What we know about Scripture,
though, as Paul teaches and as other places show us, is that
it is all profitable. It is all breathed out by God
and therefore is useful and profitable for teaching and correction and
the training and righteousness for rebuke, for discipline, for
holiness. It is profitable that the man
of God may be successful in all that he endures to do. It is
profitable that as we meditate on God's word, then everything
we do is for his glory. It is profitable in power, as
we see in Ephesians chapter six, where God's word teaches us to
stand firm in the power of his might. As we stand against the
flames of the enemy by putting on the full armor of God, including
the sword of the spirit, which is the word That same word, which
through his power, as he speaks, he upholds the universe with
his word. That same word that as he spoke, all of the creation
of the cosmos came into being with age. As that same word came
and it breathed life into men and women and children as they
hear it with their ears and the spirit of God travels with the
word of God and it brings life to the dead. That same word that
became flesh and dwelt among us, who is the creator of all
things now come man. that he might suffer the consequence
of the judgment of the holiness of God for men and thus give
us propitiation and redemption and forgiveness. And all of these
things, which are ours in Christ Jesus, as Paul teaches the Ephesian
church in chapter one. And now we have this little teeny
letter Jews, so it's important we see this because it is honestly
one of the most significant letters of the New Testament for a struggling
believer. It is. It's greater than Romans
eight. It's greater. It's greater than it's greater
than the gospel of John in that vein, and that's hard for me
to say nothing's really greater than John in the New Testament. Of course, that's a jaded view,
opinion, it's not a theological truth. It's an amazing, it's
an amazing thing that although we need Ephesians to understand
what the church should be and how we should walk and how she
should treat each other and why the purpose that we gather every
week, Jude gives us a greater substance. Jude, I believe, would
be the apoxy that holds a lot of the other theologies together
of the New Testament, because Jude gives us the absolute answer
to the question, how am I going to hold on to Christ? And although
it's other places, we see that God in his mercy, we see that
Christ in his in his suffering, we see that the power of God
that Peter would say holds us and keeps us forever. That's
great. We know it in principle, but
in Jude's writing, we see it in practice. We see what it means
when we have doubt and fear and all of these things, dread and
worse, apathy or sin that creeps into our lives. And we lay in
our bed and we look at the ceiling of our home and we ask the eternal
question, am I truly a child of God? How is it possible that
I am born again with these things in my life? It's a wonderful
question. And I must encourage you that
if you are not asking that question, that something is I must encourage
you to look deep within your soul today to see if you're indeed
a child of God, because friends, just as a young person will ask
throughout their life, do my parents love me? When we discipline
them and they hate the discipline, what does Hebrews say? That a
child does not hate discipline. Do not despise discipline, for
it proves you are adopted as sons. For if you are not receiving
the discipline of the Lord, then you are illegitimate children.
The same thing is true with our own children. As we discipline
them, they get angry because we take that which is precious
to them so they may learn what is most precious. And they go,
do they love me? Remember when you were all youth
having those same feelings and if it weren't for your parents,
it was someone. Does that person love me? Do they like me? Friends,
if that is the case in our worldly lives, the temporal of a life
that we live. Why is it not the case for eternal
lives, for eternal father, for a heavenly home? To have those
questions, it's normal to have these questions. Jude helps glue
that down. in such a way that I will be
straight with you, with Jude by itself, would be a great place
to send someone who is struggling and they're holding fast to the
confession of their hope in Jesus Christ. And the craziness of the purpose
of this letter is that Jude writes because there has been so much
false teaching So much improper understanding of the Lord's work. That he wanted them to see that
even then, when we are bound up in this struggle, that it
is only the Lord that keeps us. In chapter one and two, which
is our chapter one verse one and two today, we will look at
just these two verses. And there's a lot there. Just
encourage you. Don't don't just leave out of
here and go, yep, Jude's behind me. Study it. Listen to what
dead men have said about it. Listen to what people have written
in there. You know what a sermon is? You know what a written sermon
is? A written sermon is a is a personal
journal. Of a journey through God and
with God through his word. When I come and I share with
you God's Word, it is God's journey with me for you. And that's what
it means to shepherd. The shepherd walks just a smidgen. As if I slow down for a minute,
you'll run my heels over with the buggy. You know what that
means? I'm not ahead of anybody. I'm just with you. And the calling
there often has been conflicting because through the years, especially
when you first start and then having been in ministry in my
Now, in my 40s, I look back and I go, wow, I see where God has
been and how wrong I was in all the majority of my years in ministry,
thinking that I had to be the king of it all. But I had to
be the epitome of it all, that I had to be the fullness of it
all, and I failed to understand what it meant when when the apostles
would see their humility. When we see their humility written
in the text, when you see the reality of their failings and
the reality, and I'm not giving an excuse or a license for it,
there is a definite expression for the people of God to stand
apart from the world. But there seemed to have, when
I was in my 20s especially, this idea that I had to have all the
expertise, all the knowledge, all the understanding, the greatest
communication skills that could ever be had, and the best teaching
ability that could ever be breathed into man so that I would not
lead anyone into a place where they should not be, because if
I did not take them where they needed to be, they would fail
in their faith. Now, as humble as that sounds in its desire,
it is an arrogant statement. It's an arrogant statement Because. We we say these things earnestly
desiring them and then we place them on our shoulders as if we're
God. If I don't, then they won't. And so it's a better understanding
of where the pastorate of the eldership falls is we are among
you as people who have been pulled out by the hair of our head,
if you will. and set up to say, now, as you walk, so therefore,
before these lead them there. And hopefully it'll change your
view of what the pastor really is. I remember being I shared
this a few Tuesday nights ago, I remember being in high school
and a senior actually, and my pastor who was right up the hill
there. I just envisioned, I know this
wasn't true, but I envisioned every Sunday when he stand up
there that he must have just floated out of heaven moments
before, as he walked out onto the platform, that he probably
just sort of sat in the little thrones that sort of sat up on
the stage back in those days, you know, those big chairs that
weigh 650 pounds a piece. And, you know, and they sat there
with their arms folded and their knees crossed and they waited.
