Jude 1-2: Who is the Church?

Good morning everyone.

Good to see everyone here. If you would please open your Bibles to the book of Jude. It's right before the book of Revelation in your pew

Bibles. It's page 1223, although there's no page number on the top of the page.

I had to actually extrapolate that myself. I went 1220, 21, 22, it's on 1223 in your pew

Bible. I'm going to be reading Jude verses 1 through 5 and concentrating on verses 1 and 2.

Hear now God's inspired word. Jude, a servant of Jesus Christ and brother of James, to those who are called, beloved in God the

Father and kept for Jesus Christ, may mercy, peace, and love be multiplied to you. 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 and 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.

Now I want to remind you, although you once fully knew it, that Jesus who saved the people out of the land of Egypt after would destroy those who did not believe.

Let's pray. Father in heaven, I simply ask that you would bless the preaching of your word.

That I would step aside and we would hear the voice of your son Jesus through these words, Lord God. We pray that your

Holy Spirit would converge upon our minds and hearts, draw us closer to you, help us to worship you more truly and understand who we are as the people of God.

It's in Jesus name we pray. If you would please be seated. The body of Timothy Henry Gray was found in December of 2012 underneath the overpass of Union Pacific Railroad in Evanston, Wyoming, which is a small mining town in the southwest corner of the state.

He was found by some kids who were snow sledding in the area and happened to stumble across his body.

Tim Gray, who was 60 years old, died of hypothermia, according to the coroner's report.

And police said there was no sign of foul play. He appeared to have died from exposure,

Lieutenant Bill Jeffers of the Evanston Police told ABC News. He was just wearing a light jacket and jeans.

Lieutenant Jeffers said that Evanston Police Department had spoken to Gray the previous year, previous winter, as part of a welfare check.

And at that point, he had an apartment in the area. However, the lieutenant said that Gray appeared to be living homeless at the time of his death.

The circumstances surrounding Gray, who, according to his brotherhood, worked across the region as a cowboy and died homeless, were shrouded in mystery.

What the authorities didn't know at the time was that Gray was the adopted great -grandson of U .S.

Senator William Andrews Clark and the half -great -nephew of the reclusive

New York heiress, Uette Clark. The heiress, Uette Clark, had died about a year before Gray in 2011 at the age of 104, and she was the owner of multiple copper mines and significant real estate.

Tim Gray, who was one of her relatives and now dead, was unaware that he was entitled to 6 .25

percent of her copper mines and her real estate. The fortune has been conservatively estimated at over $300 million by the administrator of her estate.

Timothy Henry Gray was the unclaimed inheritor of $19 million of Clark's $3 million fortune.

However, he was living homeless, working as a cowboy, and now dead of hypothermia in rural

Wyoming. If he only knew who he was and what he had. Let's now turn our attention to the

Book of Jude. And what I want to do is, because we're only going to have a couple of weeks to go through this, I just want to give you a quick introduction to the book, and then we'll get into the actual text.

So Jude is an epistle, which is also known as a letter. And this letter is written to the church.

And we're not sure which church it was written to specifically, but we can surprise that it was most likely full of Jewish believers, as Jude references the

Apocrypha. The Apocrypha are extra books that were not considered canonical in the

Protestant Bible. So he acknowledges and references the

Apocrypha, specifically the Apocryphal Book of Enoch and the Testament of Moses, as well as accepted

Old Testament scriptures found in our Bibles. And it's to these Jews that he will issue some very stern and very serious warnings.

It's an exhortation to be aware of false teachers. And not only that, but here's the most serious issue.

These false teachers existed within their own congregation, within the church. They've secretly slipped in.

In other words, there are moles within the church that need to be identified and rooted out. Now, Jude doesn't address how or why they slipped in, but only that they must be identified and contended with.

The church must fight. Like the Israelites that were commanded to drive out the Canaanites, they must be vigilant and not let false teaching slip in from the outside.

The result of these false teachers and the false teaching Jude speaks of led to licentiousness and sensual living, a rejection of authority, a rejection of holiness, and ultimately the denial of our only master and Lord, Jesus Christ.

Jude is going to look backwards and use Old Testament examples of people who did those very same things, and their rejection of Jesus will result in judgment and condemnation.

It will result in hell, but not for those who are kept by the Lord and who keep themselves in the love of God, which is good news.

