Well, it's lovely to be here.
Once again, it's just a delight to think that the Lord and His
providence sort of knits the hearts of these people together.
This gathering now has been four years in the In preparation,
and I feel for Drew and Melinda, we were expecting to visit today. One of the things that the Lord's
pastors do when they get together is they brag. They don't brag
about anything in themselves, they brag about the people in
their congregation. So Drew and I have been visiting
over the phone this last four years, and so I do feel as if
I know several of you, and all I hear is bragging. If someone
wants to stir up one of the Lord's pastors, all they have to do
is say something ill at one of the folks in their congregation,
and you'll rile them in a flash. Look, it is lovely to be here,
but we are here for something much more important than all
of those things. We are here to recognize the fact that we're
joined together We join together in bonds of fellowship that are
much bigger and much more extraordinary. I was struck by a verse in Zechariah. We do know in, I'm not going
to read, I'm not going to preach out of Zechariah, I'm going to
preach out of, no it was in Zephaniah, sorry.
Zephaniah says that It says, talks about him, I will turn
to the people a pure language, Zephaniah 3.9, that they may
call upon the name of the Lord to serve Him with one consent,
with singleness of purpose. They'll call upon Him and they'll
serve Him with unity. Isaiah says that the Lord's people
see eye to eye. Isaiah 52, it says, the watchman,
the Lord's watchman, they lift up the voice, they lift up the
word of God, they lift up he who is the word of God, and with
the voice together shall they sing, for they shall see eye
to eye. And as Bruce said earlier, one
of the wonderful things about coming to a fellowship of the
Lord's people as I've visited many now in this time in the
US of A. It is just lovely to be knitted
together and it's lovely to find that there are bonds of fellowship
which are just beyond, they are beyond this earth's understanding
and the wonder of it is that for all the Lord's children they
last into eternity. As you think of us down in Australia,
we're a little flock probably similar in size to you. I think
when we're all together we're in our mid-twenties and the Lord
has raised us up and protected us and preserved us now for getting
on towards 10 years since we were removed by the Lord. out of religion and brought to
the feet of the Lord Jesus Christ, just to see Him and to hear from
Him and to worship Him in spirit and truth. It's been a journey
that none of us would have embarked on if we knew how difficult it
was going to be, but it's a journey that we look back on now and
we see the Lord's hand upon it. When I was talking to Belinda
a little while ago, we actually sing the last two verses of Jude
at the end of our service, and I'll see if my friends over there
can somehow organise to have recorded so we can see it. We
actually sing these words out of tune. It says, now unto him
that is able to keep you from falling and present you faultless
before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy. To the only
wise God, our saviour, be glory and majesty, dominion and power,
both now and ever. Amen. We are kept, brothers and
sisters. It's a remarkable thing, isn't
it, to be kept by the power of God through faith. Anyone that
thinks that they can keep themselves will soon learn very, very quickly
that every time in the scripture someone says, I will, we find
very, very quickly that they don't. But when God says, I will,
when God says, I will, he keeps his people. One of the things
that I was sent to India for by the Lord was to learn the
wonders of the eternal covenant of grace in the Lord Jesus Christ
and the great I-wills. It's where God makes promises.
You rest, I trust, you rest your head on the promises and the
I-wills of God. As much as I'm sad, and you no
doubt are, and we're concerned about Drew, and we'd love to
see him here, but this is God's will, isn't it? It's God's will. And one of the great promises
of scriptures is that the work he begins is the work that he
has promised to continue until the Lord Jesus returns. One of
the passages of scripture which is so fundamental for the beginning
of our church is these promises in Ezekiel 36. I just want to
deal with the promises a bit first, but the promises in Ezekiel
36 are bookended by the fact that the Lord says that He does
it for His name's sake. Whatever He does, He's doing
it for my holy name's sake. But then he makes these promises
which were so fundamental in our discussions with the people,
the religious people in our church when we were looking to the Lord
Jesus Christ and looking for guidance and we just kept finding
in the scriptures that the rest of our souls is in eternal promises,
eternal covenant promises. He says in Ezekiel 36, 25, then
I will sprinkle clean water upon you and you shall be clean. From
all your filthiness and from all your idols will I cleanse
you. A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I
put within you. And I will take away the stony
heart out of your flesh, and I will give you a heart of flesh.
