Courage Under Fire

Scriptures: Jude 22-23, Matthew 9:36, 13:41-42, 25:41, 46, Leviticus 13:52

Jude has written firmly and forthrightly about the subject of apostasy. He writes with a firm hand, but with a broken heart. He knows that apostates are paving a one-way street of spiritual error that dead-ends in hell. He now encourages his readers not just to curse the darkness of apostate teaching, but to light the candle of evangelistic reaching. If a faith is worth having, it is worth sharing. Yet, statisticians tells us that 96.7% of professed Christ-followers in North America have never shared a verbal witness with an admittedly lost person.In this message, Dr. Merritt details Jude's heartfelt connection between our belief in Christ and our passion and desire to share His Gospel with others.

"I'm going to make a strong statement, and if it offends you, it may confirm what it says about you. If you do not care about seeing people saved, you should have serious doubts as to whether you are saved. We have great problems in our church today concerning lost people. The first problem is the vast majority of Christians today are not winning the lost. But that is not our greatest problem. An even greater number are not witnessing to the lost. That is, they are not even trying to win people." --Dr. Merritt

Keywords: Jude, apostate, apostasy, salvation, faith, Gospel, witness, sharing, burden, weeping, compassion, passion, Raymond Dunn, Louvre, confession, share, Peter Apples