read these first three verses,
and of course we'll be going through all the verses tonight,
just hitting the high spots of them. But it says, Jude, the
servant of Jesus Christ and 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. Beloved, I gave all
diligence to write unto you of the common salvation. It was
needful for me to write unto you and exhort you that you should
earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto
the saints. For there are certain men crept
in unawares 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 thy Lord Jesus Christ. Now,
I'm just going to give an introduction to this little epistle tonight.
This is called a general epistle, and I think there are seven of
them, seven general epistles. And what we mean by general epistles
is not written to a particular church like Ephesians or Philippians
or Colossians or the Thessalonians or the Timothy. It means it's
not written to a particular church or a person. And so here he's
just writing, Mr. General Epistle. And this little
epistle has 25 verses. That's all it has, 25 verses.
And Jude's theme here in the whole book, the main theme is
there in verse 3 when he says, I want you to earnestly contend
for the faith that's once delivered unto the saints. It's something
they didn't go after, something God gave them. And he read tonight
there out of the 36th He says, you know, in thee is the fountain
of life, and in thy light we see light. And that's the only
way in the world we have any light, is what God gives us,
the faith. He has to deliver it to us. And the reason he says
we contend for the faith is because he says in verse 4, certain men
are crept in unawares. Wicked men, ungodly men, lascivious
men. And so what we have is, we're
contending for the faith because there's so much men that's not
contending for it that's crept in unawares. And this was when
Christ had ascended to glory. This is 35, 40 years after Christ
has ascended. And so this is James, Jude's
writing this, and he says, already these men have crept in unaware.
Ungodly men. Now, no doubt when everybody
saw him come creeping into the church and people saw him, they
didn't see ungodly men. They saw men with Bibles. They
saw men with Scriptures. They saw men praying. But James,
a Jew, saw something else. He saw their message. He saw
their methods. He saw the things that they did.
And you know, in our Lord Jesus Christ, and you know, what he's
talking about here is there's a great falling away. There's
a falling away. There's an apostasy. And that's what he's dealing
with here, this apostasy from the truth. And an apostasy is
a revolt, a defection from the truth of God. Now, look what
our Lord said over here in Matthew 24. I want us to look at a few
verses that set this up. Matthew 24 and 11. You know,
Jesus said here that there's certain men crept in unaware,
and you need to earnestly contend for the faith. Contend for it. This is what God delivered to
the saints. And you're a saint, and God's called you, and I tell
you, you talk about Enoch, talking about God coming with 10,000
of his saints. Enoch had the gospel delivered unto him. He
walked with God for 300 years. What was the kind of faith that
he had? What did God teach him? What faith did God deliver to
him that enabled him to walk with God for 300 years, and for
him to be a prophet and to prophesy? But here in Matthew 24 and 11
it says, "...and many false prophets shall arise, and shall deceive
many." And listen, "...and because iniquity shall abound, the love
of many shall wax cold." And look at us here tonight. I'm
preaching the gospel of the grace of God, good news, a salvation
that God accomplished. When I surveyed the wondrous
cross on which the blessed Savior died, Poor contempt on all my
pride. And look here, look at how many
empty seats we've got tonight. What is it? Is it because the
love of many is waxed cold? What does it take to get folks
stirred up? What does it take to reach people to make them
say, I need this gospel, I need this Christ, I need this message.
And that's why we must earnestly contend for the faith, no matter
how many people's love waxes cold. And look what he says down
in verse 24 here, Matthew 24. For there shall arise false Christs
and false prophets, and shall show great signs and wonders,
insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect.
Watch it now. Behold, I have told you before. And that's what Cubes said here.
He said, I want you to contend, because these certain men, we
have in this hallway, this apostasy, this apostasy. Let me show you
another 2 Thessalonians. 2 Thessalonians. Go to Hebrews
and go to your left just a little from Hebrews. Go back to Hebrews
and then you go back to Titus. Timothy and Thessalonians, 2
Thessalonians here, talking about an apostasy. He said, they crept
in unaware, ungodly men, turned the grace of God into lascivious
men, denying the only Lord God. Note what Paul says here in 2
Thessalonians 2, verse 1. Watch it with me. Now, we beseech
you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and
by our gathering together unto Him. Christ is going to come,
and He's going to gather all His people unto Himself. And
that you be not soon shaken in mind to be troubled, neither
by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter, as from us, as at the
day of Christ is at hand. Don't set out and twirl your
thumbs and say, Christ is coming, and you don't need to be doing
anything. Now watch this, let no man deceive you by any means.
