Jude 1:1-2

Jude reading verses 1 and 2 tonight. Jude, the servant of Jesus Christ, and brother of James, to them that are sanctified by God the Father, and preserved in Jesus Christ and called, mercy unto you, and peace, and love be multiplied. May God bless to us, his sacred and holy word of this evening. Richard Worthland, who for many years was President Reagan’s pollster. He would come to visit him every other week and give him a report. Shortly after the attempted assassination of President Reagan, the president’s approval ratings were about 90 percent, virtually the highest on record. A year later, before the recession had ended, in 1982, the poll ratings plummeted to about 30%. Now, usually when the news was good, Worthland had about a dozen of his assistants who wanted to go with him into the president’s office. But on this occasion, when the poll ratings were bad, they shoved him in there alone and no one would go in with him. And so when he got in there, the president asked him, well, how is it? How are they? What do the figures look like? Well, they’re pretty bad, Mr. President. Well, how bad are they? Well, about 32%. Anything lower than that in a second year of someone’s presidency? Wordland replied, I think that’s the lowest. At this point, Reagan’s face brightened up. He looked at him, he said, Dick. Dick, don’t worry. I’ll just go out there and try to get shot again. You know, your attitude tells a lot about you as a person. And certainly you can see that in this case with President Reagan. Our focus tonight, though, is on your spiritual attitude. And what that tells about your relationship with God, as we see in the first part of verse one here. The book of Jude addresses the issue of apostasy among the professing people of God. The fact that there are wolves in sheep’s clothing. It is known as the epistle of warning. It candidly deals with the unbelief and wickedness of those who claim to be Christians, but distort and deny God’s truth. And its message is your duty is to, in view of apostasy, is to keep the faith and to trust that the Lord will keep you from stumbling. Now, as we look at this passage of scripture tonight, our focus is going to be on the attitude of Jude, who has been inspired by the Holy Spirit to write this epistle. And he reveals to us some marks of a true believer that I think we can glean from this first part of verse one. Now, as a true believer, you must have a true believer, you must. be humble. He says he’s Jude. He is the brother of James. You should have no pride in family tree. The name Jude or Judas is quite common. In New Testament, in fact, there’s about eight people that have the name Jude or Judas. The name is derived from Judah, which signifies praise. And when you recall that when Leah, the wife of Jacob, recognized God’s goodness to her and giving her a fourth son, she called him Judah. Judah. And here’s what she said. Now, Leah said, I will praise the Lord. Therefore, she called his name Judah or praise. It would have been difficult, however, to know who this Jude was if he hadn’t added the brother. of James in connection with the name. There are two Jameses that were apostles of Christ. We have James, the son of Zebedee. Remember, he was beheaded by King Herod in the book of Acts. He was the brother of John the Apostle. But we have James the son of Alpheus, who is named and known as James the Less, who also becomes to prominence in the scripture. As the book of Galatians will reveal to us and we’ll look at it in a moment. Book Acts 15 indicates his prominence as well. Now, if you look at the book of Luke chapter 6, and I want to read verses 13 to 16. We see here the indication of who this particular Jude is. Luke 613 through 16. And when it was day, he called unto him his disciples, and of them he chose 12, whom he also named apostles. Simon, whom he also named Peter, and Andrew his brother, James and George. John, Philip and Bartholomew, Matthew and Thomas, James the son of Alpheus, and Simon called zealots, and Judas, the brother of James, and Judas Ascariot, which also was the traitor. So there are two Judasus, among the disciples. He’s saying, I’m the brother of James. We can see one. why that he would want to identify himself in this manner. Acts chapter 1, verse 13, indicates that he is mentioned as the brother of James also on the day of Pentecost, when the disciples are gathered together in the upper room, so we see that. So it fits nicely with our text to see who this man is. Now James, who authored the book of James, the brother of Jude, Jude here, is called in the book of Galatians the Lord’s brother. I think that the emphasis here would be on the fact that, as Gil indicates to us, he’s a close