Please open your Bibles with me to the Book of Jude. We've come to the end of our study of this little book this evening. We'll be reading verses 24 and 25 of the Book of Jude. It's found in your bulletin and, of course, on your screens at home. Let us give ear now to the reading of the holy and inerrant and the life-giving Word of God, Jude, beginning in verse 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. The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God will abide forever. Let us pray. O Lord, our God, we come to you now with your word open in front of us. Would you give us that divine aid which we require in order to understand it aright, in order to benefit from it, and in order to be built up in our most holy faith. Would you do this for us, we pray in Jesus' name, amen. There's something deeply satisfying about a well-written ending to a good story or a good book. In literary terms, that's what's referred to as the denouement. When all of the loose strands are tied together and the character storylines are complete, the gaps are filled and the crisis is resolved. And all of this is to the great satisfaction of the reader. When a writer successfully does this in a particularly magnificent way it makes the reader want to linger in contemplation over how it all so wonderfully came together. The way a book ends can be quite memorable. Jude ends his little book in the New Testament in a very memorable way as well. He does so by turning our attention heavenward in a grand doxology. Jude's doxology is one of the most majestic and memorable portions of the New Testament, if not the entire Bible. In fact, it's easily the most recognizable part of this little book. And we're meant to linger with satisfaction and savor its subject. We're meant to adore its subject because Jude ends this book by directing our focus firmly upon the glory of God. The glory of God manifest in the salvation of his people is the focus and the resolution to everything that Jude has written thus far. To God alone be the glory, to use the language of the Reformation, soli deo gloria. And there are three features of this concluding mountain peak of doxological praise that I want us to look at this evening and the first is our preservation until glory. Both of these verses form one of the longest doxologies in the Bible and when you have a doxology what you have is always four basic elements. You have the one to whom praise is addressed. You have the type of honor or praise given. You have the duration or the extent of such praise. And then you have an affirmation in the form of an amen. A doxology can be as basic as to God be the glory forever. Amen. But Jude wonderfully fills out and expands those four elements much to our spiritual benefit. In fact, the entirety of verse 24 is an expanded description of that first element of a doxology, a description of the person to whom all this praise is addressed. And Jude gives us a drawn out description of the God to whom all glory is due. This description, particularly in the context of Jude's letter, gives the Christian astounding hope and confidence. Right off the bat, at the beginning of Jude's letter, we read of his urgency in informing his readers of the imminent danger they were in. False teaching had infiltrated the church and this wasn't over some tertiary matter about which Christians may disagree. It was a very perversion of the gospel of grace. Falling into this error would have grave and even eternal consequences and some had even already begun to be swayed by this teaching. Jude spent no shortage of energy and even vitriol of warning these people of the consequences and the nature of this danger and the consequences of falling into it. And then as a countermeasure to that danger, they are to contend for the faith, which culminated in his command for them to keep themselves in the love of God, for them to persevere to the very end. True Christians must persevere in faith to the end. And so after everything that Jude has told us thus far of the danger, and of our duty to persevere in the faith. He says now let me point you back to the power of almighty God. Now to him who is able to keep you. Gene Green puts it this way. Yet in the end Jude turns his eyes to God knowing that God is the one who will protect them and purify them so that they will in the final day be overwhelmed with joy. He is able to keep you. That language of keeping is the language of guardianship and protection. The idea of protecting someone to keep them from being snatched away. Guarding someone from all danger. In John chapter 17 Jesus was praying for us and he said of his disciples, I have guarded them. language. Paul in 2 Thessalonians chapter 3 says, the Lord is faithful. He will establish you and guard you against the evil one. So when Jude says to him who is able to keep you, he's using the language of divine protection. Mark Johnston writes this, Jesus will be the supreme guardian of our souls. and we can rest secure in the knowledge that he will allow no harm to befall us. No one and nothing can pluck us from his hand. In the words of the hymn, no power of hell or scheme of man can ever pluck me from his hand till he returns or calls me home here in the power of Christ. I'll stand." And Jude is using the language of divine power. I think some of the force of this is lost by our little English word, able, not to him