The title of the lesson here
in Jude is Our Common Salvation. Just the first three verses.
Jude, the servant of Jesus Christ, and brother of James, to them
that are sanctified by God the Father, preserved in Jesus Christ
and called, mercy unto you and peace and love be multiplied. When I gave all diligence to
write unto you of the common salvation, that's where the title
comes from, it was needful for me to write unto you and exhort
you that you should earnestly contend for the faith, now this
is the purpose of the letter, contend for the faith which was
once delivered unto the saints. And we'll stop there. This little letter is a general
epistle written by this man named Jude. There are several people
named Jude in the New Testament. Jude or Judas was the name too,
and obviously when you think of the name Judas, you think
about Iscariot, but there was another apostle named Jude, and
then there was the half-brother of the Lord named Jude. Some
scholars argue about who was the human instrument who wrote
this. It doesn't really matter. It really doesn't because the
Lord, this is the Lord's word. This is God's word. This is not
man's word. I personally believe it was the
Apostle Jude who wrote this, the human writer, in other words,
the human instrument. But like I said, that's something
for scholars to debate over if it's that important to you. But
anyway, all scripture, is given by inspiration of God. Verbally
inspired, this is the word of God. He identifies himself as
the servant of Jesus Christ. That's a common identification
that the apostles and the evangelists used to identify themselves.
And when they say servant, they're talking about a bondservant.
That's the issue. Paul identified himself that
way. He didn't say the Apostle Paul, the master of divinity,
or the doctor of theology. He wouldn't do that. He said,
I'm just a servant. You know the law of bond slavery is written
in the old covenant law back in Exodus 25, isn't it, I believe? And you know the story behind
the bond slave. A person gets in debt, and they
can't pay their debt to the debtor. And so they sell themselves into
slavery. And they're given so many years,
I think it was like seven years, of where they could work their
way out of debt and then they could go free. And the law of
bond slavery said once that servant has paid the debt and goes free,
they can, if they desire, because of their love for their master,
they can stay in his service, willingly. And what they would
do, you know the story how they'd take an awl, A-W-L, and bore
a hole in their ear, and they would, back then they would wear
a ring in their ear, and what happened, if you saw a servant
serving his master, the way you knew that his debt was paid,
and it was the law, under the law of bond slavery, you saw
that hole in that ring in his ear, or her ear. And that was
a picture of the gospel. that God's servants, God's children,
serve Him not out of a legal debt, trying to pay their debt,
but because their debt has already been paid, not by them, but by
the Lord Jesus Christ, the surety and the substitute of God's people.
He paid the debt in full. He satisfied justice. He brought forth righteousness.
And therefore, having that applied to their conscience in their
heart in the new birth by the Holy Spirit, then they willingly
serve him as a bond slave. And that's what we are. That's
the law of bond slave. We're not forced legal slaves. In other
words, we're willing, loving bond servants of Christ. And
that's how Jude identifies himself. He says, the brother of James,
and he's writing them to them that are sanctified by God the
Father. Now, sanctified. You know, that's
a much misunderstood word. When people talk about, and he
uses the word saints down at the end of verse three. What
is a saint? A saint is a sanctified one.
Same root word. How many times have you ever
heard a person say, well, I'm a Christian but I'm no saint?
There's a problem with that. Because if you truly are a Christian,
you are a saint. Now that doesn't mean that all
of your thoughts and actions and ideas are saintly by any
stretch of the imagination. But if you're a Christian, you're
a saint. You're sanctified. Well, a lot of people, when they
think about being sanctified, and you've heard the term progressive
sanctification, what they're talking about is moral purity
or morality, growing in holiness, they say, which is not a biblical
idea. That's a human idea. In other words, I'm just getting
better and better and better. Well, not true. The thing about
it is, To be sanctified, if we would always think in terms of
this phrase, whenever we heard sanctify or sanctified, set apart. That's what it means. The same
word, Greek word, is holy. And people today, when they think
about holiness, they think about moral purity. Well now, let me
tell you something. If you were morally pure, which
you are not, You would be set apart from me. You'd be different
from me. Now, should Christians strive
for moral purity? Yes, we're to fight the warfare
of the flesh and the spirit. But we're not morally pure in
ourselves. We're not perfect within. That's
what I'm saying. We should be moral people. We
should promote morality according to the word of God. But we still
fall short. We're sinners saved by grace.
