Well, Pastor McNerney was kind enough, I asked if we could sing to God be the glory, because our passage this morning is in the book of Jude, in Jude 24 and 25, and he obliged. What I didn't know is he was also going to include one of my favorite hymns, and it's a fitting month to have that hymn, and when Martin Luther wrote A Mighty Fortress is Our God, he did write it after Psalm 46 verses 1 through 3 and he wrote in there just in that incredible word that one little word will fell seat and That little word is liar and an incredible credible reminder that our God tells the truth. He is a God of truth and And we do not have to be concerned. We do not have to fear. Him who has been a liar, is a liar, is the accuser of the brethren, but rather we can have great confidence in our God. And then to saying, he will hold me fast. Covering the gamut of God's great hold of the people that he has brought to himself. The people that he has saved through the shedding of the blood of Christ. Those who have put their faith and trust in him. Jude speaks clearly of the coming day when we will be before him, before his glory with great joy. And he even tells us how that's going to come about. He tells us what God is able to do. And so as we read already in the scripture reading 17 through 25, if you have turned to Jude, we'll be in Jude 24 and 25. the doxology, the closing ascribing of glory to our great God. And before we go there, let us pray. Father, we are grateful for the time when we get to come, we get to look at your word. And Lord, I ask that you would use this in our hearts and lives, that if there are any in this room who have not put their faith and trust in you, that Lord, you would save them this morning. That Father, for those who are believers, that they would find great hope and confidence through your word, and that we would remember that we have nothing to fear, but we have all reason to trust in you. Lord, encourage us. Do be with those who are not able to gather, but are elsewhere. Encourage their hearts as well, Lord. Let us not only pray for them, but share with them your great word. We pray these things in Jesus' name, amen. I am Justin Gorton. I recognize it's a helpful, beneficial thing to know a little bit about who's standing before you. I am the newest permanent associate pastor at Church of the Open Door. We currently have six pastors on staff, and that sounds just incredibly overwhelming to me, and I imagine to you as well, but not all six of us are gonna stay. I will stay, Pastor Huber will stay, and Pastor Efta will stay. We're gonna quickly, as quick as we can, send the other pastors away. Two of them will be church planners, one internationally, one in an hour or so, within an hour of Church of the Open Door in Leavenworth. And then one of them is a pastoral intern, a missionary intern from Hungary. And so I share the office with one of those guys, and it's been nice to have somebody in the office and bring camaraderie, shoot rubber bands at each other, but also to remind each other of the great glories of God. to sharpen one another and how can we build one another up to pastor a church, to care for people, to answer questions. It's been a real blessing. The book of Jude, if you're not familiar with it, was written according to verse one by Jude, a servant of Jesus Christ. He is the brother of James. If you know who James is, James and Jude are half brothers of Jesus, the children of Mary. But he says he is a servant of Jesus, and he highlights his brother James. He's not looking for his own glory. He's not looking for his own esteem. But as we see in Jude 24 and 25, he gives all glory to God. This morning, as we look at Jude 20, 24, and 25, the title of my message is, To God Be the Glory. And the point of my message, if you want to follow along that way, is first of all, to whom are we to ascribe glory? And we'll be looking at, who are we to give glory to? Secondly, we'll be looking at, what are we to ascribe to our triune God? Looking at the specifics of what does that mean? What is the application of that? What does Jude say? And then the third point is when should he receive this ascription? Another way we could ask that is when should we, but we recognize even as Jude will state, we have not been able to do this as long as our God will receive all of the glory, majesty, dominion, and authority that belong to him. So first of all, as we come into the single chapter book, Oh, it might be a little strange to you that we're beginning at the very end. I haven't had the privilege here of preaching through the book of Jude. But these verses, the close of Jude, encourage us in how we are to live our lives from here until all of eternity. And Jude writes in Jude chapter 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. First of all, to God be the glory. To whom are we to ascribe glory? We are to ascribe glory, we are to give glory, to write, say, speak and live glory to our God who is able to keep us from stumbling. As we see in Jude chapter 24, to him who is able to keep you from stumbling. Notice that it is not that he is able to refrain from stumbling, because He is the Holy God from all eternity past who has never failed. He is God who has taken on flesh, who has given His life for us, and He was tested in all ways that we were, Jesus was, and He did not sin. He is God the Holy Spirit who is able to indwell sinful man and not be tainted by sin. The God who deserves glory does not struggle. He is not tempted by in the sense that we are where we are tempted and we fail. He does not fail. He remains pure, holy and