We sing the last two verses of
Jude and we have done so for, I'm not quite sure how many years,
probably 10 or 15, a long, long time anyway. So Jude's the second
last book of the Bible. In light of what we've been looking
at, I wanted us to contemplate the wonder of the security of
our salvation. that when the believer closes
his eyes in this world, according to God Almighty, he does not
die. In fact, real life begins in
his presence. Just listen to these verses from
Jude. Read and then the last couple.
I'd just like us to be reminded we sing it and sometimes we get
very familiar with things when we repeat them over and over
again. It's a good thing to repeat but it's also a good thing to
look at a bit more closely. Jude, a 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. And I love the next phrase that
the Holy Spirit has written in there, be multiplied, be multiplied,
multiplied, add to them and add to them and add to them and multiply
them. Beloved one, I gave all diligence to write unto you of
the common salvation. So he's talking about things
that are common to all believers. All throughout history, all of
God's people have believed the things that we say about the
Lord Jesus Christ in common. It was needful for me to write
unto you and exhort you that you'd earnestly contend for the
faith which was once delivered unto the saints. entrusted, God has entrusted
his word to his people in this world. And now at the end of
Jude before the book of Revelation opens it says, Now unto him that is able to keep you from
falling and present you faultless before the presence of his glory
with exceeding joy. To the only wise God, our saviour,
be glory and majesty Dominion and power, both now, right now,
right now as we read, right now as we sit here, and ever and
forever. I'm amazed by the exceeding joy
of our God. I don't know about you, but that's
something I love to think about because I so often and so easily
forget it. That our God is joyful. Our God looks upon his children
in this world and smiles with delight. Ever thought about that? Listen to what Zephaniah says.
The Lord thy God, Zephaniah 3.17, The Lord thy God in the midst
of thee is mighty. He will save. Not he'll try and
save, not he'll offer salvation. He will save. He will rejoice
over thee with joy. He will rest in his love. He will joy over thee with singing. It's amazing to think, isn't
it, as we're sitting here and the Lord Jesus Christ has promised
to be present with us, he's also in heaven, and what's happening
in heaven? They're singing songs. They're singing songs about the
glory of God, about the wonders of redeeming love. They're singing
songs about the worthiness of God Almighty and the finished
work of the Lord Jesus Christ. They're singing there. We ought
to be singing here. Jude is the half-brother of the
Lord Jesus Christ, the brother of James. But that's not the
biggest issue, is it? He just calls himself a servant.
What a glorious thing to be a servant of Jesus Christ and a brother
of James. He doesn't mention his relation to him other than
the Lord Jesus. In fact, he's a servant. And he's writing to
a particular group of people, to them that are sanctified. are sanctified. Not will be sanctified
if they add their activities of sanctification to the work
of God. It means to be set apart, to
be declared holy. That's why the writer to the
Hebrews says that he that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified are
all of one. Hebrews 10. They are all of one. He that sanctifies and they who
are sanctified are all of one. And preserved in Jesus Christ. Preserved. Preserved. That word preserved means to
attend to carefully, to take care of, but particularly it
means to guard. Is it something we do? Or is
it something that's done to us? So this is the glory of the gospel,
isn't it, brothers and sisters? It's in the perfect tense, this
preserved. It means it's the perfect activity,
isn't it? It's completed and once and for
all and cannot be undone. And it's passive voice. So who's the one that's active
if we're passive? God is active, isn't it? Preserved
in Christ Jesus. Guarded. Carefully, carefully
guarded. and called. We've been reading
about that calling in John chapter 10. He calls his people. He calls
them by name. The call people hear the shepherd's
voice. The call people respond to the
words of the shepherd. The call people love. to hear the shepherd declared
in his glory and his nature, isn't it? We know that all things
work together for the good to them that love God, to them that
are thee called. They called according to His
purpose. For whom He did foreknow, He
also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of His Son, that
He might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover, whom
He did predestinate, them He also called. And whom He called,
them He also justified. Their sins are gone forever. They have never sinned. If all of my sin was laid by
the Father on the Lord Jesus Christ, I have never sinned,
and yet I know that I'm nothing but a sinner. And it's only God's
people that know that they really are sinners. Sin cannot be in
two places at one time. Sin cannot be punished by God
the Father, and then that sin ever be punished again, which
is why the verse says that we're preserved in the Lord Jesus Christ. Perfectly preserved in Him, one
with Him, united to Him, and called by Him. Mercy. See, God's children are mercy
beggars. They are the them, aren't they?