relative or a cousin, actually, on the mother’s side, on Mary’s side of Christ. So that the idea, he’s a close relative of Christ, in this case. so Jude is from the messianic line of Judah he is a close relative of the Lord but when he opens his epistle he does not say that never mentions it James doesn’t mention it either in his epistle he has an impressive family tree many would attempt to exploit that could you imagine if he had opened up like this Jude a sacred descendant of Abraham, cousin of our Lord from the messianic line of Jude. He could have come with that approach. Jude never mentions any special status here. He is content to simply identify himself as the brother of James, which as simple as it is, if we look at this, it’s quite interesting. He doesn’t even. even call himself an apostle here. He keeps it quite straightforward. I’m the brother of James. Now Jude mentions his family line only by way of identification, not as a source of pride. There are many in church today who pride themselves in their family tree. Both Jude and James avoided such an approach. It’s not who your parents are, or even who your grandparents are. The Jews are rebuked, you recall, for this kind of thinking. The Jews answered and said unto Jesus at one point, Abraham is our father. He said, if you were Abraham’s children, you would do the works of Abraham. You want to claim that he is your father. Or as we read about John the Baptist telling the scribes and the Pharisees that not to be bank on their descent from Abraham. God is able to make from these stones a children and raise them up. So you must not make yourself a son of God based upon your family tree. Remember what we read in John 1. When he talks about those who are sons of God which were born, he said, not of blood, nor the will of flesh, nor the will of man, but of God. In other words, the focus is on being born of God. Not your bloodline, not your family tree. Bloodline isn’t what matters. What matters is that you have a new birth. And I like what Paul said about the Galatians when he had doubts about them. When he said, I know, how can you so quickly turn away from the gospel? And he says, that chapter and he’s going to continue to work with them labor until Christ be formed in them anew, basically, until I see the evidence of you truly trusting in the Lord as I believe you have in the past. And it seems like that’s, you know, you’ve been confused, you’ve been misled. People often claim special relationship to God based upon family heritage. John Murray in his book on Christian baptism, there’s a foot. note in it on page 59. It just blows my mind. He says, believers, children are to be received as Christians, and they would be considered federally holy. That will be received as Christians. Some even believe in what is known as presumptive election. If you were born in the Christian family, you’re presumed to be elected. I don’t think that’s what the Bible teaches. I want you to look with me at 2 Timothy chapter 1st. 1 in verse 5. As I was thinking about this, I thought about Timothy because of what is found in 2 Timothy chapter 1 and verse 5. And we’ll look a little bit in chapter 3 as well. But notice what he says here. When Paul writes to Timothy, who is one of his fellow helpers, he’s one of his sons in the faith. He’s brought to no great. Christ evidently through Paul and he worked closely with Paul. He says, wherefore I put thee in remembrance that thou stir up the gift of God which is in thee by the putting on of my hands. I’m sorry, verse 5. When I call to remembrance the unfaigned faith that is in thee and dwelt first in thy grandmother Lois and in thy mother Eunice and in thy mother Eunice. And I am persuaded that in thee also. You notice here, he doesn’t presume just because Timothy’s grandmother and mother are converted that he’s Timothy is converted. He says here that he’s persuaded of it. He sees evidence of it in Timothy’s life. And look at chapter 3 in verse 15. It says, and from a child, speaking to Timothy here, thou hast known the Holy Scriptures. His mother, his grandmother, perhaps both, took the time to train him up. As Deuteronomy 6 says, in the things of God, the scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith that is in Christ Jesus. His salvation is not based upon his family. Tree, but is based upon belief of the truth, the gospel, that the scriptures reveal, concerning Jesus Christ. And that’s the focus. It’s not presumption, but persuasion, that stands out here. It is true that sin is conveyed through natural regeneration. But grace is not. Grace is sovereignly given by the Lord. Now, there are great advantages to being in a Christian family because you’re going to be trained up