“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:

Called

Sanctified

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 preservation 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