In great Father of glory, thine angels adore thee. How about you this morning? Do you adore Him, the Father of glory, this day? This morning we do conclude our journey through the letter of Jude with this doxology, this statement of the great glory of God that ends the letter. and asking this morning, are you in awe of the glory of God? I won't ask you to look at the flap of your bulletin this morning, nor am I going to read the entirety here, but the second paragraph is pertinent for us today. Phil Johnson makes this statement, when we consider the glory of God, And especially when we realize how Christ is the very incarnation of that glory, it ought to put all our other passions in proper perspective. It ought to make us ashamed that we are not really passionate about the one thing that ought to excite us the most. Do you stand in awe of the glory of God this morning? Or to use the words of John Piper, is He your all-consuming passion this day? Jude 24. Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of His glory with great joy, to the only God, our Savior, through Jesus Christ, our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion and authority before all time and now and forever. Amen. I've mentioned on a few occasions in different settings over the past few weeks how deeply I've been meditating on the new covenant that God has given, as found in Jeremiah and in Ezekiel. Jeremiah 31, 33 and Ezekiel 36 and following. the wonderful promise that's contained there. Now, there are a number of I wills in both of those reiterations, or if you will, the stipulations of that New Covenant. God on a number of occasions in both Jeremiah and Ezekiel says, I will, I will, I will, I will. But all of those I wills really serve for one purpose, the grand purpose that God acts. And that is found in Jeremiah 31-33, I will be their God and they will be my people. Or reversed in Ezekiel 36-28, you shall be my people and I will be your God. Jude was apparently no stranger to this great promise. Under the inspired guidance of the Holy Spirit, The glorious doxology that we have here contains both the promise and the purpose of the New Covenant. The promise that God would save a people and keep a people for Himself. That He would be their God. That they would be His people. Along with that grand and glorious purpose for Himself. For His own Glory. If you don't hear another word this morning, if you are here this morning professing to know Christ as your Lord and Savior, dear friends, and have even the slightest thought that it's for you, then dear friends, you've missed what being delivered from the almighty wrath of God is all about. He did not deliver us from the kingdom of darkness or the domain of darkness over to the kingdom of light for us. He did not send His Son Jesus Christ to die on the cross of Calvary just for us, but so that His purpose, His goal, that He would be God of a people would be fully satisfied in Him. It's all for His glory and His glory alone. Do we benefit? Absolutely. And we'll consider those benefits in the course of this message. But the purpose, is for His own glory. Everything that exists from the beginning of time to the end of the age exists for the glory of God. And so this morning, I want us to consider this burst of praise and notice that it is ascribed to the God of glory. Earlier, David read from Psalm 29 ascribing glory to God. We are told to glorify God. That is our purpose for existence. To enjoy God and glorify Him forever. But dear friends, in our glorifying Him, we don't add one bit of glory to Him. To glorify God means to agree that God is glory. Ascribe glory to Him, just like the psalmist did in Psalm 29. And here, Jude does the same thing. He ascribes glory to God. In verse 24, to Him who is able. And again in verse 25, to the only God, our Savior. But while the whole doxology is ascribed to God, and rightly so because it is for His glory, and He alone is worthy to receive glory and honor and power, we notice in this is glorified people as well. So we see both aspects of the New Covenant promise in this doxology. They will be my people and I will be their God. First, a glorified people. They will be my people. No, we don't see those exact words in verse 24. But what we do see is a people that are glorified. Jude 24, now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of His glory with great joy. We know that God is able to do all things except sin or anything that would taint His holy character or go against His perfect purpose and will. As a child, and hopefully it was left as a child, but you may have heard the question, can God make or create a mountain or a stone too big for Him to move? It's one of those questions about the character of God. Can God do something that would go against His character? And the answer is no. God is not able to do that. God is able to move all mountains, but He's not able to make a mountain big enough that He cannot move, nor would He need to do so. So He's able to do anything unless it be sin or go against His holy character. But there are some things that only God is able to do. These are glorious words, brethren. God is able. He is able. To Him who is able. He alone has the ability to perform what Jude sets forth in this great burst of praise. has a similar idea in James 4.12 where he wrote, there's only one lawgiver and judge, he who is able both to save and to destroy. God alone is able. And here we see two things that must be attributed to God and God