And I want to look at this third verse, and
I'm going to just go over it almost word for word and deal
with this verse of Scripture. I feel like the Lord gave this
to me today, and I pray that it will be a blessing to you.
But the first thing He says, Beloved, Beloved, These people are beloved. First,
they're beloved of God. That's what Paul told the Romans. He says, when he wrote to the
Romans, he says, to them, to the Romans, to you that are beloved
of God. To be loved of God himself. So
unlovable, but God loves us. Beloved of God. And not only
beloved of God, but beloved of God's preachers. You know, he
says, beloved when I gave all diligence to write unto you.
These people were beloved. of Jude, people that he loved. He really loved them and he cared
for them. And God's preachers love God's
people. They love God's people. It would
be impossible for them to preach the gospel and have the love
of Christ in them and not preach in love and not have love and
not love those that they preached it. And that's what, you know,
we've got to manifest this. And it just, and it's, I think,
that all preachers love their congregations and they love all
the Lord's people. They really truly do. And then,
not only are they beloved of God and beloved of God's preachers,
but they're beloved of one another. They love one another. Our Lord
Jesus Christ said this, A new commandment I give unto you,
that you love one another, even as I have loved you. And by this
shall all men know that you are my disciples, because you have
loved one toward another, one to another. And then he says,
Beloved, when I wrote unto you, I gave all diligence. gave all
diligence. He said, I was zealous about
this. I was earnest about it. I had to deal with this situation. I had to write these things unto
you. I had to face these things. And
I was zealous about it and I was earnest about it because I love
you so much. And he said, this is what I was
so zealous about and so earnest to write unto you about is the
common salvation. common salvation that it was
needful for me to write unto you when he talks about the common
salvation you know Paul told Timothy he says you know to my
own son in the common faith and though he was an apostle he says
we have a common salvation now when he talks about common salvation
he's talking about it's common to a particular people the common
people heard our Lord Jesus Christ gladly. Now most people when
they think of something common they think it's just ordinary,
just ordinary, just nothing spectacular about it, nothing peculiar about
it, nothing particular about it. But when they talk about
the common salvation for the Lord's people, He's talking about
a salvation that all of them have and they have all this same
salvation. This salvation that God gives,
this salvation that God wrought, this salvation that God provides
is common to everyone who has it. My salvation is no different
than yours. And yours is no different than
mine. That's what he's saying. And so you see, we have this
common salvation. We're all chosen by the same
God. All chosen, all elected by the
same God. All chosen by the same grace.
Every one of us, all of us have the same Christ. We don't have
a different Christ. We all have the same Christ,
all believe the same Christ. When Peter told them and on the
day of Pentecost there in Acts chapter 4 and he says there is
no other name given under heaven among men whereby we must be
saved other than Jesus Christ. Now we all got that in common.
We all know that there's no other name. We all know that there's
no other Christ. We all know that there's no other
Savior. We all know that this Savior
is the only Savior that can save a sinner. And I know some, and
there's people, Jesus Christ is saying today, yesterday, and
forever. There's some people say, well,
you're too dogmatic about that. I'm not dogmatic about it. God's
dogmatic about it. He says, no man comes unto the
Father but by me. Our Lord Jesus Christ said, except
you believe I am He, you'll die in your sins. So we all have
been chosen by the same grace. All have the same Lord Jesus
Christ. And there's never been a Savior
but Christ. And you know this is the thing
about it. We have the same salvation that Abel had. We have the same
salvation that Noah had. We have the same salvation that
Enoch had. We have the same salvation that
Abraham had. We have the same salvation that
Isaac had. We have the same salvation that
everybody that's ever been saved has. That's why it's common.
