Okay. You really think your mom was
stuck in traffic? I'm So, Good evening. Let us begin our worship service
tonight reading from Hebrews chapter 3. Let's just read the first 13
verses of this chapter, Hebrews chapter 3. Wherefore, holy brethren,
partakers of the heavenly calling, consider the apostle and high
priest of our profession, Christ Jesus, who was faithful to him
that appointed him, as also Moses was faithful in all his house.
For this man was counted worthy of more glory than Moses, inasmuch
as he who hath built the house hath more honor than the house. For every house is built of some
man, but he that built all things is God. And Moses barely was
faithful in all his house as a servant, or a testimony of
those things which were to be spoken after. But Christ as a
son over his own house, whose house are we? which will hold
fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the whole firm until the end. Wherefore, as the Holy Ghost
saith today, if you will hear his voice, harden not your hearts
as in the provocation in the day of temptation and bewilderment. When your Father tempted me,
proved me, and saw my worth forty years. Wherefore, I was grieved
at that generation and said, They have always heard in their
heart, and they have not heard in their ways. So I swear in
my wrath they shall not enter into my rest. They came, brethren,
lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, and departing
from the living God. But exhort one another daily
while it is called a day, lest any of you be hardened through
the deceitfulness of sin. The Lord bless his word, all
of us here this evening. Let us bow our heads in prayer. Our Father, we do give thee thanks
again today for this privilege, this opportunity to come together
with your people who worship thee. We thank thee, Father,
for what you have provided for us, a place to come. And Father,
we thank you so much for the many blessings and benefits who
have bestowed upon us as a people. Most of all, Father, we thank
Thee for the gospel and message, and for Thy dear Son, the Lord
Jesus Christ, our Savior. It is Your praise this evening
that we may honor and glorify Him as we sing, as we worship
Thee in song and praise, and as we study Thy Word, I pray
for Your blessings upon the message this evening. Again, Father,
for those of our church family that are sick in the body, we
ask the Lord for them, that you might touch them and grant healing.
For these things I ask in Christ's name. Amen. Now let's worship the Lord in
song. Mr. President, we're going to
turn to number 333. We're going to let the musicians play it
one time. It's a great song. and there's
six verses though so we'll get plenty of practice Faithful I know my Savior living
in me from day to day. I will love Him All I do and say, may the Word
of God prevail. In my heart of hearts, I'm so
glad. May the peace of God, my Father,
fill my heart with everything that I need. All the comforts
may be at your side. Oh, say does that star-spangled
banner yet Jesus, as I on earth am born. Amen. Great words on that song. Let us turn to number 298. 298.
Jesus alone. And through so bitter, so sweet,
I need you dearly, my Lord. And while this world always so weary must be,
I need you dearly, The blood shot through the water,
the blood all through the water. Suffering and sorrow, but love
gives us hope in the light's eternal flame. of God. Some through the fire, but all
through the blood. Some through great struggle,
God gives us more. In the nice season, when all
the day grows. God made His dear children alone. The grave and glory eternally
stay, God made His dear children alone. Some through the fire, but all
through the dawn. Some through the storm, but none
in the dawn. In the night season, and all
the day long. Turn again with me tonight as
we look at Jude. As we look tonight especially
at verses 4 through 7, let's read verse 1 through verse 7. the servant of Jesus Christ,
the 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 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.
For there are certain men crept in unawares, who were before
of all our faith to this contemptation, ungodly men, turning the grace
of our God into lasciviousness and denying the only Lord God
and our Lord Jesus Christ. 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, afterwards destroyed them that
believed not. And the angels, which kept not
their first estate, but left their own habitation, he hath
preserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment
of the great day. Even as Sodom and Gomorrah, and
the cities about them, and like men, giving themselves over to
fornication, and going after strange flesh, are set forth
for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire." Looking
at this very, very short letter written by the Apostle Jude,
who we know was the brother of the Apostle James, it's one of
the letters, New Testament letters, which is referred to as a general
or a Catholic letter. And it is because it was not
directed to any specific church or individual. It is a general
or a Catholic letter to all the churches and all the believers.
