How can we keep ourselves in..

Well, hello to you all. Grace and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. I would like to ask you to turn again to Jude's epistle. We're continuing our studies in Jude now. And we're slowly approaching the end.

Today, I'd like us to look at verses 20 and 21, where the subject is keeping ourselves in God's love. In this passage, Jude is going to be finally turning from enumerating the many faults of the false brethren he's been so strenuously warning us about, and he's now going to turn and address believers with some crucial instructions concerning their faith. Jude's purpose all along has been to stir up the church to contend for the faith. The false brethren who have crept into the church unnoticed are the most immediate and pressing threat to the faith in Jude's mind. But dealing with these people is not an end in itself.

Jude's concern has been primarily for how real Christians are personally living the faith and persevering in the faith. Dealing with the false brethren has just been a means to that end. The health of the church and the faith of Christians is the ultimate priority. So now in these verses, he's going to be turning to Christians and urging them to keep yourselves in the love of God. This is the imperative that I want to address today.

What does it mean? How are we supposed to keep ourselves in God's love? Before we dive in, however, I do want to pray as usual, and then we'll read the text, but let's address the Lord in prayer. Father in heaven, you are good and glorious and gracious beyond all measure. You are the fount of all grace, the fount of all truth and wisdom and knowledge.

And so Lord, it is our wonderful privilege to come to you, to hear from you, to seek to learn from you. You know what we need to hear. You know the lessons that we need to learn. You know our errors, our sins, and our many weaknesses. You know how to deliver us from these things, Lord.

Show us the way that we ought to go. So Lord, I ask that you would use your word today to build us up in our holy faith. Teach us, Lord, to pray in your Holy Spirit. Show us what it means to keep ourselves in your love. Lord, help your people to receive your word.

Help me to deliver that word as a faithful messenger, to explain it clearly and accurately so that you would be glorified by the proclamation of your truth. Help us, Lord. Be with us by your spirit. In the name of Jesus, I pray. Amen.

So let's read the letter, the letter of St. Jude. We'll start with verse one and read the whole letter. It's nice and short, so we should be able to get through it without too much trouble. 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.

Beloved, Although I was very eager to write to you about our common salvation, I found it necessary to write appealing to you to contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints. For certain people have crept in unnoticed, who long ago were designated for this condemnation. Ungodly people, prefer the grace of our God into sensuality, and deny our only master and Lord, Jesus Christ. Now I want to remind you, although you once fully knew it, that Jesus who saved the people out of the land of Egypt afterward destroyed those who did not believe. And the angels, who do not stay within their own position of authority, but left their proper dwelling, he is kept in eternal chains under gloomy darkness until the judgment of the great day.

Just as Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding cities, which likewise indulged in sexual immorality and pursued unnatural desire, serve as an example by undergoing a punishment of eternal fire. Yet in like manner, these people also, relying on their dreams, defile the flesh, reject authority, and blaspheme the glorious ones. But when the archangel Michael, contending with the devil, was disputing about the body of Moses, he did not presume to pronounce a blasphemous judgment, but said, The Lord rebuke you. But these people blaspheme all they do not understand, and they are destroyed by all that they, like unreasoning animals, understand instinctively. Woe to them!

For they walked in the way of Cain, and abandoned themselves for the sake of gain to Balaam's error, and perished in Korah's rebellion. These are hidden reefs at your love feasts, as they feast with you without fear, shepherds feeding themselves, waterless clouds swept along by winds, fruitless trees in late autumn, twice dead, uprooted, wild waves of the sea casting up the foam of their own shame, wandering stars, for whom the gloom of utter darkness has been reserved forever. It was also about these that Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied, saying, Behold, the Lord comes with ten thousands of his holy ones to execute judgment on all, convict all the ungodly for their deeds of ungodliness they have committed in such an ungodly way, and of all the harsh things that ungodly sinners have spoken against him. These are grumblers, malcontents, following their own sinful desires. They are loud-mouthed boasters, showing favouritism to gain advantage.

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. Now comes our text for today.