But we are still sanctified. The Bible speaks of sanctification
in several ways, basically three ways we can talk about being
set apart. Here he said we're sanctified
by God the Father. And then he says, and preserved
in Jesus Christ and called. Now think about that. To be sanctified
by the Father, when did the Father first sanctify his people? The
Bible teaches that he did it before the foundation of the
world in divine electing grace when he chose his people and
gave them to Christ. That's set apart. He set his
people apart in the covenant of grace. He put all the responsibility
of the salvation of his people, sinners, upon Christ. Imputed sin to Christ, imputed
righteousness to them. Christ was made their surety.
before the foundation of the world. And then the Bible teaches
that we're sanctified by Jesus Christ himself on the cross in
redemptive grace. When he died, as the surety and
the substitute of his people, we were set apart in him. He
redeemed us with the price of his blood. He satisfied justice
for us. He died for me. When he died,
I died. When he was buried, I was buried. When he arose, I arose.
That's one of the things that's, well, that's what's typified
in the Lord's Supper. And so they're sanctified. The
Bible says in Hebrews chapter 10 and verse 14, for by one offering
he hath perfected them that are sanctified. How did he perfect
us? Well, he completed the work. He brought it to its completion,
its perfection. We have a righteousness that
answers the demands of God's law and justice. It's his righteousness
imputed to us and God cannot lay any charge to our account.
Blessed is the man to whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity. That's
sanctified. If God does not charge, account
iniquity to you, you're sanctified, you're set apart by his grace. And then the Bible speaks of
sanctification by the Holy Spirit. 2 Thessalonians 2, verses 13
and 14, for example. What is that? That's the new
birth. That's when God the Holy Spirit comes from the Father
and the Son to apply life to a dead sinner. We're born dead
spiritually. Well, what happens when the new
birth comes? He gives us a new heart, a new spirit, a new mind. He imparts life and knowledge
to our souls and we're sanctified by the Spirit. We're set apart.
When God the Holy Spirit brings you under the preaching of the
Gospel, and brings you to faith in Christ and repentance, you're
set apart from the world. Now that doesn't mean you're
morally pure now and everybody else is just scummy sinners or
something like that, no. It means that you're a believer.
And that's what Jude is talking about when he says, you're sanctified
by God the Father, you're preserved in Jesus Christ. I love that,
that's preservation by the grace of God. The only reason that
we are saved, the only reason that we stay saved and cannot
be lost again is right there, preserved in Jesus Christ. We
persevere in the faith by the grace of God, but the basis and
foundation of that is God's power of preservation. He will not
let us go. Christ said, my sheep hear my
voice, I know them, they follow me. What else did he say? No man shall, no one shall pluck
them out of my father's hand. I and my father are one. And
then look at the last two verses of the book of Jude. I'm gonna
read these in our opening today in the service because it applies
to the message that I'm gonna preach from Hebrews 11. He says,
now unto him that is, this is verse 24. Now unto him that is
able to keep you from falling. Now, let me ask you a question.
Does that say, now unto you who are able to keep yourselves from
falling? Doesn't say that, does it? It says, now unto him that
is able to keep you from falling. Well, who's able to keep us from
falling? Christ. 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. We thank God not only for saving
us, but for keeping us. Paul wrote in 2 Timothy 1, verse
12, I know whom I have believed and I'm persuaded that what?
He is able. The title of the message this
morning at 11 is Our God is Able. And I'm not talking about Abel,
Cain and Abel. I'm talking about he's got the
ability to save me, to keep me, and to bring me to glory. God
is able unto Him against that day. We'll go back here to verse
1. Now he says we're preserved and
we're called. That's the invincible calling
of the Holy Spirit where God brings His people, His children,
His elect under the preaching of the gospel and He savingly
convinces us of sin and of righteousness and of judgment and brings us
to Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit. That's the calling.
The Bible says, be diligent to make your calling and your election
sure. What kind of calling is it? It's
a calling in the power of the Holy Spirit. It's a calling under
the preaching of the true gospel wherein the righteousness of
God is revealed. Paul wrote in Romans 1 16, I'm
not ashamed of the gospel of Christ for it is the power of
God unto salvation unto everyone that believeth. And who brings
us to believe? God the Holy Spirit in the new
birth. You must be born again. And he says to the Jew first
and the Greek also, for therein is the righteousness of God revealed,
that's Christ and the merits of his redemptive work, as the
only ground of reconciliation between God and his people who
are sinner. And then he says, for the just
shall live by faith. So there you have the sanctification.
It's set apart. Think about it that way. You
know, a person who is saved by the grace of God is in a continual
life struggle with sin. I mean, it's a continual life
struggle. It's an everyday struggle. I've
had people write me and they'll say, when do you ever get any
relief? My friend, the only relief we have is by looking to Christ.
That's it. You say, well, I had a pretty
good day today. Okay. I'm glad you did. I hope you have a lot of pretty
good days. But your only hope of salvation
and relief and victory over sin is looking to Christ who put
away our sin. That's it. There's nothing else. It's that simple. And when preachers
and denominations and so-called Christians try to interject other
things, you know what they're doing? They're doing what Paul
commanded the Corinthians not to do. And that is to get their
minds and hearts away from the simplicity that's in Christ Jesus. That's that single message. That,
look, I don't have any hope, any relief, any calm, but as
I look to Christ, when I look to myself, even on my good days,
I still say, not enough. But when I look to Christ, I
know He's enough. He's always enough, isn't He?
