If you will, turn back with me
this morning to the book of Jude. This man's name is the same as
Judah. That's his proper name, Judah. And Jude, as is most of the New
Testament, is an epistle, it's a letter. Some of the epistles are written
to individuals. 3 John is written to a man named
Gaius. 2 John is written to the elect
lady and Timothy is written to Timothy. He writes to individuals. Sit down and he penned a letter,
the Holy Spirit inspired every word of it, and he sent it off
to these individuals. Does that mean they're not for
us? Oh no, it means they are for us. And then some are written to
specific churches, like groups of churches. He addresses the
book of Galatians to the churches of Galatians. There were several
assemblies there, and he writes this letter to them. And then
some he writes to a specific church, Ephesians, Romans, Colossians,
and on the list goes. Jude, though, is a general epistle. If you look up there at the title
above it, it'll say general, the general epistle. of Jude. And like James and 1 and 2 Peter
and 1 John, these are all general epistles, kind of to whom it
may concern type of letters. And in most of the general epistles,
there is an introduction. Now I hope when I go somewhere
to preach and I'm among strangers. There was one or two down in
Lake Charles that I knew from way back in the days of Don McKinney
when he was alive and pastoring down there. The rest of them
I didn't know. And so Mr. Carnahan would introduce me and
he'd tell them my name and he said he's a pastor. He pastors
up you know, in Louisville, Arkansas. And he sat under Brother Don
Fortner's ministry, sat under Henry Mahan's ministry, and he
began to tell them something. He introduced me. And that's what's going on here
in this book. This is an introduction. An introduction. There's always an introduction
in these general epistles. And that is a qualifying description
of those to whom the letter is written. And so I titled the
message this morning, The Introduction of a Saint, or Introducing the
Saint. Believers are called saints in
the scriptures. If you look at the four gospels,
if you look at the titles of them, what does it say? Saint
Matthew, Saint Mark, Saint Luke, Saint
John, they're saints. They're all called saints in
the scriptures. We're exhorted here in this book
of Jude to contend for the faith which was once delivered to the
saints. Where's faith delivered? To the
saints. Nobody else has it. They don't
have faith. Well, what is a saint? What qualifies
a man or a woman to be a saint? How do you get to be a saint?
What is a saint? Well, saint is short for sanctified
woman. That's what a saint is. He's
one sanctified of God. And Jude gives us three general
characteristics of the believer in his introduction. And he's
writing of the common salvation, not common to all men, but common
to all believers. They're just one salvation. They're
not five or six kinds of salvation. They're just one. One salvation. And he's writing about the common
salvation. Peter writes about the common
faith. Like precious faith, he calls it. In the book of Ephesians,
he said there's one faith. One faith. And he's writing of
the common salvation and therefore I take his introduction the same
way. Here then is the introduction
of the saints. First of all he said they're
sanctified by God the Father. Who's he writing to? Those sanctified
by God the Father. All saints, every believer, every
child of God is sanctified by God the Father. that you can't be a saint unless
you're sanctified by God the Father. Well, how so? How do I know if I've been sanctified
by God the Father? What's that mean? What's that
mean? How does God the Father sanctify
his people? By an act of eternal election. God said, this one, that one,
that one, this one, that one, that one over there. I'm gonna
save every one of them. We say, I don't like that. So
what? Join the crowd. There's a lot
who don't like it. But I tell you, if you ever,
if you ever, if God ever reveals what you are by nature, it's
the only open door there is. Election's not a closed door.
It doesn't keep people who want to be saved. You don't want to
be saved unless God puts a want to in you. Huh? He said, Christ said, I know
you that you will not come unto me. You can quote the scriptures
cover to cover, but you won't come to me that you might have
life. You will not, that's what he said. There's no want to out
there. If there's a want to, you better
start thanking God, because he's the one who caused you to want
to. We're sanctified by God the Father
in an eternal act of election. All the saints are chosen to
salvation, and that includes all the means by which this holy
calling is gonna be brought to pass. In 1 Timothy, or 2 Timothy, chapter
one, verse nine, Paul writing to this young preacher, and he
said, God hath saved us. That's past tense, ain't it? And called us with a holy calling,
not according to our words, but according to his own purpose
and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world
began. How'd we get an interest in Christ?
