Okay, this morning we're going
to be in Jude, first verse of Jude one more time, and we're
going to title this God's People Called. God's People Called. And let's read this verse. It
says, Jude, the servant of Jesus Christ and the brother of James,
to them that are sanctified by God the Father and preserved
in Jesus Christ and called. Mercy, verse two, mercy unto
you and peace and love be multiplied. And both these verses, these
three things are tied together. But here that to those that are
sanctified by God, the father we looked at, that are set apart,
the chosen people that were given to the son whom he died for,
by His righteousness, His people are redeemed, by preserved in
Jesus Christ, both time past, eternity past, eternity future. God's people have always been
preserved in Christ, not just after they are born again, and
as we realize it, and as we know those things in time and
preserved forward. That is true, too, but preserved
from in all past. And we can look and as we did
and as has been mentioned over time, we look back on how God
has preserved us until the time that that he redeemed us. And
in in our experience of it, as we as the Spirit has called us
and we have been regenerated and given spiritual life. And
then in the future, we looked at, we mentioned about the thief
on the cross. He was preserved up until that
very time for that purpose. And indeed that, and was preserved
from then on. And then we're looking at, and
it says, and called, and that called is of the Holy Spirit.
In this first verse, as he, Jude, starts out here, that this letter
is, this epistle is to those that are truly believers and
redeemed of the Lord, and of the Father, the Son, and the
Holy Spirit, and all the Godhead, in all three parts
of the Godhead, as we see it, Him divided up, and Father, Son,
and Holy Spirit actively have to be in our salvation, in our
redemption, and called. And we're going to look at that
in that The more I looked into the the
word called that part of it by the Holy Spirit the bigger it
got in We're gonna try to keep it to one lesson as far as the
thought and before we move on in the book, but that Them that are truly standing
upon the finished work of the Savior and the everlasting from
eternity church that are kept in him, called by the Holy Spirit
unto faith and knowledge of these things, and kept in and through
the righteousness of Christ in us, the hope of glory. We know
that the calling of the Holy Spirit of His people is supremely
necessary to our salvation. It's not just an academic knowledge. It can't be learned. It's not a learned thing. It's
of the Holy Spirit that puts life in His people. And we're
going to look at several passages and what the Scripture has to
say about this and the necessity of it. And it's not called by
someone else, or the calling can't be of any earthly being. And as we're going to see in
several places, it's not by our willing or doing, but the Holy
Spirit that calls His people. We're going to start in the book
of John. I'm going to look through several
passages, but in the book of John, I'd like to look at several
places that deals with this. In John chapter And on your own time, read before
and after this section here, but through the book of John,
it speaks a lot about the salvation of his people and how it comes
about. And starting with verse 11 and reading down a ways, it
said, He came unto his own, and his own received him not. but
as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons
of God, even to them that believe on his name, which were born,
not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor the will of
man, but of God." And this here, the receiving here is not as
commonly in a lot of religion how received is scripturally. And we'll see that as it says
it's of God. And it's not a, here's an offer
we give you and you receive it or you don't receive it. It is a taking in that's caused
by God. And it says, we'll look and see
it. The new birth is not only necessity, but it's not of our doing. It's of our receiving
and our receiving and not receiving in that we say, yeah, we'll take
it. It's of God makes his people
willing in that time and his power. And it's not a dragging
his people in. It's a change of heart in that
direction. And we'll see that in the passages
here. And then in chapter three, And
obviously all these passages and books are of a whole and
not... pieces as we have to look at
them, but don't forget that these are a whole context also that
has to be there. By time, we're not going to-because
of time, we're not going to do it. But in chapter 3 of John,
starting with the first verse and reading down a bit, it says,
there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the
Jews. The same came to Jesus by night and said unto him, Rabbi,
we know that thou art a teacher come from God, for no man can
do these miracles that thou doest except God be with him. Jesus
answered and said unto him, verily, verily, I say unto thee, except
a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. Nicodemus
saith unto him, how can a man be born when he is old? Can he
enter the second time into his mother's womb and be born? Jesus
answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born
of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom
of God. That which is born of the flesh
is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Marvel
not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again. The wind
bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof,
but cannot tell whence it cometh and whither it goeth. So is every
one that is born of the Spirit. Nicodemus answered and said unto
him, How can these things be? And Jesus answered, verse 10,
and said, Art thou a master of Israel? And knowest not these
things? And that passage here to Nicodemus, the necessity that
is being born from above by the Spirit, it has nothing to do
with what the will of the flesh, it says, is. That is completely
in God's domain and His power alone to do that. And this
will happen to everyone As Jude said, them that are sanctified
are set apart by the Father, and those that are preserved
in Christ in time, they will be called that they know it. that they will know that. It's
not if the Spirit, as we'll see, bears witness with us that we
are the sons of God. And here where he says, in verse
10, he says, art thou a master of Israel and knowest not these
things. That could be said to a lot of
religious people these days that put themselves up as preachers
or prophets or whatever they may call themselves, and don't
know the first thing about spiritual birth. they deny that by putting
it in man's realm. That here's the offer that God
is putting out there, now what are you going to do with it?