As we go through this epistle over the next few weeks, listen for that word kept. Kept is going to be a very important word in this epistle.

It will be one of the keys to understanding Jude's letter and one of the means by which we will persevere and work out our salvation with fear and trembling.

Jude will begin the epistle with the call of God's people and end with the benediction regarding the preservation of God's people, those who are kept by Jesus.

So first, he'll address the church, warn them of the false teachers and their condemnation. Next, he'll exhort them to persevere and to help others do the same.

And then finally, he'll end with one of the most encouraging and well -known benedictions in the entire

Bible. Celebrating what ultimately saves them, or rather who ultimately saves them and keeps them from falling.

This epistle finds relevance throughout all of history. Every single generation can relate to this letter.

And as we'll see, it is very relevant today as we look at the state of the church right now.

We will be reminded of continual attacks against her, the repeated call of God's people to persevere and fight and the warnings against falling into godless living and being condemned for it.

Jude will also remind us of the ultimate reason the church will win. We are kept by Jesus Christ.

So now that's a little quick intro. Now let's turn our attention to the text and read verses one and two again.

And it begins, Jude, a servant of Jesus Christ and brother of James, to those who are called, beloved in God the

Father and kept for Jesus Christ. May mercy, peace, and love be multiplied to you.

Now, as is the typical greeting in the New Testament epistles and Greek letters at the time, Jude begins by introducing himself.

Jude, a servant of Jesus Christ. Some translations are going to say Jude, a bondservant of Jesus.

Now what we sometimes miss because we're English -speaking Americans is that the name

Jude in Greek is Judas. Could you imagine walking around the streets of Jerusalem saying, hey,

I'm Judas. Let me tell you about Jesus. No, no, no, no, not that Judas. No, no, no, no,

I'm not the guy who, you know, cut the insides. That's not me. I didn't betray. I didn't betray

Jesus. Right. I'm the other Judas. Um, well, we'll get to that. What I love about this

Judas or Jude is just like the apostle Paul. He comes right out of the gate, declaring his submission to Jesus.

His doulos like slave, like servanthood towards his savior Jude, a bondservant of Jesus Christ.

This title bondservant is the repeated title of the respected servants of God in the Old Testament, such as Moses, Joshua, David, all the prophets, all identified themselves as bondservants.

And Jude is quick to tell us that up front. I wonder how often it takes, how long it takes for people to know that I am a servant of Jesus.

How quick am I to reveal that to people? I mean, as I'm writing a memo in my office, do

I like Anthony, servant of Jesus Christ, your deductible is $500. How quickly do people recognize that you are a servant of Jesus Christ?

Right at the bondservant, Jesus identifies himself as the brother of James. And this is significant because speaking of Jesus in Matthew 13, 55,

Matthew says, is not this the carpenter's son? Jesus is not his mother,

Mary, are not his brothers, James and Joseph, Simon and Judas. You see, if Jude is the biological physical brother of James and James is the biological physical brother of Jesus, then

Jude is the biological brother of Jesus. He's the Judas in Matthew 13, 55, yet he doesn't identify himself that way.

Why not? Now, if it was me, if it was old Anthony, I'd be like, sit down.

You know who I am? Yeah, he's my brother. Sit down, shut up, listen to me. That guy's dead, thankfully.

Some commentators will say, well, Jude said it this way because he's displaying humility and that Jude doesn't use his relationship as the actual brother of Jesus to exercise or lend authority to his letter.

And I think there's truth to that. He does exhibit humility. However, I also think there's a more applicable, more meaningful reason that he has in mind.

Jude knows that his relationship to Jesus and his authority for writing this letter does not come from his physical relationship to Jesus.

This is not due to his genealogy. Remember, Jews were fixated about genealogy.

Here, I think Jude is highlighting his relationship to Jesus as one rooted in spiritual genealogy.

Whatever influence or authority he may have will come from a spiritual birth, not a physical one.

If Jude identified himself with the physical lineage of Jesus, it would play right into Jewish thought.

We have Abraham as our father. This is our bloodline. Hear the words of Jesus to Nicodemus ring in my ears.

No one, no one can see the kingdom of heaven unless they're born again. You must be born from above by the spirit.

John 1 10, born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.

Spiritual birth is the identifying mark of the new covenant, not your physical lineage. Any authority or weight that Jude has for writing this epistle is sourced in the spirit and not through some physical pedigree or bloodline.

