Alright, go with me back to Jude
chapter 1. Last Wednesday night we looked
at the first two verses and Jude said in those first two verses,
I'm writing this letter to a very particular group of people. Very
particular group of people. Verse 1, he said, Jude, the servant
of Jesus Christ and brother of James, to them that are sanctified
by God the Father, I'm writing to every person that God the
Father has chosen. Every person that God the Father
selected to set apart. Aren't you so glad you believe
God's election? Aren't you so glad? All right,
I just made that statement. That didn't ruffle anybody's
feathers. Nobody just stormed out. Aren't you so glad you believe
God's election? You know how impossible that
is? without the mighty hand and work of God on this heart? God elected a people, whether
men and women believe it or not, that's irrelevant. That's completely
irrelevant. But believing it is the evidence
that God elected you. Aren't you so glad? Aren't you
so glad? Aren't you so thankful, relieved?
I believe God's election. I believe election. So glad. So thankful. Well, Jude said,
I'm writing to them that are sanctified by God the Father
and preserved in Jesus Christ. I'm writing to those who have
been kept by the power of God through being covered in the
blood of the Lamb. That's who I'm writing to. Aren't you so glad you see the
blood of the Lamb to be your only hope? Aren't you so thankful for that? Aren't you so glad you're not
looking to your own morality anymore? We all did at one point. Aren't you so, so glad you're
not trying to get this right so God will be happy with you?
Aren't you so glad you're not doing that anymore? Isn't it so relieving to know,
and I mean this, I wanted to just talk to us tonight. Isn't
it so relieving to know that the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ
has covered it all? All that stuff we did way back
when. All that stuff we do. Everything
we will do. Like the Apostle Paul said, I
wish I didn't. Aren't you so glad to know the
blood of Christ has covered it all? It's all covered. In the heart, honestly, believing
in the heart. that His blood alone is our only
hope for salvation. That is our evidence that He
shed His blood for us. Believing in that blood alone.
That's the evidence. Jude said, I'm writing to them
that are sanctified by God the Father and preserved in Jesus
Christ and called. Aren't you so glad you've been
called? Here we are. Being called is being quickened
to these things. And you hath he quickened. Being
called is receiving eyes to see this holy and sovereign God. You know, you try to tell people
who God really is and they cannot see it. They haven't been called. Being called is receiving ears
to hear his voice. Being called is receiving a heart
to believe his word, truly believe his word, that's being called.
Being called is fear to bow down before him. A knee to bend. A foot to follow. A tongue to praise. We are called
into a sheepfold. There's one sheepfold. And God
calls his people into it. We're called to know who our
shepherd and our owner is. We know who our owner is. He said, other sheep I have and
I'm going to bring them into this fold and they're not going
to follow any other shepherd who tries to call them and get
them to follow him. You're only going to be tuned
to this one voice. Aren't you so glad? Aren't you so glad He
said to you, come? You think about the shepherd
going into that sheepfold. The porter opens the door only
to the shepherd. All those sheep are in that sheepfold
from different shepherds. The shepherd comes in and he
gives his call and his sheep come. And the Lord called us. Come. Jude says, that's who I'm writing
to. I'm writing to those that have
been sanctified and those who have been preserved and those
who have been called. And this is what I have to say
to you. Verse two, he said, mercy unto you. Mercy does not mean
anything to a person until that person realizes he needs mercy. It doesn't mean anything. You
can say mercy has been extended unto you and that does not mean
anything to a sinner until that sinner realizes I need mercy. Aren't you so glad you realize
you need mercy? Aren't you so glad you see your
sin? Getting a good glimpse at our
sin is an awful thing. It's a horrible, terrible, tragic
thing. Aren't you so glad you've had
a good look at your sin? Aren't you so glad that you see
the one and only salvation that there is? In verse 3, he called
it down towards the middle of verse three, the common salvation. That's our subject. That's the title of this, this
message, the common salvation. But aren't you so glad you see
your need of it? The reason is because crying
out for mercy is the evidence that you've already received
mercy. That's the evidence. He said, ask and you shall receive. You ever find yourself crying
out to God for mercy? He said, ask and you'll receive.