And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in
my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments and do them." The
wonder of the new birth, the wonder of the unity that the
children of God have throughout the world, wherever we come from
and whatever our circumstances, is a unity that's fostered by
God giving us a heart, taking away a heart of stone. You know
something of the heart of stone that's in you. The Lord only
reveals a little bit of how wicked we are. But we do have a heart
of stone until the Lord puts a new spirit in us. And then,
in that new spirit, we worship the Lord Jesus Christ. We worship
our great God in spirit and truth. You've all worked hard, and it's
been an emotionally trying day in some ways. So I didn't want
to read all of Jude. You know the story of Jude. So
I just wanted to look at these verses closely. And one of the wonderful things
in the scriptures is that we are encouraged always to gaze
at the Lord Jesus Christ and then glance at the false teachers.
And then you go back and you gaze at the Lord Jesus Christ.
So I don't want to read all of it. You know the story. This
is a picture of the world that we live in. But I wanted to begin
at the beginning and I look at the first few verses and then
I want to spend my time just looking at those verses that
we sing. And so when you come to read them again, you might
think, fondly I trust of a little group of believers down in Australia
who sit there on that great big lump of the continent and look
around and we look expectantly over the horizon for the Lord
to bring our brothers and sisters to us. I have threatened to take
your pastor down there so be warned. I want to steal here
Melinda for a little while but if anyone wants to join with
them they're very welcome. Okay, let's read these wonderful
verses. I'll just read the first opening verses so we get some
context. It says, Jude, a servant of Jesus Christ and a brother
of James, to them that are sanctified by God the Father and preserved
in Jesus Christ and called, mercy unto you and peace and love be
multiplied. And Jude, as all the New Testament
writers do, when they come to write their last epistle, they
are just overwhelmed by the fact that they are now leaving this
church in a place that's perilous. Perilous with false teaching.
Perilous with false teaching, which was going to arise from
in their midst. And they write with a passion, and Jude says,
Beloved, Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you
of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto
you and exhort you that ye should earnestly contend for the faith
which was once delivered unto the saints. For certain men crept
in unawares who were before of old ordained to this condemnation. All of what comes upon the Church
of God in this world is ordained. Ungodly men turning the grace
of our God into lasciviousness and denying the only Lord God
and our Lord Jesus Christ. The reality is that in this world
we have people who, like these false teachers, they feast with
them at their love feasts and they share with them and they
look to all the world as if they are the genuine article, but
they creep in unawares. and they turn the grace of our
God into lasciviousness. At the end of the day what they
are saying is what we've been accused of all the time. If we
just preach the gospel of God's free sovereign grace and preach
the Lord Jesus Christ and preach freedom from the law and preach
the fact that we now fulfil the law in the Lord Jesus Christ
by faith and we just keep preaching Him
The end result will be lasciviousness. We'll be declared as anti-Gnomians. And ultimately that's a denial
of the Lord Jesus Christ. The gospel that saves you, brothers
and sisters, is the gospel that sanctifies you. The gospel that
saves and the gospel that sanctifies is the gospel that keeps. What
a remarkable What a remarkable thing that we are, like Jude,
allowed to be servants of God. Jude, a servant. Those who are
made most free, most delighted in being a servant. The one thing
that the Lord's people Hanker for isn't it is that we would
have we would be used be used in some little way in some place
We would just have the opportunity In this world the only place
only time where we have the opportunity to exercise faith Is here isn't
it? In heaven, we won't need faith
anymore. It'll be turned to sight. This is the one place, isn't
it? This is that one place, and this is that short, short time
where we have the opportunity to be servants of God in this
way. He's a brother of James, but
he's writing to a special people. And when, at the end of it, he
says, now unto him, that is able to keep you. This is defining
the you, isn't it? This is the you. They are a special
people. They are sanctified. They are sanctified by God the
Father. They are set apart. They are
set apart in eternity. The Church of the Lord Jesus
Christ is God's gift to His Son in all eternity. And when you
are like our God, And you have a son like our Lord Jesus Christ. When you give a gift, you make
sure that that gift is the very best that you can give. It's
a precious gift, isn't it? Our God, our God delights in
his people. He does, He does in that covenant
of grace from old eternity, the Lord Jesus Christ took full responsibility
for that gift, isn't it? All that the Father gives Him
will come to Him and all that come to Him He will no wise cast
out and they are kept and they are held in the hands of our
God. safe and secure, sanctified. They're set apart for God's own
purpose. Set apart. That's why he calls
them beloved. They are loved in God the Father.
