If you want to turn your Bibles
to the book of Jude, we're going to look at the book of Jude today,
if you want to turn there. Jude is just before the book
of Revelation. And it's a very short book, little
tiny book, one chapter, 25 verses. I'm looking at this with you,
not just because we are studying Hebrews chapter 6, where I've
left off for a few weeks in order to cover some of the background
that I wanted to use. in discussing that place of Scripture
in Hebrews chapter 6, but also because this is one of the most
endearing texts of Scripture I know of in all the Bible, the
book of Jude. It's very endearing, but the
delight in this chapter opens up in the first couple of verses,
and then, as Scripture often does, it terrifies us in the
middle and brings us back to our hope in the Lord Jesus Christ
at the end, and draws from us, because of that hope, the greatest
praise and thanksgiving in our hearts. So we see this here.
We see fearful warnings to God's saints, and then we see praise
to our God as our faithful and almighty Savior. So I want to
look at this with you, Jude chapter 1. We'll read the whole thing. Let's pray before we do. Gracious
Father, we thank you for your love that was before ours, the
love that made us love you, and the life you've given us by which
we believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. And thank you that you've
made our salvation all of grace so that it would be sure to us.
Thank you that you've given us faith to know it so that this
faith, which is your gift and can only be ours by your grace,
makes certain that your saving work is given to all those you
intend to give it. And Lord, how we find in ourselves
a need for you to give this salvation to us. to give it to us in the
beginning of our awareness of it and to hold us up throughout
our lives and to bring us safely to our predetermined end that
we might have in our own experience the consummation of all that
you intended from eternity and prepared for us in your eternal
will and worked out for us in our Savior and have given to
us now by faith so that we have it even though we don't often
feel it, and even though we can't see it in any other way, but
what we have in Your Word. So we pray, Lord, bless us now
with these words, and comfort our hearts, but also cause us
to find refuge in none but Christ, and so finding refuge in Him
to find our complete salvation. and give praise and honor to
you as long as we live, and look forward to that time when, with
a more nobler and sweeter tongue, we will be able to praise you
as we ought to, in glory, in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. I'm
going to read through this book with you so that you get the
mindset that Jude was in when he penned it. It was written
to the saints. You can see that in the first
three verses. Verse three begins with the word
Beloved, which is a word that means those who are loved by
God and loved by the Apostle Jude. But then he spends the
next few verses, beginning at verse 4, all the way up until
verse 18, in great warning, and in such warnings that would shake
even the strongest believer to his foundation. And then in the
last verses, beginning with verse 20 and ending at verse 25, he
shows where our safety is, where our salvation is, and why we
have such great gratitude and praise to God for Christ. Now these things are meant to
do what all of God's work of salvation does when we read it,
when we hear it preached, when we experience it in the inner
workings of our heart, through scripture, in our lives, throughout
our lives. They always bring us low. They
always hold forth God's promise in His work, bring us low in
ourselves, and then lift us up by pointing us and directing
us to our Savior, so that in the end, finding our all in Christ,
we find such an overwhelming desire for Him and admiration
of Him. and we delight in Him, and this
is the praise that God has directed us to give. Now I say all these
things in kind of a related reference to what we were looking at in
Hebrews chapter 6 before we broke off there for a few weeks, to
look at some of these background texts of Scripture. The one we
looked at last week in Titus, where it was the Lord who saved
us. when we were so unworthy, when we were so incapable of
doing anything to save ourselves. And then the one about the salvation
that we have that was ordained and obtained for us by God our
Father and our Savior Christ, and then by the Spirit of God
given to us. All these things are to direct us to the Lord
Jesus Christ. Because when God warns us to
hold fast and tells us that salvation is for those who continue, it
immediately causes us to question ourselves, will we? Can we? How do we? And then he always
directs us back again to teach us once more as we learned when
we first believed that our salvation is in Christ alone. So these
things are meant to give us a sense of our own weakness and yet a
strong confidence in our safety in the Lord Jesus Christ. They're
meant to teach us that we in ourselves cannot stand even for
one moment and that we will be lost and we'll be damned in any
moment within a second unless the Lord in his divine grace
and for the Lord Jesus' sake saves us. But then also he comes
to us in this text of scripture with the strongest comfort to
know that since we are in the hands of Christ, we cannot perish
and will not perish. That our salvation is not just
keeping us out of hell, but saving us from our sins altogether and
saving us to eternal glory. And so that's what these things
are about. So let's read this now in light of that as an overview. In Jude chapter 1, it says, Jude,
the servant of Jesus Christ, many epistles to the New Testament
saints start out this way. Who am I writing to you? I'm
a servant of Jesus Christ. Therefore, what I say to you
is what He has directed me to say, given me to say to you as
an exhortation, as a command, but to you as a gift. He's a
servant of Jesus Christ. And he says he's the brother
of James. James, not John and James, the
apostles of Christ, but James, the son of Alphaeus. James, who
is called in Galatians chapter 1, verse 19, the Lord's brother.
James who in Acts 15 unfolded the scripture to show that those
Gentiles who were believing were a fulfillment of what God had
promised in the book of Amos when he said that he would return
and build up again the tabernacle of David that was falling down
because all those who are added to the church through the preaching
of the gospel by the work of the Spirit of God are stones
in that temple in fulfillment that this is Christ's church,
who is called David in scripture. In fulfillment of that, James,
Jude's brother, had preached that sermon in the book of James.
