WWUTT 462 Love Multiplied to You?

It's very easy to rebuke someone in a way that would be unkind or hurtful, but there is a kind of rebuke that is indeed the most loving thing that we could offer another person when we understand the text.

Many of the Bible stories and verses we think we know, we don't. When we understand the text as an online ministry committed to teaching sound doctrine and exposing the faulty, visit our website at www .utt .com.

Now here's our host, Pastor Gabe Hughes.

Jude’s Opening Address and the Meaning of Being “Called”

Thank you, Becky. I want to come back to the introduction to Jude's letter, this opening pair of verses here. Jude identifies himself as a servant of Jesus Christ and brother of James. We talked about that for the bulk of our introduction yesterday.

And then he goes on the second half of verse one to those who are called beloved in God or beloved in God, the father and kept for Jesus Christ. May mercy, peace and love be multiplied to you. So it's that second half of verse one here where Jude says to those who are called.

Now what is the proper usage of this word called? Back in December, we began a study of first Corinthians in our church. And at the very beginning of Paul's first letter to the Corinthians, he uses that word called three times in that opening paragraph for if you include the next paragraph with it.

So what does the application of the word call imply? So I decided to do a New Testament search for the word call, not calling or called or calls just call. And in the English standard version in the New King James Bible, I got the same result.

Two hundred and ninety six occurrences of the word call. The book of Luke has the most followed by the book of Acts, which are both authored by the same person. So Luke really loved that word call. The most common use of the word is as a reference.

So calling someone or something by its name. And here here are the examples that I pulled from the book of Matthew alone. So in Matthew one, twenty one, she will bear a son and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.

Matthew two, twenty three. And he went and lived in a city called Nazareth. Matthew nine nine. As Jesus passed on from there, he saw a man called Matthew, Matthew, twenty six, thirty six. Then Jesus went with them to a place called Gethsemane.

OK, so that's the most common use of the word call is to simply refer to something by its name. So then the next most common use of the word is a calling that requires a response. So for example, Matthew two, fifteen, Mary and Joseph remained in Egypt until the death of Herod.

This was to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet out of Egypt. I called my son a calling that requires a response. Matthew four, twenty one. And going on from there, Jesus saw two brothers, James, the son of Zebedee and John, his brother in the boat with Zebedee, their father, mending their nets.

And Jesus called them Matthew nine thirteen. For I came not to call the righteous, but sinners. Matthew ten one. And he called to him his twelve disciples. Matthew twenty two, fourteen. For many are called, but few are chosen.

Matthew twenty four, thirty one. And he will send out his angels with a loud trumpet call and they will gather his elect from the four winds from one end of heaven to the other. And then the third most common use of the word call is called as a result of a change.

So we have calling something by its name, calling that requires a response and then calling something that has resulted in a change. So Matthew five, nine, blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called the sons of God.

And Matthew five, nineteen, whoever relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven. But whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.

So this is called as a result of a change. So the kind of calling that we're talking about here is really all three apply. It is being called beloved as though that were your name. You are called beloved in God the father and kept for Jesus Christ because you are in Christ.

You are called beloved as though you are referred to by that way. OK, and then the second most common way called is used is a calling that requires a response that also applies to those who are called.

We are speaking only to Christians in this letter, not anyone and everyone. Jude is addressing the church. So those who have been called out of darkness and into the light of God, they are the called beloved in God the father because he has called them out.

Remember what we read in Romans 830 to those whom he predestined, he also called. So we have been predestined in Christ. We are called out of darkness and into the light of God. And then the third application of called applies here as well.

That is being called something as a result of a change. So because we've been called out of our sinfulness into the righteousness of Christ and we've been transformed in Christ Jesus, then we are. It is because of that change that has occurred that we are called beloved to those who are called beloved in God the father and kept for Jesus Christ.

So cementing further that this address in this letter is is specifically toward Christians. This is not a general address. This has a very specific audience. And when you have those who will say, well, well, the Bible says whosoever will may come right, whosoever will, whosoever will respond to this message, listen to it and know it and turn from sin and follow in the righteousness of Christ is called.

And whoever does not respond to this message has not been called. They've had that external calling, but they've not had that effectual calling, the change that has occurred in their hearts by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Why Unbelievers Misread the Bible

So Jude's letter directly addressing Christians. And I've heard this said before. Maybe you've heard it said before as well. When somebody who is not a Christian is reading the Bible and saying, boy, it's just a bunch of nonsense.

I mean, how can how can anybody read the Bible and come away with anything meaningful? It's so boring. It's so drab. And a response to a person who says such a thing as this. Well, that's because the Bible is a love letter that isn't addressing you.

That's that's how you respond to that kind of criticism. Penn Jillette. Are you familiar with Penn Jillette? He's a famous magician, also a renowned atheist, and he has said the following. Take some time and put the Bible on your summer reading list.

Try and stick with it cover to cover, not because it teaches history. We've shown you that it doesn't. Read it because you'll see for yourself what the Bible is all about. It sure is not great literature.

