Please turn in your Bibles to the Epistle of Jude. The Epistle of Jude. If you don't know where that is, just go to the book of Revelation and go one book to the left. As small as it is, it's not really that hard to find because you know where Revelation is. I had mentioned that we are going to be stepping away from Mark's Gospel for the next several weeks. We're taking a break. I think it'll be refreshing when we return at the summer's end and returning to this most obscure of books in the Bible because I believe, as many believe, many of my brothers, that this little book has a very needful message for our time, a needful message for the church. Please stand for the reading of God's Word. Let's read our text. It's just going to be the first two verses, Jude 1 and 2. The Word of God says, Jude, a bondservant of Jesus Christ, and brother of James, to those who are the called, beloved in God the Father, and kept for Jesus Christ. May mercy and peace and love be multiplied to you. That's the reading of God's inerrant, infallible word. You may be seated. Let's pray. Father in heaven, thank you that you have told us very clearly in your word that your church, your people in this age is the pillar and ground of the truth, which you have revealed to us. Father, there is no more important institution that we could think of. You have commissioned your church with the task of spreading your gospel. And Father, this is a heavy, holy task. And Father, we are fully inadequate unless by your grace you enable us, you move us, you energize us as your people and revive us according to your truth by your spirit. So Father, I am asking that you would take the truth of your word this morning, that you would take your humble servant and allow me to be your mouthpiece, to herald your truth. that your people would be stirred, that they would be transformed by your word, and I pray that if there be any soul without Jesus Christ, that you would draw them into your fold. This we ask in the name of Jesus our Savior, amen. The ancients tell us of a war that once raged between the Greeks and the people of Troy. It was a very brutal war and when it seemed that no side could prevail, the Greeks made as if they would leave off. They got in their ships and departed. And from their embattlements in Troy, the people of Troy rejoiced. They saw the ships departing. But of course, the Greeks left behind an offering to the goddess Athena. It was a unique offering. It was a giant, hollow horse made of wood. And so the inhabitants of Troy were so excited to see the Greeks departed, they wheeled this giant horse into the city, danced about it, danced on it, celebrated the end of the long war. When they happily went to sleep, patiently awaiting for the right moment. Greek soldiers, infiltrators within the wooden horse, the Trojan horse, slipped from their hiding, opened the gates, let their comrades in, and before the Trojans even knew what was happening, the city of Troy was taken by surprise. So goes the fall of Troy. The same mythical story of the Trojan horse, you may have heard that before, has become a graphic, timeless metaphor of something or someone, anything, that pretended or secretly intends to undermine or bring about the downfall of an enemy or opponent. That's the idea of a Trojan horse. You've heard this story, you know the idea. The scriptures, though, warn us of a powerfully armed, well-organized, and very cunning enemy. He's no less subtle. He's a relentless enemy to the church of Jesus Christ. He hates this church. He's an enemy of this church. And he has said in the very first thing in the Bible that we know about our enemy, the devil, is that he was more crafty than any beast of the field. And did you know Satan has a Trojan horse of his own? Did you know that our enemy has devised a Trojan horse? It's the concealment of a vast enemy of apostates that are rebels to the truth of God. And their unchecked infiltration of the church is dangerous. Many churches, many denominations, many seminaries, well-meaning Christians welcome these infiltrators into the churches, into the fold. But when they are accepted, when they are trusted, They spring the trap and the church is taken. And so is the story of how many mainline Protestant denominations no longer preach the gospel. This is the story of the fall of many denominations, many seminaries, many churches. And if you think I'm crying wolf this morning, just listen to the word of God and how it warms about enemy infiltration in the church. And I want you to listen for how these apostates, these infiltrators are described. Jesus warned, beware of the false prophets who come to you in sheep's clothing. But inwardly are ravening wolves. He predicted that many false prophets will arise and Jesus said they will mislead many. Paul warned the church at Ephesus, I know that after my departure, savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock, and from among your own selves. Men will arise