Go with me, if you would, back
to Jude. As I was reading and searching
for the message for tonight, sometimes I just flip, read and
flip and read and flip, and I ran across this small book titled
The General Epistle of Jude, and it caught my attention. There's
only one chapter in this book. Just one chapter. But he says
a lot in this one chapter. He says a lot. There is a lot
to learn from this one chapter. He covers everything. in this
one chapter. I pray the Lord might allow us
to go through the whole chapter slowly and really look at it
because he says a lot in this chapter and there's a lot to
learn. There's some good advice in here.
The glory of God is in here. The work of Christ is in here.
Everything is in here. So tonight, I just want to give
an intro to the book of Jude. That's what we're going to do
tonight. Just have an intro, a little background, and see a little bit about this book.
Let's read these first two verses again. 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 mercy
unto you, and peace and love be multiplied." I think that's
precious. Those two verses are just precious.
Now, who is Jude? That's where we're going to begin.
Who is this man, Jude? Well, verse one says, he is the
brother of James. All right. Jude is the brother
of James. Well, who is James? Turn with me over to Galatians
chapter one. And remember that as we read
this. Jude is the brother of James. Galatians 1, this is where Paul
is saying how much he thrived in false religion and he persecuted
the church of God and he wasted it. Verse 15 says, But when it
pleased God, who separated me from my mother's womb, and called
me by His grace, when it pleased that God to reveal His Son in
me, that I might preach Him among the heathen, immediately I conferred
not with flesh and blood, neither went I up to Jerusalem to them
which were apostles before me, but I went into Arabia." and
returned again unto Damascus. Then after three years I went
up to Jerusalem to see Peter and abode with him fifteen days. But other of the apostles saw
I none save James the Lord's brother." Alright? who is James, the Lord's brother. Our Lord, earthly speaking, and
I don't even know how to say this correctly, but earthly speaking,
fleshly speaking, the way that He purposed it to be when He
purposed all of this. Our Lord had brothers and sisters. Turn with me over to Matthew
12. Matthew 12 verse 46, While he yet talked to the people,
behold, his mother and his brethren, his earthly family, his according
to the flesh family, his mother and his brethren, stood without
desiring to speak with him. Then one said unto him, Behold,
thy mother and thy brethren stand without desiring to speak with
thee. But he answered and said unto
him that told him, Who is my mother and who are my brethren? And he stretched forth his hand
toward his disciples and said, Behold, my mother and my brethren,
for whosoever shall do the will of my father, which is in heaven,
the same is my brother and sister and mother." So, earthly speaking,
we know that he had a mother. Now, and I just want to preface,
God is God. This is the God. No beginning,
no end. God does not have a mother. But
the way our Lord determined it to be, He said He would be born
of a virgin, the woman's seed. And this was His purpose. And
we know that He had a mother, but He also had brothers and
sisters. Look at Matthew 13, the next
chapter, verse 53. And it came to pass that when
Jesus had finished these parables, He departed thence, and when
he was come into his own country, he taught them in the synagogue
insomuch that they were astonished and said, Whence hath this man
this wisdom and these mighty works? How does he know all this
and how is he doing all this? Verse 55 says, Is not this the
carpenter's son? is not his mother called Mary
and his brethren James and Josie and Simon and Judas, not Judas
Iscariot, Judas, which is also pronounced Judah. He was named
after Judah. And then for short, his nickname
is Jude. James, Josie, and Simon, and
Jude, verse 56, and his sisters? Are they not all with us? Don't
we see them on a regular basis? Whence then hath this man all
these things? So James and Jude where his brothers
and Simon, another brother who's named right there, it appears
three of his earthly brothers were called to be apostles. They
all started out though in denial of him even though they were
made to be He is kinsman after the flesh. They started out like
every other unbeliever on earth. There was no particular favor
showed to them. They were unbelievers. They all
started out just like you and I as unbelievers. Turn with me
over to John 7. John 7 verse 2 says, Now the
Jews' feast of tabernacles was at hand. His brethren, therefore,
said unto him, and if you have your center margin next to his
brethren, you see Matthew 12, 46, that's where we just were. His earthly brothers, therefore,
said unto him, Depart hence and go into Judea, that thy disciples
also may see the works that thou doest. For there's no man that
doeth anything in secret, and he himself seeketh to be known
openly. If thou do these things, show
thyself to the world. For neither did his brethren
believe in him. They did not believe in Him.
