Now, if you will take your Bibles
and go back to the book of Jude, Jude is a book written primarily
to exhort the people to contend for the faith, the faith that
was once delivered them by those chosen men, those apostles, those
men of whom No man could have any doubt that these men were
of God. Now, you may have doubt about
me. You may have doubt about my abilities to speak or my training. The fact that I've never been
to a seminary, that might bother you. I don't know. But you can't
have any doubt about the Apostle Paul. God so confirmed their ministry
that they walked up and took the hand of a dead man and raised
him up to life. He so confirmed their ministry
that they healed the sick. I'm not talking about somebody
with a cold. I'm talking about somebody with
a leprosy. That man sat there, unable to
stand in front of that temple. And Peter said, Silver and gold
have I none, but such as I have, give I unto thee. In the name
of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk. He took him
by the hand and that man stood up. They knew who that man was.
He'd been sitting there for years. And I tell you, they wanted to
hear what Peter had to say, didn't they? They didn't have any doubt
about who Peter was. They didn't have any doubt about
who Paul was. And Jude wrote to these people
and he said, this gospel that was delivered unto you is worthy
to contend for. And if you don't, there's a danger.
We don't see the danger because everything just goes on. You
can read over there in the book of Peter They said, well, all
things continue as they were from the beginning. The flood's
old news. Sodom and Gomorrah, that was
a long time ago. That was a different God. That was the Old Testament,
the Old Bible, somebody said. Jude said, you better listen.
You better take heed. You better hear what these men
deliver to you, and you better contend for it, because it just
takes a little bit of this, just a little bit. Just a little bit. They came into that church at
Galatia. And I'm telling you, if you read the book of Galatians,
it was written by an angry apostle. He was upset. What was he upset
about? Because they come in and started this. We don't want to
change what you say. We believe in the grace of God.
We believe in the sovereignty of God. We believe in election.
We believe all these things. All we want you to do is be circumcised. Paul said, don't you understand?
Don't you hear? Don't you hear what the law says?
You so much as be circumcised, Christ will profit you nothing. For a serious thing. That's what
Jude's talking about. That's what Jude's talking about.
Brother, this faith that's delivered unto you, there's just one faith.
There's just one gospel. Paul said, I don't care if it's
an angel from heaven. He said, if I myself come back
in some other frame of mind and start preaching to you another
gospel than that which I have delivered unto you, let him be
accursed. Is that what he said? Accursed. And just in case you didn't understand
it, he repeated himself again. Let him be accursed. Content. Content not for any
faith, not for every faith, but the faith. And just in case you
don't understand what that is, he said this faith that was delivered
unto us of the apostles, of those whom God confirmed with miracles
and signs and wonders, undeniable works. He said you'd better continue
for it. Where's that at in 1 Corinthians
15? Let me read that to you real
quick. Over here in 1 Corinthians 15. He says, I declare unto you,
verse 1, the gospel which I preached unto you, which also you have
received, and wherein you stand, by which also you are saved,
if you keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless you have believed
in vain. If you can be drawn away by another
gospel, you believed in vain. That's what he's saying. If these filthy dreamers can
come in and just start a whisper, and catch your ear, your faith
can be in vain. That's what he's talking about.
You're saved if you keep in memory what I preached unto you unless
you believed in vain, because there's just one gospel. For
I delivered unto you, first of all, that which I also received,
how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures,
that he was buried and that he rose again the third day according
to the scriptures. That he was seen of Cephas, and
of the twelve, and after that was seen of above five hundred
brethren at one time. Undeniable. Undeniable. And this gospel is plain. It's
not confusing. The confusion is in us. It's
not in the gospel. You very rarely find more than
a two-syllable word. The Lord uses plain examples.
A sower went forth to sow. Sow seed in the ground. That's
not hard to understand. Man holds a house, and he holds it in power
and authority. He's a strong man. He keeps his
goods. You're not going to get his goods unless you're stronger
than he is and go in and take it away from him. That's easy
to understand, isn't it? The Gospel's not difficult to
understand. The Gospel's plain. Confusion's
in us. And I tell you, if God ever gives
you a glimpse of that Gospel, if you ever It gives you a revelation of
that glory. Hold it. Don't let it go. Don't let it go. Stand in it.
I don't care if everybody in the place goes up and finds it.
Stand in it. Having done all, stand. Ain't
that what he said? Stand. We have access into this
grace wherein we stand. And you stand there because that's
where God put you. It's His gift. This gift, this
revelation. It's not every faith, it's not
any faith, it's the faith. And the writer sets before us
an outline of that to which he refers as the faith and to those
who possess it. Now, listen to this. He describes
them as sanctified by God the Father. He's not writing to everybody.
