Jude: A Message to Believers (Part 2)

Of course, it's always a joy for me to be with you as we do gather to worship the Lord through the beauty of His holiness as taught in His holy word.

! This evening marks our third lesson in the book of Jude, and we're nearly two whole verses into it. In fact, our lesson tonight is a continuation in part two of last week's lesson, which we entitled A Message to Believers.

We're going to begin, pick it up tonight in the second part of verse one and into verse two. Let us listen reverently to the reading of God's word.

To those who are called, beloved in God the Father, and kept for Jesus Christ, may mercy, peace, and love be multiplied to you.

Let's pray. Let us pray. Let us pray. Let us pray. Most Holy Father of the Lord Jesus, open our hearts to receive the message from your inerrant scriptures penned for us by the Spirit of God and preserved for us by the Spirit down to this very day.

We pray in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. We spent a considerable amount of time last week discussing the word called, which you see there in our scripture.

This is part of the Ordo Salutis, Latin for order of salvation. We said last time that there are actually two calls in the Bible.

One is the external call made largely through creation. Men and women see the beauty and the complexity, the mathematical precision of the created order, and know deep down there's a power behind that creation.

The call as defined in scripture goes by other names as well. The external call may arouse, but does not save.

But there is an internal call by which God in infinite mercy summons all who believe, and He draws them to Himself.

This call goes by other names. It is referred to as the effectual call. It is referred to as regeneration. And it is called the new birth.

We read about that in John chapter 3. More accurately, the new birth is being born from above. The Greek word anothen, born from above.

A spiritual birth that comes down from God. This is the call by which God awakens the human will and imparts spiritual life to an individual.

The type of call referenced by Jude is the internal call. And by it, once dead sinners are brought to the point of embracing the gospel by faith in the finished work of Christ on the cross.

In addition to the word call, Jude also uses two other words connected to the salvation of a soul. We already read those this evening, but these are the words beloved or loved, and the word kept.

More specifically and importantly, there are the phrases, beloved in God the Father and kept for Jesus Christ.

Now we are on firm ground if we say that God chose to save us because He loved us. There is nothing wrong with that. Say that. It's accurate. But we do have to exercise a little caution because not everyone gets saved.

Not everyone gets saved. We know that. The Bible is very clear on that. When Jesus was walking on earth and gave the gospels, when the apostles came, they talked about people in hell.

In fact, Jesus talked more about hell than He did heaven. Does He love them any less than those who are being saved? Of course, we are reminded instantly of the most famous passage in all the scriptures.

John 3.16 For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.

The salvation that God gives is based totally on His sovereign good pleasure. It is beyond human comprehension.

We can't conceive of salvation. We can't conceive of that. When people launch out and try to explain the intricacies of the why of salvation, we run into immediate trouble.

I've heard some people say, well, God saved us because He was lonely. Let me assure you, God was not lonely. If He was lonely, He could have made a dog.

Since we now own a cat, I wouldn't recommend that, but He could own a dog. And by the way, the cat is still available for adoption. And I'll throw in a few books, a few bucks and a bag of feed.

We do know that God set His redeeming love on certain individuals, and He actually does redeem them. An important part of understanding God's love and redeeming people is not His love for us, although that is true and very important.

But what we really need to focus on is the Father's love for His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. For 2,000 years now, God has eternally saved sinners, eternally secured them, and He presents them to His Son as eternal worshipers.

We will worship the Son and praise Him forever. Many folks, many members of this church are already doing that. They're already there. They've gone before us. We tend to think of the church on earth, we're the caboose of the church.

We're bringing up the rear. Most of the church is already in heaven. So when did God choose to set His love on us? Well, from our perspective, the human perspective, it was when we were still rebellious sinners.

Rebels. Paul confirms this fact in Romans 5.8. He says this, But God, and I love that. Anytime you see, but God, or anytime you see, but now, just hang out there.

Camp out. Study that. Important. But God shows His love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

We had an old member here. I loved him dearly. Lloyd Schnitzer. And Lloyd would come every Sunday to me and we'd have a word of prayer. And Lloyd was getting Alzheimer's, but he struggled.

He said, I understand Christ died for my past sins, but I'm worried about all my future sins, the sins that I committed in the future. I said, Lloyd, all of your sins were still in the future when Christ went to the cross.

They were all future. And that kind of seemed to help him until the next Sunday. And then here he came again. John saw this in his first epistle, my favorite book of the Bible, 1 John.