speaking perverse things to draw away the disciples after them. He said they will enter in among you, and they will arise from within your very ranks. He warned the church in Rome, I urge you, brethren, keep your eye on those who cause dissensions and hindrances contrary to the teaching which you learned, and turn away from them. For such men are slaves, not of our Lord Jesus, but of their own appetites. And by their smooth and flattering speech, they deceive the hearts of the unsuspecting. Paul warned the church in Corinth, such men are false apostles, deceitful workers, disguising themselves as the apostles of Christ. No wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. Therefore it is not surprising if his servants also disguise themselves as the servants of righteousness, whose end will be according to their deeds. Peter warned, 2 Peter 2, But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will also be false teachers among you, who will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the master who bought them, bringing swift destruction upon themselves. But many, many will follow their sensuality, and because of them, the way of truth will be maligned. And in their greed, they will exploit you with false words. Their judgment from long ago is not idle, and their destruction is not asleep." There are remarkable parallels between 2 Peter 2 and the small epistle that we are reading this morning. Just one single chapter in it, right? And I don't think that's any coincidence. In fact, if you read 2 Peter 2 and Jude alongside each other, the parallels are so striking it's no coincidence. So scholars recognize either Peter was using Jude or Jude was using Peter as a source. And by the way, there's no problem with that because it's all good. It was all inspired of the Holy Spirit of God. It's all truth. And I believe one reason that Jude is the one who draws from Peter's epistle and not vice versa, one reason, is that Peter wrote to churches scattered abroad to say, hey look, false prophets are coming. Right now the church is growing. We're seeing revival but false prophets are coming. They're going to infiltrate and they're going to lead many away. And you know what Jude says? He says they're here. Remember what Peter wrote you? They have come. Jesus, Paul, Peter say they're coming. Jude says they've arrived. The time has come. The time we've been warning you about. And they are already within your ranks. Notice verse 4 in Jude. Verse 4. Certain persons have crept in unnoticed. Crept in unnoticed. These are ungodly persons, he says, who turn the grace of God into licentiousness, into license, that is, and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ. So did you catch some of the attributes of these characters, these infiltrators? They look, they talk, they dress, they act just like any other Christian, and yet they are, like Jesus says, wolves. They look like sheep. They are dressed in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves. They're disguised. They are apparently also, from these warnings, skillful. Deceitful. They use smooth and flattering language to draw away people. And you notice, they could care less about the unity of the church. They could care less about the cause of the gospel of Christ going forward. What are they about? They are about drawing a following after themselves. That's what they're about. They are divisive. They create schisms in the body and they are, of course, dangerous. Jesus was so concerned about these infiltrators that he calls them ravenous wolves. He's saying they're dangerous, they're lethal, don't tolerate them, look out for them, take notice of them. And that is the occasion in which Jude is writing here. Brothers and sisters, not all Christian books are Christian books. Not all Christian schools are Christian schools. Not all Christian seminaries are really Christian seminaries. Not all churches that wear the name of Christ or claim to preach the very gospel of Christ are actually doing that. And if you go to many churches today, you won't even hear the gospel of Christ. But just understand, there was a time where those very churches once rang out the gospel loud and clear. They were once bastions of the truth of God. But something happened. At some point, one point or another, error entered in to the midst of the congregation and it killed the church like a cancer. And what Jude is saying is that is happening. It was happening in his time. It's happening in our time. You can simply go online and listen to any number of false teachers seeking to drop people away. I'm saying they don't even have to come within the walls of this building. False teachers are out there. They're only a click away. And many, they will identify themselves as your brother, your sister who loves you and loves Christ when they do not. And so the church in this letter we're seeing has been infiltrated by false teachers. They're enemies within. And the whole theme of Jude's