who is able. The Greek word there is really the word for which we get our English word, dynamite. God's power at work to keep you is where Jude is directing the attention and the hope of every Christian. Because our needs are so many, the difficulties in this Christian life are so overwhelming, and our weakness is so prevalent. Nothing short of divine power is able to keep us. Not only do we have a total inability to be saved, We have a total inability to stay saved in and of ourselves. Do you realize that if it were up to you, if, if, if God were to stop preserving your faith, you would never make it tomorrow morning, it would be over. But God is able, he has power to keep you and we will not fall because God will not let us go. Glory be to the one who is able to keep you. He says to him who is able to keep you from stumbling. The Old Testament language behind that is found in Psalm 121 where over and over the Lord is referred to as the one who keeps his people. And there we read this he will not let your foot be moved. He keeps us from stumbling and it's crucial to know for us how slippery the footing is out there. None of us ought to think that we're immune to the footfalls and the stumbles and the falls from grace that we are prone to and that threaten us from every side in our Christian life. Don't underestimate that daunting powerful trio of the world and the flesh and the devil. How in the world are you going to make it all the way to the end? How in the world are you going to maintain your grip on Jesus when you know you're not strong enough to hold on to him and you're not? He is keeping you from stumbling. He is going to get you all the way home to him who is able to keep you from stumbling. Martin Luther put it this way, did we in our own strength confide our striving would be losing. This description that Jude provides for us of the God who is due all of this glory is meant to bolster and strengthen the Christian in their daily walk through this pilgrimage in a weary world where we are all too aware of all the troubles around us and particularly of our own weakness and proneness to stumbling. Doug Moo puts it this way. Doubt and anxiety are constant companions on our earthly pilgrimage. We worry about health, about money, about our children, about our jobs. In sober moments we perhaps become anxious about death. God does not promise to take away these worries, but he does take away from us our greatest worry, where we will spend eternity. You're going to make it to the end because of him who was able to keep you from stumbling. You're bound for the promised land, not because of your own ability to make it all the way there, but because of the One who is able to keep you. The question is, do we believe this? Do we believe that we're going to make it there because of the One who is able to keep us from stumbling? To the extent that we actively believe this, our lives are going to show it. They're going to show it in joy and peace. They're going to show it in obedience and in worship. The Apostle Paul wrote of how That anticipation ought to change our entire perspective on this world of troubles. This light momentary affliction is preparing us for an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison. Gerhardus Voss wrote of the strength and the comfort that comes from meditating on this certainty. In such moments, the transcendent beauty of the other shore and the irresistible current of our deepest life lift us above every regard of wind or wave. We know that through weather fair or foul our ship is bound straight for its eternal port. Jude would have us fix our spiritual gaze ascribing glory to the one who is able to keep you from stumbling all the way home. Secondly I want us to see we've seen preservation until glory. I want to see the presentation in glory. We are kept from stumbling in this life by God all the way to the end. But Jude goes even further in his ascription of praise to God him who is able to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy. We're preserved until glory and then we will be presented in And the word that we have translated here as present really conveys the idea of causing you to stand. He is able to keep you from stumbling and then to cause you to stand in the presence of His glory. It's not just about finishing the race. In other words, there's more. I ran a little bit of track and field when I was in high school. The unfortunate thing was I didn't have the endurance to be a long distance runner and I didn't have the body to be a quick sprinter. So there was very few events that I was cut out for. But there was one little race that was sort of a sweet spot for me and it was the 400 meter race. That's one lap around the quarter mile track with a minimal degree of pacing yourself. You basically just give it everything you had the whole way around the track so that when you were done, at least in my case, you had nothing left. I would come around that final turn literally running only on fumes, just desperate to make it to the finish line after which I would collapse. I remember finishing those races and collapsing in the grass and we were told not to do that. You're supposed to stand up and breathe, but I couldn't do any other. I made it across with nothing left to spare. And that may be a valid picture of what the Christian life feels like on this side. That of giving everything