Monthly Archive for February, 2008

Jude 1d

Published on February 29, 2008 in Jude. 0 Comments
Read Introduction to Jude

 

Jude, a bondservant of Jesus Christ, and brother of James, To those who are called, sanctified by God the Father, and preserved in Jesus Christ:
Jude gives three divine designations to those to whom he writes:
1. Called
2. Sanctified
3. Preserved
We come today to the third of these divine designations.
and preserved in Jesus Christ
Jude’s readers are "preserved" for and by Jesus Christ for eternity. The word "preserved" means carefully watched, guarded. Jude uses this word in verses 6 and 21. The believer is well preserved. This is not the believer’s perseverance but the perseverance of the Savior. Jude’s readers are "preserved" for and by Jesus Christ for eternity.
The word “preserved” is in the perfect Greek tense, meaning that the preservation took place in the past with the result of that preserving going on to the present. God not only commences salvation but He completes it as well.
Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely; and may your whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. 1 Th 5:23
 At my first defense no one stood with me, but all forsook me. May it not be charged against them. But the Lord stood with me and strengthened me, so that the message might be preached fully through me, and that all the Gentiles might hear. Also I was delivered out of the mouth of the lion. And the Lord will deliver me from every evil work and preserve me for His heavenly kingdom. To Him be glory forever and ever. Amen! 2 Ti 4:16-18
Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely; and may your whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. 1 Th 5:23
And the Lord will deliver me from every evil work and preserve me for His heavenly kingdom. To Him be glory forever and ever. Amen! 2 Ti 4:18
…to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that does not fade away, reserved in heaven for you… 1 Pe 1:4
PRINCIPLE: Our salvation is eternally secure.
APPLICATION: God cannot repudiate the work of Christ on the cross, so acceptance of Christ’s work on the cross means eternal salvation for the one who embraces it. Some people are afraid to embrace eternal security because they think that it gives license to sin.
The believer’s sin is another issue—the issue of divine discipline (He 12:6,7). God will sort out the issues of a Christian’s life at the Judgment Seat of Christ. If a Christian sins, then God will take him to the woodshed. But God cannot disown His own because He cannot deny Himself. He cannot go back on His promises.
Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me has everlasting life. Jn 6:47 (Note that God did not say that you have 25 or 45 or 95 years of life, but life everlasting.)
My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me.And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand.My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of My Father’s hand. Jn 10:27-29
Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? Ro 8:35
For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Ro 8:38-39 (The chapter begins with “no condemnation” and ends with “no separation.”)
…being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ… Php 1:6
For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life. Ro 5:10
Therefore He is also able to save to the uttermost those who come to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them. Heb 7:25 For Christ has not entered the holy places made with hands, which are copies of the true, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us… Heb 9:24
Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Heb 12:1-2  
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His abundant mercy has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that does not fade away, reserved in heaven for you, who are kept by the power of God through faith for salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. 1 Pe 1:3-5
My little children, these things I write to you, so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. 1 Jn 2:1
Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling, And to present you faultless Before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy… Jude 24

Jude 1c

Published on February 28, 2008 in Jude. 0 Comments
Read Introduction to Jude

 

Jude, a bondservant of Jesus Christ, and brother of James, To those who are called, sanctified by God the Father, and preserved in Jesus Christ:

sanctified by God the Father, (or alternate reading) beloved in God the Father

Jude gives three divine designations to those to whom he writes:

1. Called

2. Sanctified

3. Preserved

We come to the second divine designation of the book of Jude—sanctified. "Sanctified" means that they are set apart as special in God’s eyes. The perfect tense indicates that this set-apartness to God was permanent. Sanctification is the peculiarity of God’s property. God puts His brand on us for His own use. It is God that does the sanctifying.

…to open their eyes, in order to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those who are sanctified by faith in Me. Ac 26:18

And such were some of you. But you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God. 1 Co 1:6

Some translations have "beloved" rather than "sanctified." The verb is in the perfect tense, carrying the idea of permanence. The voice is God’s voice (passive voice). We are permanently loved by the Lord. God loved us in the past with the result that He keeps loving us. We are the recipients of His love (passive voice), not the originator of His love.

PRINCIPLE: The believer has permanent status before God because of the finished work of Christ on the cross.

APPLICATION: The believer is both sanctified and loved by God permanently. This is no temporary situation. There are three kinds of sanctification in the Bible: past, present, and future. The believer was sanctified at the point of salvation and that sanctification is permanent. God forever sets him apart unto Himself. God sets apart those He wants for His own. That is God’s privilege. Not only is the believer sanctified permanently but he is also loved permanently.