How do we know we will receive? It's because if we ask, we have
already received. He's caused us to realize we
were dead and you have he quickened. Dead man can't ask. If I'm asking
and begging, it means he must have given me that ability to
do so. If we ask, it means we already have been quickened from
death unto life. And it means we were chosen,
and it means we were preserved in Christ. And I am so glad I
really am so glad that I have a heart and you have a heart.
Every time I see another sinner who has a heart to cry out and
beg God for mercy, I'm so thankful for that. He said, mercy unto
you. Verse two, he said, and peace. What does it mean to you to know
that you have peace with the almighty God? What does it mean to you to know
that every time someone dies? It brings a shocking realization. Of the God with whom we have
to do. And aren't you so relieved? To know that you have peace with
the almighty God. Trouble all around here on this
earth. That's all this earth is. Absolute
trouble, but absolute, eternal, perfect peace with the almighty
God of heaven and earth. Total, total peace. What does that mean to us? How
much rest does knowing that bring to us in the blood of the Lord
Jesus Christ? If we were chosen and preserved
in him, in that blood, That's the one thing we do not have
to fear. As long as we're covered in the
blood of our Lord, we will never be at odds with the almighty
God of heaven and earth. That's wonderful. As long as
we're covered in that blood, perfect peace. Verse 2, He said,
mercy unto you and peace and love be multiplied. As long as we're in this world,
our lives are going to be filled with and surrounded by hate. It's sad. It's going to be filled
with jealousy. It's going to be filled with
pride. It's going to be filled with selfishness. But how much
do you love knowing that as soon as our Lord calls us into our
eternal home on that eternal earth, we love this earth, don't
we? This earth is full of sin. Can
you imagine how much we're going to love the new kingdom he has
prepared for us? and eternal people. How much do you love knowing
that when he calls us into that, it's going to be from that moment
on nothing but love, joy, selflessness, respect, kindness, every word
spoken. There's going to be a lot of
communion and a lot of conversation taking place. And every word
spoken will be a sweet word. Every word. It'll be spoken in
a sweet way. It'll have a sweet motive behind
it. Every single word. And our God
will never again allow sin to creep in and ruin it. Never again. Don't you love that? Verse 2,
Jude said, Mercy unto you and peace and love be multiplied. Now, verse 3, he says, 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 unto the saints. This salvation that we just described,
Jude calls it the common salvation. He said, this is the common salvation. And I want us to see what he
means by that. I believe this will be a blessing, the common
salvation. He just said, we just reiterated
the fact that it is to a particular people, right? It's to a particular
people. He didn't say it was common to
the whole world. It's common to a particular people. Well, what makes it common? What
makes it common? Why would he call it the common
salvation? He said in the middle of verse
three, it was needful for me to write unto you and exhort
you that you should earnestly contend for the faith which was
once delivered unto the saints. He didn't say a faith. He didn't say this faith, he
said the faith, the one and only faith there is. Look back with
me at Titus chapter one, a few books back. Titus chapter one. Titus 1 verse 4, this is the
Apostle Paul writing to Titus and he says, To Titus, mine own
son, after the common faith. Jude called the salvation of
Christ the common salvation. The Apostle Paul called the faith
of Christ the common faith. Neither one of them is saying
that salvation and faith are ordinary. Neither one of them. They're not saying that the salvation
and the faith of Christ are regular or typical or general or universal. Both of them are saying there's
only one. There is only one. For everyone
it applies to, there is only one. Look with me at Ephesians
4. Ephesians 4 verse 1, I therefore
the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that you walk worthy of the
vocation wherewith you are called, with all lowliness and meekness,
with long-suffering, forbearing one another in love, endeavoring
to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace." I adore
these verses right here. And I want to do this, and I
want to encourage us to do this. Let's endeavor. Let's set our
minds, set our hearts, let's go to work to keep the unity
of the spirit in this bond of peace that we've been given.
