Jude 1-2, 17-23, 24-25

Greeting

Jude, a servant of Jesus Christ and brother of James, to those who are called, beloved in God the Father and kept for Jesus Christ: May mercy, peace, and love be multiplied to you.

A Call to Persevere

But you must remember, beloved, the predictions of the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ. They said to you, “In the last time there will be scoffers, following their own ungodly passions.”  It is these who cause divisions, worldly people, devoid of the Spirit.  But you, beloved, building yourselves up in your most holy faith and praying in the Holy Spirit,  keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ that leads to eternal life.  And have mercy on those who doubt;  save others by snatching them out of the fire; to others show mercy with fear, hating even the garment stained by the flesh.

Doxology

Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy, to the only God, our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen.

…

With all the Spiritual Disciplines that we participate in so we may grow in holiness, it is imperative to reflect on our responsibility and duty to persevere. One of my favorite Scripture memory verses is Philippians 1:6, which says, “And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.” This speaks of the doctrine of salvation, which is called ‘Soteriology’. This passage in Philippians is telling us that our salvation (past, present, and future), is all of God. And since salvation is all of God, there is nothing within our depraved, sinful nature that will nullify what the great, God Almighty has already accomplished on our behalf. That is why our worship of Him is so important to our God. He accomplished what we can never do. We are so unworthy and undeserving of His grace. John, the one whom the Lord loved, said, “See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! …” (1 John 3:1 NIV). Because of this love which is so great and amazing, we who are God’s chosen treasures, will deny ourselves, take up our cross, follow him, and grow in holiness as we pursue Christ in our Spiritual Disciplines. In love and obedience to God, we strive to become holy by being imitators of Jesus (Ephesians 5:1). We do this through our perseverance.

But there are actually two aspects of perseverance that we must fully understand. The Perseveration of the Saints, which is God’s responsibility in the complete salvation of his children; and the other is the perseverance that we all must endure as we take up our cross to follow Him. In other words, Christianity is not for wimps, in that we must be tenacious and determined in our pursuit of godliness.

The passages from the book of Jude that is posted above acknowledge these two different aspects. Beginning in the greeting of the letter in verses 1-2, Jude says that he writes to those who are called, loved, and kept. This is very similar to what the Apostel Paul wrote in Romans 8:30, “And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.” In the same way, Jude also is describing God’s role in salvation by calling us, His loved ones that He chose before the foundations of the world were even created. This is evident and clearly written in pages of Holy Scripture in Ephesians 1:4, “even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him.”  Then Judes gives us the doctrine of The Preservation of the Saints by saying we are being kept, or preserved for Jesus Christ. And just as Jude introduced his epistle with the doctrine of the Preservation of the Saints, he also concluded the book by reminding us of the same. In verse 24 Judes presented a doxology to Jesus Christ as the one who will keep us from stumbling. From our own experience and according to the Word of God, we know this is not to cause us to be perfectly sinless. In our flesh, we will always be haunted by the rudiments of our old, sinful desires. As mentioned above in Philippians 1:6, it was God who began a good work in us and it is God who will continue that good work until the day of Jesus Christ when He shall return to collect his saints from every nation, language, and tribe. This great doctrine of the Preservation of the Saints is like two bookends for the book of Jude: the beginning and the end. Its especially important to us in the call to worship Jesus Christ, yes, for our salvation, but also for the confidence that God, who promised, will indeed bring all things to fruition. Praise God, Hallelujah! In all things, may Jesus Christ be praised!

In verses 17-23 we see Jude’s call for us to also persevere. It is our responsibility to build ourselves up in the faith, pray in the Spirit, keep ourselves in the love of God, wait for mercy in our final consumption of grace when Christ gives us eternal life with HIm, and work earnestly to save others as if we were snatching and pulling them out of hell’s hot fire. These are the two aspects of perseverance that are important in today’s study: God’s responsibility and our obligation to persevere.

For us to persevere so we may overcome seasons of doubt, trials, temptations, suffering, and pain, God must give us the faith to believe and to endure these difficult obstructions that will happen. God must train us for battle. And He does, He equips us and gives us a new nature. A nature that is determined to live to glorify Him, who is our Creator God, and Savior. As a teenager in middle school and high school, I participated in the athletics program. I enjoyed playing football, lifting weights, and track and field events. I learned many great, life lessons by being on a team. One lesson I learned, is to never quit. The team counted on me. I had to be tenacious in my determination to help the team win. In the same way, we Christians must be determined to persevere in our faith to the very end. The Puritans said it this way,

“The Puritans said Scripture teaches both the certainty of perseverance and the necessity of persevering. Believers should find comfort and encouragement in the certainty of perseverance promised to them in God’s Word, but they must also feel the weight of the Obligation Scripture lays on them to persevere in their confession of faith, the practice of obedience to Christ, and the pursuit of holiness (A Puritan Theology: Doctrine for Life, p.614-615).” So our pursuit of holiness is an imperative for Christians and undeniably in Scripture. John Owen said,

“It puts high and unspeakable obligations on the saints to live to God, and to ‘perfect holiness in the fear of God. … neither is there any thing (sic) more injurious to the work of God’s grace than to suppose that those whom God calls “children, friends, heirs of heaven and glory, his crown, his diadem, brethren of his only Son,” are to dealt withal, or that God deals with them as if they were wholly acted by a servile, slavish principle, and were wholly under the power of such an unworthy disposition (vol. 11, p. 390-391)”. It is our duty to live for Jesus. But more so, it is our joy as Christians as well.

John Bunyan wrote an excellent commentary on 1 Corinthians 9:24, which says, ‘So run, that ye may obtain’ (KJV). The title of Bunyan’s book is called, The Heavenly Footman and presents our necessity, motive, and practice of being a runner to win our heavenly prize. In Bunyan’s presentation, he says that many will run, but few will win the prize. In his conclusion, Bunyan wrote, “Well then, sinner, what sayest thou? Where is thy heart? Wilt thou run? … If thou dost know not the way, inquire at the Word of God. If thou wantest company, cry for God’s Spirit. If thou wantest encouragement, entertain the promises. But be sure thou being by times; get into the way; run apace and hold out to the end; and the Lord give thee a prosperous journey. Farewell.”

In our quest to win the prize and be holy like Jesus, we must run the race and run to win. We must engage in our Spiritual Disciplines. We must endure all and be driven with a tenacious zeal for God. We must “love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, and mind” (Matthew 22:37).

WHEN WE ALL GET TO HEAVEN,

Eliza E. Hewitt, 1898

1. Sing the wondrous love of Jesus,
   Sing His mercy and His grace;
   In the mansions bright and blessed
   He’ll prepare for us a place.
   • Refrain:
     When we all get to heaven,
     What a day of rejoicing that will be!
     When we all see Jesus,
     We’ll sing and shout the victory!
2. While we walk the pilgrim pathway,
   Clouds will overspread the sky;
   But when trav’ling days are over,
   Not a shadow, not a sigh.
3. Let us then be true and faithful,
   Trusting, serving every day;
   Just one glimpse of Him in glory
   Will the toils of life repay.
4. Onward to the prize before us!
   Soon His beauty we’ll behold;
   Soon the pearly gates will open;
   We shall tread the streets of gold.