This morning I would invite you to turn with me to the second to the last book of the Bible, Jude. As we read together this chapter, considering in particular verse 24 of Jude. Jude, beginning at verse 1, as we hear now the Word of God. Jude, a servant of Jesus Christ and a brother of James, to those who have been called, who are loved by God the Father, and kept by Jesus Christ, mercy, peace, and love be yours in abundance. Dear friends, although I was very eager to write to you about the salvation we share, I felt I had to write and urge you to contend for the faith that was once for all entrusted to the saints. For certain men whose condemnation was written about long ago have secretly slipped in among you. They are godless men who change the grace of our God into a license for immorality and deny Jesus Christ our only Sovereign and Lord. Though you already know all this, I want to remind you that the Lord delivered His people out of Egypt but later destroyed those who did not believe. And the angels who did not keep their positions of authority but abandoned their own home, these he has kept in darkness, bound with everlasting chains for judgment on the great day. In a similar way, Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding towns gave themselves up to sexual immorality and perversion. They serve as an example of those who suffer the punishment of eternal fire. In the very same way, these dreamers pollute their own bodies, reject authority, and slander celestial beings. But even the archangel Michael, when he was disputing with the devil about the body of Moses, did not dare to bring a slanderous accusation against him, but said, The Lord rebuke you. Yet these men speak abusively against whatever they do not understand and what things they do understand by instinct, like unreasoning animals. These are the very things that destroy them. Woe to them! They have taken the way of Cain. They have rushed for profit into Balaam's error. They have been destroyed in Korah's rebellion. These men are blemishes at your love feasts, eating with you without the slightest qualm, shepherds who feed only themselves. They are clouds without rain, blown along by the wind, autumn trees without fruit and uprooted, twice dead. They are wild waves of the sea, foaming up their shame, wandering stars for whom blackest darkness has been reserved forever. Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied about these men. See, the Lord is coming with thousands upon thousands of His holy ones to judge everyone and to convict all the ungodly of all the ungodly acts they have done in the ungodly way and of all the harsh words ungodly sinners have spoken against Him. These men are grumblers and fault finders. They follow their own evil desires. They boast about themselves and flatter others for their own advantage. But, dear friends, remember what the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ foretold. They said to you, in the last times there will be scoffers who will follow their own ungodly desires. These are the men who divide you, who follow mere natural instincts and do not have the Spirit. But you, dear friends, build yourselves up in your most holy faith and pray in the Holy Spirit. Keep yourselves in God's love as you wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to bring you to eternal life. Be merciful to those who doubt. Snatch others from the fire and save them. To others show mercy mixed with fear, hating even the clothing stained by corrupted flesh. To Him who is able to keep you from falling and to present you before His glorious presence without fault and with great joy, to the only God, our Savior, Be glory, majesty, power, and authority through Jesus Christ our Lord before all ages, now and forevermore. Amen. Shall we bow together in prayer? Father, we thank You for Your Word. We thank You for the wonderful truths that You reveal in Your Word. We pray, Father, that in this morning hour You would indeed bless us. That You would open our hearts by the power of Your Holy Spirit. Illumine us, O Lord, that we might hear, that we might understand, that we might believe and obey. Strengthen us, we pray, in that most holy faith. Please be with Him who brings Your Word this morning, O Lord. Indeed, He is weak, but You are strong. We pray that You would bless us, Father, with Your Word. We pray that You would strengthen us. and make us faithful, we pray. In Jesus' name we pray these things. Amen. Beloved in the Lord Jesus Christ, even though here we are on the 8th day of January of a new year already, we still think about the year past a little bit. And as we reflect on the year past, and as we also think about the year ahead, it doesn't take long to realize that there is much instability in this world. And it's not always pleasant, is it? Sometimes rarely pleasant. We have faced it in this church as a number of our families have left us to take up residence in other places. If we think on a bit of a broader scale, during 2005, many servicemen and women of our nation as well as citizens of Iraq lost their lives and continue to lose their lives due to insurgent violence. Many started 2005 in seeming hopelessness because of the tsunami's path of destruction and others ended 2005 with the same seeming hopelessness because of Hurricane Katrina. We know, of course, from news reports that there were massive earthquakes and mudslides that turned the world upside down for many. Most recently, in this past week, we think of the families who lost loved ones in that mining catastrophe in West Virginia. The entertainment world. At the end of the year, I was listening to a report on TV, a news report about the entertainment world that lost a number of icons this past year. And of course, for