Beloved and Kept

[0:00] Last Monday night we had a great lesson.

[0:18] Boy, that's... Then on my next sentence, it was not great based on the fact that I taught it.! That had nothing to do with it. In fact, we had to overdo it. In fact, we had to overcome my limitations even to try and convey the truth of the message.

[0:36] It was not even made great because many of you wonderful guys were here. It was made great because so many of us were being exposed to the truth provided to us by a slave of Christ through the power and presence of the Spirit of God.

[1:00] And in that lesson, we strove to identify the audience of this tremendous 25-verse book that is packed with truth.

[1:17] And we found out in that lesson that this book was written to those who are the called.

[1:29] But it didn't stop there. In fact, we picked up at this point and discovered not only is the audience of this book the called, but also the loved or the beloved.

[1:48] Either way. Beloved in God the Father. Jude, first verse. C, they call it. That would be the third part of the first verse.

[2:01] Those five words, beloved in God the Father, are packed with truth. Why did God choose to save believers?

[2:13] Well, in my mind, that takes us back to the Garden of Eden. Adam and Eve had so much going for them.

[2:27] They enjoyed titanic freedoms in the presence of the Lord Christ. In an amazing pre-incarnate appearance of Jesus.

[2:41] And the Bible refers to those as a theophany or a Christophany. We even see the Lord walking in the garden with Adam in the cool of the evening.

[2:59] That would be a nice walk to take. We know from a reading of Genesis 3, Adam and Eve failed.

[3:16] They chose the path of sin and plunged the human race into the sin of disobedience.

[3:26] Every now and then, the evil half of my brain says, why didn't God just start over?

[3:39] No one would have known. Just start over. Well, He didn't want to start over for His purposes. The only reason I can think of is that because God found in the Trinity, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit loved them and chose to save them.

[4:05] God did so because of His good, sovereign pleasure. beyond that, I don't think we can find as finite fallen human beings the reasons.

[4:23] It is beyond our comprehension. I was driven to a wonderful passage of Scripture in Romans chapter 9, Paul writing, of course, verses 10-13.

[4:46] But there was Rebekah. I have my number two granddaughter's name, Rebekah. But there was Rebekah also when she had conceived twins by one man, our father Isaac.

[5:05] For though the twins were not yet born, and had not done anything good or bad, so that the purpose of God, according to His choice, would stand.

[5:25] Not because of works, but because of Him who calls. Rebekah. And it was said to her, that's Rebekah, the older shall serve the younger.

[5:43] that was sort of unheard of in that culture, but that's what the Bible says. And then it said, just as it is written, and this is God talking, Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.

[6:02] And I'll tell you, I don't know if you've ever done this, but I've studied that and read commentaries on it and all that.

[6:14] There are theologians that turn backflips trying to explain that away. And they all fall short. All of them.

[6:27] Every one of them falls short. The best description I heard of explaining that passage one time was an old pastor many, many, many years ago, long gone.

[6:43] And he said, what that passage means is God loved Jacob and he hated Esau. I mean, I've heard the liberal branch of whatever the branch of say, well, God so loved Jacob that it made it appear that he hated Esau.

[7:05] Well, I don't think God has to appear for anything. I think He's capable of saying what He means and meaning what He says. And then 1 Corinthians 1 verse 26-29 For consider your calling, brothers, that there were not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble.

[7:42] but God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise and God has chosen the weak things of the world to shame the things which are strong and the base things of the world and the despised God has chosen.

[8:08] the things that are not so that He may abolish the things that are so that no flesh may boast before God.

[8:25] Pretty amazing. there was another slave of Jesus Christ and this is very instructive. It's found in the book of James chapter 2 verse 5.

[8:42] Listen, my beloved brothers, did not God choose the poor of this world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom which He promised to those who love Him.

[9:05] Now the truth contained in particularly this last verse I read are imponderable. Meaning almost beyond our comprehension.

[9:17] try to explain that truth. God purposed to set His love on certain sinners and redeem them.

[9:36] Even when we were rebels God chose us to be His children and the eternal beneficiaries of Christ's death.