And James, the brother of Jude, is the one, I believe, who wrote
the book of James. So he was a man respected. And here, Jude is his brother,
also an apostle of Jesus Christ. Jude, in Matthew chapter 10,
verses 2 and 3, is called Thaddeus. or Lebeus, his name was Lebeus,
a surname Thaddeus, which was now called here Jude. And I don't
know, but his name Jude also is similar to the name of Judas
Iscariot, who betrayed Christ. And perhaps he was better known
by these other names because his name was so similar to Judas
that they wanted to distinguish him from them. And so he says
he's the brother of James, an apostle of Jesus Christ. He says,
to them that are sanctified by God the Father and preserved
in Jesus Christ and called. Here we have the triune God in
our salvation. Who is Jude writing to here?
Those who were sanctified by God the Father. And what does
this sanctification by God the Father mean? It means that God
has chosen us to himself. In Exodus chapter 13 in the Old
Testament, the Israelites were instructed to sanctify to God,
to set apart to God, the firstborn. It was His. All the firstborn
of men and beasts were designated to be the Lord's in order to
show that we are the church of the firstborn. We're the Church
of Jesus Christ, who is the firstborn Son of God among many sons. And
so here he writes to them as those set apart by God the Father
before time began. This is God's work. God set us
apart. God called us. He named us as
His own. He gave us to the Lord Jesus
Christ. He did this. We were chosen by
Him in Jesus Christ, and we were predestinated by Him to be His
sons by Jesus Christ. God the Father did this. That's
why He calls us His Father. He is our Father. In the New
Covenant, God says, I will be a God to you. and you shall be
my people." What a blessing this is, that God has made himself
our God and our Father. And he did it by his choice.
And this is what sanctification here means. He speaks of the
Lord Jesus Christ himself as being the chosen of God. And
all those who are chosen to salvation, according to the New Testament
scripture in 2 Thessalonians 2, verses 13 and 14, were chosen
to salvation by the Father. and who is going to dispute his
choice. Who is going to do what only he could do? Before time,
his choice of us had no dependence on what we are or would do. In
fact, it was in spite of all that we are, in spite of all
that we do. Some people will say, well, if you believe in
election, you're just an arrogant, proud person because you think
God chose you. You see it all wrong by saying
that. You think that our salvation somehow depends on what God finds
in us. It does not. No, when we say that God has
chosen us to salvation, we're simply saying that He did for
us what pleased Him and did it on the basis of Christ alone.
Therefore, His choice of us had nothing to do but was in spite
of all that we are. This shows us the great grace
of our God. It empties us of pride. It removes
all cause for confidence in ourselves and puts all of our confidence
in Christ, in God's work. That's the whole point of salvation,
that we were sinners outside, alienated from God and from the
life of God in Christ. And yet He chose us before. And
this is what he says here. This is who he's speaking to.
This is who he's writing these words to. Those chosen by God,
set apart for his own glory, to magnify his mercy and grace
to sinners by taking them from the lowest depths to the highest
place. Oh, the love of God that he would
call us the sons, his sons. And then he goes on, he says,
Not only were we sanctified by God the Father in His electing
choice of us before the world began, but we were preserved
in Jesus Christ. Preserved. God didn't preserve
all men. The elect of God are called a
remnant. A remnant, a very small, unless
the Lord of hosts had not left us a very small remnant, we would
have all perished like Sodom and Gomorrah. Isaiah 1, verse
9, and Romans 9, 27. These things are meant to cause
us to see that God had a purpose to save us. God had a love that
began before time, and the way he accomplished his will was
he put us in the Lord Jesus Christ. Before we knew God, before we
were called, even before we were born, before the world began,
God chose us and gave us to His Son to preserve us. He preserved
us in His covenant. He preserved us to salvation.
He preserved us by the pledge of the Lord Jesus Christ to lay
his life down for us as the Lamb of God. That's why he's called
the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world, or the one whose
precious blood was ordained by God before the foundation of
the world were laid. In 1 Peter 1.20, he says that.
He was the Lamb ordained. His precious blood was ordained
by God the Father before the foundation of the world for us.
And now in these last times, He's made known. He's manifest
to us. So we were preserved in Jesus Christ by God the Father.
He put us in Christ. We were preserved in love. Not
only the love of the Father, but the love of the Son. We were
not preserved from falling in Adam. We were not preserved from
our own sins. We were not preserved from the
nature that we have as sinners. but we were preserved so that
in Christ our sins were taken away. A restitution was made,
remission for our sins was made, a redemption was made by His
blood. So we were preserved in Jesus Christ. And this is the
only way anyone can be saved. And so the heart of the believer
cries out in spite of his sins, save by grace alone, by Christ
alone. because of Christ alone, because
of what God thinks of him alone, and God has given me this grace
of faith to see that we were preserved in Jesus Christ. And
then he says, and called. Called. How were we called? God called us. In Acts 2, verse
21, I'll read these verses to you about our calling. He says
in Acts 2, 21, it shall come to pass that whosoever shall
call on the name of the Lord shall be saved. But in verse
39 of Acts 2, it says, for the promise is to you and to your
children and to all that are far off, even as many as the
Lord our God shall call. So our call is because of His
call. He calls us, therefore we call
Him. In Acts 15, I mentioned this
a moment ago, but I'll read it in more detail here. In Acts
15, James, the brother of Jude, who wrote the book of Jude, said
this in a sermon in Acts chapter 15, verse 14. He said, Simon,
or Peter, has declared how God at the first did visit the Gentiles
to take out of them a people for his name. Did God take all
of the Gentiles for His name? No. He took out of the Gentiles
a people for His name. In verse 15 of Acts 15, it says,
And to this agree the words of the prophets, as it is written,
After this I will return, and will build again the tabernacle
of David, which is fallen down, and I will build again the ruins
thereof, and I will set it up, that the residue of men might
seek after the Lord, and all the Gentiles upon whom my name
is called, saith the Lord, who doeth all these things. Known
unto God are all his works from the beginning of the world. So
here we have the revelation that what's called in Old Testament
scripture the restoration or the building up of the tabernacle
of David has nothing to do with a physical building, nothing
to do with a physical land, nothing to do with David himself. except
the fact that the Lord Jesus Christ was born after the flesh
through David. But it has everything to do with
what God intended to do in saving, out of the Gentiles, a people
for His name, those on whom He set His name and love from eternity. And therefore He called them,
the residue of men, not all men, but the residue of men, seek
after the Lord. Why do they seek Him? When it
says in Romans chapter 3, there is none that seeketh God. Why
do these suddenly appear seeking God? Because he sought them.