For that day, that day of Christ's coming and gathering us together,
shall not come, except there come a falling away first." A
falling away first, a deception, a revolt, a defection from the
truth of God, an apostasy. And that man is soon to be revealed.
And that's why Paul, you know, he told Timothy, he says, He
says, you preach the word because the time is coming when they
will not endure sound doctrine, but they shall heap to themselves.
Teachers, they've got each in ears, and I want to have a teacher.
And I want to learn some things, but I don't want to learn about
Christ. I want to learn about prophecy. I don't want to learn
about Christ. I want to learn about how to
have a happy marriage. I don't want to learn about Christ. I
want to learn how to manage my finances. I don't want to learn
about Christ. I want to be entertained. I don't want to learn about Christ.
I want to hear some good gospel singing. And he says, but now
you, preach the Word. You go ahead and let them have
them teachers. You be faithful. You preach the
Word. Be in season, out of season. And 2 Timothy, let me show you
this. 2 Timothy 3, talking about this
apostasy. And I mean, beloved, we see it
right in front of our eyes. We see it right now. We're not
talking about a falling away from religion. This is talking
about a falling away from the truth. falling away from a detection
from the truth of God. And I tell you, beloved, that's what people don't understand.
It's not that you quit being religious. You know, those men that crucified
Christ, it was the high priest that delivered him. It was the
king that delivered him. It was the governor that delivered
him. It was men that stood outside, but after they cried crucifying,
they went to the house and they had the Passover. They went to
the house and they got on their face and prayed. They went to
their house and they went to praise in God and they said,
well, went to the synagogue and they says, boy, we done got a
good service today. So it's not people that cease
being religion, it's people that turn and defect and fall away
from the truth of God that we're talking about. And that's how
important to know the truth of God. If you've got it and God's
taught it to you, oh, it's the most, it's the most blessed thing
God ever done for a man to teach him the truth. Look what he says,
this know also, 2 Timothy 3.1. This know also that in the last
days perilous times would come, shall come, and this is the last
times from the time of Christ, for men shall be lovers of their
own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient
to parents, unfaithful, unholy, without maps of affection, truth-breakers,
False accusers, incontinent, no ability to keep themselves
from anything. Here's despisers of those that
are good. Traitors, heady, high-minded,
lovers of pleasure, more than lovers of God, having a form
of godliness, they're still religious, but deny the very power of God.
And here's, he says, from such turn away. And that's what Jude
is saying. Now, we have this fallen away. And that's why I
want you to earnestly contend for this faith. Now back over
in Jude. And that's what, that's what Jude is saying right here
in the midst of this apostasy, right here in the midst of this
fall away, right here in the midst of this, me and this crept
in unaware, right here in the midst of all this, you earnestly,
earnestly contend for the faith. I mean, give you power to it,
give your heart to it, give your soul to it. And I tell you, if
you know where the... And we've got a lot to contend
against. We've got our own fears and our own things to contend
against, our own fears to contend against, to be able to contend
for the faith. But let me give you an outline
here of the book of Jude that I read across the other day.
And it's nothing new. It's something I got from somebody
else. And I believe it will be helpful.
And it's in threes. You'll find it in threes. The
first time we want to look at Jude's aim. Jude's aim. What's
Jude aiming for here? First of all, we look at the
rider. It's Jude. He's the servant of the Lord
Jesus Christ and the brother of James. And then we look at
his prayerful blessing there in verse 2. Mercy unto you. Oh, my, mercy unto you. What
a prayer to be praying for somebody. That's what Daryl prayed tonight.
