All right, let's turn to the
book of Jude. I've taken my time going through
this short letter, but today I'm gonna deal with all these
verses and finish it up. On this subject, a call to persevere. Because that's really what Jude
is telling to the people to whom he's writing. Persevere in the
faith. And what does that mean? That
means continue in the faith. Don't give up. Don't stop. Don't
turn away. Don't fall away. Set it within
your mind. Make a determination within your
mind and heart that you're going to look to Christ and to him
alone for all salvation. That you're going to serve him
alone that you're gonna do whatever He calls you to do and equips
you to do with whatever gifts He's given you, whether it's
preaching the gospel, whether it's playing the piano or whatever,
whatever gift you've been given, you wanna do it for the glory
of God and don't quit, don't give up. And that's what perseverance
is, the doctrine, it's called the doctrine of the perseverance
of the saints. Who are the saints? The sanctified
ones. Every believer here this morning,
and every believer everywhere is a saint. Now that doesn't
mean you always act like a saint. Doesn't mean I always act like
a saint, but that's what I am because that word saint comes
from the word sanctified, which means to be set apart for God
by his grace. Our sanctification doesn't come
about by our works. Our sanctification is not a progressive
thing in which we get better and better and holier and holier.
And let me tell you something there. We all should try to be
better people. But that's not our sanctification.
That's not, listen, that's just common sense. And that's the
word of God put within us to cause us to strive to be like
Christ. But at no time in my life At my best or at my worst,
can I say that I have a righteousness within me? It's all of Christ.
It's all His work. He's the only merit that I have
before God. And that's Christ alone. Whether
I do what I should do or don't do what I should do, I'm not
making excuses. And this is what I want you to
know. Perseverance of the saints is one of the most basic gospel
doctrines of grace. It's a phrase used to describe
what the Bible teaches about the eternal security of the believer. It answers the question, once
a person is saved, can he lose, can he or she lose salvation?
Well, the question's answered in the word of God, and the answer
is no. If God saves you, he saves to
the uttermost, Paul wrote. to the uttermost, that is to
the culmination and the glory of all that he has for us. It
has to do with the power of God's grace in our lives as believers
that keeps us in the faith, as Paul wrote in Hebrews 12 and
two, looking unto Jesus, the author and the what? Finisher. And that word means completer.
What he started, he'll complete. And what did he start? Well,
the Bible says in Ephesians 2.10, we are his workmanship created
in Christ Jesus unto, not because of, but unto good works, which
God hath before ordained that we should walk in them. What
he started, he'll finish. He doesn't start it and say,
now you finish it. That's what false preachers teach. That's
what these preachers that Jude's talking about, that he exposes
these These false preachers who go the way of Cain and the way
of Balaam and the way of Korah. That's what they say. God started
it with your, and they even say this, God started it because
you cooperated and now you gotta finish it. No, that's not the
gospel. That's a false gospel. I'm telling
you what this book says. Listen, if God starting it depended
upon my cooperation, I would have never been saved. And if
God started it and said, Bill, now you finish it, I'll never
be saved. That's right. He saves us, He
keeps us, He'll bring us to glory all by His grace through the
righteousness of His Son. And that's it. This doctrine
of perseverance simply says that once God has saved a sinner by
his grace, that sinner cannot fall away from the faith unto
damnation and eternal death. And yes, I know people use this
phrase so loosely, and even many who use it don't know really
what it means, but that means once saved, always saved. Why
is it once saved, always saved? Because it's God who does the
saving. We do all the sinning, God does all the saving. Now
that's it. The Bible teaches that those
who are elect of God, and the Bible does teach that by the
way. And the only way that a preacher can not preach it is just to
avoid it or to pervert it. But the Bible teaches that those
who are the elect of God who are justified in Christ. Now
what is it to be justified in Christ? It means my sins cannot
be charged to me. And who said that? Did I come
up with that? God said it. Who shall lay anything
to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifies. And