If it were published as fiction, no reviewer would give it a passing grade. There are some vivid scenes and some quotable phrases, but there's no plot, no structure. There's a tremendous amount of filler and the characters are painfully one dimensional.

Whatever you do, don't read the Bible for a moral code. It advocates prejudice, cruelty, superstition and murder. Read it because we need more atheists and nothing will get you there faster than reading the Bible.

So why would an atheist read the Bible from Genesis to Revelation and come away with that kind of impression like what Penn Jillette had? I've heard Richard Dawkins say a very similar thing. Whereas a Christian could read the Bible or maybe even somebody who's not saved, but they become a Christian because they read the Bible from Genesis to Revelation and they see in its pages the power of God.

What's the difference? The Holy Spirit is the difference. Because in the person who sees the power of God in the pages of scripture, his heart has been transformed by the spirit of God to understand spiritual things.

The person who is an atheist is naturally minded and cannot understand spiritual things because he has a natural mind. And so he understands a non-religious, secularistic, humanistic, naturalistic view of the world and tries to understand spiritual things with that kind of mind and can't do it.

So they come away from the Bible thinking it as empty and pointless and meaningless and even dull and boring. And Paul clearly spelled this out in his letter to the Corinthians in 1 Corinthians 2. The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.

The spiritual person judges all things but is himself to be judged by no one, for who has understood the mind of the Lord as to instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ. And that's very simply the reason why the Christian finds such beloved words in the pages of scripture, whereas the atheist finds it to be an incredibly boring book that advocates prejudice and murder.

The Bible doesn't do any such thing, but that's what the atheist sees because he hates God. So the Bible is written to the believer. The one who fears God will find the hope of God in the pages of scripture.

But the one who does not fear God just finds emptiness and meaninglessness, as they find in the rest of the world. Nothing is with meaning if you do not have Christ. So Jude here in this letter really identifies an audience that the whole Bible is written to and that is the called, to those who are called, beloved in God the Father and kept for Jesus Christ.

May mercy, peace, and love be multiplied to you. And all who are in Christ Jesus have those things. But Jude is praying that they would be multiplied. In other words, that they would grow in these things.

We talked about that when we were in 2nd and 3rd John. As John desired to see the churches walking in the truth, that indicates progression. He wants to see them progressing in their faith, not just having proclaimed it at one point.

It was not enough for the apostles to witness conversion, but that there would also be discipleship and they would grow in their learning and understanding of the word. You think of the great commission that Jesus gave to his disciples at the end of Matthew 28.

All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go, make disciples of all nations, baptizing in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.

And lo, I am with you always to the very end of the age. So in Jesus' own commission to his disciples, he didn't just say, go and convert, go and baptize, but teach them to observe all that I have commanded.

So he's told them to evangelize, to baptize, and to disciple. Evangelize that they would grow in their understanding of the word as well. And so just as the apostle Paul desired this, as John wanted this, so Jude wanted this as well, that they would grow all the more in mercy and peace and love.

Mercy, we have received the mercy of God. We do not deserve the gift of salvation that we have in Christ Jesus. We have it because God has shown us mercy. Mercy is when we get something that we do not deserve instead of the thing that we do deserve.

We deserve judgment. We deserve the wrath of God. But what we have received is the grace of God, and that is his mercy that is bestowed this favor upon us rather than judgment. May mercy and peace. So we have received peace from God.

The way that Paul describes it in Philippians chapter 4 is a peace that surpasses all understanding. This is not peace like sitting in a lawn chair in the shade with a lemonade in your hand out back behind a house with no mortgage on it.

You've paid it off. You've got a car sitting in the driveway that doesn't have a loan on it. Everything is good in the world. You are relaxed. Marriage is happy. Kids are all Christians, grown up and raised and out in the world.

And boy, now you're at peace, right? Ah, I can sit here and relax. It's not the kind of peace we're talking about. All of that is is a wonderful kind of peace. And I pray that the Lord would bestow on you that kind of relaxation in your body.

But we're talking about a peace with God, knowing that at the end of all things, when we die in this body, when we go to be with the Lord, we have nothing to fear of judgment or standing before God because we know in Christ Jesus we are justified and in him we have peace.

There is no expectation to perform or have achieved a certain level of righteous performance because the righteousness that we have is not our own. It comes from Christ. And so therefore, this peace that we have with God is is a peace, again, that surpasses all understanding because it is eternal.

It is not just something we experience in the moment, but it is something that we will experience for all time. And so the understanding of this peace, though it is beyond human comprehension, but that we would grow in our understanding of it all the more.

So that is why Jude is saying that mercy and peace be multiplied to you. Also love that we would grow in our brotherly fellowship with one another in the body of Christ. That is the church. All three of these things, mercy, peace and love, is multiplied to us.

We are maturing in these things when we, as the body of Christ, are growing in them together, encouraging and admonishing one another according to the word of Christ. So Jude is not addressing one individual person.

