Let's turn together to the book
of Jude. The book of Jude. If the Lord will graciously allow
me to communicate just a little of what he has given me from
these 25 verses, you will be blessed of God. Jude was the
half-brother of our Lord Jesus, one of his half-brothers, the
full brother of James. He lived longer than any of the
apostles except the apostle John. And this epistle was written
not any later than 30 or 35 years after our Lord ascended back
to glory. Jude and John lived long enough
to see those things come to pass, which our Lord Jesus had prophesied. And the apostles Peter and Paul
had distinctly prophesied concerning apostasy and heresies that must
come. And we ought to count it a great
mercy of our God in his wise providence that Jude and John
lived to see these things come to pass. For if they had not
seen them come to pass, we would never have had these epistles
from their pens which give us so much consolation and so much
instruction with regard to heresy and apostasy in the Church. By
the time Jude writes this epistle, just 30 or 35 years after the
Lord Jesus ascended back to glory, after he accomplished redemption
for us by the shedding of his blood, after he had warned his
disciples to beware of false Christs, who would appear everywhere. Just a short while after Paul
had warned the saints to beware of those who would rise up from
their midst as wolves in sheep's clothing. Just a few short years
after Peter warned of those who would come denying the Lord Jesus
Christ, yet professing to be his. Jude takes his pen and writes
this epistle. Let's begin by reading the first
four verses. the servant of Jesus Christ,
and brother of James, to them that are sanctified by God the
Father, and preserved in Jesus Christ, and called. Mercy unto
you, and peace, and love be multiplied. Beloved, when I gave all diligence
to write unto you of the common salvation, Now this epistle addresses
this matter of the common salvation, but it appears from Jude's words
that he had intended, had God the Holy Spirit not directed
him otherwise, he had intended when he wrote this epistle, when
he took his pen in his hand and started to write to these saints
who were going through difficulties, he intended to give them a discourse
with regard to the common salvation. But notice this. When I gave
all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was
needful. Something else came to my heart,
being inspired by God's Spirit. It was needful for me to write
unto you and exhort you that you should earnestly contend
for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints." And
here's the reason why. For there are, Peter said there
would be, Paul said there would be, our Lord Jesus said there
would be, Jude says there are. There are certain men crept in
like slithering snakes, unawares, who before of old, who were before
of old, ordained to this condemnation. And he's going to tell us about
the condemnation when he gets down to verse 14. But up to this point he's talking
about those men ordained to this condemnation. They were before
of old ordained to this condemnation. Ungodly men they are, turning
the grace of our God into lasciviousness and denying the only Lord God
and our Lord Jesus Christ. Now in this epistle, Jude begins
by making it clear that he is addressing God's elect. Contrary to popular opinion,
contrary to the ranting and raving of those who despise God's distinguishing
grace, Jude's purpose in this epistle, and indeed throughout
the book of God, we find God the Holy Spirit giving this word
to his elect. God's servants serve his people. They minister to his people.
It is not our desire, nor our ambition, nor our goal to see
everybody converted. It is our desire, our ambition,
and our goal to seek the Lord's sheep. And God's servants always
address the Lord's sheep. Now we don't know who they are,
so we preach the gospel to all men. But we are preaching to
the Lord's sheep. We're preaching to God's elect.
And this epistle was written to God's elect. Jude speaks in
this epistle in verses 1, 2, and 3 to the people of God. And he speaks in this epistle
in verses 4 through 19 to the people of God. Now in verses
4 through 19, he speaks to us concerning the reprobate. the
unbelieving, and he draws a clear distinction between God's elect
and the unbelieving religionists, those who believe God and those
in the church, in the professed church, in the visible kingdom
of God, who profess to believe Him but do not know Him. Particularly,
he's drawing a distinction between those who are chosen of God preserved
in Christ, called by his Spirit, and those who are reprobate and
shall be condemned forever." And Jude's purpose here is to
draw such a clear line of distinction that there can be no mistake.
