Well, we want to welcome everyone to Murrayville Baptist Church. Good to see all of you tonight. Good to be here tonight. I just went riding in a Corvette, went up to Helen and back in two minutes. Whoo. Good night. I had me a treatment. Is my hair all blown? Both of them. Amen. Oh, I had myself a time now. I enjoyed that. Thank you, Brother Warren. I appreciate that. Amen. Well, let's all stand tonight. We're going to begin. We better begin in prayer. I better pray. Amen. Let's all stand. We'll begin our service tonight in prayer, and then we'll see what the Lord will do for us all tonight. Let's pray. Our Heavenly Father, tonight as we gather together in the house of God, Lord, we want to thank you for being good to us. Thank you for loving us the way you do. Thank you for providing for us. Thank you, Lord, for seeing us through the things that we've seen. And God, as we assemble ourselves together tonight, it is in the precious name of Jesus Christ. that we gather ourselves together and thank the Lord that we're able to. Thank the Lord for that name which is above every name, that name, Lord, that one day I bow to. The Lord is an old sinner, and Lord, I came up a saint of God. And Lord, I'm thankful, Lord, for the love and mercy of God in all of our lives. Now, Father, you bless this service tonight. Bless the singing, the musicians. Bless the dear missionary as he comes and tells us about his burden tonight. And God bless the study of the Word of God, and we're thankful for everything that you'll do. And we appreciate everything, Lord. In Jesus Christ's name, amen. In the love of Jesus, in His mercy and His grace, in the missions I invest in, He'll prepare the place. ♪ Come we walk the field of friendly clouds ♪ ♪ With the birds in the sky ♪ ♪ White wings and green days are over ♪ ♪ Not a shadow on the sky ♪ ♪ When we all get together ♪ ♪ What a day, what a day, what a day, what a day ♪ is every day oh is ♪ When the pearly gates will open ♪ ♪ We shall rejoice with the Lord ♪ ♪ And when we all get to heaven ♪ ♪ We'll all rejoice in heavenly peace ♪ ♪ When we all see Jesus we'll sing and shout his praise ♪ What a joy, what meaning of the everlasting life! What a blessing, what a peace, what meaning of the everlasting life! is I am Page 391. Jesus. is We'll do one more for you. me and I can't help but praise the Lord for all he's done. For all he's done. I'm trying to lift my hand to praise him. For all he's done. I'm trying to lift my hand to praise him. Even though I don't deserve to live. My life has just begun and I can't help If I could meet John, only one, I'd have to thank him for his son. And that's enough to praise the Lord for all he's done. the principal Even though I don't deserve to live, my life has just begun, and I can't help but praise the Lord for all He's done. Even though I don't deserve to live, my life has just begun, I appreciate that good singing, ministering to our hearts tonight. It's a blessing tonight to have Brother Stephen and Leslie Carrier in with us tonight. They're church planting missionaries to Chile. You start making your way on up here tonight, Brother Stephen. If I'm reading this card right, They just celebrated as of yesterday their second wedding anniversary. Did I read it right? Amen. Amen. Well, happy anniversary. Yes, sir. Yes, sir. He's gonna come and tell us about his burden, what God's called him to do tonight. So you come on, brother. Thank you so much, Pastor. Appreciate you and appreciate y'all having us. We're excited to be here. We are Stephen and Leslie Carrier, carriers of the gospel to Chile. Now, you may not know much about Chile. In fact, I knew hardly anything about Chile until a couple of years ago. All I really knew about Chile was what happened in 2010 when those 33 miners got together and they went down into the mine. and the mine collapsed on them. And I don't know if anybody here was watching as they were being rescued, but it was an exciting thing, wasn't it? Because every time one of them came to the surface, they would do a variation of their Chilean cheer. Now in Chile, when you do something exciting, like score a goal in soccer or something, you can do this Chilean cheer, which is where you say the first three letters of Chile's name. and the last two letters of Chile's name, and you say, long live Chile. So they'll be like, chi-chi-chi, le-le-le, viva Chile. And they'll all cheer, and I want to cheer with them when I hear it, you know, because it's awesome. But to be honest with you, watching that in 2010 with those miners, as they were all cheering, it was exciting, but I didn't think I would have any connection to this country beyond what I was seeing there on the television. I was a freshman at my local university, East Tennessee State University, and I was going there as a broadcasting major, hoping to use that as a way to get into local politics and then to keep working my way up and working my way up. And one day I was going to be president of the United States. That was my grand dream and I was all excited about it. Well, thank you. I appreciate that. Apparently, I'd have to be in Georgia campaigning. But, you know, so I was all excited about it. But about a year later, God really began to get a hold of my heart about something. He began to get a hold of my heart about my relationship with him. You see, I was born into a Christian home and raised in