The sanctified need to be the recipients of mercy again and
again and again. Mercy unto you and peace and
love. be multiplied. I'm so thankful
that the Holy Spirit put those words in there in that way. Because
the reality is, the wonder, the wonder, Psalm 71 says, I'm a
wonder to many. I'm a wonder to myself. I'm a
wonder to my family. I'm a wonder to this world. They
don't have a clue who I am. They don't have a clue what I
love. They don't have a clue what I'm doing. I meet people
again and again and again. All the people I meet from the
old religion, the first thing they'll ask me is, What are you
doing on the farm? They've known for 30 years that
I've had nothing to do with the farm and don't want anything
to do with the farm. And they'll tell me about, they'll say, what
about your family? Because they knew my family. And what they're
doing is preparing to run away. They've done it so many times
now. Because the one thing that they
don't want to do The one thing that they don't want to do is
stand there and have a conversation about who the Lord Jesus Christ
is and how amazing he is and what he's done. The one thing
they don't want to hear is what he's done in my life and in the
lives of those that I have the delightful pleasure to call my
brothers and sisters and my family. We are a wonder, aren't we, how
fragile the believers are. No wonder the Holy Spirit wants
mercy and peace and love to be multiplied. The reality is we
know what we are, brothers and sisters. Only the children of
God know what we are. We read about it in Isaiah 6.
Woe is me is the first words that come out of our mouths when
we meet him. But listen to what we were, for
you see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after
the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble are called, but God
has chosen the foolish. to confound the wise. God has chosen the weak things
of the world to confound the things that are mighty. If you
wonder about how remarkable the preservation of the Lord Jesus
Christ is and that work of grace in our lives, the first thing
we need to do is know the wonder of what we are. What are the
chosen? Listen to what? He says in 1 Corinthians chapter
6 about these people, Such were some of you. When we see the sins of others,
we need to be reminded, brothers and sisters, that that common
statement, there but for the grace of God go I, is the Pharisee's
prayer. Because the sin that we see is
the sin that's in me, and the only reason I'm not performing
it. is because of the restraining hand of God Almighty. Such were some of you, but you
are washed, you are sanctified, you are justified in the name
of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God. We
are weak. We are weak, but we know what
we are. This is the wonder of being kept
by Him, isn't it? the wonder of what we are, the
fewness of believers. How few there are in this world. Deuteronomy 7 says, The Lord
did not settle his love upon you, nor choose you, because
you were more in number than any people. For you were the
fewest of all people. But because the Lord loved you,
and because he would keep the oath which he had sworn unto
your fathers, has the Lord brought you. In Noah's day, how many? Billions. Just a family saved. Lot. Those cities had hundreds
of thousands of people in them, according to all of the records.
How many were taken out of there? Two angels went down there and
they took four people out, one in each hand. And Lot's wife
turns back and the Lord says, you remember Elijah, because
there were so few in Elijah's day, he thought he was the only
one left. He was the only one left. And what did the Lord say
to him? It might seem that way to you, Elijah, but I have, what
does he say? Reserved 7,000 who have not bowed the knee to
Baal. That's why our Lord says, doesn't
it? Fear not, little flock. It's the Father's good pleasure
to give you the kingdom. There are few that enter into
heaven. It's a narrow way. So it's a
wonder, isn't it? No wonder we need to be reserved
and kept and have mercy multiplied because of what we are, because
we, the fewness of true believers, and these few, are left in this
world. 1 John 5 says we know the whole
world lies in the wicked one. The world hates God and is opposed
to everything he is and does. The world loves what it is. It loves its philosophy and its
materialism. The world, according to 1 Corinthians
1, the world by its wisdom knew not God. The world's greatest intellects
these days are those who are most opposed to God. The world's
greatest moralists are ignorant of true holiness. The world's
most religious spend their lives going about to establish their
own righteousness and never seeing the law of God as spiritual.