He says, Oh, Lord, mercy. Give mercy unto those, those
who are sick, those who are trapped. Give them mercy. Mercy unto you. And peace and love not only be
to you, but let it be multiplied. Don't let it be one or two or
three. Let multitudes of mercy, let
multitudes of love, let multitudes of peace be multiplied. Let it just be multiplied just
over and over to you. And then he explains his purpose
there. He says, Beloved, when I gave
all diligence to write unto you the common salvation, it was
necessary for me to do. I'm going to write some encouraging
things. Talk about the salvation. But it's needful, it's necessary
to write unto you and exhort you that you should earnestly
contend for the faith. That was his purpose. Now, look
here at his arguments in the heritage that he describes, starting
in verse four. Look at these. They have distinguishing
features. He says there in verse 4, for
there are certain men, certain men, he don't call their names,
and they've crept in unawares. Well, what about, what kind of
men are these men? First of all, they're ungodly. They're ungodly men, ordained
to this condemnation. They're ungodly men. Ungodly
men. And not only that, but they're
lawless. They've turned the grace of God into lasciviousness. Instead
of rejoicing in the grace of God and thanking God for His
grace and rejoicing in grace and believing grace and living
grace and showing grace, they turn it into lasciviousness.
They use the grace of God to excuse their sin. And here they're
deniers. They deny the only Lord God and
our Lord Jesus Christ. If you deny God, you've got to
deny Christ. If you deny Christ, you've got to deny God. So they're
deniers. That's these heretics he describes.
And then he not only gives us that, but now look here, he gives
us three examples of God's judgment upon people like this. He says
in verse 5, I will therefore put you in remembrance, though
you once knew this. He said, I want you to remember
this. You knew it once. And that's why he says you've
got to learn to contend for the faith. Our minds sometimes don't work
just right. He says, you once knew this. How that the Lord,
having saved his people out of the land of Egypt, he uses three
examples of God's judgment, afterward destroyed them that believed
not. He brought them out of Egypt. But those who wanted to go back,
he says, God's judgment came on them. You think God's judgment
ain't going to come on the man who turns away from the grace
of God, denies Christ, denies the only Lord God? You know what
it takes to deny Christ? All it takes is make Him available
and make Him an offer. Make him to be something less
than he is, and that's all it takes to deny Christ. Ain't that
right? And then look what else he says.
He uses that, talks about the angels in sin. Talking about
these examples of God's angels which kept not their first estate,
but left their own habitation. They left it. God gave them a
habitation. God gave them a place in glory. But they left that.
And he hath reserved an everlasting change under darkness, under
the judgment. of the great day. So if God's
going to do that to angels, what's He going to do to these men who
turn the grace of God into lasciviousness? And watch this, and then He used
Sodom and Gomorrah as an example of God's judgment against these
men, and why we've got to contend for the faith. Even as Sodom
and Gomorrah and the cities about them and like men are giving
themselves over to fornication, going after strange flesh, are
set forth, watch it now, for an example, suffering the vengeance
of eternal fire. Oh my! And then look at the three
main sins of these people here now, that crept in unaware. These
people that we got to earnestly contend for. First of all, they're
filthy dreamers. Look at the three main sins in
verse 8. They're dreamers. They just call
them dreamers. They have visions. Likewise,
also, these filthy dreamers. What do they do? First of all,
they defile the flesh. They defile their own body. Defile
their own body. You know, there are men that
stands up and believes that their prophecies is more important
than the Word of God. That their dreams is more important
than the Word of God. They get up and tell you, I had
this dream or I had this vision. And while they're preaching,
they'll stop and say, God just gave me a vision. I want to tell
you about it. Now, boy, that makes you want
to stand up and learn to contend for the faith. Roll your sleeves
up, as old Barney said, spit on your hands, and let's give
this thing the best fight we can possibly give it. And, oh
my, not only that, they defile their bodies, they defile their
own flesh. But they despise authority. They
despise dominion. They don't like authority. They
don't like authority at all. And they're filthy dreamers,
defilers of the flesh. and despise authority. And ain't
that what it says here? And they speak evil of dignities.