I'd like to know how many people over thousands of years have
read this book of Jude and dismissed it and threw it down and said,
well, he's not talking to me. No, he wasn't. He wasn't talking
to you. He's talking to those who are
sanctified by God the Father, preserved in Jesus Christ, and
called. Now, that's what has to happen.
That's what has to happen. Our God, the God of Scripture,
the living God, declares Himself to be three in one. Three distinct
persons, but one God. Explain that, preacher. I can't.
I can't. I can't explain how, and I know
men are trying to in our day, but I can't explain how he who
had no sin could be made sin. Can you explain that? You can't explain that. Explain
to me the new birth. Can you explain that? That's
why old Brother Barnard said he wasn't in the explaining business.
He was in preaching business, the declaration. He declares. Truth is to be declared. That's what preaching is. And
our God depicts Himself in the Scriptures as Father, Son, and
Holy Spirit, but yet one God. One God. He's one in purpose.
He's one in attitude. He's one in power. He's one in
attributes. He's the same. The Spirit of
God has the same attributes as the Father. The Father has the
same attributes as the Son. It said of Christ, he who thought
it not robbery to be equal with God. And the work of salvation
and eternal redemption is the work of the Father, the Son,
and the Holy Spirit. And it's set forth that way in
the Scriptures. When we baptize, I baptized Brother
Russell up here and Brother Jesse. I baptize you in the name of
the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, because that
is whose name by which you were saved. In 1 John 5, we are told that
there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word,
and the Holy Ghost, and these three are one. And the gospel
we preach and contend for is a gospel that is all together.
All together, the work of God, front to back, beginning to end,
alpha to omega. It's all of God. Well, you say,
I believe. Did you now? Did you? By grace are you saved through
faith, and that not of yourselves. It is the gift of God, not of
works, lest any man should boast. You believe. Because God gave
you the ability to pray. You repented. Sure you did. I
did. Why? Because the goodness of
God led me to repentance. I mourned. I mourned over my
sins. I sought the Lord. But He gave
me that thirst and hunger that I might seek Him. It's the gift
of God. It's all together. The work of
God. It's all of God and it's all
of grace. And I wouldn't give you a nickel
for a gospel that mixes even one percent of human works with
the sovereign grace of God. It's all of grace. Now listen to me. Are you saying
that men don't do good works? No, I'm not saying that. I'm
saying that we are His workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto
good works which God before ordained that we should walk in them.
I'm telling you, the work is of Him. All of it. All of it. It's not a contradiction. And
I don't know if you've ever studied the scriptures, but 1 Corinthians
chapter 1, turn over there. This was called by Charles Spurgeon
and Whitefield, both of them, made the exact same comment that
this verse of scripture is the most comprehensive verse of scripture
in the Bible. 1 Corinthians chapter 1, verse
30. That's a pretty bold statement,
but I believe it's true. Now, watch this. But of God, you see there? Of God are ye in Christ Jesus,
who of God is made unto us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification,
and redemption, that according as it is written, He that glorieth,
let him glory in the Lord. It's all of God. It's of God. Romans 9, verse 16. So, then
it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but
of God that showeth mercy. Isn't that what he said? John 1, verse 10. He was in the
world. The world was made by. The world
didn't know it. He came unto his own. His own
received him not. But to as many as received him,
to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them
that believe on his name, who were born." They were born. Not of blood, nor of the will
of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. You see how
comprehensive that text is? It's of God, front to back. Front to back. You say, preacher, I just, you
know, somebody invited me and I'm here. Are you now? Are you now? That Ethiopian Union, God gave him a hunger. He wanted
to know. He wanted to know. And they said,
well, Israel, that's where you got to go if you want to know
God. You're going to have to go to Israel. Because God didn't
make himself known to anybody. So he packed up his chariot and
his entourage and headed out to Jerusalem in the days of the
feast. He went over there for weeks.
And they went through the ceremonies and the feast days and all that
stuff, and they celebrated and sacrificed and preached and read.
And he was on his way back, and he didn't know any more than
he did when he went over there. Down here in Jerusalem, there
is a revival going on. God is making Himself known,
pouring out His Spirit on men. being given miraculous gifts,
and those who are sick are being healed and blind, given their
sight and all these things. The gospel is being preached.
