Alright, I'm going to just deal
with verses 1 and 2 this evening if I can. Jude, the servant of
Jesus Christ, the brother of James, to them that are sanctified
by God the Father and preserved in Jesus Christ and called, mercy
unto you and peace and love be multiplied. Jude was a half-brother
of our Lord Jesus Christ. But he wasn't a believer until
in his own brother, in Christ, until after our Lord's resurrection.
And Christ appeared to him. And here he called himself a
servant of Jesus Christ. And Jude rejoiced more and regarded
his spiritual relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ more than
his earthly relationship, more than his kinship to the Lord.
And you know most of us are the same way. I know I'm speaking
for myself. I enjoy my spiritual relationship
and spend much more time with my brothers and sisters in Christ,
my preacher brethren, places, other places. I enjoy my spiritual
relations and regard them higher and rejoice in them more than
I do my own natural relations. I have much, much more in common. I'd rather spend a week with
you It's been just a day or two with the rest of them, because,
you know, what are we going to talk about? What are we talking about?
And so I'm very grateful, and that's what I want to. But I
want to look first at four ways, four ways we're God's servants,
and by way of introduction, four ways, where he says, Jude, the
servant of Jesus Christ. Now, there's four ways we're
God's servant. First way is by covenant. We're
God's servants by covenant. God calls us, and the servant
is a bond-slave. I want you to understand that
it's a bond-slave. It's someone who willingly takes this to himself.
But we're God's servant by the eternal covenant of grace. And
the eternal covenant of grace was between the Father and the
Son. We weren't in that covenant, only as we were chosen in Christ. But over here in Hebrews 13.20,
look what it says. Hebrews 13.20, back over a couple
of books to your left. And you see in verse 20, it says
this. You know, and here's the thing
about it, when you look in John chapter 17 alone, look how many
times the Lord Jesus Christ prayed and talked about those that you've
given me. those that you gave me. They were thine, you gave
them to me. I pray for them, I don't pray
for the world. I lay down my life for the sheep. As many as
the Father giveth me shall come to me, and as many as the Lord
our God shall promise and shall call." So there's a particular
people that was given to Christ in the eternal covenant of grace.
And look here in Hebrews 13, 20. Now the God of peace that
brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus Christ, that great
shepherd of the sheep, Watch this, "...through the blood of
the everlasting covenant." Because they entered into this covenant,
and part of the covenant was that Christ would be raised from
the dead, but He was given a people. And as the Father gave Him those
people, and Christ stood as a lamb slain from the foundation of
the world. So you see, beloved, God entered into this covenant.
Look over here in Hebrews 10, 29. I want you to see something
over here. Even before we were, before the
world ever was, before there was anything in this world, God
chose a people in Christ, entered into covenant with Christ for
those people. And the thing is, is that God
devised a way to save sinners, and the only way to do that was
to send His Son into this world. To do as Gary read there in Isaiah
53, to bear their sins, to bear their iniquity, to bear their
judgment. To bring them to Himself. to do all things that was necessary
for Him to redeem those people. And so when God gave them to
Him in the eternal covenant of grace, the Son came to redeem
those people, to redeem those that were given to Him in this
covenant of grace. Now, just the only way you and
I were in this is that we were in the loins of Christ and in
the election of grace by the Father. You and I didn't say,
well, I'm going to enter into a covenant with God. No, no,
God entered into a covenant with His Son, and because of that
covenant, that's the reason, beloved, that we are in Christ,
because of the covenant given to Christ in the eternal covenant
of grace. But now look what some people
do about the blood of Christ, the blood of the covenant. They
talk about Moses' law, if they perish under two or three witnesses
without mercy, how much sore, Hebrews 10.29, how much sore
punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy? who hath
trodden underfoot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood
of the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified an unholy thing,
and hath done unto the spirit of grace." Now, let's look at
this a minute. Do you remember when they shed
