God will keep you from stumble

உங்களை வழுவாதபடி காக்கும் கர்த்தர்

Abraham David John • 4 July 2022

Jude 1:24-25

God will keep you from stumbling!

Jude 1:24-25, Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling, And to present you faultless Before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy, 25 To God our Saviour, Who alone is wise, Be glory and majesty, Dominion and power, Both now and forever. Amen.

God is able to keep you! God is able to keep you from stumbling!! God is able to keep you so that one day He will make you stand in the presence of His glory, blameless with great joy. All the glory goes to Him because all the keeping is His!

If I hold on myself, then the glory goes to me. This is a doxology. This is praise to the only God, the only Saviour who, through Jesus Christ our Lord, is to receive all the honour, all the glory, all the majesty, all the dominion, and all the authority forever

because He is the One who is able to keep us and make us stand in His presence.

Doxology

Doxa and logos, Doxa meaning praise, Logos meaning word. It’s a word of praise, a praise word. Scripture is filled with them, with doxologies. The 150 Psalms are divided into five books. At the end of each of the five books there is a doxology.

First book: Psalms 1-41

Psalms 41:13, Blessed be the Lord God of Israel From everlasting to everlasting! Amen and Amen. Second book: Psalms 42-72

Psalms 72:18-19, Blessed be the Lord God, the God of Israel, Who only does wondrous things! 19 And blessed be His glorious name forever! And let the whole earth be filled with His glory. Amen and Amen.

Third book: Psalms 73-89

Psalms 89:52, Blessed be the Lord forevermore! Amen and Amen. Fourth book: Psalms 90-106

Psalms 106:48, Blessed be the Lord God of Israel From everlasting to everlasting! And let all the people say, “Amen!” Praise the Lord! Fifth book: Psalms 106-150

Psalms 150:1-6, Praise the Lord! Praise God in His sanctuary; Praise Him in His mighty firmament! 2 Praise Him for His mighty acts; Praise Him according to His excellent greatness! 3 Praise Him with the sound of the trumpet; Praise Him with the lute and harp! 4 Praise Him with the timbrel and dance; Praise Him with stringed instruments and flutes! 5 Praise Him with loud cymbals; Praise Him with clashing cymbals! 6 Let everything that has breath praise the Lord. Praise the Lord!

The songbook of the redeemed was punctuated, climaxed in responses of praise for God’s glorious work among His people. Angels sang a doxology at Christ’s birth.

Luke 2:13-14, And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying:

14 “Glory to God in the highest, And on earth peace, goodwill toward men!” People gave a doxology at Christ’s arrival in the city of Jerusalem when they hailed Him as Messiah.

Luke 19:37-38, Then, as He was now drawing near the descent of the Mount of Olives, the whole multitude of the disciples began to rejoice and praise God with a loud voice for all the mighty works they had seen, 38 saying: “‘Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord!’ Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!”

The New Testament is filled with doxologies. None of them ever deal with mundane matters. They always deal with salvation. They always deal only with that which is eternally marvellous. They are words of grateful praise to God for saving sinners.

Doxology is a foretaste of heaven. That’s what we are going to spend forever doing, declaring doxology. They are outbursts of praise in contemplation of the greatness of our salvation.

Galatians 1:3-5, Grace to you and peace from God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ, 4 who gave Himself for our sins, that He might deliver us from this present evil age, according to the

will of our God and Father, 5 to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen. You find this kind of spontaneous Holy Spirit energized doxology all through the New Testament, these kinds of outbursts.

Romans 11:33-36, Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and His ways past finding out! 34 “For who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has become His counsellor?” 35 “Or who has first given to Him And it shall be repaid to him?” 36 For of Him and through Him and to Him are all things, to whom be glory forever. Amen.

Romans 16:25-27, 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 26 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— 27 to God, alone wise, be glory through Jesus Christ forever. Amen. In writing his wonderful first epistle to

1 Timothy 1:17, Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, to God who alone is wise, be honour and glory forever and ever. Amen.

What’s he saying that for?

Where is it coming from?

1 Timothy 1:15, This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief. Doxology comes in response to the saving work of God, and it recognizes that it’s all His work, and He receives all the credit, all the honour, all the glory. Paul writes as he closes out his life.

2 Timothy 4:18, And the Lord will deliver me from every evil work and preserve me for His heavenly kingdom. To Him be glory forever and ever. Amen! Paul knew he was secure. Jude does the same thing!

This is a doxology that calms our fears and fuels our hopes. This is a doxology that gives us joy. Just a few moments the flow of the letter he had written.