I sought the Lord. Afterward, I knew he moved my
soul to seek him while he was seeking me. And so we're called. How do we know that we're called?
How do we know we are the called of Jesus Christ? In 1 Corinthians
chapter 1, it says this. In verse 2, unto the church of
God, The Church of God or the cult. The Church of God which
is at Corinth to them that are sanctified in Christ Jesus. To be sanctified means to be
set apart and made holy. And how are we made holy in the
Lord Jesus Christ? How did God make us holy? Did
he tell us, you get holy and we got holy? No. We had no holiness. We were unrighteous, ungodly,
sinners, enemies of God in our mind and by wicked works. We
also were sometimes, as we read last week in Titus 3.3, sometimes
foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving divers lusts and pleasures,
living in malice and envy, hateful and hating one another. But after
that, the kindness and love of God our Savior toward man appeared.
Then the Lord Jesus Christ came. It says in Hebrews 10.10, by
the will of God, by which He was offered, He sanctified forever. He sanctified us. And in verse
14 of Hebrews 10, it says, He perfected forever by His one
offering them that were sanctified. It's His blood, Hebrews 13, 12,
that was offered to God that sanctifies us. So we were sanctified
by the Lord Jesus Christ when He sanctified Himself in offering
Himself to God for us. John 17, 19, he says, I sanctify
myself that they might be sanctified by the truth. And when he sanctified
us by his blood, he also sanctified us that by the gospel we would
hear of what he did and we would be given the spirit of God to
have life and believe him. And so we are sanctified, it
says in 1 Corinthians 1-2, the church of God, which is a Corinth
to them that are made holy by the blood of Jesus, sanctified
in Christ Jesus, called to be saints or sanctified ones by
the spirit of God. Called, see that word, called. Called how? By the preaching
of the gospel. Jesus said in Matthew chapter
20, many are called, but few are chosen. Many were called
by the hearing of the gospel, but few were given ears to hear.
But to those given ears to hear, they were called of God, and
therefore they heard, and therefore they saw and believed." So he
says here in 1 Corinthians 1, verse 2, they were sanctified
in Christ Jesus, called to be saints, or called sanctified
ones, with all Listen, with all that in every place, call upon
the name of the Lord, the name of Jesus Christ, our Lord, both
theirs and ours. Who are those who are called
of God? Those who call. Remember, whoever shall call
on the name of the Lord shall be saved. And why did they call?
Because the Lord himself called them. He put his name on them.
They were his. And so he says here in Jude chapter
1 that we were preserved in Christ Jesus and called. Chosen of God
the Father. given to Christ to save, saved
by the Lord Jesus Christ, by His redeeming work on the cross,
and therefore called by the Spirit of God. With a call we could
not resist, a call from death to life. We had no part in it.
We were passive. We were dead in our sins. We
were opposed to God, and He called us by His grace. Now, I'm showing
you these things in Jude 1, verse 1, so that you can see that our
salvation is by God. It's of the Lord. Now, this is
important, because what we're going to see in the rest of the
book of Jude would cause us to tremble, and considering ourselves,
we know we would fall. But here God says at the outset,
salvation is of the Lord, of the Father, the Son, and the
Holy Spirit. Notice in verse two, to those
who were sanctified by God the Father, preserved in Jesus Christ,
and called, he says to them, mercy unto you and peace and
love be multiplied. Mercy from God. God did not give
us what we deserved. Instead, he gave us what Christ
deserved. And peace, peace with God by
the blood of the Lord Jesus. The Lord Jesus Christ. God required
His blood in order to be at peace with us. His righteousness had
to be reconciled to His mercy in the blood of the Lord Jesus
Christ towards us. God was perfectly at rest in
himself. But concerning us, something
had to take place. Blood had to be shed. And that
blood is what made peace in God so that he could give to us the
abundance of his grace without compromising his justice, mercy,
and peace. And it is faith in Christ that
gives us the experience of that peace with God in our conscience.
Joy and peace all come to us through faith in the Lord Jesus
Christ. And then he says, and love, all these things be multiplied. God continues, and he lavishes
upon us his mercy, his peace, and his love, all those things
that are in Christ Jesus, our Lord. Nothing can separate us
from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus, our Lord. All these things are only in
our mediator, our substitute, our surety. Now, look at verse
three of Jude. Beloved, here he emphasizes that
we are loved of God. Beloved, and not only of God
the Father, but of God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. And
all those who know God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit
in this saving grace love one another because we see that we're
sinners. We're sinners, we had nothing, and Christ did everything
for us out of God's will. and by his spirit made it known
to us. He says, Beloved, those loved of God, whom I also love,
he says, when I gave all diligence to write to you of the common
salvation, meaning it's not just for Jews, but it's for Gentiles.
