Preparing For A Fight Series

2. Rom 1:6-7, 8:28, 30, 1 Cor 1:9, 24, Eph 4:1, 2 Tim 1:8-9, Eph 1:4, 1 John 3:1, 4:9, Rom 8:38-39, John 6:39, 10:28-29, 2 Tim 1:12, 1 Pet 1:5, Philip 1:6

3. Illustration: I doubt whether there are two or three of you in this room who could even cut it in the Marine Corps. I want to see those two or three immediately in the dining hall when we are dismissed." He turned smartly and sat down. When he arrived in the dining hall, those students interested in the Marines were a mob, I learned what the word “ineffable” meant this week, In the Cross we may see the dimensions of Divine love. The Cross is not the cross of a man, but the exhibition of the heart of God. At the back of the wall of the world stands God with His arms outstretched, and every man driven there is driven into the arms of God. The Cross of Jesus is the supreme evidence of the love of God. –Oswald Chambers, We’re like that (iron: ugly and hard) with our sins. We are hard, and we are rigid, and we do not bend easily. We are intractable; like dogs returning to our vomit, we go back and back and back again to the same old sins. But God loves us, and not because of anything within ourselves. There is no reason why he should love us. He loves us, as Moses says, Just Because, “Salvation is not dependent on our holding on to God, but on our being securely held by and in Christ.”

4. If you are a Christian today, you are a recipient of God’s call. He has called you out of darkness and into His marvelous light. And you are to walk worthy of that calling in holiness and purpose. Do you have a sense of calling? This is not just for preachers and missionaries, this for every Christian. Before time began, currently, and throughout all eternity you were, are, and will be the object of God’s sacrificial, unconditional, boundless love. God loves you! This love is not based on your performance, but on God’s character. And no matter what happens, the love of God is constant and unfailing. You can never lose your salvation if you ever really had it. We are secure in Christ. He is guarding, protecting, preserving you now and forever. When we go into battle, we must remember that we are called, loved of God, and kept by Jesus.

C. Gotta have some resources (v. 2)

1. Jude then lists three resources in the form of a prayer, that they be multiplied toward these believers as they enter the battle. He wants God to provide in the fullest measure mercy. This is the only greeting in the NT that mercy is used in (usually grace is used in its place). Grace means the unmerited favor of God, but mercy communicates His compassion in times of suffering. It also communicates a reminder that all of our lives are filled with mercy, because we don’t get what we deserve as rebels against God. Jude next prays for peace to fill these believers. This is not a peace that is external in circumstances (Peter in the jail cell sleeping), but an internal, calming, confident rest in the sovereignty and goodness of God. Thirdly, he prays that love be given to them in the fullest measure. That it would be consciously realized, experienced, and showered around them. It was going to take a lot of love to confront sin, immorality, and heresy. Love? Yes, these people were about to battle for the souls of men and women, and needed to care about them before they began to confront their sin.