Hold on one second, Justin. I got you covered, brother. I like to do a sermon outline simply because I'm a guest preacher. One more? Okay. That'll help you follow me a little more closely since I'm unfamiliar to you. Well, we're in the little book of Jude. I've had the privilege over the last several months expositing the book of Jude verse by verse. And at Trinity, we're a little further along, but I wanted to take a moment with you guys to kind of focus in on verse three of Jude's letter. And it's really the first half of verse three. You know, Jude is a small book. It's only 25 verses, but It packs a lot of very rich theology. You could just kind of feel that as we read the book together. 25 verses, but there's a lot in there for us to discover. Jude is a very Christological book. It's a book that has a very high view of Jesus. And it's also a book that's very deeply tied to the Old Testament. The lion's share of Jude's letter from verses 4 to 19 are really an expose of a lot of Old Testament types and passages helping us to see modern day, in Jude's time and even in our time today, modern day threats to the church. Now, Jude's letter, though it does share a lot about false teachers and apostates, that's not really Jude's intention in the letter. Jude's intention in the letter is to teach Christians how to contend for the faith. And you can see that in verse three. I'm writing appealing to you to contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints." Now, that's not going to be our focus this morning. It's going to be the first half of verse 3. But just know that this is not...this letter is commonly seen by people as, you know, four ways to spot an apostate teacher. It does give us that information. But Jude's main reason for writing is to teach us how to contend for the faith. So with that said, the title of our sermon is Jude's Character of Love for the Church. And I want to focus in on Jude's character of love for the church really for one main reason. Obviously, Jude is the man who wrote the letter, but not many focus in on Jude's character and who he was as a man of God in the midst of theological controversy. And we can learn a lot by examining Jude's attitude toward the church, toward other believers, when we face theological or doctrinal or Bible-related controversies. Sadly, and I say this with a bit of a broken heart, there are camps being developed within Reformed Baptist circles. And those camps are fighting over things that are very small differences in some ways, but very large differences to other people in other ways. Men are drawing lines where I don't think they need to draw lines. And they are making issues out of things that I think are not going to strengthen the movement but are going to ultimately weaken the movement and make it very, very brittle. There's an old saying that you can draw a circle so small that you have to stand on one leg to fit in it. And sadly, as Reformed Baptist, I see that happening to us. And I don't want that to happen. And that's one of my motives this morning for sharing this message with you, to examine Jude's life as a lover of the church and what that looks like, what that means for us as believers. So a brief study of his character I think is going to be really helpful for us in the days ahead, and it will help us also to interact with just other Christians that we may disagree with. Christianity is monolithic in a lot of ways, but there are differences among us, okay? I wouldn't write off every Presbyterian that I disagree with. He's in the kingdom of God. He confesses faith in Christ. So, this will help us hopefully form some really good, solid foundations for how to interact with other Christians that we disagree with. So, again, the title of the sermon is Jude's Character of Love for the Church, and we're going to cover this little text, the beginning of verse 3, the first half of verse 3, in three points. So, you can see on your outline, first, we're going to see Jude's affection of love for the church. Second, we're going to see in a little greater detail Jude's actions of love for the church, what he did. And then third, I want to bring in Jude as a man in association with others, with a very familiar example, hopefully for you. So let's read again Jude 3 and 4 just to get a little more of the context of what we're talking about this morning. Jude three, beloved, although I was very eager to write to you about our common salvation, I found it necessary to write appealing to you to contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints. 