The Eternal Security of the Chris­tian

Jude 1‑2

Turn in your bible to the little Epistle of Jude, the next to the last book in the bible. We are going to begin tonight a study of this wonderful little book, and one that is very helpful to us in understanding some very, very important things about a very important subject. The book of Jude, probably one of the most neglected and ignored books in all of the bible. Just because it is brief doesn't mean it isn't important. On the contrary, it's extremely important. It has some very urgent things to say to us and I trust tonight that we'll at least begin to crack the door a little bit on an understanding of the book.

We really need to do two things tonight, one is to introduce the book in a general way, and the other is to zero in on the first two verses, and when we look at the first two verses we will be considering the subject of the 'Eternal Security of the Christian'; The eternal security of the Christian. The beginning of the church age is described in the Acts of the Apostles. The end of the church age in dealt with in the book of Jude which somebody has titled 'The Acts of the apostates'. Acts describes the deeds and teachings of men of God who began to build the church. Jude, the last New Testament Epistle relates the deeds and teachings of evil men who will be living at the time when the church age comes to an end. In fact, Jude is the only book in the bible that is entirely devoted to discussing the great apostasy which is to come before the return of Jesus Christ. The word apostasy means departing from the faith. The bible predicts that there will be a great departing from the faith around the time of the return of Christ.

     In the gospels our Lord Jesus Christ predicted that people under the name of Christianity would turn their backs on the truth. The apostle Paul reiterated this same thing through the epistles. Peter picks it up, Jude picks it up, John even alludes to it, as James alludes to it, and Revelation sums it all up, that in the end time there will come a departing from the faith. And Jude plays a very important part in developing this complete understanding of the final time of apostasy. It lays out in detail God a attitude toward those who depart from the faith. Our Lord Jesus raised the question in Luke 18:8. He said, "When the Son of man comes, shall he find faith on the earth?" In other words, when the Lord returns will there be anybody left who still believes in the truth? Sometimes we wonder, don't we?

     As fast as the church has apostatized, as fast as the church has gone modernistic and liberal, etc., the apostle Paul said II Thessalonians 2:3 that "before the return of the Lord Jesus Christ", and there he was referring to the rapture, "before the Lord comes for his church there will be the falling away." Most likely that refers to this whole idea of apostasy. In I Timothy 4:1, the apostle Paul described the fact that in the end time there would be a "departing from the faith." In II Timothy 4 he said, there will come a time when people will no longer endure sound doctrine, "but they will heap to themselves false teachers." This is what the bible has talked about since the gospel is right on through. And Jude is the biblical climax to this whole subject of apostasy. And throughout this epistle, primarily from verse 3 on, the whole thing, clear to verse 23 deals with apostasy. And the departing from the faith that will be characteristic of the age in which we live right up unto the coming of Jesus Christ.

     The current wide spread denial of the holy faith, the current denial of the veracity and authenticity and inerrancy of the Word of God, the current denial of the gospel as it is revealed in scripture is nothing but a prelude to the final and terrible apostasy referred to by our Lord in Luke 18:8 when he said, "Shall I find faith on, the earth". Referred to by the apostle Paul in II Thessalonians and I and II Timothy, referred to here in Jude by the writer Jude.

     It is very important for us to understand this epistle because it has such weighty import on our own age. And as I said sadly, Jude is a neglected book. But no other book in the bible sets forth so clearly the character of apostasy and the character of apostate people. And in our day, when the waves of apostasy keep rolling in higher and higher, this book really becomes an absolute necessity.

     Now a couple of notes about the book itself; Jude was written apparently a few years after II Peter and it may have been written to the same people who received II Peter. The two books are extremely close in their relationship. Many of the same ideas appear in both. Some of the same terminology appears in both. It seems pretty evident that Jude had fairly well memorized II Peter and when he sat down under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit to write his epistle he was writing it almost off of the memorization of Peter for long passages of Jude are almost direct parallels to II Peter. The difference is this: Peter prophesied for example, there shall be false teachers," II Peter 2:1. II Peter 3:3 he said, "There shall come mockers." Now in both cases the verb was future tense, "There shall be false teachers, there shall come mockers." Jude records the fulfillment of these things. Jude doesn't speak in the future tense, Jude speaks of that of which has already come.