some, the world will simply never be the same without them. National leaders, world leaders have died. A number of you here suffered loss of loved ones this past year. You see, especially death can bring with it the feeling of instability and uncertainty. The congregation, as tragic as many of these things are, as God's people, we have great reason to rejoice. And that's because of our comfort and confidence of being kept by God. No matter what the situation or circumstance of life we may face, no matter how devastating, how terrible it may be, we have the confidence that we are kept by God. Now this text, verse 24, is a beautiful reminder, beloved, of our only hope for salvation. And what it has to teach us is both amazing and at the same time humbling. And actually, as I trust is clear, verse 24 is a part of a unit that consists of both verses 24 and 25, which is a doxology. a call for praise. And in these verses, Jude is giving glory and praise to God because of who He is, because of what He has done, and because of what He is doing. And in no way do we want to minimize this doxology, but instead we want to consider why it is that God deserves such praise from His people by considering what He has done and what He is doing. Again, this verse of Scripture teaches of the believer's comfort of being kept by God. And really, beloved, there you have it already. Why does God deserve our adoration and our praise and our glory? It's because He preserves us. He keeps us from deadly danger. And He keeps us for divine fellowship. As Reformed Christians, we believe and we confess that wonderful truth of Scripture which we call the perseverance, or also known as the preservation of the saints. Saints persevere because they are preserved by God. In John 6, verse 39, Jesus said, 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. And of course, we know that Paul says in Romans chapter 8 that nothing shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. As well, Paul says in 2 Timothy 4, verse 18, And the Lord will deliver me from every evil work and preserve me for His heavenly kingdom. And of course, this is just a sample of the proof text for this comforting doctrine. And this text before us this morning then teaches us how God preserves us. Jude begins, to Him who is able to keep you from falling. Or as another translation says, to keep you from stumbling. A congregation, the path to heaven is safe. We must know that. There must be no doubt about that. Jesus Christ has forged that path. He prepared it. He walked it. He leads us on it as His people. Yet at the same time, we might say there's no road as dangerous as it. The enemy, Satan, is working all along the Christian's path to turn us away. He uses his means to make the road rough. He sets his hosts in strategic places of ambush. He tries to make the path slippery with compromise so that we cannot stand. Whatever roadblocks or potholes of lies and deception He can set up or put in our way, He will. In order to try to get us to turn to the left or to the right and take our focus off of our Lord Jesus Christ. Remember the writer of Hebrews says, focus in essence, focus, look to Him, the author and finisher of our faith. Satan's desire is to get us to take our eyes off because he knows exactly what will happen if we fail to look to Jesus? Throughout this one-chapter letter, Jude warns his hearers of false teachers from within the church. Again, in verse 4, For certain men whose condemnation was written about long ago have secretly slipped in among you. They are godless men who change the grace of our God into a license for immorality and deny Jesus Christ, our only Sovereign and Lord. And down to verse 10, Yet these men speak abusively against whatever they do not understand and what things they do understand by instinct like unreasoning animals, these are the very things that destroy them. Woe to them! They have taken the way of Cain. They have rushed for profit into Balaam's error. They have been destroyed in Korah's rebellion. These men are blemishes at your love feast, eating with you without the slightest qualm. Shepherds who feed only themselves. And notice how he points out their uselessness. They are clouds without rain, blown along by the wind. Autumn trees without fruit and uprooted, twice dead. They are wild waves of the sea, foaming up their shame, wandering stars for whom blackest darkness has been reserved forever. You see, beloved, the danger for believers cannot and it must not be minimized. Just as the situations of this life, situations such as we started this sermon with, such as the situations of this life seem to be unstable and uncertain and dangerous, Satan would have you and me believe that our spiritual life, our spiritual welfare is also unstable. That it's also in danger. Paul says in 1 Timothy 3, verse 12, Yes, and all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution. Jude warns believers that all around them there is apostasy even through heretics in the church. This apostasy is not foreign to us, is it? We can see the apostasy in the world. We see it on the television and in the programs that blaspheme God and the Word of God. We see it, we read about it in the newspaper. But we know that even in the visible church or many that call themselves church, many of them have fallen so far away from the truth of the Word of God. The danger is there. We must acknowledge that. But you see, along with this warning, beloved, Jude calls believers to action. In essence, he says, get to work. Again, in verse 3, he says, to contend for the faith that was once for all entrusted to the saints. And in verses 20 and 21, but you, dear friends, build yourselves up in your most holy faith and pray in the Holy Spirit. Keep yourselves in