Everybody looked at him. And then the associate pastor,
because he had to do the announcements. I envisioned that that chair
that the pastor sat upon was just sort of lower there hours
before anybody showed up. From heaven. Because that's what
we do, we esteem friends, esteem Christ to that level, esteem
Christ, because Christ is the one who has come down from heaven.
And goes to and from heaven. and seals the bridge permanently
between God and man so that man can have communion with God.
Jesus Christ is the one who prepares us for the face of the father. Not the pastor. So how is it
that we should look at Christ? We should look at his word as
just that vital. Because when God's word is open
to you, Christ is exposed to you. And the Scripture teaches
us that we are looking at the face of God when we look in the
Scriptures. Don't long for more. Take what
you've been given, because it's all of it. Thus is the importance
of such small writings like Jude, you could literally write Jude
small, small adverb of how you'd write it on a card. You could
write it there. But it's thick and deep. and
beautiful. Jude is an English translation
of the name Judas. The Judas that has written this
letter as if I wanted to go and go through all the different
Judas in all of the Bibles, there are six in the New Testament
and even more in the Old Testament. But just as an understanding
of where the name comes from, is it if you understand Judah,
the lion of Judah, the tribe of Judah, where we get the word
Jew, then you understand the importance of the name, that
it exemplifies the reality of God with his people and the praise
of God from his people. And then the irony that should
beset us in this specific understanding of the importance of the word
or the name Judas is that when we think of Judas, who do we
think of? We think of Judas the Iscariot, Judas Iscariot, the
what? The abomination. The hater of
Christ, the betrayer of the Lord. How ironic that his name is planting
himself in a position to where he would be the praise of God
that he actually. Denies his own namesake and betrays
God. This is not the same Judas. As
a matter of fact, Judas, as we see here, Jude, this is not the
this is not the the The betrayer. And look at all
through the centuries of who have argued about who actually
wrote this letter. But by the faith of God's grace. Faithfulness of God's grace here,
it sets before us in our canon. So, therefore, no matter what
the critics or the scholars or the academics or the PhDs or
the PhDs or the OBDs or the OBGYNs or whatever they might be, think
about this letter. It sits upon the word of God. Therefore, we read it. And God, as he is faithful, will
teach us from. Jude. A servant of Jesus Christ
and brother of James to those who are called beloved in God,
the father and kept for Jesus Christ. May mercy, peace and
love be multiplied to you. Beloved, although I was very
eager to write to you about our coming salvation, I found it
necessary to write appealing to you to contend for the faith
that was once for all delivered to the same. For certain people
have crept in unnoticed who long ago were designated for this
condemnation, ungodly people who pervert the grace of our
God into sensuality and deny our only master and Lord Jesus
Christ. Now, I want to remind you, although
you once fully knew it, that Jesus who saved a people out
of the land of Egypt afterward destroyed those who did not believe. and the angels who did not stay
within their own position of authority, but left their proper
dwelling. He has kept in eternal change
under gloomy darkness until the judgment of the great day, just
as Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding cities, which likewise
indulged in sexual immorality and pursued unnatural desire,
served as an example by undergoing a punishment of eternal fire. Yet in like manner, these people
also rely on their dreams to file the flesh, reject authority
and blaspheme the glorious ones. But when the archangel Michael
contending with the devil was disputing about the body of Moses,
he did not presume to pronounce a blasphemous judgment, but said
the Lord rebuke you. But these people blaspheme all
that they do not understand, and they are destroyed by all
they all that they, like unreasoning animals, understand instinctively
woe to them. For they walk in the way of Cain
and abandoned themselves for the sake of gain to Balaam's
error and perished in Korah's rebellion. These are hidden reefs
that your love feast at the feast with you without fear of shepherds
feeding themselves, waterless clouds swept along by winds,
fruitless trees in late autumn, twice dead, uprooted, wild waves
of the sea, casting up the foam of their own shame and wandering
stars from the gloom of utter darkness has been reserved forever.
