He is Able and Worthy

24 Now to him who is able to protect you from stumbling and to make you stand in the presence of his glory, without blemish and with great joy, 25 to the only God our Saviour, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, power, and authority before all time, now and for ever. Amen.

Jude 24-25

Introduction

A benediction is a declaration of blessings from God upon His loved ones. Benedictions are found at the close of some New Testament epistles.

Here is a popular benediction from 2 Corinthians 13:14, The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all. And another from Ephesians 6:23-24, Peace be to the brothers, and love with faith, from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Grace be with all who love our Lord Jesus Christ with love incorruptible.

Benedictions offer words of assurance designed to bring joy, peace, comfort, and security.

A doxology is a little different. A doxology is an expression of praise to God. Normally a short sung hymn. The word doxology comes from the Greek δόξα, meaning glory, splendor, grandeur and λόγος, meaning word. Put them together and you get glory word. A doxology is a glory word, a short hymn of praise to God.

Here is a popular doxology, “Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost. As it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.” And another one, “Praise God, from Whom all blessings flow; Praise Him, all creatures here below; Praise Him above, ye Heavenly Host; Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Amen.”

I’ve always thought that Jude 24-25 was The Benediction. But as I’ve studied it I’ve realised it’s actually a doxology. And the difference is this, the words aren’t a declaration a blessing to you. They recognise that because we’ve been blessed God is to be glorified. Jude 24-25 encourages us and glorifies God.

This is what I hope. As we study Jude 24 and 25 you’ll be encouraged in your faith because God is our savior. And then, in response, because you’re thrilled, you’ll celebrate and glorify God. This morning, this week, this year, and forever and ever.

3 reasons to be encouraged and glorify God: 1.) He presently saves, 2.) He will ultimately save, 3.) He has sacrificially saved.

God presently saves

24 Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling

The Now in verse 24 is a conjunction. A joining word. Now joins the last 2 verses of the letter with the previous 23 verses of letter. Jude wrote to the called, beloved in God the Father and kept for Jesus Christ (1). Jude wrote to call them to contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints (3). Now Jude writes to encourage those battling in the trenches. Those fighting at the front. Your salvation is preserved. Not possibly secure. Presently secure. Preserved by God Himself. What wonderful assurance.

Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling. It is God who preserves your salvation. And what a relief, because “If not for His continual keeping, we’d be continually stumbling!” (Bruce Hurt). Stumbling pictures falling into error and sin. To fall away from the faith. To arrive at the judgment ruined. There is no road so dangerous as that toward the celestial city. It is beset with difficulties on every side. One false step and down we go. What a slippery path we must tread! And how weak we are. In the words of Spurgeon, “The brightest saints on earth would fall into the lowest hell if God did not keep them from falling.”

But be encouraged. The Bible says, God is able. God is able to deliver (Da 3:17). God is able to rescue (Da 3:29). God is able to raise up children for Abraham from stones (Mt 3:9). God is able to do what he had promised (Ro 4:21). God is able to strengthen you according to [the] gospel (Ro 16:25). God is able to make every grace overflow to you (2 Co 9:8). God is able to do above and beyond all that we ask or think (Ep 3:20). [God] is able to guard what has been entrusted to me until that day (2 Ti 1:12). God is able to help those who are tempted (He 2:18). God is able to save completely those who come to Him (He 7:25). God is able even to raise someone from the dead (He 11:19). God is able to save and to destroy (Ja 4:12). God is able to keep you from stumbling (Ju 24).

Note that the word translated keep in the ESV is better translated protect. God is able to protect you. God protects us by His great power. God guards us. God watches over us. God preserves us to our journey’s end. Yes, you’re to remember the predictions of the apostles (17). Yes, you’re to keep in the love of God (21). Yes, you’re to have mercy on doubters (22), save drifters (23a), and show mercy on deserters (23b). Yes, you’re responsible to work out your own salvation with fear and trembling (Ph 2:12). But in the end, be encouraged, it is God Almighty who watches over your soul.

3 reasons to be encouraged and glorify God: 1.) He presently saves, 2.) He will ultimately save, 3.) He has sacrificially saved.

God will ultimately save

and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy,

When we talk of God’s glory we talk of His reputation. He is excellent. He is majestic. But to stand in the presence of his glory is to enter His visible brightness. His radiant presence. His awful presence. I say awful because God hates sin. He is holy, holy, holy (Is 6:3). Meaning He is absolutely separate. From His creation generally, and from sin and sinners specifically. You are not a God who delights in wickedness, the psalmist says, evil cannot dwell with you. The boastful cannot stand in your sight; you hate all evildoers. (Ps 5:4-5). Isaiah says, Your iniquities have separated you from your God; your sins have hidden His face from you (Is 59:2). And so no one has ever seen God (Jn 1:18). For humans cannot see [Him] and live (Ex 33:20). It would be an awful thing for a sinner to stand in the presence of the absolute holiness of God. Before His righteous justice. Before His terrible wrath.

Yet here our hope is plainly stated. It is God who will ultimately save us. He will make us stand. He will set us in place. He will establish us. Because He is able to present you blameless before the presence of his glory. He will do this.

