God's Distinctive People
Notes
Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
Tonight, I want to begin a new Bible study series on the book of Jude…Lord willing, we’ll go through this little book over the next several Wednesday evenings…
Jude is the third shortest book in the New Testament.
The main theme of Jude apostasy! In short an apostate is a counterfeit Christian.
Apostasy literally means “a turning away from or a falling away from.” An apostate is a person who professes salvation, but does not possess salvation. An apostate is a person that has never been saved.
Apostasy began all the way back in the days of Adam...Cain, founded the world’s first false religion and cultivated the world’s first decadent society. God declared him to be a fugitive and a vagabond. The corruption of the human race proceeded rapidly until God decreed the judgment of the Flood to be the only possible answer.
After the Flood, the same kind of thing began all over again. This time, the leader was Nimrod, a man whose name means “the rebel.”
Nimrod’s vision was global.
He envisioned himself heading a one-world sovereignty symbolized by a city;
a one-world sanctuary reaching to the sky;
and a one-world society spurred on by a common language.
This new organization would be driven by a revolutionary new religious concept—idolatry, the worship of graven images.
God put a speedy end to this, the world’s first attempt to build a global society that excluded God. He simply confounded their speech, causing people to be instant aliens, speaking a multitude of foreign tongues, and hostile toward each other.
This has never stopped by the way…I don’t have the time to explain all tonight, which is why this is a series, but today, we still have this going on and it’s being done through new age churches.
The devil has attacked the church of Jesus Christ from the outset. He attacks the church from without and from within.
The devil attacks the church by the perversion of the faith. He will implant imposters in the church that will chip away and lead astray unsuspecting people. If Satan cannot defeat the church with persecution he will defile the church with perversion. If he cannot control the church by force he will corrupt the church’s faith.
Talk about the prayer rug you received yesterday - Had a sealed word of prophecy for me - One person had prayed and received $47,000 the next day! Send in prayer and received a blessed angel coin...
The devil is certainly having a field day today attacking the truth with a lie!
Apostasy is running rampant, so I want to work through the book of Jude concerning this very important subject…Tonight will be more of an introduction than anything, but let’s look first in these verses at:
The Servant
The Servant
Jude 1 (KJV 1900)
1 Jude, the servant of Jesus Christ,
The word “servant” here means bond slave or bond servant...
A bond servant is one that had been freed from slavery, but out of love and loyalty for his master he voluntarily subjects himself to lifelong servitude to his master. To identify that he was a bond slave the servant would have his ear bored through with an awl against the door of his master’s house (Deut. 15:17).
Jude tells us right off the bat that he is one that has been freed from the slavery of sin and he has voluntarily subjected himself for life to his Master, the Lord Jesus Christ.
Jude was a bondservant of Jesus! Are you? Whose slave are you? Who do you serve with all your heart?
What a tremendous picture of a sinner!
We owed a debt that we could not pay and He paid a debt that He did not owe!
Thank God when I couldn’t help myself, I was worthless and undone, He loved me, and purchased me! I am a servant of Jesus tonight!
Jude didn’t need the fan-fare or the praise of men. He was a bondservant of Jesus. For a servant all that matters is that Jesus Christ is honored and glorified.
19 What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?
20 For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s.
A servant’s main goal is to please their master...
I want you to notice also before we move on that:
Jude declared his allegiance to the Lord Jesus Christ. Jude lets his readers know that he is also the brother of James.
James was the spiritual leader in the church at Jerusalem and was well known to the saints at home and abroad.
Jude doesn’t brag on his position as the half-brother of Jesus, but he does let his readers know that he is the brother of James. The readers would have been able to identify Jude in this regard.
He’s saying, in essence, “I am the brother of James. I am not some flip-flop, fly by night, money hungry; wolf in sheep’s clothing preacher.”
Next, let’s notice:
The Sanctified
The Sanctified
Jude 1 (KJV 1900)
1 ...to them that are sanctified by God the Father...