There can be no mistake. And if mistake is made, it is
made only by those who are utterly blind or willfully ignorant. Jude gives clear, clear instructions. And then in verses 20 through
25, he comes again to address you and I, who are God's people,
not now about the reprobate and the heresies, but now he addresses
us with regard to our safety and the path in which we must
continually live and walk in this world. Let's begin at verse
1. Jude describes our salvation as the common salvation because
it is that salvation commonly possessed and enjoyed by all
God's elect. Not common in the sense of ordinary,
but common in the sense that it is that which all who believe
on Christ possess. It is a common salvation with
common blessings, common grace, common glory. It is a common
salvation with a common faith which all who believe, all who
are given faith in Jesus Christ by God the Holy Spirit, possess. Jude speaks here first of himself
as the servant of Jesus Christ and the brother of James, and
then he speaks of things that in this religious world are seldom
ever mentioned. In most places they're not even
known. He speaks of things that are deep, profound, weighty truths
of the gospel, essential gospel truths, and yet gospel truths,
weighty and profound, that are commonly held by all who believe. They are so commonly held by
all who believe that Jude uses these terms that men and women
don't dare think about using in the religious world today.
He uses them as a salutation. as a salutation, a salutation
that he presumed rightfully that all who believe would understand,
because these are things taught in the Word of God incessantly
on every page of Holy Scripture. taught to all who believe by
the grace of God the Holy Spirit. So that when Jude writes, he's
writing to these saints of God in difficult times, encouraging
their faith and encouraging you and I to rejoice in the gospel
of God's grace and his goodness toward us, no matter how dark
the day is in which we live. And he writes to us about these
things that will rejoice the heart of every believer. First
he speaks and says to them that are sanctified by God the Father. Sanctified by God the Father. He begins by declaring to us
that we are eternally sanctified by God the Father in electing
love. Oh, how we rejoice to hear our
Savior say, you have not chosen me, but I have chosen you. But
here, Jude declares, God the Father has sanctified you. Not He is sanctifying you, though
He certainly is continually setting us apart. But rather, God the
Father, at one time in old eternity, has sanctified you. The word
means, Father, He set you apart for Himself. It means He took
you out of all others. It means He divided you from
the rest. It means he declared you to be
holy. It means he made you holy. It
means he looks on you as holy. All that in eternal election,
when the Father loved us with an everlasting love. chose us
in eternal love, adopted us because he loved us, and made us accepted
in the beloved from old eternity. He did not make us accepted as
those who were the objects of his wrath, but rather as those
who were the delightful objects of his grace. Not as those who
were undeserving, but as those who were fully deserving. Not
as those who were despised by Him, but as those who were loved
by Him. Not as those who might perish, but as those who were
declared by God Almighty to be justified from eternity, for
He looked on us as righteous and holy in Jesus Christ the
Lord before the world began to be sanctified. Who can describe
what we owe to God's everlasting, everlasting grace, from eternity
to eternity, with no alteration, with no fluctuation, with no
change. He has loved us with an everlasting
love, and love us he shall to everlasting, sanctified by God
the Father. Look at it again. And preserved
in Jesus Christ. Preserved because sanctified.
Preserved in Christ before the world was. Preserved in Christ
before he made the earth. Preserved in Christ the second
Adam, of whom you read just a little while ago, before he made the
first Adam who came in time. Preserved in our federal head,
the Lord Jesus, before we were fallen in our federal head Adam,
our father, preserved before creation and preserved before
the fall. And when we fell in our father
Adam, still preserved even in Adam's fall. Preserved, preserved. Preserved from the fall? No.