the blood in Egypt, and they put it over the lintel of the
door and over the doorpost? There's none on the floor, none
on the threshold, none on that. That's what he's alluding to
here. They didn't trot on the blood. They never stepped on
the blood. And he's talking here, this is a warning. None of God's
people is ever going to do this. But people, when they take the
blood of Christ, and they regard it so lightly and count it as
an unholy thing, means to count it as something common. No different
than anybody else's blood. And when people talk about the
blood of Christ, and disregard the blood of Christ, and don't
hold the blood of Christ, and don't hold His covenant of grace
in the highest esteem, and count it to be the most precious thing
that cleansed them from their sin, and precious to God Himself. And once you don't actually tread
on it, what you do is by saying and preaching in such a way that
that blood don't have the power that God gave it to have. And
we're not going to do that. by God's grace. It's the blood
of the covenant. I'm not going to try, I'm not
going to count that common and unholy. I'm not going to count
that as something that's common. No. Oh my, we need this blood
and all the Son undertook in this covenant to redeem those
people. That's why he says, you know, I read it to you this morning,
I lay down my life for the sheep. And he come to redeem us, and
by doing that, he became one with us. He so identified with
us that he says, I am those which the Father gave me. He that sanctifies
and those which are sanctified are all of one. And when he was crucified, Paul
said, I was crucified with him. When He was buried, the Scripture
says we were buried with Him. And it says in Ephesians 2, verse
5 and 6, that we were created together with Christ and raised
up together with Him and sat together with Him in heavenly
places. This is all because of a covenant. And he read it in
Isaiah 52, 13, says this, Behold, my righteous servant, he shall
deal prudently. And that means he shall prosper
in the things that God gave him to do. Huh? And not only are
we His by covenant, But we're His by creation. We're His service
by creation. And you know, we're His by title.
He owns title to us. He made us ourselves. We're His
by title. We're His by creation. We're
His right by creation. And because of that, He can do
with us as He pleases. But He created everybody. And because of that, every creature
owes something to his Creator. owes His life, His existence
to His Creator. But what I want to talk about
especially, though, we're His and servants of His by new creation.
If any man be in Christ, what is he? He's a new creation. And
I think in 2 Peter 2.4 it says that we are made partakers of
the divine nature, and it's Christ in you, that's the hope of glory.
Now look over here at Psalm 100 with me a minute. Show you what
I'm talking about. We're His servants by not only
creation, and we're going to serve Him one way or another.
We're going to either serve Him by grace in this world and serve
His grace and serve His love and be servants, or else we're
going to serve His justice throughout all eternity. And how many men
are going to do what God wills to do? And here in Psalm 100,
look what it says in verse 1. Make a joyful noise unto the
Lord all ye lands. Serve the Lord with gladness.
Come before his presence with singing. Oh my, come into his presence
with singing. Watch this. Know ye that the
Lord is God. It's that he that hath made us,
and not we ourselves. Now what's this talking about?
This here is not talking about just us being his creation. and
Him just making us to be human beings coming forth from a mother's
womb. It's He that hath made us, and what it means here, He
hath made us His. He has made us to be His people.
He says, they are mine. And not only that, but He says
here, and we are His people and the sheep of His pasture. He's
the one that made His sheep. He's the one that says, I'll
be their God, they gonna be my people. That's what he's talking
about. It's He that made us His sheep.
It's He that made us His people. He that made us to be one with
Himself by new creation. And that's why we enter into
His courts with thanksgiving. That's why we enter into His
courts with praise. Let me tell you another way we're
His servants. Not only by eternal covenant of grace and
by creation, but by redemption. By redemption, by the blood of
Christ. And this is the one that wins us. This is the one that
wins us. This is the one that makes us
so thankful. This is the one that God uses. It's by the blood of Christ.
And Brad, son, that song led us in that song. Are you washed
in the blood? Have you been to Jesus for the
cleansing fire? Have you washed in that blood?