church, but that doesn't make anybody saved or a Christian. But as I was growing up, I heard the gospel and I did come to the place in my life where I knew that I was a sinner and that only the blood of Jesus Christ could save me from my sin. And I placed my faith and trust in him and he saved me. But as I grew a little bit older, I just became sort of a lukewarm Christian. I wasn't a bad person by any means. I was probably a pretty good person by the world's standards, but I was not living in the victory that the Lord Jesus Christ wanted me to be living in, that he wants each and every single one of us to be living in every day. And I thought to myself, you know, I don't want to live and die like that. And I had an Aunt Misty when I was a little boy. She was 21 years old, going to Bible college to be a missionary. And she was killed by a drunk driver while she was going there. I remember being about 20 years old later and thinking to myself, if you were Aunt Misty, you would have one year left to do something with your life that matters for eternity. And what have you done? And to be honest with you, there was nothing of real eternal value there. All my own hopes and dreams and all my plans. But if I had died that next year as I was, there was nothing that really would have mattered in eternity. And I thought to myself, that's no way to live as a Christian. And I thought, Lord Jesus, I want to know you more. You know, I believe each and every single one of us can be as close to God as we want to be. And so I began to read my Bible and to pray and to witness on my campus as God would open up doors of opportunity there and and The closer I was getting to God, the further and further I was getting from the dreams and the plans that I had for myself, and the closer I was getting to the dreams that he had for me. The Bible says when we delight ourselves in the Lord, he will give us the desires of our heart. And he was putting in my heart the things that he wanted to do through my life. And I knew he was calling me into his service full time. And I said, Lord Jesus, I will go anywhere you send me if you will only just go with me. I went to Bible college there at Crown College in Knoxville, graduated. God gave me a real love for Latin America and Spanish speaking people. I came back to our home church, was helping to start a Spanish ministry there. God was blessing. It was exciting. But in my heart, I wanted to be a missionary. Well, then about a year later, the door opened up to go to Chile on a short term mission trip with missionary Jason Holt, who is a missionary our home church supports. And so I went and that turned into a six month internship. But I went down there and I never really wanted to go originally to Chile as a full time missionary for two reasons. The first was, if you look at Chile on a map of South America, And it's outlined on our prayer card here, and I hope you'll get one from us if you haven't already. And while I'm on the subject, we actually, we had these calendars made up. It's got our face on the front, but there is other pictures throughout that are not us. But we got these pictures, calendars for different pastors and things, and we have some left over. And I know we're like 13 days into January now, so if you all want one, please come see us. We have a few left over. I'll be glad to give you one. It's got pictures of Chili all through it. If you look at Chile on a map of South America, it's kind of just this string that just hangs down the side of the continent there in South America. And I thought to myself, well, who wants to present that to a church, you know? I thought, if I go, I want to give them a country that's on the map, you know? I mean, a string just ain't it for me, you know? But I began, that's ridiculous because There's about 7 million people in the capital city of Santiago alone, so I think we'll be busy for a while. And if a person dies without the Lord, they'll go to hell regardless of what their country looks like. But the second reason was I heard they speak poor Spanish. And by this time, I spoke a large level of Spanish and thought to myself, why go there when I can go anywhere else and be just fine? But as I was there longer and longer, I began to realize something. I began to realize that their poor Spanish was not really poor Spanish. It was just their own way of speaking Spanish. Like we who are from the South have our own way of speaking English, right? So we know words like y'all and ain't are words, and you can say any bad thing about somebody as long as you say bless your heart right after you say it, you know? And so they had their own way like that in Chile. My friend John Moncada, he said, Stephen, in Chile, we have this word po, P-O, that we say at the end of a lot of our words. I said, what does it mean? And he said, it doesn't have a meaning. And I thought, well, that's ridiculous. I'm not going to say that word, you know, in case I don't come back to Chile full time. But as I was there, I began to hear this word and over and over. And one day I was talking to somebody and out of nowhere, I was like, And I was like, oh, no, Paul, you know, all these polls just began coming out of my mouth one after the other. By the time I left, one of them said, oh, he abuses the poll. And I was like, yes. And they have all kinds of words that are so neat. And God just began to give me a love