There's a small book in the Bible
right before the book of Revelation called Jude. Would you turn there
with me please? The epistle of Jude has only
one chapter. It only has 25 verses. But like
all the other epistles, the book of Jude is a letter. Jude was
one of the half-brothers of our Lord Jesus. He was the full brother
of James, the one who wrote the epistle that bears his name. Not James the Apostle, the brother
of John. But Jude and James, the Lord's
half-brothers, they didn't even believe in Christ until after
His resurrection. In John chapter seven, verse
five, you don't have to turn there, but we discover at that
particular time, the scriptures say that neither did his brethren
believe in him. Now, some 30 to 35 years have
passed since Christ had ascended into his father, and Jude has
grown in the grace and in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ,
and he now refers to himself as the servant of Jesus Christ. He doesn't refer to himself as
the Lord's brother, nor of his family, but his servant. Look at verse 1. Jude, the servant
of Jesus Christ and brother of James, to them that are sanctified
by God the Father, and preserved in Jesus Christ and called. And
I'd have you notice that Jude, like Paul in his letters, addresses
this epistle to a specific people. The letters, the epistles of
the New Testament, were written to believers. Jude writes to
them that are sanctified. That word, as you well know,
means to be set apart. That's what sanctified means.
This letter wasn't written to every professor of religion. This letter was not written to
every church member in the world. It was not written to every denomination
in the world. This letter was written to those
whom God had set apart. The letter was written also,
secondly, to those who are preserved in Christ Jesus. These words
are for those whom God chose, whom God elected and determined
before the foundation, the creation of the world to eternally save
and preserve in the Lord Jesus Christ. Set apart by God unto
himself, that's who this is written to. Sovereignly secured in the
righteousness of Christ, that's who these words are for. forever
preserved unto eternal glory. This letter was written to them,
set apart, preserved in Christ Jesus, and also called. Do you see that in verse one?
God calls, God draws, and enables sinners to believe in Christ.
We see that throughout the whole word of God. The call of God
is always effectual. None can resist His will. His word, the scripture says,
never returns unto Him void. always accomplishes that which
God pleases. It always prospers in the thing
until he sends it, Isaiah 55, 11. So we see right off the bat
here that redemption has something to do with being sanctified,
with being set apart by God. It has something to do with being
preserved in Christ. Scripture says kept. by the power
of God. I'm so glad that God keeps His
people, aren't you? If I had to keep myself, I would
be constantly concerned about my salvation, but I'm kept by
God's power. Kept by the power of God. Being
called according to His divine purpose. Mercy, peace, and love
being multiplied to a sinner as we see in verse 2. And then
we see the subject matter of this letter. It has to do with
salvation. Look at verse 3. Beloved, when
I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation. Now, why does Jude call it common
salvation? Because there's only one. Only
one salvation. It's common to all believers. All gods elect enjoy the same
blessing. All God's sheep rest in the same
promises. Is that not right? In that sense,
the gospel is very common, very singular. There's only one salvation. There's only one way to be saved.
There's only one mediator between God and man. Singular. Common. Only one Lord. Only one God and
Father of all. Only one calling, the scripture
says. Only one faith. One hope. One sacrifice for sin. Only one gospel. Only one thing
truly needful. Jude said in verse three, beloved,
when I gave all diligence to write unto you of common salvation,
he says, it was needful. It's needful for me to write
unto you. Jude wrote this letter because
it was needful for him to. Why was it needful? Well, the
remainder of verse three tells us. He says, to exhort you, to
exhort the believer. That word means to encourage,
to encourage the faithful in Christ. I want to encourage you
this morning out of God's word. That's the reason that we're
here, to encourage God's saints and pray that God might enable
one who is yet without Christ to believe his word. He says
to exhort you, to encourage you, that you should earnestly. Now
that word means seriously. This is serious business. It
means intensely. We should earnestly contend for
the faith in and of Christ. And you might find it interesting
to know that the Greek word for contend means to struggle. I
thought about that for a good while. Faith will always be a
struggle to some degree. Why? Faith is a struggle the
same reason that all spiritual things are a struggle. They are
a struggle because of the war that rages in our members. Now
I'm telling you, there are a lot of folks that don't believe that
a man has two natures. If you don't believe you have
two natures, the old man and the new, I think Paul is very,
very clear about the two natures, especially in Romans chapter
seven. But if you don't believe you have two natures, the old
and new man within you, how can you explain how you are? If there
are not two natures, the old man and the new within us, how
can you explain the things that sometimes go through your mind?
