Okay, now it is, thank you. Okay, page 22. We are looking at the doxology, but finally we got to the doxology in Jude, and as we are looking at that, so you guys can see. We need to ask, where are we and what's going on? Jude has just finished with these four imperatives, right, in verse 17 and following. But you, beloved, remember the words that were spoken to you by the Apostles. You, beloved, then the second imperative, keep yourselves in the love of God, and then have compassion with distinction. And finally, save with fear. So, we have these four imperatives. Here's finally what are we supposed to do. And I want Jude now transitions to this doxology at the end. There's no benediction, which is interesting, at the end, which is pretty typical in the epistles. Not always, and we're gonna look at another exception. But there is this doxology. But before we do that, let's draw some principles from the section here with the imperatives. As we are in the words of Jude, we're contending for the faith. And so when we have that remember, And then we have keep yourself in the love of God. What was the third one again? The fourth was save, right? Save some, what was the third one? Have compassion, okay? My question is, what does this mean for us? You know, how are we as God's people, given the situations where we're dealing with people that are false teachers, how are we supposed to do these kinds of things? So I want us to discuss a little bit about that. We have these imperatives from God. What does that mean, imperatives from God? That means here's something God tells us to do, right? Okay. Have compassion is sort of like an attitudinal thing. Remember is something to think about. But basically there are things God tells us what to do. Now what does this mean here in the church? Because these are people that were in the church that were teaching this false doctrine. What are we as God's people supposed to do? Contend for the faith without being contentious. Here's the contending without being contentious. Now, for some of us, it's a little more natural to do it without being contentious. Some of us, it's not so natural, right? Okay? Some of us are more like Paul told. You remember the difference we looked in 2 Timothy, right? In 2 Timothy 2, it was Paul says, you know, be gentle with people, right? Okay. And what was the one in Titus? Rebuke sharply. Remember that? Okay. Now, I have this opinion, sharp, S-H-A-R-P, sharply, is that right? Okay. I have this opinion that whichever one of these two you tend to be, you're going to find out as your life verse, okay? If you're the gentle kind of person, you're going to do the gentle. If you're the rebuke sharply kind of person, you know, there's the one you're going to focus on, right? You agree? I'm not seeing an agreement or disagreement, okay? These are how we deal with people that have false doctrine or misbehave in the church. This is how we deal with these people that are propagating false doctrine. What does that mean we do? Here's what I'm trying to do. I don't want us to have just an academic class. Get my point? Academics is good. I'm very pro-academics. The problem with some of the things is we're just academics. And we never go into how do I live my life kind of issues. You all done that? You all been to investment classes and then done nothing? You know, three months, six months, a year later, done nothing? Okay. And we're really good academically when it understands our, you know, our finance theories and things like that. What do we do? How do we as God's people do these things? Okay, how are you going to remember? Remember what the apostles told us? Remember? The point here was be aware. That's why we handed out the spreadsheets. I mean, not spreadsheets. I'm sorry. The URLs with the different websites. Have you looked at some of those? I've looked at some of those. Very interesting, some of them. Okay? So go there. Get on some regular, you know, an email. Maybe you want to get some email where somebody sends you a weekly email with a link to an interesting article. Here's something. Yeah. Was this the updated list? Did that go out? Yes. Oh, did I send the updated list out? I don't know if I sent the updated one out. Okay, Diane, can you write me a note? Yeah, I did hard copies, right? Okay, I'll try to, I'll give it to Dee and ask Dee to email the updated list to the church. Okay, thank you. Okay, so start going to some of, some of those are really interesting. If we believe in the concept that ideas have consequences, okay? Is that a book? Oh, I just heard the phrase over and over and over. Ideas have consequences. Where do we begin? We begin with ideas, okay? And we wanna make sure our thinking is good, and we wanna help other people to think well. Okay, so that's the remember. Keep yourself in the love of God. Now, how are you gonna do that? Pray and read the Bible. Pray and read the Bible, very good. Meat and potatoes kind of stuff, right? Pray and read the Bible. That's good to do. Do what Ray does. He goes for a walk and he's listening to sermons or things like that, okay? Somebody reading him the Bible. Things like that, okay? How about this have compassion with insight or diligence? Not diligence, it