“Called, Loved, and Kept”

Jude 1

(Texts read: Matthew 22:1-14; Jude 1)

February 17, 2008

Introduction

The opening verses of the letters of the New Testament are often overlooked by us preachers. Such an oversight is rather unfortunate. Perhaps such failure to really take notice of them is due to the notion that such verses merely reveal mundane matters like human authorship, to whom the letter was written, and the location of the original recipients. For example, we read the opening verses of one such letter and discover that the apostle Paul wrote to the church at Ephesus. Or, on another occasion, we find that the apostle Peter expressly wrote his first letter to Christians scattered throughout the region we know today as Turkey.

If one were to compare the opening verses of Judes letter with letters such as Ephesians and Peter, he would discover a rather noteworthy point of contrast. He will discover that, while Paul explicitly identifies to whom he writes by way of geography, Jude gives no such marker. There is no mention of place. No city or province or nation is targeted. Rather odd, is it not? When we write letters, we write the address of the person or persons to whom we are writing on the envelope. Jude, by contrast, is not concerned about their geographical location. He rather identifies the ones to whom he writes solely by their theological condition. Notice carefully what he writes. He writes: to those who are called, beloved in God the Father, and kept for Jesus Christ

At the very outset, we must be mindful and pay particular attention to the fact that Jude writes what he writes not to some ivory tower of academia or to some evangelical think-tank of college and seminary professors. Jude writes what he writes to those he describes as the called, beloved in God the Father and kept for Jesus Christ.  I.E. THE CHURCH, THE BRIDE OF CHRIST.  And if the church is to profit from being identified by such terms, then it only stands to reason that the church must be fully versed in what such terms convey with all their theological richness and with doctrinal preciseness and clear-cut clarity.    

But here we are, daily breathing the neo-evangelical air of ‘emerging’ atmospheres polluted by the stench and poison of those who would tell us that doctrine doesn’t matter. If it does matter, then we are told we must not sharply define anything. We must not assert anything with any certainty; Far better to be vague, unsure, ambiguous, non-authoritative. That, they say, is the humble, spiritually mature position. G.K. Chesterton’s words have proven to be more than valid: “What we suffer from today is humility in the wrong place.  Modesty has settled upon the organ of conviction, where it was never meant to be.  A man was meant to be doubtful about himself, but undoubting about the truth; this has been exactly reversed…We are on the road to producing a race of men too mentally modest to believe in the multiplication table.” Too modest to believe in facts; then too modest to believe in theological truth; too modest to believe in theological truth, truth sharply cut and put forth with conviction and authority. Incidentally, it is no small thing to note that those who say we cannot be certain about anything say so with no small amount of certainty. In other words, they are quite certain you cannot be certain! The contradiction serves to demonstrate their position is self-defeating.

Speaking of the disappearance of theology in the life of the church, one astute evangelical observer and thinker, namely David F. Wells, writes:

The disappearance of which I am speaking is not the same as the abduction of a child who is happily playing at home one minute and then is no longer to be found the next. No one has abducted theology in this sense. The disappearance is closer to what happens in homes where the children are ignored and, to all intents and purposes, abandoned. They remain in the home, but have no place in the family.

That was written some 14 years ago. Evidently, not much has changed since then. For according to a fairly recent issue of Modern Reformation magazine (September/October 2005), a recent survey found that pastors regard books on such things as The Purpose-Driven Life, church growth, congregational health, and ministry dynamics more useful than books about theology. Books on theology were actually found to be among those at the bottom of the list. And if such is the case with church leadership, what of those who follow?  Surely, if one were to reflect upon these things in light of the Scriptures themselves, it would be hard for him to conclude that theology is worthy of such neglect. That the church at large must recover biblical theology and put it in its rightful place is obvious to us.   And because it is so obvious to us as those who have tasted something of the sweetness of it, and have been nourished by it, we shall this morning and the countless Sunday mornings ahead of us continue to feed upon the green pastures of sound, Biblical theology built by doctrine that is sharply cut from the pages of God’s authoritative word. 

Now, what I want to do this morning is take the three terms in Jude 1 and, at least to some degree, unpack them for you. Many or perhaps all of you may be very familiar with them. If so, that would come as no surprise to me. But as we are all prone to forgetfulness, and as we find the face of our church ever-changing, this will serve as both a reminder and encouragement to us all in the truth of the faith once delivered. 

Called

The first theological term Jude uses to identify his intended audience is called. The scriptures speak of two kinds of calls. First, there is the outward, external call. This is the call given by men to men in the exhortations and invitations of the gospel.  This is the call for all men everywhere to trust in the Lord Jesus alone for salvation, to repent of their sins, and freely drink the mercy of Christ. However, this call, this invitation, no matter how loud or how repeated or how passionate it may be, is ineffective. Rebellious children will not clean their rooms no matter how often their told. A disenchanted electorate refuses to vote regardless of constant invitations to do so.  And satisfied sinners ignore ongoing invitations to a feast. 