And see, by the blood of Christ. But before that blood would be
effectual, he had to have a life of obedience. And beloved, that
life of obedience is the only way in the world that sacrifice
would be acceptable. And beloved, in that death and
in that resurrection, God raised him from the dead to show him
that what he paid for, he actually got. I mean, he bought us. He himself bore our sins in his
own body on the tree. No, you're not. You're not your
own. What do you mean you're not your own? Why ain't you your
own? You're bought with a price. Christ paid the price for us
to be His. What was the price? It was the
price of His blood. Men gave Him the price of silver.
What's your price? Thirty pieces of silver. But
what was the price that God required? All them men that hated Him and
wanted Him crucified, they gave thirty pieces of silver for Him.
That's all He was worth to them. But to God Almighty, it was His
blood that was what was required. It was His soul poured out. It
was His life poured out. It was a soul poured out unto
death. And beloved, with His own blood,
He entered in once into the holy place and attained eternal redemption
for us. And by His own blood, He bore
the curse for us and redeemed us out from the curse of the
law. And I tell you, beloved, He redeemed us. And I tell you
what He redeemed us for. You know what? The worst bondage
you and I was in. Now, we're bond slaves now, but
you know what? We had to be bought out from
under bondage. Just like Hagar, when she was on the block. Or
Gomer, when she was on the block, being sold. Hosea said, I've got to have
her. She ain't worth nothing. Not to the rest of us, she ain't. But she is to me. And that's
the way we was to Christ. We ain't worth nothing to nobody,
not even most to ourselves when God makes us sick. But Christ
said, I'll pay the price. I'll pay the price. And, beloved,
He redeemed us and saved us from the worst bondage. You know what
the worst kind of bondage a human being's in in this world? S-I-N. Sin. That's a bondage that no
man can break. That's a change that nobody,
that people say, I'm going to quit this sin, I'm going to quit
that sin, I'm going to quit that. But the thing is, you can't change
your nature. You can't change your nature.
You can't change your attitude. You can't change your spirit.
Only God can do those things. And that's what Christ's blood
did. It bought us from sin's bondage. brought us out from,
you know, we're no longer under the law, but we're under grace.
Sin don't have dominion over us. And you know, the minute
you go under the law, you automatically go under the bondage of sin,
dominion of sin. That's what, that's all the law
can do, is show you how bound up you are in sin. It says, don't
do, don't do, and immediately say, I got to do. And I've used
this illustration so many times. I say, all you've got to do is
start a fight as you go home, you lay down the law to your
wife or your husband, wife lay down the law to you, and you've
got a fight on your hands. That's what the law does. It
stirs up sin in you. You're not going to tell me,
and so beloved Christ paid for that sin death and broke His
chains off of us. We're not under that law. We're
not under the dominion of sin. We're under grace. Don't bring
Moses to me. Bring Christ to me in His blood. Let me just look over Psalm 49
with you a minute. Psalm 49, that's right. Oh boy, bless my heart. Yeah,
I saw the 49. In verse 6, look
what it says here. It took the greatest price that
God did demand. And Christ paid that price. Paid
that price. Look what it says here in verse
6. Psalm 49, they that trust in their wealth, and boast themselves
in the multitude of their riches, none of them, none of them, I
don't care how wealthy they are, can by any means redeem his brother,
nor give to God a ransom for him. For the redemption of their
souls is precious, and it ceases forever. When you're redeemed,
when you're And it's said here that man can't do it, can't give
a ransom for it. No matter what you got, you can't
do it. You can't pay for one sin by any amount of money you
got. And nobody can give to God a ransom for it. For the redemption
of their souls is precious, and once their soul is redeemed,
It ceases forever. Redemption is forever. And so
the redemption, that's why no man can redeem with somebody
else, because they can't pay for any sin. But when Christ
redeems us, He redeems us forever. It's an eternal redemption. And
let me tell you something about eternal redemption. If it's eternal
redemption, He entered in once to obtain it. Do you know why
it was eternal? Because He was the Lamb slain
from the foundation of the world, so the price was paid as far
as God was concerned back there. And He's going to reach into
the eternity to come. Because when we get to glory,
we're going to sing a new song unto Him. Unto Him that loved
us and washed us from our sins in His own blood. And what happened
in time was He just went in there and brought out what had been
always been a disturbance. Does that make any sense to y'all?