was, what was Jews tomb was like? Making a distinction. That one is a suggestion, not a command. That's a suggestion? Yeah. Oh, okay. This compassion stuff? Yeah, so one, two, and four are okay. No compassion? Okay. It's overrated. It's overrated? Do you remember where the term no compassion is in the Bible? Okay, well, lo ru huma, lo means not my people. Lo ru huma. Who was the no compassion? Who was named no compassion? One of the children of Hosea, right? And then God says, I'm not going to have compassion on you. And later on in the passage God says, now there's a people that I didn't have compassion on and I'm going to have compassion on them. Who are those people? You and me, the Gentiles, Romans chapter 9 at the end, okay? We're the ones that God now has compassion on, okay? So here's the point. Because God had compassion on us, we should have compassion on other people. Isn't that the idea? There's your imperative, your indicative that drives the imperative. Because God had a compassion on us, we should have compassion, okay? And save others from out of the fire. What does that mean? Yeah, talk to people. We know that God ultimately saves people, right? We're not surprised by that. Okay, but God uses us. Okay. I want us to do some more thinking because when we finish the book, which I think will be next week, may not, might be the week after. Don't think it will be today. When we finish the book, I want us to ask some questions. You're laughing. I want us to ask some questions about what does this book mean? How are we trying to deal with things here? How are we, you know, personally? We need to do rigorous academic study of the scriptures, but we need to then carry it to the next step. Okay, now how do I live that in my life? Okay, so that's where we want to go in our thinking. Well, let's now look at the new section, this doxology, 24 and 25. Now, to him who is able to keep you from stumbling, And to present yourself faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy. Now, I'm going to read the New King James. If you've got an ESV, your reading will be much different. And the ESV is correct. Okay? Okay. To God, our Savior, who alone is wise, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and forever. Amen. Now, the ESV says something like, and to the only God, our Savior. Okay. through our Lord Jesus Christ, be glory, I'm sorry, be glory, majesty, dominion, and power. Okay, yeah, and the better manuscripts tend to be that way. Remember, the new King James follows the Textus Receptus. You all remember what the Textus Receptus is? No? I don't see yeses or nos. I see blank faces. I guess that means no. T-E-X-T-U-S. Recept. Receptus. It might be I-S. I'm not sure. Probably U-S. Receptus. Okay. Another term for it is the received text. This is the Greek that was behind the King James. Okay. Done by a man named Erasmus in the early 1500s. Okay. Since then, a lot more manuscripts have been discovered. Okay, and so there's some differences. Nothing, you know, earth-shaking, but some minor differences. And the New King James uses the Textus Receptus because it's a New King James. So it went back to the Textus Receptus and translated from there. Okay, so let's now start looking at the structure. Notice the parts here in the doxology. What would we expect? We expect some sort of benediction. There is no benediction in the book. Okay? Isn't the typical structure of an epistle where you have a benediction at the end, calling down God's blessing? Well, we have a structure now to him, so there's talking about to God, And then we have these statements about God, who is able to keep you from stumbling, to resent you faultless, before his presence of his glory and exceeding joy, to God our Savior, et cetera. We have these statements about God. So we have some descriptive statements about God. So we have the statement that it begins with, now to him, so we have to him, And then we have these descriptive statements, be the God who does these things for us, and then finally the statement, be glory and honor, et cetera. That's the structure, one, two, three parts. Now, let's go back to Romans chapter 16. What should be at the end of all Pauline epistles? Bendiction, right? I mean, we've read enough Paul in our life, right? So let's go to the very end of Romans. Okay, verse 25. So, now to him who is able to establish you according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery kept secret since the world began, but now made manifest and by the prophetic scriptures made known to all nations according to the commandment of the everlasting God for obedience to the faith to God alone wise, to God alone wise be glory through Jesus Christ forever, amen. Where's the benediction? That's a doxology, right? To God alone be this credit. To God alone be glory. Remember what's a doxology? Etymologically the term means word of glory. That's why we sing one at the end of church. We sing some song that's a praise towards God. Where's the benediction? Do any of you have a New King James Study Bible like I have? Okay. What does it say just above the section in the translators? It says benediction. It's not a benediction. Okay. I don't know if the ESV Study Bibles have the