How do we overcome this present evil world? Faith. Faith is how
we overcome this world. And so what a wonder the church
is. What a wonder to be preserved
because of who we are, because of how few we are, because of
the place we are in this world. And we're in this world With
two natures. With two natures. The old nature
is unchanged in conversion and God implants the new nature created
by God in righteousness and true holiness. It's Christ in you. It's that new creation. The new
creation sees the old creation. And the old creation cries out
when the new creation comes, as Paul says, in my flesh dwells
no good thing. All the sheep are weak. All the sheep are vulnerable.
All the sheep can't survive in this world without a shepherd.
All the sheep have to carry around what the scriptures call this
body. The body of this death. And they cry to be rescued from
it because it pollutes everything. Everything that's holy. It taints
all of our desires and all of our works. Paul desired to depart
and to be with Christ, which is far better. But all of this
is so that no flesh should glory in his presence. So the believers,
the believers are weak, the believers are few, the believers are left
in this world with two natures, and these two natures are at
war. It's one of the most comforting verses in all of the scriptures
for me, is Galatians, and it's repeated in Romans chapter 7
with more. More definition, but it says,
the flesh lusteth against the spirit and the spirit against
the flesh, and these are contrary one to the other, so you cannot
do the things that you would. Is that your experience, brothers
and sisters? That's the experience according
to God of every single child. Oh, you would live, wouldn't
you? You would live without sin. You
would live to love your brothers and sisters. You would live to
honour God in every way at all. You would live so that this world
doesn't captivate you. There's a war going on. There's a war going on in believers'
hearts. There's a war. Believers are
few. Believers are weak and sinful,
and they're left in this world, and they're left with two natures,
and their two natures are at war. And at the end of all of
that, as much as that's difficult, I want you to see how special
it is for us to be preserved, and how necessary it is for us
to be preserved, and how wonderful it is for us to know that mercy,
mercy and peace and love are multiplied to us. We live in
this world in all those things against us and there is an enemy,
isn't there? A deceitful, never-sleeping enemy
who is so perfectly knowledgeable of our weaknesses. He is called
the accuser of the brethren and he never has to lie to bring
an accusation against you. We have no power to overcome
him despite what men would tell you. We overcome him according
to Revelation 12. They overcame him by the blood
of the Lamb and the word of their testimony. The word of our testimony
about who the Lord Jesus Christ is and how he has put Satan down
and how he rules and how he has made the promise that he will
trample Satan under our feet. And this enemy has one place
of open warfare, just like the vultures in Genesis chapter 15. There's one place where the vultures
go, there's one place where all of Satan's attacks are, and that's
upon the church. The rest of the world just lies
in his arms and is kept in his palace and he keeps his goods
in peace. He has no reason to disturb all
of the other places of so-called worship out there, all of his
attacks. The sharp arrows have one target,
the Lord Jesus Christ and him crucified. What a miracle. What
a miracle to be kept by God in the midst of all that. And there
are many other things, but what a wonder, what a miracle it is.
the preservation of the Lord Jesus Christ, of his people. I don't know if you've read John
Bunyan's Pilgrim Progress, but there's one part of Pilgrim Progress
that I just love so much. Pilgrim is taken, Christian is
taken into the interpreter's house. You know the story, he
goes into this room and there's a fire, there's a fire burning
in the room. And the devil is there pouring
water on the fire continually, continually. And Christians wonder
what's going on. How does the fire keep burning?