1 John 4.10. And this is love. Not that we have loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.

Propitiation is not a word we use a lot of. Mike, did you use it today and work? Twice. Twice. Okay, well, you have been set apart. God loved us when we were yet sinners because He sent His Son to propitiate our sins.

Now, what in the world is propitiation? Propitiation means to provide an appeasement or a satisfaction. Christ, by His sacrifice, satisfied completely the righteous wrath that God has toward us as sinners.

He also talked about this in 1 John 4.19 where He says, we love because He first loved us.

the basis of our ability to love is the fact that we're loved by the triune God, the Trinity. The word beloved in Jude comes from the familiar Greek word agapeo from which we get the English word agape.

We talk about agape love often. And there's really kind of three words there in the Bible for love. eros which is a sensual love and I'm not even sure that's in the Bible.

Phileo which is I like you a whole bunch. The city of Philadelphia is called the city of brotherly love from Phileo. Now, I've been there. It's not.

But that's what they call it. And then agape the highest form. What is agape love? Agape love is the love that says I will go to the cross and die for my children.

for my people. That's agape love. Sacrificial love. God placed His love on believers in eternity past. Paul understood this.

In Ephesians the great chapter 1 that's I believe the longest sentence by the way not in English but in Greek. In Ephesians chapter 1 verses 3 and 4 blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places even as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world.

Wow. That's a long time ago. That's where Oscar was born. I can tell you. I assume you're the oldest guy in the class now Oscar. That's a long time ago isn't it?

Before the foundation of the world is when that happened. God loved His children eons before He created the universe.

How could He do that? We weren't around. Well, He knew we were going to be around. He knew who we were. How could He do that? God determined who was going to believe and embrace His Son before the foundation of the world.

That is love. And this love for believers required that His Son would die on a cross in payment for the penalty of sin. That is love.

Because of the great love that the Father has for His children He sent the Holy Spirit to convict us of sin. to draw us to saving faith and to regenerate our blackened hardest stone sinful hearts.

He drew us. But by that same love the Lord continues to keep us secure in Him and protects us from the evil one and from the world.

God has promised us a secure future that lasts for all eternity.

Forever and ever as we measure time. And there won't be any time. I've talked about that before. We're not going to say some Tuesday we're not going to say hey, we're going to have a softball game Thursday. They're in Thursday.

Just have the game. There's no Thursday. I want to add something to this point. People can get really confused concerned even angry over the thought that God chooses those He's going to save.

But that that fact which is well established in Scripture in no way lessens the responsibility of people to come to Christ and believe.

That was the gist of Jesus' message to mostly unbelievers in John chapter 6. And He says you can't come to Me unless the Father draws you. And they looked at Him and said that's a hard saying and they left.

It says many walked with Him no more. They don't want to hear that message. And people still leave to this very day. But we are you know Spurgeon preached about the sovereignty of God the responsibility of man.

Dr. Packer who's still alive he wrote one of the greatest books I ever read evangelism and the sovereignty of God. If God is sovereign in electing who's going to be saved why evangelize?

Well Dr. Packer gives the reasons and what's reason number one? He told us to. You don't need any more reasons than that. God told us to do that. There are other reasons but that's primary.

When we try to wrap our human and our finite minds around all this we get a major headache. But don't worry it is not confusing to God.

He doesn't get a headache. It all works out beautifully in His infinite mind. Here's another passage from the pen of the Apostle John again in the first epistle.

1 John 3 1. See how great a love the Father has bestowed on us that we would be called children of God and such we are.

You're a child of God. If you're one with Christ your sins have been propitiated. I wish I understood the Greek language.

If I did I would understand that the expression used in that verse how great is actually the Greek word potapos not potatoes or potatoes potapos or potapos and means from what country.

Isn't that great? Greek is really expressive. From what country? What does that mean? It describes a divine love that is alien to humans.

It's alien to us. It comes from outside our world and our ability to comprehend. The love described here is other worldly.

This is divine love at a level that we're not fully cognizant of. God gave us this other worldly love when we were still defiant rebellious sinners before the foundation of the world.

I want to read to you a somewhat lengthy passage. It's out of John chapter 17. The great high priestly prayer of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Tremendous prayer. Prayer. The glory that you have given me. This is Jesus speaking. By the way, let me back up. This is called the inner trinitarian prayer.

This is Jesus praying to the Father and the power of the Holy Spirit. So the Trinity is there and we're the fly on the wall. We get to listen in.

This is deep talking to deep. the glory that you have given me, I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me.

Father, I desire that they also whom you have given me may be with me where I am to see my glory. Come Lord Jesus, to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world.