same. Where's the benediction? Exactly, right at the end of 15. Last verse, now the God of peace be with you all, amen. There's the benediction. Paul still got a whole nother chapter, right? Now I come into you Phoebe and greet this person and greet this person, et cetera, et cetera. And then finally there's the doxology at the end. So Paul has an ending similar to Jude, but he's got the benediction earlier. Jude does not have a benediction. So my question now is, why? Why is there no benediction in Jude? Anywhere. What? Now if you're having a hard time, that's good. Because you see, there's no information telling us why. Y'all ever heard what's called an argument from silence? What is an argument from silence? It means that somebody is presenting something as if it were true based on something which there is nothing to base it on. There's silence. So if you want to come up with a reason why Jude doesn't have a benediction, your guess is as good as mine. We all got a guess. Right? But it's not there. And Jude doesn't tell us why it's not there. Be very careful making arguments from silence. We do it all the time. We hear them all the time. Be careful. They're not valid arguments. They're not real strong, are they? Because there's no data behind that conclusion. So be careful. So when somebody says, well, that's an argument from silence, listen up. So why is there? I don't know. I'll tell you what I think. Okay, this is called speculation. And that is, what has Jude been talking about? There's all these false teachers in the church. I want you to contend with the false teachers. Now look at what God is like. He will take care of you. That's what the doxology says. Basically it says the God who can keep you from stumbling. That's the first attribute of God. He'll keep you from stumbling. God will take care of you in the middle of all of this. So I think that's what's going on. Here you go, Robin. Everybody has one, has a handout? So you see there, we have this doxology. Now let's start and let's look at the content of the doxology. Now to him, here's this description of God who is able Now, notice, okay, here's our grammar lesson. In the past, we talked about imperatives and we talked about participles, okay? We're talking about another part of a verb. We're talking about infinitives. What's an infinitive? Yeah, the verb with the word to in front of it, right? To walk, right? To sleep. Run, talk, be, whatever. It's sort of looking at the concept of the verb in the abstract. So that's the idea of an infinitive. Did you know there's a term in grammar called finite verbs? What's a finite verb? It's the form of the verb that's not the infinitive. Seriously, participles, by the way, are not considered finite verbs. It's a form of the verb that's not considered a finite. So if I would take a sentence and I would say, Edgar walks daily. That's a finite verb, walks. That's a finite verb. So here we have, now to him who is able, where are the infinitives? God who is able, so God who is able, then there's gonna be two infinitives, and we need to understand our grammar here to understand what's going on. Okay, so what are they? To keep, God is able to keep, and what's the other one? to present. Right? Do any of you have a translation different than you have to make? Make you stand. Ah, very good. This is going to be important. The Greek word is to stand, or to make you stand. And we're going to see in a minute why that's important. Most translations I've seen have God was able to present you. And the idea is presenting you in front of God. See, so you're standing in front of God and God is making you stand in front of him and so it's sort of presenting you. Picture in a royal court and there's the king, those kinds of things. But we'll see why to stand is really a very, is a better translation why it's important. So God who was able, now I have a term here, the Greek word is dynamos. Y'all think of any English words that come from that? Dynamite, what's it dynamic? What was that? Yeah, dynamic. What's a dynamo? It's a source of energy The generator is part of the generator generates energy right dynamo, okay now Okay, so a quick lesson in hermeneutics Okay, this is the classic one, I've mentioned this, but here we are, we're running with the Greek term dynamos, okay? God who is able, okay? What is the lesson of hermeneutics that I've talked to you about this before? Right, so we have the English term, okay? So, so we have the Greek term dynamos, One of the words that comes from that, dunamis, is dynamite. Okay, so how do you spell it? Is that D-I-N-A-M-I-T-E? Okay, dynamite. Okay, right. Okay, dynamite, that's right. Okay, dynamic. Okay, so, what did you say? I was dating myself for a TV show that was on. Now, y'all have heard these, right? This is the word for the Holy Spirit's power. And what do we know about dynamite? It's explosive! And the Holy Spirit's power is explosive! Now, I don't know what that means. I don't know what it means in English. How can the Holy Spirit's power be explosive? When's the last time one of you blew up physically? Because you have the Holy Spirit in you. None of you have blown up. People do that and they're so smug with what great theologians and how