I want to speak this morning
on the subject, a special benediction, a special Now, it was in a troublous
time when Jude wrote this forcible epistle that we have here before
us today. There were trials, it seems,
for everybody. Trials abounded on every hand. But in particular, I think the
worst of all the troubles that Jude had to deal with was the
trouble in the church. The trouble in the church. Now,
beloved, when we have a disturbance in the church, it is very, very
hurtful. The church is the family of God.
It's the place where God meets holy habitation with His people. And it's as close to heaven that
you're going to get on earth. It's a place where God communes
and fellowships with His people. And as we come together, and
as we preach the Word, and as we feel the presence of God with
us and the Spirit of the Lord working among us. It's kin to
heaven and kin to the holy joys above that the people of God
will enjoy for eternity. And so there was trouble in the
church and Jude had to deal with this problem. There seemed to
be some evil men that had been admitted into the membership
of the church. And they were men who, Jude says,
they crept in unawares. They got into the membership
And we were not really mindful of who they were or what they
were, but they got into the membership and they were causing a great
deal of trouble. And Jude says they were before
of old ordained to the condemnation to which they're going to come.
The Lord had in His eternal purpose, had purpose that these kind of
men, these ungodly men who He describes on in this chapter,
These men, that they end up in the blackness of darkness forever,
and that they be separated from God, from the holy God, and from
the people of God and the holy angels for all eternity. They
were before of old ordained to this condemnation. But they had
creaked into the church, and they had created some very difficult
times. And these times were getting
darker and darker, and great forebodings of evil were in the
hearts of God's servants, especially in the heart of God's servant,
Jude. Now this epistle seems to me to be fitting for our time. Now, if Jude was living in our
day, what would he have to say? What would he have to say to
us? Well, I think that he would be writing and telling the people
of God to earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered
unto the saints. Even these 1900, 2000 years later,
since he wrote down these words that we have before us, I think
he'd be still telling us the same. that He would be still
dealing with us. Now, few understood the gospel
in the day that Jude lived, and there are even fewer that, I
think, understand it today. Now, the people of God, as they
struggle in this world, the truth of God, as we try to find it,
as we try to discover it in our day, the truth of God is uncommonly,
I say uncommonly, neglected in our day. It's neglected by preachers. Men are not searching the Word
of God today to find God's message to preach to God's people. Men
are not stirred up today to pray that God Almighty will be their
sufficiency when they stand before the people, that God will give
them a living message for the people. And we must understand
that we're living in times when you must contend earnestly for
the faith. And so I think Jude's message
would be the same to us. Now the churches are full of
heretics in our day. There are those that are preaching
today in our churches that do not know the message of God,
are unconcerned about the message of God, and do not preach in
purity the message which God has revealed in His Holy Word. Now, preaching today consists
in most places of just a little essay. It's a preaching on easy-believism,
that all that's necessary to do is just give a mental assent
unto the Bible or unto the message of salvation. And that if you
give a mental assent, just say, well, I agree with what the Bible
says, that that's all that's necessary in order for you to
be saved. And you can claim salvation if
you make a decision. If you make a decision yourself,
if you decide to believe, then you can claim salvation. And
that's what I call fruit jar salvation. You know, we're often
hearing at funerals about people that early in their lives they
made a profession of faith. I mean, they made a profession
of faith. They walked the aisle. I mean, they came forward. They made a decision early in