Peter says, 'there will come', Jude says, 'they are already here'. Jude is a fulfillment of II Peter, a very unusual thing to have in the New Testament, a book of prophecy and then immediately a book that solves the mystery of that prophecy by giving its fulfillment. II Peter predicted what would come and Jude wrote down the fact that it came. And often people have debated why the Lord included Jude in the bible because it's so parallel to II Peter. The answer is, the difference is Peter is talking about what will happen, and Jude says it happened. And that is important. It is here primarily to show the fulfillment of divine prophecy. We'll see this in explicit detail as we go through it.

What Peter prophesied would come to pass, Jude says, has come to pass. Peter said false teachers, apostates are going to creep in and they did, and Jude records it. Peter uses future tenses. An interesting thing about Jude, he never uses future tenses; none at all. He is not talking about what is going to happen, he is fulfilling what has happened. Incidentally it is a great support for biblical inspiration, because everything that Peter said would happen happened now the church is going to have false teachers. Peter said that, and Jude said, even by his day, two years later than Peter, maybe around 681, somewhere between 681 and at the latest around 80 AD. In the very first century that prophecy was already fulfilled. And it continues to be true that like them it is now the same. We have false teachers corrupting the faith, perverting and leading people into false systems of religion. Jude simply announces, 'they are here 'as the New Testament predicted they would come. And the book absolutely bears the whole picture of apostasy and I think it'll help to clarify in our minds as we go through is movement within the church that denies the true faith. It is a tremendous warning against the fatal degeneracy of the moral and spiritual state of the professing church that departs from the truth. It should have a great impact on our lives.

Jude then deals with the apostasy. Let's look at verse 1 & 2 by way of an introduction. "Jude," and that tells you right away who wrote it. Literally in the Greek the name is Judas. I am sure the King James translators who originally called it Jude didn't want to call it Judas for obvious reasons. Nobody likes that name. People name their dogs Caesar and hero, but not Judas. Nobody names anything Judas, because it is so despised. So it is Jude, for our English language. "Jude, the servant of Jesus Christ and brother of James, to them that are sanctified by God the Father and preserved in Jesus Christ, called mercy unto you in peace and love be multiplied."

Now let's look first of all at Jude. Jude is introduced to us as the writer. How interesting it is just by way of a note of interest, that the one book in the New Testament on apostasy bears the name of the all time apostate, Judas; A different man but the same name. Now Jude calls himself the servant of Jesus Christ and brother of James. Now just who is this man? There is a lot of discussion about who he is. There are 5 men in, the New Testament named Judas of Jude, 5. Two of the five were apostles. Judas Iscariot and Judas not Iscariot. That's what the bible says, just so nobody gets confused. Let me tell you who the 5 Judas' were and then we 11 just talk about it for a minute. First of all in Acts 9:11 there is a man names Judas of Damascus. In his house the Lord taught Ananias about how to find Saul of Tarsus after his conversion on the road to Damascus.

Secondly‑-there was a man named Judas Barsabas in Acts 15. This man was a leading in the early church and he accompanied Silas up to Antioch to tell the Antioch Christians what the Jerusa­lem counsel had decided in the matter of the Jew and the Gentile. Thirdly there is Judas Iscariot the apostate of all apostates. Fourth there is Judas ‑not Iscariot. He is an apostle. His name it also Lebeus and Thaddeus. It's all the same person. Now in­teresting note in Luke 6:16 and in Acts 1:13 this Judas not Isca­riot also known as ‑1jebeus and Thaddeus is called in the Autho­rized version, the King James, the brother of James. And so some people think that because this is the brother James and Luke 6:16 and Acts 1:3 calls this Thaddeus, Lebeus, Judas not Iscariot, the brother of James, that it s got to be that one who wrote the e­pistle. There is only one problem with that. In the Greek, in both of those passages it doesn't have the word brother. What it means is, the son of James. If you have a New American Stan­dard or any new revised version, they have corrected tat problem. This man was not the brother of James; he was the son of a man named James. The Greek literally says Judas of James, and the idea of course is reference to his father, not his brother. So it wasn't that man. We know it wasn't Judas Iscariot. We know it wasn't Judas Barsabas, because he is not a relation of James. We know it wasn't the first Judas from Damascus. He was completely out of the picture in terms of a relative of James. Now we come fifthly to another possibility, Judas, the Lord's brother. You know that the Lord Jesus had brothers. That's right. I know there are many people who get very upset about you when you say that, that the Lord had brothers. There were a whole lot of then.

In Matthew chapter 13 and verse 55 we read this, "Is not this the carpenters son? Is not his mother called Mary and his brothers James and Joseph and Simon and Judas?" Now Jesus had some brothers, and they were half‑brothers because Jesus was virgin born. They were the children of Joseph and Mary, and they were named James, Joseph, Simon and Judas. Now we don't know anything more about Joseph and Simon, but we know a lot more about James.

James became the head of the Jerusalem church. James became the one who wrote the epistle. We know a little about Judas, as it is translated there. He, the brother of James, and the half‑brother of the Lord Jesus is the one who wrote the book of Jude. So this man is a half brother raised with the Lord Jesus himself. A child of Joseph and Mary; again in Mark chapter 6 in verse 3, "Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary, the brother of James and Joseph and of Judas and Simon, and are not his sisters here with us?" Listen, he not only had brothers, he also had sisters. He is the author of the book of Jude. This one, the brother of Jesus also the brother of James. Now some people have said, "Well, if he is the brother of Jesus why doesn't he say that? Why doesn't he say 'Jude, the brother of Jesus and the brother of James'? Why does he say, 'Jude the servant of Jesus'?" Well this can be answered I think rather simply. You'll remember that the death and resurrection of Christ had the effect of changing all the people who were related to Jesus Christ in a very drastic way. All family relationships were set aside, and Christ became to them not a physically related individual but a spiritual savior. In Mark for example chapter 3, Jesus was teaching in a particular house, and it was very crowded. The people were just jammed in.

You know, probably worse than it gets around here. They didn't have any fire code then. And the people were piled in on Jesus and nobody could in there and his mother and his brothers arrived and they said, "We want Jesus." His mother wanted to talk to him. So somebody passed the message on and somebody said, "Jesus, your mother is outside and your brothers, and they would like to talk to you." And Jesus made a startling statement. He said, "Who is my mother and who are my brothers?" "Are not even ye that do the will of God?" You see Jesus was saying in effect, 'its fine for a while to think of me in a family relationship, but all of that has to change. And eventually Jesus' own mother and his own half brothers and half sisters had to see his not as their brother anymore in that sense, but as their redeemer and savior and holy God.

And I think on the other hand too Jude was a humble man and to announce to everybody that he was the brother of Jesus may have sounded like a form of bragging, and so he didn't do that. He was not Just Jesus' brother, Jesus was his savior and Lord and he was Jesus' slave, doulos, bond‑slave. In the new relationship with Christ the natural ties diminished. Now James the brother of Jude and the half brother of Jesus was the leader of the Jerusalem church. And when Jude says he is the brother of James that gives him a lot of credibility, because James was a well known max and James was ax outstanding leader. And when Jude said he was the brother of James, people would listen to what he had to say because James was a highly respected man. I think it is an interesting thing too that even James, dear James, when he writes his epistle in the first verse, he says, "James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ."

He was the half brother of Jesus too but he didn't make a big issue out of it, because the family relationship didn't matter anymore, and James knew it well. Now he calls himself... I want to point this out for a minute, 'a servant of Jesus Christ', and the word is bond slave. Now I want you to know folks, that is a big change for James. Can you imagine growing up in a family with a perfect brother?

Think about it. That would really get to you. I mean you have a whole lifetime of your parents complaining at you but never at him. "He never does anything wrong, I always get it." And then of course just to have the very presence of God in the family would be such a constant rebuke. You know it is not so much that a good brother doesn't get blamed for anything, but that becomes a horrible conscience to everybody. I mean' let's go out and fool around.' 'Well I am not sure we should do that    I 'you know, see. There he goes again. I mean it would really begin to pat a damper on the whole bit of growing up. You know kids will be kids and all of that. And James grew up apparently with a deep resentment to Jesus, and so did Jude and so did Simon, so did Joseph. In John 7 we find out that that is the case. It says in verse 5, "For neither did his brethren be­lieve in him," They didn't believe in his. They had turned him off. They had rejected him. They wanted nothing to do with him, and they mock his here. They were mocking him at the beginning of that chapter. They didn't believe in his, they had rejected him. They didn't want a thing to do with him, and yet something drastic had changed in the life of James. From being one who deeply resented Jesus, he introduced himself as the servant of Jesus, and something deeply changed has happened in the life of Jude.