[9:49] And that is exactly what Paul meant in the book of Romans chapter 5 verse 8. But God anytime you can see that word but God just pause and really reflect on that.

[10:06] But God demonstrates His own love toward us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us.

[10:22] Here we were sinners and Christ died for us according to Paul Romans 5 8. What should we do with this term beloved?

[10:35] It comes from a very popular Greek word agapeo and let me begin by saying this I don't know anything about the Greek language other than that it was the language used to write the New Testament that I know and it's very expressive and I think that's why God chose.

[11:08] Hebrew is expressive Greek is expressive even Aramaic and there's 269 verses in Aramaic is expressive. I don't know anything about the language used to write the New Testament but I do review resources to receive a grasp of what is being said in that language of the New Testament.

[11:38] For instance I learned that in Jude the present tense is being used. I barely know what the present tense is in English but here I am the Lord chose to use the present tense.

[11:57] That means that God placed His love on believers in eternity past but the love continues into the present and beyond in a never ending future.

[12:22] That's what it means and that's why it's important if we could know. I don't know if we're going to learn Greek in heaven or not. There's something really amazing though in all of this.

[12:33] The Father determined before the foundation of the world who would believe.

[12:48] The love that the Father had and still has required that the Father give His Son to die on the cross in their place.

[13:05] By doing so the Lord Jesus paid the debt of sin that every believer owes. We all have a debt of sin. the love that never ends causes the Father to send the Holy Spirit to convict everyone chosen for eternal life as to their sinfulness draw them to saving faith and regenerate their sinful hearts.

[13:39] And all that's done by love. And that love continues to secure us and to protect us from the evil one.

[13:54] The promise that the Father gave was a relationship with the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost that lasts for eternity.

[14:09] And probably the greatest description of the kind of love that the Father has for His children can be found in that very wonderful high priestly prayer.

[14:28] I read that often. I read it all the time. John 17, chapter 17, the whole chapter. The glory which You have given Me, I have given to them, that they may be one, just as we are one, I in them, and you in Me, that they may be perfected in unity, so that the world may know, You sent Me, and loved them even as You've loved Me.

[15:17] Father, I desire that they also whom You have given Me be with Me where I am, so that they may see My glory which You've given Me, for You loved Me before the foundation of the world.

[15:41] Oh, Righteous Father, although the world has not known You, yet I have known You, and these have known You, and they know that You sent Me, and I've made Your name known to them, and I will make it known, so that the love with which You loved Me may be in them, and I in them.

[16:14] And I feel compelled to add these words that were spoken by the Lord Jesus in the High Priestly Prayer. John 17, verse 20 and 21, I do not ask on behalf of these alone, but for those also who believe in Me through their word, that they may all be one, even as You, Father, are in Me, and I'm in You, that they also be in Us, so that the world may believe that You sent Me.

[17:09] Jesus gave the High Priestly Prayer to His followers, many of whom would become the authors of the New Testament.

[17:24] They're the ones who believe the gospel through their word. They wrote the New Testament. So every believer has been saved before the foundation of the world.

[17:42] It's an amazing concept. Before there was an earth or stars or quasars or anything else, what can separate us from so great and endless salvation as that?

[18:02] Well, Paul strives to answer that in Romans 8. I think my favorite chapter in all the Bible. Verses 38 and 39. Verse For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

[18:50] For years I've looked at that, and I've looked at that list, and we can sum that up in three sentences.

[19:04] Nothing in life can separate us from the love of God. Nothing in death can separate us us from the love of God.

[19:21] Nothing in all creation can separate us. And then you have to ask the question, what else is there?

[19:32] Nothing in death, nothing in life, nothing in creation. So we come to another word, and it's the word kept.

[19:48] In Jude verse 1 D, the fourth part of that verse, the scriptures say this, and kept for Jesus Christ.

[20:04] We're among the kept. And what does this mean? It means that Jesus has promised to keep all believers secure for all eternity.