their lives. And then, of course, a little
while after that, they went their own way. They lived like hell
all of their lives. And they lived in rebellion against
God. But then when they came to die,
you see, they got the fruit jar. They got their salvation when
they were young. They put it in a fruit jar, capped
it, put it on the shelf. And then when it come time to
die, they got it down and uncapped it. Now they've got it to die
with. And when they get into the funeral parlor, the preacher
tells their family they were alright because, you see, they
made a decision early in their life. They made a decision somewhere
early, very early in their life. They walked the aisle. Brethren,
this is not the preaching of the gospel. Let me tell you that
the preaching of the gospel is the preaching of lordship salvation. It's telling you that before
a man can claim to be a child of God, that God must have set
up His rule in that man's life. God must set up His rule in your
life. Now listen to me now, unless
rebellion is put down in your life, rebellion against God,
rebellion against His Word, and his truth. I'm not talking about
rebellion against your daddy or your mother or rebellion against
some preacher far off someplace. I'm talking about rebellion against
God. Unless God puts that down in
your life and sets up rule in your heart, then my friend, you
cannot claim salvation. And in reality, when we talk
about salvation, as most preachers do, talk about salvation being
by decision, we know that salvation in reality is by God's decision
alone. Man made his decision when he
was an Adam back in the Garden of Eden. That's when man chose
to die rather than live. That's when man chose to go in
the way, his own way, and thumb his nose at God Almighty and
tell God to go on back to heaven. We'd run the world just like
we wanted to. It was back in the Garden of
Eden. Man made his choice. And if men and women ever live
unto God, it'll be because God makes a decision to save you,
and to bring you out of your sin, and to bring you in to His
Son, Jesus Christ. Now listen, salvation by cooperation
of the sinner. We often hear, sinner, cooperate
with Jesus. That's what we're hearing today.
Well, nowhere in the Bible do we find that sinners have ever
been saved by cooperating with Jesus. The woman at the well,
she had had five husbands, and the man she was living with was
not her husband, but yet Jesus saved that woman. He saved that
woman. She wasn't cooperating with Jesus.
And then you have Saul of Tarsus, who was struck down on the road
to Damascus. He wasn't cooperating with Jesus.
God Almighty arrested that man and brought that man under the
power of His Spirit and brought him into life. God raised him
from spiritual death and gave him spiritual life. Salvation,
my friend, is not by cooperating with Jesus. But now listen to
me. We hear much about free will
in our time, and we're accused of not believing in free will.
Well, my friend, I believe in free will. But we must understand
whose will it is that is free. There is only one will in the
universe that is totally, absolutely free. And that's the will of
God Almighty. God's will is a free will. He can do whatever He wants to,
anytime He wants to do it. He can intervene wherever He
will. He can save whomever He will. Salvation is of the Lord. Salvation
is God's work. It's not what we do for God that
saves us. It's what God does for us in
the person of His Son that brings us out of our sin. Salvation,
man's will, listen to me, man's will is in bondage. Man was born
in sin. He came forth out of his mother's
womb in sin's bondage speaking lies when he came into this world. Man comes into this world and
his will is biased toward evil. He will do that which is sinful. He will do that which is contrary
to the will of God. Can a leopard change his spots? Can an Ethiopian change the color
of his skin? So can he who is accustomed to
do evil do good. He cannot do good because he
is born a sinner. He was born that way. And he's
not going to do good until God wills him out of his sin and
his rebellion and brings him under the flag of mercy. And
brings him and plants the flag of peace in his heart. And God
sets up his rule. That's what salvation is. God
bringing a man and woman back to where they were before the
fall. when man was in fellowship with
God and when God was in rule over their hearts and their lives.