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 now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling 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 now and forever amen As a Reformed Baptist Church, one of our most treasured doctrines is the sovereignty of God in salvation. We believe that God chose us, not because of anything in us, but only because of his sovereign will. We were born again, not because of our own efforts. or our choice or our freedom of will, but because of his power alone.

We had no power at all in ourselves to come to him. We had no power of will to seek his grace. No, we believe only because he opened our hearts. It was all his work. We were dead and he gave life.

And as we go on in the Christian life, it remains his work. He sanctifies us. He preserves us to the end. Salvation is all of God. If it were up to us, we would be utterly lost.

We believe this firmly because this is the testimony of the scriptures. Yet scripture also is very clear that we do have real responsibility when it comes to our salvation. To begin with, we are called, even commanded, to repent and believe. And then we're called to fight sin and live in holiness. We're warned not to fall away.

We're called to hold fast and remain in the faith. This might all seem a little difficult to reconcile. If it is all God's work, in what sense? Am I supposed to be involved? What is my role in all of this?

Well, Jude is an interesting place to explore this apparent tension, because we have both affirmations made quite closely together. Jude, on one hand, is very clear that the Christian is kept, or preserved, or guarded by God. Have a look at verse 1. To those who are called, beloved in God the Father, and kept for Jesus Christ. But have a look at verse 24.

to him who is able to keep you from stumbling, and to present you blameless for the presence of his glory with great joy. But then, on the other hand, Jude seems to affirm that we have to keep ourselves. Look at verses 20 and 21. That 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. So we also have to keep ourselves.

Now this text that we have before us is a multi-layered text. So I want to walk through it just a little, just briefly. to make sure that we understand what's going on before we dive in more deeply. So Jude is here addressing his readers. Are you beloved?

The people he's writing to are Christians, people he's already addressed as those who are called, beloved, and kept. This is what he wants his Christian audience to do. Keep yourselves in the love of God. The word keep is also sometimes translated guard or maintain. Jude's readers are to keep themselves in the love of God, that is, in God's love.

They are to maintain themselves in the state of being loved by God in some sense. This is a little puzzling, and if you read commentaries and sermons on this text, you'll find a variety of perspectives on what exactly this means. So we'll have to explore this, but it is my view, and the view of many others, that this is a reference to the Christians' perseverance in the faith. Being in the love of God is being in the state of grace, being loved in Christ, receiving the benefits of his work because of union with Christ by faith. Jude also explains for us then the means by which we are to keep ourselves at God's love.

He says, we are to keep ourselves in the love of God by building yourselves up in your most holy faith and praying in the Holy Spirit. This is apparently what we're meant to do if we want to remain in God's love. Final thing we're told. So we're to do these things while waiting for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ. That leads to eternal life.

All of this is to be done with a view of receiving the future inheritance of eternal life. The Christian is to wait patiently for the mercy of Christ. Not that we haven't already received so much mercy from Christ, of course, but that we're waiting for the mercy that culminates in his second coming and the resurrection, the fullness of our redemption, the glorification of our bodies. As we keep ourselves in God's love, we are to do so with the expectation of the glorious promise of his coming. So that is our text.

What I want to do today is first spend some time thinking about God's love, looking at the scriptures we want to see. How is it that we can be in the love of God? How do we enter into the state and then how do we remain in this state? We'll look at several texts that stress the sovereignty of God in bestowing his love on unworthy creatures and the security and certainty of this love. But then we'll also look at some texts that, like our text here in Jude, seem to give us some responsibility and some role in remaining in God's love.

And we'll have to see how these sets of texts fit together. What I want to suggest is that God's love for his elect is, of course, entirely his initiative, his power. his work. He loves us sovereignly and infallibly. His love does not change and cannot fail.

And yet we also need to say that God uses means in applying his love to us in a way that we experience it and savingly benefit from it. He uses certain outward means to be instruments of his grace to convert our souls and then afterward to keep us in the faith such that we continue to be nourished by Christ and remain in his love. Those means involve us. They involve our wills, our decisions, our obedience, such that we participate in God keeping us, such that it can be said in some limited sense, that we keep ourselves. These means include hearing the word, that we are built up in our most holy faith, and praying in the Holy Spirit.