There is a revival going on. And God takes His man, Philip,
and He says, Come with Me. And He takes him all the way
out here in the middle of nowhere in a desert. And along comes the Ethiopian
Union. And he is reading the scroll. And he's reading over
there in Isaiah. And Philip's walking along, and
he looks up and sees him reading. He says, you know what you're
reading? He says, how can I? How can I? Except somebody tell
me. He says, good Lord. I'm just here by accident. Are
you now? I just got up this morning, and
they've been inviting me, and I just decided to go. Did you
now? How shall you hear? Isn't that
what the Scripture says? How shall you hear without a
preacher? How shall he preach except he
be sent? I could go on for hours and show
you in the Bible how Paul got up one morning and he wanted
to go into this town and the Holy Spirit just absolutely would
not allow him to go into that town. He wanted to go. He prayed to go. He was ready
to go. He was packed up. He had the money to go. He was
willing to go. He was ready to go to that town.
But God, the Holy Spirit, forbade him in Providence to go. He blocked his way. He couldn't
go. And so he went into this town.
Well, there was a woman that lived in that town where he wanted
to go that belonged to God. But she wasn't in that town.
She was in this town. And he went to this town where
the Holy Spirit led him, and he went down there, and they
were too little to have a synagogue, so they just met down on the
riverbank. And there were just a few women meeting down there,
and Apostle Paul, wanting to worship God and wanting to be
where his name was proclaimed, went down there on the riverbank
to worship with them. Gadget was God's people. He went
down there and preached to them. Lydia was down there. He rules over providence. He
sends preachers on purpose. He crosses your path with the
gospel on purpose. You don't really want to know
that. If you really wanted to know, if you're here this morning
and you don't know God and you don't agree with that, you're
not even willing for me to sit down at the table and leaf through
the Bible and show you that one-on-one, are you? Huh? It's the truth? It's the truth? Sanctified by
God the Father. This sanctification of the Father
has to do with the setting apart something that's just common
and ordinary, like those old vessels back in the temple. They
were just glasses. Maybe they were made of silver.
That might make them special. That don't make them holy. God sanctified them vessels.
And you didn't mess with them vessels after that. You asked
Nebuchadnezzar's grandson about it. God wrote on the wall, it
was over for him. It's over. What did he do? He took those vessels and just
treated them as common vessels and drank his wine from them,
partied, had a good time. God the Father set apart a people
for His glory. Common, ordinary people. Sinners. No difference. No difference.
Of the same lot. He formed a vessel of mercy and
a vessel of dishonor out of the same lump, for no reason except
reasons known only to God. He set them apart. He declared
them to be holy, and they were to be treated as holy. And he
treated those vessels different from these vessels. These vessels he is going to
put in his house. These vessels he is going to
sit on the mantle. These vessels are going to be
trophies of His grace. These are going to just be vessels
of dishonor. You take them out and you throw
them in the potter's field like Judas. Do you study that passage
about the potter's field? Broken vessels. I'm telling you, God set these
apart. Why? I don't know. Grace. That's the only answer I've got.
Grace. Free, sovereign grace of God. Here's two boys. They're not even born yet. Same
mother, same father. The father and the mother both
love God, called of God. Two sons are born. One, he says,
I love. The other, he says, I hate. Why? Why? Why did he love either one
of them? See, the question ain't why did
he hate the woman, why didn't he hate both of them? That's
the question. It was the free, sovereign grace of God. I'm telling
you, that's the only difference. My nephew told me one time, he
said, well, tell me this. He said, here I am. Let's just
say for sake of argument, let's say I was interested. Let's say
God gave me an interest. How in the world Can anybody
know what's right and what's wrong? Who's saying truth and
who's not? Who's preaching truth and who's
not? How can you distinguish between a world full of religion
and the truth? How in the world can you know? And I said, you can't. But by
the grace of God. That's the only way. Is there another way? You know
another way. I listened to everything coming
and going when I was growing up, and none of it made any sense
to me. Why me? Why me? How can I know? How can I know? By the grace
of God. God the Father set apart a people,
and He determined to save that people. He determined the means. He predestinated their inheritance. He predestinated their end. And
it's going to happen. It's going to happen. You read
Ephesians chapter 1. He set them apart. Common, ordinary,
best. Just like the Ark of the Covenant,
it was made out of gopher wood. Yeah, it had some gold on it
and it had some things on it. It was a beautiful thing to look
at. It had some special things inside. But none of those things
made it holy. God took that thing and sanctified
it and said it's holy. Don't put it on wagons and don't
bear it up on your shoulders. You put poles through it. You
don't touch it. It's mine. It's special. You don't mess with it. You don't
put your hands on it. The priest alone let them take
these staves and put them through the rings and bear that thing.