That's what true salvation is. But we hear all of this talk,
I say the churches have been disturbed. And so it is the same
evil that of which Jude wrote here, the same mischievous root
of bitterness which springing up in our day troubles us and
thereby many, many are defiled. How many people is it that you
meet that don't have an ounce, don't have an ounce of understanding
about how God saves a poor sinner in our time? Nobody seems to
know. Well, I like the way that Jude
deals with these things. here in this chapter. I think
his is the proper way of meeting evils in the church. Now listen
to the way he deals with this. He deals with the church itself. He deals with the truly faithful
members of the church and speaking to those who really are sanctified
by God the Father preserved in Jesus Christ and called, He stirs
them up to seek the highest degree of spiritual strength, pleading
for them that mercy and peace and love may be multiplied unto
them. In other words, he deals with
the church that the church might be healthy, that the church might
be strong, that the people of God might be encouraged, that
they might be enlightened, that they would have blessed peace
and love multiplied unto their lives. Now the church lives has
always lived in this world since our Lord was pleased to set up
the institution of a church. They've lived in an infectious
environment. Now, an infected environment,
the only way, if you're going to have to live in that kind
of an environment, the only way to ward off disease If you yourselves
are in good health, if you are vigorous and robust, then you've
got a chance of surviving in an infectious environment. And
brother, sister, let me tell you today that we must become
healthy in the Lord if we're going to be able to survive in
this infectious Armenian environment that we're living in in America. There's only one way to survive. You've got to be strong, and
you've got to be strong in the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. And so the best protection against
evil doctrine and practice will be the cultivation of a right
state of heart and life, a continual growth, in the grace and knowledge
of the Lord Jesus Christ by those who are truly the sanctified
of the Lord, those who are God's true children. Be right yourself,
my friend. I speak to you this morning.
Be right yourself. Remember Paul's words to Timothy
in 1 Timothy 4 and 16. He said, take heed unto thyself
and unto the doctrine, he said, continue in them. You take heed
to yourself, look after yourself, and then unto the doctrine which
you've heard, which you have been taught out of God's holy
word, and you continue making a practice for life to keep yourself
right and to keep looking at the truth of God. Now when these
two matters are as they should be then, Then, beloved, we will
no more be children tossed to and fro and carried about with
every wind of doctrine by the slight of men and the cunning
craftiness whereby they lie in wait to deceive. Ephesians 4
and verse 14. Then we'll be able to stand.
Then we'll be able to endure. Well, here this morning, I am,
God willing, going to speak on verses 1 and 2 primarily. And
we'll have three things to talk about. Three things to talk about
that I hope will contribute to your health, your spiritual health,
will contribute to your being strengthened in the Lord your
God. Number one, we want to talk about
a special man. That special man, he's mentioned
in verse 1, Jude, the servant of Jesus Christ, the brother
of James. Number two, we want to talk about
the special people to whom this epistle is written. To them that
are sanctified by God the Father and preserved in Jesus Christ
and called. That's the special people to
whom this epistle is written. And number three, there is a
special benediction. Mercy. Found in verse 2. Mercy. Mercy. Don't you like that word?
Mercy unto you and peace and love be multiplied. Multiplied. So then we have that
special benediction. First of all, the apostle who
wrote this epistle, I say was a special man. He was a special
man. You will agree with me now, it
won't be just for a little while, till you will agree with me wholeheartedly
that the man who wrote this epistle was indeed a special man. Now I told you that he was the
half-brother of the Lord Jesus. And I told you that he was one
of Joseph and Mary's younger sons. Now he begins this short
epistle with his own name, Jude. He says, Jude, the servant of
Jesus Christ. That is to say, by Judas. By Judas. And herein lies the
specialty of his name. Now here is a man writing, and
he uses, or as we would use the word Jude here for short, here
Judas is writing an epistle. And I tell you that in His name
lies the specialty of this man. This Judas was not Iscariot. He was not Iscariot. He was not
the son of perdition, but he was a true son of God. He was
indeed an earnest-hearted believer. He was a sincere man of God. He was not Judas Iscariot. Yet when he wrote his own name
down, Judas, which we put out, as I said, sure as Jude, I think
that tears must come into his eyes as he remembered that other
Judas with the same name and with the same nature by birth. That Judas, which sold our Lord
for 30 pieces of silver, went out, killed himself, and went
unto his own place. He went into hell. And Judas,
