"Called, Beloved, Kept" - Assurance For Those who Preach in Times Like These

if you have a Bible I invite you to turn to the most neglected letter in the Bible the second last book of the Bible and that is the letter of Jude incidentally if you don't have a Bible I don't even know why you're here so that's chapter two in my book how to make friends and influence people this uh it is a privilege to be here I should say that initially it is a wonderful privilege to be here I've known of this church and of course I know the minister here and I know of race Ministry both by my own benefiting from his writing and also sitting under his teaching and so it's really nice to be here I've never been to Ottawa I've been to Canada I know all the famous Canadians I know them all Gordon Lightfoot Johnny Mitchell Neil Young you can tell I'm a real scientist can't you yeah now I have to be very straightforward with you after what we heard this afternoon which was so clear what we're doing why we're doing it and so on and knowing what is on the menu for tomorrow from Ray because I've seen his titles which I know is going to be a great encouragement um now I find myself having by my own design drawn the Short Straw insofar as we're about to read Jude and you'll be delighted to know we won't make our way all the way through it even in three talks and that is so that the parts that I don't understand I don't have to address and also it means that I might encourage you to embark on a series in Jude if it occurs to you with all that said let me read the letter 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 necessary to write appealing to you to contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the Saints for certain people who 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 a people out of the land of Egypt afterward destroyed those who did not believe and the angels who did not stay within their own position of authority but left their proper dwelling he has kept an eternal chains under gloomy Darkness until the Judgment of the great day just as Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding cities which likewise indulged in sexual immorality and pursued unnatural desire serve as an example by undergoing a punishment of Eternal fire yet in like manner these people also relying on their dreams defile the flesh reject Authority and blaspheme the Glorious ones but when the Archangel Michael contending with the devil was disputing about the body of Moses he did not presume to pronounce a Blasphemous judgment but said the Lord rebuke you but these people blaspheme all that they do not understand and they are destroyed by all that they like unreasoning animals understand instinctively woe to them for they walked in the way of Cain and abandoned themselves for the sake of gain to balaam's error and perished in quarter's Rebellion these are blemishes on your love Feasts as they Feast with you without fear looking after themselves waterless clouds swept Along by winds fruitless trees in late summer twice dead uprooted Wild Waves of the sea casting up the form of their own shame wandering Stars For Whom the Gloom of utter Darkness has been reserved forever it was also about these that Enoch the seventh from Adam prophesied saying behold the Lord came with ten thousands of his holy ones to execute judgment on all and to convict all the ungodly of all their deeds of ungodliness that they have committed in such an ungodly way and of all the harsh things that ungodly Sinners have spoken against him these are grumblers malcontents following their own sinful desires they are loud mouth boasters showing favoritism to gain advantage but you must remember Beloved the predictions of the Apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ they said to you in the last time there will be scoffers following their own ungodly passions it is these who cause divisions worldly people devoid of the spirit but you beloved build yourselves up in your Most Holy Faith pray in the Holy Spirit keep yourselves in the love of God waiting for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ that leads to eternal life and have mercy on those who doubt save others by snatching them out of the fire to others show Mercy with fear hating even the Garment stained by the flesh now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy to the only God our savior through Jesus Christ Our Lord be glory Majesty dominion and Authority before all time and now and forever amen well a brief prayer an old Anglican prayer father what we know not teach us what we have not give us what we are not make us for your son's sake amen if you have been recently in the United Kingdom and traveling on public transport you will have noticed what I have noticed that every so often as you're for example writing on the tube in the center of London an announcement comes out of nowhere and it says this see it say it sorted see it say it sort it and if you're not familiar with the use of the verb to sort in British terminology where people will say to you instead of saying did you make your reservations for your flight they will say is your flight sorted and if you're not aware of that use then you won't even understand what's being said what actually it is is from the British transport police encouraging passengers to keep themselves and those around them safe and so they say if you see something that is untoward if you say it say something about it and we the transport police will endeavor to get it sorted well of course we understand that it's not unique to London the phraseology may be but everywhere you go in the world at the moment security and safety are uppermost in people's thinking any grandparent knows that being entrusted with the grandchildren for a few days is to be under the scrutiny of the children that lend you their children because they want to make sure that when they come back they will still be there that the security is there and indeed the terminology of watching out for the invasion of that which would be untoward would be unsettling would be of any kind of impact that would threaten and jeopardize life it goes without saying the reason I begin