letter then is a call to arms. He's saying, wake up, I'm sounding the alarm, take action. Earnestly contend for the faith. We could say the key verse of Jude is probably verse three, where he says, I was making every effort to write to you, beloved, about a common salvation, but I felt it necessary to be appealing to you, to contend earnestly for the faith. That's his purpose. And so Jude's concerned for the purity and preservation for the truth. We're just saying, I love the church. I hope that's your heart. Because Jesus loves his church. He gave himself for it. He loves his church. Jude loves this church. And so he's burdened to write to the church, to warn the church. Church is like ours. And I just want to give you just a few properties, unique properties to the book of Jude because this is an introduction to the epistle and it just makes the book so fascinating. I think you noticed already this is a very brief letter, right? It's a very brief letter. Maybe in your Bible it just fits on one page right there. It's just a few verses. It's the four shortest letter in the New Testament. Yet it packs a punch. This epistle, it's got some dark language. Some have called it, Diabman, he was a commentator, he calls 2 Peter and Jude the dark corner of the New Testament. Why? Because the mood is so dark. There's a lot of heavy, harsh, severe language. Because Jude's not going to mince words with these apostates. He's not going to mince words with the enemies of Christ. Another thing about this letter that you should know is that it is every bit tested and tried as the Word of God. Do you know the Church never determined the canon? The Catholic Church will tell you that the Church determined the canon. But the Church didn't determine the canon because it was God in heaven who inspired every single word of His truth. So the Church didn't inspire this. The church doesn't determine the canon. The church was used of God in discovering, in recognizing what God had already inspired. And I tell you that because there are some books in the Bible that it took a little bit longer. It was a little bit more, there was a little bit more dispute among churches in the early centuries about which books they should accept. And this was one of them. This book went through a lot of debate. It had to jump through a lot of hoops to come to you and I in our Bibles as the Word of God. There's reasons for that, by the way. It has to do with the fact that Jude will cite from apocryphal sources. But I'm going to go on to explain in the coming weeks why that's not an issue. And I think you will see that this is every bit the Word of God and appreciate it as nothing less. So Jude has been called one of the most neglected books in the New Testament. Why do you think that is? It's small. But it's also under the shadow of Revelation. You know how many people, they kind of read, if you're gonna read through your Old Testament, then your New Testament, you kind of get to 1st, 2nd Peter, 1st, 2nd, 3rd John, maybe 1st John, people read, they kind of skip through 2nd, 3rd John, and then Jude, you know, just get to Revelation. And Jude doesn't get much attention. But of all the 27 books in the New Testament canon, we could say of all the books in the Bible, did you know there's only one book dedicated solely to exposing false teachers, and that's this letter. Some have, of course, we call, we recognize Luke wrote Acts of the Apostles, earliest history of the church. Some have called Jude Acts of the Apostates, because it exposes the apostates, those who are in rebellion to the truth of God. And all that just to say this, beloved, This book, this little letter, maybe you never read it. Okay, you should. But maybe you never read it. This book holds a critical place in the Bible, in your Bible. This is a precious letter. It is precious truth from God. The remainder of time, our time, I'd like to show you that. We're just going to look at the first two verses. So this is an introduction. And in the first two verses, I want to acquaint you with three introductory facts that make this a precious letter. First of all, it's written by a very precious servant of God. It's written by a precious servant of the Lord. Verse 1, Jude, a bondservant of Jesus Christ and brother of James. What do we know about Jude? Well, the name Jude in the Hebrew is Judah. You've heard that name. Judah means praise Yahweh. In the English, of course, it just translates to Jude. In Greek, it's Judas. Judas. So here is the first epistle, or the final epistle, I should say, concluding right before Revelation, concluding God's canon. It's a book written exclusively to apostates or in relation to a warning about apostates. And it bears the name of the most famous apostate in church history, Judas. Think of it. The greatest traitor to the church was Judas Iscariot. And here's a book written to warn the church about traitors to the truth. and it bears the name Judas. If that's not ironic, I don't know