when he wrote his name, I'm sure that he had to be reminded of
that. That other Judas. Now listen to me. If left to
himself, This Judas, or Jude, he might also have proved to
be a traitor to his master like the other Judas did. I said,
if he had been left to himself. Now beloved, in order for God
to reprobate a man to eternal hell, all he must do is leave
a man to himself. Just leave him alone, leave him
to himself. Now there's enough sin in you,
my friend, to send you to the worst hell, the worst part of
hell, if God just leaves you to yourself. But the grace of
God had intervened and made a difference in this man's life, in Jude's
life. He was made to differ from the
man who betrayed his Lord by the grace of God. By the grace
of God, this man was different. Jude. Jude. Mark it down. The only difference between the
worst sinner out of hell and the best sinner this side of
heaven is the grace of God. Do you believe that? Do you believe
that? That's the only difference. You say, well, I thought it was
my upbringing. No, my friend, it's not your upbringing. Some
people were raised better than you and turned out to be worse
than you. Jesse James was raised by a primitive
Baptist preacher. Yes, he was. And his family,
I understand, at least his parents, were godly people. But he turned
out to be, you know what he turned out to be. And I'm telling you
that the only difference between the worst sinner out of hell
and the best saint this side of heaven is the grace of God. It's the grace of God. Now if
it had been your case or mine, I am sure that we could not have
written our name without reflecting upon our obligations to the sovereign
grace of God which kept us from being sons of perdition. Now hear me out. Remember John
Bradford? We often hear people talk about,
at least in sovereign grace circles, John Bradford. He was the man
who one day, looking out his window, saw them leading a man
to the gallows. And he looked at that man and
he said, there goes John Bradford, but by the grace of God. If it
wasn't for the grace of God, I'd be walking to the gallows,
John Bradford said. But now listen to me this morning.
This Judas, he would have gone the same way that the other Judas
had it not been that God restrained this Judas and made a child of
God out of him, made a child of grace out of him, made him
a believer, made him a man that was committed to the ways of
God. Now, I often think about this
because I think it's something that we should keep in our minds.
how that the Holy Spirit is very particular about, so that we
don't mistake this Judas. I want you to look, if you've
got a Bible with you, turn back to John 14. I want you to see
this, John chapter 14, and here in verse 21, Judas, or Jude,
the fellow who wrote this epistle, he asked our Lord a question.
After our Lord said in verse 21, he says, I will love him
and will manifest myself to him, the last part of verse 21, then
in verse 22 it says, Judas saith unto him, not Iscariot. I often wondered why it was so
important that the Holy Spirit would say this plainly, Judas
saith unto him, not Iscariot. Lord, how is it that Thou wilt
manifest Thyself unto us and not unto the world? And so we
see that the Spirit of God here in a particular way shows us
here that this man was a different man. That he was not that Judas
that betrayed the Lord. But he was a man who was interested
in the things of God. Now then, the Holy Spirit records
the name of this one man here and says it's Judas. but it's
not Iscariot. What a mercy! Now listen to me
this morning. There are those in hell today
who have the same name that you and I have. I often, when I used
to travel a great deal, I would go different places and if I
was in a motel room or somewhere, I'd get a phone book and I'd
get to looking to see if there was any John Mitchells that lived
nearby. Anybody in that town whose name was John Mitchell?
But listen to me, and I used to find, you know, of course,
that there were many of them around. And yes, beloved, let
me tell you this this morning, that there are John Mitchells
who are in hell this morning. There are John Mitchells who
are in hell. And I will tell you this, that this poor sinner,
this John Mitchell, would go to hell too if it wasn't for
the grace of God. And I'm sure this morning that
you could look and find on the register of hell your name. There are people there with your
name. And why is it that you're not there this morning, already
in hell? Why not? Well, would it not be
because of the grace of God? It's the grace of God that kept
you out of hell. It's the grace of God that's
given you a hope in the gospel. It's the grace of God that made
a difference between you and other people who were called
by that very name. The very name that you are given. Beloved, I want you to cultivate
the habit. Cultivate the habit of not thinking
of your own name without thinking of that name. which is above
every name, that name which has rescued you from the blackness
of darkness forever and has placed your name in the Lamb's Book
of Life from the foundation of the world. So when you think
about your name, when you're writing your name, think about
the name of the Lord Jesus Christ that put a difference between
you and other people who are carrying the same name that you
carry. and God has kept you out of hell.
