Jude, we'll be looking, our text
will be mainly found in verse 3. And the title of the message
is, An Earnest Exhortation. An Earnest Exhortation. Jude, verse 3. Beloved, when
I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation,
It was needful for me to write unto you and exhort you that
you should earnestly contend for the faith which was once
delivered to the saints. The Apostle Jude tells us here
his original intention of writing this book. He said, I intended
to write unto you of the common salvation. the common salvation,
just like all the other apostles had taken their pens and written,
for the most part, concerning the salvation of God, the lengthy
letters that they had written. And on Wednesday evening, we
saw that this common salvation is common to every believer. It's called the common salvation
because it is common to everyone who is a believer in the Lord
Jesus Christ. We have the same salvation. Jude says this, and he sums this
whole common salvation up in verse 1 when he said, Jude, the
servant of Jesus Christ, brother of James, to them that are sanctified
of the Father, preserved in Jesus Christ and called. These are
the three things that every believer has in common. Has in common. All saints are sanctified by
the Father. All saints are preserved in Jesus
Christ. And all saints are called of
the Holy Spirit. Are you a saint of God? Do you have this common salvation? Are you sanctified by the Father?
That is, are you a chosen believer? Are you a chosen vessel of mercy,
set apart by God the Father from eternity unto salvation? We could not ever obtain such
a favor from God. We would have never chosen salvation. had the Father not purposed to
save us. You see, this salvation that
we have, that's in common, that you and I have, it's not by accident. My salvation is not by accident. It's on purpose. God saved me
on purpose. So if you want a summation of
the doctrine of election, here it is. God did it on purpose.
He did it on purpose. He saved us. In Romans 11, the Apostle said,
Even so, then, at this present time, there is a remnant according
to election. This is why I preach the Gospel,
you know, because there is a remnant. If there was no remnant, I would
not preach the Gospel. But there is a remnant according
to election. And if by grace, if salvation
come by grace, it's no more works. Otherwise, grace is no more grace.
And if it be of works, then it's no more grace. Otherwise, work
is no more work. What then? What is the conclusion
of this? Israel hath not obtained that
which it seeketh for. See, Israel tried to obtain righteousness
by the law, and they could not get it. They could not obtain
it. What then obtained spiritual Israel the righteousness? What
obtained the righteousness of spiritual Israel? The election
of God. The election of God hath obtained
it. And the rest were blinded. Israel, who is spiritual, obtains
the righteousness of God because God purposed to give it to them.
And the rest of you who will not believe and die in your sins,
know this, you were blinded. You were blinded. The rest are
blinded. They're left to themselves and they'll die in their sins.
Behold the glory of God's grace. Behold the glory of God's grace,
in that there is a remnant. This is the glory of God, that
there is a remnant according to election. Believer, we are
sanctified not according to our works, but according to the election
of God's grace, and we all have this in common. Second of all,
every believer has this in common, we're preserved in Jesus Christ.
In other words, when we were chosen by the Father, we were
given to Christ. This is how we were preserved.
We were made accepted in the Beloved. by that eternal covenant
of grace and mercy that the Father and the Son and the Spirit covenanted
within themselves to give us, the Son agreed that He should
be our Mediator, our High Priest, someone to intercede for us and
represent us before God. In Proverbs chapter 8, the Lord
said, the wisdom, speaking of the Lord Jesus Christ, He said,
The Lord possessed me in the beginning of His way, before
His works of old. I was set up from everlasting. This is the Lord Jesus talking.
He said, I was set up from everlasting, from eternity. I was set up to
be the Savior of my people. Therefore, when Jesus was made
flesh, He represented us before God and by His righteous obedience
established the law of God. You know that this is not, again,
it's not by accident we were saved. Jesus Christ came on purpose. And He came to do a work. The
Father sent Him to do a work. And His work was to obey the
law in our place. because God could not save us
without His law being honored. God is a just and holy God, and
He cannot wink at sin. He cannot pardon sin without
payment. And therefore, Jesus Christ came
to be our righteousness. The apostle says in Romans chapter
8, he said, We're free from the law by Jesus Christ. For what
the law could not do, in that it was weak through our flesh.
