In his final sermon on Jude, Pastor Joe Babij examines the letter’s doxological ending. After some review, Pastor Babij explains from Jude one more way believers must stand strong and not drift in the midst of apostasy: rest in the one who is for you.
4. Rest in the one who is for you (vv. 24-25)
4a. Rest in the one who is able (v. 24a)
4b. Rest in the one who is timeless (v. 25)
4c. Rest in the one who is worthy to be worshipped (v. 25)
Full Transcript:
The epistle of Jude, I will be concluding this book this morning. Short book, big message, and a lot of stuff in Jude, more than I ever thought. But when you start to unpack the Word of God, it’s amazing what is there. So Jude chapter 1, I’m going to be looking at verses 24 and 25. I want to bring everybody up to speed from where I was. I’d like to thank Pastor Dave for filling in while I was sick there for a while and still recovering a little bit. Some people asked me how am I doing – I have to say 90%. Last week it was 85. This week’s 90. So maybe next week will be 95. I just don’t want to go the other way.
So let’s have a word of prayer as we get into the Word. Lord, thank You this morning for Your faithfulness and Your kindness and Your long-suffering and patience with us. Lord, we don’t deserve any of those things, but I thank You so much that You are that kind of God. And that, Lord, when You reach out to save someone and You give them Your Spirit and the Word of God, they are sealed unto the day of redemption. So Lord, help us to grow to that point where we are confident to the place we’re able to rest in everything You say in the Word of God and trust it all because of Your character and who You are, even though we may not understand it all. We can still trust You as we continue to grow in our true knowledge of Jesus Christ. So bless our time together in the Word of God today. And I pray in Jesus’ name, amen.
This Lord’s Day, we are again given further encouragement to be strong in faith in the midst of apostasy. We have already unpacked three of the four points of instruction. We have looked at to remain strong in the faith in the midst of the winds of false teaching and apostasy. We saw in verse 17 through verse 19 that we’re to recall the words of apostolic teaching, where it says, but you, beloved, ought to remember the words that were spoken beforehand by the apostles of the Lord Jesus Christ. That always comes first. We must always go back to scripture, run everything through the grid of scripture while accurately handling the Word of God. Why do we do that? So we ourselves don’t drift. Secondly, in verse 21, keep yourselves in the love of God. Remain in the love of God, in other words. Stay in the love of God. If you are a believer, you’re already there. Stay there. Don’t drift. And then in verse 20 it says, but you, beloved, and I have been saying that this term underscores the difference between the false teachers, those who oppose the truth and neglect the truth and endanger the community because they do that, and those who seek more to know God, to know His word and obey Him. There’s a huge difference, and the difference carries a significant responsibility for believers. That responsibility is in this one command – to keep ourselves in the love of God. We will carry forth for ourselves the command to continue building ourselves up in our holy faith, verse 20. Secondly, we will keep ourselves in the love of God by praying in the Holy Spirit. Thirdly, we’ll keep ourselves in the love of God by waiting anxiously for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to eternal life. This is the basic strategy that should be carefully followed by all Christians, and why are we to follow this strategy? In order to keep you and I from drifting.
Now, I can say this one thing, that when you go to the beach in the summer, you’re always warned about riptides, right? If you ever get caught in one, don’t fight it. You have to kind of let it take you out and then you come back, or you raise your hand and ask somebody to rescue you. But one thing about it is it’ll pull you out away from the safe shore further and further and further, and that’s great danger. Because as soon as you stop seeing the shore, you’re in deep trouble. And it’s the same thing for believers. The further we drift from the word of God, we won’t see the truth. We won’t see anything clearly. So see, if you drift away from apostolic teaching, and that’s just another way of saying from Genesis to Revelation, and keeping yourself in the love of God, you cannot effectively carry out as a church the primary task, and that is evangelism. That is making disciples. So if we keep ourselves in the love of God, we will develop a sense of responsibility, urgency, and passion for the lost.
That’s what he is saying in Jude, and he’s telling us we are really to look at the lost as someone that needs to be rescued. You needed to be rescued. I needed to be rescued. People need to be rescued because they don’t see. They’re blind. They’re dead in trespasses and sins, they don’t see. So we’re the rescuers. In a very similar way, those who have come under the influence of false teachers are in serious trouble. Some may realize they’re in dangers. Most do not. Most don’t even know they were under false teaching. See, a rescuer is someone who’s able to discern the difference between God’s way and every other way. They’re even to discern when they’re in conversations with other people where they’re at spiritually, so they can in some way help them.