He puts no confidence in the flesh. Therefore, he does not make a fleshly physical appeal to his lineage.

And this is going to be another factor in Jude's theology as we read this letter. Because this birth, this spiritual birth, is what will separate the church, those people born of the spirit, from those people born through a physical or tribal pedigree, but who are devoid of the spirit.

Jude wants them to know that the spiritual birth is the one that matters. It's that birth that links him and us to the

Lord. It's that birth that links us to God and links us to each other.

Look again at verse 1. Jude initially identifies himself as the bondservant of Jesus.

That's a relationship to Jesus resulting from spiritual birth with nothing to do with his physical relationship.

And why is that relevant to us? Here's why. Remember what the Apostle John said in his gospel in chapter 7.

For not even his brothers believed in him. And since Jude was his physical brother, that would include him.

Jude's relationship to Jesus as his biological brother was initially one of unbelief.

And he lived with Jesus. That physical relation in and of itself did not produce faith.

But now, due to a spiritual birth, he has a new relationship to Jesus.

It becomes one of submission to Jesus as Lord. He went from being Israel according to the flesh to the

Israel of God, born of the spirit. Jude is now a believer and willingly submits to Jesus as his

Lord and his bondservant. He has been born of God. And that's what's important to him.

Paul says, flesh gives birth to flesh. But John says, flesh gives birth to flesh. But spirit gives birth to spirit.

Paul says, anyone who does not have the spirit of Christ does not belong to him. Jude went from being

Jesus's physical brother without the spirit to his spiritual brother, according to the spirit, born of the spirit of God.

So in this letter over the next few weeks, we're going to see a clear dichotomy between the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent.

Those born of the spirit and those devoid of it. And more importantly, we're going to see what keeps or guards the seed of the woman and keeps her contending for the faith as God's people.

So after Jude's initial spiritual identification with Jesus, he then goes on to identify himself as the brother of James.

So he starts with the spiritual and then moves into the physical relationship. His physical relation to James would now lend credibility to him to those who knew

James as an apostle and early leader of the church. James is Jude's physical brother and an apostle.

So the hearers of this letter could access James and James could bear witness to what

Jude was telling them was trustworthy. The point is this, Jude leads with his spiritual lineage.

That's what's important. And then he goes on to physical lineage. That's the opposite of what the

Jews at the time were doing. We have Abraham as our father, right? They always pointed to that bloodline.

So now that we know who Jude is, let's take a look at the second half of the verse. Jude, a servant of Jesus Christ and brother of James, to those who are called, beloved in God the

Father, and kept for Jesus Christ. Take notice that there's a threefold cadence to what

Jude writes. He's going to use this threefold cadence throughout the letter. Here it's called, beloved, and kept.

Later, he's going to juxtapose that against another threefold pattern in verse four, where it says certain people crept in unnoticed, ungodly people who pervert

God's grace, those who deny our master and Lord. So Jude contrasts the called with certain people who have crept in unnoticed, the creepers.

He contrasts those beloved by God the Father with ungodly people who pervert the grace of God, perverters.

And finally, he contrasts those who are kept by Jesus Christ with the people who would deny Jesus Christ, deniers.

So we have the called, beloved, and kept juxtaposed against the creepers, perverters, and deniers.

One group will be kept by Jesus for Jesus. The other group will be kept for judgment.

This contrast is going to serve as the identification and delineation between the contenders and the pretenders.

It will also serve as encouragement for the people of God who are kept in the hand of Jesus Christ.

In this letter to the church, Jude is instructing the church who she really is and what really defines her.

She is called. She is beloved. She is kept. Jude's letting them know how

God defines the church. And God is the one who defines the church because he's the one who's created the church.

And since he is the one who creates, gives birth to the church, he defines it. He also becomes the one standing behind the church, helping her, calling her, loving her, keeping her.

Just as important and even more so is the one who defined them. God is the one who gave birth to them.

He is their father. God gives them spiritual life, just like Jude, born according to the spirit.

As much as this is a letter to the church, it's a letter about the church. It's about who the church is and who the contenders will be and what power it is that sustains them to contend to the end.

The church is the people of God, called, beloved, kept, all done by God and for God.

These three identifiers, called, beloved, kept, are things that God does, not us.

These are his actions, not ours. He calls, he loves, he keeps.

Jude is identifying the people of God as those who receive God's call, are loved by God, the father, and kept by God, the son.