Jude was a Jew. He was of Israel. You would think
he would have a prejudice then against the Gentiles. He did
not. He knew. His brother James preached that
sermon in Acts 15. God has determined to visit the
Gentiles and take a people out of them for his name. And he
knew that that was God's purpose from before the time he realized
it. It was his prophecy. So he says,
this common salvation, it was needful for me to write to you
and exhort you that you should earnestly contend for the faith
which was once delivered unto the saints. What is the faith
that was once delivered to the saints? It's the gospel. The
truth of the gospel, the object of our faith, is what God has
said in the gospel. We only know, we only know what's
true if God has said it. Otherwise we're completely unable
to know what's true. How do you know that God created
the world? Because God said so. By faith we understand the worlds
were framed by the word of God so that things which are seen
were not made of things which do appear. The only way we know
that is because God said it and gave us faith to believe it.
How do you know God created the world? I believe it. I believe his word. And his word
is true. He can't lie. His word is true
from the beginning. And so we know it's true. And
therefore, as a child, we know things that only God knows and
reveals to us through what he says. So that faith that we have
is the word of God. The object of our faith is what
God has said is true, but not just true in general, but true
specifically concerning the Lord Jesus Christ. The faith which
was once delivered is that faith in the gospel, that truth of
how God saves sinners by his son. and gives this salvation
to them in his Son. And with his Son, all things
are given." This is that faith that came in Galatians 3. When
faith came, we're no longer under the schoolmaster. And that faith
that came is the revelation of God's eternal will in Christ,
which was a mystery until God unfolded it, until he unhid it
from us by the preaching of the gospel. So Jude is writing to
them to earnestly contend for that. to earnestly contend for
the gospel of God's grace in Christ. And how do we do that?
Most of the time, it's that earnestly contending for it in our own
mind, in our own affections. Isn't it? Isn't that what it
says? Look at Ephesians chapter 6. Notice how God, in Ephesians
chapter 6, tells us how we earnestly contend for this faith. Ephesians
chapter 6. And notice also not only how
he tells us to earnestly contend for it, but who our enemies are,
and how that we don't contend for this faith with instruments
that are material, with our own intellect, with our own goodness.
But something else. Look at this. Ephesians chapter
6 and verse 10. Finally, my brethren, be strong
in the Lord and in the power of His might. This was always
told to Israel in the Old Testament. The Lord will fight for you.
Stand still and see the salvation of the Lord. So he says here,
be strong in the Lord. The joy of the Lord is your strength. It's what God thinks that gives
us strength. It's His view. It's His truth
that is the object and the substance of our faith. So he says, be
strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. Therefore,
why would we doubt? Why would we have any consideration
of our own strength? Our strength is His. Almighty
God has made Himself our strength. We have none. Verse 11, put on
the whole armor, the whole armor of God, that you may be able
to stand against the wiles of the devil. There's our enemy. For we wrestle not against flesh
and blood, but against principalities and against powers, against the
rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness
in high places. Verse 13, Ephesians 6, 13. Notice
how we are to take up these arms. Wherefore, take unto you, considering
the fact that your enemies are unseen principalities and powers,
the devil himself, therefore take unto you the whole armor
of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day.
And having done all, to stand. Stand therefore, notice, having
your loins, this part of your body, gird about with what? Truth. not your own strength,
but with truth, the truth of the gospel, and having the breastplate
of righteousness, not your own, Christ's righteousness. He clothes
us with the garments of salvation, with the robe of his righteousness,
Isaiah 61.10, verse 15, and your feet shod with the preparation
of the gospel of peace. We walk in life trusting Christ,
and we say so. We confess this is all of our
hope. In verse 16, above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith
you shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked.
I missed something in there. Where was it? It was the helmet
of salvation. Oh, here it is. So faith is the
way we withstand and overcome Because faith looks to Christ,
and looking to Christ, we see Christ is all. He's my shield,
a shield about me. Psalm 3, 3 and Genesis 15, 1. To Abraham, God said, I am your
shield, and I am your exceeding great reward. Here he says, take
the shield of faith. Faith looks to Christ. Faith
finds all its strength in Christ, all of its answer to God, and
its answer against our enemy. In verse 17, and take the helmet.
of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word
of God. All these things are God-given, and they're found
in Christ. They concern Christ, praying
always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto
with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints, because we
know ourselves to be sinners, and we know that unless God holds
us up, we will fall. Back to the book of Jude, then.
How do we contend for the faith? We earnestly contend for it by
taking all these things, the helmet of salvation, the breastplate
of Christ's righteousness, the sword of the Spirit, the shield
of faith, our loins girt about with the truth and our feet prepared
for going and walking and running even by the gospel of Christ
and Him crucified. Christ is all. That's our defense,
the Lord Jesus Christ. And so it says throughout scripture,
he says, abide in me and I in you. In Revelation 12, 11, they
overcame him by the blood of the lamb. We overcome our enemies
by the Lord Jesus Christ and his blood and the gospel, which
is our testimony. This is how we overcome. And
therefore we don't love our lives in this world, but we have faith
in Christ and we love the life we have in Christ that he's promised
us in glory. Now I'm going to read from verse
4 through the rest of verse 18 in the book of Jude now. Let's
look at this. given this introduction by Jude to the saints. This is
all to the saints given here. He says, for there are certain
men crept in unawares who were before of old ordained to this
condemnation, ungodly men turning the grace of God into lasciviousness
and denying the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ. Now,
here he says, in contrast to all that God has done in sanctifying
and preserving us in the Lord Jesus Christ, calling us by His
Spirit, and giving us this precious faith of our common salvation,
all those who were sinners saved by God's grace have the same
Savior and the same salvation. He says, there were certain men
who crept in unawares. He warns us, doesn't he? Expect
that there will be people who come in unsuspectingly and they
have an agenda, a motive, and they were ordained by God before
to this condemnation. In other words, there were some
among all of humanity that were chosen by God and preserved in
Christ and called, and the rest were left to face God in their
own person, to answer God for their own thoughts and words
and deeds. And what's unfair about that?