he's the Supreme Judge. I'm not the Supreme Judge. You're
not the Supreme Judge. God is. And this is what he says. Some preacher comes along and
he says, well, that's not real unless you're really righteous
in yourself. Let me tell you something. The only thing that
is real is what God says. It's not how I look, how you
look. It's what God says. Blessed is the man whom the Lord
imputeth righteousness without works. Can you get a hold of
that? Because I want to tell you something. That's comforting
to a believer. That's comforting to a sinner saved by grace, isn't
it? Those who are adopted into his
family and adopted by Greg's. He didn't look over the mass
of humanity and say, well now let's see who's worthy to be
in my family. Because none of us are worthy. Worthy is the
lamb that was slain. That's what we're gonna celebrate
in the Lord's table. Worthy is Christ. We have no
worthiness. Those who are redeemed by the
blood, redeemed by the blood of the crucified one. Redeemed
how I love to proclaim it. Redeemed by the blood of the
land. Those who are born again by the Holy Spirit, truly born
again now, they will continue trusting Christ forever. They
may waver, they may have doubts, they have to fight. This is a
warfare now. They may fall off the wagon every now and then,
but God won't let them go. Brother Mahan used to say, God's
got us on his leash. Ain't that right? Maybe we can say it down here
in the South, maybe we'd understand it better to say, God's got a
shot collar on us. We get too far away, boy, he
gets us. God, by his own power, through
the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit, keeps us, preserves
us, every believer, forever, and in fact, What is the assurance
of our perseverance now? Now, this is where I listen to
this very carefully, because this is what Jude brings us to
here. What is the assurance of our perseverance? I'll tell you
exactly what it is. It's the fact that God, by His
grace and power through Christ, preserves us. He keeps us. Look at Jude 24. Now unto you
that is able to keep you from falling. Now who's he praying
to? That's a prayer. Unto him. What are we doing when
we worship? We're praising him. Now unto
him that is able to keep you from falling. He doesn't say
now unto you, we're just so thankful that you kept yourself from falling.
He didn't say that there, does he? Now unto Him who's able to
keep you from falling and to present you faultless before
the presence of His glory with exceeding joy, to the only wise
God our Savior. Be glory and majesty, dominion
and power both now and forever. Amen. Now there's the assurance
of a believer's perseverance. God keeps us. He won't let us
go. Look back at Philippians chapter
one. I read Philippians chapter 2
to open this service. Look at verse 6 of Philippians
chapter 1. Well, look at verse 5. The opening
of the letter to the church at Philippi. And he says, he thanks
God for your fellowship in the gospel from the first day until
now. Thanking God for your fellowship
in the gospel from the first day. The first day that they
come to faith until now, we'll look at verse six. Now Paul,
what's he saying? Being confident of this very
thing that you all will keep on keeping on and you'll be good
people. No, that's not what he says is.
Being confident of this very thing that he which has begun
a good work in you. Now who began this good work
in God's people? God did. He will perform it. That word perform means to finish
it. It's very close to the word that
Christ used on the cross in John 19 30 when he said it is finished. He that begun this good work
in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ. And
if you are a professing believer and you fall away from it completely
and never come back to it, you know what that means? That good
work was never begun in you at all. That's right. Look, turn the page there to
the portion that I read opening the service today. Philippians
2 verse 12. Now we're commanded to persevere,
to continue, to determine within our hearts and our minds that
we're, listen, I'm gonna look to Christ, I'm gonna depend upon
him, I'm gonna worship him all the days of my life. That's what
we are to do as believers. That's perseverance. I'm gonna
follow him, whom to know his life eternal, I'm gonna plead
his righteousness. And this is what he's saying
in verse 12. Wherefore my beloved, Philippians 2.12. As you have
always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my
absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. Is he
saying work for my salvation? No, he says work out. You've
been saved. Now work out of that. That's
what he means. On the basis that you've been
saved, you're being kept and you'll be glorified by the grace
of God. Work it out. And do it with fear. What's that? That's godly fear.
