FIRE SNATCHERS
JUDE 1:22-23
INTRODUCTION
A. HUMOR
1. I heard about this man that was very stingy with his money. Just before his death, he made his wife promise that if he died first she would bury him with the $50,000 he had saved. His wife reluctantly agreed.
2. At the funeral, before they closed the casket, she sneaked in this small wooden box. Her friend said, “Shirley, you didn’t just bury the money, did you?
3. Shirley said, “Of course I did! I’m a Christian. I can’t lie.” She said, “You mean you just buried $50,000?” The wife said, ”Yes, well, I wrote a check.”
B. RESCUED FROM FIRE
1. https://www.azfamily.com/2025/02/19/officer-firefighter-speak-after-rescuing-woman-burning-truck-mesa/
2. We are all grateful for our first responders who rescue people in terrible crises.
3. It happened in the Bible. The fire of God’s judgment was going to rain down on the city of Sodom. Abraham interceded and God sent two angels who tried to get Lot, his wife, and 2 daughters to leave the city. But Lot’s family was so compromised by worldliness they couldn’t make up their minds to leave the doomed city.
4. Gen. 19:16 says, “When he hesitated, the [angels] grasped his hand and the hands of his wife and of his two daughters and led them safely out of the city, for the Lord was merciful to them” NIV.
5. This verse is a picture of how WE are supposed to rescue those who are perishing in sin. This world, like Sodom, is under the doom of judgment. We are God’s ‘first responders’ to lead them to safety in Jesus Christ.
C. KEY VERSE & TITLE
1. Jude says, “And others save with fear, pulling [NIV, “snatching”] them out of the fire; hating even the garment spotted by the flesh” KJV, 1:23.
2. This verse says 3 things about how we’re supposed to rescue people; the method, the action, and the caution. The title of this morning’s message is “Fire Snatchers
I. “SAVE WITH FEAR”
A. WE NEED TO BE MORE DIRECT
1. The Apostle tells us that at times, our appeals must be adapted to produce fear. The idea seems to be that with some people, the only arguments they may listen to – in order to be saved – are ones which warn them of their personal danger.
2. Many unbiased and sincere people can be won to Christ by gentle persuasion, but there are also many people who can only be aroused by knowledge of coming judgments or of God’s wrath. Paul used every method so that he might "by all means save some."
3. An example might be Acts 24:25, “And as [Paul] reasoned of righteousness, temperance, and judgment to come, Felix trembled, and answered, ‘Go your way for this time; when I have a convenient season, I will call for you.’” What Paul said was enough to make a Roman Governor tremble. Paul was telling him about the Judgment of God and his place in it!
4. Some people object to Christians using “fear tactics,” but our society regularly uses fear tactics to discourage drunk driving (depicting crash scenes), premarital sex (results in STIs, pregnancy), drug use (testimonies of people who were destroyed by it), the dangers of guns, etc.
5. If a house is on fire and someone is sleeping peacefully in it, isn’t it proper to yell “FIRE! FIRE!”? Of course. It’s normally not right to bust out car windows and drag people from cars, but in life-and-death situations, that’s what’s necessary.
6. IF we had an accurate picture of how horrible Hell is, and that every lost person is teetering on the brink of going there for eternity – we might be inclined to pass by niceties and warn them of their doom.
7. Charles Simeon was summoned to the dying bed of his brother, who said, "I am dying; and you never warned me of the state I was in, and of the danger to which I was exposed by neglecting the salvation of my soul!" "That’s not true," replied Mr. Simeon, "I brought up the subject sometimes, and frequently mentioned it in my letters." "Yes," exclaimed the dying man, "you did; but that was not enough. You never came to me, closed the door, and took me by the collar of my coat, and told me that I was “NOT SAVED” and that if I died like that I’d be lost forever. And now I’m dying -- and but for God's grace, I might have been for ever undone!" [Biblical Illustrator]
B. JESUS TAUGHT EXTENSIVELY ABOUT HELL
1. The truth is that Jesus spoke more about Hell than anyone else in all of Scripture. Jesus referred to Hell as a real place and described it in graphic terms. He spoke of a fire that burns but doesn’t consume; where the naked spirits of men, like worms in a fire, burn but are not burned up; of a place of loneliness and darkness. Jesus says the unsaved “will be thrown outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth” (Matthew 8:12). See also Mt. 25:46; 13:42; 22:13; Lk. 16:23, etc.
2. “We may pride ourselves in thinking we’re too loving to believe in Hell. But in saying this, we blaspheme, for we claim to be more loving than Jesus—more loving than the One, who with outrageous love, took upon himself the full penalty for our sin. Who are we to think we are better than Jesus? Or that when it comes to Hell, or anything else, we know better than He does?” [Randy Alcorn]
II. PULLING THEM OUT OF THE FIRE
A. WE’RE TO BE FIRE SNATCHERS
1. I remember when Steve & Karen Taylor’s house burned. They had lived there for 40 years and raised their kids there. The heat was so intense that it burned things 10-15 feet away. The house was on fire while they were asleep. The smoke was so thick you had to stay near the floor to breathe. They got out and realized their dogs were still inside. Steve went back in and got the dogs, but never made it out. Karen crawled in and found his feet. A fire fighter crawled in and pulled him out by the feet. Without that help, Steve would have died in the fire. Thank God for the fire-snatchers!
