Jesus' half-brother Jude warned believers about divisive people within the church, but before he addressed the threat, he reminded his readers of the truths that Christ's followers can hold on to. even when bad news is being delivered. Alistair Begg continues our Encore twenty twenty five series Today on Truth for Life by exploring these truths found in the opening verses of Jude's letter.
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. Uh 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 what I have for these three. That is, this is the Central Bank of Kenya. All right. Central Bank of Kenya. To those who are called.
Cold. He's not addressing them by who they are or by where they are, but by what they are. 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 letter, 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 fight.
That the Christian, the child of God, is one whom God has called. This means more than simply invite it. You remember, we preach 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. When a person comes to faith in Jesus, whether a Jew or a Gentile.
They discover themselves to be standing in a long line 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, oh 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.
Yeah. 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 I ran Your hand unseen 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.
A love that is unimpaired by time, that is unaffected by geography, a love that won't let us go. A wonderful love. Oh, we could just sing 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. Tud 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 shorten their 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 and 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 his just across 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. Um 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's 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, it'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 develops into the woes, he establishes, if you like, the truths. The Central Bank of Kenya. Cold 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 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 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've 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. We'll get to that verse twenty-one 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 shown 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.
They're covetous. 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.
Why will 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 has 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've got to keep the letter before you all the time. He is reminding them that 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.
2 Peter, I take it that Jude was written after 2 Peter. Others can comment on that. But he writes, doesn't he? False prophets also arose 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 swift destruction. Oh, I pray that God will grant to you peace.
You will keep him, Isaiah, in perfect peace, whose mind has stayed upon you. Because he trusts in you. Nay, 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 Um it's tough being a grandfather 'cause 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.
Arb. Just turned four. And I said to them. What songs do you know? And together, of course, they sang 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 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. 2 Timothy.
I'd rather do a comfortable psalm. Then put myself in a position where I'm now, there's 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 sixties of the Um a couple from the States, Jimmy and Carol Owens. 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 The 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, let me just end with this as a reminder. 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 the song went like this.
You are the children. Of the kingdom of God. You're the chosen ones. for whom the Saviour 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 king shall reign triumphant, In his might. You're listening to Alistair Begg on Truth for Life. Alastair returns in just a minute to close today's program. We want to make you aware of a book we are recommending. It's on a difficult subject.
It's titled Making Good Return: Biblical Wisdom on Honoring Aging Parents. The title comes from the Apostle Paul's first epistle to Timothy, where he offers guidance for godly church leadership. And Paul writes that widows are to be honored and cared for by the church, but first and foremost by their own children and grandchildren, who are to show godliness to their own household and make some return to their parents, for this is pleasing in the sight of God. And that's what this book explores: how adult children can make good return caring for their aging parents in a way that's pleasing to God. It offers biblical reminders that God calls us to honor our elders and that He sees the suffering that can come with old age.
Caretaking can be stressful and demanding at times, but this book urges you to step back and learn to navigate the challenges with grace, compassion, and faith. Ask for your copy of the book Making Good Return today when you donate to Truth for Life online at truthforlife dot org slash donate or call us at eight eight eight five eight eight seven eight eight four.
Now here's Alastair to close with prayer. 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 are the God. who has called Who loves us?
And who keeps us. Maybe. Mercy. And peace. I'm love.
become increasingly the drumbeat of our lives. The tone of our families. And the flavor of our congregations.
So that those who struggle by finding Jesus. the answer to all their longings. And that those who doubt 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. Thanks for joining us today. Tomorrow we'll find out why gentleness, which is often considered a weak trait, is actually a form of strength. The Bible teaching of Alastair Begg is furnished by Truth for Life. Where the Learning is for Living.