perfect. We are encouraged this morning. We sang this morning and now we see this morning that believers, we are to give glory to the one who is able to keep us from stumbling. You come here this morning, you gather together with the people of God, those who hopefully are helping you to do this, for fathers to be great fathers in light of the word of God, for mothers to be great mothers in light of the word of God. Not perfect, we have already sinned, and that's why we needed a savior. We have already thought, said, and done things that dishonor God, and that's why we must believe in the Lord Jesus Christ in order to be saved. But for those who have placed their faith and trust in Christ, they don't have to live in sin. I don't have to give in to my sinful desires, but I don't do that perfectly, and I suspect you don't either. I don't have to walk in unrighteousness. I am able to trust in the one who is able to uphold even my toes from hitting the proverbial nightstand of sin." In fact, we read about this, and you can make a note to look up 1 Corinthians 10, verse 13 at another time. I had a professor in college who called that the escape hatch verse. Out of a submarine, there's one way in and out, and it's the way to get in and out is through a hole. For us who are believers in Christ, our escape hatch is Jesus Christ. He makes us an escape from sin. He is able to get us out of sin and not allow us to stumble. I don't know how you're doing with that today, this past week, this past month and this past year, but you might've noticed we're already in October of 2023. It's going very fast. The mercies of God are new tomorrow morning. If 2023 has been a year of struggle for you, of giving in to the dangers, lures, and enticements of sin, God is able to keep your toes from stubbling, even today and tomorrow and the rest of 2023. How does He do this? He does this through the gathering together of His people, the local church. He does this through the reading and understanding of His word. This morning, we looked at Sunday school, as Jesse taught, that we are to abhor what is evil out of the book of Romans. We are not to repay evil with evil out of the book of First Peter. We are to be those people who walk in the goodness and truth of God. Hold one another up to do that. And this point that Jude is making in this phrase, is this is our God. He is able to help you to do that. And my encouragement is you will be able to see how strong our God truly is. I don't have to get angry. I don't have to be foolish. I don't have to say things that are going to tear down and destroy. And much of the New Testament is written to the contrary of that. What can I do? I can speak words that are useful for building up, that help others to go towards love and good deeds. I can be a father who looks to be a peacemaker and see the blessing that comes from making peace. Even as Jesse told us in Sunday school, that does not mean putting up with sin and failing to call out sin. But even my calling out of sin, I can do so in a righteous and godly way in light of the word of God. I can be one who looks at my God and sees what He longs for me, and I walk in the path that His Word provides, so that my feet might not hit those proverbial stones, that I might not trip on the proverbial way, and that I might not be tainted with sin in my Christian life. But we know Not only is it that we are to ascribe glory to the one who is able to keep us from stumbling, we come here having already stumbled. Some of us have been wallowing in the pig pit of sin. We are tainted and we are completely covered. and something that gives cause for blame. But notice in verse 24, not only to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling, but continuing in 24, and that coordinating conjunction, both this and the other, to present you blameless before the presence of His glory with great joy. Our God is able to keep us from getting into the mire of life. But when we are found there, when we have gone there, when we have chosen to think and say and do those things that dishonor God, He is able to clean us up like no one else can. My God is able to look at me and all of my sin and because of the blood of Christ, to save me perfectly. There is no sin that was not paid for on the cross. And as a result, Justin Gort will stand in the presence of the glory of God, and he will have great joy. But not because I've done well, but because my God has saved me. If you are a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, if you have gathered here this morning licking the wounds of a guilty soul, recall what we sang about. We sang about the passages of scripture that tell us of God's great forgiveness. Great things He has done. So loved He the world that He gave us His Son. And purer and higher and greater will be our wonder, our victory." I love the fact that the hymnal you have changed that word from transport to victory. It's a better and clearer reading of what Fanny Crosby wrote. what great victory we will have in the presence of Christ. Again, not because of our work, but because of a God who has, through his grace, given us a wonderful word and truth that missionaries or pastors or loving parents, in my case, or maybe just a neighbor who knew Christ as their Savior, came to you, proclaimed the gospel, and you believed in this one who gave his life If that's true of you, you are going to be in the presence of Christ with great joy. And the word Jude uses is blameless. You will be without sin, untarnished, having no defilement in the glory of his presence. I don't know about you, but sometimes