Why is that important? Because this is the work of the triune God, designed to bring about the salvation of his people for his glory, versus those who

Jude will later say are devoid of the spirit. Creepers slipping in, perverters of grace, and deniers of Jesus as Lord.

The church is the seed of the woman who will contend with and defeat the seed of the serpent by the power of God and through the spirit of God.

Those are the promises we stand on. We sang that this morning. So what does being called, beloved, and kept mean?

As a reformed congregation, we understand that there's an outward call of the gospel to all mankind.

All men are called to repent and believe. God calls all men everywhere to repent and believe.

However, due to the depravity, the depraved nature of mankind, and mankind's inability, no one will heed the call.

If any believe, it will have to be a supernatural work of the Holy Spirit on the heart. This is effectuated by the inward call of the gospel, which is irresistible.

You know it as the I in TULIP, right? Irresistible grace. However, I don't like irresistible grace, so I call it invincible grace, because it accomplishes what it sets out to do.

It conquers the rebellious heart and subdues it in love. We can see this calling in 1

Corinthians 1 .18, which reads, For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who being saved, it is the power of God.

So here we have two groups. To one group, it's foolishness, but to another group, it's the power of God.

Why? Paul goes on. For since in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, nobody comes to the understanding of God through their intellect.

It pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe. Jews demand signs,

Greeks seeks wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified. A stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, but to those who are called, both

Jews and Greeks, Christ, the power of God and the wisdom of God. To those who are called. Paul identifies those being saved in verse 18 as those who are called in verse 24.

So it's not to everyone that Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God. It is only to those who are called and being saved.

The others think it's foolishness. Now the phrase to those who are called cuts the audience down.

It goes from everyone to a smaller subgroup, a selected group, the chosen, those called by the spirit and kept in Jesus Christ.

Jesus sternly addresses the Pharisees on this very point in John 8, when he says, whoever is of God, hears the words of God.

The reason that you don't hear them is that you're not of God, right? He'd later tell them, you do not believe because you're not my sheep.

My sheep hear my voice and I know them and they follow me. The inward call of the gospel is only heard and obeyed by the sheep of Jesus Christ.

The others reject it. It's folly to them. This is an inward call that not everyone shares in.

It's an inward calling that accomplishes what it sets out to do, to change the heart of the unbeliever and to deliver us from unbelief and eternal death to active ongoing faith that brings eternal life to the called.

Christ is the power of God. The people of God are the people of God because God chose them as the people of God.

Those who are called, beloved and kept are so because of the power of Christ in the new covenant.

This is what the new covenant does that the old covenant can never do. And we're learning that through the book of Hebrews.

All right, Romans 8, 3 says, for God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh could not do by sending his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who walk not according to the flesh, but according to the spirit.

Romans 2 tells us for the law of the spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death.

And I liked the way John Bunyan said it. He was credited with saying like this, run John, run the law commands, but gives us neither feet nor hands far better news the gospel brings.

It bids us fly and gives us wings, right? This is a grace bestowed upon us by God that doesn't try to save you and fail.

It's a grace that accomplishes exactly what he purposed it for. And this called beloved and kept people of God would determine so in eternity past.

Romans 8, 29 says for those whom he foreknew previous, he also predestined to determine in advance to be conformed to the image of the son in order that he might be the firstborn among many believers.

Those whom he predestined, listen, he also called. Those whom he called, he also justified.

Those whom he justified, he glorified. This is entirely the work of God on our behalf.

We are called, elected because we were predestined by God to be called. Otherwise we too would think the gospel is folly.

Spurgeon said it like this. I believe the doctrine of election because I'm quite sure that if God had not chosen me,

I should never have chosen him. And I'm sure that he chose me before I was born or else he never would have chose me if he saw me afterwards.

And he must have elected me for reasons unknown to me for I never could find any reason in myself why he should have looked upon me with special love.

It's a humbling thing to know that you didn't press God to the point where he said, oh man, I need him. God didn't see you and elect you because he got something good.

God chose you, saw you, elected you to make you good. There are people predestined, called, justified and glorified who

Jude identifies as the called, beloved and kept. Now think about it.

How would the hearers of this letter contend for the faith knowing that their calling, contending and victory was determined by God the father, wrought by the spirit while being kept in Jesus Christ, by Jesus Christ.

