You know, the early church was a church that had a lot of
trouble. Had a lot of trouble. And we'll
see this as we go through the book of Jude. There's a lot of
men that crept into the church. A lot of false teaching. A lot
of false teachers crept into the church. And this is basically
what Jude's epistle is about. It's a warning against these
men who have crept in. You know, the Scripture is full
of warnings and promises. Someone said, warnings lest we
presume, promises lest we despair. We have both. And here, Jude
writes this epistle to those who have been sanctified by God
the Father, And I love this, preserved. Preserved. That's a precious statement. Preserved in Jesus Christ. And
called. That's what it says in verse
1. Jude the servant, he doesn't call himself an apostle, though
he is. But he calls himself here a bondslave. That's what that word means.
He's a bondslave. Proud or glad to be. a bond-slave
of Jesus Christ. Paul called himself a bond-slave
of the Lord Jesus Christ. And he calls himself brother
of James. And I think he does this to identify himself as not
being that Judas Iscariot. Can you imagine having... You
know, when you have the same name, here's Judas. That's his
name, Judas. And then you got Judas Iscariot.
And then he has to think, and he has to be so grateful. That could have been him that
betrayed the Lord. That could have been him. But it wasn't. It wasn't. He calls himself the brother
of James, and to them that are sanctified by God the Father,
reserved in Jesus Christ, and called chosen of God, We should never get over that
truth that God chose us in Christ. Why do I believe the Gospel?
Why do I love Christ? Why am I here this morning with
an interest in Christ? When it started in this, God
chose me. God chose me. He didn't leave
me alone. He did not pass me by. He chose
me. Chosen of God and preserved and
is kept safe. Kept safe in Jesus Christ. Called
by the Spirit of God in time. I don't know that there can be
a more powerful statement than what He's making here. Chosen,
sanctified, and called. How secure? How secure are God's
elect? God chose me, put me in Christ,
preserved me in Christ, and called me by His grace. How secure are
we? Redeemed by the blood of Christ?
Covered in the righteousness of Christ? How secure are we? Cannot be no more secure than
we are as we are in Christ. And then He says, "...and mercy
unto you, and peace and love be multiplied You know, if there's
anything we could truly desire, that we would pray for one another,
that we would go to the throne of grace and we would ask God
for each other, it would be this. It would be this first. Pray,
and I say this now, pray for me. I'll pray for you. That mercy,
I find myself All the time, just asking God
to show mercy. Just show mercy. I don't deserve
what I'm asking for. And the people I'm asking it
for, they don't deserve it either. That's why I'm asking for mercy.
Mercy. And peace. Peace with God. Peace in the heart. What's that
worth? What is peace? A real quiet conscience before
God. And He says, be multiplied. That's
what I ask you to pray for me. That's what I pray for you. That mercy, peace, and love would
be multiplied over and over and heaped upon heaped. It's heaped up. If you have tasted
of the mercy of God, you want others to taste of it also. If
you've tasted of it, you want others to taste of it. Now, verse
3, He calls them beloved. Beloved. They were beloved of
God. This is the greatest blessing
of all. To be loved of God. Our salvation
began in God loving us with an everlasting love. God's love
is holy. God's love is unchanging. And
therefore, we'll not have to worry, not have to worry about
God's love diminishing. There'll never be anything that
I will do that will diminish God's love to me in Christ. There
will be nothing that can happen that will diminish God's love
for me in Christ. Turn over to Romans chapter 28.
Romans 28. Let me repeat that. I wrote down... I don't have 28 chapters there. Romans chapter 8. Romans chapter 8. I hope none of you was looking
for chapter 28. Look in verse 35. Who shall separate us from the
love of Christ? Shall tribulation, will trial
separate us from Christ? No matter how severe the trial
God sends to His children, it will not separate them from Christ.
In fact, it'll draw them to Christ. Or distress, or persecution,
or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword, where troubles do...
No trouble, that's what he said, no trouble that comes our way
will separate us from Christ. As it is written, for thy sake
we are killed all the day long. We are countless sheep for the
slaughter, nay, in all these things. We are more than conquerors
through him that loved us. They don't harm us, they help
us. They mature us, make us grow
up. They conform us to the image of the Lord Jesus Christ. And
he says here, For I am persuaded that neither death, nor life,
nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present,
nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature
shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is
in Christ Jesus our Lord. Beloved, Loved of God. Loved of God. Nothing will ever
separate God's love for you. Nothing can separate that. And
he says, I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common
salvation. When we preach, it's our duty
to give all diligence in the study, You know, I thank God
that I am able to be in that study every day. And I'm in the
study every day. All day. And I thank God for
that. It's so important that I am in
the Word of God. As Paul told Timothy, he said
this to Timothy, in 2 Timothy 2.15, Study to show thyself approved
unto God. a workman that needeth not be
ashamed, rightly defining the word of truth. It's a labor, but it's a labor
of love. The young man that I was training
to be a machinist before I came here, he had contacted me last
week, asked me some questions, but he said, how do you enjoy
your retirement? That's exactly how many of them
look at it. I've been asked that twice since
I've been here. How do you enjoy your retirement?