[20:22] And that could only be brought to pass by the atoning death of Christ on the cross. By his death, death, we receive from him forgiveness of sins, eternal life with the triune God, and we have the settled hope of glorification granted to his followers.

[20:57] believers. There is security in the cross. We studied this in 1 Peter chapter 1 verse 3 to 5.

[21:11] I'll read it anyway. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to his great mercy has caused us to be born again in a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to obtain an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and unfading having been kept in heaven for you who are protected by the power of God through faith, for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.

[22:01] So let me ask a question and no one needs to yell out an answer. What is the greatest power in the universe? Of course we know the answer.

[22:14] It's El Shaddai, the almighty God. Nothing more powerful, nothing greater than almighty God. No one else and nothing else comes even close.

[22:31] No one can break his grip of love on us and I want to stress no one and with that being true, believers can rest in him.

[22:51] We are being kept safe in the strength of his mighty hands. Probably the majority of the church across denominational lines believe in the concept that we can somehow lose our salvation even after it has been applied to us through the indwelling power of the Holy Spirit.

[23:27] Jude, of course, puts that lie to rest. If we would but listen to him, he says believers are being kept for Jesus Christ.

[23:41] I love the concept that we're kept for Jesus. Some biblical language experts make the case and strongly that we are kept by Jesus Christ.

[23:57] I like both ideas, kept for and kept by, because to me they fit hand in glove. So we see three tremendous truths.

[24:10] we are the called, we are the beloved or loved, and this love flows from God the Father, and we are then kept by and for the Lord Jesus Christ.

[24:28] Now Jude inserts these tremendous words, and he says this in verse 2, may mercy mercy and peace and love be multiplied to you.

[24:46] And these three words are a wonderful expression flowing from the Godhead. people and the great irony is, as important as these words are, that it is only here that these three words occur in the New Testament.

[25:06] they don't show up anywhere else together. And then the Holy Spirit adds this word to be multiplied.

[25:18] And the Greek word used there, multiplied, is plethuno. I have no idea if I did that correctly. But in the Greek language it means to be multiplied to the fullest possible measure.

[25:34] The very fullest possible measure. it has to be multiplied so as to address the fact that believers are in difficult and constant spiritual battles.

[25:52] We are engaged in intense spiritual warfare and God supplies to us mercy and abundance. When we sin, and we must admit we do sin, we need an outpouring of mercy.

[26:12] That is the kind of mercy the Lord provides. God provides that mercy in an abundance. And then it says that God also provides peace to believers.

[26:29] He multiplies our peace. Well, what kind of peace do we enjoy? For one thing, the peace of knowing that our sins have been forgiven.

[26:45] An amazing concept. Every one of our sins has been forgiven. There are no maverick sins roaming around hoping to attach themselves to us.

[27:03] the Lord dealt with them. They've been dealt with. And God provides that mercy in abundance.

[27:19] God also provides peace to believers. In fact, He multiplies our peace. peace. Well, what kind of peace do we enjoy?

[27:31] Well, for one thing, the peace of knowing that our sins are forgiven. Dr.

[27:42] Sproul said there's no maverick sins that are roaming around. And in John's gospel, the Lord Jesus said this, peace I leave with you.

[28:05] My peace I give to you. Not as the world gives, do I give to you. Do not let your heart be troubled, nor let it be fearful.

[28:21] Don't be afraid. And God blesses all this richly with an outpouring of love.

[28:34] It reminds me of the greatest chapter in the Bible on love. 1 Corinthians chapter 13. You remember that chapter.

[28:46] It closes with these marvelous words. But now abides faith, hope, and love.

[29:00] These three. But the greatest of these is love. head and shoulders above everything else.

[29:16] Let's close with a word of prayer. Thank you Father for the grace and the mercy, the abundant peace. Oh, that we are the called and beloved by God the Father.

[29:33] Lord. An amazing concept, Lord. And here we have this little book of Jude living in the shadows of one of the most complex books in all the Bible.

[29:48] The book of Revelation. Revelation. But there's so much we can learn. Lord, be with us in days ahead until we complete this study.

[30:01] We ask this in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen.