Yeah, what's his name? Carter. Carter, Carter, Carter, Carter, Carter. I remember when she was just a little tight when I first came up here. I remember those in Crescent Prairie, Remain French, General Grant, Theresa Cunningham, Louisville Paul. Any word on Louisville Paul? He's doing better. I don't know if they put him in a rehab or not, but he was in a regular run. Oh, good. That's good.

All right. Let's begin our worship service at the corner with the hymn number 334, Be Thou My Vision.

Be Thou my vision, be Thou my heart.
Naught be all else to me, save that Thou art.
on my bedstall by day or by night.
Waking or sleeping, Thy presence my light.
Be Thou my wisdom you.
May I reach Him, the bright Heaven's Son,
part of my own wonderful, wonderful world.
Still be my vision, O Lord,

Well, I messed that up pretty good. We'll try 352. After Scripture, you'll be able to see number 352. Gary Pyle's turn. It's possibly June. We'll read one verse of Scripture, verse 3.

Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needed for me to write unto you and exhort you that you should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints.

Our Father in heaven, most holy, perfect and pure, dwelling into a light where no man can approach, high and lifted up. And yet, you have condescended to dwell in us, in the spirit of your blessed son, to be our guide into all truth. Show us what you have said in this book. that concerns your son, our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. We are thankful that you and your kindness, your mercy and grace have gifted your children with faith, faith that believes the Word of God that rests there and nowhere else. I know all times as we look at this book, we're in a total awe and full of wonder. and how can these things be? But you have given us faith to believe it, so we can't even begin to grasp the fullness of it. It is there that we bow down our heads to the ground in thanksgiving and praise, knowing full well our salvation is by grace. Help us, Lord, to worship you. to keep your son and his word in our thoughts and our minds. Pray for those who are sick, those who are going through trials, those who've lost loved ones. I ask the Lord you to be with them, help them and strengthen them and turn their eyes to Jesus Christ. Help us this day to worship you, in spirit and in truth, we pray in Christ's name, amen.

Jesus, power of my soul, let me do thy will somehow.
Follow me with water's flow, I'll look in your stillness now.
Take me to thy haven now, for to see my soul at last.
I will not say good-bye till this time comes nigh.
The other refuge, there I lie, hangs my help, my soul, on Thee.
Thee will I leave me not alone, still support and comfort me.
All my trust from Thee is saved, all my help from Thee I bring.
Come and I can face this day with the shadow of Thy will!
I am all are full of truth and grace.
In His grace, through Thee is found, grace to God on all my sin.
Let the healing streams abound, make and keep me pure within.
Thou, unlike the fount of arms, Freely let me take of Thee.
Spring of hope within my heart, rise to all eternity.

Let's pray. Father again we approach in the name of Jesus Christ, our majestic and glorious Lord, who after he had purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the majesty on high, ever living to make intercession for his people. We are thankful that we have him as our advocate, Jesus Christ the righteous. Help us to be thankful, people to be grateful for what you've done for us. Let our praise be the praise of thanksgiving from our lips. As you have given us all things, we return unto thee that which belongs to you. May it be used for your glory in the preaching of the gospel here and in other places. We pray in Christ's name, amen.

♪♪ ¶ ¶ Pay attention back to the Apostle Jude who is the brother of James. In verse one of this single chapter epistle, Jude describes believers and also the manner in which they are saved. He says, Jude, the servant of Jesus Christ, the brother of James, to them that are sanctified by God the Father, preserved in Jesus Christ, and called.

And this is the way, the only way, that sinners are saved. And so in verse three, he reiterates this fact by referring to this salvation as the common salvation. This does not mean that the salvation is meager or low in character or general offer, but rather that it's the same salvation exactly and precisely to everyone of the elect, whether it be Adam, the first one brought to the knowledge of Jesus Christ, to the last sinner saved by grace, they are all saved exactly, precisely the same way.

They may have different experiences of salvation. Levi, later named Matthew, was collecting taxes from his people, and the Lord came up to him and said, follow me. And he did. Saul of Tarsus was blinded by a light on the road to Damascus and didn't receive and understand the truth until he was told the gospel by Ananias and the scales fell out of his eyes and he was told that he was chosen of God to see the just one and to be a witness for Christ in this world. One blind man was just told to see, another was Mud put on his eyes. A different means of ways of saving a man or revealing Christ to them.

But their salvation is all exactly the same. It took place on Calvary's tree 2,000 years ago when our Lord Jesus Christ was made to be sin for his people. And they were made to be the righteousness of God in him. There is not a different gospel for the Jew or the Gentile. I remember many years ago, a fellow came to church here. He had worked in Jerry Falwell's church up at Liberty Baptist, and he had written a book on soul winning. I've got it somewhere over at the house. I don't think I've burned it, though it would be a good book for that. It's a good use to start a fire.

