Well I have it in mind today
and the next few weeks preaching through this short epistle of
Jude. Because the book of Jude, even
though it's a small letter, it's a really important book for us
today. Because it's written for the
end times. The end of the New Testament
age. And you know the New Testament age, what we call, what the Bible
sometimes calls the last days or the last age, began when Christ
died on the cross and arose from the dead. And it was inaugurated
when Peter preached at Pentecost, recorded in Acts chapter two.
Some people say that's when the New Testament age actually began
at Pentecost, but I believe it began when Christ said it's finished. and the veil was rent into from
top to bottom. But it was inaugurated at Pentecost. Peter preached that great message
in Acts chapter two. And how many were saved? 3,000,
I think, that were converted, brought to Christ by the Lord.
So that's the New Testament age. Well, the book of Jude is a book
that devoted entirely to the end of that age, the end of the
New Testament age. And it's marked by what we can
call the great apostasy. You may not have heard that term
before, you may have. But the word apostasy, you've
heard of apostate. And apostasy literally means
falling away. And it's a falling away from
the truth. A falling away from the truth
of the gospel. An apostate is a person who at
one time claimed to believe the true gospel. Now understand that,
it's important we get that in our minds. He's not talking about
somebody who claims to be, just who claims to be a Christian,
but who does not believe the true gospel. Because there are
a lot of people who are Christian that do not even claim, never
even heard the true gospel. They're Christian in name only.
But an apostate would refer to one who claimed to believe the
truth. and then totally deny it, fall away from it unto perdition,
as Paul said in Hebrews chapter 10. He said, we are not of them
who draw back unto perdition, meaning those who are truly saved
by the grace of God will not fall away. And so Jude is going
to be talking about that. And that's why in these first
two verses, there's a couple of things, and I'm not gonna
go through the book, the whole book today, I'm just gonna take
it little by little. But look at the first two verses.
This is my text for this morning. It says, Jude, the servant of
Jesus Christ, brother of James, to them that are sanctified by
God the Father, preserved in Jesus Christ and called, and
then he says, mercy unto you and peace and love be multiplied. Now some of the older manuscripts
interpret the words that are translated here, sanctified by
God the Father, translate beloved of God the Father, and that's
okay. If you're sanctified by God, you're loved by God. But
what's happening here, Jude is going to show us, as the Holy
Spirit inspires him, of the dangers that the church has to face in
these last days. But he's very, very astute at
showing us that if we are truly saved by the grace of God, if
we are truly looking to Christ for our whole salvation. And
that's the key. If God has brought us to faith
in Christ, knowing that my whole salvation, every part of it,
was conditioned on Christ and He fulfilled those conditions,
that I'm secure in Him, even as I face these dangers. And
so He says, you're sanctified, means you're set apart by the
Father. You're preserved, you're kept by Jesus Christ. He will not let his people go. Isn't that something? And you're called, that's the
evidence, have I been called? And then the last two verses
are ones we quote quite often. And it's like what Jude does
here, is he starts off by a word of peace and safety and assurance,
and then he brings out these dangers and they, I'll tell you
what, we're gonna, in this little book, he gives us some really
eye-opening things. But then he concludes it with
a word of safety and security. He says in verse 24, now unto
him that is able to keep you from falling. That's our hope.
We're not able to keep ourselves from falling. But God is, he's
able to keep us from falling. And to present you faultless
before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy, to the only
wise God our Savior, be glory and majesty, dominion and power,
both now and forever. And so Jude is going to be talking
about these things of the last days. And so I wanna give you
some background here. concerning this. First of all,
when Jude, he's talking about the end of the New Testament
age marked by what we can call that great apostasy, turn to
2 Thessalonians 2. The apostle Paul was inspired
by the Holy Spirit to speak of these things. A falling away
from gospel truth. And this whole chapter of Second
Thessalonians 2 is devoted to that. It seems that many in the
church of Thessalonica had been convinced by false preachers
that Christ would for sure come in their lifetime, that he would
come again in their lifetime. Now, you know, many generations
have taught this all down through the church history. There have been groups who said,
we know the Lord's coming back. Things have gotten so bad on
earth. That's the way it goes, isn't it? Things have gotten
so bad on earth that we know He's coming back before we die. And some of these Thessalonians,
they took it so seriously that many of them even quit their
professions, quit their jobs, and went off and lived in a kind
of a commune type situation, just waiting for the Lord's return.
It's like the picture, you see these people standing on top
of buildings, holding up signs saying, the Lord's coming today.
