I'm trying to be careful. Turn with me in your Bibles to the book of Jude, please. We began this consideration in the previous hour. For those who weren't there, go to the book of Revelation. Go one book back. You find it very quickly. It's a brief letter, believed to be written by the half-brother of the Lord Jesus. It's also the brother of James. I read, Verses 1 through 4, and then we'll pray once again. Because some of you weren't here for the previous hour. Beginning in verse 1, Jude, a servant of Jesus Christ, and brother of James, to them that are called, beloved in God the Father, and kept for Jesus Christ. Mercy to you and peace and love be multiplied. Beloved, while I was giving all diligence to write to you of our common salvation, I was constrained to write to you, exhorting you to contend earnestly for the faith, which was once for all delivered to the saints. For there are certain men crept in privilege even they who were of old written of beforehand to this condemnation ungodly men turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness and denying our only Master and Lord Jesus Christ. Let us again once again pray. Our Father, we once again come before you and we know that they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength. We ask that you will renew our strength as we wait upon you to hear what you have to say to us this morning from this portion of your word. Lord, we need your Holy Spirit. We need your spirit to give us understanding. We need your spirit for those who may not know the Lord Jesus, that you would open their eyes. Lord, we need you to come and help us. We dare not do this in our own strength. So we ask and pray for your help, that you would prosper your word in all of our hearts to accomplish the thing for which you purpose. And may it result in your glory in this church in the hearts of all gathered here this morning to the praise and glory of your name through Jesus Christ. We ask these things. Amen. Just a brief recap. We considered this letter this brief letter. That is written by Jude. And we considered it in three categories, so three outlines. First of all, we considered a statement of purpose. And that's what I read in verses 3 and 4, a statement of purpose. Excuse me, just trying not to cough. And we saw that in this statement of purpose, We see the work of the Spirit of God upon the writer and we noted in second Peter how Peter makes reference to the fact that there's no prophecy. That is a private interpretation. And how men spoke the word of God the prophets they were carried along by the Holy Spirit. And so we have the written word of God. Yes written by men. but written by men who were guided by the Holy Spirit." And we see here Jude had the intention to write about one thing, but he ends up writing about something else. He says, Beloved, while I was giving all diligence to write to you of our common salvation, that's what he wanted to write about, However, I was constrained and I suggest he was constrained by the Spirit of God. I was constrained to write to you exhorting you to contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered unto the same. So that's what the letter is about. He tells us I mean, we don't need to make any guesswork. He is writing. so that they would contend that is to fight to stand fast to contend earnestly for the faith, which is once we're all delivered to the Saints and he makes this case and the reason why he writes this verse for because there have been certain men who have crept in secretly or deceitfully among you. They have infiltrated your ranks. They who were of old written beforehand unto this condemnation ungodly men turning the grace of God into lasciviousness and denying our only Master and Lord Jesus Christ. So these false teachers they are described as ungodly men. and their message is a perversion of the grace of God turning God's grace into something God never intended to be they want to use the grace of God as a cover for sin so that people can indulge in their sins and and these men are ungodly. They themselves are indulging in their sins personally. So they are sinful ungodly men. First of all, they're not Christians. They're unbelievers dressed up as it were coming as though they are believers wolves and sheep's clothing. And so they are among you turning the grace of God trying to do this and they deny the Lord Jesus Christ. So this is a matter that is more pressing as directed by the Holy Spirit as you can see. And so in verses, so that's the statement of purpose. And then we have a description of the ungodly in every age beginning in verse 5 down through verse 16. I won't reread all that section, but in that section Jude is showing how among God's people there has arisen in every generation opposition to the truth. by those who are ungodly, who are in pursuit of their ungodly lusts. And because they are being driven by their ungodly lusts, even in the scripture reading in 2 Peter, Peter says in the last time, mockers will come with mockery. First of all, they are, and why do they mock? Remember what Jesus says, out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks, They say what they say because of what's in their heart. Because they are walking after their own