Is that not right? The Law is strong, the Law is
good, the Law is holy. There's nothing wrong with the
Law, there's something wrong with us. We were weak in the
flesh and we couldn't obey the Law of God. God sending His own
Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, condemned
sin in the flesh, that the righteousness of the Law might be fulfilled
in us. who walk not after the flesh but after the spirit. The
righteousness of the law is fulfilled in us by His obedience. And by Jesus' obedience in death,
He has forever perfected us before God. Believer, you and I should
rejoice that our sins have been forever put away, forever removed
from us. The psalmist said, as far as
the east is from the west, so far has He removed our sins
from us. That's an infinite distance.
The east from the west is an infinite distance. So far has
He removed our sins from us. In Jesus Christ, both the law
and grace, righteousness and peace have met together. and
kissed each other in Him. And we who are preserved in Christ
are preserved by the resurrection of Christ. This is important.
The resurrection of Christ proves His work was satisfying to God. Why is it that the people we
know are still in the grave? Because we know they had sin
when they died. They know that this body is corrupt,
this flesh, this old nature. But Jesus Christ was raised as
the first fruits of His inheritance. He was raised without sin because
He had put it away by His death. Removed it and paid the penalty. And therefore you, everyone who
possesses this common salvation, no one No one or nothing shall ever
take you out of His hand. We have this in common. Nobody and nothing is going to
take us out of the hand of our Savior. We are in His hand. He
is in the Father's hand. And He said, I and the Father
are one. No man will take you out of My hand. No man. Nobody. This is common with every elect
believer, every redeemed believer. We see this. Jesus Christ is
all our salvation and He sits enthroned in glory right now. Where's your righteousness? It's
in Him. It's in Him. What reason has God to allow
me into glory? in Him. I am preserved in Him. And third, we are called. Jesus
tells us that the Spirit is like the wind. This is the work of
the Spirit that calls sinners. The Spirit is like the wind in
that it blows where it wills. The Spirit of God moves where
He wills. I know where you who are believers,
if you have unbelievers in your family, I know you desire the
Spirit of God move in your family, in your loved ones, but I'll
tell you, He moves exactly where He wills. We don't direct the
Spirit of God to go anywhere. We don't command the Spirit.
How blasphemous is it for people to command the Spirit of God
to do anything? We don't command the Spirit of God. The Spirit
of God blows where He wills, and He saves whom He will. The Spirit of God is like the
wind. He blows where He wills. You don't know where it's coming.
You don't know where it's going. The only way you think about you
know about the wind, you can't see it. You don't know where
it's coming. You watch a weatherman. They're
not right. They don't know. They don't know where it's coming
from, where it's going. The Spirit of God, the Spirit
of God, the only way we know where He's been is when there
is life given. When an unbeliever becomes a
believer, we know the Spirit of God was there. We know He
was there. Where is He going? I don't know.
Where has He been at before? I don't know. But He was here.
He was here because we have a person that did not believe, now believes. You see, this is the work of
the Spirit of God. It's not the work of man. For
God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, has
shined in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge
of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. How do you know
Jesus is your Savior? How do you know you were chosen
from eternity? I was called by the Spirit of
God. That's how I know. That's how
I know. Are you called by the Spirit
of God? Do you believe on the only begotten Son of God? Because
to believe on Him is to be called of the Spirit. It's to have a
life-changing experience. I'll tell you, I didn't have
this epiphany. Some people have a very distinct
time where the Spirit of God comes and, you know, they can
tell you a day which would, it's okay, wonderful. If you can,
that's great. The Lord just didn't do it that way with me. I couldn't
tell you a specific day. I know this. When God saved me,
either I changed or the world changed, but something changed.