Speak evil of dignities. And he gives an example here. He gives an example of how they
speak evil of dignities. Yet Michael the archangel, when
he contended with the devil, when he disputed about the body
of Moses, he didn't bring a railing accusation against him. He didn't
say, you devil. He didn't say, you... No, no,
he didn't dispute about it, but he says, what did he say? The
Lord rebuke you. The Lord's going to take care
of you. I don't have to take care of you. I didn't say anything
about you. God's going to take care of you. And watch this. These
speak evil of things that they don't know. They speak evil of
those things they don't know. Make fun and ridicule the grace
of God. Make fun and ridicule that Christ only died for His
people. Make fun and ridicule the sovereignty of God. Make
fun and ridicule man being a sinner. The Lord reminded me when we
come in this evening, years ago, I was preaching on us being sinners
and how lost we were, and by nature we're sinners, and how
we needed Christ. And there's an old man sitting
in the back of the building, and he says, you may be sinners,
but I'm not a sinner. He got up and walked out. He's
in hell now. He's in hell now. And that's why they speak evil
of things which they know not. But I tell you what they do know.
They know what they know naturally. And what they do know naturally,
they do as brute beasts. Just like an animal. Like a dog. Like a bull. Like a cow. Like
a brute beast. Like an old hog. And those things,
they corrupt themselves. It's like an old dog, an old
animal. Brute-based naturally. And watch now, let me give you
three examples of the error, the error of these people. Look
what it says here in verse 11. Woe unto them, for they have
gone in the way of Cain. And you know what the way of
Cain was? His self-will. We'll worship. I'll worship God
my way. You worship God your way. His way was not God's way. He
come and offered the fruit of His ground. The fruit of His
own works. And there's self-will. I'll bring
what I want to. I'll worship God the way I want
to. And not only that, but not only did they go in the way of
Cain, they ran greedily after the heir of Balaam. You know,
Balaam, God told him, said, now don't you go up there. But that king, he says, man,
look at all this clothes I've got. Look at all this silver.
Look at all this gold. And I'm going to give you that.
You come up here and you curse Israel. Up there he went. God wouldn't let him curse Israel,
but he took the money. He said, come up again. More
money. Come up again. More money. So
he was going up there for the money. He could be bought. And that's what he says they
ran after the way of Balaam for reward. And if we don't have Christ,
what difference does it make whatever you have? If you make
a hundred thousand or a hundred seventy-five thousand, a lot
of these preachers got their own jet airplanes. And they run, and I tell you,
that's greedy after their Balaam. And if a man is beloved, If he's
like Baal, he goes for what he can get, what people can give
him, and he uses people. I wouldn't be in his shoes for
ten thousand worlds. Paul said, I didn't covet you
silver, I didn't covet you gold, I didn't want any clothes you
wear, I didn't want anything. Only thing I wanted was you! The preachers would go in and
say, Boy, that's an awful nice this, and that's an awful nice that.
And the next thing you know, they just piled up with stuff. I never
will forget, I might have told this before, I was up at Henry's
years ago. A couple of missionaries come in, and they found out who
had the money in that congregation, and they just leeched on to them.
There was two or three men, apparently, that had a lot of money. One
man is a multi-millionaire. And I mean, they just like, they
hooked on to him just like that. They didn't hook on the little,
you know, didn't say, boy, come to the preachers around there,
you know, and say, boy, you know, I appreciate your message. I'd like, you know, if the Lord
please, I'd like to come preach to you and tell you about the
Word. They didn't do that. They wasn't interested, but they
was interested in that filthy Luke. And I never asked one of
them to come in here and never gave one of them a dime, and
they never would get it. And you find people hooking up to
the folks who's got it, you just leave them alone. Leave them
alone. I'm contending for faith, I tell
you, it stirs you up. And you start thinking about
these people. And not only did they go greedily after their
abatement, but they perished in the gainsaying of glory. Now
glory is glory. And that word gainsaying means
to deny. That's what gainsaying means
to them. Cora was the one who told Moses,
if we're just as old as you are, Moses, let us do some preaching.
We want to do this thing, and we want to take care of the services.
And oh, my God opened up earth. They denied the people who was
in power and in position, the one that God gave the authority,
the one that God put in the office, and they wanted to usurp that
authority and take that office unto themselves. Going into the
rebellion of Cori. And look here, he gives us five
images. Five images, five illustrations
from nature. Look what he says here. And this
is the way these people are. Here we are. He says, first of
all, they're spots. They have blemishes. They're
spots, in verse 12, in your feasts of charity. Here we come and
we have feasts. We actually feast on the gospel.