lusts. That's what's in their heart. Living a sinful and wicked life. That's what's in their heart. And because that's in their heart, now they mock. Because they have to discredit the scripture because this Bible is so clear about sin and judgment. And so they have to say, this isn't true. So they say, where is the promise of his coming? For from the day that the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation." So they're mocking. They're mocking. And so it is, as Jude writes, similarly as Peter, he is urging them to contend because in verses 5 through 16, there's a description of ungodly men, even angels, in every age, whether it's up in the heavens, whether it's in, he speaks of Sodom and Gomorrah, he speaks of Korah, that is when the Israelites were in the wilderness. Thank you. I saw the signal, I was trying to interpret what that meant. Thank you, brother. The call, right? I also had a very short night. I'm not complaining, but those things happen. So here in this section, he's describing ungodliness in every age, whether it's among Cain, Balaam, Korah who rebelled against Moses. Sodom, Gomorrah, and then he goes on to describe even among Enoch when Enoch prophesied against them, how they are murmurers, they are complainers. Verse 16, these are murmurers, complainers, walking after their lusts, and their mouths speak great swelling words, showing respect of persons for the sake of advantage. You thought politics was probably new, it was old as the beginning of time. They show respect of persons for the sake of advantage, and they're doing this in the name of religion or serving God. And so here, Jude is describing these individuals. And now Jude is saying, these people are among you. They continue to this very day, and brethren, they continue even in our day as well. And so here you have verses 5 through 16 description of the ungodly a lot of strange things that you may read here hard to interpret, but that's what's there. We have a statement of purpose. We have a description of the ungodly in every age third. We have a call to action because remember his purpose is for them to contend for the face. So what does he mean? How do you contend for the faith firstly? He tells him in verse 17. Although the ungodly ones are living the way that they live, they say the things that they say, although they are doing this, and they are doing these things among you, however, but you, beloved, you know, like a parent, Mommy, why can't we do this? Dad, why can't we do, well, that's what they do, but this is what we do. You know, so never mind what they do in this house, this is how we do things. And so Judah's saying this is what they're doing. However, verse 17, but you beloved first thing, remember, remember 9 11, never forget, right? Seems people don't even think about it anymore. Here remember very important. Remember what remember the words which have been spoken before by the Apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ. And what did they say? They said to you in the last time there shall be mockers walking after their own ungodly lusts. So in other words, what's going on among you? was spoken of beforehand. So although you you may be alarmed that I'm sounding this alarm. But don't be surprised because this was told that this would happen that there will be those who are doing these things. And so the first thing they're called to do is to remember, and that's why it's important, brethren, that we read our Bibles regularly. We're in church listening to the Word of God, embracing the Word of God. As we go here, we don't go out like the man looks in the mirror, as Jane says, and he walks away forgetting what manner of person he is. We go back out Monday morning, remembering what we've heard today, taking it with us, living that, walking that, as we go to our jobs and our respective responsibilities. Remember, the second thing he says in verse 20 is this, But ye, beloved, building up yourselves on your most Holy Faith praying in the Holy Spirit. Keep yourselves in the love of God looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life. And as I mentioned in the last hour when you look at verse 20, the the heart of the command is to keep yourselves in the love of God. That's the heart of the command. To keep yourselves in the love of God, and I suggest you do it by these three things. How do you keep yourself in the love of God? In other words, keeping yourself in a way of following the Lord, in the way of obedience, in the way of faith. Jesus says, if you love me, you will keep my commandments. So to keep yourself in God's love is to serve him, to obey him, to believe Him, to do His will, that is to keep yourself in the way of God's love. You do it by doing these three things. First of all, building up yourselves on your most holy faith. nurturing your mind, your soul, your inner man, your convictions, your desires, your longings, your love of the truth, your love of Jesus. Paul says the love of Christ constrains us to have this passion and desire to follow the Lord and to serve him and to glorify him. That is the desire. That's the thing that should dominate your life. I want to please the Lord and I want to be like Jesus. I want Jesus to be glorified. So you build