But we're glad to be here, and
you pray for us. We're going to be leaving to
go to Panama City after the service and spend a week down there before
going back to Ashland. And also, very excited about
our project in producing some teaching videos, and we're working
on that, Jim and I and Randy, and getting some things in order
for that. So I'll probably be coming back
down, Lord willing, to do those, and I think those will be profitable. I know they will be, because
they're honoring the Lord, and the gospel message is getting
out. But anyway, I also bring you greetings from your brothers
and sisters in Ashland, Kentucky. Let's get into this scripture
now, the book of Jude. Now, my text is actually just
verses 20 and 21, but before we get there, the title of the
message is The Mind and Means of Grace. the mind and means
of grace. Look at the first few verses
of the book of Jude. This is a short book, as you
know, a short epistle. And it says, Jude, the servant
of Jesus Christ, that's a bond slave of Christ, brother of James,
to them that are sanctified by God the Father, set apart by
God the Father, preserved, that's the key word of today's message,
preserved, God preserves his people, preserved in Jesus Christ. And that preservation is all
by the grace of God. We persevere in the faith because
we're preserved by grace, kept by grace. And that's why we cannot,
once we are saved, you know, people joke about that, you know,
in the Baptist faith, once saved, always saved. And a lot of people
say that and they don't understand what it means or what it really
involves. But we do believe that once God
saves a sinner, he preserves that sinner in Christ Jesus. And then it says we're called.
Now, the preservation, the preserving grace of God is not without God's
wisdom, God's glory, God's ways, and God's means, and he calls
us. And how does he call us? Well, he calls us by the preaching
of the gospel and the power of the Holy Spirit. Romans 1.16,
Paul wrote, for I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for
it, that gospel, good news is what that means, is the power
of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth. There's faith,
that's the gift of God. And it says, to the Jew first
and to the Greek or the Gentile also, for therein, in that gospel,
is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith, as it is
written, the just shall live by faith. So in that gospel is
revealed by the Holy Spirit what we need to be saved, what we
need to be justified before God, what we need to be pardoned and
forgiven, and what we need to be preserved continually. in
the grace of God, and what is that that we need? It's the righteousness
of God. It's not the righteousness of
man, because the righteousness of man will do you no good. It'll
do me no good. If I were to ask you this question,
where in the Bible can you find an example of the best righteousness
of man that could ever be found in the Bible, what would you
say? Well, I had a man tell me one time, he said, look at Saul
of Tarsus. Now, you know, you think about
Saul of Tarsus and how he relates that in Philippians chapter three,
I was a Pharisee of Pharisees, a Hebrew of Hebrews, circumcised.
And I said, do you think that's the best example in the Bible
of the righteousness of man? It's not. If you want to find
the best example of the righteousness of man to be found in the Bible,
you'd have to look at Genesis chapter 1 and 2 up to about verse,
well, Genesis 1 and 2 would do it. And that's Adam in the garden
before the fall. That's the best example of the
righteousness of man you'll find. Because Adam was sinless. Adam
had not fallen yet. Here he was, a perfect man in
the garden. And that's the best example of
the righteousness of man. And yet, yet, it could not, the
righteousness of man, even before the fall, could not, could not
preserve him continually in that garden. Adam fell. Now you may
be one of those people who would say, well, if it'd been me, I
wouldn't have done that, you know. But that's just self-righteousness.
That's all that is. And really, that's proof that
the righteousness of man will not do the same. So we don't
need the righteousness of man. We need the righteousness of
God. Now, where are you going to find that? Well, you know
where that is. That's in Christ. Christ himself, God in human
flesh, based upon the obedience unto death that he established,
is our righteousness. And that's what we need to be
saved, to be pardoned, and to be preserved, to be kept continually. without any possibility of falling,
without any contamination of sin. Now, we're contaminated
with sin, but our righteousness is not, because it's the imputed
righteousness of Christ. And it cannot be flawed, it cannot
be changed, it cannot be taken away, and it cannot be contaminated. Now, how's that for preservation? You see, that's the thing. And
that's what he means. We're preserved in Jesus Christ. And that's the only way we're
gonna be preserved. If it was conditioned on me or conditioned
on you, you would not be preserved. You know, I tell people who believe
that you can be saved one day and then lost the next. If you
can be, listen, if you can lose it, you have lost it. You will
lose it. But look at verse two. He says,
mercy unto you and peace and love be multiplied. Now, the
preservation of God doesn't mean doesn't mean that we're totally
passive in salvation. We have nothing to do with the
ground of salvation as far as working it out, providing it,
or applying it. That's totally the work of God.