Something changed. I did not love my sin. and the Savior that I didn't
love, I do love. I count all my righteousness
and all my works and all that religion that I had, I count
that bedung that I might be when Christ, that I might be found
in Him. Not having mine own righteousness which is of the law, but the
righteousness which is of God through Jesus Christ. Before God calls a sinner, He's
going to bring a sinner down. He's going to bring a sinner
down. And just when that sinner don't
think he can be broken anymore, He breaks him some more. You
remember that woman taking in adultery in the very act of adultery. The humiliation. The shame. And she was cast out in the middle
of the street in front of our Lord Jesus Christ, the God of
the universe, by wicked and self-righteous
men who themselves were guilty of sin. And I'll tell you, no man is
ever called who has somewhat to glory. You've got something
that you're glorying in, something that you're holding on to, something,
some pride that you have about your own righteousness. You've
not been called. You've not been called. To be
called is to know that you are a complete sinner. You're not a partial sinner.
A partial sinner is never called. A complete sinner is called.
Jesus said, I came not to call the righteous. You got righteousness?
I didn't come for you. I came to call those who are
sinners to repentance. Complete sinners need a complete
Savior. It's then when we're without
hope that Jesus Christ is seen to be all our hope. Look and live. Is that not simple? Every child
knows what it is to look. Look to Jesus Christ and live. Everyone who is called by the
Spirit to look. You're called by me to look,
forget it. You won't look. You won't care. But if the Spirit of God calls
you, you can't do anything else but look. I couldn't do anything
else. I can't do anything else. I look
to Christ and Christ alone for all my hope and salvation because
I've been called of the Spirit of God, it's irresistible. The
Spirit of God doesn't come to you and say, all right, well,
do you want me or not? No, the Spirit of God comes in
power and demonstration of His power. He gives life. That's
what it is to be called. Are you called? I am. I'm called. And I'm preserved in Christ,
and I'm chosen of the Father. And there's no pride in that.
There's no pride in me in that. God alone is my Savior, and God
alone has saved me. My pride is in God. My boast
is in Him. And my boast is in His message.
I glory in His message. I boast in His message. You who
believe, do you boast in this message? Is this common to you? Because if this is common to
you, then Jude has something to say. You who believe, this
is to you. This is an exhortation. He says, I gave diligence to
write unto you of that common salvation, yet he saw it was
needful that he write unto you and exhort you that you should
earnestly contend for the faith. Earnestly contend for the faith.
If you're not a believer in Jesus Christ, I don't need you to contend
for the faith and neither does God. One thing we don't need is one
more Calvinist that's lost out there contending for the faith.
We got a whole bunch of Calvinists that are lost contending for
the faith already. This is not a message to the
lost. This is a message to those who
believe. You, believer, have the responsibility to contend
for the faith. to contend for the faith. And
so Jude says that you should earnestly contend for the faith
that was once delivered. Why? Four, because there are
certain men crept in unawares who before of old were ordained
to condemnation, ungodly men, turning the grace of God into
lasciviousness and denying the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus. If we are partakers of this common
salvation, we should contend. What does the word contend mean?
We need to get out there and duke
it out with them, is that what he's saying? We need to just
go to blows with them? Sometimes you feel like that,
I know, you get frustrated. No, that's not what he's saying.
Contend means to struggle, but it is a spiritual struggle. Remember,
our enemies are not flesh and blood, but principalities and
powers and rulers of darkness. These are our enemies. And so
are contending for this gospel. And that's what it is, the faith,
the gospel of God's grace, this faith that we've been given.
We contend, we strive, and we struggle for this gospel. that was first delivered unto
us because of ungodly men. And these ungodly men, believer,
I'll tell you, they're not men who are overt sinners. Believers,
listen, they're not men that are out in, you know, they're
not out in the dancing party and all that stuff. Those aren't
the ones that you gotta look out for. You can see those guys
coming a mile away. And if it walks like a duck and
it talks like a duck, it's not a horse. Got it? So, you can
tell the unbelievers. You can tell the ones that are
away from... These men are crept in. These men secretly come in. These men are moral. They're moral men. They have
a good sounding speech. These guys are the ones that
sneak into the church. And these are the ones that we
should beware of. First of all, believer, let us
contend for this, that this gospel is settled. This gospel is settled. The gospel is not a progressive
revelation. Someone comes to you and has
an epiphany and says, I've got something new to tell you. I've
got something fresh. I've got something that's never
been before. Don't listen to them. Don't listen
to them. This gospel is sealed. The Apostle calls these men,
if you were to take a pen, I did this myself, but from verse 4
where it says certain men crept in unawares, if you'll go over
to verse 8, you see these men are called filthy dreamers. These
men are filthy dreamers. These guys have dreamed up their
own religion. Just like the Roman Catholic
Church, they're filthy dreamers. Everyone who is a member of that
church is a filthy dreamer. Don't you be fooled by their
outward morality. They're a filthy dreamer. Why?
