I would ask you to turn in your Bibles this morning to the Book of Jude, that little book at the end of our New Testaments, just before the Book of Revelation, a book that is often overlooked, ignored, often misunderstood. we've undertaken to expound its content, because I think it's a rare jewel. I really do. The more I study it, the more I am challenged by it. There's lots of stuff here, difficult to understand. But for me, that's always when Bible study gets interesting, when I don't understand it. I think I already know all the answers when I just make all kinds of assumptions and I learn very little. When I realize I don't know nothing, and I come to ask the proper questions of God's word. What does scripture in fact say? What does it mean? What is its significance? What is its importance to my life as a child of God? Like I say, that's when Bible study gets interesting, and that's when often preaching becomes a great joy. Having introduced himself as a servant of the Lord Jesus Christ, the brother of James, as he's referred to his readers in the first verse, as those who are not located in any city or town in the ancient world. They're not a church in Corinth or in Rome, but rather they're situated in God the Father beloved. That's where they live. They live in God the Father beloved and they live in Jesus Christ kept. That's a good location. That's a good place to be. To be in God the Father beloved. To be in Jesus Christ kept. To be the called of God. In desiring for them multiplied mercy, peace, and love. content of the first two verses. Jude moves on in verses three and four to address the purpose of the letter. It's nice when the Bible gives us the purpose for the writing when it's expressed in the text itself, but he gives us the purpose through which he wrote in different stages. Because in fact, Jews experience what preachers often do when they finish a sermon and say, that's not what I expected to preach. That really turned out to be radically different. because there was certain constraints upon someone's heart and spirit for certain reasons that they needed to alter the message and it makes it something quite different. And I think that's important to be able to do that. I mentioned in Sunday school, what if somebody died last night? It's a part of our assembly. I just can't come here this morning and say let's just continue on, as if nothing happened. All the things that happened as Jesus is writing this letter, as he's attempting to write this letter, as he's thinking through what he wants to say to these people, there was certain things that came to his mind, his understanding, and he ends up writing a letter quite different than what he initially thought he would write. And so Jude states that he had a different plan initially in the writing of this letter. He says, beloved, although I was eager to write to you about our common salvation, something happened. And that's not quite the letter I have written. Now he begins with a point of contact and that he calls these people beloved. I don't know what relationship Jude sustained to these readers. We're not told. Had he been their pastor? Well, maybe, but we don't know. Was he the founder of the church? That could be, but again, we don't know. Was he just an interested brother in Christ who was knowledgeable of their situation? Maybe someone who was where he was told them, we have this group of people and maybe they're without a pastor. And Jude thought they were laid upon his heart and he undertakes to write to them. He may have been known by them, but maybe not. Paul writes the letter to the Colossians, to a church of which he says he's writing to them and to those who have never seen my face. And he writes at the beginning of the letter about a prayer that he prays in which he inserts a pathless name. Why did he do that? Well, because they knew Epaphras. And if Paul knew Epaphras, and Epaphras loved Paul, and Paul loved Epaphras, well that was a point of contact, a way into their heart. Though he himself had never been there. I think beloved serves such a purpose. Calling somebody beloved. He's already told them they're beloved in God. They're in God the Father beloved. He has desired for them that love be multiplied to them. And he wants to underscore the fact that that love that God has to you, that love that he desires to them, them to know more and more is echoed in his own heart's love for them. He's writing out of their interests and not his own. He's concerned for them and their well being. And so, This term creates something of intimacy, of fellowship, of a sense of interest and concern, writing for their benefit and not his own. They are dear to him. And then he speaks about our common salvation. There's something else he shared with them, not only love, not only his love for them and God's love for them, but they shared a common salvation. And it seems like his purpose was to explore the riches, the benefits, the opportunities afforded in the bonds of our common salvation. And he says, I was eager to write this to you. And you know, that should be something we're all eager to do, to talk about our common salvation. I don't think it was always so with me. When I first came out of school and I began ministry, I had my checklist of concerns, of the things I wanted to make certain. I got people clear on. I wanted to make certain that they knew why they were