Today we'll be finishing up the book of Jude
and I'll be reading from verses 24 and 25. 24
and 25. Now to him who is able to keep you from
stumbling and to make you stand in the presence
of his glory, blameless 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. Let's
pray. Father, I come before you. Lord, I ask
your blessing upon this final sermon in Jude.
Lord, I ask that you would spur us on to worship.
and to adoration of your name, to exalting your
name in our lives. Father, I ask that you would
get great glory from what takes place in our
hearts and our minds because of the preaching
of your word. Father, I ask that your Holy Spirit
would fill me as I preach this. Lord, I ask that
your Holy Spirit would open the hearts and the
minds of the men, women, and children that would
hear your word proclaimed this day. I pray this
in Christ's precious name. Amen. So today, as
we close the book of Jude, we will be looking
at verses 24 and 25. In 24 and 25 of the book
of Jude, a lot of people come to the end of this
book and they think that it is a benediction.
But you get to the end of this book and Jude
actually closes this little epistle of 25 verses
with a doxology. And a doxology is basically,
it is recognizing and giving God a blessing and
giving Him praise and adoration. It is worshiping
Him. A benediction is God blessing people or
pronouncing a blessing upon his people. So doxology
is proclaiming a blessing or worship or praise
or adoration to God. So we get to the end of
this book and Jude closes it with the doxology
wanting us to think of worship, wanting us to
think of adoration of our great God. Wanting
us to think of praising and worshiping this great
God whom we serve and who has saved us. Now,
it's interesting. You look at the book of Jude
and you think, why does he close with a doxology?
Why does he close wanting us to think about worship?
Well, when we look at the book of Jude, we've
had some pretty stiff, some pretty heavy, some
pretty weighty stuff that we've had to deal with.
There's been judgment. There's been condemnation.
There has been deniers of the gospel. There's
been twisters of grace. And whenever this epistle
was sent, it would have been read in one sitting.
So they would have read the church out loud in
one sitting and it takes about four minutes to
read through the book of Jude. So when you read
through the book of Jude in about four to five
minutes and you get all the weighty and all the
heavy stuff and all the judgment and all the
hard stuff and all the challenge to fight and
to contend, he brings it at the end and he says,
don't forget about worshiping your God. Don't
forget. To worship God. So this doxology is for
the purpose of encouraging us as God's people
to worship and adore and praise God who is able
in the midst of any circumstances. Who is able
regardless of what is taking place around us.
So he's saying church, this is Jude saying church,
regardless of the false teachers, regardless
of the division or the flattery or the manipulation,
regardless of the false religion that's taking
place in your church, don't forget God is able
and worship this great God. So in thinking of
adoration, that's what I'm going to refer to
today primarily. And I'm talking about adoration,
I'm talking about worship, I'm talking about
glorifying God by giving Him honor and praise.
So that's primarily what we'll be discussing
today, adoration of God. Now when we think of
adoring God or worshiping God, there are several
things in our lives. that cause us to worship
God, aren't there? I mean, think about your own
life. Think about the things that take place
in your own life. What causes you or what brings
about, what incites worship within your soul,
within your heart, to say, Lord, thank you. I
praise your holy name. Lord, you are so good.
You are worthy of all praise and honor. You know,
just for me, many times I do this when I'm sitting
back either reading or studying or doing something
else and I'm watching my kids play. And I watch
them play and they're getting along. And they're
having fun and they're enjoying themselves. But
no, they're loving. They're loving creation.
They're enjoying themselves. When I sit back
and I watch that and I think, Lord, You are so
good. You are so kind. It just makes my soul
want to worship. There's so many other things.
Think about a brisk 74 degree day and there's
a nice cool breeze blowing through and you're
standing in the shade. Honestly, that incites
my heart to worship. Lord, thank you. You are
so good. You are so gracious. You are so kind.
Because even the cool breeze is from God. There's
so many things in our life that bring about worship.