Jude mentioned three groups of people that we’re to rescue. The first act of responsibility is found in verse 22. It says, those who are doubting, show them mercy. In other words, they have an argument going on inside themselves. They have an inner conflict. In other words, they have doubt concerning maybe some difficult biblical subject and are uncertain about certain points of truth. We’ve all been there. The Bible’s a big book. There’s difficult things in it. It takes a long time to study it and to grasp theology. But that’s where God wants to bring us. He wants us to begin to think biblically, to run everything through the grid of scripture. So this first group in verse 22, they’re sincere doubters and they just really need to be rescued from their fence straddling by a compassionate person who is remaining in the love of God, who is continuing to build upon the Word of God and continuing to commune with God in Spirit-led prayer and then continuing to wait expectantly for Jesus Christ, knowing that they’re gonna receive mercy and not wrath. So using the word of God to dispel doubt is a responsibility that we have.
The second group is in verse 23 – save others, snatching them out of the fire. These are the endangered, naive professors. They need to be rescued from the error of their way by a compassionate, a spiritually-minded, a biblically knowledgeable person who knows how to handle the word of God and use scripture correctly to rescue them from wandering away from the truth and/or some profession short of saving faith. They think they’re saved, but they’re not. Those people are usually tottering on the edge of hell. We don’t want them to be unprepared when it comes to final judgment. We hope that we can be used by God, that they will receive mercy like we have and be set free from sin and death. So just to recap, these are the church’s responsibility. We’re to recall the words of apostolic teaching, we are to remain in the love of God, and we are to rescue the doubting, the duped, and the wandering.
Our fourth point today, and our last, is to remain strong in the midst of every wind of teaching is this – we are to rest. We’re to rest in the One who is for us. We’re to rest in the One who is for us. Now, just think of rest for a moment. The rest of Christ, that God has graciously provided by the remedy of the gospel, as Jesus said in Matthew 28:11, come to me, all who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Rest for what? Rest for your souls. To have rest of soul is a significant point of understanding in Scripture, that you can rest in what God has done. Christ is the only one who can bestow rest of soul. So there is no true rest apart from Jesus Christ. You cannot have it. This is not rest, a mere rest of relaxation from toil, but it is a refreshment of your soul, where there is peace and joy going on constantly because it comes from God. And why is that? Because we are believing and resting in and resting on Christ’s ability and accomplishment to save us. We are to rest in the One who is for you. Look at verse 24. It says,
Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling,
Now, that first point is – we are to rest in the one who is able. He’s able to do that. That’s very important for us to understand. In fact, the word, it is a term that’s used all over Scripture. Let me just throw out some of them to you.
In 2 Corinthians 9:8,
And God is able to make all grace abound to you.
In Hebrews 2:18,
He is able to come to the aid of those who are tempted.
In Hebrews 7:25,
Therefore He is able to save forever those who draw near to Him.
In 2 Timothy 1:12,
For this reason I also suffer these things, but I am not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed, and I am convinced He is able to guard what I have entrusted to Him until that day.
Ephesians 3:20,
Now to Him who is able to do far abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us.
And then right here in Jude, verse 24,
Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling.
Let me just stop there. Why are all these passages in the Word of God? In order to convince you and I that God is good and He is sufficient and He is generous and He is willing to save. He withholds no good thing from those who walk uprightly and makes all things work together for the good to them who love Him. Because He is God, He is self-sufficient. No creature can thwart Him. No situation dismay Him. No emergency arise that is beyond His resources. Because He is generous, He is a rewarder of them who diligently seek Him. What a God is ours. We sang about Him this morning. He is different from His creatures.
Perhaps you believe that He is able to do so. But you fear that He may not be willing to do so, at least in your case. Well, that is what these passages are here this morning to help us to do – to not doubt His ability. To not doubt His willingness to do what He says He will do. He would have us view Him as the One whose resources are limitless, whose ability to use them infinite. Whose willingness to do so is demonstrated for us once and for all in giving His only begotten son for you and to you.