up yourselves on your most holy faith. That is what you believe. You have to know the truth what the Bible says about Jesus what the Bible says about reality about who we are about sin about this world about the devil about the coming judgment. We had the scripture reading. It's a beautiful thing. We were here. We just read the scriptures in 2nd Peter. We're reminded. And as the scripture was read, we should be take those things so hard as we think of what's going on in our world and in the society about us. Then remember the day of the Lord is coming. And even though there are those who reject the Bible who dispute the scriptures, we know we have learned today. They do that because they are walking after their own lust. But we are those who are committed to listen to God to believe his word and to know that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years and a thousand years is one day you see God is eternal. We don't measure God's promises. We don't measure God's activity by ourselves, by the creature, by time. God is outside of time. And what God says is true, and we must hold it fast. And so Peter says, no, we will stand and believe, and so forth. And we know the day of the Lord will come as a thief. We embrace what God has said in his word. So therefore the mockers have no sway with us because we believe the Word of God. And so we build ourselves up in our most holy faith. How are you going to get to that posture of conviction? of persuasion and determination. We have to be in the scriptures. We have to know what the scriptures say, and not only know the scriptures, but we must believe the scriptures. And as I said in our closing, in the previous hour, you cannot contend for something you don't know. And in my notes, you will not contend for something that you don't love. If you don't love it, you're not gonna contend for it. That's why Demas, having loved this present world, forsook Paul and forsook the gospel. If you love it, you will contend for it. When the pressure is on, when the persecution is hot, When the world is against you, against us, and they threaten us. When temptations, the world, the temptations, you know, the world is very seductive in its temptation of money, and riches, and fame, and pleasure, and popularity, and identity, and feeling good about oneself, and all the messages of the world. These things, they have some touch points of appeal within us, but if we love the truth, we love the Lord, we will say, no, I'm not going there. I'm following the Lord. And here is where I take my stand. And so you're not going to contend earnestly for the faith. If you don't love the faith, you have to know it. You have to love it. And, and so that's one thing we do, but that's not the only thing we do. our knowledge of the truth, embracing the truth, loving the truth. The other thing he said, praying in the Holy Spirit, and we touched on that. Praying with the help of God's spirit. There's another passage in Romans says, we do not know how to pray as we are, but the spirit helps us with our infirmities, with groanings that cannot be uttered. For we don't all know how to pray as we ought, but the Spirit helps us with groanings that cannot be uttered. The Spirit of God is involved as we pray. When we pray, we are not left to ourselves to come up with what to pray for, what should we pray for, and We have the word of God. We pray according to the scriptures. That's the direction for prayer. Remember, Jesus says, when you pray, say, our father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done. Jesus is giving direction as to how the specific items for which we are to bring to God. We're not left to try to figure this out on our own. We have that model prayer, which gives us categories of prayer. We have the entirety of scripture which gives us teaching and instruction and even as we had the scripture reading about the coming of the day of God, we can say even so come Lord Jesus and Lord you said that we are to be what matter of persons are we to be in all holy living Lord help us to be holy. Again, that's coming just from that passage in Peter. That's how you learn to pray. And therefore, when we are praying according to God's Word, 1 John 5 tells us, we know we have the petitions that we have asked of him. And Jesus says, if we ask anything in his name, we will have it. And so we ask and pray according to the guidance and commands and dictates of scripture. But as we do this, and as I mentioned before, you know, that experience when your heart is enlarged, where you have a, you feel Not only that you intellectually understand and know that you ought to pray for God's will, but there is something in your soul that you have this desire where you desire it. You want God to be glorified. You want to serve Jesus as preeminent in your life. You want to be faithful and not ashamed of the gospel and not ashamed of Christ. That is what you want. You want to see sinners served. You want to see Jesus come back. You want God to come and glorify his name. You actually desire this. Where do those desires come from? They don't come from you. They don't come from me. They come from the Spirit of God. That is to pray with the Spirit praying in the Holy Spirit. The fruit of the