In this sermon, the preacher focuses on the epistle of Jude, which is a small but powerful book in the Bible. He emphasizes the importance of understanding the judgments of God and the history of mankind. The preacher highlights the significance of the age of God's grace and the belief that the church will be caught up to be with Christ at the end of this age. He also emphasizes the need to have a personal relationship with God and to be part of the common salvation through Jesus Christ. The sermon concludes with a reminder of the final great conflict, the passing away of the heavens and earth, and the establishment of a new heavens and a new earth where righteousness will dwell forever.

This morning I'd like to talk to you a little further if you'd turn with me to the epistle of Jude. It's a glorious epistle, small, just 25 verses, one chapter, but it has much to say. If you remember, I've been talking to you about the judgments of God, the history of mankind, that it's no mystery to God, that we are living in the age of God's grace, that at the end of the age of grace, the church shall be caught up to be with Christ, taken out. There is a time yet spoken of by Daniel the prophet, which is called the 70th week of Daniel, a seven year period, Jacob's trouble, in which the great judgments of God shall come forth upon man for his utter wickedness. Then at the end of that period of seven years, the great tribulation, the battle of Armageddon, which you hear of so often, in which the Lord triumphs, no nation wins, the United States will not be victorious, Russia will not be victorious, God will be victorious over all the nations of the earth. For whether one war is on one side or the other, both are unrighteous. It has always struck me that rulers, whether they're on one side or the other, always claim the blessings of God. If it was a German nation, they would say, Gott mit uns. If it was our nation, forgive my German, if it was our nation, it would be the same. God is on our side. It seems as though nations believe that merely using that phrase gives them a righteous cause. But I think we all realize that in that final victory, God will be victorious and then will set up his reign on earth, the reign of the Messiah, Christ. Israel will come into its proper position of glory. Christ will be King of kings and Lord of lords and reign on the throne of David. David being Israel's king, Israel will come into the position of blessing. The millennial reign is not to give anything to the Christian to speak of. He's already inherited heaven. Heaven's better than earth. The millennial reign of Christ is to fulfill God's promises to Israel, that they would have a kingdom and that they would reign. And that is the Messianic kingdom, Messiah's kingdom. And so the Messiah shall reign. We shall reign with him. We who are part of the true church of Jesus Christ. Then beyond that, I don't want to get into any further discussions of the thousand year reign of Christ on earth. At the end of that, once more, nations rise against him under Satan's tutelage. The final great conflict passing away of the heavens and earth with a great noise. The establishment of a new heavens and a new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness forever and ever. And we shall dwell with him in that kingdom forever and ever. Now, this makes life sensible. Otherwise, rather never have been born. All right? The little taste of happiness you have here on earth is mixed in with too much sorrow, too much tears. Every husband and wife have a 50-50 chance of losing their mate. This is a high ratio for sorrow, for grieving. Women have about a 75% rate since there are many more widows than widowers men. I hate to tell you that, but that's the way it is, men. Your chances of going first are much more than your good wives. And so with this in view, I mean, I think unless we actually face life, people hate to face these things. There's nothing terrible about it. What should shake you up if you know Christ? Wives should have the strength if they lose their husbands to the Lord Jesus to know that one day they're going to see them again. And that this whole scene on earth is just a preparation for heaven and that's all it is. It's nothing more than that. Remember, the earth was not made, nor the universe made, for any other purpose except the gathering of a family for God. Unless you understand that, you have no vision of God. Was it meant for men to be successful and have big businesses or large corporations like American Tell and all the rest? This isn't God's purpose. They're all here, but it has nothing to do with man and with God. Man is placed here for a specific purpose, and that is that God might gather a family for himself to dwell for all eternity. That's the purpose. This is all going to pass away. Science says so, but God says so long before science ever thought of it. Science says we may last 50 million years, but the earth will burn up. That scientific fact has nothing to do with anything else but scientific fact. So, unless we really have a vision of Christ and eternity, we have a vision of nothing. Now, I spoke to you last week from Jude, and Jude is placed in beautiful chronological order in the