God the Father. God the Father. And I'll tell you something else
about this election. Our Lord himself, in John chapter
10, our Lord himself ascribes this sanctification to himself
as well as his people. He was sanctified by God the
Father. He said, call you him whom the fathers have sanctified
and sent into the world. You gonna go against him? You gonna blaspheme me? You gonna
call me down that God has sent him because I said I'm the son
of God? God sanctified me. God set me
apart for this. I didn't come to do my will.
I came to do the will of him that sent me. In the eternal act of sovereign
grace, God the Father chose a people unto salvation. And you can reject
it, you can deny it, you can ignore it, you can shove it off
in a corner, but it's so anyway. The only information we have
on salvation, it doesn't come in your closet in a vision, it
comes in this book. If they speak not according to
this book, it's because there's no what? Huh? No life in them. No knowledge
in them. They're ignorant. Salvation is
a work began in eternity. And what Christ accomplished
on the cross and took possession of is eternal redemption, isn't
it? Isn't that what he said in Hebrews
9? Entered in one time into heaven
itself with his own blood, having obtained eternal redemption for
us. Ephesians 1.3 said, blessed be
the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed
us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ.
Now listen, according. Boy, I tell you, sometime you
need to read Ephesians chapter one and read all those accordings,
either six or seven of them, going down through there. But
here's what he says about this, according as he hath chosen us
in him before the foundation of the world. Ain't that what
the word of God said? Having, that is in his eternal
purpose, having predestinated us unto the adoption of children
by Jesus Christ to himself according to the good pleasure of his will. God the Father chose a people,
He set them apart for a gracious salvation to the end that he
might manifest the glory of his name. That's why he saved people. Sanctified, set apart for divine
use. Why are they given this holy
prejudice? Why does God give them what he
don't give others? What's this all about? It's about
his glory. That's what it's about. sanctified, set apart for divine
use, set apart for divine purpose, separated from all mankind by
a holy separation and treated with a holy prejudice given to
them and treating them as he treats no other. My soul, if
you look at Israel, Jacob, And Esau? Esau was 10 times the man Jacob
was. If you just looked at him on
the basis of his own character, well, you'd have chose Esau hands
down. He was a man's man. He didn't
need anybody. He was a man's man. He was smart,
he was wise, he was the head of the family, he was the eldest.
Had everything going for him, except God. And he tells us in the scriptures,
he said, he told his mother before either one of these were ever
born or ever did any good or evil, that the elder was gonna
serve the younger. As it's written, Jacob have I
loved, Esau have I hated. I tell you, I tell you. Paul, in Romans 11, talking about
his kinsmen, the Jews, said, what then? Israel hath not attained
that which it seeketh for, but the election hath obtained it,
and the rest were blinded. According as is written, God
hath given them the spirit of slumber, eyes that they should
not see and ears that they should not hear unto this day. And here's the thing, no man's
worthy of this sanctification. This is not God's keeping those
who want to be saved from being saved. And the sad fact is nobody
wants to be saved. Oh, they'll come to the front
of the church They'll join a denomination.
