Talk—Sam Ludvicek
DISCLAIMER: The following has been auto-transcribed. We hope it will help you to find the section of this audio file you are looking for.
Just ask the Lord's help. Father, we ask thy help. Both speaker and hear alike need thee.
We need thy spirit, that not only that we might hear well, that we might speak well.
Lord Jesus and thy name we pray. Amen. Turn with me to the last part of Jude.
Last part of Jude.
There are 4 short exhortations at the end of the chapter.
Beginning with verse 20. But ye beloved, building up yourselves in 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.
Keep yourselves in your most holy faith. One, praying in the Holy Ghost to keep yourself in the love of God. Three, looking for the mercy of the Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life.
For.
The beginning of the book.
If you go back.
Verse 3.
Down towards the end.
That ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the Saints.
We live in a time where Jude is very real. What's going on here? And the warnings that are given and the exhortation to those that know the Lord are that they should.
Build up themselves in your most holy faith. If you're going to contend for the faith, you need to know it. The faith is that body of truth that was once for all delivered to the Saints. It is the truth, and it's in this book.
And we have something there to win it. If we've gotten saved, how could we not? We've heard the gospel. That's the most basic part of the truth of this book, is that Jesus was sent to this earth to die on the cross, to shed his blood for our sins, and that through that work that he did there, we can be saved.
Well, if we understand that we had the most basic understanding of the gospel, but on top of that, not only is that being attacked, that truth, but all kinds of things are being attacked now in churches all around us and formerly fundamental evangelical churches in Christendom altogether.
Things are being attacked over and over again. So to be prepared for that if you're going to contend for the faith, I don't care how young you are, you might be a little kid.
If you'll pardon a personal reference.
Kid, little kid, I went to school with little Jehovah's Witness fellow.
Called me out of the blue a few years ago and said I want to thank you for how kind you were to me.
At school we used to talk about the Bible. We got in trouble together once because somebody overheard us talking about hell and we were accused of cursing.
Well, we got sent to the principal's office and after I explained to the principal what we were doing, got to give him the gospel and that we were talking about hell because I said my friend here doesn't believe in hell and the Bible says there is a hell. That's what we were talking about. We were not swearing. So even as a kid, you may not know much, but if you have an opportunity, you can contend for the faith once delivered to the Saints, can't you? I don't care how young you are.
You know enough to stand up for what you do know. Now, in the back of my mind, I'm thinking of David. I've been thinking a lot about David, this young man quite a bit when he faced down Goliath. But here in this chapter, when it says building yourself up, your most holy faith, well, if you're going to defend it, how do you build? How do you build up muscles?
How do you develop a skill in anything?
It takes some work, doesn't it? I don't. Computers, if you're going to learn to code, they say that every young person should take classes on learning how to code because you're going to need it in the near future. But all kinds of things. How do you build that up? How do you develop the skills you there's practice, there's work that goes into it.
You know, Wesley didn't become a Carpenter overnight. Somewhere he had to learn. Ben, who was under his tutelage, started out hardly knowing how to swing a hammer right. Eventually he learned and became very skilled. How do you do that? Well, the same thing with this book.
Now I tell young people all the time, I said, do not bore yourself with this book. If you get bored reading the way you've been reading or the way you've been studying, find something else to do in studying this book. Change it up. Do something, talk with others about it.
00:05:17
How can I study this book and not bore myself? You know, there are different things you can do. There are word studies you can do. There are individual book studies you can do. You can read a book fast and then read it slow. You can read it really slow and unpack each verse. You can even write your own commentary as you go. Whatever it takes. Young people, older ones too. If you bored yourself with this book, do something different. Get the Lord's help to not do that so that you can learn these things and be more prepared.
Now, I have a good friend back in Colorado by the name of Nick Simon. Nick and Amy Simon, a lot of you know them. Maybe you know Nate, the oldest boy. I think he's the oldest boy. He's the veterinarian in that family. Well, on Sunday, dinner, often in their home after the breaking of bread.
Nick would have Bill Weiss and others come over and sit at the table with his sons. He knew his sons and his daughter were all going to go to college and he wanted to be prepared for what they were going to face. So he would help build them up in their most holy faith by talking about apologetics and things of that nature, helping them understand so that they could stand when they faced off a professor or somebody in school.
So much so that when Nate ended up going to veterinary school.
He was able to talk with a professor and they picked on him a little bit. But things would happen, like where a professor might ask a question and Nate could respond either with the textbook answer or the truth. And what happened is there were people watching and there was a young lady watching that got saved because suddenly they realized that there was something more than what the professor had to say. There were actually some reasonable.
It could be put forth, it made sense, and at the very least holes were poked into what the professor was putting out there, while it helped Nate with his own personal faith that he was ready for that. But people watched. I loved what our brother read earlier about. I think it was you that about. They noted that they had been with Jesus.
While they were so-called ignorant men when I was first witnessing.
As a young man in my 20s, I was intimidated a little bit by college educated people.
