Sermon Tone Analysis

Called to Contend

We’ve been going through the Bible in these studies of each book and we’ve now come to the 65th book, the next to last book of the Bible, — the book of Jude.

If you have been reading each book of the Bible, you may have noticed a remarkable connection between the 3 epistles of John we just finished and Jude’s epistle.

In 1 John, 2 John, and 3 John, the central message is the truth.

2 John 1

and

All three of these marvelous letters centered on the truth.

The truth is essential to knowing God, knowing Christ, knowing ourselves, knowing sin, knowing God’s wrath, knowing God’s justice, knowing the Holy Spirit, knowing salvation, knowing justification, knowing forgiveness, knowing reconciliation, knowing sanctification, knowing glorification.

Our whole relationship to God is that in fullness it is based on the truth.

We hear the truth, we believe the truth, we assent to the truth, we live the truth, we learn the truth, we proclaim the truth.

Jesus said,

John 17:

Truth, therefore, is more precious than anything, more precious than everything.

But there has been a long war against God and against His truth.

Did God really say?

The Devil has always attacked the Truth by attacking God’s Word because he knows that God’s Word is truth.

And so let me answer the age old question of the Devil: Yes! God did say.

The book of Jude is a Call to Contend for that Truth.

I. Jude and His Readers

Jude

It’s interesting that Jude is actually the name Judas.

We know of a few Judas in the New Testament.

Two of the disciples were named Judas, Judas Iscariot and Judas, son of James.

Paul, shortly after his conversion, met Ananias at the house of Judas of Damascus.

There was Judas Barsabbas, a leader in the early church who joined Paul, Barnabas, and Silas in carrying the letter from the Jerusalem Council to the believers in Antioch.

There was also a Judas of Galilee, who led an uprising in Palestine we’re told in .

This Judas was none of these.

tells us who he is.

Matthew

Judas, Jude here, is the brother of James.

But did you notice he did not mention he was half brother to Jesus.

Rather — he identified himself as “a slave of Jesus Christ,” indicating that the death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus Christ had transformed his heart.

He went from being an unbeliever to being a slave, one who trusted Christ as his Lord and Master.

He humbly chose to identify himself as Jesus’ slave, rather than a more impressive fact that he was Jesus’ half brother.

He desired to be identified as a grateful, willing slave of the Lord Jesus Christ — a sharp contrast to the apostates who denied Christ’s lordship.

Readers

And look how he identified his readers.

3 Ways — Called, loved, and kept.

Jude

The Called

He identified his readers as those the called of God.

God had set them apart and chosen them as His children.

This is not a General Invitation to sinners that Jude speaks of here.

This is the Effectual Call God makes to His own.

This is God’s special, internal call through which He awakens the human will and imparts spiritual life to once dead sinners to embrace the gospel by faith.

Romans 8:

In God’s sovereign wisdom, He chose believers based not that they would choose Him, but solely on His gracious purpose in Christ from before time began.

His call was not rooted in anything He saw in them.

But rather His call was motivated by His own glory and good pleasure, that His mercy might be eternally put on display.

And the article The Called identified them as particular, specific ones, not merely general in nature.

See how special you are to God, if you are indeed His?

Believers are called by God.

And look at the next one.

Loved

God chose them and called them to save them — Because He loved them.

“Loved by God the Father.”

He set His love on them.

Scripture says in .

The beautiful thing about God’s love on believers is that it is in eternity past.

This particular word in is a perfect passive participle emphasizing the perfect time of it — eternity past — WITH results that continue in the present and into the future.

John wrote about God’s love for believers.

Stuart Townend wrote of this love:

How deep the Father’s love for us,

How vast beyond all measure.

Believers are loved by the Father.

Kept

Kept means to keep under guard, to maintain.

Jesus Christ has promised to keep believers secure for all eternity.

John

There is no person or power in the universe greater than God.

No force that could ever break His loving grip He has own His own.

And we can rest in the great assurance of the eternal safekeeping of the omnipotent hands of Christ.

Romans 8:

Romans 8:

Believers are Kept by Jesus Christ.

II.

Necessary Exhortation

Jude’s desire was to write about their common salvation he briefly described.

However, a more pressing issue came up.

The issue was apostasy.

Apostasy

Sound doctrine is under seige.

The attack is on the truth of the word of God.

It began in the Garden of Eden when Satan twisted God’s Word and convinced Eve to doubt God’s Word and then disobey her Creator.

The father of lies has tirelessly continued a bitter offensive against divine truth.

Sound doctrine is under seige.

The attack is on the truth of the word of God.

It began in the Garden of Eden when Satan twisted God’s Word and convinced Eve to doubt God’s Word and then disobey her Creator.

The father of lies has tirelessly continued a bitter offensive against divine truth.

His greatest weapon is to infiltrate the church.

Look at verse 4.

“For some men…have come in by stealth.”

Or “crept in unnoticed.”

They infiltrate the fabric of the church, and orchestrate as much harm as possible.

Genuine worship, fellowship, ministry, and evangelism fade away as the church succumbs to devastating error in both doctrine and practice.

As Prophesied

— “those who were long beforehand marked out for this condemnation”

From the earliest times of redemptive history, God promised to judge apostates — severely.

God pronounced damnation against all apostates.

Jude referred to their judgment in verses 14-15