for the language of Chile. I mean, I was like, yes, we speak poor Spanish and it's awesome, you know, but not just the language of Chile, but the people of Chile as well. What I found in Chile is what I found in a lot of Latin America, is that once you get to know them, they take you in like family and treat you absolutely wonderfully. But the sad thing is, is that in Chile, we are not going to tell them of a name they have never heard. They've all basically heard the name of Jesus. But the Jesus that you see in Chile is the Jesus of a workspace religion. It is a Jesus who is always hanging on the cross. He's always lying in his mother's arms. It's a weak and pathetic looking Jesus. And while we know that Jesus did die on the cross for the sins of the whole world, he was buried. We also know that he rose again three days later and lives victoriously today. And that is the Lord that we want to go tell them about, the true Jesus, the true King, the risen Savior, who can take and can save them and can change their lives. One who we have seen changing lives already there. And yet we know there are so many more that God wants to save. And we are praying that he will save them and that he will prepare a people for when we go, that he will do a great work. It is not of us. We believe God's going to do something great, not because of us, but because he is great. And we are excited to be going there as church planting missionaries. planting churches and training men to take over those churches, multiplying ourselves as was given in the Great Commission. We have our tickets bought. We are leaving, Lord willing, for the field in November, and we are excited to be getting down there and cannot wait. In closing, I came back to America. And I met my beautiful wife who's right here. She was in Georgia. She was here training to be a missionary. And she said, Stephen, I'll go anywhere my husband will go. But if I could choose, I would go to Latin America because I've been to Panama and Costa Rica. And I loved it and the culture. And I thought, well, I've got the perfect country for you, you know. And so we hit it off. And we have been married now for two years as of yesterday. And we love it. We love meeting our brothers and sisters on deputation. But in closing, when we look at the Great Commission, It can seem like a difficult and daunting task that God has given us to do an impossible task. And we can go and we can look at it the way the 12 spies went into the land of Canaan and they came back. And what did they say? 10 of them said, we have all the promises of God, but there are giants in the land. And they said, I know what God gave me to do, but I know what I just saw with my own two eyes. But I believe we must have the attitude of Caleb who said, let us go up at once and possess it. for we are well able to overcome it. And I believe that in the power of Christ, we are well able to overcome Georgia and the rest of the United States and Chile and the rest of the world with the gospel of Jesus Christ. Now let's go get it. Thank you all so much. Thank you, Pastor. I didn't know I could speak Spanish. I've been saying I'm Po all for a long time. I'm Po, I'm Po. Amen. I appreciate a missionary's heart, just hearing him pour his heart out and that excitement he has for what God's called him to do. And I sure appreciate it. And I appreciate them coming by our way tonight. Let's take our Bibles and turn to the book of Jude, chapter one, or the only chapter there is of Jude. Jude, verse number 1 and 2, the book of Jude. We started last Wednesday night. We want to study through the book of Jude on Wednesday nights, and I think it's a very befitting book. for the times that we're living in. We're going to discover as we go through it a lot of things relevant to the day and age in which we are presently living. And we pretty well introduced the book last Wednesday night and talked about the servant Jude. And talked about what Jude saw himself as, as the servant of Jesus Christ. Let's look at it tonight in Jude verse 1, and we'll read verse 1 and 2, and then I'll bring what God has put on our heart tonight. He says it like this, he says, 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 mercy unto you and peace and love be multiplied. There's three words that I want to highlight tonight in this study. And the three are all found in verse number one, where he says that we are sanctified, preserved, and called. And I want to entitle this study tonight, Sanctified, Secured, and Summoned. And I want us to look at that and with that thought in mind tonight, let's go to the Lord in prayer, and then we'll bring the study to you. Our Father tonight, as we come before you, Lord, we're humbled, Lord, to be able to stand in this place one more time. And Lord, I realize that I'm here to feed the sheep of God. May I do it, Lord, with your blessings? May I do it by your power, Lord, by the provisions of God. Lord, this is a lot bigger than I am. And Lord, I cannot do this without you. So I'm asking God for the liberty of the Spirit of God to enable me, to allow me, Lord, to feed your sheep the way that they need feeding tonight. May I do it well. But Lord, I pray not for myself alone. I pray for every person that's here tonight. I thank you for the good crowd of people that have turned aside for a little while to gather themselves around the good word of God. I