David didn't listen to that. David put it on a wagon, hauling
it back. Wagon hit a hole. Ark came up. Uzzah reached up and touched
it. What happened? God killed him dead right on
his back. In the book of Isaiah, he said,
I've sacrificed nations for you. You can't even conceive that,
can you? God take Russia, destroy it for one of His elect. What's
the nations to Him? He says in the book of Isaiah,
the nations are just the small dust on the balance. You go up
to the man and you're buying gold back in the old days and
they've got this balance up there and they put the gold on one
side and they put the weights on the other side. They don't
even wipe the dust off, because that don't even affect the measurement.
That's what he said the nations were to him. That old bucket
we used to pull up our grandma's well, we'd pull that thing up,
take that dipper and drink that water. We'd pour that water out,
take it in the house. We never caught that last drop.
Did you? Did you sit there and try to get that last drop? You
threw it back in the well. He said, they're just a small
drop of the bucket. The islands, he said, just a
little thing to me. Oh, I'll tell you why God's people
are special, because God the Father set them apart in eternity
and blessed them and sanctified them. And He said they're mine,
and I predestinated them to be sons. And they're going to be
sons. And because they're sons, God
has sent forth their spirit into their hearts that they cry, Abba,
Father. That's why. That's why they're
born again. That's why the Spirit of God
comes to them. That's what distinguishes them
from the rest of the world. That's why they have ears to
hear and eyes to see. Blessed, he said, are your eyes,
for they see. Why do they so fight you, Master?
Why do they go against everything you say? Why do they kick and
rebel? Because it's not given unto them to know the mysteries
of the kingdom of God. It's given unto you. How come? Because God sanctified you. Set you apart. Set you apart. Read Ephesians chapter 1. Set
you apart that you might be holy, without blame, before Him in
love. God did that. God did that. Predestinated unto the adoption
of children by Jesus Christ to Himself according to the good
pleasure of His will. To the praise of the glory of
His grace wherein it made us accepted in the blood. Sanctified. Believers. Before they become
believers. Does that make any sense? Believers. Before they become believers. They're going to be believers.
They're going to. God's ordained it. They're going
to believe. They're going to repent. They're going to seek
God. And they're going to come to
faith. God has from the beginning, Paul said, chosen you unto salvation
through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth,
whereunto he called you by our gospel. You don't believe. And
these believers, before they believed, were treated as believers. They were treated as holy vessels. They were treated as members
sanctified of God and shown special privileges. You and I should
have died a hundred times. How many times? I remember one
time getting on a motorcycle Just a young kid, just maybe
17 years old. I got out there on one of those
big long straight stretches in northern Ohio and laid down on
that motorcycle doing 130 miles an hour. Laid down. No helmet,
no leather jacket, just cut off jeans and a t-shirt. A bumblebee
would have took me off that motorcycle. I could go on and on. There's
a thousand deaths I should have died. Why not? Why didn't I die? Because this believer, before
he believed, was treated as a child of God. And God ordered His providence
around me. And He brought you here this
morning by His providence and by His hand to hear this Gospel. What will you do with it? What
will you do with it? How will you treat it? As an
opinion? Oh, that's your opinion. Here's
it now. He said, Go ye... He's talking
to His disciples now. Go ye into all the world. All
power is given unto me. It's all mine. Go ye into all
the world and preach this gospel. He that believeth. Believeth
what? What you preach. Huh? Shall be saved. He that believeth not shall be
damned. Ain't that what it says? I'm
pretty sure that's what it says. All the while, Get in there and
see. Listen to this over in 2 Corinthians.
Turn over with me. 2 Corinthians, chapter 5. 2 Corinthians, chapter 5, verse
17. Therefore, if any man be in Christ,
how do I get to be in Christ? I read it to you by the door.
Of God are you in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom,
righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. The only way
you can get in Christ is for God to put you in Christ, and
when did he do it? Before the world was. That's
what the scripture says. Therefore, if any man be in Christ,
he's a new creature. All things are passed away, and
behold, all things are become new." Now listen, considering
myself in Adam, I'm dead. I'm dead in trespasses
and sin. I'm guilty of the whole law of
God. I'm a sinner by birth, a sinner by choice, and a sinner by practice.
I've got no hope because the soul that sinneth shall surely
die. I had no potential because I am by nature a child of wrath
even as others. There is no potential here. We
are together become unprofitable, Romans chapter 3. I had no kinship
to God because I am an alien by birth, a stranger to Israel,
a stranger to the covenant, a foreigner without hope, without God in
the world. If I view myself in Adam, I am
gone. I am gone. I'm ignorant. I'm disassociated. I have no connection with God.