Now, a good Old Testament example may be seen in the response of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in the Old Testament. You should turn there, Daniel 3:16-18, because these men understood something theologically. They understood that no matter what goes on in their life God is able to do whatever He needs to do in that circumstance. And in Daniel 3:16, Nebuchadnezzar, he was the king then. They showed confidence, these three, an assurance when King Nebuchadnezzar appointed that they should suffer a horrible death if they refused to worship the golden image he had set up. And here is their fearless reply in verse 16. It says,
Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego replied to the king, “O Nebuchadnezzar, we do not need to give you an answer concerning this matter. If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the furnace of blazing fire; and He will deliver us out of your hand, O king. But even if He does not, let it be known to you, O king, that we are not going to serve your gods or worship the golden image that you have set up.”
So this is written for our instruction and our encouragement, because God has not changed. He is still all powerful. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego were fully persuaded that their God was able and willing to answer them according to His good will and purpose. They understood something further, which was whether in life or death, their life was secured in God. It was secured in God. God was in full control.
So when we look back at Jude, we see here in Jude that God is able not only to do everything He says He’s going to do, but God is able to present you and I before Himself without something and then also with something. Well, look at the first thing He presents us without. Verse number 24, it says to keep you from stumbling. He is able to keep you from stumbling. Now I think as human beings we are all too familiar with stumbling in one thing or another. We all stumble, don’t we? We all lose our balance, and we sometimes lose our balance walking the Christian walk. And sometimes when we do that, we have questions about our own relationship with God. But in the whole book of Jude, we find that false teachers stumble and those who follow them stumble and fall away by their insatiable appetite for sensuality and greed. They stumble with no rescue because they have rejected the truth. Also in our passage, Cain, Balaam, Korah, fell headlong into eternal darkness. All these lost their footing and slid away. They stumbled.
But in our passage, it says He is able to keep you, you from stumbling. You, the believer, from stumbling. And this term keep is a strong word. It implies an active protection and a guarding by God Himself, that this is what God accomplishes for us. He preserves us from succumbing to temptation. He is able to carry the believer right through all trials, all temptations, and infirmities unto completion on our pilgrimage and present us faultless in the day of His coming. Also, He preserves us from the strong appeals of the flesh. Once we become believers, sometimes temptation becomes more fierce. It becomes so desirable, we want to give it up and follow it and forget what we know. It happens to all of us as we grow in Christ. But the Lord gives us strength and insight needed to stand against intimidation of our own flesh and the world and Satan to resist the appeals of the flesh by giving us a way out. Do we see that way out when it comes?
God also protects us from the flaming missiles of the enemy. That’s what it says in Ephesians 6. By strengthening and increasing our faith, enabling us to stand up against the wiles of the devil. But then it says this, in the power of his might. God gives us the might to do that. We cannot do that. The Christian life is hard, but the Christian life is impossible to live without God’s power. It’s impossible to do it. God also protects us from the confusion of false teaching and of course, sustains our faith in the Son and our reliance upon the Word of God so we don’t drift.
But here in our context, in our text, it’s specifically referring to God working to preserve us from the ruin of final judgment, the day of judgment when all people will give an account. In other words, we cannot stumble to the point where we lose our salvation. Our preservation is not dependent on us. Have you learned that yet? You have to, or your Christian life’s going to be miserable. If you go up to verse number one of Jude, I want you to see something. It says here in verse one, it says Jude, a bondservant of Jesus Christ, the brother of James, to those who are called. Now we mentioned that called to what? It’s really called to salvation and called to live for the Lord. Then look at verse number one, who are you kept for? Kept for Jesus Christ. You are His possession. No one, no one can come against you unless He knows about it. He is able to keep you and I from stumbling. And how does He do that? He does it by prayer. He’s interceding right now in heaven for you and I. What does the gospel of John say in chapter 17, when Jesus gave His high priestly prayer? I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but to keep them from the evil one. That’s a prayer. And then in 1 Peter 1:5, who are protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed at the last time.