Oh righteous Father, even though the world does not know you, I know you and these know that you have sent me. I made know to them your name.

I will continue to make it known that the love with which you have loved me may be in them and I in them.

The great high priestly prayer. The Lord Jesus prayed this prayer, and that's the whole chapter of John 17, this is just a part of it. He prayed this prayer just hours before the cross.

And he knew what was coming, didn't he? He's the omnipotent God, of course he knew, in minute detail. And he prayed this prayer. Go back into the Old Testament.

Remember that? Remember reading Leviticus? He said, I don't know if I can get past this. Remember how the high priest of Israel would enter into the Holy of Holies once a year on the Day of Atonement and there he would intercede for the people of the nation in an elaborate, holy, and serious ceremony.

How serious it was, if the high priest did something wrong, God would strike him dead. No one could go in after him. So they tied the rope around him and reeled him out like a fish.

because anyone that went in there would die. Jesus is our perfect and eternal high priest with a capital H capital P.

And he's done something amazing in John 17. He's a few hours from the cross. But he has entered into his intercessory ministry.

He started interceding for his people, his children. That intercessory ministry continues to this very hour.

If you ever wake up at three o'clock in the morning and say, I wonder what Jesus is doing, I can tell you. He's interceding for believers.

He's interceding for us. He's for his children. Listen to the author of Hebrews. Hebrews 7 25. He is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God and through him since he always lives to make intercession for them.

The Lord Jesus lives. He lives eternally to make intercession for us. I think we understand that we did nothing to gain the affection of God.

If we're dependent on that, I'm in deep trouble. Deep trouble. He never looked down at anyone and said, look how righteous that person is. I've got to save him.

I've got to save her. Far from gaining affection, we invited the wrath of God to rest upon us for eternity.

eternity. How many sins does it take to be separated from God? Just one? Yet the scriptures tell us that the Father loves us and redeems us with that same love he has for his one and only Son.

That is love that is complete, infinite, eternal, and secure. Remember, when God the Father sees believers, true believers, he sees his Son in them.

And he sees them in his Son. And the Father treats us just as he treats his own Son.

That's major. Remember that little saying we used to do all the time? He treats us now just as if we've never sinned. It's more than that. He treats us now just as if we're his Son Jesus.

That's how he treats those that are in Christ. He loves us so much, he says we cannot be separated from that love. Great passage in Romans, most of you've memorized it, Romans 8, 38, and 39, for I am convinced, Paul speaking, by the Spirit of God, for I'm convinced, your version may be persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, 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.

I have a great time with my really close personal friends that are at First Wesleyan, because we're on the VOM board together, and during breaks we'll discuss that passage, and I narrow it down to three things in that passage.

What can separate us from the love of God that's in Christ? Three things. Nothing in life can separate us, nothing in death can separate us, nothing in all creation can separate us.

What else is there? What else is there? As we used to say, we can take that to the bank. And then he uses this word kept, another real strong word speaking of our security in Christ Jesus.

It is from a Greek word meaning to keep under guard and maintain. the English Standard Version renders this word as kept for Jesus Christ.

A strong case can be made, the phrase should be rendered kept by Jesus Christ. I like that. This is consistent with the very words of Jesus in the great tenth chapter of John's gospel.

Verses 27 to 29. My sheep hear my voice and I know them and they follow me.

I give them eternal life and they will never perish and no one will snatch them out of my hand. My father who has given them to me is greater than all and no one is able to snatch them out of the father's hand.

Talked to a dear friend of mine one time and read that and he said, well, maybe you could jump out. I said, Jesus has you in there and the father's got his hands around Jesus' hands.

You're not going to jump out. God, the Lord Jesus has promised to keep his own secure for all eternity. And I've heard people say, you know, if I could just get to heaven and close it or I'll be okay.

No. That doesn't secure you. Lucifer and a third of the angels, perhaps as many as billions, fell from heaven. Security is not in a place.

It's in a person. Jesus Christ. And the Lord has promised to keep his own secure for eternity. That guarantee is based upon his finished work upon the cross of Calvary.

If you're going to be lost, the father's got to reject the cross. And as we say in the northern part of Washington, that ain't going to happen. Ain't going to happen. The finished work encompasses the death, burial, resurrection, ascension, coronation, and intercession of the Lord.

It is all one interrelated work of the Trinity. It is through the Lord's once for all sacrifice that he can extend to his own the forgiveness of sins, eternal life, and the hope of future glory granted to his followers.

what the Lord Jesus secured at the cross, the Father now protects through his great and infinite power. There is no power, no person greater than the three persons of the Godhead.