For a man to get what he wants, What's unfair about that? He's
given a life and breath like all men are. He's given the rain
and the sunshine and a place on earth and blessed with food
and glad things. And yet he hates God in his heart.
What's wrong with him giving him what he wants? There's nothing
unfair about or unjust with that, is there? You've put your fist
in God's face, your creator. You've said, the one who made
me was foolish. I don't believe his word. What's
wrong with God giving you what you deserve? There's nothing
unfair in that. God has left some to their own foolishness. He's turned them over to their
own heart's desires. There's nothing unjust about
that. But there's great mercy in taking those who were enemies
of God and rescuing them from their own sins. That's grace.
That's what we need. That's what I need. And that's
what you need, too. And so God is telling us there
are certain men who were ordained to this condemnation. The end
of their life will be to receive the just reward, the due reward
of their deeds. There's nothing wrong with that.
God only does right. The judge of all the earth shall
do right. And so these men who were before
of old ordained to this condemnation, ungodly men, turning the grace
of our God into lasciviousness and denying the only Lord God
and our Lord Jesus Christ. This is how they're made known.
They take the grace of God and they twist it. They make it a
tool to serve their own lusts. And they use it to support their
hatred towards God and their own desire to be God themselves. They find no need of a savior.
They boast themselves. They boast of their own works
before God. And they parade themselves before men. And this is turning
the grace of our God into lasciviousness, licentiousness, and all manner
of evil desire. And they deny the only Lord God
and our Lord Jesus Christ. They deny Him openly. They deny
Him in the way He saves. They take to themselves credit
which does not belong to them. They deny the truth and they
seek by deceptive ways to twist the truth of the gospel in order
to draw away men to themselves. Verse 5. Well, let me just say
one more thing about verse 4. How do men do this? They misrepresent
how people are saved. That's the main way. They misrepresent
the salvation of God in Christ. If it's all of grace, they will
say, it is of grace, but you have to do something. You're
not just a robot. And so they try to make you think
that somehow you got to do something in order to make your salvation
work. They direct you in your hope and in your trust away from
Christ to yourself. Okay, verse five. He says, I
will therefore put you in 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. God saved all the
nation of Israel out of the land of Egypt. He brought them through
the Red Sea. They saw their enemies on the
shore drowned under this Red Sea that God opened a way for
them to pass through. They saw the plagues of Egypt.
They saw God's distinguishing grace. They saw the blood over
the doorpost. They knew God would receive them
for the blood only and that he delivered them because he delighted
in them. They saw this. They were themselves delivered
from that bondage. But those same people, except
for Joshua and Caleb, all fell in the wilderness. Amazing. Now, when God says this to us,
what do we think? Two out of a nation, only two
entered the land of Canaan. Aaron, though a believer in Christ,
though saved in Christ, fell in the wilderness. He died before
he entered Canaan. And Miriam died. Even Moses was
not allowed to go into Canaan. Joshua and Caleb alone were allowed
to go in, of that original people delivered from Egypt. And so
he says here, I will therefore put you in remembrance that 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. This is exactly what the book
of Hebrews is talking about. We enter into the land of rest
through faith, but all those who fell in the wilderness fell
because of unbelief. They failed to look to Christ. They added to what Christ did
in their hearts, and they thought that they made up the difference.
They thought that salvation was contingent upon them, and they
went to their death and hoped to appear before Christ in glory,
giving a justification of themselves. That won't work. There's only
one thing that God will accept, it's the answer Christ gave.
It's Christ himself who stands for us and gives an answer for
us. And so they believed not, they perished. What an amazing
thing this is that so many perished after having been delivered.
All of the physical circumstances and blessings of our life are
no indication that we're the Lord's people. There's only one
thing. It's faith in Christ. That's
the blessing. That's the only way we know in
ourselves that God has given us this grace, is if he's given
us faith in Christ alone. And we say, in all of the trouble
and turmoil of our lives, in spite of all that I am, I look
to Christ because God has said in his word, he's received Christ
for sinners. And we come as a sinner over
and over again. that we rest in Christ and we
don't seek a defense, we don't look for a plea, we don't bring
an excuse, we don't do anything. We relinquish all hope in our
works and all value in our merit and we come to God naked and
empty and sinful, looking to Christ for him to receive us
for Christ's sake alone and to give us all blessings for his
sake alone. But he says this here, notice,
the apostle is guided by the Spirit of God to say this about
the Israelites in order to make what he's about to say at the
end of this book even more precious. The Apostle Jude is writing to
these who believe Christ. And notice, I want to take you
there now in verse 24 before we read through the rest of this.
Look at verse 24 of Jude. Now unto him that is able to
keep you from falling. You see that? See how he directs
us away from all these things that threaten us. And He directs
us to the Lord Jesus Christ, now unto Him that is able to
keep you from falling. So many fell in unbelief in the
wilderness. And we might naturally say, and
we might begin to think in our own wicked hearts, I wouldn't.