How can you explain the things that often fall from your lips?
How can you murmur like you do at the good providence of God?
How? How can you love Christ and yet
be so indifferent to Him? How can you love your brother
and not forgive him? How can you feel about certain
things and certain people with such contempt? Let's just be
honest. If my new nature is one that
is born of God and created in the likeness of Christ, which
the Scriptures declare that it is, how can I continue to love
sin the way I do and at the same time hate it? If the child of
God doesn't have two natures, how could Paul say, if I do what
I would not, then it is no more I that do it, but sin, that old
man of sin that dwelleth in me. And Paul also declared, I see
another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind and
bringing me into captivity of the law of sin, which is in my
members. And then Paul said this, oh,
wretched man that I am. He didn't say, oh, wretched man
that I was. He said, oh, wretched man that
I am. That old man, so wretched with him. Concerning the new
man, Paul said this. He said, therefore, if any man
be in Christ, he's a new creature. Old things are passed away. Behold,
all things have become new. How can a man be both old and
new at the same time? only if he has two natures. Now, if Paul is not talking about
two natures within a believer, then you and I should be extremely
concerned about the new nature that we claim to have. And if
Paul is not talking about the old man within, then there can't
be much hope for the new man. With our old nature, it's a constant
struggle to believe. Our flesh, the old man struggles
to cause apostasy. That's why we treat it as a war
within, isn't it? We better. The old nature always
tries to trip us up and make us fall. And that's what Jude
is warning the believer of here. He's warning the believer to
be on guard, on guard against falling away from Christ. Now look at verse four. He says,
there are certain men crept in unawares. They've crept in undetected
and they must be exposed. They crept in undetected spreading
a two-fold lie here. Jude calls them ungodly men who
do two things. First, notice, they turn the
grace of God into lasciviousness. They scoff at God's grace to
sinners. They preach grace as lewd and
indecent and vulgar. They make God's grace offensive. Offensive to God and offensive
to Christ and His people. When you claim grace to be universal,
you make it offensive to God. Why? Because God said, I'll have
mercy on whom I'll have mercy. God said, I'll have compassion
on whom I'll have compassion. And God said, whom I will, I
will harden. When you declare that God loves
everybody and then claim that everybody's not saved, you make
God a failure. You make Christ a laughing stock,
and that's lewd and that's indecent as far as God is concerned. And
when you claim that a man or woman can do something in and
of themselves to merit the grace of God, You make it offensive
and you make it vulgar in the eyes of God. When men make grace
a collaborative effort between God and man, God considers it
licentious. That word simply means filthy. Makes it filthy. All man's righteousness
is what? Filthy rags. Filthy rags. They fade as a leaf. When Adam
and Eve sinned in the garden, they clothed themselves with
what? Fig leaves. That's not going to work. They're
going to fade. They're going to crumble. Blood
has to be shed. What else do these creeping liars
who are ordained to condemnation, what else do they teach? What
else do these ungodly men who turn the grace of God into filthiness
do? Well, look at the last part of
verse 4, it tells us. They deny the only Lord God and
our Lord Jesus Christ. They deny the deity and the sufficiency
of God. Now, what do I mean by that?
Well, they say that salvation requires more than just Christ,
more than just faith in Him. They say that Christ is not sufficient. They claim that Christ plus your
faith is what saves you. They say Christ is not enough.
They claim that we must add a work of righteousness of our own to
the work that Christ did in order to be saved. They claim that
the sinner chose God, not the other way around. Didn't our
Lord not say plainly, you have not chosen me, but I have chosen
you? Is there anything too hard to
understand about that? And this is why Jude wrote this
letter. He wrote this letter to warn
believers. He wrote this letter to expose
the lie. This letter is about apostasy. This letter is about falling
away. This letter is about believing
a lie instead of the truth. Jude wrote this letter to bring
them into remembrance. Jude causes us to remember that
it is God who saves. Jude reminds us that salvation
is of the Lord. Jude gives us three examples
here of unbelief. Look at verse five. He said,
I will therefore put you in remembrance. And then he says this, though
ye once knew this. I put you into remembrance, though
you once knew this, how that the Lord, having saved the people
out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed them that believed
not. The first example we have here is of the Israelites of
old. You remember the story well. God remembered them. They were
in Egyptian bondage for over 400 years. God heard their cry
by the affliction of their taskmasters. And God sent them a deliverer,
didn't he? God saved them. God delivered
them out of the bondage of Egypt. Jude said, you once knew this.