what is. But Judah, this was a very common name in both the Old Testament and New Testament times. Actually, the first character you can think of by that name in the Bible was the fourth son of Jacob, Judah. He would be the ancestor to King David. Very well known. The whole southern kingdom of Israel would take his name, would take its name after Judah. And more recently, in 167 BC, 160 years before Christ, there would be an insurrectionist who would lead a famous revolt against the Greeks against Antiochus Epiphanes and he would free the Jews from the Greek tyranny, Judas Maccabees and so this was a popular name by the time of Christ and maybe you weren't aware of this but there are actually six people identified by the name Judas in the New Testament. Now, of course, we know Judas Iscariot. There's Judas not Iscariot, who is also known by the names Thaddeus and Labaius. So you have two men within Jesus' following of twelve disciples who had the name Judas. And there are a couple others less well-known. But the one that we need to recognize as the author of this epistle, who is he? Is he the apostle? Jude is not a spirit. Who is he? Well, there's two brief clues that Jude leaves us. Look at it. It says, Jude, a bondservant of Jesus Christ and brother of James. That's the only clues we have to his identity. How can we have any certainty who this is? Well, notice with me the second of those two clues. He identifies himself as the brother of James. If we can figure out who the James is, we can figure out who the Jude is. And You gotta think a little bit about this critically, okay? And I want you to follow with me here because you're saying, Pastor Nathan, why do I care about who this Jude was? This is part of an introduction to any book of the Bible, and you know what? If you recognize who Jude is, it comes with incredible payoff. So follow with me here, all right? Who is this James? Given that the name James was so popular also in the time of Jesus, and given that Jude does not give us any qualification as to which James he's talking about. He just says, I'm the brother of James. I mean, really, dude, you can't give us any more hint as to who you're talking about. I mean, if I just said I'm the brother of Joe, like Joe who? Well, apparently the James he's alluding to was extremely well known to the church. This was some sort of well-known figure in the church that they immediately would have known by this brief casual reference exactly who Jude's referring to. In fact, this is the only place in the New Testament, the entire New Testament, where a writer identifies himself using a family connection. Interesting, and it's only here. He says, I'm Jude, I'm a sponsor of Jesus Christ, and the brother of James. That's who I am. So which James is this? Well, obviously this James, very familiar to the church, could only have been one person. He is James, the half-brother of Jesus Christ. He is James who gives us the epistle of James. He is James that Paul would tell us in Galatians 2.9 was a pillar in the church. He was the head of the church at Jerusalem of all places. Read about it in Acts 15. This was a remarkable man. Everybody knew him. And this is the one to which Jude was a brother. Now think about that. If Jude is a brother to James, the half-brother of Jesus, that means Jude is a half-brother to Jesus. Why do I say half-brother, by the way? Well, we believe in the virgin birth. The Bible is very clear that Jesus, even though he was adopted, you could say by Joseph, Joseph wasn't his biological father. Jesus was born to Mary. That was it. Conceived by the Holy Spirit. And so Jesus was related to Joseph and Mary's children through Mary exclusively. So we say half brother. But if I say brother, I'm not denying the virgin birth, just shorthand for half brother, okay? Another interesting thing here is that Jude, if you look down at verse 17 in the epistle here, he distinguishes himself from the apostles. You see that? He says, but you, beloved, ought to remember the words that were spoken beforehand by the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ. He seems to be implying, I'm not an apostle, I'm referring to what the apostles have beforehand written, namely Peter, 2 Peter chapter 2. Well, this isn't then Jude, the apostle of Jesus, or Judas, not Iscariot, Levitus, Thaddeus. It's not him who was an apostle. This is Jude who was an apostle. It is Jude, the brother of Jesus Christ. Now look at the second clue, Jude. a bondservant. It's actually the first thing that Jude wants you to know about him this morning. He says, Jude, a bondservant of Jesus Christ. If I read for you what his brother wrote in James 1.1, it sounds very similar. He says, James, a bondservant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ. See, both brothers, they wrote the same way. I don't think that's any coincidence. But this little phrase comes first, and it's in a place of emphasis. And I don't think that's a coincidence either. I