Awesome. Awesome God. Oh, how great our
God. Oh, how great thou art. You know
that hymn? How great thou art. And trembling. What does that mean? Does it
mean I'm going to go through life shaking? No. It means this. When he talks
about trembling. I tremble to think of what God
would do if I appeared before him without Christ. Oh, that I may know him, Paul
said, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that
which is through the faithfulness of Christ. But now here's the
foundation of it. Listen, he says, work out your
own salvation. with fear and trembling, look at verse 13.
Here's the assurance of it. I know if God didn't keep me,
I'd fall away. Well, here's the assurance of
it. For it is God which worketh in
you both to will and to do of his good pleasure. And what is
his good pleasure? Well, he says all things work
together for good to them that love the Lord, who are the called
according to his purpose. What is his purpose? To glorify
himself in the salvation of his people. That's what it's all
about. Oh, this is a glorious act of
God's almighty grace. It's not owing to the power or
the goodness of sinners. And 1 John says it, you don't
have to turn there. John said this in 1 John 2, he
said, there are some who have gone out from us, they've left
the, that we thought they were brothers and sisters in Christ.
We thought that they were saved, but they've apostatized. Now
apostasy is another matter. Apostasy means that you have
turned complete, you've turned your back upon Christ, upon his
doctrine, his people. You've renounced him and called
him accursed. That's what that apostasy is.
John said some have done that. But John says this, they were
never of us. He said, had they been of us,
they would no doubt have remained with us, but they went out from
us that it might be made known that they were not of us. They
were never saved. They were never born again. That's
what the Bible says. That's 1 John 2, 18 and 19. And
then he goes over in 1 John 3 and verse nine, he says, those who
are born of God cannot do that. Why? Because they're born of
God. God keeps them. His spirit won't let them go.
Now, one of the misconceptions about this truth is that it will
lead to what people call carnal Christians, who believe that
since they're eternally secure, they can live whatever sinful
lifestyle they wish and still be saved. But that's a misunderstanding
of the doctrine and what the Bible teaches. A person who believes
he has no obligation to follow and serve Christ is not demonstrating
true saving faith. That's the bottom line. Our eternal
security rests on the biblical teaching that those whom God
calls and justifies, he'll also glorify. And not only has he
saved them by his grace and given them a righteousness which they
had no part in producing, he also gives them a heart to believe
and to serve God. And there's a struggle within
the warfare of the flesh and the spirit. A sinner saved by
grace can and many times does give into the flesh. We read
about one this morning named Samson. Don't follow Samson in
his sins and weaknesses. A sinner saved by grace can stray
from the path of obedience, but God will not let any of his children
turn completely away. Go the way of those who apostatize. And that's what this is all about. So look back at Jude. I'm gonna
briefly go through these verses. God's people will persevere. And when you read scriptures
in the New Testament that talk about if you do this, if you
do that, like in Colossians 1, if you continue in the faith,
realize that those if passages are not conditional ifs, they're
evidential. Evidences that God has saved
me. Not conditions upon which God saved me, but evidences that
God saved me. But what he does, Jude is telling
them there, he tells them to contend for the faith. Now that's
part of perseverance. That's a big part of it. We're
to contend for the faith. We're to preach the gospel, witness
the gospel, stand against all that comes against it, false
doctrine. We're to do it in love. We're
to use wisdom. We're to do it patiently. We're
to do it prayerfully. All of that. Whenever I come
up against a man or a woman who's preaching, teaching a false doctrine,
I try to be gentle. Sometimes I'll lose my temper.