I wonder about heaven and what it will be like. And I know that first John tells us it hasn't appeared what we're going to be, but when we see him, we'll be like him. I still wonder what will that day be like? And I think of Ephesians where it says that we are even now seated with Christ in heavenly places, but the day is coming when that reality will be for a whole person to be seated in the presence of Christ if we believe in Jesus. And at that time and at that moment, we will not be outsiders gazing in, looking like we are children at a zoo, seeing animals in their recreated environment and wondering what it's like to be in the cage. We are going to be God's people in his presence, not gazing in, but experiencing, seeing and knowing fully what it is to be his children redeemed. and sat in His presence. In that moment, the positional reality that we have been called to live wholeheartedly and without sin will be realized. Though now we struggle, we stumble, we fail, and we fall, a day is coming when we will not have that struggle. The book of Revelation tells of a day when every tear will be wiped away. It tells of a day when there will be no more death, according to the book of first Corinthians. It tells of the reality in the Bible that we will be truly blameless in his sight. I'm positionally that way today because of God's great grace. I hope that I'm walking that way as I drove up with my children and wife from Leavenworth this morning. And I think we did pretty well getting to church. We didn't have that big church fight that sometimes families experience. If you did, if you couldn't find the hairbrush, or you couldn't find the iron, or all of your clothes were dirty, this morning, I encourage you to rejoice that God's great grace makes you blameless in his sight. And the day is coming when he's gonna present you Don't miss that phrase at the end of verse 24, with great joy. Who would have joy in heaven? Who would have no fear of reprimand? Who would have all of their sins washed away? The child who God brings to his own presence. Can you imagine how incredible your life will be in eternity. No more sin, sickness, sorrow, or death. As we prayed for the family of those who lost faith, as we think of their hardships and the hurting that they're experiencing today, the day of the reality of joy without the taint of sorrow is coming. When David had the privilege of bringing the Ark of the Covenant back into the city of Jerusalem, and with joy he celebrated. And then his wife asked him why he made himself a fool in front of the nation of Israel. His joy was tainted. There was hardship and sorrow in the marital relationship that he had. The day is coming when that won't even be a possibility. The days coming when we think of Abigail and the fact that she had a foolish husband who David was ready to kill and put to death and her concern was real because she knew her own life was in danger. The reality is the days coming when there's no fear. There's only great joy. as we long for that day. We remember it's to Him who is able to keep us from stumbling. It's Him who is able to present us in His own glory, blameless. And then look at verse 25. Jude continues with a third ephexagetical phrase. He gives us another description of our God. To the only God, our Savior through Jesus Christ, our Lord. And then we'll go on and we'll see the glory, majesty, dominion, and authority momentarily. To the only God, perhaps this morning you've been singing along, and you've been reading along, and you've been hearing the things of God that we've been discussing, and you might be thinking to yourself, there's the Father, there's the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Why do we not to say to the only God? And if you're familiar with our understanding of scripture and you remember the passages that that I'll tell you about, but for the sake of time, we won't track down all of them. But Deuteronomy chapter six, verses four through six here, O Israel, the Lord, your God, the Lord, he is one. And then you think of John chapter 10, verse 30. When Jesus says to the Jews, I and the Father are one. And Isaiah, in Isaiah chapter 40, speaks of the fact that there is only one God. How do we reconcile that? How do we understand all of scripture? Jude's description to hear in 2 Peter chapter 3, verse 18. And when it says Jesus is the only Savior, how do we handle all of this? Well, we are reminded of a number of things. First of all, we do have only one God. We do not have three. Our God is one being, eternally expressed in three persons, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. One way to describe that would be the Father is God, but He is not the Son. The Son is God, but He is not the Father. The Holy Spirit is God, but He is neither the Father nor the Son. Perhaps you've seen that Trinitarian symbol relating to who our God is, trying to give visual representation to how we describe the unity of our God. The reality is we do only have one God. And our God, our God is described in scripture. The Trinitarian concept is difficult for many to wrap their minds around. But rather than trying to think deep thoughts, my encouragement to you this morning is try to rest deeply in our God. Verse 25 says, to the only God, our Savior, through Jesus Christ. My God has done such great work. And to Him belongs this glory, majesty, dominion, and authority. To Him, through Jesus, there's only one way to be saved. There are not many paths to Christ. There are not many paths to the Father. There are not many paths to the Holy Spirit, for we have one God. We