They are loved everlastingly, and because they're loved everlastingly,
he with loving kindness, he draws them to himself. We all, brothers
and sisters in Christ, have felt his drawing power. They are special. The people of God are a family. I have a family, and that's my
family, isn't it? I have a wife and four children.
Our friend Nathan has a wife and two children, I believe,
isn't it, right? That's their family, isn't it? God has a family.
God has a family. We don't know how big it is,
but it's a family, isn't it? They're His. They are His. He says, you only You only have
I known of all the families of the earth. They shall be mine,
says the Lord of hosts in that day, when I make up my jewels. The Lord's portion is his people. Jacob is a lot of his inheritors. This people have I formed for
myself. They shall show forth my praise. They are loved. They are sanctified. And they are Preserved. Preserved in Christ Jesus. As I said earlier, the Lord Jesus
says in John 10 that he has them in his hand, doesn't he? He is
the good shepherd. He knows his sheep by name. He
calls them to himself. The reason they speak and see
eye to eye and they speak the same is that they have the shepherd's
voice. When we preach, We want for you
to hear the shepherd's voice. We want to hear the shepherd
calling his own to himself. They are preserved in Christ
Jesus. They are kept. They are kept for Christ Jesus. They are kept by him. They are
kept in him. They are kept for him. What a
lovely description. in Song of Solomon, it says,
a garden enclosed is my sister, my spouse, a spring shut up and
a fountain sealed. And they are called. They are
called. They are called by God the Father. They are named by God the Father. He speaks with the voice of sovereign
authority. And His sheep come to that voice. They come to that another voice
they will not follow. When the Lord Jesus spoke to
Lazarus, He said, Lazarus, come forth. He had to name him, didn't
He? He named him Lazarus in a remarkable
miracle, a remarkable miracle which pictured the sovereign
call and grace of God's people out of darkness, out of death,
out of bondage. He spoke a word to a particular
person at a particular time, and out he came, miraculously
called out. Called, called, my sheep hear
my voice, I know them, and they follow me. One of the lessons,
one of the lessons that Jude helpfully reminds us of, isn't
it, is in times of apostasy, in times of the church being
under siege, as it were, in times when it seems as if there are
just these little tiny remnants of God's people all over the
place, the one thing that Jude wants to begin his letter with
and finish with is let's look at him. Let's look away from
the troubles of this world and the false teachers. Let's gaze
upon him. to them that are sanctified by
God the Father, preserved in Christ Jesus, and called by the
grace of God. To those who are this privileged
people, there is mercy. Are you in need of mercy? We're
in need of mercy, brothers and sisters. We are in need of mercy
all the time. I love quoting that verse in
Hebrews 4, where we have this boldness of access to a throne
of grace that we might find, that we might find, you can quote
it to me, let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace
that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of
need. Is there any time when you're
not in need? We come boldly to the throne of grace. We receive
mercy. Why? Hebrews, earlier on, doesn't
it? Seeing that we have, Hebrews
4.14, seeing then that we have a great high priest that is passed
into the heavens, Jesus, the son of God, let us hold fast
our profession. For we have not a high priest
which cannot be touched with the feelings of our infirmities,
but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. You never go to the throne of
grace. And you never go to this high
priest without him knowing exactly the circumstances of your life
and feeling it, brothers and sisters. He's touched with the
feeling of our infirmities. One of the sad things, isn't
it, is that in so much religion, in so much of the fall of Adam,
we lost the wonder of the presence of God, the wonder of being in
his presence. the joy of being in His presence.
If you have had, as many of the Lord's people have had, just
a few seconds of it, often it's just a glimpse for a brief time,
but it leaves you hungering and thirsting for more of Him and
closeness with Him. And heaven, and heaven goes on
for eternity because it takes that long. It takes that long
to fully appreciate Him. But where mercy is received and
mercy is given, mercy unto you, peace comes. Peace in contentious
times. Peace in these times when there
are creeping foes and Jude lists them in all of their grievous
wickedness, in all of what he says in verse 15. You hear it
in our world, in our land, far more than you do in America.
These hard speeches which ungodly sinners had spoken against Him. Our church formed because we
couldn't stand what was spoken against Him from a pulpit. When He was denied His deity,
when he was denied what happened on the cross, the particularity
of his redemption, the wonder, the wonder of the fact that the
Lord Jesus Christ was made sin for us, really made sin for us,
that we might be made the righteousness of God in him, the wonder of
peace that was brought by his blood, brothers and sisters.