I wouldn't have done that. I wouldn't be so foolish. That's
missing the point. The point is, yes, you would. Yes, you are. You have no strength
in yourself. You have no goodness, no righteousness
in yourself. Even the very faith you have
is not yours. It didn't come of you. It's not
increased by you or upheld by you. So He directs us to Christ. Now unto Him who is able to keep
us from falling. You see, this is the response
of the child of God. Because of the Spirit of God
given to us, in all of these warnings, He directs us to Christ. Where is our strength? It's in
Him. How will we not fall, considering all the rest of these fell? Unto
Him who is able to keep you from falling. And so we're going to
see this repeated over. It's as if Jude, in writing with
all these dire warnings and threatenings, is writing to the saints to build
up to this point. He's trying to drive from them
any confidence in themselves, to find themselves trembling
and at fear whenever they consider what God requires of them and
what they are in themselves in order to direct us to Christ
alone. and God's saving grace in Him
alone. He sanctified us. He preserved us. He called us.
Our salvation is by Him. It's His mercy. It's He that
established our peace. It's His love that saves us.
And so he says, he goes on, verse six, not only did the Israelites
fall in the wilderness because of unbelief, after God delivered
them by such a mighty, obviously God's work, no one could deny
it, and yet they wanted to turn back in their hearts to Egypt.
They wanted to force their way back into the land of bondage
because they preferred to live under bondage by the works of
the law rather than by trusting Christ, as they're all. Verse
6, And the angels which kept not their first estate, but left
their own habitation, he hath reserved in everlasting chains
under darkness unto the judgment of the great day. God is revealing
here that there were angels who fell. That's amazing. This is why Job says he charged
his angels with folly. God is holy. He's not a respecter. He doesn't play favor to say,
well, I know that you're really good in every other way except
this one case, so I'm going to overlook that. No. God charged
his angels with folly, and he cast them down. It says here,
they left their own habitation. He has reserved them in everlasting
chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day. These
were the holy angels. It says in 2 Peter 2 that they're
stronger and mightier than we are. How can we stand if they're
stronger than us? If the angels didn't stand, if
they had no ability to stand before a holy God, how in the
world can we, who are a worm, according to Job, and no man,
See how he directs us to the Lord Jesus? Now unto him who
is able to keep you from falling. He's trying to stir up our faith
in Christ and to bring forth that praise that comes from our
hearts in consideration of our own weakness and our own lack
of strength. He says, unto him who is able
to keep you from falling. Look at verse 7. 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 what? Eternal
fire. Men will say, there's no such
thing as hell. You might not call it hell, but God calls it
eternal fire. You might not think that there
is. But you better listen to what God has to say. These people
in Sodom and Gomorrah, they had no idea. They were living their
lives. They were marrying, according
to Jesus, marrying and giving in marriage. And they were at
peace and safety. All seemed well. They lived in
the land of great blessing. And one day, God took Lot and
his wife and daughter out of that place, and as soon as he
did, he rained down hellfire from heaven, brimstone on that,
and burned up everything so that nothing was left. And the reason
God did that was, he says here, as an example of eternal fire. That's God's vengeance. Now,
you and I stand under the same condemnation as they. We're no
less guilty than they are. We say, well, they did things
I would never do. The only reason you're not just like them is
by grace. God has withheld you from sinning
in that way that you think that they were different. But he says
in Romans 3, 9, what then? Are we better than they? No,
in no wise. We would have and could have
done anything the worst of sinners has ever done, and in our hearts
have already done it. But God has preserved us in Christ,
even though we've sinned, and even though we're worthy of the
same condemnation. All the things that God describes
in scripture that we are, and yet, what do we say? Now unto
him who is able to keep you from falling. Look at the next verse,
verse eight. Likewise also these filthy dreamers
defile the flesh, despise dominion, and speak evil of dignities.
Yet Michael the archangel, when contending with the devil, He
disputed about the body of Moses, durst not bring against him a
railing accusation, but said, The Lord rebuke thee. 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. Woe unto them. So here is a description of those
who despise the rule God has in place, especially in the church. God has given his word. God has
raised up, in the case he mentions here, Moses and Aaron. God chose
Christ. He made him the head, and he
gave his word through his apostles. We have to believe their message. If we despise that God-given
authority, if we say, we're going to figure it out ourselves, we're
left to our own devices. We're going to have to stand
before God in judgment. It's speaking against God-given authority. It's this attitude of arrogance. I can do what I want. I don't
need anyone to teach me these things. I'll figure it out myself.
No, it's through the foolishness of preaching that we'll be saved,
or we won't be saved at all. Notice he says, verse 11, Woe
unto them! They have gone in the way of
Cain, and they ran greedily after the heir of Balaam for reward,
and perished in the gainsaying of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram. So here we have The result, Cain
arrogantly said, I brought this. I sweat this out. Look at this
fruit. What could be finer? And Balaam,
for reward, gave all the nation of Israel to idolatry because
he wanted some money and Korah couldn't, and his company couldn't
stand the fact that God had chosen Moses and Aaron through whom
he would speak and have authority over them. All these people show
this arrogance in our sinful heart. And what are we to think?