But Jude gives us two things. He gives us two
causes for adoration in our lives. Two causes
for adoration in our lives. The first is this,
that God is able to keep you from stumbling.
God is... What does it mean that God is able
to keep you from stumbling? We worship a God
who is not weak. We worship a God who is not
impotent. We worship a God who is not restricted,
who is not limited. We worship a God who is not
bound. We worship a God who is almighty, powerful,
creator God that when he speaks, worlds come
into existence. That's the God who we worship.
The God who is so powerful that the seas that
would crush you and me, if we got underneath
the wave, he spoke into existence. The God who
when we go outside at night and we look up into
the sky and there's millions and millions of
stars, He spoke into existence and He put them
exactly where they are to be. He is that mighty,
that powerful, the God who holds the universe
in the palm of His hand and doesn't let the globe
go one inch to the right or one inch to the left.
He is that mighty. He is that powerful. So God
is able. This God who is able and who is powerful
and who is mighty and who is strong, what is
he able to do in our lives, in the lives of these
believers that Jude is writing to? He is able
to keep you from stumbling. To keep you from
stumbling. The idea is this. He is able to keep
you from being tripped or tripping. Think of
a horse riding down a trail, and he's riding,
they're going down a steep hill, and there's
rocks, and he stumbles, or he fumbles, or he
trips. And that stumble, that fumble, or that
trip for that horse causes the horse and the
rider to go fumbling down the hill. So that's
the idea, that's the picture that he has. It's
the idea of keeping us from sin, keeping us from
error, keeping us from falling away from the
faith. We see that taking place in the New Testament.
People falling away from the faith. He's able
to keep us from that. But it also implies this
idea that God is going to keep us until the end.
He is going to bring us through this life. If
you are born again believing Christian, God will
keep you. How did he open this epistle? He said
to those who are the called, those who are beloved
in God the Father and kept for Jesus Christ.
So God will keep his people. He is able to keep
you. So keep those four things in mind. He can
keep you from sin. He can keep you from error.
He can keep you from falling away. And he can
keep you until the end. This is why it's important.
for these Christians to understand this. Think
about the Christians in this epistle that Jude
is writing to. What's taking place around them?
What's going on? What are they being impacted
by? What's influencing them? He is telling them,
God is able to keep you from stumbling. What
did we look at last week in Jude? What did we
look at last week in Jude? We looked at the fact
that people doubt. We looked at the fact that
some people are in the fire and they're about
to bring destruction into their lives and they
have to be snatched out. We looked at the reality
that there are some people so far in sin that
they are dangerous to other believers. So those
are taking place, not to mention... The fact
that there's people there who are hidden reefs
in their love feasts. I mean, this even talks
about the reality that there were angels who
rebelled. There were angels who fell away. It
talks about how there's division. There's people
that are manipulating and flattering. So it is
important for... the people of this church, and
us as a church to understand and to grasp that
God is able to keep you from falling into false
religion. He is able to keep you from doubt.
He is able to keep you from being in the fire
and bringing destruction into your life. God
is able to keep you from sinking so far down
into sin like we saw last week where you're dangerous
to other believers. God is able to keep you from
rebellion. God is able. He's able to keep us
from ourselves. He's able to keep us from our
own depravity and our own sinfulness. This is
great news. This is wonderful news that this
mighty and powerful God who is able can keep
you. Do you know why it is such wonderful news?
Because we can't do it. I cannot keep myself.
You cannot keep yourself. Just as I cannot call
myself effectually into the faith. Just as I
cannot give myself faith or muster up faith.
Just as I cannot cause myself to be born again
and to become regenerate. Just as I cannot justify
myself. Just as I cannot sanctify myself by myself
without the power of God at work in my life.
Just as I am incapable of doing those things,
I am incapable of keeping myself. I cannot keep
myself from sin without the power of God. I cannot
keep myself from error without the power of God.