Baptists and that they had a clear understanding of what Believer's Baptism is and why we do it. I still want you to know that. But maybe not with such eagerness as initially. I want you to be clear about the doctrines of grace and have them all aligned. I want you not just to like tulips, but to love tulips and to know why each of those things meant. Well, I still want you to know that stuff, but maybe not quite that eager. Because, you know, there's something in the latter years of my ministry, maybe the latter years of my life, that is just is to me now what probably should have been early on. Just the overwhelming sense of blessing and praise and honor that God's worthy to receive just for the simple reality of our common salvation. That that's something that ought always to be front and center. And his concern was, he's eager to write to them about our common salvation. Now the word, I was eager, could also be translated, I made every effort. It might have not just been the thing that led him to sit down to write, but the fact that he was actually in the process of writing. He's trying to map this out, this business about the common salvation and the things that he wanted them to know. But as he's doing it, or as he sits down to write, he found sufficient reason to change course. What he had in mind to write had to be deferred to a more convenient time, to a more convenient season, a more pressing concern has come to light. Just what the initially planned letter might have looked like, we can't say for sure, but I got a little bit of a suggestion as to what it might have looked like. You know what I think it might have looked like? I think it might have looked like 2 Peter. One of the things we'll see as we study the book of Jude is that 2 Peter has similarities to the book of Jude, really running all the way through it. And I would wonder if not, if Peter had not thought that Jude's letter, wanting at first to write about the common salvation, he never got there. Maybe that's one point of Peter's letter he's going to fill in on. And so when you look at 2 Peter chapter 1, you look at something that pretty much sounds like our common salvation. I'm going to read it to you. See what you think. Again, I don't know. It's just an hypothesis, but it's an hypothesis that I think is pretty compelling. Peter writes in 2 Peter chapter 1 and verse 3, His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness. What is our salvation consist in? That we've been granted all things that pertain to life and godliness through the knowledge of Him who called us to His own glory and excellence. By which He's granted to us His precious and very great promises. If we wanted to talk about our common salvation, we would want to go to the promises, wouldn't we? We want to explain, expound, glory in His very great promises, exceedingly great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature. What is the end of salvation? It wants to be like Christ. It's to be conformed to the image of Christ, that the divine nature would be replicated and reflected in us as the redeemed image of God. So that through him you would become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire. What is salvation but escape? It's rescue from the corruption of this present evil age. And for this very reason, he says, make every effort to supplement your faith. What does this common salvation call us to? Well, not just a simple faith and leave it at that, but growing in faith, growing in the grace and in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus, adding to us every single good thing. Supplement your faith or add to your faith with virtue, virtue with knowledge, knowledge with self-control, self-control with steadfastness, steadfastness with godliness, godliness with brotherly affection, brotherly affection with love. I'd love to stop here and start preaching on 2 Peter, but I'm not going to do that. We're just at impulse. These qualities are yours and increasing. They keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. Well, I'll stop the reading there. You can read on further. But what's the whole point of our common salvation? It's that we not be static. That the blessings we received in the Lord Jesus would ever prod us on to greater things. that we would march towards spiritual maturity with ever-increasing confidence. We'd be a people that grow in conformity to Jesus. That's what his letter might have looked like. Something along those lines. It's great to talk about our common salvation. It's great to be rooted and grounded in the reality of our common salvation. And Jude has zeal for that. Jude had a desire to be persistent in presenting the common salvation to the people of God. He was also a servant to the gospel. He was a servant of God, which made him a servant of the word and made him a servant of the church. And if you're going to serve the church, you can't just gratify your own itches. You just can't scratch your own itches and gratify your own desires. You have to be concerned with what's going on among the people you're writing to, the people that you're ministering to. What is it that they need most? And so you see Jude's selfless service. He's consumed with their concerns, not his own. Their needs, not his own desires. He's not all concerned to fulfill his own agenda as to meet the needs of the church. He's committed to preach, teach, and