Spirit is love. And if you have love for God is because God first loved you and God planted his love in your heart. We were regenerated by the washing and renewing of the Holy Spirit Titus 3. You see how the scripture just comes together as we think through these things the washing and renewing and regenerating renewal of the Spirit of God. So the Spirit is always active and therefore we ought to pray with the help of God's Spirit and ask for God's Spirit to help us. So building up ourselves and our most holy faith. praying in the Holy Spirit with increasing desires and longings after God. And then the third item is looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life. That's our hope. That's what we look for. Peter reiterated that. We look for new heavens and new earth wherein dwells righteousness. That's our hope. That's what drives us. And so this is how we keep ourselves in the love of God. By doing these things, brethren, building up ourselves in our most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit, longing for the return of Christ. You have these things going on inside of you. You're going to be desirous more than anything to please God. You're going to persevere to the very end. You're going to prove yourself to be the sheep who hears the voice of the Good Shepherd. And Jesus says, no one shall snatch them out of my hand. And so the contend for the faith is not debating and arguing with people. It's all about living. It's all about believing. You see our lives is the best defense of the faith. We are called to be faithful witnesses of Christ in this world. You contend for the faith by believing it. Marriage is between one man and one woman. That is what God has says. And that is where I stand. Right? You're not looking for a fight. But the world is changing and the world is putting pressure on us. And as the world applies pressure to us, are we going to cave? Are we going to compromise? We don't need to be looking for trouble. But we believe and we continue to believe just like Daniel and his three friends. When they were going to throw them into the fiery furnace. They weren't looking for trouble. They weren't looking for trouble. They didn't cave. They said King. There's really nothing to discuss. Our God is able to deliver us. But even if he does not, we're not going to bow. There's nothing to talk about. This has been settled in our hearts way before we've entered into this situation where we were faced with this friary furnace. This is how we've been living our lives from day to day from back when and as believers brethren, that's how it is to be with us in living our lives. So the content for the faith is by believing it not altering it not watering it not watering it down so that we don't get into trouble. No standing on it and believing it without being ashamed. And most importantly doing it doing it the doing the polemic the defense is in the doing not just in the talking, not in debating, it's in the doing. It's easy to debate, it's difficult to live it. And so that's what James, Jude is saying, I'm writing that you would earnestly contend for the faith, and this is how you do it, building up yourselves on your most holy faith, you're contending. You're praying in the Holy Spirit. You're having your prayer meetings, your personal prayer time. You're praying to God. You're pouring out your soul to the Lord. You're building up your soul and your desires for God and his glory. And you're looking for the return of the Lord Jesus Christ. There is a healthy and robust Christian. That's what a healthy Christian looks like. And that's what it means to contend, not compromise. I think of this hymn that I love. For all the saints, for all the saints, for all the saints who from their labors rest, who thee, that is God, by faith before the world confessed, They confessed you before the world. Thy name, O Jesus, be forever blessed. Alleluia, alleluia. The saints, they weren't ashamed. They said, yes, I follow Jesus. And I have nothing to be ashamed about, because He is the Son of God. His righteousness is the righteousness that saves. He is Lord of all. And what about this stanza? O may thy soldiers, faithful, true, and bold, Fight, there you have that contending, fight as the saints who nobly fought of old, that is those who contend for the faith, to win with them, that is to overcome, to become victors with them, the victor's crown of gold. Remember Jesus said in the book of Revelation, you will be cast into prison for I think 10 days, I think it's Revelation 2. But he says, but be ye faithful unto death and you shall receive the crown of life. That's the words of Jesus to his people. You see contending, willing to pay the price, willing to endure, but not in your own strength. Of course, we don't stand here and say, I'm strong. We're not like Peter says, do all deny me. I will not. We don't want to be that way. We are weak. But through God we can we can amaze ourselves as to what we can do by God's grace. So by doing these things we contend for the faith now for the remainder of this hour. That's the call to action. Now I want to focus on verses 24 and 25. I mean, this is not a verse-by-verse exposition, but it's kind of gleaning, highlighting the main points