erudite they are. And here I am being smug against them. Anyway, don't read the English back into the Greek. Never do that. My favorite example, people doing that is Paul in Ephesians chapter 5 says, wives be submissive to your own husband. Here's the Greek. This is the word for your own husband, for your own. What word do you get from that in English? Idiot, this is not saying be submissive to your idiot husband. Now I know sometimes that thought has crossed your mind. Okay, right? Okay. No? All the time. Be submissive to your all the times idiot husband. Okay. You see, you see how bad that is as a way to study God's word? Okay? You know what the English word comes from? Now, why do we, why do we, seriously, you know why the term idiot word comes from? There's a level of mental retardation where the person is so low that they are just involved in themselves. And the technical. Yeah, that's right. It's no longer. Yes, yes. Used to be, okay, back when I was in school. In the 50s, in the 60s, that term was an idiot, and that was not the pejorative term that it is today, okay? Right, okay? Profound? Profound, that's the acceptable one? Okay. Well, anyway, you get the point, right? Do not, do not misuse God's word that way. So, let's go. Now, God who is able, okay? Now, there are, I was going to have us look at a few occurrences of dunamis, the word for power or ability. You know, it's just, it's used very simply. You have the ability to do something, you don't have the ability to do something. There's nothing explosive in the term in the Greek. Do not read English back in the Greek. Yeah, Troy. Well, they're interesting. My point is that it's a bad process to go from the derivative back to the original, the derivative language and how we use the term. So we don't want to use that as a process. And it's, yeah, I find it interesting and I do that once in a while too, right? Okay. Okay, now him who is able to what? To keep you from stumbling. That's the first thing that God is able to do. So to keep you from stumbling. Now the word keep has different nuances in English as well as in Greek. And you see that we have a few here. Let's take a look at some of these references. Let's look at Romans chapter 2. Verse 25, get a little context. For circumcision is indeed profitable, Romans 2.25, if you keep the law. But if you are a breaker of the law, your circumcision has become uncircumcision. Therefore an uncircumcised man keeps the righteous requirements of the law, will not his uncircumcision be counted as circumcision? Now what does the word keep there mean in that context? To obey, yeah. So one of the meanings is to obey. to keep the law, to obey the law. And we use that, and it's the same Greek word as the one that we're looking at here in Jude. And we use it all the time in that sense. Let's go to 1 Timothy 5, 21. Okay. I charge you before God and the Lord Jesus Christ and the elect angels that you observe these things without prejudice and doing nothing with partiality. Now that's the new King James. Do any of you have a different translation? That you what? Maintain. Anything else? Observe. Okay. It's the same word keep in the Greek. Okay. So you see again, it's the idea of observing, doing, obeying. Okay. These things that I tell you to do. Now let's look at Compare those two with 2 Thessalonians 3.3. So I'll go back a few pages to 2 Thessalonians 3. Now the Lord is faithful who will establish you and guard you from the evil one. And we have confidence in the Lord concerning you. Now that guard you from the evil one, do any of you have a different translation? Protect. That's another meaning, same word, to keep. So it can mean to protect or to guard. We use that in English all the time. What's the guy called who works at the zoo who protects the animals? Zookeeper, right? What's the guy in the soccer team and the hockey team and everything else called who protects the goal? He's the goalkeeper, right? So we see that the term, and it's all the same Greek word in all of these, so it has the same meaning. And we see, we go over a couple pages to 1 Timothy 6, verse 20. Oh, Timothy, guard what has been committed to your trust, avoiding the profane and idle babblings and contradictions of what is falsely called knowledge. Guard what has been committed to you. Keep what has been committed to you. So we have the idea of protecting or guarding. Over in England, they have an area in the castles that we would call a dungeon. over there, they call it the keep. Okay? Yeah, and you would keep the people there, right? Okay? So, you see, there's a word used a couple ways. We use the same word, English, you know, the word to keep, right? Different ways. Well, the Greek term is used. These all have the same Greek term, all used in these different ways. So, let's go back now to Jude and say, what is Jude using here? Now, to him who is able to keep you from stumbling, Okay? What is he doing? Is he obeying? No, God is protecting you or guarding you from stumbling. That's the idea here. Now when we look at the word to stumble here, then we say, well, what does that mean? Well, it's an interesting term. It's used here, the form of it here is unique. It's the word to stumble. And it's got the