Jude, our Lord’s half-brother, wrote to call us to the war against false teachers, apostates. “Certain persons” - verse 4 says - “who crept in unnoticed,” crept into the church, they’re like reefs under the surface, hidden in the church.

In verse 12 they are ungodly and immoral, and they deny the lordship of Christ. These are apostates and false teachers embedded in the church. Jude goes on to give us the history of these kinds of apostates. He characterizes them for us as well.

After this long description of apostates, running all the way down to verse 17, he says, “But you” How are you going to defend yourself in a time of apostasy?

How are you going to protect yourself? How are you going to fight for the truth? How are you going to engage in the long war against the truth? V 17-19, Remember the words spoken beforehand by the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ. They said in the last times there would be mockers following their own godly lusts. Don’t be surprised, it was prophesied many times.

Then build yourself up on your most holy faith, pray in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in the love of God, wait for the mercy of the Lord Jesus Christ to eternal life. Remain in the place of blessing, remain faithful to spiritual growth, spiritual communion, spiritual obedience, and hold out your spiritual hope.

V 22-23. Have mercy on some who are doubting, save others snatching them out of the fire, and on some have mercy with fear, hating even the garment polluted by the flesh.

We remember that the Lord promised us this would happen.
We remain in the place of blessing.
We reach out to the people in danger, the people who are being captivated by the apostates and the false teachers.

There will be doubters, convinced and committed to this false doctrine. It’s dangerous to get close to this stuff. Which brings us to the final question. If this apostasy is so dangerous and so deadly and harmful, is it possible that we could lose our salvation?

If this could cost me my eternal salvation, that I ever want to get close to anybody who’s polluted. This whole epistle was about people who fell and angels who fell.

After Jude has gone through all this history of the Israelites that fell.
The angels who fell from their abode.
The Sodom and Gomorrah that fell.
The false teachers that fell and the victims of the false teachers that fell.

Could I fail?

Could I reject the truth? Could I be so polluted and stained by the false teachers? The epistle ends with a statement of assurance. Jude says there are two things you must know.

God is able to keep you and
God will make you stand in the presence of His glory.

Can God keep me, and can He get me there in the presence of His glory? Jude answers that not only can He do that, but He will.

God will preserve you
God will present you

The One who chose us and saved us will keep us.

1. Preserve

V 24, “Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling,” God is able to keep us from stumbling.

Does God want to preserve us? God is holy. God hates sin. God could not want us to lose our salvation. That would be to want evil for His children. God can’t want evil at all for anyone ever.

He couldn’t want us to turn.
He couldn’t want us to defect.
He couldn’t want us to be lost in sin.

If He did, then He would be less than holy.

Does He want us to be kept to the end? Yes! All we need to know is that is He able? “To Him who is able.”

2 Peter 3:9, The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.

The Lord promised that He was going to come and take His people to glory. Believers at the time of Peter were wondering when it was going to happen. Peter says that don’t be too anxious with the Lord. God doesn’t watch the clock and doesn’t watch the calendar like you do. Because He hasn’t come and hasn’t fulfilled that promise doesn’t mean He’s slack, doesn’t mean He’s indifferent.

But He is patient. God is patient toward you! God is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance.

Why does the Lord tarry/delay?

Not because God is a slacker. But He is being patient toward His people, toward you.
Not wishing for any of His people to perish but for all His people to come to repentance.

Some people think that means that He wants the whole world to come to repentance. No, that can’t be possible because this is in a context of judgment.

2 Peter 3:7, But the heavens and the earth which are now preserved by the same word, are reserved for fire until the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men. A day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men.

The reason the Lord delayed is not for the ungodly that are going to be destroyed. But it is for His own. Redemptive history will continue to go on until all who were chosen to have been called and justified. When the chosen have all been justified, then will come the end.

God is not willing that any of His own perish but that all come to repentance. They are His own by election, and because He

chose them, they will come to repentance and faith and salvation and glorification.

John 6:37, All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will by no means cast out.

The Father has chosen them before the foundation of the world, to give them to the Son, all people that are saved through all redemptive history are love gifts from the Father to the Son. They constitute the bride that the Father has sought and is seeking for His Son.

So, the history must keep going until the people that God chose before the foundation of the world are born and justified.

John 6:39, This is the will of the Father who sent Me, that of all He has given Me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up at the last day.

The Father chooses, the Father gives to the Son, and the Son keeps, and the Son raises on the last day. Nobody falls through the cracks.

John 6:40, And this is the will of Him who sent Me, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in Him may have everlasting life; and I will raise him up at the last day.” Everyone who has a true vision of Christ and believes in Him will receive eternal life and be raised on the last day.