in that way is because you will notice that in verse 4 this is at the very heart of this little letter from Jude certain people have crept in unnoticed therein it's not that they might be in it is that they are in he's writing to them and he's saying you need to realize that while some of you have fallen asleep on the ball this is what has been going on he tells them that he had been intending to write in a far more General way concerning salvation The Wonder of God's grace and goodness the things about which we sang earlier in the afternoon and again this evening but he says I've changed my tag and I've changed my tag out of a sense of compulsion it's not as if we imagine that Jude had had you know a bad evening and he had a sort of cantankerous spirit and so he determined that he would write in this way no he doesn't feel in that way at all it is a matter of urgency he says and account of the urgency I'm writing to you in this way now let me take just a moment and set this in a wider context than the immediacy even of Jude and the immediacy necessarily of the time in which we're living let's lay it down as axiomatic that despite the preoccupation of contemporary Christianity in the West with the inroads of a secular culture an understandable concern when we read our Bibles we discover that the great warning is not about how to deal with those who oppose us from without but is the warning of collapse from within Paul does it as he bids farewell to the Ephesian Elders in Acts chapter 20. he says I want you to take care of yourselves and the church that is under your care because after my departure Fierce wolves will come in they will arise from among yourself and they will be bright and they will be bold and they will draw teachers away after them it was true in Ephesus it was true in the context to which Jude writes and in actual fact it is vitally important that in every generation of the church we recognize the threat we heed the warning and we keep the faith I was intrigued in doing a little bit of research about when people were born because I was thinking about particular individuals I was thinking about when Dwight El Moody was born when CH Borden was born and when General Booth of the Salvation Army was born and I thought this was probably the case but when I checked it I realized it was that they were all born within about seven or eight years of each other and so at the end of the 19th uh the 19th century they are born and they some of them make it through into the 20th century but not all and General Booth was asked as he was moving towards the end of his life what he they asked him is your great concern for the church going into the next Century that is the pass Century now the 20th century Booth replied in answering your inquiry I consider that the chief dangers which confront the coming Century will be religion without the Holy Ghost Christianity without Christ forgiveness without repentance salvation without regeneration politics without God heaven without hell he didn't realize how prescient he was his contemporary Spurgeon who actually preached a four booth and Booth preached for Spurgeon not everybody knows that but Spurgeon of course was dealing with a very similar circumstance wasn't he he was dealing with the fight that the church was threatened not by the external realities and vicissitudes of life but was threatened by the fact that that matters of biblical and vital importance were being eroded and in fact it's actually worth considering the parallels between the downgrade controversy through which Spurgeon lived and the state of contemporary evangelicalism I'll leave you to do that for homework on your own but for Spurgeon it was a period when the authority and the sufficiency of scripture was vigorously attacked that the doctrine of penal substitutionary atonement about which we've just been singing was ridiculed and what challenged him and Disturbed him greatly was the fact that instead of the church holding the line there was capitulation and radical unbelief which began to lay hold in the church God was being robbed of his glory and men and women were being deprived of their hope Spurgeon always was fairly straightforward wasn't he he referred to this as quotes these destroyers of our churches appear to be as content with their work as monkeys with their mischief that which their fathers would have lamented they rejoice in avowed atheists are not a tenth as dangerous as those preachers who scattered doubt and stab at Faith you think about this the great human cry about the Contemporary atheists Hitchin is dead and gone but he ran for a while and there are so many of them and the church is writing books to try and answer these people that's not the problem the problem is that within the framework of the Church of Jesus Christ there is an incipient loss of confidence in the authority power truthfulness relevance and application of the scriptures themselves and I bring this to you tonight as somebody who feels the weight of this and the burden of this as a pastor it's not that I live somewhere other than this this is where I live my life this is where we live our lives and every one of us has only our foot in the doorway for a short period of time for a generation maybe two generations and we keep our food in the doorway in the hope that the door will be left open for others who will come behind and who will subscribe to the faith that was once delivered to the Saints now you may be saying oh here we go this is going to be one big long diatribe no no no in fact if you find yourself immediately getting your juices going about this just the word contend is enough to get some people going oh I love to be to I love to contend well contend is okay contention is not okay the spirit and the tone of Jude here is not a spirit of condemnation it is a spirit of consternation don't you like the English language but Jude historically has been a happy hunting ground for contentious individuals who are always spoiling for a fight they are antagonistic they are belligerent they're combative and they are generally disagreeable we do not want to find ourself included in that company I tried to write rewrite