This is Living Waters of Grace, the teaching ministry of Lewis
Harold, assistant pastor of Calvary Chapel of Westmoreland
County in Greensburg, PA. Now here's Pastor Lewis as he
continues teaching through God's Word.
The world. That he gave his only begotten
Son. We're all.
Loved by God, God is love. So we are those.
In fact, that's why he calls us the children.
He says that we are His children.
What love is this that we would have of the Father, that he
would call us his children. I am your child.
Knowing everything you know about me, you call me your
child. That's the love of God.
We are beloved. It will not be loved because of
what we do, will not be loved because we've earned.
As a parent, you understand better than anyone how much your
child means to you. A parent's love is truly one of
the strongest forms of love, and this is how God views you and
me. His love for you is so immense
that it can be hard to comprehend, which is part of
what makes it so remarkable. In today's message, Pastor Lewis
wants you to remember that no matter what your life has looked
like up until now, God still loves you.
If you feel distant from God, know that He is patiently
waiting for you to return to Him now.
Here's Pastor Lewis in the Book of Jude, chapter one with
today's edition of Living Waters of Grace.
One of the most significant things that we can talk about
with the book of Jude is the fact that the title of this
epistle bears the name of its author.
Jude and Hebrew name for Jude is Judah Judas.
The name would means actually praise or worship or
Thanksgiving is what the name would means in the Hebrew
language. The significant thing about it
though, another important thing about it is the fact that Jude
is the brother of James and the half brother of Jesus.
We know that in this epistle we find out that we know that Jude
has come to faith whereas before he did not.
None of his brothers actually believed until after the death
and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
So let's just start reading from verse one.
It says Jude, a bondservant of Jesus Christ and the brother of
James to those who are called sanctified by God the Father and
preserved in Jesus Christ. So what we find here is that
Jude, I think even the way he identified himself as very
interesting being again that he was not initially A believer.
If you would look in Matthew 13 and 55 that actually names the
names of the brothers were the half brothers of Jesus.
You know he had a brother, James who?
Also has a book. That he is the author of And
then there is Jose, there's Simon, and then there is Judas.
As we read through this, we find that he says himself as he
identifies, he doesn't come out and say that I'm the half
brother of Jesus. Now I think that many of us, if
we were to start an epistle. We probably would leave with
that, right? We wouldn't bury that lead.
We would start out right away with that.
Yeah, that. Jesus, my.
Brother. But Jude didn't start off that
way. He talks about the fact that he
is a bond servant of Jesus Christ, which is really amazing
because you know, at one time all of his brothers thought that
Jesus was mad, that he was crazy and that they needed to do
something to almost get rid of him.
But we see here that he has been humbled and in his humility he
calls himself a bond servant of Jesus Christ, which basically
means I am a slave to Jesus Christ.
I don't know if you guys remember before you got saved,
the last thing you wanted to do or be was a slave to Jesus
Christ. We were doing our own thing.
We were doing what made us happy.
But then once you get saved. And your heart humbles you.
Gladly submit yourself to the servanthood of Jesus Christ.
And that's what this brother did.
Now you know what? Also, it's interesting that
there's really no, there was no nepotism with Jesus.
Now he had four brothers, but there was no nepotism with
Jesus. I mean, he didn't put them on no
pedestal. He didn't do anything different
for them than he did for anybody else.
There's a record in the book of Matthew chapter 12 where Jesus
is in a house and he's. Teaching.
And while he's teaching his mother and his.
Four brothers. Come to the house and and Jesus
just keeps on teaching. You know, like they.
Never. Like they never showed.
Up, you know he. Just keeps on teaching.
Like no big deal. And then there was men in the
house who said Jesus. Your mother and your.
Brothers, they are outside. They they, they're bidding you,
they want. You and Jesus said.
Who is my mother and my brothers?
And he pointed to the people, the disciples that were there
learning his word. And he said, these are my this
is my mother and my brothers, those who do the will of my
father or my mother and my brothers.
There was no nepotism with Jesus.
And like you. Said his brothers.
Didn't even believe. And and what was interesting is
that even at the crucifixion, when Jesus was on the cross, he
didn't commit his mother. To any of his brothers.
He committed her to the Apostle John, Those who do the will of
my Father. Or my mother and my brothers.
So I just thought those are just very interesting facts.
But now Jews. Says I am a bond servant of
Jesus Christ and the brother of James.
And then he says to those who are called, sanctified by God
the Father, and preserved in Jesus.
Christ. So when we look at that, we see
the position of the church. Is what James is what Jude is
discussing here he's. Discussing the.