pray, Father, for them that you bless them in a special way. And may the word of God build faith in them and secure their hearts, Lord. And we're thankful for everything that you'll do for us in the precious name of the Lord Jesus Christ. We pray and ask these things. And all of God's people said, Amen and amen. Last message that we looked out of the book of Jude, we looked at the servant who wrote this epistle by the name of Jude. Even though he was the half-brother of Jesus Christ, he did not refer to himself as the half-brother of Christ. Rather, he said, I am a servant of Jesus Christ. And this man was raised in the same home of Jesus Christ. I mean, he could have been a name dropper. He could have been one that said, hey, I want you to know that I'm the half brother of Jesus Christ. But in his humility, he said, no, I want you to understand that I'm a servant of Jesus Christ. And to be a servant of Jesus Christ is a position, it is a position of great humility and great honor. I love living and serving the Lord Jesus Christ. It is not a begrudging thing. It is not an awful thing. It is the most wonderful life anybody could ever live is living for Jesus Christ. Jude does not address a certain individual or churches in this particular book as other New Testament books do. For example, Paul wrote to Timothy, Titus, Philemon, individuals. He also wrote to Galatians, Ephesians, 1 Corinthians, 2 Corinthians, churches specifically that were Bible churches in the days of Paul. That is not to say that those books are not relevant to us today, but it is important to understand who the author is writing to. It better helps us to understand the intent of the letter. It helps us to better understand the theme of that book, if you will, to know who they are talking about or talking to. Jude is writing to those, he says, that are sanctified, preserved, and called. In other words, he's writing to every saint of God. He's not writing to a particular church or a particular individual. He's writing to every born-again saved child of God. And he's doing so emphasizing three doctrinal truths that are important for us to understand today. He did not just randomly choose these words. We know that he was inspired by the Spirit of God when he wrote to those who are sanctified, preserved, and called. Why did he choose those three words? Why did Jude, under the inspiration of the Spirit of God, select those particular words to describe his audience? sanctified, preserved, and called. I want to emphasize those words tonight in this message and hopefully they'll take root and take grounding in all of our hearts because I believe that the book of Jude is the forerunner to the book of Revelation, which introduces us to the second coming of Jesus Christ. Just as John Baptist was the forerunner of this first coming, Jude is the forerunner before the second coming. And what he's doing is trying his best to prepare God's people for the coming of Jesus Christ. We're living in some peculiar times. I mean peculiar. What's going on in our... That's why I said I'd vote for you tonight, brother. What's going on in Washington, D.C. makes no sense whatsoever. They act like a bunch of babies up there, and they're the ones running our country. And I've told Debbie, Debbie and I were talking about it on the way here. We got a friend and I said, it's like Rhonda says, they act like they're all smoked up. And they do. I mean, what they're doing makes absolutely no sense whatsoever. What we see happening in our world today, COVID and all the things that are plaguing, not just a little area of people, but the entire world, the entire earth, it makes us wonder what is going on. Jude is that little portal book that introduces us to the second coming of Jesus Christ. And He chose these words for a given reason. And I pray that God will enable me to be able to preach this in a fashion That would be a blessing to you, that would root and ground your life, because brother, if there's one thing we need more of in this age in which we live, it is more of the book of God, more faith, more of God in our lives. We need God's help to make it through in this age in which we live. It's interesting to note, that Jude is the shortest book in all the Word of God. But yet, even though it carries that weight about it, its message is powerful, pointed, and its message is prophetic. It is also interesting to note that these three doctrinal terms that he uses to address his audience were especially put there by God for a reason. He wants us to understand that we are sanctified, that we are preserved, and that we as God's people are called in this present hour. These are essential doctrinal truths that when understood will enable us to endure the times we're living in. For so long now, the church has enjoyed the fruits and labors of the generations prior to us, both secular and spiritual. And especially us in America, we live in a land that is a wonderful country to live in. And we're enjoying the fruits of those who went before us, those who have labored and toiled before us, both not just in the church setting, but also in the secular setting. And the church has been a cruise ship for way too long. We've enjoyed, we've sat back, we've enjoyed the ride, but God has called the church not to be a cruise ship, but to be a battleship. She was designed to fight. She was designed to be in a battle. Jesus