When the Lord Jesus Christ is dethroned, and man is enthroned. The peace of God's people is
gone. He is our peace. It's our peace to look upon him.
Thou wilt, Isaiah 26.3, Thou wilt keep him In perfect peace, his mind is
stayed on thee, because he trusteth in thee. Trust ye in the Lord
forever, for in the Lord Jehovah is everlasting strength. When
mercy comes from the throne of grace, peace comes, and love,
the love of God, shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit.
God loves us. with that everlasting love that
he speaks of in Jeremiah 31.3. It's unmeasured, it's unchangeable,
it's unending. He loved us in eternity. He loved us knowing exactly what
we were going to be in the fall of Adam, exactly what we were
going to be throughout this world. in the midst of all of the trials
that you will be going through. You have been through, are going
through, will be going through. It is just tough at times that
we turn our gaze to Him and we find that from the throne of
grace and because of the Lord Jesus we have received mercy
and peace and love. And we speak of His love to His
people. We're not speaking of a love
that's general to all the world. What a useless love. A useless
love that loves and can't achieve its object. One of the remarkable
descriptions of the love of God is at the end of Song of Solomon.
the fact that Song of Solomon is this glorious, glorious picture
of the Lord Jesus and his interaction with his bride. There is a promise. It is a love
story. It is a story of a marriage.
It is a story of a union. It is a story of just overwhelming,
extraordinary love. We sang about it a little while
ago. Set me, set me as a seal upon thine heart, as a seal upon
thine arm. For love, this is God's love,
for love is strong as death. Jealousy is cruel as the grave. The coals thereof are coals of
fire which has the most vehement flame. Many waters cannot quench
love. Many waters cannot quench love. Think of the waters that have
tried to quench love, the love of God. Many waters cannot quench
love, neither can the floods drown it. Not the floods of our
sin and our wickedness, not the floods of all of these trials,
but neither can the floods drown it. and it cannot be bought. If any man would give all the
substance of his house for love, it would be utterly condemned.
It comes freely, brothers and sisters. He loves his people
because he loves them. He loves his people because they
are the object of his delight. He loves his people in the Lord
Jesus Christ. They are his gift to them. In
dark times, It's the graces of God to his children that overcome
the enemies of darkness. They want to speak evil of him. We want to raise up the voice.
We want to lift up that voice together. We want to remember
again and again that a light shines in that darkness. And
all it takes is a little light to overcome all of the darkness. Just a little light. So let's
turn to the song we sing. And I trust as you go back, as
you think about this in future, you might just think about us
in Nauru. We need your prayers, brothers
and sisters. We need your prayers. We covet
your love, we covet your company, but if you have an opportunity
to think about us. And it says now, after all of this, after
all of the problems, after all of the trials that the Lord's
people are going to be put through in this world, trials that are
good for us. I cannot speak for you, but I
can speak for us, that every single time someone has come
and opposed us and opposed the gospel of God's sovereign grace,
and we have been bowed down under the heaviest weight and people
that we have loved have deserted us and we've been spoken ill
of by people and treated in the most appalling way. God has come
with faithfulness again and again to the extent now that when a
heavy trial comes we are now geared to look over the horizon
for the blessing of God upon it. He has taken all those trials
to make us cling to the Lord Jesus. And we have a trial and
what we do is we go back and say, what does the Scripture
say about our God? What does the Scripture say about
it? And we find ourselves comforted because the Scriptures speak
of Him. It is just a book about Him.
Now unto Him, the Lord Jesus Christ, the only wise God, our
Saviour. He ordains all things in verse
four. He reserves his people in verse
13. He does rule over all things. Even the enemies are reserved.
To whom is reserved the blackest of darkness forever. Our God reigns. Our great God
reigns. It's so easy to forget, isn't
it? When trials come along, the very first thing that I do anyway
is think, well, somehow we've got to fix this. And then, and
then having been humbled yet again, we realise this is His. This is His business. It's His
business to protect and preserve. It's His business to keep. Now
unto Him. It's a now, isn't it? This is
the continuing state of God's church. As Jude penned this letter,
and probably went to see his maker not long after, he was
saying, this is a now. I love the nows of scripture.