And you know what happened to them? They got hungry. And you know what they did? They
came back to the people of the church and said, could you feed
us? And that's why Paul said in 1 Thessalonians, those that
don't work don't eat. What are we to do? You know,
we might say in our day, today, we might say, things have gotten
so bad in our nation, in our world, I just know he's gonna
come back before I die. Well, I don't know that, and
you don't know that either. Nobody knows. But what are we
to do? If we knew he was coming today
or tomorrow, what are we to do? We're to do what we always do.
If he's coming back tomorrow night, you get up and go to work
tomorrow. I'm serious. We live every day
in expectation of his coming. We don't know when he's coming.
But these Thessalonians were convinced that he was coming
back in their time. And so Paul writes this, look
at verse one of second Thessalonians two. He says, now we beseech
you brethren by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Now there's
no doubt he's coming. You don't know what today is,
the time, I don't know, but He is. So I beg you by this fact,
this truth, and by our gathering together unto Him, He's going
to gather His church unto Him. Verse 2, that you be not soon
shaken in mind or troubled, neither by spirit, In other words, somebody
comes along and says, the Spirit has revealed to me that Christ
is coming. Back years ago, there was a fellow
who used to visit this church, and he even came up to Ashland
when I was up there, and he had a t-shirt with a date on it.
And he was convinced by a false preacher that that's the date
that Christ was gonna come back. And he tried his best to get
me to preach that. And I said, I don't know what
he did with all those t-shirts. But it didn't, the date didn't
come. Christ didn't come back that, or the date did, but Christ
didn't come back. And so Paul says, neither by spirit, nor
by word, nor by letter as from us. Apparently there were preachers
who were writing these people in Thessalonica and putting Paul's
name on it, or Peter's name, forging letters. As from us,
he says, as that the day of Christ is at hand. Don't be shaken by
that. Don't be anxious and stirred
up in your mind. First of all, the day of our
Lord's coming will be a glorious day for us. Won't it? That'll be a glorious day. Listen, to see Him, and it's
not gonna be any secret rapture where He sneaks up on everybody
and takes you out of a moving car. That's not the way it's
gonna happen. He's coming back and that's going
to be glory for the people. He's going to gather us up. They
call that the rapture. That's okay. That's what the
word rapture means. It means caught up. And he's
coming back with the saints that have already gone and gather
us up together. So if we did know he was coming
back this way, why should we be anxious? We're saved by His
grace. We're trophies of His grace.
We have a righteousness that answers His demands. We don't
have to fear standing before God at judgment. We've already
been judged. When were we judged? On the cross.
My sins were put away at the cross. God's not going to flash
them up on some kind of a movie screen. He says, God said he'll
remember them no more. That means he will never bring
them back up. Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect?
It's God that justifies. Who can condemn us? So we don't
have any reason to be troubled in mind. You say, well, I think
about my lost kinfolk and my lost loved ones. Listen, I think
about that too. And it brings a tear to our hearts,
doesn't it? It's a sad note. But I'll tell
you what. When Christ comes again, or when
we go to meet Him, that's all over. That relationship is gone. You believe that? It is. And we'll do nothing but bask
in the glory of our Savior. What a day that will be. Well,
Paul writes here, he says in verse three, let no man deceive
you by any means. Second Thessalonians 2.3. For
that day shall not come except there come a falling away first. And that man of sin be revealed
the son of perdition. Now some people say that's one
individual they call the Antichrist. I believe it's a spirit who Paul
is metaphorically using as encapsulated in one man. They are driven by
Satan. John said that the spirit of
Antichrist was already present in his day. In fact, the only
time you see the term antichrist is when it's referring to a spirit
of error, a spirit of falseness and deception. But anyway, I'm
not going to go into all of this right here, but in 2 Thessalonians
2. But what this falling away involves
is a falling away from gospel truth, falling away from the
doctrine of Christ. And if you'll look with me, I've
got these scriptures, and you can write them down if you want,
but I just think this is interesting. This involves what the Bible
calls Satan being loosed all over the world to deceive the
nations. And if you look at Revelation
20, the first three verses of this book, this chapter, John,
given this revelation from Christ, He says, I saw an angel come
down from heaven, having the key to the bottomless pit and
a great chain in his hand. Now I believe this angel here
is just messenger, I believe he's speaking of Christ. And
he says, and he laid hold of the dragon, the old serpent,
which is the devil, and Satan, same one, and bound him a thousand
years, cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up and set
a seal upon him, and that he should deceive the nations no
more till the thousand years should be fulfilled, and after
that he must be loosed a little season." Now I know what people
mainly think about these things. I grew up with this dispensational
theology, and when I got to studying it, I found it's not true. What
he's talking about, you know, in this portion of Revelation,
Christ gave John seven visions concerning the church age. And this is the final of the
seven visions given by Christ to John, describing the whole
gospel age from the first coming of Christ to His second coming.