After called, Jude says we are beloved in God the father. This group of people who are called are also beloved.

Now we know that God has a general love for all mankind. God loved the world but there are a certain group of people whom he foreknows are people whom he chooses, calls, predestines and loves covenantally in Christ before time begins.

He loves them in a marital sense. Remember Paul tells us, love your wife like Christ loved the church.

That's a special love. You're not to love other people the way you love your wife. That's the church, the bride of Christ receives a special covenantal marital love of God.

In fact, the word beloved in this verse is a perfect participle which means that it's an ongoing, continual never -ending effect for the people who are called.

In other words, it's unbreakable. It's permanent. It's eternal. 1

Thessalonians 2 tells us, we give thanks to God always for all of you. For we know brothers loved by God that he has chosen you because our gospel came to you not only in word but also in power and the

Holy Spirit. The second letter to the Thessalonians would further cement this idea in their minds.

We are also to give thanks to God for you brothers beloved by the Lord because God chose you as the first roots to be saved through sanctification by the spirit and belief in the truth.

To this he called you through our gospel so that you may obtain the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Those who are the beloved of God are the chosen of God and those who are the chosen of God are called.

Those who are called are kept by Jesus Christ. Celebrate. Jude will go on to remind the church later to keep yourself in the love of God.

Why? Because we keep forgetting. We need to be reminded

God loves his church. He loves the people of God.

He called you and set his love upon you. I like how J .I. Packer says it. To be right with God the judge is a great thing but to be loved and cared for by God the

Father is far far better. If you are a Christian you are called by God. You are beloved by him and as we'll see in the next verse

Jude says you are kept by Jesus Christ. This is why we read John 17 this morning.

Jesus's high priestly prayer. Listen to how many times we hear the word keep or kept in John 17.

I am no longer in the world but they are in the world and I am coming to you. Holy Father keep them in your name which you have given me.

You think God heard Jesus's prayer? You think we're kept in his hand? I do. While I was with them

I kept them in your name which you have given me. Jesus keeps his people by his power. I have guarded.

I have kept them and not one of them has been lost except the son of destruction. I do not ask that you take them out of the world but that you keep them from the evil one.

Jesus intercedes here again. This is Jesus's high priestly prayer and his prayer is for his people only.

Jesus said I am not praying for the world but for those you've given me out of the world.

Jesus prays that his church is kept in God's name by God's power. Kept from being lost.

Kept from the evil one. Why? Because they were given to him by God the

Father in John 17 6. I have manifested your name to the people whom you gave me out of the world.

Yours they were. You gave them to me and they have kept your word. Their salvation is the work of the triune

God on their behalf. This was also foretold in the Old Testament in Isaiah 42 6.

I am the Lord. I have called you in righteousness. I will take you by the hand and keep you.

I will give you, which is Jesus, as a covenant for the people who are us. A light for the nations.

When we are united with Christ, we are given to him by the Father. We become his people kept in his hand forever to inherit these blessings.

The giving of a people to the son is foreshadowed in the garden where God gives

Eve to Adam. He gives Adam a bride. Those who are called, beloved, and kept are a bride for Jesus.

The Father elects a bride, a people for his son in eternity past. Jesus enters into time, dies on behalf of the bride he loves, and the

Holy Spirit raises them to new life and walks them down the aisle in preparation of the wedding supper of the

Lamb. It's Father, Son, and Holy Spirit working together to save his people to the end.

It's the greatest love story we will ever hear. This is what it means to be kept.

Jesus loses none of all that the Father gives to him. Adam was the first priest and husband, and he was called to guard and keep the garden, but he failed.

And where the first Adam failed, Jesus, the last Adam, will never fail. He'll never fail to keep his bride, guard the garden, and build the kingdom.

The people to whom this letter is addressed are the very people Jude is describing as called, beloved, and kept who will get to contend for the faith that was delivered to them.

They are called by the Spirit, perfectly loved by God, and kept by Jesus Christ.

So many people today are going through some difficult circumstances, losing jobs, having to make difficult choices.

Remember, as a church, you are called by the Spirit, perfectly loved by God, and kept by Jesus Christ.

You have everything you need in him. And we as a church will rally around, and we will do what

God wants us to do. I heard a great illustration this week by Dr. Michael Kruger that just fits so well into the sermon here.

When you do a big business transaction, like closing on a house, right, the lawyers make sure that you get a certified check.