It was also about these that even the seventh of Adam prophesied,
saying, Behold, the Lord comes with ten thousand of his holy
ones to execute judgment on all and to convict all the ungodly
of all their deeds of ungodliness that they have committed in such
an ungodly way and of all the harsh things that ungodly sinners
have spoken against him. These are grumblers, malcontents
following their own sinful desires. They are loudmouth posters showing
favoritism to gain advantage. But you must remember, beloved,
the predictions of the apostles of your Lord Jesus Christ. They
said to you in this last time there will be scoffers following
their own ungodly passions. It is these who cause division,
worldly people devoid of the spirit. But you, beloved, building
yourselves up in the most holy faith and praying in the Holy
Spirit, keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting for the
mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ that leads to eternal life. and
have mercy on those who doubt. Save others by snatching them
out of the fire to others, show mercy with fear, hating even
the garments stained by the flesh. Now to him who is able to keep
you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence
of his glory with great joy to the only God, our Savior through
Jesus Christ, our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion and authority
before all time and forever. Amen. Let's pray. God, that is
gloriously, amazingly. Powerfully beautiful. We thank you for having such
an amazing, such a glorious, such a powerful word to our hearts
today. As we look at this letter, Father,
I pray that you would already be settling the hearts of some
who are struggling in their faith, who are fearful in their circumstances,
who are doubting their own salvation. Father, who are being attacked
by those who do. Give us the mercies contained
within this text by your favor and by your love and by your
grace in Jesus name. Amen. This introduction to Jude. Sort of preaches itself, if you
will. But there's something to be said
about pausing the introduction of letters. It's not different
than a lot that we see in the New Testament, but it is in the
same sense, a little different. These first two verses, listen
to them again. Jude, a servant of Jesus Christ and brother of
James to those who are called beloved in God, the father and
kept for Jesus Christ. May mercy, peace, love be multiplied
to you. Let's look. Just like Paul, when
he writes his letters, he says to most of them, Paul, an apostle,
a servant of Jesus Christ was slave to God. Not only that, But if you look
down on verse 17, he says, remember the predictions of the apostles
of our Lord Jesus. Typically, when the apostles
write, they say, remember that which we have taught. And so
if it confounds you in the context of never really thinking about
Jude and why it's here and what it's doing and who he is, it's
because you're probably like me, you've really never read
it or thought about it as you read it. It's not something you've
pondered much. Not like you would Paul's writings.
We want to know who Paul is. His history is laid out for us.
Not so much of Jude. The same thing with John or with
Peter. We see them. They see their acts
in Luke's writings in Theophilus. But we're not so keen on to the
history of Jude. But we do know that he's not
Judas Iscariot. We do know he is not the one
who has betrayed the Lord. evidence by his opening statement,
one that Judas is dead. Secondly, that this Jude calls
himself a slave of Jesus Christ. And then furthermore, instead
of saying the half brother of Jesus points to James, who was
a very prominent apostle at this time, especially through his
writing, he says he's the brother of James. And so as we look here, ask ourselves
this question, what pauses in our minds when we see the servant
of Jesus Christ and the brother of James? Why do we need to to
even think about these things? Have you ever been in a in a
in a church setting? Stop saying in a church. Have
you ever been among God's people in the sermonizing of a specific
text and seen the pastor skip over the introduction? As a child, when I saw that,
I would always stop and read it. And I'm like, why did he
skip all that? If Paul is truthful in his writing
to Timothy, as his every word, all scripture is breathed out
by God and is profitable, then there is something wrong with
skipping it. There's something wrong with the fact that I can
look through history and find three or four dozen people in
the last 500 years who have preached seven, eight sermons on chapter,
I mean, on verse one of Jude. And yet we skip it so often. It's because we don't read or
listen or study the Bible with our minds. We study the Bible
in our world, and I'm not going to take so much time with this,
but I feel pressed to say these things. And we study the Bible
in our world the same way we entertain ourselves. We just
want to see it and not think about it. We want to get the
food without fixing it. We don't care what spice is in
it. We just want it to taste good.
Friends, that is not what it means to be a Christian and study
the word of God. Our daily bread, the little things
that our association, our convention and other places provide that
you can go through and have a devotion. It takes about four to five,
maybe ten minutes if you read the prayer at the end and write
some notes. That's not what the Christian faith is intended.