Now before the Feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that His hour had come that He should depart from this world to the Father, having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the end. Jn 13:1

The Lord has appeared of old to me, saying: "Yes, I have loved you with an everlasting love; Therefore with lovingkindness I have drawn you. Je 31:3

Jude 1b

Published on February 27, 2008 in Jude. 0 Comments
Read Introduction to Jude

 

Jude, a bondservant of Jesus Christ, and brother of James, To those who are called, sanctified by God the Father, and preserved in Jesus Christ:
To those who are called,
Jude gives three divine designations to those to whom he writes:
1.    Called
2.    Sanctified
3.    Preserved
First, Jude’s readers are "called," that is, called out from others to specially represent Jesus Christ in this world. God elected or chose them from among others. This is a special call, not a general call to become Christians. It is God’s effectual call to become Christians. God decreed from eternity that some would accept Christ as Savior. By emphasizing “called” as a noun, Jude shouts at his readers–the calling is as good as done from God’s viewpoint.  Note the calling is in the past:
For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover whom He predestined, these He also called; whom He called, these He also justified; and whom He justified, these He also glorified. Ro 8:29, 30
God sees the end from the beginning; He stands in the eternal present. God has no past, present, or future; He sees everything at one time. In an airplane, the higher you get, the more you see. There is no higher place than where God is.
PRINCIPLE: God issues a special call to those who would be saved.
APPLICATION: It is a great privilege to be called by God. Our call constitutes status in God’s eyes.
God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. 1 Co 1:9.
…but we preach Christ crucified, to the Jews a stumbling block and to the Greeks foolishness, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. 1 Co 1:23,24
But when it pleased God, who separated me from my mother’s womb and called me through His grace, to reveal His Son in me, that I might preach Him among the Gentiles, I did not immediately confer with flesh and blood… Ga 1:15,16
Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead… Php 3:13
I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Php 3:14
…that you would walk worthy of God who calls you into His own kingdom and glory. 1 Th 2:12
For God did not call us to uncleanness, but in holiness. 1 Th 4:7
…the eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints. Ep 1:18.
I, therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you to walk worthy of the calling with which you were called… Ep 4:1
Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, to which you were also called and have confessed the good confession in the presence of many witnesses.1 Ti 6:12
…who has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was given to us in Christ Jesus before time began… 2 Ti 1:9
Therefore, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider the Apostle and High Priest of our confession, Christ Jesus… Heb 3:1
Therefore, brethren, be even more diligent to make your call and election sure, for if you do these things you will never stumble… 2 Pe 1:10
These will make war with the Lamb, and the Lamb will overcome them, for He is Lord of lords and King of kings; and those who are with Him are called, chosen, and faithful. Re 17:14

Jude 1a

Published on February 26, 2008 in Jude. 0 Comments
Read Introduction to Jude

 

Jude, a bondservant of Jesus Christ, and brother of James, To those who are called, sanctified by God the Father, and preserved in Jesus Christ:
Jude, a bondservant of Jesus Christ,
Jude was a common name among Jewish people. Jude is a shortened form of “Judas.” Judas Iscariot spoiled that name.
and brother of James,
Jude sets forth, first, his vertical relationship to Jesus Christ, and then his horizontal relationship to his physical brother James. Jude did not mention his physical relationship to Jesus as his half-brother. He did not say, “I grew up with Jesus; I played in the same sandbox with him.”
Jude was the brother of both James and Jesus. Neither brother believed Jesus was the Messiah until after the resurrection (Jn 7:5). Later, James became the leader of the church at Jerusalem.
PRINCIPLE: A slave always has a Master.
APPLICATION: Our horizontal relationships are not nearly as important as our vertical relationship. In eternal value, our relationships on earth are not nearly as important as our vertical relationship to Jesus.
None of us likes the term “slave,” but Jesus expects our undivided loyalty. Everyone is a slave of something–either our sin or our Savior. Are we willing to waive our rights? Would we qualify as a slave of Jesus? This is blessed servitude. We are a slave when we relinquish all claims on self. All of us are slaves to someone or something. If Jesus is not our master, then sin is (Jn 8:34; Ro 6:20). We have a Savior, but do we have a Lord? Do we lay our lives at His feet? Does He come before our spouse, children, money, real estate, everything? Have we given Him our all?