You just don't bring your checkbook and sign a bunch of checks. The person receiving the checks wants to know that the money's there before he takes them, right?

So they require you to have certified checks. Now, God being

God doesn't have to prove himself to you. But when he purchased his bride, he did it with a certified check.

He certified his promise to us by crucifying his son on a cross in full view of everyone.

Jesus is all the certification you need to know that God was serious about his promises to us.

He loves his bride and certified that payment. He certified that check on the cross.

Do you think the church at that time contending against the creepers, perverters, and deniers may have needed to hear that?

That they were called by the spirit, loved by God the Father, and kept secure in Jesus Christ?

Do you think that we right now may need to hear this as we have creepers, perverters, and deniers attacking the church as we speak?

Now, as much as I'd like to do a sermon on each one of those words, I'm limited on time. And Pastor Jensen will be back in a few weeks, well -rested, with a holder knocker polished up in his hand, ready to swing it.

So I have to move on. All right, so let's look at verse two. Jude tells us, may mercy, peace, and love be multiplied to you.

That's a short little verse, but it's a short, quick prayer that Jude includes in the greeting.

And again, it will find its concluding counterpart in verse 21, where Jude tells us again to keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting for the mercy of our

Lord Jesus Christ that leads to eternal life. And this is something you want to make note of. This greeting by Jude is the only greeting in all of the

New Testament epistles that doesn't mention grace. And it's the only one that does mention love.

It's unique in that no other epistle begins this way. And it also follows the threefold cadence that Jude is writing.

So let's take a look at the term mercy. The term mercy is once again, something that only the people of God, only the elect will experience for all eternity.

Now, unbelievers do receive mercy, but only as a common grace. That common grace, that mercy will come to an end at the final judgment.

That mercy is temporary. For the believer, mercy truly triumphs over judgment.

It's eternal. Hearkening back to God's chosen people in Romans nine, with Jacob and Esau, Jacob was the recipient of God's promise, but not

Esau. And that promise came by what? God's mercy. Okay.

For he says to Moses, I will have mercy upon whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom

I have compassion. So then it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God who has mercy.

In this opening salutation, Jude prays for added mercy, which means that the addressees are the recipients of the promise of eternal life.

As the people of God who are being called to contend for the faith, they will need to be humbly reminded that they've been mercy.

God's people are God's people because of God's mercy. It's nothing that you earned or won on your own.

You must walk. They must walk humbly in the mercy of our God, carrying out our calling upon us as contenders of the faith.

We, the church and that church could not and should not look down their noses as other people.

Because like Paul says, we too could have thought it was like foolishness and not the power of God.

Why? Because mercy is not getting what you deserve. Verse 21 will tell us, tell them, it's the mercy of our

Lord Jesus Christ that leads to eternal life. They need to keep that in mind so that they don't become conceited, thinking that they somehow deserve this mercy.

They need to remember that salvation is a gift of God, not a trophy to be earned. And if they've received mercy, then they need to extend mercy and display it to others.

Jude will later tell them, have mercy on those who doubt. God has mercy on whomever he wills and as the recipients of God's mercy, the called, beloved and kept, we need to show it to others.

After mercy, Jude asked for peace. Shalom, right? You've heard that term?

Shalom for the Old Testament people of God is their salvation. It's peace with God, an unbreakable peace that only

God can give them. In fact, this is how they commonly greeted one another when they would see each other.

Shalom, shalom, peace, peace with God. The Israelites were continually under attack by all their earthly neighbors, by their enemies, all the nations.

And they were being attacked primarily due to their own disobedience. So the punishment was ongoing.

They continually disobeyed. They had no true shalom and were waiting for their Messiah to bring it.

But now with Jesus, the Messiah, arriving and commissioning his people to go into the nations, granting them true shalom, they're going to have to contend for the faith and they will need peace with God and the peace of God to carry it through.

It's right before Jesus' priestly prayer in John 17 that he tells his disciples, I have said these things to you that in me, you may have peace.

Shalom. In the world, you will have tribulation, but take heart, I have overcome the world.

As recipients of God's mercy and peace, we have shalom with God. The people of God called, beloved, and kept will also receive the peace of God through the promised

Messiah that has arrived. It is not a peace that the world gives. They will have true shalom because Jesus is

Jehovah Shalom. He's the Prince of Peace. At last, we get to the end.