How does the fire keep burning when we have such an inveterate
enemy doing it all? And the interpreter takes Christian
around the corner and behind the wall and behind the fireplace
there is the Lord Jesus Christ pouring on the oil. Brothers and sisters, we are
kept by Him, the word of our testimony. We are kept, we are
kept, particular people. We are kept by the power of God
through faith. How much power is required to
keep a believer? Let's close with these last two
verses that we sing. so often. And don't forget that
if you read the middle part of Jude you will find that there
are enemies within the church, there are enemies around the
church, there are enemies within the believing congregation and
there they are enjoying the Lord's Supper with these people. There
they are in their midst. You read it and you'd be amazed.
You can see why Jude sings at the end of this letter and he
wants the believers to be reminded that in the midst of all of that,
who we are and what this world is, We are now under Him that
is able. How much power does God Almighty
have? How much power? He is able to
keep to the uttermost all that the Father has given Him. Keep
them. He's able to keep you from falling. We fall again and again and again. And each time we fall, we are
raised up again by God Almighty. That's just the story of our
lives, isn't it? We are up and down and up and down and up and
down. No wonder we want mercy, we want
mercy multiplied and peace and love multiplied. To keep you
from falling and to present you, listen to the work of the Lord
Jesus Christ, to present you, to present you, faultless, absolutely
faultless. Faultless, because all of the
sins were laid on him, and the robe of righteousness is the
adornment of all of the saints of God. Faultless, before the
presence of his glory, with exceeding joy. With exceeding joy. He's able. He presents you. He brings his people into the
very presence of God, because where the head goes, the body
follows. And he brings them all. He presents
you, I do quote Colossians chapter 1 often, but it's just such a
glorious verse, isn't it? And you who were sometimes alienated
and enemies in your mind by wicked works, has he now reconciled
in the body of his flesh through death to present you, this is
the presentation of the Lord Jesus Christ, this bride that
was given to him, that has come into this world in Adam and had
fallen in Adam and has sinned from the mother's womb, to present
you holy, and unblameable and unreprovable
in his sight. Does he see clearly? Does he
see clearly? Is there anything missing in
his sight? That's what you are, brothers and sisters in Christ. to the only wise. What glorious
wisdom God has shown in this amazing covenant of grace and
in this amazing working of these things. It doesn't seem wise
to us, but dear oh dear, brothers and sisters, it's wise to Him.
And He's rejoicing, isn't He? He's rejoicing. To the only wise
God, our Saviour. The Lord Jesus Christ is God,
our Saviour. That's why He's able Now this
is the cry of all the saints, be glory and majesty, dominion
and power. You rule over all things. You
use your mighty arm of power to rule absolutely everything
for my good and for your glory. And that's exactly what he's
doing. And he's got to do it now. There's always a now, isn't
it, in salvation? There's always a now. Now and
ever. Amen means truly. Truly. Truly. Our God is faithful. Truly. Did he do it all? Truly. Truly. Let me close with these. I've been thinking of these verses
since the conversation at the break. Paul says, don't be ashamed of the testimony of our
Lord, nor of me, his prisoner, but be thou a partaker of the
afflictions of the gospel according to the power of God. There will
be afflictions. Who hath saved us? completed
activity, and called us with a holy calling, not according
to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which
was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began, but is
now made manifest by the appearing of our Saviour Jesus Christ. He appears in the preaching of
the Gospel. who has abolished death and has
brought life and immortality to light through the gospel. May that be our testimony. Heavenly
Father, we pray that your Son lifts up would be the one who
exercises that drawing power of the Great and Good Shepherd
to draw us again, Heavenly Father, back into a realization of the
glory of His power, the wonder of His dominion over all things,
and the extraordinary fact, Heavenly Father, that you rejoice over
us with singing, because you rejoice over your Son with singing. You alone, our God, can send
the Spirit to take the things of the glory of the Lord Jesus
Christ and reveal them to us. May that be our portion, may
that be the portion of those that we love and can't fellowship
with at the moment because of the circumstances of their lives,
please bless them, Heavenly Father, and bring them back again and
again and again. And may you preach the gospel
to us again and again and again for the glory of your dear and
precious Son. We pray in his name. Amen.