We feasted on the gospel this morning. I did. I don't know
about you, but I rejoiced in the glory of Christ and in His
blessed work. And we feasted on the gospel. We sang songs that bring glory
to God. And yet, he says, they come in
and they're spots in your feast of charity. And not only that,
he says that they're clouds without water. They feed themselves without
fear. They come in and they feast and
they feed themselves without any fear. They have no fear of
God. No respect for God. And they're clouds without water.
You ever, boy, you know, you had your garden out And they
get real dry and them clouds go running by and running by,
and you'll say, boy, we're going to get some rain today. Go get
some rain today. But that's all it ends up being.
Just rain with a little, you know, just some clouds with just
a little cool air with them. No water in them. No light coming
out of them. Oh my, and not only that, but
it says there are trees. Trees whose fruit wither. Trees without fruit. And you
remember our Lord Jesus Christ said, you shall know by the fruit.
He said here, James, Jude says there are trees without fruit.
And look what else he says about them, using nature. He says the
raging waves of the sea foam him out their own shame. They're
like, you know, they're like fierce waves, not just waves
that come in, fierce waves. Fierce waves, just raging waves,
just big waves, just great waves that just overwhelm you. And
foaming out their own shame. And watch what else he says,
there's falling stars, wandering stars. And that wandering stars
means wonder out of the heavens, wonder out of their place and
position. To whom is reserved the blackness
of darkness forever. Oh my, that's what these people
are like. And that's why we must earnestly
contend for the faith and that common salvation. These folks
don't know nothing about this common salvation. Look what he
says here in verse 14 through 16, the prophecy of Enoch. Now,
I looked up this prophecy of Enoch, and Enoch never prophesied
that you can find them in the scriptures. So evidently, these
men knew something that Enoch had prophesied. He says, first
of all, it's the seventh from Adam. And why it says he's the
seventh from Adam is because he was the one that walked with
God. The third from Adam was Cain had a son, and his name
was Enoch. And Cain's son, he didn't walk
with God. Enoch walked with God, said son. And so we have this prophecy
of Enoch, and he's the seventh from Adam. Look what he says.
He prophesied of these, of these things. He says, Behold, the
Lord cometh with ten thousands of his saints. Ten thousands
of his saints. And he's using the number here
just to show you an indefinite number. And you know the saints
here, when he talks about these coming with ten thousands of
his saints, these are the same saints that have the gospel delivered
unto them. These are the ones, beloved,
that have the common salvation. And we contend them for it. That's
what he was doing. And he says here's what he's
going to do when they come with these ten thousands of his saints.
He's going to come to execute judgment upon all. And to convince
all that are ungodly among them, all the ungodly among them of
all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed.
Oh my, all these people that's been bragging about all their
sin and all their shame and all they've done and all they've
accomplished, God says, you're ungodly in your deeds, you're
ungodly in your person, you're ungodly in your speech, you're
ungodly sinners, and you've spoken it against God Himself. And oh,
he says, when the Lord comes, he says, and these murmurers,
in verse 16, complainers walking after their own lusts, And their
mouths speak great swelling words. And they have men's persons in
admiration because of the damage I go. They admire people they
can get some advantage from. Oh, this is the kind of people,
when the Lord comes with ten thousand of His saints, He's
going to execute, execute judgment upon them. Man, they talk about
executing justice. I seen them. They called a fellow
the other day that back in the early fifties, maybe late forties,
he had been convicted of murder in Montana, and they had his
execution set and going to hang him. He was going to be hung.
He escaped. And he's way, way up in his years,
and they caught him in Nevada. He had a business, had been in
a business for years and years, and they caught him, but they
ain't going to hang him now. He failed the execution of the
judgments on him. But I'll tell you one thing,
you may fail, men may fail being executed by men in this world,
but nobody will ever fail to see the execution of God's judgment
on them. And then look what the apostles
said. He uses the apostles here now and talks about them, the
prophecies of these apostles. He says, But beloved, remember
ye the words, which were spoken before the apostles, and of our
Lord Jesus Christ." You know, he's the Lord's brother. He says,
of our Lord Jesus Christ. He didn't say, my brother, Jesus. He says, of our Lord. Remember
the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ. He says, you remember
how they, this is what they told you. And Peter says almost identical,
the same thing in 2 Peter 3. How that they told you there
should be markers in the last time. Markers. mocking God, mocking
you, mocking the scriptures, mocking religion, who should
walk after their own ungodly lust. These be they who separate
themselves, sensual, having not the Spirit. We're holier than
you. Stand afar off from us. Got on their black hats and their
long beards, their white shirts and their black breeches. Bonnets
on their heads. Dancing in the Spirit, he says,
these don't even have the Spirit. They're sensual. Fleshly. But oh, listen, that's what he
says. And then he gives us three exhortations
here. He gives us three exhortations.