Not for long, but I was because I had not gone to college. Well, what I realized is most of these people have never read a book or hardly any books after they got out of college. And all they knew was the outdated information they had. And don't you know that just about any field that you study in college, very quickly it becomes outdated. And if you don't keep up with it like the medical profession does where they have to take courses and classes and keep up with things, there are others that where you have certific.
Maybe in computer science you have to keep up with to keep your education, but I realize that a lot of these people didn't know enough because they hadn't continued with their education, self learning, that kind of thing. And I learned that with the Lord's help, you could stand on an even keel with somebody even if you thought maybe they were even smarter than you or maybe had a higher IQ. Well, when you've been with Jesus and you spent a little time with him.
Then you can stand in front of that. So I'm thinking of David again.
And we're going to talk about David, but in in this building yourself up and being ready to defend.
The Lord will give you the words, you got to put it in the well. Talk about the Spirit of God drawing up from the well of your soul the words what you need to express the truth you're trying to share or respond to a question. Well, you got to put it in there for the Spirit of God to draw it out and He can connect the dots in a way you've never even thought of. I was sharing this recently saying how that I've been asked questions before in my life where by the time I got done answering the question, I knew more about it than I did what I when.
Started answering because in the conversation the Lord put together connected some dots that I hadn't connected yet, but in the conversation that came out. So do what you can to build that up. The next part is keeping yourselves in the love of God, the love of God. What that is talking about is in a practical way.
Keeping yourself intimately acquainted with his love for you, and consciously so, in a practical way, in a moment by moment way.
00:10:00
So one way would be to remind yourselves. It's one of the reasons the breaking of bread is so important.
To really remind ourselves of what the what price that the Lord Jesus really paid for us and how much love their love there is there. But the last part of Glaciers 220 the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. That's very personal when you meditate on it and think about that. Let's say you do it right after you've sinned. You sinned a sin.
You are your conscience is beating you up, and you go to the Lord, and you confess that sin.
And you're feeling pretty low. How about reminding yourself of that love?
The Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. It's very personal.
Brother Bob, Tony, does the Lord love you anymore today than the day you trusted him?
That's the truth, no?
You ever think about that?
The day you trusted in Christ as your Savior, the love He loved you with at that moment, loved you before that. Does He love you more now? Is there anything you've done in your life that can make him love you more? No.
So that love was shown on Calvary's cross to you, the Son of God who loved you and gave himself for you. Very personal. But when you say it to yourself, quote it as it is. He loved me, He gave himself for me. If you keep yourself in a practical way in the knowledge of that, you know, bathed in it. FB hole I think said something like when you put a bucket in the ocean.
Fill it with water. You got a bucket that's in the ocean and the oceans in the bucket.
And there's a sense in which that compares to the love of Christ. Not only that, but we are in Christ, and Christ is in US.
But it is his love, His love that we should be keeping conscious of in a practical way. Mr. Darby, one of his quotes throughout his writings is our motives must be in God.
Our motives must be in God. Well, that's absolutely true. But the love motive, that comes from understanding that.
Is in Second Corinthians.
Chapter 5.
Verse 14.
For the love of Christ constraineth us. John Le Ben's favorite verse. He quotes it all the time.
The love of Christ is the best motive you can have for seeking to walk with him, to defend the truth and so on is to have the a true sense of His love for your for you and be.
Just very conscious of it. And your motive then coming from that makes all the difference in the world. The love of Christ constraineth us. If you put a brass ****** on the end of a garden hose, what does it do? A little adjustment you make. It constrains the water, pushes it in, shoots it forth in under power. Yeah. That's the love of Christ constraineth us. It pushes us forward. It draws us forward. It draws us after him. What better place to be drawn after?
Than the Lord Jesus Christ.
Back to Jude again.
Looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ on the eternal life.
Mercy.
We often quote to ourselves that the mercy of the Lord are new every morning. They're fresh and new every day.
Well, we know that from the Old Testament, but we also know it from our experience that it is true in our lives as believers that that mercy is fresh and new every day. And when we see it, God's mercies and all kinds of provisions and ways, we should take note of it and magnify the Lord for it as we do that. Well, that's a brief conversation about this part.
I want to go back up to.
Praying in the Holy Ghost.
We just had a sister who went home to be with the Lord. I believe it was yesterday or the day before. Billy Jennings. Boy, was she a prayer warrior.
She prayed for a lot of young people over the years and she would tell you, I'm praying for you, brother.
You keep going, you keep it up, you keep on track, you serve him, you preach the gospel, whatever. She would come in and do that kind of encouragement. I'm praying for you. And I dare say there's probably a lot of people that could say that she personally had told them that she prayed for them. Well, sisters, someone needs to step up.
00:15:07
Like somebody in the military that's lost their life, another soldier needs to step up and replace them.
So, dear sisters, I don't care how young you are or how old you are, some of you're probably already doing this.
But prayer warriors are really important.
2nd Corinthians, chapter 10.
And verse 4.
Says For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds. Have you ever thought about that? How do you pull down strongholds?
How's that actually happening?
I can't remember anybody ever talking about this in recent memory.
How do we pull down strongholds?
They don't exist and we can't see it. It's not here. You can't knock on it. How do you pull down strongholds?