We really do these things. Yet the spiritual power and working behind them is all God's, not our own. So once again, it's God's work, but he works through means. If that sounds confusing right now, please bear with me. I hope it'll become clearer as we explore these things from the scriptures.

So I want to begin with God's sovereignty in bestowing His love. When we consider God's love for the elect, we have to go back into eternity, before time itself. The Apostle Paul, of course, explains it so beautifully in Ephesians chapter one, so please turn there. You must have read this passage quite a few times here at Cornerstone, but it's always worth revisiting. Let's look at Ephesians chapter one, and we'll start with verse three.

Ephesians chapter 1, verse 3. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love, he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the beloved. So God loved us in his Son for the foundation of the world in eternity.

We were chosen, predestined in love. And thus God's love can't be dependent on anything that we've done, not even on anything that God foresees that we will do. God's love comes first and is the ultimate cause for everything that follows. Paul makes this point very clearly in Romans chapter 9. God's love in election is founded entirely upon God's will.

He gives the example, of course, of Jacob and Esau. Jacob I have loved, Esau I hated. But on what grounds does God distinguish between these two twin brothers? He writes this, when Rebecca had conceived children by one man, our forefather Isaac, Though they were not yet born and had done nothing, either good or bad, in order that God's purpose of election might continue, not because of works, but because of Him who calls. She was told, the older will serve the younger.

He concludes a few verses on So that it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God who has mercy. It all depends on the will of God. God takes the initiative with his sovereign love. We know the famous text of course of 1st John, we love because he first loved us. So God loved us in eternity.

But there's also God who draws us into the experience and reception of this love in time, when we are redeemed by his love. We're not always in the love of God in this sense. His eternal, timeless love has to be applied to us at a particular point in time. We begin our lives as children of wrath, alienated from God. But in His perfect timing, at some point in our lives, He calls us.

He draws us to Himself into His love. And this is something that only He can do. The Lord Jesus says, And God, having then drawn us into His love, keeps us in His love. Because God's saving and electing love cannot be thwarted. Come to Romans chapter 8.

You might be familiar with a passage that's sometimes called the Golden Chain of Redemption. This is a reference to Romans 8 verse 30, where predestination in eternity is shown to be inseparably linked with salvation as applied in time and then consummated in future glorification. You can see that for yourself in Romans chapter 8, and we'll read from verse 28. Romans 8, we'll start from verse 28. And we know that for those who love God, all things work together for good.

For those who are called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those whom he predestined, he also called. And those whom he called, he also justified. And those whom he justified, he also glorified.

So everyone predestinated in eternity are powerfully and effectually called in time. All those who are called are justified and all those justified are eventually glorified. When we receive the fullness of our redemption and the glorification of our bodies and the resurrection, each of these elements of our salvation are linked as one inseparable chain. It is on this ground that Paul concludes that God's love is unbreakable. Let's read from verse 35 of the same chapter, still in chapter eight.

Let's look at verse 35 and onward. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? As it is written, for our sake, for your sake, we are being killed all the day long. We are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.

No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Jesus Christ our Lord. So this His perfect security. Nothing can separate us from God's love. As Lord Jesus teaches in John's Gospel, no one can snatch them from my sheep, from my hand.

And no one can snatch these sheep from his father's hand. We can be sure that we are perfectly kept by the Father and the Son. Thus far, I think we should all be pretty okay with this teaching. This is something that we've heard many times from Cornerstone. Maybe if you're a visitor and you're not a Calvinist, you might be a little scandalized, but for most of us here at Cornerstone, this is a doctrine that we know and love.

God's love is a sovereign love. However, we might need, I think, a little more reflection on some other passages that indicate our role in keeping ourselves in God's love. There are actually many passages in Scripture, like our passages in Jude, that very clearly put some kind of responsibility on us, particularly for our perseverance in God's love. It's important that we take these passages seriously and not just immediately try to explain them away. We're very tempted to do that so often, but when we do, we find that we miss out on a deeper and richer truth.

So I hope that's what we'll see today. Let's have a look. Jude says, of course, keep yourselves in the love of God. But there are many other texts that say very similar things. We're going to go through these fairly quickly, so don't worry too much about trying to follow these along in your own Bibles.