Position of the church. We are all called or chosen
according to the Word of God. We are, we're called, we're
given, we are called to the ministry or even call to
salvation. In 2nd Thessalonians 213 and 14,
it says that we are chosen for salvation and called by the
gospel. We are called, and Jesus himself
even says that no one comes to me except the Father draws them.
We're called to be, say we're called to salvation.
We are called to believe in Jesus Christ.
And I remember when I was being called.
I don't know if you guys remember during the time when in
your life when the Lord was beginning to tug on your hearts
and to draw you toward him, but I can remember when the Lord.
Was. Working on my heart.
I had a hard heart. I was in sin and was enjoying
it. I was doing whatever it was that
I wanted to do, but there came a time when I began to just feel
empty. It came a time when I didn't
even enjoy the. Sin the way.
That I used to anymore I just felt empty and just didn't want
to be by myself. Because if I did, then I'd have
to look at and think about who I was, what I do, and it.
Was just a heaviness. That was just all over me and,
and I just remember saying and, and and and the woman who was my
girlfriend at that time. Who was now my wife.
Thank you. Jesus, we both agreed.
That it was. Time to go to church.
We need to go to church. And it was during that time that
he was calling us and bringing us to himself.
I, I mean, I don't know if any of you remember those times when
you know, when, when life just seems to change and, and things
that we thought was important is no longer important.
I used to think that making. Money was really important.
It became not as important in these fruitless and meaningless
relationships and, and, and wanting to have positions of,
of, of power and influence and all those things drive the
nicest. All these things was just so
important. And I remember when those things
did not become important anymore.
They were no longer important because it wasn't, it wasn't
fulfilling. It didn't fulfill me anymore.
And somebody preached the gospel and our lives never the same.
So we were called and then it says sanctified.
And that's sanctified here usually means set up, set apart
for his purpose. But here sanctify means we are
beloved. In fact, in some of your
versions in May, instead, instead of saying sanctified and
may say beloved, we are beloved. And what's amazing about the
fact that we're beloved, we are beloved with an everlasting
love. There's nothing that can
separate us from the love of God.
Nothing. You know, the love of God
actually goes out to everybody, for God so loved the world.
That he gave his only begotten Son.
We're all. Loved by God, God is love, so we
are those. In fact, that's why He calls us
the children. He says that we are His
children. What love is this that we would
have of the Father that he would call us His children.
I am your child. Knowing everything you know
about me, you call me your child.
That's the love of God. We are beloved, and we're not
beloved because of what we do. We're not beloved because we've
earned it. We're not beloved because we're
one of God's favorites. We are beloved because that's
who God is. We'll be loved.
And not only does he call us, not only does he love us and set
us apart, but we are also preserved in Jesus Christ by
him. In this faith we don't keep
ourselves, We can't keep ourselves.
In this preserve means kept or guarded, watched.
Carefully. By Jesus Christ.
If we want to. If we even tried to keep
ourselves in this, but we could not do it, we couldn't do it,
but we are kept by Jesus Christ. How wonderful was that?
He calls us, He sanctifies us, or He beloved us and He keeps
us. He does it all.
I was just thinking about the
fact this walk that we have and it's it's almost like a picture.
It's almost like a picture. You know, the Bible tells us
that we are kept by the power of God in first Peter and it tells
us in second Timothy 1 and where Paul himself says, look, I am
persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed
to him. And even in Jude verse 24 here
in the book of Jude, it says that, you know, he says unto him
who was able to keep me from stumbling.
And we'll dig into that a little bit more once we get over.
There, but I the one thing I do want to say about that.
Keeping us from stumbling. That kind of gives me a picture,
you know, we're just talking about the children.
Earlier. And do you remember when your?
Child is younger and those who still have young children you
probably know this can probably relate to this when you go into
a group or when you get. Around with your children.
And they're walking, and they finally.
Get to the point where they can start.
Walking on their own, and and and and now instead of holding
them, you're walking with them. OK.
And. And when you get around a group
of people, obviously because you want to be.
Protective of your child. You want them close to you, so
you grab their hand and initially they may hold on to
your hand, but eventually they'll start to pull away.
They'll want to leave your hand alone, right?
Like I can do this on my own. But wait a minute.
We're here with a bunch of people here.
There's there's we, we getting ready to go to the curb and
there's traffic here. I can do it myself.
And he's pulling your hand off. You remember those days.
He's pulling your hand off of you.
And that baby is not. Safe that.
Child is not safe because he's holding on to you.