We have seen what Jude meant in verse 3 by the words, the
common salvation. The word common could be used
in the sense that something is very common, not worth a whole
lot. That's not the way this is to
be understood, the common salvation. All who are saved, all, all who
are saved, all are loved by the same eternal love, and that love
is common, Not one child of God is loved more than another. Every child of God is loved with
God's eternal, everlasting love from which no child of God can
ever be separated. We know that from Romans chapter
8. The covenant of grace, all the
blessings in that covenant, all the benefits which it contains,
are common to all the saints. Some are not justified and others
not justified. Some are not sanctified and others
not sanctified. Some are not adopted and others
not adopted. The blessings of that eternal
covenant are sure to everyone that is named in that covenant.
and one for whom Christ stood as their surety. I want you to
look back for 1 Timothy chapter 2 just a moment. We think about
this common salvation, this term, the common salvation. In 1 Timothy chapter 2 and verse
6, Speaking of our Lord, our Lord
Jesus Christ, who gave himself a ransom for all to be testified
in due time. Now, some people, you know, they
come to this verse and they fail to look at the context. They
fail to look at and consider the context and they come up
with a teaching which they call universal redemption. universal
redemption. But consider what must be true
if a person believes that. What has to be true if a person
believes in what they call universal redemption. We believe in particular
redemption. We believe that Christ redeemed
his church. He loved the church, the scripture
says, Ephesians chapter 5. He loved the church. Husbands,
love your wives even as Christ loved the church and gave himself
far. Consider what would be true if
you take the position that this verse is teaching that Christ
gave himself a ransom for all, that is, every single solitary
individual who has ever walked upon the face of God's earth.
Then that means, number one, all mankind will be saved. If he gave himself for everyone,
then everyone will be saved. He gave himself. If he paid the
ransom for all, then all will be saved and there is no hell.
There is no eternal damnation. And number two, the ransom was
paid in vain. If that were true, the ransom
is paid in vain because all are not saved. We know that. The
Lord Jesus Christ spoke himself of a man, people say his name
was Dimes. Our Lord didn't give us that
name, but remember Dimes, Lazarus was a beggar who laid outside
his gate, and Dimes was a very wealthy man, and he died, and
our Lord said he'd lift up his eyes and be in heaven. He said, well, that's a parable,
no? He didn't say it was a parable. And our Lord never made names
when he gave a parable. No, that's the teaching of the
word of God. The same word which is used for
everlasting life is used for everlasting death. If you deny
that death is everlasting, then you must also deny that life
is everlasting. If it was paid for all, then
it was paid in vain, because all are not freed from the slavery
of sin. All are not saved from death
in hell. And number three, God may be
unjust to receive a sufficient ransom price for all, but did
not free all of sin's captors. Christ paid the ransom for all
sorts of sinners. All sorts of sinners. That's
what the word Paul here means. He paid the ransom for all sorts
of sinners, rich and poor, educated and uneducated, Jews and Gentiles. His salvation is common, the
same for all the same. The salvation, the ransom is
the same, is common to all of God's elect. And Jude, back in
our text tonight, Jude tells us that we must earnestly contend
for the faith. And notice it is the faith which
was once delivered to the saints. The faith, the gospel of the
Lord Jesus Christ, it hasn't changed. It's the same gospel
that was preached to Adam and Eve in the garden. It's the same
gospel that was preached all through the Old Testament. It's
the same gospel. That message changed. It's the
faith which was once for all delivered to the saints. And
we must earnestly contend for it. The norms of society change. We live in a world of change.
That's the one thing that is consistent about our world. Change. Change. The hemorrhage is there.
Change and decay all around me. I say, oh, now that change is
not behind me. It's a faith which was once delivered
unto the saints. And we are earnestly contending
for it. As I said, the standards, the
norms of society change But the gospel, the faith which was once
delivered unto the people of God is like its author. God Almighty changes the world. Jesus Christ is saying yesterday,
today, and forever. Now let's look for
a little while tonight here at verses 4 through 7. two truths that I want to emphasize
from these verses. First, Jude declares, when he
wrote this letter, at that particular time, Jude declares that there
was already, already ungodly men in the midst of the churches,
in the midst of believers. Notice that in verse four. For
there are certain men prepped in unawareness, Now, the Apostle
Paul and the Apostle Peter go on of this as future. Look with me in 2 Timothy chapter
3. When they wrote, the Apostle
Paul and the Apostle Peter, when they wrote their letters, they
wrote of this as something that would come something that would
be future. Jude, when he writes, it's already
here. Certain men have already crept
in, on a way, undaunted in. Notice here in 2 Timothy 3, verse
1, Paul writing, this know also that in the last days perilous
times shall come, for men shall be lovers of their own selves.