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. So the first point I would like for you to see is Jude's affection of love for the church. And this is the first thing we have to notice, his affection of love for the church. He has a very high affection for the church. He calls them beloved. You see that in verse three, beloved. It's the word agapitas. You've heard agape before, right? In the Christian world, agape. It's the word agapitas. It's the very same word that the father uses when describing his son, Matthew 3, 17. This is my agapitas, my beloved son with whom I am well pleased. It's a term of deep affection, of endearment. Over 60% of the mentions of this word in the Old Testament appear in the Song of Solomon. the lion's share of this affectionate term in the Old Testament appear in the Song of Solomon. And what we know about that book is it's a very stirring account of the love of Christ for his church and his church for him. So Jude's affections for the church amid theological war are loving affections. He does not scorn her. He does not browbeat her. He does not push her off and distance himself from her in the midst of theological controversy. He calls the church beloved, agapitas. And his view of the church is God's view of the church. He calls them agapitos, beloved. He loves the church. And we have, and you can see there on your outline, we have great grounds for loving the church. We have great grounds for loving the church. Think of this, we are members of the same body. Now, we snub the current cultural idea of body mutilation. We know all that's going on in the culture with those things. I say this with humility and fear, however. Christians have been doing this to one another for years. It was a mark of the Corinthian church that their love for each other was very, very low. Paul reminded them of this. The body is one and has many members. And all members of the body, though many, are one body. 1 Corinthians 12, 12. He goes on to say, if the foot should say, because I'm not a hand, I do not belong to the body, that would not make it any less part of the body. And if the ears should say, because I'm not an I, I do not belong to the body. You see the body of Christ metaphorically here, self-reflecting. Well, I'm not like that guy. He's the loud mouth guy on the street being a preacher. I'm not that guy. Am I not as useful as him? Because I'm not an I, I don't belong to the body. That would not make it any less a part of the body. Now, that great chapter of love in 1 Corinthians 13 comes right on the heels of what Paul was just saying. It comes on the heels of that kind of warped thinking in the church. We would deem someone really not all there in the head who looked at their arm or any other part of their body and said, I do not need you. That's not normal. That's not normal. And we as the body of Christ have been doing this for years. But we have great grounds, beloved, to love the church. We are all members of the same body. Paul elsewhere says this, we are one body and one spirit, just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and father of all who is over all and through all and in all. What sort of people would we be toward one another if we really truly believe that? What sort of people would we be as the body of Christ if we truly believe those things? We have to keep this constantly before us. So we have great grounds for loving the church, and we have great motives for loving the church. We have great motives for loving the church. Paul says, therefore, be imitators of God as beloved children and walk in love. just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God. I think we could at least say this, a fragrant and sacrificial life unto God is a person who loves the church. Let me say that again. A fragrant and sacrificial life unto God At least one of those marks is one who loves the church. You ever had to live with and forgive someone you were called to worship with Sunday after Sunday? Anyone who's ever been married more than five minutes knows what that's like, especially my wife living with me. That's fragrant, beloved. That's the fragrance of Christ. A fragrant offering to God to realize that in the gospel, you'll never have to love someone more than Christ has loved you. You'll never have to forgive someone more than Christ has forgiven you. You'll never have to serve someone more than Christ has served you. That's a great motive to love the church. That's fragrant. That's sacrifice. And God loves the church. That's our motive. That's our motive. We must imitate him. Be imitators of God, Paul says. Be imitators of God. So we have great motives to love the church. But we also have a great command to love the church. 1 John 3, 23. And this is the commandment, John says, that we believe in the name of his son, Jesus Christ, and love one another, just as he has commanded us. Love is a command from the Lord Jesus Christ. It's not a feeling. It's a settled fact and action toward another person. Sometimes I don't feel like loving someone, and I'm certain that people don't feel like loving me, but we've been commanded to love one another just as he has commanded us. There's no such thing as a Christian who loves Christ and does not love the church. That probably rules out about 85 to 90% of professing evangelicals. There's no Christian who says they love Jesus and doesn't love the church. It's just not true. You can't find that attitude in the New Testament among any of the believers. In this very plain and unmistakable way, John says that this is one significant mark of a faithful Christian, loving the church. loving the church. And