It's not a retirement. It's a calling. It's a labor
of love. And God has enabled this congregation
to enable me to sit in that study and study the word of God. and
stand here and rightly divide the Word of God. Do you know
that there's nothing that you'll do in your lifetime that's more
serious and more important than what's going on right now? Right
now. And it's so serious that I stand
here and I give you the unadulterated Word of God. Unmixed. Not my opinion, but the Word
of God. And I thank God that I'm able
to be in that study, and to give myself to that, to give myself
to prayer. And you give yourself to prayer
for me. If you really want to hear from God, pray earnestly,
energetically. that God would impress on my
heart the message to bring every week. Every week. So we are to
give, when we preach, it's our duty to give our all diligence
in the study, in prayer, and in meditation. That's what I
think upon. David said, I meditate in the
night, I meditate upon thee. Now even though Jew was an apostle
and he received the gospel directly from the Lord Jesus Christ, yet
he says he gave all diligence, effort, effort. He gave great care in writing
this epistle to God's elect. You don't know sometimes when
I do a message, my trash can half the time is filled with
a message I throw away. I write it down, write it down,
and the more I study, I just toss it, and I thought, I got
to start all over on this. I see something else. Then I get some
direction on which way to go with it. And that's why he's
saying here he gave all diligence, he gave all care in writing this
epistle to God's elect, and that's to us, too, this morning, writing
it to us. And notice what he gave great
care to write to them about. And this will be my ministry
here for however long God has me here. It's about the common
salvation. It's not trying to find something
new each week. Not trying to stand up here and
try to motivate you. It's about the common salvation.
Jude took great care not to complicate the gospel. Not to complicate
the message. We are to preach the gospel.
We are to preach the simplicity of the Lord Jesus Christ, and
we are to keep it simple. Keep it simple. He gave great care to be clear
in His message. When I stand here and preach,
whether it be in the Bible class or the service coming up at 11
o'clock, I want everyone here, even from the youngest, to leave
knowing what I said. Not having to go out and say,
what did he say? What was he talking about? What
did he mean? I want to be very clear what
I'm saying. I want the message to be very
clear. And we who preach must strive
for clarity in our preaching, not cleverness. I don't need
to be clever. I need to be clear. And the reason he calls it common
salvation is because it's the same salvation. And this is what
was going on. These men, these false teachers,
as Jude says, crept in unaware. It happened in Galatia. Paul
said, I marvel that you're so soon removed from Him, that you're
so soon removed from the gospel, which is not another gospel,
to another gospel, which is not another gospel. He said, I marvel,
I'm just stunned. You think that can happen here?
You'd be surprised if God let it, you'd be surprised if God
draws his hand back a little bit how fast things can happen. I've seen some things over the
last few years that I never thought I'd see. Marvel, marvel that you're socially
removed from it. This is why it's so important.
that I preach constantly, their common salvation. The same gospel
that's preached to all God's elect, no matter where they live.
It never changes. We have one Lord, that's not
gonna change, is it? His character doesn't change.
His person doesn't change. We have one Lord, we have one
faith. And that doesn't change because
He doesn't change. I am the Lord, I change not.
That's why you sons of Jacob, He said, are not consumed. We
have one baptism, we have one gospel. We have one way to God,
the Lord Jesus Christ, and I am the way. He's the only way to
God. There are not many ways to God. There's only one. We
have one righteousness, He is. God only accepts one righteousness.
There's only one righteousness that was ever produced by a man
that God accepts, and that's the righteousness of Jesus Christ. We have one redemption, and it's
the same from all ages, past, present, future. It's the common
salvation. It's the one we've heard of since
the beginning. He says in verse 3, it was needful
for me to write unto you. He felt impressed of the Holy
Spirit to write this and exhort you, encourage you that you should
earnestly contend for the faith, earnestly strive. Strive. You know, if someone,
the Lord said, if someone strikes you on the cheek, turn to him
the other cheek. But now if someone stands there and lies on God,
I'm not turning the other cheek. He said, don't do that. That's
why he's saying, you don't do that. No, you stand up and contend
for the faith once delivered to the saints. We have been entrusted
with the gospel. Do we realize that? Do I, as
the preacher and the pastor here, you, as believers, Here in Spring
Lake, do we realize that God has entrusted this congregation
with the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ? Is there any other place
around here? I don't know of any. I don't
know of any. But God has taken this group
right here in Spring Lake and entrusted us with the gospel,
listen, with the gospel of His glory. God's glory. Paul, in writing
to Timothy, in chapter 1, verse 11, Paul says this to him, according
to the glorious gospel of the blessed God, which was committed
to my trust, to my keeping. Oh, Timothy, keep that which
is committed to thy trust. We don't just happen to have
the gospel here. God established the gospel here
years ago. It's still here and it's still
committed to our trust. And we are to contend for the
faith, which is the gospel, once delivered to the saints. And
what he's saying is this, we are to assert and maintain it. We all have different things
we do when we leave here. You have your different jobs.