So these verses in Jude support the doctrine of the perseverance of the saints. Have you ever heard that? What does that mean? The perseverance of the saints is the doctrine which says that those who are the elect, because they have been the object of God’s eternal degree of election, and because they have been the object of Christ’s atonement, shall continue in the way of salvation as the same power of God that saved them will keep them and sanctify them until their final salvation. So we have to understand that. We have to know that. First of all, you have to know you’re called and really a Christian. And then if you’re loved by God, you’re kept for Jesus Christ. And if you’re kept for Jesus Christ, you will persevere to the end. Yes, there will be stumbling. Yes, there’ll be ups and downs, but you will make it. You will make it. Why? Because you’re kept from stumbling by God Himself. See, that’s how great salvation is. Actually, the word perseverance of the saints comes from two verses in the book of Revelation. Revelation, I’ll just mention one. Revelation 14:12 says, here is the perseverance of the saints. And who are they? Who keep the commandments of God and their faith in Jesus. Boy, that’s putting it right down where the road is. Obeying God because they love Him and just keeping their faith in Jesus every single day.
So this phrase, perseverance, gives the strong impression that God’s saving purpose cannot be frustrated and that none of Christ’s true sheep will ever be lost. Nothing can go wrong in regard of our salvation because the saints are guarded by the power of God. So though the elect may from time to time fall into sin, and sometimes radical sin, like the sin of Peter denying Christ, God restores them to fellowship with Himself and assures their eternal salvation. So yes, God is able to keep you from stumbling.
Here’s the second thing back in Jude 1:24. It says this,
Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling, and to make you stand in the presence of His glory,
He’s able to make you stand in the presence of His glory. So God will stand believers in His glorious presence. Their condition will be without spot, without blemish, without fault. This very term blameless, to make you stand in the presence of His glory blameless, it really should bring to our minds the book of Exodus and Moses standing before the newly built tabernacle, the place God would come to meet with His people. Yet the Bible says when that happened, the glory of the Lord filled the temple and nobody can go in. See, Moses could not simply be brought into the presence of His glory. And why is that? Because communion with God still requires one thing – blood. A burnt offering from the herd must be offered. What does it say in Leviticus? A male without blemish. It must be perfect. So the words without blemish in Leviticus contains the substance of Jude’s word blameless.
In essence, Jude is saying that all those trusting in the sacrifice of Christ will become like the blameless sacrifice that secured access to the Father. Remember, that was the point of the sacrifice, that the blood was shed and God accepted the sacrifice, and then you were able to enter into worship. That’s the only time you’re able to do it. Nobody can just stumble into the presence of God or will themselves in there. They must have a sacrifice. You and I must have a sacrifice to get into the presence of God, and we do have a sacrifice – Jesus Christ, our Lord. Right? He had to shed His blood. He had to fulfill all the Old Testament types. He had to do it or we couldn’t be saved. We couldn’t be accepted by God. So we will be presented through Christ as acceptable in His sight.
Do you see yourself like that? Do you know you’re saved today because of what Christ has done for you in His death, burial, resurrection, and the shedding of His blood, that God the Father sees you as an acceptable sacrifice? Acceptable because of His sacrifice. See, that’s the way He’s going to present you. Here, he’s blameless. Here, she’s blameless, because of Christ, not because of anything that person had done. No good works can put you in that position. No religiosity can put you in that position. No philosophy of life can put you in that position. The only way you can be accepted is in Christ. So God removes the filthy, sinful clothes in His mercy, then provides us with new white garments fitting for His house. All memories of our sin is gone.
So God is able to take away our sin. God is able to give us clean clothes. And of course, we go from filthy garments to rich white robes, and that is the picture of sin being removed. I love what it says in Isaiah. He says, I, even I, am the One who wipes out your transgressions for My own sake. I do it. And I will remember your sin no more. You want to be in that position with God. See, that’s why God can bring us before Himself blameless because He remembers none of your sin because Christ washed it away. He took your sin and nailed it to the cross, and He put His righteousness on your account, that God is able to perfect us by the righteousness of Jesus Christ. This is a picture really of God’s justifying grace to the sinner. Again, God is able to present you blameless in His glorious presence, and there’s no way you can get into God’s glory unless you come through the doorway, Jesus Christ. He is able.
Back to Jude, you’ll find something else caught at the end of verse number 24 that is very significant. Notice what it says. It says,
to make you stand in His presence of his glory blameless with great joy.