did say that the gates of hell would not prevail against the church, indicating that we would see battles in this life. And brethren, we are seeing Satan unleash his last attempt to quench the church, to quench the spirit of the church. And the church today has been going along with the wiles of the devil and has been rocked to sleep. And it's time that we wake up and not just go to church, but be the church of the Lord Jesus Christ. So let's study together these three words of what does it mean to be sanctified, to be preserved and called according to the book of Jude. Number one, I want us to look at this word sanctified. By definition, the word sanctified in a general sense means to cleanse, to purify, to make holy. But more specifically, it means to separate or set apart for God's intent. I want you to look. Come in your Bibles to Genesis chapter number 2. And I want you to look at the very first time that the word sanctify is used in the Word of God. And let's draw some conclusions about what the word sanctified really means according to the Word of God. Look in Genesis chapter 2 and look down there in verse number 3 with me. Genesis chapter two and verse number three, it said, and God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it because that in it, he had rested from all his work, which God created and made." Notice there, to separate and note as different for God's intended use. That's how He's using the word sanctified in this verse. The six days were typical and alike in that God used each day to create the worlds that we know to be today. But on that seventh day, it said that God did something entirely different and separated that day from all the other days and with a totally different purpose in that He rested. They were a day like any other day, They were a day of the week, but yet this particular day was set apart by God in His sovereignty. Yes, He created the worlds in six days, but on that seventh day, He said, this day is separate from the other six. They were like the other six, but they were different because they were designed by God for a specific use. Now, applying that to the saints of God, we are like anyone else. We are a part of the human race. But God has separated us from all other human race and sanctified us for His specified use. God wants to use our lives. Oh, glory to God. I say it like this, to be sanctified means this, get ready, God is going to use your life. That's what the word sanctified is applied to a child of God means. If only every child of God understood and believed that, wouldn't it be wonderful If every child of God began and finished their life like Paul did, Paul got saved on the Damascus road, he met Jesus Christ, and the very first question out of his mouth is, What would you have me to do? What would it be if every child of God lived their life that way? Realizing that God does not just want to use the preacher or the missionary or the deacon. He wants to use every one of His children in this room. He wants to use you. He wants to use your life. He's got something designed for you to do. And God has sanctified all of us because He wants to use our lives. We're like anybody else, but we're saved by grace and sanctified by God the Father because He wants to use our lives. Oh, what a blessing. I remember in the early days, I would see those preachers get up and preach, and I'd think, oh God, oh God, I knew God wanted me to preach, but I knew me, and I'd argue with God about it, and I'd say, Lord, you cannot use somebody like me. Oh, I'd look at them other preachers get up behind the pulpit, and boy, they'd preach in the power of God, and God would be all over them, and God would use them in such a mighty way. And oh, I wanted God to use my life, but I knew me, I said, God, there's no way that you could use somebody like me. I was praying in my closet one day and I was arguing with God about this issue and I was whining and complaining and saying, God, you can't use me. And the Holy Ghost of God spoke to my heart. He said, if I use anybody, I use a sinner who's been saved by grace. I come up out of that closet that day with the victory of God in my life because I met those qualifications. I knew He had saved me. I knew He was wanting me to preach. And I knew that God can and would use my life. All He was waiting on me to do was to surrender to Him and let Him use my life. What would it be if every child of God said, Lord, What would you have me to do? We'd be like the early church, and we'd be turning the world upside down for Jesus Christ. Oh, brethren, the word sanctified is so important, especially in this hour in which we're living. We're living in the last days. We're living in the last moments of the last days. And the church does not have long to voice her mission. The church does not have long to do what God has called us to do. As the dear brother said, he got to thinking about, what was it, your aunt? that you only had a year left, and if you were to go at the same age that she did, he only had a year left. What would it do to us if we realize that we only have just a short time? And brethren, we do. We don't have eons and eons of time to tell the world about Jesus Christ. We need to be busy about the Father's business. We need to be busy. The Father has sanctified us. Sanctification is a relationship that we enter into at salvation. and sanctification, it is