Sermon Tone Analysis

If you have a Bible go ahead and grab it, we will be in the book of Jude this morning.

We will just be looking at the first three verses this morning but those three verses are just filled to the brim with doctrine that is needed in the Church today.

I love preaching on graduation Sunday because there’s something that feels so special about commissioning our graduates before they “go out into the real world.”

The verses that we are going to read this morning is our call to do battle with Satan and his forces.

It’s our call to say with Martin Luther, “Here I stand, I can do no other.”

As we are going to see in just a moment, it is our call to contend for the faith.

As Christians, we aren’t here to play paddy cake with the world.

We aren’t here to coddle them as they fall into sin, we’re here to assault the kingdom of darkness.

Paul says in Ephesians 6:12 “For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.”

The problem is not necessarily that the world has become less Christian, the problem is that Christians have become too much like the world.

The problem isn’t that there aren’t enough preachers, the problem is that there are too many that aren’t doing any real preaching!

The problem isn’t that there aren’t enough churches, the problem is that there are too many churches that do not care for doctrinal integrity, that do not stand firm on the authority and inerrancy of Scripture, and do not hold fast to the things of God.

On Wednesday nights, I have repeatedly told our students that it is not our responsibility as Christians to fit in with the world, we’re to be an anomaly.

The world shouldn’t be able to wrap its head around us and by no means are we to package the Gospel in such a way that removes its teeth.

We cannot make the things of God sexy to a world that hates God.

You see it is not just our graduates that are going into a world that is hostile to the Gospel, it’s all of us.

So, what should we do about that?

Let’s see what the Lord tells us through the pen of Jude.

We’ll break these three verses into three main headings: our sanctification, our unity within the Body of Christ, and finally our contending for the faith.

Jude 1-3 says

Our Sanctification (Verse 1)

Let’s begin with our sanctification and we see this by looking at three distinct phrases that Jude uses at the end of verse 1. Jude is writing to Christians and he says that believers are called, beloved in God the Father and kept for Jesus Christ.

Called, beloved, and kept.

In many ways we see the threefold aspect of salvation in this verse: we were called by God in eternity past, we are the beloved of God now in the present, and we will be kept by God and for Christ in the future.

We have been saved past tense, we are saved present tense, and we will be saved future tense.

In order for us to contend for the faith, we need to know who we are.

Christians aren’t called to comform to the world.

It is not our job to match up with the world around us, it is our responsibility to be conformed to Christ.

We as Christians wake up every morning with the purpose of being shaped and molded into the image of Christ and living with the one goal of glorifying God above all else.

As we become more like our Savior, this is referred to as our sanctification and sanctification is something that we will never perfect in this lifetime.

There’s always a greater conformity to Christ, there’s always a higher level of Christlikeness that we can strive towards.

None of us have arrived yet.

None of us have reach the peak of our faith.

None of us can say, “I’ve done all that I can do.”

Justification is a once and for all event but our sanctification is an ongoing act that cannot be completed on this earth.

Sanctification involves every aspect of our being.

A.A. Hodge said that our sanctification involves the entire man, intellect, affections, and will.

If we have been justified through faith, every aspect of our lives should be sanctified.

Let’s break down these three phrases and see how they relate to our sanctification.

Jude says that believers have been called.

He isn’t referring to the general call that comes from hearing the Gospel.

This is an identifiable mark, it’s a designation.

This is who we are as the People of God.

We are distinguishable from the world because we have been called by God Himself.

We as Christians do not call ourselves, God calls us.

Some may not like to hear it but the whole Bible screams, “election”.

If we as the people of God are called by God, ultimately we must be called to something and if we are called to something, it must be something that we did not have prior to the call.

God does not call us to look the same as the rest of the world.

God does not call us to mediocrity and worldliness.

If God has called us to something, then we are called to a certain standard that we did not have prior to His calling of us.

We are called as the people of God to live as the people of God professing what has made us the people of God.

Not only are we called TO something we are called Something and that something is the second phrase that Jude uses, the beloved in God the Father.

To be the beloved of God means that we are cherished by our Heavenly Father.

As God the Father perfectly loves Christ the Son, so He also perfectly loves all for whom the Son has atoned.

To be beloved in God the Father means that we have been set apart.

Paul tells Timothy in 2 Timothy 2:19-21

We aren’t set apart so we could simply be polished up, we’re set apart so that we would be holy.

We’re set apart to do the work of Christ.

We are set apart because God knows those that are His.

Now if I’m told that God Himself, the very definition of holiness, has set me apart from the rest of the world, then you better believe that I want to take that seriously.

If I have been called by God, set apart by God, then my life better not look like the rest of the world.

Everything we say, everything we do, everything we think, should be set apart to honor God as holy.

Like Adrian Rogers said, everything we say and do should be done as if they were signed off by Christ Himself.

Finally, we reach the third phrase and that is we as believers are being kept for Jesus Christ.

Now I see this in two ways and there are loads more but I want to draw attention to these two realities: That which we are kept from and that which we are kept for.

We know that Christians are not kept from certain things: we aren’t kept from suffering, we aren’t kept from death, we aren’t kept from trials or persecution, anyone that says that we are kept from these things has never read the Bible cover to cover.

We are not kept from naysayers or bad influences or even kept from the impact of sin.

What are we kept from then?

Well we are saved from the wrath of God that is to come.

Paul says in Romans 5:9

Romans 5:9 (ESV)

Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God.

We are kept from the horrors of hell and from rejection by God.

Romans 8 is a testimony to the reality that even if death may touch us, we are ultimately kept from a fate far worse than death.

Jesus says in Luke 21:16 and 18 that some of us may be put to death but ultimately not a hair on our head will perish.

We are kept from falling away.

No true follower of Christ will ever be lost.

Those for whom Christ has died will be kept until the day of salvation.

1 Peter 1:3-5

1 Peter 1:3–5 (ESV)

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ!

According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.

We are kept for an inheritance that we can never lose.

Paul speaks of our future glorification in such certain terms that he speaks of it as if it has already happened.

We are ultimately kept BY God and FOR God.

If God is the power by which believers are kept, no believer will ever not be kept by God.

Notice finally, who it is we are kept for.

We are kept for Jesus Christ.

We as believers are the Bride of Christ and we are waiting for the wedding day when we will see our beloved face to face.

If we are being kept for Christ, shouldn’t we do all that we can to be presentable to Him? Doesn’t this encourage you to further your pursuit of sanctification?

Jonathan Edwards, in one of his resolutions that he made as a young man, said that he was resolved to live his life with the mindset that Christ was coming within the hour.

He understood that there are some things that he just wouldn’t do if he knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that Christ was coming.

May we all live like this.

Christ could come within the hour and I pray that He doesn’t catch us living as if we were not desperately waiting for His arrival.

I would hate to have Christ return in a moment where my eyes were set more on sin than on Him.

What we see from Jude 1 is the call to pursue sanctification and I hope that as we have looked at these verses you see how being called by God, set apart by God, and kept for Christ all points to the need for us to pursue holy living.

Our Unity (Verses 2-3a)

For times’ sake, we won’t spend too much time looking at verse 2 and the first half of verse 3. Jude writes, “May mercy, peace, and love be multiplied to you.

Beloved, although I was very eager to write to you about our common salvation.”

Our common salvation.