the letter of Jude I couldn't do it but I wanted to see if I could capture the tone of it and I I gave up after a while but this is what I came up with this is Jude now what is this me pretending to be Jude I'm writing like this not because I want to but because I must and because I love you and long to see you kept and keeping on let me remind you of these sad and Powerful examples from the history of the people of God they make my point remember we were told to expect this kind of thing so keep your chin up stay steady be gracious rest in God he has you under his care and with all of that by way of introduction let's come to the text otherwise Jonathan will stand up and say why did I bring you here you're supposed to be able to check the text there is a text and they say so let's let's deal with the first two verses we probably won't get much further than that I don't know Jude a servant of Jesus Christ and the brother of James so we are introduced to the writer it's fascinating to me that he introduces himself in this way that is actually only one Jude in the New Testament who has a brother called James and we can read of that in the gospels and you can do that on your own I take it that his name has been shortened in this in order to distinguish him from the disciple who denied Jesus he identifies himself by his family relationship with James his family relationship with James the James who led the church in Jerusalem the James I take it who penned the book of James is my brother and I am a servant of Jesus Christ now think about it if he was the brother of James that means that he was the half-brother of Jesus I don't know about you but if I had been right in this that was what I would have put right up front hey this is me I'm the half-brother of Jesus but no because why well he wants to make sure that we understand this that he is the servant of Jesus now John tells us that the brothers of Jesus didn't actually believe in Jesus they didn't believe in him at all John chapter 7. it was only after the resurrection that they actually came to declare Jesus as Lord and Master Jesus is in Galilee he's not able to go into Judea the Jews are threatening to kill him he Retreats as it were to his own family dwelling and even John says his brothers did not believe in him no one is too privileged to be exempt from the need to be converted yeah he was Jesus half brother but Jesus was his savior I am Jude a servant of Jesus Christ and the brother of James now I'm writing to those who are called beloved in God and kept for Jesus Christ one of the things that Jude does is he would really be a pretty good preacher because he has lots of three points and here's his first little Trinity or little Triad called beloved and kept now I don't have a very good memory so I have to come up with things to help me to remember so this is this is what I have for these three that is this is the Central Bank of Kenya all right Central Bank of Kenya you say I don't know what you're talking about well just listen I'm trying to help you remember cold beloved and kept you say well you're not helping me because now I'll only remember the Central Bank of Kenya and that would not be a helpful thing when we're trying to learn the Bible do what you want with it but look here to those who are called called he's not addressing them by who they are or by where they are but by what they are that's why when uh Kenneth Taylor paraphrases this he says that this is judah's servant of Jesus Christ and the brother of James to Christians everywhere it's a it's a general epistle it's one of a number of General Epistles it doesn't have an immediate geographical identity nor does it have an immediate representation in the one who is its recipient no it is just this the specifics of the latter of course as we have read it now just now point to the fact that he is addressing a particular church or a particular group of churches and the recipients to whom he writes are as identified first of all they are called the Bible refers with frequency to the fact that the Christian the child of God is one whom God has called this means more than simply invited you remember we preached Christ crucified a stumbling block to Jews Folly to the Gentiles but to those who are called both Jews and Greeks Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God oh this is like bringing Coast to Newcastle I understand but let's not be in any doubt you see what he's doing here he's about to delve into material that is pretty hard both for him to write and pretty difficult for people to receive and so he sets it immediately within the context of his love for them and his concern for them so that they might understand how much they mean to him so that they know they can trust the heart of someone who cares this much because they know that he would ever he is too kind ever to be cruel and he's too wise under God ever to make a mistake in what he's doing called when a person comes to Faith In Jesus whether a Jew or a gentile they discover themselves to be standing in a long Lane of succession that goes all the way back to Abraham the story of the Bible is really the story of God's free decision to call out a people for himself from every nation tribe language and tongue as we read when we get to Revelation and it is the unmistakable privilege of those who are in Christ tonight to understand this is why I found a friend of such a friend he loved me before he knew me he drew me with the cords of love and thus he bound me to him and round my heart so closely twined these ties that none can sever for I am his and he is mine forever and forever keep in mind that this is a letter it shouldn't be spoken about in such short order despite the fact that I'm doing it in that way you need to remember how he both begins and ends keep yourselves in the love of God you are loved by God that's exactly how he starts what Grace is mine that he who dwells in Endless light called through the night to save my guilty soul do you ever wonder why it is that you believe do you ever wonder how it is that you still believe when all thy mercies o my God my Rising Soul surveys transported with the view I'm lost in