Now, there is no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus. Now,
this is an ongoing now, whatever happens. Now unto Him, now unto
Him. Now unto him that is able, that
is powerful, able to keep, that word means to guard. He guards it. In every place
of creation, the creature has fallen. What extraordinary privilege
the angels had. We're not given much insight
into it at all in the scriptures, but in that state, Those created
angels, with all of what lay before them and all of what power
they had, they didn't keep themselves. Adam couldn't keep himself in
the Garden of Eden. The children of Israel couldn't
keep themselves under the law in any way at all. Our God keeps. Our God is able. Our God has
the power. God has spoken once. Twice I
have heard Him that power belongeth to God. All power belongeth to
God. We don't have any, brothers and
sisters. It is one of the joys of salvation by sovereign grace
is that we are made to see how helpless we are and made to know
the truth of the fact that when we are weak, then we are strong. We are at our weakest when we
think that we are the strongest. Our Lord Jesus Christ was given
power over all flesh. That was that great high priestly
prayer of his, wasn't it? To his Father. He says, Thou
hast given him power over all flesh, that he should give eternal
life to as many as Thou hast given him. And this is eternal
life, that they might know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus
Christ, whom Thou hast sent, all power. All power is His. Nothing wriggles in the universe
outside of the power of our God. The King's heart's in His hand
and He steers it however He wishes. He has power, brothers and sisters. He has power. He's able to keep. He's able to guard. He's able
to keep you. He's able to protect you from
falling. What a remarkable promise from
our God. He's able to keep you, keep you from falling. Just think
of the list of those people that Jude had mentioned there. Just
think of the list of the trials that await God's people. Would
you step outside the door if you knew a lion was out there?
Satan is there as a roaring lion seeking those whom he may devour. But he's able to keep you. He's
able to keep you from falling. We fall and stumble all the time,
but the Lord's people are picked up, dusted off, and put back
on their feet by our God. He's able to keep us from temptation. He's able to keep us from falling
under temptations, not from falling, we don't ever pretend that we
don't sin. Sin is what is there with us
all the time. And we see that the Lord God
has stopped it from breaking out in the lives of His people.
He has now placed His people in a place where sin does not
have dominion over you, brothers and sisters. Why? not because
you're under the law, but because you're under grace. You're protected
by grace. He's able to keep you from falling
into damnable heresies. It must have been quite a shock
to these people to find that in those days of apostles teaching,
that Paul had a friend that walked with him called Demas. And yet
it says that Demas had loved this present evil world, remarkable
fall of Judas for three and a half years, preached, performed miracles and fell, brothers and sisters. You read the scriptures and you'll
see the fall of The desire, you see the fall of people who had
the most remarkable privileges like Saul. You see what's happened
in our times and throughout this last 2,000 years of gospel age. You see people with the most
remarkable gifts and talents and you've seen them fall. We
need, we need to be kept. We need to be kept from the deceivers
in verse four, the deceivers in verse 12. They are spots at
your feasts of charity. There they are at the Lord's
supper with you. They are spots at your feasts
of charity while they feast with you, feeding themselves without
fear, no fear of God before their eyes. They are murmurers, verse
16, and complainers. We've heard of them walking after
their own loss, and their mouth speaketh great swelling words,
having men's persons in aberration because of advantage, boastful
and proud, and wanting you to be boastful and proud of them. But Beloved, our God reigns. He's able to keep you from falling. He keeps His own. It is His promise, isn't it?