They'll come to a system or a plan, but they won't come to Christ
when they find out who he is. Do you know seated on the throne
right now, this man, is one who controls everything? Huh? The heart of the king is in the
hand of the Lord. And like the rivers of water,
he turns it whether so ever he will. There's one seated at the
right hand of God who controls everything. What's he doing in our day? He's
calling out his elect. That's what he's doing. He's
manifesting the glory of his name. And you can make all excuses
you want to, but the truth is you don't want the salvation
of God. It says, here is the condemnation Christ said. Light
has come into the world and men love darkness rather than light
because their deeds were evil. He's not just talking about filthy
living. He's talking about deeds of religion. It's evil. An eternal election
is not a closed door, it's an open door. If he'd not chosen
some, we'd all be damned. Fact is, if God didn't have an
elect people, when Adam sinned, he would have burnt this place
to cinders. God doesn't tolerate sin. The
only reason mankind was allowed to propagate and go on is because
God chose the people under salvation. Ain't gonna save every one of
them. And when that last one's called
in, boy, you can hang this world up. He'll burn this thing to
cinders. We're not deserving of the favor
of God. We have favor by grace. This
is an election. Read it in Romans chapter 11.
This is an election of grace. We have no rights to anything
God has. He said, all have sinned and
come short of the glory of God. And we all like to say, well,
why doth he yet find fault? For who hath resisted his will?
That religion will sing that song till they wake up in hell.
Here's what Paul answered to that. Nay, but old man, who art
thou that replies against God? I don't like election. Who art
thou? Huh? Who you think you are? replying
against God. But that's man, ain't it? He'll
bow up. Sin must be a horrible thing
for a man to bow up against God. But he does. God had not chosen us, we'd never
chosen him. An election looks not on the
moment, but it looks at eternity. And it sees all things, it sees
things as they are, and it makes provision for all that the God
of grace has determined to save. And it's by way of this eternal
sanctification that man's permitted to go on. Believers are men and
women sanctified by God the Father. And then secondly, they're preserved
in Jesus Christ. What's that mean? Our God is
a holy God. His character is beyond reproach.
He's perfect in all of His ways. And in order to save a people,
for the glory of His name, He must make provision for them
to be in harmony with His character. He ain't gonna save you because
you're pretty good. He ain't gonna save you because
you do the best you can do. Cain brought the best he could
do and laid it there and God ignored it totally, just walked
past it. Didn't have any interest in it
at all. To save your soul, God has to
make you as good as God. Can you do that? Can you manufacture
that? Can you produce that? No way. No way. It has to be done for
you. I love to grow a garden. And
I know William's daddy loves to grow a garden. William does. In the fall, you take that stuff
and what do you do with it? Put it in a jar. Now, whatever you put in there
is warm with the jar in it. What you put in there is only
as good as the jar. And you put it in there, put
a lid on it, Put it in boiling water and you take it out and
you sit it on the countertop and you sit there and wait and
wait and wait and all of a sudden you hear that pop. Pop. Pop. Everything you put in the
jar is sealed. It's sealed. We're preserved
in Jesus Christ. All that holiness and godliness. He hath chosen us in Christ before
the foundation of the world that we should be holy. and without blame, before Him
being loved. He seals us in the jar with Him. He makes us one with Him. And
what's faith? Faith's to hear another jar,
pop, pop, pop, pop, sealed, sealed. and whom also after that you
believed you were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise.
That's the pop. You see, all of a sudden now,
you brought to see everything that I need to be saved in Him. And God saved me by putting me
in Him and Him in me. One with Him. That's my hope. I don't have any other hope.
We're sanctified by God the Father. He made full provision for us.
Paul said, I thank God who hath chosen you from the beginning
to salvation through sanctification of the spirit and belief of the
truth, whereunto he called you by our gospel. All the means
laid out, everything, all provisions made in Christ. In order to save a people for
the glory of his name, he must make provision for them, a holy
provision. And so he chose us in Christ.