So you see that there was something special about the name Jude. Something special about the name
Judas. It speaks of one who had been
brought to his office. Now, Jude, the servant of Jesus
Christ, and in the revised version, it would say bondservant. the
bond-servant of Jesus Christ, the bond-slave of Christ. You would notice that the apostles
were fond of this word, bond-servant, bond-slave. In the original,
this sets forth the completeness of a man's service to God, that
he has completely surrendered himself to the service of God. And it declares how perfectly
These men belonged to Christ. How perfectly given over they
were to the Lord Jesus Christ. Now he was not a servant who
could come and go according to his own pleasure, but he was
a man who was a slave of the Lord Jesus Christ. Jude was a
free man. There was none freer in all Jerusalem. Yet he as a servant of the Lord
Jesus Christ wore the chains of love which were as soft as
silk, yet they were stronger than steel. He was the bond slave
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now you know, some of you know
something about what that means. He belonged to Christ. He was
sold out to Christ. He rejoiced to feel that he had
no liberty to run away from the Lord Jesus Christ. That's what
a bondservant is, a bondslave. His ear had been bored to the
door, a post of his house, to be his servant, God's servant
throughout his whole life, in time, and then also to serve
God throughout eternity. This is what he means when he
says, I'm Jude, the servant of Jesus Christ. He was a purchased
bond slave. He had been bought with a price. Bought and paid for. And do you
own this in your own life? Do you own it in your own life?
You may talk about being a servant of God. But my friend, a servant
of God is somebody who has no ownership rights over himself. A man who is a servant of God
has been bought and paid for by the Lord Jesus Christ. You
see, a servant could be born into the household, in an old
Jewish household, and one could be purchased and bought. You
and I have been both born into the family of God to be a servant
of God and we've purchased to be God's servant as was Jude. Well, let the man who loves himself,
let him go his own way, but the child of God must go the way
of the Lord Jesus Christ. He must follow Christ. Jude,
I think, belonged undoubtedly, irrevocably, eternally to the
Lord Jesus Christ, and he gloried in that fact. He said, Jude,
the servant of Jesus Christ. And then he had a special relation,
and that is told us here too. He says, and brother of James.
Why, Jude said, I'm a servant of Jesus Christ, but I'm also
the brother of James. And he felt that this, that he'd
been favored, by being the brother of James. And because he had
a brother, that famous servant of the Lord that was called James
the Less. And among the Jews of old also
he had the name James the Just. And so Jude says, my brother
is James. He's James, this man who was
known for holiness and piety. He said, He's my brother. James
is my brother. Beloved, it's a great mercy in
this life to be associated with those who are associated with
our Lord. Is it not? Those who are associated
with Christ. May our children be His children. May our friends be His friends. May our brothers, oh God that
it could be so, be our brothers in Christ. This, my friend, makes
every relationship special. That is, if we are brothers,
sisters in Christ, that is, if our brothers are brothers in
Christ, if our children are in Christ, our friends are in Christ,
it makes every relationship special. And that's why James said, He
says, and brother of James. That's why Jude said, and brother
of James. Okay, now so much then for this
special man, Jude. Let's talk a little bit about
this special people to whom Jude wrote this epistle. Now then,
we see that he says, to them, in verse 1, that are sanctified
by God the Father, and preserved in Jesus Christ, and called. Now, I think that the revised
version has the correct translation. Listen to what it says. It says
to them that are beloved in God the Father, and kept for Jesus
Christ, being called. being called. Now these are the
people, this is that special people that James says, or Jude
says, they are beloved and they are sanctified. Now according
to the truth of the gospel, God's people are loved in Christ, they're
loved by the Father, they're loved eternally from old eternity
with an everlasting love by God the Father. Now listen to me,
we ought to cling to this truth at all times. You'll never be
strong in the Lord if you don't believe that God has loved you
personally and individually just like there was nobody else on
the earth for Him to love except you. Now listen to me. God, He
reserved His special love and the love of His heart for His
own Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. God loves Christ, loves His own
Son, and He loves equally as much all those that He put in
His Son in the covenant of election before the foundation of the
world. And my friend, my tried and tested friend, those of you
that know the Lord, that are undergoing storms and doubts
and various afflictions and bereavements and losses in this life, Let
me assure you that if you be in Christ, you are beloved of
the Father. And you must cling, cling with
all of your strength to the fact that you are loved of the Father. Beloved, you are sanctified.