They make the Gospel progressive. They modify, they add to by that
Antichrist they call the Pope. They add to and take away from
the Word of God and say the revelation is continuing. That is a lie. We don't believe that. I don't believe that because
Daniel says it wouldn't be that way. Daniel said that in 70 weeks
they were to seal up the vision and the prophecy. See this book? This book is sealed. How many
men have tried to insert books into this thing ever since it
was put together? How successful have they been?
This book is sealed of God. It's closed. The canon of Scripture
is closed. I don't care what they find in
the desert. This book is done. God's revelation is already finished. The work has been accomplished.
His apostles have come and His prophets have come, and that
is the foundation of the church, is the apostles and the prophets.
And after the apostles died, there was no more. There was
no more canons of Scripture to be written. The Apostle Paul says, for other
foundation can no man lay than that which was laid, Jesus Christ.
He's the foundation. And the apostles and the prophets
are the foundation of the church, and Jesus Christ is that chief
cornerstone on which they laid the foundation. So believers
contend for this. This gospel is not progressive.
There's not going to be anything new. Second of all, believers, we
should contend for the gospel by declaring that the gospel
is for the saints. This gospel, the apostle says,
was once delivered unto the saints. Now we know there's a general
call of this gospel that goes out to all men. We say to all
sinners, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. This is our commission.
Go you into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.
Now we preach this gospel to every creature. But who are the
promises given to? Are they given to every creature?
No. No. They're given only to the
elect of God. They're given only to the saints
of God. And you know what? Only the saints
of God hear it. Isn't that right? We preach it
to everywhere, but only the saints of God receive it. Today, false
men pervert the gospel and try to make it apply to everyone. They take the promises of God
that were given to the saints and they try to use them to apply
to others who do not believe. The Scriptures nowhere, nowhere
in the Scriptures does it teach that the blood of Christ was
shed for all men. without exception. Nowhere in
Scripture does it teach that. These men who believe in freewill
works religion are filthy dreamers. They're filthy dreamers, defiling
the flesh, despised dominion. They despise the dominion of
the Word of God when they preach such garbage. Believers let us contend for
the truth of the effectual atonement of Jesus Christ, the
powerful and successful atonement of Jesus Christ. We hold this
truth most dear to our hearts that Jesus Christ did not make
salvation possible, but He actually accomplished it. He finished
salvation. I declare to you a successful
Savior. Every time I've preached, Is
that not your witness, your testimony of me? Have I declared any such
Savior but a successful one? No, and I will not. Jesus Christ
did not make salvation possible for everyone. He actually saved
His people from their sins. The Scripture tells us in Isaiah
42, He shall not fail. I love that. This Word is not failing. This Word is never failing. God
says about His Word that He said, I will do it. Whatever I say, I'll do. I'll
do it. He said, My Word will go forth
out of my mouth and it will do exactly what I determined it
to do. And this morning, it is. It is doing exactly what God
determined it to do. In Isaiah 52 verse 13 it says,
Behold, my servant shall deal prudently. That word prudently
means successfully. Jesus Christ is a successful
Savior. Contend for that. Hold that fast that He is a successful
Savior. Don't be fooled by the fair speech
of ungodly men who turn the grace of God into wantonness by misunderstanding
such words as world. Anybody who contends with us
concerning the successful merits of Jesus Christ's blood, they'll
often go and they'll say, Well, God so loved the world. Or they'll
go to 1 John 2 and verse 2. It says, And he was a propitiation
not only for our sins, but for the sins of the whole world. See? That means everybody. No,
it doesn't. Because if you were to try to
use that definition anywhere else in Scripture, you'd be made
a fool. Luke chapter 2 and verse 1, it
says, And it came to pass in those days that there went out
a decree from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be
taxed. Now then, does that mean that
Caesar Augustus sent out a tax to all men without exception? Well, how in the world could
that be? That would be foolish to try to bring that definition
into the word world. In John chapter 1 verse 10, and
it says, He was in the world, and the world was made by Him,
and all men with that exception did not know Him. That's not
true because John the Baptist preached about Him. John the
Baptist knew Him. We knew that the priest that
waited for the Son of God on the 8th day when He went to be
circumcised, we knew that He knew Him. So, we know that that
doesn't mean the whole world. When Jesus Christ in His high
priestly prayer, He said, I pray not for the world. What is He
saying? Is He saying, I pray not for every man without exception?
