TO HIM WHO IS ABLE TO KEEP US!
Posted by Pastor Greg Allen on August 22, 2018 under AM Bible Study |
AM Bible Study Group: August 22, 2018 from Jude 24-25
Theme: Our confidence in times of apostasy is in the God who is able to keep us.
(All Scripture is taken from The New King James Version, unless otherwise indicated).
We come this morning to the end of our study of the very tiny New Testament book of Jude—a book with a very serious theme; and one that is filled with very stern words that describe a very dark time of trial. And yet, how wonderful that it all ends with a great note of victory! The Holy Spirit led the inspired writer Jude to close his tiny book with—of all things!—a wonderful doxology.
The word ‘doxology’ comes from the Greek word for ‘glory’; and it is the name given to a type of song or an expression of worship that declares the glory of God. The doxology at the end of Jude’s letter is one that is particularly related to its controlling theme. It is a doxology that is meant to lift our hearts and encourage us with the power of God to keep His people in a time when the pressures toward unfaithfulness seem overwhelming, and when apostasy seems to be the rule of the day. Jude closes his letter with these glorious words;
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,
To God our Savior,
Who alone is wise,
Be glory and majesty,
Dominion and power,
Both now and forever.
Amen (Jude 24-25)
* * * * * * * * * * *
The theme of this letter, as we have seen, has been a call to contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints—that is, the message of the gospel. The author, Jude (who was a half-brother of our Lord) intended to write a treatise on the subject of salvation. But the Holy Spirit led him to change his plan:
Beloved, while I was very diligent to write to you concerning our common salvation, I found it necessary to write to you exhorting you to contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints. For certain men have crept in unnoticed, who long ago were marked out for this condemnation, ungodly men, who turn the grace of our God into lewdness and deny the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ (Jude 3-4).
We are called in this letter to stand faithful for the gospel, and to earnestly contend for it against those who oppose it and seek to pervert it. And in all honesty, if it were strictly up to us to keep ourselves faithful in a time of such apostasy, we would surely fall. After all, it isn’t really against flesh and blood that we contend for the gospel; but rather, it is against spiritual forces of wickedness in high places. But praise God!—it isn’t ultimately up to us to preserve ourselves in the faith! In these wonderful closing words—in this doxology of victory—we’re given the assurance that our confidence in times of apostasy rests in the God who is able to keep us.
What a glorious affirmation these closing words are of the preservation of the saints to the very end!
Jude comforts us with the preserving hand of God by first telling us …
I. HOW GREAT HIS KEEPING POWER IS.
He writes, “Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling …”
These words have a particular focus on the struggle that we are presently dealing with in this world. All around us are things that could cause us to stumble. Just think of how easy it is to fall doctrinally. A twist of a doctrine here, or an omission of a part of truth there, and we might easily fall into a serious and destructive error. And not only that, but we also struggle with our own weaknesses and frailties of the flesh. If it were up to us, we would be easily pulled off the path by our own fallenness and into trespass against God. And even more, there is the constant threat of the devil—the enemy of our souls—who roams about in the world like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. When we think of the fact that we live in the midst of a world that is filled with error, and as a people who are fallible and prone to sin, and are constantly being threatened by a powerful spiritual enemy who is set upon destroying us; how could we ever hope to keep ourselves in faithfulness to God? We simply are not able.
But this doxology sings praise to “Him who is able” to keep us from stumbling. His power toward us is unlimited. As it says in Ephesians 3:20-21—in another great ‘doxology’ passage in the New Testament;
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, to Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen (Ephesians 3:20-21).
We may at times stumble, but our stumbling is temporal and will never be fatal or permanent. Our mighty God is able to pick us up, cleanse us, and restore us—and all so as to ensure that, when all the dust is cleared, we are still standing true to Him.
And not only is He able to keep us in our struggles in this life—not only is He able to pick us up after we have fallen in a temporal sense—but He is able to preserve us all the way to the day of heavenly glory. Jude writes further that He is able “to present you faultless before the presence of His glory”. He who began a good work in us, as it is promised to us in Philippians 1:6, “will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ”. God the Father has given that which was most precious to Himself in order to secure our glorification—that is, His only begotten Son. And the Son Himself has willingly given His life on the cross in order to bring us to glory. And what’s more, the Holy Spirit has been placed in us as the seal that guarantees that we will be glorified. And so, the triune Godhead has given all—and done all that is necessary—to secure that future glory. The one who is able to keep us will never allow one of His redeemed ones to be lost to Himself. Our Lord has laid down His life for the church of the redeemed, so that
He might present her to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish (Ephesians 5:27).
As it says in 1 Thessalonians 3:12, our Redeemer has so worked
that He may establish your hearts blameless in holiness before our God and Father at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with all His saints (1 Thessalonians 3:12).
How then would He who gave His all for us ever fail to bring us to full glory?
And note finally that our preservation unto full glorification will be “with exceeding joy”. We will not only be kept for that day, and we will not only be glorified in that day, but we ourselves will be exceedingly joyful in that day. No matter what the struggles for the faith may be right now—no matter how much we may feel the pain of opposition and attack presently—we will be made to stand before our Savior with “exceeding joy” as we behold Him and are transformed into His image. As Peter once put it;
In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, if need be, you have been grieved by various trials, that the genuineness of your faith, being much more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to praise, honor, and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ, whom having not seen you love. Though now you do not see Him, yet believing, you rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory, receiving the end of your faith—the salvation of your souls (1 Peter 1:6-10).