I don’t know about you, but God will stand believers in His glorious presence. He will do that. And notice in our text again, with great joy. Out of all human emotion that we ever experience, I believe that joy may be the highest on the list. Think of yourself. When do you get joy? Maybe by something you do that just gives you joy. Maybe just sitting there having a cup of coffee. Sun comes up, you’re sipping the coffee. Wow, this is good. Or looking at a creation and seeing the blue sky and the birds singing and the green trees and just the vast creativity of God. It fills your heart with joy. Or you’re reading the Word of God in the morning and something jumps off that page to you and you put yourself in the equation and you realize, wow, that’s what God’s done for me. And it gives you great joy.
But this is not the joy the world has. The joy the world has is really derived from just earthly pleasures. It’s often delusive. It’s often short-lived. And it can be taken away. You could lose it. This is supernatural joy. Actually, we’ve given a little glimpse of it in Romans where it tells us in Romans 14:17,
for the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.
So the joy is the work of God. It is the work of God. The source of this joy is God Himself. The psalmist says, You have put gladness in my heart. And then in John 17:13, it says,
But now I come to You; and these things I speak in the world so that they may have My joy made full in themselves.
So the definition one had given of Christian joy is an emotion springing from a deep, deep down confidence that God is in perfect control of everything. Someone said, in fact, there is no event or circumstances that can occur in the life of a Christian that should diminish their Christian joy except your sin. Your sin will rob you of the joy God’s given you, or you simply give it away. See, so God is able to make you stand in His presence with great joy. Now, where does the great joy actually come from? It does come from God, but it comes from your knowledge of what God has done for you. This is not joy without a great foundation underneath it holding it up. So with these truths understood and grasped, God takes away our greatest worry that we have. That is where will we spend eternity when we close our eyes in death. Death still has fear connected to it. Where will we go? See, we have joy when we know where we will go. Not because of anything you’ve done, but because everything God has done.
See, this passage also supports the doctrine of eternal security. Eternal security means that all the redeemed are kept in faith by the power of God and are thus secure in Christ forever. Not every Christian has fully experienced the complete work of Christ in their daily life. Now, even though the work of Christ is complete, there is nothing automatic about our experience of it. It is when we are scripturally assured of our own justification before God, God declared us right before Him, our own reconciliation to God by our belief and trust in Jesus Christ and what He’s done for us, and then by our acceptance in the Lord Jesus Christ. After we understand that, we continually to feed on the truth, the truth of our completeness in Him. And what happens is that the Spirit of God helps us to understand that you’re eternally secure. Colossians 2:10 says, in Him you have been made complete.
So then the believer who knows he has died to sin and has been recreated in the risen Lord Jesus understands that they have the very life of Christ. It’s like what Paul says, for me to live is Christ, to die is gain. And once understood, the believer in quietness and assurance continues to await the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, assured of their standing before Him. Maybe one of the most amazing passages when you’re reading the book of 1 Corinthians. Corinthians had all kinds of trouble in their church. Matter of fact, the whole book is about the trouble they had, right? But I want you to look at a passage with me, 1 Corinthians 1:7-8. He says this in the beginning of the epistle, before he mentions one thing that he’s going to correct them on. He says,
so that you are not lacking in any gift, awaiting eagerly the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ, who will also confirm you to the end, blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.
That’s the book of Corinthians. He’s already assuring them that they are believers. Now here are some things you need to correct. So believers grow to a place in their Christian walk in which they learn to rest in what God has accomplished and completed as far as their eternal salvation. In fact, as I was going through this, there are at least five scriptures that had come to my mind to undergirth this truth of rest in what God has accomplished and completed. Let me just throw some of those out to you. The first one is in Colossians 3:3-4. The believer who rests in the Son of God knows he is eternally secure. Why? This is what it says,
For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God.
You’re already in Christ. You’re hidden with Christ in God, and therefore you rest in that and you have eternal security.
Another passage in Romans 8:29-30. The believer who rests in the sovereignty of God knows he is eternally secure. This passage of scripture is theologically the unbroken chain of God’s sovereign plan of salvation because who He predestined, He also called, and these whom He called, He also justified, and these whom He justified He also glorified. See, that’s again showing us that God is beginning salvation, He’s ending it, and He does everything for us.
Also, thirdly, the believer who rests in the justice of God knows he’s eternally secure. Romans 8:1-2. What does it say there? Therefore there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. No condemnation. Nothing can come against you. No court of law can be brought up against you as a believer and convict you that you are not a believer because God keeps you. He’s the one who keeps you, and that’s what gives you eternal security.