boasted, proud, blasphemous, disobedient to parents, unthankful,
unholy, without natural affection, truth-breakers, false accusers,
incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, traitors,
idiots, unminded, lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God, having
a form of godliness, but denying the fire of God, from such turn
away, for of this sort are they which creep into houses, lead
captive, silly women, laden with sins, led away with avarice,
lust, ever yearning, never able to come to the knowledge of the
truth." You see, Paul says this will happen in The last day,
7 verse 1, in the last day. That men would creep in to houses. That's what it says, 7 verse
6. Also, if you turn to 2 Peter, 2 Peter chapter 3, I'm sorry,
2 Peter chapter 2, But there were, past tense, there
were false prophets also among the people, that is, among Israel
all through the Old Testament. I just finished reading through
the book of Jeremiah, and once again you see there's one prophet,
really, Jeremiah, and there's so many false prophets. There
were false prophets, Peter said, among the people, among the people
of God. on Mount Carmel when Elijah faced
those false prophets. What were there? 600 false prophets
and he was alone on that mountain. Elijah. There's always been more
false prophets than true prophets. Always has. But Peter here says
there were false prophets also among the people. Now notice,
future, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who
privately shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord
above them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction." Now, back
in our text this evening. When that verse there in the
second Peter chapter 1 we just read speaks about them denying
even the Lord that bought them. That's what they profess. They profess that they're saved,
that they've been bought, purchased with the blood of Jesus Christ.
They deny Him. If they were not bought with
His blood. But they profess it because they've
come in among the people of God, the children of God, the Church. and churches of our Lord Jesus
Christ. Now back here in June, I want
us to notice, I believe there's five things here that we are
told about these false teachers. First of all, they creep in unaware. Notice, there are certain in
crept in unaware. They creep in unaware. A false teacher never shows up
with a sign around his neck saying, I am a false teacher. He just
doesn't do that. No. Our Lord spoke of them as
wolves in sheep's clothing. They creep in unaware. They creep into assemblies, that
is, to local churches. They creep in professing to believe
the truth. Believe the gospel that is proclaimed
in that congregation. They creep in. They creep in to the affections
of the believers. They get into a congregation
and have a way of making themselves lovable, if I can use that term,
to God's children. They make themselves presentable
to God's children. They creep into the affections
of God's people. Not only creep into the assembly,
but creep into the affections of God's people. Because God's people love one
another, and they love those who come in. even those who come
in that are ungodly, as we will see next. They creep in to assemblies,
they creep in to assemblies professing to believe the truth, they creep
in to the affections of believers by their deceitful ways. An illustration of that, And
it's not the best illustration, I understand that. But do you
remember when King David, his son Absalom, was a renegade? He was a rebel. He rose up against
his father. But remember how he turned the
hearts of the people of Israel to him, against his father, the
king? how he would meet them. Here
he is, the prince. He's the son of the king. And
he would meet these people and embrace them and kiss them and
act as though they were just best friends, you know. And all
the time, he's undermining the authority of King David until
he got enough to follow him and then rose up in rebellion. and
the king had to flee, had to run for his life. That's an illustration of how
man-false teachers will creep into the affections of God's
people. They're not above that, just
like Adamson. The second thing where we are
told about these false teachers, they were ordained to this condemnation. Notice again our text, for there
are certain men, corrupt and unawares, who were before of
old ordained to this condemnation. Their evil doesn't surprise the
Lord, doesn't take God by surprise, even from the beginning. When
He chose His people, When he chose his people, obviously there
were some who were not chosen. Now the theologians, they have
a word they call predation, which simply means God passed over. He passed over some and chose
those called his elect. Any time there's a choice, There's
a refusal, right? If you had a choice between two
meals, two different meals tonight, you would choose one. There's
a refusal of the other. And that's what we believe about
certain men who have crept in unawares, who were, of old, from
the very beginning, ordained to this condemnation. In studying and preparing for
the message, I turned to John Gill, and I appreciate John Gill
so, so much. The Body of Divinity is one of
the greatest books I believe the Church has ever received. And I want to quote him. It's
a fairly long quote, and I think you'll appreciate it. He said,
it may be observed that we can hear or read of the non-election
and rejection of angels and their preordination to condemnation
and wrath with very little emotion of mind. We can hear about the
angels being condemned, foreordained to condemnation predestinated to wrath. And our minds are not stirred
up. I've never heard anyone complain
that all the angels were not chosen. But I've heard a lot
of people fight against God's sovereign election of individuals. Never once has anyone mentioned
the fact that he did not choose all the angels. Let me go along
with that quote. We can hear about that and read
about that with very little emotional mind. The devils may be cast
down to hell to be everlastingly damned and appointed therein
to. And he gives no great concern,
no hard thoughts of God arise, no charge of cruelty, one of
kindness to his creatures and offspring, and of injustice to
them. But, if anything of this kind
is candidate with respect to any of the apostate sons of Adam,
presently there is an outcry against it. And all the above
things are suggesting it's not fair, he's unkind. What is the reason for this difference? It can only be this. that the
latter comes nearer home, and more nearly affects us. It is
partially to ourselves, our nature, our race, to which this is owing.