Chose us in His Son, put us into a holy union with Him, made us
one with Him. Preserved in Christ. And by eternal
provision, God put us in His Son to be preserved. When Adam
sinned, the whole race was plunged into corruption. Sin entered
and death passed. But not God's elect. Not God's
elect. Their standing is preserved in
Christ. We have access. Isn't that what
he tells us in the book of Romans? We have access into this grace
wherein we stand. He gave us access. In Christ
they are holy. They're as pure as God. They're
without blame. Not even a blemish. Unreprovable,
he said. And God looks on his son and
he sees all of his saints. And don't even get the idea that
God looks on something you do as a righteous act. Or something
that draws his favor and blessings. There are two essential things
given us in Christ to preserve us. Forgiveness of sins and a
perfect righteousness. Perfect righteousness. By way
of eternal provision in the son. Our Lord must come into this
world as a man, be subject to the law, satisfy divine justice. And so he's delivered for our
offense, as the scripture said, and raised again for our justification. We're preserved in Jesus Christ. How? By eternal mediation. God said, I'm gonna save a people.
I'm gonna save them in harmony with my name. I'm gonna save
them and they're gonna show forth my glory. I'm gonna save them.
How you gonna do it? In my son. In my son. I will stand or fall
depending on him. Depending on him. And he said
there's one mediator between God and me and the man, Christ
Jesus. He's the eternal mediation. or mediator, and by an act of
union with Christ. God put us in a covenant union
with his son. And then we're saved by the offices
appointed to him necessary for our salvation. God appointed
him as our substitute. Our substitute. He died in our
room instead. He didn't die to make something
possible, he died to put away our sins. And then he saves us by his accomplished
work. He did what God demanded to be
done and what we could never do, he did. Well, I know God accepted it,
he raised him from the dead. I know by his ascension into
glory, and we're preserved by his reigning presence on the
throne. He who is our preservation is now seated at the right hand
of God, expecting till his enemies be made his footstool. So we're
sanctified by God the Father, we're preserved in Jesus Christ,
and then he said we're called. It's of particular interest to
me that he doesn't use the name the Holy Ghost in this. He just
says you're called. You're called. Paul said this.
I called you, he called you by our gospel. Who called you? God did. How'd he do it? Through our gospel. Well, how'd
he call you through me? Because he works in me and works
in you. He doesn't use the word Holy
Ghost here, he just says called. But I can stand and call you
all day, and you know what he'll do? He'll go in this ear and
out that ear. Kind of like Walter's dog attacking
that rooster yesterday over where we're building. He had blood
in his eyes. He was having chicken for breakfast,
and man, he took off after that thing, and we grabbed him by
the collar. You could say no all you wanted to. That dog didn't
hear anything. He wanted chicken. And that's
the way the sinner is. He wants sin, he wants the world,
he wants what he wants. And you can holler no, stop,
do this, do, I can call all day long, it has no effect on you
because of your nature. But when God the Holy Spirit
enters into you, he gives you a new nature. And when God says
stop, boy, you stop. The old writers called it being
arrested by God. God arrest the sinner. He said
that's enough. And he stops. Only God can do
that. But when he does, he does it
through a man. Ain't that amazing? It is to
me. Absolutely amazing. Somebody
said, be careful what you say. Somebody's liable to believe
you. That's right. It's of particular interest to
me that God the Holy Spirit's not mentioned in this verse,
and I suspect it's because he's invisible in his work, and because
it was pleasing to God for Christ to have the preeminence. He says
of the Holy Comforter, when he's come, he won't speak of himself. Pentecostals tell me all the
time God the Holy Spirit, God the Holy Spirit, God the Holy
Spirit. The Bible tells me when God the Holy Spirit's come, he
ain't gonna speak of himself. Not gonna speak of himself. Well,
how you gonna know anything about the Holy Spirit? If he brings
you to Christ, you'll know. Christ is the only one through
whom you can know God. Is that right? That's what it
says over in 1 John 5, read it for yourself. We know that the Son of God had
come into the world. Huh? We know that. And He reveals to us the true
and living God. And that's eternal life. He's not mentioned in the verse,
but nevertheless, this calling of God's saints cannot be effectual
apart from Him. Believers being predestinated
and preserved in Christ are often accused of living a careless
life without restraint or godliness. That's what people say about
the saints. They've been saying it from the
beginning. They've never been, and people do this, never been
sanctified by the Holy Spirit. That's why they stalk that way.