Preserved from the sin and the corruption and the depravity
of all Adam's race? No. Preserved from the sense
of dread and condemnation that all men by nature as children
of wrath have? No. But preserved in Jesus Christ. The reason why, when Adam sinned
in the garden, God didn't destroy the human race right then, is
because he said concerning his son, in everlasting love, a seed
shall serve him. And he's still calling out his
seed. And the reason the human race exists is for the purpose
of preserving that seed until the time of their calling. Preserved
through all the ages of time, from generation to generation
to generation. Preserved in all the stages of
our lives while we live with our fist shoved in God's face.
loved of God, sanctified and preserved, kept, kept by the
power of God, kept now by the power of God through faith, but
kept from everlasting by the sheer power of God in his omnipotent
grace, kept, and then preserved unto our calling. But after being called by his
grace, oh, how weak, how frail, how sinful we prove ourselves
to be. When a person is first converted,
often they foolishly imagine that somehow they're going to
no longer have any difficulty with sin. But nothing's further from the
truth. I can't tell you how shocked I was. When first I saw an open
display of my corruption after God saved me, I was utterly shocked,
utterly shocked. I'm less shocked now, but far
more convinced and far more ashamed of what I am. But in the teeth
of my weakness and my failure and my sin, my corruption, My
depravity and my unbelief in the teeth of temptation and trial
preserved in Jesus Christ. Preserved in Jesus Christ. Years ago, I think someone mentioned
in a conference, Spurgeon made a statement. He said the body
can never drown as long as the head's above water. And Christ
our head will never drown. We are safe and preserved in
Him. Those given to Him from eternity,
sanctified by God the Father, shall never perish. It won't
happen. Preserved under glory. Oh, who can speak of such things? Who can describe how God Almighty,
through the ages of our lives, through the ages of our days,
through the ages of the world, through the ages of time, has
preserved even one. But that's not all. He's preserved
us all. Preserved. Preserved. In all your ways, David Burge,
preserved. perfectly and personally. And
yet that which God's done for him, he's done for all his elect,
preserved in Christ. Preserved because we're in Christ,
preserved with Christ, preserved because of Christ, because accepted
in Christ. And then he says, and called,
called. He's talking now about that effectual
Irresistible call of God's grace which causes dead sinners to
live. The call of God's grace that comes in omnipotent power
that causes those who cannot and will not believe to believe.
That call that causes Lazarus to come forth from the grave.
That call that causes the dry bones to live. That call that
gives life to men. That call that results in faith
in Jesus Christ. Now, this is how he describes
all of God's people. Every man and woman and child
in this world who believes on the Lord Jesus Christ, the Christ
of God, set forth in this book, was sanctified by God the Father,
preserved in Christ the Lamb slain from the foundation of
the world, and called by God's almighty grace. We do not trace
our salvation. and our grace and our spiritual
blessings to anything in time or our own experience, but rather
we trace all grace to its source, God Almighty, the covenant-keeping
God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, in His gracious operations before
the world began. We attribute everything to Him,
all praise to Him. Now, Jude deals with something
else here. Right at the very outset, He
speaks of salvation, as did Peter and Paul, Paul in Ephesians 1
and other places, Peter in 1 Peter 1, speaks of our salvation as
being the work of God alone, the work of the triune God alone,
an eternal work accomplished by God, Father, Son, and Holy
Spirit, sanctified by the Father, preserved in Jesus Christ, and
called by God the Holy Spirit. So that Jude at the very outset
of the epistle, this is just verse 1, this is just the hello,
this is just Jude saying, now I want to write to you about
something. By the way, you, I remind you, are sanctified by God the
Father, preserved in Jesus Christ, God the Son, and called by God
the Holy Spirit. That's the reason I write to
you as the saints of God. Now, flowing from these boundless,
wondrous works of God's grace, Jude says, mercy unto you, and
peace and love be multiplied. Whenever you read the scriptures,
do not do what we all have a tendency to do. Don't read the salutations
and the benedictions as just being letters put in there to
fill up space. These things are written by divine
inspiration. And here the Holy Spirit is telling
us that all who are chosen of God, sanctified from eternity,
all who are preserved in Jesus Christ, all who are called by
God's grace, have flowing to them in boundless streams of
mercy, mercy from God the Father, and peace in Jesus Christ the
Lord, and love by God the Holy Spirit. These are things only
God can give. And these are things God always
gives to all his people. He gives us his mercy. Daily
mercy. Tender mercy. Everlasting mercy. Covenant mercy. And he gives
us peace. Peace with God, speaking peace
to our hearts by the Holy Spirit. gives us peace in Jesus Christ
our Redeemer, uniting our hearts together in peace, and he gives
us love. He sheds abroad in our hearts
the love of God. The Holy Spirit convinces us
of God's matchless love for us, giving us faith in Jesus Christ.