Otherwise, and listen, otherwise far greater severity, if it may
be called, is exercised on falling angels than on falling man. For God has not spared one God
has not spared one of the angels that sinned, provided no Savior
for them, nor so much as given them the means of grace, but
consigned them all over at once to everlasting wrath and ruin. Whereas, not only a Savior is
provided for fallen man and means of grace that allow them But
thousands, and ten thousands, and millions, and millions of
them are saved by the abundant mercy and grace of God through
Christ. Amen. Amen. God did not provide a savior
for the angels. He took not upon Him the nature
of angels. to the volume of nature and man,
we might be akin to the redeemed. Notice the third thing that's
said about these men. They're ungodly men. All men
by nature are ungodly. Understand that. Unlike God, all men are ungodly. This especially has reference
to the fact that they have no fear of God. No fear of God. No internal devotion. The gospel of the Lord Jesus
Christ is a holy making of us. And those who say, by the grace
of God, they've come to reverence, to fear, to worship God. But
these are undaunted. They have no fear of God. They
have no reverence. And the fourth thing they said
about them, they turned the grace of our God into lasciviousness. Now there are several ways that
they may do this. They used the wonderful truth
of salvation by grace to excuse a sinful life. Remember the Apostle Paul in
Romans declared that where sin abounded, grace did much more
abound. Now that's just true. Where sin
abounded. You say, sin has abounded in
me. Amen. Much more the grace of
God abounded. But what did these people accuse
Paul of teaching? Let us sin that grace may abound. Let us sin that grace may abound. Grace abounds where sin abounds,
then the more sin, the greater the grace. They turn the truth
about the grace of God into lasciviousness, that is to excuse their sinful
life. Or they teach that grace is not
effectual. Grace doesn't get the job done,
and we know that's not so. Number five, they deny the only
Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ. You see that in the text. All
those five things are declared. There are certain men, number
one, crept in unawares. Number two, who were before the
Lord ordained to this condemnation. Number three, undocked in. Number
four, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness. And number five, denying the
former Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ. Many deny the Trinity. They deny
the Lord. They deny that God is a chivalry
being. They deny that. That's true.
God is part of the faith which was once for all delivered unto
the saints. They deny the sovereignty of
God. If you hear a preacher talking
about God wanting to do this and wanting to do that, they
ought to raise a red flag. They really should. God wanting to do something?
Who's going to keep him from doing what he wants to do? Human
man, is it? That's for sure. They didn't
either, so I'll reveal God in salvation. They may, Mr. Spurgeon said, they may allow
God to be in his workshop and have his, working on his anvil,
this is metaphorically, of course, and from his anvil goes off the
stars worlds and the planets and the universe, and they're
happy we have. And they may even agree that
God is sovereign and brotherly. That you were born at the time
and in the place where God determined. But when it comes to salvation,
He will have mercy upon whom he will have mercy, and upon
whom he will, he will pardon. That's when Leonardo da Vinci
rebelled in 949. And Lord Jesus Christ, he said. You know, there's no way that
any of us can determine the distance between the between infinite
and finite. Infinite and finite. To say that the Lord Jesus Christ
was created, created the Son of God, the distance between
the infinite Father and the finite Son would be so great. No, we believe as the scriptures
declare him to be the eternal son of God. You, if you are a
child of God tonight, you are a son of God by adoption. He has adopted you into his family. But he's not a son by adoption.