in the scriptures. You’re going to be taught the way of salvation. You’re going to be told about Jesus Christ. You’re going to see the example of your parents. All these things are great advantages. And this is why many who are in Christian families are brought to faith in Christ. All I’m saying is we can’t, you know, you can’t come to the point and say, well, I’m in the right family. Everything’s okay. No, you need to know that Christ has worked in your heart and you’ve been brought to know him by grace. No pride in the family tree here. A second thing, you should attempt to keep your name clear of scandal. You’ll notice he is called Jude. I read a story years ago. There was a leading representative of a bank in Bradenton, Florida, whose name was Fidel Castro. Mr. Castro felt it wasn’t good business for him to be stuck with the same name as the notorious Cuban dictator who’s just, you know, across the pond, so to speak, in Cuba from Florida. That was a ruthless communist tyrant. He didn’t want to have that name. So he went to court. He had his name. So he went to court. He had his change to Michael Anthony Castro, but all his friends and relatives knew him as Fidel Castro. And they still called him that. It’s hard to overcome a handicap when you’re linked to someone by a name like that who’s considered evil. Now you can imagine Jude is concerned because there’s that Judas Ascariot. There’s that other Judas who is no third. notoriously evil and betrayed the Lord Jesus Christ and so forth. So one of the reasons he mentions that he is the brother of James, I think, is to demonstrate, hey, I’m not that Judas. The one that’s mentioned is the traitor in the Gospels. In the Bible, Judas Ascariot is always clearly identified. He’s called Judas Ascariat, the one who betrayed the Lord and so forth. You’ll notice in John 1422 when Judas here, the writer of this epistle is mentioned. It says, not Ascariat. Judas, not Ascariat, and then he’s named. This man is also known as Thadius. It’s a Syrian name. It’s a Syrian name. It means praise. So it’s sort of a takeoff of the same as Jude. It’s the same idea. He’s also known as Libyan. This seems to be from the Hebrew word Labai, which means lion, which you recall that the lion is symbolic for Judah. Christ is the lion of the lion of the tribe of Judah. So you can see how those nicknames were given to him perhaps just to keep the bad name of Judas away from him. Now, if we are going to serve the Lord Jesus Christ, and if you were an elder or an apostle like Jude is here, you have to be a person of good report, according to 1 Timothy 3.7. You have to have a good reputation from those outside. And so Jude here must humbly attempt to clear his name so that he’s not tainted by Judas the traitor. If you’re going to serve the kingdom of God, it’s obvious that your reputation be not marred. You may be hindered in the cause of Christ by your behavior. As we see in many cases, people are. And the scripture would indicate to us we have to be careful about this. Ministers, if you look at Romans chapter 2, verses 17 to 24, he says, you that preach, that someone shouldn’t steal, do you steal? Do you? He mentions various sins. Do you do that? You preach? You preach? this? Do you do that? Let’s look at something in more general terms here. Look at 1 Timothy 6.1, if you would. He says, let as many servants, or slaves, if you would, as are under the yoke, count their all masters, worthy of all honor. Why? That the name of God and his doctrine mean up blasphemy. How you conduct yourself, even as a slave, is important because it reflects on Christ’s name. Look with me at the book of Titus also, if you would, and chapter 2 verses 3 to 5. Titus chapter 2 versus 3 to 5. The age women likewise, that they be in behavior has become with holiness, not false accusers, not given to much wine, teachers of good things, that they may teach the young women to be sober, to love their husbands, to love their children, to be discreet, chase keepers at home, good, obedient to their own husbands. Why? That the word of God be not blasphying. This is a way you should conduct yourself according to these things because it reflects on the name of Christ and the gospel. We can go on and on there are many places in scripture. We have these kind of things. And this is why the Bible teaches you to be careful to maintain good works and have a good conscience both toward God and man. So you should attempt to keep your name clear of any type of scandal. The third thing is this. You must be willing to accept the smaller rule role in the kingdom of God. He is the brother of James. James and Jude were brothers. James, however, was the prominent one. He’s my brother. He’s better