have one Savior. We have one Lord, even as we saw in Ephesians chapter four in Sunday school. What we have is we have a God who graciously and kindly looked upon the wickedness of man, saw that there was only one way for mankind to be saved, and that's by His own gracious work to redeem Adam's fallen children from sin. And He did that work. He sent His Son, Jesus Christ, who is not a son like my son Jude is my son, is not an offspring like the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, commonly called the Mormons teach, a literal offspring of God the Father, He is instead co-equal with the Father and the Spirit, eternally existing, never without a time in existence. And it is through Jesus who took on flesh, who died on the cross and was buried, that salvation is made possible. Not possible that He works part of, He gives you part of the way and you must work to make up the rest. but possible because though people hear of the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, not all believe. Many reject salvation through Christ, thinking they can get to heaven on their own merit, on their own desirable qualities of pureness of heart, on their own attempt. But Jude makes very clear that God is our savior because it is through Jesus that he has provided life. This is interesting to me that Jude closes this way. Because if you're familiar with Jude, if you turn back to Jude chapter 1, there's only one chapter of Jude, to verse 3, he starts off, In Jude 1 verse 3, I did it again. Beloved, although I was eager to write to you about our common salvation, I found it necessary, appealing to you to contend for the faith which was once delivered to all the saints. That verse could have all of our attention for many hours. There is so much packed in that verse. Jude wanted to write about our common salvation. He wanted to write the believers of this cyclical letter, a letter that was not to one specific person, but was intended to be passed from congregation to congregation of local churches. That believers would be encouraged to contend for the faith that was once delivered to all the saints. But he couldn't write. about the salvation that he longed to write about. Because in his own life, the inspiration of the Holy Spirit upon Jude led him to write something specifically for us. And in his conclusion in verse 25, he reminds us of our salvation through Jesus Christ. but he never got to write what he longed to write in an inspired way. And we are grateful to the inspiration of the Holy Spirit to give us the book of Jude. It is an incredible reminder that our God has saved a people for his own possession. As the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, our God worked perfectly to bring that about. And then we come to something that is a little odd. Two things to note about verse 25. You may have, if you have a King James or a New King James, a textual variation that includes the word wise, and relates all of this to Jesus, rather than what seems to be in the ESV, the New American Standard, and then I'd be in a number of other versions, a relation to the Father and the Son. And the reason for that, we believe, comes out of the connection of the book of Jude to what we see in 2 Peter. And if you're not familiar with this, Jude and 2 Peter are very, very similar. They're not identical, but there's a lot of overlap in what they say. And in this passage, in Jude chapter 25, I mentioned there's two things, and that's the first, why we see that textual variation. The second is there's no verb. in this verse. You and I probably all have be, but there's actually no verb in the Greek. Perhaps that's italicized in your Bible. And the reason for that is Jude's doxology, it might be a set-aside, and it might be in italics, and it might look like a song, like it's a poem. And the reason for that is because it is. It is a reminder to us that we are giving to God, we are actively saying to God, to the one who is able to keep us from stumbling, to the one who is able to keep us blameless, to our only God, glory, majesty, dominion, and authority before all time, now and forever. Amen. Our triune God, the only God, the one who is able to keep us from stumbling and present us blameless, He is given, will be given, and has always been given these four things. And that makes us ask, what are we to ascribe to our triune God? Well, we'll go through these fairly quickly. but I hope you will dwell on them in your own heart and mind. What are you to give to God? I'm not talking about money and time, but the things Jude lists here. First of all, glory. Glory pertains to the worship or honor of God. He deserves all praise and he will receive all praise. Hopefully, in your mind, you think right away of Isaiah chapter 6. Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty. Revelation chapters 4, 5, and I believe 17, where God is ascribed glory in the heavenly scenes. I hope that you will realize that this morning here in Morrow, all the way to California and around the world, believers are gathering together to corporately and individually ascribe glory to God. We sang about this. Will you do this on Tuesday? When 315 comes, will you be worshiping your God? Not just on Sunday, but throughout this week. I hope you will. I trust many of you already are. If you don't know how to do that, you have great people in this church who can help you. Reflecting on scripture, praying and giving thanks, singing songs of praise. That can be corporate and should be corporate and is corporate on Sunday. It can be individual as well, and I encourage you to make time