, have compassion, making a difference. Number two, backsliders. Backsliders in the second category in the English Standard Version says snatch, or rather save others by snatching them out of the fire. Here's another category, others. The first category, some who are doubting. The second category, others.

Save others by snatching them out of the fire. This is a different category of people. And these are what I would call backsliders, and we use that term and don't always stop to nail down exactly what we mean by it.

But I think a definition that most people would say, that's what I mean when I say backslider, or that's what I hear when I hear people say backslider. I think most people would understand that to mean those who have defected from the faith. They used to be in the faith. They used to be active Christians. They used to be in church. They used to be involved with the people of God, but now they're backslidden. But what about this category?

Let's understand this category. This category is people who made up of people who formerly made a profession of faith. The doubters are people who also formerly made a profession of faith. They haven't completely renounced it. They're struggling with it. They're doubting. They're wavering. They're struggling, but they haven't said, I don't believe anymore.

They're not in that category. But backsliders are those who one time made a profession of faith, and now they say, nah, I don't believe that anymore. Because our text tells us these are people who are in danger of hellfire. It doesn't say that about the backslider, about the doubters. They are if their doubts are an evidence of an unregenerate heart. That's why if they don't get grounded, they will move from category one to category two. We don't know what is the condition of their heart when we're dealing with them in category one as doubters.

But when it comes to category two, backsliders, we're dealing with people who, according to the text, are in danger of hellfire. In other words, they are no longer sure if they believe the gospel. They no longer claim that they are saved, usually.

They no longer live like a Christian. One time they did. They tried to, but they found it so difficult and tedious. They just said, this is too hard. It isn't worth it.

I'm not going to try any longer. They are no longer wavering. They have bailed out. They've stopped believing.

And in most cases, no longer attend church. They used to. They used to.

But they're not now. But they often acknowledge that they ought to return. I used to go to church. I don't anymore. I know I should.

And yet they really don't have any strong desire. The knowing that they should is not I really want to be there. I really want to get back to that.

I really remember how good that was for me. And I want I want to see that benefit returned to my life. It's like, yeah, I know this is something I ought to do, but I just don't feel like it. I don't have the heart for it. I don't.

I'm not sure I even believe that anymore. People like that, by my observation and experience, will sometimes visit church from time to time, because this this nagging duty that they don't have a desire for, but they still acknowledge as a duty comes to them from time to time. So they will sometimes show up in church because they they know they ought to. But they aren't regular because they don't have any strong desire to be there.

And that's the signal. Look out for people like that. These are backsliders in whose hearts the Lord may be working. If he's not working at all, they probably wouldn't show up once in a while.

They would just chuck it all out and forget it. They're the kind of people who say, well, I can worship God out on the lake fishing just as much as I can in church. I can go out and look at the look at the majesty of God in the mountains on Sunday and get just as much out of that as I can in church. You all know people like that. Some of you have been there. Some of you may be there. Some of you may be the people I'm talking about who are in that category. But once in a while, we'll make an appearance in church to satisfy a nagging conscience.

And you may be here in that category today. The backsliders. And so understanding the category of backsliders, what do we learn from the text is our responsibility as Christians to backsliders. And the Bible says, snatch them out of the fire, snatch them out of the fire. Now, again, this is one of those texts that I wish Jude would give us a little more information. A few more details, please. What do you mean by snatching them out of the fire? And how exactly do we do that?

And Jude, who is inspired by the Spirit of God, did not see fit to give us those details. We just have this exhortation. Snatch them out of the fire. Snatch them back from the brink of hell.

In other words, our responsibility is clearly to respond earnestly and to act forcefully as much as we are able to do. Respond earnestly. Recognize they're on the edge of hell.

They could drop into hell any moment, any day. Don't take this lightly. Respond earnestly. Snatch them out of the fire. And act as forcefully as we're able to do. Snatch them. Confront them. Warn them. Compel them.

Except we can't. The Holy Spirit must. But approach this task with those activities in mind, that earnestness and forcefulness in mind. And therefore, number three, we understand the potential of our activity. It is the potential to rescue them from hell. They are in danger of hell. We can be an instrument in the hands of God to snatch them back from the brink of hell and to keep them from eternal damnation. We have the potential to become an instrument in God's salvation. Save others by snatching them out of the fire. Now, God alone can save the soul, but God uses instruments, human instruments, in his hands to do it. And we can be those who, in the hands of God, save people from eternal perdition.