It's just common to the Lord's people. We have the same salvation that
the Apostle Paul had. We believe exactly what the Apostle
Paul believed. Saved by the same God that saved
him. Saved by the same grace that
saved him. Called by the same Spirit that
called him. Humbled by the same Spirit of
God that humbled him. We accompany high cotton when
we're talking about this common salvation. It's common for all
the Lord's people. And we all have been saved by
the same power, the same power that took to save you, save me,
and save every man that's ever been saved. It takes the power
of God to save a man. Not by might, not by strength,
not by might, not by power, but by my Spirit, saith the Lord.
And we've all been washed in the same blood, We all trust
in a Savior that fulfilled the law in our behalf. We're all
justified by the same Spirit. And to be justified, to be justified
in God's sight, for God to look at you and say, you are clear
in my sight. I justify you from all guilt,
all crimes, all sin, all offenses, everything that you've ever done,
I justify you from it. You've never done anything. You're
perfect as far as I'm concerned. You're a just man in my sight.
Now how in the world can that be? But we all got that. We all have the same faith. We all have the same precious
faith. Call it precious faith. A priest
told me that a few weeks ago. Precious faith. Whether it's
weak or whether it's strong. He didn't say you had to have
strong faith to be a believer. He didn't say you had to have
weak faith. He said if you had the faith of a grain of mustard seed.
So whether it's weak, whether it's strong, whether sometimes
you think you've got it, sometimes you think you ain't. It don't
make any difference. We all have the same faith. And all are under
the same rule. Now I want you to watch this
now. You keep Jude and look over here with me in Galatians chapter
6. We're all governed and all are
under the same rule. Now, you know, when we start
talking about rules, that kind of throws people in a loop, you
know. We live by a rule. We got rules. I'll talk about one rule that
we all live by. It says here, Galatians 5.16,
excuse me. 6.16, I'll get it right in a
minute. Galatians 6.16. as many as walk according to
this rule peace on them and mercy and upon the Israel of God now
what rules he talking about walking by a rule and a rule you know
it's a principle it's a guidance it's a thing that you lay the
plummet to the line and that rule goes out that way and look
what I'll tell you what it is look here in verse 14 This is
the rule we walk by. God forbid that I should glory
save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ by whom the world
is crucified unto me and I unto the world. For in Christ Jesus
neither circumcision availeth anything nor uncircumcision but
a new creature. We all walk by that same rule.
We glory in the cross we are in the cross and we are in Christ
Jesus no matter what condition we are circumcised or uncircumcised
don't make any difference we walk according to that rule oh
my and then we are members of the same body now look in Ephesians
chapter 4 now we are all under the same rule and oh my members
of the same body this is what we are talking about this common
salvation We all have these things in common. Now you start talking
to a freewheeler and you start talking to a Pentecostal and
we ain't got nothing in common with them. That's another way. We have nothing in common with
them. Nothing in common with them.
When you start laying down to the plummet that there ain't
but one God and one Savior And one way of being saved. And one
way that God deals with a man. And when you start putting down
one, one, one, one, one, folks start saying, boy, you're making
it too narrow. We don't make it narrow. God does. And look
what he said here in Ephesians 4. In verse 4. That's why it's not confusing
to us. If you've got just one, you can't be confused over one,
can you? There is, Ephesians 4.4, there is one body and one
spirit, as you are called in one hope, as you call it, one
Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father who is above
all, through all and in you all. That's one. How in the world
can anybody be mixed up about that? We all have that in common.
We all believe in one. We're all in the same body, by
the same spirit. We all have the same Lord. We
all have the same Father. We all have the same faith. Everything. And then back over here in Jude
3, look what he says. Oh my, he says, Beloved, when
I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation,
dealt with that. It was needful for me to write
unto you. It's needful for me to write
unto you. What made it necessary for him to write? Because of
the great love that he had for them, because of the zeal he
had for the Lord Jesus Christ, and because of the truth. He
wanted the truth to be made manifest. And another reason why it was
necessary and needful for him to write was because of the great
danger of heresy. The great danger of heresy. Look
what he said in verse 4 here. For there are certain men crept
in unawares. People wasn't aware of what kind
of people these were. What kind of preachers these
were. What kind of men they were. They crept in. They snuck in. They didn't come in boldly. They
didn't come in powerfully. They didn't come in letting everybody
know what their intention was. They slipped in. They crept in.