we have in full exertion just to finish the race. But it's not an accurate picture of what it will be like when we finish. That the one who is keeping you from stumbling now to get to glory will make you stand in his glory. You are going to be presented before the presence of His glory, not having barely made it across the finish line, but triumphantly as a result of His preserving and powerful grace and His perfecting work in your life. The picture here is that of a polished trophy. being victoriously presented, you will be presented blameless before the presence of His glory. That idea of being blameless there comes from the sacrificial language of the Old Testament, where that which was brought as a sacrifice had to be without spot or blemish or any kind of flaw. In the New Testament, that idea became known to include the idea of moral perfection. We will stand in the day of judgment forgiven and righteous based on the merits of Christ. But Jude means for us to realize that we will also stand in the presence of his glory as completed and finished products. Paul in Ephesians chapter 5 as he's speaking of the church, that for which Christ came and gave himself up that he might sanctify her having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word so 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. Ben Witherington comments, believers are offered by God to himself who has kept and purified them and made them stand in his presence. So this is the final picture then, not only of our justification, as glorious as that is, the foundation and the centerpiece of the gospel, dressed in his righteousness alone, faultless to stand before the throne, It's also the final picture of the completion of our sanctification, our glorification in heaven, as the larger catechism describes, where we shall be fully and forever freed from all sin and misery, filled with inconceivable joys, made perfectly holy and happy both in body and soul. Those whom God has caused to be born again by the power of the Holy Spirit he will bring to perfection in glory. That is a remarkable thing for us to consider because you and I know how much work there is left to be done. I remember still the words to a children's song that would play on the radio in a local Christian radio station when I was a boy. He's still working on me to make me what I ought to be. It took him just a week to make the moon and the stars, the sun and the earth and Jupiter and Mars. How loving and patient he must be because he's still working on me. And he will finish what he started. Paul wrote to the Philippian church, and I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ, Philippians 1.6. Paul would speak elsewhere of our perfection in glory as part of an unbreakable chain of our salvation that began before you and I were even born. those whom he predestined he also called and those whom he called he also justified and those whom he justified he also glorified. If you are one in whom the Holy Spirit has worked the miracle of regeneration such that you have come to Jesus in saving faith then you are one in whom he will not stop working until you are perfected in the presence of his glory with great joy. And not until then will you be perfected. But we go about our Christian obedience and our sanctification knowing that it will be then. Jude says that that presentation in glory will be with great joy. That is superlative terminology. The idea here is a jubilant exaltation in glory. This is language that's used when referring to the celebration of the final consummation of the saints in heaven. Listen to the language of Revelation. Let us rejoice and exalt and give him the glory for the marriage of the lamb has come and his bride has made herself ready. It was granted her to clothe herself with fine linen, bright and pure for the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints. Revelation 19 seven and eight on that day. When all of the saints will be perfected in glory, justified, fully sanctified and holy and glorified, when all the ransomed church of God is saved to sin no more, it will rightly be a scene of unparalleled glorious exaltation and joy. This exultant joy will not only be our joy though, it will be his joy. Isaiah chapter 53 verse 11 we read this of the looking forward to the coming Messiah, out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied. Part of the reward in glory that Christ anticipated as a result of his atoning work on Calvary's cross was the people. for whom he was laying down his life. Hebrews chapter 12 verse 2 says, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. And so Jesus could and did endure the horrors of Calvary for the joy that was set before him. And when that day comes, that final day, He will rejoice over his people finally who are with him and they will be presented blameless in his glory. If you are a weary Christian struggling along in your path of sanctification all too aware of the flaws and the shortcomings that are still remaining in your life do you see yourself as one who will not only be presented blameless in glory but one over whom the Lord Jesus will rejoice. as one of those for whom he gave everything. The Puritan Thomas Goodwin preached a sermon entitled The Heart of Christ in Heaven Towards Sinners on Earth and in which he gloriously extols the affection that Jesus has toward his people even now. He