Knowing the pride of our own heart, how arrogantly in our
ignorance we have stubbornly refused to hear the truth. And
we go on this way. Now unto him who is able to keep
you from falling." That's what we're directed to. Verse 12,
these are spots in your feast of charity. When they feast with
you, feeding themselves without fear, clouds they are without
water, carried about of winds, trees whose fruit withereth,
without fruit twice dead, plucked up by the roots, raging waves
of the sea, foaming out their own shame, wandering stars to
whom is reserved the blackness of darkness forever. This is
a description of wicked men who hate God and his gospel and his
people. Verse 14, and Enoch, also the
seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, saying, Behold, the
Lord comes with ten thousands of his saints to execute judgment
upon all and to convince all that are ungodly among them of
all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed and
all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against
him. These are murmurers, complainers,
walking after their own lust, and their mouth speaks great
swelling words, having men's persons in admiration because
of advantage. They speak kind things to people
in order to get an advantage for themselves. That's what he's
saying here. This is politics, isn't it? It's
schmoozing. It's getting, it's doing, fawning
with people in order, yourself before people in order to get
an advantage by the praise and the reward of men. He says they're
murmurers and complainers. This is, this characterized the
nation of Israel in the wilderness, didn't it? Always complaining,
always murmuring. Why do we complain? Because we
think we deserve more than we're getting. Why do we murmur? Because we think that God isn't
giving us the good that we ought to have. It's an accusation against
God, isn't it? It's a total failure of faith.
Why aren't we content? If God himself does no wrong
to us, if he's righteous in all his ways and holy in all his
works, why do we complain? If all things are designed by
him before time began for our good, why should we complain?
Job said, have we received good of the Lord's hand, and shall
we not receive evil also? If it seems good to God, it's
good for us. God is good, and he designed
it for our salvation. If it causes us to fear, if it
causes us to draw near to Christ, then it's good, right? All these
things are working together for our good. According to God's
word, if we murmur and complain, we're saying no, it's not true.
This situation can't be good. But he says, what, in 1 Thessalonians
5, 16, rejoice evermore. Rejoice evermore. How can we
rejoice? Isn't that a denial of the reality? Is that just
being Pollyanna and saying rejoice evermore? How can I rejoice?
Things are bad. I'm suffering. I feel afraid
of my own shadow and of circumstances, of men, of the government, or
whatever. What are we going to do? We're going to take our word
for it? We're going to live by our own observation of things?
Or are we going to take God's word, who knows the end, from
the beginning and say, if the Lord designed all this for my
eternal salvation and good, and he said to rejoice, I have grounds
for rejoicing, don't I? Even, he says in Romans chapter
5, we rejoice in tribulations, because they work for us this
patience and experience and hope So God redeems even our sin for
our good, and we're to rejoice, not in our sin, but the fact
that God has said that he's going to do what he designed for us
from the beginning of time. But they murmur, they complain,
because they walk in their own lust. They walk in unbelief,
and their mouth speaks as great, proud, swelling words, seeking
advantage from men by their own subversive ways of getting that
advantage. Verse 17. Notice, but beloved,
remember you the words which were spoken before of the apostles
of our Lord Jesus Christ. How that they told you there
would be mockers in the last time, who should walk after their
own ungodly lusts. These be those, these be they
who separate themselves. sensual, having not the spirit.
They make an island of themselves. They go out and they say, well,
we don't need to gather together with God's people. We're fine.
I know. I know. Like Korah, Dathan, and
Abiram. Who said that you were God's
high priest, that God would lead us through the wilderness by
you? We're just as good as you. And so they viewed things through
man's eyes instead of through God's eyes. So, this is what
they are. He says, but you, verse 20, you,
beloved, building up yourselves on your most holy faith, praying
in the Holy Ghost, keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for
the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life. This is the
attitude of God's people. We continue to walk by faith
in Christ and the love of God towards us in Christ, always
looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal
life because of his righteousness. Now, notice in verse 22, and
on some, of some have compassion, making a difference, and others
save with fear, pulling them out of the fire, hating even
the garment spotted by the flesh. Now, unto him that is able to
keep you from falling and to present you faultless, before
the presence of His glory with exceeding joy. To the only wise
God, our Savior, be glory and majesty, dominion and power both
now and ever. Amen. This is the message of
this book. The message of this book is to
give you a sense of your own weakness and yet a confidence
in your own safety in Christ alone. It's meant to make you
know that in yourself you can't stand for one moment and yet
it's to make you know that in Christ you stand by divine grace. He says here, look at the Lord
Jesus Christ, unto him that is able to keep you from falling.
The Lord Jesus Christ can keep us from falling. The road is
beyond our ability to go across, to go through, to walk down.
The enemies are much stronger. The same enemies that caused
angels to fall and Israelites to fail to believe God. These
things that rose up in the heart of these men to despise dignities
and to deny God's authority the way that he has arranged it in
this life. And all these other things, the
pride of Cain, and Balaam, and Korah, and Dathan, and Abiram,
these things are meant to teach us that we have no strength,
that we can't deliver ourselves, that not only is the road unpassable
by us, and the enemies great, but our own weaknesses, we would
trip up in a moment. My son Ian has a little boy named
August, he's just gonna be two here in a few days. August is
clumsy, Ian said. He says he's always falling.
He's hurting himself all the time. Every time we talk to him
on the phone, the video, he shows us some new bruise or some new
bloody place on his leg or something. It's like you need to put him
in a bubble to keep him safe from himself, because he's always
falling. He's just a young child, and
he's constantly falling, constantly stumbling. But the Lord says
that's just what we are. It's meant to cause us to fear,
and not doubt, and to doubt ourselves all the time. but to never doubt
Christ, to look away from ourselves to Christ, who alone can keep
us from falling. But notice, not just keep us
from falling, not to just make us sinless, but to clothe us
in his own righteousness, to perfect us before God, and to
present us at the last. Look at this. Now unto him that
is able to keep you from falling. It's God's ability. It's God's
power. He's the one who's able. With
men, this is impossible. Don't you know it? How are you
going to end your life? You say, well, I'm not sure because
I can't be certain if I'll be able to hold on to the end. No,
you won't be able to hold on to the end. Now on to Him who
is able to keep us from falling and to present you faultless. before the presence of his glory."
