To the God Who is Able

Introduction

Growing up, I remember around my time in middle school and high school was when I was first introduced to a microscope. Now, I don’t remember much from science class, but I do remember the microscopes.

They were so fascinating to me because I remember how weird and wild it looked to observe something so tiny in detail. Whether it was a some type of cell, organism, feather, or whatever, whenever our teacher pulled out those microscopes, it was bound to be a good day.

Similar to a microscope is a telescope. I don’t particularly remember having one in science class growing up, but a telescope is much different.

In that, you point a telescope up to the sky, to space, to the heavens to get a more manageable look at this large universe in which we live. You can observe different planets, the moon, stars, etc.

So, you see the contrast here. The microscope magnifies certain small objects in order to be observed, the telescope magnifies something much larger in order to be observed.

I want to suggest to you today that we often view God, the things of God, His word, as if He is something small, to be placed under a microscope for further study.

We view God (purposefully or not) as only a small portion of our lives. We view Him as small, tiny, and manageable.

Pastor John Piper fleshes this out well, that church, we MUST have our perspectives shifted. God is not some small being that we place under a microscope, He is the massive, great, glorious, powerful, sovereign God of the universe, of everything!

Instead of a microscope we look to God as if we’re looking through a telescope. That we may even attempt to observe some aspect or attribute of Himself. The Lord our God is much larger than we think He is.

The title of my message this morning is “To the God Who is Able”. We’ll look at Jude verses 24-25 and what I pray we’ll see together is that God is able to keep you.

And He is able to keep you because He’s mighty. He’s massive. He’s the sovereign creator/savior of the universe.

And by His grace and mercy and love and kindness, He holds us to the very end in the palm of His hand.

A Transition

We begin these final two verses in Jude with a transition. He lets his audience know at the top of the letter that he was “eager to write to them about their common salvation”.

But, Jude says in verse 3 that he “found it necessary” to spur on the Christians he was writing to to contend for faith. For, he says, many have crept in among the church who pervert the grace of God and are false teachers.

Jude even says that these false teachers crept in unnoticed. I wish we could spend a few weeks through this letter to flesh all this out. However, let that be a warning for us today.

If we do not know God’s word, the Bible, then we too are susceptible to false teachers who enter in unnoticed, causing major hurt, pain, and division through their twisting of sound doctrine.

Saints, let us study and live out this Bible we’ve been blessed to receive.

Jude spends the entirety of his letter to believers dealing with these false teachers. Verses 17-23 is where he provides some very clear instruction for the believers to live out in light of the truth he’s just declared.

That is what brings us to Jude’s powerful doxology in verse 24-25. A doxology is a word of praise unto God. We find them in other letters within the New Testament as well. Perhaps you’ve heard even this doxology in Jude read before as a benediction as part of a worship service.

Praise for God’s Ability

24- At the beginning of this doxology is where we find praise for God’s ability. Jude is praising “him who is able”. What exactly is this Him, God, able to do?

First, it is to keep us from stumbling. Namely, that God will see us through and carry us through to the very end. He won’t let those who are truly saved fall away from Him. That’s what is in view here.

Philippians 1:6 “And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.” If you are saved today, its because God alone began a good work in you. A work that you responded to, yes. But only because He worked in you and made you born again!

And He who began this work in you WILL bring it to completion. Not might. Not possibly will complete it if you live well enough. No, if God began the work, He will complete it, He will keep you, He won’t let you stumble out of His hand.

On our own, we would fall. On our own, we are a stumbling mess. We need Him, our great, overwhelmingly holy God to keep us. Left to ourselves we will lose it all, every time.

The word for keep in verse 24 can also be translated as “guard”, with the idea of military protection. That’s what we’re talking about. Serious eternal security. If you’ve believe on the Lord Jesus Christ for salvation, NO ONE is snatching you out of His hand, ever. Not even yourself.

You must also know that the wording here of “to him who is able” is not indicate the mere potential that God has to keep you. Rather, Jude is doubling down on the guarantee that God will keep His children.

Look at verse 1 of this letter: Jude 1 “Jude, a servant of Jesus Christ and brother of James, To those who are called, beloved in God the Father and kept for Jesus Christ:” These are believers that he’s writing to. And at the very top of his letter he defines believers as being those who are called, beloved, and kept!

Jude begins his letter by stating that believers are kept and reemphasizes this reality at the end of his letter by praising the only one who is able to keep them!

Our Lord Jesus says this in John 10:27–30 “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand. I and the Father are one.””

As Douglas Moo states in his commentary, what marvelous security we have in Christ! The question is, do we reflect this confidence and security, that we as believers posses, in how we live our day to day lives?

As a man that wrestles with anxiety often, this question wrecks me. Not in regards to my standing before the Lord but in the little day to day worries and struggle.

How silly is that? I’m confident in my eternal standing before the Lord, yet, I let sometimes the little things affect me deeply.