I'll just ask you to listen carefully. So in the book of Acts, we see believers, new believers in particular, are often urged to actively remain in the faith. In chapter 11, for example, Barnabas addresses believers in Antioch, and it says, He exhorted them all to remain faithful to the Lord with steadfast purpose. In Acts 13, we have something similar. Paul and Barnabas are addressing new Jewish believers, and it says they urged them to continue in the grace of God.

The apostle Paul continues his pattern in his epistles. In 1 Corinthians, the apostle makes very clear that it is necessary that we hold fast. He writes this somewhere in chapter 15. Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received and in which you stand, and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you, unless you believed in vain." So notice the conditionality in this verse.

If you hold fast to the word, that means you're being saved. If you do not hold fast, it shows that you believed in vain. It's either one or the other. Here the same thing in Romans 11. Paul makes an analogy about the inclusion of the Gentiles into the people of God.

Believing Gentiles are wild olive branches grafted in, while unbelieving Jews are natural branches that are broken off. He warns the Gentile believers about falling into pride, and he says this, For if God did not spare the natural branches, neither will he spare you. Note then the kindness and severity of God, severity toward those who have fallen. For God's kindness to you, provided you continue in his kindness, otherwise you too will be cut off. So I want you to notice how continuing his kindness sounds a lot like keep yourselves in the love of God.

It really does look like there is some kind of responsibility for us in our perseverance. The alternative to continuing in his kindness is to be cut off. This is clearly a matter of our perseverance in salvation. So these verses that all come quite closely in parallel with Jude's writing makes me more confident that I'm reading Jude correctly, that this is about our perseverance. The epistle to the Hebrews famously contains several warning passages that are also very relevant to this discussion.

I'll give you just a few examples. From chapter 2, we're instructed to pay much closer attention to what we've heard, lest we drift away from it. and we're warned about neglecting such a great salvation. In chapter 3 we hear that we are his house, that is, Christ's house, if we indeed hold fast our confidence and our boasting in our hope. So we have to hold fast.

Our being the house of Christ is conditioned upon our holding fast. We're told, for we have come to share in Christ, if Indeed, we hold our original confidence firm to the end. And the warnings, of course, continue as the letter goes on. But even with these examples, it's clear that we're called to be diligent in maintaining our faith and holding fast to our faith. To fail to do so means falling away.

The final example I want to look at is from the teaching of our Lord in John's Gospel. This is a longer passage, so you can turn there and have a look if you like. Let's go to John's Gospel and turn to chapter 15. John, chapter 15. In this passage, the Lord is going to give us a profound parable of the Christian life, which is similar to Paul's analogy about the olive tree.

Christ is here depicted as the vine. His disciples are branches. In this section, you'll hear the repeated imperative, abide in me. Other translations say dwell in me or remain in me. Let's read from verse one of chapter 15 of John's gospel.

I am the true vine. My father is the vine dresser. Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit. Already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you. Abide in me, and I in you.

As a branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me. I am the vine, and you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in me, he is thrown away like a branch and withers, and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned. If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, Ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.

By this, my father is glorified, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be my disciples, as the father has loved me, so I loved you. Abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my father's commandments, and abide in his love. These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full. So again, notice the parallel with Jude's statement.

Abide in my love is a lot like keep yourselves in the love of God. This reflects the same teaching that we've seen repeated throughout the New Testament, a command to hold fast and remain in the faith. This is clearly the responsibility and obligation of the Christian. So let's try to understand this a little bit more deeply from this passage here in John 15. In verse three, the Lord says to his disciples, already you are clean because of the word that I've spoken to you.

They're already being cleansed by the word of Christ. You can understand this as including regeneration and justification. They've been forgiven and cleansed of their guilt. This is because they're attached to Christ, united to Christ. This is by grace alone, through faith alone.

But they're also now given a task. Abide in Christ. Or you could say, remain in union with Christ. Continue in Christ. Abiding is how you bear fruit, glorify the Father, and prove to be Christ's disciples.