we find this affection in Jude in that little word, beloved. This is how he addresses them. Do we speak to one another that way? This begs the question, how do we speak about the church? How do we speak about the church? What are our affections toward her? Do we speak ill of her? Do we whisper behind her back? She is Christ's bride after all. You will give an answer for those things. Whatever we say of her, her husband is listening. How we treat her, he sees it. But families can acknowledge one another's presence without really caring. Is that a brother or sister? Are they beloved to you? that brother or sister you're thinking about that you may not get along with completely? Are they beloved to you? Do you speak of them this way? Do you think of them this way? Though you may disagree. Can we sing, I love thy kingdom, Lord, the house of thine abode, the church, our blessed redeemer saved with his own precious blood. Can we sing that in truth? I know we can sing it, we can sing it, but are we singing it here? I love thy kingdom, Lord, the house of thine abode. Do you agree with David in Psalm 16, three? As for the saints in the land, they are the excellent ones in whom is all my delight. Maybe that's a challenge for the young Christians or young men. Who are the closest friends you have in this life? Is it the people who revel in and love worldly things? And you kind of associate with the Christians on Sundays because it's kind of what mom and dad want you to do and you got to kind of please them. but do we have the heart of David? That's what we're after here. What is our attitude toward the church? Do you call the saints delightful? Can you see in them the redemptive work of Christ? Now, it may sound strange, but take a minute and just look around. You're a small church. We're a small gathering. You don't know me, but thank you for allowing me to preach to you. I want you to look around. Every believer in here, every believer you put your eyes on, carries a redemptive majesty about them that God has placed on their life. Whether you see that in full bloom or not, He has placed it there. You're not looking at a mere mortal, beloved. You're not looking at someone dull or uninteresting. If you should see, as one writer has said, that Christian in their glorified state with your unglorified eyes, you are looking at a creature that would carry with it such a weight of glory that it would tempt you to worship it. You were looking at a son and a daughter of God, the Lord of glory, unrefined, but redeemed, not what they ought to be, but loved. He came to save them from the horror of sin. For them, he prayed, he bled, he died, and he will return for them one day. We sing it. From heaven he came and sought her to be his holy bride. With his own blood he bought her, and for her life he died. How do we see the church, beloved? This is critical for us in the midst of theological controversy. It is absolutely fundamental and foundational. And many people, when they read Jude, look at it as a cannon or a shotgun for war, and they miss Jude's tone right up front. right up front. Jude was a man with deep affection for the church. And I pray that God help us believe by faith what we cannot see many times with our eyes. So that's our first point. Jude's affection for the church. But what about his actions? Jude's actions of love for the church. His love was more than words. His affections set him to action. Notice his actions. We'll explore this in several sub points. Love for the church made him an eager man. Now I'm reading from the ESV here. Verse three, beloved, although I was very eager to write to you, Love for the church made Jude an eager man. Now, the Nazby, N-A-S, says, he made every effort to write to them about their common salvation. And the King James says, I gave all diligence. The same idea is translated. He was very eager to write to them. Love for the church made him an eager man. This term means an extraordinary commitment to responsibility and devotion. in the interest of others. He was eager. He was committed responsibly and devoted to the interest of others. One theologian says this, the Christian religion is an industrious religion. It knows the value of time. It understands the many and important things to be done. It seeks to improve all that it touches. It takes the mind away from everything that promotes laziness. And Paul states it this way in Romans 12. Do not be slothful in zeal. Be fervent in spirit, serve the Lord. Be fervent in spirit, serve the Lord. That word zeal, And Romans 12 is the same word here in the original. Diligent, make every effort, be eager for the church and her welfare. Solomon says the same in Ecclesiastes 9 verse 10. Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might, for there is no work or thought or knowledge or wisdom and shield to which you were going. Only those who improved upon the talents that they received were commended by the Lord. Go read Matthew 25. Only those who improved upon the talents that they received were commended by the Lord. Whatever else we can say about that parable, one thing is very, very clear. God gave us all varying spiritual privileges, not for ourselves, but for usefulness in the church. And God has given you gifts to be used in the church. And he doesn't expect you to return that to him empty, okay? God does not desire you to return to him that which he has given to you in the same measure. improve upon the gift. One man may say, I only have one talent. Be eager and improve upon it. Another who's been given many talents must do the same. Jude was this sort of man. Jude was this sort of man. Love for the church made him very eager to give his all for her and improve upon what he had. It made him hungry for opportunity. hungry to do good to the church. Most of the time in church, it's three people on the heavy end of the log and 30 people on the light end of the log. But the way Christians ought to be toward one another is that we ought to be hungry to do good, eager to serve the church, eager to love the church and to see others come into her ranks. Now, I think it's right to say that it's not enough to do good to her, but to do good and love her with eagerness and diligence to make every effort. Everyone at some point in their life knows what it's like to get the bare minimum from a lover. If you've been married again for more than five seconds, you know what that's like to get the bare minimum from a lover. You check in, you do your thing, you check out day after day, cycle after cycle. Are we hungry, beloved, for opportunities to do good to the church? What do we make of the Christian who only does good to the church when they're forced to do so. Is that true love? If we have to drag one another along to love one another, if we have to drag one another along and almost talk one another into hospitality, what kind of love is that? The text says, Jude sought opportunity, but many people hardly take opportunity. Again, can we sing with the hymn writer? For her my tears shall fall, for her my prayers ascend, to her my cares and toils be given, till toils and cares shall end. Love made Jude eager for the good of the church. So it made him an eager man. Love makes you eager to express that love. Love for the church also made him a very timely man. And I'll be very brief here. Notice the shift in his intentions in verse three. His heart was making these diligent plans, even possibly in the midst of it, gathering material, outlining notes, thinking deeply on specific subjects, working diligently to write them out concerning one thing, but love made him recalculate. You see that? Although I was very eager to do one thing, I found it necessary to do another. Love made Jude a timely man. Love made him recalculate. And from love, he offered a timely remedy. I think we can say this. Love made him a lot less rigid and a lot more flexible in his plans. Love made him a lot less rigid and a lot more flexible in his plans. You see the shift there. It made him a timely man. Love made him an exact man. It made him an exact man. So it made him an eager man, it made him a timely man, and it made him an exact man. When love is timely, it is also precise. It's also precise. As I considered this point, I ran across an intriguing and really kind of amusing story about how many in the Latin community swear by this apparently magical and ubiquitous substance called Vix VapoRub. And my wife is Puerto Rican, so I can get away with a joke like this, I guess. But in the Latin community, there's this cultural thing about Vicks VapoRub. It just cures everything. It's like Greeks with Windex. It cures everything from psoriasis to poison ivy. They put it on everything. Now, according to sources close to the incident, Vicks, customarily used to ease cough and congestion, has been applied to a wonderfully curious array of life circumstances. Acne, sunburn, mosquito bites, chapped lips, and bumps from a fall, to name a few. Now, some of you are sitting there going, hmm, that makes sense. Put Vicks VapoRub on chapped lips. Hopefully not. But to their defense, Procter and Gamble, the makers of Vicks VapoRub, market Vicks as being able to, quote, temporarily relieve minor aches and pains on muscles and joints. Do you mean the same thing that can help me breathe easy at night can relieve my arthritis? Say it ain't so. This expression of love, and hopefully by the analogy you get this point, is well intended. Put Vicks VapoRub on everything. I don't doubt any grandmother putting Vicks VapoRub on their grandchildren's mosquito bites lacks love, but it's not very precise. But I digress. Two times, and here's the point, two times Jude mentions writing to them. He writes to them. I was eager to write to you about our common salvation, but I found it necessary to write appealing to you. Two times he mentions being an exact man in writing to them. Now, one older theologian said this, reading books can make a very full man fill your head full of a lot of knowledge. Discussion Conversation can make a ready man because that's where those thoughts are worked out. But writing makes an exact man. Reading makes a full man. Conversation makes a ready man. Writing makes an exact