And then let me give you another one. Look at Isaiah 43. I want
you to see this. From Psalm 49 to Isaiah 43, I
want you to see this, and then I'm going to move on. I meant to turn you there real
quick. Oh, talking about redemption. We're His blind slaves by redemption. His servants by redemption. Isaiah
43. But now thus saith the Lord that
created thee, O Jacob." Now there's that created. Now what? Created
him to be his chosen, to be Israel, to be his elect. They said, blessed
and happiest he who has the God of Jacob. And he that formed
thee, where did he form thee at? In his mama's belly. Formed
him in the covenant of grace. O Israel, fear not, for I have
redeemed thee. I called you by your name, and
this is what I like. I, thou art mine. You're mine. Me, you're mine. Why you're mine? Because I redeemed
you, I formed you, I created you. And then let me give you
another reason. The fourth reason. We're His,
excuse me, we're His born slaves by consent. not only by covenant,
by creation, by redemption, but by consent. Is anybody here willing,
not willing, to be the bond slave of the Lord Jesus Christ? I'm willingly His, ain't you?
Here I am, Lord. Do with me what you will. I'm
His. I want to be His. I'm thankful
for His redemption, but O Beloved, I willingly give ourselves by
consent. We willingly give ourselves to
Him. We thus judge that if one died for all, then he that died
for all, we no longer live under ourselves, but live under Him
that loved us and gave Himself for us. And let me show you what
I'm talking about in Exodus 21. Exodus 21. You know, we love
our Master. That's why Paul said, I beseech
you, brethren, by the mercies of God that you present your
bodies a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable unto God. We love
our Master, and we can't serve two Masters. We wouldn't want
to serve two Masters. And we're here by consent. You know, when I was in the Marine
Corps, I never volunteered for nothing. Never volunteered for
the first thing. The only thing I volunteered
for was the Marines. I did do that. But once I got
in there, I never volunteered for nothing. I never stepped
for it. I was always trying to hide as much as I could. But
I got volunteered a time or two. I got volunteered. I want that
volunteer there and that volunteer here and this volunteer there.
And I mean, that's against, I didn't consent to it. But, beloved,
I consent. to the yoke of Christ. I consent
to the love of Christ. I consent to the grace of Christ.
I consent to the power of Christ. I consent to my Master being
my Master, being my Lord, being my Master, being my God, being
my Savior, being my Redeemer. Oh, I willingly consent. And
you know they use yokes that they put on animals. I heard
somebody say the other day, and they said out in Mexico, boy,
they still use those yokes. Let's still use oxen in that. Each oxen has a yoke made just
particularly for them. They don't make a yoke for the
same yoke for all of them. They make a different yoke for
each oxen to where it fits that oxen particularly. And that's
what Christ does for us. He puts His yoke on us, and it
fits just us. And it's an easy yoke. It don't
gall us. It don't hurt us. It don't have
to pull hard. It's not heavy, it's easy. And
look what he says here in Exodus 21, verse 1. Now, these are the judgments
which thou shalt set before them. If thou buy an Hebrew servant,
six years shall he serve, and in the seventh, he shall go out
free for nothing. Seventh year, he gets to go home,
gets to go free. He's served his time. If he came
in by himself, he shall go out by himself. If he were married,
then his wife shall go out with him. And if his master had given
him a wife, and she had borne him sons or daughters, the wife
and her children shall be her masters, and he shall go out
by himself. And if the servant, now watch
this, if the servant shall plainly say, I love my master, my wife,
and my children, I will not go out free. I won't do it. I don't
want to be free. Because I love my master. I love
what he gave me. I love the people he gave me.