Wonder Love and praise unnumbered Comforts to my soul thy Tender Care bestowed before my infant heart conceived from whom those Comforts flowed this is the identity of the child of God and this is where he starts the sense of urgency that he feels is if you like delayed in its expression until he establishes them in an understanding of the security that is theirs in Christ and in the gospel we could all work our way through material like that the hymn that I'm quoting from has a verse that is never sung I've never heard it sung but I know the verse is in there and it goes somewhere along the lines like this when in the slippery Paths of Youth with heedless steps Iran your hand on sin conveyed me safe and brought me up to man you know God has some of his children on a Long Leash but all who are his he has called secondly beloved in God beloved in God this is love this is love not that we love God but he loved us if anyone loves me he will keep my word the father will love him we will come to him we will make our home with him a love that stretches all the way across the Testaments I love that is unimpaired by time that is unaffected by geography a love that won't let us go a wonderful love or we could just say all night but just reinforce it you know come let us sing of a wonderful love tender and true out of the heart of the father above reaching to me and to you wonderful love out of the heart of the father above do you understand I hope you understand the extent to which God has gone in order to redeem us that he views us as his beloved every time I meet a boy called Benjamin I always say you are a man with a great name it's not because I want to be called Benjamin I'm stuck with what I've got but it would be a nice name Ben doesn't quite do it you know Ben why does everyone shortened her name Benjamin is a nice name and the reason I mention that is because when you read the blessings of Moses upon the tribes he says something about this one and that one in Judah and so on and this is what he says about Benjamin the Beloved of the Lord dwells in safety for he Shields him all day long and the one the lord loves rests between his shoulders you ever see the shepherd with a sheep on it's just a cross there and the legs are sticking out both sides what kind of love is this or if you want to take it down a couple of notches you can just go country western on it oh honey I'm gonna love you forever and ever amen as long as old men sit and talk about old women as long as old women sit and talk about old men if you wonder how long I'll be faithful I'll tell you again and again because I'm going to love you forever forever and ever amen that sentiment but God says the very same thing I called you I love you I will love you forever that is why we are kept those who are called beloved in God and kept for Jesus Christ there's a footnote there if you're in the ASV it could be kept by Jesus Christ well there's both isn't it that we're kept by the Lord Jesus and we're kept for the Lord Jesus one day the Lord Jesus will have the Nations as his inheritance one day he will stand before the father and say behold I and the children you have given me and he is the one who keeps us now what Jude is here is just a wonderfully faithful Pastor I suggest to you that before he enters into the woes and these are Big woes that are on their way before he devolves into the woes he establishes if you like the truths the Central Bank of Kenya called in the past beloved in the present and kept for the future I don't know where your hearts are tonight I don't know what you're dealing with how could I possibly know but God knows and it is a precious thing when something that we are familiar with is brought home to our hearts just in such a timely fashion that we say thank you I know that stuff I know what he's saying but thank you that you did call me thank you that you love me and thank you that you keep me in all of it what he's really saying is that I am a servant of the Lord Jesus Christ I share with you in this one's salvation I am one with you and I am also praying for you what good is a pastor that doesn't pray for his flock especially when he has to deal with material such as is about to follow it's not this is not just I I sort of sensible way to begin the letter no he says listen this is how I pray for you I'm praying notice again another three I can tell you didn't like the Central Bank of Kenya let me try you another one Milwaukee Public Library how about that if you get Central Bank of Kenya and Milwaukee Public Library you got the whole talk and you can just go home and rejoice okay M for mercy P for peace and L for love May Mercy peace and love be multiplied to you whereby God in his goodness doesn't give to us what we deserve and all this on account of what God has done for us in Jesus on our behalf it will get to that verse 21 eventually maybe next year keep yourselves in the love of God waiting for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ that leads to eternal life that was the transformation in Paul he's not writing it but that was the big shift in Paul wasn't it because he was an arrogant Jew he was very sure of his religious perspective he was so clear about it that he denied the claims of Jesus and hated those who were his followers but you remember by the time he is giving his testimony to us in first Timothy remember what he says I was shown Mercy I was showing Mercy I had built my entire existence on my achievements whether spiritual racial intellectual whatever they might be and I was full of myself but I was shown Mercy because I realized that I had a Covetous heart it's interesting that he says that that covetousness was the thing that uncovered him what do you think he coveted I don't know but I think there's a possibility that he coveted what he saw on the day when he said to the people leave your coats here while you Stone him and there he looked and he sees Stephen his face as an angel looking up into the heavens and I don't know we'll have to check but I wouldn't be surprised if he didn't on that day say now there's something I don't have I would like that and God of course in his Mercy showed him mercy and