God's love as you wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to bring you to eternal life. Now, of course, he's not saying go out and get yourself saved. He's not saying go out and earn for yourself salvation. He is saying put your faith to work, that gift of faith that God has given to you. Defend it. Notice the believer's responsibility. Even as Paul says in Romans 6, We are dead to sin and alive to Christ. Therefore, we can no longer live in our sin. We are servants of righteousness. And Paul says in Philippians 2, verse 12, Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. Get to work. But notice Paul goes on. he adds in the next verse, for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure. We don't have to worry about failing, beloved, because God does not leave us to ourselves to carry out the work He has called us to carry out. Jude says, to Him who is able to keep you from falling. You see, God calls us to stand firm in the faith and in life. Yet, if He left this to ourselves, the truth is we could only stumble. In fact, that would be our desire. Stumbling and falling when it comes to the things of God is natural for us apart from Jesus Christ. And again, the temptation is always there. Asaph in Psalm 73 confessed, but as for me, my feet had almost stumbled. Again, this was after he confessed the goodness of God. He goes on to say, but as for me, my feet had almost stumbled and my steps had nearly slipped. Even though he knew the goodness of God. And why was this? For I was envious of the boastful when I saw the prosperity of the wicked. Peter himself was an example of this, wasn't he? Boys and girls, you may remember the episode when Jesus was walking on the water and He came to His disciples who were in the boat in the middle of the lake and Peter challenged Jesus and said, Lord, if it is You, Command me to come to you on the water. So he, that is Jesus, said, come. Come. We know what happened, don't we? Peter did walk on the water for a time, but just as soon as he took his eyes off of whom? Jesus. And focused on the wind and the waves. He was afraid. He began to sink. He is a picture for us of spiritual stumbling and falling. You see, really, believers are like young children just learning to walk. No matter how far along we might be in this life, as the Catechism says, even the most faithful have but a small beginning of new obedience. And therefore, believers are like young children just learning to walk and our spiritual legs are weak. We wobble back and forth. We fall often. Jude warns believers against impiety and against impurity, but the truth is that we cannot guard against impiety, nor can we achieve purity in our own strength. We need power from above. We need the power of God for the sake of Jesus Christ, who secured our release from the bondage of sin and evil. He alone is able to keep us from falling. Into what? From stumbling into sin and falling forever away from God. You see, beloved, the blessed message here with this word falling or stumbling is of God's power to keep His people in His grace and therefore securing us in our salvation. And beloved, if you have true faith, you will not fall away in the end. And God's ableness to do this is confirmed by Paul when he says in Romans 16.25, now to Him who is able to establish you according to My Gospel. And Paul says in Ephesians 3, now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think. But not only is He able to keep us from falling, He actually does keep His people from stumbling and falling away from Him. Now this is not to say. This is not to say that He will never allow us to follow our own selfish wills for a time, He might. This is not teaching us that once we are converted, we will be perfect from this day forward. Isn't that a relief? At times, sad to say, God's people do commit gross sin. Think of David with Bathsheba and all that transpired from that. Think of Peter as he denied his Lord three times. Think of us. Think of yourself. I have to think of myself and the gross sin that we have fallen into at times in our life. But you see, beloved, God will not allow one of His adopted children to be lost for good. He keeps His children. And we can be assured, we can be assured that He will always bring us to repentance and restore us to close fellowship with Him. But this is not, beloved, this is not at all a license to be careless. It's not at all a license to go out and say, well, you know what, I can live like I want because I'm safe anyway. Because if that's your attitude, beloved, then that's pretty solid evidence that you don't have true faith. And then you need to worry. But you see, this passage, beloved, is hope for you and me when things seem hopeless. He keeps us. He keeps us. You see, this is a wonderful word with an awesome meaning. The Greek word for keep, as I have told you before, is a military term that means to keep, to guard, to watch. And it can mean on the one hand to guard a prisoner to keep him from escaping, but it can also mean, as it does here, to keep or guard one in the sense of providing protection from attack from the outside. Boys and girls, you protect your precious possessions, don't you? Your favorite toy. You keep it safe. You don't let anything happen to it. God, for the sake of Jesus Christ, keeps His people in safety from dangerous attacks, from the results of Satan's dangerous attacks. He keeps us from stumbling and falling away from Him for good. And this is the same meaning of the word keep in that comforting verse in 1 Peter 1. Peter, you know, speaks of elect pilgrims, Christians who are kept by the power of God through faith for salvation. And David says beautifully in Psalm 121, he says, The Lord watches over your life. Or again, as that's also