think Jude would want you to know if there's one thing that distinguished him, if there's one thing that defined him, if there was one thing that was central about his life, it was this. I'm a slave to Jesus. I am a slave to Jesus Christ. What is most remarkable here about this statement. Well, there's four things. I'm going to give you four things briefly that are remarkable to us from this title that Jude applies to his life. First, it demonstrates his humility. Now, how does this demonstrate his humility? Well, one might expect that Jude would have something to say about his earthly connection to Jesus. If you grew up in the same house as Jesus, I mean, wouldn't you mention that in your epistle? I mean, come on. Wouldn't you use that a little bit? You think that maybe this would give him some claim to glory or fame or some claim to inside knowledge. These days, if somebody was related to Jesus like that, what would they do? They'd write a book and they'd be on the New York Times bestseller and everybody would know it. Oh, that's oh, you're you're the brother of that celebrity. That's not Jude. That's not Jude. Jude recognized he had a more important relationship with Jesus. And that was that Jesus was his Lord. He was Jesus' bond slave. Like Paul, he would say with Paul in 2 Corinthians 5.16, Even though we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet we know him in this way no longer. Jesus lived on earth, he had relationships, he had friendships with people, but you know what? Paul and Peter, all the apostles, they recognized the Jesus we know is the Jesus in heaven. He is God. We have no earthly claim to him. As MacArthur would write of Jude, he says, his saving relationship to Christ became more important to him than family ties. Thus, Jude chose to humbly call himself Jesus' bondservant rather than note this most impressive fact that he was Jesus' half-brother. So he doesn't even say, I'm the half-brother of Jesus, I'm the brother of Jesus. He just says, I'm a bondservant of Christ. Wow. One scholar explains the chief feature of the bondservant was that he had become the absolute property of his master. Do you know Jesus Christ this morning? Do you know him? Is he your Lord? Do you identify yourself that way? Is the fact that you are a servant, a bond slave? Yes, I could say a slave to Jesus. Is that central to your life or is that peripheral? Is that just kind of a background detail that people kind of got to scroll down and oh, yeah, look, he or she's a Christian. For Jude, this is the first thing out of his mouth. It defined his life and it demonstrates his remarkable humility. Secondly, the title demonstrates Jude's authenticity. You see, if anybody wished to simply use Jude's name as a pseudo pen name to kind of further his own ideas, add credence to his own letter in the early church, he would surely tell his earthly connection to Jesus as his brother, right? That would certainly make sense. And given Jude's physical ties to Jesus, this humble title as a sponsor of Jesus Christ, period, that's it. That points to Jude's authenticity. You see, we have many letters, apocryphal writings, where people would try to write as Peter, as James, as different characters who knew the Lord. And you know what? We know they're false. You can see it from their doctrine. It clearly contradicts Scripture. And you can also see it the way they try to leverage their connection to Jesus somehow. This letter the church would come to recognize was authentic, and one way was that the author makes no attempt, no effort to emphasize his pedigree. He just simply says, I'm a bondservant of Jesus. Just like his brother James in his epistle. Thirdly, this title demonstrates Jude's Orthodox Christology. Now this is a detail that all of us, if you read the Bible, you're just gonna skip over likely. But don't do it, okay? Notice, Jude doesn't merely call himself a bondservant of Jesus. He says, Jude, a bondservant of Jesus Christ. Christ. You know, that wasn't Jesus' last name. Christ was a transliterated title for Messiah. Mashiach. He's saying, Jesus is the Christ. Jude's just affirmed, he's my master, I'm his bondslave, and he's my Messiah. Now, as a Jew, that's an earth-shattering statement. For any Jew to make that statement, it's earth-shattering. Jude's affirmation that Jesus was the Christ meant he believed Jesus fulfilled Old Testament prophecy. Jesus is the Savior of the world. And you know what? That convinces me that Jude recognized Jesus was divine. Say, how's that? Because nobody is going to submit themselves as a bond slave to their older brother. Okay, I had two younger brothers, I know what I'm talking about. You're not going to do that. But to say that my older brother is the savior of the world, he's the Messiah, yeah. Obviously, Jude recognized Jesus was the Son of God. So we see his Christology here. And fourthly, this title demonstrates Jude's amazing conversion. Amazing conversion. Did you know Jude had