That, of course, speaks of our own joy on that day. But it may be that when Jude speaks of the prospect of ‘exceeding joy’, he also has in mind the joy of our Lord Himself. Hebrews 12:2 speaks of Jesus as
the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God (Hebrews 12:2).
And if this is the meaning, then we can be sure that our Lord is able to keep us for the day of His own ‘exceeding joy’ through our glorification with Him.
So; in a time of great apostasy—when we see others around us falling off the path; and when we feel as if we must constantly battle for the faith—we need to remember the victory that this doxology affirms to us. He is able to keep us! He has invested Himself in us! He will will bring us all the way to full glorification in Christ.
Next, note …
II. IN WHOM IT IS THAT WE ARE KEPT.
We get a little sense of this in verse 25; where it says, “To God our Savior, who alone is wise …” And in this, Jude clearly ascribes glory to the one who saves us. But there are variations in the ancient texts in this last verse, and the above translation is not representative of the best manuscripts. The best texts have it as it is translated in the New American Standard version; “to the only God our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord.” And taking that translation as our guide, we find that our safe-keeping is secure because of who it is that we are kept in.
First, we see that our safe-keeping is ascribed “to the only God our Savior”. There is no other God than the one true God. The false teachers in Jude’s day may have been importing gnostic ideas into the church fellowship at the time, and this would have confused people with the blasphemous idea that there were many gods. Our salvation, however, is from the one and only true God—the God of the Bible—along beside whom there is no other. As God Himself has testified in Isaiah 44:8; “Is there a God besides Me? Indeed there is no other Rock; I know not one.” If God knows of no other, then there is no other! And this one and only true God—and He alone—is our Savior!
But notice also that the only God our Savior saves us “through Jesus Christ our Lord”. It is in “the Beloved” (that is, Christ), that the apostle Paul tells us God the Father has made us accepted in His sight (Ephesians 1:6). Paul wrote;
In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace which He made to abound toward us in all wisdom and prudence, having made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His good pleasure which He purposed in Himself, that in the dispensation of the fullness of the times He might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth—in Him (Ephesians 1:7-10).
“In Him”! It’s as if our eternal destiny is placed in a great ‘Safe’ for us; and that this glorious, eternal ‘Safe’ is seated at the right hand of God the Father; and that this ‘Safe’ is a divine Person—Jesus Christ. We can have great confidence in the security of our eternal glory because of the one in whom it is preserved. Paul was so confident in the one in whom his eternal destiny was kept that he was able to say—near the end of his life; just before he died a martyr’s death for the gospel;
I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that He is able to keep what I have committed to Him until that Day (2 Timothy 1:12).
Our God is able to keep us for that future day of glory, and we could be kept in no safer place than in Christ Himself.
And note finally …
III. WHAT HIS KEEPING RESULTS IN.
Jude writes that to God alone our Savior … “be glory and majesty, dominion and power …” Our salvation is something that will result in the praise of our God forever, and with the highest and fullest praise possible. Our salvation is intended to magnify His perfections and power and authority, and result in the heavens being filled with His praise.
Consider that in Ephesians 1, we’re told about the work that each member of the triune Godhead performs. And at the end of each description of each divine Person’s work, we’re told that what the outcome will be; “to the praise of the glory of His grace” (Ephesians 1:6); “that we who first trusted in Christ should be to the praise of His glory” (v. 12); “to the praise of His glory” (v. 14). Consider also how the Bible tells us that, when a great and innumerable multitude of the redeemed—made up of all nations, tribes, peoples, and tongues—is finally found to be “standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, saying, ‘Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!’” (Revelation 7:8-10); then all the angels standing around the throne and the elders and the four living creatures will fall on their faces before the throne and worship God, saying
“Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom,
Thanksgiving and honor and power and might,
Be to our God forever and ever.
Amen” (Revelation 7:12)
The host of heavenly angels will then praise God for our salvation. And Paul himself gave us a preview of that praise when—at the end of his long explanation in Romans about our salvation—he summed it all up by exclaiming,
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!
“For who has known the mind of the Lord?
Or who has become His counselor?”“Or who has first given to Him
And it shall be repaid to him?”For of Him and through Him and to Him are all things, to whom be glory forever. Amen (Romans 11:33-36).
That will be the outcome of God’s work of keeping us for Himself until the day of our glorification in Christ. It will be eternal praise to God. And not just for a short season; but in the fullest sense of eternity. In the New King James Version, Jude’s final words are translated that glory is ascribed to God our Savior “both now and forever. Amen.” But here again, the New American Standard version gives us the best representation of the most reliable manuscripts: “before all time and now and forever. Amen.” In other words, God’s glory for our salvation will have a three-fold reach: into eternity past (because He has secured that salvation for us before time), and in the present (because we are even now to the praise of His glory), and into eternity future (because we will always be His in Christ).
* * * * * * * * * * *
So; in a time of apostasy, we are called to rise up and contend earnestly for the faith once given to the saints. Now is the time to labor faithfully and diligently to protect the gospel against those who would attack it and pervert it; and to give ourselves fully over to the faithful proclamation of it. The whole of this letter has shown us how hard a work that is.
But we can do all of this hard work with confidence. Even in the face of great opposition and unfaithfulness, we can be assured that we will be kept by God for the day of glory.
He is able to keep us. And He will.
EA