negating particle in front of it. What's the negating particle in Greek? You all know. The letter A. Like a theist is somebody who believes in God. Somebody who doesn't believe in God is an atheist. Somebody who knows is a gnostic. Somebody who doesn't know is an agnostic. There's the word gnostic, to know, with the letter A in front of it. So the word is just the word to stumble with the letter A in front of it. The only time it's used in the New Testament. But the word to stumble, just the regular word to stumble, is used four times in the New Testament. Here's your references. And every time it's used in the New Testament, it's used metaphorically. What do I mean by metaphorically? It's never used as a guy walking down the street or the sidewalk and he trips and falls. Never used that way, okay? But if we look at some of these, they tend to have moral implications or things like that. So 2 Peter 1.10, therefore brethren, be all the more diligent to make your call on election sure, for if you do these things, you will never stumble. That's not somebody walking down and tripping over a rock in the sidewalk or something like that. But it's talking about a moral lapse, misbehavior. So that's the same idea that Jude has. And there's your references for the other one. So what does it mean here now, especially in the context of defending the faith? Remember, this whole context is contending for the faith. God is able to keep you from stumbling. What does that mean? I think so. Sinning falling away. Yeah, Troy No because because Now it may be a cognate that one I didn't look up I don't know I have a book out in the car Yeah, I didn't bring it with me that has the different cognates. We can take a look at that afterwards Okay, and we can just we can see if it's a different one. I don't know Okay Well, what's it talking about here with us? Is to keep you from not behaving the way we should, and perhaps, you know, can we use the language getting tripped up? Metaphorically, right? Getting tripped up in the middle of our contending for the faith. God is able to keep us from getting tripped up. I think we can use that, don't you think? So, God is able to keep us from stumbling, to keep us from getting tripped up, and to present you faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy. Now, I want to show you why the word to stand is important. Because the Greek term here is to cause you to stand in front of Him, in the presence of His glory, faultless, Now, that's a question we're gonna think about in a minute. How can you stand faultless in front of God, okay? And then notice he's gonna do it with joy. But do you see why the word stand is important? Because what have you just done? Keeps you from stumbling, falling on your face, and now you stand. So you see the whole posture issue that's going on. Okay, and that's what God does. God will keep you from stumbling, and God will cause you to stand. And the term there is very clear. It doesn't mean God commands you to stand. What are we gonna do when we see God? We're gonna fall on our face? And it isn't that God says stand up and then we stand up. That's not the term at all. It's that we fall on our face and God stands us up. It's like when a kid falls down and you pick him up and you dust him off and you pick him up there and you stand up and you say, okay, it's okay, you're fine. And you stand the child up. That's what God's gonna do for us. Now, when is this gonna take place that God's gonna stand us up in the presence of his glory, in the face of his glory? I think the second coming. I think this is second coming language. Now, do you remember the statement in the book of Revelation? What are people gonna cry out when Christ comes again? Are they gonna stand? No, they're gonna cry out for the mountains to fall on top of them. Now picture the posture. It says in there, and we need to look at that passage, and you have your reference there, okay, down in Revelation 6. Look at what's going on posture-wise to people. Revelation chapter 6. Okay, and let's begin. This is with the different seals. So this is the sixth seal, verse 12. I looked when he opened the sixth seal and behold there was a great earthquake and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair and the moon became like blood and the stars of heaven fell to the earth as a fig tree drops its late figs when it is shaken by a mighty wind. Then the sky receded as a scroll when it is rolled up, and every mountain and island has moved out of its place. And the kings of the heaven and earth, the great men, the rich men, the commanders, the mighty men, every slave, every free man, hid themselves in the caves. So you have the rich and powerful, and you have the not so rich and the not so powerful, and then the middle class, the free men. And what did they do? They run into the caves, and the rocks, and they say to the mountains and the rocks, fall on us and hide us from the face of him who sits on the throne from the wrath of God, wrath of the Lamb. Is that right, wrath of the Lamb? Any of you ever raised sheep? We have raised sheep. You know what, I was not real afraid of the sheep. I was more afraid of my dog than the sheep, and she was my dog. Okay, and this