How desperately do you and I need our minds renewed daily. In the word and in prayer.

Now, as we think about application in light of this glorious truth of how the Lord keeps us, I want to turn your attention just briefly to verses 20-23 in Jude.

They say Jude 20–23 “But you, beloved, building yourselves up in your most holy faith and praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ that leads to eternal life. And have mercy on those who doubt; save others by snatching them out of the fire; to others show mercy with fear, hating even the garment stained by the flesh.”

In confidence of the truth of God’s keeping of us, we verses 20-23 show us how we ought to live. Yes, these verses come before the doxology. Although, look again at the flow of Jude’s letter.

Verse 1: to those called, beloved, and kept. Verses 20-23: how believers ought to live. Verses 24-25: be reminded of the confidence that which we live in!

God’s keeping of us does not rid us as believers from all Christian duty, service, and effort. Rather, this should be the fuel to our pouring out of love and service.

You are to build yourselves up in the faith through study and application of God’s word. You are to pray as one filled with and controlled by the Holy Spirit. You are to keep yourselves in the love of God, anticipating the second coming of Christ.

You are to show mercy to the doubting and snatch those in the fire, struggling with and potentially falling into sin. All the while, you must be killing sin in your own life, lest you fall into temptation as well.

Beloved, this is our outline of how a Christian ought to live. Love for God and love for neighbor. Bearing the fruits of the Holy Spirit.

Looking back at verse 24, we see that God is able to keep us from stumbling, AND, He’s able to present us blameless before the presence of His glory with great joy.

By God’s grace, Kaitlyn and I celebrated 4 years of marriage this past week (with a hurricane of course). When I think back to our wedding day, I can remember perfectly how she looked coming down that aisle.

I remember the tears that rolled down my face as I beheld her beauty. She had on a beautiful white dress, it was breathtaking. Kaitlyn appeared as though she was absolutely without blemish, flawless and faultless in that moment and time.

This is similar to us as Christ’s bride. Kaitlyn of course wasn’t in a glorified state on our wedding day, but WE will be one day in the full presence of our Savior! Christ receives His bride whom He paid the ultimate price for.

But not just that, Christ Himself will present us, without blemish, before the presence of His own glory. Us, mere humans tremble in sheer terror before the glory of God. Isaiah 6:5 “And I said: “Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!””

The prophet Isaiah beheld the glory of our God and knew surely he was ruined. He was made immediately aware of how sinful he was.

Yet, Jude is saying here that we will be presented, blameless, before the presence of this same glory, with GREAT JOY. Not melting in light of our sinfulness but with joy before the sovereign Lord of all!

What great love is this! What grace, what blessing far beyond anything we deserve!

Praise to the Only Worthy One

This should cause us to leap with praise to the only worthy one. That’s exactly how Jude concludes.

25- Jude declares praise to the only God here. Like the Shema found in Deuteronomy 6, let us praise the Lord our God, the Lord is one!

Douglas Moo brings out a convicting thought here. He asks “what idols might we be worshipping even as we recite these words?” What is competing for our affection today? What must I plead with the Lord to bring down in my life that I have elevated above its proper place?

Jude continues here to praise the only God who is our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord. The one who died the death that we deserved, took on the wrath of God for sin, was buried, and was raised from the grave three days later according to the Scriptures.

This is the gospel, repent and believe in this today!

Let us praise Christ the Lord for being our only mediator between God and man. It is only through Him that we pray, live, move, and have our being.

There are four virtues that Jude includes toward the end here that are beautiful and demand our attention.

Moo fleshes them out in this way: to God be these things or that He posses such virtues.

To God be all the glory, that is His weighty and majestic presence. In which we all crumble in terror left to ourselves.

To God be all majesty, His kingly status as King of all kings.

To God be all dominion, His control over all the world. Our great big massive God controls everything, He is sovereign over all.

To God be all authority, His intrinsic right to rule all things. Why does He have this right? Because He is the all powerful Creator and Sustainer of all things.

All praise be unto the Almighty, for He reigns forever.

This same God, who is able to keep us from stumbling, present us blameless, who is the only God and Savior, possessor of all praise, accolades, and virtue, exists and does so eternally. Forever. As the Bible makes clear: from everlasting to everlasting, He is God!

Conclusion

We need a bigger view of the Lord. These verses in Jude point us higher. To Him, the mighty Lord of all. The God who is able.

The God who is mighty and sufficient in Himself, lacking nothing at all. The God who is bigger than you could ever imagine, rich in love and mercy, who came down, took on human flesh, and died the death that you and I deserved.

The God who rose on the third day in defeat of death, who keeps us and presents us blameless with great joy, who is worthy of all glory, majesty, dominion, and authority forever.

This same God will hold you fast. You are weak, He is strong. Christ will hold me fast.

PRAY