of this book of Jude. Detailed instruction will require much more study and much more time. So what we're going to look at for the remainder of time is verses 24 and 25, and I call this a doxology of encouragement and hope. We sang the doxology. Doxology is like a benediction, an expression of praise to God. you know and let's read the words or follow with me verse 24 as he comes to the end of this letter now unto him see unto him that's ascribing praise to God unto him that is able to guard you from stumbling and to set you before the presence of His glory without blemish in exceeding joy. To the only God, our Savior, through Jesus Christ, our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and power before all time and now and forevermore. Amen. That's an expression of praise. It's a eulogy of praise. And that's what Jude is doing as he ends this letter. He's sounding this note of great encouragement. It may be difficult. It may be trying. when the truth is being opposed and remember these ungodly men have infiltrated themselves among the ranks of the people of God. They probably have positions of teacher and leadership. And yet they are called to remember they call their call to contend and it's not going to be easy. And even as you hear this sermon and the things I've said brought out even from the Word of God, being faithful unto death, that doesn't sound easy. I don't really find that appealing. I personally don't find that appealing. None of us naturally do. But we live in an evil world. You know that. And if you would die, what better way to die than to die for the faith? Not that we are looking for this, but we never know what God has in store. But we see that and we say, oh, this is difficult. Now, that's why this doxology is so encouraging. It's to encourage us. It's to encourage us. Keep yourselves, and this is Jude saying, keep yourselves in the love of God with this in mind. Keep yourselves with this doxology in mind. As you're building up yourselves on your most holy faith, have this doxology in mind. Maybe make this doxology a part of your prayer life. as you anticipate paid in the coming of the Lord. Well, what does that mean with the Lord will come? Well, look at the language of the doxology here. Be assured that though you are under tremendous pressures to conform to this age. This doxology says to us, even though that you are under tremendous pressures to conform to this age, be assured that you will prevail. to the glory of God. You will prevail, you will overcome, by God's grace and by His glory. Because it doesn't rest on you. Note the language, now unto Him. It's not, you hear all these commands and now you look in the mirror and say, man, I'm hopeless, I can't do this. But Judah's saying, unto Him. Focus the attention upon God. And if you focus the attention upon God, you can walk on water. Isn't that what Peter did? When his attention was upon Jesus, he was walking on water and didn't realize it. And when he realized what he was doing, looking at the winds and his waves, taking his eyes off Jesus, he sunk. But if our eyes are upon the Lord, we can do all things that God has command us has called us to do and to endure. We can do all things and we can do it to his glory now unto him. So the first thing I want to bring out in this doxology is this your perseverance ultimately rests upon the power of God. Your perseverance, our perseverance in the faith, it ultimately, I didn't say exclusively, but ultimately rests upon the power of God. Because God doesn't work without us. He works in us and through us, but not without us. The Bible says work out your own salvation with fear and trembling for it is God who works in you. And that's it. No God works in you to will and to do God enables you to do to perform. He works in you to will and to do after his good pleasure. And in 1 Peter 1.5, it says this, and let me just read that verse. 1 Peter 1.5, I was going to quote it, but I want to make sure I get it right. He speaks about, he says, blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, verse three, who, according to his great mercy, begat us again unto a living hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, unto an inheritance incorruptible, undefiled, that fades not away, reserved in heaven for you, who, by the power of God, are guarded through faith. You see, it is by God's power, but we are exercising faith. We are guarded, we are kept by the power of God through faith. God doesn't exercise faith, we exercise faith. But this is by the power of God, we are guarded through faith unto a salvation, ready to be revealed at the last time again. Peter is pointing us to the hope. You see the consistency? Jude is pointing us to the hope. And this doxology points us to the hope. And so therefore brethren, God keeps us from stumbling away into apostasy now unto him that is able to guard you from stumbling not just stumbling a fall into sin, but stumbling away from the faith. He is able to guard you and keep you from stumbling away. God keeps us from stumbling through. his work in us, but also God keeps us in spite of our efforts in spite of our efforts. Peter failed Peter's Jesus says Peter Simon before the crow cocks three times. You're going to deny me