They said, if you're really doing this, go show everybody. If you're really doing this,
then go show everybody. They didn't believe in Him. But
according to His grace, according to our Lord's goodness and kindness,
In his time, Paul said when it pleased God, in his time, he
opened their eyes. And don't you wish you could
do that for your family? Don't you wish you could do that for
your siblings? He could and he did. He's just a kind, kind God. And he opened their eyes and
he called them just like he called us. Same way. Turn with me over
to Luke 6. Luke 6 verse 13 says, And when
it was day, he called unto him his disciples, and of them he
chose twelve, whom also he named apostles, Simon, whom he also
named Peter, and Andrew his brother, James and John, they were the
two sons of Zebedee, Philip and Bartholomew, which is also known
as Nathanael, Matthew, who is also called Levi, and Thomas,
James, the son of Alphaeus, and Simon called Zelotes, and Judas,
the brother of James, and Judas Iscariot, which also was the
traitor. Now, I'm going to point this
out just to clarify it, and then after we do, we're going to move
on from the history lesson. James, Simon, and Jude, we've
seen that they are brothers. They were brothers. Here it says
they were the sons of this man Alphaeus. In verse 15, the son
of Alphaeus and his brothers. Another name for that man Alphaeus
is Cleophas. Same person, two different pronunciations. Alphaeus or Cleophas. Go with me to John 19. John 19 verse 25 says, Now there stood by the cross
of Jesus his mother, her name was Mary, and his mother's sister,
which many translate to mean sister-in-law. Mary, another
Mary, the wife of Cleophas. or Alphaeus, same person, same
name, and Mary Magdalene. That would mean that James and
Simon and Jude were our Lord's cousins. Either way, it doesn't
matter. Some verses say, and I read every
commentator that I could get my fingers on, and they all say,
we don't know. It does not matter. It's irrelevant. Totally irrelevant. Whatever
the relation was, it was close enough to be constantly referred
to as brethren. Very, very close. We're not going
to try to read into it any more than our Lord has given us on
it, but here's what we need to take from it. The relationship
was extremely close. It was a very, very close, brotherly
relationship. All right, now go with me back
to Jude. All right, now with all that
being said, three names are mentioned right here. Three
names are named, earthly speaking from the same family, close enough
to be referred to by the holy word of God as earthly brothers. Two of these brothers know the
truth of the matter. I just adore this. This endears
me to these men so much. They know the truth of the matter.
They know who they are. They know who He is. And they
declare the truth as it is. Jude said in verse 1, I am the
servant of Jesus Christ. And I am the brother of James. That's who I am. I'm the servant
of Jesus Christ and I'm the brother of James. James said the exact
same thing. You can turn or I'll read it
to you just a few pages back. James 1 verse 1 says, James,
a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ. I'm the servant
of the Lord Jesus Christ. But isn't that your brother,
James? No, no, he's not my brother. He's my God. He's my God. All right. So that's who Jude
was the servant of Jesus Christ, the brother of James. And, uh,
this is who he's writing to back in Jude verse one, Jude, the
servant of Jesus Christ and brother of James. And he said, I'm writing
to them that are sanctified by God the Father and preserved
in Christ Jesus and called. That's who this is to. That's
who the gospel is to. Every soul that has been sanctified,
preserved, and called. That's who the gospel is to.
We make this declaration, we just stand up and declare the
truth and God through the declaration sanctifies, preserves, and calls. It's who it's to. It's the work
of the Father, Son, and Spirit. Now what does it mean to be sanctified? What does it mean if that's who
he's writing to? That's who the gospel is to.