We have been set apart for service!
We have separated from evil!
The formal definition of the word Sanctified is to make holy, i.e. (ceremony) purify or consecrate; (mentally) to venerate: hallow, be holy, sanctify.
This word means “to be set apart.”
We are God’s distinctive people saved by His power, sealed with His Spirit, and set apart for His purposes.
True Christian’s have been born again and cleansed from all sin.
True Christians will long to live a holy life separated to the Lord Jesus and for the Lord Jesus.
True Christians live clean lives before the Lord Jesus and in this world.
It’s impossible to live holy apart from Scripture…
17 Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth.
Sanctification is a three step process:
I was sanctified when I was saved...
I am being sanctified as I study...
I will be fully sanctified when the Savior glorifies me...
Sanctification shows an unsaved world what we are…We are set apart, we are different.
17 Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you,
I’m glad we can be established and live a holy life in this evil world. I’m glad we can be different!
The Security
The Security
Jude 1 (KJV 1900)
1 ...and preserved in Jesus Christ,..:
The word “preserved” means assured…It also means to keep.
I want ya’ll to know that God has a good grip on us in this dark day of apostasy! He watches over us and protects us! He guards and defends us!
If the reality of what Jude is teaching the church doesn’t excite us then we are unexcitable.
If the truth of who we are in Christ doesn’t touch us then we are untouchable.
If we are not moved by the facts that we are saved and secure then we are immovable.
If we doctrine of eternal security does not encourage us then we are most pitiful.
Throughout the New Testament we are taught that salvation is of the Lord. We are called by God, claimed by God, and kept by God.
The Lord Jesus has power to save and keep us saved.
James Merritt said, “Jesus does not give us insurance to replace our salvation in case we lose it. Jesus gives us assurance that you can never lose it to begin with.”
Jude gives a strong word to the saints of God. We are saved by Jesus, sealed by Jesus, and secured by Jesus.
27 My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me:
28 And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand.
29 My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father’s hand.
30 I and my Father are one.
Jude tells us we are preserved in Jesus Christ!
The Summons
The Summons
1 Jude, the servant of Jesus Christ, and brother of James, to them that are sanctified by God the Father, and preserved in Jesus Christ, and called:
2 mercy unto you, and peace, and love, be multiplied.
The word “called” here means to summon.
It also means to invite.
This word was used for summoning a person to a responsibility, duty, or office. It was used for one that was called to a feast or a festival. It was also used for summoning a person to a court for judgment. Jude makes it clear that the people of God are saints of God all because of the call of God. God calls us to salvation! We didn’t choose Him; He chose us!
We need to remember that we have been summoned by God. God has called us and that is a comfort to us in days of danger and darkness.
44 No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him: and I will raise him up at the last day.
We are called by God and drawn by God!
We cannot get around the fact that we have been called by God. Thank God for His call to salvation and for His call to service. Jude reminds the saints of the summons...
Jude lists three blessings of God that he wishes for the people of God. Jude wants mercy, peace, and love to be multiplied to them.
2 mercy unto you, and peace, and love, be multiplied.
Mercy keeps us from getting what we deserve.
Mercy is God’s divine pity.
Mercy is God’s love in action.
Mercy is receiving grace, not justice.
Conclusion
Conclusion
Thank God for His mercy and peace and love.
Maxwell Coder wrote, “There is an upward look in the word mercy (to God), an inward look in the word peace (to our self), an outward look in the word love (to a lost world). These three relate us properly to God, to our own inner being, to the people around us. When they are multiplied, and only then, will we be able to cope with the great apostasy of the last days.”
God’s distinctive people have God’s specific promises. We are the people of God that have been summoned by God, that are sanctified by God, that are special to God, and that are secure in God. Thank God for the Lord Jesus Christ.
58 Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord.
I’m glad we can be established in these last days.