Meaning, by reason of His eternal love to you, He set you apart
unto Himself. God set you apart unto Himself,
to His spiritual Israel. The Lord still says, you only
have I known of all the families of the earth. God said, they
shall be mine. Saith the Lord of hosts, in that
day when I make up my jewels, they shall be mine. or ever the
earth was, or sun or moon or stars began to shine, the eye
of God was fixed on His Beloved. It was fixed on those that He
had given to His Son, and He set them apart unto Himself by
giving them unto His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, who would
die for them, who would suffer in their room instead in place,
who would give unto them all that was demanded of them in
the law. For the Lord's portion, the Bible
says, is His people. Jacob is the lot of His inheritance. This people, Isaiah said, have
I formed for myself. They shall show forth my praise. This is what God says of His
people. They are vessels that are meat
for His use. Lamps in which the light of God
is to be carried to a darkened world. The salt of the earth.
The salt by which His preserving power should be made manifests
amidst the putrefaction of the world. These people, God said,
I have formed them for myself. I love them and I sanctify them. I set them apart. Now, beloved
in God the Father, we are indeed set apart. Love has a separating
influence upon its object. If the love of a man is fixed
upon a woman, he calls this woman his bride, and he looks upon
her as different from all other women on the face of the earth.
She's in his thoughts, she's in his heart, and even so hath
God taken unto himself a people who are his alone. They belong
to him. They're beloved of the Father.
They're set apart by the Father. God said, that's my bride! put
His hand upon them in eternal grace and brought them unto Himself. Now in addition to this, these
special people, it is also said that they are preserved in Christ
Jesus. The exact translation, as we
reminded you a little earlier, is they are kept for Jesus Christ. Kept for Jesus Christ. Kept for Jesus Christ as jewels
that He alone must wear. A garden enclosed is my sister,
my spouse, a spring shut up, a fountain sealed, the Bible
says. Kept for Jesus Christ. Well,
if I'm kept for Jesus Christ, preserved in Christ Jesus, then
what have I to do with idols? What have I to do with seeking
the things of this world? What have I to do with living
for myself? What have I to do with the sayings
of the worldly wise? What have I got to do with the
judgment of this world as they pass it on me and others around
who are believers in the Word of God and believers upon the
living God. What have I got to do with all
of that? What have I to do with anything but this? Kept for Jesus
Christ. God's people are kept for the
Lord Jesus. So being that we're kept for
Christ, let us have no eyes, but for Jesus. Let us have no
ears, but for Jesus. No tongue, but for Jesus. Listen to me in the words of
the old song. Let us be ever only all for Him,
seeing that we are kept for Jesus Christ. Kept for Jesus Christ.
You must not touch that treasure, my friend. It is set apart for
the King. You must not meddle with that
man. You must not meddle with that woman. She's the property.
He's the property of God Almighty. They belong to God and they are
kept for Jesus Christ. Others, my friend, may be filthy
dreamers, but these are kept for Jesus Christ. Some may be
wandering stars or trees plucked up by the roots, but these people
are kept for Jesus Christ. Kept by Him, kept in Him, but
kept especially for Him. These are these that James is
talking about. I told you they were special.
They are special because they are loved to the Father, set
apart by the Father, and kept for the Lord Jesus Christ, then
Judads, and called. He says they're called. Those
who were beloved and sanctified and preserved are called. God
has by an effectual call, He called them to Himself. There
came a day when they heard a voice in their soul. They heard the
word of God and in their soul they were summonsed. There was
a voice that came to them just as the voice came to Lazarus.