man. Jude was an exact man. Writing has always been a great help in the cause of the truth. It's better preserved the truth down through the ages, and it's in this way writing has better propagated the truth. It's like water from a well. Men can constantly draw on those same words over and over and over again. Now, not everyone is called to this sort of thing, that is to write. I'm telling you this so that you don't miss my point here. I think a very helpful principle can be drawn out. In Jude's love for the church, he set out to employ the highest and greatest skill in his possession to meet their current needs. Jude was a writer. God had gifted him to do those things, and it was that skill that he gave with his whole heart to the church. He was given to write, and so he did. When error threatened the church, Jude set out the most effective weapon in his arsenal. Love is always seeking to do what is precise, what is exact and fitting for the situation. That's the principle I think we can draw from here. Jude was an exact man in his love. Consider Proverbs 15, 23. Consider Proverbs 15, 23. To make an apt answer is a joy to a man. who receives it, and a word in season how good it is. Now, think about this. As you counsel one another, if you've had opportunity to counsel someone through a difficult situation, is Romans 8.28 true? And we know for those who love God, all things work together for good for those who are called according to his purpose. Is that verse true? Yes, it is. But is it in season five minutes after a mother has lost their child at birth? True wisdom tells us no, it's not. That word remains true. but it's not fit for that moment. Anyone who's been there knows what I'm talking about. We must pray as Christians for the spirit of Isaiah. The Lord God has given me the tongue of those who are taught. What does the rest of the verse say? That I may know how to sustain with a word him who is weary. It's one thing to have the truth and you can put it on a baseball bat and hit somebody upside the head with it. It's another thing to know how to minister the truth and sustain someone who is weary with it. And I would argue that a large part of that comes with wisdom and knowing what to say and when to say it. The timing of that word is very important. The most significant part of the battle is not knowing what to say, but how to say it. Consider Hebrews 10, 24. We are to consider how to stir one another up to love and good works. We are not to simply stir one another up to love and good works, but we are to consider how to do so, precision, Intentionality must be part of our considerations of love. Guess what you can't do in considering? When you consider how to love someone and stir them up to loving good works, that means you have to know them. You have to know what makes them work, what makes them tick. And if our fellowship is very broken apart and not deep and loving. We're not gonna know one another enough to know how to stir one another up to loving good works. We just won't know how to do it. This point is proven by experience. We know when we are loved well because we see the precise intentions of the person loving us. Ladies, I think you'll identify with this analogy. I can hear it now in my wife's voice. Oh, my fuzzy socks and my favorite blanket and my favorite coffee. Men, you know what I'm talking about. Those strange creatures in our home, those familiar bedfellows, suffer in many ways differently than we do. and therefore need our special consideration when ministering to their needs. You don't love your wife like you love your bro. You just don't. You just don't. Not everything is fixed with BC powder and duct tape, okay? Nor is your wife. We must love the church in the same way. I hope the analogy is clear. We have to be exact in our intentions in loving the church. That means we have to know one another. We have to know what makes one another tick. That's how we can minister grace in a very timely and specific way. But think about this also. Love made Jude disinclined to war. Love made Jude disinclined to war. Do you see it? Do you see it in the text? His heart was planning and preparing one thing, willing, diligent, zealous to write concerning our common salvation. External circumstances pressed him to do another. Only constrained by the external threat did he pick up to write and appeal to contend for the faith. Jude did not wake up every morning looking for a fight. Christians are people of peace. He was a man of peace. He desired much more to talk about shared things, common things. He calls it our common salvation. He was eager to fellowship with all Christians and talk about those things together. Rather than being a man eagerly wanting to write to the church to contend, we find a man who was disinclined as kind of the first move of his heart to fight, Yet, don't miss this, once pressed from the outside, he was ready to do so. But we can't miss the point. He was disinclined to war. When called to war, Jude went to war wholeheartedly, wholly committed, ready to die. And if you read the letter, highly effective in that