Then also the believer, number 4, who rests in the will of God knows he’s eternally secure. This passage of scripture in John 6:39-40, this is what it says,
This is the will of Him who sent Me, that of all that He has given Me I lose nothing, but raise it up on the last day. For this is the will of My Father, that everyone who beholds the Son and believes in Him will have eternal life, and I Myself will raise him up on the last day.”
It is the Father’s will that Christ should lose nothing of those which the Father has given Him. And Jesus says that He will raise him up on the last day. Do we really need more assurance than the Word of Christ? You did not choose Me, I chose you. And then in 1 Corinthians 1:30, but by His doing you are in Christ.
Then number 5, the believer who rests in the love of God knows he is eternally secure. Eternal security teaches that nothing can separate us from the eternal, unchanging love of God. Now you know the passage in Romans 8:38-39, if you’ve been a Christian for some time. In verse number 35 it says,
Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?
Then in verse number 38,
For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
How much plainer can God make it? Can you think of anything which is not included in this passage? It includes everything – in heaven and earth, hell, now, in the future. But among them, not a thing can be found which can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus. Not a thing. Now, if it be possible for one who has been saved to be lost, it must of necessity be possible for one who has been the object of the love of God to be taken out of that position and be made the object of the wrath of God. According to this passage, that cannot happen. Nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus. Nothing. See, that’s where eternal security comes from. Even if we consider the passages in Romans 8:31-32, where in verse 31 it says, and if God is for us, who can be against us? That’s a question. Of course, the answer is no one. Why should God save us when we were undeserving hell-bound sinners and then turn against us after we are born-again children? It makes no sense. It absolutely makes no sense. See, the scriptures clearly teach that salvation from the penalty of sin is a gift of God. It cannot be earned. It can only, in faith, be received.
The scriptures also teach that once salvation is ours, God will keep us. If salvation is of God and He says that He will keep us, then He will keep us. Period. For us to lose our salvation would mean that God has failed. You realize that. God has not failed. In fact, what does it say in Titus chapter 1? In the hope of eternal life, which God, who cannot lie, promised long, long ages ago. So once a person is truly saved, it was God who began that work in Christ, and He did that before the foundation of the world. God will finish what He started. You say, well, is there a passage of scripture that backs that up? Well, yes, there is. Philippians 1:6, what does it say?
For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus. Amen.
So these passages of scripture are not teaching about how you keep yourself saved. No, they are teaching that it is God who saves us. It is God who keeps us saved right until the end.
However, after saying all this, I must add that not all that profess the Christian faith are assured of heaven. It is saints only who will persevere till the end. Many who profess faith fall away. We know that. That’s part of what Jude was saying here, because of false teaching. But they do not fall from grace, for they were never in grace. Because if they were in grace, God would keep them. See, God’s not going to lose anything that are His. Not one person, not one person will be lost who God said is going to be saved. And we cannot forget that God receives glory through the salvation of souls, but also through the condemnation of sinners. He receives glory in both ways. Remember, the sword of the Spirit is two-edged. It’s got a top edge that’s sharp and a bottom edge that’s sharp, and it cuts, and it cuts the way to convict someone of their sin and bring them to Christ or to leave them in their darkness and damnation and their sin and bring judgment upon them. It’s for salvation, and it’s for judgment.
Let me just sum this up in Jude 1:25. We are to rest in the one who’s also timeless. It says,
before all time and now and forever.
In other words, God is unlimited by time. God has no beginning. There never was a time when God did not exist. There never will be a time when He will not exist. God remains eternally the same. What’s that for us? He doesn’t change. He’s not gonna change His plan. He’s not gonna take a left turn on us, understand? And say, oh wow, I never understood that. Or I never knew, oh no, I thought. No, like it says in the Old Testament, from everlasting to everlasting, you are God. God will not change His character or His plan.
So these scriptures in Jude should leave us with only one correct response to the truths that have been mentioned. And what is that response? Only one response, only one correct response. Humble worship. Humble worship. Praise God because He is glorious. So the last thing in verse 25, rest in the one who is worthy to be worshiped. Notice what it says there, that this epistle now moves the reader to focus their full attention on our only God and Savior. The purpose of the Bible is not just the salvation of sinners. The greatest purpose of the Bible is God’s glory and God’s honor. That’s where all real doctrine and truth will bring us, to worship God. That’s why you were saved, to worship. Look what it says in verse 25,
to the only God our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion and authority,
The glory is the honor rightly that should be given to God for who He is and what He has done. The majesty is the truth that He’s the King. He is sovereign over all things. He is awesome like no one else. He has dominion in the sense that He has control over all His creation, over everything that is done. He is not limited by might or by space or by time. He has dominion over everything seen and unseen. And He has authority. And what’s that authority? All things are in His hands.