Is that what He said? No, because He prayed for us
who He took out of the world. The world is always, in Scripture,
divided into two. The Jews divided the world into
Jews and Gentiles, but in the end, God says He'll divide the
sheep from the goats, the tares from the wheat, the lost from
the safe, those that the Father chose from eternity, and those
He did not. He will separate the world. There
are two parts of this world. So whom did God love? He loved
His sheep. He loved the wheat. He loved
those that the Father chose. That's the world He loved. That's
the world He died for. That's the world He saved. He
didn't save the goats. He didn't die for the goats or
the tares. God's mercy and grace is particularly
given to the elect. For Jacob have I loved, but Esau
have I hated. You and I, believers in Christ,
we should contend for this gospel. Why? Because false men have crept
into the church and tried to destroy this gospel. We should
hold it fast and stand against anyone who speaks against it. People will say, well that's
not fair. What you're saying is, is God's
unrighteous. Paul's asked that question. He
said, you'll say this to me, is there unrighteousness with
God? God forbid. There's not unrighteousness for
God to choose one and not another. God said, I will have mercy on
whom I'll have mercy, and I'll have compassion on whom I'll
have compassion. These ungodly men pervert the gospel to another
gospel, and they make Christ into another Christ. They deny
the Lord God and the Lord Jesus Christ. Salvation is purposed of God
by grace, and it always comes through faith. You believer,
you contend for this, that the gospel always comes through the
preaching of the gospel. This is the means that God has
chosen. Someone said, well, I was saved
without the preaching of the gospel. Not according to God
you weren't. God says by the foolishness of
preaching, God chose this means to save His people. Those who contend against this
contend against God. Why? Because faith is a grace. It's not a work. It's not a work. You don't believe because of
my great preaching, do you? No. You don't believe because
of the talents of a man. You believe because of the grace
of God that gave you this faith. Preaching is the means, but it's
not the power. in the powers of God. God gives
us faith to believe. For by grace you are saved through
faith, and that not of yourselves. Yet faith is a gift of works,
gift of grace, and not of works, lest any man should boast. This
was always God's means, that through faith salvation comes
to the sinner by the power of the Holy Spirit through the preaching
of the gospel and hearing, and faith cometh by hearing. And
here he, by the word of God. In Hebrews 12 it says, Jesus
is the author and finisher of our faith. Let us therefore contend
against all who would pervert it. Let's not be lax in our responsibility. Do you realize that in this city,
as great a city as it is, as big a city as it is, How many
preach this gospel of God's grace? I hope there are some. I don't
know of many, if there are. I don't know. So, when Jesus said you are the light
of the world, he's talking about you right now are the light of
the world. You, believer, are the salt of
this earth. In Louisville, Kentucky, you
are where the you are the the sons of god in this place and
it's your responsibility to contend for the faith in your place of work in your home do not let these men creeping be aware of them beware of them Jude says, Woe unto them who
have gone the way of Cain. What's the way of Cain? Was Cain
not one that tried to provide his own righteousness? Remember,
Abel brought the sacrifice, but Cain brought the works of his
hands. These men have gone the way of Cain. They're trying to
mix works and grace. And they've made the blood of
Christ to become an unholy thing. To mix works and grace is to
mean that the blood of Christ is not enough. We denounce such
foolishness. We denounce such religion and
can have no fellowship with them. We who profess to believe in
the common salvation know that salvation is by the grace of
God and do not mix works and grace. Those who mix works and grace
are saying that the blood of Christ is insufficient. They
deny the only Lord God. And he said, and Jude tells us,
he said, their lot is, in verse 5, 6, and 7, Jude says, their
lot is with those people who died in Egypt, unbelieving, and
their lot is with the angels who lost their first estate,
and their lot is with them who have, who like Sodom and Gomorrah,