From one who resented Jesus to one who here says, "Jude the servant of Jesus Christ." How beautiful it is that somewhere along the line they were converted. You say, 'when did it happen'? Well personally I believe it happened probably after the resurrection. It took all of that to convince them. You know Jesus did appear to James after he rose from the dead according to I Corinthians 15 and I think it was that that just knocked those two guys off their pins, and then they saw themselves as servants of Jesus Christ and they realized all that that meant. Now I want to point something else out. The Roman Catholic Church has gotten very uptight through the years about the fact that Jesus was supposed to have been the only child that Mary ever had. The perpetual vicinity of Mary is a  very important thing to them. That's really an impossible doctrine simply because it says all over the place as we pointed out that Jesus had brothers and sisters. And people say, 'well it doesn't mean that. The Catholic Church says it means cousins'. And they take this word to mean cousin, It cannot mean that. It is the word adelphos, and delphos means coming from the same womb. That is the meaning of the word. There is another word that would be used in reference to somebody further away in terms of relation ship. This word means coming from the same womb. That's precisely where these people came from, the womb of Mary. So we meet Jude, servant of Jesus Christ and the brother of James. Now as Jude begins to dive into this epistle, apparently he gets sort of sidetracked from what he intended to say. He starts out by saying "to then that are sanctified by God the Father and preserved in Jesus Christ and called, mercy unto you in peace and love be multiplied." Now watch verse 3.

"Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation it became needful for me to write unto you and exhort you that you should earnestly contend for the faith." In other words he said, 11 started to write you a letter about salvation and then some news carte and everything changed. And now I am writing you to contend for the faith. I started to write you one thing but I hardly got started'. Maybe he got written down 'to them that are sanctified and preserved and called mercy and peace and love' and all that as a part of salvation, and all of a sudden the news came and he heard about the apostasy that had arrived and he said I have to change this and I have to tell them to contend for the faith which was once and for all delivered to the saints'. So apparently what he had intended to do originally got a little bit diverted, and he pens this marvelous epistle. Now this a very heavy epistle to handle, and so it begins and ends with a tremendous statement on security. That first verse, look at it, "to them that are sanctified." And the word in the Greek is not sanctified, it is beloved, the best manuscripts, "to then are beloved by God the Father and kept by Jesus Christ, the called ones, mercy unto you and peace and love be multiplied." The thing that just sticks out of there is the security of the Christian isn't it? You are the called ones. You are the beloved ones. You are the kept ones and you are the blessed ones, verse 2. Row look at the end of the epistle, verse 24. "Now unto him that is able to do," what, "to keep you from falling." "To present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy to the only wise God, our Savior, be glory, majesty, dominion and power, both now and ever, Amen."

Notice!  Verse 24 the epistle closes with, "you are secure, he is able to keep you." Verse 1 opens the epistle, "kept by Jesus Christ." Now what is he saying here? He is saying this: Chris­tian I an telling you at the beginning and I an reiterating at the end. The apostasy will have no affect on you. You do not need to fear the decline of the faith. You do not need to fear the growth of apostasy. You do not need to fear the flow of here­sy. You are kept, in the first part of the epistle he says it, you are kept in the last part of the epistle. Tremendous truth. And he surrounds the statement on apostasy with two great rich promises of the keeping of the child of God preserved by Jesus Christ.    When we see what is going on around us, and maybe we fear and say,'boy what if some Christians get swept up into heresy. What if some Christians get dragged into the terrible apostasy. What if some Christians get engulfed in this thing and destroy? Will they? Will it happen'? And the answer comes resounding in the first and the last statement of the book of Jude, "kept, kept. 'Can a Christian lose his salvation? Really is the issue right here, in   terms of the effect of apostasy on him. Notice, he gives four great truths that are the Christians securities. Here they come, called, loved, kept, blessed. That's the outline. Called, loved, kept, blessed. Let's look at the first one. Called‑Verse 1. Now you will notice that the word called is at the end of the sentence. It is at the end of the sentence in the Greet, but when the Greeks would pat it at the end of the sentence and split it from its article, that would make it the most important statement. So whenever the thing came at the end like this, to the Greeks that would be emphatic.

To translate that into English, called should come first, because our emphasis is on what is first. So it would read this way, "Jude the servant of Jesus Christ and brother of James, to then that are the called ones." The article appears right there. Them that are the called ones. Listen, a Christian is somebody who is called. Now I want to talk about this because this is so very important. The first great security of the Christian is that he is called. He has a divine call from God. He is saying that his salvation isn't something he dreamed up on his own; it's an act of God. Now in relationship to salvation the word balled has two meanings. I am going to give you a little theology on this now, so hang in there and notice what this is all about.