This is a common doxology. When we grasp the truth, it brings our heart to want to lift up our voices and sing, to know that God saved you, dirty, rotten sinner. Right? Undeserving, unholy, ungodly. And He saved you. To me, that is amazing. You want to talk about a miracle, that’s a miracle. God has to move heaven and earth. He has to move the universe to get you and I saved. Because we wouldn’t do it on our own. We couldn’t see it on our own. We wouldn’t be convicted on our own. Every gospel writer almost writes about this. Timothy says, to Him be honor and eternal dominion. Amen. Again, Peter writes, all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ to whom, to Him belongs the glory, dominion forever and ever. First Peter 5:11, to Him be dominion forever and ever.
And then Jude ends it with this one word – Amen. So be it. Let it be. This is the truth. Truly true. All those things are contained in that. Take your Bibles real quick, turn to Revelation, last book of the Bible. What happens when people understand truth? Revelation 5:9,
And they sang a new song, saying,
“Worthy are You to take the book and to break its seals; for You were slain, and purchased for God with Your blood men from every tribe and tongue and people and nation. You have made them to be a kingdom and priests to our God; and they will reign upon the earth.”
Then I looked, and I heard the voice of many angels around the throne and the living creatures and the elders; and the number of them was myriads of myriads, and thousands of thousands, saying with a loud voice,
“Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing.”
And every created thing which is in heaven and on the earth and under the earth and on the sea, and all things in them, I heard saying,
“To Him who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb, be blessing and honor and glory and dominion forever and ever.”
That’s worship. And if it doesn’t bring you there, there’s something wrong with you. If you’re not even interested in it, there’s really something wrong with you. Unfortunately, a lot of people are there.
I ran across this story of a man who walked more than 700 miles to see the Niagara Falls. Ever see the Niagara Falls? Amazing, amazing sight. When he came within a few miles of his destination, he thought he heard a thundering roar. Seeing a farmer in a nearby field, he called out, is that the roar of Niagara? The man replied, I don’t know, it may be. With surprise, he asked, do you live here? He says, born and bred here. And you don’t know whether the noise that I hear is Niagara Falls? No, the stranger said. I’ve never been there. I’m too busy looking after my own life. I say that for this reason, that’s sometimes how we deal with truth. We get up, we walk away, it has no effect on us. Like we’ve never been there. I don’t know about you, but this young man who walked 700 miles heard about the grandness and the awesomeness of the falls and just had to see it. He had to see it. But the man who lived closest to it did not even try to see it. Nor did he marvel over its greatness because he was blind and he was dead to reality.
Believe me, if you see God, the way the Word of God shows who He is, you will want to see more. You will want to run to it. You will want to seek more of it. You’ll never want to go back the other way. You’ll never want to do that. So brethren, may this not be true of us. And may these scriptures increase your appetite for our one true God and that He is preparing all His true children to be in His presence someday. And as I’ve been saying, losing my salvation is not possibility because He has all things, including you and me, in His hands. And just as Jesus told His disciples before He went back to heaven, don’t let your heart be troubled. You believe in God, believe also in Me. In My Father’s house are many dwelling places. If it were not so, I would have told you, for I go and prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself. And where I am, what? There you may be also. Only God can do that. And He’s able and willing to do it. Amen?
Let’s pray and let’s sing. Lord, thank You this morning for Your Word. Your Word, Lord, is so convicting and clear as to what You have done, what our responsibility is. And I pray, Lord, give us that hunger. Increase our hunger for You, Lord, that we would never want to look back. And that, Lord, that we would always hear in our mind and in our heart that You are this great and awesome God who saves us completely. And that when Your creatures get that and You put Your Spirit in them and You give them the Word of God, I pray, Lord, it would lift up our voices to sing and give You all the praise and honor and glory that is due Your name alone. And I thank You, Lord, for the joy You give us. Not only now, but in Your presence someday. And I pray this in Christ’s name. Amen.