alone for his own glory. He is able to first preserve a people or keep a people for himself. Notice Jude says he is able to keep you. And this refers to God's ability to keep us from stumbling or falling. Stumbling does not refer to occasional sin, but to those who would fall away completely. Again, we've seen this in 2 Peter as well, where Peter said, writing to the brothers, be all the more diligent to confirm your calling and election, for if you practice these qualities, you will never fall on the same idea again. Root word, stumble. It doesn't mean the occasional sin. It means to fall away completely. Apostatize the faith that one never had. John said they went out from us because they were never of us. Remember the context of both Peter and this letter from Jude is these false apostles, these false teachers that had come in who were lost and wanting to cause others to go down that road with them. And so this is reassuring. Jude ends with a burst of praise. of glory. He didn't say, hey, all is gloom and doom, all is darkness. No, we live in a difficult time, he says. We live in a time where people are trying to rob God of His glory and assume the place of Christ in the church and destroy it all together. But he didn't go out with the money cruds. He says, no, I serve a God who is able and all glorious. He will have a people for Himself. when all is said and done. So this is reassuring in the midst of the warning that He gives concerning these ungodly men whose sole purpose of existence was to lead people to stumble, to fall. God's ability to keep us from stumbling was implied at the very beginning of the letter in verse 1, where He says we were kept for Jesus Christ. So how is God able to keep you from stumbling? Well, again, it's through the working out of His own will in the New Covenant. He regenerates us and gives us a new heart. He writes His law on our heart and puts His Spirit within us and causes us to walk in obedience to those laws. Therefore, preserving, keeping a people for Himself. Paul wrote in Philippians 2 that we should work out our own salvation with fear and trembling. We are to work in our sanctification. Last week we noticed that Jude himself said that we are to keep ourselves in the love of God. Same idea. So there's the keeping of God and our responsibility to keep ourselves. But dear friends, we can't keep ourselves apart from the preserving power and glory of God. And that's what Paul writes in Philippians 2, verse 13. He says, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for God works in you. You see. And where does God work in you? He works in you both to will God does the work on your will. And it is God who works in you to work. So your desire, your passion, your will is given by God who works in you. And the work that follows, that you are to work out, is also given by God. So that you work for His. good pleasure. You see, therein lies the problem. Left to ourselves, we would never work for His pleasure, but our own. I was teaching our young people in Sunday school this morning concerning the great commandment to love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength, and your neighbor as yourself. And we talked about what is true love. What is that agape love? And we can't have that love for God or for others unless God changes our hearts. Because the only love that we would have for others is reciprocal. We love others for what we can get, a selfish love. It wouldn't be for God's good pleasure unless God does a work first. So here we see this wonderful promise that God will keep you from stumbling. He works in you both to will and to work for His good pleasure. Why? So that He might have a people for Himself. John Gill wrote these words in his exposition. He said, men have no will naturally to come to Christ or to have Him to reign over them. They have no desire nor hungerings and thirstings after His righteousness and salvation. Wherever there are any such inclinations and desires, they are wrought in man by God, who works upon the stubborn and inflexible will, and without any force to it, makes the soul willing to be saved by Christ first, and to submit to His righteousness, and then to do His will. He sweetly and powerfully draws it with the cords of love to Himself and to His Son, and so influences it by His grace and Spirit, which He continues, that it freely wills everything spiritually good and for the glory of God. He works in them also to do. For there is sometimes in a believer's will, when there wants a power of doing, God therefore both implants in them principles of action to work on them, as faith and love, and a regard for His glory, and gives them grace and strength to work with, without which they can do nothing. But having these can do all things and all this of His good pleasure. God gives us exactly what we need to live in accordance to faith. He is able to keep you, guard you, protect you from falling away. Secondly, not only is there this idea of preservation, but secondly, presentation. Two things that we know. First, He's able to keep you from stumbling and to present you before God. And how is He going to present you? Blameless before the presence of His glory with great joy. Here we see described the nature of our glorified bodies. Those bodies that will be fit to be in the presence of God who is holy and able to withstand the fullness of His glory. That, again, is the purpose of the New Covenant as expressed here, being presented before God blameless. The