By nature, we know that man will scorn it. It's foolishness, as
we'll see in another place. But God is determined by the
foolishness to natural man of preaching that his people will
be brought in. The Spirit takes that word, that
gospel, and makes it true and living in his people. And it's
a necessity. There's no down the road somewhere
something else happening. If a person is set apart by God,
All the church, and as Christ said, and we saw in John 17 in
those messages that we had by Brother Wayne, that he will lose none of them. And
it didn't mean physically lose them. It meant all those would
be drawn by the Spirit and would be given the new birth. And then
in chapter six of John, we're not going to go all the
way through John and all the different places, but in chapter
6 to look at a few things. We're going to start at verse
26. It says, John 6, 26, it says, Jesus answered them and said,
verily, verily, I say unto you, you seek me not because you saw
the miracles, because you did eat of the loaves and were filled.
Labor not for the meat which perisheth, but for that meat
which endureth unto everlasting life, which the Son of Man shall
give unto you, for him hath God the Father sealed. Then said
they unto him, what shall we do that we might work the works
of God? Jesus answered and said unto
them, This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he
hath sent. Now, this verse 29, they ask,
what should we do to work the works of God? And here, this
puts the work of God where it belongs. It is God's work that
you believe on him whom he hath said. That is the working of
God. That is not man's working at
all. This takes the work part that
man can do in salvation completely away. This one verse does. This
is the work of God, putting life in men. This is the work of God,
that ye believe on him whom he has sent. You can't argue it
in, you can't teach it in. You can make men understand the
words of it, but here it says, it is the work of God. Now that's
pretty hard to refute or to argue with by itself even. And connecting that with what
Christ said to Nicodemus about the spirit doing this, the spirit
that causes life, and here it again says that, that it's God's
work. And so many men today, the word
will be brought out and man will have a work in it according to
their gospel. According to this gospel, we
should be and we must preach that that's God's work. And God
is about that work to those that he has set apart. It does take
place. And then down to verse 32, it
says, then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you,
Moses gave you not that bread from heaven, but my father giveth
you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is he which
cometh down from heaven and giveth life unto the world. Then said they unto him, Lord
evermore, give us this bread. And Jesus said unto them, I am
the bread of life. He that cometh to me shall never
hunger, and he that believeth on me shall never thirst. But
I said unto you that ye also have seen me, and believe not.
All that the Father giveth me shall come to me, and him that
cometh to me I will in no wise cast out. For I came down from
heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent
me. And this is the Father's will which hath sent me, that
all of which he hath given me I should lose nothing, but should
raise it up again at the last day. And this is the will of
him that sent me, that everyone which seeth the Son, and believeth
on him, may have everlasting life. and I will raise him up
at the last day.' Then the Jews murmured at him, because he said,
I am the bread which come down from heaven. And they said, Is
not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know?
