Hello and welcome to our second lesson in the little book of Jude. We're going to look at the purpose of Jude. One of the purposes he has was to expose the apostates and then to encourage the remnant. We see his concern as he speaks about the beloved in Jude one and verse number three, he said, beloved, I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation." He was concerned. He said in verse number 17, Beloved, remember ye the words which were spoken before. And then in Jude chapter 1 and verse number 20, he said, Beloved, building up yourselves and your most holy faith." He was concerned. He could have just stayed at home and lit up the barbecue and had a good time with his family, but things were serious here, and under the inspiration of the Word of the Holy Spirit, he wrote the Word of God here. He was concerned. about the remnant. His challenge to them was that they should earnestly contend for the faith. Notice it says earnestly contend for the faith. It does not say contend against the apostasy. That would be like an ant standing on a railroad track going to contend against the locomotive that's coming. This is prophesied. We're going to be living in an age of apostasy. As a matter of fact, we are living in an age of apostasy, and we are not challenged to fight the apostasy. That's here. What we need to do is to learn, as those who want to do right, how to earnestly contend for the faith in this age of apostasy that we're living in. Now, in Jude's introduction, we have in verse number one and verse number two, it says, Jude, the servant of Jesus Christ, the brother of James, to them that are sanctified by God the Father, preserved in Jesus Christ called that let me read that again 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 peace and love be multiplied Now, in verse number one, it starts out simply, Jude, the servant of Jesus Christ, the brother of James. Now, it's very interesting that he makes it very plain who he is here. I'm Jude, the brother of James. Now, his name is actually Judas, but nobody wanted to go by that name anymore. in the New Testament, you'll see he's called by different names. Here he's called Jude, the servant of Jesus Christ. Now, he says he's the brother of James. He had four brothers. There was James, and Joseph, and Simon, and then him, Jude. Now, in Mark chapter 6 and verse number 3, when Jesus was preaching, they said, not this the carpenter the son of Mary the brother of James and Joseph and Judah and Simeon and are not his sisters here with us and they were offended at him so we see here first of all that Jude is the brother of James this makes him the half-brother of Jesus he was raised in the home of the Lord Jude the brother of James, the servant of Jesus Christ. Now, in John chapter 7 and verse number 1, we read there that after these things Jesus walked in Galilee, for he would not walk in jewelry, because the Jews sought to kill him. Now, the feast of the Jews, the Jews' feast of Tabernacle was at hand, his brethren therefore said unto him depart hence and go into Judea that thy disciples also may see the works which thou doest what is happening here the Jews sought to kill him his brother said why don't you go down there you why they wanted to get rid of him they thought he'd gone off the deep edge of the subject of religion. Jude was one of those people, and now we see a tremendous change in his life. He starts out here, Jude, the servant of Jesus Christ, the brother of James. He gets to write one of the books in the New Testament. Now, when it talks about the servant, the Lord does not throw that phrase around loosely. It was given to a very few. Moses is called the servant of Jesus, Joshua, David, Paul, and, of course, Jude. The word means to be a bond slave. Now, if we go back to Exodus chapter 21, verse 5 and 6, it talks about the bond slave, and back there they had rules and laws concerning slaves, but If the servant shall plainly say, I love my master, my wife and my children and I will not go free. Now, one of the laws was after a certain period of time, if I remember correctly, I think it was seven years, but whatever it was, after a certain period of time, they were by law to let their slaves go. But, it says, if the servant shall plainly say, I love my master, my wife and my children, and we will not go out free, he says, then his master shall bring him unto the judges, and he shall also bring him to the door or unto the doorpost, and his master shall bore his ear through with an awe, and he shall serve him forever. Now, there was some laws concerning slaves, what you could do with them and what you could not do with them. But if you became a bond slave, there's no loss. This was a choice. He said, I will serve him forever, and the master could do whatever he wanted to do with him. That's what it's talking about when Jude, who at one point wanted his brother, his half-brother, to go up to wherever they would kill him. Now, he says, no, I'm the servant of Jesus Christ. He doesn't try to run on the fact that he's a half-brother of Jesus. No, he's not even going there. He said, Jude, the bond slave of Jesus Christ. It goes on to say, to them that are sanctified by God the Father and preserved in Jesus Christ and called. Sanctified. Now, the Bible talks about being justified, and that's past tense. It is when we are saved, we are saved from the penalty of sin, and it is a one-time experience. For me, it was October the 7th, 1955, at about 8.30 in the evening. As a 12-year-old boy, I received Jesus Christ as my personal Savior, and I was justified. Someone has said the plane way to explain justification. Justified, just as if I'd never sinned. What a tremendous thing it is to be free from the penalty of sin. But the Bible also talks about glorification, not just justification. And glorification is in the future, when we will be saved from the presence of sin, and that's once and for all. And all that will be glory for me, when that becomes a reality, when we are glorified, that is saved even from the presence of sin. So, justification