warfare, highly effective in that warfare. But he was not clawing for a battle. Now we can't be naive to the trickiness of our flesh, beloved. We cannot. We can come to enjoy a fight. Some of us have that bent about us that just like to argue. We like it just because it's an argument. and we can come to enjoy the fight, which is very dangerous. Looking out among his troops, General Sherman is recorded as saying, some of you young men think that war is all glamor and glory, but let me tell you, boys, it's all hell. This was a man who was seasoned in battle. And there were some young men standing on the battlefield who saw the glamor and glory of war. And here's a man who saw nothing but hell on earth. May we never forget that fact. Valiancy in war is one thing. Enjoying war is another. Being valiant in war is one thing, but enjoying war, it's another. And I think our soul is in a very sick place when we find deep purpose in searching for someone to disagree with. God forbid, God forbid, or even someone to hate. Christians can get there, and they have over and over in church history. This fact says much about Jude's attitude toward perceived controversy and unity among the body. We'll see this in a moment. Every Christian should be disinclined to war, yet by love prepared to wage it when thrust upon us. Jude was a man disinclined to war. Love also made him a man inclined to highlight those things in common rather than highlight those things in distinction. Now, I don't know where each of you are in your journey theologically, but there is something called cage-stage Calvinism. You come to see God exalted on his throne, sovereign over all things, and you see that truth cutting through scripture, A to Z, Genesis to Revelation. And what do we normally do? We go blaze a trail, hacking off everyone who disagrees. We end up carving ourselves away, standing in a little corner with our own little think tank and shunning everyone who may think otherwise. That was not the attitude of Jude. It's not the attitude of scripture. He was a man inclined to highlight those things in common rather than highlight the distinctions. Have your distinctions. They are worth dying for. But if that's all you highlight, That's not the attitude of scripture. Now, I want to camp here just for a moment because I think it's crucial for us to understand this. This fact is another one of those little nuggets of truth kind of tucked away that we can read over quickly in this epistle. And we won't grasp the weight of what the Holy Spirit's trying to teach us here. we have to explore what it means to highlight or emphasize those things in common. Where do we get that idea? Look at the phrase in Jude 3. Although I was very eager to write to you about our common salvation, love made Jude inclined to highlight those things in common. To say it another way, Jude was eager to keep the main things the plain things. and the plain things, the main things. Considering his audience in the early Christian community, men and women separated by nationality, culture, outlook on life, and education with regard to both the world and scripture, Jude says this in a very beautiful way. I wanted to highlight our common salvation. And we're no different. The body of Christ is no different. Various particularities mark us. And thank God we're not all the same. Yet there's a great many things that are held in common by all Christians. And so Jude calls to mind the salvation shared and enjoyed among all Christians. Weak and strong, young and old, all share a common salvation. One theologian has said, Christians may not have all things in common, but have a common salvation. So what is meant by this phrase, our common salvation? Now, common does not mean ordinary. It means commonly held, mutual interest, those things which are precious to us and among us. It's the word koinos, koinos. It's where we get the word koinonia. Koinonia, most frequently translated in the New Testament, fellowship. Fellowship. One theologian remarked this, this has the meaning of the salvation which is offered to all people alike upon the same conditions from the same source and entailing the same obligations. Jude saw the churches in league with him and he was in league with them. I'm going to run the risk of oversimplification and possibly run the risk of overlooking something. Still, I'm willing to say that every faithful Christian has at least these eight things in common. Every Christian has at least these eight things in common. Now, if you've wrestled with this in your life, what are the essentials? What are the non-essentials? What do we fellowship over? What do we break fellowship over? Here's, I think, a list that will help you begin the process. Eight things I think we have in common. Number one, we are all chosen by the same grace alone. We are all chosen by the same grace alone. Thomas Manton remarks this way, John and Andrew are different than Peter and Paul, but they are chosen by the same grace. God's motives to save each is the same, free grace, free grace. It is by grace you have been saved. through faith. So, we are all