known. He’s much more higher esteemed in the church at large. No less than Peter recognized that James was a leader of the early church’s Acts chapter 12, verse 17, indicates. He was certainly famous for holiness of life. He was called James the Just. And he was a man of immense piety. His church historian Yucy records this. James used to enter alone into the temple and be found kneeling and praying for forgiveness for the people so that his knees grew hard like a camel’s because of his constant worship of God, kneeling and asking forgiveness for the people. So from his excessive righteousness, he was called the just. Well, that’s what Eusebius says. We don’t have any biblical proof there. But I do know that in the book of Galatians, that Paul, the apostle, calls him one of the pillars of the church, along with Peter and James. You read that in Galatians 2.9. It seems that James was the one who presided over the council of Jerusalem in Acts 15, or at least had a prominent role in it. So you see James is. position. But Jude here doesn’t show any jealousy of his brother. On the contrary, he’s very willing to say that he’s in full agreement with James doctrinely. And he’s willing to allow James’ reputation to enhance his acceptance. I’m in full agreement with James. Both of them have been inspired to write, and there’s no contradiction in what they write. There’s no ascension between the two apostles because of pride. If God has lifted up James and given him a prominent position, Jews okay with that. He does not have any difficulty with that. Oscar Wilde, the famous playwright, once told a story in which the devil was crossing the Liberian desert. And he came upon a spot. were a number of small fiends, he means demons, were taunting a holy hermit. And the saintly man easily shook off all their evil suggestions. So the devil watched their failure, and then he stepped forward to give them a lesson. He says, what you do is too crude. He says, permit me to try. And with that, he whispered in the ear of the holy man, Your brother has just been made Bishop of Alexandria. A scow of malignant jealousy came over the face of the holy herm. That, the devil said to his cohorts, is the sort of thing that I would recommend. Jealousy. There’s a lesson here in our text, then, about humility. Humility means being willing to play second fiddle. Does it really matter who is the most prominent, whom God has raised up to be the most prominent? John the Baptist is the one that said when Jesus came on the scene that he must increase, I must decrease. It’s not important for me to be prominent. Satan would love to stir up jealousy in the church. You see the people in the church and maybe you could become envious of the offices of the church those who have teaching privileges in the church. But isn’t the advancement of the kingdom of God is what’s important? Fulfill the role that he’s given. Jude is fulfilling the role that God has given him. And he has no problem with that. So a true believer, as a true believer, you must be humble. And I think we can see that coming through here with Jude in the first part of this. Secondly, as a true believer, you must be a servant. of Jesus Christ. This is what he puts first, actually, in his explanation of who he is. He starts out with the idea that he’s Jude, the servant of Jesus Christ, and then he mentions that he’s the brother of James. So he puts the priority on being the servant of Christ. That’s where the first… emphasis is placed here with regard to Jude in this passage. There must be a willingness to submit to Christ as your master. Jude uses the word due loss here, which means a slave. In fact, it means bond slave, which is different than just an ordinary slave. A bond slave. He read in Deuteronomy chapter 15. When a person was a slave, and he was a Jew, of a fellow Jew, at the end of seven years, he was to be released. And he says, you know, give bountifully to this man that was your servant for these seven years, these six years, so that on the seventh year you freed him. He said, you know, he served you. better than just a regular servant. He served you faithfully these years. Take care of him. But there was a provision in Deuteronomy 15. If you loved your master, if you decided that you wanted to remain part of the family, to stay in the household, and continue on as a servant permanently, then you could go through a ritual here or a pledge which you would be devoted the rest of your life and they would take an all and punch it through your ear. And that was an indication now that you were committed to be a bond servant. You don’t, you’re not, you’re not free. You don’t get freed at the end of the seven years. You’re going to stay on for