And if that's what we are, what does it mean to be sanctified?
A lot of people, they, they, um, when they think of a center
being sanctified, they wrongly focus on the center. That's where
people go wrong. That's where people go wrong.
That's where they miss sanctification. and they come up with progressive
sanctification because they're focused on the center. Isn't
that right? When you stop focusing on the
center, there's no need to progress in sanctification. If you get
the focus right, it's done. All right? So, men and women
very wrongly turn their eyes to the center And the reason
they do that is because the end result of sanctification is the
sinner is made to be pure. And he is made to be spotless. He is made to be clean. But the
sinner can't take any credit for it. Not in the beginning,
not in the end. And the sinner doesn't get any
glory for it. The sinner did not sanctify himself. Jude said,
I'm writing to them that are sanctified by God the Father. That's who I'm writing to. It's
a work that's done by God, for God, and this is what it is.
It's being set apart for God's use. Set apart for God's will. Set apart for God's purpose.
Set apart for God's good pleasure. That's what it is. Now I've given
the illustration to you before of the potato. We sanctify all the time. You go buy a sack of potatoes.
It's just a sack of potatoes. That's all it is. Every potato
in there is the same thing. They're dirty. There's nothing
special about any of them. They're just potatoes. All the
same. You reach in. How does that potato get on your
plate? It doesn't start with a potato. Right? Somebody planted the potato.
Somebody watered the potato. Somebody picked the potato. You
reach in and you lay hold of a potato. You choose whichever
one you want to choose. And then you go wash it. And
you peel it. And you dig all the spots out
of it. And you don't put it back in
the bag. You do not do that for the purpose
of just putting the potato back in the bag. You set it apart
for your own use. That potato has now been sanctified. It gets no glory for the sanctification. It takes no credit in the sanctification. It is not more special than it
was before. It's still just as much a potato
as it always was. But it has been washed. It has
been cleaned. It has had all of its spots removed
and it is set aside by the work of the Master for His own use. Alright, that's what sanctification
is. Jude said, that's who I'm writing
to. Those who God has done that for. He reached down His hand for
me. Pulled me out of the sack. I
was no different than any of them. And He washed me, and He
cleansed me, and He got all the spots off of me, and He set me
apart. He chose me and sanctified me. That's who the gospel is to.
That's who the good news is to. Verse 1 says, Jude, the servant
of Jesus Christ and brother of James, to them that are sanctified
by God the Father, and preserved in Jesus Christ. What does it
mean to be preserved? We're going to keep going with
the food illustrations. You get a whole bunch of strawberries.
You get a whole bunch of peaches. You get a bunch of blackberries.
Whatever you want. And you purpose in your heart
to keep them so they don't perish. Isn't that right? You purpose in your heart to
preserve them. What must you have in order for
that fruit to be preserved? What is the vital component in
order for that fruit to be preserved? You have to have a jar. Isn't that right? You have to
have a jar. If the fruit is going to be preserved,
it must be sealed in a jar. It must be. The preservation
of that fruit is completely dependent on the jar. It's all about the
jar. All about the jar. It has nothing
to do with the fruit. everything to do with the jar.
The fruit can't take any credit for it. As soon as you take the
fruit out of the jar, it's no longer preserved. The only way that fruit can be
preserved is if it's in the jar. It has to be in the jar. It can't be by the jar. It must
be in the jar. It must be sealed in the jar. Same thing applies to a center
being eternally preserved. If a sinner is going to be preserved,
he must be in Christ. He must be sealed in Christ and
kept by Christ. We don't keep ourselves. He keeps us. He preserves us. We are preserved in Jesus Christ. He said over in John 17, while
I was with them in the world, I kept them. I preserved them. I kept them in thy name. Those
that thou gavest me I have kept and none of them is lost. I've
preserved every single one of them. The glory goes to Him. Every bit of it. The credit goes
to Him. Peter said we are kept by the power of God. Preserved
by the power of God through faith, unto salvation, ready to be revealed
in that last time. Just like when you spread the
feast and you invite all of your loved ones and you set it out
and finally, there it is, preserved, ready to be revealed in the last
time. So Jude said, I'm writing to them that are sanctified by
God the Father, preserved in Jesus Christ, and called. Who does the calling? God's Holy
Spirit. God's Spirit. Jude said, I'm
writing to them who have received the work of God the Father in
choosing, God the Son in preserving, and God the Spirit in calling.