chosen by the same grace, first mark of our common salvation. Second mark, we all have the same Christ. We all have the same Christ. Acts 4.12, there is salvation in no one else. There is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved. All Christians have the same Christ. Number three, we are all redeemed by the same blood alone. It is written in the law in Exodus 30, 15, the rich shall give no more and the poor shall give no less than half a shekel when you give the Lord's offering to make atonement for your lives. So it is with the death of Christ. The same ransom that was paid for your sin was paid for my sin and paid for the sin of every believer. His blood was shed equally for all of God's elect. We are redeemed by the same blood alone. Number four, we are all justified by the same righteousness alone. For there is no distinction, Paul says, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God and are justified by His grace as a gift through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. One theologian is helpful here, he says, there's a difference in the degree of faith which receives this righteousness, but there is no difference in the righteousness itself. Some of you have a weaker faith, some of you have a stronger faith. It is faith nonetheless that apprehends and believes on the Lord Jesus Christ and his righteousness. A giant, this theologian says, or strong man can hold a precious jewel, and so can a child. The jewel is the same, though the man who holds it with a stronger hand loses nothing of its worth if it's in the child's hand. So here the righteousness is the same, though the faith is not the same. We are all justified by the same righteousness. Number five, we have all the same privileged access to the throne of grace, according to Hebrews 4.16. We all have the same privileged access to the throne of grace. Number six, we all have the same way to those privileges, namely, faith alone, faith alone. Number seven, we all have the same rule. It is scripture alone, scripture alone, 2 Timothy 3.16. And finally, number eight, we are all one body. Paul says in Colossians 2 19, we hold fast to the head from whom the whole body nourished and knit together through its joints and ligaments grows with a growth that is from God. Now, the detail of those things is one thing, but the reality of them in the heart, However undeveloped is another. Every Christian, I could say, without any hesitation, shares those eight things. And if you were keen to listen, you heard five solas. Five solas. You see that? Jude was eager to discuss those things. That was Jude's heart in fellowship with other believers. Spurgeon says this, The denominations of the Christian church are very like the divisions of a plowed field by means of furrows that mark the surface, but the land remains to all intents and purposes one field. I do not speak of mere professing Christians, but truly spiritual people. Such are all one in Christ Jesus, and their salvation is in all respects the same. If they do not have all things common, at least they have one and the same salvation. All converted men and women believe in the same essential truths, feel the working of the same Spirit within them, and press forward to the same end, namely, perfecting holiness in the fear of the Lord." So this brings to the forefront, I think, just a very great observation that we cannot miss. The things we hold in common should be more frequently dwelt upon than the things we hold in particular. Now, I just said something that I'm not unaware of the context in which I'm saying it. Think about this, a man who cannot see this is probably living in a theological bubble. Jude was eager to write these things common among one another. Necessity pulled him away to something else. And so this fact brings us to our final point. I'm not unaware of the context in which I'm saying these things in an association of churches who hold to a particular confession of faith, a very historic, robust, sure guide and expression of the Christian religion. We're particular people. Our confession is a very clear expression of biblical truth. 32 chapters, 114 questions about the Christian life, and more scripture references than the stars in the sky. Some of us have given up much to believe what we believe. And I'll say this to any young Christian or old Christian. The older Christian knows it probably a little more. Truth always costs you something. whether you're in America or in a hostile nation. Truth will always cost you something. And some of us have given up much to believe what we believe. Some of us have more skin in the game than others, but it's skin nonetheless. I don't want to deny or overlook that fact, but lest we forget, the writers of our confession of faith bent over backwards, not to highlight distinctions, though distinctions are made in that confession, but they bent over backwards to highlight those things in common, in common. They wrote, one thing that greatly prevailed with us to undertake this work and the thing most nearly concerned in producing this confession of faith among the other