But you, Beloved, and he's talking about believers here. You, Beloved.
He doesn't call them Beloved twice. But you, Beloved, build
yourself up. Build yourself up. on your most
holy faith. That's what this business of
holy faith is. God-given. Everything comes from
God's holiness. The Bible is holy. His angels
are holy. His people are holy. He is holy. His Word is holy. And He calls our faith holy.
Building yourselves up in your most holy faith. Oh, how do you
do? We'll deal with that later. But
praying. Not only build yourself up, but
pray in the Spirit. Pray in the Holy Ghost. Don't
pray in the energy of the flesh, don't pray in the spirit. And
then he says in verse 21, keep yourselves, abide in God love,
keep yourselves in the love of God. And that keep yourselves
in the love of God, that just means abide in the love of God.
Just stay in that love of God. Don't get out from that love
of God. Don't never turn from that love of God. I was telling
the men back in the study a minute ago, I downloaded a message of
Henry, I was serving audio the other day, the play Curtis told
me about, and the title of the message is Sovereign Unchangeable
Love, out of Hosea. Preached it years and years and
years ago. I listened to that, and it blessed my heart. Oh,
50 minutes, Dallon Henry preached it. It was so good. Talked about
sovereign, unchangeable love. And he says, keep yourselves
in the love, abide in that love of God. And when somebody's talking
about that sovereign, unchangeable love of God, I won't hear about
it. What kind of love is it? God's love. I'll tell you one
thing. Look what it done for me and
you. That gives you some idea of what
the love of God is. That He loved us. That He loved
us and that He loves us even now. You stay in that love. You live in that love. You abide
in that love. Dwell in that love. And on, looking
for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life. And
then he gives us three attitudes for ministering. He says here
now in verse 22, three attitudes for ministering in the way we
ought to view people. And if some have compassion,
oh, there's some people you have compassion. There's some of these
folks you're going to run across and you're going to see something.
He said, if some have compassion, compassion, oh, compassion, and
you make a difference, you could be the one God use you to make
a difference by your compassion. You make a difference having
compassion. You have compassion on them. And then fear. Fear
how to deal with other people, deal with sinners, deal with
these people that you love. And others say with fear, fear,
fear of God, fear for their sin, fear for their soul, fear for
the condition they're in, fear for the judgment they're going
to face. Pulling them out of the fire. Even though you hate
the life, you hate the things they've done, their garments
spotted by prey, you've got fear for them, and you fear God, and
you fear for their souls, you fear for their condition, and
you fear for their judgment. And that's the way we are by
our children. I know my children's garments spotted. They're filthy.
Filthy. Filthy. Oh, fear for them. Don't you fear for them? Oh,
my. And then boldness. Pull them
right out of the very fire. I mean, you see the fire on them.
God did us. He pulled us out of the fire.
And by the grace of God, you just don't never let them go.
Don't never turn loose on them. Don't never quit praying. As long as there's life, there's
hope, is what I'm saying. And then look at this closing
benediction He gives us here. This closing blessing. I love
this. I love this. Now unto Him, this
is what I'm going to tell you, though you're contending for
the faith and you're dwelling in the midst of these kind of
people, and you've got a fight on your hands. He says, now unto
Him that's able to keep you from falling. Not being like Cora,
not being like Balaam, not being like these men. Not falling away. despising the truth of God and
rebelling against and rejecting the truth of God. Now unto Him
that's able to keep you from falling. That's the only person
who can keep us from falling. I can't keep you from falling.