write for the needs of others. Every gospel minister should know what that is. To prepare sermons, to teach, to preach, for the needs of others and not for the fulfillment of our own desires. It's not always easy to distinguish your interests with the needs of others. But you know, I've heard preachers that you can almost write an autobiography about them. You hear their preaching and you learn a lot about them. So much is self-referential. Or you can learn a lot about what the pastor's been reading lately by listening to their sermons. Because everything just comes out. What it is that's on their book list, what it is that they're reading. Or you can figure out what movies he's seen recently just by hearing him preach. That's where the illustrations come in. You know what he's been, what entertainments he's been concerned about, concerned with. But here's the point, folks. We really need to be text-oriented and people-oriented. How the text of God's word meets the needs of the people of God. The church, its interests, its concerns, its struggles, sadly in many times, many places, and even in my own ministry at times and seasons, receives scant reference at all. The biblical writers address the real needs of real people at the hour of need that they possess Even if it meant abandoning their own eager attentions for doing something different. So Jude recognizes they need him to do his duty as a gospel minister, as a servant of the Lord Jesus, as a servant of the word, and as a servant of the church. I found it necessary, he says, to change directions. And what does he do? Well, he's about to teach. He's about to teach about the common salvation. But now he has to change directions and exhort. I remember when I was a young preacher, I used to love to hear preachers that had an ability to exhort, had an ability to plead. I used to think, I wish I had that gift. I wish I would be able to plead as if, you know, he's going to cry and everybody else is going to cry unless we do these things that he's saying to do. And that's good preaching. I like that kind of preaching, but it isn't me so much. But I had to learn a bit of it because exhortation is important. to mourn, to appeal, to exhort, sometimes needs to take the place of exposition. Now they're different gifts. Romans chapter 12, addressing bunches of spiritual gifts that the church at Rome had been given, puts teaching and exhortation right next to each other. But they are different gifts and they require different Graces and perspectives and not everybody's equally gifted to exhort than to teach. I've heard people exhort to come to Christ when they've talked about Sodom and Gomorrah and that they can move on. Come to Jesus and exhort with just passion. I like to lay a little bit of a teaching background before moving to exhortation. But it's a different gift is what I'm trying to say. But for the sake of the church, Jude moves from one gift to the other, one approach to the other, because a crisis had arisen. And you just can't keep the schedule when a crisis occurs. It's time for Jude to send out the alarm. He says, I found it necessary to write appealing to you, exhorting you, encouraging you to contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints. He uses that word contend. It's a word that we get the English word agony from. There's a struggle implicit in Christian salvation. We're called not only to the peace that the gospel brings and provides, but to our warfare against principalities and powers, against the forces of evil in this present evil age. The Christian message calls us to fight. All that's wrong, all that is evil. And I don't think when Judah's saying, I move from common salvation to the faith once for all delivered to the saints. He's speaking about a different content to the message. There's not much that's different from the common salvation and the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints. The faith is common to all just as the salvation is common to all. And it's the faith, though it's an objective faith, that maybe consists of gospel truth and gospel reality. But that's the thing that comprises the joyful salvation that we've received in Christ. But it's a movement not from substance, just to the recognition that we've been entrusted with a body of truth to cleave to and not relinquish. The problem is there's factors that have entered into the life of the church that sets up the danger for them just to let it go. Just to let it go. We're fighting for an unchanging gospel. The faith once for all delivered to the saints is not different from our common salvation. It's the application of our common salvation just to this new reality of the struggle that we're called to. Now most often the struggle that Christians engage in is the struggle with the world. It's a struggle with an unbelieving world. Philippians chapter 1 and verse 27 speaks of the conflict that Paul was involved in, that he knew the Philippians also were involved in. When he says in Philippians 1 and verse 27, only let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel. So whether I come and see you or I'm absent and I hear of you, that you're standing firm. And one spirit with one mind striving side by side for the faith of the gospel. The faith once for all delivered to the saints. You're standing fast in it. You're holding faithful to it. You're striving side by