And from here to the end, Christ shows us His dominion over, His
destruction of Satan and the glory of the New Jerusalem. which
is the new heavens and the new earth. The heavenly Jerusalem
is called in Hebrews chapter 12. And the order of events,
here's the way it goes somewhat, the order of events. First, our
Lord's first coming, he became incarnate, he was born of a virgin,
that's his first coming, followed by a long period of time, symbolized
by a thousand years in which Satan is bound. Now, the thousand
years, people argue and fuss and fight over that. You know
the term thousand in the Bible, it's what we call, I'm not trying
to get too technical with you here, but it's called a Hebrew
idiom. Not a Hebrew idiot, but a Hebrew idiom. A lot of Hebrew
idiots may believe other things, but it's a Hebrew idiom. And
it's an expression not of a literal thousand years, But it's an expression
of a long period of time, the number of which only God knows.
You see the expression in 2 Peter. To God, a day is as 1,000 years
and 1,000 years is a day. And you even see it in romantic
poems and things like that. A husband tells his wife, I'll
love you for 1,000 years. Does he mean a literal thousand
years? Well, ladies look at him and say, well, what's gonna happen
when the thousand years are up? That literally means there's
no end to your love. And that's the way God is. He's
not talking about a literal calendar thousand years. He's talking
about a long period of time that God has set in motion and God
will determine the end. And he says, what he says here,
the first coming of Christ, from His incarnation to His death
and then on through the church age, Satan will be bound for
a time, for a thousand years. And Christ spoke of this, listen
to this, this is John 12, 31. Now listen, Christ says, now
as the judgment of this world, now shall the prince of this
world be cast out. When was Satan cast out? Verse 32, and if I be lifted
up from the earth, will draw all men unto me, this he said
signifying what death he should die. That's when Satan was cast
down. When Christ died on the cross. That's when Satan was
put down. And he was bound. And you know
what happened during that time? Thousands of souls were saved.
The gospel was going out all over the world. I don't know
how many. I know one time 3,000 at Pentecost. Later on, wasn't there 5,000
saved? And then the gospel began and churches were being sprung
up in places like Thessalonica and Galatia, the seven churches
here, Ephesus. The gospel was going out. But
here's the second thing that would take place. At the close
of the gospel age, And this could be a matter of hundreds of years.
It doesn't have to be like two or three days. This could have
started back in the 1500s or so. I don't know when. But at
the close of the gospel age, Satan is loosed for a little
season. Look down at Revelation 20 in
verse 7. It says, when the thousand years
are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison. and shall
go out to deceive the nations. Think about it during the Old
Testament. The gospel was contained in type and picture and in prophecy
to the Jews. And the Gentile nations basically
had no life. Paul deals with that in Ephesians
chapter two. Well, for a little while, whatever
this time period is, the gospel went out to the Gentile nations. Satan was bound, but now he's
been loosed to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters
of the earth. And he says Gog and Magog, that
comes from Ezekiel. Ezekiel used Gog and Magog. Some
people say, well, that's a king and another king. Some people
say it's a king and a nation. Ezekiel used those symbols, Gog
and Magog, to represent the Gentile nations in general who came against
Israel. Here they represent the whole
world of unbelievers coming against the true church. Gog and Magog,
that's what it is. It's not Russia. I mean, Russia's
included. But any nation, the United States,
if they come against the church, which looks like pretty much
they are. And he says, to gather them together to battle, the
number of whom is the sand of the sea. Satan's loosed. Just prior to the second coming
of Christ, there'll be a short time of widespread global deception
by the lies of Satan, whose intent on getting as many as he can
to follow him to condemnation. And this deception, now listen
to me, and here's the key to understanding Revelation and
the book of Jude and 2 Thessalonians 2, this deception will not be
the absence of religion. It will be the overwhelming presence
of false religion and false gospels of salvation by the works and
the wills of men as opposed to the grace of God in the Lord
Jesus Christ. Much of this deception will come
in the name of Christianity, but deny the truth of Christianity. And then thirdly, that's gonna
be followed by Christ's glorious second coming to judge the world
and make all things new. Jude is the only book given entirely
to that great apostasy. Jude writes that evil works are
the evidence of this apostasy. And he admonishes the people
of God to contend for the faith. Look back at Jude. Look at verse
three. He says, beloved, When I gave
all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, what
is the common salvation? Well, that's the way God saves
every one of his people. We have that in common. He's not saying common salvation
as if it's ordinary. It's not. But I'm going to tell
you something right now. Now, all of us, we come from
different parts of the country. We come up through different
ideas and philosophies and religions. But I wanna tell you something,
if I'm saved by the grace of God, and you're saved by the
grace of God, God saved us the same way. That's right, by his grace, through
the blood and righteousness of Jesus Christ. Through the preaching
of the same gospel, we have that in common. You say, well, I was
in religion, I was too. Somebody else may say, well,
I was in the drug dens. I've never been there. But I
was just as much in need of salvation by grace as you were. Some of
you might have been like Nicodemus. You might have been on the board
of the church. Others of you might have been
like the woman at the well, dealing with your fifth husband or fifth
wife, and not married to the one you're living with now. You
may have been that way. But I'll tell you what. The woman
at the well was saved in no different way than Nicodemus, it's by the
grace of God, through the blood and righteousness of Christ.