You can't even keep yourself from falling. And to present you, not only
to keep you from falling, but to present you faultless. before the presence of His glory. And He's going to do it with
exceeding joy. Not your joy. He's going to do it with exceeding
joy. Here they are, Father! Here they
are! He's going to present us with
exceeding joy. And to the only wise God, our
Savior, be glory and majesty and dominion and power both now
and ever. Amen. Now, let me just give you
a couple of things here in the first verse. Go back and start
here. That's just an outline, kind
of an introduction. Let me just give you a couple
of things here quickly. He says, Jude, he's the author
of this. Jude was a brother of our Lord
Jesus Christ. But he says here he's the servant
of Jesus Christ. And Jude means praise. You remember Jacob's son Judah?
Judah means praise. That's what it means to praise
God, to bless God. And that's what His name means,
the name of praise. And Jude means praise. And, O beloved,
in His ministry, what did He say? He was a servant of Jesus
Christ, a bond-slave of Christ, bought by Christ from bondage,
and from the bondage of sin. And that's the way He saw Him.
And now He's a willing slave of Christ. He says, you know,
you're bought with a price. Therefore, glorify God in your
body and in your spirit. Let me show you something over
here in 1 Corinthians 7. 1 Corinthians 7. Talking about, you know, we're
bond slaves of Christ. You know, willing slaves of Christ.
He says here in verse 22, 1 Corinthians said, For he that
is called in the Lord, that Christ calls you, and He calls you to
Himself, and you're called in the Lord, and you've been saved
by Christ. And if you're called in the Lord,
being a servant, if you have to serve somebody else, if you're,
you know, back then they had slaves. He said, Though you may
be a slave, if you're called in the Lord, you're the Lord's
free man. Christ sets you free. You may be a slave, but you're
a free man. Likewise, also he that is called, being free and
not being a slave. He's Christ's servant. That's
why it says, you know what? You're bought with a price. Don't
be the servants of men. You're the servant of Christ.
You're the servant of Christ. And you know, back over here
in Jude, let me show you a thing about a false servant. A false
servant. There in verse 12, it says these. These are feasts in your Spots
in your feast of charity feast with you, feeding themselves.
That's what a false servant does. He feeds himself. He feeds himself. Instead of serving Christ, they
serve themselves. And then it says, not only is
he the servant of Jesus Christ, a bondservant, but he says he's
the brother of James. Y'all remember who James is.
James was the pillar of the church. He was the one who was the pastor
of the church. in Jerusalem. He's the one who Paul went to. And when he came down to Galatia,
that Peter was carried away with his dissimulation. And, beloved,
him and James both. James and Jude both were half-brothers
of the Lord Jesus Christ. And it tells them this name over
here in Mark chapter 6. It tells us all their names and
it tells us about them. About their names and how that
they're the Lord's brothers. Mark 6 and verse 3. And he names
all of them here. And you know, during our Lord's
life, none of his family believed on him. But his mother, his brothers
didn't believe on him. Not a one of them. Jude or James,
either one didn't. They didn't believe on him. Look
what it says here in verse 3. Is not this the carpenter, the
son of Mary, the brother of James, and of Joseph, and of Judah,
and Simon? had four brothers, and are not
his sisters with us? And they were ascended at him."
So he named all of his brothers, Jude and James. That's how they
were, they were named. And they were brothers of the
Lord, and yet they didn't believe on Him. Look what it said over
here in John with me, John chapter 7. They didn't believe on the
Lord Jesus Christ. During His life, when they saw
His miracles and they saw His work, they didn't believe on
the Lord Jesus Christ. They didn't believe on Him at
all. In John 7, And verse 3, it says this, His brethren, therefore,
said unto him, Depart hence, and go into Judea. Go into Judea,
that thy disciples may see the works that you do. For there
is no man doeth in secret anything in secret that himself seeketh
to be known openly. In other words, if you do something
nobody sees you, you go some way, let somebody know that you've
done what you've done. And that's what they said. She
said, You know you're no different than the other man. If you do
something secret, if you've done something that nobody knows you've
done, you're going to let them know you've done it before it's
all said and done. And that's what they said, you're
no different than anybody else. And so if you do these things, show
yourself to the world. Now what's there in verse 5?
For neither did his brethren believe in him. Jude was not
a believer in Christ. James was not a believer in Christ.
And they both wrote epistles. When did they become believers?