But he had a way, everybody different ways to witness to every kind of people you can imagine. Witnessing to old women, witnessing to young women, witnessing to singles with marriage, witnessing to divorce. He had a different gospel for each one of them. There's just one gospel. It's stated from Genesis to Revelation in this book. The same gospel is preached and the elect are informed of what God has done by believing after they heard the word of truth.

But this common salvation is more than the gospel that reveals it. It is what the gospel reveals. The only salvation that exists in this world which is common or singular salvation is the salvation of the elect. There is no salvation anywhere else. And you have a lot that are going under the name of Christianity, the umbrella of Christianity in this day. But as one person said, just because a cat has kittens in the oven, that don't make them biscuits. And that's the fact. Just because you say you're a Christian doesn't mean it. I saw yesterday that one female bishop in the Lutheran Church, I think it was, or the Anglican Church, said this fellow that just got elected in New York was the most Christ-like man she'd ever met. But I'm pretty sure if she'd ever met Christ, she wouldn't say that at all. But she said she's a Christian. People say they're Christians all the time. Who is a Christian?

First of all, a Christian means something particular. It was a name, a defamatory name to those that followed the Lord Jesus Christ. They were not called Lordians. They were not called Jesusians. They were called Christians because they said, this is the Christ, the anointed, the Messiah. And so they started calling them Christians.

A Christian is one who knows and follows the Lord Jesus Christ and believes in the gospel of God's grace and nothing else. This common salvation reveals Jesus Christ and Him crucified. The word common might well mean the same salvation. Their eternal election and their election to eternal salvation is the same. Whoever is saved is saved exactly the same way through hearing the preaching of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

The covenant of grace is the same for them. The blessings of the covenant are the same and the promises of the covenant are the same for everyone of God's elect. They are bought with the same redemptive requirement price and that is the blood and death of the Lord Jesus Christ. They are justified by the same blood and grace. They are regenerated and sanctified and called by the same grace and mercy. They possess the same glory. Everybody in Christ is the same. There is no difference. Jew nor Greek, bondage nor Scythian, bondage nor free. They're all the same. They're all one in Jesus Christ.

They may have different functions within the church. According to Romans 12, they have many functions in the church. But they're all exactly the same. They have a singular and absolute standing. How are they saved? Every one of them are saved by the blood and righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. No other way. Every one of the elect. Every one of them. You are our saved sinner. You and the Apostle Jude are saved exactly the same way. You and the Apostle Paul are saved exactly the same way. You and all the disciples are saved exactly the same way. You and Abraham, you and Noah, you and David are all saved exactly the same way by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. The effectual, propitiatory sacrifice of the Son of God.

And this is what he means when he said, the common salvation. The common salvation, due rights to the elect, those who are preserved in Jesus Christ. What does that mean? That means that once you're in Christ, and you've always been in Him according to the Word of God, you're preserved for all eternity. Nothing will ever take you away from that or remove you from that.

I was talking with an old saint yesterday. He called me on the phone from out in Texas. He's 83 years old and loves the gospel of Jesus Christ. And he was talking about what it'd be like one day to leave this flesh behind and worship God truly for the first time without sin. And then he said, well, but what we have in Christ It's exactly the same as what we'll have in heaven. You have eternal life if you're a child of God. That's not going to change. It's not going to get better. It's not going to get bigger. What you're going to leave behind is the flesh one of these days. And that writes soon for most of us. He writes to the elect because the truth of common salvation is under attack from many sides by numerous false teachers. This book, I know it's a portion of this epistle, is about false teachers. I've preached about it three or four times in the last few months.

He says in verse four, he said, for there are certain men crept in, unaware of this, who were before of old ordained to this condemnation, ungodly men, turning the grace of God into lasciviousness and denying the Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ."

How do you turn the grace of God into lasciviousness? You use the word grace and salvation is based on nobody's merit, you say, well, let sin, that grace may abound. That's what they accused Paul of in Romans chapter 3. They're saying, well, if you preach that, you're going to open up the floodgates of sin. Preach it anyway. Preach it anyway, but you're not going to open up the floodgates of sin. Anybody who's ever had a disease, if they're cured, I've never met one that said, I wish I had that disease again. Not one. And if you were ever saved by God's grace, you'll spend the rest of your life embarrassed by the fact that you sinned all the time. And you wish you didn't.

Paul summed it up this way in Romans 7, with my mind, I serve the law of God. It's what I want to do. It's what I think about. Lay down at night, think, Lord, let me be here for you, glory. with my flesh. I served the wall of sin and death. I served it. I'm its servant. Thank God that His grace has subdued my flesh or I'd be in real trouble.