But we are the recipients of mercy, that's compassion, God's
compassion, that's in Christ, We're the recipients of peace
that has to do with reconciliation with God. God reconciled to us,
and us reconciled to God, and love. And we're going to talk
about that in just a minute. And it's multiplied. It grows. So he says in verse 3, Beloved,
and that's a key word there, when I gave all diligence to
write unto you of the common salvation. The word common there
doesn't mean ordinary. The word common there means that
which we have in common, that which we have aligned. In other
words, our salvation is the same. It's the salvation of God given
to us freely by his grace in Christ based on Christ's righteousness
imputed alone. That's true for every one of
us who are saved. Now you may have come from a different area
of the country. You may have come through different experiences
than I did. Different cultures, whatever.
There's a lot of different languages. There's a lot of differences
that we could talk about. But when it comes to how God
saves a sinner, it's all the same for every sinner saved by
grace in Christ. There's no difference. And that's
the common salvation. He said, it was needful for me
to write unto you and exhort you that you should earnestly
contend for the faith. The faith there, that's the gospel.
That's the doctrine of Christ. That's the teachings that we
adhere to. and believe as we're taught in
the Word of God, which was once delivered to the saints. In other
words, it's the same message that's always been delivered
to the saints. That's what he's talking about there. We believe
the same gospel that Abel believed. No different. Salvation by the
grace of God for sinners who don't deserve it and cannot earn
it. Salvation by grace through Christ. Abel saw Christ as the
promised Messiah. And that was testified when he
brought the blood of the Lamb. Now look over in verse 20. Now
Jude, what he's doing here, he's telling them to contend for the
faith. And that means to stand firm
against all opposition. In other words, when somebody
opposes the faith that we have, When somebody opposes the doctrine
of Christ, when somebody opposes the gospel, what are we to do?
We're to contend. We're not to back up, we're not
to compromise, we're not to deny it. We're to contend for it. Now, when we contend, that doesn't
mean just argue and debate and all that. There may be times
we have to debate a little bit. Paul disputed with them in the
synagogue, scripture says. But what we have to do is we
have to stand firm in what we believe against all opposition. And you know, it's good that
when we do that, that if we're able to bring them to the scripture. You know, Paul said, study to
show thyself approved unto God a workman that needeth not to
be ashamed. Aren't you ashamed when somebody challenges what
you believe and they know the scripture better than you do?
It makes you kind of ashamed, doesn't it? Well, what's the
remedy then? Study to show thyself approved
unto God, a workman that needed not to be ashamed. The writer
of Hebrews, who I believe was Paul, he wrote to the Hebrew
believers. He said, you have need when you
ought to be a teacher. In other words, you've been in
this thing long enough that you ought to be a teacher. That doesn't
mean you're going to have a class necessarily, but what he's talking
about, you ought to have the knowledge the scriptures to defend
the faith he says you ought to be teachers but you have need
somebody teach you the fundamentals in other words you've got to
keep going back to the fundamental you haven't grown you haven't
become skill from the word of righteousness so when he says
content and then look over here in verse 20 he says in verse
20 he says but but ye beloved now he's talking and he he mentions
several different types of false preachers as he goes through
this little book of Jude. We won't go into all of them,
but basically what are we fighting? We're fighting any doctrine that
denies or challenges or compromises or confuses the truth of Christ's
person, who he is, and the truth of salvation by the grace of
God, how God saves sinners. It's the person and work of Christ.