You act as though you've forgotten it. You once knew how the Lord
saved his people out of the land of Egypt. But not long afterward,
God destroyed them that believed not. Isn't that a great warning? And the writer of Hebrews said
this, they enter not into rest because of unbelief. It's unbelief,
friends, that is our greatest enemy. God broke Pharaoh by sending
Egypt great plagues. Israel walked out of Egypt with
all the Egyptians had. We talked about that in the first
hour. Israel walked across the Red Sea on dry ground. And when
the Egyptians pursued them, God drowned the whole Egyptian army. And the book of Exodus says this
after that. It says, the people feared the
Lord. The people, they believed the
Lord. But it was just a very short
time, just a very short time later, that they began to grumble,
and they began to complain, and they even desired to go back
to Egypt. Well, has the Lord delivered
us out of Egypt so that we can die here in the wilderness? They
would rather be in bondage than to have God as their provider.
They would rather be in bondage and serve Egypt than to, in freedom,
serve the living God. God promised them a land that
flowed with milk and honey. Did they believe what God said?
They believed not, the scripture says in Hebrews 3, and their
carcasses fell in the wilderness. Out of all the multitude that
was delivered out of Egypt, only two men, Just two of that original
multitude entered into the land of promise, and unbelief killed
the rest. We have a second example here,
the fallen angels, verse 6. And the angels which kept not
their first estate, but left their own habitation, He hath
reserved an everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment
of that great day. Now, did you pay close attention
to how that verse read? The angels kept not their first
estate. They were the ones who determined
to leave. They left their own habitation,
the verse says. It was their doing. It was their
decision. God let them have their way. Oh, that's... That's the one
thing that I fear the most. Lord, don't let me have my way.
Don't let me have my way. I want your way, not mine. Not
my way, not my will, but yours be done. They kept not their
first estate. They left their own habitation.
It was theirs. God freely provided it for them. Well, how did they leave their
first estate and habitation? By attempting to rise higher
than God. Being unwilling to be subject
to God. Oh, that's so alarming. And the
habitation which they left, they were forever cast out of. They fell beyond mercy. They fell beyond help. They fell
beyond hope. And did you notice here what
will be therein? God has reserved an everlasting
chains under darkness unto the judgment of that great day. Then
the third example we have is even Sodom and Gomorrah. Do you
see that there in verse seven? Whole cities have fallen because
of their refusal to believe God. Verse seven, even as Sodom and
Gomorrah and the cities about them in like manner, giving themselves
over to fornication and going after strange flesh, are set
forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire.
We've talked about this a lot recently, that the fall of both
Satan and man was due to one thing. Their one desire was to
be their own God. Lucifer said, I will exalt myself. I will rise above God. I want to be my own God. You
remember the temptation of Adam and Eve in the garden? Well,
you shall not surely die. You'll be as God, knowing good
and evil. Men's desire by nature is to go their own way and do
their own thing. And if a man insists on continuing
in his perversion of sin, if a man continues to give himself
to spiritual fornication, if a man continues to trust his
will, his way, and his work of the flesh, Jude says you will
forever suffer God's vengeance of eternal fire. Jude said Sodom
and Gomorrah are set forth as an example, just as the Israelites
and just as the fallen angels from above. These men who crept
in unaware have a three-fold mission. Jude writes this letter
to warn us, friends. Verse 8 tells us what these three
things are. He said, likewise, also these
filthy dreamers, first they defile the flesh. Secondly, they despise
dominion. And third, they speak evil of
dignitaries. First thing, they defile the
flesh. Closer observation of the word defile here means to
contaminate. We all know what that word means,
contaminate. You know, there's no quicker
way to defile, to contaminate the flesh before God. than to
believe that there is some purity, that there's some power, and
some righteousness in human nature. These men crept in and taught
that there is some glory in a work of righteousness that a man does
for himself. How defiled is a work of human
righteousness when it's held up before God as something worthy
of redemption. How dare human nature take such
pride in the flesh? How dare man make his flesh the
most important thing? The most popular thing in religion
today is the flesh. And you know it's so. Religion
counts the flesh. Oh boy, religion's big on numbers. The success of man-made religion
is determined by the size. I hear it all the time. When
folks find out that I pastor a church, they most always ask
the first question, how big is your church? How many people
attend your church? How many members does your church
have? Religion loves to count the flesh. King David got in
trouble for that. False religion wants healing
for the flesh. They want prosperity for the
flesh. They're concerned with the appearance of the flesh.
