Jonah is a well-known Old Testament prophet. He is also a lovely type of the Lord Jesus Christ. Here we begin a short study of Jonah's life and the lessons taught him by the Lord.

Jehovah God has given the Lord Jesus Christ to the church as the supreme evidence of His love. He has also freely given us all things with Him of which we are partakers by faith. This is our inheritance in Christ and is all to God's glory and praise.

The essence of the gospel is substitution. Christ died for our sins. According to the terms of the everlasting covenant of peace God spared not His Son but delivered Him up for all of us who are loved, chosen, called, justified and glorified in Christ.

Our ever-loving God is for us, for His people. So much so, says Paul, that ‘He spared not His own Son’. Our safety, security and hope in this life and for the next is in the grace and mercy of Him who gave His own Son, and spared Him not, to bring many sons to glory.

God is for us! Our God is for His beloved, chosen, called and justified people. He sent Christ to die for us and His Spirit to convert us. He keeps us faithful. He feeds our souls. He comforts our spirits. He does all this because He is for us. If God is for us who can be against us?

God calls His people glorious because He has made us so in Christ. Glorious is not something we shall become, it is what we now are, having been chosen, called and justified by the grace of God. And there is more to come.

In the covenant of grace, before the world was formed, God set His church apart in eternal election and justified His people in their Surety and Substitute Jesus Christ. God has always seen His people as righteous and holy under the blood and righteousness of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.

Our Lord Jesus Christ is The Firstborn of God and as such takes the pre-eminence amongst His brethren. The glory of man must either bow under the Lordship of Christ and be preserved by the blood of the Lamb or be destroyed as was the pride of Egypt in the day of plague.

Predestination is God placing His elect people into Christ for their everlasting good. Today we shall consider what Predestination is, what it means, what it accomplishes and the reaction it elicits from men and women.

God’s foreknowledge is not merely knowing the future. It is His eternal loving wisdom. It is personal, purposeful, particular and perfecting for the people He loved before time and whose salvation and glory He has ordered and secured.

God's calls His people from death to life, darkness to light with an effectual, spiritual call of grace. He calls us to conviction for sin, conversion through faith, conformity to Christ and completion in glory. God calls and His people are 'the called in Jesus Christ'.

We speak often of the Lord’s love for His people, rightly so. It is the most wonderful, gracious mercy upon the face of this earth. However, today I want to briefly mention our love for the Lord. I hope to show you that it is wonderful, too.

Our God and Father has promised to do His people good and bring us to glory. All that we see around us, all that we experience, endure and enjoy is for our spiritual good and eternal glory.

Jude wishes to encourage the Lord's people in the gospel of God's grace and the mercy of the Lord Jesus Christ. It is this mercy that will bring all Christ's redeemed people to heavenly glory. He also instructs us to act with compassion to those around us while being ready to rebuke those who deal deceitfully with the gospel of grace.Our Lord Jesus Christ is all-wise, all-knowing and all-powerful. To Him, Jude says, is due all glory and majesty, dominion and power. Such is the sovereign God we worship and the Saviour in whom we trust. He is able to keep us from falling, keep us holy, keep us fit for glory and keep us happy. He is the great Amen!

Jude wishes to encourage the Lord's people in the gospel of God's grace and the mercy of the Lord Jesus Christ. It is this mercy that will bring all Christ's redeemed people to heavenly glory. He also instructs us to act with compassion to those around us while being ready to rebuke those who deal deceitfully with the gospel of grace.

Jude concludes his denunciation of the ungodly men who have crept into the congregations of the Lord's people by revealing the source of their problem. The do not have the Spirit of God in them. They are unregenerate and they are unbelieving. The speak of faith but have none. The speak of new life but they remain dead in trespasses and sins.

Enoch was a prophet of God and a man of faith in the Lord Jesus Christ from before the days of Noah and the flood. His faith is acknowledged in Hebrews where we are told that he pleased God. Enoch was a sinful man as we all are sinful but God was pleased with Enoch for Christ’s sake and justified this old saint by the blood and righteousness of his Saviour. Enoch walked with God and his testimony though small is a precious witness to the grace of God in Christ.

Jude lists four powerful descriptions to underscore the barrenness of these graceless men in the church fellowship. He likens them to clouds without water, trees without fruit, roaring, foaming waves and wandering stars. The metaphors emphasise the futility and sterility of a Christless gospel. When there is no spiritual life in a man and no gospel truth in his ministry there can be no lasting usefulness to his labours.

Jude warns the Lord's people to beware of brute beasts who enter the churches of Christ with the errors of false worship. He employs examples from Cain, Balaam and Korah.

Michael the archangel is very likely the Lord Jesus Christ by a heavenly name. Michael contended with Satan to deliver Jeshua from the devil’s accusations. Our Lord Jesus Christ has delivered His church from under the curse of Moses’ law and brought us peace with God.