The one true God and Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. There is no force that can cause God to loosen his grip upon his own.

I remember when Dr. Swindoll wrote a book entitled Being in the Grip of Grace, and it's a strong grip. True believers are in omnipotent hands.

This is very important for Jude to convey to his readers. He has done so down through the years, including our generation.

Well, you might say, isn't Jude dead? Well, he's in heaven, but his book is still with us. And this is the message that's been conveyed down through the generations.

Why is that important? We are in the midst, in our day right now, of a tremendous war on truth.

It's a tremendous war. On the other side in this war are the satanically inspired false teachers. And false teachers have plagued the church for 2,000 years.

And there's no let up in sight. There are more false teachers on earth today than at any time in our planet's history. And dare I say, and I do so sadly, most of them are in the west, particularly the United States.

And as you know, I've traveled extensively in the world, 46 countries, unless you count Louisiana 47. It's dark. It's dark.

You know where it's darkest? Western Europe and America. You know where those light? The persecuted countries. Isn't that amazing? You'd think the opposite. So Jude is telling us it's going to get progressively worse, especially as we near the return of Christ.

Christ. Because Satan, he knows pretty much a timeline here. He didn't know when Jesus was coming back. But he can see the signs as we should be able to.

But be of good cheer. Believers are kept by the triune God. At the end of verse 2, Jude has some very interesting words. May mercy and peace and love be multiplied to you.

ours is a rich salvation filled with blessings. Two of those blessings are mercy and peace.

In fact, that was a common greeting among the Jews in that day. They didn't walk up and say, how you doing? They walked up and said, mercy and peace. I think I better go to that.

I kind of like that. They would say, may you find mercy and peace. And Jude adds this word, love. And I found something interesting. This is the only place in the New Testament with a threefold blessing of mercy, peace, and love.

You won't find those three words strung together anywhere else. Unless there's a mistranslation. Jude then asked that these three blessings be multiplied. Very interesting concept.

He says, I want these to be multiplied. That is a call for these blessings to increase to the fullest possible extent.

In spite of the spiritual battle that has come upon them and which remains to this very day, Jude asked that blessings be multiplied on every believer.

one of the sources, and I have several, that I've used in this study of Jude is the New Testament commentary written by Dr. Simon Kistemacher.

In English it's Kistemacher, but I think he's from the Netherlands. I think it's Kistemacher. He was a New Testament scholar. He served as professor of New Testament at the Reformed Theological Seminary and died in 2017.

The New Testament commentary, which I own, was originally begun by Dr. William Hendrickson. He was the mentor to Dr.

Kistemacher. Unfortunately, in the middle of writing his commentary, Dr. Hendrickson died. And when that happened, Dr. Kistemacher completed the task of authorship.

And in the commentary on Jude, which Dr. Kistemacher wrote, he makes this observation. The Holy Spirit in Jude verse 2 asks that mercy, peace, and love be multiplied.

The concept of multiplication is quite interesting. And now, you can see up here on the board, I'm using an example. Mr. Lee's already corrected some of my math. He may have to do some more. Over on this side, we obviously have addition.

I was real proud of myself. I learned math and took me 19 years in school until I got out of the fourth grade.

Real simple, 2 plus 2 is 4, 4 plus 4 is 8, 8 plus 8 is 16, 16 is 16, 32, 32, 32 is 64. Obviously, that's addition.

But let's look at it through the eyes of multiplication. because he's asking that these blessings be multiplied. This is the power of multiplication. Simply adding those numbers, we come up with 64, don't we?

But by multiplying those numbers, they turn into something rather interesting. You got 2 times 2 is 4, 4, 4, 4, 16, 16, 16 is 256, 256 times 256, 65,536.

Well, I did five levels here. Let's do five levels here. 65,003, whoop, 536 times 65,536 equals do you see that?

4, billion 294,967,296. That's multiplication.

That's the power of multiplication. That's amazing. That's the power we're talking about here, multiplied. what? Let's close tonight by listening to Dr.

Kistemacher. These multiplied numbers, I'm quoting, these multiplied numbers are actually mind-boggling.

In the same way, when God applies the principle of multiplication to His gifts of mercy, peace, and love, we're unable to comprehend the results.

God does not expect us to understand this truth in mathematical terms. Instead, He wants us to pray. Did you hear that word?

He wants every believer in this room to pray that mercy, peace, and love be multiplied to us. That's the power of multiplication that we're talking about here tonight.