Scriptures. You'll notice it's just before Revelation, and it's there for a specific purpose. And that purpose is that it might sort of set in before the prophetic utterances of God in the book of Revelation. It sort of sets the pattern, if I might say. It speaks of the evil day just before the book of Revelation. And it sets it in such a way that we understand Paul speaks much of the last days, Daniel speaks of the last days, Ezekiel speaks of the last days, Isaiah speaks of the last days. All of the epistles in many areas speak of the last days. Jesus speaks of the last days, because the last days are very important days. And so, all of these things are set into Jude, giving us a sort of one-chapter, comprehensive view of man and what man is like prior to the great judgments of God. Now, I spoke to you of the first few verses, and especially I spoke to you of, I'll read the first few verses, Jude, the servant of Jesus Christ, the brother of James, to them that are sanctified by God the Father, and preserved in Jesus Christ, and called. In other words, there is a certain relationship that the preacher must have to God, and he sets it down. May I say this, the defective calling of men into the ministry has been one of the great tragedies of the Christian church. May I say that again? The defective calling of men into the ministry has been and is one of the great tragedies of the Christian church. Is that static very annoying? I'll shut it off. That's simple. Static, all right. I hope you'll have no static. If you do, something's wrong. These men have a specific calling. When that call is defective, we find it all around us. We see it. The defective calling to the ministry is usually evidenced very simply. I have only been here, well, I've been here a long time. I still hear that static. Carlton, shut all the electric off. All right? Shut it all off. So he said, well, you haven't seen me, you know, for about 20 years, and I could hardly remember ever seeing him, you know. So I said, what do you do? So he said, oh, I'm vice president of 20th Century Fox. I'm staying at the Waldorf. He said, what do you do? He said, I'm a Baptist preacher. Suddenly a coldness developed. He said, well, when I come in next time, maybe I'll call you. Needless to say, I have never heard from him again. You lose your family, but you gain the Beloved of the Lord. The Beloved of the Lord. Remember where the Lord Jesus says, no man having lost his father or having loved his father or his mother or his sister or brothers or relatives more than he loveth me can possibly be my disciple. It's an impossibility. So that while we lose one area of family love, we gain the Love of the Brethren, which is a deeper and holier love than anything ever could be. Now let me say this. It's not deeper than the love in a family where you're all saved. May I say that? Mother and father and the children, this is the most blessed thing that ever could happen. But what I'm saying is this, that that relationship is so glorious between us as a family that it transcends all the relationships of earth. And so it's Beloved. Are you Beloved? Let me ask you something. Are you Beloved to each other? Hmm? Are you Beloved to each other? It's a strange thing to me that sometimes Christians can use the word Beloved for their brethren and not for their wives or husbands. This is a serious defect. Very serious defect. Where you can be very gracious and very loving to anybody outside, but not in the little family unit. I want to tell you, Christ is looking on that unit before he's looking on your relationship in the church itself. For there's where he wants that relationship, first of all, to be Beloved amongst the members of the family. And here Jude calls them Beloved. Must have been a great joy to his heart to call them Beloved. But he says to them, it's a little difficult for me. He says, I gave all diligence to write unto you of this common salvation. It's a strange way he puts this, isn't it? Common salvation. May I say this? It's common only in that we're part of it here today who love the Lord Jesus. It's common to you and common to me. But it is a very uncommon salvation in this world we live in. It is not a prevalent salvation in this world we live in. Jesus says, wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction. And many there are that go in therein. But narrow is the gate and straight is the way that leads to life eternal. And few there are that find it. And so, Beloved, I have to say that though it's a common salvation and Christ died for all men, it says, especially for those that believe. For that faith brings us into this glorious relationship. And he says, here's what I would like to do. He said, I would like to just write you here this book just previous to Revelation. I would like to write you and just to talk to you about how wonderful it is to be saved. How wonderful it is to have the joy of the Lord in your hearts. How wonderful it is to know that our destiny is set by God. That though a nation might pile in upon us and crush us, they can only crush me to heaven. Their crushing of an individual heart who trusts Christ is dispatching them into glory. I wanted to write you and tell you about the greatness