That's basically what we're fighting. Anyone who comes along and challenges
that, denies that, compromises it or confuses it, that's what
we're fighting. And he says in verse 20, he says, but ye beloved,
building up yourselves on your most holy faith, praying in the
Holy Ghost, keep yourselves. Now he'd already talked about
we're preserved in Christ. God preserves us. But here he
says, keep yourselves. And he says, keep yourselves
in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ
unto eternal life. Now we know that we're not able
of our own power to keep ourselves. I mean, you think about it this
way. If God were to lift his preserving grace and power from
you one moment of your life, what would happen? You'd fall. That's the way it is with us.
We'd fall. And yet he says, keep yourselves.
Look at verse 24. These are the most quoted verses
out of the book of Job, or Jude rather. He says, now unto him
that is able to keep you from falling. That's Christ. He's
the only one that's able to keep me from falling. I'm not able
to keep myself from falling. And yet he says, keep myself.
And he says, and to present you faultless before the presence
of his glory with exceeding joy. Right now I'm faultless in Christ
based on his righteousness imputed, but I'm not faultless in myself.
I'm full of sin. And how do you know that? Well,
I have to fight a warfare every day with it. Don't you? It's called the warfare of the
flesh and the spirit. If you're not fighting that warfare,
what does that mean? It means you have no spirit,
no spiritual life. So something you've got to fight
with every day, it's pretty set therein. But one day, That contamination and presence
of indwelling sin will be gone. And that's when I go to be with
the Lord. That's when he comes and he presents us with glory. And he says in verse 25, to the
only wise God, our savior, be glory and majesty, dominion and
power, both now and ever. Amen. So here's what I'm saying
as true Christians. We need to realize that everything
we are in the way of salvation, in the way of spiritual and eternal
life. And everything we do that's pleasing to God is all by the
power of God, by the goodness of God, and by the grace of God
in Christ. Neither salvation nor any part
of it can be attributed to our own goodness or our own power.
In fact, we have no goodness or power but that which we have
in Christ. And I'm talking about goodness
now in the eyes of God. I'm not talking about how men
judge goodness. There can be a lot, listen, don't
ever confuse morality with goodness in the eyes of God or morality
with godliness. And that's all that we have in
Christ is by virtue of his shed blood and his righteousness imputed.
And we have no power. We don't have any power to do
anything that's pleasing to God. Not even to believe or repent
except that which we have in Christ by the Holy Spirit who
impart spiritual life in the new birth, and who indwells us
continually in our daily walk as believers. And it's totally
by the grace of God in Christ that we're saved, that we're
preserved, and that we'll be brought to final glory. All of
grace. A lot of people say that, I know,
but they don't really mean it. You know, You could say if we
were to talk about the greatest sin that a sinner can commit,
we could state it in different ways. We could talk about unbelief,
denying Christ, but one of the ways that you could describe
it is this way. The greatest act of self-righteousness
and sin that a sinner can commit before a holy God is to think
that he himself, that sinner himself, makes the difference
between saved and lost. That's right. Because you see,
in this thing of salvation, God will not share his glory with
you or with me. God is going to be glorified.
And you know, that tells us something about the truth of how amazing
grace is. It's really amazing, folks, isn't
it? Now, this holds true for every
aspect of salvation. God will save his elect, and
he has established the cause of salvation, the ground of salvation,
but he also provides all the means of salvation. For example,
we know that his means in bringing his people, you know, Jude said
there, who are called, you're preserved in Christ Jesus and
you're called. Now God's means of calling, as
I said before, is what? The preaching of the gospel,
not the preaching of a lie now. He doesn't call his people under
the preaching of them. He said, they hear my voice.
That's the preaching of the gospel. It pleased the Lord, 1 Corinthians
chapter one, by the foolishness of preaching to save them that
believe. And then in providence and under
conviction, bringing us to seek the Lord, to call upon his name.