I love the fact that the Lord Jesus Christ is surety of that
eternal covenant. And as surety, he took responsibility
for all those that the Father had given him in eternity. We call it old eternity because
we don't know what we're talking about. But before the foundation
of the world, the Lord Jesus Christ was the surety of that
covenant, according to Hebrews 7.22. which means at that point,
before the foundation of the world, he took absolute responsibility
before God the Father to bring all of his own back to himself. You remember the story of Judah
in Genesis. He says, if I don't bring them
back, Let me bear the shame forever. I will be surety for Benjamin. If he doesn't come back, I will
bear the shame forever. I will bear the blame forever. Our Lord Jesus Christ will not
fail. He cannot fail. He cannot fail
because he is God and he is sovereign. He cannot fail to keep them from
sins because their sins have been put away, which is what
Jude goes on to say, and to present you faultless. Wonder of wonders, brothers and
sisters. The only people who know that
they are sinners in this world are those for whom the Lord will
not count sin against them. The only people who know they
are sinners are the Lord's people. They're the only ones that have
any sense of understanding of what sin is, because the measure
of sin is not man's measure. The measure of sin is what happened
to the Lord Jesus Christ on the cross. His sin was put away. Our sins were put away. He bore
our sins in his own body on the tree. and they have gone, brothers
and sisters. That's what it is to be justified,
isn't it? They are gone forever. The damnable
heresies, and I don't have a lot of time to talk about it, the
damnable heresies of our day and the damnable heresies which
are the ones that God will cause his people to contend for are
ones that deal with the Lord Jesus Christ on the cross. And
it is a good thing. It is a good thing to ask of
the people that lead you and teach you. It's a good thing
to ask of others, always. What happened at the cross? What
happened? What is the great transaction
of the cross between God the Father, God the Son, and God
the Holy Spirit? That is at the centre of all
of the revelation of God. All of the scriptures are about
that. It's as if, and it's real, that
all of the very character of God is just distilled into that
one place of that one man, and that one time and that one event. And the big event is not what
man did to the Lord Jesus Christ. He was put to death by the determinate
counsel and full knowledge of God. The big issue is what did
God do to God? Why would a holy and just God
put to death a son who is holy and just? And there can be only
one reason, brothers and sisters. A holy and just God made His
Son sin for us. He really was made sin. No one would ever dare say that
the Lord Jesus Christ was a sinner. He had no chance of ever being
a sacrifice. He had to be perfect. But there was in the councils
of God and on that cross and in that garden. That cup, that
cup he took was the cup of all of the sins of God's children,
all of the elect children of God, and he drank it, brothers
and sisters, he drank it. cannot be in two places at once.
It cannot be on me and on my Saviour at the same time. Todd
Nibbett said at the conference I was at in New Jersey, he said,
the most God-like act that God ever did was in the crucifixion
and the death of his son on Calvary's tree. People want to make light of
it. They want to say that it was some figurative activity.
If my sins weren't really dealt with in there, brothers and sisters,
what hope do I have? You see what he says? He says,
faultless, faultless before the presence of his glory, washed
in his blood, justified by his righteousness. What did David
say? Blessed is the man. Blessed is
the man, Romans 4. Blessed is the man to whom the
Lord Blessed are they whose iniquities
are forgiven, whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man to
whom the Lord will not impute sin, because it was put on the
Lord Jesus Christ, and he's taken that responsibility to present
you. That's his job, isn't it? That's
his work, to present you faultless, faultless before the presence
of his glory. by the presence of His glory.
There is a place, isn't there? Men may see our fault, and we
will see our own. But there is a place where there
is no fault. There is no fault in any of God's
children. Before the throne of God right
now, my Saviour stands, wounded, wounded forever by that crucifixion
We're crucified with Him. In the life we now live, we live
by the faithfulness of the Son of God who loved me and gave
Himself for me. For the presence of His glory.
God's children are there in the presence of His glory right now.
And what are they singing in heaven right now? They're singing,
Thou art worthy. For by Thy blood You have redeemed
us out of every tribe and nation. They've made a kingdom of priests. They are in the presence of His
glory right now, brothers and sisters. He represents us now. We are, according to Ephesians,
we are seated with Him in heavenly places. And one day, one day,
these realities, which are God's realities, will be our realities. I love the fact that when God
speaks, reality comes into existence. His first words in the scripture
is, Light be, in the Hebrew. Light be and light is. When God
speaks a reality that you are faultless, and that you have
no sins, and that you're wholly spotless and unblameable before
his, That's God's reality. God's reality is real reality,
brothers and sisters. My silly thoughts and the thoughts
of this silly world are not reality. Before the presence of His glory,
He'll present you faultless. And He does it, doesn't He, with
exceeding joy. The joy, for the joy set before
him, for the joy of the angels. God the Father is joyful about
the salvation. Thy glory is great in the salvation
of your people. Our Father is joyful. The Lord
Jesus Christ is now satisfied for the joy set before him. He
endured the cross. We keep thinking, don't we, we
keep thinking that God is somehow stingy and he has to somehow
be coerced to bless his children. There's nothing could be further
from the truth. Our God is joyful. He reigns and rules supreme.