Well, this the verse in Jude says praying in the Holy Ghost, that's how you pulled out strongholds and you don't even know what's going on, what's being seen around and what's being observed and what kind of effect that's having when you stand and you contend for the faith, you just stand for Christ in whatever circumstance you are and you stand.
Now I want to go talk about David a little bit and as an example maybe of imitation.
Visit with some people in recent weeks and we've shared, I've shared some thoughts about this, but I'm looking at David, 17 year old youth. He comes down from the mountains sent by his dad and he's supposed to take food out there to his brothers and what do they say? They just say he's naughty. He's just there, you know, gallivanting around, you know, he's he's he's gone by his father's orders out there, but he's come by faith really.
In obedience.
He looks around and he sees the armies of Israel just shaking in their boots. What is this? Why are your hearts failing you? And he says, I'm, I'm willing to go out there. Saul says to him, you, you, you're just a stripling. You're nobody. You're just a kid. And this guy is experienced. Yes, that guy was experiencing military maneuvers.
But so is David. As young man he'd been, his faith had been being built up in the mountains.
As he faced the lion and the bear. So what does he tell? So he tells him. Well, look.
I fought a lion and a bear. The Lord delivered him into my hands.
You know, it's interesting as you go through that account, the Lion.
Takes a sheep in its mouth. So does the bear. Says he went and he took the sheep away. He smoked. He took him away. Well, the lion turned on him. What did he do? He grabs that thing by the beard and he slides a sword into it. Kills him. A 17 year old boy, Young lady, young man. Do you see yourself doing something like that?
Well, in the Spirit you can do stuff like that.
The unseen world trembles when it sees a dear child of God on their knees.
Praying and crying out for someone. David saw a lamb in the mouth of a lion and a lamb in the mouth of a bear, and he goes after it. Do you see someone, a friend of yours that the devil's got in your friend in his mouth?
The Lord can use you to help deliver that one.
He can come alongside you and strengthen you to go and grab it by the beard, so to speak, and slay them.
Now he tells Saul, that's what I've done in the mountains, and the Lord delivered him into my hand. He's going to do the same thing here. So Saul lets him go, gives him his armor, and he says I can't use that. So what does he do? He picks up five smooth stones. We all know those. Sunday school story, puts him in his bag. Then he does something astonishing.
He runs at the guy, he runs at him. They're behind him. Is this huge army all arrayed there, mocking and his guys are all trembling in their boots here.
Here's David looking around. What is this now? Our brother read at the prayer meeting about boldly come before the throne boldly. Well, we can boldly face what enemies come against us. Sometimes we don't act like that, but in our prayer, in our actions, if we really have proved the Lord and he's proved us up in the hills with the bear and the lion.
00:20:04
That's how you build up your most holy faith in smaller things. Now he's facing a whole army and he runs at him.
And he swips that thing up, and he lets that thing fly, and it sinks into his forehead.
Modern day tests with those kinds of slings say that those stones travel at the speed of a bullet from a rifle.
He didn't miss, God was with him and he defeated, glad he didn't have a sword. He had to go take his sword to cut his hand off.
That the Lord is with you.
And The thing is, is a 17 year old stripling up in the mountain, he'd learned some things from his father, no doubt, and his faith came from his father.
But he learned some things on his own up there in the hills. Now all of you, especially you young people, in that God is teaching you in your field where you're conducting yourselves in your life. And there are tests that come along the way, and you can either respond to them with boldness and by trusting in the one who.
Redeemed you and face it and then prove him and have the thrill of that in your life.
That you have proved God when nobody's watching, because nobody saw that.
That God was with him, and God supported him, and God helped him, and God delivered them into his hand.
He can do that for you too. Do you have some victories? Some small victories maybe?
Compared with an army barren alliance, not that big. It's pretty big for a 17 year old stripling.
Whether it's taken care of she well. Just a few thoughts from Jude and about David.
And about how we can be as God's servants, bold, but we need to build ourselves up in our most holy faith. We need to remind ourselves of the love of Christ, the love of God for us, in a very practical way, consciously remind ourselves of it. We also need to pray in the Holy Ghost and really take on those challenges and go after it.
Ask the Lord.
To give you a person's name in your heart and mind, even wake you up in the middle of the night if need be. So you can pray for that person and then when he does.
Because he will go after with gusto, go after with fervency, go after it with sincerity, and you will make the devil's Kingdom tremble on the other side of the veil. And that's one way that we do that. We pull down strongholds, but God's angels take care of all that are doing out there. God will send them. We don't command them, but they are sent to serve us.
And just remember that with the smallest kid in this room, when you're facing the enemy in some way, shape or form.
Right behind you are these angelic beings that are there watching out for you.
And because Christ is in your heart and with you, I will ever need the never leave thee, nor for safety. He's with you and He can deliver the lion and the bear into your hands.
Father, again we ask a blessing on thy word and on the words.
Lord bless these things to our hearts and our minds and our conscience as well. Then we might have exercised by them.
Until now, we give thanks for the food that is going to be set before us, the refreshments and the snacks. Lord Jesus and thy name we pray, Amen.