There's nothing wrong with those. Oswald Chamber, Spurgeon, Daily
and Evening, Upmost, For My Highest, that's Oswald. I mean, there's
nothing wrong with those things. Nothing wrong with reading a
prayer book. Nothing wrong with reading a devotional book. Nothing
wrong with listening to a little clip on the radio on the way
to work. Nothing wrong with these things. But when is your heart
and your mind and your soul locked into the reality of what's written
on the pages of Scripture in such a way that the Holy Spirit
of God takes you and pounds you and pounds you until your mind
hurts. Until you have to get up and
take off your glasses and close your eyes and think, oh, I need
to go rake the yard or have a root canal or something to get my
mind off this thing. I need to go dig a trench. When
does that happen for us? When are we ever just absolutely
paved over by God's Word? You know why it doesn't happen?
Because we're reading, reading, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah,
blah, blah, blah. And we're waiting for this really aha moment to slap us in the
face. Does it happen? Stop for a minute and put yourself
in the place of Jude. Put yourself in the room where
he's pinning these words and ask yourself when he said, Jude,
a slave, he didn't write servant. We like that word. And I know
why in our culture slay is difficult. We don't. But that's what you
wrote. And I haven't looked it up, but
it's either one of only two words, it's either die off the loss
or do loss. It's either one of those two words in the Greek,
which means slave. It doesn't mean servant. It doesn't mean
made servant doesn't mean bond servant. It means slave. Yes,
what you think slave means is what he means. And as Jude wrote
the word slave, what was he thinking? Jude was expressing to the readers
of his letter that he is not writing on his own authority,
by his own theology, by his own doctrinal understanding, by his
own pen. He's writing under the umption
and the power and the authority of Jesus Christ and the Spirit
of God. So therefore, there is no other
way to look at Jude's writing except that God himself wrote
it. Jude says, I am a slave of Jesus
Christ. So what I desire is bound to
Christ. What I love is bound to Christ. What I know is bound to Christ. What I think is bound to Christ. All of these My will, my mind,
my heart, my hope is bound to Christ. My body belongs to Christ. My stuff belongs to Christ. These words belong to Christ. I am a slave of Jesus Christ
and there is nothing of my flesh that is coming through this paper.
There's nothing of my flesh that I live for. I'm a slave. You see that? And the very idea
of someone being a slave means that they're owned and they're
overseen. You see that? You think about
that when you see that word? Oh, no, he just lived for Jesus.
I mean, isn't that how we sort of pave it over? Stop doing that. Stop doing that because the cause
of the doctrine that Jude is going to expose to us, it will
further help us understand how deep it goes when we understand
that the opening line of this text reveals the power of that
doctrine in his life. He who is able to be kept by
God. is he who is a slave of Jesus. And so, in all essence, these
first two verses can open us to the reality of answering the
question, how are we kept? Because we're bought. We're purchased. We are owned
by God and that which God owns, God keeps. You see that? It's just that To think about
it. To think about being a slave
and asking ourselves, are we a slave of Jesus? Are we a slave
to the righteousness of God? Are we a slave to the holiness
of God? Are we a slave to the anointing
of God? All of that is bound up in the
word Christ. We're a slave of Jesus Christ. Therefore, we're
a slave to all that Christ is. Are you and I, are you, beloved,
a slave of Jesus Christ? Contemplate the reality of your
own heart. Examine it, see it for what it is, and understand
that if you are a slave to Christ, then those things that so easily
ensnare you do not bind you to your flesh. They do not bind
you to this world. And as Jesus tells us, that the
things of this world that we love mostly the people will prove
that we are his. Indeed, when we love each other,
when we love our neighbor as ourself, when we love God, the
father, with all that we are, all that we have and all that
we could ever strive to be. We are a slave to Jesus Christ. And I think, wow, it comes from
the sublime theology. I'm a slave of Jesus and the
brother of James. Well, isn't that silly? And there's
my Uncle Fred over here and my dog, Vito. I mean, think about
it. It's like having this glorious
vision of creation and all the greatness and the grandeur of
God. It's like coming off Mount Sinai from Moses and popping
popcorn. See how my mind works? It doesn't.
It just pops in there. It's a whole while. Let's watch
the resurrection of Jesus. OK, can I play some? Some angry
birds now, I mean, it's just from sublime to ridiculous. And that's what I hear, that's
what I hear there when I first read this, I'm thinking, OK,
slave of Jesus, I can roll with that. I can get I mean, that's
bigger than the Titanic. That's bigger than the Titanic's,
the very small ship in today's in today's world. But it's huge.