I cannot and you cannot keep yourself from falling
away from the faith without the power of God.
We cannot keep ourselves until the end, to the
day when Christ Jesus comes. I can't even face
death by myself without my Savior. I have ultimately
very little control of my life. You have very
little control of your life. We cannot control
what takes place within our soul. in our spiritual
lives without the power of God at work in our
lives. But praise be to the Lord because God
is able. He is able to keep you from stumbling.
We have no stability in and of ourselves without
the power of God at work in our soul. Every single
one of us, apart from God at work within us,
we would fall away from the faith. That is the
depth of our sinfulness. Think about your inclination
to stumble. Think about your inclination to sin
and struggle in life. Think about that. in your
life that you've dealt with for so long that
you cannot beat. Think about the sin that you
in yourself cannot keep yourself from. Those
things in and of ourselves, we can't do them.
We can't defeat them without the power of God
at work in our lives. Some of us Some of us may
think, well, I have extra resolve. Now, whenever
you said that, that we can't keep ourselves,
well, I kind of feel like I can't. I actually
can. I'm a pretty strong person. I'm a pretty
resolved person. stable, persevering individual.
This is not something where we just strap on
the bootstraps and pull ourselves up. We cannot
keep ourselves by ourselves. We must have the
power of God at work in our lives. The very pride
that rises within our own hearts when we hear
you cannot keep yourselves demonstrates the reality
that you cannot keep yourself. That shows the
depth of our sinfulness and the need for God
to be at work in our life to sustain us and to
hold us up by His grace and by His power. We
should praise God for this. We should praise
God. We should adore our God because He is able
to keep us from stumbling. We should worship
Him greatly that it's not based on me. We should
give Him great honor. We should give Him great
praise. praise and acclamation and adoration
in our lives because it's not you and it's not
me that it's not dependent on us to present ourselves
in the throne room of God in His glory. It's
not us. It's Him. He is able. He is mighty. He
is powerful. And praise Him for the reality that
He will do it. He will keep. He will keep us,
adore him and worship him for that. So the first
reason or cause for adoration to God is the reality
that he can keep us from stumbling, that he is
mighty, he is able. But the second cause or the
second thing which brings about adoration in
our lives and worship, to our God is that He
is able to make you stand in the presence of
His glory blameless with great joy. Just let
that soak in for a minute. He is able to make
you stand in the presence of His glory blameless.
with great joy. Meaning this, He will present
you to Himself after having kept you in this
life in a certain way. He will present you in
a certain manner, in a certain way, as trophies
of grace to Himself in His glory. The text gives
us three descriptors of what it will be like
when we are presented to God himself in his glory.
And we are totally dependent upon God for this
work as well in our life. Think about trying
to go in for a job interview and putting on your
best clothes, your best face, biggest smile,
And you're presenting yourself the best you can.
But think about this. You still have a history.
You still have a past. You still mess up. And
going forward, you're going to mess up and you're
going to sin. And at that time, you're anxious.
You're worrying. You're stressed out. You're
presenting yourself. But you may or may not get
the job. This text teaches us that God Almighty,
can present you to himself standing blameless
and with great joy. He will do it. He is able.
The one who can keep you can also present you.
So the three descriptions in this... Three different
ways that were shown to be presented to him.
The first is standing. Now this is unique in
and of itself. If you think back to, for instance,
Ezekiel chapter 1 and his call and his commission.
When he saw this vision and this glory of God,
what happened to him? He went straight to the
ground. He dropped. The glory of God forced him
to the ground and he ate the dust. That's just
how it is when you're a sinful person and you
see a holy and a mighty God in all the brightness
of his glory. Think about Moses when he wanted
to see God's glory. He could only see a lesser
part of God's glory and the backside. And he
still had to be shielded and he still had to
be covered by God himself. Because God said,
no man shall see my face and live. No man shall
see my face. He shall not see the fullness of
my glory and all its greatness and all its holiness.