I had to think of, or the Lord brought to mind, Fanny, Fanny, Fanny Crosby's Hymn. Two verses. Rescue the perishing. Care for the dying. Snatch them in pity from sin in the grave. Weep o'er the erring one. Lift up the fallen. Tell them of Jesus the mighty to save. Rescue the perishing. Duty demands it. That's what our text says. Strength for thy labor the Lord will provide. Are any of us adequate for this?

No. But God, who tells us to do it, will provide the resources and the enabling to do it. Back to the narrow way. Patiently win them. Tell the poor wanderer a savior has died. Rescue the perishing. Care for the dying. Jesus is merciful. Jesus will save.

Understand the potential. But now we move to a third category. We've moved from doubters to backsliders and now to heretics or apostates.

In which we read, and I'm reading again from the English Standard Version, to others. So here's yet another category. We started out to some who doubt and then others snatched from the fire. So that's another category. And now others, to others, show mercy with fear, hating even the garment stained by the flesh.

What do we understand about this category? Well, there are two things that we're told that help us understand it. We are told to have mercy with fear, and we're told to hate the garment stained or spotted by the flesh. Those almost seem to be two contradictory things. Having mercy, but hating.

But no, they're not contradictory, if you understand them correctly. Have mercy with fear, hating the garment that is stained by the flesh. But what is this category? These are people who pose a danger to the church and to its members. That's why we hate the garment that is spotted by the flesh. These could very well be the very intruders that Jude has been warning about, or the ones that they have fully convinced who have now become their followers. These are people whose condition prompts godly fear, and it ought. If fear of contamination, fear of contagion, fear of damage.

If you relate to these people in the wrong way. People whose behavior is disgusting and polluting. Because, as they are described here in metaphorical terms, they are wearing garments. The Greek word is ketone, which is the tunic, the undergarment, the inner garment that's worn next to the flesh. They are wearing garments that are polluted by the flesh.

And a very literal understanding, please excuse this earthly language, but I think you need it to know exactly what he's talking about. This pollution is human excrement, the garments that are soiled by, if you don't know what excrement is, you might call it poo-poo. He's talking about dirty underwear soiled by human excretions. That's not only disgusting, but it's dangerous.

You can get diseases, you can get contamination from that, can't you? And that's what these people are wearing. How in the world do you help them?

But you have to understand the category you're dealing with. These are people who pose a danger of contamination. That's why we fear them.

Mercy with fear. That is fear of what they have that can be damaging to us, and that's two things. That is, number one, false doctrine, heretical doctrine, and number two, sinful living, sinful lifestyles, which they insist are acceptable for those who call themselves Christians. And so we have a healthy fear of their heretical doctrine. This would describe the false teachers, no doubt, and their disciples, as well as a fear of their defiling lifestyle. Here they are people who claim to be Christians, but their lifestyle is contrary to the Bible, and we know it, and yet that's awful seductive to some people. You mean I can be a Christian and live like that and still be a Christian? Yeah, yeah, yeah.

No, no, no. Watch out. Be fearful of this heretical teaching.

It's like defiling garments by which you can get disease. And so they're people for which we ought to have a healthy and necessary fear of contagion. Our first responsibility is to guard ourselves, our own faith, our own soul, and to guard our family and our church against defilement. But these people are people who are no longer in the church in most cases, certainly wouldn't be there long if the church is sound and operating the way it should be. But they could be there, though if they are there, they're no doubt on their way out, but they could be there because that was the whole point of the early part of the book, that these are people who have crept in deceitfully, have crept in under false pretenses, crept in under false professions. They have made it a goal to get inside the church to do their nefarious work.

