Study in the Epistle of Jude # 4: Verses 1-2

by Chris McCann

EBible Fellowship (http://www.ebiblefellowship.com)

I would like to welcome you to the Electronic Bible Fellowship’s Bible study. We are continuing to take a look at the little book of Jude that we find in our Bible right before the book of Revelation. If you remember, we began in verse 1 of Jude, which says the following:

Jude, the servant of Jesus Christ, and brother of James, to them that are sanctified by God the Father, and preserved in Jesus Christ, and called:

We have been looking at what it meant to be sanctified by God the Father. What exactly does it mean when someone is said to be sanctified? There are all kinds of wrong ideas associated with this idea of sanctification.

Some theologians and churches teach that sanctification is an ongoing process whereby one becomes holier and holier. They view salvation as a seed that is planted by God in the heart of an individual. They say that there has been no change in that person really. That is, they still look upon that person as being a sinner in both body and soul after salvation, and they would still say that a person could sin in their heart even though God has, in their way of thinking, begun sanctification. He has begun this process, they say, whereby more and more, the individual will develop and grow in grace and in the knowledge of God and begin to live a holier and holier life. They believe that it is a cleansing process, or a purification process, which God is going to perform on those that He saves.

But this idea is completely wrong, because this is not how the Bible presents the sanctification of God. God does not slowly make someone holier and holier, where one day they have a little seed of holiness in them and then the next day it grows like a seed that has been planted in the ground until the fruit or the tree or plant of some kind is brought forth and becomes larger and larger. This is not the Biblical understanding of sanctification.

When God saves someone, He saves them completely and they are given at the moment of salvation a new and resurrected soul that is perfect. Their soul existence is now perfect with God (1 John 3:9).

We have looked a little bit at this already, and now we are going to look at a few places where the Bible uses the word “sanctified” or “sanctification.” Let us begin back in the book of Genesis. Genesis 2:2-3 says:

And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made. And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made.

Immediately, right from the beginning, we see that God is sanctifying the seventh day. How can a day be sanctified if sanctification has the idea that some try to associate with it of being a cleansing or purification process?

It is a word that is really dealing with something being set apart. Immediately, we can see this as God worked on six days and on the seventh day He rested and sanctified that day. That seventh day was separated from the rest of the week. It was a holy day that was set apart. It was a day wherein God would have a special purpose in mind. It was a day that He would use to teach elements of His salvation plan. That day was to be observed by the people of God by not doing any work at all. It was sanctified and set apart from all the other days of the week.

Also, if we turn to 2 Chronicles 29, we find this language of sanctification in verses 17-19:

Now they began on the first day of the first month to sanctify, and on the eighth day of the month came they to the porch of the LORD: so they sanctified the house of the LORD in eight days; and in the sixteenth day of the first month they made an end. Then they went in to Hezekiah the king, and said, We have cleansed all the house of the LORD, and the altar of burnt offering, with all the vessels thereof, and the shewbread table, with all the vessels thereof. Moreover all the vessels, which king Ahaz in his reign did cast away in his transgression, have we prepared and sanctified, and, behold, they are before the altar of the LORD.

Once again, the sanctifying of the vessels and the sanctifying of these things that are part of the temple, part of the worship of God, has nothing to do with these vessels becoming of a greater quality, or anything like that. It just means that they were set apart for use in the house of God. They were different than all the other vessels in Jerusalem because God would utilize these particular vessels for His ceremonial laws or for preparing the sacrifices. They were set apart, and again, that is the idea of sanctification.

In the New Testament, in Matthew 23:17 (we looked a little bit at this already), we read:

Ye fools and blind: for whether is greater, the gold, or the temple that sanctifieth the gold?

The gold, the gifts into the temple treasury, are sanctified and set apart for the use of God. They are set apart for the work of the Gospel, or whatever He would so desire these gifts to be used for. This gold was no longer like any other gold in the world that men would use for their daily bartering and buying and selling, because this gold was to be used exclusively for the ministry of God. It was sanctified gold because it was set apart for that purpose.

Now of course, the number one place where we want to turn that shows beyond any doubt and without any question that sanctification is not a process of cleansing or purification is 1 Corinthians 7:13-14, and here we read these words:

And the woman which hath an husband that believeth not, and if he be pleased to dwell with her, let her not leave him. For the unbelieving husband is sanctified by the wife, and the unbelieving wife is sanctified by the husband: else were your children unclean; but now are they holy.