You think about that. I can show you a scripture where
it says that none of us by nature will seek the Lord, will seek
God. Romans 3, for example. And yet he commands us to seek
him. Now what's that all about? He requires us to hear the gospel. But by nature, we don't have
ears to hear. How many times in the scripture
did he say, he that hath ears, let him hear? Well, didn't they
all have ears? Yeah, but not the kind of ears
he was talking about. He was talking about spiritual
ears. What's that all about? Well, he gives spiritual ears
to his people. Christ told his disciples in
Matthew chapter 13, he said, blessed are your ears for they
hear. What that blessed means is a
gift of God. How come people can't see what we all see, what
we see? It's because they don't have
eyes to see. Well, don't they have eyes? Can't they look around,
see the sunlight? Yeah, but they don't have spiritual
eyes. That's a gift from God. The Bible says, look unto me
and be ye saved. All the ends are there, for I
am God. There's none else. How are you going to look without
eyes? God gives you the eyes. You say, well, how do I know
if God gave me those eyes? Well, are you looking unto him?
Are you seeking the Lord? Or are you just seeking confirmation
of your old religion? He requires us to persevere in
the faith and yet he tells us it's he who keeps us and preserves
us. Look over at Philippians chapter
two with me. Listen to this one. And this
is why we should never, we should never quote scripture out of
context, right here. Because people do this and they
go wrong. But look at Philippians chapter
two in verse 12. Now if all you quoted is verse
12, you wouldn't understand what the Holy Spirit intends to teach
his people here. But it says in Philippians 2
and verse 12, it says, wherefore my beloved, as you have always
obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more my absence,
work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. Now work
it out. Well, stop there. What's he talking about? Is he
saying that salvation is based on our works? Or is he saying
something like this? I heard a man say this one time.
That means that you're saved by grace, but you're kept by
your works. You're preserved by your works.
Is that what it's teaching? Well, read verse 13. Look at it. For
it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do his good
pleasure. You see what I'm saying? The
preservation. Yes, we're to work it out. Now
what is all this talking about? We'll go back to Jude now. This
is the mind and the means of grace. It's the mind. God in his wisdom and in his
power and for his glory has given his people both the mind of grace
so that we think in terms of grace and that we're motivated
grace and our goal is grace and then he gives us the means of
grace everything that he commands us to do by which he in Christ
saves us and preserves us under glory and it's from this mind
of grace and these means of grace that every one of God's elect
will without fail persevere in the faith well where is this
mind of grace well look at verse 20 of Jude again he says but
ye beloved now that beloved there That's the mind of grace because
it identifies and distinguishes the true people of God from the
world. It's in a saving view of God's love for us in sending
Christ into the world to save us from our sins that we're given
the mind of grace, the heart of grace. Turn to 1 John chapter
four, just back a few pages. Now I know people talk about
the love of God and they belittle it, they diminish it. They make
the love of God no more than our love. You know, I love my
wife, I love my children, I love my grandchildren, but I'm limited
in what I can do for them. If one of my children gets sick,
the only thing I can do is take him to a doctor. and hope there's
a medicine. But if they're sick to the point
that nobody can help, I can't do it. I can't cure them. My love is not that strong and
powerful, you see. And I love them so much, I'd
give my own life for them. But I'm limited. I could honestly
say if one of my loved ones were sick unto death, I could say
this, I'm trying to save them, but I can't. And that's the way
most people think of God's love. He loves everybody and He's trying
to save you if you'll just let Him. Well, that's not the kind
of love that we need for salvation. I need the kind of love that's
powerful enough to save me in spite of myself. Now, that's
the issue. This is God's love to His people. The Bible says that God loved
Jacob and hated Esau. And everybody says, well that's
not fair that he would hate Esau. Yes it is, because Esau didn't
deserve his love. Neither did Jacob. But he just simply given Esau
what Esau deserved. There's no unfairness or injustice
in giving anybody what they deserve. Now if God decides out of his
own sovereign will, to bestow his love upon one and pass by
another, that's not unfairness or unjustness, that's just God's
grace. You say, well, I don't see it
that way. Well, that's the natural man, he doesn't. He doesn't see
it that way. He's got his own ideas. He thinks
he deserves it, therefore he sees it as unfair. But none of
us deserve the love of God. That's right. None of us earn
the love of God. Look at 1 John 4 and verse 7. He says, Beloved, let us love
one another, for love is of God. And everyone that loveth is born
of God and knoweth God. Now you've heard the, I'm sure
most of you have heard the differences between the different kind of
love in the scripture. There's brotherly love. There's
romantic love. This is godly love. This is the
agape love. You've probably heard that term.