It's bigger than the world, bigger than the ocean. It's because
of the cosmos. It's infinite. Yay! And I don't care who your brother
is. I mean, that's the sort of way it... But it's just as important. It's important because it shows
us who indeed is writing this letter. He so much wants to disassociate
himself with the nature of his namesake that he has to show you who he
is. Why not just say the half-brother of Jesus? Because he's the slave
of Jesus. And his kinship to Jesus on this earth is irrelevant
to the reality of his slavehood to Jesus, because Christ bought
him and made him. But he's the brother of James,
he's the brother of James, because he does not want to be seen as
Judas Iscariot, he does not want to be associated, even though,
well, you know, we know that God died. So what? I still don't
want to be associated with him. And also, I want you to see that
I am among the apostles. I believe this is part of the
reason that Jude writes this. He wants to disassociate himself
from the betrayer, and he wants also to realize for people to
realize he's a he's among the apostles. He is writing in the
context of apostolic teaching. So therefore, the teachings therein
are apostolic, no matter who wrote it. Just like when Paul,
unable to write certain seasons of his life, the scribes wrote
that which he taught them. That's why we end up with so
many scribal editions through these centuries. That's why if I were to sit here
in another language and tell a story about something that
happened in the Bible, it is God's word. And many people argue
that that's not true. But if I tell you in your tongue
something that the scripture teaches, it is God's word and
it is powerfully effective in you. Either it will do that,
which it was and it will do that, which was intended to do. It
will either break you under the beauty of it to see the majesty
of his face or it will harden you under the boldness of it. And it will make you mad with
rage. He's the brother of James. And
so, therefore, it puts him in a place for us to see that there
is a, this is not just written to me. I want to take Jews writing,
and I wanted to say, Jude, a servant of Jesus to James Tippins, beloved
in God. Kept for Jesus. I wanted to be
individualistic. I wanted to be such a, such a
writing. I want to be able to take my name and stick it all
over the New Testament. That's not the way God wrote
the New Testament. That's not the way God wrote the Old Testament.
God wrote the Old Testament and the New Testament to his people
who are one body. Be careful. See, another reason
we don't really see the fullness of Scripture when we're studying,
we study it from an introspective position. We study it from an
egocentric position. We study it as though it's about
me, which is selfish. Let me see what I can see for
me, for my sake and my heart and my soul and my life and my
glory and my worship and my praise and my, my healing. When the
scriptures written to us, me, my body, not my ear, me. You, us, the body of Christ. James is the brother of Jude.
And I know this might not have been his intention. We can't
suppose. But I want you to show, I want to show you that these
things are there in a way to show us that it's not just about
Jude and it's not just about you. It's about us. The church
gathers because it is the body. It's not a bunch of bodies getting
together. It's not a concert. It's not
a social gathering. It's not. It's one body coming
together. You look around the room, we
know where most people are today that aren't here. But there are
a few that we're unsure of, and it hurts our spirit, it hurts
our being. We're thinking, man, what's going on? I need to reach
out to him. I need to figure out what's going on. Why does
that happen? Because the Holy Spirit of God puts in us a concern
for one another. And that's why if you're not
connected to the body of Christ locally, under accountability
to each other, there's really a bad problem with our lives. Because otherwise, we're just
going to do something. We're not existing as someone. So that's about who wrote it.
And then finally, as we see this next verse or the latter part
of verse one, He's writing this letter to someone.
Which further? Qualifies that which I've already
said, he says to those. We go if we go back to John. He's writing to the church. If
we go to Peter, he's writing what to those who are exiles.
We go to James. What is he doing? Count it all
joy. My brothers to the twelve tribes in the dispersion to the
tribes. We go to Hebrews. We see that.
What is that to the walk to the Jews? Who are being persecuted? We go to Ali. Mom, that was an
individual letter, wasn't it? Titus. Individual letter, Timothy,
individual letter. We see these things written and
we see Thessalonians, Colossians, Philippians. We keep on going.
Who are they to the Saints to the church? Jude is writing to
those. To them in his day who received
this letter. But it's also for us, for we,
us and them are the same body. And there's a lot of. There's
a lot of what we call the term ecclesiology, the study of the
church, the doctrine of the church. There's a lot of different views
on the visible church and the present church and All of this
stuff, but for the sake of understanding, simply the church of Jesus Christ
is the bride of Christ, who is the body of Christ, who is, who,
who is, and I'm going to use it in singular terms, who is
all who have ever believed and ever will believe in Christ Jesus. Those who are born again are
the body of Christ, whether dead or whether alive or whether yet
to be born. They are and will be and one day the body will
be together. So, when you think of universal
church, the word Catholic means. That's why that happened. But the church is the body. Paul is part of our body, but
not part of our congregation. The apostle James is part of
the body of Christ, but not part of our congregation. Our congregation
is part of the body of Christ, just like the congregation up
the street. But we're not the same congregation. In other words,
we're not getting together. But we're the same body. And
there's great implication on that. And I have some very polarizing
theology behind that, that I believe scripture teaches. So keep that
in mind, as you understand. Those who are called. Now. It does not say to those
who are called beloved in God. In your translation, though not
in not in the Greek grammar, there's no comma, but you should
see a comma after call. If you do not see a comma after
called, put one there. Because it's not those being
called beloved. It's those that are called those
that are beloved in God, the Father, and those that are kept
for Jesus Christ. There's three things that identify
the audience of this letter. Do you do you study the Bible
this way? You look, who is he talking to? What's going on?