And where he gives love of God in us, he causes us in turn to
love God and to love one another. Beloved, when I gave all diligence
to write unto you of this common salvation, it was needful for
me to write unto you and to exhort you that you should earnestly
contend for the faith which was once delivered to the saints."
Now, what is this faith? It is that faith which God the
Holy Spirit gives to all to whom he gives faith. It is that faith
which looks to God alone, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, as God
our Savior. which looks to God and has confidence
in Him and rejoices in His everlasting grace, His everlasting love,
His everlasting mercy, His everlasting acceptance of us in Jesus Christ,
His acceptance of us in Christ and because of Christ, His call
by His omnipotent, irresistible grace of His Holy Spirit. This
is that faith. Now, multitudes these days. while pretending to claim that
they have faith in Christ, and some even pretending that they
rejoice in the message of God's sovereign grace, willingly compromise
and hesitate to confess and declare to men these things that Jude
speaks of so commonly. To do so is treasonous to our
God. Folks ask me occasionally, not
so much anymore, about the message of God's grace. Why such tenacity? Why such dogmatism? Why such
forcefulness in proclaiming these things? These things are not
with me, and I hope not with you. Points of doctrine that
I have learned by diligent study. I learn more about them by study. I learn more about my Redeemer
by study. I learn more about the things
and works of God by studying his word as his spirit teaches
me. But when I speak to you of that
which we commonly call the doctrines of grace, the gospel of God's
grace, I'm talking to you about things that have been written
on my heart by the burning finger of God's grace and experience. To deny them would be to deny
that which God himself has taught me. And it would be to do so
for only one reason, and that is to please and honor men rather
than pleasing and honoring my God. It is treasonous. It is treasonous. I sometimes hear folks speak
complimentary of preachers. They say, well, he just doesn't
preach these things. He really believes them. I have
more respect for hell itself than for such a man. No. No. God's people rejoice in these
things. He says, it's needful that I
write to you that you should earnestly contend for this, the
faith that was once delivered, delivered all at one time to
the saints, delivered to us in the Word of God, delivered to
us in the Son of God, delivered to us by the Spirit of God, delivered
to us in the experience of grace. Once for all with finality it's
been delivered to you to believe, delivered to us. Now, beginning
at verse 4, latter part of verse 4 going through verse 19, Jude
begins to describe why he writes this epistle. He's telling us,
he's making a distinction. For there are certain men, crept
in unawares, who were before of old ordained to this condemnation,
ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness,
and denying the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ. And
he describes these men in numerous ways. He uses different names
and different events to describe them. But what Jude is drawing
here is one picture. It is a picture with many characters,
but it's one picture. It is a picture of apostasy. It is a picture of heresy. And
he's speaking specifically about certain men. Now look at how
he describes them. First, he says they are certain men. Certain
men. These specific men. Certain men obviously known to
you. Certain men. Certain men who
have crept in. They didn't just brazenly step
up and say, We deny the Lord God. They didn't brazenly step
up and say, We deny the Lord Jesus Christ. They didn't brazenly
stand up and say, Oh, we do not believe those things that you
talk about, about God's grace and mercy. Oh, no. No, no. These
fellas slithered into the church like a snake sliding in at a
crack in the door. They slither in and take their
place in the house of God. certain men crept in unawares. They slipped in and you didn't
even know they were there. They slipped in unawares. You see the fact is God's church
in those days had no more ability than God's church in these days
has to distinguish wheat from tares and sheep from goats. The only way they can be distinguished
is when they open their mouths and either profess or deny the
Lord God. Not by their behavior. And as
you read this chapter, I want you to see specifically when
Jude describes these men, he's not talking about their outward
conduct. He's talking about that which
they proclaim with their mouths. He says, they crept in unawares,
who were before of old ordained to this condemnation. You were
sanctified by God the Father. preserved in Jesus Christ and
called, these men never knew God's grace. They never experienced
God's grace. They never had God's grace. And
they were before of old ordained to this condemnation. And so
Jude describes for us something about God's marvelous sovereignty.