Then his master shall bring him unto the judges, and he shall
also bring him to the door, or unto the doorpost. And his master
shall bore in his ear through with it all, and he shall serve
him forever and ever." And you know what it says about Christ?
He says, God said he digged his ear, and that's what that means,
that he willingly did what he did for God, willingly served
for us. God's my master, he says. My
father's my master. He digged my ear. And, beloved,
if that's what we needed to do, to say, I might go out free,
to take me to the doorpost and go ahead and get the owl and
put the ear there, put the whole ear. Would you do that? Oh, we'll
do that. And so, beloved, and as servants,
as servants, we must give an account. All of us, as servants,
we've got to give an account. We're stewards. We're servants
of God. We shall all give an account. You know, God trusts
us. Christ our Lord trusts us with gifts. You remember when
He gave one man ten talents, one man five talents, another
man two talents, one and one? And He kindly says, now it's
time to give an account. Well, that's what He's going
to do. We're all going to give an account. And, beloved, in the gifts that
He gives us. We don't want to hide our light under a bush.
We don't want to take the gifts of God that He's given us and
not use them. And everybody has different gifts. Some people
can pray. Some people can read. Some people
can give. Some people are very hospitable.
And there's lots of things that people can do. And everybody
has a gift that they use. And if we use it for His glory,
when Christ comes, When Christ comes, you'll come, beloved,
and I don't know how it works, I don't have any idea how it
works, but he's going to receive his own with you. I don't know
how that's going to work. And you know, Paul said, I'm
going to have the crown of righteousness, and then he's going to turn around
and he says, you know, it's your crown, it's your righteousness,
we're going to give it right back to you. So I don't know
how that works, but I know it's going to work. And not only must
we give an account, but we must be faithful. We must be faithful. God help us to be faithful. That
little article I put in the bulletin by Brother Paul this morning,
you know, the clearest evidences, one of the most clearest evidences
is how your attitude toward the gospel. If you need the gospel,
you've got to have the gospel. If you've got to have Christ,
if you've got to have the Word, if you've got to have the fellowship
of the children of God, and if you can do without it, If you
can do without the gospel, do without the fellowship, do without
the Word of God, do without Christ, week after week after week after
week, I'm afraid for you. And that's why we must be faithful. Faithful to our Master, faithful
to His Word, faithful to one another, faithful to our own
principles that God taught us. We must be faithful. And that's
why Paul said, if I seek to please men, You know what I wouldn't
be? I wouldn't be the servant of
Christ. He said, if I seek to please men, I wouldn't be the
servant of Christ. And let me tell you this. Always
look on preachers. Always look on preachers as servants.
Always look on them as servants. Never idolize them. There are
some people that idolize preachers. I seen one this afternoon on
television, and they was This fellow is so popular, started
out with six, seven, he has, oh my goodness, twenty-five,
thirty thousand in a stadium, preaching to them, dressed just
as casual as he could be, and all these people up in all the
stadium, he's preaching to them. And, beloved, they idolize him.
Preachers are idolized. But in the Scriptures, they're
servants. Our Lord Jesus Christ served his own disciples and
washed their feet. We're not lords over God's heritage.