quotes John 14 3 where Jesus said I will come again and I will take you to myself that where I am you may be also. Goodwin comments The reason Jesus gives reveals his entire affection. It is as if he had said the truth is I cannot live without you. I shall never be quiet till I have you where I am so that we may never part again. That is the reason of it. Heaven shall not hold me nor my father's company if I have not you with me. My heart is so set upon you and if I have any glory you shall have part of it. Do we consider ourselves in that sort of terminology as those for whom Christ himself anticipates with longing to have together with him in his presence forever with great joy. To know that this kind of joy is going to take place upon our home going to change the way we persevere in this short pilgrimage down here. We are preserved until glory. We will be presented in glory. And finally, I want us to see that this is all for the praise of his glory. We rightly marvel at the security promised to every believer in these verses and the eternal blessedness that is guaranteed for us here in these verses. But Jude would have us know that it's not all about us. It's about him. We're meant to marvel at and adore the God who is the author of all of these things. Why does he preserve you and me until glory? Why is he going to present you and me in glory with great joy for his own glory? Verse 25 begins, to the only God, our Savior, to God alone, be the glory. To the exclusive God is due exclusive glory and that one true living God is our Savior. That's usually a term reserved particularly for the person of Christ in the New Testament but here as in a few other places it's the only God who is referred to as our Savior. The salvation of His people are being preserved until glory and presented in glory is the working out of a plan and the accomplishment and the carrying out of that plan of the triune God which took place from eternity past. The only God our Savior to him be glory. He alone is wholly due our exclusive praise. And then Jude goes on to ascribe unto God a list of attributes. To the only God our Savior through Jesus Christ our Lord be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority. Now the ESV supplies the verb be in verse 25 because there is no verb in the Greek text and otherwise the English sentence would sound a bit awkward. But it's probably better, I think as most commentators argue, to supply the verb are. Because this is not a prayer that God would receive that which he does not already have. It's not a prayer to God that he would get something he doesn't yet have, but that this is who he is. J. N. D. Kelly explains the point of a doxology is not to offer God anything which he does not already possess, but to acknowledge adoringly the blessedness which is his by right. We're not adding, we are ascribing. This is an ascription of the highest praise and adoration for who and what he is in and of himself. Whether anyone ever acknowledges it or not or even recognizes God's glory, it still belongs to him. And this is not just a formulaic list of attributes. These are very carefully chosen attributes that highlight God's grandeur and ruling power for the purposes of Jude's audience. We talk about God's glory, the idea of the blinding light of His personal presence and the weight of his very being and substance. The idea of glory conveys the idea of weightiness and significance in contrast to everything that is light and temporal in the universe. Everything other than God. God is the essence of substance and weight himself. And then you have also involved in that the idea of the blinding light and the infinite beauty and radiance of his being. The splendor and luster pertaining to his being in person. Majesty used only of God in the New Testament, his awesome transcendence, his greatness and preeminence over and above all things. And then you add that to the concept of his glory and you have combined then a sense of God's overwhelming grandeur. Who He is in and of Himself is reason for eternal praise and worship. And Jude adds the attribute of dominion, also a word only ever used of God himself and his work. That has to do with his sovereign reign over all things, his actual reign by a powerful sovereignty to work in the world, a powerful sovereignty to accomplish the salvation of his people, to work all things according to the counsel of his good will. The idea of authority has to do with the exercise then of that powerful sovereign dominion. He acts in that powerful sovereign dominion when he exercises his right to rule in authority. There is nothing that's going on in Jude's church or in ours or in the world in which Jude existed or in the world in which we live that is outside of and it is not going to be part of the glory of God in the accomplishment of his work in this world. These attributes are particularly relevant and comforting for Jude's audience so in need of the certainty of their safekeeping and their homecoming to heaven. Several years ago, we were vacationing in the Dominican Republic, and on the last night we were there, I was the victim of a pickpocket incident. And unlike the rest of the week, unfortunately, in which I had my wallet wisely stashed in the safe in our room, that night, unfortunately, I had it on me because I had been exchanging currencies for the next day or what have you. So I found