Time that is Sanctified

Jude 20-21 ESV

20 But you, beloved, building yourselves up in your most holy faith and praying in the Holy Spirit, 21 keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ that leads to eternal life.

In the Gospel of John, John, the author of that particular gospel provides us with a measure of insight during a particular scene that no other gospel provides us with. That particular scene which I speak of is what we call, the Upper Room Discourse.

This discourse took place on the very evening when Jesus was betrayed and arrested. Now, the Lord Jesus being God Himself was well aware of what was to take place that evening and thus nothing which came to pass came as a surprise to Him.

Knowing what was soon to take place, the Lord Jesus took this opportunity to teach His apostles some of the most foundational truths of the Christian faith. He also took this opportunity to warn His apostles of what was soon to take place and to give them encouragement in spite of what was to come.

As Jesus came near to the end of this discourse, right before He gave what we call His High Priestly Prayer in chapter 17, Jesus spoke to His apostles concerning the sobering reality of the persecutions that they would face as a result of their allegiance to Him.

And after speaking to them of these sobering realities, He left them with confidence and comfort when He spoke the words found in the Gospel of John, chapter 16, verse 33, when He said:

John 16:33 ESV

33 I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.”

In the world, Jesus says; in the world as it is and as it will be until the day when the Lord Jesus returns, you, the faithful Christian will have, not may potentially have, but will undoubtedlyhave tribulation.

This reminds us of what Jude has been saying all throughout his epistle concerning false teachers in the church, followers of those false teachers, and the reprobate in general. Because of the presence of this evil, the believer will experience tribulation.

Tribulation is best defined as: “a state of great trouble or suffering”. And this is what Jesus promises to believers as they dwell in the world as it is.

But Jesus followed that very real, very sobering statement with one that is infinitely greater and reassuring to the believer when He says, “But take heart; I have overcome the world”.

“Take heart!” or “Be of good cheer!” As the King James Version tells us. Good cheer? Jesus, Who cannot lie, just told us that we will experience tribulation, and His command is to be of good cheer in the midst of this tribulation.

Why? Because though the world constantly assails the children of God, Christ our Surety has overcome the prince of this world by His blood and through His resurrection, therefore, the world may assail us so, but our ultimate victory remains secure in Jesus!

Now, this is undoubtedly a truth that comforts the child of God in ways that nothing else can comfort him. And because we know this truth, we are faithful to hold to that truth and build upon the foundation that God has graciously laid for us.

As we continue our series of sermons from the epistle of Jude this morning, we are going to be looking at the command for we as believers to continue to build upon the foundation that God has laid for us in spite of the troubles that we face in this world as we continue to look to and wait for the appearing of our Savior.

Now, it is interesting how what we read last week and what we read this morning have a meaning that is practically parallel to what the Lord Jesus had spoken in John 16:33.

In our reading from last week, we saw how Jude told those believers whom he wrote to, to remember that these things which take place in the world, these acts of rebellion against God are to be expected because they have been foretold by the apostles of Christ, Who were inspired by God. Therefore, they should not in any way be surprised that these things are taking place.

And now, this week, Jude tells us what we as believers are to do in this world in spite of the evil that surrounds us and continues to remain prevalent among us. Indeed, you might say that in our reading for today, Jude tells us how we can apply the command of Jesus to “take heart” in John 16:33.

We see, first of all in our reading, the contrast that Jude brings when shifting from speaking of the reprobate to speaking of how the elect are to live in this world, when the very beginning of verse 20, simply says:

John 20a ESV

20a But you, beloved,

Like we’ve been saying, Jude has for some time been speaking of the reality of the reprobate and the eternal punishment that they will receive, but now he says, “But you”. It’s as though Jude is saying, “the wicked will remain wicked so long as the world remains as it is, so enough of them, let’s talk about what you need to do in spite of their presence”.

And notice how Jude addresses believers; he says that they are “beloved”. Thus, we again see the extremely sharp contrast between the elect and the reprobate. The reprobate have been justly given over to their sin, but the elect are beloved by God.

And now, having addressed that, he switches his focus to that which the elect are to do in spite of the evil and the tribulations that abound. And in order to take in what Jude says here, we are going to briefly jump ahead in our reading to the first part of verse 21, before going back to the last part of verse 20.