Well, look over in 1 Corinthians 15, I'll show you. You know,
it says that when Christ ascended and they were gathered in Jerusalem,
over in 1 Corinthians 15, it says the Lord's brothers, Judah
and James, was there in the upper room with those 120. They were
in there with them. But they never believed on the
Lord Jesus Christ, didn't believe He was the Son of God, the Savior
of sinners. They did not believe until after
His resurrection. Look what it says there in verse
4. And that He was buried, that He rose again the third day,
according to the scriptures. And that He was seen of Cephas,
then of the twelve. And after that He was seen of
about five hundred brethren at once, of whom the greater part
remained unto this present. The summer, falling asleep. Now
watch this. After that, he was seen of James,
then of all the apostles. And then he said, and I, last
of all, I saw him. But James never believed, and
this James here never believed. And Paul talked about Jews over
in another place about him that I won't look at now. But these
men didn't believe until after the resurrection. His own brothers. His own brothers. And then look
back over here in Jude, and I'll just take just a minute or two.
Look at his humility. We see Jude's humility. First,
his humility says, I'm a servant of Christ and a brother of James. He could have said, I'm a brother
of Christ, and I'm an apostle like my brother James is an apostle.
But he didn't do that. You know, he said, I'm just a
servant. I'm just a blind slave. All I do is serve. He doesn't
boast of his physical relationship with Christ. He doesn't boast
of his physical relationship with his brother James. He doesn't
boast of his spiritual relationship with anybody. But the only thing
he's interested in, his spiritual relationship is, is I'm a servant
of Jesus Christ. I took his yoke on me. And he
had no jealousy toward his brother James. He says, my brother James. My brother James. He didn't say,
you know, He does this, that, and the other, and you know,
I do as much as he does. I'm an apostle like he's an apostle.
I know work like he does. He wrote a letter, I wrote a
letter. He could have said all those things, but he didn't say
any of them. And beloved, being a servant of Christ is the greatest
title we can take. That is the greatest title we
can take upon ourselves, being servants of Christ. Do you know
how Lord Jesus Christ was called Jehovah's servant? Isaiah 52,
He's called Jehovah's righteous servant. Isaiah 42 says, Behold
my servant. Christ himself, when he got down
to Warsaw's disciples' feet, he says, I come to serve. I come
to minister. And he came to serve. Paul and
Timothy, he wrote to Philemon and he says this, he says, Timothy
and I are the servants of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now there's
two kinds of servants. There's a willing servant, a
glad servant, one out of love and for God's glory. That's what
Jude was. That's what James was. That's
what Paul was. That's what we are. And then
there are servants that God used that are wicked men. He raised
Cyrus up. You can look up Cyrus. And Cyrus was a wicked king.
King over Babylon. And God said He raised him up.
To do what? To use him to rebuild Jerusalem.
Send the servants back to Jerusalem. And he raised up. Nebuchadnezzar. He used Nebuchadnezzar. He said,
you'll be a sword in my hand. You'll be a sword in my hand.
God puts swords in men's hands, wicked men's hands. And you know,
and there's the sword sometimes that we have in our government
right now. You know, God uses governments
as swords in His hands to afflict His own people. And such sword,
beloved, it cuts. It cuts. It hurts. And then one
look at Pharaoh. Pharaoh was a wicked man, and
yet he was raised up. God raised him up as a servant
to do one thing with him. And those wicked men that crucified
Christ, you think God did not use them? God can take the wicked
and do what? If the king's heart's in the
hand of the Lord, like the rivers of water, turn it with every
will. They didn't have a clue they was doing to be a servant
of God, but they were. Judas was born to sell Christ
for 30 pieces of silver. God used him. And you know what Mary called
herself? Talking about this is the greatest title we can have.
Mary called herself the Mother of Christ. She called herself
the Handmaid of the Lord. The Handmaid of the Lord. Here
I am, you're my son, and you ain't even been born yet. But
she says, I'm your handmaid. I'm your servant. And oh, beloved,
that's why Paul said, you know, talking about contending for
the faith, we endure all things for the elect's sake. And if
it's, I'm a prisoner of Jesus Christ, and we'll do it, you
know what, God help us contend for the faith. We don't want
to contend for it mean, ill, or hateful, or contrary. But
we cannot give up a hair's breadth of it. If you give up a hair's
breadth of it, it won't be long, it only takes just a little bit
of crack. Next thing you know, you know a little crack in the
dam, it won't be no time.