he's shown us Mercy too and the mercy that is so important that he says in these first verses you have to realize and this is why you got to keep the letter before you all the time he is reminding them the mercy that they know is the mercy that they need to bestow upon those who doubt have mercy on those who doubt in other words the Christian congregation that is aware of being called and beloved and kept and is aware of Mercy should not be a kind of congregation in which people who are doubting and are unsure and are fearful find that they cannot give vent to what is going on inside of them because this is the customary approach of the way in which we do our church life no it is Mercy that makes us merciful I want to reinforce this because of what comes after this surely the battle lines are drawn when we talk about immorality here in the sensuality that is represented in the sort of runaway torrent of the 21st Century Mercy Mercy there was great and Grace was free and pardon was multiplied to me so we look on these people out there Mercy peace peace in the face of disruption in the context of opposition in the environment where there is a kind of wholesale collapse internally that what Peter had been suggesting was going to come or was predicting it would arrive has now arrived to Peter I take it that Jude was written after two Peter others can comment on that but he writes doesn't he false prophets also Rose Among the people just as there will be false teachers among you who will secretly bring in destructive heresies even denying the master who bought them bringing upon themselves with destruction oh I pray that God will grant to you peace you will keep him Isaiah in perfect peace whose mind is stayed upon you because he trusts in you may God's mercy God's peace and the love of God the love of God what a privilege it is to be loved of God and to know his love I've I'm it's tough being a grandfather because you start to sound like one but the youngest members of my grandchildren were at our home last evening on Mother's Day and the two little twin girls are just turned four and I said to them what songs do you know and together of course the saying the children's anthem Jesus loves me this I know for the Bible tells me so how do you know Jesus loves you because of a feeling in your tummy no because the Bible tells me so little ones to him belong they are weak but he's strong yes Jesus loves me the love of God bringing us into his glorious presence enabling Us in turn to speak the truth in love and you'll notice he's not he's not simply saying I hope you'll know a measure of peace and mercy and love but he says may it be multiplied to you multiplied to you only God can supply the needs in that kind of context but he doesn't just add them he multiplies them now I could go on but I don't want to I want to allow this to settle if it may and we can pick it up from here but I feel very much a bit like Jude as I stand before you now I would rather actually do something from second Timothy I'd rather do a comfortable psalm then put myself in a position where I am now there is no way out of what comes next I mean I'm stuck and in a sense you're stuck too my plan was to write to you about our common salvation he says but I need to address these matters but as I come to address in these matters remember this that you are called beloved and kept and understand that I am praying for you that Mercy peace and love will be multiplied to you so that we might have together a shared understanding of who we are under God in the 60s a couple from the states Jimmy and Carol ormonds wrote two musicals that perhaps you will recall one was called come together and the other one was called if my people the sort of framework out of which they came I think was largely Pentecostal or charismatic but many of the songs became embedded in the Contemporary time and I have often remembered them I saw them at the Royal Albert Hall in London I attended the thing there and I saw it elsewhere but this is this let me just end with this as a reminder Judas Judas writing to these people he's about to say these difficult things he doesn't launch immediately into it he's not in a bad mood he's not contentious he's not cantankerous he's just deeply concerned and I want to suggest to you that if you're not deeply concerned about the state of the church in Canada I don't think you're alive if you don't understand what's happening in contemporary Scotland in relationship to the church then buy a newspaper and so instead of us bemoaning these things or becoming unkind or whatever it might be we need to remind ourselves of who we are under God in Christ and this song went like this you are the children of the kingdom of God you're the chosen ones for whom the Savior came you're his Noble New Creation by the spirit and the blood you're the church that he has built to bear his name and the Gates of Hell shall not Prevail against you and the hordes of Darkness cannot quench your light and the hosts of God shall stand and fight beside you till your TR your king shall reign triumphant in his might father I thank you that we have Bibles to which we can turn that we're able to go home and read and think and I pray that at least our hearts will be stirred by the extent of your amazing goodness and kindness towards us in the Lord Jesus Christ we take these verses in isolation but we do so purposefully so that we don't delve into the urgency of the concern until we have been assured of the security that is ours in the Lord Jesus Christ that you're the God who has called who loves us and who keeps us May Mercy and peace and love become increasingly the drumbeat of Our Lives the tone of our families and the flavor of our congregations so that those who struggle might find in Jesus the answer to all their longings and that those who doubt May on the occasion of discovering your mercy be drawn into the Embrace like Benjamin resting in the arms of Christ thank you Lord for this day and for this night bless us as we sing for Christ's sake amen

Channel: The Timothy Trust

Views: 33,688

Keywords:

Id: cnsTpdQc4iM

Length: 44min 26sec (2666 seconds)

Published: Mon May 29 2023