side for its growth and its advancement in the world. And you're not frightened in anything by your opponents. Who are the opponents? of those outside the church that were looking to squelch the message and intimidate the people of God not to proclaim it. This is a clear sign to them of their destruction but of your salvation and that from God for it's been granted to you for the sake of Christ you should not only believe in his name but also suffer for his sake and gain in the same conflict. that you saw that I had, and now I hear that I still have. This is a conflict. They'll land Paul in prison when he writes the Philippian letter. They'll put him in prison in Philippi when he was there in Acts chapter 16. There's a fight that's usually external. There's a people in the world that oppose the things of the gospel. And God's people are to stand fast and stand firm and not relinquish the gospel, not be intimidated. Ultimately, folks, we're on the winning side. Ultimately, folks, we are more than conquerors for Him that loved us. And we shouldn't live in this world fearfully. We shouldn't live in this world with a sense of gloom and doom. We should live confidently as the people of God who know the truth, that liberates us and sets us free, and that fills our hearts with deep compassion and deep pity for those who are our enemies. We're called to struggle for the gospel, for its promotion, for its advancement, for its victory. And the only proper way to struggle for its advancement is to implement gospel methods. This is the gospel doesn't change. Our circumstances don't change the methods of how we win the war. That's always spiritual armor. We don't fight against flesh and blood. The weapons of our warfare are not fleshly weapons. They're mighty through God. We triumph not by arrogance and anger, but by faith and prayer. Not by hatred, but by goodness and grace and love. We have a common salvation. And we have a faith once for all delivered to all the saints. All the saints, all the saints have an interest in the gospel's advancement, in its struggle. It's not a church leader thing. It's not, you church leaders, you go after these adversaries. We all have a part. We all have a role to play. It's not a pastoral responsibility alone. Everyone in the church is to be watchful, prayerful, sober, vigilant. We all have a part to play in the defense and in the confirmation of the gospel, whether the fight is outside the church or the factors that have come within the church. It's once for all delivered to the saints, to all the saints. We're not alone in the struggle. That's the good part of that, is that it's a common, work where we have common support. The language of Paul and Philippians is shoulder to shoulder, one heart, one spirit, together striving for the faith of the gospel. That's what he's calling the people to do. In other words, awake to the reality of the adversary. See the nature of the danger. Job goes on to describe the nature of the danger when he says in the words of verse 4, For certain people have crept in unnoticed, who long ago were designated for this condemnation, ungodly people, who pervert the grace of our God into sensuality, and deny our only Master and Lord Jesus Christ. Now notice what he's saying. He's saying the problem again is not from the outsiders. It's not from the world. It's from people that have crept in. They slithered their way into the church. They've insinuated their way into the church. Maybe the church leaders weren't being careful when they received people into membership. Maybe they were hoodwinked. Maybe they were... We don't know how they got in, but they did. And they're there. They were in the assembly. And the church needs to be aware of the danger. Look at how the Apostle Paul, when he spoke to the elders from Ephesus in Miletus in Acts chapter 20. Listen to these words. He says, I know that after my departure, fierce wolves will come in among you. They'll come in among you, not sparing the flock. And from among your own selves will arise men speaking twisted things. You've got people coming from without. having their own agenda, their own plans, their own ambitions, to use the flock of God's people for their own ends and their own purposes. Then you have some homegrown talent coming up from the minor leagues, I guess, in the church. And they're going to rise up and they're going to say we want to be leaders. And everything in them is opposed really to the interests of the other members of the church. They're looking to follow after their own agenda. Beware of the dangers. They can come from every side, every place. They insinuate themselves in the midst of the people of God. John says they were not from us, but they were never among us. They never were part of us. It's only when they left that it became apparent they were never part of us. Sometimes we don't even know what people's real and true intents are. Sometimes stuff is going on in secret that we have no knowledge of. We spoke about this in Sunday school, people that come amongst the people of God for purposes of predation. looking to gratify their own sensual and sexual desires. There's probably a crowd among these people that were doing that very thing. Because Jude speaks of them as those who pervert the grace of our God into sensuality. They're concerned for their own desires being met. Perhaps sexual desires, perhaps their