a skeptical past? He wasn't always a believer. Just imagine growing up alongside the holiest man who ever lived. If anybody had an opportunity to get to know Jesus Christ, it was Jude. Jude had the ideal opportunity to witness the works of Jesus Christ, his words, his holiness. I mean, if anybody should be a Christian, if anybody should be a follower of Jesus, fan number one, it would be Jude, younger brother. That's not what we find. John 7, 5, John records not even Jesus' brothers were believing in him. In fact, in Mark 3, 21, we studied this through our Gospel of Mark series, we saw one day Jesus' brothers come, Jude included, to lay hold of Jesus. They wanted to arrest the man because they said, he's out of his mind, we're taking you home. You don't know what you're doing. That was Jude. What on earth has happened here? Now just consider that, beloved, think about that. That of all the families in the world, the family within which God places his only begotten son, the holiest of holies, was not a perfect family. It was a family of non-believers where the brothers didn't even believe in Jesus Christ. I think that's amazing. And imagine Mary had to live with that. But Jude was not always a believer then. How ironic now he bows to the knee to Jesus. What a mysterious conversion must have taken place. I say mysterious because scripture doesn't tell us how and when exactly Jude converted. But we know he did. Because here, he's now identifying himself as a bond slave of Jesus Christ. What changed his mind? Well, you know, it's interesting that Jude would not convert to Jesus until after Jesus' crucifixion. If you didn't believe your brother while he was alive, why are you going to believe him when he's dead? Well, the Bible has a word for that, resurrection. That's the whole, one of the proofs of the resurrection. In Acts 1.13, Luke tells us that gathered with all the believers there in the upper room with Mary were Jesus' brothers. By the time Jesus' disciples are praying in the upper room before Pentecost, Jude is a Christian. Jude is a believer. Jude knows the living Christ. He knows his brother lives. He's the Messiah. Paul will give us the explanation that Christ appeared to James, Jude's brother, in 1 Corinthians 15, 7. And I think the obvious implication is that it was Jesus rising from the dead. that also changed the brother of James, that also convinced Jude, Jesus is our Savior. He's the Messiah sent from God. Now, beloved, I just want to say this before I move on. From my experience, nobody is harder to reach with the gospel than those that have been raised hearing the gospel all their life, than those that have been hearing the gospel since they were a child. They've heard it more times than they can count on hand. You know what? It's like they've been inoculated to the gospel. It's like they've developed a callous to the truth of God. And we think, man, if anybody is unreachable by the grace of God, it's somebody like that. Can I say this? That wasn't the case with Jude. Jude had been the most unlikely person to become a Christian because he passed up all that revelation of God. But you know what? His conversion just ought to remind us, just ought to challenge us that no one, not anyone, is beyond the saving grace of Jesus Christ. And I don't care how many times somebody here has heard and rejected the gospel of Jesus Christ. You're not beyond his grace. until you reject Him finally in your death, please hear the word of our Lord. So we've seen the precious servant behind this letter, but notice also something of this letter. It's written to the precious people of God. That also makes this letter precious. Jude writes, Now what do we know about this audience? Well, this is a general letter. It's not written to people in any specific location like the letter of Paul to the Galatians or the Philippians or Philemon, right? But yet the incredible parallels between this letter and what Peter's just written in 2 Peter chapter 2, should kind of tip us off that Peter was writing to warn churches scattered abroad, say, hey, false teachers are coming, wake up, be alert. And Jude's saying, he's writing later to the same churches, same audience scattered abroad, he's saying, they're here. The ones Peter was warning you about, I'm letting you know they've arrived and you need to take action. So they're just a general bunch of believers scattered abroad, the Roman Empire, and it would apply to us. And he uses these three theologically loaded terms to address them. First, those who are the called. Do you see that? He's writing this letter to those who are the called. If you've been saved, by the blood of Christ. Do you know that you have, that is because you have been called by God to salvation. That's the only explanation for your salvation. All who are in Jesus Christ, who've been saved by Christ, and have come to believe in him, are the called. They are called by God to salvation. That fact is all over the New Testament. I