In glorified bodies, resurrected without any trace of sin. He will present us faultless, blemish-less, sinless. He chose us in him, before the foundation of the world, to be holy and blameless in love before him (Ep 1:4). And again, He has reconciled you by his physical body through his death, to present you holy, faultless, and blameless before him (Co 1:22).

Because God is holy, there can be none in heaven but those who are faultless. So, if you and I are ever to get there we must be as pure as snow. No taint of sin. At salvation He declared you righteous. Through the course of this life He is transforming you progressively toward righteousness. But there is coming a day, oh happy day, not long from now, when you will be remade righteous. Perfectly saved. Fit to stand in the presence of Jehovah Tsidkenu – The Lord our Righteousness.

Joy. Endless, boundless, matchless joy. Every tear in this world set aside. Every depression, every pain, every heartache. All evaporated. Joy will swallow up all distress. An eternity of rejoicing awaits. Joy upon joy upon joy upon because God not only saves us in the here and now, He will ultimately save us in the by and by.

3 reasons to be encouraged and glorify God: 1.) He presently saves, 2.) He will ultimately save, 3.) He has sacrificially saved.

God has sacrificially saved

25 to the only God, our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord,

There is only one true God, full of glory, grace, and truth (Jn 1:14). He is sovereign, self-existent, creator, spirit, personal. He possesses all knowledge, all power and is present in all places. He does not change. He is just, loving, truthful, and holy. Compassionate, merciful, and gracious. He is one God in three persons, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. And our God saves.

God is our Savior. It is said of God that He loved the world (Jn 3:16). That He blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places (Ep 1:3). That He chose us in him before the foundation of the world (Ep 1:4). That he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved (Ep 1:5-6). That he gave his only Son (Jn 3:16). That He sent his Son to be the Savior of the world (1 Jn 4:14). That he made him to be sin who knew no sin (2 Co 5:21). That He put Him forward as a propitiation by his blood (Ro 3:25). That He did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all (Ro 8:32). That He shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us (Ro 5:8). That it was [His] the will to crush him (Is 53:10). That raised him from the dead and gave him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God (1 Pe 1:21). That He crowned him with glory and honor, putting everything in subjection under his feet.” (He 2:7-8). And that He exalted him at his right hand as Leader and Savior, to give repentance and forgiveness of sins (Ac 5:31).

God is our Savior. And His salvation is accomplished by His Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior. Jesus acts in subordination to His Father. As sent (Jn 3:16). As coming to do His will (). As empting himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men (Ph 2:7). As humbling himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross (Ph 2:8). As becoming a curse for us (Ga 3:13). As to be sin for our sake (2 Co 5:21). As pierced for our transgressions, crushed for our iniquities (Is 53:5). As giving himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God (Ep 5:2). As crucified in weakness, but living by the power (2 Co 13:4). As sitting down at the right hand of God, waiting until his enemies should be made a footstool for his feet (He 10:12-13). As highly exalted bestowed with the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father (Ph 2:9-11).

Salvation has been accomplished. Sacrificially. Through the life and death of Jesus Christ, according to the sovereign will of God the Father.

3 reasons to be encouraged and glorify God: 1.) He presently saves, 2.) He will ultimately save, 3.) He has sacrificially saved.

Application

be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen.

And so respond! Respond to this salvation, past, present, and to come. Respond in praise. Respond in worship. This is the jewel in the divine crown. That God, for no reason outside of His own sovereign will would save sinners. This is what angels marvel at. This is why that great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, who stand before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!” (Re 7:9-10).

This is how Jude would have us respond. Ascribe glory and majesty and power and authority to our eternal Savior and Lord. We’re not giving God something that He doesn’t already have. God is all glorious, absolutely majestic, has all the dominion, and posses all the authority. This isn’t us giving Him something He lacks. This is us acknowledging something about Him that He is. We ascribe to Him what is due to His name.

Glory is God’s weightiness. He is like the radiance of light. Majesty is God’s kingly status. Dominion is God’s rule and exercise of power and control over the world. Authority is God’s intrinsic right of command.

These peals of praise do not start with you in the here and now. They don’t even span back to the first creatures of higher order, angels. God’s praise begins before all time. To which I can only surmise that God began ascribing glory to God for the salvation of man when He conceptualised the salvation of man before time began. God has been signing God’s praises even before the foundation of the world. and now. We who are present recipients of God’s salvation sing God’s praises out of an overflow of gratitude in our hearts. and forever. Heaven glories. I can’t wrap my head around the thought of standing before Jesus face to face and praising Him. Casting crowns before Him in gratitude. The joy. But that’s what my savior says lies before me and I have no reason to doubt Him. I will get to praise Jesus forever and ever.

Will I do so alongside you friend? This morning do you hear of a God who is able to save you? Able to raise you up? Do you hear of a provision for your salvation made in the person of Jesus Christ? Do you hear of His substitutional death in your place? Of his glorious resurrection from the dead? Do you hear of salvation on offer to you this very moment? Worship God! Begin at once and be made fit for eternal praise to come. The gates are standing wide open. You may enter. Do not delay. Come to Christ at once. He stands at the ready to receive you with open arms.