myself then in a foreign country without any identification. This was before you even needed a passport to travel to the Caribbean. And thus, I had no way home. The only thing I could think to do was to get a hold of the U.S. Embassy. This is now near the middle of the night. I was flying the next morning to see if they could help me. The next day came. I hadn't heard anything back from the embassy. And we headed to the airport, totally uncertain if my wife was going to be getting on a plane without me, leaving me in a foreign country with no money and no identification and no idea how I was ever going to get any. While we were at the airport, all the Spanish language that was going on in the loudspeakers, of which I understood nothing, I heard, Jeffrey Wint. And I went up to the counter and it turned out that all through the night on my behalf, I did not know this, I wish I had, the U.S. Embassy was at work on my behalf. They had gotten a hold of someone in Columbia, South Carolina with the DMV and a copy of my ID was forwarded to this little airport in the Dominican Republic and I was able to get on a plane and go home. The U.S. government had the sovereignty and the dominion and the authority and the power to flex it on behalf of one of her own. And I, on that alone, made it home. That is a tiny picture of the security that we have because of these attributes of the God who is our Savior. Who is the one that is able to keep you? It's the one with all glory and majesty and dominion and authority. You are in very good hands. These attributes are ascribed, Jude says, before all time and now and forever. Here the past, the present, and the future are all coming together as one working toward the consummation of the manifestation of God's glory in the salvation of his people. All of history, even before history began and when history will be over, all of history is unfolding in order to bring glory to the only God, our Savior. And this glory is ascribed and manifest, Jude says, through Jesus Christ. Our Lord. The Apostle Peter would use language like that in his doxological language. In order that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ to him belong glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen. First Peter 4 11. God's glory is made manifest to us through Jesus Christ. Paul Gardner explains that glory and majesty and power and authority are mediated to us through Jesus Christ our Lord. Thus as we ascribe glory to God we do so remembering that in Christ we have come to know that glory and authority and power. Indeed through Christ we have come to know how God is indeed the Savior This is how the book of Revelation describes the glory of God as well in Revelation chapter 5 you read this and I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea and all that is in them saying to him who sits on the throne and to the lamb be blessing and honor and glory and might forever and ever. One of the most familiar and satisfying conclusions to a story or a book, particularly if you think in the realm of fairy tales, is that idea of happily ever after. There's a reason that stories that end with that kind of an ending resonate in the human soul so much. Because in our earthly existence there is no permanent happily ever after. But those stories that end in such a way resonate in the human heart so much because we were made for that exact ending. There's an internal sense of longing for such an ending as happily ever after. A never ending happily ever after and praise God he has made it so. And all of this is to his glory, the never ending joy of heaven. will be the never-ending joy of being in the presence of the glory of God." And the final word of Jude's letter is, Amen. That is the fourth feature of a doxology and that is an invitation to affirm that which has been said. It's a response. It's a hearty agreement in a confirming response after Jude's magnificent description of the God to whom all glory is due and the reasons why all that glory is due unto him. Here is the corporate affirmation of God's people and the personal affirmation of every believer of the truth of the glory of God and the salvation and preservation of his people. If you're an unbeliever the invitation in that amen is for you to respond in faith to the Lord Jesus that he might keep you forever for all of his glory. Jesus said whoever comes to me I will never cast out. Come and know the security and the preservation that is promised to you in this language of Jude's letter. Know the love of one who will rejoice over you at your homecoming to heaven and know the joy then of the eternal adoration of the only God our Savior. Add your amen to the eternal salvation of your own soul. Jude began this letter saying how eager he was to write to them concerning their common salvation and here In this grand doxology, it turns out that he was able to come back around to just that. And thus the invitation for you believer is to joyously affirm these glorious truths. This is our common salvation. We are being preserved until glory. We are going to be presented in glory with great joy and it will all be for the praise of his glory forever and ever solely. Deo Gloria. Amen. Our Father in heaven, would you bless the preaching and the hearing of your word for the good of our souls and for your glory forever. And we pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.