False religion wants to entertain the flesh. Man-made religion
wants sanctification for the flesh. Secondly, they despise
dominion. Men by nature hate the dominion
of God. Men by nature hate the preeminence
of Christ. Men hate the dominion of God
because it denies man's free will. God declares that salvation
is of the Lord. And man declares that he can
save himself by a personal work of righteousness that he does.
Thirdly, they speak evil of dignitaries. The word dignitaries here means
glories. It means dignity, the dignity
which belongs to God. It means honor, that's speaking
of the honor that God deserves. It means praise, the praise that
is God's alone. It means worship, the worship
that God is entitled to. And men by nature, they speak
and they teach their hatred of these things. That's been the
case since man fell into sin. The Arabic version of this verse
reads, these filthy dreamers speak evil of the glory of God. Men don't want to give glory
to God in the salvation of their soul. They want to take it for
themselves. When the self-righteous promotes the will of their flesh,
when sinners trust in a work of righteousness, they do. When
men and women think that they can do something to appease God,
they speak evil of the glory of God. That's just a fact. They attempt to rob God of the
glory that belongs only to Him. And God's glory is this. He told
Moses very plainly. He said, I will be gracious to
whom I'll be gracious. God's glory is wrapped up in
him showing mercy on whom he will. He said, I'll have mercy
on whom I'll have mercy. Moses said, show me thy glory.
He said, this is my glory. I'll have mercy on whom I'll
have mercy and compassion on whom I'll have compassion. Look
at verse 10. But these speak evil of those
things which they know not. But what they know naturally.
as brute beast, and those things they corrupt themselves. Men
defile glory in the flesh by trusting in their own work. Men
despise God's dominion because it robs them of their dignity,
honor, and praise. Men speak evil, natural men,
speak evil of the glory of God because they desire to bask in
their own glory. Men speak evil of things they
know nothing about. They speak good of the things
they know naturally. That's what he said in this verse.
They speak proudly of the things they know by nature. But Jude
says they're brute beasts. He says they corrupt themselves. Now are you beginning to see
the major cause of man's apostasy in this epistle, this letter? It's love of self. It's love
of the flesh, it's love of man's own will, work and way. And look what verse 11 says,
woe unto them for they have gone in the way of Cain. Now, what
does that mean? What is the way of Cain? It's
the way of the flesh. It's the way of a personal work.
It's the way of personal merit. You remember the story of Cain
and Abel? God told them to bring an offering unto the Lord. Cain
brought the best he had. He was a master gardener, and
I'm telling you, he brought the best that he produced. And God
rejected it. God rejected Cain's offering.
Why? There was no shedding of blood.
There was no Christ in His offering. God won't accept anything less.
There's no remission of sin or acceptance with God, for without
the shedding of blood, there is no remission for sin. God
will accept nothing but the blood of His Son. And again, verse
11, they ran greedily after the heir of Balaam for reward. You
remember Balaam? Balaam basically said, just pay
me and I'll preach whatever you want. That's a lot of what's going
on today. The heir of Balaam was personal gain and personal
reward. And look at the third thing,
and they perished in the gain saying of Korah. Do you remember
Korah? He was in the camp of Israel
with Moses and Aaron and all the people of Israel. And basically
what Korah said was this. He said, God doesn't only speak
through Moses. He said, I've got as much right
to speak for God as Moses does. Korah thought that God spoke
to everyone. Korah thought that he could speak
for God just the same as Moses did. You remember what happened
to Korah? God opened up the earth and swallowed. Will you perish in the gainsaying
of Korah? Friends, the first step to apostasy,
the first step to falling away is the promotion and pride of
the flesh. Jude warns us to avoid such apostasy. Jude instructs us how to keep
from falling away. Verse 20, I believe we see here
something that is very neglected today. and that's personal devotion. We suffer greatly because of
it. The first thing Jude mentions in personal devotion is building
up our faith. Look at verse 20. But ye, beloved,
building up yourselves on your most holy faith, praying in the
Holy Ghost. How does faith come? We know
that faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God.
How does God save the lost? He pleased the Lord by the foolishness
of preaching to save them that believe. Faith and salvation
has something to do with hearing and believing through preaching
God's Word. How many meals do you eat a day?