That's what we have in common. And so he says, it was needful
me to write to you and exhort you that you should earnestly
contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints.
And that word contend, I'm gonna deal with it next week, it means
to struggle. That's what it is, it's a struggle.
This is no easy fight. Somebody said, well, can we win
it? No, we can't win it. Christ has already done that. He told his disciples that. He
said, in the world, you'll have what? Tribulation. You know what that means, don't
you? That means you're gonna have
trouble. Somehow tribulation may sound a little better, but
it's not. In the world you'll have trouble,
trouble, but be of good cheer. Now how can we be of good cheer
in trouble? He says it this way, I have overcome the world. The battle's already won. Somebody
might say, well, then why do I have to fight this battle?
Why do I have to struggle like this? I'll tell you several reasons. Number one, because God has ordained
it that way. Because God said so, and it's
for his glory and the good of his people. And you know what? He's wiser than all of us put
together. Well, contend for the faith.
Contend for the gospel truth. This kind of truth is really,
it was revealed before Jude. Christ revealed it in the kingdom
parables in Matthew 13. He talked about the seed and
the sower. We go out, we preach the gospel.
Some claim to believe it, but don't really believe it. But
there are some that God gives a good heart and brings them
to faith in Christ, submission to the righteousness of Christ.
There's some like that. And then Satan is going around
to sow his tares. Remember the tares and the wheat?
Now I believe the biggest truth that comes forth in the
wheat and the tares is that Satan is sowing false religion, false
Christianity, false churches. Because the field there is the
world. And some might say, well, there are wheat and tares in
the church. Well, there are believers in the visible church. There
are believers and unbelievers in the visible church here. I
believe that's mainly covered in the parable of the seed and
the sower. The wheat and the tares, the field there is the
world. Out in this world, you find a few places where the true
gospel is preached. It seems like it's getting fewer
and fewer, doesn't it? Why do our two sisters there
drive all the way from Americas to here to hear the gospel? They
haven't found any place else. And I don't delight in that now,
you understand. I think it's a sad, sad thing. But in the world, there's a few
places where the true gospel is preached without compromise.
But that great falling away is represented by churches or gatherings
that claim to be Christian and come in the name of Christ, but
who deny the doctrine of Christ. And they're tares. They claim
to be Christian. They may look on it outwardly,
but like a tare, they're false. So think about that. Well, Jude
says, by the Holy Spirit, he assures us. Now look, going through
this, we'll see many who who claim to believe the gospel,
they fall away. John dealt with that. He called it the spirit
of Antichrist. He said they went out from us. Had they been of
us, they would have stayed with us. But because they were not
of us, they went out from us. Any person who claims to believe
the truth and then apostatizes, what does the Bible say? They
never were saved to begin with. They didn't lose their salvation.
You can't. Why? Because we're sanctified,
set apart by God the Father. Set apart in electing grace.
God chose us before the foundation. He loved us with an everlasting
love in Christ. And nothing can separate us from
the love of God in Christ. You know what the Bible says?
That love is based upon the righteousness of Christ, what Christ did here
in His love. Not that we love God, but that
He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our
sins. We're preserved in Jesus Christ. We're kept. He died for us. He arose again because of our
justification. He ascended unto the Father.
He ever lives to make intercession for us. He said in John chapter
10, no one shall pluck them out of my Father's hand. I and my
Father are one. If God saved you, you're saved
forever by His grace. You're kept by His grace. And
you'll enter glory by His grace. And then He says you're called.
That's the calling of the Gospel by the power of the Holy Spirit
that brings a sinner to faith in Christ and repentance of dead
works. And what have I always said?
You know, if that happens, three things. You cannot deny it. If the Holy Spirit gives you
a new heart, a new life, new spirit, new knowledge, gives
you faith and repentance. You cannot deny it. You cannot
even ignore it. And you can never leave it. That's
the calling. All right.