Let's pick it apart. Let's write it down, write out
every proposition, write out every phrase, every little thing
that you can think of and just write it out and look at it and
think of it. I mean, that's what my notes look like. That's how
I get my mind straight. I don't wonder. It's just proposition,
proposition, invent, invent, invent, proposition. It's just
what's there. Just so that you can just see it, it's those who
are called those who are beloved in the father and those who are
kept for Jesus Christ. That's who Jude is talking to
church, the church who is called of God. There's an amazing reality. that we see, even if we go down
to verse four of Jude and we see that there are those certain
people have crept in and notice what have they crept into? I
don't want to give away the punchline for a couple of weeks from now,
but they've crept into the congregations, but they haven't crept into the
body. They're not in the body. They're not of the body. They're
not part of the body. They just standing around. It's
not some other arm just sort of Sitting on my shoulder and
I've got like three arms. Man, I bet you're productive. That's not my arm. It's hanging
out over here, but it's not mine. That's what it's like for people
to come in unnoticed. They look like the church. They smell like
the church. They act like the church. They talk like the church.
They sing like the church. They serve like the church. They
teach like the church. But they're not the church. Hebrews
6, people. Unnoticed. They snuck in. But
long ago, they were designated for a condemnation, ungodly who
pervert the grace of our God into sensuality and deny our
only master and Lord Jesus Christ. And before you go attaching labels
to people that you're thinking of. Just stop, because there's
a qualifier for that, and it's not today's sermon. Why is everybody
smiling? Because we did it, didn't we?
In some sense, if not directly, we thought generally. Now, yeah,
we know those guys. We know there's Armenians there.
I'll tell you what we know, those hyper guys. I mean, you see what
I'm saying? Those who are called, what does Paul say about these
things in Romans eight for those who are called according to his
purpose, then those he what predestined those whom he wants to go to
Romans eight for a minute. Let's look at that. Let's get
it. Let's get it verbatim so we can get a reality there. I
don't want to have y'all moving all over the place, but I think
it's good for us sometimes. Romans 8, 28. I just have to
start there. And we know that for those who
love God, all things work together for good. For those who are called
according to his purpose, verse 29, for those whom he foreknew,
he also predestined to be conformed in the image of his In order
that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and those
whom he predestined. He also called. And those whom
he called, he also justified. And those whom he justified,
he also glorified. Do you see that we call that
in our little circles, the golden chain. It's beautiful. Friends, when
you read Scripture and when you see Jude say to those who are
called, that ought to pop in your head. I don't pop in those
who are called. Who are the called ones? See,
people like to say, well, God's called everybody. No, he has
not. If God called everybody, according
to the, according to the firmness of Paul's grammar in Romans eight,
then every single living human being that ever lives will stand
before Jesus Christ in glory forgiven. That's called universalism. It's a heresy. Jesus himself,
it says broad is the way that leads to destruction and many
will find it, but narrows the gate that leads to righteousness
and few will find it. Jesus says to the apostles, he
said to the disciples, he says, He says, it is easier for a camel
to go through the eye of a sewing needle than for a rich man to
enter the kingdom of heaven. And they say, then who can be
saved? And Jesus says, what is impossible
with man is possible with God. Many believe on the name of Jesus
because of the many signs and wonders that he did. The last
three verses of John chapter two, but Jesus in himself did
not believe in them because he knew the heart of man and no
one had to tell him what was in man. No one. And he tells
Nicodemus, you must be born again. Friends, if God calls you to
salvation, you're saved. How does he do it? We'll see that in just a second.
Because those who are called are the beloved in God, the Father.
You see, there it is, there's the answer. And this is not easy
for us. Those who are called are the
beloved. Now, we don't use that word around here. It's on candy. In February, that heart candy,
you see the beloved, be mine, Valentine's Day. That's Valentine
language. We don't even know what it means. Well, let's just take it for
what it is. Pretend like we've never heard it before and we
don't know anything about the root of it. We don't know anything.
If you are loved. Then you are the beloved. You are the one that beloved. But it goes so much further than
that. We see in Scripture, the word beloved. In some sense,
in understanding. Expresses this reality. approved of God, approved of God. So if we are
the called ones, that means we're the ones who are approved of
God. And if we're approved of God,
it's because God in his love loves us that he put Christ As
our propitiation, as our propitiation, God is satisfied in us. We are
sanctified. That's what it means to be beloved.