And especially in this day of email and Facebook, boy, you
can get in some good email fights, can't you? But watch what you
put out there. You can't bring it back. Use
wisdom. Be compassionate now. Don't lie
to them. Tell them the truth in love,
praying for their salvation, praying that God will deliver
them from that. And so when Jude, he exposes these false teachers,
talk in verse 11, those who go the way of Cain, go the way of
Balaam, and go the way, again saying the disobedience, rebellion
of Korah. He taught, he uses very graphic
language in verse 12. These are spots in your feast
of charity, preached on that last week. How they, they're
a blight in your worship. You allow these people who preach
false doctrine into your pulpits? Huh? There's spots on your worship
services and on your fellowship when they feast with you, feeding
themselves without fear. Clouds without water, they appear
impressive, but there's no water of the word of life. They're
carried about of winds, they go from here to there. I know
men like that. Every wind of doctrine. Trees whose fruit withereth. The only fruit that's produced
from such preaching like that is dead works. Dead works. He says, without fruit, twice
dead plucked up from, and he goes on, verse 13, raging waves
of the sea foaming out their shape, wandering stars to whom
is reserved the blackness of darkness. And then he mentions
Enoch. Of all people, you know who Enoch
was. You can go back to Genesis chapter, what, five, I believe
it is. Enoch walked with God. Here's
a man named Enoch in a generation of unbelievers, But Enoch, by
the grace of God, walked with God, and he was translated. Now some people mean that means
he was taken to heaven. Some others mean that they came
after Enoch, wanting to kill him, and God just moved him from
one place to another to keep him safe. Doesn't matter. It
doesn't matter. He walked with God. Now any sinner
who walks with God is a sinner saved by grace. And he mentions
a prophecy that Enoch made that you can find nowhere else in
scripture. Yet God the Holy Spirit inspired
Jude to mention it, so it must have been handed down orally.
And here's what Enoch said, verse 14. And Enoch also, the seventh
from Adam, the seventh generation from Adam, prophesied of these,
these false preachers in his day, saying, behold, the Lord
cometh with 10,000 of his saints to execute judgment upon all
and to convince all that are ungodly among them, all their
ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed, and all their
hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against them. Ungodly
is the key word there, isn't it? What's Jude saying? Contend for the faith, persevere,
in light of judgment. That's what Enoch was talking
about. Christ is coming back to judge
this world. I'm convinced that there are many people who claim
to be atheists because they do not want to face the fact that
they're going to be judged and held accountable. But God's going to judge this
world. And we who believe, we who are sinners saved by grace,
we're to live our lives, persevere, in light of an expectation of
final judgment. Christ spoke of it. He said that
he's gonna separate the sheep from the goats, didn't he? That's
no new doctrine. That fits with the whole of scripture.
What is said of Enoch in here. And evidently this prophecy came
about But here's the point. What is that judgment for us
who believe in Christ? It's a declarative thing, where
God is going to mark out his people, separate the sheep from
the goats, and those goats, that's talking about those who die in
unbelief and appear before him at judgment without Christ, without
being washed in his blood, without being clothed in his righteousness,
and they'll be consigned to eternal damnation. But his people, his
sheep, you remember Christ said he died for his sheep? Remember
he said, my sheep hear my voice. They follow me. And he said,
I won't let them go. Remember that? John chapter 10.
His sheep will be declared before this whole universe that they
are saved by the blood of the crucified one. That their judgment
has already taken place. Where? At the cross. Because
when Christ died, he died for his sheep. He died for their
sins. He put them away. He satisfied
justice. He brought in everlasting righteousness
and paid their debt in full. And there is no judgment of them.
It'll be just a clear declaration. These are my sheep. And we're gonna live our lives.