How is it then that he saith, I came down from heaven? Jesus
therefore answered and said unto him, murmur not among yourselves,
no man can come to me except the Father which has sent me
draw him, and I will raise him up at the last day." And again, as it says here, he's
the bread of life, and the Father draws him and must
draw him to them. And then one more spot here in
the chapter six of John, skip down to verse 63. We're going
to pick this up again and not to obviously to leave out that
in between about the bread of life who the Lord recounts again
and tells them of this. But in verse 63, it said, It's
the spirit that quickeneth, the flesh profiteth nothing. The words that I speak unto you,
they are spirit and they are life. But there are some of you
that believe not. For Jesus knew from the being
who they were that would that believe not and who should betray
him. And he said, therefore, said
I unto you that no man can come unto me except it were given
him of my father. And also, as he teaches you,
those that the Father has given him The Spirit is that which quickeneth,
and the Spirit will quicken and does quicken His people in His
time. And again, that it's not of the
flesh, it's not, as he says here, the Spirit, verse 63, the Spirit
that quickeneth, the flesh profiteth nothing. The words that I speak
unto you, they are spirit and they are life. Again, the Spirit has to cause
that life to take place in these people. And these are passages that we
hold to many times and turn to for these thoughts because they're
so powerful and they speak to God's people and about the power
and the working of God. In Romans, the eighth chapter,
a couple of places. And again, these are not newly
discovered passages by any means, but ones that we hold dear. In Romans chapter 8, starting
with Well, let's start with verse
1 and reading down just a little bit. It says, There is therefore
now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk
not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. For the law of the
Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law
of sin and death. For what the law could not do,
in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son
in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin condemned sin in
the flesh, that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled
in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. For they that are after the flesh
do mind the things of the flesh, but they that are after the spirit,
the things of the spirit. For to be carnally minded is
death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Because
the carnal mind is enmity against God, for it is not subject to
the law of God, neither indeed can be. So they, then they that
are in the flesh cannot please God. that in itself, again, that... Thank you. Here, the carnal mind
cannot please Him. The flesh cannot do it. It can't
be done in the flesh. It says, these are after the
Spirit, the things of the Spirit. And then in verse 8, So then they that are in the
flesh cannot please God, Romans 8, verse 9. But ye are not in
the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God
dwell in you. Now, if any man have not the
Spirit of Christ, he is none of his. And if Christ be in you,
the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life because
of righteousness. But if the Spirit of him that
raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, He that raised
up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies
by his Spirit that dwelleth in you. Therefore, brethren, we
are debtors not to the flesh to live after the flesh. For
if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die. But if ye through
the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live. For
as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of
God. For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to
fear, but ye have received the spirit of adoption, whereby we
cry, Abba, Father. the Spirit itself beareth witness
with our spirit that we are the children of God. And if children,
then heirs, heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ, if so
be that we suffer with him, that we may be glorified together."
And here, again in this passage, those things that we have in Christ are by the
Spirit of Christ, by the Spirit of God. And it said the Spirit
is the life because of righteousness, of His righteousness. But that
has to be revealed and is revealed in God's people, and it's by
no other means. And as it says here, above here,
that there's the flesh profiteth nothing,
as we read before, and again in here, in this here, that the
carnal mind, it says, is enmity is enmity against God, for it's
not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. Natural
man can't be brought into subjection by teaching or by any other method
but by the preaching of the gospel in the Spirit, making that life
and making that real in his people. And the Spirit, it says, beareth
witness with our spirit that we are the children of God. No
other man can tell you that. Only God Himself can tell you
that and put that in His people. And down in verse, and like I
say, not to skip out, skip many, many things in here, but that
the Spirit does for His people in Romans 8, but verse 8, back
to verse 28, It says, and we know that all
things work together for good to them that love God, to them
who are the called according to His purpose. For whom he did foreknow, he
also did predestinate, to be conformed to the image of his
Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover,
whom he did predestinate, them he also called. And whom he called,
them he also justified. And whom he justified, them he
also glorified. What shall we then say to these
things? If God be for us, who can be
against us?" And this passage we hang on to as the rest of the gospel, but
we know that it says here that all things work together for
good to them that love God, to them who are the called according
to His purpose. We know that, and by His Spirit,
we believe those things. Sometimes in the flesh, it's
tough to hang on to those things and to keep those in sight, but
He brings those back to mind to us, and that things, and it's
not that all things work together as we've seen in Numbers, as
we've seen in Esther, in the book of Luke that Micah was in,
all those places where those things work to the ultimate good
of God's people. It doesn't mean, like is preached
by a lot, good health and wealth all the time, or any time. May not ever have good health
or wealth, but those aren't the things that, when it speaks here,
work together for good to them. Work together for good to them
is when His Spirit reveals Himself to us. regenerates his people,
and then gives us the assurances that we have from his word and
by his spirit. And then one, just one other spot in Romans in chapter 11, And there's a couple of verses
here that you'll have to read through the whole of the chapter. There's a couple of verses like
other scriptures that people make things of that aren't here.