saved from the penalty of sin, glorification saved from the presence of sin, but we're living here in this area where we're talking about sanctification, and that is being saved from the power of sin, and that is a continual thing. That will go on in my life from October the 7th, 1955, when I trusted Christ as my Savior. Until Christ comes back or I die, whatever happens first, this sanctification process is an ongoing process as Christians, as we live in this world. And most of the New Testament, after the Gospels and the Book of Acts, most of the New Testament is there, written for us, telling us how we can have a power to be saved from the power of sin. if we'll take advantage of the things that have been paid for at Calvary. See, it wasn't just a free trip to heaven that was paid for at Calvary. It was being able to live. Well, we have it back in the Old Testament where they crossed over the Red Sea, and then what would they do? They wandered around in the wilderness Well, they need to get out of that wilderness wandering and cross over the Jordan into victorious Christian life. The Jordan is not a picture of going to heaven. The Jordan is a picture of the victorious living, the victorious, let me try that again. It's being, living the victorious Christian life here on earth, being saved from the power of sin. It's not heaven. They got across that river. The first thing they did was they fought the battle of Jericho and a whole lot of other enemies. there's no enemies in heaven so it's justification sanctification and glorification but he goes on to say we are preserved in Jesus Christ and called preserved the Bible says and Jude said it here in in verse number 24 Now unto him that is able to keep you from falling." Falling for what? Falling for the apostasy in this age in which we are living. Then he says, to them that are sanctified by God the Father and preserved in Jesus Christ and called. We are called, the Bible says in Ephesians chapter four, verse number one, to walk worthy of the vocation wherewith we are called. That word vocation. has been translated calling 10 times. So we're to walk worthy of the calling wherewith we are called. Now the context of Jude has to do with this situation of apostasy. We are living in an age of apostasy. We could have been living 200 years ago. We could have been living 1,500 years ago. We're not. We're living here right now. and we are to walk worthy of the calling wherewith we are called in this age of apostasy. In verse two, Jude said, mercy unto you and peace and love be multiplied. Now, as you look in the New Testament, there's 21 letters that were written to the Corinthians or to the Ephesians or to the Galatians. There's 21 different letters in the New Testament. In those letters, you'll find that the introduction included the words grace, mercy, and peace. 18 times we see the word grace was used in the introduction, mercy was used five times, and peace was used 16 times. Only Jude used the word love in his introduction. And what he said was, love must be multiplied. Now, if we're going to love, and I call this Jude's love letter, that's what it is, love, he loved exposing filthy dreamers. He loved exposing the way of Cain. If we're going to love the Bible way, we're going to expose the error of Balaam. We're going to expose the gainsaying of Cor. We're going to expose those spots in your feast of love. We're going to expose the murmurers and the complainers. We're going to expose those who are walking after their own lust. We're going to expose those who are using great swelling words to take advantage of us. And we're going to expose the mockers at the end of the age. That's what the Bible talks about when it talks about love. Well, I don't think we have a very good understanding of what love really is Jesus said this in Revelation as many as I love I rebuke and Jason love now genuine love protects those who are important to us Paul in Philippians 1 9 said and this I pray that your love may abound more and more in knowledge in knowledge and in judgment We're living today in an age when the wolves are coming into our churches and the wolves are coming into our homes like never before, and genuine love is going to protect those that we care about if we really have genuine love for them. But we're living in an age when most preachers and most parents, pastors and fathers in particular, got their heads buried in the sand. Woes? I don't see any woes, do you? No, I don't see any woes. That's where we're living today. Not only does genuine love protect those who are important to us, genuine love protects what is important to God, and that is the truth. In this, he said, in this I pray that your love may abound yet more and more in knowledge and in all judgment. Concerning Jude's love, he had a love for Christ. That's beyond question. He's a bond slave for Jesus Christ. He had a love for Christians. He said, it's needful for me that I write unto you. He had a love for the cause of Jesus Christ, the truth. And if we're going to love like the Bible says to love, we're going to be speaking the truth. in love we'll go down through this book we're going to see that jude didn't mess around he went straight to the point it was plain it was simple he said this is what apostasy is this is who are the apostates and this is how you can get the victory over it all love it's a tremendous subject if you would like if you email me at bobkirkland7 at gmail.com i'll send you a book i'll download it to you on what does the bible say about love we need to understand what love is and what love isn't if you're watching this on your computer you could just click on that right now below and and it'll come up and you can email me and i'll send you that book well we'll get into it in our next lesson verse number three beloved when i gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation it was needful for me to write unto you and exhort you that ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints. Be sure and tune in for our next lesson, Contending for the Faith.