And I'm not able, but I know He's able. I have no righteousness
in me, but He's my righteousness. Think about that. Now, you who
know yourselves, because the Holy Spirit has revealed something
of that to you, would you rather stand before a holy God pleading
your righteousness, thinking you have that, or Christ, his
only begotten beloved Son in whom he's well pleased? See what
I'm saying? And those who look to Christ
alone, they're saints. Not because they've achieved
great heights of moral purity or performed three miracles and
got canonized or anything like that. That's a bunch of malarkey. You ever heard that word? It
is. It's just not so, folks. You
know, if sainthood was only for certain choice believers, then we shouldn't be reading
this letter. Should we? Because I don't think anybody
here today has been canonized, have you? Well, you have been
by God. He that walks according to this
rule, that's canon. You know that word rule there
is canon, means the body of doctrine. God forbid that I should glory
save in the cross. That's what that rule is. All
right, look at verse two. Beloved, now he's expressing
the love that only exists among brethren there, that divine love
which comes through Christ that can only be experienced and seen
as we see Christ on the cross, giving himself for our sins and
getting the job done. satisfying justice, putting away
our sins. He said, I gave all diligence
to write unto you of the common salvation. Now that word common
does not mean ordinary, it means alike. It means that salvation
that is common to all of us, equally alike. And so he's talking
about a salvation that's the same for everybody who's saved.
Now that is diametrically opposed to the spirit of pluralism that
exists today, even among false Christianity. When pluralism,
you know what pluralism is? It's kind of like this, I'll
put it to you very simply. We're all going to heaven, we're
just going different ways. Many ways, that's what pluralism
is. You go your way, I'll go mine.
And we're all right. Now that's relativism. You may
have heard that term. Relativism means there's no absolute
truth. It's okay, you know. I'm okay,
you're okay. If you think it, it's got to
be right. And you know that pervades our society today, doesn't it?
Well pluralism is like the mountain analogy, you know, God's at the
top. And you've got your view of him, and some people go the
long way around, some people go the direct route, and some
people just vanish and appear up there. I don't know. Whatever
it is. But that's not what the Bible teaches. The Bible teaches
there's one way. Turn to Ephesians chapter 4.
I thought I had this chapter marked in your lesson. If I didn't
write it down there in your lesson, Ephesians chapter 4. Turn to
Ephesians chapter 4. He's here, he's talking about
walking, that we as believers are to walk worthy of our calling,
we're called by grace, meekness, long-suffering, unity of the
spirit, bond of peace. In verse four, Ephesians four,
there's one body. Now what is the body in the scripture?
That's the church. Denominationalism is not biblical. You say, well, which denomination
is right? The one preaching the gospel.
That's the one that's right. The one that's preaching the
true gospel of God's grace in Christ, the God-man mediator
who brought forth everlasting righteousness that guarantees
and ensures the salvation of his people. And that's one spirit,
one Holy Spirit. How does the spirit Bring a sinner
to salvation through the preaching of the gospel. Even as you're
called in one hope of your calling. What is our hope? It's the hope,
it's a certain expectation of salvation through Christ based
on his righteousness alone. And he says one hope of your
calling. One Lord, one faith. That's one doctrine. The doctrine
of Christ. One baptism. One God and Father
of all which is above all and through all and in you all. Now
he goes on to teach how there are various gifts among the members
of the body. Some have certain gifts that
God uses for his glory and the good of the body. Others have
other gifts. There's gifts of communication.
There's gifts of giving. Everybody gives, but there's
gifts of giving. There's gifts of encouragement.
I mean, there's all kinds of gifts. that honor God and for
the good of the body. But there's one calling, go back
to Jude now, there's a common salvation. Now let me put it
to you this way. In the providence of God, we
are all very different people. We had different experiences,
have different experiences in our lives. Born in different
parts of the country. I was born in a town called Huntington,
West Virginia. You know I was born in West,
even though I'm from Kentucky. We lived in Kentucky, but I was
born in West Virginia. Some of y'all were born down
here in a hospital, some in a home, some, we're just all different
people, all right? And some of us are more different
than others. Some of us are so different,
we think you're weird. But we're all different. Leonard's
looking at me. He knows who I'm talking to.
No, I'm not. I'm just teasing. He's a Kentuckian too. But anyway,
think about all over the world, the differences, you know. But,
and we all go through different experiences, but when God saves
us, there's only one way. It's all by his grace, by the
same spirit, through the same gospel. Not a different gospel. Somebody says, well, I was saved
under the teaching that salvation is partly by works. No, you weren't.