He's safe because you're holding on to him.
You stop him. From running into traffic.
Not because He makes the decision to not put his life in
danger. He's a child.
He'll sometimes let you go, but you continue to hold on to Him
because you're a parent who loves your child.
That's exactly what God does for us.
He holds on to us even though sometimes we stop holding on to
Him. We're not kept because we
continue to hold on to Him. We're kept because He holds on
to us. That's a blessing.
And then verse.
Two, he he says mercy, peace and love be multiplied to you.
So because we are the church we're called, and because we're
sanctified, we've been loved by God.
Because we're kept by God, we have access to his mercy, his
peace, and his love. We have access to these things.
We have access to his mercy. In fact, if we do sin, when we
do pull away from him and we run into sin, we have mercy because
we know that we have did wrong. We have we have committed sins.
So we throw ourselves on the mercy seat of God and ask for
his forgiveness and he's granted.
It's just like if we're if. There was a time when I got
caught speeding. All right.
And I was coming up route. I remember exactly where I was
at the time. I was coming up Route 30 and I
was speeding and I didn't realize I was speeding.
It wasn't like I was doing it intentionally, but.
I did, but I. Was probably going too fast.
I just. Kind of took her word for it
because I didn't know. I had kind of zoned out.
I was, you know, driving a, a a company car and I just.
Turned the corner and I was going up Route 30 and I wasn't.
Paying attention to how fast I was going but.
If any of you. Live right there in that.
Bottom part of of a route. 30 towards North Huntington.
Police a little more, you know, they pay a little.
Bit more attention to you down that way.
So I didn't know how fast I was going, but anyway I got pulled
over and I got a ticket and she said, well, you can go and
contest it and, and, and, and I said, OK, I'll go and contest.
We set a court date and all those things and.
I got to the point where. When I got to the court.
You know the judge. Was asking her.
You know, what do you have? And she's laying out all these
things. She's laying out all these
camera angles and. All these different thing, I'm
sitting there to entertain like, wow, all that got captured and
that little 15 minute time period or 10 minute time period.
And so he comes to me. So OK, what's your defense?
So I don't have one. I certainly didn't come as
prepared as she did. I don't have a defense.
None of us have a defense for the sin that we commit against
God. None of us have a defense.
And just like I said to them, I said, look, I'm here throwing
myself on the mercy of the court because I can't defend this.
I can't say that I didn't speak because I don't even know.
I probably did. I have a heavy foot sometimes.
I'm throwing myself on the mercy of the court asking for your
leniency. I'm not defending anything that
she said. And that's exactly what we do
with God. We have the access.
The Bible says that we can come boldly before the throne of
grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time
of need. We know where we can go because
we are the church, because we are his children.
We have access to his mercy and his peace.
Clark and I was talking about, I was actually listening on the
way in and and he was talking about peace when he's talking
about peace and I was thinking about peace because I've been
studying that this peace that he's talking about, this peace
that passes that surpasses all understanding.
We have this peace. We have it now.
We didn't always have peace with God.
There was a time when we were a hostile against God.
We were carnal minds and the Bible says that the carnal mind
is enmity against God. It is not subject to the law of
God. Neither indeed can be.
It can, cannot be subject to God.
There was a time when we were not at peace with God and
couldn't be because of our lifestyle, because of our sin.
The Bible says that your sin have separated you from your
God. And we were, we didn't have
peace with him, but it wasn't until we received the salvation
of the Lord. It wasn't until we received and
we believed on what Jesus Christ did on that cross for us that we
have peace with God. Romans 5 and one said now being
now, now, you know, being justified by faith, we have
peace with God through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
Philippians four and seven says that the peace of God surpasses
all understanding and it will guard our hearts and our minds
by, through and in Jesus Christ because of our salvation in
Christ and our relationship our. Position in the church.
Because of that, that we are the Church.
Because of that, we have both the God of peace and we have the
peace of God. But we can't have the peace of
God until we have the God of peace.
But sometimes we don't feel that we have mercy with God.
We feel condemned. The enemy is very good at that
and making us feel condemned. Sometimes we don't feel like we
have peace with God. It also says here and we are
loved and let that love be multiplied to you.
Sometimes we don't might not feel loved.
You know, sometimes as a kid, a kid may say, I just don't feel
loved sometimes. And sometimes we might not feel
loved because we're basing these all these things on our
feelings. We're based in all these things
that come to us. And it can be our anxieties that
are ruling up in us that cause us not to experience his mercy
or not to experience his peace or experience his love.
It's feelings. But our salvation is not based
on feelings, brothers and sisters.