And this is love that only God has. And if we have any of this
love in our hearts, it's given to us. We don't have this love
by nature. No man or woman by nature loves this way. And so
he says in verse eight, he that loveth not knoweth not God for
God is love. Now, even the heathen love their
children. Love themselves, but they don't
have this love. But verse 9, he says, in this
was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent
his only begotten son into the world that we might live through
him, so herein is love. Now here it is. Not that we love
God, you see that? It's not based on our love to
God. You see, it's not God's love for his people is not a
reaction. He says, but that he loved us and sent his son to
be, now this is the important, propitiation. for our sins. This love, see, is not just some
kind of a general emotional feeling of God towards everybody. No. This love is a specific love
aimed at his people that provides a sin-bearing sacrifice that
brings satisfaction for their sins and provides all that they
need in order to be accepted before God. Righteousness of
God. That's what that's all about.
Now, look at Romans chapter 5. Now listen to this. Now, how
does this apply to what I'm talking about? This mind of grace. Well look, in Romans 5, just for an example, he's talking about how Christ
died for the ungodly. There in verse six. That means
Christ died. This propitiation, that is the
product of God's love, that saves his people. See, this is love
that works. This is love that saves. This
is not love that's trying to save. This love is for the ungodly,
for those who don't deserve it and haven't earned it. We'll
look back up in verse 5 of Romans 5. It says, hope maketh not ashamed.
That hope is the certain assurance of salvation in Christ and based
on his blood and righteousness alone. Because the love of God,
this love that he defined over there in verse 1 John 4, is shed
abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us.
What does that mean? This love that we see in the
propitiation of Christ, the sin-bearing sacrifice that brought satisfaction
now, that we don't deserve and haven't earned, is shed abroad
in the preaching of the gospel by the power of the Spirit to
permeate our minds, our affections, our will, and it gives us this
mind of grace. Go back to Jude now. God the
Holy Spirit. convinces us of sin and of righteousness
and of judgment and brings us to Christ like beggars. God,
be merciful to me, the sinner. To submit to Christ and to submit
to his righteousness as the only ground upon which I stand before
holy God, I have no other plea, my hope built on nothing less
than Jesus' blood and righteousness. And God the Holy Spirit sheds
this love abroad within our hearts. That's the regenerate heart,
you see. So as to draw out our love to
Christ and he uses this love to motivate us. You see, this
is our motivation. This is the mind of grace. We're
motivated not by law, but by love. Paul said it in 2 Corinthians
5.14, the love of Christ constrains me. What keeps me fighting the
warfare of the flesh and the spirit? Am I trying to save myself?
Well, that's not love, that's law, that's legalism. Am I trying
to earn my salvation? Well, if you are, that's not
love, that's legalism. Am I trying to earn my rewards
in heaven? I want a bigger mansion than
old Jim there. Well, that's not love, that's law, that's legalism.
You see what I'm saying? What is our motivation for obedience? What is our motivation to persevere,
to contend for the faith, to fight the warfare, to love one
another, to worship God, to walk in this world as, what is our,
it's love, it's grace, it's gratitude. That's the mind of grace. And
that's what he means here, just in this word, beloved. Now, here's
the means of grace. They're described, he describes
it as the following. He says, building up yourselves,
verse 20, on your most holy faith. What is building up yourselves?
We don't build, you know Christ said that he's the builder of
the church. We're not the builder of the
church. I know some preachers around town think they are. And
they do build churches, but it's not churches of Christ. Churches
of men. And they'll do anything to get
people in. You know, they get them in by entertainment. If
you get them in by entertainment, you've got to keep them by entertainment.