translated, He preserves your soul. Beloved, it takes nothing short of divine power and strength to keep us safe forever, to keep us from falling into deadly danger, and that's the believer's comfort. And what greater comfort could there be than the comfort of being kept safe in the sovereign hand of God, the Almighty Creator of heaven and earth. Boys and girls, no army so large, no armor so thick, no machine gun so powerful, nothing can provide such perfect security from destruction as our God. And that's exactly what He keeps us safe from. Eternal destruction. God keeps His people from stumbling by grounding them firmly in His Word. And that's why worship with the preaching of the Word of God being central is not to be an option for God's people, but instead it is to be precious and important. He does something very wonderful in the worship of His people. He strengthens our faith, including increased knowledge of His Word and the increased conviction that it is true. And He does this through the preaching of His Word which God has chosen to save those who believe. And He nourishes and strengthens our faith as well through the sacraments. God's Word is to be a lamp unto our feet and a light upon our path. It alone can show us the way and guide us along the way. In Job 4, verse 14, Eliphaz says of Job, Your words have upheld him who is stumbling, and you have strengthened the feeble knees. And beloved, if that could be said of Job, how much more is this true of our God? Why does God guard His people? In Deuteronomy 32, we find what is labeled the Song of Moses. And in that song, Moses remembers God's grace to His people, separating them from the other nations of the earth. And the last part of verse 10 says, He that is God kept Him, His Son, Israel, as the apple of His eye. In other words, again, believers are God's precious possession. Only we can truly say in confidence that we are not our own, but we belong body and soul and life and in death unto our faithful Savior Jesus Christ. Only we can truly say that. And not because we deserve it. Again, we would indeed stumble and fall away if it were left up to us, but He has purchased us through the precious, incorruptible blood of Jesus. And therefore, security from destruction isn't the end of the matter. You see, the believer also enjoys the guarantee of divine fellowship. Jude goes on to say, "...and to present you before His glorious presence without fault and with great joy to present you for divine fellowship before the glorious presence of God. Now, indeed, this is a reference to final judgment. All will stand before the sovereign judge one day, but not all will stand the same. Not all will stand in the same condition. Not all will stand prepared for divine fellowship, but God's people will stand before Him prepared for divine fellowship. Prepared without fault. Blameless. Without blemish. Again, that has to be an amazing truth to you and me, even as we think back to our reading of the law this morning and the things we are to put off and to put on and to think about how we have failed. how stained we are, then this has to be an amazing truth to you and me that we will be presented without fault, without blemish. Indeed, we can only stand in God's holy presence as holy ourselves. And we know that God sees us. He looks upon us and sees us as holy and righteous for Jesus' sake. But we also know that today we are a long, long way from being without fault. in fact we are filled with faults we increase our debt daily we are totally depraved that is every part of our being is saturated with sin our whole natural being is as filthy rags every part is infected with sin our thoughts and words and actions yet beloved our Savior keeps us in order as Ephesians 5 says that He might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the Word, 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. The Holy Spirit's work, brothers and sisters, will be so complete in God's saints that we will be blameless and above reproach. Satan will not be able to make even one tiny accusation against us. He can make the accusation, but it has no foundation. The law of God will have no charge against us. Everything about God's people will be completely free from the bondage of evil. One day when we stand in the presence of God, then we will indeed be holy, even as He is holy. You see, saints will not be out of place in heaven. In fact, we will be perfectly fit for heaven. Fit for divine fellowship. In his morning and evening devotional, Spurgeon says in connection with 2 Timothy 4, verse 8, which says, Finally, there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness. He says, I love the old story of a dying man who exclaimed, I have sent all before me. God's finger is on the latch of my door and I am ready for Him to enter. But someone said, Are you afraid that you will miss your inheritance? No, said he. No. There is one crown in heaven that the angel Gabriel could not wear. It will fit no head but mine. There is one throne in heaven that Paul the Apostle could not fill. It was made for me. How is all of this possible? Only by Christ's saving sacrifice for sin and His imputed righteousness. His righteousness freely given to you and to me. The blood of Jesus cleanses us, as 1 John 1.9 says, from all unrighteousness. And Isaiah 1.18 says, Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow. Though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool. What a contrast, huh? And the same word for without fault that we find here, is used for Christ, of Christ, in 1 Peter 1.19, where He is said to be a lamb without defect. And that means, beloved, that we will be presented Christ-like before the glory of God. And this presentation is with great joy. Jesus Christ's joy is