for that. That second word, majesty, to ascribe and recognize the greatness of God. Similar, but not a synonym of giving him glory. Ascribing him majesty, it takes in the breadth and goodness of God. And we can see this in Psalm 103, 104, 105, and 106. When the history from creation through the nation of Israel is ascribed to God in Psalm. Psalm 136 begins, Why are you downcast, O my soul? And then it goes on to recount all of the ways that we are to remember the loving kindness, the mercy of God. Psalm 150 tells us in very clear language that from the lowest of creatures to the highest of creatures, they are to praise God for His greatness. My encouragement to you, contemplate God's greatness. Think about the immensity of a God who has existed for all of eternity, creating a people for his own possession, putting you not just on this earth, but he put you on this earth in Eastern Kansas in 2023. He's intentional about that. That wasn't an accident. You're not a mistake. You are here because God wants you here. And I hope you're here at church this morning because you recognize God wants you here. And think about all of the aspects of life that caused you to have enough fuel in your vehicle to get to this church and to know what time it was starting and you arrived to be here on time. That's incredible planning by God. And what a great provision. Think about not only that, but ascribe to him glory, majesty. The third one is dominion. Not a word we often use in our daily language. In fact, I don't think I use this word outside of sermon prep this week. So what do we mean when we say dominion? God is worthy of worship, he is exceedingly great, and he has unparalleled power and might. Though, through his perfect wisdom and purpose, he allows Satan, for a time, to roam around and to accuse the brethren, he is not thwarted nor discouraged by Satan's attack. If you ever feel like, man, this world is spiraling out of control, I don't know what can help it. God can help. God will help, and God is accomplishing His great purposes, even now. Horrific attacks in Israel, we hear about all of the hardships that are going on. God is in control. We might wonder why God would allow such things, why the hardships would be taking place. But we cannot get far from the fact that it is for His glory and for His majesty, for now, forevermore, and from eternity past, that He deserves that praise ascribed to Him. Satan is a created being who torments believers, he afflicts them, and he afflicts the world with unrighteousness. But God is omnipotent. That's the big theological word we use to say he possesses all power. Believer, today if you feel weak, worn out, or powerless, look to the strength of our great God and be strengthened in his glorious might. And that's what Paul wrote to the church of Ephesus. Be strong in the Lord. Not be strong in yourself, Be strong in the Lord and the power of his might. And that fourth word, we have seen glory, majesty, dominion. And again, similar to how glory and majesty are similar, but not synonyms. We have this word authority, similar to dominion, but not the same. God's jurisdiction and rule is clearly stated. No one else has rule over him. No one else has rule outside of his allowance. Jesus, our great God, holds the world together by the word of his power, according to the book of Hebrews. So when should these descriptions be given? And the final point we see before all time, now and forevermore. God before there was ever an earth created, when there were no angels, and it was only our great God, the Father, the Son, and Holy Spirit, in eternity past, received all glory, majesty, power, dominion, and authority. Now, we have the opportunity to give that to Him. Here in Kansas, or wherever the Lord takes you, you can give this to God. He longs for and desires for you to do that. And for all of eternity, if you are a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, you will do this forever. I can't fathom how long forever is. I can't imagine how long eternity will go on. But as a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, without any taint of sin, perfectly blameless, And for all of eternity, I will give to God glory, majesty, dominion, and authority. If that's not true of you, if you are not saved through faith in Jesus Christ, you are living for your own glory, your own majesty, you are attempting dominion and authority in a world that will thwart you. Because God will not be mocked and he will not give his authority to another for eternity. He is giving you ample opportunity to hear the words of God this morning, to sing of the praises of God, to see how fantastic He truly is. My encouragement is to turn to Him and give your life to Him, to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and as Paul said, and be saved. If you have done that, let these words saturate your mind and guide your heart this week. that you would be one who wakes up tomorrow morning and sees, how can I live in a way where I don't stumble? How can I live in a way where I trust my God and Savior to lead me, to give him glory, to give him majesty, to allow his dominion and his authority to rule over your hearts? A friend of mine in Utah, where we served for 16 years as missionary, said, I don't hold to lordship salvation. I hold to lordship sanctification, that a believer recognizes that Jesus is Lord, just as Jude calls him in verse 25. The best way for you to ascribe glory, majesty, dominion, and authority to God is to ask what would he have you to do in any situation you find yourself and to live in light of the word of God.