an immediate declared position that God connects us with only through our Savior, Jesus Christ. God sanctifies us so that He can use our lives according to His will. And brethren, He wants to use every one of us. The Bible tells us to be sure, to work out our own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do, like the brother said, of His good pleasure. Not what we want to do, not what we want in life, but to seek the will of God, for all of our lives, the Lord Jesus Christ has sanctified us all at Calvary. And thank God tonight we sit here sanctified and we are destined to live for the Lord Jesus Christ. Then not only are we sanctified, we are secured in that he says we are preserved and Christ Jesus. The great doctrine of preservation is so misunderstood by many today. We speak of the inspiration of the Scriptures, but so many today do not believe in the preservation of the Scriptures. And the doctrine of preservation is so important to the child of God. And I'm going to explain it to you like this by means of the Bible. The Bible is the inspired Word of God. I hold in my hand the inspired words of God, but I also hold in my hand, in this same book, I hold in my hand the preserved words of God. I believe that with all of my heart. I'm not looking for some other translation. I'm not looking for a better one to come along. I've got the preserved, inerrant, infallible, preserved word of God in my hand. Now, you say, well, Brother John, why are you preaching about that? Because the doctrine of preservation is so important for us to understand. Bible says in Psalms chapter 12, that God's words are pure words. And it goes on to say, thou shalt keep them, O Lord, thou shalt preserve them. What? The words of God. Thou shalt preserve them from this generation forever. Now listen, if we don't believe in the preservation of the scriptures, If we do not believe the importance of the preservation, then we cannot believe in the preservation of our souls. We cannot believe in the preservation of the saints of God. He said that we are not just sanctified, but we are preserved in Christ Jesus. Preserved, not pickled, preserved. not put up for some other time, we are preserved in Christ Jesus. Now, we have security systems on everything today. We have security systems on churches, at homes, on cars. We've got security systems built into our phones and we're trying to protect it, trying to preserve it. And brethren, God's got his own preservation system built into every one of us. We are preserved in Jesus Christ. The Bible tells us that this preservation is called eternal life. He has given us as a gift eternal life. I'm standing here tonight, a man that don't deserve to go to heaven, but I'm going one day. I do deserve to go to hell and I'm not going. And I am preserved to that destiny by Jesus Christ, not in John Dale. but in Jesus Christ we are preserved. The Bible calls it eternal life. In John 3 verse 15, right before the verse, right before John 3 verse 16, he said that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have eternal life. Eternal life is a gift that is given to all of us. In Romans chapter 6 verse 23, the Word of God says it like this, For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Speaking in shepherd terms, Jesus Christ told the disciples of in his day so that they could understand him. He said, my sheep hear my voice and I know them and they follow me and I give unto them eternal life and they shall never, never perish. I was trying to help a young lady one time when I was pastoring down at Waycross and And she was having struggles with this thought about eternal life. She had been told in a previous church she had been in that you could lose your salvation. And I did something so simple. I just took a pen and I took it out and I took a piece of paper and I just drew a starting point. A little dot. And I said, now let's just suppose this dot represents where you got saved the moment you got saved. She said, okay. Then I drew a line out from there and I said, and this line represents your life. But let's say, let's suppose that you can lose it. And then I took my pen and I just drew a line down across that long line. I just dissected it. And I said, let's just suppose that right there you lost your salvation. And I said this, I said, I want to ask you something. And I said, now there's where you got saved, right? She said, yeah. And I said, right there, you lived a good life. And then all of a sudden something happened and you lost your salvation. I said, I want to ask you one question. is that eternal life?" And she said, no it isn't. I said, no it's not. It's a gift that God gives to all of us is called eternal life. And according to 1 John 5, this life is in His Son, not in our baptism, not in our good works, not in our sinlessness. No, no, no, no. Not that at all. It is in Jesus Christ alone. He said, you know, I've had people, I remember Brother Titus preaching a little while back here at the church, and he said he struggled with doubt at one time in his life. And he got to talking about that, and he talked about that what he was doing was really the looking and focusing his salvation all in his self. And when people get to doubting their salvation, they get to looking at their... And I've heard this voice before. If you were really saved, you wouldn't do that. If you was really saved, you wouldn't