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. Oh my! So it's needful for me to write
unto you because the great danger of heresy. You know our Lord
Jesus Christ says if it were possible Now this is how bad
it's going to get in the last days and we're there. He said,
if it was possible, they would deceive the very elect. That's
how slick men are today. If it was possible, they'd deceive
the very elect. But even then, he says, not another
reason why it's needful for me to write to you, because God
has seasons of warnings and seasons of trials. And it's necessary
for me to write unto you. That's what Simon Peter told
the saints he wrote to. He said, if need be, you are
in heaviness through manifold or great temptations and great
trials. And you know there's some things
that's necessary to happen to us. Necessary as need be that
things happen to us. You know, Paul on the Damascus
Road. It was necessary that Paul be
put down on the Damascus Road. That's necessary. That's the
way God said what I'm going to have to do to this proud Pharisee,
this self-righteous Pharisee, this God-hating, Christ-rejecting,
Christ-hating Jew is to put him in such a condition that he ain't
got no place to go but to me. And God did. God blinded him
and kept him blind for three days. And then beloved, then after
that, it was necessary for him to stand up on Mars Hill. In
Greece, stand up on that big hill and altars everywhere. Great
big temples and altars, altars, altars, altars, altars. You go
through the book of Chronicles and Kings and look about. How
many altars Israel would make of different gods? I read about
one today who went to wizards, enchanters, witchcraft, set up
every kind of altar he could to every god in case he missed
one. On Manasseh. And I'll tell you
what, here's what happened. God put him down on Damascus
road so that one day he'd stand up on Mars hills and said, oh,
they come down these philosophers to hear and tell some new thing.
Paul stood up and said, men, I perceive in all things you're
just way, way, way too religious. For I see altars all over the
place here. This place is full of idols. But he said, there's an altar
right here that has an inscription on it to the unknown God. That's what I'm going to tell
you about. The one you don't know. You said, in case I missed
him, I'll write one to the one unknown. The one unknown to you,
that's what I'm going to tell you about. And beloved, that's
why it's necessary for him to do that. And then, you know,
it's necessary for him to be put in jail in Philippi. You
know why? So a Philippian jailer could
be saved. Now, how would you like to be
put in jail? Not only is he put in jail, but
he's put in spats. You know what? You can go up
to Williamsburg, Virginia. And they got that old town up
there, you know, like it was back in the revolution days,
early days of our country. And they got stocks up there.
And you go get in there and put them stocks down over your head
and over your hands. And you stand there and get your
picture took in them, you know. But, you know, you can pick them
things up and even turn yourself loose. Paul couldn't get loose.
But God, it was necessary for God to put him there. so a whole
family could be converted, be saved. God's ways past our ways. And that's why I said it's needful,
necessary for me to write unto you. And I tell you, beloved,
there's a lot of need be's that's going to have to happen. It has
happened and will happen. We must all deal with everything
that comes our way. And it's necessary that we preach
doctrine and the truth over and over and over again. and deal
with our generation's sins of today. And that's why Peter says,
brethren, I write unto you and put you in remembrance, though
you know these things. And that's why we say the same
things over and over and over. Do you ever get wore out with
it? I don't get tired saying the same old thing. Just try
to find a different place to say it. Then look what he says
now. He said, write unto you, it's
necessary for me to write unto you and exhort you. Now listen
to this. That you should earnestly contend
for the faith once delivered to the saints. To earnestly contend
for the faith. You notice it didn't say just
contend. It said don't just be contending
for the sake of contending. It's not contend just for anything. It's something specific that
we're to contend for. And you know what that is that
we're to contend for? The faith. The faith which was
delivered unto the saints. I read it to you over at Ephesians
for one faith, one Lord, one faith, one baptism. And when
we talk about faith, there's two things about faith that I'll
talk about. First of all, there's the doctrine
of faith. You know, if you go check in a hospital or go in
the military or something like that, they'll ask you, what's
your faith is? What is your faith? Well, now if I was to go in,
I'd say, well, my faith is free grace. But what
in the world is that? I wouldn't say Baptist. I wouldn't
say Methodist. I'd have to say, going now, I'd
say, I believe in the free grace of God. I believe in Christ. My faith is Christ. And then
you know, so that's the doctrine of faith. The doctrine of faith. One faith. A doctrine that this
people have one faith. It's the doctrine of faith. And
faith is what? The body of truth that we believe. That's the doctrine of faith.