It's like the fella up in Atlanta, you said that they have a singing
group in and they all get entertained and the guy said something like
he said, we feel like we've got to stay around for the preaching
because we feel guilty if we don't. That's not love. That's legalism. You see, we don't build ourselves. Christ is the builder. He told
Peter and the disciples, upon this rock, I'll build my church
and the gates of hell will not. If man builds it, it'll fall.
It'll fall. Christ builds it. It'll stay
right there. He's the foundation. He's the builder. He's the head.
He's the, he's the heart of the church. And yet in first Peter
chapter two, we're called living stones within that body. And here he says, build yourselves
up. What's he talking about? He's talking about a simple thing
here, growing in grace and in knowledge of Christ. That's what
it means to build ourselves up, grow in Christ. And how do you do that? By attending
to the teaching, the preaching, the reading, the studying of
the word of God. His words are our life. What
are you doing this morning? You're not just going to church,
I hope. You're worshiping God. Your soul
is being fed. Just like your body needs to
be fed, your soul needs to be fed. That's how we build ourselves
up. True faith grows as we attend
unto the preaching and teaching of God's word and in the active
fellowship of other believers. We encourage one another, that's
growing. And then he says praying in the
Holy Ghost, prayer, true godly prayer is not the cause or the
ground by which we merit or earn God's favor and God's blessings.
Prayer doesn't change things, changes us, doesn't change God
or change his mind. Prayer is simply the means by
which we seek and enjoy God's favor in Christ and blessings
by Christ. Why do we pray? Because God commands
it. Because the Holy Spirit gives us a heart to pray. How do we
pray? We come unto the throne of what?
Grace, Hebrews chapter four, verses 14 through 16. We come
unto God to the throne of grace, seeking mercy in time of need. And how do we come? We come because
we have a great high priest who has passed through into the heavens.
We come to God in prayer based on the Lord Jesus Christ, his
blood, and his righteousness and beauty. We have no audience
with God. We have no communion with God,
but through Christ. And prayer is the means. And
what is our desire in prayer? Well, we have all kinds of petitions
and desires, but they're all covered under this one desire
that God commands us, and it says it this way, thy will be
done. God's will be done. Now, I have
a lot of things I want. And I have a lot of things I
want that are not in themselves ungodly things. They're not bad
things. You know, a lot of people, they
want things that are opposed to God's revealed will. But I have a lot of things I
want that are not opposed to God's revealed will by way of
commandment in and of themselves. And I pray for them, but I may
not get them. Why? Because it may not be God's
will. Now, some preacher may come on and say, well, you're
just not praying hard enough. No, that's not the problem. That's
not the problem. Or they may say, well, you're
not believing hard enough. No, that is not the problem. Not
according to this word now. Now, maybe according to that
preacher, but not according to this. The problem is, and it's
really not a problem, and I'm the problem, but it's thy will
be done. And you see, here's the point.
Y'all ever raised children? Did they ever come to a point
where they thought they knew what was best for them better
than you did? You've been there, haven't you? Well, God's our
heavenly father. We're his children. He knows
what's best for me better than I do. He does. So these things that I pray for
that I want, they may not be good for me, and I don't see
how they wouldn't be good for me, but God does, and he's all
wise and all powerful. And then lastly, he says this,
look here, he says in verse 20, keep yourselves in the love of
God, looking, and how do you do that? Now listen to this,
looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal
life. That's how you keep yourselves in the love of God. What does
that mean? That simply means looking unto Jesus, the author
and finisher of our faith. Never take your eyes, your focus,
your intent off Christ and his glory and his righteousness.
as you seek to live your life for his glory and according to
his word, we're to always know that our hope of salvation, our
merits, our acceptance is through the blood and righteousness of
Christ and not our own. And I tell people like this,
I've been preaching this gospel for 30 years or more now. I'm
no more, I am no more closer to earning God's favor and grace
and salvation than I was before I was saved. In other words,
what I'm telling you is this, my only right and title to salvation
and all of its blessings right now is the grace of God in Christ. His blood and His righteousness
imputed on. And you know what? That's the
way it'll always be. It'll never change, really.