before the crow cocks two times. You're going to deny me three times. Simon, Simon, Luke 22, Satan has asked to have you that he may sift you as wheat. But I have prayed for you. And interesting, Jesus said, I didn't pray that you won't fall. That's not what Jesus prayed for. I pray that your faith fell not. Jesus says, Simon, you're going to fall. Because you don't know your own weakness. I know your intentions are good. I know that is in your heart to do the right thing. But Simon, you are ignorant of your weakness. And I've told you that you're going to deny me. I'm telling you, Simon, what's going to happen? And Peter says, No, no, Lord, I'm not going to deny you, Simon, you will. But I have prayed for you. And the devil is also involved in Peter's denial. Remember, the devil is active. And he's active in our lives as well to get us to fall, to get us to deny, to have us overcome with fear. Satan has asked to have you that he may sift you as we, but I prayed for you, Peter. Peter, you're going to fall, but your faith isn't going to fail. Judas was miserable. He saw that he sinned, but Judas had no faith and he went out and hung himself. Judas was broken for his sin, but he had no faith. Peter was broken for his sin, but Peter had faith that he would repent, although he was broken. And that's why Jesus says, blessed are the poor in heart, for they shall, for theirs is a kingdom. Blessed are they that mourn, right? We're broken for our sins. but we still have faith to continue to look to him for forgiveness. And so, in spite of our efforts, we will be kept by God. When we are weak, it doesn't mean that God is weak. His strength is made perfect in our weakness. My grace, Paul had to learn, is sufficient for you. God has not given us a spirit of fear, Paul told Timothy, but a spirit of power and love and of a sound mind. And Timothy was a timid man. Timothy was a real believer. He wasn't wishy-washy. He was a genuine believer. He was a man like Paul. He said, they all seek their own, but not the things of Jesus Christ. Timothy is like-minded with me, but Paul knew Timothy was a timid man. And Paul told Timothy in his timidity, Timmy, Timothy, God has not given us a spirit of power. And then Paul tells Timothy, this is in second Timothy one. Paul says, join me, Timothy, in suffering, hardship, according to the power of God. If you read that carefully. suffer according to the power of God. Paul is saying, Timothy, this can be done. You can do this. Join me. I am now suffering. I'm in prison. According to God's power, I can do all things through Christ who strengthened me and Timmy. Timothy, I know your timidity. I know your tears. but I know your faith, you're the real deal. Timothy, God has given us a spirit of power. Timothy, yield yourself to God and join me in suffering hardship for the gospel, not according to your strength, but according to the power of God. And Timothy, you can do this. And so Paul exhorts him. Second thing in this doxology is not only that our perseverance ultimately rests on the power of God, but you will be transformed gloriously. When you get to heaven, when we get to heaven, it will be a glorious transformation. Look at the language. Now unto him that is able to guard you from stumbling and to present you before the presence of his glory without blemish and exceeding joy. Think about that in the presence of God's glory in the immediate presence of God without blemish and with great joy. When Isaiah the prophet found himself in the presence of the Lord, he says, woe is me for I am undone. I'm a man of unclean lips. Mine eyes have seen the Lord. And he was just devastated. Or even in the book of Revelation, when John sees the risen Christ, he falls at his feet as dead. To be in the immediate presence of God in our present state, that's why it says in 1 Corinthians 15, flesh and blood shall not inherit the kingdom of God, but we all shall be changed. This corruptible shall put on incorruption. There must be that transformation, but when that transformation comes, we will be before the immediate presence of God without any spot or stain of sin. And I think of this, brethren, I think people will say, yeah, when I go to heaven, I want to do this and do that. I think personally, I mean, this is just me, my imagination, but I think you would agree with me. I think the two great wonders of heaven are these, to be without sin. We just can't imagine what it's like not to sin. We can't imagine. But just think about your best moments as a Christian. When the power of the truth of God is so gripped your heart, and you have that fire and zeal and love for God in this kingdom. Just think about that magnified beyond your comprehension with all purity and no sin. You can't imagine it. We get a little taste of it. God gives us little taste of that. And I think the second wonder of heaven, this is not an order. I'm just saying one and two. It's to see God. It's to see God. Now unto Him that is able to guard you from stumbling, and to present you where? Not in your own little corner, just enjoying yourself and having a good time by yourself. But to present you where? Before the presence of His glory, before the presence of God, without blemish and in exceeding joy. You know, you see