Argue with it what you want to. Say what you want to concerning
the text. The text says, God sanctified you. These were ordained
to this condemnation. And they proved their condemnation
to be just. They are ungodly men. Ungodly men. What do you think of when you
think of ungodly? What do you think of? I'll tell
you what you think of. You think of drunks, and derelicts,
and prostitutes, dopeheads, thieves, murderers. You think of those
fellows in Iraq, beastly men. I said to my wife last night,
and realize what I've said as soon as I said it, What kind
of barbaric beast does it take to stand up publicly with other
men and behead a man? That's ungodly. That's not what
Jews describe it. That's not these men. These fellas
were sitting in the church pew. They were sitting in the church
pew, standing in the pulpit. These fellas were ungodly men.
Now here's what he calls ungodly. He says they are ungodly men
turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness. I don't
have any question at all that this is what Judah said. He's
not saying they've taken the grace of God and let us sin,
the grace may abound. That's not it. You read on here
and you'll find out that they weren't behaving in an ungodly
manner as far as their moral behavior is concerned, but rather
they declare something concerning work, salvation, which turns
the grace of God into lasciviousness, and declare, as almost all religious
people do in our day, that to proclaim free grace, to proclaim
that men and women are sanctified from eternity, preserved no matter
what, called and kept by the power of God's grace, that will
cause men to open the floodgates to lasciviousness." Oh, no. Those
who preach righteousness by what you do, those who proclaim that
grace alone is not enough, they turn the grace of God into lasciviousness,
and they are ungodly men. Look at it. I know that's what
he's talking about because this is what it says. And denying
the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ. Not denying that
God exists. Who would you listen to? Would
you ever listen to anybody say such a thing? Your grandchildren
would listen to such a thing. Oh, God is not. My granddaughter
would laugh at that. No, no, no, no. But rather by
their doctrine, denying him. Denying that he is who he says
he is. Denying that he has done what
he says he's done. Denying his dominion and denying
the Lord Jesus Christ. denying the glorious efficacy
of the incarnate Christ in his person and work. Let's see if
that's true. I will, therefore, put you in remembrance, though
you once knew this, how that the Lord, having saved the people
out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed them that believed
not. Remember, God brought Israel out of Egypt, and they perished
in the wilderness. because they believe not, just
like these certain men. Ultimately, deny God, murmuring
against him, denying that he has done what he said, denying
that he is who he says he is. Look at this, and the angels,
which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation,
hath he reserved in everlasting change under darkness, under
the judgment of the great death. He preserved Joshua and Caleb. A few perished, not with those
who perished in the wilderness, preserved by His grace. He preserved
the angels that left not their first habitation, preserved them
by His power. But remember, some fell and were
perished and damned forever. Some were kept, kept by the distinguishing
work of God's grace. Read this now. Even as Sodom
and Gomorrah And the cities about them, in like manner, giving
themselves over to fornication and going after strange flesh,
are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal
fire. As God overthrew Sodom, as God
overthrew the angels that kept not their first estate, as God
overthrew Israel in the wilderness, so these shall be themselves
partakers of everlasting fire. Likewise, also, these filthy
dreamers. Filthy dreamers. They're dreamers. Dreamers. Dreamers. Pay no attention to what God
says in His Word. They dream up what they want to say. And
everything they dream up, because it promotes the flesh, because
it dishonors God, is filthy. Filthy dreamers. defile the flesh,
despise dominion, despise power, despise authority, particularly
the power and authority of the eternal God, and speak evil of
dignities." Now, maybe there's a reference here to folks speaking
evil of political, civil magistrates. Maybe there is. But that's not
what the Jew's talking about. He's talking about speaking evil
of God Almighty and the power of heaven, Father, Son, and Holy
Spirit. I'll show you why. The Lord says,
so yet Michael the archangel. Now, sometime I'll show you a
little more clearly. Just take my word for it and
look it up for yourself. There's only one archangel mentioned
in the scriptures. There are not archangels, one
archangel. Can't be but one archangel. That
archangel is Christ, the angel of the covenant, the one we read
of in Revelation chapter 10. This is the same one that we
read of in Zachariah chapter 3. Michael the archangel, when
contending with the devil, contending with the devil, he disputed about
the body of Moses. Someone wrote to me just this
week, Brother Alan Rowe down in Sydney, Australia. He said,
what on earth is that talking about? And honestly, I don't
know. I don't know beyond this. It
is that which was preserved apparently by oral tradition. We don't read
it anywhere in history. Somebody said he got it from
the Apocrypha. This thing's not even written in the Apocrypha,
not like this. It was preserved generation after generation after
generation by oral history. Well, can you depend on that?
No, not unless it's written in this book. And because Jude is
inspired of God to write it in this book, yes, you can depend
on it. Moses represents what? The law of God. Works salvation. Represents works religion. And Moses dying before Israel
went into the land of promise was a declaration by God Almighty
that the law must come to its end and another arise to bring
his people into the land of promise. Christ is the end of the law.
And it appears that Satan and the Lord Jesus are fussing concerning
the body of Moses. But the fuss is all on Satan's
part. The work is all done. And the Lord Jesus did not, did
not accuse him. Look at it. He did not, does
not bring against him a railing accusation, but he said, the
meek Savior, the Son of God, the God-man, our Redeemer, who
has Himself assumed total responsibility for our souls, the Mediator,
the Covenant, he says, the Lord rebuke you. on the basis of who
I am and what I've done. Though as yet he hadn't come
into the world. The Lord be with you. But these, these ungodly
men, they speak evil of those things they know not. They speak
evil of things they know not. Things they don't understand.
They speak evil of them. And what they know naturally, as
brute beast. You see that's what all natural
knowledge is. It is knowledge as brute beast,
nothing else, as brute beast. In those things they corrupt
themselves. Listen to wise acres in this
world, brilliant men. Read their philosophies, read
their judgments, hear what they say. The enlightened heart, the
regenerate man, the regenerate woman, looks at these things
and says, how can you think such stuff? Where did you get that? Where did it come from? What
logic is there to that? What reason is there to that?