That's not just some. Oh, we love you. We love you
in Jesus. We love you. We love you. And you've heard
me get on the soapbox before. We love cake, ice cream, cars
and music. It's a weak, weak word today. We love you. We love you. We
love you. We love you. No. We like a lot of things,
but friends, when God said he loves, it's a powerful thing. God's love. Is what moves him
to save his people in spite of them, while his people are dead
and wicked and angry and hateful and running that song we sang
as we opened our service. What does it say? I'm prone to leave
the God I love. If you don't save me, God, I'm
prone to leave you. I'm prone to walk away. I'm prone
to run for the hills. If you take your affection from
me, if you had not changed me, friends, if this Judas had not
been called of God, he'd have been just like Judas Iscariot. A betrayer of Jesus. If this Judas had not been born
again by the mercy, the peace, and the love multiplied to him
by the father and kept for Jesus Christ, by the grace of God as
beloved, he would have done exactly the same thing. Judas Iscariot
did. And so would you, and so would
I. Beloved in God is deep church. I could do a series on that.
You're approved by God. What does the rich young ruler
say? We've already alluded to him today. He falls down before Jesus
Christ and he says, oh, good teacher. In some sense, he says,
oh, holy teacher. And Jesus rebukes him and says,
no one is good, but God, why do you call me good? And what does the man do? He
maintains his position that Jesus is holy. He says, O good teacher,
what must I do to inherit the kingdom of heaven? You know,
Jesus says that you've got to be holy like me. Just wraps that
up. That's what he tells them. You've
got to be holy like me. You've got to be beloved to the
Father. You've got to be perfect so the Father looks at you And
no matter how much affection that God the Father may have,
he has no affection for sin. Why? Because he's holy. God doesn't
look at us and go, oh, it's OK. It's just sin away, I understand.
God looks at sin and says, I will judge that rightly. I will condemn
every sin and every sinner to their right place. I will set
right the wrongs and the wickedness of this world. I will put all
things under the feet of Jesus Christ so that my holiness will
be praised forever. Because He's worthy. You've got to be beloved of God.
You've got to be beloved in God the Father in order to have eternal
life. Are you beloved in your own merit? Can you just get your life together
so that God can look on you with favor? No. Can you say, well,
I came to faith and I've cleaned up and I'm a better person? No.
You can only say, oh, by the grace of God's call to me that
I hear his voice for I am a sheep of my shepherd and he spoke to
me and I heard it and I recognized it and I followed it. What did
God say to Abram? He didn't say, stop worshiping
that moon boy and worship me. And I'll put some, I'll put you
in some place. He didn't say stop all that paganism
man and turn to me and wait for Abram. And I believe that God
probably called Abram as he was on top of the ziggurat, bowing
to the moon, worshiping the face of a rock in space that reflect
the sun that God made. I believe God called him in that
posture. And Abram got up and he thought,
I believe. And he went. And what does Scripture
say all throughout? It says that Abram believed and
it was counted to him as righteousness. Why? Because he's beloved of
God. He was called by God. Therefore, God took him, plucked
him out of his wickedness and set him on a course because he
belonged to God. And then Abram did not walk right
ever again. Lied here, deceived there, mistrusted
God. Isaac, Jacob, David, Jesus. And all those men, their only
hope is that they were beloved of God and that God would see
past their sins because God would punish their sins on the back
of Jesus Christ. So those who were called are
those who are beloved in God. Some of the most amazing things
you'll ever hear in Scripture are in this next phrase and in
verse twenty four of this text. and those who are kept for Jesus
Christ. This is a prayer of mine. It's a prayer of mine that when
I see people, when I see my life, not people, when I see my life falling out of the love of God,
And yet, Jude says, keep yourself in the love of God. And I go,
how am I going to do that, God? John says, don't love the world.
And I see the world not just as something a little bit enticing, but that steps on our doorstep
and rings the button. Oh, my God. I didn't say I was
worldly, but I'd be a liar to say I wasn't. How do you love the world? You
got a new phone that you didn't need? A new hairstyle that you didn't
need? This season's jacket's a little bit worn? Let's don't
kid ourselves, church. There is no way we could ever
stand up under the righteousness of God. And that which we do
have, no matter how much we lust after it in idolatry, it still
comes from the hand of our father. How are we kept for Jesus? We're
kept for Jesus. He didn't say, and you better
be kept for Jesus. He says by your call, you are
beloved and kept for Jesus. God has called you and God will
keep you. You see why this is so thick.