Lazarus, come forth! And Lazarus, he came out of the
grave, you remember, and so it is with the people of God. They
have come forth out of the death of sin. They have been brought
out by the effectual call. Now listen to me. We got this
call from Christ and we arose in the words of the song and
went forth and followed Him. An effectual call. It is a voice that the world
has never heard. It, my friend, is a face, His
face. We've seen the glory of God in
His face, but the world had never seen the face of the Lord Jesus
Christ by faith as the people of God have. And then there's
a hand, a mystic hand, that has reached out and caught our hand
and lifted us up and brought us to the Lord Jesus Christ,
brought us unto God. The world has never felt that
hand in their hand. like the Lord's living family
has. Listen to me, my friend, there's a voice that says, come
up hither! Come up hither! God's people
are constantly hearing it. We heard it when we were called
out of sin, and we're hearing it all the time. Come up hither!
And we shall finally one day listen to people of God or as
it were climbing Jacob's ladder rung by rung and we're constantly
being called up hither, come up, come up higher and higher. We would sit down and look around
us and we would get discouraged and be tested by the various
things that are happening around us day by day and there's a voice
that says come up hither, come up a little higher. God's people
are constantly being called to arise and one day One day there'll
be a voice that will come, and it may be when we're old and
gray-headed and so feeble that we can no longer get about. We may be bedridden, or it may
strike us sometime. The voice may come, even when
we're yet in our strength, and say, come up hither. It's time
for you to leave this world. It's time for you to come home
with me. God's people are called people, and they experience this
call from the time they're regenerated until the time they step over
the threshold into eternal glory. They're a call, people. Be listening for God's call. He's always calling His people,
visiting His people, speaking to His people, and drawing them
ever closer and nearer Him. This, my friend, is that special
people to whom Jude was writing. Now the third thing and last
thing, we'll have to hurry here, and that is this special benediction
which Jude wished on these people. And this is my, we find it here
in verse two, he said, mercy, mercy unto you and peace and
love be multiplied. Well, if God answers that prayer,
God's people will surely be better off. They'll surely be stronger.
They'll surely have more of what they need in this life. And this
certainly is my special desire and prayer to God for you all
here, those of you that are separated into God, that mercy and love
and that God's peace will be multiplied unto you. Beloved,
may you have mercy. May you have mercy. There's not
one among us today who does not need mercy. Every one of us need
mercy because, you see, even the saints are still sinners
still. We need mercy, don't we? Mercy. My soul, that's a wonderful word.
Listen, we need mercy that will continue to forgive our sin.
Mercies that will wash our feet from the defilement of the way.
The mercies of providence that will supply our need. Mercies
that will sustain us. under trial and test as we live
in this world. Mercies that will lead us on
from strength to strength. It is said of God, brother, sister,
that he delighteth in mercy. God delights to have mercy. And
so Jude said, mercy unto you. Mercy unto you. May God have
mercy upon you. Next he said in peace, and you
may remember the message that I preached. Here, the 3rd of
January, on three things we want for 93. And the first one was
what? Peace. Peace. Now, beloved, listen. God can give that peace. And
we've already experienced some of it, and we believe that He'll
give it, continue to give it, unto the lives of His people.
Next thing was love. Now, he says that peace and love
be multiplied. A sense of the love of God shed
abroad in our hearts for the Holy Ghost. A ravishing realization
that God loves us with that everlasting love which knows no measure,
no change, no end. A realization of that. That's
what Jude's saying. I want you to have the realization
of that. The benediction of the Apostle
is this, that this mercy, this peace, this love may be Multiply
to you. Now, this is a beautiful word
indeed. Multiply. Multiply. You know what it means to multiply
something. I mean you get rich quick if
you can multiply. And that's what Jude's talking
about. He wants these people to get
well in a hurry. And so he said God multiply mercy. God multiply peace. And God multiply love to your
heart. Now, Listen, if we had all of
these blessings multiplied, mercy, well, how much would you want
if you're going to multiply the blessing of mercy? Would you
want ten times more than you've had? How much would you want?