Apostle Paul expressed it this way in both Ephesians 5 and in Colossians 1. In the context of the marriage, words that we know, husbands, love your wives as Christ loved the church and gave Himself up for her, that He might sanctify her. What was the purpose that Christ loved the church and gave Himself up for her? That He might sanctify the church, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the Word. For what purpose? Ephesians 5.27. That He might present the church to Himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing that she might be holy and without blemish. That is the work of Christ. That is the love of Christ for His Bride. More succinctly, in Colossians 1, which by the way, read Colossians 1 this week, men, in lieu of the Bible study that we'll be beginning, one of the greatest bursts of the mediatorial and the preeminent work of Christ is found in Colossians 1. And there we see in Colossians 1.22, Christ has now reconciled in His body of flesh by His death in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before Him. In His body. And again, how is God able to present you blameless before the presence of His glory? Through the working out of the New Covenant. The Apostle Paul writes this in Ephesians 1.13, In Him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in Him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit. What is the promise in Ezekiel, in the New Covenant? I will put my Spirit within them, and I will cause them to walk according to my statutes and to obey my laws. Ephesians 1.14, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it to the praise of His glory. The workings of the New Covenant, the Word put in us, the Spirit put in us, and the joyful obedience that God causes. We who will be presented on that day are promised further to be presented with great joy. With great joy. Dear friends, we don't have to wait for that joy. That joy is yours today in Christ Jesus. The Apostle Paul said, Rejoice! Rejoice in the Lord always! Today I say, Rejoice! He doesn't say wait until Jesus comes again. And he doesn't say that joy is necessarily only in the context of comfort. But our joy is always to be in Christ. Tom Schreiner remarks, believers experience joy, and their joy brings honor to God as their patron and protector on the last day. And again, will this preparation, this preserving us for the joy that awaits us in all of its fullness, as glorious people, always be the road of comfort? The answer is no. We read in Hebrews 12 too, that we're to look to Jesus, who's the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him, ran away from the soldiers so that He wouldn't get arrested, ran away from the cross so they didn't have to have the nails driven through His hands. No. That would have been the way of comfort. Looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him, endured The cross. The shame despised and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. Peter picks up on this in our own lives as believers. In 1 Peter 4.13, he says, Rejoice insofar as you share Christ's sufferings. Dear friends, the world doesn't understand this. The world would say, run from being arrested. The world's guidance to Jesus on that day would have been, run! The cross awaits. The most brutal way of death known to man is just over that hill. You can avoid it if you just run. Because God doesn't want us to be uncomfortable, you see, would be the way the world describes joy. Joy and discomfort, joy and suffering, are antithetical in the minds of an unbeliever, but not a believer, who understands with Christ, who understands with Peter, that rejoicing is in Christ's sufferings. So that Peter says, you may also rejoice and be glad when His glory is revealed. Remember Jesus' prayer in John 17, the Lord's Prayer, the High Priestly Prayer? In John 17, verse 24, hear these words of request from the Son to the Father for us. He says, Father, I desire that they also, whom You have given Me, may be with Me where I am, to see My glory that You have given Me, because You love Me before the foundation of the world. That is Christ's prayer for the people of God. That we, who are those people, would be where He is. Not just in glory, but full of glory. With bodies made perfect to withstand the full force of the light of the glory of God. Dear friends, we only have a glimpse of that today. But there's a second part of this. Not just a glorious people, they will be my people. We see in verse 25, a glorious God. I will be their God. Jude 25, again, this glory is ascribed to the only God. That testifies to the uniqueness of the one true and living God over against the polytheistic mindset of the world around them. Many gods exist would be the view of the Gentiles. No, He is the only God. And there has not been, is not now, or will ever be any others. God is God alone. There are two things to consider in this glorious God and what He has done for us in verse 25. We read, the only God, our Savior through Jesus Christ our Lord. The first great aspect, the glorious outworking that I will be their God, is first His redemption and His reconciliation. Yes, all bottled up in that phrase, our Savior through Jesus Christ our Lord. Jude refers to God as Savior. God our Savior. He is our Savior. He is our Deliverer through Jesus Christ. Herein lies the result of God's working out the New Covenant. The glorious people of God are those who are the called, the redeemed. Those who have been bought with a price. That price being