It's not just me. I'm kept for Jesus. You're kept
for Jesus in light of your sin. You're kept for Jesus in spite
of your sin. You're kept for Jesus when you
doubt and when you fail. And you're kept for Jesus when
you fight against the flesh. You're kept for Jesus. You're kept for him. To the praise
of his glorious grace. I want that stamp on my forehead
when I die. I want my casket to be open and
people to see that on my forehead. That's why we're kept. And when
we know that we're kept, it boils in us. And we rest in the satisfaction
of knowing that our father not just keeps us for Jesus, but
keeps us from falling away from the love of Jesus. And he keeps
us from falling away for the for the love of our flesh. He
protects us. He rebukes us. He corrects us. He sends our brothers and sisters
to us and say, Hey, you can't wallow in this bidding. You don't
need to do this by yourself. You don't need to pretend that
you've got the power and the strength. You cannot do this. You must rely upon me. We're
kept for Jesus. How are we kept for Jesus? Are we beloved? How are we called? Well, this next verse two, it's
a quick one. And the word may is frustrating. Because it sounds like you to
say, I wish this was true for you. But I think it's more in line
with the apostolic prayers. Just like the last two verses
are in line with the apostolic praise. And if we look at Ephesians three. Paul praises for this reason. I bow my knees before the father. From whom every family in heaven
and on earth is named. Remember that? We preached that
last year. that according to the riches
of His glory, He may grant you to be strengthened with power
through His Spirit in your inner being. so that Christ may fill
in your hearts through faith that you being rooted in grounded
in love may have the strength to comprehend with all the Saints
what is the breath and leap and height and depth and to know
the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge that you may be filled
with all the fullness of God. So I don't think even though he
may be saying, I pray that this may be real for you. I think
he prays with a certainty that it is real for us. I'm almost
done. Hold on. This is key. Not you might, and I hope you
get it because of you being kept for Christ, you may have multiplied
to you mercy, peace and love. It is yours. If you are called
of God, the beloved and the father and kept for Jesus Christ, you
are and may have mercy, peace and love multiplied to you. May
the grace of God be with you. That's how Paul writes his letters.
He says, grace to you, beloved. And then he closes his letters
by saying, may the grace of God be with you. It's a prayer. When
we pray, we're not praying to ourselves or to our conscience.
We're not praying to each other or to the world or to the room.
We're praying to the one who hears and answers certainly all
the prayers of his people. that the God of heaven may fill
you with all his fullness, that the fullness of all your calling
may be yours in Christ Jesus through the mercy of God, that
the fullness of all your calling may be yours in Christ Jesus
through the peace that comes through Christ. May the calling,
may the fullness of all your calling in Christ Jesus be given
you and multiplied to you through the love of God for you, seen
perfectly and established eternally in Christ. That's the point. That's the point. That's the May mercy and peace and love
be multiplied to you. Notice he doesn't say, I hope
you get it. They've already got it. I want
it to be multiplied to you. Paul prays, take this form for
me. And Jesus says, I'm enough. My grace is sufficient because
the grace, the mercy of God was multiplied to him. When the Jews
all through Asia Minor were being dispersed and losing everything
they had, including their lives, the peace of God was multiplied
to them through Christ Jesus and that they would, what does
Hebrews say? Joyfully accepted the plundering of your property
for you knew that you had a greater reward and abiding one. It's on the heels of. Chapter
12 and 13. of Hebrews. We've not come to
this mountain. We've come to Christ. The founder
of our faith and the perfect tour of our faith. And no matter how much the world
hates you. Jude says the love of God is
multiplied for you in Christ Jesus. because God loved the
world in this way, that he gave the only son that he had that
whoever so is believing in him may not might will have eternal
life or has eternal life. But all who ever so are not believing
in the sun is condemned already. Are you believing in the sun? Not have you believed? Are you
believing in the sun? Is your faith in Jesus the continued
multiplication of the mercy of God, the peace of God and the
love of God to keep you for God as Christ prepares you for his
presence? And this is. There's nothing greater. Next week we'll see these words
come to life as he says, beloved. How we know what that means,
don't we? Now it rings, now it hits us with a big bell, like
a cartoon, smacks the bell over the head, you just ring, vibrate
all over. That's what I want you to feel
when you see the word beloved as it applies to you. I want
it to ring in your soul in such a way that it shatters the things
of this world. Although I was very eager to
write to you about our common salvation, I found it necessary
to write appealing to you to contend for the faith that was
once for all delivered to the saints. That is next week. And
I promise you we abuse this text. God has given us salvation through
his mercy, through his peace and through his love. Who is
Jesus Christ? whom you are being kept for by
the power of God. Let's pray. To you be the glory, God, and
the praise and the honor forever in all generations in
the church and through Christ Jesus for His glory and His name. Bring your children home to you. Equip this flock of yours to
do the work of the ministry as we go into the world where the
darkness has not overcome the light. In Jesus' name, amen.