John 6:44, No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up at the last day.

Everyone the Father chooses He gives to the Son,
Everyone He gives to the Son sees the Son, believes in the Son.
Everyone who believes in the Son as a gift to the Father, the Son receives.
Everyone the Son receives, the Son keeps.
Everyone the Son keeps, He raises at the last day.

The question, then, is not about God’s willingness. It’s not about God’s purpose. We know He is willing, and we know He has purposed to save all the elect.

The only question is: Is He able?

1 Timothy 2:4-5, who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. 5 For there is one God and one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus,

We know He desires them all to come to eternal life.

The question is, is He able? Jude answers it, “Now to Him who is able.” God is able. He is the only God, our Saviour, and if He doesn’t save us, we aren’t going to save ourselves. He is able. God is able, dunamenō, from which we get dynamite.

He is able.

Daniel 3:17, If that is the case, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and He will deliver us from your hand, O king. New Testament is loaded with testimonies to the power of God.

2 Corinthians 9:8. And God is able to make all grace abound toward you, that you, always having all sufficiency in all things, may have an abundance for every good work.

God is able to supply all the grace that is needed to cover every sin.

Ephesians 3:20-21, Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, 21 to Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen. Another doxology right in the middle of a letter by Paul, and he bursts into doxology because he comprehends that He is able. He is able.

Hebrews 5:7, who, in the days of His flesh, when He had offered up prayers and supplications, with vehement cries and tears to Him who was able to save Him from death, and was heard because of His godly fear, Jesus expressing confidence that God the Father could save Him from the horrific experience He was about to have as the sin-bearer receiving the full fury of God’s wrath.

Hebrews 7:25, Therefore He is also able to save to the uttermost those who come to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them. There’s no question about His ability, He’s able!

It is dangerous to live in this apostate environment today in which we live. Apostasy is on the increase. We are exposed to

more lies, deception than any generation in history because of media. Should we draw back in fear and not evangelize for fear that somehow, we might get burned reaching to snatch somebody out of the fire? Or we might get polluted by grabbing someone deep in sin?

No! If you are a true believer, then you are in no danger of fatal corruption. You are in no danger of damnation. Our God is able. Humanly speaking, the path to heaven is dangerous.

It’s filled with stumbling blocks.
It’s filled with temptations.
It’s filled with sins and iniquities and transgressions.
It’s filled with demons and Satan.

But in another sense, the path to heaven is absolutely safe! Not because I am able but because He’s able. I am weak, ignorant, disobedient, selfish, sinful, and rebellious but God is able! I do not rest in my own ability to somehow outfox the devil or overpower my own flesh. I rest in His power.

“Now to Him who is able to keep you.” The Greek word for Keep is phulassō, means to guard, and it is a military word, to guard or watch over, different than the word “keep” used back in verse 21, which means to hold or possess.

God is able to guard us, He stands guard over us, He’s at His post. We are in safe custody while under assault, that’s what that word means. God keeps us from apostasy. You can’t fall away because He keeps you from becoming an apostate.

How does God do it? By the gift of a permanent faith, a new heart, and the indwelling Holy Spirit. He hangs onto us.

John 10:28-29, And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand. 29 My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of My Father’s hand.

Jesus won’t let go,
The Father won’t let go, and
No one is powerful to force us to release anyone.

Philippians 1:6, “He that begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ.” He who started it will finish it. Nobody falls through the cracks.

Apostates in Israel fell.
Apostate angels fell.
Apostates in Sodom and Gomorrah fell.
Apostates in the church fell. 2. Present.

But true believers are kept. Our Lord has the will, and the power to preserve us. V 24, Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling, And to present you faultless Before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy,

Romans 5:1-4, Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, 2 through whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. 3 And not only that, but we also glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance; 4 and perseverance, character; and character, hope.

This is the opposite of falling, this is standing. This is enduring to the end. This is the perseverance of the saints. True believers have been given a faith that endures. And to present you faultless Before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy,

1 John 2:19, They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us; but they went out that they might be made manifest, that none of them were of us.

When somebody leaves and apostatizes, falls away, abandons the faith, they never were real.

1 John 2:20-23, But you have an anointing from the Holy One, and you know all things. 21 I have not written to you because you do not know the truth, but because you know it, and that no lie is of the truth. 22 Who is a liar but he who denies that Jesus is the Christ? He is antichrist who denies the Father and the Son. 23 Whoever denies the Son does not have the Father either; he who acknowledges the Son has the Father also.

If you ever truly confessed the Son, you will always confess the Son.
If you ever truly believed in the Son, you will always believe in the Son and the Father.