It's clear from the analogy of the vine that a branch that is united to Christ receives his living sap. It has life, the branch has life, because it receives life from the vine. Abiding then means continuing to live in union with Christ. John 6 uses a different image for the same reality. Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me and I in him.

This is the reality that's signified by participation in the Lord's table. We do it weekly because we need to be continually feeding on Christ by faith, receiving his life, abiding in him. Now doing this has a consequence that we bear fruit. Fruit represents all those spiritual consequences of our abiding in Christ. We grow in faith, love, and holiness.

This means obedience to the Lord. We see this in verse 10. Here he highlights one way that we abide in his love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love. So we're called to abide.

It's a call to actively live out the Christian life, or the words of Paul to the Philippians, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. And we do, remember, this is Christ's work in us. When we're actively, deliberately, and intentionally living as Christians, this is Christ himself at work. I'll finish the quote from Philippians, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure. This is exactly what the Vine analogy tells us.

because we know that a branch cannot bear fruit by itself. You obey not by your own power, but by the power of Christ. You're called to abide, but the power for abiding only comes from abiding. It's like a self-sustaining, self-reinforcing cycle. You abide because you abide, and you continue abiding by abiding.

The strength of the branch to stay attached to the vine derives from its very attachment to the vine. The alternative, if you don't abide, is that you are a lifeless branch, and you will be cast away and burned. Your connection to Christ was only ever superficial, external, like a dead branch hanging on by the bark of a living tree. This represents people like Jude's false brethren, who profess faith, who participate outwardly in the visible church, They are related to Christ only externally, just by being part of the church community, but not internally, because they lack a true and living connection to Him. I think some of this is going to be helpful in discerning what Jude is talking about when he asks us to keep ourselves in the love of God.

We have to abide. So let's see if we can pull this together. We clearly have two scriptural truths that we need to affirm. First of all, we have God sovereignly saving and preserving his elect. God keeps us by his grace.

It's the work of his infallible sovereign love. But secondly, it's also true that we're commanded to keep ourselves in that love. We need to abide. We need to continue in God's grace. We have to hold fast to the gospel.

And if we don't, the threat is that we'll fall away. How do we make sense of this? What we're seeing, I believe, is evidence that God uses means to accomplish our preservation. Yes, it is all God's power and will and grace that we persevere and remain in the faith until the end. But we have to ask ourselves, how does God do this?

All the warnings and imperatives to believers indicates that we're not secure merely automatically. It's not that you just get saved at some point. You have your ticket punched and now you're automatically on your way to heaven, regardless of how your life goes on from that point forward. Some people have this idea, once saved, always saved. It can result in profound apathy in the Christian life.

But that's not the biblical view. Passages that we've just seen absolutely refute that view. No one is saved in the absence of holding fast and actively abiding in Christ. This is why the Reformed talk about the perseverance of the saints, rather than once saved, always saved. Technically it's true, of course, that genuine salvation is never lost.

But we're not saved apart from persevering in Christ. Remember what we saw in John 15, abiding in Christ means continuing in union with him, receiving his life and bearing fruit. We live out the Christian life by the life of Christ in us. The power to abide originates in him, but it is something that we do. So we should say this, God keeps us by empowering us, sustaining our faith such that we actively remain in Christ throughout our lives.

He sees to it that his elect do, in fact, without fail, remain in Christ until the end, but not without their involvement. He secures the perseverance of his elect with their participation, that is, through the active life of faith, continuously feeding and living of Christ, abiding in his love. Thus the warnings and imperatives throughout scripture to keep ourselves in the love of God are vitally important. This is one of the ways that God keeps us. His word stirs us up to keep feeding on the life of Christ, both the threats and the promises.

He motivates us to continue in Christ, continually seeking his grace, and he is faithful to give us the grace that we need. He commands us to abide in Christ, and at the same time, he gives us the grace to do so. So when we ask, does God keep us, or do we keep ourselves? The answer is not one or the other. Both are true, but from different perspectives.

We persevere and God preserves us. But we should understand that it's not God and us contributing equally, as though God's grace was insufficient on its own. It's better to understand that anything that we do in pursuing our perseverance is merely the outworking of God's grace in us, because we wouldn't do any of it apart from Him. Ultimately, it is God's work to keep us. It's just that God's work in us has the effect that we make use of God's appointed means and keep ourselves.