This is that same idea. The vessels in the temple are sanctified, and they become holy vessels. The seventh day in which God rested from His creation was sanctified and set apart, and it became a holy day, a day of rest. The gold is sanctified, and it becomes holy, to be used for the work of God, whatever it might be. And so, in a Gospel home where there is one believer, whether it is the husband or the wife who is married to an unbeliever, that household is now sanctified. They are sanctified in God’s sight, so that the house is set apart. God views them in an entirely different way than all the neighbors that are surrounding them who are all unbelievers, where there are no believers in the households. God somehow looks upon the believer’s home differently and upon their children differently. And so, God has set that family apart so that they are a Gospel home. That is what this means, “The unbelieving husband is sanctified by the wife.” It could not mean anything else—that is impossible.

It is ridiculous if we apply the usage of this word “sanctification” or “sanctified” as some theologians do and conclude that the unbelieving husband is now becoming purer and purer, more holy, more righteous, and more just, simply because he is married to a believing wife. That does not make any sense at all. He is still an unsaved man. He is still in complete rebellion against God, and there is no righteousness in Him at all, no holiness of his own. There is no spiritual cleansing of that man taking place at all. He is an unbeliever, but he is sanctified and set apart in the sense that he is married to a true child of God. His children are also sanctified, and God declares them as being holy in that sense even though the children may be unsaved.

You see, as we look at all these verses, and there are many more that could be offered, we see that sanctification simply means being set apart for the use of God. Whether it is gold, whether it is the temple itself, the vessels within the temple, the seventh day Sabbath, or the first day Sunday Sabbath of the New Testament, it is sanctified by God. All these things which God has chosen to use are sanctified. And in returning to Jude, we see in verse 1:

Jude, the servant of Jesus Christ, and brother of James, to them that are sanctified by God the Father, and preserved in Jesus Christ, and called:

“To them that are sanctified by God the Father”—that is, to them who are the body of believers or who are that elect company that the Lord Jesus Christ and the Godhead itself have set apart to one day receive the mercy and salvation of God. That is who Jude is writing to, to them that are sanctified. Jude is addressing this letter to each one of God’s elect.

And then Jude goes on to say, “and preserved in Jesus Christ, and called.” Now the word “preserved” is translated into a few different English words. It is often translated as “kept” or as “reserved” as we see in 1 Peter 1:4. That verse says:

To an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you,

The idea is that we are sanctified and set apart. God has made a difference between those that He intends to save and all the rest of mankind. He has sanctified them to one day receive salvation, and each one of those elect individuals whose names were written down in the Lamb’s Book of Life before the foundation of the world (Ephesians 1:4 and Revelation 13:8) are kept and preserved. No harm will come to them in Christ Jesus. There is nothing that can shake them out of the protective hands of God, and nothing that can prevent each one of them, or any of them, from becoming saved at the proper time in their lives. They are kept by Christ, they are in the bosom of the Father, and they are just about as safe and secure as anything possibly could be. It is an absolute impossibility that any single one of God’s elect—and we are talking about a tremendous number of souls that God has planned to save—will not be secure in Christ.

Satan has tried his best to destroy these individuals. He has tried his best to interfere with the sending forth of the Gospel so that they may not hear or may not respond. He has tried his best to interrupt and to cause them to turn away, and so forth. He has used many different means of false gospels himself, or all kinds of men that have been stirred up to bring about affliction in order to prevent the sending forth of the Gospel and to prevent God’s elect from being saved.

Yet Satan has never, never, not even once on any occasion in over thirteen thousand years of history been able to snatch away one of God’s elect. He has never been able to prevent them from hearing the Gospel as God has planned or from becoming saved exactly as God has planned, because each one has been kept, preserved in a protective shield. God is their defense and shield; He is their refuge and strength (Psalm. 46:1). He is the One who is round about His people as the mountains are round about Jerusalem (Psalm. 125:2). He is the One that will make sure that each one of His elect will become saved and that they will endure until the end. Everything necessary in the matter of salvation will be accomplished. God in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ is performing all these things, and so it is a wonderful testimony to the great protective hand of God that the elect are kept in Jesus Christ. That is where each one of us is if we are a true child of God.