isn't even a sheep, this is a baby sheep, this is a lamb. Do you see the irony that John has there? Watch out for the wrath of the lamb. These people are calling on the mountains to cover them up, they're in the caves. Then now, notice how this ties back to Jude, look at the next sentence. For the great day of his wrath has come, and who is able to stand? The Lord comes, who is able to stand? The point is, nobody is able to stand. And what does God do to his people? He picks them up and stands them up. And you see why the translation to stand is so important. That's what God is doing. And if you want to look at the other references where this idea is coming. Luke 23, 29 is the same idea, calling the mountains, asking the mountains to call on top of you. And Hosea chapter 10 is the Old Testament reference of that. And the interesting thing is these people are worshiping false gods back in Hosea. And God says, you're going to ask for the mountains to call to cover you up. You're going to be so afraid when I come in my judgment. So that's what we're reading here in Jude. To the God who is able to cause you to stand faultless. Now, you know what? You're nice folk, but you're not faultless. And I don't see you like God sees you. And God knows that you're not faultless. So how is God gonna cause you to stand in front of him and sit, notice it doesn't say, in the presence of his glory, faultless? How is he gonna do it? God needs to go to the optometrist and get his eyes checked? No, God's eyesight is perfect, right? So how's God gonna do that? What's that called? Okay, imputation of what? Christ's righteousness, yes. Okay, so in other words, when God sees you, he sees Christ, right? Okay, biblically, that's justification. Justification. Which, remember, the second half of justification is justification. Thank you, okay? The second half of justification is the imputation of Christ's righteousness, right? Okay? Now, so when God sees you, he sees Christ. You know, I look out here, and when you look around, you know what? I see your shirt and your clothes and your pants and all that. And by the way, Christ's righteousness, what is the parallel analogy? You are clothed in the righteousness of Christ. See the same parallel is brought? So that's what Judah's saying. God is able to present you, or to cause you to stand, faultless, only because of Christ, he sees the rescue, but for the presence of his glory, there you are in the courtroom, everybody's falling on their face, they're asking for the mountains to cover them up, who is able to stand? Who is able to stand? Nobody, God causes you to stand up. And then notice the very end. What does it say? Okay, here's where we're going next week. With exceeding joy, is God going to be happy at the Judgment Day because of you? That seems to be what it's saying, but because of what Christ has done for you, right? Now, here's the point. Notice the reference here at the very last at the bottom. Does God have joy? What is Westminster Confession of Faith, Chapter 2, Paragraph 1 about? Well, what's Chapter 2 about? Chapter 1 is about the doctrine of Scripture. Chapter 2 is about the doctrine of God. And there's a statement in there about God is without passions. Okay? And what does that mean for God to be without passions? A lot of people want to say God has no emotions. There's some scripture talking about God and emotions. Grieving the Holy Spirit, Christ overlooking Jerusalem. Jesus weeping at the tomb of Lazarus. There's some scripture that talks about how does that relate? What are those Puritans back in the 1640s who knew their Bible a whole lot better than we do, let's admit it. What do they mean when they say God is without passions? And I want you to ask the question, is it godly for you to have passions? Emotions, joy. When Paul says in 1 Thessalonians chapter 4 about people who have died, do you remember that statement? I want you not to grieve like those who have no hope. Apparently it's okay to grieve at the death of somebody, spouse, friend, or whatever, but you just don't grieve like somebody who has no hope. Grieving is an emotion. If Paul wants it that, that's part of the general definition of what does it mean to be godly? What does it mean to be godly, the term? It means be like God. Think like God, behave like God, you know, everything like God. What does it mean when it says God has no passions? Think about that. Particularly that, I hope this does to you what it did to me. When I was thinking about this, I said, how could God have joy over me? at the judgment day. Think about your sin and say, that's the question that hit me. That's what it says, exceeding joy. How could God have joy over me on the judgment day? I was overwhelmed. Let's pray. Father, we thank you that we have such a great God and that you are able to make us stand before you and you do take care of us. And Lord, we pray that you would be glorified by us. There we are. It tells us here, Lord, that you will have joy because of us, because of what Christ has done for us and to us. And we pray, our God, that we would thus, like it says here, that you would keep us from stumbling and you would cause us to stand in that great judgment day. In Jesus' name, amen.