When somebody falls away, it’s because they never were of us. But the statement here is not about standing on earth.

Being kept has to do with earth.
Standing has to do with heaven.

Standing in the presence of His glory. All this means is He keeps us here and takes us there. This is astonishing grace! Whenever you read in the Bible about somebody who was in the presence of God, it’s a horrific, traumatic experience.

Isaiah pronounces a curse on himself.
Ezekiel falls over like a dead person.
Peter, James, and John on the Mount of Transfiguration fall over in a semi-coma.
John, in the book of Revelation, sees the vision of Christ and is like a dead person.

Just absolutely scared out of their wits so that they faint. Whenever anybody is in the presence of God in Scripture, it is a frightening experience because they know they are sinful. Any true believer who ever stood in the presence of God in this life, in this flesh, in this unredeemed human condition, would fall over in absolute terror, knowing himself to be sinful.

But someday we will stand in the presence of His glory blameless. Instead of fear, there will be great joy. Anybody ever standing in the presence of God was traumatized, terrified. That is a place where no sinner can stand.

Revelation 21:27, But there shall by no means enter it anything that defiles, or causes an abomination or a lie, but only those who are written in the Lamb’s Book of Life.

Revelation 22:15, But outside are dogs and sorcerers and sexually immoral and murderers and idolaters, and whoever loves and practices a lie.

These kinds of people don’t come into the presence of God.

I am regularly pained by people who claim to have seen God, gone to heaven, had visions of God, heard personally from God. What shallowness, what folly to think you can go in and out of God’s heavenly, holy presence in this earthly form.

You couldn’t get near God in God’s heaven in this earthly form. To stand in His holy, glorious presence, you must be without blame, and pure. You must be as holy as Christ is. Anybody says they went to heaven is lying to you unless they died, and then if they did, they can’t tell you they went there.

Faultless, the word was originally used to apply to sacrifices.

Hebrews 9:14, how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God? Right now, we are not blameless.

We are treated as if we were blameless because Christ bore our sins and we’ve been given His righteousness.

God treats Christ on the cross as if He lived our lives so He can treat us as if we lived His. But we are not now worthy to enter into heaven. That’s why we must be transformed, we must lose this body of flesh and go into God’s presence and receive a new body. But that will happen.

We will not just be there alive, survivors. We will not just be free from guilt and sin.

We will be holy.
We will be blameless.
We will be faultless.
We will not only not violate God’s law.
We will keep every bit of it all the time forever.

It is not just that we will be there in the absence of sin, but we will be there in the presence of holiness.

We will not only not be capable of doing evil, but we will also be only capable of doing right.
We will have every power and every passion emancipated from evil and devoted only to holiness.
We will be there with our heads lifted up, blameless before God.

Instead of fear and trauma and panic and fainting, we will be overwhelmed with joy forever. Joy defines heaven.

Zephaniah 3:17, The Lord your God in your midst, The Mighty One, will save; He will rejoice over you with gladness, He will quiet you with His love, He will rejoice over you with singing.” Not only are we going to sing praise to God, but He’s also going to sing praise concerning us. Jesus went to the cross for the joy that was set before Him. What’s that joy going to be? Fellowship with us. He’s going to rejoice over us. God’s going to rejoice over us and we are going to rejoice over the Lord and over the Father.

God Himself singing? I can imagine when the world was made, the morning stars sang together, shouting for joy. But God didn’t sing. He said it was very good, that’s all. There was no song. But when all the chosen races shall meet around the throne, the joy of the eternal Father shall swell so high that God will burst into infinite song.

Nothing can ever change that. Absolutely nothing can ever change that.

Romans 8:33-35, Who shall bring a charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. 34 Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died, and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us. 35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? Join the celebration of verse 25. To God our Saviour, Who alone is wise, Be glory and majesty, Dominion and power, Both now and forever. Amen. All credit goes to the only God. There’s only one.

The only God who is our Saviour.
The only God who is our Saviour through Jesus Christ.
The only God who is our Saviour through Jesus Christ who is our Lord.

To Him be all glory, majesty, dominion, and authority. None left for anyone else, including us. We are there because He kept us, He preserved us, and He presented us.

The value of salvation is in the guarantee! The doctrine of the final preservation of the saints was the bait that my soul could not resist. It was sort of a life insurance, an insurance of my character, an insurance of my soul, an insurance of my eternal destiny.

I knew I couldn’t keep myself, but if Christ promised to keep me, then I would be safe forever! Last Sunday we saw from Matthew 8:18-22, when Jesus commanded us to leave everything to follow Him, do you think Jesus will let you down the one forsaken everything to follow Him?