perished in the vengeance of eternal fire. These men are not sin of God. How many of you, and myself included,
have tried to get some kind of good out of these men? Have you not listened to them
trying to find some nugget of goodness out of there? Have you? Stop. Don't do it. Don't do it. God says He will not bless them
at all. Go to Jeremiah. I want you to
see it. I want you to see it for yourself. Go to Jeremiah
and see what God says about false prophets, false teachers. Jeremiah chapter 23. Jeremiah
chapter 23 and verse 30. The scripture says, Therefore,
behold, I am against the prophets, saith the Lord, that steal my
words, every one of them, from his neighbor. Don't they steal
our words, grace, truth, righteousness, judgment, Jesus? They steal the
Word of God. Behold, I am against them that
prophesy false dreams, saith the Lord, and do tell them, and
cause my people to err by their lies and by their lightness. How many of them take lightly
these things that I'm saying? Do you take lightly these things
I'm saying? Then you're in with them. You're in with them if
you take these things lightly. He said, yet, I sent them not,
nor commanded them, therefore they shall not profit this people
at all." Think of the sheer number of
the false prophets in our generation and the size of their churches. Do you think they're being blessed?
Do you think men are being saved? God said, I will not profit them
at all. At all. They are of no consequence
to you, believer. Don't worry about them. Don't
worry about them. Don't try to steal from them
their tactics, because that's all it is, is tactics. They say,
well, I'm going to get more people in. If I just deny the gospel
here and shave off a little here, then I can bring more people
in. No, that's going after the way of Balaam. Remember, Balaam
was a prophet of reward. That's running greedily after
them. See, I hope and I pray by God's grace that that never
happens, that God would give me the grace to continue in this,
to contend for the gospel of God's grace no matter what it
costs me. And you should contend for the
gospel of God's grace no matter what it costs you. God won't profit them at all.
And I know men will murmur at this, and they'll say I'm unloving. How can you be so unloving, pastor,
concerning all those millions of people? Because I contend for the faith,
and I love the gospel more than I love men. I love God's people, and I don't
wish to see them hurt. If you read David in the Psalms,
you'll read him when he said, let their feet be a snare unto
them. Let them go down to hell. That's
what I say about all the false religion. Let them go down to
hell. But may God be praised. Let God be true. And every man
who is against God be a liar. Well, how do we contend for this
faith? Again, we're not sent to duke it out. We're not sent to debate. I'm
not here to debate this gospel with anybody, and I don't. I
don't debate anymore. Oh, please God, give me grace
not to debate anymore. I don't want to. We simply preach this gospel. That's how you contend for it.
Preaching. Preach the word. Be instant,
in season, out of season. In other words, when men like
it and when men don't, reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering
concerning what? This gospel of God's grace in
Christ. I contend for this gospel. I'll
preach this gospel. And not only are we to preach
this gospel, but we are to believe this gospel alone. That's how
believers live. The just shall live by faith. We don't go looking for a fight.
You don't have to. Pretty soon it'll come to you. And how do we handle it? By faith
and long suffering. Isn't that how our preacher came
to us? Isn't that how the gospel came to us? The man preached
the word, and you didn't believe it, you kicked at it, you murmured
at it, you complained at it, and what'd he do? He kept on
preaching, he kept on believing, and then, by the grace of God,
so did you. So a believer to contend for
this gospel is to keep on believing, keep on preaching this same gospel
that was once delivered to the saints. This is your gospel. This is my gospel. May God help us to contend for
it and not let men pervert it. And I don't care who that person
is, if it's our own mother, if it's our own children, you stand
fast in the gospel And you keep preaching by your
life. And if you have to buy your words. And God will bless it. His people will come. Because
He chose them, He redeemed them, and He will call them, and they
will contend for the faith. They will. May God bless this
word to our hearts. This stand will be dismissed
in prayer.