They are actually agents of Satan who have been sent into churches to do as much damage as they possibly can. And so the people that we're talking about now may still be here, though hopefully are on their way out, or they may have already left the church because for one reason or another they can't continue to operate there. They may have been excommunicated by the church. If their false doctrine and licentious lifestyle has gone on and has been confronted and they've been warned and they've been told to stop it and they won't, then of course the church has a duty before God to remove them from the church. And so they may be those who've been excommunicated from the church. They may have gone to a different church either after being excommunicated. This is not uncommon in our day, is it? Someone gets excommunicated from a healthy church and they go to another church that doesn't even inquire, doesn't even ask are they coming in good standing?

It doesn't matter in our day and time. It tells you how weak and worldly evangelical Christianity in general is across America and around the world today. But they may have gone to a different church, one that will accept them more readily than one that is true to the word of God. Or they may have departed from church altogether for the purpose of attacking the church from the outside. They attacked it for a while from the inside. They undermined it from the inside as long as they were able. But if they were confronted and detected and removed, they are still trying to damage the church and now are attacking it from the outside.

You'll find in our day and time, you'll find people like that oftentimes on the internet, on Facebook and so forth. So every now and then somebody will come to me and say, Do you see what so-and-so wrote about our church? What are we going to do about it? Not a thing we can do. What can we do?

Elon Musk, I've got somebody I want you to throw off. It's in the hands of God. They've gone outside the church, but they're bitter. They're resentful. They're misrepresenting.

They're lying. They're trying to do damage and destruction. The amazing thing about it is, in my experience, how little destruction God allows them to do. They try, but it doesn't usually have much effect. We get more worried about it than we should, because if they were having one-tenth the success that they're trying to have, we might be in trouble, but we usually aren't.

God protects. But that's the kind of people we're talking about. And there are people like that, people who used to sit right here, and I preached to them just like I'm preaching to you today, and now they're out there in the computer world writing attacks about our church.

I guess they still are. I don't make it a point to look at these things. I don't follow them. I don't want to know what they're writing.

They may have stopped. But there's some like that, and that's the category we're dealing with here. That's the category. So what is our responsibility? Show mercy with fear. Show mercy with fear. In other words, mercy from a distance. You can't have up-close mercy here like you can with category one and even category two.

This is mercy from a distance because of the danger. There has to be a barrier. There has to be protection.

There has to be a wall, but it's not an impenetrable wall. Have mercy with fear. Mercy with caution. At the very least, you can pray for them.

You can do that from a distance, safe distance. But I think there's more involved and implied at least than simply praying, but you can't be more effective than you can be in your prayers, but you can do more than pray. You can pray and do some other things that God may bless and use. But until you pray, you probably won't be effective in anything else you do. So mercy from a distance, mercy with caution, mercy.

And here's the point. Mercy, not hatred, not ill will, not anger, nothing more to do with you. The Christians are called upon to act even toward these dangerous people whose contamination is dangerous to souls and dangerous to the church. We treat them with kindness, with love, with concern, even while restricting access to them. That's our responsibility.

And what's the potential? Well, I can tell you by experience that positive results are not the most likely outcome of our attempts to reach such people. Understand that going in, but that doesn't mean we don't try.

Because loving concern is always the God honoring thing to do, regardless of what you think the potential may be. I don't know how many times I've had people say, well, we probably ought to do that, but it won't do any good. Number one, you don't know whether it will or not.

But number two, so what? If that's the right thing to do, you do it. Doesn't matter what the outcome may be. That's in God's hands. You do the right thing.

If this is what we really ought to do, then let's do it. We do the right thing and we leave the results with God. And the truth of the matter is that sometimes you may witness God's converting grace.

It may not happen often, but it may happen sometimes. That's always our hope. That's always our prayer. If they will turn from sin and error and embrace Christ and truth, they will be forgiven.

Right? And though they've gone so far and their hearts are so hard that it may not be likely to happen, it's not beyond the possibility of God's powerful grace. Think of Saul of Tarsus on the Damascus Road. I can't think of anybody who was a more hateful, vehement enemy of the people of God, and yet God turned him into the greatest champion that the church has ever known in his day. He can do it because he is Lord. He is risen from the dead. And every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.

He can do it. Now, let me try to wrap this up with a few lessons that I think are out of this. Lesson number one, commitment to truth is not hate or lack of compassion. Commitment to truth itself is not, by definition, hatred and lack of compassion.