act like that. If you was really saved, you wouldn't have said that. If you was really, anybody ever heard that voice? Oh yeah. You know what that does? That puts the emphasis on us. Our salvation is preserved in Jesus Christ alone. Not in us in any way. Oh, thank God we are secured and safe in Jesus Christ. Can I get a witness right there? Oh, thank God for the doctrine of preservation. Then I want to say lastly, not only are we sanctified, not only are we secured, but we are summoned because He says that He has called us, called us. Notice that we are sanctified by God the Father. And it says that we are preserved in Jesus Christ. Who's doing the calling? The third member of the Trinity, the Spirit of God. In the church age, it is the Spirit of God that speaks to us through the Word of God and in our inner spirit. He speaks to us. And the Bible tells us over and over, like in the book of Revelation, it says, let the churches hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches." Jesus Christ said this. He said that the Comforter would bring all things to our remembrance whatsoever I've said unto you. He said this about the Spirit of God. He said, I have yet many things to say unto you. He said, Howbeit when He, the Spirit of truth, is come, He will guide you into all truth, for He shall not speak of Himself, but whatsoever He shall hear, that shall He speak. We are sanctified by God the Father. We are secured in Jesus Christ, but we are called by the Spirit of God. He's the one that does the calling in context of the placement of this little book called Jude. and the emphasis of that book. I want you to remember this, that the book of Jude is the portal that introduces us to the book of Revelation. And with this thought of Him sanctifying us and preserving us and calling us, what is it that He is calling us to do? He's calling us to live for Him. in these days in which we live. Think about where we're at today. You read about church history, you read about D.L. Moody, Charles Spurgeon, all those great men of God of the past. And sometimes I wonder what it would have been like back then to live in times like that. Great awakenings, Jonathan Edwards and all of those great preachers of the days past. And all the many moves of God that they saw and experienced. the great revivals, the great awakenings, they would call them, would break out and spread across lands and they'd hear of thousands getting saved. And I would just think of what it would be like to have lived back then. But you know what? I wasn't born back then. God, for some reason, God, for some reason, has chosen us to be the ones to usher in His darling Son back to this world. We're the ones that He has chosen and set for such a time as this. In this hour, in this age, with all the turmoil that's going on, He has called us to do His work. He has called us to be the church. He has called us to be the ones that stand for Jesus Christ and for His Word and for what is right. He has called us to be the church. Listen, I don't understand God's work. I don't know why He would look down on somebody like me and choose me, but God has called us to be the ones to be the church of the last days. Well, what an honor. I don't know. I don't know how much longer we've got down here. I personally believe it's just a short while. But brethren, while we're here, we need to understand this. That we are sanctified, we are set apart for God's work. We are preserved. We're not doing what we do to try to keep our salvation. We're doing what we do because we are saved. Because we're preserved in Jesus Christ. And He has called us. He has called us to be the church I'm the preacher of Marvel Baptist Church, I'm the pastor. I don't understand why God would want that out of my life. But that's what God wants. He's called you to be the church of the last days. We're going to be the ones, I believe we're the generations that's going to see the rapture of the church and the catching away of God's people. I believe it with all of my heart. And brethren, we are called to be faithful unto the end. And that's what Jude is wanting us to know. That we are sanctified, we are preserved, and thank God we're called to do something for Him. I know a lot of preachers have taken the attitude, well, God ain't moving like He used to. There just ain't no need in doing this or doing that. No need in going to Chile, no need in going... Is that where you're going? No need in going to Chile, it's just a waste of your efforts and time. And there's preachers all across this land that has taken attitudes like that. No, brethren, we've got more of a commission now than we've ever had to do what God has called the church to do. We need to be busy about God's eternal work. And we need to be telling people about Jesus Christ. Whether we be in Chile or America or where, we need to be telling people the gospel of Jesus Christ. Can I get a witness right there? Sanctified, preserved, and called. Thank God. Thank God. As far as our prayer request goes tonight, sis, you come on to the piano quickly. As far as our prayer list tonight, we need to pray for Sister Peggy Jackson. She's got the shingles and she needs God's touch. Linda Walker, Debbie's sister. She's got COVID. Little Jack Haifle, Jack Jack, had a seizure at work today. We saw. We need to pray for him that God would be with him. How about your prayer request tonight?