of this salvation, the wonder of it, the glory of it. Listen, do you believe this morning? What is the hope of your life? Where are you going and what are you bound for? What do you have that's so precious that you can hold? Paul says of the truth, you came into the world with nothing and you'll leave with nothing. No matter how great your gifts are, no matter how great your wealth is, no matter what great amount of happiness you seem to possess on earth, I tell you, death and the grave shuts it all off and you face the living God. Do you know this morning, this living God? Do you know this glorious Christ? Do you know this common salvation? Jesus, I came to you that I would speak to you about this common salvation. When I say that to you, you say, oh, I'm part of that common salvation, Pastor. I know what you're talking about. It's common, but it's the very uncommon blood of Christ who cleansed me from sin, who paid the penalty for my sin. And I'm thankful I'm part of that common salvation. Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son. So, it's a common salvation. There's no other salvation for there's no other name under heaven given amongst men whereby we must be saved. This is God's divine way of salvation. So, it is common to all men, common to all men everywhere, this salvation in Christ Jesus. There's no other salvation for there's no other one who ever arose from the dead. The only proof of eternal life is a risen man. You have no other proofs. You have to have a risen man. You have to have one who's made it true. And it tells us Christ Jesus is risen from the dead and has been declared to be the Son of God by the resurrection from the dead. He was not declared to be the Son of God because some of the Jews were converted and said so. All the apostles were Jews. He was not declared to be the Son of God because some of the Gentiles came and believed in Christ. He was declared to be the Son of God by God Himself when God raised Him from the dead. And this declared Him to be the Son of God and He is not the verification of men. The resurrection needs no man to prove it. How do we know the resurrection happened? Because when we receive Christ as our Savior, the Holy Spirit came to dwell in our breasts by faith. And by that indwelling presence, no one can ever say to us that we're not redeemed and that Christ is not alive from the dead. He was declared to be the Son of God by the resurrection from the dead. And so, this is the great common salvation. You know what I like here too? I love these words where Jude says, I gave all diligence. I couldn't help but think this puts us a little to shame. I gave all diligence to come to you to talk to you about the common salvation. All diligence. He says, I was intent on getting there and talking to you about this. How many of us have really felt that way? I couldn't help but think of the all diligences of Scripture, you know. I couldn't help but think of Jesus. He is the Savior of the world. Here He is, He's traveling. He's traveling on a route which will take Him far away from Samaria. But it says in the Gospels, and Jesus went to Samaria because it needs be necessary that He must go to Samaria. What does He do? He takes, if you look on your map, an elongated route and He gets to Samaria because there's one woman at the well that He's going to meet there. And her statement to Him is so clear. He comes to the well. Notice, all diligence. Here's the Savior of the world. Let me ask you, how many of you have walked around the block to talk to some soul about Jesus Christ? And the very Son of God takes a long, circuitous route by donkey or whatever other method He had to go, or walking. And when you think of the missionary journeys of Paul, thousands of miles on foot, and every simple way He said, I came to you in tears. And here's Jesus. He goes by way of Samaria. And the woman of Samaria looks at Him and He says, Give me to drink. She stands at the well of Jacob. And she looks at Him. What does she say? How come that you speak to me? You know that the Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans. Oh, how this should cut us sharp, shouldn't it, huh? You don't want to have dealings with some little cultural group, with some little racial group, or some different color. Here are the hated enemies of the Jews. And Jesus goes out of His way to the woman of Samaria. He looks at her. And He said, Woman, if thou knewest who it was that asked thee to drink, thou wouldst say to him, Give me to drink. For the water that thou wouldst give Me, your fathers, they've drunk of these things. They are dead. But the water that I would give unto you is the water of eternal life. He was diligent. He went out of His way. Some of you can't even talk over a back fence. I venture there are neighbors where you have lived for ten, fifteen, or twenty years who still don't know that you are redeemed in the blood of Jesus Christ. And you're living in a house. And the people might even say about you, What a lovely, nice family. I hope they say that anyway, you know. I hope they say, Aren't their children wonderful children? They go to Sunday school. They do this. They do that. Aren't they a fine Christian family? All they know is you go