those shows, the makeover, where the lady comes through and says, oh, I really don't like the way I look. Can you do something for me? All right, well, let's see what you do. And then they show the before and after. She comes out and says, yeah, the crown is coming. Wow, you're so darn, you're so beautiful and charming. Or let's talk about the houses, the makeover of houses, OK? You have the other shows. Oh, my house, this is, ah, I just, and then they go fix the house. And they come back in there, well, This is no comparison to any makeovers that can be done on Earth. To be without sin and to be in God's immediate presence to see him as he is. And and this is joy unspeakable beyond what we can even imagine. I have not seen and ears have not heard the things that God has for those who love him. And then, the other thing here, ah, well, I need to wrap up here. All right, I'm gonna wrap it up. As we wrap this up, keep yourselves in the love of God. our lives where we are right now. A lot of fearful things going on in the world, discouraging things that we see in the church and in churches. But nonetheless, brethren, what we may experience in the church, what we see in the world around us, even in our own persons, in our own hearts. Remember, God is greater than our hearts. He is able to guard us from stumbling. He is able to keep us and bring us and present us before his presence. And this doxology is a doxology of praise. It says now unto him, unto Him be glory, majesty, dominion, power, Not that we want to win this election. Go ahead and vote. I'm not getting into politics, but I'm just thinking about things that people get excited about or my team has won the Super Bowl or I've won the lottery, whatever it may be. There are things that really sends a thrill in us and we get so excited about but brethren. This is our excitement as believers this doxology. We long for the day when God will be glorified in all the earth. We long for the day when every knee shall bow and every tongue shall confess that Jesus is Lord. And we desire that God will be glorified in all the majesty and all the dominion and all the power which belongs to the Lord. And we long to be there and to be in the world. We get a taste of it in the church. But with this doxology and this daunting task of contending for the faith, here is our inspiration to persevere. Here is our motivation to contend for the faith. It's worth contending for. If we know these things, if we love these things, if we believe these things, if we live for these things, brethren, then we will persevere. We will not compromise. To him that overcome, he will inherit these things we read in Revelation chapter 17. That will be us. And here is our encouragement to Jude. In spite of the change in all the world, in spite of this evil age, in spite of opposition, our personal weaknesses, you know, there's more to reality than what we see and hear on the news. There's more to reality than what we encounter in traffic. There's more to reality what we deal with in the doctor's office or in the emergency room. There is more to reality than all these things and that is God's kingdom, God's glory, Jesus return, the new heavens and the new earth, brethren. That is the ultimate reality and brethren, that's what we need to nurture our souls with. Keep yourselves in the love of God. building up yourselves on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit, looking for the appearing of the Lord Jesus Christ, and unto Him, who is able to keep you from stumbling, who is able to allow you, enable you to be faithful to the end, no matter what. We are more than conquerors through Him that loved us. There is nothing that will separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus, our Lord. Peter fell, yes, he fell, He had a fall, but Peter did not apostatize because he was kept by the power of God. And even we may be fearful and wonder if we're going to make it. Oh, no, you're going to make it if you are a true believer, because you will be kept by faith, your faith will not fail. Brother and sister, your faith will not fail. By God's power, it will not fail. And you will be kept steadfast to the end. So brethren, Let's live. Let's live life to the full, and let's live to the glory of God, not being ashamed of our Lord and our Savior, who loved us, who died for us, who risen to heaven from the dead. Brethren, we are of all the people on the earth the most blessed. Remember, there's more to reality than what we see in here. Believe these things and you will glorify God and you will do well to his praise and glory. Let's pray. Our Father, we thank you for helping us to consider truths that is too wonderful for us. truths which no man can do justice to utter these but Lord you have revealed these things in your word and help us to buy the truth and sell it not help us to persevere loving you serving you believing you Not being ashamed of your words, Lord, help us to be appraised to you in our generation, that we may see others come to know you, that we may behold great and wondrous things done in us and through us for your cause and your glory. Lord, help us to serve you in our generation. We ask and pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen. so