Jude ends the trifold series with the word love. Again, this is the only time in the whole

New Testament that love is used in the greeting to the church. And this is agape love.

This isn't the rom -com romantic comedy love that you might used to be seeing or a fleeting bit of passion or filet -o -love that someone might have for another person.

This agape love is a decision of the will to give oneself over to another for their benefit.

It is God giving himself over to the people he's chosen to call and to keep. It's a true beneficent love that he bestows on them and that they receive from him.

And remember, it's not due to anything in the person. God is not moved by people, nor is

God ever the beneficiary of something that we give him. He's impassable.

He's immovable. God is always the benefactor, never the beneficiary.

They've not done anything to God to move him to love them. Now that may not sound nice to you.

They may even sound cold to you until you realize that if it wasn't anything they've done to move him to love them, then there's nothing they can do to move him to not love him.

This is good news. We do not want God to change. His beneficent covenant love is permanent, perfect, and perpetual.

This is good news. It's security for those who are called, beloved, and kept. The people that Jude is addressing will need to be reminded of this love as Jude will again caution them later to keep themselves in the love of God.

Keep yourselves in the love of God. He certified that check on the cross. In fact,

Jude will end the letter the same way he started it. But you, beloved, building yourselves up in the most holy faith and praying in the spirit, keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting for the mercy of our

Lord Jesus Christ that leads to eternal life. So we have mercy, peace, and love, and then

Jude tops it off with, may they be multiplied to you. In contrast to the creepers, perverters, and deniers, the people of God are secure in their position.

Receiving not only God's calling and protection, but also his mercy, his peace, and love in multiplied abundance from God himself.

Again, could you think of any better words of encouragement or reassurance they could hear knowing the spiritual task that was ahead of him?

Did you ever have someone encourage you, telling you, listen, you can do it, only knowing

I can't do what this person thinks I can do? This isn't like that at all. This is

God saying, church, this is who you are and this is what you have. You are my people, my children, my bride, you are equipped with my power.

The early church needed to hear this as the attacks on her would be fierce and their faith challenged.

So in this short two -verse introduction, we learn who Jude is, a born -again believer committed to serving

Jesus as Lord, and we learn who the church is, called, beloved, and kept, who receives mercy, peace, and love.

And both of these things, who Jude is, and who the church is, and what she has, is by the sovereign hand of God himself, who has decreed it so, and he will see us through to complete what he commands.

Far better news the gospel brings, it bids us fly and gives us wings. In Christ Jesus as the church, you are called, you are beloved, you are kept, you get mercy, peace, and love in multiplied abundance.

You are the seed of the woman by the power of God, commanded to expand the kingdom in the power of God, with all of it accomplished for the glory of God.

In the end, Timothy Henry Gray was the unclaimed inheritor of $19 million of U .S.

Clark's $300 million fortune, if he only knew who he was and what he had.

What made this story even more unusual and heartbreaking was that the Unita County Coroner told

ABC News that a wallet was found on him, containing undeposited checks from a few years back for significant amounts of money.

He actually had uncashed checks in his pant pockets for large sums of money, yet lived cold, homeless, and barely clothed.

He either didn't know who he was related to, or he didn't care. I wonder how many

Christians are going to get to heaven, and while they're online waiting to get in, an angel is going to come and check their pockets, only to show them that they too had uncashed checks.

They had everything they needed to contend for the kingdom and bring the kingdom to earth. The angel might reply, if you only knew who you were and what you already had.

You were so eager to get up here, but our king was so eager to come down here. He even certified his check with his son

Jesus on the cross. If you're a Christian, you are called, beloved, and kept.

You've received mercy, peace, and love in multiplied abundance. Don't forget who you are or squander what you have.

Do not leave any uncashed checks in your pockets. The inheritance you received in Christ far outweighs anything you at Clark could have left him.

Long Island is Christ's Island, and your job is to leave this island better than you found it, because you have the calling and the backing of God himself to do it.

Now, if you're not a Christian, you're living under temporary mercy, and it will come to an end one day.

You will not experience the eternal peace, shalom, that the bride of Christ does. You need to repent now and believe the gospel.

You need to trust in Jesus as savior and receive the gift of eternal life. And then you can contend with us, not against us.

Let's pray. Father in heaven, you've made it abundantly clear that we are in your hand, kept by your son,

Jesus. These promises will never fail. You are the sovereign God who decreed all things.