But in verse 29, it says here, just in 1129, talks about those of the covenant,
and it says, for the gifts and calling of God are without repentance. and the gifts, those things that
he provides his people, the righteousness that is imputed to his people,
the standing that we have in Christ, all the many things that
that entails and means to us, and calling of God, of his people,
that spirit revealing himself to us without repentance. And doesn't mean that God's,
doesn't mean that like we think of God, may change his mind on
these things, but they're without any variableness or any changing
to them. And another passage that we have
that says, in Christ, all things are yea and amen. Those things
that God's people have, that spiritual life that God gives
his people is not on again, off again. We may see that as Paul
does. It may look on again, off again
to us at times, but it is not, it is there. In verse 36, just with that same thought,
of him and through him and to him are all things to whom be
glory forever, amen. And those things, the calling
of his people in, those are for our ultimate good, obviously,
but for his honor and glory that these things are done. and not
any other purpose or reasoning. Turn over another book to 1 Corinthians. This, I can remember back when
I always thought, and it still kind of comes to mind, about
the book of Corinthians, both of them. Corinthians had some
trouble, and so Paul's gonna slap him around a little bit,
you know, and straighten him out. He does do that and calls
on some of the issues, but he always turns them to Christ and
turns them to spiritual things and not the physical things.
and puts their mind back on where it belongs. And again, he uses those issues in those times,
if you read there, as a starting point to getting to what the
Lord is to his people and what the answer to issues are, and
that what God's wisdom does in and
for his people and is to his people. So in 1 Corinthians,
in the first chapter of 1 Corinthians, It says, starting with 1 Corinthians
1, Paul called an apostle of Jesus Christ, through the will
of God, in Sothenes, our brother, unto the church of God, which
is at Corinth, to them that are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called
to be saints with all that in every place call upon the name
of Jesus Christ, our Lord, both theirs and ours. So as Jude,
this starts out speaking to who he's talking to. He's not talking
to just a group of people. He's talking to the church of
God that is at Corinth. Those that are, it says, sanctified
in Christ Jesus, called to be saints, in every place that call
upon the name of Jesus Christ, our Lord, both theirs and ours.
And as we're going to see a little later on in Jude, further lessons
and times as we look in there about the faith that was once
delivered to the saints. and to the common faith of those
that call upon our Lord, both theirs and ours. And we'll see
how Jude speaks to that, and so does Mark in that gospel. And I was reading in one of the
commentaries, and it speaks about the men writing the word, and
it said in one place that Paul might have had the mind to write
kind of this direction, but then he was corrected on this. I think
when God gave them the word that he gave them, there was no-I
don't think there was any negotiation back and forth about what he
wanted to say. Their personality may have come out in some of
the writings, but Paul in many of them wrote a lot of letters
that were not in Scripture that we have. In those, if he had
a mind to write something, that was a different issue, but in
the Scriptures as we have them, They are God's word that were
put down by these men. It says holy men of God wrote
as they were moved along by the Holy Spirit. It's not their word,
and it wasn't Paul would have rather written something different.
I don't believe that for a minute. I think on that point, that brother
was a little bit said more than he knew about in that, because
I believe that all of the scriptures, whether it's the book of Esther
or whichever one we're looking at, those are God's words that
we have, and those people that wrote them down, that he had
write them, those prophets or whoever they were, they wrote
as God directed to write, and I think they knew whose word
it was, didn't take credit for it, and I think that it was how
God intended it. In 1 Corinthians, the second
chapter, starting with verse 9 and just a few verses It says,
but as it is written, I hath not seen nor e'er heard, neither
have entered into the heart of man the things which God hath
prepared for them that love him. But God hath revealed them to
us by His Spirit, for the Spirit searches all things, yea, the
deep things of God. For what man knoweth the things
of a man save the spirit of a man which is in him? Even so, the
things of God knoweth no man but the Spirit of God." I'm going
to stop for just a second there. We're going to read on for a
little bit, but it says here in verse 11, "'For what man knoweth
the things of a man save the Spirit of man which is in him?
Even so, the things of God knoweth no man but the Spirit of God.'"
Those are not naturally ascertained or brought out or thought. Even reading through the scriptures,
we can understand the language of it, but if God doesn't reveal
to us what is really there, we can often see it as a nice story
or something and miss the point of it if he doesn't reveal it
to us. And I've said this before too,
there's an artist that paints these pictures with the forest
of the trees. and there's horses and stuff
back in there. I cannot see those horses and stuff in those paintings.
I've looked at them. I think Norman's got one or two
of them. And I've looked at them, and I have to take his word for
it that they're there, because I cannot see that. And he could
be pulling my leg, but I don't think so. But same way as it
says here, we know no things of the Spirit, but by the Spirit,
it's not... So people that have been quote,
in the way a long time and think they know stuff because they've
been in the way a long time, I think they need to maybe reevaluate
where that knowledge came from. And what did the Lord even say
to Peter? He said, flesh and blood didn't
reveal these things to you, but my spirit had done that. And verse 12 here. 1 Corinthians 2, verse 12. Now
we have received not the spirit of the world, but the spirit
which is of God, that we might know the things that are freely
given to us of God. which things also we speak, not
in the words which man's wisdom teaches, but which the Holy Ghost
teacheth, comparing spiritual things with spiritual. But the
natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God,
for they are foolishness unto him. Neither can he know them,
because they are spiritually discerned. But he that is spiritual
judges all things, yet he himself is judged of no man. For who
hath known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ."