the privilege of presenting His church, the fruit of His labors, those for whom He is victorious, presenting them before the Father in glory. And our joy will be to stand before God clothed in the white robes of Christ's righteousness, ready to give to Him eternal worship and praise. Those who stand before the judge or who will stand before the judge filled with blame because of their unrighteousness will not be ready, will not enjoy divine fellowship. They will be filled with terror. They will cry out for the mountains and the hills to cover them and hide them from the presence of God. And this, because their unholiness contradicts the holiness and the glory of God. But redemption, redemption, beloved, doesn't fill one with terror when in the presence of God, but it fills one with joy. Today, our faults fill us, or should fill us, with a certain amount of fear, a certain amount of doubt and sorrow indeed. But we are called to be of good cheer because by God's grace we shall be presented faultless with great joy. Again, amazing. Imagine that. We blame each other. We blame each other. We cast fault and blame for the tiniest little things, don't we? But imagine this. There, on that day, then we will be blameless for the things which are indeed our fault. But Jesus Christ has taken our blame upon Himself. And He has satisfied the punishment that should have been inflicted upon us. And therefore, even today, beloved, we can cry out with Paul, O wretched man that I am, who will deliver me from this body of death? I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Why? As he goes on to say in Romans 8, verse 1, because in Him, in Christ Jesus, there is therefore now no condemnation. Now boys and girls, many of you are young and you may not completely understand all of this yet, but you must understand that even one sin makes us dirty, makes us filthy. Even one sin makes us worthy to be punished in hell forever. But Jesus Christ alone makes us clean. And you are called to believe in Jesus alone for salvation and you shall be saved. The only way to heaven is through Him. Young people, you need to be reminded of this. The same is true for you. You see, one of the most difficult times in life can be your age. No surprise to any of us who are older that peer pressure is great when you're in your teenage years. And Satan will not cease to attack you. He will continue again and again and again to attack you. And especially in these years of your life to try to cause you to question all that you have been taught in the Christian home, in the Christian church, in the Christian school. He wants you to doubt it. He wants you to think that you know better. He wants you to think that it's not true. Don't give in to Him. Don't turn away from the truth. And you must know that when the world tells you that you can be and do anything that you want to be or do, there is one thing that you can't do. You can't cleanse yourself from your sin. And apart from that, everything else is meaningless. You can't get yourself into heaven. And each one of us must understand that this is what salvation is all about. Security from eternal deadly danger. Security for divine fellowship. All because of the perfect work of Jesus Christ. And then there's only one response for us to make and that is doxology to God. Praise to God. All glory and majesty and power and authority as Jude says, both now and forever belongs to Him. And that doxology again includes living for Him. as His redeemed people, working out your salvation. Indeed, contending for the faith that was once for all entrusted to you. Building yourselves up in the most holy faith and praying in the Holy Spirit. Keep yourselves in God's love as you wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to bring you to eternal life. Get to work. Get to work. Conforming less and less to this world, but being transformed by the renewing of your mind. Being diligent, beloved, to contend for the faith. Knowing that we don't do this perfectly. Knowing that indeed we stumble and fall each and every day. Yet, God preserves us. He restores us. We are safe in Christ Jesus forever and ever. And what greater comfort can God give to His children than this? Asaph, again, says it so beautifully in Psalm 73. He says, Nevertheless, I am continually with you. You hold me by my right hand. You will guide me with your counsel. And afterward, you receive me to glory. Is that your goal? Is that your desire to be received into God's glory? That's God's promise to each and every one of His people. Jesus Christ is the tie that binds us together and He will not lose even one of those for whom He died. We all know the saying that we don't know what tomorrow holds, but we know who holds tomorrow. You see, beloved, in an unstable world, our future is secure. And therefore, let us not be sad when we are separated from each other for a time in this life. But let us rejoice that we will be united for eternity with our God and Savior and with each other, giving glory only to Him. Amen. Shall we pray? Father, we praise You for Your Word, Your call to praise and to glorify Your Most Holy Name. The comfort of Your Word that we indeed are safe and secure, kept in Your hand forever. We must confess, O Lord, that at times our assurance is weak. And at times our doxology to You is not even really there. And we pray, Father, that You would continue to bless us. Do not forsake us as we often forsake You, but continue to bless us, Father, and build us up in that most holy faith. And may our lives indeed be lives of praise and honor and glory to You, not worrying about what anybody says, what the world thinks, but caring only that You be praised as You deserve and ought to be praised. In Jesus' name we pray these things. Amen.