I've got no promise. I've got nothing, considering
myself an atom. But if by an act of sovereign
grace God appointed for me a charity, put me in a substitute, predestinated
me unto adoption, then all things have become new, haven't they? Let's look at it from that angle. Let's don't look at it through
Adam, let's look at it through Christ. What if God put me in
Christ before the foundation of the world? What if God put
me in a substitute and a representative who cannot fall? Who will not
fall? Boy, that changes things, doesn't
it? All things have become new now,
haven't they? I know folks like to take these
scriptures and apply them to the new birth. Brother, all things
haven't become new. Those old things are still in
here. You don't believe me, you just follow me around. That old
man's still alive. He's still here. Paul said, I'm
not Plum Saved yet. I'm not there. I hadn't arrived.
But all the view has changed. The view has changed. All things
have become new. I've got a new hope, a new covenant,
a new standing, a new future, new considerations. All things
have become new. And all things, listen to this,
verse 18, are of God. It wasn't of me. It was of Him.
It was of God. who has reconciled us unto himself
by Jesus Christ and has given to us the ministry of reconciliation.
How can God, in his absolute perfections of holiness and justice,
be reconciled to men who drink iniquity, Job said, like water?
How can God be just and justify a bunch of hell-deserving rebels
by considering us in a substitute? That is how. That is how. Boy, that just changes everything.
I'm telling you, when you see yourself under the burden of
that law, under the guilt and wrath of God, separated, alienated
from God, no hope, without hope, without help in this world, you'll
be so low you can hang your feet over the side of a penny. But then he opens those eyes
and you get a new prospect. You get a new view. You get a
new vision. In a substitute, there is hope. There is hope. Oh, here is that
ministry. Here is what faith comes to see.
It is what God has always seen. Sons and heirs with Christ. He
said, verse 19, that God was in Christ reconciling the world
unto himself. Listen, not imputing their trespasses,
not charging their trespasses unto them. Woo! What about that? That's too good to be true, isn't
it? Huh? Ain't that what it says? Ain't that what it says? Not
charging their trespasses unto them. Now then, we're ambassadors
for Christ as though God did beseech you by us. We pray you
in Christ's name, be ye reconciled to God. God's at peace. And here's
why you ain't at peace, because you don't see yourself in the
substitute. For God has made Him to be sin
for us who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness
of God in Him." Preacher, you really think you're
righteous? You bet. You bet. In Him. In Him, I'm
unblameable. I'm unreprovable is what the
Scripture says. In Him. That's why the Scripture
says that Israel was lost. Paul prayed for them. He said
they're ignorant. They're zealous, they're religious,
but they're ignorant. They're ignorant of the righteousness
of God, and they're going about trying to establish their own
righteousness. They're doing this, they're visiting the sick,
going to hospitals, caring for the poor. They're doing all the
things that believers do anyway, but they're doing it for the
wrong reason. They're doing it trying to establish
a righteousness. And they won't submit themselves
unto the righteousness of God, for Christ is the end of the
law for righteousness to everyone who believes it. How do you come
to see that? By seeing yourself in the substitute. That's how you do it. I told
him the other night in the Bible study that God on the sixth day,
probably the most important thing He did in all of creation is
He stood and He looked. On everything that he made, he
looked. And he said, it's good. It's good. And he blessed it.
He blessed that day. He set that day apart. He sanctified
it. Ain't that what he said? He sanctified
it. And he set that day apart. And he called that his rest.
That's a perpetual day. That day is Christ. And I said
this. I brought this question up. Why
did God look? Did he think he might have done
something wrong? This is God. He knows he didn't do anything
wrong. Did he think maybe he left something out? No, this
is God. He sees the end from the beginning. Then why did he
look so wickedly? Huh? So wickedly. Why did he
look at his son as he hung there suffering on Calvary? So I could
look. Why did he look down from heaven
to see if there was any righteous? To see if there was any that
sought after God? Why did he look? He already knew.
He looked so I could look. He looked so I could look. And
that's what faith is. Faith is ceasing to look through
these eyes and beginning to look through His. And you see, you
see yourself as God ordained you. As God sanctified you, as
God set you apart, preserved you in Jesus Christ, and then
in the fullness of time, He calls you with His gospel. He calls
you. God bless the words I've given
you this morning. It's the gospel that's the best
I can preach.