We're not masters over God's heritage. We're servants. We're
to wait. And that's why Paul, you know,
he says, who are we? Who is Paul? Who is Apollos? Who is Cephas? Seashores and
waterboys. One sows, the other waters, but
it's God that gives the increase. That's right. Don't idolize him. And then look back over here
at Jude with me for a minute. Look back over in Jude with me,
and let me give you three descriptions here. I thought I'd talk about
a little bit of that servant. I didn't get to it last week. Now we have three descriptions
of the people that he wrote to. First says in verse 1, Jude,
the servant of Jesus Christ, brother of James, now watch this,
to them that are sanctified by God the Father. That's one description. Preserved in Jesus Christ, that's
the second description. And called, that's the third. That's a pretty good place to
be. And you know what this tells us? This tells us that salvation's
of the Lord. Do you know, James, a Jew doesn't
say, you believed, or you decided, or you chose, or you come to
Christ. No, no. He says, to them that
are sanctified by God the Father. Now, beloved, what's that sanctified
by God the Father mean? That just means to be set apart.
God said, I'm going to set you apart. Sanctified by God the
Father. We were set apart in that eternal covenant of grace.
And then we were set apart by God when He come into this world,
when Christ come into this world. And the Scriptures tells us that
God sets something apart for a holy use, for a holy purpose.
And like I read to you there a minute ago when I was at 43,
when He says, God says, you're mine. He says, you're mine. That's what he says, you're mine.
He's the potter, we're the clay. And when he puts the clay on
the wheel, and he'll wheel that clay around and begin to shape
and mold it. Why does he call it? A holy vessel. A holy vessel. And oh, beloved, you're mine.
I set you apart from the world. I set you apart from the world
in the coming of grace. I set you apart in election.
I set you apart in redemption. I called you sheep before you
ever knew you was my sheep. You was lost sheep, but you was
my sheep. Before Jacob was ever formed,
come out of his mother's belly, God said, I loved you. You're
mine. And that's what another word
that it means. He set us apart in power. And this word sanctified
also means loved and set apart by God. Loved by God. And when I thought about that,
I thought about this. Everyone needs love. Everyone
needs love. Everybody wants love. I don't
care how cold and hard they act. Lots and lots of people are looking
for love. People that are lonely. People
that are widows and widowers and that. They're looking for
somebody to help in their life, looking for somebody they can
love and somebody that'll love them. And there's people who
need to express their love. If you've got love, that love
must be expressed. If you've got love in your heart,
you must express it. You express your love to your
wife, your husband, your children, your grandchildren. I mean, you
really express your love. Well, God expressed His love
in a way that was so affectionate That we can't make people love
us, but I'll tell you what God can do. He can make us love Him. He can take us and make us love
Him. He said, I can win their hearts
in such a way that they're going to love me. And that's what He
does. To be loved by God with an everlasting love. To be loved
in the condition, you know, do you ever think, how could God
love me the way I am right now? He does. He does. And I'll tell you something,
that love never varies. Never changes. No matter what
condition or state you're in, God's love never varies. And all beloved, and I tell you,
the love of God, and everybody goes on and on about how God
loved us and Christ died for all of mankind, loved all of
mankind. The love of God would mean nothing unless He could
express that love. And He does express that love.
And how does He do it? By setting us apart and saying,
You're mine. You're mine. He don't do everybody
that way. Only His. And then, let me show, look here,
not only that, but let's go down there to the called ones. This is how He sets us apart
to those that are called. The called ones. This is how
He sets us apart. He calls us. My sheep hear my voice and I
know them. I never will forget when I heard
the voice. I heard it for a while before I understood really what
I was hearing. And I said, I thought that boat answered, Oh Lord,
have mercy on me. And I'll tell you what, he calls
us and I'll tell you this, it's an effectual call. Oh, it's an
effectual call. Peter said it this way, make
your calling and election sure. How do you make your election
sure? Only by your calling. How do I know I'm one of God's
elect? He called me. How did he call me? By his gospel.
How did he set me apart? By his gospel. That's why Paul
says, Brethren, for you see your calling. You see your calling.
You see it. You understand it. You perceive
it. How did not many wise men enter the flesh? Oh, everybody's
an expert. You turn on the television, they
got an expert for everything that's going on. Everybody's
an expert. Is there any experts in here? But everybody's an expert of
something. Everybody's an expert. But he
says, God didn't call you experts. Not those wise men after the
flesh. He didn't call the mighty. You know who I am? You know how
much money I got? You know how much your suit cost?