2. Spiritually, our house is on fire! There’s a lot of good people all around us but who are NOT saved. The reason they haven’t fled to Christ is that they don’t know the danger they’re in. John 3:36 says, “whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God’s wrath remains on them.”
3. Jude 23 talks about snatching people out of the fire. We’re to be “fire-snatchers,” rescuers able to pull people out of the fires of Hell. The fire is sin. In Gen. 13 & 14, Sodom was a fire hazard. Lot was playing with flammable relationships. Lot was taken captive by 5 kings. Abram sent his 318 men “BORN IN HIS HOUSE” – they were fire-snatchers – they snatched Lot out of the sinful environment he was in.
4. The same word translated “caught-up” in 1 Thess 4:16 of the rapture (Gr. harpozo) is used in Jude 1:23 and translated as “snatch.”
5. William Booth was a fire-snatcher who snatched people from the fires of sin. Who do YOU KNOW that is a person on the other side of the fire wall, heading for Hell? It’s our job to pull them back.
B. HOTSHOTS & PALISADES FIRES
1. Wikipedia tells about “Hotshot crews” - teams of 25 experts who run into the wildfires when others run away or back-up. They are the most skilled and trained firefighters in the U.S.
2. There’s a sound of a freight train that a fire can make. It’s like a fire-tornado. It’s very bad even for the hotshot crew members.
3. One of the HotShot crew members saved another fire fighter by reaching thru a thick wall of fire and pulling him into a clean-air space.
4. Recently the Palisades fire burned in California from Jan. 7-31, 2025 in Los Angeles County. It burned 23,500 acres, killed 12 people, and destroyed 6,837 structures. There are many stories of people snatched from the fires.
5. Oftentimes people in fires are overcome by smoke but they’re not yet dead. The rescuers can’t use gentle language, but have to shout into their ears that the building is on fire and they’re about to be burned up!
III. HATING EVEN THE GARMENT SPOTTED
A. WITNESSES CAUTIONED
1. Jude points out that those who are rescuers need to be careful they’re not overcome by the problems of the people they’re rescuing. The ones we’re trying to snatch from the flames are moral lepers. Jude uses the word “spotted,” which means contaminated, as by disease or a deadly contagion.
2. In Leviticus, God instructed Moses to burn the clothes of lepers with fire, lest they catch the disease. When we deal with lost souls, we can’t let our compassion destroy our caution. We must never compromise our own morals to win somebody to Jesus Christ.
3. You never bring people to Jesus by becoming like them; you may be with them, but don’t become like them. Jesus was a friend of sinners, but He lived a holy life, and we should too.
B. MISSING TODAY: PASSION FOR SOULS
1. William Booth, founder of the Salvation Army said, “Put your ear down to the Bible, and hear Him bid you go and pull sinners out of the fire of sin. Put your ear down to the burdened, agonized heart of humanity, and listen to its pitiful wail for help.” William Booth
2. Charles Spurgeon said, “You must go into the fire if you are going to pull others out of it, and you will have to dive into the floods if you are going to draw others out of the water. You can’t work a fire escape without feeling the scorch of the conflagration, nor man a lifeboat without being covered with the waves.”
3. “Any church that is not seriously involved in helping fulfill the Great Commission has forfeited its biblical right to exist.” Oswald J. Smith
4. Brainerd said, "I care not where or how I live, or what hardships I go through, so that I can but gain souls to Christ." Doddridge said, "I long for the conversion of souls more sensibly than anything besides." Matthew Henry wrote, "I would think it a greater happiness to gain one soul to Christ than mountains of silver and gold to myself."
CONCLUSION
A. ILLUSTRATION: Try Something!
1. I remember hearing of a man at sea who was very sea-sick. If there’s ever a time when a person feels that he can’t do any work for the Lord it’s when they’re sick. While this man was sick he heard that a man had fallen overboard. He was thinking what he could do to help to save him. He picked up his cabin lamp and held it up to the port-hole.
2. The drowning man was saved and gave this testimony. He had gone down the second time, and was just going down again for the last time, when he put his hand out of the water. Just then, he said, some one held a light at a port-hole, and the light fell on his hand. A man caught him by the hand and pulled him into the lifeboat.
3. It seemed a small thing to do to hold up the light; yet it saved the man's life. If you can’t do some great thing, you can at least hold up the light for some perishing person. Let’s let our little light shine -- hold up Christ so that all the people in the dark can see! [Moody's Anecdotes, Page 44.]
B. TO NOT ACT ISN’T AN OPTION
1. A kid was lying in the railroad tracks. He was wounded and couldn’t move. In the distance you could hear the whistle of a train blowing.
2. The train is coming. Do you pray, “God, what would you have me to do?” No! If someone’s life is in jeopardy, you don’t even have to pray about it. You must attempt to save the life!
3. Every person we know HAS A COURT APPEARANCE SCHEDULED BEFORE GOD; THEY ARE NOT READY FOR IT. "For we all must appear before the Judgment Seat of Christ" (2 Cor. 5:10). Without Jesus they will miss heaven and be consigned to Hell.
C. THE CALL
1. Jesus loves lost people and died so they could be saved. If Jesus loved them and was willing to die to save them, shouldn’t we care what happens to them? Aren’t WE glad someone told US? If we fail to help others, it will be base ingratitude.
2. How many of you want to make sure you're ready to meet God? WHO DO YOU KNOW who needs to hear about Jesus? Come down & pray for God for God to touch your life and that He’d prepare other’s hearts to receive Christ.
[This message contains some thoughts of Tim Dilena]