to church. But they don't count you any different from everybody else who goes to church in that neighborhood. And the only time they'll ever know any difference is when you show some diligence. Like Jude says, I owe diligence to come to you and to talk to you about the common salvation that we have. And beloved, this is what we need, you see. A desire to talk for Jesus Christ. All diligence. I think of Philip, you know, in the Ethiopian Munich. If it had been some of us today, we'd have stood on the corner. And if the chariot was more than one way across the street, we'd say, Well, he's too far away some other time. But I would remind you that Philip, when he saw the man in the chariot, it says he ran, directed by the Holy Spirit, alongside the chariot, caught up on the chariot. And here's a man, Negro, treasurer of Ethiopia. And he is reading Isaiah. And Philip says to him, Knowest thou what thou readest? He says, How can I know except some man shows me? Wouldn't you love that? Isn't that wonderful, huh? How can I know except? And he says, From that verse he preached to him under Jesus Christ, from the book of Isaiah. Where was he reading? Isaiah 53. Go home and read it. He preached unto him Christ. What did he have? All diligence. This is the kind of diligence Jude had here. All diligence. Oh, that we would show this kind of diligence, this common salvation that we have. Listen, if I didn't even get to the neighbors, how about your loved ones? How about your loved ones, the ones who are close to you? Have you ever talked to them about Jesus? Oh, if you've done it, I don't expect you to repeat and repeat and repeat. I expect that if you've told them how Christ died for them, and how He's the Redeemer of the world, and that being a Christian is not going to church. Being a Christian is receiving Christ into the human heart and breast, and knowing the presence of the Holy Spirit in there, have you talked to them about that? The ones you love so much. Sometimes people say to me, and I had someone just say this to me recently. I said, when did you talk to someone about Christ's life? And they say, well, I don't want to talk to my best friend because I'm afraid it might offend them and I'll lose my friend. Well, now, beloved, I have to say something. You don't care too much for that friend if you really believe on Christ, and you don't say anything about it because all eternity is dependent upon that faith in Jesus Christ as personal Savior. So there is this all diligence. Are you diligent in the things of God? Do you really, moment by moment, do you think of that common salvation and that being all diligent? But he said, I wanted to speak to you about that, but it was needful for me that I write to you about something else because there's something else that's much deeper than this and much more important than this at this very moment. He says, I had to write you that you would earnestly contend for your faith, which was once delivered unto the saints. Notice that. One delivery, faith, there it stands. I don't need all of the modern theologians to begin to tell me God is dead. I don't need all of the modern theologians to give me some new ideas. It was what? Once delivered to the saints. That's it. Doesn't need any other deliveries. Notice here, he says, I want you to contend for your faith. We're going to see later the reason for this is very deep. In the last days, he's speaking of, as you notice in that 17th and 18th and 19th verses, he says, I want to remind you that mockers are going to come in those last days, men who will teach evil things. Notice that in Jude 17, 18 and 19. Men who are mockers. Men who are evil teachers. He's setting us up for the coming judgments of God in the book of Revelation. May I say this and say it well, that beloved, there are a lot of people who are contending for what they're contending with their brethren instead of for the faith in Jesus Christ. One of the great tragedies of the church today is the contending with brethren. Oh, some of the things that go on. It amazes me. I don't agree with Billy Graham and everything Billy Graham does. My conscience would not allow me to. I do not agree with some of the methodology that's used. I do not agree with his associations with the National or the World Council. I disagree. But I cannot help but love the man and his message. I have yet to hear this man ever get on television that he has not glorified Jesus Christ. And may I say this, that while this verse here says, I want you to contend for the faith, the church today in many ways is contending with their brethren. It's fighting their brethren. And a whole fraction of the church is turning away from the gospel of Jesus Christ. It's turning away from the preaching of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Because possibly some man doesn't follow exactly every single thing the way they would like it done. And every one of us undoubtedly in our hearts could say, Oh, I wish Billy would do it this way. I wish Billy would do it that way. And conscience-wise, I have to say that as a preacher of the gospel myself, Billy knows exactly how I feel. Stephen Alford knows exactly how I feel. And they sincerely believe that I have perfect right