He's the son of what they call the eternal generation. There
never was a time when he was not God's son. All right,
let's look at a few other things in verses 5 through 7. You've
put God's people, my friends, God's people, put God's people
in remembrance of these three things. I will therefore put
you in remembrance, though you once knew this. And I put them
in remembrance of these three things. As you read them, you ask yourself
the question, how? How do scriptures like these
serve the people of God? Don't we believe in eternal security? Absolutely. Don't we believe
that Christ's sheep are in His hand, who is in the hand of the
Father, and no man is able to pluck one of them out of His
hand? Absolutely. Then why, or how
rather, do these scriptures serve the people of God? 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. And the angels which kept not
their first estate, but left their own habitation, yet preserved
and everlastingly changed under darkness unto the judgment of
the great day. Even as the Sodom and Gomorrah
and the cities about them in like manner giving themselves
over to fornication and going after strange flesh and set forth
an example, suffering the vengeance of the eternal fire. Now, how
do scriptures like this serve the people of God? Well, I've
written down four ways. I'm sure there are others. But
this is how I see that scriptures like these help and serve every
child of God. Number one, they serve to remind
us that we are to make our calling and election sure. That's what
the Apostle Peter tells us. When Jude writes here that there
are ungodly men crept in, then we should say, Lord, am I one of those? When the Lord Jesus told his
disciples the night before he was crucified that the hands
of the one who would deny him and betray him were on the table
with him, did you know the scripture says that each and every one
of those twelve apostles asked the same question? Lord, is this
a lie? Is this a lie? When I say, and the Apostle Peter
wrote, make your calling and election sure, always in that
order. That's the only way you can make
your election sure is by making your calling sure. Have you been
called? Have you been called by God the
Holy Spirit using the gospel of Jesus Christ? Number two, they remind us that
God has a lot of means. Think about this, why would the
Lord Jesus, why would he in his high priestly prayer, ask his
father this? Knowing that his children are
in his hand, that they're eternally secure, why would he ask his
father, I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the
world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil one. I'm going to pray that. To keep
us, to keep his children from the evil one, that is from Satan. If it is impossible, and it is,
for Satan to steal one of his sheep out of his hand, I'm going
to pray that. God is a God of means. He has given us his word. He
has given us prayer. He has given us the fellowship
of the church of believers. And if we neglect these things,
we only harm ourselves. We are to be diligent. That's
our responsibility in the things of God. He is a God of means. Number three, they remind us
of the awful, awful sin of unbelief. I know, I guess most people,
we just kind of think, well, unbelief, that's not so bad.
Ask one of those men that came out of Egypt who was above 20
years of age. that died in the wilderness. Ask one of them about the sin
of unbelief. If they say just how bad it is,
how evil it is. It kept all of that generation
out of the promised land. Two men, and only two men, about
20 years of age when they came out of Egypt. entered in to the
land of promise. And why? Because they believed
God. Joshua, Nekeia, all the rest
of that generation perished. Why? Because they could not enter
in because of unbelief. And lastly, they remind us of
the wonderful grace of God. The wonderful grace of God. Think
of all these that are mentioned here who were destroyed. That generation of Israelites
in the wilderness, all the angels who sinned, and all those in
the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities around them. But
God did save some out of that city, didn't he? A lot. He was a righteous man. And God saved him out of that
city. We live in a godless society,
godless world. I know there's a lot of good
in this world, but there's a whole lot of evil too. There's a whole lot of evil. A whole lot of ignorance when
it comes to the things of God. A wonderful grace of God. He has not left us. And I say,
but in mercy grace has called us, saved us, washed us. I love that scripture in the
first Corinthians where Paul says, in such words shall not be any. I see myself in that,
just as Sam said he had named before. In such words shall not
be any. Yes, I see myself. But you are
washed. You're justified. You're sanctified. And it's all by the wonderful
grace of God. Let's lay it down before him.
It's so special. It's all standing. It's all by
the wonderful grace of God, number 209. Thank you and grace greater than all our sin. and with the blood of the lamb
was shed. greater than all ourselves. In
this heaven the secret door that to the soul may give further glory,
greater, greater is grace unto all. ? Hark to the herald angels' song
? Humblest, simple, and matchless
grace, We wish you all the honor in thee, And in our longing to
see his face, That's about it for our prayer. And Andy,
would you lead us in a prayer? Amen. Yeah, that's what he called me.
I was like, that was great.