Oh, the body of truth. And you know what the body of
truth is? It's contained in this whole book. And we embrace everything
in this even though we don't understand it, a lot of it we
don't know about it. But beloved, we believe every single word
of it. And we'll hug it and hold it
to our hearts and our souls and we'll go into eternity believing
what God said. Believing what God taught us,
the faith that God gave. And then the other faith is the
faith that God by grace gave us. That's another faith. So
we contend for the doctrine of faith The doctrine that this
whole body of truth that we believe that is our faith. And then the
gift of the grace of faith that Christ gives us. And both, both
are too precious and too good to be lost. You know all it takes
for a man is to hurt the doctrine of faith is to bring in just
a little bitty tiny bit of lemon. And nobody won't even see it
be put in the bread, in that faith. Next thing you know, it
starts swelling up. So it's so important that we
stay with what the Bible tells us we are to believe. What we
are to believe. And then, oh, thank God for the
grace that He gives us. Both of them are too good to
be lost. Faith, it means sound doctrine. And listen to me now,
I'm telling you something here. And the sound doctrine and faith
is what's necessary for a person to believe. It's what's necessary
for a person to believe. And faith is what we've been
given to believe. Now there are some things that's
absolutely necessary for a person to believe. You cannot be saved.
Now listen to me, I'm telling you, this is the truth. Would
God make himself known any other way than he is? Can he reveal
himself any other way than he is? So how can a man know God
if he don't know that he's sovereign, that he's omnipotent, that he's
all powerful? How can a man believe God who
he has to bow to? A God that's not sovereign is
not God. A God who has all power is not
God. A God who has to wait on us is
not God. And God reveals Himself the way,
and you go through these epistles here, and the first thing those
preachers start saying, God! God in the beginning, God! It's
God who has saved us. It's God who has elected us.
Thanks be unto God. And God reveals Himself the way
He is, and if that's necessary, if you believe, that's the first
thing, if you believe God as He is, everything else will come
into place. You'll bow to Him, and whatever
He says, if He says you're a sinner, yes! You trust my Son, and I'll
justify you. I'll do it! You believe me and I'll keep
you. And even though your faith fails you, I won't fail you. And if you get that, if you see
God as He is, you'll bow down and worship Him and everything.
You'll know then, you know when you know God's omnipotent, you
know you ain't got any power at all. That's the first thing
when you see God as He is, you'll see yourself as you are and there
ain't nothing to you. And if God don't do something
for you, it ain't gonna be done. That's what you know. I mean,
that's necessary to believe. If you know that, the rest of
it will come into place, won't it? And oh, beloved, and then
it was delivered. We should contend for the faith
which once was delivered. Now listen, who was it first
delivered to? First it was delivered to our
Lord Jesus Christ. Our Lord Jesus Christ brought
this faith. Our Lord Jesus Christ is our
faith. The Lord Jesus Christ is whom
we believe. The Lord Jesus Christ is the
one who died for us. The Lord Jesus Christ is the
one who works us in his blood. And then our Lord Jesus Christ
delivered him to his apostles. And he delivered him to his apostles.