And up here, another verse that could be made much of all by
itself, verse 12, we have received not the spirit of the world,
but the Spirit which is of God, that we might know the things
that are freely given to us of God." We can read the words of
the things where we stand in Christ and those things, but
we cannot truly know the meaning of those things or understand
much of that or any of that without the Spirit that it says, which
is of God, that we might know the things that are freely given
to us of God. So even those things that we
have in our redemption, we know in part, a small part of it actually,
and only that that the Spirit reveals to us that we understand.
I think that God reveals a lot to his people, but there's a
lot that by our intellect we cannot understand. And as it
says here, that natural man can't receive it, but God's people
receive it by His Spirit and by His Spirit alone. And I think
we need to, that's something I need to keep in mind that you
can't just learn something to teach people from the scriptures.
You can learn the words of it, but He has to reveal those things
to us. And then We could speak in... I've got a
lot of places here. We're going to look at Ephesians. I'm going to go to the book of
Ephesians, and not to skip by Galatians or other places, but
in the book of Ephesians, first chapter, much in the first chapter of
Ephesians as all of Scripture, but let's look at verses, start
with verse 17 for a thought. that the God of our Lord Jesus
Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit
of wisdom and revelation and the knowledge of him, the eyes
of your understanding being enlightened that you may know what is the
hope of his calling and what is the riches of his inheritance
in the saints. And verse 19, what is the exceeding
greatness of His power to us who believe according to the
working of His mighty power, which He wrought in Christ when
He raised Him from the dead and set Him at His own right hand
in the heavenly places. And here where it says, spirit of wisdom and revelation
in the knowledge of him, the eyes of your understanding being
enlightened that you may know what is the hope of his calling,
and what is the riches of his inheritance in the saints, and
what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us who believe
according to the working of his mighty power. And it speaks more
of our Lord there. But here, those things attributed
to anything that we have a grasp of, those things that we know
what is the hope of our calling, those things that we know what
we have in inheritance of the saints. We only know those things
by Him revealing to us. Like I said, we can know the
words of it, but much more than that, and any more than that,
the Spirit has to reveal it to us. One more spot in Ephesians here,
and we're going to wrap this up for today. In Chapter
2, In chapter 2, we're going to
read the first 11 verses there, and go on and read the rest of
that chapter on your own. But it says in Ephesians 2, verse
1, And you hath he quickened who were dead in trespasses and
sins, wherein in time past ye walked according to the course
of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air,
the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience.
among whom also we all had our conversation in times past, in
the lust of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and
the mind, and we're by nature the children of wrath, even as
others." A point there, before we move on, it says, we're by
nature the children of wrath, even as others. By nature the
children of wrath, not the children of wrath. as we were always in Christ. But God, verse four, who's rich
in mercy for his great love, where when he loved us, even
when we were dead in sins, quickened us together with Christ, by grace
are you saved, and hath raised us up together and made us to
sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. that the ages
to come he might show the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness
toward us through Christ Jesus. For by grace are you saved through
faith, and that not of yourselves, it's the gift of God. Not of
works, lest any man should boast. For we are his workmanship, created
in Christ Jesus under good works. which God hath before ordained
that we should walk in them. Wherefore, in verse 11, remember
that you being in time past Gentiles in the flesh, who are called
uncircumcision by that which is called the circumcision, in
the flesh, made by hands, that in that time ye were without
Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers
from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God
in the world. But now in Christ Jesus ye who
were sometimes far off are made nigh, by the blood of Christ. For he is our peace, who hath
made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition
between us." I'm going to stop there at that. But the point of that being that
when we were dead, He saved us and gave us that faith. We could
go on in other passages, and in the book of Hebrews, all those
men and people that it said by faith they did these things,
That faith was that given by God. That was the same calling
that we're speaking of about regeneration. Those people did
that. If they did anything by any faith,
it was by that faith that was given them of God. And so here
in the book of Jude, as we finish with that, with what we're going
to look at in verse one there, that complete thought of God's
people there and where it says, to them that are sanctified by
God the Father, preserved in Jesus Christ and called. And
next time we'll look at verse two. And with that, like other
Mike says from time to time, be free. Thank you.