the precious blood of Christ. John 3.17, For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through Him. Salvation is through Christ alone. God is Savior through that Son whom He sent to be the perfect sacrifice, substitute, satisfaction for Him. I just want us to consider some verses in God's Word concerning our glorious redemption. Colossians 1.11, again, read Colossians 1. May you be strengthened with all power according to His glorious might for all endurance and patience with joy, giving thanks to the Father who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in light. He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son. in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. That is, dear friends, the working out of God being God for His people. Their redemption. The price that was paid in His Son through Jesus Christ so that we might have forgiveness for our sins. And then reconciliation. 2 Corinthians 5.18 All this is from God who through Christ reconciled us to Himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation. You see, it is through Christ, God our Savior, that we are reconciled to God. Enemies are made lovers. God was our enemy. We were His enemy. The moment we receive Christ as Lord and Savior in Him through Jesus Christ, enemies are reconciled. Never again to be enemies. Colossians 1.19, for in Him, that being Christ, all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell. Obviously, that's a testimony to the deity. And through Him, that being Christ, to reconcile to Himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of the cross. I love the words We read in 1 Timothy 2.5, there is one God. Does that echo what Jude closes with? One God. And there is one mediator between God and man. The man. Christ Jesus. He came to earth incarnate. Born of a virgin. Became man and will forever be man. The man. It is that man who sits today at the right hand of God, interceding for the saints. We read, the man, Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all, which is the testimony given at the proper time. And so here is this great burst of praise to the only God, focusing on Him as Savior through Jesus Christ in our redemption, in our reconciliation, I will be their God. God did all that was necessary so that there could be a people of God in His Son, Jesus Christ. Then in these words of what we consider to be this burst of praise, we see not just His redemption and reconciliation, but notice His reign. To God, the only God, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority. If you have the sermon notes, I've given the definitions that Edmund Hebert gives in his commentary on this text, and I invite you to look at those and to read them in what they mean, what they express. But taken in totality of this phrase, there's a regal or a royal aspect to these words. Glory, majesty, dominion. authority. It's His rule and His reign along the sphere and how far this rule and reign takes place. So, we see, we know that in general, God rules and reigns over all of His creation. As a matter of fact, it's interesting the word reign is the heart of sovereignty. His reign. He rules over all of His creation. There's nothing that escapes the almighty power and wisdom of our great God. But in particular, we know His rule and reign in the hearts of His people. In the hearts of those where He put the law. In the hearts of those where He put His Spirit. In the very heart that He gave them. He rules and reigns in the hearts of those who are His people. I will be their God means that if you are His, you reflect His glory. I will be their God means that if you are His, you declare His majesty. I will be their God means that if you are His, He has dominion over everything in your life. I will be their God, and if you are His, it means that His authority is over you and you joyfully submit to His authority. Again, when we consider the words that we read in the bulletin earlier from Philip Johnson concerning our passions. Is He ruling over your passions today? Is He ruling over your desire and your will today? Yes, we may fall short. And yes, as we've seen, there will be times when the believer's will does not line up with the will of God. If we are truly His child, He disciplines in His love and His mercy. He doesn't chastise us in His wrath. And He turns us back to Him. A gentle Father for His people. I will be their God. and they will be my people. To Him who is able to keep you from stumbling, to present you blameless before the presence of His glory with great joy. To the only God our Savior through Jesus Christ our Lord, the glory, majesty, dominion and authority for all eternity, before all time and now and forever. Worthy are You, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power. For You have created all things and by Your will they existed. Father, may we stand in awe of Your glory. May we long for that day, whether it be by death or by Your return, where we spend all eternity in Your presence. with those bodies fit to worship You forever. Blameless because of Your holiness. There can be no spot, no wrinkle, no taint of sin, but also glorified. Able to stand in the presence of Your glory forever and ever. We don't know a lot of what heaven will be like, but Father, that we know. and that we long for. In the name of Christ, who is the one who paved that way through Him, who is also our Savior. And in the name of the Holy Spirit, who gave us that new heart, we pray these things today. Amen.