You see that big car I'm driving there? I don't even have to drive
myself. I got my own driver. Oh, you're
mighty all right. Ah, he didn't call them any mighty.
I'll tell you what he did, he called them foolish. To make those wise fellas say,
boy, what? That can't be much of this religion.
Look at the people that believe. Look at the people that believe.
Bunch of old toothless rednecks. That's the way they look at us,
a bunch of idiots. Look at who believes. Them people ain't got no education,
that's why they ain't got no sense. They can't do anything
else, they're superstitious. But God said He chose the foolish
to compound the wise and the weak to compound the mighty.
I ain't gonna sit amongst a bunch like that. You'll either sit
amongst us or go to hell once. Ain't that right? That's exactly
right. And our beloved Abraham, God
said, Abraham! No, called him Abram first. Abram! After a while, I said, you know,
I'm going to change your name. That's what he did to Jacob. He changed
Jacob's name from Jacob to Israel. He changed Abram's name from
Abram to Abraham, the friend of God. And, oh, he called Paul. He called him by name. That's
why I'm telling you, this is called one. He said, Saul, Saul! There's all kinds of people around.
Saul, Saul! And, oh, Zacchaeus! Oh, how many
times he called. Barnabas, tell him to get over
here! Jeremiah! in your mother's belly, I knew
you. Of all the people on the earth, He said, I've known you. I've
known you. And oh, beloved, let me show
you this. You keep June. Look over here. Mark with me,
chapter 3. Mark, chapter 3. That's why I
say, beloved, if Christ, if God's God sanctified you. Christ died for you. He's going
to call you. That's why we're preaching the
gospel. He's going to call His people. Look what it says here
in verse 13 of Mark chapter 3. This is when Christ called His
disciples. It says, He goeth up into a mountain,
now watch this, and calleth unto Him whom He would. And listen, and they came unto
Him. He went up onto a mountain, tall
as their movie would, and they came. Oh, bless His holy name. And
then over here, not only are they called, but look what it
says, preserved in Jesus Christ. Preserved in Christ. You know
what preserved means to me? It means kept in Christ and kept
for Christ. Preserved means to guard, to
keep, to hold firmly. And that's what Christ will do
for us. That's why, you know, that's why he wrote this letter
here. The first thing he said, I had to write this yours to
get in for the faith. For certain men are crept in
on the workers. And so, beloved, what he's telling us right at
the outset, no matter who creeps in, and no matter what doctrine
they bring, no matter whether they're core or vellum, it makes
no difference who they are. But I tell you what, we're preserved
in Christ, and you're not going to apostatize, you're not going
to be led astray, you're not going to be deceived, you're
not going to be led to somebody other than the Christ, because
Christ Himself is going to preserve you. Huh? The shepherd will keep
his sheep. You know what our Lord said?
Of all that you've given me, I've lost none of them, except
the son of perdition. And that was that the Scripture
might be fulfilled. And he said, I'll keep every
one of them, and then I'm going to raise them up at the last
day. Oh, beloved, we'll not only become
apostates, I'll tell you something, these people cannot leave Christ. They cannot leave the gospel.
They're sealed and they're preserved. I'll tell you, look over here
at 2 Timothy with me. Back over to your left. Hebrews, Titus, and then 2 Timothy. Hebrews, Titus, and 2 Timothy.
And I'll tell you, if anybody, and that's what I've always said,
if anybody can leave the gospel, they will leave the gospel. 2 Timothy 4. And verse 16. You know, our Lord
said, I give unto my sheep eternal life. And no man, no man is able
to pluck them out of my hand. No man. No man, I don't care
how good a preacher he is, I don't care how strong his doctrine
is, I don't care how smooth-tongued he is, I don't care how powerful
he is, I don't care how mesmerizing he is, I don't care if he has
the tons of angels, I don't care if he has the gift of prophecy,
I don't care what he has. And one thing he cannot do, he
cannot get you out of my hand. And there's been, if you can
leave the gospel, if you can leave Christ, I've got news for
you. You never was His. Because we're preserved in Christ.