It's not based on that. Our our salvation is based on
our faith. It's based on our faith is what
we believe and who we believe. Who are we going to believe?
But we don't always feel that way within ourselves.
And I don't always feel at peace.
Sometimes I feel anxious, I feel confused, I feel a mess.
Don't always. Feel like I'm experiencing God's
mercy sometimes. I know the enemy can make me
feel like I'm a little condemned.
But we have His mercy and we have His peace.
It's there for us, always there for us, and it's love.
Verse 3. Says we love it.
While I was very diligent to write to you concerning our
common salvation, I found it necessary.
To write to you. Exhorting you to contend
earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to
the Saints. You know when Jew first started
writing this letter? His initial purpose was to talk
about this common. Salvation that he had.
With everybody, I'm sure Jew was probably just very.
Happy to be saved and. He'd gone so many years where he
was. You know, living.
Contrary to the gospel, because he didn't believe, so he
believes. And he writes.
This letter he's moved to write. This letter to the believers.
To all believers. Was written to us.
Because we are to the. Call to sanctified and preserved
in Christ Jesus, but something. Happened while he was about to
write this letter, something happened the.
Holy Spirit. Says I don't want you to write
about that, I want you to write about this.
Anybody know anything about experience in your plans, what
you want and then God having his way?
And he has his plans. Anybody know anything about
that? I mean, you know, we can have
our plans. I mean, his plan was, look, I'm
going to write about the common salvation and we're going to
rejoice and have fellowship in that.
But God said no. Holy Spirit said no, I want you.
To write about this. I want you to encourage them and
exhort them to contend. For the.
Faith. And listen, he did not say,
contend for the faith which was delivered for all the.
Saints or was delivered to the Saints.
He didn't say that, He said contend for the faith, which was
once for all, once for all. Delivered to the Saints.
That's really important because now he's making a distinction
between this faith that was given from the apostles to the
church. That faith, that body of
doctrine, that body of truth, that faith, it was once for all.
It's not going to be changed. Jesus gave it to the 12 apostles
that he that he chose. He gave it to them, directly to
them and they are giving it to you.
And that's the faith that you're contending for.
You're not contending for some some faith that's adding this
and adding that or subtracting this and subtracting that that
feels this way about Jesus or feeling that way about Jesus.
That's not the faith that you're contending for.
You are contending for the gospel of Jesus Christ, the very
gospel that Paul says I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Christ
because it is the power of God until salvation.
That gospel, that faith is the power of God until salvation to
everyone who believes, to the Jew 1st and also to the Greek,
and it is the righteousness of God, that gospel.
So that's why he said we're going to write about this
instead, because this is what's important.
And today? In our church, we need to
realize. Something there is a.
Battle. Against truth there is a famine.
For the word of God, a famine. It's a battle against the true
fundamental doctrines of Christianity.
My brother sent me something recently this week and it said
that only 24% of theologically identified Christians actually
believe in the Trinity, 24%. And those who are just
self-proclaimed Christians, only 16% believe in the Trinity.
That is fundamental gospel. The Father, God the Father, God
the Son, God the Holy Spirit. That's fundamental gospel.
Somebody's teaching, it's not real and people are.
Believing it, this has been Living Waters of Grace, a
ministry of Calvary Chapel Westmoreland in Greensburg, PA
Master Lewis Harrell has been teaching through the book of
Jude. This is a book of warning as the
audience that Jude was writing to was coming under attack from
false teachers. Even in the early days of the
church, there were teachers who claimed to have a unique
revelation from God that superseded Scripture.
Pastor Lewis wants you to be sure to be on your guard against
those teachers today, as they will try to distract you from
following the way of Jesus. By focusing on what God's Word
says, you can call out false teachers for what they are and
stay on the good path. Do you want to hear more
teaching from Living Waters of Grace?
You can do so by visiting our website at
calvarychapelonline.com. There you will find an archive
of past teachings from Pastor Lewis and Pastor Clark, find a
link to our mobile app, or even give to support the ministry of
Living Waters of Grace. Your gifts can help support the
work of Grace FM, spreading the gospel to people in our
community who are in need of the presence of God in their lives.
If you're in Westmoreland County, we'd love to invite you
to one of our Sunday services. We meet at 10:30 AM at 207
Hudson St. in Greensburg. It'd be a privilege to get to
meet you in person and learn how we can be praying for you and
helping you grow in your walk with Jesus.
And if you're in Greensburg, be sure to listen to us on the news
station for Grace FM at 91.7. Spread the word to others so
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