What has God the Spirit called us to? I flipped through and
found some of these places and this is just glorious. Don't turn to any of these. Romans
1 verse 7 says, we're called to be saints. We're called to be something
we cannot be on our own. We're called to be a saint of
God. Romans 9 says, we're called to be children of the living
God. That's an amazing calling. Joint
heirs with Christ. Children of the living God. 1
Corinthians 1 says we're called unto the fellowship of His Son,
Jesus Christ our Lord. We have been called into that
fellowship. The fellowship of His suffering, His death, His
resurrection. Galatians 5 says we have been
called unto liberty. We're called unto freedom. We
are called into absolute freedom. Ephesians 4 says we are called
unto one hope. We are called to believe on the
Lord Jesus Christ. One hope. We are called to put
it all in one basket. Every egg, one basket. Colossians 3 says we are called
into one body. 1 Thessalonians 2 says we are called
unto his kingdom and glory. That is something to be called
to. 1 Thessalonians 4 says we are
called unto holiness. We are called unto holiness.
That we should be holy and without blame before Him in love. 1 Peter
2 says we are called out of darkness into His glorious light. And
we have been. The darkness of this world, the darkness of religion,
the Lord has called us out of that darkness and into His glorious
light. Thank God for the light. It is
amazing. It's wonderful. Jude said, this is who I am.
I'm the servant of Jesus Christ and I'm the brother of James.
He said, this is who I'm writing to. I'm writing to every soul
that God the Father sanctified, God the Son has preserved, and
God the Spirit has called. And he said, this is what I have
to say to you. This is my desire for you. Verse 2, he said, mercy
unto you and peace and love be multiplied. Where is mercy found? Where is mercy found? Mercy is
not getting what we deserve, not getting the punishment that
we deserve. Where is mercy found? In the blood of Jesus Christ. An old preacher named Ed Hale,
he was just a dear, dear man, he wrote a song called, A Ransom
Was Found. Yes, a ransom was found. Love paid the price on Calvary's
mound. Judgment was met. The law satisfied. And mercy was born when a ransom
was found. Mercy was born at that very moment
when somebody was found who could take my sin and my punishment
away at that exact moment in time. Mercy was born. Well, what about peace? Where
is peace found? The peace of God is found in
the blood of Jesus Christ, the Prince of Peace. What about love? Where is the love of God found?
In the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. It's all in the blood
of Christ. Greater love hath no man than
this, that a man lay down his life for his friend. He said, I pray that that blood
be on you. That's what he's saying right
here. I pray mercy unto you. If we're going to have mercy,
it's going to be found in the blood of Jesus Christ. I pray
that that propitiation here in His love, not that we love God,
but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation
for our sins. That blood atonement that appeases
God. He said, I pray that blood is
all over you. That's what I pray. I pray that
blood is poured all over you head to toe, not one spot left
uncovered. And he said, I pray that it's
not just added to you. The last word in verse two is
he said, I pray it'd be multiplied. He said, I don't pray that it's
just this plus this plus this. He said, I pray it's this times
this times this. Boom, boom, boom. Multiplied. Multiplied. Mercy, peace, and
love be multiplied. What a blessing. I want to sing
at Calvary. And the reason I want to sing
at Calvary is because it says, mercy there was great, grace
was free, pardon there was multiplied to me. Just multiplied, abundantly
pardoned. Let's all stand together. It's
477.