They think only as brute beast. Now you know how brute beast
thinks? You know how brute beast thinks? Oh, a beast, he thinks
loyally about his master. Let him get hungry now. A beast,
he's loyal to his master. Let's see. Let's see. You just
leave him alone. I mean, ignore him. You just
leave him alone. No, no. All brute beasts, that
includes your lapdog and the mountain lion, all brute beasts
do everything they do for one reason. Self-gratification, nothing
else. And I'm telling you that all
unregenerate men live totally to themselves. For self-gratification,
no matter how generous and philanthropic they may appear to be, they think
only as brute beasts. The politicians, you listen to
them. conservative and liberal. You listen to them. They play to it. They play to
folks who think the way they think. What's this going to do
to you? To me? What does things affecting me
personally have to do with the good of the country? What does
that have to do with anything? What does my experience have
to do with the welfare of the world? Absolutely nothing! Absolutely nothing! But we all
by nature think he's a brute beast. Thank God he gives someone
new nature. These as brute beasts, as brute
beasts. They speak evil of those things
which they know not. And in these things that they
speak of they corrupt themselves. Woe unto them for they have gone
in the way of Cain. Now here he uses three men to
describe all false religious professors. Now these men he's
talking about here are not just folks who were members of the
Church. It's obvious these were famous men. These were certain
men. These were men well-known to the people. These were men
who stood where I'm standing tonight. These were men who stood
where Lindsay stands here every Sunday morning, teachers and
preachers. These were men who were leaders in the church. I
know that because he identifies them under the names of well-known
heretics. Number one, Cain. Cain, he is
that one who stands before us as a black light, a black light
declaring salvation by works than Balaam. Balaam. What's Balaam
known for? He was a hireling. But more than
that, more than that, it wasn't just that he was governed by
his pocketbook. It wasn't just that he was governed by what
he wanted. Balaam taught the people of Israel to compromise
the worship of God. Not an open denial. I tell you
what, you go back to the book of Numbers and find me anything
Balaam said that was wrong. He didn't say anything was wrong.
Everything he said was right. It was Balaam who said God's
not beheld iniquity in Israel. Balaam said, let me die the death
of the righteous. What was wrong? Balaam led Israel to compromise
the worship of God with the worship of idols to get along. in the
name of peace and unity. And Korah, what was Korah's policy? Korah loved ambition and praise. He wanted folks to follow him.
God saved me from such horrid ungodliness. He wanted folks
to honor Him. He was like Deocrates. He loved
to have the preeminence. These are the marks of these
certain hellish, serpent-like, creeping, deceitful men who deny
the grace of God and turn the grace of God into lascivious,
denying God and our Lord Jesus Christ. They teach works like
Cain, compromise like Balaam, and they do what they do to promote
and honor themselves. But they don't. These, verse 12, are spots in
your feast of charity. Come to the Lord's table and
have your love feast. These fellows defile the whole
thing. They are clouds without water. They promise a lot and give nothing.
They are trees without fruit, they're carried about with winds,
and they're trees, their fruit withers before it ever finds
fulfillment, because they're twice dead, plucked up by the
roots. Raging waves of the sea foaming
out their own shame. Stand up and preach those things,
declare those things, teach those things, whose God is their own
belly, whose God and glory is in their shame, their own will
and their own righteousness. to whom is reserved the blackness
of darkness forever. And Enoch also, the seventh from
Adam, not the seventh man, the seventh generation, prophesied
of these, saying, Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands
of his saints. When Christ comes again and all
his saints with him to judge the wicked, he comes to execute
judgment upon all, and to convince all that are ungodly among them
of their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed,
and of all their hard speeches which they ungodly have spoken
against him. These are murmurers, complainers,
walking after their own lust, and their mouth speaketh great
swelling words, having men's persons in a state that will
always honor men. Preach that which makes folks
feel good about themselves. Let's get down to verse 19. These be they, he says in verse
18, they walk after their own lusts. These be they who separate
themselves, stand by thyself. Come not near me, I'm holier
than thou. Sensual, having not the spirit,
that's the problem. All who do and practice and teach
such things are unregenerate, they do not know our God. And
then Jude says, now brethren, Here's the way for you to be
kept from their error. Keep yourselves in the love of
God. Well how on earth do you do that? God keeps us in his
love. How do you keep yourself in the
love of God? Look at it. Looking for the mercy of our
Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life. Keep yourselves in the
love of God by ever looking to Christ alone for mercy and eternal
life and acceptance with God. And then you wrap this up with
this ascription of praise to our God assuring us that he will
at last bring us faultless before the presence of his glory. Now
unto him that is able to keep you from falling and to present
you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy.
Who is it? The only wise God and our Savior,
the Lord Jesus Christ. To him be glory and majesty and
dominion and power both now and ever. Amen. And that's the message
of Jude to our souls. May God send it to our hearts