Fortify Your Faith:  Remaining Faithful in a Faithless World

Shared on March 9, 2025

Introduction

There are many today who are proud not to believe in Christ.  So much so that they mock those who are of faith to dissuade faith in Him.  We live in a world where we, the believer, must continue to build on and grow in our faith to remain faithful in a faithless world.

Mockers in the Last Time

For those who didn’t go over last week’s lesson, I want to remind you that Jude was the brother of James, both the half-brothers of Jesus (Mark 6:3; Matt. 13:55).  In his epistle, Jude had a concern about the growing apostasy of his day.  In that concern, Jude desired for believers to fight for the way of faith in Christ.

As Jude spoke about the apostates of his day, he was also concerned for future believers.  So, Jude advised future believers to remember the words of the apostles who had spoken about “mockers in the last time” (Jude 17-18).  

Jude made it clear who the “mockers” were as he said mockers walk according to their own way.  In other words, a mocker is anyone who chooses not to follow Christ and live according to their will or the will of another.  So, tying this back to last week’s lesson, a mocker can be both an apostate or one who never believed in Christ.

Jude mentioning “in the last time”, is something else to bring attention to.  What did Jude mean by “in the last time”?  Often, when we think of “the last time”, we think about an apocalyptic, destructive, and desolate time when the earth is a wasteland.  Yet, if you were to look at a spiritual timeline, you would see that we are currently residing “in the last time”.

Jesus’ birth, death, and resurrection began “the last time” or the end of the age. Jesus is the line of demarcation to which much changed between man and God’s relationship.

There are “divisions” of the last time that can help us specifically point to where we are during this period.  Right now, we are in the church age. As shown throughout the Book of Acts, the church is in the world sharing the gospel.

The church, I want to be clear, is not some organization as you may think of it, but rather, it is comprised of sincere believers. I would even tell you that the church isn’t as large as many of us would like to think that it is. The congregation of sincere believers is certainly outnumbered by those who don’t believe, and those who take on the name of Christianity but don’t move in faith.

Now, the church age will come to an end when Jesus returns and calls His church forth (1 Thess. 4:16-18).  During the church age, Jesus warned that “signs of the end” would be present as nation would rise against nation and many bizarre and extreme natural occurrences will happen (Matt. 24:6-7).  Jesus also said that there would be deceivers that would rise, claiming His name, and deceive many (Matt. 24:4). These are all signs we’ve seen for quite some time in our world.

Now, when Jesus takes the church with Him, a new division in ‘the last time‘ will begin – the Great Tribulation.  The Great Tribulation will be short, and will give way to the Millennial Kingdom.  Afterward, the “final battle” between good and evil will occur, followed by God’s final judgment of sin.  God’s final judgment will give way to His new everlasting kingdom.

Workings of the Mockers

For us, we must focus on Jesus’ words about deceivers because they are certainly present today.  The deceiver is one who mocks the Lord because they will preach their way as truth.  The deceiver, we’ve seen, is more than able to pull people along with them to believe what they are sharing.  Today, we’ve seen how incredibly dangerous it is when people believe the words of deceivers.

Notice what Jude said about the mocker in Jude 19 – they cause division.  The division they cause is within the soul as Jude tell us they are sensual, in the sense that they are immoral (or worldly).  A lot of the division that we see happening today is happening at an immoral level that is even causing some worldly folks to be disturbed. Any time one is blatantly willing to bring harm upon the downtrodden, we should take note.

A Need to Fortify

So, to endure the workings of mockers, let’s pay attention to what Jude said one should do.  Jude encouraged believers to keep themselves in the love of God and to look for His mercy (Jude 20-21).  Now, this is likely easier said than done for us because we get so caught up in the working of the mockers.

If you pay attention to the working of deceivers, they move to satisfy themselves first. Yes, the mocker, the deceiver, takes pleasure in their works. The deceiver also seeks to garner support, and when it comes, they take pleasure in the adulation of their supporters. You see, the deceiver knows what they are doing is foolish and so support is much needed to them.