could give you, we could spend weeks talking about this, but Jesus makes it very plain. John 6, 44, he says, no one can come to the Father except, or sorry, no one can come to me. No one can come to me except the Father draws him. Except God draws him. According to Jesus, if you came to believe on him, no, you didn't come against your will, okay? You did make a choice. You were attracted to Christ. But consider this, if God had not drawn you, if God had not worked in your will, if God had not changed your heart of stone and given you a heart of flesh, you never would have come. If God had never called your phone, you never would have answered. Okay? He is the one who calls. It's God who calls. We called on him because he first called on us. Jesus said, you didn't choose me, but I chose you. That is what the Bible plainly teaches. However humiliating that may be to us. So if you know Jesus Christ as your savior, thank God he called you to himself. And the only reason any one of us could believe upon him and be a part of his bride is because God has called us to be so. Now somebody may say, but pastor, how do I know if God's called? How do I know if I'm not one of the called? Well, that's maybe a good question. What should I do? Well, waste no time, don't delay, but come to Jesus Christ because Jesus also taught that anyone who comes to me I will certainly not cast out. So come to Jesus and you will find that you have been called. You see, whoever responds to the call of the gospel is the called of God. Glory to God. So these people are the called. They're believers in Jesus. Secondly, they are the beloved in God the Father. There's a passive participle here that we could literally translate to this. Those who have been loved. Those who have been loved. When did God first begin loving his people? When did God first get to know his people? From eternity. From eternity. Do you know God called his people from eternity and it's equally true God left his people from eternity. And God never learned anything about you through any period of time. You know God doesn't learn because he knows everything. He's what the Bible calls omniscient. He knows our thoughts before we even speak them or think them. We can, like somebody said, only think God's thoughts after them. After him. That'll stretch your brain. That's our God. And beloved, this is of tremendous comfort because Jude is reminding his readers that when God called you to salvation, he wasn't playing the lottery with souls. Do you know God does nothing arbitrarily? God does nothing haphazardly. God didn't just pull your name out of a hat. But the God who called you from eternity is the God who foreknew and loved you from eternity. That's his love. That's our God. And God called us from out of this. The word he uses, Jude uses, is the agape love. It's the selfless, sacrificial, giving love of God that is for the good of those he called. So if you're part of the Bride of Christ, you're not a statistic in the mind of God, it's because God knew you and loved you from eternity past. Wow, glory to God. Jude, thirdly, addresses these believers. He says, the called, the beloved, and thirdly, those who are kept for Jesus Christ. Now, the word translated kept is gonna appear five times in this letter, so it's very important. And it means preserved, or reserved, or secured to a specific purpose. And if you want to do a word study throughout your Bible, you could look at where this same word appears throughout the New Testament. You'll find it's often connected with God's preservation of his people, his preservation of the saints, those who are the called, those he loves. He keeps them. And when you keep in mind the occasion that Jude is writing to these Christians, they're in a war zone. They're being ravaged. They're seeing people within the church leaving who they trusted. And church is being ripped apart. And this has got to be most comforting where Jude says, don't worry, God's going to keep his people. That's comforting. We need that. We need a good shepherd. That's the idea of the keeping here. It's the work of a shepherd to keep his sheep. You know why that's comforting? Because sheep are stupid. Sheep are slow. Sheep are defenseless. They're the most defenseless, stupid, slow animals on the planet that can't do anything for themselves, and that's why they need a shepherd. Because if left to the wolves, they're done. They'd be mutton. And yet, Jesus is the good shepherd that could say to the Father of those that you gave to me, I have not lost one. Wow. It is a glory to God to be called by His grace To be beloved in God the Father and to be kept for Jesus Christ as a father keeps the bride for his son. What a matchless comfort. Now we've seen the man behind the letter, his target audience, and now briefly just notice his prayer. It's written with a very precious prayer. May mercy, this is verse two, may mercy and peace and love be multiplied to you. Here are three blessings