This all fits nicely with the Reformed understanding of the ordinary means of grace. God appoints certain outward means to be instruments of His grace in Christian life. These are means we call to make diligent use of. We don't understand this to be a mechanistic process. It's not just like you turn a tap and grace automatically flows.

The means of grace are not to be a way of manipulating God or coercing Him into blessing us. Instead, we simply recognise that there are certain things that God appoints his church to do, which he has promised to meet believers with his grace. These include the reading and preaching of the word, prayer in the Lord's table, baptism. God works graciously through these things for our good. The power isn't in the mere doing of the act.

but in the Holy Spirit who makes these things effective when we do them in faith. And so the Reformed have always been comfortable, saying that it's through the use of outward means that God preserves his saints in the faith, keeping us in his love. This is clear, for example, in the Canons of Dort. This is a classic statement of orthodox Calvinism from the 17th century. The Canons were written as a response to the rising Arminian movement in the Dutch Reformed Church, And the synod strenuously insisted against the Armenians that God preserves the elect unto salvation.

But they also wrote this. And just as it has pleased God to begin this work of grace in us by the proclamation of the gospel, so God preserves, continues, and completes this work by the hearing and reading of the gospel, by meditation on it, by its exhortations, threats, and promises, and also by the use of the sacraments. I bring this up just to show you that what I'm teaching is not just my own idiosyncratic view of the scriptures. This is just classical reformed theology. I want to make that clear in case this is the first time you're hearing this and you think I might be a little bit wacky.

But that all being said, I now want to show you how this works from the scriptures. We're saying God uses means to keep us, and we keep ourselves, we're making use of those means. I want to pay particular attention to the means that Jude identifies. So let's turn back to Jude and read from verses 20 and 21. 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.

So we're supposed to keep ourselves in God's love in two ways, building ourselves up in faith and praying in the Holy Spirit. So let's explore these things and see how these can be instruments of God's grace to keep us in his love. First, you have building yourselves up in your most holy faith. Now most interpreters understand your most holy faith to be a reference to the faith, that is, the doctrines that define Christianity. This most holy faith is the same as the faith once for all delivered to the saints that Jude urges us to contend for.

But notice in this verse that this most holy faith is to be your faith. It has to be personally yours. It's that upon this faith that you are to be built up growing spiritually in this biblical truth. Scripture speaks of being built up in a few other places. We heard it just earlier from Brother Diego.

Peter calls Christians living stones, being built up as a spiritual house. In writing to the Ephesians, Paul uses similar language. He writes about the unity of Jews and Gentiles in the church, and he says this, So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure being joined together grows into a holy temple in the Lord. In him you are also being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit. So we understand the church to be a temple that is built up upon the foundation of the apostles and the prophets.

Here's where this connects with what Jude says. The apostles and prophets are foundational because it is through them that the faith was delivered to the saints. So the church is to be built upon the apostles and the prophets in the sense that we are built upon the revealed word of God as a foundation. This is where our most holy faith comes from. This gives us an indication as to how we are to build ourselves upon this most holy faith.

We need to hear from God. We see this clearly in Acts chapter 20. Paul is addressing the elders of the Ephesian church, and among his many exhortations he says this in verse 32. And now I commend you to God and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up and give you the inheritance among all those who are sanctified." So it's the word of God's grace that is able to build us up.

If we want to do as Jude asks and build ourselves up in our most holy faith, we need to be hearing God's word. The word of God is so crucial for sustaining us in the Christian life and indeed even keeping us in God's love. because it is the word that nourishes faith and keeps faith alive. It is through faith, of course, that we are saved by God's love. Let me explain.

We know from Ephesians chapter two that we are saved by grace and through faith. So God's grace is the ultimate cause of our salvation. But grace is operating through an instrument, through faith. It's faith begotten in the human soul that savingly receives Christ. This doesn't just apply to our initial conversion, either.