You remember the story. The king prepares a great wedding feast for his son.  He sends his servants to call all who received invites to come to the feast.  But they were unwilling to come. And so the king sends more servants to tell the invitees that the dinner was ready. Tell them, said the king to his servants, Tell them that stacks of Triple A Alberta beef and mountains of mashed potatoes with loads of stuffing all swimming in the best gourmet gravy ever made are steaming hot and waiting for them. But again, they ignore the invitation and choose instead to continue about their daily business. [Evidently, they could not have been Baptists!]

A man may live within the constant hearing of the gospel and its calls for faith in Christ, and yet remain far from Christ. We all know this to be true.  Weve all seen this. The reason for it is simple: The calls have been ineffectual. Ineffectual calls are ineffective in that they do not bring sinners to Christ. And they do not bring them to Christ for the simple fact that no mere man can make another man do anything.if he doesnt want to - which is to say men are powerless to save men!

These arent the called to which Jude writes. This is not the kind of call of which Jude speaks. The call of which Jude speaks is that call from God which comes through the gospel preached and results in salvation.  This call comes not just verbally and outwardly by the preaching of the word, but inwardly and internally by the Spirit and grace of God. Therein lays its power: it is by the Spirit and sovereign grace of God. The called to which Jude writes are not merely those who hear the gospel preached. They are not those simply invited to come to Christ, but those who have indeed come. They are not merely those who hear the invitations of God unto salvation from sin in the preaching of men.  The called to which Jude writes are those who have so heard and have been so moved by those invitations that they have fled to Christ alone for salvation from their sins. By the sheer grace and Spirit of God, they have been given ears to hear the voice of Christ.  Theyve been granted eyes to see the exceeding sinfulness of their sin.  Theyve been granted broken hearts of contrition. Theyve been blessed with a hunger for the Kings Feast. And theyve been given legs and arms and the ability and desire to embrace Jesus. This is an effectual call; it is effective in that all appointed to life eternal when called upon to believe do believe. That is, after all, the testimony of the Scriptures, that all who were appointed to eternal life believed.

What this does is urge us to heed the call of God in the gospel of Christ. Perhaps there are some here this morning who have neglected that call. You have disregarded the many invitations to drink of His mercy and grace for the forgiveness of your sins.  You have preferred instead to go your own way, to live according to your own devices, and enjoy your own pleasures. And yet you are weighed down by the guilt of your sins. If this is true of you this morning, I urge you to come to Christ. He will not reject you. Drink of His forgiving grace, and turn from your sins - lest the door of heaven be shut in your face.  Your greatest need is the righteousness of Christ without which your end will be the dreadful and eternal reality of hell. 

The effects this should have upon those of us who have embraced Christ - the called  are many. But I will mention just two. Number one: When it comes to evangelism, does this not take the pressure off? That is to say, it is not ours to secure results.  We can no more convert a soul than we can call a dead man to rise from his grave. Our responsibility is merely that of faithfulness in the proclamation and declaration of the truth of the Gospel. After that, we leave the results to God; results, by the way, that will be realized according to His pleasure and brought about by His Spirit. 

The second effect of being effectually called is that we sing. I dont mean vocally and outwardly necessarily. Anyone can do that. I mean internally in the depths of our hearts. A 17th century pastor by the name of Thomas Manton once expressed a biblical truth this way.  He wrote:

The divine calling puts an honour upon you.

What is this, that a thrice holy God, in all of His majesty and glory and perfection should call to Himself the likes of you and me in all of our wretched sinfulness  wretched sinfulness even as believers?  Can you not relate to the old oak of the faith who once prayed:

O Lord,

My every sense, member, faculty, affection is a snare to me.

I can scarce open my eyes but I envy those above me,

Or despise those below.

I covet honour and riches of the mighty,

And am proud and unmerciful to the rags of others;

If I behold beauty it is a bait to lust,

Or see deformity, it stirs up loathing and disdain;

How soon do slanders, vain jests, and [cruel] speeches creep into my heart!

Am I [attractive]? What fuel for pride!

Am I deformed? What an occasion for [discontent]!

Am I gifted? I lust after applause!

Am I unlearned? How I despise what I have not!

Am I in authority? How prone to abuse my trust, make will my law, exclude others enjoyments,

serve my own interests and policy!

Am I inferior? How much I grudge others pre-eminence!

Am I rich? How exalted I become!

Thou knowest that all these are snares by my corruptions,

And that my greatest snare is myself

Keep me ever mindful of my natural state, but let me not forget my heavenly title, or the grace that can deal with every sin. Amen.

The grace that effectually deals with every sin ever committed by every believer is that same grace which effectually calls us to Christ. It grants us a heavenly title. It places upon our heads a divine honour. Is this not reason enough to sing, that He should make a wretch, even a worm, His treasure?   [But if not theres more]

Loved

The second theological term [or phrase] Jude uses is beloved in God the Father.  Those whom God effectually calls to Christ are His beloved. He loves those whom He calls with a special love. Of this love, the scriptures tell us that it is eternal, sacrificial, unconditional, and invincible.