Family to take care of. The number one important matter
in every believer's life here is this gospel. It is. It's the gospel. We are to assert
and maintain it, looking to Christ who is our strength in this battle.
Paul said this, I have fought a good fight. Would you like
to die like this? I want to die like this. I have
fought a good fight. I've kept the faith. I finished my course. Paul not only kept believing
it, but defended it. Wherever he was, wherever it
was being attacked, he defended it. He defended it. When we contend for the faith,
we defend the honor of our King. A loving wife, listen, a loving
wife will defend the honor of her husband. A wife who truly
loves her husband will not tolerate someone standing around and bashing
her husband or lying on her husband. She won't do it. She won't do
it. The church cannot sit back while
others lie on their Lord, her husband, and say nothing and
do nothing. Can't do it. Can't do it. Now, the weapons of our warfare,
Paul said, are not karma. Like I said, the Lord Jesus Christ
is our strength. The gospel, you know, our very
strength is the gospel. It's the preaching of the gospel.
It's the dynamite of God. It's the dunamis of God. It's
the power of God, as he says over in the book of Romans. Paul says this in 2 Corinthians
10, For though we walk in the flesh, We live in His flesh. We do not war after the flesh.
You know, someone's standing here, wherever I'm at, and they're
contending with me over the Gospel. No, I believe that Jesus Christ
did die for everybody. As one pastor said, he believes
He died for Judas as well as Peter. And I stood there and
I said, no, that's not possible. I said, if He did, He failed. I wasn't just standing there
contending with the flesh. There was an evil spirit there.
There was a spirit there I couldn't physically see. I couldn't physically see, but
it's there. It was there. And he was contending with me
over the gospel. For though we walk in the flesh,
we do not war after the flesh, for the weapons of our warfare
are not carnal." It's not a fleshly battle. And the weapons are not fleshly,
they're spiritual. But he says here, but they're
mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds. Paul says
in Ephesians 6, for we wrestle not against flesh and blood.
That's not my struggle. My struggle is not a congregation
or another group of people down the road who says, no, this is
what it is. And I say, no, this is what we
believe. No, this is what we believe. I'm not wrestling against what
others believe. We're wrestling against, here's
what we're wrestling against. We are wrestling against principalities. unseen principalities and powers
against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual
wickedness in high places. That's what's going on. That's
what's going on. We are in a spiritual battle
for the truth. That's why he writes, that you
contend for the faith. And I pray that's what we do
here week after week after week. Once delivered to the saints. Now, who are to contend for this?
Who are the ones that are to contend for this? Me? Is it just
me standing here in the pulpit? No, he says the saints. The saints. Not just the preacher. Wherever
you are and the truth is being lied on, you are to contend for
it. Stand up for it. Let me give you a few things
and I'll close. What it is that we are to contend for. First of all, we contend for
the truth of the Trinity. There is one God. There's not
three gods. There's one God. And in the Godhead,
there's the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. The Father's God, the Son's God,
the Holy Spirit is God, yet there's only one God. Only one. We contend for the deity and
the Sonship of that man, Jesus Christ. That man, that poor Nazarene,
is the Son of God. That carpenter's son is God in
the flesh. That's who that man is. He's
not just a good man, he's God. He's Almighty God. We contend
for the sovereignty of God in salvation. Does not the potter have power
over the clay? Does he not have the right to
make one vessel of mercy and another of of destruction, if he so please. If he so please, does he not
have that right? Yes, he does. God has the right and he exercises
that right to say whom he will and whom he will, he says he
ardens. He has that right. He has that right. We contend for justification
by faith. We are justified through the blood, the righteousness
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Scripture says we're justified
through His blood. It says we're justified through faith. It says we're justified through
grace. But we're justified in Christ without any of our obedience
to any commandment. Any commandment. And then we contend for His righteousness. His righteousness and no other.
No other. And we contend for regeneration
by the Holy Spirit. You must be born again. I listened
to a Billy Graham message the other night. It's been a long
time since I heard that. It was one of those classics.
That's what it's called, a classic. And he was talking about the
new birth. And he's talking about if you
want to be born again, then this is how you do it. I'm paraphrasing,
but this is how you do it. You repent, you ask God to forgive
you, and you can be born again. The new birth happens when God
gives it. It's not by anything I do, it
doesn't happen by, the new birth does not come by me repenting.
If I truly repent, it's evident I've been born again. If I believe
God, it's evident I have been born again. It's evident. That's so subtle,
but it's dangerous. It's dangerous. And then we contend for the final
perseverance of the saints. All of God's children are preserved in Jesus Christ,
they are kept by the power of God through faith, and every
last one of them, every one of them will wind up in glory, completely
washed, cleansed, made whole, accepted, in the Lord Jesus Christ. Every one of them be saved. Every
one of them. Not one of them be lost. Well, next week we'll pick up
in verse 5. Verse 4. I'll get that. Verse
4. All right.