At this time, we are living in a very threatening time, in a day of great tribulation and severe testing, and all kinds of gospels are out there assailing us. All kinds of threatenings and terrible possibilities are present in this world to try to cause us to fall away. We look at them, but we ought to remember that no child of God will ever be plucked out of the hand of God Himself, out of the Lord Jesus Christ. God will keep us and protect us.

And then it says in the last part of Jude 1:

…to them that are sanctified by God the Father, and preserved in Jesus Christ, and called:

“And called”—this is a common word that is found often in the New Testament. For example, we think of that refrain, “many are called, but few are chosen” (Matthew 22:14), and we think that the “called” are all of those who are not saved. They are not saved; they are the many. The many are called, but only the few are chosen. Actually, though, each true child of God is also called. We are all included in that “many” when God says, “Many are called.”

The unsaved, those that will never find salvation and are not God’s elect, also receive the call. They enter into the churches, but they are never blessed by the Word of God. They remain in their sin. But still, the true child of God, those whom God is going to save, likewise receives the call of the Gospel, and many of them also responded during the Church Age. They would also enter into the churches.

But now, at this time, many are still being called to Christ and called to just respond to the Word of God. Those that God will save out of that “many,” out of that total number called, will be few. That will be the remnant chosen by grace. That will be the elect of God. Yet each one is ultimately called, whether saved finally in the end or not.

In Romans 8:28, we read:

And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.

These are the children of God—we are the called. The call goes out—and really the call is specifically to those whom God is going to save—but many respond, thinking, through the deceitfulness of their own heart (Jeremiah 17:9) that they have become saved and that they are one of these elect. But God says no, it is the few that He will save. So, He indicates that all things work together for good “to them who are the called.”

That is one of our great confidences and our great encouragements. We know that no matter what is going on in our lives and no matter where we are presently in what we are experiencing in our jobs or in our homes or in this world, or whatever troubles we might be facing—and believers do face trials and tribulations; Jesus told us this (John 16:33), and told us that these things are intensified in these last days of the Great Tribulation (Matthew 24:21)—that all things are working together for good to those that are the called. We cannot go wrong no matter how bad we think things are.

Actually, it is foolproof. God has devised a plan whereby His people will live out their lives desiring to do things God’s way more and more as they are responding to this Gospel call. We will make many mistakes. We will make many errors. We will fail. We will fall into sins from time to time. Yet, through it all, God says that everything is working together for good. And so, we, those whom God has saved, are blessed.

Moving on to verse 2 of Jude, we read:

Mercy unto you, and peace, and love, be multiplied.

“Mercy unto you”—is not that one of the grandest thoughts imaginable? Is not that one of the kindest things that anyone could ever say? “Mercy unto you,” mercy—the mercy of God. Could it be that God might have mercy upon you?

We are sinners, blasphemers. We have committed all manner of offenses against God. We are rebels and transgressors of the law of God. We are desperately wicked sinners. We are about as spiritually filthy as anything could be. We are full of hatred; all kinds of evil things are in our hearts, things contrary to all that is good and all that is God. We are deserving of an eternity in Hell. That is what we have earned in our lifetime. That is what we deserve, and that is where we should go. But God sends forth a Gospel with a call that is “mercy unto you.” He is letting us know that there is mercy available. There is the possibility of mercy, the possibility that God will, and He does and can, forgive sins.

So we always have to remember this. Yes, He is a wrathful God, an angry God, and a God who will judge and throw sinners into Hell. But, He is also a God who delights and takes pleasure in mercy. That is why God says that He has chosen a people for Himself according to His good pleasure—because He delights in mercy. He desires to bestow mercy, so that this characteristic, this wonderful attribute of God—that He is mercy Himself and that He is a merciful God—might be put on display by all those that He would save.

Lord willing, we will pick up again with this in our next study. We will continue looking at verse 2 of Jude and ask ourselves the question, “Here, where it says ‘mercy and peace and love be multiplied,’ how is that possible? How is it possible that these things could be multiplied in our lives? After all, once God saves us and bestows mercy upon us, how could that mercy ever grow and multiply in our lives?”