Let's endeavor. Let's endeavor. Verse four, he
said, there is one body and one spirit, even as you are called
in one hope of your calling. What he's saying is there's one
common body. God's church is God's church,
it's not this church and then up in Pikeville is that church
and then over in Crossville is that church. There's one church,
there's one body, there's one common spirit. One common hope
among all of God's people. Every single child of God has
the exact same hope. There's one. Verse 5, he said,
there is one Lord. Now on this earth right now,
everybody wants to be their own little g God. Everybody's running
around here trying to be number one. In glory. Every soul on that planet will
know there's one Lord. Every soul there will in total
agreement say it's not us. There's one Lord. He said in
verse five, there is one faith. This common faith, the apostle
Paul. Mentioned one. One faith. Only one thing for God's people
to believe. And it's not a thing, it's a
who. This one faith is in this one Lord. Verse five, he said,
there is one baptism. There's only one immersion that
will cleanse every spot and stain from a center. One. It's the baptism of the blood
of Christ. Immersion into the blood of Christ
is the only one. Verse six says, there's one God
and father of all who is above all and through all and in you
all this one gospel, this one calling is common to every single
person that God almighty has adopted into his family. So that's
the first reason he called it the common salvation is because
there's only one. Among all of God's people, it's
common to every single one of them. There's only one, only
one of them. The next reason he called it
the common salvation is because of who it is specifically to. who this salvation is to. This
is the common salvation. Who specifically God the Father
sanctified? Who specifically the Lord Jesus
Christ preserved? Who specifically God the Holy
Spirit called? Go with me over to Mark 12. And here in this chapter, it
begins with our Lord preaching parables. That's what verse 1
says. He began to speak unto them by
parables. He started preaching to them
and the rulers of religion didn't like it. They did not like what
they were hearing. Verse 12 says, And they sought
to lay hold on him. but feared the people for they
knew that he had spoken the parable against them." They knew he was
pointing straight at them. They knew he was exposing them
for what they were. And they left him and they went
on their way. And they didn't like what they were hearing at
all. They hated it. And verse 13 says, they sent unto him certain
of the Pharisees and of the Herodians to catch him in his words. All of them hated what he was
saying and they decided they were going to come and catch
him up, trip him up, catch him in his words and try to find
some error in him. That didn't work. So verse 18
says, then come unto him the Sadducees, which say there's
no resurrection. They tried to trip him up with
their questions, but that didn't work. So verse 28 says, and one
of the scribes came and he had his questions and all of them,
everybody we just mentioned, they all questioned him. They
tried to discredit him and ultimately none of them believed him. None
of them. But look at the end of verse
37. It says the common people heard
him gladly. All of these Herodians and Pharisees
and Sadducees and scribes and they hated it. They tried to
refute it, but all the common people, they heard him gladly. Who are the common people? That's
me. That's you. Why did Jude call
it the common salvation? It's because this salvation is
for the common people. That's good news. That's who
God has chosen to give this to. That's amazing. Look with me
at first Corinthians chapter one. 1 Corinthians 1 verse 18 says,
For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness. Men and women are intrigued by
it for just a minute. They don't hear it in the average
church and they're intrigued by it for just a minute. And they see a little truth in
it. The natural eye has to. And they're excited about it
and they come to hear it. But then they come to hear there's
only one message and it's about this one person. There's only
one salvation over and over and over again. And they start to
think, do you mean to tell me you're going to preach the exact
same message four or five times a week for 50 years? Same outline,
same subject. And do you mean to tell me that
you all are going to show up every single time it's preached
to hear the same message again? That's absolute foolishness.
Haven't you learned this yet? What is the matter with you people?
Verse 18 says, For the preaching of the cross is to them that
perish foolishness, but unto us which are saved. This right here is the power
of God. For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise
and will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent.
Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is
the disputer of this world? Hath not God made foolish the
wisdom of this world? For after that, in the wisdom
of God, the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the
foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. For the Jews
require a sign, and the Greeks seek after wisdom. But we preach
Christ crucified. Unto the Jews, that's a stumbling
block. Unto the Greeks is foolishness.