And his apostles turned around and Paul said, first of all,
that which I received, what did I do? He said, I delivered it
unto you. I gave it to you. And oh, beloved. And it's been given to us. It's not something that's invented. Not something that is finished.
Not something that says, oh, I discovered something. I discovered
the grace of God. I discovered God. Listen, there ain't no discovery
in this. It's revelation. And I'll tell
you what, this faith was once delivered unto Christ, to the
apostles, and then it was delivered unto us and it was given to us
to do what with it? To keep it. Contend for it. To
keep this faith. To keep it. Guard it. Protect
it. Honor it. Believe it. Bow to
it. Submit to it. And oh my. And it says it's delivered to
the saints. Abel had this faith. Noah had this faith. Enoch had
this faith. Ruth had this faith. Abraham
had it. Isaiah had it. Abraham rejoiced
to see my day and saw it and was glad. And you know what it's
called? This doctrine of faith was delivered
to the saints. It's called the Word of Faith.
Paul said in Romans 10, he says, this is the Word of Faith which
we preach unto you. And you know what the Word of
Faith is? That if a man believes in his
heart, he believes in his heart unto righteousness, he believes
that Christ is his righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses
the Lord Jesus Christ. Now that's what we preach the
Word of Faith. We preach don't do, but believe. and then he goes on to say that
with the heart man believeth unto righteousness with the mouth
confessions made unto salvation well how in the world does this
faith come from? faith cometh by hearing hearing by the word
of God and that's why we preach that's why he preaches what Brad
preaches and anybody preaches they preach the word of faith
believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved and if
you believe in your heart unto righteousness And what righteousness
is there? The righteousness is in Christ.
And oh my. And faith, the faith of the gospel. Paul said that we labor together
for the furtherance of the faith of the gospel. And here in Jude
verse 20, look what it says here. It's called our holy faith. But
ye, beloved, building up yourselves on your most holy faith. Oh my. Faith is holy. You're not holy, but the faith
that's in you is. And let me get real quickly,
give you, go through the faith. What we would call the faith.
The things that we believe. That was delivered to us. And
the first thing that I would say is that there's one God.
One God. But He's in three persons. He's
in three persons. One God with three persons. Every
single one of them is God. But there's only one God. What
makes them different? God the Father gave His Son. His only begotten Son. Sent Him
into this world. And He became God. He was God
when He got here. And then He became a man. Once
He became a man, He'll never cease being a man. But He didn't
cease to be God when He became a man. And then there's the Holy
Ghost. and he is a person and he does
a work. The Holy Father sent the Son
to save his people. The Holy Spirit comes and makes
that salvation known unto the same people Christ died for and
works that salvation in them. We believe that. And then here's
another thing about the faith. Man's state and condition by
nature. What is it by nature? I was reading
today about different kinds of faith beliefs that people have
about man's state and condition. Everybody believes that man's
born a sinner. And some believe that our media
truly believes that a man's not guilty and held responsible for
his sin until he comes of age. And when he becomes of age where
he can know right and wrong and has some ability to reject the
truth, then God will deal with him. But that won't work. How could
that possibly work? If he is born in sin and shaped
in iniquity, you'll grow up to be a sinner. You're going to
be true to your nature. Water is wet. A sinner is a sinner. And the only thing, we know that
by nature. So if we're that way by nature,
well then the only help that we have and the only hope that
we have is God the Holy Spirit comes and gives us a new nature
and the new birth and creates us new creatures. That's another
part of the faith. That God himself comes and that's
what we do. We believe in a new birth. There's
nothing causes God to give us a new birth. He doesn't look
at us and say, well, I know they're going to be a good Christian.
I know they'll believe and I know they'll repent. No, no. He comes
and gives life. And when he gives life, then
we believe and then we repent. A dead man can't believe and
a dead man can't repent. He's got to give life first.