First, God loves his beloved with an eternal love. In Jeremiah 31:3, the Lord says to His beloved I have loved you with an everlasting love. Psalm 103:17  The steadfast love of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting upon those who fear him.  [RSV] What this means is that the love of God is not like the love of man.  For one day we might be the objects of a mans love, but the object of his scorn the next. Not so with God. It is, as Spurgeon once wrote: Jehovah changes not, he has mercy without end as well as without beginning.  Never will those who fear him find that either their sins or their needs have exhausted the great deep of his grace[CHS]. 

Second, God loves His beloved with a sacrificial love. God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us [Romans 5:8]. He who spared not His only Son but delivered Him up for us, did so because He laid all our sins upon Him. Christ was treated as though He was guilty of committing every sin ever committed by everyone who would ever believe and delight in Him. He took upon Himself our every sin and gave us His complete righteousness. 

O the bliss of this glorious thot  

Our sins not in part but the whole

were nailed to the cross and we bear them no more

Praise the Lord, Praise the Lord o our souls!

Third, God loves His beloved with an unconditional love. In love, writes the apostle, He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of  His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved [Christ]. In other words, Gods love for His beloved is not a response to any merit or attractive quality or good character trait that would move Him to love us. His love is unconditional for His beloved in that it springs solely from the wells of His grace and the kind intention of His will. How different is the love of Christ for His beloved when compared to the love of a man for his bride! We look upon another and are so moved by some pleasing quality in that person that we eventually end up married! Not so with Christ! Not so with the Father! For there was and is nothing in His beloved, there was & is nothing in His bride that attracted Him to her. And yet He unconditionally and sacrificially loved and loves her. Which is to say, beloved in Christ, His love for you does not rest upon your accomplishments. It does not rest upon your supposed worthiness. It does not rest upon your imagined loveliness. It does not rest upon your will.  It does not even rest upon your faithfulness to Him. It rather rests solely upon His sovereign grace and His eternal decree and the kind intention of His will.  

   His love is eternal, sacrificial, and unconditional.

Fourth, God loves His beloved with an invincible love. Who shall separate us [i.e. the called] from the love of Christ? asks the apostle. Shall tribulation, or anguish, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? 37 No, says the apostle, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. 38 For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, 39 nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

A love that is eternal, sacrificial, unconditional, and invincible. A love that knows no beginning or end, that freely and fully pays for all our sins, that does not rest upon our likeability or loveliness or what we have or have not done, and a love that will never be severed.  This is the love of God for His beloved.  [Does this not stir your heart, this morning?]

Kept

The third term Jude uses to identify those to whom he writes is kept. The word for kept comes from the word which means to keep or to cause a state to continue. This means that the kept are those who are being preserved in their called & beloved condition. And depending on which version you have before you, you will either see kept for Jesus Christ, or kept by Jesus Christ. It is difficult to know which is the better translation.  But whichever it is, the end result is that those who are the called and who are the beloved in God the Father, are kept in the Fathers love. They are held in such a way that they remain the beloved in God the Father. To be so kept & so preserved in the Fathers love is to be held in the tender grip of the hand of the One who made the heavens and the earth. It is to be held in the hand of the One who formed Adam from the dust of the ground as the potter fashions clay. And it is to be kept in the palm of the hand of the Man who calmed the sea! In other words: More secure is no one ever than the loved ones of the Saviour! The called ones who are the beloved of God are forever safe in the hands of God.

Do you know that if you, by the sovereign mercy and grace of God, responded to the invitation of the King who is Christ, you are being held by Him? Do you know that He will never let you go, no matter what? His love for you, after all, is eternal, sacrificial, unconditional, and invincible!

This is how Jude addresses those to whom he writes.  He is concerned to identify them according to their theological condition.  We might ask Why? Why did Jude start this way? In light of the subject matter which Jude is about to put before the called, the beloved, and the kept, I would suggest there may be several reasons.  But let me close with just one: He does it this way to remind them that their salvation is totally of God and not of themselves; that it all depends upon Him and not upon them. 

“…it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God, who has mercy” (Romans 9:16).

When the storms of life threaten to shake us, is there a firmer foundation on which to stand?  When the winds and incessant, unceasing waves of doubt and sinful temptations and memories of past sins ands various accusations from the evil one come crashing in upon our souls, is there a rock more secure that anchors us? 

I believe (says one)but, do I? Am I sure? Can I trust my trusting to endure? Can I hope that my belief will last? Will my hand forever hold Him fast? Am I certain I am saved from sin? Do I feel His presence here within? Do I hear Him tell me that He cares? Do I see the answers to my prayers? Do no fears my confidence assail? Do I know my faith will never fail?

I believeay, do I! I believe He will never fail me, never leave; I believe He holds me, and I know His strong hand will never let me go; Seeing, hearing, feelingwhat are these? Given or withheld as He shall please. I believe in Him and what He says; I have faith in Him, not in my faith. That may [wane/fade/dwindle], tomorrow or today; Trust may weaken, feeling pass away, Thoughts grow weary, anxious or depressed; I believe in Godand here I rest.

- Annie Johnson Flint

Todd Braye