And live. Hold on to that. Isaiah. In Isaiah
chapter 6. He saw the throne room of God. He
saw the glory of God. And what did he say? He
said woe unto me. He pronounced a curse on himself.
Because he saw the depth of his own unholiness.
And his own sinfulness. In sight and in view
of a holy and a mighty God. He said, I am undone.
He said, I'm falling apart. I can't handle this
glory. I'm undone. Woe is to me. Think about
Peter, James, and John in the New Testament,
the transfiguration. What happened to them? They
went down. They dropped. They hit the dirt. When
they saw Christ in His glory. Think about John
in the book of Revelation. In Revelation 1, verse
17, I'm just going to read it. Listen to this.
This is what happens when a sinful man with sinful
tendencies and a sinful nature encounters the
glory of this great and mighty God. Listen to
this. When I saw him, I fell at his feet like
a dead man. That's the power, that's the oppressive
and overwhelming power of God's glory on a corrupt
and sinful person. You hit the ground like a
dead man. when you experience that. Yet in our
text today, we find that God is able to present
us to Himself. He can make us not hit the dust,
but He can make us stand in His glory and the
presence of His glory. He doesn't say that we
will be presented to Himself like a dead man,
Down in the dust because of his frightful holiness.
Something dramatic has happened to you when you
are presented to God and you can stand in his
presence, in the presence of his glory. An essential
change has taken place within your nature, within
who you are. And that brings us to our second
point. of being presented blameless. We are presented
blameless before God. Now, this word blameless
should make us think of the blameless sacrifice
or the sacrificial lamb which was sacrificed
to atone for the sins of the people. In the Old
Testament, we see the Ark of the Covenant and
we see on it the mercy seat. Within the Ark of
the Covenant was the Ten Commandments. And this
was where God would meet His people. This is
where His presence was. And eventually, the Ark
of the Covenant and the mercy seat, it would
go into the Holy of Holies where God's presence
would dwell. And once a year, the priests would
go in and they would sprinkle blood on the mercy
seat to atone for the sins of the people. So
why did the sacrifice have to be blameless? And
why did it have to be holy and pure? Because
it had to be holy and pure to atone and to make...
and to bring about atonement for the people of
God. It had to be perfect so that blamelessness
could be imputed to the people in a sense. So
Christ, as the perfect Lamb of God who is blameless,
has atoned for the sins of God's people so that
we can, Stand in his presence blameless. Do you
realize without the blameless, sacrificial lamb
of Jesus Christ, you cannot enter into the presence
of God? You cannot meet with God and his holiness
without the blood of the lamb. this word blameless
and the fact that we will be presented blameless
without a spot, without a speck of dirt or sin.
That is how we will be presented to God himself
because of the blessed work of Christ Jesus.
Even in that day, even in that day, His sacrifice
is what will make us blameless. Our sin nature
will be no longer, and we will be made like Adam,
where he could walk in the cool of the day in
the presence of God. Is that not amazing? The
reality that God will present you to himself.
And we will even be able to experience his glory
more than Adam did because of Christ. Because
of our new head, which is Christ. So what's the
third description that he gives us? With great
joy. Not only... Are we standing and blameless,
but we will be presented with great joy to our
great God. This has to do with our eternal state
of happiness in our soul. If I had to describe
what joy is, it's a constant and a consistent
happiness within our soul. And on that day, it
will be because we are praising and rejoicing
in the reality of what Jesus Christ has done
for His people to present them to God. And we
will have joy, not just in that moment, but we
will have joy inexpressible and great joy for
all eternity rejoicing in what Christ has done
for His people. Resting in that sacrifice. Rejoicing
in what Christ has done. Does the reality that
God can keep you from stumbling and He can make
you stand in the presence of His glory, blameless,
with great joy, does it stir your soul? Does
it bring about worship? And adoration and praise
from within you. Does it do something? Does it
cause you to look up at God and say, Father,
thank you for the work that Christ has done.