desire for prominence, their desire for leadership, their desire for notoriety, their desire for importance. Their desire for money. A lot of big money to be made in religion these days. And maybe they're after that. But their concern is not the grace of the gospel. Their concern is to pervert the grace of the gospel. They say, well look, the grace of the gospel has brought us forgiveness. Forgiveness complete and full. Why does it matter the way that we live? Because grace makes a difference. Because grace makes a difference. And if grace isn't making a difference, it's not grace. Whatever you've got, it's not grace. What is grace? It's favor. It's God's free favor coming to the, not only undeserving, but the ill deserving. Those that deserve the very opposite of what God gives. Now you have a sense that what you deserve is everlasting departure from the presence of God. You deserve everlasting misery in a place of weeping, wailing, and dashing of teeth. You have a sense that that's what my sin deserves. And the living God comes in the gospel and he says, not only will I not give you what you deserve, but I'm going to give you everlasting glory in my presence. I'm going to give you the riches of my grace and salvation. Can you consider receiving such a gift from His hands and saying, Oh, that's wonderful. Just go on unchanged. No, no. God's given us that grace of salvation so that we would exult in it. We would rejoice in it. We would bless Him for it. We would have a sense of how much we owe. That we're debtors to that grace. We owe everything to this God who's come in this salvation. Rescuing us from our sins. Grace doesn't promote sin. Grace saves from sin. And these perverters of grace are actually leaders and leading others into the path of sin. But don't worry about it. We'll be forgiven. Don't worry about it. The Gospel is sufficient to cleanse us once we've done the dirty deed, once we've committed the forbidden act. Well, what does it matter? God's merciful. That's what He's there for. But you see, it's the mercy of God that binds us to Him in love, that binds us to Him in a desire to be faithful, to be freed from the former transgressions, to be freed from the captivity that once bound us to our sins. We've been liberated to serve Him. We've not been liberated to serve ourselves. We've not been liberated to enter into an alliance with evil and to be performing those evil acts that these perverters of grace encourage us to do. The Jews' message is, beware of them. No, they're there. They've slithered in. They're using their wicked ways and their wicked tactics and their wicked intentions to suck you in to a sinful pattern of life. Resist them at all costs. Depart from them. Mark them. Know who they are. Know what they're about. This is dangerous stuff, what they're advocating. This is not a battle of whether you think you can talk in tongues or not. We get terribly upset over people otherwise with very godly lives. Man, they talk in tongues. Stay away from them. You won't be anywhere near those Presbyterians because they got this problem with Thonism. We don't want any part of that. We look to make wars at all points. But this is the point of salvation, folks. This is the point of perverting the grace of the gospel. This is the point of hitting at the very central thing about the gospel of the grace of God. that delivers us from our sins and does not promote us and comfort us in our sins. And along with this matter of the perversion of grace, you know what else these people do? They deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ. I know there's ways you can take that passage and think of the only Master as being God the Father and Jesus Christ, the second person of the Trinity, but I think only Master and Lord belong together and they all, both of those terms, focus upon the Lord Jesus. He's our Master. He's the one that we come to follow when the Gospel calls us to deny ourselves and to take up our cross daily and follow Him. He's the Master who has a right to govern us, who has a right to lead us, to call us to say no to self, no to sin. He's the Lord who having died for us rose from the dead. Wherefore God highly exalted him, gave him a name that is a brethren name, every name. The name of Jesus every knee should bow, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. He is the heavenly Lord of glory. The master whom we follow and whom we conform our life to, whom we serve. Can't serve two masters, we are told by Jesus. We serve Him exclusively. He alone has the right to govern and control us. And here's a group of people that deny Him. Now, I don't think they denied Jesus in terms of having any part in the gospel. I mean, they're in the church. They just don't think He has any real right to govern us and to control us. They're cast off his authority. He's there maybe to save us, maybe to die for us, maybe to provide benefits to us. But to actually be the one who we bow our knee to, whom we say, Lord, what will you have me to do? They don't want any part of that. They reject authority. Even the authority of God over them, so that they could go and do their own things, their own ways. Jude says, this is the danger. This is the danger that you're facing. This is the reason. I've scuttled the letter about the common salvation, and now I'm poised to address this problem. He says, so one other thing about these people. It