There are two calls that the scripture talks about. First of all there is the general external call. Secondly there is the efficacious or effective internal call. Two calls. Now this is meant, so if you are an milk just sit there and meditate. All right, here we go. That's all right, that's all right. Two calls, the general external call. That's just standing up and preaching the gospel. That's just proclaiming the truth. Secondly, the effectual internal call that's when the spirit of God begins to change your life on the inside. Two different kinds. The bible put it this way. "Many are called, but few are," what, just the inside one, "few are chosen." There is a difference. Now let me describe the general external call. The bible refers to the general preaching of the gospel. For example in Isaiah 45:22 the bible says, "Be ye saved all ye ends of the earth." That's a general call. "Be ye saved all the ends of the earth."

Is Isaiah 55:6 it says, "Seek the Lord while he may be found, call upon him while he is near". and it is a cry externally; the cry of the prophet to all who hear. In Ezekiel 33:11, Ezekiel says, "I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways, for why will you die?" And there ‑ to the general call to men to come to God. In Matthew 11:28 Jesus says, "Come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest." In John 7:37 Jesus stood up in‑'the midst of the pouring of the water out in'‑ the celebration in Jerusalem and he said, "If any man thirst let him come unto me and drink of the water of life." That's the general call. In Revelation 22:17 it says, "and the spirit and the brides say Come and let him that heareth come and let him that is a thirst come and whosoever will let him come and take of the water of life freely." The apostle Paul put it this way, "Faith comes by hearing the speech about Christ," "Have they not hear?" "Yes truly their sound went out into all the earth." That is the general call, the preaching of the gospel; the external call, just what any preacher would do, or any prophet.

You know that general call can be resisted, can't it? It is all the time. People turn it off. They don't want to hear it. Turn with me Luke 14:16, I'll show how this can be rejected. It is very clear in scripture that it can. Luke 14:16. 1 an going to hurry a little bit so stay in there. "Then he said unto them, now this of course is a parable, "a certain man gave a great supper, put on a big banquet and he invited a lot of people, this is the general call, "sent his servants at supper time to say to them that were bidden, Come for all things are now ready."

And of course originally, of course, let me back up and say originally this refers, this particular point to Israel. And they all with one consent began to make excuse, 'well I can't go, I bought a piece of ground, I have to go and see it and I pray you'll have we excused'. And another said, 'I bought five yolks of oxen and I an going to prove them, see if they can do the job and please excuse me'. And another said, 'I have married a wife', and he had a fairly good excuse. Verse 21, "so that servant came and he said to his lord, 'everybody has an excuse, nobody is coming." This is Israel turning down the call of God. "Then the master of the house being angry said to his servant, 'go quickly in the streets and lanes in the city and bring in the poor and the maimed and the blind and the lame', and he said 'lord, it is done as you have commanded and yet there is room'. and the lord said to the servant, 'go into the highways and hedges and compel them to come in that my house may be filled'. The general call, but the assumption here is that when it was first given, some people rejected it There is a general call. God has just said, "Come, anybody, come!"

In Matthew 23:37 he looked over Jerusalem and he said, "Oh Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou, that killest the prophets and stoneth then that are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together as a hen gathers her chickens, but you would not." He called, and they rejected. In John 5:40 the general call went out to the people of Israel and Jesus looked at then and said, "And you will not come unto me that you might have life." The general call can be rejected.' In Acts 7:51, "You stiff‑necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, you do always resist the Holy Spirit," said Stephen, and they stoned him for it.

Yes, the general call goes out over the world and people can reject it or accept it. What should they do? Believe me, they should hear and accept the call of God. When they hear the gospel preached they ought to receive it. In Hebrew 12:25 it says, "See that you refuse not him that speaks for if they escape not who refused his that spoke on earth." that is Moses, "such more shall not we escape if we turn away from him that speaks from heaven." You should listen, you should hear, you should obey. Now this is the general call of preaching. There are only two responses, II Corinthians 2:16 says the preaching of the gospel brings about a fragrance of death to death, or a fragrance of life to life. The preaching of the gospel, if it is rejected, takes a man from bad to worse. If it is accepted it takes him from good to better, So a man can listen, he can hear, or he can turn it off and reject it.

Those who accept it, those who hear it, those who receive that external call fall into the second category. Those who have the efficacious internal call, and this is specifically stated in scripture. In