Alright. And oh, listen to what he says
here in 2 Timothy 4.16. My first answer, Paul here, now
he's talking. No man stood with me, but all
men forsook me. And I pray God that it might
not be laid to the charge. See how he's still like Christ?
Notwithstanding, the Lord stood with me and strengthened me. That by my preaching, that by
me the preaching might be fully known, and that all the Gentile
might hear, and I was delivered out of the mouth of the lion.
And oh, look what he says in verse 18. And the Lord shall
deliver me from every evil work. Now listen. And will preserve
me unto his heavenly kingdom, to whom be glory forever and
ever. He preserved him then. You know, evidently, they was
getting ready to throw him to the lions, and God set the lion's
mouths. And then let me show you this quickly over in Jude,
verse 24, talking about being preserved in Christ. Oh, God's
people will not become an apostate, will never leave Christ, the
gospel, they're sealed, they're preserved. That's what Jude said
here in the last verse, Now unto him that able to keep you from
falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of His glory. And He's going to do it with
exceeding joy. Starts out preserving us, and
then He's going to present us. Preserved and presented. That's
going to be a good message. I'm going to preach that one
of these days. Preserved and presented. All right. Back up here in verse 1 with
me again. All right, it says this, and
then here's the blessings he prays for these people. The blessings
he prays for them. Mercy unto you, and peace and
love be multiplied. Mercy unto you. God's mercy is
everlasting. God's mercy. And you know God
gives us mercy in Christ. And peace and love be multiplied. Not just given. Not just two
times. Not four times. Not six times,
but time upon time upon time upon time upon time. Let it be
multiplied. If it gives you two, give you
four. If it gives you four, give you eight. Multiply it unto you. And oh, beloved, that's what
he's talking about here. God preserves His saints by this
mercy and peace and love that's multiplied, and He preserves
His saints by the merits and mercy of Christ by giving us
His mercy, His love, and His peace. And that's why I say,
what in the world could separate a saint from his God? Could sin
do it? No. We were saved by works of
righteousness, which we've done anyway, but by His own mercy. His own mercy, He begot us again. And what about our circumstances?
Are they going to destroy our peace? Are they going to destroy
our relationship with Christ? No, the peace of God that passes
all understanding. Keep your hearts and minds through
Christ. And oh, beloved. And you say, well, I tell you
what about me getting cold and indifferent. Well, when you feel
like your love is leaving your heart, you know what He does?
He'll shed abroad his love in your heart again by the Holy
Ghost. So no wonder the Apostle said, who's going to separate
us from the love of God which is in Christ? Who's going to
separate us? Mercy, peace, and love given
to us in Christ. And when we need it, it's always
there. You say, well, I sure don't feel
like I got any. He'll multiply it to you. You'll
get it. You'll get it. Our Father, O gracious, gracious
God in heaven, how wondrously blessed You are, how wondrously
gracious, how wondrously kind and long-suffering and faithful
and loving and merciful. What peace You shed abroad in
our hearts and peace You give us. Thank You for the day. Thank You for Your presence.
Thank you for my brothers and sisters in Christ, the relationship
that we enjoy with one another. God bless these dear saints as
they go home to their jobs. And again, we pray for Peggy
and Gary and the family. Thank you for what you've done
for them. Oh, thank you so much for what you've done. How you've
answered prayer, brought such peace and joy, such good news,
and when it was started so bad, And You've always brought good
things. We truly now know that all things
work together for good. Lord, we love You. We need You.
We desire You. We want You. Save Your people
in this place. Cause the gospel to run well
here. We ask You in Christ's name. Amen. Amen.