You weren't saved under that. Nobody is. That's a false gospel. You say, well, God was working
with me. Well, if you're one of his children, he'd been working
with you all your life, even though you were an idolater. Here's what I'm saying. When
I was setting up there in that seminary, God was working with me providentially,
but I didn't know it. I've told you the story about
Hosea and Gomer before, Hosea the prophet and his wife, Gomer.
How she left him and went back to being a prostitute. And when
she got old and couldn't make the money, Hosea, the prophet,
in his love for her, kept providing her with food. And she didn't
recognize it. She thought it was her lover's.
She came to the door and she said, oh, aren't my lovers good
to me? It was Hosea the whole time. But she attributed it to
other men. And that's the way I was. God
was good to me, but I attributed it to a false god of my imagination. That's where repentance comes
in, see? When I think about this, let's go right to the Scriptures.
Think about Saul of Tarsus, the Pharisee. He had a much different
experience in his life than, let's say, the thief on the cross. But they were saved in a common
way by the grace of God. through the gospel that reveals
the righteousness of God. Now, I've had a lot of people
say, well, when did the thief hear the gospel? I don't know.
And you don't either. But I know he did. How do I know
that? Because God said it. Faith cometh
by hearing and hearing by the word of God. I know he did because
God said. It doesn't say, it says, he that
believeth the gospel. It doesn't say except the thief.
And you know, usually people want to make an exception for
themselves when they use the thief like that. And that's wrong. That's the common salvation.
And I've got several things here that show that. The common salvation
is that which the Lord himself brings us through. Go back up
to verse two. He talks about mercy. It's a
common mercy. That's the compassion that God
has for his people based upon justice satisfied and righteousness
established through Christ, the mercy seat. Peace, that's reconciliation
to God. Christ is the Prince of Peace.
We have peace with God by the cross. If you have peace with
God in a way that's true peace with God, it's by the cross,
it's not by another way. And the love, that's the same
love that we've talked about. The nature of God's divine love
that comes to a sinner through Christ based upon just to satisfy. And that's what Jude says, I
hope that's multiplied. In other words, I want your awareness
of these things to grow. I want you to grow in grace and
knowledge. And then he says in verse three,
beloved when I gave all Dillons to write it to you of the common
salvation, the gospel. The way of salvation, the way
of righteousness. You may have lived in Timbuktu,
I may have lived in Podunk Holler. It doesn't matter. It's the same
gospel. You may have heard it in French,
I may have heard it in Spanish, but it's the same truth. You
understand what I'm saying? The common salvation there. It's
not one way for you and another way for me. Christ said, I am
the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh under the Father.
I don't care if he's on the North Pole and one's on the South Pole.
No man comes under the Father but by him. The way of righteousness
is the way of God's grace in Christ. No other way. What can
wash away my sins? Nothing but the blood of Jesus.
That's the common salvation. Now one other thing, and I'll
close, he says, it was necessary for me to do this, that you should
earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered to the
saints. The faith, that's the teaching, that's the doctrine,
that's the gospel, the truth. So now what Jude is going to
say from here on is related to how things stand up in light
of the truth, the doctrine of Christ. the measure of what's
right and what's wrong. And he said, I want you to contend
for it. I want you to be set for the defense of it. Now, I've
heard preachers say, well, I'm not sent to defend the truth.
I'm just sent to proclaim it. Well, Jude says, I want you to
contend for it. Somebody said, the truth needs
no defense. Well, according to the Bible,
there are times when we are to stand up and defend it. Paul
disputed with them in the synagogues. When somebody attacks the truth,
what are we to do? You can call it defending it,
you can call it proclaiming it, you can stick a feather in your
hand and call it macaroni, but that's what you gotta do. You've gotta state it. And no,
I don't want my ministry to be a ministry of just arguing and
debating, I don't want that. But whenever somebody attacks
the truth, we have to defend it. We have to proclaim it, don't
we? We have to say, well, let's go to God's Word. That's the
best way to do it, too. You know that, don't you? Somebody
told me one time, said, well, I don't believe in that election.
I said, well, you don't believe God's Word then. He said, oh,
I believe every word of God's Word. I said, well, let's go
to God's Word and see what it says then. And if God speaks of election,
then it's true, isn't it? Now, if that doesn't settle it
for you, then you've got a problem. And that's what I want to get
people to understand, that when they attack the truth, they're
not attacking me, they're attacking God. And how do I know? It's not because I've got some
kind of a deity nature or anything like that, or authority. I've
got the word of God. And that's where we go to. So
we contend for the truth, and the reason you're going to see
that Jude says it's necessary is because of the invasion of
false preachers and false doctrine that begin to enter into the
visible church at that time. And you can see why Christ himself
warned that these times were coming. We're living in these
times, and we're going to see that. You'll see how false doctrine
began to creep up within the church and how we have to contend
and stand firm for the faith. And we can only do it by the
grace of God. Okay.