And here's another thing about the faith. The inspiration of
the Holy Scripture. Anybody believe that this Bible
wasn't God breathed? Every word of it. Every single word of it. This
is God breathed. God wrote this book. He used
men to write it, but it's God who wrote it. Holy men of God
spanked as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. And then, another
thing of the faith is that the grace of God in our salvation.
If salvation isn't altogether of the grace of God, not one
soul on the top side of God's earth would ever, ever be saved.
Nobody. If God doesn't do it all, no
soul will ever be saved. God took care of my sin before
I ever existed. God gave me grace before I ever
existed. And God will keep me believing
as long as He's on His throne. and I need the grace of God as
much then as I do now and if He lets me live tomorrow, I'll
still absolutely know that salvation is by grace. I have contributed
nothing to my salvation. I haven't contributed the first
prayer. I haven't contributed faith. I haven't contributed
a work. I haven't contributed a tear.
I ain't contributed nothing to my salvation. Christ did it all
by Himself. And it's that way to start with.
It's going to be that way when I get in glory. When I get in
glory, it'll be just like it is here. He did it all. All to
Him I owe. Now that's the faith we're talking
about. And oh my, justified by the blood
of Christ. Only one righteousness we have
and Christ is our righteousness. God gives us this righteousness.
And oh beloved, We believe in sanctification. Christ made us
holy. We believe in final perseverance. Bo Bruce calls it perseverance. And that's the way to say it.
Preserve and persevere in one word. Perseverance. You know, you say that all the
time. Somebody told me you said it wrong. I'm going to tell you,
Bruce, you said it right. Perseverance. Preserved in Christ
and we keep on keeping on because you know why we keep on keeping
on God won't let us do anything else If he lets us go we're going
just like that And all we believe in the return of Christ He's
coming again And he's coming after us. We believe with the
resurrection of the dead Those that are in Christ under a resurrection
of eternal glory And those that are not in Christ are resurrection
of eternal damnation. And you know what the future,
our faith is the future of God's people. Look down here in verse
24 of Jude. Shirley has mentioned this verse
of scripture to me I believe every day this week. She quoted
to me again this afternoon. 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. That's the eternal consequences
of God's people and then there's the eternal consequences of the
condemnation of the lost. So we contend for the faith We're
going to preach it openly by God's grace, preach it boldly,
preach it faithfully, pray for its success, support it with
our gifts and with our presence. There's lots of ways we contend
for the faith. Every time you show up here to
hear the gospel, you're contending for the faith. Every time you give money to
support the gospel, support a man who's preaching the gospel, you're
contending for the faith. You ain't going to go out there
and give somebody and contending for the faith, are you? No, no. You know that fellow that robs
a bank and the guy sitting out in the car, he ain't got a gun,
he ain't got nothing. The guy's running in and robbing
the bank and they get up out and jump in the car. That fellow driving
a car is going to spend just as much time in prison as that
fellow went in with a gun. And that's why we ain't gonna
support nobody but those who preach the free grace of God
in Christ. Contend for that faith. Ain't that right? Oh, our Father, oh, our Father,
blessed be your name. Oh, Lord, this faith, this precious
faith, this blessed faith, Oh, this glorious thing, this gospel
that you gave us to believe, these truths that you brought
to us, all connected, all together, all stand or fall together. And
oh Lord, we bless you that you brought it to us, you taught
it to us. And Lord, if we continue to believe, you'll keep us continuing
to believe. Lord, you keep us believing,
keep us looking, keep us praying, keep us seeking, keep us trusting,
keep us believing. Lord, we are utterly and absolutely
nothing without you. But with you, oh Lord, what a
blessed hope, what a glorious hope. What a blessed gospel. What a blessed faith you've given
us to believe. We praise you and bless you in
Christ's name. And bless these dear saints of
God. And Lord, help us all to contend for this faith by our
words, by our deeds, by our prayers, by our presence, any way we possibly
can to honor you, believing the truth for Christ's sake. Amen. Amen. Turn your eyes upon Jesus. I'll see you Sunday. God bless you.