After they have garnered their support, the mocker moves in a manner to stir up fear and anxiety in those who don’t believe or support them.  You see, their goal is support and praise. So, if you won’t freely choose to believe their lies, the mocker will try to force submission to their ideals. We have seen such workings throughout history and still in our present day.

So, as Jude said, the believer must build themselves up in their most holy faith against such working. The first place to begin fortifying ourselves is in the comfort and love of God. This means we must build up our trust in the Lord. As Jesus, there is nothing that can take us out of His nor the Father’s hands (John 10:28-29). We must rest in this love and care of the Lord, trusting that He is our shield and protection from all danger.

Heed the guidance of the Spirit

To also help with fortifying and building up our faith, we must continue to lean on the Spirit. As one who played in the band, I tell you that you must actually continue to practice faith. What I mean by this is that every chance you get, every choice you make, should be based on your faith. The believer should always choose to heed the Spirit.

As Paul pointed out, the Holy Spirit will help us in our obedience.  We must remember that the Holy Spirit’s role is to guide us into all truth (John 16:13).  Should we heed the Spirit, we won’t ever be deceived.  Here lies a problem we face today:  many of us are slow to heed the Spirit.

Honestly, some of us aren’t sure when the Spirit is guiding us.  How can we know it’s the Spirit that is guiding us?  Well, keep in mind that the Spirit is always leading you to the truth – what is righteous.  You must always keep in mind that the Holy Spirit is never going to lead you to do something that makes you question your morals.  

The mocker, our great adversary, on the other hand, will have one questioning their morals.  Consider the devil, in his tempting Christ, and how he was trying to make Jesus question His faith and principles.  The Holy Spirit won’t have you questioning your morals and your faith.  

To fortify ourselves in heeding the Spirit, we must choose to listen to Him.  Practice is required.  To strengthen your discipline in heeding the Spirit, you must choose to listen to Him over and over again.

Be more prayerful

To further fortify and build ourselves up, Jude encouraged us to be prayerful, in the Holy Spirit.  Prayer is one of the biggest weapons the believer has in their arsenal against the wicked, but sadly, we are slow to turn to it.

How can prayer through the Spirit help you withstand and endure the mockers of faith?  I want you to keep in mind the role that the Holy Spirit plays in our life.  Through prayer, the Holy Spirit will further guide you in the truth.  When you have questions or struggling to discern the truth from a lie, the Spirit will answer.

We often forget that prayer is our line of communication directly to the Lord.  Jesus gave His life to open the door to God’s throne room.  We ought not to be afraid of going before the throne and making our supplication known to the Lord (Heb. 4:16).  The reason why we ought not to be afraid is because the Lord desires for us to come to Him and to ask of Him (Matt. 7:7-8).

Even when you don’t know what to pray for, the Spirit will make intercession for you (Rom. 8:26).  Prayer will fill you up with the comfort and the confidence you need to persevere.  So, again, be diligent in your prayer life. I want you to understand this: there is no such thing of praying too much. No, you keep on praying every single moment you feel like talking to God!

God Will Keep You

The final verses of Jude is what I use as a benediction. It is the benediction that my dad and others used before me and it is very comforting to hear.  Jude wrote that while you are on this journey, moving by faith, God will keep you from falling and present you faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy (Jude 24).

If you are able to remember these two verses, do it – keep it in your heart!  We are living in the last times, and the deceiver does not want you to believe that you can endure. However, you can endure!  Truthfully, the mocker is fearful because they know you can and will endure. The mocker fears your blessing which is why they work so hard to hinder you.

Sadly, some of us give in to their fear.  Now is the time when we should be singing as David sang – God is the light of our salvation, who shall we fear (Ps. 27:1)?  God is the strength of our life, why should we be afraid of anybody? Because of God, don’t you fear anybody and don’t you be afraid to move faithfully.

 You have no reason to be afraid of anything or anybody.  God will keep you from falling.  God will lift you up and over the mockers and our great adversary.  Because of this, we should be confident in this faithless world.  Let the mockers mock while you remain faithful in the one who is certain.  We will stand in victory in the end.