That's what the world would have you think. If you are committed to what you believe is the truth of marriage is only between a man and a woman, not between two men or two women, then you hate people. You hate gay people.

You hate, no, no, no. Don't buy that lie. Don't crumble under that lie.

That's not true. Commitment to truth is not lack of love. Commitment to truth is not hate. As a matter of fact, commitment of truth is the ultimate love.

That's the only thing that can help people who are disobeying the truth. Lesson number two, love does not include welcoming dangerous people into your home or church. Love does not include welcoming dangerous people into your home or church. We must not ignore dangerous behavior nor allow it to infect others as much as we are able. Now, I think this also applies in the realm of physical danger. I don't think it's very wise, for example, out of loving compassion to invite a homeless person into your house and give him a place to live.

You may end up having your whole family murdered. And it's not because you lack love and compassion. This is common sense.

This person is homeless for a reason and very well may be because they're dangerous. That doesn't mean you don't love them. That doesn't mean you don't have compassion on them.

It just means that you have a prior responsibility to your loved ones, to your family, right? So love does not include welcoming dangerous people into your home or church. And this certainly applies in the realm of Christianity. Love doesn't require that you invite dangerous heretics into your church. It doesn't say, we embrace everybody. Come one, come all. We embrace everybody. You can come.

You can practice your LBGT lifestyle. We'll ordain you to the ministry. We are inclusive because we are loving.

A bunch of nonsense. That's not Bible love. That's not Bible truth. Love does not include welcoming dangerous people into your home or church. We must not ignore dangerous behavior nor allow it to infect others. But number three, separating yourself from contact with dangerous people does not give you permission to act in hatred, hostility or unkindness. God requires compassionate concern from us.

Shall I say that one again? Separating yourself from contact with dangerous people does not include hating them, being hostile to them or being unkind to them. God requires compassionate concern from us. Number four, protecting yourself from danger does not mean total abandonment of the dangerous person. You may protect yourself from contagion by putting appropriate barriers and distance, but it does not mean total abandonment of the dangerous person.

Our text tells us otherwise. We have a responsibility here given to us by God to, if I can find it, to snatch them. No, to show mercy with fear, hating even the garment stained by the flesh.

So protecting yourselves from danger does not mean total abandonment of the dangerous person. Think about Jesus and the Pharisees. Listen to him when he is strongly and publicly denouncing their sinful behavior. Woe unto your scribes. Woe unto your Pharisees. White encepicals, full of dead men's bones, on and on and on.

You can't imagine a more clear denunciation of their behavior and of their evil doctrine. And then turn the page, and where do you find Jesus? In the home of Pharisees, eating with them and showing them love and friendship. You say, how does he do that? Well, he's got all grace. It's not easy, but he's telling us we need to learn to do the same thing. I used to think, when I was wrestling with these things years ago, particularly this idea of excommunicating people from churches, which I had never seen done in my life. The first time I ever witnessed an excommunication was here in this church in the early years, trying to be obedient to the Bible, because I'd never seen it done.

Most Bible-believing churches don't do that, even though the Bible commands us to. But I used to think, well, when you do that, then you just cut yourself off from them and don't have anything more to do them. It's hostility from here on out.

No, the Bible says otherwise. There is a barrier, but there's not hostility. There's still love. There's still compassion.

There's still mercy. You're still reaching out to them. Who knows? Who knows but what God may change their hearts and save their souls and bring them back. And we've actually seen that happen a time or two in excommunicated people from this church who've come back.

I can see one from where I'm standing now. That happens. So protecting yourself from danger does not mean total abandonment of a dangerous person. And finally, my last statement. There's no one so wicked, so hateful, so dangerous that we may stop loving, stop praying for, stop desiring their salvation. Wasn't that the problem with Jonah and the Ninevites? He didn't want to see them saved, and he was wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong.

And guess what? A sovereign God saved them anyway. He didn't ask Jonah whether he ought to save them or not and what Jonah thought he ought to do. So Jonah, get in line with God. Barkman, get in line with God and the scriptures. People of Beacon, get in line with God and the scriptures and see how God may be pleased to use us. Shall we pray? Father, help us in these difficult areas, we pray in Jesus' name. Amen.