He's not addressing people who are all by their by their lonesome. And it's by the spirit of God that we're united. And that's who the church is. He's addressing a church congregation that is gathered and that among them has weaseled in these false teachers, which he truly means to address.

So Jude, with with a very kind, heartfelt, very affectionate and charitable address at the start of this letter, just like John gave at the start of his letters, first, second and third, John, Jude is a servant.

He is a servant for the good of the churches to whom he is writing or church, as it would occasion just just a single church and desiring for them that they would grow all the more in mercy and peace and love.

So we know, even though this letter is going to be a scathing rebuke regarding false teachers and some of those reading it needing to understand that they've been strung after the wrong word, even though Jude offers this as a rebuke, he does so in love and in kindness.

And we see that with the way that he has begun this letter, also with the way that he ends the letter, he ends the letter as affectionately, as kindly and and yearning for this body to whom he is writing.

Jude’s Shift from Common Salvation to Contending for the Faith

So we get to verse three, beloved. See, there's that word again, addressing them as beloved, that we are all in this together. We are brothers and sisters in Christ because of a unity that has been given to us in Christ, not by anything that we have achieved on our own, but because we are in the same truth and in the same love.

Beloved, although I was very eager, I was very eager to write to you about our common salvation. Now, I'm going to get a little speculative here, maybe conjecture on my part. I wonder if Jude sat there, pulled out his paper and his pen and tried writing something.

He already started writing something. And just as we read in third, John, where John was addressing Gaius and he said, I've written something to the church, but because of diatrophies and some of the wicked things that he's saying about us, I don't think the church is going to receive what it is that I have to say.

So I mean to come there in person so they can hear about what diatrophies has been doing. I wonder if Jude was kind of trying to start his letter the same way. He's sitting down. He's got parchment. He's got pen.

He's trying to write this out, but as he's thinking about the church that he's writing to and he's thinking about the word that has come to him, the message that he has received concerning the conduct of that church, the things that there may be even teaching there and certainly the things that they have been listening to teachers that have arisen from their own midst.

His heart is vexed. He is in anguish. He is praying for them and yearning for them, maybe even weeping over them, hearing about some of these false teachers in the church. And we can rightly assume that Jude wept for this church because of the way that the apostle Paul weeps for those whose God is their belly.

He talks about this with the Philippians. And so I remind you, Paul says, even now with tears, warning them of those who have fled from the truth of Jesus Christ and are instead following along or following after the lies of the enemy.

And so Jude likely feeling that same anguish in his heart, yearning passionately for this church that they would know the truth. And so he's sitting down. He's got his parchment. He's got his pen. He really wants to write some encouraging words.

I've heard about some false teachers that have arisen among you. So he wants to write something encouraging, maybe if he just sends a letter of celebration like John did. First John chapters one through five, which is rejoicing together in the common faith that they have.

He doesn't really directly confront any false teaching in that letter, although you can tell that he does warn them about false teachers, particularly when you're reading first John four, one beloved test the spirits for not every spirit is from God.

And many false prophets have gone out into the world. But Jude, as he's thinking about this church, as he is praying to God for the right words, as he's praying for them to turn from false teaching, finally, his heart gets to the point where he's so convicted, where he says, I can't, I cannot write just a kind word to you of saying, hey, you're running the race well, so keep running the race more because I know you're not.

And so while I was eager to write to you about our common salvation, instead, I find it necessary to write appealing to you to contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints. Now, Jude was not necessarily inspired by John's letter to write in this way, because as we've talked about dates and occasions for the letter, it's most likely that Jude has written this before John has written his.

So this is prior to 70 AD, and John may have written his letters after the destruction of the temple in 70 AD. And so but we do see some some very similar themes to what we read in second Peter, when Peter addressed some of the false teachers at Jude uses very similar language.

So he may have at least known of the way that the apostle Peter had confronted some of these things and adopted some of the same language that Peter used in Jude addressing a different church. So we're going to continue with Jude's opening statement here to this church contending for the faith once for all delivered to the saints.

And we'll continue that tomorrow. Let's pray. Our Lord God, we thank you that we have been called and that by the effectual work of the Holy Spirit in our hearts, we responded to that calling. And we are walking in Christ and following after his gospel.

And I pray that you keep us steadfast in that all the more that we would grow in knowing the mercy of God so that that we can we can truly sympathize with the words of Paul when he said in Romans 12, one in view of God's mercy, present yourselves as living sacrifices that we would grow in peace so that we have nothing to fear of anything in this world because we have peace with God and that love would be multiplied as well.

We would grow in our affections for the body of Christ. So we would earnestly and eagerly call them away from sin and to the righteousness of God, earnestly urging them away from false teaching and walking instead in the truth.

And we do those things more boldly when we have grown in this love for the brotherhood that has been poured into our hearts from Christ Jesus, who loves us far greater than we could ever ask or imagine.

So let these things be multiplied to us so that we may be pleasing in your sight as we walk the way of Christ in whose name we pray. Amen.

Gabriel Hughes is the pastor of First Southern Baptist Church in Junction City, Kansas. Find out more online at wwutt .com.