to feel as I feel. But I can't help but say I love the man, I love the message of the gospel, and I love the fact that souls are saved. That if I were to ask you this morning, how many of you found Christ as your personal Savior under the preaching of... Did any of you put your hands up under the preaching of Billy Graham? Praise the Lord. Any others? You found Christ under the... Praise God. How many of you were drawn back to Christ through Billy's preaching? You went? Yes. You were drawn back to Christ. Praise the Lord. Yes. So while I may disagree with his methodology, I cannot disagree with the power of the message. And so we're not to contend and fight and rave at each other. One of the greatest tragedies in my early life as a Christian was that I studied under Donald Gray Barnhouse. And what broke my heart, listening to this man for six years, was to see the terrible schism that developed between him and Carl McIntyre. So they hated each other practically. And Barnhouse would plead for him, Please stop writing about me in your Beacon magazine as though I am some man who's departed from the faith. Barnhouse died with a broken heart. We're to contend for the faith. And that faith is the simplicity of the preaching of the gospel of Christ. Paul says, I would know nothing among you save Jesus Christ and Him crucified. That is the message, beloved. And while I may disagree with methodology and not want my name associated with certain men, and certainly I don't want my name associated with the head of the World Council of Churches, and this distresses me greatly, but I have to say the message of the gospel has saved souls. And it may be that when Billy comes to New York, it'll be the last campaign he ever runs. I don't know. It may be the Lord will come. It may be that that last soul will be added to the body of Christ through Billy Graham's preaching. I don't know. But I know one thing. I have seen him on secular programs. I've seen him on all kind of programs. I've never failed to hear him honor Jesus Christ. Whether it's with Jack Paul or any other group, he's honored the Savior. And for that, I love the man. I tell you, there's so much to talk about. Well, you know, you could go on and on. There's so blessedly much. Maybe the Lord will come before I'm through with Jude. I don't know. Could be, you know. He could come today. He could come today. Everything's set for his coming. You look around you at the world scene. You don't have to look far to say the Lord better come soon. When science says 300 million will die in the first six minutes in a nuclear war, I think everybody want to get right with Christ right away. No way you're heading. Let me tell you, when one of those nuclear things go off, you don't have much time to talk, to think, to do anything. I can remember when my children were little and the teacher said to them, you know, now if a bomb comes, you have to get under the desk. Bob would say, you know, what does it do to get under the desk? Well, she says, you see what happens is all the windows are sucked out. Now this is what, 15 years ago, 20 years ago. All the windows will be sucked out and all your children will be sucked out and all of you will be just little spots of grease on the street. Oh, beloved, let me tell you, that bomb was nothing compared to what will happen this time. The world is set for overkill. Oh, get this, 20 times, 20 times the population of the world, there are now enough nuclear weapons to kill the world 20 times over, every single human being upon the face of the earth. There isn't much time, beloved. You should make sure that you're right with God, right with our Savior, having Him in your heart. Let us pray. Father, we thank Thee for Thy blessed Word, blessed to our hearts this morning. Lord, we ask Thee to touch every human heart. We pray that Christ might be their portion. We pray for anybody here this morning that may have come in not believing, that they'd go out believing because there's really no hope in man's heart all by himself. He has no answers. He uses his gifts, he makes his fortunes. He lives in a house, can be a hovel or a house or a castle, but he dies. And there's no turning away death. And so, Lord, we recognize that all is vanity. And unless we make ourselves come to that place where we trust Christ as our Savior, we listen to the wooing of the Spirit of God, we believe salvation is all of Him. And when that yearning comes, we turn to God and say, reveal to me Thy way of salvation, and God will reach down and speak to us of His precious Son. Now, Father, bless every heart. As we go, may we think deeply upon the things of God, what it means to be a Christian. Lord, draw us to Yourself. Help us to have all diligence about this common salvation, that others may come with us and believe with us. May we be able to say, like Moses of all, come with us and we will do You good. Lord, put Your hand now upon every heart and still them. And may some be saying right now, O Christ, I trust Thee because I have no other answers to life. Life is a mystery to me, an enigma. I don't know where I'm going, but You've opened the door. And Lord, I take Thy hand as my Savior, my Redeemer forever and ever. In Christ's name, amen.