Not only just joyful, it says, doesn't it? Look at there. It
says, exceeding joy. Exceeding joy. Exceeding joy. The joy of the Holy Spirit. The
joy of the Holy Spirit to take the things of the Lord Jesus
and to reveal them to his people. The joy of the Lord Jesus Christ
to have his bride. To have his bride with him. In
your presence is the fullness of joy, says Psalm 16, and at
your right hand are pleasures for evermore. It is. It is no wonder that Jude finishes
by saying, to the only wise God. This is wisdom beyond human understanding,
brothers and sisters. I'm glad he's wise, and I'm glad
I'm not. And I'm glad I'm silly enough
just to be made to trust him. There's so much that we don't
understand, is there? How on earth do we understand the mysteries
of the Incarnation? How on earth do we understand
the mysteries of what happened in Gethsemane when his heart
was crushed? How on earth can you explain
to a scientist the wonders of resurrection when the Lord Jesus
will come back and there'll be a trumpet and the graves will
open and God's people will be ignited? How do you explain scientifically
the new creation? How do you explain all of that?
You can't. But dear oh dear brothers and sisters, if He is exceedingly
joyful about it, then maybe, maybe just now I can be exceedingly
joyful about it. He is wise. The only wise God,
our Saviour. Be glory, the glory of His deity,
the glory of His work on the cross, the glory of the incarnation
of our Lord Jesus Christ. He emptied Himself of all of
His glory. but to take on a glory yet again. He took on the form of a servant
and he became as a servant, but now he's returned to that glory
he had with the Father before the world began. Be majesty. Majesty is his right. Majesty
is his right. His glory is great in thy salvation. Honor and majesty thou hast laid
upon him. Be dominion. To the only wise
God our Saviour, be glory and majesty, be dominion. He rules
all things. He reigns all things. Be dominion
and power. the power that we spoke of earlier,
the power over all flesh, the power to rule this world, the
power to rule Satan, the power to rule over the false teachers
that they end up being a blessing to the Lord's people, the power
to rule over the trials and tribulations of the Church and to still protect
it and preserve it. For the only wise God, our Saviour. It's lovely how Jude finishes,
isn't it? We keep forgetting that the Lord
Jesus Christ is God. I don't know about you, but I
have to keep being reminded of that. The Lord Jesus Christ is
God. He is God, manifest in the flesh,
and he rules and reigns over all things. Amen. Amen. So should it be. So should it be. So will it be. Thanks be to God for his unspeakable
gift to his church. Maybe one day you'll need to
sing it again, brothers and sisters. Maybe one day in the darkness
you'll be drawn by the Lord to sing his song, the song of exceeding
joy. Shall I pray, Bruce, and you
finish? Would you like to pray? Our Heavenly Father, we thank
you again for gathering us together at the end of a long day and
we thank you that we've had this little time set aside where we
might take our eyes off the things of this world and the struggles
that we have and that we might be reminded that even in the
trial that all of us feel to some serious extent about our
dear brother Drew and Melinda. that you reign and rule over
all things. You are wise and that you will
get glory to yourself from this. And we do pray for them, Heavenly
Father, especially. And we pray for Drew and his
future and shepherding this flock that you have entrusted into
his care. We thank you for the love with which we share in the
Lord Jesus Christ because of the work of your grace in our
lives, Heavenly Father. And we praise you that we can
come And once again acknowledge that all flesh is as grass, but
our God reigneth. And our Father, we thank you
that the Lord Jesus Christ has made these extraordinary promises
to you. And we know, Heavenly Father,
that the Scriptures declare that he shall not fail nor be discouraged. May we find ourselves resting
on the promises of our God and spend our time, Heavenly Father,
in the midst of trials that must come upon your people here. Spend
our time yet again turning from those things and looking to our
Sovereign Lord who ordains all things and rules all things with
wisdom and joy for his people. Our Father, we thank you again
and we pray for healing hands upon our brother Drew and Melinda,
and pray, Heavenly Father, that you bless this little fellowship. With an increasing knowledge
of who he is, may the Lord Jesus Christ be our delight and our
joy and our strength on our walk through this world, our Father.
For we pray in his name and for his glory in this world. Amen. Well, after that, couldn't you
just feel the Lord in your mind's eyes and your heart and your
arms wrapped around you and holding you and you're protected as you
can be. We came here tonight to hear Christ preached, and
that's all God's men do, is they tell us of Christ. And that's
what you did tonight. My heart's been blessed. We thank
you for coming our way. We thank the Lord for bringing
you our way. Nathan, would you play us another song? We'll have one last song and
then I'll close us in prayer. Usually in these... I forget what the word is. Conferences,
that's it. We have a visiting preacher.
We always like to end with Drew's favorite song, and that is number
16 in the chorus book right here. Lord, with glowing heart I praise
thee. Let's stand as we sing number
16.