But unto them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ
the power of God, and the wisdom of God. Because the foolishness
of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger
than men. 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 hath chosen the foolish
things of the world to confound the wise, and God hath chosen
the weak things of the world to confound the things which
are mighty, and base things of the world, and things which are
despised hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to
bring to naught things that are, that no flesh should glory in
his presence. But of him are you in Christ
Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom and righteousness and
sanctification and redemption, that according as it is written,
he that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord. We not wise. We not mighty. We not noble. We who are just
common. That's all we are is common.
That's all we're ever going to be is common. That's who this
salvation is to. Those who know they're common.
Nothing. What are you? Nothing at all.
Nothing. That's who this is to. This common
salvation, this gospel of good news. Of the one and only salvation,
it's for the common unworthy people and every commoner who
receives this one great salvation, glories in the Lord. Every single
one, all of them say, how can it be? All of them say that.
Look at me. I'm nothing. How can it be? that
God should love a soul like me. So Jude called it the common
salvation because there's only one. He called it the common
salvation because God has chosen to give it to the common people.
He's chosen to hide these things from the wise and prudent and
reveal them unto babes. The third reason, this is the
last reason, he called it the common salvation, is because
of what this salvation provides to everyone who receives it. What this salvation provides
to everyone who receives it. Look with me at Acts chapter
2. Acts chapter 2, Peter, he preached
the gospel on the day of Pentecost. Verse 36 says, therefore, let
all the house of Israel know assuredly that God hath made
that same Jesus whom you have crucified, both Lord and Christ. Now when they heard this, they
were pricked in their heart, and they said unto Peter and
to the rest of the apostles, men and brethren, what shall
we do? Then Peter said unto them, repent and be baptized every
one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins,
and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. For the promise
is unto you and to your children and to all that are far off,
even as many as the Lord our God shall call. And with many
other words did he testify and exhort, saying, Save yourselves
from this untold generation. Then they that gladly received
his word were baptized, and the same day there were added unto
them about three thousand souls." What a congregation increase. And they continued steadfastly
in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship and in breaking of
bread and in prayers and fear came upon every soul and many
wonders and signs were done by the apostles and all that believed
were together and had all things common. All things common. This common salvation. This is the common salvation
because every soul who is an inheritor of it, receives the
same thing. The exact same thing. They all
get Christ. If they have Christ, they have
all things. In this salvation, and I love
the thought of this, In this salvation, everybody gets all
of it. Salvation in Christ is not divided
out among the inheritors. Everybody gets all of it. How can it be? Everybody gets
all of it. Don't Turn but Romans 8.32 says,
He spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all.
How shall He not with Him also freely give us all things? Every common person who is included
in this common salvation will receive all things common. There are no degrees of salvation.
There are no degrees of inheritance. Everybody included gets all of
it. All right, now I want to close
with this wonderful, wonderful word from our Lord. OK, this
is just wonderful. Go with me over to Acts 10. The Lord sent Peter a vision,
and he sent him this vision to show him who the Lord purposed
to save. And in this vision, he sent down
a sheet with all manner of animals in it, four-footed beasts, and
they were the animals that by law, Peter was not allowed to
eat. He was a Jew, and by law, he wasn't allowed to eat these
particular animals. Acts chapter 10 verse 13, And
there came a voice to him, Rise, Peter, kill, and eat. But Peter said, Not so, Lord,
for I have never eaten anything that is common or unclean. And the voice spake unto him
again the second time. What God has cleansed, that call
not thou common. Don't you call it common. I've cleansed them. I have washed
them. And because of what I've done
now for all eternity, they're never going to be called common
ever again. Never again. What are they going
to be called? Princes with God. My sons and my daughters. Can't you see the angel seeing
a redeemed sinner in glory saying that's God's son? Who is that? That's God's child. Kings and
priests. Isn't that what he said? The
Lamb's Wife. You're welcome to call them the
Lamb's Wife. But don't you ever again call
them common. In the earth, yes, common. In
Christ, never again. Never again. They have received
the common salvation. What a salvation. What a salvation. May it be on us. Let's all stand
together. And turn with me to 442.