We don't just need faith for a moment to get our names in heaven, and then we can discard it. No, we are to live by faith. Faith is to be our continuous living connection with Christ. Indeed, Scripture teaches that it is by means of faith that we are preserved up until our final glorification. In 1 Peter, we read that we, by God's power, being guided through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.

So we understand that it is by sustaining our personal faith that God keeps us or guards us. Therefore, to be built up on our most holy faith, we must be strengthened in our personal faith. This is to be done, as we've seen, through the Word of God. Consider how the gift of faith is given in the first place. Because even faith isn't given immediately, but through the use of outward means.

We read this in Romans 10. So faith comes through hearing and hearing through the word of Christ. So we come to faith through the word of Christ preached. God providentially uses a preacher to bring his word to your hearing. In this word, Christ is offered to you.

The gospel promises are delivered to you and your call to repent and believe and find salvation in him. It is then by the internal work of the Holy Spirit that your heart is then opened to receive this word. He produces in you faith, which then receives through the word Christ himself. James writes this, of your own will, of his own will, he brought us forth by the word of truth. And Peter says it this way, you'll be born again.

not of perishable seed, but of imperishable through the living and abiding word of God. Thus we saved by means of the word. For this reason that reformed theologians have prioritized the word of God as the primary means of grace in the Christian life. The word is the primary outward means that God has appointed to draw his people first into saving faith. It's also the primary means that he keeps us in this faith.

We see this in John's gospel. Jesus says this in John 8, So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free. We're called to abide in the word of Christ, not just to hear it once, but abide in it. If we do, it's a sign that we are true disciples. Jesus describes the word of God as food for our spiritual lives.

Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God. So we are to live and be built up in faith and truth, a means of God's word. We build ourselves up and we are diligent in making use of the word through personal Bible study, through gathering with the saints to hear the word read and preached. And this then becomes a means that God uses to sustain us in our faith and through this faith, keep us in his love, continuing in his grace. Next let's look at the other means of perseverance commanded to us by Jude, which is praying in the Holy Spirit.

So prayer is another crucial means. that God uses to preserve his saints in his love. The false brethren are devoid of the Spirit, and so their prayers are of absolutely no spiritual benefit to them. It's the presence of the Holy Spirit indwelling the believer that is absolutely vital to the believer's perseverance in the faith. He's given as a seal and guarantee of our inheritance, ensuring that we certainly make it to the end.

It is by the Holy Spirit that we need to pray. The key text for this is a passage about the armour of God in Ephesians. So come and have a look there in Ephesians chapter six. This passage is all about persevering in the faith, in the face of all the demonic powers of the world. We'll read verses 12 and 13.

Ephesians chapter six, starting with verse 12. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. Therefore, take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand the evil day, and having done all, to stand firm. So Paul's going to explain for us about this armor of God, by which we are able to stand firm. So let's keep reading in verse 14.

Stand therefore, having fastened on the belt of truth, having put on the breastplate of righteousness and the shoes for your feet, having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace. In all circumstances, take up the shield of faith with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one. And take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God. Praying at all times in the spirit with all prayer and supplication to that end, Keep alert of all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints, and also for me, that words may be given to me in opening my mouth boldly to proclaim the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains, that I may declare it boldly as I ought to speak. So there are several things in this passage that we've already discussed.

Parts of the armor of God include the word, the gospel, and faith. Then in verse 18, we have prayer in the spirit. Prayer isn't listed as one of the pieces of armor, but from the way Paul's writing, Paul seems to be saying that prayer should accompany our use of every piece of armor. We take up the shield of faith, the helmet of salvation, the sword of the spirit, while praying in the spirit. He says that we should be praying at all times.

And notice that prayer for the church is particularly highlighted, making supplication for all the saints. Is this kind of spirit-empowered prayer that's effective for our perseverance, and perhaps even the perseverance of our brethren? Prayer is an indispensable part of the way that we are to stand firm in the faith. Writing to the Romans, Paul explains how the spirit helps us in the efficacy of our prayers. This is from Romans chapter eight.

Likewise, the Spirit helps us in our weakness, for we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. And he who searches hearts knows what is in the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. One of the great deficiencies of our prayers is that we don't know what to pray for. So often we have the wrong priorities. We have desires that don't align fully with the will of God.