This letter is written because it's needful to exhort the church of the necessity, he said, of contending for the faith, the faith, once delivered to the saints. This little phrase speaks volumes concerning the onslaught of those who oppose the gospel. The first thing to note is that Jude in this phrase is speaking of the gospel our Lord Jesus Christ and his disciples preached from the beginning. The one he had told them to preach. The gospel that Paul said in 1 Corinthians he was determined to preach nothing else but Jesus Christ and him crucified. And the singular means of revealing the common salvation and glorifying God is the preaching of the gospel. That's the way it's done. It's a miracle. It's a wonder. Because you're allowed to have somebody up here that stands and can't even read or write loud on a hymn? Or somebody that messes up on the piano occasionally? Actually tell you how God saves sinners. That's a wonder of wonders.

And even more magnificent and miraculous is that God takes that word, leaving this old sinner behind. He takes that word and he plants it in his elect's heart and gives them faith to believe it. If you don't understand that that's a miracle of grace, there's something wrong with you thinking. It's an amazing thing. I know people talk about faith like today, like everybody's got it. They're proud of their faith and stuff like that. But faith is a miracle. Faith is a miracle.

People argue about this word of God. God's a lector. When they see words like, for a certain man crept in unawares who will forward them to this condemnation, you might say, well, I don't fully understand that. But I believe it. I believe it. And God will give you faith to ultimately understand it. The servants, men, were ordained to condemnation before the foundation of the world. They were ordained to it. They were written to it. They were appointed to it. So that don't seem right. It don't matter. It's what God's word says. And that's what faith lays hold of and believes. God gives his men the gospel of Jesus Christ. The singular means of revealing the common salvation Glorifying God is the preaching of the gospel in this day. It is the gospel that Paul declared that the penalty for preaching it was anathema or not preaching it was anathema or anathema.

Look over Galatians chapter 1. The Galatian church was experiencing the same thing that Jude was talking about. These people creeping in, spying out the liberty of those in Galatia. And Paul says this in verse eight, but though we are an angel from heaven. Well, that'd be pretty impressive, wouldn't it? If an angel from heaven came down here and preached any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let it be accursed. As we said before, so I say again, If any man preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed. Anathema Maranatha. The curse of the Lord comes.

This common gospel was Paul spoke of when he said necessity is laid upon me. Woe is me if I preach not the gospel. Judgment without mercy shall come on me if I preach not the gospel. You see, the gospel is the power of God unto salvation according to Romans chapter 1 and verse 16. The power of God unto salvation to everyone that believes. To the Jew first, the religious, and to the Greek, the intellectual. For therein, in that gospel, and only in that gospel, is the righteousness of God revealed. from faith to faith, but that just shall live by faith." That's what's written four times in the Word of God.

It is reasonable to say, then, that since the Gospel gives all glory to God for the salvation of sinners, that any attack upon it would be in the area of His glory and His deity, and that's where it's always at. So no matter the assault, it's design is to diminish the person and the work of Jesus Christ and give glory to someone else. And that someone else is a man or a woman. So no matter the assault, it's designed to diminish that work.

The believer is to contend here. to contend here, not in the arena of social issues, or particular sins, or church doctrine, or religious heritage, or traditional things of the last days, but the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. We are to contend for the faith once delivered to the saints. This word contend does not mean to debate. I know a lot of people like to debate the scripture. I've never liked that kind of thinking because it makes the scriptures debatable. And if you're smarter than the next guy, even though you may be a believer and he may be lost, he's going to win the debate. People are going to think he's right and you're wrong.

So this contend doesn't mean to debate or to argue apologetics, that is theological arguments, theological philosophy. It means this. This contend means to declare Or actually, it means that you do not move, it means to stand. In Ephesians chapter 6 and verse 13. It says, Wherefore, take I thee the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to withstand the evil day, and having done all, to stand. That's what this word contend means. It means that you do not move, no matter what comes at you. It means that you dance with the one that brought you. This does not carry with it the notion that you might convince someone by a superior argument, because I'm here to tell you, having spoke to a number of people over many years, I'm not convinced of so. I'm not convinced of so, and it means to stand. where the Lord planted you with confidence of understanding that you know the truth and you will not be moved from it.

Contending denotes a conflict or a combat or a fight. The contention is those who deny or disown or disallow or diminish the persons and the tribe you've got in, in any way. If a person ever presents God or the Lord Jesus Christ for his spirit, That's when you contend. That's when you contend.

The battle is for those who seek to interject power, the power of human nature or the human will in spiritual matters. And the human will is not in spiritual matters. It can't get there. It has no point of entry. The contending is made with deniers of sovereign, efficacious, and preserving grace. For it says here clearly that we are saved because we are sanctified by the Father, we are preserved in Jesus Christ, and we know we are called by the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ.