Christians in that area who disagreed with them. They wanted to establish the great truths of the gospel. They wanted a clear understanding and steady belief for the Christian believer, and they wanted the Christian who read it to bear fruit to God. They used the same terminology as their other brothers. They had in their own words no itch to clog religion with words. They were much like Jude. They presented the things that were held in common. They were deeply driven and more inclined to highlight those things in common than those things in distinction. And they were precise men. If you've ever read the Confession of Faith, they were precise men. Those words there seem to weigh, each word weighs 1,000 pounds. It has the whole history of the Christian religion behind them. They were exact men, and that's why they affixed so many texts to their proofs. They were carefully crafted statements of love fit for the occasion. And what was their intention? That contention, this is quoting them, that contention is most remote from our design in all that we have done in this matter. When these men presented what they presented as a confession of faith, they say contention was the furthest thing from what we were doing. They highlighted what was in common more than the distinctions. These, beloved, were mature men. mature men, hardy men. They were big-chested men and particular men for the truth, but they were very broad and loving men. And those two things can be held together. They can be held together. Christianity for them was a broad and hardy thing, not a narrow and brittle and crotchety, just mad at everybody thing. And it's something that did not close them off from the world and other Christians. Young men, and just men, listen to me, please. I know we have a heart for the truth. We have a heart for the truth. And I know the truth burns in your heart. I know that. You want to be a robust, godly, useful man in the culture. And I praise God for men being raised up to do those things. You will carry the truth long after many of us are gone. You are the future. You are part of building the church, and you have to be men of the sword. You must not only be a particular man, down to the syllable, but you have to be a broad and hearty and loving man. If what we believe, brothers and sisters, makes us less broad and more narrow, we are not in league with these men and we're not in league with Jude. We have not understood the truth rightly. We may confess their doctrine, but we do not behave in the same spirit. Would Jude be in league with us? Would we be in league with him? We're better at dividing than uniting. That's a sad reality of the Christian church, and especially among Baptists. We are better at dividing than uniting. We excel at this. You know, Paul told the Corinthian church to excel at building up the church, and we excel at dividing. The church has suffered from very silly divisions in the past. Do not think we are immune from those things now. Has it never struck us when we're driving through town and we see the sign Second Baptist Church? What happened to the first one? Why is there another one? Now, maybe I'm naive, I'll grant that. Maybe I'm a dreamer, I'll grant that too. Maybe I'm simple in this regard, maybe inexperienced, but I do know this, that according to our text, these things ought not be. They ought not be. If our circle of Christianity is so small that we have to stand on one leg to fit in it, it may be high time to reevaluate our approach to contending for the truth. May God keep this far, far, far away from us and far from a spirit of division. Paul says in Romans 12, 18, as far as it depends on you, be at peace with all men. Now, if we dismiss these preliminary remarks and as you go on to read Jude in your own time together, you not only miss the understanding and example of great-hearted men who were in the midst of theological controversy, but you miss the great truth that will serve you well when you contend for the faith. The true soldier, as one theologian says, fights not because he hates what is in front of him, but he loves what is behind him. Let us remember these things, beloved. Let's pray together. Oh Lord, would you help us to consider these things? Would you help us to be of Jude's character? Broadhearted men, loving men, men who love the church, who are exact men, timely men. who love one another, who stir one another up to love and good works. And Lord, would you help us to be valiant for the truth, hating war, standing for truth when necessary. Give us wisdom, Lord, and balance in these things. Help us to be mature in these things. And in things that are secondary, Lord, would you help us to see that good men differ. that we can hold common communion together. Forgive us of our sins, Lord, of division and being eager to fight. Wars, rumors of wars, and all these things, Lord, are not healthy for your church. We thank you for the promise that you will build your church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. Help us to be godly people, a very crooked and perverse age. In Christ's name we ask, amen.