Well, that's a strange question. Well, I'll answer it. I'll tell
you. I usually get three. But if not three, most definitely
two. And I know that sometimes we
get busy and we forget to eat. Sometimes we get sick and we
don't feel like eating. Sometimes we eat too much. And
some people don't eat enough. Some people eat right, healthy. Some people eat wrong, unhealthy.
But everybody eats. If they don't, they'll die. We need to give the same attention
to our souls that we do to our flesh. We need the living bread
as much, no, more than we need physical bread. We need the water
of life even more than we need the water of Jacob's well. Isn't
that what the Lord told that Samaritan woman? He said, whosoever
drinketh of this water, shall thirst again, but whosoever drinketh
of the water that I shall give shall never thirst. When we don't
eat food and drink water, our body is susceptible to almost
every germ out there. We're, call it malnourished. There are many who are malnourished
spiritually. We don't have the strength to
fight off these enemies. That's how we build up our spiritual
strength. This is how we build our faith.
We eat the manna that falls from heaven, the manna that God provides. Christ is that living bread.
We drink Christ, the fountain of living water. There is a river
that flows from God above. Christ is that. Look at the second
thing, verse 20, praying in the Holy Ghost. This is the second
thing that we have as a defense against apostasy, prayer. Brother Mahan once said, and
I'll never forget it, he said, don't let someone else do your
praying for you. You'll suffer because of it.
John Bunyan once said, a spiritual man can no more live without
prayer than a physical man can live without bread. The more
I see of God's holiness, the more I see of my sin and my insufficiencies,
the more I need to pray. Lord, reveal to me Christ and
that He's all my righteousness. He's all that I need in order
to stand before You. Notice verse 21. He says, keep
yourselves in the love of God. How do we do that? Well, looking
for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life. Christ
said, if you love me, you'll keep my commandments. Christ
said, Peter, do you love me? Peter says, Lord, you know that
I love you. He said, you feed my sheep. If
a man loves God, he can't love the world. If a man loves God,
he can't love himself. No man can serve two masters.
He'll hate the one and love the other. He'll hold to the one
and despise the other. And if a man is truly motivated,
now listen, I'm almost finished. If a man is truly motivated by
the love of God and love for God, if a man is motivated by
love for the people of God, everything he does, he'll want to be for
God's glory. That's just a fact. Everything
he does will be for the glory of God and for the good of others.
That'll be his desire. And to steer clear of apostasy,
Jude says, keep yourselves in the love of God. Oh, if I can
just be motivated by my love for Christ, I don't think any
apostasy or falling away can touch me. Looking for the mercy
of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life. Are you looking
for mercy? That's a very direct question,
but a very serious one. Are you looking for mercy? I'm
not looking for reward. I'm not looking for reward. I'm looking for mercy. And I'll
tell all the advocates of free will that I am not trying to
will my way to heaven. A dead man has no will. I will
not come to Christ that I might have life. I'm looking for mercy. Are you looking for mercy? I'm
looking for mercy, the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ. And
I'll tell you, I'll tell all the advocates of self-righteousness
that I'm not looking for a work of righteousness that I can do
to commend myself to God. There are many that are. Oh,
Lord, haven't we done this, and haven't we done that? Haven't
we cast out devils, and haven't we done many wonderful works
in Thy name? And what did the Lord say? Depart
from me, ye that work iniquity. I never knew you. I never knew
you. No, sir, I'm looking for the
mercy of the Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life. And though
I endeavor to build myself up in holy faith, and though I pray
without ceasing unto the Holy Ghost, and though I'm doing all
I can to keep myself in the love of God, friends, I am still looking
for mercy. Every day, every hour. The mercy of the Lord Jesus Christ
unto eternal life. And you know what? I have great
confidence that I won't fall away. My confidence in avoiding
this apostasy is not in me. My hope of not falling away is
in God, my Savior. It's not at all in me. And Jude
tells us just that in verse 24. Look at it with me. Now unto
Him, unto Christ, that is able to keep you from falling. and
to present you faultless before the presence of His glory with
exceeding joy." Friends, God is able to keep you from falling. You believe that? God is able
to present you faultless. Boy, that's a wonderful word.
Unblameable. Unreprovable in God's eye. Me? Yes, you. Yes, you. God does these things, did you
notice, with exceeding joy? Why? Because it pleased the Lord
to make you His people. Isn't that an amazing thought?
That it pleased the Lord to make me His. We conclude with Jude
in verse 25. To the only wise God, our Savior,
be glory and majesty, dominion and power. both now and ever. Amen. Oh, may God enable us to
take heed to these things.