The persons who are contending are all the saints in whatever age they live, to whom the faith is delivered. They contend by standing fast in one spirit and with one accord, and if necessary, by dying for it, if declaring it comes to that end. Many have. Many have.

The manner of the contention, it is to be done earnestly. Faithfully, zealously, continually. Does that mean you go around bothering people? No. You don't even have to do that unless somebody brings up something else. And you don't have to give them a theological argument. You can say simply this. My salvation is Christ alone. Nothing else. Nothing else.

When he talks about the faith, he's not referring to your faith, your faith. That's the gift of God that comes through the preaching of the gospel. So faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. But how shall they call on Him in whom they not believe? And how shall they believe in whom they not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach except to be sent? So faith comes by hearing. And hearing by the Word of God.

You believe after. After, not before. After you heard the Word of Truth. And the Word of Truth was simply this. When you heard the Word of Truth, I'm not talking about hearing my voice. I'm talking about hearing this Word. This Word, what God said.

After you heard the word of truth, what did you hear? Did you hear that if you did something, you'd be saved? Did you hear if you walked down an aisle, you'd be saved? Did you hear if you prayed the sinner's prayer, you'd be saved? Did you hear if you confessed before men, you'd be saved? What did you hear when you heard the word of truth? Scripture says this. the good news. When you heard the word of truth, it came as good news. The gospel of your personal possessive pronoun. You mean it's mine? It was always yours. You just didn't know it.

But after you heard the word of truth, you found out that it was yours. So you don't say, I've got to do something. You say, what God has wrought, what God has done for me. This is mine, it's always been yours. I'm just informing you of it. That's what the Holy Spirit does to the preacher of the gospel. The good news, the gospel of your salvation. When you hear the gospel, the word of truth, as a child of God, as a one of the elect, as one who's chosen before the foundation of the world, when the word of God comes home to you, what you're gonna hear is God's faith. God saved me. You don't believe it because God has given you faith. But you can contend for your faith, your faith, the faith that God has given you, until you believe. But try as you might, you'll never be able to prove you have faith. You'll just know it if you have it.

to try to prove faith is not only impossible, it's a matter of self-righteousness, and it's a colossal waste of energy. What the believers contend for is that which the faith that God gives believes. The faith is the gospel and the doctrines that are encompassed in that truth. The faith is referred to in the scripture as the word of faith, the faith of the gospel, the mystery of faith, most holy faith, and Godly faith. The faith envelops the entirety of truth to be believed, the teaching of the Trinity, the deity of Christ, the deity of the function of the Holy Spirit, the fallen nature of humanity, man's impotence, the sovereign grace of God toward the sons of men, of everlasting love, eternal election, the covenant of grace, particular redemption, justification by the imputed righteousness of Christ, reconciliation by His blood, regeneration by the Spirit, preservation and final perseverance, the resurrection of the dead, the future glory of the saints with Christ, substitution, satisfaction, imputation. These are things that are in the faith.

The faith. To contend for the faith is to say with Martin Luther, when he was accused after he had planted the 96 theses on the door in Pittsburgh. And he said, you got to quit doing this. You got to stop preaching this justification by faith. As a Catholic, we're justified by buying the foreskin of Simon Peter or pieces of the cross. We're justified by praying for people to give them out of purgatory. We're justified by the works that we do.

Martin Luther was a good Catholic priest, a good Catholic priest. But even Catholicism, they had this walk, and as you walked up on these steps to this place, I forget, some holy place, and the steps were covered with glass, and under the glass was this red stain that's supposedly the blood of Christ, where he carried his cross of Golgotha. And the priests had to Come along and walk up those steps, and when they come to one of those red spots, they have to bend down and kiss it, and then they go the next step. About halfway up the steps, they come to him, a verse he had read in scripture, that just shall live by faith. By faith. And he forgot it all. He started preaching that and got in trouble. They wanted to kill him. And he'd been a good priest. He'd tried to be holy. He wore a hairy, prickly robe and laid on a hard stone floor because he felt like he ought to suffer for the cause of Jesus. He took a whip and whipped himself across the back because he felt like he ought to suffer. He felt like that was holiness. And then it came to him by the grace of God that just relieved my pain. When they told him, you can't do that anymore, he said this, here I stand. I can do no other. That's what it is to contend for the thing. Here I stand. You know, if you just stop talking about it, They said in too many family meetings I went to, if you just wouldn't talk about these things, we could get along. Here I stand. I can do no other.

Scott Richardson used to say it this way. I loved old Scott. He said, well, that's all there are to it. That's all there are to it. Ten for the truth, the gospel, and the Lord Jesus Christ. That's the faith. The faith. Father bless us to understand. Pray for us.