Like Paul said, I've quoted early, that I may be found in him, not
having my own righteousness, which is of the law, but that
which is through the faithfulness of Christ." Persevere in the
light of judgment. Look at verse 16. He goes back
in this judgment, he talks about those murmurers, these false
preachers. To murmur is to complain. They're never satisfied. Complainers,
walking after their own lust, not after the word of God. but
their own ideas. And their mouths speak of great
swelling words, having men's persons in admiration because
of advantage." In other words, they are a respecter of persons. They know who to warm up to,
to get a following. That's what he said. He says,
but beloved, remember you the words which were spoken before
the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ, how that they told you
there should be mockers in the last time who should walk after
their own ungodly lust. These be they who separate themselves,
sensual having not the spirit. The way they separate themselves
is this. You remember back in the Old Testament when he talked
about those who would say, don't come near me for I'm holier than
thou. Oh my goodness, said the Pharisees. Your master, said the Pharisees
to the apostles, your master sits down. and eats dinner with
publicans and sinners. How awful. I wouldn't be seen
with those kind of people. But look at verse 20. But you,
beloved, building up yourselves on your most holy faith, praying
in the Holy Ghost. You know what that means? That
means persevere, always seeking to be edified, to be built up,
to grow, from the Word of God. That's what I preach, the Word
of God. That's what you want to hear. That's what you feed
upon. The Word of God is our food for spiritual worship and
growth. It's our weapon for spiritual warfare. It's our foundation
for faith and assurance. It's our guide for godliness,
the Word of God. The Word of God is what God uses
by the Holy Spirit to bring a sinner out of the kingdom of darkness
into the kingdom of God's dear Son in new birth. Look at verse
20. He said, but you, beloved, building
up yourselves in the most holy faith, praying to the Holy Ghost,
keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of
our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life. And of some, have compassion,
making a difference, and others, save with fear, pulling them
out of the fire, hating even the garment spotted by the flesh.
What's he saying there? Persevere by keeping our focus
upon God's unconditional love towards us and his mercy towards
us in Christ. That's what he's saying. Keep,
you know what keep means? It means to guard it. Guard it
with your life. Don't let any false preacher
divert your view from Christ, his glorious person and his finished
work as the ground and cause of your salvation. Don't let
them corrupt your minds from the simplicity that's in Christ.
Like Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 11. And if we keep our eyes upon
God's love, what are we gonna see? Herein is love, not that
we love God, but that he loved us and gave his son to be our
propitiation for our sins. I can tell you by the grace of
God that I do love Christ. I love his word. But I'm not
going to spend my time up here bragging about how much I love
God. I'm going to brag about how much
He loved me. If any man belonged to Jesus
Christ, if any man loved not Christ, he's not of God. We do
love Him. Not perfectly, though, do we?
We still have a lot of love for self, and we struggle. I tell you what, His love for
me, when I don't deserve it and haven't earned it, keep my eyes
on that, His mercy. If we keep our eyes upon God's
mercy, what are we gonna see? Well, it's stated in Lamentations
3, 22 through 23, it's of the Lord's mercies that I'm not consumed. His mercies endureth forever.
They never fail. God is faithful. And he says, if some having compassion
make a difference, that literally means that have mercy on some
who are doubting. You may come to a moment in your
life as a believer where you're just overtaken with doubts. It
can happen. What are we to do? We're trying
to encourage one another. Have compassion. Making a difference. There's a difference between
a believer who is just going through a time of doubt and an
unbeliever who doubts all the time. He says, and others, verse 23,
save with fear, pulling them out of the fire. The meaning
here is the same as Paul wrote in 1 Timothy 4, 1 that I read,
take heed unto thyself and unto the doctrine, continue in them
for in doing this, thou shalt both save thyself and them that
hear me. I can't save you. You can't save
me, but I can tell you the word of a God who does save. That's
what he means. God said, this is a faithful
saying and worthy of all acceptation. Christ Jesus has come into the
world to save sinners of whom I'm chief. Are you a sinner?
And then he says, hating even the garment spotted by the flesh.
Well, that could refer to anything that is in opposition to the
glorious person and finished work of Christ. We can talk about
the garment of His righteousness imputed to us. I don't want anything,
any spot on that. I don't want any preacher to
put that down and make it less than what it really is, my whole
salvation. And then it could be behavior
that dishonors God. But we're to hate it. We're to
foster in us a love for the truth, a love for Christ, a love for
one another, and hatred of that which opposes Him. Persevere. Now, here's the foundation and
the assurance of all that perseverance. Look at it, verse 24 again. Now
unto him that is able to keep you from falling and to present
you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy. In this perseverance and in this
preservation, who do we glorify, ourselves? Now unto him, verse
25, to the only wise God, our savior, be glory and majesty,
dominion and power, both now and forever. Amen. Good place to end. All right.