The work of the Holy Spirit is a work done in us. It is an effectual
work, a reigning work, a victorious work, and it's in every wit the
work of God. It always does what's impossible
for you to do without Him. It's God. Paul said, now you
go ahead, you work out your own salvation with fear and trembling
because it's God that worketh in you both to will and to do
of His good pleasure. It's God working in you. And
this calling of God is by way of sanctification of the Spirit
unto obedience. That's how Peter put it, unto
obedience. How'd I know if the Holy Spirit's
working in a man? He becomes obedient. If I gotta
stand here and crack the whip all day, I ain't doing that. I ain't doing that. I'm gonna
tell you the truth. And if the Holy Spirit of God
gets a hold of you, you'll obey. I don't have to do anything.
You'll obey. It's unto obedience and the sprinkling
of the blood of Jesus Christ. He applies that blood to the
heart. And God, the Holy Spirit, works in the heart. And if there
is no change in the heart, there's no change in my standing before
God. He talks about their former behavior and tells the
Ephesians, but you've not so learned Christ. If so, be that
you've heard him and have been taught by him as the truth is
in him that you put off concerning that former conversation, the
old man which is corrupt according to his deceitful lust and be
renewed in the spirit of your mind that you put on the new
man which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness. be called by the Holy Spirit
of God to be born of God, born of the Spirit, a man made meat
to be partaker with enlightened saints. And he loves God and
he hates sin, he loves truth and he hates a lie. He loves
Christ and that love reigns in every aspect of his life. He's
merciful, he's tender-hearted, he's gracious, he's generous. You were sometimes darkness,
but now are you light in the Lord. Walk as children of light,
and let no man deceive you with vain words. For because of these
things, uncleanness, whoredoms, covetousness, idolatry, and on
and on the list goes, the wrath of God cometh upon the children
of disobedience. The eternal election of God the
Father and accomplished redemption of Christ is not an excuse for
sin. No, it ain't. And all who are
chosen by God the Father and redeemed in Christ shall be called
with a holy calling, a sanctified calling. Being grafted into God's
vine, they shall produce the fruit of the Holy Spirit. What
are they going to produce? Love. Joy. Peace. Long-suffering. What's that mean? That means
putting up with. That's long-suffering, gentleness,
goodness, and faith. You can't come up with that.
Natural man, he can't produce that. Somebody told me as an excuse
one day, I was talking to them about their sin, and they said,
well, that's just me. I know it is. That's why I went down
there. God saves sinners. But you don't want to be you.
Not that you. You want to put on that new man.
That new man which after God is created in true holiness.
And he's gentle, he's loving, he's kind, he's merciful. And
all those sanctified by God the Father preserved in Jesus Christ
are called by the Holy Ghost. called by a gospel made effectual
by the Spirit, called by the Word of God, revealed by the
Holy Spirit. First Peter 2.9 says, but ye
are a chosen generation, a holy priesthood, a holy nation, a
peculiar people. What's so peculiar about you?
Here it is, that you should show forth the praises of him who
has called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. You're
going to show forth the praises of God. He said, I've done a
work in you, and now I'm going to show the world it's my work. My work. Not just a card, a get out of
jail free card. No, you're going to show forth
in your life, the rest of it, whatever it entails, you're going
to show forth the praises of him who called you out of darkness
into his marvelous light. And Jude says, I'm writing this
to you because certain men crept in unawares before of old ordained
to this condemnation, ungodly men turning the grace of our
God into lasciviousness. You can't turn the grace of God
into lasciviousness. Not for a believer. He's not
going to have it. He's not going to listen to it.
He's not going to put up with it. May the Lord be pleased to
do a whole work of grace in us For his name's honor and glory,
amen.