This is incredible. You know what the presence of
God is like? Every time someone came into
the presence of an angel, they fell on their face, thinking
they were dead. And when the apostle John saw
Christ in the book of Revelation, he fell on his face before him
as a man who was dead. He couldn't move. What will it
be like to stand in the presence of God, the Lord God, the Holy
God? Isaiah said, when he saw the
Lord high and lifted up, woe is me, I am undone. I am exposed and guilty and naked
and justly deserving condemnation before God. That's the only thing
you're going to be, your mouth will be shut. you'll have nothing
to say. But here, notice, what Christ
is able to do, he is able not only to keep you from falling,
but to present you in the very presence of God in all of his
holiness, faultless, and with exceeding joy. You know the convulsions
of your own heart, the emotions that well up within you when
you're received by someone undeservedly? Don't you? When they show you
love, what you deserved was rebuke and shame and condemnation. You
know that sense in some small way, don't you, in this life?
And yet here we appear in the presence of God in all of his
glory. Even the angels are not clean.
The heavens are not clean in his sight. And man is but a worm
in his sight. Yet we appear by the Lord Jesus
Christ alone, without blame, faultless, with exceeding joy. Amazing. And whose joy is this? Well, you remember what Jesus
said, when that sheep was brought back who had strayed away, there's
joy in heaven over one sinner that repents more than over 99
who need not repentance. There's going to be joy in heaven.
The angels are going to rejoice. And the ministers of the gospel
are going to rejoice. If you look at this place in
Thessalonians, the Apostle Paul said to the Thessalonians, he
said, what is our hope or joy or crown of rejoicing? 1 Thessalonians
2, verse 19, what is our hope or joy or crown of rejoicing?
The Apostle Paul was reflecting back, what is that one thing
that we will be glad more than others out of this life? He says, are not even you in
the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ and His coming? You are
our glory and joy. The Apostle Paul thought of that
time when all of God's elect would be gathered in the presence
of God, and he would have great joy, like John the Baptist said.
When the bride is brought to the bridegroom, then I who stand
by rejoice at his voice. This is the whole purpose of
my life. I was spent in order to have
this joy to see Christ's people brought to him. So the ministers
of God, the preachers, the apostles, all they joy so much that the
Lord saved his people and he used the gospel of Christ to
do that. And so he says here, he is able
to present you in the presence of his glory with exceeding joy.
But notice most of all who is going to joy. Look at Hebrews
chapter 12. Hebrews chapter 12 and verse 1, he says, wherefore,
seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of
witnesses, let us lay aside every weight and the sin which does
so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that
is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher
of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured
the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right
hand of the throne of God. Why is the Lord Jesus Christ
so happy, so joyful? Like a woman in travail giving
birth to a child, he labored in his own suffering and death
in order to bring forth his people that he would marry and make
members of his own body. He is so happy, he presents them
to himself without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, and he rejoices. And so God himself rejoices and
sings. Look at Zephaniah, the book of
Zephaniah. This is almost beyond belief
that the Lord God, the infinite God, would, I'll read this to
you. Listen to this. Just listen as
you see this in Zephaniah chapter three. He says, the Lord thy
God in the midst of thee is mighty. Isn't he alone who can keep us
from falling? He will save. He will rejoice
over thee with joy. God Himself, the Infinite God,
imagine God in His infinity of person and power and knowledge,
looking upon us, perfected by Jesus Christ, kept from falling,
and brought to Himself in the presence of His glory. infinitely
joyful. And notice, he will rest in his
love. He's confident in his love. It's
his love that did this. And he will joy over thee with
singing. What is that going to be like?
to the Lord, standing in his presence, us, like the prodigal
son, brought into the presence of his father, saying, I'm not
worthy to be called your son. Make me as one of your servants.
And he says, oh, my son. Let me unfold to you all the
joy I have and what I did to bring you to myself, faultless,
without blame, in the presence of His glory with joy. Now, verse
25 of Jude, to the only wise God our Savior, only He could
have devised this and only His power could accomplish it because
it's all of Him. who sanctified us in Christ and
preserved us in Christ and called us by His Spirit, to the only
wise God, our Savior, be glory and majesty, dominion and power,
both now and ever. This attitude, this praise that
we have to God, this thought of our own weakness and the power
of our enemies and Christ's work for us, all these things are
something we now have by faith. And yet, it's something we will
then have in its ultimate consummation and forever. Now and forever,
glory and majesty, power and dominion be to our Savior. Let's
pray. Lord, we thank you that though our enemies are great
and our own strength is nothing, and the way will trip us up. We have no strength in this and
we don't know how to navigate all of these things in ourselves.
We see how you have said the Lord Jesus Christ is able to
keep us from falling. It's his power. It's His holiness,
it's His righteousness, it's what you appointed Him to, what
He accomplished, what you've given to us by Him and made us
to know by your Spirit, giving us this faith to see what is
true, though we see nothing in our own experience except this
struggle is frustration with our failures and our sin and
in the world and all that's in it and help us Lord to look for
the mercy and the love of God our Savior. We pray Lord these
things according to your word what you've said and for your
glory in Jesus name we pray. Amen.