Ten times more? Well, I don't think I'd stop
there and in peace if it was multiplied to you. You'd have
a deeper, deeper peace, a richer, more abiding peace, peace, peace,
upon peace. That'd be wonderful, wouldn't
it? A peace that passes all understanding, that keeps the heart, keeps the
mind. You'd say, well, preacher, I'd
want a whole lot of that. Just multiply that as much as
God would be willing to multiply it toward my life. And love multiplied. Well, I thought about this a
little bit. No man ever yet had too much
love, love for God, love for God's people. And I thought about
how much of that we would like to have and how much of that
we need. Listen to me, I thought about
the national debt, and I don't know of any bigger figures anywhere
than the national debt, do you? I haven't run across any figures
anywhere to match that. And I thought about, well, if
God just multiply his love in my heart, Whether I'd love God,
never stray because I loved Him. Loved Him enough so I wouldn't
stray from Him. Loved Him enough so it'd make no difference where
I was at, wherever I was, I'd do right. I'd do right. I'd just like to love God enough
to serve Him, to be faithful to Him. God, multiply Your love
to me. Now listen to me. You see what
Jude's all about here. This is the right kind of love.
This is the right kind of peace. This is the right kind of mercy
he's talking about. And he said, God, multiply that to these people. These special people. You multiply
it to them. Now listen to me now. Listen
to me. You see what Jude's all about
here now. It's an evil time. Men have gone
astray. But Jude says, you don't go out
here and fight with these people. Don't go out here and fight with
these heretics and just get in a war with them. Don't go out
here and do that. He says, mercy, peace, and love
be multiplied unto you. And what he's saying is that
the graces of the Christian will be the defeat of the enemy. You get right. And the enemy
will have to bow to you. You will be bowing to the enemy
when God blesses you in this way. If you want to improve a
dark night, then just give us brighter stars. That will improve
a dark night. And if you would enlighten the
dark age, let your light so shine before men that they may behold
Your good works, and see what God's done in you, and it'll
make a difference. Now brother, sister, I think
this is, here's some true sayings. Listen to this, we're about ready
to finish this. If we lived holy to God, people would know better
what a Christian was. That sound right? I think that's
true. I don't think it's necessary
to go out here and beat people over the head with a club saying,
now you look at us. No, no, no. You just live better.
You just live for God and people will know the difference between
what a Christian is and what one isn't if they just see the
way that you conduct yourself. And also it is said that the
short way to the conversion of sinners is the sanctification
of the saints. the saints of God to be more
set apart to God, to obey Him, to do His will. And it's also
said that if we had more faith, the preacher would preach better
and the people would live better if they had more faith. And also
it is said that if we live nearer to God, it would be better for
those who live near to us. Is that right? You think that's
right? Well, I really believe that's true. I think the best
thing that a mother could do for her children is live near
to God. I believe it with all my heart. The best thing that
a man could do for his family is live near to God. Live near
to God. The best thing a preacher could
do for a church is to stay right with God in his heart at all
times. To live right! That's the best thing he could
do. You reckon? You suppose? Well, that's what I believe.
Now, is it not written that when a man receives the water of life
into himself, it shall be in him? Isn't this what Jesus said?
A well of water springing up into everlasting life, and out
of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. God make us
such reservoirs of His grace. Wouldn't that be wonderful? Wouldn't
it be wonderful? It'd be a better world. But listen,
when we get thus healthy, I think we can stand the environment,
don't you? I believe we can. If we're healthy,
if we're the kind of people that old Jude was talking about, and
we are by the grace of God, we are by God's ordination, by God's
election, then we'll be able to live in this environment and
we'll be able to hasten on to glory in the way of the Lord.
May God bless you and bless the message to your heart. Father,
thank you.