In the first part of verse 21, Jude tells us as the elect people of God, to:

Jude 21a ESV

21a keep yourselves in the love of God,

So, in this makeshift wording of the verses that I have put together, we see Jude saying to us as the people of God, “But you, beloved, keep yourselves in the love of God”.

And I’m not changing what the scriptures say here, so don’t tar and feather me. The changing around here just helps us make better sense of what is being conveyed to us.

So, Jude calls us those who are beloved of God. And here he tells us to keep ourselves in that love of God. And as we connect this to everything that Jude has said in this epistle, comparing it with everything that has been said concerning the reprobate and the false gospel that the false teachers promote, we can know that this command to “keep yourselves in the love of God” is in reference to maintaining our alliance with the orthodox faith and with the God of the orthodox faith.

And so, we know that keeping ourselves in the love of God is accomplished through maintaining our alliance to the orthodox faith. But how do we do that?

For the answer to that question, we look back to the latter part of verse 20, where we see Jude say:

Jude 20b ESV

20b building yourselves up in your most holy faith and praying in the Holy Spirit,

Jude tells us to “build ourselves up” in our most holy faith. To build something up refers to adding on to something that is already existing. That thing which Jude refers to as already existing that he commands us to build upon is in reference to the salvation given to us through Christ Jesus.

Christ Jesus is the Foundation and the Corner Stone of our faith. It is He Who causes our faith to stand, and this Foundation is never-changing, unmovable.

But true children of God do not let this Foundation sit idle; no, true children of God build upon their Foundation. In saying this, I of course, am not suggesting that the Christian adds to his or her salvation, as though they become “more saved”, not at all, but rather, in being sanctified and set apart by God for God’s purposes, and coming to truly love the One Who died for you more and more, it then manifests itself in outward evidences of growing in sanctification.

God maintains us in the faith. It is by His power that we are who we are and that we remain who we are. And most commonly, the means through which God maintains the believer are what we call the ordinary means of grace.

And we call these means of grace “ordinary” means, because they seem to be just that, ordinary. But the reality is that through these means, God works something extraordinary in us.

We come to church, we worship, we pray, we read the Bible, we meditate on the greatness of God, and through those means, which seem to be quite ordinary, God extraordinarily not only maintains our salvation and our relation to Him, but He even causes us to grow in our salvation, in our relation to Him.

And one of the chief ways through which God causes this to happen, is through what is described here as “praying in the Holy Spirit”.

Now, though many may have said this before, praying in the Holy Spirit is not in reference to anything that we do. It’s not in reference to some kind of charismatic tongue speaking, or some kind of secret prayer language.

No, what it is in reference to is God the Holy Spirit praying for us, on our behalf. Paul the apostle tells us that because of our natural weakness, we don’t know what we should ask for in prayer, and therefore, God the Holy Spirit prays for us. For those who are believers.

And what this means is that when we as believers pray, God the Holy Spirit is always sure to ask God the Father for us and on our behalf those things which are most beneficial to us, indeed, those things which, as Jude has mentioned in our reading; keep us in the love of God, as He is faithful to ask God the Father for us, on our behalf, to cause us to do those things which contribute to our sanctification.

And we do this with our sights set on a particular end, a most holy conclusion which opens its gates to everlasting bliss, which Jude speaks of at the end of our reading in the latter half of verse 21, where he says that we are to keep ourselves in the love of God by building ourselves up in the most holy faith, while:

Jude 21b ESV

21b waiting for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ that leads to eternal life.

Jude says that we grow in sanctification, that we continue to devote more and more of ourselves to the One Who purchased us and died for us, and we do this consistently throughout our pilgrimage in the world as it currently is.

I have known some extremely pious men and women throughout my life, people who truly seem to embody what Christianity is, but even they haven’t arrived yet. Even they have much work to do.

We are to be working, growing in sanctification as we exist as we do in this world as it is; therefore, let us work. Let us work as we expectantly and eagerly look forward to the day when the Lord Jesus returns and shows mercy to us, His elect people.

Jude speaks of the return of the Lord Jesus as mercy because mercifully, Christ does not give us the punishment that our sins deserve. Mercy, because Christ has borne the punishment of the sins of His elect people upon the cross. And mercy, because it is the forerunner to grace, which leads to eternal life.

Indeed, beloved brethren, let us work, let us grow in sanctification, let us grow in the love of Christ while we have time to do so!

Amen?