permanently. So when Jude here says that he is a bond servant, the idea is he is committed to serving Christ the rest of his life. And it also indicates to us he loves his master. If you love your master and you want to stay, get the all punched through your ear, and you become a bond servant. He loves his master. He’s going to serve Christ the rest of his day. and therefore this is why this term is used. What a sad thing that so many who profess to be Christians today somehow or other think that can have Jesus as Savior, but they don’t want anything to do with him being the master of their life. How unlike the biblical example that we find. Paul says, you know, you’re not your own, you’re bought with a price. We should represent. recognize this truth. Like a slave, you’ve been purchased. You are owned by Christ. And the blood of Christ have been paid to make you a servant. Here’s what we read in 2. Corinthians 515. Christ died that they which live should not henceforth live in themselves, but on him that died for them. If Christ died for you and purchased you, you don’t live for yourself. Live for the one who died for you. who purchased you. There should be a eagerness, a willingness to serve Christ. I’d love. Christ laid on his life for you. I want to serve him. I love. I’d want to do that. That’s the idea of Scripture. I remind you what it says in Romans 10 in verse 9, that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus. that is the salvation formula. You have to believe in the Lord Jesus. You have to confess him as Lord or master of your life. Spurgeon, C.H. Spurgeon said this. He said, do not suppose that the gospel was magnified or God glorified by going to worldlings and telling them that they may be saved at this moment by simply accepting Christ as their Savior, while they are wedded to their idols, and their hearts are still in love with sin. If I do so, I tell them the lie, pervert the gospel, insult Christ, turn the grace of God in the lasciviousness. Can you have Christ’s Savior and just go on living the way you always live? No, you cannot. Do you see yourself as a servant of Jesus Christ? Even the apostles themselves saw themselves in this light. So there must be a willingness to submit to Christ as your master. And you must be a performer of Christ will. How is Jude serving Jesus Christ? Well, here he is, writing a letter, isn’t he? He is trying to edify the body of Christ. He’s serving Christ. This whole letter reveals to us part of his service. to Christ is to provide oversight for the people of God. You’re not merely a servant on Sunday during devotion time. You’re never really off duty. Being a servant of Christ should occupy you 24-7. 24 hours a day, seven days a week. I like with Paul wrote in Colossians 317. And whatsoever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus. I think word of deep covers pretty much everything, doesn’t it? The idea of serving Christ needs to affect every nook and cranny of your life. This means your work life, your marriage life, your family life, your social life, your church life, all aspects of your life are to be affected by you being a servant of Christ. Christ must be obediently served at all times. There’s no end of your service because you are a bond servant. You are a permanent servant of Christ. Your whole life should be wrapped around serving Christ. You begin each day with a sense of your duty of serving Christ. You know, every day, and I pray in the morning, one of the things I pray is help me to advance the kingdom of God today. I try to make that a promise. thought in my mind so that each day, you know, I’m thinking, how can I advance the kingdom of God? What can I do? And that’s the way we should think about our lives. We’re here to serve Christ. What can we do? How can we advance this kingdom? Christ’s true servants are not those who merely say they’re serving, but those who actually get down to the performing of the performing of the will of Christ? Jude is performing. He’s serving. We see that in the epistle here. Jesus himself said, why call you me Lord Lord? It’s nice. Calling me Master, Master, or Lord, but do not the things that I say. Whoops. You didn’t get down to actually putting in action. You want to call him master, but you’re not going to follow through. You’re not going to perform the will of Christ. Well, President Reagan’s attitude told a lot about himself. Your spiritual attitude tells a lot about your relationship to the Lord. Are you a humble person? Are you a servant of Jesus Christ? These two things are great marks of every Christian. Every Christian. If they’re missing, how can you claim to be a servant? May God bless to be a servant. His word tonight. Let’s close.