that you and I need in these days of apostasy. in a war time. The first is mercy. Mercy is compassion upon those who are pitiful, who are needy. You know, we're a people in need of God's mercy. Because you need God's mercy so much, that's why you need to give mercy to people. You need to be a merciful person because you need mercy. And in Psalm 103.17, praise God, it says, the mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear him. That's the mercy of our God. Inexhaustible. This would be a great prayer to pray for brothers and sisters going through this time of war against error, against the temptations of the enemy, against the world, the flesh, the devil. We ought to pray, Lord, give him, give her mercy. But secondly, peace, peace. Also, in a letter written during wartime, Jude sends his prayer for peace. Who here doesn't need the peace of God? You want to pray something meaningful for your brothers and sisters here in the church? Pray that God would give them his peace. God would give them peace in these perilous times. What about love? He goes on to say, love, you can't live without love. Love is an existential need. That means we're relational beings. There's not a single person in this room, no matter how reclusive, how isolated to yourself, that doesn't need to be loved, that doesn't need to give love. Because that's the way God designed us. And Jude says, may love be multiplied to you. When you find that the world has rejected you, when you see people you thought was a brother or sister leaving the church, turning against the truth of God, you know what you need? You need to feel the love of God. There never was a greater need for the love of God in the church than today. And notice he says, may mercy, peace, love be multiplied. The word multiplied is a word used elsewhere where the word of God in the book of Acts is going forth in power and souls are being multiplied to the church. You know, that's the kind of multiplication we need today in Port Washington. It's the kind of multiplication we need across the world, where souls, hundreds and thousands, are multiplied to the kingdom of God. That's awesome. But you know, there's another kind of multiplication that the church needs, that everyone in this room needs. And it's the multiplication of the mercy and the peace and the love of God to your soul. It's a revival on the inside and it's of no less measure. It's just of a different sphere, but both are the work of God. Hey, we might not be seeing people flocking into the building right now, thousands and hundreds, but you know what we can have right now is the mercy and the peace and the love of God multiplied to us. And who would want Jesus Christ if the people of God aren't experiencing that? Shame on us if we aren't. May the Lord help us in this time, in this battle for truth, to experience His mercy, His peace, His love. So I believe this precious epistle that we've been looking at this morning, just an introduction I understand, but I believe it is needful for this time. This is a time of war for the church. And we live in a web of lies and deceit. No pun intended, but you know, the internet brings to us a web of lies. And there has never been more confusion sewn into the churches than today. where people don't even have to go to read books, but they're watching all these videos of weird ideas, and it's creating schisms in the body of Christ. And some people in the church think, well, we're the haves, because you people don't realize what we realize, because what we watch on YouTube, and other people do. Well, we realize this is most important. What's happening is the church is being divided, and the gospel of Christ is suffering. The true cause of Christ is suffering. May the Lord protect us from these enemies, from those who would seek to infiltrate and destroy his church. May the Lord equip us for this fight. I trust he'll do that through this letter. May the Lord multiply his mercy, his peace, his love to his people. And if you're here again and you know Jesus Christ, let me leave you with this thought. You're a bond slave. You're a bond servant. You're a slave to Jesus. Let that boost your ego this morning. You are a slave to Jesus Christ. It means he calls the shots. It means he's the Lord of your life. So let's love Christ's church as he loves it, let's defend his church as he would have us to do, and take seriously this letter in the weeks to come. And I also need to say, if there's somebody here without this blessed hope, without life in Jesus Christ, Can I just say, what you need is the mercy and the peace and the love of God that is only offered in His Son. Look, Jesus Christ didn't come into this world just so you could live without Him. Jesus Christ came into this world because He is your only hope. He is your life. And if you're going to have the mercy, peace, and love of God, you need to receive that from Jesus Christ. So if you have any questions, please approach me about that.