Such prayers on their own aren't of much use. Here's a glorious reality. The Spirit of God intercedes for us when we pray in the Spirit. He prays on our behalf, according to the will of God, such that his prayers can't fail to be answered. That is a profound blessing.

Praying in the Spirit is, therefore, an essential part of the Christian life. The Holy Spirit helps us, empowers us, and by praying with his help is both an expression of our faith and a means of continuing in our faith. We cannot persevere in the absence of prayer. To conclude, I'd just like to summarise what we've heard and give you some final encouragements. We've seen that the scriptures clearly testify that the saving love of God is permanent, secure and irrevocable.

Those whom God loved in Christ before the foundation of the world will, at the appointed time, enter into that love by grace through faith, will certainly remain in that love by grace through faith forever. Nothing can separate us from the love of God. No one truly saved will ever fall away. God will preserve his people in the faith. As Jude says, we are kept for Jesus Christ.

And yet we also see in scripture that we're everywhere exhorted to remain faithful, continue in God's grace, continue in his kindness, abide in Christ's love, remain in the faith. We're confronted with many solemn warnings about failing to remain in the faith. Christians therefore have an urgent responsibility to persevere in the faith. As Jude says, we must keep ourselves in the love of God. I then sought to explain how there is absolutely no contradiction here.

The preservation of the saints and the perseverance of the saints are just two sides of the same coin. The saints persevere precisely because God preserves them, and God preserves them through their perseverance. God ensures that the elect remain in the faith, and he uses various means to do so. Means that the saints are required to actively participate in. We then looked at two of these means, as described by Jude.

We first have to build ourselves up in our most holy faith. We saw how we're supposed to be built up in the truth of the gospel, through the word of God. The means God uses to plant the seed of faith in our hearts is also the means that he uses to keep that seed alive. That faith should be alive and growing. And secondly, we have to pray in the Holy Spirit.

Persistent, Spirit-empowered prayer is crucial to standing firm against the spiritual forces of evil that want to pull us away from God's love. So I just want to encourage you on these things. Do you find yourself neglecting the Word or neglecting prayer? Are you presuming on the grace of God to save you, even when you're making no effort at all? to continue in his grace.

If so, you're in danger. All those terrifying warning passages in the scriptures are addressed to you. May the Lord use them to wake you up. If you do truly belong to him, you will heed the warning. He will wake you up.

But if you remain in your spiritual slumber, you may well find on the day of judgment that he never knew you at all. Being said, keeping ourselves in God's love shouldn't be about fear. We have glorious promises that God will keep us, and here he is inviting us to be kept. He places the means before us. He has given us his word.

He calls us to prayer. He promises to meet us there, and through these things provide for our perseverance. He's a gracious father. promises to keep his children from hunger. Here he is laying plates of delicious food before us and calling us to eat.

It'd be crazy, of course, for the child to complain to his father, you promised we would never hunger, so why do we have to eat? So let's eat with joy, trusting that what he feeds us will sustain us. Don't imagine that in partaking of the means of grace, you're somehow owning his love. That's not how this works. Rather, consider even the means as his gifts.

See his leading and power even bringing you to make use of those means. Your very willingness to open your mouth and to eat what he gives is from him. So let's be diligent, brethren. Build yourselves up, pray in the Holy Spirit, and keep yourselves knowing that your Father is thereby keeping you. Let's pray.

Lord, these are difficult matters. Difficult for us to understand it, so Lord, I ask for your help. Help us to receive the whole truth of your word. Not picking and choosing what's comfortable for us, but taking everything seriously that you've revealed to us. Thank you, Lord, that you preserve us.

Thank you that you provide the means of our preservation. May we heed your warnings. May we take comfort in your promises. May we be diligent in coming to you, seeking you daily for grace, Lord, you've told us where we can find you. You're not far from each one of us.

You're not hidden from us. We need only open your word to hear your voice. We need only turn to you in prayer and you can hear us. May each one of us here at Cornerstone who believe continue in your love as we wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ. It is in his holy name, it is in his Holy Spirit that we pray.

Amen.