said that their doom has been foretold. They've been designated for this condemnation. It's hard to know exactly what he's referring to. My own thought is that it's likely the fact that we are warned time and time again, through the length and breadth of the scriptures, that people who carry on in this way are really under the condemnation of God. He's gonna talk about those that walk in the way of Cain. kills his brother and he acts as if nothing happened at all. Where's your brother? Am I my brother's keeper? The way of Cain was a way that walked away from God, walked away from his law, walked away from his presence. Korah's rebellion, Balaam's error. All of these examples that he gives. Old Testament people. They simply cast off all authority. And so we'll do what we want and we don't care what God himself would say. And we're told that these are people who do not please God. These are the people that are designated for condemnation. They're under the condemnation of God. Woe to you! You call good evil, and evil good, and turn darkness to light, and light for darkness, and woe to you! God doesn't say blessing upon those people. God doesn't say it will be well with you, if you follow their ways. God says you follow the ways of these people that cast off His authority, that pervert grace, and to do what you will, and live as you please. They're under His judgment. Long ago, that's been determined. In the early chapters of Genesis, right through to the entirety of the Old Testament Revelation, points us to the reality that God has designated people like this for judgment, for condemnation. And here's the point to them. You go that way, you join them in their end. You walk in their way, you will arrive at their end. Blessed is the person who does what? Doesn't walk in the path of the ungodly. Doesn't walk in the way of sinners. Doesn't walk in the seat of the scoffer. His delight is in the law of the Lord. In his law he meditates day and night. Therefore sinners will not stand in the congregation of the righteous. The Lord knows the ways of the righteous, but the way of the wicked he will scatter. God has designated the ungodly for condemnation. And Jude's word to the readers is simply this. Note their lives. Note their teaching. It exposes them for who they are. Don't go there. Don't go there. It's perilous. Because here's the deal. God's people, Never deny the mastery of Christ. God's people never deny the Lordship of Christ. God's people never pervert grace. We receive grace, gratefully, with thankfulness of heart, to have our minds, hearts, and wills bound to the God who has been so good to us, to recognize we are debtors to that grace. The whole idea of grace is you can't turn it away in a different fashion. You can't just get, and get, and get, and get, and get from the hand of God and say, I owe you nothing. No, no. You say, what shall I render to the Lord for all His benefits to me? I will take the cup of salvation. I will call upon the name of the Lord. The genius of grace is it produces gratefulness. It produces a heart that delights in the God who's favored us. And we want to live to His honor. We want to live to His glory. We're coming to the Supper of Remembrance. And as we come to that supper, conscious that we don't want to lie in receiving the body of Christ symbolically presented as if it has nothing, something to do with us, when it has nothing to do with us at all. It's for the faithful. It's for the believer. It's for those who have bowed the knee to the Lordship of Christ. It's those who have entered into the grace of the gospel in ways that produce great debtorship and a sense of obligation and a sense of desire and love for the God who has done so much for us. I hope everyone who comes to the supper will come rightfully, will come acceptably, will come knowing we have a right to receive what's offered to us symbolically in this ordinance. that Jesus is received by faith to live under his authority, not to cast it off, to live lives of debtorship and gratitude, not to pervert his grace, to feed our own desires. May our coming to the supper be a statement of utter honesty in the presence of God. Thank you, Lord, for what you provided for me in your Son. Help me to live in a manner that is pleasing to you and worthy of the grace that you've bestowed upon me in my Savior. Let's go to the Lord in prayer, giving Him thanks for His goodness and love. Father, we're thankful for the warnings of the book of Jude. It's warnings that surely is needed in this present evil age. We're thankful that Jude's desire was to speak of the common salvation that we delight to talk about and we delight to glory in. And yet we're thankful that faithful words warn us to stay away from those who will pervert grace for their own ends, who will fail to submit to Jesus as Lord of all, as master who has every right to govern and control us. And so we thank you for this timely word of exhortation to us all. And now, as we do come to the supper, we pray that what transpires at the supper of remembrance will be truly a feeding upon the Lord Jesus, a response of hearts made glad by grace to glory in your goodness, and to determine more and more to live not for ourselves, but for the one who loved us, who died for us, and who rose again from the dead. Hear our prayers, we ask, and bless your people, we pray. as we come to you in Jesus' name, amen.