Thank you for the reality that it's not dependent
on me. I praise your name. You are mighty. You
are good. You are gracious. Why have you done
this for a sinner like me? This should stir adoration
and it should stir worship from our hearts to
our God. Now I think it's very important that
when we talk about things that cause us to worship,
things that bring about worship in our lives,
that we don't just and only worship God because...
of what He has done and because of what He can
do and because of what He will do for me. We
have to be very careful that we don't just worship
God because of what He can do for us. We always
have to be cautious. Ultimately, if we only worship
God because of what He... can do for me, then
who are we really worshiping? We have to move
beyond the reality of simply worshiping God either
because it's encouraging to me, it feels good,
it lifts me up, it challenges me, It spurs me
on. We have to move. That is good. That's healthy.
We need that. But you can't solely and singularly
worship God because of what He does for you.
You have to worship God because of who He is.
And because, very simply put, He is worthy and
due worship. because of how great and because
of how mighty he is. This is why the object of
our worship is so important. The object of our
adoration. What is it that we worship? What is
it that we adore? It is God. Our text says, To
the only God our Savior. To the only God our
Savior. I think a good principle to live by in
regards to worship and having a right view of
God and a right view of us in regards to worship
is that the object which we adore will always
be the primary cause of the adoration which is
inside of us. So that which we set our affections
on, that which we love deeply, that which we
care about deeply, that which we adore and worship
and praise is what will be the primary cause
of what stirs our affections and our worship
and our praise and our honor to whatever it is.
So the object of what it is we worship and adore
is very, very important. It must be the only
God, the true and the mighty God who is able
to the only God, our Savior. God must be the
sole recipient of our adoration and our worship
and our worship. and our worship in our lives
and in our souls. He says, to the only God. Now,
when the Bible speaks of God being the only God,
it's not saying there's other gods that shouldn't
be worshipped. It's saying that God is the one
true living God and He is worthy of your worship.
There are no other gods. God is the only God.
There are no other gods. Go ahead and turn with
me to Exodus chapter 20. Exodus chapter 20. In
Exodus chapter 20, we learn a little bit about
worshiping God and how it is we are to worship
the only God. In Exodus chapter 20, I'm going
to start reading in verse 1. We read, Then God
spoke all these words, saying, I am the Lord
your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt,
out of the house of slavery. You shall have no
other gods before me. You shall not make for
yourself an idol. or any likeness of what is
in heaven above or in earth beneath or in the
water under the earth, you shall not worship
them or serve them, for I, the Lord your God,
am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the
fathers on the children, on the third and fourth
generations of those who hate me, but showing
loving kindness to thousands to those who love
me and keep my commandments. You shall not take
the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the
Lord will not leave him unpunished who takes
his name in vain. Remember the Sabbath day to
keep it holy. So in those first four commandments,
God speaks of worship of himself. How he is...
calling himself the only true God worthy of worship.
And here's how you ought to worship me. First,
he says that he is the only God. Don't worship
anything else. Don't make idols. Don't adore.
Don't set your hearts. Don't put your affections
on other things, but put them singularly and
solely on me. You shall have no other gods before
me. Then he says, you shall not make for yourself
an idol or any likeness. of what is in heaven.
God is invisible, and we ought to seek him in
a spiritual way. You must worship me in spirit
and in truth, as we read in the Gospel of John.
Then he says, You shall not take the name of
the Lord your God in vain. We must worship God
reverently. He is an awesome God. He is a great
and a mighty and a holy God. And we must worship
Him reverently as this text teaches. And also,
we read that we must remember the Sabbath day
to keep it holy. The Lord's Day. Sunday. Not
only has God told us who we are to worship singularly,
Him, Himself, how reverently, He's told us when?
On Sundays. So one of the special things about
Grace Fellowship Church is the way you worship
and the way you worship God. You worship the
only true God. You should revel in that. And
the reality that you worship God and you worship
Him in a way that is joyful, sincere, and honoring
to the Lord. That's why worship is worship because
you hear from God and you speak to God and you
sing to God. It's about God. He is the only one
that is to be worshiped. We are to worship because
He is the only God and the only one worthy of
worship. Next we see that He is God our Savior.
Now whenever you hear this, you think of Jesus
as our Savior. This is referred to as God in
about eight times in the New Testament. You know,
we hear Jesus as Savior quite a bit in the New
Testament. But God, generically, as Savior, we
don't hear as much. about that. But God is a
saving God. And one of the reasons that we should
worship Him alone is because He is a saving God.
He is a God of redemption, redeeming His people.
So in Ephesians chapter 1, we learn of how God
is a saving God. We learn that The plan of salvation
and the union we have with Christ comes from
the kindness of God's good intention and His
good will. It comes from within Himself. We know
in Ephesians 1 that it says, Blessed be the God
and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. who has
blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the
heavenly places in Christ. In Christ. Just as
He chose us in Him before the foundation of the
world that we would be holy and blameless before
Him. That's what we just studied and just read
in Jude. Before the foundation of the world,
that was His plan, to present to Himself a people
holy and blameless. In love, he predestined us
to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, get
this, to himself. It has always been God's plan
as a saving God to bring a redeemed people and
to present them to himself. We read a little
later that it says, to the praise of the glory
of his grace, which he freely bestowed on us
in love. the beloved. It's all because of Christ.
The saving nature and the beautiful saving reality
of who our God is is perfectly expressed and
perfectly manifested in the person and the work
of His Son. God is a saving God and He alone
should get our worship. and our adoration. Let
us set our affections on Him alone. Next, we
see that God is worthy of our worship. He's always
been worthy of our worship. And He always will
be worthy of our worship. He always has been,
always will be, and He is right now. We read,
To the only God our Savior, Be glory, majesty,
dominion, and authority before all time, now
and forever. Our worshiping God or our not worshiping
God does not add to or take away from God's gloriousness.
Our worshiping God or our not worshiping God
does not take away from or add to the fact that
He is great and He is majestic and that He is
powerful and He has all authority and He has
all dominion. God is who He is and He has always
been who He is. But because He's a saving God,
He rescued, prepared and planned and apply the
salvation to a people. God always has been and
always will be a God worthy and he alone worthy
of our worship. We must give him, direct to him,
aim at him. Our adoration set upon him, our adoration,
our praise, our affections, our heart, our lives,
because he is worthy of it. You are to worship
God because of who he is and because this great
God has done so much for you. So let us worship
him because he is worthy Because He is great
and He is mighty. And finally, we see the mediator
of our worship. The mediator of our worship.
We read in the last verse in Jude, to the only
God our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord.
be glory, majesty, dominion, authority before
all time now and forever. Amen. We've spoken
a lot of adoration and worship and praising God
and thanking God for who He is and what He's
done. There is an absolute need for every single
person to have a mediator so that Your adoration,
your worship, your praise makes it to the courts
of heaven. The most desperate prayer from a desperate
man, woman, or child. The strongest and most
fervent praise from the sweetest voice must...
have a mediator, must have a go -between. It
must be through the Lord Jesus Christ. There
is no other way to worship our great and mighty
God other than through the mediator Christ Jesus.
to adore our God, if you want to adore what he's
done and who he is, and if you want to thank
him, if you want to speak to him, you must go
through Jesus. Jesus said that I am the way,
the truth, and the life. No man comes to the
Father but by Me. We could say in that same truth,
no adoration, no worship, no praise, no honor
goes or gets to heaven but through Him. So my
plea for everybody, especially for the young
people today, is think about your worship. Think
about how do your prayers get to God? How does
your worship and your adoration get to God? It
has to go through Jesus Christ. You must have
a mediator. So we all need to trust in our mediator,
Jesus. Every single one of us.